RTHK: Ex-Trump aide Manafort jailed for 47 months

US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison on Thursday for tax crimes and bank fraud.

It was the stiffest sentence yet given to an associate of the president in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling  but significantly lighter than many expected for the 69-year-old political consultant.

In a rebuff to Mueller's call for stiff punishment, the judge called the official guidelines for a prison sentence of 19 to 24 years "excessive."

But Manafort still faces sentencing in a second case in Washington next week, where the maximum penalty is 10 years and the judge has appeared more sympathetic to prosecutors.

The charges involved Manafort's work for 10 years on behalf of Moscow-allied politicians in Ukraine, and nothing related to the 2016 election  an issue he argued in asking the court for lenience.

Prosecutors alleged that Manafort used offshore bank accounts in Cyprus to hide more than US$55 million from Ukrainian politicians from the tax authorities.

He is one of six top advisors and associates of Trump's 2016 presidential election campaign to be charged in the Mueller investigation. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2019-03-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Renaissance for artisanal mortar

To adapt mortar to new building materials and industrial methods, the content in walls and plaster changed during the 20th century. The change meant that knowledge of historical materials and methods for producing mortar were lost. New research at the University of Gothenburg reveals that historical binding agents and mortar can be produced and used in present-day plaster restorations.

"We need to reclaim this knowledge to care for and preserve historic buildings constructed with other materials than those used today," says Jonny Eriksson at the Department of Conservation at the University of Gothenburg, the author of the new thesis.

Millennial history

The production of plaster and mortar for buildings goes back thousands of years in Sweden. For a long time, builders made plaster and mortar using traditional techniques, but with industrialisation the process changed.

"The change involved using new materials and methods to make mortar. At the same time the knowledge of craftspeople on how to make binding agents and mortar for bricklaying and plastering in different situations was lost."

The lack of knowledge first became apparent late in the 1960s because the new mortars were damaging historic buildings.

"For long-term and sustainable maintenance of historic buildings, we need to reclaim knowledge that has been lost," Jonny Eriksson says. "And this requires collaboration among crafts and professions such as architects, engineers and antiquarians. More craftspeople also need to be trained in research on building conservation."

Investigations in medieval church

For his thesis Eriksson investigated the formation of shrinkage cracks in plaster. He has studied the feasibility of using mortar mixed with the traditional proportions in use until the 19th century. He conducted his investigations will restoring plaster on a medieval church in Tanum municipality in northern Bohuslan.

"It became apparent that it is practical today to make and use the old-style of mortar. These mortars with a high content of binding agents need to be mixed with newly slaked lime, which is lime that has just been slaked with water," says Eriksson.

During the 20th century, builders discouraged this particular production process. They thought it produced defects in the plaster. Instead they recommended preparing slaked lime one to four weeks before use.

"This was contrary to fundamental practices in the 19th century, when recommendations called for the use of newly slaked lime. The rationale was that this made the mortar more durable."

The research results show that the older artisanal mortar with a high content of binding agents can also be made today. It also shows that the mortar can be used for plaster without unacceptable shrinkage cracks or blisters from unslaked lime.

"Our experiences with using these old-fashioned mortars in various construction projects indicates that the mortar has good durability. But the lime needs to be newly slaked when used and not stored after slaking nor processed to be packed in a bucket or barrel for later use, for example," says Eriksson.

###

Facts

Slaked lime is produced by mixing lime and water. This releases energy in the form of heat, and slaked lime forms. Depending on how much water is introduced into the process, slaked lime forms as either dry powder or a wet paste. Slaked lime is used in the building materials industry and for water and flue gas treatment.

Wet slaked lime is quicklime that has been slaked with an excess of water so that it forms a lime paste. Normally this lime is stored for some time before it is mixed with sand to make mortar. Storage is done to avoid damage.

Newly slaked lime. Making mortar with newly slaked lime involves slaking the lime before mixing the lime with sand. In other words, the lime is used immediately and is not stored.

Contact: Jonny Eriksson, associate professor at the Department of Conservation, University of Gothenburg; telephone: +46 (0)31-7869350, mobile: +46 (0)766-22 93 50, e-mail: jonny.eriksson@conservation.gu.se

This story has been published on: 2019-03-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
The remark was made at a workshop on how to accelerate development of the digital economy, which was jointly held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the World Bank on March 7.

The workshop gathered experts and government officials to discuss the impacts of digital technology on the economy as well as its challenges and opportunities.

The speakers also shared experience in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in maximising the benefits of the digital technology, such as e-commerce and financial technology (fintech).

According to the World Bank official, disruptive technologies are already present in Vietnam, citing a fast-growing ride-haling market, the growth of e-commerce platforms and digital accommodation platforms and the rising role of fintech and payment solution companies.

He said Vietnams vibrant digital economy holds the promise for more micro, small and medium enterprises to participate in the economy, while the sharing economy has made it easier for the average Vietnamese to participate in the digital economy to make an extra income.

Mr Dione suggested that governments need to lead by example and become more digital themselves, adding that the World Bank is already supporting the Vietnamese government in a number of areas to leverage digital technologies for administrative reform.
On Tuesday morning, a delegation of Egyptian intelligence officers arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport, headed by the chief of the "Palestine Department," General Omar Halfi. The group of Israeli officers waiting for them drove them directly to the Defense Ministry's Tel Aviv headquarters for talks with the upper echelons of the defense establishment, in an attempt to find a way to reduce the growing tensions in the Gaza Strip, ahead of an explosion of violence.

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The Egyptians came up with a list of Israeli commitments to improve living conditions in Gaza: water, electricity, expanding fishing areas, increasing the amount of goods coming from Israel, and so on. But the following day, when the Egyptians went to Gaza with the Israeli proposals in hand, it became clear that they were insufficient.

And so Qatar's envoy to the region, Mohammed al-Emadi, found himself summoned to the region on Wednesday because Hamas demanded an increase in Gaza's monthly Qatari stipend from $15 million to $20 million. It also emerged that the planned work that the United Nations was supposed to organize in the Gaza Strip had yet to begin.

Qatari envoy to Gaza Mohammed al-Emadi

And so the Egyptians went to Gaza on Wednesday with a partial package. Last week, they tried to do their bit to ease tensions by releasing eight Hamas prisoners, but contrary to expectations, Hamas did not use this release to hold mass celebrations that would highlight the achievements of the organization's leadership. What Hamas wants is water and power, and it wants them now. It is demanding the immediate activation of Israel's Electric Corporation's plan to supply electricity to Gaza.

The impact of the last round of Egyptian mediation efforts will be seen in the weekend protests at the Israel-Gaza border fence: If the violence escalates, Gaza will not accept the Israeli-Egyptian proposal to calm the situation. If the tensions remain at their current levels, there is still room for compromise. At the moment, both sides are one step away from the abyss. One small trigger, and we will find ourselves in a real conflict.

This fragile situation also has another major factor that could up-end the entire table: It appears that for now Israel and Hamas in Gaza have a common enemy: Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Islamic Jihad was responsible for most of the rocket, anti-tank missiles and sniper attacks carried out in recent months against Israel. Its leaders, who are hiding in the Dahiya neighborhood of Beirut under the leadership of deputy secretary-general Ziad al-Nahla, have decided to renew military activity from the Gaza Strip. The organization's representatives in Gaza also stopped coordinating their military activities with Hamas, as part of a joint war room set up by all the terrorist organizations in the Strip.

Protests on the Gaza border

And so Hamas today finds itself facing off against an intransigent organization that acts in contravention to its agenda. Islamic Jihad is making sure to carry out its military provocations on the days when Hamas is conducting some sort of dialogue with Israel or with Egypt regarding arrangements in the Strip - and when they attack, Israel retaliates with attacks on Hamas installations.

One can make the fair assumption that if there are any signs of any constructive progress between Israel and Hamas towards the end of the week, Islamic Jihad will try to sabotage it. It is enough for one mercenary sniper to hit one Israeli for Gaza to burn. But when Israel does not deal with the Islamic Jihad threat, it encourages increased anarchy in Gaza, which will ultimately lead to a ground invasion by the IDF.

Hamas, for its part, is waging an ineffective battle against the renegade organization. Several days ago, for example, Hamas's internal security apparatus arrested Hashem Salem, an Islamic Jihad member who converted from Sunni to Shiite Islam, and established a pro-Iranian organization in the Gaza Strip. That's how it starts: Today it's a small charity, funded by Iran, which supports widows and orphans, but if we do not pay attention, tomorrow that charity will be yet another Iranian military organization in Gaza.

Hamas understands the danger inherent in the pro-Iranian organizations, but in Israel, Islamic Jihad is only regarded as a secondary enemy. While Hamas is a political movement, Islamic Jihad is a military one. It does not recognize the PLO as a representative of the Palestinian people, and it sees itself as a fighting elite unit with the aim of liberating Palestine, and now has more rockets in the Gaza Strip than Hamas. And this is what will set the Israel-Gaza border aflame.
During each Israeli election there is a set dance. Zionist parties demand the disqualification of parties or candidates that deny the State of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, and the Central Elections Committee approves the request.

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The matter then goes to the High Court of Justice - which regularly overturns the decision and allows the parties or candidates in question to run.

In the 1960s, the High Court imposed a ban on a party similar to Balad, without the need for explicit legislation.

Ofer Cassif (Photo: Moshe Mizrahi)

In the meantime, an explicit law has been legislated. It states that there is a need to disqualify when there is "explicit or implicit" support for racism, terrorism or denial of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state.

It is doubtful whether there is one serious person in the country who cannot appreciate that people like former politicians Azmi Bishara and Hanin Zoabi, or those of the current crop like Ofer Cassif, the Hadash candidate who was disqualified Wednesday, fit this description.

Between election campaigns, when they do not have to present a palatable image to the electorate, these people oppose the Law of Return for Jews and support the "right of return" for Palestinians, and as such it is clear that their disqualification is justified.

Labor representatives also understood this during the last election campaigns, but this week the party did a u-turn, and did not join the demands for these people to be banned.

The attorney general is right in his call to ban Michael Ben-Ari of Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) from running. The racist statements the former Kahanist made justify the decision. But on the other hand, Mandelblit's opinion on why Israel should not disqualify Balad is a masterpiece of legal sophistry. He is engaging in mental gymnastics in order to trample all over the explicit meaning of a law.

Michael Ben-Ari (Photo: Shaul Goan)

The disqualification of parties is anchored in the constitutions of most European countries. Even in Turkey, an Islamist party was disqualified despite a ruling party, and in Spain a Basque party was disqualified, partly because it refused to condemn terrorism.

The European Court of Human Rights approved the disqualifications, even though those parties are less extreme than the ones the High Court of Justice and the attorney general refuse to disqualify in Israel.

This is not how you strengthen the rule of law; this is how you trample it. And then we bemoan the lack of public trust in the rule of law.
International Womens Day, occurring annually on March 8, is a global celebration of women and a movement toward gender equality. This years theme is #BalanceForBetter, emphasizing the need for a more gender-balanced world. Many organizations in the Middle East will be marking the day in their respective countries.

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The Arab Womens Organization of Jordan (AWO) held a conference on March 6 to shed light on issues relating to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

#BalanceForBetter: International Womens Day In The Middle East

The Arab Womens Organization of Jordan (AWO) held a conference on March 6 to shed light on issues relating to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. pic.twitter.com/UCkyjariDM  INTELCENTRE (@INTELCENTRE) March 7, 2019

Manal Al-Taleb, Program Coordinator for the Womens Political Participation Program at the AWO, says the event focused on issues relating to labor law in the context of womens rights, as well as social protection for women, girls and Syrian refugees in Jordan. It was held under the patronage of the minister of social development, and many members of parliament were scheduled to attend, as was the UN Women Jordan representative.

We will also be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), as well as preparing for the celebration of our 50th anniversary occurring in 2020, Taleb said.

The Palestinian Business Womens Association (PBWA) launched a campaign titled My Rights, Our Power!a one-week event ending on International Womens Day. Over 30 national and international partners from civic and social organizations, as well as international development agencies in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, are participating to promote womens rights in the Palestinian territories.

Palestinian women face a lot of obstacles, and this campaign aims to raise awareness of womens rights so they will be in line with the international standard for family protection, such as equal opportunities between men and women, a life free of violence, and the right to make your own choices, says Merne Zideh, program manager at PBWA.

Palestinian women working at a peanut factory in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip

In a similar vein, the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) has been focusing for three years now on womens rights.

The differing laws in the territories are based on outdated (personal status) laws stemming from Jordan, Egypt and other sources dating back to the Ottoman Empire and British Mandate, says Sandy Hanna, Advocacy Manager for PWWSD.

We are demanding a unified, civil-based law that provides more attention to the needs of women, as well as demanding an increase in the minimum age for marriage from 16 to 18, she added.

Last year on International Womens Day, the Palestinian cabinet endorsed three rights for women originally allowed only for husbands or male family members: namely, transferring children from one school to another; applying for passports; and opening bank accounts.

In Beirut, the Lebanese Democratic Womens Gathering (RDFL) held a demonstration on March 2 that gathered 3,000 people in order to pressure the government to enact a proposed law to end child marriage by making the legal minimum age 18, an issue that the organization has been working on for years.

In addition, Lara Shehab, Head of Programs at RDFL, told The Media Line that the organization had been lobbying and advocating in regard to a law that prohibits Lebanese women from transmitting their nationality to their children.

A Lebanese woman carries a placard as she takes part in a protest against child marriage in Beirut

The Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University, which participated in last weeks Beirut demonstration, has worked to address womens political and economic participation, such as imposing a quota system in politics, removing discriminatory laws in the workplace and reforming the security sector.

Im optimistic because civil society organizations are very active, and important issues are no longer hush-hush, says Myriam Sfeir, director of the institute.

The Lebanese League for Women in Business (LLWB) launched a campaign to increase the number of women on boards of directors, the target being 30 percent by 2025. It has also introduced an audit to determine the extent to which gender equality is taken into consideration in business, says Zeina Mhaidly, LLWBs program manager.

In Israel, the NGO Economic Empowerment for Women aids low-income women in creating small businesses due to challenges they face in the job market.

Israel's Economic Empowerment for Women organization

Women make 40% less than men, and there are many stories of women being discriminated against and not getting jobs, says Claudia Goodich-Avram, the groups Resource Development Director. There are restrictions depending on your family status (and level of) religiosity, and if youre from an Arab town, there are problems with transportation.

The organization is part of Shutafot (Partners), a coalition of womens groups holding events in honor of International Womens Day. One of these groups, Achoti (My Sister), is mounting an exhibition at the EU Embassy on female artists that experience racism in Israel. Other events being held by members of the coalition include one in the northern port city of Haifa that features lectures and workshops organized by Isha LIshaHaifa Feminist Center.
Thousands of high school girls from Haredi and religious-Zionist communities will gather in the Western Wall Friday, in protest against the Women of the Wall, who will be praying and celebrating 30 years of struggle for freedom of religion in the holy site.

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Members of the multi-denominational feminist organization gather and pray at the Western Wall once a month, and have invited supporters to join the 30-year celebration and prayer this coming Friday. In response, ultra-Orthodox organizations decided to stage a major protest at the same time and place against non-Orthodox worship.

The protest in unique in uniting the Religious- Zionist sector with the ultra-Orthodox, is expected to lead to a big turn up.

The Women of the Wall praying in June, 2018 (Photo: Women of the Wall)

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the most senior leaders of the Haredi public, called for the upcoming protest, as did several other religious organizations and a widespread social media campaign against the Reform movement that called the public to participate in the protest.

The social media campaign included videos slamming the women of the wall, and a fictitious Yedioth Ahronoth cover saying that for the first time since 1967, the Western Wall has been conquered  by the Reform. The bottom line in the cover said: this is a cover we must prevent (from ever occurring).

The Chazon Movement, one of the organizations behind the social media campaign, was also behind the fictitious newspaper page. It included fabricated citations from non-Orthodox worshipers celebrating their victory, and articles titled the Rabbinate is done with, and Assimilation is no longer a slur.

Women of the Wall praying and protesting, August 2017 (Photo: Amit Shabi)

The organization also posted videos in which it is claimed that the Women of the Wall are extreme leftists who work to end Israels existence as a Jewish state.

Chazons campaign is a continuation of their long-time violent, racist and inciting behavior, said the Women of the Wall in response. This organization popped out of nowhere and its sole agenda is to divide, incite and cause a rift within the Jewish world, and spread lies and evil.

Our organization will not be deterred at all. We will continue to pray in the Western Wall in our own way, and no one will frighten us, they said.

The Women of the Wall have decided to hold a festive prayer this upcoming Friday at 6:30 am, the first day of the Jewish month of Adar, which coincides with International Womens Day this year. They asked the Rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch, to use the loudspeaker system, available to all other major events that take place at the Western Wall Plaza, but were refused.

A counter-protest by Orthodox women, August 2017 (Photo: Amit Shabi)

Women using loudspeakers is against religious law, as determined the sages, said Rabinovitch. It doesnt coincide with the customs of this place.

The Womens organization said in response that the government is allowing extremists to determine the customs of the place at the holy site, and slammed Rabinovitch for banning all non-Orthodox practice from the Western Wall.

The Western Wall Rabbi is a public servant who is supposed to serve all worshipers, whatever their practice is, said Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center.

We refuse to give in to practices that silence women, Hoffman said. On International Womens Day we will continue to struggle for womens right to worship, and we wont let Rabinovitch or any other extremist factors to determine the discourse in such an aggressive ugly manner, Hoffman concluded.
President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming the Trump Organization broke a promise to pay his legal bills and owes at least $1.9 million to cover the cost of his defense.

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The lawsuit, filed Thursday in New York state court, claims the Trump Organization stopped paying Cohen's mounting legal fees after he began cooperating with federal prosecutors in their investigations related to Trump's business dealings in Russia and attempts to silence women with embarrassing stories about his personal life. It alleges breach of contract and seeks damages on Cohen's behalf.A

Cohen testifying in Washington (Photo: AFP)

Messages seeking comment have been left with the Trump Organization. Cohen's attorneys declined to comment.

The lawsuit says the company stopped paying for his legal defense about two months after the FBI raided Cohen's home and office last year. It says that was around the time Cohen began discussing privately with friends and family that he was considering cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in New York.

Cohen pleaded guilty in August to tax crimes, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations. He is expected to begin serving a three-year prison term in May.

The lawsuit said that as part of his work for Trump, the company agreed to indemnify him for his company-related work. It said the Trump Organization initially lived up to that promise, footing the bill for more than $1.7 million in Cohen's legal fees.

Cohen hired the law firm McDermott Will & Emery in spring 2017 after it became clear he was a "person of interest" in Mueller's investigation.

That firm withdrew from his case late last spring after the Trump Organization stopped paying Cohen's bills, a withdrawal the lawsuit says "prejudiced" Cohen's ability to respond to the federal investigations.

In addition to the $1.9 million in legal fees Cohen is seeking, the lawsuit claims the Trump Organization should also pay the $1.9 million Cohen was ordered to forfeit "as part of his criminal sentence arising from conduct undertaken by Mr. Cohen in furtherance of and at the behest of the Trump Organization and its principals, directors, and officers."

Cohen was one of Trump's lawyers and closest advisers for a decade until their public split last summer.

After once bragging that he would "take a bullet" for the president, Cohen met with federal prosecutors in New York and with the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, telling them he had lied to Congress to protect Trump and paid off two women to keep them from speaking out about alleged affairs with Trump.

Earlier this year, Cohen hired two new Chicago lawyers and parted ways with the attorneys who represented him for months as he cooperated with Mueller and prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. The Associated Press previously reported that the shake-up followed what a person familiar with the matter described as a dispute over unpaid legal fees.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Last week, Cohen told lawmakers he also has not been paying Lanny Davis, an attorney who has served as an adviser and spokesman for Cohen over the past several months.

"So he's doing all this work for nothing?" U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., asked Cohen during his daylong testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

"Yes, sir," Cohen said.

Cohen told Congress that Trump was a racist, a liar and a con man.

Trump, in turn, has assailed Cohen as a "rat" and a "serial liar."

Cohen has also tried crowdsourcing his legal fees. A GoFundMe page that Davis set up for Cohen after he first pleaded guilty in August has collected about $215,000, including $50,000 from an anonymous donor.
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- The high school party took an ugly turn. Drink cups were used to form a crude swastika. Nazi salutes flashed. Cameras clicked.

What appears to have been a woefully misguided attempt at humor turned into a national embarrassment for the Southern California city of Newport Beach, leaving behind outrage, disbelief and finally, hope for change.

On Thursday, the stepsister of Anne Frank visited privately with students who attended the party and described an emotional meeting in which she recounted her experiences at the Auschwitz death camp.

When she was freed at 16, Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss, now 89, was left with only her mother. The rest of her family perished.

When the students saluted the swastika at the party last weekend, "they didn't realize what it really meant," she said. "They just thought it was a joke."

They apologized profusely during the meeting, which also included parents, community members and student leaders from Newport Harbor High School.
IDF forces have arrested two Palestinians who were found to be carrying knives, near the Gaza border fence.
BERLIN - Germany will not follow Britain's lead in declaring Iran-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organisation, a senior official was quoted as saying on Friday, a decision that may fuel tensions with Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Minister of State Niels Annen told weekly news magazine Der Spiegel that the Shi'ite Muslim Islamist movement remained a relevant factor in Lebanese society and the European Union had already added its military wing to a list of proscribed groups in 2013.

Britain last month said it would ban all wings of Hezbollah for destabilising the Middle East.

Long the most powerful group in Lebanon, Hezbollah's influence has expanded at home and in the region. It controls three of 30 ministries in the government led by Western-backed Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, the largest number ever.
Israeli troops on Friday shot dead a Palestinian at the weekly protest along the fence bordering the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, and Palestinians and the Israeli military clashed in a West Bank village earlier in the day.

Tamer Arafat, 23, was wounded in the head in southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah and died shortly after arriving at the local hospital, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The ministry added that 44 protesters were injured with life fire as well as two journalists and two medics.

In what could be a response to the killing, Palestinian militants fired a projectile from Gaza into Israel, the Israeli army said. There were no reports of casualties and no Palestinian group claimed responsibility.
By BRYAN HELLIOS

[email protected]

Ironwood  The U.S. Forest Services Ottawa National Forest is pursuing a land adjustment in Ontonagon County, which will convert a little more than 219 acres of land from private into public use.

Lisa Klaus, public relations officer for the forest service, said the land on the west side of the Victoria Lake reservoir meets the parks goals.

What we always look for when we are acquiring land is were provide recreation opportunities and protecting wildlife, she said.

Using a Tripartite Exchange  or otherwise known as a Land for Timber Exchange  Klaus said the landowner, the National Forest Timber Sale Program, and the contractor harvesting the timber enter into an agreement to make the acquisition possible.

Ottawa National Forest Supervisor Linda Jackson recently informed the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners about where the land adjustment projects are as the Ottawa National Forest extends into Gogebic County.

Her notice indicated the 219.39 acres in Rockland Township owned Joseph and Mary Hovel is located within the proclamation boundary of the forest and revenue received on timber sales from Ontonagon, Gogebic and Iron counties may be used in the tripartite exchange.

The impact to counties will be approximately $7,000 a year, which may be offset by the recently reauthorized Secure Rural Schools program, Klaus said.

Klaus acknowledged there is always a concern when the federal government acquires land because it removes the property from the tax base. With the SRS Act and a percentage of the sales of timber on federal lands going to counties, she said the advantage of a tripartite exchange is the forest will be able to acquire land without using appropriated funds.

The land will also increase timber harvests which will increase revenue to the counties, she said.

Our counties watch that closely, she added.

She said the having the act in place helps minimize the effect on the counties and the land acquisition has multiple benefits to the local community and its economy. These include the propertys proximity to the West Branch of the Ontonagon River, as she said opening areas around water to the public helps promote tourism in the region.

The acquisition falls into a long term plan that the forest has for designated Wild and Scenic Rivers, Klaus said.

The land adjustment is being considered for the 2020 fiscal year, according to Klaus.

Notices were mailed to all three counties and the local tribe, she said, and future public meetings are planned to keep community members informed about the forests plans.

Prior to the notifications, she said park rangers also attended meetings to talk with townships and community members.

This is kind of making sure that everybody understands whats going and how well be moving forward, she said.
MADISON  The Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance is urging residents to evaluate their flood insurance coverage now as the National Weather Service predicts temperatures across Wisconsin will rise later this week.

With rising temperatures comes the possibility of snowmelt-related flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency noted late last month that Wisconsins flood risk is above normal to well-above normal throughout March and April.

I think its fair to say that most Wisconsinites are ready for winter to be over, said Insurance Commissioner Mark Afable. But while were waiting for temperatures to rise, home and business owners should review their insurance policies to make sure they have appropriate coverage.

If you purchase flood insurance, the policy does not go into effect for 30 days, said Afable. Consider flood insurance now as an important protection against this type of peril.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is closely monitoring the Fox River, the Wolf River and the Menominee River for ice jams and flooding, while the National Weather Service in La Crosse is warning residents along the Mississippi River and its tributaries of an above-normal flood risk through May due to runoff from snowpack and deeply frozen ground.

Locally, Iron County Emergency Management Director Stacy Ofstad said hes praying for a slow melt.

With the amount of snow weve had and no warm weather in the last month and a half, there are some concerns, he said, adding, Theres 4 or 5 feet of snow out there in places.

Ofstad said the Corps of Engineers and National Weather Service have been in the county making measurements.

Compounding the potential problems of all the snow melting, Ofstad said the water table is still high from the fall after three flood occurrences last June, August and September. The water table is extremely high and so when the snow melts, theres going to be run-off.

River ice jams occur when ice breaks up quickly in thawing temperatures and large, flowing ice chunks collect and create a dam, triggering area floods. Not only will mountains of snow across the state melt into inches of water, saturated soil in many areas from late summer/early fall flooding leaves nowhere for that water to go. Public works departments are asking residents to help by clearing snow and ice from storm drains and grates.

Theres much more for residents to do, according to a press release from Afables office.

Homeowners should remove snow from the roof using a roof rake or push broom, make sure vents around the home are not covered by snow, and check that their sump pump is working properly, the release said. Clearing snow piles away from the home or building can also help prevent water seepage through the foundation.

Most homeowners policies do not cover flooding or seepage through the foundation, according to the release. A separate flood insurance policy sold through the National Flood Insurance Program and managed by FEMA is necessary for this coverage.

Visit floodsmart.gov to learn more about flood insurance.

Damage from sewer backup or sump pump overflow is not covered by standard homeowners insurance or flood insurance. The purchase of a special homeowners policy endorsement is required for this type of coverage, said the release. Contact your insurance agent to find out more about special endorsements and riders for expanded coverage.

The release also included these facts about flooding:

Floods are the nations most common natural disaster.

Just one inch of water can cause $25,000 of damage to your home.

More than 20 percent of flood insurance claims come from outside high-risk areas.

Generally, water coming from the top down, such as burst fire sprinklers and ice dam seepage behind drywall, is covered by standard homeowners policies. Water coming from the bottom up, such as foundation seepage from snowmelts, is not.

Larry Holcombe
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VILLANOVA, Pa.Two Villanova University studentsBridget Gile 19 COE and Andrew Lee 19 COEare among the 68 students from around the world selected as part of the 2019 cohort of Knight-Hennessy Scholars at Stanford University. The largest fully endowed scholars program in the world, the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program curates a multidisciplinary community of scholars, offers a platform for purposeful leadership development, and empowers its Scholars to effect large-scale positive impact in the world. Both Gile and Lee have been accepted to PhD programs, in civil and environmental engineering and in materials science and engineering respectively, at Stanford School of Engineering.

I am tremendously proud that two Villanova students have been named Knight-Hennessy Scholars, said Patrick G. Maggitti, PhD, Villanova University Provost. The mission of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program mirrors our Villanova mission in that it seeks to empower students to effectuate wide-ranging, positive impact in their communities and around the world. We congratulate Bridget and Andrew on this prestigious honor.

The Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program develops a community of future global leaders to address complex challenges through collaboration and innovation. Every year, up to 100 high-achieving students from around the world will receive full funding to pursue any graduate degree at Stanford. In addition to pursuing graduate studies, Knight-Hennessy Scholars participate in experiential learning through the King Global Leadership Program, which provides a collection of community experiences, workshops, meetings with leaders, global study trips and personal development opportunities. The programs academic founder is John Hennessy 73 COE, a Villanova alumnus who is the chairman of Alphabet Inc. and was president of Stanford from 2000 to 2016. His co-founder is Phil Knight, philanthropist and Chairman emeritus of Nike Inc. For more information, visit the Knight-Hennessy Scholars website.

About Villanovas 2019 Hennessy-Knight Scholars

Bridget Gile, of Morris, Illinois, will graduate this spring with a bachelors degree in civil engineering. A Presidential Scholar at Villanova, Bridget aspires to solve critical water resources challenges and become director of the US Environmental Protection Agency Water Infrastructure Division. She interned at the Villanova Center for Resilient Water Systems, at AKRF Water Resources in Philadelphia, and at LyondellBasell in Illinois; and was a research fellow at the National Science Foundations REU programs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and at Virginia Tech. At Villanova, she was vice president of the Villanova Environmental Group, and president of Peers Enhancing Educational Resources for Students, a tutoring and mentoring program.

Andrew Lee, from Leonardtown, Maryland, will graduate this spring with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering with minors in mathematics and physics. Andrew aspires to meet the challenges of climate change and the energy crisis by developing novel materials that fuel the next generation of global energy processes. At Villanova, he was a research assistant in the Mechanical Engineering Department and a coordinator in the Math Learning Resource Center. Internationally, he surveyed jungle terrain for clean water systems in Nicaragua and developed a system to passively collect water as part of the GIANT Internship Program in France. As a PATHWAYS intern in the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Andrew advanced understanding of corrosion prevention.

Competitive scholarship and fellowship applications are supported by Villanovas Center for Research and Fellowships (CRF) within the Office of the Provost. The recent rise in national scholarships, fellowships and awards won by Villanova applicants corresponds to the increasing efforts by CRF to provide both one-on-one consultations and group support for students throughout the application process, including conceptualization of projects, writing and revising proposals, and interview preparation and practice. Villanova students and alumni interested in applying for external awards should visit the CRF website for more information.

About Villanova University: Since 1842, Villanova Universitys Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition has been the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University's six collegesthe College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. Ranked among the nations top universities, Villanova supports its students intellectual growth and prepares them to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them. For more, visit the University's website.
MODERATOR:

Nicos Papakyriacou, Partner, Oil & Gas Leader, Deloitte

PANELISTS:

Alessandro Barberis, Managing Director, Eni Cyprus

Yves Grosjean, General Manager, Total E&P Cyprus

Varnavas Theodossiou, Lead Country Manager and Vice President, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Cyprus (Offshore) Ltd

Jorgen Berg, Managing Director, Schlumberger Cyprus

Dario Vitale, Managing Director, Halliburton Mediterranean Ltd

Introduction

It was clarified that the discussion was about the establishment of a Service Center and not about an Energy Hub or a Gas Hub.

A Gas Hub is a location, which has very significant gas resources, an infrastructure of pipelines joining it to the resources and/or the customers and a junction of exports and imports through pipelines and LNG type facilities as well as significant storage facilities.

A Service Center is a dedicated shore base with the necessary infrastructure and business facilities around it as well as the necessary operational, legal and regulatory environment which will support both the operators as well as the large number of supporting service companies to carry on their activities in an efficient, safe and uninterrupted manner.

Indicatively, for one drilling operation there are usually between 20 to 40 service contractors supporting the main operator. These service companies usually represent more than 80% of the total hours worked in a drilling operation and they require specialized on shore support and facilities in the form of a dedicated shore base, in order to operate efficiently.

Conclusions

Cyprus has most of the attributes that will help it become a successful service center. Specifically:

 Cyprus is situated at the crossroads of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia and in the middle of the Eastern Mediterranean basin. It is therefore ideally located both in terms of operational as well as strategic considerations.

 It is the only country in the East Med basin which is an EU and Eurozone member and has excellent diplomatic relations with all countries in the East Med with exploration activities.

 It has an advantageous tax system, both for the companies as well as their expatriates.

 It has a stable political system with a pleasant and secure living environment.

 It has a well-defined legal system and a European regulatory framework.

 The government officers invariably adopt a cooperative and practical approach leading to smooth licensing and contract negotiation processes.

 The relevant ministers have a cooperative and supportive attitude towards the industry.

 It has a highly educated and skilled labour market, an extensive pool of qualified and experienced professionals and a good educational system.

There are, of course, areas of potential improvement such as the coordination between ministries (when the issue involves two or more ministries), or the securing of shore base facilities uninterrupted by labour disputes or unrest. However, the most important missing link to complete the puzzle as a service center for the Eastern Med is a dedicated shore base with the necessary infrastructure around it and potential to expand if, in the future, the demand justifies it.

The decision of the Government, as announced by the Minister of Transport, Communications and Works Mrs. Vasiliki Anastassiadou, to proceed with the creation of an Oil & Gas port at Vassilikos that will be financed by private investors through the system of Design Build Operate and Transfer comes as a very positive development which will significantly help Cyprus achieve its potential as a service center. This project, however, is expected to take 4-5 years to be completed.

In the meantime, interim arrangements should be in place to facilitate the needs of the industry to execute its exploration programme in the timelines agreed with the government during the next 4-5 years.

The facilities and infrastructure available at the Limassol port are quite adequate when used by one operator at a time. However, with the existing infrastructure it may be very challenging to satisfy the requirements of the industry in periods of two or more parallel drillings and even more so if production and development of resources also begins.

Although it is very good news that the government is moving in the right direction, it is encouraged to do so as fast as possible, as time is of the essence if Cyprus is to succeed to capture the market as a service center for the East Med.

Other locations, like Egypt, are moving into the same direction very fast and some are already ahead of Cyprus in the establishment of a fully-fledged shore base. The government is therefore strongly encouraged to formulate a strategy that will help it expedite in an efficient and timely manner the implementation of its decision for the creation of an Oil & Gas port.

The strategy should incorporate the needs of the industry, so it is recommended that the major players operating in the region, which will be its future customers, should be invited to provide their needs and requirements in order to be taken into account by the consultant that will be appointed by the government. The panelists also expressed the view that the operators and their major support companies should have the ability to give their suggestions on the final document of the requirements to the relevant ministers for their consideration. Furthermore, it should include public consultations with the communities that will be near the infrastructure projects. Finally, it was stressed that the strategy should be driven and led by the government in coordination with the major stakeholders of the industry.

The benefits that Cyprus will have if it becomes a successful Oil & Gas service center for the East Med can be extremely significant.

The activities of a full-fledged Oil & Gas port will require and attract the operations of many international and local companies around it and through the multiplier effect will increase value creation and consequently job creation in almost all major sectors of the economy, such as construction, accommodation and food industry, professional services, financial services, to name but a few and will contribute significantly in the growth of the Cyprus GDP.

There is a general feeling between the panelists that Cyprus remains the number one choice of the operators and their support companies for a dedicated Oil & Gas shore base, because it has strong comparative advantage (as described above) over other competing locations in the region. However, if Cyprus does not move quickly enough with the implementation, it may lose a golden opportunity to become a service center for the wider East Med region, as other locations may capture the market.

In concluding, there is a consensus among all panelists that Cyprus could and should implement a strategy for the creation of this service center in an efficient and timely manner because it will be a game changer for Cyprus, both for its future economic growth as well as its geopolitical importance.
The future of the Eastern Mediterranean as an oil and gas service center took center stage this week as executives from leading energy companies gathered in Cyprus to attend the 2019 Eastern Mediterranean Gas Conference (EMGC 2019).

With strong operator support and regional representation, EMGC is an invaluable resource for those looking to develop the Eastern Mediterraneans resource potential, conference leader Catherine Watkins said. Between ExxonMobils recent discovery offshore Cyprus, further exploration and projects already under development, the Eastern Mediterranean is poised to become a major influence in the global natural gas industry.

The conference, which was attended by professionals from 18 countries, was opened by Yiorgos Lakkotrypis, Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry for the Republic of Cyprus. The Minister discussed regional cooperation, recent natural gas discoveries and how the Eastern Mediterraneans natural gas reserves can best be monetized. Mr. Lakkotrypis was joined by executives from Eni and Total, two companies with major investments in the region. Carlo Vito Russo, Executive Vice President, Europe and Russia for Eni, addressed the status of resource development in the Eastern Mediterranean, and noted that new exploration initiatives in 2018 and 2019 have proved the extension of the Zohr play in the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone. Total E&P's Yves Grosjean spoke about Cyprus' desire to be "the responsible energy major." Mr. Grosjean said, "It's about providing energy solutions to the world that are reliable, affordable, and responsible."

A highlight of this years conference was an afternoon panel discussion featuring executives from Eni, Total and ExxonMobil. The operator-only panel discussed how Cyprus could fulfil its potential as an oil and gas service center, explored the associated advantages and challenges, and presented strategies for establishing the nation in that role.

EMGC 2019 was produced by Gulf Energy Information and co-hosted by Eni and Total. EMGC will return to Cyprus on 4-5 March 2020.
Former Finance Minister under the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, Seth Tekper, has advised government against exiting the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to him, there could be major economic consequences should the country exit the programme.

He said what Ghana needs at the moment is the support of the Bretton Woods institution.

Seth Terkper, former Finance Minister. Source: Graphicbusiness

Source: Instagram

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Ghana is set to exit the IMFs Extended Credit Facility programme in April 2019, after entering the deal in 2015.

However, Mr. Tekper believes government must rethink its decision to exit, insisting it would be unwise to exit completely.

He explained that Ghana could be losing a big opportunity to arrest its faltering economic fortunes should the country exit the IMF now.

What we are facing now is the precise moment the IMF comes and provides foreign exchange. We may be losing that opportunity [if we exit], the formr Finance Minister told Joy News.

President Akufo-Addo announced that government will not be returning to the IMF after the country exits the programme.

He said the government remains committed to ensuring that the country does not return to the program immediately after exiting.

READ ALSO: Apostolic Church pastor sued by members for allegedly altering his age

Weve just concluded the program with the IMF and with continued discipline, we shall sign off from the deal in April, Nana Addo said during his 2019 State of the Nation Address.

This is the 16th time Ghana has had to go to the IMF in its history. Mr. Speaker, we cannot make the progress we all desire unless we are consistent and disciplined in the management of our economy. We have gone through another round of painful impositions to get to where we are today with healthy fundamentals.

Ghana will exit the IMF Programme on April 3 2019.

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Great Minds International School was adjudged the winner at Ghanas 62nd Independence Day celebration march past on Wednesday, March 6, 2019.

The parade which took place at Boamang Maase, Afigya Kwabre North in the Ashanti region saw the school displaying their marching skills.

The ceremony was organized by the Afigya Kwabre North Assembly and saw many schools involved in the march past parade with the District Chief Executive Officer, Hon. Kwasi Karikari Achamfour and District Education Director, Ms. Dora Asare gracing the occasion.

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Located in Offinso Ahenkro in the Ashanti region, Great Minds International School was established by award-winning Ghanaian actor Kwadwo Nkansah popularly known as Lil Win.

The school, established a year ago, has won many laurels and they will be holding their 1st speech and prize giving day ceremony in April 2019.

YEN.com.gh previously reported how Lil Win won the hearts of many when he joined his school for a march past during the Private Schools Celebration week.

READ ALSO: 80-year-old grandma enrolls in Class One with dreams of becoming a teacher

In a video which went viral, the actor was wearing the school's uniform and held a big Ghana flag as one of the pupils marched towards him.

Lil Win was also in the news when he purchased one thousand customised school bags to be distributed for pupils in his school.

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New Delhi: In what seems to be a curious case of irony but also exposes Pakistan's dual policy on terror, Pakistan took a team of United Nations and World Wildlife Fund to Balakot to assess damage done to trees in the aftermath of India's strikes on Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camps but did not allow UN ombudsman to meet 26/11 mastermind, Hafiz Saeed.

Officials from Pakistan's Ministry of climate change told WION that a team of United Nations and World Wildlife Fund visited Balakot to take an account on the loss of trees in the strikes on Thursday. A follow up visit happened on Friday.

These were UN diplomats from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) who are stationed in Islamabad. Pakistan has said 19 trees were damaged in the strikes by India and were part of a project called "Billion Tree Tsunami" launched by the govt.

Reacting on his country's move, Pakistan Prime Minister advisor and Federal Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam said "UN's environment assembly in Nairobi next week, we will raise the issue... expose India"

Asked about Pakistan involving UN on the trees damaged by Balakot strikes, India's environment minister Harsh Vardhan said "it is not worth commenting"

The development comes even as Islamabad denied a visa to UN Ombudsman to "interview" Hafiz Saeed who had applied for delisting from the UN's terror list.

For delisting the applicant has to be personally interviewed by UN ombudsman for which they wanted to travel to Pakistan. The UN official had to settle for a video interview of Hafiz Saeed. Hafiz Saeed was informed about the UN decision not to delist him on 6th March.

There has not been any reaction from Pakistan's foreign office as to why they did not give UN ombudsman visa to travel to the country.

It is believed that Islamabad feared that any UN official's meet with Hafiz Saeed could have led to more issues for the country which is under global pressure to act on terrorist groups it has been supporting.

Hafiz Saeed chief of Pakistan based terror group Jamaat ud Dawa(JuD) & Falah-e-Insaniat(FiF) and was banned on 10 December 2008 after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
New Delhi: The Patiala Court on Friday extended the interim protection from arrest granted to former Union Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram in the Aircel Maxis case corruption case till March 25.

Earlier it was scheduled for March 8.

It is alleged that FIPB approval in the Aircel-Maxis FDI case was granted in March 2006 by Chidambaram even though he was empowered to accord approval on project proposals only up to Rs 600 crore and beyond that it required the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

The CBI is probing how Chidambaram, who was the Union finance minister in 2006, granted a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval to a foreign firm, when only the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) was empowered to do it.

The senior Congress leader's role has come under the scanner of investigating agencies in the Rs 3,500-crore Aircel-Maxis deal and the INX Media case involving Rs 305 crore.

The court had on November 1 extended till November 26 the interim protection from arrest granted to Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis case filed by the CBI and the ED.

Chidambaram had filed the plea for protection from arrest in the ED case on May 30 this year after which he got relief from the court on various occasions.

The agency on October 25 had filed charge sheet against Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case, accusing him of conspiring with foreign investors to clear their venture.

With PTI Inputs
Mumbai: Absconding diamantaire Nirav Modi's sprawling seaside bungalow in Raigad District was was demolished using explosives on Friday.

On Tuesday, excavators were used to open up the pillars of the bungalow, called Roopanya, to make space for fixing the detonators. A special technical team was called to fix them. The Bungalow was finally detonated at 11 pm today.

Last year, the state government had written to the ED, which had sealed the bungalow, seeking a nod to demolish the property on Kihim beach near Alibaug.

Modi's bungalow was attached by the ED following his involvement in the Punjab National Bank fraud case. The seaside mansion was also flouting the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms. Other 160 bungalows, which are also flouting the CRZ norms will also be demolished.

Raigad District Collector Vijay Suryawanshi told Zee Media that over 108 detonators were used to demolish the bungalow. He added that it will take the administration over 10 days to take out the debris.

#WATCH Maharashtra: PNB Scam accused Nirav Modi's bungalow in Alibag, Raigad district demolished by authorities. pic.twitter.com/ngrJstNjoa  ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2019

The fixtures from the bungalow will be put up for auction. Three very precious items that include a jacuzzi, a chandelier, and a Buddha statue will be handed over to the ED.

Modi, an accused in the USD 2 billion PNB fraud case, left the country last January while his aide and Uncle Mehul Choksi has sought refuge in Antigua.

(With Inputs from Vinay Tiwari)
New Delhi: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has received commitment from its single-largest shareholder Singtel, promoters and GIC Singapore to participate in its Rs 32,000 crore capital raising programme.

Singapore telecom major SingTel said it will infuse Rs 3,750 crore in Bharti Airtel by subscribing to the proposed Rs 25,000 crore rights issue of the company.

GIC Private Limited, on behalf of Government of Singapore and Monetary Authority of Singapore, has made a commitment of Rs 5,000 crore in the proposed programme.

"The entire rights entitlement of Promoter and Promoter Group of approximately Rs 167,857 million (Rs 16,785.7 crore) will be subscribed by them and GIC, with Promoter and Promoter Group subscribing to Rs 117,857 million (Rs 11,785.7 crore) and GIC subscribing Rs 50,000 million (or Rs 5,000 crore) by way of renouncement in their favour," Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

The board of Bharti Airtel last week approved rights issue to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore through issuance of fully paid up shares at a price of Rs 220 per share, and an additional Rs 7,000 crore via the foreign currency perpetual bond issue.

Bharti Airtel said the capital infusion will help it continue investments in future rollouts to build large network capacity and create content and technology partnerships to ensure the best customer experience.

SingTel announced that "it will subscribe to 170 million new shares in the Rs 250 billion rights issue by regional associate Bharti Airtel (Airtel) at an issue price of Rs 220 per share, for a total consideration of Rs 37.5 billion (approximately USD 525 million), representing the rights entitlement for its direct stake of 15 per cent."

Together with Airtel's major shareholders and GIC, a total of 67 per cent of the rights issue has been committed, SingTel said.

With this rights issue subscription, Singtel's effective interest in Airtel will be 35.2 per cent and the company will continue to be the single largest shareholder in Airtel. At present SingTel holds around 39.5 per cent stake in the India telecom firm.

"The Promoter and Promoter Group also reserves the right to subscribe either itself or through investors for additional shares in the Issue, including in the event of under subscription by the public, in accordance with the applicable laws," the statement said.

Airtel is in the process of appointing banks to take this forward.

"The Rights Issue reiterates the confidence of our shareholders in the competitive strength and sound business strategy of Airtel. It shall further strengthen our balance sheet with desired financial flexibility so as to meet future opportunities, particularly in the rapidly transforming Indian mobile market," Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India & South Asia) - Bharti Airtel said.

He said the fresh capital infusion will help the company to continue investments in future rollouts to build large network capacity and create content and technology partnerships to ensure the best customer experience.
Mumbai: Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who advocates greater participation of women in development of technology products, reached Mumbai to celebrate International Women`s Day and spend some time with young students on Friday.

"In Mumbai today and happy to celebrate #IWD2019 with the India chapter of Women@Google at their `I Am Remarkable` event. Thank you for inspiring me with your stories about the experiences, challenges and triumphs of being women in tech," Pichai said in a tweet.

Later, he was seen spending time with kids who used the newly-launched Google`s reading tutor app "Bolo".

"Earlier this week, we launched #Bolo in India: a reading tutor app powered by #GoogleAI text-to-speech & speech recognition.

"Had the chance to visit some students today who are learning to read using `Bolo`, excited for all the great books they`ll discover!," Pichai further tweeted.

Launched on March 5, parents can download the free app to help primary grade children improve their Hindi and English-reading skills.

All the reading material on the app is free and the initial catalogue from Storyweaver.org.in includes 50 stories in Hindi and 40 in English.

Google piloted "Bolo" with over 900 children in 200 villages in Uttar Pradesh with the help of ASER Centre, a research and assessment unit of Pratham Education Foundation.
New Delhi: International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8 every year. The day is dedicated to women all around the globe and is celebrated with much zeal and enthusiasm. On the very special occasion, Google extends Women's Day wishes to all with a very special doodle!

The doodle has the word 'Woman' written in eleven different languages which are Hindi, Arabic, Bangla, Russian, Japanese, French, Bangla, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German, Italian and English.

Once you click on it, you are in for a surprise! A slideshow which has some of the most inspiring quotes by successful women will start displaying on your screen.

Indeed, there is no better way to kick-start women's day by reading quotes written by some of the most succesful women the world has seen.

In India, women are traditionally referred to as Lakshmi, the one who symbolises goodness, prosperity and infinite power.

Though womanhood doesnt need a specific day for celebrations, March 8 asserts the importance of the presence of the femininity that not just gives birth to new life but also nurtures it with love, care and warmth.
NEW DELHI: The Income Tax department conducted raids at Aam Aadmi Party legislator Naresh Balyan's properties in the national capital on Friday.

As per reports, the raids are currently underway at office and residential premises of the Uttam Nagar MLA.

The AAP MLA had stirred controversy after claiming that officers like Anshu Prakash, the former Chief Secretary of Delhi, should be beaten up obstructing public work.

"Whatever happened to the Chief Secretary (Anshu Prakash)... I say they should be beaten up, they should be thrashed... whoever obstructs the work being done for the common man, should be meted out the same treatment," Balyan had said at a public rally on Friday. A case was later booked against him over the comments.

In 2015, the Election Commission officials had seized several bottles of illicit liquor from a godown allegedly owned by AAP's Uttam Nagar. Balyan, however, refuted all allegations. The same year, seven AAP members resigned from Haryana unit of the party after Balyan was appointed in-charge of state affairs.
Mumbai: Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das Friday said credit rating agencies play a critical role in the stability and efficient functioning of the financial sector.

Das Thursday held a meeting with top officials of credit rating agencies as part of stakeholder consultation exercise.

"Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) have a critical role in the financial sector, its stability and efficient functioning. Held a meeting with MD/CEOs of CRAs yesterday as part of stakeholder consultation," he tweeted.

Domestic credit rating agencies include Care, Icra and India Ratings and Research.

CRAs have off late come under criticism for failing to timely identify the stressed assets of IL&FS, which saw a series of defaults in loan repayments.
New Delhi: The Congress on Friday suffered a major setback in Gujarat after legislator Purushottam Sabariya resigned from the party. This comes barely hours after Congress MLA Jawahar Chavda quit the party to join the ruling BJP at the party's headquarters in Gandhinagar.

Purushottam is an MLA from Dhrangadhra constituency. He was believed to have got the ticket from the party because of OBC leader Alpesh Thakor. On Thursday, it was reported that Alpesh, who is a Congress MLA from Radhanpur in Gujarat, is all set to join the BJP. Alpesh, however, refused any such development and rubbished it as fake news.

Chavda, who quit the party today, was inducted into BJP by state Home Minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja and senior party leader KC Patel. The four-time MLA from Manavadar seat in Junagadh district tendered his resignation as a legislator to the Gujarat Assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi earlier in the day.

After joining the ruling party, Chavda said he did not quit the Congress due to discontent or differences with the party leadership. Chavda, a prominent OBC leader from Ahir community, said he also resigned from the primary membership of the Congress and sent a letter to party president Rahul Gandhi to inform him about it.

Chavda had won the Manavadar seat in 1990, 2007, 2012 and 2017. Though speculations are rife that he would be made a minister in the coming days, both Chavda and Jadeja dismissed the reports.

Chavda is the third Congress MLA to have resigned from the House in the past few months.

In July last year, senior Congress MLA Kunvarji Bavalia had resigned as the legislator. He was later made a cabinet minister in the current BJP dispensation. Last month, first-time MLA from Unjha seat in Mehsana, Asha Patel, had resigned from the House and the Congress, and later joined the ruling BJP.

(With PTI inputs)
RAJKOT: Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel has met an accident on the Rajkot-Chotila Highway late on Thursday.

Patel was travelling along with his aides in his Fortuner when his SUV collided with a bike on the Rajkot-Chotila Highway.

The biker sustained minor injuries in the road accident.

Hardik Patel's SUV was also partially damaged in the road accident.

Hardik Patel and his supporters reportedly entered into an argument with the Rajkot Police over the recording of statement after the road accident.

The PAAS leader, however, left for Ahmedabad in another car after the incident.

More details are awaited in this regard.

Patel had on Thursday announced that he will join the Congress party on March 12.

He said that he would contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on the party's ticket from Gujarat's Jamnagar constituency.

"I will join the Congress party on March 12 during the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet in Ahmedabad and will contest from Jamnagar," Hardik Patel said.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and party leader Priyanka Gandhi, who will be in Gujarat to attend the party's meeting, would welcome the leader into the party.

The Jamnagar Lok Sabha seat is currently represented by Poonamben Maadam of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
New Delhi: Pakistan stopped Jama'at-ud-Da'wah (JuD) chief and Mumbai 26/11 terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed from leading the Imam's prayer from Jamia Masjid Qadsia Mosque in Lahore on Friday.

Jamia Masjid Qadsia is the headquarters of JuD, a United Nations listed terror group.

The government of Pakistan's Punjab province had taken over the Mosque as part of a crackdown on the terror group. The development comes days after the Pakistani government sealed the Lahore headquarters of JuD and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) and detained over 120 suspected militants as part of an ongoing crackdown on banned groups.

Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said his govt will not allow its territory to be used by terror groups.

Under national action plan we will not allow any terrorist group to use Pakistani territory. We will not allow any armed militia to function in this country. This is for the betterment of Pakistan, said Khan.

"Pakistan's territory will not be used for any kind terrorism outside. My government will not allow that," he added.

Khan's comments came amid pressure from the global community to act on terror outfits on its soil following the Pulwama terror attack on February 14 that killed more than 40 CRPF Personnel.

The state department has urged "Pakistan to take sustained, irreversible action against terrorist groups that will prevent future attacks and that will promote regional stability."
Shimla: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday airlifted more than 50 people, including two serious patients, to Bhuntar from snow-covered Udaipur and Stingri region of Lahaul-Spiti district. Those who were stuck in Kullu were also dropped back to different locations in Lahaul-Spiti.

Himachal Pradesh: Indian Airforce airlifted over 50 people, including 2 serious patients, to Bhuntar from snow covered Udaipur and Stingri region of Lahaul-Spiti district today. Those who were stuck in Kullu were also dropped back to different locations in Lahaul-Spiti. pic.twitter.com/QfigHtwEWH  ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2019

Himachal Pradesh has been reeling under cold waves, with its higher reaches shivering under sub-zero temperatures.

Director of the local India Meteorological Department Manmohan Singh said that the minimum temperature in Shimla, which saw partly cloudy skies, was 3.7 degree Celsius.

Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti district and Kalpa in Kinnaur district saw low temperatures of minus 6.8 and minus 3.4 degrees respectively.

Dharamsala recorded a low temperature of 5.2 degree, while it was 1.4 degree in Dalhousie and 0.3 degree in Kufri. The night temperature at Manali was minus 1.4 degree.

There was no appreciable change in minimum and maximum temperatures during the past 24 hours, he said.

A fresh western disturbance is likely to be active in the region from March 11, bringing rain and snow, the Met official added.

(With inputs from IANS)
New Delhi: The president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday opposed the appointed of spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as a member of a panel by the Supreme Court to mediate the contentious Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.

The AIMIM chief said that the top court should have appointed a 'neutral' mediator on the Ayodhya dispute case.

"Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who has been appointed a mediator had earlier made a statement 'if Muslims don't give up their claim on Ayodhya,India will become Syria.' It would've been better if SC had appointed a neutral person," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was on Friday appointed by the apex court as a mediator of the three-member panel, which also includes senior advocate Sriram Panchu. It will be headed by former apex court judge F M I Kallifulla.

"We must all move together towards ending long-standing conflicts happily by maintaining harmony in society," Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said today. "Respecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society - we must all move together towards these goals. #ayodhyamediation," he tweeted.

Respecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society - we must all move together towards these goals.#ayodhyamediation  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) March 8, 2019

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court referred the politically sensitive case for mediation and gave the panel eight weeks to complete the process.

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the panel should file a progress report of the proceedings within four weeks and complete the process within eight weeks.

In case of any difficulty, the chairman will inform the apex court registry about it, it added. The court said that mediation proceedings will be held as per the applicable norms.

Hindu bodies, except Nirmohi Akhara, have opposed the apex court's suggestion to refer the issue for mediation, while Muslim bodies have supported it.

The bench had concluded the hearing by asking stakeholders to give the names of possible mediators.

The apex court in its Wednesday hearing observed that the issue is not about 1,500 square feet land, but about religious sentiments. The bench said it was conscious of the gravity and impact of the issue on "public sentiment" and also on the "body politic of the country".

It said the judges were aware of the history and were seeing that the dispute is resolved amicably. "It is not only about the property. It is about mind, heart and healing, if possible," the bench said

The bench also said it was not appropriate to pre-judge that the mediation would fail and people would not agree with the decision.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday referred the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation by a three-member board panel headed by retired apex court judge FMI Kalifulla. The other members of the panel are spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu. The panel will meet all the petitioners in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh to explore the possibility of an amicable settlement between the two sides.

The Ayodhya dispute is a political and religious debate in the country, centred around a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya. The issue has been at the centre of communal and polarisation politics since several decades. Since the dispute first surfaced in 1855, several attempts have so far been made to mediate a compromise between the two sides, all of which failed to come to any conclusion. Take a look:

1990: Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar made the first established attempt to resolve the matter between the two parties. His attempt came after Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) volunteers allegedly damaged the 16th-century mosque partially. However, after a year, the negotiation talks died.

1992: Prime Minister Narasimha Rao set up an inquiry commission, headed by retired judge MS Liberhan, to look into the issue. He also initiated talks between the two sides, which failed to meet any logical end.

2001: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee set up an Ayodhya Cell in his office, headed by a senior official. The Ayodhya Cell was set up to monitor negotiation talks that were taking place at the time. However, this attempt also failed.

2002: Kanchi pontiff Sri Jayendra Saraswathi succeeded in brokering peace in March 2002, when he managed to get written undertakings from the VHP and Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas that they would abide by the court's decision on the matter. However, later, the VHP retracted from its words in light of the court's ruling that prohibited the puja inside the mosque and directed a status quo on the disputed land.

2003: The Shankaracharya tried once more a year later. This time, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), also one of the contesting parties, shot down the seer's proposal saying it was unacceptable to them. After this, the seer withdrew himself from the mediation process.

2004: Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel laureate Dalai Lama also tried to resolve the issue, but he too failed.

2015: The oldest litigant in the case, Mohammed Hashim Ansari made a attempt in the case. Ansari was involved in the case, since his arrest in 1949 for protesting against the installation of Lord Ram idols inside the mosque. Ansari made at least two attempts to negotiate with the Hindus. However, his demise at age of 96 in 2016, halted the negitiation process.

2017: Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar suggested a 3-point mediation formula; however, his initiative for the peace process hit a roadblock after his 'settlement formulas were rejected by the parties.

2018: Maulana Salman, an AIMPLB executive, suggested an out-of-court settlement. He even met Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to form a proposal, but his suggestion was instantly shot down.
NEW DELHI: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday made no mention of Pakistan's covert support to terrorism while urging India and Pakistan to exercise "calm, restraint and prevent an escalation and resolve the matter through dialogue."

In his annual presser, Wang Yi said, "China has played a constructive role and both India and Pakistan have indicated the desire to de-escalate and we welcome this."

The Chinese Foreign Minister also did not make any comments on the listing of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar under the UN terror list.

The development comes in the backdrop of India Pakistan tensions last week in which in response to India's anti-terror operation, Pakistan launch strikes on Indian military installations. Remember, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou was on Pakistan visit from 5th to 6th March.

Calling 2018 as a year of "great significance for China India relations", Wang Yi said cooperation between the two countries should "surge ahead like Ganga and the Yangtze giving a strong and sustained impetus to our relationship."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met four times in 2018 starting with the famous Wuhan Informal Summit in April to the last meeting on the sidelines of G20 summit in Argentina.

Wang Yi said, "Over the past year govt departments on both sides have done a lot and made considerable progress in following through on many of the understandings reached between our leaders. The priority now is that strategic understanding of our leaders trickles down to our common people".

Chinese President will be coming to India in 2019 for the 2nd informal summit between both the countries.
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer Param Vir Chakra, the country's highest military honour, on Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, captured by Pakistan after a dogfight in the skies and released later.

In a letter to Modi, Palaniswami said the IAF pilot, a native of Tamil Nadu, displayed amazing poise and confidence in the face of adverse condition and it would be appropriate he be awarded the highest military honour.

He noted that Varthaman was released by Pakistan "due to the diplomatic initiatives" of the Prime Minister and "intense international pressure".

"Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman displayed amazing poise and confidence in the face of adverse conditions, which has won him many hearts across the country. It is appropriate that he be awarded India's highest military honour Param Vir Chakra (PVC) for displaying most inimitable gallantry and valour," the chief minister said.

"I request the Government of India to confer the nation's highest military honour, Param Vir Chakra, on Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman," he added.

Palaniswami recalled that the MiG-21 Bison aircraft piloted by Varthaman had shot down a Pakistan Air Force fighter (F-16) when it tried to violate India's air space and that he was later taken into custody by Pakistani armed forces.

Varthaman, who was captured on February 27, returned home on March 1 after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced he would be released as a "gesture of peace".

According to the central government, Param Vir Chakra "is awarded for most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea, or in the air."
New Delhi: A Mumbai flat belonging to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's sister Haseena Parkar has been forfeited under provisions of Smuggling and Foreign Exchange Manipulators Act (SAFEMA). The property will be soon up for the auction.

Parkar stayed at the flat at Gordon Hall, Nagpada until she passed away in 2014.

SAFEMA deals with forfeiting and auctioning illegally acquired properties of smugglers, foreign exchange manipulators and their kith and kin. According to section 68-F of SAFEMA, properties belonging to the relatives of fugitives can also be attached.

Properties related to Haseena Parkar were attached in an order passed in 1998 by the finance ministry.

The order was later challenged after Parkar's death by her son Alisha Ibrahim Parkar.

In April 2018, the Supreme Court directed the central government to seize Dawood's properties. The Supreme Court had dismissed the plea filed by Dawood's family against the attachment of office properties in Mumbai and said that they were acquired with Dawood's ill-gotten wealth. PTI previously reported that of a total of seven properties in south Mumbai's Nagpada - two were in Amina's name and the remaining five were in the name of Hasina.
New Delhi: The Centre Friday asked all states and Union territories to ensure the safety and security of people from Jammu and Kashmir by strengthening the existing mechanism, and take strict action against offenders.

The fresh advisory came two days after two Kashmiri dry-fruit sellers were attacked in Lucknow by members of a little-known right-wing group. Four people allegedly involved in the incident have been arrested so far.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs through an advisory issued today to the states and Union territories asked them to reinforce the existing arrangements to ensure safety and security of persons belonging to Jammu and Kashmir residing in their respective jurisdictions," a Home Ministry spokesperson said.

It also referred to its earlier advisory issued on February 16 asking the states to take all possible steps to ensure security of students and people belonging to Jammu and Kashmir as many of them were attacked in different parts of the country after the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed.

"In view of some students and residents of Jammu and Kashmir experiencing intimidation and harassment, the MHA urged state/UT police authorities to take strict action against the offenders as per law," the spokesperson said quoting the advisory.

Following a directive of the MHA, all states and union territories have already appointed nodal police officers who may be contacted by distressed people belong to Jammu and Kashmir.

Some people belonging to Jammu and Kashmir were attacked in states like Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh.
NEW DELHI: In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Friday said that the decades-old Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute will be settled through mediation. The top court also appointed a three-member mediation committee - including former Supreme Court judge, Justice FM Ibrahim Kalifulla and spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar  which would meet all the petitioners at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh.

The committee has been given a month, after which a report has to be submitted to the court, said the five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

Ayodhya dispute to be settled through mediation: Highlights of the SC order

Here is a brief profile of the three Ayodhya case mediators:-

FM Ibrahim Kalifulla

Justice (retired) Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla would be the chairperson of the mediation committee appointed by the Supreme Court to settle the Ayodhya dispute case. Justice Kalifulla was elevated as a Supreme Court judge in April 2012. He enrolled as an advocate on August 20, 1975, after which he began practising labour law in the law firm TS Gopalan & Co. On March 2, 2000, he was appointed as a judge of the Madras High Court.

In February 2011, he became a member of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and was appointed to serve as the acting Chief Justice two months later. In September 2011, he was named as the Chief Justice of High Court of Jammu and Kashmir. On April 2, 2012, he was elevated to the Supreme Court of India and sworn in by the then Chief Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia.

He retired from the Supreme Court on July 22, 2016.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a globally revered spiritual and humanitarian leader. He is also the founder of the Art of Living, which is an international, non-profit, educational and humanitarian organization. He has spearheaded an unprecedented worldwide movement for a stress-free, violence-free society.

Through a myriad of programs and teachings, a network of organizations including the Art of Living and the International Association for Human Values, and a rapidly growing presence across 155 countries, Sri Sri has reached an estimated 370 million people. Sri Sri has developed unique, impactful programs that empower, equip and transform individuals to tackle challenges at global, national, community and individual levels.

Sri Sri has played vital roles in peace negotiations globally. From Kashmir, Assam and Bihar in India to Colombia, Kosovo, Iraq and Syria and Cote dIvoire, Sri Sris programs have had documented impact on people involved in armed conflict to pursue the path of peace.

Born in 1956 in southern India, Sri Sri holds degrees in both Vedic literature and physics.

Sriram Panchu

Sriram Panchu is a senior advocate and mediator. He is a founder of The Mediation Chambers, which offers services in mediation and med-arb.

Panchu is the president of the Association of Indian Mediators and a director on the board of the International Mediation Institute (IMI). He set up Indias first court-annexed mediation centre in 2005, and has been instrumental in making mediation a part of India's legal system.

Panchu has mediated a large number of complex and high-value disputes across the range of commercial, corporate and contractual disputes in different parts of India. These include construction and property development, insolvency and winding up, property disputes, family business conflict, intellectual property and information technology disputes.

He has also mediated international commercial disputes. He is a certified mediator on the panel of the Singapore International Mediation Centre. He is the author of two books on mediation. Settle for More introduced mediation to the Indian audience. Mediation: Practice & Law (Butterworths, LexisNexis) is the standard manual in India. He has authored the Indian chapter of Getting the Deal Through.

He has been named the third mediator in the SC-appointed panel for mediation in the Ayodhya land dispute case.
New Delhi: Amid tensions between New Delhi and Pakistan after Indian fighter jets bombed a camp of terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad in that country, the IAF on Friday tweeted a poem whose lines can be construed as a jibe at Islamabad.

Through its twitter handle @IAF_MCC, the Indian Air Force tweeted the Hindi poem 'Hadd Sarhad Ki' penned by Bipin Allhabadi.

The first two lines of the poem read, "Today, someone has crossed borders/Because someone has crossed all limits."

The tweet also had a picture of a fighter jet in the background.

Tensions between India and Pakistan flared up after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 and captured its pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, who was handed over to India on March 1.
India has been in the news across the globe as a hotbed of violence and abuse against women. An annual poll conducted in 2018 by the Thomson Reuters Foundation titled The Worlds Most Dangerous Countries for Women ranks India at number one. Gender-based violence more often than not has crippling consequences, some of which are life-long, and include physical and mental abuse. Violence against women strips women of their fundamental right to a life of dignity. Even as public outrage and extensive media coverage continue to dominate public space, 39 women are victims of crimes every hour in India (National Crime Records Bureau - NCRB 2016 data).

As the world is on the eve of commemorating Womens Day on March 8, is this just one day in the year when women are honoured and put on a pedestal? Can we in India honestly claim, that at least on this one day, violence against women does not occur?

Figures reveal a grim picture. The female population in India stands at 587 million, as per the 2011 census. The woman to man ratio, as per the 2011 census, is 943 women per 1000 men, which is skewed, given the deep gender discrimination that prevails. As per NCRB figures of 2016, over 3 lakh women are missing from Indias population. Where are these missing women?

NCRB data on violence against women reveals that crimes against women have recorded a whopping 83% increase from 2007 to 2016. This trend of rising violence is alarming. The rising violence has seen the enactment of stringent legislation to act as a deterrent. However, inadequate implementation has only furthered perpetration of the crime rather than deterring.

Sadly, the data is only of reported cases, while the unreported far outnumber the reported due to the intense fear that prevails, economic vulnerability of women, unsympathetic law enforcement officials, pendency of cases and general apathy.

The violence manifests in many heinous forms like rape, kidnapping, domestic violence, dowry deaths, mental and physical abuse, sexual harassment and trafficking, to name a few. Gender-based inequality is prevalent in every stage of a womans life, irrespective of whether in an urban or rural area. This violence is an accepted norm to maintain and reinforce gender roles and is ruthlessly used as a punitive measure against women who dare to transgress the norm.

Misplaced Notion of Masculinity

Research suggests that women are more at risk from the men in their immediate family and neighbourhood than from strangers. As the state grapples to address this grave issue, putting in place stringent punitive systems is just one means of partial, potential prevention. Reasons for the rampant and heinous crimes are manifold. Lust, anger, revenge, caste, religion, honour preservation, depravity, alcoholism, poverty, social stigma, weak implementation of legislation.these are just some of the reasons for prevalence of violence. Society continues to perceive women as dispensable commodities in a gender-imbalanced society.

In large part, it is the misplaced notion of Masculinity that lies at the core of such crimes.

Since centuries, males have been perceived as the dominant species, primarily due to their physical strength and earning power. This stereotype prevails in urban and rural India, running across all economic classes. Since the last 2 decades, advertising, films and song lyrics have only propagated this notion through direct and suggestive visuals and imagery.

Today, masculinity equals power. Masculinity equals control. And the sole manifestation of these notions is violence. These acts of violence are justified by men and women since childhood: Boys will be boys.

What does Masculinity mean today? It means:

* A sense of entitlement

* A sentiment of ownership

* No accountability

* No sense of equality

* Non-empathetic

Masculinity Redefined

We need to redefine and articulate a new idea of masculinity. Society must advocate for the active propagation of the concept of Positive Masculinity. A change in mindset is the only way of eradicating crimes against women. We need to catch the boys when they are still boys. We need to examine and change the way in which boys are taught gender in schools, communities and in their homes. We need to look closely at how they express anger, and how they engage with the opposite sex, and we need to inculcate healthy expression and engagement.

A role reversal is not the answer. The need of the hour is to aggressively change the construct of Masculinity in the minds of men and women in India. A construct where masculinity does not equal power or control. But a construct where masculinity equals Compassion and Consent.

How can this be done?

* Sensitisation begins at home: A child absorbs his first notions and builds his first perceptions at home. Every adult member of the household needs to convey the notion of gender equality in the home  How do the members each other? The kind of food given, irrespective of gender. Access to quality education, whether it is a girl child or a boy. The extent of freedom given, again irrespective of gender. In these ways, and in numerous others, a boy child absorbs in his very being that there is no difference between men and women. He inculcates concepts of respect and compassion for women at a very early age.

* By integrating the concept of positive masculinity in the education system

Catch them young: Simplified messaging about gender equity can be included in the school curriculum at the primary level, reinforced by periodic, interactive talks by experts. Concepts about Good Touch-Bad Touch should also be introduced through screening short films and hosting talks by experts or well-known personalities. Assessment can also include gender-related attitude and behaviour. Boys who stop or prevent any aggression or violence against women can be acknowledged.

* Sparking nation-wide campaigns, with well-known public figures endorsing this concept, using diverse media (radio, TV, door to door, street marches etc.)

* Through deep dive community engagement with women and men: Mohalla Sabhas, Residential societies like RWAs, civil society organisations can engage with women and men to activate behaviour change within communities. This can include display of messages in public places, nukkad nataks etc.

* Proactive commitment from businesses to advertise their products and services in a way that that does not objectify women

Womens Empowerment is the Way

* Compulsory education for all girls upto class 12: Education is the key to empowerment and awareness

* Promoting womens social and economic empowerment: Businesses, institutions and other sectors can play an active role by ensuring a healthy woman-man ratio in their work-force. Economic empowerment will tilt the unhealthy balance

* Continuing research-driven gender studies that would ensure targeted programmes to end violence against women

A notion, deeply ingrained over centuries, may take generations to change. Women are traditionally viewed as the gender responsible for bearing and rearing future generations. If we do not start to spark the change to save our women nowtodaywe may not have a next generation at all.

The author Aparna Banerjee is a senior communication professional and a social activist, currently with Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of Zee News and ZMCL.)
Srinagar: Pakistan-backed terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) is planning to carry out another Pulwama-style terror strike in Jammu and Kashmir in the next 3-4 days, intelligence sources have warned.

According to the inputs received by the intelligence agencies, the banned terror outfit is planning to strike ''very soon'' to avenge the IAF airstrikes in Pakistan's Balakot which completely destroyed one of its biggest terror training camps.

In view of the specific intelligence inputs, security has been heightened across the state and the security agencies have been directed to remain on high alert mode.

As per the intelligence inputs, the Masood Azhar-led JeM has planned to carry out an IED attack in Qazigund and Anantnag of south Kashmir.

This time, the JeM plans to use a ''Tata Sumo SUV'' to execute its plans.

The warning from the intelligence agencies came a few hours after a grenade attack was carried out at a bus stop in Jammu. One person, a teenager, was killed in the incident, while at least 32 others were left injured.

The security agencies arrested a JeM member in connection with the grenade attack at the Jammu bus stand in the evening.

He had confessed to the crime and, during his interrogation, revealed that the attack was masterminded by the district commander of Hizbul Mujahideen in Kulgam, Farooq Ahmed Bhatt alias Omar.

The grenade attack at Jammu bus stand came days after a suicide bomber linked to JeM rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a bus carrying CRPF troopers in J&K's Pulwama district on February 14. The attack resulted in the death of at least 40 CRPF personnel.

The Pulwama attack was one of the worst witnessed by the Jammu and Kashmir in over two decades.
K Vijay Kumar, Advisor to Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik, on Friday described the powerful grenade attack at Jammu bus stand as unfortunate and a despicable act.

A powerful grenade attack took place at Jammu bus stand in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday killing a 17-year-old boy and injuring over 30 people. The injured people were treated at the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu. It was the third grenade attack by terrorists in the bus stand area of the city since May 2018.

Speaking to reporters at Bemina near Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, Kumar said that the attacker, a Class 9 student from Kulgam district of Kashmir, was an "ordinary youngster" and was made into a "mercenary" by anti-social elements.

"(It is a) very unfortunate incident. He (the attacker) is only the tip of the spear, there are elements who have motivated him. He is a very ordinary youngster and they have made him into a mercenary. You may not be remembering, but in Yemen, for 50 pennies or whatever, young boys were made to throw grenades. This is as cruel or brutal or inhuman as that to use an innocent mind for achieving some target which they will never achieve, because we are all together in this," said Kumar to news agency PTI.

"You saw the kind of public affected--11 people from the Valley, 10 from Jammu and nine from across the country. What is that? What is he trying to achieve and show? Why did he do this gruesome act? That boy alone is not the thing, there are agents behind him, so we are at it and this is a very despicable act. So, the entire security forces with the help of society, the common society has condemned it, so with their help, we will be at it," asserted Kumar.

The attack came a week after the Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out air strikes on the terror camp of Jaish-e Mohammad (JeM) in Pakistan's Balakot. The JeM took the responsibility for the February 14 Pulwama terror attack, which killed 40 CRPF personnel.

The advisor added that appropriate security measures will be taken to prevent such attacks in future. "Whatever is appropriate to the situation, the calculation will be on a dynamic mode. We are working on it and we will meet the requirement," he added.

Speaking on the withdrawal of security to several mainstream politicians in the state, Kumar said such decisions are taken after deliberate discussions and thought.

The security situation in most of the state is stable, but the administration is focusing on "fragile" parts to ensure smooth conduct of polls whenever they are announced, said Kumar.

"Security scenario is stable in most situations, but fragile in certain parts, which has been the case with J&K for some time. We are focusing on all these areas--both the stable areas to keep it as stable as possible (and) where there is fragility, to have our combined action of all the multiple security forces. We are at it to make it as easy and smooth and facilitate the common man to come for voting as and when the process is announced. That is our aim and we are hoping for that," added Kumar, in-charge of the Home Department.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Friday asserted that though they fully respect the Supreme Court order of mediation in the Ayodhya case, the judgment on the dispute "must expedite and remove the obstacles in constructing a temple".

"While having full respect in the judicial system we would like to say emphatically that the Judgment on the dispute must expedite and remove the obstacles in constructing a grand Temple," said RSS.

The SC appointed a mediation committee, headed by Justice (retired) Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla, to settle the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute.

The apex court appointed a three-member mediation committee -- including former SC judge Justice Kalifulla, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Senior Advocate and Mediator Sriram Panchu -- which would meet all the petitioners at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh. The committee has been given a month, after which a report has to be submitted to the court, said the five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

Speaking after the top court issued the order, the RSS called the SC order a surprising stand, adding that instead of accelerating the judicial process to end the long drawn dispute, the SC took ordered mediation.

"In Ram-janmabhoomi case, instead of accelerating the judicial process to end the long drawn dispute, the Supreme Court has taken a surprising stand," said the RSS.

The organisation said, that the apex court should find no priority for this sensitive subject associated with deep faith of Hindu society is beyond understanding. The RSS also added that the Hindus are constantly being neglected.

"That the Supreme Court should find no priority for this sensitive subject associated with deep faith of Hindu society is beyond understanding. We are experiencing that Hindus are constantly being neglected," added the organisation.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday spoke on the incidents against the students from Kashmir across the country and reiterated that the people of Kashmir are, was and will remain the people of the country.

He added that it is the responsibility of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers to stand with the students from Kashmir. The senior BJP leader asserted that he has requested the chief ministers of all the states to protect the students from Kashmir.

"Want to convey a message to entire country, heard of a few incidents against Kashmiri children. Kashmiris are, were and will remain our people. Have requested chief ministers of all states that Kashmiri students must be protected and loved," said Singh.

Speaking at Beawar in Ajmer district of Rajasthan, Singh asserted that if somebody conspires and troubles the students of Kashmir then it is the responsibility of the party workers to support them.

"If somebody conspires and troubles our Kashmiri students then it's the responsibility of BJP workers to stand with the Kashmiri students," added the union minister.

Slamming the opposition for seeking proof of the casulaties in the Balakot preemptive strike by the Indian Air Force (IAF), Singh said that those who are war heroes don't count the number of people killed in the strike.

"You ask for the numbers? You want to know how many people were killed? Those who asked for the numbers, I want to tell them those who are war heroes, they don't count the number of people killed. (Arre sankhya poochte ho aap, kitne log maare gaye? Sankhya poochne walo se kehna chahta hun, Jo yudh-veer hota hai, maare gaye logon ki ginti nahi karta hai)," said Singh.

He also said that the IAF pilots were on a mission to destroy the targeted terrorist facility in Pakistan and not to shower petals or go on any pleasure trip.

Singh said that Pakistan's desperation after the Balakot strike in was reasonable, but it is sad that some people in the country are in a shock and asking for proof of its success.

"IAF pilots had targeted terrorist facility based on credible intelligence input to destroy them. The pilots had not entered Pakistan for any pleasure trip or to shower petals," said Singh.

IAF pilots have made Pakistan realise that it would have to pay a heavy price if the terrorists operate from its land, the senior BJP leader said.

"Warriors don't count people killed in war. But the Congress and its friends have a misleading and dangerous stance. They give respect to terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden and Hafiz Saeed by calling them Osama Ji and Hafiz Ji," Singh said.

He said that such people do not have clear policy and intention on terrorism. All political parties should stand united to tackle terrorism. "Our army jawans have achieved victory by eliminating terrorists on foreign land thrice in the past five years," Singh said.

IAF carried out an air strike in Pakistan's Balakot in February following the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.
KOLKATA: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) released its first list of 15 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2019.

The part has announced two names for Raigunj and Murshidabad constituencies.

Mohammed Salim will contest from Raiganj while Badaruddoza Khan will contest Murshidabad. Both are sitting MPs from the respective constituencies.

The announcements were made by CPI (M) chairman Biman Bose.

The Left party on Friday said it has identified 53 seats in 24 states for the upcoming polls, reported news agency PTI.

The party also left out student leader Kanhaiya Kumar from its first list, indicating that its seat-sharing talks with the RJD in Bihar has hit roadblocks.

According to ANI, the Left Front also set-up an 11-member election manifesto committee with party national council secretary D Raja as the convener.
In yet another ceasefire violation, Pakistan on Friday resorted to heavy shelling in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The shelling with artillery and firing of small arms took place by the Pakistan Army in Shahpur sector and Kerni sector of the district at around 6 pm.

The Indian Army retaliated to the unprovoked shelling that took place after a lull of a day.

There have been no reports of injuries or casualties.

This is a developing story. More details awaited

On Wednesday, the Pakistan Army resorted to a ceasefire by heavy shelling with mortars and firing of small arms along the Line of Control (LoC) in Nowshera and Sunderbani sectors of Rajouri district.

Indian and Pakistani armies exchanged heavy fire after the later opened fire around 10.30 am.

On Tuesday, Pakistan violated ceasefire in three areas - Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district and around, Nowshera and Sunderbani sectors in Rajouri. All educational institutions were ordered to remain closed within 5 km distance from the LoC in both these districts. The educational institutions were reopened on Thursday.
New Delhi: Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's son, Galib Guru has expressed anger after he was portrayed as a 'proud Indian' citizen in several media reports run by the 'Afzal Premi Gang'.

Galib, who has appealed for a passport to go abroad for further studies, said, "How can I be a proud Indian when they have killed my father and done injustice to my whole family. They have done injustice to Kashmir too."

Slamming media reports, he said that they tried to manipulate whatever he had said.

"If I have an Aadhaar card why can't I have a passport. I want the passport as I want to apply for scholarships abroad," Galib added.

Afzal Guru was hung to death in 2013 for his role in the 2001 Parliament attack. At the time of his death, Galib was two years old.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday condemned the beating of two Kashmiri traders right-wing outfit Vishwa Hindu Dal members in Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow and called for strict action against the culprits.

"The attack on our Kashmiri brothers has been carried out by some 'mindless' people. It is very important to maintain peace and unity in the country. I urge the state governments to take strict action whenever such people try to do something like this," Modi said during a speech today.

Modi added that the Uttar Pradesh government led by Yodi Adityanath swiftly acted on the incident and took necessary action.

This is the second time the Prime Minister has condemned and denounced attacks on Kashmiri people, that have been reported from different parts of the country after the Pulwama terror attack.

On February 23, during a rally at Rajasthan's Tonk, PM Modi had lamented the recent attacks on the students of Kashmir and said that such things should not happen in India. He added the Kashmiri youth is also disturbed by terrorism and asserted that they are with people of the country. He said people in Kashmir have been suffering from terrorism for the last 40 years and they want peace too.

"Our fight is against terrorism and enemies of humanity. Our fight is for Kashmir not against Kashmir, not against Kashmiris. What happened to Kashmiri students in last few days, such things should not happen in this country. Kashmiri youth is also disturbed by terrorism," PTI quoted Modi as saying last month.

"Peace in the world is not possible if terror factory continues to go on like this. Today, there is a consensus against terrorism. We are moving ahead with strength at every front," PM Modi said while addressing the Vijay Sankalp rally.

In the meantime, several reports claimed on Thursday that one of the accused, who was arrested by the Lucknow police, for thrashing the Kashmiri vendors, was found to have a criminal background with at least 12 cases against him, including a murder charge.
NEW DELHI: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would win more than 350 seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections and will form the next government at the Centre.

The people of the country have decided that the next government will be formed under Prime Minister Narendra Modi again at the Centre. Ensure victory on all 25 seats in Rajasthan, he said while addressing the party workers in the national capital.

Taking on the Congress party, he said: We launched counter-terror operations after the suicide attack in Pulwama. IAF pilots bombed terror camps in Pakistan and told them that if this (terror attack) continues, they will have to pay a heavy price for it.

It, however, makes me sad when the soldiers who should be congratulated, are being questioned. They are asking for evidence about the number of casualties. Our IAF pilot shot down their F-16, he said.

Questioning Congress intentions vis-a-vis terrorism, Singh said: Congress approach to terrorism is both dangerous and confusing. Some of its leaders call Osama as Osama ji and Hafiz Saeed as Hafiz ji. Neither their policies nor their intentions are clear regarding terrorism.

Talking about his governments action against terrorism, he said: Nothing can stop us from acting against terrorists. People ask as to what happened to that 56-inch chest. This chest has now grown to 65 inches.

He recalled how former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had mocked at BJP after the General Elections held in 1984 in which the saffron party had won two seats, he said: In 2014, we became the first non-Congress party to form a full majority government at the Centre.

Attacking Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot led Congress government in the state, Singh said: It has stopped the schemes that were launched by the previous government under Vasundhara Raje.
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Friday said that the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya is inevitable and suggested that the only compromise possible in the case is that Muslim community takes a compensation and built the masjid out the Ram Janmabhoomi.

Stressing that the construction of Ram temple at the disputed site is non-negotiable, the BJP MP said, "There is no question of not building a temple where we believe Lord Ram was born."

In a statement, Swamy, who is a petitioner in the case, said the court's decision is welcome but claimed that the mediation panel will have to "map the problem within the parameters so far set by the apex court starting from its 1994 constitutional bench judgment and ending with the three-judge verdict of Sept 27, 2018".

The parameters include that worshipping in a temple, built on the faith that it is the birthplace of Lord Ram, is a fundamental right under the Constitution, he said, adding that such a temple cannot be shifted.

"A claim by a suit to the title of the property is just an ordinary right and is superseded by a fundamental right. Hence the Hindus' right to re-building the demolished temple is guaranteed by the Constitution," he claimed.

Swamy also contended that 'a mosque is not an essential part of Islamic theology and hence it can be shifted by government'. "This is all recorded in the Supreme Court judgement. Narasimha Rao government nationalised the entire land including the disputed area. After the land reforms act and constitutional ammendment, once the nationalisation takes place by the government, the court cannot do anything to set it aside," he said.

Earlier today, the Supreme Court referred the dispute for mediation by a three-member panel headed by former apex court judge FMI Kallifulla.

The mediation process will commence within a week and the panel will submit the progress report within four weeks, the court said today.
New Delhi: The Congress on Friday said it respects the decision of the Supreme Court to refer the politically-sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation, and added that it should be final and binding on all parties.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused the BJP of politicising the "faith-based issue for political gains for the past 27 years".

"Since 1992, BJP has kept the issue alive so as to be used in every election for political vote garnering and relegate the Ram Mandir issue to the annals of history post-election -- to be revived again in the next election. We sincerely hope that people of India will see through the duplicity and doublespeak of BJP," he said.

In a statement, Surjewala said, "The Congress has unequivocally maintained that the decision of the Supreme Court in the Ram Mandir case should be final & binding on all parties. We respect the decision to constitute a mediation panel."

Giving another chance for mediation, the Supreme Court Friday ordered setting up a three-member panel headed by a former apex court judge F M I Kalifulla to explore a possible settlement of the decades-old politically sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute in Ayodhya.

Spiritual guru and founder of Art of Living foundation Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, well known for his mediation experience, will be the other two members of the panel. Interestingly, all the three men appointed by the apex court hail from Tamil Nadu where the Ayodhya dispute does not have much resonance.

The mediation process in Faizabad of Uttar Pradesh, around 7 km from the twin city of Ayodhya, will commence within a week and the panel will submit a progress report within four weeks, the top court said in its order that came ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Gwalior: The RSS Friday lauded the Indian Air Force (IAF) for hitting terror launch pads in Pakistan and also praised the government for taking the decision.

This was stated in the organisation's annual report presented on day one of the three-day meeting of the Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha, RSS' highest policy-making body, here.

The RSS lauds the IAF for the air strike and also praises the government for this decision, the report said.

"The government has taken the right decision to deal with the anti-national forces and Indians should also remain cautious of such elements," RSS joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya RSS told reporters.

Around 1,400 members of the Pratinidhi Sabha including RSS head, Mohan Bhagwat and Sarkaryavaha Bhaiyaji Joshi are taking part in the meeting, which will also discuss the Sabrimala temple issue, he said.

Vaidya said the Kerala government is working against the spirit of Supreme Court ruling on the shrine by playing with the faith of Hindus and forcing entry of women who are not Hindus in the temple.

On the Ram temple issue, he said all those associated with the matter are putting their views in the Supreme Court.

"We have full faith in the judicial system and hope the all obstacles will be cleared and the temple constructed," Vaidya said.

He said no separate discussion will take place in the meeting on the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, adding the RSS believes that maximum number of people should vote.

Participants at the three-day meet will share their ideas and experience on issues like social harmony, environment conservation, saving water, reducing use of plastic and tree plantation, Vaidya said.

The number of RSS 'shakhas' (branches/units) increased this year, compared to last year, he said. In 2018, there were 58,967 shakhas and the number now is 59,266, he said.

As part of the meeting, Sangh workers of 35 bodies associated with the RSS will place their views before Bhagwat, he said. The meeting will also decide next year's agenda for the organisation, he added.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court's Constitution Bench on Friday referred the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for a court-appointed and monitored mediation to find a 'permanent solution'.

Justice Khalifullah (Retd) will be heading the mediation proceedings while the other two members will be - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Shriram Panchu.

Supreme Courts Constitution Bench refers Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for court appointed and monitored mediation for a permanent solution pic.twitter.com/ReESAb272q  ANI (@ANI) 8 March 2019

The mediation process will be held in Faizabad.

Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case: Justice Khaliifulah (Retd) to be the chairman, for court appointed and monitored mediation for a permanent solution https://t.co/dwj6ZiNYun  ANI (@ANI) 8 March 2019

The top court also said that the mediation proceedings should be held on-camera. "Court monitored mediation proceedings will be confidential," Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.

It will begin within a week and is meant to be completed in eight weeks. The first status report on mediation is supposed to be given within four weeks.

In its order, the Supreme Court said, ''Mediators can co-opt more on the panel if necessary. Uttar Pradesh government will provide mediators all the facilities in Faizabad. Mediators can seek further legal assistance as and when required.''

Reacting to SC order, Swami Chakrapani, president of All Hindu Mahasabha, said, "We accept the Supreme Court order. We are happy with it. We are glad that Sri Sri Ravishankar is part of the mediation panel. I am sure that everything will go well."

Varun Kumar Sinha, advocate for Hindu Mahasabha, said, "Our past experience with mediation has not been good. I hope the apex court has taken this into consideration."

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by CJI Gogoi had on Wednesday reserved the order after hearing various contesting parties.

Hindu bodies except Nirmohi Akhara have opposed the suggestion of the Supreme Court to refer the issue for mediation, while Muslim bodies have supported it.

The Constitution Bench, also comprising Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer, concluded the hearing by asking stakeholders to give the names of possible mediators.

Hindu bodies like Nirmohi Akhara suggested the names of Justices (retd) Kurian Joseph, AK Patnaik and GS Singhvi as mediators, while the Hindu Mahasabha faction of Swami Chakrapani proposed the names of former CJIs Justices JS Khehar and Dipak Misra, and Justice (retd) AK Patnaik to the bench.

Supreme Court also restrained media from reporting proceedings of mediation in Ayodhya case. It has directed in-camera proceedings of mediation in Ayodhya case.

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties - the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
Hours after the Supreme Court appointed a mediation committee, headed by Justice (retired) Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla, on Friday to settle the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute, Justice (retired) Kalifulla said that the committee will make every effort to resolve the issue amicably.

He said that he is yet to receive the order copy.

READ: FM Ibrahim Kalifulla, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Sriram Panchu named mediators in Ayodhya land dispute case

"I understand that SC has appointed mediation committee headed by me. I am yet to receive the order copy. For the present I can say that if the committee has been constituted we will take every effort to resolve the issue amicably," said Justice (retired) Kalifulla.

The top court appointed a three-member mediation committee -- including former SC judge Justice Kalifulla, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Senior Advocate and Mediator Sriram Panchu -- which would meet all the petitioners at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh.

The committee has been given a month, after which a report has to be submitted to the court, said the five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

Justice (retired) Kalifulla was elevated as a apex court judge in April 2012. He enrolled as an advocate on August 20, 1975, after which he began practising labour law in the law firm TS Gopalan & Co. On March 2, 2000, he was appointed as a judge of the Madras High Court.

In February 2011, he became a member of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and was appointed to serve as the acting Chief Justice two months later. In September 2011, he was named as the Chief Justice of High Court of Jammu and Kashmir. On April 2, 2012, he was elevated to the Supreme Court of India and sworn in by the then Chief Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia.

He retired from the Supreme Court on July 22, 2016.
New Delhi: In view of continuous ceasefire violations by Pakistan leading to civilian deaths, the Indian Army has trained the people residing near the border areas to protect themselves during the shelling spells. Civilians residing in Mendhar of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district have undergone the training where they were told how to defend themselves during the ceasefire violations.

The people, who came from the border areas, thanked the Army and said that the armed forces have always been with the common people.

The Pakistani troops have been repeatedly violating the ceasefire by resorting to firing and mortar shelling. The Indian Army has been retaliating with equal intensity.

Notably, the year 2018 had witnessed the highest number of ceasefire violations - 2,936 - by Pakistani troops in the last 15 years along the Indo-Pak border.

The continuous ceasefire violations by the Pakistani troops came amid prevailing tensions between India and Pakistan which escalated after Indian fighters bombed terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad's biggest training camp near Balakot deep inside Pakistan.

India's non-military, pre-emptive airstrikes came 11 days after the JeM claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in Kashmir, killing 40 soldiers.

(With inputs from PTI)
JAMMU: With one more person succumbing to his injuries on Friday the death toll in Thursday's grenade attack at the Jammu bus stand has risen to two.

News agency ANI confirmed the second death in the case.

#UPDATE Grenade attack at Jammu bus stand yesterday: One more person succumbs to his injuries at the hospital. Death toll rises to two.  ANI (@ANI) 8 March 2019

A 17-year-old youth was killed and some 30 others were injured on Thursday when a grenade flung by a terrorist exploded under a parked passenger bus at Jammu's main bus stand.

The attacker was arrested within hours.

Sharing details of the incident, Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbag Singh told reporters that the police had arrested Yasir Javaid Bhat alias Arhaan of Kulgam district in the Kashmir Valley on charges of throwing the grenade.

Yasir Bhat was said to be aligned with the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit.

The thunderous explosion occurred around 11.50 AM when the General Bus Stand, as it is known, was teeming with people.

Inspector General of Police Manish Kumar Sinha had earlier said that the grenade rolled under the parked bus that was headed to Uttarakhand.

The blast also injured passengers in a nearby bus which was set to leave for Amritsar in Punjab.

Sinha said the deceased was identified as a 17-year-old male from Uttarakhand. "Four others have suffered critical injuries," the officer said.

Witnesses thought the explosion was probably a tyre burst. "But when we approached the site, we saw people lying injured and in critical condition," said Sunil Kumar, 26.

Thursday's is the third such attack at the Jammu General Bus Stand by militants in the last nine months. Police said the militant attacker was caught while trying to flee from Jammu.

At a press conference where the militant was produced, Inspector General Manish Sinha said that the police started scanning CCTVs after the blast.

"We were able to identify the suspect who was wearing a jean jacket and was carrying a red rucksack... Checkposts were set up at different places. He was apprehended at the Toll Plaza in Nagrota outside Jammu city," the officer said.

"He was put to sustained questioning after which he confessed to the crime. He revealed that he was tasked to carry out the attack by a Farooq Bhat alias Umer, the district commander of Hizbul Mujahideen in Kulgam."

Police said Yasir Bhat left the Valley on Wednesday and reached Jammu on Thursday morning with the grenade. Asked if he had accomplices in Jammu, the officer said: "This can only be known after sustained interrogation."

Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik expressed grief at the loss of life and injuries in the terror attack.

He sanctioned Rs 5 lakh for the next of kin of the dead and Rs 20,000 to each injured person.

(With IANS Inputs)
JAMMU: Heavily armed members of two Pakistan-backed terrorist outfits are waiting to infiltrate into the Indian side from the opposite side of Rajouri near the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, according to inputs gathered by the intelligence agencies.

As per the inputs, one group comprising at least five Pakistan-trained terrorists have reportedly arrived in Nikial in a black colour vehicle directly from Kotli terror camp in the PoK.

A guide named Haji Arif is believed to be accompanying them. The group has been recently spotted near the LoC on the other side of the border in the Rajouri sector.

The other group, consists of six terrorists, probably from the Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba has been spotted moving near village Mohra Shried at LoC and waiting for an opportune time to slip into the Indian side of the border.

Some members of the Pakistan Army's Special Service Group are accompanying them, according to the intelligence inputs received by the security forces.

The inputs regarding the possible infiltration bid by Pakistan-supported terrorists coincides with intelligence warnings that Pakistan-backed terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) is planning to carry out another Pulwama-style terror strike in Jammu and Kashmir in the next 3-4 days, intelligence sources have warned.

The banned terror outfit is planning to strike ''very soon'' to avenge the IAF airstrikes in Pakistan's Balakot which completely destroyed one of its biggest terror training camps, the agencies warned.

In view of the specific intelligence inputs, security has been heightened across the state and the security agencies have been directed to remain on high alert mode.

According to the intelligence inputs, the Masood Azhar-led JeM has planned to carry out an IED attack in Qazigund and Anantnag of south Kashmir.

This time, the JeM plans to use a ''Tata Sumo SUV'' to execute its plans.

The warning from the intelligence agencies came a few hours after a grenade attack was carried out at a bus stop in Jammu. One person, a teenager, was killed in the incident, while at least 32 others were left injured.

The security agencies arrested a Hizbul-Mujahideen member in connection with the grenade attack at the Jammu bus stand in the evening.

He had confessed to the crime and, during his interrogation, revealed that the attack was masterminded by the district commander of Hizbul Mujahideen in Kulgam, Farooq Ahmed Bhatt alias Omar.

The grenade attack at Jammu bus stand came days after a suicide bomber linked to JeM rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a bus carrying CRPF troopers in J&K's Pulwama district on February 14. The attack resulted in the death of at least 40 CRPF personnel.

The Pulwama attack was one of the worst witnessed by the Jammu and Kashmir in over two decades.
NEW DELHI: The BJP parliamentary body - the party's top decision-making body - is expected to meet on Friday to take stock of its preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha election 2019.

According to reports, the top BJP leaders will chalk out a campaign strategy to reach out to maximum voters in the run-up to the crucial polls.

The meeting, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, has been called at a time when the ruling BJP and opposition parties, including the Congress, have been engaged in a bitter war of words over the IAF airstrikes in Pakistan's Balakot which targeted Jaish-e-Mohammed's terror training camp.

Both the BJP and Congress have been accusing each other of politicising the Indian Air Force' strike at the JeM terror camp in Pakistan.

The ruling BJP, which has attacked the Congress party for doubting the IAF airstrikes and questioning the morale of the armed forces, wants to reportedly base its election campaign over the issue of nationalism.

Ahead of the meet, a BJP leader said the party top brass will discuss a range of issues as the party's campaign picks up pace and strategise over its agenda in the days ahead.

The Election Commission is also likely to announce the election dates in the next few days.
New Delhi: The BJP parliamentary board met in the national capital on Friday to finalise the party's strategy for the Lok Sabha polls with its top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and president Amit Shah, brainstorming for close to three hours.

There was no official statement on what transpired in the meeting.

There has been speculation that the party is considering introducing certain criteria, including age bar, for candidates, but there has been no official word on this.

A party leader said "winability" will be the key consideration in selecting candidates.

Following the meeting, BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav announced a tie-up with All Jharkhand Students Union in Jharkhand.

The AJSU is already a partner in the BJP-led government in the state.? Yadav said the BJP will contest 13 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state and the AJSU one.
On 13 January 1962, the election to form the third Lok Sabha was announced. The poll process that began in the second week of January was to be completed by 31 March 1962. As opposed to the first two elections, this was the first time when each constituency was to elect only a single member.

By now, Jawaharlal Nehru had completed two full terms as the prime minister of the country and the voices of dissent in the ruling Congress which were earlier just murmurs were beginning to be heard openly. The major point of contention within the Congress was the elevation of Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi in active politics. Though Indira had served as her father's personal assistant since he was the PM in 1947, it was her appointment as the Congress president in 1959 which led to rising political tempers within the party, leading to a rift between those supporting her and those against her.

Also Read: History of Lok Sabha elections

However, differences aside, the Congress yet again managed to bag a decisive victory in the 1962 election. The Congress won 361 of the 494 seats in the third Lok Sabha, 10 seats lesser than its tally in 1957. Its poll percentage also decreased from 47.78 per cent in 1957 to 44. 72 per cent in 1962. The party had contested on 488 seats and deposits of only three of its candidates were forfeited. In what was reflective of the times to come, the 1962 result revealed that the party was losing its stronghold in Uttar Pradesh. As opposed to the 81 and 70 seats that it bagged in the first and second Lok Sabha polls, the party won 62 of the 86 parliamentary seats in the third Lok Sabha.

STATES NUMBER OF SEATS WON BY CONGRESS - STATE WISE Andhra Pradesh 34 Assam 9 Bihar 39 Gujarat 16 Kerala 6 Madhya Pradesh 24 Madras 31 Maharashtra 41 Mysore 25 Orrisa 14 Punjab 14 Rajasthan 14 Uttar Pradesh 62 West Bengal 22 Delhi 5 Himachal Pradesh 4 Manipur 1 TOTAL 361

Similar to the first and second general elections, the Communist Party of India bagged the second spot by winning 29 of 137 seats it contested on. Winning two more seats than its 1957 toll, it had also increased its vote share from 8.92 per cent to 9.94 per cent.

Full coverage: Lok Sabha election 2019

Founded in 1959 by C Rajagopalachari against what he thought was Nehru's increasingly socialist and statist outlook, Swantantra won on 18 seats out of the 173 that it contested on. Through the formation of Swatantra, the party leaders attempted to bring the highly fragmented right-wing forces together under the umbrella of a single party. Within three years of it coming into existence, the Swantantra had emerged as a strong opposition for the Congress by winning 7.89 per cent votes. What was noteworthy was that the party had emerged as the main opposition to the Congress in four states - Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Odisha (then Orissa).

The Jana Sangh won 14 seats of the 196 seats that it contested on with a massive loss to 114 of its candidates who even forfeited deposits. However, there was an improvement in its tally as compared to the first and second election where the party won three and four seats respectively. The improvement in its winning margin was an indication of the times to come when the Jana Sangh would emerge as a major political opponent of the Congress.

Praja Socialist Party won 12 of 168 seats it contested on. The party's vote share declined from the 1957 election where it bagged 19 seats - managing to win 6.81 per cent votes as opposed to 10.41 per cent in 1962. The Socialist party won 6 of the 107 seats it contested on.

In all, there were 1269 contestants from six national parties who won 440 seats with a vote margin of 78.50 per cent. The other recognised and unrecognised parties had nominated 217 and 20 candidates respectively of which 28 from recognised and 6 candidates from unrecognised category won from their constituencies.

The other notable thing in the 1962 results was the vote share of the Independent candidates, who had made their mark in both the 1951 and the 1957 elections. As opposed to its past tally, Independents contested in 479 seats and won just 20 seats with a vote margin of 11.05 per cent, way below their past performance.

The tally of women in the third Lok Sabha saw a considerable increase from 22 in 1957 to 31 in 1962. Of the 31 winners, 26 belonged to the Congress, four were from the Swantantra and one from Communist Party of India.

Key points to note:

The third Lok Sabha that was constituted on 2 April 1962, continued till 3 March 1967 - albeit with several ups and downs. Jawaharlal Nehru was elected the prime minister for the third consecutive term. However, he died on 27 May 1964. Thereafter, Gulzarilal Nanda was sworn in as the interim PM for 13 days after which Lal Bahadur Shastri took oath as the prime minister on 9 June 1964.

Swearing in Ceremony of Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri at Rashtrapati Bhavan (Photo: rashtrapatisachivalaya)

During Shastri's tenure, the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 was held. His slogan of 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan' became a household warcry which resonated with people from all walks of life. The Indo-Pak war formally ended with the Tashkent Agreement on 10 January 1966. Just hours after the agreement was signed, the unfortunate news emerged that Shatri had died in Tashkent. While it was initially reported that he died of cardiac arrest, the cause of his death is still one of the much-talked-about mysteries of the country.

Then Prime Minister Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri with officers of 1 Strike Corps, 1965 pic.twitter.com/oykUL92pB8  Congress (@INCIndia) April 6, 2017

After Shastri's death on 11 January 1966, Nanda has again appointed the acting PM. Thirteen days later, Indira Gandhi, who was a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh, was sworn in as the third prime minister of the country on 24 January 1966.
New Delhi: Moroccan actress-dancer Nora Fatehi has often been in limelight due to her stunning social media posts. She shot to fame with her killer dance moves in song 'Dilbar' from the film 'Satyameva Jayate' and has been ruling hearts since then.

The leggy lass is quite active on Instagram and her pics and videos often go viral. In her latest post, Nora looks absolutely stunning!

Check it out here:

She captioned the pic as, Hello there heres a pic from my latest editorial shoot with @hellomagindia Hair makeup @marcepedrozo Styling @sonampoladia Creative direction @avantikkak

The actress will next be seen in Ali Abbas Zafar's 'Bharat' which stars Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in lead roles. The film has an ensemble star cast with Varun Dhawan, Disha Patani and Tabu, to name a few, playing important parts.

'Bharat' is one of the most awaited releases of this year and will hit the screens on June 5.

Apart from 'Bharat', Nora will also be seen in John Abraham starrer 'Batla House'. The film marks Nora and John's second collaboration after 'Satyameva Jayate'.
New Delhi: Bollywood actress Sonali Bendre's fight against cancer has been nothing short of an inspiration for people battling the disease. Sonali has been constantly posting updates about her battle on social media ever since she revealed that she has been diagnosed with high-grade cancer.

All this Sonali she spoke extensively about she felt during the treatment, it is only now that she has talked about the initial moment when she came to know of it.

Speaking to journalist Rajeev Masand, She said: I didnt want to go to New York. It was my husband who wanted to go. And I fought with him all through the flight. Why are you doing this? We have good doctors here. Why are you taking me away? My home, my life... in three days, we literally just packed and left and, I dont know, what was happening. I was like lets, at least, speak to the doctors here and he was just quiet through the whole thing and focussed. In the day, he was organising and, in the night, as New York was wake; so he was organising, so day and night--he was at that. So I got him and actually cribbed about the whole thing, on the flight. Through the flight, I have cribbed; I was really venting.

"I land in New York and the next day, we go to the doctor. He looks at everything and we had sent all our tests and he says, you know, it is the fourth stage and you have 30% chance of survival. That really hit me; I just turned to Goldie and I remember saying: Thank God, you got me here. Goldie always says that tomorrow Id rather feel I over-reacted, over-spent than under-reacted and have that regret that I should have done that. There was no time for it and we were not told that it was the fourth stage but Goldie had started reading about it and he was suspecting it, " She added.

In December 2018, Sonali returned to India from New York, after spending over six months in the city. The actress recently did a photoshoot for a fashion magazine.
Mumbai: Actor Rishi Kapoor has denied any plans to return to India this month.

There has been a buzz about the ailing actor's return to India after his treatment in the US.

According to reports, Rishi is said to have communicated to a friend that he is likely to return to India by March end.

However, on being contacted in the US, Rishi denied any plans to return to India in the near future.

So what is Rishi Kapoor's health report?

The much-loved brilliant actor has responded well to the treatment. But the healing process is taking time.

A source close to the Kapoor family said: "Rishi is homesick and very eager to return home. They have a wedding to plan (son Ranbir Kapoor is reportedly set to marry Alia Bhatt). And he's counting the days.

"But he's not ready yet to return. His treatment is slow but steady. Hopefully, he can come home in a few months. But end of this month? No way!"
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India is set to hold a crucial meet on Friday during which the schedule for holding the Lok Sabha election 2019 is most likely to be discussed.

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, two Election Commissioners and other top officials of the poll panel will attend the meeting.

In today's meeting, the poll panel is also expected to decide on dates for conducting the assembly elections in J&K. Since the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly has been dissolved, the EC is bound to hold fresh polls there as well within a six-month period, which will end in May.

As per sources, the poll panel is in the process to soon announce the schedule for the high-voltage Lok Sabha elections, which is likely to be spread over 7-8 phases in April-May.

Sources said the poll panel is in final stages of completing its logistical preparations to hold elections for the 17th Lok Sabha and a detailed polling schedule could be announced as early this weekend or by early next week.

The term of the present Lok Sabha ends on June 3.

The announcement of dates for the elections, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make his bid to return to power amid hectic parleys by several political parties to put a united fight against the ruling BJP, would be followed by a meeting of election observers next week for the first and second phase of polling.

A senior Election Commission functionary had earlier said the poll panel is now prepared to announce the dates "any day" and it could happen over the weekend or at most by Tuesday.

Notification for the first phase could be issued by the end of March for voting sometime in early April, sources suggested. There is a strong possibility that the EC may go by the precedent and hold assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh along with the Lok Sabha polls.

While there is a view that the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections can be held along with the Lok Sabha polls, but a lot depends on the complex security situation in the state given the heightened tension along the India-Pakistan border.

While the Centre and the state administration, being managed by the Centre-appointed governor, are against holding the two elections together, all political parties there favoured simultaneous polls during a meeting with the Election Commission earlier this week.

The J&K assembly's six-year term was to end on March 16, 2021, but it got dissolved after a ruling coalition between the PDP and the BJP fell apart.

The other state assemblies and Lok Sabha have five-year terms. While the term of the Sikkim Assembly ends on May 27, 2019, the terms of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Arunachal Pradesh assemblies end on June 18, June 11 and June 1 respectively.

The Commission has held several review meetings across the country in last few weeks to gear up its machinery. The required electronic voting machines and paper trail machines are in place to be deployed in nearly 10 lakh polling stations across 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.

This is a high probability of the elections being spread across 7-8 phases this time.

In 2004, the Commission had announced four-phase Lok Sabha polls on February 29. While the first date of polling was April 20 and the last date was May 10.

In 2009, the EC had announced Lok Sabha poll scheduled on March 2. The five-phase polls began on April 16 and ended on May 13.

In 2014, the EC had announced the election schedule on March 5 and the nine-phase electoral exercise was spread across April and May. While the first phase polling was on April 7, the last phase was on May 12.
JAIPUR: A MiG-21 fighter jet crashed near Rajasthan's Bikaner city on Friday afternoon. The pilot has been ejected safely.

The aircraft, which took off from the NAL air force base for a routine mission, crashed 14 kilometres away near Shobhasar ki Dhani village. No loss of life has been reported.

"Initial inputs suggest a bird hit," said the Defence Spokesperson. "

A team of the Indian Air Force and local police have reached the spot of the accident. The entire area has been cordoned off.

"Today afternoon a MiG-21 aircraft on a routine mission crashed after getting airborne from Nal near Bikaner. Pilot of the aircraft ejected safely. A CoI (Court of Inquiry) will investigate the cause of the accident," said the IAF in a statement.

Today afternoon a MiG-21 aircraft on a routine mission crashed after getting airborne from Nal near Bikaner. Pilot of the aircraft ejected safely. Initial inputs suggest a bird hit. CoI will be investigating the cause of the accident.@PMOIndia @nsitharaman @PIB_India @IAF_MCC  Defence Spokesperson (@SpokespersonMoD) March 8, 2019

This comes days after the February 27 incident which witnessed a MiG 21 bison fighter jet shooting down Pakistan Armed Force's F-16 warplane.

The aircraft, manoeuvred by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was shot down by PAF. Abhinandan was also taken captive by Pakistan. He was released nearly 60 hours later.

MiG-21 is a single-engine single-seater fighter aircraft used widely by the IAF.

The Russian-origin warplane is an all-weather multirole air defence aircraft which can hit a maximum speed of 2,230 kilometres per hour (Mach 2.1).
It has been a long time since actors like Bhagyasri, Madhubala, Sadaf Mohammed Syed, Suman Ranganathan, Deepthi Bhatnagar, Pooja Jhaveri and other actors have been part of any films in Telugu film industry. Now all these actors, along many a few more, have come together for a film like Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives. This new-age drama is titled Kitty Part and is a female-centric film which has Harshavardham Rane also.

This film is written and directed by Sundar Pavan. The film's logo was launched at Annapurna Studios recently. The main cast members and others graced the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, director Sundar Pavan said, "It wouldn't have been possible to bring the actors together without the support of producer Bhogendhra Guptha garu. These actors belong to different age groups and lifestyles. A few of them have not been into films for some years. I hope Kitty Party works big time."

Bhagyasri said, "It's so difficult for a man to handle one woman in his life. And our director is handling seven of us (laughs). Director Pavan is a man who has seen from the woman's perspective. I am glad to be working with such a director. The film is not just about having fun. In Kitty Party's characters, you will see one or the other woman in your life."

Deepthi Bhatnagar said, "It feels great to be in Hyderabad after 20 long years. This city has always been my first love. I am very upbeat to be teaming up with this team. We have had so much fun. Pavan is a young and dynamic director. We need the audience's love and support."
NEW DELHI: In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered court-appointed and monitored mediation to resolve the long-pending Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.

Here are the top highlights of the SC order:-

-The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court refers the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case in Ayodhya for mediation.

- The three-member mediation panel will be headed by former Supreme Court judge FM Kalifullah, with spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and, lawyer and mediation expert Sriram Panchu as other members.

- The order was passed by a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi

- The bench also comprises justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer

- The panel is expected to finish the mediation process within eight weeks, from March 15 to May 15, when the country will be gearing up for the results of the Lok Sabha elections.

- The panel will have to submit the first status report on the mediation process within four weeks.

- The mediation process will be held in Uttar Pradeshs Faizabad district where the disputed site is located. The district was recently renamed as Ayodhya.

- The apex court said that "utmost confidentiality" should be maintained to ensure the success of mediation and neither print nor electronic media should report the proceedings.

- The bench also directed that panel of mediators can co-opt more members in the team and in case of any difficulty the chairman will inform the apex court registry about it.

- Uttar Pradesh government will provide mediators all the facilities in Faizabad. Mediators can seek further legal assistance as and when required.

- Reacting to SC order, Swami Chakrapani, president of All Hindu Mahasabha, said, "We accept the Supreme Court order. We are happy with it. We are glad that Sri Sri Ravishankar is part of the mediation panel. I am sure that everything will go well."

- Varun Kumar Sinha, the advocate for Hindu Mahasabha, said, "Our past experience with mediation has not been good. I hope the apex court has taken this into consideration."

''We have already said that we will cooperate in the mediation. Now, whatever we have to say, we will say it to the mediation panel, not outside,'' said AIMPLB member and convener of Babri Masjid Action Committee Zafaryab Jilani.

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had on Wednesday had reserved the order after hearing various contesting parties. Hindu bodies except Nirmohi Akhara had opposed the suggestion of the apex court to refer the issue for mediation, while Muslim bodies had supported it.

The apex court in its Wednesday hearing had observed that primarily the issue is not about 1,500 square feet land, but about religious sentiments. The bench had said it was conscious of the gravity and impact of the issue on "public sentiment" and also on "body politics of the country". It has also said that the judges were aware of the history and was seeing that the dispute is resolved amicably as "It is not only about the property. It is about mind, heart and healing, if possible."

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties  the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled on Friday to pronounce whether to refer Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case to mediation for amicable settlement.

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Wednesday had reserved the order after hearing various contesting parties.

Hindu bodies except Nirmohi Akhara have opposed the suggestion of the apex court to refer the issue for mediation, while Muslim bodies have supported it.

The bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer, had concluded the hearing by asking stakeholders to give the names of possible mediators.

Hindu bodies like Nirmohi Akhara suggested the names of Justices (retd) Kurian Joseph, AK Patnaik and GS Singhvi as mediators, while the Hindu Mahasabha faction of Swami Chakrapani proposed the names of former CJIs Justices J S Khehar and Dipak Misra and Justice (retd) A K Patnaik to the bench.

The apex court in its Wednesday hearing had observed that primarily the issue is not about 1,500 square feet land, but about religious sentiments.

The bench had said it was conscious of the gravity and impact of the issue on "public sentiment" and also on "body politics of the country".

It has also said that the judges were aware of the history and was seeing that the dispute be resolved amicably as "It is not only about property. It is about mind, heart and healing, if possible."

The bench had also said it was not appropriate to pre-judge that the mediation would fail and people would not agree with the decision.

"We are conscious about the gravity of the issue and we are also conscious about its impact on body politic of the country. We understand how it goes and are looking at minds, hearts and healing if possible," the bench said.

When a lawyer contended about the injustices meted out to the Hindus by invaders in the past, the bench said, "We are not concerned what has happened in the past. Don't you think we have read the history. We are not concerned what Babar did in the past or who was the king and who invaded. We cannot undo what has happened but we can go into what exists in the present moment".

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the legal heirs of original litigant M Siddiq, said that outlining of the dispute is not necessary and court can order mediation by an mediator, when parties are unable to settle it.

To this, the bench said that there may not be one mediator but a panel of mediators to deal with the issue.

The bench had agreed with the contention of Dhavan that confidentiality of proceedings should be maintained and said it thinks there has to be complete ban on media reporting on the developments of mediation process.

"It is not something like gag order but there should be no reporting. It is easy to attribute something to somebody when the mediation process is on," the bench had said.

During the hearing, Justice Chandrachud said that considering it is not just a property dispute between the parties but a dispute involving two communities, it would be very difficult to bind millions of people by way of mediation.

Two faction of Hindu Mahasabha took opposite stand on the issue of mediation with one body supporting it, the other opposing it.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had told the bench that the government has the right to give away land to whosoever it wants after paying compensation to the others.

"P V Narsimha Rao government had in 1994 made commitment to apex court that if ever any evidence was found that there was a temple, land will be given for temple construction," Swamy had submitted.

Senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, appearing for Hindu deity Ram Lala Virajman had said the faith that Lord Rama was born in Ayodhaya is not negotiable but the question is of Rama Janamsthan (birth place).

"We are even willing to crowd-fund a mosque somewhere else but no negotiations can take place with respect of Lord Rama's birthplace. Mediation won't serve any purpose," he said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, had said the court should refer the matter for mediation only when there exists an element of settlement.

He said considering the nature of the dispute it will not be prudent and advisable to take this path of mediation.

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
Washington: China wants to have a permanent military presence in Africa through the multi-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and may look for ports which it can connect to ports in southern Pakistan, a top American Commander has said.

Describing the CPEC as an artery of the One Belt One Road (OBOR), General Joseph Votel, Commander of US Central Command, told members of the House Armed Services Committee that the project in progress right now is definitely a Chinese influence in that particular area.

The OBOR is Chinese President Xi Jinping's multi-billion project that focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among Asian countries, Africa and Europe.

"As they develop that land route what they are attempting to do and then we expect then be looking for ports they can connect that to ports in southern Pakistan leading to ports in AFRICOM (US Africa Command), and for us it's going to lead to a permanent presence of Chinese maritime military maritime activity in the region that we will need to be concerned with," Votel said.

Africa is the only place where China has an overseas military base, said the US Africa Command Commander General Thomas Waldhauser.

"Djibouti is the first overseas Chinese base. I have said before I don't believe it will be the last. They are looking for other areas and so forth to especially ports because what they want to do to a large degree the infrastructure, they build ports, roads, bridges and whatnot is tied to the extraction, mineral extraction, they are conducting in those countries," he said.
Alexandria: President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced on Thursday by a U.S. judge to less than four years in prison - far shy of federal sentencing guidelines - for financial crimes uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller`s investigation into Russia`s role in the 2016 election.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis imposed the 47-month sentence on Manafort, 69, during a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia in which the veteran Republican political consultant asked for mercy but did not express remorse for this actions. Ellis also ordered Manafort to pay a fine of $50,000.

Manafort was found guilty last August by a jury of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

While prosecutors had not recommended a specific sentence, they had cited federal sentencing guidelines that called for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison. But Ellis said the sentencing guidelines were excessive and would create "an unwarranted disparity" with other cases.

Ellis also noted during the hearing that Manafort "is not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election."

Before the sentencing, Manafort thanked Ellis for conducting a fair trial. He expressed no remorse but talked about how the case has been difficult for him and his family. Manafort, who opted not to testify during his trial, told the court that "to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement." He described his life as "professionally and financially in shambles."

Manafort was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the U.S. government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraine`s former pro-Russia government. After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych`s ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

The judge told Manafort: "I was surprised I did not hear you express regret for engaging in wrongful conduct."

Manafort, with noticeably grayer hair than just months ago, was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair holding a cane, wearing a green prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the words "Alexandria inmate" on the back. It was a far cry from Manafort`s usual dapper appearance and stylish garb.

He has been jailed leading up to his sentencing.

The sentence was even less than what defence lawyers had sought. They had asked Ellis to sentence Manafort to between 4-1/4 and 5-1/4 years in prison, writing in their sentencing memo that Mueller`s "attempt to vilify Mr. Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts before this court."

His defence team argued he should get a lighter sentence because he had agreed to cooperate with the prosecution after he was convicted - though another judge found he breached that deal by repeatedly lying to prosecutors - and because his bid to secure a $5.5 million bank loan on fraudulent premises did not actually succeed. Ellis rejected those efforts.

Greg Andres, a prosecutor on Mueller`s team, urged Ellis during the hearing to impose a steep sentence. "This case must stand as a beacon to others that this conduct cannot be accepted," Andres said.

Manafort faces sentencing in a separate case next Wednesday in Washington on two conspiracy charges to which he pleaded guilty last September.

While he faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson potentially could stack that on top of the sentence imposed in the Virginia case, rather than allowing the sentences to run concurrently.

Manafort is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mueller to have gone to trial. Several others including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen have pleaded guilty, while longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty.

Gates, a key witness against Manafort, has yet to be sentenced due to his ongoing cooperation with prosecutors.

Trump, who has called Mueller`s investigation a politically motivated "witch hunt," has not ruled out granting a presidential pardon to Manafort, saying in November that "I wouldn`t take it off the table."

Jackson on Feb. 13 ruled that Manafort had breached his agreement to cooperate with Mueller`s office by lying to prosecutors about three matters pertinent to the Russia probe including his interactions with a business partner they have said has ties to Russian intelligence.

Mueller is preparing to submit to U.S. Attorney General William Barr a report on his investigation into whether Trump`s campaign conspired with Russia and whether Trump has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Trump has denied collusion and obstruction and Russia has denied election interference.

The crimes for Manafort was convicted did not directly relate to the 2016 election.

The sentencing capped a stunning downfall for Manafort, a prominent figure in Republican Party circles for decades who also worked as a consultant to such international figures as former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Yanukovych.

Manafort worked for Trump`s campaign for five pivotal months in 2016 that included the Republican National Convention where Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, three of them as campaign chairman.

Ellis had faced criticism by some in the legal community for comments he made during the trial that were widely interpreted as biased against the prosecution.

Ellis repeatedly interrupted prosecutors, told them to stop using the word "oligarch" to describe people associated with Manafort because it made him seem "despicable," and objected to pictures of Manafort`s luxury items they planned to show jurors.

"It isn`t a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending," Ellis told prosecutors during the trial.
The latest statistics from Vietnams Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) showed that, as of February 20, 2019, the RoK was the largest foreign investors in Vietnam, with 7,592 valid projects registered at more than US$63.7 billion.

In the first two months of this year, the RoK was the third largest foreign investor in Vietnam, with US$873 million worth of newly-registered and newly-added capital, and stake acquisitions. The top and second largest foreign investors are Hong Kong (China) (US$4.323 billion), and Singapore (US$979.17 million).

New York-based Kroll, a division of Duff & Phelps, which is the leading global provider of risk solutions, said that RoK investment in Vietnam has been a success story, and the RoK remains by far the largest foreign investor in Vietnam.

On the rise

The positive position of RoK firms in Vietnam is a result of long-standing bilateral commercial relations. RoK FDI entered Vietnam in three waves.

After 1992, Vietnam experienced the first wave of RoK investment primarily focused on labour-intensive manufacturing in the garment and textiles sector.

The second wave, starting in the early 2000s, featured the increased manufacture of electronic goods. Most recently, the third wave focused on consumer goods, including retail and services.

Conglomerate CJ Group is a typical example of the third wave of Korean investment in Vietnam. The group came to the country in 1998. It now has a dozen

member companies in Vietnam, with business interests ranging from food processing, the production of fertiliser and feed, to TV shopping, film production and distribution. In 2016, it pledged an additional US$500 million investment in Vietnam, constituting the single largest investment of any RoK film in Vietnam during the year.

Last year, CJ inaugurated its sixth feed mill in Vietnam in the south-central province of Binh Dinh. The 4.1-hectare factory has a capacity of 150.000 tonnes per year, and total investment capital of nearly 30 million.

According to Kim Sun Kang, general director of CJ Vina Agri, Vietnam is becoming one of CJs major hubs for animal protein production in Asia. The firm started its feed production in Vietnam in 2001, with its launch in the Mekong Delta province of Long An. In 2006, 2008, and 2015 it constructed three more feed mills in Hung Yen, Vinh Long, and Dong Nai provinces. Earlier this year, CJ opened another feed mill in the northern province of Ha Nam and the company is constructing another mill in the Mekong Delta, bringing the total number of its feed mills in Vietnam to seven.

However, the most high-profile RoK investor in Vietnam is Samsung, which has been estimated to produce almost half of its smartphones at two factory complexes in the northern provinces of Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen.

So far, Samsung has invested dozens of billions of US dollars in Vietnam, turning Vietnam into its global hub for manufacturing mobile phones. It is expected that in April 2019, Samsung will officially launch its Galaxy S10 mobile phone in the Vietnamese market.

LG Electronics has also invested heavily in Vietnam, opening a new US$1.5 billion production base in the northern city of Hai Phong, which manufactures OLED products for mobile phone, smart watches, TV and tablets.

The involvement of companies such as Samsung and LG has helped to persuade suppliers to those firms to invest in Vietnam as well. For example, Seoul Semiconductor Co. was granted a license in 2016 to build a semiconductor production factory in northern Vietnam, with capital of roughly US$300 million.

In another case, RoKs biggest maker of telecommunications and LED equipment KMW has been operating a US$100 million 30-hectare project in the northern province of Ha Nams Duy Tien district, some 30 kilometres from Hanoi.

This factory, employing more than 3,000 local workers, annually produces 220,000 telecommunications equipment products including filters, diffusers, antennas, radio connectors and remote radio heads, in addition to 380,000 LED lamp products. All products are both locally marketed and exported.

Samsung has not just been looking at electronics manufacturing opportunities in Vietnam. For example, the conglomerates insurance units, Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance, have been exploring investments in Vietnam.

Other RoK companies have also been investing in the Vietnamese financial service sector, including Shinhan Financial Group, whose Shinhan Bank Vietnam has been expanding its branch network in key cities across Vietnam, and Shinhan Investment, which acquired a local securities trading firm in 2015.

Effect of EVFTA

According to the Korea Chamber of Business in Vietnam (KorCham), since it took effect in late 2015, the Korea-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (KVFTA) has been one of the major propellants for a soar in the RoK investment and exports into Vietnam, thanks to slashed tariff cuts.

The KVFTA has further bolstered the countries bilateral relationship. As part of the agreement, the RoK agreed to eliminate 95% of its tariff on Vietnamese imports, while Vietnam will reduce 89% of its tariffs on RoK imports.

In the first two months of this year, Vietnam earned US$3.1 billion from exporting goods to the RoK, up 10.1%, with an annual rise in the export turnover of many items, such as mobile phones and their spare parts (26.5%), electronics, computers and their spare parts (11.4%), and garments and textiles (9.3%).

In terms of imports, the RoK was the second largest goods supplier of Vietnam, with Vietnam spending US$7.4 billion purchasing RoK goods, down 2.1% annually.

Last year, total two-way trade between Vietnam and the RoK reached US$66.2 billion, including US$18.3 billion worth of Vietnamese exports  up 23.2% on-year, and US$47.9 billion worth of imports, up 2% on-year.

Thus Vietnam has been suffering from a trade deficit with the RoK.

However, according to KorCham, the trade deficit is not negative for Vietnam, because many RoK firms have been boosting their investment and exports of machinery, equipment and materials to the country to serve their production here. A large part of the made-in-Vietnam products are also exported to foreign markets, including RoK.
Last week, a four-year deal between the state of Rhode Island and its largest union of state workers that would grant annual pay raises of 2.5 percent, expand bereavement leave and double the number of sick days that can be used to care for family members, was approved by a nearly 95 percent margin of eligible voters. In addition to the revised benefits and pay increase, the new deal, which expires in 2024, includes $3,000 bonuses for state employees vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. The bonuses, which the state estimates will cost $9.6 million, drew criticism this week from several lawmakers as well as potential challengers to Gov. Dan McKee in next year's gubernatorial election. Do you support the state's move to provide bonuses to employees vaccinated against COVID-19? Why or why not? Let us know in this week's poll question below.

You voted:
New Delhi, Mar 8 (UNI) As the Election Commission is likely to announce the poll dates in the next few days, the BJP parliamentary body, the party's highest decision making body, is expected to meet on Friday here to review preparedness and campaign strategies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend the meeting which would be presided over by party president Amit Shah.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is party's head of the publicity committee for the fast approaching general elections held a meeting with various spokespersons and important party leaders and Union Ministers.

Post Pulwama terror strike and strong retaliation from the Air Force, the BJP poll strategies believe that the developments and ept handling of things by the Modi government ensuring virtual isolation of Pakistan has given a push to party's well known plank of nationalism.

The Parliamentary Board will discuss a range of issues and draw up plans to highlight party's achievements especially aftermath Pulwama attack and February 26 Air Force strike.

On the face of scathing criticism from Congress against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Rafale row, the BJP on Thursday stepped up attack on the grand old party saying there is already "revulsion" against Rahul Gandhi's party for the leaders questioning the authenticity of the aerial strike that destroyed terror camps at Balakot in Pakistan.

"The Congress party in last few days through statements (on Pulwama attack and Air Force strike) of their senior leaders have boxed themselves into a corner. They are getting high TRP in Pakistan but there is a revulsion as far as domestic opinion in India is concerned,' Jaitley has told reporters.

Meanwhile, subjected to criticism from journalist bodies and also political opponents, the government on Thursday also asserted that while freedom of press ought to be upheld there cannot be any compromise on matters concerning national security.

".............even the framers of the Constitution have said that the national security is an exception and that has never been challenged in the 72 years (since Independence)," Jaitley has said amid hints that the government could prosecute a leading media house for publishing papers/documents those were 'confidential' in nature and were related to national security and the Ministry of Defence.

Image Credit: File
Wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha, has assured Nigerians that her husband will continue to strive to make the country a better one.

Mrs Buhari said this in Daura, Katsina state during a dinner put in place to celebrate Buharis reelection victory, in the just concluded February 23rd, presidential election.

The dinner which held at the Daura Stadium, was attended by women and youth supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in the State.

In a statement via her media aide, Suleiman Haruna, Mrs Buhari also advised that only card carrying members of the party, be given appointment under the APC led administration, especially as the constitution of the party specifically states so.

I wish to thank the women and youth of this country for the number of votes they gave President Buhari in the 2019 election and to assure that he will continue to do his best to make Nigeria a better country, she said.
Vanguard

After the arduous exercise of campaigning and electioneering for both the primary and general elections in Ekiti State last year, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi (All Progressives Congress  APC Candidate) was declared the elected Governor of Ekiti State.

The Sun

Chief Benjamin Kalu is the All Progressives Congress (APC) member-elect for Bende Federal constituency. He speaks on the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections.

Daily Times

Justice Yalim S. Bogoro of the Federal High Court, sitting in Minna, Niger State, on Thursday, adjourned the trial of a former governor of the state, Babangida Aliyu, to April 15, 2019.

Leadership

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt Gen Tukur Buratai has identified post-election crisis as one of the remote causes of the Nigerian Civil War, from July 6, 1967 to January 15, 1970.

Daily Trust

Supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Ogun state on Thursday clashed in Ifo local government area, leaving one dead and scores injured.

The Nation

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Acting Chairman Ibrahim Magu yesterday warned judges and lawyers involved in election petition tribunals against money laundering.

Tribune

Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Maurice Iwu, has lauded former President Goodluck Jonathan and the former Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola for the role they played in funding research into the Ebola scourge in the country.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said although President Muhammadu Buhari claims to have integrity yet hasnt stopped hailing himself on a stolen mandate  Therefore, urged Buhari to skip the diversionary tactics and ready to meet Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate in court.

This was in reaction to a recent statement by the president, wherein he said the opposition still has questions to answer regarding wasting the countys resources in its 16 years rule.

In a statement signed by Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP national publicity secretary,the opposition party said president Buhari should be the one answering questions over the wastage of N14 trillion from revenue generating agencies in a space of three years, and many more.

Full statement below:

It indeed speaks volumes that President Buhari, in his claimed integrity and anti-corruption stance, is grandstanding over the violent rigging of the elections and his attempt to foist himself into a second term in office on the pedestal of stolen votes.

President Buhari and his All Progressives Congress, APC, should know that the PDP and Nigerians are focused and will not be distracted by any sort of blackmail in the pursuit of the mandate and we are confident that our justices will never allow an illegitimate government to sit over the affairs of our dear nation.

Moreover, if anybody has a question to answer on the administration of the nations resources, it is President Buhari, who has not been able to offer any explanation on the looting of over N14 trillion from revenue generating agencies in a space of three years under his direct supervision.

We ask; was it the PDP that siphoned over N9 trillion, through underhand contracts, as detailed in the leaked Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, memo, in the same sector President Buhari directly supervises as Minister of Petroleum Resources?

Was it the PDP that stole the over N1.1 trillion worth of crude illegally lifted and diverted with 18 unregistered companies in 2017; the over N1.4 trillion in fraudulent oil subsidy regime and many more scams, including funds meant for the welfare of victims of insurgency in the North East under the Buhari administration?

Whereas the PDP administrations created wealth and applied our national resources on massive infrastructural development in all critical sectors; paid off our huge foreign and domestic debts and grew our economy to be one of fastest growing in the world, President Buhari, within a space of three years ran our economy into recession and cannot point to any development project his administration initiated and completed despite the huge opportunities at his disposal.

President Buhari must note that Nigerians are no longer interested in his incompetence and blame game and this is the very reason they voted massively against him on February 23. He should therefore end his diversionary tactics and get ready to meet the peoples candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in court.
The People Democratic Party in Ondo State has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of wasting resources over the conduct of the supplementary election in Ondo.

Resident electoral commissioner of the state, Mr Agbaje assured the people of Ondo of the commissions preparedness over tomorrows supplementary election in the 56 polling units of five local governments in Ondo South Senatorial District of the state.

However, PDP chairman in the state, Faboyede Clement said that since its candidate for Ondo South senatorial district had won and the number of voters remaining who have not voted is lesser than the winning margin, INEC should not conduct the polls.
At the meeting, both Minh and Locsin highlighted the growingly intensive and trustworthy political and diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Both expressed their delight at the enhanced and more practical cooperation in national defence and security.

They consented to take measures to enhance economic cooperation and create optimal conditions for enterprises of the two countries to strengthen investment and business partnerships, aiming to maintain annual two-way trade growth above 20%. In 2018, bilateral trade stood at US$4.72 billion, up 18% as compared with the previous year, they noted.

Regarding regional and international issues, Locsin congratulated Vietnam and commended the countrys preparations for the second summit between the US and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in late February. The meeting was of great significance to building trust and promoting practical peace talks on the Korean Peninsula, he said, stressing that Vietnam has proven its role and active contributions to regional and international matters.

The two sides also agreed to continue their close coordination at multilateral forums and expressed their resolve to coordinate with other members of the ASEAN to enhance intra-bloc solidarity and the groupings central role in regional security and strategic issues.

The two ministers exchanged in-depth views on and shared their common concern over recent developments in the East Sea. They emphasised the strategic significance of ensuring peace, security and safety of navigation and aviation in the East Sea, settling disputes peacefully, practicing restraint, not complicating the situation, not militarising, respecting international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, as well as legal and diplomatic processes, fully implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and soon reaching a practical and effective Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

At the end of the session, Minh and Locsin signed the minutes of the meeting and an action programme implementing the Vietnam - Philippines strategic partnership for 2019-2024. They are important documents that serve as a foundation for the two sides to continue fostering their cooperative strategic partnership in a more practical and effective manner.

Deputy PM and FM Pham Binh Minh meets with Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. (Photo: MOFA)



Later the same day, Minh met with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, who emphasised the importance of the Philippines - Vietnam strategic partnership and praised the outcomes of the ninth meeting of the committee, considering this as a leading mechanism to continuously beef up the bilateral cooperation for the sake of people of both countries.

On this occasion, Minh visited and presented the Vietnamese Presidents second-class Labour Order to the Vietnamese Embassy in the Philippines in recognition of its outstanding contributions to national construction and defence.
Kaduna State Government achieved a landmark feat on Thursday, March 7, 2019, as it unveiled the completed surveillance and monitoring system of the Command and Control Centre of the Kaduna State aimed at combating the insecurity in the state.

Governor Nasir El-rufai led President Muhammad Buhari to commission the project. President Buhari commended the state for investing in technology and urged the state to cooperate more with the federal government to achieve greater results.

President Buhari also implored the Command to work closely with the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria and Ministry of Defence to safeguard civilians and military air traffic.

See pictures below;
Vice president Yemi Osinbajo clocked 62 today, March 8, receiving countless goodwill messages from his family, the ruling class and ordinary Nigerians.

President Muhammadu Buhari wasnt left out, as he also joined the nation to greet his very dependable deputy. The president in his message to his vice, revealed that he shares a very special bond with the professor of law and Redeemed Christian Church of God,RCCG pastor.

Buhari went on to wish the VP many more years of service to God, while stating their commitment to take Nigeria to the next level together.

His words: Happy 62nd Birthday to Prof Yemi Osinbajo, a very dependable deputy, with whom I share a very special bond. I am grateful to God for preserving his life, and I wish him many more years of service to God, the nation and humanity. Together we are taking Nigeria to the Next Level.
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Colin Robertson talks about how myths about the United States and Canada relations need to be debunked in order to make better relations in the Sun Room on Mar. 7. Vice President of Canadian Global Affairs Colin Robertson runs the Global Exchange podcast.
On Monday, March 11 an anonymous source sent this to the College Republicans email account. Because of the Dailys policy on anonymity, it can
Opinion Policies

Editorials are longer opinion pieces that are written by a group of community members recruited across campus who address relevant issues on a local, national and international level. Editorials are research-based. The purpose of the Editorial Board is to promote discussion concerning relevant issues in the community while advising on possible solutions. Topics are chosen via relevancy and interests of the members, which are then discussed by the Editorial Board in order to reach a general consensus concerning the topic or issue.

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If you have a grievance concerning the content or argument of the Editorial Board, please contact either Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or the Editorial Board as a whole (editorialboard@iowastatedaily.com). Those wanting to respond to editorials can also submit a letter to the editor through the Iowa State Daily website or by emailing the letter to Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or Editor-in-Chief Sage Smith (sage.smith@iowastatedaily.com).

Column Policy

Columns are hyper-specific to opinion and are written by only columnists employed by the Iowa State Daily. Columnists are unique because they have a specific writing day and only publish on those writing days. Each column undergoes a thorough editing process ensuring the integrity of the writer, and their claim is maintained while remaining research-based and respectful. Columns may be submitted from community members. These are labelled as Guest Columns. These contain similar research-based content and need to be at least 400 words in length. The following requirements should be met: first and last name, email and relation or position to Iowa State. Emails must be tied to the submitted guest column or it will not be accepted or published. Pseudonyms are prohibited and the writer will be banned from submissions.

Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020
Microsofts focus will always be Windows and Windows-branded things, like Windows Phone, but the company also has plenty of assets that can find a good home on other platforms across the board. Like Skype.

Not everyone wants to download software to use something, and for anyone who has avoided using Skype because of the app that needs to be downloaded to a computer, Microsoft has those folks covered with the new Skype for Web beta. As it stands right now, Microsofts not quite opening the flood gates just yet, as the Skype for Web beta will only be available for a limited number of people right from the start. Microsoft does plan to roll out to a wider audience in the coming months.

It works courtesy of Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) APIs, which allow users to make real-time voice calls, send real-time voice messages and instant messages right from a Web browser. That means that Apples Safari browser is also supported from the start. The Skype Team has confirmed that at some point in the near future a plug-in wont be needed to be downloaded, but right now a small plug-in is needed to get the show up-and-running:

Once youve signed in on Skype.com, you can start instant messaging friends straight away. Making great quality voice or video calls is just as easy; simply press the call button to connect. As you may have read in the last few weeks, Skype and our friends at Internet Explorer are starting to implement the technology to make Real-Time Communications (RTC) on the web a reality, but for now, before your first call, youll need to install a small plug-in to start your conversation. In the future, using Skype on the web will become even easier and convenient. Imagine you wanted to meet your childs teacher, or conduct an online interview with a potential candidate -youll be able to chat over Skype directly from a browser in just a click. With web RTC, there wont be any downloads or installs  you can just get straight to your conversation.

Skype for Web will be available from Skype.com, and users will simply log into the site using their Skype credentials. Once signed in, users will be able to send messages to other Skype users, make calls, and activate video calls. For Safari users, Skype does note that using Skype for Web does seem to drain a bit more battery while in use, so keep that in mind.

Its a big step to opening up Skype availability, especially for those who dont want to use the app or are on the go and cant access the app for whatever reason. With its multi-platform support, Skype for Web looks to be a big player for Microsoft moving forward.

Do you use Skype at all?

[via Skype
At the working session, Chairman of Lam Dong provincial Peoples Committee, Doan Van Viet, informed the Lao delegation of the socio-economic situation, the one-door mechanism in the tourism sector and state management for religion in the locality.

NA Chairwoman Pany Yathotou expressed her hope that Lam Dong would continue to expand its bilateral cooperation with other Lao provinces and enhance cooperation in all fields, particularly voter meetings, resolving complaints and denunciations, tourism development, hi-tech agriculture and information and technology application.

She asked the province to pay great attention to vocational guidance for Lao students who are studying at Da Lat University.

On the occasion, the Lao NA delegation visited hi-tech vegetable and flower growing models and Da Lat citys flower park.

The Lao NA leader appreciated Lam Dongs successes in implementing the Resolutions of the provincial Party Committee and thanked the province for its valuable experience.

She also hailed the bilateral cooperation between Lam Dong and Champasack and Bolykhamxay provinces of Laos over the past few years, asking the two provinces to develop a project for socio-economic development on the basis of experience from the Vietnamese locality.

For his part, Secretary of Lam Dong provincial Party Committee Nguyen Xuan Tien thanked the Lao NA delegation for their opinions, wishing to strengthen the relationship between the two countries, particularly among provinces.
Apple and Qualcomm have been at odds for quite some time already. but the legal trial between the two companies only just recently kicked off.

And already Apple has been dealt a blow. As was first reported on Thursday by CNET, Apple has lost a star witness in former engineer Arjuna Siva. Siva, according to Apple, is a co-inventor of one of the patents thats tied to the patent trial between Qualcomm and Apple. (There are three patents being disputed now in total.) Apple also alleges that Qualcomm did not give Siva credit for that co-inventor role at the time.

Unsurprisingly, Qualcomm does not share that worldview:

Stephen Haenichen, Qualcomms director of engineering and one of the inventors listed on the patent, denied the allegation. When asked what contribution Siva made, he replied, Nothing at all.

Now, as it stands, Siva does not appear to be willing to testify at all in the court proceedings. However, if subpoenaed, Siva would in that case. Except that Apple does not plan on going down that road, because, according to Apples lawyer, Siva is now a tainted witness. Qualcomms defense lead did not take kindly to that statement, and the allegation that Siva has been the recipient of witness tampering:

Qualcomms counsel, David Nelson of Quinn Emanuel, vigorously denied the accusation, getting animated as he addressed Sabraw. I dont get angry very often, he said. I lead this team. I consider this a personal attack.

The legal battle between the two companies started after Apple complained to the FTC about Qualcomms unfair business practices and sued it for withholding $1 billion in royalty rebates. Since then, both companies have sued them in multiple countries, with Qualcomm managing to win a sales ban on selected iPhone models in China and Germany. However, the win came using other software patents related to the UI/UX behavior.

So, things are still quite contentious between the two companies. Who ever would have guessed that, right?

[via CNET
Ministry of Information Technology Member IT Jobs 2019

Latest Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication MOIT IT Posts Islamabad 2021 Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication MOITT Islamabad, Government of Pakistan are requires applications from well educated candidates for the posts of Legal Advisor, Member Legal, IT Officer, Member IT.

How to Apply on Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication MOIT Job Advertisement

Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online.

Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If an employer asks to pay money for any purpose, do not pay at all and report us at contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs may not be applied online here. Human typing error is possible. Error & omissions excepted.
The NA Vice Chairman made the statement in Hanoi on March 7 while receiving a delegation of representatives from the Belgium-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarians Group (BVFPG) led by head of the group Georges Dallemagne.

NA Vice Chairman Luu spoke highly of the sound development of the bilateral relations in political, economic, cultural, education and science cooperation, saying that the two countries have maintained the exchange of delegations at all levels, including the trip by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to Belgium last year.

The two Governments reached agreements on the establishment of the strategic partnership in agriculture, facilitating the two countries connection in developing the hi-tech agriculture sector, he said.

Luu hoped the Belgian parliament would promote the EU to soon sign and approve the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which will bring economic benefits to EU member nations, including Belgium.

He asked members of the two countries friendship parliamentarians groups to continue maintaining collaboration, meetings and exchange activities, and serve as a vital bridge to boost the bilateral relations as well as cooperation between the two countries legislative bodies.

For his part, Dallemagne highly valued Vietnams development in many areas, and expressed his support for Vietnams candidacy for a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in the 2020-2021 tenure.

The stronger parliamentary cooperation between the Vietnamese and Belgian legislatures will contribute to strengthening the relationship between the two nations, he stressed.

On the same days afternoon, head of the NA Committee for Social Affairs and head of the Vietnam-Belgium Friendship Parliamentarians Group Bui Sy Loi held talks with the delegation.

Loi hoped the two sides to continue exchanging high-level delegations, sharing experience and updating information related to parliamentary activities in each country; as well as coordinate in supervising the implementation of cooperation agreements and projects signed by the two governments.

Dallemagne said he hopes the friendship parliamentarians groups will maintain close cooperation and show their role as bridges to promote the bond between the two countries legislative bodies.
The Lecture Translator is a fully automatic software system for simultaneous translation based on artificial intelligence. (Photo: Interactive Systems Lab, KIT)

A software that overcomes language barriers with artificial intelligence, sensors that identify odors, and a power-to-gas process with an efficiency of more than 75%: These are only some of the topics presented by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) at Hannover Messe 2019 Integrated Industry  Industrial Intelligence. From April 1 to 5, 2019, KIT will present its innovations at two trade shows: Research & Technology (Hall 2, stand B16) and Integrated Energy (Hall 27, stand L51).

Innovations for the transformation of our energy system or smart technologies for digital and networked production in globalized economy: At Hanover, we will present sustainable solutions to master the challenges of our time. The far-reaching change of our work environment results in opportunities to shape the future, says the President of KIT, Professor Holger Hanselka. We want to contribute to this change for the benefit of our society and industry. At two stands in the research and energy halls, we will present showcases full of technologies and smart processes that provide a view into the future.

Information on the stands and exhibits of KIT at Hannover Messe 2019 can also be found in our digital press kit: http://www.sek.kit.edu/english/4330.php

KIT in Hall 2, B16 Research and Technology

Artificial Intelligence: Breaking the Language Barrier

International exchange in business or politics requires human interpreters. But requirements and fees are high. Interpreters cannot be hired for all purposes. Researchers of the Interactive Systems Lab of KIT will present a self-learning system for automatic simultaneous translation. It combines automatic speech recognition with machine translation and other auxiliary functions. The result is made available on a website that allows for later search via text queries. The speech recognition part can also be used to provide real-time transcripts of speeches. The concept was proved by a test at the European Parliament. Software-based efficient and transparent communication also has major advantages in many business sectors. The system is in a mature stage. In 2012, the automatic lecture translator was installed in lecture halls of KIT and since then, has helped international students follow lectures given in the German language.

Sensor Technology: The eNose Digitally Analyzes Odors

The odor analysis market has offered isolated and very expensive solutions for specialized applications so far. The focus is on precise chemical analysis of gas components rather than on easy use. This situation will now be changed: Together with the industry partner smelldect, KIT develops an electronic nose, the eNose, that is able to rapidly and easily acquire important olfactory information. It can determine whether an odor corresponds to a previously learned reference odor and, hence, has to be classified hazardous or harmless. The artificial nose has a size of a few centimeters only and consists of a chip with nanowires made of tin dioxide. After a certain odor pattern has been taught to the chip, the odor sensor can identify it within seconds. The eNose is to be inexpensive, capable of learning, and, hence, universally usable. Potential applications range from smart fire detectors to room air monitoring or food control. At Hannover Messe, KIT and smelldect will present a ready-for-use eNose demonstrator. In future, the sensor is planned to be miniaturized for integration into smartphones.

The smelldect demonstrator rapidly and easily acquires olfactory information. (Photo: Martin

Sommer, KIT)

Smart Materials: Bionic Ship Coating Reduces Friction Losses

Thanks to the salvinia effect, certain plants, such as water ferns (salvinia), can breathe under water. They retain a thin air layer on the surfaces of their leaves that are covered with hair-like structures and are highly water-repellent. This strategy of nature is the model of a ship coating developed within the EU-funded AIRCOAT project that started in 2018. Ten research institutions are involved in the project that is coordinated by KIT. At Hannover Messe, scientists of AIRCOAT will present the demonstrator of an adhesive foil that is applied onto the ships hull. The foil produces a thin air layer that significantly reduces drag and acts as a physical barrier between the hulls surface and water. As a result, fuel consumption and exhaust emission of the ship can be reduced considerably. The air layer also reduces the emission of noise. Moreover, it prevents marine organisms from settling on the hull, so-called fouling, and the release of biocidal substances from the coatings below into water.

Artificially produced polymer sample with a structured surface that retains air under water. Reflection of light by the air layer makes the black polymer surface appear silvery under water. (Photo: Group of Professor Schimmel, KIT)

Industry 4.0: One Click to Produce a Digital Twin

Digitization is associated with a number of possibilities for companies to optimize existing processes or enter completely new paths. Production of a digital twin, a 3D copy of reality, enables innovative solutions along the lifecycle of buildings, manufacturing processes, and products. Today, digital twins no longer are of interest to large companies only. Also medium-sized enterprises can save costs and time, while flexibility is enhanced. KIT will present a system developed by the Industry 4.0 Collaboration Lab. This system uses a central service to supply all 3D inventory data needed for a digital twin independently of the hardware and software. Automatic generation of 3D models from point clouds using the Click & Build technology is of crucial importance. New algorithms enable users to transfer the data measured by a drone, for instance, to virtual 3D objects by just one click.

3D model of a production hall. By means of the Click & Build technology, such 3D objects can be produced easily. (Figure: Industry 4.0 Collaboration Lab, KIT)

Preservation of Infrastructure: KIT Innovation HUB Improves Prevention in Construction

Preserving roads and bridges or ensuring stable water and energy supply is an expensive and complex task. To preserve infrastructure facilities, however, also new challenges, such as global warming or scarcity of natural resources, have to be mastered. More and more frequently, infrastructure facilities fail far before the expiry of their planned service life. With a unique approach the KIT Innovation HUB develops preventive measures in the form of innovative products, technologies, and services. All stakeholders in the construction value change are integrated, from the raw materials manufacturers to the builder. Using the nano-to-macro approach, detailed knowledge on the behavior of construction chemicals on the molecular level is obtained. In the next step, marketable products, technologies, and services are designed in cooperation with partners from industry and science. This strategy has already been implemented successfully on the aviation areas of Leipzig airport and the Laufenmuhle viaduct near Welzheim.

From a mobile platform underneath the Laufenmuhle viaduct near Welzheim, radar and ultrasonic measurements were made. (Photo: KIT Innovation HUB)

Technology Market

RESEARCH TO BUSINESS, KITs technology market, will present 90 further technology offers at the stand of KIT. These are innovations of KIT, which might be turned into marketable products and processes.

KIT in Hall 27, Stand L51  Integrated Energy

Energy Storage Systems: Integrated Solution for a Flexible Power Grid

Due to the increasing proportion of renewable energies in the power grid, energy storage systems are gaining importance to ensure stable power supply. Todays use of battery storage systems is associated with high costs. Apart from investment costs, operation costs also play an important role. At the Energy Lab 2.0, a large-scale energy research facility at KIT, a close-to-production prototype of a large lithium-ion storage system with very low operation and maintenance costs is now being implemented. The efficient control system required for this purpose was developed by KITs Battery Technical Center. In addition, cooling of the prototype was optimized. Besides cooling water from geothermal probes, a concrete shell is used for passive cooling. Proper cooling increases the service life of batteries and, hence, economic efficiency. The new storage system supplies 1.5 MWh of usable energy and can reach an electric power of up to 800 kW. Optimal operation is ensured by two independent battery and inverter systems. They enable continuous operation of the storage system even if one of the components fails. As part of the building is located underground, the space needed for the battery storage system is reduced. An attractive design enhances acceptance by local population when used within urban spaces.

Prototype of a large lithium-ion storage system of the Energy Lab 2.0. (Photo: Battery Technical Center, KIT)

Power Transport: Energy-efficient Superconducting Cable for Future Technologies

For connection of wind parks, DC power supply on ships, or high-current cables in future electric airplanes, scientists of KIT will present a multi-purpose superconducting cable for loss-free power transport, which can be manufactured easily, the HTS cross conductor (HTS CroCo for short). It is based on REBCO material (rare-earth barium copper oxide), a high-temperature superconductor (HTS) discovered in 1987. While superconductors usually work at temperatures near -269C only, the REBCO material can be applied at a temperature of -196C already. Yet, long lengths are available in the form of thin tapes only. Physicists of KIT have now developed a method to produce high-current cables from these HTS REBCO tapes. The HTS CroCo consists of REBCO tapes of two different widths, which are arranged with a cross-shaped cross section. HTS CroCos can transport very high direct currents and compared to conventional copper or aluminum cables, they need less space and have a lower weight. If liquid hydrogen is used for cooling, it is even possible to transport chemical energy and electrical energy together. The biggest advantage, however, consists in loss-free energy transport by the superconductor and the associated environmentally compatible and energy-efficient solutions.

https://youtu.be/HwpILNMpojE Video: Energy-efficient superconductors for future technologies(in German)

Production Technology: Reducing Costs of Battery Cell Production

Electrode foils play a decisive role in the production of batteries and accumulators for electric cars, smartphones, and laptops. The electrode material is applied as a thin paste to a copper or aluminum foil, with the electrode patterns being separated by small strips of uncoated foil serving as electrode conductors. To produce these uncoated areas, the coating process has to be stopped and restarted again. This takes a lot of time and increases production costs. Researchers at KIT are now able to significantly increase production speed with a new intermittent, i.e. interrupting, process. They use a patented nozzle equipped with a special membrane which is able to interrupt the coating process abruptly and to restart it again. As no other moving parts are required, production speed can be increased. Instead of the 25 to 35 meters previously common in the industrial sector, more than 100 meters per minute of coated film for battery electrodes can now be produced.

A novel intermittent coating process considerably increases battery production speed. (Photo: Thin Film Technology Laboratory  Institute of Thermal Process Engineering, KIT)

Power-to-Gas: Production with High Efficiency

Solutions for the storage of regenerative energies are of decisive imp ortance in implementing the energy transition. Generation of synthetic natural gas (SNG) from renewable energies enables power storage in the existing natural gas grid and use of SNG without fossil CO2 emissions. Usually, hydrogen is produced by low-temperature electrolysis. This hydrogen is then converted into SNG in a methanation plant. The EU-funded project HELMETH (Integrated High-Temperature ELectrolysis and METHanation for Effective Power to Gas Conversion) coordinated by KIT has now shown that efficiency in the production of SNG from electric power can be increased by combining both processes. Consistent use of synergies from high-temperature electrolysis and methanation in the HELMETH prototype resulted in efficiencies of power-to-SNG conversion of 76%. This is much higher than the usual 54% of existing power-to-SNG facilities. Larger industrial plants might even reach efficiencies over 80% in case of further optimization. On April 01, 2019, Dr. Stefan Harth will speak about the highly efficient power-to-gas process at the Integrated Energy Forum from 16.30 to 17.00 hrs (Hall 27, stand L55).

With a highly efficient power-to-gas process, the HELMETH prototype reaches efficiencies of 76%. (Photo: Sunfire GmbH)

Technology Market

RESEARCH TO BUSINESS, KITs technology market, will present 30 further technology offers at KITs Energy stand. These are innovations of KIT, which might be turned into marketable products and processes.

The Kopernikus Projects at Hannover Messe

The Kopernikus projects ENSURE, SynErgie, P2X, and ENavi will be presented at the stand of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Hall 2, stand B22). Visitors may have a look at the future energy landscape. In addition, a series of lectures will be given at the Integrated Energy Forum on Monday, April 01, 2019 from 15.30 to 16.30 hrs (Hall 27). They will focus, among others, on digital power supply grids, a topic covered by the KIT-coordinated Kopernikus project ENSURE.

KIT and Its Partners at Other Thematic Stands and in the Conference Program

BIOKON Joint Stand A01 in Hall 2: The Body Language of Components

At the BIOKON joint stand, KIT, based on exhibits and the books by Professor Claus Mattheck, will present innovative lightweight construction and component optimization methods derived from natural structures.

Network Park in Hall 13, Stand E21: Spinoff and Startup Teams of KIT Present Themselves

Experience innovation: At the Young Tech Enterprises Network Park, KIT will introduce its startups and spinoffs heat_it, HQS Quantum Simulations, thingsTHINKING, axxelera, Selfbits, promonode, and SIMUTENCE. Please refer to http://www.kit-gruendernews.de/hmi-2019/ (in German) for more information and for the detailed plan of exhibitors.

FZI Stand C47 in Hall 2: Process Optimization by Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The FZI Research Center for Information Technology, an innovation partner of KIT, will present the AI-based self-learning walking robot LAURON and an intelligent Internet-of-things solution for logistics and production. Moreover, it introduces its research into automated electric minibuses on the autonomous driving test field Baden-Wurttemberg. The Competence Center for IT Security of FZI sensitizes users to IT security as a cross-cutting issue in all areas of life. Please refer to https://www.fzi.de/aktuelles/termine/das-fzi-auf-der-hmi/ (in German) for more information.

Forum Integrated Energy, Hall 27, Stand L55: Visions of Future Mobility

On April 03, 2019 from 12.45 to 13.15 hrs, Professor Albert Albers, Head of KITs Institute of Product Engineering, IPEK, will speak about Seamless Mobility as a system of systems. Based on this new approach, he will present methods and ideas for the systematic integrated development and assessment of reasonable and viable mobility solutions.

Forum Integrated Energy, Hall 27, Stand L55: Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems of the Future

On April 03, 2019 from 17.00 to 17.30 hrs, Professor Maximilian Fichtner, Spokesperson of CELEST, will present the activities of this new Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage Ulm & Karlsruhe (CELEST), one of the biggest and most ambitious research and development platforms in this area worldwide.

Forum Integrated Energy Hall 27, Stand L55: Power-to-SNG with High Efficiencies

On April 01, 2019, from 16.30 to 17.00 hrs, Dr. Stefan Harth will present the highly efficient power-to-gas process developed within the EU-funded and KIT-coordinated project HELMETH (Integrated High-Temperature ELectrolysis and METHanation for Effective Power to Gas Conversion).

Integrated Lightweight Plaza & Speakers Corner, Hall 5, Stand B18: Process Modeling of Filament Winding as a Joining Process

On April 01, 2019, Marius Dackweiler will present a novel joining process for fiber composites from 14.30 to 15.00 hrs. By means of a C-shaped rotor-stator construction and an articulated robot, filament nodes are generated.

Artificial Intelligence  Topic of the lookKIT Research Magazine

It is a ubiquitous term, it will change our lives and daily routines, our work, and our society: Artificial intelligence (AI). But how can AI be used in future for helping people and generating added value for science and industry? Researchers of KIT analyze this question from various perspectives. Their activities as well as opportunities and risks of AI are covered by the latest lookKIT magazine. In an interview, the President of KIT, Professor Holger Hanselka, reports his work in the Steering Committee of the Learning Systems Platform of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Other issues covered are robotics, autonomous driving, and successful AI-related startups of KIT: https://www.sek.kit.edu/english/3216_4301.php.

Information on the stands and exhibits of KIT at Hannover Messe 2019 can also be found in our digital press kit: http://www.sek.kit.edu/english/4330.php

Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,600 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 23,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.
After the presentation, the Acting President sent his best wishes to senior leaders of Vietnam, affirming that Mauritius always treasures and wishes to promote friendship and cooperation with Vietnam.

He also valued Vietnam's economic achievements and international integration and hoped for new strides in bilateral cooperation, particularly in economics, trade, investment, telecommunications, tourism, justice and agriculture.

The Acting President of Mauritius expressed his wish that the Vietnamese Ambassador would serve a successful term and act as a bridge to strengthen the friendship and relations between the two countries.

Ambassador Le Huy Hoang conveyed congratulations from Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh to the Acting President and leaders of Mauritius on the occasion of the 51st National Day of the Republic of Mauritius.

Ambassador Hoang affirmed that Vietnam attaches great importance to developing the traditional friendship and relations with Mauritius while hoping for close coordination with local ministries and sectors during his tenure to contribute to boosting multifaceted cooperation between the two countries.

On the occasion, Ambassador Le Huy Hoang also paid courtesy visits to the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the National Assembly of Mauritius. He also had meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade; the Minister of Technology, Communication and Innovation; the Minister of Tourism; Chairman of the Economic Development Board; and representatives of the Mauritian business circle.

Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth said that the two countries should promote bilateral cooperation in economy, trade, and tourism, including the signing of a double taxation avoidance agreement and an investment promotion and protection agreement.

At the meeting with leaders and the business circle of Mauritius, the Ambassador briefed them of the economic and social situation in Vietnam while expressing his wish that leaders of Mauritius would encourage their enterprises to invest in Vietnam and create conditions for Vietnamese goods to penetrate into the Mauritian market.

In addition, the Ambassador met with representatives of the Vietnamese community in Mauritius and informed them of the socio-economic development in Vietnam as well as new policies on overseas Vietnamese.
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The two sides agreed that meetings between Vietnamese leaders and US President Donald Trump in late February in Hanoi contribute to promoting the bilateral partnership between the two countries, especially in investment and trade.

Freeman said that he is looking forwards to welcoming Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong at the USCC in the future when the Vietnamese leader visits the US at the invitation of President Trump.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham Vietnam) has coordinated closely with Vietnamese ministries, sectors and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry to introduce the White Book on Vietnam-US trade partnership, and organise the US-Vietnam Business Summit in May this year, he said.

Freeman said that the USCC supports the USs opening of its door for Vietnamese firms, as well as Vietnams similar act for US businesses.

Deputy PM Hue thanked the AmCham Vietnam for assisting the Vietnamese Government in assessing the attraction and the use of foreign investment in the country.

Noting that the Vietnam-US relationship is now developing very well, Hue suggested that the USCC and Vietnamese enterprises continue to work out initiatives to foster bilateral investment and trade ties, to be manifested in the White Book that will be introduced soon.

The Vietnamese Government pays great attention to proposals of US enterprises to promote trade and investment collaboration between the two business communities, he stated.






By Jung Hae-myoung







Actor Lee Jong-suk began his alternative military service on Friday, leaving his latest drama series 'Romance Is a Bonus Book' behind.







A traffic accident a several years ago permanently damaged one of Lee's knees, giving him a grade four in his military physical examination. According to military law, men with a grade four or higher are assigned to reservist duty, mostly in the public service.







Lee will work at a social institution first and then receive military training for four weeks. Lee Min-ho, another actor, famous for 'Boys over Flowers' also started working in the public service before he went to boot camp.







"I will sincerely do my best in my military duty," A-man Project, Lee's management company, quoted the actor as saying.







Lee has decided not to disclose where he will perform his duty and when he will start.







He finished filming 'Romance' on Feb. 27, and the crew had an after-party on Thursday that Lee could not attend before his enlistment.







Lee debuted in 2005 as a fashion model and started his acting career in 2010 with the drama series 'Princess Prosecutor'. He rose to hallyu stardom after his success in hit dramas 'I Can Hear Your Voice', 'Pinnochio' and 'W'.







Lee's date of discharge from service is Jan. 2, 2021.


Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoung, center front row, poses with female employees and executives after launching the group's female leadership program at a hotel in Seoul, Friday. Nearly 50 women will participate in the program, which will periodically hold events throughout the year. Courtesy of Shinhan Financial Group
gettyimagesbank



By Park Hyong-ki



The latest conflict between credit card firms and automobile companies has further pulled consumers into the crossfire following a spat over the former's decision to increase transaction fees on automobile purchases.



This led Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors to suspend their contracts with Shinhan Card, KB Kookmin Card, Samsung Card, Lotte Card and Hana Card, expressing their discontent at the rate hike.



Consumers can no longer buy and pay for their cars in monthly installments via credit cards, and the card companies cannot market their brands and offer services at dealerships.



The card industry notified businesses whose sales reach more than 50 billion won ($45 million) a year last week that their transaction fee rates would be increased by up to 0.2 percentage points.



The two sectors' tit-for-tat has intensified, with each blaming the other for being careless and mindless toward consumers.



The Credit Finance Association, on behalf of the card industry, told Hyundai, Kia and other big merchants to "live up to a consensus" that has been built on a fee rate policy since last year, and that they should be "socially responsible" and follow it.



The Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association fought back, saying there was "no reason" for rates to be increased, given the low costs to raise capital for credit financing and low delinquency levels.



It added that card firms just wanted to cash in on the growing number of consumers using cards to purchase cars.





Financial Services Commission Chairman Choi Jong-ku / Yonhap
By Park Hyong-ki





Citibank Korea is moving to sell its landmark headquarters tower in Da-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, the bank said Friday.







"We are considering selling the building as part of a plan to integrate and upgrade our office space," a spokesman said.



He declined to further elaborate on the potential sale and its timetable.







It has been reported that around six investors have submitted letters of intent to acquire the tower.







As soon as Citibank and a potential buyer sign a real estate acquisition contract, the bank will relocate its Seoul headquarters and staff to Saemunan-ro, Jongno-gu, where its wealth management center is located.







This is expected to become Citibank's new headquarters, according to news reports.



However, the bank spokesman said this has not yet been decided upon.







Citibank has been in Da-dong since 2004 when it acquired Hanmi Bank, which was headquartered in the building.







It tried to sell the building in 2014 when it was streamlining and integrating its branches and centers to focus more on digital banking and asset management.







The new sale price could be around 240 billion won ($211 million), according to the reports, citing investment banking sources.







Citibank Korea is a wholly owned subsidiary of Citibank Overseas Investment Corp. based in Delaware in the United States, according to its audit filing.







The Seoul unit posted a net profit of 41.2 billion won in the third quarter of last year, down from 54.7 billion won the previous year.


In this file photo taken on January 28, 2019 National Security Advisor John Bolton speaks during a briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC. AFP



U.S. President Donald Trump is open to talking to North Korea again after the breakdown of their second summit last week, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said Thursday.



Bolton made the remark in an interview on Fox News, noting that the president had been ready for a "big deal" to exchange North Korea's complete denuclearization for a "bright future" for the country.



"President's obviously open to talking again," the adviser said. "We'll see when that might be scheduled or how it would work out. But he thinks the deal is there if North Korea is prepared to look at the big picture."



Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held their second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 27 and 28, but failed to reach an agreement on dismantling the regime's nuclear weapons program.






The United States will ask North Korea for clarification on the purposes of its reassembly of a key missile facility, a senior U.S. official said Thursday as President Donald Trump expressed repeated disappointment over the activity.



North Korea began to rebuild parts of the missile engine testing site in Dongchang-ri in the runup to Trump's second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 27-28, according to two U.S. think tanks earlier this week.



By Wednesday, commercial satellite imagery showed that the facility may have been restored to normal operational status following its partial dismantlement last year, they said.



Trump said Wednesday he would be "very, very disappointed" with Kim if the reports were true, and on Thursday added he was "a little disappointed" by Kim and the reported activity.



"We don't know why they are taking these steps," the State Department official told reporters on background.













But the U.S. will ask the North for "clarification on the purposes," he said.



The U.S. has yet to draw a conclusion on what is happening at the site, he added, but "We're watching in real time as you are the developments at Sohae."



Sohae Satellite Launching Station is the facility's formal name.



The official added that while Sohae should be destroyed as part of North Korea's denuclearization, it's not a critical part of the regime's nuclear infrastructure and its importance should not be exaggerated. (Yonhap)
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet speaks during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Dec. 5, 2018. / AP-Yonhap



By Yi Whan-woo



The United Nations' human rights watchdog has asked the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) to refer people responsible for human rights violations in North Korea to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands.



This is not the first time that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), along with General Assembly and other U.N. bodies, have brought up the issue of ICC referral, apparently targeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.



But the OHCHR's step this year drew attention as it came after U.S. President Donald Trump suffered a blow for defending Kim in the case of an American college student who died after being released from jail in the North.



During their summit in Hanoi last week, Trump said he took Kim's word that he did not know what happened to Otto Warmbier, who was believed to have been tortured while in North Korean custody and died after falling into a coma following his return home.



Trump took back his words and held Kim responsible for Warmbier's death, after being heavily criticized by the Warmbier family, U.S. lawmakers and media.



"The OHCHR continues to recommend that the Security Council refer the situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the International Criminal Court or that an ad hoc international tribunal be established," the OHCHR said in a report released March 7, titled "Promoting Accountability in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."



The report was released during the 40th session of the Human Rights Council, which runs from Feb. 25 to March 22.



The OHCHR said the ICC referral was needed "to make full use of the information and evidence being collected by the OHCHR and to ensure that those most responsible for gross human rights violations that may amount to crimes against humanity are held to account."



Based on the Council's resolution 34/24, the OHCHR made seven recommendations to North Korea.



These are: Acknowledging the existence of serious issues human rights violations; giving access to the country, including to all detention facilities, to international humanitarian organizations and human rights monitors; granting OHCHR access to the country, including to conduct interviews and documentation activities; initiating reform of criminal justice legislation and rule of law institutions; ensuring that victims of crimes against humanity and their families are provided with adequate, prompt and effective reparation and remedies; holding to account all perpetrators of international crimes in national courts through fair and impartial trials; and ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.



For U.N. member states the OHCHR urged the investigation and prosecution of persons suspected of committing international crimes and to consider means by which further relevant information under Human Rights Council resolution 34/24 could be appropriately conveyed to the OHCHR. It also asked them to take further steps to ensure accountability for those responsible for serious human rights violations in the North at the regional and international levels.






By Hong Ji-min







A group of 36 MBA students and professors from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah, visited the newsroom of The Korea Times in Seoul, Friday.







Led by Prof. Mike Keene, director of the Technology Commercialization Department at the college, they had a chance to take a peek into journalism during their visit to the newspaper's headquarters as part of an academic field trip.







Korea Times President Lee Byeong-eon welcomed them with a brief presentation about the English daily and shared his views on the company's future and journalism trends in Korea.







Collin Bess, a student from the college, said he was surprised by the in-depth stories the Korea Times covers on a wide variety of topics from finance to international relations. "It is surprising that most of the readership actually comes from the United States."







Another student Ankur Verma said he was impressed by the size of Seoul. "It's much bigger than I had expected. I personally wanted to come here because I'm currently working in the fintech industry and I've been observing that Korea is one of the leaders in this field. This is why I came."







They will stay in Seoul until March 10, during which time they plan to visit leading companies in various industries. After their Seoul trip, the students will visit Hong Kong before returning to the United States.






By Lee Gyu-lee







Overheated cooking oil at a Chinese restaurant caused

on Tuesday, according to fire officials.







About 500 people were evacuated when the blaze began about 4:49 p.m. It took 20 minutes to extinguish it. No one was injured in the incident.







Busan Metropolitan City Fire Disaster Headquarters and police began an investigation of the fire's cause on Wednesday. They discovered that it started in the Chinese restaurant on the fourth floor. The chef left boiling oil unattended and it overheated. The duct near the stove caught fire and smoke soon spread to an adjacent cafe, officials said.







The damage is estimated at over 3.2 million won.






At the event, the three localities will set up an information desk at a common booth arranged by the Vietnam General Department of Tourism, the Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) and Vietnam Airlines.

During the fair, the localities tourism delegations will participate in the ITB Speed Networking and Blogger Speed Networking programmes, as well as fairs on the promotion of destinations, tourism trends and the development of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE)  a type of tourism.

The ITB, one of the largest and most prestigious tourism fairs in the world, has been held annually in March since 1966.

So far, the event has developed both in quantity and quality with a total area of up to 160,000 square metres and over 120,000 visitors each year.

The 2019 ITB is expected to attract the participation of over 180,000 countries and territories featuring 10,000 pavilions, and welcome over 160,000 visitors. It is a good opportunity for Da Nang, Thua Thien  Hue and Quang Nam to promote their images to international friends, particularly in the European market.
Lim Soon-young talks about her role as special adviser for gender equality to Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon at her office at Seoul City Hall, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



By Lee Suh-yoon



Lim Soon-young, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon's special adviser for gender equality, likens her role of ensuring gender sensitivity in city policy to providing oxygen.



"Without gender sensitivity, policies lack life and balance," Lim said in an interview at her City Hall office, Wednesday.



Lim defines gender sensitivity as "the ability to recognize and keep out gender-based discrimination from daily situations and policies." Her most recent mark as the gender equality adviser can be found in the city government's projects to celebrate the centennial of the March 1 Independence Movement.



"Compared to male independence fighters, there is little record remaining of female fighters," said Lim, who had a calendar commemorating female independence fighters on one wall of her small office. "I advised the mayor it was important to find these lost names and mention them in the mayor's public messages commemorating the event. It's only recently that Yu Gwan-sun came to be called 'martyr' rather than 'nuna' (sister), you know, even though she fought as fiercely as any of her male comrades."



Lim is regularly updated on the city's ongoing projects and policy direction in her meetings with other special advisers to the mayor. She keeps in close contact with the mayor, too, giving policy suggestions and making sure his social media messages are up-to-date with the gender-related debate and gender sensitivity. Her schedule has been hectic over the past few weeks, sitting in on the 2019 roadmap presentations given by different project divisions at the Seoul Metropolitan Government.





Lim Soon-young / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Korean Americans, including children and families of Korean independence martyrs, celebrate the March 1 Independence Movement at Berendo Street Baptist Church in Los Angeles, Calif., on March 1. / Korea Times photo by Park Jin-hai



By Park Jin-hai



Los Angeles, Calif.  Some 200 Korean Americans, including children and families of Korean independence martyrs, gathered at Berendo Street Baptist Church in Los Angeles, California, on March 1.



They shouted "manse" and avidly waved national flags of both Korea and America to pay tribute to their ancestors.



Among those independence fighters were orange farm workers from Riverside, California. They stood up against the Japanese occupation of Korea and fought for the freedom of their mother country from thousands of miles away.



"Recalling the works of our ancestors, I cannot even guess how it could be possible at that time. The Korean immigrants, who had been barely living, working over 10 hours a day in plantations and farms, voluntarily donated their hard-earned money for the independence movement," said Kwon Young-shin, chairman of the Korean National Association Memorial Foundation, located in Los Angeles.



Ahn Chang-ho, the iconic independence fighter who migrated to San Francisco for study in 1902, played a role behind Korean-Americans' rare rally in the United States.





Ahn Chang-ho in Alta Cuesta orchard in Riverside, California in 1911

Ahn, also an educator and politician better known by his penname Dosan, changed his plans to pursue a degree in the United States after witnessing Korean-Americans struggling to make ends meet due to the language barrier.



After moving to Riverside in 1904, he established the first Korea town on the U.S. mainland called Dosan Republic, better known as Pachappa Camp. Some 100 Korean-Americans lived there. Ahn helped them find a local employment agency and worked with orange farmers to find jobs for Koreans. In 1905, he created Gongnip Hyuphoe (Cooperative Association) to foster a sense of community, which later developed into KNA.



"The KNA run by their money maintained some 116 overseas branches throughout North America, Manchuria, Siberia and Mexico in the 1910s and carried the news of independence through Sinhan Minbo (The New Korea). Nowadays we have internet, but when I think of the time then, I can only be in awe of how they mobilized people and disseminated the news to support the independence all over the world," Kwon said.



At home, over 2 million Koreans took to the streets on March 1 to rally for their independence from Japanese colonial rule all across Korea.



When the news of the pan-national movement reached the U.S. in mid-March, Korean-Americans held the First Korean Congress and a mass rally in San Francisco the following month.



Philip Jaisohn, the first Korean to be naturalized as a U.S. citizen, spearheaded the movement where the participants declared Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule.



In celebration of the centennial anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement and following the establishment of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai, where several prominent Korean-American leaders took key roles, Koreans living in LA have been holding a series of events this year.



Starting with a visit to the Rosedale Cemetery where 21 Korean immigrants honored as independence activists are buried, the local Korean community also plans a large-scale street manse parade near Korea Town on Saturday.



Independence movement in US



The independence movement on American soil revolves around four prominent figures  Philip Jaisohn, Ahn Chang-ho, Syngman Rhee and Park Yong-man.



Jaisohn, who was in exile after his failed 1884 Gapsin Revolution to reform Joseon and make their country truly independent from Chinese interference, was one of the first Korean immigrants to the U.S.



After the March 1 Independence Movement, he actively participated in independence movements. Mainly working around Philadelphia, he organized the First Korean Congress and published the political journal "Korea Review" to inform the American public of the situation in Korea, and to persuade the U.S. government to support Korean independence.



The other three leaders who also came to the U.S. for education were also on the forefront of the independence movement following different ideologies. Rhee who worked mainly in the east coast and partly in Hawaii claimed independence can be earned through diplomacy; Ahn who was active in southern California said national reform is what the country needs the most; and Park in the Midwest and Hawaii promoted military force as a tool for independence.



The clarion call signaling the need for making a unified organization on U.S. soil was the 1908 assassination of Japan lobbyist and former American diplomat Durham Stevens by Gongnip Hyuphoe member Chun Myung-woon (a.k.a Jeon Myeong-woon) and Daedong Bogukhoe member Chang In-hwan. It was the first armed independence uprising by Koreans living outside the country.





Donation receipt issued by Gongnip Hyuphoe's Hawaii branch in July, 1912
President Moon Jae-in will name new ministers Friday, his office Cheong Wa Dae said, in a Cabinet reshuffle that is expected to replace several ministers, including the country's point man on North Korea.



The list of nominees for new ministers will be announced at 11:30 a.m., according to the presidential office.



The Cabinet reshuffle was expected to replace at least six ministers, including Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, as well as the internal affairs minister and minister for small and medium-sized firms.



The reshuffle partly comes as four lawmaker-turned-ministers are expected to run in the general elections slated to be held next year but also as the Moon Jae-in administration seeks to enhance its reform drive in the latter half of its single five-year term that will begin later in the year.



The four lawmaker-turned-ministers, if replaced, will return to the ruling Democratic Party as they still maintain their parliamentary seats. (Yonhap)




Unification minister nominee Kim Yeon-chul enters Institute for National Unification on Friday. Yonhap



President Moon Jae-in's decision to replace his point man on North Korea appears to indicate his increased emphasis on inter-Korean relations as he pushes for more active cross-border cooperation on the belief that it could help advance the stalled nuclear talks, experts said Friday.



Kim Yeon-chul, professor and chief of the Seoul-based Korea Institute for National Unification think tank, was nominated Friday as the new unification minister handling inter-Korean affairs. He is to replace Cho Myoung-gyon, a career policymaker, who has served at the post since 2017.



The nomination, which is subject to a parliamentary confirmation hearing, comes as the Moon government appears to be renewing its push to expand cross-border cooperation after the breakdown of last week's summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump.



"Armed with a solid theoretical base and field experiences, he appears to be well-suited for the post in terms of his understanding of President Moon's philosophy on inter-Korean relations and visions for reunification and ability to realize his pursuit of the peace economy," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.



Kim, 54, is known for his strong support for active engagement with North Korea. Kim earlier said that 2019 will be the year for the "implementation" in inter-Korean relations after the "turning point" that the two Koreas experienced last year, emphasizing it will be their top priority to address any obstacles standing in the way.



He believes that sanctions have been useless in forcing the North to give up its nuclear weapons program, while urging sanctions relief to be used as a way to build mutual trust between the North and the U.S.






Lee Do-hoon, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, arrives at the Incheon International Airport on Friday after ending his U.S. trip. He met with his U.S. counterpart Stephen Biegun there to discuss ways to continue bringing the North to the dialogue table despite the recent breakdown of the Washington-Pyongyang summit. / Yonhap



S. Korea's envoy meets with Biegun after failed summit



By Lee Min-hyung



Washington is ready to hold "constructive" talks with Pyongyang, the U.S. State Department said Thursday (local time), as North Korea appears to be taking steps to rebuild a missile testing facility.



"We remain ready to engage North Korea in constructive negotiations," State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters. "Our message here publicly and privately for that matter is, we are ready."



This comes amid growing uncertainty in the denuclearization talks between the United States and the North in the wake of the failure of the second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last week.



For its part, South Korea is making efforts to keep hopes alive for a peace deal between the North and the U.S., offering to mediate between them.



Even if Trump and Kim looked to have maintained a good relationship before the summit by exchanging their willingness to tackle the stalled dialogue momentum between the two following the first summit last June, the meeting in Vietnam's capital of Hanoi ended in a fiasco without any agreement.



Beginning this week, a series of signs have been detected of the North starting to rebuild facilities at a major missile testing site.



By analyzing satellite images, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) stated the North has rebuilt its Sohae Satellite Launching Station at Tongchang-ri and the facility has returned to normal operation status.






Military vehicles are parked inside Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, last month. Camp Humphreys is home to United States Forces Korea headquarters. / Yonhap



By Lee Min-hyung



South Korea has formally signed a deal with the United States to share cost for the upkeep of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).



Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha signed the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) with U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Harry Harris, Friday, ending an almost year-long negotiation.



Under the 2019 SMA, Seoul will pay 1.04 trillion won ($915 million), up 8.2 percent from the previous year. The deal is valid for just one year, so both sides will soon resume negotiations for the 2020 revision. The two countries used to sign up to five-year contracts before the latest SMA.



The 2019 SMA will take effect upon ratification by the National Assembly. The government plans to finish the process by the end of next month.



U.S. President Donald Trump has increasingly pressured the South to pay more of the USFK upkeep costs. He has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction that U.S. allies, including the South, do not pay properly for the defense cost sharing, as part of his America First policy.



He is also taking issue with the Seoul-Washington joint military exercises, expressing his hope to downsize them due to the cost.



"We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on those exercises, and I hated to see it," Trump said in a press conference after his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-in in Hanoi last week.



"I was sort of the opinion that South Korea should help us with that. You know, we're protecting South Korea." said Trump.



On Monday, the allies also decided to not hold two of their annual large-scale military exercises, Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, and replace them with a new exercise named "Dong Maeng" (meaning 'alliance' in English). It will be a smaller-scale exercise compared with the previous drills.


A civic coalition's members call for an improvement in the work environment for nurses during a rally in front of the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service, central Seoul, Wednesday. / Yonhap



By Kim Rahn



A state organization has recognized the death of a nurse, who took her own life due to a heavy workload and bullying at work, as a work-related accident.



The Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service said Thursday that it decided to provide compensation to the bereaved family of Park Seon-wook, who was a nurse at the Seoul Asan Medical Center, by accepting the family's claim that her death resulted from work pressure.



This is the first time that a work-related death has been recognized in the nursing community, where there is a culture termed "taeum" (burn-to-ashes in English), meaning senior nurses harass juniors with hierarchical leverage and control over them.



"Park, a newcomer who had been trying to do better at work, had great pressure while working at the intensive care unit," the state agency's review committee said. "She carried out a heavy workload without any proper training or support. She committed suicide following accumulated fatigue and depression.



"In this case, we recognized occupational factors for the suicide that resulted from systematic problems in the nursing industry, such as heavy workloads and a lack of proper training. This will become a precedent in making decisions in similar cases."



In February last year, Park killed herself, leaving a memo on her cellphone that read: "Too much pressure from work  the look on the preceptor's face  these depressed me and my anxiety has become worse. It is not easy to recover while sleeping only three to four hours a night and skipping meals."



Her death revealed rampant hazing in the nursing community, which includes assigning a harsh work schedule, spreading malicious rumors and holding back important work-related information.



Going through similar hardship, Park's colleagues and nurses groups have staged rallies to call for changes in the culture. They claimed the problem cannot be solved without addressing the shortage of nurses and changing the preceptor system. Preceptor nurses, already under a heavy workload, are further burdened and stressed from teaching young nurses, and this leads to a stressful work environment and hazing, according to the group.






In this Jan. 19, 2019 file photo, President Donald Trump speak to reporters before leaving the White House in Washington. A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit against President Trump by porn actress Stormy Daniels that sought to tear up a hush-money settlement about their alleged affair but a bigger storm is brewing with the completion of the probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into his potential collusion with Russians in the 2016 presidential election. Then, his foreign policy, resting heavily on the resolution of North Korea's denuclearization, would likely get unhinged. AP-Yonhap



By Oh Young-jin



U.S. President Donald Trump could have pulled it off, cutting the Gordian knot on the North Korean nuclear conundrum once and for all. But such a dramatic Trumpian resolution appears no viable prospect after his no-deal Hanoi, Vietnam, summit with North Korea's young dictator Kim Jong-un.



Now the vicious cycle appears to be restarting and with a vengeance  the fear is that this time there may be no turning back. The result could be worse than what Trump critics have called for.



The Trump solution could go for an early deal, which would grind the North's nuclear program to a halt and get it going in reverse. His solution would reduce the chance of the North's implosion because Pyongyang would be able to open up for goods from and exchanges with the outside world, significantly easing its economy from the dire straits it has been in.



The chance of explosion  acting out to the outside with its nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction  would also go down amid the friendly atmosphere.



Then, in the Trumpian wisdom lies the possibility that the Kim regime would sink or swim in the brave new world it's jumping into. Thus, the time bomb of the North that has been ticking and stopping for the past seven decades would disarm itself.



Trump would make good on his promise to put the North Korean nuclear issue "front and center" in his foreign affairs agenda, resolving one of the most dangerous challenges to the world in general and Koreans in particular.



It could be the best "transactional" achievement for the man who takes pride in being the artist of the deal.



But the Hanoi summit dissolved much of the Trump charm.



Media outlets are generating their versions of what happened  ranging from Trump's sudden inexplicable change of heart to Kim Jong-un's complacency, their unconventional "top-down" negotiating pattern to the participation of National Security Advisor John Bolton, a relic from the George W. Bush era and believer in Francis Fukuyama's end of history.



Whatever the real reason, Trump has been overtaken and bogged down by the Washington bureaucracy, to which the small community of North Korea experts belongs to.



Quite possibly, Trump has been tamed to follow the old playbook written and revised by Washington's North Korea hands.






By Alex Gratzek



Today, the world is suffering from the impacts of the Third Industrial Revolution as it stands on the cusp of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution. The question of our lifetimes is whether the world stands ready for such a drastic transformation when the ability to digest the impact of the third is proving to be a difficult task.



The Third Industrial Revolution saw the incorporation of robots and the automation of assembly lines. The result was a steady decrease in the number of workers needed in these factory jobs. These jobs were well-paying enough to give those working them a middle-class life.



However, the percentage of workers engaged in factory work has declined steadily as robots and other labor-saving devices become more prevalent. The Fourth Industrial Revolution stands to propel this replacement of workers at an accelerating pace. In essence, this revolution will see the marriage of human and machine capabilities in the form of artificial intelligence (AI) and an accompanying surge in productivity and a diminishing demand for labor.



The Fourth Industrial Revolution will likely see the rise of autonomous forms of transportation for taxis and long-distance trucking along with the replacement of cashiers, clerks and more by robots, computers or AI. Around Seoul, it is not uncommon to find McDonald's restaurants which allow you to place your order at kiosks, entirely bypassing the cashier. How far away can burgers or coffees made to order by robot be?



However, the loss of jobs will not be limited to simply those with lower skilled jobs. Lawyers, accountants, financial analysts, insurance underwriters and more will also have their professions threatened by AI.



In such a scenario, who stands to benefit the most? Increasingly, capitalism has found all the profits generated by companies or corporations making their way into the pockets of shareholders. In previous decades, it wasn't uncommon for companies to have profit-sharing programs with their workers.



This is not the case anymore as rising inequality attests to. Increasingly the rich are become richer because of investments, not through labor. The replacement of people with robots and AI will only encourage this trend of widening inequality as capital holders stand to gain at the expense of labor.



The average worker, along with increasing numbers of skilled workers, will find themselves out of work. The question of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is what to do with them? Capitalism has seemingly always promised that the economic pie will eventually get big enough for everyone to have a satisfactory piece of it. However, it always seems that such a time is just around the corner.



In 1988, U.S. real GDP amounted to just over $9 trillion. Thirty years later, it had doubled to over $18 trillion. Meanwhile in Korea, 1988 saw its coming out to the world with the Seoul Olympics and soon thereafter reaching the status of a high-income country. Despite the economic growth, large numbers of people are suffering from economic anxieties such as worrying where their next meal comes from. For a true flowering of society and culture, these fears need to be allayed.



For a historical perspective, one needs to go back to medieval Europe and the Black Death which ravaged the continent in the 1300s. During that time, 30 percent to 60 percent of Europe's population died.



This drastic reduction in Europe's population spelled the death knell of feudalism in Western Europe. Peasants were no longer tied to the land as the shortage of workers allowed for peasants to travel in pursuit of paid wages. The resulting shortage of labor helped to curtail inequality in Europe as labor became more valuable than land itself which was owned by the aristocracy. Today the opposite holds true: the haves stand to gain even more.



The lack of labor in late medieval Europe entailed a shrinkage of cultivated land and an increase in the land devoted to livestock. The result was an increase in meat and cheese consumption and standards of living which helped to set Europe on the course to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.



The connection between the two is that in the past, the narrowing of inequality helped the general population allowing for society to move forward. In today's world of unfettered capitalism, the benefits of AI stand to flow to an ever-narrowing elite.



Accommodations need to be made for the people who find themselves out of jobs or forced to work reduced hours instead of fending for themselves as best they can. The rumblings of discontent that are being heard around the world presently will dwarf in comparison in the future if no accommodation is made for such an eventuality.



The decrease in inequality led to a rise in opportunities in medieval Europe for the general population. These opportunities helped propel Europe toward the creation of the scientific and industrial revolutions.



In modern times, the goal should be to ensure that the average person is able to live life free of worrying about food and shelter. The pie is big enough. Instead of individuals' energies being focused on meeting their basic survival, they should instead be redirected to focus on areas that can allow for human creativity to flourish and for society to thrive.



Such a scenario of massive job losses to AI is not guaranteed to play out. New industries may arise in response to AI as new industries have arisen in the past as old industries died away. However, preparations should be made for such an eventuality as a lack of preparations could lead to a dystopian future.





Alex Gratzek is an American who has lived, studied and worked in South Korea. Contact him at ajgratzek@gmail.com.


By Peniana Lalabalavu



Located in the heart of the South Pacific, Fiji is an archipelago of over 300 magnificent islands.



Blessed with an abundance of exotic flora and fauna, white sandy beaches, swaying coconut trees, pristine oceans and waterways wrapped up with an abundance of stunning resorts and a coastline that stretches approximately 1,129 kilometers, Fiji offers some of the world's last remaining natural environments and best holiday destinations.



Each year Fiji attracts well over 800,000 visitors, mainly from Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., China, Japan and Europe. In 2018, Fiji attracted 870,309 visitors, roughly the size of its own population, mainly for holiday and business purposes.



Korean Air operates direct flights three times a week from Seoul and Korean visitors are exempt from visa requirements when entering Fiji. In the last five years, the number of travelers from Korea has been steadily increasing annually.



Fiji is one of the leading countries and Small Island Developing States in the Pacific in terms of development, economy, trade and investment opportunities. It offers a sound infrastructure including transportation system for inter-island shipping, and a well-educated and skilled human resource base to facilitate a wide range of economic and investment activities.



Fiji and Korea share strong bilateral ties since both countries forged diplomatic relations on Jan. 30, 1971, shortly following Fiji's independence in 1970 from Great Britain.



The establishment of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Suva, Fiji, in 1980 strengthened relations between both countries which was bolstered by the establishment of the Embassy of the Republic of Fiji in Korea on July 19, 2012, paving the way for further investment and partnership opportunities for the Korean business community here.



Under the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) technical assistance program to Fiji, there are eight advisers who are currently attached with various ministries and line agencies in Fiji to support development in socioeconomic sectors.



The establishment of the KOICA office in Suva in 1990 and relocation of KOICA in 2016 has strengthened relations and increased the support rendered to Fiji through training and capacity building, with around 400 Fijians having been a beneficiary of the KOICA training program.



Fiji appreciates Korea's support rendered to it during the COP23 Presidency by Fiji and hopes the two sides will continue to work closely on issues that have large implications for the Pacific region.



The annual regional meeting between the Republic of Korea-Pacific Island Countries (ROK-PICs) has provided another platform for Fiji to engage with Korea and a forum to share regional priorities, concerns and challenges and discuss a way forward on these issues and needs with Korea regionally as well as bilaterally.



Also, Fiji appreciates and values the launch of the Trade and Tourism Promotion Program (TTPP), sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea under the ROK-Pacific Islands Forum Cooperation Fund. The TTPP will further enhance the promotional efforts of Fiji as well as meet the needs of the PICs in promoting trade and tourism in the Korean market.



Fiji and Korea have a total of 16 memorandums of understanding (MOU) that have been concluded between counterpart ministries, agencies and business organizations in Fiji and Korea, namely in areas of health, Saemaul Undong, defense, volunteer teachers scheme and so forth.



The mutual visa waiver agreement between Fiji and Korea has increased and strengthened cultural understanding and people-to-people relations between both countries. Recently, many Koreans are becoming more aware of the prospects Fiji offers in terms of English-study and study abroad programs.



Fiji appreciates the interest shown by young Koreans in choosing Fiji as an English-studying destination and hopes this continued exchange will facilitate a spirit of appreciation for the Pacific and the people of the region.



In Korea, Fiji is renowned for its water  FIJI Water, which is retailed in all Starbucks stores as well in department stores including Shinsegae. Other Fijian products that have found their way into the Korean market are Fiji Cane Sugar and the Pure Fiji cosmetics line.



This year, Fiji has further plans to provide incentives to foreign investors through the establishment of an economic zone on the main island. The much-awaited Wairabetia Economic Zone in Lautoka, another port city of Fiji, will provide a massive boost to opportunities for potential investors.



There are various incentives for investors in key sectors namely, agriculture, audio visual, fisheries, forestry, information communication technology, manufacturing, energy, health, mining and groundwater profile, and tourism with scope for joint ventures with local partners.



Fiji is a country that is rich in resources. With an ocean expanse of 1.3 million kilometers, Fiji is a large ocean state but also has land in the interior of both islands which can be leased to foreign investors.





Peniana Lalabalavu is ambassador of the Republic of Fiji to the Republic of Korea.


At the opening ceremony of the exhibition, held at the Boushahri Art Gallery in Hawalli Governorate, Kuwaiti writer Laila Al-Othman told Xinhua that women in Kuwait are keen to obtain their full rights, especially in the social aspect.

"We cannot say that Kuwaiti women have achieved everything. They have great ambitions to get their full rights especially the social one like they did with obtaining the political right," she said.

Every year, Kuwait hosts several cultural events on the occasion of the International Women's Day and this year's exhibition brought together works that express women's concerns, ambitions, and strength with amazing and colorful paintings, she said.

"Most of my paintings condemn the exploitation of women in advertising," said plastic artist Samira Boukhamsin.

The exhibition was not only concerned with Kuwaiti women but also with women in Yemen, where the artist Farida Al-Baqsami focused on highlighting the beauty of Yemeni women suffering from war.

"I visited Yemen before the war, and those who are seen in my painting, are Queen Balqis and women from Yemen in their traditional dress, along with their makeup tools and mirrors," said Baqsami, who plans to donate the proceeds of selling to Yemeni women.

On political empowerment of women in Kuwait, Baqsami said that in 2005, Kuwaiti women were able to obtain their political and civil rights.

"Since 2006 they have been able to vote and run for office, but they were unable to enter the National Assembly until 2009, after Massouma al-Mubarak, Salwa Al-Jassar, Aseel Al-Awadhi, and Rula Dashti won parliamentary seats, a precedent in the history of Kuwait," she noted.

Currently, there are two women in the Kuwaiti government, carrying portfolios of two important ministries, the Minister of Public Works and the Minister of State for Housing, Janan Bushehri, and Maryam Al-Aqeel, Minister of State for Economic Affairs.

The number of female members of parliament has declined during the last legislative elections held in 2016, to only one member, Baqsami said.

"I hope the number of women will rise in Abdullah Al Salem Hall (parliament), because one voice will not rise alone," she said.

"Kuwaiti men have the right to grant Kuwaiti nationality to his wife after five years of marriage, while women have no right to do so," she said, adding that women in Kuwait hope that the National Assembly will contribute to the amendment of a number of laws, to allow Kuwaiti women to give her nationality to her children as men.

The issue of nationality is not the only one that concerns women in Kuwait. Article 153 of the Kuwaiti Penal Code stipulates that "whoever found his wife, daughter, mother, sister in a case of adultery, and he kills her immediately," she said.

Although honor killings are not a known phenomenon in Kuwait, this law, which dates back to the period before independence, supports violence against women and contributes to its oppression. This law is still in force and the government should seriously consider abolishing it, she stressed.
President Moon replaces heads of key ministries



President Moon Jae-in named seven new ministers Friday amid a critical point in his administration.



The major cabinet reshuffle came as some ministers, including Interior and Safety Minister Kim Boo-kyum, are expected to prepare to run in the general election next year.



Among the nominations, the most exciting is that of Rep. Park Young-sun of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) to lead the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. The sole female nominee in this reshuffle is capturing a lot of media attention as she is expected to bring her vast experience in the media, politics and the National Assembly to her new post.



The Moon administration has put a policy priority on helping SMEs. For this, President Moon expanded the former Small and Medium Business Administration into a ministry soon after he took office in May 2017. However, the ministry has not lived up to public expectations to significantly promote the growth of SMEs, which are a critical part of the nation's economy.



After the announcement, Park said that she felt a huge sense of responsibility and will do her best to stand up for young jobseekers, startups, SMEs and the self-employed. Under Park, who formerly served as a business editor for the broadcaster MBC before entering politics, the ministry will hopefully be able assuage the many concerns held by those who run small businesses.



There are some problems with the reshuffle which give the impression that the President is not really serious about improving his administration's competence and regaining the public trust.



The reshuffle is not entirely promising because some of the nominees lack the qualifications required for their new posts. In particular, it is disappointing that another politician, Rep. Chin Young of the DPK, was named to lead the Ministry of Interior and Safety.



The interior ministry is one of the largest government bodies and is in charge of issues that are closely related to the people's livelihoods such as public safety. Given this, it is particularly important that someone with sufficient background in relevant areas lead the ministry. The post should not be treated as a career-building opportunity for politicians.



The most problematic nomination is that of Kim Yeon-chul, the head of the Korea Institute for National Unification, as a replacement for Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon.



Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom explained that Kim has the necessary academic and professional background. His nomination triggered concerns from the opposition parties that the ministry will continue to rush economic cooperation with North Korea as Cho did during his tenure as minister. After the failed Hanoi summit, the U.S. has signaled at stepping up sanctions against North Korea, while Pyongyang is reportedly rebuilding a missile site. Under these circumstances, the new minister should keep in mind that he should not make untimely moves such as pushing too much for the reopening of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex or restarting tourism to Mount Geumgang.



During the upcoming confirmation hearing, the National Assembly should thoroughly check the nominees' personal and professional backgrounds to ensure their competency and integrity as public servants.












By Baek Byung-yeul







LG Electronics is highly likely to appoint Kwon Young-soo, vice chairman of LG Group's holding company LG Corp, as chairman of the electronics firm's board of directors, a company official said Friday.







"LG Electronics is likely to put the agenda on the table during the upcoming shareholders' meeting," the official said. The meeting is scheduled for March 15.







Kwon will replace Jo Seong-jin, vice chairman of LG Electronics, who has been serving as chairman of the board.







It is seen as a move to accelerate the electronics firm's decision-making by separating the governance system. As board chairman, Kwon will work on establishing long-term strategies while Jo can concentrate more on his role as CEO.







Kwon has had several top management jobs in the country's fourth-largest business group. Since joining LG Electronics in 1979, he has served as LG Display president, LG Chem president and LG Uplus vice chairman.


Actress Fay Wray (1907-2004) had a hard-scrabble early life growing up in a poor Mormon family in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was just 14 when she came to Hollywood with hopes of getting into movies. Not only did she become a star, Wray became an icon as Ann Darrow, the object of the affections of the giant beast in the 1933 masterpiece King Kong.

Writer Robert Riskin (1897-1955) hailed from New Yorks Lower East Side, the son of Jewish immigrant parents. He arrived in Hollywood in 1930 and found Oscar-winning success with his several collaborations with director Frank Capra. Their works throughout the 1930s included It Happened One Night, for which he won the Academy Award, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and You Cant Take It With You.

Riskin and Wray met at a party in 1940 and married two years later. Their marriage was something of a fairy tale until he suffered a devastating stroke in 1950 and died five years later. But she picked up the pieces and returned to work to take care of her three children.

And now their daughter Victoria Riskin, 73, has written an inspired book about her parents, Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir.

Riskin followed in her fathers footsteps. An award-winning producer and writer, she was president of the Writers Guild of America West. Riskin, who lives in Marthas Vineyard with her husband, writer David W. Rintels, spoke with The Times during a recent visit to Los Angeles. The interview has been condensed and edited.

Victoria Riskin has written a book about her mother, Fay Wray of King Kong fame, and father, Robert Riskin, who won the Oscar for writing the screenplay to "It Happened One Night." Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times

Reading your book, I began to yearn for the day when people wrote letters to each other. Your fathers love letters to your mother are extraordinary.

The big discovery for me in doing this book was reading the letters that my father wrote. His personality comes through, his worries, his love and his affections  all the issues going on. Theres one that was 26 pages. His whole self was poured into those letters. For many, many years I could not read them.

Why?

She gave them to me several years before she died, which was wonderful of her to hand them over to me. I missed him so terribly when I read the letters. But he came alive in the most wonderful way. I had very little time with him. And it was sort of golden time, magic time. He was a kind of warm, dear and funny person. I noticed all of the photographs of my father with my brother and me, he was always kneeling down so he could look at us eye-to-eye. He was always right there with us.

They both needed each other.

She was longing for that person who would make her feel whole, completely whole. They found each other at just the perfect moment. They had a sense of purpose together. One was to be to be together, the other was to have children and make a family. But, also, to do whatever they could for the war effort.

A photograph of Fay Wray and Robert Riskin featured in the book "Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir." From Vivian Riskin

I feel that director Frank Capra made his best films with your father.

My father believed people were basically good. He loved getting to know people. He loved their idiosyncrasies. He loved what made them tick. He looked for things that were interesting about them, not necessarily fame or fortune, the little touches of life. His theme, as you can tell, was that its not bad to be rich, but it doesnt make you happy necessarily.

Like with You Cant Take It With You and It Happened One Night

Right. In It Happened One Night, shes trying to be a rebel against this gilded cage that she lives in. His view was that if people just pitched in together, they could solve all the problems that they have and that these divides are false. Its so much a theme for today.

This cover image released by Pantheon shows "Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir," by Victoria Riskin. Associated Press

Your mother is best known for playing the beauty who killed the beast in 1933s King Kong. But have you found that people dont know her for any of her other films, including Erich von Stroheims silent 1928 masterpiece, The Wedding March?

It was a mixed blessing because if I say to people today my mother was Fay Wray even young people know who she was because its the film that endured. On the other hand, the film doesnt show the breadth of her talent. She made over 120 films, starting in silent films all the way through television. I have had a chance to see some of those films. Shes funny in some of them. One or two I didnt like her at all. She had a pretty steady career through the 30s. There were actresses who had ups and downs, but she worked pretty constantly until the end of the 30s. I think its because audiences liked her.

It seems everybody liked her. The two times I interviewed her, she was spunky, funny and sweet.

She was very well liked by the people on the crew and the set. Thats a big deal. People took care of her. She had a way of making you feel good to be in her presence.

My heart went out for your mother with her first marriage to Oscar-winning screenwriter John Monk Saunders, who openly cheated on her, had a horrible problem with alcoholism and then took all of her money and kidnapped their baby daughter Susan.

She didnt talk a lot about him except toward the end of her life. I found in some of her personal notes that she felt she had let him down. She knew she was stronger. She knew she was caring and didnt find that key to open the door to saving him. She felt that she should have been able to help him, and she couldnt. He was beyond help. My mother was very loyal to him. She was quite a devoted person by nature.

Your mother basically retired after she married your father but had to return to work after he became ill in 1950 and died five years later.

I remember her sewing my name tags onto my clothes so I could go to summer camp. She was doing all of that and then trying to keep it all together and make money to pay the rent and take care of us. I missed the life we had, but I never felt she denied my anything. We used to sit together after school, and she would tell my fortune. I think she didnt want to burden her children with whatever was she was going through. We all felt this great big hole in our lives that we had lost this wonderful man. I think she wanted to keep us buoyed up. She had tremendous character.

Your father and Capra had a unique relationship, I didnt know Capra suffered from dark depressions and didnt even visit your father when he was sick or attend his funeral.

I think [Capra] was a complicated man. He had a great sense of humor, wonderful sense of timing. I believe my father brought the best of Franks nature out when they were together. They were good pals that way. I think my father understood Frank in a way no one else did, except Franks wife, who was very devoted to him.

My father loved America and wanted to pull it up by its bootstraps and help. My father had certain things he wanted to say, and he was passionate about them.

::

Victoria Riskin
Upon release of The Testaments, the long-anticipated sequel to the 1985 novel The Handmaids Tale, author Margaret Atwood will take part in a theatrical livestream event promoting the book on Sept. 10.

Atwood will be interviewed by broadcaster and author Samira Ahmed live onstage at the National Theatre in London the same day the sequel novel will be published. Their conversation will be livestreamed in select theaters in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, with delayed screenings in Australia and New Zealand.

I cant be in all the places at once in my analogue body, but I look forward to being with so many readers via the big screen, Atwood said in an announcement on Thursday, which is presented by Fane Productions in partnership with the human-rights group Equality Now.

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Margaret Atwood Live in Cinemas will include exclusive readings from the book by special guests, and the writer is expected to discuss her career, range of work and why she returned to the story so many years later.

The Testaments, Atwood has said, is inspired by everything readers have asked her about the novels dystopian Gilead and its inner workings, as well as the world we live in.

Margaret Atwood reveals more about why shes writing a sequel to The Handmaids Tale 

The scarlet-clad handmaids whom Atwood created in her prescient novel have become a symbol of female empowerment and womens rights as further popularized by their harrowing portrayal in Hulus smash TV series. Strident protesters have donned the womens unmistakable robes to protest misogyny and oppression, particularly in legislation, over the past few years.

Atwood serves as a consulting producer on Bruce Millers Hulu adaptation, The Handmaids Tale, which stars Elisabeth Moss as the books protagonist, Offred. The series debuted on Hulu in 2017, and its timeline has already surpassed Atwoods original work.

Meanwhile, The Testaments is set 15 years after Offreds final scene in the original book, which closed Season 1 of the TV series. The sequel will be narrated by three female characters, perhaps providing future plot spoilers for the Emmy-winning drama.

The Handmaids Tales 13-episode third season debuts on Hulu on June 5. The Testaments will be published by Penguin Random House on Sept. 10.

Dystopian apparel: The making of The Handmaids blood-red robes 

Follow me: @NardineSaad
Conan OBrien, Stephen Colbert, Rachael Ray and Gayle King are among the moderators of the last leg of Michelle Obamas months-long book tour, which is coming to a close this month.

The celebrities will join the former first lady as she tours behind her book Becoming. The memoir quickly became the bestselling book of 2018, and is still racking up impressive sales  as of Friday morning it was No. 5 on Amazons sales chart.

Events promoter Live Nation and Obamas publisher Crown, a Penguin Random House imprint, announced the lineup of moderators in a news release on Wednesday.

The final leg of Obamas tour starts on March 13 in St. Paul, Minn., where Obama will be joined by radio journalist Michele Norris. The following day, Obama will visit Milwaukee for an appearance moderated by talk show host Conan OBrien.

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Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts will join Obama for two appearances in Canada, while talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will moderate an event in Tacoma, Wash.

Rachael Ray is scheduled to appear with Obama in Copenhagen, one of six European stops on the tour. An appearance in London will be moderated by Stephen Colbert, who will also join Obama for her last tour date in Nashville on May 12.

Other hosts slated to appear with Obama include Carla Hall, Sam Kass, Phoebe Robinson, Isha Sesay, Valerie Jarrett, Jessica Williams and Gayle King.

Obama initially went on tour behind Becoming last November, appearing at stadiums and other large venues. Tickets to her appearances typically sold out quickly, including a stop at the Forum in Los Angeles moderated by actress Tracee Ellis Ross.

In addition to becoming a quick bestseller, Becoming earned positive reviews from critics. In The Times, reviewer Rebecca Carroll wrote, In Becoming, Obama doesnt write so much as talks to her readers as she always has to a nation that fell in love with her  in clear, frank and forthcoming terms, as a black woman in America with a bridge called her back and a wisdom to lay bare.

Becoming was announced last month as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, joining books such as Michael Lewis The Fifth Risk and Susan Orleans The Library Book.

This leg of Obamas book tour wont take her to Los Angeles, but she will be in the city in May to visit high school students at UCLAs Pauley Pavilion. That appearance is invitation-only, but will be live streamed.
Want to get down and dance with 400,000 new best friends? North Americas largest dance music festival, the venerable Electric Daisy Carnival, returns to Las Vegas on May 17 for a long weekend of early summer fun.

Transforming more than 1,000 acres of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the event promises to deliver an unrivaled celebration from dusk till dawn. Over 200 of dance musics most recognizable names are scheduled to hit the stage.

EDC is our communitys New Years Eve, Mardi Gras and Super Bowl, Pasquale Rotella, CEO and founder of parent company Insomniac, said.

2019 marks EDC Las Vegas 23rd year, but its Insomniacs 25th year of the festival -- Rotella is proud of how its endured.

EDC today looks nothing like the first EDC that happened at the Shrine Auditorium in 1997, Rotella said.

This years festival includes an entirely new layout that utilizes new areas of the speedway. Expect groundbreaking art installations and new stage designs with next-gen technology, sound and lighting.

Its changed in every way, but the core values of EDC have stayed the same, Rotella emphasized. People coming together to connect with each other through community, dancing like no ones watching, being your best self and looking out for one another.

Class Up

If youre heading to EDC, why not do it in style?

Starting this year, festival goers can reserve extravagant tables through Insomniacs new Marquee SkyDeck Package. The premium experience comes with a private table on an exclusive viewing deck, impeccable views, cocktails featuring premium spirits, and electrifying bottle service presentations replete with sparklers.

In addition, guests are given total access to all festival VIP areas, a dedicated check-in tent for express entry, private transportation from check-in to their table, private air-conditioned restroom facilities and a dedicated cocktail server.

Camp Out

After a sold-out inaugural year, Camp EDC will also return, providing attendees (or Headliners as EDC refers to them) a fully immersive camping program conveniently located right next to the speedway. At the center of Camp EDC lies the Mesa, a lively hub of entertainment, activities and amenities that campers can enjoy and take part in all weekend long. From pool parties to guest speakers and group classes that work out the mind, body and soul, campers can experience a completely new side of the event.

-Genevieve Wong, Custom Publishing Writer
Elon Musks contempt toward the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission  as expressed in numerous tweets and in a national TV appearance  is beyond question.

Whether the Tesla chief executive violated contempt-of-court charges filed against him by the SEC is for a judge to decide.

On Monday, Musk must file a brief in his defense under orders from Judge Alison Nathan, 46, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Nathan, who has yet to schedule a hearing, will decide whether Musk defied a previous fraud settlement with the SEC when he tweeted out what seemed to be a huge increase in Teslas forecast for electric-car production for 2019. And, if so, what shes going to do about it.

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Pundits are predicting everything from a slap on the wrist to removing Musk from his CEO position. If the Obama-appointed judge issues an order and Musk later violates that, it could lead to criminal, not civil, contempt, with jail as a possibility.

The judge suddenly finds herself a key character in the soap opera that stars the celebrity billionaire.

Her decision is likely to affect the course of corporate governance at troubled Tesla Inc., and it may send a message to business executives about how much the courts will let them get away with if they violate court-approved orders.

Jail time or job loss are highly unlikely at this time, legal experts said  civil contempt remedies are aimed at compliance, not punishment. But there is little court precedent for whats to come.

I cant think of another case like this, said Irving Einhorn, retired lawyer and regional administrator of the SECs Los Angeles office in the 1980s. Elon Musk is unique, he really is.

Because business executives charged by the SEC tend to follow court orders, there arent many contempt cases to serve as precedent, said Peter Haveles, attorney and financial law specialist at law firm Pepper Hamilton. If they thumb their nose at the SEC, they are undercutting their ability to engage in business in the future.

Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2019

Musk already is barred from serving as Teslas chairman for three years. The SEC unseated Musk last September after charging him with securities fraud for tweeting that he had secured funding for an $80-billion deal to take Tesla private at a significant premium to the stock price. No such deal had been struck.

Musk settled the charges with the SEC. He did not admit to guilt. Under the terms of the deal, he cannot deny he committed fraud. He agreed to pay a $20-million fine out of his pocket, not from Teslas treasury. Most pertinent to the recent contempt charges, Musk consented to company preapproval of written communications, including social media posts, that contained or reasonably could contain information material to Tesla or its shareholders.

Nonetheless, on Feb. 19, Musk tweeted that Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019. A few hours later, he tweeted that he meant to say thats an annualized rate, and that about 400,000 cars will be delivered this year. A 100,000-car difference translates into billions of dollars in revenue.

The damage, however, was done, in the eyes of the SEC. It filed contempt charges on Feb. 25, saying Musk failed to have the Feb. 19 tweet approved by a company attorney as required.

The proceedings might reveal who Musks Twitter sitter is at Tesla, and his or her dealings with Musk. (Whether it was a coincidence or not, corporate counsel Dane Butswinkas quit the company the next day to return to his law firm after two months at Tesla.)

Theres not much of a court record to indicate Judge Nathans attitude toward civil contempt or its remedies. In a 2017 case involving alleged false advertising of pregnancy test kits, the judge found no contempt but did comment on whats necessary to prove it:

A party may be held in civil contempt only where the plaintiff establishes the decree was clear and unambiguous, and the proof of noncompliance is clear and convincing.

Although the defendants conduct need not be willful, she continued, a plaintiff must also prove that the defendant has not been reasonably diligent and energetic in attempting to comply.

Whether the shade Musk threw on the SEC following his settlement will become part of the court record is yet to be determined. On Oct. 4 he tweeted that the Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work, a reference to stock investors who bet a companys shares are overpriced. In December, interviewed on televisions 60 Minutes, he said, I do not respect the SEC. I do not respect them.

Musk was already drawing criticism from pundits for his temerity, but the dam broke after the contempt filing.

Jim Cramer, the hyperactive host of CNBCs Mad Money, marveled that the message from the SEC was dont you ever poke our eye again  and he does it! In a streaming video interview with The Street, Cramer said: The SEC at a certain point is going to be so antagonized that theyll call down one of the outside directors and say, Listen, youre the head of the company.

Lloyd Greif, head of Los Angeles investment bank Greif & Co., said the original SEC settlement was barely a rap on his knuckles. And it didnt take very long for him to violate his probation. I think the SEC is going to come down on him like a ton of bricks.

The SEC and Tesla declined to comment.

However, there are no hints of brick dropping or other remedies in the SECs contempt complaint. Such filings often include suggested actions for a judge to consider, but in this case, the SEC punted, leaving any remedies solely up to the judge.

In a recent Wall Street Journal column, Crazy Elon vs. the SEC, Round Two, Holman Jenkins posited that The SEC usually likes to show up after a bubble and hand out penalties. It hardly craves to be seen pushing a companys shares off a cliff while millions of investors still have faith in its glorious future.

Experts in securities law point out that, in this case, the judge will be guided by civil, not criminal, contempt procedures. Criminal contempt usually ends in punishment. The point of civil contempt is to ensure compliance and to deter disregarding the order, attorney Haveles said.

Musks culpability on the charge seems pretty clear to Haveles: The SEC will say, however trivial [the tweet], he didnt follow the order and didnt respect the court. I think the judge will agree and find him in contempt. Thats the easy part.

Just want to that the Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work. And the name change is so on point!  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2018

Harvey Pitt, SEC chairman in the George W. Bush administration, said the judge will decide what incentives can be applied so Musk will obey his promises to the court. In one way or another, remedies will need to focus on repressing his irrepressibility, he said.

There needs to be enough of a disincentive that Musk wont do it again, Haveles said. I think there will be a fine and a stern warning, and the judge will say, I dont want to have this back in my courtroom again, because next time I will be much harsher.

A non-billionaire might wonder why a multimillion-dollar fine would have much effect on Musk, whose company stock is currently worth about $48 billion. To pay another fine, Musk could sell stock, or dig into his cash account. However, Musk selling stock could send Teslas price down, perhaps to levels that would affect his net worth.

A financial filing in April 2018 revealed that nearly 40% of Musks stock is pledged as collateral for hundreds of millions of dollars in personal loans from Morgan Stanley and other banks. Musk uses the money to pay for his Bel-Air mansions, his private plane and other extravagances. If the stock drops low enough  some analysts calculate the low $200s, though theres no way to be sure  Musk would have to pay off loans or pledge new shares.

But the judge could go beyond a fine if she wanted to. She could even order him off Twitter  a devastating sentence for a mogul who has used social media to build a cult following.

russ.mitchell@latimes.com

Twitter: @russ1mitchell
Warner Bros. Chairman and Chief Executive Kevin Tsujihara on Friday apologized to staff at the TV and film studio, referring to embarrassing mistakes in my personal life after a report revealed he had had an affair with an actress who was later cast in Warner Bros. movies.

The Burbank studios parent company, AT&T Inc.-owned WarnerMedia, said on Wednesday that it would investigate the matter after the Hollywood Reporter published an extensive and detailed story based partly on salacious texts between actress Charlotte Kirk and Tsujihara, 54.

Kirk, who is British and in her 20s, eventually appeared in small roles in two Warner Bros. movies: the 2018 female-focused franchise reboot Oceans 8 and 2016s romantic comedy How to Be Single.

I deeply regret that I have made mistakes in my personal life that have caused pain and embarrassment to the people I love the most, Tsujihara said in an emailed memo to staff. I also deeply regret that these personal actions have caused embarrassment to the company and to all of you. I realized some time ago you are right to expect more from me and I set a course to do better. That journey continues.

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The scandal comes at a pivotal time for WarnerMedia, which recently expanded Tsujiharas duties to include oversight of animation throughout the company, including such key brands as Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.

AT&T took over the company formerly known as Time Warner Inc. last year and has recently made its mark on the company by making major changes at HBO and Turner. The company on Monday tapped former NBC chief Bob Greenblatt to run HBO and Turner networks TNT and TBS. HBO chief Richard Plepler and Turner President David Levy announced their departures late last month amid the shakeup.

WarnerMedia had previously looked into allegations of inappropriate behavior by Tsujihara and did not turn up anything amiss about Kirks casting, the company said Wednesday.

Tsujihara has not been accused of harassment or sexual misconduct, but appeared to exhibit poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair with a then-21-year-old actress.

The published texts raised fresh questions about how WarnerMedia had handled the matter and whether Tsujihara had disclosed the text messages to the companys outside lawyers who were investigating the claims.

Since WarnerMedias leadership became aware of details surrounding this situation some time ago, it has carefully reviewed the matter and handled appropriately, including having engaged a third-party law firm to conduct a series of inquiries, Tsujihara said in the email. Following these most recent news reports, the company will again work with a third-party law firm to review the situation, and I will cooperate fully with this investigation.

Such investigations are typical following accusations of misconduct. But some experts have questioned the thoroughness of such probes.

Nancy Erika Smith, a partner at Smith Mullin in Montclair, N.J., who has worked on sexual harassment cases, said there is an inherent conflict of interest in having in-house counsel or the outside counsel they hire do such an investigation. She said such investigations are often a fig leaf and represent form over substance.

There is an inherent bias in favor of the company, Smith said. Usually they say these claims cant be substantiated.

The texts appeared to provide a rare window into Hollywoods infamous casting couch culture in which sex is exchanged for a shot at fame or access to power.

I dont usually call about casting about these types of roles, Tsujihara wrote to Kirk in response to an inquiry about a television show, according to the Hollywood Reporter story. Its fine, I just need to be careful.

Tsujiharas attorney, Bert H. Deixler, said this week: Mr. Tsujihara had no direct role in the hiring of this actress.

The grandson of Japanese immigrants and the son of a Northern California egg farmer, Tsujihara was named chief executive of Warner Bros. in 2013, after a two-year battle to succeed Barry Meyer as the head of the nearly century-old company.

ryan.faughnder@latimes.com

Twitter: @rfaughnder

Times staff writer Stacy Perman contributed to this report.
When Martha Powers and Larry Gomberg heard the news about Hurricane Florence bringing horrific winds and catastrophic flooding to Wilmington, N.C., they grimaced.

Then, they felt relieved.

What if we had decided to build our retirement home there? they said to each other in September, when the storm was making headlines. What if our brand-new home had flooded?

Like many of the 10,000 baby boomers hitting retirement age each day, Powers and Gomberg have decided to relocate. After coming close to putting a deposit on a house in Wilmington in the summer, they found a 55-and-over community just an hour from where they live in Fairfax, Va. Theyre building a house in Lake Frederick, Va., near the Shenandoah Mountains, and will move there this month.

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They examined a variety of factors, including access to quality medical care, affordability, culture and safety. That includes safety from hurricanes and deadly wildfires  like the ones that gutted the rural town of Paradise, Calif., a popular retirement area filled with senior communities.

Retirees who want to relocate should begin by reviewing their finances with an expert, and then start to build pro and con lists for each potential city or rural area, said Annette Fuller, editor of the magazine and website Where to Retire. Get past the fantasies and evaluate real life, she said.

During their two-year search, Powers, 63, and Gomberg, 67, kept separate lists.

At first, I thought I wanted to walk on a beach every day, Powers said. Larry thought he wanted to live in California. I was trying so hard to like California, I was making myself sick.

Then, we visited Lake Frederick again and agreed we liked the people, the location, and decided we could still use our same doctors if we wanted to. Suddenly, walking on a beach didnt seem as important as all those things.

They visited potential new houses several times and spent the night, research that is invaluable, Fuller said. Visit the area during every season to make sure the climate suits you, she said.

And when figuring out affordability, be sure to determine the cost of flood insurance and other insurance you might need, depending on the location.

Asked whether retirees should rule out locations where sea levels are rising or wildfires are becoming more destructive, Fuller said: Its impossible to answer that with a blanket answer. Many areas of the country have some sort of risk, from hurricanes to flooding, to tornadoes, to sinkholes, to wildfires, to scorching heat, to high winds, etc.

She added that finding an area that has zero risk is very difficult.

Martha Powers and Larry Gomberg look at the view from the back deck of their retirement home in Lake Frederick, Va. (J. Lawler Duggan / For the Washington Post)

Problems with mobility often surface around ages 82 to 85, said Ginny Helms, president of LeadingAge Georgia, making safe surroundings very important.

That dangerous reality surfaced in November during the Camp fire in California. Younger retirees who were still driving were more likely to flee to safety, while some older residents with no means of escape were left behind.

That was almost the case for 93-year-old Margaret Newsum, who was standing outside her home with her walker looking for help as the fire approached, CNN reported. She was whisked off to safety by Dane Ray Cummings, a garbage collector who had been told to cut short his route. Instead of doing that, he looked for people in trouble. He took her home to care for her rather than take her to a shelter. Since the fire, shes been staying with one of Cummings close friends.

Older people are resilient, but Helms said seniors should anticipate changes that might accompany aging.

Thats a message Rita Parsons said she understands. Parsons didnt want to have to worry about maintaining a home after her husband died two years ago. So Parsons, 74, moved to Greenspring Village, a continuing-care facility with accommodations for independent living, assisted living and nursing-home care in Springfield, Va. Within such communities, residents can move from one level of care to another.

They take care of everything for me here, she said. They come and change the filters in the heat pump twice a year. If a lightbulb burns out in the kitchen, I dont have to deal with a ladder to change it. All I have to do is call building services. This makes life easy.

Parsons doesnt have children, and said she feels very secure having her doctors on campus and having optional nursing care, if she needs it. When she moved in, she said, a bad knee made climbing stairs difficult. But since Ive lived here, I walk a couple miles a day, go to the gym and swim several times a week, she said. Now, my knee is fine, and I try to use the stairs as much as possible to stay in shape.

At Greenspring, home to nearly 2,000, she walks to church services, goes to movies and participates in square dancing, line dancing and classes.

We say its a lot like living on a cruise ship, but you dont have to deal with motion sickness, she said.

Plus, its a tightknit community. I had lived in a condo at one point in my life and never got to know my neighbors, she said. One of the best things about living here is everyone looks out for each other.

Ill be here the rest of my life.

Powers and Gomberg expect to age in place, too. If they can no longer live independently at Lake Frederick, Gomberg said, they will have the financial resources to move to an assisted-living facility.

Weve visited several of them, and we know theyre not for us yet, he said.

Then when we toured Lake Frederick, we knew it was right. Many people there are just like us, professionals from the D.C. area, well educated and liberal. We knew wed have lots to talk about with them. We also liked the layout of the homes. We have plenty of space, and I found my man cave.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends deliberations with National People's Congress deputies from Gansu province in Beijing on Thursday. WANG YE / XINHUA

President warns of bureaucracy, slackened effort in relief missions

President Xi Jinping called on Thursday for strong confidence and all-around effort to achieve the ambitious goal of eliminating poverty in China by 2020.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remark while attending a panel discussion with deputies to the National People's Congress from Gansu province.

Xi said that since the Party's 18th National Congress in late 2012, the CPC Central Committee has put poverty reduction work in a prominent place in the governance of China.

The Party has set the goal of lifting all the country's rural impoverished people out of poverty by 2020, which will be the first time in thousands of years of Chinese history that extreme poverty has been eliminated.

Noting that the task of poverty elimination will be extremely arduous in the next two years, Xi called for strong confidence, firm determination, all-around efforts and targeted measures to ensure the achievement of the poverty elimination goal.

The standard for poverty reduction is to ensure that poor people have access to food and clothes and that they are covered by the basic public services of medicine, education and housing, Xi said.

The president warned officials against formalism and bureaucracy in poverty alleviation work, and he said they should not cheat in reporting their progress in poverty reduction.

Xi instructed Party committees and governments at all levels to shoulder their responsibilities and implement the strategy of tailored measures for poverty alleviation.

The officials must improve their work style and never slacken in poverty alleviation work, Xi said, calling for pragmatic efforts to ensure the fulfillment of the goal.

Xi pledged to fight corruption and enhance Party building in poverty reduction work. Officials who get down to the grassroots in their poverty reduction work should be complimented, he said.

The president encouraged all the people to have great enthusiasm and work hard to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty as planned.

During the discussion, eight NPC deputies spoke on such issues as protecting the environment, supporting the development of private companies, reducing poverty and boosting opening-up.

Xi recognized the efforts made by Gansu province.

He encouraged the local government to deepen reform and opening-up, promote new driving forces for economic growth and enhance environmental protection to bring more prosperity to the province.
Calvin Klein is eliminating its high-end fashion collection in a move that will cut 1% of its workforce.

The fashion labels upscale sister brand, previously called Calvin Klein 205 W39 NYC, was introduced in 2017 under designer Raf Simons, who left late last year. It held runway shows and featured pricey couture styles. Items sold included an $8,500 silk dress and a $4,500 leather jacket.

A spokeswoman for Calvin Klein said the company is not walking away from the upscale fashion category. Rather, a search is underway for a new design director who would oversee the creative aspects of Calvin Kleins business, she said.

In December, parent company PVH Corp. said Simons would leave his position as chief creative officer after Calvin Klein decided on a new brand direction which differs from Simons creative vision. The former Dior creative director ran design at both the high-end collection and the more mass-market label, along with marketing.

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Emanuel Chirico, PVHs chief executive, said in November that the brand was having problems with its 205 label and planned to refocus elsewhere. Shoppers didnt take to the more fashion-forward product, he said.

Weve been disappointed that our investments in the 205 Collection business have not delivered the results we expected, Chirico said. We will cut back on a number of these planned investments in the 205 Collection business.

The New York Post first reported the news.
Co-living is one the newest trends in urban housing, and it has prompted a New York operator to join with a Los Angeles developer to create $100 million worth of shared, furnished apartments to help meet a projected deep demand in Southern California.

Residents in a co-living complex typically have their own bedroom and bathroom but share kitchens, living rooms and other common areas with fellow tenants. Its a small but growing segment of the apartment market, mostly serving young professionals who cant afford the rent in hip, desirable neighborhoods.

New York-based co-living operator Common and its Los Angeles partner Proper Development tested the waters in Los Angeles with a 24-unit complex on Melrose Avenue completed in November that got 9,000 applications from would-be tenants, Common founder Brad Hargreaves said.

We see huge demand in Los Angeles, Hargreaves said, for shared furnished apartments that rent for $1,300 to $1,800 per month.

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At Common Melrose in Hollywood, monthly rent of $1,550 includes utilities, wi-fi and housekeeping services to keep the common areas clean.

When the costs of such services are included in price comparisons, units at Common properties can be rented for 20% less than competing new studio-style units nearby, according to Hargreaves.

Proper Development will build seven co-living apartment buildings over the next two or three years that Common will operate with a combined total of 600 beds, he said. The beds are full or queen, he added. No bunk beds here. Everyone gets their own room.

The companies are planning projects in Mar Vista, Echo Park, Koreatown, Larchmont and Playa Vista, he said.

The urgency to develop market rate housing at accessible price points is tremendous, said Daniel Pourbaba, founder of Proper Development.

The units are meant to serve people who are making about $40,000 to $80,000 per year. The median age of Common tenants is 29, Hargreaves said, which is a little bit older than most people expect.

Thats because demand extends beyond millennials early in their careers, he said. Tenants include empty-nesters in their 60s.

Formal co-living complexes  in some ways a new take on old-fashioned boarding houses  are still a novelty in Southern California but stand to emerge as a new property category, like assisting living complexes designed to serve the growing numbers of wealthy seniors.

A portfolio of buildings in an established property class can get funded by banks, purchased by pension funds and even securitized in real estate investment trusts.

Justin Mateen, co-founder of dating app Tinder, has invested more than $25 million in Proper Developments co-living projects over the last few years through his Beverly Hills real estate company JAM Capital Real Estate and plans to double that investment figure this year.

Multifamily development has been slow to adapt to the needs of modern renters, but now that lenders are increasingly recognizing co-living as an attractive asset class we are seeing an influx of institutional capital entering the market looking to co-invest with us, Mateen said.

Co-living competitors in the Los Angeles area include Starcity, which operates a recently opened complex near Marina del Rey built by California Landmark Group, and co-living company Node, which operates newly renovated bungalow court apartments in Echo Park.

Starcity is based in San Franciso. Node is headquartered in London and has properties in multiple countries.

Common is making a major commitment to Los Angeles, Hargreaves said, which is on track be our second biggest market after New York.
In an effort to curb anti-vaccination conspiracy theories and misinformation, Facebook announced Thursday it will no longer recommend the offending pages and groups, and will block advertisements that include false content about vaccines. The company will also stop recommending anti-vaccination content on Instagram.

The tech giant rolled out its plan to combat anti-vaccine content after mounting public pressure culminated in a Capitol Hill hearing this week, when a Senate panel issued a dire warning about the public health danger that vaccine misinformation poses. There, 18-year-old Ethan Lindenberger testified that his mother, an anti-vaccine evangelist, relies on Facebook or Facebook-linked sites for all of her information on the subject. And shes certainly not alone.

In a blog post, Monika Bickert, Facebooks head of global policy management, said the company is working to tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic.

Leading global health organizations  have publicly identified verifiable vaccine hoaxes, Bikert wrote. If these vaccine hoaxes appear on Facebook, we will take action against them.

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Facebook also said it would be exploring ways to counter false content, whenever users do come across it, with educational information about vaccines.

The changes in Facebook and Instagram recommendation systems, along with the companys proposed fact offensive, may ease the concerns of a growing number of researchers who have noted the fast spread of misinformation online and especially on social media.

The World Health Organization recently dubbed vaccine hesitancy one of the top global threats of 2019, a warning punctuated by one of the worst measles outbreaks in decades, which has sickened at least 75 people across the Pacific Northwest  most of whom are vaccinated children under 10 years old.

When measles struck, investigators wanted answers. Instead, some parents lied. 

In the face of this burgeoning crisis, studies and news reports have indicated that Facebooks echo chambers have made the problem worse.

One group of scientists recently published a study that found the majority of the most-viewed health stories on Facebook in 2018 were downright fake or contained significant amounts of misleading information. Vaccinations ranked among the three most popular story topics.

An investigation by the Guardian newspaper found that Facebook search results for information about vaccines were dominated by anti-vaccination propaganda.

In a statement to the Washington Post last month, Facebook said that most anti-vaccination content didnt violate its policies around inciting real-world harm. Simply removing such material, the company said, wouldnt effectively counter fictional information with the factual.

While we work hard to remove content that violates our policies, we also give our community tools to control what they see as well as use Facebook to speak up and share perspectives with the community around them, the companys statement read.

On Thursday, Bikert and Facebook appeared to reaffirm that stance, as the new statement made no mention of removing groups or pages altogether  something Facebook has done in the past, notably with content relating to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his show Infowars.

A Facebook spokesman told tech site the Verge that anti-vaccination pages were not removed because, As with a lot of our integrity efforts, striking the balance between enabling free expression of opinion and ensuring the safety of the community is something we are fully committed to.

In February, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) sent letters to the heads of Facebook and Google, which also has been under fire for YouTubes role in promoting misinformation, asking how they plan to protect their users from potentially dangerous hoaxes.

As Americans rely on your services as their primary source of information, it is vital that you take responsibility with the seriousness it requires, and nowhere more so than in matters of public health and childrens health, Schiff wrote to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.

After Facebooks Thursday announcement, Schiff struck a cautious note on Twitter, writing, The ultimate test will be if these measures reduce the spread of anti-vaccine content on their platforms, to the benefit of public health.

Lindenberger, who famously vaccinated himself against his mothers wishes, spoke to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Tuesday and reiterated Schiffs calls for reliable information  not the type of stuff his mother was reading on social media.

During Lindenbergers testimony, one senator asked the Ohio teen if his mother got most of her information online.

Yes, Lindenberger replied. Mainly Facebook.

And where do you get most of your information? the lawmaker asked.

Laughing, Lindenberger said, Not Facebook.
PG&E Corp. the parent of Pacific Gas & Electric Co., is seeking a judges approval to pay $235 million in bonuses to thousands of employees despite the California utilitys bankruptcy.

The money is intended to provide incentives to workers and would not be distributed if the company doesnt meet safety and financial goals, PG&E said in a court filing Wednesday. It said the bonus program has been restructured with its Chapter 11 case in mind and puts a greater emphasis on safety performance.

In deliberately designing the plan this way, the debtors are sending a clear message to their workforce that the safety of the communities the debtors serve and of their employees is of paramount concern during the restructuring process and into the future, attorneys for the utility said in court documents.

PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection in January in the face of billions of dollars in potential liability from huge wildfires in California in 2017 and 2018, including the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century. That November 2018 blaze, the Camp fire, killed 86 people and destroyed most of the town of Paradise.

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The utility scrapped its plan to pay $130 million in bonuses for 2018, determining the payments were inappropriate given the wildfires that year and the companys deteriorating financial situation. Attorneys for wildfire victims had objected to the awards.

An employee union argued that the decision was unfair to workers. The new bonus figure is for work in 2019.

PG&E said bonuses have historically constituted 6% to 20% of employees pay and brought their total compensation in line with the market and their peers in the utility space.

Roughly 10,000 employees are eligible for a bonus this year. They include people with titles such as manager or vice president but not top-level executives who control company policy or report to the board of directors, PG&E said in its court filing.
SpaceX closed out the first test mission of its Crew Dragon capsule with a successful splashdown Friday in the Atlantic Ocean, putting the company one step closer to its goal of flying humans to space.

The test flight, which despite the vessels name did not carry a crew, also propels NASA toward a future in which the agencys astronauts can launch to the International Space Station from the U.S. in American-built spacecraft, rather than relying solely on Russia. The U.S. lost that capability when the space shuttle program ended in 2011.

This is really an American achievement that spans many generations of NASA administrators and over a decade of work, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during a livestream of the capsules landing. It is a dawn of a new era.

The Crew Dragon capsule launched early Saturday morning from Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. About a day later, it docked autonomously at the space station for the first time.

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The test mission was the first launch of NASAs commercial crew program  a public-private partnership in which the agency awarded Boeing Co. and Hawthorne-based SpaceX a combined $6.8 billion in contracts to each build a craft capable of taking astronauts to the space station. Boeings first uncrewed test flight is currently set for April.

Bridenstine has said NASA wants to be a customer for these types of operations in low-Earth orbit, rather than developing and owning its own spacecraft for the task. Already, SpaceX and Northrop Grumman Corp. deliver cargo capsules filled with supplies to the space station.

That would free up the agency to take on more expensive missions to the moon and beyond.

But the commercial crew program has faced several delays over the years, which pushed back test flights of the SpaceX and Boeing capsules. SpaceXs first test flight with a crew is expected no earlier than July; Boeings is scheduled for no earlier than August.

In the meantime, the U.S. has extended its contract with the Russian space agency several times to buy more seats for American astronauts on its Soyuz capsule. A 2015 contract extension was valued at about $491 million, or about $82 million per seat, according to a 2017 U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

The quicker we can become independent, the better it is for the space program, said Marco Caceres, senior space analyst at market research firm Teal Group.

Although the SpaceX and Boeing capsules primary purpose is to transport NASA astronauts to the space station, both companies are looking at their potential use in the future for space tourism. Last week, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said that once Crew Dragon was in regular operation, I think we will seek commercial customers.

The Crew Dragon capsule undocked from the space station at 2:32 a.m. EST Friday after a five-day stay. About five hours later, a 15-minute de-orbit burn prepared the capsule for reentry, and it floated down into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida at 8:45 a.m., slowed first by two drogue parachutes and then four main parachutes.

Two SpaceX boats were nearby to complete safety checks on the capsule after it splashed down. SpaceXs Go Searcher recovery ship, which is equipped with a helipad and medical treatment facility, lifted the Crew Dragon out of the water around 9:50 a.m.

Some people had doubts that SpaceX could achieve this, said Laura Forczyk, owner of space consulting firm Astralytical. This is a real feather in the cap of SpaceX.

The capsule was packed with more than 330 pounds of science equipment and other hardware from the space station. A mannequin passenger named Ripley, which rode in the capsule on the way up to the station and was laden with sensors to test the flight experience, also returned to Earth.

The vehicle really did better than we expected, Steve Stich, deputy manager of NASAs commercial crew program, said on the livestream. I dont think we saw really anything in the mission so far  that would preclude us having the crewed mission later this year.

But before that happens, SpaceX and NASA will pore over the data from this flight and conduct more tests.

The capsule used in this test mission will be reused in an in-flight abort test, in which the capsule will be launched on a rocket and then detached prematurely to try out the capsules emergency escape system. That test is set for June.

Bob Behnken, a NASA astronaut who flew on two shuttle missions  most recently in 2010  and will be one of two astronauts on the SpaceX capsules first crewed test flight, said during the livestream that he was super excited about the uncrewed test flight.

When I get back to the International Space Station, Im really looking forward to seeing it complete, he said. Im looking forward to getting back there and experiencing sunrises and sunsets up there. Cant get that anyplace else.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

Twitter: @smasunaga
High on an Alhambra hilltop, the French Chateau-style mansion owned by Phil Spector -- and where actress Lana Clarkson was slain -- is up for sale at $5.5 million.

Called the Pyrenees Castle, the eerie estate dates back to 1926, when French immigrant Sylvester Dupuy erected the home to mimic the castles he saw as a child in his native country. It was divided into apartments in the 1940s before a Chinese investor bought it and remodeled it in the 80s.

Spector, an influential producer famous for his wall of sound recording technique, paid $1.1 million for the home in 1998, describing it to Esquire as a beautiful and enchanting castle in a hick town where there is no place to go that you shouldnt go.

Dogged by a history of substance addiction and domestic abuse, Spector was occasionally seen by neighbors winding his way up to the estate in a luxury car. They compared him to a feudal lord among serfs, The Times previously reported.

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Looming over the San Gabriel Valley city, the walled and gated mansion sits on a private knoll of just over 2.5 acres. Past a quarter-mile driveway and motor court, the 8,700-square-foot interior opens to a grand marble foyer  the room where Clarkson was found shot to death in 2003 after a night out in Hollywood.

1 / 13 The exterior. (Jeremy Spann) 2 / 13 The turrets. (Jeremy Spann) 3 / 13 The grand entry. (Jeremy Spann) 4 / 13 The formal living room. (Jeremy Spann) 5 / 13 The dining room under beamed ceilings. (Jeremy Spann) 6 / 13 The rounded breakfast nook. (Jeremy Spann) 7 / 13 The chandelier-topped living room. (Jeremy Spann) 8 / 13 The kitchen. (Jeremy Spann) 9 / 13 The wet bar. (Jeremy Spann) 10 / 13 An aerial view of the home. (Jeremy Spann) 11 / 13 The hilltop mansion. (Jeremy Spann) 12 / 13 The hilltop mansion. (Jeremy Spann) 13 / 13 The motor court. (Jeremy Spann)

Spector was arrested on suspicion of her murder soon after, and following a mistrial in 2007, he was retried and convicted of second-degree murder two years later. Hes serving a prison sentence of 19 years to life.

Crystal chandeliers and hand-painted murals draw the eye throughout the floor plan, which holds nine bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.

Original hardwood floors line the elegant living spaces. Theres an expansive living room with paneled walls and a fireplace, two kitchens, two offices, a game room, dining room, wet bar and hair salon.

Outside, turrets give the exterior its castle-like vibe, and a top-level terrace takes in city light views. A fountain and four garages round out the grounds.

Ladd Jackson of Hilton & Hyland holds the listing.

Spector, 79, produced award-winning work with iconic groups such as the Ronettes, the Beatles and the Ramones during his career. His writing credits include Be My Baby and Then He Kissed Me.

jack.flemming@latimes.com | Twitter: @jflem94
One of the most refreshing things about John Adams is that despite all of the hosannas and honors that he has accumulated, he wears it all lightly. Thats reflected in the irreverent titles for his compositions: Gnarly Buttons, Son of Chamber Symphony, Roll Over Beethoven and American Berserk among them.

So when it was announced that Adams would be writing a new piece for star pianist Yuja Wang and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a world premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Thursday night, he was ready. Would he call his new concerto  a belated successor to Eros Piano and Century Rolls  his Piano Concerto No. 3? Not a chance. Instead, he came up with this honey of a title: Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?

JOHN ADAMS: Girls of the Golden West gets an Amsterdam remake, powerful and profound 

Adams writes that he got the title from an article about Dorothy Day in an old issue of the New Yorker. Besides being funny, its true; very often in operas and elsewhere, the devil  or the idea of him  does get more than a fair share of memorable music compared with other characters.

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The title also suggested Liszts Totentanz for piano and orchestra as a model, but Adams own totentanz (dance of the dead) for Wang comes from the core of some other planet. Devil divides itself into three fast-slow-fast sections and has a brittle, rhythmic, percussive agenda. Adams grabs us by the lapels from the outset, having his pianist pound out heavy chords that instantly recall Henry Mancinis rumbling theme from Peter Gunn.

The piano is constantly busy throughout the 25-plus minutes, and even in the contemplative slow movement, caressed by Adams typical sustained strings, there is underlying tension and an impatient desire to get the engines going again. They eventually do in a dotted-rhythm groove that suggests rock n roll. An electric bass provides subtle underpinning on the low end. A detuned honky tonk piano part is called for  here, performed on a Nord synthesizer  but I could barely hear it from my orchestra seat.

Yuja Wang after premiering John Adams new concerto, Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

CENTENNIAL: For the L.A. Phil, an unprecedented season 

On a first listen, Adams devil of a concerto wasnt exactly brimming with good tunes (except for the steal from Mancini). But it did make a fine, energetic, jumping noise that could only have come from an American composer with an eye on popular culture.

As an encore, Wang played the brief, murmuring China Gates from near the beginning of Adams career (1977), showing how far he has come since those minimalist days. Gustavo Dudamel conducted with appropriate verve and swagger.

For some reason, Mahler has been played all over Southern California in the last week: Dudamel conducting the Ninth Symphony, Edo de Waart leading the Fourth Symphony in San Diego, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras Das Lied von der Erde and now the L.A. Phil this weekend with the First Symphony.

Dudamels tempos in the First have sped up considerably since his performances at his inaugural concert in 2009 and again in 2012. (His Ninth is now faster too.) At times, the ensemble sounded rough, even coarse, in some of the extroverted passages, driven harder than ever. But many of Dudamels fussier mannerisms are tamed, and he got his best payoff in his patient buildup toward the explosion of sunlight in the first movement and its exhilarating aftermath. Overall, it remains a young mans tempestuous Mahler 1.

The L.A. Phil will take this program on tour March 15-22 in Seoul and Tokyo.

------------

L.A. Phil with Yuja Wang

Where: Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A.

When: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday

Tickets: $80-$258 (subject to change)

Info: (323) 850-2000, laphil.com

Support coverage of the local arts scene by becoming a digital subscriber.

See all of our latest arts news and reviews at latimes.com/arts.
Looking to get you out of the house after all that rain? May we suggest pianist Yuja Wang with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a new edition of the Block Party festival at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and the return of the national musical tour of Aladdin. The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields tunes up in Santa Monica, Ragtime: The Musical closes in Pasadena, two different works inspired by Greek tragedies go up at the Getty Villa and the Theatre at Ace Hotel, and theres a free Iranian New Year celebration Sunday at UCLA.

The devils in the details

Pianist Yuja Wang reunites with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the world premiere of John Adams new piano concerto, Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? If thats not enough, the program also includes Mahlers Symphony No. 1. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. $87-$258. laphil.com

Block Party gets rolling

Center Theatre Groups third annual Block Party series reviving small-theater productions kicks off with a remount of Theatre of Notes For the Love Of (Or, the Roller Derby Play), Gina Femias comedy-drama about young women in a high-impact sport. Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City. 8 p.m. Saturday, 6:30 p.m. Sunday; other dates through April 8. $25-$72; series passes available. centertheatregroup.org

A remount of Theatre of Notes For the Love Of (Or, the Roller Derby Play) is the first offering at this years Block Party festival at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. (Darrett Sanders)

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Magic carpet ride

Aladdin, Genie, Princess Jasmine and the evil Jafar are all back on the boards in the national tour of Disneys Aladdin. The hit stage adaptation of the 1992 animated musical makes another swing through Southern California, this time at Segerstrom Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday; other dates through March 23. $26.50 and up. scfta.org

Lissa deGuzman and Clinton Greenspan costar in the national tour of Disneys Aladdin at Segerstrom Center. (Deen van Meer)

Outstanding in their field

The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the acclaimed chamber orchestra led by violin virtuoso Joshua Bell, offers a varied program that includes Haydns Symphony No. 44 and Brittens Young Apollo, plus Mozarts Piano Concerto No. 12 featuring pianist Jeremy Denk. Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica. 7:30 p.m. Saturday. $89 and up. thebroadstage.org

The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields will perform at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica on Saturday. (Upstream Photography)

Tragedies retold

The Theater Lab Series at the Getty Villa presents workshop performances of choreographer and UCLA professor Lionel Popkins new multimedia-enhanced, mythologically informed performance piece, The Oedipus/Antigone Project. Getty Villa, 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades. 7:30 p.m. Friday, 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. $7. getty.edu

Speaking of Antigone, Sophocles ancient Greek tragedy serves as the inspiration for Carrie Mae Weems Past Tense. This multidisciplinary exploration of violence, gender politics and identity by the noted contemporary artist gets its West Coast premiere courtesy of the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA. Theatre at Ace Hotel, 929 S. Broadway, L.A. 8 p.m. Friday. $29-$69. www.cap.ucla.edu

A projected image that will be part of Past Tense, artist Carrie Mae Weems theatrical exploration of violence, gender politics. (William Strugs)

Ringing down the curtain on Ragtime

The Pasadena Playhouse production of Ragtime: The Musical, the stage adaptation of E.L. Doctorows novel about life in early 20th century America, ends its extended run. An L.A. Times Critics Choice. Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave. 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. $25 and up. pasadenaplayhouse.org

A revival of the musical Ragtime closes this weekend at the Pasadena Playhouse. (Nick Agro)

Out with the old, in with the new

Celebrate Iranian New Year with the return of the Nowruz Festival. The 11th edition of this family-friendly get-together will include live music, puppetry and folk tales, a parade featuring traditional costumes and performances by Djanbazian Dance Company, Firuze Dance Company and others. Dickson Court, UCLA, 10745 Dickson Court, Westwood. Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Free. farhang.org
Captain Marvel has finally hit theaters, marking the live-action movie debut of Earths mightiest hero.

Starring Brie Larson, the 21st installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe follows Carol Danvers as she discovers who Carol Danvers actually is, as well as the true origin of her powers.

The film, directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, is the first in the blockbuster franchise to boast a sole female title character. She also turns out to be the most powerful superhero the MCU has introduced to date.

Like the many films that have preceded it, Captain Marvel features post-credit scenes that both tease whats to come in the MCU and raise plenty of questions all on their own.

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(Warning: Spoilers for Captain Marvel below.)

 Watch the trailer for Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvels arrival was teased in the post-credits scene of 2018s Avengers: Infinity War when a dissolving Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) pulled out a pager to send out a distress call, so its only appropriate that Captain Marvel ties the story back to the upcoming Avengers: Endgame.

The origin of that pager was revealed earlier in Captain Marvel as Furys top-of-the-line piece of 90s Earth technology  upgraded by Carol with some Kree modifications for use in case of an emergency.

The films mid-credits scene shows that the heroes who survived Thanos snap have somehow discovered Furys pager and brought it back to the Avengers compound. Thats especially impressive considering how much random debris was likely created in the aftermath of the Infinity War destruction.

Its also clear that Cap (Chris Evans), Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce (Mark Ruffalo) and Rhodey (Don Cheadle)  despite somehow knowing the pager belonged to Fury  are unaware of the true purpose of the device. This makes it likely that none of them are aware that Captain Marvel, whose Air Force pilot callsign became the superhero teams namesake, even exists.

After the pager stops working during the scene, the team wonders just who Fury was trying to contact. But before they can try to reboot the signal, Captain Marvel arrives to ask: Wheres Fury?

Brie Larson in Captain Marvel. (Marvel Studios)

This meeting marks the first real glimpse audiences have gotten of Carol interacting with any of the superheroes assembled by her old friend Fury. And while its clear that the scene sets up Captain Marvels role in Endgame, it also leaves plenty unanswered.

Does Carol know about the damage Thanos has caused the universe? Asking about Furys whereabouts could mean she is unaware that half the universe has dissolved into dust. But its also possible that shes fully aware of the state of the universe and just assumed Fury had survived since she received the signal.

Could this be the first time Captain Marvel has returned to Earth since she left with the Skrulls at the end of the movie? Its apparent that this is the first time Carol has been called up since the Avengers have been assembled since none of the remaining Earthbound heroes knew about the pager. Is she equally unaware of the existence of the Avengers? Has she never dropped by for a social call? What has kept her away?

The second post-credits scene is a bit more lighthearted but just as mysterious.

The events of Captain Marvel expand the lore involving the Tesseract. Fans now know that the cube that holds the Space Stone not only gave Carol her powers, but it spent some time inside an alien cat.

This shorter scene takes place at Nick Furys empty desk at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. Goose, who was taken in by Fury, appears and coughs up the Tesseract he had swallowed to keep the Kree from getting ahold of it.

During the film it was revealed that Goose is no ordinary feline; hes actually a Flurken. According to Captain Marvel comics, a Flurkens mouth contains more than just frightening tentacles  its also a gateway to pocket dimensions (like bubbles of space that exist in another reality).

Goose in Captain Marvel. (Marvel Studios)

Since the Tesseract has played a major role in other MCU films, its easy to assume that the scene takes place sometime in the past and is how Fury came to possess the cube.

However, because of Furys absence from his desk, the actual timing of the scene remains vague.

Could the scene have also taken place after the events of Infinity War? Since Goose is an alien cat, his actual age is unknown. Perhaps Goose stuck around in Furys vacant S.H.I.E.L.D. office after he left the organization.

This would mean the Tesseract that Goose spits out is different from the one Thanos used during Infinity War. Considering the events of Captain Marvel already complicated the Tesseracts backstory, this scenario might not be as outlandish as it seems.

Previously it was believed the Tesseract had been in S.H.I.E.L.D.s possession from the time Howard Stark handed it over after recovering it in Captain America (2011) until Loki stole it in Avengers (2012).

But in Captain Marvel, fans learn that at some point it fell into the hands of Dr. Wendy Lawson (a.k.a. Mar-Vell). Maybe she got it from S.H.I.E.L.D., maybe she didnt.

Could the Tesseract play a role in Avengers: Endgame? Will Goose be back? Fans wont have to wait that long to find out. The movie is due for release April 26.

Girls Inc. of Greater Los Angeles and We Have Stories joined efforts to raise money for girls to see Captain Marvel in theaters as part of the #CaptainMarvelChallenge.

tracy.brown@latimes.com

Twitter: @tracycbrown
For years, starting with 2000s X-Men and ramping up with Marvel Studios 2012 juggernaut The Avengers, comic book do-gooder team-ups have been all the rage on the big screen. Why have just one hero, the thinking goes, when you can have two (Batman v Superman) or six (Justice League)  or more than two dozen (Avengers: Infinity War)?

With the Walt Disney Co.s acquisition of 20th Century Fox expected to be finalized this month, that trend is about to get supersized with a spandex-clad family reunion that many fans thought theyd never live to see.

In one fell swoop, the blockbuster $71-billion mega-deal brings nearly the entire stable of Marvel superheroes and villains under one owner, with marquee Fox-owned characters like the X-Men, Deadpool and the Fantastic Four now free to be absorbed into the Walt Disney-controlled Marvel Cinematic Universe. (One notable exception is Spider-Man, whose rights are owned by Sony Pictures, though in recent years that studio has forged an increasingly close and fruitful creative partnership with Marvel.)

READ MORE: The Disney-Fox merger: Everything you need to know 

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For comic book devotees, the prospect of seeing, say, Wolverine, Deadpool and Mister Fantastic saving the world alongside Captain America, Thor and Black Panther  or perhaps battling it out among themselves  is tantalizing. For Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, its the fulfillment of a decades-long dream.

Well, its simple. When it all comes together, Marvel will have access to almost all of its characters, and thats something that most companies that have intellectual property characters have always had, Feige, the primary weaver of Marvels ever-growing cinematic tapestry, told the Times. Marvel, in a very unique way over the years, has not had access to all of its characters, and now it will. That just seems like something thats very appropriate and exciting for me  at the potential and the possibilities to come.

But while the union of these disparate superhero franchises may sound simple in theory, sorting out exactly how it will work in reality may be anything but. As the oft-quoted Spider-Man aphorism goes, with great power comes great responsibility  and, in this case, a lot of tricky creative problems to solve.

Once the merger is complete, Spider-Man will be the only Marvel character based at an outside studio (Sony). However, there has been more crossover in recent years, such as when Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming. (Chuck Zlotnick / Columbia Pictures)

RELATED: With Fox, Disney will have an even bigger footprint in Hollywood 

Much remains unknown about how the Fox and Disney Marvel characters may be integrated going forward. With the Avengers series coming to a head in Aprils Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is already embarking on its Phase 4, with the just-released Captain Marvel and films including The Eternals and Black Widow on the runway. But other holes are clearly left to be filled.

Fox has two final superhero films in its pipeline, presumably to be released under the Disney banner: the X-Men spinoffs Dark Phoenix, slated for a June release, and New Mutants. But beyond those, it seems likely that several comic book projects in development at Fox  including Gambit, X-Force and Doctor Doom  may be shelved while Feige figures out how he wants to rearrange the pieces on his chessboard.

Speaking to the Times in September, Drew Goddard, slated to direct X-Force  a spinoff of the Deadpool franchise  expressed his eagerness to dive into the project. [Deadpool star and co-writer] Ryan [Reynolds] and I came up with some really good ideas, ideas that got me really excited, Goddard said.

In the wake of the merger, though, the project is in limbo, if not dead.

Goddard declined to comment, as did several other key players in Foxs superhero universe, including producers Hutch Parker and Simon Kinberg. But Rob Liefeld, who created Deadpool and X-Force, dampened fans hopes when he wrote on Twitter in January, Pour one out for ol X-Force. Victim of the merger. $800 million grosser easy.

Pour one out for ol X-Force. Victim of the merger. $800 million grosser easy. https://t.co/1ZCfYb9Ii5  robliefeld (@robertliefeld) January 11, 2019

Indeed, some have wondered how easily Foxs superhero franchises  which tend to be darker in tone and, in the cases of Deadpool and Logan, have carried R ratings for violence and language  will blend into the generally sunnier, decidedly PG-13 Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Will a gleefully profane character like Deadpool  who lops off heads with a katana, cracks filthy jokes and at one point in the last film took a massive hit of cocaine  be able to let his freak flag fly under a regime that has never before released an R-rated film?

Deadpool as a comic character breaks all the rules, screenwriter Paul Wernick, who co-wrote the two hit Deadpool films with Rhett Reese and Reynolds, told The Times last year. We always say if you cant do it in another superhero movie, youd best be doing it in a Deadpool movie.

In a conference call with investors last year, Disney CEO Bob Iger left the door open for Deadpool to stay true to his raunchy, irreverent self even after the merger. There may be an opportunity for an R-rated Marvel brand as long as we let audiences know whats coming, Iger said.

Similarly, the X-Men franchise as weve come to know it over the years has often been heavier and headier in tone than the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, making it unclear how the two would be meshed.

Whats different about the X-Men movies is that theyre operatic, Kinberg, who has produced three X-Men films as well as Logan, Deadpool 2, Dark Phoenix and New Mutants, told The Times in 2016. Theyre Shakespearean movies. A lot of superhero movies now, including ones I love, are wittier and more contemporary in their feel. But X-Men is more theatrical.

Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne, James McAvoy, Lucas Till and Nicholas Hoult in 2016s X-Men: Apocalypse. There are two more X-Men films in the pipeline: Junes Dark Phoenix and New Mutants. (Alan Markfield / Twentieth Century Fox)

RELATED: Fox oral history: Inside the legendary studio at the end of its run 

Given the number of X-Men and Marvel projects already in the works, X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner warned at the Television Critics Association last month against the dangers of overcrowding.

You cannot have too many Marvel, X-Men superhero movies out there: Well cancel each other out, she said, even as she expressed her hope that Disney will follow through with a theatrical release for New Mutants amid rumors it could go directly to Hulu. Each one has to be distinctive.

That said, Shuler Donner affirmed her full confidence in Feige and the powers that be at Disney to shape the expanding universe. Its all in Disneys playground and they get to decide, she said.

The one thing Iger has made abundantly clear is that  whatever tonal and storytelling challenges may be involved in integrating this wide and diverse array of superheroes and villains  there will not be a wall separating the former Fox characters from the current Marvel characters. All of them will be fully absorbed into Feiges expanding domain.

It only makes sense for Marvel to be supervised by one entity, Iger told the Hollywood Reporter last year. There shouldnt be two Marvels.

The fact is, with literally hundreds of characters suddenly to tend to, managing just the one will be a tough enough job for anyone.

Times staff writer Jen Yamato contributed to this report.

josh.rottenberg@latimes.com

Twitter: @joshrottenberg
Chainarong Prasertthai/iStock(WASHINGTON) -- In announcing the largest Justice Department sweep ever of elder fraud cases on Thursday, Attorney General William Barr highlighted an example of how the scams work and how DOJ is cracking down on them:



When 95-year-old William Webster picked up the phone, on the other end was someone who told him he'd just won millions of dollars and a new luxury car.



The catch: He would have to send him $50,000 as the Washington Post first reported.



The only problem for the scammers was that Webster was not one of their typical elderly victims. He had served as both director of the FBI and CIA - and with that, had lots of contacts in law enforcement. With his help, authorities eventually flipped the script on the scammer.



"I know how they feel when they're caught in a difficult situation," Webster said at a roundtable Barr hosted at the Department of Justice.



"They picked on the wrong person," Barr said. "The Websters got law enforcement involved and those fraudsters are behind bars."



The Justice Department said victims were targeted based on their advanced age and that the schemes lead to financial loss for victims.



Victims lived across the country -- from California to Rhode Island -- and the sweep led to 225 defendants getting charged.



The most common fraud, authorities said, was a "technical support" scam based in India.



"That scheme operates by fraudulently inducing U.S. consumers and others around the world to purchase phony or otherwise misrepresented technical support services related to computers and in certain cases to make further payments based on additional fraudulent misrepresentations," court documents from one of the many cases that DOJ highlighted.



According to the Federal Trade Commission, 142,000 consumer complaints were registered as a result in 2018.



Barr said even he had been a victim of one of the scams in 2017. While he was not attorney general at the time, fraudsters asked for money using his old official portrait.



Barr highlighted the story at his round table.



"People took my official Justice Department portrait from 1992, so I was looking pretty good in 1992 and they put it up on Facebook and other online sites and I was telling people as the former Attorney General I had access to special federal grant money and if they just sent some money I could tell them how to get some major grants," he explained.



Barr said he had the pages taken down, but from time to time even leading up to when he was nominated to be Attorney General he would get calls from people around the country which he called "heartbreaking."



Barr was featured in a ABC Affiliate WJLA story about the topic.



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Vila-real in eastern Spain to help transform the ancient city into a "smart city".

The aim of the agreement was to "digitally transform the city" with cutting-edge technologies, such as those involving cloud storage, big data and the internet of things, Huawei said in a statement published on Wednesday.

The agreement was made public in the wake of the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona recently.

"Our aim is for Spain to lead the digital transformation of European cities. The signing of this agreement is another step in us achieving this objective and to consolidate our role as a strategic partner in the digital transformation of the region," explained Jin Yong, CEO of Huawei Spain.

"At Huawei we have made an important effort in the past 18 years to promote the development of telecommunications and our commitment is to continue working to collaborate in the building of a digital future for Spain," he added.

Vila-real City Deputy Mayor Francisco Valverde Fortes said that the accord opened a new era for the city of over 50,000 inhabitants.

"This is very important for our city, which has over 700 years of history. We are very proud to have Huawei as a new partner, and we will do everything possible to ensure the agreement we have signed today will benefit the citizens of Vila-real," he said.
Ricky Gervais, who with Stephen Merchant created The Office and Extras early in this century, is starring in a new Netflix series, After Life, which he wrote and directed. Its the story of a man who abandons civility after the death of his wife. Its not wholly successful  a shade too obvious in some ways, too muddled in others, with one plot point I still dont know how to deal with  but there are some fine performances and affecting moments. Its pleasures outweigh its problems.

Gervais plays Tony, who works on a free newspaper in a small town, run by his exasperated but indulgent brother-in-law Matt (Tom Basden). His beat is human interest, and it doesnt help that, angry and depressed over the loss of his wife, he has come to regard humanity as a plague. Reluctantly present at work, Tony is a mess at home, pouring cold cereal into a glass because all the bowls are dirty and eating it with water because hes forgotten to buy milk. All that makes him happy is watching videos of beloved Lisa (Kerry Godliman), the ones he made of her and the one she left for him, a little guide to life without me, and walking his dog.

Tonys stated decision to just do or say whatever he feels because nothing matters any more  it seems tangentially related to Gervais 2009 film The Invention of Lying, about a world in which everyone tells the truth  is not fully worked out. It feels almost beside the point. The creators comic sensibility can seem dismissive, but (with some unconvincing exceptions) it isnt really dark.

Tony has a spiny shell but a squishy center  which might be said of Gervais work as a whole  and the show is a series of transgressions and apologies. Tony will threaten a 10-year-old with a hammer in one scene and in the next scene confess, amazed, that he threatened a 10-year-old with a hammer. (Theyve got to learn, says his father  played by David Bradley  from out of the mists of his dementia.)

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Tony Way, left, Ricky Gervais, Tom Basden, Diane Morgan and Mandeep Dhillon take in a night of comedy in a scene from the Netflix series After Life. (Natalie Seery / Netflix)

Gervais is a decent but not deep actor; we accept his despair, as we accept his goodness, mostly because we are so often told about it, not because he makes us feel it.

You know how grumpy you get when things dont go your way, his wife says with the narrative authority of the dying, but youve got such a good heart. Youre born like it, you cant contrive it, youre just decent.

But she is not the only one to endorse his character.

Though, as usual, he dominates the screen  every other person is meaningful only in their relation to him  Gervais is better at writing the characters he doesnt play and directing the actors who play them. They hold the series aloft and give it layers, and may be divided into the silly and the serious. Among the former are advertising manager Kath (Diane Morgan), with whom Tony debates God, and photographer Lenny (Tony Way), whom he compares to Shrek and Jabba the Hutt. Among the latter: Anne (Penelope Wilton), a font of quiet wisdom he encounters regularly in the cemetery; Sandy (Mandeep Dhillon), the papers wide-eyed new hire; and Ashley Jensen, who was the soul of Extras and provides similar warmth here as the nurse taking care of Tonys father.

Beyond them are the likable town junkie (Tim Plester), who also delivers, or fails to deliver, the newspaper; the friendly town sex worker (Roisin Conaty), and the nosy town postman (Joe Wilkinson). There are the curiosities upon whom Tony and photographer Lenny report upon  a man who received the same birthday card from five people, a couple whose baby looks like Hitler (but only because they have painted a mustache on him and combed his hair forward), a woman who sells rice pudding made with her own breast milk.

Tony mocks the mockable among them, but his principal beef is with irritating strangers  people who chew too loud, the charity worker who tries to shame him into giving, the teenagers who try to mug him, the waitress who wont let him order off the childrens menu, easy targets Gervais the Writer has helpfully supplied his protagonist.

Ricky Gervais, as Tony, and Penelope Wilton, as Anne, connect in a cemetery over lost spouses in the Netflix comedy After Life. (Natalie Seery / Netflix)

You cant just go around being rude to people, says Matt.

You can though, Tony replies. Thats the beauty of it. Theres no advantage to being nice and thoughtful and caring and having integrity. Its a disadvantage, if anything.

And yet, although we are supposed to enjoy his rudeness, and perhaps even to agree with him, we are also meant to judge his judging  to laugh with him and at him simultaneously. And to pity him too  his targets are happier than he is. Whether this is dramatically complicated or just messy I havent quite decided, but its notable, perhaps, that The Office, where this all started, was a show in which we watched a man watch himself being watched by a camera, revealing himself, and his flaws, in the course of putting on a character.

Like its snarky hero, After Life is essentially good-hearted. Many lines have the quality of being embroidered on a sampler  Hope Is Everything, You Cant Change the World But You Can Change Yourself, Nothings as Good If You Dont Share It, Were Not Just Here for Us, Were Here for Others. There is a sentimental montage near the end set to the California bathwater harmonies of the Thorns, and a scene in which Tony tells his heretofore abused co-workers why theyre special, like Dorothy bidding adieu to her companions at the end of The Wizard of Oz. These gambits are no less effective for their being so obvious.

After Life

Where: Netflix

When: Any time, starting Friday

Rating: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17)

robert.lloyd@latimes.com

Follow Robert Lloyd on Twitter @LATimesTVLloyd
Reports that the U.S. government kept a database on journalists, activists and immigration attorneys during an investigation into last years migrant caravan has stirred outrage among civil rights groups, drawn concern from lawmakers and prompted more people to come forward with additional allegations of being detained by U.S. immigration authorities.

Brendon Tucker, 24, a volunteer from Brownsville, Texas, said he and other volunteers who had been working with the migrant caravan that arrived late last year in Tijuana were stopped at gunpoint by Customs and Border Protection agents in the first days of 2019.

Tucker said he was returning with activist Evan Duke in separate cars from a migrant shelter in Tijuana to San Diego through the San Ysidro Port of Entry when CBP agents directed their vehicles to secondary inspection.

They pointed guns at me. They used a bullhorn to call me out of the car, Tucker said. They tried to take my phone. They tried to take Evans phone. And all we were doing was bringing supplies to the migrants in Tijuana.

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Tucker said he is not sure whether he is in a database revealed in leaked documents published Wednesday by San Diego TV station KNSD (NBC7). The documents indicate that the U.S. government has kept dossiers on dozens of activists, advocates, attorneys and journalists it is investigating in relation to the migrant caravan.

Im dying to find out if Im on that list, said Tucker, who described himself as a solidarity worker not associated with any particular organization. Tucker said he was transporting clothing, food and medicine to various migrant shelters.

Undeterred by the initial encounter, Tucker said he and Duke picked up more supplies in San Ysidro, crossed the border again that same day and dropped them off at migrant shelters in Tijuana.

When they returned, they were again held at gunpoint by CBP officers and this time detained and questioned for six hours, Tucker said.

Tucker said he suspected he was being targeted or investigated since January because every time he goes through a border checkpoint, he faces additional screening and questioning.

I didnt see it coming, but I cant say Im surprised, he said.

Tear gas is fired on a group of peole trying to cross the Mexico - U.S. border in Tijuana, Mexico. (David Guzman / European Pressphoto Agency)

Among those listed in the Homeland Security documents leaked to KNSD are 10 journalists, seven U.S. citizens, an American attorney and 47 people from Central America. Some of those on the list were denied entry into Mexico and had their passports flagged.

The information has outraged civil liberties and media groups who called tracking, detaining and questioning journalists a blatant violation of free speech rights. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, along with the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, said it plans to meet with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials to express concerns about this practice.

If our 1st Amendment means anything, its that the government cannot retaliate against journalists based on the content of their reporting, said Gabe Rottman, director of the Reporters Committees Technology and Press Freedom Project.

CBP released a statement Thursday from Andrew Meehan, the assistant commissioner of public affairs, who said the agencys collection of information followed assaults on Border Patrol agents in November 2018 and January 2019.

A group of about 150 migrants attempted to breach the south side of a San Diego border fence last New Years, which resulted in U.S. officials firing tear gas. Officials said some migrants had thrown rocks at them, an account that some witnesses disputed.

CBP said after the Jan. 1 clash that the agency identified individuals who may have information relating to the instigators and/or organizers of these attacks.

The CBP statement released Thursday said that the collection of information is a standard law enforcement practice.

CBP does not target journalists for inspection based on their occupation or their reporting, read the statement from Meehan.

CBP has policies in place that prohibit discrimination against arriving travelers and has specific provisions regarding encounters with journalists.

CBP declined to immediately provide a copy of those specific provisions.

The statement added that the Department of Homeland Securitys Office of Inspector General, in conjunction with CBPs Office of Professional Responsibility, initiated an inquiry in February in order to ensure that all appropriate policies and practices were followed.

A spokeswoman said she was looking into the incident involving Tucker and Duke.

On Thursday, Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, & Operations, sent a letter to CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan expressing concern and requesting information about this troubling practice, which raises serious legal and constitutional questions, according to a statement.

Freelance photojournalist Kitra Cahana, a U.S. citizen, said that being detained, questioned and denied entry into Mexico has affected her work and had a chilling effect on her colleagues.

I have been denied entry into Mexico twice now, and unable to continue my reporting, said Cahana, who first told The Times about her experiences last month. But beyond my own situation, it has created a climate of fear for many of my colleagues who are thinking twice right now about covering the border and migration.

Both Cahana and Tucker were present during the Jan. 1 incident at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Mexican government, which denied entry to some of the people in the database, said it didnt do illegal surveillance and would ask the U.S. to clarify any possible cases of illegal spying.

According to a joint statement from the Foreign Relations Department and the Department of Security and Citizen Protection, Mexico welcomes all foreign visitors who, obeying immigration laws, carry out in our territory tourism or professional activities.

Tucker said during his second stop by CBP a few days after the Jan. 1 incident, agents confiscated his video camcorder and his friends phone. He said they never returned the items.

At the end of the day, they just dont like what were doing, Tucker said. I know I didnt do anything illegal to be put on any list.

Wendy Fry writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
A Rancho Cucamonga inmate who escaped from jail Thursday afternoon was found early Friday morning, authorities said.

Mario Abraham Tafoya, 19, escaped the West Valley Detention Center about 3:20 p.m. and was last seen running northeast near Etiwanda Avenue and 6th Street, the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department said.

He was found at 5:30 a.m. Friday in a San Bernardino home after deputies got a tip about his whereabouts.

Authorities surrounded the house, and Tafoya was arrested without incident, sheriffs officials said.

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Tafoya had been arrested in January on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and evading police. He will be returned to the West Valley Detention Center and booked on additional charges connected with the escape, authorities said.

Times staff writer Alene Tchekmedyian contributed to this report.

alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com

Twitter: @r_valejandra
A former Glendale police detective who lied to authorities about his connection to organized crime and warned the Mexican Mafia about an upcoming gang arrest was sentenced on Friday to 21 months in prison.

John Saro Balian will also have to serve three years of supervised release following his incarceration and will be required to pay a $300 special assessment and a $60,000 fine to the government. The punishment comes after he pleaded guilty in July to one count each of soliciting a bribe, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators.

During the hearing, Balian, who was in handcuffs and wearing a khaki-colored prison jumpsuit, addressed the court, saying he didnt wake up one day and decide this was the road in life I was going to go down.

He added: I didnt have the courage at the time to say no to someone who asked me for a favor. I regret what Ive done, Im truly sorry.

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He ended his remarks saying he hopes to one day get a chance to redeem himself and become a member of society again once hes released.

A federal judge pointed out what Balian had done was more than just grant a favor, because there was an exchange of money.

U.S. District Judge John F. Walter also said he hadnt heard a satisfactory answer as to why Balian made the conscious decision to turn to a life of crime and blatantly disregarded the oath he made as a police officer. Balians conduct was a gross abuse of the public trust he accepted as an officer and that no one should be above the law.

I suspect a major part of his remorse is that hes sorry he got caught, Walter said.

Balian was arrested in May after being identified as a person of interest during an investigation by the FBIs Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force into possible ties between the Mexican Mafia and Armenian organized crime. Three confidential informants had told investigators of their troubling interactions with the detective.

Balian previously worked as a narcotics detective for the Glendale Police Department and served as the agencys spokesman.

According to the plea agreement Balian made with authorities, he accepted $2,000 in 2017 to locate someone thought to have broken into an office and stole $100,000 worth of property from an acquaintance. In March 2017, he utilized law-enforcement resources in an attempt to catch the alleged thief by giving information about the incident to the U.S. Marshals Service.

In June 2017, Balian overheard Glendale officers discuss an upcoming sweep of roughly 20 members of the Frogtown gang, which has ties to the Mexican Mafia. He tipped off his associates within the mafia, allowing a Frogtown shot caller named Jorge Grey to evade authorities for about a month, according to the affidavit.

The plea agreement stated Balian had given false and misleading information to authorities to hide his connection with the Mexican Mafia and Armenian organized crime and that he acted corruptly with the specific intent to subvert the due administration of justice for the purpose of enhancing his reputation with the Mexican Mafia.

Times staff reporter Alene Tchekmedyian contributed to this report.

Nguyen writes for Times Community News.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com
The deep blue waters and crashing waves along the coast of California provide a picturesque backdrop to the states shores, but the sight has been marred of late.

As winter rains have poured down, trash has flowed onto area beaches. And amid the detritus has been an even more troubling discovery: scores of sickened or dead marine mammals.

Worse yet, the sick animals seem to be concentrated locally.

While Northern California and San Diego County have seen dozens of stranded sea lion pups, rescuers say the numbers are normal for this time of year for their areas.

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But Orange County beaches have been inundated with sick seals, sea lions and other marine mammals, as well as dead dolphins.

Rescues of unhealthy marine mammals have nearly tripled for this time of year in Orange County, according to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, which this week took in its 41st animal since the year began. The number of sick marine mammals becoming stranded in L.A. County beaches is slightly higher than usual, with 44 being cared for by the Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles, said veterinarian Lauren Palmer.

Its been a little bit of a whirlwind, said Krysta Higuchi, a spokeswoman for the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach. Were going through fish, funds and medical supplies faster than we expected. It is a strain on all of us here.

The center says its normal for the number of stranded animals to go up near the end of March, but this year the organization has rescued three elephant seals and a large number of sea lions much earlier than usual, and most are 8-month-old pups.

Sea lion pups are typically beached either because their mothers are unhealthy and cannot properly feed them, or they were strong enough to wean early and then are unable to find food on their own, said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The rescued pups have been dry, malnourished and emaciated, weighing half as much as they should, the center said.

Though the exact reason for the increase in the number of strandings this year is unknown, Higuchi said it could be tied to warmer ocean waters caused by an El Nino weather pattern or excess stormwater runoff from this winters rains.

After months of flirting, conditions for El Nino came together in the central Pacific in mid-February, but forecasters say the pattern is weak.

For an El Nino to be declared, a certain atmospheric circulation pattern has to form over warm ocean-surface temperatures. The ocean temperatures have been elevated for months, but the circulation pattern hadnt caught on until last month, said Michelle LHeureux, a meteorologist with the National Weather Services Climate Prediction Center.

Warm waters often reduce the amount of bait fish in the ocean, such as sardines and anchovies, which larger marine mammals eat. The smaller forage fish tend to swim in cold water, so during an El Nino event the fish may be diving deeper or farther out than usual  out of the reach of young sea lions, said Melin, who studies the overall population of sea lions in the state.

She recently returned from a trip to the Channel Islands and found a strong population of healthy sea lion mothers, which seems to indicate the newly weaned pups arent finding enough food, leading to their strandings.

Sick and malnourished sea lion pups rest in a rehabilitation room at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

In addition to the higher-than-normal pinniped rescues, researchers are seeing an increase in the number of stranded dolphins.

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center recently enlisted the help of NOAA and several universities to help determine why so many dolphins have washed up along the states beaches.

Last month, 20 dead dolphins were found along the California coast, a much higher number than experts have seen compared with previous years, said Justin Viezbicke, a stranding coordinator with NOAA. Thats higher than the total number of dead dolphins found statewide in 2017 and 2018 combined.

In Orange County, 10 dolphins have been found dead or dying since the beginning of the year  four in the last week. In Los Angeles County, two dying dolphins were found stranded on beaches, a very unusual count for the area so early in the year, according to the Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles.

Reports of the stranded dolphins and sea lion rescues have come as the state is experiencing an unusually wet year, with consecutive storms washing trash and toxins into the ocean.

Necropsy results have yet to come in, but Viezbicke thinks the dolphin beachings have something to do with this years rain, which has pounded the state in recent months with a series of atmospheric river-fueled fronts.

Its possible the storm runoff that washes waste into the ocean has caused a stronger bloom of poisonous algae, which produce a toxin responsible for neurological disorders, Higuchi said. Sickness caused by the algae blooms can cause seizures, which affected three of the dolphins found recently in Southern California.

They were flailing around when rescuers arrived, Higuchi said. It was a very heartbreaking experience. These dolphins are such majestic creatures. To see them suffering was very difficult.

Whale-watching groups have reported an unusually high number of dolphins along the coast this season. Rather than any unusual illnesses, its possible onshore winds and waves from strong storms could be washing the carcasses ashore, making the dead animals more visible, Viezbicke said.

But as to why there are so many stranded sea lions this winter, the answers are less clear.

Its getting hard to give good answers because the ocean is getting more unpredictable, said Douglas McCauley, a professor of marine biology at UC Santa Barbara. The ocean is just getting weirder. So much is changing in terms of climate.

Although the El Nino conditions are weak, McCauley says the weather pattern may be throwing the ocean temperatures off just enough to affect marine life.

The Orange and Los Angeles county coasts tend to see stranded sea lion pups sooner than other parts of California because the animals breed at the nearby Channel Islands, Melin said.

During the same two-month span in 2018, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center rescued 15 animals, compared with 41 from this year, said Peter Chang, the centers chief executive. In 2017, the group had rescued 18 pinnipeds by this time of the year.

The Sausalito-based Marine Mammal Center  a separate entity from the Pacific Marine Mammal Center that rescues animals on 600 miles of beaches between Mendocino and San Luis Obispo counties  has not seen an uptick in rescues this winter, spokesman Giancarlo Rulli said. The organization is currently housing 18 marine mammals, a normal number for this time of year, he said.

Theres been nothing out of the ordinary, but things could change, Rulli said. That could mean something could head up the coast. Were keeping a close eye on things.

To the south, SeaWorld in San Diego has also seen an average number of rescues, with a total of 45 sea lions, spokesman David Koontz said.

The last time California had a major increase in stranded sea lions was between 2013 and 2016, when a strong El Nino caused what experts called an unusual mortality event.

In 2015, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center rescued nearly 600 animals, while the Marine Mammal Center in Northern California rescued 1,800.

After 2016, the sea lion population began to recover, but Melin said she expects there will be more large mortality events, given the changing climate.

Though El Nino leads to temporary shifts in marine mammals movements and population, general ocean warming is causing more permanent damage to all sorts of sea creatures.

In February, UC Santa Barbara researchers found an elusive hoodwinker sunfish that had washed ashore in Goleta, far from its usual home in the waters of Australia and New Zealand. Last week, a dead humpback whale ended up in Brazil at the mouth of the Amazon River.

The waters weve seen in the last decade are probably what well be seeing in the future, Melin said. It will be more common for large stranding events. Weve seen it coming, really.

alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com

Twitter: @r_valejandra
Police are looking for a man who shoved a woman inside her San Pedro residence as she was coming home and sexually assaulted her.

The assault occurred between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Tuesday in the area of 11th Street, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a news release.

The suspect pushed her inside and a violent physical and sexual assault occurred before the man fled on foot, the news release says.

The assailant was described as a Latino man with black hair, a light mustache and tattoos on both arms. He is about 5 foot 7, weighs 150 to 170 pounds and is 25 to 35 years old.

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Police released a sketch of the man Thursday evening and asked the publics help in identifying him.

Anyone with information about the assault is asked to call Harbor Division detectives at (310) 726-7861.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek
Under the watchful eye of a hovering police helicopter, more than 200 Sacramento students walked out of classes Thursday to demand stricter use-of-force laws in the wake of the decision not to charge officers who shot an unarmed black man here last year.

With shouts of Say his name, Stephon Clark, they met on the steps of the state Capitol after a peaceful, five-hour march that wound through the city, collecting students from different campuses along the way.

Community college student Jason Whitfield, 22, said he took part because he identified with Clark.

Sometimes when I walk around, or even in the car with my mom when Im wearing a hoodie, we get pulled over, Whitfield said. Imagine if I was outside my house and agents shot me.

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Clark, 22, was shot by two Sacramento police officers who were responding to a vandalism call. A subsequent investigation found Clark had broken windows on three vehicles and a sliding glass door. The officers were directed to Clark by a Sacramento County Sheriffs Department helicopter and chased him into a dark backyard  later determined to be at his grandmothers house  where they mistook his cellphone for a gun and fired 20 shots, striking him at least seven times. Clark died at the scene.

Both the Sacramento County district attorney and the state attorney general released investigations that found the shooting justified, decisions that have sparked a week of protests in the city. On Monday night, 84 people were arrested after a protest in an affluent neighborhood where demonstrations rarely take place. A Sacramento City Council meeting was briefly shut down Tuesday night as demonstrators protested the arrests, which included three journalists.

The student demonstrators came to the Capitol in support of Assembly Bill 392, which would curtail when law enforcement can use deadly force and make it easier to prosecute officers in deadly incidents. One of the authors of the bill, Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) spoke to the crowd, saying police reform was an important issue for our generation.

The legislation has been in the spotlight since the Clark investigations were released, and Clarks family has been vocal in support. Clarks brother, Stevante Clark, and his grandmother, Sequita Thompson, appeared at a separate rally earlier in the day to support it.

At the student rally, Stephon Clarks cousin, Jade Dismukes, 15, was representing the family. She had walked two miles from the charter high school where Clark had also been a student.

Its something deep, she said of the rally. We need more young people out here doing this because if we dont do it, who will?
A man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday in connection with the 2014 beating death of a USC graduate student from China, prosecutors said.

Alberto Ochoa, 22, was convicted of murder last year in the death of Xinran Ji, a 24-year-old engineering student. Ochoa is the fourth and final person sentenced in the attack, bringing to a close a chapter that sent shock waves through the USC community.

He was found guilty in December of one count each of first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, second-degree robbery and attempted second-degree robbery, according to the Los Angeles County district attorneys office.

Prosecutors said Ochoa and three others attacked Ji while trying to rob him as he was walking home from a study group near campus June 24, 2014.

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Alejandra Guerrero, Jonathan Del Carmen and Andrew Garcia were also convicted in Jis killing. Prosecutors said Ochoa hit Ji with a bat before he ran away. Garcia then chased him down.

Though Ji eventually escaped his assailants, a trail of blood traced the quarter-mile path he walked back to his apartment, where a roommate found him dead hours later, authorities said.

The group targeted Ji because he was Chinese and they assumed he had money, prosecutors said.

Guerrero, who was 16 at the time of the attack, was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

Prosecutors said that, after the attack, Garcia and the rest of the group drove to Dockweiler State Beach, where they accosted and robbed a couple. Garcia was convicted of robbery for the beach incident, along with attempted robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and first-degree murder in the attack on Ji.

Del Carmen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Jis death rattled the university, particularly its Chinese community. Parents and family members of students gathered in Beijing, seeking answers about the brutal killing, and dozens of students descended on the downtown Los Angeles courthouse to observe court proceedings.

About 5,600 of USCs 11,300 international students are from China, according to figures published on the universitys website.

Jis death came amid a string of violent incidents linked to the university. In 2012, two Chinese graduate students were shot and killed in a botched robbery near campus. Six months later, a man fired gunshots in the middle of campus, outside a Halloween party. The shooting injured four people; none were USC students.

In response, USC improved security and added unarmed security ambassadors in off-campus neighborhoods. International graduate students were also required to complete a safety education program.

Times staff writer Joseph Serna contributed to this report.
Four young women, volunteers from a local migrant aid group, appeared before a federal judge for sentencing in Tucson last week. Their crime: leaving jugs of water, food and other supplies in a desolate desert refuge 130 miles west to protect the lives of migrants illegally crossing the Mexican border.

In January, the four members of No More Deaths had been convicted of trespassing in the sprawling Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. They each faced up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Instead, following an impassioned hearing, they received relatively minor sentences of 15 months unsupervised probation and a $250 fine.

For the record: An earlier version of this article misstated how many activists had their charges downgraded. Four, not five, had charges reduced.

The case raises significant questions about whether the Border Patrol provides migrants in peril with sufficient assistance when the Trump administration is making every effort to prevent asylum seekers from reaching border crossings.

The womens attorney, Chris Dupont, told the judge that they were only trying to fill a humanitarian void left by the Border Patrol, which Dupont said does not do enough to save migrants in peril. There isnt cellphone service in much of Cabeza Prieta, and Border Patrol rescue beacons are thousands of square miles apart and particularly difficult to see during daylight, he said. Between 2001 and 2018, remains of 137 people were found in the desert corridor, according to the Pima County Medical Examiner.

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Thats why theyre out there: to save people like that, Dupont told the courtroom packed with supporters. People continue to suffer and die in the desert.

Federal prosecutor Anna Wright countered that the volunteers enabled smugglers. She said humanitarian aid should be left to the Border Patrol, which created a network of 34 rescue beacons in the Tucson sector that includes Cabeza Prieta. The beacons help save lives, she said, because migrants are provided the aid when they turn themselves in or are caught.

No More Deaths volunteer Zaachila Orozco-McCormick marches with empty water jugs following her sentencing for misdemeanor charges involving leaving aid in a restricted area of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Before sentencing the volunteers, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bernardo Velasco said their efforts, however laudable, broke the law, and the case needed to send that message. I hope youre not going to do it again, the judge said.

The defendants looked relieved, and supporters in the gallery smiled.

Prosecutors later released a statement saying they intended to continue to charge those who commit similar offenses.

In recent weeks, Border Patrol agents have reported hundreds of migrant children and families seeking asylum together at remote desert crossings in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. In recent weeks, agents in the Cabeza Prieta area saw a group of 325 migrants turn themselves in. Border-wide, 76,103 migrants were detained last month, a 12-year record, 42,999 of them families and children.

Since the women and five other No More Deaths volunteers were charged last year, supporters had mounted a legal aid campaign to defend the group, dubbed the Cabeza 9, and posted signs around town proclaiming Humanitarian Aid is Not a Crime. Drop the Charges. The day of the sentencing, they paid for a full-page ad in the Arizona Daily Star signed by hundreds of other aid groups from across the country saying, We stand with No More Deaths.

The womens attorneys insisted the Border Patrols method of providing aid has failed, and that the criminal charges were retaliation after the group released videos showing border agents destroying jugs of water and other supplies they had left in the desert.

 Protesters march in support of migrant aid group volunteers, who appeared before a federal judge last week for trespassing along the border with Mexico, where they left supplies for migrants entering the U.S. illegally.

No More Deaths has attracted volunteers from across the country since its founding in 2004. It has eight staff members and up to 60 regular volunteers.

John Fife, a retired Presbyterian minister, helped found the group after becoming active in the sanctuary movement in the 1980s. Back then, he and other volunteers escorted Central American migrants fleeing death squads through the deserts of northern Mexico to the border.

In 1986, Fife and seven other volunteers were convicted of violating federal immigration laws. Sentenced to five years probation, they continued to help migrants.

We have every legal right to provide humanitarian aid in a human disaster like the thousands of deaths that have occurred out here in the Sonoran Desert, said Fife, who has volunteered with some of those recently charged.

For years, No More Deaths volunteers felt they had an understanding with the Border Patrol. Agents rarely stopped them. That changed after President Trump was elected, volunteers said.

Agents started stopping volunteers regularly in Cabeza Prieta, a rugged 860,000-acre preserve including 56 miles of border next to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. As a result, tensions heightened.

Volunteers and supporters of No More Deaths march with four humanitarian aid workers following their sentencing at an Arizona courthouse. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

No More Deaths relationship with Border Patrol has never been completely peaceful, said volunteer Parker Deighan, 28, of Tucson.  But we have definitely seen an escalation the last few years.

In June 2017, agents raided a No More Deaths migrant aid station in the desert. Later that summer, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife officer stopped four volunteers: Natalie Hoffman, 23, of Tucson; Oona Holcomb, 39, of St. Paul, Minn.; Madeline Huse, 23, of Bellingham, Wash.; and Zaachila Orozco-McCormick, 21, of Seattle. In December, they were charged as part of the Cabeza 9.

Deighan and four other volunteers were charged separately after trying to help three migrants. Two of the migrants were later detained, she said. One was never found.

On Jan. 17, 2018, No More Deaths released a report alleging Border Patrol had interfered with their work and videos showing Border Patrol agents destroying supplies they had left for migrants. Hours later, agents descended on the groups facility near Cabeza Prieta, detained four migrants and charged volunteer Scott Warren with harboring and conspiracy. Scheduled for trial in May, Warren faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The first four Cabeza 9 volunteers were convicted in January of entering the refuge without a permit and abandoning property (water jugs and beans). Recently, four other Cabeza 9 volunteers  including Deighan  had their charges downgraded to civil infractions and paid $250 fines. Warren still faces misdemeanor and felony charges.

As the volunteers left the courtroom last week, supporters applauded. Once outside, they marched through downtown hoisting empty water jugs from the desert and signs saying Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge and mass grave. No More Deaths organizers said that instead of deterring volunteers, the Cabeza 9 cases have increased their commitment, and drawn new volunteers to help migrants.

Volunteer Paige Corich-Kleim, 28, of Tucson said the group has pressured the Border Patrol to release information showing rescue beacons work, to improve them and other efforts to save migrants.

We want to make them as safe as possible so that they dont die, Corich-Kleim said.

On Monday, a rescue beacon in the Growler Valley near Cabeza Prietas Camino del Diablo (Devils Highway) had water jugs set on top of its base, a sign volunteers were still active in the area.

Thats not what Border Patrol Agent Dan Hernandez had wanted.

As Hernandez drove over rolling hills of saguaro and organ pipe cacti toward the south side of the refuge that borders Mexico, half a dozen migrants activated a beacon and were detained. An hour later, another migrant activated a second beacon. A third group of migrants  three fathers from Guatemala, each with a child  turned themselves in to agents about a hundred feet from a waist-high metal border fence. Bound for Florida and Texas, they had paid a smuggler $200 to steer them to the desert crossing, where they arrived without supplies.

A rescue beacon in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Last year, the 34 beacons in the Tucson sector that includes Cabeza Prieta helped agents locate 138 migrants, fewer than in previous years, Hernandez said.

Seven of the beacons are equipped with satellite phones migrants can use to contact the Border Patrol. The rest, stationed in spots without clear satellite signals, have red buttons migrants push to alert the agency. Theyre also equipped with day and night infrared cameras agents use to gauge migrants condition. If they appear seriously ill, Hernandez said, a paramedic agent can be sent by helicopter to treat and extract them.

The 30-foot towers cost about $3,000 and are movable. Theyre crowned with reflectors that glow during the day and light up blue at night, a signal Hernandez said is visible for up to 10 miles. (No More Deaths volunteers insist some beacons are visible no more than 1,500 feet away.) Agents check the beacons daily, are adding brighter day lights and building new beacons 10 feet taller to make them more visible, Hernandez said.

He said the videos No More Deaths released of agents dumping water left for migrants gave the agency a black eye. If agents discover supplies left by volunteers, he said, they now know dont touch it. But he said such aid sends the wrong message: Continue your journey.

It defeats the purpose of the rescue beacon, Hernandez said. We want them to press that button and end their journey. We dont want them to grab a jug and walk to their deaths.
President Trump surveyed damage Friday from a deadly tornado that devastated a small Alabama town, killing nearly two dozen people.

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump flew south to Georgia and then took a helicopter to Alabama, landing at a regional airport in Auburn. The Trumps greeted people awaiting their arrival before departing by motorcade.

The president was expected to tour rural Lee County in eastern Alabama, where 23 people died Sunday in a massive EF4 tornado that carved a path of destruction nearly a mile wide with 170-mph winds.

It was one of at least 38 tornadoes confirmed to have touched down across the Southeast in a deadly weekend outbreak.

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As he left Washington, Trump said he expected to meet with Republican Gov. Kay Ivey and people who got hit very hard by the tornadoes. He also planned to thank first responders.

1 / 10 Carol Dean, right, is embraced by her stepson David Theo Dean, near the debris of the home Carol shared with her husband, David Wayne Dean, who died when a tornado destroyed their house in Beauregard, Ala. (David Goldman / Associated Press) 2 / 10 A family retrieves belongings from a relatives house that was damaged by the tornado in Beauregard, Ala. (JOHN AMIS / Rex / Shutterstock) 3 / 10 Jeremy Renfroe, of Notasulga, Ala., salvages his friends belongings at their home near Lee County Road 38 in Beauregard, Ala. (Julie Bennett / Associated Press) 4 / 10 Dorothy Wilborn, seated, is comforted by her sisters Ruthie Davis, left, and Debbie Hunter, right, in Wilborns home near Beauregard, Ala., on Monday. (Mickey Welsh / Associated Press) 5 / 10 A cell tower lies across U.S. Route 280 in Lee County, Ala., after a tornado struck in the area Sunday. (Mike Haskey / Ledger-Enquirer) 6 / 10 Damage to a saloon along U.S. Highway 280, east of Smiths Station, Ala., after a powerful storm system passed through the area. (Sara Palczewski / Opelika-Auburn News) 7 / 10 A funnel seen from Interstate 10 near Marianna, Fla., Sunday, March 3, 2019. Numerous tornado warnings were posted across parts of Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina on Sunday afternoon as the powerful storm system raced across the region. (James Lally) 8 / 10 People walk amid debris in Lee County, Ala., after a tornado struck in the area Sunday. (Associated Press) 9 / 10 Debris litters the Buck Wild Saloon after it was heavily damaged by a tornado in Smiths Station, Ala. (Mike Haskey / Ledger-Enquirer) 10 / 10 A vehicle is caught under downed trees along Lee Road 11 in Beauregard, Ala., after a tornado passed through the area. (Kara Coleman Fields / Opelika-Auburn News)

Trump has said hes instructed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to give Alabama the A-plus treatment as the state recovers.

The Alabama damage was officially deemed a disaster Tuesday, with Trump ordering federal aid to supplement ongoing state and local recovery efforts.

Ivey has also signed a disaster assistance agreement with FEMA and ordered state flags flown at half-staff until sunset Sunday.

The Beauregard, Ala., tornado was the deadliest to hit the U.S. since May 2013, when an EF5 twister killed 24 people in Moore, Okla.

The Alabama dead included four children and a couple in their 80s, with 10 victims belonging to a single extended family. Several people in Georgia were also injured by twisters that extended to Florida and South Carolina, according to the National Weather Service.

Trump had said earlier this week that the country was sending our love and prayers to the incredible people of Alabama and that whatever we can do, were doing. He was traveling to politically friendly territory: Alabama supported Trump by a wide margin in the 2016 presidential election.

The area where the tornado struck is generally Trump country: He carried about 60% of the Lee County vote in 2016, and blue Trump flags flying outside homes are a frequent sight in Beauregard.

Standing amid bricks and lumber that used to be her mothers home, Renee Frazier waved at Trumps helicopter as it passed overhead during an aerial tour of the destruction. Minutes before, she was arguing with relatives who opposed Trumps visit, calling it more about politics than compassion.

I want the president here to see what happened to my moms house, Frazier said. I want him right here on this land because my mom is about love and unity.

Just down the road, where several people died, Trump supporter Bobby Spann said he hoped the president learned how to be a Southerner, and how to respect people during his brief visit.

Spann, 63, said he also hoped Trump realizes how much help is needed. The roof of Spanns mobile home was partially peeled away.

Houses need to be replaced. You cant help the dead folks, but you can try to help the ones thats still living, said Spann, chewing on a yellowroot twig.

Trumps reaction to natural disasters at times has seemed to vary with the level of political support hes received from the affected region.

In the months after wildfires ripped through California, Trump threatened to cut off federal aid unless the state embraced forest management policies he championed.

He also engaged in a sustained back-and-forth with lawmakers from hurricane-whipped Puerto Rico, repeatedly blaming the territory for its problems and noting how much money recovery efforts had cost the federal government.

The administration at one point considered redirecting disaster aid from places such as Puerto Rico and California to pay for the presidents long-promised border wall. The administration ultimately chose to target other sources of federal dollars.

Trump had already been scheduled to fly south Friday for a weekend at his private Mar-a-Lago club and will be heading there after the tour.
BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- China expects to see wider opening-up as it pledges to do more to attract foreign investment and promote global cooperation at the ongoing annual "two sessions."

"We will promote all-round opening-up and foster new strengths in international economic cooperation and competition," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said when delivering the government work report to the annual legislative session Tuesday.

At the session, further relax of controls over market access has been announced, a draft foreign investment law will be deliberated, and the Belt and Road cooperation has been promoted.

UNVEILING OPPORTUNITIES

The government will further shorten the negative list which outlines fields off-limits to foreign investors, Ning Jizhe, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual legislative session Wednesday.

China will roll out more opening measures to the agriculture, mining, manufacturing and service sectors, and allow wholly foreign-funded enterprises to operate in more sectors, Ning said.

John Huang with the British information service provider Experian believes that international investors will welcome China's further opening-up.

"Some core industries, once considered to be 'the most difficult areas to open up,' such as automobile manufacturing and financial services, are now welcoming foreign investment," said Huang, managing director for decision analytics of Experian Greater China.

"The Chinese government's consistent commitment to opening-up has given foreign enterprises confidence about the business environment here," said SangBoem Han, CEO of LG Display from the Republic of Korea.

In July 2018, LG Display opened an OLED panel factory in south China's Guangdong Province with a total investment of 46 billion yuan (6.9 billion U.S. dollars).

China saw a record foreign direct investment of 135 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 despite a global economic downturn and rising protectionism.

"In the early days, foreign firms received preferential policies regarding land, electricity and taxes in China," Han said, "but more recently, the government has increased its protection of intellectual property and improved efficiency."

FOREIGN INVESTMENT LAW

On Tuesday, Premier Li emphasized opening up based on rules and related institutions.

This will help China better conform with the international rules, said Zhang Jin, a national political advisor and businessman from Guangdong.

"This is also in line with China's further integration with globalization and engagement in international competition," Zhang said.

A highlight at this year's "two sessions" is the draft foreign investment law, which is to be submitted to this year's session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) for review.

Once adopted, the unified law will replace three existing laws on Chinese-foreign equity joint ventures, non-equity joint ventures (or contractual joint ventures) and wholly foreign-owned enterprises.

The foreign investment law would be highly significant to protect legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors and ensure fair competition, said Loh Jen Yuh, president of China & Investment Management of CapitaLand Group, one of Asia's largest real estate companies.

"The law shows China's openness and the rule of law," said Han, who hoped that the enact of the law would further improve China's business environment.

PROMOTING GLOBAL COOPERATION

Along with the efforts to attract foreign businesses, China is also stepping up the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to benefit more participants.

To date, a total of 152 countries and international organizations have signed cooperation documents with China on the BRI.

"Many countries along the Belt and Road have shown their intention to cooperate with Chinese manufacturers," said Wu Gang, a national political advisor and chairman of wind power firm Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology.

"We are more confident in going global under the government's favorable policies related to the BRI," said Wu, whose business has gained great market shares in Pakistan and Australia.

According to the government work report, China will continue to "promote the joint pursuit" of the BRI, aiming at "shared growth through discussion and collaboration."

China has signed free trade agreements with over 20 countries and regions. According to Zhao Ji, a national political advisor and president of China's Northeastern University, the country's efforts to strengthen the opening-up are especially important against the weak global economic growth.

"The development of China, which has been closely connected with the world, will continue to play a key role in promoting globalization," Zhao said.
As winter horse racing got underway in December at the venerable Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, one horse was injured during a race and had to be euthanized. The week after that, two horses died. Then the next week, another two horses, and the week after that, two horses more. The following week: four horses. Not until the 21st horse broke down and had to be euthanized this past week did the owners of the park close the track indefinitely and suspended all racing and training.

That was obviously the right call. The exasperating thing is that they didnt shut down racing more than a month ago when the tally of deaths was half what it is now.

Theres no question that California racing is safer and more closely monitored than its ever been. Race horse fatalities in the state have gone from 240 in 2007 to 96 in 2018, according to the California Horse Racing Board. In California, racehorses are allowed only anti-inflammatory and therapeutic drugs, not performance-enhancing ones, and the animals are routinely tested on race days. All those rules, however, didnt stop this horrific situation from unfolding. The 21 deaths at Santa Anita in two months is more than half the total number of racing or training deaths there from July 2017 through June 2018.

The state should consider a rule that would shut down a track when there is a steady accumulation of fatalities over a short period. However, the immediate concern should be keeping horses off of Santa Anita until experts can figure out why so many horses were so gravely injured.

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There is speculation that the injuries were related to the extraordinarily rainy seasons effects on the track. Some observers contend that the method the park uses to seal the track from rain can leave it too firm for horses thundering around it on slender ankles; others disagree.

Santa Anita officials did stop operations for a couple of days in late February and brought in an expert to examine the track. He declared it to be in working condition, and racing resumed. Then two more horses died. Now, Santa Anita has assembled more experts to examine the track further, and the park is evaluating its current safety measures. In a statement, the parks management vowed that its first priority was the welfare of its horses and that the track would not reopen until it was confirmed to be safe.

Thats kind of what they did in late February, and horses still died. Santa Anita officials should go even further and not reopen until they have not just a thumbs up on the track, but an explanation for these deaths. Hopefully, they will then be able to better safeguard the horses in their care.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook
National security fiascoes are piling up around President Trump. His summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un collapsed last week. In December, he announced a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, only to have his national security advisor publicly revise the plan. Last July, he endorsed Vladimir Putins assertion that Russia didnt interfere in our presidential election  a stunning rebuke to the findings of U.S. intelligence services.

These are all signs that the National Security Council is malfunctioning. The NSC  the nerve center for creating U.S. security policy over the last seven decades  is intended to advise the president on strategies to prevent war, terrorism and economic disruption. The evident weaknesses of Trumps NSC are increasing the risk that security threats or intelligence will fall through the cracks, leaving the nation vulnerable.

Since its earliest years, the NSCs secret meetings in the White House have been the principal forum for presidents to discuss security and policy with military, intelligence and diplomatic officials. Chaired by the president, the council includes the vice president, the secretaries of State, Defense, Energy and Treasury  but the president can add other federal officials as well. The councils staff can rise to as many as 200 employees.

Instead of focusing his energies on leading the NSC, Bolton sometimes acts like a globe-trotting diplomat auditioning for secretary of State.

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The NSC is an advisory group, however, and its up to the president to make good use of it. Trump doesnt seem interested. Instead, he keeps belittling and contradicting the work of U.S. intelligence agencies. On Jan. 30, for instance, he tweeted: The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong! ... Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school! This hostility significantly undermines the NSCs ability to serve its historic function.

Created by the National Security Act of 1947, the early NSC was at first neglected by President Truman. But after North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950  embroiling the United States in a war with communist forces  Truman quickly began holding regular NSC meetings.

It was under President Eisenhower, who was accustomed to robust debate among military commanders, that the modern NSC was born. Robert Cutler, a retired general and top national security aide, became the first national security advisor in 1953. That new job included running the NSC and briefing the president.

Eisenhower and Cutler established weekly NSC meetings as a venue for the president and his advisors to vigorously debate policy, a process that was aimed at purging risky flaws or biases. Historians and scholars often cite Cutler as a model for the national security advisor; he was an honest broker, ensuring that all views were heard.

Some later national security advisors, however, used the job to advance particular policies, preferring to engage the president in one-on-one meetings. This advocacy approach tends to reduce opportunities for intelligence, military, diplomatic and other officials to air opposing views  potentially to the detriment of good decision-making. President Kennedy met with his NSC only three times in the first three months of his administration, instead talking privately with national security advisor McGeorge Bundy. After Kennedy approved the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961, Kennedy ordered more NSC meetings.

Trump has now left his mark on the NSC, badly diminishing its role. His first national security advisor, Michael Flynn  noted for making bitterly partisan attacks on Hillary Clinton, including his leading chants of Lock her up!  was forced to resign after just 23 days. In December 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Russian and Turkish officials. From the outset, choosing Flynn suggested Trump viewed the national security advisor as a partisan  not a leader of open discussions on intelligence and policy.

Three more national security advisors followed Flynn in rapid succession in two years. (President Obama, in contrast, had three over eight years.) The current appointee, the famously hawkish John Bolton, is reportedly limiting policy discussions within the NSC and embracing an advocacy approach to his post.

Trump issued a tweet Dec. 19 saying he would withdraw troops from Syria within 30 days. Two weeks later, Bolton publicly corrected that policy, saying troops would leave only after the last remnants of the Islamic State were defeated and only if Turkey guaranteed that it would not strike Americas Kurdish allies. The administrations internal confusion, which might have been avoided through careful discussions inside the NSC, was laid bare before our allies and enemies.

Bolton also appears to have played a role in convincing Trump to abandon the North Korea summit without an agreement. Thats better than signing a bad accord  and yet, a fully functioning NSC should have helped avoid such a foreign policy misfire.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion 

Instead of focusing his energies on leading the NSC, Bolton sometimes acts like a globe-trotting diplomat auditioning for secretary of State. Since October, he has met with Russias president, Putin, in Moscow; Brazils president, Jair Bolsonaro, in Rio de Janeiro; and Israels president, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem.

Before his appointment as national security advisor, Bolton publicly called for removing the government of Iran from power. Those views now appear to be shaping U.S. policies toward Iran: On Face the Nation on Feb. 3, Trump said he wants to shift U.S. troops to Iraq to watch Iran.

If Bolton is now advocating a coup detat in Iran, we can only hope that the NSC recovers its traditional role and deeply debates all the ramifications for U.S. national security, our standing in the world and the spread of democracy. Boltons advocacy combined with Trumps rejection of U.S. intelligence is a potentially disastrous brew. What the nation needs instead is a tonic of full and vigorous discussions by the NSC.

Peter Shinkle is the author of Ikes Mystery Man: The Secret Lives of Robert Cutler.

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The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department is at a crossroads. Historic reforms that were instituted after the worst scandal in the departments history are now under assault by our newly elected sheriff, Alex Villanueva.

The stakes could not be higher  for the sheriff, his department and the citizens of our county.

In the fall of 2011, county jails were embroiled in a criminal debacle characterized by a pattern of unconstitutional policing. Inmates, civilian monitors and even members of the clergy assigned to the jails signed affidavits testifying that they had either been victimized by, or witnessed violent and unprovoked physical attacks by, sheriffs deputies.

Alex Villanueva can either get on board with the U.S. Constitution or get out of the way.

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There was ample evidence that department personnel fomented division among prisoners that resulted in inmate-on-inmate violence, which was then used to justify violent interventions by jail deputies.

Conditions in the jails had so spiraled out of control that the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice opened a comprehensive investigation into a jail system run amok. In response, Sheriffs Department higher-ups attempted to frustrate these inquiries and cover up evidence of unconstitutional acts.

At the time, I proposed the creation of a blue-ribbon commission to investigate the root causes of the jail turmoil and to propose a fix. I believed this offered the best hope for restoring humane treatment and constitutional policing to our incarceration facilities and to the Sheriffs Department as a whole.

The following week, the Board of Supervisors approved the creation of the Citizens Commission on Jail Violence, consisting of distinguished and experienced jurists, law enforcement officials and clergy.

The Citizens Commission returned a 600-page report that provided a road map for reform. Dozens of recommendations were made, including the establishment of an independent inspector general to oversee the department; a timelier and more transparent complaint-resolution process; swifter discipline for those found in violation of department policies; and cameras in the jails to help verify complaints. The underlying goal of the report was to establish a culture of constitutional policing, and consequences for those who wouldnt acculturate.

In 2014, Jim McDonnell, who served on the Citizens Commission, was elected sheriff and tasked with implementing its recommendations. Many of the reforms have been implemented, and some are still a work in progress.

But the message was clear: There were institutional problems in the department that needed to be addressed, and there would be no turning back.

Not everyone agreed with this new direction, however, especially the union representing the deputies. Last year, it threw its support behind Alex Villanueva, who narrowly defeated McDonnell in November.

Since taking office, Villanueva has vowed to eviscerate these reforms. The current spat between the sheriff and the Board of Supervisors revolves around the reinstatement of a deputy who was discharged for allegedly engaging in domestic abuse against another deputy, who was also his ex-girlfriend.

The countys Civil Service Commission upheld that discharge, but Villanueva has chosen to ignore that ruling by reinstating the deputy. It doesnt stop there. Villanueva is contemplating the rescission of discipline that was imposed on multiple deputies by convening a truth and reconciliation panel, which is beginning to look more like a pardon exercise under the sheriffs unilateral control.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute 

At stake are three fundamental principles. First, law enforcement personnel must lawfully perform their duties. The most effective way to insure that is to hold them accountable when they dont. When officers transgress enough to warrant discharge, and are then reinstated, it sends a dangerous message to the troops: Watch what we do, not what we say. This undermines the very credibility of the departments stated expectations. That is unacceptable in our democracy.

Second, the sheriff is obligated to accept and respect civilian oversight. While he has significant powers, so do the Board of Supervisors and the Civil Service Commission. He is not a dictator and cant assume powers that he doesnt legally have. Making a virtue of flouting the county charter and its civilian governing body is something that even the most egomaniacal law enforcement chiefs  and weve had a few  would have thought twice about.

Finally, the sheriff and his subordinates must be faithful to their oath of office; to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and of the state of California and to bear true faith and allegiance to them. Villanueva recently asserted that the reforms that were instituted by the Citizens Commission are a social experiment gone awry.

The experiment to which he refers is the U.S. Constitution. He can either get on board with it or get out of the way.

Zev Yaroslavsky is a former member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and now teaches public policy and history at UCLA.

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To the editor: I have felt the pain expressed by Ruben Martinez about practicing Catholicism since the abuse of children and the cover-up has been exposed over the last two decades.

Martinezs students at Loyola Marymount University and the underserved children and youth that my nonprofit serves are unintended consequences of the tragedy. We must be stalwart in continuing our work of providing help to those in need.

The real work of the church is to be the field hospital for the community, as Pope Francis said. Unfortunately, the good that the vast majority of the churchs people do is forgotten as the institution crumbles under us. My Big Brother Big Sister agency is a stand-alone charity, but we are encumbered by the name we must carry.

I wish our daughter, a LMU graduate and a church spiritual director, were here to give us solace and guidance. She died 13 years ago. To her credit, though a very retiring yet spiritual young lady, she was a mystic and was revered not only by us but so many others, including the 11 priests who attended her memorial  all good men.

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Ken Martinet, Los Angeles

The writer is president and chief executive of Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles County.

..

To the editor: Im right there with Martinez. With heinous crimes, a widespread coverup and near deafening silence from priest to pope, no wonder the faithful are disheartened.

My own concupiscence and former Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahonys baloney drove me out of the church for 25 years. Now Im back, and this time Im not going anywhere.

My time away didnt make me a better person. It made me realize that my salvation depends on my relationship with Jesus Christ, not with the shepherd. For me, the Roman Catholic Church offers more authentic avenues than any storefront ministry.

Thank God the validity of the sacraments has nothing to do with the holiness of the priest. Stick with it, Professor Martinez. We need more faithful Catholics in the pews, not fewer.

Sandra Ippolito, Huntington Beach

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Eagan Avenatti, the longtime firm of lawyer Michael Avenatti, filed late Thursday for federal bankruptcy protection. Its the second time in two years that it has sought court protection from its creditors.

The move came three weeks after Jason Frank, a former lawyer at the firm, filed court papers accusing Avenatti of hiding millions of dollars from the court that oversaw its previous bankruptcy.

Frank, who is trying to collect a $10-million judgment that he won against the firm, withdrew those papers after Avenatti agreed to the appointment of a receiver to take control of its financial affairs.

Under a federal court order, only the receiver can authorize a bankruptcy filing. Nonetheless, Avenatti, who is personally liable for nearly half of the $10-million judgment, filed the bankruptcy petition without the receivers consent.

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Asked by email to explain the new bankruptcy, Avenatti responded: Who cares? Old firm that we have not operated under for a very long time. We want to ensure the proper distribution of assets to creditors  it means nothing to our current law practice. Onward and upward.

Avenatti now identifies his Los Angeles law practice as Avenatti & Associates. Its lawyers and office staff are largely the same people who worked at Eagan Avenatti. Avenatti & Associates, his personal corporation, owns Eagan Avenatti, according to court filings.

The bankruptcy filing came on the eve of Avenattis scheduled testimony in federal court in Orange County on Eagan Avenattis finances. Franks lawyers were planning to interrogate him on the whereabouts of the firms assets.

Avenatti filed court papers saying the latest bankruptcy puts a temporary stop to Franks case, including his testimony Friday.

Franks lawyer Eric George called the petition a maneuver to delay the testimony, which would have exposed his financial shenanigans.

That Mr. Avenatti would try something so desperate speaks volumes about how bad the evidence is against him, George said.

Jason Frank has been trying to collect a $10-million judgment that he won last year against Eagan Avenatti. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Avenatti said: I havent done anything wrong.

Frank lawyer Andrew Stolper filed an emergency motion early Friday morning to dismiss the bankruptcy petition, saying it was null and void and fraudulently filed.

Attached to his court papers was an email exchange with Avenatti, who is serving as his law firms attorney in the dispute. Stolper warned Avenatti that the judge might issue a bench warrant for his arrest if he fails to show up to testify.

I will not be appearing, Avenatti responded. If you have any issues, you can take them up with the bankruptcy judge.

I understand you disagree, Stolper told Avenatti. But in the event the court sees things our way you may face arrest on a Friday  which is pretty much the worst day of the week to be arrested.

Avenatti replied: If you want to have me arrested and do further damage to the assets of the firm, good luck.

When Avenatti did not show up at the court hearing Friday morning in Santa Ana, U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen E. Scott declined to take any immediate action. It was unclear how soon the U.S. Bankruptcy Court might rule on Franks motion to dismiss the petition.

Eagan Avenattis first bankruptcy filing, in 2017, also came on the eve of Avenattis scheduled testimony in his dispute with Frank, who claimed it owed him more than $15 million in back pay. Avenatti has denied the allegation.

In that case, Jerry Tobin, a Florida man with a long arrest record, filed a petition to put Eagan Avenatti into involuntary bankruptcy for failure to pay his $28,700 bill for private investigative work. Tobins petition automatically halted Franks plan to take Avenattis testimony.

A Florida bankruptcy judge questioned whether Avenatti and Tobin colluded in filing the petition so the lawyer could dodge testifying, saying the petition had the stench of impropriety  nothing to do with the debtor necessarily. She said she could not immediately tell whether they were in cahoots or Avenatti just got plain lucky that the timing of the petition stalled the Frank case.

Avenatti and Tobin denied any collusion. Within days, Eagan Avenatti agreed to go into bankruptcy, blocking Frank from pursuing his case until the firm emerged from bankruptcy a year later.

The bankruptcy case was dismissed just as Avenattis representation of porn actress Stormy Daniels vaulted him to fame. She sued President Trump in a sex scandal that continues to cause legal and political trouble for the White House.

The new Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition, signed by Avenatti, was filed by the Trial Group LLP. It listed six other names for the firm, including Eagan Avenatti. The petition acknowledged it was the same debtor that filed for bankruptcy in 2017 as Eagan Avenatti.
By many standards, four years in prison is a tough sentence for a 69-year-old man with no prior criminal convictions.

Not, however, by the standard typically used for criminal defendants in much of the United States, where courts routinely hand out sentences harsher than those imposed in many other developed countries.

Because of that, the 47-month sentence that Judge T.S. Ellis III gave Paul Manafort on eight felony convictions for tax cheating and bank fraud drew immediate controversy.

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LENIENCY AT THE TOP

Federal sentencing guidelines called for roughly 20 years in prison for Manaforts crimes, but Ellis dismissed that as harsh and excessive, as Chris Megerian wrote.

Thats a consistent position for Ellis, who has long criticized federal sentencing rules that limit a judges discretion, but it generated outrage among many criminal defense lawyers and former prosecutors.

My client yesterday was offered 36-72 months in prison for stealing $100 worth of quarters from a residential laundry room, Scott Hechinger, a senior staff lawyer at the public defenders office in Brooklyn, wrote on Twitter  one of several comments that rocketed through social media in the aftermath of Manaforts sentencing.

Ellis anticipated some of that reaction.

Anyone who thinks Manaforts sentence is too lenient should go and spend a day, a week in jail or in the federal penitentiary. He has to spend 47 months, Ellis said in his courtroom in Alexandria, Va., as he handed down the sentence, which also requires Manafort to pay millions of dollars in restitution.

Hechinger did not dispute that point.

I am not making the argument for harsher sentences for anyone including Manafort, he wrote. I am simply pointing out the outrageous disparity between his treatment and others, disproportionately poor & people of color.

Thats a recurrent theme whenever well-funded, white-collar criminal cases attract public attention: The system treats the wealthy and powerful far more leniently than the poor and weak.

Indeed, when treatment comes close to equal, howls of protest often ensue. A recent example came in another case involving special counsel Robert Muellers office.

When federal agents arrived at Roger Stones home in Florida to arrest him in January, President Trump protested.

For a team of 29 people with AK-27s, or whatever they were using, to charge a house like they did at 6:00 in the morning, I think that was a very sad thing for this country, Trump said in an interview with the New York Times in which he added a nonexistent weapon to the FBIs arsenal as he condemned as unfair a very standard police practice.

Ellis wont be the last word on Manaforts total sentence. Next week the former Trump campaign chairman is scheduled for sentencing in a separate but related federal case in Washington, D.C.

Ellis had consistently shown sympathy toward Manafort in his Virginia trial, as Megerian and Eliza Fawcett noted in their profile of the judge last year. In the D.C. case, Judge Amy Berman Jackson has not.

Jackson could sentence Manafort up to 10 years and also can decide if the two sentence can overlap or must be served one after the other.

Whether Manafort will serve his sentence in full remains a question: Trump has hinted more than once that he might consider pardoning some of his former associates.

Regardless, the bigger debate over disparities between the rich and poor in the U.S. criminal justice system will remain.

In some states, lawmakers have begun to roll back harsh sentencing laws enacted during the height of the war on drugs in the 1970s and 80s. But lengthy prison sentences for nonviolent crimes remain a major reason why the U.S. incarcerates so much more of its population than most other countries.

Researchers at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which advocates a less punitive approach to criminal justice, estimated in 2016 that of the 1.46 million people behind bars in the U.S., nearly 4 in 10 were imprisoned with no public safety rationale.

Even though state courts and state prisons, not the federal system, handle most criminal cases, the federal government sets a tone.

The coming presidential election will provide a forum for debating the future of mass incarceration in the U.S. One way to frame that debate would be whether Manaforts sentence should be a model or remain an outlier

WINNOWING THE DEMOCRATIC FIELD

The first debates wont take place for months, and the first voting remains nearly a year away, but already, the huge list of Democratic presidential candidates has started to shrink

Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio made the most news with his decision not to run. As Janet Hook and Evan Halper wrote, his backers saw him as someone who could appeal to the partys activist left because of his long pro-labor record while still attracting votes from more moderate, white voters in the Midwest.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who bowed out earlier this week, had much less of an obvious base: Hes out of sync with the economic populism of the partys base, and no one thinks Democrats will have trouble carrying New York.

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkely, who also decided against running, had even less of a clear path forward.

One candidate with a clear lane to himself is Julian Castro. As Michael Finnegan wrote, the former U.S. Housing secretary has made much of being the first serious Latino candidate. So far, however, thats not provided enough of a boost to get him into the top tier of candidates.

This weeks culling of the field doesnt mean the list of candidates has entirely stopped growing, of course.

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper launched his bid, touting his executive experience. Hes the first of several current or former governors likely to get into a race dominated so far by senators, as Eli Stokols wrote.

And over the entire field looms the shadow of former Vice President Joe Biden, who seems to be inching ever closer to a formal announcement. People close to Biden say that could happen later this month. Others say maybe next month. Biden has been down this road before and likes to make decisions on his own schedule.

Doyle McManus took a look at some of the early narratives in the 2020 race.

DIVISION OVER CHARTER SCHOOLS

Charter schools have a long history of dividing Democrats. As Evan Halper wrote, that issue could shadow some presidential hopefuls.

Among the current candidates, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey has the closest association with the charter movement. As mayor of Newark, he actively promoted charters. That history now could pose a problem for him with teacher unions.

IMPEACHMENT BY ANY OTHER NAME

House Democrats sent document demands to more than 80 Trump aides, friends and associates this week. As Megerian wrote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and her lieutenants have avoided using the word impeachment, but the new Judiciary Committee inquiry would lay the groundwork.

The strategy for Democrats is to keep up a steady flow of hearings into alleged malfeasance by Trump and his aides. They hope that will build public support for defeating Trump in 2020.

Democratic leaders want to avoid an impeachment that would appear partisan, like the Republican effort against President Clinton. But if their hearings generate widespread support in the country for removing Trump before the end of his term, the proceedings could also easily switch onto an impeachment path.

Meanwhile, as Noah Bierman and Megerian wrote, the White House has started to prepare for Muellers final report  whatever it says and whenever it comes.

The White House counsels office has made 17 new hires as a chronically understaffed administration has started to gear up for the onslaught ahead.

Trump did get one piece of good news in court this week, as U.S. District Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles dismissed Stormy Daniels lawsuit seeking to void the nondisclosure agreement she had signed regarding her story of a sexual encounter with Trump. Trump had already agreed not to enforce the agreement, so the adult film actress had already received exactly what she wanted, the judge said.

Daniels lawyer, Michael Avenatti, continues to have his own problems in court, Michael Finnegan reported. His longtime law firm filed for bankruptcy protection again as one of its major creditors alleged shenanigans in his payment of debts.

TRYING TO STAY ON MESSAGE

Both parties had problems keeping to their preferred talking points this week.

The Democrats wanted to focus on a bill being voted on in the House that would significantly change the U.S. electoral system. The bill, HR 1, would make voter registration automatic, limit gerrymandering of congressional districts, and replace provisions of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court rolled back in 2013.

Instead, the House spent much of the week enmeshed in controversy over remarks by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) that many saw as anti-Semitic.

The House passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, as well as anti-Muslim acts, but only after days of internal debate over whether to single out anti-Jewish rhetoric. In the end, all Democrats, including Omar, voted for the resolution, but some complained it had been watered down.

Twenty-three Republicans voted against the resolution. Some said the condemnation of anti-Semitism wasnt strong enough. Others, however, said they voted no because the resolution didnt include statements to support white Christians.

On the other side, as Stokols wrote, Trump had his own message problems.

The president has suffered a series of setbacks in recent weeks on the border wall, trade policy and North Korea. The White House response has been to try to maintain the illusion of progress, even as the reality has soured.

WRAPPING UP THE WEEK

Secretaries of State traditionally avoid partisan politics. But Michael Pompeo has bent that practice considerably, as Tracy Wilkinson wrote. The secretary took some time from international negotiations to try a little diplomacy on Iowa farmers upset about the administrations trade war with China.

The U.S. also moved this week to allow Americans to bring lawsuits against Cuba over seized property, a change from previous policy, as Wilkinson wrote.

And, finally, Molly OToole explained the reality behind the latest numbers on illegal border crossings. The number hit a decade-long high point in February, but are still quite low overall.

LOGISTICS

That wraps up this week. Until next time, keep track of all the developments in national politics and the Trump administration at our Politics page and on Twitter @latimespolitics.

Send your comments, suggestions and news tips to politics@latimes.com.

If you like this newsletter, tell your friends to sign up.

David.lauter@latimes.com

@davidlauter
The lawsuit that porn actress Stormy Daniels filed against President Trump to void her nondisclosure agreement over their alleged affair was dismissed Thursday by a federal judge in Los Angeles.

U.S. District Judge S. James Otero found that Daniels lawsuit was moot because she had already received exactly what she wanted when Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen agreed last September not to enforce the confidentiality pact. Otero declined her request for an order declaring the nondisclosure agreement invalid.

His 14-page ruling came one year after Daniels lawsuit against Trump set off a sex scandal that continues to pose serious legal and political threats to the president.

Federal prosecutors in New York say that Trump directed Cohen to make an illegal $130,000 payoff to Daniels just before the November 2016 presidential election to buy her silence about the alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. Cohen pleaded guilty in August to eight felonies, including violating federal election law by making that payment.

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When he testified before Congress last week, Cohen made public a $35,000 check that the president signed in August 2017, one of 11 payments that Trump made to reimburse him for the hush money, according to Cohen.

Oteros ruling left open the possibility that Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, could be forced to return the $130,000 payoff to Cohen. Brent H. Blakely, Cohens lawyer, did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Trump attorney Charles Harder welcomed the judges ruling.

Combined with the attorneys fees and sanctions award in the presidents favor totaling $293,000, the president has achieved total victory, Harder said.

Otero ordered Daniels to pay Trump $293,000 in legal fees last year when he dismissed a separate defamation suit that she filed against the president.

Harder said Daniels had not yet paid Trump his legal fees. Trump has no plans to ask Cohen to return the $130,000 if Cohen winds up getting Daniels to pay it back, Harder said.

Daniels attorney, Michael Avenatti, declared victory in spite of the dismissal.

The court found that Ms. Daniels received everything she asked for by way of the lawsuit  she won and we forced Trump and Cohen to cave, he said.

On Twitter, Daniels recalled that Cohen and Trump initially threatened to force her to pay as much as $20 million in damages for breaking the nondisclosure agreement. They reversed course and vowed to never enforce the pact after Cohen admitted his crimes.

Glad I stood my ground & kept fighting, Daniels wrote.
President Trump claimed Friday that Democrats oppose Israel and Jews, reacting in a most incendiary way to the partys controversy over recent remarks by a Muslim congresswoman, even as Republicans confronted their own divisions over hate speech.

Trumps remarks came as he blasted a House-passed resolution, proposed by Democrats, to stanch a furor over comments from freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) that were widely criticized as anti-Semitic. All Democrats voted Thursday for the resolution, which generally condemned hate speech without mentioning Omar, but 23 Republicans opposed it.

I thought yesterdays vote by the House was disgraceful, the president told reporters as he left the White House for Alabama and Florida. Because its become  the Democrats have become an anti-Israel party. Theyve become an anti-Jewish party.

The presidents divisive talk suddenly shifted attention in the matter from House Democrats, whod been openly divided and on the defensive all week over Omars comments ascribing dual loyalties to pro-Israel Jews. House Republican leaders had remained mostly quiet, to keep the media focus on Democrats infighting. Trumps rhetoric and the Republican defectors no votes on the anti-hate resolution muddled the politics of the controversy.

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Its been a big problem for Democrats in part because Republicans got out of the way, said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist. The longer this drags on, the harder it is for Republicans to not get dragged into it.

For Trump, seizing on Democrats disarray over the issue was in keeping with his broader effort to paint them as extremists in thrall to the partys emboldened left wing. Given that, Conant said the presidents latest comment served a purpose: To the extent that Donald Trump is strategically fanning those flames of division within the Democratic Party, thats smart politics.

With the new developments, Democrats turned from internal battling to chastising Trump and Republicans again.

Democrats set their House agenda with investigations into Trump and new legislation 

As a Democrat who immediately condemned Rep. Omars anti-Semitic remarks, let me say that Trumps buffoonish performance here will convince absolutely no one, said Dan Shapiro, who was a U.S. ambassador to Israel under President Obama. And people who care about the U.S.-Israel relationship dont do this. Do we have work to do? Sure. His advice we dont need.

A Somali American and one of the few Muslim members of Congress, Omar said last week that pro-Israel advocates push for allegiance to a foreign country. Earlier this year, she apologized for suggesting that Israels influence in Washington is based on money.

Critics said her statements rekindled tropes that have been used against Jewish people for centuries. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, sought to devise a response that would satisfy Jewish Democrats and others outraged by Omars comments as well as those, including other minority Democrats, concerned about singling out Omar given Trumps frequently divisive rhetoric and possibly enabling a backlash of Islamophobia.

Before the vote Thursday, Pelosi explained the decision to pass a resolution after Omars comments.

I dont think that the congresswoman perhaps appreciates the full weight of how that is heard by other people, although I dont believe that it was intended in an anti-Semitic way, Pelosi said. But the fact is that thats how it was interpreted. We have to remove all doubt.

The measure passed by a final vote of 407-23. All Democrats, including Omar, voted for the resolution, which condemned all forms of hate, including Islamophobia and white nationalism.

The latest from Washington 

The 23 Republicans who voted no opposed the resolution mostly because it wasnt limited to condemning Omar and anti-Semitism. Some said they objected that it didnt explicitly denounce negative comments about white Christians.

Among the dissenters was Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, who met last year with a Belgian politician who supports banning Muslims from Europe.

I voted NO on the ridiculous resolution that purported to condemn speech that is not at issue, Gosar wrote in a tweet. Rep. Omar has made specific multiple anti-Jewish statements. The resolution failed to mention her or her statements. So I will: I condemn anti-Jewish hate speech by Rep. Omar.

Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who was stripped of his committee assignments in January after making remarks in defense of white supremacy, voted present on the measure.

Trumps response spurred critics to recall times when he has been criticized for remarks and campaign ads seen as anti-Semitic. As a presidential candidate in 2015, he told an audience of Jewish Republicans they werent likely to support him because he didnt want their money. Following the deadly demonstration in 2017 in Charlottesville, Va., of neo-Nazis whod chanted Jews will not replace us, Trump said there were fine people on both sides of the confrontation.

The controversy only partly distracted from attention to the sentencing of Paul Manafort, the longtime lobbyist and Trumps former campaign chairman.

Convicted of tax fraud and other white-collar crimes, Manafort was spared what could have been a sentence of 19 to 24 years and instead was given 47 months in prison.

Trump told the White House reporters that he felt very badly for Manafort, while claiming incorrectly that the judges comments during Thursdays sentencing absolved him of collusion with Russia during the 2016 election campaign.
Trump administration officials say an increase in Central American families and minors seeking asylum has brought the immigration system to the breaking point. The 66,450 migrants arrested crossing the southwestern border in February  a rate of more than 2,300 per day  was more than almost any month in the last decade.

Yet illegal crossings remain at historical lows overall. In fiscal 2018, which ended Sept. 30, U.S. agents arrested 396,579 people at the U.S.-Mexico border. From the 1980s into the mid-2000s, that number routinely surpassed 1 million, hitting a high of more than 1.6 million arrests in 2000.

This seeming discrepancy in the significance of the latest figures has allowed both sides to seize on the interpretation that fits their argument.

President Trump cites the near-term increase to buttress his case for a national emergency, which he declared to enable him to bypass Congress and divert more than $6 billion in federal funds for his long-promised border wall. Many lawmakers scrutinizing the border situation and the administrations response point to the long-term trend.

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Theyre confusing, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said of officials conflicting assessments in a hearing Wednesday. In the short term, apprehensions at the border are up. In the longer term, Im told that total apprehensions at the border last year were actually  their fifth-lowest levels over the past 46 years.

In the same hearing, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) used the latest statistics to rebut criticism that the presidents emergency is nonexistent.

In order to believe that theres a fake emergency at the border, you have to be blind to the facts or simply unwilling to listen, he said.

Yet Trump administration policies intended to deter migrants may be contributing to the recent increase, even as immigration overall remains at historical lows.

A spring increase?

Combining the number of migrants arrested crossing the border illegally and those arriving at ports of entry without authorization, last months total of 76,103 represents a 31% increase over January.

Migration tends to tick up in spring in response to labor demands in the United States. Yet over the last five months, the number of total apprehensions was already high, at 318,407, putting unauthorized migration on pace for its highest level in a decade.

Still, even a decade ago, in 2009, which was President Obamas first year in office, mass migration was at a low compared with the decades before, as a global recession discouraged many would-be migrants  primarily single Mexican males  from going north for work.

Who is coming

The system is overwhelmed not only by how many are coming, but also by what kinds of people are coming, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified at a separate hearing Wednesday.

In February, U.S. authorities stopped 7,249 unaccompanied minors and 40,385 family units. Lone minors and families traveling together, mostly from Central America, represented a majority, or 62%, of all apprehensions.

Our capacity is already severely strained, but these increases will overwhelm the system entirely, Nielsen said. This is not a manufactured crisis. This is truly an emergency.

Though the numbers of children arriving at the border alone have stayed relatively steady, overall this year immigration authorities have seen a 300% increase in the number of family units compared with 2018, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This trend has exceeded the capacity of the handful of detention facilities dedicated to families and children, creating a bottleneck thats backed up into space intended as temporary holding facilities.

On Thursday, the Pentagon said it had been asked by the Department of Health and Human Services to find space for a potential 5,000 unaccompanied minors at Defense Department facilities.

Where theyre crossing

In 2017, the Border Patrol encountered only two groups of 100 or more people crossing the border. Last year, it was 13. So far this year, there have been 70, with more than 12,000 total migrants stopped.

They are increasingly crossing at remote parts of the border, often at the behest of smugglers or guides known as coyotes, where rugged terrain and short staffing at border facilities can lead to dangerous health conditions.

In December, two migrant children died in U.S. custody, leading Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to announce Tuesday new measures to ensure sufficient medical care for migrants, including health screenings for all children and a new processing center in El Paso.

The El Paso sector, which covers remote New Mexico as well as western Texas, has seen a more than 400% increase in arrests, with a 1,689% increase in family units and 296% increase in unaccompanied minors, according to agency data.

What difference does a wall make?

Family units and unaccompanied minors, who come from Central America and voluntarily turn themselves in to agents to claim asylum, account for the majority of border arrests. They arrive in areas with barriers or without.

Today, some 70% of all crossings are by migrants from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, according to McAleenan. Because Mexican migrants are more likely to be subject to expedited removal, given the proximity of their country, they are more likely to try to evade border agents.

Nielsen struggled to explain how putting billions toward a border wall as Trump has demanded would address a dramatic increase in asylum claims and a backlog thats reached some 800,000 cases.

In 2018, asylum claims at southwest border ports of entry increased by 120%  a record, McAleenan said. So far this year, theyve grown by 90%.

Metering  making matters worse?

By continuing to limit the number of asylum seekers entering the United States at official ports, a practice known as metering, or by forcing them to wait in Mexico while their cases are processed, Trump administration officials are probably pushing some migrants to illegally cross between ports of entry.

That may account for why apprehensions, the most commonly used measure of illegal crossings, have seen dramatic upticks in recent months, while the number of those arriving at entry points without authorization has stayed relatively steady, around 10,000, since October.

The bottom line

Exacerbating a bottleneck of asylum seekers at official ports of entry, and thereby encouraging people to try to cross in increasingly remote border areas, might seem to buttress Trumps emergency declaration and case for a wall. Yet the crisis-level numbers also undermine the presidents argument that after more than two years in the White House, his tough talk and aggressive approach to reducing immigration are working.

molly.otoole@latimes.com

Twitter: @mollymotoole
If you ever feel like a wallflower and want lots of attention pronto, heres an idea: Express an opinion about pled versus pleaded on social media. Any opinion will do.

No matter what you say, youll get tons of people telling you youre wrong and just as many people telling your detractors that they, in fact, are wrong.

Recently, former U.S. Atty. Preet Bharara took to Twitter to espouse his preference for pled over pleaded. The tweet got 19,000 likes and 1,100 replies, many of them passionately arguing one side or the other.

Bravo!, one anonymous Twitter user replied. Grammatically, it should be pled in a legal context. Pleaded is for intimate, personal interactions. He pled guilty to Muellers charges, then pleaded with his wife to forgive him.

This isnt the first time a controversy over pled versus pleaded has set the internet on fire.

In late 2017, self-styled language sleuths set out to determine the true author of a presidential tweet based solely on its use of pled as the past participle of plead.

Amid speculation that lawyer John Dowd penned the tweet under Donald Trumps name, one observer stirred up a hornets nest by asking, Were supposed to believe John Dowd wrote pled instead of pleaded?

The implication: Surely, no lawyer would use the obviously incorrect pled, right?

I understand why people have strong opinions on language. I might have a few myself.

But I dont understand how people who are certain one way is right and another is wrong dont consult a dictionary before they document their unfounded certainty in a public forum.

For example, the person who tweeted that pleaded is reserved for intimate personal relationships offered no source for the assertion other than his own absolute certainty.

Ive been writing about language since 2002, researching such matters on a regular basis, and never come across this idea, much less a rule to this effect.

So which is right: pled or pleaded? Regular readers probably hear this coming: Both forms are correct. The one you choose should depend on whose authority you accept.

Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary says the simple past tense and the past participle form are pleaded or pled, in that order. That means you can use both.

Websters New World College Dictionary takes a narrower view: It gives you just one option: pleaded.

American Heritage sides with Merriams, stating that pleaded and pled are both acceptable.

For regular everyday users, dictionaries are the best authorities. And because some dictionaries allow either pled or pleaded, you can consider that a green light to use whichever you prefer.

But more specialized language authorities arent as flexible.

The Associated Press Stylebook states: Do not use the colloquial past-tense form pled.

Remember that APs job is different from the dictionarys job. AP is a playbook that aims to help ensure consistency within a publication.

Its not APs job to say, You can use either. Its APs job to say, We need to write it the same way on Page 1 that we do on Page 20, so were going to make a call here.

If you want to know whats proper in legal contexts, you turn to a legal language expert like Bryan Garner.

In Garners Modern American Usage, he acknowledges that both forms are acceptable in general usage. He even offers some interesting insights into the differences between American and British English.

The Brits, it turns out, are no fans of pled. Though that form was once more common across the pond, pled has taken a dive in popularity in recent centuries.

But as a legal language expert, Garner has a clear preference. Traditionally speaking, pleaded is the best past-tense and past-participial form.

JUNE CASAGRANDE is the author of The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know. She can be reached at JuneTCN@aol.com.

JUNE CASAGRANDE is the author of The Best Punctuation Book, Period. She can be reached at JuneTCN@aol.com.
BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- China's adjustment of its GDP growth target this year has, unsurprisingly, become the latest "evidence" for China skeptics to talk up a potential crash landing, property bubble bursting and financial crisis.

However, history will show that the naysaying is nothing but a bunch of false alarms, and investors bearish on China will miss many, many opportunities offered by the world's largest developing economy.

Yes, China's economy has slowed and is facing headwinds. The country's GDP expanded 6.6 percent last year, and the growth target is set at 6-6.5 percent for 2019. China faces "a graver and more complicated environment as well as risks and challenges" this year, according to the government work report delivered Tuesday.

But the lenses of the doubters are out of focus, fixated on the challenges and ignoring the upsides.

A slower headline GDP number doesn't tell the bigger picture -- a faster rebalancing economy driven more by consumption than by exports and investment. An overblown enumeration of China's challenges fail to take into account the nation's sound economic fundamentals and the government's powerful policy arsenal.

Far from a hard landing, the Chinese economy is actually in the midst of a positive and opportunity-rich transformation towards becoming a rising innovator and booming consumer.

Surely, China is gradually losing its edge in low-cost workforce as labor salaries and welfare increase, but nurturing policies and growing investment on research and development in advanced manufacturing sectors such as robotics and new energy vehicles offer a bigger, tastier pie for overseas firms and investors.

The biggest gold mines are likely to be found in the burgeoning service sector, an ever growing contributor to China's economic expansion in recent years. Finance, education, elderly care, medicine, to name but a few, are in big demand thanks to the increasingly affluent population who crave better products and experiences.

China held the first international import expo in Shanghai last November, attracting over 3,600 enterprises and nailing deals worth 57.8 billion U.S. dollars, indicative of the country's ballooning import market.

Ask any multinational firm whether they will continue to invest in China, the answer is rarely no, as they simply cannot afford to overlook a market with an expanding talent pool and logistics network as well as the world's largest middle-income and online communities.

The negative list outlining industries off-limits to foreign investors will be further shortened and wholly foreign funded firms will be allowed to operate in more sectors, according to the government work report.

Concerns over market access and intellectual property rights protection will ease gradually. The ongoing legislative session will review a unified foreign investment law, further creating abundant opportunities for global investors who are prepared to secure a place in the world's second largest economy.

The Chinese economy have proved doomsayers wrong for decades and that will continue. The Chinese market has benefited global investors for about 40 years, and more opening-up policies are sure to share fatter dividends. China doubters are risking ending up as losers.
Tourists and residents strolling along Laguna Beachs Main Beach boardwalk Wednesday afternoon heard a bell ring, followed by a mans voice streaming from the lifeguard tower.

This is the city of Laguna Beach testing the downtown outdoor warning system, the voice said. In certain emergencies, this system may be used to communicate important information.

The notice sounded twice from the Main Beach location as well as from loudspeakers at Heisler Park and City Hall. Laguna Beachs emergency operations coordinator, Jordan Villwock, said the second message was to account for a power hiccup the first time.

When we hit play, there was a little bit of a skipping, he said. Thats why we test ... to see the ins and outs. And Im glad it came out in the test.

At the same time  a few minutes after 3 p.m.  an Amber alert-like test showed up on the cellphones of people within the boundaries of Laguna Beach. Laguna Beach emergency alert test. No action required, the message read. There also was a link to the Laguna Beach website requesting feedback about the test.

Probably within five seconds of us pressing the send button  the alert went out, Villwock said. That was pretty cool.

It was the first test of the wireless emergency alert system since Laguna Beach last year became the first city in Orange County to access it, Villwock said. Other cities, such as Aliso Viejo  which also tested its alert Wednesday  have followed suit.

The outdoor warning system was last tested a year ago. The city used the system Feb. 14 to alert downtown business owners to put up their floodgates when a storm drenched Laguna and destroyed part of a flood wall.

Wednesdays wireless emergency alert test included a link to the Laguna Beach website, where the city is asking for feedback. (Photo by Faith E. Pinho)

Abdul Almu, 53, had been in Laguna Beach for just 10 minutes when the emergency alert tests went off. Almu, his wife and three children had stepped out of their car after a three-day drive from Kansas City. He said he received the cellphone alert first and saw it was just a test. But when the loudspeakers sounded, he had a moment of panic.

Because of the wind, I thought there was an  actual emergency, said Almu, who was wrapped in a windbreaker to protect against Wednesdays strong beach breeze. But when I heard that its just a test  we calmed down.

Serena Li, 29, was visiting from the eastern Chinese province of Anhui when the alerts went off. She was standing on the corner of Ocean Avenue and South Coast Highway, taking photos and videos of birds swooping over the boardwalk. When the voice came over the loudspeaker, she thought something had happened.

She had never heard an alert like it before but thought the system would be effective in a real emergency.

The sound will ... warn you something will happen and get together, Li said. Better than if you dont know anything.

Villwock said he was happy with the tests. Of the nearly 2,700 responses to the survey in the cellphone alert, 98.5% said once-a-year testing is acceptable, he said.

Keroy Fields, 42, who has been staying in Laguna Beach for a few months, was sitting on a bench along the boardwalk, playing tunes on a recorder just before the outdoor warning sounded. He said he didnt think it would have been very useful in a real emergency.

I think it needs to be louder, because people along the beach  I dont know if they would have heard it, he said.

Villwock said the city purposely didnt use the intense and attention-grabbing tones that would be used during a real emergency.

Laguna Beach has several warning systems for various levels of emergencies. In addition to the wireless emergency alert and the downtown loudspeakers, the city can use AlertOC, an Orange County system that sends messages to landline phones in case of a life-or-death emergency. The city also can ask the county to activate its Emergency Alert System to issue countywide warnings on AM and FM radio and TV.

Lagunas community alert system gives a variety of notices  from traffic advisories to flood watches  to residents who sign up.

The city also is discussing possibly expanding the outdoor warning system to blast messages citywide.
In January, I joined the California State Assembly delegation to Washington, D.C. in order to connect one-on-one with House and Senate leaders. We met members of the energized and emboldened California freshmen class, including Reps. Katie Hill, Mike Levin, Harley Rouda and Katie Porter, as well as our more seasoned representatives, Rep. Adam Schiff and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In these meetings, we discussed issues specific to our districts and state, as well as those affecting the nation.

As a country, we are facing numerous challenges, many of which come with a ticking clock. We know we must act swiftly and definitively in order to find and implement solutions.

One of the most interesting conversations we had was with Lee Saunders, president of the prominent labor union AFSCME. This informative exchange covered everything from the jobs of the future and the struggle to retain a healthy middle class, to workers rights, paid family leave, and our work to prevent sexual harassment. In recent years, the state Legislature has passed measures that raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, increase paid family leave and disability benefits, and implement new workplace equity protections. We also discussed how we will move forward after the California Supreme Courts Dynamex decision, which established a new ABC Test that determines whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor, an issue to be addressed this year by my colleague Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalezs AB 5. The meeting helped me better understand organized labors priorities, and the states role as a defender of working Californians.

In our discussion with Rep. Jimmy Gomez, we focused on our states role in immigration. In recent years, California has made it clear we stand with our immigrant population. Gomez shared an update on the status of SB 54 (De Leon); a measure passed in 2017 that regulates the cooperation between local law enforcement and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We discussed our commitment to maintaining the temporary protected status of countless people who call our state home.

Gomez then joined us for a conversation with Rep. Zoe Lofgren focused on the impact the 2020 Census could have on Californias voice and federal financial allocation. For the first time ever, the Census will be conducted primarily online, which presents a unique set of challenges for many states. We are also currently locked in a legal battle with the federal government alongside several other states over a new citizenship question that could discourage many Californians from responding to the Census, potentially decreasing both our representation and funding.

While we have our differences with the current administration, it is crucial that we are able to cooperate and coordinate with the federal government. We had a productive and pleasant meeting with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Jim Hubbard, who is charged with overseeing the U.S. Forest Service, the federal agency responsible for wildfire prevention and recovery. We discussed Californias current efforts to lower wildfire risk, with Hubbard giving a very positive review of our partnership and our states practices. Our relationship with federal partners is key to our ability to tackle the challenges wildfires present. Forest lands make up one-third of all land in California. Of that land, 57% is owned and managed by the federal government; state and local governments combined only account for 3%. As the chair of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, I look forward to working with the federal government to explore all the options available to develop more effective wildfire mitigation and response efforts.

Our two-day trip was packed with too many meeting to highlight in this brief space. Other topics discussed included gun control, internet privacy protections, payday lending and water resources. So what did I learn? First, its abundantly apparent there is an incredible amount of talent, determination and passion in our current class of congressional representatives. The Assembly stands as a ready and able partner to partner on a host of issues.

Most importantly, this delegation reminded me of the incredible privilege and responsibility our state possesses. Over the last few years, we have made big, bold efforts to tackle some of our most difficult challenges. We should all be proud. That pride should empower us to continue to lead the charge, and with it, recommit to working tirelessly to ensure that our communities, state and nation are the best they can be for all people. I know my colleagues and I stand ready, energized and willing to do just that in the months ahead.

Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) represents La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, Glendale, Burbank and neighboring communities in the the 43rd Assembly District.
Hello, my name is John Cherwa and welcome back to our horse racing newsletter as we continue with Jon Whites Derby rankings.

So, did we miss anything?

Oh, man.

Yes, there is no racing at Santa Anita, pending an investigation of the main dirt course. Here are the stats: seven deaths during racing on the dirt course, five on the turf course, nine during training.

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Weve supplied a lot of coverage on our website and print editions since that happened.

Heres a list of stories:

How it went down that Santa Anita suspended racing. Just click here.

Then we named and looked at the 21 horses who lost their lives. Just click here.

And for the latest, just click here. Just click here.

Not sure when well be back, but at least once a week. So, check us out there at latimes.com/sports.

Jon Whites Kentucky Derby rankings

There is no bigger expert than Jon White. He makes the morning line at Santa Anita, hes a licensed steward, and hes the pre-eminent historian on racing. Were lucky to have him. So, heres his Kentucky Derby rankings, brought courtesy of Xpressbet.com.

Game Winner, who is No. 1 on my Kentucky Derby Top 10, and Improbable, ranked No. 2, were supposed to meet in Saturdays San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita. But there will be no San Felipe--or any other races--Saturday afternoon at Santa Anita. The thoroughbred competition here has been halted indefinitely following a plethora of equine fatalities since the tracks season opened on Dec. 26.

Bob Baffert trains both Game Winner and Improbable. When the San Felipe was scrubbed, it was a whopper of a curve ball for Baffert, who suddenly is forced to come up with a Plan B for the two highly ranked colts. It appears both now will be running in Oaklawn Parks Rebel Stakes on March 16.

The $1 million Rebel, which will be at 1 1/16 miles, offers 85 qualifying points (50-20-10-5) for the May 4 Kentucky Derby. If the Rebel is split, each division will have a purse of $750,000 and 63.75 qualifying points (37.5-15-7.5-3.75) representing 75% of the original purse.

Louis Cella, Oaklawns president, said in a news release: Oaklawn stands ready to help horsemen around the country. From a financial standpoint, splitting the race makes no sense whatsover. If we split it, it will be strictly on the basis of sportsmanship and what is best for the sport and best for the top 3-year-olds trying to get to the Kentucky Derby.

If the Rebel is split, it will be the first time in the history of racing for a $1 million race to be run in two divisions.

Instagrand, who is ranked No. 4 on my Kentucky Derby Top 10, also had been expected to go in the San Felipe until it was announced last week that he instead would be making his 2019 debut in the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct. Saturdays one-mile Gotham has attracted eight entries. Instagrand has been installed as the morning-line favorite at even money. Javier Castellano rides the Into Mischief colt.

Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Instagrand has not raced since he won the Best Pal Stakes by a little more than 10 lengths at Del Mar last Aug. 11. In his only other start, Instagrand won a maiden race at Los Alamitos by 10 lengths on June 29.

Among those taking on Instagrand in the Gotham are Mind Control (9-2 on the morning line), Not That Brady (5-1) and Haikal (6-1). Mind Control, victorious in the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga last year, won the Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct on Jan. 1. Not That Brady ran second in the Withers Stakes at the Big A on Feb. 2. Haikal won the Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct on Feb. 9.

Baffert is represented in the Gotham by Much Better (10-1 morning line), who has made two starts at Santa Anita this year. Much Better finished third in the Jan. 5 Sham Stakes, then won an allowance/optional claiming game by 3 1/2 lengths on Feb. 9 when Mike Smith rode the colt for the first time. Smith will be back aboard the son of Pioneerof the Nile in the Gotham. Baffert won the 2015 Triple Crown with a son of Pioneerof the Nile, American Pharoah, who was ridden by Victor Espinoza. Baffert and Smith collaborated to win the 2018 Triple Crown with Justify.

The Gotham and Saturdays Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs each offer 85 qualifying points (50-20-10-5) for the Kentucky Derby. The Tampa Bay Derby, a 1 1/16-mile affair, hs a field of 11.

The 5-2 morning-line favorite is Win Win Win. The Florida-bred Hat Trick colt won the Jan. 19 Pasco Stakes by 7 1/4 lengths when he stepped seven furlongs in a sizzling 1:20.89 to break the track record.

Michael Trombetta trains Win Win Win. Trombetta started the favorite in the 2006 Kentucky Derby, Sweetnorthernsaint, who finished seventh at 5-1. Barbaro won by 6 1/2 lengths at 6-1.

The second choice on the Tampa Bay Derby morning line at 7-2 is Well Defined, with Dream Maker listed at 4-1. Well Defined, trained by Kathleen OConnell, led all the way in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa on Feb. 9 when he wonprevailed by nearly three lengths. Dream Maker registered an 8 1/2-length triumph in an allowance/optional claiming race for trainer Mark Casse at Fair Grounds on Feb. 9. Casse also conditions War of Will, who ranks No. 3 on my Top 10. War of Will is slated to make his next start in the 1 1/8-mile Louisiana Derby at the New Orleans Fair Grounds on March 23.

Eleven will be vying for 34 Kentucky Derby qualifying points (20-8-4-2) in Saturdays Jeff Ruby Steaks, a 1 1/18-mile race that will be decided on Turfway Parks synthetic surface. The 8-5 morning-line favorite is Somelikeithotbrown, who won Turfways John Battaglia Memorial by /2 lengths in his first 2019 start on Feb. 15. Trained by Michael Maker, Somelikeithotbrown is a son of 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Big Bron.

Code of Honor and Bourbon War finished first and second, respectively, in Gulfstream Parks Fountain of Youth Stakes at 1 1/16 miles last Saturday. They are newcomers this week on my Kentucky Derby Top 10.

Trained by Shug McGaughey, Code of Honor won the Fountain of Youth by three-quarters of a length at 9-1. The Noble Mission colt rebounded after he had finished a disappointing fourth as a 4-5 favorite in Gulfstreams Mucho Macho Man Stakes on Jan. 5.

Bourbon War rallied from far back in the Fountain of Youth to finish second in a fine performance at 4-1. The Tapit colt, trained by Mark Hennig, galloped out in front after the finish.

Vekoma ran third in the Fountain of Youth at 3-1, followed by 6-5 favorite Hidden Scroll in fourth. For Vekoma, it was his first defeat in three lifetime starts. Hidden Scroll, trained by Bill Mott, weakened a bit during the stretch run of the Fountain of Youth after running way too fast early.

Hidden Scroll was making only his second career start after a dazzling 14-length maiden win on a sloppy track Jan. 26. Under the circumstances, Hidden Scroll certainly did not disgrace himself in the Fountain of Youth. Nevertheless, after being ranked No. 5 last week, I have dropped Hidden Scroll off my Top 10 this week.

Mucho ranked No. 6 and Signalman was No. 7 last week. They both also now are gone from my Top 10 this week. Signalman finished seventh in the Fountain of Youth at 13-1. Mucho returned from a layoff to win a six-furlong allowance/optional claiming race by 1 1/4 lengths at Gulfstream last Friday for Mott. However, Mott told Daily Racing Forms Jay Privman that it is a fair assessment that Mucho is off the Derby trail. Mott said Mucho will make his next start in Aqueducts Bay Shore Stakes at seven furlongs on April 7.

Roadster is another newcomer to my Top 10 this week at No. 8 to join three fellow Baffert trainees, No. 1 Game Winner, No. 2 Improbable and No. 6 Mucho Gusto. Roadster returned to competition with sparkling 2 1/2-length win in a one-mile allowance/optional claiming race last Friday at Santa Anita. It was Roadsters first start since the Quality Road colt had finished third as the 3-5 favorite in the Del Mar Futurity last Sept. 3. Roadster underwent surgery to correct a breathing problem after that loss at Del Mar. Game Winner won the Del Mar Futurity at 8-5, then also captured the American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita and Breeders Cup Juvenile at Churchill on his way to being voted a 2018 Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old male.

Here are this weeks rankings, courtesy of Xpressbet:

1. Game Winner (1)

2. Improbable (2)

3. War of Will (3)

4. Instagrand (4)

5. Code of Honor (NR)

6. Mucho Gusto (8)

7. Bourbon War (NR)

8. Roadster (NR)

9. Omaha Beach (9)

10. Galilean (10)

NOTE: Last weeks rankings in parentheses.

Golden Gate weekend preview

Santa Anita may not be running but Golden Gate is, so were back with our weekly look at the best racing at Golden Gate Fields. As with the last couple meetings, were delighted to have race caller and all-around good guy Matt Dinerman as our host for previews and other musings. So, take it away, Matt.

Golden Gate Fields is on its usual four-day schedule of Thursday through Friday.

Friday has an eight-race race program with a solid late Pick 5 sequence. The fourth race features a salty group of filly and mare sprinters while the fifth race is a 1 1/16-mile allowance event, the sixth race is another 1 1/16-mile allowance race for 3-year-old colts. The seventh race is a second-level allowance race for older colts and geldings. The eighth race is a maiden route for 3-year-olds.

The fifth and six races on Friday are the last two legs of the Stronach 5 wager, with a $100,000 guaranteed pool. The fifth race is wide open. I give the nod to Gettin Sideways, a filly who had traffic issues in her last start. She was loaded down the stretch and just had nowhere to go, eventually checking and losing all her momentum and the chance to win the race. The sixth race, features the Northern California debut of Our Silver Oak, who has done some good work down South and should be tough to beat if he runs his best race. Also entered is The Creep, who recently finished off-the-board finish in the El Camino Real Derby.

Speaking of the El Camino Real Derby, well end this portion of the newsletter by noting that Anothertwistafate, who won the 2019 Derby by a large margin, recorded his first timed workout since his race. On Saturday, the Blaine Wright-trainee worked an easy half mile in 49.40 seconds. Jockey Juan Hernandez, aboard for the work, said that Anothertwistafate worked well. Anothertwistafate will make his next start in the Sunland Derby on March 24.

Big races preview

I know were a day early, but heres a look at graded stakes or races worth more $100,000 or more on Saturday. All times PST.

12:45 Tampa Bay (8): $100,000 Challenger Stakes, 4 and up, 1 1/16 miles. Favorite: Flameaway (3-2)

1:06 Aqueduct (8): Grade 3 $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap, 4 and up, 6 furlongs. Favorite: Skylers Scramjet (8-5)

1:19 Tampa Bay (9): Grade 2 $225,000 Hllsborough Stakes, fillies and mares 1 1/8 miles. Favorite: Rymska (5-2)

1:37 Aqueduct (9): $150,000 Stymie Stakes, 4 and up, 1 mile. Favorite: Sunny Ridge (8-5)

1:50 Tampa Bay (10): Grade 3 $200,000 Florida Oaks, fillies 3-years-old, 1 1/16 miles. Favorite: Concrete Rose (7-2)

2:09 Aqueduct (10): Grade 3 $300,000 Gotham Stakes, 3-year-olds,1 mile. Favorite: Instagrand (1-1)

2:09 Oaklawn (7): $150,000 Hot Springs Stakes, 4 and up, 6 furlongs. Favorite: Whitmore (1-1)

2:25 Tampa Bay (11): Grade 2 $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby, 3-years-old, 1 1/16 miles. Favorite: Win Win Win (5-2)

2:40 Aqueduct (11): $250,000 Busher Invitational, fillies 3-years-old, 1 mile. Favorite: Please Flatter Me (3-1)

3:09 Oaklawn (9): Garde 3 $200,000 Honeybee Stakes, fillies 3-years-old, 1 1/16 miles. Favorite: Motion Emotion (3-1)

Los Alamitos weekend preview

This weekly segment is in the hands of Orlando Gutierrez, marketing and media maven at Los Al. So, the floor is yours, Orlando.

Multiple stakes winner Love To Reason BR will face recent Time To Leave, Denim N Diamonds Handicap winner, and four other top females in the $15,000 Danville Station Handicap at 350 yards on Friday night at Los Alamitos Race Course. Named in honor of the 1982 Anne Burnett Handicap and Vessels Maturity winning mare, the Danville Station, is the featured race of the night. First post on Fridays is now 6 p.m.

Trained by Monty Arrossa and to be ridden by Jose Nicasio, Love To Reason BR is making her first start since running fourth to Thermonuclear Energy in the Grade 1 Charger Bar Handicap on Jan. 6. The 6-year-old won a pair of stakes races at Los Alamitos last year, including the Grade 3 Las Damas Handicap. She has won five of her last 10 races.

Time To Leave outdueled a quality field of mares that included Thermonuclear Energy to win the Denim N Diamonds at 350 yards on Feb. 16. The victory was Time To Leaves second in a row following her allowance win on Dec. 30

Saturday night, Favorite Wise Lady, Terrific First Down and You Caught My Eye, a trio of stakes placed fillies in major Los Alamitos races, headline a pair of trials to the $210,000 La Primera Del Ano Derby. A total of 17 fillies will compete in the La Primera trials at 400 yards. The horses with the 10 fastest times will return for the final on March 30. First post on Saturday is 6:05 p.m. with the Derby trials slated as races seven and eight.

Favorite Wise Lady will start from the one in the opening La Primera trial. Shes a half-sister to AQHA champion 3-year-old filly A Political Lady, the winner of the La Primera last year. Favorite Wise Lady finished second to the outstanding Powerful Favorite in the Governors Cup Futurity last year.

Starting in 2020, the La Primera will be renamed the Los Alamitos Oaks for sophomore fillies with a projected $400,000 purse.

The sixth race on Saturday is the anticipated 550-yard debut of the Champion of Champions finalist Yanque in a $12,000 allowance event. Trained by Matt Fales, Yanque is famous for his incredible late runs and he figures to relish this distance. Hell face a cast headed by Well Good, the winner of the Cypress Handicap at 350 yards. The Kiddy Up gelding has finished in the money in 21 of 26 lifetime races.

Quarter horse racings top sophomore males will run Sunday night in the trials to the $211,000 El Primero Del Ano Derby. Powerful Favorite, winner of the Grade 1 Winter Derby, Ali Babe Foose, Californias champion 2-year-old colt, and Apollitical Pence, who qualified to all three of Los Alamitos million dollar futurities in 2018, will headline the El Primero trials. Twenty five runners will compete with the 10 fastest times moving on to the final on March 31.

Chris Wades LA pick of the day

RACE 3: No. 2 MoveOver Rover (5-1)

He just crushed a strong and productive group of maidens over a wet fast track on Feb. 14 in which fourth-place finisher Cheyenne Dancer has since returned to win by five lengths last Saturday. For the Charles Treece-trained Move Over Rover, he returned off a long 111-night layoff, while making his first local start after racing at Zia Park. With an off track expected for which this gelding is well proven over, lets push this big bodied quarter horse to break on the lead and hopefully hold them all off down the lane at a medium mutual price.

(Chris Wade has been the racing analyst and host of the Los Alamitos night simulcast broadcast for nearly two decades. While Ed Burgart is on vacation, Chris also fills in as the nighttime morning-line maker.)

Final thought

If you would like to subscribe to the newsletter you can click here and sign up. Remember, its free, and all we need is your email, nothing more. Tell your friends, or even people you dont like that much.

Any thoughts, you can reach me at johnacherwa@gmail.com. You can also feed my ego by following me on Twitter @jcherwa.

Where did our stars of the show go? I guess, the stars have already entered the building with Jon, Matt and Orlando. Thanks, guys. Not sure when well be back, but maybe next Friday.
A tour led by Peruvian women to Machu Picchu. An off-road race in Morocco for women only. A kayaking trip for women on British Columbias coast. On International Womens Day, many trips and tours salute adventurous women everywhere and the trails they continue to blaze. Here are three to try.

Peru: Travel outfitter Southern Explorations offers a new tour led by trained local women to Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, and other sites. We already work with these fantastic guides, spokeswoman Lisa Malmgren said. I thought it would be a great thing to feature that on a trip.

Southern Explorations newest Peru tour for women features cultural activities, such as meeting women weavers. (Fernando Barranzuela)

The group is limited to 10 and allows participants to experience culture from a womens perspective. Exploring Incan ruins and archeological sites, and hiking and walking in the countryside are part of the itinerary. Sept. 14-21; $3,150$3,395, double occupancy, $750 single supplement.

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Info: Southern Explorations Peru Womens Adventure, (877) 784-5400

Morocco: Anyone want to drive from France to the Morocco? Since 1990, the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles du Maroc has been creating a tribe of modern women with a road rally exclusively for women. It starts in Nice and moves on to a wicked offroad component through the Moroccan desert.

Relive womens history in Seneca Falls national park and come away with new heroes 

Each day of the race, two-person teams whose members are at least 18 years old, show up in four-wheel drive vehicles, trucks or motorbikes. They study maps and check courses for the challenge of finding the shortest distance to a given point, at times over tough terrain.

Its hosted by the nonprofit organization Coeur de Gazelle, which supports local Moroccans in remote parts of the country. Projects focus on medical care, education, the environment, training women for jobs and other needs. March 15-30 (pre-registration for 2020 race is open).

Info: Rallye Aicha des Gazelles du Maroc

Canada: In honor of International Womens Day, Wild Women Expeditions has launched a Womenkind initiative with this goal: We want the world to be a kinder place. Part of that involves being kind to the land and protecting the Great Bear Rainforest in coastal British Columbia.

Women who want to see the rainforest up close can sign up for an eight-day kayaking and camping journey. Departs July 8 and 15; $2,235 per person, $78 for single upgrade.

Info: Wild Women Expeditions Great Bear Rainforest tours, (888) 993-1222

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel
Massive (for us) rains have heightened anticipation of wildflowers. For those who are looking for the floral feast, here are three places to look for wildflowers this weekend.

One place thats not quite ready for prime time: Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. Although Joshua trees are blooming, its website notes that flowers will be at their peak beginning mid-March so a visit there may be premature. And if the sun is not out, neither are the full blooms of the poppies.

Also, check the Theodore Payne Foundation wildflower hotline at (818) 768-1802, Ext. 7. Thats the voice of actor Joe Spano, whose timely narrative leads you to SoCal blooms.

The state parks flower hotline for Friday  (760) 767-4684  is urging visitors to visit now and often because the flower show will change as conditions do as well. The park is about 160 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

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There is color around the visitor center, it notes, and also S22 between Mile Marker 31 and 35 in the southern part of the park, June Wash on S22 near marker 42.

The parks wildflower bloom map shows several places in the park that have color, including Coyote Canyon but notes that the road is rough because of flooding, and Texas Dip above San Felipe Wash just north of California 78. It notes great flowers at Ocotillo Wells State Vehicle Recreation Area and the corresponding website says the flowers are among the best we have seen in a long time.anza bo

Info: Anza Borrego is open dawn until dusk. A day pass is $10 per vehicle. Visitor center is open 9 a.m.-5 pm. (760) 767-4205.

Access the Stunt High Trail by parking on Stunt Road, about a mile from Mullholland Highway, the Theodore Payne hotline for Friday says. The trail runs along Cold Creek.

Youll be rewarded for your efforts hiking the Stub High Trail by seeing milkmaids, always an early bloomer in the Santa Monica Mountains, purple nightshade, fuchsia-flowering gooseberry and wild cucumber. Look also for wild hyacinth and flowering ash trees.

Info: Theodore Payne Foundation. Check out the map for directions.

Lake Elsinore

The word is out about the blooms at Lake Elsinore and consequently the world is out. Big traffic jams have been reported on Interstate 15 as visitors queue up to see the poppy-covered hills in Walker Canyon.

Its being called a superbloom, which isnt a scientific term, but science isnt important when youre starved for something other than rain. About 1,000 people a day are catching the show, which, The Times Mary Forgione writes, should last another week.

Info: To get there, take Lake Street off I-15 to a right on Walker Canyon Road.

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel
Late last August, 300 sub-Saharan migrants ran from the hills above this small Spanish enclave on the northern coast of Africa and stormed the 20-foot-high barbed-wire fence separating Spain from Morocco.

When 118 of them reached the other side, they hugged and yelped in disbelief. After journeying thousands of miles, after months of lying in wait in the forest for the perfect moment to cross, they had made it to Europe.

But the euphoria wouldnt last. A day later, 116 of the migrants were deported back to Morocco. After mass crossings into Ceuta, the 7-square-mile Spanish city of 85,000 on the Strait of Gibraltar and a stones throw from continental Europe, Spain has cracked down.

Spain has put in place a policy of externalization of border control to the Moroccans. Virginia Alvarez, researcher at Amnesty International Spain.

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Spains government, praised in the last year as more welcoming of immigrants than others in Europe, has partnered with Morocco to stop migrants from crossing its borders, or sometimes even approaching  prompting outcry from human rights groups.

Spain has put in place a policy of externalization of border control to the Moroccans, said Virginia Alvarez, a researcher at Amnesty International Spain. And Morocco does not comply with human rights standards.

The forests outside Ceuta where migrants once waited to cross are quiet; those whove made it into the city are laying low for fear of deportation. And in the northern Moroccan city of Tangier, migrants waiting to cross the Strait of Gibraltar tell of police raiding homes and packing people on buses to the countrys south.

Sub-Saharan migrants aiming to cross to Europe take shelter in a forest overlooking the neighborhood of Masnana, on the outskirts of Tangier, Morocco, in September 2018. (Mosaab Elshamy / Associated Press)

As historically high-migrant destinations including Italy closed their borders to refugees, Spain became the most popular route into Europe. Last year, 57,000 people crossed illegally into Spain, according to Frontex, the European Unions border and coast guard agency  surpassing 23,000 crossing into Italy and 56,000 into Greece and Cyprus.

The surge in migration to Spain  including a boat holding more than 600 immigrants turned away by Italy and Malta in June  prompted the nation to open a temporary refugee camp in Cadiz.

But human rights groups argue that Europe and especially Spain, which has struggled to accommodate the new arrivals, are outsourcing border policing to Morocco.

Last year, the European Union pledged about $159 million to Morocco in order to contain migration into Spain. In 2018, Moroccan officials intercepted 89,000 attempts to illegally cross into Spain, according to the countrys interior ministry.

A razor-wire-topped border fence separates the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco. (Meg Bernhard / For The Times)

Morocco is building new encampments for officers patrolling its border with Ceuta, an autonomous city with its own government like Spanish regions such as Catalonia or Basque Country. The Moroccans work in tandem with the Spanish civil guard, which monitors the fences cameras and motion sensors to detect potential border crossers.

And across the country last year, Moroccan police swept up thousands of immigrants in home raids, according to data collected by Amnesty International.

In many cases, police send immigrants to the south of Morocco instead of back to their home countries.

Theyre treating them like they are their owners, like [the immigrants] are sheep, said Santiago Agrelo Martinez, the archbishop of Tangier. They can put them and take them wherever they want.

(Los Angeles Times)

Thirty miles southwest of Ceuta, in Tangier, five Senegalese immigrants share the bottom floor of a building in the quiet neighborhood of Souani. Every month, they pool $460 for the two-bedroom flat tucked away in an alley off a street lined with orange trees and restaurants.

Their living situation is unusual, said Cheikh Mbaye, who has lived in the flat for three years and plans to return to Senegal; many immigrants save their money to pay smugglers, and instead cram into smaller apartments with 20 or 30 other people.

Mbaye and the others chose to live in Souani because the risk of a police raid is lower compared with other neighborhoods.

Each day [the police] come to break into the houses of the migrants who are here, to catch them and take them away to Tiznit, a city in southern Morocco, said Mbaye, 30.

Lamine Diop, 25, sat on a faded red cushion as he recounted the four times he had been detained and sent to Tiznit. One early morning, police broke down the door to an apartment where he had been staying with more than 25 other immigrants. He was handcuffed, taken to a detention center, then bused to Tiznit. Then he headed north again.

Ndeye Marieme Diop, 28, who is not related to Lamine Diop, has also been deported several times. She lived in Saudi Arabia and Casablanca before paying smugglers 500 euros for a place to stay in Tangier while she waited to cross into Spain. Her father had died and she considered it her responsibility as the oldest child to find a way to earn money for her family, including her 7-year-old.

In October, police broke down the door of her apartment, and she, too was sent to Tiznit, she said. When she returned to Tangier, she met Mbaye, who offered her a more stable place to stay.

Both Marieme and Lamine Diop said they planned to pay smugglers for a boat trip across the Strait of Gibraltar, a nine-mile stretch where the meeting of the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea creates powerful and dangerous crosscurrents.

Thousands attempted the crossing last year. Many didnt make it. On Jan. 12 alone, 53 migrants drowned when their boat capsized in the Alboran Sea.

Immigrants are increasingly choosing a sea route to Spain, according to a government official in Ceuta not authorized to speak on the topic. Spain would not deport immigrants rescued at sea, the official said.

But the country is quick to deport immigrants when they cross by land. For years officials have used a controversial practice known as pushbacks to immediately return immigrants to Morocco from the two historically Spanish-controlled cities in northern Africa, Melilla and Ceuta.

In 2018, 1,977 immigrants arrived illegally in Ceuta, according to the Spanish governments delegation in the city, a decrease from previous years.

Police watch over some of the hundreds of migrants that managed to get past the border fence in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave bordering Morocco, in July 2018. (Reduan/EPA/Shutterstock)

But after 800 migrants stormed the border in July, Spain reactivated a 1992 agreement with Morocco allowing for express deportations of migrants to their point of entry  effectively legalizing the rapid deportations already taking place. So when the 118 sub-Saharan migrants crossed the Ceuta fence in August, the policy was in place.

They rarely have a genuine chance to apply for asylum, said Judith Sunderland, associate director for Human Rights Watchs Europe and Central Asia division. The whole point of these readmissions agreements is a quick agreement for returns.

Spanish officials say the migrants were told of the opportunity to apply for asylum but declined. The central government in Madrid received 100 applications for asylum in Ceuta last year, the majority from Algerians.

The Spanish government has defended its practices at the Moroccan border, saying the immigrants who tried to enter Ceuta in July and August were violent, throwing acid and quicklime at police at the border.

Legally, its a very distinct situation from the migrants who we sometimes have to rescue, Spanish Vice President Carmen Calvo said in August, calling what happened at the Ceuta border unacceptable.

Inside the citys fences, Spanish officials are grappling with a different immigration problem: More than 300 unaccompanied Moroccans younger than 18 are estimated to live in Ceuta.

Some entered legally with their parents and stayed. Others hid under trucks or sneaked through the border with the thousands of Moroccans who cross into Ceuta each day to work.

Though they can stay at a crowded center for minors, many sleep between the concrete blocks of a jetty near the port.

A new proposal from the regional government of Melilla would give unaccompanied minors a deadline of three months before they are sent to their home countries or to other immigrant centers in Spain. One evening, standing on a curb near the ports western wall, a group of Moroccan immigrants discussed the proposal, worried a similar one could take effect in Ceuta.

Taufek Liaduni, 17, said he wanted to get out of Ceuta as soon as possible. Taufek dropped out of school at 14 and was unable to find work in Tetouan, his hometown. Two months ago, he crossed into Ceuta underneath a trailer, clutching its metal underside and breathing in fumes for an hour as it idled in traffic.

The border fence from the Ceuta side. (Meg Bernhard / For The Times)

He sleeps under the jetty, braving the cold sea air and the occasional rat that scrambles into his sleeping space. During the day, he wanders the city center asking for food and money. By night, he stakes out the port, waiting for the perfect moment to clamber over into a boat bound for the Iberian Peninsula.

Theres no other way, Taufek said.

Some of the citys residents complain about the immigrants and unaccompanied minors. Posters on the 3,000-member Facebook group Citizen Insecurity Ceuta accuse immigrants of committing crime and call for tighter border security.

But some in Ceuta are more sympathetic to the immigrants.

Jose Berrocal lived on his familys farm at the border with Morocco until he moved into the city center five decades ago, when he was 15 years old. Back then there was no border fence, and people wishing to cross the border could do so easily.

Now, he said from behind the counter of his tobacco shop, everything has changed. His cousins still live on the farm, near where the migrants stormed into Ceuta in August. Spanish civil guard members patrol the road leading to the farm, and no unauthorized visitors are allowed.

Berrocal spoke of the migrants as he handed a customer change: Theyre just trying to find a way to make a living. I understand that.

Bernhard is a special correspondent.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that an erosion of trust and lack of communication with his former justice minister led her to resign and accuse him of applying inappropriate pressure in a corruption prosecution  a dispute that has shaken his government.

But the prime minister made no apologies as he discussed the issue at a nationally televised news conference.

Former Justice Minister and Atty. Gen. Jody Wilson-Raybould told a parliamentary committee last week that Trudeau and senior officials tried to pressure her into instructing prosecutors to avoid criminal prosecution of Montreal-based engineering giant SNC-Lavalin and instead require it to pay fines over allegations of bribery in Libya.

The case has led to the resignations of two high-profile Cabinet ministers and Trudeaus top aide, as well as opposition calls for him to step down.

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Trudeau and his aides deny doing anything wrong, saying they were only pointing out that prosecution could endanger thousands of peoples jobs because a conviction would make the company ineligible for government contracts for a decade. The company is a major employer in Quebec, with about 3,400 employees in the province, 9,000 employees in Canada and more than 50,000 worldwide.

In regards to standing up for jobs and defending the integrity of our rule of law, I continue to say there was no inappropriate pressure, Trudeau said.

The prime minister said Wilson-Raybould told him Sept. 17 that she was declining to seek a remediation agreement, which would allow the company to pay a fine instead of facing criminal prosecution.

But Trudeau said he and other officials felt she was still open to arguments on the issue because such an agreement would be possible until the last moments of a trial.

We considered that she was still open to hearing different arguments and different approaches on what her decision could be, Trudeau said.

What we see now is that she wasnt prepared to change her mind.

Trudeau said Wilson-Raybould did not come to him to express her concerns about inappropriate pressure and said he wishes she had. He said situations were experienced differently, and I regret that.

I am obviously reflecting on lessons learned, he said. There are things we have to reflect on and understand and do better next time.

Wilson-Raybould was demoted from her role as attorney general and named veterans affairs minister in January as part of a Cabinet shuffle. She resigned weeks later.

Wilson-Raybould has said she believes she was demoted for failure to give in to the pressure.

Trudeaus former chief aide Gerald Butts, who resigned last month, denied that in testimony to a parliamentary committee Wednesday. He said other factors led to the shakeup, which involved several other Cabinet posts.

Trudeau said he tries to foster an environment where his lawmakers can come to him with concerns, but one of his Liberal Party colleagues, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, took issue with that, tweeting, I did come to you recently. Twice. Remember your reactions?

Caesar-Chavannes, who is not running for reelection, did not elaborate and did not immediately return messages seeking comment. She has issued messages of support for Wilson-Raybould on Twitter.

Other Liberal lawmakers have rallied around Trudeau in an election year. His party has the majority of seats in Parliament, so his government cannot be brought down in a vote of no confidence unless his own party members vote against him.

Federal elections are being held in October, however, and at least one poll says the Liberals are now trailing the Conservatives by a small margin.

If Trudeau should lose another Cabinet minister before the election, his leadership could be called into question and already shaken Liberals could rebel. So far, other Liberal Cabinet ministers are rallying around him.

Andrew Scheer, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, has called on Trudeau to resign and is asking police to investigate. Canadas ethics commissioner is investigating the issue, a probe that is expected to take months.

On Monday, Treasury Board President Jane Philpott, considered a star minister, said in a resignation letter that it was untenable for her to continue in the Cabinet because she lost confidence and could not defend the government.

The evidence of efforts by politicians and/or officials to pressure the former Attorney General to intervene in the criminal case involving SNC-Lavalin, and the evidence as to the content of those efforts have raised serious concerns for me, Philpott wrote.
Thousands of women walked off the job in Spain on Friday, joining millions more around the world demanding equality amid a persistent salary gap, violence and widespread inequality.

Marches and protests spread across the globe to mark International Womens Day, under the slogan #BalanceforBetter, with calls for a more gender-balanced world.

The day, sponsored by the United Nations since 1975, celebrates womens achievements and aims to further their rights.

Heres a look at events across the world:

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Europe

Women march holding flares in Madrid on March 8 for International Womens Day. (Bernat Armangue / Associated Press)

Police in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, detained three people as far-right demonstrators tried to provoke activists protesting domestic and sexual violence.

About 300 people gathered on Mykhailivska Square in central Kiev on Friday for the womens rights demonstration. Several dozen far-right demonstrators stood nearby, holding placards reading God! Homeland! Patriarchy! and Feminism is destroying Ukrainian families.

In Spain, where womens rights have become one of the hot topics in the run-up to a general election next month, many female employees didnt show up to work Friday. Others also halted domestic work or left the care of children and ill or elderly people to men.

In neighboring Portugal, the Cabinet observed a minute of silence Thursday as part of a day of national mourning it decreed for victims of domestic violence. Portuguese police say 12 women have died this year in domestic violence incidents  the highest number over the same period in 10 years.

In Vatican City, Pope Francis hailed the irreplaceable contribution of women to fostering peace.

Women make the world beautiful, they protect it and keep it alive, the Argentine Jesuit said.

Francis has vowed to give more decision-making roles to women in the Catholic Church, where the priesthood  and therefore the highest ranks of authority  is reserved for men. Some feminists bristle at Francis frequent use of the term feminine genius and his focus on women as mothers.

In Germany, topless feminist protesters went to one of the countrys most famous red-light districts in Hamburg and pulled down a metal barrier wall intended to keep out women who are not prostitutes.

Half a dozen women belonging to the Femen activist group had the slogan No brothels for women written on their bare backs in black lettering.

Legally, all women are allowed to enter the street, but in reality, most women obey the signs that read Entry only for men 18+.

In France, the first Simone Veil prize went Friday to a Cameroonian activist who has worked against forced marriages and other violence against girls and women. Aissa Doumara Ngatansou was married against her will at age 15 but insisted upon continuing her studies as a young wife. She has since turned her attention to victims of Boko Haram extremists.

The French award is named for the trailblazing French politician and Holocaust survivor Veil, who spearheaded the fight to legalize abortion.

Meanwhile in Russia, International Womens Day is a public holiday but it mostly lauds traditional gender roles.

When a Russian army recruitment office ordered a photo shoot to celebrate International Womens Day, it didnt feature any of the 45,000 women currently serving in the countrys armed forces.

A Russian Defense Ministry Press Service photo for International Womens Day shows ballerinas and male soldiers; 45,000 women serve in the countrys armed forces. (Associated Press)

Instead, the photos showed ballerinas in floaty white dresses posing with active servicemen in combat uniforms, brandishing machine guns.

As is his custom every year, President Vladimir Putin gave a speech thanking women for their patience, good grace and support.

You manage to do everything: both at work and at home and, at the same time, you remain beautiful, charismatic, charming, the center of gravity for the whole family, uniting it with your love, Putin said.

In Turkey, four female members of Turkeys gendarmerie units found an unusual way of marking the day: rappelling down from Istanbuls 15 July Martyrs Bridge connecting the citys European and Asian sides and into the waters of the iconic Bosphorus Strait.

Asia

Protesters in Manila on Friday criticized Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, opposed martial law in Mindanao, and called for equal rights. The womans headband reads enough. (Aaron Favila / Associate Press)

In India, hundreds of women marched in the streets of New Delhi demanding an end to domestic violence, sexual attacks and discrimination in jobs.

Boys are prized more than girls in India. Thousands of Indian women are killed  often doused in gasoline and burned to death  every year because the groom or his family feel the dowry she brought to the wedding was inadequate.

Political parties in India have for years been promising 33% of seats for women in the countrys Parliament, but they have yet to enact legislation to that effect.

In Indonesias capital, Jakarta, several hundred men and women carried colorful placards calling for an end to discriminative practices such as the termination of employment for pregnancy and exploitative work contracts.

Our action today is to urge [the government] for our right to a society thats democratic, prosperous, equal and free from violence, said Dian Trisnanti, a labor activist. Girls and women in Indonesia, the worlds fourth most populous country, have equal access to education but face higher unemployment, lower wages and poorer working conditions than men.

Both Koreas marked the day. In the South, women wearing black cloaks and pointed hats marched against what they describe as a witch hunt of feminists in a deeply conservative society.

Empowered by #MeToo, a new generation fights sexual abuse in South Koreas schools 

College student Noh Seo-young said that South Korea struggles to accept that women are also humans and that women have to fight until they can walk around safely.

In the North, where Womens Day is one of the few national holidays that is not explicitly political in nature, people dressed up for family photo shoots or bought roses for their mothers or wives at the many small, bright orange street stalls in central Pyongyang that sell flowers. The stalls normally do most of their business selling flowers to be placed at the feet of statues honoring the countrys leaders.

In the Philippines, hundreds of women in purple shirts used a noisy march and protest in Manila to call for the ouster of President Rodrigo Duterte, whom they rebuked for the often sexist jokes he cracks and authoritarian moves they say are threatening one of Asias liveliest democracies.

They toppled an ugly head effigy of Duterte from atop paper blocks with slogans depicting him as an American lapdog.

International Womens Day | Images from around the world 

North America

On the eve of International Womens Day, U.S. First Lady Melania Trump saluted women from 10 countries for their courage.

The recipients of the International Women of Courage Award included human rights activists, police officers and an investigative journalist. They came from Bangladesh, Djibouti, Egypt, Ireland, Jordan, Montenegro, Myanmar, Peru, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.

Courage is what divides those who only talk about change from those who actually act to change, Trump said at a ceremony Thursday that was also attended by Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo.

Pompeo separately recognized women in Iran for protesting the requirement that they wear a head covering known as a hijab in public, and a Ukrainian activist who died in 2018 after she was attacked with sulfuric acid.

Africa

Hundreds of women march in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, highlighting domestic violence, sexual attacks and discrimination in jobs and wages. (Khalil Senosi / Associated Press)

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who named one of the worlds few gender-balanced Cabinets last year, told a gathering that women are the pillars of the nation and the least recognized for their sacrifices.

People cheered the release of Nigerias Chibok girls  but thousands of others were kidnapped, raped and forgotten 

In Nigeria, the U.S. Embassy hosted talks on sexual harassment that included a founder of the recent #ArewaMeToo campaign among women in the countrys conservative, largely Muslim north. And in Niger, first lady Aissata Issoufou Mahamadou oversaw the awards in the Miss Intellect Niger contest.

Women protested against gender-based violence in Kenyas capital, Nairobi.

We havent gotten to a stage where women are comfortable to come out and say, I was sexually abused,  said protester Esther Passaris. So what we need to do is slowly, slowly grow.

When a Kenyan woman took up a mans job, people said shed be cursed. She persevered 
Clockwise from top left; a woman washes clothes in a street on International Women's Day in Guinea-Bissau; a protest against femicide in Nairobi, Kenya; artists work on a mural on a barrier wall of the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Kabul, Afghanistan; and members of the Women of the Wall feminist organization react after facing ultra-Orthodox Jews protesting against them during prayers inside the women's section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City.
It was after dark Wednesday when three buses pulled out of Mosul and headed southeast on a desolate desert road. The passengers were government-backed paramilitary fighters.

The city lights were well behind them when the convoy came under attack. By the time the shooting stopped, six paramilitary members were dead and 31 wounded.

Iraqi authorities quickly identified the culprit: Islamic State.

The attack, one of the deadliest since Iraq declared military victory over the extremist group in December 2017, was the clearest sign yet that the war isnt over.

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It has merely shifted to a new phase: Islamic State is trying to mount a comeback, and the Iraqi military is trying to root out sympathizers and sleeper cells still embedded in the extensive territory the group once controlled.

By many accounts, the government is failing to contain a budding insurgency, the sort of resilient, underground enemy that has outlived governments around the world.

Stripped of its territory  which once encompassed a third of both Iraq and Syria  Islamic State has reverted to its roots, using small, self-contained teams of operatives to conduct small-scale attacks and assassinations and rebuild its smuggling and ransom operations.

Were not talking about the networks they used to have. Now its cells of five or six people, said Shamkhi Mansour, a colonel in the intelligence branch of Iraqs Counter-Terrorism Service.

Iraqi military officials, security experts and the U.S. government said that Iraq has failed to develop the extensive intelligence network that would offer the best chance of rooting out the militants.

We had a victory in that we kicked out Daesh from cities, but weve failed in pursuing them in the rural areas and ferreting them out, said Hisham Hashimi, a counter-terrorism advisor to the government, using a derisive Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

The Pentagons inspector general reported last month that Iraq lacked reconnaissance assets, intelligence personnel and surveillance capabilities needed to counteract the group, which advocates an extreme version of Sunni Islam.

Instead, Iraqi forces have resorted to rounding up large numbers of Sunnis and holding sham trials of Islamic State suspects, a strategy that costs the Shiite-dominated government vital support and could increase support for the extremists.

According to activists and security personnel, tens of thousands of people across the country have been wrongly accused of supporting Islamic State because their names are similar to those of wanted militants. There has also been little allowance made for the many people who supported the extremists less out of ideological conviction than out of fear for their lives.

Iraqis caught in the dragnet can languish for months in crowded jails while police visit their neighborhoods to investigate. In many cases, according to three security officers, the police extort bribes to clear people of wrongdoing.

Iraq is all too familiar with the dangers of this strategy.

Nouri Maliki, a Shiite Muslim who served as Iraqs prime minister from 2006 to 2014, used it against Islamic State.

At the time, the group was operating clandestinely, forging links in rural areas with Sunni leaders sympathetic to its cause, attempting to lay the groundwork for a massive takeover.

Hoping to stomp out any support, Maliki transformed security services into death squads that oppressed Sunni-dominated areas. His approach backfired.

In mid-2014, when Islamic State militants began seizing Iraqi territory and building a caliphate, many Sunnis welcomed them as liberators.

Many Iraqis insist that history is unlikely to repeat itself.

In former Islamic State strongholds such as Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, its difficult to find anybody who speaks favorably about the group.

There is not a single citizen in Mosul who respects Daesh, said Bashir Hussein Fathi, a politician there. I havent seen a single citizen complimenting them.

Even those who were considered good people and who joined the group  now people speak of them badly, he said. Its become a black spot on someones character.

He said residents were cooperating more with security services to pinpoint Islamic State infiltrators, especially after the government reactivated local police groups.

Maj. Gen. Saad Allaq, head of Iraqs military intelligence directorate, lauded residents in Islamic State areas who had a primary role in bringing us information against Daesh.

But he and others said the government was not spending enough funds to cultivate new sources.

In one case described by a security expert who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, the Iraqi government nearly missed the chance to cultivate a high-level defector from Islamic State. The U.S.-led coalition in the region finally stepped in and paid $2 million for his cooperation.

Another problem is that with seven different intelligence services operating in the country, all working with no clear jurisdiction, there is a greater chance of important information getting lost.

A Mosul-based special forces colonel who spoke on the condition that he not be named blamed the issue on a lack of trust among the different security services.

In America they combined databases and increased coordination over two buildings falling, he said, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

We havent done this over whole cities falling.

Perhaps most worrisome, Islamic State has started operating more openly in rural areas southwest of Mosul, including Hatra, the Hamrin Mountains and the deserts of Anbar.

We should be having military operations in those remote regions, but there arent even reconnaissance flights, said Mansour, the colonel.

The problem is set to become worse. With Islamic State losing its final bastions in Syria, Iraq has already taken back tens of thousands of its own citizens who had joined the militants.

More are expected to return, including many children steeped in Islamic States murderous ideology and forced to take up arms in its Cubs of the Caliphate program.

Preventing the militants from gaining a bigger foothold will also require the government to address more basic concerns.

Roughly 1.8 million people are still displaced from their homes and living in camps, and many who have moved back are living in ravaged structures on the verge of collapsing.

Beset by budgetary concerns, the government has provided little compensation and neglected responsibilities such as lifting rubble and even removing corpses.

People want a good relationship with the government, said Fathi, the politician. But it has offered them no plan for people to be patient or to at least know what will happen to them.

The problem is that the government doesnt keep its promises.
China's changes in past 70 years very significant: New Zealand's ambassador

New Zealands Ambassador to China Clare Fearnley accepts an interview with Xinhuanet in Beijing, capital of China, March 1, 2019. (Xinhuanet/Zhou Xin)

BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhuanet)  The changes that have taken place in China in the past 70 years are very significant, New Zealands Ambassador to China Clare Fearnley said.

The ambassador highly commended Chinas achievements in poverty alleviation and other areas in a recent interview with Xinhuanet.

People have many more economic options, she noted, and different sorts of aspirations that would not have been imaginable in the mid 1980s when she had her first engagement with China are now possible for an increasing percentage of Chinas population.

She held that the lifting of over 700 million people out of poverty over the last 40 years has had a huge impact on the region, the world as well as China itself.

The ambassador expressed her interest in the ongoing Two Sessions, as she said Chinas prosperity, stability and well-being are of importance to all countries of the region, including New Zealand.

She pointed out that China and New Zealand have each identified poverty alleviation as one of the nations top domestic priorities to work toward.

We look at Chinas objectives around poverty alleviation and can see areas where we can share experience and work together, Fearnley said.

The ambassador told Xinhuanet that the two countries have an extensive framework for cooperation in agriculture, which can address rural poverty, particularly in remote areas.

Trade between China and New Zealand has also grown, she added.

To further increase trade relations, New Zealands trade minister will be attending this years Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, according to the ambassador.

During Premier Li Keqiangs visit to New Zealand in 2017, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative.

The opportunity of the forum to gain a better understanding of the breadth and underpinning ideas behind the Belt and Road Initiative is valuable, Fearnley said.

The issues New Zealand and China have been focusing on in the conversation have been around trade facilitation as well as environmental and social aspects of the initiative, she noted.

The trade minister may come with a business delegation; there will also be representatives from New Zealands academic community at events associated with the forum, signifying the breadth of the relationship between New Zealand and China, on the economic side and more, she said.

She said last years China International Import Expo (CIIE), in which New Zealand was an active participant, demonstrated Chinas welcome for foreign imports.

New Zealand is keen to work with China and share its experience to improve the business environment, she said.

The people-to-people links between New Zealand and China underscore how rich the bilateral relationship is, she stressed, citing the increasing number of students studying in each others schools and the widely celebrated Chinese Language Week in New Zealand as examples.

The ambassador also mentioned that many major towns and cities in New Zealand have sister city relationships with Chinese counterparts.

The bilateral tie of the two nations is multifaceted and continues to grow in its complexity, she said.

The ambassador shared her knowledge on a number of cooperation projects in the fields of scientific research and development as well as film industry between China and New Zealand.

There are lots of areas where we can work together, some traditional, some new, modern and less traditional, she concluded.
Cars / Yachts

Now sharing duties with daughter Giovanna, Azimut founder PAOLO VITELLI talks about his companys journey to becoming the global leader in luxury yachts.

Mar 08, 2019 | By John Higginson

Mr Vitelli, congratulations on Azimut Yachts turning 50 this year. What events has the company planned to celebrate this major anniversary?

We will celebrate in different ways, primarily with our own workforce  such as awarding gold medals to employees with a long history in Azimut-Benetti  and with clients who have been repeat owners of our boats. The focus will be on our beautiful factories, which are among the best in the world, and on Italian lifestyle.

For 19 years, Azimut-Benetti has topped the Global Order Book for yachts over 24m. How have you managed to lead such a competitive superyacht industry for so long?

If I was to list the main assets that contributed to making the Azimut-Benetti Group a leader, I would mention three. Firstly, financial stability; being a privately-owned company, this allowed us to invest the profits within the company and to resist during the international financial crisis. Secondly, consistency, meaning the capability to maintain a continuous and coherent direction and positioning. Finally, innovation, both in terms of technology and design where we have always been disruptive.

Since Azimut created the Grande brand, we entered the world of luxury superyachts with the right identity. Azimut owners dream to buy a Grande and get a very personalised service. Soon, Grande will include an extraordinary three-deck megayacht which will lead to a unique innovation.

The key words in our group are continuity and consistency. If we have been fully committed to superyachts since the acquisition of Benetti, its just logical that the market recognises it. Being committed means to show the direction for new strategies, new solutions, new concepts and the Vitelli family passion for the product. This makes all this possible.

Your daughter, Giovanna, has taken on an increasingly important role at Azimut-Benetti in recent years. How closely do you work with her to ensure your company  and your legacy  is in good hands?

We share all the strategic decisions. We control the product development, but we clearly know that a company of this size increasingly needs a separation between the manager role and the shareholder role.

By the way, Giovanna is doing an excellent work in the selection of talented designers coming from luxury residential and retail experiences, bringing a blast of fresh air to our recent models.

Youve mentioned photos of you when you were four years old hugging an Evinrude 1947 outboard motor, instead of playing with sandcastles on the beach. What do you remember of your earliest years and your passion for boats?

I loved the challenging trips on the sea. I made incredible adventures on a 3m inflatable with sail and on a 4m plywood dinghy with the Evinrude motor youre referring to. With these little boats, I was on the water for several days, cruising on the open sea.

What led you to create Azimut in 1969, when you were still at university?

I was moved by passions: passion for boats, passion for business, a desire to beat the successes of my father, my dream of a family business.

I spent the first money I earned on chartering sailing boats. I found it so fantastic that I thought, why not share this experience with other people? And why not try to make some money in doing it? It was as simple as that!

Why did you decide to start producing your own yachts?

I decided to build instead of just importing boats because I felt the potential of the Italian style, of the Italian skills, of the Italian artisanal labour. I wanted to be cleverer than the yacht builders I was representing in Italy. And I could start with little money because initially I was totally subcontracting my production.

How did the opportunity arise to buy Benetti in 1985?

I thought it was an opportunity not to be missed and when you are 35, you do not consider the risks too much. One or two years earlier, I had lost the opportunity to buy Baglietto and I wanted my revenge. And Benetti was a much, much better opportunity!

Since the acquisition, how have you divided your time between Azimut and Benetti?

In principle, I mainly dedicate myself to strategies and control, but when a business line, Azimut or Benetti, requires much more attention, due to an economic situation or a change of management, I give all the necessary time and even more to the area of business that may require my experience. And now my daughter Giovanna is doing the same, with particular attention to product development.

Can you talk about how the Asian market has grown for Azimut since you were first represented in the region from 1987?

The Asian market has always been important for us. Actually, we were pioneers in exporting in Asia. We were the first in Hong Kong, the first in China, the first in Japan, the first in Australia and, more recently, among the first in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

I remember beautiful trips done with some business colleagues in the early 1980s to better understand those countries. This strategy was very useful because when the difficult times arrived in Europe, we were already exporting 80 per cent out of Europe, while our competitors were exporting no more than 30-40 per cent out of Europe.

Today, the area including Asia-Pacific countries counts for about 15 per cent of the Groups total turnover. Like everyone else in the yachting industry, we were expecting a boom in China, which is still a semi-silent country, but personally I am optimistic. It will take some time  but it will happen. And Azimut is the best brand in Southeast Asia!

If you were to assess the global yacht industry since 1969, what have been the main turning points that have changed the market?

I think that the first turning point was moving from wood to fibreglass. I would then mention the introduction of pod propulsion and finally the ability to use creativity to improve aesthetics and function.

If you were to predict the biggest change in the industry in the coming decade, what would it be?

My personal opinion is that small companies will disappear. The investments required for innovation for them will be higher; automotive perfection will be a basic requirement. We will always be ahead of those changes.

Full interview appears in Yacht Style Issue 45, available on Magzter:

https://www.magzter.com/SG/Lux-Inc-Media/Yacht-Style/Fashion/
A reception is held ahead of the International Women's Day in Beijing, capital of China, March 7, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei)

BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The All-China Women's Federation held a gathering attended by Chinese women representatives from all walks of life, as well as foreign diplomats and experts in Beijing Thursday ahead of International Women's Day, which falls on Friday.

The federation's president Shen Yueyue said in a speech that the sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security in the Chinese people, including women, has been growing.

Shen, who is also vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, called on Chinese women to conscientiously perform their duties, strive for a better life and mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China with outstanding accomplishments.

Chinese women are willing to work together with women from other countries to build a better world for all women and for all people, she added.

More than 1,000 people were present at the event to observe International Women's Day on March 8.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will take the pulse of the market on its planned debt paper after President Rodrigo Duterte signed the BSP Charter amendments into law. We are going to conduct market-sounding exercises... Once we got the details, we will give it to the Monetary Board, said Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo Friday. He said the Bangko Sentral was likely to get the approval of the board before proceeding with the planned debt paper issue. The new BSP Charter embodies a package of reforms that will further align its operations with global best practices, improve the central banks corporate viability, and enhance its capacity for crafting proactive policies amid rising interlinkages in the financial markets and the broader economy. In line with current international trends, the law removes money supply and credit levels as basis for determining the monetary policy. The focus on these indicators has declined among central banks over the years, as fostering price stability now considers a broader set of indicators. The revised charter also restores the central banks authority to issue debt papers as part of its regular operation. This gives the BSP greater flexibility in determining the timing and size of monetary operations. Deputy Governor Maria Almasara Cyd Tuano Amador said in a previous briefing the Bangko Sentral would avoid competing with the national government in the issuance of debt papers.Well deliberately work on the operational details so that there will be no competition between the national government and the BSP, she said. Amador said the BSP wanted to have an expanded toolkit, an arsenal of policy instrument that could be used to fine-tune monetary aggregates in the economy. We have the current instruments and you very know about that already. But this one, particularly, the restoration of the authority to issue central bank debt papers... its a structural surplus liquidity absorption tool. So as to when it will be used it will be dictated by the times, Amador said. The amended charter also widened the coverage of institutions under BSP supervision to include money service businesses, credit granting businesses and payment system operators. This puts the BSP in a strategic position to address potential risks arising from the linkages of banks and these financial entities. Moreover, the law authorizes the increase in BSPs capitalization from P50 billion to P200 billion, which will be secured from dividends declared by the BSP in favor of the national government. Under the new BSP Charter, the central bank is also exempt from taxes on income derived from its governmental functions.
Brexit Does Not Stop Bitcoins Growth in the UK

The only thing that is certain in the UK right now is uncertainty, and this is causing fluctuations in the stock markets, as the British public awaits the deal or no deal Brexit outcome with bated breath.



Despite the tumultuous and unprecedented period of change we are in, the value of cryptocurrency has not stopped growing. From Bitcoin to Ethereum and countless other cryptocurrencies that are now available (well over 1,000, and new ones being created all the time) the cryptocurrency market continues to grow, comparatively unhindered by current ructions in the Eurozone.



While many businesses keep their powder dry and await the Brexit outcome, cryptocurrency and blockchain start-ups achieved record breaking growth in 2018. The UK is currently dominating growth in tech start-ups across Europe, with 2.29 billion in total venture capital, exceeding that of Germany, which had 1.38 billion, and France, which had 1.03 billion.

The reduction in growth forecast for the Eurozone suggests that the global economy is anticipated to slow down considerably. Failure to reach a resolution over Brexit will undoubtedly cause some anxiety among investors. Slow progress on the US trade agreements with China is also believed to be impacting negatively on global markets. In such circumstances those wanting to invest may well be weighing up what other options are on the table, and some may want to buy bitcoin as a potential alternative to more conventional stock market investments.



HMRC Crypto Asset Guidance



As interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency investments grew exponentially in 2017/2018 while the Bitcoin bubble was getting bigger, HMRC has now published guidance in cryptocurrency tax, or crypto assets following on from the UK Governments Crypto Assets Taskforces Report published in 2017.



The guidance relates to gains and income generated from digital and technological assets, but only applies to individual and personal holdings, and as yet there is no guidance published that is specifically aimed at businesses. This is expected to be published at a later date.



The new guidance aim is to simplify the process of reporting taxable crypto assets. It aims to help investors get to grips with how to pay tax on their holdings, and how cryptocurrencies are categorised for tax purposes. Instead of treating it as money, HMRC splits out cryptocurrency into three different types of token; utility, exchange, and security.



The newly-published guidance only relates to exchange tokens. These are tokens purchased with the intent to gain value and sell at a later date, and should therefore be subject to capital gains tax at the point of sale.



If an individual receives cryptocurrencies as payment from an employer, this should be subject to National Insurance and tax as a salary would be. HMRC raises the point that crypto asset exchanges may have ceased to exist by the time a persons tax return is due, therefore it is critical that people who invest in cryptocurrencies keep a good paper trail of all their transactions for tax purposes.



Growth of BTC ATMs



With the growth of Bitcoin, we are also now seeing a growth in the number of ATM machines that support this popular cryptocurrency, as the UK now houses 214 Bitcoin ATMs, 134 of which are in the capital. London also plays host to the largest Bitcoin investors and enthusiasts meet up group, with 2,311 members, demonstrating a massive support network for cryptocurrency in the city.



Bitcoin ATMs can now also be found in other cities across the UK too, including Liverpool, Derby, Brighton and Manchester, and we are likely to see more of them springing up in other British towns and cities in the future. The ATMs allow investors to trade, buy or sell Bitcoins, and also enable shopkeepers to exchange Bitcoin for goods in their shops.



BCB ATM, the company that supplies Bitcoin ATMs, hopes to be able to transfer money internationally via the machines in the near future, therefore enabling them to compete with large players such as Western Union money transfer.



There has been some impressive gains for Bitcoin seen recently, as the Independent reported a rise of 10% in the value of Bitcoin in December 2018. Those who invest will need to ensure they keep their coins safe and secure. Experts recommend storing bitcoin or cryptocurrency in a private wallet with a unique recovery seed, rather than on an exchange that may be at risk of hacking. The seed is a series of randomised words that should be kept somewhere secure, such as written down and put in a safe, so you will always be able to access your wallet.



The evidence is clear that Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency in general, is growing in awareness and popularity as well as in value, and is being used more widely now by organisations such as Microsoft, Subway and Expedia. Cryptocurrencies are even being created by local Councils in the UK now as a means of ensuring the local economy stays healthy, assisting people who need financial support, and helping local independent businesses compete with larger retailers.



Like any investment, the value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can fluctuate, and those who buy need to keep a close vigil on the cryptocurrency market in order to make gains, but for those who do, the rewards could be significant, and as Brexit market uncertainty continues, cryptocurrency could be worth considering.

By Jamie

 2019 Copyright Jamie - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




How the New Green Deal Has Already Worked

If you have assets, income, or both, then you are responsible for every bad thing that has happened in the U.S. But dont worry! The Green New Deal, co-sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, will give you a chance to fix it.



All you have to do is sign over, well, everything to the central government, which will then use its wisdom to determine how we should live for the foreseeable future so that all outcomes are equalized and no one is left behind.



Good-paying jobs? Check.





Universal healthcare? Of course.Free education? For everybody!Pollution? Zero (after 2050).Respect all indigenous people? You know it.Consider every single environmental impact for every action ever undertaken? Duh.As you read the Green New Deal proposal, youll find that it says its not just a good thing to do this, it is theof the United States to go down this path.The document would be laughable except for one thing. Few people are laughing.More than 600 organizations signed in support of it, and so have dozens of individuals, including many Democratic Presidential hopefuls.Its hard to say any of them think this proposal, which is more of a college freshmans dream or a description of Cuba or Venezuela from the good old days, is realistic, but thats not the point.As AOC, as shes called, explained in her Instagram chat while chopping vegetables, the goal is to move the boundaries of the conversation far enough with the extreme Green New Deal proposals that a carbon tax would look like the moderate option.America, you just got playedAOC and Markey used a tactic that recalls the Overton Window, a reference to a range of scenarios within two extremes that are considered possible.The goal of the policy conversation isnt to land on one particular thing, its to expand the window one direction so as to put more options on the table.To be fair, the Overton Window was first described by political scientist Joseph Overton of the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy. This sort of gambit has been used by people of all political persuasions, and even parents when dealing with their kids.The key to the conversation  dont discuss the alternatives at the other end of the spectrum.The entire Green New Deal has been priced out at $50 trillion to $90 trillion, but that includes stuff about healthcare, job guarantees, education, etc. Lets focus on just climate change.Beyond getting rid of airplanes and cows, the deal to reduce emissions by 40% to 60% by 2030 and completely by 2050 would require spending about $14 trillion, according to numbers from the American Action Forum (give or take a few trillion). Thats about three times the current spending plan of the U.S. government for all of 2019 (I didnt call it a budget because theres no balance).And it wont work.The most generous estimates of how to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius (beyond which it doesnt matter because the bad changes will happen anyway) all require nations around the world to participate  heres looking at you, China and India  and some way to extract carbon from the air on a large scale.The first one, participation, isnt happening, and the second, carbon extraction, isnt technically feasible today.But forget that. As long as AOC and Senator Markey can make you feel good about reaching a compromise position that calls for widespread carbon taxes instead of these extreme measures, then hey, theyve succeeded.The carbon tax is just the tip of the melting iceberg. If that gets through, you can bet well hear demands for all sort of other taxes to pay for all the free stuff. Its amazing how things called free by the government end up being so expensive for taxpayers.And of course, if the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is correct on our changing planet, a carbon tax wont do a thing to keep temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius. The changes brought about by such a tax would be a drop in the proverbial bucket. But they will take more assets from us and put them in the hands of the central government, which is clearly staffed by people who are smarter than us and know more than we do.Notice that Miami doesnt show up in the national conversation. The residents of Miami arent waiting for some proposal on high. They passed an infrastructure funding plan and have begun to work on shoring up their town (pun intended) against the potential of rising sea levels.But we cant discuss mitigating the effects of climate change instead of fighting to eliminate rising temperatures in the first place, because that would be opening Overtons Window the other direction and ruin the current narrative and take moneyfrom the central government.I cant imagine a single national politician signing on to such a plan. What do you think about the Green New Deal? Good? Bad? Otherwise? Email me at economyandmarkets@dentresearch.com

Rodney Johnson

Follow me on Twitter ;@RJHSDent

By Rodney Johnson, Senior Editor of Economy & Markets

http://economyandmarkets.com

Copyright  2019 Rodney Johnson - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

Rodney Johnson Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




How Will Boomers Affect US Real Estate and Nursing Homes

Recently we talked about why Millennials arent buying a house at the same rate as their Boomer and Gen X parents. Today, lets talk about how Boomers and Gen Xers are actually contributing to the housing shortage, and so driving up prices and thwarting the ability of younger people to buy.



And



Why that could start to change rapidly just ahead.



A recent Freddie Mac study estimates that 2.5 million homes are being kept off the market, mostly by seniors aging in place rather than downsizing or moving into nursing homes, etc.One million of those people were born between 1931 and 1941.300,000 of them were born between 1942 and 1947.250,000 of them were born between 1948 and 1958.That means that the majority of these aging-in-placers arent Boomers (according to how I count that generation).Turns out, we cant blame them for this trend!But there is a massive Boomer retirement trend that started in 2000 and will last into 2024It will see more homes kept off the market as this great generation chooses to age in place. But it will also see a ton of homes hitting the market when others opt for downsizing and nursing home care.The question is: which scenario will trump the other?One, Boomers are watching in horror as their McMansions are falling in value while the value of the smaller homes they could downsize into are holding up better. That makes trading down less attractive.Two, nursing homes are increasingly expensive, with subpar service.However, contrary to popular opinion, Boomers havent yet started their trek through the peak spending wave for this sector, which peaks at age 84-plus. Thats why there is some excess capacity. They only start this journey this year.Just look at this

(Note that Ive lagged the birth index 85 years in this chart.)



And I reckon that the number of Boomers who will chose NOT to age in place will quickly overwhelm the numbers that do.



Overall, I clearly see the nursing home trend flooding the property market with Boomer homes for sale. Thats what my dyers versus buyers indicator has said would occur in line with this trend into around 2040.



Real estate prices will buckle under the deluge.



Japans aging population and eight million empty homes, trending towards 15 million, would vouch for this trend.



So, dont believe this housing shortage will continue, especially with the Great Reset in consumer and asset prices just ahead from 2020 into 2023 or so. It will reverse and likely rapidly!



Lower prices and Boomers moving rapidly into nursing homes will make homebuying more affordable again and raise ownership for Millennials.



But, this younger generation seems to buy less and rent more regardless of affordability. Theyre more interested in spending money on experiences. So, Millennial home buying wont save the property market.



Mark my words: real estate will never be what it was before the 2006-2012 crash.



Most important: Look for the great opportunity in nursing homes ahead.



The companies that can deliver lower costs and more responsive service via room sensors and other technology will make billionaires in this industry in the next 25 years!

Harry

http://economyandmarkets.com

Follow me on Twitter @HarryDentjr

P.S. Another way to stay ahead is by reading the 27 simple stock secrets that our Seven-Figure Trader says are worth $588,221. Youll find the details here.

Harry studied economics in college in the 70s, but found it vague and inconclusive. He became so disillusioned by the state of the profession that he turned his back on it. Instead, he threw himself into the burgeoning New Science of Finance, which married economic research and market research and encompassed identifying and studying demographic trends, business cycles, consumers purchasing power and many, many other trends that empowered him to forecast economic and market changes.

Copyright  2019 Harry Dent- All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

Harry Dent Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




Farmers use drones to spray chemical herbicides in a wheat field in Yanggang village, Shihe town, Qiaocheng district of Bozhou city, eastern Chinas Anhui province, March 4,2019. (Photo by Liu Qinli from Peoples Daily Online)

Several Chinese cities are using drones to monitor traffic, capturing traffic violations such as using mobile phones while driving and illegal parking.

In February 2019, traffic management departments of Nanning, capital of southwestern Chinas Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region handled 438 cases of illegal parking with the help of drones, according to The Beijing News.

Compared with law enforcement personnel, drones are more economical and efficient and have a stronger deterrent effect on those wishing to escape punishment.

Drones take videos instead of pictures of parking violations as evidence. It is through human analysis that the cases are finally defined. Taking videos as evidence could document scenes and significantly reduce the incidence of subjective misjudgments.

Besides aerial law enforcement, civilian drones have been brought into use in more areas including plant protection in agriculture and forestry, disaster relief, express delivery, and photography.

Photo taken on March 3, 2019 shows technicians of a modern agricultural machinery cooperative perform chemical weed control with drones in a wheat field in Lixin village, Guandao town, Linwei district of Weinan city, northwestern Chinas Shaanxi province. (Photo by Cui Zhengbo from Peoples Daily Online)

Chinas state-run mail service operator China Post Group Corporation has concluded its first test flight of a drone for delivery services, according to the Beijing branch of the company.

The drone took off from the post office of Zhaitang town, Beijings Mentougou district, and arrived at the post station of Malancun village, also in the district. After the parcels were delivered, the drone returned to the post office in Zhaitang town.

The straight-line distance of the whole trip was about 3.9 kilometers, and it took around 8 minutes for the drone to finish a single trip. The delivery route used to be a 10-kilometer-long journey for postal cars, which needed about 20 minutes for a single trip.

Since mountain area accounts for 98.5 percent of the total area of Mentougou, drones are helpful in saving labor and material costs, and reducing the transportation cost and the risks during the delivery services in remote mountainous area.

The post company plans to establish a rescue team of drones to transport medicines and relief supplies in case of emergency.

Drones, which are futuristic and driven by high-tech, are flying into the life of Chinese people, bringing about changes and surprises in common peoples daily life.
Millennial Home Buyers Not as Active as Boomers Were in US Property Market

Andrea Riquier, my favorite commentator on the housing market, grabbed my attention again with her 2018 MarketWatch article entitled Missing Millennial Homeownership Endangers the American Dream. You can follow her on Twitter @ARiquier.



She pointed to a report from the Urban Institutes Housing Finance Policy Center that suggests the story of Millennials and homeownership is in many ways a story of inequality in America  and one that might be getting worse, as she put it.





They are delaying marriage and having kids because of less income security.

They have much higher student debt that eclipses down payments and mortgage qualifications.

They prefer living in more expensive cities and downtown areas at their younger age.

They saw the effects of bad lending and the first major real estate crash since the 1930s so theyre gun shy.

They see less opportunity and more risk in buying.

And they face tighter lending standards after the great crash.

Boomers bought real estate at unprecedented speed and price, thereby inflating a housing bubble from 1983 into 2005. Demand drove up price. And that made them richer, especially the ones born earlier.We saw this coming just by looking at simple demographic trends. Those same trends also warned of the looming bubble burst and I called the top of that first bubble in late 2005, just months before prices topped out in early 2006.We are near the end of a second bubble in real estate, one equally as inflated as the last, but created with different forces. This second bubble has arisen more from falling supply than rising demand.The demographic hiccup here is that, while Millennials rival Boomers in terms of numbers, they dont and wont have the same impact their grandparents had on the economy. Their numbers are spread out rather than concentrated in a sharp wave.Think of Millennials like a pig-smoothie passing through a python while the Boomers were the actual pig!And, at this point in their spending wave, theyre only becoming homeowners at eight to nine percentage points lower rates than Boomers and Gen Xers did at their age.I should note, real quick, that traditional demographers define the Millennials as those born from 1981 to 1997. I define them differently because Im less interested in their social associations than I am in their economic impact. I split the Millennial generation into two distinct waves. The first group was born between 1976 and 1990 and the second from 1997 to 2007. But back to the storyMillennials whose parents were renters have the lowest buying rates, at a mere 14.4%. In comparison, Millennials of parents who owned their home have a buying rate around 31.7%. More than double their counterparts, but still lower than younger Boomers did at younger ages.These numbers also vary sharply according to ethnic groupsHeres the breakdown of total ownership by ethnic groups showing the importance of home buying to wealth buildingAs you can see, white households have the highest home ownership, at 83.7%, and a high net worth at $230,000 (Note: Australian net worth is more like $450,000 from higher ownership and prices).Asian ownership rate is 69.1%, but with a higher net worth, at $243,000  higher incomes and savings rates contribute here.Hispanic ownership is 64.4%, with much lower net worth at $27,000.Black ownership is only at 47.7%, with the lowest net worth of the lot, at a mere $11,000.Well, as far as I see it, there are several reasons why Millennial home buying is significantly lower than their parents or grandparents at the same age. One of these is, you guessed it, ethnic makeup. The Millennial generation is more multiracial, and thus has lower buying rates from the minorities.But, of course, there are other reasons

Whats to be Done?



What can we do to relieve the rising costs?



Educate Millennials that down payments arent as high as they think. Theyre back to 5% on average. That said, it still wouldnt be my advice to buy now.



Relax zoning requirements that favor older owners quality of life and home values. This would free up land and lower costs to build for the younger ones.



But there is another trend that will greatly relieve the supply pressures that are making homes more expensive as seniors are increasingly aging in place. Ill cover that on Monday. Stay tuned.

Harry

http://economyandmarkets.com

Follow me on Twitter @HarryDentjr

P.S. Another way to stay ahead is by reading the 27 simple stock secrets that our Seven-Figure Trader says are worth $588,221. Youll find the details here.

Harry studied economics in college in the 70s, but found it vague and inconclusive. He became so disillusioned by the state of the profession that he turned his back on it. Instead, he threw himself into the burgeoning New Science of Finance, which married economic research and market research and encompassed identifying and studying demographic trends, business cycles, consumers purchasing power and many, many other trends that empowered him to forecast economic and market changes.

Copyright  2019 Harry Dent- All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

Harry Dent Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




8 March (International Working Women's Day) will be a day of struggle and mobilisation in Italy and beyond. Thousands will hit the streets to fight against continuous attacks to women's rights by alternating Italian governments. The economic crisis has worsened economic and social conditions, especially of working women; and social welfare cuts have pushed back the emancipation conquered over decades of struggle.

Between 2011 and 2016, there was a 55 percent increase in women who quit their jobs following their first pregnancy, to which the closure of many public nurseries contributed. According to ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics), in Italy there are 22.5 places in kindergarten for every 100 children up to the age of three, well below the 33 suggested by the European Council. Our country is second only to Greece with regard to female employment, which is around 48 percent, far below the 60 percent that distinguishes many European countries. These data are even more alarming in the south, with dips as low as 40 percent in regions such as Calabria and Sicily. Womens wages continue to be lower than those of men (at the same job and level) by at least 13 percentage points on average.

In recent years, the advice centres and surgeries where women could receive counselling, aid and support have either vanished or lost the role for which they were established. Wherever they do exist there is an ever-greater presence of doctors who refuse to recommend or implement abortions. In the north, the number of such medics is around 60 percent, in the south around 80 percent. This means a further attack on Law 194, which regulates the termination of pregnancy. Law 194 also prescribes one advice centre for every 20,000 citizens; the current average is 0.6.

Against the Pillon Bill!

Recent governments, from that of Renzi to the Lega-5Star coalition, have not missed any opportunities to try force women back into what, for centuries, was their prison: the home. A bill by Northern League Senator Pillon is an example. This bill is designed to counter the right of divorce and ensure that the "sacred bond of marriage" is respected "until death do us part". With the proposal to abolish the spouse's maintenance allowance and shared foster care (with equal time devoted by both parents to child-rearing) the bill seeks to humiliate women and make their emancipation increasingly difficult. Another example is the amendment included in the budget manoeuvre on maternity leave, which states that women can remain in work until the ninth month of pregnancy and take five months of leave after childbirth.

These harsh, incessant attacks must be rejected and fought against, but how? On 8 March, a global feminist strike was launched by the Non una di meno movement (literally: "not one less", meaning 'not one more woman killed'). We believe that the strike remains a fundamental tool to conquer and defend social rights, but it must be built both in the workplace (with assemblies of all workers) and outside them, with leaflets, sit-ins etc., to involve the whole of society. The strike cannot be just made up of women, but of all those who are discriminated against every day, and are victims of the same economic system. By not adhering to the strike, the CGIL has wasted another opportunity to connect with many workers who want to strike on 8 March. The union should not have convened a national assembly for this date.

We will be in the streets and squares throughout Italy to fight together with all women, workers, and young people who choose to take part. Let's start from that day to build a more general mobilisation against all the attacks of the government and all the reactionary, obscurantist forces in our country.

The struggle for women's rights, and the struggle for equality, is a struggle for the liberation of all humanity!
ARIE Capital Group, a London Headquartered Financial Services Group, officially introduced today ACBM, www.acbm.mu, an Investment Bank licensed by the FSC. ACBM is the first regulated Native Digital Investment Bank in the World and provides Fintech-enabled investment banking services, particularly in between China and Africa.

ACBM is the cornerstone entity of ARIE Capital Banking Group (ACBG), a Digital Banking Group with a unique focus on Corporate and Investment Banking. ACBG has developed its own in-house proprietary Digital platform.

With full automation of administrative functions, including KYC and onboarding, ACBMs platform is client-centric and gives back to managers, investors and owners the ability to make their own choices, manage their daily accounts with little interference in a very cost-efficient and cyber-secure environment: Our mission is to answer the clients expectations for versatile, cost-efficient and evolutive tools. In turn, this allows ACBG teams to focus on delivering the highest level of service flexibility and advisory expertise, states Simon Tobelem, Group CEO and Co-founder.

ACBG is an innovative Native Digital Banking Group which aims at redefining Corporate and Investment banking in the era of Digital Finance. The group is based in Singapore with offices in London, Beijing, Tel Aviv, Singapore, Paris, Los Angeles and Mauritius. ACBG recently appointed as Chairman Sir Mick Davis, Former chairperson of XStrata a U$ 55Bn company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick Davis.

In a video address to guests this evening at ACBM headquarters in Mauritius, Sir Mick states: Our choice of Mauritius is not coincidental. Mauritius has a very conducive regulatory environment supporting digital banking and FinTech. It is also uniquely positioned geographically to create a bridge between Africa and Asia, India and Middle East. And we think therefore that this is a fine country for us to actually position our Investment Bank and to ensure that we can actually build a basis for growth and moving forward. I have no doubt, having spent many years in the Industry building large companies from small beginnings, that the prospects for our bank is significant and that we will grow very prodigiously over the next few years. I am particularly pleased to be associated with our new venture resident in Mauritius.

Emile Achkar, General Manager of ACBM in Mauritius, shall lead the resident Executive team wherein proposing strong combined expertise in Banking, Investment Banking and Innovation. As the first fully regulated investment bank worldwide, we are here to change the way investment banking is conceived and implemented in cross border rapidly changing and challenging environments. Our unique and proprietary digital platform allows our clients to put back the focus on what really matters for them  developing their Business, nurturing their wealth or designing the most adequate investment strategy, explains Emile Achkar.

He went on to say that: The proactive stance of the FSC on Fintech and Digital Assets, as well as Mauritius being the most adequate Hub to bridge in between China and Africa, has made the choice very easy for ACBG. I am looking forward to a productive partnership with the FSC and all local players, to become a regional success story that will benefit the island.

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Palace Museum in snow. (Photo by Liu Xianguo from Peoples Daily Online)

China's Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, will exhibit a series of famous cultural relics and fine collections, including one of the best-known ancient Chinese paintings, as it turns 600 years old next year, according to a two-year plan of the former imperial compound.

To celebrate its 600th birthday, the museum, starting from the second half of this year, will stage dozens of exhibitions under the themes ranging from ancient flowers and plants to figure paintings of past dynasties and Longquan celadon crafts, Shan Jixiang, the museum's curator, said on March 4.

The exhibition themed Longquan celadon and globalization to be held this July will showcase celadon ware and replicas found in important trade hubs like China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, Iran, the UK and the United Arab Emirates.

These collections from the Palace Museum, British Museum and other world-class museums will present visitors how prosperous the porcelain road on land and sea was in Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties.

Along the River during Qingming Festival, the famous painting by artist Zhang Zeduan from the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), will be displayed again in the exhibition on genre paintings of past dynasties to be held in Sept. 2020.

The masterpiece, painted on a long scroll, depicts a panorama of flourishing urban life in 12th century Bianliang, today's Kaifeng in Henan province, which was the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. When it was last displayed in 2015, visitors waited in long lines every day throughout the exhibition.

The Hall of Mental Cultivation, the former residence of eight emperors of Qing Dynasty (1636 to 1912 A.D.) is estimated to be reopened to the public in Oct. 2020 after renovation and research work.

Located at the west of the inner court in the Forbidden City, the hall had served as emperors residence and political power base since the reign of Yongzheng Emperor in 1723.

The hall, covering an area of 5,000 square meters, measures over 63 meters in length, and nearly 80 meters in width. It also has front yard, back yard, and rooms on the eastern and western sides.

Starting from 2020, Yanxi Palace in the northeast of the Palace Museum, which used to serve as a residence for concubines, would be turned into a foreign cultural relics exhibition space.

The Palace Museum has collected a rich variety of foreign cultural relics including celadon ware, enamel vessels, painting, sculptures, furniture, timekeepers, apparatus for scientific study from the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Italy, Austria, the US, Bulgaria, Japan, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, and other countries.

These relics were made during the 16th to 20th century, most of which were manufactured in the 18th and 19th century.

It also plans a series of exhibitions in other countries, including one displaying flourishing China in the 18th century in cooperation with Moscow Kremlin Museums in Russia, as well as another one exploring the role of empresses in the US.

After the two scheduled to be held this March, it will hold an exhibition on clocks in the UK in March 2020. The museum will also bring 80 to 100 royal collections of Ming Dynasty during the reign of Yongle Emperor and Wanli Emperor to museum in Singapore for display in May 2020.

It will also organize exhibitions to present its fruits in restoring cultural relics of dozens of categories, show how cultural relics are restored, and interact with visitors through displaying intangible cultural heritage.
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Photo taken on March 3, 2019 shows technicians operating a drone to remove weeds in a wheat field in Weinan, northwest Chinas Shaanxi province. (Photo by Cui Zhengbo from Peoples Daily Online)

Chinese small agricultural households, the biggest part of the countrys agricultural population, are joining a national drive to pursue modernized agriculture, with the help of new technologies and better commercial services.

The change comes as the accelerated pace of urbanization has resulted in a shift in distribution of urban and rural population. China now has 564 million people living in the countryside.

Before China attains its goal to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the toughest task it needs to conquer is rural issue, which constitutes the shortest board blocking the way, said Chen Xiwen, chairperson of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) of China.

A worker examines vegetables at a modern agriculture demonstration park in Xianju county, east Chinas Zhejiang province, March, 2, 2019. Smart agriculture, brand agriculture and green organic agriculture have been vigorously developed in the county. (Photo by Wang Huabin from Peoples Daily Online)

Chinas agricultural sector is still dominated by the model of farming by small agricultural households. According to the third national agricultural census, smallholders took up more than 98 percent of the entities engaging in agriculture-related work, and they cultivated 70 percent of the arable land nationwide.

In order to bring these farmers onto the track of modernized agriculture, some rural areas have adopted new technologies to improve production efficiency. Drones, for instance, have been employed to give a helpful hand.

Farmers in Weinan, a city in northwest Chinas Shaanxi province, are now assisted by drones to remove weeds, sow seeds and splash pesticides, after they place an order for the service via their mobile phones. The Internet Plus model and the drones have accelerated the process of agricultural modernization there.

Commercial services were also optimized to speed up the modernization pace. Jinxi county in east Chinas Jiangxi province, in recent years, devoted great energy to poverty alleviation through e-commerce.

Workers attend tomatoes planted on a dimensional cultivation framework at a modern agricultural demonstration park in Guangling, Yangzhou in east Chinas Jiangsu province, March 1, 2019. (Photo from Peoples Daily Online)

So far, the county has established 10 large e-commerce trading centers, 112 e-commerce service centers, 64 agricultural service stations and 17 express delivery centers at county- and village-level to help with the sales of agricultural products.

By linking the businesses, agricultural cooperatives and farmers together, the commercial services addressed their headaches in marketing channel and led local residents to prosperity.

Chinas basic rural operation system is household-based, Chen said, adding that the countrys national conditions and rural development status have decided that large-scale agricultural operations are not necessarily the best mode.

Given the backdrop, China, when making policies, has been improving supporting policies for household farmers, bettering services for them and guiding them towards modern agriculture, while encouraging moderate operations in various forms, added the NPC deputy.

In the future, the country will place priority on the cultivation of family ranches and cooperatives as two new types of agribusiness, he said, suggesting effective implementation of the policies to involve small agricultural households into modernized agriculture system.

Chen added that the mechanisms connecting household farmers with cooperatives or companies need to be solidified, in a bid to foster a prosperous agricultural industry and make farming a decent career.
Chinese state councilor, FM expresses greetings to women on Int'l Women's Day

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi extended greetings to women on Friday, International Women's Day.

At a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, Wang extended greetings to all the women including those who are present at the press conference room.

Wang is expected to brief journalists from home and abroad on China's foreign policy and answer questions on a wide range of issues.
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  A lawyer for Pennsylvanias acting health secretary on Wednesday defended the validity of the secretarys order requiring masks inside K-12 schools to fight COVID-19, asking state Supreme Court justices to focus on a single regulation.
Judge rules compressor air quality permit appeal should be decided by state board
Cutting-edge core technology can only be developed at home, university head says

Cutting-edge core technology should not be imported, but developed domestically, Shi Yigong, a well-known scientist and president of Westlake University, told reporters at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 3.

The front gate of Yunqi Campus of Westlake University. Photo by Zhao Yongxi from People's Daily

The aim of the Chinas first new type of private research university is to become a world-class institute, said Shi, who is one of the initiators of Westlake University and a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), before the opening of the second session of the countrys top political advisory body.

Located in Yunqi town in the scenic West Lake area of Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang province, the research-oriented university is the first Chinese university held by social force and supported by the country. It has received much attention since its establishment.

Shi, a structural biologist, is an icon and spokesperson of Westlake University. In 2015, he and other education personnel submitted a proposal for piloting a new private research-oriented university to state leaders.

Shi envisioned an ideal university that could attract a large number of top scientists in the world to engage in cutting-edge research, deliver the most meaningful scientific achievements and cultivate the best young students in the next five or ten years.

Shi Yigong works at his office at Westlake University. Photo by Zhao Yongxin from People's Daily

Such university is expected to make significant contributions to the world's civilization and human progress by exploring the frontiers of science and technology, Shi added.

In September 2017, the first group of 19 doctoral students were enrolled at the university, who stood out from more than 400 applicants and passed strict interviews of the university's professors. Shi told them that the university aims to cultivate top-notch innovative talents with social responsibility.

In August 2018, the university admitted 120 doctoral candidates. About 5,000 full-time students are expected to be enrolled by 2026, according to the university's planning. Shi hopes that all teachers and students at the university will join the long journey towards their shared dream.

Westlake University will be a small but versatile research-oriented university, starting at a high level  nurturing doctoral degree students. It is committed to higher education and academic research and cultivating top-notch innovative talents.

Talents hold the key to innovation. China has made great progress in science and technology, but still needs to seek more original breakthroughs in the basic research field. Westlake University needs to cultivate more outstanding scientific and technological talents with great sense of social responsibility, Shi said.
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Non-Urban Construction of Custom Homes May Need Support to Keep Up

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has taken a look at the differences between homes constructed within metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and those constructed outside of them. For starters, there are not many of the latter.

As explained by Paul Emrath in NAHB's Eye on Housing blog, non-MSA areas are "aggregations of counties defined by the Federal Government based largely on commuting patterns." Of the 848,000 single-family homes for which construction was started in 2017, only about 79,000 were built outside of the areas officially-defined (by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development) as MSAs. This is up 40 percent from the construction trough in 2011 whereas construction inside MSAs is up 97 percent.

Emrath says one feature that differentiates home building in nonmetropolitan America is the relatively high percentage of custom homes - single units built on the owner's land. More than half of the non-MSA homes fall into that category. The Census bureau breaks the custom category into contractor built if the owner employs a builder and owner built where the property owner acts as general contractor.

Seventeen percent of non-MSA homes were owner-built in 2017 and 36 percent were built by builders. The remaining 47 percent were built for sale or occasionally for rent. In metropolitan areas only a sliver of the residential building was custom; 5.4 percent built by the owner, 11.5 percent employing a contractor. The vast majority (over 80 percent) were built on spec, usually in tracts or subdivisions.

There are also MSA/non-MSA differences in the size and the price of homes. The average size of a home built within an MSA is significantly larger, 2,639 square feet compared 2,148 square feet. The average price of a single-family home outside the MSA was $245,552, about one-third less than the MSA counterpart. Emrath says the lower price is partly due to lower building costs but mostly to the smaller home size.

The financing of these homes also differs somewhat. In both locations a strong majority of buyers use a conventional mortgage. However, MSA buyers use FHA and VA loans to a greater extent than non-MSA buyers and the latter are twice as likely to use cash to purchase/build their homes.

Emrath says the reliance on cash may in part be a result of more limited financing options. This, along with the slower post-recession recovery of building in non-metro areas and the smaller size of the homes suggests that these areas face particular challenges. They may need more targeted support from programs like those of the Department of Agriculture. USDA loans typically represent less than 1 percent of all originations nationwide.
Local women-owned businesses are rallying around four local teens and their dreams to end period poverty in Dayton. Speakeasy Yoga is partnering with Femme Aid Collaborative, a non-profit dedicated to ending period poverty in Dayton, to collect period products and donations at both of its downtown studios.

Femme Aid Collaborative, founded in 2018 by local high school students Ryann Mescher, Dana Clark, Zoe Waller and Claire Parker, hopes to put 100,000 period products into the community over the course of 2019 by collecting products and distributing them to local nonprofits such as PATH, Linda Vista, and Daybreak. Speakeasy Yoga has partnered with the collaborative, donating $1,000 from its New Years Day class and launching an ongoing collection effort at the 510 East 3rd Street and 204 Wayne Avenue studios. Speakeasy will also rotate Femme Aid Collaborative in as one of the recipients of its monthly community class proceeds.

Tori Reynolds, co-owner of Speakeasy Yoga, has seen women in downtown Dayton struggling to support their feminine hygiene needs first-hand.

Access to proper feminine hygiene products should be a right, not a luxury said Reynolds. Women should continue to be celebrated for all that were capable of and what were given naturally all year round. Im excited to have the opportunity to partner with young, empowered women to do that.

Heart Mercantile and Luna Gifts & Botanicals are also partnering to support the Femme Aid Collaborative with donation boxes at each of their downtown stores.

Its amazing to see that these fellow women have our back. said Ryann Mescher of Femme Aid Collaborative. Its our community, so it feels like all of our problem to solve.

In addition to collecting and distributing 100,000 period products in 2019, Femme Aid Collaborative aims to be the centralized collection agency for feminine hygiene products in Montgomery County. Nonprofits in need of feminine hygiene products can apply for support at femmeaid.com.

Speakeasy will launch its collection efforts at its 510 East 3rd Street and 204 Wayne Avenue studios on Friday, March 8 in conjunction with International Womens Day. The studio opens twenty minutes prior to each class and a schedule can be found at speakeasydayton.com.
Alex Wong/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- President Donald Trumps former fixer and personal attorney Michael Cohen has filed a lawsuit in New York court seeking payment for legal fees that he claims he is owed by the Trump Organization.



In the suit, Cohen claims the company is in breach of contract and had previously agreed to pay his legal fees as it relates to the special counsels probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election and other related matters.



According to the filing which ABC News has obtained, as of January 25, 2019, unreimbursed attorneys fees and costs incurred on behalf of Mr. Cohen in connection with the Matters subject to his indemnification agreement with the Trump Organization exceeded $1.9 million. Attorneys fees and costs subject to the Trump Organizations indemnification agreement continue to accrue.



This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
A worker produces multistory parking facilities at a factory in Ciyutuo township, Luanzhou, north Chinas Hebei province, Jan. 25, 2019. (Photo from Xinhua News Agency)

The 6.6-percent economic growth China maintained last year was not an easy-won achievement especially given the fact that the countrys economy has been developing rapidly for 40 years since reform and opening up, said Yang Decai, director of the Department of Economics at Nanjing University.

Yang, who is also a member of the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, explained that most economies can only maintain rapid growth for one or two decades at most, and to prolong rapid development is very difficult.

Last year, Chinas GDP for the first time exceeded 90 trillion yuan, or $13.6 trillion as calculated by the annual average exchange rate, ranking the second largest in the world. The country economic growth, which stood at 6.6 percent, was also the highest among the top five economies of the world.

Besides, China was the largest contributor to the worlds economic growth, accounting for around 30 percent of the global growth.

What contributed to last years growth were a healthier and more sustainable development mode, as well as the further optimization of economic structure, Yang pointed out.

The CPPCC member also hailed Chinas economic stability and resilience as the country has maintained economic growth at a range between 6.4 percent and 7.0 percent for 16 consecutive quarters.

Though Chinese economy faced downward pressure because of complicated global economic environment last year, there were still many enterprises making remarkable achievements.

Xinyu Iron & Steel, a company based in Xinyu, eastern Chinas Jiangxi province is one of these companies.

Thanks to the cut of taxes and administrative fees, the general cost of the company has been largely reduced, and the company has created new records in both sales revenue and profit, according to Xia Wenyong, chairman of the board of the steelwork and a deputy to the 13th National Peoples Congress (NPC).

He told Peoples Daily that the company enjoyed total VAT exemption and refund of 401 million yuan, and another 170 million yuan of taxes was also exempted under the policy to encourage technical innovation.

He suggested that the government roll out more favorable policies to better business environment and conduct tax reduction on a larger scale to alleviate the burden on enterprises.

The steelwork is not the only enterprise that benefited from the favorable policies. Hubei Xingfa Chemicals Group also made its best performance ever in sales revenue, tax paid, and export value.

We ended our extensive development that relied on high consumption of resources, energy and ecology, and established a complete industrial system covering R&D and marketing, said Li Guozhang, chairman of the board of the company.

The chemical company lowered its emission and improved efficiency, which resulted in stronger capability of high-tech material research and brought powerful new impetus for growth, said Li, also a deputy to the 13th NPC.

Only by technical innovation can enterprises enhance core competitiveness, and that is applicable to companies in all industries, he said, calling for new policies that further encourage innovation.

Hubei Xingfa Chemicals Group was an example of Chinas expanding impetus over last year. In 2018, the value added of Chinas strategic emerging industries grew by 8.9 percent from a year before. It came from the increasing investment on innovation.

The countrys R&D expenses were also up by 11.6 percent last year, accounting for 2.18 percent of its GDP, 0.03 percentage point higher from that in 2017. As a result, massive innovation has offered strong support for Chinas high-quality development.

Chinas economic restructuring achieved outstanding performance in the eyes of the NPC deputies and CPPCC members. In 2018, Chinas final consumption contributed 76.2 percent to Chinas economic growth, 43.8 percentage points higher than the gross capital formation.

The fostering of a strong domestic market is a highlight and power house for Chinas future economic growth.

Speaking of the industrial upgrading driven by residential consumption, Xia believes the process would present enterprises with both challenges and opportunities.

Enterprises must follow the pace of consumption upgrading, create new supplies, and get used to and meet consumers demands, so as to enlarge their businesses, he noted.

Yang said that the growth of residents income is a premise for the growth of consumption. To drive up consumption, the country must increase the income of the people, and enhance the sense of security of consumers by improving public services and promoting social security reforms, Yang noted.
Sports

Nagas blessed with strength: Temjem Imna

Minister for Higher & Technical Education, Temjen Imna Along speaking during the event on Thursday. (NP)

Correspondent Kohima, Mar 7 (NPN) | Publish Date: 3/7/2019 1:20:42 PM IST

Minister for Higher & Technical Education, Temjen Imna Along stated Nagaland is at the threshold of prosperity and will soon be at the forefront of the nation, as the people of the state; especially the youth who comprises 60% of the population aged between 20-45 years have chosen to take the path of peace for development and prosperity.

Speaking at the inaugural programme of the 12th open Naga Wrestling at Khouchiezie, local ground, Kohima on Thursday, the minister said the state has gifted and blessed its people with enormous strength and potential, particularly the youths. Along maintained that it was time Nagas show their capabilities to the world through hard work and sincere efforts in whatever they do.

It is time we shed our thought process only as a singular tribe. It is time we shed our thoughts which bring us down. It is time for us to work hard collectively and united he said.

He also cautioned never to take things lightly in any venture that can propel the state to growth and progress. He asserted on the need to have a positive approach and shed thoughts of sarcasm, hypocrisy, negativity and mockery which will lead the people to their downfall.

Noting the potential of the youths in the field of sports, Along said that the PDA government is working hard to harness the potential of its youths to the fullest and called upon all for a united vision towards a common future.

He asked youths to work hard and put their sincere efforts and not take things lightly to bring prosperity and progress to the community and people in Nagaland.

Congratulating the Nagaland Wrestling Association (NWA) for its efforts to popularize the traditional game of Naga wrestling, he was of the view that the Naga people too, would be encouraged and passionate to see things happening in the capital town.

This initiative is not only opening our hearts but our minds to rest of the world and we are ready to open our hearts and lands for collective vision of growth and development, Along added.

In his presidential address, Neivikuolie Khatsu said NWA was continuously making effort to popularize and improving Naga wrestling both at the national and international arena to compete. He also stated that the ultimate goal was to foster unity, understanding and friendship.

The programme commenced invocation by Pastor Botsa Batist Church, with Rev. Rudilhou Rio, while a special performance was presented by the Myanmar group.

The event is being organized by the Nagaland Wrestling Association (NWA), hosted by the Angami Sports Association (ASA) and managed by Botsa Baptist Church.
Number of Thangka painters boosted in Tibet amid governmental support to protect the ancient art

From 300 to 3,000 (roughly), the rise in the number of Thangka painters in Tibet shows that religious art is thriving and a perfect example of the governments support to Tibet culture, Norbu Sitar, dean of the Tibet Thangka Painting Academy in Lhasa, said.

Norbu Sitar Photo: Cao Siqi/Global Times

A national-level cultural inheritor of Thangka and a Chinese Crafts and Artisan Master, Chinas top honor title issued by State Council to craft artists, he came to Beijing with a mission.

As a member of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), he attended the two sessions to promote the status of Thangka.

Thangka paintings, or scroll paintings on cotton or silk, was originated more than 1,300 years ago. They were traditionally kept unframed and rolled up when not on display. The themes of Thangka are mostly about Buddhism, legendary and folk tales, and historical stories.

With central and regional government support, the number of Thangka painters have been increasing in recent years and their skills have also improved. Norbu Sitar said.

One of his works has been preserved in the Potala Palace, a World Heritage site in Lhasa, and his academy is receiving huge government funding.

Thangka is not only thriving in China, but also drawing the attention of collectors in the US, the UK and Denmark, he said, adding that to prevent it from over-commercialization, Thangka inheritors are thinking of a national standard for the industry.

Thangka painted by Norbu Sitar Photo: Courtesy of Norbu Sitar

Lhapa, also a CPPCC member from the Jokhang Monastery Temple, recently told news site tibet.cn that the temple has established a Buddha and Thangka database and has included more than 6,000 Buddha statues and 600 Thangka paintings into the database.

In response to accusations from overseas media that many Tibetans blame China for wanting to dilute their culture and that Tibet is the victim of "cultural genocide," Norbu Sitar laughed.

The number and skills say everything, he said.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Net inflows into equity mutual funds slumped 68 per cent to Rs 5,122 crore in February this year as against Rs 16,268 crore in the same month a year ago amid market volatility. This also marked the fourth consecutive month of decline in net investment into equity mutual funds, according to data by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).

Net inflows have been declining since October 2018, when investment stood at Rs 12,622 crore. November saw Rs 8,414 crore net investment, December Rs 6,606 crore and January Rs 6,158 crore. With this, the asset base of equity mutual funds (MFs) came down to Rs 7.73 lakh crore at the end of February this year, as against Rs 7.76 lakh crore in the same month a year earlier.

Analysts attributed the tepid trend in equity mutual fund inflows to market volatility. They said SIPs (systematic investment plans) continue to be strong but lump sum flows have been tepid. AMFI CEO NS Venkatesh said, "Once political uncertainty and liquidity tightness recedes over the next few months, we expect the inflows in both equity and liquid funds to strengthen further.

The assets under management (AUM) for the industry stood at Rs 23.16 lakh crore in February this year, compared to Rs 23.4 lakh crore at the end of January 2019.
Sahaya Novinston Lobo By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: A 14-year-old girl who was riding a stolen two-wheeler helped police nab the thief -- which was none but her father. The minor girl was not aware that her dad had committed the crime. Karthik (33) had gone with his family to a temple in Manali, where he lives, on his Honda Activa. When they returned, the bike was missing, following which he lodged a complaint.

They returned from the temple only by 11pm, because of Shivaratri pooja. They searched the bike for almost an hour, in vain, said police. Karthik then took an auto and dropped his wife and daughter at home, and while he was on the way to lodge a police complaint, at around 1 am, he saw a teenage girl riding his bike.

I asked the auto rickshaw driver to chase the girl. We stopped her and I asked her where she got the bike from, said Karthik. She told me the bike belonged to her father. Karthik then informed police of the development. When we questioned the girl, she said her father is an autorickshaw driver and he had brought the Activa home on Monday, said a police officer.

As her father was not around, she took the bike out for a spin. With the girls help, police arrested the accused, V Saravanan. He has been remanded to judicial custody. Police seized four two-wheelers from him.
Samuel Merigala By

Express News Service

While tankers are known to dump sewage into the marshland under cover of darkness in the wee hours, forest officials claimed that dumping of paint effluent is a first. Paint sludge is known to contain high levels of mercury, lead and chromium which are lethal to birds on prolonged exposure. The enhanced respiratory system of birds such as pelicans, herons and other waders make them extremely vulnerable to these pollutants.

Further, the effluent is insoluble in water. This means the heavy metal-laced effluent continues to remain potent. A few months back, a tanker emptied paint effluent in our sewage treatment plant silently and left. The sludge and red colour remained on the surface for the entire cycle, said a Metrowater official in Perungudi sewage treatment plant nearby, explaining that cleaning the effluent from the swamp would be extremely difficult.

Officials in Chennai Corporations landfill nearby claim that tankers emptying their contents into the marshland is an everyday affair. Tankers just need less than five minutes to empty their contents. This makes it extremely difficult to catch them in the act, said a landfill supervisor.

Both Metrowater and corporation officials said they dont question these tankers fearing violent repercussions. A security guard who questioned the tanker lorries for dumping sewage into the marshland while committing the act was beaten badly, the supervisor said.

The place where the paint effluent has been dumped is metres away from a point where police catch motorists for violations during the day. However, police presence is limited to patrols at night. Our main concern in this stretch is prostitution, so we chase away tankers as a preventive measure, said a police officer.

When contacted, forest department officials promised immediate action. I will check this issue and take action immediately against the perpetrators, said a senior forest official under whose jurisdiction the marshland falls under.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written an open letter to the people of the capital, highlighting the issues the city has faced over the past four years due to the lack of full statehood. In the letter which is addressed to Delhiites, Kejriwal starts by asking questions and ends with requesting the people to vote for making Delhi a full state, rather than electing a prime minister.

After the setback from the Supreme Court, the Aam Aadmi Party has decided to launch a full-fledged city-wide campaign around the statehood cause. Earlier, the CM had decided to sit on a fast but the plan was put aside in view of the heightened tensions and cross-border aerial strikes between India and Pakistan.

Despite being the national capital, why is Delhi not clean?

Why are Delhis women not safe? Even after securing 90% marks, why are students unable to get admission in colleges? Why is the youth unemployed? Why are many colonies still unauthorised? Why are thriving markets being sealed? There is only one reason  Delhi is not a full state, Kejriwal wrote.

The AAP, which is hoping voters of Delhi will make a decisive decision in its favour, has been asking the people to consider the work of its government over the past four years and compare it with the work done by the seven BJP MPs.

Kejriwal has been appealing to people not to vote for choosing a prime minister but for the rightful demand of statehood of Delhi. Once Delhi becomes a full state, the dreams and aspirations of the citizens of Delhi will be fulfilled. Women will be safe and secure as law and order will improve. Our youth will get jobs. Students securing 60% and above will also get admission in Delhi colleges the letter said, urging people to vote.
Ritwika Mitra By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Of the over 45,000 people identified by states as manual scavengers by the government, over 37 per cent have still not received the one-time cash assistance they are entitled to under the governments rehabilitation scheme, which it kicked on in June 2018.

These figures include those identified in a survey conducted in 2013 and one that is currently ongoing. In 2013, 13,770 manual scavengers were identified by states. Under the Centres rehabilitation plan, manual scavengers are to be given cash assistance of Rs 40,000 in order for them to be able to give up the unsanitary, dangerous and antiquated practice.

So far, over 30,000 people have been identified by the states in the 2018 survey. Of these, the cash assistance has been handed out in around 16,000 cases. The total number of scavengers who were given assistance in 2013 and the ongoing survey combined would be around 28,000, said a Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment official.

In the ongoing survey, till October, over 20,000 people were identified, according to figures available with the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation, the agency which is conducting the survey. Of these, 8,000 have received the assistance.

Manhar Valjibhai Zala, National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) chairperson, said the commission has held review meetings with the state governments of Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Haryana, Karnataka, West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Sikkim, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Goa, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Meghalaya to assess the ground realities of this practice.
Steena Das By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Three minutes more for the clock to strike 11 pm. The lights at the East Fort bus stand are turned off after 10.30 pm - the 'Lights out' hour. Women were nowhere to be found on the nearby premises. Food delivery boys were seen in abundance. The shopkeepers at the East Fort bus stand were packing up and closing their shops.

A man was seen arguing with a shabbily dressed woman who had made the bus stand corner her night shelter. Later a shopkeeper who closes his shop by 12 said the woman used to be a sex worker but has left the profession since the last year.

"This is a usual thing, they fight often. She is here for more than 15 years," said the shopkeeper.

The shabbily dressed woman was ready to talk. She thought it would be wise for girls to leave the place as soon as possible. "This place is not safe even during day time," she reminded.

Despite the darkness, there was no policemen in the area. According to the shopkeeper, there are no buses available from East Fort after 10.40 pm. "I usually ask people not to remain in the bus stand after 10.30 pm, especially girls. They will be mistaken for sex workers," he said. "After 12, more sex workers come to the bus stand," he said.

By 11.30 pm three girls came to the bus stop. They stopped for a small conversation. During the conversation, they said they are civil service aspirants. "We often go out with friends at this time. Not many people stare when we're in a vehicle. Drunkards often approach us," said one of them. At 12, the concerned shopkeeper warned, "It is not wise to stand here. As there are no buses, policemen will be unavailable in case of an emergency."
By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Demanding to know what right the Telangana government had to raid a service provider of the TDP in Hyderabad, Chief Minister and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday alleged that after dismantling the system at the firm employing 160 people, the Telangana government had stolen the information belonging to the TDP, given it to the opposition YSRC and filed a case against the AP government.

Who are you to steal the data and give it our opposition party? he questioned. Under which Act the Telangana police raided the service provider of the TDP and took away the data? Would you allow someone to enter your house and take away your daughter? Naidu asked. Stating that the TDP had the data of 65 lakh party activists and computerised the same, he said the TDP had the practice of computerising the data of the party since 1984.

ALSO READ: Chandrababu Naidu accuses YSRC of misusing Form-7, terms Jagan accused-one

Ours is a sovereign government and will take all the necessary measures to protect our rights, he asserted.What is your problem with our party activists verifying the voters list and seeking information as to which party they are going to vote for? It is the duty of the party activists to interact with voters, find out their preferences and sensitising them. That is the purpose for which the Election Commission gives voters list to political parties, he pointed out.

Alleging that the Centre and Telangana were acting like economic terrorists to destabilise the State government, he said that both were terrorising people through IT raids and trying to establish Bihar-like politics in AP. Naidu said the prevailing atmosphere in the country under the BJP government were reminiscent of the Emergency days, he accused the Union government of causing mental agony to him and undermining his leadership by registering false cases and ordering IT raids.

Stating that YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy himself admitted that large a number of Form-7 seeking deletion of votes were filed by followers of his party, the CM said that the TRS was providing the same cyber technology which it used to have the names of those against it removed from voters list to the YSRC ahead of elections. Alleging that the YSRC chief was behind the deletion of eight lakh votes in AP, he said the Election Commission should take action against him.

He said everyone should fight against removal of votes from the list and bring pressure on the Election Commission to get their votes restored.
By Express News Service

MYSURU: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday asserted that Defence forces work in the interest of the nation and its better not to debate on their action now and also henceforth.

Interacting with intellectuals at a hotel here, the minister was reacting to a query on the reported comments of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy who had made an appeal not to celebrate the air strike on terror camps after Pulwama incident, that may incite another community.

However, the minister who preferred not to comment on the same, said, Without taking any names, I want to say what we are doing is for the national security. There are questions asking for any autopsy conducted on terrorists bodies, how many bodies? which should not be the matter of debate for now and also future. If we speak in such adverse tones, whom we are actually trying to help? Such comments are generously being used by Pakistan.

On the degree of her feelings post-Pulwama attack and air strikes, she said, There was patriotic feeling everywhere and the nation was fully charged. When we went home with bodies of shaeeds (martyrs) it was an emotional and very painful moment. You cannot escape from that.

On air strike, the minister said, "Even after 10 days (of Pulwama attack) if there were no action from our side, what else could we do. Not actually what happened after Mumbai attack.
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday warned Congress ticket aspirants rebelling against any of the official candidates of the party for the forthcoming parliamentary elections of expulsion from the party.

He made clear that the partys nominee from Gurdaspur would be sitting MP and PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar. "The candidates for the polls were likely to be declared within a week and anyone rebelling against the official nominees would be thrown out of the party," he added.

He dismissed reports of dissent within the Congress following Sher Singh Ghubayas entry into the party, saying all soldiers of the party would toe the line and the decision on the candidature of any ticket seeker was for the high command to take, with winnability the key criteria.

If anyone goes against the high commands decision, they would be immediately expelled, he added. Amarinder in response to another question reiterated that stern action would be taken against anyone found guilty of involvement in the sacrilege incidents and the subsequent police firing in Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura.

The SIT was investigating the matter and once it submits its report, suitable action would be taken against the guilty, as per the law, he added. Asked to react on the tragic deaths due to a drugs overdose in Amritsar, he termed it unfortunate and said most such cases were occurring as a result of consumption of concoctions of drug medicines.

His government was going all out to create awareness among the people against it, even as it was carrying on with its fight to eradicate the drugs menace from the state, he added.
A farmer observes the growth of his rice in Pingan township, Shulan, northeastern Chinas Jilin province. Shulan has been guiding local farmers on brand building, largely lifting the value of their products. It is a successful practice of supply-side reform in the agricultural sector. (Photo from Peoples Daily Online)

Chinese farmers are using their wisdom and modern strategies to cater for the market, and such supply-side reform is helping them gaining more profits.

Wu Kai, a staff from a fruit company in east Chinas Jiangxi province has greatly boosted the companys navel orange sales thanks to the supply-side reform he carried out.

Wus company is based in Chengjiang township, Jiangxis Xunwu county, a place having a 30-year history of navel orange planting. Almost every household there plants the fruit.

However, a small-size navel orange produced in Chengjiang was always neglected by the market due to its size, though its of high quality, Wu said. His company used to sell most of these fruits it collected from the farmers to secondary wholesale markets and juice factories at very low prices.

A total of 1.5 million kilograms of such small navel oranges were collected by Wus company in 2018. However, they were neither sent to the secondary wholesale markets nor the juice factories, but divided at a sorting line of the company. Oranges affected by diseases and pests and those with obvious injuries on the surface area were also kicked out from the fine ones.

Villagers weed for navel orange saplings at a sapling breeding center in Qianfeng village, Mazhou township, Huichang county of Jiangxi province, Feb. 23, 2019. (Photo by Zhu Haipeng, Peoples Daily Online)

This new strategy was a result of Wus investigation on consumers preferences of the fruits taste and appearance, a critical step for him to grasp the demand of the market.

Based on random sweetness measurement, the 1.5 million kilograms of small navel oranges went to different market segments under different brands, through both online and offline channels.

They created outstanding sales performance a couple of months later. Wus company took in revenue of 4 million yuan from the 500,000 kilograms sold on online platforms, and 7 million yuan from the rest sold in offline markets.

The total revenue would have stood at only 6 million had the fruits been sold through traditional channels, Wu introduced.

By learning consumers demand and categorizing the orange supplies, Wu has both guaranteed the product quality and created due value, commented Wang Xiaodong, deputy head of Xunwu county. Wus practice was exactly a creative attempt on the supply-side structural reform for navel orange sales, Wang noted.

The Chinese government have always attached high importance on agriculture-related issues as China is a major agrarian country.

China will focus on supply-side structural reform in agriculture and improve the quality and efficiency of its agricultural product supply, according to the countrys central rural work conference convened in Dec. 2015.

In addition, it will also ensure that the supply, variety and quality of agricultural products meet the needs of consumers, and foster effective supply that is well structured and guaranteed.

The success of the small navel oranges is a useful exploration to connect Chinas small-scale agricultural production and the massive market.

In many regions of China, production is no longer an issue. However, there is still much to improve in the sales sector. That is why the CPC Central Committee proposed to promote in-depth supply-side structural reform in the agriculture sector.

One of the important tasks of the reform is establishing a modern agricultural industry system which link both the production and market end of industry, so that the farmers can not only grow quality crops, but also gain decent income.
By Online Desk

The Supreme Court of India on Friday ordered mediation to settle the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute and appointed a three-member panel. The panel headed by Justice Kalifulla, includes Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu.

The panel has been asked to submit a status report at the end of four weeks and eight weeks to come to a conclusion. The apex court said mediation proceedings should be held on-camera in Faizabad. Here are some facts about the three mediators appointed to resolve the crucial Ayodhya issue.

Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla

Justice Kalifulla, the head of the three-member panel is a retired Supreme Court judge who also served as the chief justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

The 67-year-old justice, in his career spanning over a decade, he passed many landmark judgments. Kalifulla, who hails from Tamil Nadu's Sivagangai district, became a permanent member of the Madras High Court in 2000 and was later transferred to J&K in 2011.

On April 2, 2012, he was elevated to the Supreme Court and sworn in by then Chief Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia. He retired in July 2016.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar is an Indian spiritual guru and the founder of Art of Living, an organisation that preaches meditation and yoga. Although he has been advocating dialogue between the concerned parties, he had earlier denounced the Supreme Court's intervention into the matter. The 62-year-old leader also hails from a village in Tamil Nadu.

Ravi Shankar in an interview in 2018, said, Muslims should give up their claim on Ayodhya as a goodwill gesture. Ayodhya is not a place of faith for Muslims. We cannot make Lord Ram to be born in another place.

Sriram Panchu

Sriram Panchu is a 69-year-old senior advocate and a mediator based in Chennai. In 2005, he founded the Mediation Chambers-India's first court-annexed mediation center. He also played a key role in inducting mediation into the country's legal system and has been mediating since 1990.

Author of two books, he has been referred to as a distinguished mediator by the apex court.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Delhi Commission for Women Chief Swati Maliwal on Thursday announced that the DCW will create a manifesto, dealing with the women-related issues, for political parties to adopt.

"I have realised that women issues are not electoral issues for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. DCW will create a women's manifesto to raise the ground issues. I will meet leaders of all political parties so they adopt it," Maliwal told media here at an event, where she briefed about the commission's 13-day Mahila Suraksha Padyatra that will end on March 8, the International Womens Day.

During the Padyatra, Maliwal announced the launch of a "Transgenders' Cell" in the commission to reach out to the community, after its members narrated their tales of exploitation and discrimination.

She claimed that through this activity, the Commission was able to interact with lakhs of women and girls and visit several interior areas.

"We have also raised the issues of shortage of 63,000 police forces in the capital, lack of police accountability and shortage of fast track courts  which are making convictions in cases of sexual assault difficult to achieve," she said.

During the 13-day activity, the commission came across issues like -- sale of illicit liqour and drugs and criminal activities like playing of Satta in public places, "rampant" domestic violence with women and "growing" sexual violence in the capital among others.

The commission also spoke about breaking menstrual taboos and issuing notices to companies selling sanitary pads without passing the 0 per cent tax benefit.

On one of the days, Maliwal was joined by several acid attack survivors who narrated their struggles with the community. "The Commission has given a job to 9 acid attack survivors in the past three years," said the chairperson.

The commission also issued a Notice to the Divisional Commissioner and sought an immediate report on non-action of the recommendations of the Commission regarding a complete ban on acid sale in Delhi.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: India Thursday sealed a USD 3 billion deal with Russia for leasing of a nuclear-powered attack submarine for the Indian Navy for a period of 10 years, military sources said.

The two countries signed an inter-governmental agreement capping months of negotiations on price and various other aspects of the deal.

Under the pact, Russia will have to deliver the Akula class submarine, to be known as Chakra III, to the Indian Navy by 2025.

It will be the third Russian submarine to be leased to the Indian Navy.

A spokesperson in the Defence Ministry refused to comment when asked about the deal.

India has been significantly bolstering its naval prowess in the backdrop of China's attempts to expand its influence in the Indian Ocean region.

India Navy has taken two more submarines from Russia on lease.

The first Russian nuclear-powered submarine -- christened INS Chakra -- was taken in 1988 under a three year lease. A second INS Chakra was taken on lease in 2012 for a period of 10 years.

The lease of Chakra II will expire in 2022 and India is looking at extending the lease, sources said.

The deal for the Chakra III came days after Indo-Russian joint production facility to manufacture AK-203 assault rifles for the Indian Army was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

In October, India signed a multi-billion dollar deal with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 air defence missile system.
Manish Anand By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: In what was perhaps its last Cabinet meeting ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the government on Thursday sought to address a wide constituency - from assuaging Dalit angst on faculty reservation in colleges to mega infrastructure push in Delhi and Mumbai and sweetening the deal for sugar mills - to enhance the BJPs poll prospects.

The Narendra Modi government has been taking a flurry of decisions at the meetings of Union Cabinet and the CCEA. Over the past fortnight, both have taken 96 decisions.

Sugar sector to get Rs 12,900 crore soft loans for ethanol capacity creation

In a major boost to the sugar industry, the Union Cabinet on Thursday announced an additional soft loan of Rs 12,900 crore to sugar mills for creation of ethanol capacity and another Rs 2,600 crore to molasses-based standalone distilleries.

The decision was taken at the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

To augment ethanol capacity, the government has approved additional funds. These additional funds will be in two tranches  Rs 2,790 crore and Rs 565 crore, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. He added that these funds are part of the governments support for the stress in the sugar sector. They (mills) have some stress and outstanding dues. The government is trying to augment the income of mills, Jaitley explained.

In June 2018, the government had announced a soft loan of Rs 4,400 crore and provided an interest subvention of Rs 1,332 crore to mills over a period of five years, including a moratorium of one year to augment ethanol output.

ASLO READ: Cabinet to spend Rs 4,500 crore to revive 'un-served, under-served' airports

As per industry estimates, sugarcane dues have crossed Rs 20,000 crore till February of this marketing year.

In another decision, the Cabinet allowed an Alternative Mechanism to decide on the timing, price and quantum of shares of a state-run company to be put on the block for outright sale.

The CCEA has approved delegation of the following Alternative Mechanism in all cases of strategic disinvestment of CPSEs where CCEA has given in principle approval for strategic disinvestment, an official statement said. The move will facilitate quick decision-making and obviate the need for multiple instances of CCEA approval for the same CPSE.

Approves three Delhi Metro corridors

The Cabinet cleared three of the six corridors planned under Phase IV of the Delhi Metro network. The Tughlakabad-Aerocity (20.20 km), the Janakpuri West-RK Ashram (28.92 km) and the Mukundpur-Maujpur (12.54 km) sections will have a project outlay of Rs 24,948.65 crore.

Meanwhile, the Rithala-Bawana-Narela, Inderlok-Indraprastha and Lajpat Nagar-Saket G Block corridors did not get the nod.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and the government will be taking up the project in the existing 50:50 sharing ratio.Of the total 61.67 km length of the approved sections, 22.35 km will be built underground while 39.32 km will be elevated. A total of 46 stations will be added. The announcements were made by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who was also present at the Cabinet meet, said the Tughlakabad-Aerocity corridor will improve connectivity to the airport. The Aerocity-Tughlakabad corridor will have 15 stations, including Mahipalpur, Vasant Kunj Sector-D, Masoodpur, Kishangarh, Mehrauli, Lado Sarai, Saket, Saket G Block, Ambedkar Nagar, Khanpur, Tigri, Anandmayee Marg Junction, and Tughlakabad Railway Colony.

ALSO READ: Cabinet approves AAI proposal to surrender claim on 106.76 acres of land encroached by Madhya Pradesh government

Motiakhan, Sadar Bazar, Pulbangash, GhantaGhar/SabziMandi, Pushpanjali Enclave, West Enclave, Mangolpuri, PeeragarhiChowk, PaschimVihar, Meerabagh and Krishan Park Extension are among the 25 stations on the RK Ashram-Janakpuri West corridor. In the Maujpur-Mukundpur corridor, there will be six stations at Yamuna Vihar, Bhajanpura, KhajuriKhas, Soorghat, Jagatpur Village and Burari.

No reasons have been given as to why all the six corridors could not be approved, said transport minister Kailash Gahlot.Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed Delhiites were very disappointed with the Centres decision to approve only three of the proposed six corridors under the Metro Phase-IV project.

He took to Twitter wondering why the Modi government was so much against the people of Delhi. There should be no politics over Delhis development, he added.

Clears Rs 31,600 crore proposals for investment in 4 power projects

With an aim to revive the stressed power sector and encourage hydropower sector, the government on Thursday approved investment proposals worth over Rs 31,600 crore in four power projects. These projects, including coal-based thermal plants and hydropower, are likely to be operational by 2023-24.

The Cabinet Committee of External Affairs (CCEA) has approved the investment of Rs 10,439.09 crore for the 2x660 MW Buxar Thermal Power Project in Bihar. The plant, which is expected to improve deficit power scenario in the eastern region, will be set up by SJVN Thermal Private Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of SJVN, a mini-ratna CPSU.

ALSO READ: Cabinet clears third railway line for busy section between Bengal and Odisha

The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also cleared investment proposal for a 2x660 MW Khurja Super Thermal Power Plant in Bulandshahr entailing an investment of Rs 11,089.42 crore and Amelia coal mine in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh at a cost of Rs 1,587.16 crore.

Power Minister RK Singh said that the Cabinet also approved recommendations of a group of ministers relating to stressed power projects. These recommendations included a grant of coal linkage for short-term PPAs, allowing existing coal linkage to be used in case of termination of PPAs due to payment default by distribution companies and procurement of bulk power by a modal agency against pre-declared linkages.

Among the hydropower projects, the CCEA approved investment for the acquisition of Lanco Teesta Hydro Power Ltd and the execution of balance work of the Teesta Stage-VI Hydro Electric Project by NHPC in Sikkim at a total cost of Rs 5,748.04 crore.

Besides, another Rs 4,287.59 crore was approved for the construction of Kiru Hydro Electric Project (624 MW) by Chenab Valley Power Projects Pvt Ltd in Jammu and Kashmir. In a fillip to the hydropower sector, the Cabinet approved a slew of measures including providing renewable energy status for large hydel projects and new funding provisions.

Nods to ordinance on reservation in universities

The Cabinet also approved an ordinance on the changed reservation policy for faculty recruitment in universities and colleges that would lead to the consideration of the institution, rather than individual departments, as a unit for calculating reserved category seats.

An Allahabad High Court order in July 2017 mandating universities to make department-wise appointments had resulted in a major reduction in the number of reserved category seats.

Petitions filed by the Union Human Resources Development Ministry in the Supreme Court were dismissed.

The stand by the courts had led to major changes in the roster system, which had provoked pushback from leaders representing scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities. It was argued that the new system drastically reduced the number of reserved seats.

The ordinance reverses the courts stand and classifies an entire university or college as a single unit for determining Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Class (OBC) quotas.

MoU between India and Germany approved

The Cabinet also approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Germany on cooperation in the field of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). The MoU was renewed on 13th November 2018. Under the MoU, German Social Accident Insurance, through the International Social Security Association, is bringing in know-how to meet the OSH challenges, especially in the construction sector.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: Marking the occasion of International Women's Day, Google on Friday showcased an interactive, slideshow doodle featuring inspirational quotes by women.

The doodle begins with "woman" written in 11 different languages -- Hindi, Arabic, French, Bangla, Russian, Japanese, German, Italian, English, Spanish and Portuguese.

The quotes in various languages are from 14 international female trendsetters, including Indian boxer Mary Kom, British writer and suffragette Millicent Fawcett, American astronaut and physician Mae Jemison, and British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.

Comprised of thirteen inspirational quotes from international female trailblazers, our interactive #IWD2019 #GoogleDoodle is told by and made by women  https://t.co/Aa4Pg7md7R pic.twitter.com/YQ9n58CpaV  Google (@Google) March 8, 2019

"The process of choosing the fourteen quotes was extremely difficult, but we aimed to include a diverse representation of voices on a day which celebrates the past, present, and future community of diverse women around the world," Google said in a blog post.

The quotes were designed by a group of female guest artists from around the globe.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ordered mediation into Ayodhyas Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case, appoints a three-member panel. Orders mediation process to start within four weeks and to be completed within eight weeks.

The apex court said mediation proceedings should be held on-camera. The mediation process will be held in Faizabad. It will be headed by Justice FM Kaliifullah, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu.

The top court in its order also said that the reporting of the mediation proceedings in media will be banned. "Court monitored mediation proceedings will be confidential," said CJI Ranjan Gogoi.

The five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had on Wednesday reserved the order after hearing various parties in the case. Hindu bodies except Nirmohi Akhara have opposed the suggestion to refer the issue for mediation, while Muslim bodies have supported it.

ALSO READ: Uttar Pradesh to seek Gujarat's support over construction of Ram statue in Ayodhya

Following the apex courts directive to give list of mediators of their choice to them, Hindu bodies like Nirmohi Akhara suggested the names of Justices (retd) Kurian Joseph, AK Patnaik and GS Singhvi as mediators, while the Hindu Mahasabha faction of Swami Chakrapani proposed the names of former CJIs Justices J S Khehar and Dipak Misra and Justice (retd) A K Patnaik to the bench.

ALSO READ: 8 translators to take 120 days to translate nearly 11,500 pages in English, SC told

During the hearing, the SC had observed that they know that the dispute is not an issue of land but one of faith. It is not only about property. It is about mind, heart and healing, if possible, said the bench.

Cant undo what Babur did

The bench said it cannot undo what Mughal emperor Babur did centuries ago, but that it is more concerned about the current situation and healing of relations.
Ramananda Sengupta By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The UN Security Council has refused to remove Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder and mastermind of the 26/11 attack on Mumbai, Hafiz Saeed, from its list of terrorists. Saeeds request to be delisted was vehemently opposed by New Delhi, as well as by the US, UK and France, which is now the Security Council chair. As expected, despite all its talk about countering terror, Pakistan had not raised any objection to Saeeds appeal to lift the ban, said one official in Delhi.

The decision comes days ahead of the UNSC hearing a fresh request to list Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Masood Azhar as a terrorist, moved by France after the February 14 suicide bomb attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama, Kashmir, in which 40 troopers were killed and many maimed.

Saeeds lawyer, Haider Rasul Mirza, of the Pakistani law firm Mirza and Mirza, was apparently informed of the UN decision earlier this week.The UNSC had listed Saeed and his Jammat-ud-Dawa (JuD) as terrorists in December 2008 after the Mumbai attack, in which 166 people were killed. However, while technically under house arrest, Saeed continued to roam free in Pakistan, giving virulent anti-India sermons. In 2017, his lawyers had filed an appeal to get the UN proscription lifted.

But the UNs independent ombudsperson, Swiss federal Judge Daniel Kipfer Fasciati, tasked by the world body with examining all such requests, demurred after Pakistan denied visas to a UN team which was supposed to interview Saeed as part of the process. Subsequently, he informed Saeeds lawyer that there was sufficient information to provide a reasonable and credible basis for continuing the listing, and that his recommendation was endorsed by the UNs Sanctions Committee.

Given that several terrorist outfitsbanned by the UN and Pakistan itselfand their leaders continue to operate with impunity in Pakistan, this is just a symbolic victory, but it is a victory all the same, said an Indian source.

Musharraf admits using JeM to hit india

Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has admitted using Jaish-e-Mohammed to carry out attacks in India during his tenure. Speaking on phone to a Pakistani television channel from Dubai, where he lives in exile, Musharraf lauded the Imran Khan governments recent move to ban the Masood Azhar-led JeM and seize its assets. This is a good move. I have always said that the JeM is a terrorist organisation and they had carried out a suicide attack in an attempt to assassinate me, he said. Asked why he had not acted against JeM, he said: Those were different times. Our intelligence men were involved in a tit-for-tat between India and Pakistan... Also I did not insist.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI / LUCKNOW: While Muslim parties, involved in the Ram Mandir Babri Masjid land dispute case, have welcomed the Supreme Court order on time-bound mediation, Hindu stakeholders appear to be divided over it and are sceptical of the success of the move.

The voice of consensus which emerged from the camp of Hindu litigants favoured nothing less than construction of a grand Ram temple at the birth site of Lord Ram.

Trilokinath Pandey of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, one of the two Hindu litigants and friend of Ram Lala Virajman, rejected the mediation efforts calling it an exercise in futility. The Supreme Court should muster courage and deliver the verdict to settle the vexed issue. These exercises will not serve the purpose. So we have kept ourselves away from it, said Pandey.

The other Hindu litigant, Nirmohi Akhara, too, doesnt seem much enthused by the mediation efforts. Though Akahara chief Mahant Dinendra Das expressed his readiness to present his side before the mediation panel to help it reach an amicable solution, its former chief Mahant Ram Das raised questions over the selection Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. The saints of Ayodhya should have also been made part of any such panel as without them no solution will be possible, he said.

Mahant Satyendra Das, head priest of the makeshift temple of Lord Ram at the disputed site, welcomed the SC order but added that what we all want is just a grand temple of Lord Ram as soon as possible.

Mahant Pramahans Das of Chhawani temple in Ayodhya, too, welcomed SC order and hoped it would bear fruits. Batting for inclusion of Ayodhya residents on the panel, the mahant, who had gone on a fast unto death seeking a temple last year, proposed a mosque name on Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in Lucknow as no Babri structure should come up in Ayodhya.

In contrast, Muslim parties welcomed the mediation order. The lone Muslim litigant in the matter, Iqbal Ansari, said court- monitored talks could be the way forward. We respect the court and welcome the decision. At the end of the day, we all want a just, peaceful resolution to the issue.

However, Ansari also favoured representation from Ayodhya in the mediation panel.

Advocate Zafaryab Jilani, who represents the Sunni Waqf Board before the court, said the board would be happy if something good comes out of the mediation. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) also said it would be most befitting that the matter is resolved through negotiations.

Jilani said they will extend all possible cooperation to the mediation panel. There is no harm if the court wants to avail this eight weeks time for process of negotiation. We will cooperate fully. If something comes out of this, it is good otherwise the court has itself pointed out that after expiry of eight weeks, the court will proceed in its own way. So, It is an opportunity to all parties to resolve the issue."

"The Supreme Court has given this order and it needs to be welcomed.... It would be most befitting that the matter is resolved through dialogue...let's see what happens now," said AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani. He also welcomed the top court's decision to maintain "utmost confidentiality" saying, this would ensure the success of the mediation process and barring the media from reporting about the proceedings.
By PTI

MUMBAI: Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Avdhut Wagh Friday abused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after which the latter complained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "rein in the person whom you follow on Twitter".

Insinuating on Twitter that Kejriwal is a "secret colonel of the Pakistan Army", Wagh followed the label with another crass remark.

Kejriwal hit back, addressing a tweet to Modi.

"Prime Minister, you follow him (Wagh) on Twitter. He is your disciple and a BJP functionary," he said.

"We can also hurl abuse but we are Hindus. Our Hindu culture doesn't teach us to use abusive language," he added.

Wagh, a mechanical engineer, is no stranger to controversy.

In October last year, Wagh had described Modi as the "11th incarnation" of Lord Vishnu, prompting ridicule by the Opposition, with the Congress calling it an "insult" to the gods.

AAP leader Preeti Sharma Menon dubbed Wagh's remarks against Kejriwal an "insult to democracy" and sought police action against him.

"Mumbai police should take cognisance of Wagh's bid to instigate hatred and violence and take action against him," she said.

When contacted, a state BJP spokesperson declined to comment on Wagh's remarks.
G Krishna Kumar By

The recently concluded annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was abuzz with the emerging technology called 5G, which is expected to transform the communication landscape the world over. As with any technology life cycle, we witness hype before reality sets in. How soon will 5G become a reality and how quickly will India embrace this technology? Before looking at the possible solutions, let us understand this emerging technology a bit.

5G stands for the fifth generation of mobile internet connectivity. 5G promises 10 to 100 times faster data download and upload speeds compared to 4G. This technology will be applicable to an ecosystem of infrastructure devices (maybe billions of devices!) and is not just limited to smartphones. A recent report suggests that there are 7 billion connected devices globally, mostly comprising mobile phones, but that would increase 15-fold by 2025. This is because of the addition of connected home appliances, cars, transportation infrastructure, etc. 5G is also expected to reduce the latency (time taken for sending data from one point to another). This can help in innovative real-time applications across manufacturing, healthcare, education, etc.

The rollout of 5G across the globe will happen gradually; 5G network suppliers as well as mobile phone makers are in a hurry to get their products into the market. Telcos across the globe are trying to outsmart each other. No wonder, a leading telco in the US recently started a controversial marketing campaign called 5GE or 5G Evolution (which is advanced 4G and has nothing to do with 5G). It is expected that the US, Japan, South Korea and the EU would roll out 5G services during the next couple of years. Any new wireless technology would involve complete infrastructure deployment as well as the availability of mobile handsets.

Mobile communication in India was primarily voice-based for many years. However, over the past couple of years, India has suddenly emerged as a leading market for data consumption. A leading mobile network provider says that data consumption on mobile networks per user in India is among the highest in the world. While the increase in mobile usage is laudable, Indian mobile subscribers are a frustrated lot due to poor voice call quality, call drops and substandard data rates for browsing. While the benefits of 5G are too good to ignore and would help India become a technology-first nation, the question remains: Will Indian telcos take the 5G plunge?

The biggest challenge is the availability of 100 per cent backhaul fibre optic network. Reports suggest that the US and China have over 80 per cent of the backhaul network fiberised, while in India, it is just about 25 per cent. In addition, what about the ability of the telcos to acquire equipment, infrastructure and more importantly spectrum? The total debt in the industry is over Rs 7 lakh crores.

Many telcos have requested for delayed payment for the spectrum they had acquired, and there are rumours that some telcos will file for bankruptcy. The situation is similar to the one we witnessed in the late nineties when the government intervened in bailing out the telcos that had filed for bankruptcy.

Should India wait for 5G to mature in other countries before bringing it here? Certainly not. The governments Digital India push would get a major boost through the ultra high speed 5G network. Through Digital India initiatives, the government has already launched close to 70 services (including UMANG, Jan Dhan, eKYC, etc.) With more services on the anvil and more citizens availing the services, a robust 5G-ready infrastructure is the key.

The government has announced India will be 5G ready by 2020, but that seems far-fetched. It has plans to auction 5G spectrum. However, reports suggest even at the base price, the spectrum is 3-4 times more expensive compared to the cost in nations like South Korea. Considering the tepid response to previous auctions, the government is on the backfoot. 5G infrastructure would mean huge expenditure from the telcos for building the telecom backbone and for spectrum. The present price war and the ultra low cost tariff initiated by Jio has left the incumbent telcos struggling financially. In fact, a leading telco recently said the artificially low tariff for Indian subscribers would stop very soon as it is simply unviable for them.

How can the government help in bringing 5G? Firstly, the pricing for 5G must be reasonable with relaxed payment terms. But this would go against the governments objective of maximising revenue from spectrum sale. Secondly, private players should be incentivised and the Fibre First Initiative mentioned in the National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) 2018 should be aggressively implemented. Thirdly, the government should aim at reducing the regulatory taxes paid by Indian telcos, among the highest in the world.

They pay 30-32 per cent of their revenue as taxes (including spectrum usage charges, licence fees, GST etc.). Also, the government must push for Make in India manufacturing for 5G infrastructure, equipment and even mobiles. Finally, an ecosystem should be created for coming up with India-specific applications by involving the right stakeholders including industry and academia.

Notwithstanding the current challenges in the telecom industry, India needs to embark on the 5G journey for the Digital India initiatives to be effective. The government and telcos must work together in building the right infrastructure that can provide superlative data speeds and user experience for all of us.

G Krishna Kumar

Columnist and ICT professional based in Bengaluru. Views are personal

Email: krishnak1@outlook.com
Estate agents in the UK have been hit with unannounced inspections as part of a week-long crackdown on money laundering in the property industry, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has revealed.

HMRC officers visited 50 estate agents across England who were suspected of trading without being registered as required under money laundering regulations.

The visits came as HMRC published the latest businesses hit with fines for failing to comply with the regulations. This list includes estate agent Countrywide Estate Agents, who received a 215,000 fine.

HMRC will now take action against the businesses who have failed to comply, which can include fines, publication and even criminal proceedings.

John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said, The vast majority of estate agents play by the rules and help us to crack down on dirty money. However, I have zero tolerance for firms prepared to turn a blind eye to the law. Money laundering regulation exists to help protect honest business, so anyone who flaunts the law should know that swift action will be taken.

Ben Wallace, Minister for National Security and Economic Crime, echoed Glen's view, adding, Criminals who seek to use this country as a place to launder money should be in no doubt that they have nowhere to hide. Estate agents are a crucial line of defense against them, and thats why theyre under a legal  and moral  obligation to file a report when they spot something amiss.

Its wrong to think of money laundering as a victimless crime. Those with dirty cash to clean dont just sit on it  they reinvest it in serious organized crime, from drug importation to child sexual exploitation, human trafficking and even terrorism.

This is the first week of action involving intelligence-led, co-ordinated activity aimed at estate agents trading without HMRC registration as legally required.

The visits involved HMRC inspectors questioning businesses to establish whether they have been trading in breach of the regulations. Inspectors then assess whether any further action is required. (Tianxing Bai)
Devaraj B Hirehalli By

Express News Service

TUMAKURU: Barely into her teens, she was married off and even had two daughters. A huge tragedy struck her when she lost her husband just four years later. But it was her indomitable spirit that saw her turn into a guardian angel for scores of women who had been pushed to the streets by their families.

Now 38, Yashodha takes care of about 45 destitute women. I was forced to marry my relative at the age of 13 and I lost my alcoholic husband at 17. I was shocked, but I faced life like a rock. I managed to complete my BBM course as well. Now, I am happy that I am able to contribute to society, she says. She has been pooling in from her own earnings as an insurance company agent, besides raising funds from philanthropists, to run two destitute homes.

While her older daughter is pursuing a medical course in the Philippines, the younger girl is studying engineering in Bengaluru. What motivated Yashodha was the snub at a shelter home in Bengaluru in 2013, where she had taken a woman she had found on the streets. The authorities there told her they were full and asked her to open a shelter home herself if she was so concerned about the plight of such people.

Taking up the challenge, Yashodha set up the first shelter home with three people whom she had found by the roadside, at a rented house in Ashoka Nagar here. Now, she runs two such homes, one at Jayanagara East, where she has constructed a building on a rented site for which she pays Rs 2,000 per month, and another at Upparahalli. The first one can accommodate about 28 women.

Now this is our home and we are family

Recently, we found one Manjamma on the streets of Sakleshapur. She had not bathed for years. With the help of Women and Child Development officials and police, we got her here, said Preetham, secretary of Sharadambha Trust.Gowramma of Maddur and Kempamma of Chikkanayakanahalli have similar stories. They refuse to talk about the past or their families. This is our home and we are family, said Nina, who was rescued from Bengaluru.

The cook at the home, Lakshmamma, has been like a daughter to the inmates. The warden Yashodhamma works without expecting remuneration. Our home is on a rented site and if the administration grants us a site we can construct another building, said Raghavendra, one of the trustees. Doctors Praveen, Malini and Keshavraj provide free services in case of health issues.

Philanthropists can contact the shelter home on 0816-229006.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Congress Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka B K Hariprasad on Thursday sparked off a furore over the Pulwama terror attack in which more than 40 CRPF personnel were martyred. Despite his partys stance not to politicise the tragedy, Hariprasad accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of match-fixing with Pakistan over the incident. His remark came under sharp criticism from union ministers as well as citizens alike.

There is a match-fixing between Narendra Modi and Imran Khan ... else, this Pulwama incident wouldnt have taken place. People, who talk about the security of the nation, can detect two kg of beef in Akhlaqs house and two kg of beef in Kerala guest house and they cant detect 350 RDX on the national highway? It is a shame on them, Hariprasad told reporters on Thursday.

ALSO READ | Karnataka Congress leader allegedly calls for shooting PM Modi

His remark on the Pulwama attack came after Union minister Ravishankar Prasad questioned Congress chief Rahul Gandhi over his press conference with regards to the Rafale deal papers going missing. Not stopping at once, Hariprasad reiterated his statement.

Ravi Shankar Prasad should clarify whether there is any match-fixing between Narendra Modi and Pakistan. Or else, without their knowledge, this Pulwama incident would not have taken place. If you look at the chain of events that took place after Pulwama, it looks like Narendra Modi had a match-fixing with Pakistan people (SIC).

Minister of State Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore took to Twitter to slam the MP. When doubting the IAF didnt work, Congress stoops lower by insulting our heroes & indirectly calling India a terror state. Mr Hariprasad, YOUR leaders peddle ISI version of events & their statements get printed in Pak media (sic) he tweeted.
Ajaykanth By

Express News Service

KOCHI: The Kerala Police is all set to toe the line of its Odisha counterpart by launching a Special Operational Group (SOG) to take on rising Maoist activities here. The SOG will exclusively function to neutralise Leftwing extremism in the state. With a strength of 200 police personnel, SOG will function as a separate entity under the direct control of the state police chief and will be given a free hand to undertake operational activities to counter Maoist operations.

The police have submitted a detailed proposal for the SOG to the state government and a formal approval is expected soon. Many states facing Leftwing extremism have SOGs and considering the present situation in Kerala, we need it too, State Police Chief Lokanth Behera told Express.

He said the unit will work independently and have its own operational intelligence wing. Senior police officers said the SOG will function like the Greyhounds of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. In Kerala, the SOG will primarily focus its operation in Wayanad, Kannur, Palakkad and Malappuram, the officers said.

Neutralise and counter

As per the polices proposal, the SOG will function to neutralise insurgents, extremists and also armed groups indulging in unlawful activities. It will take up appropriate counter-operations and deal with all kinds of crisis, contingencies and unanticipated situations arising out of terrorism, extremism, hijacking, hostage, acts of sabotage and subversion.

In Odisha, the SOG has been entrusted with collecting, analysing and documenting sensational acts of terrorism and extremism; and devising or updating suitable counter measures. It also develops training curriculum and trains its own personnel and those of other units of the state police in anti-terrorist, anti-extremist and non-conventional jungle warfare.

Kerala Police have been dealing with Maoists in the state with an iron fist after the LDF Government assumed power. Though there have been allegations of the police staging fake encounters to finish off three Maoists, including a woman, in the state since June 2016, police officers opine Maoists have escalated their operations and are using firearms against police patrolling teams.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed the PIL petitions challenging the GOs relating to payment of Rs 2,000 to the families living below poverty line (BPL) in Tamil Nadu.

The bench, comprising of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad, upheld the validity of the GOs while dismissing the PIL petitions from M Karunanidhi of Kadambur village in Villupuram district and Murugesan of Vellore.

According to petitioners, following a statement made by the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on the floor of the Assembly that BPL families would be given special assistance of Rs 2,000 each, the TN Womens Development Corporation (TNWDC) issued two GOs, the last one on February 13 last, which expanded the scope of the beneficiaries.

The system followed in identifying the beneficiaries was in total violation of the guidelines meant for identifying BPL families. Moreover, the timing of the implementation of the scheme was to achieve political mileage, petitioners contended.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: A day after an NGO for the rights of differently-abled lodged a complaint against PM Modi, Saidapet police said they have not registered a case yet. Officials at the station said they will proceed after taking legal opinion.

READ | Complaint filed against PM Modi for dyslexia jibe

In the petition, the association has requested police to take legal action against Modi who has not apologised for making certain remarks.

While addressing students at an event in Kharagpur on March 2, Modi asked a student who was explaining her project on dyslexic children whether it would also help children who are 40-50 years now. His move of taking an apparent jibe at Rahul Gandhi received widespread criticism.

READ | Many citizens angered by PM Modi's joke about dyslexia, here's why

The speech was not made within the Saidapet police station limits and the PM being a constitutional authority, it is even more complicated, officials said. Another officer said NGO members were asked to meet a senior officer on Thursday, but they did not turn up.
By Online Desk

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to award Param Vir Chakra, the highest military award, to IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman. The pilot was captured by Pakistan after a dogfight in the skies and released later.

In a letter to the PM Modi, Palaniswami said the pilot, a native of Tamil Nadu, displayed amazing poise and confidence in the face of adverse conditions and it would be appropriate that he be awarded the highest military honour. "I request the government of India to confer the nation's highest military honour, Param Vir Chakra, on Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman," he added.

He noted that Varthaman was released by Pakistan "due to the diplomatic initiatives" of the Prime Minister and "intense international pressure".

"Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman displayed amazing poise and confidence in the face of adverse conditions, which has won him many hearts across the country. It is appropriate that he be awarded India's highest military honour Param Vir Chakra (PVC) for displaying most inimitable gallantry and valour," the chief minister said.

Palaniswami recalled that the MiG-21 Bison aircraft piloted by Varthaman had shot down a Pakistan Air Force F-16 jet when it tried to violate India's air space and that he was later taken into custody by Pakistani armed forces.

Varthaman, returned home on March 1 after Pakistan PM Imran Khan announced he would be released as a "gesture of peace".

Param Vir Chakra is awarded for most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea, or in the air.
Express News Service

CHENNAI: In the recent times, both the Dravidian majors have been increasingly asking their smaller allies not to contest on independent poll symbols. They prefer the smaller allies fighting elections using the recognised symbols of DMK and AIADMK. Even this time, the DMK wants MDMK and VCK to contest using its Rising Sun symbol. The AIADMK also seems to have put forward a similar request.

The legal implication of such an arrangement between parties is not clear because they have not come under the scrutiny of the Election Commission or courts. Express spoke to a few members of the legal fraternity on the subject. While opinions were divergent, all of them agreed that the ramifications will be significant.

The basics

The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, is the overarching legislation governing poll symbols. A significant amendment was made to this order in the year 2000  a sub-clause was inserted in Section 13 of the order, which said that a candidate must necessarily be a member of the particular political party to be eligible for the allotment of the symbol of the said party in the elections.

This means if a candidate is from an ally party, he or she must first enrol as a member of the first party on whose symbol they wish to contest. Senior members of legal wings of a few political parties agreed its a necessary formality, but not a major hurdle in doing otherwise. Any person can be enrolled into a party, even in the last minute before nominations are filed. But the real catch lies in another rule of the Election Commission.

Sarath Kumar

One man, one party

The rule mandates that no person can be member of two political parties at the same time. The guidelines issued by the poll panel in 2010 specifically says that while applying for registration, an authorised party official must submit an affidavit declaring that none of their party member has membership in any other registered party.

Bylaws of both DMK and AIADMK also do not allow its prospective cadre to have membership in another party at the same time. So, does that mean a candidate contesting from ally party symbol will lose membership in his own party? Will Thirumavalavan and Vaiko, for instance, lose their party posts if they contest from Rising Sun symbol? The answer isnt clear.

The only similar case pending before the Election Commission is against KM Kader Mohideen of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML). He contested and won from the Vellore Parliament constituency in DMKs symbol in 2004. A few members of the IUML subsequently filed petitions with the Election Commission saying Mohideen had lost the membership in IUML since he had declared himself to be a member of the DMK in the nomination papers. The case is still pending.

This may not cause any big harm, says a senior member of the legal team of a prominent party, as these are internal matters of the party concerned. If the candidate wins the election, he will technically remain a member of the party in whose symbol he contested, for the next five years.

But, his parent party can, of course, amend its internal bylaws and make him an honorary president or general secretary. There is no need to have a basic membership for this.

Rising trend

At least seven leaders of smaller parties contested polls using symbols of bigger fries in the last three general elections; some of them even won from AIADMK. None of them faced any trouble. This is also because these leaders have a strong hold over their own party and none from within have challenged their moves, unlike in the case of IUMLs Mohideen. Recently, VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan recalled that he had contested from Rising Sun symbol of DMK in 2001 and won the elections. However, the crucial difference is that VCK was not a registered political party during 2001 elections.

Who's the boss?

There was unanimous agreement among members of legal fraternity on one thing  a candidate winning from the symbol of another party will have to function under the control of the whip of that said party. In the eyes of EC, he is a member of the party in whose symbol he contested the election.

Senior lawyer K M Vijayan agrees. Such arrangements take away the chances of the smaller parties to grow, he says. In future, the party cannot claim a permanent symbol for it in view of the votes it secured in that election, says Vijayan. (A party must get at least 6 per cent votes and 2 MLAs to apply for recognition and a permanent symbol.) Vijayan says the votes secured by the smaller parties would only be considered as votes polled by party to which the symbol belongs.

Relevant laws

1 The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968: Section 13s titled When a candidate shall be deemed to be set up by a political party - For the purpose of an election from any parliamentary or assembly constituency to which this Order applies, a candidate shall be deemed to be set up by a political party in any such parliamentary or assembly constituency, if, and only, if -

Sub-clause (aa): the candidate is a member of that political party and his name is borne on the rolls of members of the party

2 Additional guidelines for Registration of political parties under section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951: Para VII: An affidavit duly signed by the President/General Secretary of the applicant party and sworn before a 1st class Magistrate/Oath Commissioner/Notary Public to the effect that no member of the organisation is a member of any other registered political party...

3 Bylaw of DMK: Rule 5 titled Membership Section 2: Any person who is a member of any other political party or of any communal or religious organisation shall not be eligible for membership of the Kazhagam

Leaders who contested in other party symbols



2004 Lok Sabha polls

KM Kader Mohideen of IUML won from the Vellore constituency on DMKs symbol.



2011 assembly election



2011 assembly election R Sarathkumar of AISMK contested in AIADMKs symbol in Tenkasi and won

A Narayanan of AISMK won from Nanguneri in AIADMK symbol 2014 parliament election

AC Shanmugam of Puthiya Neethi Katchi contested in BJPs symbol at Vellore and lost

ER Eswaran of Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi contested in BJPs symbol at Pollachi and lost

TR Pachamuthu of Indhiya Jananayaka Katchi contested in BJPs symbol at Perambalur and lost

2016 assembly polls
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Amid escalating tension at the borders and rising threat perception across the country, a security convergence meeting was held between police and military officers at the Secunderabad Military Station on Thursday. The Secunderabad Cantonment being the largest cantonment in the country, the open and porous nature of it with a large civilian population around key defence establishments, has been a major concern for the local military establishment.

Major roads and highways close by or passing through the Cantonment only compound the problem surrounding security concerns. The objective of the convergence meeting, however, was to make aware each others capabilities, limitations, concerns in order to synergise efforts for creating conducive environment to bring about positive results in providing security to civil public and defence establishments.

Major General N Srinivas Rao, General Officer Commanding, Telangana and Andhra Sub-Area, highlighted the concerns as the defence establishments in Secunderabad Cantonment, Golconda, Mehdipatnam and Bowenpally are open and porous with large civil population around them. DGP M Mahendar Reddy, who co-chaired the meeting, said such convergence activities between Armed Forces and police are very important to be prepared to face any contingencies effectively.

Senior police officers including T Krishna Prasad, DGP & Chairman, Road Safety Authority, Jitender, Additional DGP (Law and Order), Anjani Kumar, Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, Mahesh Bhagwat, Commissioner of Police, Rachakonda, V Naveen Chand, IGP, Intelligence and Sandeep Shandilya, Additional DGP, Railways & Road Safety (SCR) were present in the meeting.

The meeting discussed several external and internal security issues.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Governor ESL Narasimhan on Thursday, acknowledging the panic and rumour-mongering on social media, cautioned one and all about the harm social media websites can cause to the society. Addressing a team of officers and faculty members of National Defence College at Raj Bhavan, the Governor said that cyber warfare, or cyber threats in general, are not new and have existed for quite some time.

A team of officers led by Abhay Tripathi, Additional Secretary & Faculty-in charge of National Defence College, called on the Governor as part of their visit to Telangana under the National Security and Strategic Studies training programme at the National Defence College, Ministry of Defence, New Delhi. The team of fifteen officers also consisted of one defence officer each from Australia, Malaysia and Bhutan.

According to the Governor, threats come in the shape of disruption, sabotage and subversion. Earlier, it was easy to trace these threats as human elements were involved. But today, because of the digital world, it has become difficult to find the origin of such threats. There is little human intervention and the spread is far and wide, he said. The Governor added that nowadays, only wars of low intensity are being fought as no country would want to fritter away their precious human resources.
By PTI

OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday denied accusations of "inappropriate" meddling in the prosecution of a corporate giant, as the country's golden boy leader battles his worst crisis since taking office.

Facing calls to resign over the snowballing scandal, Trudeau addressed the allegations head-on in a morning news conference in Ottawa -- saying he had learned "lessons" from the crisis, but denying any wrongdoing.

Trudeau's inner circle is accused of pressuring his former attorney general to shield Canadian engineering giant SNC-Lavalin from a bribery trial.

The case has already triggered the resignation of Trudeau's right-hand man and two cabinet ministers, with support for the beleaguered prime minister and his Liberals falling for the first time behind the opposition Tories, seven months from a general election.

Addressing the media, the 47-year-old premier acknowledged he raised the pending trial during a meeting last September with then attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould -- whose resignation touched off the crisis.

He said they discussed its possible impact on jobs in his Montreal electoral base.

"But," he said, "this comment was not partisan in nature."

During days of testimony before the House of Commons justice committee, Wilson-Raybould said she experienced "consistent and sustained" pressure from Trudeau's inner circle to interfere in the case, including "veiled threats."

"There was no inappropriate pressure," hit back Trudeau, who stood by his previous claim he made clear to Wilson-Raybould any decision was hers alone.

The prime minister did take some responsibility for the breakdown in relations between his office and Wilson-Raybould, Canada's first indigenous attorney general who claims she was shuffled out of the justice ministry over the case, and who eventually quit the government last month.

"As we look over the past weeks, there are many lessons to be learned and many things we would have liked to have done differently."

"I was not aware of that erosion of trust. As prime minister, I should have been," he said, vowing to "do better next time."

But he added that Wilson-Raybould should have been more forthcoming with her concerns.

"She did not come to me and I wish she had," he said.

Rejecting Trudeau's account, opposition leader Andrew Scheer told a news conference in Toronto: "The erosion of trust has been between Justin Trudeau and Canadians."

"It's now beyond dispute that he and his office bullied and threatened Ms.

Wilson-Raybould to get her to let SNC-Lavalin off the hook (and) when she resisted the attempts he fired her," Scheer added.

The Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin was charged with corruption four years ago for allegedly paying Can$47 million (US$36 million) in bribes between 2001 and 2011 to secure Libyan government contracts under the rule of Moamer Kadhafi, and of defrauding the Libyan government of Can$130 million.

The charges relate to the world's largest irrigation scheme -- the Great Man-Made River Project -- to provide fresh water to the cities of Tripoli, Benghazi and Sirte.

SNC-Lavalin openly lobbied the Canadian government for an out-of-court settlement under a new law that would mean paying a fine and agreeing to compliance measures.

A conviction, the company argued, risked crippling its business and putting thousands out of work, as it would be barred for 10 years from bidding for federal work.

Wilson-Raybould refused to ask prosecutors to settle, and the trial is set to proceed.

But in testimony before the justice committee, Wilson-Raybould said members of Trudeau's inner circle continued to "hound" her from September to December last year, after she made known her decision not to offer SNC-Lavalin a deal.

She named 11 government officials, including Trudeau's longtime friend and principal secretary Gerry Butts, saying they "urged me to take partisan political considerations into account, which was clearly improper."

That pressure was not illegal, she said, but "raised serious red flags in my view."

Butts, who has resigned over the scandal, told lawmakers Wednesday he was "firmly convinced that nothing happened here beyond the normal operations of government."

Trudeau characterized the interactions with Wilson-Raybould as an open debate among colleagues, involving a possible loss of up to 9,000 Canadian jobs.

"What we see now is that she wasn't prepared to change her mind," he said.
The second plenary meeting of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The second session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, started its second plenary meeting Friday afternoon.

Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders attended the plenary meeting at the Great Hall of the People.

National legislators will hear a work report of the 13th NPC Standing Committee and an explanation on the draft foreign investment law during the meeting.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has not received any order from President Donald Trump to withdraw troops from war-torn Afghanistan, a top US commander said Thursday.

"We've not--congressman, we've not been directed to withdraw (troops from Afghanistan), and there are no orders to withdraw anything," Commander of the US Central Command, General Joseph Votel told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a Congressional hearing.

Trump had in December last year announced that the US would pull troops from Afghanistan.

Gen Votel said his advice is that any decision to reduce forces in Afghanistan should be done in full consultation with its coalition partners, and of course the government of Afghanistan.

"It should pivot off political progress and the reconciliation process," he said, responding to questions from lawmakers on news reports about a time-line of withdrawal of troops from this war-ravaged country.

The US General said any drawdown or withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan should be based on conditions on the ground and the progress in the political process as well.

A high-level US team led by Special Representatives Zalmay Khalilzad is currently holding talks with the Taliban representatives in Qatar's capital, Doha.

"Khalilzad's efforts are really focused on developing a framework that can lead to inter-Afghan discussions," Gen Votel said, adding that this involves overcoming some obstacles that, right now, are preventing the Taliban from talking to the government of Afghanistan.

"But Khalilzad is working through those issues. Once those inter-Afghan discussions are commenced, then I think we will have the opportunity to address the issues that you are talking about directly," he said, when Congresswoman Debra Haaland asked if he can tell how the framework addresses the rights of women in Afghanistan and how women were being included in the negotiation process.

The US Commander said that the US and the Taliban are in the very early in the process of talks.

"There have been no agreements from either side. We have not given anything up and they have not given anything up," he said, adding that the US and Special Representatives Khalilzad is not leaving out the democratically-elected government of Afghanistan in the process.

Winning in Afghanistan, the general described means a negotiated settlement between government of Afghanistan and the Taliban, and safeguarding US national interests.

"Particularly ensuring that this country, this region can't be used to attack our homeland. So that would have to be satisfied as part of any overall agreement here in terms of that and I think is a lot of the nuance of the ongoing discussions that are taking are taking place right now," Gen Votel said.

He also advocated the need to have a sustained presence of the US in Afghanistan.

"I think we have to ensure that there, either through our own presence or through whatever other arrangements we can make, that we can address that particular threat," he said.
By PTI

SEOUL: North Korea's state media Friday acknowledged for the first time the collapse of the summit between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump last week without a deal.

The high-stakes meeting in Vietnam was supposed to build on the leaders' historic first summit in Singapore last year, but ended without any agreement on walking back North Korea's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency, however, had made no mention of the breakdown of the high-stakes summit until Friday.

"The public at home and abroad are feeling regretful, blaming the US for the summit that ended without an agreement," an editorial published by KCNA wrote.

In the aftermath of the summit's abrupt ending, each side sought to blame the other's intransigence for the deadlock.

But immediately after the summit North Korean media said only that Pyongyang and Washington have agreed to continue "productive" discussions on denuclearisation.

The following day Rodong Sinmun, the North's state-run newspaper, carried a front-page picture that showed Kim and Trump shaking hands.

Earlier this week, North Korean television aired a 75-minute documentary on Kim's diplomacy with Trump without mentioning that the second meeting ended without a deal.

Following the stalemate in Hanoi, researchers said this week that Pyongyang was rebuilding the Sohae long-range rocket site after Kim had agreed last year to shut it as part of confidence-building measures.

Trump said he would be "very, very disappointed" if the reports proved true.
By Online Desk

Pakistani security officials have reportedly sealed off the Jaish camp on a hillock in Balakot, where the IAF claimed to have struck on February 26, for journalists and visitors.

A group of journalists from Reuters were on Friday prevented from climbing the hillock to visit the Islamic seminary and the adjacent buildings. The path to the buildings was blocked, the Reuters journalists said, adding, it was their third attempt to visit the spot.

The Pakistani security officials who were guarding the place have denied any damage to the site. The officials said they have locked the site due to 'security reasons'.

Vijay Gokhale, Indias foreign secretary had said last week that the airstrike had killed a very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, trainers, senior commanders, and groups of jihadis at the alleged training camp.

Previously, the Pakistani military's press wing had cancelled media visits to the sites citing weather and organisational reasons. The military said no media visits will be possible for a few more days.

Recently-released high-resolution private satellite images reviewed by Reuters showed the madrasa standing, virtually unchanged from an April 2018 satellite photo of the facility.

A few locals said the building that the journalists wanted to visit is not functional anymore.

The team reported that on their previous visits, a local confirmed that the madrasa was being run by Jaish-e-Mohammed. A sign with the groups name had previously stood near the site but was removed later.
By PTI

SEOUL: US analysts say North Korea appears to have restored normal operations at a long-range rocket launch site it had partially dismantled last year as part of disarmament steps.

Some experts say North Korea is trying to convey displeasure over the breakdown of a high-stakes nuclear summit last week between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump over what the Americans said were Kim's excessive demands for sanctions relief.

North Korea's state media on Friday acknowledged for the first time that the summit ended without an agreement.

But the Rodong Sinmun, which primarily targets the domestic audience, held back from criticizing the United States and instead berated "detestable" Japan for supposedly celebrating the "unexpected" setback and supporting sanctions against the North.

The United States and North Korea accused each other of causing the breakdown of the talks in Vietnam, but both sides left the door open for future negotiations.

North Korea-focused website 38 North said Thursday that commercial satellite images from March 6 indicate that the launch site appears to have returned to "normal operational status" following rapid construction to rebuild a launch pad and a rocket engine test stand.

The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies published similar findings and said the North's actions amount to a "snapback" from the moderate dismantlement it undertook following the first Trump-Kim summit last June.

"The rebuilding activities at Sohae demonstrate how quickly North Korea can easily render reversible any steps taken toward scrapping its WMD program with little hesitation," the CSIS said in a study authored by Joseph Bermudez and Victor Cha.

"This poses challenges for the US goal of final, irreversible and verifiable denuclearization."

Trump said he's a "little disappointed" by the reports of the new North Korean activity and that time will tell if US diplomacy with the reclusive country will be successful.

The Sohae satellite launching center in Tongchang-ri, a seaside region in western North Korea, is where the North carried out satellite launches in recent years, resulting in UN sanctions over claims that they were disguised tests of banned missile technology.

Some experts see the North as trying to put pressure on Washington and Seoul, which has acted as a mediator, to make a deal by creating an impression that it could resume missile or rocket tests.

South Korea's spy agency has also told lawmakers in a closed-door intelligence briefing that increased vehicle movement was detected at a missile research center on the outskirts of Pyongyang where the North is believed to build long-range missiles targeting the US mainland.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said Thursday that it is carefully monitoring North Korean nuclear and missile facilities and that the US and South Korean militaries were closely coordinating intelligence over the developments at Tongchang-ri and the missile research center.

Moon Seong Mook, an analyst for the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said it's unlikely that North Korea will resume major missile tests or satellite launches anytime soon because that would risk destroying its fragile negotiations with Washington and could bring even harsher sanctions on its crippled economy.

He said North Korea will also want to see if South Korea will support its position more strongly.

Undeterred by the breakdown of the Trump-Kim summit, South Korea has continued to urge the United States to ease sanctions on North Korea to allow a resumption of inter-Korean economic projects and encourage more disarmament steps from the North.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has said it was Seoul's "outmost priority" to prevent nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang from derailing, nominated a dovish scholar as his new point-man on North Korea on Friday in an apparent effort to push further his engagement policy with the North.

Kim Yeonchul, currently the head of the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification, has been an outspoken supporter of inter-Korean rapprochement and frequently expressed skepticism on whether sanctions work with North Korea.

The presidential Blue House described Kim as a leading expert in "inter-Korean economic cooperation and the North Korean nuclear problem."

When asked about the prospects of restarting operations at an inter-Korean factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong and South Korean tours to the North's Diamond Mountain resort, Kim told reporters on Friday that Seoul should "work on it."

South Korean calls for partial sanctions relief to encourage nuclear disarmament steps by North Korea has caused disagreements with Washington, which does not want to give up what it sees as its main leverage with the North.

A senior State Department official told reporters on Thursday that Washington isn't considering sanctions exemptions for inter-Korean economic projects.

Analyzing commercial satellite images from March 6, the CSIS report assessed that the North had completed rebuilding the superstructure and covering of the rocket engine test stand at the launch site.

Additional work at the stand, such as the construction of a shelter on the entrance ramp, could indicate preparations to test rocket engines again, it said.

The 38 North study said the North appears to have also finished rebuilding a rail-mounted transfer structure at the launch pad and that the structure may now be operational.
By PTI

DETROIT: Officials from an Indian-American cultural group say they're concerned about the arrests of Indian students who were enrolled at a phoney university in Detroit that was created by the government to bust an immigration scam.

Federal authorities in January announced that the University of Farmington was fake and created by the Department of Homeland Security to catch people making money by helping foreigners live in the US on student visas while enrolled at bogus schools.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement have arrested more than 160 foreign students on civil immigration violations, agency spokesman Khaalid Walls told the Detroit Free Press. Many of the students have been removed from the country or are in the process of removal, Walls said.

More students could be arrested or removed since enforcement action remains ongoing, he said. Most of the 600 students enrolled were from Telugu-speaking regions of India. The Indian government has said it is closely monitoring the situation and expressed concerns that some of the students may have been duped by recruiters.

The hundreds of students who haven't been arrested are worried about their futures and many have chosen to leave the country voluntarily, which could allow them to return to the US, according to immigration attorneys.

The American Telugu Association, which aims to connect people who speak Telugu and promote their culture, is struggling to track all of the students and is concerned about the conditions they're facing in jail, said the group's president, Parmesh Bheemreddy. Students are being housed at 34 detention centers across the US, the association said.

Many of the students have lost weight in detention because they're vegetarians for cultural and religious reasons, Bheemreddy said. Most of the students come from poor backgrounds and had to take out loans to come to the US and "pursue the American dream," he said. "These are innocent girls and boys. They're not criminals. It's mentally and physically torturing. It is a life-changing event for them," Bheemreddy said of the students.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets the press on the sidelines of the national legislature annual session on March 8.

On Friday, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a press conference on Chinas foreign policy and relations on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National Peoples Congress in Beijing. China-US relations was one of the hot topics at the press conference and one particular concern was whether China and the United States are moving toward conflict and, if so, how to avoid this tragedy.

In response, Wang said that the China-US relationship has always been a mix of cooperation and friction, but that the cooperation outweighs the friction. He acknowledged the fact that the two countries are facing serious challenges, but also pointed out that a look back at history shows that heightened tension does not represent the general trend of China-US relations. He said that China still holds positive expectations for the future of China-US relations and believes that the two countries should not and will not descend into confrontation.

His comments serve as a powerful reminder that, when assessing the future of China-US relations, it is important to look at the facts and bid adieu to the old thinking that China-US relations are destined to develop into a new Cold War. For example, Wang pointed out that the interests of China and the United States are highly integrated. In 2018, trade volume between the two countries exceeded $630 billion and two-way investment surpassed $240 billion. In addition, almost all major US companies have operations in China and that almost all US states have cooperation with China.

Some individuals vow to decouple the US economy from China. However, as Wang Yi pointed out, this is just their wishful thinking. Decoupling from China would mean decoupling from opportunities, from the future, and in a sense, even from the world.

The point being is that while the relationship is rocky at the moment, there is no new era of decoupling, and the China-US relationship is not fated for rivalry. Just from the basic data cited by Wang at the press conference, it is obvious that cooperation is still the general direction of China-US relations. There are many indicators, including the positive progress in China-US economic and trade consultations, pointing to the fact that both sides are committed to building a deep and enduring relationship.

The China-US relationship has had its ups and downs in the past 40 years and there will almost certainly be more challenges to come. But one thing for sure, that is, the United States has much to gain from cooperation with China, and much to lose from confrontation with China. China and the United States must continue to work together, because cooperation is in the best interest of both sides as well as the world.

There will always be some competition between China and the United States, as competition is a normal aspect of international relations. However, as Wang pointed out, the key is to put things in perspective. Blowing competition between the two sides out of proportion will only squeeze the space for cooperation. The right attitude is to focus on expanding China-US cooperation.
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Mrs Lam visits the Phoenix International Media Center in Beijing, accompanied by Phoenix Media Investment (Holdings) Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer Liu Changle (second left).

Chief Executive Carrie Lam today met China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) Chairman Yi Huiman and Minister of the National Health Commission Ma Xiaowei in Beijing.

The meetings strengthened co-operation with the Mainland in finance and medicine sectors, with the officials exchanging views on follow-up work for the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

During her meeting with Mr Yi in the morning, Mrs Lam expressed her gratitude to the Central Government and the CSRC for their long-standing support for Hong Kong in consolidating and enhancing its status as an international financial centre and global offshore renminbi business hub.

She noted that the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect, the Bond Connect and the Mutual Recognition of Funds arrangement implemented in recent years have deepened Hong Kongs capital markets.

Mrs Lam said as the country continues to promote the opening up of the financial industry and as more RMB assets are included in major international indexes, Hong Kongs capital markets will be able to play a bigger role and make further contributions.

She also expressed the hope that, with the CSRCs support, Hong Kong will contribute to project financing and risk management of the Belt & Road Initiative, as well as better leveraging its financial advantages in the bay area development.

In her afternoon meeting with Mr Ma, Mrs Lam said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is committed to promoting innovation and technology, adding that healthcare technology has been selected as one of the two research clusters to be set up in the Hong Kong Science Park.

Thanking the health commission for its support and guidance, Mrs Lam said she hopes that an innovation system for collaboration in medical services is made available in the bay area development, including the promotion of clinical medical research.

She added that the HKSAR Government is actively advancing the integration of Chinese medicine into the local healthcare system, so that it will assume a more prominent role in local public health.

She thanked the health commission for its support over the years, adding that Hong Kong will have to draw on the Mainlands experience and strengthen co-operation and exchanges in Chinese medicine-related areas such as hospital design, manpower training and medicine testing.

The Chief Executive also gave interviews to China Central Television, Phoenix TV and people.cn today, and toured the Phoenix International Media Center.

She will attend the opening ceremony of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress tomorrow.
The tendering process for the Kwai Tsing District Health Centre was open and fair, Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan said today.

Prof Chan was responding to public concerns over her position as the honorary patron of the Kwai Tsing Safe Community & Healthy City Association, which was awarded the operation service contract for the centre yesterday.

I am not involved in any of the tendering process. The tendering process of the Government is actually open and fair, and also it involved colleagues from the Food & Health Bureau as well as the Central Tender Board which is outside the Food & Health Bureau.

I felt that it is probably appropriate for me to resign from the honorary patronage position to alleviate those concerns.

Prof Chan added she will review the list of organisations she is involved in as a patron, honorary patron or an adviser.

I will make a decision as to whether I should resign from those positions in those organisations because there will be more of these district health centre networks coming up in the rest of the 17 districts in Hong Kong.
1882: British troops occupy Egypt at the behest of Khedive Tawfik whose throne is threatened by military commander Ahmed Orabis revolution and by foreign control of Egypt.

Orabi is defeated by British forces and, to avoid a repeat of the Orabi scenario, the Egyptian army is reduced and the bulk of its forces stationed in Sudan which had been conquered by Mohamed Ali in 1820.

The British cancel recently enforced laws establishing an elected legislative assembly to which the cabinet was accountable. A new law introduces a two-chamber consultative legislative assembly.

1899: The Anglo-Egyptian condominium effectively places Sudan under British imperial rule. It will be administered by a governor-general, appointed by Egypt but only with British consent, undermining Mohamed Alis 1820 conquest of Sudan.

1913: An 83-member Legislative Assembly is elected. It is a consultative body with no authority over the cabinet. Prominent judge and statesman Saad Zaghloul  who wins elections in two constituencies in Cairo  becomes vice president of the assembly.

1914: Britain enters WWI, declares Egypt a protectorate and enforces martial rule. The Legislative Assembly is frozen.

13 November 1918: Two days after the Armistice ends WWI three prominent nationalist figures, Saad Zaghloul, Abdel-Aziz Fahmi and Ahmed Shaarawi, meet with British High Commissioner Reginald Wingate and inform him of their wish to represent Egypt at the 1919 Paris peace conference and make the case for self-determination and national independence. Britain subsequently rejects their request to travel.

By evening the delegation  the Wafd  launches a campaign to secure legal endorsement from the Egyptian people in support of their plans to represent Egypt in Paris.

The campaign to collect signatures continues for months at fever pitch. Print houses refuse commercial work and shift to printing templates for the tawkeelat  the power of attorney allowing the Wafd to represent Egyptians in Paris.

8 March 1919: Alarmed by the impact of the Wafds activism and Zaghlouls popularity British forces arrest and exile Zaghloul and other nationalists to Malta, triggering nationwide protests.

The following day the 1919 Revolution begins: students, women, farmers, clergymen, teachers and workers take to the streets in massive numbers.

The Wafd calls for a total boycott of the British occupation, including any cabinet formed by the British. The pressure forces two premiers to resign.

17 April: After Egypts civil servants strike early in April and the Hussein Rushdi government resigns, the British allow Saad Zaghloul and his associates to attend the Paris conference. Egypt, says British High Commissioner Edmund Allenby, is impossible to govern.

But the Egyptian delegation is snubbed by world powers busy dividing the spoils of war between themselves. Instead of independence Egypt is officially recognised as a British protectorate, fuelling the revolution back home.

December 1919: Britain forms a mission of inquiry into events in Egypt chaired by Colonial Secretary Alfred Milner. It is boycotted by nationalists who, in a demonstration of the Wafds influence, oppose the continuation of the protectorate.

Milner leaves Cairo after three months, his mission a failure. Britain reluctantly recognises Saad Zaghloul as the key figure in negotiations.

May 1920: Talaat Pasha Harb, a prominent industrialist who participated in the 1919 Revolution, founds the first Egyptian bank Banque Misr, owned by Egyptian shareholders. It is the first step in Egyptianising the economy.

6 June-November 1920: The Zaghloul-Milner talks last five months and end in deadlock, with both sides rejecting the proposals presented. The Egyptians want a clear end to the protectorate and a process that leads to independence; the British offer concessions that perpetuate the protectorate and retain sovereignty over legislation, the judiciary, the economy, the administrative authority and the military.

Cracks emerge within the Wafd: moderates pivot towards Adli Yakan, a statesman who supports the British proposals for nominal independence.

February 1921: The Milner report is published. It recommends an end to the protectorate and the negotiation of a treaty between Egypt and Britain. It is rejected by the British government and Milner resigns.

17 March 1921: The Adli Yakan cabinet is formed. Its programme pledges to reach an agreement that secures Egypts independence. An assembly is formed to write a constitution.

4 April 1921: Saad Zaghloul returns from exile via Alexandria for the first time in two years. He is greeted by thousands of Egyptians. The crowds that gather in Alexandria and on the streets of Cairo are described as unprecedented.

Emboldened by the show of support Zaghloul attacks Yakan in the press and at public rallies. He argues the government will be worthy of confidence only if it ends the protectorate and secures internationally recognised independence for Egypt.

He famously says that Egypts prime minister is appointed and dismissed at a signal from the British High Commissioner and that Yakans would-be negotiations with Britain amount to George V negotiating with George V.

Massive protests, which result in casualties, erupt against Yakan and his government.

The moderates defect from the Wafd.

12 July 1921: Yakans delegation and British secretary of state George Curzon start talks that end after four months. Curzons proposals are more stringent than Milners and leave Yakan with no option but to reject them. He returns to Cairo and resigns.

23 December 1921: After refusing orders to quit politics Zaghloul, his nephews, Wafdist leaders Mustafa Al-Nahhas and Makram Ebeid and other Wafdists are arrested and exiled to the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean.

28 February 1922: Britain unilaterally announces an end to its protectorate over Egypt and grants nominal independence with the exception of four reserved areas  foreign relations, communications, the military and Sudan.

The move is rejected by the Wafd. From his exile Zaghloul calls it a deceptive ruse.

19 April 1923: Egypts first Constitution is promulgated. It adopts a parliamentary system based on the separation of, and cooperation between, authorities.

Despite the Wafds denunciation of the 28 February declaration and the constitution its positions influence the debate within the drafting committee.

The constitution that emerges is considered modern  even revolutionary  by the standards of the time. It reflects the tensions between progressive (revolutionary) and regressive (the monarchy, occupation and feudalists) forces in society. In other words, it mirrors the balance of power prevailing in Egypt.

The document stipulates that the monarch is at the helm of the executive branch; he is granted legislative power in participation with parliament; the nation is the source of all powers; its bicameral legislature consists of an elected house of representatives and a partly appointed senate; the government is accountable to parliament. It enshrines equality, civil rights, guarantees freedoms and the principle of a free press and right to assembly within the limits of the law.

17 September 1923: Saad Zaghloul is allowed to return to Egypt from exile and receives a heros welcome. His and the Wafds popularity is at its peak. Zaghloul continues his attack on the 28 February declaration, calling it treason and the greatest catastrophe in the country.

27 September 1923-January 1924: Zaghloul and the Wafd Party contest the elections which are held in two stages and win 90 per cent of the seats.

26 January 1924: Majority leader Zaghloul becomes the first elected prime minister under the 1923 Constitution. He forms a new government which lasts only eight months, setting a pattern for Egypts new parliamentary system.

Until his death in 1936 King Fouad consistently attempts to undermine parliament and the constitution with British support. Parliament is dissolved ten times during his reign.

1930: King Fouad suspends the 1923 Constitution and promulgates a new constitution that grants him absolute power and limits the role of parliament to an advisory body. Opposition to the move forces Fouad to restore the 1923 Constitution five years later.

26 August 1936: The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty requiring Britain to withdraw its troops from Egypt, with the exception of the Suez Canal and its surroundings, is signed with Mustafa Al-Nahhas Pashas Wafd government.

27 August 1937: Saad Zaghloul dies at the age of 70. He is succeeded by Mustafa Al-Nahhas as leader of the Wafd.

March 1950: The Wafd Party wins elections. The new government, under Al-Nahhas, enters talks with the British to renegotiate the 1936 treaty, seeking to annex Sudan and terminate the British military presence in Egypt. The talks fail. In response Al-Nahhas abrogates the agreement in 1951.

23 July 1952: The Free Officers overthrow the monarchy. The 1923 Constitution is abrogated five months later by the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), whichpromises a new constitution.

January 1953:the RCC bans all parties.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 7 March, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: 1919 Revolution: A timeline

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Financial Secretary Paul Chan

Japan has been one of our most important trading partners for decades. Last year, Japan was our fourth-largest trading partner in goods, with total merchandise trade hitting US$50 billion.

In turn, Hong Kong was Japan's eighth-largest merchandise trading partner and fifth-largest export market in 2017. Specifically on food and agricultural products, we have been Japan's largest export market for 13 consecutive years. In 2017, we accounted for about one-fourth of your total food and agricultural export.

We like to invest in each other's businesses too. At the end of 2017, Japan was Hong Kong's ninth-largest source of inward direct investment, with a stock in excess of US$32 billion. Over the same period, Hong Kong's investment stock in Japan totaled US$8.7 billion, making Hong Kong Japan's 14th largest source of inward direct investment.

Our longstanding and long-rewarding economic partnership is rooted in a shared world view. We are global traders. Our governments, businesses and peoples welcome multilateral trade. Indeed, Japan was the world's fourth-largest trading entity in 2017, while Hong Kong ranked seventh overall.

With no surprise, Hong Kong has long championed free enterprise. Indeed, earlier this year, the Washington-based Heritage Foundation named Hong Kong the world's freest economy, for the 25th year in a row.

Vancouver's Fraser Institute also ranked Hong Kong at the very top of its 2018 Economic Freedom of the World report.

Alongside our free market economy, we place a premium on the free flow of capital, talent and information. Our logistics and communications infrastructure is world class. Our tax system is low and simple, our judiciary is independent and buttressed by the rule of law and a robust intellectual property regime.

With regard to the situation of rule of law in Hong Kong, I would like to share with you the findings of a few objective studies by international organisations. In the Global Competitiveness Reports of the World Economic Forum, Hong Kong's judicial independence ranked first in Asia for the past three years. According to the Worldwide Governance Indicators Project of the World Bank, which provides trends over longer periods rather than year on year fluctuations only, Hong Kong's percentile ranking in rule of law has improved from 69.9% in 1996 to 93.3% in 2016 over 20 years, or a leap from a top 70 place to a top 15 place. These statistics suggest an upward trend, but we shall not be complacent and shall continue to strive to do better.

Added up, giving us a winning formula for attracting global business and investment. The number of overseas and Mainland companies with offices in Hong Kong now exceeds 8,700, up 6.4% over the previous year.

That growth is even more prominent in the number of regional headquarters, which now counts 1,530, up 8.3% year-on-year.

Japanese companies, let me add, lead the way. With nearly 1,400 businesses based here, Japan is our largest overseas source of companies.

And I am confident those numbers will grow. The prospects for collaboration in innovation and technology are particularly promising. Hong Kong is now home to more than 2,600 start-ups, up 18% over 2017. And the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is determined to transform Hong Kong into a major hub for innovation and technology.

I&T investment

Last Wednesday, I announced my Budget Speech for the coming financial year. I pledged more than US$5 billion for innovation and technology, R&D and university grants related to technology development. And that's not the half of it. Nearly US$15 billion has been channeled into I&T initiatives since the beginning of this current-term Government in July 2017.

Japan, of course, is a global leader in innovation and technology. Which was why, in her visit to Japan, late last year, the Chief Executive devoted a big part of her trip to science and technology.

During the Chief Executive's trip and my last official visit to Japan in 2017, we both visited some renowned research institutions and technology companies in Japan, to learn more about advanced Japanese technology.

Our interest reflects Hong Kong's determination to become an innovation and technology hub, and the promise of a new era in collaboration between Hong Kong and Japan, especially in innovation and technology.

Bay area powerhouse

Innovation and technology will also play a critical role in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's development. As you may be aware, the bay area's Outline Development Plan was announced last month. The bay area covers China's most affluent region, including Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong Province.

Each of these cities will bring unique strengths and capabilities to the bay area, whose collective population is close to 70 million. Hong Kong's status as an international financial, transport and trade centre, as well as an international aviation hub will enable us to play a critical role in the bay area's long-term development as an advanced, highly internationalised economic powerhouse.

The bay area will also help power Hong Kong's rise as the Asia-Pacific region's centre for international legal and dispute-resolution services. In that regard, I am pleased to note that, in January, our Department of Justice and Japan's Ministry of Justice signed an MOU to strengthen our collaboration on issues related to international arbitration and mediation.

There is a great deal more to the bay area, and this morning's first session will put a spotlight on some of those opportunities. Let me add that a symposium on the Greater Bay Area will be held on April 9 in Tokyo. It is jointly organised by the Governments of Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macau and will feature high-profile speakers from throughout the Greater Bay Area and Japan, including the Chief Executive and the Governor of the Guangdong Province. The symposium is a valuable opportunity to learn more about this extraordinarily promising development. And I encourage you to attend.

The Mainland's far-reaching Belt & Road initiative also brings tremendous business opportunities for Hong Kong. Predicated on connectivity, on wide-ranging international cooperation, the Belt & Road will expand Hong Kong's opportunities in everything from infrastructure financing, professional services, insurance as well as risk management services.

People-to-people bonds and business-to-business ties are central to the success of this continuing bilateral forum  and to Hong Kong-Japanese relations, in business and much else.

In that regard, just a reminder that our investment promotion agency  Invest Hong Kong, its Investment Promotion Unit based in our Economic & Trade Office in Tokyo, and its Osaka-based consultant, are eager to connect with Japanese companies, eager to help them excel, here in Hong Kong, in the Mainland and throughout Asia.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan gave these remarks at the Hong Kong-Japan and Japan-Hong Kong Business Co-operation Committee's 38th Plenary Session on March 5.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam (second row, right) attends the opening ceremony of the second session of the 13th National Peoples Congress in Beijing.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam attended the opening ceremony of the second session of the 13th National Peoples Congress (NPC) in Beijing today.

At the NPC session this morning, Premier Li Keqiang delivered the government work report.

Premier Li reviewed the work in 2018, including the substantive progress made in the development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the commissioning of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.

The report noted the development plan for the bay area will be implemented in 2019, strengthening regulatory interface, fostering efficient flows of factors of production and facilitating personnel exchange.

Premier Li reiterated the Central Government supports Hong Kong in seizing the immense opportunities brought about by the Belt & Road Initiative and the bay areas development.

Mrs Lam said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government will uphold the one country, two systems principle to proactively promote the development of the bay area.

In the afternoon, Mrs Lam toured Tianning No. 1 Cultural & Technological Innovation Park which was revitalised from an idle power plant.

The site has been transformed into an open-plan industrial park for projects featuring cultural-financial and cultural-technological integration.

The Chief Executive visited a media creative workshop and an art performance venue in the park.

She then attended a seminar organised by the Bank of China where she briefed more than 300 participants on the vision and actions of the HKSAR Government.

Stressing Hong Kongs unique advantages under one country, two systems, she said the city will strive to boost its external relations and proactively participate in and contribute to the Belt & Road Initiative and the bay areas development.

Hong Kong will seize the opportunities brought about by the countrys relaxation of market access in the financial industry, she added.
Mrs Lam (second right) tours the facilities of the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam gives a speech during a visit to Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam today visited Tsinghua University and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

In the morning, Mrs Lam briefed more than 300 teachers and students at Tsinghua University on the latest developments in Hong Kong.

She said the city has been focusing on advancing the development of innovation and technology.

With the support of the Central Government and measures to enhance the citys I&T capabilities, Hong Kong will contribute to the development of an I&T hub in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, she added.

Mrs Lam then visited the Central Academy of Fine Arts, where she toured its museum and classrooms of the School of Chinese Painting and the School of Plastic Arts.

Through the Ministry of Educations support, the academy will participate in the Scheme for Admission of Hong Kong Students to Mainland Higher Education Institutions in the 2019-20 school year, she said.

Hong Kong students who wish to pursue careers in fine arts will be able to apply to the prestigious art school through the scheme.

Mrs Lam thanked the academy for supporting Hong Kong students as well as its efforts in promoting arts and cultural exchanges between the city and the Mainland.

The Chief Executive also visited the Peoples Daily New Media Tower in the afternoon and attended a dinner hosted by the Business & Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong.

She will return to Hong Kong tomorrow morning.
Secretary for Transport & Housing Frank Chan will visit Denmark and Norway from March 11 to 15 to promote Hong Kong as an international maritime centre.

Mr Chan will lead a delegation to be made up of Maritime & Port Board members and representatives of the maritime industry.

The delegation will arrive in Copenhagen on March 11 and visit the Danish Maritime Authority, the Danish Ship Finance and the Danish Maritime Fund.

They will meet local shipowners and industry representatives and tour the Copenhagen Business School.

The delegation will then travel to Oslo on March 13, where Mr Chan will meet Norwegian Minister of Trade & Industry Torbjorn Roe Isaksen.

Mr Chan and the delegation will also meet representatives of DNV GL, an international accredited ship classification society.

On March 15, they will visit Bergen to learn about the development of green shipping.

Mr Chan will return to Hong Kong on March 16. Under Secretary for Transport & Housing Raymond So will be Acting Secretary during his absence.
A CHEATING 28-year-old Mutare woman was fined $300 for ill-treating her newly-born baby she sired out of wedlock while her husband was in South Africa.

Stella Chiponda of Dangamvura was fined by magistrate Perseverance Makhala charged with ill-treating or neglecting a minor.

She also risks spending two months behind bars if she fails to pay the fine. State counsel Mr Fletcher Karombe had it that on February 17 this year Chiponda gave birth to a child out of wedlock.

Her husband was in South Africa during the time she gave birth to the baby boy. In a bid to conceal her shenanigans, Chaponda attempted to kill the baby soon after birth by not breastfeeding him.

Chiponda being the guardian and mother to the child unlawfully abandoned the baby in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering which may affect his health, the court heard.

The ill-treatment of the child came to light when Chiponda was accompanied by her friend, Vimbai Zinyika, to Dangamvura Polyclinic to register the child.

Upon reaching the clinic, Chaponda disappeared leaving her friend with the baby. Chaponda went to stay in Beitbridge leaving her baby with Zinyika.

She was later tracked down leading to her arrest.

Chaponda was then taken to Mutare Magistrates Court where she was punished for ill-treating the child. Herald
I think in summation, it really is a very apt manifestation of all that is wrong with Washington DC at this point. You have this lobby firm with obvious close links to the administration representing one of the more repressive countries, not only in Africa but the entire world  this is a government that has opened fire on its citizens in the streets, it has brazenly disregarded regional and international norms and standards, for four decades now. People point to the fact that there is a new president at the helm but lest we forget, hes been there or was there, by the side of president Robert Mugabe for four decades, so this is nothing new in terms of the dispensation in Harare, but definitely a new development in terms of the battleground and their new allies here in Washington DC.
Minister of State for Military Production Mohamed El Assar discussed on Friday with German Parliamentary State Secretary Thomas Silberhorn and the delegation accompanying him means of bolstering bilateral cooperation.

The delegation consisted of members of the German Bundestag and members of the German defence ministry.

The two sides discussed future cooperation with Bombardier Inc. in railway manufacturing.

They also discussed possible cooperation with KSB, one of the world's leading manufacturers of pumps and valves, for the operation of solar water wells.

During their meeting, the officials lauded El Assar's meeting with a number of German companies in Munich in July 2018, during which he inspected the production lines of these companies to learn about the latest technologies used in manufacturing.

They also lauded his last visit to Germany in January as part of the ministerial delegation to meet officials and companies in the field of waste management in order to benefit from the German experience in the development of waste management systems and transfer them to Egypt.

The two sides also reviewed the key national projects the ministry contributes to implementing in the country, in addition to the current fields of cooperation between Egypts military production firms and their German peers.

Silberhorn lauded the technological, technical, training and human capabilities available at the military production companies within Egypt's framework for sustainable development plan 2030.

He also hailed as close Egypt-Germany cooperation in several fields, noting that his current visit to Cairo aims to bolster cooperation with Egyptian military firms.

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Many Mkwasine sugarcane farmers are destroying soils on their farms by spending too much money on their lavish lifestyles and investing little in land conservation.





This is according Great Zimbabwe University, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture Soil and Plant Sciences, Professor Munashe Shoko who was speaking at a workshop organized by the Zimbabwe Sugarcane Development Association (ZSDA).





He said that over 1 000 hectares of sugarcane plantations in Mkwasine will no longer grow sugarcane in a short time because of sodicity and salinity which is caused by poor drainage system and poor farming methods.





New indigenous sugarcane farmers are known for their expensive tastes, driving state of the art vehicles and living large but Shoko said this is a stark contrast with what obtains in their sugarcane fields which are slowly dying.





Mkwasine farmers settled under empowerment programmes are known for their poor maintenance of fields as compared to Hippo Valley and Triangle. As a result Mkwasine has lost its glamour as the Little England of the Lowveld before the land grabs in the year 2000.

Speaking to The Mirror on the sidelines of the workshop, Shoko said it is unfortunate that due to poor farming methods and reluctance by some farmers to invest back on the land, many fields are getting exhausted and it will be very expensive to resuscitate them.





He said farmers must continue to seek guidance from specialists like Tongaat employees on how to maintain their drainage system.





Over-irrigation without a proper drainage system raises the water table. Cane does not require water as you think yourself, so what happens is when you over-apply water, it raises the water table such that when you apply fertiliser it fails to go down, that creates a whitish substance which is called sodium.





Sodic soils are characterised by a disproportionately high concentration of sodium in their cation exchange complex or containing an exchangeable percentage which is greater than 15%. Now the problem is when it happens like this, it means that the land is a complete write-off.





The farmer needs to quickly do what we call rehabilitation. He has to work on his drainage system to make sure that the water that is seated here drains to somewhere. This is very costly, because the farmer has to apply lots and lots of gypsum.





I am so disappointed, because this is not a loss only to the sugar industry, but to the nation at large. I dont know why it is like this. I think these farmers should have continued working with officials from Tongaat to get advice on how they should maintain their drains before

they left, said Shoko.




Study Finds 'All Our Efforts' on

Vaccines Not 'Trash' After All
(Newser)  Four Canadian wolves now find themselves in a strange habitat, an island in Lake Superior, after being airdropped there by the US National Park Service. Their mission is to whittle down the moose population in Michigan's Isle Royale National Park, the Guardian reports, and help grow the wolf population. But first they have to learn to survive on the island. "They are being introduced to each other," says the American ecologist in charge of the operation. "It's tense and nervousand it's tough to find food in a new place. It's stressful." In the past, ice bridges linked the island and the mainland for at least 50 days a year, so wolves could migrate. Lately, the ice bridges have been less reliable, leaving the last two wolves effectively stranded on the island and preventing others from getting there. Another 20 or 30 wolves could be airlifted to the island in the next five years.

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The wolf population in the continental US was down to a few hundred in the 1990s but has rebounded. "Our attitudes have changed enough to decide definitively that we want to live with wolves," the ecologist says. "But we haven't decided how to live with wolves." The rebounding population of the gray wolf was given as the reason Wednesday, the New York Times reports, when the US Interior Department proposed taking it off the list of endangered species. The government called the the gray wolf's story "one of our nation's great conservation successes." The delisting can't happen before a period of public comment, and arguments for and against are already being made. The matter could end up in court, which is what happened last time. The Obama administration tried to remove protections for the gray wolf in 2013 but lost in court. (Read more wolves stories.)
(Newser)  Chris Watts, the Colorado man who killed his pregnant wife and their two young daughters, told police that 4-year-old Bella struggled and pleaded, "Daddy, no!" as he strangled her in the back seat of his truck. "I hear that every day," Watts told investigators, WLTX reports. He described the August 2018 killings in a five-hour prison interview last month, but the recordings weren't released until Thursday, in response to an open records request. A state official said the details are so disturbing that they could elicit "a secondary trauma reaction to many individuals, whether they were involved in this case or not." Watts pleaded guilty to all charges in a deal to avoid the death penalty, per ABC. He's serving a life sentence without possibility of parole.

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In the recordings, Watts says he and his wife had sex when she returned from a business trip, hours before he killed her. They then argued about the affair he was having with a coworker, and he says Shanann, 34, told him, "Youre never gonna see the kids again," per ABC. Watts said he snapped, jumped on his wife, who was in bed, and strangled her. He said he put Shanann's body on the floor of his truck and their daughters in the back seat for the 45-minute drive to an oil field where he'd worked. He disposed of his wife's body, he told investigators, then returned to the truck to smother Celeste, 3, with her blanket as she sat next to her sister. He put her body in an oil tank, ABC reports, and returned to the truck. Bella was still sitting in the back seat, waiting for him. In a soft voice, he said, she asked him, "Is the same thing gonna happen to me as Cece?" (Watts tried claiming that his wife had killed their daughters.)
Egypt's foreign ministry said on Thursday it has secured the release of two Egyptian citizens who were detained by Iran for illegally entering the countrys territorial waters on an Emirati ship,

A ministry statement said the two were in good condition following their release.

Last month the ministry said that it had secured the release of five Egyptian fishermen who had been detained by Iran in December after their fishing boat, which is registered in Saudi Arabia, reportedly drifted into Iranian territorial waters.

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(Newser)  A German man has been sentenced to life in prison for poisoning his co-workers' sandwiches with mercury and other substances over several years, leaving one in a coma and two others with serious kidney damage. A judge at the regional court in Bielefeld, about 205 miles west of Berlin, found the 57-year-old defendant guilty Thursday of attempted murder and gave him the maximum possible sentence, the AP reports. The man, identified only as Klaus O. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested in May after surveillance video showed him putting a suspicious powder on a colleague's sandwich at a business in the town of Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock.

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When authorities searched his home, they found a primitive chemistry laboratory in the basement and a substance that Judge Georg Zimmermann described as "more dangerous than all combat agents used in World War II." O. refused to speak during his trial, and his motives remain unclear. Prosecutors believe he wanted to see his colleagues' physical decline. Two of them, a 27-year-old and the other age 67, suffered chronic kidney damage from poisoning with lead and cadmium and face a heightened risk of cancer. A 23-year-old trainee fell into a coma after ingesting mercury and has permanent brain damage. Zimmermann ordered that O. should remain in prison after completing the life sentencewhich in Germany typically means serving 15 yearsbecause he remains a danger to the public.

(Read more Germany stories.)
(Newser)  A Russian court has ordered the deportation of two American Mormons for violating the terms of their visas, the AP reports. Officials said the men were working as English teachers without proper credentials and had given religious affairs as their reason for being in Russia. They were detained Friday in Novorossiisk, a Black Sea city. State news agency Tass says a regional court on Thursday upheld a lower court's deportation order.

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Tass quoted a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spokesman in Russia denying the two Americans were teaching. Yuri Kozhokin said: "They just talked with Russian citizens who came to see them on their own accord." A church spokesman in the United States, Eric Hawkins, says he can't release the men's names, but that church officials "are troubled by the circumstances surrounding their detention."

(Read more Russia stories.)
(Newser)  Divided in debate but mostly united in a final vote, the House passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other bigotry Thursday, with Democrats trying to push past a dispute that has overwhelmed their agenda and exposed fault lines that could dog them through elections next year. The one-sided 407-23 vote belied the emotional infighting over how to respond to freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar's recent comments suggesting House supporters of Israel have dual allegiances. For days, Democrats wrestled with whether or how to punish the lawmaker, arguing over whether Omar, one of two Muslim-American women in Congress, should be singled out, what other types of bias should be decried, and whether the party would tolerate dissenting views on Israel. Republicans generally joined in the favorable vote, though nearly two-dozen opposed the measure, the AP reports.

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The resolution condemns anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim discrimination, and bigotry against minorities "as hateful expressions of intolerance." The seven-page document details a history of recent attacks not only against Jews in the United States but also Muslims, as it condemns all such discrimination as contradictory to "the values and aspirations" of the people of the United States. The vote was delayed for a time on Thursday to include mention of Latinos to address concerns of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The addition came under a section that stated in the end, "Whereas white supremacists in the United States have exploited and continue to exploit bigotry and weaponize hate for political gain, targeting traditionally persecuted peoples, including African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders and other people of color, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and others with verbal attacks, incitement, and violence." (Click for much more, including what Nancy Pelosi had to say about Omar.)
(Newser)  It could have been much worse: A judge sentenced Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison Thursday over bank and tax fraud, reports Politico. Under federal sentencing guidelines, the 69-year-old could have received more than 20 years, though US District Court Judge TS Ellis deemed that "excessive" and gave Manafort what he said would be the typical sentence in such a case, reports the Washington Post. Manafort, who served for a stint as President Trump's campaign chairman, will be sentenced in a separate case next week in DC, this one related to illegal lobbying. He could get up to 10 years. Some highlights from both men's comments in the courtroom:

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Manafort: The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family and I, Manafort told the judge before sentencing. To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.

The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family and I, Manafort told the judge before sentencing. To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement. Judge: "I was surprised I did not hear you express regret for engaging in criminal conduct," Ellis said, per CNN. "I hope you will reflect on that."

"I was surprised I did not hear you express regret for engaging in criminal conduct," Ellis said, per CNN. "I hope you will reflect on that." Manafort: I know it is my conduct that brought me here," he said. "My life personally and professionallyis in shambles."

I know it is my conduct that brought me here," he said. "My life personally and professionallyis in shambles." Judge: He said that Manafort has been a "generous person" who has "lived an otherwise blameless life," but that Manafort's tax evasion was "a theft of money from everyone who pays taxes."

If Manafort were to receive a presidential pardon, he is not necessarily out of legal trouble . (Read more Paul Manafort stories.)
(Newser)  Paul Manafort received a sentence far below the federal guideline Thursday, and Democrats are seething. The former Trump campaign chairman was sentenced to 47 months in federal prison for bank fraud and cheating on his taxes, which would have been roughly 20 years if US District Court Judge TS Ellis III hadn't considered those guidelines "excessive." Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among the many Democrats who called the sentence too lenient. Manafort "getting such little jail time for such serious crimes lays out for the world how its almost impossible for rich people to go to jail for the same amount of time as someone who is lower income," she tweeted. "In our current broken system, 'justice' isnt blind. Its bought."

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Other Democrats accused the judge of being biased, CNN reports. Rep. Jackie Speier tweeted that the sentence was a "gross injustice" and accused Ellis of "angling for a presidential judicial appointment." "White collar criminals who betray their country can obviously get preferential treatment in Judge Ellis's courtroom," tweeted Rep. Veronica Escobar. "Disgraceful." Sen. Richard Blumenthal noted that the judge had shown "hostility" to the Robert Mueller investigation, and suggested Manafort might get a harsher sentence when he goes before Judge Amy Berman Jackson for a second sentencing next week. When he sentenced Manafort, Ellis said anybody who didn't think 47 months was harsh enough should "go and spend a day, a week in jail," the Washington Post reports. (Read more Paul Manafort stories.)
(Newser)  Marvel is out with its first Avengers movie based around a woman. Captain Marvel, opening on International Women's Day, stars Brie Larson as a warrior of the Kree civilization who, when suddenly deposited on Earth, must unlock the secrets of her past. The film from directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the 21st in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, isn't the best or the worst of the bunch, with an 81% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Four takes:



There's "reason enough to wish a return engagement," writes Bruce DeMara at the Toronto Star. There's a "somewhat unwieldy conclusion," but lots of surprises and "a rich streak of sly and cheeky laughs throughout to remind us not to take things all that seriously," he writes. Plus Larson is "sublime," creating "a fully fleshed character of pluck and intelligence, self-doubt and tenacity."

"Larson excels  communicating equal parts uncertainty and steeliness with precious little dialogue," writes John Wenzel at the Denver Post. She "can turn a moment as slight as walking into frame and blowing a strand of hair out of her face into an uproarious, powerful visual beat." The film itself avoids "overstuffed distractions" and "has fun with itself" so that it "feels inviting to both kids and hardcore [Marvel Cinematic Universe] devotees," he adds.

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"What took you guys so long?" asks Ann Hornaday at the Washington Post, noting the female-focused story "feels like too little, too late." Larson has "an easygoing chemistry" with co-star Samuel L. Jackson, but the supporting actors have more "emotional pull," she writes. Plus "the visual effects, while serviceable, are underwhelming, and the action sequences feel clunky and awkwardly choreographed."

Still, AO Scott was pleased. Captain Marvel is "not too long, not too self-important, and benefits from the craft and talent of a cast that includes Annette Bening, Jude Law and Ben Mendelsohn," he writes at the New York Times. Larson and Jackson are enjoyable to watch, too. "And the overall vibe, for all the fireballs and fisticuffs, is decidedly friendly." All in all, "it's pretty good fun."

(Read more movie review stories.)
(Newser)  A 6-year-old boy in Oregon fell down while playing on a farm and cut his foreheadand if he'd had his standard childhood shots, you wouldn't be reading about him. But the boy was unvaccinated, and he ended up suffering greatly and almost dying from the first childhood case of tetanus doctors in the state had seen in more than 30 years, the Oregonian reports. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the boy was airlifted to a hospital after suffering symptoms including jaw clenching, muscle spasms, and arching of the neck and back. He spent 57 days in the hospital, including 47 days in intensive care, and had to breathe through a tube inserted into his windpipe. Doctors diagnosed him with tetanus and gave him a dose of the vaccine.

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The boy was able to return to normal activities around a month after leaving the hospital. His familywho received a bill for more than $800,000declined the necessary second dose of the tetanus vaccination and all other vaccines. Infectious-disease expert Dr. William Schaffner tells Live Science that the boy's illness was a "tragic event" that was "completely preventable"and the parents' decision not to vaccinate him even after the illness was a "second tragedy." Schaffner says the bacterium that cause tetanus is "everywhere," including in soil, and vaccination is the only real protection. (Oregon is also experiencing a measles outbreak caused by failure to vaccinate children.)
(Newser)  US analysts say North Korea appears to have restored normal operations at a long-range rocket launch site it partially dismantled last year as part of steps toward disarmament. Some experts say North Korea is trying to convey displeasure over the breakdown of a summit last week between Kim Jong Un and President Trump over what the Americans said were Kim's excessive demands for sanctions relief, the AP reports. North Korea-focused website 38 North said Thursday that commercial satellite images from Wednesday indicate that the launch site appears to have returned to "normal operational status" following rapid construction to rebuild a launch pad and a rocket engine test stand at the Sohae satellite launching center.

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The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies published similar findings Thursday. "The rebuilding activities at Sohae demonstrate how quickly North Korea can easily render reversible any steps taken toward scrapping its WMD program with little hesitation," the CSIS said in a study authored by Joseph Bermudez and Victor Cha. "This poses challenges for the US goal of final, irreversible and verifiable denuclearization." Trump said Thursday that he's a "little disappointed" by the reports of the new North Korean activity and that time will tell if US diplomacy with the reclusive country will be successful.

(Read more North Korea stories.)
(Newser)  "Tonight I'm going to one of my really good friend's houses," Marlee Barnhill said in a Facebook Live video ahead of her 27th birthday party. "We're going to karaoke, and sit on her back porch and just hang out." The operator of the "Get Glamorous with Marlee" Facebook page then signed off, per People. "We're gonna be safe, and I will talk to y'all later!" Only she won't. Authorities say Barnhill's "drunk and belligerent" husband killed his wife and the couple hosting the March 1 get-together when she wouldn't let him drive home. Michael Barnhill became "angry and combative" when his wife took their truck keys before midnight, Carroll County Sheriff Clint Walker tells WTVA. He then retrieved a pistol from the truck, "went back inside, slapped a cigarette from his wife's hand, and shot her in the chest." Jim and Brooks Harrell were also shot as they tried to intervene, per Fox News.

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Marlee Barnhill and Jim Harrell, 44, died at the scene as two female guests ran upstairs, where the Harrells' 10-year-old son was sleeping, and barricaded themselves in a closet. Brooks Harrell, 39, died en route to a hospital. Michael Barnhill had run from the house but returned as deputies arrived and acted "as though he did not know what had happened," Walker said. Identified as the shooter by a witness, the 30-year-old Winona man was then arrested after a brief struggle involving a Taser. "We may never know why Barnhill perpetrated this horrible crime," Walker added, noting that Barnhill's wifea nurse with an infectious smile, per the Mississippi Clarion Ledgerwas only "trying to do the right thing to protect his life and the lives of other drivers." Held in Carroll County Jail without bond, he faces three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. (Read more murder stories.)
(Newser)  Former Nissan chair Carlos Ghosn was released on a staggering bail on Wednesday, and he didn't walk out of the Tokyo Detention Center looking exactly like Carlos Ghosn. He was disguised as a construction worker, per the AP, only the disguise didn't work, and now one of his attorneys is apologizing over it. The Guardian reports Takashi Takano said it was his idea for Ghosn to walk out wearing overalls, a blue cap, and a surgical mask and enter a van topped with a ladderwhich was trailed by the media. Bloomberg does suggest the get-up was at least initially successful, with many assuming he was a workman ending his shift. But some media outlets, who may have gotten a tip, knew to follow the van.

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The New York Times reports it took only minutes for Ghosn to be recognized, and swift analysis then began as to why a man who has maintained his innocence would don a disguise. Takano acknowledged the disguise was "amateurish" and said his "immature plan has tarnished the reputation that he has devoted his whole life to building. I feel sorry about that." Takano said he was trying to prevent Ghosn's current address from leaking, and that part has apparently been successful: The location of his home remains unknown. Bloomberg has more on the "colorful" Takano, a 62-year-old it describes as one of the "countrys great criminal-trial lawyers," here. (Read more Carlos Ghosn stories.)
Amr Hashem Rabie, a political analyst with Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told Al-Ahram Weekly that opposition to the constitutional amendments submitted by the majority Support Egypt parliamentary bloc has coalesced around the proposal to reserve a 25 percent quota of seats for women.

The level of opposition to many of the amendments varies but a consensus has emerged that the proposed quota of 25 percent of seats being allocated to women candidates should be rejected, said Rabie.

Some argue the quota violates principles of equality while others say it is a political bribe offered to encourage women to vote for the amendments in a referendum.

The goal of these amendments is to increase the presidential term from four to six years. In order to contain opposition to this change, it was decided to allocate 25 percent of seats to women in order to make the overall package more attractive. It is like disguising poison in honey.

Ahmed Khalil, a member of the Salafi Nour Party, told the Weekly "the quota violates Article 11 of the constitution which states that men and women have equal political and civilian rights.

The only constitutional stipulation on parliamentary representation is contained in Article 244 which obliges the state to ensure women, youth, younger voters, expatriates and the physically challenged are adequately represented.

Khalil believes that greater participation by women in parliament does not add much to political life in Egypt.

Since 2015 the performance of female MPs in parliament has been insignificant and it is illogical to think that increasing their number will improve the situation.

Tagammu Party head Sayed Abdel-Aal told MPs in a plenary session on 13 February that the amendments, in general, do not reflect a pressing need.

Although the Tagammu Party has always been in favor of widening the scope of womens participation in political life it does not believe this is a priority right now.

The current electoral system, in effect since 2014, guarantees women and minority groups are adequately represented without stipulating a specific quota.

Abdel-Aal said that though the Tagammu generally opposes the amendments it will participate in the consultations parliaments Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee intends to hold on them.

We will argue that there are more pressing priorities, such as amending articles on local councils and religious parties, and that the proposed quota should be abandoned, he said.

Nour Al-Hoda Zaki, a leading member of the Arab Nasserist Party, said: women have played a leading role in Egypts political life in recent years, and were instrumental in removing the regime of Muslim Brotherhood from office in 2013.

Women were on the streets en masse to protest the Islamist regime in 2013 and voted yes to the new constitution and the election of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi in 2014. They deserve to be adequately represented.

The reason we oppose the proposed quota is that it is a cheap attempt to win the votes of millions of women in favor of the amendments. The issue is not the quantity but the quality of female MPs. It is not a question of how many women sit in parliament but how effective they are as MPs.

Zaki agreed with Abdel-Aal, saying the performance of female MPs in the current parliament has been all but irrelevant.

The Wafd Party may have provisionally approved the changes proposed to the 2014 Constitution but many leading members say they have reservations over the quota.

It is clearly intended as an inducement for women to vote in favor of the changes in the referendum, says Wafd member Mohamed Abdel-Alim. Existing electoral rules are perfectly able to ensure women and other marginalized groups are represented in parliament.

Mona Makram Ebeid, a former member of the Wafd Party and professor of political science at AUC, said in an interview that it is unnecessary for the constitution to stipulate a quota of seats to be reserved for women.

It could easily complicate the situation, she argued. What we really need is for political parties to be keener to field more women on their lists.

Rabie says implementing the quota system is likely to prove difficult.

It is notoriously difficult to draft electoral laws guaranteeing representative quotas that have been allocated to specific groups. Since 1984 a number of elections laws have been invalidated by the Supreme Constitutional Court for failing to reflect the quotas than in effect.

In 1979 30 seats were reserved for women, only for the Constitutional Court to rule in 1984 that the 30-seat quota violated the principle of equality, points out Rabie.

In 1987 the electoral system was again invalidated on the same grounds.

It will be easy to contest the legality of any election law forced to accommodate the quota system. And the situation will be made worse because the amendments also seek to resurrect the old principle of reserving 50 percent of seats for representatives of workers and farmers, says Rabie.

A new election law could state that competition in certain districts be restricted to women or it could stipulate that a female candidate is included in the list of candidates for each district. Either way, legal challenges will be brought.

Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal told MPs on 13 February that the amendments would be subject to wide consultations.

There is nothing final about them, and they will change as the debate progresses, he said.

Many female MPs welcome the re-introduction of a quota system. Hala Abul-Saad, the parliamentary spokesperson of the Conservatives Party, said the move reflects the growing role of women in public life.

We now have women cabinet ministers, provincial governors, and heads of parliamentary committees. The quota merely reflects the status quo.

Sahar Talaat Mostafa, a former head of parliaments Tourism Committee, argues the 25 percent quota may be too low. Thirty percent, she says, would better compensate Egyptian women who were left for many years without adequate representation in parliament.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 7 March, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Controversy over women quota

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(Newser)  Tracy Maurer was supposed to visit New Orleans' Tulane University to see her daughter graduate in May. Instead, she'll be planning a funeral for Margaret "Meg" Maurer, per KSTP. The 21-year-old from Forest Lake, Minn., was killed at a highway rest stop in Mississippi on Tuesday in what authorities describe as a freak accident. A tractor-trailer driving past the rest stop on Interstate 10 near Gautier lost a set of rear dual tires, apparently due to equipment failure, reports ABC News. The tires, bolted together and weighing some 500 pounds, traveled 850 feet over a median and highway lanes before hitting Maurer, who was walking in the rest stop parking lot with friends, according to the Gautier Police Department. The ecology and evolutionary biology major, on her first spring break road trip, died at the scene.

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Police said the driver of the tractor-trailer is not suspected of wrongdoing and stopped soon after the tires came loose. "I really want to be angry at somebody, but I can't be," Maurer's mom tells KSTP. "It's absolutely a random, freaky thing." Tulane President Mike Fitts says Maurer was "extraordinarily gifted" and planned to "pursue a career in scientific illustrationa field that combined her skill as a scientist, her incredible artistic talent and her love of nature." Professor Thomas Sherry even enlisted Maurer to draw illustrations for his book on tropical birds, eight of which were completed before her death; the Biloxi Sun Herald shares two sketches. "At the very least, we have this incredible memorial to her," Sherry tells ABC. "These were not only accurate, realistic, biological illustrations  These were works of art." (An NYPD maintenance worker died in the same way.)
(Newser)  The same judge who dismissed Stormy Daniels' defamation lawsuits against President Trump and his former attorney Michael Cohen has just quashed yet another one of her complaints. Per CNN, US District Judge James Otero ruled that this suit, which the adult film star brought to nullify the $130,000 non-disclosure agreement that kept her from talking about her alleged affair with Trump, "lacks subject matter jurisdiction" and should be returned to California Superior Court, effectively ending the case. Daniels (real name: Stephanie Clifford) had argued that the NDA was invalid because only Cohen had signed it, not Trump himself, Business Insider notes.

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Oddly, both sides are declaring themselves the winners in this newly tossed suit. Trump's legal team had already indicated they wouldn't enforce it; Daniels pursued her complaint to have the NDA declared illegal, just in case. "The court found that Ms. Daniels received everything she asked for by way of the lawsuitshe won," her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, tells CNN. Meanwhile, Trump attorney Charles Harder proclaims Otero's ruling a "total victory" for his client, while Cohen lawyer Brent Blakely says, "Clifford's attorney would claim victory if he got run over by a bus." (Read more Stormy Daniels stories.)
(Newser)  President Trump went to bat for his friend Robert Kraft after the owner of the New England Patriots was charged with soliciting prostitution. The Miami Herald has now unearthed an odd link between Trump and the Kraft story, showing the presidentas well as members of his family, including sons Don Jr. and Ericposing for pictures with the founder of the Florida day spa where Kraft is accused of having received sexual services. One picture posted by the Herald shows Li Yang (aka Cindy Yang)who founded the Tokyo Day Spa in Jupiter, since renamed Orchids of Asia Day Spa, where authorities say Kraft was caught on camera paying for oral sexposing with Trump at the president's Super Bowl party last month at his West Palm Beach country club. But that's not where the ties between the two, nor Yang's seemingly new political engagements, cease.

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Yang, who sold that spa in 2013, has, per the Herald, "become a fixture at Republican political events up and down the East Coast" since Trump took office, and her Facebook page is plastered with pics of herself with Trump, his sons, and other GOPers like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott. Yang, "who offered no evidence of political engagement" before 2016, and her family have also donated tens of thousands of dollars to Trump's campaign and a PAC, and she's been asked by the White House to participate in more than one advisory commission event. Although Yang wasn't charged in the Kraft stingnone of those shut-down spas are registered to her or her relativesher family remains in charge of other spas in the state, and they've been on law enforcement's radar for possible illicit sex activity. Read the full story here. (Read more President Trump stories.)
(Newser)  "Carmine Persico was born in August 1933 and killed his first human being in 1951, before his 18th birthday," prosecutors once said. That violent life story ended Thursday when Persico, who was serving a 139-year prison sentence, died in hospice care, the New York Post reports. He was 85. The immediate cause was complications from diabetes prompted by a leg infection, but his lawyer blamed the partial government shutdown. "There was an interruption in antibiotic treatment, and we believe that accelerated his demise," he said. Persico was locked up more than 30 years ago but reportedly ruled New York's Colombo crime family from behind bars. That would make him the longest-ruling crime boss in US history, per the Post. Persico was recruited by organized crime after his first killing, the beating of a youth in a Brooklyn park, per the AP.

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He first was assigned to bookmaking and loan-sharking, and by his mid-20s, Persico was a "made man" in Joe Colombo's organization. In 1973, after Colombo was paralyzed in a shooting, Persico took over. His conviction for racketeering and murder came in the 1986 Commission Trial"; seven others were convicted in the biggest prosecution to that time of mob bosses. He wasn't charged in the cases, but prosecutors said Persico was involved in the famed assassinations of Albert Anastasia, the Murder Inc. boss killed in a barber's chair in Manhattan in 1957, and Joseph Gallo, who was shot at Umberto's Clam House in Little Italy in 1972. In sentencing Persico, the judge suggested his life could have taken a different turn. "Mr. Persico, you're a tragedy," the judge told him. "You are one of the most intelligent people I have ever seen." (Read more organized crime stories.)
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ABC/Randy HolmesMetallica will bring their WorldWired tour Down Under this fall, kicking off a tour of Australia and New Zealand October 17 in Perth.

"It's been over six years since we last visited Australia and nine years since we were lucky enough to set foot in New Zealand," the metal legends say in a statement. "We're long overdue!"

The trek will mark the first time Metallica has headlined stadiums in Australia and New Zealand.

As with Metallica's North American dates, attendees of the Australia and New Zealand tour will have the opportunity to buy the Wherever I May Roam Black Ticket, which gets you one floor ticket to any and all of the shows on the run. That'll cost you $598 Australian dollars, which is just over $420 in the States.

If you attend the Australia and New Zealand tour, you'll also get to see Slipknot, who'll be the special guest for the shows. The masked metallers are releasing their new album August 9.

Members of Metallica's Fifth Member fan club will have access to pre-sale tickets starting Tuesday, March 12 at 1 p.m. local time. Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning Monday, March 18 at 2 p.m. local time. Visit Metallica.com for more info.

Metallica's current North American tour continues Saturday, March 9 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Egypt's Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat discussed Friday with her Greek and Cypriot counterparts Elena Kountoura, Savvas Perdios, respectively, boosting cooperation in the tourism field.

This came on the sidelines of ITB Berlin activities, hosted by the German capital on March 6-10, according to a press statement by the Tourism Ministry.

The ministers praised the political, and economic ties binding the three countries and expressed their desire for more cooperation in the coming period.

They exchanged views on reinforcing trilateral cooperation and agreed on forming task forces from both governmental and private sectors to create joint tourist schemes, aimed at attracting more tourists.

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Nissan Motor's former chairman has been spotted visiting a park with his family, after leaving a Tokyo detention center on bail earlier this week.

Carlos Ghosn was seen outside his residence on Friday afternoon.

When a reporter asked Ghosn if he was innocent, the former chairman merely replied, "No comment."

He was accompanied by his wife and one of his daughters. The three went into a park.

Ghosn has been indicted for aggravated breach of trust and underreporting his compensation. He denies the charges.

One of his lawyers has identified himself as the person who advised Ghosn to leave the detention house in disguise.

Takashi Takano wrote on his blog that he wanted to prevent Ghosn from being followed by camera crews. But he said the effort failed.

The lawyer said the scheme was immature and hurt Ghosn's reputation.

Another lawyer said he has spoken with prosecutors and court officials about Ghosn's trial. He gave no clear indication as to when Ghosn might speak to the media.

He said, "Ghosn is willing to hold a news conference, but his condition is still not good at the moment. He wants to speak when he is feeling better. We will let you know when that is."

Meanwhile, Nissan plans to hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting in April. At the meeting, Ghosn is expected to be dismissed as one of the directors of the board.
The governor and mayor of Osaka tendered their resignations Friday to seek election in each other's current position with the aim of reorganizing the major city into a metropolitan government system similar to Tokyo's.

Gov Ichiro Matsui and Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura, respectively the leader and policy chief of the local political group Osaka Ishin no Kai, are set to leave their posts on March 20 and run in a double election that will coincide with the unified local polls on April 7.

The idea to create the "Osaka metropolis" -- originally a pet project of former Osaka Gov and Mayor Toru Hashimoto -- is aimed at saving taxpayers' money by reducing administrative overlaps between the prefectural and city governments. Voters rejected it by a narrow margin in a city referendum in May 2015.

Matsui and Yoshimura were both elected to their current posts in November 2015 on a platform to resurrect the metropolis plan.

The Osaka Ishin no Kai does not hold a majority in either the Osaka prefectural or the mayoral assembly but seats in both councils will be up for grabs in the elections on April 7.

The regional political group aims for simultaneous victories in the upcoming elections by boosting momentum toward the metropolis initiative and increasing voter turnout.

If the two leaders simply sought re-election in their current positions, they would have to again go to the polls when their original four-year terms expire later this year.

In running for each other's positions, they apparently intend to fend off criticism that their resignations are wasting taxpayers money by ensuring an additional election is not required.
Russian President Vladimir Putins plan for an international group to take charge of the Syrian crisis is unlikely to succeed, writes Bassel Oudat in Damascus

On the last day of February after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed that Russia would create a new international group including countries involved in the Syrian conflict, the Syrian leadership and perhaps the opposition.

The groups mission would be to establish stability after eliminating all terrorist hotbeds in Syria, Putin said. He added that under the plan all foreign fighters must withdraw from Syria, state institutions must be restored and the integrity of Syrian territory maintained.

The Syrian opposition did not comment on the Russian declaration, since it had not been presented to opposition members. The regime led by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad also denied any knowledge of the plan.

Syrian representative to the UN Iyad Al-Jaafari said Moscow has not discussed [the new international group] with Damascus and added that once both sides begin talking they will reach a balanced understanding due to their excellent relations.

Russias view is balanced and focuses on an effective role for the Syrian government, Al-Jaafari said, adding that Israel had no place in the new group.

However, after Netanyahus visit to Moscow a senior Israeli official said that Russia and Israel would form a working group along with other countries to study the removal of foreign forces from Syria.

The official did not clarify if this group would be the nucleus of the new international group announced by Putin.

Analysts believe that Moscow has reached an agreement with Tel Aviv about the proposed group and that Israel is in charge of announcing its core. This will send an indirect message to Russias partners in Syria, Turkey and Iran, that it will not stop coordinating with Tel Aviv while looking for solutions to the Syrian crisis.

The message to Washington is that Russia can impact Israels position on Syria and convince it to accept a strategic partnership with Russia.

In October last year, Putin said that Russias efforts had protected Syrias institutions, contributed to its stability, and liberated 95 per cent of its territory.

He said the next phase would be to implement a political settlement under the supervision of an international mechanism.

However, the new group Putin has now announced does not look promising. While he said that terrorism must be eradicated, it was not clear whether he meant the Islamic State (IS) group and the Al-Nusra Front, or whether he meant the armed Syrian opposition which according to his rhetoric is a terrorist group irrespective of its ideology and moderate nature.

Putin also requires the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Syria, although he is well aware that he cannot force the US, Iran, Turkey, the Arab countries and various militias to leave, especially due to the conflicts of interest and hostilities among them.

Another reason making the new group difficult to form is that Russia and Iran do not recognise the definition of foreign fighters entering Syria illegally, claiming that they came in response to an official request by the regime. This logic is rejected by the other parties involved in the Syrian conflict.

Putin specified who would be invited to the new group, saying that the most important participants would be the Syrian leadership. The opposition might be invited, he said, indicating that he has taken a clear position in favour of the regime even before the group has been created. Putin has thus pre-emptively paralysed the group and placed preconditions that will prevent its effective creation.

It seems likely that the US will not agree to the Russian plans for Syria, since it views itself as the main decision-maker in the region. Without Washingtons approval and support for Russias plan, it will not see the light.

The UN will also likely refuse to be a follower in a group led by Russia, particularly as Putin wants the new group to be an expansion of the Astana Process which includes Russia, Iran and Turkey and follows Russias lead.

The Russian initiative comes at a time when Ankara is negotiating with Washington on creating a safe zone in northern Syria and the US administration is thinking about handing over the affairs of northeastern Syria to the Europeans.

While the Al-Assad regime claims it has succeeded in defeating plots to divide up Syria, in reality it controls little territory. Kurdish militias control part of the north of the country and Iranian militias control part of the southeast.

The US decision to partially withdraw from Syria has thrown Russia off balance, and it is now concerned that it will lose control and that its disputes with its Astana Process co-sponsors will deepen.

The goals of Moscow, Ankara and Tehran are divergent, and Washingtons decision to withdraw its troops disrupted the balance of the conflict.

There is a need for a quick balance check among the three, although there is no clear common ground among them. Putin believes this can be achieved through an international group in which Russia will be the strongest member.

Russias military victory in Syria has not been translated into political victory on the ground, and doubts remain about the success of the Astana Process that Russia is trying to impose on Syria and regional and international parties.

Moscow is in a hurry and wants to hold onto most of the cards in Syria without conceding many to others, whether the US, the West, Turkey or the Syrian opposition.

It is clear that this formula will fail, even as Russia is trying to maintain a grip on the crisis rather than reach a clear and stable peace in Syria.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 7 March, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Putins plan for Syria

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No fewer than 70 political parties in Enugu state on Thursday rejected the call for the removal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (...

No fewer than 70 political parties in Enugu state on Thursday rejected the call for the removal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Dr. Emeka Ononamadu.









Chief Afam Ani, the Public Relations Officer of the group, said this at a press conference in Enugu, adding that the parties passed a vote of confidence on the REC.









He said that the parties, operating under the aegis of the Coalition of Registered Political Parties, agreed that elections must go on in the state on Saturday.









He said that the group disapproved of the call by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the removal of the REC and a shift in the election on account of the allegations of bias and compromise against the REC.









He said that the group considered the allegations false and baseless.









According to Ani, the group warned political parties not to disrupt the smooth electoral process in the state because of their internal wrangling.









He said that no single party has the power to determine whether an election should hold or not in any state, describing Enugu as the most peaceful state in the country.









He also described Ononamadu as the most friendly REC to ever work in the state.









He said: We have witnessed the coming and going of RECs in Enugu state. This one has discharged his duty in line with the provisions of the constitution.









He should not be removed because he has not done anything contrary to the provisions of the constitution to warrant his removal.









The group insisted that the election must go on as scheduled.









It was gathered that APC, led by its Chairman, Dr. Ben Nwoye, embarked on a peaceful protest in INEC headquarters, Enugu earlier in the day to demand the postponement of the polls in Enugu state.









Nwoye threatened that APC would not allow elections to hold in the date until their fears had been addressed.
















The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, sitting at the Apo, Abuja Judicial Division on Friday struck out a post-election matte...





The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, sitting at the Apo, Abuja Judicial Division on Friday struck out a post-election matter instituted by Senator Godswill Akpabio, following his defeat by former Deputy Governor, Engr. Chris Ekpenyong, in the just- concluded National Assembly election for Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District.





Akpabio, former Senate Minority leader, defected last August from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state to the All Progressives Congress (APC) under which he sought reelection ticket.





But he was defeated by Ekpenyong, who polled over 118,000 votes as against his over 83,000 forcing the former governor to run to Abuja court with suit no: FCT\HC\M\2680\19, to seek an order of Mandamus compelling INEC to review the result.





But the presiding Judge, Justice Valentine Ashi of the FCT High Court dismissed the matter, following application by the Counsel to Akpabio, Mr. Sunday Ameh (SAN), that the case be withdrawn forthwith.




Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, has said only card-carrying members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, should be...





Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, has said only card-carrying members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, should be considered for political appointments in her husbands second term in office.





She made the call during a dinner to celebrate the victory of her husband in Daura, Katsina State, as was contained in a statement by her media aide, Suleiman Haruna.





Mrs. Buhari stated that the constitution of the party specifies that appointments to offices in an APC-led government should go to card-carrying members.





She said: I wish to thank the women and youth of this country for the number of votes they gave President Buhari in the 2019 election and to assure that he will continue to do his best to make Nigeria a better country.





Also speaking at the event, Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika praised the electorate for voting President Buhari.




A magistrate court in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, has issued a warrant for the arrest of Nsima Ekere, governorship candidate of the A...





A magistrate court in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, has issued a warrant for the arrest of Nsima Ekere, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Akwa Ibom state, over a N2.4 billion fraud.





The development comes hours to the governorship and state houses of assembly elections scheduled for March 9, 2019.





S.D. Andrew-Jaja, chief magistrate, issued the warrant of arrest with charge number PMC/MSC/15/2019, following the ploy doctored by the governorship candidate to boycott court judgement.





The court also held that Ekere should be arrested alongside Katungo Moljengo, director of legal service of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).





The court order, bearing the seal and signature of S.T. Dappa, principal registrar of the court, indicated that the arrest warrant against Ekere and Moljengo was issued in Port Harcourt under the seal of the court and hand of the presiding chief magistrate, this 5th day of March 2019.





Speaking at a press conference in Uyo, V.C. Edward Ekpo, a lawyer representing Multi-Intelligence Development Ltd, disclosed what led to the issuance of the arrest warrant.





Having executed the job worth over N2.4 billion, were denied payment after obtaining loans from banks, individuals among other financial institutions to service the contract, Ekpo said. In 2011, four companies were awarded contracts by NDDC.Having executed the job worth over N2.4 billion, were denied payment after obtaining loans from banks, individuals among other financial institutions to service the contract, Ekpo said.





We approached the court and obtained judgement from the High Court of Justice, Abuja but what followed was indescribable level of corruption, where Nsima Ekere conspired with Director of Legal Service, Kaltungo Moljengo to defeat the execution of justice.





The lawyer was displeased with the act which he said was against Criminal Code Act of Section 518(1) and (6) CAP. C 38, laws of the federation of Nigeria 2004.





Ekpo appealed to the inspector general of police to implement the court order and get Ekere arrested with immediate effect in compliance with the order of court, and ensure that he is put in prison within 24 hours ultimatum.





He also advised the current management of NDDC to desist from transacting businesses with the duo.




The Lagos State High Court on Friday sentenced a man named Lekan Shonde to death by hanging for killing his wife, Ronke. Lekan Shonde ,...

The Lagos State High Court on Friday sentenced a man named Lekan Shonde to death by hanging for killing his wife, Ronke.Lekan Shonde , a depot worker in the Apapa area of Lagos State , was found guilty of the murder of his wife.It was reported that 51 -year - old Lekan allegedly beat his wife to death at their home in the Egbeda -Idimu area of Lagos State.He was alleged to have locked the door on the corpse and their two children before the incident was discovered by a housekeeper and later reported to the police.The marriage , which was blessed with two children , aged six and four , was said to have been marred with domestic violence.He accused Ronke of sleeping with one Kayode , the general manager of a publishing company.Delivering the judgement on Friday, Justice Josephine Oyefeso sentenced Lekan to death based on the conviction that the convict killed his wife , Ronke.
Suspected hoodlums have burnt down an office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ibesikpo Asuntan local governm...





Suspected hoodlums have burnt down an office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ibesikpo Asuntan local government area of Akwa Ibom state.





Some electoral materials were destroyed in the incident which happened on the eve of the governorship and state assembly elections.





A witness revealed that the police were able to secure some electoral materials.





Akwa Ibom was among the states that recorded high rate of violence in the presidential and national assembly elections.

Mike Igini, resident electoral commissioner of the state, has visited the scene. It is unclear if the incident would affect Saturdays election in the area.




A 14-year-old victim of rape on Thursday told an FCT High Court Maitama, that Pastor Emmanuel Matthew of the Winners Chapel allegedly ra...

A 14-year-old victim of rape on Thursday told an FCT High Court Maitama, that Pastor Emmanuel Matthew of the Winners Chapel allegedly raped her when she was seven-years-old in 2012.





The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the defendant is also the Proprietor of Emmabeth Academy, Mpape, Abuja, where the victim attended in 2012.





The girl, who said this while testifying as the fifth prosecution witness, explained that Mathew forcefully fingered her private part and had carnal knowledge of her school mate who was also a minor.





She also alleged that the defendant sexually assaulted her elder sister who was nine years old then.





The police in 2012 charged Matthew to court with six counts bordering on inducement and rape which ran contrary to sections 283 and 285 of the Penal Code.





Mr Ejike Orji, the Prosecuting Counsel, stated that the victim had attended Emmabeth Academy, Mpape, ran by the defendant.





Orji alleged that Mathew took advantage of his closeness with the victim, her elder sister and a school mate who were all minors to have sex with them.





Sometimes in March 20, 2012, at Emmabeth Academy, Mpape, Abuja Matthew induced and raped the victim who was seven year, her elder sister and another pupil of the school, he said.





In her evidence in chief, the victim recalled the name of the school to be Emmabeth Academy Nursery/ Primary School, Mpape Abuja.





She said: I was in school and Pastor Emmanuel took me inside his office and put his fingers into my private part severally.





He did that to me and my senior sister and the other girl. He later gave my sister N10.





When interrogated further by the prosecutor, she said the defendant went ahead to allegedly remove his trouser and inserted his penis into the private part of the other girl.





She had narrated the incident to her mother who immediately reported the matter her pastor.





According to her, the mother and her pastor only warned the defendant of the repercussion of his actions.





The victim further explained that the defendant had invited policemen three days after the incident to arrest the mother and her pastor, adding that the police became abreast of the matter through her mothers statement.





She said the police immediately took over the matter by taking the three of them to the hospital for examinations.





When asked to state the colour of the underwear the defendant wore during the alleged incident, the victim said she could not remember because the incident happened seven years ago.





The witness also said she could not remember the name of the hospital they were taken to for examination, adding however that she remembered that a doctor examined them.




British Prime Minister Theresa May was planning to turn up the pressure on the European Union on Friday to break an impasse in Brexit negotiations with a speech saying the bloc would be damaged too if Britain left without a deal.

British lawmakers vote on the deal for a second time on Tuesday, less than three weeks before Britain is scheduled to leave the EU; so far there is little sign of May getting the concessions that she says would reverse her previous defeat.

"History will judge both sides very badly if we get this wrong," foreign minister Jeremy Hunt told BBC radio on Friday.

The two sides are at loggerheads over the so-called Northern Irish backstop, which seeks to prevent the return of physical border controls between Northern Ireland and Ireland - the only land frontier between the United Kingdom and the bloc.

May wants legally binding assurances from the EU that Britain will not be trapped permanently in the backstop, which involves keeping Britain in a customs union with the bloc.

Many business leaders are alarmed at the prospect of leaving the bloc's single market, which underpins many of their operations, with no transition arrangements to soften the shock of Britain's biggest political and economic change in more than 40 years.

A survey of recruiters showed on Friday that employers held off from hiring permanent staff in February, adding to signs of growing nerves in Britain's otherwise strong labour market.

May was due to give a speech later in Grimsby, a heavily 'leave'-supporting area, saying that the EU must now give ground on the backstop to help push through the deal, which was defeated in parliament in January by a record margin.

"EU MUST CHOOSE"

"Just as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice, too. We are both participants in this process. It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal," May was due to say, according to pre-released extracts.

"We are working with them, but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote."

May has said that if her plan is defeated on Tuesday, lawmakers will be able to vote on Wednesday and Thursday on whether they want to leave the bloc without a deal, or ask for a short delay to Brexit.

Her top lawyer returned empty-handed from negotiations with the EU this week, and the EU told Britain to rework its Irish backstop proposal by Friday.

"We are now in a state when we are discussing proposals we have rejected months ago," an EU diplomat said.

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox was not due to return to Brussels on Friday, but he or another member of the government could travel over the weekend if talks between junior officials progress.

Foreign minister Hunt said some progress had been made in the last few days and it was "entirely possible" to reach a deal in time for the vote:

"We want to remain the best of friends with the EU, that means getting this agreement through in a way that doesn't inject poison into our relations for many years to come."

Keir Starmer, Brexit spokesman for the opposition Labour party, said on Thursday it was "increasingly clear Theresa May will not be able to deliver the changes she promised to her failed Brexit deal".

He said the Grimsby speech "looks set to be an admission of failure".

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The Labour Party on Thursday endorsed AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Saturdays govern...

The Labour Party on Thursday endorsed AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Saturdays governorship election in Kwara State.





Labour Partys governorship candidate, Comrade Issa Aremu announcing withdrawal from the race, said the development marked the beginning of liberation from one party which had ruled the state for 16 years.





At a brief ceremony held at the Africas People hall of Mustapha Akanbi Foundation, Ilorin, labour leaders and scores of members of both Labour Party and APC embraced the development.





He said: What we are saying is whether you believe in Otoge slogan of APC or Odopin (the end has come) of Labour Party, we must ensure that PDP did not win Saturdays elections.





This coming elections and last Saturdays presidential and national assembly elections, are not only about winning; it is about liberation of our state from dictatorship of one person, one party.





Having campaigned vigorously to all the nooks and crannies of Kwara and nationally, since I made my declaration to run for governorship since July 2018, we lower our ambition for the greater interest of Kwara, and we will work our talk. As from now, I will go back to our people and explain this to them.









Both Otoge and Odopin, are the same thing, we have decided that we are going to back the governorship of Alhaji AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq.




Hauwa Yusuf, mother-in-law to Aminu Masari, governor of Katsina state, has been kidnapped, according to Daily Trust. Yusuf, aged 8...





Hauwa Yusuf, mother-in-law to Aminu Masari, governor of Katsina state, has been kidnapped, according to Daily Trust.





Yusuf, aged 80 years, was reportedly abducted from her residence at Dandume crescent in Katsina layout of the metropolis.





She is the mother to Binta Masari, one of the three wives of the governor.





The newspaper said the armed abductors who wore masks stormed the residence around 3am on Friday, took her away after beating some persons thoroughly and carting away telephones.





Already, sympathisers have besieged the residence lamenting and discussing the incident just as security personnel were spotted gathering information.





The police are yet to make comments on the incident.





Masari is contesting Saturdays election under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).





The high rate of crime in the north-west state has been a source of concern to the government and residents.




Nigeria has maintained its top spot as Africas biggest economy, ahead of South Africa and Egypt  but this is only when its gross domes...

Nigeria has maintained its top spot as Africas biggest economy, ahead of South Africa and Egypt  but this is only when its gross domestic product (GDP) is calculated at N305/$1.





According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Nigerias GDP stands at $397.47 billion at the end of 2018, while South Africa could only muster $376.68 billion as Egypt was estimated to weigh only $249 billion.





However, Renaissance Capital, a leading emerging and frontier markets investment bank, says South Africa is actually Africas biggest economy  if Nigerias exchange rate realities are factored into the calculation of the nations GDP.





According to RenCap, GDP calculations using the purchasing power parity (PPP) of N362 per dollar brings Nigerias GDP to $357 billion  effectively shaving about $40 billion off the countrys GDP.

President Muhammadu Buhari and Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, have insisted on the current exchange rate regime as the best option for Nigeria at this time when oil prices are below $100.





SOUTH AFRICA AS AFRICAS BIGGEST ECONOMY?

Charlie Robertson, the global chief economist at Renaissance Capital, made this known on Tuesday while explaining a slowdown in South Africas economy in 2018.





South Africa GDP slowed from 1.4% to 0.8%, but that was still big enough to make it Africas biggest economy in 2018 at market exchange rates, he said.





We prefer market exchange rates because PPP dollars (which put Nigeria top) dont buy you a Toyota. Or an oil refinery for that matter.

South Africa GDP slowed from 1.4% to 0.8%, but that was still big enough to make it Africa's biggest economy in 2018 at market exchange rates. We prefer market exchange rates because PPP dollars (which put Nigeria top) don't buy you a Toyota. Or an oil refinery for that matter pic.twitter.com/TEoA98UCeY 5 March 2019

RenCap, one of the leading frontier market analyst in the world, forecast Nigeria the biggest economy in Africa in 2017, with a GDP of $395 billion at CBN rate of N304 per dollar, and $327 billion at the market rate of N367 to the greenback.

How do Africa's economies rank right now? We don't really know but there is a good argument that SA is first, Kenya again beats Ethiopia pic.twitter.com/nCKlOyjFn0 11 October 2017

Africa's economies ranked by size. Nigeria 1st, Egypt 2nd and SA in 3rd place. Size relative to India/California helps explain news coverage pic.twitter.com/nJBSFiUOA1 11 October 2017

In a note to investors seen by TheCable, RenCap said early March that for Nigerias GDP to grow faster than its population, oil prices will have to double or the country will have to diversify the economy and pursue industrialisation.





To diversify the economy, Nigeria must accelerate the rise of adult literacy, aiming for at least 80% as soon as possible, RenCap said.





To ensure the north is not left behind, Nigeria will need to enact an adult education campaign, similar in scale and impact to that pursued by South Korea in the 1950s.





The research and insight firm added that 100 percent adult literacy also will not fix the problem if the country does not fix electricity.





Even 100% adult literacy will not allow an escape from poverty if there is no reliable supply of electricity to power a factory or office computer, it said.
President Muhammadu Buhari has felicitated with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN on the occasion of his 62nd birthday. The Presid...





President Muhammadu Buhari has felicitated with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN on the occasion of his 62nd birthday.





The President, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity, Garba Shehu, joined Osinbajos wife, Dolapo, her children and Nigerians across the country and around the world to celebrate the erudite scholar, Minister of the Gospel and very dependable deputy with whom I share a very special bond.





President Buhari said he was grateful to God for preserving the life of Prof. Osinbajo, who in the past four years has diligently championed the values of setting the foundation for the peace, progress, and stability of Nigeria, by working very hard to build a resilient economy while promoting transparency and accountability.





On this special occasion, the President extended special appreciation to the Vice President and wished him many more years of robust health, happiness and fulfilment in his service to God, the nation and humanity.





Buhari said that he looks forward to sharing many special moments of celebration with his deputy as they take Nigeria to the Next Level in the years ahead.




Wife of former President, Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs Patience Jonathan has again lost at the Supreme court. The Court has upheld the o...





Wife of former President, Goodluck Jonathan, Mrs Patience Jonathan has again lost at the Supreme court.





The Court has upheld the order of temporary forfeiture made by a Federal High Court in Lagos in respect of the $8.4million traced by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)





T he Supreme Court had fixed March 8, 2019, to deliver judgment in an appeal filed by former First Lady, Mrs Patience Jonathan challenging the powers of the EFCC for forfeiture of her properties when she has not been convicted for any offence. he Supreme Court had fixed March 8, 2019, to deliver judgment in an appeal filed by former First Lady, Mrs Patience Jonathan challenging the powers of the EFCC for forfeiture of her properties when she has not been convicted for any offence.





In a judgment on Friday, a five-man panel of the court unanimously held that the appeal filed by Mrs. Jonathan, challenging the interim forfeiture, was without merit.
Mr Peter Obi, the Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Feb. 23 election, has called for peaceful...









Mr Peter Obi, the Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Feb. 23 election, has called for peaceful and credible polls on March 9.





Obi made the call in an interview with newsmen on Thursday in Onitsha, saying that free and fair elections were required to strengthen the nations democracy.





He urged the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government not to allow the alleged electoral malpractices witnessed during the Feb. 23 elections reflect in Saturdays exercise, NAN reports





He said: The idea of trying to disrupt the exercise in the South-South should be discouraged because the area is critical to the development of the country.

Once election is peaceful and without rigging, there wont be any violence.





But we have heard people say they will capture Akwa Ibom and Delta states, where we have two of the best crop of governors in the country.

The South-South governors are already doing well and should be encouraged. If you go to Rivers, Delta and Akwa Ibom states, you will see visible and clear performance by their governors.





Obi urged the people of the South-East to remain peaceful during the polls.





The former governor of Anambra further spoke on the need for a robust and dynamic legislature at the state and national level.





He said that such dynamism was important for the executive to function effectively.





Even if you have a majority of the legislators from other political parties, you can still deliver on your electoral promise as a governor.





I once governed Anambra with diverse legislators and I did not have problems but rather achieved my set goals.





People should be free to choose whoever they want to serve them, Obi said.





He appealed to security agencies to be fair and impartial to everybody in the discharge of their duties during the polls.





He added: They must know that their children live in the society and that if they leave it to be abused, it will take revenge on them.





The society we abuse today will take revenge on our children tomorrow.




The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it would no longer tolerate any attempt by politicians to hold its ...





The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it would no longer tolerate any attempt by politicians to hold its officials hostage and force them to declare winners of elections under duress.





INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, gave the warning at the meeting of Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) ahead of SaturdayS elections, held at the commissions headquarters on Thursday in Abuja, NAN reports.





He said that where such abduction occurs, the commission would not issue Certificates of Return.





Yakubu said that the commission was worried over the rate of attacks on its personnel and the loss of lives and election materials recorded during the Feb. 23 Presidential and National Assembly elections





The Commission is concerned that many of our materials, including ballot boxes, voting cubicles, voters registers and Smart Card Readers were lost to acts of hooliganism and thuggery in the elections held two weeks ago.





Most worrisome is the attack on electoral officials. Some of our staff were abducted and taken hostage in an attempt to disrupt elections or influence the outcome.









In fact, some of the supplementary elections I referred to earlier were caused by such acts of thuggery.





I am confident that working together with the security agencies, we will consolidate on the largely peaceful conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly elections while also taking decisive steps to deal with the minority of violators intent on disrupting the conduct of peaceful elections.





However, the commission will not tolerate the act of holding our officials hostage and forcing them to declare winners under duress.





Where such occurs, the Commission will not reward bad behaviour by issuing them Certificates of Return.





Yakubu expressed the Commissions appreciation to the security agencies for securing the environment during the national elections.





He noted that in the course of securing the elections, the security agencies, electoral officials and innocent Nigerians suffered needless attacks resulting in casualties including deaths and loss of personal and official properties.





On behalf of the Commission, I extend our deepest condolence to the families of those who lost their lives, including personnel of the security agencies. We are glad that the Police have made several arrests and investigation is ongoing.





I wish to assure Nigerians that the Commission will work closely with the Police to ensure the diligent prosecution of all violators of our electoral laws.





Citizens are asking for effective but non-intrusive protection before, during and immediately after the elections in which their rights are respected and their choices safeguarded.





Yakubu expressed optimism that the Saturdays election would open by 8 am. going by arrangements already put in place by the commission.





On Saturday March 9, Nigerians are once again going to the polls to elect Governors in 29 States, 991 members of Houses of Assembly in all the States of the Federation, 6 Chairmen as well as 62 Councillors for the Area Councils in the FCT.





A total of 1,082 candidates will be elected by citizens across the country. Learning from the experience of the Presidential and National Assembly elections held two weeks ago, the Commission has effectively tackled the challenge of logistics.





Materials for the election have been delivered to all States and the FCT. Movement to the Local Government Areas will be completed today.





By Friday, all materials and relevant personnel will arrive at the Registration Area Centres (RACs). With this arrangement, we are confident that all polling units will open at 8.00 am nationwide.





Yakubu disclosed that INEC had also reconfigured its Smart Card Readers for the elections on Saturday, saying the use of the card readers was mandatory and there will be no exemption to their deployment for accreditation of voters.





Under our Regulations and Guidelines, there are clear penalties for the deliberate failure to deploy them on the part of our staff.




Olakunle Churchill has reacted to reports of an alleged judgement by a customary court in Abuja granting his ex wife, Actress Tonto Di...





Olakunle Churchill has reacted to reports of an alleged judgement by a customary court in Abuja granting his ex wife, Actress Tonto Dikeh full custody of their son on the 4th March.





He made this reaction through a notice of disclaimer issued by his legal team, stating that there was no court of such or judgment by the alleged customary court.





According to the disclaimer, the alleged false judgement by a customary court in Abuja is false.





According to the statement, 'the public is by this disclaimer adviced to disregard the fake news making round on social media over the full custody of King Andrea Churchill granted by the court as its not only misleading but geared towards scoring cheap social relevance'.

See the full disclaimer below...
















U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he would be disappointed if North Korea were to resume weapons testing and reiterated his belief in his good relationship with its leader, Kim Jong Un, despite the collapse of a summit with him last week.

I would be surprised in a negative way if he did anything that was not per our understanding. But well see what happens, Trump told reporters at the White House. I would be very disappointed if I saw testing.

Trumps comments to reporters on the White House lawn before leaving to visit Alabama came after two U.S. think tanks and Seouls spy agency said this week that North Korea was rebuilding a rocket launch site.

There have also been reports emanating from South Koreas intelligence service of new activity at a factory that produced North Koreas first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States.

Trump said he thought his and the U.S. relationship with Kim and North Korea was a very good one.

I think it remains good, he said.

Trump, eager for a big foreign policy win on North Korea which has eluded his predecessors for decades, has repeatedly stressed his good relationship with Kim. He went as far late last year as saying that they fell in love, but the bonhomie has failed to bridge the wide gap between the two sides.

A second summit between Trump and Kim collapsed last week over differences on U.S. demands for Kim to give up his nuclear weapons and North Koreas demands for sanctions relief.

North Korean state media acknowledged the fruitless summit for the first time on Friday, saying people were blaming the United States for the lack of an agreement.

The public at home and abroad that had hoped for success and good results from the second ... summit in Hanoi are feeling regretful, blaming the U.S. for the summit that ended without an agreement, its Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary.

The paper directed fiery rhetoric against Japan, accusing it of being desperate to interrupt relations between Pyongyang and Washington and applauding the breakdown of the summit.

Washington has said it is open to more talks with North Korea but it has rejected an incremental approach to negotiations sought by Pyongyang and it remains unclear when the two sides might meet again.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he was hopeful he would send a delegation to North Korea for more talks in the next couple of weeks, but that he had received no commitment yet.

A senior State Department official who briefed reporters in Washington on Thursday said the United States was keen to resume talks as soon as possible, but North Koreas negotiators needed to be given more latitude than they were given ahead of the summit.

There will necessarily need to be a period of reflection here. Both sides are going to have to digest the outcome to the summit, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Fundamentally, where we really need to see the progress, and we need to see it soon, is on meaningful and verifiable steps on denuclearization. Thats our goal and thats how we see these negotiations picking up momentum.

The official said complete denuclearization was the condition for North Koreas integration into the global economy, a transformed relationship with the United States and a permanent peace regime on the Korean peninsula.

White House National Security Adviser John Bolton, a hard-liner who has argued for a tough approach to North Korea, said this week that Trump was open to more talks, but also warned of tougher sanctions if North Korea did not denuclearize.

Bolton and other U.S. officials have sought to play down the activity spotted at the Sohae rocket launch site, although Trump on Thursday called it disappointing.

The official who briefed reporters on Thursday said he would not necessarily share the conclusion of the think tanks that the Sohae site was operational again, but said any use of the site would be seen as backsliding on commitments to Trump.

North Korea has frozen nuclear and missile testing since 2017, and Trump has pointed to this as a positive outcome from nearly a years engagement with North Korea.

Sohae has been used in the past to rest missile engines and to launch rockets that U.S. officials say have helped development of North Koreas weapons programs.

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Several European banks are facing allegations of being involved in a Baltic money laundering scandal and failing to prevent tainted Russian money from flowing through their branches across the world.

The scandal first came to light via investigations by U.S. authorities into Latvia's ABLV bank, which they accused of institutionalised money laundering, and Pilatus Bank in Malta, whose chairman was charged in the United States over money laundering and bank fraud.

The first major bank to face questions, however, was Danske Bank, when Danish newspaper Berlingske said in 2017 a whistleblower had raised suspicions over the origins of billions of euros that had flowed through the Estonian branch of the Denmark's biggest bank.

Since then, a number of other European banks have been drawn into the scandal by various media organisations and a collective of European news outlets called the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

Another central player in the saga is Bill Browder, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has successfully lobbied for U.S. sanctions against Moscow over the killing of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.

Browder has brought criminal complaints against banks in various countries, including the United States, over alleged money laundering relating to a tax fraud exposed by Magnitsky.

DANSKE BANK

Denmark's biggest bank admitted in September that 200 billion euros ($226 billion) of suspicious transactions originating from Russia, former Soviet states and elsewhere flowed through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.

The bank is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as authorities in Denmark, Estonia, Britain and France.

Browder has been key to triggering some of these investigations, having most recently filed a criminal complaint with U.S. authorities.

SWEDBANK

Money laundering could have occurred in relation to at least 40 billion Swedish crowns ($4.3 billion) transferred between Baltic accounts at Swedbank and Danske between 2007 and 2015, Swedish TV alleged on Feb. 20.

Sweden's and Estonia's financial watchdogs have opened a joint investigation into Swedbank, while Lithuania's financial regulator is separately examining Swedbank's local operations.

Browder is planning to file criminal complaints against Swedbank in several countries where it has operations, starting with a complaint with Swedish authorities.

Swedbank has hired external investigators to look into the matter. Its CEO Birgitte Bonnesen has said she is confident about the bank's actions to prevent money laundering but could not promise that nothing had slipped through the net.

NORDEA BANK

The Nordic region's largest bank handled about 700 million euros in suspicious transactions between 2005 and 2017, with funds heading to shell companies in countries such as the British Virgin Islands and Panama, a Finnish broadcaster alleged on March 4.

The bank said the information in the report had been covered previously and when it found suspicious behaviour it reported it to the relevant authorities. "We recognise that our systems in the past may not have been robust enough to counter this sort of financial crime. For that we are truly sorry," the bank said.

Browder filed complaints against Nordea with authorities in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland in October. Sweden decided not to investigate, but Finland and Norway are yet to give any update. Danish police had already started an independent investigation in 2016 after the Danske scandal broke.

Nordea was in 2015 fined 50 million Swedish crowns, the maximum penalty at the time, by the Swedish regulator for breaching anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism rules.

DEUTSCHE BANK

Germany's biggest bank helped to process the bulk of the payments involved in Danske's money laundering scandal, a source with direct knowledge of the case said on Nov. 21. It was also named as a receiving counterparty to potential money laundering transactions in an OCCRP report on Monday.

A Deutsche Bank spokesman confirmed to Reuters that it acted as a correspondent bank for Danske Bank in Estonia, but said it ended the relationship in 2015 after identifying suspicious activity.

On Nov. 19, the bank's regulation chief said it played only a secondary role as a so-called correspondent bank to Danske Bank, limiting what it needed to know about the people behind the transactions.

Germany's financial watchdog in September ordered Deutsche Bank to do more to prevent money laundering and "terrorist financing". The bank has publicly said it agreed it needed to improve its processes to properly identify clients.

The bank has also been fined https://reut.rs/2tTuDwD nearly $700 million for allowing money laundering through artificial trades between Moscow, London and New York and an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice is ongoing.

CREDIT AGRICOLE

The French bank, through its private banking subsidiary Indosuez, has allegedly been involved in money laundering, French newspaper Les Echos said on Tuesday, saying it was among the banks mentioned in Monday's OCCRP report.

The OCCRP said its report was based on leaked documents detailing transactions worth more than $470 billion sent in 1.3 million transfers from 233,000 firms.

A Credit Agricole spokeswoman said its Indosuez unit had "fulfilled all its obligations regarding anti-money laundering" when asked about the matter.

ING GROEP

The Netherlands' largest financial services provider admitted on Sept. 4 that criminals had been able to launder money through its accounts and agreed to pay 775 million euros to settle the Dutch case.

The bank was aware of the potential involvement in money laundering to the tune of hundreds of millions of euros by one of its clients at its Moscow branch, newspaper Trouw reported, citing Monday's OCCRP report.

ING said the bank always takes such allegations seriously, but could not comment on the specifics of the report.

RAIFFEISEN BANK INTERNATIONAL (RBI)

Browder's company filed a report in February to Austrian prosecutors containing allegations the bank was the top recipient in a list of 78 banks in Austria that received funds allegedly linked to money laundering.

RBI, one of the biggest foreign lenders in Russia, was also named in Monday's OCCRP report, which alleged the bank was a counterparty in a money laundering scheme.

The bank said it was "not familiar with the concrete allegations and does not have any further information on the content of the complaint".

"RBI takes the allegations in the media very seriously and is conducting an internal investigation," it said.

Austrian anti-corruption prosecutors said they were examining money-laundering allegations after receiving a complaint against unknown parties, a spokeswoman said.

ABN AMRO, RABOBANK, CITIGROUP AND ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND

Monday's OCCRP report also named Dutch lenders ABN Amro and Rabobank as having facilitated several hundred million euros in improper payments and said counterparties on these transactions included U.S. bank Citigroup.

Majority state-owned ABN Amro, which in February said it had stepped up efforts against money laundering and other criminal activities, said the reports were not related to its business now.

Rabobank, which was fined 1 million euros in February by the Dutch central bank for failing to catch money laundering by clients, said it would not comment on specific transactions. It said it adheres to international anti-money laundering rules.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which acquired a business from ABN Amro in 2008, said it could not comment on specific transactions but took allegations of money laundering seriously.

"We are committed to combatting financial crime and money laundering in line with our regulations and have controls and safeguards in place to identify, assess, monitor and mitigate these risks," RBS said in a statement.

Citigroup declined to comment on the report.

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The Cairo grand opening of the Hakawy International Arts Festival for Children took place in Hanager Theatre on Thursday

Thursday marked the grand opening of the ninth edition of the Hakawy International Arts Festival for Children, the only large-scale annual event in Egypt which brings local and international theatre shows to a young audience.

The highlight of the day was the iconic puppet musical El-Leila El-Kebira (The Grand Night).

Prior to the official opening in Cairo, the festival had already held events in Alexandria (from 4 to 5 March), visiting a few locations with a number of shows and attracting numerous children who came with their schools or families.

El Leila El Kebira

The Thursday opening in Cairo saw the presence of Culture Minister Ines Abdel Dayem.

The event honoured Nagy Shaker, the renowned puppeteer and a multi-disciplinary artist who created El-Leila El-Kebira.

Shaker passed away in August last year, and an honorary shield was presented by Abdel Dayem to his wife Vera Lagator.

El Leila El Kebira

Born in 1932, Shaker -- who had worked in many art forms, experimenting with visual theatre, cinema, paintings, sculpture, graphic work, even interior and architectural design -- is best known for his contributions to Egypt's puppet theatre, and as chief designer for El-Leila El-Kebira.

Shakers inspiration for it came from short radio programmes on moulids (folk carnivals celebrating the Prophet Muhammad or a Christian saint). Turning the celebratory mood into a full-length play with a developed plot and distinctive characters was definitely a challenge, yet the towering trio, puppeteer Nagy Shaker, poet Salah Jahin and composer Sayed Mekawy, were determined.

For the play, Shaker created numerous unique and lovable characters: children, clowns, a lion tamer, the omda (mayor), and street vendors such as Nishan, a puppet modelled on Jahin himself.

The play debuted in 1960, to unprecedented success.

El Leila El Kebira

The story and the marionettes touched the hearts of children and grown-ups alike, and was critically acclaimed.

El Leila El Kebira

The international accolades began with Bucharests international puppet festival in 1960, where it won awards for puppet and scenography designs.

Such achievements were repeated over the years as the play continued to collect awards and recognition in Syria (1967), the USA (1980), Jordan (1993), France (1995), Italy (1997) and Tunisia (2000), as well as Egypt.

El Leila El Kebira

By 4pm on Thursday, the school trips began being replaced by media and families bringing their children to the opening, eager to witness one of the rare performances of the iconic show alongside numerous other shows scheduled for the day.

To many children of today's generation, El-Leila El-Kebira is known only from the stories told by their parents and grandparents.

It was a great opportunity for them to get closer to the important values and a theatrical tradition that Egypt was proud of in the 1950s and the 1960s.

El Leila El Kebira

The play also presents the moulid celebrations in a unique format of well-sculpted puppets, whose features and movement add lively dynamism to the show.

On the grand opening day, Hanager Theatre saw a large number of media interested in documenting the festival.

The opening was announced to the rhythm of drums performing at the open area in front of Hanager Theatre.

El Leila El Kebira

When the time came, the attendees were invited to enter the theatre to enjoy El-Leila El-Kebira as well as Storm (UK), HiHaHuttenBouwers (Netherlands), and H2O (Germany).

In parallel, the mobile library offered storytelling in Hanager's grounds, while the Falaki Theatre (located near Tahrir Square) presented ZooZoo from the USA.

Although none of the shows lacked artistic uniqueness and a captivating creativity, and each received a great deal of attention from the young audience, for the Egyptian audience, El-Leila El-Kebira was the main attraction of the day, having created a big buzz among Egyptians of different backgrounds and generations.





El Leila El Kebira

By the opening day all the tickets had been reserved, and despite support from the Hakawy team, a number of families who had hoped to get into the performance were left disappointed.

As the festival continues through this week until Saturday 16 March, Cairo's young audience will have an opportunity to take in many other Egyptian as well as international performances.

See the programme here.

El Leila El Kebira

Ahram Online is an official media partner of the ninth edition of the festival.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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Female scientists, artists, writers and activists are among those featured in the Google Doodle

Google has marked International Womens Day with a Google Doodle that highlights quotes from famous women.

The Doodle features a slideshow of 13 quotes in a variety of languages (with English translations) by scientists, artists and political activists.

"Feet, what do I need them for if I have wings to fly?" reads the quote in Spanish from Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

German writer Emma Herwegh is quoted as saying: "Let nothing bind you in the world other than your highest inner truth."

Google also picked women from other continents, such as Beno Zephine, Indian diplomat and the first blind Indian Foreign Service Officer. Her words read: "We are too precious to let disappointment enter our minds."

Zaha Hadid, British/Iraqi architect is quoted in Arabic as saying: "I really believe in the idea of the future."

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For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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A lull in the number of migrants to Europe might mean the worst is over, but it is too early to declare Europes victory in the fight against migration

Despite record numbers of refugees crossing borders, with some 68.5 million people forcibly displaced last year, the UN has disclosed new data showing that only 55,700 of them were able to be resettled in 2018.

In a scathing report released last month, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) unveiled that less than one per cent of the 20 million refugees under its mandate worldwide were ever resettled.

The UNHCR data showed that while some 1.2 million people who were in need of a new place to call home were on its books last year, it only managed to make resettlement requests for 81,310 refugees.

The data, which cover specifically UNHCR-facilitated resettlements, show that the highest numbers of requests originated in the Middle East, mainly Lebanon (9,800), Turkey (9,000) and Jordan (5,100).

The report is good news for Europe, as it seems the refugee influx that has been affecting the continent may be turning around. If this is where the war on migration ends, Europe has clearly won, and the unprecedented migration crisis which hit it in 2015 and 2016 is now over.

However, while there are fewer tragic narratives of migrants dying in the Mediterranean these days than there were three years ago when throngs of refugees jostled on boats to reach Europe, what is not over yet is the global refugee crisis and its humanitarian impacts.

The number of forcibly displaced people in the world has now reached its highest figure for the sixth year in a row. Among the nearly 70 million estimated refugees last year, some 25.4 million had fled their homes to escape violence and persecution, according to the UNHCR.

Most refugees, including women and children, have fled their countries to escape ongoing conflicts, terror, oppression, starvation and economic hardships.

Just how much of an impact the increasing number of the worlds refugees will have on Europe, one of the most-affected areas by the rise, is an interesting story to follow. It has prompted the European Union (EU) to resort to stringent systems to deter unwanted migrants.

While the number of migrants trying to reach Europe is sharply down from the 2015-16 peak, the number of refugees overall, mainly from the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, remains high.

Even worse, with tensions in the region possibly on the rise again and continuing economic hardships, tens of thousands of people are still expected to try to reach Europe, mainly from the two regions.

Europes success in blocking the influx of refugees and migrants to the continent is due to a combination of political, economic and security factors and a range of measures to deal with the crisis.

The EU has increasingly been using its political and economic muscle to engage other countries in its anti-migration plans and to keep the refugees out. The EU has paid Turkey enormous sums in an attempt to make it crack down on refugees rather than allowing them to cross to Europe.

The EU has pursued aggressive diplomacy to push the African and Arab countries to cooperate in implementing its plans. It used the African Union-European Union Summit in May 2018 and the EU-Arab League Summit last month as platforms to trade economic help and investment for cooperation on refugees.

The final declaration of the European-Arab Summit clearly stated that the two sides agreed on strengthening the fight against irregular migration and scaling up our joint efforts in preventing and fighting migrant smuggling.

The EUs anti-migrant strategies intended to stem the flow of refugees across the EUs external frontiers have also become increasingly militarised. The EU has spent billions of euros on fences, surveillance systems and patrols on land or at sea.

One deadly strategy has been to create a special security force to guard Europes southern borders and stop migrant-smuggling by sea. The force involves over a dozen sea and air contributions from 27 EU countries, including ships, airplanes, drones and submarines.

Since its creation in 2015, Europes military operation in the Mediterranean, named Operation Sophia, has saved some 49,000 people from drowning at sea. But that was never its main objective.

Instead, the goal of the operation was to beef up the blocs external borders and disrupt people-smuggling networks off the North Africa coast and stem the tide of people crossing the sea to Europe.

The EU has also worked closely with the North African countries to stop large numbers of migrants from taking the Mediterranean journey to enter Europe.

The cooperation of these countries has involved working with the Sub-Saharan African nations on investigating, apprehending and prosecuting smugglers and traffickers that take refugees to Europe.

However, the EUs migration policy, which is aimed at stopping people in Africa and the Middle East before they get anywhere near the Mediterranean, may have only limited success.

Research has suggested that Operation Sophia might not be a lasting solution to stopping desperate migrants from making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean and reaching European shores in inflatable boats.

A leaked report from Frontex, the EUs coastguard, noted that although the operation has made the sea-crossing more dangerous for migrants, desperate refugees continue to pursue the route.

The report found that the EU force can only operate in international waters, not in North African waters or on land where smuggling networks operate. It is also underfunded, understaffed and underequipped.

The report notes that some members of the Libyan coastguard, funded, equipped and trained by the EU, are collaborating with smuggling networks.

The EU has failed to push the idea of establishing detention centres for migrants in the North African countries because this was met with strong rejection by Egypt, Libya and the Arab Maghreb countries.

Most importantly, however, the haphazard anti-migration policy shows that something alarming is happening in Europes asylum system, as revealed in the UNHCR report about the sharp fall in the number of resettlement cases.

Resettlement, as defined by the International Refugee Convention, is a life-saving tool as it is meant to ensure protection for people who are fleeing violence and persecution and are most at risk.

It is a tangible mechanism for governments and communities across the world to share responsibility for responding to forced displacement crises.

The Global Compact on Refugees, an international agreement to forge a stronger, fairer response to large refugee movements adopted last December, underscored that resettlement is a key objective to help reduce the impact of large refugee situations on host countries.

But instead of tackling the refugee challenge in line with their international obligations, many European countries are resorting to harsh measures to deal with refugees, including steps to relocate asylum-seekers already in Europe and return people deemed not to qualify for asylum.

By fighting forced immigration and asylum-seeking, Europe is ignoring political and economic imperatives and highlighting its narrow-minded thinking.

It is also betraying its own values of freedom, human rights, democracy and international cooperation, the guiding principles of its foreign policy.

The EUs drastic measures may have reduced the flow of refugees to Europe, but they have not stopped them from making the deadly crossing across the Mediterranean.

It is highly unlikely that European politicians will find an effective policy to deal with another wave of mass migration, which is likely to hit Europe as political and economic uncertainties continue on its southern borders.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 7 March, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Has Europe won the war on migration?

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Credit: Pamela LittkyAlice in Chains has premiered the first two installments of Black Antenna, a 10-part, 90-minute sci-fi companion film to the grunge icons' latest album, the Grammy-nominated Rainier Fog.

The film, directed by Adam Mason and co-produced by Green Book co-writer Nick Vallelonga, tells the story of a father and daughter who travel through California searching for and stealing parts to build an antenna, in order to communicate with their possibly extra-terrestrial home world.

"This movie came out of nowhere for me," says Mason. "As soon as I heard the album, the music and lyrics spoke to me on a profoundly personal level and the film and subject matter was born directly out of that."

"I've always been a huge fan of Alice In Chains, and this has been a dream come true for me," the director adds. "Black Antenna is a perfect synergy of the band's lyrics, and Black Antenna paints a dark and beautiful canvas of the deeply conflicted world we live in today."

Each segment of the project will accompany a song from Rainier Fog. Episode one is soundtracked by "The One You Know," while the album's title track plays in episode two.

Both episodes are streaming now on YouTube. Fair warning: episode two is pretty NSFW.

Alice in Chains will launch a spring North American headlining tour April 10 in Vancouver. They'll embark on a co-headlining run with Korn in July.

Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Is the singularity upon us? AI seems poised to replace everyone, even artists whose work can seem like an inviolably human industry. Or maybe not. Nick Caves poignant answer to a fan question might persuade you a machine will never write a great song, though it might master all the moves to write a good one. An AI-written novel did almost win a Japanese literary award. A suitably impressive feat, even if much of the authorship should be attributed to the programs human designers.

But what about literary criticism? Is this an art that a machine can do convincingly? The answer may depend on whether you consider it an art at all. For those who do, no artificial intelligence will ever properly develop the theory of mind needed for subtle, even moving, interpretations. On the other hand, one group of researchers has succeeded in using sophisticated computing power, natural language processing, and reams of digitized text, writes Atlantic editor Adrienne LaFrance, to map the narrative patterns in a huge corpus of literature. The name of their literary criticism machine? The Hedonometer.









We can treat this as an exercise in compiling data, but its arguable that the results are on par with work from the comparative mythology school of James Frazier and Joseph Campbell. A more immediate comparison might be to the very deft, if not particularly subtle, Kurt Vonnegut, whobefore he wrote novels like Slaughterhouse Five and Cats Cradlesubmitted a masters thesis in anthropology to the University of Chicago. His project did the same thing as the machine, 35 years earlier, though he may not have had the wherewithal to read 1,737 English-language works of fiction between 10,000 and 200,000 words long while struggling to finish his graduate program. (His thesis, by the way, was rejected.)

Those numbers describe the dataset from Project Gutenberg fed into the The Hedonometer by the computer scientists at the University of Vermont and the University of Adelaide. After the computer finished reading, it then plotted the emotional trajectory of all of the stories using a sentiment analysis to generate an emotional arc for each work. What it found were six broad categories of story, listed below:

Rags to Riches (rise) Riches to Rags (fall) Man in a Hole (fall then rise) Icarus (rise then fall) Cinderella (rise then fall then rise) Oedipus (fall then rise then fall)

How does this endeavor compare with Vonneguts project? (See him present the theory below.) The novelist used more or less the same methodology, in human form, to come up with eight universal story arcs or shapes of stories. Vonnegut himself left out the Rags to Riches category; he called it an anomaly, though he did have a heading for the same rising-only story arcthe Creation Storywhich he deemed an uncommon shape for Western fiction. He did include the Cinderella arc, and was pleased by his discovery that its shape mirrored the New Testament arc, which he also included in his schema, an act the AI surely would have judged redundant.

Contra Vonnegut, the AI found that one-fifth of all the works it analyzed were Rags-to-Riches stories. It determined that this arc was far less popular with readers than Oedipus, Man in a Hole, and Cinderella. Its analysis does get much more granular, and to allay our suspicions, the researchers promise they did not control the outcome of the experiment. Were not imposing a set of shapes, says lead author Andy Reagan, Ph.D. candidate in mathematics at the University of Vermont. Rather: the math and machine learning have identified them.

But the authors do provide a lot of their own interpretation of the data, from choosing representative textslike Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallowsto illustrate nested and complicated plot arcs, to providing the guiding assumptions of the exercise. One of those assumptions, unsurprisingly given the authors fields of interest, is that math and language are interchangeable. Stories are encoded in art, language, and even in the mathematics of physics, they write in the introduction to their paper, published on Arxiv.org.

We use equations, they go on, to represent both simple and complicated functions that describe our observations of the real world. If we accept the premise that sentences and integers and lines of code are telling the same stories, then maybe there isnt as much difference between humans and machines as we would like to think.

via The Atlantic

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Kurt Vonnegut Diagrams the Shape of All Stories in a Masters Thesis Rejected by U. Chicago

Kurt Vonnegut Maps Out the Universal Shapes of Our Favorite Stories

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness
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Once Again Meghan McCain Displays A Complete Lack Of Nuance And Understanding

By Ursula Scully | Pajiba Love | March 7, 2019 |

I am not going to get into this issue because Pajiba Love is not the place to do so, but I do have a quick word to say about Ilhan Omars comments and the response to them. I was born and raised in Poland. Like Jews, Poles were one of Hitlers persecuted groups (along with a number of others). Two of the deadliest concentration camps are located in Poland. I am very aware and familiar with the history of The Holocaust, a horrific event that affected my family directly. Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites make me sick to my stomach. However, the comments that Ilhan Omar made are not anti-Semitic. A person can support Israels right to exist whilst at the same time condone their military actions. Nuance is required in this situation, but I am not surprised that Meghan McCain shows none.

(The Daily Beast)

I hate Uber and have a thesis-length rant I could write here on the entire sharing economy but Ill spare you and direct you to this article instead. (OneZero)

Goopsters takes issue with being called an elitist brand, to which I say: hahahahahahah. (Celebitchy)

All the Cersei Lannister fans (hi Dustin!) will appreciate this analysis of her wine sippin. (The New Yorker)

Most of us are aware of The Rachel, but did you know that this 90s haircut is called The Butt?! (MEL Magazine)

Because I am a master of transition, here is Lainey making a really great point about The Butt Song from A Star Is Born. (Lainey Gossip)

YouTube is rolling out a feature that will display fact-check information panels. I actually think this is a good step. I wish Google would roll out something similar, like a verified check mark on each search result, or a percentage score. Call me, Google! (Buzzfeed)

Im positive that Trump got into Wharton because of his brothers connection and money, but now Im wondering if he even graduated high school. (Teen Vogue)

Remember Heidi Montag? I mean, I really hope you dont. But in case you do and want to know how the gal is fairing past her TV days, the answer is not at all well. Poor thing thinks diversity is about blonde and brunette hair. (Dlisted)

The NSA open-sourced one of its cybersecurity tools and yeah, Im going to nope out of that, thanks, guys. (Wired)

This $200,000 per night Las Vegas suite looks like it was designed by someone who got a hold of some very excellent shrooms. (T&C)

I dont know if Brie Larson is wearing a jumpsuit or if its separates, but I do know that the tips of her shoes will absolutely stab a bitch. (GFY)

According to this video, I might qualify as a 17th-century witch. *accio tacos* Nope, not working. Dang. (Mental Floss)

Ctkat1 has read several M/M romances, but Roan Parrishs Riven surprised her. "Really, its a good piece of fiction that happens to have a pretty sweeping romance at the center, but the bulk of the book takes place at the margins, where two men who have been just surviving build up the courage to try and start living." Which books have surprised you? (Cannonball Read 11)

 Alec Baldwin Shared A Sexy Throwback Picture Of All The Baldwin Brothers | Why Does Chris Pine Hate Socks? 

Ursula is a Staff Contributor for Pajiba. You can follow her on Twitter.

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Paris, France (PANA)  The French foreign affairs minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, on Thursday appealed that the electoral process in Algeria be conducted peacefully, as the electorate wait for the constitutional council to decide, by 14 March, on the validity of the candidatures for the 18 April presidential election
French President Invites Iranian Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh to G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council

03/08/19

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

Seat for Imprisoned Iranian Lawyer Was Left Empty at the Council's Meeting Last Month

The husband of imprisoned human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh has received a letter from French President Emmanuel Macron inviting Sotoudeh to be part of an advisory council created to advise the Group of 7 (G7) countries on gender equality issues.

Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, received the letter the day after news spread that his wife, a prominent lawyer and human rights defender who is now in Iran's Evin Prison, had been convicted of "national security" charges in Iran.

"Today [March 7] a legal representative from the French Embassy in Tehran gave me a letter from French President Emanuel Macron and the Group of Seven (G7)," Khandan said in an interview with CHRI.

"The letter, signed by Macron, invites Nasrin to join the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council as a member and participate in their meetings. According to the representative, the transcript of this announcement has been sent to Iran's Foreign Ministry and the National Bar Association," Khandan added.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), said "This council, composed mainly of civil society personalities, will help the French G7 presidency identify the most favorable laws for women in the world."

"I am pleased to invite you to this initiative to advance real equality between women and men around the world," President Macron wrote to Nasrin Sotoudeh.

The 35-member council includes three Nobel Peace Prize winners: Tunisian businesswoman Wided Bouchamaoui, Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege and Yazidi activist Nadia Murad. Other high-profile women's rights advocates, such as the actress Emma Watson, who is a United Nations goodwill ambassador on gender equality issues, are also part of the council.

The letter, sent via the French Embassy in Tehran to Sotoudeh's home in the Iranian capital, was dated February 13, 2019, but Sotoudeh's husband, who is also facing a six-year prison sentence, only received it on March 7, the day after news of Sotoudeh's conviction made international headlines.

A seat was left empty for Sotoudeh at a meeting of the council at the Elysee Palace in Paris with Macron on February 19, 2019.

The council is focused on three main topics: combating violence against women, promoting girls' education and women's entrepreneurship.

According to Macron's letter, the council will deliver a "legislative package" to the G7 countries (France, Canada, the US, Japan, Germany, Italy and the UK) and other states to advance the role of women and promote gender equality in participating nations and around the world.

The next G7 Summit will take place in the French coastal city of Biarritz in August 2019. It is not clear whether Sotoudeh, who is facing many years in prison for her work in Iran defending human rights, will be able to attend.
US Lawmakers Renew Bipartisan Bid to Press Iran to Free Americans

03/08/19

By Michael Lipin, VOA

U.S. lawmakers are making a renewed bipartisan effort to pressure Iran into freeing at least four Americans and a U.S. permanent resident viewed by Washington as hostages of the Islamic Republic.

A House Foreign Affairs subcommittee held a hearing Thursday in which family members of some of those perceived as hostages in Iran briefed lawmakers on the status of their loved ones. The subcommittee's Democrat chairman, Congressman Ted Deutch, and top Republican, Congressman Joe Wilson, also used the hearing to announce their joint introduction of two congressional measures aimed at securing the freedom of those detained or missing in Iran.

One is a resolution that calls on Iran to unconditionally release U.S. citizens and legal U.S. permanent residents being held for political purposes.

The other is a bill that the lawmakers say would empower the U.S. president to impose sanctions on American hostage-takers. It also calls for elevating the role of U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs to the rank of ambassador.

More tools for president

In a statement, Deutch said the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, named in honor of an American who went missing in Iran 12 years ago, is meant to give the Trump administration "more tools to pressure countries to return Americans to their families."

Besides Levinson, whose family believes Iran has detained him, Iranian authorities have jailed Iranian-Americans Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer Namazi, Chinese-American Xiyue Wang, and Lebanese U.S. permanent resident Nizar Zakka. Iran has said little about them beyond the alleged security offenses for which some have been charged. Relatives say the five have done nothing wrong.

Addressing the hearing, Deutch said he was concerned that the Trump administration's 2018 withdrawal from a world powers' nuclear deal with Iran and the lack of U.S. contact with Iranian officials could slow efforts to bring back U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

"I urge President Trump to sit down with each of these families, hear their stories, understand their suffering, and then take bold action to return their loved ones," he said.

Wilson told the hearing that the bill would impose sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities responsible for the detentions.

"Iran has been taking hostages as a matter of policy and we must force Iran to change its behavior," Wilson said. "We need to see an intense, concerted effort from Congress and the (Trump) administration to seek the release of our Americans who are being held in Iran."

A previous bipartisan bill introduced by Deutch to punish Iran for perceived hostage-taking and human rights abuses passed the House last year but did not get to a vote in the Senate.

Family's 'living nightmare'

In her testimony, Bob Levinson's wife, Christine, said her family "continues to receive reports that he is alive" but did not elaborate. Bob Levinson, whose 71st birthday would be this Sunday, disappeared March 9, 2007, while visiting Iran's Kish Island as a private investigator. He had retired from a 22-year career with the FBI nine years earlier.

"We are all suffering a living nightmare," Christine Levinson said. "My children and I have trouble sleeping. We wonder endlessly what kind of conditions my husband is living through."

Christine Levinson and her seven children have been campaigning to try to locate him since his disappearance. Iranian officials have denied knowledge of his whereabouts.

Babak Namazi, the son and brother of detainees Baquer and Siamak Namazi, told the lawmakers that his elderly and ailing father is on a temporary medical furlough from Tehran's Evin prison but urgently needs proper medical attention outside of Iran.

Months, weeks to live

Speaking to VOA Persian on the sidelines of the hearing, Babak Namazi's lawyer Jared Genser said his client fears the 82-year-old Namazi has months or weeks left to live. Baquer Namazi, a former UNICEF official, was arrested in Iran in February 2016 after traveling there to try to secure the release of Siamak, a businessman whom Iranian authorities detained in October 2015.

Also testifying at the hearing was Nizar Zakka's son Omar, who said his father had just ended a three-week hunger strike several days ago after family members pleaded with him to resume eating food.

"We are tormented by fear that something terrible will happen to him," he said. The elder Zakka, an internet freedom advocate, was arrested in Iran after being invited there for a conference in September 2015.

Christine Levinson, Babak Namazi and Omar Zakka told the lawmakers that they appreciated the work of Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Robert O'Brien to keep them informed of efforts to free their loved ones. But they also appealed to President Trump to personally intervene in their cases.

"I would ask that he meet with us," Levinson said. "He doesn't understand how difficult it has been for our family because he hasn't talked to us." There was no word on when such a meeting might happen.



This article originated in VOA's Persian Service. Kambiz Tavana contributed from Washington.

About the author: Michael Lipin covers international news for VOA on the web, radio and TV, specializing in the Middle East and East Asia Pacific. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Lipin
Iran medical societies write to UN in condemnation of US bans

03/08/19

Source: Press TV

Sixty-six Iranian scientific medical societies have written to the UN chief in condemnation of the "inhumane and medieval" American sanctions targeting Iran's health sector. In a post on his Twitter account on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif released the letter, which had been written to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on February 23.





Scholars, scientists and academics of 66 Iranian scientific societies highlighted that the unilateral US bans have "deliberately targeted" patients, healthcare sectors, academic research centers, healthcare providers, medical equipment suppliers, active pharmaceutical ingredients providers, pharmaceutical equipment suppliers and heath regulators.

The sanctions, they added, have led to "extensive shortages of life-saving medical supplies and drugs."

"This politicization of science and imposition of discriminatory regulations against Iranian scientists and academia is unprecedented an unwarranted," they said.

66 Scientific Societies for Medical Sciences in Iran call on int'l community to:



-condemn US sanctions on Iran;

-strongly resist the targeting of medical needs & humanitarian aid; and

-thwart targeting of research & scientific advancement.



Their letter to UNSG @antonioguterres: pic.twitter.com/3X77yn1Bqq  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) March 6, 2019

The scientific societies also urged the international community to "condemn US embargoes" on Iran and "act strongly against sanctions targeting medical needs, humanitarian aids and research advancement."

They further called on the scientific community to "refrain from actions that affect the principal rights of a nation" and take necessary measures to "lift these coercive and unmanly sanctions."

"Conscious ignorance of the scientific community to unmanly unilateral sanctions will deprive not only Iran but also the entire world from scientific achievements of humanity," they noted.

Last year, President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, officially named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and unleashed the "toughest ever" sanctions against Tehran.

Officially, the sanctions exempt humanitarian goods, such as medicine and medicinal instruments.

But in reality, the measures have restricted Iran's access to medical and health services.

Last November, the Islamic Republic of Iran Medical Council (IRIMC) said illegal economic sanctions have negative impacts on the country's health sector.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) - the principal judicial organ of the United Nations - also ordered the US in October 2018 to halt the unilateral sanctions it had re-imposed on "humanitarian" supplies to Iran.



Related Articles:

Iranians are paying for US sanctions with their health







Officially, the sanctions exempt humanitarian goods, such as food, medicine and medicinal instruments. But in reality, shortages in essential goods have affected households across the country. Because of sanctions, Iran's health sector is struggling to keep up with soaring prices of medications and medical instruments, doctors tell CNN. -Tamara Qiblawi, Frederik Pleitgen and Claudia Otto, CNN 02/22/19



US economic sanctions restrict Iran's access to medical, health services: IRIMC







The Islamic Republic of Iran Medical Council (IRIMC) says illegal economic sanctions imposed by the United States against Tehran have negative impacts on the country's health sector, calling for an immediate and humanitarian solution to the issue. - 11/19/18



International Community Must Establish Mechanisms to Sell Humanitarian Goods to Iran, Iranian Government Must Ensure Affordability







With the full reinstatement of US sanctions on Iran on November 5, which will make financial transactions between Iranians and major economies in the world difficult and in many cases impossible, people's access to humanitarian goods such as essential food items, medicine and medical supplies in Iran could be imperiled. The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) calls on the international community to institute transparent financial mechanisms that will ensure trade in medicines and other essential humanitarian items will continue unimpeded with Iran. - 10/23/18



New US Sanctions Will Make Iranians Sicker







Sanctions against Iran are almost as old as I am. I was born in early 1980, and international sanctions against Iran began during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s as most global and regional powers supported Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in his invasion of the country. My father was injured and exposed to chemical weapons during that war, and as a result suffered from Parkinson's disease later in life. -Fariba Pajooh - 5/16/18


The day before Ghananian Independence Day last year, President Nana Akufo-Addo, was scheduled to speak in Washington DC at the annual conference of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) - the most powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization in the United States.



Then in November, Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, while on a visit to Israel, assured Avraham Neguise, chairman of Israel's governing coalition party, Likud, that the Ghanaian government would assist Israel to gain observer status at the African Union (AU).



Akufo-Addos trip to the US was cut short because of a spate of armed robberies and murders that plagued our people, and he never made it on to the podium in Washington.



Israels Observer Status bid wasnt even on the agenda at the AU Summit in February in Addis Ababa. Nonetheless, as we celebrate 62 years of freedom, we must ask why Ghana - whose decolonization and liberation remains a model to all occupied and colonised peoples around the world - is so supportive of Israel, a modern-day settler-colonial power occupying Palestine for 52 years?



Israel is on a charm offensive in Africa, courting African leaders. We want to help your soil become more fertile, your water reusable, your cities safer, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised Ecowas leaders in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, on June 4 2017.



No conversation with Israels diplomats in Africa  particularly West Africa, and Ghana in particular - is complete without several references to investment, trade, security, technology and agriculture  all fields in which Israel can supposedly assist the continent.



Publicly, Netanyahu and his Africa-based diplomats are putting a lot of effort into portraying Israel as a generous nation that cares about Africa and its people. Israel promises economic opportunities, technologies and development.



In return, it expects African leaders to support it at the United Nations (UN).



In meetings on the sidelines of the Ecowas summit, Netanyahu warned West African leaders that Israeli technology would solve their nations most urgent issues - as long as they opposed UN resolutions critical of Israels occupation of Palestine.



At the opening of the Ghana-Israel Agriculture Technology Breakfast Dialogue in January last year, Minister for Food and Agriculture, Owusu Afriyie-Akoto, said that he wants to strengthen Ghanas cooperation with Israel on agriculture development.



By September, 50 Ghanaian agriculture students set off on an eleven month- long training programme in Israel to learn about greenhouse technology so that they would be able to make a profitable living out of growing vegetables. The Israeli training fitted in perfectly with the Food and Agriculture Ministrys flagship programme called Planting for Food and Jobs.



The Ghanaian students were on a similar training course as one attended by Angolan students. They, too, were brought to Israel to gain exposure to advanced agricultural technology.

In Senegal, Israels Mashav drip-irrigation projects were widely promoted as a major part of Israels contribution to the fight against poverty in Africa, and were helping farmers increase yields in 12 rural areas.



Then in December 2016, Senegal co-sponsored a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israels construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Angola endorsed the resolution.

Netanyahu immediately cancelled the Mashav drip-irrigation projects in Senegal, and recalled its ambassador from Dakar. Israeli aid to Angola was stopped. Israel also shut down the international aid agency in Angola that was bringing locals to Israel to learn about agriculture.



By cancelling the Senegalese and Angolan aid projects, the Israeli government was saying loudly and clearly that it would battle poverty in Africa only if it suited Israels propaganda interests.



Lets be clear. Israels investment and aid to African states - including Ghana - is not goodwill. Its purpose is to force us to support Israel at the UN and AU, and smacks of a patronising, transactional relationship that we should be trying to escape. Do we really want a new colonial master?



In November 2016, the Ghana-Israel Business Chamber (GIBC) was launched by the then-Israeli Ambassador, Ami Mehl. At a reception at the Israeli embassy in April last year, Minister of National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah, urged Israel to invest in programmes such as the One District One Factory; and One Village One Dam initiatives.



The University of Ghana Medical Center, 3K Water Project, the Accra Tema Metropolitan Area Rural Water Rehabilitation Project and the Prabon Greenfields Estates - Kumasi are apparently some of the results of Ghana-Israeli cooperation.



In August last year, Israel opened a new commercial trade office within its embassy in Accra.



Is the price-tag attached to these investments silence and complicity in Israeli crimes?

So far, Ghana  a previous staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause in Africa  has not been neutralized at the UN by Israels diplomatic and economic incentives.



Ghana voted against recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital in December 2017. Martha Ama Pobee, Ghanas permanent representative to the UN, said that our vote was keeping in accordance with relevant UN and AU resolutions.



In 2015, while addressing the UN General Assembly, former President, John Mahama, courageously called for an immediate cessation of the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine - tackling an important issue which had been ignored by the leaders of more economically powerful countries.



As we confront the challenges of poverty, unemployment, economic liberation and creating a better future for the Ghanaian people, we must also support those who are yet to achieve their liberation, and yet to begin the process of decolonisation, such as the occupied and colonised Palestinian people.



A free and independent Ghana became home to anti-colonial activists, exiles and asylum seekers on the continent and beyond. Kwame Nkrumah offered them material support and a venue from which they could organise and negotiate their future.



Let us also not forget that in an attempt to buy support for its apartheid policies, the South African apartheid regime developed a policy of helpfulness towards poorer African nations, offering to share its agricultural and mining know-how. Most refused, and ultimately formed the frontline of resistance against South African apartheid.



Like South Africas neighbourliness, Israels aid to African states is not free.



The diplomatic repayment that Israel demands of Ghana is too high. We must not be silent about Israeli crimes. We must resist the lure of technology and aid designed to whitewash colonialism, occupation and apartheid.



Ras Mubarak is a Member of Parliament for the Kumbungu Constituency in the Northern Region.









Source: Ras Mubarak









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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National Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammy Awuku, has stated emphatically that the 'De-Eye' Group whose activities are known in public is not under the organizational structure of the ruling party.



An investigation conducted by journalist Manasseh Azure indicates that 'De-Eye' allegedly gives training to men and women and its headquartered at Osu Castle in Accra, which used to be the seat of government.



But reacting to the investigative piece of Manasseh Azure on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Sammy Awuku insisted that even though 'De-Eye' Group is not registered under the NPP, individuals can form their groups and state their vision for creating the group.



NPP as a political party when it comes to the organizational structure I cannot say emphatically that this is a registered group under the party, but rather what we can have is that a lot of people and individuals can form their groups and state their vision for creating the groups," he explained.



He however debunked the notion peddled by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the Osu Castle where ''De-Eye Group carries its activities is at the seat of government, thereby a worrying trend which must be addressed as a nation."



According to him the Osu Castle is no longer the seat of government.



"Now, the Christiansborg Castle is no longer the seat of government. Christiansborg Castle which we used to call it Osu Castle is under the Ghana Museum and Monument Board and it is no longer under the Office of the President Annex. The Office of the President Annex is at the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), he debunked.



He stressed that the Christiansborg Castle is a tourist site where people even visit there on daily basis; thus, sometimes they rent the place for events and I will be surprise that where they are showing the Ayawaso West Wuogon Commission of Inquiry is the same place where this De-Eye group perceived to be militia are training over there.



"Nonetheless, Manasseh Azure is a celebrated journalist and I have a lot of respect for him. In the past, he has done many wonderful works; I have not seen the full video but whatever it is in it, for us as a party and government, we will study what is in it. At least, we might not throw it away totally but study it and find out one or two things which we can work with in the future," he said.



Meanwhile, Sammy Awuku feared that even though the heart of this whole video is the issue of vigilantism which is now the most topical issue, if care is not taken, we will be attempted to book everything or every group in existence to be a militia group.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Founder of United Progressive Party (UPP) Mr. Akwasi Addai, popularly known as Odike, has called for the scraping of by-elections in the country.



According to him, by-elections have the tendency of sparking chaos in the country. He, therefore, suggested that any political party that loses its Member of Parliament (MP) should be made to replace him/her automatically.



According to him, recent by-elections in the country produced violent scenes, which can easily lead to strife in the country in future.



In this regard, Odike stated on radio that the authorities concerned should quickly make by-election a thing of the past in the country.



Odike also suggested that parliamentary elections should be organized on individual basis and not on the basis of partisanship. He said contesting parliamentary seats on the basis of partisanship tends to stifle intellectual discourse in Parliament.



We have a lot of knowledgeable people who can play meaningful roles to transform Ghana as MPs but they dont belong to political parties. These people cannot go to Parliament and contribute towards Ghanas growth . . . he indicated.



He also said MPs usually champion their personal interests and that of their political parties in Parliament at the detriment of their constituents.



We should enact new laws that would make it possible for people to contest parliamentary seats on their own. This will allow more intellectuals to contest seats and also contribute their quota towards Ghanas transformation, he pointed out.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Planetary Society

Our Vision

Know the cosmos and our place within it.

Our Mission

Empowering the world's citizens to advance space science and exploration.
NAIROBI, Kenya  Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany marks the International Womens Day themed #BalanceforBetter through partnering with 11 African First Ladies to work together on defining interventions to break the stigma around infertile women in Africa.

Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation emphasized, I am very proud that 11African First Ladies have partnered with Merck Foundation and have become the Ambassadors of our unique and historic campaign Merck more than a Mother to empower infertile women and eliminate the stigma around infertility in their countries and across Africa.

Merck more than a Mother Ambassadors are:

H.E. NEO JANE MASISI, The First Lady of Botswana;

H.E. DENISE NKURUNZIZA, The First Lady of the Republic of Burundi;

H.E. BRIGITTE TOUADERA, The First Lady of Central Africa Republic;

H.E. HINDA DEBY ITNO, The First Lady of Chad;

H.E. REBECCA NAA OKAIKOR AKUFO-ADDO, The First Lady of Ghana;

H.E. KEITA AMINATA MAIGA, First Lady of Mali;

H.E. AISSATA ISSOUFOU MAHAMADOU, The First Lady of Niger;

H.E. FATIMA MAADA BIO,The First Lady of Sierra Leone;

H.E. FATOUMATTAH BAH-BARROW, The First Lady of Gambia

H.E. CONDE DJENE, The First Lady of Guinea Conakry

H.E. ESTHER LUNGU, The First Lady of Zambia

In many cultures in Africa, infertility is a huge stigma and women are solely blamed for it. The women suffer discrimination, violence and are mistreatment due to their inability to bear children, although 50% of infertility cases are due to male infertility. Therefore, there is a huge need to create a culture shift to respect women whether they are mothers or not, encourage men to speak up about their infertility and support their wives during the treatment journey.

We want to take this opportunity while we are marking International Womens Day to remind all women that they are more than just mothers, and they are valuable members in society whether they can bring children or not. It is very sad to learn that women are still being abused and subject to violence, for their inability to bear children. This is unacceptable and must be changed, and we will work hard with all our partners to create this culture shift and emphasize to everyone that women are more than just Mothers. At Merck Foundation we do not only mark womens day today , but we celebrate women every day, empowering women and youth is in the spirit of what we do, it is a part of Merck foundations DNA, added Dr. Rasha Kelej.

Merck More than a Mother has been empowering infertile women in African countries by improving access to information, health, change of mind-set and economic empowerment.

Through the partnership with the African First Ladies, Merck Foundation to partner with more sectors such as media, art with all its forms to address the issue of the stigma around infertile women and to sensitize the communities about infertility topic in term of infertility prevention and male infertility.

They will launch together Merck more than a Mother local songs, Media Recognition Award, Film Award, Fashion Award and Art Award to encourage young talents to apply those skills to sensitize communities about this sensitive issue with the aim to empower infertile women in their countries.

About Merck More Than a Mother campaign:

Merck More Than a Mother initiative aims to empower infertile women through access to information, education and health and by changing mind-sets. This powerful initiative supports governments in defining policies to enhance access to regulated, safe and effective fertility care. It defines interventions to break the stigma around infertile women and raises awareness about infertility prevention and management. In partnership with academia, ministries of health and international fertility societies, the initiative also provides medical education and training for healthcare providers and embryologists to build and advance fertility care capacity in Africa and developing countries.

With Merck More than a mother have initiated a cultural shift to de-stigmatize infertility on all levels: By improving awareness, training the skills of local experts, building advocacy in cooperation with decision makers and by supporting childless women in starting their own small business. Its all about giving every woman the respect and the help she deserves to live a fulfilling life, with or without a child.

Also, part of the campaign is our Merck Embryology & Fertility Training Program, a three-month hands-on practical course in partnership with IRSI, Indonesia, IIRRH, India and Manipal Academy of Higher Education (Manipal University), India to establish the platform of fertility specialists across Africa and developing countries. Merck Foundation provided for more than 84 candidates, in clinical and practical training for fertility specialists and embryologists in more than 29 countries across Africa and Asia such as: Chad, Niger, Central African Republic, Cote DIvoire , Ghana, Ethiopia , Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania , Zambia , Nigeria, Benin, Mali, Burkina Fuso, Senegal, Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cameron, Rwanda, Botswana, DR Congo , Congo Brazzaville, Gambia , Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Merck Foundation is making history in many African countries where they never had fertility specialists or specialized fertility clinics before Merck More Than a Mother intervention, to train the first fertility specialists such as; in Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Gambia, Niger, Chad, Guinea, Ethiopia and Uganda.

Merck Foundation launched new innovative initiatives to sensitize local communities about infertility prevention, male infertility with the aim to break the stigma of infertility and empowering infertile women as part of Merck more than a Mother such as;

Merck More than a Mother media recognition award and health media training

Merck More than a Mother fashion award

Merck More than a Mother film award

Local songs with local artists to address the cultural perception of infertility and how to change it

About Merck Foundation:

The Merck Foundation, established in 2017, is the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people and advance their lives through science and technology. Their efforts are primarily focused on improving access to innovative healthcare solutions in underserved communities, building healthcare and scientific research capacity and empowering people in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) with a special focus on women and youth. All Merck Foundation press releases are distributed by e-mail at the same time they become available on the Merck Foundation Website.

About Merck:

Merck is one of the leading science and technology companies in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Almost 53,000 employees work to further develop technologies that improve and enhance life  from biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer or multiple sclerosis, cutting-edge systems for scientific research and production, to liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions. In 2017, Merck generated sales of  15.3 billion in 66 countries.

Founded in 1668, Merck is the worlds oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed corporate group. Merck holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma

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By Fang Sihang and Liu Yaxun



Commander Wei Xiaohui, intern captain of the guided-missile destroyer Zhengzhou (Hull 151) of the Chinese Navy

BEIJING, Mar. 8 (ChinaMil) -- In a recent combat drill on the East China Sea, a female officer with military rank of commander adeptly gave battle orders at the operations commanding room aboard the guided-missile destroyer Changchun (Hull 150) of the Chinese Navy.

Who is the female officer? She is Dr. Wei Xiaohui, the first female intern captain of the guided-missile destroyer Zhengzhou (Hull 151) of the Chinese Navy.

The story of Weis military career is full of legends: From a well-paid white-collar worker to a naval officer, from an outstanding doctoral student to a commanding officer of a new-type destroyer

After graduating with a doctoral degree, Wei aspired to join the military and she sent a cover letter to the Chinese Navy, in which she expressed her longing for serving in the military and elaborated her conditions and advantages that would enable her to become a qualified soldier. She also attached awards and certificates she had won and papers she had published, which added up to more than 200 pages in total.

In January 2012, her dream came true as she was enlisted in the Chinese Navy. In the following seven years, she evolved from a new recruit to a deputy department head of Chinas first aircraft carrier and then to executive officer and intern captain of destroyers. In the process she achieved an unprecedented growth, faster than standard routines.

In April 2015, Wei was appointed intern executive officer of the guided-missile destroyer Changchun (Hull 150). The first year at the position was full of challenges for her. To learn more about equipment data, she carried a notebook in her pocket so that she could take notes anytime. She took notes on almost everything, ranging from every simple countersign to her own understanding of every operational maneuver, from the name of every piece of equipment to its specific usage methods.

Thanks to her tireless efforts, Wei passed the strict examination and officially became the Chinese Navys first female executive officer in March 2016. Then she was appointed the intern captain of the guided-missile destroyer Zhengzhou (Hull 151) in September 2017.

Today, the legendary female officer is just a heartbeat away from the first female warship captain of the Chinese Navy.
After a period of testing, contractor Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. turned over operations to the customer, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).The plant will use wood fuel to generate 42 megawatts of green electricity to supply power to approximately 78,000 homes. B&W Vlund also will provide operations and maintenance services for the plant under a 15-year agreement.Templeborough Biomass is fully owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure II (CI II), a fund managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. CI II has invested approximately 160m equity in Templeborough Biomass, which has no third-party debt.Built on disused land at the Firth Rixson Ickles Works, the plant capacity will be sufficient to offset 150,000 tons of CO2 per year. The project has created the equivalent of more than 250 full time jobs during the construction phase and 26 jobs will permanently be established on site to operate the plant for its lifetime of more than 20 years.

Images: CIP

Christina Grumstrup Srensen, senior partner at CIP, said: "We are pleased to have achieved commercial operations, which is an important milestone. Construction was more challenging than expected however, we have always had a good cooperation with our EPC-contractors, advisors, authorities and the local community."They have all contributed to the successful completion of the project. We are delighted to see renewable power being generated based on locally sourced waste wood, and we look forward to a continued good cooperation with our project partners and the local community in the operations phase."Jimmy Morgan, senior vice president of B&W, said: "We are extremely pleased to provide Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners with industry leading, efficient and reliable biomass-to-energy technology that will provide needed power for the region and help to meet the UK's objectives for renewable energy generation."Tim Forrest, managing director at the Templeborough Biomass Power Plant, said: "I could not be more pleased to see the Templeborough project reach this important milestone. I would like to thank all involved for the dedication they have shown in getting here, and I look forward to a successful ongoing partnership with the Babcock & Wilcox Vlund operations team at this site." Rothbiz reported in October on plans for the Rotherham District Heating Network (RDHN) project which aims to harness the heat from the biomass plant and provide Rotherham town centre and key industrial energy-using areas of Rotherham with a low cost renewable choice for their heat source.
By SA Commercial Prop News

Co-operative Governance Minister Zweli Mkhize recommends Prepaid meters as a solution to Eskom's R24bn municipal debt



According to Co-operative Governance Minister Zweli Mkhize, Eskom was owed more than R24 billion by the end of December, up from R17 billion in July last year.

The Minister made the revelation in the national assembly on Wednesday while responding to oral questions from MPs.



Mkhize said one of the measures to tackle the nonpayment of electricity bills by municipalities, who in turn have complaints that some residents are not paying them, was to install prepaid electricity meters.



DA MP Kevin Mileham had asked Mkhize to explain what progress had been made by government's interministerial task team on the Eskom debt crisis.



"The debt owed by municipalities was R17.7bn as of July 31, and it's gone up to R24.3bn to December 31 2018. We made progress last year on the issue of the particular dispute between Salga [South African Local Government Association] and Eskom on the question of jurisdiction with regard to electricity reticulation," said Mkhize.

"To us it was quite an achievement to arrive at unanimity between Eskom and municipalities so we can adopt a binding, co-operative approach in resolving the municipal debt while avoiding court battles.



"It was agreed that there would be a need to restructure the Eskom debt and manage the defaulting municipalities so that all of them would honour their debt.



"We also have a recommendation on the installation of prepaid meters to improve the rate of collection, as evidence indicates that much higher returns accrue from prepaid meters as opposed to conventional meters."



Mileham said it was worrying that municipal debt to Eskom had shot up.



"That's not progress; that's going backwards, that's getting worse," he said.



With debt around R400bn, Eskom is scrambling for cash to meet its financial obligations and other operational costs.



Last month it received a R69bn allocation from finance minister Tito Mboweni during his budget speech.

Yesteday, South Africas energy regulator Nersa on Thursday granted struggling state power firm Eskom average power price increases that were far below what the utility had asked for, saying it aimed to balance the interests of the company and the public.

Eskom was granted a 9.4% tariff hike for this year along with an increase of 8.1% for 2020 followed by 5.2% the following year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday laid the foundation stone of the ambitious 'Kashi Vishwanath Mandir Vistarikaran-Saundarayakaran Yojana' (Kashi Vishwanath Temple Extension and Beautification Plan) here that would be rolled out in four phases.

He kick-started the Rs 600 crore project by putting some bricks with the name of the temple inscribed on it, in the presence of Governor Ram Naik, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Mahendra Nath Pandey.



Addressing a gathering at the ceremony, he said the area would be soon decongested and uncluttered, providing relief to the devotees.



The Prime Minister landed in Varanasi, his parliamentary constituency, earlier in the day in an Indian Air Force plane at the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport where he was received by Naik and Adityanath.





Officials told IANS that work will soon begin on the 40,000 square metre corridor.



Slamming previous governments in the state for delaying the project, Modi said that had the Samajwadi Party government cooperated, he would today be inaugurating the project rather than laying its foundation stone.



"Even Mahatma Gandhi raised the matter some 100 years back and had aired his thoughts on decongesting the area," he added.



The Prime Minister thanked those who shifted their houses to clear out the area so that the project could see the light of the day.



"For decades people were only concerned about themselves and when the demolition of the buildings surrounding the temple started, it was discovered that 40 temples had been taken over by the people," he noted.



Modi also requested the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) to take up the project as a case study.
San Diego is a biotech town, a military town, and a tourism town. Its not a software town, is it?

After years of stagnation, San Diego is seeing a barrage of startup activity in the tech scene. In recent months, two tech startups earned billion-dollar valuations, making them the first software unicorns spotted locally in decades. Seismic won the title in late December, while TuSimple  only 4 years old  reached unicorn status last month.

The news caps months of unusually high venture capital deals in local tech, with at least $320 million funneling into tech startups in less than three months. For context, tech companies only brought in $164 million combined for the first nine months of 2018. Once a ghost town for tech investors, San Diego just became home to two new VC groups: Blueprint Equity and Torrent Ventures. The region also piqued the interest of larger investor groups like PeakSpan Capital, which just closed a $265 million fund and has recently invested in six San Diego companies.

The bubbling activity is bewildering to some in the business community, who long ago acclimated to the idea that San Diego is a place where science rules supreme, while software tends to flounder. And its true the biotech industry still rakes in the lions share of venture money. But San Diegos tech scene is not what it used to be, and new players are coalescing into a hub with considerable speed.

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What is a tech unicorn?

A privately held startup valued at over $1 billion. Once as rare as a unicorn, sightings are increasingly common. There over 300 unicorns worldwide, roughly half of which are based in the US.

Why did San Diego miss the last train of tech unicorns

Theres no denying that this traction is new. When internet-age software took off in Silicon Valley, San Diego wasnt even trying to catch the train. Fast-moving startups like Uber and Airbnb built empires by merely taking existing businesses  taxis and hospitality, for example  and tailoring them for the smartphone age. Leveraging the explosion of mobile phones and cheap cloud computing, they ballooned from babies to giants in record time. And so a wave of tech startups followed suit, picking off low-hanging fruit by bringing the worlds old businesses online. Square tackled point-of-sale systems, Lending Club took banking, and so on.

In this wave of tech, San Diego largely didnt come out to play. Eric Otterson, whos been entrenched in local tech for the past two decades as managing director of Silicon Valley Bank, said the citys culture at the time was likely to blame. After the dot-com bust left technologists disillusioned, San Diego suffered an additional blow in the early 2000s  the implosion of Peregrine Systems, one of the citys most successful software companies at the time. Massive fraud charges crumbled the enterprise, and 1,400 people lost their jobs. Experienced engineers and upper management either ended up in Silicon Valley or at companies like Qualcomm and WebSense, where low-risk culture is king.

These are companies whose product lead time and criticality required six-sigma processes (no room for errors) and very low-risk cultures, said Otterson, managing director of Silicon Valley Bank. This was unlike the prevailing high-risk behavior in software companies up north, where the idea was to get the product out, then ask for forgiveness and upload a patch later.

Low-risk culture extends beyond San Diegos tech giants, though. The citys most established industries  life science and defense  are anything but fast moving. If Facebooks strategy is move fast and break things, San Diegos is something like: slow down, buddy ... and dont break anything.

San Diegos tech culture remained sluggish for a decade after Peregrines collapse, until the rise of ServiceNow. That company was one of the first to the software-as-a-service trend, and they grew fast as a result. But after raising more than $80 million in growth capital, the startup decided to relocate its headquarters to Silicon Valley.

The departure of ServiceNows executive team became a sore point among local tech entrepreneurs, who pointed to it as an illustration of San Diegos failure to support a unicorns growth.

When successful software companies died or moved, it was a big blow because there werent a lot of others to take their place, said Doug Winter, CEO of Seismic.

Today, ServiceNow is a public company with a $43 billion valuation. For context, San Diegos lauded tech giant Qualcomm is valued at $64 billion. Such successes are rare, and San Diego missed an opportunity to have a software anchor at home.

What changed in San Diego?

Over the past five years, however, the tech scene started to percolate. A group of ragtag software founders  many of whom were in their 20s and 30s  started a volunteer-led organization called Startup San Diego to try and rally a community around tech. Their first annual gathering only attracted a couple hundred people in 2012. Last year, however, theyd grown San Diego Startup Week to over 4,400 attendees.

Combine that with waves made by Mike Krenn, the popular president of San Diego Venture Group, since he took the job in 2014. As one of only two employees at the nonprofit, Krenn has launched multiple loud marketing campaigns to boost the technology brand of San Diego. He opened an office in the heart of San Franciscos business district and offered it up as a beachhead for San Diego entrepreneurs pitching VCs in the valley. The effort was backed by the City of San Diego with a $20,000 check.

And in 2016, Krenn launched a campaign to steal talented engineers from Silicon Valley, which included a digital billboard on one of the Bay Areas busiest (and most gridlocked) freeways. The sign baited technology workers with one-liners like Todays surf report: San Diego is better. Theres no way to measure how effective that campaign was at relocating tech talent to the region. However, the young venture capitalists at Blueprint Equity recently cited Krenns efforts as influential in their decision to locate a new $50 million tech fund in San Diego.

The support for a startup community in San Diego is mirroring local economies all over the globe, as cities attempt to replicate Silicon Valleys success. Startup Week events, for example, are popping up in every major city. But a series of events in San Diego primed the economy for a sudden uptick in startup growth.

Otterson points to a couple of timely layoffs at major companies like Qualcomm during 2015, which unloaded a pool of talent into the ecosystem.

A younger workforce started to think the risk of jumping out to do your own thing was comparatively more interesting, Otterson said. And with companies like WebSense and Active Network moving jobs out of the city, there was now a ready workforce of engineers to join them. Out of tech giants like Qualcomm and ServiceNow came the founders of some of San Diegos best-known startups: HouseCall, Netradyne, RockMyWorld, Dreamtsoft, Yembo, and many others.

These local catalysts had impeccable timing, however, and theres no doubt that macroeconomic factors played a huge part in San Diegos technology surge.

How macro forces shaped San Diegos tech scene

Layoffs at major tech corporations happened during a period of strong economic recovery. Unemployment is at an all-time low and knowledge workers  especially those working in technology and engineering  are in high demand. Its not scary to work for an unpredictable tech startup when job offers are piling up on LinkedIn. If the company goes under, workers can jump to the next opportunity.

The whole ecosystem throughout North America is very healthy, said Paul Barber, a tech venture capitalist at JMI Equity who invests in startups all over the country. Were seeing the lowest employment rate in 50 years, especially for those college-educated in tech.

The demand for workers has driven tech giants like Google, Amazon and Walmart to establish satellite offices in new cities, including San Diego.

For these companies to grow, they cant do everything in one location, Barber said. Theres not unlimited talent.

The expansion of these legacy companies into secondary markets like San Diego primes the city for startup growth, according to Winter, Barber, and Otterson.

The larger, experienced companies provide training that feeds the growing needs of our local companies, both for engineers and sales teams, Otterson said.

How advancements in technology played a role

Economic factors aside, the tech scenes growth in San Diego (and worldwide) has much to do with the evolution of software itself. Thanks to cloud technologies like Amazon Web Services, Microsofts Azure and IBM Cloud, companies are less expensive to get off the ground.

Those three things alone have virtually eliminated half our problem, said Jerrod Bennett, co-founder of Dreamtsoft and ex-ServiceNow architect. Even 15 years ago, you had to stand up whole data centers and server farms to get a product from ideation to prototype. And thats just the computers. Today, you can be a software entrepreneur with just a laptop.

This accessibility has democratized technology, allowing eager entrepreneurs in any city to get started on their ideas. From here, many seek growth capital from startup investors to fund their early development.

San Diegos dearth of VCs  especially in tech  is well-documented and a near-constant topic among local entrepreneurs. But even that is starting to change.

The success of Silicon Valley has created huge pressure on wages, housing and infrastructure, and many people dont want to be in that game, Barber said. The Bay Area is still thriving, but its success makes places like San Diego, Austin and Denver attractive because costs are lower there.

To be clear, San Diegos tech scene has a long way to go. It does not rival powerhouse cities like San Francisco or New York, nor is the local tech scene growing as rapidly as fledgling tech hubs like Austin. But as they say in business, you should only compare yourself to who you were yesterday. For San Diego, the traction in tech is a big leap from where the startup scene has been.

How to keep San Diegos momentum going

San Diego has two distinct advantages as a new startup city: its a nice place to live and its only a one-hour flight to San Francisco. In the Internet-age  in which software entrepreneurs can work and live anywhere  these factors matter.

When all the barriers to starting a company are broken down, all thats left is to ask ourselves is: where do we prefer to be? Bennett said. And San Diego ranks high on that list.

The citys pleasant weather was the cornerstone of a popular new campaign to attract millennial tech and science talent from competitor cities. The new campaign, paid for by the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp., targeted cities experiencing brutal winters this year, such as Boston and New York City.

But San Diego needs to do more than advertise the citys most obvious assets if it wants to keep up the momentum, Barber said. The citys business community should welcome outside companies like Apple and Google who are opening satellite locations in San Diego, and not disown companies like ServiceNow who moved their executive teams but maintain a large presence here.

Big companies of the future will be multi-site, Barber said. Whether their headquartered here or not isnt important anymore. We need these companies, because theyll hire and train entrepreneurs for the next 10 years. We should be welcoming them with open arms.

Winter added that business leaders should also start thinking of San Diego as more than a biotech town.

Software is the next big wave for the global economy in general, Winter said. If San Diego wants to stay near the front and be a great place to live, then we should be encouraging and nurturing the software industry. Just like you dont put all your money in one stock, a city should diversify its industries of focus.

brittany.meiling@sduniontribune.com 619-293-1286 Twitter: @BrittanyMeiling
Four developers will compete to build some form of budget lodging on Pacific Highway, with the goal of providing more affordable overnight accommodations near the water.

The Port of San Diego, which has faced criticism from the state Coastal Commission for the lack of lower priced lodging near San Diego Bay, solicited proposals in January for a variety of options  from a motel or hostel to a micro concept like ultra-small pod hotels  on a 3-acre site near its headquarters building.

Proposals were also supposed to include certain extra amenities like a kitchenette, free WiFi, laundry facilities, free parking and possibly shuttle service to the nearby airport.

Located between California and West Palm streets, the development site consists of a parking lot and a 10,000-square-foot portion of a port annex building.

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While the solicitation initially attracted the interest of dozens of potential bidders, just the four companies ultimately submitted formal proposals on Thursday, the deadline set by the port. Only one of them  Hotel Investment Group  is based in San Diego County.

The San Diego developer, whose portfolio includes a number of local mid-scale hotels, is partnering with San Diego-based Shiva Management Inc. on a proposal to build a five-story,199-room hotel on the Pacific Highway site, said Chief Operating Officer Darshan Patel. Among the companys San Diego hotels is the Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites in Mission Valley.

Patel said Thursday that his partners did not want to reveal any more details about the substance of their proposal. The port also did not make public the individual submissions. The agencys next step is to determine by next week whether all four of the proposals meet the ports development requirements.

Although staff hasnt completed its formal review, all four of the proposals seem to be responsive, said Penny Maus, department manager, real estate-business development.

She pointed out that because developing low-cost lodging is a niche market, the port is pleased with the response it got.

On some of our larger projects, we receive about an average of five proposals so to receive four is a big deal for us and the outreach we did across the country to promote the opportunity.

It is possible that San Diego port commissioners could make a decision by as early as May, Maus said.

One of the companies submitting a proposal was Boston-based Sleep Box, a 3-year-old firm that has created modular prefabricated rooms for sleeping. Most recently, it installed a micro hotel or nap lounge as its been called, consisting of 16 sound-insulated rooms in Terminal A at Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia.

Another bidder, the Santa Monica-based California Real Estate Regional Center, describes itself as an EB-5 hotel financier and developer, meaning that it takes advantage of foreign investment for its projects.

Representatives of three of the four bidders could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

As part of its request for proposals, the port is offering financial assistance amounting to more than $6 million in fees previously paid by two hotel developers in lieu of providing low-cost lodging as a part of their projects built near San Diego Bay.

The ultimate development of a low-cost motel or hotel may serve to mollify the California Coastal Commission, which has regularly pushed the San Diego Unified Port District to create more affordable options for overnight lodging near the coast.

The ports years-long tussle with the commission focused largely on Harbor Island, where there are plans to eventually build 500 hotel rooms  but with no low-cost lodging. The port ultimately sued the coastal agency, challenging its legal authority to require low-cost accommodations.

The commission prevailed last fall when a state appellate rejected a lower courts ruling that the Coastal Commission had overstepped its authority by requiring the provision of low-cost lodging as part of its consideration of a Harbor Island hotel proposal.

In pressing for more affordable accommodations, the Coastal Commission has pointed out previously that of the more than 8,000 overnight accommodations - most of those hotel rooms - that exist on port-controlled tidelands, less than 3 percent are considered lower cost. The only low-cost options the commission identified are 237 recreational vehicle sites at the Chula Vista RV Resort.

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lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-2251

Twitter: @loriweisberg
Oceansides first-ever climate action plan will go to the citys Planning Commission for an initial review Monday.

A recent requirement of the state, the plan helps guide local efforts to reduce waste, conserve energy and produce less of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

Strategies outlined in the document include promoting the use of electrical vehicles, increasing local water supplies and using more renewable energy. It also suggests smart growth policies that encourage the concentration of development in areas with easy access to public transportation, jobs, shopping and recreational opportunities.

Oceansides climate action plan will be an example for other cities to follow, said Russ Cunningham, the citys principal planner, on Thursday.

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We have been a vanguard city when it comes to renewable energy and energy efficiency, Cunningham said, and the plan will help continue that.

For example, for several years now methane gas burned at the citys wastewater treatment plant has produced electricity to help power the facility and contribute to the grid, he said.

Also, the city has retrofitted its streetlights to use low-energy LED lamps. It uses photovoltaic cells on municipal buildings, gets 25 percent of its water from local sources, and has one of the highest waste diversion rates in San Diego County.

The climate action plan is one of three important documents headed to the Planning Commission next week. The others are the draft economic development element and the draft energy and climate action element of the citys general plan.

Each of the documents is related, Cunningham said. The climate action plan will be part of the energy and climate element. Also, there are economic advantages to things such as energy efficiency and local sources of water and electricity.

Suggestions in the climate action plan may require an initial investment, but generally will provide long-term economic benefits.

There is a positive return, he said.

All three documents are scheduled to return to the Planning Commission for a public hearing and recommendation in April. Then the commissions suggested yeah or nay will be forwarded to the City Council, which is expected to make a final decision in May.

Once approved, all three elements will become part of the citys general plan, which is intended to be a sort of blueprint for growth over the next 15 to 20 years.

Other elements of the general plan cover subjects such as housing, land uses, traffic circulation and more.

Oceansides general plan was last updated in 2002, but some of its elements such as noise, public safety and land use have not been changed since the 1970s.

Still, a senior advisor at the California Strategic Growth Council in Sacramento said last week that Oceanside is more up-to-date than many cities.

Oceanside is a really good citizen in the landscape of this, said Suzanne Hague. For their region .. they are doing well.

Elements of the plan such as noise and public safety are relatively uncomplicated and less likely to be updated frequently, she said.

This is a very typical way of going about things, Hague said.

Housing and land-use elements of the plan are much more dynamic, with frequent changes required to meet the states rapidly growing population. Oceansides housing element was last updated in 2013, and the state has asked for another one by 2021.

The land-use element, which covers things such as zoning, has not been updated since 1988 and is another high priority for the city.

This is just the first phase of a comprehensive update of the general plan, Cunningham said.

A more current land-use element would help decide important issues such as the proposed North River Farms develop project thats scheduled to go to the City Council later this month.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehl
Sean Gallup/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Chelsea Manning, an anti-secrecy activist and former U.S. Army intelligence analyst whose release of classified information to WikiLeaks in 2010 sparked worldwide controversy over transparency in the military and whistleblower protections, was taken into custody at a federal court on Friday after a federal judge found her in contempt of court for refusing to answer questions before a secret grand jury.



In late January, Manning was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in a sealed case out of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia -- the same district in which the goverment recently inadvertently revealed the existence of a sealed indictment against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.



On Friday, after refusing to answer the grand jurys questions, a federal judge found her in contempt of court and ordered her to be held in jail until she decides to testify or until the grand jury concludes its work.



In a statement released earlier this week, Manning said she was prepared to face the consequences of her refusal to answer the panels questions.



A judge will consider the legal grounds for my refusal to answer questions in front of a grand jury, Manning said. The court may find me in contempt, and order me to jail.



In 2013, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the unauthorized disclosure of classified materials made public by WikiLeaks in 2010. The leaks included millions of diplomatic cables and a video from July 2007 of a U.S. helicopter in Baghdad firing on a group of civilians that killed two Reuters photographers and wounded two children.



Her sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in 2017.



This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.


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RUMBEK, SOUTH SUDAN, Mar. 8 (ChinaMil) -- Recently, the 9th Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment to South Sudan officially handed over the mission site in Rumbek to the Thai peacekeeping engineer company.

Wang Yanhui, deputy leader of the Rumbek Contingent, signed and exchanged the handover certificate with his Thai counterpart, in the witness of Prashant, deputy director of General Engineering Office of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

The Rumbek mission site is located more than 100 km southeast of the Wau Base Camp. In 2007, the 2nd Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment to Sudan (before disintegration) was deployed to Rumbek for the first time, mainly responsible for the building of roads, bridges, and protective shelters, as well as the construction of water supply, power supply and heating facilities in the mission area, along with engineering support for other peacekeeping forces in the combat zone.

Prashant said that construction projects completed by Chinese engineers have become a model for the UNMISS. You have improved the traffic conditions for the people around Rumbek and made outstanding contributions to the peace building of the UNMISS with diligence and wisdom, said Prashant.

Wang Yanhui said that after returning to the Wau Base Camp, the Chinese peacekeeping troops will continue to fulfill their mission and support the peace and development of South Sudan.

Chinese engineers have set a standard for us in various engineering support tasks. In the future, we will look to Chinese engineers and complete projects that can win praise from our neighboring peacekeeping forces," commander of the Thai peacekeeping engineer company said.

It is reported that since the contingent of 9th Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment to South Sudan was deployed to the Rumbek mission site, it has successively upgraded security defense facilities for the United Nation (UN) camp, built airport roads, hardened camp roads and repaired 150 km of roads. Among them, a number of projects were rated as Excellent Infrastructure Projects by the UNMISS.
A Chula Vista police officer is suing the city because it has refused to pay his sick dogs veterinarian bills.

Officer Curtis Chancellor, a dog handler with the police department, claims his canine partner Griffen contracted a deadly infection while being boarded in a city-contracted facility and passed that infection to the family pet, Chewie.

Chula Vista then refused to pay Chewies vet bills after the dog showed symptoms for the infection, according to a lawsuit filed last month in San Diego Superior Court.

Griffen was euthanized in March after the infection got so painful that the 7-year-old Belgian Malinois showed signs of severe pain and the inability to move his neck, according to court documents.

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At the time, the police department said Griffen passed away peacefully from an unfortunate medical condition.

At the request of a specialist, Chancellor tested Chewie. Results showed the family pet had a fever and showed symptoms of the same infection that killed Griffen.

Chancellors lawsuit alleges that the police department paid for the initial testing, but refused to pay for anything else after Chewie showed symptoms of the infection, leaving the police officer to pay more than $1,700 out of pocket.

My family and I not only had to cope with the loss of my best friend, partner, and pet, but the stress of caring for a sick pet, multiple trips to the vet and possibly losing her like we did Griffen, the lawsuit states.

The city said it is evaluating the lawsuit and declined to comment.

Chancellor also declined to comment.

Chancellor was initially reluctant to file a lawsuit because he and his wife are both city employees. However, they want to prevent this from happening to other people, according to the lawsuit.

Both my wife and I work for the city and are appalled that it has come to this, the complaint states. No one should have to go through a situation such as this, and we hope the judge will make a ruling that discourages the city from putting another family through this.

Chancellor originally filed a notice of claim against Chula Vista in November. However, the city rejected that claim because it had been submitted after the six-month deadline from the date of the incident.

However, the lawsuit argues that Chula Vista notified Chancellor of the discontinued payment in May which is within the six-month deadline.

Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or Twitter
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday met with a small group of residents in San Ysidro who dismissed the notion that their border community is facing a crisis that stems from illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

The arranged get-together at a small restaurant was an apparent response to President Donald Trumps recent declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Senate next week is set to vote on a resolution that would block the declaration, which is intended to secure funds to construct a border wall Trump promised during his campaign.

Some of Trumps efforts to beef up security at the border already have played out in San Ysidro, a community of roughly 30,000 residents that lies along the busiest land border crossing in the Western Hemisphere. It was the site where the Trump administration sent more than 1,000 troops and repeatedly closed the Port of Entry in response to a flow of migrants who arrived at the border in Tijuana to request asylum from the U.S. late last year.

All the while, San Ysidro residents felt the impacts, growing uneasy about the Trump administrations dramatic response to an issue they said was overstated.

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When it comes to border issues, the folks that live it understand it at a completely different level, and yet we pay lip service to that, Newsom said Thursday in San Ysidro. We allow politicians with political agendas to advance the debate.

Newsom has accused Trump of manufacturing a crisis and declaring a made-up national emergency in order to seize power and subvert the constitution.

Trump has portrayed the border as an entry way for a massive influx of criminals and drugs, often without much evidence to back up his assertions.

Were talking about an invasion of our country with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs, Trump said during a speech in which he declared the national emergency on Feb. 15.

On Thursday Newsom told the group he wanted to shed light on life, community here at the border, saying its a topic that gets lost in the national debate on border issues.

And he wanted to directly ask those who live on the border: Is there a national emergency as Trump has insisted?

Theres no crisis at the border, said Monica Hernandez, a health care patient navigator and assistant researcher who was born and raised in San Ysidro.

Seated around coffee tables in El Rincon Restaurante on San Ysidro Boulevard, just a mile away from the border, the group dismissed Trumps notion that there is a national emergency at the border.

She and other residents told Newsom, who listened for most of the 35-minute conversation, about the ways in which their everyday lives have been affected by the Trump administrations policies and rhetoric of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Luz Camacho, 65, who grew up intermittently between Tijuana and San Ysidro, said a long-standing sense of freedom in the bi-national region has vanished as a result of the Trump administrations actions.

I used to feel free, she said. Since the declaration of an emergency, and the atmosphere of hate  theres no other way to put it, everything has changed. And its making us feel vulnerable.

Hernandez said Trumps rhetoric has given rise to a sense of hate, division and social vigilantism.

She described the Trump administrations response at the border as an unnecessary show of force. Others residents described the response as militarization.

Its a waste of resources, Hernandez said.

The group pointed to other issues they characterized as real crises at the state and local level, including wildfires, a lack of affordable housing, cross-border sewage pollution and poor air quality in communities near the border.

Residents also said the series of closures in the past year at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, which many of them use to visit family or run errands such as shopping, has left them with a sense of concern that traveling to and from Tijuana could leave them stranded if the crossing is shut down again.

One resident, Guillermo Cornejo, said he was in Tijuana in one instance in which the crossing was closed.

Camacho said her parents  naturalized U.S. citizens who live in Tijuana  were forced to cancel medical appointments in the U.S.

What this ends up being is another form of separation of families, Hernandez said.

Then there are the impacts of the border closures on the local economy, said Edgar Alaniz, whose family owns the restaurant where the group met with Newsom. According to the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce, businesses lost an estimated $5.3 million in sales during a border shutdown on Nov. 25.

Newsoms visit drew criticism from the Republican Party of San Diego County, which issued a statement that characterized the trip as a political move.

We challenge the governor to make his arguments to the faces of angel families and those whose children have been trafficked or hooked on drugs due to the criminal gangs which use our border for their evil deeds, Chairman Tony Krvaric said.

Angel families refers to relatives of victims killed by immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

Outside the restaurant, a small group of protesters held signs that called on Newsom to not raise taxes and put Americas homeless first.

Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez
Sometimes people leave you / Halfway through the wood.

 No One is Alone, from Into the Woods

In the fall of 1986, the musical Into the Woods had its world premiere at San Diegos Old Globe Theatre. Halfway through the shows run, its composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, added a new song about finding comfort amid great loss: No One Is Alone, which would become a signature of the piece on Broadway and beyond.

Nearly 20 years later, when Into the Woods was staged for the first time at Canadas renowned Stratford Festival, Britta Johnson went to see the production.

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Then the 13-year-old went again. And again. And again.

She was there, in a sense, because someone else wasnt: Her own father, a musician and composer who, along with Johnsons mom, had been a longtime regular in the Stratford orchestra pit.

That was the first show my dad didnt play, Johnson says now, her voice growing soft as she talks in a conference room at the Globe before a rehearsal of Life After, her own new musical. He had passed away.

And I went to see it, like, 16 times, because I didnt realize musicals could do that  the simplicity of such complicated truths, about community and about loss, and connection.

I felt so seen in my grief in that show.

It would be easy to say, given the storyline of Life After, that its U.S. premiere here represents a kind of full-circle moment for Johnson: After all, her own musical centers on a teen-age girl who has just lost her father.

And the rising young composer-lyricist-writer, who grew up in Stratford, acknowledges shes so excited to be here because this is where Into the Woods started, at the Globe.

But the full story, like a whole lot of things in life and in theater, is a bit more complicated than that.

For one thing, Johnson is quick to add that Life After  whose director is the Globes artistic chief, Barry Edelstein  is not meant to be autobiographical by any measure.

Our familys story is very different from this one, says the writer, whose sister Anika is serving as a dramaturg on the Globe production (and played the central character, Alice, in a 2016 Toronto Fringe Festival version of the work).

It certainly is inspired by (our experiences). Similar to our lead character, a big part of my coming-of-age was grief, because that was the chapter of my life I was in when my father passed away.

The fact that is part of my story helped me find how the music sounds, how it feels, the sort of texture of it. But the literal story isnt mine.

There is another connection of sorts, though, between Life After and Into the Woods. Johnsons songwriting has more than once been compared to that of Sondheim  particularly after Life After had its high-profile, warmly received world premiere in 2017 in Toronto.

Director and Old Globe artistic chief Barry Edelstein works with actors Sophie Hearn and Bradley Dean during rehearsals for Life After. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Director Edelstein likewise perceives at least an indirect link to Sondheim (as well as to such artists as the French composer Debussy) in the oceanic quality thats just deep and rich in Johnsons compositions.

There is a sound  I will call it a kind of post-Sondheim sound  that characterizes the contemporary musical theater, as Edelstein puts it. And there is a universe of colors around that, that all in some way feel attached to Sondheim as this, I dont know, originating force.

Brittas got her own voice  theres nothing particularly Sondheim-like about this score. And yet, its in a continuum that starts there.

Theres just a sense of wit, think. Theres wit in the lyrics, and a sense of sophistication in the wordplay, that one associates with Sondheim, and that I really appreciate about Brittas work as well.

The observation leaves Johnson momentarily at a loss for words.

I mean, I love hearing that, she finally says with a laugh. I always just try to let the music tell the story that were telling. And this story is one in which I think grief is oceanic.

I did listen to a lot of Debussy when I was working on it  the way it moves, the way it can change so quickly. And Sondheim, you know, changed my world.

I grew up watching so many musicals because it was just what my family did. But I never felt particularly connected to them  until Woods came into her life.

Looking for answers

As the cast of Life After launches into a scene in rehearsal a bit later the same day, Sophie Hearn, who plays Alice, runs frantic circles through snow flurries  or what will be snow flurries when the show hits the Globe stage.

The anguished girl is on quest to figure out what was going on with her dad before he died suddenly, leaving her to puzzle out one final, haunting voicemail.

The father (played by Bradley Dean) was a famous motivational speaker  a choice that Johnson says had partly to do with presenting the character as someone who the world has access to, and who Alice in this moment  especially after losing him  cant find access to.

She explains that on some level this show is about the way people cope, and about this young person becoming acquainted with the many ways adults cope, which is different (from hers).

Johnson adds that the whole piece kind of exists in the mind of this young woman  it exists in her imagination.

Cast members (from left) Mackenzie Warren, Ximone Rose, Emma Stratton, Bradley Dean (behind screen), Sophie Hearn (seated), Danyelle Williamson (behind screen), Mamie Parris and Charlotte Mary Wen rehearse a scene. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune)

That has remained true even as the piece has grown in scale to what now is by far its biggest production.

Its been slowly growing since its inception, Johnson says. I started working on it when I was 19. It was at a theater festival for young artists.

Then it was just on music stands (as a staged reading), and then we did it at the Toronto Fringe. Just bare-bones, with me on piano.

Even in its subsequent move to a 250-seat theater in Canada, it was a bare-bones production  it was very much about the movement and music.

Now, at the Globe, doing it on this scale has really been exciting, Johnson says. And seeing that it perhaps can work for a stage this big is very empowering and exciting for me.

On top of that, Stratford reminds me very much of the Globe, Johnson says. Theres something that feels very much like home about this place  the Shakespeare in the air, perhaps.

Edelstein cant help but marvel at the artists who have signed on to be part of this new piece by a still relatively little-known artist: Besides the Broadway-seasoned actors in the cast, the creative team includes such top talents as set designer Neil Patel, lighting designer Japhy Weideman and costumer Linda Cho.

You know, Id love the Globe to claim as much credit as possible, Edelstein says. But I dont think thats the full story.

The full story is the piece itself. It has a kind of power to it and a richness to it that, when you put it in front of an artist, they see something true in it, and want to be part of it.

I cant tell you how many actors who came in and auditioned, even people who didnt end up being cast, would say to us, This material is extraordinary. That just doesnt happen all the time: Wow, I heard something in here, and I wanted to be part of it.

And weve all had that experience  everybody whos working on it.

For Johnson, having worked with so many amazing collaborators on (the show), the colors have gotten richer. The palette, the detail, is what has come into focus.

I feel as though I had the foundation of a house, and then a lot of people have come and helped me build the walls and choose the furniture.

And so much of it seems to go back to those days as a teen-ager with a hole in her heart, sitting in the dark and seeing some much-needed light in a musical about trying to move on from heartache.

I think that is a thing musicals can do, is to take a world of feeling, and within a song make it so clear and simple, Johnson says.

Like it has always existed.

Life After

When: Previews begin March 22. Opens March 29. 7 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. (Check with theater for exceptions.) Through April 28.

Where: Old Globe Theatres Shiley Stage, Balboa Park

Tickets: About $34-$106 (discounts available)

Phone: (619) 234-5623

Online: theoldglobe.org

jim.hebert@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @jimhebert
El Monte school officials had warning signs that Richard Paul Daniels was having inappropriate interactions with the girls in his high school classes  he even had a conviction for it  but they failed to take decisive action that would have prevented him from having sex with a student in 2015.

Those mistakes and others caught up to the El Monte Union High School District on Thursday, when a Los Angeles jury ordered the school system to pay $2 million in damages.

The El Monte district serves about 9,000 high school students in the city of El Monte, located in the San Gabriel Valley, east of downtown L.A.

When Daniels was arrested in 2015, he already had a record of misconduct with students from 2004. He had pleaded guilty to one count of battery after originally being charged with one count of a lewd act on a child and three counts of misdemeanor child annoying or molestation.

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The victims were students in his freshman class, said attorney Michael Carrillo, part of a team that pursued the lawsuit against the school system.

In April 2005, Daniels was sentenced to three years probation and 30 days of community service, according to the Los Angeles County district attorneys office. The teacher also had to enroll in classes to help him overcome his sexual compulsions, take an HIV test and complete an AIDS education class, Carrillo said.

Richard Paul Daniels (El Monte Police)

El Monte officials concluded that he could continue his teaching career, but they had to transfer him to another school because he had a restraining order related to the case ordering him to keep his distance from four alleged victims as well as from the campus itself, Carrillo said.

Daniels transferred from Mountain View High School to Arroyo High School, according to a trial brief. There, in 2013, Daniels began grooming another student for abuse, kissing and fondling her, according to court records, and in 2015 the relationship became sexual.

The girls mother discovered and reported what was going on after determining that Daniels was the person calling and sending a flood of texts to her daughter, Carrillo said.

Daniels, a Fontana man in his 50s, eventually pleaded no contest to a felony count of performing a lewd act on a minor. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

We are very grateful the jury believed our client and recognized that school administrators failed miserably to prevent this predator from hurting students, Carrillo said. We hope this verdict is a wake-up call for the district that they need to do a better job of protecting kids.

An attorney representing the district, Dana John McCune, made a brief statement when reached Friday.

I offered $3.2 million before trial, he said. They wanted $7 million. I dont necessarily disagree with the jurys findings. You saw what the verdict was.

McCune declined to answer further questions.

El Monte Supt. Edward Zuniga subsequently sent out a statement saying that the school system places the highest priority on student safety and is deeply committed to fostering positive learning environments. We do not tolerate any behavior that compromises the security of our students.

As this civil complaint comes to a resolution, he added. We will continue to take all accusations of misconduct seriously and will work with the proper authorities to ensure our campuses and students remain safe.

In total, the jury awarded $5 million in damages. The districts share is $2 million based on a finding that a principal and assistant principal were 40% at fault for what happened.

In their arguments, attorneys for the victim contended that the school system had ample warning signs and evidence of misconduct before the 2004 case, additional ongoing issues after the first conviction and direct knowledge of improper interactions with the student whom Daniels maneuvered into a sexual relationship.

According to Carrillo and court documents, Daniels would frequently be alone with female students behind his locked classroom door, and he was widely known for embracing girls, rubbing their backs and touching them in other ways. He also was accused of driving the victim around in his car without appropriate permission.

School districts assert that in recent years they have tightened their policies for conduct and for reporting possible misconduct. But in 2004, when Daniels first came under scrutiny, school districts  including L.A. Unified  were dangerously inconsistent in how they handled allegations of sexual misconduct against employees. Many times, allegations were handled quickly and properly. But some incidents were not reported. At other times, too much responsibility was left with police and prosecutors.

If a school employee was not convicted of a crime that would mandate dismissal, that employee was sometimes returned to work without adequate internal review.

howard.blume@latimes.com

Twitter: @howardblume
Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Friday, March 8, and heres whats happening across California:

TOP STORIES

Late one night last September, a party for Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies was winding down. New deputies working in East L.A. were celebrating their success completing a probationary period and their status as full-fledged members of the Sheriffs Department. But the gathering took on an ominous turn when several older deputies showed up. According to legal claims filed against the county Thursday by seven deputies, the men belonged to the Banditos, a clique of deputies whose members are alleged to routinely harass young Latino officers at the station and to mark their membership with matching tattoos of a skeleton with a sombrero, bandolier and pistol. Los Angeles Times

The cost of community colleges

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A study released Thursday by the Hope Center, a research and policy institute, found that 19% of Californias 2.1 million community college students have been homeless during the past year. The survey is the most comprehensive yet done on food and housing insecurity in California community colleges, and included more than 40,000 students across 57 campuses. It echoes earlier findings that 1 in 5 community college students in Los Angeles is without stable shelter. The study also found that 60% of students in the survey were housing insecure in the past year, with 17% of those eventually falling into the homeless group. Los Angeles Times

Plus: The University of California has announced that it will not raise tuition for California students this fall, but it has not ruled out increases for students from other states and countries. Los Angeles Times

Continuing to wipe the slate clean

A week after San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascon moved to wipe out thousands of marijuana convictions dating back decades, he announced his support for a bill that would clear old arrest and conviction records for defendants statewide. The measure is intended to open a pathway to housing, education and new employment opportunities for millions of Californians who have been excluded because of old arrests or convictions still listed on their rap sheets. Los Angeles Times

Get the Essential California newsletter 

L.A. STORIES

Never forget: Eva Schloss, stepsister and childhood friend of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank, spoke with a group of Newport Harbor High School students, including some who had attended a party that saw students giving Nazi salutes as they stood by cups arranged in the shape of a swastika while playing a variation of beer pong. Los Angeles Times

Hollywood scandal: WarnerMedias handling of the sex scandal involving the head of its Warner Bros. studio, Kevin Tsujihara, is raising fresh questions about how much the company knew of his alleged extramarital affair with an aspiring actress  and whether she was given small movie roles to keep quiet. Los Angeles Times

Those crazy photos: A photographer captured some amazing lightning photos  and risked getting zapped himself. Los Angeles Times

A time exposure captures a series of lightning strikes in Santa Barbara. (Mike Eliason / Santa Barbara County Fire Department)

Their bad season: On a night when Lakers fans should celebrate LeBron James feat, it feels awfully gloomy. Los Angeles Times

Dont forget your TAP card: Captain Marvel takes LA Metro, but shes not the first movie hero to go for a ride. LAist

IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER

This may be unprecedented: As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether the Trump administration can ask people if they are citizens on the 2020 Census, the Census Bureau is quietly seeking comprehensive information about the legal status of millions of immigrants. Associated Press

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Flashback Friday: Remembering the crime-lab scandal that rocked Kamala Harris term as San Francisco district attorney. Washington Post

CRIME AND COURTS

Oops: An Oakland school got a $2.8-million gift of Chinese paintings. Turns out they were fake. Los Angeles Times

Good question: Palm Spring police went undercover and posed as inmates to secretly collect evidence against a quadruple-homicide suspect. Is that legal? Desert Sun

THE ENVIRONMENT

Wow: Watch this Southern California pair of bald eagles fuss over their newly laid egg. Los Angeles Times

Water wars: The Trump administration has ordered federal biologists to speed up critical decisions about whether to send more water from Northern California to farmers in the Central Valley, a move that critics say threatens the integrity of the science and cuts the public out of the process. KQED

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Great story: How did singer-songwriter Kehlani prep for motherhood? By calling her friends and making music. Los Angeles Times

LAT FOB! Chelsea Clinton, Dave Barry, Roxane Gay, Erica Jong and Susan Orlean are among the writers set to appear at the Los Angeles Times 24th annual Festival of Books, it was announced Thursday. The two-day event, the countrys largest literary festival, will be held April 13 and 14 at USC. Organizers expect 150,000 visitors to attend the festival. Los Angeles Times

Coming soon, sort of: Star Wars: Galaxys Edge, the ambitious 14-acre expansion coming to Disneyland this year, is opening earlier than expected  with a catch. Los Angeles Times

Great essay from columnist Carolina Miranda: Before California was West, it was North and it was East: the uppermost periphery of the Mexican Empire, and the arrival point for Chinese immigrants making the perilous journey from Guangdong. Guernica

$$$: Bryce Harper will save tens of millions in taxes by spurning the Dodgers and Giants. Los Angeles Times

$$$, Part 2: Thousands of new millionaires are about to eat San Francisco alive. New York Times

Destination unknown: Lyfts IPO disclosure shows its not close to profitability and has no good way to get there. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles area: partly cloudy, 60, Friday and Saturday. San Diego: partly cloudy, 59, Friday; cloudy, 59, Saturday. San Francisco area: partly cloudy, 52, Friday; rainy, 52, Saturday. San Jose: partly cloudy, 54, Friday; showers, 54, Saturday. Sacramento: partly cloudy, 55, Friday; showers, 54, Saturday. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Todays California memory comes from Carol Colin:

When I was 18, I rode a bus south with fellow students from the Portland Museum Art School to see a Georgia OKeeffe show in S.F. I vividly remember sunshine the first morning and the clamor and smells of the brilliant city. We walked, exhilarated, for about 36 hours, ending up at City Lights Books. Across the entrance of the Vesuvius bar we saw a sign: We are itching to get out of Portland, Oregon. Three or four of us burst through the door proclaiming, WERE from Portland, Oregon! The bartender may have looked up, but nobody else did.

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.
San Diego Comic Fest, which this weekend concludes its seventh annual run, features heavyweight pop culture talent like San Diego Comic-Con  without attracting the Cons Tokyo-subway-at-rush-hour mob.

How does this happen?

We dont invite actors as guests, said Mike Towry, the Fests creator. Were targeting people who like comics and like animation and like science fiction, so we focus on writers and artists and animators. Not the people who show up in movie screens.

Even without Hollywood spectacle, the Fest literally aims high  this years theme is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Speakers include Burcin Mutlu-Pakdil, a University of Arizona astrophysicist whose team discovered a new galaxy; and Roger Freedman, a University of California Santa Barbara professor of physics and astronomy who moonlights at a comic book letterer.

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There are down-to-earth celebrities, too. Towry, who 50 years ago helped organize the first Comic-Con, is especially excited to welcome the Fests special guest. Sergio Aragones, 81, will appear on a panel at noon today.

A lot of people regard him as the worlds greatest living cartoonist, said Towry. Theres his long history with Mad magazine going back to the 1950s.

Also on the schedule are sneak peaks at San Diegos upcoming Comic-Con Museum, plus appearances by Disney animators, science fiction novelists, female underground cartoonists, editorial cartoonists, comic book publishers and artists from such exotic locales as Mexico, Japan and Los Angeles.

As at previous Fests, comic book characters will be drawn into a mock trial. This year, jurors will decide if Arkham Asylum violated the civil rights of a Batman foe, Harvey Two Face Dent.

Its a well-rounded program, said Towry, who predicts the Fest will attract about 2,000 guests.

The Fest is at Four Points Sheraton, 8111 Aero Drive, San Diego. Admission for Saturday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., ranges from $12.50 to $25. On Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., prices are $7.50 to $15.

Both days, children up to the age of 12 are admitted free if accompanied by a paying adult.

The Fests complete schedule is at sdcomicfest.org.
The Pentagon is planning to tap $1 billion in leftover funds from military pay and pension accounts to help President Donald Trump pay for his long-sought border wall, a top Senate Democrat said Thursday.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told The Associated Press, Its coming out of military pay and pensions. $1 billion. Thats the plan.

Durbin said the funds are available because Army recruitment is down and a voluntary early military retirement program is being underutilized.

The development comes as Pentagon officials are seeking to minimize the amount of wall money that would come from military construction projects that are so cherished by lawmakers.

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Durbin said, Imagine the Democrats making that proposal  that for whatever our project is, were going to cut military pay and pensions.

Durbin, the top Democrat on the Appropriations panel for the Pentagon, was among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who met with Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Thursday morning.

The Pentagon is planning to transfer money from various accounts into a fund dedicated to drug interdiction, with the money then slated to be redirected for border barriers and other purposes.

More attention has been paid to Trumps declaration of a national emergency to tap up to $3.6 billion from military construction projects to pay for the wall. The Democratic-controlled House voted last month to reject Trumps move, and the GOP-held Senate is likely to follow suit next week despite a White House lobbying push.

Senate Republicans met again Wednesday to sort through their options in hopes of making next weeks voting more politically palatable. They are struggling to come up with an alternative to simply voting up or down on the House measure as required under a never-used Senate procedure to reject a presidential emergency declaration. Lawmakers in both parties believe Trump is inappropriately infringing on Congress power of the purse.

Senators are increasingly uneasy ahead of voting next week because they dont know exactly where the money to build the wall will come from and if it will postpone military projects in their home states.

Vice President Mike Pence told senators during their meeting a week ago that he would get back to them with an update. But senators said they dont yet have a response from the administration.

Its a concern, said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. He said a number of senators have been talking to the White House about other ways the administration could shuffle the money without relying on the authority under the emergency declaration, which is likely to become tied up in litigation.

The pitch is, Why have this additional controversy when it could be done in a less controversial way? he said. Apparently, the White House is not persuaded.

The Army missed its recruiting goal this year, falling short by about 6,500 soldiers, despite pouring an extra $200 million into bonuses and approving some additional waivers for bad conduct or health issues.

Congress also appropriated money to give members of the military incentive to take early retirement, but enrollment in the program is coming in well under expectations.

This is pay that would have gone to Army recruits that we cant recruit, Durbin said. So theres a savings because we cant recruit. The other part was they offered a voluntary change in military pensions, and they overestimated how many people would sign up for it.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Authorities are searching for a 19-year-old man who escaped from jail in Rancho Cucamonga Thursday afternoon.

Mario Abraham Tafoya escaped the West Valley Detention Center about 3:20 p.m. and was last seen running northeast near Etiwanda Avenue and 6th Street, the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department said.

Tafoya was arrested in January on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and evading police. Investigators said hes known to visit San Bernardino, Redlands and Highland.

Tafoya was described as a Latino man with brown hair, green eyes and face tattoos. He is 5 feet 6, weighs about 150 pounds and was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and no shoes.

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Authorities warned the public not to contact Tafoya, whom they consider dangerous. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is urged to call 911.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek
A week after San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascon moved to wipe out thousands of marijuana convictions dating back decades, he announced Thursday his support for a bill that would clear old arrest and conviction records for defendants statewide.

The measure is intended to open up a pathway to housing, education and new employment opportunities for millions of Californians who have been excluded because of old arrests or convictions for certain offenses still listed on their rap sheets.

Its a way to get people out of the paper prison they get sucked into once they have an arrest record or conviction, Gascon said. When you remove the ability for people to participate fully in their community  employment, housing, education, other activities  you marginalize them until theyre left with no hope.

Without hope, theyre more likely to create crimes in that very same community, and what were trying to do is reduce the chance of recidivizing.

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The bill, AB 1076, introduced by Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) in February, would mandate that the state Department of Justice automatically clear records of arrests that did not result in a conviction after the statute of limitations has passed, as well as convictions involving probation and jail once an offenders sentence was completed. Anyone who has to register as a sex offender or has violated their probation would not be eligible.

Most of the records eligible involve drugs or property crimes, officials said. People who committed crimes that ended with a state prison sentence  not in a local jail  would have to go through the process that currently exists to receive a certificate of rehabilitation.

The bill would affect some 380,000 people currently incarcerated for crimes or awaiting trial and the millions more eligible going back in time, officials said. About 8 million Californians have criminal convictions on their records.

The whole point is they paid their debt, they served their time. Once they get out they should be able to start over, Ting said. Once theyre out, why should they continue to suffer?

An individuals arrest record and criminal past would still be accessible to law enforcement and certain other agencies but would not be available to landlords or employers, among others, conducting background checks. That means, outside specific exclusions listed in state code, individuals would not have to answer yes to having previous arrests or convictions when filling out a job or housing application if they were never convicted or already completed their sentence.

About 90% of employers, 80% of landlords and 60% of colleges screen criminal records, Tings office said. Three-quarters of individuals with criminal convictions report job or housing instability, and the process to clear ones record is notoriously costly and complicated.

Jay Jordan was one of those who struggled to get back on his feet despite having a plan for his life on the outside. Jordan, 33, served time in jail and prison on auto theft and robbery convictions before he was released in 2012.

We all do this. Everyone around me with a date [of release] was doing the same thing. We create plans, very detailed plans, Jordan said with a laugh. I wanted to sell used cars for residual income, sell vending machines. I had it down even to the taxes I was going to have to pay.

But Jordan said he didnt qualify for any of those professions because of his record. He ended up working at a temporary employment agency alongside other former inmates, he said, where he injured himself and was then fired after missing work.

Here I was, trying to do the right thing, trying to do a job that gives me a livable wage, and I get fired for getting hurt, Jordan said. I didnt have any workers rights, and I realized very rapidly that something was inherently wrong with this system.

He ended up joining a nonprofit organization and now pushes for criminal justice reform as the director of the Second Chance project with Californians for Safety and Justice.

Wheres the opportunity for the people out there trying hard to get a job? Jordan said. Working hard to take care of their families and at every single corner theyre [told], You cant do this for the rest of your life. You cant do that for the rest of your life.

Jordans prison sentence for robbery was not eligible to be cleared, but time he spent in jail for auto theft was, authorities said.

If passed, the bill would take effect Jan. 1, 2021. The extended lead time between its introduction and its implementation would allow the Department of Justice to set up the automated process that the bill would require, Ting said. A previous attempt to get the state to proactively clear peoples records through the courts was too labor-intensive and costly, Ting said. The costs to automate the record-clearing process have not yet been determined.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.
By Huang Yaohui



A Cambodian army soldier looks at Chinese military vehicles displayed before a handover ceremony at a military airbase in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

PHNOM PENH, Mar. 8 (ChinaMil) -- About 200 Chinese military members arrived in Cambodia on Thursday to participate in the 15-day joint exercise Golden Dragon 2019 held by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF).

China and Cambodia have agreed to hold a joint exercise on the theme of joint anti-terrorism training and humanitarian relief in Kampot Province of Cambodia from March 10 to 27, aiming to strengthen the traditional friendship and improve the joint anti-terrorist capacities between the two armed forces. The exercise consists of three parts, specialized mixed training, humanitarian rescue mission, and comprehensive drill. The exercise involves use of anti-terrorism equipment, live-fire shooting of light weapons, airborne penetration, room clearing action, as well as searching, tracing and clearing operations.

The exercise will involve more than 700 troops from both sides. The Chinese participants mainly come from the PLA 74th Group Army. The participants will exercise with over 40 pieces of training equipment including helicopters, infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and firepower assault vehicles. It is reported that the maritime transport echelon and helicopter echelon have arrived in Cambodia before March 8.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Liu Gui, captain of the Chinese anti-terrorist team, the Chinese participating troops had conducted a three-week intensive training prior to the joint exercise at a training base in Qingyuan, southern Chinas Guangdong Province. The intensive training covered live-fire shooting, parachute and fast-roping landing, anti-terrorism operations command and other subjects.

It is reported that this is the third time for China and Cambodia to hold Golden Dragon series of exercises. It is an important exchange activity between the two armed forces in 2019 and is of great significance for enhancing exchanges and cooperation between the two countries and militaries.
A San Diego federal judge on Thursday dismissed two lawsuits over an El Cajon police officers controversial shooting of a black man in 2016 that sparked numerous street protests.

The judge granted a request by the city of El Cajon and Officer Richard Gonsalves for summary judgment, or dismissal, of the cases filed by Alfred Olangos wife and father.

However, the judge was not without criticism of the officers use of deadly force.

The Court has grave concerns about how the officers handled this situation in its totality, U.S. District Court Judge Cynthia Bashant wrote. Olango had not put anyone in danger but himself.

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Olango, 38, was fatally shot by Gonsalves on Sept. 27, 2016, after Olangos sister, Lucy Olango, called police for help with her mentally distraught brother.

Alfred Olango (Courtesy of family)

The last moments of the encounter between Alfred Olango, Gonsalves and Officer Josh McDaniel in a taco shop parking lot at Broadway and Mollison Avenue were caught on surveillance cameras.

Footage showed the officers closing in on Olango, who then raised his two hands together, shoulder high, clutching a silver vaping device. His legs were spread in what authorities called a shooting stance.

The officers have said they believed he held a gun. McDaniel fired his Taser while Gonsalves fired four rounds from his gun, hitting Olango in the chest, upper back, neck and arm. Olango died in the hospital from massive bleeding.

The shooting sent hundreds of protesters into the streets for weeks, with calls for justice and firing of the officers. The District Attorneys Office found the shooting justified.

Olangos death came in the wake of a string of police shootings of black men, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La. The Black Lives Matter movement voiced concerns, as did the Rev. Al Sharptons National Action Network.

In her ruling on the local case, the judge found that Gonsalves may have used excessive force, but is entitled to qualified immunity against civil damages since he was not on notice that his conduct would clearly violate any law under the Constitution.

She also found that the officer did not fire the fatal rounds in deliberate indifference to Fourteenth Amendment rights of due process.

The evidence only shows the shooting was done due to a belief of necessary self-defense, a legitimate law enforcement objective, Bashant wrote.

The cases filed by Olangos wife, Taina Rozier, and his father, Richard Olango Abuka, were consolidated in federal court.

Protesters faced off with El Cajon police and sheriffs deputies after the 2016 fatal police shooting of Alfred Olango. (John Gibbins/San Diego Union-Tribune)

Both plaintiffs originally sued both Gonsalves and the city of El Cajon, but the judge dismissed Abukas case against the city in 2017.

Her ruling has no effect on separate lawsuits filed by Rozier and Abuka in San Diego Superior Court. Roziers attorney, Brian T. Dunn, said she has a state court trial date in June.

Were not surprised by the ruling (today), Dunn said. Its a unique situation. Were confident we will have justice in the state action.

Olangos sister also has filed suit in Superior Court against Gonsalves and the city. Her attorney, Dan Gilleon, said the case is strong and has a June 14 trial date.

David Richards, a senior management analyst in the El Cajon city managers office, said the district court ruling is significant.

Todays order ended both federal cases against both Gonsalves and the City, Richards said in an email. The court found that Gonsalves was immune from suit in this case.

Shane Harris, a local activist who organized many of the shooting protests and called for prosecution of the officers, said Thursday that he was upset over dismissal of the federal lawsuits.

What happened to Alfred Olango was egregious, said Harris, founder and president of the Peoples Alliance for Justice. I think the officer who killed him made a misstep. The family was denied criminal justice. That does not mean the family should be denied civil justice.

Harris said he was in Sacramento, speaking with Democratic Party leaders about the need to press for passage of Assembly Bill 392, which would re-define and raise the legal standards for police use of lethal force.

On the afternoon of the shooting, Lucy Olango called El Cajon police three times seeking help for her brother. He was acting erratically, she said, and appeared to be suffering a mental breakdown.

Family members later said Olango, a Ugandan refugee who had lived in the United States since 1991, was distraught over the recent suicide of a best friend.

On the second anniversary of his sons death, Abuka said he believed the killing was racially motivated and that police training should be changed to prevent similar shootings.

Why is it one police officer used a Taser and the other police officer used a gun? he asked.

Taina Rozier, left, wife of Alfred Olango, and daughter Chare Rozier at a 2016 news conference (K.C. Alfred)

In her ruling on Thursday, the judge expressed her concerns over the shooting, noting that Olango had not injured or threatened anyone, or committed any crimes. Some motorists called police about a man running in traffic, but Olango was behind a taco shop when Gonsalves showed up, followed by McDaniel.

The judge recounted a number of things the officers failed to do: form a plan to help Olango, de-escalate the situation, or call for a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team clinician to help assess Olangos needs.

Instead, the officers separated and went to look for Olango, Bashant said in her ruling.

She said the officers knew from the dispatched radio call that they were looking for a 5150, police code for the mentally ill. When they saw Olango, he paced back and forth and ignored their commands to take his hands out of his pockets.

Olangos perceptible mental instability should have given the officers pause in determining how to handle the situation, the judge said.

Gonsalves could have waited until McDaniel, who had a Taser, arrived, considering Gonsalves knew he did not have nonlethal weapons on his person. Gonsalves did not do this, but instead approached Olango alone.

The officer yelled for Olango to show his hands, but never verbally warned Olango that he might shoot, the judge noted.

Bashant said those facts alone weigh in favor of finding that the officer used excessive force.

But, she added, the most important factor is whether Olango posed an immediate threat to the safety of the officer.

She found that Gonsalves could have reasonably believed Olango was armed at that time and so he lawfully used deadly force against a perceived threat.

Bashant disagreed with the familys claim that the officer should have known the difference between a gun and a vaping device, which had a cylinder mouthpiece on one end.

Plaintiffs are incorrectly imposing a perfect 20/20 hindsight onto Gonsalvess decision by asking him to have noticed small details in the moment, she wrote.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @pdrepard
A San Diego judge ruled on Friday that he can legally change his mind about his previous decision to release a sexually violent predator from a state hospital to live under supervision in the community.

But Superior Court Judge David Gill stopped short of doing it.

He set two future hearing dates for defense and prosecuting attorneys to argue whether Alvin Quarles  dubbed the bolder than most rapist in the 1980s  should be released from Coalinga State Hospital in Fresno County.

Witnesses, particularly doctors from the state hospital, would be called during hearings set for March 20 and May 16.

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Meanwhile, the judge ordered a halt on the process of releasing Quarles to a supervised home, with the effect that Quarles remains locked up in the hospital.

Deputy District Attorney Jessica Coto said she was encouraged by the judges finding.

This was a positive ruling today, she said out of court.

Coto said a new psychiatric evaluation of Quarles will support a very strong basis for the court to change his original ruling and keep Quarles locked up.

Its definitely good news, added Mary Taylor, one of Quarles sexual assault victims who has been publicly vocal in opposing his release. That is a big weight off all our shoulders. Im very pleased with the outcome today.

She and about 20 people, including county Supervisor Dianne Jacob, showed up to oppose the conditional release of Quarles. Jacob said she was there to make sure Quarles victims were heard.

The morning hearing was conducted behind closed doors for nearly two hours after Deputy Public Defender Amy Hoffman asked the judge to keep the proceedings private. Jacob, Taylor, supporters and reporters waited in a hallway until being told they would be allowed in to hear the judges decision.

While waiting, Taylor fumed that she and other victims have a legal right, under Marsys Law, to be present during proceedings against their attacker.

Quarles gave up his right to privacy when he came into my house with a knife, Taylor said. Where was my right to privacy?

Jacob also said her staff is preparing a report on the over-concentration of sexually violent predators to supervised release in East County. She plans to give the report to the judge to consider if he ends up affirming his decision to release Quarles.

Quarles pleaded guilty in 1989 to raping 10 women over a four-year period in San Diego County. He assaulted four victims at knifepoint and, in some cases, forced a boyfriend or husband to watch.

He was sentenced to 50 years in prison with an understanding that he would serve half that time. Later he was classified as a sexually violent predator and placed in the state hospital.

To be designated a sexually violent predator, an offender has to have been convicted of a sex crime against at least one victim and be diagnosed with a mental disorder that makes him likely to re-offend.

Quarles filed a petition for his release in 2016. In a hearing last October, Gill said he believed Liberty CONREP could successfully supervise Quarles at a home in Jacumba Hot Springs and ordered the predators release.

Coto opposed the release, saying Quarles never finished his sexual predator treatment program at the hospital and that more than one doctor advised against his release.

The judge ordered a new psychiatric report on Quarles, reserving the right to reverse himself and keep Quarles in the hospital. When the report was completed, the defense lawyer asked that it be sealed and argued that Gill had no legal authority to reverse his October decision.

Gill announced Friday that he had studied various laws and codes and concluded he does have the right to retain jurisdiction over Quarles and change his prior ruling. He agreed to give the lawyers more time to prepare evidence on whether Quarles should, or shouldnt, be released to the community.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @pdrepard
A bitcoin entrepreneur who pitched an elaborate vision for a cryptocurrency Utopia in the Nevada high desert pleaded guilty to wire fraud in San Diego federal court Thursday, admitting he sold land he never owned to investors.

Morgan Rockcoons also pleaded guilty to conducting an unlicensed money transmitter business, a charge that stems from a bitcoin-for-cash sale with an undercover U.S. Homeland Security Investigations agent.

It was Rockcoons bitcoin exchange services, openly advertised online, that first drew the attention of federal agents in 2015.

Under federal law, exchangers of bitcoin  a long string of code with monetary value  are treated the same as money transmitters and must be registered as such with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the arm of the U.S. Treasury Department that works to combat money laundering with regulations. Exchangers must also know the identity of their customers and report any transactions over $10,000 to the government.

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At the end of 2016, the undercover agent posed as a hash oil manufacturer who needed to buy equipment in bitcoin  a currency preferred by criminal organizations because it is hard to trace. Rockcoons admitted in his plea agreement that he transferred about $9,200 in bitcoin to the agent for $14,500 in cash, taking the remainder as a transaction fee.

He was arrested, and while he was out on bail last year, he launched a real estate venture called Bitcointopia. He advertised parcels of land in Elko County, Nevada  500 to 1,000-acre plots for 0.5 bitcoin per acre  where he would build a city of the future around cryptocurrency, automation and technology. He was inspired by Walt Disneys Tomorrowland.

It was an attractive idea for many bitcoin enthusiasts, and at least 10 investors bought land from him, according to his plea agreement.

In fact, Rockcoons owned less than 5 acres on two non-contiguous plots, prosecutors said. Much of the land in the area is actually owned by the federal government, one of his former business partners learned.

The loss to investors was at least $45,600, the plea agreement states.

Rockcoons, who grew up in Chula Vista, faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud charge, and up to five years on the money-transmitting charge.

The plea deal comes about a month before trial was to start.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis
San Diego City Councilman Chris Ward said he would like the city to repair and reopen showers for homeless people to use at the Neil Good Day Center, which he said could be expanded to operate 24 hours a day.

Im asking the mayor to make it a priority to get the work done, Ward said, adding that he would like to see the shower repairs funded this fiscal year.

A spokesman for Mayor Kevin Faulconer said he is open to the idea of increasing the number of showers available for homeless people downtown.

We agree there needs to be more showers, and we are looking at a couple different ways to make that happen, Faulconers senior press secretary Greg Block said.

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Ward is co-chair of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, and the day center is in his district. Showers at the center broke about four years ago, shortly before Father Joes Villages took over the facilitys operation from the Alpha Project, which had run it for about 20 years.

Ward said he knew the showers were broken, but the issue was overshadowed by the many other homeless services and programs the city has been working on in recent years. He said an article about the Neil Good Day Center in The San Diego Union-Tribune last week made him want to move the issue to a front burner.

Homeless people who check in at the Neil Good Day Center at 299 17th St. can use showers at a Father Joes building a few blocks away, but lines to use the 12 showers in that building can be long. Father Joes resident Mark Kaleimamahu works at the showers and said previously that lines some days can be 100 people long, and only half may get in.

Kaleimamahu said fixing the Neil Good Day Center stalls that once had nine shower heads could significantly reduce the crush at Father Joes, where showers are limited to four hours a day Monday through Friday and two hours on weekends.

Ward said he recognizes that showers are important for the health and sanitation needs for the homeless community, which is why he also is pushing for the city to fund mobile showers.

The Neil Good Day Center opened in 1991 to provide a safe place for homeless people to shower, do laundry or just relax while also getting connected to various services. Repairs to the showers were put off in part because of a plan to close the center and move its services to property at Father Joes Villages.

That move didnt happen, but Ward said there still is a plan to open a homeless day center on the ground floor of a 16-story, 407-unit housing project that Father Joes plans to open in a couple of years. With up to 1,000 homeless people in downtown San Diego at times, Ward said he believes both day centers should stay open.

Ward said his office will prepare a memorandum asking Faulconer to find funding to repair showers this year.

I dont want to see any more delays, he said. I definitely want to see it fixed.

Ward also said the center could operate 24 hours a day, but that idea would have to be discussed more and couldnt happen this fiscal year because it would require additional funds and staffing.

The center costs $500,000 a year to operate, and its contract with the San Diego Housing Commission renews in July. The Alpha Project is bidding to take over the contract, which requires the operator to provide showers, either on or off site.

There are other showers available for homeless people downtown, including at Rachels Womens Center, which sees about 120 women each day.

Rachels Program Director Antoinette Fallon said she would like to see more showers for homeless people downtown, because the two stalls at her center are usually in high demand.

Each day, about 40 women use the showers, which are open from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Women are asked to put their names into a basket, and those who are picked get to shower that day, Fallon said.

Does it feel good for me? she said. No. In a perfect world, it would be better to let everybody take a shower every day.

Most people who want a shower get in, especially if they have a hygiene emergency, Fallon said. The drawing of names is a way of being respectful of peoples time so nobody in line is turned away, she explained.

Fallon added that the shortage of showers downtown reflects an overall shortage of services, including shelter beds, to serve homeless people.

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
Four young women, volunteers from a local migrant aid group, appeared before a federal judge for sentencing in Tucson last week. Their crime: leaving jugs of water, food and other supplies in a desolate desert refuge 130 miles west to protect the lives of migrants illegally crossing the Mexican border.

In January, the four members of No More Deaths had been convicted of trespassing in the sprawling Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. They each faced up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Instead, following an impassioned hearing, they received relatively minor sentences of 15 months unsupervised probation and a $250 fine.

For the record: An earlier version of this article misstated how many activists had their charges downgraded. Four, not five, had charges reduced.

The case raises significant questions about whether the Border Patrol provides migrants in peril with sufficient assistance when the Trump administration is making every effort to prevent asylum seekers from reaching border crossings.

The womens attorney, Chris Dupont, told the judge that they were only trying to fill a humanitarian void left by the Border Patrol, which Dupont said does not do enough to save migrants in peril. There isnt cellphone service in much of Cabeza Prieta, and Border Patrol rescue beacons are thousands of square miles apart and particularly difficult to see during daylight, he said. Between 2001 and 2018, remains of 137 people were found in the desert corridor, according to the Pima County Medical Examiner.

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Thats why theyre out there: to save people like that, Dupont told the courtroom packed with supporters. People continue to suffer and die in the desert.

Federal prosecutor Anna Wright countered that the volunteers enabled smugglers. She said humanitarian aid should be left to the Border Patrol, which created a network of 34 rescue beacons in the Tucson sector that includes Cabeza Prieta. The beacons help save lives, she said, because migrants are provided the aid when they turn themselves in or are caught.

No More Deaths volunteer Zaachila Orozco-McCormick marches with empty water jugs following her sentencing for misdemeanor charges involving leaving aid in a restricted area of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Before sentencing the volunteers, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bernardo Velasco said their efforts, however laudable, broke the law, and the case needed to send that message. I hope youre not going to do it again, the judge said.

The defendants looked relieved, and supporters in the gallery smiled.

Prosecutors later released a statement saying they intended to continue to charge those who commit similar offenses.

In recent weeks, Border Patrol agents have reported hundreds of migrant children and families seeking asylum together at remote desert crossings in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. In recent weeks, agents in the Cabeza Prieta area saw a group of 325 migrants turn themselves in. Border-wide, 76,103 migrants were detained last month, a 12-year record, 42,999 of them families and children.

Since the women and five other No More Deaths volunteers were charged last year, supporters had mounted a legal aid campaign to defend the group, dubbed the Cabeza 9, and posted signs around town proclaiming Humanitarian Aid is Not a Crime. Drop the Charges. The day of the sentencing, they paid for a full-page ad in the Arizona Daily Star signed by hundreds of other aid groups from across the country saying, We stand with No More Deaths.

The womens attorneys insisted the Border Patrols method of providing aid has failed, and that the criminal charges were retaliation after the group released videos showing border agents destroying jugs of water and other supplies they had left in the desert.

No More Deaths has attracted volunteers from across the country since its founding in 2004. It has eight staff members and up to 60 regular volunteers.

John Fife, a retired Presbyterian minister, helped found the group after becoming active in the sanctuary movement in the 1980s. Back then, he and other volunteers escorted Central American migrants fleeing death squads through the deserts of northern Mexico to the border.

In 1986, Fife and seven other volunteers were convicted of violating federal immigration laws. Sentenced to five years probation, they continued to help migrants.

We have every legal right to provide humanitarian aid in a human disaster like the thousands of deaths that have occurred out here in the Sonoran Desert, said Fife, who has volunteered with some of those recently charged.

For years, No More Deaths volunteers felt they had an understanding with the Border Patrol. Agents rarely stopped them. That changed after President Trump was elected, volunteers said.

Agents started stopping volunteers regularly in Cabeza Prieta, a rugged 860,000-acre preserve including 56 miles of border next to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. As a result, tensions heightened.

Volunteers and supporters of No More Deaths march with four humanitarian aid workers following their sentencing at an Arizona courthouse. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

No More Deaths relationship with Border Patrol has never been completely peaceful, said volunteer Parker Deighan, 28, of Tucson.  But we have definitely seen an escalation the last few years.

In June 2017, agents raided a No More Deaths migrant aid station in the desert. Later that summer, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife officer stopped four volunteers: Natalie Hoffman, 23, of Tucson; Oona Holcomb, 39, of St. Paul, Minn.; Madeline Huse, 23, of Bellingham, Wash.; and Zaachila Orozco-McCormick, 21, of Seattle. In December, they were charged as part of the Cabeza 9.

Deighan and four other volunteers were charged separately after trying to help three migrants. Two of the migrants were later detained, she said. One was never found.

On Jan. 17, 2018, No More Deaths released a report alleging Border Patrol had interfered with their work and videos showing Border Patrol agents destroying supplies they had left for migrants. Hours later, agents descended on the groups facility near Cabeza Prieta, detained four migrants and charged volunteer Scott Warren with harboring and conspiracy. Scheduled for trial in May, Warren faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The first four Cabeza 9 volunteers were convicted in January of entering the refuge without a permit and abandoning property (water jugs and beans). Recently, four other Cabeza 9 volunteers  including Deighan  had their charges downgraded to civil infractions and paid $250 fines. Warren still faces misdemeanor and felony charges.

As the volunteers left the courtroom last week, supporters applauded. Once outside, they marched through downtown hoisting empty water jugs from the desert and signs saying Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge and mass grave. No More Deaths organizers said that instead of deterring volunteers, the Cabeza 9 cases have increased their commitment, and drawn new volunteers to help migrants.

Volunteer Paige Corich-Kleim, 28, of Tucson said the group has pressured the Border Patrol to release information showing rescue beacons work, to improve them and other efforts to save migrants.

We want to make them as safe as possible so that they dont die, Corich-Kleim said.

On Monday, a rescue beacon in the Growler Valley near Cabeza Prietas Camino del Diablo (Devils Highway) had water jugs set on top of its base, a sign volunteers were still active in the area.

Thats not what Border Patrol Agent Dan Hernandez had wanted.

As Hernandez drove over rolling hills of saguaro and organ pipe cacti toward the south side of the refuge that borders Mexico, half a dozen migrants activated a beacon and were detained. An hour later, another migrant activated a second beacon. A third group of migrants  three fathers from Guatemala, each with a child  turned themselves in to agents about a hundred feet from a waist-high metal border fence. Bound for Florida and Texas, they had paid a smuggler $200 to steer them to the desert crossing, where they arrived without supplies.

A rescue beacon in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Last year, the 34 beacons in the Tucson sector that includes Cabeza Prieta helped agents locate 138 migrants, fewer than in previous years, Hernandez said.

Seven of the beacons are equipped with satellite phones migrants can use to contact the Border Patrol. The rest, stationed in spots without clear satellite signals, have red buttons migrants push to alert the agency. Theyre also equipped with day and night infrared cameras agents use to gauge migrants condition. If they appear seriously ill, Hernandez said, a paramedic agent can be sent by helicopter to treat and extract them.

The 30-foot towers cost about $3,000 and are movable. Theyre crowned with reflectors that glow during the day and light up blue at night, a signal Hernandez said is visible for up to 10 miles. (No More Deaths volunteers insist some beacons are visible no more than 1,500 feet away.) Agents check the beacons daily, are adding brighter day lights and building new beacons 10 feet taller to make them more visible, Hernandez said.

He said the videos No More Deaths released of agents dumping water left for migrants gave the agency a black eye. If agents discover supplies left by volunteers, he said, they now know dont touch it. But he said such aid sends the wrong message: Continue your journey.

It defeats the purpose of the rescue beacon, Hernandez said. We want them to press that button and end their journey. We dont want them to grab a jug and walk to their deaths.
Reports that the U.S. government kept a database on journalists, activists and immigration attorneys during an investigation into last years migrant caravan has stirred outrage among civil rights groups, drawn concern from lawmakers and prompted more people to come forward with additional allegations of being detained by U.S. immigration authorities.

Brendon Tucker, 24, a volunteer from Brownsville, Texas, said he and other volunteers who had been working with the migrant caravan in Tijuana were stopped at gunpoint by Customs and Border Protection agents in the first days of 2019.

Tucker said he was returning with activist Evan Duke from a migrant shelter in Tijuana to San Diego through the San Ysidro Port of Entry when CBP directed their vehicle to secondary inspection.

They pointed guns at me. They used a bullhorn to call me out of the car, Tucker said. They tried to take my phone. They tried to take Evans phone. And all we were doing was bringing supplies to the migrants in Tijuana.

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Undeterred by the initial encounter, Tucker said he and Duke picked up more supplies in San Ysidro, crossed the border again that same day and dropped them off at migrant shelters in Tijuana.

When they returned, they were again held at gunpoint by CBP officers and this time detained and questioned for six hours, Tucker said.

Tucker said he suspected he was being targeted or investigated since January because each time he goes through a border checkpoint, he faces additional screening and questioning.

I didnt see it coming, but I cant say Im surprised, he said.

Tucker and Duke said they are not sure whether they are in a database revealed in leaked documents published Wednesday by NBC7. The documents indicate that the U.S. government has kept dossiers on dozens of activists, advocates, attorneys, and journalists it is investigating in relation to the migrant caravan that arrived in Tijuana last November.

Im dying to find out if Im on that list, said Tucker, who described himself as a solidarity worker not associated with any particular organization. Tucker said he was transporting clothing, food and medicine to various migrant shelters in Tijuana.

Among those included in the Homeland Security documents leaked to NBC7 are 10 journalists, seven U.S. citizens, an American attorney and 47 people from Central America. Some of the people in the group were denied entry into Mexico and had their passports flagged.

In this Nov. 25, 2018 file photo, migrants run from tear gas launched by U.S. agents, amid members of the press covering the Mexico-U.S. border, after a group of migrants got past Mexican police at the Chaparral crossing in Tijuana, Mexico. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)

The information has outraged civil liberties and media groups, which called tracking, detaining and questioning journalists a violation of free speech rights. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, along with the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, said it plans to meet with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials to express concerns about this practice.

If our First Amendment means anything, its that the government cannot retaliate against journalists based on the content of their reporting, said Gabe Rottman, director of the Reporters Committees Technology and Press Freedom Project.

CBP released a statement Thursday from Andrew Meehan, the assistant commissioner of public affairs, who said the agencys collection of information followed assaults on Border Patrol agents in November and January.

A group of about 150 migrants attempted to breach the south side of a San Diego border fence on New Years Day, which resulted in U.S. officials firing tear gas. Officials said some migrants had thrown rocks at them, an account that some witnesses disputed.

The collection of information after such an incident is a standard law enforcement practice, CBP said, stressing that journalists are not targeted based on their occupation or their reporting. Further, they said, the agency has policies in place that prohibit discrimination against arriving travelers and has specific provisions regarding encounters with journalists.

CBP declined to immediately provide a copy of those specific provisions.

The CBP statement also said that the Department of Homeland Securitys Office of Inspector General, in conjunction with CBPs Office of Professional Responsibility, initiated an inquiry in February in order to ensure that all appropriate policies and practices were followed.

A spokeswoman said she was looking into the incident involving Tucker and Duke.

On Thursday Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation & Operations, sent a letter to CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan expressing concern and requesting information about this troubling practice, which raises serious legal and constitutional questions, according to a statement.

Meanwhile, the Mexican government, which denied entry to some of the people in the database, said it didnt do illegal surveillance and would ask the U.S. to clarify any possible cases of illegal spying.

In this Nov. 25, 2018 file photo, a group of migrants got past Mexican police at the Chaparral crossing in Tijuana, Mexico. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Mexico welcomes all foreign visitors who, obeying immigration laws, carry out in our territory tourism or professional activities, according to a joint statement from the Foreign Relations Department and the Department of Security and Citizen Protection.

Freelance photojournalist and U.S. citizen Kitra Cahana said that being detained, questioned and denied entry into Mexico has impacted her work and had a chilling effect on her colleagues.

I have been denied entry into Mexico twice now, and unable to continue my reporting, said Cahana, who first told the Times about her experiences last month. But beyond my own situation, it has created a climate of fear for many of my colleagues who are thinking twice right now about covering the border and migration.

Both Cahana and Tucker were present during the Jan. 1 incident at the U.S.-Mexico border during which border agents deployed tear gas on migrants attempting to breech a border fence.

CBP said after that clash the agency identified individuals who may have information relating to the instigators and/or organizers of these attacks.

Tucker said during his second stop by CBP a few days after the Jan. 1 incident, agents confiscated his video camcorder and his friends phone. He said they never returned the items.

At the end of the day, they just dont like what were doing, Tucker said. So, they say Were going to pull you in secondary. Were going to tear up your car. It sucks.

I know I didnt do anything illegal to be put on any list, he added.

Duke confirmed Tuckers account of what happened at the vehicle checkpoint.

Tucker said to me: You have rifles aimed at your head right now and so do I, said Duke, describing the tense moments when CBP ordered them to exit their vehicle.

They told (Tucker) to put his hands outside of the window, and I did too and they started yelling Just the driver! and I thought Oh, God, dont kill me, Duke said.

Based on questions investigators asked him, Duke said he believes its possible that investigators are acting upon information provided to law enforcement by right-wing conspiracy groups. He said a North Dakota radio talk-show host bragged on the air about reporting him and his colleagues to law enforcement.

Duke said all of the information he was asked by investigators at the border was readily available through open sources.

They asked me if I was at Standing Rock. Yeah, I was at Standing Rock. They asked me if I was at the (presidential) inauguration. I said Im pretty sure you know that because its on my Facebook, Duke said.

Hugo Castro, a human rights activist with Border Angels, a nonprofit advocacy group, whose name appears among those allegedly tracked by the government, said interrogations at the border have also caused some in his circle to hesitate about providing aid to migrants.

I think they are trying to stop people from helping caravan members or asylum seekers or anyone providing any help for migrants, Castro said. And in a way, they are succeeding, because many of our colleagues are very worried and trying to avoid crossing the border.

Staff Writer Kate Morrissey contributed to this report
Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been sent to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating Wikileaks.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning to jail for contempt of court on Friday after a brief hearing in which Manning confirmed she has no intention of testifying. She told the judge she will accept whatever you bring upon me.

Manning has said she objects to the secrecy of the grand jury process, and that she already revealed everything she knows at her court-martial.

The judge said she will remain jailed until she testifies or until the grand jury concludes its work.

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Mannings lawyers had asked that she be sent to home confinement instead of the jail, because of medical complications she faces.

The judge said U.S. marshals can handle her medical care. Prosecutor Tracy McCormick said the jail and the marshals have assured the government that her medical needs can be met.

Manning anticipated being jailed. In a statement before Fridays hearing, she said she invoked her First, Fourth and Sixth amendment protections when she appeared before the grand jury in Alexandria on Wednesday. She said she already answered every substantive question during her 2013 court-martial, and is prepared to face the consequences of refusing to answer again.

In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles. I will exhaust every legal remedy available, she said.

Manning served seven years of a 35-year military sentence for leaking a trove of military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy website before then-President Barack Obama commuted her sentence.

McCormick said Manning can easily end this incarceration on the civil charge simply by following the law and testifying.

We hope she changes her mind now, McCormick said.

Mannings lawyer, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, said she believes jailing Manning is an act of cruelty given her medical issues, and said Mannings one-bedroom apartment would be a sufficient manner of confinement.

Outside the courthouse, about 10 protesters rallied in her support.

Obviously prison is a terrible place, Meltzer-Cohen said. I dont see the purpose to incarcerate people.

The Wikileaks investigation has been ongoing for a long time. Last year, prosecutors in Alexandria inadvertently disclosed that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is facing unspecified, sealed criminal charges in the district.

Wikileaks also has emerged as an important part of Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into possible Russian meddling into the 2016 presidential election, as investigators focus on whether President Donald Trumps campaign knew Russian hackers were going to provide emails to Wikileaks stolen from Democratic organizations, including presidential candidate Hillary Clintons campaign
San Diego is stepping up its efforts to encourage construction of more granny flats with new programs focused on providing public financing and creating design templates to reduce architecture costs.

The new program builds on previous moves eliminating sewer and water fees, shrinking development fees and loosening zoning regulations for granny flats.

Granny flats are additional housing units on an existing property. They are being increasingly viewed across the nation as a way to create more housing without more land or infrastructure, making them the fastest and cheapest way to increase a local supply of affordable housing.

They are considered ideal for recent college graduates, young people with lower-paying jobs and the senior citizens on fixed incomes who gave these units their colorful name.

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In addition to boosting the local housing supply, granny flats generate income for homeowners that decrease the likelihood they will struggle to pay their mortgage.

A recent analysis of the citys 236,000 single-family detached homes estimated that 2,700 to 5,500 granny flats could be built during the next decade. The citys formal name for a granny flat is an accessory dwelling unit, or a companion unit.

The citys efforts build on state legislation three years ago that eased parking regulations and rules requiring large buffer areas between structures and property lines.

The new program, led by the citys Housing Commission, includes a pilot development program where the commission will build 40 granny flats adjacent to single-family homes on properties that the commission owns.

The new units, which would be constructed beginning in late 2019, would be geared for low-income tenants and include a variety of sizes and designs.

Commission officials told the City Councils Land Use and Housing Committee Wednesday that a goal of the program is analyzing costs, timelines, the construction process and potential hurdles.

The commission plans to use that information to launch a loan program in spring 2020 that will help low-income households build granny flats on their properties.

In addition, Councilman Chris Ward has proposed that the city use $1.5 million to create a public financing pool that would be used to lend $30,000 each to 50 property owners seeking to build granny flats.

Ward said the money hes proposing is dwarfed by the many millions San Diego spends each year on homelessness programs.

Meanwhile, city officials say they plan to copy an Encinitas program that provides homeowners pre-approved design templates for granny flats so they can save money by avoiding the hiring of an architect.

These are plans designed by a certified architect that theyre making publicly available, Elyse Lowe, the citys development services director, told the committee. Its essentially free construction drawings.

San Diego initially saw far less construction of granny flats than other major California cities after the state loosened regulations in 2016, but the city has received more than 400 applications since the local policy changes began.

Councilman Scott Sherman, one of the councils first vocal proponents of granny flats, praised the new programs.

I think this could really generate a lot of the type of housing that were looking for in between subsidized and luxury, he said.

The fees to build a granny flat in San Diego, which vary by neighborhood, ranged from $30,000 to $49,000 per unit before the city reduced them. Before the changes, the fees were often higher than construction costs.

While the fee reductions could be characterized as lost revenue for the city, officials say they are only missing out on what was potential revenue because granny flat construction was rare before the policy changes.

The city legislation doesnt require the owner of a property with a granny flat to live there, but tenants must stay at least 30 days to make it harder for granny flats to become short-term vacation rentals.

San Diego is one of several local cities focused on loosening granny flat regulations. For example, La Mesa is scheduled to vote Tuesday on parking regulations and other policy changes.

San Diegos granny flat efforts are among an array of city efforts to boost housing production that has included speedier environmental reviews and expanded bonuses for dense projects and those in transit-priority areas.

In addition, the San Diego City Council on Monday approved eliminating parking requirements for apartments and condominium projects near mass transit.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
A proposal to allow high-rise housing near new trolley stations along Morena Boulevard is headed to the San Diego City Council.

The councils Land Use and Housing Committee voted 3-1 Wednesday to send the full council the proposal, which would also revamp the street grid between Interstate 5 and the University of San Diego.

Its a very good, well-thought-out plan, Councilman Scott Sherman said. We have a housing crisis in this city. We havent kept up with the demand of people being born here or moving here.

Many nearby residents oppose raising the limits on building heights, which they contend would damage the character of Linda Vista and parts of southeastern Clairemont.

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The plan would lift the height limit from 45 to 65 feet near the existing Linda Vista/Morena trolley station and up to 100 feet near the new Tecolote station.

Councilwoman Dr. Jennifer Campbell criticized the proposal and cast the vote against forwarding it to the full council.

She said city planning officials have treated nearby residents poorly, noting that the city retreated last fall from the higher building heights before reversing course and reinstating them.

The Planning Department is asking this community to quintuple the number of dwelling units while reducing the lanes on the main thoroughfare (Morena Boulevard) in this area, she said. To see a communitys next 30 years laid out against the wishes of the hard-working residents is utterly disappointing.

Campbell and some community leaders are lobbying the city to delay approving the proposal, called the Morena Corridor Specific Plan, until the city follows through on a plan to require new housing projects to include subsidized units for low-income residents.

Sherman said hes confident developers will include low-income units near the new trolley stations, noting that a similar plan the city adopted three years ago for the Grantville area in eastern San Diego has prompted construction of hundreds of new low-income and market-rate units.

The Morena plan covers a 280-acre that follows the path of the new trolley line in Clairemont and Linda Vista, then extends east to include the existing Linda Vista/Morena trolley station on the green line.

The two new trolley stations included in the plan will be where Morena Boulevard crosses Clairemont Drive and where Morena Boulevard crosses Tecolote.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
An underage driver turned into the path of an oncoming car at an Encanto intersection Thursday afternoon, causing a crash that sent the 15-year-old and four others to hospitals, police said.

The collision occurred around 4:30 p.m. at 61st Street and Akins Avenue, just north of Imperial Avenue, San Diego police Officer Robert Heims said.

Police said the 15-year-old, accompanied by three passengers, was driving a 1995 Honda Accord south on 61st Street when he turned left into the path of a 2010 Toyota Camry. The Toyota, which was westbound on Akins Avenue, broadsided the Honda on the drivers side.

The Hondas teen driver sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries, including a pelvis fracture, and was taken to a hospital for treatment, Heims said.

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One of his passengers suffered a cut to the forehead and the other two passengers were not injured, Heims said. But all were apparently taken to the hospital as a precaution.

The 37-year-old woman driving the Toyota complained of pain and was also taken to a hospital.

Twitter: @Alex_Riggins

(619) 293-1710

alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com


ROK Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha (R) shakes hands with U.S. Ambassador to the ROK Harry Harris after signing a deal on defense cost-sharing in Seoul, March 8, 2019. /VCG Photo

The Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States signed the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) Friday, calling for an 8.2 percent hike in Seoul's share of the cost of the American troops stationed in the ROK, Yonhap reported.

"This now becomes the foundation of - one of the foundations of - the alliance, and something that the alliance will build upon to become stronger and greater," ROK Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told U.S. Ambassador to the ROK Harry Harris after the signing ceremony, according to Yonhap.

Harris echoed, saying the agreement underscores the "importance and the ironclad nature" of the U.S.-ROK alliance.

The newly signed SMA, valid for one year, will be submitted to the ROK's National Assembly next week for ratification and is expected to take into effect in April.

Before signing the agreement, the two sides held ten rounds of talks but failed to reach a consensus on the total amount of ROK's contribution and the duration of the agreement. The ROK wished a three to five years duration while the U.S. requested a one-year contract.

Earlier on Monday, the U.S. and the ROK launched a nine-day joint military exercise known as Dong Maeng to replace the springtime "Key Resolve and Foal Eagle" joint military drills.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) blasted the U.S.-ROK joint military drills, claiming it violates the agreements reached last year.
Authorities on Friday were searching for a driver who fled after crashing a Ferrari into a power pole in Rancho Santa Fe, knocking out electricity to more than 80 customers in the area.

The crash, involving a 2012 Ferrari, was reported shortly before 10:20 p.m. Thursday near the intersection of Avenida de Acacias and La Granada, California Highway Patrol Officer Jim Bettencourt said.

The crash caused the 40-foot power pole to fall to the ground, leaving 84 San Diego Gas & Electric customers in the area in the dark, SDG&E spokesman Wes Jones said.

As of 8:30 Friday morning, electricity had been restored to all but three customers, who were expected to be back on line by noon, Jones said.

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The northbound and southbound lanes of Avenida De Acacias were expected to be closed from La Granada to Via De La Cumbre until around 3 p.m.while crews worked to replace the power pole.
Paul Manafort, who managed Donald Trumps presidential campaign for several months in 2016, was sentenced Thursday to 47 months in prison for financial crimes that were prosecuted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III could have sent the 69-year-old veteran Republican operative to federal prison for the rest of his life. But Ellis rejected the recommended sentence of 19 to 24 years, under federal guidelines, calling it excessive.

A high-flying lobbyist and consultant before he joined Trumps campaign, Manafort was brought into court in a wheelchair, wearing a jail-issued green jumpsuit with the words Alexandria Inmate stenciled in white letters on the back.

He appeared grayer and more frail than in August, when a federal jury here in northern Virginia convicted him of eight charges of tax evasion and bank fraud after a three-week trial.

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Near the end of the roughly three-hour hearing, Manafort appealed to Ellis for compassion and said he felt humiliated and ashamed by his conduct. He thanked the judge for a fair trial.

The last two years have been the most difficult that my family and I have experienced, he said from his wheelchair.

Ellis called Manaforts crimes very serious and said his tax evasion represented a theft of money from everyone that pays their taxes.

The judge also said he was surprised that Manafort did not express more regret when he addressed the court. I hope you reflect on that, he said.

But Ellis said Manafort has lived an otherwise blameless life and had no criminal record before his convictions.

He ordered Manafort to pay a $50,000 fine and restitution that could range from $6 million to $25 million.

Manafort has been in jail for the last nine months, so his sentence means he will serve an additional 38 months behind bars under Ellis sentence. Manafort has been held in solitary confinement for his safety, his lawyer, Kevin Downing, told the court.

He was sent to jail last summer when U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing a related case in Washington, D.C., revoked his bail after Manafort contacted potential witnesses.

Jackson is scheduled to sentence Manafort at another hearing next Wednesday. He has pleaded guilty to two related charges of conspiracy in that case.

Paul Manaforts VIP jail treatment: A private phone line, a laptop and his own shower 

All the criminal charges against Manafort stemmed from his work on behalf of Ukraines former pro-Russian government, although some of the crimes continued while he also managed Trumps campaign for several months in 2016.

During his trial, prosecutors detailed how Manafort used a network of offshore bank accounts and other schemes to avoid paying millions of dollars in federal income taxes.

When his client, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, was overthrown in a popular uprising in 2014, Manafort turned to bank fraud to maintain an opulent lifestyle that included custom tailored clothes, seven homes and luxury cars.

Muellers team initially focused on Manafort as part of its investigation into whether Trumps campaign conspired with a Russian intelligence operation that sought to sway the 2016 election to Trump, using stolen emails and disinformation on social media.

In June 2016, Manafort joined Donald Trump Jr., the presidents eldest son, and Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law, in a meeting in Trump Tower in Manhattan with a woman identified to them as a Russian government attorney.

Before the meeting, when an intermediarys email said the lawyer would present political dirt on rival candidate Hillary Clinton as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump, Trump Jr. replied, If its what you say I love it.

No charges have been filed in connection with the meeting, and Trumps allies have said no incriminating information was provided. Trumps critics have said the campaign should have called the FBI to report the Russian offer.

Two months later, Manafort and Trumps deputy campaign chairman, Richard Gates, met with Konstantin Kilimnik at a posh New York cigar bar.

Muellers prosecutors later disclosed in court papers that Kilimnik has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016.

Manafort shared polling data with Kilimnik, then lied about it even after he agreed to cooperate with the investigation.

Those lies and others led to the implosion of Manaforts plea deal, which he reached after he was convicted in northern Virginia. The deal had required him to cooperate truthfully with the special counsels office.

Prosecutors had urged the judge to impose a tough sentence.

Greg Andres, a prosecutor from the special counsels office, said Manafort broke the basic civic covenant of citizens in this democracy by failing to pay his taxes.

Nobody made up these crimes, he added. He made criminal choices.

Manaforts lawyers argued in a sentencing memo before Thursdays hearing that the special counsels attempt to vilify Mr. Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts.

They also suggested that prosecutors pressured Manafort to provide evidence against the president in the Russia investigation, and urged the judge to spare him jail time.

Muellers strategy in bringing charges against Mr. Manafort had nothing to do with the special counsels core mandate  Russian collusion  but was instead designed to tighten the screws to compel Mr. Manafort to cooperate and provide incriminating information about others, the lawyers wrote.

Trump has repeatedly said that his former campaign chairman was treated unfairly by prosecutors, and hes left open the possibility of pardoning him before he leaves office.

As the jury in Virginia was considering a verdict last summer, Trump told reporters at the White House that its very sad what theyve done to Paul Manafort.
America was founded on liberty and independence  not government coercion, domination and control. We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.

That was President Donald Trumps declaration during his recent State of the Union address. The need for such an obvious statement would have been unfathomable a few years ago. Aside from Bernie Sanders, there were not many members of Congress who would openly describe themselves or their policies as socialist in nature. Times have changed. The socialist label has become a badge of honor for todays liberals and, apparently, a prerequisite for any Democrat who is considering a run for the White House. In this environment, President Trumps declaration was necessary and, I believe, will go down as a defining moment of his presidency.

Related: Rep. Mike Levin on why the Green New Deal is so important

Case in point, the Green New Deal, a proposal to radically transform our economy and impose expensive government mandates on the American people. This policy has inexplicably become the rallying cry of liberal Democrats. From hard-charging newly elected representatives to presidential hopefuls racing to raise money, liberal Democrats have gone all in on new legislative efforts that seek to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions from every sector of the economy within 10 years. Under the Green New Deal plan, 100 percent of all power demands will be provided through clean and renewable energy sources.

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While this sounds worthwhile, in reality, what would such an effort actually entail? All industries would be under the knife. From methane-producing cows, to cars and planes. From traditional fossil fuels to clean-burning liquid natural gas. Even nuclear power plants that produce tremendous amounts of reliable, carbon dioxide-free energy would not escape this overzealous mandate.

Every building will have to be upgraded or replaced (yes, replaced!) to achieve full compliance. Our transportation system would be totally overhauled by huge increases in electric vehicle production and air travel will be supplanted by a tremendous expansion of high-speed rail (insert California high-speed rail joke here).

How do supporters of the Green New Deal propose to eliminate all these power sources and convince the private sector to support such an effort? Incentives? No, the Green New Deal approach is the same as any socialist endeavor  the government becomes the prime economic driver, creating massive bureaucratic regulation and taking draconian punitive actions against American citizens and private businesses that do not achieve the coordinated response and complete transition from fossil fuels.

What is the cost of the Green New Deal? Beginning estimates start at $6.6 trillion per year, but realistic expectations have the cost much higher. This coming from the same group who claimed a $5 billion investment for our border security was too much. Who is going to pay that cost? Working Americans, through higher taxes and expensive government mandates. Our choices  gone. Our desires  irrelevant. Our quality of life  inconsequential. The only thing required to put this plan into place, our pocketbooks and our silence. Well, they will get neither.

Before considering such a massive overhaul of our economy, we need to take a step back into reality. Right now, the U.S. is a world leader in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. To imply different is a disservice to the accomplishments we have achieved. We should always strive to be better stewards of our environment, to breathe clean air, to drink clean water, to preserve Americas natural resources for generations to come. The socialist left would have us believe that this objective is completely inconsistent with energy production, but they are wrong, these are not mutually exclusive goals. The federal government continues to make investments in green technology research and private companies, fueled by a free market and competition, are making great strides in manufacturing cleaner cars, safer buildings, and more efficient power plants.

Green New Deal advocates will argue they want a democratic and participatory process, that their proposal is only a House resolution, without the force of law, an expression of Congress with which to start a dialogue and conversation. Any such conversation, however, must start with truth. The truth is America did not get where it is through top-down government mandates that kill the innovative spark that fuels small business and defines the very nature of our energetic and expanding economy. America got to where it is through the ingenuity and tenacity of the American people, empowered by the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution. The stark reality is that the massive economic overhaul that the Green New Deal requires would be a march towards socialism.

The Green New Deal is the old, tired Socialist Steal, a plan that has the government picking winners and losers. A plan that deserves to be rejected. A more productive conversation and dialogue is finding ways to encourage the private sector and free market in innovative energy science to do what it does best, invest in America.

Hunter, R-Alpine, represents the 50th Congressional District of California.
After a 81-year federal ban on hemp, Americas first agricultural crop, it is now poised to stage a huge comeback in the United States with the 2018 Farm Bill that became a law on Dec. 20.

Since 1937 and the Marijuana Tax Act, hemp has been lumped in with marijuana as a Schedule I drug, which the Drug Enforcement Agency defines as having no medical value and a high likelihood for abuse and addiction. Though marijuana and hemp both belong to the cannabis family, hemp lacks the high quantities of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that gives marijuana users the sensation of being high. The 2018 Farm Bill finally recognizes this crucial difference and makes industrial hemp farming once again a new reality.

San Diego is poised to become a leader in the growing hemp and CBD (cannabidiol) marketplace thanks to the abundance of entrepreneurs, high-quality research institutes and agricultural excellence. Formerly a significant hemp-growing region, San Diego and California both have a rich history of hemp-based agriculture and farming, dating back to the early 1900s.

With nearly $1.75 billion in direct economic output from agriculture in 2017, San Diego farmers may be poised to take advantage of this newest agricultural crop. Used as a rotational crop, hemp can help struggling farmers make ends meet plus it helps save farmland from becoming infertile and overpolluted.

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Heres whats going to happen in 2019 and the near future, and how it will affect the local economy and the well-being of San Diegans.

Industrial hemp returns in a big way

Hemp is something of a miracle plant  it takes very few resources to grow hemp in comparison to other agricultural crops: less water, minimal to no fertilizer, no pesticides and it grows well even in marginal agricultural lands. There are a wide range of industrial uses, including for CBD production. When compared to other staple crops such as wheat and soybeans, farmers can make up to 10 times as much per acre growing hemp.

Hemp-derived products are now legalized and normalized

One of the most promising hemp-derived products is CBD oil. The FDA recently claimed that despite the Farm Bill legalizing hemp, CBD oil and related products are still considered illegal under federal law. Compared to the potentially dangerous and addictive forms of treatment with pharmaceutical medications, CBD has been shown to be much safer.

The World Health Organization found that CBD is not harmful, has health benefits, and does not have abuse potential.

UCSDs local Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research is helping advance our knowledge by researching the efficacy of CBD oil to treat anorexia, severe autism and chronic pain. Local San Diego residents such as Brian and Damaris Higuera has been using CBD to help their daughter Sadie, who once suffered hundreds of seizures every day and is now seizure-free.

The creation of a global cannabis marketplace

Its estimated that the global legal cannabis marketplace will grow to $146.4 billion by 2025, but theres still a long way to go to make cannabis as culturally accepted as alcohol and prescription medications. Even the fairly liberal European Union has a conservative stance towards cannabis, as evidenced by slow acceptance of medical marijuana there.

Despite its former questionable legal status, CBD oil has been growing in popularity and acceptance as a health-care product. The Brightfield Group pegs the market for hemp-derived CBD products at about $591 million in 2018, growing to $22 billion by 2022, up from $108 million in 2014.

Though the future looks bright for hemp, there is much change needed nationally and locally before we can transform this burgeoning industry into significant growth opportunities for revenue and wellness in the U.S., California and San Diego. Now is the time for citizens to get involved and explain to their local representatives how hemp or CBD has influenced their lives and it has the potential to provide people with many important health benefits. I hope that with the help of our local advocates, organizations such as the FDA and the DEA will see the need to expand access to hemp and make it easier for domestic sources to grow Americas first agricultural crop with great success again.

Titus is CEO of San Diego-based Medical Marijuana Inc., a hemp cannabidiol (CBD) producer.
Chilling is an understatement. The U.S. government, in the name of border security and in tandem with the Mexican government, created and kept dossiers  what NBC 7 in San Diego, which broke the story, called a secret database  on a group of 59 journalists, advocates, activists and an attorney who met with members of a migrant caravan that came to Tijuana late last year. U.S. Customs and Border Protection singled out many in the group for lengthy extra questioning when trying to cross the border and denied at least two journalists entry.

What was the justification? The documents obtained by NBC 7 showed that the U.S.-Mexico International Liaison Unit considered those it gathered information on to be suspected organizers, coordinators, instigators and media. The Customs and Border Protection agency told NBC News that all 59 were present during a violent incident at the border in November and that journalists were tracked to learn more about what started the violence.

If there is no evidence these individuals instigated criminal activity, hassling them at the border, keeping them from entering Mexico and placing alerts on their passports is official harassment. The ACLU and a number of journalism advocacy organizations are right to be outraged. It is against federal law to abet those who try to enter the U.S. without authorization, but federal law protects journalists covering a news event from official impediment.

NBC 7s anonymous U.S. Homeland Security source acted as a whistle-blower, saying, Were not an intelligence agency. We cant create dossiers on people, and theyre creating dossiers. This is an abuse of the border search authority.

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Agreed. U.S. officials must end and answer for this abuse of power, and Congress must investigate.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion
While visiting San Ysidro and meeting with residents on Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom posted a video statement to Twitter to make a point that cant be emphasized enough. Despite claims the U.S.-Mexico border is a daily source of crime and tension, the economic vibrancy of the San Diego-Tijuana region is a huge success story, he said. The trade [goes] back and forth into Mexico every day, into the United States every day. ... Its a very different story than the one you hear out of Washington.

Thats exactly right. More than 70 million people cross the border back and forth each year, reflecting a binational regional economy with an integrated manufacturing supply chain worth $2.5 billion. This cross-border connectivity helps generate an annual gross regional product of $255 billion, according to the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. Thats far greater than dozens of nations around the world with populations that are much larger than this border regions 6 million-plus residents.

With changing immigration patterns creating new needs and pressures, the immigration debate will outlast the current U.S. president. For now, before any experts thousands of miles away weigh in, they need to know the San Diego-Tijuana story. Here, the border isnt a threat. Its an opportunity.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

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Interesting concoctions this week but our favorite was Stews brew! Congratulations, Stewart Halpern, for winning the top spot. He will receive Steve Breens signed original in the mail. Thanks to all those who participated.

Next weeks cartoon is below. Please remember to limit your submissions to three and keep em brief. Good luck!

Winner

Oh, I thought you said you wanted a microbe brew. Stewart Halpern, San Diego

Finalists

You think Red Bull has kick, try this. Kevin Hippensteel, Santee

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Ladies first. Rainier Dischinger, Spring Valley

Ive always wanted to tie-dye my lab coats. Noah Mationg, Imperial Beach

Great Scott! Ive now got more plutonium for the flux capacitor. Felmar Mationg, Imperial Beach

This stuff really works. If you think I look good, you should see my grandpa. Steve Lake, Carlsbad

If you could just take it before I lose my other two fingers. Bob Daly, Spring Valley

It will make the Tijuana River smell like a strawberry margarita. Richard B. Rothwell, Escondido

This? Oh, its just a water sample from the Childrens Pool. Randy Baker, Vista

First one is free. David Narevsky, Poway

Its like eHarmony, but I call it ePharmacy. Matthew Thomas, Fallbrook

Take this down to the cop at 34th and Vine and hopefully he will drop the charges. Peter Norland, La Jolla

Cheers! Carl Kruse, Poway

K-12

When life gives you lemons ... make radioactive superfuel. Wyatt Fries, sixth grade, Dana Middle School

I think we have some chemistry. Santiago Salas, seventh grade, Woodland Park Middle School

Side effects include ... Quinn Cox, sixth grade, Muirlands Middle School

I finally figured it out ... red and purple make fuchsia! Jacob Mationg, 11th grade, Olympian High School

Try this! Works miracles for your posture. Keira Bouzan, seventh grade, Carmel Valley Middle School

Next weeks cartoon

(Steve Breen)

To enter, email entries to cartooncontest@sduniontribune.com by 10 a.m. Tuesday. Please remember to limit your submissions to three and keep em brief. View last weeks winners.


Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, joins deliberation with deputies from central China's Henan Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for more efforts to implement the rural revitalization strategy with the chief goal to modernize agriculture and rural areas.

"The top task for implementing the rural revitalization strategy is to ensure supply of important farm produce, grain in particular," said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

He made the remarks when joining deliberation with deputies from Henan Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's national legislature.

Efforts should be made to promote the supply-side structural reform in the agricultural sector to achieve food security while building a modern and efficient agriculture, Xi added.

Xi also called for enhanced protection of agriculture ecological environment and prevention and treatment of pollution in rural areas.

Xi stressed strict penalties on crimes involving food safety so as to ensure safe farm produce for the public.

Efforts should be made to strengthen the leadership of grassroots Party units in the rural areas, Xi said, noting that the practices of rural residents' self-governance should be further explored.

Xi also called for measures to promote two-way flow and equal exchange of factors, including human resources, lands and capital, between urban and rural areas.

"The task to eradicate extreme poverty must be fulfilled by 2020," Xi stressed.

Implementation of the rural revitalization strategy and seeking progress in work related with agriculture, rural areas and farmers should be taken into consideration and promoted in the overall economic and social development, Xi said.

Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng -- members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee -- on Friday also separately joined deliberation with NPC deputies.

Premier Li Keqiang stressed building a business environment that is fair and convenient for enterprises under all forms of ownership, when joining a deliberation with deputies from Hubei Province.

He called for efforts to fully carry out the reforms of tax and fee cuts and further stimulate the market vitality.

Wang Huning, a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, asked deputies from central China's Hunan Province to take bigger steps in pushing forward high-quality development.

He also called for taking a people-centered approach to further live up to people's new expectations for their cultural lives.

Joining the deliberation of the Beijing delegation, Vice Premier Han Zheng underlined deepening the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to further relieve Beijing of functions nonessential to its role as the capital.
Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2019 -- According to the new research report "Armored Vehicles Market by Platform (Combat Vehicles, Combat Support Vehicles, Unmanned Armored Ground Vehicles), Mobility (Wheeled, Tracked), System (Engine, Drive Systems, Ballistic Armor, Turret Drive, C2 Systems), Region - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Armored Vehicles Market is projected to grow from USD 14.3 billion in 2018 to USD 16.8 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 3.25% from 2018 to 2023.



Ask for PDF Brochure:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=6322755



Increasing demand for armored vehicles due to rise in the instances of cross-border conflicts and increasing incidences of asymmetric warfare across the globe are major factors driving the growth of the armored vehicles market.



"Based on platform, the combat vehicles segment is expected to lead the armored vehicles market during the forecast period."



Based on platform, the armored vehicles market has been segmented into combat vehicles, combat support vehicles, and unmanned armored ground vehicles. The unmanned armored ground vehicles segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Increasing demand for unmanned systems in battlefields is fueling the growth of this segment of the market.



Browse in-depth TOC on "Armored Vehicles Market"



134  Tables



107  Figures



161  Pages



"Based on mobility, the wheeled segment of the armored vehicles market is projected to grow at a higher CAGR as compared to the tracked segment from 2018 to 2023."



Based on mobility, the market has been segmented into wheeled and tracked. The wheeled segment is projected to grow at a higher CAGR as compared to the tracked segment during the forecast period. Increased demand for 4x4 light armored vehicles by military forces to carry out Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) activities and transport defense personnel and equipment from one location to another is fueling the growth of this segment of the market.



"The North American region is projected to lead the armored vehicles market during the forecast period."



The North American region is projected to lead the armored vehicles market from 2018 to 2023. The growth of the market in this region can be attributed to the increasing investments being made by countries of the region to develop highly advanced and scalable armored vehicles with strong ballistic capabilities. These investments are mainly driven by the US, which is issuing contracts for the development and launch of new products. The US is also procuring light armored vehicles in large numbers and is also upgrading its fleet of main battle tanks and armored fighting vehicles with lethal capabilities. The continuous involvement of the US in various conflicts across the globe has increased the demand for armored vehicles in the North American region.



Get 10% Free Customization on this Report:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestCustomizationNew.asp?id=6322755



Major players operating in this market include Oshkosh Corporation (US), UralVagonZavod (Russia), Ukroboronprom (Ukraine), General Dynamics Corporation (US), BAE Systems plc (UK), NORINCO (China), Rheinmetall AG (Germany), and Textron Inc. (US).



About MarketsandMarkets

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Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2019 -- HTF MI recently introduced Global Carrier Ethernet Services Market study with in-depth overview, describing about the Product / Industry Scope and elaborates market outlook and status to 2023. The market Study is segmented by key regions which is accelerating the marketization. At present, the market is developing its presence and some of the key players from the complete study are Actelis, ADVA, Axerra Networks, Hitachi Cable, Huawei Technologies, Infinera, IPITEK, Juniper Networks, MRV Communications, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), Overture Networks, RAD Data, Sycamore Networks, Telco Systems, Tellabs, Transmode, Zhone & ZTE Corporation etc.



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This report studies the Global Carrier Ethernet Services market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the Global Carrier Ethernet Services market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.



Browse 100+ market data Tables and Figures spread through Pages and in-depth TOC on " Carrier Ethernet Services Market by Type (, EPL Services, EVPL Services & E-LAN Services), by End-Users/Application (Commercial, Industrial, Transportation & Others), Organization Size, Industry, and Region - Forecast to 2023". Early buyers will receive 10% customization on comprehensive study.



In order to get a deeper view of Market Size, competitive landscape is provided i.e. Revenue (Million USD) by Players (2013-2018), Revenue Market Share (%) by Players (2013-2018) and further a qualitative analysis is made towards market concentration rate, product/service differences, new entrants and the technological trends in future.



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Competitive Analysis:

The key players are highly focusing innovation in production technologies to improve efficiency and shelf life. The best long-term growth opportunities for this sector can be captured by ensuring ongoing process improvements and financial flexibility to invest in the optimal strategies. Company profile section of players such as Actelis, ADVA, Axerra Networks, Hitachi Cable, Huawei Technologies, Infinera, IPITEK, Juniper Networks, MRV Communications, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), Overture Networks, RAD Data, Sycamore Networks, Telco Systems, Tellabs, Transmode, Zhone & ZTE Corporation 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.



Market Segments:

The Global Carrier Ethernet Services Market has been divided into type, application, and region.

On The Basis Of Type: , EPL Services, EVPL Services & E-LAN Services.

On The Basis Of Application: Commercial, Industrial, Transportation & Others

On The Basis Of Region, this report is segmented into following key geographies, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share, growth rate of Carrier Ethernet Services in these regions, from 2013 to 2023 (forecast), covering

- North America (U.S. & Canada) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Opportunity Analysis}

- Latin America (Brazil, Mexico & Rest of Latin America) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis}

- Europe (The U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden & RoE) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis}

- Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Rest of Asia) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis}

- Middle East & Africa (GCC, South Africa, North Africa, RoMEA) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis}

- Rest of World {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Opportunity Analysis}



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Have a look at some extracts from Table of Content



Introduction about Global Carrier Ethernet Services



Global Carrier Ethernet Services Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017

Carrier Ethernet Services Market by Application/End Users

Global Carrier Ethernet Services Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications

(2013-2023) table defined for each application/end-users like [Commercial, Industrial, Transportation & Others]

Global Carrier Ethernet Services Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2023)

Carrier Ethernet Services Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application

Carrier Ethernet Services (Volume, Value and Sales Price) table defined for each geographic region defined.

Global Carrier Ethernet Services Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data



Additionally Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors list is being provided for each listed manufacturers



Market Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018) table for each product type which include , EPL Services, EVPL Services & E-LAN Services

Carrier Ethernet Services Manufacturing Cost Analysis

Carrier Ethernet Services Key Raw Materials Analysis

Carrier Ethernet Services Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers, Industrial Chain Analysis

Market Forecast (2018-2023)

........and more in complete table of Contents



Browse for Full Report at: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1661315-global-carrier-ethernet-services-market-5



Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.



About HTF Market Report

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".
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2019 -- The global diamond-like carbon (DLC) market is anticipated to find large players showcasing their command in terms of share. DLC manufacturers could bank on new prospects created as a result of continuous research activities conducted in the medical, electronics, and automotive industries. Most leading players such as Miba AG, Morgan Advanced Materials Plc., and Oerlikon Group are observed to establish their production bases in Austria, Belgium, Germany, and the U.K. Guidelines of Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) are causing the focus of medical device manufacturers to be more inclined toward greener engineering technologies, and DLC coating materials are one of them.



Northeast Coating Technologies' Kennebunk facility has been provided with another cutting-edge TSD 850 PVD/PACVD machine. It counts as the fifth DLC coating system with large capacity added to the facility with a view to satisfy rising demand for high-quality DLC coatings supplied by the company.



The global DLC market is foreseen in a report by Transparency Market Research (TMR) to expand at a 6.4% CAGR between 2017 and 2025. In 2016, the market achieved a valuation of US$1.3 bn.



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Demand for High-performing Automotive Components Opens up New Avenues



Medical equipment coated with DLC could be substantially produced as it attracts attention from manufacturers in the medical industry. Medical manufacturers are observed to be encouraged by swelling demand for the amorphous carbon material in the manufacture of anti-debris forming, biocompatible, anticorrosive, and wear-resistant devices.



- Demand for DLC is expected to improve on the back of increase in the requirement of high-performing and wear-resistant automotive components.

- Capable of reducing the friction coefficient, high-performing DLC coatings could achieve demand in the manufacture of locking systems and other automotive components.

- Rise in demand for DLC coatings in the manufacture of engine components for racing cars could up market growth in the near term.



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Low Friction Coefficient Boosts Potential of Hydrogen-free DLC in Automotive



DLC finds application in various end-use industries such as aerospace and industrial, cosmetics, electronics, medical, packaging, and automotive. Amongst these, the world market for DLC is projected to testify the rise of the automotive industry as a leading end user.



- Automotive components are researched to significantly improve their tribological properties as DLC coatings help accomplish a superior surface finishing.

- Automobile manufacturers are observed to focus on the use of DLC to minimize loss of friction in high temperature and stress contact operations.

- Hydrogen-free DLC coatings are used in automotive applications to enhance engine oil binding and form firm ultra-thin films after the inclusion of special oil additives.



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Dominant Europe Draws Higher Number of DLC Customers to Take Driver's Seat



In 2016, the international DLC market witnessed the lead secured by Europe accounting for a 40.0% share. The regional market has been expanding its customer base because of the presence of several top companies operating therein. With that mentioned, the global market could offer profit-making opportunities in other regions as well.



- For instance, improving economic conditions and increase in automobile import are prognosticated to act as crucial factors for the rise of Asia Pacific.

- Japan and China implementing nanotechnology policies could magnify DLC demand in the foreseeable future.

- Importing considerable volumes of DLC from the U.S., Latin America is said to be a key net importer.
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/07/2019 -- The 'F2/N2 Gas Mixture Market: Global Industry Analysis 20132017 and Forecast 20182026' report examines the F2/N2 gas mixture market and offers valuable key insights for the next eight years. Based on the key findings reported in the study, the F2/N2 gas mixture market is projected to witness lucrative demand from increasing end-use applications, such as semiconductor electronics, pharmaceuticals and plastic surface modifications, will give a boost to the growth of the F2/N2 gas mixture market during the forecast period.



In terms of volume, the F2/N2 gas mixture market is estimated to be pegged at a volume of 19,699 tons in 2018 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 3.7% and reach volume of 26,377 tons by the end of 2026.



F2/N2 Gas Mixture Market: Dynamics



The Semiconductor and Electronics industry plays a key role in growth of the manufacturing sector. The electronics industry has witnessed significant growth in Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, thereby creating high demand for semiconductors in the region. This, in turn, will boost the growth of the F2/N2 gas mixture market in these countries and regions.



F2/N2 finds many applications in the pharmaceutical segment. As a matter of fact, F2/N2 gas mixture is preferred over high pressured gases in this sector. The demand for pharmaceuticals is increasing across the globe and in turn, leading to the high consumption of raw materials used as pharmaceutical ingredients. F2/N2 gas mixture is used as an intermediate and catalyst for the manufacturing of many pharmaceutical drugs (antibiotics especially) and thus, the market is expected to register sound growth.



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Significant investments have been made for setting up of new pharmaceutical manufacturing production plants in India in recent years. This is because the cost of setting up a production plant in India is ~40% less as compared to the cost of setting up a production plant in western countries.

Conventionally F2/N2 gas mixture is used as a deposition substance to facilitate plastic surface modifications. However, F2/N2 gas mixture is also being widely used as an intermediate for the plastic surface modification.



F2/N2 Gas Mixture Market: Forecast



On the basis of growth, the F2/N2 gas mixture market is estimated to grow and become 1.4X during the forecast period owing to the growth being witnessed in end-use applications, such as semiconductor electronics, pharmaceuticals and plastic surface modification. From a geographical perspective, China, followed by South East Asia & Pacific and Japan, is anticipated to dominate the global F2/N2 gas mixture market during the forecast period. In terms of incremental $ opportunity, China is expected to represent significant incremental $ opportunity during the projected period.



By product type, the 20% F2/N2 gas mixture segment is anticipated to dominate the market and hold approximately three-fourth market volume share. The segment is anticipated to account for a volume share of 75.9% by the end of 2026 and is expected to expand at a volume CAGR of 3.8% between 2018 and 2026. On the other hand, the 10% F2/N2 gas mixture segment is expected to expand at a volume CAGR of 3.5% in between the forecast period.



Among all end-use application segments, the semiconductor electronics segment is anticipated to dominate the global F2/N2 gas mixture market with two-third market volume share during the forecast period. In terms of volume, the pharmaceutical segment is expected to hold more than one-tenth of the market share in 2018 and is expected to expand at a volume CAGR of 3.7% between 2018 and 2026. The Plastic surface modification segment is projected to witness weak growth as compared to other segments during the forecast period.



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F2/N2 Gas Mixture Market: Competitive Landscape



Some of the key players operating in the F2/N2 gas mixture market are Solvay SA, Versium Materials, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Air Liquide S.A., Hyosung Japan Co., Ltd, Ingentec Corp, Pelchem SOC Ltd and Wuxi Yuntong Gas Co., Ltd.
Penndel, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2019 -- After a company has spent the time and money in developing their products, the last thing they should have to worry about is customers' items arriving damaged or destroyed. Not only does this make the company look bad in the eyes of their customers, but it also negatively impacts the business's bottom line by requiring additional time and money to help make matters right on the level of customer service.



Surely a company could invest in wasteful plastic packaging items which are often ineffective and bad for the environment, but if they're looking for superior interior box packaging solutions, they should look no further than the protective packaging professionals at General Partition Company, Inc.



These shipping saviors have been designing and manufacturing high-quality chipboard and corrugated box partitions dating back to 1965, and are amongst the most trusted partition partners across all industries throughout the country.



Whether a company needs box partitions with special poly coating to prevent the scratching or scuffing of their products, or their items require a custom tailored packaging solution, the design and engineering professionals at General Partitions Company, Inc. have both the knowledge and know-how to help streamline the shipping process for any company they have the pleasure of serving.



Individuals who are looking for an environmentally responsible way to protect their company's products through the tosses and tumbles of the shipping process should get in touch with the friendly and accommodating team at General Partition Company, Inc. by giving them a call today at 1-888-501-4685 or by visiting them at https://www.generalpartition.com/ and receiving a free quote by filling out the contact form online.



About General Partition Company, Inc.

General Partition Company, Inc. is a Bucks County, Pennsylvania-based organization providing durable and versatile box partitions for a wide variety of implementations. They manufacture partitions comprised of chipboard, corrugated cardboard and Solid Bleach Sulfite (SBS).



General Partition Company, Inc. also has services to assist businesses plan and engineer intelligent shipping solutions using their box partitions. Their delivery services have a reputation for being fast and reliable. They also accommodate special orders like unique labeling. Reach General Partition Company, Inc. by phone nationwide at 888-501-4685.



For more information, please visit: http://www.generalpartition.com/.
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2019 -- Ferrochromium, also known as Ferrochrome, is an alloy of iron and chromium containing 50 to 70% of chromium. It is produced by electric arc melting of chromium ore and chromite. Ferrochromium is consumed extensively in the manufacturing of steel to achieve the qualities such as corrosion resistance, tensile strength, heat resistance and yield strength. The global ferrochromium market is anticipated to be in deficit to cater the increasing global steel market in near future. Ferrochromium is mostly produced in India, China, South Africa and Kazakhstan because of large chromite resources found in these countries. The global ferrochromium market is witnessing a modest single digit CAGR growth up till now and is expected to continue in future.



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Ferrochromium is having its maximum share of consumption in steel industry and due to the ever increasing construction and demand of steel the global ferrochromium market is forecasted to flourish. In order to get a continuous supply of raw material for ferrochrome, China has established its operations in the countries like Turkey, South Africa, Philippines and Zimbabwe which would boost the global ferrochromium market in future. Due to the favourable conditions like lower electricity price and lower labour cost in upcoming markets like China, the production cost reduces comparatively. This will boost the production of ferrochrome to suffice its increasing demand and will contribute in global ferrochromium market.



The global ferrochromium market can get hampered because of the increase in the export tax and fixed export quotas imposed by South Africa on chrome ore, owing to the concern of losing ferrochromium market to China. South Africa is having a significant market share in global ferrochromium market but there are concerns of power supply and higher production cost which would lead to the closure of small competitors and is estimated to slowdown the global ferrochromium market.



Based on the carbon percentage, the global ferrochromium market is segmented as -Extra low carbon ferrochromium powder,Low carbon ferrochromium powder,High carbon ferrochromium powder,Extra high carbon ferrochromium powder



Based in the available form, the global ferrochromium market is segmented as Ferrochromium slag,Ferrochromium powder



Based on the application, the global ferrochromium market is segmented as Ball bearing steels,Acid resistant steels,Cast irons,Powder metallurgy,Others (civil engineering, refractory materials)



The global ferrochromium market can be divided into five regions, namely North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific is having the maximum market share in global ferrochromium market, China and India are the countries having an excellent steel market, so these countries are significant in the consumption of ferrochrome. China is expanding its capacity to import chrome ore for the production of ferrochrome from the countries like South Africa, Turkey, Zimbabwe. Middle East and Africa are also marking a significant growth in the global ferrochromium market, Especially South Africa is having plenty of chromite resources for the production of ferrochrome. Europe is an emerging market in the field of ferrochrome and is anticipated to have a considerable market in future due to the flourishing automobile sector in the region. North America and Latin America is at a nascent stage in the global ferrochromium market.



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Some of the key players in global ferrochromium market are, Nava Bharat Ventures Limited, VISA STEEL, Balasore Alloys Limited, Aarti Steels Ltd, SR Group, Vyankatesh Metals & Alloys Pvt. Ltd
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2019 -- Vitrectomy is a surgery that includes removing vitreous gel from the middle of the eye. Vitrectomy surgery usually occurs when there is a retinal detachment or blood in the vitreous gel that do not clear itself. Vitrectomy is done by an eye doctor with specialized training on vitrectomy procedures. This surgery provide better access to the eye doctor to the back of the eye for better diagnosis and treatment. Vitrectomy procedure includes use of a small tool to remove the vitreous gel to better treat indication such as retinal detachment, vitreous hemorrhage, and scar tissue on the retina, tears or holes in the macula. Vitrectomy surgery can improve vision in people who have traction retinal detachment. Once vitrectomy surgery is complete patients also under go several additional surgery steps such as silicone gel, saline or a gas bubble injected into the vitreous gel to help hold the retina in position. Vitrectomy is usually differentiated into two types such as Posterior Pars Plana Vitrectomy and Anterior Vitrectomy. The vitrectomy performed for disease of the posterior segment of the eye is called Posterior Pars Plana Vitrectomy. In rare cases, vitreous gel comes through the pupil to the anterior part of the eye which can happen due to trauma, complex cataract, cornea, glaucoma surgery.



The Vitrectomy Systems is segmented based on product types such as vitrectomy packs, vitrectomy machines, instruments and accessories. Vitrectomy system contains high advanced features for the better patient treatment.



The global market for Vitrectomy Systems market is expected to be driven by the increasing number of eye hospitals, increasing prevalence of retinal detachment, vitreous hemorrhage, holes in macula etc. The key drivers of the market are the increasing geriatric patients and growing trauma cases. The increasing concerns with healthcare problems, increasing experienced practitioners and growing knowledge of several treatment procedure is also expected to grow the virectomy system market.



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The Vitrectomy Systems is classified on the basis of product, indication, end user and geography.



Based on product, the global vitrectomy systems is segmented into the following:



Probes

Laser systems

Phacoemulsifiers systems

Others



Based on indication, the global vitrectomy systems is segmented into the following:



Retinal detachment

Macular pucker

Diabetic retinopathy

Macular holes

Vitreous hemorrhage

Vitreous floaters

Others



By end users, the global vitrectomy systems is segmented into the following:



Hospitals

Specialized Eye Clinics

Ambulatory Surgical Centers

Others



The increasing investment by the government and public organizations to provide better healthcare quality is expected to drive the market. Based on the product vitrectomy systems are based on products used such as probes, laser systems, phacoemulsifiers systems and others.



By indications, the global vitrectomy systems has been segmented into Retinal detachment, macular pucker, diabetic retinopathy, macular holes, vitreous hemorrhage, vitreous floaters and others



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By end users, the global vitrectomy systems has been segmented into hospitals, specialized eye clinics, ambulatory surgical centers and others



By regional presence, Vitrectomy Systems is segmented into five key regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. North America will continue to dominate the vitrectomy systems market due to high occurrence of this eye disease in this area and better availability of healthcare facilities, better disposable income. Europe is expected to hold second largest market share in global vitrectomy systems. The increasing focus towards better healthcare system and the increasing geriatric populations in APAC region is expected to grow the vitrectomy systems market in this region.



Some of the major players in global vitrectomy systems includes Leica Microsystems, Optomic, Medical Experts Group, Orion Medic, Chammed, Topcon, Alcon and others.
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/07/2019 -- Linear alpha olefin are alkenes that have a terminal double bond between the first and second carbon atom. The double bond between the first and the second carbon atom makes these olefins useful in a large number of applications. Linear alpha olefins are used to manufacture products such as polymers (LLDPE and HPDE), synthetic lubricants, synthetic acids, oilfield chemicals, detergent intermediates, and additives. Traditionally, linear alpha olefins have been manufactured by oligomerization of ethylene and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Of late, companies such as Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, Sasol Limited, and The Dow Chemical Company have developed new processes for manufacturing linear alpha olefin.



Key factors driving the linear alpha olefin market include increasing demand for poly alpha olefins in the automotive industry and rising demand for polyethylene in the packaging industry. Demand for linear alpha olefin is expected to increase due to the growth in the demand for LLDPE in packaging and construction industries. This is prompting companies to increase the production of linear alpha olefin. Additionally, easy availability of raw materials is anticipated to boost the demand for linear alpha olefin in the near future.



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The global linear alpha olefin market is witnessing technological advancements. Companies are constantly striving to develop new and better linear alpha olefin. Development of new manufacturing process of linear alpha olefin and applications is estimated to propel the linear alpha olefin market. However, implementation of stringent environmental regulations and volatility in prices of raw materials are projected to adversely affect market growth.



Based on type, the linear alpha olefin market can be classified into 1-Butene, 1-Hexene, 1-Octene, 1-Decene, 1-Dodecene, 1-Tetradecene, 1-Hexadecene, and others. 1-Hexene is the most commonly used type of linear alpha olefin. It is used as co-monomer due to its excellent chemical properties.



Linear alpha olefin is employed in a wide range of applications due to their chemical properties. Based on application, the market can be segmented into detergent alcohol, synthetic lubricant, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), and others. The low-density polyethylene (LDPE) segment accounted for significant share of the linear alpha olefin in 2016 owing to the high demand for these linear alpha olefins in the global plastics industry.



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In terms of geography, the linear alpha olefin market can be divided into North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. North America is anticipated to constitute key share of the market during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is estimated to be a rapidly growing region of the linear alpha olefin market, owing to the increase in demand in the automotive industry in the region. Middle East & Africa is also likely to be an attractive region of the linear alpha olefin market during the forecast period due to the rise in demand in the packaging industry in the region.



Prominent players operating in the global linear alpha olefin market include Royal Dutch Shell plc, Sasol Limited, Qatar Chemical Company Ltd (Q-Chem), Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, and The Dow Chemical Company.
In the suit Cohen filed in New York state Supreme Court, Cohen claimed that the Trump Organization had a "contractual agreement" with him to pay him for his legal work and costs he incurred for his work "with and on behalf of" company officials. He said he is owed $1.9 million in legal fees and another $1.9 million for money he has had to forfeit to the government for work he did for the Trump Organization.

Cohen once declared that he would "take a bullet" for the real estate mogul who became president. But Cohen broke off his relationship with Trump after federal agents raided Cohen's New York properties in April 2018. Last week, in public testimony before a congressional committee, Cohen described Trump as a racist, a con man and a cheat.

Michael Cohen, who for a decade was U.S. President Donald Trump's personal attorney and fixer, sued the Trump Organization on Thursday, claiming he is owed $3.8 million in legal fees and money he spent on behalf of Trump's business empire but now is being forced to forfeit because of the ongoing criminal case against him.

The work for the Trump Organization, the lawsuit said, involved dealing with the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, who for 22 months has been probing Trump campaign links to Russia and whether Trump, as president, obstructed justice by trying to thwart the probe. Mueller is nearing the end of his investigation and could soon turn over his concluding report to the U.S. Justice Department.

Cohen has pleaded guilty to financial crimes and lying to Congress on Trump's behalf. He has been ordered to report to prison in May to start a three-year term.

In the last week, Cohen has testified for four days before congressional panels, in public for a day and behind closed doors for three days, about his actions on behalf of Trump before and after he became president. He has testified that at Trump's direction he made or helped facilitate $280,000 in hush money payments to an adult film actress and a Playboy model shortly before the 2016 election to keep them quiet about sexual encounters they claim to have had with Trump more than a decade ago, affairs Trump has denied.

Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress by claiming in early 2017 that Trump had ended his efforts a year earlier to secure rights to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, when actually the overtures extended until mid-2016. Cohen said Trump signaled to him how he was to testify but did not direct him to lie.

In his public testimony, Cohen said he had not sought a pardon from Trump. "I have never asked for it, nor would I accept a pardon from President Trump," Cohen said.

But that claim has now come under scrutiny. Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis on Thursday acknowledged that Cohen, before he broke off relations with Trump last year, had his then-attorney "explore the possibilities of a pardon" with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and other lawyers advising Trump.
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2019 -- This report studies the global market size of Luxury Bedding in key regions like North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Central & South America and Middle East & Africa, focuses on the consumption of Luxury Bedding in these regions.



This research report categorizes the global Luxury Bedding market by players/brands, region, type and application. This report also studies the global market status, competition landscape, market share, growth rate, future trends, market drivers, opportunities and challenges, sales channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis.



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Bedding, also known as bedclothes or bed linen, is the materials laid above the mattress of a bed for hygiene, warmth, protection of the mattress, and decorative effect. Bedding is the removable and washable portion of a human sleeping environment. Multiple sets of bedding for each bed will often be washed in rotation and/or changed seasonally to improve sleep comfort at varying room temperatures. In American English, the word bedding generally does not include the mattress, bed frame, or bed base (such as box-spring), while in British English it does. In Australian and New Zealand English, bedding is often called Manchester, in this report, we use American standards. And the Luxury Bedding.



Europe was the largest revenue market with a market share of 34.22% in 2012 and 32.63% in 2017 with an increase of -1.59 %. North America and China ranked the second and third market with the market share of 26.81% and 10.80% in 2016.



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Luxury Bedding companies are mainly from Europe and United States, the industry concentrate rate is low. The top three companies are WestPoint, Pacific Coast and Hollander, with the revenue market share of 9.80%, 6.99% and 5.67% in 2016.

The growth of the Luxury Bedding market is largely driven by downstream applications. What is more, governments of numerous countries are encouraging the adoption of new kinds of coatings as they are eco-friendly and cost-efficient.



In 2017, the global Luxury Bedding market size was 2140 million US$ and is forecast to 2590 million US in 2025, growing at a CAGR of 2.4% from 2018. The objectives of this study are to define, segment, and project the size of the Luxury Bedding market based on company, product type, application and key regions.



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The various contributors involved in the value chain of Luxury Bedding include manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, intermediaries, and customers. The key manufacturers in the Luxury Bedding include

WestPoint

Pacific Coast

Hollander

Sferra

Frette

CRANE & CANOPY

Sampedro

ANICHINI

Luolai

John Cotton

DEA

Yvesdelorme

KAUFFMANN

1888 Mills

Fabtex

Remigio Pratesi

Canadian Down & Feather

K&R Interiors

Downlite

BELLINO

Garnier Thiebaut

Peacock Alley



Market Size Split by Type

Three Piece-suit Bedclothes

Duvet

Pillow

Mattress Protectors

Other Objects

Market Size Split by Application

Personal

Hotel

Other



Market size split by Region

North America

United States

Canada

Mexico

Asia-Pacific

China

India

Japan

South Korea

Australia

Indonesia

Singapore

Malaysia

Philippines

Thailand

Vietnam

Europe

Germany

France

UK

Italy

Spain

Russia

Central & South America

Brazil

Rest of Central & South America

Middle East & Africa

GCC Countries

Turkey

Egypt

South Africa



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Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/07/2019 -- HTF MI released a new market study on Global Military Drone Market with 100+ market data Tables, Pie Chat, Graphs & Figures spread through Pages and easy to understand detailed analysis. At present, the market is developing its presence. The Research report presents a complete assessment of the Market and contains a future trend, current growth factors, attentive opinions, facts, and industry validated market data. The research study provides estimates for Global Military Drone Forecast till 2025*. Some are the key players taken under coverage for this study are AVIC, CASC, Xi'an Aisheng, GA-ASI, Northrop Grumman Corp., IAI & Thales.



Click to get Global Military Drone Market Research Sample PDF Copy Here @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1673898-global-military-drone-market-1



Important Features that are under offering & key highlights of the report :



1) What all companies are currently profiled in the report?

Following are list of players that are currently profiled in the the report "AVIC, CASC, Xi'an Aisheng, GA-ASI, Northrop Grumman Corp., IAI & Thales"



** List of companies mentioned may vary in the final report subject to Name Change / Merger etc.



2) Can we add or profiled new company as per our need?

Yes, we can add or profile new company as per client need in the report. Final confirmation to be provided by research team depending upon the difficulty of survey.



** Data availability will be confirmed by research in case of privately held company. Upto 3 players can be added at no added cost.



3) What all regional segmentation covered? Can specific country of interest be added?

Currently, research report gives special attention and focus on following regions:

North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific etc



** One country of specific interest can be included at no added cost. For inclusion of more regional segment quote may vary.



4) Can inclusion of additional Segmentation / Market breakdown is possible?

Yes, inclusion of additional segmentation / Market breakdown is possible subject to data availability and difficulty of survey. However a detailed requirement needs to be shared with our research before giving final confirmation to client.



** Depending upon the requirement the deliverable time and quote will vary.



Enquire for customization in Report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1673898-global-military-drone-market-1



To comprehend Global Military Drone market dynamics in the world mainly, the worldwide Military Drone market is analyzed across major global regions. HTF MI also provides customized specific regional and country-level reports for the following areas.



- North America: United States, Canada, and Mexico.

- South & Central America: Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.

- Middle East & Africa: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Egypt and South Africa.

- Europe: UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Russia.

- Asia-Pacific: India, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia.



2-Page profiles for 10+ leading manufacturers and 10+ leading retailers is included, along with 3 years financial history to illustrate the recent performance of the market. Revised and updated discussion for 2018 of key macro and micro market influences impacting the sector are provided with a thought-provoking qualitative comment on future opportunities and threats. This report combines the best of both statistically relevant quantitative data from the industry, coupled with relevant and insightful qualitative comment and analysis.



Global Military Drone Product Types In-Depth: , Fixed-wing, Helicopter & Multi-rotor



Geographical Analysis: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific etc



In order to get a deeper view of Market Size, competitive landscape is provided i.e. Revenue (Million USD) by Players (2013-2018), Revenue Market Share (%) by Players (2013-2018) and further a qualitative analysis is made towards market concentration rate, product/service differences, new entrants and the technological trends in future.



Competitive Analysis:

The key players are highly focusing innovation in production technologies to improve efficiency and shelf life. The best long-term growth opportunities for this sector can be captured by ensuring ongoing process improvements and financial flexibility to invest in the optimal strategies. Company profile section of players such as AVIC, CASC, Xi'an Aisheng, GA-ASI, Northrop Grumman Corp., IAI & Thales 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 Full Copy Global Military Drone Report 2018 @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1673898



In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Global Military Drone are as follows:

History Year: 2013-2017

Base Year: 2017

Estimated Year: 2018

Forecast Year 2018 to 2025



Key Stakeholders/Global Reports:

Military Drone Manufacturers

Military Drone Distributors/Traders/Wholesalers

Military Drone Subcomponent Manufacturers

Industry Association

Downstream Vendors



Browse for Full Report at @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1673898-global-military-drone-market-1



Actual Numbers & In-Depth Analysis, Business opportunities, Market Size Estimation Available in Full 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.
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/07/2019 -- Persistence Market Research's report titled "n-Hexane Market: Global Industry Analysis 20132017 and Forecast 20182026" examines the n-hexane market and offers valuable key insights for the next eight years. On the basis of the key findings reported in the study, the n-hexane market is anticipated to witness significant demand from end-use applications such as oil extraction, polymerization, pharmaceuticals, rubber processing, adhesive & sealant, industrial cleaning & degreasing and others (Inks, Glues, leather dressing, etc.)



With a value CAGR of 4.5%, the n-hexane market is expected to reach US$ 2,967.1 Mn in 2026 from a value of US$ 2,089.0 Mn in 2018. The n-hexane market is pegged to create an incremental $ opportunity worth US$ 878 Mn between 2018 and 2026.



n-Hexane Market: Dynamics



n-Hexane plays a key role in industries as an oil extraction agent. It can also improve yield for a variety of seeds and is easy to recycle, which make it the preferred compound in oil extraction processes. Thus, n-Hexane is anticipated to witness strong demand from the oil extraction industry over the forecast period. Rising population in emerging economics, coupled with the increasing demand for oil, is expected to boost the demand for n-Hexane. Among all regions, Asia-Pacific is a prominent market for n-Hexane. Additionally, n-Hexane has many applications in end use industries such as, cleaning, adhesives & sealants, pharmaceutical, textile etc. Increasing demand of n-hexane from the end-use industries as a result of economic growth, especially in emerging markets such as China and India drives the n-hexane market.



Request sample Report@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/12709



n-Hexane Market: Forecast



The global n-hexane market is estimated to grow 1.4X during the forecast period, owing to the growth of applications such as oil extraction, pharmaceuticals, polymerization and rubber processing. From a geographical perspective, China, followed by North America, is expected to dominate the global n-hexane market over the forecast period. On the basis of incremental $ opportunity, Europe is estimated to account for US$ 178.6 Mn in 2018 and is expected to reach US$ 679.7 Mn by the end of 2026.



On the basis of purity, the >90% segment is expected to be a key segment in the market with a value of US$ 1,589.2 Mn in 2018. The segment is anticipated to account for more than three-fourths of the market value share in the n-hexane market during the forecast period. On the basis of growth, the <90% segment is anticipated to grow at a moderate growth rate when compared to then >90% segment in the global n-hexane market during the second half of the forecast period.



Among all grade segments, the oil extraction segment is anticipated to be a prominent segment in the global n-hexane market during the forecast period. In terms of volume, the industrial grade segment is expected to hold approximately one-third of the market share in 2018 and remain prominent throughout the forecast period. The incremental $ opportunity created by the industrial grade segment is pegged to be two-thirds of the incremental $ opportunity created by the overall market.



On the basis of application, the oil extraction segment is estimated to hold more than half the market share in terms of value and volume. Oil extraction is expected to be a significant segment in the market throughout the forecast period, followed by the polymerization segment. In terms of incremental $ opportunity, the pharmaceuticals application segment is expected to create an incremental $ opportunity worth US$ 64.2 Mn in the global n-hexane market between 2018 and 2026.



Request TOC@ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/12709



n-Hexane Market: Competitive Landscape



ExxonMobil Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, ndian Oil Corp. Ltd, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd, Rompetrol Rafinare S.A., Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Dongying Liangxin petrochemical company, Liaoning Yufeng Chemical Co., Ltd., DHC Solvent Chemie GmbH and Sak Chaisidhi Company Limited are some of the key participants covered in this study on the n-Hexane market.
Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2019 -- Global Online Community Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 is latest research study released by HTF MI evaluating the market, highlighting opportunities, risk side analysis, and leveraged with strategic and tactical decision-making support. The study provides information on market trends and development, drivers, capacities, technologies, and on the changing capital structure of the Global Online Community Software Market. Some of the key players profiled in the study are Zoho Connect, CypherWorx, Adobe, eXo Platform, Jive, Magentrix, PlushForums, Socious, VERINT, Higher Logic, Kavi, Next Wave Connect, Small World Labs, Yourmenmbership & Vanilla.



Enquire for customization in Report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/900372-global-online-community-software-market-1



In 2017, the global Online Community Software market size was million US$ and it is expected to reach million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of during 2018-2025.



Online Community Software Market Overview:

If you are involved in the Online Community Software industry or intend to be, then this study will provide you comprehensive outlook. It's vital you keep your market knowledge up to date segmented by Small and Medium Businesses & Large Businesses, , Public Online Community Software, Private Online Community Software & Hybrid Online Community Software and major players. If you have a different set of players/manufacturers according to geography or needs regional or country segmented reports we can provide customization according to your requirement.



Online Community Software Market: Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2023

Research study is to define market sizes of various segments & countries in previous years and to forecast the values to the next 5-8 years. The report is designed to comprise each qualitative and quantitative elements of the industry facts including: market share, market size (value and volume 2012-17, and forecast to 2023) with admire to each of the areas and countries concerned inside the examination. Furthermore, the report additionally caters the detailed statistics about the vital elements which includes drivers & restraining factors which will define the future growth of the market.



You can get free access to samples from the report here: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/900372-global-online-community-software-market-1



Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year  2013-2017

Base year  2018

Forecast period**  2018 to 2023 [** unless otherwise stated]



**Moreover, it will also include the opportunities available in micro markets for stakeholders to invest, detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product services of key players.



The designated segments and sub-section of the market are explained below:



The Study is segmented by following Product Type: , Public Online Community Software, Private Online Community Software & Hybrid Online Community Software



Major applications/end-users industry are as follows: Small and Medium Businesses & Large Businesses



Some of the key Manufacturers Involved in the Market are  Zoho Connect, CypherWorx, Adobe, eXo Platform, Jive, Magentrix, PlushForums, Socious, VERINT, Higher Logic, Kavi, Next Wave Connect, Small World Labs, Yourmenmbership & Vanilla



For each region, market size and end users are analyzed as well as segment markets by types, applications and companies. If opting for the Global version of Online Community Software Market analysis is provided for major regions as follows:

- North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)

- Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)

- Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)

- South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)

- Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)



Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/900372-global-online-community-software-market-1



Key Answers Captured in Study are

Which geography would have better demand for product/services?

What are the strategies adopted by big players in the regional market?

Which country would see the steep rise in CAGR & year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth?

What is the current & expected market size in next five years?

What is the market feasibility for long term investment?

What opportunity the country would offer for existing and new players in the Online Community Software market?

What is risk involved for suppliers in the geography?

What factors would drive the demand for the product/service in near future?

What is the impact analysis of various factors in the Global Online Community Software market growth?

What are the recent trends in the regional market and how successful they are?



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There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Online Community Software market.

Chapter 1, About Executive Summary to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global Online Community Software market, Applications [Small and Medium Businesses & Large Businesses], Market Segment by Regions United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India;

Chapter 2, objective of the study.

Chapter 3, to display Research methodology and techniques.

Chapter 4 and 5, to show the Overall Market Analysis, segmentation analysis, characteristics;

Chapter 6 and 7, to show the Market size, share and forecast; Five forces analysis (bargaining Power of buyers/suppliers), Threats to new entrants and market condition;

Chapter 8 and 9, to show analysis by regional segmentation[United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India ], comparison, leading countries and opportunities; Regional Marketing Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis

Chapter 10, focus on identifying the key industry influencer's, overview of decision framework accumulated through Industry experts and strategic decision makers;

Chapter 11 and 12, Market Trend Analysis, Drivers, Challenges by consumer behaviour, Marketing Channels and demand & supply.

Chapter 13 and 14, describe about the vendor landscape (classification and Market Positioning)

Chapter 15, deals with Global Online Community Software Market sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.



Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia or Oceania [Australia and New Zealand].
Edison , NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2019 -- Physical security is the defense of software, personnel, hardware, data, and networks from actions that can cause harm to an organization. Physical security helps the organization by protect them against fire, terrorism, vandalism, and theft. Physical security can be provided by using numerous physical security devices such as CCTV surveillance, access control protocols, intruder alarms, Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS), Access Control as a Service (ACaaS), and other similar techniques. High Adoption of IoT-Based Security Systems with Cloud Computing Platforms will help to boost the global physical security market. The market study is being classified and major geographies with country level break-up.



This market research report looks into and analyzes the Global Physical Security Market and illustrates a comprehensive evaluation of its evolution and its specifications. Another aspect that was considered is the cost analysis of the main products dominant in the Global Market considering the profit margin of the manufacturers.



Get Free PDF Sample Pages of Physical Security Market Report: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/sample-report/8814-global-physical-security-market



Major Key Players in This Report Include,

ADT Inc. (United States), Bosch Building Technologies (Germany), Cisco Systems, Inc. (United States), Honeywell International Inc., (United States), Johnson Controls International plc, (United States), Anixter International Inc. (United States), Genetic (Canada), Secom Co., Ltd (Japan), G4S plc (United Kingdom) and Pelco by Schneider Electric (United States)



The research methodology used to estimate and forecast the Physical Security Market began with capturing data from the key vendors' revenue and market size of the individual segments through secondary sources, industry associations, and trade journals, such as the World Analytics Association and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. The bottom-up procedure was employed to arrive at the overall market size of the market from the individual segments. After arriving at the overall market size, the total market was split into several segments and subsegments, which were then verified through primary research by conducting extensive interviews with the key industry personnel, such as Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Vice Presidents (VPs), directors, and executives. The data triangulation and market breakdown procedures were employed to complete the overall market engineering process and arrive at the exact statistics for all the segments and subsegments.



On the basis of geography, the market of Physical Security has been segmented into South America (Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America), Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Rest of Asia-Pacific), Europe (Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Rest of Europe), MEA (Middle East, Africa), North America (United States, Canada, Mexico). North America region held largest market share in the year 2018. If we see Market by Industry Vertical, the sub-segment i.e. BFSI will boost the Physical Security market.



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The Global Physical Security Market in terms of investment potential in various segments of the market and illustrate the feasibility of explaining the feasibility of a new project to be successful in the near future. The core segmentation of the global market is based on product types, SMEs and large corporations. The report also collects data for each major player in the market based on current company profiles, gross margins, sales prices, sales revenue, sales volume, photos, product specifications and up-to-date contact information.



Table of Content

1. Market Overview

1.1. Introduction

1.2. Scope/Objective of the Study

1.2.1. Research Objective

2. Executive Summary

2.1. Introduction

3. Market Dynamics

3.1. Introduction

3.2. Market Drivers

3.2.1. Increasing Cases of Terror Attacks

3.2.2. Implementation of Mobile-Based Access Control

3.3. Market Challenges

3.3.1. Rising Need of High Capacity Storage

3.3.2. Device Vulnerability and Probabilities of Systems Being Hacked

3.3.3. Fueling Demand of High Bandwidth for Data Transfer

3.4. Market Trends

3.4.1. Growing Adoption of IP-Based Cameras for Video Surveillance

3.4.2. High Adoption of IoT-Based Security Systems with Cloud Computing Platforms

4. Market Factor Analysis

4.1. Porters Five Forces

4.2. Supply/Value Chain

4.3. PESTEL analysis

4.4. Market Entropy

4.5. Patent/Trademark Analysis

5. Global Physical Security, by Industry Vertical, Service, System and Region (value) (2013-2018)



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Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2019 -- Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective and safest ways to prevent diseases. Pneumococcus is one of the major causes of blood infection, pneumonia, sinusitis, meningitis, and otitis media. It is also a leading infectious disease. However, it can be prevented with the help of vaccination. Majority of countries have pneumococcal vaccines in their national immunization program for children aged under 1 year. Increase in pneumococcal diseases due to causative serotype drives the need for vaccines with broader coverage. Hence, demand for new pneumococcal vaccines with wider serotype coverage is rising.



Read Report Overview: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pneumococcal-vaccines-market-2018-2026.html



Despite the availability of antibiotic therapy against pneumococcal disease, it remains a significant cause of death among people with increased susceptibility such as the elderly and people suffering from immunosuppressive conditions or chronic illness. However, prevalence of pneumococcal disease has declined in countries that introduced pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV). Meanwhile, efforts are underway to introduce pneumococcal vaccines in other countries as well. Companies also plan to introduce new and affordable PCVs, especially for the developing countries. There has also been an increase in investment in research and development to develop new vaccines at lower cost.



The global pneumococcal vaccines market has been segmented based on product type, distribution channel, sector, and region. In terms of product type, the global market has been classified into Synflorix, Prevenar-13, PCV 13 (pipeline), V114 (Merck), PCV-20 (Pfizer), PCV-10 (SII), and PPSV- 23. Each of the product segments has been divided into pediatric and adults. Based on distribution channel, the global market has been categorized into wholesalers (pharmacy channel), specialized companies, public authorities, and others. In terms of sector, the global pneumococcal vaccines market has been bifurcated into private and public. Based on region, the global market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Rest of the World.



In terms of product type, Prevenar-13 dominated the global market in 2017, accounting for 77.3% share. Prevenar-13 is Pfizer, Inc.'s largest brand, which has been one of the most widely adopted 13-valent PCV vaccines across the world. However, higher cost of the vaccine and entry of new vaccines are projected to hamper sales from 2018 to 2026.



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Based on distribution channel, the wholesalers (pharmacy channel) segment dominated the global pneumococcal vaccines market in 2017. Vaccine distribution in Europe and some countries in Asia Pacific follows a traditional pharmaceutical supply chain, and wholesalers are dominant in these countries. However, shortage of vaccines and difficulty in accessing essential vaccines in several countries have led to the entry of public authorities in the overall supply and distribution of vaccines. Hence, the wholesalers segment is expected to lose market share from 2018 to 2026. Increase in participation by regional and national governments along with non-profit organizations for availability, supply, and distribution of pneumococcal vaccines in emerging countries is anticipated to boost the growth of the public segment between 2018 and 2026.



In terms of sector, the private segment dominated the global pneumococcal vaccines market in 2017. The U.S., the U.K., Germany, and other major countries in Europe, along with emerging markets such as India are dominated by the private sector engaged in procurement, distribution, and pricing of pneumococcal vaccines. Entry of non-profit organizations such as GAVI, UNICEF, and WHO is projected to result in higher procurement of vaccines in terms of volume (doses procured) by the public sector. However, involvement of these authorities in price negotiations of sourced vaccines from manufacturers is likely to lead to lower share of the public sector in terms of revenue (US$ Mn) of the global pneumococcal vaccines market from 2018 to 2026.



In terms of region, the global pneumococcal vaccines market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. North America dominated the global market in 2017, accounting for 57.9% share owing to strong sales of Prevenar-13 in the U.S. Pneumococcal conjugated vaccine (PCV) has been part of routine vaccine immunization in Canada and the U.S. since 2000. These countries have also witnessed highly-effective results since the vaccine was introduced. Investments by government organizations and private companies have also increased for the promotion of vaccination and research & development of new vaccines. North America has also emerged as a primary center for several vaccine manufacturers. PCV is also a part of vaccination programs in countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, Albania, Greece, and Serbia. Increase in incidence of pneumococcal diseases in countries in APEJ also presents an opportunity for companies producing pneumococcal vaccines. Brazil is witnessing a significant increase in pneumococcal diseases. Hence, various programs are being introduced in Brazil to increase vaccine coverage.



Major players operating in the global pneumococcal vaccines market include Pfizer, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., SK Chemicals, Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd., Chengdu Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Sanofi, and Walvax Biotechnology Co., Ltd.



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About Transparency Market Research

Transparency Market Research is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Our experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information.



Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.
Edison , NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2019 -- Waterproof Watch Market explores effective study on varied sections of Industry like opportunities, size, growth, technology, demand and trend of high leading players. It also provides market key statistics on the status of manufacturers, a valuable source of guidance, direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry. The study covers a detailed analysis segmented by key business segments i.e. by type (Quartz watches and Mechanical watches), by application (Bath, Snorkeling, Diving and Others) and major geographies. Research Analyst at AMA predicts that United States and Swiss Vendors will contribute to the maximum growth of Global Waterproof Watch market throughout the predicted period.



This market research report looks into and analyzes the Global Waterproof Watch Market and illustrates a comprehensive evaluation of its evolution and its specifications. Another aspect that was considered is the cost analysis of the main products dominant in the Global Market considering the profit margin of the manufacturers.



Get Free PDF Sample Pages of Waterproof Watch Market Report: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/sample-report/24971-global-waterproof-watch-market



Major Key Players in This Report Include,

Michel Herbelin (France), DAVOSA (United States), EPOS (Israel), Tissot (Switzerland), Montblanc (Germany), ROLEX (United Kingdom), CASIO (United States), OMEGA (Switzerland), Longines (Switzerland), Patek Philippe (Switzerland)



The research methodology used to estimate and forecast the Waterproof Watch Market began with capturing data from the key vendors' revenue and market size of the individual segments through secondary sources, industry associations, and trade journals, such as the World Analytics Association and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. The bottom-up procedure was employed to arrive at the overall market size of the market from the individual segments. After arriving at the overall market size, the total market was split into several segments and subsegments, which were then verified through primary research by conducting extensive interviews with the key industry personnel, such as Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Vice Presidents (VPs), directors, and executives. The data triangulation and market breakdown procedures were employed to complete the overall market engineering process and arrive at the exact statistics for all the segments and subsegments.



The Waterproof Watch Market study is being classified by Type, by Application and major geographies with country level break-up that includes South America (Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America), Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Rest of Asia-Pacific), Europe (Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Rest of Europe), MEA (Middle East, Africa), North America (United States, Canada, Mexico).



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The Global Waterproof Watch Market in terms of investment potential in various segments of the market and illustrate the feasibility of explaining the feasibility of a new project to be successful in the near future. The core segmentation of the global market is based on product types, SMEs and large corporations. The report also collects data for each major player in the market based on current company profiles, gross margins, sales prices, sales revenue, sales volume, photos, product specifications and up-to-date contact information.



Table of Content

1. Market Overview

1.1. Introduction

1.2. Scope/Objective of the Study

1.2.1. Research Objective

2. Executive Summary

2.1. Introduction

3. Market Dynamics

3.1. Introduction

3.2. Market Drivers

3.2.1. Increasing Demand for Watches Due To Customer Inclination towards Swimming

3.2.2. Attraction towards Waterproof Sport Watches

3.3. Market Trends

3.3.1. Adoption of Smart Waterproof Watches

3.3.2. Rising Demand Due To Attractive Promotional Strategies

4. Market Factor Analysis

4.1. Porters Five Forces

4.2. Supply/Value Chain

4.3. PESTEL analysis

4.4. Market Entropy

4.5. Patent/Trademark Analysis

5. Global Waterproof Watch, by Type, Application, Distribution Channel, End User and Region (value, volume and price) (2013-2018)



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A group of U.S. tactical reconnaissance aircraft of the U.S. Forces Korea returned to their home base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on Thursday after spending an unusually long 40 days in Japan.

The U-2 spy planes often fly to Japan when they train with the U.S. Forces Japan, but this time they spent more than 40 days there even though they did not participate in any drills.

"Four U-2s returned to Osan Air Base today after being temporarily deployed at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa since Jan. 23," a government official here said Thursday. "They collected intelligence about North Korea from there while participating in the U.S. military's intelligence activities across East Asia."

Their main job, however, is monitoring and taking pictures of various targets in the North from an altitude of 15,000 m.


Seoul Metro has decided to ban political posters such as those congratulating President Moon Jae-in on his birthday that were plastered all over some subway stations last year.

Seoul Metro said Thursday it set up new advertising guidelines to prohibit posters voicing private opinions about a particular social issue or congratulating individual politicians.
The 40,350gt Seabourn Encore will sail on a Golden Austral Summer voyage from Auckland on February 21, 2020, calling at Tauranga, Picton, Wellington, Akaroa, Dunedin and Stewart Island.

The 604-passenger mega yacht will then cruise around Fjordland National Park and Milford Sound before crossing the Tasman to call at Melbourne, Phillip Island and Eden, arriving in Sydney on March 8.

Classes for passengers

Weil, who has been described as an American celebrity doctor and a guru of integrative medicine, which combines traditional medicine with alternate therapies, will give lectures and classes on board Encore.

He will be supported by Dr Victoria Maizes, executive director of the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine; Dr Kenneth Pelletier, clinical professor of medicine at the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco; Canadian-born Dr Julia Rucklidge, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand; and Dr Karen Koffler, who has trained in acupuncture, mindfulness-based stress reduction and ReCODE (a programme for the reversal of cognitive decline).

A growing phenomenon'

Wellness is a growing phenomenon, and rightly so, as people around the world seek to live better, healthier and more mindfully for the benefit of their overall well-being, Seabourn president Rick Meadows said.
Since its inception, the government department of shipping has advanced significantly with the restructuring plan, aiming at making Cypriot maritime administration even more modern, efficient and flexible regarding the services it provides to shipping companies related to Cyprus, said the Chamber.

Noting a study has made important suggestions for the restructuring the Ministry, the CSC said. "The next important step, is the preparation of a national shipping strategy aimed at providing services to existing shipping companies and attracting new ones" which will further reduce unemployment and strengthen the economy.

Stressing all should work together to achieve these goals, the CSC said: "The common goal of all stakeholders should be the continued and further development and improvement of Cyprus shipping, thus enabling us to respond to the ever-evolving demands of the world economy and international competition.

Indeed, head of the year-old Ministry, Natasa Pilides, says a prime aim is to maintain a close liaison with all clients, both abroad and resident.

Since the birth of the Shipping Ministry, there has been a significant rise in companies joining the Cyprus tonnage tax system, says Pilides when explaining how important it is to keep in touch with clients who provide useful feedback on their needs.

If people in Cyprus are happy, it really helps us with our image outside of Cyprus, she says, adding we are one of very few countries in the world which has successfully grown from registry to cluster".

She said: "Weve tried to consistently improve our standard, now and for many years, being a high-quality, white flag. She also maintains: "People at the Deputy Ministry are motivated not because of any personal gain, but because they really want to see the industry progress. We are all working for this common goal; and I think the industry itself, is also working towards that goal. Its great that everybody is trying to develop the cluster.

Read more: Cyprus Deputy Shipping Minister stresses quality and sophistication in growing maritime cluster

As part of this development Cyprus is set to introduce a "maritime specialisation direction in the curriculum of selected technical schools in the public sector, if possible by September, Pilides has revealed. Pilides said the Shipping and Education Ministries, are working on the project.

Speaking on the 'It's All About Shipping' programme, she explained: We are doing a lot of work to reverse seafarer reduction in Cyprus and we would love to see more Cypriot people getting involved in this profession. There will always be a great demand, even with automation.

Pilides sees this as an opportunity for young people, noting how shipping is one of the most protected and coveted professions, because of the high standards required by ILO and the IMO saying that in this respect it is one of the best professions to choose.

Pilides said shipping is an industry of opportunities for the younger generation. We are working very hard as a global community, not only as Cyprus, to make sure shipping remains sustainable", she said.

Further on seafarers, Pilides said they will soon be able to upload their CVs to be matched with job openings, while digitalisation of the ministrys records and an electronic ship registration process is be enhanced. Among other developments to present the industry, is a digital marketing campaign, as well as a promotional campaign through roadshows, conference participation and one-to-one meetings with important shipping companies and stakeholders in key countries.

Indeed, when asked: Why Cyprus for shipping? Pilides stressed the caliber of human talent available in Cyprus, saying "it is amazing, which is definitely a great asset", while the other thing about Cyprus, is that "the cluster is so united, everybody contributes and everybody feels part of the team".
Press Release

March 7, 2019 Hibla Travelling Exhibition Goes to Japan The Hibla ng Lahing Filipino Travelling Exhibition will be launched in Tokyo, Japan, Senator Loren Legarda announced today. The National Museum of the Philippines, in partnership with the Office of Senator Loren Legarda, the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in Tokyo, Japan, and the ASEAN Promotion Centre on Trade, Investment and Tourism (ASEAN-Japan Centre), will launch the Hibla Travelling Exhibition at the Siazon Hall, Philippine Embassy in Tokyo, Japan on March 8, 2019. This will be the exhibit's first launch in Asia after a successful run in Europe and the United States. It features pina-seda woven fabrics including those handwoven and embroidered by Balete, Aklan weavers Raquel Eliserio and Carlo Eliserio, and Laguna embroiderers Lolita Pereza and Loreto Maestre, Jr. "I am proud of our efforts to promote our local weaving traditions in the international community and to bring them closer to Filipinos abroad through our Hibla travelling exhibitions," said Legarda. She added, "Traditional textiles are ties that bind. It links the past to the present and brings together cultures, which, no matter how diverse, has a commonality. It is in this premise that the Hibla ng Lahing Filipino textile gallery was born in 2012 and now has gone international." Legarda said that the travelling exhibition is an offshoot of the Hibla ng Lahing Filipino: The Artistry of Philippine Textiles permanent gallery at the National Museum of Anthropology, which is her brainchild. The first Hibla Travelling Exhibition was held in London in October 2017, and was incorporated in the Cultural Diplomacy Program of the different Philippine Service Posts in Europe and United States of America, namely: Lisbon, Portugal; Madrid, Spain; Frankfurt, Germany; Washington, D.C.; New York City; and Hawai'i. The Hibla ng Lahing Filipino Travelling Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan, will run from March 9 to 31, 2019, at the Siazon Hall, Embassy of the Philippines, 5-15-5 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. About Hibla Textile Gallery The Hibla ng Lahing Filipino: The Artistry of Philippine Textiles at the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila is the country's first permanent textile gallery. It is a project spearheaded by Senator Loren Legarda. During the soft opening of the gallery in March 2012, the National Museum also launched the Senator Loren Legarda Lecture Series on Philippine Traditional Textiles and Indigenous Knowledge, which explores the aesthetics, material culture and processes of ethnic identity along with skills and information-generation through fabric. It later evolved into interactive lectures and demonstrations featuring weavers and embroiderers from different parts of the country. In July 2017, the National Museum launched the first Hibla regional gallery, the Abel Iloko at the Ilocos Regional Museum and Satellite Office in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, which was also supported by Legarda. In December 2018, the National Museum also launched the Habol Panay: the Woven Artistry of Western Visayas, a permanent textile gallery in the Visayas. In October 2017, the first Hibla ng Lahing Filipino Travelling Exhibition was held at the Philippine Embassy in London. "We will have more Hibla travelling exhibitions and many more Hibla regional galleries will soon rise in our country, and we hope that someday we will have not only galleries, but one whole Hibla Museum. Through these we hope to promote greater support for cultural enterprises and creative industries of our indigenous peoples and deeper appreciation of our heritage," said Legarda.
Press Release

March 8, 2019 De Lima joins women's groups' call vs misogyny As the nation observes the International Women's Day today (March 8), Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has joined women's groups in their outrage at how women have been badly treated and portrayed by the Duterte administration. In her message during a press conference at St. Scholastica's Archives Museum in Manila last March 6, De Lima said it is time for all women to act and speak out against Mr. Duterte's constant insults, misogynist remarks and foul jokes against them. "The unmistakable odor of a decaying system can no longer be masked by misogynist remarks and rape jokes that are now consistently being used to lend humor to presidential speeches. This is why we know our fight for gender equality is on the right track," she said. "For the women who became victims of injustice, for the mothers who lost their loved ones to EJKs, for the women who laid down their lives, patuloy tayong manindigan upang makamit ang hustisya at mapigilan ang pagbabalik ng diktadurya sa ating bayan," she added. De Lima's message was read by Jean Enriquez of the World March of Women, one of the women's groups which convened to demand a stop to the misogynism they have been experiencing under Mr. Duterte and his administration. The women's groups announced that they will hold a rally dubbed as "Tama na! Sulong Kababaihan" where they will convene in front of the La Madre Filipina (The Filipino Mother) statue in Luneta Park, Manila today March 8. Leaders and representatives of various women's groups present at the press conference were from One Billion Rising, #BabaeAko, #EveryWoman, Gabriela and Akbayan, among others. Led by former presidential peace adviser Ging Deles and Sr. Mary John Manazan, the women rights activists disapproved Mr. Duterte's unjust treatment of women, especially of outspoken leaders like De Lima, considered as a Prisoner of Conscience. "Sa administrasyong Duterte, nabigyan na ng lisensya ang mambastos ng harap-harapan. Tayo ay sawang sawa na sa ganito," Deles said. Stage actress Monique Wilson, also director of One Billion Rising, expressed her support for De Lima whom she referred to as an unfortunate symbol of the political persecution under the hands of Mr. Duterte and his allies. "We know that you have also been targeted as a symbol of the many other attacks happening to women who hold a high position in this land. Sa lahat po ng aming struggles, sa lahat po ng aming laban, kasama po namin kayo," Wilson said. While she is aware that fighting for the rights of women under the present administration is not a walk in the park, the lady Senator from Bicol said she remains optimistic that the battle for gender equality can be won when all women remain united. "Saksi tayo sa ginagawang pagmamaliit at pag-atake ni Duterte sa mga kababaihan, lalung-lalo na sa mga kababaihang patuloy na tumututol sa mga paglabag sa karapatang pantao, pagkakanulo sa soberanya ng ating bansa at pagyurak sa diwa ng kalayaan at demokrasya ng rehimeng ito," she said. A known women human rights defender, De Lima has authored and co-authored several bills and resolutions advocating women's rights, including Senate Resolution No. 670 seeking to strengthen compliance in the execution of gender-responsive programs by GAD to bridge the gap between men and women and Senate Bill No. 1438 focusing on the protection of women in state custody.
Victims of forced labor during World War II have asked a court to seize the assets of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Korea, which failed to obey a Supreme Court ruling in November to compensate Korean victims.

According to victims' representatives, Yang Geum-deuk and three other victims of forced labor have asked a court to seize two trademarks and six patents in Korea held by Mitsubishi.

If it authorizes the seizure, the Japanese company will not be allowed to sell the patented rights without consent from the victims.

Another Korean court in January authorized the seizure of assets held in Korea by Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, which had also failed to pay between W100 million and W150 million each to a group of victims (US$1=W1,129).

Tokyo is furious at the move and insists that all compensation claims were settled under a 1965 treaty normalizing diplomatic relations in return for a lump sum payment, but the Supreme Court here last year ruled that the treaty cannot override individual victims' claims.


Press Release

March 8, 2019 End all attacks against women - De Lima In the celebration of International Women's Day today (March 8), Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has joined the chorus of women leaders here and around the world in calling for an end to all forms of misogynist attacks against women. De Lima, one of the most distinguished women human rights defenders, said there is an urgent need to stop despots and looming authoritarians in many parts of the world from impeding the progress of women in building a more gender-balanced society. According to her, the small and big triumphs of women globally towards gender equality are getting wasted because of the rise of "strong men" like Mr. Duterte who promotes sexism and misogyny with impunity. "Let us all come together in our common defense of human rights. Let us fight with renewed vigor for the dignity of women and equality of everyone. Let us work for a safer and more humane world for all of us," she said. "End misogyny and other attacks, onward women!," she added. In highlighting the war that Duterte is waging against women in the country, the lady Senator from Bicol recalled repeated instances where Mr. Duterte threatened violence against the opposite gender. She noted that in just two months into his presidency, Mr. Duterte already launched his tirade against her by tagging her as an "immoral woman" and later used his political machinery to unjustly arrest and detain her for opposing his war on drugs. De Lima also recalled that Duterte also incited violence against women when he encouraged Filipino soldiers that they could each rape up to three women with impunity when he declared martial law in Mindanao in 2017. She also recalled how Mr. Duterte has publicly instructed the military to shoot female rebels in their vagina to render them "useless." "The hostility of these 'strong men' towards female empowerment is obvious. They view women as a force that threaten their hold on power, in the same way that political opposition and human rights defenders are being seen as unnecessary checks on their undemocratic behavior and policies," she noted. "The politics of bigotry and misogyny being practiced by autocrats and demagogues in many countries [i]s seriously chipping away the considerable gains in the global struggle towards fully empowering women and fostering gender balance," she added. Aside from the Philippines, the former justice secretary cited United States of America, Russia, Brazil, Hungary, and Poland as among the countries where prejudice and attacks against women remain rampant. "International Women's Day is a global day to celebrate women empowerment and promote gender equality. In recent years, however, the many achievements of, and for women are getting repudiated as authoritarianism and 'strongman' populism are on a steady rise in the different regions of the world," she said. Amid the continued struggle towards women empowerment and equality of everyone globally, De Lima urged women leaders and human rights advocates to cooperate with other activist groups, some enlightened inter-government bodies and a number of progressive governments to stop the authoritarian and populist resurgence. "With will, determination and solidarity, we can still defeat the politics of hatred and the growing culture of intolerance and impunity in our midst," she said. Aware of the worsening abuses against women under the Duterte administration, De Lima earlier filed Senate Bill No. 1438 which seeks to provide protection of women in state custody and Senate Resolution No. 670 calling for a Senate inquiry into the implementation of the Gender and Development plans and programs under the present administration.
Press Release

March 8, 2019 Onward, Women!

Our Collective Fight for Dignity and Equality

MESSAGE ON THE OCCASION OF THE 2019 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY International Women's Day is a global day to celebrate women empowerment and promote gender equality. In recent years, however, the many achievements of, and for women are getting repudiated as authoritarianism and "strongman" populism are on a steady rise in the different regions of the world. The politics of bigotry and misogyny being practiced by autocrats and demagogues in many countries - most notably the United States of America, Russia, Brazil, Hungary, Poland and the Philippines -- is seriously chipping away the considerable gains in the global struggle towards fully empowering women and fostering gender balance. In my country, President Rodrigo Duterte is waging a war against women. He has repeatedly threatened violence against us. In 2017, he informed Filipino soldiers, when he declared martial law in Mindanao, that they could each rape up to three (3) women with impunity. In 2018, he instructed the military to shoot female rebels in their vagina to render them "useless". And even before these incidents, in August 2016, just two (2) months into his presidency, Duterte started vilifying me, tagging me as an "immoral woman", and eventually causing my unjust arrest and detention for more than two (2) years now for opposing his bloody "war on drugs" and many other anti-human rights policies. The hostility of these "strong men" towards female empowerment is obvious. They view women as a force that threaten their hold on power, in the same way that political opposition and human rights defenders are being seen as unnecessary checks on their undemocratic behavior and policies. Hence, in our call for empowerment of women and equality of everyone all over the world, women leaders and human rights advocates should work together and earnestly with other activist groups, along with enlightened inter-government bodies and a number of progressive governments. This new political movement is what we need to confront and stop this authoritarian and populist resurgence. With will, determination and solidarity, we can still defeat the politics of hatred and the growing culture of intolerance and impunity in our midst. Let us all come together in our common defense of human rights. Let us fight with renewed vigor for the dignity of women and equality of everyone. Let us work for a safer and more humane world for all of us. End misogyny and other attacks! Sulong, kababaihan! (Onward, women!) LEILA M. DE LIMA Custodial Center, Camp Crame 8 March 2019
Judge T.S. Ellis sentenced former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison on Thursday. Simply put, Judge Ellis's sentence is an injustice. It fails to adequately punish Manafort for committing a series of deliberate crimes over many years, and it sends terrible messages to the public about our criminal justice system.



...Today's sentence sends a corrosive two-pronged message to the American public. First, Manafort openly flouted the criminal justice system at every step and still got an enormous break. Following his arrest, Manafort got caught trying to tamper with witnesses, which caused Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., to revoke his bail and send him to jail to await trial. He went to trial in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he denied culpability but was found guilty by a jury on eight counts. He then pleaded guilty to even more crimes and purported to try to cooperate with Mueller, but instead told more lies to Mueller and the FBI. Even today at sentencing, the judge found that Manafort did not accept responsibility.



Second, as Mueller noted in his sentencing memo, Manafort committed crimes repeatedly, deliberately, and over many years, stealing millions of dollars from the U.S. government to support his absurdly lavish lifestyle (everybody remembers the ostrich coat). Yet Manafort received about the same sentence that I've countless times seen given to a typical low-level, nonviolent, first time drug offender in the federal system.

Just under 4 years, including time already served, and a $50,000 fine. What a fucking joke.[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Under the blunt headline " A Shockingly Lenient Sentence for Paul Manafort ," former federal and state prosecutor Elie Honig writes at CNN:Judge Ellis, in handing out this paltry sentence, made sure to announce that the sentence was not for crimes of collusion. (He also noted that Manafort has 'lived an otherwise blameless life' and 'has earned the admiration of a number of people.' Gross. Also: Incorrect.) And it's accurate that Manafort was being sentenced only on fraud charges in this case, but it's telling and troubling that the judge felt it was important to say.Manafort will face another sentencing next week. Honig explains: "He could end up with a maximum sentence of ten years in that proceeding, which Judge Berman Jackson might choose to run concurrent to (at the same time as) or consecutive to (on top of) the 47 months sentence in Virginia."To be honest, I'm less interested in the time to which Manafort was sentenced (as I am, to put it mildly, not a fan of incarcerating people) than I am interested in the fine. Ellis also ordered Manafort to pay $24.8 million in restitution, which he will almost certainly never pay, which is why the fine should have been heftier.Also because that, too, sends a message. And a fine that would have been pocket change for Manafort while he was at the top of his corruption game is frankly not a message that communicates what he did wasn't worth it.
Fibre network services provider, Vocus reported results recently which were well received by investors with the shares jumping over 10% on the day, as the companys revenues held fairly well, and profitability was in line with expectation; amidst managements 3-year turnaround programme. The shares have been re-rated strongly over the past year, but under the leadership of turnaround specialist, Kevin Russell and with a clear growth path we have a positive view on the investment case at current levels.

Starting from the top and revenues for the group came in circa 1% higher year-on-year to $974.2 million, with Vocus Networks-Services (VNS) reporting substantial year-on-year growth on the back of a major contract win with the Australian government. There was also a modest contribution from the New Zealand business. Despite the positives, there was continued weakness in the consumer and business units from cannibalisation, due to the ongoing National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout.

As a result of this development, management emphasised their plan to go around the unprofitable NBN offering. We are pleased with managements business sense as evidenced by Mr Russells desire to focus the company towards fibre infrastructure  its core competency  as well as offering a higher value mobile broadband offering to grab a more profitable slice of the market.

Moving on, we have a closer look at the divisional level, starting with the VNS business. As noted above, the division won a lucrative contract with the Australian government in January to scope out the design construction and procurement for the Australia-Papua New Guinea-Solomon Islands subsea cable. This resulted in a sizeable $60 million contribution to revenue growth.

There was also organic growth in enterprise sales as well as NBN sales, resulting in revenues for the segment growing 27% to $360.9 million while EBITDA registered a more modest 3% year-on-year growth to $166.9 million. This smaller increase was largely due to the government contract and NBN growth contributing lower margins.

Going forward, management has reiterated their outlook for the FY19, and expects underlying EBITDA (including LTI costs) should fall in the range of $350 and $370 million by this August. Though this expectation is conservative relative to the FY18 result of $366 million. Note that this factors in the ongoing 3-year turnaround programme, which will carry its share of restructuring costs; thus, an expectation of this level is a positive sign for the company.

All in all, we are pleased with the progress and momentum of the turnaround (as per results), especially with Mr Russell only 6 months in to a 3-year makeover. Rome wasnt built in a day, and we believe management have laid out a realistic roadmap to restore shareholder value. Vocus plans to double revenue from the core Australian and New Zealand infrastructure businesses over the next five years.

Disclosure: Interests associated with Fat Prophets declare a holding in Vocus.

Greg Smith is the Head of Research at investment research and funds management house Fat Prophets.

To get access to further research from Fat Prophets please CLICK HERE





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North Korean state media continue to portray the abortive summit with the U.S. as a roaring success, but the truth is trickling in through the border with China.

The North Korean regime seems to have tightened controls to limit the damage, but rumors are rampant that officials responsible for the failure of the summit will be purged.

Japan's Tokyo Shimbun daily on Thursday cited an unnamed source as saying, "News that the Hanoi summit had failed is spreading quickly around Sinuiju and other border regions through merchants passing through China."

South Korea's National Intelligence Service "told lawmakers in a briefing that there were high expectations among North Koreans over the summit, but disappointment is apparent following the failed talks," the daily said.

"There is a lot of disappointment [among North Koreans] being voiced over continued sanctions," a source here said. "There are concerns that prices of sanctioned products like car parts will rise even further."
Airport officials said low-cost airline Indigo was keen to connect Agra with major destinations in India taking advantage of the facilities under the Udaan scheme.

Agra: Tourism industry leaders in this Taj city are upbeat, hoping for a major boost once flights from Bangaluru, Bhopal, Lucknow and Varanasi start from May under the Udaan regional connectivity scheme.

Agra is presently connected by air with Jaipur and Khajuraho. The number of visitors who came by air touched 11,907 between April to November 2018. "The lone flight from Jaipur has proved its worth," tourist guide Ved Gautam said.

Work on a new Rs 400 crore terminal building at the Kheria airport, now renamed Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Airport, is expected to begin soon.

In the past there have been several initiatives to connect Agra by air to international destinations but according to local tourism industry leaders, "interest-groups and the Delhi lobby of travel agents and hoteliers" somehow always managed to stall the plans.

Agra Civil Aviation Society Secretary Anil Sharma said Agra's international airport project was hijacked by politicians to Jewar in Bulandshahar district.

Senior tourism industry leaders have been repeatedly complaining about the lack of air connectivity, which had thwarted growth of tourism in Agra, the only city with three World Heritage monuments.

"Smaller cities have regular flights but not India's tourist destination number one," rues Anil Sharma, spearheading the movement for an international airport at Agra for the past three years.

"The city's growth is stunted. Because of the total lack of forward planning, there is neither the will nor any major policy push being contemplated by the state government, which had made many promises at the time of elections," according to senior tourism industry leader Surendra Sharma, founder of the Agra Hotels and Restaurants Association.

Agra is one of India's top tourist destinations. Yet, it lacks basic infrastructure, and thus cannot take advantage of the interest generated in India and its tourist attractions, Sharma added.

"What could be more amazing than the fact that there are no flights and no air connectivity with Agra? Our demand for a decent civil airport in Agra was for long put in cold storage.

"Surely regular flights to Agra will change the face of tourism. A lot of time is wasted because tourists visit Agra by road. If they could save a few hours, night stay in the city will increase and visitors would be able to see the cultural programmes. We have to do a lot of work on the cultural front to make sure that tourists extend their stay in Agra. Only then will the city gain from tourism," said Yashwant of the Kalakriti Auditorium, that daily runs the popular 90-minute-long "Mohabbat the Taj" programme.

Hoteliers in Agra welcomed the initiative which will increase the footfalls and raise the occupancy rate.

Agra is annually visited by over 7 million tourists. "The number is all set to go up, once the city starts receiving international flights," a hotelier said.
The second Friday of March, the exam season and there are five Tamil releases. They are Kannan directed Atharva Murali  RJ Balaji entertainer with a social message Boomerang which is releasing in 340 screens in Tamil Nadu.





The other Tamil releases are Kathirs first cop film Sathru, Bharats horror thriller Pottu, Spot and Kabila Vasthu. The big Hollywood tent pole release Captain Marvel is releasing wide and has also a Tamil dubbed version.





The Hindi release of the week is Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsees thriller Badla. The lone Malayalam release is June, which releases a few weeks after its release in Kerala.




A panel of government officials, taxi firms and drivers and ride-hailing app providers has finally found a compromise on ride-sharing services.

The panel on Thursday agreed to allow the ride-sharing services in Seoul during the morning and evening rush hours from 7-9 a.m. and 6-8 p.m. on weekdays.

In return, taxi drivers will be paid monthly salaries to ensure a steady income and allowed to offer parcel and food deliveries. Currently they pay their companies daily rental for the taxi and keep whatever they make on top of that.

The Minjoo Party helped engineer a compromise between taxi drivers, who have protested vociferously, and Kakao Mobility, the ride-sharing app run by the messaging giant.

The panel was set up after a cab driver set himself on fire early this year and taxi unions rallied against the launch of Kakao's ride-sharing app since October last year.

The proposal will be put to vote at the National Assembly later this month. But the deal heavily favors conventional taxi drivers, and while the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions both hailed it as a "broad agreement," ride-sharing service providers complain that the government merely created more red tape.
North Korea is reportedly rebuilding a missile launch site in Tongchang-ri and U.S. President Donald Trump said, "I would be very, very disappointed in [North Korean leader Kim Jong-un] -- and I don't think I will be -- but we'll see what happens. We'll take a look. It'll ultimately get solved."

Satellite images show a mobile structure at the site has returned to its original location eight months after the North claimed it shut down the facility. While efforts to force North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons have hit a snag, Trump wants to take the credit for at least getting the North to halt test launches of long-range missiles. That is why he has thrown Kim yet another gift by scrapping joint military exercises with South Korea. Now Trump is sending Kim a warning amid signs of resumed activity at Tongchang-ri just two days after their summit in Hanoi ended abruptly without an agreement.

The latest summit clearly showed that Kim's denuclearization pledge was a lie. It also became clear that Kim's hopes of faking denuclearization to get the international community to ease sanctions have failed. Another fact that became evident is that Kim is under enormous pressure at home due to the sanctions and the North is in a critical situation. From now on, North Korea's denuclearization must be addressed solely based on these facts.

North Korean officials, who were full of beans ahead of the Hanoi summit, appear to have been caught completely off guard when Trump got up and walked away. They had fallen victim to the same brinkmanship that had served them so well in negotiations with the U.S. so far. In fact, the North Koreans practically clung on to Trump's trouser legs as he was packing his bags and offered to expand the scope of facilities they could scrap at Yongbyon. What they were most scared of, of course, was Kim returning home without winning any concessions on the sanctions. Now the North Korean regime is going all out to ensure that its people do not find out that the summit collapsed. In other words, the sanctions are proving extremely effective.

Kim will give up his nuclear weapons only when he realizes he could be toppled unless he relinquishes them, and at present, sanctions are the only way to make him realize this. The U.S. Congress has begun looking into ways to bolster existing sanctions against North Korea, while the White House has begun to fix weak points in its ship-tracking system that the North has used to evade sanctions. The U.S. has it in its power to achieve North Korean denuclearization after all.


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In celebration of International Womens Day on Friday, March 8th 2019, the Council of Ministers has decided to grant all female Civil Servants half day off starting from 1:00 pm where the function permits. The public should be aware that due to the gender composition of some of the Ministries, some of the service-oriented departments might close at 1:00 pm.

The Council of Ministers recognizes the importance of the invaluable contribution female Civil Servants continue to offer to the Government and people of Sint Maarten. Female Civil Servants are represented throughout all the various Departments and Ministries of Government. A quick scan of the Civil Service core indicates that women account for almost 60 % of the workforce in Government.

As Government continues in its quest to execute the governing program, Building a Sustainable Sint Maarten and considering the importance of women in achieving this objective. The Council of Ministers saw it fit to offer time off as a reasonable compensation on this special day. Productivity and innovation throughout Government remains a top priority and a healthy, energized and motivated civil service core is key to achieving the strategic objectives as outlined.

Additionally, the Council of Ministers is asking all women in the community to go out and support the events that are scheduled on the Womens Desk Calendar of Events for the Womanity Fest that runs from March 8th to April 13th. Some of the events includes a 1000 Women March on March 9th, Prominent Women Gala Dinner & Award and SXM Women Strong expo.

The Council of Ministers is encouraging all persons in the community to set aside some time during their busy schedules on March 8th to recognize and appreciate the women in their lives on International Womens Day. The Council of Ministers has also taken note that International Mens Day will be celebrated on November 19th, as such a similar recognition will be decided upon as the time draws near.


Page Content

Miss Keshia Richards, a young and dynamic former student of the Milton Peters College and no stranger to the Cabinet of Sint Maarten in the Netherlands, achieved her Masters degree in notary law on 27th of February 2019 at Leiden University. Together with her proud parents, Miss Richards, now a candidate notary, visited the Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten in The Hague, where she informed the Minister of her plans to return home to the island to begin her career as a candidate notary at an established firm on the island.

She came to the Netherlands about 10,5 years ago where after 4 years later she achieved her bachelors in Groningen at the Hanze Hogeschool, specializing in International Law and Dutch Law. Keshia opted to further her studies at the Leiden university specializing in notary law. After 4 years she has now graduated with a background in family and succession law.

Despite hardships and at times being discouraged and being told that this line of study was not suited for her and that she was not capable enough to see this through, she persevered it and not only achieved her second bachelors in Notary Law, but can now proudly boast after having achieved her Masters.

The daughter of Mr. Franklyn Richards former lieutenant governor and Mrs Angela Richards through faith and the support of a strong family unit is a clear role-model and example to many young scholars who have travelled to the Netherlands to pursue higher education, minister Wuite states. Through perseverance and a clear goal, students can and will achieve their highest potentials with which they are of great value to a country in development and charting a new course, Sint Maarten.

The minister congratulated the proud parents and commended them for the great job they have done in giving Keshia the necessary tools during her upbringing through which she was able to achieve her goals. She further applauded Keshia on her decision to return to the island to practice and carry out her duties on Sint Maarten, stating that many before her had chosen to remain in the Netherlands to jumpstart the professional careers.Sint Maarten is clearly in need of young professionals with law degrees in order to strengthen SXM professionals on key positions. The tendency of headhunters in the Netherlands is to recruit young professionals from the Caribbean, as they perform well on the job market. Thus it is commendable when our own choose to return to the islands to carry on their professional careers, which certainly is a win-win for all..


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Cherry blossom season attracting record number of travelers to Japan

From:ChinaDaily | 2019-03-08 07:28

In the cherry blossom season in March and April, it is expected that a record number of Chinese visitors will travel to Japan to view the flowers, fueled by further relaxation of Japanese visa requirements, especially for college students.

According to Qunar, an online travel firm that was acquired by Ctrip, China's largest online travel agency, in the past three years, the number of Chinese people who booked trips though the platform to see cherry blossoms in spring in Japan jumped by more than 30 percent for three consecutive years.

As of November, the number of visitors from the Chinese mainland traveling to Japan surged to a record 8 million in 2018, with their total spending exceeded 100 billion yuan ($14.9 billion).

"With the growing popularity of themed tours, more Chinese people want to take personalized and tailored trips based on their own preferences, and a trip to view cherry blossom is a good example," said Harry Huang, president of Qunar ticketing business group.

With different dates for cherry blossoms in different regions in Japan, Chinese visitors started to search and compare travel information almost 26 days ahead of their planned trip on average, and Tokyo is the top overseas destination for cherry blossom viewing, Qunar found.

This year, among the Chinese visitors who have plans to view cherry blossoms in Japan, female visitors account for 61 percent, and the majority of them are aged between 24 and 35. Chinese visitors aged 52 and above are also becoming a new growth point for trips to view cherry blossoms in Japan, according to Qunar.

Visitors from Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin make up the majority of the total, while the numbers of visitors from Chengdu, Sichuan province, and Chongqing have seen the fastest increases. Besides, Wuhan in Hubei province, Qingdao in Shandong province, Xi'an in Shaanxi province and Kunming in Yunnan province have become the top domestic cities for cherry blossom viewing.

Meanwhile, prices for flights to Japan are expected to remain largely unchanged from last year's levels during the February-March period. Several carriers have launched new routes connecting China and Japan, to meet the growing demand of visitors wanting to see cherry blossoms.

In addition to departures from major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, some domestic carriers launched new flights departing from Shandong, Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces. Tianjin Airlines, Japanese airline ANA, and Korean Air have introduced special round-trip packages priced between 1,800 yuan and 2,300 yuan, including tax, according to Qunar.
World's biggest sovereign wealth fund to decide on dumping oil



Oslo, March 8 (AFP) Mar 08, 2019



Norway will announce on Friday whether its sovereign wealth fund, which is the world's biggest and has been fuelled by petrodollars, will divest its oil and gas holdings in a decision keenly awaited by climate activists.

While the decision is said to be based solely on financial considerations and not on the environment or climate change, a divestment by an investor worth more than $1 trillion would be a major blow to polluting fossil fuels.

Finance Minister Siv Jensen is expected to present the government's position at a press conference at 12:15 pm (1115 GMT).

Norway's central bank, tasked with managing the mammoth fund -- commonly referred to as the "oil fund" but formally known as the Government Pension Fund -- made headlines in November 2017 when it called for the divestment of oil stocks in order to reduce the Norwegian state's exposure to the volatile oil sector.

"This advice is based exclusively on financial arguments and analyses of the government's total oil and gas exposure," the bank's deputy governor Egil Matsen said at the time.

It "does not reflect any particular view of future movements in oil and gas prices or the profitability or sustainability of the oil and gas sector," he added.

In Norway, the biggest hydrocarbon producer in western Europe, oil and gas represent almost half of exports and 20 percent of the state's revenues.

All revenue from the state-owned oil and gas companies are placed in the sovereign wealth fund, which Oslo then taps to balance its budget.

In order to limit the state's exposure in the event of a steep drop in oil prices -- as was the case in 2014 -- the idea would be to no longer allow the fund to invest in oil stocks and sell its existing holdings.

At the end of 2018, the fund had holdings worth around $37 billion in the oil sector, with significant stakes in Shell, BP, Total and ExxonMobil among others.



- Victory for climate fight -



Given the sums involved, a divestment would likely take years, but it would be seen as a clear victory in the fight against global warming at a time when the world is at pains to meet its Paris treaty goals.

While the climate change aspect is not officially part of Norway's justification for the move, a sell-off would "obviously be very important", said Greenpeace, which has campaigned for divestment for years.

Norway "could be a role model and show that it is entirely possible to have a fund that both makes money, with moderate risks, and stays out of oil and natural gas," said Martin Norman of Greenpeace's Norwegian branch.

Last year, a panel of experts appointed by the government advised against divesting oil stocks, arguing it would only have a marginal impact on Norway's oil exposure.

But business newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv reported on Thursday that there are indications the rightwing government is nonetheless leaning in that direction.

Friday's announcement is scheduled just hours before the annual congress for the Liberal party, a junior member of the coalition currently struggling in the polls and in need of a political victory to boost its popularity.

The decision is also important given the fact that the positions taken by the fund -- which controls 1.4 percent of global market capitalisation -- are closely watched by other investors.

In another significant move, the fund has already pulled out of the coal industry, both for environmental and financial reasons.

phy/po/dl/ecl

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SpaceX Dragon's final test: making it to Earth in one piece



Washington, March 8 (AFP) Mar 08, 2019



Crew Dragon, the new vessel built by SpaceX for NASA is set to return Friday off the coast of Florida -- the most perilous part of a mission to prove it can take US astronauts to the International Space Station.

Dragon will undock from the ISS Friday at 0731 GMT. Five hours later, the capsule will leave Earth orbit and re-enter the atmosphere, testing its heat shield. Splashdown is expected at 8:45am Eastern Time (1345 GMT).

"I'd say hypersonic re-entry is probably my biggest concern," Elon Musk, the founder and head of SpaceX, said last Saturday following the capsule's launch from the Kennedy Space Center.

"Will the parachutes deploy correctly? And will the system guide Dragon 2 to the right location and splashdown safely?" he asked.

The mission has been hitch-free thus far. Dragon docked with the ISS Sunday without incident, and the space station's three current crew members were able to open the hatch and enter the capsule. They closed the airlock Thursday.

This time around, Dragon's own crew member is a dummy, named Ripley. But if all goes well, the next flight will see two US astronauts book a return trip to the ISS, sometime before the end of the year, according to NASA.

Its descent will be broadcast in its entirety by NASA and SpaceX, thanks in large part to a camera embedded in Dragon.

A NASA spokesman told AFP a drone would be on hand to try to film the capsule, which will be slowed by four parachutes as it falls.

Long lens cameras have also been loaded onto the salvage boat. SpaceX did not broadcast images of Dragon's interior during the flight up to the ISS.



- Like Apollo -



NASA and the administration of President Donald Trump have spent all week extolling the historic nature of the mission.

It represents the first private space mission to the ISS, as well as the first time a space vessel capable of carrying people was launched by the US in eight years.

Dragon also marks a return to a "vintage" format: it is the first US capsule since the pioneering Apollo program of the 1960s and 70s.

Capsules have no wings and fall to the earth, their descent slowed only by parachutes -- much like the Russian Soyuz craft, which land in the steppes of Kazakhstan.

The last generation of US spacecraft, the Space shuttles, landed like airplanes. Shuttles took American astronauts to space from 1981 to 2011, but their cost proved prohibitive, while two of the original four craft had catastrophic accidents, killing 14 crew members.

After the program was retired, the US government, under then president Barack Obama, turned toward SpaceX and Boeing to develop a new way to ferry its crews, paying the firms for their services.

Due to development delays, the switch has come to fruition only Trump.

For now, Russia will continue to be the only country taking humans to the ISS. NASA buys seats for its astronauts, who train with their cosmonaut counterparts.

Russia, for its part, has not seemed particularly enthused with the success of the Dragon flight.

While the space world was busy congratulating SpaceX and NASA last Saturday, Roskomos tweeted only the following day, praising the US space agency (not SpaceX) but insisting the "safety of flights should be irreproachable," a pointed reference to technical objections Russians had raised on Dragon's approach procedure towards the ISS.

But the space agencies themselves insist that cooperation remains excellent.

In the long run, said NASA's Johnson Space Center director Mark Geyer, US astronauts will continue to learn Russian, and vice versa.

"There'll be a Russian on our flights, and we'll still have an American on a Soyuz flight. That's mainly because we always want, in case there are issues with either system, that we have an integrated crew."
Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren unveils Big Tech breakup plan



Washington, March 8 (AFP) Mar 08, 2019



Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren on Friday unveiled a proposal to break up Big Tech, saying firms such as Amazon, Google and Facebook hold " too much power" in society.

Warren said in a statement that she would as president press for legislation to designate big online companies with revenues of $25 billion or more as "platform utilities" barred from owning "any participants on that platform."

The Massachusetts senator said she would also appoint anti-trust enforcers "committed to reversing illegal and anti-competitive tech mergers," including acquisitions in recent years by Amazon, Facebook and Google.

"Today's big tech companies have too much power -- too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy," she wrote in a blog post on Medium ahead of a New York rally where she was to speak about the plan.

"They've bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation."

The proposal comes amid a growing "techlash" movement in the United States against the firms, which have grown to become the world's most valuable, amid concerns on handling of private user data and dominance of certain sectors such as online retail and internet search, and a series of antitrust investigations in Europe.



- 'Unwinding' Waze, WhatsApp -



Warren specifically said she would seek to unwind Amazon's acquisition of the Whole Foods grocery chain and shoe retailer Zappos; Facebook's WhatsApp and Instagram; and Google's integration of the ad tech firm DoubleClick, internet of things maker Nest and mobile navigation application Waze.

"Unwinding these mergers will promote healthy competition in the market -- which will put pressure on big tech companies to be more responsive to user concerns, including about privacy," she wrote.

Warren said as part of her proposal, Amazon Marketplace, Google's ad exchange, and Google Search would be considered platform utilities.

"Small businesses would have a fair shot to sell their products on Amazon without the fear of Amazon pushing them out of business," she said. "Google couldn't smother competitors by demoting their products on Google Search. Facebook would face real pressure from Instagram and WhatsApp to improve the user experience and protect our privacy."

Warren's plan sparked swift reaction from some analysts aligned with Silicon Valley.

"It's not pro-consumer," said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a think tank that follows the sector.

Atkinson said the plan "reflects a 'big is bad, small is beautiful' ideology run amok."

"The proposal ignores the fact that many of the services big tech companies now provide free used to cost consumers money," Atkinson added. "Breaking up large internet companies just because they are large won't help consumers. It will hurt them by reducing convenience, reducing quality of service and innovation."

But Matt Stoller of the Open Markets Institute, a group focused on competition in the tech sector, said the plan is long overdue.

"The @ewarren plan to undo mergers and conflicts of interest is the *moderate* approach. Keep in mind the Sherman Act is not just a civil statute but a criminal one. Monopolization is a crime," he tweeted.

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N. Korea denuclearization still achievable in Trump first term: US official



Washington, March 7 (AFP) Mar 07, 2019



The US still believes "final, fully verified denuclearization" of North Korea is possible by the end of President Donald Trump's "first term" in 2021, despite the collapse of the latest summit with Kim Jong Un, a senior official said Thursday.

The official also confirmed that Washington would seek from Pyongyang "clarifications on the purposes" of rebuilding a long-range rocket launch site, adding so far the US has not reached "any specific conclusion about what's happening there."

The specialized website 38 North and the Center for Strategic and International Studies used commercial satellite imagery to track construction at the site -- which they said began before last week's aborted summit in Hanoi between Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

Images taken on March 6 showed that a rail-mounted structure to transfer rockets to the launching pad appeared to have been completed and "may now be operational."

Kim had agreed to shutter the Sohae Satellite Launching Station at a summit with the South's President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang as part of confidence-building measures.

The official, who requested anonymity, recalled the president's statement that he would be "very, very disappointed" if reports of activity at the site were true.

"We're watching in real time as you are the developments at Sohae," he explained, adding: "We don't know why they are taking these steps."

In Hanoi, Vietnam, late last month, the US president and Kim -- meeting for the second time -- failed to make progress or even arrive at a joint statement.

Nonetheless, "we still believe this is all achievable within the president's first term," according to the official. Unless re-elected, Trump's term will end in January 2021.

"We have sufficient time," he said, without mentioning a deadline for reaching an agreement so the goal could be met. It is not clear if the US has had contact with North Korea since the Hanoi summit.

"Where we really need to see progress and we need to see it soon is meaningful and verifiable steps on denuclearization as quickly as we can," he added.

"We are mindful that every day the challenge is greater, the threat posed ... is not going away."
US military asked to house 5,000 child migrants: Pentagon



Washington, March 7 (AFP) Mar 07, 2019



The administration of US President Donald Trump has asked the Department of Defense to prepare to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied migrant children amid what it calls a mounting "crisis" at the US-Mexico border, the Pentagon said Thursday.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) "requested DoD support to identify space to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied alien children on DoD installations, if needed, through September 30, 2019," said Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis.

"DoD will work with the military services to identify potential locations for such support, and will work with HHS to assess any DoD facilities or suitable DoD land for potential use to provide temporary shelter for unaccompanied alien children," he said.

The request for beds is preventative -- they will not definitely be used.

But it comes amid a surge in the number of families and unaccompanied children crossing the US border from Mexico illegally, most of them fleeing poverty and violence in Central America. Most request asylum.

According to the Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP), the number of minors apprehended after entering the country illegally without family in February hit 6,825, up from 5,119 in January and 4,968 in October.

CBP hands the children over to HHS's Administration for Children and Families, which seeks to place them with relatives or other families in the United States while their requests to remain in the country are processed, which can take two years.

The Administration for Children and Families said Thursday that they currently have about 11,500 such children in custody.

The figure changes daily, they said, because of new referrals from Homeland Security and releases of children to sponsors.

Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Tuesday that illegal immigration in February surged to the highest level in years, with 76,000 people stopped or apprehended, and was straining government facilities.

"We are currently facing a humanitarian and national security crisis along our southwest border," he said.

"The vast increases in families and children coming across our border, in larger groups and in more remote areas, presents a unique challenge to our operations and facilities, and those of our partners."

On Wednesday Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said they were expecting the numbers to grow in the coming months.

Nielsen though said in many cases the children were being used as "pawns" to get into our country, and even "recycled" by smuggling rings to help multiple groups cross the border and get a foothold on US soil.

She said she sympathized with the migrants but insisted that, as Trump formally declared last month, "It is an emergency."
US positive on N. Korea denuclearization despite 'operational' rocket site



Washington, March 7 (AFP) Mar 07, 2019



The US still believes the "fully verified denuclearization" of North Korea is possible by the end of President Donald Trump's "first term," a senior official said Thursday, despite warnings a key rocket launch site appears to have resumed operations.

The specialized website 38 North and the Center for Strategic and International Studies used commercial satellite imagery to track construction at the site -- which they said began before last week's aborted summit in Hanoi between Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

Images taken on March 6 showed that a rail-mounted structure to transfer rockets to the launching pad appeared to have been completed and "may now be operational."

Cranes have been removed from the pad, while progress also appeared to have been made on rebuilding the support structure for a rocket engine testing stand.

"Given that construction, plus activity at other areas of the site, Sohae (Satellite Launching Station) appears to have returned to normal operational status," 38 North's report said.

The news will compound the White House's frustration over the lack of progress on talks with the North, following the collapse of a second Trump-Kim summit without so much as a joint statement, let alone an agreement on nuclear disarmament.

The official confirmed that Washington would seek from Pyongyang "clarifications on the purposes" of rebuilding the site, adding so far the US has not reached "any specific conclusion about what's happening there."

"We're watching in real time, as you are, the developments at Sohae," he explained, adding: "We don't know why they are taking these steps."

Kim had agreed to shutter Sohae at a summit with the South's President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang as part of confidence-building measures, and satellite pictures in August suggested workers were dismantling the engine test stand.

Trump equivocated when asked Thursday if he was disappointed about the news. "We'll see," he said. "We'll let you know in about a year."

The president had declared that it was "too early" to tell if a previous report about activity at the site was true, but said he would be "very, very disappointed in Chairman Kim" if the intelligence checked out.

US media had speculated over whether Trump might tighten the thumbscrews on Pyongyang following the Vietnam summit, by ratcheting up an already crippling sanctions regime.



- 'We have sufficient time' -



State Department spokesman Robert Palladino affirmed Washington's commitment to stay engaged with Kim, however, telling journalists on Thursday the administration was ready for "constructive negotiation."

Palladino would not say if Washington had been in contact with Pyongyang over Sohae, situated on North Korea's northwest coast, or the aborted summit.

And despite the apparent setback, the senior official insisted "we still believe this (denuclearization) is all achievable within the president's first term." Unless re-elected, Trump's term will end in January 2021.

"We have sufficient time," they said, without mentioning a deadline for reaching an agreement so the goal could be met.

"Where we really need to see progress and we need to see it soon is meaningful and verifiable steps on denuclearization as quickly as we can," the official added.

"We are mindful that every day the challenge is greater, the threat posed ... is not going away."

Pyongyang used the site in 2012 and 2016 to launch satellites, a maneuver Western experts believe informs its development of inter-continental missiles capable of striking the United States.

CIA director Gina Haspel said in late January that North Korea remains committed to developing long-range missiles despite its denuclearization talks with the US.

- 'Snapback' -



An analysis by two experts at CSIS said the rebuilding of the launch facility amounted to a "snapback" from the moderate dismantlement North Korea performed after Trump's first summit with Kim in Singapore last year.

Joseph Bermudez and Victor Cha said it showed "how quickly North Korea can easily render reversible any steps taken towards scrapping its WMD program with little hesitation."

They called the North Korean actions "an affront to the president's diplomatic strategy" that also showed Pyongyang's "pique" over Trump's refusal to lift sanctions.

They noted that the activity has continued despite Trump's conciliatory words about Kim since the Hanoi summit, and a US decision to cancel annual large-scale exercises with South Korea that the North has objected to.

The exercises -- Key Resolve and Foal Eagle -- were replaced with a shorter exercise that kicked off this week in South Korea to criticism from the North.
High steaks: Meaty differences at Trump-Kim summit



Hanoi, March 8 (AFP) Mar 08, 2019



Sanctions and nuclear plants are not the only bones of contention between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un: while the US president likes his steaks well done, the North Korean leader has rarer tastes.

Paul Smart, the executive chef at the Metropole hotel in Hanoi, worked closely with two of the North Korean leader's personal chefs on the meals prepared during the two-day summit.

An intimate dinner on the first day featured marinated tender sirloin served with kimchi-stuffed pear, but the principals missed out on a foie gras and snow fish lunch as negotiations over the North's weapons programmes and international sanctions ground to a halt.

The team had strict instructions on how to prepare the meat, Smart said. "Kim had medium-rare to rare, very rare," he told AFP. "And Trump had well done."

The US president is known for his simple culinary tastes, but Kim's preference for bloodier meat showed an appreciation for quality, Smart said.

"He really likes to dine and experience cuisine for what it is."

According to his chefs -- both of them called Kim -- the North Korean leader has expensive tastes, Smart added. "He likes caviar, lobster, really luxurious product. Foie gras, he really likes to indulge in cuisine."

Each side in the Metropole kitchen prepared dishes of its own, with the North Koreans bringing all their own ingredients -- including the steaks, carried in a chilled metal container on board Kim's train.

The beef was "very natural and marbled, very red", Smart said, suggesting that -- as with Japanese wagyu -- cattle may be allowed to roam free in North Korea.

But aside from ox-drawn carts, bovines are a rare sight in the North Korean countryside.

The impoverished country consistently fails to produce enough food to feed itself and according to the United Nations, more than 10 million people -- around 40 percent of the population -- need food aid.

But for those who can afford it, there is an increasing number of coffee shops in Pyongyang, where restaurants offer cuisines ranging from Western to Japanese.



- Sanctions breach? -



Trump previously stayed at the Metropole during a state visit in 2017 -- in the $4,800 a night top suite -- when Smart stocked the freezer in his room with six tubs of vanilla ice cream to ensure his sweet tooth could be satisfied.

On Wednesday Trump ate every last morsel of his chocolate lava cake dessert, while the main course was almost certainly the first time the US president has consumed North Korean beef.

For an ordinary American citizen eating a steak provided by the North Korean leader could potentially violate the sanctions Washington has imposed on Pyongyang over its weapons programmes.

In June 2016, the US Treasury designated Kim and other North Korean officials as subject to sanctions for their roles in human rights abuses by the North.

Under Section 6 of Executive Order 13722, the legislation, which applied to Kim, US citizens are barred from receiving "goods" from any sanctioned person.

But as US president on official business, the rule does not apply to Trump himself: another clause says that transactions "for the conduct of the official business of the Federal Government" are not prohibited.



- Shrimp cocktail -



Sniffer dogs were brought in to sweep the kitchen ahead of the summit, and food samplers from both sides tasted each dish before it went out to the Metropole tables.

"Everything was individually wrapped, it was very hygienically packed and everything," Smart said of the North Korean supplies.

"They even brought a little alcohol swab to swab down their knives, swab down their chopping boards. In a clinical way they prepared the food very nicely."

The two chefs were talented and "very nice", the Australian added, and "very intrigued by the way that we're doing things and the style that we're cooking".

They had one culinary blind spot: they had never before seen a shrimp cocktail, the 1980s American classic which Trump requested for the opening dinner.

"They were really intrigued by the taste" of thousand island dressing, Smart said. "So I gave them the recipe and they took it home with them."

In return, they explained how to make kimchi, the fermented cabbage side dish that is a mainstay of Korean cuisine.

For lunch on the summit's second day, the North Koreans were responsible for the apple foie gras jelly appetisers -- again providing their own ingredients, and carving long-beaked birds out of a white seaweed jelly for presentation.

"It was really kind of a masterpiece," Smart said.

They were laid out on the table, but the leaders never sat down as the summit deadlocked over Washington's demand the North close its Yongbyon nuclear complex and Pyongyang's desire for relief from UN Security Council sanctions.

The leaders left without a signing ceremony or the scheduled meal, to the disappointment of the culinary team.

Instead, hotel staff ate Smart's main course of grilled snow fish, roasted vegetables and rice pilaf.

"It was delicious," said Anthony Slewka, Metropole's sales and marketing director -- and the hotel is now considering offering guests the same menu.
N. Korea media acknowledges 'no deal' at Hanoi for first time



Seoul, March 8 (AFP) Mar 08, 2019



North Korea's state media Friday acknowledged for the first time the collapse of the summit between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump last week without a deal.

The high-stakes meeting in Vietnam was supposed to build on the leaders' historic first summit in Singapore last year, but ended without any agreement on walking back North Korea's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency, however, had made no mention of the breakdown of the high-stakes summit until Friday.

"The public at home and abroad... are feeling regretful, blaming the US for the summit that ended without an agreement," an editorial published by KCNA wrote.

In the aftermath of the summit's abrupt ending, each side sought to blame the other's intransigence for the deadlock.

But immediately after the summit North Korean media said only that Pyongyang and Washington have agreed to continue "productive" discussions on denuclearisation.

The following day Rodong Sinmun, the North's state-run newspaper, carried a front-page picture that showed Kim and Trump shaking hands.

Earlier this week, North Korean television aired a 75-minute documentary on Kim's diplomacy with Trump without mentioning that the second meeting ended without a deal.

Following the stalemate in Hanoi, researchers said this week that Pyongyang was rebuilding the Sohae long-range rocket site after Kim had agreed last year to shut it as part of confidence-building measures.

Trump said he would be "very, very disappointed" if the reports proved true.
Trump says relationship with N. Korea's Kim 'remains good'



Washington, March 8 (AFP) Mar 08, 2019



US President Donald Trump said Friday his relationship with North Korea's Kim Jong Un "remains good," despite the failure of a summit last week between the two leaders.

North Korea's state media had earlier acknowledged for the first time the collapse of the high-stakes Hanoi summit, which ended without any agreement on reducing Pyongyang's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

"I have a feeling that our relationship with North Korea, Kim Jong Un and myself, I think it is a very good one. I think it remains good," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The meeting was supposed to build on the leaders' historic first meeting in Singapore last year.

Trump repeated his frequent claim that he had brought the US back from the brink of war with North Korea since coming to office.

"This was a disaster. I inherited a mess. It is straightening out a lot. We are doing very well there," he said.

"I inherited a mess with North Korea and right now you have no (missile) testing. You have no nothing."

Following the stalemate in Hanoi, researchers said this week that Pyongyang had started rebuilding the Sohae long-range rocket site after Kim had agreed last year to shut it as part of confidence-building measures.

"I would be surprised in a negative way if (Kim) did anything that was not per our understanding. But we'll see what happens," Trump added.



- 'Tough time' for Manafort -



Trump's remarks, which came as he was departing the White House to visit tornado-hit Alabama, also touched on the fractious US-China trade relationship, domestic politics and the Mueller investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia.

Asked about the months-long trade war with China, the president said he would not agree to any solution unless it was a good deal for the United States.

"I am confident but... if this isn't a great deal, I won't make a deal," Trump told reporters.

US and Chinese officials have said they are making progress toward a resolution, but a US diplomat in Beijing said earlier an agreement was not imminent.

Negotiations were extended through Sunday as officials race to reach a deal ahead of a deadline next week when US duty rates are due to rise sharply.

Trump's remarks came a day after his former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison by a federal judge for tax crimes and bank fraud in the highest profile case yet stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

"I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it has been a very tough time for him," Trump said.

The Republican president also weighed in on the row engulfing the Democrats over anti-Semitism which has led to the party's biggest crisis since reclaiming the House majority two months ago.

The party passed a resolution against bigotry following an acrimonious debate over how to reprimand Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, who sparked a firestorm over repeated criticisms of Israel and a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington that exerts influence in US politics.

"The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party and an anti-Jewish party," Trump said.

The president was due to visit victims of last weekend's tornado that devastated Lee County in eastern Alabama last weekend, killing at least 23 people and injuring dozens.
 .            -  ()       19.00   21 . ...
US Air Force Secretary to resign



Washington, March 8 (AFP) Mar 08, 2019



Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said Friday she is resigning to return to academia -- in the highest level Pentagon departure since Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Wilson's name had come up as a potential replacement for Mattis, who quit in December because of differences over Trump's policies on Syria and other issues.

Wilson reportedly raised concerns last year about Trump's desire for a separate space force, but more recently embraced the Pentagon's plan to set up a space service under the Air Force.

"Today I informed the President I will resign as Secretary of the Air Force to be President of the University of Texas at El Paso," Wilson, 58, said on Twitter.

"It has been a privilege to serve with our #Airmen -- I am proud of the progress we have made to restore the readiness & lethality of #USAF."

The announcement came after the university published Wilson's name as the sole finalist among candidates for the position.

Wilson will leave on May 31, allowing for a "smooth transition" that would ensure the Air Force's interests are represented before Congress, she said in a letter released by the Pentagon.

She added that the Air Force had cut red tape, got better value for money and had strengthened its ability "to deter and dominate in space."

On Twitter, Trump congratulated Wilson for her university position which, he said, would take effect September 1. "Heather has done an absolutely fantastic job as Secretary of the Air Force," the president said.

Her departure leaves a new high-level Pentagon opening as Trump has not yet nominated a replacement for Mattis. Patrick Shanahan, who served as deputy under Mattis, is the acting defense secretary.

Wilson is a former New Mexico congresswoman who cut short her career as an Air Force pilot when she was named a Rhodes Scholar to study at Oxford University in England.

Descended from a family of fighter pilots, she became the top civilian official in the Air Force two years ago, after previously serving as a university president.

Wilson's announcement came on the same day that White House Communications Director Bill Shine resigned, with plans to advise Trump's 2020 re-election campaign.

He and Wilson are the latest of many administration staffers and cabinet members to leave since Trump's tumultuous term began in January 2017.
Venezuela struggles with blackout as government claims sabotage



Caracas, March 8 (AFP) Mar 08, 2019



Venezuela's government struggled to cope Friday with a massive electricity blackout that paralyzed much of the country as President Nicolas Maduro blamed the chaos on US sabotage.

Even by the standards of crisis-weary Venezuelans, the blackout -- which began late Thursday -- was one of the longest and most widespread in memory, heightening tensions in Maduro's power struggle with his US-backed rival, opposition leader Juan Guaido.

Maduro made the decision to shut down offices and schools "in order to facilitate efforts for the recovery of electricity service in the country," Vice President Delcy Rodriguez tweeted.

Power supply was gradually being restored to large areas of Caracas on Friday afternoon, as the country slowly began to emerge from the 24-hour blackout.

Electricity supply was also being resumed in areas of Miranda state and Vargas, which contains the country's international airport and main port.

Other areas like the western states of Zulia, Tachira and Barinas -- where lengthy outages are common -- were still without power.

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, patrolling the west of the capital Caracas in an open-topped military jeep, said "everything is calm throughout national territory" as electricity workers tried to restore the electricity.

-'Total madness'-



The outage had left most of the country in chaos, crippling day-to-day functioning of hospitals and other public services, according to local press reports.

Witnesses described scenes of chaos at several hospitals as people tried to move sick relatives in the dark to clinics with better emergency power facilities.

Marielsi Aray, a patient at the University Hospital in Caracas, died after her respirator stopped working.

"The doctors tried to help her by pumping manually, they did everything they could, but with no electricity, what where they to do?" asked Jose Lugo, her distraught uncle.

Generators at the JM de Rios children's hospital in downtown Caracas failed to kick-in when the blackout hit, said Gilbert Altuvez, whose eight-year old boy is among the patients.

"The night was terrible. Without light. Total madness," he said.

Emilse Arellano said urgent dialysis for her child had to be cancelled Friday, after a night where staff worked in the light of cellphones.

"The children were very scared."

The putrid odor of rotting flesh hung around the entrance to Caracas' main Bello Monte morgue on Friday where refrigerators had stopped working and worried relatives gathered outside, waiting to be allowed to bury their dead.

Guaido, speaking to supporters at an gathering marking International Women's Day, confirmed that power "is beginning to come back in some sectors."

"It can't be normal that 50 percent of hospitals in the country don't have an electric plant," he said.

- 'Electrical war' -



The blackout in the capital was total and hit at 4:50 pm (2050 GMT), just before nightfall on Thursday.

Traffic lights went out and the subway system ground to a halt, triggering gridlock in the streets and huge streams of angry people trekking long distances to get home from work.

Thousands of homes in Caracas -- a crime-ridden city of two million people -- were without water supplies.

Telephone services and access to the internet were also knocked out.

The capital's Simon Bolivar international airport was hit, as were others across the country.

Following Maduro's decision to close the borders to keep out humanitarian aid for his people, the country was completely isolated Friday.

"The electrical war announced and directed by US imperialism against our people will be defeated," Maduro tweeted.

"Nothing and no one can defeat the people of Bolivar and Chavez," Maduro said, referring to the liberation hero Simon Bolivar and Maduro's predecessor and former boss, the late socialist icon Hugo Chavez.

Guaido, meanwhile reiterated his call for mass protests on Saturday.

"All Venezuela, now with more force than ever, returns to the streets of the whole country, we return to the streets and we won't go out until we reach the goal," he said.

- 'Tired, exhausted' -



Venezuelans are wearily accustomed to blackouts. They have been common in the west of the oil-rich country for years, but have eventually spread to Caracas and other areas.

Critics blame the government for failing to invest in maintaining the electrical grid, although the government often blames external factors when the lights go out.

The state power company Corpoelec said there has been sabotage at the Guri hydroelectric plant in Bolivar state, one of the largest in Latin America. It gave no details.

Maduro is struggling in the confrontation with Guaido, who has declared himself interim president and is now backed by some 50 countries led by the United States.

Guaido says Maduro's rule is illegitimate, arguing that his re-election win last year was fraudulent. He wants Maduro to resign from the Miraflores Palace and make way for new elections.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Maduro is wrong to blame the US or any other country for Venezuela's woes.

"Power shortages and starvation are the result of the Maduro regime's incompetence," he tweeted.


Relations with Indias neighbouring countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Maldives have improved in a big way in the last few years. Indias unwavering commitment to the security and prosperity of the people in these countries has been understood and recognised.

by R M Panda





India has the second largest population of Muslims and yet it has been denied its rightful place in the OIC meetings so far. It was therefore a big diplomatic triumph for India when it was a invited to the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) meeting this year for the first time since its formation.





Indias External affairs minister Ms Sushma Swaraj addressed the inaugural session of the OICs 46th session of council of Foreign Ministers as a Guest of honour. Indias presence in the OIC meeting in Abu Dhabi was a major setback to Pakistan as it had been consistently opposing Indian presence in any form in the OIC.





Sushma Swaraj made a very powerful speech emphasizing on peace, quoting from Holy Quran, Guru Nanak dev and the Rig Veda. She said every religion in the world stands for peace, compassion and brotherhood. Indias fight against terrorism must not be seen as a confrontation against any religion.





Almost after five decades, Indias entry in to OIC became possible only because of its continuous effort to develop bilateral and multilateral relations with Islamic countries. India has been expanding its defence and security cooperation too. Indias economic engagement, digital partnership and its human and cultural links have turned Islamic countries more friendly than ever before..





Relations with Indias neighbouring countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Maldives have improved in a big way in the last few years. Indias unwavering commitment to the security and prosperity of the people in these countries has been understood and recognised.





With Iran India not only shares civilisational and cultural links but also has a vital partnership in economic development and energy co-operation. As Pakistan blocks its land route to India to connect with Central Asia, Iran plays a vital role in linking India and Central Asian countries with the development of Chahbar port.





In West Asia India has very good ties with Egypt, Palestine and has great admiration for Jordans efforts in strengthening the voices of moderation and faith. Iraq and India have stood together in triumphs and trials.





With African nations India shares a deep emotional bond that comes from the struggle for freedom. Today India and Africa have launched a new partnership of prosperity.





Presently Gulf countries are Indias largest markets for supply of energy. The remittances from Gulf Countries that run into billions have helped India to have a healthy balance on foreign exchange. More than 8 million Indians are living in this region and are contributing to its growth. It is an indispensable strategic, security and economic partnership of India with this region.





Recently Abu Dhabi also helped India in its agenda of fight against corruption by deporting an economic offender to India on New Delhis request. Crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman in his recent successful trip to India announced investments in areas of energy, refining, petrochemicals, infrastructure, agriculture, minerals and mining, manufacturing, education and health potentially worth in excess of $100 billion.





Indian troops have served as UN Peace Keepers in troubled Muslim countries.





Students from all the 56 Muslim countries come to India for their higher education. They all carry the message with them of Indias secularism, democratic society and its constitution that gives equal rights to all its citizens irrespective of their religion. As Mrs Sushma Swaraj said in her speech that it is this appreciation of diversity and co-existence, that has ensured that very few Muslims in India have fallen prey to the poisonous propaganda of radical and extremist ideologies.





Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmod Qureshi chose to protest Indias inclusion to OIC in Pakistani Parliament. As a member of the OIC Pakistan did try to disinvite India to the meeting in Abu Dhabi but failed as UAE did not change its stand. This is a huge setback for Pakistan as it was successfully restricting Indias presence in OIC for last five decades and was consistently using this forum to push their anti-India agenda on Kashmir.





In 2018 Bangladesh made a suggestion in OIC to give an observer status to India but it was opposed by Pakistan.





The recognition given to India now with its second most Muslim population should help India in expanding its relations with the Muslim countries and also help in increasing cultural exchanges and bilateral trade. Where possible strategic and security relations could also be improved. This window of opportunity now given by the OIC should be utilised for the mutual benefit of all the countries involved.
There is a common assumption in the existing literature that states use nonstate actors to do their dirty work. But, in Kashmir, the official military and security personnel have also been responsible for widespread abuses. by Yelena Biberman





Whyon February 14th did a 20-year-old Kashmiri villager blow himself up, taking with him the lives of 46 Indian security personnel? What should the Indian government do in response to the deadliest attack on its forces in Kashmir since the insurgency began in 1988?







The first question drew a series of quick and confident responses from powerful voices in India and the international community: Pakistan is to blame. And so is any country that supports Pakistan (i.e. China). Today, as condemnations pour in from countries across the globe, leading international powers must take their share of blame for their unwillingness or inability to draw a red line around Pakistans patronage of terror, prominent Indian journalist Barkha Dutt declared in the Washington Post. How will India punish Pakistan? speculated the BBC.



It is undeniable that Pakistan supports militant organizations such as Jaish-e-Mohammad, which claimed responsibility for the February 14th attack. But it is also true that, in the eyes of many Kashmiris, the Indian state has been terrorizing them for several decades.





In my forthcoming book, I detail Indias sponsorship of numerous nonstate counterinsurgency outfits which committed major human rights violations in the region. Drawing on fieldwork in Kashmir, which included interviews with victims, former militants, military and security officials, human rights activists, and journalists, I develop a new balance-of-interests framework that explains the peculiar state-nonstate alliances that emerged in the region during the civil war. Among the proxies were battle-hardened former insurgents and criminals. The kidnappings, interrogation, torture, and assassinations which many of them carried out were, at times, indiscriminate and inflicted serious trauma on the local population. One former commander explained to me why the Indian military officials embraced the militants: Lets say you are a post commander. You know you want to kill the militants operating in your area. You damn well dont care for anything [else] at that point in time. Its easy to sit back and reflect now. But, at that point in time, the question is  How do I get rid of this nonsense?





There is a common assumption in the existing literature that states use nonstate actors to do their dirty work. But, in Kashmir, the official military and security personnel have also been responsible for widespread abuses.





Kashmir is the most densely militarized zone in the world, with roughly one soldier for every ten civilians. The military and police exercise enormous coercive power over the civilian population. The Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act, for example, authorizes police personnel (of the rank of sub-inspector and above) operating in disturbed areas to use force even to the causing of death, against any person who is indulging in any act which may result in serious breach of public order. The parallel Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act gives the governor (in addition to the central government) the power to declare an area disturbed, and authorizes army officers to use lethal force if they are of opinion that it is necessary so to do for the maintenance of public order. These and other laws (including the UN-condemned Public Safety Act) confer arbitrary power and impunity to Indias security forces. It is not surprising that significant corruption and widespread human rights violations followed these legal provisions. For example, a top counterinsurgency officer was accused of encouraging Kashmiri men to join rebel groups and then turning them in (or killing them) to receive rewards.





The Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), a highly reputable local Kashmiri human rights organization, has tracked claims of abuse carried out by the Indian military and security personnel. Citing Indias history of denying the applicability of international law to the Kashmir conflict, the organization called for the international community to bring to bear moral and economic pressure on India to recognize the paramountcy of the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in this armed conflict, and its obligations to them under international humanitarian and human rights law.





The suicide bomber, Adil Dar, belongs to the so-called Kashmiri generation of rage. This generation played the leading role in the 2016-17 uprisings, which involved widespread youth protests in nearly every district of the Kashmir Valley. Hundreds of students were injured in clashes with the armed forces, and many were arrested. The Indian security forces used pellet guns against mainly stone-throwing protestors. This drew significant international attention and condemnation, but did not cease.





The recent attack is not an isolated incident, but part of a dramatic increase in violence across the region. Labeling Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism or improving security measures in the region would do little to address the underlying reason why a growing number of young Kashmiris see militancy as the only viable option. Any jaw-breaking response by India, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised, is also likely to fail. India cannot realistically invade its nuclear-armed neighbor beyond Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where its surgical strikes in 2016 were quite ineffective.





The Kashmiri insurgency is largely an indigenous movement. Pakistans prior efforts to foment rebellion, such as the ill-fated Operation Gibraltar, failed when they did not receive local support. India must look inward, towards its own policies in Kashmir, to find the causes of violent outbursts by Kashmiri locals. Your atrocities will further our cause and beliefs. We will not plead, but rather fight until death, the suicide bomber warned the Indian government in a previously recorded video which circulated on social media following the attack.





Seeing Kashmir purely through the prism of security ignores the political and social underpinnings of the conflict. The upcoming national election makes it an inconvenient time for the Indian government to fashion a Kashmir peace deal while simultaneously engaging with Pakistan in a dialogue. But then, when will that time come, if ever? Alok Asthana, a retired Indian Army colonel, rightly wondered. Surely the resurgence of a disease creates the right conditions and motivation to tackle the core issue.





About the Author: Yelena Biberman is an assistant professor of political science at Skidmore College and a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Councils South Asia Center.





This article was originally published by Political Violence @ a Glance on 22 February 2019.
Sri Lankan Airlines operated its first all-female crew flight from Colombo to Singapore and return, Sri Lankan Flight UL306 landed in Singapore a short while ago.Meanwhile, Air India Crew Celebrates International Women's Day. All women crew to fly twelve major non-stop Air India flights today.
Something terribly went wrong with Sri Lankan politics since we got independence. This is a fact, no one could deny it, any Sri Lankan with any sense of human consciousness in heart, would agree with this. Sri Lanka is richer in its human resource than many Asian countries.

by A Special Correspondent





I will try to answer this question to the best of my ability and knowledge in this short article. Why should Sri Lankans support JVP in these coming elections? I will try to give my rationale and logical reasoning for this basic question. I will try my best to be objective in my writing. I, neither support JVP nor any other political parties right now. yet, I find some convincing answers from the political discourses of JVP these days.









I have been supporting UNP & SLFP for many years and yet, right now, Im really frustrated with the performance of these two main political parties. Like many others, I have been monitoring and observing the JVP for the last four years. They have produced some credible political ideas, principles, values, ethics, traditions and practices in recent times. I really admire their hard work, determination, dedication, sincerity, political integrity and good manners. Above all, their willingness to help and support public.





Whether people support them or not, they are creating a political history in Sri Lanka. They are indeed, setting some good political precedents and models in Sri Lankan politics. No Sri Lankan with any sense of national feeling should belittle or degrade their political agenda and version to Sri Lanka. No one should doubt about their loyalty to this great Island. No one should demean their youthful enthusiasm and devotion for a real political change in Sri Lanka.





Many Sri Lankans have been gauging their politics subjectively with bias political perceptions. Sometimes, with the nostalgia of its dark history in the past. Personally, I witnessed all those bad days of JVP in Sri Lanka. I think all those events and political insurgence of the past are history today. All those days are gone by now. As human beings any political party could make some terrible mistakes. Yet, JVP of today is totally different from JVP of 1980s. JVP has dramatically changed and transformed today. The politics of Sri Lanka has dramatically changed today than that of old days.





Not only the Sri Lankan politics, but the politics of the entire world has enormously changed in this modern world. There are so many dramatical political changes in the last two decades. Therefore, holding grudge over the past mistake of JVP is not viable and appropriate in this modern time. This message must go into the minds of public at the grassroot level. And yet, main political parties with their political apparatus do not let this message goes through the minds and hearts of Sri Lankan public. The mass media is totally controlled by the government: Most of newspapers and TV stations are controlled by government departments so, they do not give enough time allocation for JVP to present their political arguments. Thanks to modern technology and social media networks, JVP is making maximum use of it. yet, old generations still do not have access to these social networks. With all these practical hurdles, JVP is doing well.





We are going through one of difficult times in Sri Lankan political history. Unlike in the past, today politics controls all aspects of modern human life. Not only your money but also your breath (clean air) is controlled today by politics. So, a good governance is a must for nation building process in this modern age. A corruption free governance is a must to build this nation.





We always hear that GDP of Sri Lanka was far better than Malaysia in 1960s. Today where are we and where is Malaysia in economic growth and development? Singapore is another example to compare with Sri Lanka in any areas of development and progress. Of course, we have had an unwanted war for more than 30 years and yet, I think that the corruption and ineptitude political leadership is one of the main reasons why Sri Lanka is falling behind many other Asian nations.





Something terribly went wrong with Sri Lankan politics since we got independence. This is a fact, no one could deny it, any Sri Lankan with any sense of human consciousness in heart, would agree with this. Sri Lanka is richer in its human resource than many Asian countries. In this knowledge based economic world, we could have been one of fast-growing economies in Asia and yet, due to this unwanted war we fought for 30 years and due to corrupt political leadership, today, Sri Lankan economy is one of weakest in Asia.





Until we have a good and honest political leadership in Sri Lanka, we cannot dream to have any prosperous Sri Lanka soon. Sadly, as of today, both UNP & SLFP political leadership do not demonstrate any loyal and sincere leadership skills. We have seen this for the last 7 decades. More importantly, we have seen them, how they have behaved badly in these 4 years. As of today, there is no any hope in these political parties. Both are two sides of the same coin. Of course, there are some good people in both parties and yet, their hands are tied up with party political system. So, to freely Sri Lanka from all these corrupt political leadership, public must make some decisive political steps. They have two choices in front of them. They either vote to one of these traditional parties, as they have been doing for the last 70 years, or they chose an alternative political route. There is no any other best option other than JVP as of today. I will outline some of my rationale for this postulate one by one.





1) Rationale one: We have been experimenting the politics of the UNP & SLFP for the last 70 years, and yet, what they have given to Sri Lankan public so far. Day by day people are suffering. It is reported that more than 40% of Sri Lankan families suffer from acute poverty. The policies of these two main political parties on education, health, Sri Lankan economy have been utter failures. Today, Sri Lankan economy is almost bankrupt: Although, Sri Lankan economy begun to flourish with the open economic policies of JR&P. Premadasa governments, Today, it is going on a reverse gear. This is primarily due to corrupt political leadership in Sri Lanka today. JR, Srima, Premadasa, & CBK, all ruled the country with some sense of accountability and responsibility. They did not make money out of politics. They did not commercialise politics. Yet, what we see from the time of MR is a different politics. Personally, MR is a sincere and loyal politician, yet, people around him have misused him and opened the gate of corruption. People around him have severely damaged his reputation and goodwill.





During his time some MPs looted millions of rupees from public money in many ways. In fact, politics was commercialised during his time. Many MPs entered politics during his time, some without any formal qualification to make a fortune of life time out of politics in Sri Lanka. As JVP has already exposed some of these people many MPs entered politics from poor family to become some of supper riches of Sri Lanka today. Take for instance, live styles and wealth of some MPs today in Sri Lanka. Some of them entered politics from very ordinary families and yet, today they have made their fortunate out of politics. Over 20% of MPs are thieve today in Sri Lanka. examine lives or wealth of some MPs today. Richard, Karuna, Pillayan, Hisbullah & likewise many Sinhalese MPs come from ordinary poor family and yet, how many millions do they have now? where did they get all those moneys?Now some of them are supper rich in Sri Lanka. These thieves do not have religions, races or languages. these are in a true sense real thieves who looted public money. Now, what is the solution for this problem.





This is exactly what happened in Pakistan. Since 1947, many corrupt Pakistani MPs begun to milk public fund and looted billions of public funds from Pakistani public as a result of this, Pakistan economy suffers immensely. It was almost bankrupt and yet, people elected Imran Khantimely to save that nation. Here in Sri Lanka we need a leader like that of Imran Khan to save this nation from corrupt politicians. Corruption and nation building process can not go hand in hand. Corruption could lead any nation into bankruptcy. As a result of some of wrong unsustainable development projects, such as Mattala Airport, & Hambantota harbour weare still struggling to pay off interest and loans. It is reported many people made fortunes out of these mega projects. Moreover, many MPs in UNP& SLFP are corrupts. Take for instance, Central Bank scam. So, to clean up politics in Sri Lanka we need some clean and sincere politicians.





We need people like that of former Singaporean leader to build this nation once again. We need a Zero-corruption Sri Lanka to build it once again. This executive presidential system breeds corruption in Sri Lanka. This excessive executive power gave them freewill and freedom to do anything in Sri Lanka without accountability and transparency. As a result of this, former governments misused this power, some presidents mocked the judiciary in Sri Lanka and fixed the court cases as they like. So, to free Sri Lanka we need a corruption free dynamic political leader in Sri Lanka. As of today, we do not find them in any political parties except in JVP. I know JVP politicians are, indeed, human beings with all human weakness and desires. Yet, they have demonstrated they are corruption free. They do not recruit drug dealers, or thieves or any criminal into their party. They are very much selective when they nominate anyone for any local or general election nomination. Moreover, they elect educated people in politics. So, we should vote JVP in this coming election because they are the only party that has got some corruption free people in politics.





So, I strongly believe that Sri Lankan public must be educated on this issue well, so that, we could have a brighter political leadership in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka could be a rich country with its rich human and national resources and yet, we are not due to this corrupt political leadership. A corrupt leader, he or she could ruin the lives of 22 million Sri Lankans. The political experience of many countries justifies this postulate. For instance, Nigeria is rich in oil and yet, people are poor, and Saudi is rich in oil and yet, many people in Saudi are still poor. So, today political leaders can make or break a nation. So, a corruption free leadership is imperative to Sri Lanka. Yet, UNP and SLFP are not yet, ready to punish corrupt politicians. Why is it? because, many of them are partners in corruption. How could a group of thieve punish another group of thieves? That is exactly what takes place in Sri Lanka, So, political reform is a must for Sri Lanka for its nation building process. Without this, we can not dream a brighter future for Sri Lanka for a long time.





To be continued
In what was termed as a landmark judgment, the UK Supreme Court has ruled that the lower courts were wrong to override the conclusions of a medical expert when considering forensic evidence of torture in a Sri Lankan asylum seekers claim. An asylum seeker from Sri Lanka, known as KV, appealed a Home Office decision to refuse his asylum claim.





Expert medical opinion presented to the tribunal, which assessed evidence of torture, concluded that the physical evidence of torture, mainly comprising scarring from having hot metal rods applied to his skin, was highly consistent with his account. The asylum tribunal dismissed his asylum appeal, ruling that self-infliction by proxy (i.e. the infliction of injuries by a third party in order to leave fabricated evidence of torture scarring) had not been conclusively ruled out.





The Court of Appeal upheld this finding and went even further in saying the medical expert had trespassed into the territory of the Asylum Tribunal.




Venezuela is the most tragic case at present that the Western and particularly the US meddling and sanctions have produced with disastrous social effects.

by Laksiri Fernando





The situation in Venezuela is more complex than what it appears. There are two major crosscurrents in operation. First is between President Nicolas Maduros national government and the US, the latter attempting to exploit the existing crisis to bring Venezuela under its economic and political control with the backing of other Western powers. Second is between the authoritarian regime of Nicolas Maduro and the opposition led by Juan Guido that dominates the National Assembly or Parliament of elected representatives. In the second case it is also a conflict between the executive presidential system and parliamentary democracy.













The most irony is that both Maduro (United Socialists) and Guido (Popular Will) belongs to two socialist parties in the country although the latter has not clearly expressed his socio-economic programme to the people yet. He is mainly representing the joint opposition in Parliament. Their main campaign is to bring democracy to the country which is terribly lacking particularly under Maduro. What complicates the situation and raises doubts about Juan Guidos intentions are his collision with some of the Western powers and particularly the US.





Given the history of the country, crisis within the economic system, poverty and living difficulties of the broad masses and concerns of the people within and outside the country on democracy and human rights, the best option would be for all parties to dialogue and come to an understanding in holding both presidential and parliamentary elections without delay and also without confrontation and violence towards resolving the situation. It appears that undue interference from outside can both derail and distort the situation in the country further.





US/Western Interference





US interference in Venezuela and Latin America in general is long standing going back to the Monroe Doctrine (1823). The US wants to consider Latin America as its backyard which is resisted by many governments including those who are opposing President Maduro at present. What is wrong with Western policies towards Third World countries in general is not that they express concerns or even influence on democracy or human rights, but they try to impose policies, solutions, values and political changes disregarding the social conditions, political independence, cultures or peoples wellbeing in those countries. Their sanctions most of the time are like punishing the poor.





It is not partnership that they aspire for, but subjugation or submission. It may be possible that in the case of some people or organizations this is not that conscious or intentional, but that cannot be said about most of the governments, politicians or even some organizations. If not racism, at least some form of superiority complex seem to govern their behaviour and views, underpinning economic and ideological interests.





Venezuela is the most tragic case at present that the Western and particularly the US meddling and sanctions have produced with disastrous social effects.





Democracy and Socialism





There is no question that Venezuela is lacking in democracy at present. The policies and practices of President Nicolas Maduro or the ruling United Socialist Party are ideologically authoritarian although socio-economically socialist. This has been a perennial problem in most of the socialist parties and regimes in the world beginning with the former Soviet Union. This is also the nature of many socialists and socialist parties in Sri Lanka, either practicing authoritarianism themselves or aligning with authoritarian political leaders most of the time. However this is not a reason for the outsiders like the US to meddle in the internal affairs of Venezuela or any other country, if the US is truly democratic. The democratic problem or the contradiction in socialism is something that the socialists themselves should rectify, although there is nothing wrong in others pointing it out.





On the other hand, what the world politics or international relations show is that although the countries like the US are internally democratic (yet to an extent), their foreign policies and actions are completely authoritarian or even dictatorial. We have seen this in Palestine, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan etc. In the case of Latin America, this has continuously been the case and there had been direct military interventions in most of the countries throughout years making Latin America virtually a region of political and economic chaos. The feelings of the people against American imperialism is depicted in the attached street drawing in Caracas.





Who is Responsible?





Who is primarily responsible for the current crisis and chaos in Venezuela today? Large responsibility should go to the United States because of their sanctions while the internal regime is also equally responsible.





When Hugo Chavez won the presidential elections in 1998, it was through a mass upsurge of popular aspirations for national sovereignty and socialism that it happened. It was a democratic election no less than any American election. It overturned Americas theory of end of history, Chavez initiating twenty social missions in the name of Simon Bolivar and other national figures and heroes. Significantly, none of these were in his name or his family members!





These reforms were possible and successful largely due to the oil money that the country received during this period. As we all know Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. Otherwise, the economic base for socialist reforms was quite weak when Chavez took over the country. The economy was run largely by illicit traders, traffickers and companies exploiting the poor. However, the oil fortunes changed largely due to US manipulations and the decline of world prices. Noam Chomsky has said:





I never described Chavez's state capitalist government as 'socialist' or even hinted at such an absurdity. It was quite remote from socialism. Private capitalism remained ... Capitalists were free to undermine the economy in all sorts of ways, like massive export of capital.





Not that I completely agree with Chomsky, but what he said had some truth. During the oil boom, there was an expanding middle class who wanted more and more capitalism or market, instead of socialism or state control. This was apart from the social missions or socialist programmes that Chavez initiated. There was no effort to strike a balance.





More pertinently, after Chavez (2013) there was a rapid deterioration of socialist policies under Maduro. This is one reason why there have been splits and defections within the United Socialist Party giving rise to many socialist parties and groups to emerge. If Maduro is socialist, he is of the old type. There are others in the opposition who want to bring neoliberalism to the country. The situation is complex.





Constitutional Crisis





There is obviously a constitutional crisis in the country. The National Assembly or Parliament was elected in 2015 with the opposition dominating and Juan Guido leading. The President Nicolas Maduro was elected in May 2018 marred with accusations of fraud and manipulation. Whatever the truth, both sides have not attempted to resolve the situation through the judiciary or negotiations. Many of the other Latin American countries are siding with the opposition, given Maduros extreme and arrogant policies. They are also perhaps eying for Venezuelan oil!





In January this year the Organization of American States (OAS) approved a resolution not to recognize the legitimacy of Nicolas Maduros new term as of the 10th of January 2019.The US has a major influence over the OAS.It is on that basis that Juan Guido has self-assumed the position of the Interim President without any constitutional basis. This is a measure far fetched of democratic norms and practices. To worsen the constitutional crisis further, the US, Canada and many members of the OAS and the EU have recognized Juan Guido as the Interim President, making the country having two Presidents.





Instead, what they should have done is to call the President and the National Assembly to negotiate, compromise and resolve the constitutional and other issues amicably. US has complicated the matters further by imposing new sanctions against Venezuela deepening the economic crisis, poverty, scarcity of food and medicine.





Conclusion





There are undoubtedly questions about democracy and human rights under the present socialist regime complicated by the US and other Western interferences. On the other hand, Western interferences have strengthened the political defence of Maduro and his government. It is completely understandable for the organizations like the JVP to protest against the American interferences, sanctions and hypocrisy as they have done last month. However, there are serious issues about the type of socialism that Maduro and his party practices.





The Socialist International (SI) after having a meeting in Santo Domingo in late January issued a statement on the situation that could be considered more balanced and appropriate. There are three points that can be highlighted. (1) The Socialist International has called upon all parties in Venezuela to resolve political differences peacefully and hasrejected any form of military intervention. (2) The SI has reiterated its position as previously expressed after the May 2018 presidential elections, that the elections did not have the necessary legitimacy and democratic credibility and declared confidence in the National Assembly as the only existent legitimate institution of government.This may be controversial. (3) More importantly, they have called for elections that must be monitored by a new, fully independent and impartial electoral authority.





I myself do not have any affiliation or contacts with the Socialist International. I have no obligation to follow their views. However, I have known a former President of the Socialist International, Hugo Miranda, quite closely, who has always been keen in blending socialism with democracy and human rights. When he said this lacuna is a problem in Latin America, I used to say it is a perennial problem in Sri Lanka as well.
Published: 8 March 2019

Accrued pension entitlements stood at EUR 644 billion at the end of 2016

The accrued pension entitlements of Finlands statutory earnings-related pension scheme stood at EUR 644.2 billion at the end of 2016 with a real discount rate assumption of three per cent, or 298 per cent relative to gross domestic product. The pension entitlements of the earnings-related pension scheme of private branches were EUR 431.2 billion and those of public branches were EUR 213.0 billion. From 2015, pension entitlements grew by EUR 12.7 billion. Of the growth, EUR 9.6 billion came from private and EUR 3.0 billion from public branches.

Accrued pension entitlements at different discount rates at the end of 2016, EUR million

Pension entitlements refer to the amount of money that would be enough to cover the pensions accrued by that moment discounted to present value. The amount of pension entitlements in the earnings-related pension scheme is critical to the discount rate used in the calculations: with a real discount rate of two per cent the pension entitlements were EUR 761.7 billion or 353 per cent relative to gross domestic product and with a four per cent real discount rate they were EUR 553.9 billion or 256 per cent relative to gross domestic product.

Finland's earnings-related pension scheme is partially funded. According to the financial accounts, the amount of earnings-related pension assets was EUR 191.7 billion at the end of 2016. The funding ratio, i.e. the ratio of pension assets and pension entitlements was 30 per cent.

Supplementary pension table complements financial accounts

In the revision of the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), the statistics on pension entitlements were expanded with a supplementary pension table outside the core accounts that contains data on all pension entitlements included in social insurance. Data for 2015 were released concerning all EU countries on Eurostats pages . In Finlands case, new statistical data were the above-mentioned pension entitlements of the statutory earnings-related pension scheme that are not included in the financial accounts but that are included in the supplementary pension table. Data on the pension entitlements of the earnings-related pension scheme have been released in the Finnish Centre for Pensions reports Statutory pensions in Finland  Long-term projections .

In addition to the statutory earnings-related pension scheme, the pension table includes data on the pension entitlements of employment-related supplementary pension schemes that are already included in the pension entitlements of insurance corporations and voluntary pension funds in the financial accounts. The amount of pension entitlements of voluntary supplementary pension schemes describes the technical provisions. At the end of 2016 it stood at EUR 10.4 billion or five per cent relative to gross domestic product.

The supplementary pension table describes the pensions classified as social insurance. The Social Insurance Institutions national and guarantee pensions are classified as social assistance in national accounts and are thus not included in the supplementary pension table. The key difference between social insurance and social welfare is that in case of social welfare, pensions are paid to the pension recipients regardless of whether they participate in the system by paying pension contributions or not.

When calculating the accrued pension entitlements of the statutory earnings-related pension scheme the basis is a fictive situation where the insured are paid all pensions accrued by the moment examined but no new pension is accrued. The amount of pension entitlements does not describe the sustainability of the pension system. The concept depicts future pension expenditure, i.e. pensions paid to pension recipients whose amount is affected, in addition to earned income and the rate of accrual, by life expectancies and other assumptions in the calculation model. Incomes of the earnings-related pension scheme, i.e. pension contributions and the profits from the earnings-related pension assets are not included in the calculation.

In calculations stretching long into the future, background assumptions, like the discount rate and population and economic development, are of high significance for the results. The sensitivity of the results to the discount rate assumption is emphasised by releasing the results with the three real rates mentioned above.

Private and public branches

Finlands statutory earnings-related pension scheme in practice covers all work in both private and public branches. The earnings-related pension scheme is formed of several pension acts that together cover the various sectors of the economy. The pension entitlements based on the following pension acts are included in private branches: Employees Pensions Act (TyEL), Seamen's Pensions Act (MEL), Self-Employed Persons' Pensions Act (YEL), Farmers' Pensions Act (MYEL), supplementary pension provision under the Employees' Pensions Act (TEL-L, abolished at the end of 2016) and the pensions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The pension entitlements based on the following pension acts and rules are included in public branches: Act on public branches pensions (JuEL, excl. church pensions), pension rules of the employees and officials of the Bank of Finland and the Provincial Government of Aland. At the beginning of 2017, the following acts were combined with the act on public branches pensions: Central Government's Pensions Act (VaEL), Local Government's Pensions Act (KuEL), Evangelical Lutheran Church's Pensions Act (KiEL) and the pension rules for the Social Insurance Institution's employees. Pension entitlements based on VEKL (act on the compensation of pensions from central government funds for periods of caring for a child aged under three and during studies) are included in both private and public branches

The supplementary pension table covers all supplementary pensions managed by voluntary pension funds and foundations, as well as group pension insurance offered by insurance corporations because they are considered to belong to social insurance. In the supplementary pension tables, individual pension insurance taken out by enterprises or private persons is excluded from the definition of social insurance.

Accrual calculations of the pension entitlements in the earnings-related pension scheme

The amount of pension entitlements is calculated with a long-term planning model in the Finnish Centre for Pensions. Information on the calculation model and the calculations on accrued pension entitlements previously released by the Finnish Centre for Pensions can be found in the Finnish Centre for Pensions reports Statutory pensions - long-term calculations , especially in Appendices 3 and 8. The latest report is Statutory pensions  long-term calculations 2016 . The difference compared to the calculation of the Finnish Centre for Pensions report is that the supplementary pension tables use the background assumptions agreed on in the European Unions AWG ( Ageing Working Group ) and recommended by Eurostat in order to improve the international comparability of the calculations.

The long-term planning model of the Finnish Centre for Pensions describes how the pension scheme works and its current regulations in detail. Future development of pensions is in the model calculated pension act specifically using age and sex-specific data on insured persons and the population of Finland.

When calculating pension entitlements, all pension entitlements accumulated by the time of examination and pensions under payment are considered. Future index increases and the effect of the life expectancy coefficient have also been considered in the amount of pension entitlements. Pension parts that are accrued based on future work or social security benefit periods are not included in accrued pension entitlements. The future part of disability pensions that will start later are not included in accrued pension entitlements.

Source: Financial accounts, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Antti Suutari 029 551 3257, Jarkko Kaunisto 029 551 3551, rahoitus.tilinpito@stat.fi

Director in charge: Ville Vertanen

Publication in pdf-format (245.4 kB)

Updated 8.3.2019

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Financial accounts [e-publication].

ISSN=1458-8145. Complementary data to pension entitlements 2016. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 9.12.2021].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/rtp/2016/13/rtp_2016_13_2019-03-08_tie_001_en.html
Published: 8 March 2019

Retired upper-level employee households are well off

According to Statistics Finland's income distribution statistics, there were 920,000 pensioner households in Finland in 2017, which is already good one-third of all households in the country. Pensioner households have large income variations. Households of retired upper-level employees had clearly the highest income. Among employed active households only upper-level employee and entrepreneur households received more income than these pensioner households did. Households of retired former farmers and pensioners living on national pension had the lowest income of pensioner households.

Median income of pensioner households by the reference person's socio-economic group in 1995 to 2017, EUR in 2017 money

Income concept equivalent disposable monetary income per household, median. Equivalent income is the household's disposable monetary income divided by the household's consumption unit figure. The household reference person is as a rule the member of the household with the highest income. The socio-economic group of a pensioner household is determined by the economic activity of the reference person before retirement.

The median for households equivalent disposable monetary income was EUR 23,000 in 2017. For pensioner households, the corresponding income was EUR 19,000. The median income of retired upper-level employee households is highest with respect to all pensioner households, in 2017 it was EUR 28,000. This group included good 130,000 households and a total of 210,000 persons.

The clearly higher income of retired upper-level employee households than other pensioners is primarily explained by their good earnings-related pension. In addition to this, their income increased to some degree by the income received from the markets, the most significant of which was property income related to wealth.

Among pensioner households, retired farmer households had the lowest income, their equivalent median income being EUR 14,900 in 2017. Those pensioner households where the household reference person was other than a recipient of employment pension (other pensioner) had only slightly higher income. The median income of these households living primarily on national and guarantee pension was EUR 15,100. Both of the above-mentioned low income pensioner groups are fairly small, because the number of retired farmer households was good 60,000 and that of other pensioner households around 27,000 in 2017. These pensioner households with the lowest income included 120,000 persons

Numbers of pensioner households by the household reference persons socio-economic group in 2017

Among pensioner households, the biggest group was formed by retired worker households, numbering 335,000. The equivalent median income of this group was EUR 17,800. The next biggest pensioner group constituted households of retired lower-level employees, being 290,000. Their median income was EUR 19,400. The number of retired entrepreneur households (excl. farmers) was 73,000 and the group's median income was EUR 18,500.

The examinations above were made with the median for equivalent disposable monetary income. In one-person households, equivalent median income is the same as the household's median income. In other households, households median income is derived by multiplying equivalent median income by the households consumption unit figure.

Source: Income Distribution Statistics 2017, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Pekka Ruotsalainen 029 551 2610

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Updated 08.03.2019

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Income distribution statistics [e-publication].

ISSN=1799-1331. Poverty 2017. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 9.12.2021].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tjt/2017/02/tjt_2017_02_2019-03-08_tie_001_en.html
EQS Group-Ad-hoc: Airopack Technology Group AG / Key word(s): Financing

Airopack Technology Group AG: Update on Enforcement of Pledge over Shares in I.P.S.B.V.



08-March-2019 / 11:22 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 KR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



/ Airopack Technology Group - Update on Enforcement of Pledge over Shares in I.P.S.B.V. Baar, 8 March 2019 - Airopack Technology Group AG ("Airopack") announced today that the Dutch court has granted permission for the enforcement of the pledge over the shares in its indirect Dutch subsidiary I.P.S. B.V. as requested by the major lenders. The court further declared that today's decision is immediately enforceable notwithstanding appeal. Under Dutch procedural laws, an appeal of such a decision is only possible in extraordinary circumstances. Accordingly and as anticipated in the press release dated 14 February 2019, Airopack Technology Group AG and its direct subsidiary I.P.S. Holding B.V. will now be separated from the opeRating subsidiaries of Airopack Group. Based on the valuation of the operating subsidiaries as approved by the Dutch court, the pledgor I.P.S. Holding B.V. will not receive any proceeds from the enforcement and guarantee liabilities remain outstanding towards the major lenders by Airopack Technology Group AG and I.P.S. Holding B.V. Airopack is continuing discussions with major lenders to seek a full release of such guarantee liabilities which is an important element in Airopack's efforts to exit the provisional composition moratorium. The board of directors will provide further updates as needed. Contacts:



Airopack Technology Group AG

Antoine Kohler, Chairman Blegistrasse 5/1 OG

CH-6340 Baar

TF: +41 41 768 50 50

www.airopackgroup.com For investors:

Airopack Technology Group AG Martin Eberhard

martin.eberhard@rimesa.ch

TF: +41 79 209 77 50 For media:

Tolxdorff Eicher Kollektivgesellschaft Daniel Eicher / Theresia Tolxdorff

partners@tolxdorffeicher.ch

TF: +41 44 718 25 25 The Company

Airopack Technology Group AG is a leading developer and supplier of mechanical and pressure-controlled dispensing packaging technologies and systems for manufacturers and suppliers of cosmetics, body care, pharmaceutical and food products. The revolutionary and worldwide and solely by ATG patented Airopack(R) technology offers a safe, all-plastic pressurized dispenser that is environmentally and planet friendly



Airopack Technology Group operates a Airopack Ready to Fill manufacturing facility in Waalwijk, The Netherlands and a Full-Service Filling operation in Heist-op-den-Berg Belgium (Airosolutions) as well as a manufacturing plant for filling equipment in Houten, The Netherlands (Airofiller Equipment Solutions), The Global Research and Development Team, the Airopack Global Management and Customer Service Organisation are located in Waalwijk, The Netherlands.



The shares of the company are listed on the Swiss Reporting Standard of the SIX Swiss Exchange since 2010. (Ticker: AIRN / ISIN: CH0242606942).



Disclaimer

This Ad Hoc Release / Press Release may contain certain forward-looking statements. In some cases forward looking statements can be identified by the use of terms such as "believes", "enables", "estimates", "anticipates", "projects", "expects", "intends", "may", "will", "seeks" or "should" or variations thereof, or by discussions of strategy, plans, objectives, goals, future events or intentions. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances.



Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from any outcomes or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The success or achievement of various results, targets and objectives is dependent upon a multitude of factors, many of which are beyond the control of Airopack. No representations are made as to the accuracy of such statements or that such results, targets or objectives will be realized. www.airopackgroup.com

End of ad hoc announcement
Roularta Media Group / Key word(s): Miscellaneous

ROULARTA MEDIA GROUP is to attend the Smallcap Event 2019 April 16 & 17 in Paris



08-March-2019 / 15:40 CET/CEST





ROULARTA MEDIA GROUP is to attend the Smallcap Event 2019

April 16 & 17 in Paris

ROULARTA MEDIA GROUP, a Belgian multimedia group, has announced that it will attend the Smallcap Event in Paris April 16 & 17.

Roularta made some important strategic choices selling its 50% stake in Medialaan (Flemish radio & television channels) and acquiring a 50% stake in Mediafin (financial dailies De Tijd & L'Echo) and 100% of the Belgian women's magazines Libelle/Femmes d'Aujourd'hui, Flair (D/F), Feeling (D/F) etc. from Sanoma.

After these transactions Roularta is debt-free and enjoys a cash position of more than 95 million euro at the end of 2018. Roularta is ready to resume its activities with a solid profitability. Its presence at the Smallcap Event is a unique opportunity for investors to rediscover the media group and take a closer look at its new developments in progress.

About the Roularta Group:

The group makes a consolidated turnover of 275 million euro. It is active in the following fields:

- Magazine brands : leader in the field of news and lifestyle magazines in Belgium - leader of the free press in Belgium - joint venture leader (50%) with Bayard France in the field of senior citizens magazines in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

- Audio-visual: Sole shareholder of the only Belgian national and economic news station Kanaal Z/Canal Z.

- New media: active on the internet with the Belgian newssites knack.be/ levif.be, trends.be etc., with digital access to all its magazines, with classifieds online etc.

- Line Extensions: thanks to its media force, the group makes an increasing turnover in the field of e-commerce, cultural products, travels, design etc.

- Innovation: Roularta Digital offers a full service including a platform for e-commerce (Storesquare) and geolocalized advertising on the internet with Google-ads, Facebook-ads, display advertising in its national newssites (Proxistore) and newsletters (Proxiletter).

- Printing business : Roularta Printing is the N 1 printing plant in Belgium (magazines, newspapers, catalogs).
Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money.

Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.
ICM has worked with the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP Growth Hub, Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council business support, to access grant funding. Photo submitted

A SHOP fitting firm from Stratford is aiming to create new jobs after receiving 150,000 in grant funding, writes Simon Woodings.

Stratford-based ICM, which began life in 1998 as a one-man operation run by managing director Steve Lewis, has invested in top-of-the-range machinery, as well as new air conditioning, flooring and computers thanks to a series of collaborative funding bids.

Through the purchase of a 250,000 five-axis CNC machine, the production side of the business has been transformed, with a quicker turnaround time than ever before achievable for its range of interior features, which are fitted at a range of popular restaurants and bars across the UK.

The company is looking to create ten new jobs this year and increase turnover by 30 per cent by 2022 following the recent investments. These have come together as a result of partnership working between Coventry and Warwickshire LEP Growth Hub, Warwickshire County Council and Coventry and Warwickshire Business Support and Green Business Programmes that are part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

Steve Lewis said: The business has changed and developed over the last 20 years, going from a one-man operation to 45 staff across two sites.

Thanks to the funding we have received we are now about to enter what we believe will be an incredibly exciting period of growth for us.

Purchasing the five-axis CNC machine has revolutionised our processes, we are working with a range of new clients in the leisure industry and have expanded to work in airports.

This purchase, alongside the equipment we purchased thanks to our work with Warwickshire County Council and Coventry City Council, has set us up for an exciting year.

Gary Thyeson, account manager with the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP Growth Hub, said: This is a perfect example of successful collaboration to help contribute towards real business growth.

ICM is a success story thanks to the hard work of Steve and his team and we are proud to contribute towards the next chapter of that story.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Bill Shine, the White House deputy chief of staff for communications, has resigned from his post after less than a year in the West Wing.



The former Fox News co-president offered his resignation to President Donald Trump Thursday evening, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. Shine will serve as senior advisor to the 2020 re-election campaign.



Serving President Trump and this country has been the most rewarding experience of my entire life. To be a small part of all this President has done for the American people has truly been an honor," Shine said in a statement issued by the White House. "Im looking forward to working on President Trumps reelection campaign and spending more time with my family."



President Donald Trump in a statement lauded Shine, who was spotted in the West Wing shortly before news of his departure broke Friday morning after the president departed for Alabama, as having done "an outstanding job working for me and the Administration."



"We will miss him in the White House, but look forward to working together on the 2020 Presidential Campaign, where he will be totally involved," Trump stated. "Thank you to Bill and his wonderful family!"



Shine, was ousted last spring from FOX News' executive ranks amid a major shakeup at the network because of sexual harassment scandals. Though he was never personally accused of harassment, questions were raised about his handling of the accusations.



Shine joined the White House as a senior communicator last summer, roughly four months after the former communications director, Hope Hicks, resigned. As White House communications director, Shine steered the president towards dozens of friendly interviews with Fox, including a high profile interview and campaign appearance with Sean Hannity during the 2018 midterm elections.



Sanders called Shine "a great leader on our team and someone we have all loved working with every day."



"He has brought a tremendous amount of talent and expertise to the Administration," Sanders noted. "Bill has become a real friend and his generosity and his passion for our country will be sorely missed. It is a big loss for the White House, but a huge gain for the Presidents reelection campaign."



Brad Parscale, the campaign manager of the president's reelection campaign, welcomed Shine in a statement boasting the president's shot at reelection "just got stronger."



"Bill Shine is an incredible professional and will bring insight and talent as we build a world-class campaign," Parscale wrote. "He is a gifted communicator, strategic thinker and brings a wealth of experience from cable news and the White House."



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
The United Nations began celebrating International Women's Day in 1975, which had been designated International Women's Year, but it was in 1977 that the General Assembly invited member states to designate 8 March as the UN Day for women's rights and world peace.

For some, IWD is a way of celebrating womanhood, but for many it is a protest, to draw attention to the still-ongoing battle by women for equal participation and equal opportunities, in society and in their development as people.

Many of us remember the 1970s as a time when the term "women's lib" was first used, but in fact there were already calls for equal rights for women in the early years of the 20th century, and a 'National Women's Day' was organised by the Socialist Party of America and celebrated in New York on February 28, 1909.

Two years later, on 19 March 1911, the first International Women's Day was marked in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, with protesters calling for the right to vote and to hold public office, and against discrimination in employment.

In 1914, Germany celebrated its International Women's Day on 8 March for the first time, and it was dedicated to the right to vote, although German women were not given that right for a further four years. On the same day, in London, there was a march from Bow to Trafalgar Square to call for women's suffrage, and Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested outside Charing Cross Station as she was about to head to Trafalgar Square, where she was due to make a speech.

Other countries decided to follow Germany's example, and mark IWD on 8 March.

In Russia, on that date in 1917, female textile workers in Petrograd held a mass demonstration and women in St Petersburg went on strike for "Bread and Peace", demanding the end of World War I, an end to Russian food shortages, and the end of czarism. Their protests gained massive support and started a revolution; just one week later Nicholas II, the Emperor of Russia, abdicated and the interim government granted women the right to vote.

In some countries, International Women's Day is marked as a public holiday. Spain is not among them, but in 2018 millions of women all over the country went on strike to defend their rights, resulting in schools and universities closing, limited public transport and essential services cut back to a minimum level. Women were also urged not to do housework for 24 hours, and after a social media campaign called 'Take off your aprons' many women hung aprons outside their homes as a sign of support.

Union representatives say about six million women went on strike last year, and similar action is planned today, calling for fair promotions for women, the closure of the gender pay gap and an end to sexual harassment.

There have been advances over the decades, but there is still a long way to go before women receive the necessary support as equal members of society.
A 70-year-old Spanish man handed himself in to police in Torremolinos on Saturday after admitting to having killed his flatmate with a hammer days earlier following an argument between the pair.

National Police officers arrested the man while others went to the scene to confirm if what he was saying was true.

On arrival at Plaza Rio Aguasvivas, they found the body of his flatmate, 77, also Spanish.

The assailant was remanded in custody as the autopsy took place on Monday. A judge then decided on Wednesday that he should be sent to prison as he awaits trial.
The regional government has responded to recent warnings from companies about the congestion on roads into the PTA (Parque Tecnologico Andalucia) tech park by announcing an action plan to solve the problem.

According to regional minister Elias Bendodo, the package of measures will include new traffic lights or roundabouts, among other initiatives.

The plan, which is hoped will reassure the firms that hinted they could be forced to leave the park, will be on the table in three months' time, said Bendodo.
Speaking to a wide range of women in Malaga and on the Costa del Sol, be they Spanish or from another country, in their 20s or their 70s, one thing they all agree on is that while attitudes towards gender equality have changed in their lifetimes, there is still a long way to go. Until there is total equality, expressions such as "glass ceiling" will still be heard and movements such as #MeToo will still be needed.

Some don't feel that they have personally been victimised for being a woman while others have had direct experience of sexist work colleagues or differences in pay. Most, however 'trivial' the incident, could add the #MeToo hashtag to an, at best uncomfortable or embarrassing, experience with a male boss or colleague, or someone they considered a friend or even family member.

Incidents that were brushed off as "banter" in the 1970s would almost definitely either not happen or end up at a tribunal nowadays, although younger women say they continue to be asked if they are married during job interviews.

For now, however, most women agree that there is still a need to raise awareness of inappropriate conduct and differences in salaries and conditions, not just on 8 March but every day of the year.

With general, local and European elections coming up in spring, this year's Women's Day events in Andalucia and the rest of Spain have gained a distinct political edge.

The rise of the far right across Europe, whose policies often include a return to traditional family roles, and the arrival of the Vox party in the Andalusian government, have prompted new slogans this year. Meanwhile the Conservative Partido Popular has said that it will not be taking part in the rallies, saying they have been "politicised" by the left.

The government must make strict laws on equal rights

Katie Hallybone

Katie Alexandra Hallybone | Deputy Mayor, Macharaviaya

For 35-year-old Katie, who has lived in Spain since she was a child, the older generation in this country finds it harder to accept the idea of equality. While she does think that lot of progress has been made towards achieving greater equality between the sexes, she says there is still a lot to do. To tackle this, she says, the government must make strict laws so that we have equal rights and that it is essential that more education on this subject is taught in schools. She says we must change society for our childrens future so that they dont go through what we have gone through.

A boss wanted a peck on the lips

Tricia Gabbitas.

Tricia Gabbitas | Retired

Seventy-year-old Tricia Gabbitas explains that she has been the victim of direct sexism in the workplace. When she once queried why a less qualified male colleague was earning more than her, her bosss reply was, Well hes a man and he has bills to pay. Needless to say, Tricia was furious. She also had a male boss in the 1970s who seemed to think it was ok to get a peck on the lips from one of his female colleagues. While Tricia agrees it was sexist, she says she wouldnt describe it as assault and called it banter at the time. She adds, We ladies were strong enough and wise enough to ignore it.

#MeToo exposes one of societys great evils

Pili Franco.

Pili Franco | Language student and flamenco dancer

Thirty-two-year-old Pili Franco says she believes the #MeToo movement is important to expose people who have used their power to force people to do something they shouldnt have to in order to get a job. She says that while she doesnt feel she has personally experienced sexism in the workplace she has questioned why, in interviews, she has been asked whether she is married, something that in theory should not be asked at any stage during a job selection process. Iknow men who have never been asked that question and women who have been asked it a lot,she says.

It should be made easier for companies to hire young women

Aprile Winterstein.

Aprile Winterstein | Owner/manager, Inmobiliaria REINES

After running businesses in Malaga for 18 years, and before that in Granada, Aprile Winterstein believes that the law should be changed to prevent discrimination against young women in a recruitment process. The state covers maternity leave but if a woman has to take time off during pregnancy, companies have to pay their salary, she explains, something small companies, which also have to pay for a replacement, cannot afford. Aprile, originally from Canada, says that she supports the feminist movement as it was when it started and believes in equality, but that feminism in Spain has been taken to a political level that she finds hard to understand. International Womens Day, she says, should be a celebration of women, not a reason to go on strike. As a professional in the real estate industry, Aprile says that women have gained visibility and are often recommended. People now say, shes a woman so she must be good.

I think every woman should be a feminist

Patricia Welzenbach.

Patricia Welzenbach | Student

Twenty-two-year-old German Erasmus student, Patricia Welzenbach believes that more rules need to be put in place to stop inequalities before they have the chance to develop. She agrees that attitudes towards equality have changed, but we are certainly not out of the dark yet. I think every woman should be a feminist, she explains, adding that in order for attitudes to truly shift, an understanding of what feminism really needs to be attained. All we want is to be given equal opportunities and rights.

Sexism is still very present

Nolwenn Gaudin.

Nolwenn Gaudin | Translator

Thirty-five-year-old French resident in Malaga, Nolwenn Gaudin, says she feels that generally, sexism is less accepted than it used to be, but she adds that it is still very present. She says that the #MeToo movement is a big step forward. I hope that abusive behaviours - men principally, but some women are also guilty of this - will keep being reported and brought to justice,she says. Its had an impact on society - women are not as scared to come forward and the cases are not dismissed anymore.

More awareness, more reports of experiences like the #MeToo movement and more systematic reports of sexual assault and more education, specifically in schools and about consent are needed, Nolwenn says.

As a fifties housewife I never felt unequal

June Rendle.

June Rendle | Actress

Born in 1930, June Rendle points out that Western women have been liberated for many years. I believe that women have ensured that they are no longer treated as being special, in need of a seat on a train, of walking on the inside on a pavement, says June, who boasts a long career on stage and TV. With regard to sexism in the workplace she adds, It was always degrading to be expected to sit on the bosss knee while taking dictation, but a sharp elbow in the ribs and an icy stare did not necessarily result in dismissal. June was married at 22 and soon had two children to bring up. As a fifties housewife I ran the house while my husband earned the money. I never felt unequal - nor did he, she points out.

Women are more understanding and tolerant than men

irina Donskaia.

Irina Donskaia | Journalist

Originally from St Petersburg, 61-year-old Irina Donskaia believes that Womens Day should be celebrated in a big way as it is in Russia. However after 23 years in Spain she has come to see the need for the day to represent a fight for rights and equality, rather than just a celebration of women as it is in her home country. Theres no equality, she says. Salaries should be the same and more women should be in executive positions. After all, she adds, women are cleverer, more understanding and more tolerant.

A womans attitude is about how she presents herself

Maddie Hjort.

Maddie Hjort | Owner, Sunset Andalucia Real Estate

For Maddie Hjort, 48, a womans attitude is all about how she presents herself. The biggest difference she sees between women in Spain and her native Denmark is that Danish women tend to just dress up for a special occasion whereas Spanish women seem to dress up every day. She says that while she has never had problems with any of her male bosses, working as a bartender in the past has brought her unwanted behaviour from male customers. Maddie doesnt call herself a feminist, but she believes that we all have different strengths, regardless of whether were male or female.

I was overbearing; he was a natural leader

Giulia Scaffidi.

Giulia Scaffidi | Student

Originally from Italy, 20-year-old Giulia Scaffidi remembers the time she ran for school council. Idebated against a male candidate. We were both passionate about our cause, she explains. Yet, I was deemed as overbearing and he, a natural leader.
Cabify has returned to Barcelona with half the amount of drivers it had before the Catalan government introduced a raft of regional restrictions on private-hire-vehicle services just over a month ago. Taxis had gone on strike in the city in late January, complaining that the Uber-style services were unfair competition.

Now Cabify, a Spanish brand similar to Uber, is back. In response to the new Catalan rule that private-hire vehicles must leave a time gap between receiving a booking and picking up the passenger, Cabify is using a loophole that says 15 minutes must pass after the service has been "contracted". Users are now asked by the company's phone app to contract a continuous service agreement with the first journey, removing the need to wait 15 minutes on future trips.

Cabify has agreed to remove the GPS positioning map of its cars and only show it once the reservation is confirmed. The company has also changed its business model, acquiring 300 private hire licences, rather than work with each licence holder individually.

Uber is waiting to see what happens before reentering the city and taxi unions have claimed "fraud".
The government published a royal decree this week extending paternity leave for new dads from five to eight weeks, although it won't come properly into force until 1 April. It is one of a raft of measures approved by the Spanish Cabinet using this express legislative route ahead of elections next month.

The new paternity leave rules say that the amount being taken will rise to the same as women from eight weeks this year to 12 weeks in 2020 and 16 weeks in 2021. They won't just be applied to births, but also to adoptions of children under a year. By 2021, a father will take six weeks after the birth and the remaining 10 weeks until the child is one, which can be spread out part time.

Both parents can now also have an hour off a day until the child is nine months old to give milk or, alternatively, accumulate them as extra days of leave.

Criticism of use of decree

The government has issued several other royal decrees recently, which are a form of government order applied more or less immediately and then voted on by Congreso later. Designed for emergencies, there has been criticism this week from rival parties that ministers are using them too much as a form of electioneering ahead of 28 April's general election.

Although Congreso was dissolved this week ahead of the election, a permanent committee is still sitting to attend to legislative business.

As well as approving measures to protect British citizens in the event of a hard Brexit (see page 14), decrees agreed last week included a revision to property rental law after it had been rejected by Congreso twice before.

Rental contract changes

Among the new rules are that minimum contract periods go up to five years from three years for private renters and tourist-home rentals become a regional responsibility. Residents can now say no to tourist rentals in their block or street if three fifths of the "comunidad" is against.

The government has also decreed that social security payments will continue to be paid where people are forced to stop work to look after a dependent person, and that companies with 50 staff must keep a register of pay levels of men and women to prove they are doing more to reduce any salary gap.
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This week saw Luis Garicano, an economic advisor for Ciudadanos, announcing that the centrist party will impose tighter regulations on corporations if it gains a share of power on April 28th. "We have been very concerned that many sectors in Spain have been getting monopolised over time," Garcicano told a somewhat flustered Bloomberg TV interviewer on Wednesday.

He went on to say that major companies in the energy, electricity and telecommunications sectors have too much market power and that regulatory bodies are not sufficiently independent of political influence. Ciudadanos, said Garicano, would address both issues if in office, thus opening up competition and reducing politicians' control of big business.

So-far, so market-friendly (the phrase that's most often used to describe Ciudadanos). Garicano was also asked what the party's first economic change would be if it found itself in government, and answered that the key to bolstering Spain's productivity and competitiveness is improving education. His interviewer seemed unconvinced by the response, but it revealed Ciudadanos to be far more progressive in this respect than its potential right-wing allies - the rapidly regressing Conservatives and the far-right Vox. The only other Spanish parties one could imagine giving a similar answer at the moment are the PSOE and Podemos, although the latter has always highlighted its ideological differences with its rival newcomer.

Led by 39-year-old Catalonian Albert Rivera, Ciudadanos describes itself as liberal, secular and post-nationalist. Currently positioned third in the opinion polls behind the PSOE and the Popular Party (PP), it's likely to be the kingmaker on April 28th, possessing the ideological flexibility to team up with parties to its right or left (in the past it has attempted to make or has made pacts with both the Conservatives and the Socialists). Over the coming weeks, as Spain enters election mode, the party will have plenty of opportunities to indicate which direction it proposes to take at the end of April.

Ciudadanos has already made one thing clear, though: it will not be teaming up with the Socialists (no party is likely to secure a parliamentary majority on April 28th, so the next government will almost certainly be some kind of coalition). Rivera argues that Sanchez has undermined the Spanish Constitution in attempting to open a dialogue with Catalan separatists; for that reason, he has ruled out an alliance with the PSOE.

Such a pairing was also tabled in early 2016, as Spanish parties tried to form a government after December 2015's inconclusive election. But it never materialised, chiefly because Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias said he would not support a partnership between the PSOE and Ciudadanos. This time, it's the divisive issue of Catalonia that stands in the way, thus preventing the formation of a dynamic and progressive coalition - perhaps the best available out of all the possible combinations come April 28th.
The Centre Pompidou in Malaga port this week welcomes its biggest and most important exhibition yet. 'Henri Matisse. Un pais nuevo' (Henri Matisse. A new country) brings together some fifty works by the master of modern art, on loan from the gallery's main base in Paris.

THE EXHIBITION Title. 'Henri Matisse. Un pais nuevo'. Where. Centre Pompidou Malaga, Muelle Uno, Malaga. When. Until 9 June. Opening hours. Open every day, except Tuesdays, from 9.30am to 8pm. Entry. Main collection, seven euros; temporary exhibition, four euros; combined ticket, nine euros.

Until 9 June, visitors to the Pompidou can take in the artist's incessant exploration of primitivism and impressionism at the turn of the 20th century, the explosion of 'fauvistic' colour, the flirtations with the simplification of forms, the subsequent return to a certain classicism in the happiness of the French coast, the experiments with trimmed papers and the final feature for which he is best known to the public: his imposing use of colour.

"He is a painter of colour, but this exhibition has contemporary relevance, because Matisse's painting appeals to the senses, but gives space to the spirit," says Aurelie Verbier, curator of the exhibition.

Influences

Before this break into the public consciousness, Matisse, as he was about to turn 30, put himself into debt to purchase himself a drawing by Vincent van Gogh, a plaster bust by Auguste Rodin, a painting by Paul Gauguin and a small canvas by Paul Cezanne - all as charms that would help him find his way as an artist.

Just months after his Cezanne purchase came Self Portrait (1900) that welcomes visitors to the exhibition.

Relationship with Picasso

The success of Matisse was limited until 1905 when his portrait of his wife Amelie, Woman with a Hat sparked a scandal that Matisse and his followers (Manguin, Marquet and Camoin, among them) provoked in the Paris Autumn Salon where they presented their works.

Matisse was singled out as the leader of this group and from that moment on, every exhibition became an intimate and social battle.

This did nothing to dampen his radicalism, though, up to the point that he and Pablo Picasso started to cross swords and developed a rivalry which would last until their deaths.

This respectful rivalry is evident in the exhibition, above all, in a series of sketches with clear parallels to 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'.

"Between Picasso and Matisse we can see the whole development of modern art," says Serge Lasvignes, president of the Centre Pompidou Paris. "We already know that there was fiery history between them but they also had a lot in common."

"I'd really like it if people come to see Matisse here then go to the Museo Picasso and establish a dialogue between the works."
Posted on Thursday, March 07, 2019

KINGSVILLE (March 7, 2019)  The Wildlife Society Student Chapter from Texas A&M University-Kingsville brought home a number of awards from the Texas Chapter of the Wildlife Society (TCTWS) state meeting. In addition, a number of faculty members also won awards.

Kelly Wood, a senior from Victoria received one of the highest honors, the Colin Caruthers Award. That earned Wood, the Texas A&M-Kingsville chapters Distinguished Student Award.

Michael Page, a senior from Kennedale received the Charly McTee Award and Mikayla House, a masters student from Helotes, received the Sam Beasom Memorial Award.

Two faculty members received major awards. Dr. David B. Wester, professor, received the Educator of the Year award and Dr. Bart Ballard, professor and C. Berdon and Rolannette Lawrence Endowed Chair in Waterfowl Research, was made an Honorary Life Member.

In the student poster competition, Texas A&M-Kingsville brought home second and third place awards. Jason Loghry, a senior from Rockport, placed second with his poster Wetland Use and characterization of Mexican wetlands used by wintering midcontinent Greater White-fronted geese. Placing third in the graduate student class was Brandon Palmer from Rochester, Michigan. His poster topic was Quantifying the spatial and temporal distribution of thermal refugia for northern bobwhites using an unmanned aerial vehicle.

Two graduate students placed second and third in the photo contest. Silverio Avilla-Sanchez from Tampico, Mexico placed second followed by Palmer in third.

The plant identification team placed second as a team with individuals placing second and third. Kye Johnston, a junior from Victoria placed second and David Rosales, a senior from Laredo was third.

Team members include graduate students Dillan Drabek from Schulenburg, Jose Cortez from Roma and Darrion Crowley from Seadrift; seniors Rosales, Marco Urive from Mission and Rudy Rosales from Laredo; junior Johnston; sophomores Micayla Pearson from La Vernia; Alejandro Bazaldua from Harlingen and Weston Stone from Breckenridge; and freshman Sam Stone from Austin.

A group of faculty also won an award for their popular article Things you may have heard about chronic wasting disease published in the February 2018 issue of Texas Wildlife magazine. Those faculty include Dr. David Hewitt, Professor and Leroy G. Denman Jr. Endowed Executive Director of Wildlife Research; Dr. Fred Bryant, professor and director of development; Dr. Charlie DeYoung, professor emeritus and research scientist; Dr. Randy DeYoung, associate professor and research scientist; and Dr. Clayton Hilton, associate professor and director of veterinary technology.

About Dr. David B. Wester

Dr. David B. Wester was the statistician at Texas Tech University and professor in their wildlife program from 1976 to 2011. After that, he joined the faculty at Texas A&M-Kingsville and has held a similar position for the past seven years.

Wester teaches experimental design, regression, non-parametric statistics and multivariate statistics on a rotational basis. He has taught literally over 1,000 students experimental design during his tenure as a professor, said nominator Dr. Scott Henke, Regents Professor and chair of the animal, rangeland and wildlife sciences department. Many of us within the wildlife profession, including myself, owe our statistical research knowledge to Dr. Wester.

According to Henke, Wester teaches an overload of courses each semester because he feels our student needs should come first.

Dr. Wester assists graduate students with their analyses of their wildlife research for thesis and dissertation. Last year alone, he assisted 45 graduate students which amounted to more than 1,100 hours of effort, Henke said.

About Dr. Bart Ballard

Dr. Bart Ballard has served as vice president, president-elect and president of the TCTWS.

Many say his lab feels more like a close family, but he has another family, that is, a family of peer wildlife biologists. They gather once a year, said Dr. Jena Moon, TCTWS president. As past president, Dr. Ballard has been a true role model for me in working into my role this year.

Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of Dr. Ballards mentoring style is the comradery he develops with his students and other professionals. He fosters an inclusive, family-like atmosphere for both his students and other professionals alike, she said.

His uncanny ability to foster relationships and bring conservationists together is exceptional and he continually strives for excellence in research and teaching, Moon said.

-TAMUK-
Seafarers abducted from tanker in Gulf of Guinea

Three Romanian seafarers on board the 2006-built Handysize product tanker Histria Ivory were alleged to have been kidnapped by pirates off Togo, according to Romania's Free Trade Union of Navigators (SLN) and the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE).

At about 19.30 hours last Sunday, pirates attacked the tanker about 20 miles off Lome, Togo. The majority of the crew took shelter in the ship's citadel, but three Romanian nationals were abducted. The pirates fled the scene after the kidnapping, and local authorities escorted Histria Ivory to a safe anchorage. The vessel was reportedly damaged during the attack, but none of the crew was injured, according to the MAE. "The Free Trade Union of Navigators warns that in the Gulf of Guinea, the rate of pirate incidents is increasing in intensity, which affects seafarers and global shipping," the SLN said in a statement. "In high-risk areas, it is necessary to increase vigilance on the bridge and tune radar for small distances to prevent any attempted attack to succeed. Also, the piracy procedures must be well received by each crew member and followed precisely in case of piracy incidents."




Production outfit Friends Electric has appointed Bueno to represent them on the West Coast.

Bueno will work closely with Belinda Blacklock, Executive Producer of Friends Electric in LA and collaborate closely with their London studio.

Belinda Blacklock, EP of Friends Electric in LA said: We are really excited to be joining with Bueno on the West Coast. Their knowledge of animation and design is something that really appealed to us, theyre culturally aligned with Friends Electric and they understand and appreciate our vision of how a creative production studio should be. I look forward to working closely with Millie and Bryan on a day-to-day basis.

Friends Electrics roster includes Pete Candeland, foam Studio and Polynoid.

Millie Munro, Partner at Bueno, said: Bryan and I have both worked extensively with designers and animation directors over the years and have long been fans of Friends Electric so were thrilled to be partnering with them on the West Coast. Belinda and Friends Electric have curated an incredible roster of both global and local talent so were excited to connect them with the opportunities in our market."

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New company Thousand Films has been launched on International Womens Day as a TV script initiative for women writers to connect them with established producers.



The initiative is supported by Sally Woodward Gentles Sid Gentle Films, the National Film and Television School and the Edinburgh TV Festival.



Current industry figures show that only 14% of prime-time dramas and 11% of comedy is being written by women. The Thousand Films competition will offer women writers over the age of 16 in the UK and Ireland, who are currently unrepresented by an agency, the chance to submit a pilot script in either drama or comedy.



Shortlisted scripts will be judged by a panel of industry experts and writers will be introduced to the industry at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August 2019. The prize package also includes delegate passes, accommodation and travel to the Festival.



Thousand Films will make offers to option shortlisted scripts and will support the writers with training, mentoring and tailored development plans to introduce them to the rigours of writing professionally, and to help progress their scripts and nurture their talent. After the Thousand Films training programme Sid Gentle Films Ltd will work with a selection of the writers on their original ideas or on other projects on the Sid Gentle development slate.



Sally Woodward Gentle, Executive Producer and Founder of Sid Gentle Films Ltd, said: The television industry is rightly setting a course to correct the under representation of women writers. Sid Gentle wants to take action in addressing this and our mission is to not only kick-start the careers of talented writers, but to add fresh voices to the industry at large. We hope this competition helps to unearth the incredible talent that we know is out there.



Charles Dawson, Founder of Thousand Films said: Thousand Films wants to find new writers and to prepare them for a professional life working with established producers, so the prospect of Sid Gentle taking new writers from the competition into real-life development is incredibly exciting.



To enter the competition please visit: https://thousandfilms.co.uk



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Floods kill 23 in Malawi: ministry



Blantyre, Malawi, March 8 (AFP) Mar 08, 2019



Floods caused by incessant downpours have left 23 people dead across Malawi, the country's Homeland Security Ministry said on Friday.

In addition to the confirmed deaths, 11 people were also been reported missing with around 110,000 affected, a statement said.

Twelve districts, all in the south of the country, had been blighted by the deluges.

Malawi defence force and police search and rescue teams were working in collaboration with the Malawi Red Cross, the statement added.

In one affected district, Mulanje, camps had been set up for displaced people, Commissioner Charles Makanga told AFP.

The rains also hit transport links with two major bridges submerged, cutting off access to Blantyre, Malawi's second largest city.

According to the country's Meteorological Department, sporadic downpours are due to continue until the middle of next week.
March 1-7, 2019

Weve got a boatload of daytime sparkle for you to enjoy this week! Dont forget to vote for your favorites in the poll below!

Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images

15. Queen Letizia of Spain wore her Double Dagger Earrings from Gold and Roses for Wednesdays Princess of Girona Foundation event in Caceres.





Dominic Lipinski  WPA Pool/Getty Images

14. For the reception celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Prince of Waless investiture on Tuesday, the Duchess of Sussex chose gold earrings from Birks, plus several rings and a golden bangle. ( More over here!

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

13. On Wednesday in Blackpool, the Duchess of Cambridge wore her Kiki McDonough earrings with green amethyst drops.

EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

12. Queen Silvia of Sweden chose golden jewels, including a lovely abstract brooch, for a visit to the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday.

Dominic Lipinski  WPA Pool/Getty Images

11. Kate wore her diamond and aquamarine drop earrings for the Prince of Waless reception at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. ( More over here!

Dominic Lipinski  WPA Pool/Getty Images

10. For her brothers anniversary celebration on Tuesday, the Princess Royal wore pearls with her gold and amethyst brooch. ( More over here!

EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

9. For a visit to the European Council in Brussels on Tuesday, Silvia wore a lovely suite of floral accessories, including earrings and a matching brooch.

Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

8. The Duchess of Cornwall wore her pearl necklace with the diamond and amethyst clasp on Thursday for a reception at Clarence House for the Women of the World organization.

7. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands wore her silvery black pearl and diamond earrings for a finance conference in Amersfoort on Tuesday.

SOEREN STACHE/AFP/Getty Images

6. In the wake of her (now canceled) bid to be Thailands prime minister, Princess Ubolratana (sister of King Vajiralongkorn) sparkled in diamond earrings, bracelets, and rings at the International Tourism Trade Fair in Berlin on Thursday.

MOHSSEN ASSANIMOGHADDAM/AFP/Getty Images

5. Maxima dazzled in earrings set with bright orange gemstones during her visit to Bremen on Wednesday. ( More over here!

Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

4. Camilla wore Magic Alhambra diamond earrings from her collection of Van Cleef and Arpels pieces for a reception on Wednesday to celebrate UK-Irish relations ahead of St. Patricks Day.

Dominic Lipinski  WPA Pool/Getty Images

3. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom wore one of her amethyst flower brooches for a reception celebrating the anniversary of her eldest sons investiture on Tuesday. ( More over here!

SIMON DAWSON/AFP/Getty Images

2. For a visit to the Science Museum in London on Thursday, Queen Elizabeth II wore her gorgeous Peranakan-style Birds of Paradise Brooch. ( More on the brooch here!

Dominic Lipinski  WPA Pool/Getty Images

1. My top vote of the week goes to a lovely (and very appropriate!) heirloom jewel worn by Camilla for the anniversary of her husbands investiture: the Diamond and Emerald Prince of Wales Feather Brooch that belonged to Queen Alexandra. ( More over here!
In an age of mass-produced and untraceable products, a bespoke shoe company based in London is subverting fashions manufacturing process from beginning to end.

Sabeha and Joana in 2016 as a response to the skills and needs of a local community in Bethnal Green, Juta Founded byand Joana in 2016 as a response to the skills and needs of a local community in Bethnal Green,epitomises ethical and empowering fashion:  There are so many women in our local community with incredible craft and creative passions but without access to the traditional creative economy," Joana says. "We wanted to create a business that provided free training, a supportive community, and flexible, well-paid, empowering work to women who face barriers to employment.

"So far we've reached over 60 women with our crafts-based skills training, sold over 250 pairs of shoes, and run shoe-making workshops where our experienced makers have taught over 200 people to make their own shoes. We've also reclaimed over 200 kilos of leather that would otherwise have gone to waste from factory and upholstery offcuts.

Image of founder Joana and Sabeha courtesy of Joana at Juta

Ethical

At The National Student, we love a brand that is as committed to ethics as it is to aesthetics, and we think Juta proves that neither has to be sacrificed for the other. Nevertheless, as awe-inspiring as Jutas feat is, prioritising fair working conditions and sustainable practices hasnt been without its challenges: 

Theres usually a higher cost of doing things right - we pay twice as much for our shoe bags because theyre traceable, printed with eco-friendly inks and sewn in a Fair Trade certified factory. And since we pay the London Living Wage for our makers time, labour costs make up a much higher percentage of our item cost than most high-street shoes. But we also find that customers are more interested in listening, understanding where things come from and how theyre made, and understand where the costs are coming from. Theres no one definition of ethical or sustainable, and customers rightly ask difficult questions of brands who claim to be one or both. Theres always more that we could do better, and were always keen to listen, be challenged, and make changes, Joana told us.

Image credit: Kanahaya Alam

Traceable

Recently the traceability of supply chains in the fashion industry has come under enormous scrutiny, but Juta has found a resourceful and beautiful way to produce high-quality footwear that you can trust. She says:  We love using reclaimed and repurposed materials for our shoes. At the moment, we have relationships with upholsterers and factories in London who let us take away their waste leather. When making something like a couch, theres often little pieces in strange shapes that are cut off from the design - because weve adapted our patterns to use very small pieces of leather, we can turn these into shoes. Building relationships with leather providers has taken a while but has been really lovely. Some particular highlights include working with a coffee shop to reclaim all the leather from their old seating when they replaced it, and running workshops for customers who have brought in their old leather items - jackets, boots, sofa seats! - and turned them into shoes. 

Image courtesy of Joana at Juta

Sustainable sourcing is definitely something more companies should look into. Advances in material science, along with new circular economy platforms and systems, mean that there is even greater access to and ways of re-using materials that would otherwise go to waste. Using reclaimed materials changes how you design, requires that you be more creative and thoughtful, and provides more unique products with more interesting stories. 

Hopeful

If youre interested or inspired by Joana and Sabehas creativity and resourcefulness but feel its out of your depth owing to a lack of training or knowledge, then we have some encouraging news for you. Neither of Juta's founders had any formal "fashion" training ( Sabeha h as a BA in Social Enterprise and Joana has a Masters degree in Medical Anthropology ).

 There are so many different ways to learn the skills you want - formal training is certainly one of them, but so are less formal apprenticeships, following online or video training, or just getting stuck in and making things. Theres no substitute for just sitting down and testing things out repeatedly. We taught ourselves to make our espadrilles, and have spent two years testing, tweaking, and refining our patterns and processes. Its really important to us that fashion and making are accessible - for the women who graduate from our employability skills course and work for us, and for the people who book onto our shoemaking courses to sew their own shoes. We so recommend people joining the industry who might not have formal or university training - if its something you love enough that youre doing it in your spare time, you already have an edge in your passion. And the industry could use some shaking up! 

Image credit: Kanahaya Alam

We completely agree; its no secret that our fashion industry is causing our planet and our people harm in its current state and the only way we can fix this is by changing it at its very foundations. But this doesnt have to be a pipedream, as proven by creatives like the Juta team; they have big ambitions for the future with wishes to design a wider range of products and workshops, and one day hope to start another community hub in another area. Suddenly, fashions future doesnt look so bleak after all.

here To meet another inspiring woman in the fashion industry, check out our interview with Jennifer Georgeson

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By Emily Barber

barberem@grinnell.edu

Students have long advocated for the creation of a film studies program at Grinnell. In 2017, 98 Grinnellians signed a petition calling for a formal film program at the College. As of this semester, the College seems to be taking steps in this direction: the College is currently interviewing candidates for a tenure track film and media studies position. According to Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College Mike Latham, the College is creating the position in response to popular demand.

Film and Media Studies is an important area of interest to current and prospective students, wrote Latham in an email to The S&B. While the College ultimately wants to offer courses on both the production side of film and media studies as well as the film theory and analysis, Latham wrote that the position Grinnell is currently trying to fill is on the production side.

Furthermore, wrote Latham, the College anticipates building toward a major in this field, though we do not have a firm timetable for that yet. Latham wrote that any new major must first be approved by the facultys curriculum committee and then by the entire College faculty. According to Latham, faculty have already reviewed preliminary proposals for the major and that a final proposal will likely be voted on within the next two years. The current position will either be in the Studio Art or the Theatre and Dance department.

Latham wrote that he disagreed with claims that a film studies program would be too vocationally oriented for a liberal arts school. Film studies, he wrote, would sit at the intersection of visual culture, art, writing and communication. Those are core liberal arts areas of inquiry and study, not narrow pre-professional ones. I think that this program would also generate strong interest among students and be a great option for innovation in our humanities fields.

Students interested in film at Grinnell have long had to forge their own paths in the field. Nana Okamoto 19, who previously edited video for The S&B, has interned at film production sites during her summers to gain training and experience in film. Okamoto said that while shes had the resources to acquire the necessary equipment to pursue film on her own, many other students dont have those resources. A film studies program would provide those resources for students.

Joseph Knopke 19 studied abroad in Prague to attend film school at the Film Academy of Performing Arts. According to Knopke, he was the only student on his program that was not a film major. Knopke said he had frustration at the lack of a film program at the college: the Colleges creation of a film and media studies program, he said, is long overdue.

Knopke said he agreed with Lathams disagreement with the idea that film studies is too vocational for a liberal arts school.

Its the most interdisciplinary field there is, Knopke said. You can bring every classical liberal arts subject into film studies and analysis.

Furthermore, Knopke argued that film, given its prominence and easily accessible format, is consumed by the masses and therefore represents a unique vista into the state of a society and its values.

Given all of its implications in the general public, analyzing film intelligently is an incredibly important thing.

While the college is currently interviewing candidates who would teach classes on the mechanics and production of film, Knopke lauded the importance of learning the mechanics of film in tandem with film analysis.

For Knopke, the College needs both a technical and a theory side so that students who are interested in film can consult professors both on the theoretical implication of the work they are making and the actual technical advice they need to achieve what they want to achieve.
By Julia Anderson

anderson14@grinnell.edu

In the midst of escalating tensions between their home countries, Indian and Pakistani students at Grinnell College find solidarity in their shared South Asian identity. Growing up in the feuding nations, students received different educations and perspectives on the conflict, heavily influenced by the media and general bias of their home country.

For more than 70 years, India and Pakistan have been engaged in a conflict with ranging levels of tension over the disputed territory of Kashmir. The origins of the Pakistani and Indian conflict over Kashmir trace back to British colonialism. The conflict has resulted in three wars and several smaller violent disputes. On Feb. 14, tensions that had been somewhat in hibernation erupted once again with the deadliest attack in 30 years in the Pulwama district. The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, referred to as JeM, claimed responsibility for the attack, in which a suicide bomber killed 40 members of Indias Central Reserve Police Force.

For the first time in 50 years, Indian warplanes crossed into Pakistan to fire airstrikes; the Indian government claimed that it was attacking a JeM training camp. An aerial skirmish ensued, with Pakistani forces capturing an Indian pilot, but ultimately returning the pilot.

Resting tensions have been exacerbated by these recent events, and many fear that the nations may clash again or consider the possibility of war.

Growing up, I heard a lot about the conflict but in a sense of a lot of animosity against Pakistan. The media always sensationalizes things and makes them very black and white to them being wrong and taking our land. You dont really question those things, right? When youre a kid, you just are like this is how it is and theyre doing wrong things. But I guess coming to Grinnell and college, I became more critical and aware of how these problems work and realizing the root of how even terrorist groups get formed in the first place, and how just because the media tells me that this part of Kashmir is ours doesnt mean that thats ours, said Preksha Bajaj 19, from New Delhi, India.

In Pakistan, students receive a similarly biased and media-influenced education regarding the conflict. The respective countries tend to teach about the conflict by promoting a clear-cut division of right versus wrong.

I think I can speak for both Indians and Pakistanis here that our schools, our textbooks are pretty biased towards our countries.  We were always taught the Muslim side because Pakistan is an Islamic state, so we were basically taught about how whatever we did was right, and it was always that biased view that whatever Pakistan or whatever the Muslims do, its right, said Ali Admair 21, from Lahore, Pakistan.

The opportunity to hear other perspectives and experiences, both in an academic setting as well as casual and friendly interactions, has highlighted the similarities between Pakistani and Indian students at the College.

One thing that you realize when you go abroad is that your differences, like being from India and Pakistan, arent really a thing, its more about being South Asian that unites you. All my friends from Pakistan, theyre as close to me here as my other friends from India because we speak the same language, we are brown, we share a lot of similar cultures even if we are religiously different. But that religious difference isnt as bad here as the commonalities as us talking the same language and liking the same food and stuff, Bajaj said.

At the end of the day, both of our countries, being from the Indian subcontinent, we have a lot more in common than media portrays. Media has a huge part in just changing everything and showing how badly we hate each other, but that really isnt true. Most of my friends that Ive made at international conferences have been Indian, even here on campus, I can easily say that my best friends not only include Pakistanis but most of them are Indian, as well, so we do get along pretty well in the community, Admair said.

It can be difficult to hear about the conflict at home from such a large geographical distance while in Grinnell, but the physical separation also provides additional space to reflect on larger issues as a whole.

What is good is that we believe we are in the space where we can discuss these issues without facing any violent opposition.  I would say there is more tolerance here. It doesnt necessarily affect our relationship as friends, and it might be different back home, but here we still have that friendly relationship and political conversations always on site, and no one takes offense and everyone respects their own views, said Umang Kamra 22, from New Delhi.

Still, disagreements can arise between students, usually due to the complexity of the conflict and decades of tension between the two nations. Some Pakistani and Indian students, while simultaneously disapproving of the governments actions in regards to the conflict. Where all Pakistani and Indian students tend to agree, though, is that war between the countries is not the solution to the ongoing conflict.

Most of us, I think that we can connect on a level, like, we dont want our countries to be at war, or even we want them to be allies, because we have so much more in common than we dont. Like, we were the same people. And 70 years doesnt change thousands of years, so while most borders are meaningless and stupid, these ones especially all of us think are really bad, said Takshil Sachdev 19, from New Delhi.
By Wini Austin

austinwi@grinnell.edu

Student Government Association (SGA) Cabinet Officer appointment confirmations have been postponed after controversy during last Sundays Campus Council. SGA Senators said they had concerns about the need for continuity, effectiveness and constitutionality of the proposed appointments, which included three proposed split-term positions. The split terms would be due to students elected choosing to study abroad for a semester next year who would share one office, each working in the position during the semester they were on campus.

Six students are nominated by SGA executives each year to fill the positions of Assistant Treasurer, Concerts Chair, All Campus Events (ACE) Chair, Services Chair, Diversity and Outreach Coordinator (DOC) and Administrative Coordinator. This weekend, after a round of applications and interviews, the executives-elect proposed that ACE Chair, Concerts Chair and DOC positions be shared between two students who would each serve one semester, instead of one serving for the full year.

Current SGA President Myles Becker 19 said that one question raised in the meeting was if the association wants to prioritize the involvement of third-year students over the way in which the cabinet represents the students and works effectively with the administration and the student body. Three split-term positions would result in a newly-formed cabinet halfway through the year, which could disrupt familiarity with the job, the campus climate and student constituents.

From the perspective of the executives-elect, however, it is primarily a matter of choosing the most qualified candidates.

SGA President-elect Regina Logan 20 said she understood the senators concerns, but has confidence in the abilities of the executives and proposed cabinet members to develop effective ways to mitigate problems that might arise. Coming up with joint goals and visions for next year, I think we can do it in a way that maintains continuity, she said.

Sundays debate also became a constitutional dilemma. Section One of the SGA Constitution officially defines Cabinet terms as one academic year. But the by-laws permit students going abroad to submit joint applications, explicitly allowing for both full-year and split positions. By-laws may technically be superseded by the Constitution; SGAs task this week was to assess whether split-terms are in accordance with SGA laws.

Logan said she sees this as a positive opportunity: This week will allow us to clarify whats going on in the Constitution and to make sure our process is entirely constitutional, and its also giving us more time to sit down with candidates to clear up the concerns about continuity, and to meet with senators to hear any remaining concerns.

While split-term positions are the exception and not the norm, there is precedent for students to take office for only one semester. Last year, current Administrative Coordinator Dylan Welch 19 was ACE Chair for one semester, and he never studied abroad, either. He said that continuity is a valid concern but pointed out that splitting positions can be a refreshing mid-year change. There is a tremendous burnout rate for cabinet members during spring semester, Welch said. Citing his own experience, he said, I actually felt I had a lot more energy coming in last year.

A resolution addressing the constitutional and logistical issues surrounding next years cabinet appointees is in the works. To Becker, the most important thing is that the perspective of all SGA members is fully considered. I want to make sure the voices of Senators are being represented. There is faith in the executives, they were elected by the student body to make appointments and conduct the hiring processes how they see fit. But its equally important that as they bring this forward, the Senate has the importunity to discuss the change being made, Becker said.
YinYang/iStock(WASHINGTON) -- In an emotionally-charged congressional hearing centered on military families' living conditions, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., suggested "there are clear indications of fraud in the program that administers payment to the contractors that provide housing.



Blumenthal described the situation as criminal on Thursday during a Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing where military leaders testified about substandard housing. His comments came nearly a month after several military spouses testified on Capitol Hill to living in inadequate housing with black mold, lead paint and vermin.



Blumenthal said he would recommend that these issues be referred to the United States Department of Justice for investigation.



He has called for an immediate, intensive review, asking military chiefs to bypass internal audits and go straight to the DOJ to find out why contractors were allegedly not maintaining government housing while receiving funds for maintenance and rent.



He also had strong words for contractors who he says took advantage of the situation.



They are landlords they may be slumlords, theyve counted on this cash cow, it is a risk-free cash cow, Blumenthal said.



Military leaders agreed.



I think we should pursue any fraud and hold people accountable if thats the case. Army Secretary Mark Esper said.



Navy Secretary Richard Spencer told the committee once Navy audit has the data then DOJ would be involved."



All four military services are preparing a joint Tenant Bill of Rights and said in a statement on Wednesday that the regulations are intended to increase the accountability of privatized housing companies by putting more oversight authority in the hands of local military leaders."



During the hearing, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard, said she and her ex-husband Gail Ernst, who served as an Army Ranger for several decades, lived in inadequate housing.



I remember living in Indian Head at Fort Benning, Georgia, and the roaches were horrible. So bad that my husband an I had to move into another set of quarters. They couldnt get rid of them. But we had to do it at our own expense, Sen. Ernst recalled.



When the couple moved to Eglin Air Force Base, she said the housing situation wasnt much better.

The mold problems in Florida are horrible, she said.

Ernst said that some of her neighbors were subjected to holes in the walls, you could see daylight.



To get the issue fixed, Ernst said it took a lot of arguing between the service branches to get that taken care of. This shouldnt happen.



I thought that would be alleviated 20-25 years later. Obviously, it hasn't, Ernst said.



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
By Will DuBow

dubowwil@grinnell.edu

Associate Professor Ellen Mease, theatre and dance, who will be going into senior faculty status after this semester, will present Twelfth Night in Roberts Theater this weekend as her final directorial production at the College.

According to Mease, this production of Twelfth Night will mix Shakespeares original text with modern flourishes, incorporating jazz music and a 70s setting. Mease incorporated these modern elements to pay homage to her original production of the show back in 1979. She also dedicates this production to the original cast of Grinnell students from 1979 and to Ed Moore, Grinnell Colleges former resident Shakespearean, who passed away last August.

The Shakespearean comedys central narrative follows Viola (played by Molly Stone 20) who finds herself alone in an unknown land following a shipwreck. Viola, mistakenly assuming that her twin brother Sebastian (played by Nathaniel Zhu 19) has died, cross-dresses in order to find work and lands in an unusual love triangle.

Though the production is officially Meases last as a director, she said that the show will not technically be her last, as she will continue to work in the Colleges theatre world for the foreseeable future.

In a reflection of Meases respected tenure at the College, cast members from the Colleges 1979 production of Twelfth Night are returning to see the production. Alumnus Kevin Zoernig 80, who played piano for the 1979 production, traveled to campus from New Mexico to be the shows sound designer, composer and keyboard player for the show.

Even 40 years ago, [Mease] was fully formed as a director, he said. [Mease] knows what she wants.  Shes demanding and really open to new things happening, with students improvising. He said that the show is almost exactly the same as it was in 1979.

Zoernigs daughter, Amelia Zoernig 21, is an actress in the production.

[Having my dad on campus is] so much fun because I get to see the campus through his eyes and see him light up about his experiences that he had while he at Grinnell 40 years ago, experiences that I am getting to have right now, she said.

According to lead actress Molly Stone 20, when the doors of Roberts Theater open this weekend, as soon as the show starts, you will experience laughs and a whole lot of love.
By Montserrat Castro

castromo@grinnell.edu

This semester saw the creation of Million Hoodies, a new, student of color-driven activist organization at the College. The group is led by President Malcolm Davis, Vice President Jelani McCray, Treasurer Sara Castro, Secretary CErra Houston and Campaign Chair Emmanuel Ogundipe, all 21.

The name comes from the larger national organization called Million Hoodies for Justice, of which the Grinnell College group is part. The national organization was born in response to the February 2012 shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin, who was wearing a hoodie at the time. On its website, the organization defines itself as a grassroots human rights movement of students working together to end gun violence and reimagine safety and justice for all communities.

According to McCray and Davis, Million Hoodies in Grinnell is one of the newest additions to the national organization.

In the College, the organization is built specifically for students of color and has as its local focus the intention of doing activism in order to benefit the Grinnell community. The group also wishes to be part of the national image of black and brown grassroots activism.

Although were mainly focusing on issues that affect people of color, were also focusing on issues just as activists in general because you just cant ignore that, being here at Grinnell, said McCray.

The leading students said how it is important for them to have an intentional space on the College campus for students of color to organize, due to the lack of inclusion felt in other organizing spaces.

There are a lot of other organizing spaces on campus where its not easy to feel comfortable in if youre a student of color and you dont share the same identity. Its really about being a place to fill a need and a void that I think we all notice within the Grinnell community, said Castro.

Davis, the groups president, said that Million Hoodies could be defined as the halfway meeting point between other student activist groups like Grinnell United Activism Collective or Student Action and multicultural groups like Concerned Black Students and the African Caribbean Student Union. As of now, the group has aproximately 15 students and continues to grow.

The group started after Davis saw Dante Barry, co-founder of the national Million Hoodies, speak about the organization at an equity summit in Los Angeles in 2015. Davis contacted Barry through Twitter, expressing his interest in becoming involved with the organization, since he believed the model fit Grinnell really well.

He has been helping us and now weve got the materials, the framework and the network, Davis said.

In a more critical vein, the leaders talked about what racial and social justice means to them, and the organizations goals and focus reflect this.

I think that, as far as for now, it just means that like, as people of color, we should feel as comfortable and safe as everyone else here, said Houston.

Their first step is establishing that they want everybody involved, such as Latinx, international and black students, to have a degree of safety that is currently not met at Grinnell. They want to ensure this safety by working with the police department and with campus safety. Castro also mentioned the importance of being accepted by the greater Grinnell community as Grinnellians, not just as the students of color of the College.

Theres so many people out there who can go through whatever time they spend at Grinnell and never understand or be confronted with the realities that their fellow students are facing, Castro said.

Million Hoodies meets every weekend at the Black Cultural Center. The meetings are a time and space for the members to create both a community and a safe space which focuses on their similarity in culture and heritage. They check in on each others well-being, talk about current political events happening in the world as well as on campus and work on campaign ideas.

These meetings are open to members of the organization and other students of color who are interested. The leaders stated that whenever they do action, they will want anyone at all who is interested to go and support them, but it is important that they run their activism.

Million Hoodies is a curated space for black and brown students specifically to have a refuge from the predominantly white social activism of Grinnell [College], Davis said.
By Eva Hill

hilleva@grinnell.edu

We are in the final week before spring break, and it can be difficult to keep your energy up when the end is nearly in sight. Many students need energy for midterms. This week, I wanted to learn how to construct healthy meals that will help you feel more prepared to face those tests and essays.

The first thing to consider when creating a healthy meal plan for a difficult week is meal timing. Dan Bernadot, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at Georgia State University, explains in one article that its important to keep your blood sugar up throughout the day to avoid feeling exhausted or fatigued. Its probably not a great idea to make a major change in your usual meal schedule during a week with especially important schoolwork, so try to make a schedule ahead of time of what time you plan to eat each meal.

In terms of meals themselves, make sure to eat plenty of high-protein foods. Protein provides a prolonged energy boost throughout the day, as opposed to carbohydrates, which cause an energy burst that burns out relatively quickly. Examples of protein-rich foods include oily fish such as tuna or salmon, chicken, oats, eggs, legumes like peanuts or lentils, nuts and seeds and cottage cheese. For an easy high-protein meal, check out my salad recipe from a few weeks ago. It incorporates soybeans and eggs, both good sources of protein. In addition, try to eat food that is rich in vitamins and other nutrients. Vitamins themselves are not a source of energy, but they are needed in order for your bodys systems to run correctly. Leafy greens, like spinach and kale, are a great source of vitamins and minerals. Another good source is fresh fruit, especially blueberries and apples with the skin on.

Regardless of what youre eating, its very important to remember to take care of yourself during stressful times like exam weeks, and part of that involves taking some time to eat some nutritious food so that you can keep on going. Nonstop studying is often exhausting, and it can be a good idea to take a break to give your brain a rest. One way to do this is to try cooking something for yourself, maybe with a few friends  the recipe I have included below is a great one to try out if you are not overly experienced in the kitchen, and it is also easily customizable if you want something more complex.

This weeks recipe:

Simple pasta with tomato sauce

This tomato sauce is one of the easiest things I know how to make. In its most basic form, it only takes three ingredients, but it can also be combined with whatever you have lying around. Sausage goes especially well with this dish (try an Irish bread sausage or a sweet Italian sausage), or, if you prefer meatless meals, throw some diced zucchini and green bell peppers in with the onion before you add the tomatoes. Make sure you salt the water well  it should taste like seawater before you put the pasta in. Salting the water will give the pasta more flavor, and it will also negate the need to salt the dish afterward, since you will be using some of the pasta water in the sauce.

Ingredients

 small yellow onion

One can diced tomato

Salt

Olive or vegetable oil

Pasta (any kind)

1. Fill a medium-sized saucepan with water and place on high heat. Salt the water (as stated above, it should taste like seawater) and stir until the salt dissolves. Cover the pan.

2. While water is heating, peel and dice the onion.

3. In a small frying pan, heat up a little of the oil. When the oil flows easily around the pan, put in the onion. Fry the onions until theyre translucent.

4. While onions are cooking, put the pasta into the water when it boils. Cover the pasta, but keep an eye on it in case it boils over.

5. When onions are translucent, open the tomatoes and pour them into the pan. Stir well and reduce heat to medium-low. Allow sauce to simmer while pasta cooks.

6. When pasta is al dente, take  to  of a cup of the water and set aside. Drain the pasta but do not rinse it.

7. Put the pasta back in the pan, or in whatever dish youll be serving it from. Pour the reserved pasta water back onto the pasta (this helps to thicken and season the sauce). The more pasta water you use, the saltier the sauce will be.

8. Pour the sauce over the pasta directly from the frying pan and stir well. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Serves about three to five people, depending on how much pasta you make.
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MBABANE - The Construction Industry Council (CIC) is demanding over E1.3 million from Steffanutti Stocks Construction Swaziland (PTY) Limited.

The exact amount which the council is demanding from the company is E1 354 426.13.



According to the council, the money is in respect of a construction levy, for the new Eswatini Revenue Authority (SRA) Headquarters in Ezulwini.

The multi-million tender, to construct the new SRA headquarters, was awarded to Steffanutti Stocks Construction Swaziland (PTY) Limited.

The contract value of the project including levy was E321 252 364.20.



Through its attorneys from SV Mdladla and Associates, the council has since instituted legal proceedings against Steffanutti Stocks Construction Swaziland (PTY) Limited.



In its particulars of claim, the plaintiff (Construction Industry Council) submitted that on or about September 2016, the SRA awarded Tender No.SRA 2014/010 to the defendant (Steffanutti Stocks Construction Swaziland (PTY) Limited).



On or about October 10, 2016 through Legal Notice No.166 the Construction Industry Levy Regulations were published under Section 21 and 46 of the Construction Act and as such, the regulations came into force on October 10, 2016, submitted the council.



Registered



CIC submitted that in terms of Section 3(3), all construction projects in progress at the commencement of the regulations were to be registered with the plaintiff by the contractors responsible for the execution.

Section 4(1) of the Construction Industry Levy Regulation 2016 states; a contractor shall pay to the council a levy determined in accordance with schedule in respect of each project undertaken.



Clause 4(2) provides that, the owner of a project may pay the levy direct to the council on behalf of the contractor.

The plaintiff asserted that on or about March 23, 2017, in compliance with Section 3(2) of Legal Notice No.166, the defendant duly registered Tender No.SRA 2014/010, project title; New Swaziland Revenue Authority Headquarters, Ezulwini.



Steffanutti Stocks Construction Swaziland (PTY) Limited was advised that the project was subject to payment of the construction levy at the rate of 0.5 per cent of the contract value as provided for in the Construction Industry Levy Regulations of 2016, submitted the council.



According to CIC, at the time the regulations were published and came into force, the project was nine per cent complete. The amount subject to levy according to the council was E299 654 094.00.



In its particulars of claim, the plaintiff claimed that it advised the defendant that the levy payable was E1 454 426.13.

The aforementioned amount was based on the total project cost before the VAT of E319 654 093.70. The defendant has paid an amount of E100 000 on a without prejudice basis, alleged the council.



These are allegations contained in particulars of claim whose veracity is still to be tested in court and the defendant is yet to file its papers in the event it is disputing the claim against it.
MBABANE  The time has come for Eswatini to look back at all the phenomenal women who have worked so hard to bring about positive change in society.

These transformations may have been in academics, sports, business or general empowerment.



Today we take the opportunity to join the world in celebrating the unsung heroes who have made inroads where a few dared to enter.

It is a call for everyone to do things differently if we are to achieve transformative and better development outcomes for women, girls, men and boys in our society.



The above signature statement was made by the SADC Executive Secretary, Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax on International Womens Day.

Dr Lawrence Tax said this years theme recognised the role of innovation in advancing gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. She said the state of women participation in innovation and science globally and in the SADC region remained low. Women and girls globally, including in our region, continue to be less engaged and under-represented in technology and innovation, and this creates a missed opportunity in terms of their influence and ideas in transforming our society, said Dr Lawrence Tax.



Through a number of instruments, Lawrence Tax said SADC recognised gender equality and development as an essential part of regional integration. She said SADC continued to advocate for the full engagement of women and girls in issues relating to innovation and technology and for the gender-responsive approach to innovation.



This, she said, was in line with Article 14 of the Revised SADC Gender Protocol which called upon State Parties to take special measures to increase the number of girls taking up Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics subjects and Information Communication Technology at the primary, secondary, tertiary and higher levels.



She said the approval of the SADC Charter on Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (WISET) in 2017 was a significant step in ensuring women and girls participation in science and technology.

Meanwhile, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Achim Steiner said women and girls were impatient for change, and it was easy to understand why.
LOBAMBA  Parliament proved to be too hot for Minister of Education and Training Lady Mabuza yesterday.



This, after Mabuza was observed to have a tough time responding to the questions posed by Members of Parliament during the debate of her portfolio in Parliament yesterday.



The debate started at 3pm and ministers were given the chance to pose questions to her preamble. The minister found herself flooded with many questions until 3:50pm, when the debate was adjourned for a 10-minute break. Upon return, the minister first seemed to go through her responses swiftly in the beginning as she eloquently responded to the questions in their ascending order. However, as she resumed with the presentation, Mabuza was seen fanning herself with the papers she would normally refer to when responding to the questions. The minister was heard saying: ngiyacolisa ngiyasha. Loosely translated, I am sorry I am getting hot.



Before long, one MP rose and suggested that the meeting be halted and postponed to today. Just by observing the situation, may I kindly appeal to the honourable members of the house that the minister be given a chance to prepare for the responses.

She has tried to answer most of them, said the MP. Immediately, the chairperson opened the floor to members of the portfolio committee and MPs to bring forth their suggestions. Members in the house agreed to the suggestion and it was decided that the minister present the responses today.



However, the minister rose and requested that she delivers her report on Monday. The members agreed and gave her a 48-hour allowance. She will present her report on Monday.
MBABANE  While the country remains devastated about the escalating cases of crimes of passion, another man has been arrested in connection with the murder of his lover.



The incident happened at Buka in Ezulwini.

The woman is believed to have been killed and kept inside a rented bedsitter for a couple of days before her body was discovered by the Royal Eswatini Police Service yesterday.



The police arrived at the scene in four vans.

Information gathered from the residents of the area was that the suspect, whose name cannot be published pending his court appearance, was arrested after he was reported by one of his relatives to the police.



Relative



This was after he allegedly confided in the relative that he had killed his lover, whom he allegedly strangulated to death. It is alleged that *Sipho had initially gone to his relative to seek for assistance as he allegedly intended to secretly remove the corpse out of the house.

However, the relative, who was engulfed with fear is said to have informed the police, who eventually made the shocking discovery.



A resident of the area stated that Sipho, who had a wife apart from his lover, called him numerous times but he could not answer his cellphone because he was busy with other things.



Noted was that Siphos homestead is situated a few metres away from the house which he rented for his lover.

I called him today only to find that his cellphone could not be reached, said the resident while proceeding to the scene. His relatives requested not to comment on the matter, stating that they were still truamatised.



Only the couple know what happened. We cannot say much about something we do not know, said the relatives briefly.

When the scene was visited, the suspect was within the premises where the incident happened.



He was taken to the Lobamba Police Station to assist the police with their investigations.

How can Sipho do this? asked the residents when they saw him being escorted to the police van in handcuffs. Some residents mentioned that Sipho never had peace of mind since he fell in love with the woman.



Misunderstandings



They claimed that the duo had misunderstandings which resulted in fights on numerous occasions.

Deputy Police Information and Commutations Officer, Nosipho Mnguni confirmed the incident.

Nguni also confirmed that Sipho was taken by the police to assist in the investigation.
MBABANE  Yet another dark cloud has engulfed the royal family following the passing on of Nothando, Her Royal Highness, Inkhosikati LaDube.



This is almost a year after the passing on of Inkhosikati LaMasango, who respo

nded to the Lords call last year April. At first, it spread on social media like a rumour until the sad news was later confirmed by the relevant authorities.

The news of the passing of His Majesty King Mswati IIIs wife was confirmed by acting Ludzidzini Indvuna Chief Lusendvo Fakudze.



Announcement



According to an announcement issued by Fakudze at Ludzidzini Royal Residence yesterday, Inkhosikati LaDube will be laid to rest on Sunday (ngelisiko leMalangeni) after a vigil on Saturday.

Her relatives, including her family in Ezulwini and Mshingishingini and members of the royal family (Emalangeni) were informed about her passing.

Senior Prince Masitsela advised that the acting Ludzidzini indvuna was in a better position to comment about the death of the Inkhosikati.

Details relating to her death could not be easily ascertained.



She had three children.

Inkhosikati LaDube was known by many after she became a Miss Teen finalist in the country before she was chosen Liphovela on August 30, 2004.

As a result, the news of her demise circulated on social media as early as 5am yesterday. Facebook users mourned the passing of the Inkhosikati, whom they honoured for her participation in the Miss Teen Eswatini beauty pageant while still a teenager.



Beauty



She was equally known for her high fashion sense and unmatched beauty.

Some of her friends posted many pictures they had taken with the Inkhosikati.

They sent their condolences to her family and the royal family at large.



One of her friends said she was devastated and shattered by the sad news.

Another friend, Anele Shabangu said, Nothing can erase the beautiful memories we had. I thank God I came across you in life. You are one of the strongest women Ive known. You lived honey! God surely couldnt wait to have you as an angel. You will be forever in my heart. Good night my angel. Good bye nana. See you soon.
Intensive talks between the European Union and Britain are underway to help get Brexit through the British parliament next week, but the bloc has already presented its ideas, a spokesman said on Friday.

"Technical discussions are ongoing. The EU side has offered ideas how to give further reassurances regarding the backstop, you are aware of all this, so there is no need for me to repeat it," said Alexander Winterstein, spokesman for the European Commission.

"Intensive work is ongoing," he said.

The European Union told Britain this week to rework its Irish backstop proposal by Friday, but feared it would struggle to secure a deal that satisfied pro-Brexit lawmakers before the UK parliament vote on Wednesday.

Just 21 days before Britain is due to leave the EU, the two sides are locked in a game of brinkmanship and attempts to reach a mutually acceptable deal could go down to the wire.

Ambassadors of the 27 European Union countries that will stay in the bloc after Britain is scheduled to leave on March 29 will gather at 1400 GMT in Brussels to be briefed for one hour by the EU\s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

The meeting is to update envoys on the state of affairs, rather than announce any breakthrough, in talks that have been deadlocked since the British parliament rejected the deal negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May in January.

The EU\s deputy chief negotiator Sabine Weyand and Britain\s Olly Robbins would continue discussions over the weekend, diplomats said.

British Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, initially scheduled to come to Brussels on Friday for further discussions, would not be arriving after all, officials said, in a sign no agreement was imminent.

May tasked Cox with securing concessions from the EU on a major demand of pro-Brexit lawmakers, namely that divorce provisions to ensure no hard border on the island of Ireland would not trap the UK in the bloc\s trade rules.

EU negotiators object that the Cox proposal would unpick the Withdrawal Agreement reached by the EU and UK last year after months of tortuous negotiations.

SOURCE: REUTERS
A Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli fire during renewed clashes along the Gaza border, the enclave\s health ministry said Thursday, with Israeli aircraft striking Hamas positions in response to the violence.

Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said Saif al-Deen Abu Zeid, 15, died "due to wounds sustained east of Gaza (City)" on Wednesday night.

The teenager was shot during clashes along the border, Qudra told AFP.

An Israeli army spokeswoman did not comment on the specific incident but said hundreds of "rioters" had hurled rocks and explosive devices at troops along the border.

Soldiers responded in line with "standard operating procedures", she said.

Israeli fighter jets later struck several sites belonging to Gaza\s Islamist rulers Hamas in the south of the enclave, the army said in a statement.

The military said the strikes were "in response to balloons carrying explosive devices and a projectile launched from the Gaza Strip at Israeli territory".

A Palestinian security source said a Hamas base was struck in southern Gaza, causing damage but no injuries.

It was the sixth such Israeli air raid since Saturday in response to a spate of balloon-borne explosive devices floated across the border or devices hurled at the border fence.

The army reported later Thursday that one of its tanks hit a Hamas position in northern Gaza after shots were fired at its troops.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing a tough challenge at April polls, said: "Hamas must understand that any act of violence will provoke a stronger reaction from Israel."

The uptick in violence has raised fears that a fragile truce agreed in November between Israel and Hamas could collapse, with both sides accusing the other of breaching the terms of the informal deal.

Hamas has controlled Gaza since 2007 and has since fought three wars with Israel.

At least 252 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since March 2018, the majority shot during border protests, while others have been hit by tank fire or air strikes.

Two Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same period.

SOURCE: AFP
By Trend

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations chief Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed on Friday the recent developments at the Indian-Pakistani border, and the latest situation in Syria over the phone, the Directorate of Communications of the Turkish Presidency said, Trend reports referring to Daily Sabah.

Tensions between Pakistan and India, two nuclear-armed rivals, have soared since a suicide bombing in Kashmir on Feb. 14 by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed militants killed 40 Indian paramilitary troops. India has long accused Pakistan of cultivating such militant groups to attack it. Pakistan has denied any involvement in the suicide attack.

Indian aircraft then crossed into Pakistan last week, carrying out what India called a pre-emptive strike against militants blamed for the bombing. Pakistan retaliated by shooting down an Indian fighter jet last Wednesday and detaining its pilot, who was returned to India last Friday as a peace gesture.

Russian and Turkish forces started patrolling in and around Idlib on March 8 under a deal reached between the two sides last year to establish a buffer zone in the enclave, in efforts to prevent a major offensive by the Assad regime there.
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Canadian company ArtVenture, a first-of-its-kind analytics platform that helps art collectors, investors and art market professionals make well-informed decisions when buying art, will take part in the Unfold Art Xchange conference in Bahrain.

The Unfold Art XChange is an unparalleled B2B art business conference and summits platform being held in Bahrain from March 7 to 9.

ArtVenture is the first AI-driven platform that aggregates financial and qualitative data on art by providing real-time market monitoring, price analytics and comprehensive asset research.

The company, which was interviewed by Forbes at Art Basel 2018, aims to revolutionise the $1.62 trillion art and collectibles market by becoming a definitive resource and reference guide for collectors, wealth and asset managers, bankers, art market professionals and auction houses.

We are seeking to bridge the world of finance and art by being the first industry facilitator globally that provides up-to-the-minute data on art & collectibles investment performance and safeguard value, says ArtVenture CEO Zike Wu. We developed a highly customised SaaS platform for the art world that delivers the kind of concise market intelligence Bloomberg first introduced to the finance world in the 80s, by offering more reliable and systematized data on stock market evaluations.

According to the 2017 Deloitte Art and Finance Report, the global art and collectibles market is expected to grow from $1.62 trillion in 2016 to $2.7 trillion by 2026. The report cites one of the main barriers to the growth of the market is the lack of data-backed information on the true market value of art.

Collectors have traditionally relied heavily on limited secondary market intelligence, art indices and market experts when making purchasing decisions. ArtVenture seeks to address this gap by providing an effective, data-driven tool for navigating the art world. The platform provides information on the artists background, including artist recognition, curatorial history, evaluations on the artists market performance, as well as tailored recommendations for the best investment purchases.

The platform weve developed is so specialised that a wealth manager or collector can know, for example, that the acclaimed Canadian artist Riopelle's brighter-coloured paintings produced before the 1960s have the highest investment return, says Wu. - TradeArabia News Service
Contributed by Sangram Majumdar / Last weekend Magalie Guerin and I met up at her current exhibition, SOLUTE at Chapter NY, to talk shop. We discussed the choices painters make, how paintings are sometimes like people, how colors from the past return unexpectedly, whether marks can be categorized as nouns or verbs, and the importance of looking deeply. Her exhibition runs until March 24, 2019.

Sangram Majumdar: In your paintings it appears as if events are being enacted, parts are being reshuffled. Certain characters repeat in different configurations. Theres an echo of a set up.

Magalie Guerin: The system Ive created for this body of work is a new one for me. I built multiple paintings simultaneously, until I reached an image resolution I was happy with. Meaning, I had four of this exact painting at some point. Then I put one of them aside and continue working on the other three, breaking that resolution and looking for a new one. Simultaneously again, until another resolution was found, then one painting out, etc. There are three of these series in the show.

SM: So, this mark here happened twice.

MG: This happened three times. What Ive been trying to see is what kind of painting move or decision I would make if I painted on top of a painting I already like, a finished painting. And since I could protect one of the copies, then I could try anything to its twin.

SM: Did they feel different?

MG: Well, its been really interesting as a project for me, to see what kind of painter I am through that. But its also surprising because they did not end up as different from one another as I had thought.

SM: More like cousins?

MG: Very much so. They started as twins but ended as distant cousins. Still, same family.

SM: Right.

MG: Frequency is a term that I think about a lot in the studio. When you hit that resolution, the final resolution of a painting, the speed of it, the scale and color relationships, theres a tone to it, right? I thought this system of production would allow me to really play with different tonal resolutions. Even though I used it, repetition was not what I was interested in. I only used repetition so I can get to the end. To multiple endings, all coming from the same beginnings. Im interested in the narrative of the image.

SM: Right. When I came in early to look at this show, I had thoughts about the way the paintings are made. Theyre physical, handmade. But then they also feel bodily in the sense that they expand outward. And even their size, theyre approachable. I suppose I was thinking about the role of the body, and how you think about that.

MG: Interesting. Im not sure I have a clear answer. The way I can maybe relate to what youre saying is in the spatial relationship within the paintings. I dont think of them in abstract terms. I think of them as constructions of shapes that exist in the world, even though you cant recognize them. You dont know what they are, but you sense that they ARE. Maybe thats the relationship youre experiencing, to the body. Or foreign bodies. Theres gravity. Theres a ground. A figure-ground relationship. Theres a logical sense of construction.

SM: Thats what I was thinking. The longer I looked, I thought about a sense of place. Maybe its an echo of the world. The colors in these are really particular. They seem to come from two completely different places, earthbound on one hand, and quite artificial on the other. So, in terms of a sense of a place, how is it connected to your life?

MG: I spent some time in Marfa, Texas last year, and I see that the desert colors are definitely coming into the paintings. That purple mixed with orange, when its sunset and theres a lot of sandy color. Im not conscious of that when I make decisions, but then I look at the painting and think, Oh yeah, the Marfa colors. Or, I found this green jacket in a thrift store that I want to wear all the time, and next thing I know, this weird green is everywhere in my paintings. Ive never used that green before.

Theres also that bright orange, which is the color of a pair of sneakers I own. And because I see them on my feet, and I walk around in them, that particular color is viewed within the context of the outside world, on the sidewalk, against the green grass, etc. You have to pay attention to that as a painter. Thats what we do, we look. Were constantly looking. Color is interesting in relation to other colors, right?

SM: What about that really bright yellow?

MG: Thats my grad school color.

SM: So, its been with you for a while?

MG: It left me for years. It just came back. I dont know why. The last body of work I did for a show in Chicago, there was a lot of grays in the paintings. Colorful grays, but still, grays, and that made me self-conscious because I love color. I couldnt figure out why everything went so gray. For this show, I wanted to see bright color again, and that crazy yellow showed up.

SM: Was it like Oh hello, grad school yellow! or getting a letter from a friend you havent talked to in years?

MG: Thats exactly how it felt.

SM: Did that make you smile, or?

MG: Honestly, it was more a cringe-worthy moment than a smile. Like, What? What do you want?

SM: I want to hang out.

MG: But I didnt resist it. I have to say, when I see my Marfa colors in the painting, or my grad school yellow, or my green jacket, it makes me happy because, without being conscious of it, things are entering the work. Without saying, I want to make a painting about this, space and time is embedded.

SM: So youre open to the world, and then it comes out in whatever way.

MG: I mean, thats what one would hope. Sometimes Im afraid Im not, because Im in the studio so much. But then I look at whats happening within the paintings and I know where the colors come from.

SM: I think the color decisions are really crucial in these works, the shifts in saturation, or the feeling of earthy versus industrial. Also, the touch, the change-ups of the marks seem incredibly important.

MG: To let you in? Because if you cant get in one way, you can try another way?

SM: Exactly. And Im always finding holes and pockets. For example, in Res3-2, 2019 that green shape feels like a hole. I can go in there. Its generating a lot of light, which introduces more air. Or the way the black curves along in this one becoming a place to rest. You can lean there. There are also the paint marks. They all have different levels of how they arrive. Some are urgent. Some are very meditative. And some are saying, I am this.

MG: I like that.

SM: This passage here feels like a verb, because Im constantly aware of it happening. And this part feels like a noun, because there is a kind of stability.

MG: Ah, thats interesting. I love thinking of paint marks being either verbs or nouns.

SM: You mentioned frequency earlier. Theres a lot of time in these.

MG: They are not quick.

SM: No. In a way, they are very a-temporal, because time begins to open up in different arrangements. For example, this embedded line is something I begin to notice more and more. When I get closer, it becomes almost like a pathway. Its like watching an ant, or a line of ants move across a surface.

MG: Uh huh.

SM: So, Im curious about these steady, raised and incised lines in the paintings.

MG: They are the structure of the painting, the skeleton. When I start a painting, I have one specific form in mind. Its a shape that I have drawn in my sketchbook, probably from a weird building somewhere or a dead cactus, or something. That shape becomes the start of the painting.

SM: Like a line drawing?

MG: Yeah, I mean, I draw it on the canvas, and then I build many coats of gesso around that shape to create these raised edges. I also insert strings in the surface to create borders, to break the spatial composition. The paintings always start like that, with this sort of sculptural process.

SM: It seems like a reminder; a reminder of the very beginning. And in that way, its also about time.

MG: Yeah. If you follow these lines, in some of these paintings, sometimes the paint hides that original shape, and sometimes the lines stay put to reveal it more.

SM: Its like a reminder or a ghost.

MG: Ghost is better. I do want a shape to imprint the narrative; this is where it started. Like, Once upon a time, and then who knows where it goes after. Maybe I need that starting point to be fixed, because everything else is going to go in very mysterious directions.

Magalie Guerin: SOLUTE, Chapter NY, LES, New York, NY. Through March 24, 2019.

About the artist: Magalie Guerin (b. 1973, Montreal) currently lives and works in Chicago. In 2011, she received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Recent solo exhibitions were presented at James Harris, Seattle; Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago; Schwarz Contemporary, Berlin; and Anat Egbi, Los Angeles. Guerins work is in the collection of DePaul Art Museum. She is the author of NOTES ON, a compilation of studio writings published by The Green Lantern Press in 2016. Guerin was recently awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant (2018), a Chinati Foundation residency (2018), and the Stephen Pace Residency Award for a Mid-Career Painter at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown (2019). (via gallery website)

About the author: Born in Kolkata, India, Sangram Majumdar is a Professor of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art. His solo exhibition once, and twice is on view at Geary Contemporary in NYC through April 12, 2019 .

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Kenshi was a mammoth of a game to have translated, or at least it was for our miniature team of four people.

The total word count turned out to be just shy of 300,000 and for our solo freelance translators this took up to two years for them to translate, with constant bugs and the word count forever increasing beyond our first estimates. At the start of Kenshi's development we never actually planned ahead enough to even consider localisation, so the whole system was a tad messy to work from, which only added to the enormity of the task.

But was it all worth it in the end?

The hard, hard numbers

Because numbers don't lie.

So, the facts first. Kenshi was being sold in Early Access for about 6 years before we fully released it with its finished localisations. Before release, the localisations were released only partially complete. We translated into six languages - Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Russian and Brazilian Portuguese. Based on regional sales stats during Early Access and average gamer types by country, these looked to be our most popular regions. We put the most effort into Japan and hired a Japanese PR to engage with the community for about six months before release. One month before release we also hired regional PRs to promote in Spanish and German.

So here we can see... I made a graph! Because what person doesn't love a good sales graph. The above shows the percentage of Kenshi's total revenue by country - The purple shows the three month period immediately after release, the orange shows lifetime sales before release. As you can see, the biggest changes were in Russia, Japan, Republic of Korea and China.

Here are our top 5 selling countries before and after release:

BEFORE

United States

Japan

United Kingdom

Germany

Canada

AFTER

United States

Japan

United Kingdom

China

Russia

Japan Explained

Japan is a misleading one to look at in these stats. Kenshi got a sudden huge surge in sales about a year before release after a popular Japanese influencer, Ponshu, started streaming Kenshi. The sudden spike in sales and the busy interaction from the Japanese community made it an easy decision for us to start localising.

We knew this was a golden opportunity and wanted to make the most of our attention in Japan so we exhibited at Tokyo Game Show and hired a brilliant Japanese PR who helped us connect with Ponshu. Ponshu actively encouraged fans to buy Kenshi before the price increase at release - hence the comparatively large decrease in sales afterwards. Ponshu's messages on this reached far more people than our official social media accounts did, and that's why we see the opposite in Japan after release. But this certainly isn't a negative, it's just money savvy.

Unexpected Results

So, on top of the localisation costs, we invested in PRs for Japan, Germany and Spain. While Spain actually garnered the most attention in the press and got us some fantastic coverage on some strong Spanish sites, Spanish sales actually did very poorly in comparison to other countries.

All the while we somewhat neglected promotion in Russia and France, yet these actually turned out to become among our top selling countries (and even more impressive if we consider Canada a partially French speaking country). Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries each sold less than 1% of our total units sold. There didn't seem to be much change in German sales but getting press coverage there seemed to be more difficult too, so this wasn't so much of a surprise.

Unexpectedly, the Republic of Korea and China crept up to our top selling regions as they seemed to react to a kind of ripple effect from our promotion in Japan. Their sales increased more than Spain despite no promotion OR localisation in their languages. We'd previously decided not to localise in Chinese after looking into research that single player games are unpopular among the Chinese player base, but also because of the strict requirements some of the Chinese distributors had to sell our game (removing our Shek bone race was just one example). It seems we may have been very wrong in this decision.

But did the localisation pay for itself?

Yes, yes it did.

Before we released the localisations, our sales in non-native English speaking countries made up 52% of our total sales. And after we released the localisations? These same regions made up... er.. exactly 52% of our total sales still. So while there really was no obvious spike in sales from those countries we localised in, the sales in those countries still covered their costs and then some.

Even our lowest selling localised language, Brazilian Portuguese paid for its translation... or just about, anyway. Russia, Japan, Germany and France more than made up for their translation costs. There's no way for us to see if our sales would have been worse had we not made the gamble, but I believe it was worth trying for something potentially greater while also achieving a wider outreach.

For Japan, we were very lucky to not only have a great girthy opportunity to grab a hold of, but also we were fortunate to be have been introduced to a top local PR who helped us connect even more with our Japanese audience. Japan was hands down worth the investment, but it was also very clear from the start that it was something we had to do, based on the hot reaction we got over there.

It reaped the biggest reward but at the same time, it held the lowest risk based on our knowledge (the numbers don't lie!). We saw the evidence of success when we had sales spikes from our coverage during Tokyo Game Show, and from Ponshu's informative videos when we worked to push pre-launch sales. With regards to PR though, Russia tells otherwise - that you can invest all you want in PR in one country, but another country will flourish either way.

What Went Wrong?

You can't force popularity sometimes. If the big influencers want to play your game they'll likely do so with or without your free keys and PR charmery. But if you watch those numbers (website traffic, sales statistics, social media insights, individual feedback...) and keep a close eye on the internet's reaction to your game, you can grab a hold of the opportunities that roll your way.

We did everything right in Spain. We got the best coverage of all other countries. Spain even had one of the better quality translations... so what the hell went wrong? Perhaps Spanish gamers, on average, just aren't the target market for our game. According to research, more visually appealing games tend to have popularity there, whereas Kenshi is gritty, unlovely and raw. But no, that would surely have been reflected in the media articles. The Spanish press resonated a surprisingly consistent feedback parallel with the English outlets: average scores of 8/10+ and the same pros and cons too.

So, my last theory? Our pricing strategy was just off the mark. In some ways, we saw great feedback in relation to our pricing and we tried our best to give Kenshi the fairest value. But Europe is a diverse continent where countries differ greatly in wealth. Yet Steam only offers pricing by currency, Euro in this particular case, rather than region. Now if we look at average salaries in each country, Spain's average earnings are 25% less than France and 40% less than Germany. Yet the EUR pricing is the same for all three.

So with this in mind, it makes sense that Spanish customers might not buy the same priced game so readily. Sadly, the wishlist stats reflect the same pattern we see in Spanish sales, so we don't see evidence of potential players holding out for price reductions. But still, we'll see how the numbers change when Kenshi goes on discount.

The Takeaway

I'd certainly open my mind more to countries like China and Republic of Korea. The PR costs were relatively cheap in comparison to the labour involved in localisation, but I feel it's better to dip your toe in and get a feel of a country's response before taking the plunge. So what did I learn?

Make sure to carry out more sufficient research before actually deciding to localise. I looked at average sales statistics based on types of gamers and popular platforms in various countries. All very generalised stuff. However Japan isn't typically a country of PC gamers, so here we already have my own research contradicting our own hard sales stats. So take a look at the most popular influencers in a country, see what games are particularly popular there. Tailor your research to your own game by looking at the fanbases for similar games to see if there are any other prominent languages spoken within them.

I looked at average sales statistics based on types of gamers and popular platforms in various countries. All very generalised stuff. However Japan isn't typically a country of PC gamers, so here we already have my own research contradicting our own hard sales stats. So take a look at the most popular influencers in a country, see what games are particularly popular there. Tailor your research to your own game by looking at the fanbases for similar games to see if there are any other prominent languages spoken within them. Kick the tires a little more first. Consider carrying out your own market research and experiments to see how other nationalities respond to your game and your ideas. Social media insights can be helpful, but less so in early stages of development and promotion.

to see how other nationalities respond to your game and your ideas. Social media insights can be helpful, but less so in early stages of development and promotion. Make sure to find an invested PR who is enthusiastic for your game, and connect with all of your audience. Selling-in to journalists is great but actually connecting with youtubers and fans is even better if you can do that too. I made much more effort to connect in Japanese - I translated announcements, tweets and our website. I neglected other nationalities simply because they weren't as responsive, but perhaps this was a mistake.

The risk depends a great deal on the work load, a smaller project requires considerably less investment in localisation. How would I handle it next time? Probably not much differently, you need to invest to grow, and in this case the investment is language.

Perhaps we didn't make much of a dent in some regions we localised, but we may still have gotten ourselves a foot hold for the future. We may have flopped in Spain and Portugal, but if we hadn't taken the risk in all the languages we chose to, we may well have made far less sales in Russia, Germany and France. You can't win 'em all. ...

Also, the battle isn't over yet! To be continued...
Published: March 08, 2019

Four UT Alumni Reporters, One Named by Time Magazine As A Person Of The Year, to Discuss Working in Journalism

The University of Tampa is inviting back four recent journalism graduates who are successfully working in the business  two in print, two in TV  for two days, March 2627.



The journalists are Megan Myers 17, multimedia journalist, anchor and producer at WMBB News 13 (Panama City); Alejandro Romero 18, multimedia journalist at Suncoast News Network (Sarasota); Selene San Felice 16, reporter at the Capital Gazette (Annapolis, MD); and, Tess Sheets 17, breaking news reporter at the Orlando Sentinel.



On Wednesday, March 27, at 6 p.m. all four alumni will participate in a Careers in New Media symposium in the Lowth Entrepreneurship Center in the Daly Innovation and Collaboration Building on campus.



The day before, on Tuesday, March 26, at 5 p.m., San Felice, who was named as a Time magazine Person of the Year as a guardian of the truth, will receive a distinguished alumnus/a award at a reception in the Sykes Chapel and Center for Faith and Values on campus.



The events, which are free and open to the public, are sponsored by UTs Department of Communication.
Greybull, Laramie, Southeast Students Top State Science Fair at UW

Students from Greybull High School, Laramie High School and Southeast High School had the top projects at the Wyoming State Science Fair held on the University of Wyoming campus March 3-5.

The three senior division winners are eligible to compete at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Phoenix, Ariz., later this spring. The ISEF is the worlds largest international precollege science competition. Each year, approximately 1,800 high school students from more than 75 countries, regions and territories showcase their independent research and compete for nearly $4 million in prizes.

Selected to represent Wyoming at the ISEF, listed by school, division category and project title, are:

-- Danielle Clapper and Carly Keller, Southeast High School, microbiology, Microbial DNA Analysis of a Filter System.

-- Bailee Foster, Greybull High School, biomedical and health sciences, Investigating the Effects of Chaga Mushroom Extracts on the Development of a Specific Tumor Cell Line.

-- Arundathai Nair, Laramie High School, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, EnLIGHTENed Therapeutics: Engineering Light-Activated Proteins for Optogenetic Applications.

Two alternates also were selected:

-- Joshua Arulsamy, Laramie High School, robotics and computer sciences, Click-and-Go: Object Detection Through Alternate Color Spaces and Deep Neural Networks.

-- Markie Whitney, Newcastle High School, engineering/materials sciences, Solar Panels: Too Cool!

More than 200 students representing 36 schools competed during the recent Wyoming State Science Fair. Students in sixth through 12th grade displayed posters featuring their science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) research. Student research covered areas as diverse as robotics, environmental management, behavioral and social science, computational biology and chemistry.

Wyoming students also competed in the junior division. Several students were nominated to compete in the Broadcom MASTERS, the nations premier science fair competition for students in grades six through eight. The competition will be held later this year in Washington, D.C.

The junior division nominees for the national competition, listed by school, category and project title, are:

-- Johnpaul Anderson, Wheatland Middle School, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, To Chill or Not to Chill.

-- Shayla Babits, Lander Middle School, physics and astronomy, Stick or Slip.

-- Ethan Cearlock, Rocky Mountain Middle School, Cowley, mathematics, What are the Odds?

-- Brighton Gould, Classical Conversations Lander Campus, animal science, How Intelligent is Mans Best Friend?

-- Jadea Graves, Wheatland Middle School, engineering/materials sciences, Moo Poo Project.

-- Juliann Healey, McCormick Junior High School, Cheyenne, microbiology, Digging Deep: How Much Do You Know About Your Well Water?

-- Shelby Hoobler, Meadowlark Elementary School, Cheyenne, earth and environmental sciences, My Sediments Exactly.

-- Luke Louderback, Gilchrist Elementary School, Cheyenne, robotics and computer sciences, Move Over EV3.

-- Jacey McDaniel, Wheatland Middle School, behavior and social sciences, Love Thy Stage...Love Thy Self???

-- Jayden McDaniel, Wheatland Middle School, biomedical and health sciences, Physiological Response in Everyday Acoustics.

-- Ally Moller, Pinedale Middle School, chemistry, Sweltering with Suspicion.

-- Hadley Paisley, Wheatland Middle School, plant sciences, Do You Have a Healthy Pulse (Crop)?

For more information about the Wyoming State Science Fair, email wyostatefair@gmail.com or visit www.uwyo.edu/sciencefair/.
Wyoming Business Tips for March 11-17

A weekly look at issues facing Wyoming business owners and entrepreneurs from the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, a collection of business assistance programs at the University of Wyoming.

By Audrey Jansen, market researcher, Wyoming SBDC Network

Websites are a vital piece of any marketing strategy, but most entrepreneurs struggle with how to get started creating their own. In order to guide you through the process, weve created a helpful website checklist.

-- Do your homework. This is the step most people will skip, but it makes all the difference. Check out the websites of your competitors; begin gathering visual content for your own site; and begin collecting written content.

-- Select and purchase a domain name. Spend time brainstorming web address names (URLs) that are a good fit for your business -- these URLs should be short, descriptive and without characters -- and then shop around with reputable domain providers.

-- Choose between a platform and a web developer. This is one of the most significant decisions you will make in regards to your website. For platforms, I would recommend considering one of the following major players: Weebly, Wix, WordPress or Squarespace. If you decide to hire a developer (recommended), you should ask to see a portfolio and testimonials while also critically reviewing any required contracts.

-- Google Analytics/SEO plug-ins. Once you have a website, youll want to make sure you are using Google Analytics (for traffic data) and a search engine optimization (SEO) plug-in such as Yoast.

-- Get listed online. Now that you have a website to link to, its important that you make sure your business is listed with online search directories. Some of the big ones are: Google, Acxiom and Bing. You can check your listings anytime at https://getlisted.org.

-- Work, work and rework your site. Your website is not a static marketing piece. It is something that should be updated frequently, especially in the first year that its live.

-- Get a website analysis. One of the Wyoming SBDC Networks no-cost services is an in-depth website analysis. I would be happy to go through your site and create a written report that outlines what you are doing well, what you are missing and what needs improvement.

It might be overwhelming at first, but a website can work wonders for your business when well-executed. If you have any questions while working through this checklist, please feel free to reach out to your local business adviser by visiting www.wyomingsbdc.org.

You also can find more information about this topic and links to the resources Ive mentioned in the blog section of our website.

The Wyoming SBDC Network offers business expertise to help Wyoming residents think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their business. The Wyoming SBDC Network is hosted by UW with state funds from the Wyoming Business Council and funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

To ask a question, call 1-800-348-5194, email wsbdc@uwyo.edu, or write 1000 E. University Ave., Dept. 3922, Laramie, WY, 82071-3922.
Chesterfield Township police are searching for a suspect who allegedly robbed a Chase bank and fled on foot Thursday afternoon.

Police responded to an alarm at the bank, located on 23 Mile Road, west of Gratiot Avenue, shortly after 3:30 p.m. Thursday. The suspect, described as a middle-aged white male wearing black clothes and a black cap, left the bank on foot after the robbery, Chesterfield Township Police Chief Brad Kersten said.

No weapons were seen during the incident, the chief noted.

Chesterfield Township police K-9 Charger was sent out to track the suspect, but was unsuccessful.

Authorities are continuing to search for the suspect.

No further information was immediately available.
The Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO), Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, met the Japanese Ambassador to Belgium, H.E. Mr. Hajime Hayashi, at the Headquarters of the WCO in Brussels, Belgium on Friday, 8 March 2019, during which a Note Verbale was exchanged on the Government of Japans continuing financial contribution to the WCO Security Project in the Asia/Pacific region.

Global terrorism continues to disrupt economic development and political stability around the world, negatively impacting the security and safety of society in a huge manner. In such an environment, Customs administrations are duty-bound to mobilize all their efforts in order to better secure borders while protecting cross-border trade and the international supply chain.

Counter-terrorism initiatives run by the WCO support the determination of the international Customs community to fight terrorism at every level in order to eliminate its destructive impact on international trade and economic development, said WCO Secretary General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya. Indeed, the Government of Japans continuing support to the WCO will go a long way in further strengthening the security capabilities of Customs administrations in the Asia/Pacific region.

H.E. Mr. Hajime Hayashi, the Japanese Ambassador, stressed that Japan highly appreciated activities to address emerging issues faced by WCO Member Customs administrations, such as anti-terrorism, under the leadership of Secretary General Mikuriya. Moreover, he emphasized that the funded project would continue to render much deeper and stronger cooperation, as well as mutual trust, not only with the WCO, but also with its Members in the Asia/Pacific region.

The first phase of the WCO Security Project, which was funded by Japan, has enabled WCO Members in the Asia/Pacific region to significantly enhance their security-focused operational capabilities, particularly in relation to the trafficking in small arms and light weapons (SALW), the illicit diversion of precursor chemicals used in the manufacture of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) falling under the scope of Programme Global Shield (PGS), the WCOs dedicated IED enforcement programme, and passenger controls with special attention being paid to advance passenger information (API) and passenger name record (PNR) data.

In addition, the WCO Security Project enabled awareness-raising events to be organized, training to be developed and delivered, and advanced detection equipment to be deployed in Customs administrations as a means of increasing their ability to detect and eliminate potential threats. This training and equipment are now being used by WCO Members in WCO-coordinated operations targeting security threats in the Asia/Pacific region.

The deployed equipment includes Handheld Raman Spectrometers and Global Shield Test Kits for the detection and identification of explosive precursor chemicals, Fluorescence X-rays for the detection and identification of precious metals, and Handheld Backscatter X-rays to assist in the detection of SALW.

Prompted by the success of the first phase of the WCO Security Project, Japans decision to continue supporting the initiative by providing additional funding to further enhance the capacity of Customs administrations to combat any security threats in the Asia/Pacific region is highly welcomed by the WCO and will be much appreciated by the regions WCO Member Customs administrations.




The World Customs Organization (WCO) is pleased to join the international community in celebrating International Womens Day 2019 with the theme Think equal, build smart, innovate for change, which focuses on innovative ways to advance gender equality, particularly in relation to social protection systems, access to public services, and sustainable infrastructure.

This years theme relates to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which require transformative shifts, integrated approaches and new solutions in order to achieve the development objectives set out in Agenda 2030, with goal number 5 aimed at achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

As part of her official message in honour of International Womens Day, Executive Director of UN Women Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said, "Together we can make the voices of women and girls vibrate everywhere." This is indeed the case as the world collectively gears up to celebrate a future in which innovation and technology create unprecedented opportunities for women and girls to play a more active role, thereby accelerating the achievement of the SDGs and gender equality.

Secretary General Mikuriya stated that, It is crucial for the WCOs Members to ensure that they have a responsive gender equality policy in place that reflects the dynamic and innovative role played by women in Customs across the globe. International Womens Day provides the ideal opportunity for the Customs community to take stock of progress made and work ahead towards attaining our gender equality goal, which is one of the pillars to achieving sustainable development as well as a more balanced and inclusive society.

Gender equality and diversity is high on the WCOs agenda and has been part of the WCO capacity building priorities since 2013, when the WCO organized the Women in Customs, Trade and Leadership Conference, which was followed, in the same year, by the launch of the WCO Gender Equality Organizational Assessment Tool (GEOAT), which enables Customs administrations to assess their own policies and procedures to advance gender equality.

The Jamaica Customs Agency, chairperson of the Capacity Building Committee and among the few Customs Administrations having a woman, Ms. Velma Ricketts Walker, at its head acknowledges the increasingly pivotal roles played by women in advancing Customs in the 21st Century, stated through the Commissioner that, The demonstrated competence, talent, skills and expertise which women have added to the workforce has better equipped Customs administrations with balanced, highly resilient, and the responsive human capital it requires. To demonstrate our commitment to gender equality and womens empowerment, we must ensure that such policy is institutionalized within our Customs administrations.

Commissioner Ricketts Walker further emphasized that, On this auspicious occasion, in order to achieve gender equality and female empowerment, we must recognize the capacity, ingenuity and fortitude that women bring to any environment or position.

The WCO continues to actively assist Customs administrations to achieve their gender equality objectives. At the next session of the WCO Capacity Building Committee in April 2019, the Organization will launch an updated version of the GEOAT that will contain additional chapters, for instance, on how to implement gender mainstreaming through project management, with cross-cutting indicators as well as definitions of gender equality and diversity related topics.

In addition, the WCO will launch its first e-learning module on how to advance gender equality in Customs, as part of its newly developed blended training package in this field. This module aims at raising general awareness among Customs officials on gender equality and its links to the work done by Customs in a holistic and practical way; for instance, in the fields of human resource management, trade facilitation, and border operations.

This module will be available on the CLiKC! Platform in both English and French. The blended training package, which also comprises a one-week workshop for middle and senior managers focusing on how to implement gender mainstreaming, has been funded by the Government of Finland, through the WCO Customs Capacity Building project for the East and Southern Africa (ESA) region.

Moreover, a Virtual Working Group (VWG) on Gender Equality and Diversity was launched in 2017. Composed of representatives from Customs administrations who have expressed an interest in the topic, the VWG holds meetings every two months where various issues related to gender equality and diversity in Customs are discussed. The VWG has enabled the collection and dissemination of best practices and examples of relevant Action Plans.

The WCO has also developed and disseminated a second survey on gender equality and diversity to all its Members, in order to obtain an overview of the gender balance within Customs administrations, and to have a better idea of how Members are working with this topic. This second survey is a follow-up of a first one dating back to 2016. So far, the WCO has received responses from 59 Members and replies are still being received.

The WCO also continues to attend international events on the topic of gender equality and trade, in order to stay informed on global trends and participate in the discussions. These events included Closing the Gender Gaps: The Buenos Aires Declaration on Women and Trade at Year One organized by the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank Group, and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The WCO reaffirms its strong commitment to keep on finding proactive ways to raise awareness on the importance of advancing gender equality and diversity in the global Customs Community, and in working closely with its international partners to move this agenda forward to support human rights and sustainable development.
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Partly cloudy skies during the evening giving way to a few showers after midnight. Low around 50F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies during the evening giving way to a few showers after midnight. Low around 50F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.
By WestKyStar & MCCH Staff Mar. 08, 2019 | 05:49 AM | MURRAY



Center for Health & Wellness Spring Special

Going on until March 31

Join the Center for Health & Wellness with only a $10 joining fee and no contract.

Membership includes: Group Fitness Classes, AquaFit Classes, Equipment for Cardio & Strength Training, Half Court Gymnasium, Exercise/Lap Pool. Health Assessment, Exercise Prescription, and access to health promotion programs and classes.

Call 270-762-1348 for more information.



Free Screening: Calloway County Public Library

Blood Pressure & Non Fasting Glucose

Monday, March 11

9  11 am

No appointment required.



Free Screening: Spring Creek Health Care

Friday, March 22

9  11 am

Spring Creek Health Care

Blood Pressure, Body Mass Index, Osteoporosis Screening, Pulmonary Function Screening, Waist Circumference, Pulse, Pulse Ox

No appointment required.



Free Screening: Graves County Library

Blood Pressure & Non Fasting Glucose

Monday, March 25

2  4 pm

No appointment required.



Free Screening: Wesley Living

Pulmonary Function Test

Thursday, March 28

2  3 pm

No appointment required.

Murray Alzheimers Care Giver Support Group

Thursday, March 7th

10 am

Weaks Senior Citizen Center

For more information, call 270-753-0929



Bariatric Support Group

Thursday, March 7th

10  11 am

Bariatric Office

For more info call Bariatric Solutions 270-762-1547



ALS Support Group

Thursday, March 14th

6  7 pm

MCCH Board Room

For more info call Mitzi Cathey at 270-293-1748



Bariatric Support Group

Tuesday, March 12th

5  6 pm

Center for Health & Wellness

For more information call Bariatric Solutions 270-762-1547



Parkinson's Support Group

Tuesday, March 12th

Noon

Weaks' Senior Citizen Center

For more info call 270-753-0929



Benton Alzheimers Care Giver Support Group

Wednesday, March 6th

10 am

Marshall County Public Library

For more information call 270-527-9969



Breastfeeding Support Group

Thursday, March 21st

4  5:30 pm

Center for Health & Wellness

For more info call Alycia Janow @ 270-226-4776

 National Alliance on Mental Illness

o Date: Thursday, March 21st

o Time: 6:30 PM

o Location: MCCH Education Building (Corner of 8th and Elm)

o For more info call 270-748-6133



Breast Cancer Support Group

Tuesday, March 25th

5:30 pm

Mr. Gattis

For more info call Evelyn 270-489-2462



Dialysis Support Group

Thursday, March 28th

4:30  - 5:30 pm

Weak's Senior Citizen Center

For more info call Tasha Mitchell 270-759-3080



Stroke and Head Injury Support Group

Monday, March 25th

5:30  7 pm

Center for Health & Wellness

For more info call Cheryl 270-293-9442



For more information on programs or free screenings available from Murray-Calloway County Hospital and the Center for Health and Wellness, call 270-762-1348.



Staff at Murray-Calloway County Hospital and the Center for Health & Wellness will be offering educational health promotion events during the month of March to community members, Wellness Center members and MCCH employees.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 08, 2019 | 11:34 AM | PADUCAH

Catholics in our region will have a rare opportunity to see an actual relic when St. John's Catholic Church in Paducah will host the Incorrupt Heart of St. Jean Vianney on Wednesday, March 13th.The relic will arrive at St. John's at 9:30 a.m. Bishop William Medley of the Diocese of Owensboro will celebrate Mass at 10 a.m. Veneration will start as soon as Mass is over and the relic will remain until 8 p.m.Each hour will begin with public prayers and confessions will be heard at 1:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Everyone who comes will have a chance to venerate the relic.St. Jean Vianney of France (1786-1859) is the patron Saint of Catholic priests. He was canonized in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. According to the Catholic Church, relics are material items that are connected to a saint. The Incorrupt Heart of St. Jean Vianney falls under the category of a first-class relic, since it is part of the physical remains of a saint.The Catholic Church teaches that a relic such as the heart of St. John Vianney is offered to the faithful for veneration, but neither the relic nor the saint are worshiped. The Church teaches that relics are venerated in recognition of the fact that God has worked through the saint.The display is part of a six-month United States tour that begin in November 2018 and is sponsored by the Knights of Columbus.For additional details, contact St. John's at 270-554-3810.

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By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 08, 2019 | 11:43 AM | GRAVES COUNTY

Three people face drug charges after two separate traffic stops in Graves County.

Both traffic stops took place Thursday on KY 80 East. According to the Graves County Sheriff's Office, during the first stop, 39-year-old Joshua Dykes was found to be under the influence and allegedly was in possession of drugs. Dykes was arrested and charged with reckless driving, failure to or improper signal, DUI, possession of an open alcohol container in a motor vehicle, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

During the second traffic stop, 59-year-old Robert Thompson and 48-year-old Wesley Klapp were arrested after deputies say they were both found to be under the influence and allegedly were in possession of drugs.

Thompson was charged with disregarding a traffic control device, DUI, possession of a controlled substance and possession of an open alcohol container in a motor vehicle. Klapp was charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, prescription controlled substance not in the original container and alcohol intoxication in a public place.

All three were lodged in the Graves County Jail.
By The Associated Press Mar. 07, 2019 | 09:21 PM | FRANKFORT

A feud between Kentucky's top two elected officials  and potential adversaries in this year's governor's race  spilled over into the state Supreme Court on Thursday as lawyers argued about who controls the state's lawsuit against manufacturers and distributors of highly addictive opioid painkillers.

Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear has hired a group of private law firms, led by Florida based Morgan & Morgan, to sue nine drug companies for their role in the opioid epidemic that kills 23 out of every 100,000 people in Kentucky, or nearly double the national rate. So far, the group has sued nine companies, including retail giant Walgreens and pharmaceutical manufacturer Johnson & Johnson.

But Republican Gov. Matt Bevin's administration is trying to cancel that contract, arguing it does not do enough to protect taxpayers in the event of a multimillion-dollar judgment or settlement for the state.

Complicating matters is the political feud between Bevin and Beshear, who could face each other in the November election for governor. Bevin is running for a second term in a contested primary, and Beshear is one of four candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to oppose him.

Kentucky is one of several states suing opioid manufacturers. But it's one of the few states where leaders can't agree on how to pursue those lawsuits. In Louisiana, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry went to court over who would manage that state's opioid-related lawsuits. The two men eventually agreed to let the attorney general take the lead.

Bevin's attorney Steve Pitt tried to frame the case as Beshear insisting he can spend public money without oversight from anyone else in state government. But Justice Lisabeth Hughes characterized the dispute as a "tug of war" between Bevin and Beshear over who would control, and get the credit for, the state's lawsuits against opioid companies.

"The one thing everybody in the courtroom can agree on is we have an opioid crisis in this state. And on behalf of the people of the Commonwealth, we need people to work together responsibly to pursue legal action on behalf of the citizens of the Commonwealth," Hughes said. "You're going to have these tug-of-wars and the people of the state are going to be sitting back waiting for the tug-of-war to be decided."

Pitt said the case was not a fight for power between the governor and attorney general, adding "we are all for the attorney general."

"No one in this courtroom, or in this building, I dare say, is against suits against the opioid manufacturers to the extent they are justified," Pitt said.

But Pitt said the contract with the law firms is bad because it does not cap the fees the lawyers could get if the state wins the case. Since Beshear awarded the contracts, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a law capping attorneys fees for these type of contracts at a maximum of $20 million.

Beshear's attorney, J. Michael Brown, called the Bevin administration's attempt to cancel the contract "an attack on the Constitutional powers of the Attorney General." He noted Bevin's Finance and Administration Cabinet approved the contract, but then reversed itself after a panel of state lawmakers asked it to reconsider.

Brown said that kind of whiplash would hurt the Attorney General's efforts to bring lawsuits.

"Are we turning over the control and supervision of a constitutional officer to another branch of government, to the governor in fact," Brown said. "If we turn this litigation control over, there could be delay to no end."

Pitt noted the governor and attorney general are not separate branches of government. They are both members of the executive branch of government, although they are elected independently of each other. Still, Pitt said state lawmakers decided to give oversight over all executive branch spending to the Finance and Administration Cabinet, which is under the governor's control.

Justice Michelle M. Keller said that seemed unfair.

"Government is not perfect," Pitt answered. "The legislature, elected representatives, do the best they can. They enacted this statute, apparently thinking it was the best they could do to hold down the fraud, abuse and be transparent in the procurement process of the state."
By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 07, 2019 | 04:00 PM | NASHVILLE

KYTN reports that, according to the department, unclaimed property is money that is turned over to the state by businesses and other organizations that cannot locate the rightful owners. Unclaimed property can include uncashed dividends or payroll checks, refunds, trust distributions and more.





To help reunite that money with its owners, representatives of the Unclaimed Property Division are planning to bring an unclaimed property booth to events across the state. At the booth, division representatives will help attendees begin the claims process and answer questions.





A list of outreach events can be found on the Treasury website at treasury.tn.gov.





The site can also be used to search for unclaimed property online.



The Tennessee Department of Treasury is hoping to return nearly $1 billion in unclaimed property to residents.
More About Utah Backpacking Trips

THE MAGIC OF BACKPACKING IN SOUTHERN UTAH

Southern Utah is a backpacking paradise. Its a dramatic landscape rich with natural phenomena, wide open spaces, vast wilderness, hidden canyons, desert oases, wildlife, and fascinating history. To leave the busy roads and walkways and head into the backcountry of Utah is to step into a new, spacious world rich with experiential treasures. The night skies on a Utah backpacking trip are mind-blowing, with the Milky Way clearer and more vibrant than many people have ever seen. Theres something magical about hiking for days to reach a landmark like an arch, or a waterfall, or a natural bridge that, if in the front country, would have a parking lot and hundreds of people stopping to see it. But in the backcountry we have it all to ourselves  it doesnt get any better than that!

WHICH NATIONAL PARK OR AREA IS BEST FOR MY BACKPACKING TRIP?

Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park dont allow guided backpacking, so thats easy enough to make a decision on those areas. That leaves us with Grand Staircase-Escalante, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Paria Slot Canyons. Grand Staircase-Escalante is great for people who want to do shorter trips (3-5 days) with stunning scenery. Capitol Reef is a longer journey (6 days) into a wild, remote wilderness thats great for guests looking to really get out and explore on a longer adventure. Canyonlands backpacking trips are 4-5 days in length, are moderate in difficulty, and feature classic Utah highlights like arches, springs, Native American history and more. And Paria Canyon is home to the longest slot canyon in the world, so if slot canyons are your thing, then thats the place to go.

THE WILDLAND TREKKING BACKPACKING EXPERIENCE

To begin with, our Utah backpacking guides are some of the best out there! Ultimately its the guide that makes or breaks a guided backpacking trip, and for this reason we take incredible care to make sure we hire the right people, train them well, and treat them well so they stay with us for years. On top of that our guided Utah backpacking trips are all-inclusive, so guests dont have to worry about traveling with supplies, renting gear, worrying about permitsetc. We take care of nearly everything! You can expect to learn a lot about the area youre hiking into  natural and cultural interpretation is a major focus of our guide preference and training.

What If I Want to Camp But Not Backpack?

If youre interested in an outdoor experience of Utah, and possibly even sleeping in the backcountry but you dont want to do a backpacking trip, we have some great solutions for you! First and foremost, we recommend looking at our llama treks. These trips are backcountry hiking and camping experiences, but with lighter backpacks than on backpacking trips, and there is the added novelty of getting to hike with llamas!

Another option is our Utah basecamp tours. These trips are based in established campgrounds and feature hikes each day to amazing national park and wilderness destinations. All gear, meals and transportation is provided so you can relax and focus 100% on the hiking and camping experience.
[Women of China/Zhang Jiamin]

Yuhua Heritage Museum was established in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province, three and a half years ago. At the museum, visitors can eat food made through processing skills regarded as intangible cultural heritage. Visitors can see, buy, learn, and sometimes play with, crafts of intangible cultural heritage. Yuhua Heritage Museum is a venue that collects and promotes old crafts. The museum also helps heritage inheritors, many of whom are women, innovate craft-making skills and run good businesses.

Deng Yunjiao founded Yuhua Heritage Museum in September 2015. She has since served as the museum's director. Deng has developed a new mode of protecting intangible cultural heritage  combining inheritors with sales platforms, exhibitions and workshops. In this way, she helps inheritors innovate their crafts, and she helps promote education related to the protection and development of intangible cultural heritage.

In response to the All-China Women's Federation and Hunan provincial government's arrangements on poverty alleviation, Hunan Women's Federation launched a project to create 100 "hand-weaving bases," cultivate 1,000 women talents (who excel in making crafts), and to help 10,000 rural women start businesses. The federation granted Yuhua Heritage Museum and Huxiang Needlework Innovators Center the titles of Hunan Women's Handicrafts Employment Base. Since the base was formally established in Yuhua Heritage Museum, on November 1, 2017, thousands of women have benefitted from the initiative, and they have started their craft-making businesses. The museum has organized various workshops to promote cultural heritage, such as the Chinese knot, paper-made flowers, women's scripts and woven crafts.

Heritage from Across China

Deng developed her interest in traditional Chinese crafts during her childhood. For her, running Yuhua Heritage Museum is the best way to protect things she loves, and to pass on China's precious craftsmanship with the efforts of numerous crafts makers.

Deng is a native of Xintian County, in Yongzhou, a city in southern Hunan Province. She is now in her forties. Recalling her childhood, Deng says, "Villagers in my hometown liked to grow ramie (an herb of tropical Asia with dark green leaves). In harvest season, my mother cut the plants, dipped them in water, scraped the surface layers and left the inner fibers to weave into clothes. My grandmother often lit an oil light in the evening and wove the fibers. I fell asleep in the repeated, and peaceful, sound of making crafts."

At the beginning of this century, it was difficult for people who produced crafts, such as wood-carved crafts, bamboo-made crafts and palm-leaf-woven crafts, to earn much money. Many old crafts makers had quit their businesses and changed their careers. The younger generations were not interested in traditional crafts.

Deng and her husband, Guo Cunyong, who is a carpenter, paid great attention to the protection and inheritance of traditional craft-making skills. They set up a wood-carving shopping center in early 2014, and they invited crafts makers to open stores and sell their wood-carved or bamboo-woven products.

Given the support from the local government, the couple transformed the center into Yuhua Heritage Museum in 2015. Deng set a goal: To collect and display heritage items from all over China in the museum.

Seeking Inheritors

To achieve her goal of collecting heritage items from across China, Deng realized she had to first find inheritors, in various places, who were making and protecting the heritage items. She asked her husband, Guo, to go with her to meet potential inheritors. Whenever they saw news reports about inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, or when their friends brought interesting crafts to them, Deng and Guo would locate and try to visit the inheritors.

Deng once heard the batik produced in Danzhai, a county in Southwest China's Guizhou Province, was a fantastic craft. She visited a village in the county, which was highly regarded for its batik production. "I was attracted by a granny, who concentrated on her work. She didn't have a design draft, but she drew the patterns directly onto cloth. The batik clothes produced in the village looked so beautiful," Deng said.

She decided to open a store in Yuhua Heritage Museum, to introduce the batik crafts from Danzhai. She encouraged local women to relocate to and run their businesses in Changsha. But many of the batik makers in Danzhai were not young, and they did not have relatives or friends in Changsha, so they refused to leave their hometown.

Deng did not give up on her idea of opening a batik store. She eventually met a woman, Yao Liuju, who also loved batik crafts. Yao had opened a batik-processing plant and exhibition hall in western Hunan Province. Yao was about to develop her business in Changsha. Deng asked Yao to open a batik store in Yuhua Heritage Museum. In addition to the batik crafts in western Hunan, Deng asked Yao to introduce classic batik crafts from Danzhai, and to combine the techniques from the two places to make innovative items. The batik store has become one of the best-known stores in Yuhua Heritage Museum.

During the past three years, Deng and Guo have invited more than 200 inheritors of intangible cultural heritage to open stores in the museum. Items of more than 300 intangible cultural heritage programs are displayed in the museum.

For example, Zhou Jialin is a craftswoman known for her palm-leaf-weaving skills. Despite being hearing impaired, Zhou has studied the craft and tried to innovate the techniques during the past 30 years. She has changed the craft's traditional packaging and selling mode, and she has developed creative, palm-leaf-woven products, which have exquisite packages and innovative designs.

Diverse Ways to Promote Crafts

Since she founded Yuhua Heritage Museum, in 2015, Deng and her husband have tried different methods to attract people to visit the museum, and to help inheritors in the museum develop their businesses.

"To bring the crafts 'alive' is the best way we have figured out to develop our museum," Deng says. "By 'alive,' I mean that we not only display and sell various crafts at our museum, we also invite inheritors to demonstrate how they make those crafts. By organizing workshops, we encourage visitors to learn how to make those crafts."

Free lectures are open to the public almost every week at Yuhua Heritage Museum. Residents are encouraged to learn about calligraphy, paper-cutting, pottery making, traditional Chinese dance and instrument performances, tea and incense ceremonies, and many other intangible cultural heritage programs. Deng has also introduced the traditional tofu (bean curd) processing technique at her museum. Spectators can watch how soybeans are made into soybean milk, bean curd jelly or other tofu products.

What's more, Deng has organized hundreds of activities to promote traditional Chinese art and crafts. She has also set up a start-up street, which serves as a platform for outstanding college students to run businesses related to crafts protection.

[Women of China/Zhang Jiamin]

[Women of China/Zhang Jiamin]

(Source: Women of China English Monthly January 2019 issue)
A villager in Jingxing village, Lingwu city, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, feeds chickens distributed by local government, Aug 28, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

Poverty reduction measures were highlighted by deputies to the National People's Congress from Gansu province when President Xi Jinping joined their panel discussion on Thursday.

Tang Xiaoming, an NPC deputy and Party secretary of the city of Dingxi, said that through measures like making solid alleviation plans for every poor family, local government is making full efforts to implement Xi's instructions to reduce poverty.

In February 2013, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visited poor families in the village of Yuangudui in Dingxi's Weiyuan county, where he urged local officials to make poverty reduction the top priority in their work.

"The general secretary's important instructions on poverty reduction are being implemented fully in Gansu," Tang said, adding that 5.81 million people in the province have been lifted out of poverty since 2013.

Dingxi has put forward policies to support the villagers' raising of cattle and sheep and planting of vegetables, fruits, potatoes and herbs in order to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty completely by 2020, he said.

Liang Qianjuan, an NPC deputy from the village of Shitan in the Huixian county township of Shuiyang, said China's booming e-commerce has brought numerous opportunities for the people to increase their incomes in poor areas.

"Some villagers managed to sell their apples, juice, soybean products and garlic to Canada and the Maldives," said Liang, who owns an online shop selling agricultural products such as olive oil, dried mushroom and honey.

Dong Caiyun, an NPC deputy and headmistress of Chuimatan Primary School in Jishishan county, said that the government has placed great emphasis on education in poverty-stricken places in recent years.

"The schools in rural areas now have more advanced teaching facilities, and the gap between rural and urban places has been narrowed," she said.

Teachers' salaries in impoverished regions have become higher than the average of local civil servants' salaries, she added.

(Source: China Daily)
President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, shakes hands with a lawmaker from Gansu Province on March 7, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - President Xi Jinping on Thursday called for perseverance in the fight against poverty as there are only two years left for the country to meet its goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2020.

"There should be no retreat until a complete victory is won," said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

He made the remarks when joining deliberation with deputies from Gansu Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's national legislature.
Pressures could result in problems further down the line

In 2016, the government introduced the second-child policy, which allowed every couple to have two children. The move was aimed at reversing the decline in the nation's workforce.

However, as the policy really begins to have an impact, women who want to have a second child are subject to greater pressure from both employers and families, according to experts and employment market reports.

Those pressures may result in fewer women entering the job market, which could prompt an economic slowdown, they said.

Data from the World Bank show that the participation rate of China's female labor force was 73.2 percent in 1990, but fell to 60.9 percent last yearstill above the global average.

Huang Qian, a professor of economics and demographics at Nankai University in Tianjin, said the decline began in the 1990s.

"The employment rate for women age 25 and younger has declined drastically in recent decades, mainly because a growing number of them have access to higher education. Despite the decline, entering higher education has been a positive trend for women, providing them with wider career paths and more freedom to make choices," he said.

However, he said the universal second-child policy may lead to a steeper decline and have a negative effect on women's careers.

Dai Shujuan, a 33-year-old mother of two, spent three years as a homemaker after giving birth to her second child. She said taking care of two children took up much more time than looking after one child. Also, it was hard to ask for leave from her employer, a private company that was heavily focused on the efficiency of its staff members.

As a result, she quit her job and stayed home.

"When I was pregnant, the company was unhappy if I asked for time off to have health checks. Later, with two children to look after, life was like a guerrilla war. What's more, my work left me with little energy to spare for my family," she said.

Last year, after her second child celebrated her third birthday and started attending kindergarten, Dai went back to work, at a website that organizes playgroup activities.

"Now, I only need to work six hours a day. I feel very lucky to have found the job when I did," she said.

Huang, the professor, said motherhood can affect the time women can devote to work because health checks and other factors mean they have to take time off.

That makes them less efficient, and employers may not get value for money, which could even affect profitability. As a result, many employers prefer to hire men.

Moreover, competition in the job market has become fiercer, so companies do not like to hire younger women because they may need to take maternity leave, especially in the wake of the second-child policy, according to a Beijing Normal University report on the development of the labor market for women in China.

The report was conducted in 2016, the year the decades-old family planning policy was scrapped.

Also, some companies will not provide training for employees who fall pregnant, or promote them. Some companies even force pregnant workers to resign, the report said.

It noted that about 51 percent of urban females with two children would be willing to give up their careers and focus on their families.

The figure was 17 percentage points higher than for women with one child who held the same opinion.

In addition to the low number of opportunities available to working mothers, many are worried about their ability to strike a work-family balance, the report said.

External commitments

A report published last year by the recruitment website Zhaopin showed that 30.6 percent of mothers are worried that family commitments will not allow them to devote sufficient energy to their work.

Xu Huiying, a 30-year-old teacher and mother of two, doesn't think she could cope without the help provided by her parents and parents-in-law.

"Initially, my older son did not agree with me having a second child. So, during that time, he got in a very bad mood whenever I attended to his little brother. I owe thanks to the boys' grandparents. If I were working in a big city instead of my hometown and had nobody to help me, I would have quit my job," she said.

Huang, said the decline in the employment rate for women will have a negative impact on economic growth, and will hamper progress toward gender equity.

"As our country's demographic advantage (i.e. cheap labor) has gradually vanished, the decline in the female labor force may lead to an economic slowdown, while lower numbers of working women could also impose a greater burden on the social welfare system," he said.

The low female employment rate may also cause gender inequity because women would have lower status in the family and in society, he added.

He urged the government to take measures to reduce the conflict between work and caring for children to prevent the number of female workers from falling too drastically.

"First, anti-discrimination laws should be introduced to ensure a good environment for women who want to work. Then, sound policies on maternity leave and childbirth insurance should be made to support women. At the same time, the government should offer companies a 'birth allowance' (a form of compensation) to relieve the pressures pregnant workers can sometimes impose on employers," he said.

(Source: China Daily)
The All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) held a conference on poverty alleviation in Beijing on March 1.

The conference, presided over by Huang Xiaowei, Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF summarized the achievements made by the ACWF in 2018 and set clear objectives for this year.

Huang emphasized that the ACWF should thoroughly study President Xi Jinpings remarks on poverty alleviation and earnestly implement the spirit of all the decisions and arrangements on poverty relief made by the CPC Central Committee and State Council.

She called for efforts of the whole federation to promote the precision poverty alleviation and elimination based on the situations of the two designated counties -- Zhangxian and Xihe in Gansu Province.

Huang also underlined the importance of a sense of responsibility and implementation of all tasks while raising general requirements in her address.

The ACWF will select and assign a team of elites to join in the poverty relief work, inspire the villagers confidence and improve their knowledge and skills in fighting poverty, she noted.

Attention should be focused on extreme poverty and boosting industrial development, employment, health and consumption to make poverty relief more effective, she said, adding that Party-building should be strengthened in poverty-relief work.

Zhang Dongmei, member of the secretariat of the ACWF, conveyed General Secretary Xi Jinping's important remarks on poverty alleviation and the spirit of the CPC Central Committee's meetings on poverty alleviation.

Wang Chunyan, an official of the State Council's poverty alleviation office, was also present.

In 2018, the ACWF provided financial support and relief supplies worth 14.6 million yuan and helped to raise 7.26 million yuan for the designated counties involved in its poverty alleviation task.

It dispatched 48 officials and staff members, launched 19 bases and factories for poverty relief and offered training to more than 3,000 people, 2,200 of whom benefited measurably.
Shen Yueyue, Vice-Chairperson of the NPC Standing Committee and President of the ACWF, delivers remarks at the reception.[Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

On the afternoon of March 7, 2019, the reception for women from China and abroad in commemoration of March 8th International Women's Day was held at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing.

Shen Yueyue, Vice-Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and President of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), extended festival greetings to women from home and abroad during her remarks at the reception. Shen pointed out under the strong leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, major new achievements have been made in all aspects of the Party and the country. People, including numerous Chinese women, have enjoyed a stronger sense of fulfillment, happiness and security.

Shen stressed that Chinese women will follow the lead of the Party and actively engage in the practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era. Based on their own posts, Chinese women will create beautiful lives, strive for greater contributions in a new era and make new achievements to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Chinese women are willing to work with women from around the world and make unremitting efforts to build a more beautiful world for women and for all, Shen noted.

The Party and State Leaders who attended the reception included Sun Chunlan, Yang Jiechi, Li Bin, Su Hui, Liu Yandong, Peng Peiyun, He Luli, Gu Xiulian, Chen Zhili and Wang Zhizhen.

Huang Xiaowei, Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, presided over the reception.

Attendees to the event included women NPC deputies and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, National March 8th Red-banner awards holders, women academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, women generals of PLA and women representatives from all sectors.

Distinguished guests also included foreign ambassadors, spouses of diplomatic envoys, female diplomats, female representatives of the UN agencies in China, foreign female experts and spouses of foreign experts working in China.

Huang Xiaowei, Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, presides over the reception. [Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Foreign guests pose for photos at the event.[Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Foreign guests pose for photos at the event.[Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Opening dance Gaiety in Komuz [Xinhua]

Fashion show Embroidering Roads to the Outside World.[Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Traditional instrumental performance A New Song for the Silk Road.[Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

(Women of China)
Qi Tianle (left) and her husband Ma Qianli work as team members on the Chang'e-4 lunar probe project. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Yu Fei takes a look at women scientists and engineers associated with China's lunar mission.

The moon has traditionally been associated by the Chinese with women, maybe because the menstrual cycle is roughly the length of the waxing and waning lunar cycle.

Even China's lunar exploration program is named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang'e, and many of the scientists and engineers in the program are women.

Enviable couple

In Chinese legend, Chang'e flew to the moon and became a goddess, but could never return to Earth to reunite with her husband.

She would have envied a young couple in the research team that developed the Chang'e-4 probe, which made the first soft landing on the far side of the moon this year.

Qi Tianle married her beau, Ma Qianli, in September, after dating for about 10 years. On their wedding night, they packed for a special three-month honeymoon. The next day (Sept 10) they set off to the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the mountains of Southwest China's Sichuan province to prepare for the launch of Chang'e-4.

Former classmates, they had both gone to work in the China Academy of Space Technology after graduating from university in 2013, and joined the Chang'e-4 team in 2017.

They had picked the date for their wedding a year earlier, but later found it coincided with transport of the probe to the launch center. Their colleagues didn't want their wedding delayed, and told them to go to the launch center after the ceremony.

Just two days after they took their marriage vows, they made a pledge to complete the mission successfully before the national flag at the launch center.

Although they spent most of their honeymoon period in front of computers preparing for the launch, they enjoyed taking walks in the moonlight after dinner.

"We are happy to see Chang'e-4 carry our hopes to visit the moon," Qi says.

Jade Rabbit

Zhang Yuhua, a space engineer with the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and deputy chief designer of the Chang'e-4 probe, had been part of China's manned space program for 18 years before she joined the lunar exploration team in 2006.

Making a lab simulation of the running of the rover on the moon was one of the big difficulties.

The researchers got volcanic ash from Northeast China's Jilin province to simulate the lunar soil. When the rover moved on the ash, it raised dust, causing irritation if inhaled or rubbed on the skin. To avoid the dust, the lab's air conditioner was turned off in the summer. The indoor temperature was over 40 C.

Zhang and her colleagues wore masks, raincoats and rain boots to do the experiments, and were drenched in sweat.

After China's first lunar rover, named Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, landed on the moon during the Chang'e-3 mission at the end of 2013, Zhang went to work every day as the moon rose.

However, Yutu suddenly stopped moving after going about 114 meters on the moon.

In the bid to revive it, Zhang felt great stress, and suffered ulcers in her mouth and a hoarse voice.

"I was thinking if China could send people to the moon at that time, I would like to be the first to go. I wanted to repair our Jade Rabbit so much," Zhang recalls.

All their efforts failed. Avoiding the same problem again became the challenge facing the team when they developed the new rover for the Chang'e-4 mission.

"We cared for Jade Rabbit like our own child. I thought it was like a silver swan standing on the desolate moon, more beautiful than anything else," Zhang says.

"Now, our second rover, Jade Rabbit-2, has landed on the far side of the moon. We hope it will realize our dream," she says.

"I have never doubted the significance of my work. I believe humans will go much farther into the universe in the next 100 years. But life is too short, and I can only do my best," Zhang says.

Sense of responsibility

Zhang He, 48, executive director of the Chang'e-4 probe project from the China Academy of Space Technology, believes the women in her design team have a stronger sense of responsibility and self-esteem than many men, and are more meticulous and better at communicating.

Zhang had read the book, Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, which encouraged women to show their talent at work. Like the author, she often found herself as the only woman at meetings.

"I respect and envy full-time mothers. This is a personal choice. We have to accept what we have chosen, both the gains and losses," Zhang says.

She took her son to gaze at the stars when he was very young. Now her son is 12, and loves mathematics and astronomy.

"I don't have much time with him each day, but we are very close. My son can see my endeavors to chase my dream and is influenced by me," Zhang adds.

Her husband was a classmate in university. He disagreed with those who said Chinese people lack creativity and innovation.

"My wife is a space engineer. I saw how she worked hard to send the spacecraft to the moon."

"I can feel the understanding and support of my family in my work," Zhang says.

Lunar exploration has made her braver and more confident.

"When we began to develop the Chang'e-3 probe, the noise generated by the variable thrust engine was terrifying. But I grew used to it," she says.

"We encountered a lot of technical difficulties in developing the lunar probe, but we overcame all of them. They were like problems in life, and were solved eventually."

A career in space exploration also changed the lives of Zhang's family. On vacation, Zhang asks her husband to make a very detailed plan to consider all possible scenarios. This makes the journey more relaxed.

Zhang and her team like to call China's four lunar probes the "four sisters".

"I believe, Chang'e-4, the little sister, will be braver, smarter and stronger than her elder sister, Chang'e-3, and perform excellently," Zhang adds.

Zhang He, executive director of the Chang'e-4 probe project from the China Academy of Space Technology, gets emotional while witnessing the soft landing of the robotic probe on the far side of the moon in January. [Photo/Xinhua]

Zhang Yuhua, an engineer with the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and deputy chief designer of the Chang'e-4 probe, poses with images of the probe on the moon in the background. [Photo provided to China Daily]

(Source: China Daily)
President Xi Jinping extended greetings and best wishes to female lawmakers, political advisors and staff workers at the ongoing two sessions, and also to women of all ethnic group...

National March 8th Red-Banner Pacesetters

Yan Xiyun Researcher of the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), academician at CAS and professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences National March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter

Wu Yingxia Senior engineer with the Chinese army National March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter

Han Liping Milling technician of Shanxi Aerospace Qinghua Equipment Co, Ltd. National March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter

Xie Ai'e Member of the villagers' committee, chief female officer of Bindouhu village and part-time president of the women's federation of Honghu City, Hubei Province National March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter

Gesang Deji Deputy Principal of Wanquan Primary School in Motuo County, Linzhi City, Tibet Autonomous Region March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter

Jia Xiufang Head of the Boneng rehabilitation center for cerebral palsy patients in Heilongjiang Province National March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter

Pan Yulian Resident of Xinshi District, Shule County, Xinjiang Ugyur Autonomous Region National March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter

Wang Kerong Head nurse at Beijing Ditan Hospital affiliated to the Capital Medical University National March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter

Shen Tengxiang Party chief of Nankeng Village, Cewu Town, Changting County, Longyang City, Fujian Province National March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter
jeffhochstrasser/iStock(MOSCOW) -- Two American Mormons are facing deportation after they were arrested inside a southern Russian church and convicted for misusing their visas to teach English, according to the lawyer for the men.



The two U.S. citizens, David Gaaga and Cole Brodowski were accused of violating the terms of their visas by teaching English to other members of the congregation, their Russian lawyer, Sergey Glinznutsa told ABC News by telephone.



Brodowski and Gaaga were detained since last Friday while inside a Mormon church in Novorossiysk, a city on Russia's Black Sea coast.



A district court in Novorossiysk on Wednesday convicted the two men of violating immigration rules and ordered their deportation.



Both men deny they were teaching English at the church, their lawyer said.



"They were just talking" and correcting people's pronunciation, Gliznuta said.



Russias foreign ministry on Thursday said two other U.S. citizens arrested at the same time as Brodowski and Gaaga had already been deported by court order. A church official, however, said the unnamed Americans were not Mormons.



It was not clear why the two other Americans were detained and deported. A representative for the Russian branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), Yuri Kozhokin, told the news agency, Interfax, that the two had nothing to do with the church and had been in Novorossiysk for a "commercial organization."



A court in Novorossiysk on Thursday rejected appeals by Brodowski and Gaaga, Gliznutsa said. It is unclear now how long the two might remain in the temporary migrant detention center.



A prisoner rights monitor, Anzaur Akhidzhak, who chairs the Regional Public Monitoring Commission, told the state's news agency, TASS, on Thursday that the "process is not fast." He said his commission would inspect the conditions at the detention center in the town of Gulkevichi.



There are more than 22,700 Mormons in Russia, according to the LDS news site. American members of the church frequently travel overseas for missionary work. Male followers spend two years dedicated to the religious work, going on what is referred to as a "mission" during which they seek to recruit local people to their faith. Male followers' "missions" usually last two years and as part of it they are expected to seek out possible converts on the street or through home visits.



That practice though has run into difficulty in Russia recently. A package of laws passed by Russia's parliament in July 2016 banned proselytising outside of places of worship, forcing the Mormons to curtail their traditional public efforts to recruit people to their faith.



The laws, which were billed as anti-terror measure, intended to prevent "extremism," have been used to target "foreign" minority religious groups that have longed been viewed with suspicion by Russian state authorities.



In 2017, Jehovah's Witnesses were banned outright as an "extremist" group, placing the organization in the same category as the Islamic State terror group. Since then Russian authorities have opened dozens of criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses and in February a court jailed a Danish member, Dennis Christensen, to six years on "extremism" charges, in a case that was condemned by human rights groups.



Last month, a group of seven Jehovah's Witnesses in the Siberian city, Surgut, accused police of torturing them in detention, beating them and shocking them with stun guns. The World Headquarters of Jehovahs Witnesses told ABC News there are currently 148 criminal investigations open against members in Russia, with 25 in pretrial detention and 27 under house arrest.



"The Jehovahs Witnesses are simply peacefully exercising their right to freedom of religion," Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch in June denounced the crackdown directed against the Jehovah's Witnesses. "The Jehovahs Witness faith is not an extremist organization, and authorities should stop this religious persecution of its worshipers now."



Observers have linked the extremism laws and harsh treatment of the Jehovah's Witnesses to a broader clampdown on Russian civil society. Russian authorities have treated foreign organizations with greater suspicion since the crisis in relations with the West that followed the revolution in Ukraine and Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014.



The Mormons have not faced comparable trouble. The church in 2016 pledged to obey the new law and redesignated its missionaries "as volunteers" and ordered them to adhere to the law's restriction that proselytising take place only in places of worship.



Shortly after the law's passage six Mormon volunteers were briefly detained in the city of Samara also on visa-related charges and then deported. Russia's Supreme Court in 2017 ruled the deportation had violated two of the men's rights.



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a panel discussion with his fellow deputies from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 5, 2019. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi]

President Xi Jinping on Tuesday stressed efforts to maintain strategic resolve in enhancing the building of an ecological civilization and to protect the country's beautiful scenery in the northern border areas.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when attending a panel discussion with his fellow deputies from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's national legislature.

The president called for intensified protection of the ecological system, urging people to fight resolutely against pollution.

The Party's theory on an ecological civilization has been constantly enriched and improved since the 18th CPC National Congress in late 2012, Xi said.

All localities and departments should earnestly implement the Party's arrangement and requirements for building an ecological civilization, pushing it to a new level, Xi said.

Building Inner Mongolia into an important shield for ecological security in northern China is a strategic position set with full consideration of the country's overall development and a major responsibility the region must shoulder, Xi said.

Fundamentally speaking, environmental protection and economic development are closely integrated and complement each other, Xi said.

In the Chinese economy's transition from the phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development, pollution control and environmental governance are two major tasks that must be accomplished, he added.

The country should explore a new path of high-quality development that prioritizes ecology and highlights green development, Xi said.

With its diversified natural forms including forests, grasslands, wetlands, rivers, lakes and deserts, Inner Mongolia features a comprehensive ecological system formed over a long period of time. Integrated measures should be taken in ecological protection and rehabilitation in the region, he said.

Xi underlined a resolute and effective fight to prevent and control pollution, saying prominent environmental issues the people are strongly concerned about must be addressed properly.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a panel discussion with his fellow deputies from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 5, 2019. [Xinhua/Ju Peng]

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a panel discussion with his fellow deputies from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 5, 2019. [Xinhua/Huang Jingwen]

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a panel discussion with his fellow deputies from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 5, 2019. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi]

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends a panel discussion with his fellow deputies from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 5, 2019. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi]

(Source: Xinhua)
Shen Yueyue, Vice-Chairperson of the NPC Standing Committee and President of the ACWF, delivers remarks at the reception.[Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

On the afternoon of March 7, 2019, the reception for women from China and abroad in commemoration of March 8th International Women's Day was held at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing.

Shen Yueyue, Vice-Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and President of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), extended festival greetings to women from home and abroad during her remarks at the reception. Shen pointed out under the strong leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, major new achievements have been made in all aspects of the Party and the country. People, including numerous Chinese women, have enjoyed a stronger sense of fulfillment, happiness and security.

Shen stressed that Chinese women will follow the lead of the Party and actively engage in the practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era. Based on their own posts, Chinese women will create beautiful lives, strive for greater contributions in a new era and make new achievements to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Chinese women are willing to work with women from around the world and make unremitting efforts to build a more beautiful world for women and for all, Shen noted.

The Party and State Leaders who attended the reception included Sun Chunlan, Yang Jiechi, Li Bin, Su Hui, Liu Yandong, Peng Peiyun, He Luli, Gu Xiulian, Chen Zhili and Wang Zhizhen.

Huang Xiaowei, Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, presided over the reception.

Attendees to the event included women NPC deputies and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, National March 8th Red-banner awards holders, women academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, women generals of PLA and women representatives from all sectors.

Distinguished guests also included foreign ambassadors, spouses of diplomatic envoys, female diplomats, female representatives of the UN agencies in China, foreign female experts and spouses of foreign experts working in China.

Huang Xiaowei, Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, presides over the reception. [Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Foreign guests pose for photos at the event.[Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Foreign guests pose for photos at the event.[Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Opening dance Gaiety in Komuz [Xinhua]

Fashion show Embroidering Roads to the Outside World.[Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Traditional instrumental performance A New Song for the Silk Road.[Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

(By Ye Shan)
Fresh calls for life-saving prostate cancer scan to be made available in North Wales

This article is old - Published: Friday, Mar 8th, 2019

A regional Assembly Member has made renewed calls for the Welsh Government to make Multiparametric MRI scans available to suspected prostate cancer patients.

Mark Isherwood AM, yesterday urged the Welsh Government to act on the calls by campaigners for mpMRI scans to be made available across NHS Wales.

Wrexham Maelor Hospitals urology unit is one of 11 units across England and Wales that took part in the prostate MRI imaging study PROMIS trial to discover improved ways of diagnosing prostate cancer.

Although the results showed that 93 per cent of aggressive cancers were detected by using the mpMRI scan to guide the biopsy, compared with just 48 per cent where only a Transrectal ultrasound guided (TRUS) biopsy was carried out, men in North Wales have had to fund the scans themselves because they were not provided or funded by the health board in North Wales.

Yesterday an Assembly Debate focused on a petition  All men in Wales should have access through the NHS to the best possible diagnostic tests for prostate cancer  which received 6,345 signatures and was submitted by Stuart Davies, who lives in Clwyd South.

Speaking in the debate, Mr Isherwood said that last Marchs announcement by NHS England that it was launching a one-stop service using MRI techniques to revolutionise prostate cancer treatment and slash the time taken for a diagnosis there was a game changer, that mens lives here are being put at risk and that patients across Wales should not be left behind.

He said: In January, the Health Minister wrote to members stating that he had asked all Health Boards to work with the Welsh Urology Board to ensure that they have full implementation plans within one month of this.

In the same letter he stated that Health Boards have confirmed that at present they deliver care in line with current NICE Guidance.

North Wales patients subsequently reiterated that care was not delivered in line with current NICE Guidance in their cases.

North Wales Community Health Council stated that the Health Board have consistently declined to produce proof that they did any scans for men with rising PSA following a negative biopsy  and that they are co-ordinating refunds to all of their clients who did not receive scans in line with the 2014 guidance.

They also state that their correspondence with the Health Minister gives them no comfort that he will intervene if they make the same decision on the pre-biopsy mpMRI guidance.:

This petitions sponsor, Stuart Davies, states that interim arrangements should be put in place now so that men do not put their lives at risk, that although patients pay approximately 900, the cost to the NHS at Wrexhams Spire Hospital is only 365  and that men contacting the campaign say that they are either waiting for it to become free or are taking out loans to pay for their scan.

Last December, I attended a meeting with Mr Davies, the Health Board and Community Health Council, at which the Health Board apologised and offered to refund the money men had paid for scans.

However, only this week, a constituent received a letter from the Health Board stating that although current clinical advice suggests that the use of full diagnostic mpMRI may be beneficial  this has not yet been supported by NICE.

Noting, however, that NICE has now backed mpMRI scans as a cost effective first-line investigation, Tenovus Cancer Care have called on the Welsh Government to ensure that mpMRI is available across Wales, stating that it is not available at Betsi Cadwaladr, Hywel Dda or Swansea Bay, and not available at PROMIS standards in Cardiff and Vale.

As Prostate Cancer UK states, mpMRI revolutionises Prostate Cancer diagnosis, so lets listen to the experts with lived experience. These men have been telling the truth from the very beginning.

The petitioner found the lack of consistency between health boards as unacceptable and he had been inundated with stories of men whove had to have a private scan  sometimes borrowing money to pay for one.

Caroline Jones AM (Ind, South Wales West) spoke of her husbands experiences. Hes had to undergo testing for prostate cancer, which included a painful biopsy. If he had lived 15 miles to the north-east, he wouldve had a mpMRI scan.

Health Minister, Vaughan Gething said the trials in Wales showed positive signs with clinicians wanting mpMRI rolled-out everywhere. There was a point behind the limited availability of new treatments though:

Mr Gething said: But there is this point about, when we consider each potential advance in healthcare, what we do as a whole system, and in decision making, to consider the evidence for the best intervention and then to try to take a consistent national approach to delivering it once that evidence base is sound and accepted.

So, NICE are committed to publishing their revised guidelines in April.

Keep up to date with what is going on in the Senedd via SeneddHome.com





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Urgent call for volunteers in Wrexham to support the Armed Forces community

This article is old - Published: Friday, Mar 8th, 2019

A charity is urgently appealing to the people of Wrexham to join its network of volunteers that provide support for the Armed Forces community.

The SSAFA Clwyd branch is looking to recruit new caseworkers to help continue its vital work supporting veterans and their families in the area.

The journey to Civvy Street can be a difficult time for some veterans. Their employment, living arrangements, financial stability and personal lifestyles all alter at the same time whilst they and their families are moving away from their support networks and trying to acclimatise to their new life.

SSAFA volunteer caseworkers provide support to veterans and their families who are in need. This could include access to financial assistance, advice and support on personal affairs and access to special equipment for those with disabilities.

A background in the Forces is not necessary but empathy and enthusiasm is a must.

Tracey Berridge, Deputy Director of Volunteer Operations at SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, says: After all that the Armed Forces and their families have sacrificed for us, we feel it is our duty to make sure they receive the support they need when they face difficulties on their return to civilian life.

We are in urgent need of more dedicated volunteers in Wrexham, so SSAFA can continue to reach more veterans and families in need of help. They have sacrificed a great deal for us, and now its our turn to support them. Please get in touch with our team to find out more.

More information about volunteering with SSAFA can be found here.



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Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-07 19:59:53|Editor: Xiaoxia

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Visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (3rd L) and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (1st L) inspect honor guards during a welcoming ceremony at the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila, the Philippines, March 7, 2019. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)

MANILA, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines and Malaysia vowed on Thursday to ramp up their cooperation to address security issues in the region, particularly in combating terrorism, piracy and transnational crimes, including the fight against illegal drug trade.

"We resolved to address security issues. We touched on our extensive economic cooperation. We shared the view that its further expansion serves our mutual interests as that of ASEAN and our region," Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said after his meeting with visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad at the Malacanang presidential palace.

During their meeting, Duterte said he shared with Mahathir "the great strides we have achieved towards securing just and lasting peace in Mindanao" in the southern Philippines.

"The road leading to the historic transition to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region was paved in large part by the support of our international partners. Malaysia occupies a prominent role in this roster of friends," Duterte added.

Mahathir congratulated Duterte "on the successful ratification" of the Bangsamoro organic law and the appointment of members into the Bangsamoro transition authority.

Moreover, Mahathir said he and Duterte talked about security matters.

"Malaysia is committed to take the necessary steps to address the serious issues of terrorism and violent extremism through the trilateral cooperation agreement," he said. Under this framework, Malaysia and the Philippines together with Indonesia, have agreed to undertake maritime and air patrols to tackle the growing security challenges.

Mahathir arrived in Manila on Wednesday night for an official visit.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-07 21:30:18|Editor: xuxin

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BEIRUT, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Foreign Minister warned on Thursday other Mediterranean countries against violating Lebanon's maritime resources amid Israeli plans to begin a gas pipeline linking to Cyprus, Greece and Italy.

"Lebanon will not allow any violation on its rights and sovereignty," Gebran Bassil was quoted as saying by the National News Agency.

His remarks came in a letter sent to the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and the Italian, Cypriot and Greek foreign ministers.

In the letter, Bassil called on all the countries involved to respect international maritime laws.

Greece, Italy, and Cyprus reached an agreement late last year with Israel to lay a pipeline connecting the Jewish state's gas reserves to the three countries.

The 2,200-km pipeline, which will cost 7 billion U.S. dollars, will have the capacity to carry up to 20 billion cubic meters of gas yearly.

Lebanese officials have on many occasions warned against Israel's violations of Lebanon's waters by allowing exploitation of oil and gas in an area close to the disputed borders.

Lebanon has an unresolved maritime border with Israel that involves a triangular sea area of about 860 square km extending along the edge of three of its 10 offshore energy blocks.

The United States mediated between Lebanon and Israel to end the dispute over maritime borders but failed to reach any positive results.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 00:26:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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OTTAWA, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that he failed to realize an "erosion of trust" between himself and former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould on the SNC-Lavalin case, though he acknowledged he could have acted differently.

"I was not aware of that erosion of trust ... I should have been," Trudeau told a press conference in the morning at Ottawa's National Press Theater on the political crisis that has triggered the resignation of two female ministers as well as his principal secretary Gerald Butts.

Butts testified on Wednesday before the Justice Committee of House of Commons, blaming the crisis engulfing the Liberal government on a breakdown in trust and communications.

Trudeau offered no apologies for what has taken place, acknowledged no wrongdoing in what has unfolded since the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail reported on Feb. 7 that senior officials of his government tried to pressure Wilson-Raybould into dropping a criminal prosecution of Montreal-based engineering and construction services giant SNC-Lavalin.

Trudeau has denied the allegations, saying that he and his staff acted properly, and in the interest of thousands of jobs.

Wilson-Raybould, who resigned from the cabinet last month, testified before the Justice Committee that she faced "consistent and sustained" political pressure and "veiled threats" from Trudeau and 11 senior officials, to offer a deferred prosecution agreement to SNC-Lavalin.

SNC-Lavalin was facing bribery and corruption charges over business dealings in Libya.

Trudeau denied the accusations, saying he disagreed with her characterization of events. Butts resigned two weeks after her testimony and he appeared before the same committee Wednesday to offer his side of the story.

Butts denied being a part of, or being aware of, any interactions with Wilson-Raybould that could constitute pressure. He said that she never raised with him that she felt any of the conduct on the case was improper.

Nevertheless, Butts confirmed a breakdown in trust between Trudeau and Wilson-Raybould, saying her being shuffled out of the justice minister role as the flashpoint for the ongoing case.

Wilson-Raybould served minister of justice and attorney general from 2015 until January 2019 -- the two titles are traditionally held by the same cabinet member -- and then as minister of veterans affairs before resigning from Trudeau's cabinet in February.

Trudeau acknowledged that he should have paid more attention to growing friction between his staff and Wilson-Raybould.

"What has become clear over the various testimonies is over the past months there was an erosion of trust between my office, my former principal secretary and the former attorney-general," Trudeau said.

The prime minister said that in hindsight, he should have reached out personally to Wilson-Raybould on the matter.

Asked whether he was making an apology, Trudeau indicated he was not. He said he won't apologize for defending SNC-Lavalin jobs. He characterized what has happened as a case where "situations were experienced differently -- and I regret that."

Trudeau said he has asked for a set of external set of opinions on the dual role of the justice minister and attorney general, as well as the operating policies for cabinet ministers and staff related to dealings on judicial matters.

The prime minister said he will be seeking outside advice on whether to separate the posts of attorney-general and justice minister as well as practices and operations of cabinet.

However, the opposition parties urged further probes. Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer has repeatedly urged an investigation and called for Trudeau to resign as he "lost the moral authority to govern."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 00:31:17|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LONDON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said Thursday a crucial vote on Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal by next Tuesday could be the last chance for Britain to leave the European Union (EU) on its planned March 29 departure date.

In a radio interview on Thursday, Hammond said he had great confidence in the Brexit Secretary and the Attorney General in the work they are doing and hoped they will come back with an offer which MPs on the Brexit wing of the governing Conservative party will "consider very, very carefully in the context of the real situation we are in."

"If the Prime Minister's deal does not get approved on Tuesday then it is likely that the House of Commons will vote to extend the Article 50 procedure to not leave the European Union without a deal and where we go thereafter is highly uncertain," the Chancellor added.

The EU was reported Thursday to have given Britain 48 hours, with a Friday deadline, to table new proposals to break the impasse on the Irish border issue which remains the big stumbling block in talks on a future trading relationship.

In what is a fast-changing crisis, the countdown has started to be one of the most critical periods in recent British politics, deciding the fate of Britain's future in the EU.

May will present to MPs in the House of Commons the deal she wants to sign with Brussels to signal the ending of Britain's membership of the EU.

Media in London reported that May's Cabinet is resigned to her deal being lost by up to 100 votes next week.

May is also considering to make a major speech on Friday urging politicians to support her deal.

Britain's negotiators, led by Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay and Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, and EU leaders confirmed that the latest round of tough negotiations on Wednesday did not lead to any break in an impasse over the fate of the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Talks between British ministers and the EU officials were described by both sides as difficult, with the EU going further and insisting there had been no breakthrough.

Brussels has insisted that there must be a legal backstop to prevent a hard border between British controlled Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland which is a member of the bloc.

The 500 km border between the two sides will be the only EU frontier in the British Isles after Brexit.

With a planned March 29 departure date looming, nobody knows how more than 640 lawmakers in Parliament will decide the result of May's proposals in a meaningful vote due on Tuesday.

The deal has already been rejected by a margin of 230 votes, the biggest defeat in recorded British political history.

Undaunted by that defeat, May has continued to press her deal, hoping that EU negotiators will agree on the Irish border issue.

If MPs reject May's deal again they will be given a vote next week on leaving the EU without a deal or delaying Britain's departure from the EU beyond March 29.

Political commentators predicted that EU negotiations usually go to the wire, and they expected that to happen in the Brexit negotiations.

Separately, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, has been meeting Conservative MPs in a bid to win support for an alternative to May's Brexit deal. Many Labour MPs though want a second referendum to decide the issue.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 01:31:31|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TEHRAN, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday that Tehran is not afraid of negotiations with Washington, but the United States must first return to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, Tasnim news agency reported.

The U.S. officials have, so far, made several appeals for negotiations with Iran, Rouhani said in the northern city of Rasht.

"Americans have even asked five leaders of other countries in the past year to work as mediators to convince Iran to enter talks with Washington," he said, adding that however, the conditions and time are not ripe for such talks and meetings.

The United States must first return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), international term for the nuclear deal, and make up for its withdrawal from the nuclear agreement before any plan for talks with Iran, Rouhani stressed.

Rouhani on Wednesday said that, the United States is seeking to overthrow the Islamic establishment by exerting pressures on Iran.

The U.S. has reimposed sanctions on Iran, including its oil exports and banking sectors, following its exit from the landmark Iranian nuclear deal last May.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 02:06:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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JERUSALEM, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Israeli and Chinese scientists have developed an advanced method for examining the spatial structure of molecules, as published Thursday by the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) in the center of Israel.

The WIS researchers, together with scientists of Shanghai's East China Normal University (ECNU), showed how very short and fast laser pulses align molecules in a certain direction.

This enables to examine the structure of the molecules by measuring the radiation that bypasses them and disperses from them.

Understanding the structure of complex molecules can lead to technological inventions, the development of advanced methods of medical treatment, and more.

So far, an examination of molecules structure required molecular crystals - when the crystallization process in many cases is difficult and complex.

In the new method, the radiation is used on individual molecules, which are not arranged in a crystal, so no crystallization process is needed.

The scientists demonstrated the new method on sulfur oxide molecules consisting of two oxygen atoms and a sulfur atom. The two oxygen atoms create an axis for the molecule, with the sulfur freely rotating around this axis.

First, the researchers launched laser pulses in the direction of the oxygen atoms - aligning the axis of the molecules in the same direction.

Then, pulses of additional laser, resulting from the first and coordinated with it, caused also the sulfur atoms to line up in the desired direction.

The time taken for molecules to line up as a result of the laser pulses is about 10 femtoseconds (10 millionths of a billionth of a second).
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 02:41:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LONDON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Vodafone said that stopping it from using Huawei equipment will not only cost the mobile operator a lot of money but also delay its deployment of 5G in Britain, BBC reported on Thursday.

A ban would require Vodafone to strip Huawei equipment out of its existing 4G network, and the cost of doing that "runs into the hundreds of millions and will dramatically affect our 5G business case", BBC quoted Scott Petty, Vodafone's chief technology officer, as saying.

"We would have to slow down the deployment of 5G very significantly," said Petty.

Huawei radio equipment was used in nearly a third of Vodafone's 18,000 base stations in Britain, according to Petty. Vodafone will launch 5G in 19 towns and cities across Britain during 2019.

Petty also said that Britain was a leader in 5G readiness and would fall behind if Huawei was banned.

There was no evidence that Huawei's equipment posed a security threat, said Vodafone's general counsel, Helen Lamprell, who was also quoted by the BBC.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 05:47:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, March 7 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese UN envoy said Thursday that China supports results-oriented cooperation between the Security Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in peace and security.

The council on Thursday heard a briefing by OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Miroslav Lajcak, also the Slovak foreign minister, on the regional body's priorities during his chairmanship.

Following the briefing, Yao Shaojun, minister counsellor and political coordinator of the permanent mission of China to the United Nations, said OSCE is an important partner of the United Nations and has in recent years been actively conducting preventive diplomacy, promoting regional security and mutual trust, and mediating regional disputes.

He also pointed out that since Slovakia assumed chairmanship, OSCE has been given priority to preventing and mitigating conflicts, providing for a safer future and enhancing multilateralism, which China commends.

"The world needs multilateralism more than ever," said Yao.

He stressed China supports results-oriented cooperation between the council and OSCE in the field of peace and security, and hopes OSCE will continue to play an active and constructive role in safeguarding regional peace, security and stability.

On the issue of Ukraine in particular, Yao noted, the parties concerned, including OSCE, have made positive efforts towards a peaceful solution, adding China hopes the parties concerned will effectively implement relevant council resolutions and Minsk agreement, and seek a comprehensive solution through dialogue and consultations.

OSCE participates in the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, which aims to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the conflict on the Donbass region of Ukraine. It has also sent a special monitoring mission to the region.

Yao said China supports the United Nations in deepening cooperation with the regional and sub-regional organizations with a view to jointly maintaining international peace and security.

"Enhancing international cooperation with the United Nations at its center is a general trend and the common aspiration of all," he said.

Meanwhile, he stressed "such cooperation should resolutely follow the purposes and principles of the UN charter, vigorously facilitate the settlement of regional hotspot issues through dialogue and consultations, actively promote preventive diplomacy, and diffuse tension through peaceful means."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 06:17:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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THE HAGUE, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) has issued a warning that at an Islamic high school in Amsterdam students are influenced by teachers who allegedly maintain contact with terrorists, the NCTV said Thursday in a statement.

The NCTV, based on information from the Dutch intelligence service AIVD, shared its concerns in a letter to the Ministry of Security and Justice and to the municipality of Amsterdam.

The NCTV writes about "very disturbing signals" the AIVD received about the school -- "Things are happening at the school which are not good for democracy and for integration."

The NCTV also writes about signs that important people at the school have been in a radical Islamic environment.

Ferdinand Grapperhaus, Dutch Minister of Security and Justice, has informed the Dutch parliament about the worries.

"The cabinet is very motivated to counter anti-democratic and anti-integrative behavior within the possibilities that the rule of law offers us," the Minister said in a letter. "Step by step we are working on action to tackle such behavior and to be able to take concrete measures."

The school, the Cornelius Haga Lyceum in the west of Amsterdam, offers education on an Islamic basis. It is a small-scale school, where boys and girls get separate lessons, only existing one and a half year and with 176 students.

The municipality of Amsterdam has announced measures against the school. Municipal subsidies are frozen until the school board and the most important persons have left. The mayor Femke Halsema urgently asked the board to resign.

Furthermore, the mayor demanded that the Education Inspectorate must immediately have full access to the school.

But "I only react to facts," board chairman Soner Atasoy of the school reacted to Dutch news program RTL Nieuws. "There are no facts in this story. There is no proof at all."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 06:32:52|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BRUSSELS, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission said on Thursday it is committed to a sustainable African agri-food sector, as its Task Force for Rural Africa delivered a report in the aspect.

According to the recommendations of the task force, Africa and the European Union should develop a partnership operating at three levels -- people to people, business to business, and government to government. It would institute a multi-stakeholder dialogue at all levels, starting locally, and enable a closer connection between African and European societies, business communities and governments.

Building on some of the short term recommendations made by the task force, the Commission will start implementing such projects as twinning and exchange programs between African and European agricultural bodies, African Union-EU agribusiness platform and innovation hubs.

"The report handed over today is a landmark in the process towards more cooperation between the EU and Africa in the agri-food sector," the Commission said in a statement.

It identified four strategic areas of action for the medium to long term -- job creation, climate action, sustainable transformation of African agriculture and development of the African food industry and markets.

Tom Arnold, an Irish agricultural economist who leads the task force, told journalists in Brussels that generating enough jobs and income to meet the needs of a population boom in Africa is still a challenge in both politics and economics.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 06:37:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ROME, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Many of the world's best art and historical museums are located within Italy's borders. But after a change in government policy, these worldwide icons of culture may soon be directed exclusively by Italians.

Back in 2015, Italy became one of the last countries in Europe to allow foreigner to apply for the directorship of major museums. Dozens applied and several were selected. Today, seven of the country's top ten museums are headed by non-Italians.

But a year from now, according to interviews and media reports, all seven will be working elsewhere.

POSITIVE PERFORMANCE

"I've enjoyed my job and I think things have improved while I've been here," Peter Assmann, an Austrian and director of the Museum Complex at the Ducale Palace in Mantova, told Xinhua.

"My term is up at the end of October and about a year before that I went to the Ministry of Culture to apply for a new term. In the end, I contacted them and applied several times and they never responded. They didn't say 'yes,' they didn't say 'no,' they just ignored me."

By all measures, Assmann's tenure has been a positive one in Mantova, a city between Bologna and Milan. The museum has organized more special events and attracted new private sponsors. Attendance has risen, and, most importantly, Assmann said, "the museum more a part of the community than it was before."

The last special exhibit Assmann will have organized -- focused on the works of Renaissance painter and architect Giulio Romano -- will start just before Assmann's term ends. "I'll be there for the inauguration but by the time it finishes I'll be at my new job," he said.

Assmann's story is not unusual. Media reports indicate that James Bradburne from Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera; Peter Aufreiter from the National Gallery of The Marches in Urbino; and Eike Schmidt from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence will all be employed outside Italy by the end of this year.

Schmidt's situation is particularly poignant: he led a high-profile campaign to have a painting stolen by Nazi looters returned to the Uffizi from Schmidt's native Germany, and he instituted a system of time entries that at once eliminated lines outside the museum while increasing attendance, creating nearly 100 new jobs. Revenue for the museum nearly doubled under his leadership.

CONTROVERSY

Analysts said Italy still has plenty of growth potential, noting that attendance at the Uffizi, Italy's most visited museum, was less than a fourth that of the Louvre in Paris.

Alberto Bonisoli, Italy's minister of culture, told Italian reporters last month that the government would decide if they want to keep the foreign directors by April 21.

When it was pointed out to him that most of the directors have already decided to move on, Bonisoli brushed that aside by saying hiring foreign directors made more sense in 2015 than it does today, though he did not say why that was true.

According to Giuliano Volpe, a professor of archeology in the Department of Humanistic Studies at the University of Foggia, the law allowing non-Italian museum directors remains on the books. But government official can still make decisions on a case-by-case basis.

"I can already tell you that fewer foreigners are applying for museum jobs in Italy because of the perception that they won't be given a fair chance and that they won't have job security," Volpe told Xinhua. Volpe said he knew of no other major country with such a policy in place.

Assmann said he did not believe that any particular nationality produced better museum directors, but he said the provincial attitude of not giving museums a chance to select the best person for the job was "a big mistake."

Volpe agreed: "Even if a new government comes into power and reverses the policy, it's going to take many years for potential directors to see Italy differently," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 06:52:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SAN FRANCISCO, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Microsoft said Thursday that its Windows 10 operating system (OS) is now running on more than 800 million active devices worldwide, one step closer to its goal of 1 billion Windows 10 users.

Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Modern Life & Devices Group, Yusuf Mehdi, confirmed the number in a tweeted post Thursday, saying the popular OS is the most satisfactory Windows product.

"Thank you to all our customers and partners for helping us achieve 800 million Windows 10 devices and the highest customer satisfaction in the history of Windows," he tweeted.

It took almost three years and eight months for Windows 10 to reach the goal of 800 million after it was released in July 2015.

Microsoft had originally expected to attain the goal of having Windows 10 installed on 1 billion devices globally in three years after its release, but it missed the target last year.

The company announced in September 2018 that over 700 million devices were running Windows 10, indicating it had won 100 million new users in less than six months.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 08:25:25|Editor: Xiaoxia

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Young Syrians attend an awareness session about the danger of the conflict leftovers such as land mines in Damascus, capital of Syria, on March 7, 2019. The campaign was held as reports started emerging recently about the deaths and injuries caused by the leftovers of the rebels in areas that had been out of the government's control during the conflict. At least seven civilians were killed and 14 others wounded on Tuesday by a land mine explosion, which is from the leftovers of the rebels, in Syria's northern Aleppo province, state news agency SANA reported. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 09:08:27|Editor: Xiaoxia

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Bounnhang Vorachith (2nd R), general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and president of Laos, inspects Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone in Vientiane, capital of Laos, March 7, 2019. Bounnhang Vorachith expects to build Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone in capital Vientiane, the state-level cooperative project jointly established with China, into a green, sustainable and prosperous development zone. The Lao president, accompanied by other government officials and Chinese ambassador to Laos Jiang Zaidong, inspected the Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone on Thursday. (Xinhua/Zhang Jianhua)

VIENTIANE, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Bounnhang Vorachith, general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and president of Laos, expects to build Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone in capital Vientiane, the state-level cooperative project jointly established with China, into a green, sustainable and prosperous development zone.

The Lao president, accompanied by other government officials and Chinese ambassador to Laos Jiang Zaidong, inspected the Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone on Thursday.

Chen Wenshan, chairman of China Yunnan Construction and Investment Holding Group (YCIH) introduced his company and its investment and construction projects to the Lao president and the inspection team.

After receiving the information about the future development plan of the zone and watching the project's promotional video, President Bounnhang affirmed that the development zone has been keeping a fast pace on investment, construction and promotion. Thus, many enterprises to invest in Laos have shown interest in the development zone.

The Lao president praised the YCIH's important contribution to Laos' economic and social development with its engineering contracting and investment.

"I hope that the YCIH will continue to work hard to contribute to the friendship between the two parties, the two governments and the two peoples, as to set an model for the cooperation between the two countries," said the president.

"I hope the YCIH will cooperate with Vientiane City closely and earnestly to build the Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone into a green, sustainable and prosperous development zone, and to improve the livelihood of the local people."

According to Chen's report, after nearly a decade's efforts, 1 billion U.S. dollars have been invested into the zone's infrastructure construction, and the zone has introduced 57 enterprises to invest over 1 billion U.S. dollars. It is expected that by the end of next year, the total output in the zone will exceed 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, with about 10,000 jobs created.

The Vientiane Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone, covering an area of 11.5 square km, is jointly developed by the YCIH and the municipal government of Vientiane. It is a state-level cooperative project between China and Laos, also China's only state-level overseas economic and trade cooperation zone in Laos, and is enrolled in the early harvest projects of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 09:33:34|Editor: Xiaoxia

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YAOUNDE, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon will make efforts to enhance the skills of and opportunities for women in the digital business as part of the measures to draw more young girls to the sector, said its telecommunications minister on Thursday.

"The more women we have in digital business, the better for the emancipation and growth of women," said Minister of Post and Telecommunications Minette Libom Li Likeng.

"Digital economy is the future for our country and Africa. It plays a very important role in economies in developing countries. We will look for efficient and effective ways to encourage young digital entrepreneurs," Likeng said while meeting with young female digital entrepreneurs at the National Advanced School of Post and Telecommunications.

The event was part of the activities to mark the International Women's Day on March 8.

Over 2,900 female students have been trained by the school with government support, Likeng said, calling for efforts to enroll more girls to the school.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 09:38:36|Editor: Xiaoxia

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CANBERRA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Senior members of the Australian government have dismissed former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's explosive comments about his downfall.

Australia's Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann and a key figure in the leadership crisis that ended in Turnbull being deposed as leader of the governing Liberal-National Party coalition (LNP), on Friday told Sky News Australia that the saga is "ancient history."

"We have a responsibility to give ourselves the best possible opportunity to be successful at the next election, and that is what we are all focused on," Cormann said.

Turnbull on Thursday told British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television that his downfall was the result of a "peculiarly Australian form of madness."

"You could argue that their concern was not that I would lose the election, but rather that I would win it," he said.

"There is no question the government's position is -- and it still could win the election, the Liberal government -- but its position is much less favourable than it was back in August."

According to Newspoll, Australia's leading opinion poll, the LNP trailed the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) 49-51 on a two-party-preferred basis at the end of Turnbull's term as prime minister.

Under the leadership of Scott Morrison, the man chosen to replace Turnbull as the leader, the party's support has fallen, according to Newspoll.

"We'd drawn, had essentially drawn equal, even, and in our own polling in the marginal seats which is obviously the only ones that matter you know in terms of determining government, we were ahead," Turnbull said.

"It was a peculiarly Australian form of madness, I'm afraid."

Responding to the interview, Defence Minister Christopher Pyne who will retire from politics in May said "Malcolm can do whatever interviews he likes" but the party had to focus on stopping the ALP "from wrecking our economy."

"I think we have raked over those coals quite enough in the last few months. I don't propose to talk about it any further," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 09:53:41|Editor: Xiaoxia

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WASHINGTON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a broad resolution condemning racism, anti-Semitism and bigotry amid tensions stemming from a Democratic lawmaker's Israel-related remarks.

The vote for the resolution, launched by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was 407 in favor and 23 against.

"This is an opportunity once again to declare as strongly as possible opposition to anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim statements" and "white supremacist attitudes," said Pelosi before the voting.

"Whether from the political right, center, or left, bigotry, discrimination, oppression, racism, and imputations of dual loyalty threaten American democracy and have no place in American political discourse," the resolution states.

It condemns "anti-Semitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values and aspirations that define the people of the United States and condemning anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contrary to the values and aspirations of the United States."

The voting came after controversial remarks by Democratic lawmaker Ilhan Omar were panned as anti-Semitic since they appeared to question whether people advocating for Israel were more loyal to that country than the United States.

"I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country," she said during a forum last week, referring to Israel.

Omar voted for the resolution together with all other House Democrats. All "no" votes were Republican.

Democrats made a last-minute change Thursday to add Latinos, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, and the LGBT community to the list of "traditionally persecuted peoples" targeted by white supremacists, local media reported.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 09:58:42|Editor: Xiaoxia

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WASHINGTON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said here Thursday the United States should remove tariffs on European industrial goods, including vehicles, so as to build trust in the process of resolving the trade disputes between the two sides.

Addressing the "2019 International Trade Update" event at Georgetown Law School, Malmstrom said there is a lack of trust between Washington and Brussels, warning against the notion that Europe is a security threat to the United States.

"We hope we can agree to do away with tariffs on industrial goods from both sides," she said, adding "this would be important economically, but also rebuild trust between us."

The commissioner said Europe "was seriously offended" by the tariffs the United States imposed on the bloc's steel and aluminum products.

"We do not consider that our exports are a security threat to the U.S.," Malmstrom said, adding that EU officials "are carefully watching" U.S. President Donald Trump's decision on whether to levy import duties on European cars and car parts.

Based on Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, a U.S. domestic law, the U.S. Department of Commerce launched an investigation last May to determine whether imported cars and car parts pose a national security threat.

During a visit to Washington last July, European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker and Trump agreed to set up an executive working group to address bilateral trade spat. They vowed to "work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods."

Chairing the group from the EU side, Malmstrom has since come to the U.S. capital several times for talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

The U.S. Department of Commerce submitted to Trump a report related to the car imports probe in mid-February. Trump said days after receiving the document that imposing the auto tariffs remains an option.

"We're trying to make a deal, they are very tough to make a deal with," the president said of the EU when speaking to reporters at the White House. "If we don't make a deal, we'll do the tariffs."

Trump has 90 days since the submission of the report to decide whether to implement those punitive tariffs.

Malmstrom told the Georgetown event the fact that over 7 million U.S. jobs are supported by EU trade and investment shows how trade can lead to win-win results.

"Along with these wins come complications," she said. "Rules of origin, shifts in manufacturing, more competition. And so far I am only talking about goods!"

The European trade chief said international trade issues "become very complicated indeed" when things like services, data transfers and geopolitics are taken into consideration.

"As advocates of free and open trade, we believe the work is worth it -- and we have a responsibility to stand up and speak out," she said, rebuking those who she said "are intimidated by the complexity."

On preserving and improving the multilateral trading system, Malmstrom stressed in particular the need to engage China in reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"It is important to realize that China has as much interest in making progress as anyone else," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 10:03:43|Editor: Yang Yi

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi(2nd L) attends a press conference on China's foreign policy and relations on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met the press Friday morning on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress.

Wang is expected to brief journalists from home and abroad on China's foreign policy and answer questions on a wide range of issues.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 10:03:43|Editor: Xiaoxia

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WASHINGTON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Paul Manafort, U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, was sentenced to 47 months in federal prison for tax and bank fraud on Thursday, much shorter than expected.

Prosecutors had recommended a sentence between 19.5 to 24 years behind bars.

In a federal courtroom in Virginia on Thursday afternoon, an attorney from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office said Manafort "failed to accept responsibility and is not remorseful."

"The last two years have been the most difficult of my life," Manafort said in court before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis handed down the sentence. "To say I am humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement."

Ellis noted that Manafort "is not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government."

The judge said though Manafort's financial crimes were "very serious," he found the sentencing guideline range for him was "not at all appropriate."

In addition to the sentence, Ellis ordered Manafort to pay a 50,000-U.S.-dollar fine, the lowest fine provided for by guidelines that recommended a fine between 50,000 dollars and 24 million dollars.

The charges against Manafort stemmed from Mueller's ongoing investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible ties with Trump's campaign. Russia had repeatedly denied the allegation while Trump called the probe a "witch-hunt."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 10:08:44|Editor: Xiaoxia

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CANBERRA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has claimed that the Opposition's plan to increase the nation's refugee intake will cost the country billions of dollars.

Morrison on Friday told News Corp Australia that the Australian Labor Party (ALP)'s proposal to lift the annual humanitarian refugee intake from 18,750 to 32,000 by 2025 as a "betrayal of priorities", saying taxpayers would be paying for it for decades.

According to an analysis by the Department of Finance, under the ALP plan, the cost of managing new entrants to the country would rise from 624 million Australian dollars (437.5 million U.S. dollars) currently to 4.3 billion Australian dollars (3.02 billion U.S. dollars) annually by 2028-29.

Bill Shorten, leader of the ALP, has described the policy as "compassionate and sustainable" but Morrison on Friday attacked it as an example of Labor's inability to manage the economy.

"There is no policy argument to increase the intake when we are already facing strong population pressures and, secondly, when our existing program, while the best in the world, still has challenges in getting people settled and into work," he said.

However, the Department of Finance costings are not in line with those produced by the ALP in the lead-up to the 2016 general election, which found that increasing the refugee intake to 27,000 every year would cost 2.8 billion Australian dollars (1.96 billion U.S. dollars) per year by 2026.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann argued that the money would be better spent on domestic issues such as supporting farmers hit by drought.

"Australia is already one of the most generous countries on earth when it comes to welcoming genuine refugees and indeed migrants from all corners of the world," he told News Corp.

"At the same time, they are blocking our 3.9 billion Australian dollars (2.73 billion U.S. dollars) Drought Future Fund to support drought-affected communities across Australia," Cormann said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 10:18:46|Editor: Yang Yi

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SYDNEY, March 8 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese winery is in the midst of processing its first ever harvest in Australia's state of Victoria with around 25,000 tons of grapes soon to be crushed, bottled and sent back to China.

According to Weilong Grape Wine Company's general manager of Australian operations, Bruno Zappia, the company has "faith in the region," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Friday.

"We planned to have the wine bottled by the end of the year, and on sale for Chinese New Year in January 2020."

With Australian wine exports to China continuing to spike, last financial year saw a dramatic 51 percent jump in sales to northeast Asia.

In total, Wine Australia estimates these exports to be worth around 1.2 billion Australian dollars (840,000 million U.S. dollars).

"They have become more affluent and can now afford high-priced goods and wine, good quality, clean wine, is among that," Zappia said.

"Australia is recognized as a place of green and clean. The Chinese people look at Australia as being safe and clean and it's very attractive to a Chinese consumer."

"I think people should encourage any investment in the region. The interest isn't just in wine, but table grapes, citrus, almonds and cattle.

"We should be welcoming the Chinese and be exploring business opportunities because it's only going to benefit us," he added.

Echoing the sentiments of his counterpart, Mike Stone, the executive officer of regional industry body, Murray Valley Winegrowers said "it's extremely significant for Australia" and "a fantastic opportunity in terms of marketing wine from our region."

"There hasn't been a winery development of this magnitude for many years."

"It speaks volumes for their confidence in our ability to produce the quality fruit for the wine they want to deliver to their customers back home."

"It's also highlights our reputation and the fact that we can deliver what they want, it's good for the future that a business of this size has located in our region," Stone added.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 10:54:02|Editor: Xiaoxia

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CARACAS, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela on Thursday defied a call from the European Union (EU) urging the South American country to reconsider its decision to expel Germany's ambassador.

"Venezuela hopes the European Union recovers some balance and reconsiders its position of permanently interfering in our internal affairs, its clear alignment with Washington's attack strategy and its support for the unconstitutional actions of the extremist opposition," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza tweeted.

On Wednesday, Venezuela declared German Ambassador Daniel Martin Kriener persona non grata for meddling in its internal affairs, and gave him 48 hours to leave the country.

Kriener was among a handful of ambassadors who went to the airport on Monday to welcome opposition leader and self-proclaimed "interim president" Juan Guaido on his return from a tour of Latin American countries that support Venezuela's Washington-backed right-wing opposition.

"We regret the fact that the German ambassador to Venezuela is pressed to leave the country in spite of a tense and complex political context," said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, on Thursday.

"The European Union has been keen to maintain lines of communication with all key parties in Venezuela including the government of Mr. Maduro," she added. "And from that perspective the European Union hopes that this decision can be reconsidered."

Political conflicts between Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Guaido erupted as the latter declared himself interim president during an anti-government rally on Jan. 23, a move which was immediately recognized by the United States.

Maduro, in response, cut diplomatic ties with the United States.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 11:09:08|Editor: Xiaoxia

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KIEV, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine on Thursday urged Washington to support its effort to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Enhanced Opportunities Partner program, which creates additional opportunities for non-member states to cooperate with the bloc.

While previously Ukraine was only a recipient of U.S. aid, now it stands ready to make a significant contribution to strengthening the collective security system, Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said.

The Ukrainian official made the remarks during her meeting with U.S. acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Michael Murphy in Washington.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 11:14:11|Editor: Xiaoxia

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KIEV, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Three more candidates have announced their withdrawal from Ukraine's presidential race, local media reported on Thursday.

Sergiy Kryvonos, deputy commander of the Special Operations Forces at the Ukrainian army, quit the election in favor of incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, according to Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Parliament member Eugene Muraev withdrew his candidacy to back up former Deputy Prime Minister Olexandr Vilkul, while another lawmaker Dmytro Dobrodomov dropped out of the race to endorse former Defence Minister Anatoly Hrytsenko.

Last week, Hrytsenko was supported by two other candidates who voiced their intention to withdraw from the elections. They are journalist Dmytro Gnap and Andriy Sadovyy, mayor of Ukraine's western city of Lviv.

Initially, 44 candidates registered to compete in the election scheduled for March 31. Contenders are permitted to withdraw their candidacy from the race by the end of Thursday.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 11:24:16|Editor: Xiang Bo

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by Relja Dusek

ZAGREB, March 8 (Xinhua) -- On a sunny afternoon, people were enjoying their drinks on outdoor terraces of local cafes. Among them was young Chinese musician Zhang Yuchen, who was rehearsing with her professor to get prepared for a concert.

"I do notice the pace of life in Zagreb is much slower (than in China), and people are sitting in the sun, enjoying coffee everywhere around the corner," Zhang told Xinhua. "It actually gives me a bit more time to adapt to the life here."

Zhang came here almost three years ago and has become the first Chinese student at the Academy of Music of the University of Zagreb. She is also one of the best classic guitar players in her class, very insightful and determined to succeed.

TIES WITH CROATIA

Back in 2011, Zhang enrolled in China's Tianjin Music Secondary School that is attached to Tianjin Music Conservatory and studied classic guitar there. Meanwhile, Zhang met Darko Petrinjak, one of the best-known Croatian guitarists, who was holding a master class in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin. Petrinjak recognized her musical talent and invited her to come to Croatia.

At Petrinjak's invitation, Zhang went to Zagreb in 2015 and spent the whole summer learning from Petrinjak. "I remember I had a feeling that a new chapter in my life had started," she recalled, and it was then when she decided to study in Croatia.

Zhang was the top-scorer in the entrance exam of the University of Zagreb and Petrinjak is satisfied with the progress she has made in the past few years.

"She is a very, very diligent student and a very serious one. She is making up for all deficiencies with which she came here three years ago. There were many problems in basic techniques and understanding Western music but she is progressing really quickly," Petrinjak told Xinhua.

Zhang's excellence as a music student was also recognized by renowned Croatian composer Sanda Majurec, who invited her to record Pebbles and Ripples, the first piece in a recently-published album of the composer's latest works. The young guitarist was honored and particularly excited as a "published artist."

HARVEST

Moving to Croatia was not an easy choice. "My parents had doubts. They were worried about me studying abroad alone because I was the first Chinese student here in Zagreb Music Academy. I am really glad that in the end they trusted me and let me choose my own path," Zhang said.

When she started her study here in 2016, the biggest challenge was to find balance between lessons, practice and leisure. During the last two and a half years, she has learned some Croatian, so life is now much easier than the beginning.

"Now, I have managed to balance everything. I have learned how to communicate with professors, how to study efficiently, how to solve problems independently, how to stay motivated and keep on practising to achieve the goal, and I have found time to go to gym, travel and enjoy pleasant leisure time with my close friends here in Croatia," Zhang said.

The young Chinese is thrilled by the European way of music education. It is different from China, which is more focused on the playing techniques, she said. Here, students are taught to better understand music itself.

"I think a genuine musician needs to own precise music playing techniques, professional music education, and more importantly a musical heart. The first, as well as parts of the second element, can be gained in China, while the third depends on every individual. But there is more chance for me to own all three here in Europe. And I did not start to be aware of and equip my playing with these three things until I came to Europe," Zhang said.

The China-Croatia relations have developed in the last few years, with more and more Chinese investments and tourists entering the southeastern European country.

In December 2018, the Chinese Embassy in Croatia signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Academy of Fine Arts, which is also affiliated to the University of Zagreb. There are currently dozens of exchange students in Croatia and the number will increase.

"I really hope that all I have learned through these years abroad, plus the work I did when I was very young in China, will foster me to become a mature musician and one day I could give all my knowledge to the next generations of young Chinese musicians to help them improve in all," Zhang told Xinhua.
Bounnhang Vorachith (2nd R), general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and president of Laos, inspects Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone in Vientiane, capital of Laos, March 7, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhang Jianhua)

VIENTIANE, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Bounnhang Vorachith, general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and president of Laos, expects to build Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone in capital Vientiane, the state-level cooperative project jointly established with China, into a green, sustainable and prosperous development zone.

The Lao president, accompanied by other government officials and Chinese ambassador to Laos Jiang Zaidong, inspected the Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone on Thursday.

Chen Wenshan, chairman of China Yunnan Construction and Investment Holding Group (YCIH) introduced his company and its investment and construction projects to the Lao president and the inspection team.

After receiving the information about the future development plan of the zone and watching the project's promotional video, President Bounnhang affirmed that the development zone has been keeping a fast pace on investment, construction and promotion. Thus, many enterprises to invest in Laos have shown interest in the development zone.

Photo taken on March 7, 2019 shows a construction site inside Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone in Vientiane, capital of Laos. (Xinhua/Zhang Jianhua)

The Lao president praised the YCIH's important contribution to Laos' economic and social development with its engineering contracting and investment.

"I hope that the YCIH will continue to work hard to contribute to the friendship between the two parties, the two governments and the two peoples, as to set an model for the cooperation between the two countries," said the president.

"I hope the YCIH will cooperate with Vientiane City closely and earnestly to build the Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone into a green, sustainable and prosperous development zone, and to improve the livelihood of the local people."

According to Chen's report, after nearly a decade's efforts, 1 billion U.S. dollars have been invested into the zone's infrastructure construction, and the zone has introduced 57 enterprises to invest over 1 billion U.S. dollars. It is expected that by the end of next year, the total output in the zone will exceed 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, with about 10,000 jobs created.

The Vientiane Saysettha Comprehensive Development Zone, covering an area of 11.5 square km, is jointly developed by the YCIH and the municipal government of Vientiane. It is a state-level cooperative project between China and Laos, also China's only state-level overseas economic and trade cooperation zone in Laos, and is enrolled in the early harvest projects of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 11:29:18|Editor: Xiang Bo

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by Raimundo Urrechaga

HAVANA, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Three months ago a new scene took over the streets of Cuba as locals began to surf the Internet on their mobile phones, a highly awaited service for years.

Since Dec. 6, 2018, over 1.8 million users from all over the island have enabled the third generation (3G) mobile network and over 40 percent of them have activated one of the four data packages offered by the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA).

The growing acceptance of the service has become a challenge for the only telecom provider in the Caribbean nation, whose senior officials recognized on Thursday quality and access issues over the last few weeks.

"We are at 160 percent of expected capacities, it's something that surprised us, but we are looking for solutions. We will start providing 4G Internet service to select users on Friday to provide a higher-quality experience," Eliecer Samada, head of ETECSA's wireless access group, told local media.

According to the official, antennas for the 4G network, also known as LTE, have already been installed, which will allow sharing the service demand in the deployment area and offer users greater bandwidth and quality in the service.

Samada explained that for the pilot test, the technology will cover the northern coast of Havana all the way to the Special Development Zone of Mariel, about 50 km west of the city.

Also it will stretch to Varadero, Cuba's main tourist destination, about 130 km east of Havana.

"We will offer the possibility to approximately 10,000 users initially located in these areas to use the 4G network and then evaluate commercial strategies to spread the service," he added.

On the LTE infrastructure, ETECSA has already begun to test services as part of its investment plan in the short and medium term, while carrying out in parallel other strategies to optimize the service, he stated.

In this context, Kevin Castro, ETECSA's director of projects operation, told Cuban State television on Thursday the company has decided to place antennas with "micro localized coverage" in areas with high concentration of people.

"The purpose is to achieve a more effective coverage and experience, vacate data traffic, prevent the network from collapsing as it has happened in recent days and return to the quality we had at the beginning," he said.

The ETECSA official said the data service requires greater investments in accordance with its popular acceptance and accelerated growth rate as Cubans are eager to surf the Internet on their cellphones.

According to figures recently released by ETECSA, 5,000 new customers join the data connection every day and 35 percent of the 5.4 million mobile lines registered in the country have enabled the Internet service on mobile phones in only three months.

ETECSA is offering packages ranging from 600 megabytes for about 7 U.S. dollars to four gigabytes for around 30, which is in line with fares elsewhere but high for most Cubans as the average salary for a state worker in the country is about 30 U.S. dollars a month.

Government authorities said prices will decrease next year as the service further develops.

Payment by data consumption is also available, with preferential rates for local websites.

ETECSA officials said the current 3G and future massive 4G service are parts of Cuba's policy to expand Internet service in the country which has been widely developed since 2013.

In this context, more than 60,000 Cuban families have Internet service in their homes known as Nauta Hogar and Internet is available to the public with over 1,200 public WiFi hotspots which started operating in 2015 in parks, hotels, cybercafes and other sites.

Cuba approved a comprehensive policy in February of last year for the expansion of new technologies, guiding the development of this sector in the country. The country also seeks to expand connectivity in state institutions, universities and research centers, online banking, e-commerce and the creation of websites for different local governments and institutions.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 11:34:21|Editor: Xiang Bo

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SYDNEY, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Primary school students across the Australian State of New South Wales (NSW) will soon have access to new classes aimed to help them deal with mental health issues such as anxiety, stress and bullying.

Announcing the Smiling Minds School Mindfulness Program on Friday in partnership with charitable group the Buildcorp Foundation, Education Minister Rob Stokes said the initiative will be vitally important for children growing up in the digital age.

"We can't slow down the pace of technological change, but we can ensure that students have the coping mechanisms and resilience needed to thrive in the modern world," he said.

"Clinical research shows us that mindfulness leads to reduced stress, anxiety and depression, not to mention better academic skills, social skills and self-esteem," he said.

Preferencing schools in the most rural and remote area, the roll out of the program is set to reach about 100,000 students aged between 5-12, in 400 public primary schools across the state.

As part of the initiative, over 8,000 teachers will also be trained to assist children who may appear vulnerable and in need of help.

"One of the key benefits of the program is the development of emotional awareness and self-regulation skills so that students are better able to manage life's challenges and build healthy and connected relationships," Smiling Mind CEO Dr. Addie Wootten said.

"One in seven primary-aged children are experiencing mental health problems, which is why it's vital we focus on preventative measures and adopt a holistic approach to mental health and wellness," Wootten said.

"This will help support the creation of vibrant and thriving generations of future Australians," Wootten added.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 11:34:23|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade of goods fell 13.8 percent year on year in February to 266.36 billion U.S. dollars, customs data showed Friday.

Exports dipped 20.7 percent year on year to 135.24 billion U.S. dollars last month, while imports decreased 5.2 percent to 131.12 billion U.S. dollars, the General Administration of Customs said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 11:59:35|Editor: Xiang Bo

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by Xinhua writer Yu Fei

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The moon has traditionally been associated with women, maybe because the menstrual cycle is roughly the length of the waxing and waning lunar cycle. Now China's lunar exploration program, named after the moon goddess Chang'e, is highlighting the contributions of female scientists and engineers.

ENVIABLE COUPLE

In Chinese legend, Chang'e flew to the moon and became a goddess, but could never return to Earth to reunite with her husband.

She would have envied a young couple in the research team that developed the Chang'e-4 probe, which made the first ever soft landing on the far side of the moon this year.

Qi Tianle married her beau, Ma Qianli, on Sept. 9, 2018, after dating for about 10 years. On their wedding night, they packed for a special three-month "honeymoon". The next day, they set off to Xichang Satellite Launch Center, in the mountains of southwest China' Sichuan Province, to prepare for the launch of Chang'e-4.

Classmates in school, they had both gone to work in the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) after graduating from university in 2013, and joined the Chang'e-4 team in 2017.

They chose the date of their wedding a year earlier, but later found it coincided with transport of the probe to the launch center. Their colleagues didn't want their wedding delayed, and asked them to go to the launch center after the ceremony.

Just two days after they took their marriage vows, they made a pledge to complete the mission successfully before the national flag at the launch center.

Although they spent most of the "honeymoon" in front of computers preparing for the launch, they enjoyed taking walks in the moonlight after supper.

"We are happy to see Chang'e-4 carry our hopes to visit the moon," said Qi.

LOVE FOR JADE RABBIT

Zhang Yuhua, a space engineer with the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and deputy chief designer of the Chang'e-4 probe, had been part of China's manned space project for 18 years before she joined the lunar exploration team in 2006.

Making a lab simulation of the running of the rover on the moon was one of the big difficulties.

The researchers got volcanic ash from northeast China's Jilin Province to simulate the lunar soil. When the rover moved on the ash, it raised dust, causing irritation if inhaled or rubbed on the skin.

To avoid dust, the lab air conditioner was turned off in the summer. The indoor temperature was over 40 degrees centigrade.

Zhang and her colleagues wore masks, raincoats and rain-shoes to do the experiments, and were drenched in sweat.

After China's first lunar rover, named Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, landed on the moon during the Chang'e-3 mission at the end of 2013, Zhang went to work every day as the moon rose.

However, Yutu suddenly stopped moving after going about 114 meters on the moon.

In the bid to revive it, Zhang felt great stress, and suffered ulcers in her mouth and a hoarse voice.

"I was thinking if China could send people to the moon at that time, I would like to be the first to go. I wanted to repair our Jade Rabbit so much," Zhang recalled.

All their efforts failed. Avoiding the same problem again became the challenge facing the team when they developed the new rover for the Chang'e-4 mission.

"We cared for Jade Rabbit like our own child. I thought it was like a silver swan standing on the desolate moon, more beautiful than anything else," said Zhang.

"Now, our second rover, Jade Rabbit-2, has landed on the far side of the moon. We hope it will realize our dream," she said.

"I have never doubted the significance of my work. I believe humans will go much further into the universe in the next 100 years. But life is too short, and I can only do my best," Zhang said.

BECOMING BRAVE

Zhang He, 48, executive director of the Chang'e-4 probe project from CAST, believes the women in her design team have a stronger sense of responsibility and self-esteem than many men, and are more meticulous and better at communicating.

Zhang had read the book, Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, which encouraged women to show their talents in work. Like the author, she often found herself the only woman at meetings.

"I respect and envy full-time mothers. This is a personal choice. We have to accept what we have chosen, both the gains and losses," Zhang said.

She took her son to gaze at the stars when he was very young. Now her son is 12, and loves mathematics and astronomy.

"I don't have much time with him each day, but we are very close. My son can see my endeavors to chase my dream and is influenced by me," Zhang said.

Her husband was a classmate in university. He disagreed with those who said Chinese people lack creativity and innovation. "My wife is a space engineer. I saw how she worked hard to send spacecraft to the moon."

"I can feel the understanding and support of my family in my work," said Zhang.

Lunar exploration has made her braver and more confident.

"When we began to develop the Chang'e-3 probe, the noise generated by the variable thrust engine was terrifying. But I grew used to it," she said.

"We encountered a lot of technical difficulties in developing the lunar probe, but we overcame all of them. They were like problems in life, and were solved eventually."

A career in space exploration also changed the lives of Zhang's family. On vacation, Zhang asks her husband to make a very detailed plan to consider all possible scenarios. This makes the journey more relaxed.

Zhang and her team like to call China's four lunar probes the "four sisters."

"I believe, Chang'e-4, the little sister, will be braver, smarter and stronger than her elder sister, Chang'e-3, and perform excellently," Zhang said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 12:24:39|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi answers questions at a press conference on China's foreign policy and relations on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China hopes Pakistan and India will replace confrontation with dialogue, settle disagreement with goodwill and create a better future with cooperation, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Friday.

When responding to a question about the recent tension between Pakistan and India, Wang said that China welcomes the willingness expressed by the two countries in recent days to de-escalate the situation and start talks.

"China has stressed from the beginning the need to exercise calm and restraint and prevent escalation," Wang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 12:39:41|Editor: mingmei

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi answers questions at a press conference on China's foreign policy and relations on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China-Japan relations have got back on track and show a positive momentum toward improved and stronger ties, which fully meets the common interests of the two peoples, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday.

Wang made the statement at a press conference on the sidelines of the country's annual legislative session.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 13:39:56|Editor: mingmei

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BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China's National Copyright Administration (NCA) has released the second key protection list of copyrighted films for 2019, requiring online service operators to provide better protection.

The new list has five films, including American Oscar-winning film Green Book and Walt Disney Pictures' superhero film Captain Marvel, reported China Press Publication Radio Film and Television Journal.

To protect these key productions from copyright infringement, the NCA required related online content providers not to broadcast them during their screening in movie theaters and ordered online storage servers to ban any user from uploading them.

Search engines, e-commerce platforms and app stores were asked to adopt stricter measures to deal with violation reports from relevant right holders.

Copyright authorities at all levels were also told to enhance supervision and punish any unauthorized spreading of the listed works in a rigorous and timely manner, the report quoted the administration as saying.

The NCA released the first key protection list of films in February, which included eight films screened during the Spring Festival holiday.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 14:05:00|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature on Friday highlighted its legislative work for 2019, which includes deliberating the civil code, formulating Amendment XI to the Criminal Law and the real estate tax law, and revising the Securities Law, among others.

The legislation plan was included in the work report of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), to be delivered Friday to the second session of the 13th NPC.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 14:10:00|Editor: Xiaoxia

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NEW DELHI, March 8 (Xinhua) -- India has signed a deal worth 3 billion U.S. dollars with Russia for leasing a nuclear-powered attack submarine for the Indian Navy for a period of 10 years, said media reports on Friday.

According to the reports, as per the government-to-government deal signed between the two countries, Russia will have to deliver the "Akula" class submarine, to be named as "Chakra III," for the Indian Navy by 2025.

It will be the third Russian submarine to be leased for the Indian Navy.

The country's defence ministry, however, has not announced the deal officially.

A Press Trust of India (PTI) report stated that a spokesperson in the Ministry of Defence refused to comment about the deal.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 14:40:13|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China believes Europe will keep its fundamental long-term interests in mind and pursue a China policy that is independent, consistent and forward-leaning, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday.

Europe is always high on China's diplomatic agenda, and China supports European integration and a united and strong European Union, Wang made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the country's annual legislative session.

Chinese president Xi Jinping will visit Europe on his first overseas trip this year, which speaks volumes about China's support for Europe, Wang said.

China-Europe ties are generally positive and the two parties have more fields to agree than disagree, and in a world full of uncertainties, China and Europe are both for multilateralism and against unilateralism and protectionism, and have common views and concerns on these important issues, he added.

Wang noted that bilateral relationship is not insulated from external interference, and China hopes to have more dialogue with Europe to properly handle and manage the situation.

"We hope that Europe will work with China to deepen all areas of our mutually beneficial cooperation, uphold international rules, and contribute to global peace," Wang said.

China welcomes Italy and other European countries to take an active part in the Belt and Road Initiative, Wang added.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 14:40:14|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- A draft foreign investment law will be submitted to the second session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) for deliberation, according to an explanatory document on the draft available to the press Friday afternoon.

The foreign investment law, once adopted, will become a new and fundamental law for China's foreign investment, says the explanation to be delivered by Wang Chen, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, to deputies attending an NPC plenary session.

The draft law has gone through two readings by the NPC Standing Committee, which made the decision in late January to submit the draft for a third reading.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 14:55:17|Editor: xuxin

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SEOUL, March 8 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's currency account surplus hit a nine-month low in January on weak demand for locally-made semiconductors, central bank data showed on Friday.

Current account surplus amounted to 2.77 billion U.S. dollars in January, the lowest since April last year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account balance stayed in black for 81 months since May 2012.

The reduced surplus came as export, which accounts for about half of the export-driven economy, fell 5.4 percent from a year earlier to 49.38 billion U.S. dollars in January.

It was the biggest export reduction in four months as chip export posted a double-digit decline amid lower product price.

Export to China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, also slumped by a double digit in January.

Affected by the export fall, trade surplus for goods stood at 5.61 billion U.S. dollars in January, the lowest since February last year.

Services account balance, which measures the flow of travel, transport costs and royalties, posted a deficit of 3.61 billion U.S. dollars in January, the biggest deficit in 12 months.

Primary income account, which includes monthly salary and investment income, saw a surplus of 1.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Financial account, which gauges cross-border capital flow without transactions in goods and services, logged a net outflow of three billion U.S. dollars in January.
Source: Xinhuanet| 2019-03-08 15:34:27|Editor: Yurou

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Thailand's ambassador to China Piriya Khempon accepts an interview with Xinhuanet in Beijing, capital of China, February 27. (Xinhuanet/ Xu Xin)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The achievement over the past 70 years in China is a great transformation, said Piriya Khempon, Thailand's ambassador to China, in a recent interview with Xinhuanet.

"China has improved itself along the way, transformed itself from an underdeveloped economy into, right now, a technology-driven economy," he said.

The ambassador said that Chinas great transformation in many ways has benefited the world.

"Thailand benefited from the progress, advancement of China. We have initiated our own Thailand 4.0 policy to improve our technology, infrastructure in the country, so that we can upgrade our country like China did," he said.

He noted that China is a good example of how a country can use technology to improve itself and overcome the middle income trap.

"Chinese investors can come to Thailand and help improve the conditions, the technology situation in Thailand," he added.

The ambassador specially stressed the role of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which he believes has brought many changes and opportunities for Thailand and the region.

He said the BRI is a master plan not only about infrastructure, but also about connectivity -- digital connectivity, connectivity through people-to-people exchanges and connectivity through financial cooperation -- for one purpose, for strength, for a good economy, for prosperity.

A very solid example under the BRI is the high-speed railway which is under construction. It will link Thailand with Laos and Kunming in China's southwestern Yunnan Province to facilitate the flow of people and goods.

The ambassador is also very much impressed by China's poverty alleviation achievement.

He said that China has become a world example in successfully bringing people out of poverty by making joint efforts.

The ambassador recalled his visit to China's Guizhou Province, where he saw the government, the private sector and local people work together to improve the living conditions.

"We try to eradicate the poverty situation in our country. So, we look at China and we study from China, which is providing best practices to the world," he noted.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 15:25:30|Editor: xuxin

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NEW DELHI, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The International Women's Day is being celebrated in India with much gaiety and fervor on Friday and the country's President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted women on the occasion.

A glittering program was organized at the Chinese embassy on Thursday where many women from different walks of life participated to mark the occasion. Indian women performed local folk dances in colorful costumes from the western Indian state of Rajasthan to the music of popular Bollywood songs.

Dr Jiang Yili, the wife of Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui, said this day dedicated to women was the flag for women around the world to fight for liberation, equality and self-development.

"Today, women all over the world are playing a more and more important role on the world stage. They are striving for progress and they are carrying forward the spirit of self-esteem, self-confidence, self-reliance and self-improvement. We have made a tremendous achievement," she said on the occasion.

Nidhi Jain, an Indian woman who attended the event, said that women held a very strong position in both countries which are one of the oldest civilizations in the world.

Wives of Chinese diplomats walked down the ramp in a fashion show dressed in Qipao, a traditional and feminine body-hugging dress in China. The event also had a fashion show showcasing the richness of Indian textiles and embroideries.

Prime Minister Modi tweeted in the morning, "On International Women's Day, we salute our indomitable women power. We are proud to have taken numerous decisions that have furthered women empowerment. Every Indian is proud of the stupendous accomplishments of women in various spheres."

Greeting women, President Kovind said, "I extend my warm greetings to all fellow citizens and particularly to the daughters of India who, through their success, have brought glory to the nation. We are proud of them. This day is dedicated to women power. Keeping pace with the changing times, women have proved themselves in every sphere of life and have won laurels for their talent. I extend my best wishes to all on this happy day."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 15:45:37|Editor: xuxin

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MEXICO CITY, March 7 (Xinhua) -- At least 25 Central American migrants were killed and 29 others injured after a truck overturned on a highway in the southern state of Chiapas in Mexico, said the state attorney general's office on Thursday.

In a statement, the authorities confirmed that the accident occurred around 6:00 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) in the municipality of Soyalo where a three-ton truck went off the road and overturned.

The truck was loaded with Central American migrants and has no legal license to operate, according to preliminary reports from the authorities.

Investigations have been underway to find the cause of the accident, said the authorities.

Personnel from the Mexican Red Cross, the Civil Protection agency, as well as state and local police came to help those affected in the accident.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 15:55:41|Editor: xuxin

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JALALABAD, Afghanistan, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Police have arrested key Haqqani network's commander Mullah Mirwais, following a search operation in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar, the provincial government said in a statement on Friday.

"Units of Special Police Force launched a search operation late on Thursday, resulting in the arrest of Mullah Mirwais known as Kamran who leads a 40-member terrorist group in Jalalabad city, the capital of Nangarhar provincial," the statement said.

The Haqqani network has been regarded as the military wing of the Taliban group operating in east and southeast Afghanistan and the capital city of Kabul. They often conducts deadly suicide attacks on government interests.

Mullah Mirwais was involved in numerous cases of subversive activities including suicide attacks, murders and kidnappings in various parts of the province, the statement added.

No comment has been made yet from the militant group.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 16:00:41|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi answers questions at a press conference on China's foreign policy and relations on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- When China and Russia stand together, the world will be a safer and more peaceful and stable place, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday.

Wang made the statement at a press conference on the sidelines of the country's annual legislative session.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the two countries' establishment of diplomatic ties. China-Russia relations have traveled extraordinary course, Wang said.

China-Russia relationship is marked by deep political trust, win-win economic cooperation and mutual support in the international arena, Wang said. "It has become a good example of how major countries should interact with one another, bringing huge benefits to the two peoples and contributing significantly to regional and global peace and stability."

Wang said in 2019, China and Russia will take the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to elevate the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination to a new level.

At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF), he said, adding Xi also intends to pay a state visit to Russia at President Putin's invitation this year.

Guided by the two presidents, China-Russia relations will stride into a new era, according to Wang.

China and Russia will further strengthen strategic coordination and firmly uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and global strategic security," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 16:10:45|Editor: xuxin

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KAMPALA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Uganda has urged the business community to use alternative routes to and from Rwanda after the main customs border post Katuna was closed on the Rwandan side to allow repair works.

Uganda's Ministry of Trade Industry and Cooperatives in a statement issued late Thursday said that transit trucks destined for Rwanda should use the Mirama Hills and Cyanika customs border post rather than Katuna.

Goods in Uganda destined for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) should be transported via customs border posts shared between Uganda and the DRC.

According to the ministry, the Katuna customs border post has been closed since Feb. 28.

The ministry said the business community needs to take the advisory seriously to avoid delays.

Earlier this week, Rwanda had alleged that Uganda was hosting dissidents, which was refuted by the Ugandan government.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 16:40:53|Editor: xuxin

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KABUL, March 8 (Xinhua) -- "Women in Afghanistan have overcome numerous challenges and taken a number of measures to empower themselves over the past 17 years," said an Afghan female artist as the country marks International Women's Day.

To mark International Women's Day, which falls on March 8 every year, artist Fatima Hussaini exhibited a collection of her photos at the Chinese Embassy in Kabul, aiming to show the world that Afghan women are not all restricted to wearing burqas, which cover a women's body from head to toe when in public.

Hussaini, who holds a degree in photography from the University of Tehran and specializes in staged photography, said she has mostly focused on women and femininity in her work. She is also a visual arts performer and has been the main character in her pieces to show that girls and women can do anything and live any way they want.

In a country like Afghanistan, where women and girls have been underrepresented at high social levels for a long time, Hussaini wanted to be an inspiration to them and help them rise above negative public perceptions.

"Everywhere and in various exhibitions, people have been asking me for a picture of an Afghan woman wearing a burqa. They ask me if photography and art is allowed in Afghanistan, which annoys me a lot," she said.

Although the overall situation of women in Afghanistan has gradually improved over the last two decades, they are still facing abuse, discrimination and inequality in the conflicted-hit country's rural areas.

Nevertheless, tremendous achievements have been made and involve women appearing more and more in society. Notable strides forward have been those women who have been appointed as ministers, deputy ministers and advisors in major government organizations, after the Taliban regime's collapse in 2001.

The Afghan photographer, who is also a lecturer at Kabul University, through her photography, decided to show that there are so many positive aspects about women in Afghanistan and the image of the subservient women covered in a burqa is merely a stereotype, nowadays.

Despite receiving negative comments, Hussaini, whose works are featured in many local and international newspapers and magazines told Xinhua that, far from being disappointed, she was becoming more decisive and stronger when it came to the difficulties of portraying the image of Afghan women to the world.

Regarding a photograph in one of her collections called "Driving Behind The Steering Wheel," in which an Afghan woman was shown smoking while driving, she explained that it meant that an Afghan woman can do what she wants. This includes driving and smoking, which are both private and personal and contrary to false perceptions about women in Afghanistan.

In another of her collections is a picture of a burqa-clad woman wearing make-up, showing that a woman can wear make-up even if she is covered with a burqa.

Woman's rights activist, Farida Nekzad, who leads a female journalists' support center, said that Afghan women are not the same as they were 18 years ago when the Taliban were in power. She said females here have advanced, made huge progress and achieved a great deal after the overthrowing of the hardliner Taliban regime.

"After the dark regime of the Taliban, women struggled to advance, but nowadays we have large numbers of women working in various government organizations. They work as ministers, parliament members, ambassadors, as well as members of decision-making bodies," Nekzad told Xinhua.

However, growing insecurities are still preventing activists from accessing rural areas to collect information about the situation of women and girls who are still facing severe conditions.

Females in rural areas have no information about their rights or what International Women's Day means.

Activists want to ensure that their rights are protected and their situation improves amid ongoing peace talks with the Taliban group, in certain rural districts.

Women and girls remain concerned about their freedom, work and education. They want to remind the authorities that they deserve an equal voice and to be heard publicly. They want to ensure their right to education and be protected from inequality and growing violence, once peace talks succeeds.

Afghanistan First Lady Rula Ghani reassured all Afghan women, particularly female media workers, that their rights would be protected as the government was their main supporters.

At a gathering marking International Women's Day, she said, "I am not worried about you in the peace negotiations, as the current government supports you and you will never step backward."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 16:45:57|Editor: zh

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Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, delivers a work report of the 13th NPC Standing Committee at the second plenary meeting of the second session of the 13th NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Gao Jie)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature underscored efforts to provide the country's high-quality development with the backing and support of high-quality legislation in 2019 in an annual work report.

The report of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), was delivered Friday by the committee's chairman Li Zhanshu at the second session of the 13th NPC.

The top legislature plans to move forward with formulating and revising urgently needed laws for deepening market-based reforms and expanding high-standard opening up, according to the report.

It also needs to expedite legislation in the domains of public wellbeing, national security, intellectual property rights protection, social governance, and ecological advancement, enforce the principle of law-based taxation, and improve relevant laws on state institutions, it says.

This year's legislation plan includes deliberation on the Civil Code, formulation of Amendment XI to the Criminal Law and the laws on promotion of basic medical and health care, real estate tax, export control, community correction, integrated military-civilian development, guarantee for veterans, and administrative discipline.

Other items on the agenda include revision of the Securities Law, the Law on Officers on Active Service, the Military Service Law, the Law on the People's Armed Police Force, the Organic Law of the NPC, and the NPC procedural rules.

Research will be conducted for the drafting of laws on bio-security and Yangtze River conservation, according to the report.

All these tasks need to be expedited so that they are completed on schedule, it said.

Summing up its work over the past year, he said the top legislature has got off to a good start under the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core.

"The NPC Standing Committee made studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era the foremost political task," Li said, noting that the move aims to ensure a correct political orientation in NPC work.

Li also highlighted the amended Constitution, saying new progress has been made in studying, publicizing, implementing, and enforcing the Constitution, thereby demonstrating its legal standing, authority, and efficacy.

He went on to underscore legislation guarantees for the country's reform, opening up, and stability.

The NPC Standing Committee formulated eight laws, revised 47 laws, and adopted nine decisions on legal issues and other major issues.

Among them are the enactment of the E-commerce Law and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution, as well as the revision of the Company Law.

Li said the draft foreign investment law submitted to the on-going annual session for its third reading "is a full reflection of new ideas, approaches, and measures in reform and opening up, and will play an important role in lifting China toward a new stage of high-level opening up in the new era."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 16:50:59|Editor: xuxin

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WINDHOEK, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The Namibian government joint with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-China Funds-in-Trust (CFIT) on Thursday launched the inter-institutional Kopano Online Education Forum in efforts to bridge the education quality gap in Africa.

The digital forum was launched to foster skills exchange among educators in Africa and harness technology for teacher training, said UNESCO's head of office in Namibia, Djaffar Moussa-Elkadhum.

Due to distance and vastness of the country, educators usually suffer in isolation when pursuing studies at a distance. They also struggle to devise new ways of improving the quality of teaching and learning, said Namibia's Minister of Education, Arts and Culture Katrina Hanse-Himarwa.

"Kopano Online Education Forum platform, therefore, serves as an opportunity to breakdown the distance and isolation in the education system, and accord educators the chance to interact virtually, and to further engage in continuous professional development," she said.

The project is also set to boost Namibia's progress towards the fulfillment of the African Union's Continental Education Strategy for Africa and global Sustainable Development Goal (Goal 4), to which Namibia is a signatory.

The support to the programme forms part of China's commitment to helping advance the course of education in Africa, said Yang Jun, Charge d'Affaires at the Chinese Embassy in Namibia.

"One of the focus areas of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is capacity building, as seen with the support towards this programme, other training and scholarship programmes to the people of Africa. The objective is to establish a future knowledgeable community of educators and teachers," he said.

The CFIT project will be implemented in 10 African countries, which are Namibia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Liberia, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

More than 3,800 educators in Namibia are registered on the virtual platform so far.
The file photo shows Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama speaks as he officially hands over the commander post to Brigadier General Mosese Tikoitoga at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in Suva, Fiji, March 5, 2014. (Xinhua/Michael Yang)

SUVA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama speaks out on Friday about domestic violence in the island nation, calling men who hit their wives or daughters "cowards".

Bainimarama said Fiji still suffered from a culture of rape and abuse which must be stopped and Fijians have been urged to end this cycle of violence.

This was a cowardly act that will not be tolerated, he said, adding that any man that hits a woman is weak.

"Any man who hits his wife or daughter is not showing strength, he is nothing but a coward. But today let's concentrate on the positive. On this International Women's Day, take a moment out to give a big 'Vinaka'(Thank you) to a woman or girl who has changed your life," he said.

Speaking about International Women's Day on Friday, Bainimarama said, "This is a day where countries come together each year to recognize the tremendous impact women have on our societies, economies and our nations."

He said Fiji owed much of her prosperity today to women with their visible footprints on the society undeniable and everywhere.

"Here in Fiji, our women are uplifted like never before, something that was made very clear by last year's election where we saw an unprecedented number of female parliamentarians win seats. We have more women starting a business every year, they're participating in expanded micro-financing and our booming women's expo and they're pushing our communities to change for the better."

Bainimarama said this was also an opportunity to focus on issues affecting girls and women in Fiji from gender equality to female empowerment, promoting entrepreneurship and preventing domestic abuse.

He urged every Fijian to pledge to treat women with the respect they deserved.

Fiji's rates of violence against women are among the highest in the world. The Fiji Women's Crisis Center reported that 64 percent of women who have been in intimate relationships have experienced physical or sexual violence from their partners, including 61 percent who were physically attacked and 34 percent who were sexually abused.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 17:16:07|Editor: zh

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KAMPALA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese nationals living in Uganda donated on Thursday school fees worth 16,000 U.S. dollars to needy children of police officers killed or incapacitated while on duty.

The fund was built in 2016 after the Chinese community in Uganda realized that many children of local police officers who died on duty did not have enough school fees to keep them studying, said Jeff Lin, chairman of the Uganda Chinese Industrial Commercial Association.

"We support children who are in villages. Some of the police schools we visit are also not in good condition. That is why we started this fund. We shall keep on supporting them," Lin said.

Lemmy Twinomugisha, director of Welfare and Production of the Uganda Police Force, thanked the Chinese community for their help.

"I am very happy you have started this initiative of helping the police force. The Chinese and Ugandans are very good friends," Twinomugisha said.

He also called for more cooperation between the Chinese community and the Ugandan police.

Chen Huixin, counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Uganda, also thanked the Chinese association for supporting the local police.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 17:26:12|Editor: Yamei

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HELSINKI, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Finnish President Sauli Niinisto accepted the resignation of the government led by centrist Prime Minister Juha Sipila, national broadcaster Yle said on Friday morning.

The president has asked the government to complete its term in office and serve as the caretaker government.

Yle quoted Center Party MP Arto Satonen as saying that the situation will not make much difference as the government's term in office was nearly over.

The parliamentary election is due in April.

Media reports said the government faltered after its major health reform virtually failed.

The government will hold a press conference later Friday, said Yle.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 17:31:12|Editor: zh

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SAN FRANCISCO, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Facebook said Thursday it will take measures to curb the spreading of misinformation about vaccinations on its platform.

Facebook will also not allow any content containing anti-vaccine misinformation on Instagram Explore or hashtag pages, said the California-based social media giant's Vice President of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert in a statement.

Advertisers will be blocked from running any ad pages containing misinformation about vaccinations, and violators will have their ad accounts disabled, Bickert added.

"We will reduce the ranking of groups and Pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in News Feed and Search. These groups and Pages will not be included in recommendations or in predictions when you type into Search," she said.

Facebook pledged to explore ways to give people more accurate information from expert organizations about vaccines at the top of search results, on topic-discussing Pages, and on invitations to join topic-specific groups.

The decision came after Adam Schiff, a Democratic representative from California, wrote a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last month, expressing worries about information on the company's platform to discourage parents from vaccinating their children.

Schiff described such misinformation as "a direct threat to public health," which would reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases.

Some U.S. states, including Washington, are currently combating a measles outbreak, and Washington State Department of Health has reported 71 confirmed cases in two of its counties.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 17:36:13|Editor: zh

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SAN FRANCISCO, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Top U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing Company announced plans on Thursday to donate 3 million U.S. dollars to a leading U.S. aviation university to help train young pilots and aviation maintenance technicians.

Boeing said the donation to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will create a permanent endowment to fund annual scholarships for students interested in pursuing a pilot's license and certificates in aviation maintenance.

The Boeing scholarships will seek to increase the number of underrepresented populations in the pilot workforce, such as women, military veterans and minority students enrolled in both programs, Boeing said.

Boeing President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg, who was addressing the 18th Annual Aviation Summit Thursday in Washington, DC, called for increased collaboration within the global aerospace industry to address the growing demand for commercial pilots and technicians.

"It's essential that industry and higher education work together to increase the pipeline of aerospace talent. Our partnership with Embry-Riddle demonstrates Boeing's commitment to the continued growth and diversification of the global aerospace industry," he said.

He noted that the Boeing grant will help more students with diversified backgrounds to "learn with greater efficiency and perform more effectively once on the job."

A 2018 Boeing outlook estimated that the industry will need 790,000 new civil aviation pilots and 754,000 new maintenance technicians across the globe over the next two decades.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 17:41:14|Editor: Yamei

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NAIROBI, March 8 (Xinhua) -- French national carrier, Air France, announced on Friday it will launch two additional weekly flights to Kenya's capital Nairobi from April as part of expansion into African network.

Arthur Dieffenthaler, Air France general manager for eastern Africa region said the move will also benefit French and Kenyan companies especially in horticulture, pharmaceuticals and other businesses that depend on air transport.

"We will be increasing our flights on the Paris-Nairobi route to five flights a week and we are confident that we will continue this growth in the coming years," Dieffenthaler said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

The airline official said increased flights between Charles de Gaulle Airport and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is part of the airline's strategy to expand its African network.

Air France last year resumed flights to Nairobi after an 18-year hiatus. This month marks its 1st anniversary since resuming the route.

"Our partnership with KQ has been mutually fruitful with demand growing and also from exchange of aviation knowledge on the European and African markets," said Dieffenthaler.

The airline official was speaking during an event that brought together French companies in Kenya, organized by the French Chamber of Commerce ahead of the state visit to Kenya by the French President, Emmanuel Macron.

He added that following resumption of flights to Nairobi, the airline has seen increased demand attributable to growing trade between Kenya and France. The latter also ranks among Kenya's most significant tourism markets.

"Immediately we resumed flights on the Paris-Nairobi route, we recorded higher bookings with our partner Kenya Airways. Our return to this market signifies the confidence we have in strengthened ties between Kenya and France," Dieffenthaler said.

Air France also entered into a joint venture partnership with Kenya Airways (KQ) in 2018.

The two airlines will jointly operate 12 flights a week on the Nairobi-Paris route. Air France also operates a cargo flight into Kenya.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 17:46:16|Editor: Yamei

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COLOMBO, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's national air carrier, SriLankan Airlines, operated its first all female crew flight from Colombo to Singapore and back on Friday to celebrate International Women's Day, the airline said in a statement.

The UL306 flight took off from Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport on Friday morning carrying over 170 passengers on board.

The flight landed back in Colombo from Singapore on Friday afternoon.

The flight was piloted by Captain Simran Ghumman and First Officer Maneesha Nambuge.

Sri Lanka held several events to celebrate International Women's Day including launching an all female compartment in passenger trains.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 17:46:19|Editor: zh

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MOGADISHU, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations communications group in Somalia on Friday saluted Somali women for their robust contribution to peace-building, reconciliation and the promotion of gender equality in their country.

In a statement issued in Mogadishu to mark the International Women's Day, UN said Somali women have made great strides in the public and political spheres, including a 10 percent increase, from 14 percent to 24 percent, in the representation of women in Parliament since 2016.

"As women within our communities and as UN personnel, we all strive to build a more balanced world that is representative of a variety of perspectives, needs and goals," Filipetto, head of the UN Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS) said.

"I encourage all of you to bring your intelligence, experience and innovation to this challenging task. I especially thank all of my women colleagues for their commitment to advance UN mandates, programs and values. I wholeheartedly commend the women of Somalia for their peace and statebuilding efforts," Filipetto added.

The UN said Friday's commemoration of International Women's Day in Somalia comes at a significant time as the country prepares for one-person, one-vote elections in 2020 that promise to give Somali women a greater say in the conduct of their country's political affairs and the allocation of its resources.

"This is a formidable force that if united, can have a profound impact on the Somali society," said the UN communication group which comprises communications officers affiliated with UNSOS, the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia and a number of UN agencies, funds and programs that operate in the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 17:56:26|Editor: Yamei

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BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade fell in February partly due to business disruptions caused by the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, customs data showed Friday.

Foreign trade of goods fell 9.4 percent year on year last month to 1.81 trillion yuan (about 270 billion U.S. dollars), the General Administration of Customs said.

Exports dipped 16.6 percent year on year to 922.76 billion yuan last month, while imports decreased 0.3 percent to 888.3 billion yuan.

Although Friday's trade figures raised concerns about a further slowdown in the world's second-largest economy, analysts cautioned it was difficult to compare trends in China's data at the start of the year due to the Spring Festival holiday, which came in early February this year and could affect business activity.

Deducting the Spring Festival factor, China's foreign trade rose 10.2 percent year on year in February, with exports increasing 7.8 percent and imports rising 12.9 percent, respectively.

Liu Yaxin, an analyst at the China Merchants Securities, said the country's foreign trade growth would pick up after reaching a low point during the first two months.

During the Jan-Feb period, China's foreign trade amounted to 4.54 trillion yuan, up 0.7 percent year on year. Exports added 0.1 percent to reach 2.42 trillion yuan, while imports rose 1.5 percent to 2.12 trillion yuan. The trade surplus stood at 308.68 billion yuan, down 8.7 percent from one year earlier.

"China's trade surplus is likely to continue to narrow this year due to sluggish external demand and stronger domestic demand," Huatai Securities said in a research note.

"China's exports growth is very likely to fall in 2019 from last year, due to the unpromising global trade environment," said Li Chao, chief analyst for Huatai Securities.

During the Jan-Feb period, China's trade with the European Union, ASEAN countries, and Japan increased 8.9 percent, 1.9 percent and 4 percent, respectively, while trade with countries along the Belt and Road registered faster-than-average growth, with the combined trade volume standing at 1.28 trillion yuan, up 2.4 percent year on year.

Private enterprises played a bigger role in the first two months, accounting for 40.6 percent of the total foreign trade, up 1.4 percentage points year on year.

The government is targeting economic growth of 6 to 6.5 percent in 2019, Premier Li Keqiang said at Tuesday's opening of the annual legislative session, a lower target than set for 2018.

China will promote stable and higher quality growth of foreign trade this year, said Li while pledging to diversify export markets and actively expand imports.

China has vowed to cut taxes on a larger scale this year, which is expected to boost domestic demand and stabilize growth.

Exports to the United States fell 9.9 percent, while imports tumbled 32.2 percent during the two-month period, the data showed.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi noted Friday that the two sides had made "significant progress" recently and blasted hawks in Washington who have advocated a "decoupling" between the two countries' economies.

"We still have a positive outlook on China-U.S. relations. The two countries will not, and should not descend into confrontation," Wang said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 17:56:26|Editor: zh

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DAR ES SALAAM, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania and Rwanda have agreed to strengthen trade and economic relations that will benefit people in the two east African countries, said a statement issued by the Directorate of Presidential Communication at State House in Dar es Salaam on Thursday night.

The statement issued at the end of talks between Tanzanian President John Magufuli and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda said the two leaders also discussed issues on the East African Community (EAC).

Kagame is current chairman of the EAC with a total population of about 165 million people.

"We have agreed to strengthen our bilateral relations, and our trade and economic ties," the statement quoted President Magufuli as saying.

President Magufuli said the two leaders also agreed to accelerate development projects in the east African region for the benefit of its population, according to the statement.

President Kagame, who arrived in Tanzania on Thursday for a two-day state visit, said the talks also centered on how to improve the welfare of people in the two countries, and in the East African region in general.

President Magufuli, who rarely travels out of the country, made his first foreign visit to Rwanda in April 2016, five months after assuming office.

President Kagame's last state visit to Tanzania was in January 2018 where they agreed to collaborate on the standard gauge railway (SGR) from Isaka to Kigali.

President Kagame's visit to Tanzania comes amid deteriorating relations with Uganda and frosty ties with Burundi, partner states of the EAC.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 18:01:26|Editor: zh

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BANGKOK, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations in Bangkok on Friday marks International Women's Day (IWD) by calling for gender equality and the empowerment of women under its global theme "Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change".

Echoing the theme for the 63rd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63), the International Women's Day 2019 explores ways where women can be more innovation-inclusive.

UN Women Deputy Regional Director Anna-Karin Jatfors said a "think equal and innovate for change" mindset can bring about changes to women.

"The problem for women in the Asia-Pacific Region is that despite the girls being educated, it is not translated to equal rights to labour market," said Anna-Karin, "and the main reason is social-norm."

Women still do a lot of unpaid care work and domestic work than men as a result of gender bias, added Anna-Karin.

Kalpana Viswanath, who launched a mobile navigation application for women in India to get from one place to another safely, said it is vital to encourage women to become innovative-inclusive, as technology can facilitate their everyday lives.

"In India, very often in the cities during night time, women don't dare to venture outside of their homes, fearing insecurity and perhaps violence that may inflict upon them," said Kalpana, who created a navigation application "Safetipin".

"And just like Google Map, women can use Safetipin app to find out whether an area is safe or not by reading comments posted by users."

As part of the celebrations, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX), UN Women and partner organizations "ring the bell" for gender equality to raise awareness of the pivotal role the private sector can play in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment.

In Nepal, UN Women partners with UNFPA on a photo exhibition showcasing women in non-traditional jobs.

In Myanmar, a women leaders' forum is organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, to showcase innovative solutions and provide recommendations for a road map to strengthen women's access to economic autonomy and opportunity.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 18:26:31|Editor: zh

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LOS ANGELES, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the largest art museum in the western United States, announced Wednesday the purchase of Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi's painting Untitled (2018) to its permanent collection.

Zeng's painting, measuring almost 12 feet wide and about five square meters in size, is part of a series of abstracted landscapes and will be on display at the LACMA from this month.

The painting, oil on canvas, marks a carefully considered turn to the abstract for the artist, who emerged in the 1990s with his tense, brooding paintings of hospital scenes and urban Chinese men hiding their faces behind masks.

"Zeng Fanzhi is one of the leading figures in the Chinese art world today, and this monumental painting is a major addition to LACMA's permanent collection," Stephen Little, Florence and Harry Sloan curator of Chinese art and department head at the LACMA, said at the gala held at the museum.

The LACMA, which has a collection of nearly 140,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe, has strengthened its holdings in Chinese art with major acquisitions including the promised gift of Gerard and Dora Cognie's collection of 400 works of contemporary ink paintings and calligraphy.

"In the past two years, LACMA has greatly strengthened its collection of contemporary Chinese art. As we turn the corner into 2019, we look forward to the March unveiling of this magnificent painting, the June 2 opening of the exhibition The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China," Little said.

"In recent years, LACMA has been building relationships with partners in China while deepening our commitment to the study, interpretation, and display of Chinese art, particularly contemporary art made by Chinese artists," said Michael Govan, CEO of the LACMA.

Govan said that Chinese American banker Dominic Ng and his wife Ellen donated funds to help the museum to purchase the painting, adding that the couple are steadfast supporters of the LACMA and its collaboration with Chinese artists and arts institutions.

"Their exemplary support for the acquisition of Zeng Fanzhi's Untitled to LACMA's growing collection of contemporary Chinese art underscores their commitment to Chinese art and artists, both in the United States and China," Govan said.

"I believe that art can help bridge cultures and promote mutual understanding between people with different perspectives," said Dominic Ng, chairman and CEO of East West Bank, a leading independent bank based in Los Angeles.

"Chinese contemporary art has emerged as one of the most compelling areas of the global art landscape. The addition of a piece by Zeng Fanzhi... exemplifies Michael Govan's vision to showcase a broad range of artistic voices and contributes to the ongoing cultural exchange between the East and the West," he added.

Zeng was born in China's central city of Wuhan in 1964 and graduated from the Hubei Institute of Fine Arts in Wuhan in 1991. As Chinese modern and contemporary paintings have become new favorites for global art investors in recent years, his artworks are getting very popular in the art market.

Auctioned in October 2013 at Sotheby's Hong Kong, one of Zeng's works was sold for 23.3 million U.S. dollars, setting a record for contemporary Asian artwork.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 18:36:37|Editor: zh

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JINAN, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Wang Xiujuan works as a furniture saleswoman in east China, which requires constant standing and has made her menopausal symptoms worse.

Wang, however, is expecting easier days as government measures to better protect female workers took effect ahead of International Women's Day.

The local government of east China's Shandong Province, home to over 8 million female employees, introduced a regulation to better protect the rights and interests of female employees this month, entitling those going through the menopause to opt for positions they are more comfortable with.

"Symptoms such as hot flushes, insomnia and anxiety have made the job more challenging than ever before," Wang said. "I had no choice but to ask for sick leave sometimes."

If the employer doesn't approve position change applications from its female employees suffering menopausal syndrome, the latter can go through legal procedures and apply for labor arbitration, according to the regulation.

Female employees can also enjoy paid leave for painful periods.

"I often felt embarrassed when asking for a period leave, but now it's no longer a problem since it has been a company routine," said Chen Meijia, a receptionist at an intercity bus station in China's eastern coastal city of Qingdao.

From March 7, all 6,000 female staff of Qingdao Jowin Group, the city's major bus operator, are entitled to have an one-day paid period leave every month, according to the company's HR department.

"The policy is very heartwarming especially with International Women's Day upon us," Chen said.

China has since 2016 allowed all couples to have two children, putting an end to a 40-year-long one-child policy and thus requiring better protection of women's rights in workplace.

Women in Shandong now can enjoy eight more days for maternity leave, according to the regulation.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has called for a ban on a spate of gender discrimination practices in job recruitment to protect the rights of women.

"The regulation can help ensure equal employment opportunities and better protect the occupational safety and health of female employees," said Liu Miao, an official with the provincial department of justice.

The regulation, however, has aroused heated discussion.

Many fear that overprotecting women's rights could trigger more discrimination, particularly in job recruitment from private businesses.

"Such policy could make employers be more cautious in recruiting women, thus increasing the difficulty for them to land jobs," said Liu Guomin, senior partner with Grandall Law Firm (Jinan).

"The introduction and implementation of such a regulation should be fully discussed, and opinions from all sides including female workers, doctors and employers should be considered," said Xia Xueluan, professor at the department of sociology at Peking University.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 18:51:40|Editor: Yamei

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JINAN, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Customs authorities in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, have intercepted 4.66 kg of ivories this year.

Since the beginning of this year, Qingdao Customs investigated four ivory-related criminal cases and busted two ivory smuggling cases, confiscating 4.66 kg of ivories and 1 kg of Rhino horn.

Police apprehended three suspects and confiscated nine ivories weighing about 300 grams in the two smuggling cases.

The products were either bought via foreign tour guides or given by foreign business partners of the suspects, authorities said. The ivories, hidden in trucks, were smuggled into China via the southern borders and delivered to other parts of China by express deliveries.

China banned all domestic ivory trade at the end of 2017 as part of its commitment to protecting wild animals.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 18:51:44|Editor: xuxin

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MANILA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Four soldiers were injured in a clash on Friday with leftist rebels in Quezon province south of Manila, the military said on Friday.

The spokesman of the Philippine Army's 2nd Infantry Division Patrick Retumban, said heavy fighting erupted around 8 a.m. on Friday morning, while combined military and police forces caught up with an undetermined number of New People's Army (NPA) insurgents in a village near the town of Infanta, Quezon province of the Northern Philippines.

The NPA rebels that clashed with troops in Infanta were reportedly massing up in the area to burn the equipment of a construction firm, which is building a dam in the area to beef up the supply of water in Metro Manila and neighboring areas.

Army Colonel Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos, the commander of the Philippine Army 202nd Brigade, said the encounter site is about three kilometers from the construction site.

On Feb. 7, he said the rebels also torched several pieces of equipment of the firm after the company refused to pay extortion money.

The NPA, one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies, concentrates its attacks in rural areas of the Philippines and skirmishes with the government military.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 19:01:46|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese Ambassador to Fiji Qian Bo delivers a speech during the official opening of the China-renovated media gallery in the Fijian parliament in Suva, Fiji, March 8, 2019. Fiji's Parliament Speaker Ratu Epeli Nailatikau hailed on Friday the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), saying that many countries will benefit from this great initiative. "China's Belt and Road Initiative is a great initiative, and it is going to benefit so many countries, including the Pacific Island nations," Nailatikau told Xinhua while attending the official opening of the China-renovated media gallery in the Fijian parliament. (Xinhua/Zhang Yongxing)

SUVA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Fiji's Parliament Speaker Ratu Epeli Nailatikau hailed on Friday the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), saying that many countries will benefit from this great initiative.

"China's Belt and Road Initiative is a great initiative, and it is going to benefit so many countries, including the Pacific Island nations," Nailatikau told Xinhua while attending the official opening of the China-renovated media gallery in the Fijian parliament.

Last November, Fiji and China inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation within the framework of BRI.

Proposed by China in 2013, the BRI refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road.

As an important nation in the South Pacific region, Fiji is located on the natural extension of the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road. The signing of the MoU will not only promote exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in various fields, but also marks a new chapter on the development of the two countries' relations.

The speaker also spoke highly of the relations between Fiji and China.

"Our long relationship has always been cordial... And the assistance from China over the past years has been numerous and it grows every year," he said.

"It is a very meaningful assistance that comes from China. And on this occasion, it follows on other assistance that China has given to our parliament in the past. And we are indeed very grateful."

As for the media gallery, which was rebuilt by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (China Civil), Nailatikau thanked China for the generous contribution.

"For the first time a media gallery is being made available in the Parliament and this has been made possible through the generous contribution of the People's Republic of China," he said.

For his part, Chinese Ambassador to Fiji Qian Bo said that the BRI is a new and great platform for China and the Pacific Island countries to cooperate for common development. He hoped both sides can deepen such cooperation within the framework of BRI.

As Fiji's sincere friend and cooperative partner, China is willing to continue to offer assistance for Fiji's economic and social development to its best capabilities, he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 19:06:47|Editor: Yamei

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BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for more efforts to implement the rural revitalization strategy with the chief goal to modernize agriculture and rural areas.

"The top task for implementing the rural revitalization strategy is to ensure supply of important farm produce, grain in particular," said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

He made the remarks when joining deliberation with deputies from Henan Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's national legislature.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 19:11:48|Editor: xuxin

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by Marwa Yahya

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Growing Egypt-China relations and the similarity of the old civilizations are main reasons for the current leap and momentum in the cultural cooperation, according to Egyptian officials and analysts.

China currently participates as a guest of honor in the Sharm el-Sheikh Asian Film Festival which kicked off on Saturday. Three movies were displayed and other music and dancing performances were showcased on the sidelines of the festival.

In February, China took part in the International Aswan festival for Arts and Culture, while in late January, series of events have been organized in Cairo, Alexandria and Sharm el-Sheikh for celebrating the Chinese Spring Festival. The Chinese activities also included dragon boats competitions on the Nile River in Cairo.

Before that, Beijing has sent the first archeological mission to Egypt to conduct restoration work in a temple in Luxor city, southern the capital.

"There is turning point leap in the cultural events that have been organized by China in Egypt, which reflects the growing cultural cooperation between the two countries," Mohamed Ramadan, media official in the Cultural Ministry, told Xinhua.

He praised the accelerating momentum of the growing ties between the two countries in the cultural, economic and political fields.

He also said the "common history between the two countries that own two ancient civilizations as well as the real communication between them were also reasons for the increasing cultural cooperation."

Ramadan stressed that the Chinese cultural activities in Egypt brought positive and fabulous impact on both countries.

He added Egypt also took part in many events in China, receiving great enthusiasm from the Chinses audience, noting that Egypt folklore Reda band has garnered 6,000 Chinese views in Shanghai last year.

He proposed a protocol to be signed between both countries to exchange broadcasting of translated films and documentary movies about the history of the two countries to help the people better understand each other's cultures.

Meanwhile, Samy al-Qamhawi, researcher in the Chinese affairs, deemed the Egyptian-Chinese cultural cooperation as "old and deeply rooted," stressing that the exchange dates back to the beginning of the diplomatic ties between Cairo and Beijing and even before that via the old Silk Road.

He told Xinhua the popular ties are important part of the mutual relations, adding the culture, customs and traditions are the basic components of those relations.

He pointed out that the growing path of the cultural cooperation reflects the improving political relations. "Since the signing of the strategic partnership between China and Egypt in 2014, the mutual ties have witnessed big leaps in the cultural field."

In Egypt, the number of the Chinese language learners is increasing obviously. There are around 11 universities that teach Chinese in Egypt, and more than 1,000 students studying in China now, according to official statistics.

Former tourism consular in Egyptian embassy in China Naser Abdel Aal expected that mushroomed cooperation at the cultural level will continue and grow further, especially that China desires to reach the heart of the Egyptian people.

"The Chinese activities in Egypt enhance the mutual cultural ties which in turn promote the level of cooperation and friendship between the peoples," Abdel Aal added.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 19:31:53|Editor: xuxin

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HELSINKI, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Finnish President Sauli Niinisto accepted the resignation of the government led by centrist Prime Minister Juha Sipila, national broadcaster Yle said on Friday morning.

Officials said the resignation was mainly due to the virtual failure of the coalition government's plan to reform the public healthcare system, which has been crucial to the ruling coalition's plan to balance public finances.

The president asked the government to complete its term in office and serve as a caretaker before a new cabinet is sworn in. Observers said it will not make much difference as its term in office is nearly over and the parliamentary election is due in April.

Originally rolled out as a structural reform, the healthcare reform plan became part of a political package in late 2015 that also included local government reform. However, the package was repeatedly met with challenges in the parliament, and time eventually runs out as the parliament goes into recess before the upcoming election.

Analysts said on Friday that the reform of the healthcare system, which will see it opening up to profit-seeking private operators, was too complex to be carried out in time.

When beginning his term as prime minister in 2015, Sipila said he would either "bring results" or resign. Commentators have said that Sipila now chose to go as the key reform failed.

In a brief press conference on Friday morning, Sipila said he was immensely disappointed. He said he listened to his "inner voice."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 19:36:56|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi answers questions at a press conference on China's foreign policy and relations on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The rights of Latin American countries to develop normal relations with China must be respected, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday.

"The one-China principle is a widely recognized norm governing international relations and a general consensus accepted, recognized and practiced by the overwhelming majority of countries," Wang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the country's annual legislative session.

Latin American countries establishing and developing relations with China following the one-China principle conforms to the general tide of historic development and the progress of the times, he said.

"[This] is the correct choice in conformity with their own fundamental and long-term interests, and should not be subject to any groundless interference and accusation," Wang said.

The sovereignty and independence of Latin American countries should be respected. This is a basic norm of international law, and the internal affairs of any country should be determined by its own people, he added.

"External interference and sanctions will only exacerbate tensions and bring back the law of the jungle," Wang said, adding that there have been plenty of such lessons in history and they should not be repeated.

"We believe that the sovereignty and independence of every country are precious, and must be equally cherished and protected," he said.

China is ready to continue to support the search for a political solution among all sides of Venezuela through peaceful dialogue to maintain national stability and the people's security, Wang said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 19:46:58|Editor: xuxin

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MANILA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines is mulling to cut down the overseas deployment of Filipino construction workers by up to 90 percent to mitigate the domestic shortage of builders needed in the ongoing government's infrastructure projects, said a government official.

Philippine Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said on Thursday the Philippines needs up to one million skilled workers in the construction, architecture, and engineering fields until 2022 in the country as the government is aggressively implementing projects under the "Build Build Build" program, which aims to build roads, bridges, airports, seaports, and railways in the future.

The state planning agency National Economic Development Authority said 28 out of the 75 big-ticket projects under the government's massive "Build, Build, Build" program are scheduled to be completed by 2022.

"We really have an urgent need for construction workers, and this is the reason we have slowed down our deployment overseas to address the manpower shortage in the local construction industry," said Bello.

"In fact, we are looking at about 80 to 90 percent reduction," Bello said, adding that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration has slowed down processing and deployment of construction workers since last year.

Millions of Filipinos work abroad each year and many overseas Filipino workers engage in the construction business.

Already, Bello noted that the construction industry has appealed to the Department of Labor and Employment of the Philippines to temporarily stop deploying construction workers overseas because they are experiencing manpower shortage.

Bello also said that Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, whose task is managing and supervising the country's technical education and training, is now accelerating training and upgrading of skills of workers to address the problem of job and skills mismatch.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 19:52:00|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi answers questions at a press conference on China's foreign policy and relations on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China sees multilateralism as a cornerstone of the international system and will resolutely uphold a United Nations-centered international system, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday.

China will carry the banner of building a community with a shared future for humanity, continue to stand on the right side of history and on the side of the common interests of a majority of countries, Wang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the country's annual legislative session.

Noting the rising unilateralism and protectionism in the last few years, Wang said more and more countries are stepping forward to resist and oppose this disturbing trend.

"We rise and fall together," he said. "Instead of each going his way, we should act as a team. Instead of minding his own business, we should help each other as passengers in the same boat."

Championing multilateralism is an overwhelming consensus of the international community. The practice of multilateralism will make international relations more democratic and our world a more multipolar one, he said.

China will work with all nations under the principle of multilateralism to resolutely uphold an international system centered on the United Nations and an international order underpinned by international law, he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 19:57:01|Editor: xuxin

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QALA-E-NAW, Afghanistan, March. 8 (Xinhua) -- As many as 11 militants loyal to the Taliban group were killed and eight others wounded following military operations in Afghanistan's western Badghis province, Jamshid Shahabi, the provincial governor's spokesman said Friday.

Afghan forces launched a series of military operations early Friday morning, killing 11 insurgents and wounding eight others in two restive Muqar and Pushta Laman districts of Badghis province, Shahabi added.

Three soldiers were also killed and two others wounded in the gun battle lasting for two hours, Shahabi confirmed.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 20:02:02|Editor: zh

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BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- During the ongoing "two sessions," female lawmakers and political advisors of ethnic minorities have made significant contributions as China continues to pursue high-quality economic and social development this year.

In the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), there are 742 female deputies and 440 female members respectively, marking a historic high for female representation.

Women, many from ethnic minorities, are playing a big role in China's national legislature and top advisory body, as they contribute their wisdom and strength to almost every sector of society.

"I used to hope that all the women in the village could wear high-heeled shoes freely, and have a bright and nice square for dancing even after dark," said Zhao Huijie, Party secretary of Xiaomiaozi Village in the city of Chifeng in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

As an NPC deputy of the Manchu ethnic group, Zhao knows the importance of development in the village. She has established cooperatives and expanded planting scales among villagers to increase their incomes.

Scores of distinctive cooperatives have been set up so far, increasing the average annual income for villagers to 14,000 yuan (about 2,100 U.S. dollars).

Last year, 100 street lamps, another 5.5 km of cement roads and a public square were added to the village.

"Now, women in the village won't sprain their ankles while walking in high heels. The square is always packed with people dancing," she said.

The percentage of ethnic-minority women in China is small but their power is infinite, Zhao said.

Long Xiaohua, head of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in central China's Hunan Province, shares Zhao's thoughts.

"Ethnic-minority women play an important part in the battle against poverty," she said.

As a member of the Miao ethnic group, she knows only too well how creative and powerful women can be. Miao women are known for their handicrafts and diligence.

"We have planned to build 48 new anti-poverty workshops for local specialties such as embroidery and traditional clothing by 2020, with over 80 percent of employees being women," she said.

Political advisor Shi Hong, also from the prefecture, is a member of the Tujia ethnic group.

Shi, the chairwoman of the prefecture's association of industry and commerce, said her primary obligation is to help promote processed products for local private enterprises.

In 2018, she helped a dozen private enterprises sell their products to Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province.

"Now, women in my ethnic area have higher status. They can work for the government, or run their own businesses. Decades ago, they were not allowed to have dinner at the same table with men," Shi said.

The government work report Premier Li Keqiang made Tuesday mentioned that the government would promote further development and opening up in western China, which included Shi's hometown.

"We are looking forward to the new policies and measures," Shi said.

Kelsang Drolkar, from Tibet Autonomous Region, has been focusing on the urban low-income population in Lhasa this year in her suggestion to the National People's Congress.

"Besides rural residents, poor urban residents, especially the unemployed and old, also need attention from the government to help them live better," she said.

Having been a village Party secretary for over 40 years, she said her job has brought her a sense of achievement by solving problems, big and small, for her fellow villagers.

Over the past few years, she has submitted suggestions concerning old town protection, rural medical care, heating and gas supply -- all about people's livelihood.

"I kept submitting the same suggestion until it was solved, and then I moved onto the next," she said.

"I have paid attention to issues concerning children's education and health care, especially children living in ethnic minority regions," said political advisor Hu Guozhen, vice governor of Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Guizhou Province.

She was impressed by this year's government work report, which specifically mentioned that "we.... need to work hard to provide education that our people are happy with to do justice to our hope for tomorrow."

Hu has submitted six proposals, four of which are aimed at improving the education and health conditions of children from poverty-stricken ethnic areas in Guizhou.

Deputy Narantuyaa, an ethnic Mongolian from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, has also been focusing on education issues.

She said, "As a mother myself, I know how important my role is for my family. So, I strongly suggest to improve the level of parenting and provide more support to mothers who play a significant part in it."

Besides poverty relief and education, ethnic women have also dedicated themselves to other traditionally men-dominated fields, such as the oil industry.

Adalet Ezes is a petroleum scientist in Karamay, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. She has been experimenting in the oilfield for 22 years and pioneered multiple development missions of exploratory wells.

"It's a privilege to follow my father's path as an oil worker. As an NPC deputy, I feel obliged to stimulate more people around me to strive for a better future for our city," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 20:02:02|Editor: zh

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BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese foreign ministry will do its best to meet the overriding goal of facilitating domestic development, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday.

China is still a developing country, and facilitating domestic development is a key mission of China's diplomacy, said Wang at a press conference on the sidelines of the country's annual legislative session.

In recent years, the ministry has created three platforms for that purpose, including hosting high-profile international events, promoting cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, and launching presentations on provincial regions, especially for central and western provinces, according to Wang.

Wang also pledged to help more provinces embrace the world, support Chinese cities in hosting flagship international events, protect the legitimate interests of Chinese businesses, and proactively share information.
File photo shows Kenyans sing and dance beside one of the first batch of locomotives that were made by Chinese companies for the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, in Mombasa, Kenya, on Jan. 11, 2017. (Xinhua/Sun Ruibo)

NAIROBI, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese-proposed Belt and Road Initiative could transform Africa's economy, economic analyst said on Thursday.

James Shikwati, director of Inter Region Economic Network (IREN), a think tank, told Xinhua in Nairobi that Belt and Road Initiative is a game changer because it has made African countries start thinking beyond their national borders.

"What the Chinese have done is to galvanize the imagination of people to think regionally through cross border infrastructure projects," Shikwati said during the release of the Metropol 2019 Kenya Economic Outlook.

He urged African countries that are along the route of Belt and Road Initiative to use it to uplift their communities.

"It is up to African governments to put in place measures to ensure that they leverage the opportunities provided by Belt and Road Initiative to accelerate their country's economic development," he added.

He observed that the initiative provides an alternative to the traditional financing models offered by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which peg their credit on the size of economy of the recipient countries.

He noted that the Chinese are able to finance projects based on the long term needs of a country.

According to IREN, African countries have a huge infrastructure financing gap that cannot be met solely through public resources.

Shikwati added that African countries will only develop if they are willing to take financing risks to fund their development projects.

He revealed that Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's development project, dubbed the Big Four Agenda on food security, manufacturing, universal healthcare and affordable housing could also benefit immensely from the Belt and Road Initiative.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 20:27:12|Editor: xuxin

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TEHRAN, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Iran has criticized Britain for providing diplomatic protection to an Iranian-British national, Nazanin Zaghari, who is imprisoned in Iran over espionage charges, Iranian Ambassador to London Hamid Baeidinejad said on Friday.

"Governments may only exercise such protection to their own nationals. As UK government is acutely aware, Iran does not recognize dual nationality. Irrespective of UK residency, Ms Zaghari thus remains Iranian," Baeidinejad tweeted on Friday.

According to Press TV, Iran's intelligence authorities arrested Zaghari at Imam Khomeini International Airport in April 2016 as she was on her way back to London.

She was subsequently put on trial and handed a five-year jail term after being found guilty of spying and spreading propaganda against the Islamic republic, according to report.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced on Friday that London had decided to give Zaghari diplomatic protection "as part of the government's continuing efforts to secure her release."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 20:57:25|Editor: xuxin

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NAIROBI, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Kenya will host a manufacturing summit and expo early April to help showcase goods produced by local industries and explore new markets in the region, officials from the industry lobby said on Friday.

Phyllis Wakiaga, chief executive officer of Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), said the third edition of manufacturing expo aims to raise visibility of Kenya's industrial goods to local and overseas clients.

"This mega event will showcase the quality and diversity of locally manufactured goods and boost their competitiveness in the regional and international markets," said Wakiaga.

She said that about 200 exhibitors and 100,000 visitors are expected at the five-day summit and expo to be held in Nairobi.

"The expo will reinforce a consensus that Kenyan made products are world class and we look forward to a candid conversation with clients," said Wakiaga.

She revealed that an initiative to spur growth of mid-sized local industries will be launched at the expo.

The upcoming manufacturing festival will help showcase the diversity and sophistication of locally produced goods while providing a platform for networking among investors.

Sachen Gudka, chairman of KAM, said that enhancing competitiveness of locally produced goods will boost growth of manufacturing sector that is key to economic growth and job creation.

"If we are not competitive in our manufacturing agenda, the pillars of the Big 4 Agenda begins to crumble and so we must address competitiveness to experience economic transformation," said Gudka.

He said that Kenya's manufacturing sector that contributes an estimated 9.5 percent to the GDP is set to grow thanks to a conducive policy environment.

Floice Mukabana, acting chief executive officer of Brand Kenya, said that quality locally manufactured goods will boost the country's foreign exchange earnings and boost its attractiveness as an investments destination.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 21:47:37|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi answers questions at a press conference on China's foreign policy and relations on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China hopes Pakistan and India will replace confrontation with dialogue, settle disagreement by goodwill and create a better future through cooperation, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Friday.

When responding to a question about the recent tension between Pakistan and India, Wang said that China welcomes the willingness expressed by the two countries in recent days to de-escalate the situation and start talks.

"China has stressed from the beginning the need to exercise calm and restraint and prevent escalation," Wang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress.

China suggests the two sides find out what happened and resolve the matter through dialogue while fully respecting each others' sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said, adding that China has followed these principles in its mediation efforts and played a constructive role in defusing the tension.

China hopes the two countries, which are neighbors and heirs to an ancient civilization, will get along, help each other and progress together, Wang said.

"China also hopes Pakistan and India will transform the crisis into opportunity and meet each other halfway," Wang said. "We advise both parties to quickly turn this page and seek a fundamental long-term improvement in their relations."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 21:52:38|Editor: xuxin

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PRAUGE, March 8 (Xinhua) --The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic launched a portal www.brexitinfo.cz in preparation for the planned Britain's departure from the EU.

"The Czech government wants to be ready and to inform its citizens and entrepreneurs sufficiently. That is why we have proceeded to create a single portal that will serve as a continuously updated signpost for providing information on a whole range of topics related to Brexit,"said State Secretary for European Affairs Milena Hrdinkova.

The website contains an updated list of news about the latest developments in the Brexit, key documents in both English and Czech, and the most frequently asked questions and answers about the impacts on Czech citizens and businesses.

To ensure that Czech citizens and entrepreneurs are well informed, the portal will be continuously updated according to developments of the issue.

Considered as latest pace to prepare for the Brexit, Czech President Milos Zeman Thursday signed a bill granting British people in the Czech Republic the same rights as EU citizens in some areas for a transition period in the case of a no-deal Brexit.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 21:52:38|Editor: xuxin

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LONDON, March 8 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May issued a message to the European Union on Friday saying its action will have a big impact on a crucial vote in the House of Commons next week.

May used a visit to a factory in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, to stress the importance of the part Brussels should play in seeking a deal on a future relationship after Britain leaves the EU later this month.

May will urge the more than 640 MPs on Tuesday to support her Brexit deal in a meaningful vote.

Political commentators are predicting she will lose by as many as 100 votes, lower than the record 230 she lost by earlier this year, but still the prospect of a big defeat.

Speaking on Friday, May warned that Britain could face not leaving the EU at all.

She said: "Just as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice too.

"We are both participants in this process. It is in the European Union's interest for the UK to leave with a deal. EU leaders tell me time is running out, my message to them is now is the time."

May said the decisions the EU make over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote in the House of Commons.

She wants the EU to make changes over the Irish border issue which is at the center of the current impasse blocking a breakthrough in the quest for a deal.

May said if MPs at Westminster reject her deal on Tuesday, nothing will be certain, with a possible delay to the departure or even not leaving the EU at all.

"MPs face an historic choice next week. If MPs don't vote for that deal then we know we will see ongoing uncertainty," she said.

May said: "The British people have already moved on. They are ready for this to be settled."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 21:57:39|Editor: zh

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Photo taken on May 16, 2018 shows an automatic container dock in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. (Xinhua/Wang Peike)

by Xinhua writers Liu Xinyong, Zheng Xin, Zhang Zhongkai

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- With a new draft foreign investment law submitted to national lawmakers for a third reading, China is a big step closer to adopting a unified "fundamental law" that will better protect foreign investors and start a new chapter for its opening up.

Friday afternoon, Wang Chen, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), made explanatory remarks on the new draft to deputies attending the second session of the 13th NPC at the Great Hall of the People.

"The law is a full testament to China's determination and confidence in opening wider to the outside world and promoting foreign investment in the new era," Wang said.

A FUNDAMENTAL LAW

"With unified provisions for the entry, promotion, protection, and management of foreign investment, it is a new and fundamental law for China's foreign investment and an innovative improvement of China's foreign investment legal system," Wang said.

It is a comprehensive and fundamental set of legal standards for foreign investment activities in China under new circumstances, and shall play "a leading role as an overarching law in this field."

Once adopted, the unified law will replace the three existing laws on Chinese-foreign equity joint ventures, wholly foreign-owned enterprises and Chinese-foreign contractual joint ventures.

Soon after China embarked on the journey of reform and opening up, the law on equity joint ventures was put into effect in 1979, laying the legal foundation for attracting foreign investors. The latter two were enacted in the 1980s responding to the different needs of foreign investors.

"Foreign investment in China has been carried out under the rule of law from the very beginning," said Li Chenggang, assistant minister of commerce.

The three laws served as a window for the market economy to absorb foreign capital under the planned economy at that time, and helped China's foreign-related economic legislation grow from scratch, said Zhang Yuejiao, professor with Tsinghua University and former chair of WTO Appellate Body.

Wang said the three laws have provided strong legal safeguards for foreign enterprises, but they are no longer able to meet the needs of reform and opening up in the new era.

RESOLVE TO OPEN WIDER

Over the past decades, China has made substantial achievements in attracting foreign capital. By the end of 2018, about 960,000 foreign-invested enterprises had been set up in China, with the accumulated foreign direct investment (FDI) exceeding 2.1 trillion U.S. dollars.

FDI into China has ranked first among developing countries for 27 consecutive years, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The new law shows China's will and determination to follow through with reform and opening up in a new historical context, and links Chinese circumstances with international rules, Wang Chen told deputies.

"The law will further ease market access and promote long-term operations for foreign investors," said John Williams, managing director for partnership and government affairs at International SOS China and Asia Pacific, adding that it demonstrates China's full confidence of competing on the global stage.

The draft makes it clear that the state shall manage foreign investment according to the system of pre-establishment national treatment plus a negative list.

It aims to improve transparency of foreign investment policies and ensure domestic and foreign enterprises are subject to a unified set of rules and compete on a level playing field.

During the lawmaking process, China has absorbed the latest international regulations and trends, reflecting China's strong determination to further open to the outside world, Zhang said.

MORE ATTRACTIVE MARKET

Last year, non-financial FDI into China stood at roughly 135 billion U.S. dollars, the world's second largest and up slightly from the previous year. In contrast, the world's total FDI inflow dropped 19 percent, with developed countries suffering a plunge of 40 percent.

China is currently home to more than 2,000 regional headquarters and R&D centers of multinationals, showing the confidence in and recognition of the country's business environment.

In 2018, China advanced to a global ranking of 46 in terms of ease of doing business, up from 78 in 2017, according to a World Bank Group report released last year.

"This shows the constant improvement in our business environment, and greater progress might be made this year," said He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform Commission.

The draft law's clauses on key issues like pre-establishment national treatment are based on transparency, predictability and fairness, said Rachel Duan, senior vice president of General Electric.

"We look forward to its rollout, and expect it to further boost global confidence in China's economy and promote high-quality development," Duan said.

The law will be significant in promoting trade liberalization and facilitation, Zhang Yuejiao said.

China has reaffirmed its pledge that it will not close its door to the world but will only become more and more open, Zhang said. "China is going to continue achieving win-win cooperation with investors from around the world."

Looking ahead, the new law will offer foreign firms legal protection that keeps up with the times, and makes China a magnet for more and more multinational companies, Williams said.

(Video editors: Wang Han, Cao Ying, Mu Xuyao)
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 22:02:41|Editor: xuxin

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KWALE, Kenya, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Six militants escaped when police raided a residential house used as a training and recruitment center for terror activities in Kwale county in coastal Kenya on Friday.

Tom Odero, Kwale police commander said the militants numbering six escaped after a fierce gun battle.

Odero said the militants had sneaked into the country through porous Boni Forest from Somalia before setting up the training ground in the area.

"This must have been a training ground for terror-related activities for some time. We are currently pursuing them and we are sure we will get hold of them soon," Odero told Xinhua.

According to Odero, the police recovered assorted items including bomb making materials during the dawn raid conducted by anti-terror police. He said a thorough operation has been launched in the area to hunt the militants.

Other items recovered include military clothes, machetes, knives, cables, fertilizer, matchboxes and black flags. Odero said the police also recovered stationary including books and notes with religious writings.

Kenya is currently engaged in the fight against the militia group in southern Somalia where its soldiers under the African Union peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) have intensified fight against the insurgents.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 22:02:42|Editor: mingmei

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Children sell lemons on a street in Aden, Yemen, March 8, 2019. Thousands of Yemeni children have been pushed into the streets as a result of growing military conflict that broke out between Yemen's government forces and the Houthi rebels in 2015. The number of street children is still increasing on a daily basis as fighting continues, expanding to include more provinces in the impoverished Arab country amid lack of political solutions to end the four-year civil war. (Xinhua/Murad Abdo)

by Murad Abdo

ADEN, Yemen, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Yemeni children have been pushed into the streets as a result of growing military conflict that broke out between Yemen's government forces and the Houthi rebels in 2015.

The number of street children is still increasing on a daily basis as fighting continues, expanding to include more provinces in the impoverished Arab country amid lack of political solutions to end the four-year civil war.

Government-controlled provinces including the southern port city of Aden, Yemen's temporary capital, turned to be the first destination for thousands of children fleeing their hometowns devastated by war and famine.

Every day, ten-year-old Ahmed leaves his displacement camp located on the outskirts of Aden and heads to the main streets in the city begging for food or money from passing shoppers and car drivers, just like thousands of his peers who are living in poverty.

"After losing a number of my family members including my father, I left along with my mother and three sisters to Aden and I'm trying to do everything to get money for survival," Ahmed Ayad said, who spends most of his time in the streets.

With his dirty dress that seems to have not been changed in days, Ahmed endures spending too much time under the burning sun in Aden's streets struggling with hope to gain the cost of meals for his family.

"Sometimes I succeed and get money through begging in the streets and most of the times I fail because most of the people are poor and they have nothing to offer," Ahmed said, as he was sitting on the pavement having a short break.

The ongoing war led to a devastating impact on children's education. As many as two million Yemeni children are out of school and have a "very limited" opportunity to return to education.

According to reports revealed by the United Nation, every one in five schools have been damaged, destroyed or used as shelters or for military purposes in Yemen.

Marwan Yaser, nine years old, is a victim of violence and civil war that largely affected the education sector in Yemen, driving thousands of children either into early military recruitment or going to the streets.

"I lost hope in education after seeing my schools closed and militiamen started using our classrooms as caches for arms and landmines," Marwan said.

After leaving his primary school, Marwan joined a number of his friends and started taking his new lessons in street begging in addition to his work as a street vendor two days a week.

'War forced me to work in begging most of the time and only two days I work as a street vendor just for the purpose of collecting money because no one will feed me," he said.

Other Yemeni children, who fled their war-ravaged areas in the northern part of the country that's controlled by the Houthi rebels, were pushed into the workforce early to provide their displaced families with basic supplies.

A number of children were seen roaming the main streets in Aden's neighborhood Sheikh Othman after their failure to get work opportunities even in carpentry or restaurants.

"I have been looking for work since my arrival here two months ago but all restaurant owners refused to accept me to work as a waiter even with a very little salary," said Sadiq Mohamed, 13, who is washing cars for a living.

It was highly hoped that Stockholm's agreement on the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeidah can pave the way for permanent peace in the impoverished Arab country as the first step to end the four-year military conflict.

However, all the provisions of Stockholm's agreement were not implemented on-ground and both Yemeni warring parties failed to withdraw their forces from the city's ports and surrounding outskirts but continued to prepare for new military escalation.

Yemeni observers expected that failure in implementing the Stockholm agreement on Hodeidah will open the door broader for a resumption of military operations between the two warring rivals during the upcoming weeks.

The impoverished Arab country has been locked into a civil war since the Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including the capital Sanaa, in 2014.

Saudi Arabia leads an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Houthi rebels forced him into exile.

The internal military conflict between the Iranian-backed Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government has entered its fourth year, aggravating the suffering of Yemenis and deepening the already world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 22:07:48|Editor: xuxin

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SOFIA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel and the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan said here on Friday that digitalization could help address the challenges facing beekeepers.

The European Union (EU) was the second largest producer of honey in the world, but there were also challenges, Gabriel said while addressing an international conference on digitization in beekeeping.

"Among them are bee health, diseases, exposure to chemicals, changing climate. They endanger bee populations and productivity," Gabriel said.

Meanwhile, there were problems with the distribution chain, and "we want to ensure fair competition and distinct fight against counterfeiting of products," she said.

"We all know about these issues, but today the question is how digitization can help us deal with them," Gabriel added.

Digitization could become an opportunity for the beekeeping sector to ensure closer cooperation, more creative solutions, more intelligent and successful beekeeping in the EU, she said.

Commissioner Hogan echoed the view. According to him, a number of projects funded under the EU's research and innovation programme Horizon 2020 have focused on finding solutions to some of the more pressing problems of the beekeeping sector through digital technologies.

The objectives were to find new tools and innovations that support beekeepers to assess and overcome the particular complexity of their business environment, Hogan said.

One example of such projects is the SWARMonitor, he said. Its aim was to develop a tool for diagnostic monitoring of honeybee colonies, with the objective to let the beekeeper know about the status of his or her colonies without the need to open the hives, by sending an alarm to the beekeeper's mobile phone when a colony intended to swarm, thus requiring intervention, Hogan said.

Another example was the 3Bee Hive-Tech - an innovative system designed for monitoring beehives, which provided real time analysis to predict and to prevent bee death due to environmental and biological factors, he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 22:17:53|Editor: xuxin

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PHNOM PENH, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia exported 112,486 tons of milled rice in the first two months of 2019, an increase of 1.9 percent over the same period last year, according to an official report on Friday.

China is the biggest buyer of Cambodia rice, said the report from the Secretariat of One Window Service for Rice Export.

Cambodia export 43,452 tons of milled rice to China during the Jan.-Feb. period this year, up 32 percent over the same period last year, it said, adding that Chinese market absorbed 38.6 percent of Cambodia's total rice export.

According to the report, Cambodia rice export to the European markets declined by 33 percent during the period because the European Union, in January, imposed tariffs on rice going from Cambodia in a bid to curb a surge in rice imports from the kingdom.

The Southeast Asian nation shipped 33,969 tons of rice to Europe in the first two months of this year, down 33 percent over the same period last year, the report said.

Cambodia produces around 10 million tons of paddy rice a year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 22:27:54|Editor: mingmei

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Zambian President Edgar Lungu (C) attends the International Women's Day celebration in Lusaka, Zambia, March 8, 2019. Zambia joined the rest of the world in commemoration of the 2019 International Women's Day on Friday with President Edgar Lungu calling for revolutionary steps to end gender inequalities. (Xinhua/Peng Lijun)

LUSAKA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Zambia joined the rest of the world in commemoration of the 2019 International Women's Day on Friday with President Edgar Lungu calling for revolutionary steps to end gender inequalities.

While acknowledging that steps have been made in tackling gender inequalities in the country, the Zambian leader expressed concern that women were still facing challenges in various sectors in the country.

The Zambian leader said tackling gender inequalities have partly been fueled by traditional beliefs of male dominance in society, which he said needs to be changed as both men and women were equal.

According to him, there was need to evaluate the various efforts being undertaken to tackle gender inequalities and come up with more pragmatic steps.

He further pledged that his government will continue to implement various programs aimed at empowering women and girls in the country.

Mary Mulenga, Chairperson of the Non-Governmental Organization Coordinating Council, a coalition of various organizations representing women, said it was unfortunate that women still face marginalization in various spheres of society despite measures put in place to enhance gender equality.

She said it was unfortunate that women still face challenges in accessing reproductive health services, resulting in some dying during child birth.

The women movement has since called for the actualization of the gender equity committee, which she said, will go a long way in promoting gender equality in the country.
Severe flooding over the past few days in southern Malawi killed 23 people and left dozens of others injured, the government said. (Xinhua)

BLANTYRE, Malawi, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-three people have been confirmed dead in 13 southern Malawi districts following severe flooding resulting from heavy rains accompanied by strong winds.

In a statement on Friday, the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining said the figures are from preliminary reports collected from various districts including Blantyre.

Heavy rains over the past few days have resulted in severe flooding in most parts of the southern region with people missing and others confirmed dead.

"The department has deployed search and rescue teams in collaboration with the Malawi Defence Force, Malawi Police Service and Malawi Red Cross to help in the rescue operation," the statement said.

The department has also deployed 23 trucks of relief items to be distributed in the affected districts, it said.

A press release from the nation's homeland security ministry on Friday also said that 29 people have sustained injuries and 11 others have been reported missing due to the flooding. The floods have also affected over 22,000 households, the release said.

The Electricity Generation Company (Malawi) has had to cut power generation as a preventive measure against damage to its power generation infrastructure.

Power generation has been reduced to around 270 megawatts (MW) from 320MW.

"We have stopped all machines at major power stations [like] Nkula and Kapichira due to flooding and excessive debris at the power stations," a statement released by the company said.

Following the shutdown, most parts of the country are experiencing continuous black outs.

A low pressure system moved into southern Malawi on March 6, causing continuous wide-spread rains accompanied by strong wind.

Jolamu Nkhokwe, Director of Climate Change and Meteorological Services at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, said Friday that the low pressure area has greatly impacted on Malawi and Mozambique over the past few days, adding that the heavy rains are forecast to weaken on March 9.

He however warned that rainfall activities are expected to increase in central and northern areas of Malawi due to the presence of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 22:32:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GAZA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- At least five Palestinians were shot and injured on Friday afternoon by Israeli soldiers' gunfire during clashes in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, medics said.

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the Health Ministry in Gaza, said in a text message that among the five injured Palestinians, one is in critical condition.

The clashes, which broke out on Friday afternoon between hundreds of Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers in eastern Gaza Strip close to the border with Israel, were part of the weekly anti-Israel rallies, better known as "the Great March of Return."

Marches of Return and Breaking the Israeli Siege have started on March 30 calling on Israel to end around 12 years of a blockade that has been imposed on the coastal enclave since 2007.

The demonstrators gathered on Friday afternoon in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the fence of the border with Israel, waved Palestinian flags, burned tires, chanted anti-Israel slogans and threw stones at the soldiers stationed on the border.

Eyewitnesses and paramedics said that the soldiers fired dozens of tear gas canisters and opened fire at the crowds of the demonstrators to prevent them from reaching the barbed wire of the fence of the border.

The clashes broke out while dozens of arson balloons carrying explosives were released from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel. No damages or injuries were reported, according to Israel Radio.

The Highest Commission of the Marches of Return and Breaking the Siege had earlier called in a statement on the populations to join the 50th Friday to mark the International Women's Day.

Health Ministry officials said that since the outbreak of the weekly protests and rallies on March 30, the Israeli army shot dead more than 260 Palestinians and wounded more than 26,000 others.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 22:37:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SARAJEVO, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has exported two registered horses to the European Union (EU) member states, the country's Veterinary Office stated in a press release on Friday.

According to the EU Regulation 2018/659, BiH is included on the list of third countries which met the conditions for the entry into the Union of live equidae. BiH's Veterinary Office organized meetings and training sessions for equestrian clubs and veterinary inspectors which issue needed certificates.

In addition to the provision of temporary and permanent export of registered horses, the EU regulation enabled the temporary entry of registered horses from the EU countries into BiH and their return to the EU, which was not possible earlier.

The Veterinary Office said an increase in international traffic of horses between the EU and BiH is expected in the future, which will surely contribute to the improvement and affirmation of equestrian sport in the country.

The EU regulation asks for special animal health requirements, saying that only horses that come from a third country and accompanied by a health certificate corresponding to a model also drawn up in accordance with that Directive, may be imported into the Union.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 22:48:01|Editor: mingmei

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Marina Omar, officer at the marketing department of Piraeus Containers Terminal S.A. (PCT S.A), a China's COSCO Shipping subsidiary, poses for photo before interview with Xinhua on March 7, 2019. (Xinhua/Yu Shuaishuai)

by Maria Spiliopoulou, Yu Shuaishuai

ATHENS, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Greece has made strides in gender equality in the past few decades, but much more needs to be done, experts, political leaders and ordinary working women said on the occasion of the International Women's Day marked on Friday.

Women in Greece in 2017 got salaries on average 19.7 percent lower than that for men and according to 2018 data only 9.5 percent held positions in companies' board of directors, according to an e-mailed European Commission report on equality between women and men in the EU released this week.

Greek women also remain underrepresented in politics. Women currently hold only 18.3 percent of seats in the Greek parliament, the report noted.

"We need more women in politics, more women in relevant positions as well in business," European Parliament(EP) President Antonio Tajani told an EP Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality on Thursday.

"March 8, International Women's Day reminds us that the struggle for real equality is constant and concerns us all," Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras tweeted, as he welcomed women from various professions and social groups to his office on Friday.

Meanwhile, for first time a feminist strike and rally was held in the centre of Athens, organized by feminist groups and supported by political parties and labor unions.

Protesters shouted that women comprise the majority of the jobless and the victims of gender violence.

According to the latest figures from Greece's statistical authority ELSTAT, in December 2018 the unemployment rate among women was 23.1 percent, while among men 14.1 percent.

According to Greek police data, last year 13 women were murdered by their husbands or partners, 204 reported that they were victims of sexual abuse, while 5,088 called a special hotline asking for help to deal with violence at home.

Despite the challenges and difficulties, many Greek women give their everyday battle to further improve their position in all sectors of life with determination and optimism.

Marina Omar, 32, officer at the marketing department of Piraeus Containers Terminal S.A. (PCT S.A), a China's COSCO Shipping subsidiary, is one of them.

Omar has been working at the port since 2012 after her graduation from university.

She is considering herself lucky getting such a good job in a country suffering from high unemployment rates in recent years with a company which supports the development of employees.

Omar started working as management secretary and two years ago was promoted to the marketing department. During the past seven years she has gained valuable experience and a big family, she told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"I think that nowadays women are equal to men and this is proved also in the business field...Generally speaking women and men are equal in Greece...Nowadays the woman is not considered as the weak sex as it was considered in the past," she said commenting on Greek woman's place in Greek society.

Based on her personal experience, thinking about the life of her grandmother and mother, Omar is stressing the significant progress achieved.

"My grandmother was a farmer, so she was working very hard while she was raising her children. My mother chose to raise her children, one of the most difficult jobs I think in the world, and I have chosen the career path," she told Xinhua.

"So for the time being I am thinking how to develop my career. I think during these years the situation for the women has changed rapidly," she said.

Although she is not a mother yet, judging from her colleagues and relatives, she welcomes the significant support given by the Greek state to working mothers, urging for more to be done to further improve the standing of women in all walks of life.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 22:58:04|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ZHENGZHOU, March 8 (Xinhua) -- After on-site visits and repeated comparison, Tang Zhijing, a 33-year-old breastfeeding mom, chose a shopping mall five km away from her home, instead of a closer one, to enjoy weekends with her two kids there.

The farther shopping mall, established in 2017 in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, has a mother-and-baby room.

"I don't want to experience the embarrassment of breastfeeding or changing diapers awkwardly in corners anymore," Tang said. "Those experiences undignified me as a mother."

Latest data from a report released by the China Development Research Foundation showed that the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in six months in China increased to 29.2 percent. The number was only 20.8 percent in 2013, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Though still low, the rate is slightly rising compared with previous years. It may be related to the more friendly social atmosphere," said Lyu Xiaohua, a deputy to the People's Congress of Zhengzhou.

The babycare room of about 20 square meters Tang prefers is equipped with basic facilities such as diaper-changing tables, a sofa, a water dispenser, wash basins and even a playpen in which kids can play safely.

The innermost area of the room is divided into five 1-square-meter compartments for breastfeeding, with a curtain hanging over each door to protect the mothers' privacy.

"This is a very important reason why I decided to give birth to a second child and insisted on breastfeeding. We now have a more friendly social environment," said Tang.

Breastfeeding is considered more conducive to infants than formula feeding. The World Health Organization recommends that children should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months.

However, in China, the rate of that target is far below the world average of 43 percent. In addition to mothers' feeding beliefs, the situation is partly caused by the lack of babycare rooms in public areas.

In 2016, the second year after the one-child policy was abolished, China's health authorities released a guideline that required airports and railway stations in provincial capitals have babycare rooms by the end of that year, and standard facilities should be set up in public spaces and some companies by 2020.

"Besides the government, our society should support breastfeeding by creating a friendly social environment," said Zhang Mingsuo, a professor at Zhengzhou University. He believes the attitudes towards mothers and infants are also an important yardstick for social civilization.

In Zhengzhou, with a population of 10 million, babycare rooms are now a required facility for shopping malls built in recent years. A state-owned 7-floor shopping mall in Zhengzhou, for example, has 12 babycare rooms.

"Babycare rooms attract more customers to the mall," a staff member of the mall said.

In recent years, many provinces, including Henan, Liaoning and Guangdong, unveiled plans to promote the construction of mother/infant-friendly facilities. Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, for instance, opened 658 babycare rooms last year. As of November 2018, the number of babycare rooms in Beijing's public areas reached close to 400, covering all the airports and main railway stations. Mothers can even find a babycare room using mobile apps.

"Overall, the situation is getting better," said Lyu.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 23:08:08|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends a press conference on China's foreign policy and relations on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday elaborated its foreign policy championing peace, development, cooperation and multilateralism, providing certainty to a world full of uncertainties.

At a press conference, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China will continue to follow a peaceful development path, uphold the existing international system, favor cooperation over confrontation while shouldering more responsibilities, as the country moves closer to the world's center stage.

The press conference, held on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, is regarded as a once-a-year opportunity to take a thorough look at China's foreign policy and understand its views of the world affairs.

"China's diplomacy has reached a new starting point," Wang said. "China will surely become stronger but not assertive; China values independence but will not go forward alone; China stands up for its rights but never seeks hegemony."

COOPERATE TO GAIN

Wang said the fundamental guideline for China's diplomatic work in the new era is Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy, which points the way for navigating through a complex array of issues in today's world.

"A key part of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy is developing a new path of state-to-state relations featuring dialogue instead of confrontation, partnership instead of alliance," said Ruan Zongze, executive vice president of the China Institute of International Studies.

Under the spotlight are China-U.S. relations, as some fear a looming Thucydides Trap, which warns of cataclysmic war between a rising power and an established one.

Noting that competition is normal, Wang said exaggerating competition would reduce the space of cooperation.

"China and the United States stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation," the state councilor said.

The interests of the two countries are indeed inseparable. Bilateral trade surpassed 630 billion U.S. dollars last year, with cumulative bilateral investment reaching 240 billion dollars.

Wang noted the substantial progress made in the ongoing economic and trade consultations.

"We still have a positive outlook on China-U.S. relations. The two countries will not, and should not descend into confrontation," he said.

Xu Xiujun, a research fellow with the Institute of World Economy and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said cooperation remains the main theme of China-U.S. ties. "China and the United States will not engage in a cold war."

A good example of major-country interaction is demonstrated by China and Russia.

As China and Russia mark the 70th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties in 2019, leaders of the two countries are expected to exchange visits, the state councilor said.

"When China and Russia stand together, the world will be a safer and more peaceful and stable place," Wang said.

The state councilor said China's traditional friendship with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is brimming with vitality and its ties with Japan is improving. He also expressed hope for friendship and cooperation between China and India to surge ahead "like the Yangtze and the Ganges."

PEACE, BUT NO "SILENT LAMBS"

Responding to a question on the recent tension between Pakistan and India, Wang reiterated China's call for calm and restraint. Disagreement should be settled by goodwill, he said.

Wang applauded the recent DPRK-U.S. summit, describing it as an important step toward a political settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

While acknowledging that it's impossible to solve the issue overnight, Wang said the concerned parties should not be "a prisoner of history," urging them to break the cycle of mistrust and together work out a general roadmap for achieving denuclearization and a peace mechanism on the peninsula.

Wang took note of the stabilized and improving situation in the South China Sea, appealed to all parties in Afghanistan to "push open the door to peace," and warned against "historical lessons" being repeated in Venezuela under external interference and sanctions.

"Upholding peace and development is the 'secret to success' of China's diplomacy and a great contribution China makes to the world," Ruan said.

Wang also made it clear that China will firmly protect its legitimate rights and interests.

Answering a question regarding recent action against the Chinese tech company Huawei and its CFO, Wang said China supports relevant company and individual seeking legal redress and choosing not to be "silent lambs".

Wang said it was not a pure judicial case, but a "deliberate political move," adding that China has taken and will continue to take all necessary measures to resolutely protect the legitimate interests of Chinese firms and citizens.

"PASSENGERS IN SAME BOAT"

A centerpiece of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy is to build a community with a shared future for humanity, experts said. This vision put forth by Xi has won broad support from the international community.

"We rise and fall together," Wang said at the press conference. "Instead of minding our own business, we should treat each other as passengers in the same boat."

More and more countries are stepping forward to resist the disturbing trend of unilateralism and protectionism, he said. China will work with all nations under the principle of multilateralism to resolutely uphold an international system centered on the United Nations and an international order underpinned by international law.

"Multilateralism correlates closely with openness and inclusiveness -- both hallmarks of China's foreign policy," Ruan said.

China is not alone to have that perspective. Europe, Wang said, is also against unilateralism and protectionism.

President Xi will visit Europe on his first overseas trip this year, which speaks volumes about China's support for Europe, Wang said.

On other continents, Wang said relations between China and Latin American countries have gained great progress, while China-Africa cooperation has grown into a towering tree that no force can topple.

The state councilor said China will fully implement the eight major initiatives announced at the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, and continuously deepen Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation.

The BRI, proposed by Xi in 2013, has brought countries and regions together through enhanced trade, infrastructure development, investment, cultural and people-to-people exchanges. A total of 152 countries and international organizations have signed cooperation documents with China on the initiative over the past six years, official statistics show.

In April, Xi will host foreign heads of state and government at the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing.

Wang revealed that thousands of delegates from over 100 countries are expected to attend.

Refuting the "debt trap" claim, Wang said the BRI is instead an "economic pie".

Thanks to the BRI, East Africa now has its first expressway. The Maldives has built its first inter-island bridge. Belarus is able to produce sedans. Kazakhstan is connected to the sea. Southeast Asia is constructing a high-speed railway. And the Eurasian continent is benefiting from the longest distance freight train service.

"It is not a geopolitical tool, but a great opportunity for shared development," he said.

(Video reporters: Xu Yang, Lin Kai, Liu Qinbing, Li Shuai, Yang Jin; Video editors: Liu Xiaorui, Liu Leshi, Yin Le)
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 23:13:10|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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KIEV, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Thirty-nine candidates in total will participate in Ukraine's presidential election on March 31, the country's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) said on Friday in a statement.

According to the statement, the CEC has cancelled the registration of five candidates, who voiced the desire to withdraw from the race.

Three of the five candidates dropped out of the race to support former Defense Minister Anatoly Hrytsenko, one quit in favor of incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, and another withdrew his candidacy to back former Deputy Prime Minister Olexandr Vilkul.

Initially, 44 candidates registered to compete in the election.

The presidential contenders were permitted to withdraw their candidacy from the race no later than March 7.

The 2019 presidential campaign in Ukraine was officially launched on Dec. 31, 2018.

According to various opinion polls, incumbent President Poroshenko, opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko and actor Volodymyr Zelensky were viewed as frontrunners in the presidential race.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 23:18:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ATHENS, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Greece expands the range of investment activities which will open the way to the so-called Golden Visa for third country citizens, Greek national news agency AMNA reported on Friday.

Since the launch of the Golden Visa program in Greece in 2013, residence permits were offered to non-European Union nationals investing in real estate properties of above 250,000 euros (280,800 U.S. dollars) value, as well as their family members.

Under a draft bill tabled in parliament on Thursday, investments of minimum 400,000 euros in stock and shares, bonds, capital injection in real estate investment companies, mutual funds, state bonds, and time deposits in Greek banks will also provide eligibility for a golden visa.

Greek economy and development ministry officials expect that the new regulations will be put into force from June this year. (1 euro= 1.12 U.S. dollars)
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 23:53:17|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CAPE TOWN, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The South African government on Friday marked the International Women's Day by calling on women to be at the center of conflict resolution, mediation and peacekeeping.

"On this day, let us remember those women who are toiling under very difficult circumstances in conflict situations," said Lindiwe Sisulu, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.

Women are seldom the instigators of violence, but they suffer the most as victims of war and instability, Sisulu said.

"We therefore join hands with women across the world as we firmly believe that peace cannot be achieved without the participation of women in political negotiations for the resolution of conflicts and peacekeeping operations," the minister said.

The world has to find a solution to their suffering, she added.

This year's International Women's Day was observed under the theme: "Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 23:53:17|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LJUBLJANA, March 8 -- Zoran Poznic, a cultural manager and new media curator, was appointed as Slovenia's new culture minister by the National Assembly on Friday.

Poznic will succeed Dejan Presicek, who was forced out of office in January amid bullying allegations, the Slovenian Press Agency STA reported.

Poznic, 59, has been heading Delavski Dom Trbovlje, a progressive cultural centre in the mining town of Trbovlje for almost a decade.

He offered himself to the Social Democrats (SD), the party in charge of the department, as a candidate, saying he would want to continue the work as set out by the former minister.

In the hearing before the Parliamentary Culture Committee, Poznic said one of his priorities would be to have a national culture programme for the period between 2020 and 2026 adopted this year.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 23:58:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BAGHDAD, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations in Iraq Friday called for better future for Iraqi women to ensure their dignity and freedom, as the Iraqi women suffer from displacement and violence.

A joint statement by UN Women Iraq, a UN entity working for the empowerment of Iraqi women, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), asserted that "women in Iraq and across the world are entitled to live in dignity, in freedom and without discrimination."

"Women in Iraq have suffered from major psychological and emotional consequences due to the continuous displacement, the traumatic events and the violence caused by the protracted crises, threatening their ability to build a better future for themselves, their families and their communities," said the statement issued on the International Women's Day.

"The United Nations estimates that there are 3.3 million women and girls in need of humanitarian assistance in 2019 across the country," the statement said.

Both UN and UNFPA called upon the federal government of Iraq and the government of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan to "invest further in the great potential of the women in Iraq to boost economic and social development of the country."

"UN Women and UNFPA renew their commitment to advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women in the areas of social protection and access to public services across the country," the statement said.

Years of war, sanctions and corruption have weighed heavily on women in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands were killed or widowed in multiple waves of violence, while others remain stranded in refugee camps across the country.

However, the security situation in Iraq has been dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants across the country late in 2017, but the cycle of violence has not stopped completely as groups of IS remnants have since melted in urban areas or resorted to deserts and rugged areas as safe havens, carrying out guerilla attacks from time to time against the security forces and civilians.
USA: Justice Department Coordinates Largest-Ever Nationwide Elder Fraud Sweep

Attorney General William P. Barr and multiple law enforcement partners today announced the largest coordinated sweep of elder fraud cases in history, surpassing last years nationwide sweep. The cases during this sweep involved more than 260 defendants from around the globe who victimized more than two million Americans, most of them elderly. The Department took action in every federal district across the country, through the filing of criminal or civil cases or through consumer education efforts. In each case, offenders allegedly engaged in financial schemes that targeted or largely affected seniors. In total, the charged elder fraud schemes caused alleged losses of millions of more dollars than last year, putting the total alleged losses at this years sweep at over three fourths of one billion dollars.

Attorney General Barr was joined in the announcement by FBI Deputy Director David L. Bowdich; Executive Associate Director Derek Benner for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Joseph Simons; Louisiana Attorney General and President of the National Association of Attorneys General Jeff Landry; Director Randolph Alles of the Secret Service; Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale; Barbara Stewart CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service; and former FBI director and CIA director Judge Webster and Lynda Webster.

The charges are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Crimes against the elderly target some of the most vulnerable people in our society, Attorney General William P. Barr said. But thanks to the hard work of our agents and prosecutors, as well as our state and local partners, the Department of Justice is protecting our seniors from fraud. The Trump administration has placed a renewed focus on prosecuting those who prey on the elderly, and the results of todays sweep make that clear. Today we are announcing the largest single law enforcement action against elder fraud in American history. This years sweep involves 13 percent more criminal defendants, 28 percent more in losses, and twice the number of fraud victims as last years sweep. I want to thank the Departments Consumer Protection Branch, which led this effort, together with the Departments Criminal Division, the more than 50 U.S. Attorneys offices, and the state and local partners who helped to make these results possible. Together, we are bringing justice and peace of mind to America's seniors.

A list of Elder Fraud cases by the Department of Justice is provided on this interactive map.

Since President Trump signed the bipartisan Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act (EAPPA) into law, the Department of Justice has participated in hundreds of enforcement actions in criminal and civil cases that targeted or disproportionately affected seniors. The Justice Department has likewise conducted hundreds of trainings and outreach sessions across the country since the passage of the Act. In February 2018, the Attorney General announced the largest elder fraud enforcement action in American history at the time, charging more than 200 defendants in a nationwide elder fraud sweep. In November 2018, Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture hosted the first Rural and Tribal Elder Justice Summit in Des Moines, Iowa. The Summit focused on supporting the efforts of elder justice professionals to combat elder abuse and financial exploitation in rural and tribal communities.

Technical-Support Takedown 2019

As part of the sweep, the Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners announced a tech-support fraud takedown, designed to combat an increasingly common form of elder fraud in which criminals trick victims into giving remote access to their computers under the guise of providing technical support. In 2018, technical-support schemes generated over 142,000 consumer complaints to the FTCs Consumer Sentinel Network. Consumers 60 and over filed more loss reports on tech-support scams from 2015 to 2018 than on any other fraud category reported to the Consumer Sentinel Network.

The Department of Justices Consumer Protection Branch, the Criminal Divisions Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section, and 10 U.S. Attorneys Offices brought cases against perpetrators of technical-support fraud. The FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and HSI partnered with the Justice Department in investigating these cases, and the FTC, several state Attorneys General and the U.K.s City of London Police joined the effort by initiating their own cases. A fact-sheet with technical-support fraud case information can be found here.

Were committed to investigating financial fraud schemes against the elderly, said FBI Director Christopher Wray. Weve dedicated additional resources to address a wide range of elder fraud threats, including technical-support fraud. Victims of these schemes often lose thousands of dollars or more apiece, which can cause significant harm to elderly victims and their caretakers. If anyone suspects that they  or a senior they know  may be a victim of fraud, we encourage them to report it to the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Transnational Criminal Organizations Committing Elder Fraud

The sweep announced today brings the Postal Inspection Service to a landmark point in its battle against transnational criminal organizations committing mass mailing elder fraud, said Chief Postal Inspector Barksdale. In a recently unsealed case, two Canadians pled guilty and, thanks to the Spanish National Police, another was arrested in Spain for an alleged mail fraud scheme involving $180 million in losses to over one million victims. The Inspection Service has been at the forefront of protecting customers from fraud schemes for many years and we will continue to investigate and stop those who exploit older Americans for their own illegal gains.

A fact-sheet with cases on mass mailing fraud can be found here.

Many of the cases brought as part of the elder fraud sweep announced today  including many of the technical-support fraud cases  allegedly involved transnational criminal organizations. The Department of Justices Office of International Affairs worked with numerous countries to secure evidence and capture defendants. During the sweep period, defendants in elder fraud cases were extradited from Canada, The Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Poland. A fact-sheet with examples of a few elder fraud cases involving extradition in which the Office of International Affairs played a substantial role can be found here.

Money Mule Initiative

In addition, in a novel approach, the Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners took comprehensive action against the money mule network that facilitates foreign-based elder fraud. Generally, a money mule is someone who transfers money acquired illegally in person, through the mails, or electronically, on behalf of others. Across the country, money mules receive fraud proceeds directly from victims and forward proceeds to perpetrators and ringleaders of fraud schemesindividuals who often reside in other countries. As part of the sweep, the FBI and the Postal Inspection Service took action against over 600 alleged money mules nationwide by conducting interviews, issuing warning letters, and bringing civil and criminal cases. Secret Service agents aided these efforts by seizing and forfeiting elder fraud proceeds in transit from victims to perpetrators.

Homeland Security Investigations is committed to the fight against elder fraud in conjunction with the Justice Department, and our other law enforcement partners, said Executive Associate Director Derek Benner. HSI Special Agents across the country have worked to address illegal fund transfers, fraudsters operating technical-support schemes, and elder fraud of all varieties. We will continue to use creative solutions to protect our nations seniors from fraud; financial security is critical to homeland security.

The Secret Service is committed to aggressively investigating and disrupting organized criminal groups who prey on our most vulnerable citizens, said Secret Service Director Randolph Tex Alles. The results of the elder fraud sweep announced today demonstrate what can be achieved though incredible partnerships between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

Public Education

The Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners focused the sweeps public education campaign on technical-support fraud, given the widespread harm such schemes are causing. The FTC and State Attorneys General had an important role in designing and disseminating messaging material intended to warn consumers and businesses.

Public education outreach is being conducted by various state and federal agencies, including Senior Corps, a national service program administered by the federal agency the Corporation for National and Community Service, to educate seniors and prevent further victimization. The Senior Corps program engages more than 245,000 older adults in intensive service each year, who in turn, serve more than 840,000 additional seniors, including 332,000 veterans. Information on Senior Corps efforts to reduce elder fraud can be found here.

Global Efforts

Exceptional assistance from foreign law enforcement partners amplified the effectiveness of the Departments initiative. The sweep announced today benefited greatly from the work of the International Mass-Marketing Fraud Working Group (IMMFWG), a network of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies from Belgium, Canada, Europol, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. The IMMFWG is co-chaired by the Department of Justice and the FTC, and law enforcement in the United Kingdom, and serves as a model for international cooperation against specific threats that endanger the financial well-being of each member countrys residents. Due to the IMMFWGs network of law enforcement, simultaneous technical-support fraud consumer education campaigns are being released in Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Elder Fraud Complaints

Elder fraud complaints may be filed with the FTC at www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov or at 877-FTC-HELP. The Department of Justice provides a variety of resources relating to elder fraud victimization through its Office of Victims of Crime, which can be reached at www.ovc.gov.

This story has been published on: 2019-03-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Check concentrate feeder accuracy

WITH the cost of dairy cow concentrates rising farmers have been urged to check the accuracy of their feeders to ensure they are not overfeeding, or indeed underfeeding, their livestock.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-08 23:58:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ARUSHA, Tanzania, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) on Friday urged its partner states to fully implement the common market protocol to allow free movement of people, goods and services.

The regional lawmakers who are meeting in the Tanzania's archipelago of Zanzibar said there is need for enhanced visibility of the regional bloc and for all partner states to adjust their national laws to that of the community.

The call came after EALA adopted a report on Friday afternoon of the activities undertaken in the partner states in February, under the theme of "Accessing the Gains and Assessing the Challenges."

The objectives of the week-long activity were to remind EAC citizens of the overall integration process and promote liaison with EAC National Assemblies and other key stakeholders.

The report calls for harmonization of custom systems to reduce the cost of business, and the adoption of Kiswahili as the region's official language.

Meanwhile, the report also reveals a number of challenges within the partner states. In Kenya, residents reported difficulties encountered while attempting to establish businesses in other EAC partner states, which contravenes the Common Market Protocol and the spirit of the EAC integration.

In Tanzania, a lack of communication was cited as a major challenge between the Tanzania Ports Authorities and other EAC partner states' revenue authorities.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-09 00:13:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BAGHDAD, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Five Iraqi soldiers were killed in gunfire inside a military base in western Baghdad, and the shooter was arrested for interrogation, the Iraqi military said on Friday.

Baghdad Operations Command (BOC), responsible for security in Baghdad, said that it has launched a probe into the incident of killing five soldiers after capturing the perpetrator, according to a statement by media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC).

The statement did not give further details about the incident, but an army officer anonymously told Xinhua that "a soldier opened fire on a group of soldiers in a military base in Abu Ghraib area in west of Baghdad, leaving five soldiers killed and a sixth injured."

The wounded soldier was transferred to a military hospital for treatment, the officer said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-09 00:23:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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YAOUNDE, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon celebrated the International Women's Day on Friday amid growing calls for an end to an ongoing war in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

This occasion should be used to remember those who are facing difficulties in the Northwest and Southwest and comfort and hope should be brought to them, Cameroon's Minister of Women Empowerment and the Family, Marie Therese Abena Ondoua told reporters.

First Lady Chantal Biya presided over celebrations marking the annual event in the capital, Yaounde attended by some 60,000 women.

Activities in the two troubled Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest took place amid tight security and timidity following calls from armed separatists for women to boycott the event.

Women in the two regions used the occasion to stress on the need to end the conflict.

"Women need to take the lead in solving the sociopolitical crisis plaguing the two regions," Judith Morfa, Southwest regional chief of the Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family said in an address to women.

"We are losing our women, husbands and children every day and this is traumatizing to women. We call for cease fire," Eileen Manka'a Tabuwe, spokesperson of a women movement that seeks to stop violence in the two regions told Xinhua.

Armed separatists seeking to create an independent nation in the two Anglophone regions have been clashing with government forces since November 2017.

United Nations estimated that about 430,000 people had been displaced internally by the conflict.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-09 00:28:26|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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KIGALI, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda's First Lady Jeannette Kagame Friday called on Rwandans to give girl child equal opportunities like boys during national celebrations to mark the International Women's Day.

The celebrations, which took place in Kagano Sector, Nyamasheke district in western Rwanda, featured celebration of success gained in protecting and promoting women and girls in Rwanda as well as awarding best female students who excelled in last year's Rwanda national primary and secondary school examinations.

Families should give boys and girls equal opportunities, said Kagame, calling on parents to address challenges that impend children especially girls from going to school.

The girl child forms what will make the foundation of a safe family together with a male partner, she said.

There should be peaceful co-existence in families and family members should be well aware that they are the foundation of the nation, she added.

Over 200 best performing female students were awarded scholastic materials and cash incentives by Imbuto Foundation chaired by Kagame. A social mobilization campaign that seeks to motivate the girl child in Rwanda to excel in education was also launched at the event.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-09 01:18:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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VILNIUS, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Synchronization of the power grids of the Baltic States with the continental Europe must be completed in 2025 as it was agreed earlier, Latvia's Prime Minister Arturs Krisjanis Karins said Friday during his visit to Lithuania.

"We all together, including Estonia, stick to the opinion that synchronization must be completed and will be completed in 2025," Karins told the reporters after meeting with his Lithuanian counterpart Saulius Skvernelis.

By the scheduled deadline, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian power grid operators have to carry out necessary test proving that the Baltic power system can operate in an isolated mode, the Latvian prime minister added.

"Close Lithuanian-Latvian bilateral relations have a crucial role in ensuring the regional energy security, and joint energy and transport infrastructure projects", Lithuania's head of government Skvernelis was quoted as saying after the meeting in a statement released by his office.

According to the Lithuanian prime minister, Rail Baltica and synchronization of the Baltic electricity grid remain a common priority.

In June 2018, the Baltic countries, Poland and the European Commission signed an agreement stating that the deadline for the completion of the synchronization of the Baltic power grid with the continental European network is 2025.

It was decided that the project will be carried out through the existing double-circuit alternating current line between Poland and Lithuania (LitPol Link) complemented by the construction of a new offshore high voltage direct current link between Poland and Lithuania.

The total estimated cost of the project is estimated at around 1.4 billion euros. The EU is expected to cover 75 percent of the cost.
People, mainly women, take part in a rally during the International Women's Day in central Brussels, Belgium, March 8, 2019. (REUTERS Photo)

UNITED NATIONS, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Investing in women and respecting their human rights is the surest way to lift communities, companies and countries, and to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, said the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday.

In his remarks for the observance of International Women's Day, the UN chief called for "a new vision of equality and opportunity so that half the world's population can contribute to all the world's success."

Guterres said that gender equality and women's rights are fundamental to addressing many global challenges like climate change and armed conflict.

"Remarkable progress" on women's rights and leadership has been made in recent decades, but these gains are far from consistent, and they have sparked a backlash from an entrenched patriarchy, said the secretary-general.

"Gender equality is fundamentally a question of power. We live still in a male-dominated world. Our male-dominated culture has ignored, silenced and oppressed women for centuries - even millennia," said Guterres.

Women's political representation in parliaments around the world stands at less than 25 percent. At the highest levels that drops to 9 percent. The Global Media Monitoring Project found that worldwide, just one quarter of the subjects of news stories are women, and most often as victims rather than leaders, he added.

Despite women's achievements and successes, their voices are still routinely overlooked, and their opinions ignored. So increasing the number of women decision-makers is essential, said Guterres.

"We must not give ground that has been won over decades. We must push for wholesale, rapid and radical change," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-09 03:08:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DAMASCUS, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Around 70 women took part in a biking event held Friday in the capital Damascus to mark the International Women's Day.

Of different ages, women took part in the Yallah Let's Bike, or Come on Let's Bike, an activity held in Damascus to mark the Women's Day and give a space for Syrian women to celebrate their day.

The women rode their bicycles in the eastern part of Damascus amid an atmosphere of joy and determination.

Their message was about women empowerment and gender equality in a society where men are considered a more powerful gender.

Mariam Mardini, a university student, told Xinhua that she was riding a bicycle to tell other women that they can do the same because they are equal to men.

"On the Women's Day, I will ride my bicycle and roam Damascus to tell the Syrian women that as long as you can ride your bicycle freely, you can do anything and be proud of being a woman," she told Xinhua.

She said that during the war, the Syrian women proved that they can be helpful in the society as much as the men are, particularly as large numbers of men either left the country or joined the army.

For her part, Ayat, a school teacher, told Xinhua that women need more support.

"My message on the Women's Day is that women need more support so that we could be an active part in the society," she said.

Wissam Najjar, a 40-year-old employee, said the Syrian women must have an active part in the society.

"On the occasion of the women's day, we are riding bicycles to raise awareness about harassment. The Syrian woman must have an active role in everything," she said.

The organizer of the event, Muhammad al-Hawari, said the goal behind riding bicycles on this occasion is to deliver the message of gender equality.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-09 03:13:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIRUT, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab asked Friday for an official letter from Cyprus to guarantee the protection of Lebanon's sovereignty amid plans by Israel to begin a gas pipeline that will link it to Cyprus, Greece and Italy.

Bou Saab's remarks came during his meeting with Cyprus Ambassador to Lebanon Christina Rafti who assured that Cyprus will deal with this issue in favor of Lebanon's interests, said a report by the National News Agency.

"Cyprus has received a letter from Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil warning against the violation of Lebanon's maritime borders," Rafti said.

"I want to assure the positive attitude of Cyprus toward Lebanon in this regard," she added.

Bassil renewed on Thursday his rejection of the violation of Lebanon's rights and sovereignty through the planned gas pipeline project between the Israel, Cyprus and Greece.

Greece, Italy, and Cyprus reached an agreement late last year with Israel to lay a pipeline connecting the Jewish state's gas reserves to the three countries.

The 2,200 km pipeline, which will cost 7 billion U.S. dollars, will have the capacity to carry up to 20 billion cubic meters of gas yearly.
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko attends a press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg during a summit of heads of state and government in Brussels, Belgium, July 12, 2018. (AP Photo)

KIEV, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine on Thursday urged Washington to support its effort to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Enhanced Opportunities Partner program, which creates additional opportunities for non-member states to cooperate with the bloc.

While previously Ukraine was only a recipient of U.S. aid, now it stands ready to make a significant contribution to strengthening the collective security system, Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said.

The Ukrainian official made the remarks during her meeting with U.S. acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Michael Murphy in Washington.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-09 04:49:17|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BAGHDAD, March 8 (Xinhua) -- A total of six Islamic State (IS) militants were killed and seven of their hideouts destroyed in a two-week operation by security forces to chase the extremist militants in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a provincial official said on Friday.

"The large-scale military operation, which was launched two weeks ago to track the militants of Daesh (IS group) in the area of the Hawdh al-Waqf, some 25 km northeast of the provincial capital Baquba, has ended today after completing all of its planned stages," said Sadiq al-Husseini, head of security committee of the provincial council, told Xinhua.

The operation was carried out by the army, provincial elite police force of Rapid Response, paramilitary Hashd Shaabi and backed by the army's helicopter gunships, al-Husseini said.

The troops also detonated 20 roadside bombs planted by IS militants and seized several caches of weapons and ammunition, he added.

Hawdh al-Waqf is an agricultural area and its 11 villages stretch in northeast of Baquba, which itself located about 65 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The extremist militants are holed up in the farms and orchards of the area, al-Husseini said.

Despite repeated military operations in the Diyala province, remnants of IS militants are still hiding in some rugged areas near the border with Iran, and in the sprawling areas extending from the western part of the province to the Himreen mountain range in north of Baquba.

The security situation in Iraq has been dramatically improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated the extremist IS militants across the country late in 2017.

IS remnants, however, have since melted in urban areas or resorted to deserts and rugged areas as safe havens, carrying out guerilla attacks from time to time against security forces and civilians.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-09 05:54:31|Editor: mingmei

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People take part in a women's strike in Brussels, Belgium, March 8, 2019. Thousands of women went on strike across Belgium on International Women's Day to campaign for women's rights and gender equality, local media reported. (Xinhua/Zhang Cheng)

BRUSSELS, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of women went on strike across Belgium on Friday during the International Women's Day to campaign for women's rights and gender equality, local media reported.

Over 5,000 female demonstrators, spurred on by an initiative of the "Collecti.e.f March 8" association, gathered Friday afternoon in front of Brussels Central Station before taking part in a march.

Six female politicians from three Belgian parties -- MR, cdH and Defi -- called for women's rights to be a societal priority in all parties and at all levels of power, according to an open letter published Thursday by local press.

The joint letter criticized the growing violence against Belgian women, stressing that "politicians, the media and citizens must shoulder their responsibilities and prevent violence against women as an absolute priority".

Belgium is, according to the World Bank, one of only six countries in the world where women have precisely the same rights under the law as men, reported the Brussels Times.

However, the pay gap was 21 percent in Belgium in 2017 and the pension gap was 28 percent, according to a joint statement made by two local unions -- the FGTB and the CSC.

"Equality between women and men is clearly not a reality," commented Ruth Paluku-Atoka, a member of the strike collective, in the newspaper La Libre. "We have opted for the strike weapon because it is a powerful thing to stop working. It will allow all to see where women are necessary."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-09 06:14:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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OTTAWA, March 8 (Xinhua)-- The Federal Court of Canada on Friday dismissed a request by SNC-Lavalin to review a federal prosecutor's decision declining to settle criminal charges against the company out of court.

"The law is clear that prosecutorial discretion is not subject to judicial review, except for abuse of process," Federal Court Justice Catherine Kane said in her ruling Friday.

The decision at issue whether to invite an organization to enter into negotiations for a remediation agreement clearly falls within the ambit of prosecutorial discretion and the nature of decisions that prosecutors are regularly called to make in criminal proceedings, she added.

The Montreal-based engineering giant SNC-Lavalin faces accusations it paid bribes to obtain government business in Libya -- a criminal case that has prompted a political earthquake for Trudeau government.

The company made an unprecedented request for judicial review of a federal prosecutor's decision last September to proceed with charges of fraud and corruption.

The federal prosecution office asked the Federal Court to dismiss the company's request for judicial review. Justice Kane conducted a five-hour hearing on the matter last month.

The prosecutor's decision has been at the heart of a political dispute that has shaken Canada, resulted in the resignations of two ministers of Trudeau government and his principal secretary, and led to dramatic hearings at the House of Commons justice committee after senior officials were reportedly alleged to pressure then attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould between September and December Last year to help the company avoid prosecution.

Under a 2018 federal law, prosecutors may negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement with corporate offenders. In return for a statement of wrongdoing, a fine and terms intended to ensure good conduct in the future, a company is permitted to settle out of court.

However, Kathleen Roussel, director of public prosecutions, declined to negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement, also known as a remediation last September.

Then attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould had the legal authority to issue a public directive to Roussel to negotiate a remediation agreement, but she refused to do so.

Last month, Wilson-Raybould told the House of Commons Justice Committee that she came under relentless pressure from the Prime Minister's Office and other federal officials to ensure the company was invited to negotiate a remediation agreement.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his former principal secretary Gerald Butts refuted the notion any inappropriate political pressure against Wilson-Raybould.

In its submission last October to the Federal Court, the company said while the public prosecutor has discretion to decide whether to open negotiations on a remediation agreement, this discretion "is not unfettered and must be exercised reasonably" under the law.

The company said it provided the prosecutor's office with information showing the objectives of the remediation provisions were "easily met," including details of SNC-Lavalin's efforts to implement a world-class ethics and compliance program, as well as the complete turnover of the company's senior management and board of directors.

It also said the "negative impact of the ongoing uncertainty related to the charges" on its business.

In a response filed last January with the court, the director of prosecutions said SNC-Lavalin's argument is "bereft of any possibility of success and should be struck."

While SNC-Lavalin has the right to be assumed innocent and to a fair trial, it has "no right or entitlement" under common or criminal law to be invited to negotiate a remediation agreement, the director said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-09 06:24:38|Editor: Yang Yi

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Rona Azim's Mother, a feature movie from Afghanistan, wins the best prize of the Sharm el-Sheikh Asian Film Festival (SAFF) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, March 8, 2019. The film festival closed on Friday with a feature movie from Afghanistan, Rona Azim's Mother, winning the best prize. (Xinhua/Wu Huiwo)

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The Sharm el-Sheikh Asian Film Festival (SAFF) closed on Friday with a feature movie from Afghanistan, Rona Azim's Mother, winning the best prize.

The closing and award ceremony of the SAFF took place in the coastal Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh with the attendance of filmmakers and critics from countries across Asia.

Altogether 58 films from 26 countries have competed for nine awards in five competitions.

Leon Le received the best director for his Vietnamese Song Lang.

A Song Lang is a musical instrument, a little percussion used in Vietnamese traditional music to keep the tempo for the musicians and the performers and to guide the artists, Leon told Xinhua.

The director left Saigon when he was 13 to go and live in California with his family and "Song Lang" is his debut feature after two U.S.-produced short movies, an elaboration of his interrupted upbringing in Vietnam.

"The film is also a tribute to his beloved Vietnamese traditional folk opera," Leon said, noting his movie has won 12 other prizes.

He added his movie is a passionate love letter to his teenage time in Saigon in the 1980's, his tape cassettes and the way art influences life and vice versa.

Leon said he was very happy to win the best director from a festival in Egypt because one of his dreams to visit the most populous Arab country finally came true.

He said the movie is a message to young people to always fulfill their dreams no matter what obstacles hinder them.

The prize of the best animation movie went to the Iranian movie "Last Fiction" while Syrian-Lebanese-Tunisian joint production movie "Travelers of War" won the best Arab movie.

Chinese renowned filmmaker Xie Fei, head juror at the festival, has been honored by a certificate of appreciation at the closing ceremony.

Magdi Ahmed Ali, president of the SAFF, said "the festival is a base for promoting Asian movies in Egypt."

He added the festival aims at attracting more Asian movies, events and cultures in the next year edition.

Though the festival included varied Asian films, Ali hoped the coming years will see more participations from the Asian filmmakers, adding Egypt is a good market for promoting the cinema production.

Magdi al-Tayyeb, head of the critics committee, agreed with Ali, saying "it's a new thing to turn towards Asian cinema and it's essential to support such festivals, as it's one of Egypt's soft power."

The Asian cinema has been barely known for the Egyptian audience, he told Xinhua, and expected the SAFF will attract more movies that will inspire the Arab and Asian people.

He hoped the festival will encourage the cinema distributers to start displaying Asian movies in Egypt after they saw positive reactions from the Egyptians about such new kind of films.

The Noon Foundation for the Arts which organized the SAFF stated "it is our duty to give Egyptian and international artists venues and opportunities to inspire and in turn be inspired by each other, and build a sustainable friendship between Egypt and the rest of the world."

The foundation will also organize the 2020 edition of the SAFF.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-09 06:29:38|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ROME, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Italy on Friday marked International Women's Day with official events, marches, and a national strike as women called for equality in the workplace and an end to gender violence, among other issues.

In Rome, President Sergio Mattarella celebrated the day at the Quirinal Presidential Palace, which was decorated with masses of yellow mimosa flowers, the symbol of International Women's Day, and watched over by an all-female guard of honor.

Titled "Never Slaves Again", the ceremony, attended by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and top government officials, included testimony from two women who were forced into prostitution, as well as a female prosecutor who specializes in sex trafficking cases.

In a speech, Mattarella decried "the ignoble exploitation of women and girls" who flee extreme poverty, war, and drought only to "end up in the hands of unscrupulous criminal organizations that profit off the bodies and souls of women, and do not hesitate to use threats, violence, and the most brutal coercion."

"No compromise or tolerance are acceptable -- sex trafficking must be eradicated," Mattarella said, adding that gender equality means not only freedom from violence but also equal pay for equal work.

"All the indicators agree on the fact that a country's economic and social progress goes hand in hand with the development of female employment," Mattarella said.

"However, many women still encounter obstacles in deploying their talents, are threatened by poverty, oppressed by violence, handicapped by additional burdens...between work and caring for their families, underpaid or excluded from stable jobs in spite of being skilled and worthy."

The ceremony also marked the 20th anniversary of women being allowed into the military, and was attended by female officers from the Air Force, the Army, and the Navy.

The Defense Ministry, which is headed by Elisabetta Trenta, tweeted a composite photo of Italian women in uniform, including a female Air Force pilot, saying: "on International Women's Day, we celebrate all our female colleagues, both civilian and military, who every day uphold our security and defense in the interests of the country and its citizens."

Out on the streets of the capital, thousands of women and men marched against gender violence and for equal pay under the Non Una Di Meno (Not One Less) campaign banner as part of a nationwide women's strike and mobilization that also took place in countries around the world.

Similar marches took place in some 40 cities, including Milan, Pisa, Bologna, Genoa, Florence, Venice, Turin, Naples, and Cagliari, according to the Non Una Di Meno Facebook page, where activists posted photos and videos from across Italy.

The strike affected both public and private sectors, including transportation, as buses and subways were reduced to a minimum in several cities including Rome and Naples, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Italy's "big three" trade unions, which also joined the national women's strike, organized a campaign called "Her Name Will Be Futura", calling for gender-based collective bargaining to create an equal playing field between men and women in the workplace.

Between them, the "big three" unions represent about 10.8 million workers in a country of 60 million people, according to official union membership and ISTAT national statistics agency.

Maurizio Landini, who leads the biggest and the most left-leaning of the three unions --the General Confederation of Italian Labor (CGIL), said that "March 8 is not just a holiday but a day of struggle. We need a cultural change to bring gender differences into job relations. Beginning with a change on the part of men."

Also on Friday, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini announced on Twitter that "today we will submit two bills. One eliminates reduced sentences for murderers and rapists. The second calls for a woman to be heard by a magistrate within three days of filing a harassment report."

If approved, the second bill would address a frequent complaint from women's groups who support domestic violence and harassment victims, who say they often fear reporting abusive partners or stalkers to the police because under current law, it takes too long for authorities to step in to protect them.

Salvini's announcement came in the wake of two violent murders of women by their male partners on Thursday, and of a gang rape that took place at a public transport station in Naples earlier in the week.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-09 06:34:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CARACAS, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's capital Caracas was calm on Friday despite waking up to a nearly nationwide blackout that entered its second day, local authorities said.

By early afternoon, electricity was restored to at least 10 Caracas districts after 20 hours without service, and to several eastern states.

Early in the day, the government of President Nicolas Maduro ordered schools and government offices remain closed due to the power outage.

However, some essential services continued, and local residents could still go to work using public transit that was still available.

The Simon Bolivar International Airport serving Caracas announced via Twitter that it was functioning, with officials activating a "contingency plan to keep operations in the areas of national and international arrivals and departures going."

The governor of north-central Miranda state, Hector Rodriguez, said via social networks that his office was working "in coordination with all government agencies to attend to the eventualities of the electricity sabotage."

Authorities "at all levels" were ensuring hospitals, security systems and transport networks continue to operate, said Rodriguez.

"We are calling for calm. Together we will defeat this blow to electricity," he added.

Late Thursday, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said Venezuela was suffering from "technical and cybernetic sabotage" at the nation's central hydroelectric plant, which affected nearly the whole country as of 5 p.m.

The plant at the Guri dam in southeast Venezuela supplies up to 65 percent of the country's hydroelectric energy, according to 2015 government data.
Valorile termice vor creste

Joi, cerul va fi variabil spre noros. Soarele rasare la ora 07:55. Spre dimineata vor fi conditii de ceata sau nori josi pe arii extinse si spre amiaza cerul se va limpezi pentru cateva momente. In a doua parte a zilei se va innora din nou, dar temperaturile vor creste peste normalul perioadei. La munte temporar va ninge, in deosebi pe creste. [citeste mai departe]
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International Women's Day Open source

International Women's Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. International Women's Day first emerged from the activities of labor movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe. Since those early years, International Women's Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women's movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women's conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point to build support for women's rights and participation in the political and economic arenas.

The Charter of the United Nations, signed in 1945, was the first international agreement to affirm the principle of equality between women and men. Since then, the UN has helped create a historic legacy of internationally agreed strategies, standards, programmes, and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.

1909 The first National Woman's Day was observed in the United States on 28 February. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honor of the 1908 garment workers' strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.

1910 The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women's Day, international in character, to honor the movement for women's rights and to build support for achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish Parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.

1911 As a result of the Copenhagen initiative, International Women's Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded women's rights to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.

1913-1914 International Women's Day also became a mechanism for protesting World War I. As part of the peace movement, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with other activists.

1917 Against the backdrop of the war, women in Russia again chose to protest and strike for "Bread and Peace" on the last Sunday in February (which fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar). Four days later, the Czar abdicated and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. 1975 During International Women's Year, the United Nations began celebrating International Women's Day on 8 March.

1995 The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a historic roadmap signed by 189 governments, focused on 12 critical areas of concern, and envisioned a world where each woman and girl can exercise her choices, such as participating in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies free from violence and discrimination.

2014 The 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW58)  the annual gathering of States to address critical issues related to gender equality and womens rights  focused on Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls. UN entities and accredited NGOs from around the world took stock of progress and remaining challenges towards meeting the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs have played an important role in galvanizing attention on and resources for gender equality and womens empowerment.

After the Maidan, for the first time during Ukraine's independence, holding of rallies, dedicated to March 8, has become dangerous in Ukraine. Last year, Amnesty International has recorded attacks on female participants in Kyiv, Uzhgorod, Lviv, and Mariupol. Far right National Corps were among the attackers. This year, the police were able to provide better security, but aggressive behavior of the far-right organizations Bratstvo (Brotherhood of Korchynsky) and Tradytsiyi i Poriadok (Tradition and Order) that came to Mykhailivska Square in Kyiv to disrupt the rally would be unacceptable in the European countries.

Read the original text here.
The Russian militants violated the ceasefire regime 18 times, 14 times they used Minsk-banned weaponry

On March 7, five Ukrainian servicemen were wounded in the Donbas conflict zone, as the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) HQ reported this.

The Russian militants violated the ceasefire regime 18 times, including they used 14 times Minsk-banned weaponry. The enemy attacked the Armed Forces of Ukraine with 152 mm artillery system and 120mm and 82 mm mortar, they used 119 shells.

The enemy fired five times in the East operational group action zone:

With 120 mm mortar near Vodiane settlement.

Twice with 82 mm mortar, grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms near Hnutove village.

Twice with grenade launchers of various system, heavy machine guns, and small arms near Pisky village.

In the North group area, the hostile forces attacked our positions 13 times with:

Three times with 82 mm mortar near Krymske village.

Three times with 120 mm and 82 mm mortar, anti-tank guided missiles, automatic easel grenade launchers, and heavy machine guns near Khutir Vilnyi settlement.

With 152 mm artillery system near Novotoshkivske village.

With 82 mm and 120 mm mortar near Staryi Aidar, Troyitske, and Novozvanivka settlements.

With 82 mm mortar near Katerynivka village.

With heavy machine guns, and small arms near Zaytseve village.

With small arms near Novoluhansk settlement.

Five Ukrainian soldiers of Armed Forces of Ukraine were wounded. Ukrainian soldiers stopped the fire by opening fire as well. According to the surveillance, four Russian militants were killed and 13 more were killed. The enemys infantry fighting vehicle was destroyed as well.

Since midnight on March 8, no attacks have been spotted.




NEW ORLEANS, March 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until March 15, 2019 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Maxar Technologies Inc. (NYSE: MAXR), if they purchased the Companys securities between March 29, 2018 and January 7, 2019, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.



What You May Do

If you purchased securities of Maxar and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-maxr/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by March 15, 2019.

About the Lawsuit

Maxar and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On January 7, 2019, the Company revealed that its WorldView-4 satellite, which generated revenue of roughly $85 million in FY 2018 and had a net book value of about $155 million, could no longer produce usable imagery due to a failure in its control moment gyroscopes causing loss of stability and that it would likely not be recoverable.

On this news, the price of Maxars shares plummeted $5.69 per share, or 48.5%.

The case is Durant v. Maxar Technologies, et al., 19-cv-00124.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include the former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com .

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
The self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk promised to keep the ceasefire regime

Ceasefire regime in Donbas Open source

On March 8, the deal on the ceasefire regime has come into force in the Donbas conflict zone. The agreement has been reached previously by the subgroup on the security of the Contact Group on conflict settlement of eastern Ukraine, as TASS reports.

Despite the agreement and all the assuredness, the Ukrainian side seriously doubts that Russian occupants will abide by the deal.

The most important: anyway, today all the parties have agreed that from midnight the ceasefire regime comes into force. However, in order to not hope in vain, till there are no guarantees from the Russian agreement and Vladimir Putin himself, unfortunately, it is unlikely for them to abide by the deal. They have the powers to do so, - Yevhen Marchuk, Ukraine's Envoy in the Group, stated this during the Minsk agreement.

There is no accurate information on how long the period of ceasefire regime will last, but according to Marchuk, the Ukrainian party wants it to as long as possible.

The self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk promised to abide by the deal on spring armistice.
Open source

An Austrian journalist who worked for Kremlin press was banned from entering Ukraine for one year. It is reported by the first deputy chairman of the Committee on Freedom of Expression and Information Policy in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Olga Chervakova.



Austrian TV channel ORF journalist Christian Wehrschutz was banned from entering because of his illegal crossing of the state border and the publication of fake news from Russia Today.



During the last four years, the man constantly visited the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as annexed Crimea through uncontrolled checkpoints.



Last December, the 57-year-old journalist said that he was afraid for his life, because Ukrainians allegedly threatened him.
The preventive measure for the suspect is taking him into custody or $150, 000 bail

e Prosecutor General Yuriy e Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutskeno ru.slovodilo.ua

The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv chose the preventive measure for the second suspect in trying to bribe Yuriy Tymoshenko, the presidential candidate in the elections-2019. Larysa Sargan, the press secretary of the General Prosecutor of Ukraine on Twitter.

The Pechersk District Court o Kyiv declared a preventive measure for Ishchenko A, the second suspect, who attempted, to bribe the presidential candidate of Ukraine, either he can be brought into custody or be released with $150,000 bail, - Sargan wrote.

Earlier, the court chose the same preventive measure for the first suspect Taras Kostanchuk.

As we reported earlier, Yuriy Tymoshenko, the presidential candidate of Ukraine was suggested almost $200,000 for his withdrawal from the elections.

It should be noted, that the presidential applied to the General Prosecutors Office after several attempts to influence Yuriy Tymoshenko. The culprits are detained under article 157 part 3 (the impediment of the electoral process).
The registration as presidential candidates of Dmytro Hnap, Yevhen Murayev and Dmytro Dobrodomov were canceled on the session of CEC on March 8

The Central Election Commission of Ukraine approved the final list of presidential candidates. Overall 39 candidates will run for the presidency on March 31, as it is reported on the website of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine.

The registration as presidential candidates of Dmytro Hnap, Yevhen Murayev and Dmytro Dobrodomov were canceled on the session of CEC on March 8.

The ballot paper will include 39 candidates in the presidential elections in Ukraine and information about them after registration of five persons were canceled, - the report said.

Besides, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine approved the design of a ballot paper. This will be a sheet of paper, the size 200 x 800 mm, of sand color with a two-tone watermark and protective fibers with the use of protective graphic anti-scanner elements, which are produced with the help of UV-resistant protective fluorescent paints.

Earlier, Dmytro Dobrodomov, the candidate for the presidency in Ukraine decided to bail out. He lifted his candidacy and made it public during the briefing on Thursday afternoon.

Earlier, Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi and reporter Dmytro Hnap also said they would bail out in support of Hrytsenko. On the same say, Yevhen Murayev lifted his candidacy, too. The leader of Nashi party decided to leave the race, endorsing the candidacy of Oleksandr Vilkul, the deputy head of 'Opposition Bloc' party.
The only solution that will provide the population and the real sector of the country's economy with cheap gas is the return to direct supplies from the Russian Federation, according to the Chairman chairman of the political council of Opposition platform  For Life

Viktor Medvedchuk, chairman of the Political Party Opposition Platform - For Life Opposition Platform - For Life

In 2018, Ukraine imported over 10 million cubic meters of natural gas worth around 3 million dollars. So, the average price is 300 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters. For December 1, 2018, the average price of imported natural gas exceeded 339 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters, which is almost 3 times more than the corresponding indicators in neighboring countries, such as Belarus. In 2018, as in 2017, it was imported solely from Europe. However, it is not a secret that the so-called European gas is almost entirely Russian, but it comes through intermediaries with the increased price, Vadim Rabinovich, the founder of the Opposition platform  For Life says.

Switzerland has supplied us with gas. Where did Switzerland get this gas?? And we are so crazy that we openly say that they got off the Russian oil. They buy gas from Russia, run it through the territory, impose 100 extra dollars on it, which we do not have to pay and declare it European gas and achievement of revolution, he added.

Viktor Medvedchuk, the Chairman of political council of the Opposition platform  For Life believes that the only solution that will provide the population and the real sector of country's economy with cheap gas is the return to direct supplies from the Russian Federation.

In these conditions, Ukraine needs to move away from the externally imposed gas strategy that undermines the energy independence of the country and leads to the impoverishment of people. To be guided not by geopolitical expediency, but by pragmatism and interests of the national economy - that's the principle of real people's power that should be put on the first place. It is in the interests of Ukraine and its citizens to return to the practice of direct purchases of gas from Russian Gazprom, shaking off the intermediaries and thus providing direct, cheaper supplies of gas from the Russian Federation, in order to restore economic potential and social justice in the country, he said.
Paul Manafort plead guilty in the conspiracy against the U.S. and in impeding justice

Open source

U.S. federal judge of Virginia State found Paul Manafort, President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, guilty in fraudulence and sentenced him to 47 months imprisonment. Reuters reports this.

Besides, the Court imposed on Manafort a fine in the amount of $50,000 and the restitution in more than 24 million dollars.

The sentence was even less than the sentence recommended by Manaforts lawyers of 4-1/4 to 5-1/4 years in prison.

Earlier, the federal judge in Manaforts case postponed the date when she will announce the term he should spend in prison. She explained that she wanted to hear more about whether he lied to investigators after pledging to cooperate in Muellers Russia probe.

As it was reported, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been found guilty on eight counts of financial crimes. After a 16-day trial, Manafort was found guilty of five tax fraud charges, one charge of hiding foreign bank accounts, and two counts of bank fraud. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the remaining 10 counts, and the judge declared a mistrial on those charges.

Paul Manafort is charged with laundering money and evading taxes over ten years of cooperation with former Ukrainian leaders. Previously, an investigation team released over 300 documents, which reveal the details of Manafort's cooperation with the currently disbanded Party of Regions - the-then pro-presidential and ruling political force in Ukraine.
Both Congress Chambers have to approve the bill, and the President of the USA has to sign the document in order the bill could become the law

The United States House Committee of representatives of U.S. Congress Open source

On March 7, the United States House Committee of representatives of U.S. Congress approved the bill, which bans the U.S. government to recognize Crimean as a Russian peninsula. It was posted on the website of the Committee.

The text of the law on non-recognition of the Crimean annexation suggests forbidding the U.S. government to recognize Crimea as the Russian part.

It is the policy of the United States not to recognize the Russian Federation s claim of sovereignty over Crimea, its airspace, or its territorial waters, - the report said.

No Federal department or agency may take any action or extend any assistance that implies recognition of the Russian Federations claim of sovereignty over Crimea, its airspace, or its territorial waters  according to the bill.

It should be noted that the President has the power to make an exception if he decides it is necessary for the national security of the USA.

In order the bill could become the law, the both Congress Chambers have to approve this and the President of the USA has to sign the document.
Following the meeting at the White House, Donald Trump and Andrej Babis also expressed the view that NATO "guarantees transatlantic and European security"

Open source

U.S. President Donald Trump and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis spoke in support of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, advocating the maintenance of sanctions against Russia. This is mentioned in a joint statement of politicians on the results of their meeting in the White House, reports TASS.



"We remain steadfast in supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and also intend to continue the sanctions pressure on Russia," the document says.



Trump and Babis also expressed the view that "NATO guarantees transatlantic and European security."



We will work together to take advantage of the opportunities arising from the transformation of energy markets and at the same time we will advocate further diversification of energy sources in Europe, ensuring each others security, the joint statement also said. In addition, politicians agreed to intensify cooperation between states in the field of cyber security.



Andrej Babiswas the first Czech Prime Minister since 2011 to receive an invitation to the White House.

Earlier the U.S. federal judge of Virginia State found Paul Manafort, President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, guilty in fraudulence and sentenced him to 47 months imprisonment. Reuters reports this.

Besides, the Court imposed on Manafort a fine in the amount of $50,000 and the restitution in more than 24 million dollars.

The sentence was even less than the sentence recommended by Manaforts lawyers of 4-1/4 to 5-1/4 years in prison.
The National Police seized drugs almost 870 million dollars during the previous year. The Department of Drug Crimes of the National Police of Ukraine reports this, according to UNN.

Thus, according to the data, the total amount of seized drugs and psychotropic substrates is almost 870 million dollars, the price of the black market.

Earlier, in Kyiv, the law enforcement detained the group of people, who were illegally producing and trafficking of precursor chemicals in particular great amounts in order to use them for making psychotropic substances.

Those five persons are informed about the suspicion of committing crimes under part 2 and 3 of article 311 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

A group of two servicemen of one of the military units and one civilian was detained for drugs sale in Kyiv. The press office of the Military Prosecutor's office of the central region reports.

The detention took place immediately after the sale of 50gr of amphetamine.

According to the Prosecutor's office, the military was purchasing the drugs in Kyiv and distributing among other servicemen in the educational center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Chernihiv region.
Open source

Thousands of women went on strike throughout Spain, joining millions of other women around the world, demanding gender equality in the conditions of wage differentials between men and women, violence and general inequality, the Associated Press reported.

Two major unions called for a two-hour strike.



However, the March 8 Commission, which unites women's rights advocates, argues that the strike should last 24 hours.



Rallies under the slogan "1000 reasons" are scheduled on Friday in dozens of Spanish cities, including Madrid, where mass protests took place in March.



It is expected that in the evening several ministers will join the march in Madrid to demonstrate support for social mobilization.



At the beginning of the year, in hundreds of cities in Spain, thousands of people, mostly women, took to the streets in protest against the threat to gender equality in connection with the presence of Vox the ultra-right party in the Andalusian regional parliament.

Earlier the right-wing radicals clashed with the security forces during the "Women's March" feminist rally in the center of Kyiv, reports RBC-Ukraine.

Up to hundreds of feminists and citizens supporting them gathered on Mykhailivska Square. They insist that March 8 is a day of struggle for the rights of women. In contrast, one and a half hundred participants of the right-wing organizations Traditions and Order and the Brotherhood came to the rally.



After the provocation and the ensuing clash, at least two opponents of the march were detained. At the moment they are in a police car.



A few hundred policemen and soldiers of the National Guard provide order at the place of the action.



The press service of the capital police later confirmed the information about the arrests in the city center, adding that there were three detainees. They were taken to the police office.
TORONTO, March 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Plateau Energy Metals Inc . (Plateau or the "Company") (TSX-V:PLU) (OTCQB:PLUUF) is pleased to announce shareholders voted in favor of all matters brought forward at the Companys annual and special meeting (Meeting) held earlier today, including the appointment of RSM Canada LLP as the Companys auditor the annual reapproval of the Companys rolling stock option plan.



The seven nominees listed in the Companys management information circular dated January 22, 2019, were elected directors as set out below:

Director Votes For % Votes For Total Maryse Belanger 99.77 18,170,999 Wayne Drier 99.79 18,176,065 Alan Ferry 99.94 18,202,995 Alex Holmes 99.96 18,207,011 Christian Milau 99.77 18,170,999 Ted OConnor 99.96 18,207,091 Dr. Laurence Stefan 99.94 18,201,945

Detailed voting results will be available for viewing on SEDAR at www.sedar.com .

Mr. Ian Stalker did not stand for re-election to the Companys Board of Directors in 2019 but will remain with the Company as a technical advisor, allowing him to continue in his efforts and commitment to the Companys projects in Peru while allowing for additional time to focus on his other business interests. Mr. Alan Ferry was appointed as the Companys Chairman at a board meeting held immediately after the Meeting.

Mr. Stalker commented, I have enjoyed the opportunity to serve both as Interim CEO and Executive Chair of Plateaus Board of Directors. Plateau continues to be in an exciting time of growth and development, and I wish the Company well. I am pleased to continue working with the team as an advisor as they advance the Falchani Lithium and Macusani Uranium projects.

On behalf of the Board and the Company, I would like to thank Ian for his considerable efforts and contributions to Plateau since joining the Board in 2014. His guidance and leadership have been invaluable throughout a period of significant change for the Company, stated Alex Holmes, CEO of Plateau.

Share Issuance to Consultant

The Company also announces that it has received approval to issue 112,326 common shares of the Company at a deemed price of C$0.6677 per share to Haywood Securities Inc., as a financial advisor, for services rendered.

About Plateau Energy Metals

Plateau Energy Metals Inc ., a Canadian exploration and development company, is enabling the new energy paradigm through exploring and developing its Falchani Lithium Project and its Macusani Uranium Project in southeastern Peru. The Company, with 100% control of mineral concessions covering over 93,000 hectares (930 km2), has significant and growing lithium resources and all reported uranium resources known in Peru, all of which are situated near infrastructure.

For further information, please contact:

Plateau Energy Metals Inc. Alex Holmes, CEO & Director Facebook: www.facebook.com/pluenergy/ +1-416-628-9600 Twitter: www.twitter.com/pluenergy/ IR@PlateauEnergyMetals.com Website: www.PlateauEnergyMetals.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 press release.
In summer 2019 the new project of the European Union on conducting a special expanded international list of dolphins in the Black Sea with photo and video fixation made by the flying device. The press service of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine reported this.

The project is planned for two years. The scientists from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania Turkey, and Monaco will participate in the project.

We have rather contradictory information on the number of dolphins in the Black Sea, but, apparently, there are many problems concerning their protection. It is not only about Ukraine...In addition to the list of dolphins made by flying device, we will conduct the monitoring of dolphins, which died in the fishing nets. We will question fishers and observers on the vessels, also we will examine the already dead dolphins, whose bodies were brought by the waves to the shore, - Ostap Semerak, the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine said this.

The EU project is targeted at supporting of the implementation of the Maritime strategy in the Black Sea by creating the regional monitoring system of cetaceans and the sea noise in order to reach good ecologic conditions.
Open source

Kirill Vyshinsky, the editor-in-chief of RIA Novosti-Ukraine, accused of treason, to be transferred from the Kherson remand centre to Kyiv on March 9. This was stated by his lawyer Andriy Domansky, reports Strana.



According to him, the transferring process can take from three days to a month. In this case, in the event of any delay, maximum on March 20 Vyshinsky should be in the capital.



"On this date, the appeal court of the Supreme Court ordered consideration of the journalists defense complaints against the refusal of the Court of Appeal to study the lawfulness of his detention. We insist that it was carried out with violations," Domansky said.



He stressed that in Kyiv journalists must be placed in the Lukyanivske remand centre and "there are certain risks here."



I do not rule out attempts of provocations against Kirill during transfer and further detention in remand centre No. 13. There is a different contingent of people with their judgments in the places of detention, and there is a possibility that various insinuations can be made on this score. Unfortunately, precedents have already taken place and the administration is not always able to guarantee the safety of prisoners, "the defender explained.
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
Gettysburg, PA, March 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OPEN MINDS has announced the details of its upcoming pre-institute executive seminar: How To Build Value-Based Payer Partnerships: An OPEN MINDS Executive Seminar On Best Practices In Marketing, Negotiating, & Contracting With Health Plans. The session will take place on August 12, 2019, from 1:00 PM  4:00 PM, and will be led by Senior Associate at OPEN MINDS, Deb Adler. The 2019 OPEN MINDS Management Best Practices will return to the Hilton Long Beach in Long Beach, California, from August 12  14, 2019.

Across the country, managed care organizations are successfully delivering treatment services to large populations and doing it in a way that saves states significant sums of money. These demonstrated savings show that value-based reimbursement and managed care arrangements arent going anywhere, which means that executives of provider organizations must find a way to position themselves to work closely with managed care companies. In this crucial seminar, Ms. Adler will discuss:

How to start strategic conversations with health plans

How to demonstrate an organizations value in way that will capture health plans interest

How to secure and optimize service agreements with health plans

Having a productive relationship with a health plan requires a strategic approach, says Ms. Adler. This seminar will give providers the tools to develop an effective value proposition and contracting strategy that will help forge a long-term and meaningful payer relationship.

Deb Adler brings more than 20 years of experience in executive health care roles, serving in a variety of capacities including Network Executive, Quality Management Executive and Chief Operating Officer, to the OPEN MINDS team. In her consulting role with OPEN MINDS, she works with a broad range of customers (provider organizations, payers and government programs) and focuses on collaborative care models/medical behavioral integration, provider network functions contracting, network designs/tiering, recruitment, telehealth network implementation, and strategic planning.

The 2019 OPEN MINDS Management Best Practices Institute focuses on the clinical and management best practices executive teams need to move their organization from the concept of value-based reimbursement to success in the new financial normal. Additional information on The 2019 OPEN MINDS Management Best Practices Institute can be found at https://management.openminds.com/.

Registration for this one-of-a-kind seminar is limited and early registration is recommended. Individual registrations for the seminar are now available and registration for the seminar is also available as part of an All-Access Institute Pass, which gives attendees access to all institute activities, seminars, and summits. Learn more about the registration options at https://management.openminds.com/register/.

ABOUT OPEN MINDS

OPEN MINDS is a national market intelligence and strategic advisory firm focused on the sectors of the health and human service field serving consumers with chronic conditions and complex support needs. Founded in 1987 and based in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the 175+ associates provide market insights and innovative management solutions designed to improve operational and strategic performance. Learn more at www.openminds.com.
Maha Energy AB (publ)

Strandvagan 5A

SE-114 51 Stockholm

www.mahaenergy.ca

Press release

Stockholm

March 8, 2019

Maha Energy AB (publ) (Maha or the Company) provides an update on the Companys 2018 Capital Plan, announces its 2019 Capital Plan and discusses its April 2017 Five Year Capital Plan and Production Forecast

Maha Energy AB (publ) ("Maha" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the completion of the Companys 2018 Capital Plan, details of its 2019 Capital Plan and a discussion of the impact of the 2018 and 2019 Capital Plans on the previously announced - April 2017 Five Year Capital Plan and Production Forecast.

2019 Capital Plan Summary - Total Budget USD 20 Million

Tartaruga Delineation Well DH-1 Q2 and Q3 Test up to 27 Penedo sandstones



Tartaruga Facilities Upgrade Q2 and Q3 Increasing processing capacity for new production Tie New Well

TS-1 Q4 Maintain Tie field long term production plateau Tie New Well

TS-2 Q4 Maintain Tie field long term production plateau LAK None N/A N/A

Tartaruga Field  Sergipe, Brazil

Tartaruga - 2018 Capital Plan Completion Update

7TTG Well

As previously announced, stimulation clean-up operations of the P1 zone were performed using a dedicated jet pump from February 17th to February 23rd. The cleanup operation saw a significant portion of the stimulation fluids being produced back. Before shutting the well in and removing temporary flowback equipment, the P1 zone produced at a rate of 457 BOPD, 88 BWPD and 113 MSCFPD during a 24-hour flowback period. Note this is a dedicated test of the P1 zone only. The newly perforated P4 zone and the previously producing P6 zone are both temporarily closed off. Further production testing on the P1 zone is ongoing and the well is cleaning up nicely; the latest 24-hour production rate for the P1 zone before pump optimization is over 600 BOPD with negligible water.

Production is expected to be re-established very quickly after installation of permanent production equipment. Thereafter the well will continue to clean up - with oil rates expected to increase and water rates reducing. Once the operations team has completed pump optimization and, if required, reactivation of the P4 & P6 perforations, 7TTG is anticipated to produce hydrocarbons to the current capacity of the Tartaruga facilities which is between 500 and 800 BOPD depending on the results of the current well tests.

107 D (Tartaruga Field)

The new horizontal sidetrack reached a Total Depth of 3661 m as of 18 December, 2018 and the horizontal sidetrack has now been lined with a 3-1/2 liner that has been installed and sealed. Certain required non-standard specialty perforating equipment has been identified and will be air freighted to Brazil as soon as possible.



Tartaruga - 2019 Capital Plan

Delineation Well (MH-1)

The Company plans to drill a new well from the Tartaruga site during 2019 (MH-1). The objective of the MH -1 well is to further test hereto untested sandstone zones in the Penedo reservoir. The Penedo reservoir consists of up to 27 sandstone zones (hereinafter referred to as sands). All sands have been penetrated and logged in previous wells and all indications are that these sands contain oil, but only four (4) sands have been previously tested in order to confirm oil content. All four tested sands have tested varying amounts of oil.



MH-1 will be drilled to the base of the Penedo sandstone. Electric logging results will dictate the scope of the Drill Stem Testing Program at the time. On the conclusion of the tests, the MH-1 well will be placed on production and connected to the Tartaruga Facility.



It is not anticipated that the Tartaruga Facility will be shut in during the drilling activities of the MH-1 well. The Company expects 7TTG and 107D (once perforated and hooked up) to produce continuously through 2019, except during shutdowns required for the Facility expansion, if any.

Facility Upgrade

The production test results from the 107D Sidetrack and the 7TTG Workover will dictate upgrade requirements for the production handling facilities at Tartaruga field. Based on present understandings it is anticipated facilities will be initially upgraded during 2019 with a view to handle up to 2,500 BOPD and 500 MSCFPD of associated gas. Environmental licenses have been obtained for the implementation of a Gas-to-Wire project that will handle the excess gas for this upgrade. This facility work is expected to be completed during the second half of 2019. Further associated gas handling is currently being designed for implementation in 2020.

Tie Field - Bahia, Brazil

Tie - 2018 Capital Plan Completion Update

Attic Well

The 2018 announced Attic Well will be completed during 2019. Once the Boipeba exploration target has been evaluated, the Attic Well will be dually completed and placed on production.



GTE-3

As soon as the Attic Well is completed and placed on production, in order to boost production from the GTE-3 well, a Workover Rig will be mobilized to recomplete the GTE-3 well from a single comingled completion to a separate zone dual completion



GTE-4

In 2018, the Company announced that the free-flowing GTE-4 well will be recompleted with a Jet Pump once the Sergi and/or Agua Grande zone ceases free flowing oil. The water injection program that commenced in October 2017 has worked above expectations such that the GTE-4 well continues to free flow and hence work will only be undertaken to recomplete the GTE-4 well to a pumping well once either zone ceases to flow freely. The surface pumping equipment on GTE-4 is already installed such that any intervention work on GTE-4 will only entail minor work.



Facility Upgrade

The capital program announced in 2018 for upgrading the Tie Field facility will be completed during the first half of 2019. At the moment, the Plant is capable of handling up to 5,000 BOPD. Remaining work to be completed during 2019 includes the construction of two additional storage tanks and a four-bay loading facility. In the event that the Attic Well is completed before this work has been completed, the current facility is arranged to temporarily handle 5,000 BOPD until such time the four-bay loading work is completed.

Tie - 2019 Capital Plan



Tie South 1 and Tie South 2 Wells

The Company plans to drill two new wells at the Tie field (TS-1 and TS-2) in order to maintain the fields long-term production plateau. While these wells are currently scheduled to be drilled back-to-back towards the end of 2019 the exact spud date is wholly dependent on normal course regulatory approvals such as a well license. Permitting has already commenced and is expected to take eight months to complete. Given this timing there is some likelihood the Company will not complete both wells prior to year-end. It should be noted maintaining the Tie Field production plateau during 2019 is not dependent on the drilling of these wells.



Facility Upgrade

There is currently no anticipated requirement for additional facilities at Tie field other than completion of the work as per above. If results from the Attic Well and other planned operations exceed expectations, the Company may re-visit further additions to the 2019 Capital Program for additional facilities at Tie.

LAK Ranch  Wyoming USA

LAK - 2018 Capital Plan Completion Update



Phase I

During 2018, the Company completed the first Phase of the LAK Ranch Field Development. The First Phase now consists of five (5) near horizontal producers and nine hot water injectors which are being tied in. The results are now been evaluated.

LAK - 2019 Capital Plan

Production Optimization

2019 will be a year of production optimization and evaluation. So far, no investment decision has been made for LAK in 2019. Capital will only be spent if: a) the results show positive netback numbers for the field, b) further capital investments are ranked above other opportunities that the Company might have during 2019, and c) Board of Director review and approval.

Production

The Company expects to complete most if not all of the Capital Plan prior to year-end 2019. The exact timing of the operations is dependent upon a number of factors including delivery of long lead items, rig availability, permitting and logistics. Depending on the results of the operations, the Company will need to find new markets and offtake arrangements for production increases. As a minimum the Company expects to achieve, those production levels reflected in its April 2017 Five Year Capital Plan: an average annual net production of 3,990 BOPD for 2019 and 4,820 BOPD for 2020.

As the exact timing of operations and expected production/offtakes becomes clearer the Company will provide updated information by Press Release.

Funding of 2019 Capital Plan

2019 Capital Plan Budget

The 2019 Capital Plan has a total budget of USD 20 million for the above incremental projects and is expected to be funded fully through operating cash flow. Except if either of TS1 or the TS2 wells are delayed into 2020 (see above), it is anticipated most of these costs will be incurred in 2019.

Adviser

Certified Advisor: FNCA Sweden AB, info@fnca.se, Telephone: +46-8-528 00 399.

For more information, please contact:

Jonas Lindvall (CEO)

Tel: +1 403 454 7560

Email: jonas@mahaenergy.ca

or

Ron Panchuk (CCO)

Tel: +1 403 454 7560

Email: ron@mahaenergy.ca

Miscellaneous

The information was submitted for publication through the agency of the contact persons set out above on March 8, 2019, at 3:00 a.m. (CET)

Maha in Brief

Maha Energy AB is a Swedish public limited liability company. FNCA Sweden AB has been engaged as Certified Adviser. The Company's auditors are Deloitte. The Company's predecessor Maha Energy Inc. was founded in 2013 in Calgary, Canada, by Jonas Lindvall and Ron Panchuk. In May 2016, the new group was formed with Maha Energy AB as parent company for purposes completing an initial public offering on the Nasdaq First North Sweden stock exchange. Jonas Lindvall, CEO and Managing Director, has 26 years of international experience in the oil and gas industry, starting his career with Lundin Oil during the early days of E&P growth. After 6 years at Shell and Talisman, Jonas joined, and helped secure the success of, Tethys Oil AB. Maha's strategy is to target and develop underperforming hydrocarbon assets on global basis. The Company operates three oil fields, Tartaruga and Tie in Brazil and LAK Ranch, in Wyoming, U.S. For more information, please visit our website www.mahaenergy.ca.

Attachment
BENSALEM, Pa., March 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces an investigation on behalf of Nordstrom Inc. (Nordstrom or the Company) (NYSE: JWN ) investors concerning the Company and its officers possible violations of federal securities laws.



The investigation concerns whether the Company issued materially misleading business information to the investing public. On November 15, 2018, the Company announced poor same store sales results, weakening sales growth, and that credit card holders charged incorrect interest amounts. On this news, shares of Nordstrom fell sharply in value on November 16, 2018, thereby injuring investors.



If you purchased Nordstrom securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020 by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com , or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com .

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.
Lithuanian English

On 7 March 2019 Vilnius Regional Court has adopted a judgement to reject the claim of UAB Kroviniu Terminalas to AB Klaipedos Nafta (hereinafter  the Company) and AB ORLEN Lietuva for damages from the breach of the competition law and to award the Company full compensation of litigation expenses.

The judgement of the Court may be appealed to the Court of Appeal of Lithuania within 30 days after its announcement.

The Company informed about the received claim of UAB Kroviniu Terminalas by notification of material event on 1 December 2016.













Jonas Lenksas, Chief Financial Officer, +370 694 80594
French English

Press release

Paris La Defense, 8 March 2019

2018 annual results

EBITDA up sharply compared with 2017 (+18%)

Net income, Group share, exceeds targets, up from 2017 (+18%)

Significant increase in the share of renewables in the energy mix, at 62%

Albioma's Board of Directors, chaired by Jacques Petry, met on 07 March 2019 and approved the Group's consolidated financial statements for the 2018 financial year.

"2018 was a rich year for Albioma. Highlights were the commissioning in Martinique of Galion 2, the first 100% bagasse/biomass power plant in Overseas France, and the strong operational performances of our thermal and solar facilities; Albioma recorded robust EBITDA growth compared with 2017 (+18%) while net income, Group share rose by 18%. With a particularly high level of activity in the second half year, the Group continued to grow by strengthening its position in the solar power sector, with the acquisition of Eneco France. Internationally, Brazil remains a priority, notably with the signing of the final contract for the acquisition of a fourth plant. In addition, the launch of the 100% biomass conversion programme for our power plants, starting with the Albioma Caraibes plant in Guadeloupe, and the recent commissioning of the world's first bioethanol-fuelled peaking combustion turbine plant on Reunion Island, confirm our status as a major player in the energy transition. Our trajectory to achieve a renewable portion of at least 80% in our energy mix by 2023 is confirmed: at the end of 2018 the share of renewables in our energy mix totalled 62%. The major investments committed since 2013 should generate an EBITDA of around 200 million by 2020," said Frederic Moyne, Chief Executive Officer of Albioma.

Consolidated key figures for 2018

 millions (audited data) 2018 2017 (reported) Change % Revenue 428.3 403.2 +6% EBITDA 162.6 138.3 +18% Net income 53.6 44.3 +21% Net income, Group share 44.2 37.4 +18%

Revenue rose by 6% to 428.3 million (4% excluding the impact of changes in fuel prices) thanks to the increase in fixed premiums linked to contractual indexation and recent riders to contracts signed with EDF, and with the commissioning of Galion 2. Under the same effects, EBITDA for the year increased by 18% to 162.6 million and net income, Group share grew strongly by 18% to 44.2 million.

Highlights

The major industrial commissioning of two plants: the 100% bagasse/biomass Galion 2 in Martinique and the bioethanol combustion turbine on Reunion Island

Signing of the rider to the EDF contract for the 100% biomass conversion of the Albioma Caraibes power plant in Guadeloupe

Strengthening of the solar power business in mainland France with the acquisition of Eneco France

Lifting of conditions precedent for the finalisation of the acquisition of a new plant from Jalles Machado in Brazil

Sale of the anaerobic digestion business in France

Changes in the shareholder structure, with Impala taking a 6% stake

France

Thermal Biomass

Sound performance of thermal power plants overseas

The availability of thermal power plants in France stood at 87.9% in 2018 (compared with 89.6% in 2017), impacted by the scheduled shutdowns - offset contractually by EDF - related to the completion of IED work on Reunion Island (Le Gol and Bois-Rouge plants) in the first half of 2018. All the thermal power plants ran smoothly, with the exception of the Bois-Rouge plant, whose activity was affected by technical incidents during the summer of 2018.

The total electricity production of the French overseas thermal plants was down (1,874 GWh compared with 2,043 GWh in 2017), mainly due to the long-term shutdowns carried out as part of the upgrading of facilities and an erosion of the call rate across all the Group's plants. Following the commissioning of the Galion 2 plant in the last quarter of 2018, Galion's peaking combustion turbine duly experienced a decrease in its call rate.

EBITDA for the business, integrating the contribution from riders signed with EDF and the industrial commissioning of Galion 2, amounted to 123.6 million for 2018, up by 21% compared with 2017 (102.1 million).

Major commissioning of two plants

Industrial commissioning of the Galion 2 plant in Martinique, the first 100% bagasse/biomass plant in Overseas France

The 100% bagasse/biomass Galion 2 plant in Martinique has been in operation since 26 September 2018, under the 30-year contract signed with EDF. With an installed capacity of 40 MW, this plant, which is dedicated to the production of renewable energy, will provide electricity all year round for the Martinique grid from the combustion of bagasse, a fibrous residue of sugar cane, other local forms of biomass of plant origin and timber residues from sustainably managed forests. The Galion 2 power plant will triple renewable electricity production on the island (from 7% to 22%).

Industrial commissioning of the combustion turbine on Reunion Island, the first bioethanol-fuelled combustion turbine

Albioma has announced the industrial commissioning, on 25 February 2019, of the first peaking combustion turbine operating mainly using bioethanol, located in Saint-Pierre, Reunion Island. Dedicated to the production of renewable energy, the combustion turbine is a global innovation that operates predominantly with bioethanol, derived from the distillation of sugar cane molasses, produced locally at the Riviere du Mat distillery. With a capacity of 41 MW, it is a flexible and highly reactive means of production. Designed to start up in less than seven minutes, it supports consumption peaks, especially at the end of the day, and helps secure the Reunion Island grid. It facilitates the network integration and management of other renewable energy sources, such as solar power.

Development

Continuation of the IED programme

Annual maintenance outages, during which the Bois-Rouge and Le Gol plants continued the programme of works to make their fume treatment systems compliant with the European Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), took place under good conditions. In 2019, work began on the Albioma Le Moule power station in Guadeloupe.

Launch of the biomass conversion programme with the signing of the rider to the EDF contract for the 100% biomass conversion of the Albioma Caraibes plant

Following the deliberation of the French energy regulator (Commission de Regulation de l'Energie - CRE) of 15 November 2018, on 18 December the Albioma Caraibes power plant in Guadeloupe, now called ALM-3, signed a rider to its electricity sales agreement with EDF, allowing the conversion of this 100% coal plant to biomass. Conversion work began in 2019 so that the plant can operate exclusively on biomass before the end of 2020. This work will reduce emissions by more than 265,000 tonnes of CO 2 equivalent (a net reduction of around 87% compared with current coal operation), and will thereby increase the renewable portion of Guadeloupe's energy mix from 20% to 35%.

Solar Power

Stable performance from the plants

The electricity production of the solar power business rose to 92 GWh, compared with 95 GWh in 2017, despite less favourable sunshine conditions, particularly on Reunion Island during the first months of the year.

EBITDA for the business amounted to 30.1 million in 2018, down 6% compared with 2017 (32.0 million).

Development

Strengthening of the Group's presence in mainland France, with the acquisition of Eneco France

Albioma has strengthened its presence in mainland France with the acquisition of Eneco France. Created in 2008 and with an innovative positioning in power generation for onsite consumption, Eneco France develops, builds and operates photovoltaic plants on rooftops and agricultural facilities at private or industrial sites in the South of France. The Group owns photovoltaic plants with an installed capacity of 17 MWp in mainland France and has an extensive portfolio of projects under development. In addition, Eneco France operates a 0.5 MW hydroelectric plant. This acquisition offers Albioma the opportunity to intensify its positioning and expansion in the solar power sector in mainland France, to round out the 8 MWp already installed in the country, and demonstrates the importance given to solar power in its energy mix.

Other photovoltaic projects

The Group continued the construction of photovoltaic power plants with energy storage, and was awarded the latest invitations to tender initiated by the French Energy Regulatory Commission in 2015 and 2016, consolidating its position as the leader in solar power overseas. Albioma is planning to soon commission the Grand Port Maritime power plant on Reunion Island (1.3 MWp, rooftop) and the Sainte-Rose plant in Guadeloupe (3.3 MWp on the ground at a non-hazardous waste storage facility).

On 26 April 2018, Albioma entered into a strategic partnership with the SHLMR (low-income housing rental company on Reunion Island) to build 51 photovoltaic power plants on the roofs of residences across all municipalities of Reunion Island. The construction works will begin in the second half of 2019, with full commissioning at the end of 2019, for a capacity of 4.8 MWp.

Lastly, on 15 May 2018, Albioma carried out the refinancing of its portfolio of photovoltaic projects in the Indian Ocean and established a credit facility to finance the Group's new projects in the same area for the next 18 months. The financing, amounting to 110 million, will enable the Group to optimise the funding of its existing projects and extend the maturity of its current debt while securing the future financing of projects won under recent invitations to tender launched by the CRE or under a purchasing obligation.

Anaerobic Digestion

Disposal of the business in France

On 10 December 2018, Albioma sold all of its anaerobic digestion business to Biomethanisation Partenaires. With a capacity of 3.2 MWe, the three agricultural anaerobic digestion units (Tiper, Capter and Sainter) operated by Methaneo are located in the French regions of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and the Loire. These three units represent an annual output of some 20 GWh.

Mauritius

Excellent performance from the plants in the second half year

Facilities in Mauritius reported an availability rate of 85.4%, compared with 93.8% in 2017. Electricity production fell from 1,173 GWh in 2017 to 1,084 GWh in 2018.

After a first half marked by the accidental outage of OTEO La Baraque, the Mauritian power plants performed very well during the second half of the year.

EBITDA for the business was 3.1 million (corresponding to the share of net income of equity-accounted companies) in 2018 (compared with 3.5 million in 2017).

Brazil

Good operational performance by the Rio Pardo and Codora Energia power plants

Brazil's two power plants posted strong performances despite a lower volume of crushed cane compared with 2017 (2.7 Mtc vs. 3.1 Mtc in 2017). Production fell slightly in 2018, to 238 GWh (compared with 248 GWh in 2017), and was driven by the excellent performance of the Albioma Codora Energia facility. The Albioma Rio Pardo Termoeletrica power plant performed satisfactorily despite the fragile financial situation of its sugar-producing partner Usina Rio Pardo, which has been placed under "recuperacao judicial", the local judicial recovery protective regime.

Excluding the impact of exchange rates, EBITDA was stable at 6.5 million over 2018.

Development

Signing of the final contract for the acquisition of a new power plant from Jalles Machado

On 21 December 2018, Albioma signed the final contract with the Jalles Machado group for the acquisition of 60% of the bagasse cogeneration plant adjacent to the sugar refinery and distillery of the same name in Goianesia (state of Goias). Its annual crushing capacity totals 2.8 million tonnes of sugar cane. As a reminder, Albioma signed an agreement with Jalles Machado on 18 December 2017 providing for, in particular, the renovation of the existing boilers as well as the installation of a new 25 MW turbine, bringing the site's total capacity to 65 MW. By improving cogeneration yields and reducing the refinery's steam consumption, it should be possible to export 145 GWh of energy to the distribution network annually with effect from the 2019 harvest, almost doubling the current output. More than 80% of energy sales are already secured by a 20-year long-term contract.

Continued development of the Vale do Parana project

The acquisition of 40% of the shares of the company UTE Vale Do Parana was also finalised following the completion of the financing arrangements. This project, which represents capital expenditure totalling around BRL 100 million, aims to increase the generating capacity of an existing cogeneration plant to 48 MW by 2021. Work is underway.

A strong balance sheet to finance growth

Gross consolidated financial debt increased, notably as a result of the raising of debt to finance projects (Saint-Pierre combustion turbine, IED) and recent acquisitions. It amounted to 846 million at the end of 2018, as against 707 million at the end of 2017. Project debt came to 708 million (compared with 622 million at the end of 2017).

At the end of the 2018 financial year, marked by the commitment of nearly 178 million in development investment, the Group's cash position including security deposits amounted to 95 million, versus 92 million at 31 December 2017. Consolidated net financial debt was 747 million (as against 613 million at the end of 2017).

Dividends

The Board of Directors will submit to the Shareholders' Meeting a proposal to distribute a dividend of 0.65 per share, up 8% compared with 2018, with an option for 50% to be paid in new shares. This proposition is part of a dividend growth policy with a target distribution rate of around 50% of net income, Group share excluding exceptional items.

2019 objectives

For 2019, the Group is targeting EBITDA of 168 million to 178 million and net income, Group share of 38 million to 44 million.

Outlook

Investments committed since 2013 should generate an EBITDA of around 200 million by 2020. In addition, the Group plans to commit between 500 and 700 million of investments over the 2019-2023 period, while maintaining a solid financial structure.

Next on the agenda: revenue for the first quarter of the 2019 financial year, on 24 April 2019 (before trading).

About Albioma Contacts An independent renewable energy producer, Albioma is committed to the energy transition thanks to biomass and photovoltaics.



The Group, which is established in Overseas France, Mauritius and Brazil, has developed a unique partnership for 25 years with the sugar industry, to produce renewable energy from bagasse, a fibrous residue from sugar cane.



Albioma is also the leading generator of photovoltaic power overseas where it constructs and operates innovative projects with integrated storage capabilities. Investor

Julien Gauthier

+33 (0)1 47 76 67 00



Media

Charlotte Neuvy

+33 (0)1 47 76 66 65

presse@albioma.com Albioma shares are listed on NYSE EURONEXT PARIS (sub B) and eligible for the deferred settlement service (SRD) and PEA-PME plans (ISIN FR0000060402 - ticker: ABIO). www.albioma.com





Appendices

Simplified consolidated income statement

 millions 2018 2017



Reported Change % Revenue 428.3 403.2 +6% EBITDA 162.6 138.3 +18% Depreciation, amortisation, provisions and other (59.4) (58.4) -2% Operating income 103.3 79.9 +29% Net financial income (19.8) (23.7) +17% Tax (29.9) (11.9) -152% Effective tax rate1 37.3% 22.6% Consolidated net income 53.6 44.3 +21% Net income, Group share 44.2 37.4 +18% Consolidated earnings per share (in euros) 1.46 1.24

1. The standard tax rate is 33.7% (effective tax rate restated for the impact of non-deductible impairment losses, excluding Brazil and excluding the effect of the change in the tax rate as from 2019). At 31 December 2017, the rate was 34.4%.

Simplified consolidated balance sheet

 millions 31/12/2018 31/12/2017 Assets Goodwill 24 12 Intangible assets and property, plant and equipment 1,263 1,141 Other non-current assets 30 34 Total non-current assets 1,317 1,186 Current assets 188 140 Cash and cash equivalents 95 92 Total assets 1,601 1,419 Equity and liabilities Shareholders' equity, Group share 408 389 Non-controlling interests 84 78 Total equity 493 467 Current and non-current financial liabilities 846 707 Other non-current liabilities 111 119 Current liabilities 151 125 Total equity and liabilities 1,601 1,419

Simplified statement of consolidated cash flows

 millions 2018 2017 Cash flow from operations 164.1 139.4 Change in the working capital requirement1 (25.8) (1.9) Tax paid (26.9) (17.0) Net cash flow from operating activities 111.4 120.6 Operating capex (14.2) (12.4) Free cash-flow from operating activities 97.2 108.1 Development capex (128.7) (146.9) Other/Acquisitions/Disposals (49.1) 2.5 Cash flow from investing activities (177.8) (144.4) Dividends paid to Albioma shareholders (12.8) (10.6) Borrowings (increases) 178.8 105.6 Borrowings (repayments) (41.5) (41.4) Cost of debt (23.6) (24.3) Others (16.0) 4.0 Net cash flow from financing activities 84.8 33.3 Currency effect on cash (1.0) (0.9) Net change in cash and cash equivalents 3.2 (3.9) Opening cash and cash equivalents 92.1 96.0 Closing cash and cash equivalents 95.3 92.1

1. Deterioration of the WCR by -25.8 million, mainly due to the delay to January of the payment of trade receivables.
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Dublin, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Microsoft Dynamics NAV vs Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management ERP Comparison Report" report from Technology Evaluation Centers has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Microsoft Dynamics NAV vs. Sage Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management Software Comparison



The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Comparison Report assists you in comparing and evaluating functionalities of software suites of your selection.



This comparison chart lets you rigorously examine how both software solutions can satisfy your technical and functional needs. Whether you were mandated to assess a new software solution or your organization merely wants to rate the capabilities of the software you actually run, the Microsoft Dynamics NAV vs. Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management Software Comparison Report helps you consider the functionalities of your selected software suites in a comprehensive, step-by-step appraisal.



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/qzpdqf/global_comparison?w=12



Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
ALBANY, New York, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Transparency Market Research (TMR) study states that the global green packaging market is considerably competitive and fragmented. The market is competitive owing to the influence of some leading players. The global green packaging market is in its early stage of the competition and the growth phase is projected to be more intense in the forthcoming years. Some leading players such as Sealed Air, Rexam, Evergreen Packaging, Nampak, and Mondi, are gaining strong hold in the market. The large and small-scale industries are putting efforts to introduce new offers and standout in competition. These players are focused about developments in the products to withstand the fierce competition of the market. Also, new players are determined on offering low-priced sustainable packaging.

Get PDF Brochure for Research Insights at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=711

According to TMR, the global green packaging market is expected to surge with CAGR of 6.20% over the forecast period from 2015 to 2021. On the basis of application, the global green packaging market is divided into food & beverage, healthcare, personal care, and others. Among these, food & beverage section is probably to be the leading segment of the global green packaging market in the upcoming years. Rising demand for packaged food & beverages is projected to boost the demand for the global green packaging in the forthcoming years.

Geographically, the global green packaging market is divided into Europe, Middle East and Africa, North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. Among these, Asia Pacific is leading noteworthy share of the global green packaging market in the future. This is due to the rise in demand for food & beverages in developing economies, like China and India. Also, North American green packaging market is also experiencing a noteworthy growth in the coming years.

Request a PDF Sample - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=711

Rising Education on Eco-Friendly Packaging is Gaining Momentum

Government initiatives are rising for educating users about the advantages of environmental friendly packages. Along with this, providing useful education about harmful effects of toxic packaging materials is expected to profit industry growth in the coming years. Reasons such as rising awareness among costumers about environmental safety and advantages of green packaging are the prime factors driving the global green packaging market.

Browse Research Release at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/green-packaging-market.htm

Moreover, steps taken by governing bodies are suggest that adoptions of environmental friendly substitutes by producers will further drive the global green packaging market in the future.

The rising demand in the food and beverages sector is one of the prime aspects boosting the development of the green packaging market. The consumption rate of food is quickly growing in the past few years. The rising demand for increased shelf life and packaged food is gaining impetus around the world. Personal care and healthcare sectors are making use of green packaging, which is largely gaining momentum.

Request a Custom Report at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=CR&rep_id=711

Lack of Awareness about Green Packaging Hampers the global Market

A major restraining factor related to the global green packaging market is the lack of awareness regarding the importance of sustainability in some emerging economies. However, the growing e-commerce industry is likely to provide many growth opportunities in the global green packaging market.

The global green packaging market has been segmented as follows:

Application

Food and Beverage Packaging

Personal Care Packaging

Healthcare Packaging

Other Packaging

Packaging Type

Recycled Content Packaging

Paper

Plastic

Metal

Glass

Other

Reusable Packaging

Drums

Plastic Containers

Other Reusable Packaging

Degradable Packaging

Geography

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Latin America

Middle East And Africa

Browse More Packaging Market Research Reports

Popular Research Reports by TMR:

Push Pull Closures Market: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/push-pull-closures-market.html

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About Us

Transparency Market Research is a next-generation market intelligence provider, offering fact-based solutions to business leaders, consultants, and strategy professionals.

Our reports are single-point solutions for businesses to grow, evolve, and mature. Our real-time data collection methods along with ability to track more than one million high growth niche products are aligned with your aims. The detailed and proprietary statistical models used by our analysts offer insights for making right decision in the shortest span of time. For organizations that require specific but comprehensive information we offer customized solutions through ad hoc reports. These requests are delivered with the perfect combination of right sense of fact-oriented problem solving methodologies and leveraging existing data repositories.

TMR believes that unison of solutions for clients-specific problems with right methodology of research is the key to help enterprises reach right decision.

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HARTSVILLE, S.C., March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sonoco (NYSE:SON), one of the largest diversified global packaging companies, has been awarded three Silver Achievement Awards at the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) Annual Meeting. Sonocos PrimaPak packaging for Green Giant Veggie Spirals was recognized for Expanding the Use of Flexible Packaging, Technical Innovation and Packaging Excellence.



Were excited to provide state-of-the-art, purpose-driven packaging to Green Giant as they innovate the frozen vegetable category, said Jimmy Sanfilippo, president of Sonocos Elk Grove operation. Green Giant was looking to capitalize on the new trend of frozen, spiralized vegetables, a healthier alternative to pasta. We worked with them from start to finish  designing a packaging solution that worked with their filling equipment, could withstand the rigors of distribution, lowered the overall carbon footprint, and created a truly unique retail presence even adding value for the consumer by letting them microwave, blend, serve, and eat right from the original package.

The graphics cover all six panels of the package, providing a vibrant billboard effect on the freezer shelf to catch the eye of the consumer. Resembling a folding carton, the package stands vertically for maximum branding. The flexible, stackable, resealable package is produced from a single roll of film on modified Ilapak vertical form-fill-seal machinery. The microwaveable packaging is designed with vent holes, as well as a peel/reseal lid for easy opening and added convenience. The consumer has the option to microwave, blend additional ingredients and serve directly out of the package, without the need for a bowl or serving dish. This revolutionary package generates total supply chain benefits, which include a reduction in the number of trucks needed to deliver the package, a reduction in the amount of warehouse space needed to store the packaging, and the manufacturing efficiencies gained by including all packaging components in a single in-line process. PrimaPak rollstock can also incorporate renewable, plant-based plastics for an even more positive impact on the environment.

Green Giant needed the package to be able to withstand several very different and rigorous environments throughout the supply chain, said Roman Forowycz, vice president of Integrated Solutions for Sonocos Elk Grove operation. The packaging would be exposed to a wet and cold filling environment, then frozen through distribution and retail, and then finally, microwaved by the consumer. Were proud of our end-to-end solution and the problems it solves.

The awards were presented during the 2019 FPA Flexible Packaging Achievement Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, March 6, in conjunction with the 2019 FPA Annual Meeting. This year, only 14 packaging solutions were recognized from a total of 140 award entries. All winning packages and competition entries will be on display during the 2019 FPA Annual Meeting and online at www.flexpack.org.

About Sonoco

Founded in 1899, Sonoco (NYSE: SON) is a global provider of a variety of consumer packaging, industrial products, protective packaging, and displays and packaging supply chain services. With annualized net sales of approximately $5 billion, the Company has 21,000 employees working in more than 300 operations in 33 countries, serving some of the worlds best known brands in some 85 nations. Sonoco is committed to Better Packaging. Better Life., and ranked first in the Packaging sector on Fortunes Worlds Most Admired Companies 2018 list. For more information visit www.sonoco.com.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/61c6179e-9135-4f62-aaa1-bc86d52bfcd1
TORONTO, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Devencore, a leading, privately owned commercial real estate company with offices across Canada announced today that effective February 26, 2019, Mr. Mark Petznick has re-joined the Toronto office as Principal and Senior Vice President.



Mr. Petznick brings 19 years of commercial real estate experience servicing local and multinational accounts and has consistently been a top performer in the industry earning several awards for his accomplishments.

We are thrilled to have Mark return to Devencore, said Allan Schaffer, President, Broker of Record in the Toronto office. During his previous years with our firm, Mark was not only a top producer but the ultimate team player, and we are lucky to have such a valuable employee back on our team.

I am honoured to once again work with my Devencore colleagues, Mr. Petznick said.

ABOUT DEVENCORE

Founded in 1972, Devencore is one of the largest privately held corporate real estate brokerages and advisory firms in Canada. We offer comprehensive services that are specifically designed to ensure that all real estate decisions are supported by effective real estate strategies and professional execution.

Devencore has offices in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, as well as affiliated offices in Calgary, Edmonton, Moncton, Halifax, Quebec City and Victoria. We assist clients with their U.S. real estate needs through a strategic alliance with US-based Transwestern.

For further information, contact:

Andra Nedelcu

Vice President, National Communications and Marketing

Devencore

555 Burrard Street

Suite 1155

Vancouver, British Columbia V7X 1M8

CANADA



Tel.: 604-681-3334

Fax: 604-681-5255



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b4547fd8-32e2-4064-b713-618c18fcbde6
TORONTO, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bond is honored to announce that the organization has been named one of Canadas Best Managed Companies for the second year.



The 2019 Best Managed program award winners are among the best in class of Canadian-owned and -managed companies with revenues over $15 million demonstrating strategy, capability, and commitment to achieve sustainable growth.

We are extremely proud to receive this prestigious award for the second year, and I believe it demonstrates the strength of our people and culture, says Bob Macdonald, president and CEO of Bond. That is truly what sets us apart, makes our organization strong, and allows us to deliver exceptional solutions and profitable business outcomes for our valued clients.

Bond, a leading global customer experience and engagement agency, has experienced tremendous growth momentum over the past few years. The organization significantly expanded its marketing to support a growing roster of clients within Canada and internationally. Bond has also made considerable investments in its people, client experience, and new technologies to further enhance the companys focus on customer experience and engagement.

Now in its 26th year, Canadas Best Managed Companies is one of the countrys leading business awards programs recognizing Canadian-owned and -managed companies for innovative, world-class business practices. Every year, hundreds of entrepreneurial companies compete for this designation in a rigorous and independent process that evaluates the caliber of their management abilities and practices.

Applicants are evaluated by an independent judging panel comprised of representatives from program sponsors in addition to special guest judges. 2019 Best Managed Companies share commonalities that include a clear strategy and vision, investment in capability and commitment to talent.

The 2019 winners will be honoured at the annual Canadas Best Managed Companies gala in Toronto on April 17, 2019. On the same date, the Best Managed symposium will address leading-edge business issues that are key to the success of todays business leaders.

The Best Managed program is sponsored by Deloitte Private, CIBC, Canadian Business, Smith School of Business, and TMX Group.



About Canadas Best Managed Companies

Canadas Best Managed Companies continues to be the mark of excellence for Canadian-owned and -managed companies with revenues over $15 million. Every year since the launch of the program in 1993, hundreds of entrepreneurial companies have competed for this designation in a rigorous and independent process that evaluates their management skills and practices. For more information, visit www.bestmanagedcompanies.ca or contact bestmanagedcompanies@deloitte.ca .

About Bond Brand Loyalty

Bond is a global customer experience and engagement agency that specializes in building brand loyalty for the worlds most influential and valuable brands. Our mission is to make marketing more rewarding for customers, richer and more resilient for brands, and to deliver profitable business outcomes for our clients. We build measurable, authentic, and long-lasting relationships through a combination of services that includes loyalty solutions, customer experience measurement, marketing and management, marketing research, customer analytics, live brand experiences, and proprietary technology platforms. www.bondbrandloyalty.com .

For inquiries please contact:

Richard Lane

905-696-5319

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d585344f-8dbe-455b-8795-a741dc116302.
Not for distribution in the U.S. or to U.S. Newswires



VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blissco Cannabis Corp. ( CSE: BLIS ) ( OTCQB: HSTRF ) ( FRA: GQ4B ), (Blissco) or the (Company) is a Canadian cannabis brand based in British Columbia, a licensed processor, and producer of premium dried cannabis and cannabis oil and a licensed distributor of dried cannabis products. The Company is pleased to share it has shipped its initial order to the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB).

The BCLDBs initial order includes a variety of whole flower products from Blisscos collections that include the strains:

AC/DC from the Blissco EASE Collection; a CBD dominant, evenly balanced Sativa and Indica hybrid pre-roll, with a Beta-Pinene and Beta-Caryophyllene terpene profile

from the Blissco EASE Collection; a CBD dominant, evenly balanced Sativa and Indica hybrid pre-roll, with a Beta-Pinene and Beta-Caryophyllene terpene profile Green Cush, from the Blissco GO Collection; a THC dominant, Sativa hybrid whole flower and pre-roll, with a well-balanced Pinene and Beta-Caryophyllene terpene profile

from the Blissco GO Collection; a THC dominant, Sativa hybrid whole flower and pre-roll, with a well-balanced Pinene and Beta-Caryophyllene terpene profile Cold Creek Kush, from the Blissco CONNECT Collection; a THC dominant, Indica hybrid whole flower and pre-roll, with a Beta-Pinene terpene profile

I have a long history of working with the BCLDB in my previous role as a Managing Partner of JAKs Wine, Beer and Spirits, a fourth-generation family operated company. I am excited to see that relationship continue as we provide the province with our premium cannabis products, said Damian Kettlewell, Blissco CEO. We are building the foundation for what we anticipate to be a fruitful and long-term partnership. We will continue to innovate and refine our product offerings, while we enter new domestic markets in the coming months.

About Blissco Cannabis Corp.

Blissco Cannabis Corp. (CSE: BLIS) (OTCQB: HSTRF) (FRA: GQ4B) is a Canadian cannabis brand based in British Columbia and a multi-licensed processor, cultivator, and distributor of premium cannabis.

Blissco owns and operates an 18,000 square foot, state-of-the-art GPP facility located in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia with extraction, cultivation and processing rooms. Blissco is supplying premium cannabis and small-batch Reserve whole flower and dried flower pre-rolls to the Canadian and global marketplace with a growing list of provincial cannabis boards and international distribution partners.

With a license to process cannabis oil acquired in August 2018, Blisscos extraction lab is also in operation preparing a line of full spectrum oils for distribution in 2019.
Las Vegas, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LAS VEGAS, March 8, 2019 -- Rimrock Gold Corp. (OTC Pink:RMRK) (the Company), is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Acqua Cannabis Corp (Acqua), has signed a Collaboration Agreement with Sofos CBD, a subsidiary of One Step Vending Corp(OTC Pink: KOSK), for the supply and installation of five CBD vending machines in the State of Florida.

Under the terms of the Agreement, Sofos CBD will supply Acqua with five CBD vending machines for placement in the Miami area. Acqua will supply CBD products for the vending machines and service the machines on a regular basis. The term of the Agreement is one year with an automatic one year renewal. The profits generated from the installation of the vending machines will be split equally between both companies.

The South Florida area is an explosive market for CBD products and shops. We believe this is a great opportunity to test the success of vending machines as a means of purchasing CBD products. Upon a successful test run, we will initiate a much broader expansion, stated Dr. Hugo Romeu, Acqua Cannabis COO. Our Company continues to move forward at a rapid rate, and we are excited for our future growth plans.

Certain statements in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may be identified by the use of words such as anticipate, believe, expect, future, may, will, would, should, plan, projected, intend, and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Rimrock Gold Corp. to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Companys future operating results are dependent upon many factors, including but not limited to: (i) the Companys ability to obtain sufficient capital or a strategic business arrangement to fund its current operational or expansion plans; (ii) the Companys ability to build and maintain the management and human resources and infrastructure necessary to support the anticipated growth of its business; and (iii) competitive factors and developments beyond the Companys control.

For more information, please contact:

Rimrock Gold Corp.

Jordan Starkman, President

1-800-854-7970
MONTREAL, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- "Tamino" or the "Company" -OTC Markets: TINO- March 8, 2019, the Company has reached a settlement with Mr. Peter E. Benincasa by honoring him with an allotment of 12,183,283 common shares which includes settling the Court Relief awarded. Mr. Benincasa will present the agreement reached to the Courts in order to allow progress in the Exploration of the company properties.



Important Milestone

An important milestone has been reached as Mr. Benincasa has agreed to continue to assist in the completion of certain aspects that are in the company span of obligations to be in compliance with regulators. Tamino Minerals, Inc. shareholders have taken this as a great step in order to ensure future success knowing that Mr. Benincasa's resources and skills along with his dynamism and enthusiasm will be a strong catalyst that will contribute to this. Tamino Shareholders appreciate that their opinion has been taken into consideration to resolve this matter.

The high level of scrutiny that companys management had been a part of in the last three weeks was practically muted based on this settlement and Mr. Benincasa onerous support to pursue this.

TAMINO MINERALS, INC. is exploring for high-grade gold deposits within a prolific gold producing geologic state, Sonora and starting exploration in the Kenora Mining District in the Province of Ontario.

On behalf of the Board,

Pedro Villagran-Garcia, President & CEO

For further information, please contact the Company at 1-971-285-4570 or by email at info@taminominerals.ca

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this press release, including any information as to our strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance and other statements that express management's expectations or estimates of future performance, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "expect," "will," "anticipate," "contemplate," "target," "plan," "continue," "budget," "may," "intend," "estimate," "project" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, certain delays beyond the company's control with respect to its plans or operations. Our actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation those set forth as "Risk Factors" in our filings with the SEC which can be found at www.sec.gov. There may be other factors not mentioned above or included in the Company's SEC filings that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
London UK, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The lead consultant said: Visiongain has forecast confident growth for the Governmental GEOINT market. This is as a result of the key utility of GEOINT solutions in enabling enhanced responses. GEOINT has the potential to greatly enrich the intelligence picture offered to government agencies and military actors. Overall, the positive outlook for this market is supported by both the innovations produced by the leading companies and the varied applications for GEOINT. Developments in ubiquity and spatial resolution are the peak intuitive for GEOINT professionals. Since the early days of GEOINT, we have seen increasingly crisp and colorful imagery over increasingly large swaths of the Earth. Start-ups such as Planet promise to image our Earth daily, providing unprecedented insight into human activities at global scale.

For free sample pages on this report please click on: https://www.visiongain.com/report/governmental-geospatial-intelligence-geoint-solutions-market-report-2018-2028/

The 325 page report contains 122 tables and 118 figures, charts, and graphs that add visual analysis in order to explain developing trends within the Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions market. Visiongain provides forecasts for the period 2018-2028 for the leading Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions submarkets, namely Systems Engineering, Solution Design & Support , COTS Software Solutions & Deployment , and Analytical Services & Products .

The 325 page report offers market forecasts and analysis for 16 leading national markets and the rest of the world market. In addition, the report contains a dedicated leading companies chapter covering 13 companies leading the field in Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions.

If you are interested in a more detailed overview of this report, please send an e-mail to sara.peerun@Visiongain.com or call her on Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7549 9987

The Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions report will be of value to anyone who wants to better understand the Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions market and its various segments. It will be useful for businesses who wish to better comprehend the part of the market they are already involved in, or those wishing to enter or expand into a different regional or technical part of the < Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions industry.

Notes for Editors

If you are interested in a more detailed overview of this report, please send an e-mail to sara.peerun@visiongain.com or call her on Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7549 9987 Telephone Number for US callers: 00-1-646-396-5129





About Visiongain

Visiongain is one of the fastest-growing and most innovative independent media companies in Europe. Based in London, UK, Visiongain produces a host of business-to-business conferences, newsletters, management reports and e-zines focusing on the automotive, chemical, cyber, defence, energy, pharmaceutical, materials and telecoms sectors.





Visiongain publishes reports produced by its in-house analysts, who are qualified experts in their field. Visiongain has firmly established itself as the first port of call for the business professional who needs independent, high-quality, original material to rely and depend on.
CHICAGO, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) this week presented awards to 29 recipients at its Annual Educational Conference, recognizing noteworthy achievements from a wide range of talented graduate medical education professionals.

The ACGME is honored to recognize this group of outstanding individuals and institutions for their contributions to the medical community. Their passionate commitment to advancing health care through education has brought about significant and tangible improvements in graduate medical education, and in turn, to health care in our society, said Thomas J. Nasca, MD, MACP, president and chief executive officer, ACGME.

The John C. Gienapp Distinguished Service Award was established in 1999 in recognition of John C. Gienapp, PhD who served as Executive Director of the ACGME for 19 years. The award honors individuals who have dedicated themselves to graduate medical education (GME) and have made outstanding contributions to the enhancement of residency education and ACGME accreditation activities.

This years award was presented to:

Carol Ann Bernstein, MD

Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology

New York University School of Medicine/NYU Langone Health

New York, New York

Dr. Bernstein received her medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1980. Following an internship in internal medicine at St. Luke's/Roosevelt Medical Center, she completed her psychiatric residency training at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Dr. Bernstein is Board Certified in Psychiatry from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She has distinguished herself in her field and in graduate medical education through many academic and professional appointments, awards, and positions on national and regional committees.

Dr. Bernstein is currently Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at the NYU School of Medicine. She was previously Vice Chair for Education and Director of Residency Training in Psychiatry for nearly 25 years. From 2001-2011, Dr. Bernstein also served as the Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education and the Designated Institutional Official for ACGME-accredited training programs at NYU. She is a Past-President of the American Psychiatric Association and served the Association as Vice-President, Treasurer and Trustee-at-Large and as the chair of multiple committees. From 2010-2016, Dr. Bernstein served on the Board of Directors of the ACGME where she also co-chaired the ACGME Task Force on Physician Well Being.

The Parker J. Palmer Courage to Lead Award is for designated institutional officials who have demonstrated strong leadership and astute resource management and have encouraged innovation and improvement in residency programs and their Sponsoring Institutions. The recipients of this years Courage to Lead Award are:

Ronald G. Amedee, MD; Ochsner Health System; New Orleans, Louisiana

Elias I. Traboulsi, MD; Cleveland Clinic; Cleveland, Ohio

Nedd I. Brown, EdD; University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine; Sioux Falls, South Dakota

The Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award is given to program directors who have fostered innovation and improvement in their residency programs and served as exemplary role models for residents. The recipients of this years Courage to Teach Award are:

David Della-Giustina, MD, FACEP; Yale University; New Haven, Connecticut (Program Director for Emergency Medicine) Sima Desai, MD; Oregon Health & Science University; Portland, Oregon (Program Director for Internal Medicine) Douglas Fredrick, MD; Stanford Health Care; Palo Alto, California (Program Director for Ophthalmology)

Lyell K. Jones Jr., MD; Mayo Clinic; Rochester, Minnesota (Program Director for Neurology)

Sandra A. Moutsios, MD; Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Nashville, Tennessee (Program Director for Internal Medicine and Pediatrics) Brett W. Robbins, MD; University of Rochester; Rochester, New York (Program Director for Internal Medicine and Pediatrics) Bradford G. Scott, MD; Baylor College of Medicine; Houston, Texas (Program Director for Surgery) Douglas S. Smink, MD, MPH; Brigham and Women's Hospital; Boston, Massachusetts (Program Director for Surgery) Cindy Wigg, MD; University of Texas Medical Branch; Galveston, Texas (Program Director for Psychiatry)

The David C. Leach Award recognizes residents and fellows who have fostered innovation and improvement in their residency programs, advanced humanism in medicine, and increased efficiency and emphasis on educational outcomes. The recipients of this years David C. Leach Award are:

Eric J. Chow, MD, MS, MPH; Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital; Providence, Rhode Island (Internal Medicine and Pediatrics)

Sara Hogan, MD, MHS; Cleveland Clinic; Cleveland, Ohio (Dermatology)

Shawna R. Kleban, MD; University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Medicine; Las Vegas, Nevada (Plastic Surgery) Jason Lai MD; University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics; Madison, Wisconsin (Emergency Medicine) Laura C. Page, MD; Duke University Medical Center; Durham, North Carolina (Pediatric Endocrinology) Debraj Mukherjee MD, MPH; Cedars Sinai Medical Center; Los Angeles, California (Neurological Surgery)

The GME Institutional Coordinator Award recognizes an institutional coordinator that demonstrates in-depth knowledge of graduate medical education and the process for internal review. This person skillfully manages the multiple roles of administrator, counselor, enforcer, coordinator, organizer, and scheduler. The recipient of this years GME Institutional Coordinator Award is:

Sharon Wilson, MS;

Beaumont Hospital;

Royal Oak, Michigan

The GME Program Coordinator Excellence Award is given to program coordinators in recognition of their in-depth understanding of the accreditation process, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and projects to improve residency programs. The recipients of this years GME Program Coordinator Excellence Award are:

Jennifer Cardone, C-TAGME; Columbia University Medical Center; New York, New York (Anesthesiology)

Kelli A. Corning; University of Washington; Seattle, Washington (Internal Medicine)

Martina DiNapoli Dahill; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Boston, Massachusetts (Obstetrics and Gynecology) Diane Kovacev; Harvard Medical School; Boston, Massachusetts (Dermatology) Amy Mills, C-TAGME; University of Rochester Medical Center; Rochester, New York (Surgery)

Joint Awards

The DeWitt C. Baldwin Jr. Award, in its third year, is presented to Sponsoring Institutions by the ACGME and the Arnold P. Gold Foundation to recognize institutions with accredited residency/fellowship programs that are exemplary in fostering a respectful, supportive environment for medical education and the delivery of patient care, which leads to the personal and professional development of learners.

The recipients of this years DeWitt C. Baldwin Jr. Award are:

Henry Ford Hospital

Detroit, Michigan Middlesex Hospital

Middletown, Connecticut

University of Massachusetts Medical School

Worcester, Massachusetts

The Jeremiah A. Barondess Fellowship in the Clinical Transaction, presented in partnership with the New York Academy of Medicine, invites junior faculty in internal medicine to develop innovative programs that enhance this fundamental element of clinical care through educational innovation.

This years recipient is:

Chelsea Hook Chang, MD

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

School of Medicine

The ACGME is currently accepting nominations for the 2020 Awards through March 29, 2019. The ACGME Board of Directors Awards Committee selects awardees. Learn more on our website. Joint awards are selected separately.

The ACGME is a private, non-profit, professional organization responsible for the accreditation of approximately 11,200 residency and fellowship programs and the approximately 830 institutions that sponsor these programs in the United States. Residency and fellowship programs educate approximately 135,000 resident and fellow physicians in 180 specialties and subspecialties. The ACGMEs mission is to improve health care and population health by assessing and advancing the quality of resident physicians education through accreditation.

CONTACT:

Susan White

Director, External Communications

Phone (o) 312.755.5066 (c) 773.414.5383

Email swhite@acgme.org

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b9eb1bec-b27d-4c4f-b4e4-3b02eddca213
08.03.2019: Borregaard ASA ("Borregaard", OSE ticker: BRG)

Reference is made to the stock exchange notice of 1 March 2019 where Borregaard announced the intent to repurchase up to 300,000 of its outstanding common stock.

Borregaard has today purchased 9,000 own shares through broker at an average price of NOK 82.34 per share.

After this transaction Borregaard holds a total of 222,996 own shares, representing 0.22% of total shares outstanding.

Contact:

Lotte Kvinlaug, Investor Relations Officer, +47 922 86 909

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
SANDUSKY, Ohio, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via OTC PR WIRE - - Rising Biosciences Inc. (OTC: RBII), a research development pharmaceutical and physicians practice management company, is pleased to announce a new partnership with Three Seven Management in addition to naming Christopher Will as the new COO of RBII.



Christopher Will has been with Alternative Medicine Centers of America, the companys physicians practice management business unit, since its inception. Appointing Mr. Will as COO of the newly combined business entities provides both units with a focus of singular leadership in which to build and operate the overall company.

Mr. Will provided integral leadership since inception in the development of the current operating model that was implemented in all clinics. Daily operations and management of the clinics as well as the pharmaceutical research and development unit will be guided under the leadership of COO Will.

COO Christopher Will stated, With one of Ohios first dispensaries opening within a few miles of Alternative Medicine Centers of Americas Sandusky location, we have seen a very substantial influx of patients. In order to meet the demands of the community in which we serve the company recently hired another licensed physician in order to assure that compassionate care is available to those in need. As such we are well equipped to handle the additional patients that seek care and services.

RBII is also pleased to announce a partnership with Three Seven Management to distribute the companys new TSW Pain Cream. According to an Allied Market Research report , the global topical pain relief market garnered $7.48 billion in 2017, and is expected to reach $13.28 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 7.4% from 2018 to 2025. Three Seven Marketing has focused on the healthcare space developing strategic partnerships with chiropractors, physical therapists, interventional pain doctors, orthopedic surgeons and many other health care providers. These relationships will serve as a foundation for a great partnership with the products and forward thinking technologies that Rising Biosciences brings to market.

Additionally, the acquisition of all of the fixed assets of PAO Group, Inc. has been completed. The transaction between PAOG and RBII resulted in the transfer of approximately $295,000 of fixed assets and investments, the forgiveness of $85,000 in debt PAOG owed RBII, as well as 417,852 shares of Rising Biosciences preferred class a stock.

The company has accepted the resignation of Robert Weber as CEO and member of the board of director and on behalf of the company we would like to thank Mr. Weber for his service and dedication.

Arthur Hall, CEO of RBII, will focus energies on target acquisition candidates and strategic partnerships in an effort to accelerate growth potential for both business units. COO Will shall focus on daily operational management of both units as well as usher in a new era of expanded communication with shareholders and the public alike.

About Rising Biosciences Inc. (OTC: RBII) operates two distinct business units. The first business unit is a physicians practice management company focused on the proper use of cannabis for treatment of chronic pain, opioid addictions, and terminal patients. The second business unit is a research and development company focusing on oral and topical pharmaceuticals with strict standards set forward by the pharmaceutical compounding industry and the FDA.

$RSII on Twitter for LIVE company updates! www.twitter.com/risingindiausa

Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward- looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.

CONTACT INFO: For Investor Inquiries: IR@risingbiosciences.com
DALLAS, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via OTC PR WIRE -- Kali-Extracts, Inc. (Kali, Inc. dba/Kali-Extracts, Inc.) (USOTC: KALY) (KALY) today announced the companys recent advances developing a CBD extract for infusion into a beverage at a 25 mg concentration were featured in a report published yesterday by Puration, Inc. (USOTC: PURA) (PURA). PURA yesterday reported recent progress toward the companys $5 million 2019 sales goal . The report included an overview of KALYs role using its patented extraction process to develop a CBD extract that will sustain suspension in a beverage at a consistent concentrate level of 25 mg. The first target beverage for the 25 mg CBD concentrate beverage is a private labeled health water for Generex Biotechnology (OTCQB: GNBT).



Kali-Extracts, Inc. (KALY) is a health and wellness company set to generate revenue from its patented cannabis extraction technology through overlapping go-to-market strategies. KALY is utilizing its patented cannabis extraction process to develop numerous wellness products both internally and through partnerships. Similarly, KALY is utilizing its patented cannabis extraction technology to develop pharmaceutical products internally and through partnerships.

In addition to the wellness products KALY is working on with PURA, KALY has a report soon to be published on their long-term, pilot study on the treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in primates with cannabis extracts derived from Kali-Extracts patented cannabis extraction process. The primate study adds to the Kali-Extracts in vitro genomics study, previously announced, to evaluate the impact of its pharmaceutical grade cannabis extracts in combination with other therapies on COPD patients. The World Health Organization estimates 65 million people worldwide are afflicted with moderate to severe COPD and GlobalData forecasts that the COPD treatment market will reach $14.1 billion by 2025.

To learn more about the company visit https://www.kali-extracts.com/

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), and as such, may involve risks and uncertainties. These forward looking statements relate to, amongst other things, current expectation of the business environment in which the company operates, potential future performance, projections of future performance and the perceived opportunities in the market. The company's actual performance, results and achievements may differ materially from the expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements as a result of a wide range of factors.
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YEREVAN, MARCH 7, ARMENPRESS. An Armenian de-miner who was among the humanitarian support mission dispatched to Syria has been wounded while carrying out his duties on March 7.

The Center For Humanitarian Demining and Expertise, an Armenian governmental civilian agency that sent the specialists to Syria, said on Facebook that the de-miner suffered injuries to his right foot.

The cause of the incident was a booby trap landmine that was concealed in a plastic layer. He was immediately taken to a hospital to undergo surgery.

The injuries are non-lethal.

The Center For Humanitarian Demining and Expertise says they continue their mission in Syria.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. As Armenia is celebrating womens day today on March 8th, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan went on Facebook early morning to congratulate women on this occasion.

Dear women, mothers, sisters and daughters, he said. I would like to congratulate you all on March 8th and on this occasion I want to recite Hovhannes Shirazs Garnanamut for you, Pashinyan said and recited the famed Armenian poets Garnanamut [Beginning of Spring].

Garnanamut is Shirazs (1915-1984) first work that was published in 1935.

Below is an unofficial translation of Garnanamut.

Violets at my feet and lilies in my hands, and roses at my cheeks and the spring below my chest, with the skies in my soul and the sun in my eyes, and the fountains on my tongue from the mountain I came down to the city  and I wandered jumping and splashing on the sidewalks violets and roses and snow-white lilies, and people, seeing me, saw a different world in their tired eyes, they saw a fresh scented spring  what a freshness, - they said, that a freshness  and opened their windows for me, and I, with an open heart, was passing by and singing and sprinkling violets and roses and charming jasmines, as if an entire nature had become a youngster and came down to the city from the mountains, would pass with an emerald tale from country to country, sprinkling the tulips in his hands, the dawn of our songs and the spring of our mountains.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 8 , ARMENPRESS. Doctors have amputated the right foot of an Armenian de-miner who was wounded when a landmine exploded in Syria, Nazeli Elbakyan, the spokesperson for the Armenian Center for Humanitarian De-Mining and Expertise, the agency that dispatched the experts, told ARMENPRESS.

He is currently in an hospital nearby Aleppo. His life is out of danger, she said, adding that the injured de-miner will soon be transported back to Armenia.

As reported earlier, an Armenian de-miner who was among the humanitarian support mission dispatched to Syria has been wounded while carrying out his duties on March 7.

The Center For Humanitarian Demining and Expertise, an Armenian governmental civilian agency that sent the specialists to Syria, said on Facebook that the de-miner suffered injuries to his right foot.

The cause of the incident was a booby trap landmine that was concealed in a plastic layer. He was immediately taken to a hospital to undergo surgery.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. Istanbuls Surb Prkich Armenian Hospital Director Bedros Sirinoglu has said funeral arrangements for Mesrob II Mutafyan will be reported shortly by the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul.

Mesrob II died today aged 62 in hospital after many years of suffering from dementia. He was in a coma since 2008.

Mesrob II was elected 84th Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople in 1998.

Because of incapacitation, Archbishop Aram Atesian was appointed Patriarchal Vicar  an acting patriarch in 2010.

Despite the Turkish-Armenian communitys demand for new elections, the Turkish government has always rejected the holding of an election, citing a 1863 National Constitution article that prohibits new elections if an incumbent patriarch is alive.

In 2015, Mesrob Mutafyan was retired by the synod because of his illness.

The synod sent a request to the Istanbul Governorate asking permission to hold new elections. In 2017, a new church assembly was convened to begin the process of organizing elections. Archbishop Garegin Bekchian was elected locum tenens  or patriarchal vicar.

After many months of work, however, the Turkish government declared they do not recognize the church assemblys decisions. The government said it doesnt recognize Bekchyan as patriarchal vicar and that new elections cannot be held because Mutafyan is still alive.

Eventually Bekchyan left Turkey, and Atesyan continued serving as vicar. However, a large part of the local Armenian community was unhappy with Atesyans tenure.

After Mutafyans death, it is expected that the Patriarchate will begin the process of holding an election of the 85th Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- JPC Services Inc. is pleased to announce that the third Winter Warm Wave event was a complete success! On Sunday, February 3, 2019, the temperature was in the sub-zeros in the Greater Vancouver area, making it one of the coldest days this winter, but warmth flowed through the streets of Richmond, emanating from the Brighouse Skytrain Station, where the Winter Warm Wave event was held, with around 200 volunteers distributing gifts and sweets on the street, writing spring festival couplets, and singing and dancing, creating an enthusiastic and warming atmosphere, attracting over one thousand attendees.



The event began at two oclock in the afternoon, by the exit of the Brighouse Skytrain Station. Two huge inflatable gods overlooked the streets, both laughing joyously, accompanied by cheerful and lively New Year music, filling the streets with the joy of the New Year. Elderly folk from the second branch of the Senior Chinese Society of Vancouver were dressed in various traditional Chinese garments they danced, waving their pink fans. Volunteers were stationed in several booths, handing out small gifts and New Years sweets to the public, attracting many people who just exited the skytrain station.

Parents who brought children to participate in the activities were very happy, and many families spoke well of the calligraphy and couplets, taking the opportunity to let their children to better know the uniqueness of the Chinese culture. Many promptly started dancing as the music turned on, disregarding any borders that the concept of ethnic groups imposes, and simply held hands to enjoy the rhythm of the music.

In addition to song and Latin dance celebrations, there were also preparations for Chinese medicine clinics and face painting sessions, canceled only because the weather. There were various other booths from non-profit organizations, including mental health organizations and Indian dance organizations.

Nelson Jiang, Media Speaker for the event, has said that this was the third time that this event was held, from only 28 volunteers in the first year to now around 200 volunteers in the third, with much diversity in the cultural backgrounds of the attendees, showing the recognition that this event has received. The purpose of this event is to share the joy of the Lunar New Year with people from various ethnic groups in Canada, hoping to improve the impression that the Chinese has in mainstream society. Nelson has said that when it comes to Chinese people, the outside world typically criticizes bad conduct and behaviors, such as real estate speculation and money laundering, when, in fact, the Chinese have done many good deeds as well, albeit in a much more discreet manner. Many of these actions go unseen, allowing the few negative news prevail, overshadowing the good deeds.

Another Media Speaker, Mrs. Li, is especially grateful to the volunteers for their charitable efforts. Li said, "Todays event is meant to bring together not only the Chinese community of Richmond and the surrounding regions, but the community as a whole. People can come together and enjoy food, drinks, and activities with one another, sharing warmth and joy, embodying the spirit of the Lunar New Year. This event was truly a great way to spread the Chinese culture and share it with other members of the community. For myself, since I was in Canada when i was 13, Chinese culture has been a part of my life and my identity. I hope from this event, promoting Chinese traditional culture and custom will bring more people to fall in over with this culture."

Mrs. Sang donated socks, lanterns, gloves, lucky dolls, pendants, decorations, and various other items. Many people from Marpole came to volunteer and donated socks to help the homeless.

Jeff Jiang has participated as a volunteer since the first year of this event, bringing many people from CCRAC to contribute to the effort. Jeff Jiang came weeks prior and drew out a floor plan and was responsible for the layout of the venue, setting up the booths and amenities provided on the day of the event. Yingzi, Dong Hongchun, Li Hui, Zhang Yonghong and Li Jiaying also contributed to the success of this event. Mrs. Li said that she believes that the Winter Warm Wave event will only become more grand as the years pass. The community will not only feel the blessing and warmth of the Lunar New Year, but also recognize the hospitality of the Chinese People.

MP Alice Wong and Joe Peschisolido, MLA John Yap, and Richmond City Councilor Chak Au also attended the event to show their love and happiness with the people.

For further information, please contact:

Attention: Linda Zhang

Tel: 604-283-8141

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a8f62a59-a77a-45ac-8672-9d4edf5e8c9a
More than a dozen people have been charged for allegedly sharing videos of sick footage showing a female backpacker beheaded in Morocco.

Danish police on Thursday said they had launched prosecutions against 14 people suspected of sharing the clip on social media of the murder video of one of two young Scandinavian hikers killed on December 17.

Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland were found dead at an isolated hiking spot south of Marrakesh.

Danish backpackers Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Maren Ueland were slain in a brutal attack. Source: AP

The pair were stabbed, had their throats slit and were then beheaded, according to Moroccos counter-terror chief.

A video circulating on social networks at the time, believed authentic by authorities, showed one of the murders in the High Atlas mountains.

The 14 people are accused of violating the penal code by sharing the video, usually via Facebook Messenger or other social networks, said East Jutland police chief Michael Kjeldgaard in a statement.

A forensic team scours the grounds of the campsite where the backpackers were found. Source: AP

Two of them are also accused of apologising for terrorism, the prosecution told AFP.

Six of those indicted, whose identities have not been revealed, are between 13 and 18 years old.

The grisly killings of the hikers shocked Morocco, where tourism is a cornerstone of the economy.

Moroccan authorities have called the killings a terrorist act and charged more than 20 people for their alleged involvement.

The authorities allege that the four main suspects in the murder were inspired by the Islamic State group, but say they were not in direct contact with IS members in Iraq or Syria.

Moroccans paid tribute to Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen and Norwegian Maren Ueland after they were murdered
The government on Friday stepped up its campaign against a "misogynistic" campervan firm, branding its notorious fleet of graffiti-clad vehicles vulgar and offensive. Officials choose International Women's Day to launch the tirade against Wicked Campers, a van hire firm whose spray-painted slogans have long-been a source of outrage on Australian roads. "We have no tolerance for sexist, misogynistic and offensive slogans on campervans, or those displayed anywhere else for that matter, no matter how hard some try to justify their existence," Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer said in a statement. The hire firm, popular with backpackers, has long come under fire from politicians and concerned parents, and has been banned or discouraged from festivals. Australia's Advertising Standards Bureau has for years received complaints about slogans spray-painted on Wicked Campers vehicles. In January, the bureau found the company breached its code of ethics with an obscene slogan inviting people to masturbate. And in 2014 the firm was forced to apologise after an online petition drew more than 100,000 signatures protesting a coarse van slogan regarding "princesses". In 2008 Wicked was subject to criticism over a xenophobic slogan concerning Japan's tradition of whale hunting. The federal government said Friday it would coordinate a response with state authorities to remove a loophole that allowed the car hire firm to change its vehicle registration to a different state once a complaint had been lodged. "These vehicles are offensive and belong in a junkyard, not on Australian roads," Transport Minister Michael McCormack said. "By choosing to avoid these vehicles, you?re also choosing to ensure parents or grandparents won't have to explain the vile meaning of these disgusting signs or images to their children or grandchildren while driving on our roads," he said. Wicked Campers did not respond to a request for comment. Van hire firm Wicked Campers has long sparked outrage in Australia with obscene spray-painted slogans on their vehicles
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday gave the first Simone Veil Prize to Aissa Doumara Ngatansou of Cameroon, where she runs an association to help victims of rape and forced marriages. Speaking in front of a large portrait of Veil, the late Auschwitz survivor renowned for her battle to have abortion made legal in France while health minister in 1975, Doumara said she accepted the award with "a lot of emotion". The ceremony marked the 42nd International Women's Day and the award was created in tribute to the life and work of Veil who died in 2017, aged 89, and became just the fifth woman to be laid to rest in the Pantheon in Paris, with her husband. The prize is worth 100,000 euros ($112,000). Doumara dedicated her award to "all women victims of violence and forced marriages, to all those who have escaped from Boko Haram," the armed Islamist movement active in northeast Nigeria and across neighbouring borders. Macron hailed Doumara for "her commitment of over 20 years in the service of women, carried out in silence, sometimes in disapproval." "You were outraged and you didn't give way... This is an example of courage, of challenging the weight of legacies," he added. Macron also said that France will give 120 million euros to a fund to support "the fight against violence and discrimination inflicted on women" around the world. He said he wanted 2019 to be "a useful year for women's rights" while France holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of industrialised powers. Measures will be taken to educate young girls, particularly in the Sahel region, with the setting up of a bank to support women's enterprise in Africa. Paris also proposed to host a global women's conference next year, 25 years after the last such gathering in Beijing. "Many women are in the front line of this fight but the whole of society should mobilise, including men," Macron said as he handed over the prize. Cameroonian women's activist Aissa Doumara Ngatansou standing before a portrait of Simone Veil is the first winner of a prize named in honour of the late French politician and women's rights advocate
Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila's centre-right government resigned on Friday after failing to push through a flagship social and health care reform package, just five weeks ahead of a legislative election. There has been a hard fought struggle for the wide-reaching reform for over a decade, dividing successive governments. Sipila called the failure to pass the reform "a major disappointment". He has since 2015 headed a coalition made up of his Centre Party, the conservative National Coalition, and the eurosceptic Blue Reform party, a moderate faction spun off from the far-right. The three parties were unable to agree among themselves on the package, which Sipila had made one of his top priorities in office. He had repeatedly threatened to resign if the reforms did not go through. A former businessman who earned millions as an IT entrepreneur before becoming prime minister in 2015, Sipila considered the shake-up as key to cutting the ballooning costs of treating a rapidly ageing population. The proportion of over 65-year-olds in the Nordic country, which has a population of 5.4 million, is expected to reach 26 percent by 2030. Among the reforms discussed were a centralisation of services into new regional healthcare authorities -- which would take over from the current local municipalities -- and the use of more private health care providers, a subject of heated debate. But the coalition partners were unable to agree on issues such as how much the system should be opened up to give patients freedom of choice, among others. A recent scandal of neglect allegations that came to light in privately-run elderly care homes helped turn the political mood further against any more privatisation of the country's healthcare. Claims that the reforms would bring three billion euros ($3.3 billion) of savings to the country's welfare bill have also been repeatedly called into question. Sipila threw in the towel when it became clear the government would not be able to submit a proposal to parliament before the election set for April 14. "My government works on a 'results or resign' principle. I am a man of principle and in politics you have to carry responsibility," Sipila told reporters, adding: "I am taking my share of responsibility." - 'Sitting duck' - Finland's President Sauli Niinisto said he had accepted the government's resignation and asked it to continue on a caretaker basis until a new one has been appointed. The current cabinet will retain their jobs until a new government is formed after the election, but will only work to finish off business that is already in progress. Politicians in Finland were split over Sipila's decision to resign so close to the election. The head of the opposition Social Democrats, Antti Rinne, told reporters outside parliament the government had turned itself into "a political sitting duck". Member of parliament Kalle Jokinen, from the conservative National Coalition Party -- a partner in Sipila's government -- said it would have been better to see a working government in place up until the election. "You could call this a failure for the government," Jokinen said. But a member of the parliamentary committee on health and social affairs, Veronica Rehn-Kivi of the liberal Swedish People's Party, called it a "victory" for the welfare state and individual citizens. The Social Democrats have been leading opinion polls in the run-up to the election, with Sipila's Centre party trailing in third place at around 15 percent. A programme of austerity cuts and tighter benefits rules during his administration has been unpopular in a country where the welfare state is a cherished national asset. Finland's Prime Minister Juha Sipila had made health and social reform one of his top priorities in office
Just over 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Dubai's skyscrapers, Mohammed al-Kaabi strolls through the tranquil desert with his friends as the sun sets. Kaabi, 27, hails from a long line of Emiratis, a people with a centuries-old bedouin history tied inextricably to the local desert. Today, he is among a fast-growing group drawn to a new wave of a tradition of desert camping but with all the trappings of comfort, style and modernity. With "glamping", short for "glamorous camping", Dubai aims to expand on its renown for luxurious city living and its tradition of camping. Betting on tourism at a time of low oil prices, Dubai is now offering stays in chic desert trailers, in plush mountainside lodgings and beach camps, as it seeks to put its own mark on the glamping trend that has swept world tourism destinations. "This place is far from the cities and the high-rises," said Kaabi, sporting the traditional full-length white Emirati robe worn by men. "Camping is very popular in the UAE, but when you want to bring the family it becomes more complicated," he added, at a campsite in Hatta, near the Omani border. "But here, safety and comfort are provided for." - A room with... a bed - Camping is still a beloved way of life for many Emiratis, who take their equipment and head for the desert from the fall months onwards, when the scorching summer heat has faded. Tourists and expat residents also increasingly opt to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. Dubai welcomed a record 15.9 million visitors in 2018, many of whom were drawn to its mega malls, luxurious hotels and pristine beaches. It hopes to push the figure up to 20 million visitors annually by next year, when it hosts the six-month global trade fair, Expo 2020. The mountainous eastern Hatta desert has lots to offer "glampers" with a taste for adventure but also for their home comforts. Near the Hatta dam, campers have a choice between a trailer, caravan or five-star lodge fully equipped with TVs and power points for charging a smartphone. Seated outside a trailer, Jamil Fahmy, a Dubai resident from Saudi Arabia, said glamping was the perfect way to escape the city without compromising on hygiene. "It's fun, with the fire and hanging with friends and all that, but I personally prefer to sleep in a room with a bed and a private bathroom, and that's what we get here," he told AFP. "It's great to be an adventurer and explore and cook fireside, and that's what we did. "But when the time came, we retreated into the beautiful room and slept on a bed." - 'Five-star camping' - Rooms with modern amenities, including bathrooms and beds, start from 400 dirhams (about $110, 100 euros) per night at the Hatta site, which opened in October. The Hatta camping project, part of Dubai's plan to use tourism to diversify revenues, is also home to a 350-metre zip wire. Last year, Dubai faced a downturn in the real-estate market due to a supply glut, while oil prices also dropped, affecting the UAE as a whole. Several glamping sites, some on the beach, have popped up across the UAE in recent years, with options to participate in yoga classes, star gazing or kayaking. For Jay, a 37-year-old Briton, glamping offers a new experience after a decade in the UAE. "We're fairly outdoorsy, we came here kayaking before, we did the big zip line," he told AFP, referring to the Hatta zip wire. But, he added with a laugh that with the usual no-frills style of camping "you haven't got a shower or all the facilities" so glamping is a welcome step-up. "You get the outdoors and all of that, and nature, and you can barbeque -- but you can also have a shower and get clean! "It's not five-star hoteling, but five-star camping." Dubai wants to expand on its renown for luxurious city living and a tradition of camping by offering 'glamping', or glamorous camping Betting on tourism at a time of low oil prices, Dubai is now offering stays in chic desert trailers, in plush mountainside lodgings and beach camps The mountainous eastern Hatta desert has lots to offer "glampers" with a taste for adventure but also for their home comforts Near the Hatta dam, campers have a choice between a trailer, caravan or five-star lodge fully equipped with TVs and power points Glamping at Hatta, near the border with Oman, is part of Dubai's plan to use tourism to diversify revenues
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday that his party could opt to abandon conservative allies in the European Parliament and seek to join up with Poland's right-wing faction in a spat over an anti-EU billboard campaign. The firebrand nationalist leader said he would still prefer "to restructure and reform" the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) from inside to make room for more "anti-immigration forces" in it. "But obviously if we have to start something new, then the first place where we'll start negotiations will be Poland," which is governed since 2015 by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party. After months of rising tensions between Brussels and Budapest, the EPP's Manfred Weber this week laid down three conditions for Orban's party, Fidesz, to remain a member of the grouping. One was that Hungary end its "fake news campaign" against European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker, referring to a poster which suggested that he and billionaire George Soros were actively supporting illegal immigration. A top Orban aide said Thursday that the posters would be replaced later this month. Weber on a visit to Warsaw said Friday that Orban was free to leave the grouping. "It's his decision. Nobody is forced to stay. Fidesz is invited but the EPP is based on common ideas and values," he said. Orban said he spoke Thursday with both Juncker and Weber, the EPP's leading candidate to replace Juncker in May's European elections. On Sunday he will be in Poland to take part in a commemoration marking the countries' NATO membership with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who in turn will give a speech on March 15 in Hungary at the country's national day ceremony. Poland and Hungary are allies in battles with EU institutions over their anti-migrant stance and drive for a more decentralised union with greater powers for member states. The EPP is the biggest party in the European Parliament and comprises the main centre-right movements in Europe, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU and France's Les Republicains. On Thursday, Magyar Nemzet, a daily widely seen as a mouthpiece of Orban's Fidesz, urged the party to quit the EPP -- denouncing interactions with it as "humiliating" -- and to forge an alliance within the European Parliament with eurosceptic factions from Italy, Austria and Poland. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been accused by the EPP's Manfred Weber of launching a "fake news campaign" about illegal immigration
A man who helped his fiancee kill her ex-husband and dump him by a road has been jailed for at least four years and nine months in the NSW Supreme Court.

Paul Andrew Wilkinson, 40, and then-fiancee Raquel Hutchison, also 40 and a self described white witch, were found guilty of manslaughter in 2018 after a judge-alone trial before Justice Peter Hamill.

Justice Hamill on Friday jailed Wilkinson for eight years with a non-parole period of four years and nine months for the brutality and senselessness of the 2014 killing in Sydney.

Wilkinson helped his then-fiancee, Raquel Hutchison (pictured), kill her ex-husband in 2014. Source: AAP

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Protests, strikes and studies -- people around the globe are taking action to mark International Women's Day and to push for action to obtain equality. Here are some of the events: - Strikes and tear gas - In Turkey authorities sought to quash Women's Day demonstrations on Friday, with police firing tear gas to disperse a sea of demonstrators at the entrance of the city's main pedestrianised shopping street Istiklal Avenue. Protesters had gathered at the central avenue despite a ban on their protest, with crowds chanting slogans including: "We are not silent, we are not scared, we are not obeying." They were blocked by police in riot gear, who then used tear gas and dogs to disperse them. Across Spain, women downed tools in a strike for equality, a mass movement which drew in female employees from across the spectrum, from nuns to journalists and even the mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena. Authorities said more than half a million people took part in Women's Day protests in Madrid and Barcelona. In France, thousands of people took to the streets to mark the day, with demonstrators in Paris carrying banners with slogans including "Equal pay, equal work" and "we will never be silent again". - Thousands protest Duterte misogyny - About 4,000 demonstrators marched through Manila chanting slogans against President Rodrigo Duterte, who has repeatedly made jokes about rape and last year admitted indecently touching the family maid when he was a teenager. Aides brushed off his comments as jokes, but activists have denounced his "misogynistic" statements as "unacceptable, pointing to statistics showing a 153 percent increase in rape from the decade before he was elected. With one woman or child raped in the Philippines every hour, activists aiming to raise awareness about gender-based violence staged an exhibition of clothes worn by victims, called 'Don't tell me how to Dress'. - Mourning murdered women - In Mexico, demonstrators held marches and staged a series of performances with graphic depictions of domestic abuse in Ecatepec, a town one hour outside Mexico City known as a flashpoint for violence against women. Mexico State, where Ecatepec is located, led the country in femicides in 2017, with 301 women and girls murdered, according to official figures. "It makes me sad to wake up every day and see in the news that another (woman) has disappeared, another body has been found. It makes me sad to realize I'm very vulnerable as a woman and that I never know if I'm going to make it home," Fernanda Pando, 23, a recent graduate in psychology who has lived her whole life in the town, told AFP. - Flowers for mums and wives - In Pyongyang, Flower Shop No. 5 did a brisk trade in flowers on International Women's Day, which is a public holiday in North Korea, as a steady stream of customers turned up to buy blooms for their wives, mothers and significant others. As the North's founder Kim Il Sung once said: "In our country, women are in charge of one of the wheels of the revolution." - Do more at home, UN tells men - Of all the factors blocking equality in employment, the biggest is the heavy burden of caregiving borne by women, a UN report has found, saying the pace of change will only change if men take on far more unpaid tasks at home. "In the last 20 years, the amount of time women spent on unpaid care and domestic work has hardly fallen, and men's has increased by just eight minutes a day," said Manuela Tomei of the UN's International Labour Organization. Globally, women perform more than three-quarters of the total time spent on unpaid care work, averaging four hours and 25 minutes per day, while men only do one hour and 23 minutes. "The imbalanced division of work within the household between men and women is one of the most resilient features of gender inequality," the report said. - Designed with a gender bias? - Women's lives are impacted every day by a built-in "gender data gap" that touches everything from urban life to design, says a new book called "Invisible Women". British author Caroline Criado Perez says it is the story of "what happens when we forget to account for half of humanity", citing examples which range from slight irritations to life-threatening situations. From cars designed using crash-test dummies based on the average male, to doctors misdiagnosing women suffering a heart attack because their symptoms differ from those of men, the bias pervades modern society, and can have fatal consequences, she says. Even consumer products are often male-centric with voice recognition software far more likely to accurately recognise men's speech, and mobile phones often too large for women's hands. "Designers may believe they are making products for everyone, but in reality they are mainly making them for men." - In the director's chair, but paid less - The number of films directed by women has risen steadily in France over the past decade, but there remains significant inequality, notably in salaries, a study by the French film council says. Back in 2008, just 43 films were made by women, but in 2017, that figure rose to 70. Women directors were also more active in France than in other European countries, making 370 films between 2012-2017, compared with 242 in Germany and 87 in the UK. But wages were notably lower, with women directors earning on average 42.3 percent less than their male counterparts. - Oz takes aim at sexist campervans - Australia's government used International Women's Day to take aim at Wicked Campers, a "misogynistic" campervan firm known for its fleet of vehicles spray-painted with crude, sexist graffiti and slogans, which have sparked outrage. "We have no tolerance for sexist, misogynistic and offensive slogans on campervans," said Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer, while Transport Minister Michael McCormack said they "belong in a junkyard, not on Australian roads." - 'Peace is born of women' - Pope Francis praised women as the source of peace, hailing their contribution to building a world "that can be a home for all". "Women make the world beautiful, they protect it and keep it alive. They bring the grace of renewal, the embrace of inclusion, and the courage to give of oneself," he said. "Peace, then, is born of women, it arises and is rekindled by the tenderness of mothers. Thus the dream of peace becomes a reality when we look towards women... If we dream of a future peace, we need to give space to women." - Cameroon activist wins French prize - France awarded the first Simone Veil Prize to Aissa Doumara Ngatansou, a Cameroonian woman who has spent 20 years helping victims of rape and forced marriages. On receiving the 100,000-euro prize ($112,000) Doumara dedicated it to "all women victims of violence and forced marriages" and to those who had escaped the clutches of Boko Haram, the jihadist movement which emerged in Nigeria a decade ago and has terrorised the region. - Abuse affects one in three - Figures released in an OECD report showed that one in three women have suffered from domestic abuse. But since its last report in 2014, another 15 countries have adopted laws against domestic violence, meaning 132 countries criminalise it while 48 do not, it said. In a second report, the OECD found that addressing gender inequalities and encouraging women's participation in the workforce could boost the global economy by $6 trillion, or 7.5 percent of GDP. burs-hmw/klm/ecl Women across Spain joined marches and a strike to mark International Women's Day Turkish anti-riot police officers push back women during a rally in Istanbul, where thousands defied a protest ban to demand greater rights Women dressed as handmaidens protest outside the Italian labour ministry over gender-based violence, discrimination, and harassment in the workplace A woman holds a rose stained with red paint during a demonstration on International Women's day in Ecatepec, Mexico state In Paris, women held up signs outside the Saudi embassy reading "Honk for women's rights" with cartoon cutouts of jailed women France has awarded the first Simone Veil Prize to Aissa Doumara Ngatansou, a Cameroonian woman who has spent 20 years helping victims of rape and forced marriages
Mourners gathered in Sydney to farewell veteran journalist Mike Willesee a week after he lost his battle with throat cancer, with his children leading a series of touching tributes.

The former Four Corners and A Current Affair host, who died last Friday aged 76, began working for the ABC before moving on to the Seven and Nine networks.

Family and friends, including former television colleagues Tracey Grimshaw, Peter Meakin and David Leckie joined the hundreds of people arriving at St Marys Cathedral for the distinguished reporters funeral.

TV personalities including Melissa Doyle, George Negus and Richard Wilkins are also among those paying tribute to the legendary journalist.

A large crowd has gathered for the funeral for broadcaster Mike Willesee at St Marys Cathedral

The casket for Mike Willesee is carried into St Marys Cathedral for his Requiem Funeral Mass. Source: AAP

His son, Mike Willesee Jnr, delivered an emotional tribute to the man who so many Australians grew up watching.

He said despite having to share his dad with the rest of the world, he and his siblings always knew they were the most important things in his life.

Dad shaped our hearts and lives, he was loving, he was patient and overwhelmingly accepting of our choices. He let us make our own mistakes and then he would us fix them, he told those at the service.

He taught us so many things, he taught us to follow our passions just as he followed his passions, first of all into journalism which he was just born to do.

Mike Willesee Jnr, seen arriving with his wife Allison Langdon, spoke of his dads legendary journalism career and love for his family. Source: AAP

His interviewing is the stuff of legends some of the great producers who worked with dad talk about his ability to cut to the heart of a story in a way that is so simple, so obvious and so right that no one else could see it.

He said despite the many awards his dad had received throughout his distinguished career, including Walkleys, Logies and even a Cox Plate, it was a mug that read best grandpa that he was most proud of.

Willesee Jnr also told of an encounter his dad had with police on the night before the Sydney Opera House was officially opened.

Dad and Carol decided to try and crack a bottle of champagne from their little boat on the Sydney Harbour, he said.

Story continues

They didnt get close, the cops did get them lucky he was famous.

Sunday Night host Melissa Doyle arrives with Steve Pennells (left) and Alex Cullen (right) at St Marys Cathedral in Sydney. Source: AAP

Television journalist George Negus (left) and TV presenter Richard Wilkins and his wife were among those to pay tribute to Willesee. Source: AAP

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Lyons, CO, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sierra Sage Herbs, the parent company of the all-natural brand, Green Goo, is proud to announce the launch of a new, plant-based, full-spectrum hemp body care brand called Good Goo. Derived from the same ideals that define Green Goo products  a time-honored infusion process, high-quality ingredients, and purposeful formulations  Good Goo full-spectrum hemp products are created by mindfully selecting only plant-based ingredients and slow infusing the whole plants in enriching oils.

Green Goo and Good Goo are definitely complimentary brands, and our commitment to quality manufacturing, ingredients and processes remains the same, said Green Goo & Goo Goo CEO/Co-Owner Jodi Scott. Whereas Green Goo products are perhaps more aligned with an active, on-the-go, portable lifestyle, with Good Goo we really wanted to create a product line that was more focused on restorative, balancing, reflective self-care.

The organic, full-spectrum hemp oil used in Good Goo products undergoes several levels of testing, from soil to final product, to ensure a high standard of purity, legality, and reliable CBD content. Good Goo uses patented methods and truly full-spectrum hemp oil that is not dependent on the use of alcohol, carbon dioxide or other solvents for extraction. The organic CBD used in Good Goo products is grown and produced in the USA.

Full spectrum means the sum is greater than the parts. When youre using the whole hemp plant, you gain the benefit of the hundreds of chemical compounds that work together to produce the utmost effectiveness, said Green Goo & Good Goo Product Developer/Co-Owner Jen Scott. Rather than using pre-made extracts, we utilize an infusion process that takes more time, but ultimately maximizes the benefits of the whole plant, resulting in products that are more highly concentrated and free of harmful chemicals.

The introductory Good Goo product assortment, which encompasses a collection of skin salves, enriching massage & body oils and face wash, is currently available online at goodgoo.com. A line of all-natural, aluminum- and baking soda-free, full-spectrum hemp deodorants, as well as a more fully expansive body and animal care product offering, are also coming soon.

Note to Media:

Product images - https://bit.ly/2NOo9Is

Product Samples Available Upon Request

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Founded in 2008, Green Goo by Sierra Sage Herbs is a women-owned, family operated business and a certified B- Corp. Green Goo products are made in the USA with 100% natural ingredients. We aim to make organic products more available and more affordable, while helping to educate the world on sustainable business and healthcare practices.

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A woman who was nine months pregnant has suddenly died along with her unborn daughter.

Janay Johnstone, a photographer from Auckland in New Zealand, was found dead earlier this week, the same month she was due to give birth. The circumstances around her death are unknown.

The New Zealand Herald reports the NZ Institute of Professional Photography president Ollie Dale said there were no known health issues and it was completely unexpected.

More than $12,000 has been raised to support Janay Johnstones family. Source: Facebook/Janay Johnstone

In a tragic twist, the publication reports the mother volunteered with a group of photographers who visited hospitals to take keepsake pictures for families with seriously ill babies or ones that had passed away.

A Give A Little page raising money for her family said Ms Johnstone was excited to meet her new daughter and second child this month.

She was bubbly and vivacious with a heart of gold. Janay was an incredibly talented photographer, and an absolute baby whisperer. She will be greatly missed, the page said.

Janay Johnstone was looking forwarded to welcoming her second child into the world. Source: Give A Little

Among her other endeavours, Janay was a heartfelt photographer, giving herself and her precious time for other families who suffered their own tragic losses.

Just last month Ms Johnstone shared a picture on Facebook taken during a maternity shoot with her husband Mark.

Always having a laugh with this guy, she captioned the image.

Janay Johnstones death was described as completely unexpected. Source: Facebook/Janay Johnstone

A woman posted a touching tribute to Ms Johnstone on Facebook, saying she was a beautiful person inside and out.

I am going to miss talking to you everyday, she said.

You and baby rest easy up there and Ill be having a wine for us just like we were meant to.

More than $12,000 has been raised following the mothers sudden death to help support her family.

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North Korea's state media Friday acknowledged for the first time the collapse of the summit between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump last week without a deal. The high-stakes meeting in Vietnam was supposed to build on the leaders' historic first summit in Singapore last year, but ended without any agreement on walking back North Korea's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency, however, had made no mention of the breakdown of the high-stakes summit until Friday. "The public at home and abroad... are feeling regretful, blaming the US for the summit that ended without an agreement," an editorial published by KCNA wrote. In the aftermath of the summit's abrupt ending, each side sought to blame the other's intransigence for the deadlock. But immediately after the summit North Korean media said only that Pyongyang and Washington have agreed to continue "productive" discussions on denuclearisation. The following day Rodong Sinmun, the North's state-run newspaper, carried a front-page picture that showed Kim and Trump shaking hands. Earlier this week, North Korean television aired a 75-minute documentary on Kim's diplomacy with Trump without mentioning that the second meeting ended without a deal. Following the stalemate in Hanoi, researchers said this week that Pyongyang was rebuilding the Sohae long-range rocket site after Kim had agreed last year to shut it as part of confidence-building measures. Trump said he would be "very, very disappointed" if the reports proved true. Rodong Sinmun, the North's state-run newspaper, carried a front-page picture that showed Kim and Trump shaking hands
Sat at a cafe terrace in northern Paris, 32-year-old Samira wonders why France, the self-proclaimed land of human rights, has seemed so feeble in its response to the protests against 82-year-old Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The young Frenchwoman, who has family roots in the north African country like hundreds of thousands of others in France, has been scouring the news about the demonstrations and was hoping vainly for the French government to speak up. "We get showered every day with talk about how we're the birthplace of human rights, but when we need to act, there's nothing," she said bitterly, comparing Paris' prudence when dealing with its former colony to its outspoken support for anti-government protesters in Venezuela. Her friend Mehdi, a 28-year-old who fears that giving his surname will expose his family in Algeria to reprisals, wonders aloud: "Where is France?" In the fortnight since protests broke out, France under President Emmanuel Macron has been playing it safe, wary of being seen to interfere in its former colony, which is of huge strategic importance. "It's a real issue... It's taking up the president and the prime minister's time," one minister told AFP on condition of anonymity. "Instability, questions surrounding security, immigration, economic issues, the feelings and behaviour of our Franco-Algerian compatriots: repercussions are numerous," the minister added. A recent report in the L'Obs news magazine quoted a senior government official discussing which potential foreign crisis most worried 41-year-old Macron, even before the protests broke out. "His nightmare is Algeria. It was the same for his predecessors," the official said, saying concern hinged on possible "serious instability" after the end of Bouteflika's rule which began in 1999. The recent history of Libya, Algeria's neighbour, no doubt influences the president's bad dreams: chaos and civil war that have seen migrants flow north to Europe, while weapons trickle south helping destabilise the Sahel region. The ailing Algerian leader has long been viewed in Paris as a source of stability and a bulwark against spreading Islamism -- despite concerns about human right abuses and corruption on his watch. - Diplomatic minefield - France's approach to the protests -- calling for calm and insisting Algerians must chose their own future -- is shaped by the bloody and still contested history of the two nations. Paris ruled Algeria for more than a hundred years and used brutal methods to keep hold of the territory up to 1962, leaving deep scars and a toxic debate about the legacy of colonisation. This shared past continues to give France clout -- through close economic, diplomatic and security ties, a shared language, as well as the large Algerian-origin diaspora in France, estimated to be 1.7 million-strong. But it also means the French are vulnerable to charges of seeking to pull strings in the energy-rich nation, which is a major gas supplier to several European countries, particularly Spain. "Either we speak up, and then the Algerians accuse us of interfering as the old coloniser, or we don't speak up and France is accused of supporting an anti-democratic regime," French historian Benjamin Stora told AFP. "Either way it's a minefield." Veteran foreign affairs specialist Dominique Moisi contrasted in a recent column how France once dared to impose its rule by force, but was now too timid to speak up. "Before we wanted to do our best by Algerians, but without taking them into account. Now we almost stop ourselves from telling them about something that is obviously bad for them," he said, speaking of Bouteflika. "How can we be both frank and respectful, find a language of truth that can -- that should -- exist between two equals? The answer isn't simple," he wrote in Les Echos newspaper. - Diaspora pressure - The French government rejects any suggestion of double standards when dealing with protests in Algeria and Venezuela, where Macron has backed protesters against President Nicolas Maduro and recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido. "You really can't compare Venezuela and Algeria," junior foreign minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said on Tuesday. "In Venezuela, there's a humanitarian crisis, three million refugees, a president Maduro who is using force against his own people," he said. France was "not indifferent" to what was happening in Algeria, but "we are not interfering," he added. This weekend, young French-Algerians are again expected to hit the streets in Paris, Marseille and other cities to voice support for the protest movement in Algeria and, in some cases, demand France take a stronger position. "It's a shared struggle between Algerians in Algeria and Algerians overseas. The diaspora also has a role to play in this transition, this construction of a new nation based on the rule of law," Samir Mellal from the Stand Up Algeria! collective told AFP in Paris. burs-adp/fc/dcr Protesters have recently held sit-ins in Marseille and other French cities against the Algerian president's bid for a fifth term in office Algerian protesters have clashed with security forces in the capital Algiers Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has held power since 1999 French-Algerians are expected to hold rallies this weekend in Paris, Marseille and other cities to voice support for the protest movement in Algeria
Young men in the Ogoniland area of southern Nigeria watch excitedly as engineers excavate heaps of polluted soil for treatment. Decades of oil spills left their region an environmental disaster zone -- but now hopes are high of a rebirth of farming, fishing and clean water. Alode-Eleme, located outside the oil hub of Port Harcourt, is one of 21 sites that the state-run Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project has earmarked for restoration. In 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimated that decontaminating Ogoniland could cost a billion dollars (880 million euros) and take 30 years to complete. In 2016, to great fanfare, the government launched the cleanup -- although it took until January this year before engineers finally arrived. "We are treating the soil for hydrocarbon contamination so as to make the land fertile for farming and vegetation," said Babatunde Benard, head of engineering firm Earthpro. "Very soon, the water will be free of hydrocarbons." Local youth leader Princewill Osaroejiji said he had been sceptical the cleanup would ever get going. Today, though, he is relieved. "At last, something concrete is happening," he said. "Very soon our people will begin to drink clean water, go to the farms and fish in rivers." - Devastation - Oil was first discovered in Ogoniland, a region of about 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles) on the northern edge of the Niger Delta, in 1957. The early 1970s saw the start of major spills that made the region a byword for environmental catastrophe and, later, activism. The maze of rivers and creeks are slicked black with oil, and nothing grows or survives. Residents dig boreholes for water, but as soon as the taps are turned on, a smell emerges similar to used engine oil and cooking gas. In places like Bomu, Bodo, K-Dere and Goi, signs warn residents -- as if they needed it -- that the water is not fit for use. At a jetty in Bodo, one sign reads: "Polluted water! Do not drink, fish or swim here." But children still swim and bathe in the foul-smelling, oily river. "Getting clean water is like gold here," said Kelvin, 16. "We depend on this bad water because we cannot afford a borehole." - Anger - K-Dere is home to 52 oil wells owned by the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell but they are not currently in operation. Shell was the only oil major in Ogoniland but quit production and exploration in the area in 1993 because of community unrest. The company, which has contributed towards funding the HYPREP cleanup, has another 44 oil wells in the area which are also not currently producing. However oil pipelines from the rest of the Niger Delta still snake through Ogoniland, leading to occasional sabotage. Shell plans to resume its operations but faces resistance from the 800,000 local community. Activists want the firm to admit liability for pollution, pay them compensation and clean up the area. The firm has been accused of not doing enough to prevent pollution and clean up spills in the delta. In its defence, it blames pipeline sabotage for worsening the problem. "For cleanup and remediation to be successful, the repeated re-contamination of cleaned-up sites due to crude oil theft and illegal refining must end," Shell says on its website. In January 2015, it agreed to pay more than $80 million to the Ogoniland community of Bodo for two oil spills in 2008, following a court case brought in London. And in December the same year, a Dutch court ruled that four Ogoni farmers and fishermen could sue Shell for environmental pollution, potentially paving the way for other cases in the Netherlands. - Years of uncertainty - The UNEP assessment of Ogoniland made stark reading. The study found high concentrations of hydrocarbons and benzene, a carcinogen, in outdoor air and drinking water. In some locations, benzene levels were more than 900 times higher than World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. The head of the cleanup project, Marvin Dekil, said $180 million had been released to clean the water, restore the mangroves and other vegetation. "A lot has happened since the flag-off in 2016 and now," he said. "Some people might think we are slow, yes. "We did not want to do things the old ways, so as to achieve a better result." Decontaminating the soil entails mixing it with a microbial treatment and nutrients that help to break down the hydrocarbons. Alode-Eleme is the first site so far where the cleanup has begun, although work is due to start at the 20 others in the coming weeks, Dekil said. Environmental campaigners say locals remain guarded about how and where contaminated soil will be treated. They also accuse the government agency of ignoring demands for drinking water as part of immediate measures before the work starts. "HYPREP is only concerned about contract awards because that is an easy way to enrich individuals," said Fegalo Nsuke, who heads the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, founded by the executed writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. Fisherman Bigboy Daamabel, who spent hours on the Bonny river, agreed. "The fish are dead because of pollution. To get a handful, I have to set out early in the morning to the high seas." As he disembarked from his wooden boat, traders rushed to buy the few fish he had managed to catch. One trader, who gave her name only as Beatrice, said despite the new activity, people like her still face years of hardship. "Fish trading has been the only business I know how to do. But I hardly make enough money because almost all the fish are dead," said the 55-year-old. "How long shall we continue like this?" Decades of oil spills have left the southern Nigerian region of Ogoniland an environmental disaster zone A cleanup has now begun at one of 21 sites in Ogoniland that the state-run Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project has earmarked for restoration Some $180 million has been released to clean the water, restore the mangroves and other vegetation, says the head of the cleanup project Residents dig boreholes for water, and in some places, signs warn residents that the water is not fit for use Ogoniland's maze of rivers and creeks are slicked black with oil, and nothing grows or survives Fishermen and traders complain of hard times because of the pollution The early 1970s saw the start of major spills that made the region a byword for environmental catastrophe and, later, activism
Papua New Guinea is considering making its currently all-male legislature more representative, by creating parliamentary seats reserved for women. Prime Minister Peter O'Neill introduced the proposal on International Women's Day on Friday, saying it was "only fair" that there was more debate about women's role "at the leadership level." There are currently 111 members of parliament in Papua New Guinea, representing 8.3 million people -- and not a single woman MP. Speaking ahead of a retreat that coincided with the annual day to promote equality, O'Neill said it was a "sad fact" that women's interests were neglected. "In our own national parliament, we currently have no elected female member. Despite so many highly skilled and talented female candidates, they were not elected." "I want to see this situation rectified and our government will present a proposal to Parliament that will create seats specifically for women." Papua New Guinea is struggling to overcome its international reputation as the "worst place in the world to be a woman" and the land that #MeToo forgot. Domestic and sexual violence are endemic and often go unpunished. It is estimated that two-thirds of women in Papua New Guinea experience domestic violence. It is not uncommon to see domestic disputes take place in full public view. In some parts of the country, brutal witch hunts are overwhelmingly targeted against women. But a series of legal reforms have changed the penalties for domestic violence and victims say the police are now taking it more seriously. There are signs that political parties are also taking women's role more seriously too. "We will never achieve our true potential if we do not attend to the core and basic issues of our communities," said O'Neill. "And that is the wellbeing of all of our people, especially the women of our country." In the past, seven women have been elected to the national assembly and more serve in provincial assemblies and district councils. But previous efforts to introduce seats for women have faltered over the need for a constitutional amendment. Theresa Jaintong from the PNG National Council of Women said she supported the move and hoped it would shift from the government's agenda to the floor of parliament and become law. But not all women like the idea of getting specifically designated seats. Former Minister for Women and Community Development Delilah Gore said that she, like others, had won the hard way. Rubie Wanariu, one of 165 losing women candidates in the 2017 elections asked: "Why would they be allocated?" "It continues to give the notion that women are the weak link... We have been fighting for gender equality and balance." "I would think females should also be seen as equally capable and must be equally mandated if they want to contribute to the development of the country." New destination: Papua New Guinea is trying to overcome its reputation as the "worst place to be a woman" Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill is proposing creating seats only for women
An academic and former head of a research institute was Friday appointed as Seoul's new unification minister, the South's key point of contact on inter-Korean affairs. The appointment of Kim Yeon-chul comes days after the US and North Korea held a second much-anticipated summit in Vietnam, but failed to reach any agreement on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Kim, a pro-engagement academic who has headed the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification since last year, is replacing Cho Myoung-gyon in the role, which is seen as key in inter-Korean relations. Cho took the post in 2017 -- is a longtime civil servant who first joined the unification ministry in 1980. He has participated in several meetings with his North Korean counterpart as part of a growing rapprochement between Seoul and Pyongyang. US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made headlines at their groundbreaking first summit in Singapore last year, but their commitment to the "denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula" was criticised as vague. The no deal outcome from their second meeting in Hanoi has been a disappointment for the South Korean president. He had brokered the talks process between Washington and Pyongyang and touted the summit as a "remarkable breakthrough" for peace negotiations on the Korean peninsula. In spite of the collapse of the Hanoi summit, Moon said earlier this month Seoul would consult with the US on ways to resume South Korean tourism to the North's Mount Kumgang. He said he would also discuss restarting operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where Southern firms used to be staffed by Northern workers. Moon has been pushing for the resumption of both projects as he seeks to engage Pyongyang, but doing so would fall foul of sanctions imposed on the North. The newly-appointed Kim was a vocal critic of President Park Geun-hye's decision to shutter the Kaesong firms in 2016, in response to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests. He also supported Moon when he used South Korea's position as host of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to reopen communications with Pyongyang. The appointment of Kim, a longtime confidant of Moon, comes as part of a cabinet reshuffle. Kim has "expert knowledge on economic cooperation with North Korea and its nuclear issues," the Blue House said. Conservative right-wing protesters in Seoul take part in a rally denouncing South Korean government policies towards North Korea
Holdout Islamic State group fighters hunkered down in a riverside camp in eastern Syria Friday as US-backed forces pressed to expel them from the last scrap of their dying "caliphate". Thousands of men and women have poured out of the pocket of territory in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border in recent days, their wounded, and dust-covered children, in tow. The extremist group created a proto-state across large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, ruling millions of people, but has since lost all of it except a tiny patch in Baghouz by the Euphrates River. The last IS fighters and their families were cornered on Friday among a dense gathering of vehicles and tents on the water's edge, caught between advancing US-backed forces and Syrian regime fighters across the river. Men and women draped in black walked between a sea of small pickup trucks and canvas scattered across the uneven riverbank, footage obtained by AFP showed. Amid the haphazard dwellings, a black cow grazed on a patch of dry grass. The images, filmed by the Free Burma Rangers aid group, showed a motorbike darting between a dark earth berm topped with clumps of reeds and a line of makeshift shelters. Just a few metres from the river, a few figures sat behind a wall of breeze-blocks erected among a thick bed of reeds, shielding them from the other side of the waterway. The Syrian Democratic Forces, who are backed by air strikes by the US-led coalition against IS, are waiting for all civilians to be evacuated before moving in to retake the last scrap of IS-held territory. - Wheelchair, crutches - More than 7,000 people, mostly women and children, have left the enclave this week, into territory held by the Kurdish-led SDF. On Thursday, AFP saw dozens of women and children at a screening point for new arrivals outside Baghouz. A woman dressed from head to toe in black sat slumped on a wheelchair, with other women and children wrapped in thick jackets scattered on blankets at her feet. All around, women and children sat together in groups under a cloud of churned-up orange dust. Near a field of yellow flowers, two SDF fighters carried a man with a long beard on a wooden stretcher. He was the latest wounded man to emerge from the dregs of the "caliphate", after a stream of men limping out on crutches a day earlier. Around a tenth of the nearly 58,000 people who have fled the last IS bastion since December were jihadists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor. It is unclear how many people remain inside, but the SDF has been surprised by the large numbers streaming out in recent days. At the height of its rule, IS imposed its brutal interpretation of Islam across an area the size of the United Kingdom. After it lost major cities in both countries in 2017, the fall of Baghouz would be a symbolic end to its territorial control. - 'Unrepentant' - But General Joseph Votel, head of the US Central Command, warned Thursday that many of those being evacuated are "unrepentant, unbroken and radicalised". He told Congress the fight against IS was "far from over", and stressed the need to "maintain a vigilant offensive against this now widely dispersed and disaggregated organisation". Beyond Baghouz, IS fighters are still present in Syria's vast Badia desert and have claimed deadly attacks in SDF-held territory, including one that killed four Americans in the city of Manbij in January. US President Trump stunned allies in December when he announced all 2,000 US troops would withdraw from Syria as IS had been defeated. The White House later said that around 200 American "peace-keeping" soldiers would remain in northern Syria. The SDF is holding detained jihadists in jail, while civilians are being trucked to Kurdish-held displacement camps hours north. Syria's Kurds have detained hundreds of foreigners accused of fighting for IS, as well as family members, but their home nations have been reluctant to take them back. Baghouz is currently the only active front in Syria's eight-year civil war, the latest battle in a complex, devastating conflict that has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions from their homes. Thousands of men, women and children have streamed out of the Islamic State group's embattled holdout of Baghouz in eastern Syria in recent days Aid groups have said that children who have fled Baghouz are "victims of the conflict" who must be protected The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have struggled to deal with thousands of people who have fled Baghouz
Thailand is poised to start its first tests of cannabis oil on patients, a health official said Friday, as excitement swirls around a new industry that could create money-making avenues for entrepreneurs while offering relief for suffering patients. Marijuana has been used as a traditional herb for centuries in Thailand but was banned decades ago. The junta's rubber-stamp parliament voted in December to legalise it for medical purposes. Thailand is the first in Southeast Asia to embrace medical marijuana though recreational use remains illegal. Now state-sanctioned clinical trials testing the impact of cannabis oil on selected patients will be held as early as July, according to Nuntakan Suwanpidokkul, director of research and development at the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO). Extracts or "sublingual drops" will be administered during the tests to volunteers suffering from nausea and pain from chemotherapy, among other ailments. "We will use cannabis plants to extract oil for finished products," Nuntakan told AFP, adding that "we hope to begin in July or August". They will come from the government-managed indoor plantation that opened last month on the outskirts of Bangkok. It has around 140 plants cultivated under controlled lighting, temperatures and a misting system known as aeroponics. A gold rush mentality has set in since Thailand's parliament voted to change to the law. Political parties are touting the cash crop's benefits for the livelihoods of farmers and big blowout festivals are planned for April. The country's Food and Drug Administration also announced a 90-day amnesty starting in March for Thais to declare marijuana used for medical reasons and it has received thousands of calls asking for more details. Several nations have legalised medicinal cannabis, including Canada, Australia, Israel, and more than half the states in the US. US-based Grand View Research has estimated the global market for medical marijuana could reach $55.8 billion by 2025. But critics caution that Thailand lacks the technical know-how to be truly competitive in the lucrative industry. "What I feel that the law is lacking is that the people who are writing it don't understand that cannabis is a very finicky plant," said Kitty Chopaka from the Highland Network, which advocates for marijuana legalisation. Several nations have legalised medicinal cannabis, including Canada, Australia, Israel, and more than half the states in the US
Thousands of women took to the streets of Manila Friday in protest against President Rodrigo Duterte's alleged misogyny as an exhibition marking International Women's Day exhibited the clothes of Philippine rape victims. Protesters marched on Malacanang presidential palace chanting against Duterte, who has repeatedly made jokes about rape and said last year that when he was a teenager he indecently "touched" the family maid. Presidential aides have stressed that the comments were mere jokes, not policies, and should not be taken seriously. But protest leader Joms Salvador of women's group Gabriela told AFP that Duterte's "misogynistic" statements were "unacceptable, be they jokes or not." "Law enforcers construe them as policy pronouncements and they embolden criminals," she added. One woman or child is now raped in the Philippines per hour, a 153 percent increase from the decade before Duterte was elected president, according to Salvador. A small group of policemen monitored the protesters at the palace, numbering around 4,000 according to journalists on the scene, before the group marched to a public square in another section of Manila in the afternoon. Elsewhere in the city a shopping mall exhibition displayed clothes worn by women and girls when they suffered "gender-based violence" including rape at home, in school, at work or elsewhere. The sponsors said the show, backed by the United Nations Population Fund local office and which has run since last month, challenges "the idea that women's appearance and behaviour are to blame when they are assaulted". "The Gateway (shopping mall) exhibit 'don't tell me how to dress' is heart-rending. Seeing it personally make(s) me feel uncomfortable," Twitter user @HAUTEANGELUS posted. "Terrible, I cried while reading all their stories," @anabemish tweeted with a picture of herself at the exhibit. "It's a good exhibit. It raises awareness about rape. Women of all ages and backgrounds can become victims and it is infuriating that some people trivialise it," said Salvador, the protest leader. Activists push a carriage with an effigy of Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte as they march toward Malacanang palace to commemorate International Women's Day in Manila
Thousands of Algerians gathered on Friday chanting slogans against ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term, despite the defiant leader's warning of the risk of "chaos". Waving Algeria's green, white and red flag, men and women converged on the city's landmark Grand Post Office square, as youths staged a peaceful march, AFP journalists said. Security in Algiers was tight, with anti-riot vehicles out in force, alongside a water cannon, as a police helicopter hovered overhead, although the past two weeks of demonstrations have been mostly calm. In a message released on the eve of the fresh protests, Bouteflika warned that trouble-makers may try to infiltrate the demonstrations. "Many of our fellow citizens" have demonstrated across the North African country "to peacefully express their views", he said. "However, we must call for vigilance and caution in case this peaceful expression is infiltrated by some insidious party... which could cause chaos," he said, without mention of the demands that he abandon his bid to seek re-election. Bouteflika flagged the risk of a return to the "national tragedy" of Algeria's decade-long civil war in the 1990s and of the "crises and tragedies caused by terrorism" in neighbouring countries. Algeria has largely avoided the conflicts unleashed by the Arab Spring uprisings that brought down rulers in neighbouring Tunisia and Libya. But discontent, particularly among the country's youth, turned to anger after the veteran leader announced on February 10 that he would seek another bid for power. Calls have circulated widely on social media under the hashtag "#March 8 Movement" for massive but peaceful demonstrations in the capital and cities across the North African state. - 'Day of Celebration' - "I will not throw a single stone!" and "No windows will be smashed," were among "18 commandments" sent out to participants by poet and writer Lazhari Labter, as well as instructions to clean up streets after the protests. He also called for demonstrators to turn the event into "a day of celebration" and one of "love, faith, Algerian flags and roses". Volunteers have signed up to marshall protest routes, provide first aid and to clean up, while drivers have offered to shuttle participants to venues from outside city centres. The country's leaders "will not give in easily, but we won't either", said a taxi driver, summing up the popular mood. He said that on February 22, at the first Friday protests, less than half the residents of his district of Algiers had turned out. "On March 1, about two out of three said they would march, and (now) 100 percent of people are saying they will be out on the streets," he said, declining to be named. Bouteflika uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, and his bid to secure another term at the April 18 election has sparked waves of protests. Despite a ban dating back to 2001, demonstrations have been staged almost daily in Algiers since a massive rally two weeks ago. Bouteflika has been in Switzerland since February 24 for what the presidency has described as "routine medical tests", and a date for his return home has not yet been announced. His latest message came Thursday as around 1,000 lawyers took to the streets of Algiers, arguing that his ill health should disqualify him from the race. They breached police cordons to march on the Constitutional Council, the body responsible for approving the candidacy of those registered to contest the poll. An Algerian lawyer kisses a policeman during a protest against ailing President Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term in power, in Algiers on Thursday Algerian lawyers and journalists take part in a protest against the ailing president's bid for a 5th term in office President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013
Richardson, Texas, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ENTOUCH, the industry-leader of dynamic smart building solutions, today announced the promotion of Linda Dres to Chief Financial Officer. As Chief Financial Officer, Dres will be directly responsible for ENTOUCHs finance and administrative functions.





Linda is a valued member of the executive team and our ENTOUCH family said Greg Fasullo, Chief Executive Officer. In her new role, Linda will continue to lead our finance team in support of our rapid growth.

Since joining ENTOUCH in 2015 as the Director of Finance, Linda has help guide the companys financial strategy while ensuring transparency of the financial performance of ENTOUCH.

Our future is bright and I appreciate the opportunities ENTOUCH has provided to me, said Dres. I am excited to assume the CFO position and continue to devote my full energy to leading the finance and administrative team in support of ENTOUCHs ongoing growth.

About ENTOUCH

Founded in Richardson, Texas in 2008, ENTOUCH is a technology company that leverages facility asset and energy intelligence solutions to accurately assess and control energy consumption and expenditure. The companys award winning ENTOUCH 360 platform provides a dedicated team of facility management and energy experts who utilize leading-edge software, best-in-class hardware and predictive or targeted analytics to improve operational efficiencies, significantly reduce energy consumption and maximize energy savings.
U.S. Rep. John Katko unveiled a proposal this week he says will eliminate barriers to marriage for people with disabilities.

Katko, R-Camillus, sponsored a bill that would protect Supplemental Security Income benefits for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. When two people who rely on SSI marry, their benefits could be at risk because they must jointly report incomes.

SSI is provided to people with disabilities who lack income. The assistance helps cover basic expenses, such as clothing, food and housing.

An issue paper published by the Social Security Administration in 2003 details how SSI benefits are affected by marriage. If two people who receive SSI benefits marry, they would receive 25 percent less than they would if they lived together but didn't marry.

"People with intellectual and developmental disabilities should not have to choose between marriage and their disability benefits," Katko said.

Katko's bill, which is co-sponsored by Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, would ensure SSI benefits aren't affected by marital status. To calculate SSI benefits for an individual with developmental or intellectual disabilities, only their income and other financial information will be reviewed. Their spouse's earnings won't be a factor.

The bill also provides access to Medicaid for those with developmental or intellectual disabilities if they qualify for SSI benefits.

Kandi Pickard, senior vice president of the National Down Syndrome Society, urged other members of Congress to support the bill introduced by Katko and Keating.

"Marriage is a basic civil right," Pickard said. "Individuals with disabilities deserve the freedom to secure the legal protections of marriage to build loving families and pursue the opportunities that come with the institution of marriage."

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After a rough winter, the state will invest a seven-figure sum to resurface a portion of Route 38 in the town of Fleming.

Route 38 from south of Lake Avenue Extension near Auburn High School to north of Wyckoff Road on the west side of Owasco Lake will be repaved as part of the $1.2 million project announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The project will include the resurfacing of the traffic circle near Emerson Park and White Bridge Road, which connects Route 38 to Route 38A.

It's one of 91 paving projects the state will fund this year. The funding  $128 million  will be provided through the PAVE NY program, which assists local governments with road repairs.

There is at least one project in every county and New York City, according to the governor's office.

"A thriving transportation network is critical to supporting New York's regional economic growth and local economies," Cuomo said in a statement. "While New York continues its nation-leading investments in transportation infrastructure, harsh winter weather is the new normal and it impacts thousands of lane miles each year."

The Cayuga County project is one of eight in central New York to receive state funding. The state also awarded $980,000 to resurface Route 321 from Route 20 in the village of Skaneateles to Kingston Road in Onondaga County.

Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli, a Syracuse-area Democrat who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee, welcomed the state investments. With extreme weather this winter, he said several roads are in disrepair.

"New York State's Harsh Winter Paving Initiative will provide $128 million in funding to repave roads statewide helping communities to improve travel, local tourism and economic development," Magnarelli said.

Online producer Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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AUBURN  In January last year, a teen was playing video games in his apartment when the power went out around 10 p.m. Instead of finding a blown fuse when he headed to the breaker room, he discovered the electricity had been shut off by a woman who had been locked in the basement.

Justin Tillmon, 32, told the teen he'd beaten up his 27-year-old ex-girlfriend and locked her in the basement.

In a Cayuga County Court trial that spanned about two weeks, including 5.5 days of testimony, a jury on Thursday found Tillmon guilty of 20 crimes after deliberating for less than one hour.

Cayuga County District Attorney Budelmann said the domestic incident began when the woman awoke to find Tillmon standing over her and their 8-year-old son where they'd been sleeping on a couch. When the victim, who'd broken off a more than 10-year relationship with Tillmon in July 2017, rejected his sexual advances  he snapped.

Tillmon hit the woman, threw her into a wall and choked her, Budelmann said. She was also thrown headfirst down two flights of stairs before being locked in a basement storage room. Budelmann told the jury that given it was late on a weeknight, Tillmon probably figured he had hours to do whatever he wanted to her. At some point before police arrived, Tillmon released her from the room.

Once the Auburn Police Department arrived in the area of 145 Washington St., Tillmon resisted arrest, Budelmann said. One officer hurt his knee while attempting to handcuff Tillmon and another was injured when Tillmon "violently shoved" him into a wall. Budelmann said the officer went headfirst into a wall and sustained a concussion, chipped tooth and strained neck and back.

Tillmon was charged with four felonies and four misdemeanors following the domestic incident. His charges included: second-degree kidnapping, a class B felony; second-degree strangulation, a class D felony; two counts of second-degree assault, class D felonies, for injuring police officers; class A misdemeanors of third-degree assault, for injuring the female victim; resisting arrest; and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

In September, Tillmon was indicted on additional charges including first-degree criminal contempt, a class E felony, for repeatedly calling the victim in violation of an order of protection; nine class A misdemeanor counts of second-degree criminal contempt and two class A misdemeanors of fourth-degree tampering with a witness.

Budelmann said that Tillmon later tried to contact the victim hundreds of times, violating an order of protection. Through a third party, Tillmon also posted intimate photos and videos of the woman on social media. Budelmann said Tillmon also tried to get the victim and a witness not to testify.

"He didn't want her to testify, that's why he's calling her," Budelmann said. "He's calling to get her to cooperate like she used to."

Joseph Sapio, Tillmon's defense attorney, questioned some of the charges during his closing arguments.

For the kidnapping charge, Sapio said there needs to be proof there was threat or actual use of deadly physical force. The victim's injuries, which he said the doctor testified to as being scrapes and bruises, didn't seem to communicate that level of force was used. Another component of kidnapping would be that the victim was held somewhere she would be "unlikely to be found." Given that Tillmon told the teen witness that he had locked the woman in the basement, Sapio didn't believe that applied. He asked the jury to find Tillmon not guilty on the kidnapping charge but instead consider second-degree unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor.

For the strangulation charge, Sapio similarly asked the jury to find Tillmon not guilty and urged the jury to instead consider the misdemeanor of criminal obstruction of breathing. A strangulation charge requires a loss of consciousness, or a state of stupor, Sapio said, adding the victim never said she lost consciousness. While she didn't remember how she got back up the stairs after being locked in the basement, he questioned if that could be because she had been drinking that night.

Sapio also didn't see enough evidence for the two second-degree assault charges and questioned the severity of the knee injury one officer suffered. The first-degree criminal contempt felony charge, Sapio said, is in part contingent on there being "no purpose of legitimate communication," which he questioned as the victim not only had to accept jail phone calls and consent to pay for them, but she and Tillmon also had conversations on a variety of topics.

After hearing both Sapio's and Budelmann's closing arguments, the jurors spent less than an hour deliberating before reaching a guilty verdict on 20 charges. Tillmon was found guilty of 18 of the charges as indicted, but two charges he was found guilty of lesser offenses. Instead of the felony charges for kidnapping and strangulation, Tillmon was found guilty of misdemeanors of second-degree unlawful imprisonment and criminal obstruction of breathing.

Tillmon, donned in a red and blue stripped shirt, appeared calm throughout the announcement of the verdict. He nodded his head up and down when the jury announced its not guilty verdict for kidnapping. Throughout much of the verdict announcement, Sapio's hand rested on Tillmon's right shoulder.

"We were pleased with the verdict so far," Sapio said of the first two charges being reduced. "It was a long nine days," he added, as jury selection began Feb. 25.

Sapio said prior to Tillmon's May 7 sentencing date, he plans to file "an application to set aside the verdicts," because he doesn't think the prosecution provided enough proof to support the guilty verdicts on the charges for assault of the police officers and the first-degree felony contempt charge.

Prior to trial all the defendant was willing to accept was two misdemeanors. I am pleased that jurors agreed he deserved much more and found him guilty of twenty crimes between the two indictments, including three felonies. He now faces up to 18 years in prison," Budelmann said in a news release. "By convicting the defendant of both counts of the violent felony assault second he has been held accountable for injuring two police officers.

Staff writer Megan Ehrhart can be reached at (315) 282-2244 or megan.ehrhart@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter @MeganEhrhart.

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A month after contractual changes between the Auburn Police Department and the city of Auburn were approved by the city council, the department announced it's seeking lateral transfer officers to help fill a backlog of open positions.

APD "is actively seeking highly qualified police officers certified by (New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services) interested in lateral transfer opportunities," according to a news release issued by the department Friday. Currently, APD has several vacancies and hopes to immediately accept lateral transfers  trained officers from other agencies  so the community doesn't experience a loss of expected service.

This push comes both after the city made adjustments to the department's contract in February, which eased restrictions on lateral transfers, and in light of an officer shortage.

Auburn Police Department seeking solutions in face of officer shortage AUBURN  As the Auburn Police Department saw four more officers retire in January, adding to

Chief Shawn Butler said in January the department has 67 budgeted positions, but currently only has 54 active officers. Four officers retired in January for other job opportunities, and another patrol officer plans to retire in March while a captain may also be leaving in April or May. Butler said the department would seek to totally exhaust its current civil service list before advertising a push for lateral hires.

Prior to the changes in the contract, a lateral officer's starting yearly salary was capped at about $51,000 regardless of previous experience  which could be a significant pay cut.

The announcement for lateral officers says base salary now ranges from $44,766 to $71,484, depending on experience. Come July, that range will jump to $46,466 to $73,184.

Auburn city council to vote on police department pay raises AUBURN  Struggling with a tight staff, the Auburn Police Department is asking city council 

The department's mission is "to enhance the quality of life in the city of Auburn by working cooperatively with the citizenry to enforce the laws, preserve the peace, and provide for a safe environment," the release states. "We offer a challenging work environment with promotional and specialization opportunities for the dedicated professional who enjoys establishing a partnership with the community we serve in order to ensure we all have a safe community to live in."

For more information, or to find out how to apply, people can contact the APD's training and planning office at (315) 255-4717 or by email at recruitment@auburnny.gov. People can also visit auburnny.gov/Public_Documents/AuburnNY_Police/recruitment or auburnny.gov/Public_Documents/AuburnNY_CivilService/index.

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HIT: Creating downloadable digital audio files, or podcasts, is not part of the curriculum at Seward Elementary School in Auburn, but because podcasting can be a valuable skill in the digital age, the school jumped at the chance to have some students learn more about it.

Teacher Brandon Keysor has been working with students to write, edit and produce a pair of podcasts that will be entered into a competition organized by National Public Radio. The work combines creativity, technology and teamwork, and the completed projects will have a chance at being featured in NPR programming.

MISS: To another blast of winter weather.

Two weeks before the first day of spring, lake effect snows blowing off Lake Ontario stormed in Cayuga County Wednesday in a hit-or-miss pattern that left some areas with blue skies just miles away from whiteout snows. Several accidents were reported on the state Thruway east of Weedsport Wednesday morning, and state and local plow crews were kept busy doing the best they could to keep roads passable.

HIT: To a busy season for New York state parks.

State officials this week reported that parks welcomed a record 74 million total visitors in 2018  and Cayuga County parks reflected the upward trend. Fair Haven Beach State Park in Fair Haven drew nearly 300,000 visitors last year. Filmore Glen State Park in Moravia had almost 30,000 more guests in 2018 than it did in 2017, and Long Point State Park in Ledyard had 51,515 visitors last year, compared with 33,795 in 2017.

The Citizen editorial board includes publisher Rob Forcey, executive editor Jeremy Boyer and managing editor Mike Dowd.

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LOS ANGELESOn March 2, 2018, AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels sued Donald Trump and Trumps then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to get out of a hush money agreement she signed that prevented her from talking about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006.

On March 7, 2019, a federal judge in Los Angeles, California, finally dismissed the lawsuit, saying that the suit had become irrelevant because both Trump and Cohen had earlier agreed that they would no longer enforce the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or seek penalties from Daniels for violating it.

Cohen last year admitted in court that he arranged the $130,000 hush payoff to Daniels, and that he did so because Trump ordered him to. He pleaded guilty to a felony campaign finance violation, admitting that the payment was designed to influence the 2016 presidential electiona federal crimeby keeping Daniels quiet about the sexual encounter.

Daniels began ignoring the agreement within weeks of filing the lawsuit, publicly discussing her brief affair with Trump in multiple television interviews and, in October, publishing her autobiography in which she described having sex with Trump in graphic and painstaking detail. After her book was published, Trumps lawyers argued in court that the book made the lawsuit irrelevant.

On Thursday, Judge S. James Otero appeared to agree, simply throwing the lawsuit out of court without a ruling in either partys favor.

Daniels quickly declared victory in the case.

More than a year ago when I was being threatened with a 20 million lawsuit, I asked a judge to toss out this illegal NDA. Glad I stood my ground & kept fighting," Daniels wrote on her Twitter account.

As soon as the lawsuit was filed last year, Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti undertook an aggressive campaign of television interviews and media appearances, attacking Trump and Cohen and defending Daniels. While Avenatti was often criticized for his strategy of maximum publicity, in the end, his approach turned out to be the right one, according to former prosecutor (now legal journalist) Ronn Blitzer, writing on the Law & Crime site.

Make no mistake about it, Stormy Daniels won this case, and its because she and her attorney Michael Avenatti beat Trump and Cohen into submission," Blitzer wrote. He knew that this case wasnt going to be won in the courtroom, so he took it to the airwaves. It shouldnt have worked, but it did.

Avenatti also declared victory in the case, in a post to his Twitter account.

Be clear: The Court specifically found that Stormy received everything she asked for in the lawsuitshe won, Avenatti wrote. How people can claim this is a loss after we forced Trump and Cohen to cave and Cohen has been convicted, etc. is a mystery.

However, Avenatti had earlier predicted that the judge would require Trump and Cohen to pay astronomical legal fees to Daniels as a result of the NDA lawsuit. Otero, however, said that with the dismissal, an award of legal fees was no longer his to make.

Otero added that Daniels may, indeed, be entitled to reimbursement of her legal fees by Trump and Cohen, but he sent the case back to Superior Court in Los Angeles County, where a decision about legal feesif there is a decisionwould be made, according to a KTLA TV News report.

Photo by Showtime 'The Circus'/Wikimedia Commons
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premier Diversified Holdings Inc. ("Premier" or the "Company") (TSXV: PDH) is pleased to announce the closing of the first tranche of its non-brokered private placement offering (the "Offering") of units of the Company ("Units") of up to 15,000,000 Units at $0.05 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $750,000. The first tranche of the Offering was for a total of $375,000 of gross proceeds for 7,500,000 Units. The Offering was originally announced on February 4, 2019.



Each Unit consists of one common share ("Share") and one share purchase warrant ("Warrant") exercisable to purchase one additional Share at $0.05 for five years from the date of issue. The next closing is expected to occur on or about March 22, 2019. The Offering is subject to receipt of final approval by the TSX Venture Exchange. Conditional approval was granted on February 22, 2019.

The Shares and Warrants will be subject to a hold period expiring on July 9, 2019. No finder's fees or commissions were paid in connection with the Offering.

The net proceeds of the Offering will be used for general working capital and may be used to fund the acquisition of an interest in a public or private entity. The Issuer may, in its discretion, determine to use the proceeds for other business purposes as identified by the board of directors and management.

Questions regarding the private placement may be directed to the CEO, Sanjeev Parsad, at sparsad@pdh-inc.com ; questions regarding subscription information and subscriptions may be directed to the Corporate Secretary at mdavidson@pdh-inc.com .

About Premier Diversified Holdings Inc.

Premier Diversified Holdings Inc. participates in diversified industries through its acquisitions of securities and/or assets of public and private entities which it believes have potential for significant returns. It may act as a holding company (either directly or through a subsidiary) and may participate in management of subsidiary entities to varying degrees.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"Sanjeev Parsad"

Sanjeev Parsad

President, CEO and Director

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.



This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdictions in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Any offering made will be pursuant to available prospectus exemptions and restricted to persons to whom the securities may be sold in accordance with the laws of such jurisdictions, and by persons permitted to sell the securities in accordance with the laws of such jurisdictions.

Further information regarding the Company can be found on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Not for dissemination in the United States of America.

Legal Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are indicated expectations or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this news release include that Premier can close a private placement of up to $750,000, that the next tranche of the Offering will close on or around March 22, 2019, that no finder's fees or commissions will be paid in relation to the Offering, and that the net proceeds of the Offering will be used as stated in this news release. Factors that could cause actual results to be materially different include but are not limited to the following: that we may not be able to raise sufficient capital to accomplish our intentions and that even if we do close the maximum private placement, capital alone may not be sufficient for us to grow our business. Growth depends on several factors including market conditions. Investors are cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements. It is not our policy to update forward looking statements.
Its British Pie Week  an annual celebration of sweet and savoury pastry-encrusted treats that runs from 4-10 March 2019.

Pie purveyors across the nation have been getting involved by launching competitions, new products and offers to make it as easy as pie for the nations pastry addicts to get their mitts on one.

Heres what theyve been up to:

Pie Barm  Booths

Whats better than a pie on its own? A pie in a soft white doughy bap. Thats what Booths is offering its customers this week as it introduces the Pie Barm to its hot food counters.

The Pie Barm, which costs 2, consists of a savoury pie in a bap, along with sauce and gravy. This feat of carbohydrates is traditionally served with a meat & potato pie, but Booths is also offering it with a cheese & onion or Lancashire speciality the Butter Pie.

Pies are a something of a way of life in the north, said Sunil Chapanery, buying manager at Booths. Introducing the Pie Barm to our hot counters is a little bit of fun and seemed a fitting way to celebrate British Pie Week.

Booths also has 30 different types of pie on offer this week from the traditional chicken pie to the more unusual Coconut & Paneer pie.

Great British Pie Poll  Higgidy

Fancy fish and chips in a pie? What about a curry? Full English breakfast? Or a cream tea?

Higgidy is asking Brits to take part in the Great British Pie Poll, as they pitch two classic dishes (in pie form) against each other every day and get the nation to vote for their favourite. At the end of the week, the winner will be revealed and two pie fans will be rewarded with the winning dish.

Its also offering consumers the chance to win a years worth of pies by taking part in the Trivial Pie-suit quiz.

Mac & Cheese Pie  Mac & Wild

Mac & Wild is celebrating its Scottish heritage and Scottish produce with a limited-edition Mac & Cheese Pie. For even more of that traditional Highland twist, the pie is topped with a warm haggis crumb for an added bit of texture. The pie costs 14.75 and is available until Sunday 10 March.

Protect the Lancashire Meat Pie  Hollands Pies

Hollands iconic Meat Pie has been officially renamed as the Lancashire Meat Pie to signal the start of an application to acquire it protected status under the Protected Food Name Scheme.

The scheme already covers products such as the Cornish pasty and Cumberland sausage, and Hollands is hoping the Lancashire Meat Pie can join the list. Hollands said the pie has been baked in Baxenden as far back as the 19th century.

The Meat Pie is a unique product thats undeniably synonymous with the region. Its not only a part of our heritage here at Hollands, but also the thousands of fantastic people across Lancashire. This is why were starting the process to protect it as a regional product and ensure that only proper Lancashire Meat Pies can be made in the region they were born and bred in, said Leanne Holcroft, brand manager at Hollands Pies.

All the pies  Seasons Bakery

Ingleton-based Seasons Bakery has truly got into the spirit of British Pie Week, whipping up an impressive 30 different types of sweet and savoury pies to sell to its customers in North Yorkshire. There are pies topped with black pudding, cheese & bacon and even chutney.

Pie enthusiasts can experience traditional fare such as the pork pie, meat & potato pie or perhaps the cheese & onion or plain and simple steak pie. Those looking for something more adventurous can tuck into Seasons garlic chilli chicken offering, a sausage, potato & caramelised onion pie or even individual cottage pies topped with cheesy mash.

A festival of pie  Pieminister

Pieminister is bringing the nation seven days of what it has dubbed super-duper pie deals with a week-long festival of pie. Theres Pie Day Friday, when one lucky customer can win a years worth of pies, and Sunday Funday where pie fans can enjoy a pie and sundae for 10.

And, for those who cant decide which pie they want, Pieminister is offering them the chance to indulge on Super Tower Saturday, during which consumers can get two pies towered on mash with minty mushy peas and gravy, all for a tenner.

In addition, the company is rolling out its limited-edition Lady BaBaa pie  filled with lamb, root vegetables, red wine and rosemary  which will be available for the whole of March.

Curried Goat Pie  Browns Restaurant & Pie Shop

Lincoln-based Browns Restaurant & Pie Shop is offering up two quirky pies in honour of British Pie Week. Theres the Jamaican-inspired Curried Goat Pie served with creamy mash potato and tenderstem broccoli. Next up is the indulgent Venison, Sweet Potato, Cherry & Dark Chocolate pie served with crispy sweet potatoes on top.


Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, in 2017. (CJ file photo)

The House K-12 Education committee OK'd the statewide school construction bond bill, but questioned the formula used to decide how much each county would get for school construction.The committee met Tuesday to debate House Bill 241 . It pledges $1.9 billion to fund the construction and renovation of public school buildings, community colleges, and facilities for the UNC System. Of that, $1.5 billion would go to PreK-12 public schools. Community colleges would get $200 million, and the state's universities would receive the rest.But before schools can get the money, voters would have to approve the measure on the 2020 March primary ballot. And it would have to pass a skeptical state Senate. Senators would prefer to direct current tax collections to school construction instead of borrowing money.The statewide school construction bond is spearheaded by House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland. Reps. Linda Johnson, R-Cabarrus; Jeffrey Elmore, R-Wilkes; and Craig Horn, R-Union are also primary sponsors.Moore told lawmakers during the committee hearing.Several lawmakers questioned how the bond formula for each county worked. The amount is based on average daily membership, growth of ADM, and includes a 40 percent weight for "low wealth" schools and an adjustment factor to ensure every county receives at least $10 million. If a county has several school districts, the $10 million would be split among them.The bill doesn't require matching funds for counties that receive an allocation for low wealth or for the $10 million minimum adjustment.Rep. Kevin Corbin, R-Macon said.Corbin said rural counties often get shortchanged over facility funding because they don't have a large student population or a large tax base. But he said the proposed bond addresses those challenges and for that it has his support.Corbin said.Gov. Roy Cooper, the N.C. School Board Association, and the N.C. Association of Educators have backed a bond to fund school construction across the state, but Cooper has suggested a much higher figure. The governor suggested a $3.9 billion general obligation bond at the March 5 North Carolina Association for Middle Level Education conference in Greensboro.How much debt the state can take on to support a statewide bond is a point of contention among lawmakers. Rep. Graig Meyer, D-Orange, said he expects the vast majority of House members will support the bill, but he wanted to know why the amount was limited to $1.3 billion for public schools. (The bill designates $1.5 billion for public schools.)Meyer said.Moore said State Treasurer Dale Folwell told them that the debt capacity is about $2 billion. Going over that amount could affect the state's credit rating.Moore said.
On Thursday, President Trump abruptly cut short his planned diplomatic triumph with North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un after Kim made clear he had no plans to denuclearize, and that he wanted all sanctions against his evil regime removed. Trump explained,adding,Trump was right to walk. Of course Trump should have walked away from the table - he had no other choice, given that Kim wasn't going to give up his nuclear program, and wanted the world in return. That isn't hard-nosed negotiating on Trump's part. That's mere refusal to utterly abandon any sensible North Korean policy. Let's not grade on a curve here.The problem is that Trump's diplomatic failure was the result of an ill-considered and morally benighted approach to the North Korean regime in the first place. Here's how diplomacy usually works: there are preconditions for getting the most powerful man on the planet, the representative of the world's most powerful and free state and the planet's greatest defender of liberty, to sit down with you. Negotiators are deployed; concessions are pre-planned. But no such pre-planning took place. This meeting didn't break down over an ancillary issue cropping up at the last minute. This meeting took place because there was no common ground from the get-go.Indeed, Trump's strategy seemed to be to declare a mere meeting a triumph, which it eminently is not - the President of the United States can meet with any world leader at the drop of a hat. It's an honor for those leaders to meet with the president, not the other way around. The purpose of the meeting: the publicity to be garnered from the meeting.What about the negotiations themselves? Trump had no obvious strategy - his strategy seemed to rely merely on interpersonal warmth and insane levels of sycophancy. President Trump himself is driven by flattery; it's the currency by which he operates. He tends to think that others operate in the same currency. By expending ridiculous levels of such currency, Trump hoped to win Kim over to some form of serious concession. How far was Trump willing to go? He was willing to call his relationship with Kim a- a phrase usually used with regard to the US's relationship with Great Britain. He suggested that Kim was a "great leader." He spelled out his strategy just two days ago: "I've developed a very, very good relationship ... he's never had a relationship with anybody from this country, and hasn't had lots of relationships anywhere." Trump said at a rally in West Virginia in September,It seems never to have occurred to Trump that while he was trying to flatter Kim into giving up the only factor maintaining Kim's power - his nuclear program - Kim was simultaneously trying to stroke Trump's ego to get him to give him concessions. And it worked. To this point, Kim has offered no real concessions; Trump has now met with the world's worst dictator twice, cancelled a joint US-South Korean naval exercise, and now explained that he takes Kim at his word that he didn't know about the North Korean regime's murder of American citizen Otto Warmbier - even though Trump himself hosted Warmbier's family at the 2018 State of the Union Address, where he talked about the "ominous nature of this regime."It was a pathetic moment. And Trump's strategy, which would only have been worth it if the United States had received something in return, has been exposed for the pathetic play-acting it always was. Foreign relations aren't based in personal warmth. They're based in the realities of power politics and national interest. Trump himself used to acknowledge that. But Trump's obstinate belief in his own negotiating prowess and interpersonal skill has now put the United States in the position of quasi-endorsing and pandering before one of the worst human beings on the planet.
If you're reading this, I have been arrested in Washington, D.C. and will refuse to leave jail until @SenSchumer and @RepCurbelo publicly confirm that they have whipped the votes to block any spending bill that does not include a Clean Dream Act. #NoDreamNoDeal  Belen Sisa (@belensisaw) December 16, 2017

Senator Bernie Sanders' new press secretary will be unable to cast a vote for the open socialist in 2020 due to her immigration status.Far-left activist and illegal immigrant Belen Sisa announced her new position with the Sanders campaign on Wednesday in a social media post condemning theTrump administration. According to The Washington Examiner , Sisa was brought into the United States illegally from Argentina by her parents when she was six years old. Currently, Sisa is shielded from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, implemented by former President Barack Obama.wrote the activist in a social media post on Wednesday.Sisa has been active in left-wing politics, working Latino outreach for Sanders' failed 2016 presidential run and for the Arizona delegation at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), the same year.She's been an active protester, too, and has been arrested for such activity on at least two occasions. The Washington Examiner reports:Sisa's mother called her daughter "brave" for her actions. "DACA is expiring every day. Hers is going to expire in one year and what are we going to do with all of these youth? Congress has to pass the DREAM Act," she said.According to Fox News, Sisa told the Arizona Republic in 2016 that "while she initially supported Sanders' campaign that year, she urged her family members, who have a right to vote, to back Hillary Clinton."said the activist.In the past, Sanders' immigration stance hedged what seems to be the Democrats' new mainstream position on immigration. In 2015, Sanders took heat for dismissing the idea of totally open"substantially lower wages in this country."said Sanders, according to Real Clear Politics.
MADISON, Wis., March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sonic Foundry today announced the appointment of Chief Operating Officer, Michael Norregaard, who will support the companys efforts to drive revenue, market share and customer satisfaction. Norregaard will continue to report directly to Gary Weis, CEO.



Norregaard joined the company in 2013, most recently holding the role of SVP of Customer Experience and Mediasite Events. As COO, he will oversee the companys IT department, hosting operations, customer care, system engineering, business development efforts, the Mediasite Events team as well as the launching of a new customer success initiative.

During his tenure with the company, Norregaard has held the SVP of Sales Operations and VP of Business Development titles. He spearheaded efforts to drive efficiencies in the sales channel, develop and manage the pipeline and maximize customer experience for the company. Norregaard led the companys growth strategy in China by assessing the market and competitive landscape, identifying unique requirements and building the partnerships that have ultimately generated millions of dollars in new billings. He was also key in growing the Mediasite Video Cloud business the past few years, the fastest growing part of the business. Before joining Sonic Foundry, Norregaard held executive roles in European technology companies for several years, was client manager and sales executive at IBM and also a general manager at AT&T.

I am happy to announce the promotion of Michael to COO of Sonic Foundry. Michael has made invaluable contributions to our team for the past five years, including taking on the management of more of the companys operating activities during the past year. It is clear he plays an integral role in the operations of the company, said Gary Weis, CEO, Sonic Foundry. Im confident his extensive experience will make us more efficient and help us continue to improve the quality of service we deliver to our customers.

About Sonic Foundry, Inc.

Sonic Foundry (OTC Pink Sheets: SOFO) is the global leader for video capture, management and streaming solutions. Trusted by more than 4,900 educational institutions, corporations, health organizations and government entities in over 65 countries, its Mediasite Video Platform quickly and cost-effectively automates the capture, management, delivery and search of live and on-demand streaming videos. Learn more at www.mediasite.com and @mediasite.

 2019 Sonic Foundry, Inc. Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of Sonic Foundry, Inc. or their respective owners.




Southfield, MI, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI) (the Company), a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and operates or has an interest in manufactured housing and recreational vehicle communities, today announced the dates for its first quarter 2019 earnings release and conference call.

The Company will release its first quarter operating results on Wednesday, April 24, 2019, after markets close. A conference call to discuss these results will be held on Thursday, April 25, 2019, at 11:00 A.M. ET.

To Participate in the Conference Call:

Dial in at least 5 minutes prior to start time.

U.S. and Canada: 877-407-9039

International: 201-689-8470

The conference call will also be available live on Sun Communities website www.suncommunities.com .

Conference Call Replay:

U.S. and Canada: 844-512-2921 or 412-317-6671

Passcode: 13688595

The replay will be accessible through May 9, 2019.

About Sun Communities, Inc.

Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE:SUI) is a REIT that currently owns and operates or has an interest in a portfolio of 371 communities comprising over 128,000 developed sites as of December 31, 2018.

For Further Information at the Company:

Karen J. Dearing
if it is true that by our very nature and economy we tend to be transactional and reciprocal, then charity really is a theological virtue. It requires Gods own gift of grace so that we may give gifts like He Who Gives. []

This weeks Ash Wednesday marked the first day of Lent  a period of intensive spiritual renewal in many Christian liturgical calendars. Lent is a season lasting exactly 40 days, as we imitate the time Jesus spent on retreat in the desert in preparation for the giving of his life to us on the cross, the ultimate act of love or caritas for all humanity.

For those concerned with their own improvement, Lenten spiritual training rests on three basic pillars: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

Most faithful are good at exercising the first two, such as increasing the number of rosaries prayed each week, skipping meals and abstaining from alcohol. However, fewer, it seems, focus much on the third spiritual pillar, the charitable giving of money or some other good necessary for the poor and needy. Why is this so?

The Most Reverend Robert Barron, an auxiliary bishop from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, is one of the best in the field when explaining nitpicky moral-metaphysical questions. According him, charity is an aporia or anomaly of gift. Charity is a very difficult, virtually illogical form of giving. It is even harder to practice in a secular materialist culture that fails to recognize Gods unconditional love for us and not seek his grace in our own charitable endeavors;.

During a March 7 public lecture (The One Who is, the One Who Gives) which Barron delivered upon receiving an honorary doctorate in theology from Romes Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, the California bishop explained why we are probably not as good at the charitable giving of alms as would like think we are.

Throughout his 45-minute address, Barron dug deep down into the ontological, existential causality of charity and giving.

He said that we might often confuse our gift giving capacity with the theological virtue of charity. Gift giving, according to Barron, is good and natural to our being and essence: as Gods creatures we show up in the world in gift-form. He said when we are able to acknowledge that our existence is given, we are grateful and want to give back. He noted that a clue to the ontology of giving and giving back is found in the German language  in the very same word gift used in English. He said in acknowledging the existence of something we say there it is. This metaphysical truth is beautifully honored in the German expression for there is, namely, es gibt (it gives).

Hence, according to Barron, our default modus operandi as created beings is to recognize that our life is a gift and we naturally show gratitude by giving back  and we expect others to follow suit. We give back to the original First Giver by devoting our lives to Him, giving back all our talent in serving our vocation. And we also pay the gift of life forward  re-gifting it  by procreating other human lives and giving to others the possessions they lack to live well. We are disappointed when others dont help us or recognize our gift.

We have a built-in ontological instinct for gratitude which automatically translates into gift giving and wanting our love reciprocated.

This is all good but, Barron said, we find in gift giving a problem which is not found in charity.

Giving qua giving is naturally transactional  we dont give just to give but also to receive and then give back again. In fact, giving is so naturally reciprocal that there may arise confusion of distributive justice and overall moral purpose.

Barron explained that in the German word  gift  there is also a very negative connotation. Gift in the secondary meaning of the German also denotes poison.

He, therefore, explained how gift giving may actually have a toxic effect in a series of reciprocated mutually destructive exchanges. This happens, he said, when, in some cultures, one act of hospitality would awaken in the one who received it an act of even more extravagant hospitality, which would, in turn, compel the original giver to give even more generously, until the two communities essentially ruined one another through a kind of mutual shaming.

Barron said while there is nothing essentially wrong in being more generous than your original benefactor, it is possible that the giver and receiver might want to financially overwhelm one another  as if strategically planning each others defeat, willfully or not. This is why [we] could playfully suggest an etymological link between hospitality and hostis (enemy in Latin).

But with charity there is no real transaction, victory or defeat wanted. In charity, our basic desire it to give for the goodness of giving (i.e. helping). Full stop. Charity should be naturally done without needing to have anything in return, getting something we lack. The ideal is to act just like God gives because he exists perfectly and lacks nothing. He gives because He is the One Who gives, said Barron. We can only strive and struggle to give charitably. Never like God gives.

In one of his popular Word on Fire podcast videos, Barron said that when practicing almsgiving during Lent, we get a sense of what unconditional charity means with lots of little spontaneous acts, such as giving whenever you get something in the mail asking you for money.

Maybe you give them 5 dollars. I dont care. ..make it a practiceWhenever you see a homeless person during Lent, give them something. Dont asking any questions. Dont weigh the pros and cons. Just give them something.

Obviously Barrons point is not without controversy. By mere common sense, we know we cannot give alms charitably without some rational judgement about their just use and purpose. We wouldnt give alms spontaneously to infanticide projects just as as we wouldnt purchase a six-pack of beer for a poor drunkard on the street corner.

Barrons purposeful exaggeration is not about discrediting the need for moral prudence and temperance in our charitable almsgiving. Barrons point is to gain a sense of what it is to break free from being transactional or at least free from desiring reciprocity.

The bishop said, when summing up his lecture, that if it is true that by our very gift-form nature and the economy of exchange we desire transaction and reciprocity of giving, then uncondtional charity really is a theological virtue. It is not strictly humanly possible without Gods own gift of grace to overcome the imperfections of our gift giving nature.

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons, Eventbrite.
Today Alejandro Chafuen, Actons Managing Director, International, offered further thoughts on the current crisis in Venezuela in an article published by Law & Liberty. His piece paints a general picture of major figures and their roles in the situation, as well as international actions and efforts in response to it. Chafuen notes that this is not a complete listother issues such as drug trafficking revenues are also importantbut his descriptions offer a good overview of the Venezuelan crisis seen from the perspective of leadership.

Foreign countries seldom enter into Washingtons policy debates unless what happens in those countries could affect the lives and interests of the people of the United States. Those that usually make the cut are China, Russia, Mexico, Israel, and nations that support radical Islamist forces. North Korea has also been on Americans minds. Some of the global analysts I respect most, like retired Navy Admiral Bobby Inman, still consider an aggressive nuclear event to be the number one threat faced by the civilized world. And now comes Venezuela. The role of foreign players from Iran, Cuba, Russia, and China makes the Venezuelan situation of immense strategic importance for the free world.

This is reflected in trends on the Internet, for during the last 12 months, judging by the rankings of Google searches, many in the United States have started to pay attention. Venezuela has eclipsed all other foreign countries except China as a search term. Over the past week or so, the U.S. President and Vice President have declared that there is no going back, and that the former President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, will have to leave the office he now usurps.

There was a major change in the attitude of the U.S. government after President Obama left office in early 2016. Obamas leading from behind policy gave Maduro, his predecessor and mentor, the late Hugo Chavez, and others of their ilk free rein and left Washington playing a reactive role. More than that, Obama was pushing friendlier policies toward Iran and Cuba, two Maduro allies. The inauguration of Donald Trump changed the situation, and it is now the Maduros of this world who are in reactive mode.

I am a Buenos Aires-born U.S. citizen who has been involved in Venezuela for over three decades, and I support as much as I can all who work to recover their lost liberties. As an economist, I approach this or any similar situation based on a simple model: I focus on what is happening in the field of ideas, incentives, and leadership. I also believe that luck and providence play a role in life, but the only thing we can do in that field is pray or cross our fingers.

The model is simple, but the answers are not. As a worker in the field of ideas, I am biased on their role in the unfolding of political life, especially for the long term. But ideas without action are just ideas, so I will start with a brief description of the current people playing a leadership role.
Looking for a challenge? The Smithsonian Institution Archives and the Smithsonian Transcription Center are teaming up for a #HerNaturalHistory-themed transcription challenge. Starting today (8 March), help a team of #volunpeers transcribe field notes from conservation biologist Devra Kleiman and botanist Cleofe Calderon. Dive into observations of golden lion tamarins with Kleiman, who worked at Smithsonians National Zoological Park from 1972 to 2001. And head to South America with Calderon to collect grasses for Smithsonians Department of Botany.

When? Starting TODAY, 8 March 2019

Where? Smithsonian Transcription Center. The field notes are available on the Smithsonian Institution Archives project page.

The Smithsonian Institution Archives has launched 11 field books on the Smithsonian Transcription Center. Throughout the month, additional field books will be added as others are completed. Our goal is to fully transcribe 18 field books in total (9 from each woman) by the end of March.

These transcriptions will also make the corresponding digitized field books in the Biodiversity Heritage Library more discoverable, as they can be uploaded in place of the automatically-generated OCR text in BHL to allow the field books to be full-text searchable. This will make it easier for researchers and the public to explore these valuable primary source materials and access specific information from their pages.

We hope youll join our #HerNaturalHistory transcription challenge to help improve access to and discoverability of the primary research of two female naturalists. Continue reading to learn more about Kleiman and Calderon.

This challenge is presented as part of the #HerNaturalHistory campaign  an international social media campaign produced in collaboration with BHL partners to celebrate women in natural history. Visit the Her Natural History webpage to learn more about this and other events and programming occurring all month long.

Devra Kleiman

Conservation biologist Devra G. Kleiman (1942-2010) was the first female scientist at the National Zoological Park (NZP). She was hired by NZP in 1972 to manage the zoos captive breeding program. Much of her research focused on the captive breeding of giant pandas and the reintroduction of golden lion tamarins to the wild. Over her career at the zoo, she served as Assistant Director for Animal Programs, Assistant Director of Zoological Research and Education, Assistant Director of Research, Assistant Director of Zoological Research, and Senior Scientist. She authored approximately 150 manuscripts and two books.[1]

Smithsonian Institution Archives holds a large collection of archival materials documenting Kleimans research and professional activities. Many of her field books have been digitized in the Biodiversity Heritage Library as part of the Smithsonian Field Book Project.

Cleofe Calderon

Botanist Cleofe Calderon (1929-2007), born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, studied with renowned agrostologist Prof. Ing. Lorenzo Parodi at the University of Buenos Aires. She was introduced to Dr. Thomas R. Soderstrom, Curator of Grasses in the Department of Botany at the U.S. National Herbarium at the Smithsonian, during a trip to Washington, D.C. in 1961-62. The two began a close collaboration, and Calderon became a prominent botanist specializing in bamboo. With support from the Smithsonian, the Office of Scientific Affairs of the Organization of American States, and the National Geographic Society, Calderon conducted extensive field work in Central and South America, collecting plant specimens in Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil between 1966 and 1982. One of her most significant finds was the re-discovery of Anomochloa marantoidea, a small species of bamboo last seen in the late 1840s.[2]

Smithsonian Institution Archives holds a collection of field books documenting Calderons botanical research in Brazil, Panama, and Colombia between 1967 and 1981. Many of these have been digitized in the Biodiversity Heritage Library as part of the Smithsonian Field Book Project.

References

[1] Smithsonian Institution Archives. 2018. Kleiman, Devra G. Finding Aid, November 5. Accessed on February 28, 2019. https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_302446. [2] Smithsonian Institution Archives. 2019. Calderon, Cleofe E. Collections. Accessed on February 28, 2019. https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/auth_per_fbr_eacp248.
I blogged about this case in September. PC Drivers makes software that claims to help speed up users computers. Malwarebytes blocked it as a potentially unwanted program, or PUP. Litigation ensued. In the prior ruling, Malwarebytes won big, but then unexpectedly asked the judge to transfer the litigation from Texas to California rather than close out the case with a judge who already supported its positions. Fortunately for Malwarebytes, the California court reaches the same conclusions.

Section 230(c)(2)(B). As the Texas court held, Malwarebytes blocking of PC Drivers is pretty much a textbook application of Section 230(c)(2)(B)s safe harbor for filtering instructions. PC Drivers tried four arguments to get around it:

The safe harbor shouldnt work on a motion to dismiss. The court cites 3 cases that have found 230(c)(2)(B) on a motion to dismiss.

230(c)(2)(B) doesnt apply to click stealing. PC Drivers claims that Malwarebytes steals click advertising services by diverting PC Drivers customers to become Malwarebytes customers. This happens because Malwarebytes flagged PC Drivers domains as PUP sources and displays a warning to its software users when they try to access those domains. The court says the alleged redirection in this case clearly is an action that enables or makes available the technical means to restrict access to material. This discussion has some parallels to the alleged diversion at issue in competitive keyword advertising cases, but the court doesnt make the linkage. The court also says 230(c)(2)(B) extends to providing screenshots and instructions on how to remove PC Drivers.

Malwarebytes committed tortious contract interference by blocking its software even for its paying customers and making it really hard for them to keep using the software. The court says the Ninth Circuit rejected this argument in Zango v. Kaspersky.

Its software isnt objectionable. The court responds that the statute makes clear that its a subjective standard for objectionable.

Section 230(c)(2)(B) thus wipes out most of PC Drivers claims.

False Advertising. PC Drivers claims that Malwarebytes violated Lanham Act 43(a) by saying that its software is a system optimizer that uses intentional false positives to convince users that their systems have problems. The court says these are non-actionable opinions.

Trademarks. PC Drivers contends that Malwarebytes use of the Marks is causing confusion by deceiv[ing] the public into believing PC Drivers website and [P]roducts are malicious, and that Malwarebytes premium product is the solution to resolve any future malicious programs.' The court says this is a novel theory of trademark infringement unsupported by the precedent. Also, Malwarebytes qualifies for nominative use because its messages connoted disapproval of PC Drivers.

The courts ruling is sensible and unsurprising given the Texas ruling. A different case against Malwarebytes, brought by Enigma, is on appeal to the Ninth Circuit. The ruling in that case should be more of the same, but if the Ninth Circuit does something goofy, this case previews the nonsense we can anticipate.

Case citation: PC Drivers Headquarters LP v. Malwarebytes Inc., 2019 WL 1061739 (N.D. Cal. March 6, 2019)

Other Posts on Malwarebytes:

Section 230 Helps Malware Vendor Avoid Liability for Blocking DecisionPC Drivers v. Malwarebytes

Section 230(c)(2) Protects Anti-Malware VendorEnigma v. Malwarebytes

Message Board Operator May Be Liable For Moderators ContentEnigma v. Bleeping
Manafort Sentenced to 47 Months

Paul Manafort, the one-time campaign chairman for President Trump, was sentenced to 47 months in prison.

Unless he is pardoned, Manafort may not survive it. He will soon turn 70, and still faces charges in a separate case.

But his defense attorneys can take it as a win because Manafort faced closer to 20 years. Ultimately, however, all roads lead to the same place.

In Custody

Manafort has been languishing in jail after being convicted last year in Virginia on eight felony counts related to bank and income tax fraud. Prosecutors said he was working in the Ukraine on behalf of politicians aligned with Russia.

Following his conviction, he pleaded guilty in Washington, DC to charges of illegal lobbying. He faces up to 10 years on those counts.

Manafort has not criminally implicated Trump, who employed Manafort for his presidential campaign in the 2016 election. Trump has called him "a very good person."

That didn't help at sentencing, however, where Manafort appeared in a wheelchair. His counsel asked for credit, saying Manafort accepted responsibility for his crimes.

No Apology

"I ask you to be compassionate," Manafort pleaded with the judge, but did that apologize.

Judge T.S. Ellis surprised many courtwatchers and sentenced him to about four years. Prosecutors wanted 24.

Manafort is one of 34 people and three companies charged by Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation. He is the only one to go to trial.

Others, including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, have pleaded guilty. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen have also pleaded out.

Manafort has an appointment with Judge Amy Berman Jackson next week in the Washington case. She sent Manafort to jail last June for allegedly tampering with witnesses while out on bail.

Related Resources:
Recent tornado killed 23 in tiny town on Alabama-Georgia border, including 4 children, and 7 people from one family.

In Alabama, authorities confirm that The Poarch Band of Creek Indians donated $180,000 to cover all costs for funeral services and interment for the 23 people killed in Sunday's tornado in Lee County.

The county coroner announced this news on Thursday.

From AL.com:

"The coroner's office received word that they wanted to help and reached out to them and they agreed. Their first commitment was for $50,000. Later they called back and ask me what it would take to cover the costs and I gave them a figure and they graciously made it happen," said Lee County Coroner Bill Harris. "The monies will be deposited with the East Alabama Medical Center Foundation to be dispersed to the funeral homes to cover the cost of the funerals. I am so thankful for them to step up in this manner and help the families of this tragedy."

In Alabama, search and rescue teams were still combing through the wreckage of houses flatted by weekend tornadoes this week. On Tuesday, they were looking for seven or eight people still unaccounted for in the wake of the deadliest U.S. tornado outbreak since 2013.

The tiny community of Beauregard, near the Alabama-Georgia border, was beginning to mourn the 23 people confirmed killed by the storms, which included four children and seven people from one family, officials said on Tuesday.

Most of the people who died were found near their homes. The four children were age 6, 8, 9 and 10, said officials.

It looks like that's the community being addressed by today's announcement. Such terrible loss.

About the economic power of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, from the tribal website:

The Poarch Band of Creek Indians is the only federally recognized Indian Tribe in the state of Alabama, operating as a sovereign nation with its own system of government and bylaws. The Tribe operates a variety of economic enterprises, which employ hundreds of area residents. Poarch Creek Indian Gaming manages three gaming facilities in Alabama, including: Wind Creek Casino & Hotel, Atmore; Wind Creek Casino & Hotel, Wetumpka; and, Wind Creek Casino & Hotel, Montgomery. The Poarch Band of Creek Indians is an active partner in the state of Alabama, contributing to economic, educational, social and cultural projects benefiting both tribal members and residents of these local communities and neighboring towns.

They step up regularly. Here's a previous example of the tribe donating 100,000 for disaster relief, just one month before in the area [PDF Link].

If you or someone you know was affected by the deadly March 3 tornadoes in Lee County, be aware that you are eligible to apply for both Individual and Public disaster assistance funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

These disaster assistance funds are available for homeowners, renters, and business owners in Lee County affected by the recent 2019 storms.

Individuals and business owners can register for assistance online at DisasterAssistance.gov or by calling 800-621-3362.

Those who are deaf, hard of hearing or have difficulty speaking can call TTY 800-462-7585.



IMAGE: Debris lays outside a house devastated after two deadly back-to-back tornadoes, in Beauregard, Alabama, U.S., March 5, 2019. REUTERS


Yesterday, I wrote about how MEP Julia Reda resolved the mystery of how the European Parliament came to produce a batshit smear-campaign video promoting the new Copyright Directive and smearing the opposition to the Directive (including signatories to the largest petition in human history): it turned out that the video had been produced by AFP, a giant media company that stands to make millions if the Directive passes.



Now this is bad enough, but reading Mike Masnick's Techdirt coverage of this issue reminded me of something else about AFP, those campaigners for the strongest possible copyright regime: back in 2010, AFP used a photographer's pictures of the Haiti quake without permission or compensation, and when the photographer complained, AFP sued the photographer, arguing that all photos posted to Twitter are presumptively lawful to re-use and seeking a judgment affirming this view. (AFP lost and had to pay the photog $1.2 million).

The point being that AFP has a highly selective form of copyright fundamentalism: when it comes to copyright rules that would pad its bottom line by millions, no cost is too high. But when it is playing fast-and-loose with others' copyright, it will threaten and attempt to bankrupt the aggrieved party.



AFP, of course, is a giant publisher that stands to potentially benefit from Article 11 in particular. And, apparently, AFP has been one of the more aggressive lobbying organizations in Brussels pushing for Article 11. Hell, all the way back in 2005, AFP actually sued Google for linking to its stories (spoiler alert: it did not win). So for the EU Parliament to then use public funds to ask a clearly interested party to produce a propaganda video seems highly questionable. This is the akin to say, the US Congress asking Pfizer to produce a video that will go out under "Congress" official imprimatur, about prescription drug pricing. That would be a scandal. Yet, in the EU, not too many officials seem particularly bothered by this. Of course, it should be noted that AFP does not exactly have the greatest track record on copyright itself. In 2010, the company was caught having used someone's photo of the earthquake aftermath in Haiti without licensing, and when called on it, AFP sued the photographer with a bizarre argument that anything that was posted to Twitter was free for anyone to use (no, really). Eventually, AFP was forced to pay out $1.2 million for that debacle. You'd think that experience might make the company a little more careful about supporting extremist copyright positions, but for some reason in the copyright debates, the maximalists never think the law will seriously apply back to them.



EU Parliament Paid News Publisher AFP To Create Bogus Propaganda Video In Favor Of EU Copyright Directive [Mike Masnick/Techdirt]
For the first time in our nation's history, the United States government is detaining over 50,000 people it claims to be undocumented immigrants in jails, prisons, and makeshift detention camps across America.

SCOOP: ICE is now holding 50,000 people in immigration detention. Notice that's 4000+ more than the shutdown bill funded (and that ICE was already holding thousands more than the shutdown bill figure when the deal was struck). https://t.co/YMvLM6vgIf  Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) March 8, 2019

From reporting by Spencer Ackerman at The Daily Beast:

According to a figure provided to Capitol Hill and made available to The Daily Beast, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has set a new all-time record  the latest in its string of broken records of immigrants detained  is 50,049 people as of Wednesday, Mar. 6. The figure includes both single adults and whole families behind bars. It's an increase of approximately 2,000 people in the month-plus since Jan. 30, when ICE, it previously told The Daily Beast, was detaining 48,088 people. And it's just another 2,000 people shy of the 52,000-person daily detentions ICE is asking Congress to fund in its next budget. Asked what accounts for the increase, ICE spokeswoman Danielle Bennett said in a statement: "ICE makes custody determinations on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with U.S. law and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy, considering the merits and factors of each case while adhering to current agency priorities, guidelines and legal mandates. Ensuring there are sufficient beds available to meet the current demand for detention space is crucial to the success of ICE's overall mission." It isn't clear where ICE would have found the money for the increase. A year ago, when passing ICE's most recent budget, legislators explicitly instructed the interior-immigration agency to cap detentions at 40,520. Instead, by the summer ICE had surpassed that total, leading its Department of Homeland Security parent to raid its other accounts, including FEMA, to float ICE. A Senate appropriator  the last sort of person an executive agency wishes to anger come budget season  called ICE out for continuing a policy of "maximum cruelty."

Read the rest here: ICE Is Detaining 50,000 People, a New All-Time High [daily beast].

Related observations from Twitter, below.

These disturbing, authoritarian practices are what we're funding with every dollar given to DHS & ICE with 0 accountability  https://t.co/iKM6sVVOcr  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 7, 2019
LOS ANGELES, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP (GPM) announces an investigation on behalf of CPI Aerostructures, Inc. investors (CPI or the Company) (NYSE American: CVU ) concerning the Company and its officers possible violations of federal securities laws.



If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate.

On February 8, 2019, CPI announced that its previously issued financial statements for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 should no longer be relied upon due to an error related to the Companys billing process which caused an overstatement of revenue.

On this news, CPIs share price fell 8.5% to close at $6.34 per share on February 8, 2019, thereby injuring investors.

If you purchased CPI stock, have information, or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Lesley Portnoy, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, CA 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9244, or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com . If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.


In Comal County, Texas, judge Jack Robison, presiding over the trial of accused sex trafficker Gloria Romero Perez, walked into the jury room after the jurors landed on a guilty verdict and urged them to reverse their decision because God says she's innocent. Unswayed, the jurors stuck to their guilty verdict. Another judge later ruled the case a mistrial while the Texas Judicial Commission let Robison off with a public warning. From My San Antonio:

"The judge later apologized to the jury, and said something to the effect of, 'When God tells me I gotta do something, I gotta do it,'" officials wrote in the report

In his self-report, Robison told the committee he was experiencing memory lapses at the time and was under extreme stress due to treatment for a medical condition and the death of a close friend.





Robison provided letters from two medical professionals that Robison's outburst was caused by a "temporary, episodic medical condition referred to as a 'delirum.'" The professionals said that the issue appears to be resolved and that Robison is not currently experiencing the same impairment.
Texas district judge Jack Robison told a jury that his god told him to tell a jury to acquit a sex trafficking defendant. The jury was not persuaded and found Gloria Romero Perez guilty. The Texas Judicial Commission issued a warning to Judge Robinson but took no further action against him.

From CNN:

Robison testified before the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct last month, and the commission released its warning on February 20.

The court documents show that Robison furnished letters from medical professionals to the judicial conduct panel, which concluded that Robison was not currently suffering from a mental illness.

The doctors determined Robison's actions were driven by delirium, a "temporary, episodic medical condition," according to the court papers. The doctors argued Robison's "fitness for duty" was not impaired.
Utah House Passes Bill to Legalize Sex Outside of Marriage

Fornicating With a Stranger in Utah Might Not Be a Crime for Much Longer

As the number of adults cohabiting increases year after year, it might be difficult to imagine that in some areas of the U.S., having sex outside of marriage could land you behind bars. In Utah, at least, legislators are working to change that.

The Utah House recently passed Senate Bill 43, hoping to repeal the crime of sex between those who are not married. After being criminalized in 1973, fornication is now considered a Class B Misdemeanor. If you do end up getting arrested, the charge can carry penalties of up to six months in jail and/or up to a $1,000 fine. Other examples of Class B misdemeanors in Utah that have no direct correlation to sex include assault, DUI and shoplifting.

The current bill in Utah is part of an effort to update its criminal code, hopefully removing unenforceable laws from the books. However, while many might consider legalization of sex outside of marriage to be a step in the right direction, the decision wasnt an unanimous one as some of Utahs conservative House members voiced their concerns. Republican Rep. Kevin Stratton, someone who objected to the bill, stated that, What is legally is often far below what is morally right. And I recognize our laws are not strong enough to rule an immoral people.

RELATED: Your Genes May Determine if Your Marriage Will Last

Other laws that the Utah Legislature passed as part of its mission to clean up its criminal code include the decriminalization of adultery and sodomy among consenting adults, and allowing sex workers who are attacked or have crimes committed against them to report the crimes without fear of prosecution.

In January, Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield noted that some of these old laws have been determined to be unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. "As part of our cleanup for this, we're just going to strike those out of our laws here because we can't enforce them," said Ray.

The bill to decriminalize sex out of marriage passed with a 41-32 vote. At this point, its a waiting game to see if itll receive a signature or veto from Governor Herbert.

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This Beer Is Made From 133-Year-Old Yeast

Sip on This: New Beer Is Brewed From Really Old Shipwrecked Yeast

Theres no shortage these days of specialty beers and spirits. But if you like your beer with some history  133 years, to be exact  you might want to take a sip of one particular new English ale.

RELATED: PBR Whiskey Is Coming

Deep Ascent from Saint James Brewery in Long Island, New York, is fermented with an ingredient you wont find in another beer: The brew is made from the yeast found inside old bottles on the SS Oregon, a ship that sank near Fire Island back in 1886.

For years, Jamie Adams, scuba diver and co-owner of Saint James Brewery, and his team of divers worked on the wreck, gathering bottles and other remains. Adams was able to clean the bottles and create the beer from yeast he recovered from the 133-year-old shipwreck.

We took a single yeast cell and we turned it into billions of yeast cells, which we needed to make beer with, Adams told Newsday of the 7 percent ABV beer.

He also told Craftbeer.com: We want people to feel like theyre drinking the same product that wouldve been offered to customers aboard that ship in the late 1800s.

However, this isnt the first shipwreck beer, and it isnt the oldest. In 2016, a 220-year-old bottle was found on a wrecked British trading ship in Australia. The yeast inside the bottle was used to brew beer with a distinct flavor. According to David Thurrowgood, a chemist and conservator at Queen Victoria Museum in Tasmania, It's got quite a sweet taste  some people have described it as almost a cider or fresh taste  which has come from the yeast.

RELATED: Rage Yoga Means Swearing and Drinking Beer During Your Workout

Adams describes Deep Ascent as an English-style ale with fruit notes and a hint of caramel. The beer will be available at the New York Craft Brewers Festival on March 9 in Albany, where beer fans and connoisseurs including Richard Vandenburgh, vice president of the New York State Brewers Association, look forward to trying it out.

I dont know how much of that flavor is attributed to this particular yeast, but Im excited to try it, he said. That makes the mystery of this so interesting.

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(Bloomberg) -- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Ant Financial will establish a steering committee led by the e-commerce giant to spearhead joint business initiatives and ensure their long-term interests are aligned, according to people familiar with the matter.

Chinas top online retailer and its biggest internet financial services giant will create a so-called new economy body, headed up by Alibaba Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang. Ant Financial Chairman Eric Jing will be his deputy, the people said. Its members will be tasked with ensuring both sprawling entities work together, and will hold executives accountable if they dont, the people said, asking not to be identified talking about a private matter.

The move creates a high-powered team to stand watch over the financial and commerce empire founded by billionaire Jack Ma, and comes as Alibaba prepares to take a one-third equity stake in its affiliate. It will provide a forum for Alibaba to keep Ant aligned with its e-commerce business in the future, even after the financial firm goes public as anticipated. Zhang will succeed Ma as Alibaba chairman in September.

Ant Financial, estimated to be worth $150 billion, is backed by some of the countrys most powerful financial institutions and is now making major strides abroad, hawking its Alipay system from Hong Kong to Brazil and sealing its biggest overseas acquisition. But Tencent Holdings Ltd. has in recent years chipped away at its dominance in mobile payments at home, aided by its billion-strong WeChat social media platform. That loss of market share, coupled with the rise of apps such as Bytedance Ltd.s Douyin now competing for users attention, is undermining Ants bread-and-butter service.

The new oversight group wont alter either companies financial and management structures, the people said. But the envisioned committee, numbering more than 10 people from key divisions within both firms, will serve as an overseer to ensure closer collaboration between the online emporium and the finance unit hived off about eight years ago. Representatives for Alibaba and Ant Financial didnt respond to e-mailed queries for comment.

Story continues

Alibaba has expanded from a marketplace for merchants to Chinas biggest e-commerce platform, an empire that now spans grocers and on-demand food delivery to real estate auctions. Ant Financial, built on the Alipay unit that Alibaba owned before it was hived off, has blossomed from a mere payments business to wealth management, credit finance and Chinas biggest money-market fund.

Alibaba hasnt held a stake in Ant Financial since Ma controversially spun out the business. But the e-commerce giant said in February last year it would buy 33 percent of Ant, helping clear the way for a potential initial public offering. A combined entity would be worth more than $600 billion.

Alibaba said it would acquire new shares in its affiliate in exchange for intellectual property rights. While no cash is changing hands, Ant Financial -- formally known as Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group Co. -- would then end royalty payments to Alibaba.

(Updates with details on Ant and Tencent from the fourth paragraph.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Lulu Yilun Chen in Hong Kong at ychen447@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan, Peter Elstrom

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

2019 Bloomberg L.P.
TORONTO, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LSC Lithium Corporation (LSC or together with its subsidiaries, the Company) (TSXV:LSC) is pleased to announce the results of the special meeting of Securityholders (the Meeting) held today to approve the previously announced plan of arrangement (the Arrangement) pursuant to which Pluspetrol Resources Corporation B.V., among other things, will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of LSC for cash consideration of $0.6612 per common share of LSC.



The special resolution approving the Arrangement was approved by: (i) 99.91% of votes cast by LSC shareholders present at the Meeting in person or by proxy; (ii) 99.93% of votes cast by LSC shareholders, optionholders and warrantholders voting together as a single class present at the Meeting in person or by proxy, and (iii) a majority of votes cast by shareholders other than shares required to be excluded pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions.

The Company expects to apply for a final order of the Supreme Court of British Columbia for approval of the Arrangement on March 13, 2019. Assuming the satisfaction or waiver of the other customary closing conditions, the Arrangement is expected to close on or about March 15, 2019.

ABOUT LSC LITHIUM CORPORATION

LSC Lithium has amassed a large portfolio of prospective lithium rich salars and is focused on developing its material projects: Pozuelos and Pastos Grandes Project, Rio Grande Project and Salinas Grandes Project. All LSC tenements are located in the Lithium Triangle, an area at the intersection of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile where the worlds most abundant lithium brine deposits are found. LSC Lithium has a land package portfolio totaling approximately 300,000 hectares, which represents extensive lithium prospective salar holdings in Argentina.

For further information please contact:

LSC Lithium Corporation

Ian Stalker

President & Chief Executive Officer

40 University Avenue,

Suite 605, Toronto

ON Canada M5J 1T1

+416 306 8380

Email: info@lsclithium.com

Web: lsclithium.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance, including statements as to the likelihood and timing of completing the Arrangement and the ability to receive regulatory, court and other required approvals of the Arrangement. The use of any of the words could, anticipate, intend, expect, believe, will, projected, estimated and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on LSC's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Whether actual results and developments will conform with LSC's expectations is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including factors underlying management's assumptions, such as risks related to: title, permitting and regulatory risks; exploration and the establishment of any resources or reserves on the LSC properties; volatility in lithium prices and the market for lithium; exchange rate fluctuations; volatility in LSCs share price; the requirement for significant additional funds for development that may not be available; changes in national and local government legislation, including permitting and licensing regimes and taxation policies and the enforcement thereof; regulatory, political or economic developments in Argentina or elsewhere; litigation; title, permit or license disputes related to interests on any of the properties in which the Company holds an interest; excessive cost escalation as well as development, permitting, infrastructure, operating or technical difficulties on any of the Company's properties; risks and hazards associated with the business of development and mining on any of the Company's properties. Actual future results may differ materially. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and LSC is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. For more information, see the Company's filing statement on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. 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.

The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.
By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) - The towering white temple stands on Rome's nondescript outer rim, far from the Vatican, but for Italy's 25,000 Mormons it is a clear sign that their faith has finally arrived at the historic heart of Christianity. Italy's first Mormon temple, tucked between the city's ring road and a shopping mall, will be dedicated over three days starting on Sunday by Russell Nelson, president of the world's 16 million Mormons, who refer to him as "The Prophet". Pope Francis, whose Church numbers about 1.3 billion members and who lives in the Vatican about 18 km (11 miles) away, will not be there. The Roman Catholic Church does not recognize the Mormons, formally known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because of differences over doctrinal issues. But that does not worry Italy's Mormons who until now have had to travel to the Swiss capital Berne for the nearest temple. The new building is part of a 15-acre (6 hectare) religious and cultural center that resembles a U.S. college campus. "The temple we just built is a statement of our belief in Jesus Christ as the savior of the world," Church elder Alessandro Dini-Ciacci, 41, told Reuters in an interview. "Rome is the center of Christianity, this is where the apostles Peter and Paul, the early apostles of the Church of Christ came to preach and bared their testimony... We built a house to the Lord," said Dini-Ciacci, leader of Italian Mormons. Despite their differences, the two Churches work together on humanitarian projects, particularly in the United States, where the Church was founded in the early 1800s by Joseph Smith. Smith said an angel directed him to a place where he found a buried book of writings compiled by an ancient prophet named Mormon. Mormons say early Christians strayed from the true faith and that only their Church had returned to the right path. GOOD-WILL VISIT A delegation from the Vatican's office for Christian Unity, headed by a bishop, visited the temple last month in a sign of friendship, Dini-Ciacci and a Vatican official said. During a recent visit, the temple was abuzz with workers getting ready for the dedication. They included six college-age U.S. missionaries, in Italy for two years of voluntary proselytizing work that is a trademark of their Church. The temple is covered with white granite from Sardinia. Statues of Jesus and the apostles are made of fine Carrara marble, as are the baptistry and most of the floors. With their oil paintings of biblical scenes, Impressionist-style works depicting the Italian countryside and chandeliers of crystal gold, most rooms look like those of a luxury hotel. The 10-year project is believed to have cost tens of millions of dollars, although Dini-Ciacci declined to give any figure, adding: "We spend much more on humanitarian aid and we are proud of that." One Mormon practice that Catholic and other Christian Churches frown on is baptism of the dead by proxy. This allows Mormons to stand in for their ancestors who were born before the Church was founded and baptize them vicariously. This is based on the Mormon belief that they are helping the deceased attain full access to heaven. Church members are told to focus on their ancestors but some have performed the ritual for deceased strangers, celebrities and even popes, Jewish leaders and Muslims. "We do all we can to prevent this," Dini-Ciacci said. Mormons and other religions in Italy also differ on how Churches should be financed. Mormons give a tithe of 10 percent of their income to the Church. Dini-Ciacci said the Mormon Church does not accept funds from the government, which allows Italians to donate 0.8 percent of their income tax to a religion. "Tithing is a biblical principle and we stick to that," he said. (Editing by Gareth Jones)
A coroner's report into the death of a 17-year-old boy during a police operation in the Outaouais is denouncing the two officers involved, saying they staged a dangerous and unnecessary intervention.

Brandon Maurice was killed in November 2015 after fleeing from police near Messines, Que., just south of Maniwaki, Que.

Two Surete du Quebec constables  Frederick Fortier and Dave Constantin  had attempted to stop the vehicle Maurice was driving after noticing it wasn't a match with the licence plate.

Maurice led officers on a chase at speeds up to 160 km/h, according to witnesses, but stopped on a forest road after about 10 kilometres. When officers approached the motionless vehicle, they smashed out the driver's side window.

After smashing the window, Fortier reached inside to try to unlock the door. The vehicle then started to move forward with Fortier hanging onto it.

During a coroner's inquest, Fortier testified he felt unsafe at that point and had no choice but to open fire on the driver.

No need for incident

A report in French by coroner Luc Malouin was released Feb. 25 and obtained by Radio-Canada.

In it, Malouin wrote there was no justification for the officers to act as they did, arguing it was contrary to basic policing principles and that there was no urgent need to arrest Maurice.

He recommended better training for SQ officers on the basic rules of tactical intervention, and that police be reminded not to endanger lives when there is no urgent need to arrest someone.

Malouin found that Fortier's testimony, his partner's and that of the passenger seated in the front next to Maurice all offered different versions of the event. But he said he gave little credence to Fortier's account.

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Officers created situation

The coroner wrote the officers knew there was no hostage or firearm in the vehicle, and that they were dealing with two young men who were refusing to co-operate.

He wrote in his report that arresting someone when no life is in danger doesn't qualify as an emergency, and that the two officers took unnecessary risks.

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He concluded Fortier was justified in firing, but that the officer had created the situation by risking his life to make an unnecessary arrest.

Malouin also recommended that police officers be trained in the use of hemostatic bandages, which can help stop bleeding.

Family relieved

Brandon Maurice's mother, Dominique Bernier, said she was relieved at the report's findings, and that she can now turn the page on her son's death.

She hopes the coroner's recommendations will be followed.

Both officers were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in an independent investigation conducted by Montreal police.

Maurice's family has also filed a $1-million lawsuit against the officers involved and the SQ.

The provincial police force wouldn't comment Wednesday, saying they want to take the time to analyze the report before responding. A spokesperson said Surete du Quebec and the province's police school are studying the recommendations.
A woman in Yellowknife believes her unborn baby may have survived if she had been able to get an ultrasound at Stanton Territorial Hospital sooner, and now the N.W.T. Health and Social Services Authority is reviewing the case.

Tasmina Akter said she went to the hospital on Feb. 28 because her baby wasn't moving.

She said the doctor found the fetus's heartbeat, but wanted Akter to get an ultrasound. No one was available to perform one until the afternoon, she said.

By the time the ultrasound was performed, the baby had died.

"It's very, very hard. I pray [no] parents go through this kind of situation," said an emotional Akter in her home on Wednesday.

At about seven months pregnant, she said there had been no complications until lunch time on Feb. 27, when she no longer felt her baby moving.

Generally, pregnant women should feel at least six movements in two hours, according to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada's website. If not, it's recommended that they inform their health care provider.

The society also says there is no specific recommended time frame for testing when fetal movements decrease; "however, in most studies with reduction in stillbirth rate, this testing was performed within one to 12 hours."

Steve Silva/CBC

Akter still didn't feel any movement the next day, Feb. 28. She and her husband, Mohammad Hossain, went to Stanton Territorial Hospital at about 6 a.m.

A nurse checked for a heartbeat, and "the heartbeat was normal," Hossain said. Staff provided Akter with breakfast in an attempt to get the baby to move.

Later, a doctor took a look, asked a few questions, and determined that "everything was normal," Hossain said.

The doctor wanted her to have an ultrasound but said no one was available to perform it, the couple said; they were told to come back at 2 p.m.

Shortly after the ultrasound got underway, by about 2:25 p.m., it was determined that the fetus had no heartbeat.

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Hossain said he asked another doctor at the hospital why his wife was sent home earlier, but the doctor didn't have an answer.

Hossain questions the treatment his wife received, and thinks their baby might have survived if Akter was monitored at the hospital and given an ultrasound instead of being sent home.

The fetus was 29 weeks old at the time; babies born at that point can survive, according to the World Health Organization.

"Who is responsible for that? If they did their proper treatment, we could have had our baby in our hand[s]," Hossain said.

Steve Silva/CBC

David Maguire, a spokesperson for the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority, said in an email on Wednesday that a review will be happening, but he couldn't answer specific questions about the incident because of privacy rules.

When asked what should be done in situations involving lack of fetal movement and if an ultrasound is necessary, he said, "This would depend on specific factors in each case."

Damien Healy, a spokesperson for the territorial Department of Health and Social Services, said in an email that the hospital offers two kinds of ultrasound services at the hospital:

Diagnostic medical sonography exams, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Point-of-care ultrasound services, between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

"Both of these services are typically fully booked, however urgent or emergency cases are accommodated," Healy said.

It's very, very hard. I pray [no] parents go through this kind of situation. - Tasmina Akter

On Feb. 28, those services were operating normally, said Healy.

Healy also said there are two and a half sonographer positions that the department has "been actively working to fill  for many years."

The vacancies are alleviated by visiting sonographers, he said.

Family waiting for cause of death

A funeral was held for the baby on Sunday.

Hossain said he's been told by hospital administration that the matter is being investigated. He's also waiting to learn the cause of death.

In his living room, partly filled with a crib and toys, Hossain said he wants to bring attention to what happened in the hopes of preventing it from happening to anyone else.
Former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort Sentenced to 47 Months in Prison Paul Manafort Sentenced to 47 Months in Prison

Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud.

On Thursday, a federal judge in Virginia declared that the ex-Trump campaign chairman, 69, will serve less than four years for his work related to advising Ukrainian politicians, according to the Associated Press.

Prosecutors had previously argued that Manafort, who was sitting in a wheelchair due to complications from gout, deserved 19 to 25 years.

Manafort told the judge, saying I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.

RELATED: What Paul Manafort and Michael Cohens Convictions Could Mean for President Trump

In September 2018, he pled guilty to two criminal charges as part of a deal that requires him to cooperate with special counsel Robert Muellers ongoing Russia investigation.

Manafort pled guilty to one count of conspiracy against the U.S. and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice due to attempts to tamper with witnesses, CNN reported, citing court documents.

The charges are related to Manaforts Ukrainian political consulting work.

In August 2018, a federal jury in Virginia convicted Manafort on eight felony counts of bank and tax fraud. At the time, he was the first campaign associate of President Donald Trump to be found guilty by a jury as part of Muellers investigation.

Manafort still faces sentencing in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty in a separate case connected to illegal lobbying.

Kevin Downing, Manaforts attorney, did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs request for comment.
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Three Indonesian soldiers were killed in a clash with dozens of rebels in the eastern province of Papua, the military said late on Thursday, the latest deaths amid high tensions and violence in the restive region. Papua, a former Dutch colony and the western part of New Guinea island, was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticized U.N.-backed referendum in 1969. A long-running separatist movement in the region has seen an increase in violence in recent months. A team of 25 soldiers was ambushed by up to 70 "armed criminals" carrying military-standard weapons and traditional weapons, the Indonesian army said in a statement. "The team fought back until they were able to drive the armed criminal group back into the forest. Three soldiers died in the attack," the army said. Up to 10 rebels were thought to have been killed, but only one of their bodies was found, it added. Two military helicopters dispatched to evacuate the soldiers also came under fire, the army said. A spokesman for the rebel group, known as the West Papua Liberation Army, said at least five soldiers had been killed and Indonesian forces had set fire to several houses in the Nduga area. Sebby Sambom did not say how many casualties the group suffered. Indonesia has deployed hundreds of soldiers to build a major highway connecting the remotest parts of the resource-rich province, after 16 construction workers were killed by separatists late last year. Since then, fighting between rebels and the Indonesian military has caused hundreds of villagers to flee the Nduga area in western New Guinea island. President Joko Widodo, who faces an election in April, has vowed to finish the highway project as part of his promise to develop Papua, Indonesia's poorest region. (Reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Michael Perry and Darren Schuettler)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon on Thursday warned its Mediterranean neighbors that a planned EastMed gas pipeline from Israel to the European Union must not be allowed to violate its maritime borders. Beirut has an unresolved maritime border dispute with Israel - which it regards as an enemy country - over a sea area of about 860 sq km (330 square miles) extending along the edge of three of Lebanon's southern energy blocks. Israel is hoping to enlist several European countries in the construction of a 2,000 km (1,243 mile) pipeline linking vast eastern Mediterranean gas resources to Europe through Cyprus, Greece and Italy at a cost of $7 billion. Lebanon's foreign minister, Gebran Bassil, said he had written to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, EU foreign policy head Federica Mogherini and the foreign ministers of Cyprus, Greece and Italy to request that the pipeline does not infringe on Lebanon's rights within what it claims as its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). In a copy of the letter sent to Greece's foreign ministry seen by Reuters, Bassil said Lebanon would not allow its sovereignty to be breached, "especially when it comes to any eventual attempt from Israel to encroach on Lebanon's sovereign rights and jurisdiction over its EEZ". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Israel within the next few days to help with its plan to export natural gas to Europe. "In a few days, the leaders of Cyprus and Greece will come here, together with ... Pompeo, to advance a gas pipeline from Israel to Europe via these countries," Netanyahu said. Pompeo on Monday said his visit to the region will also include a stop in Beirut and Kuwait. Lebanon last year licensed a consortium of Italy's Eni, France's Total and Russia's Novatek to carry out the country's first offshore energy exploration in two blocks. One of the blocks, Block 9, contains waters disputed with Israel. Lebanese leaders have repeatedly warned Israel not to encroach on its offshore oil and gas reserves. A number of big gas fields have been discovered in the eastern Mediterranean Levant Basin since 2009. However, the region lacks significant oil and gas infrastructure and political relations between the countries - including Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Syria - are strained on a number of fronts. In January Eastern Mediterranean countries agreed in Cairo to set up a forum to create a regional gas market, cut infrastructure costs and offer competitive prices. Lebanon and Turkey did not participate in the meeting, nor did war-torn Syria. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Laila Bassam; Editing by David Goodman)
MANILA, Philippines (AP)  Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Thursday that China should define its "so-called ownership" in the disputed South China Sea so other claimant countries can start to gain benefits from the resource-rich waters.

Mahathir stressed the importance of freedom of navigation in the busy waterway, saying in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel in Manila that if there were no restrictions and sanctions, "the claims made by China will not affect us very much."

Malaysia, the Philippines, China and three other governments have been locked in long-simmering territorial disputes in the South China Sea. China has claimed virtually the entire sea but has refused to define the extent of its claims except for a vague line with nine dashes on its maps, complicating the disputes.

Efforts by the Philippines, for example, to explore for undersea deposits of oil and natural gas in Reed Bank west of its Palawan island province have been stymied for years by Chinese protests and claims to the offshore region. The Philippines has declared a moratorium on exploration in the area in the past because of Chinese threats.

"We have to talk to China on the definition of their claims and what is meant by their ownership or so-called ownership they claim to have so that we can find ways of deriving some benefits from them," Mahathir said.

"I think that whatever may be the claim of China, the most important thing is that the South China Sea in particular must be open to navigation," Mahathir said. "There should be no restriction, no sanction, and if that happens, then I think the claims made by China will not affect us very much."

During talks in Manila between the visiting Malaysian leader and President Rodrigo Duterte, the territorial conflicts were high in the agenda.

"We emphasized the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, security, stability, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight over the South China Sea," Duterte said after the meeting, adding that force or the threat of it should not be resorted to.

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Duterte thanked Malaysia for brokering peace talks between the Philippine government and Muslim guerrillas in the south, homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation. The rebels have become leaders of a new Muslim autonomous region in the country's south under a peace deal.

The Malaysian leader, who at 93 is the world's oldest prime minister, visited the Philippines as his country's leader in 1987 and 1994.

"I'm glad to see that, at last, peace has come to the southern Philippines. Development cannot take place in war. In war, we destroy but in peace we build," Mahathir told a business forum in Manila before meeting Duterte.

With enormous economic opportunities opening up in the former battlefields, Mahathir said Malaysia is looking forward to investing in the region and pledged that his country will continue to back Philippine peace efforts. Philippine Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the two countries plan to resume the ancient practice of barter trading between Malaysia and the southern Philippine towns of Jolo, Siasi and Bongao to ease poverty that breeds criminality and terrorism.

A Malaysia-led team of 28 international peace monitors will remain in the south until all Muslim guerrillas have demobilized under the peace deal, Malaysian officials said. The European Union, Japan and Brunei also have contributed personnel to the peacekeeping contingent.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front chairman Murad Ebrahim, the former Muslim rebel leader who now heads the five-province autonomous region called Bangsamoro, attended a state banquet hosted by Duterte for Mahathir. Officials were trying to arrange a meeting between Mahathir and Murad.

The Philippines and Malaysia, along with Western governments and the guerrillas, see effective Muslim autonomy as an antidote to nearly half a century of Muslim secessionist violence which the Islamic State group could exploit to gain a foothold in the region.

Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia agreed in 2017 to carry out sea and aerial patrols to confront a wave of abductions along their sea border by Abu Sayyaf militants and allied gunmen from the southern Philippines. The sea abductions have eased but ransom-seeking Abu Sayyaf militants are still holding a Malaysian and two Indonesians captive in their jungle hideouts.

"Malaysia is committed to take the necessary steps to address the serious issue of terrorism and violent extremism" through the accord, Mahathir said.
TORONTO, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Almas Jiwani delivered a banner Keynote address to an audience excited to learn from her lived experience in bridging boundaries and dissolving barriers to womens advancement and equality at Google Canada headquarters in Toronto.

To recognize the International Womens Day, Google Cloud was proud to host 2 exciting events at Google Toronto's head office; #IamRemarkable workshop and Women in Tech Onboard Big Data & ML training events on March 8th, 2019 that focused on empowering women in their careers and beyond.

The potential for womens empowerment that exists at the nexus of technology and social entrepreneurship is undeniable. We are demonstrating the barrier dissolving and boundary spanning work that can unlock a wellspring of possibility and a new reality for young women and girls. Said Foundation CEO Almas Jiwani.

#IamRemarkable focuses on highlighting the importance of self promotion and provides the tools to develop this skill. This workshop was just the starting point for their mission to drive diversity and inclusion within this industry. We were delighted to host Almas Jiwani (President of Emeritus UN Women Canadas National Committee and CEO of Almas Jiwani Foundation) and Alyssa Stein (Head of Industry of Google New York) who inspired a distinguished group of women to share and develop these skills within their own networks.

We invited Ms. Jiwani to come to speak as she is clearly a huge advocate of equality for women in all respects. The tech industry is still an industry where females are unrepresented and we believe the women in the room for #IamRemarkable have the power to influence change in this field. We know that having Almas' deliver the keynote will be both a memorable and inspiring experience and we look forward to having her speak alongside some of Google's leaders on such an important topic.

Educating young women and girls around the globe by supporting advances in technology and education will allow girls and women to flourish in the local and global economy. Equipping them to participate fully in the new economy is no longer an option. Simply put, education equips women with an avenue to transform their lives and gives them the power to fight abject poverty. Said Ms Jiwani

About Almas Jiwani Foundation

The vision of The Almas Jiwani Foundation is to empower women, girls and marginalized communities through focused projects that directly address disparities in equality, education, entrepreneurship and energy rights. The Foundation aims to bridge inequalities through the fostering of relationships among the various actors and stakeholders in global issues, and provide a platform for discourse and action.

About the #IamRemarkable Initiative

#IamRemarkable is a Google initiative empowering woman and underrepresented to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond groups by improving their self promotion motivation and skills. At the heart of the initiative lies the #IamRemarkable workshop that highlights to participants the importance of self promotion in their careers and provide them with the tools to practice this skill.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Almas Jiwani Foundation

Mehlika Yildiz  Communications

info@almasjiwanifoundation.org

www.almasjiwanifoundation.org
By Joyce Zhou and Philip Wen HANDAN, China (Reuters) - Every Saturday, Chinese farmer Li Eryou still calls the long-disconnected mobile telephone number of his son, who was among the 239 aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 when it vanished five years ago in the world's greatest aviation mystery. "I don't care what's on the other end," said the 60-year-old farmer from rural Handan, in the northern province of Hebei, as he described his weekly ritual. "I would always say a few words to my son." Li Yanlin, who worked in Malaysia for Chinese telecoms equipment giant ZTE, was 30 when the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared on March 8, 2014, with 153 Chinese citizens on board. "My son was the first person in our village to go abroad by plane," his father told Reuters, as he thumbed through an album of his son's last photos holidaying in Malaysia, downloaded from social media by his distraught parents. Li's wife, Liu Shuangfeng, said she frequently cries herself to sleep and has been diagnosed with severe depression. Efforts to locate the aircraft have been unsuccessful. In January 2017, Australia, China and Malaysia called off a two-year, $141-million underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean after it found no trace of the aircraft. A second, three-month search, led by U.S. exploration firm Ocean Infinity, ended unsuccessfully last May. Last week Malaysia said it would consider resuming the search if viable proposals or credible leads emerged, but a lack of closure continues to gnaw at those left behind. After his son's disappearance, Li left his wheat crops overgrown and untended as he traveled back and forth to the Chinese capital of Beijing for meetings with Malaysian and Chinese authorities. The hundreds of train tickets and receipts he accumulated in that effort will inspire him to keep up the search, he said. "It has been five years, but I haven't given up and will never give up," Li said. "I will continue to search for my son." (Reporting by Joyce Zhou in HANDAN, China and Philip Wen in BEIJING; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
The flashing lights of body rub massage parlours could soon move to more industrial areas of Regina. But, before anything happens, the City of Regina is looking for feedback.

There are two options for regulation right now: moving everything to industrial areas to minimize impacts on surrounding neighbourhoods or licensing the businesses and workers and allowing them to stay in more commercial areas with higher foot and vehicle traffic for their safety.

"I think there's pros and cons to both, that's why we're going out to the public," said Diana Hawryluk, Executive Director City Planning & Community Development with the City of Regina.

The so-called massage parlours have been legal in industrial areas since the bylaw was put in place in 1992, but many operate outside those zones. At last count, the city believes there are 21 of them currently operating across the city.

"We've heard both sides, where we've heard some people say that they don't even want this use allowed in the city and to the other end where we hear people saying, this is the way to go to help the workers for safety, those sorts of things, and also to regulate it in a more comprehensive way," Hawryluk said.

While the choices are quite different, the city maintains they're not mutually exclusive.

"Part of the idea is to make sure that we change the terminology from therapeutic massage to the new terminology to differentiate and call it body rub, so the two different types of uses are separate," she said, adding that's consistent across the country.

If there's no regulation, Hawryluk says it creates issues when illegal operations pop up and the city tries to enforce the laws and bylaws.

"If we regulate it through a licensing regime, they're we're able regulate a little bit more, such as set back distances, hours of operations, and those kinds of standards -- what kind of signage they can have -- all of those sorts of things. Right now we're not allowed to do that," Hawryluk said.

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Licensing workers would involve getting a criminal record check, proof that they are at least 18 and legally able to work in Canada, and potentially training about personal safety and how to exit the sector.

There are three public information sessions where the city will gather feedback between March 18 and 20. To attend, people need to register on the city's website. Or, people can share feedback by email by March 22.

After the feedback is gathered, a report will be presented to city council for consideration before the end of June.

MTAS pushing for change

The Massage Therapist Association of Saskatchewan (MTAS) has been pushing for municipalities to change the language around massage parlours since 1995.

MTAS would like to see the word "masseuse" changed to "registered massage therapist" or "massage therapist" because that clarifies medical, clinical therapeutic massage.

CBC

"Patients that were looking for actual massage could open a telephone book and under massage you would have both adult services and legitimate massage therapists in the same column," said MTAS executive director Lori Green.

Green says many people would find themselves in surprising or embarrassing situations on the phone, or, worse yet, if they just walked in to the establishment. She maintains the differentiation in language has made a big difference in Saskatoon, and she hopes for similar results in Regina.

"I think they're definitely on the right path and we're happy with the direction it's moving," she said.

As for where she thinks the body rub parlours should eventually be located in Regina, Green says she'd prefer to see them moved out of downtown or off of "main strip" areas and be approved only for industrial areas.

"I really notice a difference to Saskatoon's downtown and Regina's downtown with the adult services," she said.
In this era of unforgiving political and public discourse, an expert who studied at the University of Regina is calling for a measured, case-by-case approach to dealing with women and children who want to flee the now-crumbling Islamic State and return home to Canada.

We don't necessarily know if these women may pose a threat. - Joana Cook

"Each of their stories and situations is unique," said Joana Cook.

An expert in women and counter-terrorism, Cook began her academic career in Regina and is now a senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, U.K.

Cook told CBC Saskatchewan that some 4,700 women from 80 countries, including Canada, have been estimated to have joined ISIS, representing 10 per cent of all people who have travelled there to join the group.

"We think this is a vast underestimation because half the countries in the world haven't even accounted for women who traveled over there," she said.

Escape from ISIS

At its height, the Islamic State's self-declared caliphate took large swaths of land by force across two countries, becoming a de facto government to millions of people. Now ISIS has lost that power and people are desperately fleeing its final enclave in eastern Syria.

Western nations are now faced with the very complex question of whether citizens who left to join the Islamic State should now be welcomed home.

Cook said that would include more than a dozen Canadian women.

"We know that for a number of women that went out some of them may still be ideologically motivated and supportive of ISIS," she said.

Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images

But Cook argues that is not the case for all of them. Many, she said, have become disillusioned after years of living in a harsh, dangerous war zone under the control of the strict patriarchy of ISIS. It's why she is urging Western nations to avoid a blanket response and carefully review each case.

Story continues

"So we really have to be clear about what motivated them to go over there, what their roles were over there, and what motivation they have to come back," Cook said.

"We don't necessarily know if these women may pose a threat. We haven't yet seen any cases around the world where women have been involved in attacks, or have tried to perpetrate attacks, who have been returning from Iraq and Syria."

Ivan Seifert/Submitted

Jihadist cubs

Further complicating the issue for Cook, and for countries who must now decide whether repatriation is possible, is that many women who joined ISIS either took young children with them or gave birth while there.

We really have to prioritize bringing them back rehabilitating them and giving them a real shot at life. - Joana Cook

"We did see many of them with this perceived role of raising the next generation of jihadist cubs, this is how they referred to children," Cook said.

As alarming as that might sound, Cook said that the public and governments should not forget these are children who made no conscious choice.

"These children are all victims, you know a lot of them had no say in being born into this organization or being exposed to this kind of violence. And we really have to prioritize bringing them back rehabilitating them and giving them a real shot at life," she said.

Cook is now watching closely as ISIS crumbles and transforms from its former status as a powerful yet illegitimate state to a smaller yet highly-motivated insurgency. She argued that citizens now looking to return to home nations like Canada might best be allowed to return, not only for their sake, but for the safety of all.

"From a pragmatic perspective, by bringing them back, we are better able to do things like investigate them, prosecute them, de-radicalize them, and potentially even reintegrate [them]," she said.

"When we leave them over there what happens next to them is very unclear."

Cook's worst-case scenario is that the women and children of ISIS are left to fend for themselves and serve as the foundation for future terrorism and global security challenges.
By Sam Nussey (Reuters) - Japan's SoftBank Group is launching a $5 billion fund to invest in technology companies in Latin America, it said on Thursday, ramping up its tech ambitions beyond its huge Vision Fund. The new fund will be headed by SoftBank's Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure, it said in a statement, with the Japanese technology conglomerate committing an initial $2 billion and serving as the fund's general partner. The group has already shaken up the technology sector with the Saudi-backed $100 billion Vision Fund, making splashy investments in late-stage start-ups such as ride-hailing company Uber and shared offices provider WeWork Cos. The launch of the Latin America-focused SoftBank Innovation Fund will extend Bolivian-born billionaire Claure's responsibility beyond managing SoftBank-owned companies like chip designer Arm. Responsibility for driving synergies between minority-stake portfolio companies, which is a key rationale for SoftBank's investment strategy, is shared between Claure and the head of the Vision Fund Rajeev Mishra. "There is so much innovation and disruption taking place in the region and I believe the business opportunities have never been stronger," said Claure, who is executive chairman of SoftBank's U.S. telecoms unit Sprint Corp and is working to ensure the success of its planned takeover by Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile. The fund will invest across the region, targeting much the same sectors as SoftBank's existing investments, including e-commerce, fintech and healthcare. "Latin America presents significant opportunities for SoftBank Group and the Vision Fund will have the ability to co-invest alongside the SoftBank Innovation Fund," said Mishra. Claure, Mishra and Chief Strategy Officer Katsunori Sago are all seen as potential successors to SoftBank Group founder and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son. The new fund, the size of which will give it a strong presence in the region, will also help existing portfolio companies to expand in Latin America, SoftBank said. SoftBank's previous bets in the region include a $100 million stake in ride-hailing business 99, which was later acquired by another of its investments, Didi Chuxing. (Reporting by Sam Nussey in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, David Goodman and Alexandra Hudson)
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh. blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work.

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..Abu Yehuda..08 March '19..The incendiary and explosive balloons continue to be sent across our southern border, and the Hamas special  night unit  continues to burn tires and throw explosives over the fence, as well as to cross over into Israel, attack soldiers, and try to get at civilians. We continue to respond by bombing or shelling empty installations.We are careful not to kill them, because we are told that if we kill them, their honor will require that they kill us in return; this will lead to an escalation. They want that, we are told, because there is humanitarian crisis in Gaza, primarily because their rivals in the Palestinian Authority have been cutting salary payments to PA officials in Gaza who either work for Hamas or dont do anything. If there is an escalation, the crisis will get worse and the UN or other outside forces will step in and give them money, which they will spend on weapons or tunnels anyway.Until recently, Israel has allowed Qatar to send millions in cash to Hamas, because nothing makes them madder than running out of money.If there is an escalation, Hamas, Hezbollah, the PLO, and even Iranian forces in Syria will coordinate their efforts, there will be a two- or three- front war, and we would suffer a lot of casualties although we would win. That would be giving them what they want, we are told.There is a news report that is emblematic of the insanity surrounding our relations with our Palestinian Arab enemies. It seems that the Israel Prison Service has been unable to stop the smuggling of cellular phones into facilities where Hamas terrorists have been imprisoned, so they are installing jamming devices. But  get ready for this  the IDF has asked them to suspend the work because of its possible impact on the situation in the territories.At the same time the Iranian regime is trying to upgrade Hezbollahs rockets with precision guidance kits. We are acting against it, insofar as the Russians allow, but likely we are simply slowing it down, not stopping it. Iran is also working to establish Shiite militia forces in Syria and Iraq, and of course proceeding with its ballistic missile and nuclear programs. We are certainly taking action, overt and covert, in these areas too, but again these operations are only capable of slowing the process, not stopping it.Meanwhile, here at home theand radical Muslims are trying to further erode the remains of our sovereignty on the Temple Mount. We proved to them last year that we were not prepared to defend it, when they forced Israel to back down from installing metal detectors and cameras at the entrances to the Mount in order to prevent any more of our policemen from being murdered. My prediction is that we will back down over this latest provocation too.And then there is the illegal Bedouin encampment of Khan al-Ahmar, which even the Supreme Court says should be removed, which Bibi has solemnly promised to remove, but which we apparently cant demolish because the Europeans wouldnt like it.Is your head spinning? Mine is. One wonders if we have a plan, or if we only react. One thing stands out in all of this: Israel, supposedly the eighth-strongest power in the world , militarily and economically (after the US, Russia, China, Germany, UK, France, and Japan), acts like she has no better option than to lie down and take it. Little by little, her sovereignty and security erodes. We dont seem to have the will to confront these problems when they are manageable, and they only grow more intractable with time.There are a number of reasons for this. For one thing, theres the normal human propensity to put off trouble. Dealing with the root of the problems today would be disagreeable, more disagreeable than accepting their manifestations. Of course, tomorrow it will be worse, but tomorrow is not today and maybe something will change before then (someone more cynical than I might say, it will be someone elses responsibility, tomorrow.)Our Prime Ministers and their cabinets and generals are not supposed to think this way. They are supposed to think like good chess players, carefully laying the groundwork for their future actions, while systematically evaluating all the paths that the enemy might take, and developing contingency plans for them. Last week I played chess with my 9-year old grandson, and I relieved him of his queen because he was concentrating too hard on whatwas about to do to. By the time he becomes Prime Minister, I hope he will know better.We cant just blame our leaders. They are operating in a political system that pits an Attorney General and Supreme Court with undefined and arbitrarily broad powers against the PM and his government. So when they try to do something like make a deal with private companies to exploit newly-found and highly strategic natural gas reservoirs, suddenly the Court can stick its nose in and upset everything, as happened in 2016 . Or they are stymied when they try to find some solution to deal with an illegal influx of tens of thousands of migrants, as happened in 2014 (most of them are still here, having children whose first language is Hebrew).But while the legal establishment still hasnt intervened directly in strategic military matters, the Attorney General, State Prosecutors Office, and police have driven the Prime Minister crazy with criminal investigations for pretty much the past 4 years (he was interrogated by police for several hours at a time at least 12 times in connection with various accusations against him and his wife). The charges have ranged from stupidly trivial to serious, but the overall impression is that they are out to get him on something, anything. Even apart from the political aspects of the legal assault  the Attorney General announced his intention to hold a pre-indictment hearing last week, its hard to believe that the PM has had much time to ponder his next moves in the multiple geostrategic games he is playing with Hamas, Iran, and others.Then there is the perennial problem that minor parties that happen to hold the balance of power in the coalition can paralyze or even bring down a government because of one rabbi who is angry over something.Other pressing matters, like the massively funded European campaign to intervene in our politics and policies, and to help the Palestinian Arabs create facts on the ground in Judea and Samaria, have proven difficult to deal with decisively, possibly because too many Knesset members benefit directly or indirectly from the influx of Euros.One thing that we do not seem to have to deal with today is the pressure from an American administration for more and more concessions to the Palestinians, for the sake of an impossible peace. This could change after our election in April, when the Trump mega-deal will be revealed. But I dont think so  my feeling is that the Trump Administration is far more sympathetic to Israel than the last few, and will not try to impose a solution that we cant live with.On the other hand, theelection is not so far off, and the Democratic Party in the US is less friendly toward Israel today than even in the days of Obama. If Trump is not re-elected and the next administration is headed by a left-wing Democrat, the Obama period will look like a picnic in comparison. Wed best end thewhile we can.
Masterpiece Cakeshop, located at 3355 South Wadsworth Boulevard, number H-117, in Lakewood,

Colorado. The shop is one of the parties in the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights

Commission Supreme Court case. (Credit: Jeffrey Beall)

Colorado has announced they are dropping their litigation against Christian baker Jack Phillips for his refusing on religious grounds to make a transgender cake.

Soon after receiving a favorable ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court last year on whether he could refuse to make a same-sex wedding cake, Phillips again found himself in legal trouble for refusing to make a cake celebrating a gender transition.

In an announcement released Tuesday, the state office explained that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission will voluntarily drop its case against Phillips; in return, Phillips will end his federal lawsuit against the state.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, whose office was representing the commission, said in a statement on Tuesday that "both sides agreed it was not in anyone's best interest to move forward with these cases."

"The larger constitutional issues might well be decided down the road, but these cases will not be the vehicle for resolving them," stated Weiser.

"Equal justice for all will continue to be a core value that we will uphold as we enforce our state's and nation's civil rights laws."

Kristen Waggoner, the Alliance Defending Freedom attorney who argued on behalf of Phillips before the Supreme Court, said in a statement that she considered the mutual dropping of cases to be "great news for everyone."

"The state of Colorado is dismissing its case against Jack, stopping its six and a half years of hostility toward him for his beliefs," stated Waggoner.

"Tolerance and respect for good-faith differences of opinion are essential in a diverse society like ours. They enable us to peacefully coexist with each [other]."

Last June, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission that Colorado violated Phillips' First Amendment rights when the state punished him for refusing to bake a custom cake for the wedding of Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig in 2012.

"When the Colorado Civil Rights Commission considered this case, it did not do so with the religious neutrality that the Constitution requires," wrote then Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy for the majority.

"Given all these considerations, it is proper to hold that whatever the outcome of some future controversy involving facts similar to these, the Commission's actions here violated the Free Exercise Clause; and its order must be set aside."

Last year, a Colorado lawyer requested that Phillips make a cake celebrating a gender transition, with the exterior of the cake meant to be blue while the interior would be pink.

Phillips also got requests to make cakes celebrating Satan, marijuana, and sexually explicit imagery, with some of these requests reportedly also coming from the lawyer.

Phillips sued the commission and the state of Colorado when the former argued that the baker's refusal to make the gender transition cake was discriminatory.

In January, Judge Wiley Y. Daniel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado issued an order allowing Phillips' suit to continue.

Courtesy of The Christian Post
Dr. Scott Gottlieb appeared on a videocast with The Hill where he addressed his resignation as FDA Commissioner. Dr. Gottlieb confirmed the reasons he was leaving were due to the toll the job was taking on his family. Each week, he was commuting to Washington, DC from his home in Westport, Connecticut, leaving only weekends with his family. Two years of that got hard. It got hard on the family. Gottlieb also denied he was leaving due to any policy differences with the Trump Administration.

Dr. Gottlieb addressed the tweet he made in January where he denied he was leaving the job as FDA Commissioner. In the interview, Gottlieb backed off that denial and acknowledged he was considering leaving, but timing became an issue.

Timing wise. That tweet you alluded to was out during the shutdown. I certainly wasnt going to be leaving during the shutdown. Just looking at the calendar, it became too hard to find a week that made sense. I knew I wasnt going to stay much longer. Every week either I was testifying or the Secretary was testifying and this was a week where we had a break between testimony and it just seemed like the right time to do it, commented Dr. Gottlieb in the interview.

Most of the discussion regarding tobacco revolved around vaping and e-cigarettes. While there was no mention of premium cigars, Dr. Gottlieb did say he supported raising the national age to purchase tobacco products to 21.

When asked if he would ever come back Dr. Gottlieb replied, Id certainly consider coming back. I need some time home with my family.

The full video interview appears below:

Our story on Dr. Gottliebs resignation is below:

Video Credit: The Hill, Facebook
LOS ANGELES, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP (GPM) announces an investigation on behalf of McCormick & Company investors (McCormick or the Company) (NYSE: MKC ) concerning the Company and its officers possible violations of federal securities laws.



If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate.

On January 24, 2019, the Company reported that trade inventory reductions resulted in significant out-of-stock situations on high-margin quality items, which negatively impacted its financial results. On this news, the Companys share price fell $14.65 per share, or over 10%, to close at $124.35 per share on January 24, 2019, thereby injuring investors.

If you purchased McCormick stock, have information, or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Lesley Portnoy, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, CA 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9244, or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com . If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.
C.L.E. Cigar Company is planning to introduce a line under its EIROA brand known as EIROA Jamastran. Its a cigar that pays homage to the Jamastran Valley, the region of Honduras where company founder Christian Eiroa and his family have grown and produced cigars. EIROA Jamastran will be released in two sizes, with one of the sizes sold exclusively to the Tobacconist Association of America (TAA).

EIROA Jamastran is a Honduran puro highlighted by a high priming wrapper. Christian Eiroa told Cigar Coop that he has been known for many years to deliver fuller cigars and the EIROA Jamastran is a cigar in that mold.

There are two sizes  a 5 x 50 Robusto, and vitola in the companys signature 11/18 shape measuring 6 1/4 x 60 x 52. The 11/18 size will be the TAA Exclusive while the Robusto will be generally available. Both cigars will be packaged in 18-count trapezoid-shaped boxes.

This is the fifth year C.L.E. and its brands has been a part of the TAA Exclusive Series. Each of the previous four installments has eventually become regular offerings from C.L.E. Other releases have included:

Typically TAA Exclusive Cigars are unveiled at the annual convention and made available to the approximately 80 retail members. The members typically come together at the annual convention and collectively make high volume purchases on cigars in exchange for exclusive promotions and pricing.

While other companies are expected to make TAA releases, very few make formal announcements on the products being offered to the TAA. The TAA also does not make formal announcements. The EIROA Jamastran joins Crowned Heads The Angels Anvil 2019 as the 2019 TAA Exclusive releases announced thus far.

Christian Eiroa also told Cigar Coop another EIROA release is planned called EIROA Dark Natural.

EIROA Jamastran will have a launch at the TAAs Annual Convention taking place March 17-21 at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic

Photo Credit: C.L.E. Cigar Company




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.
FRIDAY, March 8, 2019 (American Heart Association News) -- African-Americans who smoke cigarettes are twice as likely to have a stroke than those who avoid tobacco, according to new research.

Previous studies have shown that, overall, African-Americans between ages 45 and 64 have two to three times the risk of stroke compared to white people. But there has been little research on links between smoking and stroke among black people.

For the new study, presented this week at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions in Houston, researchers looked at data from nearly 4,500 African-Americans.

After adjusting for other stroke risk factors, researchers found stroke risk was 2.14 times higher for current smokers than for those who had never smoked. Among current smokers, 6.6 percent had a stroke compared with 3.9 percent of never-smokers. Stroke risk was highest among those who smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day.

"The study shows the more you smoke, the more you stroke," said the study's lead author, Dr. Adebamike Oshunbade, of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. "African-Americans are already more susceptible to stroke, and when you add in cigarette smoking, they're much more likely to develop stroke."

Stroke is the second-leading cause of death in the world and a leading cause of adult disability.

About half of all African-American men and women in the U.S. have some form of cardiovascular disease. Despite those statistics, the tobacco industry has aimed its products at African-Americans with direct-mail promotions and campaigns promoting menthol cigarettes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The fact that tobacco companies target these groups is troublesome, to say the least, and it makes it all the more important to get this information and this message out," said study co-author Dr. Michael E. Hall, a cardiologist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

The study showed no significant difference in stroke risk between past smokers and those who had never smoked.

"That implies that quitting smoking could reduce the risk of having a stroke," Oshunbade said.

Dr. Ralph Sacco, a neurologist who was not involved in the research, called the study "an important confirmation" of evidence that supports cigarette smoking as a key risk factor for stroke in African-Americans.

"We need to find more effective, innovative ways to eliminate smoking in this population. We need to focus on educational campaigns for younger African-Americans so they don't start smoking to begin with," said Sacco, chair of the neurology department at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

About 13 percent of study participants were current smokers, a percentage that mirrors nationwide statistics for black smokers. Sacco said lowering that percentage is a reasonable goal in an era of smoking cessation advancements that include new medications and behavioral counseling.

"There are many effective ways to quit smoking. We can't really advocate which method works best, but we need to emphasize that all patients need to find some way to quit," he said.

The study was done in conjunction with the AHA's Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center, which helps evaluate cardiovascular harm from tobacco products.

Hall said he and other researchers at the center are conducting new research on which compounds in tobacco products might cause the most harm in smokers, including compounds in e-cigarettes.

"Smoking is known to cause all kinds of harm. And now, with the surge in use of e-cigarettes, we need to assess that risk of harm, especially in youth, to help determine how these products should be regulated," Hall said.
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New York, March 7, 2019  Nigerian authorities should immediately drop charges against journalist Obinna Don Norman, release him from prison, and reform the 2015 cybercrime act to ensure it is not used to prosecute journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Norman, owner and editor-in-chief of online news outlet The Realm News, was arrested on March 1 by police in Umuahia, the capital of Nigerias southeastern Abia state, while he was at local radio station Flo FM to discuss politics on air, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ from Afara prison in Umuahia.

The day he was arrested, Norman was charged in an Abia state magistrate court under Nigerias 2015 cybercrime act, he told CPJ. During a second court appearance today, he was charged under an Abia state anti-terrorism and kidnapping law from 2009, he said. Norman is alleged to have defamed and harassed Abia state senator Theodore Orji of the Peoples Democratic Party, according to the journalist and two charge sheets reviewed by CPJ.

Abia state authorities should drop the charges against journalist Obinna Don Norman, ensure his release, and cease efforts to intimidate him, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator. Nigerias cybercrime act has too often been used to silence journalists in the country and the additional charge against Norman indicates that authorities are intent on harassing the press.

The charge sheets allege that the offenses were committed on or before March 21, 2018, but do not specify any articles or comments related to the charges. Norman and Realm News editor Rotimi Akinola told CPJ they believe the charges are reprisal for Normans reporting and criticism of the Abia state government, and are an attempt to silence the press ahead of the gubernatorial election scheduled for March 9, in which Okezie Ikpeazu, a Peoples Democratic Party member, is running for re-election.

Normans March 1 charge sheet, which CPJ reviewed, listed four alleged offenses from sections 24 and 27 of Nigerias 2015 cybercrime act: cyberstalking, sending defamatory messages using a computer, using a computer to send messages for the purpose of causing public hatred, and using a computer to bully, threaten and harass.

The March 7 charge sheet alleged that Norman threatened Orjis life with messages through [the] internet and phone calls, which is punishable under Abia states 2009 anti-terrorism and kidnapping law.

CPJs repeated calls to Orji went unanswered, and a recorded message on Ikpeazus line indicated that his phone was turned off.

Norman said he was told during the March 7 court appearance that he would be held in detention until April 24; his lawyer has filed a bail application with a federal high court petitioning for an earlier release. Those convicted under Nigerias cybercrime act can face fines into the tens of thousands of dollars and years in prison, CPJ has reported.

Abia Police Commissioner Ene Okun told CPJ that Norman was arrested because the journalist was listed as wanted in an official bulletin; Okun said he had no involvement in the case after Norman was transferred to the court.

In December 2018, the previous police commissioner had declared Norman wanted in an unrelated cybercrime case, The Realm News reported at the time. Norman counter-sued and the bulletin was nullified by a federal court, and Norman was not arrested, according to The Realm News.

Since its adoption, Nigerias 2015 cybercrime act has been repeatedly used against journalists for their reporting, CPJ has documented.
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Beirut, March 8, 2019The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed concern about the prolonged detention of Mustafa al-Kharouf, a photographer for the Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency, and called for Israeli authorities to either clarify the reasons for his detention and deportation order or release him immediately.

Israeli police forces arrested al-Kharouf at his home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz on January 22 and transferred him to Givon Prison in Ramle, where asylum seekers facing deportation are usually held, according to his employer and other news reports.

On February 24, an Israeli appeals court upheld the Interior Ministrys January decision that al-Kharouf be denied family reunification in Jerusalem and deported to Jordan on security grounds, according to his lawyer, Adi Lustigman, who spoke with CPJ. He remains in detention in Givon Prison pending an appeal, according to the regional press freedom group Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom.

The arrest came one day after al-Kharouf appealed the Israeli Interior Ministrys decision to reject his request to legalize his status in East Jerusalem, according to al-Kharoufs employer and Skeyes. According to his employer, al-Kharouf had applied to legalize his status through a family reunification application tied to his wife, who has legal status in East Jerusalem.

Lustigman told CPJ that the Interior Ministry attributed al-Kharoufs arrest to his illegal residency status, but it rejected his family reunification request on the grounds that al-Kharouf posed a security threat, an accusation that Lustigman disputes.

Even as his lawyer, I am not allowed access to the information on which the Interior Ministry has based its refusal to grant him family reunification, because that is the way the legal system works with regard to security cases, Lustigman told CPJ. However, our impression from the questioning at his hearing is that the Israelis are basing their decision on his work as a photographer.

Questioning during al-Kharoufs family reunification hearing focused on a photo he had taken and posted to his Facebook page depicting graffiti critical of Israel, according to Lustigman.

Al-Kharouf was born in Algeria to a Palestinian father and an Algerian mother and has lived in East Jerusalem for 20 years, since he was 12 years old; he has no immediate familial ties to Jordan and is not a citizen of any country, according to his lawyer and news reports.

We are concerned about photographer Mustafa al-Kharoufs detention and Israels threat to deport him to Jordan, a country to which he has no ties, said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado. Israeli authorities should publicly detail the basis for his detention, or release him and let him work freely.

News reports and Skeyes said that the Interior Ministry and the Israeli domestic security service, Shin Bet, claimed that al-Kharouf is a member of Hamas and is in contact with Hamas activists.

At the hearing, Al-Kharouf denied being a member of Hamas, saying I do not belong to any side. I am a journalist, according to independent left-wing Palestinian online publication +972, which attended the hearing.

Turgut Alp Boyraz, a reporter for Anadolu Agencys Jerusalem Bureau, also spoke at the hearing, calling the case an attack on freedom of the press in Israel, according to +972. CPJ tried to contact Anadolu Agency via phone and email but did not receive responses to inquiries regarding Al-Kharoufs case.

Al-Kharouf began working as a photographer for Anadolu Agency in Jerusalem in August 2018, according to his employer. Previously, he worked as a freelance photojournalist and covered protests and clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces in Jerusalems Old City, according to his employer and +972.

The Israeli Interior Ministry did not reply to CPJs emailed request for comment.

Lustigman told CPJ that the court is expected to announce the date for Al-Kharoufs next appeal hearing on March 10.
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Washington, D.C., March 8, 2019The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed grave concern about threats and harassment against veteran South African journalist Karima Brownallegedly by supporters of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)after her phone number was published on Twitter by EFF leader Julius Malema. CPJ also called for the Electoral Commission of South Africa to determine whether Malema contravened the electoral code of conduct by doxxing Brown.

South Africa is due to hold parliamentary elections May 8.

In a tweet late March 5 to his 2.3 million followers, Malema posted Browns phone number in a screen grab of a message she mistakenly sent to a WhatsApp group for EFF media statements, and accused her of sending moles to a breakfast the EFF was hosting the following day, according to Brown, who spoke to CPJ, and an article on the independent news website Daily Maverick.

In the hours after Malema published her personal contact information on Twitter, Brown received an onslaught of graphic messages on social media as well as her phone through voice and WhatsApp messages, many threatening rape and murder, the Daily Maverick reported. Some racially charged messages threatened to expose her flesh by peeling her skin off. Colleagues who came to her defense were also subjected to a torrent of online abuse and harassment. Many of the messages appeared to come from accounts that explicitly support the EFF, the third largest political party in Parliament, according to a CPJ review of the messages and media reports.

We are concerned about Karima Browns safety given the threats instigated by the malicious publication of her contact information, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator, in New York. The electoral commission must send the Economic Freedom Fighters and all political parties a strong message that using social media to threaten and intimidate journalists will not be tolerated and is a breach of the Electoral Code that could impact the credibility of the vote.

According to Schedule 2 of the Electoral Act, every registered party and candidate must take all reasonable steps to ensure that journalists are not subjected to harassment, intimidation, hazard, threat or physical assault by any of their representatives and supporters.

Brown, who has held senior editorial positions in several local media organizations, is the host of Sunday morning show The Fix with eNCA, a privately owned television news broadcaster, which also employs her as a political commentator. She also hosts The Karima Brown Show, a weekday politics show on 702, a private radio station in Johannesburg.

The message Brown mistakenly sent to the EFF WhatsApp group was related to reporting on a breakfast the EFF planned to host for elders on March 6, according to the Daily Maverick. Brown told CPJ that the message was for her colleagues at eNCA: Keep an eye out for this. Who are these elders. Are they all male and how are they chosen. Keep Watching brief.

Malema publicly condemned the threats in an interview with state-owned broadcaster SABC. However, a statement from the EFF claimed Browns WhatsApp message is evidence she is not a journalist, but an operative of the ruling African National Congress. Malema told privately owned radio station Power FM: We need to expose journalists who are state security.

By late March 6, Malemas tweet was no longer on Twitter due to an apparent violation of the platforms terms of service, according to the notice in place of the tweet. Nonetheless, Malema has retweeted the same screen grab with Browns phone number from at least one other EFF-linked account, and many other Twitter accounts have also posted Browns personal information, according to a review of the tweets by CPJ.

In a statement March 6, eNCA said Browns message was simply one of guidance to our political [reporting] team and pertinent questions we would ask of any political party.

Late March 6, Brown opened a case of intimidation with police in Rosebank, Johannesburg, she told CPJ. Brown told CPJ she plans to file a complaint with the Electoral Commission once she has briefed a lawyer.

EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi declined to speak with CPJ over the phone, but communicated briefly via WhatsApp asking for questions in writing. He said that Malema had deleted the tweet and had condemned the harassment. However, when asked to clarify whether Malema deleted the tweet or it was removed by Twitter, Ndlozi did not respond.

The South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) urged the EFF in a statement to stop with this vicious attack on the media and allow journalists to do their work without fear and intimidation. SANEF filed a complaint against the EFFprior to the incident with Brownwith an anti-discrimination court on behalf of five journalists who were subjected to threats and harassment online by EFF supporters, the Daily Maverick reported.

Asked for comment, Electoral Commission spokeswoman Kate Bapela directed CPJ to the commissions official Twitter account, which stated that the Electoral Court was the competent authority to adjudicate on any breaches of the Code of Conduct or any prohibited conduct.

To help the media prepare for covering South Africas elections, CPJ has published a journalist safety kit.
SAN FRANCISCO, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Friday, March 8, 2019, Dolby Laboratories Womens Employee Network Group (WE) celebrated International Womens Day (IWD), a global movement dedicated to the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. WE members in Beijing, San Francisco, Sydney, and Valbonne, France hosted a variety of events aligned with this year's IWD theme #BalanceForBetter. Photo credit: Kali Edwards.



Media Contact: Gentry Bennett gentry.bennett@dolby.com 513.253.5033

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/20a385db-c3dc-446f-9992-5dc3edec8157

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f6551fdc-54fa-47e6-833e-8fc592e1ed57

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c931eefd-25d1-43ee-a731-812a0a4a7d0b

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7223b3b8-bf8b-44b3-9999-0a1808a54bdd




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Two journalists with the privately owned online news outlet Mereja TV were briefly detained by regional police and then attacked by a mob in Legetafo, a town in Ethiopias Oromia region, on February 23, 2019, Mereja TV CEO Elias Kifle told the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Reporter Fasil Aregay and cameraman Habtamu Oda were interviewing people displaced by recent home demolitions by authorities when they were detained by regional police, according to Elias.

The journalists were held for about an hour at the local police station and were asked by a commander why they had come to Legetafo without first informing the police, Elias told CPJ.

After their release, the journalists left the station and were attacked by a group of at least 10 young men, according to Elias and a journalist who spoke to witnesses at the scene but asked not to be named out of fear that their employer would not approve of talking with CPJ.

Habtamu escaped without injury but Fasil was beaten with sticks in plain view of the police, according to Elias and a statement issued by Mereja TV. Fasil suffered injuries to his neck, back, legs, and shoulders, Elias said.

The officers eventually made the attackers disperse, but did not arrest them, and took Fasil to a local clinic for treatment before his colleagues transferred him to a hospital in Addis Ababa, the capital; he has since been discharged, Elias said.

Police took Fasils camera after he was beaten, according to Elias. They held the camera until giving it to a Mereja TV employee on March 7; however, it was damaged beyond repair, Elias said.

Elias told CPJ that Mereja TV is not chiefly concerned with the fact that their reporters were detained by police; rather, he said, the problem was that the police had allowed the attackers to leave without taking justice. Elias said he spoke with federal police officials who told him they will investigate the matter.

Deressa Tefere, deputy of the Oromia Regional State Communication Bureau, told CPJ in an email on March 5 that authorities were aware that Fasil had been attacked and said that they were investigating. In a phone call with CPJ on March 5, Deressa disputed CPJs inquiry as to whether the journalists had been arrested, calling it a false accusation. CPJ attempted to clarify Deressas comments on March 7 and 8 via phone, text, and email, but did not receive a response.

Elias told CPJ that the attack on the Mereja TV journalists was disappointing precisely because conditions have been improving for the press in the country. Over the last year, authorities have released imprisoned journalists and lifted bans on numerous websites, including Mereja TV, according to CPJs reporting. For the first time since 2004, no journalists were in jail for their work in Ethiopia at the time of CPJs annual prison census on December 1, 2018.
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Kiev, March 8, 2019The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Ukraine to reverse its decision to ban Christian Wehrschutz, a veteran reporter for the state-run Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, from entering the country for one year.

Denying entry to an independent, international reporter is not a suitable step for a country that says its on the path to greater integration with Europe, said Gulnoza Said, CPJs Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. We call on Ukrainian authorities to allow Christian Wehrschutz to report from the country without obstruction.

According to a Facebook post by Ukraine member of parliament Olha Chervakova, who heads the parliamentary committee on free speech and information policy, Wehrschutz is barred from entering Ukraine for one year starting on March 6 because he poses a threat to national security and had illegally entered Russia-occupied Crimea and territories under control of Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Chervakova cited information from the Security Service of Ukraine in her post.

Chervakovas post also alleges that since Russias annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Wehrschutzs reporting had included cliches of Kremlin propaganda and fake news from Russian state media.

When contacted by CPJ on social media, Chervakova said that she believed authorities ruled mildly when imposing a one-year ban rather than a longer one, and she stood by the Security Services findings. The Security Service did not answer calls or immediately respond to CPJs emails.

Yesterday, Wehrschutz confirmed the ban in a Facebook post, while disputing the allegations against him. I entered Crimea in the summer [of 2018] with Ukrainian special permission, he wrote. Wehrschutzs did not return CPJs requests for comment on social media.

Previously, Ukraines Ministry of Defense declined to extend Wehrschutzs accreditation to cover the conflict in the countrys east, according to a statement by Harlem Desir, representative on freedom of the media at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who also condemned the ban.

Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl called the ban an unacceptable act of censorship, according to Reuters.
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Kiev, March 8, 2019The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Ukrainian authorities to swiftly investigate an assault on reporter Katerina Kaplyuk and cameraman Boris Trotsenko, who work for the investigative news show Schemes, a project of U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Libertys Ukrainian Service, and to ensure their attackers are held accountable.

On March 6, Kaplyuk and Trotsenko went to the offices of the village council of Chabany, south of Ukraines capital, Kiev, to interview an official for an investigation into the private use of state lands controlled by Ukraines National Academy of Agrarian Sciences, according to a report by RFE/RL. When they began questioning other officials, those officials started punching the reporters, according to the RFE/RL report.

Government officials assaulting investigative journalists is unacceptable, plain and simple, said Gulnoza Said, CPJs Europe and Central Asia program coordinator in New York. Ukrainian authorities should swiftly and credibly investigate the incident and hold the attackers responsible, and make sure journalists can work safely.

Trotsenko sustained a concussion from punches during the attack and his camera was damaged, according to RFE/RL; Kaplyuk was unharmed. Trotsenko captured the first moments of the attack in a video that RFE/RL later uploaded to YouTube.

Police arrived at the scene of the attack within minutes and took statements from the journalists, according to RFE/RL and a statement from the Kiev police.

After the attack, Schemes published a report identifying the attackers as the villages deputy chairman of housing and communal services and its deputy for executive issues, based on publicly accessible local government profiles. In their statement, Kiev police announced that they had launched an investigation under Article 171 of Ukraines criminal code, for obstruction of a journalists work.

In February, CPJ expressed concern for the safety of Schemes journalists after they reported being followed and surveilled. Police are also investigating that case under Article 171, according to Schemes. In September 2018, CPJ reported that the Ukrainian government acquired a court order to access months of data from Schemes host Natalia Sedletskas phone.

A European Court of Human Rights decision in favor of Sedletska kept Ukrainian authorities from accessing her data.
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On International Womens Day, CPJ has highlighted the cases of female journalists jailed around the world in retaliation for their work. At least 33 of the 251 journalists in jail at the time of CPJs prison census are women. At least one of thoseTurkish reporter and artist Zehra Doganwas released in February after serving a sentence on anti-state charges. The four female journalists jailed in Saudi Arabia were detained over their criticism of the kingdoms ban on women driving.

Explore their cases and view CPJs infographic here:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Indian Oil Corporations (IOCs) LNG terminal at Ennore.

LNG Terminal

Ennore terminal is ambitious terminal for storage and re-gasification of imported LNG, built by the nations largest fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), at a cost of Rs 5,151 crore inside Kamaraj Port at Ennore.

The project was commissioned by the IOC through its joint venture company IndianOil LNG Pvt Ltd.

The capacity of the LNG terminal is 5-million tonnes per annum (MMTPA).

The LNG terminal was commissioned through the shipload of LNG from Swiss trader, Gunvor carried from Qatar.

Ennore LNG terminal is part of Indias plan to raise the share of natural gas in the countrys energy basket to 15 per cent by 2030

Together with associated pipeline infrastructure projects cumulatively accounts for Rs 9,000 crore.

The imported LNG at the terminal will meet the requirements of Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd, Madras Fertilisers Ltd, Tamil Nadu Petroproducts and Manali Petrochemicals Ltd together with catering to the requirements of the industries in Tamil Nadu and parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

IOC is laying a pipeline of 1244 Km for evacuation of gas from Ennore terminal. The pipeline passes through Manali-Thiruvallur-Puducherry-Nagapattinam-Madurai-Trichy- Tuticorin-Ramnathpuram and a separate line will go to Bengaluru through Hosur.
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From my book Child and Domestic abuse vol II There was a very well known kiruv personality. Perhaps you could say that he was a poster ...

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Important!! email - yadmoshe@gmail.com
A petition calling for the release of an Australian woman jailed in Iceland has received more than 41,000 signatures, as she makes a passionate plea to other domestic violence victims from her prison cell.Sunshine Coast artist Nara Walker was convicted last year after biting off a section of her abusive husband's tongue during a violent altercation at the couple's Reykjavik apartment in November 2017.Ms Walker admitted she bit down on the man's tongue but said she did so when he tried to forcibly kiss her.She suffered serious internal injuries of her own in the scuffle, during which an American friend was also allegedly pushed down a flight of stairs by the husband.In court and in interviews with 9news.com.au, Ms Walker alleged she was subjected to years of violence at the hands of her husband.The domestic abuse allegations included physical assaults, rape, financial manipulation and drugging.After multiple court appeals failed, Ms Walker entered a maximum security women's prison outside of Reykjavik late last month for a three-month term.Her supporters, including mother Jane Walker, are pleading with Iceland's president and justice minister to release the 28-year-old.They say Ms Walker should be pardoned as her self-defence claims were unfairly overlooked by the Iceland justice system.More than 41,000 people have now signed the petition and loved ones are hoping to raise more than $100,000 to pay Ms Walker's legal fees.'The abuser now walks free, living his life safely and freely, while a young woman faces imprisonment in a foreign country amongst the nation's most vile criminals,' the fundraiser reads.NARA WALKER VOWS TO LIFT DV 'VEIL OF SILENCE'COURT BLOW FOR SUNSHINE COAST ARTISTAUSTRALIAN ENTERS ICELANDIC PRISONMs Walker has used her case to shine a light on the rights of domestic violence victims.Ms Walker is considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights and has started a movement called #systemfails with Icelandic activist Eydis Eir Bjorns to highlight their misgivings with the justice system.From prison, Ms Walker has published a letter to her supporters for today's International Women's Day.'Today we unite and continue the fight,' she wrote.'Across borders and waters, in all languages a tone for change is shared.'We celebrate how far we have come, remembering the women before us who paved the way, giving us this platform to speak on this day.'I refuse to stand in silence against domestic violence.'Our stories become our voices. It is time to be heard.'Let's speak louder than ever before; for the women senselessly murdered, for the women who continue to live their lives in fear, for their children and the generations to come.'In solidarity we can lift one another and shatter the shame.'On this day let us stand together and break the silence.'No woman alone. I stand with you!'If you or someone you know is experiencing violence and needs help or support, call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732). In an emergency, call Triple Zero (000).
Former Australian horse trainer John Nikolic has been sentenced to 23 years in jail for importing cocaine into Fiji on his luxury yacht.He and wife Yvette were arrested after Fijian authorities discovered more than $20 million worth of drugs, along with two guns, on their vessel, Shenanigans, as it arrived in Port Denara in June.While Ms Nikolic was acquitted on all charges, Mr Nikolic was last week found guiltyof drug importation, possession, and failure to declare arms and ammunitions to a customs officer following a trial at the High Court in Suva.Justice Daniel Goundar on Friday handed down a sentence of 23 years' imprisonment with no parole for 18 years, Fiji Village reports.While prosecutors called for a sentence of at least 20 years as a deterrent, Mr Nikolic's lawyers said he had tested positive for a gene that causes the degenerative Huntington's disease and was at risk of developing it years to come, according to the Herald Sun.The couple had been travelling across the Pacific and stopped at Fiji after visiting Colombia, on their way home to the Gold Coast, drawing the suspicions of customs officers who raided the boat and found 10 blocks of cocaine, the court heard during the trial.Mr Nikolic had claimed sole responsibility during the search, pointing officers to more hidden cocaine, before attempting to take his own life in an overdose after asking to use the bathroom, prosecutors said.Justice Goundar last month ruled Ms Nikolic had no case to answer because the evidence against her was circumstantial. She has since returned to Australia.Mr Nikolic was in 2015 banned from racing for nine months for doping a horse.
TORONTO, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Currency Exchange International, Corp. (TSX: CXI) (OTC Pink: CURN) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the detailed voting results for the election of its Board of Directors, which took place at the Company's Annual General Meeting held on March 7, 2019 (the "Meeting"). The nominees listed in the management information circular dated January 23, 2019 were elected as directors of the Company at the Meeting. Detailed results of the vote are set out below:



Nominee Votes For % Withheld % Joseph August 4,743,922 99.89 5,014 0.11 Chirag Bhavsar 4,743,922 99.89 5,014 0.11 Johanne Brossard 4,748,926 100 10 0.00 Chitwant Kohli 4,748,326 99.88 610 0.01 Mark Mickleborough 4,405,076 92.76 343,860 7.24 Randolph W. Pinna 4,677,673 98.50 71,263 1.50 V. James Sardo 4,534,973 95.49 210,754 4.51

The Company is also pleased to announce that subsequent to the Meeting, the Board of Directors of the Company appointed Daryl Yeo to serve as a Director of the Corporation effective March 8, 2019, until the next meeting of shareholders of the Company.

Mr. Yeo is an experienced board director and retired senior executive with a proven track record of over 40 years in the financial services industry covering a broad spectrum of consumer and business client markets, trade finance and treasury management. He has also played an instrumental role in the establishment of a Schedule 1 bank in Canada, with his involvement including oversight of all operational policies, establishment & implementation of an enterprise risk management framework, and implementation of internal financial controls. Since 2007, he has held the ICD.D designation.

About Currency Exchange International, Corp.

The Company is in the business of providing a range of foreign exchange technology and processing services in North America. Primary products and services include the exchange of foreign currencies, wire transfer payments, Global EFTs, purchase and sale of foreign bank drafts and international travelers cheques, and foreign cheque clearing. Related services include the licensing of proprietary FX software applications delivered on its web-based interface, www.ceifx.com (CEIFX), and licensing retail foreign currency operations to select companies in agreed locations.

The Companys wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary, Exchange Bank of Canada, based in Toronto, Canada, provides foreign exchange and international payment services to financial institutions and select corporate clients in Canada through the use of its proprietary software  www.ebcfx.com.

Contact Information

For further information please contact:

Bill Mitoulas

Investor Relations

(416) 479-9547

Email: bill.mitoulas@ceifx.com

Website: www.ceifx.com

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This press release includes forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This forward-looking information includes, or may be based upon, estimates, forecasts and statements as to managements expectations with respect to, among other things, demand and market outlook for wholesale and retail foreign currency exchange products and services, proposed entry into the Canadian financial services industry, future growth, the timing and scale of future business plans, results of operations, performance, and business prospects and opportunities. Forward-looking statements are identified by the use of terms and phrases such as anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, intend, may, plan, predict, preliminary, project, will, would, and similar terms and phrases, including references to assumptions.

Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date such information is provided, and on information available to management at such time. Forward-looking information involves significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results discussed or implied in such forward-looking information. Actual results may differ materially from results indicated in forward-looking information due to a number of factors including, without limitation, the competitive nature of the foreign exchange industry, currency exchange risks, the need for the Company to manage its planned growth, the effects of product development and the need for continued technological change, protection of the Companys proprietary rights, the effect of government regulation and compliance on the Company and the industry in which it operates, network security risks, the ability of the Company to maintain properly working systems, theft and risk of physical harm to personnel, reliance on key management personnel, global economic deterioration negatively impacting tourism, volatile securities markets impacting security pricing in a manner unrelated to operating performance and impeding access to capital or increasing the cost of capital as well as the factors identified throughout this press release and in the section entitled Risks and Uncertainties of the Companys Managements Discussion and Analysis for Year Ended October 31, 2017. The forward-looking information contained in this press release represents managements expectations as of the date hereof (or as of the date such information is otherwise stated to be presented) and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities laws.

The Toronto Stock Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained in this press release.
This blog post is part of our series of internal engineering blogs on the Databricks platform, infrastructure management, integration, tooling, monitoring, and provisioning. See our previous post on Declarative Infrastructure for background on some of the technologies discussed here.

At Databricks, we use the Jsonnet data templating language to declaratively manage configurations for services running across dozens of regions in both Azure and AWS. Over 100K lines of Jsonnet define Databricks infrastructure, generating service configurations, Kubernetes deployments, Cloudformation and Terraform templates, and more. We reached a scale where Jsonnet compilation time had become a bottleneck: a full recompile took over 10 minutes, even on fast multicore machines. To solve this problem, we implemented Sjsonnet, a new Jsonnet compiler which achieves 30-60x speedups in our real-world usage.

What is Jsonnet?

We have previously written up why we use Jsonnet here, but in short:

It allows you to templatize your JSON/YAML/etc. configuration in a convenient, structured way: no unsafe string-templating using regexes, mustache/jinja/ .erb templates

templates It allows you to re-use common configuration snippets across your infrastructure, avoiding copy-paste configs and making it easier to maintain & ensure consistency

It is reproducible: as compared to using a general-purpose language like Python to configure deployments, Jsonnets only inputs are the .jsonnet files, and its only output is .json configuration files. You can be certain your system will be configured the same way today as they were yesterday, and when you refactor you can simply diff the output JSON to verify you didnt break anything

Databricks has a relatively complex configuration matrix. Many cloud services only have a single production deployment, often of a single monolithic application, shared by all their customers. While some care needs to go into taking care of the distinction between development/staging/production, often a single, relatively simple deployment script will suffice.

Databricks, on the other hand, supports a wide variety of deployment scenarios:

N different services: Databricks has separate services for managing worker clusters, serving the web-application, running scheduled jobs, and other things.

Multi-tenant deployments v.s. single-tenant deployments v.s. private-cloud deployments v.s. free community deployments e.g. at https://community.cloud.databricks.com

Deployment on Amazon Web Services v.s. Microsoft Azure

And finally, development, staging, and production environments for all of the above

Each of these factors is multiplicative, resulting in dozens of different deployment configurations. Jsonnets ability to re-use common configs and templates, while being entirely deterministic and reproducible, has been core to our ability to understand and maintain our deployments even as they are continually extended to support new features and products

Jsonnet Performance Issues

Over time, we have noticed that the compilation of .jsonnet files to their output JSON or YAML was sometimes taking a significant amount of time:

$ time jsonnet kubernetes/config/.../config.jsonnet --output-file out.json ... real 3m24.375s user 3m20.962s sys 0m1.329s

Some of our slowest .jsonnet files, such as the one shown above, ended up taking over a minute to evaluate. This is an absurd amount of time for a compiler that is just passing some dictionaries around! In this case, the output .json file was only a ~500 kilobytes:

$ du -kh out.json 556K out.json

Not tiny, but not exactly a huge amount of configuration to compile.

Exactly which files were taking time seemed somewhat arbitrary, and it was unclear what was the cause, but the slowdown was definitely causing issues: the automated test suites, production deployments, as well as manual testing of changes in development all slowed down.

At Databricks we work hard to make sure our developers are as productive as possible and having some workflows be absurdly slow for no clear reason was no good. Thus over time, weve spent a significant amount of time trying to see what we could do about our Jsonnet compilation performance.

Why is Jsonnet Slow?

After some investigation, we found two major suspects in what made Jsonnet compilation slow:

Jsonnet doesnt re-use intermediate results and re-evaluates them every time

Jsonnets builtin functions are implemented in Jsonnet itself, rather than the host language

We will look into each one in turn.

Jsonnet Doesnt Re-use Intermediate Results

Jsonnet provides a std.trace function that lets us print out when an expression is evaluated:

$ cat foo.jsonnet local x = std.trace("evaluating", 123); x $ jsonnet foo.jsonnet TRACE: foo.jsonnet:1 evaluating 123

The first argument "evaluating" gets printed with debugging information (filename, line number) while the second parameter 123 becomes the return value of the std.trace function call. Here, we see:

"evaluating" getting printed once

getting printed once 123 is returned from std.trace

is returned from 123 becomes the value of the local variable x

becomes the value of the local variable 123 finally becomes the output value of the foo.jsonnet file and printed to the console.

If we chain local variables together, we can see that each local is only evaluated once:

$ cat foo.jsonnet local x1 = std.trace("evaluating", 1); local x2 = x1 + x1; x2 $ jsonnet foo.jsonnet TRACE: foo.jsonnet:1 evaluating 2

So far, this is all well and good, and what you would expect if you come from programming in Python, Javascript, or any other commonly-used language.

However, odd behavior emerges in some other cases: for example, if instead of referencing locals directly, I am referencing the fields of objects:

$ cat foo.jsonnet local x1 = {"k": std.trace("evaluating", 1)}; local x2 = {"k": x1.k + x1.k}; x2.k $ jsonnet foo.jsonnet TRACE: foo.jsonnet:1 evaluating TRACE: foo.jsonnet:1 evaluating 2

Here we can see that when x2 evaluates x1.k + x1.k , the std.trace call runs twice! It turns out that evaluation of dictionary fields is treated more like method evaluation than field references: each time you ask for the value, the field is re-evaluated. While the semantics of Jsonnet (reproduciblity and purity) ensure the outcome of repeated evaluations are always the same, it conceals underlying performance issues. Put simply, this is not what you would expect, coming to Jsonnet from another programming language like Python or Javascript!

Now that we know this, its clear that innocuous looking snippets can have a surprising blow-up in the time taken to evaluate them:

$ cat foo.jsonnet local x0 = {k: 1}; local x1 = {k: x0.k + x0.k}; local x2 = {k: x1.k + x1.k}; local x3 = {k: x2.k + x2.k}; local x4 = {k: x3.k + x3.k}; local x5 = {k: x4.k + x4.k}; local x6 = {k: x5.k + x5.k}; local x7 = {k: x6.k + x6.k}; local x8 = {k: x7.k + x7.k}; local x9 = {k: x8.k + x8.k}; local x10 = {k: x9.k + x9.k}; local x11 = {k: x10.k + x10.k}; local x12 = {k: x11.k + x11.k}; local x13 = {k: x12.k + x12.k}; local x14 = {k: x13.k + x13.k}; local x15 = {k: x14.k + x14.k}; local x16 = {k: x15.k + x15.k}; local x17 = {k: x16.k + x16.k}; local x18 = {k: x17.k + x17.k}; local x19 = {k: x18.k + x18.k}; local x20 = {k: x19.k + x19.k}; local x21 = {k: x20.k + x20.k}; x21.k $ time jsonnet foo.jsonnet 2097152 real 0m5.064s user 0m5.031s sys 0m0.015s

Here, I leave out the std.trace call because it would be printed over two million times when evaluating this little snippet. Even so, from the time command you can see that it takes a whole 5 seconds to evaluate this snippet, a number that will go up exponentially as the number of stages increases.

Such pathological cases do not exist in real usage: nobody is going to write a cascade of local xN = {k: xM.k + xM.k}; bindings when trying to configure their cloudformation database or kubernetes cluster. On the other hand, in real usage the kinds of values and operations you end up doing with tend to be much more complex than 1 + 1 : you may be constructing large strings, sorting arrays, or md5 hashing inputs. In such cases it is entirely possible to end with small, innocuous-looking Jsonnet snippets that produce small, innocuous-looking JSON outputs, that nevertheless take multiple minutes to compile!

Jsonnets Built-In Functions are Implemented in Jsonnet Itself

Jsonnet provides a standard library of functions in the std object. We have already seen std.trace , but there are other common things like std.parseInt to convert a string into a number, std.base64 to base64-encode a string, or std.sort to sort an array of values. All of these are common tasks when putting together your configuration.

It turns out that Jsonnets standard library, in both C++ and Go implementations, is largely implemented in Jsonnet itself.

This is a slightly unusual decision: the Jsonnet compiler was designed for customizing configurations: e.g. letting you re-use a common string rather than copy-pasting it between your different YAML files, or defining a standard deployment template that each deployment can populate with hostnames/credentials/ip-addresses/etc.. This is typically not particularly compute-intensive: just passing some dictionaries around and adding keys here and there. Very different kind of computation from, say, implementing a base64 encoder:

base64(input):: local bytes = if std.type(input) == 'string' then std.map(function(c) std.codepoint(c), input) else input; local aux(arr, i, r) = if i >= std.length(arr) then r else if i + 1 >= std.length(arr) then local str = // 6 MSB of i base64_table[(arr[i] & 252) >> 2] + // 2 LSB of i base64_table[(arr[i] & 3) << 4] + '=='; aux(arr, i + 3, r + str) tailstrict else if i + 2 >= std.length(arr) then local str = // 6 MSB of i base64_table[(arr[i] & 252) >> 2] + // 2 LSB of i, 4 MSB of i+1 base64_table[(arr[i] & 3) << 4 | (arr[i + 1] & 240) >> 4] + // 4 LSB of i+1 base64_table[(arr[i + 1] & 15) << 2] + '='; aux(arr, i + 3, r + str) tailstrict else local str = // 6 MSB of i base64_table[(arr[i] & 252) >> 2] + // 2 LSB of i, 4 MSB of i+1 base64_table[(arr[i] & 3) << 4 | (arr[i + 1] & 240) >> 4] + // 4 LSB of i+1, 2 MSB of i+2 base64_table[(arr[i + 1] & 15) << 2 | (arr[i + 2] & 192) >> 6] + // 6 LSB of i+2 base64_table[(arr[i + 2] & 63)]; aux(arr, i + 3, r + str) tailstrict; local sanity = std.foldl(function(r, a) r && (a < 256), bytes, true); if !sanity then error 'Can only base64 encode strings / arrays of single bytes.' else aux(bytes, 0, ''),

Taking base64 as an example, this is probably something that can be implemented 10-100x faster in the compiled, optimized host language (C++/Go) than it can be in the interpreted, not-very-optimized Jsonnet language. Consider the following snippet, where we base64-encode the a string comprising hello repeated 5000 times:

std.base64("hello1 hello2 ... hello4999 hello5000")

This takes almost 2500 milliseconds to run in google/jsonnet:

$ time jsonnet foo.jsonnet ... real 0m2.492s user 0m2.022s sys 0m0.455s

While the equivalent C binary base64 takes a barely-measurable 14ms to run:

$ cat foo.txt hello1 hello2 ... hello4999 hello5000 $ time base64 foo.txt ... real 0m0.014s user 0m0.005s sys 0m0.006s

There are many functions like this, apart from std.base64 : std.escapeStringJson which walks a string character-by-character to decide what to do, std.format that re-implements the bulk of Pythons non-trivial %-string-formatting functionality, std.manifestJson which is designed to stringify potentially-large JSON blobs to embed as part of your configuration, all implemented in the Jsonnet itself and run using the not-especially-fast Jsonnet compiler.

Like the issue with Jsonnet not re-using the value of object-fields it computes, the problem here is not just that the standard library functions are slow, but that they are unexpectedly slow:

Anyone with a background in a fast compiled language  C, C++, Java, Go  would expect core standard library functions to be compiled and fast like everything else

Anyone with a background in slower interpreted languages  Python, Ruby, PHP  would expect core standard library functions to be written in C and be fast to execute regardless of how slow the interpreter is.

Glancing through the list of slowest .jsonnet files to evaluate, it was clear that many of them included usage of these built-in functions. Directly implementing them in the host runtime should greatly improve performance where these functions are used heavily.

A New Compiler

Fundamentally, the problems with the Jsonnet compiler seemed avoidable: Jsonnet, despite its quirks, is still a very simple language. It should not be too hard to write a simple compiler for it, and even a naive compiler should be performant enough not to spend multiple-minutes evaluating tiny JSON blobs.

We ended up writing the Sjsonnet compiler, written in Scala and running on the JVM.

An inevitable question would be why write a new compiler, rather than contributing improvements to the existing Jsonnet compiler? There were many factors: the complexity of the existing google/jsonnet implementation, the inherent additional difficulty of re-architecting an existing/unfamiliar codebase, lack of familiarity with the C++/Go languages, and the fact that it seemed simple to write an interpreter for a language as simple as Jsonnet.

For such a simple language, Sjsonnet is a correspondingly simple interpreter: at only ~2600 lines of Scala, it implements the simple two-stage parse -> evaluate pipeline common to most naive interpreters, with an additional materialization step unique to Jsonnet that turns the evaluated values into print-able JSON:

parse evaluate materialize Input ---------> Syntax Trees --------> Values -----------> JSON java.lang.String sjsonnet.Expr sjsonnet.Val java.lang.String

The Scala programming language makes writing this sort of compiler very easy: the entire parser is only 300 lines of code, using the FastParse parsing library. The evaluator is a simple function that recursively visits each node in the Syntax Tree and returns the value it evaluates to. JSON Strings, Numbers, Sequences and Maps are represented by String s, Double s, Seq s and Map s in the host language.

In an attempt to remedy the issues that we thought were causing poor performance in the google/jsonnet interpreter, Sjsonnet caches object fields to avoid unnecessary re-computation, and implements the standard library functions in Scala rather than Jsonnet.

Notably, Sjsonnet doesnt include any of the advanced features you see in more mature programming language interpreters: there is no intermediate bytecode transformation, no static optimization of any sort, no JIT compilation. Such things might be added later on, but currently Sjsonnet doesnt have any of them.

Performance

Sjsonnet performs much better than google/jsonnet on the pathological cases we discussed earlier.

benchmark interpreter google/jsonnet databricks/sjsonnet speedup kubernetes/config//config.jsonnet 204375ms 446ms 458x std.base64 of long string 2492ms 220ms 11x local x1 = {k: x0.k + x0.k} 20 times 5064ms 214ms 23x

Here you can see sjsonnet finishing in about 200-400ms, which is slightly misleading: 200ms of that is startup overhead, which we will discuss below. This means the actual time taken to perform the latter two tasks is almost immeasurable. This is what you should expect from a program evaluating such trivial computations, and is much better than the several-seconds that google/jsonnet takes on the same input! The large, slow config.jsonnet file that took more than three minutes now takes less than half a second. From this we can see that Sjsonnet succeeds in specifically those cases we knew google/jsonnet had poor performance.

The motivation for writing a new compiler was the performance for real-world code. Maintaining a compiler, even for a simple language, is always a large investment: we need to see a correspondingly large performance boost in real usage in order for the project to be worth it. Luckily, we saw one:

benchmark interpreter google/jsonnet databricks/sjsonnet speedup Running the google/jsonnet test suite 2222ms 67ms 33x Compiling all our Monorepo Jsonnet, Laptop 2362s 84s 28x Compiling all our Monorepo Jsonnet, m4.4xlarge 994s 16s 60x

In real usage, databricks/sjsonnet saw a 30-60x performance improvement over google/jsonnet. Many workflows that took tens of minutes to an hour now take 1 minute or less, a big quality-of-life improvement for the poor engineer who has to sit there waiting before they can update their Kubernetes cluster.

Startup Overhead

Sjsonnet runs on the JVM, and JVM applications are slow to start: while a hello-world Java program may start in 100ms, non trivial applications tend to take an additional 0.5-1s of classloading time before any code runs at all, and after that it still takes time for the JVM to warm up to its full speed. Sjsonnet takes 0.5-1s per-invocation regardless of how small the input is. We can see this by running Sjsonnet on a trivial jsonnet file, using the -i flag to disable the long-running daemon:

$ cat foo.jsonnet 1 + 2 $ time sjsonnet -i foo.jsonnet 3 real 0m0.726s user 0m0.891s sys 0m0.089s

To avoid this startup overhead, Sjsonnet comes bundled with a JVM-thin-client that keeps a long-running compiler daemon running in the background, reducing startup overhead to 0.2-0.3s. We can see this

$ cat foo.jsonnet 1 + 2 $ time sjsonnet foo.jsonnet 3 real 0m0.213s user 0m0.180s sys 0m0.049s

Not perfect, but good enough for interactive use without feeling sluggish. In our main repository, we used our Bazel build tools support for long-lived worker processes to keep the process around between compilations: this lets us keep Sjsonnet compiler always hot and ready to evaluate with no JVM startup/warmup overhead.

Parsing

Sjsonnets parser is a major bottleneck: profilers show 40-50% of execution time being spent in the parser. This is not unexpected, as the FastParse parsing library, while convenient and relatively snappy as far as parser-combinator libraries go, is still maybe 10x slower than a hand-written recursive descent parser.

In future, we may rewrite the parser by hand to get around this performance bottleneck. For now, we simply work-around this by caching the parsed syntax trees between runs, such that the vast majority of un-changed files do not need to be re-parsed each time. This takes only a few megabytes of memory for all the .jsonnet files in our primary repository and reduces the amount of execution time spent parsing to almost nothing.

Caching

Sjsonnet currently does not do any clever caching of evaluated Jsonnet code: if you evaluate multiple files that both import the same common config, the common config will get re-evaluated each time even if nothing changed. This is one possible direction for future work that may allow us to further improve the performance of our Jsonnet compilation workflows.

Compatibility

Sjsonnet passes the entire google/jsonnet test suite, and produces roughly equivalent error messages in all the failure cases. Run on Databricks own corpus of 100k lines of Jsonnet, the only difference came down to slight variations in floating-point-rendering:



- "targetRate": 0.050000000000000003, + "targetRate": 0.05,

Somehow, google/jsonnet has a somewhat unusual floating-point-rendering algorithm that doesnt quite line up with what you might expect coming from a Java, Javascript or Python background. Regardless of the reason, this change is benign and wouldnt affect anyone parsing these numbers into 64-bit double-precision floating point values.

Apart from the difference above, the rest of Databricks Jsonnet output is byte-for-byte identical under google/jsonnet and databricks/sjsonnet. Sjsonnet even intentionally follows google/jsonnets incorrect escaping of ~ as a unicode character, and does extra work to ensure that its output JSON formatting precisely matches google/jsonnets output. Since Jsonnets only output is in its JSON output, we can be very sure we arent breaking anything in the migration from google/jsonnet to databricks/sjsonnet.

Perhaps the only place where a user may notice a difference in the two implementations is in the error messages, where databricks/sjsonnet follows the JVM format of stack trace printing rather than the google/jsonnet formatting.

$ jsonnet foo.jsonnet RUNTIME ERROR: division by zero. foo.jsonnet:1:1-6 $ sjsonnet foo.jsonnet sjsonnet.Error: division by zero at .(foo.jsonnet:1:3)

The high degree of compatibility provides us other benefits: we did not need to fix or modify any of our 100,000 lines of .jsonnet files to use Sjsonnet. If in future we decide to migrate back to google/jsonnet, it would be a simple drop-in replacement to swap back.

Looking forward

Sjsonnet solves our immediate problem of Jsonnet performance. Workflows that used to take minutes-to-an-hour now take seconds-to-a-minute. Together with the Jsonnet Intellij Plugin we wrote, Sjsonnet greatly speeds up work on cloud systems at Databricks and improves the morale and efficiency of those engineers working on them.

Rather than locking us in, Sjsonnet gives options: a third Jsonnet implementation we can choose in addition to google/jsonnet and google/go-jsonnet, which is fast, simple, and easy to understand and extend. Perhaps some of the ideas from this implementation will make it back upstream, and if google/jsonnet or google/go-jsonnet catch up in performance at some point and surpass Sjsonnet, we may switch back. Even so, it might be handy to keep around a JVM implementation of Jsonnet, as a company that is heavily invested in both technologies.

Sjsonnet is available as a standalone executable, or on Maven Central to be used in your existing Java/Scala projects. See https://github.com/databricks/sjsonnet#sjsonnet for usage instructions if you want to try it out!
Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging think tanker, aspiring novelist, hanger on of academia, parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, Speedboat, proudly banned from Twitter so officially more dangerous than the Taliban, eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.
Boosting women in seafood and ending gender inequality: A call to the seafood community: time for commitment and change is now!

March 07,2019 | Source: International Association for Women in the Seafood Industry (WSI)

March 8, International Womens Day, has become the day of the year to highlight what women do and review progress. Some workplaces have joined in celebrating this day, featuring heartening commitments to gender equality. But it is also frequent to see in the workplace the omission, forgetfulness or ignorance of what this day commemorates: the international day of women's rights. We are living in a historic moment where the fact that women still participate in society and in the labour market on an unequal footing with men is more topical than ever. The seafood sector, in which at least 100 million women participate but wield little authority,is, like other male-dominated industry sectors, a fertile environment for reform.



Seeking to achieve gender equality and to set up a gender agenda that recognizes and empowers women in the seafood industry, many institutions and organizations in the fishing and aquaculture sector globally have organized. While this is an important step, we still need the participation of all relevant seafood actors for real change. Today, we want to call attention and ask the seafood community, private as well as public, to engage more actively in achieving true gender equality.



Where are the women?



The seafood industry is clearly women intensive but male dominated. Female workers are consistently over-represented in low skilled, low paid, low valued positions while men dominate the power positions. Women account for more than 15 percent of all those directly engaged in the fisheries primary sector with the percentage exceeding 20 percent in inland water fisheries; they dominate in the labour intensive processing industry, representing 85% to 90% of the total workforce worldwide, play a crucial role in aquaculture with some 30% in salmon farming in Chile, 50% in Zambia, and 72% in Asia. By contrast, the other end of the value chain is the realm of men, with 99% CEOs, 90% board members and leaders of professional organizations.



Participation and visibility



So far, those who have been supporting and working for the visibility of women in this industry and the improvement of their working conditions have been organizations (NGOs and associations) and some trade unions. Among them, the following stand out for example: Women In Seafood Australasia (WISA) which works to build the capacity of women to achieve impact in the development and growth of the seafood industry; the Fisherwomens Group of Saga City (Japan), which seeks to process value added seaweed products, is separated from the local cooperative because women in mainstream cooperatives have low status, whereas women in their own groups and businesses have prospered in farming and creating and marketing new value added products; and the Central Fish Processors Association in Barbados which represents mainly women processors of flying fish, has succeeded in securing a dedicated working area in the market to make members jobs more efficient.



On the research front, the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section of the Asian Fisheries Society held every second year a global conference. The Expanding our Horizons conference held in October 2018, showcased new and better research methods that empower women, how new technologies can boost womens productivity, such as tubular nets for seaweed production in Zanzibar, and growing action by womens groups.



In recent years, female professionals are being made even more visible in the seafood media although often still confined to the section women in seafood or woman of the month. Initiatives that increase the visibility of women showcasing the diversity and the importance of the role that they play in the industry deserve to be underlined, celebrated and replicated in workplaces! And this is happening. For the first time in 2019, gender discussions will feature in worldwide seafood shows in Boston in March 2019 and Brussels in May 2019.



In an effort to bring together stakeholders, the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries held a worldwide congress in November 2018 for and about women in fisheries. The highlight of this event attended by 200 professionals- was the signature by several countries and organizations of a strongly engaged document including 11 detailed recommendations: The Santiago de Compostella declaration for Equal Opportunities in the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sectors. Aiming to install a gender agenda for the seafood stakeholders, this event is intended to be held every year: Morocco, signatory of this Declaration, has announced to host the second worldwide Women in Fisheries congress in 2020.



Recently, large private companies are claiming their commitment to gender equality by highlighting the existence of their women's networks.In June 2018 Nueva Pescanova group, Europes largest fishing and fish processing company created WIP(Women in Pescanova) to boost the visibility of women,improve working conditions, integration and promotion practices, and support female talent. The Salmon Industry Association of Chile (Salmon Chile) has created a working group with the objective of increasing the participation of women in the industry, aiming at gender equity and advancing in the management and identification of gaps. Women in Fisheries is a group of women from Ireland, formed in 2018, to provide a voice and a forum for women from all sectors of their industry.



But are knowledge and talk acted upon?



So we have a new discourse in the seafood community with very women friendly declarations, new actors in this scenario, new documents accrediting commitments in this regard, but are things really changing or in the path to change? The recognition of the importance of women does not mean the acknowledgement of gender based inequalities.



How to ensure the implementation of recommendations towards gender equality proposed by non-binding documents such as the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries? Such proclamations have a history of slow incorporation into fisheries policy and action. For instance, in three Pacific island countries, a recent study of fisheries management themes in new non-binding regional and international fisheries law found that gender had among the weakest uptake, receiving attention in only 3 out of 15 national level policies, compared to 15 for sustainability. The reasons for this stemmed from a lack of familiarity with the concept of gender equality and ambivalence as to its importance.



Gender inequalities still pervasive



Power distribution is highly unbalanced and in almost all countries, the gender pay gap is still large. One of the causes for the gender pay gap is that strong stereotypes prevent women applying to certain male jobs, fishing being one example, and supervisor and manager positions others.The gender stereotyping can lock women into lower paying jobs but, even when job level is accounted for, often women are paid less for doing the same job. Pregnancy and motherhood are still considered in many companies as an economic burden and prevent women from securing steady jobs.



The gender blind distribution of public spending in the seafood economy misses opportunities to challenge the gender imbalance and consolidates gender inequalities. For example, fisheries government budgets and international development funding goes predominately to the catching sector rather than processing and marketing. In countries where small scale fishers are numerous, this means little help for those parts of the value chain where women dominate. In marketplaces, modernization has frequently squeezed women out of their stalls in the old markets as the new markets cater to larger, typically male dominated, operators. In India, cases have been documented in Mumbai and Bihar where women have resorted to selling on footpaths and beside busy roads.



Understanding seafood industry through gender equality lens: Professionals the time has come



As longtime members of associations grappling with this issue, we are buoyed by the current interest but also sanguine that change is not guaranteed.



Here are four tips. First, women in the industry will need to challenge their positions and articulate what they need by means that work in their cultures. This means working together and not allowing to be treated as second class nor simply emulate men in their work by, for example, keeping other women in their secondary places.Second, people already working on gender equality in the seafood industry have to raise the level of comprehension ofother professionals on why gender equality is important to the seafood industry. This is not a once-only effort but requires regular, even dogged proselytizing at each opportunity. Third, the capacity of professionals to create new visions of a gender equitable industry has to be raised by training and capacity building.How could gender equality look and what steps would lead to it?Finally, a progressive environment should not be viewed as a womens own issue but one that obliges and encourages mens engagement.



The challenge is great but not impossible! There are already several reports of successful experiences in improving the conditions of women in our industry. As last year, 2019 will be a historic year for our cause! We will be many more and stronger, better organized and connected! We urgently invite seafood players to join this crusade that concerns us all so that next March 8 we can be talking about a much more and truly inclusive industry.



This opinion letter was by Marie Christine Monfort, President and founder of WSI (the International Association for Women in the Seafood Industry), Natalia Briceno-Lagos, Project manager at WSI, Meryl Williams, Chair of the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section of the Asian Fisheries Society, Jayne Gallagher, member of WISA (Women in Seafood Australasia), Leonie Noble, Immediate past president WISA, Australian Seafood Hall Inductee, Editrudith Lukanga, President of African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network (AWFISHNET), Tamara Espineira, coordinator She4sea, Marja Bekendam, President AKTEA and Katia Framgoudes, spokesperson, AKTEA.



Source: womeninseafood@wsi-asso.org
Andhra Pradesh: White-spot virus returns to A.P., wild crab highly affected

by T. Appala Naidu

March 08,2019 | Source: The Hindu

Scientists from the Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (CIBA-Chennai) on Wednesday officially announced that samples of wild crab (Scylla Seratta) collected from farms in Krishna district have been found to be infected with white-spot virus. Presenting the results of their investigation on the wild crab to a group of 150 farmers here, CIBA Principal Scientist Dr. M. Poornima on Wednesday declared that the Scylla Seratta was infected with the white-spot virus and investigation was intensified to identify the source of the virus and issues associated with it.



Probe sought



CIBA scientists were asked by the State government to investigate the reasons for the mass mortality rate of the wild crab cultivated across the coastal belt in Krishna district.



Setback to aquaculture



According to Fisheries Department Assistant Director Mr. Suresh, the wild crab is being hatched in nearly 5,000 hectares in major locations of Machilipatnam, Krithuvennu, Koduru, and Nagayalanka in Krishna district and Repalle in Guntur district. The duration of the culture ranges between three months and six months based on the size of the seed. The culture of wild crab became an alternative to shrimp cultivation, which was also hit by the white-spot virus earlier in Andhra Pradesh. Presently, 90% of the crab seed is being collected from the mangroves in Krishna and Guntur districts.



Temporary measures



The alarming rate of mortality of the wild crab in the farms since November 2018 became a major setback in the regions brackishwater aquaculture sector, prompting the State government to swing into action to explore the scientific reasons for the mortality. The crop holiday of 20-30 days between the two crops and chlorination of inflow water are strongly advised to minimise mortality. However, its a temporary solution to avoid mass mortality. The white-spot virus has been detected largely in the wild crab samples collected from the ponds in which shrimp was cultivated earlier,Ms. Poornima, an expert in fish pathology, told The Hindu.



Nearly 90% of the production of wild crab from Andhra Pradesh is exported to South-east Asian countries. The Central government has granted an amount of Rs. 6 crore for setting up wild crab hatcheries at Suryalanka in Guntur district in 2017 but the development of the hatcheries hit a roadblock as the State government was yet to procure the land.
Tamil Nadu: Cannot take 7 years to fix transponders in fishing boats: HC

March 08,2019 | Source: The Hindu

The Madras High Court has disapproved of State governments plan to fix Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) developed transponders on 6,000 fishing boats in a phased manner spread over seven years. The court has asked the government to speed up the process and fix the transponders as and when they were supplied by the manufacturers.



A Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad issued the directions after it was brought to their notice that Fisheries Secretary K. Gopal had written to the Centre on February 27 for providing 75% subsidy to fix the transponders aimed at preventing the fishermen from crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line.



Estimated cost



The court was told that the cost of each transponder, including a device to provide dedicated power supply, was about Rs. 50,000. If another Rs. 10,000 was added towards contingency fund for other accessories including the software required to connect the transponders to ground stations through GSAT-6, the total cost worked out to Rs. 60,000 per boat.



Since 500 such transponders had already been fitted in the boats for a pilot project, the government had decided to fix the transponders in the remaining 5,500 boats in a phased manner spread over seven years after taking into consideration several factors including the production capacity of the units which assemble the transponders.



The State government had urged the Centre to bear 75% of the total expense of Rs. 33 crore that would required to fix the transponders. While the State would provide a subsidy of another 15% of the total cost, the beneficiaries would have to bear only 10% of the cost which would work out to Rs. 9,000 per boat, the court was told.



After recording the submissions made during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition filed by Fishermen Care, a non-governmental organisation represented by its president L.T.A. Peter Ryan, the judges adjourned further hearing on the case to March 11 to ascertain the stand of the Centre on the State governments proposal. The petitioner had filed the case seeking a direction to the Centre to refer to the International Court of Justice all issues related to alleged violation of human rights by the Sri Lankan Navy against Indian fishermen on the high seas. However, the judges decided to utilise the case for finding a solution to problems faced by fishermen who claim to have been attacked within the International Maritime Boundary Line.
Theres no such thing as a limited death penalty. Lawmakers like to use that phrase because they think it makes state-sanctioned death more politically palatable.





I wasnt even going to write about this years attempt at legislation because it seemed it would be short-lived. But Senate File 296 made it through a committee deadline March 7 on an 8-7 vote. It's now eligible for debate in the full Senate for the first time in over a decade.





The idea has gained ground from pro-life Republicans who seem to think they can use death to save lives. The bill had sponsorship from 20 GOP senators  only six short of a majority. Last year, a similar proposal had only six sponsors. Gov. Kim Reynolds refused to take a position, thereby leaving the door open that she might sign a bill.





So when I heard a colleague describe the bill as limited, because it applies only to someone who kidnaps, rapes and murders a child, I had to object. There is no such thing as a limited death penalty.





Lawmakers pick the most egregious crime anyone can imagine  the abduction, violation and murder of a child  as their death penalty starter kit. While Iowa is a low-crime state, we can all recall some tragic cases. They make us feel angry and helpless, and we want to do something about it. Usually, lawmakers start with this type of crime as a way to give us the illusion that we can prevent such heart-wrenching losses. They argue the death penalty is a deterrent to child-raping kidnappers, so they wont go ahead and kill the victim.





Its not a deterrent. It doesnt save lives (as I argued at length the last time I wrote about this topic). It doesnt even save money. But thats not my point today. The misguided notion that innocent lives can be saved by imposing the death penalty, however, is the very reason why theres no such thing as limited when it comes to capital punishment.





I was covering the Legislature in 1995, the last time there was a serious debate on the death penalty. The bill started out as limited to baby-raping murderers and others who committed two Class A felonies, such as lifers in prison who committed another murder. But by the time it reached the House floor, lawmakers had started to argue about why prison guards lives were more valuable than a police officers. They wanted to know why someone who merely killed a child, instead of raping her first, didnt deserve to die. They even added a catch-all provision for any murder committed with extreme depravity.





If the Iowa Senate had not wisely put a halt to the whole bloodthirsty scene, today we would probably be debating why illegal immigrants, drunk drivers and abortion doctors deserve to live.





The death penalty is not limited because its about politics, not justice. Every time theres an egregious crime that grabs public attention, lawmakers would be back at the Statehouse expanding the list of capital crimes.





Well, if it even saves one child, lawmakers mutter, after arguments about deterrence fall flat. But lawmakers who use that argument uniformly reject the far-better-documented proposition that saving even one child is worth approving gun-safety laws. Instead, they continue to advance legislation that would effectively block efforts to prevent children from accessing guns and shooting their siblings, their classmates or themselves.





Heck, they wouldnt even let the possibility of saving one child get in the way of Iowans patriotic fun. A fireworks accident killed an Iowa teenager last year, but some GOP lawmakers tried this year to advance a bill to force cities to allow sales. That was after getting the legislation on the books last year by promising local control. Thats what happens to limited legislation  it blows up in Iowans faces.





There's no such thing as a limited death penalty, just like there's no such thing as a limited death.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Comments come amid debates on how Western nations should deal with citizens who joined militant group





As debate continues over how Western countries should deal with citizens who have gone abroad to join ISIS, Iraqi President Barham Salih says foreigners tried in Iraq for fighting with the militant group could be handed death sentences.





The ISIS fighters "will be tried in accordance to Iraqi law and may be sentenced to death if found guilty" of killing Iraqis, Salih was quoted as saying in an interview published by Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National.





U.S.-backed forces in Syria handed over some 280 Iraqi and foreign suspected ISIS members last month, Iraq's military said. More are expected under an agreement to transfer some 500 detainees held by U.S.-backed forces in Syria.





Salih's remarks were the first public comments confirming that foreign ISIS fighters could face execution in Iraq.





"There are certain cases in which some of these foreign fighters have been implicated in cases of terrorism on Iraqi soil or against Iraqi citizens. Here Iraqi law will take precedence," he said.





'Too much to ask of Iraq'





Iraq has said it will either help repatriate non-Iraqi ISIS detainees to their home countries, or prosecute those suspected of having committed crimes against Iraq and Iraqis.





Under Iraqi law, ISIS members convicted of attacking Iraqis could face the death penalty.





But the government has also said that it does not expect to have to deal with all ISIS fighters transferred from Syria.





"To laden Iraq with this issue on behalf of the world, is too much to ask of Iraq," Salih said.





Meanwhile, Western countries remain divided in their approach to handling citizens who joined the group. The U.K. has moved to strip citizenship from British teen Shamima Begum who joined the group at 15 with two other school girls. U.S. authorities have argued that Hoda Muthana, an American-born woman, is not in fact a citizen.





Several countries are already working quietly to repatriate minors on a case-by-case basis. Of more than 5,000 Europeans  most from Britain, France, Germany and Belgium  who went to fight in Syria and Iraq, some 1,500 have returned, according to police agency Europol.





'Waiting for the right time to resurge'





For its part, Canada's Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has said he won't put Canadian diplomats at risk in Syria to repatriate ISIS fighters.





His office has refused to confirm whether it is preparing for the return of any Canadian citizens detained in the conflict. In a statement to CBC News, Goodale's office said Canada has "no legal obligation to facilitate their return."





The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, has said operations are underway in eastern Syria to announce the end of ISIS there.





But the head of the U.S. military's Central Command, Gen. Joseph Votel, said on Thursday the reduction of Islamic State's territorial footprint was a "monumental military accomplishment," but the fight was "far from over."





"What we are seeing now is not the surrender of ISIS as an organization," he told a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives armed services committee.





He said the group has made a "calculated decision to preserve the safety of their families" and its members are "going to ground in remote areas and waiting for the right time to resurge."





Votel, who oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, also said he is under no pressure to withdraw forces from Syria by any specific date, after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the drawdown of most U.S. troops from Syria.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Last fall, beloved neighborhood French bistro Cafe Loup was shuttered and seized due to unpaid taxes. It unexpectedly and happily reopened a week later, but it seems that the initial problems were never fully resolved, because Cafe Loup has once again been shuttered and seized by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance over unpaid taxes. And this time, it might be closed for good.

We've reached out to Cafe Loup for comment, but Eater reports that the notice on the door of the cafe says it is now in possession of the state, much like the notice that was placed there last September. The most recent warrant, which was filed today, shows that the cafe has $176,072.21 in taxes due. There are five other past warrants dating back to June that haven't been paid either totaling $317,922.21which brings the total amount due to a whopping $493,994.42.

Friends, its over. I just got word that Cafe Loup is dead for good. Pour out a Sancerre with me tonight for Dien and Jay and the rest of the gang #LoupisDead  Erin Edmison (@erinedmison) March 7, 2019

RIP Cafe Loup, 1977-2019. The wolf is past the door. pic.twitter.com/7UsV2jGseu  Adam Feldman (@FeldmanAdam) March 8, 2019

Cafe Loups been seized again?! pic.twitter.com/7rEPTjk9B7  Laura Marsh (@lmlauramarsh) March 6, 2019

Initially opening on 13th Street near University Place in 1977, Cafe Loup moved to its permanent home at 105 W. 13th Street, near Sixth Avenue, in the early '80s. As Eater noted, it became a fixture for the citys literary and publishing scene, counting Paul Simon, Susan Sontag, and Paul Auster among its regulars. The NY Times called it "the genteel but unpretentious West Village bistro that continues to bridge generations in terms of its appeal to editors, academics and writers." (They also recommended it in 2012, calling it a great bar for "conversation, and not necessarily your own.")

Back in September, a Tax Department spokesperson James Gazzale told us, "Seizing a business is always a last resort. Generally speaking, after seizing a business, we continue being in communication with the owner looking for mutually beneficial ways to resolve that debt. Once we find a way forward, and feel confident enough to return the keys to the business, we do so."



Loup when it was seized last fall (Photo courtesy Caroline Eisenmann)

In the wake of the closing last fall, there was an outpouring of support from locals and regulars for the cafe, which was known as a fixture for the citys literary and publishing scene (counting Paul Simon, Susan Sontag, and Paul Auster among its regulars). Sadie Stein wrote in The New Yorker, "Loup was a place with serious regulars; neighbors who dined and drank there literally every night, poets and publishers who held down favorite banquettes, older people who were treated with kindness and respect...I sort of thought Id become inured to treasured places closing in New York. But this one hurts. I loved Cafe Loup, not more than anyone else but the way a great number of people did."

Caroline Eisenmann, a literary agent for Frances Goldin Literary Agency, and a Loup regular, told Gothamist, "It was an important professional space, a living room among friends, a place to take meetings and to celebrate and to recharge."
Girls as young as 9-years-old can be sentenced to death in the Islamic Republic, while boys must have reached the age of 15 to receive the death penalty.





In an explosive report released last week, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iran, Javaid Rehman, blasted the Islamic Republic for continuing to execute children in defiance of international law.





Records show that at least 61 children have been executed by the regime since 2008. Girls as young as 9-years-old can be sentenced to death in the Islamic Republic, while boys must have reached the age of 15 to receive the death penalty.





At least six child offenders were executed in 2018. All were aged between 14 and 17 at the time of the alleged commission of the crime, and all were executed on the basis of qisas for the crime of murder, said Rehman. According to previous reports, 5 child offenders were executed in 2017, 5 in 2016, 7 in 2015 and 13 in 2014. At least 85 children remain on death row.





In the year since the Special Rapporteur last reported to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), basic human rights in Iran have continued to deteriorate because of heightened domestic repression and economic mismanagement.





The withdrawal of the United States from the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran and the subsequent re-imposition of sanctions in November 2018 led to protests and strikes across the country, which the regime has brutally suppressed.





The Special Rapporteur is disturbed by indications of an increasingly severe response to the protests, amidst patterns of violations of the right to life, the right to liberty and the right to a fair trial, the report said.





An increasing number of human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, and labor activists are being arrested or harassed. The Head of the Judiciary publicly described the protests as sedition aimed at dragging people to the streets to target the very foundation of the Islamic Republic, the report noted further.





Womens rights activists have long been targeted by the mullah regime due to their participation in a series of protests against compulsory hijab laws.





The Times of London reported Wednesday that one of Irans best-known lawyers has been convicted on a range of charges after defending women who refused to adhere to the countrys draconian dress code.





Both Nasrin Sotoudeh and her husband Reza Khandan were sentenced to lengthy prison terms without receiving either the charges for which they were found guilty or the sentence in writing.





In the report, the Special Rapporteur also highlighted the plight of foreign nationals illegally detained by the Islamic Republic as political bargaining chips for their negotiations with the West.





As of December 2018, 30 dual nationals and foreign nationals remained in detention in Iran, including British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was first arrested in 2016 and faces trumped-up espionage charges related to her work at the Thomson Reuters Foundation.





The Government has introduced some measures aimed at addressing economic challenges, but the arrests of lawyers, human rights defenders and labor activists signal an increasingly severe State response, the report concluded.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
I am a retired newspaperman. I live in Poca, WV, with my wife of 44 years, Lou Ann. I grew up in Cleveland. Three kids. Grandfather.



Report all errors to DonSurber@GMail.com
Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and AOC voted for the anti-hate bill that passed the House this afternoon 407-23 . All 23 NO votes were racist Republicans who just couldn't support a bill that denounced white nationalism and chastised KKK and other right-wing hate groups. The NO votes-- bolden names are in districts with significant KKK and/or neo-Nazi power:

The actual Nazi King-- Steve King from Iowa-- voted "present." This is what Ilhan said about the resolution:

Gideon Levy is an award-winning Israeli journalist living in Tel-Aviv. Yesterday's column for Keep It Up, Ilhan Omar , puts forward an opinion many Israelis probably disagree with-- as do American Zionists, including the ones on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, particularly chairman Eliot Engel (New Dem-NY), Ted Deutch (D-FL) and Juan Vargas (New Dem-CA), who passionately believes that Jesus will come back once all the Jews are in Israel for an Apocalypse-- yes, a complete crazy person voting in Congress. Surprised? Levy:

Maybe Mogadishu will turn out to be the source of hope. This war-torn city was the birthplace of the most promising U.S. congresswoman today.





Ilhan Omar is not only one of the first two female Muslim members of the House of Representatives, she may herald a dramatic change in that body. Hamas has entered the House, Roseanne Barr was quick to cry out; A black day for Israel, tweeted Donald Trump. Neither Hamas nor a black day, but a glimmer of hope on Capitol Hill.





Maybe, for the first time in history, someone will dare tell the truth to the American people, absorbing scathing accusations of anti-Semitism, without bowing her head. The chances of this happening arent great; the savage engine of the Jewish lobby and of Israels friends is already doing everything it can to trample her.





The president mentioned removing her from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Congress was set to pass a resolution, the second in one month, against uttering anti-Semitic expressions, specifically aimed at Omars statements.





When will Americans and Europeans stop running scared every time someone screams anti-Semitism? Until when will Israel and the Jewish establishment succeed in exploiting (the existing) anti-Semitism as a shield against criticism? When will the world dare to distinguish between legitimate criticism of an illegitimate reality and anti-Semitism?





The gap between these two is great. There is anti-Semitism one must fight, and there is criticism of Israel and the Jewish establishment it is imperative to support. Manipulations exercised by the Israeli propaganda machine and the Jewish establishment have managed to make the two issues identical.





This is the greatest success of the Israeli governments hasbara: Say one critical word about Israel and youre labeled an anti-Semite. And labeled an anti-Semite, your fate is obvious. Omar has to break this cursed cycle. Is the young representative from Minnesota up for it? Can she withstand the power centers that have already mobilized against her in full force?





Maybe its important that she knows there are people in Israel crossing fingers for her?





Her success and that of her congressional colleagues, Rashida Tlaib from Michigan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York, could be the first swallows that herald the coming of spring. This is the spring of freely expressing opinions about Israel in America. Cortez already asked this week why isnt bigotry aimed at other groups condemned just like statements against Israel are.





What, after all, has Omar said? That pro-Israel activists demand allegiance to a foreign country; that U.S. politicians support Israel because of money they receive from the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC, and that Israel hypnotized the world. What is incorrect in these statements? Why is describing reality considered anti-Semitic?





Jews have immense power in the U.S., far beyond the relative size of their community, and the blind support given by their establishment to Israel raises legitimate questions regarding dual loyalty. Their power derives from their economic success, their organizational skills and the political pressure they exert. Omar dared to speak about this.





Just imagine what Israelis and Jews would feel if Muslim Americans had the same political, economic and cultural power Jews have. Such power, above all the intoxication with power that has seized hold of the Jewish establishment, comes with a price. Omar and her colleagues are trying to collect on it.





Due to the Israel lobby, the U.S. does not know the truth about what is happening here. Congress members, senators and shapers of public opinion who are flown here ad nauseam see only Israeli victimhood and Palestinian terror, which apparently emerged out of nowhere. Islamists, Qassam rockets and incendiary balloons-- not a word about occupation, expropriation, refugees and military tyranny. Questions such as where the money goes and whether it serves American interests are considered heresy. When talking about Israel one must not ask questions or raise doubts.





This cycle has to be broken as well. Its not right and its not good for the Jews. Omar is now trying to introduce a new discourse to Congress and to public opinion. Thanks to her and her colleagues there is a chance for a change in America. From Israel we send her our wishes for success.





When will the world dare to distinguish between legitimate criticism of an illegitimate Israeli reality and anti-Semitism?
A fresh graduate in Vietnam has a minimum salary base of $250 a month. Photo by Shutterstock

A newly-graduated college student in Vietnam makes one-sixth the income of his Singaporean counterpart, a report says.

The minimum base salary of an entry-level position in Vietnam for the first six months last year was $250 a month, according to job advertising company JobStreet, which operates in five countries in Southeast Asia.

The corresponding figure was $493 in Malaysia, $605 in Thailand and $1,481 in Singapore.

Among the five countries surveyed, Vietnams minimum entry-level salary was only higher than that of Indonesia, which was $225.

The report found that an entry-level worker was able to earn the most in the real estate industry, with a minimum salary base of $378.

Information technology and secretary positions followed at $296 and $286 respectively.

Fresh graduates who work in food technology and sales earned $280 a month.

The minimum salary base for four employment levels in Vietnam showed increases from the full salary data of 2017.

Entry-level salary increased by 11 percent, that of junior executive (with 1-3 years of experience), up 6 percent, manager, up 7 percent, and senior manager, up 30 percent.

The report said that for non-managerial positions, Malaysian employers offered higher salaries than Vietnam.

But for manager position and above, the Vietnamese market showed greater increments due to high demand, reducing the gap with Malaysia, compared to 2017.

Although Vietnamese labor productivity increased across the economy in 2018, 48 percent of employers said they faced difficulties in recruiting qualified skill candidates.

The report used data from 40,000 job advertisements in 50 industries.
A Prime Minister approved plan requires all commercial joint stock banks to be listed before 2020 towards increased transparency and diversity.

This is one of a series of solutions set out in the scheme to "Restructure the stock market and insurance market by 2020 with orientation towards 2025" approved by the Prime Minister late last month.

Accordingly, commercial banks are required to list on any of Vietnams three official stock exchanges - the Ho Chi Minh Stock exchange (HOSE), Vietnams main exchange which accounts for over 90 percent of total market capitalization; the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), which houses remaining listed companies; and the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM), which is set up to encourage unlisted public firms to participate in the securities market so that they can later transfer to one of the two main stock markets.

Currently, only 17 of 31 banks are registered for trading on all three floors.

The Prime Minister has assigned the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to supervise and direct banks on listing, securitizing debts, provision of required services for derivatives trading, as well as monitor domestic and capital sources on the market.

Last year, PM lauded Vietnams stock market for outperforming other Southeast Asian nations in capital mobilization, with a market cap of 72 percent of GDP at the end of 2-10.
Only 62 percent of the Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien metro line was completed by the end of last year, against the targeted 65 percent. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

HCMC has asked the PM for an advance of $92 million to pay for work done on its first metro line.

HCMC Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong has informed Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc that the city needs over VND2.15 trillion ($91.78 million) to pay dues relating to construction of its first metro line, including payment for work already done by Japanese contractor Sumitomo Corporation.

He has explained the request saying the city has previously made advance payments for the project from its own budget, but new regulations require further payments to come from the central government.

If the central government cannot provide the money, Phong has proposed that the central government permits the city to make advance payments from its own budget as it has done thus far.

The chairman pledged that the city will repay the money to the government when it receives funds from the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The metro project is being built using official development assistance (ODA) from Japan, and the Planning and Investment Ministry is in charge of disbursing the funds.

HCMCs request was made after the Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR), which is managing the project, asked the city Tuesday for a VND39 billion ($1.67 million) advance payment to pay staff salaries.

In November last year, Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam, Umeda Kunio, had said that unpaid bills for contractor Sumitomo Corporation had climbed to $100 million.

The first metro line, Ben Thanh  Suoi Tien, runs 20 kilometers (12.43 miles) through the districts of 1, 2, 9, Binh Thanh, and Thu Duc of HCMC, and Di An District in the neighboring province of Binh Duong.

Work started in August 2012 and the project was expected to be finished in 2017 but financing and staffing challenges have caused repeated delays.

Only 62 percent was completed by the end of last year against a target of 65 percent. HCMC plans to complete 80 percent of the project this year and put it on trial run next year.

The projects demand to sanction an increase in cost from VND17.4 trillion ($747.6 million) to VND47.3 trillion ($2 billion) was approved in January.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in Hanoi on February 28, 2019. Photo by KCNA via AFP

North Korean TV aired a documentary on the second Trump-Kim summit as well as Kims official visit to Vietnam.

The documentary, which includes chronological footage of Kim Jong-uns 11-day trip to Hanoi, was aired Wednesday on North Korea Central Television, according to Japanese news channel NHK.

The 78-minute documentary depicts Kims train journey from North Korea, and his meetings with the U.S President Donald Trump.

The documentary focuses on the rapport between the two leaders, not highlighting the summit ending without a deal.

Experts said this signaled that North Korea was not about to turn away from negotiations.

The documentary does not mention denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, unlike a previous report by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

According to KCNA, the two countries agreed to maintain close communication with each other on the issue of denuclearization of the peninsula.

The film describes amiable exchanges between the two leaders even at the summits conclusion, saying they had agreed to "sit face-to-face more often" and would continue "constructive dialogue".

The film also delivers the message that Washington and Pyongyang "can overcome twists and turns and ordeals and go forward if both sides make fair proposals based on principles that are mutually accepted and respected and engage in negotiations with the right attitude and willingness to resolve problems," reported Reuters.

North Koreas broadcast of the documentary may reflect Pyongyang's willingness to maintain the dialogue mood with Washington, South Korean News Agency Yonhap commented.

The film also notes that "the efforts and measures made by the two sides to reduce tension and build peace on the Korean peninsula had a great meaning in fundamentally shifting the decades-long relationship of mistrust and hostility," reported Yonhap.

It shows scenes of U.S President Donald Trump greeting North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho and Vice Chairman of Central Committee of Workers' Party of Korea, Kim Yong-chol.

The documentary includes Kims official visit to Vietnam, and carries footage of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung meeting Ho Chi Minh when he visited Vietnam in 1958 and 1964.

It also shows Kim Jong-un being welcomed by many Vietnamese people at various places along the way.

Kim Jong-un was the first North Korean leader to visit Vietnam in the last 55 years.

The second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, held February 27-28 in Hanoi, ended without an agreement. After the summit, Kim Jong-un paid a two-day official visit to Vietnam starting March 1.
A sergeant for the city's Department of Homeless Services is facing charges of excessive force and filing a false police report after video surfaced of him stomping on a man's head more than ten times at a Manhattan homeless shelter.

Cordell Fitts, 34, was arrested on Thursday in connection with the March 6th, 2017 incident, in which the former "peace officer" was caught on video repeatedly pummeling a homeless person in the shelter's lobby. The confrontation allegedly began with Fitts placing his hand on the man, who then took a swing at the officer.

According to federal prosecutors, Fitts then "kicked and stomped on the head of [the man] approximately 11 times...and punched him in the area of his head approximately two additional times."

Following the violent incident, Fitts filed a police report defending his use of "necessary force," and claiming that the victim admitted to him, "I am off my psych medication and going through a lot." But prosecutors say those statements were false, and that the officer was merely attempting to "cover up and justify the assault."

"Fittss alleged conduct not only betrayed his duty as an officer to protect those under his charge, but also violated the law," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement. "When the constitutional rights of individuals experiencing homelessness are violated, particularly by law enforcement officers, we will act aggressively to bring wrongdoers to justice."

It's unclear if prosecutors have spoken with the victim of the alleged assault. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office said he couldn't comment on additional details of the investigation, including the extent of the injuries suffered by the victim. Whether the man was arrested, and what he may have been charged with, also remains unknown.

In some ways, the incident calls to mind the recent arrest of Jazmine Headley, whose 1-year-old child was ripped from her arms during a widely-condemned incident at a social services office in Brooklyn. That encounter, which was captured on cell phone video, involved both peace officers with the Human Resources Administration and NYPD officers (the peace officers resigned, while the police officers were not punished).

Testifying about her "dehumanizing" treatment at a recent City Council hearing, Headley spoke about the many ways the city's most marginalized populations are mistreated by city employees, and called for reforms to the Human Resources Administration. "I was just a number, a ticket, a problem, and I know each day, so many people have the same experience," she said.

The incident involving Fitts occurred at a shelter on 30th Street in Manhattan maintained by the Department of Homeless Services, which is part of the Human Resources Administration. The homelessness agency was previously its own department, but was merged with the city's welfare services by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2016.

Fitts, who has since resigned from his position, could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted. You can read the full complaint here.
There has been an improvement in sex education in Vietnam's schools in recent years. Photo by Shutterstock/Larisa Rudenko

The lack of sex education in conservative Vietnam, considered a reason for its high abortion rate, might finally be about to change.

"My sons head teacher told me he chased after his teacher and asked to see his sperm after a sex education lesson," Thuy Nguyen of Hanoi, a mother of three, said, giggling.

Bin, her son, is in second grade and learned that sperms are only produced after puberty.

But his natural sense of curiosity led him to pursue his teacher and make the request. The teacher assured him he would understand when he grew up.

The Hanoi Education Technology Primary School, where he studies, is one of the few schools which does not shy away from teaching sex education.

"There are sex-ed lessons from 1st to 5th grades," Thuy said.

"Its not heavily technical, and the teachers design the lessons so that they are appropriate for elementary school students. My son is very interested and excited to learn."

There has been an improvement in sex education in Vietnam's schools in recent years.

A head teacher at a public middle school in District 1, Saigon, told VnExpress International her school offers sex-ed lessons in a weekly life skill period.

"Our school has a counseling office for students on related issues. We often teach sex-ed in the school yard and halls for the whole school. Our students enjoy the lessons and want to know more."

Dr Vu Thu Huong, a lecturer and researcher at the Hanoi National University of Education, told VnExpress International that in recent years sex education has been incorporated in subjects like science and morality in elementary school and biology and civic education in middle and high schools.

The conservative mentality has loosened somewhat after a decade of campaigning against child sexual abuse caused by lack of education, research and speaking on various media platforms by Dr Huong and other academics.

Stressing the importance of sex education, Dr Huong said interest in the subject among Vietnamese students is evident even from a young age, and it is up to each educational environment to ensure the inquisitiveness is used for actual learning.

"Based on my experience, at eight or nine students begin to be curious about gender. Curiosity about sex tends to start at middle-school age.

"Therefore, sex education should be provided before their curiosity and urge kick in. This will prevent them from exposure to sexually explicit materials on the Internet and from malicious sources."

Need to do more

Despite improvement, Vietnam needs to do more to improve sex education, especially in schools, experts said.

A reluctance to broach the topic has been a chronic problem both at school and home.

The school curriculum first adopted sex education in 1981, but initially there were only a few lessons in 10th grade, Dr Huong said.

Teachers usually skipped these lessons, and even if they did teach them, they did so only because it was compulsory and both were shy and students refused to engage, she said.

Viet Nguyen, 18, of Saigon said: "There was one time in 5th grade when teachers talked to us about sexual abuse of children, so we learned to protect ourselves. In middle school, there were two or three gender workshops where they taught us about types of genders and addressed questions related to gender if we had any."

During his final two years of high school, he recalled, there were only one or two sessions on topics like love, abortion and whether students had sex.

He said all the sex-ed sessions he had attended in public schools had been extra-curricular activities and not official lessons.

"Currently, Vietnam does not have any training module for teachers focusing on sex education," Tran Thi Phuong Nhung, a UNESCO Vietnam gender specialist.

Dr Huong concurs, saying the Ministry of Education and Training does not publish sex education books and there are only independent publications.

B.T.Tram, 17, a high school student in Saigon, said she and her peers are taught basic sex-ed but very generally.

"I used to have a wrong understanding of abortion."

The shyness and embarrassment is also a problem at home.

Dim light at the end of sex education tunnel 'They just never talk about it': Sex-ed chat with Vietnamese teenagers reveals the taboo

"When I was doing an informal survey of students in sixth grade, some told me their parents didnt let them participate in extracurricular activities to learn sex-ed," UNESCO specialist Nhung told VnExpress International.

Parents hesitation to allow their children to learn the subject also explains partly schools reluctance to teach them.

Many people, including teachers, are of the opinion that if they let their children learn or know "too much" about sex and related issues, it will trigger their curiosity and prompt them to have premarital sex.

Nhung said: "At many sex-ed workshops run by teachers, experts and practitioners at middle and high schools in Vietnam, I notice their typical training tactic is to encourage students not to have sex and stigmatize pregnancies to scare them into not having sex. But thats not really an effective way."

Educators perspectives vary, but if they are prejudiced it would most likely result in poor learning, she warned. She also said there was a gulf between training in small and big cities since the former have few experts in the field.

Teaching abstinence does not necessarily work. It is reported that Vietnamese are having sex at increasingly younger ages, sometimes as young as 15.

A 2017 UNFPA survey of people aged 15-24 in Vietnam found 83 percent knew about condoms and 63 percent understood their use but only 24 percent knew how to use them properly, local media reported.

Vietnam ranks top in Asia and among the top five worldwide in the rate of abortion, according to official health reports. Doctors said 40 percent of all pregnancies in the country end in abortion, and young people account for 20 percent of total abortions.

Youth actions

While most schools in the country still shy away from teaching about sex, young professionals are taking matters in their own hands.

Vietnam Youth Action for Choice (VYAC) is one of many entities working to make comprehensive sex education a subject in the school syllabus.

VYAC was one of the youth groups that pushed the idea at a conference held last May by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the U.N. and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union to collect young people's opinions in proposed amendments to the Youth Law.

VYACs three founders also advocate "the right to pursue a fulfilling, safe, and pleasurable sex life," something that is not taught in schools.

This right is actually within the spectrum of sex education for children from 12 years and above, according to UNESCOs "International technical guidance on sexuality education" published last year.

This was highlighted at a conference organized by the United Nations Population Fund in Hanoi last October and attended by representatives of the Ministry of Education and Training, academic book publishers and others.

"Depending on the age group, wed dissect the topic of female and male sexual pleasure differently. Most students dont know about this right when we tell them, but they dont shy away, follow the discussions, and agree its an important right," Mai Doan To Thuy, one of VYACs founders, told VnExpress International.

Not only is making sex-ed a main module in Vietnam UNESCO's goal, but it also supports training teachers in the subject.

"In 2019 the United Nations Population Fund and UNESCO plan to provide technical assistance for creating training modules for teachers so they can be trained in teaching sex education," Nhung added.

While knowledge about LGBTI people is still far from being incorporated in Vietnamese sex-ed lessons, some students at Fulbright University decided to be proactive.

Freshman Nguyen Minh Ha, one of the founders of Full Pride and Alliance Club, has been organizing sexual orientation workshops at the university to promote affirmation of diverse sexual orientations and reduce gender-related discrimination.

"I think sexual orientation must be included in the sex education curriculum. It is an essential element in our life, especially for young people who are in the stage of finding out who they are," Ha said.
Porters carry heavy loads to southern Vietnams tallest peak visited by millions of devout Buddhists every year.

The Ba Den (Madame Black) Mountain, 986m high, is the highest one in southern Vietnam. The major deity on the mountain is Linh Son Thanh Mau, and millions seek her blessings every year.

Serving the pilgrims, mostly unthanked and unnoticed, are a group of porters who carry heavy things, including big ice blocks and other goods to the shops on top of the mountain. Displaying incredible strength, they do this every day to make a living.

The commodities carried up are mainly soft drinks, cooking oil, spices, ice cubes, rice, and other food items which are packed in boxes at the foot of the mountain first.

In order to place the boxes weighing nearly 50 kilograms on his shoulders, Tan, 45, from Tay Ninh Province, southeastern Vietnam, must place them on the stone stairs, sit at a lower height and bend his body to get the load on his back.

"I've been doing this job for more than a decade now, carrying heavy stuff everyday up the mountain. January is a month of almost non-stop work because this is the time to earn the most," Tan said.

Nguyen Van Luan from Quang Binh Province, central Vietnam, places a small cushion on his neck on which other delivery men load the things he has to carry. Luan said that he carries 40-60kg each time, and is paid VND50,000 ($2.16) per trip by the shop owner.

The road from the foot of the mountain to Ba Den temple is over 1,000 meters long, and has 1,580 steps. Many paths are steep and dangerous to walk, and carrying heavy weights makes it even more so, but the strong men risk their long-term health to earn a living, walking carefully and slowly, one step at a time.

"In the morning, when it is still not very sunny, it takes an hour to arrive at the top, but by noon, the pilgrims start coming, so each trip takes much longer. I have to take a couple of breaks, to regain my strength," said 54-year-old Bay.

The porters say they difficult thing is carrying ice blocks, one of the most needed items for mountain vendors, who chop the blocks into smaller pieces to serve cold drinks. The blocks can be as heavy as 50kg each and are wrapped in rubber sheets to avoid rapid melting. The porters place a cushion on their necks when carrying the ice blocks as protection against the cold.

In the midday sun, Nguyen Thanh Long, 47, is drenched in sweat on his third trip of the day, carrying ice blocks to a restaurant.

"I have been doing this job for 20 years now. When I was younger, a dozen trips would be normal, but now I get tired quickly," Long said.

This job requires great care. The heavy lifters must go slowly, step by step, and be very careful when the terrain gets tricky with jagged rocks.

The lifter earns VND100,000 ($4.3) for each ice block delivery, which is significantly higher than other items. As soon as he gets to the temple, Vo Van Tinh, 26, cuts the ice for the restaurant owner. The Tay Ninh native man has being doing this for five years on Ba Den mountain.

"I'm still strong, so I try my best to work hard whenever the demand is high. If I work hard, I can earn up to a million dong every day ($43). But this job takes a physical toll. If you cant handle it after a few days, you quit," said Tinh.

At lunch break, the mountain delivery men take a short rest on hammocks before beginning the heavy lifting once again.

"Everyone has a personal relationship with the shop owners on the mountain, so they have to keep it up. If the shop runs out of items and stops selling, we lose our jobs. What I worry most is being unable to do my job when Im sick, and fear of suffering from arthritis in my old age," said Tran Van Tri, one of the porters.

There are many legends about the deity worshipped on this mountain, but one of the most popular ones is that of a young woman named Ly Thi Thien Huong, daughter of a government official in the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945). She was promised by her parents to a young academia who was also a martial arts master in the same village.

When he was away with the army fighting the enemy, Thien Huong was chased by men who wanted to rape her. From a cliff on the mountain, she jumped off to maintain her dignity. Her spirit appeared in black in the dream of a monk on the mountain.

The monk managed to find her body for conducting funeral rites and named her Ba Den. This woman is worshipped in the Dien Ba temple about halfway up the mountain. While pilgrims visit the mountain every day, the peak season is Tet, the Lunar New Year festival.
North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un waves goodbye as he is about to board a train back to Pyongyang at Dong Dang station in northern Vietnam on March 2, 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa

During Kim Jong-uns five-day stay at Hanois Melia Hotel, no staff was allowed to approach six of its floors.

North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un arrived in Hanoi on February 26 and stayed for five days at the Melia Hotel for the second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, which was followed by an official visit to Vietnam. The delegation occupied six of the hotel's 22 stories, but their specific floors were not revealed.

All activities of Kim and his entourage at the hotel also remained top secret.

Guillermo Pantoja, the hotels CEO, said the North Korean delegation requested a separate area for their cooks in the hotels kitchen, where no hotel staff was allowed.

The delegation brought all the food from North Korea for Kim and did not use any ingredients in Vietnam.

They booked the floor from February 22 onwards, and ensured tight security since.

Ha Thi Ngoc Minh, deputy head of the room service department, said the delegation did not have any additional requests for room service and all furniture was kept almost intact when they left.

North Korean security agents joined the hotels buffet for lunch and dinner like other guests, but they isolated themselves from the crowd.

Erick Garcia, the hotels head chef, said kimchi was the dish most favored by the North Korean guests. During their stay, the hotel provided more than 100 kilos of the famous Korean spicy pickle.

Nguyen Thi Chau Dung, sales and marketing director, said when he left the hotel on March 2, Chairman Kim shook hands with the hotels director and thanked the hotel for the consideration shown to him and his entourage.

Kim Jong-un arrived in North Korea Tuesday after a train ride of more than 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) from Vietnam.

After the Trump-Kim summit ended abruptly without a deal, due to disagreements over the lifting of sanctions, the North Korean leader paid an official visit to Vietnam. He met with Vietnamese leaders of the Party, executive and legislature branches and paid tribute to Vietnam's late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh.

Kim Jong-un's trip to Vietnam marked a milestone in the long-standing elationship between both countries. It was the first visit by a North Korean leader to Vietnam in 55 years. Kims grandfather Kim Il-sung had visited the country in 1964.
A makeshift construction is built in Thanh Hoa Province just to receive compensation from the North-South Expressway project. Photo by VnExpress/Le Hoang

Many families in Thanh Hoa have illegally built homes on land designated for the North-South Expressway, expecting higher compensation.

For a week now, dozens of families in the central province's Phu Lam Commune, Tinh Gia District have leveled ground and hired workers to build houses, water tanks, toilets and livestock pens in the area without prior permission, local authorities have reported.

Most of the illegal structures were built on rice fields near the Nghi Son-Bai Tranh route that the North-South Expressway is expected to pass through.

The families are hoping to demand higher compensation when site clearance begins for the expressway project.

The structures were mostly built during the night and in a short amount of time to avoid detection, reports say. However, trucks transporting construction materials like sand, cement and steel could be seen constantly passing through the roads in the commune.

Le Duc Nam, Chairman of Phu Lam Commune, said the construction of illegal structures being carried out from midnight until early in the morning has made it difficult for authorities to intervene.

However, the commune administration has managed to record and order the dismantling of 18 illegal structures as of Thursday, and has dispatched personnel to carry out constant patrols to prevent repeat violations.

Nam said that while detailed landmarks are yet to be set for where the North-South Expressway would pass through the commune, all households carrying out the illegal constructions are among those who have to be relocated for the project.

"Maybe the people heard of this information and got the idea to build more structures to benefit from the compensation," he said.

Pham Van Nhiem, Vice Chairman of Tinh Gia District also said the local administration has dispatched a task force to deal with the illegal construction boom in Phu Lam.

"It is completely wrong for the people to build structures without permission from the authorities, we will demand that they dismantle them," Nhiem said.

In November 2017, the National Assembly, Vietnam's top legislative body, issued a resolution on policies to invest in the construction of eastern segments of the North-South Expressway.

These segments would pass through several Thanh Hoa districts with a total length of 106 kilometers (66 miles) and an investment of over VND22 trillion ($939 million).

In Phu Lam District, the project's designated area stretches nearly three kilometers and would affect 180 families, with 87 having to relocate. Authorities however have yet to put up landmarks or carry out any land reclamation.

Nearly 4,000 households in 13 provinces will be relocated to make way for the entire North-South Expressway and relocation cost is estimated at VND12.4 trillion ($533.8 million).
Another 15 people will go to jail for instigating and/or engaging in violence during last Junes protests against the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) bill.

They were sentenced Thursday to between two years and three and a half years in jail by the Peoples Court of Tuy Phong District in the central province of Binh Thuan on the charges of "disrupting public order."

Prosecutors said the defendants had incited violence, thrown hard objects at the police and damaged vehicles on the National Highway 1 segment running through Phan Ri Cua Town and Hoa Minh Village in Binh Thuan on June 10 last year, blocking traffic for 15 hours and wounding several police officers.

All the defendants admitted their crimes and asked for leniency from the judges.

An unspecified number of protesters are still being investigated for "resisting law enforcement officers performing official duties" and "deliberate destruction of property."

The protests in Binh Thuan were among several that erupted across Vietnam on June 10 and 11. Thousands of people had also taken to the streets in Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, and several provinces with banners and signs calling for the SEZ bill to be scrapped.

Earlier trials held in Binh Thuan, the nearby Khanh Hoa and Ninh Thuan Provinces, as well as Ho Chi Minh City and its neighbor Dong Nai have seen nearly 100 other protestors imprisoned under charges of "disrupting public order."

They were objecting in particular to a provision that would allow foreign investors to lease land for 99 years, saying it would undermine Vietnams sovereignty.

With the passage of the Law on Demonstrations deferred several times, all acts to incite public protests are deemed illegal.

Following the demonstrations, police detained hundreds of protesters and said they had uncovered evidence that the protests were anti-state actions incited by organizations based in other countries using false, distorted information about the bill.

The bill has since been postponed for further discussions in the National Assembly.
A farmer working in a rice field with young plants ready to be transplanted on the outskirts of Hanoi in February 2017. Photo by AFP/Hoang Dinh Nam

Rice export prices rose for both the Indian and Vietnamese varieties this week, bolstered by a pick up in demand.

Prices for top exporter Indias benchmark 5 percent broken parboiled variety rose for the first time in four weeks to $383-$386 per tonne from last weeks $378-$383 range.

"Demand is good, especially in containers from west Africa market," Nitin Gupta, vice president, rice business at Olam India, said.

Also supporting the Indian variety, the rupee was at its firmest since the start of the year, slashing exporters returns from foreign sales and prompting them to raise prices.

Vietnam, the worlds third-largest shipper of the grain after Thailand, also saw prices for its 5 percent broken rice variety gain to $355 a tonne from $345 last week.

"The government said it would buy rice from farmers for stockpiling, and demand is also seen rising," a trader based in Ho Chi Minh City said.

"However, increasing supplies from an ongoing harvest will likely keep prices from rising further."

The winter-spring harvest in the Mekong Delta will peak at the end of this month.

The countrys central bank earlier this week asked local commercial banks to lower their lending rates to 6 percent for short-term loans to farmers, rice processors and exporters to help absorb the winter-spring output.

"Malaysia is buying, and we have also been approached by customers from China and the Philippines, who are seeking to buy Vietnamese rice," another trader said.

In Thailand, benchmark 5 percent broken rice prices eased to $380-$390, free on board Bangkok, from last weeks $383-$398.

Fresh supply and the weakening of the domestic currency contributed to the price dip, while demand remained flat, traders said.

"There are now talks that there could be a drought during this dry season and that could impact supply next quarter," a trader said.

"Exporters are still looking to the Philippines for a possible deal, but so far things have remained quiet."

Meanwhile, summer rice output in Bangladesh is expected to hit 19.62 million tonnes from 19.57 million tonnes last year, Mizanur Rahman, a senior official of Department of Agriculture Extension, told Reuters.

The summer-sown crop, also known as Boro, usually contributes more than half of Bangladeshs typical annual rice production of around 35 million tonnes.

Bangladesh, the worlds fourth largest producer, saw imports surge in 2017 after floods wrought havoc on local crops, prompting the country to act to shore up domestic reserves.
Russia remains a major supplier of arms to India and in October leaders Modi and Putin met to sign a deal over Russia's missile defence system for $5.2 billion. Photo by AFP

India has signed a $3 billion deal to lease a third Russian nuclear-powered submarine for 10 years, media reports said.

The deal -- which according to the reports took months to negotiate -- comes as tensions run high between India and Pakistan following their biggest standoff in years, and as Chinese influence grows in the region.

A defence ministry spokesman declined to confirm the agreement to AFP but the reports said that the submarine, the third India has leased from Russia, would be delivered by 2025.

Russia, India's Cold War ally, remains a major supplier of arms to India, irking the United States which has imposed sanctions on nations buying military hardware from Moscow.

Last October Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met and inked a deal for Delhi to buy Russia's S-400 surface-to-air missile defence system for $5.2 billion.

But India also shares U.S. fears about China's growing assertiveness in the Indian Ocean, where New Delhi has traditionally held sway.

In 2017 India and China had a military standoff over a Himalayan plateau claimed by both Beijing and Bhutan, a close ally of India.

China has made inroads in Sri Lanka and Maldives, countries that India considers to be in its sphere of influence, through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

India has raised concerns about the initiative as a major section passes through Pakistan-administered Kashmir, a disputed territory which was again the fuse for the latest crisis.

On February 26 India said its warplanes hit a militant training camp in Pakistan in response to a suicide bombing in Kashmir, which killed 40 paramilitary officers and was claimed by a militant group based in Pakistan.

Pakistan a day later carried out its own air raid, triggering a dogfight in which an Indian plane was shot down. India also says it shot down a Pakistan plane but Islamabad denied this.

Tensions cooled after Pakistan last Friday returned the Indian pilot of the downed aircraft, although both nations have continued to fire shells and mortars over their de-facto Kashmir border.

Russia remains a major supplier of arms to India and in October leaders Modi and Putin met to sign a deal over Russia's missile defence system for $5.2 billion
Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief, was sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax crimes and bank fraud. Photo by AFP/Mandel Ngan

U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison Thursday for tax crimes and bank fraud.

It was the stiffest sentence yet given to an associate of the president in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling -- but significantly lighter than many expected for the 69-year-old political consultant.

In a rebuff to Mueller's call for stiff punishment, the judge called the official guidelines for a prison sentence of 19 to 24 years "excessive."

But Manafort still faces sentencing in a second case in Washington next week, where the maximum penalty is 10 years and the judge has appeared more sympathetic to prosecutors.

The charges involved Manafort's work for 10 years on behalf of Moscow-allied politicians in Ukraine, and nothing related to the 2016 election -- an issue he argued in asking the court for lenience.

Prosecutors alleged that Manafort used offshore bank accounts in Cyprus to hide more than $55 million from Ukrainian politicians from the tax authorities.

He is one of six top advisors and associates of Trump's 2016 presidential election campaign to be charged in the Mueller investigation.

During Manafort's trial, much of the damaging testimony against him was provided by his former deputy Rick Gates, who is awaiting sentencing after reaching a plea agreement with the Special Counsel's office.

Besides Manafort and Gates, four other former Trump associates face charges or have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Mueller investigation.

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials and is awaiting sentencing.

Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen is to begin serving a three-year prison sentence on May 6 for fraud, tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and lying to Congress.

George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was sentenced to two weeks in prison.

Another Trump advisor, Roger Stone, awaits trial.
"Crimea SOS" NGO says occupation could have "fatal consequences" for environment

The human rights activist added that the water would not "re-appear on the peninsula just like that."

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The channel continues violating Ukrainian legislation, monitoring showed.

The Ukrainian regulator National Council has renewed its retransmission ban on the Russian channel RTVI for a further year.

In a statement, it says that it initially suspended the channel six months ago for repeated violations of the Ukrainian laws On Television and Radio Broadcasting, On Information and On Cinema, according to BroadbandTVNews.

Monitoring it carried out last month showed that the channel continued to violate the legislation.

The National Council adds that it repeatedly appealed to RTVIs distributor Sonar, as well as Benrose Limited, its rights holder, with written warnings concerning violations of the European Convention on Transfrontier Television and Ukrainian law. However, the rights holder said they felt the channel complied with the requirements of the Convention and that the norms of international law have higher legal force than those of Ukraine. Despite this, they would try to adhere to Ukrainian legislation.

Read alsoUkraine's Ambassador: Crimea shown as Russia territory on Google Maps goes against U.S. policy

Meanwhile, Oleg Pygin, the general director of Sonar, said that his company supported the measures being taken by the regulator against RTVI.

It also informed the National Council that it had ceased cooperating with the rights holder on January 1 this year and will not do so until RTVI adheres to the requirements of Ukrainian legislation.
News

UAE Rulers witness the launch of new 50-dirham banknote as part of Golden Jubilee celebrations

Sheikh Mansour added, "We see in this issuance that the UAE has entered a new phase in its history and a renewed pledge to continue the process of economic and social growth. This occasion also allowed us to express our appreciation and gratitude to our founding fathers, by issuing a new 50 dirham banknote to celebrate the passing of Fifty years since the establishment of the UAE.
The "salary spat" between Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and top managers of Naftogaz escalated to the governments refusal to renew the contract with CEO, Andriy Kobolyev. The latter stated that the Cabinet's actions were unlawful but did not specify his further moves. The whole situation is now in limbo. Experts suggest there is some pre-election fleur to it, but this will only play into the hands of Russia's Gazprom.

The election campaign in Ukraine is overwhelmed by scandals. One of the latest ones is related to Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev. This week, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman announced at a Cabinet meeting that the government would not renew Kobolyev's contract.

On March 22, the contract with the Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz expires. This means that we must make a decision in terms of the effectiveness of corporate governance. Today we decide to announce a competition on March 23 for the position of chairman of the board of Naftogaz, said Groysman. According to him, the Cabinet will discuss with the state company new terms of the contract. Most likely, they will affect salaries and bonus payments to top management.

It should be admitted that Groysman's act has been consistent all the way. Back in January, in response to the violent criticism of multi-million revenues of Naftogaz managers, which aggravated even further after Naftogaz bosses received bonuses for the company's spectacular win in Stockholm arbitration against Gazprom, he stressed he would not allow such sky-high payments anymore. Then, Groysman offered the Supervisory Board to review the contracts with the management to rule out "exorbitant" salaries and bonuses. In response, Kobolyev said that the Cabinet had no right to dictate its conditions under the law and called the very issue of his salary "political", having vowed all his money received in the company to charities.

Failing to take PM's wishes into account, the supervisory board decided to extend the contract with Kobolyev, setting his monthly salary at over UAH 2 million (almost US$75,000).

In response, Groysman made the statement about Kobolyev's contract. The latter chose not to remain silent: Both the preliminary decision of the government to terminate my contract and the current decision to announce the competition is contrary to Ukrainian law, moreover, the international community and organizations that sponsored corporate governance reforms and helped pass this law share this idea... This is contrary to the spirit of reform because the whole ideology was about the supervisory Board being the main governance tool for the company's major shareholder, the government," said Kobolyev. He added that the Cabinet of Ministers had no authority to make HR decisions, since the Supervisory Board had been created in Naftogaz to this end.

It remains to be seen what Kobolyev's next step will be  whether to challenge the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, or take part in the competition.

Squabbles in public

The formal reason for all these mutual public hits is the corporate governance reform launched in 2015 according to the principles of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Thanks to the reform, management in state corporations is focused in the hands of supervisory boards appointed by government. It is designed to prevent corruption and eliminate manual management of state-owned companies. In 2016, the Naftogaz Supervisory Board was formed, and from that moment the confrontation between the government and the company began.

Groysmans decisions were in complete contradiction with those of the Naftogaz Supervisory Board, which supported Kobolyev in all matters. Then, a series of suits were filed with courts by both sides, on issues ranging from compensation for gas supplies to households to disputes over tariffs and the mechanism for paying subsidies. Groysman even accused the company of trying to influence gas prices. Besides, the prime minister urged Naftogaz to complete unbundling, while Kobolyev resisted, claiming this would not be a timely move considering how it could affect the ongoing litigation with Gazprom.

With his victories over the Russian gas monopoly in courts as well as brilliant financial reporting, Kobolyev further strengthened his positions. But that's when the scandal hit over bonus payments for the win over Gazprom. Kobolyev received his $8 million bonus, which he then wired to his mother, who is now in the U.S., "to keep the money safe.

Groysman found this bonus a great pretext for a public attack on Naftogaz. True, the question remained open: didn't the prime minister look at Kobolyev's contract when signing it? After all, these and future bonuses were all laid down in it...

The most recent high-profile row coincided with the expiration of Kobolyev's contract. Former Chief Commercial Officer of Naftogaz, and since November 2018, Executive Director of the Naftogaz Group, Yuriy Vitrenko, said corruption schemes were applied in the sales of gas from underground gas storages. He says these schemes confirm the conflict of interests of the newly appointed head of Naftogaz's gas department, Andriy Favorov, a protege of the Cabinet of Ministers. Vitrenko believes gas was sold at recuded prices to ERU Trading, the company previously led by Favorov.

Meanwhile, Kobolyev voiced other facts noting at signs of embezzlement. According to him, the information system developed by Ukrtransgaz to manage daily gas balancing in Ukraine's market recorded how gas distribution companies owned by oligarch Dmytro Firtash sold to industrial consumers certain volumes of gas initially set to be supplied to households.

This situation should be followed by a detailed investigation: why and how this happened. And the most important thing is how often this happened in the past, noted Kobolyev.

Perhaps this could the reason why the prime minister turned against the state corporation: rumors have it that people from the orbit of the runaway gas tycoon have recently increased their efforts to approach Groysman.

Whatever it is, market experts are unanimous in their opinion that the ongoing developments are connected with the election campaign, playing into the hands of Russia's Gazprom.

Gazprom applauds

President of the Center for Globalization Strategy XXI, Mykhailo Honchar, believes that today it is an extremely inappropriate moment to unfold the Naftogaz row as this will affect company stability and certainly be exploited by Moscow.

it's been a month since Groysman started expressing disagreement with high salaries of Naftogaz top managers and Kobolyev personally, although he should have been aware of contractual terms better than anyone. However, according to the current legislation, the contract is issued by the decision of the Supervisory Board comprised of independent directors. So they did give their approval to extend Kobolyev's contract. But Groysman decided in his own way. The situation is stupid, roughly speaking. You can't do it this way. The very decision of the Supervisory Board was not of a political nature, and, moreover, 2019 is a year when two election campaigns are being held, and therefore, in any case, it was necessary to keep Naftogaz leaders in place to calmly pass the period of political turbulence and possible change of top authorities. You also need to take into account the expiry of the gas contract with Gazprom from January 1, 2020, which is also a point of uncertainty. Therefore, it is simply necessary to ensure internal stability in the gas sphere. Meanwhile, Groysman's actions lead us in the opposite direction. Now Gazprom can only applaud this," the expert noted.

He added that in a recent interview with a Luxembourg-based news outlet, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev spoke on relations between Gazprom and Naftogaz, in particular on future gas transit. He said that Russia was in favor of extending partnership if certain conditions were met. If not, the risk of "gas" instability remains. This scenario is simple: Russia is trying to prove to Europe that Ukraine is a risk zone, while pushing through its pipeline projects bypassing Ukraine. And now, thanks to the current scandal, this dramatic concept of our northern neighbors is being brought to life by Ukrainians.

Western partners supporting Kobolyevs position in the light of gas market reform will react, but not as quickly as they did over the Constitutional Court's move to abolish the norm punishing officials for illegal enrichment. They will need more time to recover from shock. And the question here is not even about how Western partners might support Kobolev (for his managerial or personal qualities), but about the brazen moves by Ukraine authorities, spitting in the face of corporate procedures introduced after the Revolution of Dignity and demonstrating the old school approach to managing state-owned companies (this approach has a name, and it's "milking").

Besides, in 2019, it is a no-go to mess up companies on which both economic and social stability in the country depend (Naftogaz, Energoatom, Ukrenergo), while the country's political leadership is engaged in campaigning fighting with each other instead of doing their job.

According to Honchar, the conflict situation is definitely connected with the elections. First there is a scandal with Ukroboronropom, now there's Naftogaz... There are many people out there seeking to manually manage finances of state-owned companies, especially Naftogaz. Moreover, it's not so much in the context of the presidential campaign, which is already nearing completion, but in view of the autumn parliamentary elections. The authorities need to get at their disposal some money for large-scale campaign efforts, so that's how all the fuss around Naftogaz began. The position of the government, which owns the administrative resource, is to appoint loyal people to commercially important companies and oust those they can't control. Scandals between the Cabinet and Naftogaz have been going on for a while. Now everything has only aggravated, and one of the reasons is that Groysman's prospects are not so bright. It is unlikely that he will remain prime minister even if Poroshenko retains his post as the president will definitely begin to show 'new approaches' and use this pretext to remove Groysman. Besides, the new parliament is unlikely to support today's prime minister either. Therefore, he has one way out  to return to parliamentary work as a deputy."

"So all of this is part of Groysman's own election campaign: to claim he is exposing rich fat managers who make millions. However, in fact, hes set to put his people on these positions to control financial flows," Honchar said.

There are two sides of the coin in this story, the expert believes. Naftogaz has ceased to be a burden for the budget, becoming a profitable efficient corporation, which, of course, is not the merit of Kobolyev alone, but of the whole gas market reform, which, however, would have never been possible without the will of Naftogaz CEO. But there is another side that makes Kobolyev politically vulnerable  one cannot disregard the negative public perception of not only the huge salaries and bonuses of the Naftogaz management but also extremely high gas tariffs. Although, again, the tariff issue is a question should rather be put before Groysman. But the majority of potential voters have no clue about such subtleties.

Honchar believes that it is difficult to predict how Kobolyev will act further. The decision of the Cabinet of Ministers leads the row into a corner of uncertainty. The outcome of the announced contest remains unclear. What will be the next contract with the head of Naftogaz is also unclear, that is, the chaos is only mounting. In fact, the technology of disorganizing the largest energy company to the joy of Gazprom has been applied, the expert emphasizes.

Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of Energy Research Center, cites two reasons for the ongoing row: the first is that the government has not understood the essence of corporate governance reform, and the second is that Groysman is not ready to accept the fact that he will not be able to hand out commands to state-owned companies manually.

The fact that the Cabinet of Ministers announces a competition contrary to the decision of the Supervisory Board of Naftogaz is a violation of the law on corporate governance of state companies. In order to cut off the political and corruption influence on the state corporation, the Supervisory Board mechanism was introduced where politicians represented by the government appoint it, while the board then appoints executive bodies. The government cannot put up with this. And these circumstances give rise to conflict. And the hype around this is only due to the pre-election period. I don't know how much Poroshenko is involved in all of this, but Groysman cannot tolerate Kobolyev and so he decided to handle the issue ahead of the elections, thinking who knows, maybe it works out Everyone plays their own game now," says Kharchenko.

The expert doesn't dare to predict the outcome of the whole spat, while he doesn't rule out some sharp reaction on the part of our international partners because it was they who became the main drivers of gas reform (as well as other real reforms launched in Ukraine). Besides, they supported Kobolyev in everything, too.

"In the near future, everything should clear up. In the meantime, guys in Gazprom are drinking champagne. It is in their interests to see destabilization in Naftogaz, the company which poured so much salt on Gazprom's wound," the expert concluded.

While Gazprom is applauding and probably drafting more statements on Ukraine's "gas" instability, we are yet to see what the conflict will boil down to. But it is possible that it will only gain momentum. After all, ahead of the elections, someone is always happy to see conflicts escalate.

Nana Chornaya

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St. Joseph, MI. - Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) worked with the Benton Harbor-St. Joseph Joint Wastewater Treatment Plant to efficiently improve operations.

Through one of I&M's energy efficiency programs, the joint wastewater treatment plant earned more than $40,000 in rebates for its efforts to slash its energy use in the facility. The plant will save more than 666,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually - enough to power 56 homes in Michigan for one year.

"The Benton Harbor Wastewater Treatment Plant was a great partner and it was a pleasure to help with the facility upgrades," said Jason Whitman, I&M Energy Efficiency and Consumer Program Coordinator. "I&M's energy efficiency programs provide businesses with several ways to improve their work environment and become more efficient."

The Benton Harbor-St. Joseph Joint Wastewater Treatment Plant worked with energy efficiency experts to install a new turbo-blower and upgraded to fine bubble diffuser equipment in the plant's aeration system. This is the second time the wastewater treatment plant has partnered with I&M's energy efficiency programs. In 2016, the plant earned more than $49,000 in rebates by investing in energy efficiency upgrades.

"The Benton Harbor- St. Joseph Joint Wastewater Treatment Plants applauds Indiana Michigan Power for aiding our efforts to reduce energy use at our facility," said Tim Lynch, Benton Harbor- St. Joseph Wastewater Treatment Plant Manager. "We are dedicated to producing clean water for the environment and the new equipment now in place will help us continue that mission for years to come."

Incentives for I&M's business customers in both Michigan and Indiana are available for qualifying energy efficiency upgrades. Under the program, customers work with approved service providers to help identify system improvements and efficiency measures. Energy saving incentives are available to help offset the cost of implementing the new efficiency measures. A few of the benefits of the program include reduced energy consumption, enhanced building performance and extended life expectancy of equipment.

For more information on the Energy Efficiency Program visit www.electricIdeas.com.

About Benton Harbor- St. Joseph Joint Wastewater Treatment Plant: The Benton Harbor - St. Joseph Wastewater Treatment Plant employs 18 full-time personnel and provides wastewater treatment services to approximately 58,000 people in the Twin Cities area of Southwestern Michigan. The Joint Plant was placed in operation in 1952 and currently treats approximately 9 million gallons of wastewater each day to clean water standards for discharge into the St. Joseph River.

Implementing a "pay as you go" financing approach, the Joint Plant has invested approximately $20 million of reserve funds in improvements over the past 10 years. Since 1986, the plant has invested over $35 million in improvements, including many projects that focus on energy savings and sustainability. The facility's current Strategic Capital Improvement Plan (SCIP) has $25 million in projects slated over the next 12 years.

About Indiana Michigan Power: Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) is headquartered in Fort Wayne, and its 2,450 employees serve more than 593,900 customers. More than half of its generation is emission-free, including 2,278 MW of nuclear generation in Michigan, 450 MW of purchased wind generation from Indiana, 22 MW of hydro generation in both states and approximately 15 MW of large-scale solar generation in both states. The company's generation portfolio also includes 2,600 MW of coal-fueled generation in Indiana.

American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, is focused on building a smarter energy infrastructure and delivering new technologies and custom energy solutions to our customers. AEP's more than 17,000 employees operate and maintain the nation's largest electricity transmission system and more than 224,000 miles of distribution lines to efficiently deliver safe, reliable power to nearly 5.4 million regulated customers in 11 states. AEP also is one of the nation's largest electricity producers with approximately 33,000 megawatts of diverse generating capacity, including 4,200 megawatts of renewable energy. AEP's family of companies includes utilities AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP also owns AEP Energy, AEP Energy Partners, AEP OnSite Partners and AEP Renewables, which provide innovative competitive energy solutions nationwide.
Spain made world headlines last year when it staged a general strike on March 8, International Womens Day. Around 5.3 million women observed the walkout, according to the unions, while hundreds of thousands of people joined marches on the streets of 120 Spanish cities that day.

One year later, another feminist strike and more than 500 street demonstrations have been called in Spain for today. In Madrid and Barcelona, students are planning a march at noon, and wider demonstrations are scheduled in both cities in the evening.

Organizers are also hoping that students, consumers and caregivers will join the stoppage, in an effort to highlight the crucial role played by women in all sections of society.

The Socialist Party (PSOE) government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said it will reduce its institutional activity to just the regular Friday Cabinet meeting. Several ministers are expected to attend the Madrid march this evening to show support for a society that looks like it is going to mobilize widely, in the words of Deputy Prime Minister and Equality Minister Carmen Calvo.

The organizers

The strike and many of the demonstrations are being organized by the Comision 8M (March 8 Commission), made up of feminist assemblies scattered throughout the country. The strike conditions were debated by around 500 groups in the northern city of Gijon in October of last year.

In Madrid, the Comision 8M has drafted a 29-page document explaining the reasons for the strike and the ultimate goal of subverting the world order and the pervading hetero-patriarchal, racist and neoliberal rhetoric.

Women protesting in Madrid's Puerta del Sol on Thursday night, ahead of demonstrations planned for Friday. JuanJo Martin (EFE)

The report also calls for a new kind of education that excludes stereotypes about toxic-romantic love, and demands feminist training for judges, police officers and social workers.

The duration of the strike may vary. The two main unions, CC OO and UGT, have backed two-hour stoppages although their branches are free to extend that period. And the smaller CNT, CGT and Confederacion Intersindical have called a 24-hour walkout.

A year of change

Some things havent changed much in the past year: the salary gap, the glass ceiling, and gender violence are still major issues that face Spain.

But some things have: the far right has made unprecedented inroads and it is making the fight against radical feminism one of its signature issues. The emerging far-right Vox party, whose voter base is overwhelmingly male, wants to repeal Spains gender-violence legislation, which it views as biased. And an ultraconservative Catholic group called Hazte Oir has been touring a bus around the country featuring Hitlers face on the side in a campaign against what it describes as feminazis.

Organizers want to subvert the world order and the pervading hetero-patriarchal, racist and neoliberal rhetoric

With local, regional, national and European elections coming up, and opinion polls showing that many women voters are still undecided, political parties have introduced feminist elements into their campaigns: Ciudadanos now has a liberal feminist manifesto and the leftist Unidos Podemos coalition has changed its name to the feminine form, Unidas Podemos.

The conservative Popular Party (PP), in the meantime, has spoken out against left-wing feminism and announced that it will not join the main march on Friday because, it claims, it has been co-opted by the left.

Why women at EL PAIS are striking EL PAIS female staff members Last year, in an unprecedented effort to join our voices in protest, more than 8,000 women who work for different media outlets backed a manifesto called Las periodistas paramos (Women journalists strike) in support of the Women's Day stoppage. This year will be no different at newsrooms across Spain. Female workers at EL PAIS  not all of them journalists  have voted in an assembly to back the protests planned for Friday. We do so in full awareness of our own role in society, which is much more visible than that of other women who will be unable to strike or even join a demonstration today. We are not normally the subject of news stories ourselves, but on this occasion we want to use our power to get the message across. Some of Spains best-known women in television and radio journalism have said they will not go on the air today. And at EL PAIS, women will take their bylines off their articles, join the strike, and demonstrate on the street in order to demand effective equality and no step backwards in the rights we have fought for and won.

English version by Susana Urra.
One year ago protestors took to the streets of Spain on March 8, International Womens Day, to demonstrate against the slow pace of change toward equality. This year, not only was the scene repeated across the country, but the achievement was actually greater. From Cadiz, Bilbao and Palma de Mallorca, to Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Vigo, there was a huge turnout at the planned marches on Friday evening. According to various government delegations, there were between 350,000 and 375,000 people present in Madrid (last year the estimate was 170,000), and 220,000 in Valencia. In Barcelona, the local police estimated a total of 200,000 participants.

For the second year running, the day included a full strike aimed at female workers as well as students, or two-hour stoppages. Despite the difficulty in measuring the observance of such action, the strength of the mobilization in Spain would appear to be unique the world over, turning the country into a leader when it comes to drawing attention to the feminist struggle.

In the last 12 months in Spain, and despite the arrival of a Socialist Party (PSOE) government that brought with it 11 female Cabinet ministers out of a total of 17, there have been no real advances in fundamental issues such as gender violence, the pay gap and access to positions of responsibility  the clear causes of the mobilizations last March and upon which there has been much debate in reecent months. But since the rise in support for far-right party Vox, and the subsequent shift toward the right of the conservative Popular Party (PP), debates that appeared to have been laid to rest  such as Spains abortion law  have once again reopened. This political climate contributed to the mass support that the marches and strike action called for Friday received, with the demonstrations taking place under the slogan We have 1,000 reasons.

A march in Seville on International Women's Day. Europa Press

Protest against the PP

Earlier in the day, in Castellon (Valencia), a group of protestors prevented the president of the Popular Party (PP), Pablo Casado, from delivering a speech ahead of the campaign for local and regional elections. A group made up mostly of women banged pots, blew on whistles and shouted out messages such as: You are the patriarchy! and Casado, you machista, youre on our list! The PP leader has openly criticized leftist feminism and said he would not attend todays march in Madrid because he claims it has been co-opted by the political left.

Street demonstrations got underway earlier on Friday in many other parts of Spain. We want your respect, we dont want your compliments, chanted protestors in Madrids central Puerta del Sol square.

Firefighters observing the scene at a demonstration in Vitoria. LUIS TEJIDO (EFE)

The problem is that women are expected to work as though they didnt have children, and to raise children as though they didnt have to work, said Claudia Gonzalez, a worker from Seville who marched on Friday.

Young and feminist Young women are also the majority when it comes to the section of the Spanish population that sees itself as feminist: just over 64% of the under-25s declared themselves to be feminists in a survey carried out by 40dB for EL PAIS on the resurgence of the movement. And it is this group that was most visible at todays protests and work stoppages.

In the Basque Country, tens of thousands of women, many of them students, filled the streets of Bilbao, the regions biggest metropolis. There was also a large turnout in Vitoria.

There were additional demonstrations in Pamplona, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In the southern region of Andalusia alone, a total of 139 protests had been authorized.

The teaching sector was particularly involved in Fridays events. After collating data from a number of Spains regions, the state teaching federation from the CC OO union put the observance of the strike at more than 80% at universities. In secondary schools the figure is 61% and in primary schools 42%, the union added.

With reporting from Juan A. Aunion (Madrid), Javier Martin-Arroyo (Seville), Manuel Planelles (Madrid), Pedro Gorospe (Bilbao), Alejandro Fernandez (Madrid), Manuel V. Gomez (Madrid), Alfonso L. Congostrina (Barcelona), Grego Casanova (Barcelona), Nicolas Pan-Montojo (Madrid), Oriol Guell (Barcelona), Javier Arroyo (Granada), Nacho Sanchez (Malaga) and Jesus A. Canas (Cadiz).
The State Department of the United States of America on Thursday, during the ceremony of awarding women with the International Women of Courage Award, honored the memory of Kherson activist Kateryna Handziuk, the press service of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said.

"Today our colleagues in Washington honored the memory of Kateryna Handziuk at an International Women of Courage ceremony. Katya set a powerful example by standing up against corruption and working to improve the lives of children displaced by war," it said on Twitter.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has urged the Verkhovna Rada to immediately adopt the new version of the Criminal Code article on illegal enrichment. He said all corrupt officials will not be able to evade responsibility.

On Thursday evening, in an interview with Ukrainian TV channels, Poroshenko said: "I am not just a politician, I am the president of the country. And in accordance with the law and the Constitution, I cannot and will not comment on the decisions of any courts, because it can be perceived as putting pressure on the court. I want to disappoint officials who think that as a result of this decision of the Constitutional Court they will be able to evade responsibility. This will not happen. Criminal liability has been changed, but nobody has canceled illegal enrichment."

The president said just hours after the decision of the Constitutional Court he introduced a bill that takes into account the comments of the Constitutional Court regarding the presumption of innocence.

"But the responsibility for corruption, including the responsibility for illegal enrichment, will also be criminalized. No one can escape responsibility. Someone thinks that he will run away because of the wording of this article - there will be other articles, because illegal enrichment is always associated with other violations of the law," Poroshenko said.

In this context, he called on parliamentarians to urgently consider and adopt the bill submitted to them.

"That is why I appeal to parliamentarians to take into account the position of the president regarding the urgency of considering this bill - we must arm the law enforcement agencies as soon as possible, including with anti-corruption bodies," he said, adding that the decision of the Constitutional Court "does not protect corrupt officials."

As reported, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine issued a ruling in the case on a constitutional motion filed by 59 Members of Parliament of Ukraine regarding the compliance (constitutionality) of Article 368-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illicit enrichment) with the Constitution of Ukraine. By this ruling, the Court recognized that Article 368-2 of the Criminal Code does not comply with the Constitution of Ukraine, i.e. it is unconstitutional.

Changes in Article 368-2 appeared in 2015. Corresponding draft law No. 1660 was adopted by parliament in full during February 2015. It was one of the bills in a package of anti-corruption initiatives, passage of which was a condition for liberalizing visa-free travel for Ukrainians in the EU, as well as for continued cooperation with Ukraine by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The president's draft law on amending Ukraine's Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code regarding liability for illegal enrichment (No. 10110) was registered in parliament on February 28, 2019.

The measure obliges pretrial investigation agencies to prove the legitimacy of assets acquired by officials and provides for the punishment for illegal enrichment, even when there are no signs of abuse of office and bribery.

Spokesman for the Poroshenko presidential campaign Oleh Medvedev said that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko would soon appeal to the leaders of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, to urge lawmakers to adopt changes on illegal enrichment in the Criminal Code as quickly as possible.
The audit of state-run Ukroboronprom Concern will be completed by the end of the current year, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

"Tenders [to hire an audit firm] will be held within two months, and how long will the audit take? I can say for sure that it will be completed this year," Poroshenko said in an interview to Ukrainian television channels, which was broadcast on Thursday evening.

The president pledged he would do his best for the audit to start as soon as possible.

According to him, the government and the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine should begin the procedure for selecting an auditor. "It should be a well-respected, trusted international company," he said.

Poroshenko also said he would like that one of the Big Four [Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)] or Big Five [Big Four and Andersen] to audit Ukroboronprom.

As was reported, after results of a probe by Bihus.Info journalists into procurement embezzlement in the defense industry were made public late in February, Poroshenko announced Ukraine would initiate a comprehensive international audit of Ukroboronprom. On March 6, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) ordered an audit of the activities of Ukroboronprom state concern and its member companies with the involvement of foreign experts.

The council also recommended that the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the State Investigation Bureau "carry out an inspection and give a legal assessment of violations in the field of defense procurement outlined in mass media and inform the public about the results."
The agreement on truce from midnight on March 8 has been reached at a meeting of the subgroup on security of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on the settlement of the situation in the east of Ukraine (TCG) on Thursday, representative of Ukraine in the TCG Yevhen Marchuk has said.

"The most important thing is: after all, we've agreed today, and all the parties agreed that the ceasefire regime starts from midnight. But to avoid illusions, if there are guarantees from the Russian Federation and first of all the leadership of the Russian Federation of Putin or his representatives, unfortunately, there will be no hope for a great optimism. The next step depends on the Russian side," Marchuk said on the Priamy TV channel on Thursday.

Ukraine's representative clarified that he had participated in the meeting of the subgroup, which was held in the videoconference mode for 7.5 hours, where OSCE special representative for Ukraine Martin Sajdik and he participated, but there was no representative of the Russian Federation Boris Gryzlov.

To the host's clarifying question, for which period the ceasefire regime was introduced - only for March 8 or longer, he replied: "From today and with no time limits ... We wanted it to last for a long time."
Poroshenko: There is no political backing for corruption in Ukraine, losses from schemes in defense industry to be returned to budget

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko assures that corruption in Ukraine does not have political backing and the losses caused by corruption schemes in the defense industry will be returned to the national budget.

"Raids have been conducted on all of the defendants in the [defense industry embezzlement] case, without exception today, after yesterday's meeting [of the National Security and Defense Council]. I thank for this reaction to the request from the president. At the same time, I stress that if a person is guilty, he should be in prison  whoever he is. And if he is not guilty, then the public should not have doubts about the objectivity and impartiality of the investigation," Poroshenko said in an interview to Ukrainian television channels on Thursday evening.

According to him, all information has been examined by law enforcement agencies for months.

"An attempt was made to make a scandal right before the delivery of charges. Why is it dangerous? Because it's about an attempt to undermine the credibility of the army, the state, the defense complex," the president said.

He also stressed it was not about denying corruption in the country. "Corruption exists. It is about whether we are able to effectively deal with it, whether corruption has political backing. And I emphasize there is no backing, and moreover, there is the political will of the president, which is now being demonstrated, that nobody will escape the punishment for the crime committed. The [stolen] money will be returned to the budget. They will return it for sure... Liability will follow," Poroshenko said.

On March 7, the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) conducted a series of searches of defendants in journalistic investigations about corruption in the country's defense industry, including the place of residence of former First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleh Hladkovsky and his son Ihor Hladkovsky, NABU Artem Sytnyk said.
Russia's hybrid military forces mounted 18 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas in the past 24 hours, with five Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action, the press service of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) has reported.

"On March 7, the Russian occupation forces violated the cease-fire regime 18 times, using weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements 14 times. The enemy fired at the positions of our troops from artillery systems of 152 mm and mortars of 120 and 82 mm, and launched 119 shells. As a result of hostilities, five Ukrainian defenders received injuries," the JFO staff said on Facebook on Friday morning.

According to the press center, weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements were used 14 times, and 119 shells were fired by 152mm artillery systems and 120mm and 82mm mortars. "Five soldiers of ours were injured as a result," the press center said.

According to the intelligence report, four invaders were killed and another 13 were wounded, while an enemy infantry fighting vehicle was destroyed.

It noted that no attacks on Ukrainian forces were seen on March 8.
Russia's illegal armed formations mounted one attack on positions of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) in eastern Ukraine on Friday, March 8, after the announcement of a holiday truce.

"Since midnight of Friday, as of 12:00, one targeted enemy attack was recorded on the contact line. Starting from 10:20, the enemy was firing for a short time using small arms from the direction of occupied Sentianivka in the area of Krymske," spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Colonel Dmytro Hutsuliak said at a briefing on Friday.
Ukraine's Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said reports by investigative journalists are based on materials from an official investigation of supplies to state-run Ukroboronprom Concern. He said the investigative reports were published a little ahead of procedural actions by law-enforcers.

"Prior to 2014, journalistic investigations resulted only in fixing facts for future productions after the Revolution [of Dignity] and the emigration of defendants to Russia. Now, high-profile investigative journalism is based on [official] investigation materials and are published a little ahead of procedural actions of law enforcement officers," Lutsenko said on Facebook on Wednesday.

He said the case investigated by the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) in connection with illegal activities of OptimumSpetsdetal LLC, which supplied components to Ukroboronprom, was almost completed. "After receiving the final tax audit report, the company's head was served a notice of suspicion for tax evasion in the amount of UAH 26.6 million. After the examination of [Andriy] Rohoza's messages, other persons involved in the case will be served notices of suspicion," he said.

"In the same case, Ukraine's SBU State Security Service charged Rohoza and two of his accomplices with fraud as early as 2018. This case is being heard at Kyiv's Pechersky District Court. Evaluation of the actions of high-ranking officials, directors of state-owned enterprises and related persons on other, corrupt, charges are the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), which has been investigating the case since 2016," he said.

As reported, on February 25, Nashi.Groshi, a television project of TV Channel 24 aired an investigation produced by Bihus.Info. The program cited electronic correspondence data provided to the journalists by an anonymous source about a corrupt scheme for purchasing military parts for Ukroboronprom as part of the import substitution program during 2015-2017. Parts were smuggled from Russia through bogus firms called prokaldki (gaskets), including OptimumSpetsdetal LLC. According to the report, the total amount for purchases made by Ukroboronprom during the period amounted to UAH 250 million.

The authors of the investigative report said ex-First Deputy Head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Oleh Hladkovsky, who was previously a business partner of incumbent Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, ex-head of Ukrspecexport and head of state-owned Ukroboronprom Concern Pavlo Bukin, as well as directors of enterprises and other officials of the state concern are involved in corruption schemes.

Ukroboronprom said the authors of the TV project had manipulatively used classified materials from criminal proceedings initiated by law enforcement in 2015-2016 and said the media scandal involving the concern was another operation of information warfare against Ukraine.

NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov called on anti-corruption agencies to objectively and impartially investigate the facts of the corruption scandals unveiled in the defense sector.
KYIV. March 8 (Interfax-Ukraine)  Non-governmental organizations in the Reanimation Package of Reforms (RPR) coalition have said they intend to formalize their relations and become an alliance, Natalia Lyhachova, a member of the RPR Board and the head of Detector Media, said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

"The RPR will become an alliance. And it will not be exclusively an informal community, but a legally formed one. This is important, firstly, so that we are not used by ill-wishers and dishonest people. We have, unfortunately, already encountered this. Secondly, it will provide more opportunities for more transparent funding and, possibly, more substantial funding. Donors will better understand who, for what and how to give money to promote these or other projects," she said.

"Our task now is to make the RPR able to unite again the interests of not only individual experts, where it started, but the interests of public ... experts and the interests of the team, which will ensure the advancement of what we will develop," she said.

She said the RPR had already developed a road map of reforms for 2019-2023. Judicial reform would be among the priorities for the future, she said.

Taras Shevchenko, a co-chairman of the RPR Board and the director of Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law, in turn, said that a constituent assembly would be held on April 16, which will decide on the formation of an alliance based on the RPR.

According to him, at present, the RPR unites 82 public organizations.

Shevchenko summed up the five years of the RPR's activities, noting achievements in promoting reforms in particular in such areas as the formation of anti-corruption agencies, the introduction of e-declaration, the launch of the ProZorro system, public broadcasting, and others.

"The first reform-focused road map prepared by the RPR was, on the one hand, a vision of what to do in different areas, but it was also an action plan of the RPR itself that we would promote such bills," he said.

"And when in 2018 we were preparing a road map of reforms for 2019-2023, there was a discussion first: as we knew what needed to be done, but whether we were ready to make a commitment that it was what we would do or would promote for the five years without understanding at all the situation in power  whether it would be populists or Russian forces' revenge," he said when asked about priority reforms for the RPR in future.

Shevchenko said the RPR as a coalition of public organizations does not intend to enter power, but any person in the RPR can make such a decision on his or her own, but they will have to suspend membership in the organization.

Member of the Verkhovna Rada and chairwoman of the Rada's foreign affairs committee Hanna Hopko (independent) said, "On the one hand, we need to protect what was achieved in such difficult battles and advocacy campaigns. On the other hand, we need to use the mobilization potential, the presidential and parliamentary [election] campaigns, to make those important decisions needed in this convocation of parliament.
French President Emmanuel Macron has invited jailed Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh to take part in the G7 gender equality forum.

Sotoudeh's husband Reza Khandan told Radio Farda on Friday that Macron's invitation has been given to him in Tehran on Thursday March 7, one day before the International Women's Day.

Ms. Sotoudeh is to be a member of the consultative council for gender equality in Group 7.

Khandan said Iranian women should be proud of Soutoudeh's membership in the G7 council.

Copies of the invitation have been handed to the Iranian Foreign Ministry and Bar Association.

Nasrin Sotoudeh has been in Jail since June 2018 with a five-year imprisonment sentence and is facing more charges for defending human rights activists in Iran. She is an outspoken opponent of the death penalty and compulsory hijab

Sotoudeh, 55, is the winner of numerous prestigious international awards, including PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write (2011), Southern Illinois University School of Law Rule of Law Citation (2011) AND Sakharov Prize (2012)

On 21 September 2018, she was also awarded the annual tribute for a lawyer, the 23rd Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize initially bestowed on Nelson Mandela in 1986 when in jail.
GENEVA, March 5 (Reuters) -

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was not informed about Syrian President Bashar al-Assads trip to Tehran last week and that was a reason why he submitted his resignation, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on Tuesday.

The news agency cited foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi (Qassemi) as the source of the information in its report.

President Hassan Rouhani rejected Zarifs resignation last Wednesday, bolstering a moderate ally who has long been targeted by hardliners in factional struggles over the 2015 nuclear deal with the West.

The ministry of foreign affairs did not have information at any level (about the trip) and this lack of information was maintained until the end of the trip, Ghassemi said, according to ISNA.

One of the reasons for the resignation of Dr. Zarif was this type of lack of coordination with the ministry of foreign affairs. And as it has been announced before, the resignation of the honorable minister was not a private and individual issue and the goal and intent of that was a positive effort to return the ministry of foreign affairs and the diplomatic system of the country to its main place.

Ghassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, the branch of the elite Revolutionary Guards responsible for operations outside Irans borders, was present at a meeting last week between Assad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in the Islamic Republic.

Soleimani said last week that Zarif was the main person in charge of foreign policy and he was supported by Khamenei.
Ebrahim Raeesi is now officially the Islamic Republic's Judiciary chief. He was appointed to the much coveted position by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Thursday, March 7.

His appointment, however, came as no surprise, as Iran watchers more or less expected it for months now.

His appointment is for five years, but like his predecessors, his mandate is likely to be renewed for a second five-year-term if Khamenei is still alive by then.

Most Iranians remember Raeesi as President Hassan's Rouhani's most serious rival in the 2017 presidential elections. Older Iranians also remember him as the youngest judge in the summary trials of political prisoners in 1988, when the panel issued death sentences for thousands of young men and women, mainly members of Marxist and Islamist groups.

Raeesi acknowledges that he was one of a handful of hanging judges, but denies having issued any death sentence.

Within minutes of his appointment, leading reformist daily newspaper Sharq called him an Ayatollah, a Shiite clerical rank high above Hojjat Ol-Eslam, which is what he is and Khamenei addressed him as such in his mandate.

However, Sharq's behavior was in line with many reformist figures pleasant comments about Raeesi. The Rouhani administration daily also ran a report full of praise for the new Judiciary chief.

Raeesi was appointed as the superintendent of the wealthy holy shrine in Mashad in March 2016. He started his career in 1979 and before 1994 served as prosecutor in several Iranian cities including Karaj, Hamedan and Tehran.

He later served as the head of the State Inspectorate Organisation, first deputy head of the judiciary and as prosecutor-general of Iran until 2016 when he was put in charge of the holy shrine, Astan-e Qods.

He won nearly 40 percent of the votes in the 2017 presidential elections. Around 16 million Iranians voted for him, although election results in Iran are not very reliable.

Nevertheless, the large chunk of vote he received is unmatched by other underdogs in any other presidential election in Iran, and this gives him a political weight that could change the balance of power in Iran, particularly now that President Hassan Rouhani is at the weakest point of his career due to the failure of the nuclear agreement with the West, and U.S. sanctions that have paralyzed the country's economy.

Born on December 14, 1960, Raeesi is said to be one of the contestants for the post of Supreme Leader in post-Khamenei Iran. He wears a black turban, meaning he is considered a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad in Shia Islam.

Raeesi is the son-in-law of powerful hardline cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, the Friday Prayer leader of Mashad and Khamenei's representative in Khorasan Province. Raeesi's wife, Jamileh, has a PhD in education and teaches at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.

He started his religious studies at the Islamic Seminary of Qom at the age of 15 and continued his studies at the highly regarded Motahari Seminary in Tehran and was a student of scholars such as Grand Ayatollahs Nuri-Hamadani, Fazel Lanakarani, and Ali Meshkini.

Raeesi has a Master's degree and a doctorate in Islamic Jurisprudence [fiqh]. This makes him possibly the most knowledgeable Chief Justice in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic.

During the 2017 presidential campaign, he did not use hateful speech against the United States and the West; something unlike most other Islamic Republic politicians.

In terms of impact on Iran's political landscape, Raeesi's appointment could be hard to digest by Rouhani, although he was constantly being teased and his authority and Islamic credentials questioned by Raeesi's predecessor Sadeq Amoli Larijan.

Rouhani might find it hard to work closely with his political rival, whom he and his supporters criticized during the election campaign in 2017. Raeesi is still a rival for Rouhani as a contestant for succeeding Khamenei and has the advantage of higher education and a black turban. Rouhani wears a white turban and his religious learning has been seriously challenged by critics.

On the other hand, it appears that while Rouhani is no longer favored by the media, Raeesi is becoming the media's darling. He also enjoys tremendous support from Iran's state TV which ignores Rouhani.

In terms of personality, Raeesi is calm and less vocal, appearing less nervous than Rouhani whose occasional fits of anger has annoyed some, even in reformist circles.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani says world leaders have contacted him 13 times since March 2017 to encourage him to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Speaking during his visit to Iran's Gilan Province in the Caspian region, Rouhani said he has told the world leaders that the U.S. must return to the nuclear deal with Iran and make up for the past before he could sit down at a table with Trump, Entekhab news website, close to the Iranian administration, reported on Thursday March 7.

Rouhani reiterated: "We have shown that we are ready for negotiations, while we are not afraid of going to war."

Speaking in a defiant tone, Rouhani told local officials that in spite of hardships imposed by sanctions he has been opening various development and industrial projects all over Iran including the railways project in Gilan, which he opened during his visit. Meanwhile, he said once again that only a few countries support U.S. sanctions against Iran, while the United States' allies in Europe and elsewhere oppose the policy.

He said polls conducted in America show that 60 percent of Americans believe Trump's sanctions against Iran are wrong, however, he did not give further information about the poll and the number of people who took part in it.

The Iranian president has faced increasing pressure by hardliners who accuse his administration of being unable to ease the country's economic crisis. He is also being blamed for advocating negotiations with the U.S. on the nuclear issue, which they sat has brought no benefits.

In several speeches to government officials and gatherings in provincial cities Rouhani touched upon various domestic and international issues including Iran's relations with its neighbors.

Speaking about Iran's contribution to the region's security, Rouhani said, "We cannot be indifferent to what happens in our neighborhood. Without the Islamic Republic's support, Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurdistan would have fallen into the clutches of ISIS."

Rouhani also expressed appreciation for "Iran's role in Syria's security," without mentioning the cost of intervention in Syria for the Iranian people. Thousands of Iranians have expressed their opposition to wasting Iranian resources in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere during massive protest demonstrations in Iran since December 2017.

Rouhani started his comments about the situation in Iran by acknowledging that "We have tough days ahead for this country, but resisting is all we can do."

"However, we are experts in negotiations," he said, adding, "We are not afraid of negotiating. We have a strong case to make. We have won cases against the U.S. at international tribunals, and we do not fear war, although in our struggle we sometimes win and sometimes don't win."

In the area of domestic politics, Rouhani summarized Iran's problems in two matters, a political and an economic problem: The absence of powerful political parties and the lack of a strong private sector.

Rouhani said that furthering democracy without political parties is extremely difficult and Iran needs at least two or three powerful political parties. Yet, he took pride in running a non-partisan administration, saying that people see the administration's successes as their own. He also criticized the existing political parties for being "seasonal entities" that are active only when there is an election.

Elsewhere, he said sanctions would have not been as effective as they are if Iran had a strong private sector that could handle the country's economy. "Iran's private sector is not strong enough to compete in the world market. And if we had a few private banks, we would have less worries in dealing with economic problems."

During the last year, several semi-private financial institutions failed toprotect or repay people's investment. Their failure led to protest demonstrations in various cities on a daily basis causing serious trouble for the government. In his speeches in Gilan, Rouhani accused the financial institutions of engineering the mobs in order to further milk the government.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 26 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said March 8, Trend reports.

The Armenian armed forces were using heavy 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.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8

Trend:

An anti-Turkish and anti-Azerbaijani event "Armenophobia: historical and present-day resurgence" was held on March 7 in the European Parliament with the organizational support of the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD), Trend reports.

Azerbaijani youth, including Azerbaijanis studying in Europe, who took part in the event, put both the speakers and the Armenian participants in a difficult position with their questions after completion of speeches.

Azerbaijani students during their speeches, based on the facts, spoke about the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, the violation of the international law and the development of nationalistic and chauvinistic attitudes among all segments of Armenian society.

Azerbaijanis who were in the event hall said that it is wrong to represent Azerbaijani society as Armenophobic. Of course, the occupation of the country, the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people from their native lands caused a fair feeling of anger among the Azerbaijanis. However, this anger was directed not at all Armenians, but at invaders and criminals who committed ruthless crimes against Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh, depriving for more than 25 years about one million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs of their native lands, property and other rights.

Azerbaijani students asked speakers what steps they had taken to reduce the threat of Armenophobia, as claimed by Armenia, and the wrath of Azerbaijan, and also asked the separatist structures human rights defender about what work done to protect fundamental rights of Azerbaijanis expelled from Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent areas.

Then, Azerbaijani students emphasized that more than 30,000 ethnic Armenians live in Azerbaijan today. They also noted that the Armenian society, built on mono-ethnic values, distributes distorted information due to the fact that religious monuments and mosques on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan are of Persian origin, which, in turn, leads to Armenophobia.

The students also said that the construction of monuments to the bearers of the Nazi ideology in Yerevan demonstrates the true nature of Armenia, and also says that it treats with contempt not only Azerbaijanis and Turks, but also representatives of other ethnic groups.

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, March 8

Trend:

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov received the newly appointed Ambassador of India Bawitlung Vanlalvawna, Trend reports referring to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.

At the meeting, the sides highly appreciated the current level of bilateral relations between the two countries and at the same time underlined the great potential for further development of cooperation. Briefing on the infrastructure projects realized and implemented by Azerbaijan, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov invited Indian companies to benefit from these projects.

Furthermore, the sides expressed confidence that direct air connection between Azerbaijan and India would give impetus to the further enhancement of people-to-people contacts and in this regard noted the necessity of holding mutual tourism fairs.

At the meeting the sides discussed the cooperation issues with the UN as well as the Non-Aligned Movement and other issues of mutual interest.

Ambassador Bawitlung Vanlalvawna presented the copy of his credentials to Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

Minister Elmar Mammadyarov wished the newly appointed Indian Ambassador every success in his diplomatic activities.
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8

By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:

A delegation of Polish company Milex, specializing in the production of equipment for drip irrigation, arrived in Uzbekistan, Trend reports via Uzbek media.

During the visit, representatives of Poland held meetings and negotiations in the administration of Uzbek Kashkadarya region where issues of cooperation were discussed.

Previously, the leadership of Polish company expressed its readiness to organize the production of equipment for drip irrigation in one of the districts of Kashkadarya region. As a result, it was decided to build a plant in Guzar district.

An important factor for Uzbekistan is the high reliability of Milex irrigation systems in adverse weather conditions, in particular, in hot climate, as well as ensuring efficient operation even with low water pressure. Regardless of the size and scale of the project, the company applies environmentally friendly solutions, an individual approach to each object and its capabilities, the use of products with proven accuracy, reliability and durability.

The delegation of Milex emphasized the advantages of drip irrigation in Uzbekistan against the background of traditional watering.

They stated that the irrigated farming in Uzbekistan will have greater efficiency when using drip irrigation. Irrigation fluid enriched with substances and microelements necessary for plants to grow provides a complete solution. The result of this is an increase not only in the quality of crops, but also in the amount of the harvest by 2 times.

As a result of negotiations between the administration of Guzar district of Kashkadarya region and Milex company, a document was signed regulating the construction of facility in the district.

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Follow author on Twitter:@vakilovfaxri
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8

By Sara Israfilbayova  Trend:

In April at the meeting of the International Development Association (IDA) the amount that Azerbaijan will allocate as a donor country to assist poor nations will be announced, the World Banks (WB) Regional Director for the South Caucasus Mercy Tembon, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

The regional director expressed gratitude and appreciation to Azerbaijan for willingness to help poor countries.

Speaking of Azerbaijans shares increase in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which are the members of the World Bank Group, Tembon said that Azerbaijan has already given its consent and signed all necessary documents.

The most important issue was to reach an agreement and obtain Azerbaijans consent. We have achieved that. But we still do not know how much the country will increase its shares. This is a long process that can take about ten years, Tembon stressed.

It should be noted that in January Chief Executive Officer for the World Bank Kristalina Georgieva during the meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in Davos proposed to consider increase of the country's shares in IBRD and IFC.

Azerbaijan joined the World Bank Group in 1992. During this period, the bank allocated loans for the implementation of over 50 projects in the country worth over $3 billion. Seven more projects worth about $1.5 billion are being implemented.

Besides the loans, WB allocated 45 grants to Azerbaijan totaling $41.586 million in 1995-2014.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Israfilbekova
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8

By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:

Uzbek Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade held meeting with the President of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Hungary Laszlo Parragh, Trend reports via Uzbek media.

The main issues of discussion were systemic measures to expand bilateral cooperation between the business circles of Hungary and Uzbekistan.

In this regard, the importance of enhancing mutual visits of entrepreneurs was noted, for which the prospect of creating the Uzbek-Hungarian Business Council was worked out.

A separate meeting was held with Heinz Messinger, financial director of the Vienna Financial and Economic Forum, which brings together countries of Europe and the CIS. The plans to organize a number of business events for the business circles of Austria and Uzbekistan were discussed with him.

Among other things, they discussed the visit of Austrian delegation of businessmen to Uzbekistan, the regular meeting of the Uzbek-Austrian Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation in Tashkent and the Uzbek-Austrian Investment Forum in Vienna with the involvement of large Uzbek business under the auspices of the Vienna Financial and Economic Forum.

Messinger, relying on the impressive experience in this field, stressed that the cycle of joint forums will enhance investment attractiveness, integrate financial and product markets and attract private capital to various projects and programs.

Negotiations with Tibor Horvath, a representative of Hungarian company Gedeon Richter, were promising; the organization of pharmaceutical production in Uzbekistan under a famous Hungarian brand was discussed.

An agreement was reached with the management of the company on a business visit to Uzbekistan in order to study the economic potential and industrial infrastructure of free pharmaceutical industrial zones, raw materials markets and the sale of finished products, as well as prospects for its implementation in neighboring countries.

The new phase of cooperation between Tashkent and Budapest is impossible without discussing the potential of creating additional transport corridors, therefore the meeting of the delegation with the head of the private airline company WizzAir, Jozsef Varadi, should be highlighted.

The airline is the third largest low-cost airline in Europe, operating flights to more than 250 destinations in 29 countries. Noting the attractiveness of direct flights between the capitals of two countries, Jozsef Varadi supported the necessity to study the civil aviation market of Uzbekistan for a clearer vision of the format and cooperation strategy. The management of the company will visit Uzbekistan in April-May of the current year.

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Follow author on Twitter:@vakilovfaxri
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8

By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:

A meeting with delegation of Russian Ministry of Economic Development headed by Minister Maxim Oreshkin was held at the Uzbek Ministry of Finance, Trend reports with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Finance.

The meeting discussed the Program of Economic Cooperation between the Uzbek and Russian Governments for 2019-2024, the implementation of which is already yielding results. Active work is underway on 54 projects, in particular in such sectors as agrarian, fuel and energy and engineering.

Moreover, within the framework of agricultural development projects and increasing its export potential, joint optimization of the supply chains of agricultural products is planned through the creation of a network of wholesale distribution centers.

The importance of further development of bilateral relations between states was emphasized.

In connection with the implementation of systemic tax reforms aimed at creating more favorable conditions for both business and population of Uzbekistan, the usefulness of cooperation between Uzbekistan and Russia in terms of technical and advisory assistance was noted.

Another opportunity to develop contacts is to provide expert assistance from Russian Federal Service for State Registration, Cadaster and Cartography specialists to evaluate approaches in organizing work with maintaining and updating the cadaster of land plots and real estate objects, discussing the methodology and results of modeling the value of objects, the need for their refinement and optimization.

Furthermore, Russia's experience in privatization of land and real estate objects is interesting, as well as measures to protect the rights of owners, including in cases of buying land for state and public needs.

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Follow author on Twitter:@vakilovfaxri
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 8

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI) project is expected to be implemented after 2024-2026, Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation, one of the shareholders of AGRI LNG Project Company, told Trend.

"Currently, the shareholders of AGRI LNG Project Company are discussing the issues related to further development and implementation of AGRI project, supposedly after 2024-2026 years when realization of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz Phase 2 and other fields development projects are completed," said the company.

AGRI project envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to the Black Sea coast of Georgia via gas pipelines. Azerbaijani gas delivered to Georgia's Black Sea coast will be liquefied at a special terminal and following this, it will be delivered in tankers to a terminal at the Romanian port of Constanta.

Further, it will be brought to the gaseous state and sent via Romanian gas infrastructure for meeting the demands of Romania and other European countries.

The project is the first of its kind to be developed in the Black Sea, aiming the transport of natural gas from Caspian region to Europe.

The participants of the AGRI project are SOCAR, Georgia's Oil and Gas Corporation, as well as MVM (Hungary) and Romgaz (Romania). The parties established the SC AGRI LNG Project Company SRL with the purpose of developing the Feasibility Study.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called recent actions against Chinese companies, including telecoms giant Huawei, and the country's citizens "intentional political pressure", Trend reports with reference to Sputnik.

"If you consider the issue without bias, it is not difficult to see that the recent actions against Chinese companies and citizens are not just legal proceedings but intentional political pressure," Wang said, commenting developments around the case of Huaweis executive Meng Wanzhou, arrested in Canada at the US request, and the IT companys lawsuit against the US government.

Huawei has been facing pressure in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and a number of other countries, which claim that the company has been collecting intelligence data and sharing it with the Chinese government, something denied by the IT giant.

Earlier this week, Huawei sued the US government, claiming that the legislation, barring US government agencies from purchasing equipment produced by it and Chinese company ZTE violated the US constitution.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder and the companys chief financial officer, was arrested in Vancouver, Canada, last December at the United States' request, reportedly on suspicions of failing to comply with US sanctions against Iran. The arrest was decried by Beijing, which demanded that Canadian authorities immediately release the Chinese national. Huawei has insisted Meng has done nothing illegal.

Huawei has also noted that US President Donald Trump has said that if the case of Meng helps reach a trade deal between the United States and China, he will intervene in this case.
Zoran Poznic, a cultural manager and new media curator, was appointed as Slovenia's new culture minister by the National Assembly on Friday, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

Poznic will succeed Dejan Presicek, who was forced out of office in January amid bullying allegations, the Slovenian Press Agency STA reported.

Poznic, 59, has been heading Delavski Dom Trbovlje, a progressive cultural centre in the mining town of Trbovlje for almost a decade.

He offered himself to the Social Democrats (SD), the party in charge of the department, as a candidate, saying he would want to continue the work as set out by the former minister.

In the hearing before the Parliamentary Culture Committee, Poznic said one of his priorities would be to have a national culture programme for the period between 2020 and 2026 adopted this year.
The Pentagon is reviewing Elon Musks federal security clearance following the billionaires marijuana toke on a California comedians podcast in September, according to a US official, Trend reports citing Bloomberg.

Musk has refiled his SF-86 security form, which requires a federal employee or contractor seeking a clearance to acknowledge any illegal drug use over the previous seven years, according to the official, who asked not to be identified. The entrepreneur has a secret-level clearance because of his role as founder and CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which is certified to launch military spy satellites.

A SpaceX official, who asked not to be identified, said the review hasnt had an impact on the company. SpaceXs day-to-day operations are run by President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell. The company has won contracts for national security space launches since Musks podcast incident, including one for three launches on Feb. 19 for $297 million.

But the refiling and review underscore the continuing ramifications from the chief executive officers decision last year to smoke marijuana on the podcast, which quickly went viral. And it highlights the legal discrepancies between federal and state policy on marijuana use: While about three dozen states have taken steps to decriminalize pot, its use remains a federal crime.

Read More: SpaceX Soars Under Elon Musks Secret Weapon Gwynne Shotwell

It totally would make sense for the Defense Security Service to ask Musk to update his application and to investigate the situation further, said Mark Zaid, a Washington attorney who specializes in federal whistle-blower cases and representing clients facing clearance challenges. Zaid doesnt represent Musk and isnt aware of the details of his case.

James Gleeson, a spokesman for closely-held SpaceX, declined to comment.

Musk in September sipped whiskey during a podcast of more than two and a half hours with comedian Joe Rogan in California that touched on topics from flamethrowers and artificial intelligence to the end of the universe.

The security refiling may be the least of Musks issues after a tumultuous week in which he got into another spat with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over his tweets about Tesla Inc., unveiled cheaper versions of Teslas electric vehicles and caught investors by surprise with plans to close auto showrooms. He also watched SpaceX launch a new spacecraft designed to ferry humans into orbit.

Musks adjudication review by the Defense Security Service continues with no decision yet, the US official said. Typically during an adjudication a person keeps his or her security clearance but loses access to information classified as secret, according to the official. If the drug use involves minor issues or doesnt appear to contain any serious security concerns, the unit reviewing the case could just close it and update Musks record.

Nevertheless, there can be serious consequences for breaching security protocols.

Smoking marijuana is absolutely grounds for termination or loss of a clearance if a federal employee or contractor currently uses it, lawyer Zaid said in an email.

Top Defense Security Service officials are aware of Musks reapplication and review, said the US official, who declined to discuss the case in detail but guided a reporter through the process Musks review is following.
The United States accused Iran on Thursday of defying a UN Security Council resolution with one ballistic missile test and two satellite launches since December and urged the council to bring back tougher international restrictions on Tehran, Trend reports citing Reuters.

A 2015 UN resolution called upon Iran to refrain for up to eight years from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons following an agreement with six world powers. Some states argue that the language does not make it obligatory.

In a letter to the 15-member council, acting US Ambassador to the United Nations Jonathan Cohen said Iran tested a medium-range ballistic missile on Dec. 1, 2018, and attempted to place satellites in orbit on Jan. 15 and Feb. 5.

Iran has carried out these three launches in defiance of the expressed will of the UN Security Council, and such provocations continue to destabilize the entire Middle East region, Cohen wrote.

Asked for a response to the letter, spokesman Alireza Miryousefi for the Iranian mission to the United Nations said Iran does not have any ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear weapons therefore none of the ballistic missile launches of Iran are covered by that resolution.

At a Security Council meeting in December, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the body to toughen that measure to reflect language in a 2010 resolution that left no room for interpretation by banning Iran from activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology.

Cohens letter called upon the council to join us in imposing real consequences on Iran for its flagrant defiance of the councils demands and bring back tougher international restrictions to deter Irans missile program.

The United States has not yet proposed any concrete action by the council to toughen missile restrictions on Iran. Any such move would likely be opposed by veto-powers Russia and China.

Most UN sanctions imposed on Iran were lifted in January 2016 when the UN nuclear watchdog confirmed that Tehran fulfilled commitments under the nuclear deal with Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States. But Iran is still subject to a UN arms embargo and other restrictions.

The UN sanctions and restrictions on Iran are contained in the 2015 resolution, which also enshrines the 2015 Iran nuclear accord. European powers have been scrambling to salvage the deal following US President Donald Trumps withdrawal of the United States in May 2018.
After a four-decade service in the India Army, General Rawat had been appointed as the Chief of Defence Staff in December 2019.
Beijing: On China, all eyes will be as by next week it will be taking a call on banning Masood Azhar. However, reports have now emerged saying that China might not take any action against him as doing so would make the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that passes through Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) vulnerable to attacks by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) which holds sway in the region.

also read Several rockets were fired at a gathering of the Shiite Muslim Hazara minority

However, the proposal on proscribing Azhar as a global terrorist under UNSC 1267 resolution was moved by France and it received backing by other the United States, United Kingdom and Russia  three permanent members of the UNSC. China is weighing its options ahead of the crucial March 13 vote and it is possible that it will be tying down Pakistan with security guarantees if it decides to support the proposal, reported ET.

The CPEC passes through POK and Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where Balakot is located and as per local media inputs most of the terrorist training camps are located in this district. China had recently purchased vast swathes of land near Balakot for the CPEC and the Karakoram Highway that connects Pakistan with China through POK also passes through Mansehra district.

also read US first female combat pilot reveals a bitter truth about her journey in US Air Force

Ayjaz Wani, a Research Fellow at ORF, calls Azhar Beijings go-to man to ensure the security of its geostrategic investments under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). China has repeatedly blocked Indias move to get Azhar banned repeating its oft-repeated stand saying that the 1267 committee of the UN Security Council has set norms on the listing of terrorist organisations or individuals.
Washington DC: On Thursday, US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax crimes and bank fraud. It was the stiffest sentence yet given to an associate of the president in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling -- but significantly lighter than many expected for the 69-year-old political consultant. In a rebuff to Mueller's call for stiff punishment, the judge called the official guidelines for a prison sentence of 19 to 24 years "excessive." But Manafort still faces sentencing in a second case in Washington next week, where the maximum penalty is 10 years and the judge has appeared more sympathetic to prosecutors.

also read Several rockets were fired at a gathering of the Shiite Muslim Hazara minority

However, the charges involved Manafort's work for 10 years on behalf of Moscow-allied politicians in Ukraine, and nothing related to the 2016 election -- an issue he argued in asking the court for leniency. Prosecutors alleged that Manafort used offshore bank accounts in Cyprus to hide more than $55 million from Ukrainian politicians from the tax authorities. He is one of six top advisors and associates of Trump's 2016 presidential election campaign to be charged in the Mueller investigation. During Manafort's trial, much of the damaging testimony against him was provided by his former deputy Rick Gates, who is awaiting sentencing after reaching a plea agreement with the Special Counsel's office.

also read Jaish Chief Quashes Rumours of Death With New Audio Clip

It is to be noted that besides Manafort and Gates, four other former Trump associates face charges or have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Mueller investigation. Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials and is awaiting sentencing.

Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen is to begin serving a three-year prison sentence on May 6 for fraud, tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and lying to Congress. George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was sentenced to two weeks in prison. Another Trump advisor, Roger Stone, awaits trial.
Women self-reliant

Vietnamese women have long promoted their leadership roles during the countrys history, in war and then peacetime and more recently in the age of innovation. Free enterprise has developed significantly in the country, with people free to conduct business in an ever-expanding range of fields. Women participate actively and many have high profiles.









The leadership role of Vietnamese women, from household businesses to large enterprises, is superior to other countries in the region. They have worked hard to meet the demands of maintaining their position. In the digital economy, Vietnamese women must make an even greater effort to retain their leadership.Vietnamese women have seen a number of achievements over the years, so studying the growth of women in Vietnams digital economy is not at all difficult. Those who have succeeded in the past also have the ability to learn more to reach higher in the future. Young women, who are better trained and can absorb information technology (IT) sooner, are more dynamic in grasping the creative requirements of the digital economy.The digital economy requires continuous creativity, research, study, acquisition of new knowledge, and application of new technologies and techniques in different fields. Women must therefore express their creativity and knowledge in their field of endeavor along with the requirements of the digital economy for the greatest efficiency. They must also invest in equipment and human resources and expand their networks of partners and relationships, including consumers, other enterprises, the government, and society in general.Women leaders also possess sensitivity in relationships and activities. They are not only interested in professional aspects related to revenue or profit but also social aspects such as the environment. This creates advantages when applying new elements of the digital economy into their field, helping them to gain a broader view and seek and utilize advantages as well as suitable applications for their enterprise and business field.Some women have not been properly trained, however, especially in accessing IT, so entering the digital economy may be problematic. For example, some women secured leadership roles due to their communication and soft skills but lack skills in IT.Womens ability to study math and technology is often not the equal of men. Meanwhile, the digital economy requires a sound application of IT, especially in fields that require artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies. The most important thing for women therefore is to improve their ability to use and apply IT in their business activities. In small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), I have observed that they have only applied IT within a relatively narrow range, using simple methods such as mail exchange tools, searching, advertising, and communications with customers, while many higher IT applications have not been applied to any great extent.In my opinion, leaders must guide the creativity of their business to meet the requirements of the digital economy. In particular, AI is being widely used and has a major impact on life and activities in different fields. Women leaders must therefore understand the impact of AI on their businesses and other new factors that can help their business grow. This will help women leaders forecast their business performance five or ten years into the future, from which they can adopt appropriate plans and make adjustments.Competition does not depend on gender. Male leaders are subjective, so it is easier for them to fail than for female leaders, who have a lower starting point in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) disciplines but know how to learn and use talented people, as the digital economy requires an ability to recognize and access new knowledge and take advantage of new factors.Finally, in terms of emotions, women make more sensitive observations, which can assist them in using their human resources and taking advantage of opportunities presented by partners and customers.The government has support policies for women doing business but these are negligible. Women reaching leadership roles at enterprises is primarily due to their own effort, while the views of Vietnamese society in general towards women is becoming increasingly open.The fact that women are leaders at enterprises often does not clearly express the role of and support from government policies. For example, access to land or credit is supposed to be equal for both men and women. Leaders, regardless of gender, must learn and work hard.In my opinion, few leadership roles in the public sector are held by women, so the government needs to consider this in order to secure gender equality in policy-making decisions.Womens ability to study math and technology is often not the equal of men. Meanwhile, the digital economy requires a sound application of IT, especially in fields that require artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies. The most important thing for women therefore is to improve their ability to use and apply IT in their business activities.

Ms. Pham Chi Lan/ Independent Economic Researcher

VN Economic Times
Bruce Weir, PhD, of the University of Washington in Seattle is the recipient of the 2019 Genetics Society of America (GSA) Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education, in recognition of his work training thousands of researchers in the rigorous use of statistical analysis methods for genetic and genomic data.

The Jones Award recognizes individuals or groups that have had significant, sustained impact on genetics education at any level.

"Bruce has made outstanding contributions to the training of basic and applied population and quantitative geneticists from across the globe for more than 40 years," says Trudy Mackay, a professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University and one of the scientists who nominated Weir for the award.

His contributions fall into three categories: the acclaimed Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics (SISG), which has been held continuously for 23 years and has trained more than 10,000 researchers worldwide; the popular graduate-level textbook Genetic Data Analysis; and the training of a growing number of forensic geneticists during the rise of DNA evidence in courts around the world.

Weir grew up and attended college in New Zealand, majoring in mathematics. He credits his discovery of statistical genetics to a summer internship with researcher Brian Hayman, who recommended the PhD program at North Carolina State University for pursuing Weir's newly found interest. In Raleigh, he trained with C. Clark Cockerham and then completed his postdoctoral studies with plant geneticist Robert W. Allard at the University of California, Davis.

From Davis, Weir returned to New Zealand to teach at Massey University before Cockerham lured him back to North Carolina State University in 1976. Weir spent the next three decades of his career in Raleigh. He became the William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Statistics and Genetics in 1992.

Inspired by a 1995 summer course for animal geneticists at the University of Guelph in Canada, Weir decided to hold the first SISG in Raleigh in 1996. With limited advertising and funding, the inaugural Institute drew about 100 attendants. Weir quickly realized that the SISG filled an important niche. While technological advances were rapidly increasing the amount of genetic and genomic data requiring statistical analysis, graduate programs in the biological sciences rarely offered statistics courses that were tailored to the problems students were addressing in their dissertation projects.

In 1997, the SISG began receiving funding from the National Science Foundation, and in 1999 the National Institutes of Health added its support, with most of the funds over the past two decades supporting the attendance of US graduate students. The SISG moved from Raleigh to Seattle when Weir was appointed Chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Washington in 2006. To reach a global audience, the Institute has also been held in 15 (and counting) countries outside the United States.

Weir's interest in authoring a textbook started even earlier in his career. The 1990 edition of Genetic Data Analysis helped plant the seed for the first SISG in 1996, and the two efforts have been synergistic ever since. By inviting active researchers with a record of excellent teaching as SISG guest instructors, Weir stays abreast of the larger field, which helps update the book's content over time. The 3rd edition, co-authored with Jerome Goudet at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, is expected to be published in 2020. It will continue to cover the theoretical underpinnings of population genetics. The book's statistical code, written in the R programming language, will add to its appeal for applied researchers with a wide range of data management and analysis needs.

A new area of application for Weir's research interests emerged in 1989: forensic genetics. After the FBI introduced DNA genotyping in courts, it soon sought Weir's expertise in matched-pair probability calculations for the defendant's DNA and a crime scene sample. Weir continues to work with FBI researchers today and serves on national committees to help develop legal guidelines for interpreting DNA evidence in court. He says this work is both rewarding and challenging, as the worlds of science (seeking the truth) and law (seeking justice) don't always coincide. He co-authored the textbook Interpreting DNA Evidence, published in 1998, with forensic scientist Ian Evett.

Weir's applied projects extend beyond forensic investigations of human samples. In 2018, he co-authored a high-impact paper about ivory poaching, the fourth-largest transnational crime that frequently funds drug trafficking and other criminal activities.

The study was based on an elephant DNA database that UW biology professor Samuel Wasser assembled from ivory and scat samples collected throughout Africa. Using 16 markers with geography-specific allele frequencies, the researchers were able to trace ivory shipments seized at different ports to the same origin. This combats a strategy commonly used by large ivory smuggling cartels: separating the two tusks of one elephant to make it more difficult to identify their shared origin.

Together, the SISG, the textbook, and the training of the forensic community are a powerful testament to Weir's commitment to education. "Any of these three contributions would clearly make Bruce a very strong candidate," says Bruce Walsh, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and of public health, at the University of Arizona and one of the scientists who nominated Weir for the award. "The combination of all three is unbeatable."

Based in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Washington, which he chaired from 2006 to 2014, Weir also serves as Director of the Genetics Analysis Center, the Institute of Public Health Genetics, and the Graduate Program in Public Health Genetics. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Statistical Association, and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. In addition to his classroom teaching, Weir has trained and mentored 33 doctoral students and 19 postdoctoral fellows. Many of them work as faculty members and scientists at leading universities, government agencies, and private companies around the world.

Weir joined the GSA a graduate student. He served as an Associate Editor for the GSA journal GENETICS from 1977 to 1997 and as the GSA Treasurer from 2002 to 2005. The Elizabeth W. Jones Award will be presented at The Allied Genetics Conference, which will be held April 22-26, 2020, in the Metro Washington, DC region.

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The award was named posthumously for Elizabeth W. Jones (1939-2008), who was the recipient of the first GSA Excellence in Education Award in 2007. She was a renowned geneticist and educator who served as GSA president (1987) and as Editor in Chief of GENETICS for nearly 12 years.
An ambitious health economics study from a consortium of 5 Japanese universities has shown that different university programs to promote the equal geographic distribution of physicians increases the number of graduates practicing in rural areas in Japan. Graduates from these programs were on average 24% more likely to work in non-metropolitan areas than those not involved these programs.

Access to healthcare in rural or low-population areas is a problem that affects countries worldwide, not limited only to developing nations. Many developed nations have an aging population, which in countries like Japan and Germany, is putting pressure on their healthcare systems and services for both rural and urban populations. Ease of access to healthcare in rural communities is an important global challenge that must be tackled and is one of the priorities of the World Health Organization (WHO).

"I believe that here at Hiroshima University has a destiny to improve this problem," asserts Professor Matsumoto of the Department of Community-Based Medical System in Hiroshima University. "This sort of research is very important to me because I am part of Hiroshima University researchers [sic]".

Japan has an urgent problem concerning access to healthcare. This barrier to access has become a long-lasting social problem, due to the uneven distribution of doctors, says Matsumoto. Article 25 of the Constitution of Japan states that everybody has a right to be healthy regardless of the living area or income level. This article was drafted in 1945 by Tatsuo Morito, the founding President of Hiroshima University.

"Unfortunately in the real-world the access is not at all equal," says Matsumoto.

Japan does not currently have any government policies to allocate doctors to areas experiencing shortages. Matsumoto recounts a story of how a rural town in northern Hiroshima did not have a local obstetrician for 13 years so there was no choice for pregnant women except to move to another area to give birth.

"In Japan the poor access to healthcare is largely derived from the geographic barriers rather than economic barriers," concludes Matusmoto.

To help overcome these barriers to healthcare, current actions are targeting physicians early, implementing policies that focus on medical school students. Japan has admissions programs integrated in each University with a medical school, which either obliges or encourages medical school graduates to practice in rural areas. There are three types of programs: the regional quota program where a certain number of the incoming high-school students in a medical course must be from a local region, the scholarship program where the medical students benefit from a scholarship for 6 years in exchange for practicing in designated areas after graduation, and a combined quota and scholarship program. This combined program is unique to Japan, as is the scale of its implementation. Canada, Thailand and the US all have similar programs but none of this scale or as a combined regional quota with scholarship, says Matsumoto.

In this study, a project of the Japanese Council for Community Based Medical Education sent out surveys to 77 medical schools and 47 prefectures across Japan, targeting graduates who were admitted through the regional quota system and/or benefitted from scholarship admission programs. Location data about graduates was acquired from the Physician Census compiled by the Ministry of Health, resulting in the study examining almost 24,000 graduate physicians.

"The proportion of those working in rural areas is the most important outcome of this study," states Matsumoto.

The result was satisfactory for Matsumoto. Not only were the graduates of the programs more likely to work in rural areas, the population density of those areas was vastly lower than 'usual' medical graduates.

"We are recommending the government continue this system. Otherwise we don't have any other solution to solve the unequal distribution of doctors," says Matsumoto.

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Since its foundation in 1949, Hiroshima University has strived to become one of the most prominent and comprehensive universities in Japan for the promotion and development of scholarship and education. Consisting of 12 schools and 11 graduate schools, ranging from International Development and Cooperation to Integrated Arts and Sciences, the university has grown into one of the most distinguished research universities in Japan. English website: https://www.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en
TUCSON, Ariz. - Children with Type 1 diabetes have only one option to control their blood sugar: insulin treatment. Ravaged by an autoimmune disease that attacks their own pancreas and islets -- microscopic clusters of cells that sense blood sugar and produce insulin -- patients are forced to rely on insulin from an external source.

But for the 200,000 youth living with Type 1 diabetes in the United States, insulin shots, pens and pumps fail to perfectly manage blood sugar, which may lead to long-term complications. When the body fails to tightly regulate sugar levels, like in diabetes, much can go wrong.

"The absence of this natural ability -- minute-to-minute regulation of glucose levels -- can result in long-term complications, such as blindness, amputation and kidney failure," says Klearchos Papas, PhD, a professor in the Departments of Surgery and Medical Imaging at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson. "Even with automated insulin delivery devices and continuous glucose monitoring -- the best way possible to control your blood sugar -- you still can end up with these consequences."

Dr. Papas adds, "Interestingly, if you administer insulin aggressively to help lower and keep your blood sugar in the normal range, you actually increase your risk of potentially deadly hypoglycemic, or low blood sugar, episodes."

For the last two decades, Dr. Papas has been working on a solution to this problem. In collaboration with other scientists across the nation, the UA researcher has been developing a tiny, implantable device that senses glucose levels and releases insulin when needed.

Now, with a two-year, $1.2 million grant from the JDRF, Dr. Papas will continue to perfect and test his device in preparation for clinical trials in humans. The project, which also includes a contribution from Novo Nordisk, is in collaboration with Tom Loudovaris, PhD, of St. Vincent's Institute, and Greg Korbutt, PhD, of the University of Alberta.

The device operates using a medical innovation known as islet transplantation. In adults with Type 1 diabetes, islets are taken from donor bodies and dripped into the patient's liver, similar to an intravenous, or IV drip.

Eventually, these islets begin producing insulin for the body, but in order for the patient's body to accept the transplanted cells, the patient must take lifelong immunosuppressive drugs.

Because of this need for immunosuppressive drugs, islet transplantation is not recommended in children.

"The need for lifelong immunosuppression is a major concern," says Dr. Papas, who leads the UA Institute for Cellular Transplantation. "Children would be more susceptible to infections and lifelong treatment could cause other serious health conditions."

To avoid immunosuppressive medications in children and adults, Dr. Papas' device can protect transplanted insulin-producing islets from the body's attack. Donor islets are placed inside of the implantable, tea bag-like device, which has a special exterior that shields the islets from any attacks from the immune system.

"It's like a tea bag," Dr. Papas says. "The tea leaves stay inside but tea, or insulin, comes out. And the tea bag keeps out the immune cells that would normally attack the islets."

Such tea bag technology has been explored for decades but has not yet made it to patients for routine clinical use. One of the key issues that has limited the technology's success is the large size of the tea bag -- at one point analogous to a large flat-screen TV.

The professor also has developed a technology to feed oxygen to the islet cells in the tea bag for optimal health and insulin production.

"The unique thing we bring to the table is the combination of an optimized tea bag with its own oxygen supply," Dr. Papas says. "Islets are happier with an oxygen supply; they survive and function better and this has been overlooked in the past."

Under current plans, the oxygen generator -- the size of a stack of quarters -- eventually will be implanted alongside the islet tea bag. Implant locations include under the skin of the arm or back. The oxygen generator, which will use battery power, could be recharged without wires or removal from the body using a technology known as transcutaneous energy transfer.

If testing is successful with the two-year JDRF grant, Dr. Papas could launch clinical trials with the device in the next three to four years.

"This is not pie-in-the-sky crazy science," he says. "We believe, engineering-wise, it is achievable. The cells and the biology were the difficult part and they have come a long way in the past five years."

If taken to market, human islets from donors will be placed in the tea bags, but Dr. Papas believes that islets generated in the lab from human stem cells soon will be available. As part of the two-year study, Novo Nordisk has donated human stem cell-derived islets to test in the tea bags. If successful, stem cell-derived islets would make it easier to help treat the millions of people with diabetes.

UA President Robert C. Robbins, MD, said he is eager to see Dr. Papas and his team continue to develop this promising technology and take the device to market.

"This is an incredible example of the kind of innovative and collaborative research that is taking place on the UA campus that has only recently become possible with the convergence of the physical, biological and digital worlds," Dr. Robbins said. "The work that Dr. Papas and his team are doing to help children with diabetes is a great example of using new technology to significantly improve quality of life for patients, and why the UA is primed to be a leader in developing digital health."

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Dr. Papas also is a member of the UA BIO5 Institute and the founder of Procyon Technologies LLC.

Other project collaborators include: Berhnard Hering, MD, of the University of Minnesota; and UA College of Medicine - Tucson researchers Robert Johnson, PhD, Steve Neuenfeldt, Leah Steyn, PhD, Ron Lynch, PhD, and Robert Harland, MD.

About the UA College of Medicine - Tucson

The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson is shaping the future of medicine through state-of-the-art medical education programs, groundbreaking research and advancements in patient care in Arizona and beyond. Founded in 1967, the college boasts more than 50 years of innovation, ranking among the top medical schools in the nation for research and primary care. Through the university's partnership with Banner Health, one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country, the college is leading the way in academic medicine. For more information, please visit medicine.arizona.edu.
BALTIMORE, MD., March 6 -- Each year there are nearly 11 million cases of typhoid, a disease that is spread through contaminated food, drink and water. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine are leading an international consortium that is studying the impact of a typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) in an effort to accelerate introduction of the vaccine in countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia where there is a high burden of typhoid.

In a supplement published by Clinical Infectious Diseases, Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD) at UMSOM, underscores the importance of introducing a TCV, while outlining the challenges in accelerating wide use of the vaccine in typhoid-endemic countries.

"In the past year, policy and financing milestones have paved the way for the introduction TCVs. In this supplement, collaborators from around the globe detail efforts and provide data to inform country-level decisions on vaccine introduction as a critical part of public health interventions to decrease typhoid disease," said Dr. Neuzil, who is leading the Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium (TyVAC), an international group of researchers with a mission to accelerate the introduction of TCV in low-income countries.

The special TyVAC journal supplement, edited by Dr. Neuzil, Dr. Andrew Pollard of Oxford University and Dr. Anthony Marfin of PATH, brings together the body of research conducted by TyVAC to date, as well as additional research from other research partners. The research underscores the challenges of typhoid surveillance, the growing resistance to antibiotics and the increasing numbers of typhoid outbreaks in the most vulnerable low-resources settings.

"The growing threat of typhoid necessitates a global effort that includes preventative measures such as vaccines and improved waster, sanitation, and hygiene.," said Dr. Neuzil.

In the supplement, TyVAC researchers detail clinical trials that are underway in Nepal, Bangladesh, Malawi, and Burkina Faso. They highlight the health economics of the disease, the growing concerns of drug resistance, and the cost-effectiveness of mass campaigns of a vaccine.

Release of the supplement comes as TyVAC researchers in addition to several UMSOM disease experts in the CVD will present their research in Hanoi, Vietnam on March 26-28 at the 11th International Conference on Typhoid and Other Salmonelloses. Dr. Neuzil is a keynote speaker at this event.

"This research led by Dr. Kathleen Neuzil demonstrates the impact our work at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has across the globe. It will help inform global vaccine policymakers in settings where diseases like typhoid are a serious threat," said UMSOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also the Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor.

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About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

Now in its third century, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 as the first public medical school in the United States. It continues today as one of the fastest growing, top-tier biomedical research enterprises in the world -- with 43 academic departments, centers, institutes, and programs; and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals, including members of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a distinguished recipient of the Albert E. Lasker Award in Medical Research. With an operating budget of more than $1 billion, the School of Medicine works closely in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide research-intensive, academic and clinically based care for more than 1.2 million patients each year. The School has over 2,500 students, residents, and fellows, and more than $530 million in extramural funding, with most of its academic departments highly ranked among all medical schools in the nation in research funding. As one of the seven professional schools that make up the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine has a total workforce of nearly 7,000 individuals. The combined School and Medical System ("University of Maryland Medicine") has an annual budget of nearly $6 billion and an economic impact more than $15 billion on the state and local community. The School of Medicine faculty, which ranks as the 8th highest among public medical schools in research productivity, is an innovator in translational medicine, with 600 active patents and 24 start-up companies. The School works locally, nationally, and globally, with research and treatment facilities in 36 countries around the world. Visit medschool.umaryland.edu.

About the Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium

The Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium (TyVAC), a partnership between the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, and PATH, an international nonprofit, aims to accelerate the introduction of new typhoid conjugate vaccines (TCVs) as part of an integrated approach to reducing the burden of morbidity and mortality from typhoid in countries eligible for support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi). It is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The NSW Government has announced support for the establishment of a new Sydney Quantum Academy with $A15.4 million in funding, bringing together four leading universities in NSW.

The Sydney Quantum Academy is the initiative of Macquarie University, UNSW Sydney, the University of Sydney and University of Technology Sydney. It will help train the next generation of engineers and scientists in quantum computing, cementing Sydney's place as the leading global city for quantum technology and ensuring NSW is a world centre for jobs in the emerging quantum economy.

The funding, combined with current university and future industry support, means the total investment in the Sydney Quantum Academy will be up to $35 million.

The Sydney Quantum Academy will develop the industry, attract talent and investment in Australia and internationally, and promote an understanding about quantum computing, simulation and software for local and global companies that want to use these emergent technologies.

The Academy will:

Encourage students to collaborate and train across the four universities;

Directly link students to industry through internships and research;

Support the development of quantum technology businesses; and
Align Will Seek Commission Review of ALJs Initial Determination

ALJ Declines to Address Two Other Align Patents because of Delay Resulting from U.S. Government Shutdown

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Align Technology, Inc. (ALGN) announced today that on March 1, 2019 an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) issued an Initial Determination regarding his investigation of 3Shapes infringement of Aligns patents. The ALJ determined that 3Shape infringes four claims from three Align patents, but declined to find a violation of Section 337 because, based on the ALJs claim construction, he found that Aligns own products do not practice the claims (a requirement unique to the ITC) and that certain claims are invalid. Notably, the ALJ also found that an order excluding the accused 3Shape products from import into the United States is appropriate should the Commission, upon its further review of the Initial Determination, find a violation occurred.

We are pleased that the Initial Determination confirms our belief that 3Shape infringes Aligns core patents regarding color intraoral scanning technology. As always, we remain committed to protecting our significant investment in innovation. said Roger George, senior vice president, chief legal and regulatory officer, general counsel and secretary. Far from rejecting Aligns claims, the ALJ found that 3Shape infringes Aligns patents, but declined to find a Section 337 violation. To that end, we will seek review of the claim construction and related validity rulings that prevented the ALJ from recommending exclusion of 3Shapes infringing products from the United States, a remedy the Initial Determination found would be appropriate."

The ALJ declined to make any findings regarding two other patents raised by Align. These two patents in question are scheduled to expire after the original target date for conclusion of the investigation. Because of the government shutdown, the target date for conclusion of the investigation was extended and the two patents will expire prior to that date, thus greatly diminishing the likelihood of any remedy at the ITC.

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The Initial Determination is now subject to review by the Commissioners at the ITC. Align intends to petition for review of the findings it believes are incorrect. Respondents may also petition for review of the Initial Determination. The Commission will then decide whether to review portions of or the entire Initial Determination. Once the issues under review have been briefed, the Commission may affirm, set aside, or modify the portions of the Initial Determination under review. These conclusions will be contained in a Final Determination which is currently scheduled to be issued by the Commission by July 1, 2019.

The parallel federal district court case filed by Align in Delaware, alleging infringement of the same patents, remains stayed pending the Final Determination and any related appeals. The Delaware federal district court cases alleging infringement of different patents not included in the ITC investigations are not stayed and are being actively litigated, with trials scheduled for the first half of next year.

About Align Technology, Inc.

Align Technology designs and manufactures the Invisalign system, the most advanced clear aligner system in the world, and iTero intraoral scanners and services. Align's products help dental professionals achieve the clinical results they expect and deliver effective, cutting-edge dental options to their patients. Visit www.aligntech.com for more information.

For additional information about the Invisalign system or to find an Invisalign doctor in your area, please visit www.invisalign.com. For additional information about the iTero digital scanning system, please visit www.itero.com.


By Alistair Smout

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Airline chiefs from the top five operators in Europe on Wednesday were asked a simple question: If they could trade places with one of their rivals for a week, who would they choose?

Their answers were light-hearted, provocative, and revealing about the state of the airline industry in Europe.

The panel of the bosses of IAG, easyJet, Lufthansa, Ryanair and KLM were asked the question while they were sitting alongside each other at an Airlines for Europe (A4E) summit.

Although they joined forces to create A4E as a lobbying group to pressurize the European Commission on aviation policy, the stark contrasts between its members was apparent during the day-long event in Brussels.

The bosses of KLM and Lufthansa traded barbs with Ryanair's Michael O'Leary, chief of the pioneering low-cost carrier which has shaken up the market with its cheap fares and given traditional flag-carriers a headache.

"I would take Ryanair, and I would show customers that they can really have an enjoyable journey if they paid (a bit more)," KLM's Pieter Elbers said in answer to the question.

O'Leary said Elbers' answer had made him change his mind, and he used the opportunity to poke fun at Elbers, who had resisted answering questions about the Dutch government's stake in Air France-KLM for much of the day.

"I was going to say Lufthansa, so I could feel what it's like to own Germany and Austria," he said, "I've changed at the last minute Pieter, so I could encourage the Dutch government to buy more of the shares."

IAG boss Willie Walsh also chose KLM, and stirred the pot by introducing an M&A aspect to the session.

"I would pick KLM and I would spend that time convincing them that the should be part of IAG," Walsh said.

Lufthansa chief Carsten Spohr said he would run IAG-owned British Airways, as he was "jealous" of London as a home hub.

EasyJet's Johan Lundgren noted that none of his peers had chosen easyJet, meaning he must be doing a good job.

"It's a massive compliment," he said.

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Despite the tensions between the airlines, all have ultimately been able to thus far navigate the treacherous European airline market, which has seen the likes of Alitalia, Air Berlin and Monarch need rescues or go bust.

And one thing they were able to agree on Wednesday was that more weaker airlines would fail in the coming year. Even if they might not agree on everything, the A4E airline bosses could end up needing to deal with each other for a while longer.

"Five major airline groups in the next five years will control 80 percent of the traffic across Europe," O'Leary said.

"It's moving... that way, and I think that will be good for Europe."

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Joseph Bailey, an associate research professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, discusses the pros and cons of a cashless society.

SEE ALSO: The Worst Things to Keep in Your Wallet

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, nearly 30% of Americans say they make no cash purchases during a typical week. How does the use of electronic payments in the U.S. compare with other countries? The U.S. is moving quickly toward more cashless transactions, but it still lags some European countries, such as Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Sweden has reached a tipping point at which only about 2% of transactions are conducted in cash. In part, that's because the Swedes are technologically savvy, they have a relatively small market, and the government encourages electronic payments of its currency. Chinese cities are also embracing the cashless life, with a mobile-phone system that uses encrypted codes for transactions. In India, some 255 million people are making everyday purchases using the Paytm virtual wallet system, backed by China's Alibaba.

Will the U.S. catch up with the other countries? If you want a picture of how we'll handle money in the future, look at how college students manage their money. And then just imagine a world in which they are the majority, and not the rest of us who grew up in a world where we carried around wallets with paper money and maybe coins in our pockets.

SEE ALSO: 13 Stocks With Big Future Potential

What are the trade-offs for consumers as we move toward more cashless transactions? Consumers give up anonymity when they don't use cash. For example, let's say you go grocery shopping and your payment shows whether you got a discount for using a reusable bag or paid for a plastic store bag. Marketing could be tailored to you, based on how you're perceived to feel about the environment. Or if you use electronic payments to buy a lot of fruits and vegetables, you could be pitched a gym membership because a marketer thinks you're getting fit. Some consumers may not be comfortable with this type of marketing because they think it's an invasion of privacy.

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Are there any other drawbacks to a cashless society? Cashless businesses could hurt low-income consumers who mostly use cash. In addition, we eventually could see a surcharge for using cash. Theft could also become a bigger problem. You may be less likely to be pickpocketed because you're not carrying cash, but you might face a greater financial threat from a remote hacker or data thief who manages to hack into your smartphone.

EDITOR'S PICKS



Copyright 2019 The Kiplinger Washington Editors
A 27-year-old crypto exchange executive is under arrest in Australia for running a drug ring. | Source: Shutterstock

The Australian Federal Police arrested a 27-year bitcoin exchange operator for running a drug distribution ring.

The investigation dates back to 2017 when the AFP had arrested two Victorian men for importing drugs to Australia. The agency reportedly continued their probe, which led them to reveal an email-based drug trafficking organization operating out of Australian suburbs Bulleen, Templestowe Lower, and Malvern. The AFP raided these premises and seized steroids, money and what it called cryptocurrency-related items.

Following the arrest, the AFC charged the accused drug trafficker for importing, trafficking and possessing 66 pounds of banned drugs, including MDMA, methamphetamine, cocaine, and ketamine.

The accused played a key role in directing the operations of the criminal syndicate, which used various darknet sites, bitcoin accounts and legitimate business for the sourcing, payment, and distribution of the illicit drugs, AFP said in its official statement.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce received the courts permission to confiscate properties worth over $USD 1.40 million related to the investigation.

Read the full story on CCN.com.
Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow defends his company's proposed bid for Newmont Mining.

"There's been debate about the Nevada joint venture. That is a large part of the missing" $7 billion, he tells CNBC's Jim Cramer.

"If you put these assets together and we unlock those [billions], we can do it without issuing a single stock," he says.

Barrick Gold ABX-CA CEO Mark Bristow told CNBC on Thursday that his company and Newmont Mining NEM could more effectively boost gold mining in Nevada as a single operator, instead of as a joint venture.

The chief defended the company's competing bid to merge with Newmont. But Newmont CEO Gary Goldberg is interested in merging with Goldcorp G-CA for $10 billion and would rather form a joint venture with Barrick Gold to mine in Nevada.

"There's been debate about the Nevada joint venture. That is a large part of the missing billions," Bristow said in an interview with "Mad Money's" Jim Cramer. "Maybe he's being a little defensive on the bigger deal, but what he has said to the market and what we are engaged with right now is can we find a way to deliver real value out of Nevada where all this conversation started and then we can worry about the rest later."

Barrick Gold has said its proposal to merge in an all-share transaction has $7 billion net present value of real synergies. The deal would give Barrick 55 percent and Newmont 45 percent of economic interest, according to analyst consensus. It also proposes that both companies would have an equal amount of representation on the management and technical committees.

Nevada is "capable of delivering a lot more" in gold mining, Bristow said. His company reported producing 4.5 million ounces of gold in 2018. Barrick Gold contends Nevada, where about 76 million ounces are available, could be worth a lot more under one operator.

"If you put these assets together and we unlock those [billions], we can do it without issuing a single stock," Bristow said.

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GENEVA (Reuters) - BMW's ambitions to establish China as a hub for exporting electric cars are in limbo because of uncertainty over potential trade tariffs between China and the United States, company executives told Reuters.

BMW has factories in Europe, China and the United States and plans to establish China, the world's largest market for electric cars, as an export hub for such vehicles, given its lower labor costs and support for zero-emission cars.

But Washington and Beijing are locked in a trade dispute, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to increase tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on $200 billion of Chinese goods if the two sides can't reach a deal.

The uncertainty is making it hard for BMW to take a decision about exports, chief executive Harald Krueger said.

"We have no basis for taking a decision at the moment. Whether this is financially viable and whether it makes sense needs to be evaluated," Krueger told journalists at the Geneva car show.

BMW bought a majority stake in its Chinese joint venture partner Brilliance last year and announced plans to build an electric version of its X3 sport-utility vehicle at the venture's plant in China.

So far, BMW has no other plans to produce the electric X3 in other markets, so that it can ramp up economies of scale in a technology that has so far proven to be a low margin business.

BMW has also signed a memorandum of understanding with China's Great Wall to build an electric version of the Mini.

Whether an electric Mini could be exported from China is an open question, Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW's board member responsible for Mini told Reuters in an interview.

"Thats probably the most strategic question we discussed over the past two or three years. With all the uncertainty around tariffs. I wouldnt be able to give you a good answer of what will happen. The only option is to put yourself in a situation where you can react."

China's size and government regulations favoring locally produced electric cars make it worthwhile for BMW to pursue the alliance with Great Wall to build a Mini in China.

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But BMW is still undecided where to have Mini's export hub for electric cars. It has the option of building electric Mini's in Oxford, England, Born the Netherlands and in China, Schwarzenbauer said.

"If China export is something that can be done easily, we could export much more out of China. If this becomes difficult, we have to balance it with Oxford and Born."

(Reporting by Edward Taylor and Costas Pitas; Editing by Mark Potter)
SAO PAULO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Brazil's mining regulator has ordered Vale SA to suspend activity at its Fabrica and Vargem Grande complexes, the iron ore miner said late on Wednesday, as authorities crack down after last month's fatal dam break.

In a statement, Vale said the ANM mining regulator ordered the suspension in light of the possible failure of five dams at the mining sites in the interior state of Minas Gerais. In late January, a tailings dam at Vale's Corrego do Feijao mine failed in the same state, likely killing more than 300 people.

Since then, both authorities and mining companies have stepped up scrutiny of so-called upstream dams, which have been subject to multiple high-profile failures in recent years.

In a statement, Vale said it was abiding by the regulator's decision but was asking the body for permission to dismantle the dams, while continuing some operations at the mine, "which would bring about limited impacts on production."

The miner did not offer an estimate on how much production likely would be lost. However, the company had previously planned to maintain operations at Fabrica via dry mining, which eliminates the need for upstream dams. The company estimated that plan would result in 3 million tonnes of lost production in 2019. (Reporting by Jose Roberto Gomes; Writing by Gram Slattery)
(Bloomberg) -- A year ago, Chinas largest technology companies were lambasted for posting job ads seeking male employees by using good-looking female workers to try to lure coders. The giants scrubbed their posts in response.

Yet the next generation of Chinas tech superstar wannabes apparently havent gotten the message.

On the countrys two largest job websites -- Liepin and Zhaopin -- thousands of ads for internet companies use language that suggests bias based on appearance, gender or age. That includes postings for U.S.-listed online education site LAIX Inc. as well as UniCareer and iZhaohu. Some ask candidates to have presentable facial features or be under the age of 30. More than 1,000 postings used beauty as bait, with many boasting that they employ good-looking men and women.

The prevalence of the posts, more than a year after the #Metoo movement became a global phenomenon, highlights the challenges China faces in enforcing fair hiring practices. This approach to filling tech positions contrasts with President Xi Jinpings pledge to fight against workplace discrimination amid a shrinking workforce, even as the country cracks down on feminist activists and scrapes the web of #Metoo content.

Chinese tech companies are falling behind western peers and need better awareness of equal opportunity and more clearly defined policies banning discrimination, said Wang Yaqiu, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, a non-profit group that has conducted studies about the issue in China. Discriminatory practices can be even worse at smaller companies because they lack the scrutiny that publicly traded companies are under.

Liepin and Zhaopin dont generate the job listings, instead acting as conduits in publicizing positions. Liepin didnt respond to email queries to its investor relations units email address. Zhaopin said in an emailed statement that it doesnt allow discriminatory terms in recruitment ads.

Zhaopin also said it has made efforts to check posted ads and to ensure they dont violate related laws in China, adding that job seekers can flag violations.

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The ads from the startups come after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc., the powerhouses of Chinas internet, were criticized for posting jobs open only to men. They removed the ads, with Tencent and Baidu apologizing. Alibaba said it implements strict policies on equal opportunity.

Lacking Enforcement

China bans job discrimination based on gender and stipulates the importance of equal opportunity. Yet a lack of enforcement means theres few repercussions to discriminatory hiring practices.

Many of the job posts are for positions where looks should be considered irrelevant -- programmers, assistants or administrative staff. Shanghai-based iZhaohu, a hiring platform for on-demand nurses, said it has attracted series A investment. Its job postings requested that applicants have presentable facial features for nursing positions.

iZhaohu didnt respond to email queries for comment sent to the general address on its website.

Even though looks seemingly are irrelevant, Chinese internet companies like to use these catch phrases a lot, said Lion Niu, a Beijing-based senior consultant at headhunter CGL Consulting, which counts Alibaba and Meituan Dianping among its clients. In some divisions that are male dominant, companies still think by hiring a woman, they can boost morale for the coders.

Companies still use beauty as bait. LAIX, a $600 million U.S.-listed online education platform also known as Liulishuo, said in its ad that the company had foreign and Chinese beauties and hunks in trying to hire software engineers. LAIX said the language it used was in no way trying to discriminate based on looks yet to emphasize that the company is an international outfit with vitality. The company also said it would change the language in its ads and has been working toward equal opportunity in the workplace.

UniCareer, an online education platform that has attracted C-round fundraising, said in its ads that it has so many beauties working there that they were as numerous as clouds in the sky. UniCareer didnt respond to queries to its general email addresses.

Attractiveness Sells

Its part of human psychology to place importance on appearance when hiring, according to Catherine Hakim, a professorial research fellow at Civitas, a London think tank and author of Honey Money: Why Attractiveness is the Key to Success. According to her research, the #Metoo movement hasnt changed the significance that people place on looks when it comes to hiring, promotions and daily interactions at work. Attractive men and women earn about 20 percent more than others, on average, Hakim said.

It is a mistake to think that your appearance is not important in professional jobs, said Hakim. I realize it sounds old-fashioned for employers to prefer attractive employees, but research shows that in the 21st century this is actually sound common sense.

Susan T. Fiske, a professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University in New Jersey, has another view. She says the tendency to think that physically appealing people are more successful doesnt mean companies should incorporate such notions into hiring policies.

Everyone enjoys looking at an attractive person, its rewarding. People refer to attractive people as eye candy, Fiske said. Yet judging people on any superficial feature is not only wrong but dumb because its a waste of human capital.

Economic Imbalance

Providing more job opportunities for women could result in economic benefits. China could add as much as $2.6 trillion to annual GDP by 2025, a 13 percent jump, by improving gender parity to match the best in the Asia Pacific region, according to a 2018 report by McKinsey & Co. While China has a relatively high female-to-male labor-force participation ratio, the proportion of women in leadership positions remains low, the report said.

Overall, there has been no substantial advance in womens equality in recent years, according to the McKinsey report. China can build on its emerging strength in womens entrepreneurship in the e-commerce and technology sectors to continue to encourage more women into professional and technical fields and into leadership positions.

While gender equality has a long way to go worldwide -- globally men hold 62 percent of management positions -- its the blatant bias in hiring in China that stands out.

Much is also rooted in culture. Even today, Chinese companies and investors bond over drinking in karaoke parlors accompanied by female escorts. While bigger firms are starting to clean up their act and implement best practices, smaller companies -- often fixated on growth and expansion--are unapologetic about age preferences, said Niu, adding that clients show greater preference for young men when it comes to coding and engineering positions.

The more intense workload at smaller startups and lack of corporate governance are all reasons why gender and age discrimination is worse among startups, Niu said.

When it comes to age discrimination, Chinas tech industry isnt alone. Silicon Valley is often criticized for the idealization of youth. In China, though, the bias begins even younger, with the cut-off age sometimes topping out at 25. And these companies are notorious for taxing workdays that demand a so-called 996 schedule: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week.

Aukey, an e-commerce operator in Shenzhen, limited applications for its platform operations to those between ages 20 to 25. Food Leader, a grocery-delivery company founded by ex-Alibaba and Tencent employees, said it has raised 30 million yuan. It restricted hiring for its grocery-selection operations manager to those ages 25 to 30. Aukey and Food Leader didnt respond to email queries to their general email addresses and phone lines.

When companies dont get punished or dont get sufficiently punished for discriminatory practices theres little incentive for them to have greater awareness, Wang said. China needs a better enforcement mechanism.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lulu Yilun Chen in Hong Kong at ychen447@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Jodi Schneider

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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(Repeats to a additional customers with no changes to text)

By Dave Sherwood and Fabian Cambero

SANTIAGO, March 5 (Reuters) - With the global race to secure lithium heating up in 2016, Chile's president Michelle Bachelet wanted to be sure her country seized the moment. Home to half the world's lithium reserves, Chile tapping its state-run miner Codelco to ramp up production seemed a sure bet.

Chile's most trusted public enterprise, she said, could hunt for private partners to help it mine its own lithium for the good of all Chileans, and take part in the global boom for the battery metal used to power electric vehicles.

A review of regulatory filings, court documents and interviews with Codelco officials shows the strategy was deeply troubled from the start. Dwindling support inside Codelco to prioritize lithium projects over copper, company insiders said, was compounded by legal and regulatory hurdles that stalled development of the companys two flagship salt flats known as Pedernales and Maricunga.

As a result, Codelco has yet to find a partner for either project years into the initiative to boost output of the metal. Global automakers, meanwhile, are planning a $300 billion surge in spending on electric vehicle technology, including the vital battery technology, over the next five to 10 years. https://tmsnrt.rs/2Azl09N

Codelcos projects, once thought a shoo-in to boost global supply and lower prices, have largely fallen off forecasts, and Chile has ceded its position as the worlds top producer of lithium to Australia.

The stagnation means lithium supply from Chile, the worlds second largest producer of the white metal, will hinge on the water-constrained Atacama salt flat, home to privately held top producers SQM and Albemarle. Authorities are weighing water conservation measures at Atacama that could crimp Lithium output.

As the worlds largest copper miner, Codelco officials told Reuters they felt they had to choose between two metals, and it was an easy decision. Any enthusiasm for former President Bachelet's lithium drive fizzled once the center-right government of Sebastian Pinera took over from Bachelet last year, according to the Codelco officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss the projects.

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Pineras government focused Codelco on its core Chilean copper assets and imposed an ambitious 10-year, $39 billion program to overhaul its mines, a necessity as ore grades have begun to decline for much of its century-old deposits.

One top Codelco official told Reuters the lithium business was simply "too marginal" compared with copper to warrant substantial investment given tight budget constraints. Chile's total lithium exports in 2017 were $800 million, less than one-tenth of copper revenues at Codelco, which hit $11.6 billion the same year. The sprawling public miner last year produced nearly one-tenth of the worlds copper, another key metal in the electric vehicle revolution. For a graphic, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2VoSsYG

Another high level Codelco executive said that the company had assigned "zero priority" to its lithium projects, adding it was nonetheless "going through the motions."

A third Codelco executive told Reuters several miners, which they would not name, had met with the company to discuss a potential partnership in lithium. But they had been turned off by a lack of detailed studies quantifying Codelco's assets, the person said.

Codelco, in a written response to questions submitted by Reuters, acknowledged it had faced challenges at each site but added that it was nonetheless pushing forward with plans to begin explorations and to find partners at the Maricunga and Pedernales flats.

At Maricunga, Codelco said regulators had granted it a reasonable production quota but said it needed to partner with neighbors at the site in order to make developing its comparatively small piece of the flat worthwhile. At Pedernales, Codelco said the quota it had received was insufficient to develop a long-term project, while adding that regulators had left the door open for Codelco to provide evidence for increasing output there.

Codelco's struggles have thrown cold water on the conventional wisdom that partnering with a Chilean state enterprise is the best way to quickly and efficiently move a project forward in the countrys tightly controlled lithium industry. That has left potential investors with few other options, said Juan Carlos Guajardo, of Santiago consultancy Plusmining.

"There just isnt much space for newcomers," Guajardo said. "Codelco could have done something about that...but progress has been slow."

TWO FLATS, ZERO PROGRESS

Chiles mining ministry has called Maricunga and Pedernales among the most "economically viable" for development of Chiles salt flats after Atacama, which currently supplies nearly 40 percent of the worlds lithium. While neither flat boasts the reserves of Atacama, each has relatively high concentrations of lithium beneath their white, salt-encrusted surfaces, according to promotional materials distributed by Chile's mining ministry.

But the state miner has faced lawsuits from a competing miner at its Maricunga project, delaying progress, and is grappling with regulators who express skepticism about its Pedernales salt flat and the amount of lithium it can yield. As a result, the company has yet to secure a partner to help it develop either asset.

According to filings reviewed by Reuters that have yet to be reported, the company in July 2017 asked nuclear regulator CCHEN, which authorizes sales and export of lithium from Chile, for a permit to mine 137,388 tonnes of lithium metal equivalent (LME) over 36 years.

One year later, CCHEN authorized Codelco to sell just 40,000 tonnes, less than one-third its initial request, saying outdated reserve studies failed to justify the larger sum, according to a CCHEN resolution in response to the request.

Codelco appealed the decision in September, then sent lobbyists to try to change CCHENs mind the following month, according to the filings and lobbyist transparency records viewed by Reuters. CCHEN has requested more information of the miner.

"The quota weve been given wont permit us to seek a partner" at Pedernales, Codelco representatives told CCHENs director at the October meeting at the regulators offices, the minutes show.

Codelco told Reuters it had work to do at Pedernales.

"Pedernales doesnt have logistical issues. Its quotais insufficient and requires further geological exploration in order to modify it. Currently, the focus at Codelco is on the development of Maricunga.

The copper giant has fared little better there, however.

Though the company has secured rare export permits at Maricunga, it owns just 18 percent of mining rights at the 145 sq. km site, according to 2018 mining ministry data, forcing it to seek out its neighbors as partners.

Minera Salar Blanco, a joint venture that also holds mining rights at Maricunga, had once hoped to team with Codelco and begin mining the flats. But the company, 50 percent-owned by Australias Lithium Power International, with smaller stakes held by Canadas Bearing Lithium, instead filed a lawsuit last year to block Codelco from developing its holdings, alleging its permits had been issued in error.

The private miner eventually dropped the suit and has struck off on its own, leaving Codelco with just a sliver of the flat and no partner as of yet to help in its development.

Salar Blanco delivered its environmental impact study to Chilean authorities in September - with no help from Codelco  in order to win approval to develop their property. It now plans to begin construction of its own Maricunga project early in 2020.

Jaime Alee, a Chilean lithium consultant who has advised foreign investors on opportunities in the local market, said outsiders like Salar Blanco were starting to get the message.

"Associating with a state enterprise creates more problems than it solves," Alee said.

(Editing by Amran Abocar and Edward Tobin)
FILE PHOTO: ABN AMRO bank is seen amongst other buildings in this aerial shot of the Zuidas area in Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Cris Toala Olivares/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in two Dutch banks and Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) fell on Tuesday after media reports about a money laundering network alleged to have channelled billions of euros from Russia.

The share price falls followed a report by a collective of European news outlets called the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) which was based on what it said were leaked documents detailing transactions worth more than $470 billion (356.7 billion pounds) sent in 1.3 million transfers from 233,000 companies.

Reuters has not been able to confirm any of the details contained in the OCCRP report.

Austrian anti-corruption prosecutors said they were examining money-laundering allegations after receiving a complaint against unknown parties, a spokeswoman said when asked about the media reports.

RBI, whose shares were down 13.9 percent at 1350 GMT, said it "is not familiar with the concrete allegations and does not have any further information on the content of the complaint".

"RBI takes the allegations in the media very seriously and is conducting an internal investigation," the bank said in an emailed statement.

Dutch magazine de Groene Amsterdammer, part of the OCCRP collective, alleged that Dutch banks ING, ABN Amro and unlisted Rabobank had facilitated several hundred million euros in improper payments.

Majority state-owned ABN Amro, which last month said it had stepped up its efforts against money laundering and other criminal activities, said the reports were not related to its business now.

Its shares were down 1.9 percent at 13:50 GMT.

ING, whose shares were down 2.8 percent at 13:51 GMT, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ING paid a record $900 million fine in September for failing to spot criminal use of its accounts for years.

Rabobank, which was fined 1 million euros in September for failing to catch money laundering by clients, said it would not comment on specific transactions. It said it adheres to international anti-money laundering rules.

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RBS, which acquired a business from ABN Amro in 2008, said it could not comment on specific transactions but took allegations of money laundering "seriously".

"We are committed to combating financial crime and money laundering in line with our regulations and have controls and safeguards in place to identify, assess, monitor and mitigate these risks," RBS said in a statement.

TROIKA DIALOG

The OCCRP report alleged that the transactions originated from Troika Dialog, once Russia's largest private investment bank, and involved Lithuanian banks used to channel the funds to banks in the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, among others,

Russia's Sberbank, which bought Troika Dialog in 2011, said it was not involved.

"The facts laid out in the article neither have, nor had, any relation to Sberbank," a spokeswoman said. "Sberbank group companies did not take part in supporting these operations.

An offshore shell company at the centre of the operation enabled Troika to transfer $4.6 billion into and $4.8 billion out of the system between 2006 and early 2013, the OCCRP report said.

Among the counterparties on these transactions were major Western banks including Citigroup, Raiffeisen, and Deutsche Bank, it said.

Citigroup declined to comment on the report.

Meanwhile Deutsche Bank, whose shares were down 1.2 percent at 13:52 GMT, said it always cooperates with authorities, and could not comment on specific transactions with other banks.

"It is first and foremost the task of the respondent bank to check its customers," a spokesman said. "In our role as a correspondent bank, we have only limited access to information about the customers of the respondent bank."

(Reporting by Helen Reid and Sinead Cruise in London, Bart Meijer in Amsterdam, Micheal Shields and Kirstin Knolle in Zurich, Tom Balmforth and Tatiana Voronova in Moscow, Andreas Framke in Frankfurt; Writing by Anthony Deutsch; editing by Jason Neely and Alexander Smith)
(Bloomberg) -- Senator Elizabeth Warren on Friday laid out a detailed plan for breaking up Facebook Inc., Google, and Amazon.com Inc., which she said have become so big and powerful that theyre damaging the U.S. economy and American democracy.

Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, joins a growing chorus across the political spectrum voicing concern about the power of Silicon Valley and proposing some kind of government action. But her proposal is notable for a few reasons. First, Warren is running for president, and her decision to stake out a spot as a strong tech critic is an indicator of what Silicon Valley can expect as the 2020 campaign heats up. Warren also not only expressed a desire to break up big tech companies, but articulated what should come afterwards  unusual detail for a public official trying to win votes in a broad, national election.

At the center of Warrens is the argument that certain parts of the tech industry have become utilities. The services these companies provide are so ubiquitous and essential that theyre now similar to electricity and water: basics for human existence that must have their supply and price regulated for the benefit of society. This isnt necessarily a new idea -- Donald Trumps former adviser Stephen Bannon suggested this. When their companies were young, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos are said to have described their aspirations to turn their businesses into utilities, although neither has expressed much enthusiasm about being regulated like one.

People who watch the tech industry have also been developing the tech-platform-as-public-utility argument for almost a decade. It featured prominently in The Amazon Paradox, a 2017 article published in Yale Law Review that is often credited with kicking off a wave of antitrust energy directed at Silicon Valley. The articles author, Lina Khan, argued that it was logical to apply some form of public utility regulation to the e-commerce company because so many independent businesses rely on Amazons platform, even as they compete with other parts of Amazon. (Kahn recently joined the Democratic staff of a House Judiciary subcommittee focused on antitrust.)

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Warren proposes legislation that would define companies offering online marketplaces as public utilities if their annual global revenue exceeds $25 billion. They would be required to spin off any parts of their business that also participated on the platform, couldnt share data with third parties, and would have to treat participants on their platforms in a fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory way. Companies running some smaller platforms would face similar requirements, but wouldnt have to sell off businesses that used their services, according to her proposal.

For Alphabet Inc.s Google, both its search engine and its ad exchange would be classified as platform utilities, and would have to be separated from the companys other properties. This would address one of the main antitrust complaints smaller competitors have made about Google  that it has cut them off by designing its search engine to promote other Google services. While Warren doesnt identify a specific agency in charge of enforcing these rules, she said that private citizens and state and federal officials could sue companies that run afoul of them, with penalties reaching as much as five percent of annual revenue.

Warren also named a handful of mergers that she would look to unwind, including Amazons purchase of Whole Foods and Zappos, Facebooks acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram, and Googles deals for Waze, Nest, and DoubleClick.

At an event on Friday evening in Long Island City, Queens, which Amazon had selected as the site of a major campus before it backed out amid local opposition, Warren quipped: I understand you had a visitor. Amazon came. Amazon left. That is the problem in America today. We have these giant tech companies that think they rule the earth.

Regardless of their feelings about tech companies, Republicans are likely to oppose any plan based on such a sweeping increase in government regulation. They made their hostility toward the idea of expanding the definition of public utility clear in another debate that has dominated the technology policy world  the one over net neutrality. The GOP has been almost unanimous in calling Obama-era net neutrality rules that classified the internet as a utility as a government takeover.

The immediate effect of those rules made telecom companies including Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Corp. treat online traffic equally  rules the companies said they supported anyway. Dismantling some of the most successful private enterprises in U.S. history would be far more radical. While Warrens proposal aims to end monopolies, public utility regulation is usually an acknowledgement that monopolies naturally occur in some markets and the best thing to do is to come up with a way to live with them. Maybe it makes sense to run just one set of phone wires to a town, then rely on the government to make sure the company that does so doesnt abuse the lack of competition by gouging customers or blocking access for potential rivals.

Getting these ideas moving will be a heavy lift in a country which celebrates entrepreneurship in the way the U.S. does. But progressive advocates for significant action on big tech see Warrens proposal as the end of the beginning for Big Tech. You have a presidential candidate coming out and saying that we need to break up Facebook, Google, and Amazon, and putting out detailed thoughts on it, said Matt Stoller, policy director at the Open Markets Institute, a group pushing for aggressive antitrust action. This is an important beginning step in the discussion about how we take them apart.

The industry isnt happy about it. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a research group that has received funding from several large tech companies and other industry groups, said on Friday that Warrens proposal reflects a big is bad, small is beautiful ideology run amok.The proposal ignores the fact that many of the services big tech companies now provide free used to cost consumers money, ITIF President Rob Atkinson said. Breaking up large internet companies just because they are large wont help consumers. It will hurt them by reducing convenience, reducing quality of service and innovation, and in some cases leading to the introduction of priced services.

Warren is already trying to head off criticism that she wants to replace Silicon Valleys innovative capitalism with a dreary socialized version of the internet. She said that Googles search engine and Amazons online stores will operate largely the same as they do today from a consumer perspective. Behind the scenes, the actions will revive the competition that fuels the internet economy, she argued, just as action against Microsoft Corp. led to the rise of Google. Healthy competition, Warren wrote, can solve a lot of problems.

(Updates with Warren comments in eighth paragraph)

--With assistance from Krista Gmelich.

To contact the author of this story: Joshua Brustein in New York at jbrustein@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alistair Barr at abarr18@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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FILE PHOTO: The logo of Italian oil and gas group Eni is seen on the facade of its headquarters in Rome, Italy, December 23, 2017. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/File Photo

By Stephen Jewkes and Pamela Barbaglia

MILAN/LONDON (Reuters) - Italy's Eni and Edison have emerged as the strongest suitors to buy utility Ascopiave's retail customers as they prepare rival bids for a business worth up to 600 million euros (515.4 million pounds), sources told Reuters.

Ascopiave, one of Italy's biggest gas utilities, is looking to sell a majority stake of a portfolio of more than 700,000 clients as it seeks to focus on its gas distribution network business in the north east of Italy.

Its portfolio is one of the largest still up for grabs in the Italian market, six sources said.

"It's a valuable portfolio because we're talking about regulated market customers who are loyal and have not switched to competitors," one of the sources said.

Italy's retail gas and electricity market is due to be fully liberalised in July 2020 and energy companies are vying for market share ahead of that date.

Two sources close to the matter said Ascopiave's management was planning to put its client base in a vehicle for a six year period and sell a majority stake. It would have a put option to gradually sell down the rest.

"That could impact the valuation since synergies in this kind of deal mean migrating clients quickly to your system," one of the sources said.

Ascopiave, which is being advised by Rothschild, has asked bidders to submit indicative offers by a deadline of April 15 with binding bids expected by the end of July, the sources said.

Ascopiave, Eni and Edison declined to comment.

Based in the affluent Veneto region, Ascopiave is owned by more than 90 local municipalities. It has core earnings of about 50 million euros and could be valued at up to 600 million euros, the sources said.

Ascopiave, which launched the process to dispose of its retail clients on February 20, plans to use the proceeds to strengthen its gas distribution business.

Bidders in a position to swap distribution assets for the retail clients might have an edge, a source familiar with the matter said. In such a case the retail portfolio could be swapped in its entirety.

Edison, owned by French energy giant EDF, is considering offering distribution assets in the area to clinch a deal and has hired Mediobanca to work on an offer, two of the sources said.

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Italy's biggest regional utility A2A, which has expressed an interest in the portfolio, has grid assets in the area and could also seek a possible swap, the same sources said.

Italy's retail energy market is dominated by former power monopolist Enel, Eni and Edison.

Eni, Italy's biggest retail gas operator, is ready to bid aggressively for the portfolio to build scale in an area where its presence is limited, another source said.

Eni has hired Banca IMI, the investment bank arm of Intesa Sanpaolo, to work on its bid, he said.

"In this case it makes more sense to have an Italian adviser than an international one," he added.

Other potential bidders include Britain's Centrica, France's Engie, Spain's Iberdrola and Germany's E.ON, the sources said.

Regional utility Hera has also expressed an interest as has local energy seller Vivigas which could join the race and team up with smaller operators, the sources said.

Financial investors have been excluded from the process as Ascopiave's owners are looking for an industry player who could drive growth, the sources said.

Centrica, Engie, Iberdrola, E.ON, Hera and Vivigas did not comment or were not immediately available for comment.

(Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
(Adds EFSA reaction)

LUXEMBOURG, March 7 (Reuters) - The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) must disclose details of studies on the toxicity and carcinogenic properties of glyphosate, EU judges ruled on Thursday, cheering campaigners who want the weedkiller banned.

In a statement, the European Court of Justice's General Court said the public interest in accessing the information related not only to knowing what is or could be released into the environment, but to understanding the impact of those emissions.

Judges annulled two decisions by EFSA that denied access to details of the studies into the substance, which campaigners say should be banned. The two cases were brought by Green members of the European Parliament among others.

"EFSA welcomes the decision," the agency's spokesman said in a statement. "This case, and the Court's ruling, is important because it provides orientation for EFSA and others charged with interpreting EU legislation on public access to documents."

Glyphosate was developed by Bayer's Monsanto under the brand Roundup. It is now off-patent and marketed worldwide by dozens of other chemical groups including Dow Agrosciences and Germany's BASF.

Concerns about its safety were highlighted when a World Health Organization agency concluded in 2015 that it probably causes cancer.

In 2017, President Emmanuel Macron pledged to ban glyphosate in France within three years, rejecting a European Union decision to extend its use for five years. (Reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Brussels Editing by Francesco Guarascio, Edmund Blair and Jan Harvey)
A federal judge on Thursday sentences President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort to serve 47 months in prison.

Manafort had been convicted in the Virginia court last summer on eight counts of bank fraud, tax fraud and failing to file a foreign bank account report.

"He has lived an otherwise blameless life," the judge says of Manafort, a central figure in the special counsel's Russia probe.

A federal judge on Thursday sentenced President Donald Trump 's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort to serve 47 months in prison, a far shorter length of time than prosecutors in the case had argued for.

The decision from federal judge T.S. Ellis in Virginia comes less than a week before Manafort's second sentencing hearing in another case in Washington, D.C., district court. Both cases were brought on charges lodged by special counsel Robert Mueller in his ongoing probe of Russia's election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

Manafort is expected to serve only 38 more months of the 47-month sentence because of time he has already spent incarcerated. In addition to the sentence, Ellis ordered Manafort to pay a $50,000 fine, the lowest fine provided for by guidelines that recommended a fine between $50,000 and $24 million.

Manafort, seated in a wheelchair and clad in a green prison jumpsuit during the hearing, spoke of the hardship he has faced as a prime figure in the high-profile Mueller investigation.

"The last two years have been the most difficult for my family and I," Manafort said in his plea for compassion from the judge.

"To say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement," he said.

Before delivering his sentence, Ellis said that Manafort has "been a good friend to others, a generous person."

The judge added: "He has lived an otherwise blameless life."

Manafort had been convicted in the Virginia court last summer on eight counts of bank fraud, tax fraud and failing to file a foreign bank account report. The charges mostly pertained to Manafort's past work for Ukraine's Russia-backed president at the time, Viktor Yanukovych.

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Manafort was not convicted on 10 other criminal counts in that case, which were deadlocked by the 12-person jury.

Manafort's lawyer argued in court that the amount of time Manafort spent talking to prosecutors  50 hours in total  reflects significant cooperation in the government's investigation.

But Mueller's team said bluntly that Manafort's interviews only took so long because he misled them.

"Fifty hours with us was because he lied," prosecutor Greg Andres told Ellis. "He lied, so it took longer to provide the truth to him."

Manafort "did not provide valuable information to the special counsel that wasn't already known," Andres said.

In a sentencing memo last week, Manafort's attorneys argued that Manafort should receive a sentence "substantially below" the 19-to-24-year prison length suggested by federal guidelines. Manafort is a "first-time offender," they wrote, and noted that he admitted his guilt on separate charges launched by Mueller in Washington, D.C., federal court.

Ellis apparently agreed that the guidelines were too high, calling the calculated range "excessive."

Still, Ellis said before delivering the sentence that he was "surprised" he did not hear Manafort "express regret" in his remarks.

Manafort's attorneys also accused the special counsel of attempting to "vilify Mr. Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon," as well as "spreading misinformation about Mr. Manafort to impugn his character in a manner that this country has not experienced in decades."

But Mueller countered in a Tuesday night filing that Manafort's request for leniency should be ignored at his sentencing, arguing that Manafort has not taken responsibility for his crimes. The special counsel also highlighted additional wrongdoing Manafort is alleged to have done since his cases began, including witness tampering and lying to investigators.

While Ellis had often been curt and impatient toward prosecutors during Manafort's three-week trial, most of his rulings before announcing Manafort's sentence appeared to favor the government's position.

Ellis reportedly shot down multiple objections from Manafort's lawyers regarding a pre-sentence report prepared by federal probation officials. The judge also declined to give Manafort any credit for accepting responsibility for his crimes.

Both the defense and the prosecution agreed to delay a decision about Manafort's restitution until after his second sentencing in D.C. next week.

Trump has consistently and aggressively denounced the Mueller probe as "illegal" and a "witch hunt" motivated by partisan politics. His fiery criticisms have raised alarm among Mueller's defenders, who suspect Trump may be considering a pardon for Manafort or other targets of the Russia probe.

"It's very sad, what happened to Paul," Trump said of Manafort in November. "I have not offered any pardons," he said at that time, but added, "I'm not taking anything off the table."

New York authorities are reportedly prepping charges against Manafort if Trump does pardon his crimes.





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The logo of Russia's oil company Rosneft is pictured at the Rosneft Vietnam office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam April 26, 2018. Picture taken April 26, 2018. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

By Olga Yagova and Dmitry Zhdannikov

MOSCOW/LONDON (Reuters) - Rosneft is opening a trading arm in Singapore as part of a pivot to Asia, the world's biggest and fastest-growing energy-consuming region, where the Russian state oil major plans to manage new projects and boost oil sales.

Six sources familiar with Rosneft's strategy told Reuters the arm, Rosneft Singapore, had been registered at the end of 2018 and that several employees would relocate from Moscow during the spring and summer of 2019.

The office will likely be run by Andrey Bogatenkov, currently the first deputy head of crude and product exports for Rosneft in Moscow, three of the six sources said.

"The fact that Rosneft plans to appoint a key crude and products trader as the head of its Singapore branch means it is really betting big on the region," a trader at a Western oil major working on the Russian crude oil market said.

Rosneft said it was not immediately able to comment.

Russia's coveting of the eastern oil market dates to the middle of the last decade. Back then, Russia, the world's second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, was shipping most of its oil to Europe.

Rosneft and pipeline monopoly Transneft borrowed tens of billions of dollars from China to construct the first direct pipeline to the country and later expanded it to add a major export terminal on the Pacific, Kozmino.

The shift towards consumers such as China and India accelerated in recent years as Asia showed steady import growth and Russia came under Western sanctions over its actions in Ukraine.

The sanctions complicated Western lending to Moscow, forcing Rosneft to borrow more from Asian energy consumers.

The share of Russian crude exports heading east rose to 36 percent in 2018 from 31 percent in 2017, according to the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies.

Rosneft is run by a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, Igor Sechin, who pledged in 2017 to open offices in Singapore and has significantly boosted the company's presence in Asia.

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Rosneft's crude oil exports to Asia-Pacific markets reached 51 million tonnes, or 1 million barrels per day, in 2018 - about half of the producer's foreign sales, the Russian Energy Ministry says.

In 2017, Rosneft signed a long-term supply deal with China's CEFC and increased supplies to the country under a new inter-government agreement.

TRADING AMBITIONS

Rosneft had long planned to buy a major oil trading division to compete with companies such as BP and Shell.

At some point it agreed to purchase the oil trading unit of U.S. bank Morgan Stanley, but the deal was derailed by sanctions.

The company subsequently developed a Swiss trading arm, Rosneft Trading, which focuses mostly on supplying Rosneft's refineries in Germany.

Rosneft also formed a broad alliance with Swiss commodities firm Trafigura to further boost its trading activity.

The two firms co-own a refinery in India, and Trafigura has been selling a significant share of Rosneft's oil on global markets. The opening of the Rosneft branch in Singapore represents another attempt to further boost trading.

"Rosneft wants to claw back some volumes and deal directly with many customers in Asia," a source familiar with Rosneft's strategy said.

(Writing by Olga Yagova; Editing by Dale Hudson)
FILE PHOTO: The Yelp Inc. logo is seen in their offices in Chicago, Illinois, March 5, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Young

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

(Reuters) - SQN Investors LP dropped its threat of challenging Yelp Inc's board of directors on Thursday, after the company unveiled steps to improve returns that echoed plans the hedge fund had proposed, according to a letter SQN sent to Yelp.

Yelp, the online review company, moved last month to address criticism that it was not doing enough in response to a plunge in advertising revenue. It announced planned cost savings and added three independent directors to its board.

In the letter sent on Thursday and seen by Reuters, SQN praised Yelp for its plan to deliver double-digit revenue growth for the next five years, the changes to its board, and a commitment to buy back $500 million worth of stock.

"Considering the numerous changes made or announced by the company, and the stated financial targets for 2019 and 2023, we are prepared to support the newly refreshed Board and refrain from nominating director candidates for election at the 2019 Annual Meeting," Amish Mehta, SQN's founder, wrote.

SQN, which bets on tech companies and is not traditionally an activist investor, will not be submitting its own nominees to Yelp's board this year after the company outlined a plan to turn business around. The hedge fund sent its letter just before the deadline to nominate directors.

Even so, the hedge fund said much work is left to be done to fulfill Yelp's recently adopted promises. Selling the company may still be necessary if management cannot deliver on a planned turnaround, the fund added, moderating its earlier call for the company to be put up for sale.

A source familiar with Yelp's strategy said this week that the company is not running any process to sell itself. Yelp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SQN urged Yelp to appoint one of the three new directors as its board chair to hold "management accountable to performance targets."

These include cutting costs by moving some staff out of high-cost centers like San Francisco and considering partnerships, including a potential move with ANGI Homeservices, that could help boost revenue.

Most important, however, may be boosting returns and achieving a mid-teens compound annual growth rate from 2019 to 2023, the hedge fund said. "This implies adding roughly $1 billion in revenue or essentially doubling the size of Yelp by 2023," the letter said.

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SQN, which invests roughly $1.1 billion, is Yelp's fourth largest investor, according to Refinitiv data, having first bought into the company four years ago and now holding a 4 percent stake.

Late last year, SQN's patience snapped against a backdrop of financial underperformance by Yelp under its co-founder and chief executive Jeremy Stoppelman. Yelp's stock tumbled 45 percent in the five years ended on Dec. 7, 2018, while the S&P 500 index gained 62 percent, SQN wrote in an earlier letter.

SQN called for changes in a 112-page presentation released in January, arguing that Yelp's share price could jump to $65 if the company followed its road map. The stock closed at $35.93 on Wednesday, giving the company a market capitalization of $3 billion.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in New York; Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler)
FILE PHOTO: A finished Ford Focus is seen at a Ford Sollers, U.S. carmaker Ford's joint venture with Russian partners, factory in Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad region, Russia July 7, 2015. REUTERS/Igor Russak

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's industry ministry expects Ford Motor Co to make decisions this year stemming from a review of its business in Russia, the ministry told Reuters on Wednesday.

Earlier Reuters reported Ford is considering closing two plants in Russia as part of its global plan to restructure operations in unprofitable regions.

The ministry said in a statement supplied to Reuters that it had been informed that shareholders are reviewing the company's business plans in Russia. It said that currently Ford's plants in Russia are operating normally.

(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Polina Nikolskaya; Editing by Christian Lowe)
Global Market Report

Asia

After a recent strong run, China shares went abruptly into reverse today as export data brought worries over global growth to the fore.

After a move above 3,000 points, taking the index back into bull market territory, the Shanghai Composite Index slipped nearly 4.5% to close at 2,969 points.

Japans Nikkei shed 2% on the day to close just above 21,000 points, a level it breached in mid-February.

Europe

Stock markets in Europe caught the chill from Asia, with main indices in Germany and France adding to yesterdays losses, with mining companies and carmakers falling.

Investors are still digesting Thursdays ECB meeting in which growth forecasts were hacked down to 1.1% for the year

The FTSE 100 was lower, edging back below 7,100 points.

Troubled retailer Debenhams (DEB) saw a jump in its share price on news of a possible rescue.

North America

US jobs data for February dominates the global economic agenda data. Ahead of the market open, the non-farm payrolls are forecast to have grown by 180,000, lower than the 340,000 seen in January. But there is always the prospect of a surprise jump in the job numbers to excite dollar bulls.

Canadian employment numbers are out at the same time, with a slight dip expected for February jobs. The unemployment rate is forecast to stay steady at 5.8%.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies at a House Judiciary Committee hearing examining Google and its Data Collection, Use and Filtering Practices on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Young

By David Shepardson and Paresh Dave

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Google has "no plans" to relaunch a search engine in China though it is continuing to study the idea, Chief Executive Sundar Pichai told a U.S. congressional panel on Tuesday amid increased scrutiny of big tech firms.

Lawmakers and Google employees have raised concerns the company would comply with China's internet censorship and surveillance policies if it re-enters the Asian nation's search engine market.

Google's main search platform has been blocked in China since 2010, but the Alphabet Inc unit has been attempting to make new inroads into the country, which has the world's largest number of smartphone users.

"Right now, there are no plans to launch search in China," Pichai told the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.

But he added that internally Google has "developed and looked at what search could look like. Weve had the project underway for a while. At one point, weve had over 100 people working on it is my understanding."

Pichai said there are no current discussions with the Chinese government. He vowed that he would be "fully transparent" with policymakers if the company brings search products to China.

In a letter in August to U.S. lawmakers, Pichai said providing such a search engine would give "broad benefits" to China but that it was unclear whether Google could launch the service there.

A Chinese government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters last month that it was unlikely Google would get clearance to launch a search service in 2019.

Pichai did not say what steps Google would take to comply with Chinese laws if it re-entered the market.

Under questioning from Democratic Representative David Cicilline, Pichai said he would "happy to engage" to discuss legislation that would empower the Federal Trade Commission to address discriminatory conduct online.

Cicilline told Pichai it was "hard for me to imagine that you could operate in the Chinese market under the current government framework and maintain a commitment to universal values, such as freedom of expression and personal privacy."

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The company's rivals in shopping and travel searches have long complained about being demoted in Google search results.

Much of the House hearing focused on Republican concerns that Google's search results are biased against conservatives and that the company had sought to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Democrats rejected that claim as "fantasy," and at least one said the search results highlighted more conservative voices.

Pichai said the search engine attempts to help people register to vote or find a polling place, but rejected assertions the company paid for Latino voters' transportation to polls in some states.

"We don't engage in partisan activities," Pichai told the panel.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Paresh Dave; Editing by Will Dunham and Paul Simao)
LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) - Hedge fund Odey Asset Management has launched a new commodities fund which, according to the Financial Times, has taken a short position in Rio Tinto's giant Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia.

The Odey Concentrated Natural Resources Fund, which launched on March 1, will invest in the commodity sector, using both long and short positions in a range of asset classes, but mostly equities, according to Odey's website.

A spokeswoman for Odey declined to provide details, but the Financial Times reported the largest short position of the fund was in Turquoise Hill Resources, the Canadian firm that partly owns Oyu Tolgoi.

The government of Mongolia owns 34 percent of Oyu Tolgoi with the remainder held by Turquoise Hill, which in turn is 51 percent owned by Rio Tinto.

Turquoise Hill shares have shed 46 percent over the past 12 months amid delays to an underground expansion at Oyu Tolgoi that would create one of the world's biggest copper suppliers.

At the end of last year, Rio and Mongolia signed a power supply deal, regarded as the last hurdle for the extension of the mine.

First production at the $5.3 billion underground expansion located near the southern border with China is scheduled for early next decade.

In January, Mongolia's anti-graft body said the country was working with overseas investigators to look into claims of corruption at Oyu Tolgoi. (Reporting by Eric Onstad; Editing by Mark Potter)
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on a resolution Thursday condemning anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim discrimination, and bigotry following Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omars controversial comments about the role of pro-Israel activists in the U.S. government.

This is an opportunity once again to declare as strongly as possible opposition to anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim statements, and white supremacist attitudes, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to the New York Times.

The resolution addresses the growth of hate crimes over the past few years, stating, whether from the political right, center, or left, bigotry, discrimination, oppression, racism, and imputations of dual loyalty threaten American democracy and have no place in American political discourse.

Pelosi reportedly said Thursday that the resolution is not about Omar, but about all kinds of hatred. While it does have a wider frame of condemnation, the resolution specifically mentions the idea of dual loyalty that Omar has been criticized for mentioning, especially in the context of support for the United States-Israel alliance.

Omara Minnesota Democrat and one of two Muslim women in Congresscame under fire last week for arguing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee pushes for allegiance to a foreign country. This isnt her first comment to be labeled anti-Semitic: Omar apologized for similarly controversial tweets last month while maintaining her criticism of AIPAC.

Pelosi said that while its up to Omar to explain her comments, I do not believe that she understood the full weight of her words.

Some Democrats have harshly condemned Omar for her words while others asked why the House does not equally condemn discriminatory comments made by President Donald Trump and their GOP colleagues. Thus the resolution also denounces all bigotry, anti-Muslim discrimination, and white supremacy.

The president may think there are good people on both sides, said Pelosi, referencing Trumps comments following the 2017 white supremacist march in Charlottesville. We dont share that view.
Huawei Suit Against U.S Tries to Go Where Russia Firm Failed

(Bloomberg) -- Huawei Technologies Co., the Chinese telecom giant facing multiple criminal indictments in the U.S., is expanding on a Russian companys failed legal argument to bolster its claim that American authorities have gone too far in trying to protect national security.

In a federal lawsuit filed this week in Texas, Huawei claims a U.S. ban on government purchases of its equipment violates the Constitution and could kill the company. The restrictions were imposed in 2018 because American authorities determined there was a risk Huawei products could be used by China for illegal surveillance.

While the courts last year shot down a similar protest by Russian software maker Kaspersky Lab, Huawei contends its case is different because the ban was expanded to include anyone doing business with the government. Legal experts say the lawsuit is a long shot, but the companys argument is part of its aggressive campaign to combat U.S. allegations of bank fraud, technology theft and spying.

The interesting question will be whether security concerns allow the government to exert contracting and funding influence outside of its own systems without a judicial determination, said Michael Risch, a professor at Villanova University School of Law in Pennsylvania.

Huaweis legal argument isnt without challenges.

In the Kaspersky case, the company sold software to the U.S. government until 2017, when American officials expressed concern the products could be used by Moscow to spy on federal information systems. The Department of Homeland Security directed federal agencies to remove its products from government systems and Congress then codified the ban against the Russian company under the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which President Donald Trump eventually signed.

Kaspersky filed two lawsuits: One sought a declaration that DHS harmed the companys reputation and sales without due process; The second claimed the NDAA violated the Constitutions Bill of Attainder Clause," which forbids Congress from enacting laws that inflict punishment on individuals and corporations without a trial.

Story continues

A federal judge in Washington dismissed the suits saying the bans were within the scope of government authority. A federal appeals court agreed, concluding Congress had the right to block purchase of a specific vendors software if it has legitimate security concerns, saying the ban was a prophylactic, not punitive measure.

Given the not insignificant probability that Kasperskys products could have compromised federal systems and the magnitude of the harm such an intrusion could have wrought, Congresss decision to remove Kaspersky from federal networks represents a reasonable and balanced response, the appeals court said.

Huaweis Texas lawsuit offers a new twist, arguing the U.S. extended the ban to include not just its own purchases, but to government contractors and those who receive federal money. Without due process, the Chinese company said the prohibition amounts to a death penalty for its business.

The extended reach of the ban might affect the legal analysis of whether this is an overly broad measure to address a perceived security risk, said Robert D. Williams, a Senior Research Scholar and Lecturer in Law and the Executive Director of the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School.

This is a very steep hill for Huawei to climb, Williams said. The question is whether the law is punitive or preventative -- was Congress trying to punish the company or prevent a risk? The government doesnt have to demonstrate that this is the most narrowly tailored solution it could have chosen. And courts, generally speaking, are deferential to Congress and the president on matters of national security.

American officials have long been concerned about the risk of using Huawei equipment. A 2012 report by the House Intelligence Committee urged U.S. businesses to avoid the Chinese companys products and called for blocking all mergers and acquisitions involving them.

U.S. Concerns

In January, after unveiling indictments against Huawei and its chief financial officer, FBI Director Christopher Wray outlined the potential risk of growing too dependent upon foreign technology.

These cases make clear that as a country, we have to carefully consider the risks that companies like Huawei pose if were going to allow them into our telecommunications infrastructure, Wray said. That kind of access could give a foreign government the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information, to conduct undetected espionage, or to exert pressure or control.

Huaweis billionaire founder Ren Zhengfei has dismissed U.S. accusations that the company helps Beijing spy on Western governments.

But unlike in the U.S., where companies can refuse government requests to aid in spying and can publicly contest them in court, no one would ever know if Chinese firms are cooperating with their government, said Timothy Heath, a senior international defense research analyst at the Rand Corp.

Huawei cant promise it will never be used by the Chinese government because that countrys laws and the Communist Party dictate that all domestic companies provide support to intelligence collection, Heath said.

Even if the company opposes it, those Chinese companies have no legal recourse and no way to deny the Chinese government demands, Heath said. Their promises may be sincere, but its very possible that the Chinese government can change its mind in the future. Its too big a risk.

(Corrects lawyers last name in fourth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Joel Rosenblatt, Rishaad Salamat and Yvonne Man.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Steve Stroth, Elizabeth Wollman

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

2019 Bloomberg L.P.
CHICAGO, March 7 (Reuters) - Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker pitched a graduated personal income tax rate scale on Thursday that he said would generate additional revenue of an estimated $3.4 billion for the financially challenged state.

The Democrat, who took office in January, wants to replace Illinois' current flat tax rate of 4.95 percent with rates that increase with income levels - the key component in his plan to address the state's fiscal woes.

"Instituting a fair tax as I've proposed will improve the arc of our state finances forever," Pritzker told reporters in the state capitol in Springfield, adding that he was ready to negotiate with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

A huge unfunded pension liability of $133.5 billion, along with chronic structural budget deficits, led to downgrades that pushed the state's credit ratings to a notch or two above the junk level.

Pritzker's proposed rate scale ranges from 4.75 percent for low earners to 7.95 percent for annual incomes of $1 million or more. The corporate income tax rate would rise to 7.95 percent from 7 percent. A constitutional amendment to change the tax structure would have to be placed on the ballot by a three-fifths vote in Illinois' Democratic-controlled House and Senate and approved by voters.

Senate President John Cullerton "looks forward to a comprehensive, bipartisan discussion on this issue, one that is frankly long overdue," his spokesman John Patterson said in a statement. Republican lawmakers in the House have already introduced a resolution opposing the creation of a graduated tax rate system.

The governor's announcement comes as he prepares to meet with credit rating agencies next week ahead of a $300 million general obligation bond sale in April to help fund a pension benefit buyout program.

Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings have expressed credit concerns about the nearly $39 billion fiscal 2020 general funds budget Pritzker proposed last month.

The governor's spending plan for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 includes one-time revenue measures, as well as a seven-year extension of a 50-year pension payment plan that would reduce the state's contribution to its five retirement funds by more than $800 million.

(Reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago Editing by Matthew Lewis)
A labourer carries a sack of sugar to load it onto a supply truck at a market area in Kolkata, January 25, 2019. REUTRS/Rupak De Chowdhuri/Files

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian sugar mills have contracted to export 2.2 million tonnes of sugar since the current marketing season began on October 1, a leading trade body said on Thursday.

Mills have already shipped out a little over a million tonnes of the sweetener, Praful Vithalani, president of the All India Sugar Trade Association, said.

"So far India has exported almost an equal amount of raw and white sugar for which the top three destinations are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Somalia," Vithalani said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet late last year approved incentives to encourage cash-strapped mills to export at least 5 million tonnes of sugar in the 2018/19 season to help prop up prices by trimming bulging stocks.

(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Krishna N. Das)
Paul Manafort arrives at Federal Court in Washington, D.C. for his arraignment and bail hearing on June 15, 2018. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / NLJ



A federal judge in Virginia sentenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison, a term falling more than 15 years short of the minimum term recommended by the special counsels office.



Manafort, seated in a wheelchair and wearing a prison uniform with Alexandria Inmate emblazoned on the back, received the sentence just before 7 p.m. from Judge T.S. Ellis. His appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Thursday came as he approaches a separate sentencing in Washington on charges related to his past lobbying work for the pro-Russian government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.



Manafort, speaking publicly for the first time since his indictment, didnt apologize or express remorse, and instead told Ellis he was humiliated and ashamed. He described the past two years as the most difficult he and his family had ever experienced, and thanked Ellis for his oversight of the August trial that resulted in his conviction on financial fraud charges.



Again, I want to thank you for the fair trial, Manafort said Thursday.



When it came time to impose a sentence, Ellis said he was struck by what he did not hear from Manafort: an expression of regret.



I certainly recommend that you do it in the District of Columbia, Ellis said, referring to Manaforts upcoming sentencing before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington.



Manafort had lived an otherwise blameless life. Ellis said he believed the more than 19 years in prison recommended would be excessive and create a unwarranted disparity with past sentences on similar charges.



A jury in Alexandria, Virginia, found Manafort guilty in August on eight counts of bank and tax fraud. The verdict followed a weeks-long trial in which prosecutors painted a detailed picture of Manaforts luxe lifestyle, featuring his high-end homes and a $15,000 ostrich jacket.



In the years before he joined Trumps presidential campaign, Manafort cheated the government out of millions of dollars in taxes owed on his income from his Ukrainian lobbying work, prosecutors said. And when that income stream dried up, Manafort submitted false information to banks to secure loans to prop up his lavish lifestyle.



The jury deadlocked on ten other criminal counts, but Manafort would go on to admit guilt to those as part of his September plea agreement to the separate case in Washington.



In court papers filed in Virginia, Manaforts attorneys sought to persuade the judge that Manafort accepted responsibility for his actions, and has already suffered the consequences. In response to those claims, prosecutors portrayed Manafort as a man who viewed himself as above the law.



In Washington, Jackson is scheduled to sentence Manafort on March 13 on two counts: conspiring against the United States, and conspiring to obstruct justice by tampering with witnesses.



The government is expected to tell Jackson on Wednesday whether they think the sentences should be consecutive or concurrent.



Read more:



Manafort Already Punished Substantially, Defense Lawyers Say



Manafort Repeatedly and Brazenly Violated the Law, Mueller Tells DC Judge



Amid Manafort Mess, Skaddens Brand Shows Resilience



DC Circuit Upholds Muellers Special Counsel Appointment
SINGAPORE, March 7 (Reuters) - U.S. company NextDecade Corp is offering Brent-linked supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as one of several pricing options to potential buyers and is the first U.S.-based project to do so, a senior company official said on Thursday.

The Houston-based company is offering multiple LNG pricing options including Brent indexation from its Rio Grande LNG project with full destination flexibility, said Matthew Schatzman, president and chief executive officer of NextDecade.

"We also offer Henry Hub indexation and alternative U.S. index options ... We are also exploring TTF and JKM netback pricing of producers," he said at the LNGA 2019 conference held in Singapore.

Many LNG export projects are now vying for financing amid an already crowded market, and developers are competing to offer flexible pricing options to potential offtakers.

The Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) is Europe's biggest natural gas trading hub and acts as a regional price benchmark.

The Japan Korea Marker (JKM), published by commodity pricing agency S&P Global Platts is Asia's main LNG price benchmark.

NextDecade expects a final investment decision on its Rio Grande LNG project in Brownsville, Texas, at the end of the third quarter of this year, and is planning to announce additional contracts by the end of this month, he said.

Rio Grande is a six-train facility to be sited at the Port of Brownsville, with a project cost estimated at $17.3 billion and planned final capacity of 27 million tonnes of LNG a year.

It will be supplied with natural gas from the Permian Basin, Eagle Ford Shale and other resources.

(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Henning Gloystein and Tom Hogue)
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Slight chance of a shower late. Low 56F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Slight chance of a shower late. Low 56F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
By Stephanie Kelly

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell about 1 percent on Friday after disappointing U.S. job growth revived concerns about a slowing global economy and weaker demand for oil.

With surging U.S. oil supply also unsettling markets, Brent crude futures fell 56 cents, 0.8 percent, to settle at $65.74 a barrel. The international benchmark gained 1 percent for the week.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 59 cents, or 1 percent, to settle at $56.07 a barrel. WTI still ended 0.5 percent higher for the week, however.

U.S. job growth almost stalled in February, with the economy creating only 20,000 jobs amid a contraction in payrolls in construction and several other sectors. The report dragged down U.S. stock markets, along with oil futures. [.N]

Financial markets also took a hit after comments on Thursday from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi that the European economy was in "a period of continued weakness."

"If we see equity markets continue to sink, it will eventually drag energy prices lower with it," said Brian LaRose, a technical analyst at United-ICAP.

The European and U.S. economic weakness comes as growth in Asia is also slowing.

China's dollar-denominated February exports fell 21 percent from a year earlier, representing the biggest drop in three years, far worse than analysts had expected. Imports dropped 5.2 percent.

"We've witnessed this week a rekindling of worries about demand growth," said Gene McGillian, vice president of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

So far oil demand has held up, especially in China, where imports of crude remain above 10 million barrels per day (bpd). Yet a slowdown in economic growth could eventually dent fuel consumption and pressure prices.

On the supply side, oil has received support this year from output cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Saudi Arabia's crude oil production in February fell to 10.136 million barrels per day (bpd), a Saudi industry source told Reuters.

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U.S. sanctions against the oil industries of OPEC members Iran and Venezuela have also supported futures.

But the United States is giving individuals and entities more time to wind down certain financial contracts or other agreements related to Venezuela's state-owned oil company, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude production has increased by more than 2 million bpd since early 2018 to 12.1 million bpd, making America the world's biggest producer.

Investment bank Jefferies said U.S. output growth was largely being fueled by onshore shale production, which had recently benefited from investments by Exxon Mobil and Chevron.

However, U.S. energy firms this week cut the number of oil rigs operating for a third week in a row to the lowest level in 10 months, General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said on Friday.

Hedge funds and other speculators raised their combined futures and options position in New York and London by 21,416 contracts to 155,426 in the week ended March 5, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.

GRAPHIC - Russian, U.S. & Saudi crude oil production: https://tmsnrt.rs/2EUHeFO

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London; editing by Dale Hudson, Marguerita Choy and Sonya Hepinstall)
NEW YORK, March 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Micron Technology, Inc. (Micron or the Company) (MU) and certain of its officers and directors. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and indexed under 19-cv-02136, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities, other than Defendants and their affiliates, who purchased or otherwise acquired Micron securities between September 26, 2017 and November 19, 2018, inclusive (the Class Period), seeking to pursue remedies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act).



If you are a shareholder who purchased Micron securities during the class period, you have until March 25, 2019, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Micron purports to sell high-performance memory and storage technologies, including dynamic random access memory or DRAM.

The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Companys business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the Company engaged in anti-competitive behavior, including artificially restricting supply growth of DRAM; (2) these anti-competitive efforts were reasonably likely to lead to regulatory scrutiny; (3) the Companys anti-competitive efforts artificially boosted its operating metrics; (4) as a result, the Companys financial performance, including revenue, was overstated; and (5) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants positive statements about the Companys business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

Story continues

On November 19, 2018, Financial Times reported that Chinese investigators said they had found massive evidence of anti-competitive behavior by Micron and two other companies. On this news, the Companys share price fell $2.61 per share, nearly 7%, to close at $36.83 per share on November 19, 2018, on unusually heavy trading volume.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

rswilloughby@pomlaw.com

888-476-6529 ext. 9980
March 7 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** SNC-Lavalin Group Inc Chairman Kevin Lynch voiced his frustration to Canada's top bureaucrat last October about the government's refusal to negotiate a deferred prosecution agreement, the Commons justice committee heard on Wednesday. (https://tgam.ca/2ELnyDo)

** Pengrowth Energy Corp launched a "strategic review," which it says could lead to a corporate sale, divestiture of assets, recapitalization or refinancing as the company seeks solutions for dealing with looming deadlines on its debt in a market where new borrowing is scarce. (https://tgam.ca/2ERqKNR)

** Bondfield Construction Co Ltd has applied for court protection from its creditors after facing a flood of lawsuits related to its problems completing major public-sector construction projects in Ontario. (https://tgam.ca/2EFrkhr)

NATIONAL POST

** The Alberta government has been negotiating with major oilsands players Suncor Energy Inc, Husky Energy Inc and MEG Energy Corp since late 2018 in a bid to expediently find and fund heavy oil upgrading technology that could help alleviate pressure on existing pipelines, according to documents seen by the Financial Post. (http://bit.ly/2EEzpD9) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)
HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / March 8, 2019 / The past few weeks have been busy with big bio taking over smaller biotechs developing novel therapies. Roche (RHHBY) said it would spend $4.8 billion in a buyout of Spark Therapeutics (ONCE). In January, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) unveiled a collaboration and license deal with MeiraGTx (MGTX) in eye diseases.

This week, Biogen (BIIB) pledged $800 million to acquire Nightstar Therapeutics (NITE). Smaller biotech Nightstar is testing gene therapy in rare eye diseases. Investors in NITE saw their shares climb 66% since the announcement. With that in mind, we decided to find some other companies developing therapies for rare diseases.

Today we are highlighting: Delcath Systems, Inc. (DCTH), Nightstar Therapeutics (NITE), Spark Therapeutics, Inc. (ONCE), MeiraGTx Holdings plc (MGTX), and Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. (VYGR).

A company you should consider researching, Delcath Systems, Inc. (DCTH) (Market Cap: $3.448M Share Price: $0.2551), is an interventional oncology company focused on treating liver cancers with upside potential. DCTH sponsors a global Registration clinical trial for Patients with Hepatic Dominant Ocular Melanoma called The FOCUS Trial. Approximately 4,500 patients in the U.S. and Europe are diagnosed with ocular melanoma each year. In 2018, DCTH amended The FOCUS trial to single-arm non-randomized study, raised $7 million via a rights offering, and had positive data published in European Radiology among several other milestones.

DCTH just announced they've received medical device approval for the CHEMOSAT Hepatic Delivery System (CHEMOSAT) from the national health authority in Brazil. This is a significant potential market for DCTH. According to the World Health Organization, liver and bile duct cancers account for over 10,000 deaths in Brazil annually.

This comes after DCTH entered a licensing agreement for CHEMOSAT commercialization in Europe with medac Gesellschaft fur klinische Spezialpraparate mbH (medac). Medac is a privately held, multi-national pharmaceutical company based in Hamburg area, Germany. Founded in 1970, Medac specializes in the treatment and diagnosis of oncological, urological and autoimmune diseases. The company has offices globally, worldwide partner agreements in over 90 countries, and approximately 1,200 employees.

Story continues

DCTH also announced the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) of the Registration trial for Patients with Hepatic Dominant Ocular Melanoma (The FOCUS Trial) completed another pre-specified review of safety data for treated patients in the trial. This review was conducted on data collected from both the prior randomized protocol and the amended single-arm protocol for the FOCUS Trial. The DSMB again recommended continuation of the study without modification.

_______

A couple companies who have already received agreements from big bio as mentioned above include:

Nightstar Therapeutics (NITE) (Market Cap: $850.154M; Share Price: $25.39) soared early Monday after Biogen pledged to spend $800 million to buy the gene therapy firm. The smaller biotech is working on gene therapies in rare eye diseases.

Spark Therapeutics, Inc. (ONCE) (Market Cap: $4.303B; Share Price: $113.71) received an agreement from Roche for approximately $4.3 billion at a significant premium of 122%.

_______

Another company we highlighted above, MeiraGTx Holdings plc (MGTX), (Market Cap: $600.957M; Share Price: $18.11), will receive $100 million cash upfront payment upon closing from Johnson & Johnson's Janseen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to fund all clinical development and commercialization costs of MeiraGTx inherited retinal disease gene therapy programs. Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to receive worldwide exclusive rights to commercialize product candidates for achromatopsia (ACHM) caused by mutations in either CNGB3 or CNGA3, X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP) and options to additional IRD programs.

_______

Finally, Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR) (Market Cap: $564.926M; Share Price: $17.32) announced that it has entered into an exclusive, global strategic collaboration and option agreement to develop and commercialize vectorized antibodies directed at pathological species of alpha-synuclein for the potential treatment of Parkinson's disease and other diseases characterized by the abnormal accumulation of misfolded alpha-synuclein protein with AbbVie.

Legal Disclaimer:

This article was written by Regal Consulting, LLC ("Regal Consulting"). Regal Consulting has agreed to a twelve-month term consulting agreement with DCTH dated 8/31/18. The agreement calls for $40,000 in cash, and 15,000 restricted 144 shares of DCTH per month. Issuer agreed to increase monthly cash payment in September to $120,000. All payments were made directly by Delcath Systems, Inc. to Regal Consulting, LLC. to provide investor relations services, of which this article is a part of. Regal Consulting also paid one thousand dollars cash to microcapspecultors.com to distribute this article. Regal Consulting may have a position in the securities mentioned in this article at the time of publication, and may increase or decrease its position without notice. This article is based on public information and the opinions of Regal Consulting. DCTH was given an opportunity to edit this article. This article contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any results predicted herein. Regal Consulting is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority, and does not provide or claim to provide investment advice.

http://www.regalconsultingllc.com/full legal disclaimer/

Full Legal Disclaimer Click Here.

Contact Information:

Company Name: ACR Communication LLC.

Contact Person: Media Manager

Email: info@microcapspeculators.com

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SOURCE: ACR Communication LLC





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/538468/Rare-Disease-Therapies-Draw-Big-Biopharmas-Interest




Pennsylvania State Capitol, Harrisburg. Photo: Waldteufel - Fotolia



Rep. Tina Pickett, R-Bradford, commended the Department of Health and Human Services on its launch of a new Pennsylvania Rural Health Model.



The Pennsylvania Rural Health Model is designed to help ensure that rural hospitals stay open so that sustainable access to quality health care is available and that jobs stay local.



To me, rural has always meant more time and more miles, said Pickett on March 7 at a press conference in Harrisburg to unveil the model. We need these facilities so that our residents can have access to quality health caresuch as emergency services, lab testing, rehab and treatment centerswithout having the burden of wasting time and money driving long distances.



The Rural Health Model is an alternative payment model, transitioning hospitals from a fee-for-service model to a global budget payment. Instead of hospitals getting paid when someone visits the hospital, they will receive a predictable amount of money. Payment for the global budget will include multiple-payers, including private and public insurers.



In addition to the model, Pickett has introduced legislation that would create the Rural Health Redesign Center to make a more predictable payment plan and develop a fixed budget to stabilize reimbursements.



Over 30 hospitals in Pennsylvania are at risk of closing, Pickett continued. This could result in thousands of lost jobs and a significant decrease in access to health care services for these rural communities. This program will help strengthen and provide residents with access to quality health care services, while also keeping local jobs.



Picketts legislation, House Bill 248 , is currently in the House Health Committee. Companion legislation sponsored by Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, Senate Bill 314 , is in the Senates Health and Human Service Committee.
By Tiisetso Motsoeneng

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - MTN Group announced on Thursday a $1 billion divestment program over the next three years that will slim down Africa's biggest mobile phone operator and refocus it on high-growth markets on the continent and in the Middle East.

Founded with Pretoria's help after the end of white minority rule in 1994, MTN has been one of South Africa's biggest corporate success stories, but clashes with regulators in Nigeria, Uganda and elsewhere have crimped growth.

Chief Executive Rob Shuter, hired from Vodafone in 2017, has drawn up a turnaround plan that includes shedding loss-making e-commerce assets and exiting countries where MTN has no prospect of reaching second position by market share.

At the same time, Shuter is pushing the company into mobile financial services, music streaming and mobile gaming, betting on a burgeoning young tech-savvy population to offset falling prices for basic telecoms services.

"What we really want to say to the investment community is that we've got a company with very good growth prospects and a very specific plan to simplify and modernize the group," Shuter told Reuters.

As part of the review, the South African company has agreed to sell its minority stake in Botswana's Mascom for $300 million. It sold its sole European unit in Cyprus last year.

Shuter has not named the countries that MTN was preparing to exit, but his suggestion that it would focus on high-growth, stable geographies suggest smaller businesses in Liberia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and worn-torn Syria, South Sudan and Yemen might be cut, analysts said.

MTN said its investments in tower companies and e-commerce platforms like African online retailer Jumia were valued at 40 billion rand and would be sold over time as they were not long-term strategic assets.

Shares in the company surged 15 percent to 87.39 rand, on course for their biggest one-day rise in since 2008.

"They are focusing more on telecoms, which is the business that they do, and they are trying to stay away from everything that distracts them. I don't think that's a bad thing," said Bright Khumalo, an analyst at Vestact in Johannesburg.

Story continues

PROFIT LEAPS

In the last financial year MTN reported an 85 percent surge in headline EPS, the main profit measure in South Africa, to 337 cents.

However, the bottom line is still not at even half the level MTN reported in 2015, the year before it agreed to pay a $1.7 billion fine in Nigeria for missing a deadline to cut off unregistered SIM card users.

The fine was reduced from $5.2 billion after MTN made concessions, including a promise to list its Nigeria unit.

The flotation of MTN Nigeria, which accounts for a third of MTN's core profit or EBITDA, is likely to take place by the end of June, the company said.

The unit has also been embroiled in other rows with the Nigerian authorities. It agreed to pay $53 million in December to resolve a dispute with the Central Bank of Nigeria and is involved in a court battle with the Nigerian attorney general over $2 billion in back taxes.

MTN has also faced run-ins with authorities in other countries, including Uganda, where four senior executives were deported in recent weeks on accusations of compromising national security.

(Additional reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha in LAGOS; Editing by Edmund Blair, Alexandra Zavis and Jan Harvey)
South Korea has stepped up its fight on financial crime by launching a specialist task force to tackle online fraud, money laundering, and cryptocurrency-related crimes. According to the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), the specialist task force will work in tandem with the Supreme Prosecutors Office to tackle online crime. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has revealed that fraud and cryptocurrency counterclaims have seen a 900% increase since 2016. A large number of criminal suspects have been involved in a wide range of crimes and organised crime, so we need a dedicated organisation to respond professionally and systematically, said a representative of the prosecution. We expect to maximise the efficiency of investigation by launching the task force. Japan sees huge rise

South Korea has stepped up its fight on financial crime by launching a specialist task force to tackle online fraud, money laundering, and cryptocurrency-related crimes.

According to the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), the specialist task force will work in tandem with the Supreme Prosecutors Office to tackle online crime.

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has revealed that fraud and cryptocurrency counterclaims have seen a 900% increase since 2016.

A large number of criminal suspects have been involved in a wide range of crimes and organised crime, so we need a dedicated organisation to respond professionally and systematically, said a representative of the prosecution.

We expect to maximise the efficiency of investigation by launching the task force.

By Oliver Knight  March 8, 2019

Law enforcement will also be tasked with recovering assets that are proceeds of crime. In doing so, they will improve the current system of punishing criminals and establish a rhetorical command system.

Recent reports coming from neighbouring Japan suggested that money laundering cases involving cryptocurrency were up more than 1,000%, with 7,096 transactions being reported in 2018 compared to just 669 in 2017.

Crime and cryptocurrency have often been discussed in the same light since Bitcoins inception one decade ago. This was highlighted by Ross Ulbrichts trial in the USA, where he was found guilty of running illegal drugs marketplace The Silk Road.

Ulbricht was slapped with three life sentences in a landmark case. However, there has also been a notable rise in commercial banks facilitating money laundering over the past few years, which demonstrates that the vast majority of criminal acts use fiat currencies and not cryptocurrencies.

For more news, guides, and cryptocurrency analysis, click here.

The post South Korea launches task force to tackle cryptocurrency-related crimes appeared first on Coin Rivet.
SXSW, known for its massive music festivities and focus on emerging technologies and new media, will host some of the nation's biggest retailers this year.

Companies like Walmart, Nordstrom, Macy's, Nike and Lululemon will have a presence at South by Southwest.

Digital brands like Away, Rent the Runway and StockX also will be there.

South by Southwest brings some of the biggest names in tech, film and music together in Austin, Texas, in what has become one of the wildest  and most diversely attended  conferences of the year.

This year, speakers include former Starbucks SBUX CEO Howard Schultz, Sen. Elizabeth Warren , comedian Kathy Griffin and actress/entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow. In between the glamour and geeks, companies like Walmart WMT , Macy's M , Nordstrom JWN and Kohl's KSS are sending execs to Austin to tout new technologies and how they're keeping up with the changing retail landscape.

In addition, some retailers that started out and still mostly sell online will be at this year's SXSW, which starts Friday and runs through March 17. Among them are luggage maker Away, clothing rental service Rent the Runway, apparel companies Revolve and Outdoor Voices and online marketplace StockX.

"There's been so much change in the industry in the last few years and a lot of people who have said that retail is dying," said Away's Will Williams, who is speaking on a panel. But, he added, "there's still appetite for interacting in real life ... I'm excited that [SXSW] gives us a platform to share with other industry peers and thought leaders why physical retail still matters."

Walmart is sending its Chief Technology Officer Jeremy King to talk about why stores still play an important role in the retailer's e-commerce strategy. Kohl's is sending Grace Burgio, who manages artificial intelligence for the department store chain, to discuss how AI is helping Kohl's boost in-store sales. Executives from Nike NKE and Lululemon LULU will talk about why athleisure and streetwear apparel are outperforming other fashion categories. Macy's vice president of business development for fashion, Lauren Wilner, will speak about customer loyalty and brand ambassadors.

Story continues

"2018 was a strong innovation year for Macy's. We innovate to create engaging experiences for our customers," a Macy's spokeswoman said, explaining why the company is going to SXSW this year. "And we also innovate to apply technology to customer friction points. In 2019, we will continue to innovate and explore new experiences and new content into our stores."





More From CNBC


March 8 (Reuters) - Midland crude prices on Friday firmed to the strongest in three weeks as shippers bought crude to fill a newly expanding pipeline that will bring oil from West Texas to a crude terminal in Houston, traders said.

A series of pipeline expansions and new construction have lifted Midland prices, which had tumbled last August on transport constraints to $18 a barrel below the U.S. crude benchmark, the lowest in almost four years.

West Texas Intermediate crude at Midland (WTC-WTM) on Friday traded at a 25-cents a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures, the strongest since mid-February and up from a 35-cent discount earlier this week, according to traders.

West Texas Sour (WTC-WTS), a different grade, traded at a 50-cent a barrel premium on Thursday, reflecting demand for heavier grades in the U.S. Gulf Coast, where refiners are hunting for heavy crudes to augment supplies from Mexico, Canada and Venezuela, which remain constrained.

Regional prices rose as Enterprise Products Partners LP this month began to fill its Midland-to-ECHO crude pipeline, which is increasing to 620,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 575,000 bpd, according to an investor presentation this week.

The Houston pipeline operator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Midland-to-ECHO pipeline expansion spurred additional crude purchases that lifted the price of Midland crude, traders said. The pipeline runs to Enterprise's ECHO terminal in Houston, which can store 7.4 million barrels of oil. (Reporting by Collin Eaton in Houston; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
* Expedia sees slowdown in flight bookings beyond March 29

* Thomas Cook says people delaying travel plans

* Spain hardest hit by no-deal Brexit, Turkey hoping to profit

By Caroline Copley and Ilona Wissenbach

BERLIN, March 8 (Reuters) - Travel specialists say the overseas tourism industry could lose billions over the next five years if Britain crashes out of the European Union later this month without a divorce deal.

With just three weeks to go until Britain's scheduled departure from the bloc, the two sides have yet to agree a mutually acceptable deal.

Executives at the ITB travel trade fair in Berlin said many holidaymakers were in wait-and-see mode as uncertainty over visas, insurance and whether they will need an international licence to drive in EU countries weighed on sentiment.

"Brexit is a concern," Mark Okerstrom, chief executive of online-booking platform Expedia told reporters, adding it had seen a significant slowdown in people booking flights from and to the UK beyond the scheduled March 29 departure date.

Consultancy firm Oxford Economics said a no-deal Brexit could cause a 5 percent fall in overseas travel and tourism trips by Britons in 2020. Market researcher Euromonitor said it would curb overseas spending by $5.3 billion between 2019-2025.

"We're not seeing that people aren't booking at all, but they are waiting a bit longer to make their decisions," said Christoph Debus, Chief Airlines Officer at Thomas Cook Group , adding Brexit would hit tour operators harder than airlines.

Caroline Bremner, Head of Travel Research at Euromonitor, said tour operators were trying to encourage early booking with flexible payment deals, low deposits and free child places, while some destinations, like Greece, have cut their prices.

Spain, the most popular destination for British sunseekers who accounted for 9 percent of foreign visitors last year, is seen as the biggest loser from a no-deal Brexit, which could wipe off more than $1 billion in spending between 2019-2025, according to Euromonitor.

Story continues

Seeking to protect an industry which accounts for 12 percent of its economy, Spain last week approved a decree guaranteeing British residents and tourists access to healthcare for a specific time.

Turkey, which is rebounding following bomb attacks in 2016, is pitching itself as a value-for-money destination due to the pound's relative weakness against the euro, while Tunisia is sending a delegation to a London travel fair next month.

Britain's tourism industry is also concerned that European tourists could stay away. Visit Britain warned in February of a sharp fall in European flight bookings for after March 29.

"The government needs to do more to improve sentiment towards the UK from visitors from continental Europe, which remain its largest market," Kate Nicholls, chief executive of lobby group Hospitality UK, told a hotel investment forum in Berlin.

(Additional reporting by Paul Day in Madrid; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Trinity Industries TRN announced that its board of directors has approved a new share repurchase program worth $350 million. The plan, which is effective immediately, will expire on Dec 31, 2020.

Also, the transportation company raised its quarterly dividend by 31%. Notably, this Dallas, TX-based company has been consistently rewarding its shareholders for quite some time.

Twin Shareholder-Friendly Moves

This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company hiked its quarterly dividend to 17 cents per share (annualized 68 per share) on its $0.01 par value common stock, representing a 31% improvement from the previous payout of 13 cents per share (annualized 52 cents per share). The new dividend will be paid on Apr 30, 2019, to its stockholders of record as of Apr 15. The dividend yield based on the new payout and the Mar 7s closing price is around 3%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

This latest dividend hike not only highlights Trinity Industries commitment to create value for shareholders but also underlines the companys healthy financial condition and confidence in its business going forward.

We believe that the $350 million share buyback program to be another significant move by Trinity Industries to add value to its stockholders. It follows the completion of the $350 million accelerated share repurchase (ASR) program with JPMorgan. The completion of the ASR, announced in November 2018, marks the expiration of the companys buyback authorization worth $500 million of its common stock. Notably, the $500 million buyback plan was authorized by the board in December 2017.

Trinity Industries, Inc. Price

Trinity Industries, Inc. Price | Trinity Industries, Inc. Quote

Dividend Hikes: Not Uncommon for Transports

The current tax law, which came into force in December 2017, is a boon to transports as far as investor-oriented activities like dividend payments are concerned.

Story continues

Apart from Trinity Industries, transportation players like CSX Corporation CSX, Alaska Air Group ALK and J.B. Hunt Transport Services JBHT have also announced dividend hikes in the current year.

As investors prefer an income generating stock, a high dividend yielding one is much coveted. Needless to say that investors are always on the lookout for companies with a track record of consistent and incremental dividend payments.

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Welcome back to Trump Watch. Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort was sentenced Thursday to a term of nearly four years in prison for financial fraud during a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia. Weve got some perspectives from the courtroom. Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out any time at ekim@alm.com.





U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III





Inside the hearing





The hours that led up to Paul Manafort receiving his sentence for financial crimes in Virginia were marked by uneasy tension as the onetime Trump campaign chairman, pushed into the courtroom in a wheelchair, cast himself as a chastened man.



Ultimately, at the conclusion of Thursdays hearing, Manafort was sentenced by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III to roughly four years in prison, a punishment that fell well short of the federal sentencing guideline range of 19-24 years. The term will fall closer to three years, since Ellis allowed Manafort to receive credit for the nine months hes already served.









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Manafort, who strode into court during his trial wearing suits, appeared Thursday grayer, more frayed, and confined to a wheelchair. (Manafort first appeared in Ellis courtroom in a wheelchair last year. His attorneys later said their client suffered from gout, anxiety and depression.)



Again, the courtroom was packed, as spectators and reporters alike formed a queue outside. One juror from Manaforts trial even attended the spectacle.



In court filings, Manaforts attorneys sought to cast him as a man who accepted responsibility. The special counsels office aggressively fought that notion Thursday, as prosecutor Greg Andres said Manafort's sentencing submissions were replete with blaming others.



In one exchange, as lawyers disagreed over how much credit Manafort should receive for sitting for 50 hours of cooperation, Andres told Ellis those house had amounted to nothing.



That doesnt mean that he didnt cooperate, Ellis said at one point, observing that it only meant the special counsel didnt find Manaforts information particularly valuable. Andres replied that the reason Manaforts cooperation lasted 50 hours was because he lied.



It certainly wasnt 50 hours of information that was useful, the prosecutor said.



When it came time for Manafort to speak, he attempted to paint himself as a humbled and changed man. As he rose from his wheelchair, the judge reminded him he did not need to stand.



To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement, Manafort said. My life, professionally and financially, is in shambles.



He even praised the fairness of the trial, marking some contrast between him and President Donald Trump, who has described the prosecution of his former campaign chair as unfair.



Manaforts commentsand their lack of contritiondidnt get past Ellis who remarked during the hearing that Manafort had not expressed any regret. I certainly recommend that you do it in the District of Columbia, Ellis said, referring to Manaforts upcoming sentencing in Washington.



Even then, Ellis issued a sentence that was 15 years less than the one recommended under sentencing guidelines. And while Ellis past criticism of the Mueller probe came up again during the hearing, it appeared to play no role in his sentencing.



Instead, Ellis said he viewed the guideline range as excessive, and that he would avoid creating an unwarranted disparity with past sentences for felons convicted of similar charges.



The government cannot sweep away the history of those past sentences, Ellis said.



Criticism ricocheted from social media to cable shows, where people said Manaforts sentence highlighted the unfairness of the criminal justice system.



After the hearing, prosecutors and defense attorneys shook hands. Manaforts lead lawyer, Kevin Downing, later told reporters outside the courthouse that there was no evidence Manafort was involved in collusion with the Kremlin in the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. election.



Manafort faces the prospect of more time in prison when he appears before Judge Amy Berman Jackson for sentencing in the District Wednesday. He pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts there.



Prosecutors have the chance to argue that her sentence should run consecutive, not concurrent, to Ellis. Defense attorneys have said Manafort faces a maximum of 10 years in D.C.



Asked by Downing if he could order a concurrent sentence Thursday, Ellis said no. Its up to her, though Ellis said lawyers could return to him if his statement were later found to be incorrect.



Just before he delivered his punishment, Ellis reflected for a moment on a similar sentence he gave a man in a tax fraud case. He acknowledged that that outcome might not have been well liked.



He suggested his sentence for Manafort might not be well-received either.



But it would be a "just sentence," he said. "I have satisfied myself about that.





Story continues







Speed Reads





>> Michael Cohen, Trumps former personal attorney and fixer, sued the Trump Organization in Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday, alleging it was supposed to cover his attorney fees and costs incurred in his work for the company, the New York Law Journal reports.



>> The ethics committee for the federal judiciary is warning judges to carefully consider their participation in events by groups that are engaged in public policy debates. The NLJ
(Repeats Thursday's story with no changes to text)

By Henning Gloystein and Fergus Jensen

JOHOR, Malaysia/JAKARTA, March 7 (Reuters) - On the southernmost edge of the Asian landmass and on the shores of the busy shipping lanes of the Singapore Strait, Malaysia's Petronas is starting up a state-of-the art petroleum processing hub, called RAPID.

The huge complex in Malaysia's Johor province is currently testing its systems, running crude oil through its fuel processing units and labyrinth of pipes and producing large exhaust gas fires from its flare tower. The flames are clearly visible for miles around, including on Indonesian islands just across the narrow strait.

The 300,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) RAPID or Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development will come onstream around May. Among other customers, it will sell fuel to Indonesia, shining a spotlight on the contrast between Petronas and its Indonesian peer Pertamina.

Both are state-owned oil companies that dominate the energy sector in their own nations. But their fortunes have markedly diverged because Malaysia has allowed Petronas to follow its own growth path, while Pertamina is hobbled by Indonesian government intervention and bears the burden of a subsidy programme.

"Lots of people see Petronas and Pertamina as twin companies. But that's not really the case. Petronas is very much a commercial company, almost like an independent oil company while Pertamina is driven more by government policy and agenda, a national oil company," said Andrew Harwood, research director for Asia/Pacific upstream oil and gas at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

For Petronas, RAPID marks a milestone as it prepares for a future with less crude oil output while serving the region's booming fuel demand.

RAPID, being built in collaboration with Saudi Aramco, has cost around $15 billion and is one of Petronas' biggest ever investments. It is part of an even bigger Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) being developed by more than 50,000 workers at an estimated cost of more than 100 billion ringgit ($24.61 billion), and which will eventually also include a deep-water oil and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal.

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Petronas declined to speak with Reuters about the project's details but has said RAPID "will position Malaysia to capitalise on the growing need for energy and petrochemical products in Asia in the next 20 years ... pushing our country into a new frontier of technology and economic development."

Like Malaysia, Indonesia is struggling to keep oil production up just as domestic fuel demand soars.

Once a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Indonesia has seen its crude oil output dwindle from a peak of 1.6 million bpd in the early 1990s to below 1 million bpd.

It is now Southeast Asia's biggest fuel importer, importing more than 400,000 bpd of last year, at a cost of around $10 billion a year at current prices.

LITTLE INVESTMENT

Yet, the last time Indonesia built a major refinery was around 25 years ago.

A Refinery Development Master Plan (RDMP), launched in 2014 to double refinery output to over 2 million bpd within a decade, was confirmed last week by Pertamina's chief executive Nicke Widyawati.

"Starting from 2021, we will invest around $7 billion per year as these refineries (developments) are in progress," Widyawati said.

But many of Indonesia's refinery projects have suffered set-backs, like the delay in the upgrade of a refinery in the central Java area of Cilacap from 348,000 to 400,000 bpd. Due to be completed in 2021, it has been pushed back to 2023.

Fajar Harry Sampurno, the deputy minister for state owned enterprises, said Cilacap's delay was because the land for the site had yet to be acquired.

Saudi Aramco has also expressed interest in Cilacap, but Sampurno said "Aramco is still waiting" to invest as it first wants the land rights to be resolved.

Sampurno said such delays were causing Pertamina "big losses."

But Pertamina itself isn't investing enough.

The company says its capital spending target would be $4.2 billion to $4.5 billion this year, down from an earlier target of $5.5 billion.

On the other hand, Petronas raised its investment by 10 billion ringgit ($2.46 billion) to 55 billion ringgit in 2018, and spending is expected to rise again this year.

Once RAPID is completed, Petronas would likely start looking for a next big development project, possibly as an investment into overseas production or even in form of corporate acquisitions, said Harwood from Wood Mackenzie.

"NO WAY" TO NET EXPORTS

The consultancy estimates Petronas, which has invested far more than its Indonesian counterpart in exploration and acquisitions, will produce 1.6 million barrels per day of oil equivalent this year, which is a unit to describe joint oil and gas production, against vs 0.8 million barrels of oil equivalent by Pertamina.

Oil and gas reserves are estimated at 7.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent for Petronas and at 5 billion for Pertamina by Wood Mackenzie.

Sampurno, the Indonesian deputy minister, told Reuters there was "no way" Indonesia could become a net oil exporter again.

He said Pertamina should expand its refining capacity to meet booming demand, emulating Petronas.

But the Indonesian state-owned major, described by the government as an "agent of development", is struggling to keep up the required spending to finance oil and gas production and build the infrastructure to meet rising domestic fuel consumption.

It has also to foot the bill for Indonesia's fuel subsidies.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's says this cost Pertamina $1.5 billion-$2 billion in lost profit last year.

While Malaysia also subsidises fuel, the cost is shouldered by the government, not Petronas.

Pertamina's profits were under 5 trillion rupiah ($352.73 million), the lowest in over a decade, in the first half of 2018. Full 2018 results are yet to be announced.

Petronas, by contrast, achieved 26.6 billion ringgit ($6.54 billion) profit during that time, company data showed.

As President Joko Widodo seeks re-election this year, it seems unlikely that Indonesia's oil subsidies will be rolled back any time soon.

Chief executive Widyawati, Pertamina's third CEO in as many years, has made her thoughts clear on subsidies.

"The regulation is clear," she told reporters last month, adding fuel "intervention is good".

Should the opposition win, some change may come.

"If we free Pertamina from political intervention, I am sure the profits will return," opposition vice presidential candidate Sandiaga Uno told Reuters.

Wood Mackenzie estimates Pertamina needs to boost spending to $6 billion in 2022, from just over $4 billion last year, just to maintain output. Pertamina's refinery plans and debt servicing will require another $23 billion up to 2025.

"Indonesia and Pertamina could capitalise on the discovery made last week by Repsol, which will attract attention from explorers. If they can capture some of this interest, Pertamina may find additional partnership opportunities," said Max Petrov, a senior corporate analyst at the consultancy.

A consortium led by Spain's Repsol last week announced finding new gas resources in South Sumatra in Indonesia, which Repsol claims to be among the 10 largest made in the world over the past year. ($1 = 14,175 rupiah) ($1 = 4.0650 ringgit)

(Reporting by Fergus Jensen and Wilda Asmarini in JAKARTA and Henning Gloystein and Roslan Khasawneh in SINGAOPRE; Additional reporting by Cindy Silviana and Bernadette Christina Munthe; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Waitr Wants to Be the Single Tech Platform for Independent Restaurants

In the digital revolution that is currently sweeping through the restaurant industry, the independent restaurants are the ones getting kicked around the most.

Single unit or small multi-unit operators dont have the advantage of scale to leverage better deals from any tech partner, delivery or otherwise. And on the tech side, the top vendors generally arent courting them either, because the real money to be made is with the nationwide chain restaurants.

Waitr, a newly-public food delivery service and online marketplace based in Lafayette, Louisiana, is aiming squarely for those independent restaurant clients. In its first quarterly earnings report since going public and acquiring direct competitor Bite Squad, the company laid out plans for future growth and  like Grubhub and others  food delivery is only one piece of the pie that Waitr wants to own.

When we look at opportunities that lie ahead, one can only imagine the possibilities, Waitr CEO Christopher Meaux said on the companys earnings call. Restaurants are scrambling to chart their path in this changing industry, and it is especially relevant when we look at independent operators of single unit or small chain restaurants in the markets we serve.

Meaux laid out five main digital components that the company is looking to eventually cover for its restaurants. Theres the delivery service provider (which is Waitrs core business), but theres also the payment processor for in-restaurant credit card transactions, a loyalty program provider, a table management platform for reservations and waitlisting, and a point-of-sale provider. Waitr wants to be a one-stop shop for independent restaurants in all five of those areas.

When we look at the future of these independent restaurants, its not hard to see the opportunity for most, if not all, of these services to be provided by a single vertically integrated platform, Meaux said. With a tablet in every restaurant, a team on the ground in most markets and the convergence of these services already beginning, it isnt hard to see how Waitr and Bite Squad are well positioned to lead the future of this evolution.

Story continues

Growth In Every Market

Waitr reported overall revenue growth of 202 percent to $69.3 million in 2018, compared to $22.9 million in total revenue in 2017. The company projects to earn approximately $250 million in total revenue in 2019, thanks in large part to the Bite Squad acquisition, which roughly doubled the companys total size in footprint and sales.

When asked whether sales growth had slowed in Waitrs most mature markets, Meaux said that the company was still seeing double-digit sales growth in its oldest markets.

I think thats a testament to the continuation of diners moving from telephone or kind of legacy ways of ordering to online ordering, Meaux said. We expect that its going to continue throughout the year, and the bulk of our growth is going to be driven through those existing markets and the depth of penetration in those markets, including the very first markets that we launched.

Waitr has approximately 1 million active diners on its platform, and roughly another 1 million active diners on Bite Squads platform. The company will continue to operate the two brands separately for the foreseeable future, but the possibility for consolidation isnt totally off the table. Over time, well consider whether it makes sense to move to a single brand, Meaux noted.

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(Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is proposing to break up the largest technology companies, including Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.s Google and Facebook Inc., calling them anti-competitive behemoths that are crowding out competition.

The Massachusetts senator is calling for legislation that would designate the companies as platform utilities and the appointment of regulators who would unwind technology mergers that undermine competition and harm innovation and small businesses.

Twenty-five years ago, Facebook, Google, and Amazon didnt exist, Warren wrote in a post on Medium Friday. Now they are among the most valuable and well-known companies in the world. Its a great story -- but also one that highlights why the government must break up monopolies and promote competitive markets.

Facebook declined to comment. Representatives of Google and Amazon didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Amazon was down about 1 percent at 11:56 a.m. in New York. Facebook and Google were little changed. The stocks were already lower after disappointing payrolls data.

Warren proposes that some mergers by the biggest tech companies be unwound, including Amazons purchase of Whole Foods and Zappos; Facebooks acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram, and Googles deals for Waze, Nest and DoubleClick.

Under her proposal, so-called designated platform utilities with more than $25 billion in global revenue would be prohibited from owning any of the participants on their own platform. That means that Amazon Marketplace and AmazonBasics would be split apart, as would Googles ad exchange and its businesses on the exchange. Google Search would have to be spun off as well.

Todays big tech companies have too much power -- too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy, Warren wrote. Theyve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation.

Story continues

Heightened Scrutiny

Years of privacy lapses and revelations that the Russian government used social media in its attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election have led for calls for intensified scrutiny and greater regulation of the companies in Washington. In addition to the movement for more antitrust enforcement, Congress is moving ahead with privacy legislation that could impact vast swaths of the data economy.

At the end of February, the Federal Trade Commission announced it was creating a task force led by senior competition officials to investigate potentially anticompetitive conduct by technology companies. The agency said it would consider all options, including scrutiny of completed mergers, raising the prospect that it could unwind deals such as Facebooks acquisition of Instagram.

Hipster Antitrust

Beyond regulation, sentiment for antitrust enforcement and actually breaking up existing companies gathered steam under a movement that some derisively called Hipster Antitrust. But breaking up companies goes against decades of antitrust policies and would face multiple challenges.

Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Open Markets Institute, which pushes for increased antitrust enforcement and stricter rules, tweeted that Warrens proposal is "smart and practical" and "a big deal." As companies consolidate across industries, policy activists such as Stoller are seeking to challenge the traditional focus on business efficiency and consumer benefits.

These developments mark a dramatic change from the years when big internet companies such as Google and Facebook wowed lawmakers, impressing Republicans as American business success stories and pleasing Democrats with their socially progressive ethos.

Even some Republican lawmakers, who generally oppose government regulation of the economy, have flirted with antitrust for tech. They cite concerns over both privacy and unsupported allegations of systematic silencing of conservative voices on social media, although those are separate policy issues from antitrust.

Creepy Revelations

Is it really any wonder that there is increased pressure for antitrust enforcement activity, for privacy activity when these companies behave in the way that they do, when they spy on their consumers, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri said at a March 5 hearing. Every day brings some creepy new revelation about these companies behaviors.

In September, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions convened a meeting of state attorneys general to discuss a cooperative approach to investigations into the industry, although many of those present said they preferred to focus on privacy probes that have also spread to several states.

Warren contends that the U.S. antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., which began in the 1990s, opened a pathway that allowed Google to emerge. Now she says theres a conflict between the search giants roles selling and buying online ads and notes that Amazon may abuse its ability to compete with the third-party vendors that sell through its site. She also held up antitrust as a way to tackle privacy, reasoning that companies would be better stewards of data if they faced more competition.

Weak Enforcement

Warren said weak antitrust enforcement has resulted in a reduction of competition and innovation in the tech sector. She also said there is lax venture capitalist investment in new startups to compete with big tech companies because its so easy for the big companies to either snap up growing competitors or drive them out of business.

Warren is scheduled to hold a campaign event Friday in Long Island City, New York, which was the proposed site of Amazons second headquarters before local opposition scuttled the plan.

Carl Szabo, vice president of the free-market tech trade group NetChoice, said in a statement that the "proposal would increase prices for consumers, make search and maps less useful, and raise costs to small businesses that advertise online." Szabo, whose group counts Google and Facebook as members, said that consumers have never "had more access to goods, services, and opportunities online."

Warrens economic populism, which includes attacks on corporations and wealthy Americans who she says are rigging the system for self-interest, is at the heart of her campaign amid a crowded field of contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.

2020 Challengers

She has sought to set herself apart from the dozen or more Democrats vying to challenge President Donald Trump in next years presidential election with a flurry of policy proposals at an early stage of the campaign. Shes also competing directly with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for the votes of the partys progressive wing, a key constituency in the months-long series of caucuses and primaries leading to the nomination.

Warrens proposal to break up technology companies also moves into territory staked out by another one of her colleagues and competitors in the 2020 nomination race. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committees antitrust subcommittee. She has released proposals to increase the governments ability to scrutinize settlements and take into account wages and the prices paid to suppliers in merger reviews. Earlier in March, she told The Washington Post that the U.S. has a "major monopoly problem" in the technology and pharmaceutical industries.

(Updates with FTC hearings in ninth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Kasia Klimasinska and Joshua Brustein.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Brody in Washington at btenerellabr@bloomberg.net;Molly Schuetz in New York at mschuetz9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net;Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

2019 Bloomberg L.P.
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL March 8, 2019  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: Amazon AMZN, Kohls KSS, Walmart WMT and Target TGT.

Here are highlights from Thursdays Analyst Blog:

Amazon to Shut Pop-Up Stores, Focus on Bookstores & 4-Star

Amazonis putting a stop to its pop-up kiosk program in the United States.

The company plans to shut down all 87 pop-up stores located inside the Whole Foods stores, Kohls retail stores and shopping malls by the end of April.

Notably, these kiosks enable customers to try Amazons own products and services like Echo speakers, Fire tablets, Kindle, Prime Video and Audible. However, the latest plan can be detrimental to customer experience.

Nevertheless, Amazon has reached a stage where it can forgo kiosks and sell products solely on its e-commerce platform in the United States.

Diversifying Focus

With the aid of the latest move, the company will be able to diversify its focus and concentrate more on its retail expansion strategies.

As part of its plan of discontinuing pop-up kiosks, the company intends to open additional bookstores and 4-Star stores, which in turn will expand its physical presence.

In the context of bookstores, Amazon Books was first opened in 2015 and now there are 17 of these stores across the United States in total. We believe rising number of Amazons bookstores will strengthen its presence in the U.S. book retail market.

Meanwhile, Amazon 4-star is a new kind of store that stocks in four-star or beyond rated products from various product categories.

Further, there are digital price tags for each product reflecting its Prime price and the marked price. This allows the Prime shoppers to pay the online discounted price but the non-Prime members will have to pay the marked price. Notably, the store was first opened in late 2018.

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We note that expansion of 4-star stores will not only boost Amazons customer reach but is also likely to drive the Prime subscriber base.

Retail Strategies to Aid Competitive Edge

Amazon is leaving no stone unturned to bolster retail footprint further on the back of its aggressive retail strategies  strategic acquisitions, partnerships and distribution strength. This continues to intensify the market competition.

Moreover, its plan of expanding bookstores and 4-star stores are likely to provide a competitive edge against the big retailers like Walmart and Target which also stock a huge collection of books in their stores.

Apart from the latest plan, the e-commerce giant is aggressively looking into opening a new chain of grocery stores across major U.S. cities, with the intention of disrupting the retail space further.

Moreover, its strong focus toward taking the number of Amazon Go to 50 and 3,000 by 2019 and 2021, respectively, poses serious threat to the traditional retailers due to the cashier less technology in these stores.

We believe Amazon with the above-mentioned strong endeavors will continue to bolster market position in the core retail industry.

Currently, Amazon carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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They were correct. The US, Australia and some of Latin America has some carriers that use a technology that's not compatible with the rest of the world - CDMA (it has to do with the way the radio signal is encoded). The rest of the world - Asia, Europe and the other carriers in the US, Australia and Latin America, use GSM. And the two aren't compatible. (The only carriers in the US that use CDMA are Sprint and Verizon - Cellcom uses Verizon. AT&T and TMobile are the GSM carriers in the US - they also have companies like Cellcom [called MVNOs - Mobile Virtual Network Operators] that use their networks but charge less and give you less.)



So your best bet is to find a cheap working GSM phone and use that in Italy. (You can try things like LetGo or OfferUp - for an unlocked phone. [It has to be unlocked for a SIM from another carrier to work in it.] Also, make sure to arrange the exchange at the carrier, so you can ask them to check whether the phone is blacklisted [a little scam - sell the phone, report it stolen, get a new one for the insurance]. And have the owner remove their password or PIN and their Google account. Then do a factory reset, so you're starting clean.)
KABUL -- An Afghan presidential candidate and eight bodyguards of a rival candidate have been injured by a barrage of mortars that exploded in western Kabul, near a ceremony honoring a prominent Shi'ite leader who was killed by the Taliban more than 20 years ago.

Amid conflicting reports about the overall death toll, RFE/RL has confirmed that at least three people were killed in the March 7 attack, which was claimed by the extremist group Islamic State (IS), according to its Amaq news agency mouthpiece.

A large number of Afghan officials and political figures from all of Afghanistan's main ethnic groups were attending the ceremony in Kabul's predominantly ethnic Hazara neighborhood of Dasht-e Barchi to commemorate the 1995 death of Hazara leader Abdul Ali Mazari when mortar shells began exploding nearby.

They included Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, former President Hamid Karzai, presidential candidate and former national-security adviser Hanif Atmar, presidential candidate Latif Pedram, and Mohammad Mohaqiq, the Hazara leader of the Hezb-i Wahadat party.

Pedram, an ethnic Tajik from the northeastern province of Badakhshan who heads the National Congress party, announced on his Facebook page that he sustained minor injuries from the mortar barrage.

Qadir Shah, a spokesman for Atmar, told RFE/RL that eight of Atmar's bodyguards were also injured.

RFE/R's correspondent at the commemoration ceremony reported that Abdullah had just finished giving a speech honoring the late Mazari when mortar shells started exploding outside of the event.

Abdullah, an ethnic Tajik politician from northern Afghanistan and a leading candidate in the July 20 presidential election, was not injured.

Esteqlal Hospital director Hududullah Nori told RFE/RL that the bodies of three people killed in the attack and 17 injured people were brought to the Kabul facility.

Health Ministry official Mohaibullah Zaeer said an initial check of all Kabul hospitals revealed that at least three people were killed and 32 wounded. Zaeer said those casualty figures were not final.

Earlier, another official who was at the ceremony said seven people were killed.

Health Ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar said at least three children were among the injured.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nusrat Rahimi told RFE/RL that government security forces had located and surrounded a walled compound in northeastern Kabul from where suspected militants launched the mortars.

"We have found the area from where the mortars were fired," Rahimi said. "They were launched from Kabul's northeastern police district 18. So we have identified the area and surrounded the people who were firing the mortars."

Meanwhile, Deputy Interior Minister Khoshal Sadat wrote on Twitter that one person involved in the attack had been arrested by the early afternoon on March 7.

On March 6, the IS group also claimed responsibility for an attack on a construction company in the eastern city of Jalalabad that killed at least 17 people and triggered an hours-long gunbattle with security forces.
Ahead of International Womens Day on March 8, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for the immediate and unconditional release of 27 women journalists currently held in appalling conditions around the world.

According to the Paris-based media watchdogs tally, of the 334 journalists in prison at the end of February, 27 of them were women.

These female journalists are being held by nine countries. Iran and China are the two largest jailers, with seven held in each country.

The 27 detained female journalists are deprived of their freedom because of what they wrote or because they spoke out courageously, RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said in a statement on March 6.

Deloire added that they are often the victims of disproportionate and iniquitous sentences, are subjected to the most appalling prison conditions, like their male colleagues, and they are sometimes also tortured and harassed sexually.

In Iran, where detainees are constantly denied proper medical care, women journalists detained there often stage dangerous hunger strikes in protest against prison conditions, RSF said.

It added that several UN reports have confirmed that Iranian female detainees "fall sick more often than male detainees."

The situation of female detainees is aggravated by the segregation of men and women imposed by Irans ultra-conservative society and the traditional hatred toward intellectuals and the Islamic regimes critics, the watchdog said.

The seven Iranian female journalists currently detained in Iran include Narges Mohammadi, Hengameh Shahidi, Roya Saberi, Negad Nobakht, Sepideh Moradi, Avisha Jalaledin, and Shima Entesari, according to RSF.

It said besides Iran and China, Turkey continues to detain four women journalists, Saudi Arabia three, Vietnam two, while Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, and Nicaragua are each holding one.
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Thomas Heaton is a food and travel reporter for The Kathmandu Post. Before working in Nepal, he spent five years in New Zealand, most recently as a food writer for Cuisine magazine. Heaton is content trawling through markets, sampling sundry skewers of offal and getting into uncomfortable situations while travelling.
Colorado Springs City Council candidates debated the future of the coal-fired Martin Drake Power Plant downtown at a forum Thursday focusing on energy, environment and the open space.

Of the 11 candidates vying for three at-large seat, several said they would push Colorado Springs Utilities to invest in more renewable energy sources to speed up the closing of the plant, which is to be shut down no later than 2035.

Bottom line, we need to move aggressively away from fossil fuels. We are adding to the problem, Terry Martinez, a former elementary school principal, told a crowd of more than 100 people at Colorado Colleges Packard Hall.

Two of the candidates, Gordon Klingenschmitt and Athena Roe, disagreed that there should be more urgency to shutter Drake, saying Utilities must first find an alternative that works.

I dont know if we need to be that aggressive, Roe, who co-directs an organization that serves people who are financially abused during probate proceedings. She added, in response to Martinez, that the plan that Utilities has laid out for the plants closure is probably right on target.

Klingenschmitt, a former state representative, expressed concerns about a premature shutdown of the plant causing customers utility bills to skyrocket.

We need to have efficient and affordable energy, he said. Were not there yet.

More Information On Friday, the Colorado Springs City Clerk will mail ballots for the April 2 municipal election to the city's active registered voters. Anyone who does not receive their ballot by Wednesday should contact the clerk's office at 385-5901 or election@springsgov.com. For more information about the upcoming election, visit www.ColoradoSprings.gov/election.

Utilities staff has said that 2023 is the earliest Drake could be closed.

Pressure to close the plant has increased in recent years, primarily because of pollutants some suspect the plant is emitting and the catastrophic effects of global warming.

Utilities CEO Aram Benyamin, who gave a presentation during the debate, said 245 megawatts of solar power and battery storage the municipal utility is adding to its energy portfolio will likely expedite the closure.

Its not just about Drake and the year we close Drake, Benyamin said. Its about all the other thing we have to do to move us forward.

One key hurdle is to convert Utilities power grid from one centered on a major, downtown generation source to one that accommodates dispersed generation facilities that allow for other types of energy to be used, said candidate Wayne Williams, the former secretary of state.

Williams said that he believes Drake can be closed in the mid-2020s.

Tom Strand, an incumbent councilman seeking re-election, said he thinks that one of the plants units could be shut down by the end of 2019, and the entire plant before 2035.

I live one mile from Drake. I walk by there regularly, said Strand, the Utilities board chairman. And I want to join with you to find a way that we can close Drake earlier and at the same time ensure that (utility) rates dont go through the roof.

Former Councilman Val Snider, who served from 2011 to 2015, said he would push Utilities to explore cutting-edge technology in the realms of wind, hydro and solar power.

But candidate Dennis Spiker noted that if the council had invested in renewable energy when Snider was in office, Utilities would be in a much better position now.

We had the chance to go to renewables, and we didnt, said Spiker, an Army veteran and student at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

The debates sponsors included the Colorado Springs Independent, the Trails and Open Space Coalition and Colorado College.
An Iraqi refugee accused of shooting a Colorado Springs police officer last summer was ordered Friday to undergo an evaluation to see if hes mentally competent to stand trial.

Fourth Judicial District Judge Jann DuBois granted a request from Karrar Al Khammasis defense team that he be assessed before his trial, scheduled for May 13.

Al Khammasi, 32, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder of a police officer, assault with a deadly weapon, felony menacing and illegal possession of a weapon. Prosecutors say that he wounded five-year police veteran Cem Duzel in a gunbattle near the U.S. Olympic Training Center on Aug. 2.

DuBois ordered that Al Khammasi be taken from the El Paso County jail, where hes being held in lieu of $1 million bail, to the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo for the evaluation. She said she would be surprised if the assessment were completed before Al Khammasis trial date, noting that shes seen other criminal defendants whove experienced delays before the state administers those evaluations.

Court-ordered mental competency evaluations are meant to determine whether those accused of crimes can understand the court proceedings against them and assist in their defense.

If Al Khammasi is found incompetent, he would be treated by state psychologists until a judge rules that his mental fitness has been restored.

The defendant has refused to come to some previous court hearings and appeared defiant while in court last fall.

He seemed subdued as he sat in the courtroom Friday with two deputies at his back and his face covered with a sheer, white spit hood typically used to protect officers from an inmates bodily fluids.

As DuBois informed him of his rights related to the competency hearing, he quietly acknowledged each one through an Arabic translator. He said he had previously undergone a competency evaluation, but that it was not in connection with a court case.

When the judge asked if he had questions, he asked that he be appointed an attorney through the Iraqi embassy  a request that has made at prior court hearings. DuBois replied that she was unsure she had the authority to grant the request.

Al Khammasi is the latest suspect in a high-profile, violent crime locally to be ordered to undergo a mental competency evaluation. James Edward Papol, accused of raping and killing a woman in Old Colorado City in 1988, was ordered March 1 to undergo an evaluation. Robert Lewis Dear Jr., who admitted to killing three people and wounding nine at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs in 2015, has been evaluated and repeatedly deemed incompetent to stand trial.

Duzel, who suffered a head wound, has been recovering at Craig Hospital, an Englewood rehabilitation hospital specializing in treatment of spinal cord and brain injuries.

Witnesses have said the shooting happened shortly after an Uber driver kicked Al Khammasi out of her car for being touchy, according to a September hearing.

Al Khammasi, too, was wounded in the shooting. Authorities have said he threatened to kill the officers who later guarded him in his hospital bed, where he allegedly said that shooting cops was what I do.

The defendant appears to have lived in the Pikes Peak region for about five years and has had at least nine contacts with police.

Immigration officials sought to deport him in 2016 after Al Khammasi pleaded guilty to felony trespassing, but his removal was canceled after a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision invalidated the grounds for his deportation.

The federal appeals court found that how the government defines an aggravated felony  a deportable offense  was unconstitutionally vague.

DuBois planned an update on the progress of Al Khammasis evaluation at his next appearance, set for May 3.
El Paso County  the states largest and home to more than 45,500 concealed-carry permits  plans to sue if a red-flag gun bill making its way through the Legislature becomes law, Sheriff Bill Elder said Thursday.

The county commissioners will vote Tuesday on a resolution declaring the county a Second Amendment preservation county.

At least four other Colorado counties  Weld, Montezuma, Fremont and Custer  have declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries in response to the proposal.

Teller County commissioners approved a resolution Thursday affirming the county fully supports the Second Amendment rights of all Teller County citizens and will endeavor to protect the inalienable and individual right to keep and bear arms in Teller County.

The red-flag bill, officially known as the Extreme Risk Protection Orders, would allow a judge to order the confiscation of firearms from someone found to be a danger to themselves or others.

Unlike the other counties, though, Elder said his deputies will enforce court orders if the bill, which already has passed the state House, is approved by the Senate and signed by the governor.

He said he hopes it doesnt come to that.

I want the constitutional question answered, and I suspect that what would happen is under a constitutional challenge, it would get overturned, Elder said.

Under House Bill 1177, a family or household member or law enforcement officer could petition a court for a temporary extreme risk protection order if they can demonstrate that a person poses a significant risk to themselves or others by possessing a firearm.

A second hearing would be held within 14 days, at which clear and convincing evidence would have to show that the person remains a danger.

Weapons could then be held for up to 364 days while the person from whom they were taken seeks treatment, which can be ordered by the court under the bill.

Once the temporary order is issued, all weapons must be turned over to law enforcement or a federally licensed firearm dealer. To recover the weapons, the person must prove they are no longer a danger, using a beyond a reasonable doubt standard.

The bill infringes upon the inalienable rights of the citizens of unincorporated El Paso County, the resolution the commissioners plan to vote on next week states.

According to the resolution, the red-flag bill would let family members and law enforcement petition to seize a persons guns without them present in court and without notice.

It would order officers to forcibly enter premises and seize a citizens property with no evidence of a crime and shifts the burden of proof to gun owners accused under this law to prove themselves not a danger by clear and convincing evidence after an order for removal, the resolution says.

Elder said the bill completely misses the mark and fails to address the communitys mental health crisis. Instead, he said, it focuses on the tool instead of the crisis that brings the thing before the judge.

Officers also would be placed at risk enforcing the courts orders to seize weapons, he said.

If the recipient, the accused, is in need of mental health help because theyre in crisis, and were going to go take their guns, that is a really dangerous situation, which means were going to have to have an elevated layer of response, Elder said. When that happens, we are more likely than not going to be in an armed confrontation with someone who really needs mental health help.

They are not charged with a crime. Is that the mission that we want for law enforcement? I just dont think that it is.

The bill also would be an unfunded mandate, siphoning resources from regular law enforcement duties, Elder said.

The resolution states the commissioners and sheriff intend to take legal action to protect the Second Amendment rights of all lawful gun owners in the state, and not just in El Paso County. We invite all like-minded counties to join us in this effort.

The commissioners demand that the Legislature cease and desist any further actions restricting the Second Amendment rights of citizens and instead address the real and fundamental challenges of mental illness in our communities.

The resolution also says that the board is agreeing not to appropriate funds, resources, employees or agencies to initiate unconstitutional seizures in unincorporated El Paso County and pledging support for the sheriff and decisions he or she makes to refuse to initiate unconstitutional actions against citizens.

Commissioners will vote on the resolution during the boards regular meeting Tuesday, which begins at 9 a.m. in Centennial Hall, 200 S. Cascade Ave.
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India vs Pakistan: When hashtag wars can be more frightening than real ones

The only response to the recent India-Pakistan conflict might be Kurt Vonneguts pithy refrain: so it goes
Baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, at his shop in Lakewood in June, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor in a discrimination case.
Gettysburg, PA, March 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Thursday, March 14th at 1 p.m. ET, Suki Norris, JD, Senior Knowledge Engineer, for The Echo Group, will discuss this topic in Could We Have Helped Eleanor Rigby: How Does Loneliness Affect Persons Living With Mental Illness, an exclusive executive web briefing sponsored by The Echo Group.

It is widely accepted that persons living with serious mental illness will die 25 years earlier than the overall population average. By addressing the challenges of loneliness can we increase the life expectancy of persons living with serious mental illness? The first step is to understand the difference between loneliness and choosing to be alone.

This web briefing will address the effect loneliness can have on the life expectancy of people living with mental illness, and whether we should follow the example of the UK and United Nations in proactively addressing these issues.

Join Suki Norris, JD, in this 60-minute web briefing, Could We Have Helped Eleanor Rigby: How Does Loneliness Affect Persons Living With Mental Illness, and start the discussion about increasing the life expectancy of people with mental illness and the challenges of loneliness.

Registration for this executive web briefing is free of charge, courtesy of The Echo Group. If you are unable to attend, still register. At the end of the event, all registrants will receive a recorded copy of the executive web briefing and presentation slides. Register at: https://www.openminds.com/event/could-we-have-helped-eleanor-rigby-how-does-loneliness-affect-persons-living-with-mental-illness/.

About The Echo Group

Privately held since 1980, The Echo Group is headquartered in Conway, New Hampshire with an additional office in Oakland, California. The Echo Group empowers behavioral health organizations to be clinically effective and financially strong by providing industry leading visual EHR and billing software, and Revenue Cycle Management. They help customers become more effective, improve their aged receivables, and quickly obtain the information needed to optimally operate a complex business through KPIs, dashboards, and powerful reporting. Whether you choose a cloud-based implementation or a self-hosted approach, Echo offers the most intuitive and flexible products available for behavioral health. Learn about The Echo Group.
Chandan Kumar Mandal is the environment and migration reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering labour migration and governance, as well as climate change, natural disasters, and wildlife.
OTTAWA, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. (Cornerstone or the Company) (TSXV:CGP) (Frankfurt:GWN) (Berlin:GWN) (OTC:CTNXF) today announced that its Board of Directors, upon the unanimous recommendation of an independent committee of the Board and following a detailed review conducted in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, has unanimously determined to reject SolGold plcs (SolGold) unsolicited proposal to acquire Cornerstone (the Hostile Bid) on the basis that it is not in the best interests of Cornerstones shareholders.



The Board has rejected the proposed Hostile Bid without having received the formal bid given SolGolds consistent track record of delays:

late to publish drill results and updates to the market on Cascabel with the last press released update on exploration in November 2018;

late on releasing the Cascabel maiden resource statement;

late on releasing the preliminary economic assessment for Cascabel which was originally expected in January 2019, then Q1 2019 and now the most recent SolGold presentation is suggesting Q2 2019; and

now nearly 40 days since announcing its intention to make a takeover bid for Cornerstone.

The Board is unanimous that SolGolds proposal substantially undervalues Cornerstone, a fact that has clearly been recognized by our shareholders with holders of approximately 59% of the outstanding common shares having now advised Cornerstone that they will not support SolGolds proposed bid said Greg Chamandy, Chairman of the Cornerstone Board.

The Cornerstone Board firmly believes that SolGolds proposed Hostile Bid has no chance of success and has determined to highlight the following for the benefit of Cornerstones shareholders:

1. THE PROPOSED HOSTILE BID HAS BEEN REJECTED BY SHAREHOLDERS AND IS INCAPABLE OF MEETING THE STATUTORY MINIMUM TENDER CONDITION

Shareholders that collectively own or exercise control of approximately 59% of the outstanding common shares of the Company have advised Cornerstone that they will not support the terms announced by SolGold. Canadian takeover rules require the majority of Cornerstones outstanding common shares (excluding those shares held by SolGold) be tendered to a formal offer before any shares can be taken up. Given that the statutory minimum tender condition cannot be waived by SolGold, the proposed Hostile Bid is incapable of being completed on the basis that it lacks sufficient shareholder support.

2. THE PROPOSED HOSTILE BID SIGNIFICANTLY UNDERVALUES CORNERSTONE

SolGold is offering 0.55 of a SolGold share for each Cornerstone common share tendered into the proposed Hostile Bid. At current market prices, this would be approximately C$0.35 per common share, or total consideration for all of Cornerstones outstanding common shares of approximately C$226 million. The Board views this consideration as inadequate based on the substantial value of Cornerstones assets.

The Hostile Bid Fails to Recognize the Strategic Value of the Companys Asset Base

Exploraciones Novomining S.A. (ENSA), an Ecuadorean company owned by SolGold and Cornerstone, holds 100% of the Cascabel concession. Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including SolGold fully funding the project through to feasibility, SolGold will own 85% of the equity of ENSA and Cornerstone 15%. Cornerstone also owns approximately 9.2% of the outstanding shares of SolGold. In effect, Cornerstone has a combined direct and indirect 22.8% interest in the Cascabel concession in addition to Cornerstones ENAMI joint venture and other assets.

SolGold is responsible for funding 100% of the exploration at Cascabel, including funding Cornerstones 15% interest, until completion of a bankable feasibility study. Following completion of a bankable feasibility study, SolGold is entitled to receive 90% of Cornerstone's distribution of earnings or dividends from ENSA until such time as the amounts so received equal the aggregate amount of expenditures incurred by SolGold that would have otherwise been payable by Cornerstone, plus interest thereon from the dates such expenditures were incurred at a rate per annum equal to LIBOR plus 2%.

The benefit to Cornerstones shareholders of the Companys strategic 15% carried interest in ENSA is apparent considering the significant dilution SolGolds shareholders have experienced and are likely to continue to experience as a result of SolGolds attempts to finance the substantial ongoing development costs associated with the Cascabel project. In less than 18 months Cornerstones former 11.25% ownership interest in SolGolds shares has been diluted by over 18% to 9.2%.

The significant value of Cornerstones carried interest is clearly demonstrated in the following example. Assuming that the total costs of the Cascabel project to completion of feasibility will be US$300 million, SolGold must fund US$45 million to cover Cornerstones portion of the development costs in addition to the US$255 million required for SolGolds interest. In effect SolGold must fund US$100 million for every US$85 million it needs to finance for its 85% interest. If SolGold finances its development costs by issuing equity, the resultant incremental dilution borne solely by SolGolds shareholders is at least 18% (which doesnt account for commissions, fees, discounts and other costs associated with any such financing).

Please see accompanying "BFS Example" image.

More generally, the value of Cornerstones carried interest can be expressed by the following equation:

Please see accompanying "Value of Carried Interest to Cornerstone (% of Cascabel Interest)" image.

Conservatively assuming that Cornerstone could otherwise finance its carried interest on a zero discount and zero cost basis, the value of Cornerstones carried interest is equal to approximately an additional 5% interest in the Cascabel project. The strategic benefit and value to Cornerstone of its carried interest is even greater when considering the costs of development through to a bankable feasibility study on comparable projects are well in excess of US$300 million.



Furthermore, as noted above, Cornerstones attributable costs prior to feasibility will be repaid in the future out of 90% of Cornerstones share of earnings from ENSA. If a mine is built, Cornerstone repays its carried interest at an interest cost per annum equal to LIBOR plus 2%, which is well below the cost of capital for both Cornerstone and SolGold. In effect, SolGold is required to fund Cornerstones 15% carried interest on terms much more favourable to Cornerstone than SolGolds cost to finance, which accretes additional value to Cornerstones shareholders and further dilutes SolGolds shareholders.

The Proposed Hostile Bid is Well Below Precedent Transactions

The proposed Hostile Bid represents a significant discount to the multiples in precedent transactions involving other mineral exploration companies. Assuming SolGold had liquid shares acceptable to Cornerstones shareholders, the proposed Hostile Bid implies a valuation for Cornerstone of approximately US$0.02 per copper equivalent resource pound whereas precedent transactions with assets of lower grade and smaller size represent an average implied valuation of approximately US$0.07 per copper equivalent resource pound. SolGold would need to approximately triple their implied bid for Cornerstone to match the average from precedent transactions.

The Hostile Bid is at a Significant Discount to the Implied Value for Cornerstone Paid by BHP and Newcrest for their Non-Controlling Interest in SolGold

On October 15, 2018, BHP Billiton Holdings Limited (BHP) acquired 100,000,000 SolGold shares at a price of 0.45 per SolGold share, which implied a price of ~C$0.63 per Cornerstone common share.

Similarly, on December 14, 2018, Newcrest Mining Limited (Newcrest) acquired 27,870,000 SolGold shares at a price of 0.40 per SolGold share, which implied a price of ~C$0.56 per Cornerstone common share.

SolGold would need to increase their implied price for Cornerstones common shares by approximately 62% and 84% to match the implied price paid by Newcrest and BHP, respectively, for their non-controlling interests in SolGold.

The Proposed Exchange Ratio is Vastly Out of Proportion to Cornerstones Combined Direct and Indirect Interest

As of January 30, 2019, the exchange ratio proposed by SolGold would result in Cornerstones shareholders owning approximately 18.4% of SolGold on a fully diluted in-the-money basis (assuming cancellation of cross-held shares) compared to Cornerstones combined direct and indirect 22.8% interest in the Cascabel concession (assuming zero additional value for Cornerstones carried interest). This represents an approximate 20% reduction for Cornerstones shareholders (assuming zero value is ascribed to Cornerstones other assets). Including the value of Cornerstones carried interest as described above, the discount for Cornerstones shareholders increases to over approximately 33%. Assuming SolGold had liquid shares acceptable to Cornerstones shareholders, SolGold would need to increase the exchange ratio to in excess of 0.89 SolGold shares per Cornerstone common share to avoid a reduction in value for Cornerstones shareholders.

The Proposed Exchange Ratio is Below the Exchange Ratio at which SolGold Shareholders Swapped their SolGold Shares for a Non-Controlling Interest in Cornerstone

In 2017, Cornerstone acquired SolGold shares in consideration for the issuance of Cornerstone common shares at an effective exchange ratio of approximately 0.65 SolGold shares per Cornerstone common share as compared to the exchange ratio under the proposed Hostile Bid of 0.55. SolGold shareholders that participated in the share swaps received 18% fewer shares in Cornerstone for a non-controlling interest as compared to the proposed Hostile Bid for control of Cornerstone. In comparison, this suggests that no premium is being offered as part of the consideration under the proposed Hostile Bid and that the consideration under the proposed Hostile Bid is at a significant discount.

The Timing of the Proposed Hostile Bid is Highly Suspect

The Board believes that SolGold announced the proposed Hostile Bid to:

exploit its inside knowledge about the Cascabel project prior to the release of the preliminary economic assessment for Cascabel and before material information was appropriately disseminated to Cornerstone and the market;

pre-empt Cornerstones ability to enter into a value enhancing transaction with third parties such as BHP given its unusual standstill that does not expire until October 2020; and

deny Cornerstones shareholders the opportunity to realize the value of Cornerstones carried interest in the Cascabel project.

3. SOLGOLDS SHARES ARE HIGHLY ILLIQUID WITH A HISTORY OF SIGNIFICANT DILUTION AND NO CERTAINTY OF VALUE



SolGold Shares are Illiquid both in the U.K. and Canada

SolGolds average daily liquidity is extremely limited which would adversely impact the ability for Cornerstones shareholders to monetize their SolGold shares without creating significant selling pressure. Based on the last 12 months average daily trading of SolGolds shares in both the U.K. and Canada, it would take over five years of trading (over 1,300 trading days) to monetize the SolGold shares that would be issued as consideration under the proposed Hostile Bid, assuming responsible trading at 15% of the total volume on the LSE. On the TSX, where the SolGold shares are even more illiquid, it would take over 183 years or over 46,000 trading days to monetize the SolGold shares.

SolGold is expected to Dilute Existing Shareholders Further to Fund through to Feasibility

SolGold shareholders have experienced and are likely to continue to experience significant dilution as a result of SolGolds efforts to finance the substantial ongoing development costs associated with the Cascabel project. Ongoing drilling and work towards completing various stage-gate studies including the feasibility study are expected to require further dilutive financings by SolGold. On the other hand, to maintain Cornerstones current direct interest in Cascabel, no financing is required until after the completion of the feasibility study. Cornerstones shareholders will benefit if a robust feasibility study is delivered, following which Cornerstone will be required to fund its 15% interest in Cascabel and SolGold will be required to fund its 85% interest.

4. SOLGOLD IS MIRED BY SUSPECT CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND SELF-DEALING PRACTICES

SolGold is Largely Controlled by a Group with Conflicting Loyalties and Divided Attention

Many of SolGolds directors and officers overlap with those of one of its major shareholders, DGR Global Limited (DGR). DGR was founded by Nicholas Mather, the Chief Executive Officer of SolGold, who also acts as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of DGR. As founder, Mather owns 19.43% of DGR and appears to commonly staff his associates to the management team and/or board of directors of DGRs portfolio companies, including SolGold.

Many of SolGolds directors and officers split their attention with three other publicly traded entities related to DGR: Aus Tin Mining, IronRidge Resources and Dark Horse Resources Limited. Brian Moller, the chairman of the board of SolGold, is perhaps the most egregious example of Mather staffing his associates at DGRs various portfolio companies, as he serves alongside Mather as a non-executive director of DGR itself as well as two of its publicly traded portfolio companies. Yet despite the common directorship and clear connection to Mather, Moller is touted as the independent chairman of SolGold.

This pattern of rewarding associates for their loyalty continues with SolGolds management team, as each of Mather, Karl Schlobohm (SolGolds Corporate Secretary) and Priy Jayasuriya (SolGolds Chief Financial Officer) all fill similar positions with each of DGR and its three publicly traded portfolio companies.

Mather and his teams influence on SolGold through DGR is important  given their control and conflicting loyalties, Mather and his team could effectively exclude independent shareholders from major decisions, or favour actions to benefit his own or his associates interests at the expense of SolGolds other shareholders.

SolGolds Largest Independent Shareholder has Limited Say and Non-Related SolGold Shareholders are Effectively Neutered

Newcrest is SolGolds largest independent shareholder with 15.2% of SolGold and is required to vote alongside the non-independent SolGold Board until October 2019 on certain matters. This provides Mather and his associates with significant influence over SolGold and in the words of Mather: [Newcrest] cant make life difficult for [SolGold]1.

Cornerstone estimates that the vast majority of SolGolds independent shareholders (excluding votes in favour of the resolutions attributable to Newcrest, SolGold board members and other insiders) voted against several egregious resolutions put forward by the SolGold board at SolGolds 2017 AGM, including:

Over 90% voted AGAINST increasing the directors annual remuneration by over 60%;

increasing the directors annual remuneration by over 60%; Over 74% voted AGAINST adoption of the share option plan which enables SolGold to issue 10% of the basic shares outstanding, which as of the date of this release would be in excess of 184,632,100 options to acquire shares; and

adoption of the share option plan which enables SolGold to issue 10% of the basic shares outstanding, which as of the date of this release would be in excess of 184,632,100 options to acquire shares; and Over 60% voted AGAINST granting 26,250,000 share options to Samuel Holdings Pty Ltd, a company controlled by Mather.

All three of the above resolutions were passed given the self-interested voting by Mather and his associates, at the expense of all other SolGold shareholders.

The SolGold Board has a History of Diverting Benefits to Insiders at the Expense of all other Shareholders

SolGolds board of directors has authorized punitively dilutive financings for the benefit of SolGold insiders and associates of Mather at the expense of SolGolds other shareholders. For example, in March 2016, SolGold issued 87,449,092 shares at 2.3p to DGR and Tenstar Trading Limited for settlement of loans and convertible notes, notwithstanding that it is highly unusual for any exploration company to finance its operations with debt given the destructive effect it can have on equity value. A total of 142,311,592 shares were issued to DGR and Tenstar Trading Limited in 2016 for settlement of debts.

In addition, SolGold has established a loan plan in order to assist employees in exercising stock options. The plan essentially allows certain insiders of SolGold to pay for the exercise of options using an interest free loan from SolGold. On October 29, 2018, SolGold enabled certain insiders to exercise 19,950,000 options through an interest free loan. However, these employee benefits were not disclosed to SolGolds shareholders or the market until February 13, 2019  over 108 days after the loans were made. Further, independent shareholders of SolGold were not asked to approve these loans. As the same concessions were not available to SolGolds other securityholders, the interest free loans demonstrate the self-interested and rapacious conduct of Mather and Moller.

5. CORNERSTONE IS UNIQUELY POSITIONED, MAKING IT AN ATTRACTIVE OPTION FOR THOSE LOOKING TO ACQUIRE A DIRECT INTEREST IN CASCABEL

As enumerated above, Cornerstones combined direct and indirect 22.8% interest in the Cascabel concession is unique, as it provides an attractive opportunity for a potential acquirer to secure a strategic position in the Cascabel project, widely considered to have the potential to be a world class mineral property due to its significant copper and gold resources. The Board believes that this, in part, may be why many of Cornerstones shareholders have advised the Company that they do not support the proposed Hostile Bid.

The Board believes it is entirely reasonable for parties other than SolGold to consider a possible acquisition transaction of Cornerstone appealing, as interested third parties have an opportunity to secure a position in Cascabel that is superior to both BHP and Newcrest. Sophisticated mineral resource companies could leverage Cornerstones strategic position to acquire an even larger interest in the Cascabel concession.

The strategic value of Cornerstone could enable an acquiror to do a creeping takeover of SolGold (either alone or with BHP and/or Newcrest) and severely limit the financing options for SolGold.

The Board does not consider an acquisition of Cornerstone to only be attractive to those looking to acquire a controlling interest in Cascabel. Maintaining both a direct and indirect stake in SolGold creates competitive pressure that would not exist if the Cascabel concession was consolidated under one umbrella. In the Boards view, Cornerstones combined interest also significantly increases the buyer universe for Cornerstone, making it attractive to royalty companies and private equity participants in addition to mining companies.

On March 7, 2019 Cornerstone delivered the following letter to SolGolds board of directors proposing an obvious alternative in which both Cornerstone and SolGold conduct a formal auction for 100% of Cascabel with all potential acquirors, including BHP, released from any and all standstills and unnecessary encumbrances:

VIA EMAIL

March 7, 2019

Board of Directors

SolGold plc

Level 27, 111 Eagle Street

Brisbane, Australia 4000

Re: SolGolds Proposed Hostile Bid

Cornerstone, with the assistance of our financial and legal advisors, has undertaken a detailed review and analysis of SolGolds press releases dated January 31, 2019 and February 8, 2019 proposing to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. under a takeover bid. Consistent with its focus on the best interests of our company and its stakeholders and on maximizing shareholder value, our board has determined that the proposal set forth in your press releases is not in the best interests of Cornerstone shareholders. The proposed hostile bid has now been rejected by Cornerstone shareholders that collectively own approximately 59% of the outstanding Cornerstone shares and simply cannot succeed  prior to your proposal even being formalized, it has already failed.

The proposed hostile bid is a significant waste of time and resources. We previously discussed a potential combination between SolGold and Cornerstone that you declined for non-commercial reasons. Specifically, Cornerstone wanted to ensure proper stewardship of the Cascabel project under a professional and competent CEO and Chairman and with an appropriately qualified board of directors at the helm to maximize value for all shareholders.

As Cornerstone is focused on maximizing shareholder value, one obvious alternative that we propose Cornerstone and SolGold pursue is to conduct a formal auction for 100% of Cascabel with all potential acquirers, including BHP, released from any and all standstills and unnecessary encumbrances. This would level the playing field plus all remaining assets in our respective companies would be spun-out to our respective shareholders. Otherwise SolGold can continue down the current path of a failed hostile bid and SolGold shareholders are likely to face a creeping takeover and never receive a proper control premium.

SolGolds directors and officers should also clearly and transparently disclose their direct and indirect ownership in Cornerstone. We suspect many SolGold shareholders would be very surprised to discover that certain directors and officers may have misaligned interests where they indirectly benefit from the proposed hostile bid through their shareholdings in Cornerstone. This would also answer the question we have received dozens of times on why would SolGold launch a hostile bid, well below fair value and simply an attempt to put Cornerstone in play, when they could never get the necessary shareholder support to be successful.

We expect SolGolds board of directors will see the rationale in conducting a formal auction for 100% of Cascabel, to the benefit of all shareholders, and look forward to your prompt response.

On behalf of our board of directors,

/s/ GREG CHAMANDY

Greg Chamandy

Chairman of the Board

Advisors

Cornerstones financial advisor is Maxit Capital LP and its legal counsel is Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP.

About the Cascabel Joint Venture with SolGold:

Exploraciones Novomining S.A. (ENSA), an Ecuadorean company owned by SolGold Plc and Cornerstone, holds 100% of the Cascabel concession. Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including SolGolds fully funding the project through to feasibility, SolGold Plc will own 85% of the equity of ENSA and Cornerstone will own the remaining 15% of ENSA. SolGold is funding 100% of the exploration at Cascabel and is the operator of the project. SolGold is entitled to receive 90% of Cornerstones distribution of earnings or dividends from ENSA to which Cornerstone would otherwise be entitled until such time as the amounts so received equal the aggregate amount of expenditures incurred by SolGold that would have otherwise been payable by Cornerstone, plus interest thereon from the dates such expenditures were incurred at a rate per annum equal to LIBOR plus 2%.

About Cornerstone:

Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Ecuador and Chile, including in the Cascabel gold-enriched copper porphyry joint venture in north west Ecuador.

Further information is available on Cornerstones website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on Twitter. For investor, corporate or media inquiries, please contact:

Investor Relations:

Mario Drolet (Montreal); Email: Mario@mi3.ca ;

Tel. (514) 346-3813

Corporate Matters: David Loveys, CFO; Email: loveys@cornerstoneresources.ca;

Tel. (343) 689-0714

Due to anti-spam laws, many shareholders and others who were previously signed up to receive email updates and who are no longer receiving them may need to re-subscribe at http://www.cornerstoneresources.com/s/InformationRequest.asp

Cautionary Notice:

This news release may contain Forward-Looking Statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of Cornerstones beliefs, plans, objectives, strategies, intentions and expectations. The words potential, anticipate, forecast, believe, estimate, intend, trends, indicate, expect, may, likely, should, could, potential, project, plan, or the negative or other variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify Forward-Looking Statements. Examples of such Forward Looking Statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, expectations regarding Cornerstones and ENSAs prospects for growth, profitability and shareholder value creation; the availability of financing to fund Cornerstones and SolGolds obligations; the development costs associated with the Cascabel project; the value and trading volumes of SolGold shares; the response to, likelihood of success and consequences of the Hostile Bid; the terms of the Hostile Bid; and the availability of strategic alternative transactions emerging. Although Cornerstone believes that its expectations reflected in these Forward-Looking Statements are reasonable, such statements may involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in our regulatory filings, viewed on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. These uncertainties may cause actual results and developments to be materially different than those expressed in our Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes the facts and information contained in this news release to be as correct and current as possible, Cornerstone does not warrant or make any representation as to the accuracy, validity or completeness of any facts or information contained herein and these statements should not be relied upon as representing its views after the date of this news release. While Cornerstone anticipates that subsequent events may cause its views to change, it expressly disclaims any obligation to update the Forward-Looking Statements contained herein except where outcomes have varied materially from the original statements.

On Behalf of the Board,

Brooke Macdonald

President and CEO

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.

___________________

1 Company Presentation by SolGold CEO Nick Mather at the Denver Gold Forum, 2018.

Images accompanying this release are available at:



http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/db239031-5214-4861-886e-6d3eb0b6977e

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1229c03b-bc52-4742-8875-be30a016024e
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chemesis International Inc. (CSE: CSI ) (OTC: CADMF ) (FRA: CWAA ) (the Company or Chemesis), announces the appointment of Mr. Deepak Anand to its Board of Directors. Mr. Anand brings over 15 years of leadership in the health, charitable, and private sectors, where he has amassed a wealth of experience in regard to business development, strategy and executive leadership.



Mr. Anand has served on the boards of many associations in Canada, the United States and Europe. Within the global cannabis sector, he has worked in conjunction with governmental officials, politicians, policy makers, health professional organizations, educators, investors, patients as well as producers. Mr. Anand holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Vancouver Island University.

Currently, Mr. Anand serves on the boards of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis in the UK and he is also on the board of CFAMM (Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana) and the National Association of Cannabis Professionals . He was most recently appointed as Vice President for NORML Canada (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).

The many prominent positions held by Mr. Anand in the cannabis industry include:

Vice President of Business Development and Government Relations at Cannabis Compliance Inc ., Canada.

., Canada. Vice President for Zenabis Global Inc., a Health Canada licensed producer under the ACMPR with facilities in British Columbia and New Brunswick, Canada.

Adjunct Professor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University ( KPU ). At KPU, Mr. Anand wrote, and taught Canadas first and only Cannabis course titled Cannabis Professional Series taught via an online module.

). At KPU, Mr. Anand wrote, and taught Canadas first and only Cannabis course titled Cannabis Professional Series taught via an online module. Executive Director for the Canadian National Medical Marijuana Association ( CNMMA ).

I look forward to bringing my experience from the Canadian and Global Cannabis industry to provide strategic guidance to the team at Chemesis, said Deepak Anand. The Company has been able to assemble an incredible portfolio of assets and I look forward to adding a global strategy to the vision.

The addition of Mr. Anand brings a wealth of experience and relationships that we believe will build value and generate long term growth for Chemesis, said CEO, Edgar Montero. His current involvement in the cannabis industry and leadership will allow him to quickly acclimate, especially as Chemesis continues to establish its operations.

On Behalf of The Board of Directors

Edgar Montero

CEO and Director

About Chemesis International Inc.

Chemesis International Inc. is a vertically integrated global leader in the cannabis industry, currently operating within California, Puerto Rico, and Colombia.

Chemesis is developing a strong foothold in key markets, from cultivation, to manufacturing, distribution and retail. Chemesis has facilities in both Puerto Rico and California, allowing for cost effective production and distribution of its products. In addition, Chemesis leverages exclusive brands and partnerships and uses the highest quality extraction methods to provide consumers with quality cannabis products.

Chemesis will add shareholder value by exploring opportunities in emerging markets while consistently delivering quality product to its consumers from seed to sale.

Investor Relations:

ir@chemesis.com

1 (604) 398-3378

Social Media:

Chemesis.facebook

Chemesis.twitter

Chemesis.instagram

DesertZen.instagram

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Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to statements regarding the Company's business, products and future of the Companys business, its expansion plans, product offerings and plans for sales and marketing. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and developments to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements, including, among other things, the risks that the Company's products and plans will vary from those stated in this news release and the Company may not be able to carry out its business plans as expected. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information in this news release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and makes no reference to profitability based on sales reported. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release.

The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release
Photocat's offering on how to improve the environment and improve air quality continues to increase. The latest offering targets asphalt roads in new road construction. This is the first and only technology to implement photocatalytic capabilities in a road when it is being laid.

The first project using the new technology will be the upcoming expansion of the Port of Skagen, a harbour in the north of Jutland in Denmark. The product will help the harbour improve air quality by lowering the NOx level and is a milestone case for Photocat and the Port of Skagen towards a sustainable future and a collaboration for the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11.

The Port of Skagen has received a grant to fund the testing of the new photocatalytic asphalt solution through the DUAL Port project cooperation.

Photocat is currently in the process of identifying potential road contractors to implement the technology in planned and future road projects in Denmark.

Further Photocat works with international partner and manufacturer of granules to make the international launch of the technology. It is expected that the technology first will be marketed in Germany and Denmark.

Photocats holds a leading position in its current markets (Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Spain and Sweden) where it is recognized as the leading quality provider of photocatalytic technology.





For More Information, Please Contact:

Michael Humle,

Tel: +45 2210 2523

e-mail: michael@photocat.net









Photocat A/S is obliged to publisize this information in accordance with the EU Market Abuse regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at CET 09:09 on March 8th 2019.
POINT ROBERTS, Wash. and DELTA, British Columbia, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Investorideas.com , a leading investor news resource covering hemp and cannabis stocks releases a snapshot looking at the flurry of new distribution and marketing deals within the CBD sector, opening up product availability to a growing consumer base.



Making headlines at the beginning of the month, cannabis leader, Canopy Growth Corporation ( TSX: WEED ) ( NYSE: CGC ) and Sequential Brands Group, Inc. announced that Martha Stewart joined the Company in an advisory role to assist with developing and positioning a broad new line of product offerings across multiple categories.

As soon as you hear the name Martha, you know exactly who were talking about, shared Canopy Growth Chairman and co-CEO, Bruce Linton. Martha is one of a kind and I am so excited to be able to work alongside this icon to sharpen our CBD product offerings across categories from human to animal.

American Premium Water Corporation ( OTC: HIPH ) just announced that its LALPINA CBD will be sold in General Nutrition Center locations. LALPINA CBD will be part of the pilot program the brand participated in last year. LALPINA CBD will be available for sale at two southern California locations; GNC Walnut, CA (located at 20687 Amar Road) and GNC Rancho Cucamonga, located at 10768 Foothill Boulevard.

From the news:

Getting placement into GNC is part of the larger wholesale distribution strategy that the Company is anticipating for 2019. The Company is actively working on adding other distribution across big box, chain, grocery, and mom and pop retailers, specifically in our target focus areas (Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, Miami). In addition to beverages, the Companys cosmetics brands (Vanexxe and plant+body Essentials) have also generated significant interest from retailers. With the Companys existing retail channels from its Gents brand (Bloomingdales and Saks Fifth Avenue), there is always the potential to cross distribute, especially in the cosmetics category, which I believe has the potential to equal the beverage market as far as CBD opportunity goes. There is a lot of excitement in the market and I look forward to keeping shareholders updated about the Companys progress in exploiting these channels, concluded Ryan Fishoff, CEO American Premium Water Corporation.

Khiron Life Sciences Corp. ( TSXV: KHRN ), ( OTCQB: KHRNF ), a vertically integrated cannabis leader with core operations in Latin America, is also looking to get its brand to consumers, having announced that the Company will participate in Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna, taking place March 14-17 in Bologna, Italy. Recognized as the largest and most important event in the beauty buyers' calendar, this event brings the Company's Kuida cosmeceutical portfolio to a global network of retail buyers and distributors.

Andres Galofre, Co-founder and VP Business Development, Khiron Life Sciences Corp. states, "Our participation in Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna marks an important milestone for Khiron as we bring the Kuida brand to the global market for the first time. As well, we will be educating beauty buyers about cannabis legislation in their jurisdiction as it applies to CBD-based cosmeceuticals, and increase awareness of the market potential in this fast developing category."

Kuida, the first consumer brand for Khiron's wellness unit brings the benefits of cannabidiol (CBD) to a comprehensive portfolio of skin and body care products for women. Launched in Colombia in October 2018 through retail, wholesale and online channels, Kuida will now target the global skincare market which, according to Euromonitor International, is expected to reach US$131 Billion in 2019.

Koios Beverage Corp. ( CSE: KBEV ) ( OTC: KBEVF ) is ensuring more than just proper distribution, having announced that the Company has increased its production capacity by partnering with Full Metal Canning, located in Longmont, CO, in addition to its current partnership with Golden Global Goods, the parent company of Rocky Mountain Soda.

Forming these partnerships came as a result of the Company securing purchase orders with two of the largest retailers in the world, thereby increasing its retail footprint by 4,000 locations since February 2019. Chris Miller, Founder and CEO of Koios further explains, "This allows us to stay incredibly adept and flexible when producing our line of beverages. This advantage makes us especially unique in the beverage space as we can produce on demand without investing large sums of capital into excess inventory. This allows our team to increase its focus on marketing and consumer awareness, which is pivotal in a brand's success. Furthermore, the relationship with Full Metal Canning is a monumental first step towards investing in further infrastructure, including our own, wholly-owned canning line."

There seems to be an unlimited variety of CBD product potential moving into the future, but now is the time for early market movers to snap up proper distribution channels before the potential global CBD rush begins.

For investors following cannabis stocks, Investor Ideas has created a stock directory of publicly traded CSE, TSX, TSXV, OTC, NASDAQ, NYSE, ASX Marijuana/Hemp Stocks

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Medison Biotech makes shareholder proposal to effect governance reform after a number of significant Knight shareholders express grave concerns over Board and management conflicts of interest



PETACH TIKVA, Israel, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Medison Biotech Ltd. (Medison), which together with its affiliates owns more than 10.4 million shares, or 7.3% of Knight Therapeutics, Inc. (Knight or the Company) has submitted a shareholder proposal to effect necessary and overdue governance reform. A copy of Medisons letter to Knights board of directors that accompanied the proposal is included below:

Board of Directors

Knight Therapeutics Inc.

3400 de Maisonneuve Boulevard W., Suite 1055

Montreal, Quebec H3Z 3B8

Re: Shareholder Proposal to Effect Governance Reform

Dear Members of the Board:

Medison Biotech (1995) Ltd. (Medison), together with its affiliate Tzalir Holdings Inc. and Meir Jakobsohn, owns more than 10.4 million common shares of Knight Therapeutics Inc. (Knight) and has been a shareholder of Knight since September 2015. Medisons address is 10 Hashiloach St. P.O.B 7090 Petach Tikva, 4917002, Israel.

As described in our letter of February 28, 2019, we believe that Knights CEO, Jonathan Goodman, has untenable conflicts of interest with the shareholders of Knight and the board of directors is critically missing the independence and dedication to shareholder interests that are the hallmarks of good corporate governance.

CEOs Conflicted Position is Untenable

Knights CEO, Jonathan Goodman, has a very substantial ownership interest in a company that directly competes with Knight. In fact, we believe that Mr. Goodmans ownership share of the competitor exceeds his ownership percentage in Knight. This creates a perverse incentive for Mr. Goodman to be rooting for Knights competitor.

We have taken no comfort from Knights February 28, 2019 response to our allegation. Knight was shockingly unable to state that Mr. Goodman is free from conflicts or is always operating in the best interests of Knight shareholders. Instead, the most Knight could muster is that these conflicts have been well known to the market for decades First, we do not believe the extent of the conflicts have been known. Second, Knights competition with Pharmascience is fairly new, given Pharmasciences entry into Knights sector of the pharmaceutical business. And, most importantly, we do not believe that disclosure is tantamount to a solution. Knights shareholders deserve a CEO that is rooting for Knight! The knowledge supposedly possessed by the market that Mr. Goodmans loyalties are elsewhere, is no solace or substitute for full dedication to Knights interests.

Conflicted Chairman Makes Matters Worse

As we noted in our letter, Knights Chairman has close financial and business ties to the CEO (and his family) that we believe may impede his ability to provide objective oversight of the executive team for the benefit of the company and its shareholders. Again, Knight does not deny that the Chairman has deep entanglements and financial relationships with Mr. Goodman and his family. Instead, Knight merely proclaims that its Board is dedicated to Best-In-Class Governance. There is no proof of this, nor are there share price gains that might make shareholders forgive or forget the lack of oversight.

Indeed, shareholders are not fooled or forgiving. Since the release of our February 28 letter, many of Knights largest shareholders have expressed grave concerns to us regarding the conflicts at Knight.

Shareholder Proposal to Protect Shareholder Interests

Accordingly, we are writing to request that Knight include on the agenda for its upcoming annual meeting a proposed by-law amendment, the full text of which is set forth in Schedule A, for shareholder consideration and approval. If approved by shareholders, the proposed by-law would ensure that none of Knights officers would have a conflict of interest with Knights shareholders, including through material direct or indirect ownership of a competitor of Knight. The proposed by-law would also ensure that the Chairman is free from economic entanglements with the officers of the corporation, so as to ensure proper oversight. We believe that this proposal, if included in the agenda and approved by shareholders, will be an important first step in addressing some of the concerns that we have raised.

Attached as Schedule B is a statement in support of our proposal that complies with the limitations provided in the Canada Business Corporations Act (the Act) and that we request be attached, together with the full text of our proposal, to the information circular for the meeting.

We recognize that the deadline under the Act for submitting a shareholder proposal at the upcoming annual meeting has technically passed. However, given the fundamental importance of this matter, we believe there is urgency in allowing shareholders to consider this proposal at the upcoming meeting. Further, given that we are delivering our proposal approximately one month in advance of the deadline for mailing the information circular to shareholders, we trust that including our proposal would not impose any administrative burdens or delays. Accordingly, we urge the board to include our proposal and supporting statement in the information circular for the upcoming annual meeting.

We believe submitting our proposal to shareholders at the annual meeting will allow the board to ascertain shareholders views in a democratic and constructive manner, and we urge the board to pursue this path. We would appreciate confirmation as to whether our proposal will be included on the agenda for the meeting by the close of business on March 13, 2019.

Sincerely,

//signed//

Meir Jakobsohn

Chief Executive Officer

Medison Biotech (1995) Ltd.

cc: Jonathan Feldman, Goodmans LLP

Mark Spiro, Goodmans LLP

Schedule A

Shareholder Proposal

BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

A new By-Law No. 3, which amends By-Law No. 1, is hereby approved, authorized and adopted in the form attached hereto as Exhibit A.



Any one director or officer of Knight Therapeutics Inc. (the Corporation) is hereby authorized, for and on behalf of the Corporation, to execute and, if appropriate, deliver all other documents and instruments and do all other things as in the opinion of such director or officer may be necessary or advisable to implement By-Law No. 3, which amends By-Law No. 1, and the matters authorized thereunder and carry out the purposes and intent of the foregoing resolutions, such determination to be conclusively evidenced by the execution and delivery of any such document or instrument, or the taking of any such action.

Exhibit A

By-Law Amendment

BY-LAW NO. 3

A by-law amending By-law No. 1

of Knight Therapeutics Inc.

(the Corporation)

A new Section 6.15 shall be added to By-law No. 1 of the Corporation as follows:

No Conflicts of Interest. No officer of the Corporation shall be permitted to serve in such office if such individual directly or indirectly, in any manner whatsoever including, without limitation, either individually, in partnership, or jointly or in conjunction with any other person, shall have a material financial interest in a business enterprise that competes with the Corporation. No director shall serve as Chairperson if that director has material financial, economic or business relationships with any officer of the Corporation.

Schedule B

Supporting Statement

As Knights second largest shareholder, Medison Biotech (1995) Ltd. is concerned about the CEOs conflicts of interest and the Boards inability to faithfully serve shareholder interests through objective oversight of the company and its leadership team.

Knights CEO, Jonathan Goodman, is a substantial, indirect owner of Pharmascience, which operates a large pharmaceutical business that competes directly with Knight. Pharmascience was started by Mr. Goodmans father and is run by his brother, Dr. David Goodman. We believe that Jonathan Goodmans percentage ownership in Pharmascience exceeds his stake in Knight.

In Knights Annual Information Form for 2016, Knight specifically acknowledged that Pharmascience is a competitor. Yet, Knights CEO continues to own a large economic stake in Pharmascience.

While Jonathan Goodman has said he does not make decisions on behalf of, or oversee, Pharmascience, he does have direct executive and operating control of Knight; he decides whether Knight should pursue particular markets, licenses and partnerships. Knowing that he has a large economic stake in Pharmascience could affect Jonathan Goodmans willingness or aggressiveness in pursuing deals that he knows would be attractive to Pharmascience. Since he owns more of Pharmascience than Knight, Jonathan Goodmans personal economic fortunes are enhanced if Pharmascience out-maneuvers Knight to secure lucrative business opportunities.

Many pharmaceutical companies, including for example Pfizer and Sanofi, have policies that expressly acknowledge that any employee owning stock in a competitor can present a conflict of interest. And many executive employment agreements in the pharmaceutical industry (and many other industries) expressly forbid an executive from owning more than a small, passive stake in a competitor.

We are not aware of any public company CEO other than Jonathan Goodman that has a larger economic stake in a competitor than the stake he has in the company he is running. We believe this is an untenable conflict of interest.

We are also aware that Knights Chairman, James Gales, has many financial and business ties to Jonathan Goodman and the Goodman family. For example, Jonathan Goodman is an indirect partner in Mr. Gales investment management business, Signet Healthcare Management. We believe it is important for the Chairman of Knight to be completely independent of management and able to provide objective oversight of the executive team on behalf of the company and its shareholders.

We are therefore proposing that shareholders adopt a by-law amendment that would prohibit an officer of Knight from having a material interest in a competing business and ensure that the Chairman has no material financial or business ties to an officer.

Medison has engaged Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP and Goodmans LLP as legal advisors.

About Medison

Medison is one of the world's largest commercial partners of leading global biotech companies. Backed by three generations of experience in the healthcare industry since 1937, Medison is uniquely qualified to provide the complete spectrum of integrated services for international companies looking to enter or expand their presence in Israeli and selected ROW markets. Medison runs Medison Ventures, a corporate venture arm with a dedicated research and evaluation team boasting deep scientific and commercial backgrounds. Medison Ventures operates a scouting program to cater its partners and is an active investor in life science projects around drug development and digital health.

Additional information can be found at www.medison.co.il.

Forward Looking Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words "expect", "may", "will", "should", "believe", "plans" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Medison. Although Medison believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward looking statements and information because Medison can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. By its nature, such forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties, which could cause the actual results and expectations to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is given as of the date hereof, and to not use such forward looking information for anything other than its intended purpose. Medison undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

For more information:

Investors

Shorecrest Group

Christine Carson

647-931-7396

Media

Longview Communications & Public Affairs




Pulsed Shortwave Neuromodulation Therapy (ActiPatch) Study in Chronic Lower Back Pain

FREDERICK, MD, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- BioElectronics Corporation (OTC PINK: BIEL) http://www.bielcorp.com is pleased to announce the commencement of a clinical study investigating the efficacy of ActiPatch in treating chronic lower back pain. The objectives of this additional back pain study are to support Mundipharmas Australia and New Zealand sales and marketing, provide local economic data for product reimbursement, and to document ActiPatchs effectiveness on central sensitization pain.

Chronic low back pain is very challenging to treat given its association with central sensitization, as sufferers experience exaggerated pain perception [2] and are often resistant to standard treatments. Sree Koneru, Ph.D., VP of Product Development at BioElectronics, said, There is already real-world and clinical evidence that ActiPatch is effective in reducing back pain [3]. More than 30 million Americans are affected by chronic low back pain, collectively spending more than $90 billion annually in treatment costs [1].

The study will involve 142 subjects who have been suffering with low back pain for more than 3 months at the time of enrollment into the study, which is scheduled to take place over a 30-day period and involve two visits. During the first visit, baseline data about the subject, including pain intensity, functionality and sleep quality will be collected. They will then receive, randomly, either an active or sham ActiPatch device along with instructions on how to use it for the next 30-days. During the final follow up visit, additional data will be collected to evaluate improvements in pain and other outcome measures. Full details about the study can be found at the NIHs clinical trials listing page ( https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03828864 ), as well as the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ( https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?ACTRN=12619000136101 )

The study is being conducted by the Pain Management Center of the prestigious Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia. The principal investigator (PI) leading the study is Graeme Campbell, a physiotherapist, supported by his team of physicians and clinical researchers.

Dr. Sree Koneru, Ph.D. is presenting at the Australian Pharmacy Professional Conference & Trade Exhibition in Melbourne, Australia from March 7th, 2019 to March 10th, 2019, Electroceuticals  effective non-pharmacological treatments as part of multimodal pain management.

References

[1] M. A. Davis, "Where the United States Spends Its Spine Dollars: Expenditures on different ambulatory services for the management of back and neck conditions," Spine, pp. 1693-1701, 2013.

[2] S. et.al., "Central sensitization in chronic low back pain: A narrative review.," J. Back Muscloskeletal Rehabil., pp. 625-633, 2016.

[3] R. Staelin, S. Koneru and I. Rawe, "Chronic Back Pain Therapy Using the ActiPatch: A Registry of Pain Relief, Medical Use and its Side Effects," Pain Management , vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 99-111, 2017.

About BioElectronics Corporation

BioElectronics Corporation is a leader in non-invasive electroceuticals and the maker of an industry leading family of disposable, drug-free, pain therapy devices: ActiPatch Therapy, over-the-counter treatment for back pain and other musculoskeletal complaints; RecoveryRx Devices for chronic and post-operative wound care; Allay Menstrual Pain Therapy. For more information, please visit www.bielcorp.com .




CHELMSFORD, United Kingdom, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Absolute Digital Media have been announced as finalists in the competitive Finance and Personal Services category for their work with Uncle Buck, who have become one of the UKs leading payday loan providers since their successful campaign with the marketing agency. The winners will be announced at a celebration held in London on the 4th April 2019, which has been a cause for celebration at the award-winning agency.



This recognition by the prestigious Drum Search Award adds to Absolute Digital Medias list of triumphs. Absolute Digital Media is a full-service agency with offices in London, Essex and Lithuania; they rounded off a successful 2018 with a total rebrand in January. This new brand identity encapsulates their capable position within the search industry and better celebrates their comprehensive list of services. They continue to deliver results on a wide breadth of clients in varying industries, including hospitality and ecommerce.

The digital marketing agency also recently celebrated some other accolades, including, but not limited to:

WINNER of UK Search Awards 2018

Finalist for European Search Awards 2018

Finalist for UK Biddable Awards 2019

The Uncle Buck campaign is being celebrated for its acceleration of the company to position 1 for the industrys most competitive key terms and maintaining a position of strength in a saturated and competitive market. Aiming for a place on page 1, the agency has exceeded expectations and achieved position 1 rankings for both Payday Loans and Same Day Loans. Absolute Digital Media have pushed to resolve technical issues and implemented a creative content marketing strategy, generating 105.17% increase in new users.

Ben Austin, CEO at Absolute Digital Media, said, The team here implemented a technical audit to determine any weaknesses and successfully resolved them. They then integrated a creative content marketing strategy, which in turn earned links to relevant sites. I am incredibly proud of the success of this campaign and I look forward to continuing our excellent partnership with Uncle Buck in the future.

Absolute Digital Media are looking forward to the announcement of the winners in April and are hoping for another successful result. The prize will be judged by industry leaders, working for global corporations including Bing, Samsung, Trainline and Telegraph Media Group.

For more information about Absolute Digital Media , their campaign with Uncle Buck or their services, get in touch with them, today.





A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a62cd202-5a12-4835-8e56-664b11697227




VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Drew Malcolm ("Malcolm"), a shareholder of Ascent Industries Corp. (the "Issuer"), makes the following announcement in accordance with National Instrument 62-103 The Early Warning System and Related Take Over Bids and National Instrument 62-104 Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids.



Malcolm advises that on March 7, 2019, he acquired control or direction over 26,081,735 common shares in the capital of the Issuer (each, a "Share"), pursuant to certain voting trust agreements (each, an "Additional Voting Trust Agreement") under which Malcolm has been appointed as the voting trustee (the "Acquisition").

Immediately prior to the Acquisition, Malcolm beneficially owned or controlled 140,860,507 Shares, of which 116,756,421 Shares were controlled or directed by Malcolm pursuant to certain voting trust agreements (each an Original Voting Trust Agreement) dated February 1, 2019, between Malcolm and certain shareholders of the Issuer (the Original Concerned Shareholders), as announced by press release made February 4, 2019.

A change of legal ownership of 57,781,445 of the Shares that are subject to the Original Voting Trust Agreements was announced by Donald Campbell by press release made February 19, 2019 and further described by Malcolm in a press release made February 20, 2019.

On March 7, 2019, Navin Galbaransingh, Nalini Galbaransingh, Craig Douglas, Oldrich Prexler, Karen Lynne Jones, 9359-4596 Quebec Inc., Chuck Campbell, Diane Campbell, Chuck and Diane Campbell (jointly), Gerry Waller, Romawatie Galbaransingh, Liam McKellar, Carolin Baur, Aneal Galbaransingh, Veso Gregory Lakovic and Nathalie Dawn Lakovic (jointly), Guy Bryck, Kathryn Bachmeier, Gareth Dunn, SL Shield Corp., Matthew Chow, Tuyen Nguyen, Gilles Haigh, Carl Bevin, James Parker, Beverly Bevin, Cezary Gwardys, Patryk Gwardys, Gordon Akerman, Mike Pomeroy, Mikela Grady, Ryan Suave, Kelly Roode, Verna Holmes, John Holmes, UNC Holdings Ltd., Adrian Robinson, Zacharia Switzer, Pat Rudl Spousal Trust, Gritten Family Trust, Jim Zaza, 330568 Alberta Inc., Shane Lundgren and Mathew Allen (the Additional Concerned Shareholders) each entered into separate Additional Voting Trust Agreements with Malcolm.

Of the 42 Additional Concerned Shareholders, 40 were sent Additional Voting Trust Agreements in response to unsolicited requests made by those Additional Concerned Shareholders to Malcolm.

Each Additional Voting Trust Agreement grants Malcolm complete discretion and control in exercising the voting rights related to all Shares that are beneficially owned by each of the Additional Concerned Shareholders. As a result of the Additional Voting Trust Agreements, Malcolm acquired voting control or direction over 26,081,735 Shares.

Immediately before the completion of the Acquisition, Malcolm beneficially owned or controlled 140,860,507 Shares representing approximately 44.78% of the then issued and outstanding Shares. As a result of the Acquisition, Malcolm beneficially owns or controls 166,942,242 Shares representing approximately 53.07% of the currently issued and outstanding Shares (55.1% on a partially diluted basis). The Original Concerned Shareholder and the Additional Concerned Shareholder are collectively referred to as All Concerned Shareholders.

Malcolm acquired voting control over the Shares to more effectively exercise the rights of the All Concerned Shareholders with a view of obtaining more fulsome disclosure regarding the Issuer's future business plans and to provide an effective means of communicating the views of All Concerned Shareholders in respect of the Companies Creditor Arrangement Act (Canada) proceedings initiated by the Issuer in the Supreme Court of British Columbia as advised by the Issuer pursuant to a press release issued on March 4, 2019. Malcolm and the All Concerned Shareholders hold the Shares for investment purposes and will review their holdings from time to time and may, in the future, increase or decrease their ownership or control over securities of the Issuer as circumstances dictate in accordance with the terms of the Voting Trust Agreements.

An early warning report will be filed under the Issuer's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. A copy of the early warning report can also be obtained from the contact below.

The Issuer's head office is located at 260 - 22529 Lougheed Highway, Maple Ridge, British Columbia, V2X 0T5.

For more information contact:

Drew Malcolm

(778) 819 6451
The U.S. saw a popular Thai monarchy as a bulwark against the tide of communism sweeping the region, so in the subsequent decades, Washington funneled aid and investment through the palace  and the network of Thai elites around it  to help cement the kings power. At a time when royals around the globe were losing influence or facing abolishment, the king deftly pulled the Thai monarchy back from the precipice and restored its public reputation as the indispensable guardian of Thai culture, virtue and stability. At the same time, the U.S.-Thai military alliance blossomed. During the Vietnam War, in particular, Thailand served as an indispensable base for U.S. operations across Indochina and into southern China. The U.S. was singularly responsible for the modernization of the Thai military, whose influence gradually expanded into politics and commerce. Combined, the militarys guns and the monarchys ideological hold on the country kept Thailands own communist insurgency from taking the country the way of war-torn neighbors like Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar. After Vietnam, however, the U.S.-Thai partnership became unmoored. And with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. learned to live with the regions ostensibly communist states, including China, and its military footprint in Southeast Asia shrank dramatically. Following 9/11, U.S. attention to Thailand, along with the rest of the region, dissipated further.

Thailand, meanwhile, became focused on tapping into the latent economic dynamism of the newly stable, increasingly liberalized region. China was no longer considered an ideological threat, and Sino-Thai business elites, oppressed in Thailand in the early 20th century, were well-positioned to bridge Thai and Chinese business circles. (The ethnic Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia is by no means broadly supportive of the Communist Party of China or its geopolitical goals. In fact, many such families fled China to protect their wealth during waves of centralization and collectivization. But deep-rooted familial and business connections to the Mainland, particularly its prosperous southern coastal provinces, have persisted.) Many got fabulously rich, and with newfound wealth came political power. One such figure was a Chiang Mai-based telecommunications tycoon named Thaksin Shinawatra, who remains at the center of Thailands political turmoil today. A Kingdom in Flux, an Opening for China? One byproduct of Thailands boom years was that they exposed deep urban-rural divides. A watershed moment was the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which began when Thailand floated its currency, the baht. The collapse unleashed a wave of popular disillusionment with the way Bangkok-based elites had managed the economy. Frustration also mounted against the West for doing little to ease Thailands plight, particularly when the International Monetary Fund imposed strict rescue conditions. Thaksin capitalized on this popular sentiment, uniting the discontented rural parties and attracting support from the middle class to forge an unassailable political machine. In 2000, he was elected prime minister in a landslide, and in 2006, he became the first Thai prime minister to be re-elected.

Thaksin accelerated Thailands inevitable pivot to China. He transformed his countrys foreign ministry into something akin to a Thai chamber of commerce, promoted military leaders with close ties to Beijing, appointed a Cabinet that was over 50 percent ethnic Chinese, and positioned Thailand as a bridge between China and Southeast Asian states that were warier of Chinas rise. Under Thaksin, bilateral trade with China exploded, and Thailand began turning to China to update its aging military arsenals.

But Thailands internal balance of power was thrown into disarray. As the ailing Bhumibol retreated from public life, with a son who could not fill his shoes, Thaksin was promoting loyalist generals and consolidating control over the military. He became too powerful for royalist elites, who ousted him in a 2006 military coup and two of his loyalists in judicial coups after democracy was restored in 2007. Thaksins supporters took to the streets in 2009 and 2010, shutting down central Bangkok for more than a month. The military responded ferociously, resulting in gun battles in the streets and much of the city center being burned. In 2012, a party loyal to Thaksin swept elections, but two years later the military took control again, ousting Thaksins sister (who was serving as a proxy for the self-exiled former prime minister) to get the Shinawatras out of the way ahead of the looming royal succession.

Bhumibol died in 2016, and though the past two years have been quiet, this weeks events demonstrated just how unsettled Thailands internal power structures remain. Last Friday, a party loyal to Thaksin announced that it would put forward Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya, the eldest daughter of the late Bhumibol, as its candidate for prime minister. This broke with nearly a century of precedent; Thai royals never jeopardize the monarchys public legitimacy by getting involved in the political fray. Under Bhumibols 70-year reign, the crown intervened in political affairs sparingly, and almost always to restore the balance between the three pillars of power. The princess move appeared to put the monarchys support squarely behind Thaksin, pitting the crown against the military-backed party led by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha  the leader of the coup that ousted Thaksin. By Saturday, new King Maha Vajiralongkorn had publicly denounced his sisters move, and the election commission has since ruled her ineligible to run. But the episode demonstrated that Thaksin is still an undeniable force (one now boasting a quasi-seal of royal approval) and that under the new king, the role and power of the monarchy is very much in doubt. In short, the internal battle for Thailands future isnt over yet. Is Thailand Really in Play? Neither is the external battle for Thailands loyalties. In reality, though, its a battle that only one side is waging seriously, illustrated by the different responses the United States and China have had to Thailands two decades of internal upheaval. China has routinely made it clear that it will support whoever holds power in Thailand  and it has made good on its promise. The current junta, for example, has inked a number of high-profile weapons and Belt and Road Initiative-related deals with Beijing. And since the first coup, China has moved from Thailands third-largest trade partner to its first. It helps that, unlike other Southeast Asian states, Thailand doesnt have any major territorial disputes with China (and the attendant political complications). As such, for Thai power brokers that want above all to manage internal strife without external interference, Beijing is seen largely as a benign neighbor.

Given Thailands strategic location, this may appear to be a problem for U.S. regional goals. Though not a South China Sea claimant, Thailand is near enough to the waters for its territory to support a range of operational needs in the area. Its proximity to the Strait of Malacca, again, gives it a role to play in any potential fight over chokepoints. Despite this, the U.S. reaction to Thailands political developments has verged on indifference  especially compared to its response to the political turmoil of allies like Egypt. After both military coups, the U.S. reflexively called for a return to democracy (which Thai royalist elites hear as a call for a return to Thaksin), cut military aid and scaled back joint military exercises. But lower-level military, intelligence and law enforcement cooperation continued largely unabated.

The United States apparent lack of concern that it might lose Thailand to China stems from two main factors. For one, the U.S. is in a position of considerable strength. It has footholds across the first island chain and Strait of Malacca, plus ample power projection assets capable of closing chokepoints from far-flung locations. China has neither the navy nor the regional footholds required to push back. China does not have the money to cultivate deep dependencies in Thailand or to turn BRI links in Thailand into a game-changing military logistics network. It would take decades of a thriving economy and military buildup to change this. China does not yet pose enough of a threat to compel the U.S., already overstretched globally, to start pouring resources into a marginally important regional player like Thailand.

Second, the U.S. knows that Thailand isnt interested in playing a zero-sum game. Thailand is proudly one of just a few countries that was never colonized, and it has a long history of deftly playing outside powers off each other to maintain its freedom to handle internal affairs, and nothing about the current environment is compelling Bangkok to act any differently this time around. China doesnt pose enough of a threat for Thailand to spurn Chinese money to please the U.S., and the U.S. will not antagonize Thailand enough to drive it into Chinas arms. Even Thaksins outreach to China was motivated less by preference for China than by a desire to restore some balance in Thailands relationships. Meanwhile, there are many other countries with deep economic and military ties with Thailand, particularly Japan, who have played an outsize role in the countrys economic development since the 1980s. Bangkok has used these relationships to force Beijing to negotiate BRI deals on terms favorable to Thailand, in turn forcing China to consider partnering with its archival, Japan, on projects in the kingdom . Still, the U.S. sees aspects of its Southeast Asia strategy at stake. Washington sees Thailand as a valuable partner on lower priority regional issues like anti-terrorism. The U.S. would prefer that Thailands military buildup proceed in a way that wont present interoperability problems in the midst of a potential conflict in the distant future. And its concerned that Thailand will ignore its warnings about Chinese tech firm Huawei , potentially hamstringing bilateral military cooperation. But none of these will fundamentally alter Thailands strategic orientation. The big picture is this: China needs staunch allies, and Thailand isnt going to become one. The U.S. has little reason to move beyond strategic indifference, giving Thailand room to navigate its changing internal and external environment as it sees fit.
Grand Old Partisan honors Edmund Mackey, born in Charleston, South Carolina this day of 1846. His father created Scottish Rite Freemasonry. Both men were Unionists during the Civil War. The son was delegate to the state's 1868 constitutional convention and that year passed the bar. He would be elected, at various times, city alderman, county sheriff and state representative. His Charleston Republican newspaper promoted the GOP statewide. He chaired the state party for four years.

Mackey was delegate to the 1872 and 1880 Republican National Conventions. In 1874, he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, but sixteen months into the term the majority Democrats declared his seat vacant. President Rutherford Hayes named him Assistant U.S. Attorney, to prosecute Democrats who denied African-Americans their civil rights.

Mackey's wife was mixed-race, and they two sons. He again won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1880 and 1882, dying in office at age thirty-seven.

Here is a Video Version of this article on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ae24cjmK_Po

Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement.

Each day, Michael Zak's grandoldpartisan YouTube channel and Grand Old Partisan blog celebrate more than sixteen decades of Republican heritage. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states so far.

He also wrote the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar.

Clarence Thomas cited Back to Basics for the Republican Party in a Supreme Court decision.

Buy the book at Amazon

See www.youtube.com/q?v=IzxKCiXc5Qc for a brief video of a Texas Republican praising Back to Basics for the Republican Party.

"This is the most amazing book about politics that I have ever read. The Overview should be required reading for anyone with even a minor interest in government. The remainder is an enthralling history lesson that I will never forget. For years, we have all been misled about the true nature of the GOP. This is the real deal! Read it and be proud!"

"Michael Zak wrote the definitive history of the GOP."

"Back to Basics for the Republican Party is the most significant contribution to the Republican Party in the last twenty years apart from Ronald Reagan."

"Back to Basics for the Republican Party is more important to our party now than ever before."

and

"one of the best books I ever read"
Testing of pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables halted for months

Testing for pesticides on fruits and vegetables has been halted for months now since the authorities have failed to supply kits and technical manpower to the rapid bioassay of pesticide residue labs spread across the country.
The fear factor

Some lawmakers from the Nepal Communist Party, the Nepali Congress and the Majdoor Kisaan Party are doubtful whether they can truly believe a mother's declaration on who the father of the child is.
From pitch competitions to panels, here's how Houstonians will be representing at SXSW. Marie Ketring/via sxsw.org
My names Will Capers. For almost nine years, Ive blogged on various topics. I blogged as Blaque Ink first, and as Brotha Wolf second. The latter had a mu...

2 years ago




IceViking strongly condemns physical attacks and harassment directed towards them.





They are also often victims of the Islamic idea. This is true when it comes to the cruel and tragic treatment of Muslim women and children when it is in accord with the Koran, the example of Mohammed and Islamic law, Sharia, which may be applied regardless of where a Muslim male may find himself in the world, whether in a Muslim or non-Muslim country.





However, in no way, shape or form should one judge all Muslim men because of what is in Islamic scripture and what constitutes the Islamic law, Sharia.





"Race", ethnicity or basically anything that you are "merely" born with should never be a basis for bigotry and discrimination.





Apostates from Islam have been executed for 1400 years in accord with the Koran and the words and actions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed and Islamic law, Sharia.





They should be lovingly helped.





Furthermore, approximately as many as 11,000,000 Muslims may have been killed by other Muslims since 1948.





To quote the website The Religion of Peace (TROP), edited by Glen Roberts:





While it may be safe to say that a true Muslim would not intentionally kill another true Muslim ( 4:92-93 ), the Quran places no such value on the life of a Muslim who is not true. Consider verse 9:73 :

Strive hard against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be harsh against them, their abode is Hell.

The Arabic for strive hard uses the same root as Jihad - and the context in this sura is holy war (see v. 86 and 91). Thus, there are two distinct classes of people that a true Muslim is to target with harshness: disbelievers and hypocrites.



A disbeliever obviously refers to a non-Muslim, so a "hypocrite" must be a Muslim of some sort. In fact, hypocrites are those who say they believe, but do not act as they should. In other words, they are "Muslims", but not true Muslims. They will go to hell just as unbelievers do, and so, according to the verse, their lives matter for naught.



The same sura says that a hypocrite can be recognized not just by lack of piety (reluctance to follow Sharia), but by fear of death ( 9:56 ), reluctance to fight ( 9:44-45 ) and even friendliness toward non-believers ( 9:67 ). A true Muslim would thus be a pious person who relishes martyrdom, is eager to fight, and shuns non-believers.



Even the Quranic passage that warns against killing "believers" ( 4:88-94 ) is more complicated than it first appears. It never says that a true Muslim is incapable of killing another Muslim, just that it should not be done. In fact, it makes exceptions for the unintentional killing of "believers" in war and mandates the killing of "hypocrites."



Verse 17:33 says, "Do not kill anyone which Allah has forbidden, except for a just cause" . The greatest cause of all is that Islam be superior ( 9:33 ), which is exactly what Islamic terrorists say is their goal. Thus believing Muslims are allowed to be collateral damage in the war on unbelievers.









There is sadly a phenomena that I`ve noticed in Sweden and elsewhere of people using true facts about Islamic doctrine and history as a cover for all sorts of irrational targeting of Muslims, ranging from xenophobia and racism to verbal abuse and physical attacks.





This is strongly condemned by this website and does not in any way serve serious criticism of orthodox Islam and other important work.





It`s also important that one tries to express oneself in a civilized way. Words matter.





In this bloggers humble opinion the root cause of the problem is the ancient doctrine of orthodox Islam.













In simple terms a non-Muslim is a Kafir.





" The Koran defines the kafir and kafir is not a neutral word. A kafir is not merely someone who does not agree with Islam, but a kafir is evil, disgusting, the lowest form of life."





An exact quote, as stated in the writings of Dr. Bill Warner in the article "Kafir" at http://www.politicalislam.com/kafir .





In the perfect Koran (Allah`s direct and literal word as revealed to Mohammed through the angel Jibril), Muslims are told 89 times to emulate Mohammed in all ways (see Koran 33:21 for instance).





Mohammed`s example, the Sunna, is found in the Hadith (stories of what Mohammed said and did) and the Sira (biographies of Mohammed).





Islamic law, Sharia , is directly derived from these unchanging scriptures. It is based on the Koran`s numerous commands to obey Allah and obey the Messenger, that is Mohammed (see Koran 4:59 for instance).









Islam is Sharia. Sharia is Islam.





It is a capital crime for Muslims to deny Sharia in any way.





A Muslim is someone who submits to Islam and submitting to Islam means obeying the Sharia of Allah.





Sharia law includes pronouncements for both Muslims and non-Muslims (Kafirs).









Islam is a "complete way of life", a "complete code of life", a "complete system of life".





Islam is not just a religion but also a comprehensive ideology.





Islam is a supremacist ideology.





Islam is a totalitarian and imperialistic ideology akin to Communism and Nazism.





Islam is a civilization.

Islamic law, Sharia, is a manual for a civilization.





Islamic law, Sharia, governs every aspect of life.

It has a say about every conceivable human act .





Non-Muslims are morally and legally inferior in Islam. Women are morally and legally inferior in Islam.

























The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS by Robert Spencer is the first one-volume history of jihad in the English language and a great book on the topic.





Allah guarantees Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for him (Koran 9:111).





A hadith depicts a Muslim asking Muhammad: "Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward)." Muhammad replied, "I do not find such a deed." (Bukhari 4.52.44)





Muhammad himself said:

I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah. (Sahih Muslim 30)









Freedom of speech, human rights, democracy, science and human lives are all at stake in the fight against the Islamic Jihad.




As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
Abducted Sudurpaschim Province Assembly lawmaker Devaki Malla released

Sudurpaschim Province Assembly lawmaker Devaki Malla, who was abducted on Friday morning by the cadres of Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal (CPN), was released from Bagadipauta of Kedarsyu Rural Municipality-5 of Bajhang district this evening.
The treatment of child offenders is particularly worrying because Iran has been executing those who were minors at the time of committing an alleged crime.

The Special Rapporteur, Javaid Rehman, reminds readers that international law prohibits the execution of child (defined as under the age of 18) offenders as per the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and customary international law. Despite being called upon by a number of human rights organisations to immediately halt all executions of child offenders, the Iranian government is still continuing with executions.

Rehman also drew attention to the grossly unjust trials and the violations of the right to legal representation. He said that prisoners are often tortured and their forced confessions are used as a basis for sentencing. Many cases highlight violations of the right to defend oneself through legal assistance of ones own choosing and the right to not to be compelled to testify against oneself or to confess guilt, which are guaranteed under article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which the Islamic Republic of Iran has ratified.

Rehman commented that the U.S. sanctions may worsen the human rights situation in Iran because of the restricted access to medical supplies. This is a very dangerous comment to make, because it passes the blame to the United States when in actual fact it is Irans responsibility. The sanctions include humanitarian exemptions however it is known that Iran has abused these exemptions in the past through the use of fake humanitarian organizations.

A number of EU companies do not want to get caught up in the U.S. sanctions so are not selling humanitarian goods to Iran. This is Irans responsibility to remedy this situation and to address the problems that resulted in the sanctions being re-imposed.

Nevertheless, the Special Rapporteur describes a concerning situation. He recommends that the Iranian government immediately stops executions for crimes that do not fall under the scope of the most serious crimes. He also urges the government to protect prisoners from torture and ill-treatment and to ensure that forced confessions are never used as evidence against the accused.

With regards to the denial of medical care and treatment being denied to prisoners, the Special Rapporteur reminds the Iranian government that all individuals in custody should receive adequate, prompt and regular health care, including specialist care as needed, on the basis of their informed consent. Rehman also called on the government to make sure that deaths in custody, of which there have been several in the recent past, should be promptly, independently, impartially and effectively investigated by an independent competent authority with a view to bringing those suspected of criminal responsibility to justice.
Iran missed a February deadline to comply with the rules of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and have now been given an extension until June, but thats not exactly great news. Let us explain.

This new deadline set by FAFT is Irans last chance to comply. If the Regime does not approve the passage of those bills in time, it will be blacklisted automatically and from the article title (A Four-Month Deadline for Iran to Surrender) of a state-run paper reporting on the deadline, its clear how the Regime feels.

FAFT conditions require the passage of four bills:

 Counter financing of terrorism Law

 AML (anti-money laundering)

 Amendment to join CFT (counter financing for terrorism)

 Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

The regimes Guardian Council, which vets all laws against the Regimes so-called Islamic values, still needs to approve the final two and the fact that they havent show a decision-making crisis within the Regime.

Marshall Billingslea, US assistant Treasury Secretary for terrorist financing and the current chair of FATF, explained that countermeasures will automatically kick in if Iran does not pass the measures before June and there will be no negotiation.

He said: That is a significant indication from the FATF that time has expired, the action plan is overdue and we expect it to be implemented without delay. FATF members worldwide would be required to step up supervision of Iranian bank branches on their territory, including on-site inspections.

He also laid seven conditions that the Regime must comply with, which are normal procedures for all FAFT member states. However, the Regime will find it difficult to comply; after all, they were ranked first in the world for highest risk of money laundering by the global Basel Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Index in 2017.

So what will happen if the Regime actually passes the needed bills? Well, there is unlikely to be an any improvement in Irans status regarding the US sanctions imposed after America pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal because the two are unrelated.

However, if the Regime fails to comply, things will only get worse economically for the Regime.
In a letter to the 15-member council, Jonathan Cohen, the acting US Ambassador to the UN, said that Iran had tested a medium-range ballistic missile on December 1, 2018, and attempted to launch two satellites in orbit on January 15 and February 5.

Cohen wrote: Iran has carried out these three launches in defiance of the expressed will of the UN Security Council, and such provocations continue to destabilize the entire Middle East region.

He added: The prospect of rapid escalation in the region is real, and increasingly likely, if we fail to restore deterrence.

He called upon the council to join [the US] in imposing real consequences on Iran for its flagrant defiance of the councils demands and bring back tougher international restrictions to deter Irans missile programme.

The UN resolution being referred to here is Security Council Resolution 2231, which enshrines the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal reached by Iran, Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States. It calls on Iran to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons until 2023.

Iran has argued that the wording makes this condition optional and Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations, claimed that its missiles are not designed to carry nuclear payloads so the resolution does not apply to these launches.

However, Iran has admitted to violating the nuclear accord, which the US pulled out of last May, by only pretending to shut down the reactor core, so why would we trust them now?

This is not the first time that the US has warned the UN about Irans missile programme.

In December, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the UNSC to toughed the resolution so that it left no room for interpretation, in the same way that a 2010 resolution did. He said it should ban Iran from activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology.

However, the US has not yet proposed as concrete action in the UNSC to toughen missile restrictions on Iran because such a move would likely be vetoed by Russia and China.

Most UN sanctions on Iran were lifted following the signing of the 2015 nuclear deal, but Iran is still subject to a UN arms embargo, among other things.

Europe has been scrambling to salvage the nuclear deal since the US pulled out.
Balance for better

Men for gender equality in the Hindu Kush Himalaya
1. Comments must not be racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted.

2. Comments must not involve little more than name-calling and insulting remarks.

3. Comments must not be made by "anonymous" or "unknown".

4. Comments must not try to sneak in some free advertising for themselves (like spam).

I invite anyone who wishes to comment on this blog to do so. I enjoy the comments, whether you agree with what I have said or not. But some people want to abuse the right to comment, and since this is my blog, I have decided to lay down the following rules. If your comment violates these rules, it will not be published.
CK Raut quits secessionist movement, joins mainstream politics

Free Madhes activist CK Raut, who had been demanding a separate Madhesi state for nearly a decade, reached an agreement with the KP Sharma Oli-led government on Friday, signalling his entry into mainstream politics.
- Senator Manny Pacquiao and his wife Jinkee Pacquiao went to Switzerland together

- Jinkee showed photos and a video of their trip abroad

- Based on her social media posts, the Pacquiaos trip to Switzerland was a luxurious one

PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed

Senator Manny Pacquiao went to Switzerland with his wife Jinkee Pacquiao and some of their family and friends.

KAMI learned that photos and a video of their trip abroad went viral on social media.

Jinkee shared some photos of the meals they had while waiting at NAIA.

PAY ATTENTION: The Amazing Cast Of Game Of Thrones In Then And Now (PHOTOS)

She then showed the interior of the airplane they used in going to Europe.

They then stayed at the Emirates Business Class lounge concourse A:

Mannys wife also shared a video of the scenic location they went to in Zurich, Switzerland:

It turned out that the Pacquiaos stayed at The Dolder Grand, a five-star luxury hotel in Switzerland.

PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data!

In a previous report by KAMI, Jinkee decided to sell some of her designer bags and shoes.

Manny Pacquiao tied the knot with Jinkee Pacquiao on May 10, 2000. They have five kids  Emmanuel Jr. (Jimuel), Michael Stephen, Mary Divine Grace (Princess), Queen Elizabeth (Queenie) and Israel. The boxer-politicians next opponent could be Keith Thurman, Floyd Mayweather Jr., or Shawn Porter.

POPULAR: Read more news about Senator Manny Pacquiao!

Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news!

Happy International Women's Day, Dear Ladies! International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8. HumanMeter team joined the celebrations by congratulating beautiful Filipino ladies who had no idea what we are up to. Check out all of our exciting videos  on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel!

Source: Kami.com.ph
Binod Ghimire covers parliamentary affairs and human rights for The Kathmandu Post. Since joining the Post in 2010, he has reported primarily on social issues, focusing on education and transitional justice.
Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all.

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Since a new law cleared the way for the release of long secret police records, unions representing officers around the state have filed a flurry of lawsuits to prevent those records from seeing the light of day.

The Downey Police Officer's Association has taken an aggressive strategy: it petitioned a court to demand Downey destroy records older than five years. The officer's union argues doing so would be in keeping with the city's five-year retention schedule.

At the request of the union, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lori Ann Fournier issued a temporary restraining order Thursday to block the release of records until the matter can be more fully considered by the court.

The litigation stems from recent legislation, SB 1421, that gives the public access to investigations into officer use of force and shootings, as well as findings of lying and sexual assault.

'ABSOLUTELY NEFARIOUS'

"It is absolutely nefarious that the officers in that city have asked for a court order to destroy information that could shed light on the bad behavior of law enforcement officers," said Jim Ewert, the general counsel for the California News Publishers Association.

"I've never seen this before," said Ewert, who is an advocate for open records.

In December, the City of Inglewood destroyed years worth of investigative records that would have become public under SB 1421.

Mayor James Butts said the move, which came weeks before the law went into effect, had nothing to do with SB 1421, but was instead tied to records retention policy. The L.A. Times reported the records up for destruction -- more than 100 police shooting cases -- covered decades of internal investigations, back to 1991. According to the paper, Butts called the destruction "routine."

Shortly after SB 1421 went into effect on Jan. 1, the California Department of Justice issued a bulletin advising law enforcement to preserve all records. According to court filings, the City of Downey has so far indicated the records at issue in the union's lawsuit are on hand, and city officials intend to make them public.

Neither the city's nor the union's attorneys responded to request for comment.

PRESS INTERVENES

KPCC/LAist is seeking to intervene in the Downey case, as it has for cases brought by unions for officers at the LA County Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles Police Department and others.

Like other news organizations, including the L.A. Times, our attorneys are opposing police unions' efforts to block the release of records from incidents that occured prior to the law going into effect.

State Sen. Nancy Skinner, who sponsored SB 1421, has made it clear that was the law's intent.

So far, courts in Los Angeles and Orange County have sided against the unions, paving the way for records to be released. The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS), for example, failed to get last minute stays from the California Court of Appeal and The Supreme Court of California.



The question of retroactivity is far from fully resolved. Cases around the state continue to unfold.
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Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe

Updated July 9:

L.A. County's Office of Inspector General said in a report Tuesday that evidence it reviewed "clearly establishes" Sheriff's Deputy Carl Mandoyan is unfit to wear a badge and gun, pointing to the fact that he engaged in domestic violence against a girlfriend and lied about it to the department's internal affairs investigators.

The report is the first independent review of Sheriff's Alex Villanueva's decision to rehire Mandoyan, who served as a key aide to Villanueva during his campaign for office last year.

The case ignited a firestorm of criticism from advocates for abused women, the Sheriff's Civilian Oversight Commission and the Board of Supervisors, which sued Villanueva challenging his authority to rehire Mandoyan.

"Substantial evidence exists in support of the Civil Service Commission's holding to

sustain Mandoyan's discharge," the report said.

In a key finding, Inspector General Max Huntsman "did not find evidence suggesting that the original discipline process was prejudiced against Mandoyan," said the report, which noted that the sheriff's own "Truth and Reconciliation Panel," which recommended Mandoyan's rehiring, made no mention of a biased department investigation.

The inspector general's report is highly critical of how the sheriff and the panel handled Mandoyan's rehiring, and it describes Villanueva as often uncooperative with the inspector general's efforts to learn more about how the panel works and about other deputies the sheriff is considering rehiring.

Villanueva has rehired four deputies since taking office December 3.

"This Office is aware of no case where a deputy was reinstated under similar circumstances," the report said. It noted that "the Department's efforts to reinstate Mandoyan appear to have begun before his case was evaluated by the Truth and Reconciliation Panel," and that the entire rehiring process "was accomplished in a sharply compressed timeline given the size and complexity of the record."

The memorandum issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Panel "strongly suggests that key pieces of evidence regarding Mandoyan's actions may not have been considered by the Sheriff and his Panel designees," the report said.

The department declined to furnish some requested information to the inspector general, citing the litigation with the Board of Supervisors. "As a result, many questions of how and why the Mandoyan case was selected for re-evaluation remain unanswered," the report said.

HOW DID IT ALL START?

Caren Carl Mandoyan was hired as a deputy sheriff in 2006. He started dating a fellow deputy when they worked together at the West Hollywood Sheriff's Station in 2012, according to an internal department review of his case. Mandoyan was transferred to the South L.A. Station, but the two kept dating.

Mandoyan's girlfriend accused him of a range of domestic abuse, including an incident in September 2014 in which he "pushed or grabbed her by the arm, placing his hand around her neck and squeezing it restricting her ability to breath," according to the internal review.

Police in El Segundo, where his girlfriend lives, named Mandoyan a domestic violence stalking suspect. A judge issued a temporary restraining order against him.

Mandoyan denied he engaged in domestic violence of any kind.

Former L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell fired Mandoyan in September 2016 citing numerous policy violations pertaining to his conduct toward his girlfriend, domestic violence and dishonesty/false statements. Mandoyan, for example, did not tell the department he was forced to surrender three guns under the restraining order.

Mandoyan appealed his firing to the County Civil Service Commission, which granted his request for a full evidentiary hearing. In May 2018, the Commission issued its ruling upholding Mandoyan's termination.

On Aug. 13, 2018, Mandoyan filed a petition against the county and the sheriff's department, seeking a judge's ruling voiding his firing.

On Aug. 27, 2018, Mandoyan filed a complaint for damages against the county, alleging various violations arising from his case.

THE NEW SHERIFF STEPS IN

During Villanueva's campaign for sheriff in 2018, Mandoyan joined as a volunteer. But he wasn't just any volunteer. He played a key role in rallying deputies to support Villanueva, and served as the candidate's personal driver.

Villanueva was elected in November 2018 and took office on Dec. 3.

He convened a special panel to review Mandoyan's case, comprised of Assistant Sheriff Timothy Murakami, Chief Eliezer Vera and Chief Steven Gross.

The group met on Dec. 21 to evaluate Mandoyan's case and issued a report on Dec. 27, saying Mandoyan had acted "in an irrational, unprofessional and impulsive manner" and "brought discredit to himself and the department" but still concluded that he should be rehired.

On Dec. 28, Villanueva rehired Mandoyan.

On Dec. 31, Mandoyan filed papers in court seeking to dismiss his two legal complaints.

In testimony to the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission on Jan. 22, Villanueva said Mandoyan was wrongly fired, noting the District Attorney did not file charges and saying the department should not get caught up in personal disputes among deputies. He also said Mandoyan's behavior was not related to his work performance - even though his accuser was a fellow deputy.

THE BACKLASH

On Jan. 29, Villanueva drew the ire of members of the County Board of Supervisors when he cast doubt on Mandoyan's accuser's credibility by pointing out that she waited nearly a year to report her allegations and quit the department before she was to testify against Mandoyan.

In a Jan. 30 news conference, Villanueva said he never had a "predetermined outcome" on Mandoyan, that his case was fully vetted by the special panel.

"If the evidence supported termination, he would not be back at work, period," the sheriff declared.

But an email obtained by the Los Angeles Times indicates Villanueva's efforts to rehire Mandoyan began even before he took office. A Nov. 30 email written by a department official said the sheriff had made a "priority request" to county counsel that Mandoyan be reinstated.

The Board of Supervisors asked county counsel to review the rehiring, and on Feb. 20, Villanueva was informed that the county had determined that his action was illegal and therefore void, according to a Feb. 28 letter Auditor-Controller John Naimo wrote to Mandoyan.

Villanueva refused to heed the county's order, and Mandoyan refused to turn in his gun and badge. On March 4, the county filed a petition asking a judge to enjoin Villanueva from recognizing Mandoyan as a deputy, prohibit Mandoyan from presenting himself as a deputy and order Mandoyan to turn in his gun and badge.

On March 6, Judge Mitchell Beckloff rejected the county's request for an immediate order, saying he was unconvinced the supervisors had the authority to override Villanueva's decision. The judge said the case can continue, and set a hearing for June 26.

In a March 5 appearance before the Board of Supervisors, Villanueva said he was "disappointed" they went to court to block his rehiring of Mandoyan without coming to him first.

The sheriff said, "I would come to you first" if he had a dispute with the board.

Villanueva argued the supervisors' legal efforts are "wasting taxpayers' money."

The supervisors pushed back. "We believe you have not operated within the confines of the law" in bringing Mandoyan back, said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

VIDEO AND AUDIO SURFACE

On Thursday, KPCC/LAist obtained documents and videos from the Mandoyan case file from the Civil Service Commission.

The videos show Mandoyan trying to get into his girlfriend's apartment, and her forcefully telling him to stop and to leave.

"Get the [expletive] out of my house -- get the [expletive] out, Caren," she shouts. "Get the [expletive] out. Get out! Stop, dude! Get out of my house - I'm calling the cops."

The videos are at odds with what Villanueva told the Civilian Oversight Commission on Tuesday. At that meeting the sheriff said that Mandoyan lived with the woman.

Mandoyan's lawyer, Greg Smith, told the Los Angeles Times that in the incidents captured on video Mandoyan was knocking on the door trying to get his girlfriend's attention because she had locked him outside without his keys, backpack and firearm.

In an audio recording the girlfriend made that was obtained by ABC7, Mandoyan says, "you deserve what you got coming."

MORE MANDOYANS AHEAD?

Villanueva has accused McDonnell of wrongly firing dozens of deputies. He's vowed to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to review each termination. The sheriff told the supervisors Tuesday that he could review as many as 400 firings.

"I don't expect all will come back," he said. "Maybe half, maybe less."

Also on March 5, the supervisors unanimously passed a motion ordering the county counsel to report back in 30 days on whether the Truth and Reconciliation panel is legal. The motion also calls on Villanueva to halt his work on the panel pending the county counsel's report. The sheriff told LAist that he will not do so.

So how the Mandoyan case gets resolved could have far-reaching consequences for the sheriff's plans.

"This is going to set the tone for where he goes with bringing in deputies that have been fired," Supervisor Kathryn Barger said.

UPDATES:

10:40 a.m., March 28, 2019: This article was updated with information on the video and audio that surfaced.

March 12, 2019: This article was updated to include the account of that day's Board of Supervisors meeting.

July 9, 2019: This article was updated to include the findings of the Inspector General's report.

This article was originally published on March 8.

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Get ready to lose an hour of your life, friends. It's time to spring forward.

Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, Mar. 10 at 2 a.m., and the reason why is located somewhere inside the Venn diagram of Ben Franklin's satirical essay about candle wax, a New Zealand entomologist's bug hunting habits, "it's for the children," and war time energy saving.

In practical terms, consider this a gentle reminder to change your non-robot-controlled clocks before bed on Saturday night. And try to talk some sense into your pets and small children about the importance of sleep.

Get ready for an extra hour of daylight! (Sorta)#DaylightSavingTime begins this Sunday!

While youre turning those clocks forward:

Do fire and severe weather drills at home

Replace batteries in NOAA Weather Radios

Replace batteries in smoke/carbon monoxide detectors pic.twitter.com/zMrNQNPext  National Weather Service (@NWS) March 8, 2019

Also, as you may recall, California voters passed Prop 7 in November for Permanent Daylight Saving Time. But that currently has no bearing on how tired you're going to feel on Sunday. Capital Public Radio sums up nicely the immense hurdles to be hurdled for "Permanent Daylight Saving Time" to become real life (it includes a two-thirds vote in the state legislature, a signature from the governor and also Congressional approval).

TL;DR: At least for now, the beat goes on for your jacked circadian rhythms. Sweet (interrupted) dreams.
Government to create permanent positions for relief quota teachers

The government has bowed down before the protest of the teachers recruited under the relief quota and agreed to create permanent positions equal to their numbers.
Adapted from the Twitter feed, Monday, March 4, 2019. Typed up Friday, March 8.

Boy, he wanted that signing ceremony in a big way, didn't he?

My what a firm grip you have!: Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un at their summit meeting in Hanoi, February 27, 2019. Photo by Evan Vucci/AP via the Washington Post.

Trump blames Cohen testimony in part for failed deal with North Korea---headline, the Washington Post, Monday, March 4, 2019.

Of course he does. Nothing is ever his fault

President Trump said Sunday that the congressional testimony of Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer and fixer, was in part responsible for the collapse in negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear program last week  continuing to vent about the investigations encircling him and his associates. During seven hours of testimony Wednesday, Cohen said that Trump manipulated financial records and that Trump knew in advance about WikiLeaks efforts to release damaging information about his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, during the 2016 campaign, among other allegations. The testimony unfolded as Trump had traveled to Hanoi to try to forge a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over curbing the North Korean nuclear program. While in Vietnam, the president said he walked away from the summit with Kim because of a disagreement about economic sanctions on North Korea. But he gave another explanation for the failure of the talks on Twitter on Sunday evening. For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the walk,  he tweeted. Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!

My bet is Trump himself doesnt know what he walked away from or why. He was there to play act at being president. Reality Television Show Diplomacy, pundits have called it. As usual he didnt study. He didnt listen to the briefings. He spent the evening before flying out to Hanoi fuming over what Spike Lee said about him at the Oscars and trying to start a Twitter fight. Some desperate State Department aide must have grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him away from the table before he gave the store away.

His big day was ruined and all he can figure is its someone elses fault.

This is his inner psychological WALL. He never takes responsibility. It's what's kept him going long after the point where even other shameless frauds would have given up in despair and retired to a monastery to live out their lives in contrition and prayer.

But refusing to take the blame and denying responsibility for his own screw ups is something he does FOR a certain cohort of his mobs of hideous men

The ones who resent it that most of the world doesn't share their own high opinion of themselves, the ones who think they'd show everybody who's ever criticized them if only they got the chance. Trump is their chance, at least vicariously.

They need to hear over and over him say on their behalf "Its not my fault!"

It's not their fault a moron is President. He's NOT a moron! EVERYBODY else is the moron!

This is how they approach life. It's a frequent refrain of their private conversation. Its their wife. Its their boss. Its their stupid co-workers, the ones who never listen and always blame them when its their screw up and then expect him to clean up their shit. Its the salesperson at the dealership. Its the customer care rep with the accent. Its the guy driving the SUV. Its the cop who ticketed them when they were only going thirty, for Christs sake! Trump is the president of the guys grousing at the end of the bar.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

To read Seung Min Kims whole article, follow the link to Trump blames Cohen testimony in part for failed deal with North Korea at the Washington Post.
Black Film Review

Joseph Grant (Toussaint Morrison) was riding in a car with his brother Cole (Malick Ceesay) and BFF Derek (Geoff Briley) one afternoon when they suddenly found themselves being tailed by a police cruiser. Although they hadnt violated any rules of the road, they were inexplicably pulled over by a couple of overly zealous cops (Addison Pennington and Matt Cedarberg), ostensibly for merely driving while Black.

Sitting in the back seat, Cole asked the officers for an explanation for the stop, if they werent being profiled. Their response was that he matched the description of a suspect they were looking for.

After being asked for his ID and ordered him out of the car, Cole lost his temper. The next thing you know, he wound up on the ground with a pistol to his head. And the bigot with a badge in control of whether he lived or died yelled, What you looking at boy? before callously pulling the trigger.

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Witnessing the senseless shooting of his only brother leaves Joe traumatized and Derek is understandably shaken, too. But the two have distinctly different feelings about what to do next.

The former has no faith in the criminal justice system, given the long history of police being found not guilty for the deaths of unarmed African Americans. So, he would just like to get some guns, recruit an army, and lead a violent revolution against the U.S.

By contrast, Derek is interested in mounting a traditional protest, like a Black Lives Matter march. After all, he has no confidence Joe will be able to find any followers, especially since Blacks are so brainwashed they mostly kill only other Blacks, not Whites. The ensuing debate of how to respond to Coles untimely demise sits at the center of Black, a thought-provoking morality play written and directed by David J. Buchanan.

Besides the badinage between the buddies, the film intermittently takes a break from the drama for brief, revealing tete-a-tetes with real-life black folks about their first encounters in life with the cops. The heartfelt recollections shared in these mini-documentaries combine to paint a widespread pattern of discrimination and abuse on the part of the police.

A compelling polemic revolving around a grief-stricken siblings relentlessly making his case, like a latter-day Nat Turner, for armed insurrection!

Excellent (4 stars)

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Unrated

Running time: 80 minutes

Production Studio: BLACK Productions

Studio: We-Co Films

To see a trailer for Black, visit: https://vimeo.com/281669294
Lawyer Says LA County Should Pay $35 Million to Former Inmate

Los Angeles County should pay $35 million to a man who suffered a psychotic breakdown and self-mutilated himself in the Mens Central Jail in 2014 because deputies were not properly trained to respond ton his calls for help, an attorney told a jury today.

This tragedy was preventable, lawyer Michael Libman said during final arguments on behalf of 33-year-old Michael Shabsis, whose lawsuit is being heard in Los Angeles Superior Court. All they had to do was answer his call for help immediately.

But Rickey Ivey, an attorney for the county, said jail deputies are trained to enforce security, not to make medical decisions.

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This is not Cedars-Sinai hospital, this is a county jail, Ivey said.

Libman disagreed and said one of the deputies on watch when Shabsis used his fingers to gouge out his eyes  leaving him permanently blinded  admitted he was trained only to look for visible signs of distress. As a result, when Shabsis screamed for help when he suffered a broken hip in jail prior to the Jan. 1, 2014, mid-afternoon self-mutilation, he was left lying nude on his cell floor without the immediate aid he needed, Libman said.

According to Libman, deputies knew Shabsis was mentally ill and delusional when he was jailed on elder abuse allegations involving his grandfather in December 2013. When he broke his hip, Shabsis reached his breaking point, Libman told jurors.

The pain was too much for him, given his mental state, Libman said.

But Ivey said Shabsis had a history of psychological problems that intensified when he stopped using his medications. He said the plaintiff told deputies various reasons other than hip pain for gouging out his eyes, including his inability to deal with bright lights in jail and his fear of going to hell.

Ivey said Shabsis claims about his hip pain causing his violent behavior may have something to do with his case now being before a jury, saying $35 million will make you think of a lot of things.

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Shabsis was present in court to hear his lawyers summation, along with his wife, his 3-year-old daughter and his mother. He testified last month that one of his biggest regrets is knowing hell never be able to have even a glimpse of his spouse or offspring.

I cant see them, I cant see my daughter smile, I cant see my wife smile, Shabsis said.

Shabsis said he only has a vague memory of his self-mutilation, but that he clearly recalls the aftermath when he awoke in a hospital and realized he could no longer see.

Shabsis said he broke his hip after falling from a bunk bed in his cell.

Shabsis said he was born in Ukraine and that his family brought him to the United States when he was 4 years old. He said he lived in West Hollywood and dreamed of being an artist and later a Navy SEAL. Libman showed jurors examples of his clients artwork during his final argument.

Prior to trial, Shabsis settled his claims against Pfizer Inc. and Dr. Philip Cogen, who worked at Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA. Pfizer makes Chantix, which was prescribed to Shabsis by Cogen.

The settlement terms with Pfizer and Cogen were not divulged.

Judge Daniel Murphy previously dismissed former Sheriff Lee Baca as a defendant, saying his presence in the case was redundant because Shabsis also is suing Los Angeles County. The judge also dismissed Shabsis claims against the University of California Board of Regents.
NABJ Elevates CNN to Special Media Monitoring List

The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is concerned about the lack of black representation within the ranks of CNNs executive news managers and direct reports to CNN President Jeff Zucker. This concern, coupled with Zuckers refusal to meet with a four-person NABJ delegation, has prompted NABJ to place CNN on a special media monitoring list.

A special team will perform further research and an analysis of CNNs diversity, inclusion and equity practices, per the NABJ Boards directive. The special team will also publicly report on identified deficiencies in hiring a diverse workforce in news decision-making capacities at CNN. NABJ is also calling for a civil rights audit that examines the companys hiring, promotion and compensation practices involving Black employees.

Specifically, NABJ is concerned about the findings of preliminary research that reveals the following:

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 CNN President Jeff Zucker has no Black direct reports.

 There are no Black Executive Producers at CNN.

 There are no Black Vice Presidents on the news side at CNN.

 There are no Black Senior Vice Presidents on the news side at CNN.

NABJ received a communication from CNN disputing only one of our research points, saying the assertion that there are not any Black vice presidents on the news side is inaccurate. However, when asked to provide the name and position of the individual or individuals involved on the editorial side of news, CNN has yet to provide specifics.

In addition to special media monitoring activities and the civil rights audit, NABJs next steps involve further engaging with CNNs parent company, AT&T, which has responded positively to outreach efforts and previously agreed to meet with NABJ.

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NABJs delegates are already engaged in very positive outreach with several other media companies and have met or have scheduled meetings with Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC. NABJ believes those companies see the value in such meetings and appreciates the respect those companies are showing for the positive intent of our efforts.

The NABJ four-person delegation has attended previous meetings with other media companies. The delegation requesting a meeting with Zucker includes President Sarah Glover, Vice President-Digital Roland Martin, Vice President- Broadcast Dorothy Tucker and Executive Director Drew Berry.

Zuckers refusal to meet with the full delegation is based on a personal issue between CNN and NABJs Vice President-Digital Roland Martin. The issue stems from Martins participation in a 2016 town hall meeting with Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Previously, former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile admitted, according to a Time essay, she inadvertently disclosed a town hall topic to the Clinton campaign that was part of Martins research inquiry for the town hall.

NABJs request to meet was and is focused solely on CNNs diversity efforts, its results and our strategic priorities as an organization.
Gurkha Veterans reject the increase in pension scheme by the UK government

The British government on Thursday announced it would increase the pension scheme for the Brigade of Gurkhas who joined the service before 2007 by up to 34 percent, but hours within the decision was announced, Gurkha veterans rejected the offer, calling it a piecemeal approach.
Publics Help Sought to Identify Girl Found Dead in Hacienda Heights

Authorities appealed today for the publics help in identifying a girl believed to be between 8 and 13-years-old whose body was found partially inside a large duffel bag near an equestrian trail in the Hacienda Heights area.

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department released a composite sketch of the girl, who was Black, about 4 feet, 5 inches tall and 55 pounds, along with photos of the pink long-sleeve top with the words Future Princess Hero and gray pants with pandas on them that she was wearing when her body was found.

County workers clearing some brush in the area south of Hacienda Boulevard and Glenmark Drive, just below a Buddhist temple, came across the youngsters remains about 10 a.m. Tuesday.

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Its a sad moment for the department, for the community, and were going to do our best to figure out what led to the suspicious death of the child involved, said Sheriff Alex Villanueva. Ive directed the investigators to spare no effort to find out what happened.

The girls body was found partially inside of a black roll-away type duffel bag, with her head and upper body protruding from the partially zipped bag, according to sheriffs Lt. Scott Hoglund.

Investigators did not observe any obvious signs of trauma to the victims body, he said.

Authorities expect an autopsy to be done within the next day or two to determine how the girl died, the sheriffs lieutenant said.

Hogland said investigators believe the body was left in light brush adjacent to the equestrian trail in the late evening hours Sunday, and appealed to the public for help if anyone saw anything suspicious on Hacienda Boulevard  including a vehicle pulled over to the side  during that time frame or recognizes the composite sketch of the girl or the clothing she was wearing.

Investigators initially believed the child was between 7 and 10 years old, but now believe the girl  described as skinny and small in nature  may have been anywhere between 8 and 13 years old, according to the lieutenant.

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Detectives have reached out to the county Department of Childrens Services and missing child organizations, along with school districts, to try to determine her identity, Hoglund said.

At this point, we dont have any leads. We dont have any idea of who this child is, the lieutenant said, calling it a horrible, tragic case.

He said investigators do not know whether the girl was alive or dead when she was placed inside the bag.

The motive at this time is unknown, Hoglund told reporters.

Anyone with information on the case was urged to call the Sheriffs Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500, or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.
State Offers Free Workshops on How to Prevent the Further Spread of Aquatic Invasive Species

The Division of Boating and Waterways and its partners invite everyone accessing Californias waterways to learn how to prevent the further spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS) into uninfected waterways. Starting next month, AIS experts from the division, California Coastal Commission, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife will be holding free workshops to help the public learn how they can recognize AIS in their region and how to take action to prevent it from spreading. Workshops are free, but space is limited and pre-registration is required.

Aquatic invasive species such as quagga and zebra mussels, water hyacinth and Brazilian waterweed pose threats to Californias water delivery systems, hydroelectric facilities, agriculture, boating, fishing and the environment. For example, quagga and zebra mussels are invasive freshwater mussels native to Europe and Asia. They multiply quickly, encrust watercraft and infrastructure, alter water quality and the aquatic food web and ultimately impact native and sport fish communities. These mussels spread from one waterbody to another by attaching to watercraft, equipment and nearly anything that has been in an infested waterbody.

Invisible to the naked eye, microscopic juveniles are spread from infested waterbodies by water that is entrapped in boat engines, bilges, live-wells and buckets.

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The public is invited to attend one of the following workshops:

Davis  Wednesday, March 27

Register by March 25

Time: 8:45 a.m.  2:45 p.m.

Location: Yolo Bypass Reserve- 45211 County Rd 32B (Chiles Rd), Davis, CA 95618

Alameda  Tuesday, April 30

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Register by April 26

Time: 8:45 a.m.  2:45 p.m.

Location: Encinal Yacht Club  980 Fernside Blvd, Alameda, CA 94501

Monterey  Tuesday, May 7

Register by May 3

Time: 8:45 a.m.  2:45 p.m.

Location: Mott Training Center- 837 Asilomar Avenue, Pacific Grove, CA 93950

(Madrone Room)

To register, please contact Boating Clean and Greens Program Coordinator Vivian Matuk via email at [email protected] or call (415) 904-6905. The directions to the workshops are included with confirmation of the registration. Free parking is available at the workshop sites. Lunch will not be provided.

The AIS workshops are part of the Californias Boating Green and Clean Program. The program is an education and outreach program conducted through the Division of Boating and Waterways and the California Coastal Commission. Staff and volunteers promote environmentally sound boating practices to marine businesses and boaters. For more information, please visit www.BoatingCleanAndGreen.com.
Chinese technology business Huawei is taking the United States to court.

Huawei wants a U.S. federal court to rule on a law that identifies the company as a security risk. It also claims the measure would limit the companys ability to sell its products in the United States.

Huawei Technologies Ltd. announced the legal action on Thursday. The case asks the court to reject as unconstitutional part of the legislation setting military spending levels. The measure bars the U.S. government and businesses working for the government from using Huawei equipment.

Huawei is the worlds largest maker of telecommunications technology. The company is fighting to keep its worldwide market share as phone carriers prepare to release the next generation of technology, called 5G. The U.S. government has urged Americas allies not to use Huawei equipment.

Huaweis argument against the law

The lawsuit was filed in Plano, Texas, where Huawei has its U.S. headquarters. The companys complaint argues that the law violates the U.S. Constitution. Huawei says the law punishes the company for unproven accusations, and would harm its future earnings.

Relations between the United States and China have been tense over technology competition and use of computers to gather information. Huawei has argued for years that it is not involved in Chinese spying. It also argues that the Chinese Communist Party has no control over the company.

We [were forced] to take this legal action, the companys chairman, Guo Ping, said at a press conference. Guo said the ban would limit competition and lead to higher prices for telecom services. He also said it would delay the release of 5G communications.

In January, Huawei has said in court it is not guilty of U.S. trade-theft charges. The court statement came after a federal court in Seattle, Washington, announced charges against two of the companys businesses in January.

Huaweis chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada on December 1, 2018. The U.S. government has charged her with lying to banks about doing business with Iran. U.S. officials have asked Canada to send her to the United States for trial.

On December 10, China arrested two Canadians, a former diplomat and a businessman, in what many observers think is an attempt to get Canada to release Meng.

Huawei denies accusations

On Thursday, a Chinese foreign ministry official said China also objects to the U.S. law. He did not know if the government would join Huaweis lawsuit. He added that Huawei has the right to defend its business through the legal system.

Huawei has about 40 percent of the international market for telecom equipment. But it sells very little in the United States after Congress said the company was a security risk in 2012. Congress told American businesses to avoid Huawei products.

Huawei says the new law would make it illegal for anyone working for the U.S. government to buy the companys products. It would also ban any company in the world that uses Huawei products from working with the U.S. government.

The United States makes up 20 to 25 percent of the worldwide market for computer and telecom technology. Huawei says the law would shrink its market share.

The ban is based on numerous false, unproven and untested accusations, the companys chief legal officer, Song Liuping, told reporters. He also said there is no evidence against Huawei.

Australia, Japan, Taiwan and some other governments also have set limits on using Huawei technology.

Huawei wants to negotiate with U.S. officials about their security concerns, but the law bars President Donald Trump from agreeing to negotiations, Guo said. He noted Trump has said he is against the ban of Huawei products.

Industry experts say banning Huawei from markets for 5G equipment could reduce competition. It might also cause higher prices.

Huawei says it supplies 45 of the worlds top 50 telecom companies. It also has agreements with 30 other companies to test 5G technology, it says.

Chinese officials and some industry experts say the U.S. government might be overstating security concerns to limit competition with Western telecom companies.

European governments are refusing to accept the U.S. requests to ban Huawei. The company has also announced deals with telecom companies in the Middle East.

I'm Susan Shand.

The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

theft  n. the act of stealing

file  v. to provide documents needed to launch a case or lawsuit

complaint  n. an official claim or accusation against someone or something
Hi everyone! Do you feel like playing a little word game today? I do.

OK, here it is: I will give you the words. Your job is to identify the meanings without searching the Internet. Here is the first word: doggy.

Can you guess the meaning? Surely, you know what a dog is. But whats a doggy? A doggy can be a small dog or a baby dog. Or, it can be a loving term for a dog of any size.

In English, adding the letter -y to the end of some words can suggest the things they describe are small or well-loved. We call this the diminutive.

What is a diminutive?

A diminutive can express other qualities as well  like that something is familiar, sad, or disliked. Diminutives can show warmth or kindness for a thing or person. They can also be used to insult.

Today, we will explore American English diminutives made from many word endings as well as the prefix mini-.

Learning diminutives can help you recognize variants of English words. It can also offer you a more natural and broader selection of vocabulary as your English becomes more fluent.

-y and -ie

Lets start by returning to the ending -y, which is sometimes spelled i-e with no change in meaning. For instance, the word doggy can be written d-o-g-g-y or d-o-g-g-i-e.

The -y and i-e endings are used only with some words, such as the nouns birdie, doggie, mommy and daddy.

The words mommy and daddy, as you might guess, dont refer to small parents. They are terms of familiarity and warmth.

Note the doubling of the middle letter in many of these words. That spelling also applies to some nicknames, like Nikky, taken from Nicole, or Bobby, taken from Robert.

The i-e ending is also used with some adjectives, like sweet, forming the noun sweetie and cute, forming the noun cutie.

Can you guess what sweetie and cutie mean without checking the Internet?

Note that the examples so far today are not suitable for formal English speech or writing.

And take note: Not all English words ending in -y or i-e (or any other form well explore today) make a diminutive meaning. In fact, most do not. The word funny, for example, does not mean a small amount of fun.

-ish

Then, there is the word ending -ish. The letters i-s-h can be added to the end of many English nouns to make adjectives that mean somewhat like or similar to. With that in mind, you can likely tell me what the words blueish and reddish mean. Heres another example: childish. Any guess as to its definition?

By the way, many of these words are suitable for most styles of English speaking and writing, including formal. Some however are more informal. Check a trusted dictionary if you are ever unsure.

-let, -lette and -ette

Next, we have -let and -lette. They sound the same and have the same meaning: smaller than usual. But one is spelled l-e-t-t-e. In other words, it has an extra t-e at the end. Both were borrowed from the French language.

Some examples of the l-e-t spelling are booklet, which is a book with only a few pages; droplet, a very small drop of water; and eyelet, a very small hole. So what, then, might a piglet be?

The longer spelling  l-e-t-t-e  only forms a diminutive in a few English words, like novelette, a short novel.

The closely-related ending e-t-t-e also makes things smaller than their usual size, such as kitchenette. Surely, you can guess its meaning!

-ling

Onto words formed with ending l-i-n-g. This ending mainly changes adult animal words into baby animal words. Other times, it expresses affection for a person.

For instance, the word darling means little dear. A duckling is a baby duck; and a fingerling can refer to either a baby fish or a very small potato. Thats funnyish, right?

A few years ago, a company called WowWee released another kind of Fingerling  a finger-sized baby animal toy for children.

mini-

And finally, we have mini-. It is todays only prefix. Putting mini- at the start of a word means that thing is smaller or shorter than usual or normal.

Examples include lots of kinds of vehicles, such as a minibus, minicar, minibike and minicab; and womens clothing, like a miniskirt, minidress and minikini.

Do you have any idea what a minikini is? The original word has been shortened so you may not recognize it. Ill give you a hint: Its something worn at the beach.

What do you mean?

Earlier today, I told you that some diminutives can have negative meanings. Some of the terms can be critical or sarcastic, depending on how they are used.

Suppose, for example, you are at a train station trying to buy a ticket. But, the machine is not working right. Someone in line behind you says, Hey, sweetie, there are people waiting for that machine! You can guess that they are not expressing affection.

That said, English diminutives can be some of the most useful, natural and endearing words in the English language.

Im Alice Bryant. And Im Bryan Lynn.

Alice Bryant wrote this story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________ Practice Now, you try it! Here are two fun questions to explore on todays subject. Write your responses in the comments section. In todays word game, we asked you to guess the meanings of some words without searching the Internet for the answers. The words again are: sweetie, cutie, blueish, reddish, childish, piglet and kitchenette.

Many languages have diminutives. For instance, in Spanish, the diminutive for abuela, which means grandmother, is abuelita, which is the affectionate form of the word. In Turkish, the diminutive of koy, which means village, is koycegiz, which means dear little village. What are some diminutives in your language? ______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

guess  v. to form an opinion or give an answer about something when you do not know much about it

prefix  n. a letter or group of letters that is added at the beginning of a word to change its meaning

variant  n. one of two or more different ways to spell or pronounce a word

vocabulary  n. all of the words known and used by a person

nickname  n. a name that is different from your real name but is what your family, friends, etc., call you

formal  adj. suitable for serious or official speech and writing

dictionary  n. a reference book that lists in alphabetical order the words of one language and shows their meanings

novel  n. a long written story usually about imaginary characters and events

hint  n. a small piece of information that helps you guess an answer or do something more easily

sarcastic  adj. using words that mean opposite of what you want to say in order to insult someone, to show irritation, or to be funny
For years, Mars has been seen as a dry, lifeless planet. But there is growing evidence to suggest this was not always the case.

Scientists have already collected evidence suggesting that Mars once had a lot of water. Now, European researchers say they have discovered the first evidence of a huge groundwater system that once existed below the planets surface.

The European Space Agency, or ESA, says its Mars Express spacecraft helped discover the evidence. It said a new study provides the first geological proof that Mars once had a planet-wide groundwater system.

The study was a project of researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Francesco Salese and his team studied images of 24 deep craters in the northern half of the Red Planet. These pictures were captured by ESAs Mars Express orbiter, which was launched in 2003.

Salese is a geologist. He says scientific evidence already suggests Mars was once a watery world. But as the planets climate changed, this water retreated below the surface to form pools and groundwater.

His team says the images showed that large amounts of continuous groundwater activity connected the areas they studied. Evidence of basins and coastlines was also found on the surface of Mars, supporting the idea that water was once present.

There is no evidence that they had been filled from the surface, so upwelling ground water is the only remaining explanation, Salese said. He added that all the basins seemed to reach about the same height. This likely meant one large groundwater body once spread across the planet.

The water levels seem to support evidence that an ocean may have existed on Mars between 3-4 billion years ago.

Scientists have yet to find out what happened to all that water. Thats the big question, said Salese. Weve been able to determine that the ground water system weve discovered dates from around 3.5 billion years ago, but we dont know when or how the basins dried up.

Earlier research involving modeling experiments did not provide clear evidence that large bodies of water on Mars were interconnected. The latest study provides the strongest evidence yet that such bodies were linked over large areas of Mars.

Scientists have long linked the complex history of water on Mars to whether or not life ever existed on the Red Planet.

During the latest study, researchers discovered evidence of minerals within some of the identified bodies of water. Some of the same minerals have been linked to the beginnings of life on earth.

The researchers say the finding adds weight to the idea that the water basins on Mars may have once held the materials required to support life. Some of this material could still be buried on Mars, providing possible evidence of life during future exploration.

Francesco Salese believes the latest findings are not only exciting for what they teach us about Mars. He says the information could also help us learn new things about our own planet.

As we learn more about water on Mars - especially the reason why we see so little of it on the planet today - we may be able to find out if the same can happen to Earth, or if it had already happened when Earth was still very young, he said.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on the scientific study and information from the European Space Agency. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

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Words in This Story

retreat  v. to move back or withdraw

basin  n. low area of land from which water flows

determine  v. discover the facts or truth about something

geologist  n. a scientist who has studied rocks and soil in order to learn about the history of planets

crater  n. a large hole in the ground
An American spacecraft designed to carry astronauts has successfully completed a six-day test mission.

The unmanned SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule touched down safely Friday morning in the Atlantic Ocean. The landing happened about 300 kilometers off the coast of Florida.

Crew Dragon began its six-hour trip back to Earth after pulling away from the International Space Station, or ISS. The spacecraft spent the week docked at the ISS. Crew Dragon launched on March 2 from Floridas Kennedy Space Center. It successfully linked up with the space station the next day.

SpaceX employees who watched the landing at company headquarters in California cheered when the red and white parachutes opened to lower Crew Dragon into the water.

I'm kind of shaky and I'm super excited, said Benji Reed, SpaceX's director of crew mission management. Everything happened just perfectly, right on time the way that we expected it to.

It was the first time in 50 years that a capsule designed for astronauts returned from space by landing in the Atlantic Ocean. The last time was on March 13, 1969, when Americas Apollo 9 landed in the ocean after orbiting Earth in preparation for moon landings.

American space station astronauts have been carried to space by Russian rockets since the U.S. space agency NASA halted its shuttle program eight years ago.

The successful test mission marked an important moment for the U.S. space programs plans to restart manned space flights. SpaceX plans to launch its first crewed test flight in July with American astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken.

Americas Boeing has plans to launch its Starliner capsule without a crew as early as next month, and possibly with astronauts in August. The Starliner is designed to touch down on land.

NASA has awarded SpaceX and Boeing a total of $6.8 billion to build competing rocket and capsule systems to launch astronauts into orbit. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine praised Crew Dragons mission. He said such progress was leading to a day where we are launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil.

Crew Dragon brought 180 kilograms of test equipment to the space station, including a dummy named Ripley. The dummy was fitted with sensors around its head, neck, and back for an experiment designed to test how a flight would feel for humans.

The space stations three-member crew greeted Crew Dragon upon its arrival. American astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques carried out air quality tests and inspections inside the capsule.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story, based on reports from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

mission  n. an important task, usually involving travel somewhere

capsule  n. the part of a spacecraft that carries people

dock  v. to link up with or attach to

dummy  n. a model or reproduction of a person

sensor  n. piece of equipment designed to find light, hear, etc.
Rights groups and government organizations around the world are recognizing International Womens Day on Friday.

The day -- March 8 -- is a celebration of womens social, economic, cultural and political successes in the world, as well as a call for gender equality.

It all began in 1908 in New York City. Thousands of female clothing workers went on strike and marched through the streets of the city. They were demanding better pay, shorter workdays and voting rights.

In 1910, a German woman named Clara Zetkin suggested the declaration of a Womens Day at an international meeting attended by 100 women. The idea received support from everyone there.

Womens Day was first celebrated in 1911 in Germany as well as Austria, Denmark and Switzerland. More than 1 million women and men attended demonstrations in support of a womans right to work, vote, study and hold public office.

The United Nations officially recognized International Womens Day for the first time in 1975.

This year, the UNs theme for the day is Think equal, build smart, innovate for change. The UN aims to use the day to bring attention to public services, safe spaces and technology to advance progress for women and girls.

Violences and other dangers

There are also new efforts centered on ending gender-based violence during war and ethnic conflicts. Last month, Red Cross and Red Crescent and the UN began working together to end the use of rape as a weapon of war.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, Sexual and gender-based violence in conflict is not only a horrendous and life-changing crime...It is also used as a tactic of war, to terrorize families, dehumanize communities and destabilize societies.

Also last month, Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio declared rape a national emergency in his country. He warned that anyone caught having sex with a minor could face up to life in prison.

He said, These despicable crimes of sexual violence are being committed against our women, children and even babies."

On Wednesday, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) released its report on the five most dangerous place in the world to be a girl. They are: Niger, Yemen, Bangladesh, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. The report considered data on child marriage, birth rates among very young women, literacy, rates of violence and child labor.

Nicole Behnam, director of IRCs Violence Protection and Response office, said in a statement, Until we achieve true gender equality, young girls will suffer the most. This is unacceptable and its why the IRC continues to advocate for changes that will improve the lives of girls everywhere.

Im Caty Weaver.

Ashley Thompson adapted this VOA News report for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

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Words in This Story

advance - v. to move forward

tactic - n. an action or method that is planned and used to achieve a particular goal

horrendous - adj. very bad or unpleasant

despicable - adj. very bad or unpleasant : deserving to be despised

destabilize - v. to cause (something, such as a government) to be unable to continue existing or working in the usual or desired way

advocate - v. to support or argue for (a cause, policy, etc.)
Anyone who goes to New York City knows it can be very noisy. One of the common sounds you hear on the streets is a siren: a loud, high noise that comes from police cars, fire trucks, or ambulances. It sounds like Waaaaaahhhhhhh. People living in New York City often call city officials to complain the noise wakes them up and makes dogs cry out loudly.

Now, two city lawmakers want to change the sound so it is the same as sirens in Europe. Sirens there make a sound that goes from high to low, as in WEE-oww-WEE-oww. If the lawmakers proposal passes, all sirens on emergency vehicles in New York City would have to change within two years.

What do people say about the European siren?

Some think the European siren is gentler and causes less noise pollution. Helen Rosenthal is one of the supporters of the proposal. She says the people she represents tell her that the current sirens in New York are a high-pitched, continuous noise  a nuisance.

The sounds of European and American sirens are at the same decibel level, or loudness. But the European siren is at a lower frequency, so it would not seem as painful to a persons ears. Carlina Rivera is another lawmaker supporting the new law. She says the European sirens are not as piercing.

One hospital has already changed its sirens. Mount Sinai Health System started using the high-low siren last year. The Mount Sinai Emergency Medical Service Director, Joseph Davis, played different siren options to find out which one the neighbors of the hospital liked better. He found that people hated them all. However, he said, the high-low siren was not as offensive.

Davis says changing the siren sound in an emergency vehicle is easy. An electronic box in each vehicle has seven different sounds. For example, one can make the sirens give a loud, long cry. Another can make a series of short, high cries, like a dog that is in pain. And another can make a sound so sharp and forceful that it seems to be making a hole in the air. Davis explains that workers could add the European siren to these choices.

Some dont think change is a good idea. Linda Sachs lives near the Mount Sinai Hospital and hears the new high-low sirens. She likes the old ones better. The old ones never woke her up, she says, but the new ones make her shake in fear.

Im Jill Robbins.

Verena Dobnik reported on this story for the Associated Press. Jill Robbins adapted this story for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.

What kind of sirens do you hear where you live? How do they make you feel? Are they piercing or the high-low kind? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

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Words in This Story

siren n. a piece of equipment that produces a loud, high-pitched warning sound

ambulance n. a vehicle used for taking hurt or sick people to the hospital especially in emergencies

high-pitched - adj. making a high sound

nuisance  n. a person, thing, or situation that is annoying or that causes trouble or problems

decibeln. a unit for measuring how loud a sound is

frequencyn. the number of times that something (such as a sound wave or radio wave) is repeated in a period of time (such as a second)

piercing  adj. very loud and high-pitched
How do transwomen describe themselves? Women.

The multi-coloured skirt is hard to miss as Rukshana Kapali makes her way through the afternoon crowd at Patan Durbar Square. It is not just a mere fashion choice but a statement to her identity. While some are oblivious to her presence, others need to take a second glance, but for Kapali, this has been a norm since she came out as a transwoman around five years ago.
This website is inclusive of tolerant people of all faiths, without exception. Neither anti-Semitism nor Islamophobia nor homophobia should ever be acceptable to anyone. We must all strive to live in peace and harmony with each other, regardless of religious affiliations, or none. Intolerance is the mother of strife and conflict.   Mark Alexander

We Britons are Europeans!Wir Briten sind Europaer! Nous, les Britanniques, sommes europeens !  Mark AlexanderEmail me at:markalexander.librabunda@gmail.com
Thai firm wins $4.83m contract to install communications system

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has awarded a $4.83 million contract to install communications, navigation and surveillance and air traffic management systems at Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa to Aeronautical Radio of Thailand.
Craig B. Mousin (DePaul University) has posted Can One Still Call It Ignorance or Bias? Nexus Test Modified, but Courts Still Fail to Address International Law Under the International Religious Freedom Act (Migration and Religious Freedom, Essays on the Interaction Between Religious Duty and Immigration Law, Carolus Grutters & Dario Dzananovic (eds), (Wolf Legal Publishers, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, 2018)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

In enacting the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), Congress modified the nexus test that determines eligibility for asylum on account of religious persecution. In recognizing the global scourge of religious persecution, Congress sought to reduce the unfairness and bias in asylum adjudications that had occurred under pre-IRFA law. Courts have traditionally held that international refugee law protections are incorporated into United States domestic law, and therefore, not explicitly applicable in U.S. courts. Through IRFA, however, Congress instructed the courts to take a different approach. Congress directed all involved in asylum adjudication to invoke international laws protection of religious liberty under its definition of religion and its broad interpretation of religious persecution.

Since 1992, eligibility for asylum under United States asylum law has been constrained by the Supreme Courts decision in INS v. Elias-Zacarias (1992) which required applicants seeking asylum on account of political opinion to possess a political opinion that the persecutor intended to thwart through persecution. This has led courts to deny relief when intent could not be proven and undermined protection when neutral laws of general applicability harmed applicants. Subsequent courts have expanded the nexus test to apply to asylums other grounds of protection: race, religion, nationality, or membership in a particular social group. When Congress instructed judges and adjudicators to examine religious persecution cases under international law through IRFA, it modified the nexus test for religion.

This chapter first explains how IRFA modifies the nexus test for religious persecution. The chapter next examines the one federal case that followed IRFA as Congress intended, although that case was later vacated on other grounds. The chapter next explores how the application of international law would have impacted cases if IRFA had been applied as Congress instructed. The chapter concludes that even if courts determine IRFA did not modify the nexus test, IRFA requires adjudicators to demonstrate more sensitivity to the many ways religion is practiced and how religious persecution harms the liberty of those attempting to live faithful lives.
Women are being denied equal rights in the name of national security and sovereignty: Binda Pandey

Lawmaker Binda Pandey, a member of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), talks with the Posts Tsering D Gurung about the importance of amending the current Citizenship Act and the challenges that need to be overcome in ensuring equal laws are passed.
Forecast cutting resembles a business model these days.

Another day, another venerable firm or institution reduces projections for economic growth. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is the latest to jump on the bandwagon, citing trade tussles, Chinas downdraft and Brexit.

On the face of it, the overall picture isnt dire. The OECD clipped its world-growth forecast to 3.3 percent from 3.5 percent, not that different from the 3.5 percent the International Monetary Fund ended up with after its January revisions.

But do forecasters, in general, have the right emphasis once you get past the top line? Does the West get too much attention, relative to Asia?

The OECD says the situation in Europe is especially distressing and activity needs a boost, especially from fiscal policy. Hard to argue with the underlying idea that a jolt would be helpful. It does beg the question why the European Central Bank has waited so long to signal more easing  in words, if not in practice.

We arent expecting spectacular performance in Europe. Sluggishness has seemed the order of the day for a while. I havent heard many proclaim the continent is the future, in the same way they gush about China and Asia.

That brings us to China, which is having a rough patch relative to the decades after its economy opened up in the late 1970s. The OECD acknowledges the potential for a paradigm shift in a blog post, but doesnt dwell much upon it.

China has significantly contributed to global growth for the past two decades, so that any sharper deceleration than expected would cascade to the rest of the world. Countries in East Asia, commodity exporters and Japan would be particularly hard hit by a sharp slowdown in Chinese demand growth. Reduced demand in China would also affect global confidence adding significantly to these costs, particularly in the advanced economies.

Its hard for me to see a downturn in Europe packing the same punch, though much of the press conference by OECD Chief Economist Laurence Boone was devoted to it. Granted, the outfit is based in Paris, so the neighborhoods ills are bound to be foremost in the minds of people showing up.

The silver lining is that China is doing something about its malaise. In words and deeds, Beijing is hitting both fiscal and monetary buttons pretty quickly. As Ive written previously, what stands out in the global slowdown is that central banks in China and India are among the first to respond.

Europe does have attributes absent in China and swathes of the developing world. Theres democracy, rule of law and relatively transparent systems and processes. That doesnt mean the euro zone is equipped to deal nimbly with swings in the economic cycle, which seem to come faster and faster. Its also possible Chinas downturn isnt so dire in the overall scheme of things; it just seems bigger here in Asia.

With headaches coming from both sides, it might be up to the Fed and the U.S. to save the world. Plus ca change!Daniel Moss, Bloomberg
Chinese tech giant Huawei is challenging a U.S. law that labels the company a security risk and would limit its access to the American market for telecom equipment.

Huawei Technologies Ltd.s lawsuit, announced yesterday, asks a federal court to reject as unconstitutional a portion of this years U.S. military appropriations act that bars the government and its contractors from using Huawei equipment.

It comes as the biggest global maker of network equipment fights a U.S. campaign to persuade allies to shun Huawei. That effort threatens to block access to major markets as phone carriers prepare to invest billions of dollars in next-generation, 5G networks.

The complaint, filed in Plano, Texas, the headquarters of Huaweis U.S. operations, cites the framers of the U.S. Constitution, including Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, in arguing that the law in question violates the constitutional separation of powers, denies due process and amounts to a Bill of Attainder that singles out a specific entity for adverse treatment.

It says the law causes the company concrete and particularized injury, and imminent future injury and subjects it to a burden that is severe, permanent and inescapable that amounts to a corporate death penalty.

Huawei is at the center of U.S.-Chinese tensions over technology competition and cyber-spying. The company has spent years trying to put to rest accusations it facilitates Chinese spying or is controlled by the ruling Communist Party.

Increasingly, both sides appear to be resorting to courts to press their cases.

We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort, the companys rotating chairman, Guo Ping, said at a news conference. Guo said the ban would limit competition, slowing the rollout of fifth-generation communications and raising consumer prices.

Huawei has pleaded not guilty to U.S. trade-theft charges after a federal court in Seattle unsealed a 10-count indictment in January against two of its units, Huawei Device Co. and Huawei Device USA. The charges include conspiracy to steal trade secrets, attempted theft of trade secrets, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

The companys chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, is fighting extradition to the U.S. after she was arrested in Vancouver, Canada on Dec. 1. U.S. prosecutors have filed charges accusing Meng, who is the daughter of Huaweis founder, of lying to banks about dealings with Iran.

Huawei denies any wrongdoing.

At a routine briefing yesterday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman noted that the Chinese government has also objected to the law.

We believe that it is perfectly proper and fully understandable for companies to defend their legitimate rights and interests through legal means, Lu Kang said. He said he had no information about whether China would join Huawei in the lawsuit.

Huawei has about 40 percent of the global market for network gear. Its U.S. sales evaporated after a congressional panel in 2012 cited the company and a Chinese competitor, ZTE Corp., as security risks and told phone carriers to avoid dealing with them.

U.S. authorities have hacked our servers and stolen our emails but have presented no evidence to support their security claims, Guo said. He complained Washington was sparing no effort to smear the company.

Huawei says the new law would shrink its potential U.S. market further by prohibiting the government from buying the Chinese vendors technology and from buying goods or services from or giving grants or loans to companies or other third parties that do. The United States accounts for 20 to 25 percent of the global market for computer and telecom technology.

Huawei says the U.S. law it is protesting improperly has Congress play the role of a court.

The ban is based on numerous false, unproven and untested propositions, said Song Liuping, the companys chief legal officer, at the news conference. Huawei has an excellent security record and program. No contrary evidence has been offered. Joe McDonald, Shenzhen, AP
Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosns release from detention nearly four months after his arrest has gripped Japan, giving the public a rare glimpse into how the criminal justice system works.

Ghosn was recuperating yesterday, his lawyer said, after leaving the Tokyo Detention Center the evening before, just in time for his 65th birthday on Saturday. His trial on charges of financial misconduct is sure to draw attention as one of the biggest court cases in the history of corporate Japan.

Japans relatively low crime rate means high-profile cases like Ghosns are uncommon.

The front pages of all major newspapers carried photos yesterday of Ghosn after he left the detention center, his identity obscured by a surgical mask, blue cap and laborers clothes.

Broadcasters showed stacks of Japanese currency about the size of a small bed to demonstrate what his bail of USD8.9 million would have looked like. The payment was made electronically but the full amount was required, unlike bail systems like in the U.S. where a portion is offered as surety and the full amount is forfeited only if the defendant fails to appear.

While Westerners wondered why the concept of presumed innocent doesnt seem to apply in Japan, many here were shocked his release came so soon.

An exceptional case of quick release, said a headline in the newspaper Yomiuri.

Suspects in Japan are usually not released from detention until all documents from both sides are readied for a trial because prosecutors worry that they might tamper with evidence or flee. The court rejected two earlier requests by Ghosn for bail.

Theoretically, suspects in Japan are presumed innocent until proven guilty. But the complexity of a case can determine the length of pretrial detention. And long detentions mean suspects practically serve time before they are found guilty.

Seiho Cho, a defense lawyer, says his clients wonder why they arent getting released as quickly as Ghosn was. Ghosns legal team offered special conditions, such as a surveillance camera, to win his release.

Bail should be granted without such stringent restrictions, Cho said.

What we have now is totally wrong, he said. We hope this will have a positive effect on future cases.

Ghosn, who headed the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors alliance, has been charged with falsifying financial reports, under-

reporting his income and breach of trust in having Nissan shoulder investment losses and make payments to a Saudi businessman. He says he is innocent, that the income allegedly under-reported was never paid or decided, that Nissan never suffered the investment losses and the payments were legitimate business expenses.

The business daily Nikkei said Ghosns case highlights inequities human-rights advocates have long criticized as unfair, such as extended detentions and interrogations without a lawyer present. Japanese-style justice shaken, the headline said.

There have been several cases in which suspects signed false confessions after harsh questioning during months-long detentions, but were later exonerated by DNA tests or other evidence.

Lawyer Yuichi Kaido welcomed the international scrutiny prompted by Ghosns case.

I realize there is the view that we cant give special treatment to Mr. Ghosn or that Japan has its own way of doing things, he said, but the case of Carlos Ghosn has highlighted how outdated this system is.

Ghosn has hired a star defense lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka. Nicknamed the Razor, he has won rare acquittals in a nation where the conviction rate is 99 percent.

Hironaka said the lawyer most responsible for securing Ghosns release was Takashi Takano, who studied at Southern Methodist Universitys law school in Dallas.

We hope this can serve as a way to end the hostage justice system, Hironaka told reporters yesterday, using the term often used by critics to refer to long detentions typical in Japan.

The world is watching. Yuri Kageyama, Tokyo, AP
Visitors on package tours dropped 4.6 percent year-on-year to 766,000 in January 2019, owing to an 8.4 percent decrease in the number of mainland visitors (591,000), according to data released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

On the other hand, package tour visitors from Korea (66,000), Hong Kong (16,000) and Taiwan (56,000) increased by 31.7 percent, 17.5 percent and 14.2 percent respectively.

Outbound residents using the services of travel agencies rose by 7.5 percent year-on-year to 130,000 in January 2019.

Among them, residents travelling under their own arrangements expanded by 22.5 percent to 93,000, with those visiting mainland China totaling 43,000 (45.8 percent of total), a surge of 37.2 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, residents travelling on package tours decreased by 18 percent to 36,000.

Guests coming from mainland China (896,000) and South Korea (54,000) increased by 9.5 percent and 4.1 percent respectively year-on- year, while those from Hong Kong (96,000) and Taiwan (38,000) dropped by 5.8 percent and 5.6 percent respectively. LV
North Koreas state TV has aired a documentary glorifying leader Kim Jong Uns recent visit to Vietnam that omitted the failed nuclear negotiations with President Donald Trump.

The footages release this week came amid reports that North Korea is restoring some facilities at its long-range rocket launch site that it dismantled last year as part of disarmament steps.

North Korean documentaries are typically propaganda venerating Kim, the subject of a strong personality cult among the Norths 25 million people. Some observers say omitting the status of the nuclear talks also shows the North hopes to continue negotiations, while also not letting North Korean people know of any diplomatic failures that could damage Kims leadership.

The documentary shows a smiling Kim talking with Trump while walking together inside a Hanoi hotel last week.

It shows Kim waving from a black limousine when it passed through a Hanoi street lined with residents waving North Korean and Vietnamese flags. The footage also shows Kim visiting the North Korean Embassy where some embassy officials and their family members skipped and wept with emotions before they took a group photo with the backdrop of a huge picture of Kims late father and grandfather.

The documentary called the Kim-Trump summit yet another meaningful incident on the issue of world peace. It cited Kim as saying North Korea and the U.S. must put an end to their decades-long animosity and confrontation. But the documentary didnt mention about the lack of an agreement following the Kim-Trump summit.

The Hanoi summit broke down due to disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea. Washington and Pyongyang blame each other for the talks breakdown, but both sides still leave the door open for future negotiations.

Earlier Tuesday, two U.S.-based websites specializing in North Korea studies cited commercial satellite imagery as indicating that North Korea is rebuilding some structures at its northwestern rocket launch facility. South Koreas spy service gave a similar assessment to lawmakers in Seoul in a closed-door briefing.

I would be very, very disappointed in Chairman Kim, Trump said when reporters asked him about reports of new work at the Norths launch site. I dont think I will be disappointed, Trump said, but well see what happens.

The Kim-Trump meeting in Hanoi is their second summit, since they met for the first time in Singapore last June. After the first summit, Kim pledged to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula without providing a roadmap or a timetable for his disarmament steps. Hyung-Jin Kim, Seoul, AP
The government expects to deliver a single-use plastic bag levy bill to the Legislative Assembly (AL) next month.

The Chief Executive Council will complete discussion of the bill in April. The bill will then be submitted to the AL, according to Secretary for Administration and Justice Sonia Chan, who revealed the information in a meeting with the advisory council of the central district. However, the Secretary did not disclose the specific value of the levy.

A single-use plastic shopping bag charge has been talked about in Macau for over a decade.

Last year, more than 4,700 local residents signed a petition to the government, urging for faster legislation on the single-use plastic bag levy.

The Macao Consumer Council conducted a survey on the topic in 2011, with 70 percent of respondents supporting a charge for single-use plastic bags.

In 2016, the Environmental Protection Bureaus public consultation showed that a levy bill is widely supported.

Previously, the local government revealed that it expected the charge for a single-use shopping bag would be 50 cents or 1 pataca.

Besides researching a charge for single-use plastic bags, the SAR government is also studying a ban on the import of non-degradable plastic bags.

According to statistics, on average, each Macau resident uses 2.2 single- use plastic bags on a daily basis.

In July 2009, Hong Kong implemented its plastic shopping bag levy scheme.

Mainland China has had a plastic shopping bag levy scheme in place since 2008. JZ
The absence of protections for non-resident workers in Macau has led to a number of complaints and outcries from employees  not only from those in household work, but also from the security sector.

The long working hours of security guards  some of which are allegedly forced to work up to 24 hours continuously  have caused many of them to file cases against their employers with the Labour Affairs Bureau.

According to data provided to the Times last quarter, the bureau had opened 33 cases involving a total of 59 staff in the sector. The complaints were mainly about overtime and weekly rest day compensation.

During this period, all the complaints that were established were resolved through the bureau and were not required to be sent to the judiciary for trial, the bureau said.

This week, the Times requested updated figures and asked whether progress have been made on the cases, but the DSAL did not reply by press time.

The majority of the security guards are allegedly working shifts longer than the normal eight hours, with many of them working up to 16 hours per day.

Although they voluntarily do so, these workers were said to have signed waivers, agreeing to work overtime without being paid the standard 50 percent premium on the hourly wage as compensation.

An industry insider explained, the normal hours for security guards is 12 hours per shift, this is normal [in Macau].

However, this statement does not reflect what is written in the SARs labor laws.

The statutory maximum regarding working hours is eight per day, 48 hours per week  in all sectors.

The law also states that non-resident workers are entitled to 10 days of mandatory holidays and a minimum annual leave of six working days after one year of service.

However, many security guards experience otherwise.

A security employee, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the case, said, I didnt have any days off for about five or six years, but now I do.

The employee, who has been in the industry for 14 years, said that their conditions are considered better nowadays compared to several years ago, when security companies were not compensating them for extra working hours.

It was a lot harder before. I used to work 16.5 hours [daily] for 10 years and we were asked to sign a waiver, the non-resident added.

The non-resident works 14 hours per day  six of which are paid some 15 percent more than his hourly wage.

According to the employee, the basic salary is around MOP5,500 per month, with an additional MOP500 monthly allowance.

Lawyer and labor law expert Miguel Quental is aware of the cases and affirmed the statement, saying that there are some 1,000 cases regarding similar matters pending in the court.

Quental disclosed that there have been many cases of guards working 24 hours continuously on many days.

The problem is that the law does not have a limit on voluntary work. If you want to work voluntarily, the law does not have any limits, he explained. A limit should exist.

What happens most of the time [] is that non-resident workers are forced to sign a declaration that they want to work overtime, on rest days and mandatory holidays. Even if they dont want to, they must sign it or else theyll be fired.

Since most would rather stay and work in the region, these workers have no choice but to sign the waivers, particularly during visa renewal processes  a move that makes it difficult for them to defend themselves in court.

When asked whether this is a consequence of the citys lack of protections for migrant workers, Quental said that, regrettably, these matters are considered a big deal, yet something that cannot be controlled.

Another security employee lamented that some companies provide no pay slips at the end of every month.

It is suspicious, because where then can we compute our salaries with overtime? he asked.

The worker, who also asked not to be identified, said that he had worked 36 hours continuously due to a lack of manpower at his firm, and gone a year without a rest day.

Meanwhile, recruitment agencies also play a significant part in these workers labor concerns.

Some are required to pay up to three months worth of their salary to these agencies to get a job.

The agencies are the biggest cancer in Macau, Quental said.

This is a big problem that nobody cares about and this is something very serious. These guys are paying MOP20,000 to have a job.

The labor law expert mentioned that the government was aware that these companies paid their employees within nine days once terminated, or when a contract would end.

However, most of these employees would be given air tickets for the next day and were unable to collect their pending salaries.

These conditions are still considered better compared to the conditions in 2003 to 2006.

The Times contacted two security firms to confirm the statements, however one gave no official reply by press time, and the other refused to comment.

Migrant groups have been calling for a review of the citys labor law policies, particularly for a standard contract with clean definitions of labor standards to be implemented in the SAR.
The Zhuhai government will fund and build a health center for the Macau Health Bureau (SSM) in Hengqin, according to SSM deputy director Cheang Seng Ip.

During a TDM radio program, Cheang revealed that the SSM is currently discussing with the Hengqin government the establishment of an SSM health center in Hengqin.

Despite the fact that Zhuhai will pay for the construction, the center will be free for use for Macau residents.

According to Cheang, this center will occupy an area of 10,000 square feet and will mainly serve Macau residents who live in Hengqin.

Regarding the quality of the SSM Hengqin health center, Cheang claimed that the SSM has already submitted the requirements to Zhuhai, such as barrier-free access facilities.

The center is expected to be completed within two to three years at the earliest. The launch of the centers construction will be fully arranged by Zhuhai.

Currently, Hengqin has approximately 4,000 properties purchased by Macau residents, with 300 Macau residents also holding a Hengqin residence permit, as reported by Cheang.

The SSM deputy director claimed that Zhuhais healthcare insurance is the most advanced across the entirety of China.

Furthermore, the SSM is discussing with the relevant mainland authorities how to let Macau people with Zhuhai residence permits purchase medical insurance in Zhuhai and access local medical services.

The local government will only decide how many people to send to the Hengqin health center after obtaining further information about the number of Macau residents who are also permanent residents in Zhuhai.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Zhuhai, Yao Yisheng, said that his city will carry out a study on the use of Macau healthcare coupons in Zhuhai. JZ
Workers start installing penstock pipes at 456MW Upper Tamakoshi project

Workers finally started installing penstock pipes at the Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project after a new contractor took charge of the construction of the plant.
1. Yes. The Schlueter Group has extensive experience and contacts. Its a good investment.

2. Yes. The firms namesake has a background as a legislator and knows Killeen well.

3. No. The expenditure is a waste of money. Our lawmakers should be doing that work.

4. No. The contract should be shorter, incentivized and based on performance benchmarks.

5. Unsure. Its not always easy to quantify the outcomes of lobbying efforts.

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This undated photo provided by ACLU of Iowa shows Carol Ann Beal. The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday, March 8, 2019 upheld a judge's earlier ruling that found the state cannot deny two transgender women Medicaid coverage for sex reassignment surgery. The ruling comes in the consolidated cases of Beal, 43, and EerieAnna Good, 29,both were born male but have identified as female since childhood and applied to have surgery to their medical providers under the state's Medicaid program. They were denied by the providers, appealed to the state agency, which oversees the program, and were again denied. (ACLU of Iowa via AP)

The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court's ruling that the state cannot deny two transgender women Medicaid coverage for sex reassignment surgery.

The state's high court agreed with Judge Arthur Gamble's ruling in June that a 1995 Iowa Department of Human Services policy denying Medicaid coverage for sex reassignment surgery violates the state's 2007 Civil Rights Act, which added gender identity to the state's list of protected classes.

Gamble also deemed state's 1995 policy unconstitutional, but the high court did not address that finding.

Friday's ruling comes in the consolidated cases of 43-year-old Carol Ann Beal, who lives in northwestern Iowa, and 29-year-old EerieAnna Good, who lives in the east of the state. Both were born male but have identified as female since childhood. They sought to have surgery under the state's Medicaid program, which provides care for the poor and disabled, but were denied. They appealed to the state agency, which oversees the program, and were again denied.

They sued in 2017, and the agency appealed following Gamble's ruling.

In its appeal, the agency argued, among other things, that its policy wasn't discriminatory because neither transgender nor non-transgender Medicaid beneficiaries would be entitled to gender-reassignment surgery, which it said is performed "primarily for psychological purposes." It also argued the policy's explicit exclusion of gender-reassignment surgeries was merely a specified example within the broader category of "cosmetic, reconstructive, and plastic surgeries" that were excluded from coverage.

The state Supreme Court said Friday that the record doesn't support that assertion.

This undated photo provided by ACLU of Iowa shows EerieAnna Good. The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday, March 8, 2019 upheld a judge's earlier ruling that found the state cannot deny two transgender women Medicaid coverage for sex reassignment surgery. The ruling comes in the consolidated cases of 29 and Carol Ann Beal, 43, both were born male but have identified as female since childhood and applied to have surgery to their medical providers under the state's Medicaid program. They were denied by the providers, appealed to the state agency, which oversees the program, and were again denied. (ACLU of Iowa via AP)

"The (department) expressly denied Good and Beal coverage for their surgical procedures because they were 'related to transsexualism ... (or) gender identity disorders' and 'for the purpose of sex reassignment,'" Justice Susan Christensen wrote, citing segments of the policy.

Moreover, she wrote, the policy authorizes payment for some cosmetic, reconstructive and plastic surgeries that serve psychological purposes, such as to correct disfiguring and extensive scarring and congenital anomalies, but "it prohibits coverage for this same procedure if (it's) a transgender individual."

Iowa Department of Human Services spokesman Matt Highland said the agency would not comment on the ruling.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, which filed the lawsuit on the behalf of Beal and Good, called Friday's ruling "a landmark win."

"Denying health care coverage to someone because they are transgender is wrong and extremely harmful to those who need this care," said John Knight of the ACLU's LGBT & HIV Project.

Beal and Good also expressed elation over the ruling, with Beal saying she's "extremely happy for those people who will come after me, that we've made a path for them so that they can get the medical care and surgery they need."

Good said the decision has been a long time coming.

"So many people still don't understand that this is not something we need for trivial or cosmetic reasons," she said. "It's medical care a doctor is recommending for someone who has a medical need for it. And it can save lives. Transgender people are at such risk for suicide, and I've lost transgender friends to suicide. I hope this decision helps change that."

Explore further AMA joins brief seeking VA coverage of sex reassignment Sx

 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
(HealthDay)An application using the photoplethysmography (PPG) signal, which is readily obtained from smartphones and wearable devices, can detect diabetes, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, held from March 16 to 18 in New Orleans.

Robert Avram, M.D., from the University of California in San Francisco, and colleagues examined whether diabetes could be detected using the PPG signal and a convolution neural network (CNN). Data were included for 22,298 individuals enrolled in the Health eHeart Study who used the Azumio smartphone app. Users were divided into training, development, and test datasets (70, 10, and 20 percent, respectively). To predict self-reported prevalent diabetes, a 34-layer CNN was fit using the training dataset. The model was tuned using the development dataset, and model discrimination was measured in the test dataset using an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC).

The researchers found that 6.0 percent of the participants had diabetes. Seven percent of the 1,440,000 PPG measurements were derived from participants with diabetes. In the test dataset, the AUC for predicting prevalent diabetes was 0.772. The negative predictive value was 97 percent.

"The potential to transition screening that's normally done by physicians or nurses to the patient themselves through a smartphone app is a very novel concept and gives us a glimpse into how health care might work in the future," Avram said in a statement.

Explore further App uses smartphone camera, flashlight to detect diabetes

Copyright  2019 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Charles Piller, a contributing correspondent for Science, has published a news article in the journal questioning the medical soundness of referring to prediabetes as a condition that needs treatment. In his article, he points out that there is little to no scientific evidence linking prediabetes to diabetes. He also notes that prediabetes has not been found to cause health problems in people who have been so diagnosed.

Piller outlines the history of the coinage of the term, relating that it came about as representatives from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and other diabetes-related institutions met to discuss the possible implications of patients with above-normal levels of glucose in their blood. The fear was that prediabetes would lead to full-blown diabetes and thus there existed an opportunity to prevent the disease if prediabetes could be treated.

Piller argues that the problem was a lack of evidence to suggest that might be the case. But that did not stop the CDC and many other institutions from adopting the term and using it as a warning marker for people with elevated glucose levels. Piller also suggests another problem. The ADA is a nonprofit organization and relies on donations to survive. Much of those funds, he found, come from pharmaceutical companies that sell drugs such as metformin, which have been developed to reduce the damage that diabetes does to the body.

Piller reports that in recent years, the ADA has lowered the conditions required to be diagnosed as prediabetic, resulting in far more people being diagnosed as such, a move he suggests could have been due to pressure from its pharmaceutical partners hoping to cash in on treatment products. This is because some doctors have begun prescribing medications to patients diagnosed as prediabetic. Some have even begun to prescribe drugs such as metformin to patients who do not even have diabetes, all in the name of preventing them from getting it.

But not everyone is on the prediabetes bandwagon, Piller points out. The World Health Organization has rejected it as a diagnosis, as have many other institutions around the world. There is also trouble with the numberstens of millions of people have been diagnosed as prediabetic, far more than will ever develop the disease. He cites an example: approximately 16 million people in the U.K. have been diagnosed as prediabetic, but only 3.3 million people there actually have type 2 diabetes.

He concludes by suggesting that coinage of the term has led to classifying many healthy people as having an illness, which has led to negative consequences for them such as financial losses due to having to pay for care, and unnecessary anxiety.

Explore further Glucose dysregulation seen years before diabetes diagnosis

 2019 Science X Network
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Every year in the UK 52,000 people die from sepsis  with 14,000 of these estimated to be preventable.

Now a new paper has highlighted what dental professionals need to know about sepsis and the importance of communicating these signs to patients.

Led by Dr. Cathy Coelho from the University of Plymouth and Melissa Mead MBE from the UK Sepsis Trust, the paper in the British Dental Journal details Melissa's first-hand experience losing her one-year-old son William to sepsis in 2014, following several missed opportunities to spot the condition.

Sepsis is a complication that can arise from any infection and signs range from decreased body temperature to a change in mental ability. If caught quickly, it's easily treatable with fluids and antibiotics. If not, it can be fatal.

The signs for dental professionals to look out for are:

A patient responds only to voice or pain/unresponsive

Acute confusional state

Heart rate >130 per minute

Respiratory rate 25 per minute

Non-blanching rash, mottled/ashen/cyanotic

Not passed urine in last 18 hours

Systolic blood pressure  90 mmHg (or drop > 40 from normal)

Needs oxygen to keep SpO 2 (oxygen in the blood) 92%

(oxygen in the blood) 92% Lactate 2 mmol/l

Recent chemotherapy

Detailing Melissa's experience, the paper explains how William had had a sudden drop in temperature, was exhausted and wasn't urinating, following a previous diagnosis for a viral bug. Melissa had been advised by doctors that rest was the best course of action.

But in the weeks leading to William's death, he in fact had a bacterial chest infection. When the vomiting started this was the early stages of pneumonia. In the last week or so of his life the pleural effusion was developing and in the last couple of days of his life, sepsis took over his body.

Melissa has campaigned since William's death to raise awareness of the condition and, after a tooth infection for which she was prescribed antibiotics, she thought about how the condition was addressed in the dental community  and so the collaboration with Peninsula Dental School at the University of Plymouth began.

After meeting with Dr. Coelho, Melissa came to the University's Dental Education Facility in Truro to address fourth-year students about the signs missed in William's case.

Student Neela Venkatasami explained that had it not been for Melissa's lecture and leaflet distribution, she would not have been able to spot the signs in a patient who presented them. She too is now raising awareness.

"The patient who came in was complaining of pain from an infection. This was treated locally, but as per the current guidelines we didn't prescribe antibiotics as they didn't have a temperature. However, due to swelling and the presence of infection there was a potential risk of developing sepsis. I was able to share the leaflet and advise them to go to A&E if their condition deteriorated. There is a chance sepsis can originate from dental infections and the fact that Melissa made us aware of the warning signs meant that I could inform the patient, and in turn they could seek help. The curriculum has taught us about sepsis, but hearing from someone personally affected brought home the importance of our roles and how we can help more people understand the signs."

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) requires all healthcare professionals, including dental care professionals, to be trained in identifying people who may have sepsis. But the paper highlights how enhancing knowledge about sepsis will help the dental team to educate their patients about sepsis, recognise the pathognomonic warning signs and the need for rapid treatment.

Dr. Coelho said: "The more I got to understand sepsis and look at the literature in the dental journals about the condition, I realised there was a gap. So together Melissa and I wrote this paper to raise awareness among dentists  whether they share the messages with their patients, colleagues or their family, it all helps. I was struck by the number of people who die through sepsis and the fact that it's so easily treatable."

Melissa said: "Many of us have had an infection of some description, but how do we know what 'worse' looks like? I went to the dentist to treat a tooth infection and thought actually, I've just been given antibiotics  there should be some kind of symphony here about what dentists do to help their patients understand signs and symptoms of sepsis."

Since publishing in the BDJ, Melissa has worked with a number of dental organisations to put together a poster called 'Open wide  just ask, could it be sepsis?', which was distributed to dental practices via NHS England and the Care Quality Commission.

Melissa, who took her son William's ashes as she collected her MBE at Buckingham Palace last month, said: "I don't want anyone to go through losing someone they love to sepsis, but knowing that William's legacy is carrying on and making a difference in dentistry and beyond already is inspirational."

The full paper, titled "Sepsis: the applicability to dental care professionals," is now available to view in the British Dental Journal.

Explore further Promising new drug shows potential to stop progression of sepsis

More information: C. Coelho et al. Sepsis: the applicability to dental care professionals, BDJ (2018). C. Coelho et al. Sepsis: the applicability to dental care professionals,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/sj.bdj.2018.1039
Scientists are working to accelerate the administration of a typhoid conjugate vaccine in typhoid endemic regions in Africa and Asia Credit: Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium (TyVAC)

Each year there are nearly 11 million cases of typhoid, a disease that is spread through contaminated food, drink and water. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine are leading an international consortium that is studying the impact of a typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) in an effort to accelerate introduction of the vaccine in countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia where there is a high burden of typhoid.

In a supplement published by Clinical Infectious Diseases, Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD) at UMSOM, underscores the importance of introducing a TCV, while outlining the challenges in accelerating wide use of the vaccine in typhoid-endemic countries.

"In the past year, policy and financing milestones have paved the way for the introduction TCVs. In this supplement, collaborators from around the globe detail efforts and provide data to inform country-level decisions on vaccine introduction as a critical part of public health interventions to decrease typhoid disease," said Dr. Neuzil, who is leading the Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium (TyVAC), an international group of researchers with a mission to accelerate the introduction of TCV in low-income countries.

The special TyVAC journal supplement, edited by Dr. Neuzil, Dr. Andrew Pollard of Oxford University and Dr. Anthony Marfin of PATH, brings together the body of research conducted by TyVAC to date, as well as additional research from other research partners. The research underscores the challenges of typhoid surveillance, the growing resistance to antibiotics and the increasing numbers of typhoid outbreaks in the most vulnerable low-resources settings.

"The growing threat of typhoid necessitates a global effort that includes preventative measures such as vaccines and improved waster, sanitation, and hygiene.," said Dr. Neuzil.

In the supplement, TyVAC researchers detail clinical trials that are underway in Nepal, Bangladesh, Malawi, and Burkina Faso. They highlight the health economics of the disease, the growing concerns of drug resistance, and the cost-effectiveness of mass campaigns of a vaccine.

Release of the supplement comes as TyVAC researchers in addition to several UMSOM disease experts in the CVD will present their research in Hanoi, Vietnam on March 26-28 at the 11th International Conference on Typhoid and Other Salmonelloses. Dr. Neuzil is a keynote speaker at this event.

"This research led by Dr. Kathleen Neuzil demonstrates the impact our work at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has across the globe. It will help inform global vaccine policymakers in settings where diseases like typhoid are a serious threat," said UMSOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, Ph.D., MBA, who is also the Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor.

Explore further UMSOM and GRAS begin second typhoid conjugate vaccine study in Africa

More information: Andrew J Pollard et al, The Time is Now to Control Typhoid, Clinical Infectious Diseases (2019). Journal information: Clinical Infectious Diseases Andrew J Pollard et al, The Time is Now to Control Typhoid,(2019). DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciy1115
African-Americans in major U.S. cities are significantly more likely to live in "trauma deserts" with limited access to advanced emergency medical care, according to new research from the University of Chicago Medicine. The study also shows the academic medical center's new Level 1 Trauma Center led to a seven-fold reduction in Chicago's access disparity.

The findings, published March 8 in the Journal of the American Medical Association's Network Open, are the first to be released about the impact of UChicago Medicine's adult Level 1 Trauma Center. Adult trauma services at the hospital began in May 2018.

"So much of the advocacy for the trauma center was framed in terms of racial equity," said Elizabeth Tung, MD, MS, a primary care physician and instructor of medicine at UChicago Medicine who was the paper's first author. "But we realized no previous studies had addressed trauma access through the lens of race/ethnicitynot just looking at Chicago, but comparing our city to other communities as well."

The research team examined access to trauma care in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles using a geospatial analysis that compared the location of designated trauma centers with the racial and ethnic composition of the cities' census tracts. The project included only Level 1 and Level 2 Trauma Centers, which are able to provide medical care to patients with the most serious injuries.

Using a standard established in previous research from colleagues at other hospitals, the team defined a "trauma desert" as any urban community that is at least five miles away from advanced trauma care. While many suburban and rural communities are significantly further away from trauma care, Tung said dense urban communities must be assessed differently.

"Five miles in a rural area is probably five minutes away, but in an urban area that same distance could be 15 minutes or it could be two hours awayit entirely depends on traffic congestion," Tung said. "The kind of care in urban trauma also differs from that in rural areasthe types of trauma are generally different, the patient volume is higher and the injuries are more severe."

Trauma centers provided advanced emergency medical care for patients with critical injuries, including those from motor vehicle accidents, falls, shootings and stabbings.

In Chicago, the team found that 73 percent of census tracts with a mostly black population were located in trauma deserts. Until UChicago Medicine's trauma center opened 10 months ago on its Hyde Park medical campus, residents of those communities had 8.5 times higher odds of being farther away from trauma care than people living in the city's white-majority census tracts. The new trauma center reduced this disparity by nearly 7-fold, to 1.6 times.

"Since we opened the trauma center nearly one year ago in May, the disparity in access to adult trauma care has been significantly lessened for African-Americans in Chicago," said Selwyn Rogers, Jr., MD, MPH, a professor of surgery and the director of UChicago Medicine's trauma center, which has treated more than 2,000 trauma patients.

In New York City, just 14 percent of African-American communities were located in trauma deserts. In Los Angeles, 89 percent of African-American communities were located in trauma deserts, although very few census tracts in Los Angeles remain predominantly African-American. The team said Chicago's Hispanic and Latino communities were also more likely to be farther from trauma care than those living in white communities. The Hispanic and Latino disparity was not present in New York or Los Angeles.

"Even though we had a sense that this was a racially divided issue, the data confirmed that this was the case in a significant way. It was pretty startling," said Monica Peek, MD, MPH, an associate professor of medicine and health disparities researcher who was the senior author on the paper.

UChicago Medicine has provided pediatric trauma care at Comer Children's Hospital since 1990, but previously ended its adult trauma program in 1988 before announcing it would resume the service in 2015 in response to community requests. The hospital built a new adult emergency department, which opened in late December 2017. Adult trauma services launched about five months later, following regulatory approval.

The researchers said they hope their findings highlight the lingering impact of structural inequality in U.S. cities. They said planning for new trauma centers, which require a significant financial investment, should include an assessment of how a new facility can help address racial equity.
The end of winter is near. And while the north remains frigid, the timing and conditions are ripe for 2020 hopefuls to till the fertile Sunshine State soil for grassroots support and campaign cash.

Hoping to bear early fruit, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is heading this weekend to South Florida, where shell be the first top-tier presidential candidate to campaign in-person since the young election season began. On the Gulf Coast, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, from Minnesota, will attend a climate change roundtable in Tampa. Mulling an independent run, Howard Schultz will visit Miami Dade College on Wednesday

Sen. Sherrod Brown would have made four had he not canceled a Friday morning breakfast in Coconut Grove shortly before announcing that he would not seek the presidency.

Thats not to say that 2020 candidates werent already blowing up phones in Miami, where some of the Democratic Partys biggest donors live. You name em and Ill tell you which one isnt trying to meet with me, says Chris Korge, one of the partys top bundlers of campaign donations.

But with Floridas presidential primary falling two weeks after Super Tuesday in what may still at that point be a wide-open race, contenders are beginning to make their way south in order to establish a presence. Harris supporters hope to get ahead of the competition, even as some of the biggest Democratic donors remain unavailable while awaiting decisions from former Vice President Joe Biden and former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.

We certainly put in the push to get her here early, said Kirk Wagar, co-chairman of political consulting firm Mercury and a former U.S. ambassador to Singapore. Some of it is money and some of it is contact as well. That doesnt mean shes going to be doing big rallies. Its to kind of put a stake in the ground and say I believe in Florida, I believe I can win in the primary and in the general.

Read the rest here.
Huawei Technologies Co. sued the U.S. government for barring its equipment from certain networks, delivering a legal riposte to American accusations it aids China in espionage.

The lawsuit is aimed at a U.S. statute that blocks government agencies from using equipment from Huawei and its domestic rival ZTE Corp., according to a complaint filed in federal court in Texas. Huawei argues in the suit that its unconstitutional to single out a person or a group for penalty without a fair trial.

The action signals a more aggressive response from the company toward its U.S. accusers, who have been trying to persuade other countries to ban Huawei gear from crucial fifth-generation communications networks. The complaint landed days after finance chief Meng Wanzhou sued Canadas government for allegedly trampling her constitutional rights during her December arrest  an effort to discredit the case against her as she awaits potential extradition to the U.S. for bank fraud.

The White House didnt immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

In its U.S. case, Huawei is taking aim at a provision in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. That provision bars any executive agency, government contractor or company that receives a government loan or grant from using Huawei and ZTE equipment, according to the complaint. The Chinese company argues that the provision is a bill of attainder, a legislative punishment without trial thats prohibited by the U.S. Constitution.

Thats a very hard argument to win but certainly something that they can try in an effort to slow down the federal government, Peter Henning, a professor at Wayne State University Law School, told Bloomberg on a podcast.

Legal experts give Huaweis lawsuit little chance of success based on a recent, similar case filed by Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab Inc.

In September 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security directed agencies to stop using Kasperskys anti-virus software based on concerns the Russian government could use the programs to spy on federal information systems. President Trump signed the ban Dec. 12, 2017.

A Washington DC-based appeals court agreed late last year with a lower courts rejection of Kasperskys argument that the prohibition amounted to an unconstitutional bill of attainder because it addressed a national security vulnerability.

Huawei is increasingly in the crosshairs of the U.S. government and its allies, just as its pushing for leadership in supplying fifth-generation wireless technology. Countries are preparing to spend billions on the potentially revolutionary equipment aimed at enabling everything from smart highways to self-driving cars. The worlds top provider of networking gear faces the prospect of being shut out of pivotal infrastructure markets. And the clash has complicated negotiations between Washington and Beijing as they try to hammer out a trade deal.

Huawei also repeated its argument that a blockade on its gear simply disadvantages Americans.

Consumers in the United States (particularly in rural and poor areas) will be deprived of access to the most advanced technologies, and will face higher prices and a significantly less competitive market, the company said in the complaint.

Washington-based law firm Jones Day is representing Huawei in the lawsuit.

U.S. officials and industry executives have long harbored questions about Huaweis ties to Chinas government, and concerns about its technology have mounted in lockstep with its growing success. Federal authorities in Seattle are investigating the company for allegedly stealing trade secrets from U.S. partner T-Mobile US Inc., and in December Meng was arrested in Canada on fraud charges linked to Iran trade-sanction violations.

This is one part of a much broader effort here to confront China over trade secrets theft and how the Chinese government is subsidizing companies and trying to get their products into the United States, Henning said.

The case is Huawei Technologies v. U.S., 4:19-cv-00159, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas (Sherman).

Now read: German spies are fighting to keep Huawei out of 5G
Ashley Bennett Miller has been selected by the San Francisco Business Times as one of its 2019 40 under 40 award winners -- recognizing standout young business leaders making significant contributions to their industries, their companies and/or their communities.
American Canyons burgeoning world of wine warehouses is about to grow even bigger, though the location of the latest, planned addition near homes and wetlands raised concerns.

Neil Thompson on behalf of Stravinski Development Group tackled the issues head-on at the Feb. 28 city Planning Commission. Then the Planning Commission approved the project after delaying the matter on Jan. 24.

Everything I think the public was concerned about last time, you guys addressed, Planning Commission Chair Andrew Goff told the applicants.

The site for the 330,528-square-foot warehouse is to be at the very southwest edge of the business park district, along a yet-to-be-paved section of Commerce Court north of Eucalyptus Drive. This is a transition area to other uses.

About 1,000 feet away are the nearest homes of the Wetlands Edge Road residential area. One concern among some residents is that Commerce Court could be punched through to Eucalyptus Drive, creating the citys long-talked-about west side connector roadand bringing unwanted traffic to their neighborhood.

Id like to be real clear about this  Commerce Court traffic will not go through to Wetlands Edge  nor do we want it go through, Thompson said.

City officials said the alignment for a west side connector has yet to be determined and will be chosen only after public involvement during the upcoming city general plan update.

A traffic study shows this type of warehouse could generate 559 trips daily. But Thomson said this particular warehouse will more likely generate 204 vehicle trips on the average weekday, with a round-trip counting as two trips. Activity is to include about 44 truck deliveries between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

All vehicle traffic will enter and leave by way of Green Island Road, Thompson said, referring to a major road in the business park district.

The only link between Commerce Court and Eucalyptus Drive at Wetlands Edge Road is to be a short bike path. That will allow people in the residential area to more easily bike to work in the business park area.

To be honest with you, Im excited about the bike path, city resident Janelle Sellick told the Planning Commission. I think as far as connectivity goes in our community, we have some steps to take and this is a big one.

Also near to the planned warehouse are wetlands and popular American Canyon wetland trails. The planned Clarke Ranch Park site is nearby.

Thompson talked about using a berm and trees to help screen a view of the 37-foot-tall building from these areas.

The developers have experience with environmental issues, having over 20 years worked on seven American Canyon refrigerated wine warehouses, he said. They have done such things as create additional wetlands and uplands along North Slough.

We dont construct projects that create a grand wall canyon thats incapable of supporting and nurturing and sustaining wildlife communities, Thompson said.

After hearing previous concerns, the developers are reducing parking light post heights from 30 feet to 25 feet and building wall light fixtures heights from 25 feet to 18 feet. Some building wall light fixtures will be eliminated and replaced with shrouded 16-foot-high light poles, a city report stated.

The project will use light fixtures certified by the International Dark Sky Association, Thompson said.

Mandy Le of the American Chamber of Commerce told commissioners that American Canyons Green Island business area is thriving. The city has a business community there with over 80 of them that are wine-specific.

Our warehouses are full, she said. We need more warehouses.

A new one is on the way.

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To leave jail is to enter a world of jobs, responsibility and self-discipline  for some, virtually a foreign land.

But for a decade, a training center mere steps from the Napa County courthouse has worked to guide people on probation off the vicious circle of behavior that leads many back behind bars. Its clients, including more than 200 men and women last year, spend a year or more absorbing the lessons  how to manage their anger, resolve conflicts, become a better parent or seek employment  that may help them re-enter society and become productive members of it.

The recidivism rate among graduates is 24 percent, much lower than traditional recidivism rates, the program reports.

On Thursday, the countys Community Corrections Service Center hosted an open house at its Third Street facility downtown to celebrate its first decade counseling local probationers. Napas chief probation officer recalled the unease the program stirred among some in its earliest days.

There was a lot of concern about bringing a program into downtown where we would bring in offenders all day long, said Mary Butler about the service centers opening in March 2009.

Despite such misgivings, a committee of leaders from Napa Countys probation department, superior court, and the district attorneys and public defenders offices pushed for such a program in hopes of curbing criminal behavior at its base rather than its symptoms.

Entering a partnership with GEO, the county developed a one-stop program providing one-on-one therapy and group discussions combined with job and educational training. All clients are ordered by the Napa court to attend and most are probationers, although some are jail inmates who enter the program before their release.

Treatment usually lasts from 12 to 18 months and passes through four phases, during which clients gradually transition from daily visits at the center to once-weekly aftercare. After assessing each client, the Reentry Centers 11-person staff identifies the most troublesome parts of a persons behavior  which may include antisocial behavior, substance abuse and other traits  and crafts its therapy toward addressing those traits, according to Amanda Owens, GEOs Northern California area manager.

In addition to regular counseling, the center familiarizes entrants with the skills of everyday life  from how to write a resume and present oneself in a job interview, to better parenting, to defusing workplace conflicts rather than inflaming them. Staff members also offer education tracks with classes for women and Spanish speakers.

Seventy percent of them dont have the necessary skills to get a job: how to dress, how to present themselves and so on, said Cesar Estrada, the programs education and employment coordinator since 2015. Seeing an individual gain skills and use them, thats very rewarding  to see someone come in here with none of those skills and then build that confidence to say, Im gonna get that job; Im gonna do my best.

Inside the re-entry center, the quiet and carpeted rooms appear much like the office space in surrounding downtown buildings. But this spaces special purpose is apparent with a glance at the walls, which bear messages such as a poster on proper office comportment (dressing neatly, sitting upright without slouching) as exhortations to DILIGENCE, PERSEVERANCE and MOTIVATION in bold black letters.

Each life skill acquired, each small step toward more productive behavior is marked by certificates and small rewards. On Thursday, a display board inside the Reentry Center carried the picture of a stocky man with a goatee and a gray Hollywood ballcap, who was the programs monthly superstar  and honored with a gift card, a commendation letter to his probation officer, even the rare privileges of bringing his hat or a snack into the building.

About 70 people receive counseling each day, and the program graduated 209 probationers in 2018, according to staff. Clients who complete their training and therapy are honored in graduation ceremonies the center holds twice a year.

One of our principles is recognizing and rewarding the behavior were looking for, said John Thurston, a vice president of the GEO Group, which operates the center under county contract. This program is not about catching you doing something wrong; its about recognizing something you did right.

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FEMA said Friday its disallowing $306 million requested by California officials to repair Oroville Dams flood-control spillways, representing nearly one-third of the costs the state incurred after the February 2017 crisis.

In a brief statement, Federal Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Brandi Richard said it wouldnt reimburse California for costs related to the upper gated spillway because of pre-existing problems on the giant concrete structure. Although the state plans to appeal the decision, FEMAs ruling means the costs will likely be borne by the state water contractors  the local and regional water agencies, such as the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, that store water at Lake Oroville.

The crisis at Oroville sparked the evacuation of 188,000 residents.

The decision suggests the rift is widening between Gov. Gavin Newsoms administration and the White House. President Donald Trumps administration is also trying to make the state return $2.5 billion in federal funding for the high-speed rail project, and cancel a $928 million federal grant for that project.

FEMA said it did approve another $205 million in funding for the Oroville Dam repairs this week, bringing the total funding so far to $333 million. And it added that it is reviewing requests for additional reimbursements.

But it said the cost of fixing the upper spillway wont be covered.

Two separate independent engineering reviews indicate that a variety of problems existed at the dam prior to the February 2017 floods. FEMAs Public Assistance can only fund work directly linked to the declared disaster, and so the grant assistance request of $306.4 million was not approved for the upper gated spillway, Richard said in an emailed statement.

There was no immediate comment from California officials. On Thursday, spokeswoman Lisa Lien-Mager of the California Resources Agency said FEMA told state officials that it was disallowing some of the expenses but hadnt offered any specifics or reasoning.

FEMA reimburses state and local governments for at least 75 percent of eligible cost but has declared the upper spillway ineligible.

Jennifer Pierre of the State Water Contractors, which represents the local agencies that would have to bear the cost if FEMAs decision stands, said in a prepared statement: We support (the Department of Water Resources) and recognize the agency has worked tirelessly to protect public safety and to successfully repair the Oroville spillways. We understand that DWR worked directly with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and multiple independent experts to determine the appropriate actions necessary to repair the facilities and ensure the structure could operate as originally intended.

That is why we support DWRs decision to appeal the partial FEMA reimbursements. We firmly believe that federally-required repairs to Oroville after a federally-declared emergency should qualify for full federal assistance.

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, who represents the Oroville area in Congress, said the state Department of Water Resources has itself to blame for FEMAs decision.

FEMAs decision not to fully reimburse DWR for Oroville Dam spillway repairs should not come as a total surprise, he said in a prepared statement. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Independent Forensic Report have both cited insufficient maintenance and initial design flaws as playing a part in the failure of the spillway. FEMA has reimbursed the state for eligible emergency repairs, but repairs due to maintenance failures as well as the new structures being built are ineligible for federal reimbursement legally.

In early 2018 a panel of independent forensic engineers concluded that the Oroville crisis was the result of poor design, construction and maintenance. It cited a long-term systemic failure.

The dams 3,000-foot-long main spillway fractured in two during a heavy rainstorm in February 2017. Hoping to minimize the damage, dam engineers limited water releases on the spillway. Water levels rose to unprecedented heights, and the dam had to release water from the adjacent emergency spillway, a concrete lip sitting atop an unlined hillside, for the first time ever. A day later engineers spotted dangerous erosion on the hillside and feared the spillway would crumble and release a wall of water into the Feather River below. That led to the evacuation.

Fixing the two spillways, which have yet to be used since the repairs, has cost about $1.1 billion.

In response to recent rains, DWR said a week ago that releases from the Hyatt Powerplant were increasing to 5,000 cubic feet per second from 1,750 cfs. At 9 a.m. Friday, the lakes level was at 825.91 feet elevation, or 71 percent of capacity. While thats above the 813 feet needed to operate the spillway, DWR said last week it has no plans to use it anytime soon.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Our esteemed congressman Mike Thompson may have finally jumped the shark. In joining arms with the young socialist dreamer from New York, I think our representative finally went too far.

When Mike was first elected to Congress 20 years ago he represented himself as a Blue Dog, a John Kennedy-like Democrat who supported the usual social causes but did so in a fiscally responsible manner. Unfortunately, as time went on he became increasingly beholden to one Nancy Pelosi, a further left-leaning congresswoman who has now been in office for more than 30 years; voting in lockstep with her on every major issue, disagreeing only when knowing that his vote would not matter. This earned him more a reputation as Lap Dog. I never really cared.

This changed when Mike came to my daughters school years ago to praise FDR and the New Deal. Having been educated in economics, this act was disturbing to me. I knew that after British economist J. Maynard Keynes theorized that short-term unemployment could potentially be eased by government spending, FDR took this as carte blanche for political power grabbing and massive government spending.

I also know it didnt work. As FDRs secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau stated, After eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. and an enormous debt to boot! Even Keynes himself admitted that government spending was only a short-term Band-Aid, stating in the long term, we are all dead.

This reality unfortunately did not stop politicians seeking power from claiming that government spending is the answer to all problems. Our current national debt is the result.

I bring this up because Mike now proposes a new New Deal even though our economy is basically at full employment. Why would any rational person do that? It is certainly not fiscally responsible.

Now lets look at justifications. Mikes rationale in response to Curtis Bradfords letter is what motivated me to write this letter. We have already all suffered through Mikes justifications for Obamacare and his promise that our premiums would go down, we can keep our doctors, etc. So, for the Green New Deal, Mike made some interesting claims. For the sake of brevity, I will focus on only one.

Mr. Thompson states that flooding on Highway 37 is evidence of sea level rising due to climate change. Poppycock. Anyone who can read a map and grasp the simple concept that water flows downhill can understand that Highway 37s closure is a result of negligent civil (government) engineering and has nothing to do with rising sea levels.

The northwest corner of San Pablo Bay, where Highways 37 and 101 meet, is the drainage delta for Petaluma Valley and the Marin watershed in and above Novato. Smack in the middle of this drainage area are two large property developments: Bel Marin Keys and Hamilton Fields. Both are protected by a system of levees to avoid seasonal flooding, and both divert and limit the drainage of Novato Creek into the Bay.

On top of this, the residents of this area decided to convert the old Hamilton Field airbase back to a restored wetland so that they could feel good about living near a nature reserve. All good, except for the fact that this restoration required the massive importation of mud. For the past several years, mud dredged from the Port of Oakland has been pumped into the Hamilton Field marsh plain.

I dont know about you, but any kid who has ever played outside understands that if you put a bunch of dirt in front of moving water you create a dam, which, in turn, creates a lake. This is pretty basic  and exactly why we sit in traffic behind a closed Highway 37. Yes, when the tide rises (floods), it restricts the downstream flow of Novato Creek and makes the man-made lake bigger, thus pouring onto the highway. This is not global warming.

As further evidence, drive five miles east on Highway 37 to the Petaluma River and look at the Port Sonoma Marina. You will notice that there are no boats there anymore. Why not? Because there is not enough water. The marina and the Petaluma River itself have silted up to the point that boats wont float. Where is the rising sea level here?

Mr. Thompson, if you want to embrace socialism go ahead and do so. You will likely be re-elected. But please understand that infrastructure projects should enhance our ability to live our lives and run our businesses, not stifle them. And please stop treating us like idiots by rationalizing your policies with intentional misstatements.

Blue Dog, Lap Dog or Green Dog, all just silly labels that dont matter. Maybe its just time for this dog to come home.

David Forstadt

Napa

Editor's note: The Register asked Mike Thompson about the issues raised in the letter and he sent the following response:

"A few things in response to this letter writer. First, I am in complete disagreement with his assessment of Social Security. It is the most successful government program ever, giving our nations seniors a secure and dignified retirement. Yes, I am strongly in favor of Social Security.

"Second, climate change is a very real threat to our district and our nation. I stand with the thousands of scientists who recognize the threat of climate change. I stand with the dozens of military leaders who are speaking out to say that climate change is a grave threat to national security. And I stand with our district. We have suffered through four years of devastating fire seasons, all as the average temperature in our state has gone up three degrees in the last century and weve faced 15 of the 20 largest fires in California history all in the last two decades. Highway 37 was again underwater and impassable during recent flooding. Portions of that highway are projected to be completely submerged as sea level rises because of climate change. Contrary to the writers claim, I am not standing with any one single person in regard to the urgent need to address climate change; I am standing with our district, our nation, and our world. Our future is at risk and we must act now."
MARLBOROUGH, New Zealand  U.S. wine lovers have taken a definite shine to New Zealands major entrant into the world wine scene: cool-climate Sauvignon Blanc.

In some ways, it has benefited the grape variety around the world, but has created a problem in some places.

After a rocky first-look entrance to the U.S. wine market two decades ago, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc quickly overcame some of the What is this stuff? confusion to capture the attention of wine quaffers because it was audaciously divergent from the more introspective Sauvignon Blancs that had slowly grown popular as a Chardonnay alternative.

The distinctiveness of this wine from down-under might have been truly off-putting with American wine buyers because of its exotically odd gooseberry, lime, grapefruit, passion fruit, and even (yes) cat-urine scents and high acidity were it not for a development that no one seems willing to take credit for.

Sugar.

After the first really dry Sauvignon Blancs hit U.S. shelves about 1999 and were met with histrionic un-interest, a few NZ producers tried to explain Sauvignons true character. They correctly said this wasnt a grape of floral fruit, like the more popular Chardonnay, but a grape whose aromas included dried and fresh savory herbs, more like thyme, summer savory, tomato pith, fresh sage (similar to its scion Cabernet Sauvignon), lime zest, asparagus, and cilantro.

No one listened. What changed the wine into a popular, broadly appealing sipping wine was sweetness, which many New Zealand wineries began to use when they heard complaints that the wine was austerely acidic. Sugar cured the tartness.

Acid is a natural result of growing grapes in an area cursed daily with strong. Here marine winds from both east and west keep acid levels so high that most people would rather sip vinegar than a dry white.

By leaving Sauvignon Blanc and other whites with substantial residual sugar (more than in many Rieslings!), New Zealand winemakers found that most of their Sauvignon Blancs would become fascinating quaffing wines with dramatic, distinctive, and exotic aromatics.

It changed how consumers worldwide now approach the grape.

As New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc has gained broader appreciation by younger consumers, so too have what some (unfairly) call more serious Sauvignons, such as those from northern California (Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake counties), the eastern Loire Valley (Sancerre and Pouilly Fume), and even a few White Bordeaux.

Many California wineries loved sweet Sauvignon Blanc because novice wine lovers adored them, but the problem that occurred was that too many domestic Sauvignon Blanc s were sweet without the necessary acid that allowed New Zealands efforts to shine.

Those who adore Sancerre and other so-called serious Sauvignon Blancs (mostly dry) say they become utterly sublime with bottle age, a fair statement. Sweet versions age erratically.

Most of New Zealands producers have worked diligently to capture Sauvignons more complex elements, moving it from the often one-note-samba of Chardonnay to an utterly sublime expression of varietal harmonies that include lemon, hay, chili peppers, tobacco leaf, and even white pepper.

A recent visit here to four of the major growing regions in New Zealand enlightened me to several new sub-styles of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. One comes from the less-herbal areas of Central Otago and Hawkes Bay, both of which are better known for red wines. Central Otagos Pinot Noir and Hawkes Bays Syrah now are widely rated as among the worlds best.

The less audacious style of Sauvignon Blanc being pioneered in the two regions, as well as in less well-known North Canterbury (near Christchurch), has classic Euro leanings with compatibilities for white fish dishes.

Another style of Sauvignon Blanc that has expanded the taste profile is treating the grape a bit like Chardonnay, aging it in used barrels, allowing it to remain in contact with the spent yeast cells, and fermenting it with native (wild) yeast strains to add complexities not found when fermented with commercial yeasts.

New Zealands top winemakers are among the most adventuresome around. Almost none of them know the phrase risk-averse. Some of their Sauvignon Blancs are capturing the fancy of serious wine collectors who compare them with expensive French white Burgundies with an attitude.

Discovery of the Week

2016 Greywacke Wild Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough ($28): Winemaker/photographer Kevin Judd, who gained fame at Cloudy Bay, went on his own years ago to found this small brand named after the soils widely seen on the South Island. This striking wine has parallels to Chardonnay for its oak and lees contact, but retains much of its herbal heritage and stunning complexity.

Dan Berger lives in Sonoma County, where he publishes Vintage Experiences, a subscription-only weekly wine newsletter. Write to him at winenut@gmail.com. He is also co-host of California Wine Country with Steve Jaxon on KSRO Radio, 1350 AM.
The epically challenged 2017 vintage that had early rains, heat spikes and devastating fires was on display at the recent Premiere Napa Valley auction.

And although the total take  nearly $3.7 million  was down from last year and significantly less than its peak of $6 million in 2015, a deeper dive into this years annual trade event shows an almost Herculean effort from those involved and highlights some bright spots for both the community and the much-maligned vintage.

About the Premiere Napa Valley auction

Now in its 23rd year, the Premiere Napa Valley auction is held in February at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena. Premiere is not a typical auction in that the bidding guests are made up of only wine-trade professionals (retail shops and restaurants) and the proceeds go directly to the Napa Valley Vintners, who use the funds to augment the annual member fee to help pay for administration, charitable causes and marketing efforts to promote the Napa Valley.

Vintners donate wine that is often still in the barrel, creating special lots in various case amounts (typically five, 10 or 20 cases) that are then bottled and distributed (sometimes a year or more after the event) using a special Premiere Auction label. Because these wine futures are sold to the trade this is unlike most other auctions where the end consumer purchases the wines directly at an event. At Premiere, the attending trade bid on the wines offered because they believe they can sell them later to their own customers back home. Thus, the Premiere auction has become a bellwether for Napa Valley vintages.

The Napa Valley winery owners who donate their wines to Premiere do so for a host of reasons but primarily out of a desire to support the mission of the Napa Valley Vintners organization and also so that they might commingle and build relationships with the trade who attend.

2017 vintage  challenges and opportunities

In what amounted to a warning for the 2017 vintage, last October the influential Wine Advocates editor-in-chief, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, wrote:

It [2017] was a year that started with a deluge of rain, including widespread flooding in Sonoma, later got blasted with intense heat during Labor Day weekend and, before the fat lady could sing, suffered the most devastating wildfires this area has seen just at the tail end of harvest. After all is said and done, I only judge whats in the glass. Now that I have had the chance to taste a fair number of 2017s from barrel from throughout the valley, I need to caution readers that this is a very inconsistent vintage for red Bordeaux varieties.

Because of the challenging weather and the wildfires of 2017, many wineries opted out (or had no wine to showcase) at this years Premiere. Although many reports suggested that 90 percent of the grapes in Napa Valley were harvested before the fires, other research suggests this number is overly optimistic. Beyond this discrepancy, Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are often left on the vines to ripen longest, so they were the grapes most often affected by smoke damage, which can impart off-flavors in a wine in whats called smoke taint. Consequently, there are wineries that have skipped making wines from the 2017 vintage altogether, either because they were unable to harvest the grapes or because of concerns over quality.

Quoting Screaming Eagles winemaker, Nick Gislason, Perrotti-Brown wrote in the same article:

As for 2017, the Merlot that came in at the beginning of harvest before the fires struck was very nice, along with the first couple of small Cabernet blocks [Gislason said]. However, the vast majority of our fruit was still on the vines maturing when the fires came and, thus, was lost to us. When the smoke finally cleared, we cut and discarded all of it. Any wine for a 2017 Screaming Eagle or Flight would be made exclusively from our tiny pre-fire harvest, is likely to be minuscule and may not be released at all if it does not meet our quality standards. As a harvest cut short, we have very few blending components to work with, and this may limit our ability to put together blends of sufficient quality.

With this as background, the feeling of most within the press and many of the trade before Premiere was that the auction could be an utter bloodbath. But it wasnt. In fact, the results were impressive when one looks into the numbers.

Making seriously good lemonade out of seriously damaged lemons

To make great wine in a great vintage is easier than making great wine in a difficult vintage. Yet of the 191 lots (down from nearly 300 lots in recent years) entered into the 2019 Premiere Auction there were apparently some standouts. In interviews and discussions with those who attended, the quality of at least some of the wines was excellent to outstanding. The 2017 Cabernet Francs from Morlet Family Vineyards and Ehlers Estate were among them, with 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon wines from Hourglass, Schrader Cellars, Inglenook, Baldacci Family, Matthiasson, Larkmead and Keenan also exhibiting excellent quality.

To highlight the quality, W. Blake Gray, in an article for Wine-Searcher, calculated that the average bottle price  $217  was $1 more than last year, and Schrader Cellars (now owned by Constellation) had the top average per-bottle price of an impressive $1,333. So although the total take of the auction was lower than last years $4.1 million the price paid per bottle of wine was actually slightly higher. Couple this with the fact that the 2016 vintage (on display at last years auction) was often touted as the vintage of the century.

What does all this mean? Well, a few things: 1) there are some exceptionally good Napa Valley wines to be found within the 2017 vintage, 2) the NVV did an impressive job, and 3) those vintners and trade who attended displayed what it means to be a strong community.

The wines being showcased at this years Premiere were highly selective  it is basically a quality vs. quantity year, said Jim Lutfy owner of Michigans Fine Wine Source retail shop. Because there is so little wine that will release from the 2017 vintage, many of those released will be seriously cherry-picked and good wines, but there wont be much of it to sell, which will likely keep the pricing up.

Lufty has been attending the annual event since its inception. Beyond his gourmet shop that sells wine, he has also recently opened a wine bar/restaurant with his daughter Remy in downtown Detroit, called Vertical. According to Remy, Vertical has 120 wines by the glass and a cellar of more than 2,600 wines, 40 percent of which are from the Napa Valley. Their establishment has garnered the 2016 Wine Enthusiasts Americans 100 Best Wine Restaurants award, was listed in Wine Spectators 2018 list of Best Restaurants for Wine and was recently listed as No. 1 on Food & Wines Americas Best New Wine Bars list.

Circling the wagons and finding community

Speaking to Haute Living about Premiere 2019, the winemaker for Inglenook, Chris Phelps, explained why it was important to be involved this year.

Its like circling the wagons, he said, and its a reminder that were not just promoting ourselves as a brand, as a winery, as an entity, but that were all kind of in it together. Theres a very collegial team-based feeling that I think exists with vintners in general but specifically with Premiere. You know most everyone there, and its like being on a big team. The intimacy of that room when youre tasting wine, it distills Napa Valley, which is not a vast growing region, down to something even smaller that you can get your arms around.

If I were on the NVV team, Id recommend finding a way to honor each and every vintner member who donated to this years auction and figure out how to bring those who didnt into the fold. Id also search for a way to do the same with the trade. Examine the list of attendees of Premiere 2019 and you have the makings of a stronger future but one that has roots in the past.

Its always a fun week, but it was very important for us to come out to support this year, Lutfy said. There are some great wines, and we also know it was tough for many out there. Were in this together and so here we are  when it comes down to it, wine is many things, but maybe most importantly its about relationships.
Along with the rest of the world Drukair, Royal Bhutan Airlines celebrated the International Womens Day in an unique way by operating an all-female crew flight.

To celebrate the International Womens Day, the national airline, Drukair created history in Bhutan by operating its first ever all-female crew from Paro to Bangkok via Bagdogra on Friday.

Heres a look at how Drukair celebrated International Womens Day with an all female Crew & Staff. pic.twitter.com/Kzz35cJrgf  Drukair (@Drukair) March 8, 2019

The Captain, First Officer, engineer, cabin crew, push-back team, check-in, catering and other ground staff were all females, who handled the flight KB130 to Bangkok via Bagdogra with Airbus 319 aircraft with 89 passengers on board.

Informing about the successful operation, Drukair on its official Twitter handle on Friday stated: For the first time in the history of Bhutanese aviation, Drukair operated an all female crew flight from Paro to Bangkok via Bagdogra to mark the International Womens Day on 8th March, 2019.

For the first time in the history of Bhutanese aviation, Drukair operated an all female crew flight from Paro to Bangkok via Bagdogra to mark the International Women's Day on 8th March, 2019. #HappyInternationalWomensDay #WomensDay #BalanceforBetter #DrukairWomen pic.twitter.com/ZFd6HqDXlc  Drukair (@Drukair) March 8, 2019

The flight was operated under the command of Captain Ugyen Dema, who has been flying with Drukair since 2006, with senior first officer Sonam Lhamo and flight engineer Sonam Deki Tshering. Sonam Deki Tshering is the first female licensed aircraft engineer in Bhutan.

Earlier, Drukair in a press communique uploaded on its official Twitter stated: As well as marking International Womens Day, 8th March is also the anniversary of the first woman to receive a pilots license. One hundred and eight years after Elise Raymonde Deroches milestone achievement, Drukair has three female cockpit crest for its first female operated flight.

Now, Drukair employs 168 women, who constitute 35.44 per cent of its total workforce.

Through this initiative, Drukair hopes to inspire more women to get into the aviation industry in the future.

We are immensely proud that we have women staff in every aspect of our aviation field. Women are an integral part of our success story from the start and with this dedicated flight we honor and celebrate their indispensable contribution to Drukair and the aviation industry in Bhutan, said the CEO of Drukair.

To commemorate the day, Drukair is also celebrating with all its women passengers flying on the Paro to Bangkok flight with a lucky draw contest.

A scratch card will be distributed to all its women passengers and three winners will be announced on board who will receive prizes from the airline, the release added.
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday approved amendment to the Article 3 of the Agreement between India and Bhutan regarding Mandechhu Hydro Electric Project (MHEP) in order to extend the loan repayment tenure by two years extended by India to Bhutan.

It aims for implementation of the said project in Bhutan from fifteen to seventeen years.

The Cabinet decision will certainly strengthening India-Bhutan economic relations and inter-linkages especially in the field of hydro-power co-operation and overall deepening of India-Bhutan relations.

The proposal also aims to secure the First Year Tariff for import of power from the 720 MW MHEP in Bhutan at Indian Rupees 4.12 per unit.

It will also ensure certainty of supply of surplus power to India by Bhutan from MHEP, a government release said.

It may be mentioned that India and Bhutan in the last week of December last year agreed on the contentious issue of tariff for the electricity generated from the 720 MW Mangdechhu hydropower project in central Bhutan.

This was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his speech following his meeting with Bhutanese PM Dr Lotay Tshering who visited India in the last week of December, 2018.

India had been expecting an increase in the plan allocation sought by the new government particularly given its emphasis on Narrowing the Gap which was the electoral pitch of Dr Tsherings party, the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT).

The agreement on the per unit cost of electricity from this project was learnt to have been agreed upon during a meeting on December 29 night between Indian and Bhutanese officials.
The ULFA (I) has reportedly confirmed the death of its senior leader major Jyotirmoy Asom.

As per reports, the body of Jyotirmoy was recovered from somewhere in Taga in Myanmar, where ULFA (I)s headquarters was located.

The ULFA (I) leader was reportedly killed during an operation launched by Burmese Army in Taga in the first week of February.

Myanmar army launched offensive to flush out Northeast rebel groupsULFA-I, NSCN-K, NDFB-S and KLOwho have bases in the Burmese territory.

As per Army sources, on February 2, gunbattle had taken place between ULFA (I) and Myanmar Army in which one cadre of the banned outfit was killed and another one was nabbed by the Tatmadaw, the official name of the armed forces of Burma.

Slain ULFA (I) rebel Jyotirmoy hails from Titabor in upper Assams Jorhat district.

According to sources, the ULFA (I) rebel was suffering from some serious ailments for last few months.

Sources said he has been cremated with due honour in ULFA (I) camp in Myanmar.
Tamer al-Shahawi, a member of the Egyptian parliament's Defense Committee, considers the regional power race between Egypt and Turkey to be one of the most pressing matters at this time. Shahawi, who is also a former intelligence officer, told Al-Monitor that Cairo has been isolated from regional leadership since the Egyptian revolution in 2011 and is now trying to re-establish its authority, Al Monitor reported.

Sisi's statement, which angered Turkey, came as the debate between Turkey and France around using the term Genocide was at its peak. Although Turkey acknowledges the killing of many Armenians in 1915 under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, it challenges the number of victims and refuses to use the term Genocide.

Shahawi explained that Sisis allusion to the Armenian Genocide was a reminder of how dangerous Turkeys expansion could be. He pointed out that after Egypt carried out the nine executions, Erdogan denounced the EU for attending the first Arab-EU summit, held Feb. 24 in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Shahawi added, We are trying to have regional allies, to re-establish our regional influence. He said that, in addition to Turkey and Egypt, the regional power extends to Iran and Saudi Arabia. He believes Saudi Arabia doesn't have the kind of political and military elements needed for general regional influence, as Egypt does.

During the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 16, Sisi alluded to the Armenian massacres saying, One hundred years ago, Egypt welcomed the Armenians after the massacres they were subjected to. They arrived to Egypt where they found security, peace and stability.
Raisi, Erdogan discuss cooperation in many fields

Armenia's Pashinyan blames parliamentary opposition for delivering Nagorno-Karabakh, threatens to present evidence

Armenia PM: Even today I am ready to deliver my son in exchange of Armenian POWs

Armenia Parliament Speaker: We haven't stopped and won't stop efforts for our boys to return safe and sound

Opposition 'Armenia' faction: All statements made in parliament need to be explored and investigated comprehensively

Armenia PM: Mutual understanding was reached during meeting with Russian and Azerbaijani presidents in Sochi

Frank Pallone: Azerbaijan continues to threaten Armenia's safety and sovereignty

Karabakh Ombudsman: 21-year-old resident of Martuni region was subjected to violence by Azerbaijanis

Armenia PM: Several circumstances behind loss of Karabakh's Khtsaberd and Hin Tagher contain state secret

Nikol Pashinyan: Armenia will have railway communication with Iran and Russia via Azerbaijan's territory

Lavrov underscores need to launch demarcation of Armenian-Azerbaijani border during talk with Mirzoyan

PM: Armenia will participate in initial meeting in '3+3' format

Joe Biden: Putting American troops on the ground in Ukraine is 'not on the table'

Armenia PM: Final status of Nagorno-Karabakh doesn't imply its independence

Assistants to deputies of opposition 'Armenia' parliamentary faction summoned to National Security Service

Armenia Parliament Speaker's meeting with relatives of Armenian POWs and missing servicemen is over

Armenia, Russia FMs discuss Karabakh issue, November 26 agreements and '3+3' format

Armenia's Pashinyan rules out possibility of provision of corridor to Baku through Armenian territory

Putin says Iran's President might pay visit to Russia

Armenia Parliament Speaker in meeting with relatives of Armenian POWs and missing servicemen

Armenia Parliament Speaker to move to governmental mansion in Yerevan district soon

Armenia MOD has new General Secretary

Armenia MOD: Azerbaijani army fires at water truck of Armenian military unit in border's southeastern direction

NEWS.am daily digest: 08.12.21

Armenia MOD refutes Azerbaijan's statement that Armenian side fired at Azerbaijani army

Armenia PM refutes opposition MP's statement that government is implementing verbal agreements

Armenia President travels to Qatar

ARARAT Museum initiated an inclusive project #FeelwithYourHeart (PHOTOS)

Armenia opposition MP asks finance minister about operation of Amulsar gold mine

Minister briefs UK envoy on details of justice sector digitalization

Armenia opposition new MP is sitting with her back to parliament sessions hall

Armenia MFA draws OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanships attention to UN International Court of Justice orders

Dollar continues to rise steadily in Armenia

Armenia frontline furnishing in progress (PHOTOS)

10 captives who were returned to Armenia from Azerbaijan 4 days ago are questioned

Elnur Mammadov: Azerbaijan to file two lawsuits against Armenia in 2022

Azerbaijani MFA: Yerevan transmitted mine maps to Azerbaijan 3 days before ICJ's decision

Iran is ready to connect electric networks to Azerbaijan and Russia

Armenia parliament holding secret ballot for election of Audit Chamber member

Yerevan law enforcement manages to reopen Marshal Baghramyan Avenue

Russia Prosecutor General congratulates Armenian counterpart on his birthday

Armenia revenue committee chief meets Iran customs service head at Meghri border checkpoint

Yerevan police apprehending protesters who are blocking Marshal Baghramyan Avenue

Parents of missing and captured Armenian servicemen shut down road near parliament (LIVE)

Azerbaijan, Turkey FMs discuss 3+3 cooperation platform with participation of other regional countries

Attachment imposed on Armenia ex-defense minister Ohanyan, ex-President Sargsyan's former security chiefs properties

Film about Artsakh is submitted for competition at Golden Globe Awards

US congressmen approve about $ 770 billion draft defense budget for 2022

Russia reports 30,752 new COVID-19 cases

Chile parliament approves same-sex marriage bill

168.am: Border demarcation, delimitation commission members arrive in Armenia on board Russia MOD plane

Joint statement: Armenia officials statements on captives pose obstacles to human rights activities

Armenia parliament continues 2022 draft state budget debates

Copper price remains almost unchanged

1 more person dies of coronavirus in Artsakh

Legislature adopts amendments to law on Armenia citizenship

Armenia National Assembly passes bill on amendments, addenda to Civil Code

410 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Armenia ombudsman in Paris, speaks about Azerbaijan genocidal policy after recent war (PHOTOS)

World oil prices falling

Armenia FM to head for Paris

Missing, captured soldiers families spend night at Armenia legislature entrance

Karabakh President stresses role of Russia peacekeeping mission

Newspaper: Who is accountable for Armenia losing at International Court of Justice?

Armenia PM sending delegation to Paris

Police bring in forces near Armenia parliament building

Newspaper: Armenia ruling partys plan works against it in local elections

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries FMs issue statement on Karabakh conflict

Putin, Biden task to continue Russia-US dialogue on Ukraine

NEWS.am daily digest: 07.12.21

Kazakhstan First President notes Russias role in resolving Karabakh conflict

Armenia opposition MP: We are launching legal process of National Assembly speaker's resignation

Fight occurs in Armenia legislature

Armenia legislature deputy speaker from opposition: We are at preparatory phase for rallies

Armenia parliament speaker claims video with his remarks on captive Armenian soldiers was edited

MFA: Armenia urges Azerbaijan to refrain from provocative rhetoric and actions

Legislature speaker: Criminal case will be launched against Armenian soldiers who laid down their weapons, surrendered

4 more die of coronavirus in Artsakh

Dejavu: Parliament speaker says Armenian captive soldiers no longer exist for him

National Assembly holding urgent discussion on Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan
By Ritah Kemigisa.

Ugandan Manufactures have called for a periodic review of the Buy Uganda Build Uganda- BUBU policy.

In her opening remarks at the BUBU expo underway at Kololo independence grounds, the chairperson of the Uganda Manufacturers Association Barbara Mulwana said the policy is good and has made great strides but there is need to change it so that it can build the capacity of local manufactures.

She has also appealed to government agencies to speed up payments to the local companies that make supplies to them.

Mulwana says its unfair to see payments for local companies are delayed and yet for the foreign ones, payments are even made in advance.
The Coordinating Council of Russian-Armenian Organizations has addressed Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO, with respect to the destruction of Armenian cross-stones in Azerbaijan.

In connection with Your first official visit to the Russian Federation from 5 to 7 March 2019 as Director General of UNESCO, the Coordinating Council of Russian-Armenian Organizations draws Your attention to the monstrous fact of vandalism that has taken place in the Republic of Azerbaijan, the respective statement reads, in particular. In the period from 1998 to 2005 in Azerbaijan, on the territory of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which in past has been a part of the historical Armenia, near the city of Julfa (Old Jugha), a targeted destruction of the cemetery was undertaken. This cemetery had thousands of medieval Armenian khachkars [cross-stones], i.e. tombstones.

According to the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), and according to Western media sources and Armenian sources, as well, destruction of ancient monuments of Armenian culture has been organized by the Azerbaijani authorities. All khachkars in the Armenian cemetery were smashed by people in military uniforms, with help of heavy construction machinery. Large fragments of tombstones were loaded by cranes into wagons and transported by rail, probably for use as building materials. As for smaller fragments of monuments, they were loaded into trucks and dumped into the Araks river. Julfa cemetery itself, which was one of the most grandiose monuments of Armenian culture, was turned into a shooting range

The international community, unfortunately, has left this blatant act without the proper harsh condemnation of Azerbaijan. There were no decisive sanctions against this country, which organized this barbaric act of genocide against Armenian culture. Meanwhile, in 2010, UNESCO (United Nations specialized institution on the educational, scientific and cultural issues) included Armenian khachkars into the list of objects of intangible cultural heritage of mankind. It is now generally recognized that the Armenian khachkars are masterpieces of world art. The largest museums throughout the world consider it an honour to have at least one khachkar in their collection.

Before destruction, the Armenian cemetery in Julfa was the worlds largest surviving medieval cemetery of khachkars. At the beginning of 20th century, 6,000 have been numbered there. And by the end of 20th century, this number decreased to 3,000. And at the turn of 20th and 21th centuries, Azerbaijani vandals completed their dirty work. Only preserved photos now evidence former beauty of these Armenian monuments and the talent of the Armenian masters who have created them.

Dear Ms. Azulay, the Coordinating Council of Russian-Armenian Organizations strongly condemns the barbaric attitude of the Azerbaijani authorities regarding the monuments of Armenian culture and art in the territory of present-day Azerbaijan. We appeal to You to assess the destruction of the khachkars in Julfa (Old Jugha). We also ask You to take measures to prevent anything similar in the future, both in Azerbaijan and around the world. For, the masterpieces of each nation are the patrimony of all humankind, undoubtedly.
Raisi, Erdogan discuss cooperation in many fields

Armenia's Pashinyan blames parliamentary opposition for delivering Nagorno-Karabakh, threatens to present evidence

Armenia PM: Even today I am ready to deliver my son in exchange of Armenian POWs

Armenia Parliament Speaker: We haven't stopped and won't stop efforts for our boys to return safe and sound

Opposition 'Armenia' faction: All statements made in parliament need to be explored and investigated comprehensively

Armenia PM: Mutual understanding was reached during meeting with Russian and Azerbaijani presidents in Sochi

Frank Pallone: Azerbaijan continues to threaten Armenia's safety and sovereignty

Karabakh Ombudsman: 21-year-old resident of Martuni region was subjected to violence by Azerbaijanis

Armenia PM: Several circumstances behind loss of Karabakh's Khtsaberd and Hin Tagher contain state secret

Nikol Pashinyan: Armenia will have railway communication with Iran and Russia via Azerbaijan's territory

Lavrov underscores need to launch demarcation of Armenian-Azerbaijani border during talk with Mirzoyan

PM: Armenia will participate in initial meeting in '3+3' format

Joe Biden: Putting American troops on the ground in Ukraine is 'not on the table'

Armenia PM: Final status of Nagorno-Karabakh doesn't imply its independence

Assistants to deputies of opposition 'Armenia' parliamentary faction summoned to National Security Service

Armenia Parliament Speaker's meeting with relatives of Armenian POWs and missing servicemen is over

Armenia, Russia FMs discuss Karabakh issue, November 26 agreements and '3+3' format

Armenia's Pashinyan rules out possibility of provision of corridor to Baku through Armenian territory

Putin says Iran's President might pay visit to Russia

Armenia Parliament Speaker in meeting with relatives of Armenian POWs and missing servicemen

Armenia Parliament Speaker to move to governmental mansion in Yerevan district soon

Armenia MOD has new General Secretary

Armenia MOD: Azerbaijani army fires at water truck of Armenian military unit in border's southeastern direction

NEWS.am daily digest: 08.12.21

Armenia MOD refutes Azerbaijan's statement that Armenian side fired at Azerbaijani army

Armenia PM refutes opposition MP's statement that government is implementing verbal agreements

Armenia President travels to Qatar

ARARAT Museum initiated an inclusive project #FeelwithYourHeart (PHOTOS)

Armenia opposition MP asks finance minister about operation of Amulsar gold mine

Minister briefs UK envoy on details of justice sector digitalization

Armenia opposition new MP is sitting with her back to parliament sessions hall

Armenia MFA draws OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanships attention to UN International Court of Justice orders

Dollar continues to rise steadily in Armenia

Armenia frontline furnishing in progress (PHOTOS)

10 captives who were returned to Armenia from Azerbaijan 4 days ago are questioned

Elnur Mammadov: Azerbaijan to file two lawsuits against Armenia in 2022

Azerbaijani MFA: Yerevan transmitted mine maps to Azerbaijan 3 days before ICJ's decision

Iran is ready to connect electric networks to Azerbaijan and Russia

Armenia parliament holding secret ballot for election of Audit Chamber member

Yerevan law enforcement manages to reopen Marshal Baghramyan Avenue

Russia Prosecutor General congratulates Armenian counterpart on his birthday

Armenia revenue committee chief meets Iran customs service head at Meghri border checkpoint

Yerevan police apprehending protesters who are blocking Marshal Baghramyan Avenue

Parents of missing and captured Armenian servicemen shut down road near parliament (LIVE)

Azerbaijan, Turkey FMs discuss 3+3 cooperation platform with participation of other regional countries

Attachment imposed on Armenia ex-defense minister Ohanyan, ex-President Sargsyan's former security chiefs properties

Film about Artsakh is submitted for competition at Golden Globe Awards

US congressmen approve about $ 770 billion draft defense budget for 2022

Russia reports 30,752 new COVID-19 cases

Chile parliament approves same-sex marriage bill

168.am: Border demarcation, delimitation commission members arrive in Armenia on board Russia MOD plane

Joint statement: Armenia officials statements on captives pose obstacles to human rights activities

Armenia parliament continues 2022 draft state budget debates

Copper price remains almost unchanged

1 more person dies of coronavirus in Artsakh

Legislature adopts amendments to law on Armenia citizenship

Armenia National Assembly passes bill on amendments, addenda to Civil Code

410 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Armenia ombudsman in Paris, speaks about Azerbaijan genocidal policy after recent war (PHOTOS)

World oil prices falling

Armenia FM to head for Paris

Missing, captured soldiers families spend night at Armenia legislature entrance

Karabakh President stresses role of Russia peacekeeping mission

Newspaper: Who is accountable for Armenia losing at International Court of Justice?

Armenia PM sending delegation to Paris

Police bring in forces near Armenia parliament building

Newspaper: Armenia ruling partys plan works against it in local elections

OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries FMs issue statement on Karabakh conflict

Putin, Biden task to continue Russia-US dialogue on Ukraine

NEWS.am daily digest: 07.12.21

Kazakhstan First President notes Russias role in resolving Karabakh conflict

Armenia opposition MP: We are launching legal process of National Assembly speaker's resignation

Fight occurs in Armenia legislature

Armenia legislature deputy speaker from opposition: We are at preparatory phase for rallies

Armenia parliament speaker claims video with his remarks on captive Armenian soldiers was edited

MFA: Armenia urges Azerbaijan to refrain from provocative rhetoric and actions

Legislature speaker: Criminal case will be launched against Armenian soldiers who laid down their weapons, surrendered

4 more die of coronavirus in Artsakh

Dejavu: Parliament speaker says Armenian captive soldiers no longer exist for him

National Assembly holding urgent discussion on Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan

Armenia legislature majority blocks opposition draft statement on border delimitation

Armenia ex-defense minister on border delimitation: Authorities say 'we negotiate whatever we want'

US embassy of Armenia on local elections: We note reports of pressure against opposition candidates

Ombudsman in Paris, briefs France colleague on Armenian captives in, war crimes of Azerbaijan

Opposition Armenia Faction plans to launch urgent parliamentary debates on POWs in Azerbaijan

Karabakh President pays tribute to 1988 Spitak earthquake victims

Pentagon discusses situation on Russia-Ukraine border

240 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

US Air Force plans to develop 2 new secret combat drones

Wreath laid in Gyumri on behalf of Armenia ex-President Kocharyan

Ombudsman provides details from Azerbaijan shooting at Karmir Shuka village of Artsakh

Armenia parliament session kicks off with minute of silence

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Armenia remembers victims of 1988 earthquake

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Seven die in Zanzibar after eating exotic food

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Israel tries to convince US to strike Iranian targets

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WASHINGTON, DC  Congressional Armenian Caucus founding Co-Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) was joined today by a dozen of his U.S. House colleagues in introducing the U.S.-Artsakh Travel and Communication Resolution, a bipartisan measure that aims to break down artificial barriers to unrestricted travel and open communication between the United States and Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

Joining Rep. Pallone as original co-sponsors of the legislation are Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Jackie Speier (D-CA), Vice-Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Representatives Salud Carbajal (D-CA), Judy Chu (D-CA), David Cicilline (D-RI), Katherine Clark (D-MA), Jim Costa (D-CA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Grace Napolitano (D-CA), and Brad Sherman (D-CA).

We thank Congressman Pallone and his House colleagues for their bipartisan leadership in support of a durable and democratic peace between the republics of Artsakh and Azerbaijan, said ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian. Outdated and obsolete U.S. restrictions, adopted decades ago under pressure from Azerbaijan, prevent direct dialogue - artificially handcuffing our diplomats and blocking the path to peace.

Similar to the resolution introduced in the previous Congress, the U.S. - Artsakh Travel and Communication Resolution praises the Artsakh Republic for having "developed democratic institutions, fostered a pluralist political system, and, over the past quarter-century, held parliamentary and presidential elections that have been rated as free and fair by international observers." It also highlights Artsakh's commitment to common-sense peace initiatives, first advocated by former House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and current Chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY), calling for the removal of snipers and heavy artillery from the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact, the deployment of additional Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitors, and the placement of gun-fire locator systems along the lines of contact. The measures, which have been embraced by Armenia, Artsakh, and the OSCE Minsk Group peace negotiators, have been thus far blocked by Azerbaijan.

The U.S.-Artsakh Travel and Communication Resolution notes that current State Department policies place "self-imposed restrictions on travel and communications between the United States and Artsakh, limiting oversight of United States taxpayer-funded assistance programs and discouraging the open dialogue and discourse that can contribute to a peaceful resolution of Artsakh-related status and security issues."

The measure calls for a U.S. policy which would allow U.S. officials, including cabinet-level national security officials, general officers, and other executive branch officials, to travel to the Artsakh Republic and openly and directly communicate with their Artsakh counterparts. The document also calls for encouraging ongoing open communication, meetings, and other direct contacts between officials of Artsakh and the Executive and Legislative branches of the United States, state and local governments, and American civil societies. The resolution seeks the full and direct participation of the democratically-elected government of the Artsakh Republic in all OSCE and other negotiations regarding its future.
By Ritah Kemigisa.

The Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi known to many as Bobi Wine has revealed his plans in 100 days once he is voted into power.

Bobi wine has since confirmed that he will contest for presidency in the 2021 general election against the incumbent president Museveni who was endorsed as a sole candidate by his party members.

Speaking on Ntvs on the spot show, Bobi Wine said he would with immediate effect ban unfair taxes like OTT, repeal the public management order Act, stop impunity and also give independence to three arms of government.

Without giving clear alternative policies and strategies, Bobi Wine said all that a new Uganda needs is implementation of the current good laws and also kicking out corruption.
Tomorrow marks the twelfth anniversary of Robert A. Bob Levinsons capture on Kish Island, Iran. The Department of State renews its call on the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to return Mr. Levinson to his family. Representatives of Iran and the United States previously agreed to cooperate on locating and recovering Mr. Levinson. Iran must honor this commitment, and demonstrate its adherence to international norms and respect for human rights.

The United States Government remains unwavering in our commitment to reunite the Levinson family with their beloved husband and father, who served our great nation during a long and distinguished career. We share our deepest sympathy with Mr. Levinsons family and friends, and stand with them in solidarity against those who would separate loved ones in the name of political gain.

We are determined to secure the release of all American hostages and wrongful detainees, including Mr. Levinson, and will not rest until they are home. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Robert C. OBrien, the entire Department of State, and our partners in the United States Government are actively and tirelessly fighting to bring Mr. Levinson home. There is a $5 million reward for information that could lead to Mr. Levinsons safe return. Information will be kept confidential and can be provided anonymously.
From 11 to 15 March 2019, Azerbaijans army is planning large-scale military drills of an offensive nature. However, within the scope of the document signed in Vienna, the participating countries have not been notified about this. Spokesman of the Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan has issued a statement on this on his Facebook page, assuming that the military drills have been organized in the context of the Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting and is an attempt for pressure.

NEWS.am presents the text of the statement in its entirety:

Pursuant to sub-point 40.1.1 of Chapter 5 of the Vienna Document 2011, military activity will be subject to notification whenever it involves at any time during the activity:

1. at least 9,000 troops, including support troops, or

2. at least 250 battle tanks, or

3. at least 500 ACVs, or

4. at least 250 self-propelled and towed artillery pieces, mortars and multiple rocket-launchers (100 mm caliber and above).

During discussions on upgrading the Vienna Document 2011, the countries agreed to notify the military activity that is not prescribed by ceilings, but is deemed to be the largest (ceilings dont work here) because there are rarely countries that carry out large-scale military activities.

At the same time, pursuant to the requirements in point 66 of Part VII of the Vienna Document 2011, information on military activities subject to prior notification not included in an annual calendar will be communication to all participating States as soon as possible, in accordance with the model provided in the annual calendar.

I would like to inform that, in the period between 11 and 15 March, the armed forces of the Republic of Artsakh envisage holding the large-scale military activity with the following:

1. personnel: 10,000 troops,

2. up to 500 battle tanks and other ACVs,

3. at least 300 self-propelled and towed artillery pieces, mortars and multiple rocket-launchers,

4. more than 20 military planes and helicopters for army aviation.

The military drills will be offensive. The objectives of the military drills are:

-prepare troops for attacks,

-attack the conditional adversary in several directions, violating the alignment of defense and the military,

-cause rocket and artillery strikes to the adversary, eliminating major military and strategic structures of the adversary,

-test new types of arms and equipment.

I would like to inform that, based on the annual information provided within the scope of the Vienna Document 2011, the Republic of Azerbaijan has not notified the participating countries of the aforementioned military activity and, in such cases, pursuant to the aforementioned point, the Republic of Azerbaijan is obliged to notify about this as soon as possible, but the Republic of Azerbaijan has not sent a notification on the conduct of military activity through the OSCE information network.

Conclusion:

It is assumed that these military drills are organized in the context of the Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting and an attempt for pressure, in response to the statements that Armenia will not concede any territory of the liberated territories to Azerbaijan.
By Benjamin Jumbe.

The speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga has encouraged families to encourage more girls to join technical institutions.

Kadaga is part of various dignitaries attending the national womens day celebrations in Bunyangabu.

She says skills acquired from these institutions will empower the young girls to work for themselves and improve their well being.

She also said government needs to increase the allocation to the Uganda Women Enterprise fund

She further encouraged the mothers to invest in their children to ensure they get the right education so that they are able to stand on their own in the future
On 8 March, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) Masis Mayilyan received Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office (PRCO) Anjey Kasprzik, reports the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh, according to NEWS.am.

The parties discussed several issues on the situation on the line of contact of the armed forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan and the observations conducted by the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office.

Masis Mayilyan highlighted once again the need to raise the level of predictability and transparency in the security sector, as well as introduce international control mechanisms for maintaining the ceasefire regime for the prevention of potential incidents.

In this context, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh stated that it is important to continue the efforts to implement the agreements reached in Vienna and Saint Petersburg.

During the meeting, the parties also touched upon issues related to the visit of OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia Miroslav Lajcak to the region.
A conversation with Magali Rheault

Gallup's Regional Director for the World Poll in Sub-Saharan Africa

Last International Women's Day, you said mindsets needed to change in Africa about the evolving roles of women. This fits very well with the theme for International Women's Day this year, "Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change."

Mindsets can take a long time to change. Have you seen any signs of progress on this front in Africa?

Rheault: Indeed, mindsets reflect how societies evolve over countless generations. So, a change in mindset is always hard, especially on deeply ingrained attitudes, such as gender roles. On the African continent, positive change is everywhere. Virtually all African countries have embraced the Maputo Protocol, which sets the path to improving all facets of women's lives, from the elimination of discrimination to reproductive health to marriage and inheritance.

Several African countries, most notably Rwanda and Namibia, now have more women in national parliaments than many Western nations, including the U.S. Many institutions, from multilateral organizations to foundations to international and local NGOs, work hard to improve the lives of African women every day. We, at Gallup, also contribute to this effort toward positive change by measuring access to credit, land rights, modern slavery and child marriage.

These are all important initiatives that must be pursued to anchor improvements for women's empowerment. But this wave of efforts has yet to permeate the private sphere. What it means is that even if a country passes a law to provide equal rights for women, it may not translate into equality in practice.

For most African women, their day-to-day realities are far removed from exhaustive statutes and eloquent gender-parity declarations. Rather, their realities are shaped by obedience to a male figure, who still has much say on what women can or cannot do. Many Africans attribute this patriarchal system to "culture" to justify the slow pace of change. But culture is a dynamic construct that evolves over time to adapt to new ideas and needs.

Do women in the region feel they are respected and treated with dignity? How do men feel women are treated? What do the Gallup data say?

Rheault: Our data show that in 2018, a median of 64% of Africans feel that women are treated with respect and dignity in their countries, virtually unchanged from 2015, when 67% said the same. While this figure looks relatively high compared with other regions, such as Latin America, it masks large differences across African countries. Attitudes on this issue of respect range from a low of 38% in Comoros and 39% in South Africa to a high of 94% in Rwanda.

Respect for Women Across Sub-Saharan Africa Do you believe women in your country are treated with respect and dignity, or not? Yes, treated with respect % Rwanda 94 The Gambia 80 Malawi 78 Zimbabwe 77 Benin 75 Ethiopia 74 Tanzania 74 Niger 74 Ghana 73 Mozambique 72 Mali 71 Ivory Coast 69 Senegal 68 Cameroon 68 Burkina Faso 67 Zambia 67 Nigeria 66 Kenya 64 Liberia 60 Swaziland 59 Botswana 58 Mauritius 58 Guinea 57 Uganda 56 Chad 54 Mauritania 53 Togo 52 Burundi 52 Sierra Leone 49 Madagascar 48 Namibia 48 Congo Brazzaville 43 Gabon 43 South Africa 39 Comoros 38 Gallup World Poll, 2018

In several countries, women and men share similar views. For example, in Senegal, 67% of women and 70% of men say women are treated with respect and dignity in their country, a three-percentage-point difference, which falls within the margin of error, so there is no gender gap. However, in many other countries, the difference is much larger. In Mauritius, 46% of women and 69% of men say women are treated with respect and dignity in their country, a 23-point gap, which is also the largest among the 35 African countries we surveyed in 2018.

Many things drive perceptions of respect. From what Africans witness at home to what they experience outside the home to how the media portray women. All of this helps shape attitudes on this issue of respect of women. And just to come back to Mauritius, women are now in many professions, from C-suite executives to political leaders to bus drivers and construction workers. But Mauritian women are frustrated because they feel men still believe women should stay home.

What about safety and security? That can be a real barrier to progress for women. How safe do women feel?

Rheault: Looking at the Gallup data, we see there was a large drop between 2015 and 2018 in perceptions of respect for women in seven countries. It is concerning to see large decreases on a respect question, which measures a deep value in society. South Africa experienced a 39-point decline between 2015 and 2018 on this issue of respect of women. It is, by far, the sharpest drop, followed by Mauritania, where attitudes on respect of women sank 24 points over the same period. In this context, respect may actually be a proxy for women's safety. And, more specifically, women's safety in the home.

This is a taboo topic that is not discussed easily, not even with close relatives or friends. It is considered a private matter, and for many people, including women, domestic violence is considered normal behavior. If you grow up witnessing your father beating your mother, then if your husband beats you, such behavior falls in line with your observations.

Anecdotally, domestic violence affects all socio-economic groups, not just poor, rural women. Although there are many organizations that raise awareness about this issue, many African women do not know there are laws that protect them against this type of violence. Even when women are aware, they do not believe the authorities would enforce the law.

In South Africa, many activists have worked hard to raise awareness and help countless women share their painful stories. However, it remains difficult for women to break the silence of domestic abuse because of shame and the fear of how others will perceive them.

Do you have any stories or examples from your work in these countries that you can share that illustrate this need for a reset in mindset?

Rheault: Yes, I have many. But here's one from Mali and it builds on this critical issue of violence in the home. A couple of years ago, I was flying back from Bamako to Washington and the airline asked if I could chaperone a minor who was traveling to the U.S. The minor was a Malian girl who must have been 16 years old and was going to visit relatives in Washington. I said yes.

After traveling together for more than 12 hours, we had become "sisters." And when we landed in Washington, I told her I would wait for her after she was done with immigration to deliver her to her relatives. All of a sudden, she expressed great concern for my wellbeing and told me not to wait for her because my husband would beat me if I got home late.

While I reassured her he would not beat me, her comment made me reflect on the plight of women in her country. What had her eyes seen in her own home or what had she personally experienced after returning late from school? Did she think that beatings from their husbands are what all women go through? I had a lot of questions, but it was now time to bring her to her relatives who were waiting in the terminal. We certainly did not want to make them wait any longer.

But how can things improve for women in Africa? What gives you hope?

Rheault: The sheer knowledge, wisdom and strength of African women are too valuable to confine them to traditional roles only. Perhaps, it means showing skeptics how the positive changes from having women live full lives can benefit everyone in the community. Or perhaps, women's empowerment in Africa can be framed as part of the dynamic nature of culture. Instead of fearing the loss of tradition, embracing positive change for women is key for sustainable development across Africa.

Read more stories about women around the world on our International Women's Day page.
A conversation with Jihad Fakhreddine

Gallup's Regional Director for the World Poll in MENA and Iman Berrached

Gallup's Research Program Manager for MENA

There were a lot of positive stories about rights for women in the region last year. Tunisia comes to mind. Talk about some of those changes.

Fakhreddine: I am sure Iman would have better insights about the changes there since she is a Tunisian American.

Berrached: As far as Tunisia is concerned, the last couple of years can be considered a big win for women and society. The Tunisian Cabinet recently confirmed the removal of the inheritance law that prevents females from inheriting as much as their male siblings. At the same time, the Tunisian government made sure that those on the more conservative side are not ignored. As a result, the new law has allotted women and men equal inheritance while allowing families to opt out of it.

Tunisia has also made reforms in the social sector by passing a law that forbids physical, psychological and economic abuse against women, including the harassment of women in public. The hope is that with elections coming up in Tunisia, the new government, regardless of party affiliation, continues to prioritize reform for women in Tunisia.

Yet, progress has been uneven. Women in many countries in the region still lag behind men in participating in the workforce. What does that situation look like today? Are things getting better or getting worse?

Fakhreddine: Attitudes toward women's participation in the labor force are changing extremely fast across much of the Arab world. The notion of women staying at home while men go out and work is losing ground. In Morocco, you could see truckloads of women being transported from their home villages to the farm with their faces covered. They do not want to be identified by others that they are working.

In urban areas, more women are going not only to schools but to colleges and universities. Gradually, the proportion of girls at universities is surpassing that of their male counterparts. This is empowerment. They are competing with men, who, as it is turning out to be the case, are less competitive compared with females.

It is the employers who will have to change their attitudes toward females. Last summer, my niece graduated with distinction in chemistry from the American University of Beirut. In one of the job interviews, the man interviewing her told her they were looking for a male engineer.

Berrached: Overall, female participation in the workforce has increased. The ideology of women solely as caretakers has changed across the region. Whether this can be attributed to struggling economies, access to internet platforms or merely the changing times, women in the region are definitely looking and hungry for work. The issue that plagues the region, but is not solely a MENA issue, is the lack of opportunities in slowing economies.

In the case of Tunisia, similar to Morocco, women make up a significant percentage of the agricultural sector. Waking up at the crack of dawn to be driven to the olive fields, some of these women possess degrees but were unable to find work, while others are mothers and daughters who are responsible for families just as much as the men. Whether it be rural or urban areas, in recent years, the idea of the male as the sole provider is no longer viable. The responsibility today lies with the able-bodied members of a family, including women.

The influence of social media has also contributed to the "independence" or "empowerment" of women to have more ambitious career aspirations. Social media has made the world a smaller place. Women across the world can see what other women are experiencing or what other women have accomplished or their challenges and experiences. Women in the region can see what their Western counterparts are working on and be influenced to make dreams of their own or take risks of their own.

Tell me what gives you hope for women in the region.

Fakhreddine: This is a good question. I was brought up in a family in which each female, be it my mom or sisters, lived their lives as if they had no limits on what they can do and want to achieve.

A few weeks before my eldest late sister died of cancer in early October, she was still talking about starting her Ph.D. She was teaching at the American University of Beirut.

My father passed away when we were very young, and Mom was in her early 30s. Mom took a dressmaking class in her early teens in the mid-1940s at a time when her eldest brother would go to school and she would stay at home. She ended up being one of the top dressmakers in the region where we live. My second sister, who went to university because of a scholarship, taught science for over 30 years, supported her family and sent three kids to university. This is all because of perseverance and willingness to fight social, cultural and economic odds.

As for the future, I tend to have mixed feelings about the social progress in the Arab world overall and for women. Economic stagnation will hamper their progress toward being able to have decent jobs that make them independent and secure. But that doesn't mean that males are feeling more economically secure. The social and cultural changes are happening at a fast pace -- much, much faster than the pace of economic growth or development.

Berrached: I was lucky enough to be from a country in the region (Tunisia) where generally women were encouraged to seek higher education, employment, etc. I am also the proud child of an immigrant from the region, who took it upon herself after having four children to go seek an education in hopes of one day becoming a teacher.

Today, I can proudly say my mother was successful. Her story gives me hope because throughout my childhood, my mother's only focus was education for us. She always stressed that she wanted my sisters and I to achieve more than she was able to.

This woman who emphasized education and career aspirations is the product of the MENA region. She is unique to me, but I know she is one of millions of women in the region who dream and push for a better and stronger future for their daughters. For this reason, I only have hope for the future.

Do you have any stories or examples from your work in these countries that you can share that illustrate how things are getting better for women?

Fakhreddine: I surely have many, many stories. I see women fighting for our World Poll everywhere I go. In one training session last year, I asked one interviewer to describe herself when she wakes up in the morning and goes to the field. She said, "I am a combat fighter  I go to the field to make sure that I will not get [survey] refusals."

Everywhere I go I see women committed to their work with far more passion than men. I know female interviewers who leave behind a husband while she sends her kids to schools and universities or finances the purchase of a house for her family.

Berrached: Every year that we go into the field and meet our interviewers, I am truly amazed. During the training and recruitment process, the women exude a sense of bravery and readiness I might not have seen in the past during my time in the region. They are not picky or choosy about the region of the countries they are sent to. They are not scared or discouraged at being far outside of their comfort zones. It is truly quite the contrary. They volunteer for the farther areas, where it might take longer to get to transportation or an area where generally women are not flooding the streets.

However, they see the more difficult areas as a challenge for them to accomplish and take on the next. The profile varies between college-aged women and middle-aged women with children. Regardless of the profile, all are ready to work. Despite the difficult economic situations in some of these countries and regardless of the reason behind why these women have joined the workforce, their courage and need to be challenged is a good sign for the hopefully changing tides. Of course, economic stagnation will be a determining factor in how strong or how far this tide can go.
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Threatening Coalition Countries, English IS Recruitment Account Declares Caliphate "On the Verge of Revival




Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will happily buy all the cookies from the Girl Scouts of America.

The freshman Democrat shot down calls to boycott the nationwide organisation after conservative columnist Jane Chastain wrote that the group has become a far cry from those of my youth, which trained us to put God and country before everything else.

Sharing a headline that read Conservative calls for cookie boycott because AOC used to be a Girl Scout, Ms Ocasio-Cortez posted a series of tweets on Thursday mocking the development and celebrating a local Girl Scout group in her district.

Boycotting cookies that teach little girls leadership skills to own the libs, she wrote, including a thumbs up emoji. Nice job.

Ill take 10, she added.

The Democrat also tweeted a shout out to one of her districts local Girl Scout troops, recognising it as the first troop in the organisation for young girls who are homeless.

PS, she wrote. I am extraordinarily proud of the role my constituents have played in helping to establish + support Troop 6000.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez regularly engages with her critics on Twitter, refuting misleading or false claims about her stance on a range of positions.

Ms Chastains column, which was published on World Net Daily, claimed the organisation was touting Ms Ocasio-Cortez as a successful Girl Scout alumni. The column is titled "AOC was a girl scout ... Just say no to the cookies."

Before you decide to embrace an International Womens Day celebration or buy the cookies, ask yourself, 'Will the country be better off with more representatives like the young socialist Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez?', she wrote.
Allen Weisselberg is seemingly everything his longtime boss, Donald Trump, isnt.

The modest money man has always been content to work behind the scenes, with no hint of flash, braggadocio or ostentatious spending.

He lived in the same three-bedroom ranch house in suburban Long Island with the same woman for decades, shows up for work at Trump Tower every day and almost always goes to the same spot down the block for lunch. The bald, bespectacled, 71-year-old chief financial officer of the Trump Organisation is known for being loyal, unobtrusive and, well, somewhat dull.

But Weisselberg also has his name on all manner of checks and documents of the company going back decades, is familiar with its tax returns, its lenders and investors, and is said to track every penny going in and out. And given what he knows, the prospect of him testifying in federal probes and congressional investigations of Trumps business empire could pose a new danger to president from one of his longest-serving confidants.

He was like from central casting, a green-eyeshaded accountant, said Gwenda Blair, who interviewed Weisselberg for her book, The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President.

He was not even remotely colourful, eyes cast down on the spreadsheet and the calculator  click, click, click, she said. Hes been in the inner, inner circle, but he is so colourless that he faded into the woodwork. That was his job, not to be noticed.

Weisselberg, who through the Trump Organisation did not respond to requests for an interview, may not be able to keep that up much longer.

At least one of the Democratic-led House committees investigating Trumps finances, hush-money payments and taxes is seeking to question Weisselberg following Trump lawyer Michael Cohens explosive testimony last week in which he dropped Weisselbergs name nearly 20 times.

Weisselberg also spoke to federal prosecutors last year as part of the investigation in which Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign-finance violations for payments to buy the silence of two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump  porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy centrefold Karen McDougal.

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Weisselberg has not been charged in that case, but Cohen has said he was deeply involved and ultimately the one who decided how to secretly reimburse Cohen for a $130,000 payment to Daniels.

For his grand jury testimony in the Cohen case, Weisselberg received limited immunity, which would preclude any truthful statements from being used against him in a criminal case. Federal prosecutors in New York have declined to say whether they are investigating Weisselberg himself.

Weisselberg started working for the Trump family in Brooklyn in 1973 under Fred Trump, Donalds father, and was there for all the sons big successes and flops.

He was overseeing the books when Donald built Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, bought up several casinos in Atlantic City, and then drove them into bankruptcy. And he was there when Trump rose again as a reality-TV businessman and began slapping his name on hotels and residential towers owned by others. It was during that era that Weisselberg made a rare, if quiet, public appearance  as a guest judge on a 2004 episode of The Apprentice.

He was so trusted by Trump that he was named as the only non-family member to help Trump sons Eric and Don Jr. manage the trust the president set up to hold his business assets while he is in office.

Weisselbergs family is deeply entwined in the company. His son Barry has managed the Trump Wollman Rink in Central Park. Another son, Jack, is an executive director at Ladder Capital, the biggest lender to the Trump Organisation behind Deutsche Bank. Ladder had more than $100 million lent out to Trumps company last year, according to the presidents financial disclosure report.

As is the case with his boss, Weisselberg was registered as a Democrat for years, according to the research service Nexis. He gave money to campaigns by New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo before switching to the Republican Party for the 2016 election.

But that is pretty much where the similarities to his boss end.

Weisselberg has no Twitter or Facebook account, though he does maintain a Linkedin page with one connection listed  Matthew Calamari, a former bodyguard turned Trump Organisations' chief operating officer.

He has bought a few properties over the years beside a home in Wantagh, New York. He has a vacation home in Boynton Beach, Florida, that he purchased 17 years ago for $282,000. He bought two condominiums at Trump-branded buildings in Manhattan but sold them.

Weisselberg barely merits a mention in the many Trump biographies, nor in the many written by the man himself. He doesnt appear in The Art of the Deal, for instance.

Trumps daughter, Ivanka, told The Wall Street Journal in a profile before the 2016 election that Weisselberg is deeply passionate, fiercely loyal and has stood alongside my father and our family for decades.

Weisselberg has also been tied to several Trump ventures tarnished by scandal. He reviewed the finances at the now-defunct Trump University, the real estate school hit by a fraud lawsuit that the president settled for $25 million. He was a director of the shuttered Trump Foundation, which is being sued by New Yorks attorney general for allegedly tapping charitable donations for political and business purposes.

And in testimony before the House Oversight Committee last week, Cohen said Weisselberg knew about what Cohen said were falsified financial statements that Trump used to dupe insurers and investors. Cohen also said that it was Weisselberg who decided that the hush money that Cohen paid out of his own pocket to the porn star should be reimbursed in instalments spread out over 12 months to hide what the payment was.

And Weisselberg is likely to know the answer to the biggest question since his boss pulled off his surprise election to the presidency: Just how much is Trump worth?

Trump testified in a 2007 deposition that Weisselberg was the one who valued his properties and other assets.

My numbers are pretty in line with what he says, Trump testified.

Associated Press
According to a Reuters article, Altice USA, Inc. ATUS is reportedly considering the divestment the fiber unit of its Lightpath business to focus on core operations. The sale is likely to fetch the company dry powder in the vicinity of $3 billion according to persons familiar with the proceedings.



Altice has been rolling out enhanced data and services for its business customers. Altice Business, which was formed by clubbing its Lightpath, Optimum and Suddenlink business brands, offers the best-in-class data, voice, video and managed services to about 2 million customers. As part of this effort, Altice Business has standardized its product portfolio footprint-wide, providing customers access to services that meet their needs, regardless of size or region, and creating more value and choice.



However, management presently deems the fiber unit of Lightpath, which delivers business services via fiber to larger customers, a non-core asset and intends to either sell it entirely or divest a certain ownership stake in it. Incidentally, Altice Europe NV, a Netherlands-based multinational telecom firm and the parent of Altice, also sold a 49.99% stake in its fiber optic business in November 2018 to a group of investment firms for approximately $2.05 billion.



Some experts, however, remain skeptic about the proposed divesture, given its focus on building a FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) network and deployment of its new home communications hub. The company had opined that the FTTH network would be more resilient with reduced maintenance requirements, fewer service outages and lower power usage, leading to cost efficiencies. This network was expected to satisfy demand for increasing speeds and support evolving technologies, such as the transition of mobile networks to 5G, thereby enabling it to capitalize on associated revenue-growth opportunities. Additionally, the company has been building a next-generation fiber network capable of delivering broadband speeds of 10 Gbps. Consequently, the critics view the decision to sell a prized fiber asset while promoting fiber infrastructure elsewhere an imprudent one.



Nevertheless, we remain impressed with the inherent growth potential of this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock. The stock has mirrored the performance of the industry with an average return of 7% each in the past year.

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American Airlines is removing more than a dozen Boeing 737-800 aircraft from service after discovering an issue with overhead bins that led to the cancellation of nearly 40 flights.

"American operates 304 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, and we have identified an issue with the quality of work conducted on overhead bins on two of these Boeing 737-800 aircraft," the airline told USA TODAY in a statement. The airline insists the issue didn't affect safety and that it is "working with our vendor and the FAA to immediately address this issue."

"After further inspection by American, the work that was conducted on these two aircraft was not up to our standards," the airline added. "Out of an abundance of caution, we have proactively removed from service the additional 12 aircraft that were updated by this vendor and have notified the FAA. ... Our team has rebooked all customers that were impacted by nearly 40 flight cancellations thus far and will continue to work proactively to get our customers to their final destination."

American also said it is performing additional inspection of these planes.

The FAA told USA TODAY in a statement: "The FAA is aware of the decision by American Airlines to remove certain aircraft from service. We are in contact with the carrier and will monitor the situation."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: American Airlines cancels 40 flights amid aircraft issue, takes planes out of service
A college student was killed at a Mississippi rest stop on Tuesday when two tires came loose from a passing tractor trailer and struck the 21-year-old woman.

The Biloxi Sun Herald and other news outlets identified the victim as Margaret Maurer, of Minnesota. Maurer and two friends were about to get back into their vehicle at an Interstate 10 rest stop at the time of the accident, authorities say.

Police say the tires came from a tractor-trailer traveling westbound; the wheels crossed eastbound lanes and entered the rest stop, striking Maurer and two vehicles.

The tires  the rear dual tires of an 18-wheeler  were bolted together and weighed roughly 500 pounds, ABC News reports. The tires traveled more than 800 feet before striking Maurer, the network reports, citing police.

Maurer was a senior at Tulane University in New Orleans, where she studied ecology and evolutionary biology.

University president Mike Fitts described Maurer as an "extraordinarily gifted student and a leader among her peers" in a written statement.

"She was planning to graduate in May to pursue a career in scientific illustration  a field that combined her skill as a scientist, her incredible artistic talent and her love of nature," he said.

Margaret Maurer

Speaking with Minnesota's KSTP-TV, Maurer's mother said the "freak accident" happened as her daughter and her friends took a restroom break during a spring-break road trip.

"It's absolutely a random freaky thing," Tracy Maurer told the station. "It's not right. There's so much that's wrong about this. It's just random. I really want to be angry at somebody, but I can't be."

The truck driver realized that something had detached from the vehicle and turned around to investigate, the Sun Herald reports. Police suspect no wrongdoing on the driver's part, the paper says.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Gifted' college student killed by flying tires in freak roadside accident in Mississippi
ALEXANDRIA, Va.  Paul Manafort was sentenced Thursday to nearly fouryears in federal prison for cheating banks and the government out of millions of dollars, sparing for now President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman the prospect of being locked up for the rest of his life.

The prison sentence marks the end of a stunning downfall for the longtime political operative who helped elect four Republican presidents, including Trump. He is among a half-dozen people in Trump's orbit who have been charged as a result of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible cooperation with the Trump campaign.

Manafort, who used his illicit fortune to pay for expensive homes and suits, arrived to hear his sentence in a green jail jumpsuit emblazoned on the back with the words "Alexandria inmate." He entered a packed federal courtroom outside Washington in a wheelchair, appearing thin, his hair grayer and holding a cane.

Manafort said he was "humiliated and ashamed" by his new circumstances.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis, who had been critical of Mueller's prosecutors, imposed the sentence Thursday evening. He said Manafort had committed serious, very serious crimes, but he also said that Manafort had lived an otherwise blameless life and earned the admiration of many."

In addition to 47 months in prison, Ellis ordered Manafort to pay a $50,000 fine and approximately $24 million in restitution, and to spend an additional three years on federal supervision. Ellis said the nine months Manafort has already spent in jail should count against his total sentence.

Ellis' decision is not the end for Manafort. He will be sentenced again next week in a related case in Washington where he faces an additional 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges for failing to report his lobbying work in Ukraine and tampering with witnesses.

Story continues

Speaking from his wheelchair because he struggled to stand, Manafort referred repeatedly to his time in solitary confinement waiting to hear his sentence as "painful" and as a time to reflect on my life and my choices." He said the past two years "have been the most difficult that my family and I have experienced."

Ellis seized on Manaforts failure to express regret for his actions. Your regret should be that you didnt comply with the law," he said. "

Still, he imposed a prison sentence considerably below what prosecutors and federal sentencing guidelines suggested would be appropriate. Manafort, 69, faced the prospect of a sentence that could have put him in prison for two decades or more; Ellis decision spares him what would likely have amounted to a life sentence.

A jury in Virginia convicted Manafort of eight charges, including bank and tax fraud, after a three-week trial last summer. The case, as well as a related one in Washington, stem from his work as a political consultant in Ukraine before he joined Trump's campaign in 2016.

Prosecutor Greg Andres ripped into Manafort on Thursday, asserting that that the defendant had made "criminal choices as recently as 2016 and 2017," referring to additional offenses Manafort committed while under indictment in a related case in Washington.

Mr. Manafort, himself, made criminal choices and those choices have consequences, Andres said Mr. Manafort broke the basic civil covenant in this country: you have to pay your taxes.

More than two years after he was charged and convicted, Andres said some aspects of Manaforts financial status remain unknown.

Before he announced the sentence, Ellis made a point of stressing that Manafort "is not before the court on anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government."

One of Manafort's lawyers, Kevin Downing, repeated that point outside the courthouse, saying "there is no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved in any collusion with the Russian government.

Prosecutors alleged that he masterminded a years-long scheme to defraud American banks and taxpayers out of millions of dollars he had amassed through years of illicit lobbying work on behalf of a pro-Russian political faction in Ukraine. They say he did not pay taxes on this massive wealth, hid money in several foreign bank accounts, and lived extravagantly despite an already privileged life.

Federal sentencing guidelines call for a 20- to 24-year prison term, a punishment defense lawyers said would likely amount to a life sentence for Manafort, who turns 70 next month. Ellis said such a sentence would be "excessive."

The crimes predate Manafort's work leading the Trump campaign and are not connected to any possible coordination with Russia, a fact Manafort's attorneys stressed as they argued for a more lenient sentence. During a hearing last summer, Ellis, known to speak his mind, accused the Mueller team of leveling charges against Manafort to pressure him to "sing" about Trump.

Manafort's attorneys asked for leniency, citing Manafort's his age and deteriorating health. They said the charges destroyed Manafort's career and inflicted hardship on him and his family. Friends and relatives wrote lengthy letters begging Ellis for mercy, saying Manafort is not the villain portrayed in the media. His wife, Kathleen, described Manafort as "the rock the family has relied on for years."

Manafort's wife, Kathleen, left the court Thursday evening without commenting. Federal marshals wheeled Manafort himself out of the courtroom and back into custody.

Contributing: Bart Jansen

More on Paul Manafort's legal troubles:

Paul Manafort's lawyers say long prison term would 'likely amount to a life sentence' for Trump aide

Yes, the Mueller investigation is costly. But the millions seized from Manafort have it on track to break even

'His criminal actions were bold': Prosecutors urge harsh sentence for Paul Manafort in court memo

Mueller's office seeks prison sentence of 20 years or more for ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Humiliated and ashamed': Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison
Attorney general announces elder fraud crackdown originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

In announcing the largest-ever Justice Department crackdown on elder fraud on Thursday, Attorney General William Barr highlighted a memorable example of how the scams work.

He recounted how, when 95-year-old William Webster picked up the phone, on the other end was someone who told him he'd just won millions of dollars and a new luxury car.

The catch: Webster would have to send him $50,000, as the Washington Post first reported.

The only problem for the scammers was that Webster was not one of their typical elderly victims. He had served as both director of the FBI and CIA - and with that, had lots of contacts in law enforcement. With his help, authorities eventually flipped the script on the scammer.

The Websters joined Barr Thursday to tell their story.

"He basically said he was going to kill me," Lynda Webster said at a news conference with Barr. "He proceeded to tell me, what my blood would look like on my white house when my head was shot off." He also seemed to know we were out the night before and when I got nastier and nastier he then threatened to burn down our house and kill us both."

"I know how they feel when they're caught in a difficult situation," William Webster said earlier at a roundtable Barr hosted at the Justice Department.

The attorney general said DOJ is going to after these fraudsters.

"This is a particularly despicable crime because it's a massive and growing problem. And it's despicable because the people involved are vulnerable and because of their stage in life don't have the opportunity to recover and so these losses are devastating to them," Barr said.

(MORE: Texas woman brought to tears as DOJ targets elder scams)

"They picked on the wrong person," Barr said. "The Websters got law enforcement involved and those fraudsters are behind bars."

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Webster, a former federal judge, said anyone can be targeted by scammers and urged younger people to keep an eye on their elderly relatives. In his case, it took four years of "waiting and watching," for the scammer to come to the United States.

He's currently serving a six-year prison sentence.

PHOTO: Judge William Webster, former FBI and CIA director, looks on before a game on Aug. 7, 2018, in Washington, D.C. (Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

(MORE: Granddaughter brought to tears as DOJ targets elder scams)

The Justice Department said victims were targeted based on their advanced age and that the schemes lead to financial loss for victims.

Victims lived across the country -- from California to Rhode Island -- and the sweep led to 225 defendants getting charged.

The most common fraud, authorities said, was a "technical support" scam based in India.

"That scheme operates by fraudulently inducing U.S. consumers and others around the world to purchase phony or otherwise misrepresented technical support services related to computers and in certain cases to make further payments based on additional fraudulent misrepresentations," according to court documents from one of the many cases that DOJ highlighted.

PHOTO: Screenshots of tech support schemes released by the Department of Justice. (Department of Justice)

According to the Federal Trade Commission, 142,000 consumer complaints were registered as a result in 2018.

Barr said even he had been a victim of one of the scams in 2017. While he was not attorney general at the time, fraudsters asked for money using his old official portrait.

Barr highlighted his story at his round table.

"People took my official Justice Department portrait from 1992, so I was looking pretty good in 1992 and they put it up on Facebook and other online sites and I was telling people as the former Attorney General I had access to special federal grant money and if they just sent some money I could tell them how to get some major grants," he explained.

Barr said he had the pages taken down, but from time to time even leading up to when he was nominated to be Attorney General he would get calls from people around the country which he called "heartbreaking."

Barr was featured in a ABC Affiliate WJLA story about the topic.
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria on Friday summoned the Ukrainian ambassador over his country's decision to bar the Kiev bureau chief for the Austrian national broadcaster ORF, calling the move an act of censorship. Ukraine told Austria that it would deny entry to veteran ORF reporter Christian Wehrschuetz, who is currently out of the country, calling him a "threat to national security", an Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Wehrschuetz says Kiev accuses him of crossing the bridge Russia has built between the Crimean Peninsula, which Russian forces seized from Ukraine in 2014, and the rest of Russia. He denies the accusation, saying that when he reported on the bridge in July his crew crossed it but he did not. "The travel ban imposed on...Wehrschuetz in Ukraine is an unacceptable act of censorship," Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, who danced with Russian President Vladimir Putin at her wedding last year, said on Twitter on Thursday. The Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday the Ukrainian ambassador had been summoned and would meet the ministry's secretary general on Monday. Kneissl will be in Moscow that day to meet her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Wehrschuetz, 57, said on ORF radio on Friday that he would challenge the decision "by all legal means". Neutral Austria says it aims to maintain good relations with both Russia and the West. Wehrschuetz is a household name in Austria, known for his often dishevelled appearance as well as his reports from the former Yugoslavia, where he has been a correspondent since 1999 and he continues to work. Ukrainian officials in Kiev were not immediately available for comment on Friday, a public holiday. Ukraine's ambassador to Austria, Olexander Scherba, told ORF he had only been informed of the ban on Wehrschuetz "unofficially". But he said that whether Wehrschuetz crossed the bridge himself or merely instructed his crew to do so, a crime had been committed under Ukrainian law. ORF and the International Press Institute, a Vienna-based media rights group, expressed support for Wehrschuetz. IPI urged Ukraine to reverse course immediately and re-admit Wehrschuetz to report freely from the country. (Reporting by Francois Murphy with additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria said on Wednesday it would not help repatriate any citizens who fought for Islamic State and other militant groups, as countries across the West wrestle with how to deal with returning militants. Hundreds of people are believed to have left Europe to fight for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. With the Islamist militant group down to its last shred of territory, several have asked to come home. The cabinet has sent a bill to parliament on consular assistance that makes clear that it can be denied to citizens if there is a threat to public order, the government said in a statement. "There will in future be no assistance for people who join a terrorist organization," Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, a conservative governing in coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, told journalists. "Anyone who leaves Austria to murder, torture or act against religious minorities and those who think differently elsewhere in the world has no right to Austria's help," he added. He stopped short of saying they would be barred from returning. U.S. President Donald Trump last month urged Britain, France and Germany to take back more than 800 captured Islamic State fighters and put them on trial. But European countries have resisted pressure to take in citizens who had sworn allegiance to groups determined to destroy the West. Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and their Social Democrat coalition partners this week agreed a plan to strip some Germans who fight for Islamic State of their citizenship. Britain last month revoked the citizenship of a teenager who had left London when she was aged 15 to join Islamic State in Syria. Shamima Begum was found in a detention camp in Syria, and her fate has fueled a dispute over the ramifications of leaving a 19-year-old mother with a jihadist fighter's child to fend for herself in a war zone. (Reporting by Francois Murphy; Additional reporting by Tassilo Hummel in Berlin; Editintg by Andrew Heavens)
The Daily Beast

REUTERSAfter Jussie Smollett spilled all the tea he could on Monday, Special Prosecutor Dan Webb put the focus back on the attack on the Empire star that the actor allegedly staged in a brutal cross examination on Tuesday.Webb, a lawyers lawyer who nailed corrupt judges and cops when he served as the U.S. attorney for the district including Chicago and who prosecuted Ronald Reagans national security adviser and deposed the president as special counsel in the Iran-Contra affair, shifted the foc
By Aluisio Alves

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's Sao Paulo state said on Friday it would offer fresh tax incentives to automakers, weeks after Ford Motor Co said it would shut down a plant there with 3,000 employees and General Motors Co hinted it might do the same before backtracking.

Sao Paulo is the historical center of Brazil's auto industry, which was one of the world's five biggest until a recent downturn from which it is still recovering. It has been losing ground in recent years to other Brazilian states which have showered automakers with incentives.

Sao Paulo state Governor Joao Doria said at a press conference that the state would offer a discount of up to 25 percent over Brazil's ICMS value-added tax to automakers which invest at least 1 billion reais ($258.78 million) and create 400 new jobs.

Doria added that the government is still trying to help sell Ford's factory in Sao Bernardo do Campo, which is scheduled to be closed by year's end. He said the state is negotiating with three companies, which he did not name.

He did not say when the incentives would take effect. Legislative approval is not required.

Ford declined to comment, while GM said in a statement the incentives would help as the industry seeks to be more competitive.

(Reporting by Aluisio Alves; Writing by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Richard Chang)
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is to give jailed British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic protection in an attempt to put pressure on Iran to release her.

Foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said resorting to a little-used way for governments to seek to protect their nationals was unlikely to be a "magic wand", but might help Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case.

But Iran's ambassador in London said the move "contravenes international law".

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport as she headed back to Britain with her daughter after a family visit.

She was sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran's clerical establishment, a charge denied by her family and the Foundation, a charity organisation that operates independently of Thomson Reuters and Reuters News.

"I have today decided that the UK will take a step that is extremely unusual, and exercise diplomatic protection," Hunt said in a statement late on Thursday, adding that the move signalled to Tehran that "its behaviour is totally wrong".

"It is unlikely to be a magic wand that leads to an overnight result. But it demonstrates to the whole world that Nazanin is innocent and the UK will not stand by when one of its citizens is treated so unjustly."

Diplomatic protection is a mechanism under international law through which a state may seek reparation for injury to one of its nationals on the basis that the second state has committed an internationally wrongful act against that person.

Hunt told BBC radio that Britain had not granted any individual diplomatic protection for over 100 years.

He said the move might improve consular access to Zaghari-Ratcliffe as Britain's ambassador in Tehran has not been able to see her, and could also improve her access to medical care.

"It sends a very strong message to Iran: You are a great civilisation, you may have disagreements with the UK, but at the heart of this is an innocent woman, vulnerable, unwell and scared," Hunt said.

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"She should not be paying the price for whatever disagreements you have with the UK."

In January, Zaghari-Ratcliffe went on hunger strike for several days in protest at her treatment in jail.

Hunt was asked by BBC radio if he would now summon Iran's ambassador, take Iran to an international court, or impose sanctions. "All these things are possible, but we would like to solve this in an amicable way," he said.

But Iran's ambassador was dismissive.

"UK Govt's extension of diplomatic protection to Ms Zaghari contravenes int'l law. Govts may only exercise such protection for own nationals," Hamid Baeidinejad tweeted.

"As UK Govt is acutely aware, Iran does not recognise dual nationality. Irrespective of UK residency, Ms Zaghari thus remains Iranian."

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, additional reporting by James Davey and Dubai newsroom; Editing by Peter Cooney, Darren Schuettler, William Schomberg; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
London (AFP) - A pilot who crashed his plane at a British air show in 2015, killing 11 men, was cleared of manslaughter charges on Friday.

Andrew Hill, 54, was attempting a loop at the Shoreham Airshow on the southern English coast on August 22, 2015 when he lost control of his Hawker Hunter vintage military jet.

It crashed onto a road and exploded in a fireball. Hill survived after being thrown clear from the wreckage.

Jurors at England's Old Bailey Central Criminal Court in London found Hill not guilty on 11 counts of manslaughter by gross negligence.

"I'm truly sorry for the part I played in their deaths and it is they that I will remember for the rest of my life," Hill said afterwards outside court, reading out the names of those killed.

Hawker Hunter planes were a mainstay of Britain's Royal Air Force in the 1950s and early 1960s.

The prosecution alleged that former RAF and British Airways pilot Hill had been flying too low as he attempted the disastrous stunt.

But Hill said he blacked out in the air, having experienced "cognitive impairment" brought on by hypoxia possibly due to the effects of G-force.

In 2017 a report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch found the disaster was caused by pilot error after the plane was too slow and too low during the loop manoeuvre.

Relatives of those killed wept in court as the verdicts were read out.

Rebecca Smith, from law firm Irwin Mitchell which represents 17 people affected by the crash, said afterwards attention would now turn to the inquests.

"While the criminal trial purely looked into the actions of the pilot involved, the inquest will be able to investigate the wider organisation and planning of the event," the lawyer said.

"Hopefully then the families and those affected will finally have all the answers they need to be able to begin to move on from this tragedy."
Gird your loins, America, for I have a bone-rattlingly powerful tale to tell: In case you havent heard, there is a new movie hitting theaters, and it will reportedly change the way you look at the world forever. It is called Captain Marvel, and it is based on a comic-book superhero, and the superhero is played by . . . here, you might grab your smelling salts, because this is super groundbreaking and wildly controversial in the year 2019 . . . A WOMAN.

Whoa! I know! Its mind-boggling! This has never happened before, except when it happened two years ago, when Wonder Woman came out, which was also when an impressively large press cohort collectively and conveniently forgot the countless strong female leads that had occurred even before then! Remember those fevered days? Remember when an alarming number of movie critics simultaneously lost their minds over the sheer raw feminism of Wonder Woman, documenting how they cried at the theater and declaring that viewing Wonder Woman might have been the most powerful experience of their life, which should deeply worry us all if that is indeed really true?

Its okay if you dont remember: The Internet appears to be melting all of our brains. Anyway, I liked Wonder Woman, and Im sure Captain Marvel is fine, despite the web of semi-hysterical press surrounding its release. The women in the film, intones one review at Forbes, are pilots, they are scientists, they are warriors, and while some of the men around them might not understand that or accept it, the women dont frankly need them to and arent going to wait around for the myopic men to catch up to the facts.

Ah, yes! Those daft, myopic men, always fouling things up! But wait, theres more: Thats not to say, however, that Captain Marvel doesnt remind us of the sorts of daily frustrations, struggles, and inequalities women face in society  being told to smile more . . .

Wait. What? Lets stop here, shall we? Out of the worlds massive crab bucket of problems, let us stop and consider the modern scourge among American women of being told to smile more. Has it been two seconds? Okay, thats probably enough time  although if you google Captain Marvel and smile more, you will discover that many people fervently disagree.

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For the record, I have never been told to smile more. This deeply worries me, because perhaps it means I am smiling too much. Truly, it keeps me up at night, brooding like a superhero in anguish! Just kidding. It doesnt worry me at all, because it doesnt matter. I dont care, and neither should you, and nobody should be in a tizzy about this particular subject in general, because life is precious and very short.

With that in mind, heres what does worry me a bit, even if it is a bit tangential: Captain Marvel, or at least the reception of it, might be a subtle indicator of how suffocating modern feminism has become.

At a base level, the very idea of a superhero is innately goofy or farcical, or at least it should be. But Captain Marvel, by most accounts, is almost perfect: Strong. Beautiful. Driven. Ultra-powerful. According to Slate, she is a serious, stolid type whose steel will and laser-focused commitment to her mission make her a formidable foe even when her fists arent glowing orange with photon-blasting superpowers, which is impressive indeed.

But what does it say about our culture that influential people take a movie like this  and similar so-called representations of women, which, as a reminder, are based on fictional comic-book characters with alien superpowers  so seriously? Perhaps its because modern feminism has morphed into a crazed culture of unforgiving, humorless, and ultimately atomized workaholism. But hey, thats just my theory.

On February 24, The Atlantic published a fascinating essay by Derek Thompson on the rise of American workism, which he describes as a kind of religion that promises identity, transcendence, and community by centering ones life around work. While traditional religious faith has declined in America, Thompson notes, everybody worships something. And workism is among the most potent of the new religions competing for congregants. Morph workism with feminism and boy, oh boy, youve got something to behold.

I have a fairly old-school view when it comes to female empowerment: Women should be free to pursue their dreams, whether that involves being an astronaut or an accountant or a farmer or a stay-at-home mom. Ive also been around long enough to see that American culture relentlessly pushes high-achieving young women to obsessively put their careers first in their lives, no matter what their ultimate personal goals might be  even if those goals involve having a family.

As Thompson notes in The Atlantic, having a job or career they enjoy is noted as extremely or very important for 95 percent of teens. Only 47 percent rank getting married with the same importance. Between men and women, guess who loses more from this cultural phenomenon? (Hint: Its the half with the shorter biological clock.)

Dont get me wrong: Work can be very good! Ive done a lot of it myself. Im as big a fan of free-market capitalism as the next red-blooded American who grew up during the Reagan administration, trust me. Unfortunately, the modern feminist vision somehow morphs that capitalism into its worst caricature, or a Hobbesian war of all against all. Weirdly, it also simultaneously suggests that we all should be getting up at 5 a.m. daily to prep for, say, three Ironman races a year  or, even better, as the Los Angeles Times recently put it, train like a noble Kree warrior hero based on Captain Marvel star Brie Larsons nine-month pre-movie workout plan. Right.

Alternatively, you could just go running a few times a week and call it a day. Forget leaning in, America  lean out with me! Lets start a movement together! You wont get to be a proverbial Captain Marvel, but thats okay. Like much of todays pop feminism, that sounds kind of exhausting and not very fun.

More from National Review
What happened?

The pilot who crashed his plane during the Shoreham airshow, killing 11 men, was cleared of manslaughter today. Andrew Hill was flying a Hawker Hunter jet at the show on August 22, 2015 when it exploded into a fireball as he attempted a loop. Speaking outside the Old Bailey following the verdict, Mr Hill read out the names of those who died and said: Im truly sorry for the part I played in their deaths.

How did the crash happen?

As Mr Hill attempted the stunt, the aircraft instead slammed into the road below and immediately burst into flames. He survived after being thrown clear from the burning wreckage, but the crash left 11 dead and others with terrible burns. The prosecution said the former RAF and British Airways pilot had been flying too low and slow as he attempted the loop. But Mr Hill claimed he blacked out in the air, experiencing cognitive impairment brought on by hypoxia, possibly due to the effects of G-force.

What did the survivors say?

Some of those injured in the blast gave astonishing testimony to the trial, describing the scenes of devastation. Grandfather Paul Snellgrove was watching the show with his family. He said: I started to feel a burning sensation down my face. I was in absolute agony. My daughter said: Dad, your face and ears are gone. I shouted Run.

Software engineer Thomas Milburn, from Worthing, said: I heard an explosion. I felt a wave of pressure coming towards me. Through my eyelids I saw a bright orange light. I felt extreme heat through my skin. I really thought I was going to die. I thought I would be consumed by burning fuel.

Read more about this story

Shoreham pilot breaks silence over fatal crash (The Independent)

Shoreham disaster families let down by the justice system (The Telegraph)

The harrowing tales of the Shoreham air crash survivors (Yahoo News UK)

Meghan Markle has said she hopes her baby will be a feminist. Speaking on a panel to mark International Womens Day, she said: One of the things they said during pregnancy was I feel the embryonic kicking of feminism. I loved that  boy or girl, whatever it is, we hope thats the case. Which of the female royals do you think is the best role model for women? Read more here about IWD and have your say below:

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Mother jailed in first ever FGM conviction

A mother has been jailed for 11 years after becoming the first person in the UK to be found guilty of female genital mutilation, or FGM. The 37-year-old Ugandan woman was convicted of cutting her three-year-old daughter. During the hearing, the woman also admitted having indecent pictures of a child, publishing videos of sexual activity with animals and possessing extreme pornographic images. Read the full story here (HuffPost)

PM: Vote for my deal or Brexit might not happen

Theresa May issued another plea for support from MPs less than a week before the vote on her Brexit deal, warning Brexit may not happen if the Commons votes against her again. She said the UK will be plunged into crisis and that no-one knows what will happen if her plan is defeated. Mrs May said both the democratic and economic cases for backing her deal are clear and issued a plea to MPs to get it done. Read the full story here (Evening Standard)

SpaceXs new crew capsule has returned to Earth, ending its first test flight with an old-fashioned splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. The Dragon, which it is hoped will eventually take human passengers into Space, undocked from the International Space Station early on Friday. Six hours later, the capsule carrying a test dummy dropped into the Atlantic off the Florida coast.

1,000

Holloway, the notorious womens prison in London which once housed murderers Myra Hindley and Rose West, has been sold for more than 80 million to a housing association. Ruth Ellis, who was the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom, was another of the female inmates once housed at the jail. There are plans to build around 1,000 homes on the site, of which 600 will be affordable, Peabody said. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) had been looking for a buyer since the prison closed in 2016. Prisons minister Rory Stewart said money from the sale will help replace ageing prisons with modern, purpose-built establishments. Read the full story here (Evening Standard)
Leave it to one of the most powerful investment banks on the planet to try and debunk the long-held belief among politicians that wealthy CEOs are trying to get richer by buying back their companys stock.

Executives whose compensation depends on the performance of earnings per share didnt allocate a greater proportion of 2018 total cash spending to stock buybacks than companies where management pay is not linked to earnings per share, according to new research by Goldman Sachs.

Of the 247 companies in the S&P 500 with incentive compensation plans linked to EPS, Goldman found they spent a smaller share (28%) of their total cash outlays on buybacks versus the 253 firms without performance tied to EPS (32%). The 49% of S&P 500 companies with EPS-linked compensation accounted for just 44% of total 2018 stock buybacks of $360 billion.

One of the greatest misconceptions in the public discourse surrounding corporate buybacks is the belief that managements only repurchase stock in an attempt to inflate EPS and meet incentive compensation targets. However, the facts do not support this story, contends Goldman Sachs strategist David Kostin.

A businessman with a pig mask on holding cash money. [Credit: Getty]

Goldmans snazzy data will likely do little to temper building outrage in Washington D.C. that big companies used the cash influx from the Trump tax cuts to buy back stock. Doing so has the effect of reducing the share count of a company, lifting earnings per share, and depending on the company  lifting yearend bonuses for management teams.

S&P 500 earnings grew by a heady 23% in 2018 as companies dumped about $1 trillion into stock buybacks.

Proposed stock-buyback legislation

Senators Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders recently proposed legislation in a New York Times op-ed that would put a dent in the stock buyback bonanza that has raged on for years on Wall Street. The dynamic duos proposal would prevent companies from buying back their own stock unless they first pay workers at least $15 an hour and offer paid-time off and health benefits.

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The legislation is unlikely to pass because after all, we are in a capitalistic society. But hey, everyone has to get their face-time ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Corporate America will probably do its part to continue to fan the flames on buybacks, nonetheless. Bank of America, Johnson Controls and Home Depot are just some of the household names that have unwrapped large new buybacks plans in recent months. Tech giant Apple is smack in the middle of executing on its $100 billion stock buyback plan unveiled in 2018.

Goldman estimates S&P 500 stock buyback spending will rise 15% to $940 billion this year.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @BrianSozzi

Read more:
National Beverage, maker of La Croix sparkling water, cannot be accused of watering down its quarterly earnings report.

The Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based company, whose net income plummeted 39 percent in the quarter that ended Jan. 26, attributed the decline in profit and sales to "injustice."

Company chairman and CEO Nick Caporella apologized for the performance in a statement accompanying the earnings report, released Thursday.

We are truly sorry for these results ... Negligence nor mismanagement nor woeful acts of God were not the reasons  much of this was the result of injustice!" he said.

National Beverage (FIZZ) shares were down roughly 15 percent Friday and closed at $58.27.

National Beverage sales declined 3 percent to $220.9 million, down from $227.5 million in the same quarter a year ago. Net income fell to $24.8 million, down from $41 million a year ago.

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Jobs fail?Just 20,000 jobs added in February as hiring slows, unemployment drops in latest report

Managing a brand like La Croix, Caporella continued in the statement, "is not so different from caring for someone who becomes handicapped. Brands do not see or hear, so they are at the mercy of their owners or care providers who must preserve the dignity and special character that the brand exemplifies."

He was likely alluding to a lawsuit filed in October alleging that La Croix, which is advertised as "all natural," has artificial ingredients, including one used in cockroach insecticide.

After a similar suit was filed in January in federal court in New York, National Beverage said it had done independent tests that found "no trace of artificial or synthetic additives."

Caporella also decried a divisive marketplace in which claims spread on social media and become truths to some.

"Professional liars used these same platforms to falsely attack our brand integrity," he said.

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National Beverage has ridden consumers' unquenchable thirst for sparkling water, sales of which have grown 54 percent over the past four years to $2.2 billion in the 12 months that ended July 28, according to Nielsen.

Sleep-aid?: Digging in to Nightfood's sleep-friendly ice cream: A spooning dream come true?

Over the previous 12 months, National Beverage sales rose 8 percent to $1.1 billion, while net income increased 6 percent to $151.2 million.

The company's legal issues and declining sales notwithstanding, Caporella said Thursday, "It's important that LaCroixs true character is not devalued intentionally  in any way. ... Nothing herein mentioned has detracted from the ultimate value and future of our dynamic company."

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.



This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CEO of La Croix maker National Beverage blames 'injustice' for sales declines; stock falls 15%
WASHINGTON  Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who spent four years in prison for providing information to WikiLeaks, was jailed Friday after she refused to testify before a grand jury investigating the anti-secrecy group.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning into custody following a brief hearing that was partially closed to the public. Manning had warned that she objected to the grand jury's inquiry and said she would refuse to cooperate.

"In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles," Manning said in a statement before Friday's hearing. "I will exhaust every legal remedy available."

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 for her role in leaking a cache of classified government material to WikiLeaks. Her case attracted heightened attention because of her status as a transgender soldier; at the time she was known as Bradley Manning. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017.

Chelsea Manning: Manning to be barred from Australia, event organizer says

More: Chelsea Manning talks prison, living as trans and dating in 'Vogue'

More: Harvard withdraws invitation to Chelsea Manning to be a visiting fellow amid backlash

In refusing to testify this week, Manning claimed that she had already provided the government "extensive testimony" during her 2013 prosecution.

Manning's attorney, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, declined to comment Friday on the information the government is seeking.

But last year, federal prosecutors in the same Virginia district inadvertently disclosed in court documents that criminal charges had been filed under seal against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange,

In this file photo taken on May 24, 2018, former US soldier Chelsea Manning speaks during the C2 conference in Montreal, Quebec.

Assange, fearing arrest, has been living in exile in London's Ecuadoran embassy since 2012.

On Friday, Manning's lawyers asked that she be confined at home to accommodate her medical needs and ensure her safety, but Hilton rejected that request. Manning was sent to a jail in Alexandria, Virginia.

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Meltzer-Cohen said Manning could be held for up 18 months, which represents the typical length of a grand jury term.

"We were every concerned and remain concerned that a jail or prison is not equipped to handle" Manning's needs, Meltzer-Cohen said. "I think we all know that a lot of things could go wrong."

Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne said Mannings arrival and booking process were "routine.

"Specific details about Ms. Mannings confinement will not be made public due to security and privacy concerns," Lawhorne said. "We will work closely with the U.S. Marshals to ensure her proper care while she remains at our facility.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chelsea Manning jailed for contempt after refusing to testify in WikiLeaks grand jury investigation
Washington (AFP) - Chelsea Manning, who spent more than three years in prison for leaking US military secrets to WikiLeaks, was jailed again Friday for refusing to testify in a grand jury investigation targeting the anti-secrecy group.

US District Judge Claude Hilton ruled Manning in contempt of court and ordered her held not as punishment but to force her testimony in the secret case, according to a spokesman for the US attorney in the Alexandria, Virginia federal court.

"Chelsea Manning has been remanded into federal custody for her refusal to provide testimony," said a statement from the Sparrow Project, a support group for Manning.

They quoted Hilton as saying Manning would be held indefinitely "until she purges or the end of the life of the grand jury."

In a statement, Manning said she had "ethical" objections to the grand jury system and had answered all questions about her involvement with WikiLeaks years ago.

"I stand by my previous testimony," Manning said.

"I will not participate in a secret process that I morally object to, particularly one that has been historically used to entrap and persecute activists for protected political speech."

Manning, 31, was ordered to testify earlier this week for an investigation examining actions by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2010, according to her own description, inadvertent court revelations and media reports.

At the time Manning, a transgender woman then known as Bradley Manning, was a military intelligence analyst.

She delivered more than 700,000 classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into WikiLeaks's hands.

The documents exposed cover-ups of possible war crimes and revealed internal US communications about other countries.

- 'Attack on media freedom' -

She became a hero to anti-war and anti-secrecy activists, and her actions helped make WikiLeaks a force in the global anti-secrecy movement.

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She was detained in 2010 and held in military jails for investigation before finally being brought to trial in 2013.

In August that year she was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

She spent more than three years more in an all-male prison, during which she underwent gender transition therapy, spent time in solitary confinement and attempted suicide twice.

President Barack Obama later commuted her sentence, leading to her release in May 2017.

In court Friday, Manning's lawyer requested home confinement after the judge found her in contempt, according to the US attorney's spokesman.

But she was jailed in the Alexandria Detention Center which, according to the judge, is experienced in holding transgender inmates and capable of addressing any special personal and medical needs Manning may have.

The grand jury investigation could eventually herald a case focused on media freedoms.

The US government has been investigating Assange and WikiLeaks for years and has stepped up its efforts against the Britain-based group after it served as an outlet for internal Democratic communications that Washington alleges were stolen by hackers from Russia's GRU intelligence agency during the 2016 US election.

Fearing arrest and extradition to the United States, Assange has been sheltering in Ecuador's embassy in London since 2012.

He says WikiLeaks's publishing of US secrets is no different than what the mass media does and he should enjoy the same protections as journalists.

Reacting to Manning being sent to jail Friday, WikiLeaks said in a tweet: "Whistleblowers are now being forced to testify against journalists and sent to jail when they don't cooperate. A new angle in the attack on media freedom."
Chelsea Manning was jailed in 2013 for leaking military secrets - AFP

Chelsea Manning, who was jailed in 2013 for leaking US military secrets to WikiLeaks, was arrested again on Friday for refusing to testify in a grand jury investigation targeting the anti-secrecy group.

US District Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning to be held not as punishment but to force her testimony in the secret case, according to a spokesman for the US attorney in the Alexandria, Virginia federal court.

"Chelsea Manning has been remanded into federal custody for her refusal to provide testimony" to a grand jury in Arlington, Virginia, said a statement from her support group The Sparrow Project.

They cited the judge in the case, Claude Hilton, as saying Manning would be held indefinitely "until she purges or the end of the life of the grand jury."

Manning, 31, was held in contempt of court after refusing earlier this week to testify for an investigation into actions by WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange in 2010, according to her own description.

Whistleblower Chelsea Manning has been placed in jail to coerce her to testify against Julian Assange.



Whistleblowers are now being forced to testify against journalists. A new angle in the attack on media freedom.



More: https://t.co/jFzuiRUaYo

Fund: https://t.co/X51GmHBUQH  WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 8, 2019

Manning, a transgender woman then known as Bradley Manning, was a military intelligence analyst at the time who delivered more than 700,000 classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into WikiLeaks's hands.

She became a hero to anti-war and anti-secrecy activists and her actions helped make WikiLeaks a force in the global anti-secrecy movement.

In 2013, she was sentenced to 35 years in prison. She was released in 2017, after President Barack Obama commuted the final 28 years of her 35-year sentence.

Story continues

Anticipating the contempt charge, Manning said Thursday she had asserted her constitutional rights to refuse to answer questions the day before even as she was offered immunity for her testimony.

She objected to the secret nature of grand juries, which can interview witnesses without their attorneys present.

"All of the substantive questions pertained to my disclosures of information to the public in 2010 - answers I provided in extensive testimony, during my court-martial in 2013," she said.

"In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles. I will exhaust every legal remedy available," she said.

"My legal team continues to challenge the secrecy of these proceedings, and I am prepared to face the consequences of my refusal."

tomorrow im facing a sealed contempt hearing for refusing to testify at a secret grand jury over my 2010 disclosures



statement: pic.twitter.com/M1uhssUzXh  Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) March 7, 2019

Manning spent more than three years in prison in 2013-2017, during which she underwent gender transition therapy, spent time in solitary confinement and attempted suicide twice.

Last year she ran for the Democratic Party's nomination to the US Senate in Maryland but failed to unseat the incumbent Democrat Ben Cardin.

The US government has been investigating Assange and WikiLeaks for years and has stepped up its efforts against the Britain-based group after it served as an outlet for internal Democratic communications that Washington alleges were stolen by hackers from Russia's GRU intelligence agency during the 2016 US election.

Fearing arrest and extradition to the United States, Assange has been sheltering in Ecuador's embassy in London since 2012.

He says WikiLeaks's publishing of US secrets is no different than what the mass media does and he should enjoy the same protections as journalists.
Investors are always looking for growth in small-cap stocks like China Tian Yuan Healthcare Group Limited (HKG:557), with a market cap of HK$427m. However, an important fact which most ignore is: how financially healthy is the business? Assessing first and foremost the financial health is essential, since poor capital management may bring about bankruptcies, which occur at a higher rate for small-caps. The following basic checks can help you get a picture of the companys balance sheet strength. However, potential investors would need to take a closer look, and Id encourage you to dig deeper yourself into 557 here.

557s Debt (And Cash Flows)

557 has built up its total debt levels in the last twelve months, from HK$52m to HK$82m  this includes long-term debt. With this growth in debt, 557 currently has HK$83m remaining in cash and short-term investments , ready to be used for running the business. Its negative operating cash flow means calculating cash-to-debt wouldnt be useful. As the purpose of this article is a high-level overview, I wont be looking at this today, but you can assess some of 557s operating efficiency ratios such as ROA here.

Can 557 meet its short-term obligations with the cash in hand?

Looking at 557s HK$53m in current liabilities, it appears that the company has been able to meet these commitments with a current assets level of HK$385m, leading to a 7.3x current account ratio. The current ratio is calculated by dividing current assets by current liabilities. Having said that, a ratio above 3x may be considered excessive by some investors, yet this is not usually a major negative for a company.

SEHK:557 Historical Debt, March 8th 2019

Does 557 face the risk of succumbing to its debt-load?

557s level of debt is appropriate relative to its total equity, at 14%. 557 is not taking on too much debt commitment, which can be restrictive and risky for equity-holders.

Next Steps:

557s high cash coverage and low debt levels indicate its ability to utilise its borrowings efficiently in order to generate ample cash flow. Furthermore, the company exhibits an ability to meet its near term obligations should an adverse event occur. I admit this is a fairly basic analysis for 557s financial health. Other important fundamentals need to be considered alongside. I suggest you continue to research China Tian Yuan Healthcare Group to get a better picture of the stock by looking at:

Historical Performance: What has 557s returns been like over the past? Go into more detail in the past track record analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of our analysis for more clarity. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.



If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
By Crispian Balmer ROME (Reuters) - China's "Belt and Road" infrastructure plan could be good news for Italy, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday, confirming that he might sign an accord with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month. Xi is due to travel to Italy from March 22-24 and Conte said Rome and Beijing were looking to agree to a framework deal during the state visit, despite reports that the United States is concerned at the prospect of a key ally joining the venture. "With all the necessary precautions, Italy's accession to a new silk route represents an opportunity for our country," Conte told a foreign policy seminar in the northern city of Genoa. "It won't mean that the next day we will be forced to do anything. It will allow us to enter into this project and have a dialogue," he added. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), championed by Xi, aims to link China by sea and land with southeast and central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, through an infrastructure network on the lines of the old Silk Road. Aside from boosting trade and investment, Xi aims to advance exchanges in areas such as science, technology and culture. Conte said he planned to attend a BRI summit in China in April and promised to bring European Union trade standards to the ambitious project. "This is a strategic choice for the country .. and such choices need coordinating with traditional partners. Dialogue with the United States, for example, is constant," he said, dismissing suggestions Washington could penalize Italy. The United States has recently expressed particular concern over two of Chinas biggest telecom network equipment companies, Huawei Technologies Cos Ltd and ZTE Corp, saying they work at the behest of the Chinese government and that their equipment could be used to spy on the West. Both companies have denied that their products are used to spy. Conte said he agreed such concerns needed to be taken seriously and that Rome had to be cautious, but he did not signal he was preparing to impose fresh curbs on the firms. "Huawei and ZTE have been operating for years in Italy in an advantageous fashion," he said. A number of European Union states have signed BRI MOUs with China, including Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Malta, Poland and Portugal. If Italy signs, it would be the first Group of Seven major industrialized nation to do so. The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that the United States was irritated by the prospect of Italy joining the BRI, and had warned the project could significantly damage Rome's international image. Italy fell into recession at the end of 2018 for the third time in a decade and the government is eager to find ways to boost the economy and revive the stalled construction sector. (Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Gavin Jones, William Maclean)
By Clyde Russell LAUNCESTON, Australia - If the sharp plunge in China's exports in February shows anything, it's that a gap is opening between what the country is shipping out and its still resilient imports of major commodities. Exports dropped 20.7 percent in February from the same month a year earlier, the largest decline in three years and much bigger than the 4.8 percent fall forecast by analysts. For some observers this will be enough to confirm that the world's second-largest economy is struggling under the weight of the trade dispute with the United States and generally softer global growth. A look at the imports of major commodities, however, paints a somewhat different picture, with crude oil, coal, iron ore and copper all performing reasonably well. There is little point in looking at the February trade numbers in isolation, given the impact on trade flows caused by the timing of the Lunar New Year holidays. This year the holiday fell early in February, pulling import demand forward into January, and thereby yielding weaker February numbers. Nonetheless, crude oil imports were 10.23 million barrels per day (bpd) in February, the third-highest on a daily basis and above January's 10.03 million bpd. For the first two months of the year, crude imports were 10.8 percent higher than for the same period last year. While crude demand is likely to have been boosted by inventory building at new refineries, it's also likely that fuel use is fairly robust due to increased construction activity. Exports of refined products were down 14.4 percent in February from January, suggesting the additional crude imported is staying in China to meet local demand. Copper imports in February may initially look somewhat soft, but the details are more encouraging. Imports in unwrought copper were 352,000 tonnes, down 20 percent from January's 440,000, but the two-month total was 9.8 percent higher than the first two months of 2018. Turning to copper ores and concentrates, while February saw a drop of 10.4 percent from January, imports for the first two months of the year were 12.7 percent higher than for the same period in 2018. IRON ORE ACCELERATES It was much the same for iron ore, with February imports looking soft at 84.27 million tonnes, but the total for the first two months coming in at 184.74 million tonnes, a gain of 5.4 percent over the same period in 2018. It's worth noting that the growth rate for iron ore imports in the first two months is substantially higher than what was achieved in 2018, when imports for the whole year actually dropped 1 percent from the prior year. For coal, imports were down in February to 20.9 million tonnes from January's 27.8 million, but the first two months of the year were 14.4 percent up on the same period last year. This strength in the imports of major commodities doesn't fit well with the weakness in exports. It may be that commodity imports are a lagging indicator and will start to weaken in coming months, especially if China's export-orientated manufacturing industries continue to struggle. Or it may be that the resilience in commodity demand is a sign that Beijing's efforts to stimulate the economy are starting to bear fruit, with demand for raw materials preceding an uptick in industrial output and construction. (GRAPHIC: Trends in China's trade and other major economic indicators: http://tmsnrt.rs/2iO9Q6a) (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters). (Editing by Tom Hogue)
The Florida Reef Tract is the third largest barrier reef in the world, Alice Grainger, the Communications Director at Coral Restoration Foundation, told Yahoo Finance. It's actually the only barrier reef in the continental United States. We now have lost around 97% to 98% of its populations.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggests that coral reefs in southeast Florida have an asset value of $8.5 billion, generating $4.4 billion in local sales, $2 billion in local income, and 70,400 jobs. By one NOAA estimate, coral reefs provide economic goods and services worth about $375 billion each year.

But reefs need people like Grainger to ensure their survival.

My personal goal would be to get to the point where everybody around the world is so aware of the crisis facing our coral reefs that they're all stepping up to take action  and I'm no longer needed, Grainger said.

Coral reefs require tending. (Source: Yahoo Finance)

Pamela Hallock Muller, a professor of marine science at USF College of Marine Science, tracks the changes in the Florida Reef Tract over time.

The problems started that were really observable in the 60s and 70s before the clean water act came into Florida and nationally, Hallock Muller told Yahoo Finance. Coral reefs dont handle major changes in temperature. They dont handle excess nutrients, they dont handle less than 14C or more than 32C. Weve had a couple of winters that have been as hard on the surviving coral as the bleaching conditions in the summer.

Grainger noted that even though the Florida Reef Tract and other restore coral reefs around the world are responsible for thriving ecosystems, there are not enough efforts being made to protect them.

The crisis facing coral reefs is invisible to most people, Grainger explained. If you can't see it, then how do you know that it's facing extinction? Imagine if the coral reefs were a forest, and we could see, before our eyes, all of the temperate forests around the world declining by 50%.

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We've now lost 50% of the world's coral reefs in the last 30 years, she added. If we'd lost 50% of the world's forests in the last 30 years, people would actually be able to be paying attention.

WATCH MORE: 'A little bit more dangerous': What it's like to train alligators for a living

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By Amanda Becker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives approved a broad resolution condemning bigotry on Thursday after remarks by a Democratic member that some viewed as anti-Semitic exposed an ideological and generational rift in the party. Some Democrats, including several U.S. senators who are seeking the party's 2020 presidential nomination, warned that party leaders were playing into Republicans' hands and had stymied legitimate debate over U.S.-Israel policy. The House, which is controlled by Democrats, approved the resolution condemning anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim discrimination and other forms of bigotry by a 407-to-23 vote. The vote came less than a week after Representative Ilhan Omar, one of the two first Muslim women elected to Congress, made statements at a Washington event that were denounced by some as anti-Semitic. The resolution does not mention Omar by name. But Republicans have seized on Omar's statements and the resulting intra-party conflict as a sign the Democratic Party is fractured. Many Democrats, in turn, have said House leaders were cowed by a Republican effort to divert attention from bigotry within their own ranks and that Omar is being held to a different standard. Unfortunately, I think the Democratic leadership here has made what I think is a pretty serious mistake in caving to this pressure, said Democratic strategist Peter Daou, who has advised Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. The disagreement began after Omar, in an appearance at a Washington book store, said she feared that statements she and fellow Representative Rashida Tlaib made about foreign policy and the pro-Israel lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) would be viewed as anti-Semitic because they are Muslim. I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says its OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. I want to ask why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the NRA (National Rifle Association), of fossil fuel industries or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policies? Omar said. Omars critics denounced the statement as playing into the anti-Semitic trope that Jewish Americans are loyal to Israel over the United States. Omar said opposing the policies of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not synonymous with anti-Semitism. Omar, in a joint statement issued after Thursday's vote with Tlaib and Representative Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana, said "we are tremendously proud to be part of a body that has put forth a condemnation of all forms of bigotry." Omar had previously apologized for February tweets that her critics said suggested Jewish Americans used money to influence pro-Israel U.S. policies. Representative Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, told reporters on Wednesday that Omar embodies a vile, hate-filled, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bigotry. President Donald Trump on Twitter on Wednesday called the Democratic response "shameful." Cheney, complaining that the House should have "rebuked" Omar by name and removed her from the Foreign Affairs Committee, voted against the resolution. Other Republicans who voted no, such as Chris Collins of New York, said the bill was not "strong enough in support of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East." Republican Representative Steve King, who was condemned by the House in January for questioning why white supremacy is considered offensive, voted present. Democrats had been divided over how best to handle Omar's comments. Democratic Representative Eliot Engel, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, said he welcomes policy debate but that it was "deeply offensive to call into question the loyalty of fellow American citizens because of their political views, including the U.S.-Israel relationship. Young, progressive House newcomers like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and several Democratic presidential candidates, however, came to Omar's defense. Senator Bernie Sanders said in a statement that we must not ... equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government. Senator Elizabeth Warren said branding criticism of Israel as automatically anti-Semitic has a chilling effect on our public discourse. Senator Kamala Harris said she was concerned about Omar's safety. Daou, the Democratic strategist, said a political double standard was at play, pointing to a recent tweet from Republican Representative Jim Jordan that used a dollar sign for a letter in the name of Democratic donor Tom Steyer, who is Jewish. "Why is it that a white, male Republican can largely get away with the same thing and this massive outcry happened over a Muslim, progressive woman of color? Thats something we have to grapple with," Daou said. (Reporting by Amanda Becker; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Tom Brown, Leslie Adler and Lisa Shumaker)
The city of Denver, Colorado will trial a blockchain-based voting app for military and overseas voters during the 2019 municipal election cycle.

The announcement was made on the Denver Elections Twitter page. The app is called Voatz and utilises blockchain encryption to provide security and convenience for people who are unable to vote in person.

We are piloting a smartphone voting application for #military and overseas #voters during the 2019 Municipal #Election cycle. The Voatz mobile app uses #blockchain encryption to provide a more secure and convenient way to vote for our military and overseas voters. #COPolitics pic.twitter.com/lT6OxKLj26  Denver Elections (@DenverElections) March 7, 2019

Voatz has been piloted in West Virginia

The announcement details how the Denver Elections Division will be soliciting volunteers from their pool of military and overseas voters to pilot a secure and convenient smartphone application.

It will allow voters to receive and cast their ballot directly from their smartphone during the election cycle.

Voters wishing to participate in the pilot must first undergo identity verification through the app. This will include a 10-second selfie video alongside photo identification.

Voters will also need to go through a multifactor biometric authentication process to access the app and cast their ballot.

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Upon submitting a ballot, voters will receive an email receipt with a PDF of their ballot image so they can confirm the information has been recorded correctly.

Voatz has been successfully piloted by the state of West Virginia during the 2018 Primary and General Elections.

Funded by Bradley Tusk  Michael Bloombergs ex-campaign manager

Quartz also reported that Bradley Tusk  ex-campaign manager for Michael Bloomberg  will be funding the project. It estimated the funding will be roughly $180,000 and will not cost the city of Denver a penny.

Deputy director of elections, Jocelyn Bucaro, commented: Denver has always been on the leading edge of elections and technical innovation, and participating in this pilot affirms our commitment to exploring ways to make the voting experience as convenient as possible for military and overseas voters.

In addition to working with Voatz, Denver Elections will also be partnering with Tusk Philanthropies and the National Cyber Security Center on the pilot program.

Denver Elections will be utilising the application in both the May 7th municipal election as well as the possible June 4th run-off election.

Interested in reading more about the Voatz app? Discover more about how it was piloted in West Virginia last year.

The post Denver to test blockchain voting app funded by Michael Bloombergs ex-campaign manager appeared first on Coin Rivet.
Disney has already cemented its place as the happiest place on Earth. By yearend, it might be the happiest place in the streaming world with Disney+, according to a new note from JPMorgan.

Despite facing intense competition from Netflix, analyst Alexia Quadrani contends that Disneys brand recognition could drive Disney+ subscriber growth beyond what its streaming rival boasts today.

Our confidence in the resilient success of Disney+ comes from the companys unmatched brand recognition, extensive premium content, and unparalleled ecosystem to market the service, Quadrani wrote in the research note Wednesday.

As she points out, Disneys arsenal includes some noteworthy powerhouses. Aside from the legacy Disney titles, Star Wars, Marvel and National Geographic content will also grace the platform upon and after launch. While the latter is not to be overlooked, its the titles that have historically appealed to children that appear to be Disneys competitive advantage in Quadranis model.

According to the U.S. government consensus, there are 34.5 [million] households in the U.S. with children under 18, and we believe 75% of those households will eventually sign up for Disney+ due to the services popular appeal, exclusive content, and brand recognition, she wrote, adding that Marvel and Star Wars content would do more to appeal to adults without children.

Whats also interesting is that Disney+ is expected to launch at a cost that will undercut Netflixs current cheapest subscription price of $9 per month. While Disney is expected to announce more details about its streaming service in April, Quadrani expects the price to be around $7.99 per month at launch.

Assuming Disney is able to penetrate the market on a scale similar to what Netflix has achieved, Quadrani calculates Disney+ can amass 160 million subscribers worldwide over the long term. As of its last earnings report, Netflix had compiled a global total of 139 million subscribers.

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Disney may have an edge

Disney logo is seen on an android mobile phone. (Photo by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Of course, Disney launching its own streaming service will impact revenue in the short-term. Ahead of launching its own streaming service, Disney has been pulling its content from Netflix and forgoing large licensing fees. By Quadranis estimation, that loss across TV and film will amount to $150 million by 2020 and $1.38 billion by 2024.

Those losses, however, would pale in comparison to the upside Disney has to gain if it can use its brand power to amass a streaming following on the scale of Netflix  something thats not as unlikely as it sounds if you believe mounting research that people are willing to subscribe to more than one streaming service.

A December survey from Lab42 Research found that Americans on average subscribed to 2.5 streaming services. Among all streaming video users, 89% subscribed to Netflix. If Disney and Netflix were competing in a vacuum that might seem encouraging, but with Amazon, Hulu, AT&Ts DirecTV Now and another WarnerMedia streaming service expected later in 2019, Americas budget for streaming services will be put to the test.

On that point, the fact that Disney is positioned to own a majority stake in Hulu following the close of its 20th Century Fox acquisition could prove to be a major weapon in the streaming battle should Disney look to leverage a bundle deal.

We see the potential for Disney to bundle Disney+ with ESPN+, and/or Hulu, to create an even more connected platform, and for Disney to give discounts to subscribers who sign up for multiple services, Quadrani wrote. More importantly, we believe Disneys streaming services can co-exist with the parks, cruise lines, and consumer products to mutually benefit each business and drive more consumer engagement within the Disney ecosystem.

Zack Guzman is the host of YFi PM as well as a senior writer and on-air reporter covering entrepreneurship, startups, and breaking news at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @zGuz.
Sean McVeigh

A dissident Irish republican has been jailed for 25 years after trying to murder a police officer with a car bomb.

Sean McVeigh, 38, from Lurgan, was convictedlast month of using an under-car bomb to try and kill the officer at his home in the Eglinton area of Co Londonderry.

The bid was foiled when the officers wife, who is also a serving police officer, raised the alarm in the early hours of June 18 2015.

Judge Stephen Fowler described McVeigh as a committed dissident republican terrorist before sentencing him.

He said the device which McVeigh had planted had one purpose, to kill anyone unfortunate enough to be in the car and noted that McVeigh has shown no semblance of remorse.

The attack was planned to take place in Londonderry (PA)

The judge said there were two potential victims, the police officer and his wife.

He said it was entirely fortuitous that the planting of the bomb was disrupted and added that given the car was parked in a residential area there could easily have been multiple deaths.

I have no doubt this was a terrifying ordeal for both officers, Judge Fowler said.

The judge sentenced McVeigh to 25 years in prison.

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As McVeigh was led from the dock, a group of men in the public gallery raised their right arms with clenched fists.

Speaking outside court, PSNI Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell said Northern Ireland is a safer place with McVeigh in custody.

The police said McVeigh planned to destroy lives (PA)

Sean McVeigh chose to attack two officers who had selflessly chosen to protect their community and keep people safe despite the ever-present threat posed by dissident republicans, he said.

I am thankful that despite Seans evil intentions, he was unable to take these people away from their families and destroy numerous lives all in the name of his warped ideology.

Sean gave little thought to the community of Eglinton and his reckless actions could have caused devastating harm to residents living in the area if the bomb had exploded.

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Furthermore, the incident caused considerable disruption and upset to the local community, some of whom had to be evacuated from their homes in the middle of the night.

His plan was to destroy lives and it demonstrates the ruthlessness and recklessness of those opposed to peace and who live for violence.

Northern Ireland is a safer place with this terrorist removed from our streets.
BOSTON  Find out your dogs family history, health risks and the genes that explain how your pooch looks.

DNA testing for dogs has soared in popularity by making those promises. Easy-to-use test kits are big sellers. Just swab the inside of your dog's mouth, mail in the sample and wait a couple of weeks for the results.

But some veterinarians are skeptical about the new fad's lack of standards and accuracy. They warn that the kits can feed bad medical advice to misinformed owners that can have serious ramifications.

It has set off a debate in the veterinary world as others argue that the criticism overlooks the good that can come from DNA testing for man's best friend.

Dog lovers have shown a willingness to shell out more than $150 for some testing kits, which break down a dog's breeds by percentage and potential for disease. Companies such as Embark Dog DNA Test Kit  endorsed last year by Oprah Winfrey as one of her favorite holiday gift ideas  sold more than 100,000 last year, tripling each year since going on the market in 2016. Competitors include Wisdom Panel, DNA My Dog Breed Identification Kit and DNAffirm DNA Dog Breed Test.

"They're great," said Julie Lee of Syracuse, Utah. Lee originally thought her dog Layla was a mixed-breed but discovered she's a purebred German Shepherd. Perhaps more comforting: the medical information. She learned her dog is a carrier of a rare neurological disease  and although Layla can't get the disease herself, it can be passed on if she has puppies.

"I wanted to just know for her future, whether there's anything I needed to be concerned about," Lee said.

Lisa Moses, a veterinarian in Boston and research fellow at Harvard Medical Schools Center for Bioethics, said it's fine if a pet owner wants to have his dog tested for fun, but he should "take the results with a grain of salt" because they could differ based on the company.

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Moses has taken the lead in cautioning against the use of genetic testing alone to make medical decisions about individual pets  not until the testing standards for dogs match those for people. She pointed to the need for all test providers to ensure up-to-date methods and reveal how the tests are conducted.

"Right now, it's not even close to the same standards," Moses said.

Moses and two other Boston-based animal research experts stirred the debate when they co-wrote a stinging op-ed in the scientific journal Nature last summer called "Pet genomic medicine runs wild."

"Pet genetics must be reined in," the piece says. If it is not, the experts argued, then companies will continue to profit by "selling potentially misleading and often inaccurate information," pets and owners will suffer, opportunities to leverage the data to help dogs could be lost, and people will become "more distrustful of science and medicine."

The article cites a nightmarish story about a 13-year-old pug getting euthanized because its owners put too much stock into the results of a DNA test.

Moses said the tests are designed for breeding, not medical decisions. She called single-gene mutations  which the DNA tests look at  a "lousy predictor" of whether a dog acquires a disease. She also noted the lack of ample follow-up information on whether dogs identified with a mutation actually end up getting sick.

There are ethical questions to consider as well, she said: Can DNA test results be used to prevent a dog owner from buying or renting a house, if certain breeds are banned? What about buying homeowners insurance?

Moses and her fellow researchers warned about possible conflicts of interest from companies that can profit from the tsunami of data on the horizon. They've called for data-sharing among companies to ensure the information is used to benefit animal health.

They did acknowledge that genetic testing done right can be a powerful way to connect people to the possibilities of genetics to treat disease.

'It can actually extend your dog's life'

Brenda Bonnett, CEO of the nonprofit International Partnership for Dogs and a veterinarian in Ontario, Canada, said that point is getting missed amid the doom and gloom.

She said the outcry, which she called narrow in scope, fails to acknowledge the "fantastic potential" for genetic testing to improve the health of dogs.

She pointed to researchers in England who have reduced single-gene disorders through DNA testing. She said that testing has increased the awareness of inheritance disease and that it has opened the door for greater research of more complex diseases.

The concern is if you start to make people think that all of DNA testing is a scam and all the DNA test providers are just out to make a dollar and are bad performers, you could taint this whole world and change peoples feelings about the potential good, she said. Bonnett also supports the push for genetic standards and agreed DNA testing results can be used inappropriately.

Ryan Boyko is founder and CEO of the Boston-based testing manufacturer Embark. He compared his product to a new wave of tools that help people discover their ancestry.

"What we saw was hundreds and thousands of people a year buying DNA tests for their dogs, but none of the DNA tests were like a 23andMe or Ancestry or these human tests where they're collecting a lot of data and then able to give you a very accurate result and able to use that data to help people in the future," Boyko said.

He pointed to health information as the other draw: "In some cases, it can actually extend your dog's life."

He defended the accuracy of the product, which he said is the same lab work approved by the Food and Drug Administration for humans. Like anything, he said, its possible some people can test without enough quality control and others can misinterpret the results.

"We go very far to make sure that neither of those happen with Embark," he said. He said it is "shortsighted" to say information that can save dogs' lives should not be available just because it can be misused.

The company has a disclaimer making clear it doesn't provide medical diagnoses and instructing pet owners to talk to their veterinarian if they're worried about a medical condition.

Michael San Filippo, a spokesman for the American Veterinary Medical Association, said the group does not have a position on DNA testing for dogs, but "it's fine to do if you're curious about your dog's ancestry and breed makeup." He said pet owners should talk to their vets if the goal is to identify potential hereditary disorders or health conditions.

Quality controls in question

Moses said that's a problem.

Typically when a new test is introduced into veterinarian practice, she said, vets can assume it has been through rigorous other testing, quality controls are in place and independent research has corroborated results.

"I think that a lot of my colleagues don't realize that none of that happened for these tests, and that makes them really different than the tests that we normally use to diagnose disease," she said.

Regulations over DNA testing for dogs are virtually nonexistent, experts say. Rules are in place for pet treatment, not diagnostics.

Bonnett's organization, the International Partnership for Dogs, has launched an initiative called the Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs. It works as a database in which test providers and labs voluntarily provide information about their quality of testing  including their accreditation.

The groups partners include multiple kennel clubs and companies such as Embark and Wisdom Health

No organization in the world, at the moment, has the mandate or the authority to force quality standards on dog DNA testings," Bonnett said. "But we started by saying at least we can start with transparency."

Reach Joey Garrison at jgarrison@usatoday.com and on Twitter @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DNA testing kits for dogs are super popular. But the testing has some veterinarians pushing standards
Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect last name for Dr. Ray Martins.

Since news broke this week that a second HIV-positive patient was cured of the virus that causes AIDS, four people asked Dr. Ray Martins if they could have the stem-cell surgery.

The Washington doctor said he wouldn't recommend it.

Doctors are hailing news of a potential breakthrough on a condition that has killed hundreds of thousands in the United States alone. But the operation is so onerous  and HIV now so manageable  that it could be a classic case of the cure being worse than the disease.

HIV was once a death sentence  it has killed some 35 million people worldwide. But now, by taking one or two pills a day, most patients can suppress viral loads to the point that they can neither be detected nor passed on to others.

The still-experimental surgery involves chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant using stem cells. It's painful, risky, and threatens harsh side effects that can last for years.

"It's so dangerous," Martins said. "I wouldn't do that to someone who is healthy with HIV."

Steven Deeks, a University of California, San Francisco professor involved in the cure research, said the procedure should be used only on cancer patients with HIV.

This approach is just too, too dangerous for the treatment of HIV by itself, Deeks said.

The London man who was reported to be cured of HIV this week and the Berlin patient, who was cured in 2007, both had cancer.

A third man from Dusseldorf, Germany, has had a similar transplant and been off his HIV medication for more than three months, Deeks said. But doctors want more time before declaring him cured.

Deeks said more research is needed before the treatment can be made available to the broader population infected with HIV.

The big question is how do we use the lessons learned from these cases to come up with something that is safer and more scalable," he said. "Thats an area of intense research."

Story continues

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Some are skeptical that an HIV cure would make a meaningful difference in the lives of people living with the virus.

Keosha Bond, an assistant professor at New York Medical College who has researched HIV, said a therapy that relies on bone-marrow transplant won't be practical for many.

This is an awesome discovery, Bond said. But Im not sure how this will affect everyone across the board, including populations that are at risk.

Existing antiretroviral drugs, if taken consistently, can reduce viral loads to undetectable levels. And people at greater risk of contracting HIV through sex or injectable drug use might benefit from PrEP, a daily pill that combines the HIV medications tenofovir and emtricitabine to prevent new infections.

When patients take drugs to reduce their viral loads and reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to their partners, Bond said, it become a manageable condition.

That right there is the biggest breakthrough weve had, she said. Its always been looked at as a death sentence, something your tried to stay away from. Now we know that its treatable. You can live a healthy life and be HIV positive.

Bond said educating at-risk groups, combating stigma and providing access to health care will do more to prevent new infections than a cure.

We need to celebrate every achievement and every discovery," she said. "But I think we need to think about the people who dont have access."

AUSTIN RISING: After the devastation of drugs and HIV, hope rises in a small town

https://www.courier-journal.com/pages/interactives/austin-rising/

In 2015, Austin, Indiana, had the worst HIV outbreak ever caused by intravenous drug use in rural America.

"Canary in the Coal Mine," Dr. Will Cooke's book on the outbreak, is due out in September. Cooke still treats about 150 of these patients.

For these isolated, low-income patients' worries, he said, "HIV is the least of their worries."

None of Cooke's patients has asked about the new cure. He said he wouldn't recommend such a "radical" treatment.

"In the environment of the opioid crisis, the things that put them at risk of HIV in the first place havent gone away," he said.

HIV-positive people have access to special services for food, transportation and housing. But "in a rural setting," he said, "there is not a lot of housing available."

He's had patients who were evicted by landlords worried about the spread of HIV.

Michael Shilby has been HIV-positive since 1989. He contracted the virus at a time when discrimination was rampant and treatments were unwieldy and largely ineffective.

He said he was fired from a job at a hospital where he worked for eight years because he was gay and HIV-positive.

No matter what the doctors say, he said he is excited by news of a possible cure.

"Are you kidding me? Sign me up," he said. "You have no idea what we all have been through and the hoops we had to jump through and are still jumping through, with room to spare."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Doctors might have found a cure for HIV. But is it worse than the disease?
On Mar 7, we issued an updated research report on Domtar Corporation UFS. The companys performance will be driven by healthy demand in the paper and pulp markets, cost savings, margin-improvement plan and price increases. Its balanced capital-deployment approach remains another tailwind.

Domtar reported fourth-quarter 2018 adjusted earnings per share of $1.63, marking a significant improvement from fourth-quarter 2017 earnings per share of 64 cents. Strong performance of the Pulp and Paper segment backed by solid business fundamentals, accelerating price realizations and improved productivity led to the impressive results despite higher raw material costs. Consolidated sales went up 4% year over year $1,390 million.

Notably, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 earnings is currently pegged at $5.61, reflecting expected year-over-year growth of 21.7%. The same for first-quarter 2019 is pegged at $1.48, reflecting expected year-over-year growth of 67.8%. The stock also has expected long-term earnings per share (EPS) growth rate of 5%.

Growth Drivers in Place

Domtar announced a margin-improvement plan within the Personal Care Division. As part of this plan, the companys board of directors approved the permanent closure of its Waco, TX Personal Care manufacturing and distribution facility, the relocation of certain of Domtars manufacturing assets, and a workforce reduction of approximately 214 employees across the division.

The Waco facility is expected to cease operations in third-quarter 2019. The Personal care division is anticipated to benefit from the margin-improvement plan and new customer wins in 2019.

Domtar expects to witness positive market conditions for its Paper business. In 2019, the company expects higher paper shipments in response to increased demand. The company anticipates positive momentum in the paper and pulp markets aided by healthy demand. In the Pulp business, Domtar performed well in recent years, driven by price increases and a solid operational performance. In the Dec-end quarter, average pulp prices increased sequentially to $8 per metric ton.



In addition, the company announced and continues to implement price increases across several softwood and fluff pulp grades. The company also predicts that the softwood and fluff pulp markets will remain relatively stable through 2019, supported by demand growth.



Domtar is well placed to gain from its focus on cost savings, reduced overhead spending and customer portfolio-transition efforts. Domtar will continue to pursue a balanced approach to the deployment of capital while maintaining the flexibility to carry out its growth strategy.



Share Price Performance



Shares of Domtar have gained 7.5% over the past year, while the industry has recorded a loss of around 33.3%.

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Zacks Rank and Other Stocks to Consider



Domtar currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)



Some other top-ranked stocks in the Basic Materials sector are Ingevity Corporation NGVT, Innospec Inc. IOSP and Materion Corporation MTRN, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



Ingevity has an expected earnings growth rate of 17.9% for 2019. The companys shares have rallied 36.7%, over the past year.



Innospec has an expected earnings growth rate of 3.5% for the current year. The stock has appreciated 19.8% in a years time.



Materion has an expected earnings growth rate of 12.6% for 2019. The companys shares have gained 7.6%, in the past year.



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This article is for investors who would like to improve their understanding of price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). Well show how you can use China Resources Land Limiteds (HKG:1109) P/E ratio to inform your assessment of the investment opportunity. Based on the last twelve months, China Resources Lands P/E ratio is 7.62. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 13%.

View our latest analysis for China Resources Land

How Do You Calculate China Resources Lands P/E Ratio?

The formula for P/E is:

Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share (in the reporting currency)  Earnings per Share (EPS)

Or for China Resources Land:

P/E of 7.62 = CN26.12 (Note: this is the share price in the reporting currency, namely, CNY )  CN3.43 (Based on the year to June 2018.)

Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good?

A higher P/E ratio means that investors are paying a higher price for each HK$1 of company earnings. That isnt necessarily good or bad, but a high P/E implies relatively high expectations of what a company can achieve in the future.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

Probably the most important factor in determining what P/E a company trades on is the earnings growth. When earnings grow, the E increases, over time. Therefore, even if you pay a high multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become lower in the future. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others  and that may attract buyers.

China Resources Land increased earnings per share by a whopping 60% last year. And it has bolstered its earnings per share by 11% per year over the last five years. With that performance, I would expect it to have an above average P/E ratio.

How Does China Resources Lands P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?

The P/E ratio essentially measures market expectations of a company. You can see in the image below that the average P/E (5.9) for companies in the real estate industry is lower than China Resources Lands P/E.

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SEHK:1109 Price Estimation Relative to Market, March 8th 2019

That means that the market expects China Resources Land will outperform other companies in its industry. Clearly the market expects growth, but it isnt guaranteed. So further research is always essential. I often monitor director buying and selling.

Remember: P/E Ratios Dont Consider The Balance Sheet

Its important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. Thus, the metric does not reflect cash or debt held by the company. Theoretically, a business can improve its earnings (and produce a lower P/E in the future), by taking on debt (or spending its remaining cash).

Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context.

How Does China Resources Lands Debt Impact Its P/E Ratio?

Net debt totals 41% of China Resources Lands market cap. If you want to compare its P/E ratio to other companies, you should absolutely keep in mind it has significant borrowings.

The Bottom Line On China Resources Lands P/E Ratio

China Resources Land trades on a P/E ratio of 7.6, which is below the HK market average of 10.8. The company hasnt stretched its balance sheet, and earnings growth was good last year. If the company can continue to grow earnings, then the current P/E may be unjustifiably low.

When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. If it is underestimating a company, investors can make money by buying and holding the shares until the market corrects itself. So this free visual report on analyst forecasts could hold the key to an excellent investment decision.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.



If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
If he had never joined Donald Trumps campaign, Paul Manafort would likely be a free man today.

Instead, the longtime political consultant is facing just under four years in a federal prison, the latest victim of the intense scrutiny that Trump has drawn to those around him for actions in his first two years in office.

As Judge T.S. Ellis III reminded the crowd at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. at the start of the lengthy hearing, Manafort was not being sentenced for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election.

Thats not to say it was was entirely unrelated to that investigation, however.

Before he became Trumps campaign chairman in the summer of 2016, Manafort spent years helping Moscow-backed political parties in Ukraine, hiding from U.S. tax officials over $55 million in payments in more than 30 overseas bank accounts, leading to the bank and tax fraud charges.

During the campaign, he joined Donald Trump Jr. and Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for a meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. At another point, as prosecutors told the judge in an assertion accidentally made public in a court filing, he shared valuable campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, who investigators allege has ties to Russian intelligence.

Manaforts connections to Russia drew the attention of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose team uncovered the hidden payments and brought the charges as a standard tactic used to pressure valuable witnesses in an investigation into cooperating. For a while, it looked like that might work.

After he was convicted in a related case in a Virginia court in August, Manafort agreed to cooperate and spent hours in Muellers office. But prosecutors later accused him of lying and hiding facts from them, including about the Kilimnik meeting.

The sentence was well below guidelines, which recommended a 19- to 24-year prison term. Ellis, who had been skeptical of Muellers prosecutors from the start of the trial, said that though Manaforts crimes were serious, such a long sentence would have been would not have been appropriate.

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Manafort is one of six people who worked on Trumps campaign in some capacity who have since ended up in legal trouble, either for lying to investigators or for illegal dealings in their personal lives. The list includes his one-time junior business partner and deputy campaign chairman, Rick Gates; foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos; national security adviser Michael Flynn; Trumps personal attorney, Michael Cohen; and his longtime informal adviser, Roger Stone.

Trump has called Manafort decent man and a very good person, raising suspicions that Trump was signaling he would pardon Manafort if he faced serious jail time. At one point, Trump compared the man who ran his nominating convention to the notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone, who was eventually jailed for tax evasion.

Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and Public Enemy Number One, or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018

Still, Manafort is not out of the woods yet. Next week, he faces a separate sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who has been less sympathetic to Manafort, accusing him of a pattern of withholding facts in February.

That case centered on Manaforts failure to disclose that he was lobbying for the Ukrainian government and what prosecutors call conspiracy against the United States.

Those two counts each carry a maximum of five years in prison.
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the path to a breakthrough on Brexit remained elusive, and he did not know what his British counterpart Theresa May meant when she said on Friday that only "one more push" was needed to reach a deal. With just three weeks left before Britain is due to leave the European Union, May used the expression in a last-ditch appeal to the European Union and a deeply divided domestic parliament. "The Brexit date is getting ever closer. The ball is still rolling toward the cliffs of Dover. I am worried (it)... is rolling the wrong way," Rutte told journalists. May and Rutte spoke by telephone Friday evening, Rutte said in a tweet, adding that he had expressed his "full confidence" in EU leaders. "We both aim for a solution in the coming days," he wrote, adding, "Tense days of negotiations ahead before the meaningful vote in British Parliament on Tuesday." Rutte said May's plan to amend her withdrawal agreement to secure parliamentary approval on Tuesday was unclear, and reiterated that British "red lines" for talks with the EU were preventing a solution. "To be clear: we are running out of options. The British government and parliament must make up their minds," he said. "If the British keep asking for a time limit for the (Irish) backstop that's not going to work." London and Brussels are at loggerheads over the backstop, an insurance policy to prevent the return of border controls between Northern Ireland and Ireland - the only land frontier between the United Kingdom and the bloc. Asked what the solution to the stalemate could be he answered: "I don't know". He then suggested a supplementary, non-legally binding letter from European Council President Donald Tusk and other senior EU officials on details of the deal might help move negotiations forward. The Netherlands, the world's fifth largest exporter, is among nations most vulnerable to the economic disruptions that would be caused if Britain left the EU with no deal on March 29. (Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg and Bart Meijer; Writing by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Kevin Liffey, John Stonestreet and Frances Kerry)
Liz Hurley posted a bikini selfie to mark the launch of her lines new bikini. [Photo: Getty/Instagram]

Words: Kerry Justich

It may not be summer just yet, but Elizabeth Hurley is already bringing the sunshine in a bright yellow bathing suit.

The 53-year-old British model, actress and swimwear designer took to her Instagram on Wednesday to debut her lines latest bikini.

She captioned the bright yellow, triangle-style bikini top and matching bottoms: Here comes the sun.

READ MORE: Liz Hurley defies her age in bikini shots

Now, her fans all anticipating the summer sun that Hurley is already basking in.

You are my sunshine, one person commented in admiration of Hurley. Another said, The most beautiful woman in the world!

Click below to see more female celebrities over 50 looking incredible in swimwear:

Others have also written in disbelief of the models age and asking her whats the secret?

But for the woman who seems to spend a lot of time on the beach and living her best life, that just might be the key.

Earlier this year, Hurley got involved with the popular #10yearchallenge on Instagram, which saw celebrities posting a photo of them from a decade ago next to one from present day.

Her followers were delighted by Hurleys post, claiming she gets better with age.

READ MORE: Elizabeth Hurleys son looks just like her

One follower wrote in the comments section below the post: Like a fine wine. better and better with age.

Another added: One of the most beautiful, if not THE most beautiful women on earth. STILL to this day.

Similarly, one fan claimed she looks Even more beautiful today, while another wrote: No difference, look more hotter now than 10 years ago. [sic]
Elon Musk does not need to be Tesla's chief executive, a top shareholder has said.

James Anderson, a partner at Baillie Gifford, the electric car company's second-largest shareholder, said that Mr Musk could have another role at the company.

"We wouldn't be against him having a different role, he told financial news site Barron's. "I don't think he needs to be CEO."

Edinburgh-based investment management firm Baillie Gifford owns around 7.7pc of Tesla's shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Mr Musk, the largest shareholder, owns around 20pc of the company.

In a separate interview with Bloomberg, Mr Anderson said a plea he made last June for the company to enter a period of "peace and quiet" had been "extraordinarily unsuccessful".

Since then Mr Musk's use of social media site Twitter has attracted controversy including a libel case brought by a British rescue diver who he described as a "pedo guy", and a lawsuit brought by US regulators after he claimed to have funding to take his company private.

On August 7 Mr Musk tweeted that he had found funding to take the company private at $420 a share, a claim which US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission said was linked to April 20, a significant date for cannabis users, and not based on fact.

He later settled fraud charges brought by the SEC, which required him to step down as chairman, have his tweets monitored and pay a $20m fine.

He has since attacked the SEC and short-sellers, who bet against Tesla's stock, on Twitter.

The billionaire should be "enabled to step back from having to feel so driven to comment," Mr Anderson said.

The priority was the successful production of the Model 3, he said, adding: "We do also think it's appropriate to discuss with the company, and not in any way try and dictate, whether Mr Musk's comments and the like do help forward [with] that mission."

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He compared Tesla to Amazon, another company that Baillie Gifford is invested in, saying he "can't remember the last time that Jeff Bezos turned up on a quarterly call, let alone felt the need to talk about analysts, even though I suspect he's got some quite big thoughts about them."

Tesla's share price fell to its lowest level since October last year on Tuesday, with investors concerned about a recent announcement that the company would be selling a Model 3 priced at $35,000 and moving all sales online.

Mr Musk also said he did not expect his company to make a profit in the first quarter of this year, having previously said he was optimistic that a small profit would be possible.

He has since announced on Twitter that Tesla would be unveiling its next car, the Model Y, next week.
The prerequisite to restructure the manner in which oil and gas companies inspect their industrial assets has brought about a major change in the industry. Lately, these companies have started using commercial drones for easier inspection and collection of crucial data at reduced overhead costs. So this makes it a good time to focus on a few energy companies that are following this trend.

Drones to Significantly Benefit Oil & Gas Companies

Commercial drones have tremendous potential to transform the way oil and gas companies conduct inspections of their industrial assets. According to statistical data, the global oil and gas market spends as much as $37 billion annually on monitoring and inspections alone. In such a scenario, using drones to improve inspections can be highly advantageous.

In fact, a 2016 Goldman Sachs report estimated that the market for pipeline inspections carried out by UAVs could reach $41 million and the market for offshore oil and gas rig and refinery inspections could be worth $1.1 billion globally.

The spectrum of applications unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can perform is wide. Tasks such as monitoring pipelines, storage units, roads, bridges, power lines etc, which are performed manually can be executed by drones in a much more efficient manner. Inspections such as oil spill detection, gas emissions and damage assessment are carried out by UAVs smoothly as well.

Inspecting energy infrastructure and collecting vital data using drones can cost significantly since it involves deploying ground crew and manned flights. Drones can get much nearer to infrastructure, helping them gather more accurate data. Using drones doesnt interrupt operations either, which gives these the advantage of catching malfunctions and leaks, thus lessening remediation costs.

In addition, drones are a better choice where manual inspection of considerably dangerous infrastructure is concerned. The data collected by drones under hazardous conditions can be highly accurate as well, owing to their multiple cameras and sensors. This data can be simultaneously used to offer real-time solutions, which gives drones a definitive edge over manual inspections.

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Global Oil & Gas Companies Are Investing in Drones

The North American oil and gas market for drones is projected at worth $4 billion by 2020, implying a compound annual growth rate of 40.1% in the 2014-2020 forecast period. In fact, a few major energy companies in the United States and elsewhere have begun deploying drones to carry out industrial inspections.

The trend was started by British oil & gas company BP BP, which signed a five-year contract to use UAVs to monitor its oil operations in Alaska. The London-based energy company had hired American drone maker AeroVironment (AVAV) to inspect its Prudhoe Bay oil field in North America, a Wall Street report had cited.

BP carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and its expected earnings growth rate for the next year is 30.5% compared with the Zacks Oil and Gas  Integrated  International industrys projected rise of 13.8%. The company has outperformed the broader industry in the past one-year period (+8% vs +2.4%).

California-based Chevron CVX is already using unmanned aerial systems for a wide range of tasks that include detection of offshore oil spills, measuring oil buildup along coastlines and visually inspect flare tips.

Chevron carries a Zacks Rank #3 and its expected earnings growth rate for the next year is 17.3% compared with the Zacks Oil and Gas  Integrated  International industrys projected rise of 13.8%. The company has outperformed the broader industry in the past one-year period (+7.6% vs +2.4%).

American energy company Exxon Mobil XOM is deploying drones to detect methane emissions across their sites. The company plans to use the data gathered by these unmanned aerial vehicles to manage and lessen methane emissions.

Exxon Mobil carries a Zacks Rank #3 and its expected earnings growth rate for the next year is 22% compared with the Zacks Oil and Gas  Integrated  International industrys projected rise of 13.8%. The company has outperformed the broader industry in the past one-year period (+8.2% vs +2.5%).

Brazil-based Petrobras PBR is also using drone photogrammetric methods to study engineering data assets (data, drawings, three-dimensional models etc) to take better data-driven decisions.

Petrobras carries a Zacks Rank #3 and its expected earnings growth rate for the next year is 1.3% compared with the Zacks Oil and Gas  Integrated  Emerging markets industrys projected decline of 2.9%.

You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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Caracas (AFP) - After thieves took advantage of a power cut to loot her store, Margarita Jardin has decided enough is enough: she wants to leave Venezuela.

"I've told my husband that I've decided to leave. I've been thinking about it for years but the time has come," a tearful Jardin told AFP among the chaos of her ransacked printing and photocopying store in eastern Caracas.

Venezuela was plunged into darkness on Thursday after a massive electricity blackout paralyzed almost the entire country.

With security cameras out of order, no surveillance in the neighborhood and pitch darkness, thieves broke into Jardin's store and made off with a computer, three printers, the cash register, the electronic payment terminal -- vital in a country where cash is scarce -- and some snacks.

The prospect of trying to rebuild a 20-year-old family business in crisis-wracked Venezuela is too much to bear.

"I don't want to leave my country but I will, you can't live in this apathy," said Jardin, 41, who also earns less than $10 a month as an architecture professor.

Of Venezuela's 23 states, 22 were hit by the blackout, which the government of President Nicolas Maduro blames on "imperialist" saboteurs attempting to force the socialist leader from power.

His detractors say the government is responsible for failing to invest in infrastructure.

Power cuts are a regular problem in Venezuela, which also suffers from other failing public services such as running water and shared transport -- as well as food and medicine shortages.

This, though, was the worst outage in the country's history.

- Solar panel queue -

Telephone and internet services, public transport, water and fuel supplies all collapsed due to the blackout, while the government suspended both the work day and school classes.

Health unions also reported difficulties treating hospital patients.

A group of neighbors in the Los Palos Grandes neighborhood of Caracas queued from early in the morning to recharge their cellphones on a solar panel at a public square.

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"We spent the night with candles, my family are all at home because they couldn't go to work or to study," Alexis Sabala, 62, told AFP, before dismissing regime claims of sabotage.

"It's a lie, they're always looking to blame someone. The real reason is the poor state of the network, and the lack of maintenance and investment."

The streets of Caracas were half deserted on Friday, the metro had ground to a halt and only 10 percent of buses were operating.

"It's a lost day for the whole country. Another day of delay," said Carlos, a motorcycle taxi driver.

His colleague Jonathan added: "I'm praying because the little we have in the freezer will defrost and then we'll be screwed."

- 'Home on foot' -

Judi Bello spent the little cash she had and took three buses to her job as a bank security guard -- but it was in vain, as the doors remained closed.

"I'll go home on foot as I don't have any more cash. I came without food because I left what there was for my two children," the 42-year-old told AFP before embarking on the six-hour trudge home.

She has to make do with the minimum wage of around $6 a month, barely enough to buy two kilograms of meat.

Soon her 18-year-old daughter will emigrate to Peru -- joining the 2.7 million Venezuelans to have left the country since 2015 -- to seek work so she can send home a remittance.

Bello will remain behind with her 13-year-old son, who is recovering from a stab wound to the heart she says was inflicted by a 10-year-old trying to steal his flip-flops.

"I don't even have enough to buy candles, they're very expensive," she said.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ambassadors of 27 European Union countries will gather at 1400 GMT ( 9 a.am. ET) in Brussels to be briefed for one hour by the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on the latest developments in talks with Britain, EU diplomats said on Friday. The unscheduled meeting was not because of any breakthrough in talks with Britain, the diplomats said, but to update the envoys on the state of affairs. British Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, initially scheduled to come to Brussels on Friday for further discussions, would not be arriving after all. The ongoing talks are to find a different compromise deal on Britain's withdrawal from the EU on March 29th after the British parliament has decidedly rejected the agreement negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May. (Reporting By Gabriela Baczynska and Jan Strupczewski)
By Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Intensive talks between the European Union and Britain are underway to help get Brexit through the British parliament next week, but the bloc has already presented its ideas, a spokesman said on Friday. "Technical discussions are ongoing. The EU side has offered ideas how to give further reassurances regarding the backstop, you are aware of all this, so there is no need for me to repeat it," said Alexander Winterstein, spokesman for the European Commission. "Intensive work is ongoing," he said. The European Union told Britain this week to rework its Irish backstop proposal by Friday, but feared it would struggle to secure a deal that satisfied pro-Brexit lawmakers before the UK parliament vote on Wednesday. Just 21 days before Britain is due to leave the EU, the two sides are locked in a game of brinkmanship and attempts to reach a mutually acceptable deal could go down to the wire. Ambassadors of the 27 European Union countries that will stay in the bloc after Britain is scheduled to leave on March 29 will gather at 1400 GMT in Brussels to be briefed for one hour by the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. The meeting is to update envoys on the state of affairs, rather than announce any breakthrough, in talks that have been deadlocked since the British parliament rejected the deal negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May in January. The EU's deputy chief negotiator Sabine Weyand and Britain's Olly Robbins would continue discussions over the weekend, diplomats said. British Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, initially scheduled to come to Brussels on Friday for further discussions, would not be arriving after all, officials said, in a sign no agreement was imminent. May tasked Cox with securing concessions from the EU on a major demand of pro-Brexit lawmakers, namely that divorce provisions to ensure no hard border on the island of Ireland would not trap the UK in the bloc's trade rules. EU negotiators object that the Cox proposal would unpick the Withdrawal Agreement reached by the EU and UK last year after months of tortuous negotiations. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Jan Strupczewski; Writing By Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
Eventbrite Off to Fragile Start as Public Company With Revenue Concerns

No one said the events business was easy, and Eventbrite is feeling pressure after its second quarter as a public company yielded concerns about its future success.

Eventbrite stock fell more than 25 percent in aftermarket trading following the release of its quarterly earnings report on Thursday, the result of weak revenue guidance for the first quarter of 2019 and a loss per share that widened to 17 cents from an expected 14 cents.

Eventbrites stock has been in steady decline since going public, and it seems like the acquisition heavy approach it took before its IPO is dragging it down.

While Eventbrite beat expectations on fourth-quarter revenue by $2.7 million, it seems the prospect of various integrations weighing down the future profitability of the company has troubled investors. Eventbrites strategy expansion has been fueled by acquisitions in global markets, and integrating the various systems while retaining clients seems to have been harder than expected.

The bigger problem is that the companys losses have increased even as it drives more revenue.

Eventbrite Net Losses and Revenue (in millions) 2018 2017 2016 Net Losses $64.1 $38.5 $40.4 Net Revenues $291.6 $201.6 $133.5

As we reflected when analyzing Eventbrites prospects as a public company, the extremely fragmented event technology marketplace ensures that acquisitions lead to a time-intensive and costly integration process. These acquisitions, whether of technology or a ticketing business, take some time to start making money for the buyer. They are also vulnerable when it comes to shifting demand from both event producers and their customers.

The integration of Eventbrites marquee acquisition Ticketfly is taking longer than expected and the key reason for the companys reduced revenue guidance. Its now slated for completion in the second half of 2019, but there are many other smaller regional operations it has to integrate as well.

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Rather than deciding to operate the Ticketfly platform on its own, we made the decision to integrate Ticketfly onto the Eventbrite platform, thus delivering the full power of both to independent music venues and promoters; this strategy also requires an intensive process where our team focuses on migrating existing customers as well as building platform enhancement, said Julia Hartz, Eventbrites CEO, during the earnings call.

While this strategy will impact revenues in the short term, as seen in our Q1 guidance, in the long term, we believe building a leading global independent music platform will maximize our revenue and allow for meaningful innovation. We believe the work we are undertaking this year to bring our North American music business onto a single global platform will pay off for many years to come.

The plan is for Ticketfly (now known as Eventbrite Music) and the various other regional ticketing operations the company has acquired to sit on one technology platform instead of working across a hodgepodge of systems like they do today. Once they are integrated, the administrative costs of dealing with all that wont weigh on the companys margins so heavily.

The companys international ticketing business remains a question mark as well. Eventbrite just launched a product in Singapore and has built a localized platform in Mexico that lets users pay for tickets in cash at local convenience stores. It now operates 20 different ticketing and event businesses in international markets, accounting for 30 percent of the companys revenue.

On the non-technical side, it seems like the efforts by Eventbrites sales and customer teams to retain the existing clients on their platforms have been more challenging than expected. Eventbrites business where small customers sign themselves up for the service is growing much more strongly than the wing that strikes more expensive and binding deals with event companies or venues.

As you look at our business, we have this wonderful channel where customers sign themselves up, said Randy Befumo, Eventbrites chief financial officer. At the time of the offering, it was 54 percent. Its been growing faster than the sales channel, and so its grown since then. That quarter-to-date, were seeing, along with international, 20 percent-plus volume growth You can imagine then the rest of the business, North American music, which weve been talking about in sales is growing below that rate. North American music, the story really there and our learning in the migration process is that if youre timing your activities to align with the creators, it requires some patience. And if you have a team that youre asking to focus on those creators, first and foremost, there are growth consequences. They just arent spending as much time growing the business.

While Eventbrite tries to turn itself into a global platform for selling tickets, theyre not neglecting non-ticketing event technology tools and products that event creators really need. You can see this in the various payment systems the company has deployed around the world, along with the various marketing tools it has improved.

We have an opportunity to bring to event creators in every category non-ticketing solutions that help them grow their businesses faster, said Hartz. And youll see in our 10-K that were making a considerable investment of almost $18 million in the last year towards these solutions. And as we continue to ideate and validate and finally bring these solutions to the market, that will continue to help us compound not only the value that we give our creators but also our revenue growth.

A global ticketing platform for mid-size creators sounds great, as does better tools to empower events around the world. But first, Eventbrite has to find a way to turn around the narrative that losses will mount over the course of 2019.

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Twenty-three Republicans voted against a House resolution condemning antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and other forms of bigotry that was passed by 407 of their colleagues of both political parties.

But few expect the US political and news media apparatus to shift into outrage mode over the refusal of so many Republican lawmakers to publicly disavow something so abhorrent as plain, old-fashioned bigotry and racism.

Wheres the outrage over the 23 GOP members who voted NO on a resolution condemning bigotry today?



Oh, theres none?



Did they get called out, raked over, ambushed in halls and relentlessly asked why not?



No? Okay. Got it.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 8, 2019

Republicans are voting against a non binding resolution against bigotry which tbh is pretty on brand.  Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 7, 2019

Republicans who voted against the resolution have been busy justifying their vote on Friday, with some placing their stand against anti-racism in the context of seeking to focus on condemning Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omars criticism of the pro-Israel lobby, which has been labeled by some as antisemitic.

The House Republican conference chair, Liz Cheney, called the vote a sham put forward by Democrats to avoid condemning one of their own and denouncing vile antisemitism.

Other dissident Republicans also took umbrage with the resolution not mentioning Omar by name.

I voted NO on the ridiculous resolution that purported to condemn speech that is not at issue. Rep. Omar has made specific multiple anti-Jewish statements. The resolution failed to mention her or her statements. So I will: I condemn anti-Jewish hate speech by Rep. Omar. pic.twitter.com/GRkS0PtHNZ  Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) March 7, 2019

But some had different ideas, portraying their refusal to condemn bigotry as a defense of white people. Congressman Mo Brooks of Alabama released a statement in which he said he could not sign on to a vote that did not include discrimination against Caucasians and Christians.

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The failure to specifically state opposition to discrimination against Caucasian-Americans and Christians, while reflective of Socialist Democrat priorities and values, is, by omission, fatal to the bill, he said.

Others, like the New York congressman Peter King, had even less inclusive ideas about what the anti-bigotry measure should have mentioned: namely, cops.

Rep Pete King said one of the reasons he voted against the resolution is bc it didnt mention police being targeted, only mentioned police targeting others.



There were more cops killed than Pacific Islanders last year, he said  Daniel Newhauser (@dnewhauser) March 7, 2019

Nowhere in any of their statements were any mention of the long history of bigotry and antisemitism from Republicans, or, indeed the Islamophobia and racism some see lying at the heart of the entire Omar ordeal.

The Iowa Republican Steve King, who among many other things in a prolific history of racist statements, lamented back in January that white nationalist had become a pejorative, simply voted present. King was stripped of his House committee seats that month after Republicans looked the other way at his behavior for years.

A reminder that Rep. Matt Gaetz brought a Holocaust denier to the State of the Union address. He's upset by anti-Semitism. https://t.co/tH33HaZnCo  (((JonathanWeisman))) (@jonathanweisman) March 7, 2019

Congressman Matt Gaetz used his time during debate on the issue of bigotry to defend Donald Trump against allegations of Russian collusion. Not mentioned was his recently hosting a Holocaust denier and infamous alt-right troll at the State of the Union address as a personal guest.

It is an insult to the memories of those killed in the Holocaust, to their families, and to the Jewish community to bring to the State of the Union as your guest a Holocaust denier, the Anti-Defamation League wrote in a letter to Gaetz at the time.

Nor did any Republicans bring up the presidents own history of racist and antisemitic statements, like saying there were very fine people on both sides after a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, or his lengthy record of trafficking in Jewish stereotypes and frequent use of dehumanizing references to immigrants coming to infest the country.

In short the Republican backlash to something seemingly so anodyne and harmless as an anti-bigotry resolution revealed to many critics what some Republicans were actually after: punishing Omar specifically, not simply because of what she said, but because of her ethnic and religious identity while saying it.

So just to be clear: A Somali-American Democrat engages in repeated anti-Semitism, and Democrats pass a resolution that condemns "white supremacists" (and gets in a reference to Charlottesville).  Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) March 7, 2019

But Omar actually voted for the resolution condemning antisemitism and other forms of bigotry, unlike her 23 Republican detractors. Something that may have turned the whole affair from a Democratic crisis into a Republican backfire.
By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, who was considered a top candidate to become the next secretary of defense, said on Friday she has decided to resign and return to academia, leaving another vacant post at the top level of the Pentagon. Wilson confirmed the news, first reported by Reuters, in a tweet https://twitter.com/SecAFOfficial/status/1104061257068498944, saying she had informed President Donald Trump of her plans to become president of the University of Texas at El Paso. She plans to step down on May 31. The resignation leaves another senior Pentagon job open and follows the December departure of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who quit over policy differences with Trump and who had hand-picked Wilson for the post. Like Mattis, Wilson was a staunch advocate of alliances like NATO and firmly supported Mattis' push to refocus the U.S. military on higher-end competition with China and Russia after more than a decade-and-a-half of counterinsurgency campaigns. "It has been a privilege to serve alongside our Airmen over the past two years and I am proud of the progress that we have made in restoring our nation's defenses," Wilson, 58, said in her resignation letter to Trump. Trump congratulated Wilson and, in a tweet, thanked her for her service. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1104091299718811650 A former Republican lawmaker who was close to Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, Wilson would have been the first woman to take the Pentagon's top job, if she had been nominated. By all accounts, her nomination would have had strong support in Congress. Mattis' deputy, Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, is now performing the role in an acting capacity in what is widely seen as an audition for the position. Wilson's resignation could add to speculation that Shanahan may remain in the post of defense secretary. Other top Pentagon positions, including the deputy defense secretary, are either being filled provisionally or are vacant. "Everyone she has talked to wants her to stay, but she thinks the time is right to take on this new challenge," a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official added Wilson was not resigning under pressure and had not been asked to step down. Wilson informed Pence of her decision earlier in the week and Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein on Thursday, the official said. The University of Texas Board of Regents still has to approve Wilson's selection to head its El Paso campus, but she is the sole finalist. SPACE FORCE It is unclear who might succeed Wilson and inherit steep challenges facing the Air Force, which include the creation of Trump's "Space Force," a new branch of military service that will carve out some responsibilities current done by the Air Force. The Air Force is also reeling from a fresh scandal involving sexual assault. Wilson was the first Air Force Academy graduate to ever take the highest position in her service, and counted a robust resume that included a decade as a Republican lawmaker in Congress. She also served on the National Security Council staff during the George H. W. Bush administration, and as president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. After joining the Pentagon, Wilson visited Iraq and Afghanistan and came away concerned about the wear and tear on an Air Force that she thought was too small, especially as the Pentagon shifted its focus to competition with Russia and China. Last fall, she predicted the Air Force would need to grow sharply over the next decade or so, boosting the number of operational squadrons by nearly a quarter to stay ahead of Moscow and Beijing. She told reporters at the time that the preliminary analysis drew partly from classified intelligence about possible future threats, showing that Air Force, at its current size, would be unable to preserve the United States' edge. Wilson estimated the Air Force would need about more 40,000 personnel as part of the plan to have a total of 386 operational squadrons, compared with 312 today. The U.S. Air Force had 401 squadrons in 1987, at the peak of the Cold War. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell)
By Jan Wolfe

(Reuters) - Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has opened up a new front in its battle with the U.S. government by filing a lawsuit challenging a congressional ban on federal agencies' use of the Chinese technology company's products.

Legal experts said the firm is likely to lose its case because U.S. courts tend to avoid second-guessing Congress' actions relating to national security, including the ban enacted in August as part of a defence spending bill.

But some lawyers said that Huawei might be hoping to score public relations points against the U.S. government even if it knows its chances of winning are slim.

The following explains the measures against Huawei, the nature of the lawsuit, and why it will likely be dismissed.

What is Huawei and why is it at odds with the U.S. government?

Shenzhen-based Huawei is the worlds biggest producer of telecommunications network equipment and it also competes with Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co as a smartphone maker.

The company and its founder Ren Zhengfei have long been suspected of having close ties with China's military and intelligence agencies.

Huawei denies that it works with the Chinese government and that its products are designed to facilitate spying.

Separately from the legislation at issue in the lawsuit, the United States is also considering a ban on the use of Huawei telecom equipment by U.S. companies in the construction of 5G wireless networks, and is urging its allies to do the same.

Washington has also accused Huawei of stealing trade secrets and violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. Chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who is also Ren's daughter, was arrested in December in Canada at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, which claims she orchestrated the violations.

Huawei says the U.S. actions are politically motivated, coming at the same time as the Trump administration is holding high-stakes trade negotiations with Beijing. U.S. demands include that China change its laws and practices to protect intellectual property and end forced transfers of technology to Chinese firms.

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What is Huawei's complaint?

Huawei's primary argument is that the ban on its products is a "bill of attainder" - a legislative act condemning a particular person or group of people and punishing them without a trial.

Bills of attainders are specifically banned in the U.S. Constitution.

In one of the most well-known cases involving a bill of attainder, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court in 1946 struck down as unconstitutional an act of Congress that stripped three government employees of their salaries for allegedly supporting "subversive activities."

More recently, a federal judge ruled a North Carolina bill limiting funding to the women's health organization Planned Parenthood was an unconstitutional bill of attainder because it was "adopted specifically to penalize" the group.

Huawei is also alleging a violation of its due process rights, and argues that Congress violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers by exercising authority reserved for the judicial system.

Does Huawei have a case?

Most U.S. legal experts say no, since ruling for Huawei would likely require the courts to decide there was no legitimate basis for Congress' inclusion of the ban in its bill.

In general, U.S. courts are reluctant to second-guess national security determinations by Congress and the executive branch, who are viewed as being in a better position to make such decisions.

Several legal experts pointed to a November 2018 decision by a federal appeals court rejecting a similar bill of attainder claim by Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, whose anti-virus software was banned from U.S. government networks by legislation in 2017.

The court in that case said national security concerns about Kaspersky were supported by "ample evidence" and that it needed to give Congress "latitude" to craft measures to protect national security.

The Texas court hearing Huaweis case will not be bound by that decision, but will certainly consider its reasoning closely because of the similarities in the two disputes.

Why would Huawei bring a lawsuit it is unlikely to win?

Huawei may figure the potential benefits in terms of public opinion are worth a legal fight, no matter what the outcome. The firm has launched a massive public relations offensive over the past two months.

If Huawei's case survives a motion to dismiss, the Chinese company would be allowed to demand discovery from the U.S. government, including documents and possibly the testimony of officials.

Those documents could provide evidence for its position that Washington is motivated more by politics than any real national security concerns.

But legal experts said Huawei faces long odds getting past a motion to dismiss, noting the Kaspersky case was thrown out before discovery. The centralized nature of the Chinese government, with its close ties to industry, and the many well-documented cases of Chinese hacking would all support the position that the U.S. law has a reasonable basis.

Some legal experts said a case involving a wind energy company owned by Chinese nationals might offer Huawei a slender hope for precedent.

Ralls Corp sued after the Obama administration moved in 2012 to block it from building wind turbines close to a military site in Oregon on natural security grounds. A federal court ruled the government violated Ralls' due process rights by not giving it an opportunity to rebut the unclassified evidence the government relied upon to reach its decision.

The case was resolved in 2015 in a confidential settlement, after which Ralls sold the wind farms.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Anthony Lin and Sonya Hepinstall)
An 'anti-vaxxer' takes part in a march against mandatory vaccination in Olympia, Washington, USA - REUTERS

Facebook will ban anti-vaccination adverts and suppress anti-vaccine content as part of a broad crackdown against dangerous medical misinformation.

The social network announced a multi-step plan to tackle "anti-vaxxer" content after widespread outcry about the way its algorithms amplified vaccine conspiracy theorists and quack medicine peddlers.

The company will set its algorithms to demote pages and groups that spread known hoaxes, and prevent such groups and pages from being recommended to users or from appearing in search predictions.

Most significantly, it will completely ban adverts that "include misinformation about vaccinations" and remove the ability of advertisers to target people who are interested in "vaccine controversies".

"We are working to tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic," said Monika Bickert, Facebook's vice president of global policy, in an official blog post.

"We are working to tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic."

But her post stopped short of pledging to remove anti-vaccination content entirely  a policy in line with Facebook's longstanding reluctance to judge the truth of information posted on its service.

The announcement followed numerous outbreaks of measles across the USA, which public health officials have blamed on the growing "anti-vaxxer" movement.

Anti-vaxxers believe that common vaccines such as the MMR vaccines are causing an epidemic of autism and life-threatening diseases  a theory that has been comprehensively discredited by scientists.

A study in 2017 found that "organised anti-vaccination groups" with many followers on social media had "contributed to the drop in vaccination compliance" among US residents.

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A more recent report by the Royal Society for Public Health found that half of British parents with children under five years old had encountered negative information about vaccinations on social media.

Anti-vaxxer groups have used both ordinary Facebook posts and paid Facebook adverts to find new audiences. A campaign called Stop Mandatory Vaccination was reprimanded by the UK's advertising watchdog last year for for a "misleading" ad targeted towards new parents.

Ms Bickert said that where "leading health organisations" such a the World Health Organisation and the USA's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified a specific vaccine-related hoax, Facebook would act to remove or suppress it.

She said that Facebook was also exploring ways to provide "more accurate information" at the top of vaccine-related search results, aiming to divert people towards more reliable sources.

That would be a similar approach to Facebook's policy on political fake news, which leaves it to outside fact-checkers to determine whether a story is true or not and then reduces the spread of stories they brand as false.

A report by the Guardian last month found that Facebook's search results for the term "vaccination" were dominated by misinformation, with all of the top 12 groups and eight of the top 12 pages being anti-vaxxers.

After that, Adam Schiff, a US senator from California who has often criticised tech giants, wrote to Facebook and Google asking them to do more to prevent "a direct threat to public health".

Youtube has blocked anti-vaccine videos from making money from adverts and promised to stop them from appearing in its algorithmic recommendations. Pinterest, a social network which allows users to make mood boards of images and videos they enjoy, has simply blocked all searches relating to vaccines.
The family behind Purdue Pharma gets the boot from hedge fund over opioid crisis: Sources originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Hildene Capital Management has kicked out the family that controls Purdue Pharma, a source familiar with decision confirmed to ABC News.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based hedge fund, forced the Sackler family  the owners of Purdue Pharma  to redeem their investments late last year, the source said, after the fund manager said someone he knew suffered an opioid-related tragedy.

(MORE: Purdue Pharma says in court documents the Massachusetts attorney general is using their company as a scapegoat in the opioid epidemic)

Hildenes decision was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which has also reported Purdue Pharma is considering bankruptcy as lawsuits mount. The spokeswoman for Hildene declined to comment beyond Wall Street Journals report.

PHOTO: OxyContin pills and a bottle are arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt., Feb. 19, 2013. (Toby Talbot/AP, FILE)

Being kicked out of a large hedge fund is only the latest financial pressure for the family that controls the manufacturer of OxyContin. They have been accused of accelerating the nations opioid crisis.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey filed an over 200-page amended lawsuit accusing the drug company of contributing the opioid abuse crises in their commonwealth by "deceiving doctors and patients" to obtain the prescription in order to gain profits. More than 11,000 people in Massachusetts died from opioid-related overdoses in the past decade and over 100,000 people survived overdoses that were not fatal.

(MORE: Prosecutor: Drug maker pushed OxyContin despite danger signs)

In the Massachusetts lawsuit, Purdue Pharma denied that their company is to blame for the opioid crisis, charging they are a scapegoat. "The Department of Health further found that the epidemic of overdose deaths in Massachusetts is primarily attributable to abuse of heroin and illicit fentanyl, and not lawful prescription [of] opioid pain medicines," according to Purdue Pharma's motion to dismiss filed on March 1.

ABC News reached a spokesman for the Sackler family and have not received an immediate comment.
A report commissioned by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) finds that consumers buying crypto assets are often looking for ways to get rich quick.

Many of those interviewed by researched for the Revealing Reality study perceived it as a short cut to easy money and wealth. They often cited influence from others, including social media, as motivation for investing.

It found many consumers overestimated their knowledge of cryptoassets. Several of those interviewed talked of wanting to buy a whole coin, not realising that they could buy just part of one.

Tangible

Many consumers seemed to have a sense that they were investing in tangible assets, due to the language and imagery associated with crypto assets, such as mining and coin.

The FCA says only a small minority of UK consumers have bought crypto assets and many do not understand what they are. It estimates that only 3% of those surveyed had ever bought crypto assets, and 73% of UK consumers dont know what a cryptocurrency is or are unable to define it.

The survey indicated that, amongst a small sub-sample, around half of those who buy crypto assets spend less than 200. Most use their own disposable income  none of those surveyed within the sub-sample, said that they borrowed money.

One in 100

Most consumers who havent bought crypto assets to-date arent likely to do so. Of those who had never bought crypto assets, only one in 100 people said they would definitely buy in the future.

Gavin Brown (pictured, below), a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, says regulation of crypto assets is complex and evolving.

In March 2017, as part of its wider fin tech strategy, the government announced the establishment of an FCA, HM Treasury and Bank of England taskforce on crypto assets and distributed ledger technology.

The report, which was based on the experiences of 33 consumers, found while there has been a great deal of research and debate devoted to the potential uses of crypto assets, blockchain and the underlying distributed ledger technology, there is a noticeable gap in research that aims to understand the experience of purchasing crypto assets from a consumer perspective.

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Meaningful investigation

The survey is based upon 2,132 face-to-face interviews in December 2018 which although not fully representative is still a meaningful investigation that is worthy of our attention and consideration, he says.

Only 3% of the above sample had ever previously purchased cryptocurrencies. That equates to just 64 people. The FCA suggest that prior purchase research from these individuals was often insufficient but was at least financed by their own funds rather than borrowings in all cases.

The key outcome is that, over 70% of those surveyed havent heard of cryptocurrencies or didnt know how to define one. A reassertion that despite the asset class marking 10 years since Satoshis paper in late 2008 and the Bitcoin genesis block being mined on 3rd Jan 2009, for the majority of the public such crypto oassets are still outside of the national psyche and certainly the understanding of the vast majority.

No regrets

With 67% of respondents not regretting their original investment during a bear market the research mirrors the HODL position of many who see this as a medium to long-term investment which perhaps goes some way to explaining the reduced liquidity and relative lack of price volatility in the markets of late, he adds.

It will be interesting to see if the early adopters gain from their risk-taking behaviour. Historically, there are many who correctly predicted the post dotcom crash growth of new tech and platforming businesses, but who chose now defunct businesses such as boo.com and Webvan rather than one of the FAANGs [Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google.]

Such disproportionate gains for the prudent, or lucky, investor will continue to attract gamblers who are effectively noise traders to cryptoa ssets. With over two thousand coins presently listed on coinmarketcap.com for better or worse we can only confirm the adage of caveat emptor  buyer beware.

Not easy

The authors noted that recruiting respondents for the research was not easy. Those purchasing crypto assets, or those interested in doing so, were often not easily identifiable. In part, this was because it is largely a private activity, taking place behind closed doors. And some people were not comfortable disclosing details about their financial situation, particularly when they had made losses.

They spoke to Kyle, 22, from Manchester, who first dealt with crypto assets when he was 16 to buy illegal drugs only. He told researchers: It was only when I was 20 or 21 when I saw it is an investment.

He bought 1,000 of Bitcoin, Ripple, Tron, Excelen, Appcoin and Elastos with a student loan in January 2018. He concedes the purchase was made at the worst possible time as the value of Bitcoin plummeted just a few weeks later.

Litecoins

Angela, 26, who works in HR in luxury fashion in London purchased two Litecoins at 650, deciding not to consult her boyfriend or peers who knew more about the market.

She told researchers: I wanted to feel like I did it on my own. She felt that Bitcoin was a safer investment but couldnt afford to buy a whole one, so instead preferred to buy two whole Litecoins.

Her purchase fell quickly, and at the time of the interview was worth 86 in total. Angela regrets her decision to buy crypto assets: I only did my research after I had already bought them, she added.

Elena, 34, is a former marketing director for an ICO in Bulgaria, who lives in London. She is comfortable financially from her previous work in marketing and she works part-time in admin.

External influences

Having previously worked as a marketing director for one of her friends ICOs, she knows how external influences can drive market movements, therefore affecting value. Recently she bought Polkadot with 60,000, reporting a profit of 40,000.

She values uer holdings at 200,000 at the time of the interview. Her main influence is a friend whom she describes as a genius, and whom she believes is well connected to an inner ring of influencers  such as founders of ICOs.

Researchers found most respondents expressed a desire to make significant amounts of money in their lives, and while some were looking for ways to supplement their income, others had explored a variety of ways to try to get rich quick without having to work.

Fomo

Most cited FOMO (the Fear of Missing Out) for their reasons to buy cryptocurrencies. One took advice from a taxi driver who said hed put himself through college with the money hed made money by investing.

Social media platforms were the most common source of news and information on cryptocurrencies across the sample.

However, a large proportion of the respondents did not trust mainstream media and sources of information. Some respondents were suspicious of the mainstream medias agenda and were concerned by fake news, and some didnt have much trust in establishment institutions in general.

Despite their losses, most of the respondents decided to hold on to their assets believing they would go up in value again.

By Helen Bennicke  March 8, 2019

The post FCA finds people think cryptocurrency is a way to get rich quick appeared first on Coin Rivet.
Florida is planning to keep Daylight Saving Time going throughout the entire year (Picture: Getty)

Florida is planning to ditch the idea of moving clocks backwards and forward and keep Daylight Saving Time going all year.

The Sunshine Protection Act will mean no more spring forward or fall back, and will keep clocks the same all year round.

If approved, Florida will join Hawaii and Arizona, which are exempt from the Uniform Time Act of 1966 which established the system of Daylight Saving Time throughout the US.

Florida state Senate apparently took less than a minute to pass the Sunshine Protection Act (Picture: Getty)

According to CNN, it took the state Senate less than a minute to pass the act, which will now go to Governor Rick Scott for approval.

Its not the first time efforts have been made to change Daylight Saving Time, with arguments including concerns that it causes accidents because motorists are sleep-deprived, or the argument that it doesnt actually reduce annual energy use.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
By Rami Ayyub

DALIYAT AL-KARMEL, Israel (Reuters) - With Israel's election just over a month away, a Druze former television news anchor is poised to become the first woman from her Arabic-speaking minority to serve in the Israeli parliament.

Gadeer Mreeh, who is running for the centrist Blue and White party led by former armed forces chief Benny Gantz, is all but guaranteed a seat in the Knesset in an election system where voters choose from a list of candidates. Gantz is the main opponent of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mreeh, a former anchor with Israel's public broadcaster, said her life has been a series of firsts for minority women in the country.

"I was the first non-Jewish woman to anchor a Hebrew-language news broadcast," Mreeh, 34, said from her village of Daliyat al-Karmel, a major population centre for the Druze, who practise an offshoot of Islam and are one of Israel's most integrated minorities.

Rising through the ranks of Israeli media wasn't easy, Mreeh said, citing among other factors criticism from some in her conservative community who see journalistic work as unsuitable for women.

"I remember one day a religious (community) member approached my parents and said it is not appropriate to work in this field as a Druze woman," Mreeh said, while preparing malfouf, a stuffed cabbage dish common in Arab cuisine.

Over time, Mreeh won support from Druze elders, including its spiritual leader in Israel, Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif.

"Now even the religious leaders understand that Druze women can succeed, that we can represent, in a modest and noble way," Mreeh said.

"EQUALITY FOR ALL OUR CITIZENS"

More than 140,000 Druze live in Israel, making up just under two percent of the population. Syria and Lebanon are also home to Druze communities.

In Israel, Druze men are drafted into the military, unlike members of the country's 20 percent Arab minority, many of whom identify as Palestinian. In the outgoing parliament, 16 of its 120 members were Arab, including two non-Druze women.

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Last year minority communities were dismayed by Israel's approval of a "nation-state" law, which declares that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country and downgrades Arabic as an official language on a par with Hebrew.

The law's supporters said it was largely symbolic and Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party said it was needed to fend off Palestinian challenges to Jewish self-determination.

Mreeh said she hoped to overturn the law and "find a solution in legislation that will enshrine equality for all our citizens, for all Israeli citizens."

Israel's election takes place on April 9. Opinion polls predict Gantz's party will win 35 seats, ahead of Likud with 30, but it remains unclear which party will be able to put together a governing coalition.

(Reporting by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., and Rodney Davis, R-Ill., were discussing a criminal justice amendment on the House floor Thursday when a debate about Canadian rock band Nickelback broke out.

Only four wanted to keep this provision. Everyone else wanted to change this, out of 77,000, Pocan said of the amendment. Thats probably about the percent of people who think Nickelback is their favorite band in this country. Its pretty low.

After Davis reacted and asked Pocan why he would criticize one of the greatest bands of the 90s, Pocan responded swiftly.

Wow, all right. One more reason why theres a difference between Democrats and Republicans, clearly found on the floor of congress today, he said.

Both CNNs New Day and the Fox News show Fox & Friends covered the story, with hosts on each network providing differing opinions of the band.

They are not the worst, theyre good, co-host Ainsley Earhardt said on Fox & Friends. How do you hate Nickelback? I understand hating heavy metal.

Her fellow hosts also chimed in, with Steve Doocey proudly proclaiming his love for the band and Brian Kilmeade showing indifference toward the group.

I never hear it on the radio and think, Make it louder, Kilmeade said.

On New Day, co-host Alisyn Camerota brought jokes.

Its been said if you play a Nickelback song backwards you hear messages from the devil. Even worse, if you play it forward, you hear Nickelback, she said, with co-host John Berman later adding: Theyre empirically not good, right?

Along with being quick to point out that Nickelback didnt make a splash until the early 2000s, some Twitter commenters were quick to pile on the Nickelback hate.

Nickleback now belongs to Republicans, its a good day  Jason Heiss (@heiss_jason) March 7, 2019

Nickelback sucks !!!!  American_Roughneck (@racerx315) March 8, 2019

I can think of few better ways to sum up Fox & Friends than 87% of their viewers like Nickelback pic.twitter.com/fRbUcDS4B6  Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) March 8, 2019

I happened to be waiting on the House floor to speak in support of my #HR1 amendment to boost youth civic engagement, and witnessed this debate.https://t.co/PX0A1mCw0G In case theres a question, Im with my colleague @repmarkpocan in favor #HR1 and against Nickelback and Creed  Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) March 7, 2019

Others came to the defense of the six-time Grammy-nominated group.

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SICK & TIRED of all this Nickelback hate. Sad & pathetic. People can like whoevers music they want. I HATE Rap music with a passion. But I dont slag off the Rappers & send their families death threats. If everyones taste was the same, Life would be pointless #rantover  Gill Brain (@itsnickelfly5) March 8, 2019

I love Nickelback, and I am a Democrat!  Michele (@teddybearz4me) March 8, 2019

Nickelback is change my mind.  Dale Burge (@dale_burge) March 8, 2019

BRO PEOPLE NEED TO LEAVE NICKELBACK ALONE @Jocelyn_266 https://t.co/mlhwZUAYVn  Olivia (@_Olivvia) March 8, 2019

So while the debate rages on, Rep. Davis had the final say against Rep. Pocan.

I stand here to say that my colleague from Wisconsin, I know he did not mean to offend the many thousands upon thousands of Nickelback fans in his district of Wisconsin, Davis said of Pocan. Ill stand here to save you from doing that, and have to face the political consequences at the ballot box.

Watch what happened when a TV reporter was licked by a stranger while live on the air:

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Today we are going to look at Franco-Nevada Corporation (TSE:FNV) to see whether it might be an attractive investment prospect. Specifically, well consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), since that will give us an insight into how efficiently the business can generate profits from the capital it requires.

First of all, well work out how to calculate ROCE. Next, well compare it to others in its industry. Then well determine how its current liabilities are affecting its ROCE.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

ROCE is a measure of a companys yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. In general, businesses with a higher ROCE are usually better quality. Ultimately, it is a useful but imperfect metric. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussin has suggested that a high ROCE can indicate that one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar.

How Do You Calculate Return On Capital Employed?

The formula for calculating the return on capital employed is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets  Current Liabilities)

Or for Franco-Nevada:

0.056 = US$269m  (US$4.8b  US$23m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2018.)

Therefore, Franco-Nevada has an ROCE of 5.6%.

View our latest analysis for Franco-Nevada

Is Franco-Nevadas ROCE Good?

When making comparisons between similar businesses, investors may find ROCE useful. In our analysis, Franco-Nevadas ROCE is meaningfully higher than the 2.3% average in the Metals and Mining industry. We consider this a positive sign, because it suggests it uses capital more efficiently than similar companies. Setting aside the industry comparison for now, Franco-Nevadas ROCE is mediocre in absolute terms, considering the risk of investing in stocks versus the safety of a bank account. Investors may wish to consider higher-performing investments.

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As we can see, Franco-Nevada currently has an ROCE of 5.6% compared to its ROCE 3 years ago, which was 3.1%. This makes us wonder if the company is improving.

TSX:FNV Past Revenue and Net Income, March 8th 2019

When considering ROCE, bear in mind that it reflects the past and does not necessarily predict the future. ROCE can be misleading for companies in cyclical industries, with returns looking impressive during the boom times, but very weak during the busts. ROCE is only a point-in-time measure. Remember that most companies like Franco-Nevada are cyclical businesses. Future performance is what matters, and you can see analyst predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

Do Franco-Nevadas Current Liabilities Skew Its ROCE?

Liabilities, such as supplier bills and bank overdrafts, are referred to as current liabilities if they need to be paid within 12 months. Due to the way ROCE is calculated, a high level of current liabilities makes a company look as though it has less capital employed, and thus can (sometimes unfairly) boost the ROCE. To counteract this, we check if a company has high current liabilities, relative to its total assets.

Franco-Nevada has total assets of US$4.8b and current liabilities of US$23m. As a result, its current liabilities are equal to approximately 0.5% of its total assets. With low levels of current liabilities, at least Franco-Nevadas mediocre ROCE is not unduly boosted.

What We Can Learn From Franco-Nevadas ROCE

Franco-Nevada looks like an ok business, but on this analysis it is not at the top of our buy list. Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20.

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.



If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
The U.S. Navys Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs)  maneuvers that challenge excessive maritime claims and demonstrate Americas commitment to freedom of the seas  in the South China Sea have received a lot of press coverage over the last few months, most notably after a Chinese destroyer nearly collided with the USS Decatur last October. U.S. FONOPs have drawn the ire of Chinese officials  one Chinese senior colonel suggested ramming U.S. ships conducting FONOPs. Yet these operations, and the unhappy response theyve received, are nothing new in the recent history of great-power competition. As David F. Winkler documents in his book Incidents at Sea, one need look no further back than the 1980s, when the United States and the Soviet Union sparred over the same issue. A review of that history offers several lessons the United States can apply to its relations with China today.

The 1980s saw elevated naval tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. This was partly due to an expansion of the Soviet navys operations in the eastern Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf, which brought Soviet and American ships into more frequent contact. The two countries held conflicting views on maritime rights, and each took steps to enforce its own position. President Carter initiated an aggressive FONOPs program in 1979 to defend navigation rights on the high seas and challenge excessive territorial claims, and three years later the USSR responded with navigation laws that refused to recognize any right of innocent passage through its territorial waters in the Black Sea.

The increased operational proximity between the two navies, coupled with the U.S. Navys annual execution of 35 to 40 FONOPs, led to several high-profile incidents during the decade. These included ship collisions as well as the firing of flares and warning shots at U.S. ships by the Soviets. Tensions rose to a point where the U.S. warned its commanders not to provoke the Soviets, though in a secret message it instructed them to show neither timidity or deference in the face of aggression. Then, during the final days of the Cold War, the Soviet response to FONOPs took a more hostile turn. In January 1988, a Soviet admiral declared the United States FONOPs illegal, adding that any foreign ships violating our sovereignty in the future should be destroyed. The following month, two Soviet ships acted on his statement by intentionally colliding with the USS Yorktown and the USS Caron in the Black Sea after verbal warnings were ignored.

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That these incidents did not spiral further out of control can be attributed at least in part to an agreement that the United States and the USSR signed following a spate of at-sea incidents during the late 1960s. The Incidents at Sea Agreement (INCSEA) served as a confidence-building measure between the two countries. It instituted guidelines for the American and Soviet navies to follow when operating near each other, provided an advanced-notification mechanism for potentially dangerous operations, and established channels to ask clarifying questions. It also facilitated annual review meetings, where frank exchanges could take place. During the 1988 session, one Soviet admiral disclosed that the severe response to FONOPs, including the intentional collision, was directly tied to political pressures on the Soviet navy. INCSEA proved to be so effective that it remains in force between the United States and Russia today.

There are clear similarities between this history and the Chinese reaction to FONOPs today. As the number of ships and aircraft in the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) grows and its operational reach expands outside the western Pacific, the United States can expect more interactions with the Chinese navy. Given the United States current program of FONOPs in the South China Sea, the operating environment between the U.S. Navy and the PLAN will increasingly resemble the one that existed between the United Sates and the USSR in the 1980s. And while this does not necessarily mean there will be a replay of Cold War ship collisions and at-sea incidents, recent statements from Chinas leadership and occasional aggressive actions of PLAN ships and aircraft in the South China Sea indicate that naval interactions between the U.S. and China are headed in that direction. The U.S. Navy must be ready for a re-occurrence.

Yet even as the Navy prepares to operate in an increasingly tense environment, the United States should not abandon confidence-building measures with China and the PLAN. China continues to engage with the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and was a signatory to the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) in 2014. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Defense and Chinas Ministry of Defense have already signed a ministry-to-ministry agreement, the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA), that is similar to INCSEA. Unfortunately, as Winkler points out, the agreements consultation process remains at the mercy of politics, does not establish a direct navy-to-navy communications channel, and is simply too informal to address matters of real importance. Correcting these deficiencies should be a priority.

There are steps the Navy can take to achieve these goals. First, it should expect that the PLAN will take a more assertive posture in response to American FONOPs in the South China Sea, and that it will expand its operations outside the western Pacific. Naval commanders must be trained to react to a variety of potential antagonistic actions from PLAN ships and aircraft, including verbal warnings, aggressive maneuvering, intentional collisions, and overt threats such as warning shots. Second, the United States needs to recognize that FONOPs, and Chinese reactions to them, can lead to an increase in hostile rhetoric and more aggressive responses against units conducting those missions. Remaining flexible in the timing, execution, and publicity of FONOPs needs to be part of the deliberate planning process. Finally, the Department of Defense should push to have the MMCA re-signed as a government-to-government, executive-level agreement that mirrors the U.S.Russia INCSEA. INCSEA proved its worth during the Cold War, and an updated MMCA has the potential to similarly ease U.S.China tensions on the high seas.

More from National Review
76 new genes regions were found to be linked to length of sleep - dolgachov

If you struggle to get the full eight hours at night your parents could be to blame.

Suffering from sleep problems could be genetic, a new study suggests.

Scientists at the University of Exeter have identified 76 new genes which are associated with sleep duration after examining nearly 500,000 Britons.

While carrying a single gene variant influenced the average amount of sleep by only a minute, participants carrying the largest number of duration-increasing variants reported an average of 22 more minutes of sleep, compared with those with the fewest.

Previous studies have shown that regularly getting adequate sleep - between seven and eight hours per night - is important to health.

But insufficient sleep of six hours or fewer and excessive sleep - nine hours or more - have been linked to significant health problems.

Family studies have suggested that up to 40 per cent of variation in sleep duration may be inherited and previous genetic studies have associated variants in two gene regions with sleep duration.

Scientists examined genetic data from more than 446,000 participants in the UK Biobank who self-reported the amount of sleep they typically had.

They identified 78 gene regions - including two previously discovered - as associated with sleep duration.

Co-lead author Dr Samuel Jones, from the University of Exeter, said: "Finding 78 areas of the genome that influence habitual sleep duration represents a huge leap forward in our understanding of the mechanisms behind why some people need more sleep than others.

"As part of a wider body of work, our discoveries have the potential to aid the discovery of new treatments for sleep and sleep-related disorders."

However most of the new genes are not linked to whether someone is an early riser or a night owl..

"While we spend about a third of our life asleep, we have little knowledge of the specific genes and pathways that regulate the amount of sleep people get," said lead author Dr Hassan Saeed Dashti, of Massachusetts General Hospital.

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The scientists also found that there were shared health problems for those who got too little and too much sleep.

There were shared genetic links and factors such as higher levels of body fat, symptoms of depression and fewer years of schooling, the scientists said.

In addition, people who did not get enough sleep were genetically linked to insomnia and smoking, while those who got too much sleep were linked with schizophrenia, type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease.

The findings also support earlier conclusions that the genetics of sleep duration may be different in children than in adults.

Co-senior author Dr Richa Saxena, from Harvard Medical School, said: "While follow-up studies are required to clarify the functional impact of these variants, the associated genes are known to play a role in brain development and in the transmission of signals between neurons.

"These findings suggest themes for future investigations of the sleep-wake control centres of the brain that will help us tease apart mechanisms of disordered sleep and help understand each person's natural set point for refreshing sleep."

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
TOKYO (Reuters) - The following conditions were imposed on ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn as part of the $9 million bail that freed him from jail, according to a member of his legal team. If he violates these terms, he will be sent back to jail.

1. Must reside in Tokyo.

2. Cannot travel abroad; must surrender passport to his lawyer.

3. Needs court permission to go on a trip of more than two nights.

4. Must install surveillance cameras at the entrances of his residence.

5. Prohibited from accessing the internet and using e-mail.

6. Can only use a personal computer at his lawyer's office that is not connected to the internet.

7. Banned from communicating with parties involved in the case.

8. Needs court's permission to attend a Nissan board meeting.

8. Banned from contacting Nissan managers.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly and Mayuko Ono; Editing by Stephen Coates)
The Goldman Sachs Group GS is trimming the commodities business by laying off 10 employees after giving fair warning to investors that commodities rally is likely to fade soon. The division once was a major source of revenues for the investment bank.

Per a Bloombergs article, Goldman is making cuts in metals and bulk commodities while the base and precious metals teams will be merged.

The decision comes after months of review conducted on Goldmans businesses, as supported by the new chief executive officer David Solomon, with a view to control costs and tap on areas that could generate higher profits.

A similar review on the commodities arm revealed that the wing was not generating enough returns to justify the amount of capital being invested.

For Goldman's commodities traders, 2017 was a disappointing year. In 2018, the scenario improved slightly. However, it is yet to regain the spark it had in 2000, when it contributed about 15% of Goldman's pretax profits.

Per Coalition, a financial analytics firm, 12 major banks are expected to have generated commodities trading revenues of less than $4 billion in 2018, compared with nearly $16 billion in 2008.

While the bank is on track to remodel its business into a more profitable organization, it continues to be face investigations over its role in helping to raise funds for the 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Moreover, the company recently stated that expenses made for the ongoing legal matters might be $1.9 billion above the aggregate reserves the company has kept for such purpose.

Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has lost 17% in the past six months.

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STUART, Fla.  As families shopped around them, a steady stream of men wandered in and out of the Bridge Day Spa, a massage parlor in a strip mall anchored by a Publix Supermarket and a Sherwin-Williams Paint Store. Police say the men engaged in illicit sexual activity with Chinese masseuses in private massage rooms inside the spa, with two or three women reportedly exchanging sexual acts with up to 10 men a day.

Eleven miles away at the Martin County Sheriff's Office, detectives huddled inside a conference room turned high-tech surveillance hub and followed the activity on color flat-screen monitors. Often, they radioed a team perched outside the spa, who would follow the unsuspecting johns and try to identify them, gathering IDs that would number in the hundreds.

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That complex and painstaking  and, to some, controversial  teamwork was at the center of a four-county, seven-month sex trafficking investigation of massage parlors that included hidden cameras, billionaire johns, semen-stained napkins and a $20 million suspected network that stretched from China to New York to Florida.

The investigation, which ensnared nearly 300 suspected johns, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, has sparked a national conversation about human trafficking and renewed calls to strengthen anti-trafficking laws. Police say some of the female spa employees were locked inside the parlors for weeks at a time and made to engage in sexual acts with clients  some as many as 16 times a day.

Overall, hundreds of work hours and more than $400,000 worth of detective work went into the effort police hope will bring down the suspected underground network  and could be replicated in counties across the USA.

This was a lot more widespread than any of us thought, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said. I dont think most police agencies or sheriffs know how widespread this is.

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More than 10 people connected to the spas have been charged with offenses ranging from racketeering and money laundering to profiting from prostitution. Only one woman, Lanyun Ma, 49, of Orlando, who ran the East Spa in downtown Vero Beach, has been accused by police of human trafficking, but prosecutors have not formally filed that charge and its unclear whether it will proceed.

Through a spokesman, Kraft, 77, who police say visited an illicit massage parlor in Jupiter in January, has denied engaging in any illegal activity. His attorney said Thursday that Kraft will not attend a court arraignment set for March 28, despite a court notice requiring him to appear in person.

Interviews and court documents show the investigation stretched across four Florida counties  Orange, Indian River, Martin and Palm Beach  and netted more than $2 million in seized assets. They also reveal the complexities and challenges of investigating sex trafficking rings, where victims and suspects are often one and the same.

Paul Petruzzi, a Miami-based attorney representing one of the arrested spa managers, said some of the police tactics  such as secretly installing surveillance cameras in private massage rooms  could face legal scrutiny later.

Its a very rare and unusual law enforcement tactic to be used, he said, "and very rare for courts to authorize such a tactic.

The investigation began on July 6 with a phone call to the Martin County Sheriffs Office from Karen Herzog, a Florida Department of Health inspector. On a routine inspection of the Bridge Day Spa in Stuart, she noticed suitcases, slept-in massage tables and provocatively dressed masseuses in the strip mall parlor, according to court documents.

Working on Herzogs tip, Snyder deployed lead detective Michael Felton to look into the spa. For more than two weeks, Felton observed a steady stream of customers, most of them male coming in and out of the parlor, questioned some johns leaving the spa and recovered physical evidence, such as semen-stained napkins from outside trash bins, according to Snyder and court documents.

Felton reported his findings to Snyder and top commanders in the department's Criminal Investigations Division: There was prostitution and likely human trafficking occurring at the spa, he told them. Snyder said he then made a decision: Instead of raiding and shutting down the spa, as most law enforcement agencies would do given such evidence, he would launch a protracted investigation to try to root out any organized criminal rings operating there.

We would actually see how far we could go in making a case for human trafficking or racketeering, said Snyder, a former Republican state lawmaker who co-wrote one of the states human trafficking laws. My sense was: These women dont do this on their own.

The department assigned up to 10 detectives to the case. They soon noticed that the women, who were all Asian, were often shuttled in expensive cars to other spas: the Cove Day and Florida Therapy spas in Stuart and the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, 17 miles south. Some would enter the spas and not emerge for weeks, he said. Others were driven north to spas in Orange County.

Snyder called the Jupiter Police Department. I told them, You got a racketeering case going on in your massage parlor, he said. Police there jumped on the case, mirroring many of the tactics Martin County Sheriff detectives were using. Their focus: the Orchids of Asia Day Spa, a storefront spa in a strip mall in northeast Jupiter featuring a Publix supermarket and several pizzerias.

Snyder also sought help from Homeland Security Investigations, which provided Mandarin interpreters, money and other resources, he said. HSI agents began showing up regularly at the Martin County Sheriffs Office.

Anthony Salisbury, special agent in charge of the Miami office of HSI, which helped in the case, said one of the challenges in expanding a case from prostitution to sex trafficking is getting the female employees to cooperate. Many suspects in cases he oversees who are alleged sex traffickers end up being charged with prostitution or money laundering instead, he said.

Even more challenging are cases involving Asian women, who tend to have a bigger language barrier and deeper distrust of law enforcement, Salisbury said.

That is one of the communities that seems to be reluctant to come forward, he said.

In September, Martin County Sheriff detectives obtained court approval  known as a break-order warrant"  to install surveillance cameras inside area spas, Snyder said. Officials converted a conference room in the department's headquarters into a high-tech surveillance hub. Four flat-screen monitors showed the inner workings of the spas, in color.

Three detectives  one of which was always a female officer  constantly monitored the screens during the spas business hours, from 9 a.m. to about 11 p.m., he said. They clicked off the monitors if a female client entered the massage rooms, focusing solely on male clients, who are more likely to engage in prostitution, Snyder said.

After an illicit act, the detectives would radio an undercover team perched outside the parlor and describe the male suspect as he left the spa. The undercover team would then follow and try to identify the unsuspecting john.

The detectives weren't able to collar every suspected john, Snyder said. Some slipped away while the pursuit team was busy with another client. For every one suspect they identified, another five got away, he said.

"Theres hundreds of men in this county that go to massage parlors where sex trafficking  or at least prostitution  goes on," Snyder said.

Meanwhile, investigators pored over bank and property records of the spa owners, untangling a web of ownership and money that stretched to China. More than $20 million was flowing between China and the Florida spas, Snyder said. The case was growing.

As police in Martin and Palm Beach counties gathered evidence in their case, Vero Beach Police were sending undercover agents into the East Spa in downtown Vero Beach in a separate  and coincidentally concurrent  investigation.

The Vero Beach query began in August after several tips flowed into the department, including an anonymous letter mailed to Chief David Currey detailing how men were streaming in and out of the East Spa, Currey said.

As in the Martin County investigation  and unbeknownst to detectives there  Currey sent undercover agents to monitor the spa, got a break-order warrant to install surveillance cameras inside and set up a room in the Vero Police Department to monitor activity inside massage rooms.

As women were tracked to other nearby spas, detectives from neighboring Sebastian Police Department and the Indian River County Sheriff's Office opened their own investigations, Currey said.

For six months, Vero Beach Police dedicated two investigators, five general crime officers, two supervisors and other personnel to the case, racking up more than $100,000 worth of detective work, Currey said.

"I've been here almost 30 years, and we haven't had an investigation like this in our city in our memory," he said.

Vero Beach Police Detective Sgt. Phil Huddy would later enter one of the Vero Beach massage parlors. There were beds constructed from 2-by-4 planks and mattresses thrown atop, a refrigerator stuffed with food, a break room with a microwave where meals were prepared, and a makeshift shower or spigot coming out of a wall where the women apparently took showers.

Thats the conditions these ladies were living in, Huddy said.

Investigators in Martin and Indian River counties learned they were working on similar sex trafficking cases through county prosecutors on the cases, Currey said. They began coordinating efforts.

By February, investigators were ready to move in. On Feb. 19, they launched coordinated raids on the spas and held news conferences announcing the findings.

A major challenge remains getting some of the arrested women to cooperate with investigators.

That challenge came into sharp focus in the wake of the arrests. Snyder watched as one of the women, Lixia Zhu, 48, dissolved into sobs as she told detectives how she came from China to work at a nail salon in Chicago then was forced into sex trafficking. Her passports were locked up and her relatives in China were threatened, Snyder said.

Then, midway through the interview, a Mandarin-speaking attorney from New York showed up. He spoke to Zhu, who immediately stopped cooperating.

It threw a chill over the entire investigative division, Snyder said.

Still, there are signs of hope. One woman recounted how she has been shuttled to seven or eight other U.S cities to perform similar acts in massage parlors, showing the reach of the suspected ring, Snyder said. Vero Beach police said they have one cooperating witness who can help prosecutors present a trafficking case.

About a week after the arrests, Martin County Sheriff deputies also received some encouraging intel from the Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office: U-Haul trucks had been backed up to two massage parlors in their jurisdiction. They were packing up and leaving town.

Snyder said he hopes other law enforcement officials take note and replicate what he has started on the Treasure Coast.

We found a way to do this, he said. If I had my way, wed bring this methodology to a massage parlor near you.

Need help? See something?

The National Human Trafficking Hotline is confidential, toll-free and available 24/7 in more than 200 languages.

Call: 1-888-373-7888

Text: BeFree (233733)

Chat: humantraffickinghotline.org

Contributing: TCPalm reporters Melissa Holsman, Will Greenlee and Mary Helen Moore.

Follow Jervis on Twitter: @MrRJervis.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Florida police snared nearly 300  including Robert Kraft  at spas used for sex trafficking
WASHINGTON  Two top House Democrats have dispatched letters to the White House and the Justice Department, seeking documents and communications over the AT&T-Time Warner merger after a report that President Trump attempted to interfere with the review of the transaction.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) sent letters on Thursday to Makan Delrahim, the chief of the DOJs Antitrust Division, and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.

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Even the appearance of White House interference in antitrust law matters undermines public trust in the Department of Justices integrity and tarnishes meritorious enforcement by the Antitrust Division, they wrote. The fact of actual interference would constitute a serious abuse of power.

They cited a New Yorker report that in the summer of 2017, Trump called economic adviser Gary Cohn into his office along with new chief of staff John Kelly, and asked them pressure the DOJ to file suit to block the merger.

Ive been telling Cohn to get this lawsuit filed and nothings happened! Ive mentioned it 50 times. And nothings happened. I want to make sure its filed. I want that deal blocked! Trump said, according to a New Yorker piece written by Jane Mayer. Cohn, though, did not carry out the order and told allegedly Kelly, Dont you fing dare call the Justice Department. We are not going to do business that way.

The Justice Department did file suit against the merger, in November, 2017, but courts ruled in favor of the companies. The DOJ argued that the transaction would give AT&T undue leverage over its distribution rivals in carriage negotiations for the Turner networks, and that consumers ultimately would see higher prices.

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AT&T and Time Warner executives have viewed the motives for the lawsuit with suspicion, and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson even called it the elephant in the room. William Barr, who was a Time Warner board member before he became attorney general, said in a sworn declaration last year that Trumps prior public animus toward this merger was a reason many would view the DOJs lawsuit as political motivated.

A month before the trial started, in February, 2018, AT&T-Time Warners legal team even tried to start discovery on whether they were unfairly targeted because of Trumps hatred of CNN, then a unit of Time Warner. But the judge in the case, Richard Leon, declined.

Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the White House did not immediately return a request for comment.

Delrahim has also denied that the decision to file suit was influenced by the White House.

I have never been instructed by the White House on this or any other transaction under review by the antitrust division, he said on Nov. 8, 2017, just before the lawsuit was filed. In a sworn affidavit, he also denied that the decision to file suit had anything to do with CNNs coverage.

The Washington Post first reported on the Democrats letter.

The House Democrats are seeking documents from Nov. 9, 2016 to Feb. 26, 2019, sent or received by the Department of Justice to or from President Donald Trump or Gary Cohn relating to the proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger.

They also are seeking communications between the Justice Department, the Trump transaction team and White House employees related to the decision to file the merger lawsuit, and other deliberations related to the transaction. They are seeking a response by March 20.

Even before The New Yorker piece, Cicilline had said that he planned to investigate past mergers, including AT&T-Time Warner, and whether White House officials attempted to influence their reviews. He and Nadler noted in their letters that they sought records from the Justice Department last year  on Feb. 8 and May 15  seeking records of any contacts with the White House.

The Justice Department did not provide any of the requested documents, they wrote. In a letter in May, the Justice Department did say in a letter that it was committed to ensuring that political considerations do not influence the handling of particular investigations or cases, and that all investigations conducted by the Antitrust Division are initiated and conducted in a fair, professional, and impartial manner, without regard to political considerations.

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The Democratic party is having a rough time condemning anti-Semitism. Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has, on several occasions, made classically anti-Semitic claims about American Jews, and the effort to formally denounce those statements in the House ruined a week in which the Democrats were supposed to talk about their agenda.

The gist of Omars complaints is that the perfidious, string-pulling Hebraic hordes control Congress with their shady shekels; Israel has hypnotized the world; and American Jews are guilty of dual loyalty.

The controversies have been compounded by the fact that her apologies suggest shes not actually apologetic. Omar has claimed that the anti-Semitism charge is an effort to silence her because she wants to talk about the Jewish scheme to push for allegiance to a foreign country. In an earlier sorry-not-sorry episode, she apologized for hurting anyones feelings, which is not quite the same thing as recanting.

The whole issue of hurt feelings is a red herring  which is precisely why so many Democrats want to focus on feelings rather than on the relevant facts. Indeed, if Omar had better facts on her side, she wouldnt be in this mess.

For instance, Omar seems to think the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a political-action committee that funds candidates on behalf of Israel. Inconveniently for Omar, AIPAC isnt a PAC, doesnt work for Israel, and doesnt donate to political campaigns.

More interesting, however, is the Democratic leaderships fact problem  namely the fact Omar simply isnt a fan of Jews, or at least Jews who support Israel. Its fine to be a critic of Israel, by the way. But when you hate the country so much that you cant explain criticism of Israel without resorting to bigotry, you have a problem. Or rather, the Democratic party does.

Because its not just Omar. If Omar had no sympathizers, House speaker Nancy Pelosi would probably have thrown her under the bus already. The younger, fresher, and more radical fringe of the party led by New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesnt think Omar should be singled out for criticism or censure. In fairness, the primary reason is not that they all share Omars hang-up with the Jews. Some are just anti-Israel. Others think its unfair that Omar should be criticized when Donald Trump or other Republicans have said bigoted things.

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Ocasio-Cortez called efforts to censure Omar hurtful because statements by other politicians, most obviously Trump, arent similarly condemned. She has something of a point. I certainly wish Republicans did more to condemn many of the things Trump has said. But she seems to have forgotten that Republicans did condemn and punish Iowa representative Steve King recently for his on-brand racist blather.

So while Ocasio-Cortez is right to a point, that point doesnt take her very far. Its her party that has established a zero-tolerance-for-bigotry standard. And whataboutist arguments are the lowest form of defense. Some Republicans may be hypocrites for not condemning all bigotry equally, but thats a criticism of Republicans, not a defense of Omar.

The effort to avoid singling out Omar is putting Democrats in knots they will be hard-pressed to untie anytime soon. Pelosi has said Omar wasnt intentionally anti-Semitic.

Asked if Omars comment about Jewish dual loyalty was anti-Semitic, Representative Emmanuel Cleaver of Missouri offered this profile in courage: It may or may not be. I havent thought deeply about it.

South Carolinas James Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the House, offered a baffling defense of Omar by talking about  surprise!  her feelings. He says Omars experience as a refugee from Somalia who spent time in a Kenyan refugee camp has to be taken into account.

There are people who tell me, Well, my parents are Holocaust survivors. My parents did this. Its more personal with her, Clyburn told The Hill. Ive talked to her, and I can tell you she is living through a lot of pain.

Leave aside the fact that whatever happened to Omar in Kenya or Somalia, it has nothing to do with Israel or Jews. Are we going to have greater tolerance for bigotry based on a time-since-victimhood score? Slavery was even longer ago than the Holocaust. Does that make racist comments less outrageous than anti-Semitic comments?

On Thursday, Pelosi announced that the House would vote on a resolution condemning all forms of hate. Its a transparent dodge to avoid condemning a specific kind of hate.

It might do the trick to turn the page. But it will almost surely be a temporary respite, because Omar (and others) come to their anti-Semitism honestly, and theyre inclined to be honest about it. So well be here again.

More from National Review
The House passed a broad electoral-reform bill Friday, fulfilling a Democratic campaign promise from last year.

The For the People Act, or H.R. 1, which was sponsored by Representative John Sarbanes of Maryland, passed the House 234193 in a party-line vote.

The bill is Democrats effort to combat corruption and dark money in elections and would overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court case, which lifted certain regulations on political spending by unions and corporations. It would also enable automatic voter registration, make Election Day a federal holiday, expand early voting, put independent commissions in charge of House redistricting, force dark money groups to disclose donors, and require presidential and vice presidential candidates to release ten years of tax returns to the public.

The bill will likely die in the Senate, where Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell has disparagingly called it the Democrat Politician Protection Act.

Theyre trying to clothe this power grab with cliches about restoring democracy and doing it For the People, but their proposal is simply a naked attempt to change the rules of American politics to benefit one party, McConnell wrote in the Washington Post in January.

Representation Rodney Davis of Illinois, the ranking Republican on the House Administration Committee, which advanced the bill, complained that it was being rushed to a floor vote for political reasons instead of good policy.

It is fundamental to our democracy that people believe  they believe  that actions taken here will be in their interest, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. That is what this legislation will help to restore.

Its a power grab  a power grab on behalf of the people, she said.

More from National Review
The House of Representatives has passed a resolution condemning antisemitism and other forms of hate amid a row involving a Muslim congresswoman that exposed a sharp division between the Democratic Partys establishment and its younger, more progressive members.

The measure passed by the House 407-23, condemned antisemitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values and aspirations that define the people of the United States. It also condemned anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry.

The passing of the resolution  support for which came from a number of Jewish members of Congress  followed a row among Democrats over remarks made by congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who last year become one of the two first Muslim women elected to congress.

Ms Omar, who represents a district in Minneapolis, triggered headlines over comments many believed repeated antisemtic tropes. Last month, she responded to tweet from journalist Glenn Greenwald, who posted about House Republican lader Kevin McCarthy threatening to punish her and another congresswoman for being critical of Israel.

Ms Omar replied Its all about the Benjamins baby, a line about $100 bills from a Puff Daddy song, which some said was part of a centuries-old smearing of Jews over money.

Ms Omar apologised at the time, saying: Antisemitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of antisemitic tropes.

Yet, many believe Ms Omar has been attacked because of her comments over the outsized influence Israel has on US policies  something that has long been alleged by some academics. Those who have studied the relationship, say it is based on both history and a strategic relationship in which the US has long supported Israel against attacks in institutions such as the United Nations.

Another factor is the power of evangelical Christians in the US  an important part of Donald Trumps support  whose so-called End time beliefs state that Jesus will return when Jerusalem is returned to the Israelites.

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A survey carried out last year of evangelical Christians, found half of evangelicals supported Israel because they believe it is important for fulfilling such prophecies.

Ms Omars comments about the influence of Israel and the pro-Israel lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), were made at a bookshop appearance with fellow congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who is also Muslim.

I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says its okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country, she said. I want to ask why is it okay for me to talk about the influence of the NRA (National Rifle Association), of fossil fuel industries or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policies.

As the president, Republicans and a number of Democrats attacked Mr Omar  the third-ranking Republican in the House Liz Cheney told reporters Ms Omar embodied a vile, hate-filled, antisemitic, anti-Israel bigotry  some Democrats came to her defence.

Politico reported that in separate statements Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and and Elizabeth Warren condemned antisemitism, but called for more discussion surrounding the USs policy with Israel.

Many said the episode highlighted a division between the Democrats establishment and its younger, more progressive members, many of whom are happy to question the USs unquestioning support for Israel.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has long been an outspoken supporter of Israel, said on Thursday she did not believe Mr Omars comments were intended in any antisemitic way.

I dont think that the congresswoman perhaps appreciates the full weight of how it was heard by other people, although I dont believe it was intended in any anti-Semitic way, Ms Pelosi said at her weekly news conference, according to CNN.




The House overwhelmingly passed a Democratic resolution on Thursday evening to condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia and other expressions of bigotry after the freshman congresswoman Ilhan Omar again sparked controversy with comments implying supporters of Israel displayed dual loyalty.

The 407-23 vote caps a tumultuous week for Democratic leadership as they tried to contain the fallout over Omars latest provocative comments, while advancing sweeping election and ethics reform legislation that was a centerpiece of their campaign during the midterm elections last November.

All Democrats, including Omar, voted for the resolution while 23 Republicans opposed the measure, including the GOP conference chair Liz Cheney and several members of the arch-conservative House Freedom Caucus. The Iowa congressman Steve King, a Republican who was was stripped of his committee assignments after he questioned why white supremacy had become an offensive term, voted present.

The seven-page resolution states that whether from the political right, center, or left, bigotry, discrimination, oppression, racism, and imputations of dual loyalty threaten American democracy and have no place in American political discourse.

It cites the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia, the mass shooting of African American churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, the massacre of Jewish members at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, and attacks on mosques.

Though the document does not name Omar, it was drafted by the Democratic congressmen Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who is Jewish and a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Cedric Richmond, a member of leadership and a previous chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, in response to her comments.

Its not about her, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, told reporters on Thursday. Its about these forms of hatred. She added that she did not believe Omar had understood the weight of her words.

Omar, who in January became one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress, said Israels supporters push lawmakers to pledge allegiance to a foreign country, a remark that was viewed by lawmakers of both parties as playing into the antisemitic trope of dual loyalty  a myth that Jewish people are more loyal to Israel than their country of residence.

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Related: Antisemitism debate exposes new fault lines in US politics

How to respond to the comments became a source of internal tension. Some in the party believed the resolution should condemn antisemitism, while others argued that it has unfairly singled out Omar and should be broadened to include anti-Muslim bias.

She said the controversy afforded Democrats the opportunity to unequivocally denounce bigotry, attempting to draw a distinction with the US president.

The president may think there are good people on both sides, Pelosi said referring to Trumps comments after Charlottesville. We dont share that view.

The controversy exposed a rift within the Democratic caucus that cracked along generational, ideological religious and racial lines. Republicans for their part have largely enjoyed the show, interjecting only to fan the flames.

Congressman Lee Zeldin, a New York Republican who is Jewish and voted against the resolution, asked why Omar hadnt apologized for her comments this time.

I dont believe she is naive. I believe she knows exactly what shes doing, he said, adding that criticism of a foreign government is every Americas constitutional right but it is not an American value to be hurling anti-semitic rhetoric.

Some Jewish lawmakers said they were disappointed in the resolutions broad scope .

We are having this debate because of the language one of our colleagues, language that suggests that Jews like me who serve in the United States in Congress and whose father earned a purple heart fighting the Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge, that we are not loyal Americans, congressman Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat who is Jewish, said Thursday in an impassioned speech on the House floor.

Why are we unable to singularly condemn anti-semitism? Why cant we call antisemitism and show that weve learned the lessons of history.

Omar, who came to the US as a refugee from Somalia and is the first woman to wear a hijab in the chamber, has been vocal about the racially and religiously motivated attacks that shes endured, including accusations that she is un-American. A sign posted in the West Virginia capitol last week displayed a photo of Omar below a photograph of New Yorks World Trade Center burning after the al-Qaida terrorist attacks of September 11.

The Minnesota congresswoman is part of a cohort of young progressive lawmakers who are openly critical of the Israeli government. But critics argue that her remarks amount to a disturbing pattern of antisemitism. She apologized for a 2012 tweet in which she said Israel had hypnotized America, then again for suggesting that members of Congress support Israel because they are paid to do so after an unflinching rebuke by her partys leadership.

Related: Ilhan Omar attacks pro-Israel lobby and critics again call remarks antisemitic

But this time, her comments sharply divided Democrats. Some lawmakers argued that Omar was being unfairly targeted  and believe the issue is being inflamed by conservatives eager to drive a political wedge in the caucus. The presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris defended her.

What I fear is going on in the House now is an effort to target congresswoman Omar as a way of stifling that debate, said Sanders, who is Jewish. Thats wrong.

Harris said Democrats must speak out against hate but added that there is a critical difference between criticism of policy or political leaders, and antisemitism.
(Reuters) - Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies has asked Japanese firms including Murata Manufacturing and Toshiba Memory to increase supplies of smartphone components, the Nikkei reported on Wednesday.

The move is believed to be aimed partly at preventing supply disruptions as the United States steps up pressure on Chinese technology companies over security concerns, the report said https://s.nikkei.com/2H4QDgk.

Huawei has requested supply increases by early summer, when production of its latest smartphone is scheduled to go into full swing, the Nikkei reported, citing unnamed sources.

Murata is believed to have received an order for roughly twice the usual amount of parts while Toshiba Memory has been asked to supply flash memory components ahead of schedule, the report added.

Huawei has come under fire from the United States, which has warned that next-generation 5G equipment, which some telecoms experts see as more vulnerable to attack than previous technology, could be exploited by the Chinese government for spying if supplied by Huawei.

Huawei and Toshiba Memory did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. A Murata Manufacturing spokeswoman said the company would not comment on specific clients.

(Reporting by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)
By Sijia Jiang

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Huawei Technologies is set to announce a lawsuit on Thursday against the United States, ratcheting up its response to a campaign aimed at closing it out of Western markets for fear its telecoms equipment could be used by Beijing for spying.

The privately owned firm has embarked on a public relations and legal offensive over the past two months as Washington lobbies allies to abandon Huawei when building fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks, centring on a 2017 Chinese law requiring companies cooperate with national intelligence work.

Founder and Chief Executive Ren Zhengfei has said Huawei, the world's biggest telecoms gear maker, has never and will never share data with China's government.

Close to 10 senior Reuters journalists have been approached recently by Huawei recruiters for public relations director roles, with some offered annual pay packages of $200,000. Such appointments would beef up its international media team just as it restructures a 300-strong corporate affairs department.

In response to a Reuters query, Joe Kelly, vice president of communications, said Huawei was hiring but not more than usual, to fill positions where people had been assigned overseas. He did not verify salaries, which were advertised by headhunters.

RETRIBUTION

The planned legal action and public relations outreach compare with a more restrained response in December emphasising "trust in justice" when its chief financial officer, Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Vancouver at U.S. request.

The United States has accused Meng - Ren's daughter - of bank and wire fraud related to breaches of trade sanctions against Iran.

Huawei's legal action, first reported by the New York Times on Monday, comes after news that Meng was suing Canada's government for procedural wrongs in her arrest.

Days earlier, Canada authorised a hearing for an extradition request, quashing Chinese hopes of a rejection on grounds that Meng's arrest was politically motivated.

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The case had strained relations with China, which this week accused two arrested Canadians of stealing state secrets in a move widely seen as retribution for Meng's arrest.

While Meng is under house arrest in Vancouver, it is unclear where the two Canadians are being detained in China. Sources previously told Reuters that at least one of the Canadians did not have access to legal representation.

CHANGE OF TUNE

Ren met international media for the first time in several years in mid-January, calling U.S. President Donald Trump "great" and refraining from commenting directly on Meng's case.

Shifting tone, Ren in mid-February said Meng's arrest was politically motivated and "not acceptable".

A week later at the Mobile World Congress, where Huawei unveiled the world's most expensive foldable phone, Rotating Chairman Guo Ping opened his speech with a jab at the United States.

"PRISM, PRISM, on the wall, who is the most trustworthy of them all," he said, referring to the U.S. National Security Agency's internet surveillance programme PRISM, which collected data from major internet companies.

Guo later said the United States wanted to thwart Huawei's rise as it "hampers U.S. efforts to spy on whomever it wants".

A senior member of Huawei's public relations team told Reuters the firm was taking a more proactive approach to U.S. attacks. It launched facts.huawei.com and invited media to tour its Shenzhen headquarters.

"We've had enough," the staffer said.

(Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by James Pomfret and Christopher Cushing)
Prominent progressives including Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have come to the defence of Representative Ilhan Omar amid controversy following her criticism of pro-Israel groups and politicians, which some have deemed anti-semitic.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has suggested that Ms Omar may not have understood the full weight of what she was saying at the time.

"I don't think that the congresswoman perhaps appreciates the full weight of how it was heard by other people, although I don't believe it was intended in any anti-Semitic way," Ms Pelosi said on Thursday during a press briefing.

Mr Sanders, who is Jewish, said that he believes the attacks on Ms Omar are aimed at silencing discussion of American foreign policy with regards to Israel.

What I fear is going on in the House now is an effort to target Congresswoman Omar as a way of stifling that debate, Mr Sanders, who is top democratic presidential candidate, said in a statement. That's wrong.

:: Read everything you need to know about the controversy surrounding Ms Omar's statements right here::

Ms Ocasio-Cortez claimed that the attacks on Ms Omar illustrate the hypocrisy in Congress surrounding questions of racism or anti-semitism.

One of the things that is hurtful about the extent to which reprimand is sought of Ilhan is that no one seeks this level of reprimand when members make statements about Latinx + other communities (during the shutdown, a GOP member yelled 'Go back to Puerto Rico!' on the floor), Ms Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

She continued: Its not my position to tell people how to feel, or that their hurt is invalid.

But incidents like these do beg the question: where are the resolutions against homophobic statements? For anti-blackness? For xenophobia? For a member saying hell send Obama home to Kenya?
The Democrat who told supporters she intended to impeach mother****er Donald Trump, has announced plans to file an impeachment resolution against the president.

Rashida Tlaib, the newly elected congresswoman from Michigan, in January made headlines when she was recorded using the impolite language in a speech at an event for supporters. Mr Trump said her words were disgraceful and disrespectful to the country.

On Wednesday, the congresswomen doubled down on her plans, holding a press conference to announce she would soon file an impeachment resolution.

Such a resolution marks the start of the process in which members of the House of Representatives can seek to impeach a president, and where the process against Bill Clinton began two decades ago.

Later on this month, I will be joining folks and advocates across the country to file the impeachment resolution to start the impeachment proceedings, said Mr Tlaib. I think every single colleague of mine agrees theres impeachable offences. Thats one thing that we all agree on. We may disagree on the pace.

She added: Its really important that the president of the United States is investigated in violations of the United States constitution.

Observers said they did not expect Ms Tlaibs resolution to make much progress. Other resolutions, introduced under the Republican-controlled House by Democratic congressmen Al Green and Brad Sherman, went nowhere.

Even with the House now controlled by the Democrats, the resolution is not expected to progress far because the Democratic leadership headed by Nancy Pelosi has urged her party to allow its own committee investigations of Mr Trump be completed before they turn to impeachment.

I think this is a a problem for Nancy Pelosi because she knows the Republicans are going to use this to fund-raise in 2020, Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science at Iona College in New York, told The Independent. Republicans will say Look at these crazy Democrats trying to impeach the president.

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Ahead of the 2018 midterms, Ms Pelosi gave instructions to candidates to talk about issues such as health care and the economy rather than impeachment, to avoid being divisive. Her strategy paid off.

Ms Pelosi, now the speaker, recently told Rolling Stone magazine impeachment could be disruptive. She is also aware of the electoral backlash suffered by Republicans after they sought to impeach Mr Clinton in 1998, a move that a portion of the public viewed as politically motivated.

Its an opportunity cost in terms of time and resources, Ms Pelosi said. You dont want to go down that path unless it is unavoidable.

Mike Fraioli, a veteran Democratic strategist based in Washington DC, said he believed the leadership of the party would now be talking with Ms Tlaib and urging her to wait until either its own probes were completed, or at least special counsel Robert Mueller had published his report.

Remember, these committee investigations are being done very thoroughly and with very professional staffs, he said.
Image Point Fr/Shutterstock

March 8, 2019

Mothers exposed to severe infections during pregnancy have an increased risk of delivering a baby who develops autism or depression later in life, says a new study published in JAMA Psychiatry, a journal of the American Medical Association.

Study authors searched the national health registry of Sweden using hospital diagnosis codes for infection to identify all the pregnant women hospitalized between 1973 and 2014. After analyzing the data for more than one and a half million children born during that time frame, they found that infections during pregnancy increased the risk for autism and depression in childhood and adulthood. Exposure to infection increased autism rates by 79 percent and depression rates by 24 percent.

The authors also looked for connections between maternal infection and bipolar disorder and psychosis, but did not find a significant increase in risk; this was largely due to the conservative measures of the study, says co-author Kristina M. Adams Waldorf, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington.

"It doesn't mean there's no relationship [between other psychiatric illnesses and infection], it was just the way we constructed our analysis of the data," she explains. "We also didn't look at things like ADHD or study the difference between boys and girls, but we can do that in the future."

Scientists and researchers know that genetics are partially to blame for autism spectrum disorders, but this new study shines a light on another potentially important factor as well: inflammation. According to Dr. Adams Waldorf, other studies have found that inflammation caused by infection during pregnancy can have effects on the fetal brain, whether the infection happened to the mom or the baby. Because of this connection, inflammation may be the key to understanding why infection exposure raises the risk of psychiatric disorders.

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Unfortunately, inflammation is too vague of a metric to be studied through reviews of health registry databut infection isn't, which is why Dr. Adams Waldorf and her colleagues chose to focus on it. The team looked at hospital diagnostic codes for both bacterial and viral infections, such as sepsis, influenza, pneumonia, meningitis, and urinary tract infections, among others.

If you're wondering why UTIs are included on this list of otherwise severe infections, there's a good reason: Dr. Adams Waldorf says that given the scope of the study, it wasn't possible to parse out individual infection codes to see if patients had coexisting conditions or illnesses. In other words, it's reasonable to assume that some of those patients had actually been hospitalized for pre-eclampsia or other more serious issues or injuries (while also having UTIs).

"This is not a story about [pregnant women who had] the common cold or strep throat," says Dr. Adams Waldorf.

Basically, you don't need to stress about every sniffle, cough, or low-grade fever that strikes while you're pregnant. But severe infections requiring hospitalization are possible during pregnancy...so how worried should you be about the link between infection and inflammation? Well, the uncomfortable reality is that you'll be exposed to bacterial and viral infections while you're pregnant (because as much as you may want to, you can't exactly spend nine months walking around in a sterilized bubble).

Thankfully, though, you don't have to panic: Dr. Adams Waldorf says that while the study results are significant on a population level, for the average individual contracting an infection during pregnancy does not guarantee that your baby will have a psychiatric disorder.

"Normally the autism risk is 1 in 59, and when you apply our findings it becomes 1 in 33," says Dr. Adams Waldorf. "So it becomes more likely, but not 100 percent." In the context of the study findings, the depression risk increases from 1 in 15 to 1 in 12.

The other piece of good news? There are some easy steps you can take to at least minimizeif not totally preventyour chances of contracting a severe infection. Dr. Adams Waldorf recommends getting in touch with your doctor right away if you suspect illness because rapid and early treatment of infections (in line with what's considered safe for the baby) is ideal. She also suggests talking to your doctor about any travel you may be planning in an effort to avoid regions involved in outbreaks of dangerous illnesses. Both the measles and Zika viruses can cause particularly severe complications during pregnancy.

Lastly? Stay up-to-date with all recommended vaccines during pregnancy, including the influenza vaccine. Dr. Adams Waldorf notes that only two-thirds of pregnant women typically receive the flu shot, with the other one-third turning it down partly out of fear that it will harm their baby.

"Ironically," she says, "if you don't get the vaccine and then you get the flu, that's when you're more likely to harm your baby."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pregnant women who don't receive the flu shot are more likely to suffer severe symptoms if they contract the flu and are more likely to be hospitalized; since numerous CDC studies have proven the vaccine to be safe during pregnancy, getting a flu shot is a simple and easy preventative measure to take.
FORT MYERS, Fla.  Step aside, fire ants. Theres a new six-legged sheriff in town.

For the last few decades, bigheaded ants have been quietly outcompeting the dreaded South American invaders in Southwest Florida.

And while that's bad news for native species, its less bad news for the humans who live and walk near their nests: Bigheaded ants stingers are too small to penetrate peoples skin the way fire ants do, leaving their victims pocked with ferociously itchy pustules.

But its definitely not good news either. "Oh, they're bad news," said University of Florida entomologist Phil Koehler. "Nasty critters."

Bigheaded ants are listed in the top 100 of the "World's Worst Invaders" and probably came to the U.S. on cargo ships and now pose a danger to Florida's native insects.

Bigheaded ants reproduce prodigiously. Their cities can stretch for whole blocks, and can take months of coordinated effort to remove.

They are whats called a supercolony, said ant expert Mike Ryan of Tempco Pest Control in Fort Myers.

The population is so huge, they will actually force fire ants off your property, Ryan said. They're so aggressive that no other ant can compete against them.

Originally from the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, bigheaded ants likely arrived in Florida on freight ships, docking in Miami and the Keys in the early part of the 20th century, Ryan said. In recent years, though, hurricanes have helped disperse them to the west, plus, "We bring a lot of plant material from Homestead and the Miami area to our coast," he said.

More: Remember that mysterious 'attack' on US diplomats in Cuba? Scientists think it was crickets

Biologists consider bigheaded ants to be one of the most pernicious invasive species in terms of the threat they pose to native insects, thereby disrupting the local ecology.

They can damage lawns and kill trees, and they also can come into homes seeking food, Ryan said.

"They can dig down 10 or 12 feet," he said, "They can actually dig under the foundation. The nest can be underneath your house and they can actually come in from the plumbing inside your kitchens and bathrooms."

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Once inside, they eat almost anything, but prefer proteins and fats.

Their name aside, not all bigheaded ants have large heads. Those that do are female major workers  the colonys soldiers. The smaller ones, also females, gather food.

"The males are usually transient and you don't find them all the time," said University of Florida research scientist Roberto Pereira, who specializes in urban entomology. "Males are basically useless. In the ant world, the males don't do any work, except mate with future queens.

Once shes inseminated, the queen begins to lay eggs.

Their mounds actually look fairly similar to the fire ant mounds, Pereira said but they're not as high and not as compact.

Big-headed ant

More: More than 40 percent of insect species declining, could have 'catastrophic' results, study says

One of the challenges of getting rid of bigheaded ants is If you spray them, they bud, which means they split the colony, Ryan said. So instead of one colony you're dealing with multiple, multiple colonies ... They'll take over communities. We're dealing with a community down in Bonita, where that's what's happening to the whole community. They're just taking over."

So what can be done to remove them? Capitalize on their sociability, Ryan said. "Because they share food, what you want to do is feed a product to the ants so they bring it back and feed their friends and then there's this massive killing that happens."

One thing homeowners should do, Ryan said, is keep vegetation trimmed back so it doesn't touch the house.

"You don't want an archway from the ground to your house," he said.

But if they do show up, do-it-yourself control is a long shot.

"Literally, if you have them, you almost have to call a professional because they have to treat the whole inside of the house and then they're going to have to spray or bait and treat the outside of the house. It's a very intensive program."

Costs will vary from company to company, but will be somewhere around $75 every two months.

"It's important to try to get your neighbors to do it. One thing, if you treat your house, you can actually push the ants to your neighbor's house. So if you don't like your neighbors, you know ... " Ryan said with a chuckle.

More: From crickets to scorpions, why people are eating insects for fun

Follow Amy Bennett Williams on Twitter: @AmySWFL

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: This invasive big-headed ant is building supercolonies in South Florida
Scarborough Leader

Funding for the project would come from a bond and through a capital campaign.
Robocalls have been getting worse and worse. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

I got a call from an unknown number this week. I always send them to voicemail, where they leave me an important message about how they can lower my APR or get me an amazing business loan.

But this one was different. It was a real person and he said, you called me!

I was confused. I hadnt called him, but Ive written about the plague of robocalling enough to know that a spammer must have spoofed my caller ID when they called him. (Spoofing is when someone calls you using a number that looks familiar but is actually fake.) I called him back and we talked about it for a moment. He said he had called me back because he thought it might be important given our numbers had the same area code.

Robocalls have always been annoying, but this felt like it had crossed a line by impersonating me through my number.

This happens a lot. According to data communications firm Transaction Network Services, one in 4,000 people will have their number hijacked by robocallers, which leaves many of them feeling like they have to change their numbers.

Because of all of this madness, fewer people are answering unknown numbers. The phone has just cried wolf too many times.

Add-on anti-spam tools from companies like Nomorobo or YouMail or the other 80-plus apps and tools may work well for some people. And businesses are rolling out a special caller ID with more information. But anyone who owns a phone awaits the day when a full, automatic network-based solution will stop annoying calls.

The big question: when is this finally going to happen?

First off, it could be a whole lot worse

Theres not now or will ever be a single silver bullet solution to this problem, says Kevin Rupy, vice president of law and policy at USTelecom. One of Rupys big tasks these days at the trade group is essentially to fight robocalls. In his spare time, he has a group that helps phone providers trace back illegal callers and refers them to the FCC for fines.

Though it may not seem like it, carriers, industry groups, the FCC, and the FTC are making a difference. As Rupy puts it, Its an arms race. We may be getting more and more irritating trash calls, but a higher percentage is being blocked as the industry evolves and adapts.

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Various different spam identification and blocking technologies are in place across the industry at different levels, often in partnership with specialized companies that can closely track the shifts.

I think whats really important is that a lot of voice providers are now partnering with these app service providers to deploy these services not at the consumer level [like apps you can download] but at the network level, by the carrier embedding these services with their offerings, Rupy says. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, for example, all partner with services that help label and/or block spam calls, like Hiya, First Orion, and Sequint.

A portion of the industrys power has come from the governments newfound priorities. In November 2017, the FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai, who has made fighting robocalls his mission, gave phone companies permission to block four types of calls.

The first type are calls from inbound-only numbers. For example, the IRS never calls out on some of the phone numbers it uses. So any call made with that caller ID can automatically be considered fraudulent. Other kinds that can now be blocked: invalid, ridiculous numbers in weird formats or clearly fake numbers like 1-000-000-0000 or 1234567 can be canceled. The last two kinds of blockable calls: numbers that havent been allocated to carriers and numbers carriers havent yet assigned.

If those numbers haven't been allocated, they shouldn't be making phone calls, says Rupy. So far, tons of these calls and numbers have been blocked by major carriers, preventing at least a portion of harmful IRS scams.

This is not as good as it sounds, an industry insider told Yahoo Finance. Despite the amount of media attention, there really arent that many big, large scale scam/spam campaigns for things like the IRS or others, so the impact is small.

Furthermore, number allocation and assigning is bureaucratic and potentially slow, meaning that a number may be thought of as unassigned or unallocated by one system while being completely legitimate and actually belongs to a teacher in Nebraska. Since many carriers want to avoid these unintended consequences, theyre less willing to block.

The blocking permission also leads to another question: when do you block? Perhaps there is a consensus around scam calls. But annoying, legal calls from politicians or telemarketers? How do you make sure a school closing call isnt considered an unwanted robocall?

The whack-a-mole situation

In March 2017, T-Mobile became the first major carrier to launch a blocking assault on robocalls with a network-level tool that screened and blocked calls.

We were the first, and for a long time the only, major wireless provider to deliver free scam protection to all our [non-prepaid] customers with Scam ID and Scam Block, T-Mobile spokesperson Katie Recken told Yahoo Finance. (AT&T says this is inaccurate because it launched AT&T Call Protect in December 2016.)

These products told customers automatically when a call is likely to be spam, and the blocking feature simply allowed a user to block all the suspected calls.

Soon after T-Mobiles innovation, however, something happened.

There had been plenty of neighborhood spoofing before, with scammers faking caller ID so it looks like they have your area code and possibly also your central office (the second three digits in a phone number).

But after T-Mobile started blocking millions upon millions of spam calls, neighborhood spoofing appeared to evolve into something far more advanced.

Verizon estimates that for its wireline and wireless networks between March 2017 and August 2017, neighborhood calling patterns increased by approximately eightfold, the company wrote in a letter to the FCC. (Verizon is the parent company of Yahoo Finance.)

The company told the FCC its hypothesis: bad actors were able to bypass blocking techniques by spoofing the last four digits of the outgoing caller ID number with random numbers. In addition to the neighborhood spoofed area code and central office code, the random numbers made it far more difficult to stop  some numbers are used just once.

Like a mutating virus, spammers evolved to conquer the barriers put in place.

This explosion in neighborhood spoofing aggravated the problem significantly. According to one industry source, Voice-over-IP-protocol (VoIP) has made spoofing so easy that some spoofers use a different number for each call. And with so many randomized numbers flying around similar to real area codes, the chances of hijacking some unsuspecting customers number also exploded  thats what happened to me and so many others.

Because the numbers arent actually owned and operated by the scammers, this makes blocking far more difficult. For example, my number has been used to make spam calls, but it would be a disaster for me if Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and the others decided my number was spam and put it on the blacklist.

One industry insider at a large carrier told Yahoo Finance that fear of unintended consequences for customers prompted extreme caution when it came to blocking, without some form of authentication to beat the spoofing. Doing so, the insider said, could just cause the bad guys to spoof more.

The solution in the works

The playbook for solving the robocall problem  or reducing it to a manageable degree  has been written.

Its called STIR/SHAKEN.

During the Obama administration, the FCC organized a group of stakeholders called the "Robocall Strike Force. The solution that the Strike Force promoted was addressing robocalls by tackling spoofing. And to beat spoofing, the caller ID faking, which is not difficult to do, says Rupy, authentication is key.

STIR/SHAKEN is a protocol phone companies are being encouraged to adopt that uses certificates to verify that a call came from a certain phone. Essentially, a carrier signs a call that goes out with an encrypted key, and the receiving carrier decrypts it and checks to make sure its legit. If the certificate doesnt match up, the call could be labeled or blocked.

The timeline for STIR/SHAKEN? According to a November letter to the FCC from Verizon, the company expects calls to be "signed" by the STIR/SHAKEN authentication technology in 2019. Parts of Verizon Wireless's platform are already STIR/SHAKEN-ready, the company wrote, and it expects the rest of the wireless system to be ready in the first half of this year.

T-Mobile is also on track, having announced STIR/SHAKEN readiness in November 2018. We are ready today to peer with others that have adopted the FCC-recommended SHAKEN/STIR standards, the company wrote the FCC in November.

AT&Ts timeline has it testing the exchange of signed calls with Comcast and two other anonymous carriers in the second quarter of 2019, and then rolling out the system to sign all wireless calls in the third quarter of 2019.

On its face, this sounds like the end. But a close reading of the letters shows the ways cracks could form. Just because one company signs its calls with the proper authentication doesnt mean that another company will sign their calls properly or bother to check the authentication from carriers that come in.

Other questions emerge, since its the service providers themselves which sign calls. When can a provider not sign? What if only some companies cooperate? A call is passed off through many different companies and systems in its journey from one ear to another.

Some companies like AT&T noted these concerns in their letters to the FCCs Pai.

It will take enormous commitments on the part of each company for SHAKEN/STIR to achieve its potential and restore consumers confidence that they can answer their telephones without being subjected to illegal robocalls, AT&T wrote in its letter to the FCC. The timeline necessarily is dependent, in significant part, on factors beyond AT&Ts control, including coordination with other voice service providers.

This is where the rubber meets the road, one insider told Yahoo Finance.

Verizon, in its letter, highlighted another issue  companies signing calls they arent supposed to, after the framework is implemented.

Some unscrupulous voice providers routinely look the other way while originating millions of calls that they know or should know are illegal,Verizons counsel wrote to the FCC. Voice providers must have meaningful processes in place to void originating illegal robocall traffic or traffic that is unlawfully spoofed.

Though this golden solution exists in theory, no one knows the impact it will have. Will one bad apple spoil the whole bunch if most companies make a goodwill effort in its spam-fighting but a few small players look the other way and allow spam? It looks like we wont know until 2020. All we can hope for now is that it will be enough to make a difference.

-

Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance focusing on consumer issues, personal finance, retail, airlines, and more. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann.

A new type of caller ID will give legitimate calls an edge over spam calls

These robocalls are about to get worse
By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Takaya Yamaguchi TOKYO (Reuters) - Downside risks in the global economy are likely to persist over the medium to long term, pressured by the Sino-U.S. trade war and a slowdown in China, Japan's top financial diplomat said. Masatsugu Asakawa, vice finance minister for international affairs, said he hoped Washington and Beijing would resolve their trade dispute by tackling not just trade issues but China's structural problems. Asakawa's comments came just days after China set an economic growth target of 6.0 to 6.5 percent in 2019, below the 6.6 percent gross domestic product growth reported last year. "It's inevitable for Chinese economy to slow, with its potential growth lowering as a trend," Asakawa told Reuters. "It is unlikely to falter greatly as there's room for authorities' stimulus measures." Global trade has slowed over the past year as Washington and Beijing have been locked in a tit-for-tat tariff battle for months. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that trade talks with China were moving along well and predicted either a "good deal" or no deal. Asakawa said the trade war and China's slowdown meant the risks to global growth remain over the medium to long term, although the world economy is still in recovery mode. Asakawa said he wanted the world's two largest economies to address China's structural problems over intellectual property, technology transfer and state-owned enterprises. Tokyo and Washington are set to enter bilateral trade talks in the coming months, with currency issues likely in focus. Asked if Trump's past criticism against Japan for keeping the yen low through the Bank of Japan's "money supply" could tie Tokyo's hands in coping with a spike in the currency, Asakawa said he saw no problem as long as monetary policy is not targeting currencies "G7 and G20 have constantly agreed that excess currency volatility and disorderly movement are undesirable for economy and financial stability," he said. "Japan can act as appropriate based on the G7/G20 agreement in case disorderly moves like "flash crash" occurs in the market." Asakawa took up his post in July 2015, overseeing currency issues and international affairs such as G7 and G20 meetings. He has become the longest serving top financial diplomat, exceeding the previous record set by BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who served as vice finance minister for international affairs for 3 1/2 years to Jan 2003. Under Japan's chair, G20 finance ministers and central bank governors will meet in Fukuoka in western Japan on June 8-9, followed by a leaders' summit in Osaka on June 28-29. Japan hopes to deepen debate on global imbalances, including widening income gaps and the distribution of wealth, as well as the management of fiscal and monetary policies in the face of aging populations around the world, he said. He added that Japan would lead the G20 debate on free trade, adding that the global body would lose its influence if trade issues aren't discussed in a comprehensive manner. Asakawa justified Japan's hefty current account surpluses, running about 20 trillion yen for a third straight year to 2018, which mostly consist of income gains from overseas investment. Japan's current account surplus is in part backed by a rise in savings for the future as the population ages, he said. "Japanese direct investment overseas has helped create jobs in the United States and Europe." (Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Takaya Yamaguchi; additional reporting by Mayu Yoshida; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)




Jared Kushner has gone rogue.

Donald Trumps senior White House adviser once again abandoned government normalities during an official state trip to Saudi Arabia, reportedly discussing US-Saudi cooperation with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a meeting that lacked representation from the US Embassy in Riyadh.

The 38-year-old adviser also discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the US economic investment in the Middle East with Saudi royalty, including King Salman, according to a White House readout from the trip that was released just as the presidents former lawyer Michael Cohen began his explosive public testimony on Capitol Hill last week.

Mr Kushners quiet undertaking of such high-profile meetings has raised national security concerns from military and intelligence officials, who said the presidents son-in-law was undermining US authority in the region.

The video above was released on Feb. 28, 2019.

Naveed Jamali  a former US Defence Department intelligence officer and double agent  told The Independent the Trump administration has frequently blurred the lines of communication between government agencies by sending Mr Kushner to meet with top international officials.

We know there is a flawed system by the fact that Jared Kushner has a security clearance, Mr Jamali  who has launched a bid for political office  said on Thursday, noting the 38-year-old advisers omission of Russian contacts from his initial clearance application and foreign business assets that would typically bar an official from receiving a clearance.

Mr Jamali added, Who speaks for the government, the institutions or the family of the president?

Multiple sources from the US embassy in Riyadh have said they were not read into the details of Mr Kushners Saudi Arabia visit, and have yet to receive any sort of briefing on the White House officials meetings with Saudi leadership.

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Mr Kushner was also reportedly provided security during his visit by Saudi officials  a component of a state trip typically handled by the US embassy in the region. Embassy staff also usually sits in on high-level meetings, and can include military personnel, cultural attaches and officials from across government agencies.

Those reports, first published in the Daily Beast nearly a week after Mr Kushners trip, were refuted by a senior administration official.

This reporting is not true and the sources are misinformed, that official said.

During his meetings with the Saudi crown prince, Mr Kushner seemingly failed to mention the high-profile killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist and US resident who disappeared after entering a Saudi consulate last year in Istanbul. The international intelligence community and Turkish officials have claimed the crown prince was involved in the alleged murder of Mr Khashoggi, who was often critical in his reporting of the Saudi government.

Mark Hertling, a former US Army officer, lambasted the White House administration in a tweet for reportedly failing to include critical subject matters experts in Mr Kushners meetings with Saudi royalty.

Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, also asked why Mr Kushner was having secret meetings with the Saudi government while keeping US officials in the dark about the substance of the meetings.

Are conflicts of interest at play here? he wrote on Twitter.

Mr Kushner, long considered a security risk embedded in the West Wing by career intelligence officials, was reported to have conducted informal conversations on the chat app WhatsApp with the Saudi crown prince, who he has developed a relationship with since Mr Trumps 2016 election.

The New York Times reported Mr Kushner was providing the prince with advice on how to weather the controversies surrounding the slaying of Mr Khashoggi.

House Democrats have launched an investigation into the White House's security clearance processes under Mr Trump, demanding a trove of documents related to the matter and other investigatory concerns from Mr Kushner and 80 contacts and entities close to the president.

[Kushner] is somehow who is much more amenable to personal offers like financial gain, he added. He doesnt seem to have the strongest allegiance to the US  thats concerning.
Most of the new jobs created in February were full-time positions (LARS HAGBERG/AFP/Getty Images)

Job creation in Canada once again blew past expectations with 56,000 positions added in February  most of them were full-time.

Part-time job losses of 11,600 were offset by an increase of 67,400 full-time jobs.

Economists were calling for only 1,200 jobs. Canada even beat the disappointing U.S. February tally of 20,000  for the first month in more than 8 years.

Combined with the 67,000 jobs added in January, the February data marks the best two-month stretch since 2012.

The jobless rate stays at 5.8 per cent as the labour force grew. Almost all of the new jobs came from Ontario, which was responsible for 59,000 full-time jobs.

The loonie jumped in the moments after the release, as the likelihood of a rate increase from the Bank of Canada crept up.

We always take this survey with a grain of salt, and it could still be in the final stretch of catching up to the larger gains we saw last year in the more reliable payroll survey, said Royce Mendes, senior economist at CIBC, in a research note.

But todays data will still have markets questioning the conviction with which a rate cut was being priced in heading into the release.

Scotiabanks Derek Holt, Head of Capital Markets Economics, thinks job creation and wage growth will get the Bank of Canadas attention.

Ka-boom, so much for employers lacking confidence to be heaping on this kind of job growth, said Holt, in a research note.

The report by Statistics Canada also shined a spotlight on the participation rate of women in the workforce.

In 1950 less than one-quarter (21.6 per cent) of women aged 25 to 54 worked. By 1991 the number went up to 75.9 per cent. In 2018 it went up to 83.2 per cent.

Statistics Canada attributes the increases to higher levels of education, delayed marriage and childbearing, and increased separation and divorce.

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Kimco Realty Corporations KIM issuer default rating was recently reiterated at BBB+ by Fitch Ratings. The rating agency also maintained its stable outlook for the company.

The credit action is backed by Kimcos diversified portfolio of premium properties in upscale markets. The company has significant presence across the New York-Washington D.C. corridor that accounts for nearly 30% of annualized base rent (ABR). Further, its tenant roster includes a mix of well-capitalized national, regional and local retailers. Top tenants like TJX Companies TJX, Home Depot and Ahold Delhhaize have fared relatively well.

Fitch is of the view that a quality portfolio and well-diversified tenant base has enabled Kimco to witness impressive organic growth as reflected in the year-over year improvement in its same-store net operating income (SSNOI). Furthermore, a well-staggered leasing profile for the companys portfolio will provide stable cash flows in the upcoming period.

In addition, the companys efforts to reduce leverage levels also look encouraging. In line with this, proceeds from non-core asset sale have been used for debt reduction and to fund the companys development and redevelopment pipeline. In 2018, it disposed $1.1 billion of assets with nearly $913.9 million in sale proceeds.

Fitch noted that monetization of Kimcos investment in grocer Albertsons will provide it with nearly $400 million in cash proceeds that can be used to further reduce debt in the upcoming years. The reiteration also reflects Kimcos convenient access to the debt markets.

Additionally, the company is investing in development and redevelopment projects that will be accretive for long-term growth. Fitch expects Kimcos $900-million projects to be completed and stabilized through 2021. As of Dec 31, 2018, two-third of Kimcos development pipeline was preleased, highlighting progress on stabilization and lower risks. Notably, near-term capital needs of $400 million for development/redevelopment projects are manageable, representing 3% of gross assets as of Dec 31, 2018.

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The reiteration of this credit rating to Kimco indicates the companys creditworthiness in the market and is likely to enhance investors' confidence in the stock. In fact, such moves provide companies an opportunity to enjoy favorable costs on debts and solid access to capital, and are, therefore, encouraging.

Kimco carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), at present. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

However, broader brick-and-mortar retail industry concerns have impacted share prices of retail REITs, including Macerich Company MAC, Taubman Centers, Inc. TCO and Kimco. This remains a major bottleneck for the company. In fact, shares of Kimco have declined 1.3% over the past month.

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- The Latest on the political crisis in Venezuela (all times local):

7:10 p.m.

The 48 member countries of the Inter-American Development Bank will have until March 15 to vote whether they accept opposition leader Juan Guaido as the bank's governor from Venezuela.

An IDB official told The Associated Press the board of 14 executive directors decided to send the board of governors a resolution recognizing Guaido as a governor. Countries usually appoint high-ranking officials as IDB governors.

The Associated Press left a message requesting comment from Armando Leon, the only Venezuelan among the executive directors.

The International Monetary Fund has not made a decision about Guaido, the leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly who pledged on Jan. 23 to serve as interim president of the South American country and has been recognized by many countries who argue Nicolas Maduro's re-election as president was invalid.

___

5:15 p.m.

An international arbitration tribunal is ruling that Venezuela must pay ConocoPhillips more than $8 billion as compensation for the government's expropriation of the U.S. oil giant's investments in Venezuela in 2007.

The World Bank's ICSID tribunal had ruled in 2013 that the expropriation of ConocoPhillips investments in two heavy crude oil projects violated international law.

"We welcome the ICSID tribunal's decision, which upholds the principle that governments cannot unlawfully expropriate private investments without paying compensation," said Kelly B. Rose, senior vice president, Legal, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of ConocoPhillips.

Venezuela's oil production has collapsed to one-third of its historic output, which critics blame on two decades of socialist rule. Venezuela faces around 20 arbitration cases at the World Bank, more than any other country in the world.

___

2:25 p.m.

The Trump administration is granting U.S. companies more time to comply with sanctions barring transactions with Venezuela's state-run oil company.

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The Treasury Department says that firms have until May 10 to wind down and close their business with PDVSA.

PDVSA was hit with U.S. sanctions on Jan. 28 in a step that caught some American companies by surprise. The sanctions had the effect of stranding several oil tankers at and near Venezuelan ports because their cargoes were unable to be legally paid for.

Treasury said Friday the extension will allow certain financial contracts agreed upon before Jan. 28 to be completed.

___

2 p.m.

Power has begun returning to some parts of Venezuela's capital.

Pro-government state broadcaster VTV reported that electricity had been restored to 16 neighborhoods around Caracas.

That account could not be immediately verified, though some Venezuelans on social media began reporting they had power. Streetlights could also be seen turning on in a Caracas neighborhood.

However, the lights in one office building flickered on and then turned off.

The South American nation is experiencing its most prolonged blackout yet after the power went out early Thursday evening.

The lack of electricity is adding to mounting tensions over the political standoff between President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition.

___

1:55 p.m.

Hospitals struggled to get back-up generators running and families anxiously tried to contact loved ones amid Venezuela's worst-ever power outage Friday.

Much of the nation of 31 million people was still without electricity as the blackout stretched into a second day and patience began to wear thin.

"This has never happened before," a frustrated Orlando Roa, 54, said. She decried President Nicolas Maduro's administration for failing to maintain the electrical system and letting qualified engineers leave the country. "This is the fault of the government."

Maduro ordered schools and all government entities closed and told businesses not to open to facilitate work crews trying to restore power.
Hot on the heels of Venezuelas Petro, its time for Russia to launch its own oil-backed cryptocurrency. Neft-Coin is on the verge of coming to market, just as Putin set a deadline for cryptocurrency regulation to be established by the Russian State Duma.

This may be a strategic tipping point for the oil trade, a market thats historically tied to the US dollar and that often generates rules and sanctions for geopolitical reasons.

Could oil-backed cryptocurrency adoption change the oil trade and bring more transparency to the market? Its hard to tell since the players aiming to control these cryptocurrencies are the same as those controlling oil resources today.

What is oil-backed cryptocurrency?

So what exactly is an oil-backed cryptocurrency? An oil-backed cryptocurrency is one that is backed by the tangible asset of oil and sometimes gas reserves.

This means essentially tokenising barrels of oil held in reserve to give increased credibility and price stability to the cryptocurrency. The oil backing the currency is meant to counter volatility, which is a common characteristic of most cryptocurrencies.

Its a niche worth trillions of dollars. Crude oil is the most exported product in the world. In 2017, crude oil shipments were worth $841.1 billion (just one year after the market collapse of 2016). The market is pretty stable right now, and that could make any oil-backed cryptocurrency a relatively stable option.

Currently, OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) state members and Russia are planning a blockchain-based cryptocurrency platform. This is meant to disrupt the current oil trade and provide exporters with more benefits.

The Petro and other oil-backed cryptocurrencies

The most famous oil-backed cryptocurrency is Venezuelas Petro, but for all the wrong reasons. The myths and controversy around this digital coin, coupled with the unstable economy of the country, make oil-backed cryptocurrencies look like little more than an ingenious way of escaping international sanctions.

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Theres zero transparency in the way Venezuela manages its assets, and no one can quantify the countrys oil reserves or say whether these tokenised barrels really exist. Moreover, its hard to tell how much the Petro is really worth since governmental sources provide unclear information on the subject.

Despite this, the Petro was certainly a game-changer, proving that there was a gap in the market for asset-backed cryptocurrencies. Maduros desperate move to free Venezuela from US control opened up the way for more credible oil-backed cryptocurrencies.

OilCoin, for example, is backed by barrels of oil and complies with existing US regulations and standards for digital currencies. Another oil-backed cryptocurrency is the PetroDollar (PDX), also operating under US laws.

In the UK, Bilur Energy is a cryptocurrency backed by energy commodities. Its value is also calculated based on the price of oil barrels.

These three oil-backed cryptocurrencies lack state support. And its a disadvantage that some OPEC members are willing to overcome by creating national cryptocurrencies backed by oil and gas reserves.

Some of the leading oil exporters, in fact, are looking into this option, inspired by Maduros vision. For example, the UAE and Saudi Arabia recently agreed on a plan for a joint cryptocurrency.

Russia embraces oil-backed cryptocurrency

Russia is not a member of the OPEC, but is still the worlds second-largest oil exporter. Russia is now getting ready to launch its own oil-backed cryptocurrency called Neft-Coin. Besides the obvious financial benefits, such a move could help the country combat US influence on the market.

The Russian oil-backed cryptocurrency would help traders avoid US sanctions, as well as improve relationships with importers that prefer trading with currencies other than USD, such as China and India.

Moreover, the Neft-Coin could be convertible into crypto-rubles and then into rubles. It would grant fewer barriers for Russian businesses, which wouldnt have to use dollars for oil trade.

Possible consequences on the global oil market

For years, crude oil has been quoted in dollars, making a historical connection between this asset and the US currency. This led to the notion of the petrodollar, representing any US dollar paid to oil-exporting countries in exchange for oil.

Oil-backed cryptocurrencies could substitute the petrodollar, reducing the influence of the US in the oil trade. Digital coins could provide a way around existing financial sanctions that the US use to control the oil market and, by extension, the countries that dont accept their global politics.

A decentralised system on the blockchain could also benefit small oil and gas companies that struggle to enter the global market. Moreover, it could lead to the appearance of secondary markets for corporate debt and equity issuance. Smaller countries could benefit more from their oil reserves and gain financial independence from the US.

However, backing the currency with physical reserves triggers risks due to price fluctuations. Oil and gas reserves are hard to quantify not just in Venezuela, but in all other countries that export oil.

Another problem that could slow down cryptocurrency adoption in oil trade comes from the cultural gaps between exporter countries. The success of each national oil-backed cryptocurrency, after all, would depend on the countrys credibility.

Last but not least, theres the issue of blockchain security. As countries start launching national currencies backed by such essential assets to the global economy, theres an increased risk of attacks on the crypto-based platforms that any of these countries put in place. And the consequences of this could be as dire as an oil spill.

The post How the launch of oil-backed cryptocurrencies could change the market appeared first on Coin Rivet.
LEWISTON, Maine (AP)  The mayor of Maine's second-largest city resigned Friday in the wake of a controversy over his leaked text messages, one of which included a racist remark, and authorities confirmed he's being investigated by the state attorney general's office and the city police.

Republican Shane Bouchard stepped down as Lewiston's mayor effective immediately. Text messages made public by a woman who said she had an affair with Bouchard when he was a mayoral candidate revealed a racist remark he sent her while the two were working to undermine a political opponent.

The woman, Heather Berube Everly, has said that she was the source of emails the Maine GOP used to attack Democratic opponent Ben Chin. A website created by Maine Republican Party leader Jason Savage published emails from Chin's campaign, including one in which Chin said he's run into "a bunch of racists." Bouchard went on to defeat Chin in the December 2017 runoff.

The Sun Journal reported Everly has now made public more than 150 text exchanges with Bouchard. In one, Bouchard describes elderly black people as "antique farm equipment."

Bouchard apologized after the texts became public. He said he says "stupid things and stupid jokes occasionally." He then held a brief press conference on Friday in which he said he's "not a perfect person" and blamed the news media in part for his troubles.

"It has become clear to me that the media does not acknowledge personal space and reports on nothing more than rumor in many cases. In this political climate where the media does not discriminate between fact and rumors, it is hard to be a public figure," he said.

The investigation division of the Office of the Attorney General is working with the Lewiston Police Department on an investigation of the allegations against the now-former mayor, said Marc Malon, a spokesman for the office. He declined to comment further.

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City Council President Kristen Cloutier will take over as mayor until the election in November. She also said she doesn't plan to run for the office. Cloutier said she'd heard some of the rumors concerning Bouchard's campaign.

"The campaign was fraught with those rumors. A lot of people had heard some of them," she said.

Bouchard has described the allegations of his affair with Everly as a rumor that was dealt with months ago. Everly hasn't responded to e-mails seeking comment.

The Lewiston Republican City Committee said in a statement Friday that it "offers its prayers to the mayor, his family, the Lewiston City Council, city officials, citizens and neighbors."
Robson said Jackson told him to lie under oath. (HBO/Channel 4)

The harrowing two-part documentary Leaving Neverland concluded on Channel 4 on Thursday night, with the alleged victims of Michael Jackson going into further graphic detail of the sexual abuse they say took place.

Here are the key talking points:

I had to lie

Both Safechuck, now 41, and Robson, now 36, described being gradually replaced by other young boys, including Jordan Chandler. However, the accusers claim they were swiftly brought back into Jacksons life when the Chandler family sued the star in 1993 in a $30million lawsuit that accused him of sexual battery against Jordan. In 1994, the case was settled for $23million.

Robson claims that Jackson had been sexually molesting him for several years at this point, and told him to lie to both lawyers and policemen.

Michael told me that I had to lie. And thats what I did, I lied, Robson said.

I have no guiltI had no choice but to say what I did in that deposition aged 11. That is what I had to say. Robson said.

Read more: LaToya Jackson defends alleged victims in unearthed footage

While Safechuck said he was thrilled to hear from Jackson, after waiting for his telephone call for months on end. But he now believes that Jackson simply saw him as useful again and described how lawyers trained him on what to say.

He claims Jackson rewarded him with a car for his willingness to help him. Jackson also allegedly encouraged him to drop out of school. He also bought the family a new home.

He did buy us a house. The timing was there. It just sounds bad. Yeah, Safechucks mother, Stephanie, admitted.

Safechuck with Jackson and Liza Minnelli in 1988 (Getty Images)

Weve been dumped

Barely a year after Jackson paid the Chandler family in the out of court settlement, he married Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presleys only child.

Stephanie claims Jackson phoned her to let her know he wouldnt be able to visit her son James as often.

I told my husband  weve been dumped, she told the cameras.

She described feeling devastated and that at the time she loved Jackson as much as she loved her own children.

Story continues

You have to get rid of them

Robson said he continued to see Jackson during his short-lived marriage to Presley, but only two-three times a year. He said the molestation continued each time they met.

This included him attempting to penetrate his anus when he was 14.

He was able to for a bit. But it was too painful for me. So he stopped.

I dont remember us talking about it. Or acting like anything particularly different had happened. We kind of went back to our regular sexual routine, Robson alleged.

Jackson with Wade Robson (Getty Images)

He then claimed that Jacksons personal assistant phoned his mother the next day and demanded that he immediately meet him at his dance studio.

What did you do with your underwear last night? Robson claims Jackson asked once they met that day.

You have to go home and find them and there might be some blood on them. If there is you have to get rid of them.

Robson said he went home and found blood on his underwear, and he threw them in a bin immediately.

That was the last sexual experience that I remember with Michael, he said.

An obsession with Britney Spears

Jackson performing with Britney Spears (Getty Images)

As an adult, Robson became the dance choreographer for Britney Spears and N*Sync. Robson said Jackson had an infatuation with Spears and said he would phone him and ask him about how sexy she was and also about his own sexual life.

Trial of Michael Jackson

Both Robson and Safechuck claim Jackson tried to involve them in his 2005 trial. Jackson was accused of molesting Gavin Arvizo when was 13-years-old. Arvizo was featured in the British, Martin Bashir-led documentary Living with Michael Jackson.

Read more: James Bulgers mother calls Leaving Neverland claims crap

Jackson allegedly contacted them directly, but only Robson appeared in court. While Robson defended Jackson and said he had never molested him under oath, Safechuck refused to do so.

These people are trying to take me down. These evil people, Robson said Jackson would tell him repeatedly on the phone.

Robson attending the Trial of Michael Jackson in 2005. (Getty Images)

Safechuck said that Jackson begged him on the phone to testify, but he refused.

I had never seen him this angry, he said. He added that Jackson threatened to use lawyers to get me if he didnt partake.

He attempted to reach out to him at the end of the trial.

He said to me: I know I havent been there for you in directing, lets do something together. [Safechuck had had aspirations of becoming a film director, he now works as a computer engineer].

I cut the conversation short, I said dont call me again, I didnt talk to him again.

Michael Jackson dies

After Michael Jackson died in June 2009, Robson described feeling tremendous grief. He attended the televised official memorial service that year, which was also attended by Jacksons surviving family members and many of his celebrity friends.

After his death Robson says he went through a dark depression and just after he had his first child with wife Amanda, he was given a dream role as a feature film director. He pulled out of the project from anxiety.

Safechuck described suffering from similar mental health issues shortly after Jacksons death and also after the birth of his first child.

When you see how innocent kids are, this kind of shoves that in your face. He was getting closer to the age I was when I was getting abused, he said.

I had one job  and I f***ed up

One of the biggest talking points of the series undoubtedly has been the alleged victims mothers roles. Both admit to allowing Jackson to sleep in the same bed with their children unattended.

In the closing minutes of the four-hour series, Joy and Stephanie speak about the shame they feel in pursuing a friendship with the late music superstar.

I had one job  and I f***ed upMy son had to suffer for me to have this life. My son is messed up today because of it. I am messed up today because of it, Stephanie said.

He was a paedophile. The word says it all. Paedophile, she added.

Forgiving myself is the other thing. I dont know if I can ever do that, Joy admitted.

Can either sons forgive them? Robson said it had taken him many years, but now he had forgiven his mother.

Safechuck said forgiveness is still very much a work in progress for him.

It was all a big seduction. Do I blame them? Im still working on it, he says as the haunting documentary drew to a close.
In our series My 6-Figure Paycheck, women making more than $100,000 open up about how they got there and what exactly they do. We take a closer look at what it feels like to be a woman making six figures  when only 5% of American women make that much, according to the U.S. Census  w ith the hope it will give women insight into how to better navigate their own career and salary trajectories.

Today, we chat with a creative director from New York, NY. Previously, we spoke to a chief of staff in Washington, D.C. and a lifecycle marketing professional in San Francisco, CA.

Job: Creative Director

Age: 28

Location: Upstate New York, NY

Degree: BFA Graphic Design

First Salary: $ 55,000 in 2014

Current Salary: $110,000

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

"I wanted to be an interior designer or an illustrator."

What did you study in college?

"I have a BFA in graphic design."

Did you have to take out student loans?

"Yes, I had $80,000 in student loans. When I moved to New York City, I couldn't afford the loans while also feeding, housing, and clothing myself. So my dad ended up paying my loan in full so I could stay and not accrue interest adding to my debt.

"I now pay him monthly payments for my loan, interest-free. I grew up in a middle-class family  my father is a carpenter, my mother is a teacher. We never went on fancy vacations or did anything extra; I am lucky that my parents were able to do that for me."

Have you been working at this job since you graduated from college?

"I did an unpaid internship in San Francisco at a packaging agency with headquarters in New York City. I moved back to New York after three months and took my first 'real job' at a lingerie company as a graphic designer. I was promoted once in that role, which bumped my pay up by $10,000. I then switched to another team after the company cleaned house and let 400 people go.

"After nearly three years, I made the decision to leave New York City. I was depressed, living paycheck to paycheck, and desperate to just feel happy again. I questioned my career path every day. When my lease was up, I left the city for a small agency in upstate New York, where I was a senior UI designer. After a year and a half, I switched jobs again and became the creative director at another small agency that has helped over 300 brands like Lyft, Nectar, Graze, and many other startups with customer acquisition.

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"In addition to all this, I freelance a lot. My nights and weekends consist of sitting at my kitchen table working nonstop. I work for brands and startups nationwide; most are in New York City and Los Angeles. I've proven to myself that I'm able to do work that I love for brands I am passionate about, and I've managed to add more than $30,000 onto my current full-time salary in freelance income in the past year."

How would you explain your day-to-day role at your job?

"Each day I check my emails, check in with writers and developers, assign tasks, put out any immediate fires that come up with websites, blogs, or social. Then I start designing anything from emails to landing pages to banner ads."

Did you negotiate your salary?

"A few times I have. When I'm interviewed and they ask me my range, I always give a range higher than what my previous job was. I make sure to discuss all of the additional assets I bring to the table and why I should be paid what I am asking for."

Is your current job your passion? If not, what is?

"This is a tough question, because people are always changing. I find my passions in life change every year. Making money is a passion of mine, and what I currently do is making me money, so yes, I would say it is a passion.

"I'm interested in anything that will give me the ability to be happy and sustain my life on my terms  something I am still reaching toward. I'm passionate about all things creative. The other things I can see myself doing is real estate and owning my own business, which I'm working on!"

If you could, would you change anything in your career trajectory?

"No, I've gotten a lot of experience with many different aspects of design. I plan to keep building on that and get more education and experience with UX, photography, and motion graphics."

What professional advice would you give your younger self?

"Don't have a boyfriend in college or in your early 20s. Learn more about money and invest earlier on. Trust your instincts; do things because you want to and they will benefit you, not just to look cool to other people. Live within your means; you don't have to go to brunch every weekend if you can't afford it. Don't be so hard on yourself  you're killing it more than you know."

Are you a woman under 35 with a six-figure salary ($100,000+) and want to tell your story? Submit it here.

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

Meet Artist LeAndra LeSeur, #EmbraceAmbition Series Speaker

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MANILA, Philippines (AP)  Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday met a Filipino Muslim rebel leader who has become a regional governor under a Malaysian-brokered peace deal, telling him while it's easier to shoot and kill than to develop a nation, prosperity can only happen in the absence of war.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebel chairman Murad Ebrahim said Mahathir pledged during their meeting in Manila that his country will help ensure the success of the peace accord that transformed him and other rebel commanders last month into administrators of a conflict-wracked Muslim autonomous region in the south.

Mahathir met Murad on the last day of his visit to Manila, where he held talks with President Rodrigo Duterte on a wide range of issues, including combatting Islamic State-linked militants in the largely Roman Catholic nation's southern region of Mindanao.

"Prime Minister Mahathir told him it's easy to shoot and kill, but it's difficult to develop. Chairman Murad said 'Yes, that is the next level of our struggle, how to develop and transform our revolutionary organization,'" said Nabil Tan, a Philippine official who joined the meeting.

Murad said Mahathir told him, "If there is peace, then everything will come ... He really encouraged us."

"I explained to him our priorities, the challenges. Part of the challenges is our transformation from revolutionaries to this governance. We want to have programs that will benefit the people," Murad told The Associated Press.

Under the peace deal brokered by Malaysia, Murad's group gave up its goal of a separate Muslim state in exchange for broader autonomy. The 40,000 fighters and at least 7,000 firearms that Murad's group has declared are to be demobilized starting this year in three phases depending on progress in the agreement's enforcement.

The first huge batch of about 12,000 guerrillas and their firearms would be demobilized in two to three months, Murad said.

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Murad's people, including fierce Muslim commanders still facing criminal cases for past attacks, were sworn in last month to comprise 41 of 80 regional administrators, who would lead a transition government for the five-province region called Bangsamoro until regular leaders are elected in 2022.

Duterte picked his representatives, along with Muslim rebels from another group, to fill the rest of the transition authority, which will also act as a regional parliament.

The Philippine and Western governments see effective Muslim autonomy as an antidote to nearly half a century of Muslim secessionist violence, which the Islamic State group could exploit to gain a foothold in the region.

Bangsamoro replaces an existing poverty-wracked autonomous region of more than 3.7 million people with a larger, better-funded and more powerful entity. An annual grant, which could reach more than $1 billion, is to be set aside to bolster development in a region that has little infrastructure and is deeply scarred by decades of fighting.

Smaller but more violent groups aligned with the Islamic State group like the Abu Sayyaf still threaten the region.

During talks with Mahathir on Thursday, Duterte thanked Malaysia for brokering the peace talks. The Malaysian leader pledged to continue helping.

A Malaysia-led team of 28 international peace monitors will remain in the south until all Muslim guerrillas have demobilized under the peace deal, Malaysian officials said. The European Union, Japan and Brunei have contributed personnel to the peacekeeping contingent, which has been credited for enforcing a yearslong ceasefire and helping ease major fighting in the past.
The sentencing of Paul Manafort, former chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, was highly anticipated, capping a significant chapter in Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation. But it was an unlikely candidate to become the latest example of a conflict that has vexed legal professionals and activists for decades - systemic inequality in the criminal justice system.

As a federal judge handed down his sentence in a jam-packed Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom and observers digested the judge's decision - 47 months - Manafort's case was immediately perceived as a high-profile instance of the justice system working one way for a wealthy, well-connected man, while working in another, harsher, way for indigent defendants facing lesser crimes.

"Paul Manafort's lenient four-year sentence - far below the recommended 20 years despite extensive felonies and post-conviction obstruction - is a reminder of the blatant inequities in our justice system that we all know about, because they reoccur every week in courts across America," said Ari Melber, a legal analyst for NBC News, in a tweet shortly after the verdict.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Manafort faced up to 24 years in prison for bank fraud and for cheating on his taxes, yet US District Court Judge Thomas Selby Ellis said that calculation was "excessive." Manafort's crime's were "very serious," Mr Ellis said, but they did not warrant a punishment that could keep the 69-year-old imprisoned into his 90s.

Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor and expert in financial crimes, said Manafort's sentence was very light "by any stretch of the imagination." Manafort, who once agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors but then was found to have lied to them, got a sentence that resembled one given to someone who did not renege on their cooperation agreement, Mr Levin said.

"His crimes went on for an extremely long time, at the very highest levels of our government and deeply affected our democracy," Mr Levin told The Washington Post. "To get away with it for such a short sentence is something that is absolutely mind-boggling."

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However, he said, federal judges are not required to adhere to sentencing guidelines, which serve only as recommendations to judges. Ultimately, they are free to depart from the guidelines and come up with any number they see as appropriate.

"It seems pretty light to me, and to a lot of people," Mr Levin said. "But that is squarely in the purview of the judge to do."

The sentencing inspired a flood of lawyers to dig through news clips and their own recent cases. What they found was dozens of examples of defendants who, in their view, were no where nearly as fortunate as Manafort.

Scott Hechinger, a senior staff attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services, an organisation that provides legal representation to defendants who cannot afford it, used one of his recent clients, who was just offered a 36-to-72-month sentence, as an example. The crime? Stealing $100-worth of quarters from a residential laundry room. Mr Hechinger's client may wind up doing more time than Manafort, a man who defrauded the Internal Revenue Service out of $6m.

Paul Manafort's defense attorneys Kevin Downing (R) and Thomas Zehnle (L), briefly speak to the news media outside US District Court after a sentencing hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, USA, 07 March 2019. Manafort, who remains in federal custody, was sentenced to 47 months for defrauding banks and the government and failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars in income. ((Erik S. Lesser/EPA))

Mr Hechinger listed a half dozen more examples. Among them were a Brooklyn teenager who got a 19-years-to-life sentence for burning a mattress in the hallway of his apartment building, resulting in the smoke-inhalation death of an officer who responded to the scene. He also cited the case of Cyrstal Mason, an ex-felon who was sent back to prison for five years after voting in the 2016 presidential election while on probation - an act she said she did not know was illegal.

Other lawyers argued that Manafort's sentence underscores "a broader problem: white collar crimes (e.g. fraud, money laundering) just aren't taken seriously," wrote Louis Laverone, an international financial crimes attorney.

Mr Laverone cited the case of one Turkish banker who was charged with participating in a multi-billion-dollar scheme, violating US economic sanctions. In that case, guidelines called for a possible 105-year sentence. The banker got 32 months.

Judge Ellis is a Reagan appointee, known as tough and no-nonsense. But, in recent years, he has publicly complained about laws that impose cumbersome sentences, as Politico illustrated in a 2018 profile. In one striking example from that report, Mr Ellis sentenced a 37-year-old to a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison for dealing methamphetamine.

"This situation presents me with something I have no discretion to change and the only thing I can do is express my displeasure," the judge said. "I chafe a bit at that, but I follow the law. If I thought it was blatantly immoral, I'd have to resign. It's wrong, but not immoral."

In that man's case, the crime's mandatory minimum sentence forced Judge Ellis's hand. But for Manafort, Levin said, there was no such requirement, no mandatory minimum.

Because Manafort has already spent nine months in jail, his sentence could end in fewer than three years. But he still faces sentencing next week for a conspiracy charged in Washington DC federal court, which could result in up to an additional 10 years.

In a tweet, Senator Amy Klobuchar, a former prosecutor and presidential candidate, also denounced what she characterised as a lenient sentence. "Crimes committed in an office building should be treated as seriously as crimes committed on a street corner," she said. "Can't have two systems of justice!"

Mr Hechinger and other advocates of criminal justice reform who weighed in on Manafort's sentence stressed that they were not calling for harsher overall punishment - simply a justice system that was a little more just.

"I'm not advocating here or anywhere for worse treatment for all," he said. "Just wish my clients received same treatment as the privileged few."

The Washington Post
By James Oliphant WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There was no bespoke suit, no ostrich-skin jacket and no titanium watch. There was just a 69-year-old man in a green prison jumpsuit stamped with "Alexandria Inmate." Paul Manafort, former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump, rolled into a Virginia courthouse in a wheelchair for sentencing on Thursday after being found guilty of bank and tax fraud in a trial last year that turned him into a model of Washington lobbyist excess. The federal judge in the case, T.S. Ellis, sentenced Manafort to 47 months in prison. The judge noted that Manafort's time already served would be subtracted from the sentence. Manafort has been jailed since June 2018. Prosecutors had cited federal sentencing guidelines that called for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison, while Manafort pleaded for the judge's mercy. Like Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, Manafort was a hired gun who entered Trump's orbit, did his bidding, drew the attention of prosecutors and came out shattered. "To say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement," Manafort told the judge on Thursday, his formerly brown hair noticeably grayer than months ago. He said his life was "professionally and financially in shambles." That came from a man who "believed the law did not apply to him," Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye told the jury at the beginning of Manafort's trial last year. Before joining the Trump campaign in 2016, Manafort had built a reputation as a Washington power player. He lobbied on behalf of foreign leaders  some of whom were accused of running oppressive governments - and advised Republican presidential candidates, such as George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole. Deep in debt as his revenue from work for the government of Ukraine began to dry up, Manafort connected with the turbulent Trump campaign, even though such a step was bound to attract scrutiny of his international lobbying and jet-set lifestyle. During the fraud trial that followed in Virginia, prosecutors detailed his over-the-top lifestyle: multiple homes, luxury cars and watches, Persian rugs and more than $1 million spent on custom suits and coats from high-end menswear retailers, including a $15,000 jacket made from ostrich skin. Although Manafort's 47-month sentence was lower than many legal analysts expected, he will be sentenced next week in a second fraud case, in Washington. A plea deal he struck to avoid a trial in that case was tossed out after the federal judge determined Manafort had lied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office and the FBI about matters material to Mueller's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Trump says Manafort's crimes, which involve work he provided on behalf of the government of Ukraine, had nothing to do with him or allegations that his campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Trump denies any collusion took place and Russia rejects U.S. intelligence findings it interfered in the election. But after a jury convicted Manafort in August, Trump called the investigation a "disgrace" and called Manafort a "good man," leaving open the possibility of a pardon. (Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)
Washington (AFP) - WikiLeaks leaker Chelsea Manning said Thursday she could return to prison on contempt charges after she refused to testify to a secret grand jury believed to be investigating the anti-secrecy group's founder Julian Assange.

Manning said she asserted her consitutional rights to refuse to answer questions on Wednesday -- even as she was offered immunity -- and that a federal judge will review whether her actions amounted to contempt, which could send her back to jail.

"On Friday I will return to federal court in Alexandria, Virginia for a closed contempt hearing," she said in a statement.

"A judge will consider the legal grounds for my refusal to answer questions in front of a grand jury. The court may find me in contempt, and order me to jail."

Manning confirmed that the investigation concerned WikiLeaks' publication of the more than 700,000 classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that she gave the group for publication in 2010.

The transgender Manning, who was a US Army intelligence analyst known as Bradley Manning at the time, was eventually arrested and sentenced to 35 years in prison for the leak.

President Barack Obama later commuted her sentence, leading to her release in May 2017.

She became a hero to anti-war and anti-secrecy activists and her actions helped make WikiLeaks a force in the global anti-secrecy movement.

The Alexandria court, just outside washington, has not confirmed that WikiLeaks and Assange are targets of the grand jury probe.

But Manning said the questions she was asked on Wednesday "pertained to my disclosures of information to the public in 2010."

US media has also confirmed the probe is focused on Assange, who has been living in Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid arrest.

Assange says the United States wants him extradited to stand trial over WikiLeaks' activities, which he says are no different than what journalists do.
WASHINGTON  Sen. Martha McSally's dramatic revelation that a superior officer raped her when she served as an Air Force fighter pilot could prompt the military to launch an inquiry, or it could go no further than the hearing room on Capitol Hill where she made it.

McSally, the first Air Force fighter pilot to fly in combat, revealed her allegation that a superior officer had raped her during an Armed Services subcommittee meeting Wednesday.

Now a Republican senator from Arizona, McSally added she felt victimized again by the way she was treated by the Air Force afterward. The allegations reverberated from Capitol Hill to the Pentagon where officials weighed their options in the case.

The Air Force, in a statement, said it takes each allegation of sexual assault seriously but will not investigate unless McSally requests it.

Given the senators desire to not participate in an investigation, the Air Force will remain ready to investigate further if the senators desire changes or other information is presented," Ann Stefanek, a spokesman, said in a statement.

Experts in military law and how it deals with sexual assault outlined possibilities in McSally's case.

McSally could file a formal complaint, naming the alleged rapist and providing the military with details about the incident. If the assault occurred before Congress changed the law on the statute of limitations in 2006, the case could not be tried criminally, said Don Christensen, president of Protect Our Defenders, an organization that advocates for victims of sexual assault in the military.

However, the Air Force could pursue administrative punishment if the perpetrator is found and an inquiry finds cause to believe the assault occurred. It could recall the officer to active duty and take action against him.

In 2017, the Air Force stripped a retired four-star general of two ranks and docked him $60,000 per year in pension for forcing a subordinate to have sex with him. The Air Force found that General Arthur Lichte had coerced a subordinate officer into sex on three separate occasions. Lichte maintained that the relationship was consensual and accused the woman of lying.

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Another option is that the Air Force could conduct its own investigation under certain circumstances. For example, if McSally told an official who is required to report allegations of criminal activity, that official would be duty bound to inform authorities, who would be required to open an investigation.

In an interview broadcast by CBS on Friday, McSally said she was mortified when she initially told the Air Force about the attack and additional allegations of sexual assault. She declined to say when the assaults occurred or who committed them.

"Interrogating me about, 'What happened to you? Tell us what happened to you.' And I was mortified," she told CBS. "If that's the way you are treating being alerted that somebody has been through something like this, who actually is trying to have our military succeed at dealing with it. And you bring me in and interrogate me as if I'm the perpetrator even in the tone and the approach and the just the ignorance.  They failed on the job. Big time. I got up, and I left, and I dropped a bunch of swear words, just to be frank."

It's unclear whether the officials McSally notified would have been required to report the alleged crimes.

Finally, the Air Force also could wait indefinitely to investigate until McSally provides more information. For the moment, that appears to be course both McSally and the Air Force have chosen.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: McSally's rape allegation could spark Air Force inquiry or pass without review
Nicolas Maduro denounced the blackout as an act of sabotage - AFP

Venezuela was almost entirely without power on Friday night amid a blackout that the Maduro government blamed on sabotage and which wrought chaos across much of the country.

Communications went down, water pumps failed and transport ground to a halt as Venezuela was plunged into darkness at around 5pm local time (9pm UK) on Thursday night. The power cut was believed to have hit up to 23 of the countrys 24 states, though with mobile networks and internet largely out of action, the situation in some areas was unclear.

In Caracas and elsewhere, workers were forced to walk miles to get home as the lights went out in the oil-rich South American nation. There were reports of life support machines and other essential medical equipment failing at hospitals without back-up generators. In the capital, municipal officials said they had attended emergency calls from residents reliant on oxygen machines.

School and labour activities were suspended, businesses were shuttered and many Venezuelans were virtually stranded in their homes. There was no word as to when the power cut might end, with fears that it could last for days - a daunting prospect for Venezuelans already struggling to survive amid punishing shortages of food, medicine and cash.

People go about their business at a shopping mall in Caracas as the blackout continues Credit: Reuters

Amid a deepening international crisis over his leadership, Nicolas Maduro blamed the blackout on an electric war waged by the enemies of his Socialist government, claiming sabotage at the Guri hydroelectric dam.

The electric war announced and directed by US imperialism against our people will be defeated. Nothing and no one will be able to defeat the people of Bolivar y Chavez, he said, calling for maximum unity of patriots!"

But for most Venezuelans, the governments claims did not ring true, with many noting that Guri was state-operated and under tight security. Instead they pinned the blackout on years of infrastructural decay, a lack of investment and poor maintenance under the Maduro government.

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A view of Caracas during the blackout Credit: Reuters

Juan Guaido, the National Assembly leader who has been recognised as interim president by more than 50 countries, said the blackout demonstrated the inefficiency of the usurper, referring to Mr Maduro. The recovery of the electricity sector and the country would come with the end of the usurpation, he added.

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, said: The power outage and the devastation hurting ordinary Venezuelans is not because of the USA. Its not because of Colombia. Its not Ecuador or Brazil, Europe or anywhere else. Power shortages and starvation are the result of the Maduro regimes incompetence.

Maduros policies bring nothing but darkness, he wrote on Twitter. No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro.

In Caracas, long lines snaked around the few open shops and petrol stations as residents began to panic buy food and fuel. With cash in short supply, no electricity to process card payments and groceries running low, it was a fractious and gruelling task.

In one store in the affluent Altamira area of the city, arguments broke out over bread as shoppers queued for up to two hours to purchase whatever food they could find.

Elena, a middle aged resident who did not wish to give her last name, told The Telegraph that previous power outages had never been like this.

The severity, and the almost complete failure of phone networks, was frightening everyone, she said, speculating that more was afoot than a technical issue.

Travelers wait during the 16-hour power cut at Barquisimeto airport Credit: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP

No one knows what is going on, she said. Something is happening, whether its on one (political) side or the other.

A doctor working at the Hospital Vargas in the West of the city, who did not wish to be identified, said the blackout was making already difficult conditions even worse. She said intensive care and the emergencies department were relying on petrol-fuelled generators, but that would not last forever. The rest of the facility was already in darkness.

In the hospitals neighborhood of Cotiza, frustrated people were coming out of their homes into the streets, she said, while police were standing by, some in riot gear. She feared the situation could quickly descend into unrest, saying the atmosphere was one of tension and drawing parallels to the infamous Caracazo fuel riots of 1989 in which hundreds of people died.

Javier, a 44-year-old lawyer who preferred not to give his last name, said he and his wife were worried for their 3 children. We can hang on for a day, or maybe two, but whats going to happen on the third day?

He put the blame squarely on the Maduro government, and the lack of investment throughout the last 20 years as money was instead siphoned off by a corrupt regime.

They took the money for themselves, he told the Telegraph, adding: That is why all this is happening.

After more than 24 hours, much of the country still remained under blackout on Friday night, though electricity began to be restored to some areas of Caracas in the afternoon.

In the centre of the capital, there was a heavy police and military presence, with the road to Miraflores, the presidential palace, closed and guarded.

Outside the Hospital Vargas, Agustin, 34, who preferred not to give his last name, was leaning against a wall, sick and visibly jaundiced. He had arrived at 5pm on Thursday for treatment to find the hospital already almost entirely without power. Agustin had travelled from the town of Higuerote, more than an hour and a half away, after his local facility said he needed tests and likely an operation that they could not provide. But without electricity, all the hospital could do was give him a sedative, he told The Telegraph. I cant even go home because the transport isnt running as there isnt enough fuel.

There were reports from around the country of hospitals generators failing, and patients being ventilated by hand.

Speaking in the neighbourhood of Los Palos Grandes, Mr Guaido said nine deaths had so far been reported due to the power cut. This crisis, this tragedy was the fault of the corrupt Maduro regime, he added.
Watch the full episode 17 of Yahoo UKs show The Royal Box, here.

When Meghan Markles relationship with Prince Harry became public in 2016, she was hailed as a breath of fresh air, for the Royal Family.

Not only did she have a successful acting career behind her and financial independence, she was politically vocal and has long been an advocate of womens rights.

In 2015, Meghan became the UN Womens Advocate for Womens Political Participation and Leadership. In this role, she gave a speech on the importance of gender equality on International Womens Day for UN Women in New York City.

Two years on from the, the now Duchess of Sussex has a global platform on which she can champion the causes she feels most passionate about, such as education and gender equality.

Meghan pictured in Morocco [Photo: Getty]

While the Royal Family has always remained impartial on political issues, Meghan has not lost touch with her feminist roots.

Her first patronages were announced earlier this year, one of which is Smart Works, a charity which helps vulnerable women get back into full-time employment.

Meghan also took over as patron of the Association of Commonwealth Universities from the Queen, an organisation representing higher education across all 53 Commonwealth countries.

Prior to the announcement, during her visit to Fiji last year, Meghan gave a passionate speech in which spoke about the importance of accessible education for all.

She said: Because when girls are given the right tools to succeed, they can create incredible futures, not only for themselves but also for those around them.

READ MORE: 7 reasons why its better to be a woman now than last International Womens Day

Meghan during her speech at the University of the South Pacifics main Fiji campus [Photo: PA]

As the duchess joins a panel discussion at Kings College London today (8 March), broadcaster Vanessa Feltz thinks Meghan is the embodiment of International Womens Day.

Speaking on Yahoo UKs The Royal Box, Feltz says: Shes international, shes entirely self-made, shes a woman, shes proud of it, she says so and she does kind of conventional traditional womanly things, like cook really, really well.

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But she also does other fantastic things, like make a terrifically good living, which is what she did before.

While some commentators feel that Meghan has lost her feminist beliefs since joining the Royal Family, her recent engagements seem to suggest otherwise.

READ MORE: Prince Harry was a feminist long before meeting Meghan Markle

Harry and Meghan at the Education for All boarding house in Asni town in Morocco [Photo: Getty]

During her trip to Morocco last month, she and Harry visited an Education for All boarding house in Asni, which gives girls from the rural communities access to secondary education.

The couple have also become ambassadors for the Commonwealth and part of that area of their work is encouraging youngsters, particularly girls, to speak up about the issues their generation faces.

Within her biography on the Royal Familys website, it cites all of the causes Meghan is working with, including womens empowerment.

While some may argue that the Royal Family is still playing catch-up with the modern world, the Duchess of Sussex has certainly brought them up to speed.

To find out more about Internationals Womens Day 2019, join the conversation here where Yahoo Style and its sister sites take about the issues and stories that matter most to women.






Jessica Mulroney has given an interview to Harpers Bazaar. [Photo: Getty Images]

Words by Elizabeth Di Filippo.

Jessica Mulroney, Canadian fashion expert and high-profile BFF of the Duchess of Sussex, is ready to clear the air.

In a new interview with Harpers Bazaar US, Mulroney set the record straight on her career trajectory.

From working behind the scenes in fashion in brand strategy, to appearing on camera as a regular contributor on Good Morning America and CityLine its clear that Mulroneys success comes from hard work  and not from her high profile friendships.

Recently, the Daily Mail reported that the future of Mulroneys role on GMA hinges on her willingness to dish on her relationship with the royal.

Its not journalism, Mulroney said. Theres no truth to it. [If] they decide they want to ruin somebody, they just will. It comes with the territory. There are so many benefits to certain things, but then also a lot of negativity that you have to deal with at the same time You have to stay positive.

Like many of those close to Markle, Mulroney is fiercely protective of the expectant royal.

READ MORE: Who is Jessica Mulroney?

Jessica Mulroney gives her first interview since the royal wedding last year. [Photo: Getty Images]

This is my first interview that Ive done since the wedding or anything, she told the magazine, referencing the 2018 royal wedding of Markle to Prince Harry.

Listen, every person has to have a bit of privacy in their life. There are certain things I hold very dear and secretThere are things Ill never talk about for sure. My life is an open book, but theres always a few secret pages in the back that nobody will be able to read.

READ MORE: Meghan Markle makes surprise appearance at Wembley

The mother-of-three, who has been married to TV host Ben Mulroney since 2008, boasts an impressive online following. While her life may appear ultra-glamorous to the outside world, Mulroney is the first to point out that theres more to life than its trappings.

Story continues

I dont take myself too seriously. I never think Im the smartest person in the room. I didnt invent something; I just chose to find my strengths and do things that make me happy and work with businesses Im proud of and create strategies that I think work. And so far, so good, but Im not changing the world, she said.

I always want to be recognised for the work I do and not the company I keep. Its not about the shiny objects and the outfits and its not about the vacations you take or the people you hang out with.
Tanya Little/Shutterstock

March 8, 2019

Whether you're on an airplane or in a grocery store, contending with your little one's public tantrums can feel like an absolute nightmarein great part because the last thing any parent wants to do is make a scene. But as all moms and dads know, sometimes, it just cannot be helped, and that's when compassion, as opposed to judgement, from others is oh-so-appreciated. An Australian mom named Krechelle, who blogs on the site EightAtHome, recently took to Facebook to share that very message to other parents.

She was at the supermarket recently when she heard a child "screaming so loud that naturally people were staring." Immediately, she felt for the parents contending with the meltdown. His parents were sternly but quietly trying to contain his octopus limbs and put them into the pram without hurting him, without loosing their s*it," she wrote. "There was sweating and grunting and shaking of heads. They were doing well, they almost had it."

And it was then that she heard a fellow mom say "to her 8-year-old daughter quite loudly 'Well, clearly that child gets everything he wants and has never been taught a thing In his life.'"

Krechelle was angered by the other parent's take. "I stopped searching my bag, my mouth dropped open; I felt pure rage surging through my body," she wrote. "It was like every-time a Mum had judged me had just toppled on top of me like ice water. How f***ing dare she. Were meant to be part of the club. The mums club. Solidarity sister. Ya ya!!!!"

The blogger elaborated that she felt the other mother "had betrayed that club, and not only had she shamed that mum, [but] she was teaching her daughter that judging people out loud, making people feel bad [for] a split second of there life was okay."

Story continues

The moment inspired Krechelle to encourage moms to support one another. She explained that saying nothing is better than passing judgement and shaming parents who are just doing their best. "Dont stare," she wrote. "Dont roll your eyes. Dont make comments to your impressionable kid. Move along."

Other moms responded to Krechelle's important message with their own stories of feeling shamed or judged in public. One wrote, "My oldest son had a massive tatrum [stet] when he was two and this lady was tutting rolling her eyes and saying for his sake can't you control that brat I was having a really stressful day and I let her have it big time."

A second commenter shared, "When my baby was smaller, I was trying to get the through the checkout at woolies with him crying. A customer at the next register kept glaring over her shoulder and giving me dirty looks so i said loud enough for her to hear while I was talking to my bub and said oh my goodness darling boy youd think no one had ever heard a crying baby before, with a sweet but slightly sarcastic tone to my voice. I told her off through my baby."

One mom, who shared that her three kids are now 25, 23, and 19 years old, offered wise words of encouragement that hit the nail on the head: "Hang in there Mums. Youre all doing a fantastic job."
Monthly injections of long-acting medication can replace the daily pill dosage for HIV patients, according to two studies involving over 1,000 people around the world.

Daily pills can prevent the HIV virus from replicating, but the regime can be tiring to patients and some may have trouble reaching clinics to restock. The monthly injection, which contains two drugs, can be easier for patients to work into their lives.

The combination is paradigm shifting, Chloe Orkin, an HIV researcher at Queen Mary University of London who reported the trial findings at a Seattle conference, told Nature. Instead of being reminded that you have HIV 365 days a year, its reduced to just 12.

The injection includes cabotegravir and rilpivirine, two drugs that suppress the HIV virus in different ways. The combination, developed by London drug company ViiV Healthcare, slowly releases from the patients tissue throughout the month.

Two trials found that the injection is as effective as the traditional pill dosages. Moreover, in each study more than 85% of people on injections preferred the monthly needle over daily pills, says Nature.

ViiV, an offshoot of GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, is also looking into whether the injection can prevent HIV transmission.

The breakthrough comes just days after a patient in London became the second person to be declared HIV free after a bone marrow transplant. Scientists are describing the condition as a long-term remission, but the news has given hope for a cure.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Megastar Michael Jackson's musical legacy has been getting critically reappraised after a new documentary rekindled allegations of child sexual abuse, but at least two music museums in Detroit and Tennessee aren't scrubbing the King of Pop from their exhibits.

The National Museum of African American Music says some Michael Jackson artifacts will be on display in a planned exhibit called "One Nation Under A Groove," when the museum opens in downtown Nashville in early 2020. The museum has previously released renderings of the building's design, featuring an image of Jackson on the exterior.

Meanwhile, in Detroit, the chairwoman and CEO of Motown Museum said its mission is to share the stories and artifacts of the history of Motown.

"Michael Jackson's musical contributions remain part of the Motown story," Robin Terry said.

Motown Records was the first major label to record The Jackson 5, in which Michael debuted as a young star alongside his siblings, and released their hits "I Want You Back" and "ABC."

The HBO documentary "Leaving Neverland" aired detailed and disturbing stories from two men who say Jackson groomed them for sex and molested them when they were just little boys. Allegations of sexual abuse shadowed Jackson throughout much of his adult life, and he was acquitted on child molestation charges in 2005. Jackson died in 2009. There's been no evidence of major damage to Jackson's estate or his music because of the new documentary.

"The importance of Michael Jackson's music to the African American culture, and to the American soundtrack, is unrivalled," said H. Beecher Hicks III, president and CEO of the National Museum of African American Music in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

"As a part of our One Nation Under a Groove gallery, Jackson will be defined by his music, his importance to pop culture, music videos and his impact on changing the course of popular music in our country. NMAAM has collected some artifacts which will be on display in this gallery, each of which will help highlight these aspects of his contributions to African American music. We understand that, like music itself, legacies are constantly evolving, and that we must be able to evolve and shift as needed."

Story continues

A publicist for NMAAM said the design of the structure is still preliminary, and they have planned on having a rotating display of artist images on the building's exterior signs.

__

AP journalist Jeff Karoub in Detroit contributed to this story.

__

This story has been corrected to fix the name of the National Museum of African American Music.
A killer whale that could be a new species is to be studied by scientists for the first time after it was seen off the coast of southern Chile.

A team of international researchers have collected genetic samples from a group of orcas roaming the sub-Antarctic waters off the tip of South America.

For decades, fishermen and tourists had returned with tales and even photos of killer whales in the region that look distinctly different from others. But the enigmatic marine mammals had eluded scientists until now.

The team encountered the killer whales  known only as Type D  while anchored off Cape Horn for a week waiting for storms to pass in January.

Scientists collected three biopsy samples from the pod, and biologists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are now conducting laboratory tests that will establish if the orcas are a new species.

We are very excited about the genetic analyses to come, said Bob Pitman, marine ecologist who was part of the team that spotted the whales.

Type D killer whales could be the largest undescribed animal left on the planet and a clear indication of how little we know about life in our oceans.

The unusual killer whales were first documented in 1955, when 17 of them were stranded on the coast of Paraparaumu, New Zealand. Compared to other killer whales, they had a more rounded head, a narrower and more pointed dorsal fins, and a tiny white eyepatch.

Initially, scientists speculated that the unique look might have been caused by a genetic aberration only seen in the stranded pod. But in 2005, a French scientist showed Mr Pitman photographs of odd-looking killer whales that had been poaching catches from commercial fishing lines near Crozet Island in the southern Indian Ocean. They had the same tiny eye patches and bulbous heads.

Unlike killer whale types A to C, they are thought to eat fish rather than marine mammals such as seals. They are also slightly smaller, at 20ft to 25ft long.

Story continues

The whales are so different they probably cannot breed with other killer whales and are likely to be a new species, according to Mr Pitman.

An adult male regular killer whale, top, and adult male Type D killer whale, bottom, with a smaller eye patch, more rounded head, and more narrow and pointed dorsal fin. (Uko Gorter/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Some outside experts were more cautious. Michael McGowen, marine mammal curator at the Smithsonian Institution, said calling the whale a new species without genetic data was premature.

However, he added: I think its pretty remarkable that there are still many things out there in the ocean like a huge killer whale that we dont know about.

The whales are hard to find because they live far south and away from shore "in the most inhospitable waters on the planet", said Mr Pitman.

"It's a good place to hide," he added.

The researchers followed the advice and directions of South American fishermen as they looked for the whales.

After weeks of waiting, about 25 of the whales came up to the scientist's boat, looking like they expected to be fed.

Equipment problems prevented the scientists from recording enough of the whale songs, but they used a crossbow to get tiny tissue samples.

Mr Pitman said the whales are so big and their skin so tough that the arrow "is like a soda straw bouncing off a truck tyre" and does not hurt them.

"For 14 years I was looking for these guys. I finally got to see them," he said.
While Stephen Schroeder was recovering from a helicopter crash that occurred during training activities near Fort Campbell, Kentucky a few years ago, the Nashville Predators playoff run that spring was a large positive in his life.

On Tuesday, the Predators wanted to give him another.

Ahead of their clash with the Minnesota Wild, they presented Schroeder, who was sporting a Ryan Johansen jersey, and his family with a gift to show their appreciation for all that he had done for his country.

As a team we wanted to thank you for everything you do, Nashville forward Nick Bonino said to Schroeder while giving him the new chair. We understand the sacrifice What you guys go through is amazing.

Schroeder had previously served in Iraq and Afghanistan as an Army Chief Warrant Officer, according to Pat Pickens of NHL.com.

It was, it was one of the bright spots, Schroeder said to the team about the impact of watching them excel in the postseason while he was in the hospital.

The Predators, who are currently honouring veterans for military week, also treated Schroeder and his family to a 5-4 shootout victory that evening.

And, fittingly, it was Johansen that ended up scoring the winner in the fourth round.

(Twitter//@PredsNHL)

More NHL coverage on Yahoo Sports


Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., and Rodney Davis, R-Ill., were discussing a criminal justice amendment on the House floor Thursday when a debate about Canadian-born rock band Nickelback broke out.Only four wanted to keep this provision. Everyone else wanted to change this, out of 77,000, Pocan said of the amendment. That's probably about the percent of people who think Nickelback is their favorite band in this country. It's pretty low.After Davis reacted and asked Pocan why he would criticize one of the greatest bands of the 90s, Pocan responded swiftly.Wow, alright. One more reason why there's a difference between Democrats and Republicans, clearly found on the floor of congress today, he said.Both CNNs New Day and the Fox News show Fox & Friends covered the story, with hosts on each network providing differing opinions of the band.They are not the worst, theyre good, co-host Ainsley Earhardt said on Fox & Friends. How do you hate Nickelback? I understand hating heavy metal.Her co-hosts added thoughts as well, with Steve Doocey proudly proclaiming his love for the band and Brian Kilmeade showing indifference toward the group.I never hear it on the radio and think, make it louder, Kilmeade said.On New Day, co-host Alisyn Camerota brought jokes.It's been said if you play a Nickelback song backwards you hear messages from the devil. Even worse, if you play it forward, you hear Nickelback, she said, with co-host John Berman later adding: Theyre empirically not good, right?

Along with being quick to point out that Nickelback didnt make a splash until the early 2000s, some viewers on Twitter were quick to pile on the Nickelback hate.

Nickleback now belongs to Republicans, its a good day  Jason Heiss (@heiss_jason) March 7, 2019

Nickelback sucks !!!!  American_Roughneck (@racerx315) March 8, 2019

I can think of few better ways to sum up Fox & Friends than "87% of their viewers like Nickelback" pic.twitter.com/fRbUcDS4B6  Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) March 8, 2019

I happened to be waiting on the House floor to speak in support of my #HR1 amendment to boost youth civic engagement, and witnessed this debate.https://t.co/PX0A1mCw0G In case there's a question, I'm with my colleague @repmarkpocan in favor #HR1 and against Nickelback and Creed  Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) March 7, 2019

Others came to the defense of the six time Emmy-winning group.

Story continues

SICK & TIRED of all this Nickelback hate.... Sad & pathetic. People can like whoevers music they want. I HATE Rap "music" with a passion.... But I don't slag off the Rappers & send their families death threats. If everyones taste was the same, Life would be pointless #rantover  Gill Brain (@itsnickelfly5) March 8, 2019

I love Nickelback, and I am a Democrat!  Michele (@teddybearz4me) March 8, 2019

Nickelback is change my mind.  Dale Burge (@dale_burge) March 8, 2019

BRO PEOPLE NEED TO LEAVE NICKELBACK ALONE @Jocelyn_266 https://t.co/mlhwZUAYVn  Olivia (@_Olivvia) March 8, 2019

So while the debate rages on and you decide if you either want to rock out to Nickelback or throw them out, Rep. Davis had the final say against Rep. Pocan.I stand here to say that my colleague from Wisconsin, I know he did not mean to offend the many thousands upon thousands of Nickelback fans in his district of Wisconsin, Davis said of Pocan. I'll stand here to save you from doing that, and have to face the political consequences at the ballot box.Watch what happened when a TV reporter was licked by a stranger while live on the air:

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

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By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Despite actively pursuing diplomacy on its nuclear program, North Korea continues to quash basic freedoms, maintaining political prison camps and strict surveillance of its citizens, a United Nations human rights investigator said on Friday. "With the positive developments in the past year 2018, it is all the more regrettable that the serious human rights situation on the ground in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea remains unchanged," Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the DPRK, said in his latest report. North Korea has frozen its nuclear and missile testing since 2017 and held several summits with the United States and South Korea in the past year, emerging from decades of isolation. Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump held a second meeting last week, but their talks in Vietnam broke up with no agreement. Trump said on Friday he would be disappointed if North Korea were to resume weapons testing and reiterated his belief in his good relationship with Kim. Ojea Quintana said that he hoped the summit's abrupt end "doesnt compromise the peaceful environment for dialogue that all the parties have been working for during 2018". The U.N. expert said he "continues to receive reports of the existence of the political prison camps where people are being sent without due process. Torture and ill-treatment reportedly remain widespread and systematic in detention facilities." Surveillance and close monitoring of all citizens, and other severe restrictions such as on freedom of movement remain intact, Ojea Quintana said, adding the penal system denies due process and a guarantee of fair trial. He said he had contacted China last year about 18 North Koreans who had left the country and been detained there, amid concerns they would be forcibly returned to their homeland where other defectors have been allegedly subjected to torture and sexual violence. However, Ojea Quintana also called for an easing of sanctions imposed on North Korea for its nuclear activities, saying they had led to "significant delays and disruption" in the humanitarian aid effort. Some 10.3 million people or 41 per cent of the population lack sufficient food, he said. In a landmark 2014 report, U.N. investigators said that 80,000 to 120,000 people were thought to be held in camps in North Korea. It documented torture and other violations, saying they could amount to crimes against humanity. Ojea Quintana said the restrictions and fear of authorities and surveillance is so deeply ingrained in North Korean society that one of the escapees whom he met in Seoul during a recent visit concluded: The whole country is a prison. Han Tae Song, North Korea's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council on Thursday that his country is "committed to genuine dialogue and cooperation for the promotion and protection of human rights". "We also reject any groundless accusations parroted by some delegations as they are politically motivated in pursuit of ulterior purposes rather than human rights," Han said. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Frances Kerry)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has attacked the broken US justice system after Donald Trumps former campaign manager was jailed for 47 months for a $6m (4.5m) tax and bank fraud.

The New York Congresswoman said Paul Manaforts punishment  well below the 19 to 24 years sought by prosecutors  was an example of how rich people were treated differently in court.

In our current broken system, justice isnt blind, she tweeted. Its bought.

The sentencing by federal judge TS Ellis, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan, prompted lawyers and politicians to compare it to other cases involving longer prison terms, particularly those involving small amounts of drugs.

Last year the same judge sentenced Frederick Turner, 37, to a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison for dealing methamphetamine. Judge Ellis expressed misgivings at the time, adding that the mandatory minimum was wrong, but not immoral.

Democrat 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren brought up the example of Fate Winslow, a homeless man who was jailed for life for helping to sell $20 (15) worth of cannabis.

In other cases, a Texas woman, Crystal Mason, was sentenced to five years in prison for voting while on probation while a man was offered a prison sentence of between three and six years for stealing $100 from a laundry room.

Financial crimes attorney Louis Laverone said: Manaforts sentence is an example of a broader problem: white collar crimes (e.g. fraud, money laundering) just arent taken seriously.

Trumps campaign manager, Paul Manafort, commits bank and tax fraud and gets 47 months. A homeless man, Fate Winslow, helped sell $20 of pot and got life in prison. The words above the Supreme Court say Equal Justice Under Lawwhen will we start acting like it?  Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 8, 2019

FYI in 2018, #JudgeEllis sentenced Frederick Turner, 37, to a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison for dealing methamphetamine: I chafe a bit at that, but I follow the law. If I thought it was blatantly immoral, Id have to resign. Its wrong, but not immoral. #PaulManafort  Laura Coates (@thelauracoates) March 8, 2019

As a public defender in a right wing area of a right wing state, I am disgusted. Saw a kid get 15 years today for stealing lawnmowers and equipment worth less than $50K



The chasm in our dual justice system is an infinite divide.  fabuKat (@katwitdown) March 8, 2019

Following a jury trial in Virginia last year, Manafort was convicted of hiding millions of dollars earned through his work advising politicians in Ukraine, including the former pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych.

Story continues

His lawyers argued that it amounted to a routine tax evasion, which often results in prison sentences of less than 12 months, and claimed that Manafort would never have been charged if it were not for the investigation by FBI special counsel Robert Mueller into links between the Trump campaign and Russia.

While the charges were not related to his work on Trumps campaign, prosecutors argued for a significant jail term because the 69 year-old tampered with witnesses during his trial, tried to shift the blame to others and failed to accept responsibility for his crimes.

Manafort still faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on two conspiracy charges in Washington DC next week. He had offered to cooperate with the Mueller probe after pleading guilty to those offences, but the deal was thrown out after a judge agreed he had lied to investigators.

Additional reporting by Associated Press
A look at where investigations related to President Donald Trump stand and what may lie ahead for him:

What's this all about?

Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia and whether the president obstructed the investigation. Mr Trump also plays a central role in a separate case in New York, where prosecutors have implicated him in a crime. They say Mr Trump directed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to make illegal hush-money payments to two women as a way to quash potential sex scandals during the campaign. New York prosecutors are also looking into Mr Trump's inaugural fund.

Congressional investigations also are swirling around the president. Democrats have launched a sweeping probe of Mr Trump, an aggressive investigation that threatens to shadow the president through the 2020 election season.

What do I need to know right now?

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced Thursday to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians.

The sentence caps the only jury trial so far following indictments stemming from Mr Mueller's investigation. It was not related to Mr Manafort's role in Trump's campaign.

Also Thursday, Michael Cohen's attorney said Trump's advisers had dangled the possibility of a pardon after the FBI raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room in April 2018. That appears to contradict Mr Cohen's public testimony before the House Oversight Committee last week.

Mr Cohen filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming the Trump Organisation broke a promise to pay his legal bills and owes at least $1.9 million to cover the cost of his defence.

So... Did the Trump campaign collude with Russia?

There is no smoking gun when it comes to the question of Russia collusion. But the evidence so far shows that a broad range of Trump associates had Russia-related contacts during the 2016 presidential campaign and transition period, and several lied about the communications.

Story continues

There is evidence that some people in Trump's orbit were discussing a possible email dump from WikiLeaks before it occurred. American intelligence agencies and Mueller have said Russia was the source of hacked material released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks during the campaign that was damaging to Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential effort.

Other questions to consider:

What about obstruction of justice? That is another unresolved question that Mr Mueller is pursuing. Investigators have examined key episodes such as Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey and Mr Trump's fury over Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recusal.

What does Trump have to say about all this? Trump has repeatedly slammed the Mueller investigation as a "witch hunt" and insisted there was "no collusion" with Russia. He also says Mr Cohen lied to get a lighter sentence in New York.

When will it all wrap up? It's unclear. Then-acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said in January that the probe is "close to being completed," the first official sign that Mr Mueller's investigation may be wrapping up. But he gave no specific timetable.

AP
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The Didi and Bush People of Guyana LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 461243

03-07-2019 01:28 PM











Post: #1 The Didi and Bush People of Guyana

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"The beast of Guyana is a very curious one indeed: its hair is said to be red, rather than the generally reported brown and its fingers are topped off with vicious-looking claws. Apes, however, do not possess claws, which has given rise to the theory that perhaps the Didi is a surviving relic of a giant sloth, Megatherium that lived in certain parts of South America up until around 10,500 years ago.



...



Richard Freeman also learned that, until the 1970s, a population of very curious little fellows lived in the area. They were pigmy-like humans of a noticeably primitive, animalistic nature and appearance, only about three feet in height, hairless, who lacked any form of clothing, and wore red-paint on their faces.



...



The Bush People, as the chief referred to them, were not dangerous, kept to themselves deep in the forests, and lived in primitive dwellings built below large trees. Rather notably, the Bush People of Guyana were said to have a particular liking for tobacco, and would, late at night and in the early hours of the morning, raid nearby homes to steal and partake of their favorite drug of choice!"



Source and full article:

https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2012/12/t...h-america/ The Didi may be quite dangerous. There is a story in the article about how one snatched a person. Contrast that to the more harmless human Bush People of Guyana, who mostly keep to themselves, live in dwellings under large trees, but they do enjoy raiding settlements for tobacco. South America has many reports of mysterious beings."The beast of Guyana is a very curious one indeed: its hair is said to be red, rather than the generally reported brown and its fingers are topped off with vicious-looking claws. Apes, however, do not possess claws, which has given rise to the theory that perhaps the Didi is a surviving relic of a giant sloth, Megatherium that lived in certain parts of South America up until around 10,500 years ago....Richard Freeman also learned that, until the 1970s, a population of very curious little fellows lived in the area. They were pigmy-like humans of a noticeably primitive, animalistic nature and appearance, only about three feet in height, hairless, who lacked any form of clothing, and wore red-paint on their faces....The Bush People, as the chief referred to them, were not dangerous, kept to themselves deep in the forests, and lived in primitive dwellings built below large trees. Rather notably, the Bush People of Guyana were said to have a particular liking for tobacco, and would, late at night and in the early hours of the morning, raid nearby homes to steal and partake of their favorite drug of choice!"Source and full article: LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 461243

03-07-2019 06:50 PM











Post: #2 RE: The Didi and Bush People of Guyana

Thanks for the pin twitchy

Registered User

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03-07-2019 06:56 PM



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Post: #3 RE: The Didi and Bush People of Guyana

The wife and I have been talking about moving to Guyana for a while now. I don't know if we will ever manage it but has always been a dream of ours. Author of this Post assumes no Responsibility, nor makes any Guarantee of the Accuracy or Validity of material in this Post. Material Contained or referred to in this Post is presented for Entertainment Purposes Only. This Material IS Not Intended to be Inferred, or Interpreted as Information, Advice, News, Instruction, or Factual Information. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 409200

03-07-2019 07:05 PM











Post: #4 RE: The Didi and Bush People of Guyana



Go Home! Done be messin wit de bush peoples!Go Home! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 466912

03-07-2019 07:32 PM











Post: #5 RE: The Didi and Bush People of Guyana

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-07-2019 01:28 PM) The Didi may be quite dangerous. There is a story in the article about how one snatched a person. Contrast that to the more harmless human Bush People of Guyana, who mostly keep to themselves, live in dwellings under large trees, but they do enjoy raiding settlements for tobacco. South America has many reports of mysterious beings.



"The beast of Guyana is a very curious one indeed: its hair is said to be red, rather than the generally reported brown and its fingers are topped off with vicious-looking claws. Apes, however, do not possess claws, which has given rise to the theory that perhaps the Didi is a surviving relic of a giant sloth, Megatherium that lived in certain parts of South America up until around 10,500 years ago.



...



Richard Freeman also learned that, until the 1970s, a population of very curious little fellows lived in the area. They were pigmy-like humans of a noticeably primitive, animalistic nature and appearance, only about three feet in height, hairless, who lacked any form of clothing, and wore red-paint on their faces.



...



The Bush People, as the chief referred to them, were not dangerous, kept to themselves deep in the forests, and lived in primitive dwellings built below large trees. Rather notably, the Bush People of Guyana were said to have a particular liking for tobacco, and would, late at night and in the early hours of the morning, raid nearby homes to steal and partake of their favorite drug of choice!"



Source and full article:

https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2012/12/t...h-america/

I guess they would walk a mile for a Camel. I guess they would walk a mile for a Camel. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 481502

03-08-2019 03:46 AM











Post: #6 RE: The Didi and Bush People of Guyana

Strange World LoP Guest

lop guest

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03-08-2019 04:00 AM











Post: #7 RE: The Didi and Bush People of Guyana



https://journals.plos.org/plosone/articl...ne.0102661 It was already a hybridized species by the time it arrived in Africa 10mya. Buffalojump

lop guest

User ID: 492202

03-08-2019 05:23 AM











Post: #8 RE: The Didi and Bush People of Guyana

The story of red haired giants that could snatch a buffalo at full run and kill and capture people here in North America is reasonably confirmed i know because the historical legend is even known up here in Canada.

Also legend about little people is common



Every race on the planet has historical legends about giants and little people ...same with "they" came down from the sky and taught us

Ok same story Sumerian. Egyptian. Muslim. Islam. Jewish. Christian even east Asian the story might be traced as one.

But!! Same story in the Americas

That means isolated groups have the same story...the gods came down from the stars.

We were here long enough to know giants lived in those days too

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Paul Manafort, Donald Trumps former campaign manager, has been sentenced by a judge to 47 months in jail  considerably less than prosecutors had sought for the 69-year-old known for wearing $10,000 suits.

In what came as nothing less than a jolt to observers  prosecutors had requested he be jailed for up to 25 years  the man who served as Mr Trumps campaign chief for a short but crucial few months, appeared to have been successful in his appeal to the federal judge TS Ellis to show mercy. There was no immediate reaction from either special counsel Robert Mueller or the president.

To say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement, said Manafort, who many expected could spend the rest of his life in jail after pleading guilty to tax and financial fraud in relation to his work for Ukraines former pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych. He said his life was now professionally and financially in shambles.

The sentence came after lengthy deliberations by the judge in Virginia on Thursday, who noted the crimes the former political operative was convicted of were not directly related to Russian meddling in the 2016 election, even if the special counsels office did charge him. Manafort is is due to be sentenced for other offences next week

Manafort, whose trial included revelations that he had spent $1.4m on clothes, arrived wearing a jumpsuit and in a wheelchair. The judge ordered him to pay $24m in restitutions.

In announcing his decision, the judge said Manafort was not being given credit for cooperating with that investigation after pleading guilty on separate conspiracy charges in Washington. But he also made clear he was not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.

While Manafort pleaded for mercy, he did not offer any apology, something the judge noted. I was surprised I did not hear you express regret for engaging in wrongful conduct, he said, according to Reuters.

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Manaforts lawyers had argued their client deserved a light sentence as he was first time offender. They said in filings the special counsels attempt to vilify Mr Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts.

Yet, while the judge did not agree he should show leniency for this, he said he believed the prosecutorial sentencing guidelines that suggested the veteran political operative should serve between 19-24 years was excessive. He said other than the offences he had been convicted of, Manafort had lived an otherwise blameless life.

The special counsels office had earlier pushed back on any suggestion Manafort should be shown leniency. They noted that he attempted to tamper with witnesses during his trial last year, and that he continued to violate his plea agreement.

Mr Mueller wrote that there is no reason to believe that Manafort would not commit further crimes given the opportunity.

Manaforts effort to shift the blame to others  as he did at trial  is not consistent with acceptance of responsibility or a mitigating factor. Manafort has failed to accept that he is responsible for the criminal choices that bring him to this Court for sentencing, Mr Mueller wrote.

The sentence marks a dramatic turn of fortune in the past two years for Manafort, who was once credited with securing Mr Trump the Republican nomination for president.

While the convictions Manafort has sustained did not revolve around the Russia investigation specifically, the case was brought forward by the special counsels office after evidence was uncovered during that investigation.

In August, Manafort was convicted on eight felony charges, but avoided another 10 counts when the jury failed to reach consensus.

The crimes he was convicted on included five counts of tax fraud, one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts, and two counts of bank fraud.

Before joining Mr Trumps 2016 campaign, Manafort had acted as a foreign political adviser for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine, which set the stage for the lavish lifestyle and crimes that have now led to Manaforts heavy sentence.

Following his conviction in Virginia, Manafort went on to plead guilty in Washington on conspiracy charges, with the special counsels office agreeing to push for a lighter sentence as a part of that deal if he cooperated with the investigation.

That plea deal was thrown out by a judge last month after it was determined that Manafort had lied during his cooperation in several key ways. He will be sentenced for those offences next week.
What Women Want Now is a program by Yahoo Finance and her sister sites dedicated to creating content about the issues and stories that matter most to women. Read more at WhatWomenWantNow.tumblr.com. Join the conversation with #WhatWomenWantNow.

Democrats and Republicans dont agree on much. But among women, a majority on both sides agree that gender-based pay inequity is a problem.

Still, liberal and conservative women disagree about how serious that problem is. According to a new survey of 1,008 women produced for HuffPost, Yahoo, and CARE by Langer Research Associates, 63% of Democratic women but only 26% of Republican women see the gender pay gap as a serious problem.

More Democratic women than Republican women see the pay gap as a serious problem. (Photo: HuffPost/CARE International survey)

Among women who identify as Democrats or liberals, about 90% said pay inequity is a problem versus about 60% among female conservatives or Republicans.

It compounds over time

Kim Churches, CEO of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), a nonprofit organization that advocates equity for women and girls, was not surprised that most women agree on the issue of pay inequity.

Women are faced with the pay gap and the leadership gap every single day as they pursue their educational dreams, enter the workforce, and continue throughout their careers, Churches told Yahoo Finance. It compounds over time. The majority of women know that the pay gap is harming the economic security for families.

Women made 60.2% of what men earned in 1980. Since then, the number has gone up to 80%, according to the most recent Census data (though that data does not compare salaries and wages for men and women in similar jobs).

Women are slowly closing the pay gap. (Photo: U.S. Census Bureau via U.S. Department of Labor)

Rachel Greszler, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, acknowledged that theres a pay gap but that theres definitely agreement among conservatives that its greatly exaggerated.

When you take into account and compare people more apples to apples, you see that theres not as big of a pay gap as reported, Greszler said. It doesnt account for all sorts of things that make up what an individual earns, including their education, their hours a week, their choice of career field, and all sorts of things that factor into pay.

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According to a 2017 Pew Research survey, 25% of working women stated theyve earned less money than a man doing the same job, versus only 5% of men who said the same of a female peer.

Phyllis, a Democrat from Georgia who took the survey, told Yahoo Finance that gender-based pay inequity is a serious problem.

A lot of families are single-parent families, especially in minority communities, as well as in the larger society where women are the primary breadwinners, she said. If theyre not getting paid as much as their male equivalents, then they have difficulties meeting the needs of their family, which not only affects them as individuals, but the entire family, the community, and society.

Everything in the U.S. is becoming a partisan issue

One of the biggest divides was between Clinton and Trump supporters. (Photo: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

One of the most notable gaps among women is between those who supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 and those who voted for Donald Trump. The survey found that 68% of Clinton voters say gender-based inequity is a serious problem, versus just 23% among Trump supporters.

The Heritage Foundations Greszler said the disparity between the views of Democratic and Republican women on the issue boils down the role that liberals versus Republicans see for the government versus the individual.

Theres a fundamental difference there  whether the government or whether employees have the information thats necessary to determine workers value and thus set their wages based on the contributions that those workers make, she said. Liberals tend to think that pay should be a function of a job title, while conservatives think that pay should be more tied to performance.

Kay, a Florida-based survey participant who is Republican, told Yahoo Finance that women need to step up on their own to ensure theyre getting equal pay.

The solution to fixing gender pay inequity is by women standing up and saying, either you give me the same pay as the other guy, or I will walk, she said.

We are not locked into a job, Kay said. We know were not slaves. Were not indentured servants.

Women on both sides agree there's a pay gap. (Photo: Volkan Furuncu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

In some cases, she suggested, women may get paid less money than men because theyre given more flexibility.

Women need to realize that we want the whole ball of wax, and sometimes, we just cant have it. So is he getting paid because he didnt take any sick days last year because his wife did to take care of the children? Kay noted. And then we had to take 20 or 30 days of sick leave because our children had the flu, the mumps, or the measles? We need to look at the whole picture. If your boss is lenient enough to let you take sick days, but the other guy gets the rewards for not taking them, you have to [accept] that.

Kim Churches of the American Association of University Women argued that the pay gap isnt a partisan issue, or at least shouldnt be. This is just common sense and pragmatic and practical that human beings doing the same work at the same title with the same level of experience, skills, and assets should be paid equally, she said.

So why is there still a divide? To be honest, some of it is the language we use around these issues, she said. Everything in the United States is becoming a partisan issue because were using nouns, adjectives, and verbs that stir our bases.

Source: Verizon Media

This HuffPost/Yahoo/CARE survey was conducted by telephone Jan. 21-30, 2019, among a random national sample of 1,008 adult women, with 71% reached on cell phones and 29% on landlines. Results have a 3.6 percentage point error margin for the full sample, including design effects due to weighting. The survey was produced by Langer Research Associates of New York. N.Y., with field work by Issues & Answers of Virginia Beach, Va.

Adriana is an associate editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @adrianambells.

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Philadelphia is the latest city to ban cashless businesses. Will this impact Bitcoin adoption? | Source: Shutterstock

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Philadelphia is the latest jurisdiction to pass a law against not accepting cash. Most retailers in the city must accept cash beginning in July. Democrats are leading the charge on these laws, viewing them as a way to protect people who dont have credit or debit cards.

Philadelphia Joins Northeast Cash Coalition

Philadelphias not alone in its war on cashless businesses.

New York City councilman Ritchie Torres admits that cashless payments are the future but is nevertheless backing a proposal requiring local businesses to accept cash. He told the Wall Street Journal:
Police want to speak to this woman in connection with the incident (PA)

Police are on the hunt for a woman after a mobile phone was stolen from somebody suffering a seizure.

British Transport Police (BTP) have issued issued CCTV images of the female suspect who officers believe may have information to help their inquiries into the offence which took place near Birminghams Selly Oak railway station.

The victim, also a woman, is thought to be aged in her 20s.

It was thought at first that the suspect was trying to help the victim when the seizure took place.

The incident happened last month (PA)

She suffered a seizure outside the station on February 17 and another woman, posing as a good Samaritan, came over apparently to help.

However it is thought that the woman then took the phone from the victims pocket and put it in her own, said police, before heading off.

The woman was at first thought to be a good Samaritan (PA)

Emergency services were subsequently called to the incident and the woman who suffered the seizure was then taken to hospital by ambulance.

The incident happened in broad daylight at around midday.

Police have said that anyone who recognises the woman in the CCTV images is urged to contact BTP by texting 61016 or calling 0800 40 50.

Alternatively, information can be passed anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump would not say Friday whether he is considering a pardon for Paul Manafort, a day after his ex-campaign chairman was sentenced to nearly four years in prison over financial fraud crimes related to the Russia investigation.

"I haven't discussed it, Trump said as he left the White House en route to Alabama to tour tornado damage, adding that journalists are the only ones discussing a possible Manafort pardon.

At the same time, Trump again denounced the investigation of his campaign's relationship with Russia as a "hoax" and a "collusion witch hunt." He also expressed sympathy for his ex-aide's plight, saying "I feel very badly for Paul Manafort."

In his first public comments since Manafort's sentencing, Trump argued the case proves his campaign did not work with Russia during the 2016 election.

Manafort was never charged with collusion. The allegations against him were related to his work for pro-Russian political interests in Ukraine.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis, who had criticized Mueller's prosecutors during the Manafort trial, said at one point the defendant was not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election."

The judge did not say whether Manafort is being looked at for collusion in any separate case.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has not completed his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Members of congressional committees conducting their own investigations say there are many yet-to-be answered questions about Trump's relationships with Russia.

Was Paul Manafort's sentence too light?: Here's how it compares with other cases

'Humiliated and ashamed': Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison

As he left the White House en route to Alabama to tour tornado damage, Trump also:

Story continues

 Said former lawyer Michael Cohen, who accused him of authorizing a scheme to pay hush money to an ex-mistress, did seek a pardon, contrary to his congressional testimony last week. Cohen "directly asked me for a pardon," Trump tweeted. "I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!"

 Accused Democrats of becoming the "anti-Israel party, anti-Jewish party," citing comments by freshman U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

 Said trade talks with China are ongoing, and he will not sign any new agreement until it is "a great deal."

 Claimed the economy is "very, very strong," despite a dismal jobs report on Friday.

 Said his relationship with North Korea's Kim Jong Un "remains good," despite the collapse of last week's summit in Vietnam.

Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 8, 2019

Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison Thursday for financial fraud crimes related to the Russia investigation.

His 47-month sentence fell far short of federal sentencing guidelines, which called for a sentence of 19-to-24 years based on his criminal convictions.

Manafort's activities put him in the crosshairs of Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

On Thursday, Manafort apologized in court for his conduct.

To say I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement, he said in a barely audible voice, reading from a prepared statement.

Manafort likely faces more prison time. He is scheduled to be sentenced next week in a related case involving conspiracy charges for failing to report his lobbying work in Ukraine and tampering with witnesses.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Donald Trump won't say whether he will pardon Paul Manafort
Washington (AFP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren unveiled a proposal Friday to break up Big Tech, arguing that firms such as Amazon, Google and Facebook hold " too much power" in society.

Warren said that as president, she would press for legislation to designate big online companies with revenues of at least $25 billion as "platform utilities" barred from owning "any participants on that platform."

The Massachusetts senator seeking her party's nomination for 2020 said she would also appoint antitrust enforcers "committed to reversing illegal and anti-competitive tech mergers," including acquisitions in recent years by Amazon, Facebook and Google.

"Today's big tech companies have too much power -- too much power over our economy, our society and our democracy," she wrote in a blog post on Medium ahead of a New York rally where she was to speak about the plan.

"They've bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else."

The proposal comes amid a growing "techlash" movement in the United States against the firms, which have grown to become the world's most valuable, and a series of antitrust investigations in Europe.

Critics accuse the firms of mishandling private user data and of abusing their dominance of certain sectors such as online retail and internet search.

- 'Unwinding' tech tie-ups -

Warren specifically said she would seek to unwind Amazon's acquisition of the Whole Foods grocery chain and shoe retailer Zappos, Facebook's WhatsApp and Instagram, and Google's integration of the ad tech firm DoubleClick, internet of things maker Nest and mobile navigation application Waze.

"Unwinding these mergers will promote healthy competition in the market -- which will put pressure on big tech companies to be more responsive to user concerns, including about privacy," she wrote.

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Warren said Amazon Marketplace, Google's ad exchange and Google Search would be considered platform utilities under her proposal.

By doing this, she said, "small businesses would have a fair shot to sell their products on Amazon without the fear of Amazon pushing them out of business."

- Help or hurt consumers? -

Warren's plan sparked swift reaction from both sides of the issue.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association, which represents the three firms cited by Warren, disputed her analysis.

The "unwarranted and extreme proposal, which focuses on a highly admired and highly performing sector, is misaligned with progressive values, many of which are shared within the tech industry," CCIA president Ed Black said.

- 'Big is bad' mentality -

Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a think tank that follows the sector, said the plan "is not pro-consumer."

Warren's plan "reflects a 'big is bad, small is beautiful' ideology run amok," Atkinson said.

"The proposal ignores the fact that many of the services big tech companies now provide free used to cost consumers money."

But Matt Stoller of the Open Markets Institute, a group focused on competition in the tech sector, said the plan is "moderate" and long overdue.

"Keep in mind the Sherman Act is not just a civil statute but a criminal one. Monopolization is a crime," Stoller tweeted.

Charlotte Slaiman of the consumer group Public Knowledge also welcomed the proposal.

"We're very concerned about situations where a company has free reign to control the playing field on which they compete," she said.

Michael Carrier, a professor of antitrust law at Rutgers University, warned that the legal basis for taking on Big Tech would be shaky.

"You can't break up a company just because they're big," Carrier told AFP, pointing out that antitrust laws requires monopolization and "exclusionary conduct."

"Being big is not exclusionary conduct. While big tech companies could present concern, that's not enough for an antitrust case."
Watch the full episode 17 of Yahoo UKs show The Royal Box, here.

The Duke of Edinburgh isnt someone who immediately springs to mind when it comes to being an advocate for feminism within the Royal Family.

When Prince Philip married a then-Princess Elizabeth in 1947, the world was a very different place.

When she acceded the throne in 1952, the Queen was surrounded by men in positions of power  in government, her staff and her advisers. While the country has changed beyond recognition, Her Majesty has remained a constant and she was a world leader before any women were leading in the world. To many, she is seen as a feminist icon because of that.

The fact that the duke has walked a few steps behind one of the most famous monarchs in history for nearly seven decades has made him somewhat of an accidental feminist, as The Times once described him.

The sudden death of King George VI in 1952 meant Elizabeth ascended the throne much earlier than expected. She and Philip were only five years into their marriage with two young children, Charles and Anne.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh pictured in June 2018 [Photo: Getty]

Not only did everything change for the then 25-year-old Elizabeth, but Philip too, who had worked his way up the ranks through the navy, serving in the Second World War. While he was promoted to commander of the Royal Navy in 1952, his active naval career ended in 1951.

As well as giving up his career, Philip also wasnt able to pass his surname to his children. He had hoped that when his wife took the throne, his adopted last name, Mountbatten, would become double-barrelled with Windsor.

However Winston Churchill insisted the Royal Family should remain the House of Windsor, although this was to be amended later.

Philip reportedly said: I am nothing but a bloody amoeba. I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children.

Philip in his naval uniform in 1946 [Photo: PA]

After the Queens coronation in 1953, Philip supported his wife in her duties as sovereign and did so until his retirement at the age of 96 in August 2017. Since 1952, he has completed 22,219 solo engagements.

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Such has been the Dukes steadfast devotion, some royal watchers now regarding him as an unlikely early adopter of feminism.

Speaking on Yahoo UKs The Royal Box Roya Nikkhah, royal correspondent for The Sunday Times, says: I have to say, a man who in the early 1950s, who was soaring up to the top of the navy and would have gone all the way to the top of the navy, had he not had to give up his naval career, who wasnt even able to give his own surname to his children, who has literally stood behind his wife for pushing 70 years.

But who as the Queen will say herself, is her bedrock, who is still very much the head of the family.

A man who has supported his wife in a way, to a very successful reign, I think is an amazing achievement for him and he has supported, probably the most famous woman in the world for seven decades. If thats not being a feminist role model, I dont know what is.

The duke carries out his last official duty at the Captain Generals Parade in August 2017 [Photo: Getty]

Historian Anna Whitelock adds: I think history will look back on Prince Philip and commend him in a way that perhaps contemporaries dont.

Perhaps we sneer at some of his indiscretions but he was huge moderniser of monarchy, I mean, hes had a huge impact on the monarchy in a way that is just not often credited.

Hes impressive, is kind of an understatement in terms of what hes done, what hes achieved and simply by being with the Queen for all those years, in such periods of political and social change is absolutely remarkable and unprecedented.

To find out more about Internationals Womens Day 2019, join the conversation here where Yahoo Style and its sister sites take about the issues and stories that matter most to women.
Nearly three years to the day after signing him to a significant free agent contract, the New York Giants are trading defensive end Olivier Vernon.

NFL Network and ESPN are reporting that the Giants are sending Vernon to the Cleveland Browns.

Vernon for Zeitler

The New York Giants traded pass-rusher Olivier Vernon to the Cleveland Browns on Friday. (AP)

The trade includes a swap of players: the Browns will acquire Vernon while the Giants will receive offensive guard Kevin Zeitler, as well as a swap of trade picks - New York is sending a fourth-round pick (132nd overall), and Cleveland is sending a fifth-rounder (155th overall).

Its a smart deal for the Giants, who certainly need offensive line help; Eli Manning was sacked 47 times last season.

Vernon was a big signing in 2016

A third-round pick of the Miami Dolphins in 2012, Vernon was one of the big catches of the 2016 free agent cycle. He agreed to a five-year, $85 million deal with the Giants that included $52.5 million in guaranteed money.

He started all 16 games in 2016 but missed nine games over the last two seasons with ankle injuries.

The Browns now have someone to pair with Myles Garrett to potentially form a formidable pass-rushing duo.

Zeitler traded on birthday

Earlier Friday morning, the Browns Twitter feed sent out birthday wishes to Zeitler, who is celebrating his 29th.

In 2017, the Browns made Zeitler the highest-paid guard in the league, signing him away from the Cincinnati Bengals with a five-year, $60 million contract.

Zeitler has started every game over the last four seasons.

More from Yahoo Sports:
The state of Colorado is currently considering the FAMLI Act, a proposal to create a new state-level paid-leave entitlement program. In previous years, this legislation was dead on arrival, but after the 2018 shift that gave Democrats control of the Centennial State, it has a good chance to become law. This would make Colorado the sixth state (plus Washington, D.C.) to enact such a sweeping program, wherein the state pays benefits to workers who have a life event (such as the birth or adoption of a child, or the serious illness of a loved one) so they can take leave from their jobs. The price tag for these benefits is paid for by new payroll taxes on all workers (and some employers too, in Washington state).

The states are meant to be laboratories of democracy. Lets hope Republicans learn the right lessons from states like Colorado.

Paid-leave proposals are overwhelmingly popular with the public: Eighty-two percent of voters support legislation to expand paid family leave, and 78 percent specifically support a government fund for paid family and medical leave.

Perhaps support for these proposals is so high because voters rarely hear about the downsides. Those include not just a considerable tax hit but also fewer employment opportunities and the loss of current employer-provided benefits. Americans also frequently hear that the status quo is a near-crisis, as only 13 percent of Americans have paid family-leave benefits at work. But this statistic is misleading; most full-time workers have access to and use paid time off, whether through sick leave, personal leave, or vacation time. It just isnt categorized as family leave.

To be sure, there are certainly many workers who lack paid leave and who already live paycheck to paycheck and face real hardship when they need time off from work. About half of low-income parents who lack leave end up on some form of government assistance after their baby is born, making it less likely they will return to work at all. This reality  and Americans compassion for struggling families  makes opposing government action hard. The president has called on Congress to develop a plan to expand access to paid leave. Some conservative organizations have even embraced a watered-down version of the Democrats entitlement plan.

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The business community plays a critical role in this debate too. In Denver, the Chamber of Commerce, along with several other business, nonprofit, and local-government groups, has met with the FAMLI Acts sponsors and hopes to get changes before its introduced. For business groups, the writing is on the wall: Negotiate or capitulate.

Nationally, businesses often become frustrated with a patchwork of state and local laws. If enough states enact paid-leave entitlement programs, business interests may flip from opposing a paid-leave entitlement to supporting a national solution to replace or streamline multiple state and local programs.

Thoughtful conservatives are looking for ways to thread the needle and expand access to paid family leave without growing government, by making our existing safety-net programs better rather than bigger. Independent Womens Forum proposed allowing individual workers to choose to delay their Social Security retirement benefits in exchange for parental benefits following the birth or adoption of a child.

This earned leave approach  now being advanced in the Senate by Republicans Marco Rubio (Fla.), Joni Ernst (Iowa), and Mike Lee (Utah), and in the House of Representatives by Ann Wagner (R., Mo.)  would be a far better federal solution than Senator Kirsten Gillibrands (D., N.Y.) FAMILY Act, a costly new one-size-fits-all entitlement program.

The political drama of Washington, D.C., may dominate the news, but some of the nations most critical policy debates are happening in statehouses. We can learn not only from the policies they enact but also from how political realities play out. Republicans in particular ought to wake up, play close attention to Colorado, and prepare for the fight ahead.

More from National Review
Watch the full episode 17 of Yahoo UKs show The Royal Box, here.

Meghan Markle has always been a vocal advocate for female empowerment and gender equality.

When she began dating Prince Harry in 2016, she was hailed as a breath of fresh air, for the Royal Family.

Now as the Duchess of Sussex, she has continued to champion womens rights through her work and patronages.

During her and Harrys royal tour of the South Pacific in October 2018, Meghan touched upon female empowerment and the importance of girls being able to access education during her speeches in Fiji and New Zealand.

The Duchess of Sussex participated in a panel discussion to mark International Womens Day [Photo: Getty]

There was a similar focus for the couples trip to Morocco last month, when they visited the Education for All boarding house in Asni, which gives girls from rural communities access to secondary education.

READ MORE: Is Meghan Markle the embodiment of International Womens Day?

She also visited one of her first patronages in January, Smart Works, a charity which helps vulnerable women get back into full-time employment.

On Friday, Meghan joined an International Womens Day panel to discuss a range of issues affecting women today at Kings College London and was announced as Vice-President of The Queens Commonwealth Trust, which supports young leaders around the world.

In her role, the duchess will highlight the Trusts partnerships with young people across the Commonwealth, in particular its work supporting women and girls.

Meghan speaking about girls education in Fiji last October [Photo: PA]

But editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine Ingrid Seward thinks the Royal Family isnt ready for a feminist like Meghan.

Speaking to Yahoo UKs The Royal Box, the author says: I dont think the Royal Family are ready for any feminist comments at all.

Some of the more old-fashioned courtiers just recoil when they see some of the things that Meghan says and is liable to say because they feel it might get her into trouble, because she might be putting her feet into the political abyss.

The Royal Family dont talk about politics because they dont want to be criticised for that. Meghan is sort of walking a very tight, tight rope there.

Story continues

READ MORE: Meghan Markles setting the bar too high for ordinary mums-to-be

While the royals have always remained impartial when it comes to political issues, Meghan isnt the first member of the Firm to support womens causes.

Meghan speaking at the 125th anniversary of womens suffrage in New Zealand [Photo: PA]

The Queen became a member of the Womens Institute in 1943, when she was still a princess.

The Duchess of Cornwall also gave an inspiring speech at the Women of the World (WOW) Festival (of which she is President) on Thursday and has long been a supporter of womens rights, through her work with supporting victims of rape and sexual abuse and domestic violence.

Sophie, Countess of Wessex also hosted a reception to support Women Peacebuilders on International Womens Day 2019, at Buckingham Palace on Friday, where she announced her commitment to the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative.

To find out more about Internationals Womens Day 2019, join the conversation here where Yahoo Style and its sister sites take about the issues and stories that matter most to women.
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Russian citizens may soon need to obtain a special visa to transfer money from their Russian bank accounts into digital financial assets  in particular, cryptocurrencies.

Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma Finnish Market Committee, has told Russian news outlet Izvestia that without a special visa, Russians will not be able to make transfers from their bank into digital financial assets.

To obtain the visa, Russian citizens will need to prove their identity. Currently, the body in charge of overseeing the identification process has not been determined, nor have the specifics of the procedure.

Reportedly, market participants responded positively to the idea of introducing mandatory identification systems.

Any transaction made with an unidentified participant will be indicative of illegal schemes.

Aksakov has also stated that any cryptotool will need to be tested for compliance with the requirements of Russian legislation. If it is not compliant, the cryptotool will be recognised as illegal.

Aksakov stressed that the bill will be paired with current legislation related to countering money laundering. Present punishment for violating the anti-laundering law can be up to 15 years in prison.

The news comes after reports had suggested the State Duma have plans to review and adopt a law relating to crypto in March this year.

Interested in reading more crypto-related news from Russia? Discover how Vladimir Putin has called for the Russian government to adopt crypto regulation by July 2019.

The post Russians may soon need a special visa to invest in cryptocurrencies appeared first on Coin Rivet.
A second person has been arrested on suspicion of murdering teenager Jodie Chesney, who was stabbed in the back in a park in what police have dubbed a savage, evil attack.

The 17-year-old boy was arrested in London on Friday morning, police said, while a 20-year-old man arrested in Leicester on Tuesday evening remains in custody.

Jodie, 17, was in the park in Harold Hill, east London, with friends when she was approached by two males and knifed from behind in a seemingly motiveless attack on March 1.

Jodies family have made an emotional appeal for someone to do the right thing and help catch her killer.

Stabbed  Jodie Chesney was stabbed in the back in a park (Picture: Instagram/PA)

The A-level students father Peter Chesney said: You cant get kudos for stabbing a 17-year-old in the back. So, just dob them in, grass them up, this is not alright.

It was obviously a murder as well, it wasnt an accident it was so ferocious the attack. She lost so much blood. This was on purpose, someone meant to murder her.

READ MORE

More white people arrested last year on suspicion of terrorism than Asian people

Jodie was playing music with five other teenagers in the park when they became aware of two males who left at around 9pm without interacting with them, the Metropolitan Police said.

About 30 minutes later, the pair returned and one stabbed Jodie in the back without saying a word, officers added.

Jodie Chesneys family have urged people to do the right thing and come forward with information (Picture: PA)

Calling for anyone with information to come forward, Detective Chief Inspector Dave Whellams said: This was a savage, evil attack.

At this time, there being no clear motive is very unusual. We retain an open mind and cant rule anything out.

Jodies death has added to the urgency for action to be taken to tackle knife crime across the UK.

Police have called for a reverse in the cuts to the number of officers under austerity measures, but Chancellor Philip Hammond on Thursday told forces to refocus their existing resources.
New activity was detected at the Pyongyang factory which produced the countrys first intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, Reuters reported Thursday.

Lawmakers briefed by Seouls intelligence service said cargo vehicle movement was seen at the Sanumdong factory.

South Korean spy chief Suh Hoon told the lawmakers that he perceives the activity as missile-related, Reuters reported, citing local Korean media.

Sanumdong produced North Koreas longest-range missiles which can fly over 13,000 km (8,080 miles), according to Reuters.

On Wednesday, Suh Hoon told Yonghap News Agency that he believes uranium enrichment facilities at the Yongbyon nuclear complex are continuing to operate normally.

New work was also spotted on the Sohae missile launch. where Pyongyang reportedly began repairs late last week. President Donald Trump told reporters that he would be very disappointed if North Korea had started re-building the launch site.

The reports of new activity come just days after the collapse of a second nuclear summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi. According to the account from the U.S., the two sides parted without a deal after North Korea wanted all sanctions lifted in exchange for shutting down the Yongbyon site. Trump said that Kim had promised no further testing of rockets or missiles.

Pyongyangs most recent recorded test of an ICBM was in November 2017.
PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP)  Four years after their 85-year-old ailing father died, his two daughters are accused of killing him in his Florida home.

It was the "perfect murder" until the scheme came unraveled when the Mary-Beth Tomaselli, 63, and Linda Roberts, 61, became romantically involved with the same man, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told news outlets on Tuesday. The sisters have been charged with first-degree murder.

The sheriff said the man, whose identity wasn't made public, contacted investigators in February, saying a woman he was dating confessed that she and her sister killed their father. He explained that he met Tomaselli at a bar in August. Sometime later, she introduced him to her sister, Roberts, and he became involved with her as well.

The Tampa Bay Times reports the man told detectives that Roberts acted "odd" and "it was clear something was troubling her." On Feb. 12, he went to Roberts' home and she confessed to "euthanizing" her father, Gualtieri said.

The man used his cellphone to video Roberts detailing what she said happened on March 5, 2015.

The sheriff said the sisters both knew Anthony Tomaselli might die soon and he'd made it clear he didn't want to go to an assisted living facility. So, Guiltieri said, the women decided to make it appear that he had died in his sleep.

He said the women gave their father a sleeping pill enhanced alcoholic drink. But the alcohol diluted the pills, Guiltieri said. As he lay on the couch with labored breathing, the women used a pillow to try to suffocate him. When that didn't work, they shoved a rag down his throat and pinched his nose until he stopped breathing, he said.

Paramedics pronounced the man dead the next morning when they were called to the home.

Deputies interviewed both sisters separately and they both said their father fell asleep on the couch and when they went to check on him, they couldn't wake him. His long-time doctor agreed to declare that the man had died a natural death.

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Investigators said the sisters faked the story, staging his body, performing CPR and eventually calling 911.

Gualtieri said they got away with it because no autopsy was performed due to his age and health history.

After his death, the sisters and their brother, who played no role in the scheme, sold the house and split the $120,000 profit, Gualtieri said.

When detectives questioned the sisters recently, they both confessed. Gualtieri said Mary-Beth Tomaselli in particular "spilled her guts."

"They clearly knew what they were doing," Gualtieri said.

It's unclear if the women have lawyers.
By Marja Novak LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Slovenia's health minister resigned on Friday, becoming the fourth minister to leave the center-left minority government and raising concerns about its ability to survive until the next scheduled election in 2022. Samo Fakin quit for what he said were health reasons, nine days after Environment Minister Jure Leben quit amid media reports about alleged corruption linked to a railway project in 2017 when Leben was a senior infrastructure ministry official. Leben has denied wrongdoing, saying he resigned to ease the pressure on the government. In January, Culture Minister Dejan Presicek left over infighting within his ministry, and Development Minister Marko Bandelli stepped down in November over an alleged irregularity associated with to EU funding allocations. "The resignation of the health minister is the biggest blow to the government so far as the health sector is crucial, affecting every citizen," TV Slovenia analyst Tanja Staric said. Improving the efficiency of the health sector is one of the government's priorities as Slovenes in some cases wait several years for non-urgent surgery. "These resignations show that relations inside the coalition are very complicated," Staric told Reuters, "and that it will be almost impossible for the government to stay in power throughout its four-year mandate." A Mediana agency poll last week found 56 percent of citizens backing the government, down from 63 percent a month before. But analysts said the government is likely to remain in power for at least another year thanks to solid economic conditions. Export-oriented Slovenia narrowly avoided an international bailout for its banks in 2013. It returned to growth a year later and the economy is expected to expand by up to 3.7 percent this year versus 4.5 percent in 2018. Prime Minister Marjan Sarec's coalition is composed of five parties and holds 43 of the 90 seats in parliament, relying on the opposition Left party with 9 seats to pass major bills. (Reporting By Marja Novak; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- South Dakota is poised to approve laws aimed at potential protests against the planned Keystone XL oil pipeline, seeking to prevent disruptive demonstrations like those against the Dakota Access pipeline that cost neighboring North Dakota nearly $40 million and led to hundreds of arrests beginning in late 2016.

South Dakota's Republican-dominated Legislature rushed two bills to approval in three days, but it wasn't immediately clear when Gov. Kristi Noem will sign them.

The Republican governor's bills would require pipeline companies to help pay extraordinary expenses such as the cost of policing during protests and aim to pursue money from demonstrators who engage in so-called "riot boosting," which is defined in part as encouraging violence during a riot.

But the measures have sparked opposition from Native Americans tribes who say they weren't consulted . The legislation comes after opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline staged large protests that resulted in 761 arrests in North Dakota over a six-month span beginning in late 2016. The state spent $38 million policing the protests.

Noem has said the legislative package was developed to address problems caused by "out-of-state rioters funded by out-of-state interests." Officials are working to make sure disruptive and violent protests don't happen in South Dakota with Keystone XL, she said earlier in the week.

"We are working very hard and planning, and have been planning for many months, to ensure that that does not happen in South Dakota as the Keystone XL pipeline gets built across our state," Noem said.

The Keystone XL pipeline has sparked fierce opposition from environmental groups, Native Americans and some landowners since it was first proposed over a decade ago. President Donald Trump approved a federal permit for the project in 2017, reversing former President Barack Obama's decision to reject it amid concerns over greenhouse gas emissions.

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The 1,184-mile (1,900 kilometer) pipeline is intended to ship up to 830,000 barrels a day of Canadian crude through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with lines to carry oil to Gulf Coast refineries.

A federal judge in Montana in February largely kept in place an injunction that blocks TransCanada from performing preliminary work.

The pre-emptive South Dakota measure on ""riot boosting" is about upholding the rule of law, said Republican Rep. Jon Hansen. It helps ensure that if someone incites a riot "they can't add insult to injury and stick South Dakota with the bill," he said.

But Senate Democratic leader Troy Heinert, an opponent, predicted it will be challenged in court.

"I don't believe that there is some vast conspiracy from out-of-state groups," Heinert said. "For the most part these are people who just want to protect, you know, the way of life in South Dakota, and a lot of them are South Dakotans."

The bills include emergency provisions that would make them take effect immediately and block opponents from referring them to a public vote.

Noem's office said her bills arose from discussions with lawmakers, authorities, stakeholders and pipeline developer TransCanada.

Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Rodney Bordeaux said in a statement Tuesday that his tribe wasn't consulted and called it an "underhanded tactic."

"Making the bills public after consulting in closed sessions with TransCanada with one week left in the current legislative session deprives the people of South Dakota a chance to react and comment on the proposed legislation and is a circumvention of the legislative process and freedom of speech," Bordeaux said.

One bill would tap a pipeline developer, among other sources, to fund extraordinary expenses that arise from pipeline protests. Approved claims from the state, cities or counties would be billed to the pipeline developer, which could contest the claims.

The second measure says that people who solicit or pay someone to break the law or be arrested would be subject to paying three times the amount that would compensate for the detriment caused. Money collected would be used to pay for riot damage claims or could be transferred into a fund.

The South Dakota legislation comes as the developer of the Dakota Access pipeline is seeking to recover millions of dollars in protest-related damages from Greenpeace. Energy Transfer Partners accused the group and activists of inciting opposition and directly training and funding protesters, including giving half a million dollars to a protest faction that advocated more militant tactics.

Greenpeace has called the lawsuit a "sham" and said ETP is trying to silence peaceful advocacy. A judge tossed ETP's claim out of federal court, but the company is pursuing similar claims in state court.

South Dakota officials have already changed state law in anticipation of Keystone XL protests. In 2017, they made it a Class 1 misdemeanor for someone to stand in the highway to stop traffic or to trespass in a posted emergency area.

___

Associated Press writer Blake Nicholson contributed to this report from Bismarck, North Dakota.
SpaceXs Crew Dragon spaceship hits the waters of the Atlantic Ocean for splashdown. (NASA via YouTube)

SpaceXs Crew Dragon spaceship splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean today, ending a six-day uncrewed test run preparing the way for astronaut trips to the International Space Station later this year.

Scorch marks were visible on the side of the 27-foot-long craft as it descended at the end of four red-and-white parachutes and hit the water at 5:45 a.m. PT. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had said the hypersonic plunge through the atmosphere was his biggest concern, but the capsule survived intact.

The Dragon looked like a giant toasted marshmallow as it was pulled up onto its nest on SpaceXs recovery ship, about 200 miles out from Floridas Atlantic coast. The ship, GO Searcher, will bring the spacecraft back to shore for inspection.

The last time a crew-capable spaceship splashed down in the Atlantic was 50 years ago, at the end of NASAs Apollo 9 mission.

After todays splashdown, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine gave a shout-out to predecessors going back more than a decade, crediting them for setting up a commercial crew program aimed at filling the gap left by the space shuttle fleets retirement in 2011.

This is an amazing achievement in the history of the United States of America, and it just really exemplifies what we can achieve when we maintain that constancy of purpose, he said.

The Crew Dragon was launched from NASAs Kennedy Space Center on the night of March 1-2 and spent several days docked to the space station. No humans were aboard, when the Dragon unhooked itself at 11:31 p.m. PT Thursday and backed away from its port on the stations U.S.-built Harmony module, 250 miles above the planet. But the Dragon went through all the steps that will have to be executed when astronauts climb aboard the next spaceship, as early as this July.

Once the Dragon reached a safe distance, NASAs Mission Control in Houston radioed its congratulations to SpaceXs team, the stations crew and partners around the world.

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We wish this new asset to human spaceflight fair winds and following seas as it returns to Earth for its splashdown in the Atlantic, Mission Control said. You have all made us proud today.

Aboard the station, NASA astronaut Anne McClain returned the compliment on behalf of the three-person crew.

We want to take a moment to recognize this milestone accomplishment that marks the inaugural mission of the commercial crew program, she said. Fifty years after humans landed on the moon for the first time, America has driven a golden spike on the trail to new space exploration feats through the work of our commercial partner SpaceX and all of the talented and dedicated flight controllers at NASA and our international partners.

McClain said it wont be long before astronauts start riding SpaceXs Crew Dragon as well as Boeings CST-100 Starliner, another space taxi thats being developed for NASAs use.

We cant wait, she said.

The Crew Dragon is an upgraded version of the robotic cargo-carrying Dragon that has been ferrying payloads to and from the space station since 2012. The past weeks flight marked the first-ever Crew Dragon space trip, known as Demonstration Mission 1 or DM-1.

A spacesuit-wearing, sensor-laden mannequin nicknamed Ripley (in honor of Sigourney Weavers character in the Alien sci-fi movies) rode in one of the Dragons seats, to document what living, breathing astronauts would hear and feel. A plush-toy version of Earth was also included as a zero-gravity mascot, along with 400 pounds of supplies.

About 300 pounds of cargo, including unneeded hardware and scientific samples, were packed aboard the Dragon for the return trip. But the plush toy, nicknamed Lil Earthie, is staying behind. NASA said the toy would be brought back to Big Earth when two NASA astronauts  Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken  fly on Demonstration Mission 2 to the space station.

I think our plan is to have him teach us, Behnken said, referring to Lil Earthie. Hes going to welcome us aboard probably when we get there.  Hes a full-fledged crew member.

Some issues still need to be resolved before that crewed mission. For example, some tweaks may need to be made to the thruster system, and the parachute system still has to be fully certified for crewed flights.

Additional issues may turn up as a result of Demo-1s post-flight assessment, or during an upcoming test of the Crew Dragons in-flight abort system. Few people would be surprised if Demo-2 was launched later than July.

Boeing, meanwhile, is scheduled to send an uncrewed Starliner to the space station as early as next month, atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Starliners first crewed flight would follow, in August or later.

Because of the schedule uncertainties, NASA has been talking with the Russians about buying more rides aboard Soyuz spacecraft, at a price that could amount to $80 million or more per seat.

Crew Dragon looks like a giant toasted marshmallow as it sits in its nest on the deck of SpaceXs recovery ship. (NASA via YouTube)

More from GeekWire:
Madrid (AFP) - Spain marked International Women's Day Friday with a strike and hundreds of thousands taking to the streets calling for equality, in what has become a hot topic ahead of next month's election.

Organised by Spain's two largest unions CCOO and UGT, the two-hour work stoppage was observed by more than six million people nationwide, according to UGT. Other smaller unions called for a 24-hour strike.

In the northern Basque Country, the regional parliament was forced to suspend a session as most female lawmakers didn't show up for work.

Nuns, prominent journalists and Madrid Mayor Manuela Carmena had pledged to take part, with the aim of recreating an unprecedented two-hour work stoppage that took place on the same day in 2018.

Authorities said over half a million people took part in protests across the country, with some 350,000 people estimated to have taken part in Madrid and another 200,000 in Barcelona. Thousands also marched in other cities, including Seville and Bilbao.

"Things haven't changed much," said Amelia Leon, a 69-year-old retiree who was marching with two retiree friends in Barcelona.

"When I worked as a manager in a pharmaceutical laboratory, the men who were two categories below me earned more than me. And it's still happening in many places."

In Madrid, fountains along the city centre protest route were lit purple, the colour long associated with efforts to achieve gender equality.

"I'm mobilising above all for what is missing to achieve equality," said Clara Lopez, 29, her face painted in purple, highlighting the lack of women in high-level executive positions.

- 'Feminist Spain' -

With snap elections looming on April 28, women's rights have become a major theme for both the left and right, with everyone pledging a fight against inequality.

European Union figures show the gender pay gap in Spain stands at 14.2 percent, two points below the bloc's average.

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And gender violence continues to extract a deadly toll, with 47 women killed by their partners or ex-partners last year -- bringing to 975 the number female victims since 2003, according to government figures.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has made women's rights one of the central themes of his campaign, said he wanted "a feminist Spain".

"Only with feminism will we end violence against women and achieve real equality," he wrote on Twitter.

Even the national police weighed in, saying Thursday it was working on a "non-sexist language guide" for its officers.

- Backlash -

But there were also an increasing number of dissenting voices, with the conservative Popular Party accusing the left of appropriating feminism to get more votes.

In Madrid, Carmen Cibiriain, a 71-year-old retiree, said the issue was being used for politicians' own ends.

"When I hear them say that feminism is liberal, or that it's anti-capitalist, it isn't. It's equality," she said.

The far-right has pledged to make the fight against "radical feminism" a priority.

And the deeply-conservative "Women of the World Global Platform," a Spanish initiative which groups like-minded associations from around the world, has called its own rally in Madrid on Sunday.

The aim, according to its website, is to "affirm femininity, the value of motherhood and dedication to the family and... to show our sincere affection, admiration and gratitude to our dear men".

Another ultra-conservative association has been driving around in a bus emblazoned with the slogan "#StopFeminazis" and a picture of Hitler in pink lipstick.

Anna Bosch, a journalist at Spain's TVE state television -- which did not air several Friday programmes due to the strike -- said women had mobilised en masse last year following a series of controversial court cases.

One involved the sentencing of five men who were accused of gang-raping a teenager in 2016 for sexual abuse rather than rape.

What had motivated women this year, was the rise in prominence of "positions that are clearly backward", she told AFP.
St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland - Bettmann

Erin go bragh! St Patrick's Day is nearly here, with events in honour of the patron saint of Ireland set to take place across the globe this week.

Recognised annually since the 1700s, the people of Ireland celebrate their heritage and culture on St Patrick's Day, with the day growing as a commercial occasion rather than a religious event in recent years.

While Ireland embraces its patron saint day by holding vibrant, green parades, wearing shamrocks and flying Irish flags more than usual, celebrations also take place in other countries around the world, including the UK, United States, Egypt and Australia.

Here is everything you need to know about St Patrick's Day, from the patron saint himself to Irish recipes and worldwide celebrations.

When is St Patrick's Day 2019?

St Patrick's Day, the patron saint day of Ireland, falls each year on March 17. The first parade in name of the saint took place in Boston in 1737, followed by the first "official" parade in New York in 1766.

The celebration of St Patrick later spread to Dublin and other American cities and in recent years has grown in popularity elsewhere in Europe and Asia.

Who was St Patrick?

St Patrick's exact birthplace is unknown and debated. Born as Maewyn Succat around the year of 385 AD in either England, Scotland or Wales, the patron saint was captured by Irish pirates at the age of 16 and brought to Ireland as a slave.

Working as a shepherd, Patrick was held captive for six years and grew closer to spirituality and prayer during this period of isolation. After a voice in his dream told him it was time to leave Ireland, Patrick successfully fled his master and sailed back to Britain to continue studying Christianity.

Shortly after his return home, an angel in Patrick's dream told him to go back to Ireland as a missionary, and following this, he decided to travel to Gaul, to study religious instruction under Germanus, bishop of Auxerre.

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Later ordained a bishop and eventually returning to Ireland, Patrick began his mission to spread the Christian message. During this time, Patrick converted thousands of people to Christianity and built churches, schools and monasteries across the country.

Legend suggests that Patrick used the three-leaf shamrock on his mission to explain the Holy Trinity, teaching his followers that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit exist as individual elements of the combined entity. While some experts claim this story was invented centuries later, the tale has led to the common practice of people wearing the symbol on the feast day.

Patrick is also thought to have banished snakes from Ireland to help remove the evil and introduce a new age. But experts claim this is a myth due to evidence snakes never existed in the country in the first place. Some say this was due to the icy waters of the Irish Sea while others believe the cold weather stopped the snakes travelling to Ireland from Britain or afar.

Around 431 AD, Patrick was appointed as successor to St Palladius, the first bishop of Ireland, and during his later years, he wrote about his spirituality and life in his 'Confession'.

Believed to have died on March 17, in the year 461, Patrick's spiritual path led him to become a legendary figure, as he left behind an established church and an island of Christians. Today, his work is commemorated annually on March 17.

Symbols and images associated with Ireland and St Patrick's Day

The colours of the Irish flag represent Catholicism (green) and Protestantism (orange), unified by peace (white). Since the 18th century, green has also represented sympathy for Irish independence.

Despite St Patrick popularising shamrocks, with many choosing to wear them on the patron saint day, he is historically associated with the red Saltire of St Patrick, featured in the flag of the United Kingdom.

The patron saint of Ireland is also associated with the colour blue, after the creation of the Order of St Patrick in the 1780s made it the official colour. St Patricks Blue can be found on Ireland's Presidential Standard, and in the plume of bearskins worn by the Irish Guards.

The legend of the Leprechaun has also become a modern day symbol of Ireland. Known for their mischievous behaviour and leaving pots of gold at the end of rainbows, today, the mythical creatures feature heavily as a tourist symbol and some people choose to wear Leprechaun costumes and hats to St Patrick's Day parades. Dublin even has its very own Leprechaun Museum.

St Patrick's Day celebrations in Ireland

Unlike St David's Day and St George's Day, St Patrick's Day is a bank holiday in Ireland, allowing the Irish to fully embrace the festivities.

The people of Ireland honour their patron saint day every year by joining parades and dressing head to toe in green, white and orange, the colours of the Irish flag. Dublin's famous St Patrick's Festival Parade will take place on Sunday March 17 this year, starting at Parnell Square, with music and live performances from bands helping to convey the 2019 theme of storytelling.

Historically the "Feast of St Patrick", the day has been observed by the Irish for over 1,000 years and families would traditionally attend church in the morning, before celebrating with dance, drink and a feast of bacon and cabbage. Today, Irish stews and pints of Guinness are often enjoyed as part of the celebration.

As many as 13 million pints of Guinness are poured on St Patrick's Day alone, increasing from the average 10 million glasses poured every day around the world. In fact, 1.8 billion are sold each year and the Guinness Storehouse is situated in the heart of St James's Gate, Dublin, with visitors able to book a tour of the famous site.

Popular Irish toasts on St Patrick's Day, include: "Slainte mhaith", meaning "good health" in Irish Gaelic, and "may the good St Patrick protect ye, and the devil neglect ye".

Other celebrations around the world

March 17 sees millions of people around the world, even those without Irish connections, turn out to celebrate St Patrick.

In the United States, the White House first recognised the Irish holiday and the countries' relations more than 50 years ago, after President Harry Truman received a box of shamrocks from Ireland's ambassador. In 1956, the first St Patrick's Day meeting between the President and the Irish Taioseach took place and since the 1990s, the White House visit has been held annually.

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and US President Donald Trump during the annual shamrock presentation ceremony at the White House in Washington DC Credit: Niall Carson/PA

Every year, London showcases Irish heritage and culture as part of its annual St Patrick's Day festival and parade. While live stage performances and food stalls can be enjoyed in Trafalgar Square, colourful floats, dancers and Irish communities make their way through the capital's streets. This year, the festivities take place on Sunday March 17.

In Tokyo, the "I Love Ireland" parade takes place over two days, on March 16 and 17, with vibrant costumes and marching bands, while in New York, 150,000 people join the parade travelling up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

In fact, a range of celebrations are held across the globe to celebrate the legendary Irish figure, including parades in Sydney, Australia, Auckland, New Zealand, and Oslo, Norway.

In the British West Indies, the island of Montserrat has a public holiday for St Patrick's Day and observes the patron saint with a seven day festival and parade. Dubbed the "Emerald Isle" in memory of their Irish settlers, Montserrat even use a green shamrock as their official passport stamp.

St Patrick's Day is also a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland, where a significant number of Irish people emigrated to during the 18th and 19th centuries.

In Chicago, their river has been traditionally dyed bright green on March 17 since 1962, with thousands heading to the city to see one of the most famous St Patrick's Day sights.

Rowers navigate the Chicago River shortly after it was dyed green in celebration of St. Patrick's Day on March 17, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Other countries join Chicago in turning their famous landmarks green on March 17, including the London Eye and HMS Belfast in London, the pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt, Burj Al Arab in Dubai, Sydney Opera House in Australia and the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

The best Irish recipes

Clodagh McKenna's beef and Guinness stew

Beautifully tender beef, cooked in the beloved Irish beverage. This hearty winter dish is served perfectly with creamy mash or roast potatoes.

Beef stew Credit: The Picture Pantry/Alloy

Slow-cooked red cabbage with apples and raisin

Traditionally served with beef, pork or turkey, red cabbage brings a sweet flavour to any dish and can also be eaten cold in sandwiches.

Red cabbage Credit: Getty Images

Rachel Allen's Barmbrack (bairin breac)

This traditional Irish sweetened bread, packed with sultanas, raisins or currants, makes a delicious treat and can be enjoyed fresh, toasted or buttered.

Barmbrack, a traditional Irish fruit loaf Credit: D and S Food Photography/Alamy

The best Irish drinks

While Ireland is the place to be for a pint of Guinness, it is also home to an array of famous alcoholic beverages including Jameson whiskey and Irish cream liqueur.

If Guinness doesn't take your fancy, the Thinking Drinkers have selected the best alternatives to drink on St Patrick's Day, from craft whiskey to post poitin.
Khartoum (AFP) - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Friday ordered the release of all women protesters detained during nationwide demonstrations that have rocked his iron-fisted rule since December.

Bashir made the announcement during a meeting with a group of people from eastern Sudan at his residence in Khartoum.

"I order Salah Ghosh to release all women detainees," Bashir said at the meeting, referring to the chief of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) that has led a sweeping crackdown on protesters.

The media office at the presidency also confirmed that Bashir had ordered the release of all women detainees held during the demonstrations, a move that coincided with International Women's Day.

Officials have not said how many women have been detained during the protests, but opposition activists say about 150 are in detention.

Hundreds of protesters, opposition leaders, activists and journalists have been detained since the rallies erupted on December 19 following a government decision to triple the price of bread.

The protests quickly mushroomed into nationwide demonstrations against Bashir's rule, with crowds calling on the veteran leader to step down.

Bashir himself has acknowledged that the protests were led by youths, the majority of them women.

Officials say 31 people have died in protest related violence so far, while the Human Rights Watch has put the death toll at at least 51.

Bashir has imposed a slew of tough measures, including a year-long state of emergency across the country, to quell the protests after the initial crackdown failed to suppress the movement.

Earlier on Friday, protesters staged a demonstration in eastern Khartoum's district of Burri but they were confronted by security forces with tear gas, witnesses said.

Security forces also fired tear gas at protesters who rallied outside a mosque in the twin city of Omdurman after the weekly Muslim prayers, witnesses said.
Mary Logan, a high school teacher in Michigan, was suspended for three days after writing a note encouraging students to tell their parents to call the school district about the chilly classroom temperatures. (Photo: Taylor Federation of Teachers)

All that Mary Logans high school students could talk about was the chilly Michigan classroom temperature  58 degrees, to be exact, and in violation of the school building contract code. So Logan wrote a note to students instructing them to tell their parents to call the school board if they were cold. The note, projected on her screen, would get her temporarily suspended from teaching.

Its 58 degrees in here. No heat, Logans note read. Call your parents. Tell them to call the board office  if you are cold.

After receiving calls from concerned parents about the heating issues, the Taylor School District directed the school to place Logan on paid administrative leave for three days along with a record of the disciplinary reprimand in her file.

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It violates her freedom of speech and keeps us from doing our job, Linda Moore, the president of the Taylor Federation of Teachers, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Theyre there to instruct, but if the conversation is that its too cold or its too hot, they cant teach.

The schools inconsistent heating issues stem from the original open concept design of the building with walls that didnt touch the ceiling, the News-Herald reports. While the district later closed the gap between the wall and ceiling, it left some rooms with vents and others without.

The short-term solution is to go room-by-room adjusting and optimizing airflow, Ben Williams, the Taylor School District superintendent, told the News-Herald. We have over 65 classrooms inhabited every hour. On a given day, four to six classrooms run a little hot or cold. In extreme cases, the principal does have discretion to relocate a class.

Moore says the Taylor High School building administrator had reported the temperatures to the school county board but had received little to no response on how it would be dealing with the issue. Moore adds that she and other teachers asked the school district administration directly in a meeting how they should communicate to parents about the issue. Again, they were given no direction.

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They really didnt notify parents, and for us its simple. We send a letter home to parents telling them heres the issue and heres how were working to fix it, Moore explains of her frustration. Our biggest problem is that this teacher was advocating for kids.

While Williams refused to comment on Logans suspension specifically, he told the News-Herald that there is a work order system in place for staff to make complaints to the school district.

Two or three work orders make it into the system at the high school each day, with four to five smaller things getting solved in-house. Without the work order, we cant figure out how to triage for a given problem, Williams said.

Following Logans suspension, the teachers union filed a grievance with the school county district, which agreed to put space heaters in the cold classrooms while waiting for a long-term solution. Although Moore knows the buildings issues are not an easy fix, she says, To hold a teacher accountable for something that she has no control over is inappropriate.

Shes a longtime teacher, and she now has a reprimand on her file. Were a district thats always been a family, and its causing low morale, says Moore. However, the Taylor School Districts disciplinary action against Logan isnt an isolated incident. According to Moore, the discipline of our teachers and our support staff and the principals has been rampant.

She adds, Teachers should not be walking on eggshells when they go to work every day. Theyre there to educate, and they need to be building relationships with the districts and their students  now people are afraid of this current administration. 

Yahoo Lifestyle reached out to the Taylor School District superintendent for comment on the story but has yet to receive a response.

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Brasilia (AFP) - Teaching boys and girls they are equal in every way encourages domestic violence, Brazil's women's minister said Friday as she urged a return to chivalry.

"Boys need to understand that girls are equal in terms of rights and opportunities, but are different as they're women and they need to be loved and respected as women," said Damares Alves, who was appointed by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro to lead the ministry for women, families and human rights.

"If they think that boys and girls are equal, as was preached in the past by some 'ideologies,' boys will think 'since girls are equal they can handle being hit.'"

Alves added that boys would be taught that girls "are different physically and need to be loved."

The minister, who is also an evangelical preacher, was presenting a campaign to combat violence against women as part of international women's day.

Alves said the new initiative would teach boys from a young age to respect women by "bringing flowers to girls" or "opening a car door for women."

When appointed she had previously vowed to usher in a new era where "boys will wear blue and girls pink."

She is one of just two women out of 22 ministers in the cabinet of Bolsonaro, who benefitted from the support of the evangelical church in his success run for president last October.

As part of the campaign against domestic abuse, beauty professionals will be trained to spot signs of domestic violence.

"We're going to train manicurists when they're doing a woman's nails to look for marks on her arms or if she's trembling a lot," said Alves.

"We'll train the hairdressers so that when they lift the hair to brush it they check for marks."

In 2017, 4,539 women were murdered in Brazil, 1,133 of those considered femicide -- meaning they were killed for being women -- according to the public security forum NGO.

It also claimed there were 536 physical assaults against women in Brazil every hour in 2017.
Electric carmaker Tesla has won more than $520 million in loans from Chinese banks to build its first overseas car plant near Shanghai, the first foreign automaker to wholly own a factory in China.

The funding, announced on Thursday, is an important boost for the California-based firm, which has been in negotiations with Beijing for years over building the plant in the world's biggest electric car market.

The US giant will make its Model 3 sedans at the factory -- initially targeting 3,000 cars a week before ramping up annual production to 500,000 -- which it plans to have operational by the end of the year.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk was in China in January for the groundbreaking of the factory, where he said he planned to approach local banks for the money to get the plant built and into production.

Musk is betting on China's growing market for electric cars as Beijing pushes the industry away from fossil fuel vehicles.

Manufacturing locally is expected to help Tesla avoid some of the impact of trade tensions between the US and China, as well as reduce its production costs.

According to a regulatory filing, Tesla has secured $521 million from four domestic banks -- the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the Chinese Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, and the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.

Tesla shares rose more than two percent in after-hours New York trading.

China is by far the world's biggest car market and sales there have been on an upwards trajectory for years, although they slipped 2.8 percent in 2018.

Sales of electric vehicles and hybrids have meanwhile continued to swell -- jumping 62 percent last year -- but only make up just four percent of overall sales in China.

Tesla remains in the lead, but is followed by three Chinese brands -- BAIC, BYD and Zotye -- according to analysis provider Jato Dynamics.

-- Bloomberg News contributed to this story --
Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya was announced as the Thai Raksa Chart party's electoral representative before the king stepped in to block her candidacy - AFP

At the Damnoen Saduak floating market on the outskirts of Bangkok early last Sunday morning, veteran Thai politician Chaturon Chaisang worked his campaign charm on a captive audience of stall keepers and boat owners.

Accepting marigold garlands and red roses from supporters, the former Thai deputy prime minister, 63, raised a smile from locals and foreign tourists as he unsteadily lifted an oar and began to navigate a low, flat boat filled with party officials through a cluster of floating vendors selling mangoes and sticky rice.

In an earlier interview with The Telegraph over a strong coffee, Mr Chaisang said that he and his Thai Raksa Chart [TRC] party, one of the main opposition forces contending Thailands March 24 poll, wanted to present voters with a manifesto focussed on the economy, economy, economy.

However, they may be denied the chance to do so. On Thursday, Thailands constitutional court will rule on whether the TRC should be dissolved for making a dramatic play last month to nominate King Maha Vajiralongkorns sister as its prime ministerial candidate.

The surprise attempt to field Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya sparked uproar in a nation where the royal family is revered and regarded as above politics.

Chaturon Chaisang, leader of the TRC opposition party which has landed itself in hot water Credit: Nicola Smith

The princesss political ambitions were swiftly torpedoed by the king. She later apologised via her Instagram account, but the consequences for her newfound party may be irreversible.

Her nomination could have given TRC, an offshoot of the once-ruling Pheu Thai party aligned with exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, formidable leverage. Instead its failure created an easy target for the partys political enemies.

The Election Commission speedily referred the case to the court for a final ruling after proposing that the party be dissolved for being hostile to the constitutional monarchy.

A court ban on TRC, which would block its candidates from standing and bar its executives from politics for ten years or life, would be an inauspicious turn in an election campaign that opposition parties have already slammed as being weighted in favour of the ruling military junta.

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Mr Chaisang attends the Damnoen Saduak floating market Credit: Nicola Smith

Mr Chaisang declined to comment on Thursdays ruling. However, he argued that we dont believe that this election will be free and fair.

The Southeast Asian nation known for its tropical beaches and exquisite temples is facing a showdown between supporters of the exiled former leader and royalist incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, 64, who led Thailands 12th successful coup in 2014.

One concern, said Mr Chaisang, was the National Council for Peace and Order ruling partys appointment of a majority of 250 senators who will have huge sway over the selection of the next prime minister.

Mr Chaisang accepts a marigold garland while canvassing Credit: Nicola Smith

Its generally known that these senators will support General Prayuth to be prime minister and this is only a part of the mechanism in the constitution that is designed to give all the advantages to the NCPO to be able to form a government, he alleged.

The government denies this accusation. But just two weeks before the poll, the incumbent leader still had absolute power over government branches, and the media were facing tough restrictions, Mr Chaisang claimed.

The fundamental problem of this country is the fact that democracy has been interrupted by several coups, he said.

Mr Chaisang was a pro-democracy student activist against military dictatorship in the turbulent 1970s and later held several ministerial positions under Mr Shinawatras rule. After a 2006 coup he was banned from political activity for five years.

Ive learned from my experience that this country has to be changed, he said. We hope that once we form a democratic government and resolve the economic problems then we can democratise this country further.

A vendor at Damnoen Saduak floating market Credit: Nicola Smith

After repeated delays in calling the election, the countrys first tentative steps back to democracy are fraught with uncertainty.

We think that they will dissolve Thai Raksa Chart...but it would not make much of a difference in terms of votes because those who decided to vote for Thai Raksa Chart will end up voting for other democratic parties, said Virot Ali, a political scientist at Bangkoks Thammasat university

But Chaikasem Nitisiri, a former justice minister and one of Pheu Thais three nominees for prime minister, argued that the court case against his sister party had no legal basis.

The reason for the dissolution of Thai Raksa Chart is still not enough, legally speaking. But in this situation, under undemocratic rule, I cannot say what the result will be, he said.
A patient in Germany may be the third in the world to have been cured of HIV (Picture: Getty)

A patient in Germany may be the third person in the world to be cured of HIV, it has emerged.

The patient has apparently been cleared of the virus after receiving a bone marrow transplant to treat his leukaemia, scientists told a medical conference.

At the same conference, it was revealed that a patient from London had become the second person to be declared functionally cured of HIV after also receiving a bone marrow transplant.

At the conference in Seattle, scientists said the London patient had been free of HIV for 18 months without taking antiretroviral drugs.

The third patient, from Dusseldorf, had apparently been HIV-free for three months, with no evidence of HIV in the gut and lymph nodes.

Professor Ravindra Gupta, a HIV biologist from University College London, pointed out the difference between someone being functionally cured and cured.

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This is why so many societies believe in vengeful gods

The announcements come a decade after Timothy Brown, a patient in Berlin, became the first person to beat HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant in 2007.

Prof Gupta said: By achieving remission in a second patient using a similar approach, we have shown that the Berlin patient was not an anomaly and that it really was the treatment approaches that eliminated HIV in these two people.
Leaning to the right? Jacob Rees-Mogg (PA)

Jacob Rees-Mogg has denied the Conservative government is right-wing, and called on the prime minister to go full steam ahead with a no-deal Brexit, if the government does not secure an agreement with Brussels.

Talking to the Telegraphs Choppers Brexit Podcast , the MP also called for lower taxes and less regulation after Britain leaves the European Union.

Asked about the criticism that the current administration is right-wing, Rees-Mogg replied: Theres no evidence for that, I dont think the government is right-wing.

Rees-Mogg said the government should go full steam ahead without a deal, if cannot get an agreement with Brussels on Brexit (PA)

Then asked if he thought Brexit was a right-wing policy, the chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) added: Brexit is as much as a left-wing project as a right-wing project, but fundamentally it is a question of democracy.

He added that right-wing was a term of abuse that some people liked to shout out at MPs.

In a wide-ranging interview, he said there should not be a second EU referendum and said those who wanted it in Parliament were not brave enough to call for one because they were fearful of the reaction.

Asked about the power of the ERG, which have some accused of being the real government, he said it was a great pity that it was not in power.

The government faces a crucial vote this coming week (PA)

He added that Mrs May should go full steam ahead without any agreement if she could not get a vote through parliament next week.

His comments come as London and Brussels appear to have reached a stalemate over the latest round of Brexit negotiations.

Rees-Moggs Conservative party colleague, said on Friday that relations with the EU will be poisoned for many years to come if Brussels fails to budge its position over the Irish backstop.

On Tuesday, the government will put its Brexit deal to MPs again, which was initally voted down by ba 230-vote margin.

If it is defeated, Britain faces the possibility of leaving the UK without a deal or seeking an extension to the March 29 leaving deadline.

The MP was also challenged about how he could possibly be younger than actor Will Smith (PA)

Mr Rees-Mogg was also asked how he could be younger than Will Smith  the politician is 49, the actor is 50  but admitted he did not know who the Hollywood star was.

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I havent met Mr Smith, he said.

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President Trump on Friday blasted a House resolution condemning hate after backlash from a number of factions across the Democratic Party forced changes to a bill that originally focused on anti-Semitism.

I thought yesterdays vote by the House was disgraceful because the Democrats have become an anti-Israel party. Theyve become an anti-Jewish party, Trump told reporters on the South Lawn before departing to survey tornado damage in Alabama. And I thought that vote was a disgrace. And so does everybody else if you get an honest answer. If you get an honest answer from politicians, they thought it was a disgrace.

The resolution overwhelmingly passed the House early Thursday evening, with 234 Democrats and 173 Republicans voting yes, while 23 Republicans voted no over complaints that the bill was too broad. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, voted present.

President Trump talks with reporters outside the White House before traveling to Alabama on Friday. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)

The House resolution was initially pushed by the Anti-Defamation League and some Jewish members of Congress who were upset with comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., at a progressive town hall last week. Omar, who had already apologized for remarks saying the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC deployed the Benjamins to influence policy, told her audience she wanted to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.

In February, Omar apologized for comments about AIPAC that many construed as anti-Semitic.

Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes, Omar said in a statement posted to Twitter.

Following Omars most recent remarks on AIPAC, a vote was initially planned for Wednesday on a draft resolution that did not mention Omar by name but condemned anti-Semitism. But the vote was delayed after pushback from members, including the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Progressive Caucus, who wanted the resolution to condemn all forms of bigotry.

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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., attends a committee meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (Photo:J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Omar, a Muslim and a Somali refugee who wears Islamic dress in public, has been a target of racist attacks since winning the election in November, as her supporters have noted. Last Friday, the congresswomans picture appeared on a sign linking her to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, posted at a meeting of Republicans in the West Virginia Statehouse. Shes been defended by her fellow freshmen, notably women of color, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.

Omar did not mention Jews specifically in her remarks about AIPAC. Jewish Americans have traditionally been strong supporters of Israel, although today evangelical Christians are much more vocal in their backing of the government of the Jewish state. Many progressive Jewish groups have denounced the treatment of Palestinians by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Republicans have attempted to use the resolution sparked by Omars comments as a wedge issue. Trump has repeatedly called for Omar to be stripped of her position on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and to resign completely from Congress.

It is shameful that House Democrats wont take a stronger stand against anti-Semitism in their conference, Trump tweeted earlier this week. Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history, and its inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!

Trump, though, failed to condemn King for lamenting that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms  comments that in January resulted in the Republican congressman being banned from committee assignments for the next two years.

Asked about Kings comments, Trump said: I havent been following it.

Trumps response to racial tension was also excoriated by countless critics, including members of his own administration, when he blamed both sides for the deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.

 With Christopher Wilson contributing

_____

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Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump declared a victory Friday in the Russia collusion investigation after his former campaign chief received an unexpectedly light sentence in a high-profile case brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

"Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia," Trump tweeted.

Judge T.S. Ellis did not actually say that and neither did Manafort's lawyer, Kevin Downing.

What the judge said before sentencing Manafort to nearly four years in prison on Thursday was that he was not before the court on any allegations of collusion with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Following the sentencing, Manafort's lawyer said there was "absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia."

He did not address the wider question of whether any other members of Trump's election campaign may have been involved with Russia.

That is the subject of the investigation by Mueller, a former FBI director.

Speaking later to reporters, Trump said he "feels very badly for Paul Manafort."

"I think it has been a very tough time for him," he said.

Manafort, 69, who headed Trump's presidential campaign for two months in 2016, was sentenced to 47 months in prison on Thursday for tax and bank fraud crimes which were unrelated to his campaign work.

Trump has denounced Mueller's investigation on multiple occasions and he repeated his criticism Friday, calling it a "Witch Hunt Hoax."

"So bad for our Country!" he said.

Trump has dangled the possibility of pardons for some of those indicted by Mueller -- including Manafort.

Manafort could have faced up to 24 years in prison, but Judge Ellis said he found that "excessive" and sentenced him to 47 months in prison with nine months of credit for time served.
Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano is expected to play a key role in the countrys communications tower infrastructure. Tower company builders in the past have met obstacles in securing permits from local governments. Department of Information and Communications Technology Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr., facing an overwhelming number of 50,000 towers to be constructed in the Philippines, has assured the tower companies of pooled government assistance in support of their commitment to build as many towers at the shortest time possible. To achieve an unencumbered and smooth implementation of DICTs common tower policy, Rio organized the stakeholders in the telco infrastructurefrom the telcos and the towercos to the governmentto forge a common shared agreement. Rio said he would implement the powers and functions of the DICT to achieve President Dutertes goal of vastly improving internet services by 2020.The DICT recently accomplished the landmark project of President Duterte after it declared a third telecom player. Ano, former Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief, meanwhile, is in a position to help the tower companies (now totaling 12) fulfill their mission with the local government units behind him. The government is aware that the Philippines has the lowest tower density in Asia of 0.14 compared with the international standard of 0.5 tower per 1,000 subscribers. China, at 1.43, has 1.8 million cell sites of the latest record. Local government units in both underserved and unserved areas can help the country catch up with the rest in the digital world. With much improved and more affordable internet services made available especially in these missionary routes, inclusive growth is assured.
Last week I kicked a hornets nest on Twitter. Tired of the Trumpist tendency to write off the conservative movement as a failure that didnt conserve anything  and of the tendency to denigrate the accomplishments of prior GOP presidents  I sent out a tweet:

I appreciate Trumps pro-life actions, but he cant yet match GWB. Bush:

1) Signed 2002 born-alive act

2) Signed 2003 partial-birth abortion ban

3) Appointed 330 lower-court judges

4) Appointed 2 SCOTUS justices who have pro-life records

5) Reinstated Mexico City policy.  David French (@DavidAFrench) March 2, 2019

The reaction was entirely predictable: How dare you praise George W. Bush? Dont you know he was the big-government conservative who ensnared us in endless wars? There was little acknowledgment that the list above was real, it mattered, and it continues to matter. The new narrative must be preserved, and the new narrative tells us that Trump taught a failed movement how to fight.

But thats simply wrong. Even just in the years since the end of the Reagan administration, the conservative movements impact on American law and culture has been immense. And when it has failed, it hasnt been for lack of effort. So, what has conservatism conserved? Lets go down the list, beginning with the most important issue: the right to life.

Any analysis of abortion rights in America begins of course with profound loss and disappointment. The Supreme Court decided Roe before the modern conservative movement began, in a very different American political and cultural environment. How different? The Southern Baptist Convention supported abortion rights at the time. There was no meaningful religious Right, and the originalist judicial revolution instigated and sustained principally by the Federalist Society was years away. Even after the Federalist Society was founded in 1982, it took at least one full generation to cultivate the conservative judicial talents who now sit on courts from coast to coast.

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But since the pro-life movement got organized, and since religious conservatism became a true force in American politics, the results have been astonishing. Indeed, the pro-life movement has to a large degree all by itself refuted the Lefts arc of history argument  the assertion that culture will move inexorably in the direction of so-called social justice.

As the pro-abortion-rights Guttmacher Institute reported in 2016 (when the conservative movement had allegedly forgotten how to win), since Roe, states had enacted an impressive 1,074 different abortion restrictions. More than a quarter of those restrictions had been enacted in just the previous five years  more than any other single five-year period since Roe. This chart tells the tale:

Of course, even the laws above would represent hollow victories if the American abortion rate had continued to grow. That would indicate that the pro-life movement was winning the politics but losing the culture. Yet here the picture is improving substantially as well. While there are still far too many abortions in the United States, decreases in the abortion rate have added up to millions of lives saved, and in January 2017 (before Trump took office), the abortion rate fell to its lowest level since Roe.

No, the pro-life movement hasnt won. Yes, there have been profound disappointments. But it is winning. From virtually nothing  with the entire media, academic, and pop culture establishments pitted against it  it has accomplished heroic things.

Now, lets move on to gun rights. Here, the story of the conservative movement is the story of a thorough, sustained rout of the legal and cultural Left. In 2017, my colleague Charlie Cooke published this chart showing the transformation of American gun laws from coast to coast since 1986. Its fascinating:

In 1986, 41 states were no issue or may issue, meaning either they did not grant concealed-carry permits at all or they required citizens to petition the government for permission to carry and show reasons for their request, at which point government officials exercised their judgment in determining whether to grant the request. By 2017, there were zero no issue states, and 42 states were either shall issue (where the government is obliged to grant a permit to those who request one and meet certain basic requirements) or constitutional carry (where concealed carry is allowed without a permit).

Moreover, just in the new century, the federal assault-weapons ban has been allowed to lapse. The Supreme Court has recognized the plain constitutional truth that the Second Amendment protects an individual right and has extended that right to the states through the 14th Amendment. And all this has happened as American crime rates have fallen from their terrible highs early in the Clinton administration.

I can keep going. I will keep going. Lets talk for a moment about a topic thats near and dear to American hearts: education. The cornerstone of the conservative approach to school reform is school choice  introducing competition to the public-school monopoly and granting parents more power over the education of their children. From home-schooling to private-school-choice programs to the explosive growth of charter schools, the school-choice movement has in just a few decades grown into a juggernaut that helps millions of families each year.

Last year, a half-million students were enrolled in private-school-choice programs, an increase of 45,000 over the year before. The first charter school opened in 1992. By the turn of the century, 400,000 students attended charter schools. By 2015, that number had hit 2.8 million. As for home-schooling? Id call this growth:

Its worth repeating, these numbers represent lives (and families) transformed through patient, persistent, and often-courageous legal, political, and cultural engagement.

Now lets talk about individual liberty. In addition to the Second Amendment protections outlined above, modern courts  shaped by the conservative movement well before Trumps recent, excellent appointees  have expanded the scope of First Amendment protections and have doubled down on protecting the fundamental freedoms in the Bill of Rights.

Not only has the Supreme Court protected free speech and religious liberty (some key decisions have been 90), lower courts have relentlessly struck down college speech codes and have protected due-process rights in cases from coast to coast. Groups such as the Institute for Justice and the Goldwater Institute have fought in court for economic liberty, winning significant victories for struggling entrepreneurs and weakening occupational-licensing laws that limit economic advancement. Not even to mention the vibrant right-to-work movement, which has sparked faster economic growth and greater increases in real purchasing power in the states that have embraced it.

Then theres foreign policy, the arena where traditional conservatives face the most scorn from Trumpists. Has there ever been a great-power conflict whose end was handled as deftly as the Cold Wars? And as for all the hate piled on George W. Bush, his critics ignore two huge accomplishments: a foreign-aid program to combat AIDS in Africa that may be one of the most life-saving foreign-policy initiatives in all of human history, and an effective post-9/11 defense of America from large-scale jihadist attack.

At the same time, American global leadership has helped safeguard free trade and sustain a world economy that is steadily obliterating absolute poverty. Yes, there have been American failures, but these successes are of world-historic importance.

Lets deal with national politics. One of the most absurd contentions in all of modern political discourse is the idea that the Washington GOP didnt stand up to Obama. Hogwash. If the GOP rolled over, where is the carbon tax? Where is a new assault-weapons ban? Where is card check? Wheres the Employment Nondiscrimination Act? Wheres Democratic immigration reform? Wheres Justice Merrick Garland?

We forget the extent to which the GOP House helped impose fiscal discipline on the Obama White House as well. After the extravagant deficits of the early Obama years (when he briefly held a filibuster-proof majority and enacted a massive stimulus package), the deficit declined to well less than half its Obama-era peak. The claim that the GOP before Trump failed at fiscal discipline is laughable in any case, because the GOP under Trump is already pushing the deficit close to early-Obama levels in a time of peace and prosperity.

Finally, lest we think that the Obama elections marked the GOP as the party of losers, we should remember that Obama presided over the electoral collapse of Democrats across the United States. By 2016, before Trumps election, the Democratic party was near its lowest ebb in almost a century. In fact, that string of losses was part of the reason for the string of state and local conservative successes outlined above.

There is no question that since the Reagan era conservatives have suffered significant defeats. Just as weve made cultural gains in life, weve suffered profound cultural losses as well. When its verboten in key cultural institutions to argue that men cant get pregnant  or when youre presumed to be a bigot merely because you hold to orthodox Christian beliefs about sexual morality  you know that the Left has made its share of gains. Conservatives have real work to do to in the effort to restore an American marriage culture, a project thats indispensable in preventing the deaths of despair that are destroying American families and communities. The failure to repeal Obamacare was deeply disappointing, and were now waking up to the reality that the rank-and-file Republican voter is far less fiscally conservative than many members of the conservative elite hoped. This populist moment most assuredly does not feature much fiscal restraint.

But these defeats do not change the facts about considerable and consequential conservative victories. Moreover, denying those victories (especially for the sake of propping up a single politician) does real damage to our body politic. It deepens Republican fear and hopelessness. It makes voters more vulnerable to grifters and conmen, and it places too much importance on the race for the presidency.

How did two generations of conservative activists win their battles? Not always (or even principally) through the presidency, but through the patient, persistent work of faithful cultural and political advocacy. We cant ignore defeats, and we cant grow complacent in the arenas where weve competed and won. But as we ponder the present and future of the conservative movement, its time to tell the truth about its recent past. What has conservatism conserved? Its conserved life, liberty, and prosperity. That makes it one of the most consequential and successful movements in American history, whatever its detractors might claim.

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Alexandria (United States) (AFP) - US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison by a federal judge on Thursday for tax crimes and bank fraud in the highest profile case yet stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

Judge T.S. Lewis immediately came under fire from Democratic lawmakers for imposing what they described as a relatively light sentence on the 69-year-old Republican political consultant and lobbyist.

Prosecutors from the Special Counsel's office had argued for a stiff prison term for Manafort, the first target of the Mueller probe to be convicted in a criminal trial.

Ellis said that while Manafort had committed "very serious crimes," he had previously led an "otherwise blameless life" and the advisory sentencing guidelines calling for 19 to 24 years behind bars were "excessive" and disproportionate to sentences for similar offenses.

"The government cannot sweep away the history of all these previous sentences," the judge said.

Manafort was convicted by a jury in August of five counts of filing false income tax returns, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to report a foreign bank account.

He is one of a half-dozen former Trump associates and senior aides charged by Mueller, who has been investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

The charges against Manafort were not connected to his role in the Trump campaign, which he headed for two months in 2016, but were related to lucrative consulting work he did for Russian-backed Ukrainian politicians from 2004 to 2014.

Prosecutors alleged that Manafort used offshore bank accounts to hide more than $55 million he earned working for the Ukrainians.

The money was used to support a lavish lifestyle which included purchases of luxury homes and cars, antique rugs, and expensive clothes, including an $18,500 python jacket.

Story continues

His conviction was a stunning downfall for a man who also worked on the White House bids of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole.

Speaking from a wheelchair and wearing a green prison jumpsuit with the words "Alexandria Inmate" on the back, Manafort told the court that his "life, professionally and personally, is in a shambles."

- 'Pain and shame' -

"I feel the pain and shame," said Manafort, who the defense says suffers from gout.

"To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement," he said.

Judge Ellis said he did not hear Manafort express regret or remorse but he said the sentencing guidelines were "way out of whack."

"I think what I've done is punitive," Ellis said.

He sentenced Manafort to a total of 47 months in prison for the eight counts and credited him with nine months of time served.

Manafort was ordered to pay $24 million in restitution and a $50,000 fine.

Manafort still faces sentencing in a money laundering and witness tampering case in Washington next week, where the maximum penalty is 10 years and the judge has appeared more sympathetic to prosecutors.

- 'Accepts responsibility' -

Defense attorney Kevin Downing, speaking after the sentencing, said Manafort "accepts responsibility for his conduct."

"And I think most importantly, what you saw today is the same thing that we had said from day one -- there is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia," Downing said.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, described Downing's remarks as a "deliberate appeal for a pardon" from Trump, who has denied any collusion with Russia and has denounced the Mueller probe as a "political witchhunt."

"The statement by Paul Manafort's lawyers after an already lenient sentence -- repeating the President's mantra of no collusion -- was no accident," Schiff said. "One injustice must not follow another."

Trump has dangled the possibility of pardons for some of those indicted by Mueller -- including Manafort, whom he has praised as a "good man" who has been treated unfairly.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, also denounced the sentence.

"His crimes took place over years and he led far from a 'blameless life," Klobuchar said on Twitter. "Crimes committed in an office building should be treated as seriously as crimes committed on a street corner."

During Manafort's trial, much of the damaging testimony against him was provided by his former deputy Rick Gates, who reached a plea deal with the Special Counsel's office.

Besides Manafort and Gates, four other former Trump associates face charges or have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Mueller investigation.

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials and is awaiting sentencing.

Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen is to begin serving a three-year prison sentence on May 6 for fraud, tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and lying to Congress.

George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was sentenced to two weeks in prison.

Another Trump advisor, Roger Stone, awaits trial.
By Roberta Rampton and David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he would be disappointed if North Korea were to resume weapons testing and reiterated his belief in his good relationship with its leader, Kim Jong Un, despite the collapse of a summit with him last week. "I would be surprised in a negative way if he did anything that was not per our understanding. But we'll see what happens," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I would be very disappointed if I saw testing." Trump's comments to reporters on the White House lawn before leaving to visit Alabama came after two U.S. think tanks and Seoul's spy agency said this week that North Korea was rebuilding a rocket launch site at Sohae in the west of the country. There have also been reports emanating from South Korea's intelligence service of new activity at a factory that produced North Korea's first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. Trump said he thought his and the U.S. relationship with Kim and North Korea was "a very good one." "I think it remains good," he said. Trump, eager for a big foreign policy win on North Korea which has eluded his predecessors for decades, has repeatedly stressed his good relationship with Kim. He went as far late last year as saying that they "fell in love," but the bonhomie has failed to bridge the wide gap between the two sides and a second between them collapsed last week over differences on U.S. demands for Kim to give up his nuclear weapons and North Korea's demands for sanctions relief. North Korea has, however, frozen nuclear and missile testing since 2017, and Trump has pointed to this as a positive outcome from nearly a year of high-level engagement with North Korea. Sohae has been used in the past to rest missile engines and to launch rockets that U.S. officials say have helped development of North Korea's weapons programs. Kim pledged at a first summit with Trump in Singapore in June that the site would be dismantled. U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton and other U.S. officials have sought to play down the activity spotted at Sohae, although Trump on Thursday called recent North Korean activity "disappointing. A senior State Department official who briefed reporters in Washington on Thursday said he would "not necessarily share the conclusion" of the think tanks that the Sohae site was operational again, but said any use of the site would be seen as "backsliding" on commitments to Trump. North Korean state media acknowledged the fruitless Hanoi summit for the first time on Friday, saying people were blaming the United States for the lack of an agreement. "The public at home and abroad that had hoped for success and good results from the second ... summit in Hanoi are feeling regretful, blaming the U.S. for the summit that ended without an agreement," its Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary. The paper directed fiery rhetoric against Japan, accusing it of being "desperate to interrupt" relations between Pyongyang and Washington and "applauding" the breakdown of the summit. Washington has said it is open to more talks with North Korea but it has rejected an incremental approach to negotiations sought by Pyongyang and it remains unclear when the two sides might meet again. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he was hopeful he would send a delegation to North Korea for more talks in the next couple of weeks, but that he had received "no commitment yet." The senior State Department official who gave a briefing on Thursday said the United States was keen to resume talks as soon as possible, but North Korea's negotiators needed to be given more latitude than they were given ahead of the summit. "There will necessarily need to be a period of reflection here. Both sides are going to have to digest the outcome to the summit," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Fundamentally, where we really need to see the progress, and we need to see it soon, is on meaningful and verifiable steps on denuclearization. That's our goal and that's how we see these negotiations picking up momentum." The official said complete denuclearization was the condition for North Korea's integration into the global economy, a transformed relationship with the United States and a permanent peace regime on the Korean peninsula. Bolton, a hard-liner who has argued for a tough approach to North Korea, said this week that Trump was open to more talks, but also warned of tougher sanctions if North Korea did not denuclearize. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton, David Brunnstrom, Lisa Lambert and Susan Heavey in Washington and Hyonhee Shin, Joyce Lee and Ju-min Park in Seoul; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - President Donald Trump's Middle East advisor Jason Greenblatt met with the UN Security Council on Friday but gave no details of a much-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, diplomats said.

"There were no details," Kuwaiti Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi told reporters after the closed-door meeting. "There was a discussion from our side about the plan."

The plan is expected to be released after the Israeli elections in April, but the Palestinians have already rejected it as biased in favor of Israel.

The Palestinians have refused to talk to the Trump administration since the US president recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December 2017.

They see the eastern part of the disputed city as the capital of their future state and have said Washington's pro-Israel bias meant the US could no longer be the main mediator in stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.

The council also discussed, at the request of Kuwait and Indonesia, Israel's decision to withhold tax transfers from the Palestinian Authority over its payments to prisoners jailed for attacks on Israelis.

"This is Palestinian money. They shouldn't withhold it," said the Kuwaiti ambassador.

Diplomats said the United States was a lone voice in defense of Israel at the closed-door council meeting, with the Europeans and others arguing that the payments should resume.

Greenblatt did not answer questions from reporters after the meeting.
AL-OMAR OIL FIELD BASE, Syria (AP)  Abandoned tents, vehicles and foxholes to hide from airstrikes are all that are left from evacuated parts of the Islamic State group's last shred of territory in Syria.

An exclusive video obtained by The Associated Press on Friday showed parts of the tiny pocket of land in the village of Baghouz vacated recently by Islamic State group members and their families. The area has been under attack since September by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces who in recent weeks have advanced on the town from three sides, besieging it.

Hundreds of IS fighters, along with thousands of civilians, mostly family members, have evacuated the IS-held area after the SDF alternately applied military pressure and allowed time for evacuees to come out. In the last two weeks, many fighters appeared to be among those evacuating.

But some IS militants are still clinging to a patch of land inside the village and are vowing to fight.

In Washington, a senior defense official estimated that nearly 20,000 people, including 3,500 to 4,000 adult males, have emerged from Baghouz since Feb. 20. The official, who could not be identified by name under Pentagon ground rules, said nearly all of the 20,000, including women and children, are seen as IS followers or adherents.

Baghouz in eastern Syria is the very last speck of territory held by IS, which once occupied a territory the size of Britain over areas straddling both Iraq and Syria that it called a "caliphate." The coalition effort to destroy IS has taken place amid Syria's nearly 8-year-old civil war.

The senior U.S. defense official said the U.S. and the SDF had greatly underestimated not only the number of IS fighters and affiliated civilians holed up in the final slice of IS territory, but also the amount of time it would take to finish off the fight. The official said it would not be a surprise, based on current conditions, if it took another couple of weeks.

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The official said the SDF is believed to have about 5,000 IS fighters in captivity, of which about 4,000 are Iraqis and Syrians. The other 1,000 or so are "foreign" fighters from dozens of other countries, the official said.

The video obtained by AP was shot on Wednesday by a fighter from the People's Protection Units, or YPG, the main Kurdish militia which is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces. It showed abandoned tents and vehicles, foxholes in which to hide from airstrikes, weapons and other items left behind by the extremists.

A burned pickup truck and several motorcycles could be seen, as well as scattered pieces of clothing, blankets and cases of ammunition.

Under the cover of heavy coalition bombing on March 1-2, SDF forces advanced on the besieged tent encampment, leaving a corridor for residents to leave. During the airstrikes, an ammunition depot and vehicles packed with weapons were targeted, setting off large explosions and a fire that lasted for at least two days. In the video, fire was still smoldering from some tents, which caught fire in the explosion.

Following that operation, thousands of residents and many fighters evacuated Baghouz over the next four days. But on Friday, only a small group came out, raising speculations that a renewed military offensive was being planned.

Evacuated civilians have described terrible conditions inside the village, with food scarce and people forced to hide underground to escape airstrikes and shelling by the SDF. Many of them were also adamant supporters of the militant group, who defended its tactics.

The evacuees have either been sent to a displaced people's camp to the north or suspected fighters have moved to detention facilities. The U.S.-led coalition takes part in screening and interrogating the evacuees.

The aid group International Rescue Committee said at least 6,000 women and children arrived from Baghouz to al-Hol displaced people's camp on Thursday alone, bringing the total of evacuees over two days to 12,000. The camp, IRC said, has reached "a breaking point," with over 55,000 arriving there since December.

The total population of the camp is now at 65,000 as aid workers are overwhelmed with shortage of tents and resources. At least 100 people, mostly children, died en route to al-Hol or shortly after arriving due to a combination of malnutrition and hypothermia. More than 240 unaccompanied children also arrived at the camp, as well as many with serious injuries.

Separately and on the other side of Syria, Turkey's defense minister said on Friday Turkish and Russian troops will begin patrols of Syria's northwestern Idlib region, where the two countries have created a de-escalation zone.

Hulusi Akar also said that restrictions on Turkey's use of the airspace above the Idlib and Afrin regions have been lifted, signaling the possible use of drones or aircraft to secure those areas.

Russia and Turkey brokered a cease-fire in September for Idlib, the last major stronghold of Syria's rebels. The agreement averted a Syrian government offensive, but has come under strain as al-Qaida-linked militants have seized towns and villages from rival insurgents.

In comments aired live on several Turkish news channels, Akar said Russia would patrol the border outside Idlib while Turkey would patrol inside the de-escalation zone.

___

Associated Press National Security writer Robert Burns contributed from Washington.
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi is interested in resolving the issues plaguing electric cooperatives around the country. I am always open, DoE (Department of Energy) is always open. DoE is a government institution that is open to all, Cusi said. Cusi, however, said he had not received any formal communication from The Philippine Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives on a meeting proposed by electric cooperatives in Davao City on March 19. Cusi stressed that he holds office at the PNOC Complex in Taguig City that handles issues related to the energy sector. We are reviewing not just the ECs performance... distribution utilities and generation companies are also reviewed, Cusi said. We are serving the public. We cannot leave the welfare of the public to the sweet time of the ECs or the DUs, he said. Cusi stressed he was just doing his job and would not be cowered and distracted by fear of what the affected party will do.I will not tolerate inefficiencies and non-performance on the job, he said. He said he respected the position taken by Philreca, representing the countrys 121 ECs. We have to do the right thing for our country at all times. We cannot turn a blind eye to the pressing need for improved access and quality electricity services in some parts of the Philippines, he said. Alena Mae S. Flores We understand that there will be parties who might resist the required reforms. However, as public officials, we cannot and should not be deterred by any threat that aims to derail us from performing our duties to the Filipino people, Cusi said. He said the cooperation and inputs of ECs were crucial to the successful resolution of the deep-seated problems besetting cooperatives for many years. We continue to ask the ECs and their leadership not to politicize this process, which only seeks to transform the state of electrification in the country to foster growth needed to significantly improve the lives of our countrymen, Cusi said.
Washington (AFP) - The US Justice Department said Thursday some two million elderly Americans have been deprived of $750 million in various rackets over the last year, including fake technical support scams conducted from Indian call centers.

The fraud has led to 255 indictments in the US but officials say the targeting of seniors is a global problem, with victims in Britain, Canada and Germany.

Growing technical support fraud has been among the most worrying causes for complaint, with 142,000 US consumers claiming to have been victims in 2018, among them a large number of elderly.

In the classic scenario, a window opens on a victim's computer and says there is a technical problem, accompanied by a number for a technical assistance center.

The message seems to come from an actual company, such as Microsoft, but the number is for a call center, often based in India.

Once the victim makes the call, their contact offers to take control of their device remotely and says they have detected the presence of a virus or other problem, then proposing to fix it immediately and install security software for a fee.

The victims are then referred to accomplices in the United States who are responsible for collecting the money and sending it abroad. In the past 12 months, 600 of these accomplices have been identified by US authorities.

The Justice Department did not say how many people had been arrested over the scams, nor their nationality, but gave the example of two Indians charged this week in California for recruiting an accomplice.

"We look forward to working with law enforcement in India to encourage more collaboration and action on the ground and in the courtroom to ensure these schemes stop," a senior Justice Department official said.

Another type of scam involves sending letters that promise lottery winnings or other turns of good fortune.

A 56-year-old French-Canadian, Patrice Runner, was arrested in Spain and charged with a scam of that type that lasted more than 20 years: he sent letters in the name of famous French fortune tellers, vowing to guarantee them wealth if they paid him money.
U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, who was considered a top candidate to become the next secretary of defense, has decided to resign after almost two years of leading a service that is at the heart of America's campaigns in Syria and Afghanistan, a U.S. official told Reuters. Wilson, who aims to return to academia, was not asked to leave by anyone in President Trump's administration and was not resigning under pressure, the official told Reuters.
By Sarah N. Lynch, Andy Sullivan and Jan Wolfe

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced on Thursday by a U.S. judge to less than four years in prison - far shy of federal sentencing guidelines - for financial crimes uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis imposed the surprisingly lenient 47-month sentence on Manafort, 69, during a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, in which the veteran Republican political consultant asked for mercy but expressed no remorse for his actions.

Manafort was convicted by a jury last August of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

Ellis disregarded federal sentencing guidelines cited by prosecutors that called for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison. The judge ordered Manafort to pay a fine of $50,000 and restitution of just over $24 million.

Manafort, brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair because of a condition called gout, listened during the hearing as Ellis extolled his "otherwise blameless" life in which he "earned the admiration of a number of people" and engaged in "a lot of good things."

"Clearly the guidelines were way out of whack on this," Ellis said.

Manafort was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the U.S. government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraine's former pro-Russia government. After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

The judge also said Manafort "is not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election."

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The sentence was even less than the sentence recommended by Manafort's lawyers of 4-1/4 to 5-1/4 years in prison.

"These are serious crimes, we understand that," said Thomas Zehnle, one of Manafort's lawyers. "Tax evasion is by no means jaywalking. But it's not narcotics trafficking."

Legal experts expressed surprise over the sentence. "This is a tremendous defeat for the special counsel's office," former federal prosecutor David Weinstein said.

Manafort's sentence was less than half of what people who plead guilty and cooperate with the government typically get in similar cases, according to Mark Allenbaugh, a former attorney with the U.S. Sentencing Commission. "Very shocking," he said.

Ellis, appointed to the bench by Republican former President Ronald Reagan, called the sentence "sufficiently punitive," and noted that Manafort's time already served would be subtracted from the 47 months. Manafort has been jailed since June 2018.

Manafort's legal troubles are not over. He faces sentencing next Wednesday in Washington in a separate case for two conspiracy charges involving lobbying and money laundering to which he pleaded guilty last September.

Legal experts said the light sentence from Ellis could prompt U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to impose a sentence closer to the maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, and order that the sentence run after the current one is completed rather than concurrently. Jackson was appointed by Democratic former President Barack Obama.

'IN SHAMBLES'

Before the sentencing, Manafort expressed no remorse but talked about how the case had been difficult for him and his family. Manafort, who opted not to testify during his trial, told Ellis that "to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement." He described his life as "professionally and financially in shambles."

The judge told Manafort: "I was surprised I did not hear you express regret for engaging in wrongful conduct."

Manafort, with noticeably grayer hair than just months ago, came into the courtroom in a wheelchair holding a cane, wearing a green prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the words "Alexandria Inmate" on the back. It was a far cry from Manafort's usual dapper appearance and stylish garb.

During a break shortly before the sentence was handed down, Manafort turned around and blew his wife, Kathleen, a kiss.

The case capped a stunning downfall for Manafort, a prominent figure in Republican Party circles for decades who also worked as a consultant to such international figures as former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Yanukovych.

Ellis had faced criticism by some in the legal community for comments he made during the trial that were widely interpreted as biased against the prosecution. Ellis repeatedly interrupted prosecutors, told them to stop using the word "oligarch" to describe people associated with Manafort because it made him seem "despicable," and objected to pictures of Manafort's luxury items they planned to show jurors.

"It isn't a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending," Ellis told prosecutors during the trial.

Prosecutor Greg Andres urged Ellis to impose a steep sentence. "This case must stand as a beacon to others that this conduct cannot be accepted," Andres told the hearing on Thursday.

Jackson ruled on Feb. 13 that Manafort had breached his agreement to cooperate with Mueller's office by lying to prosecutors about three matters pertinent to the Russia probe including his interactions with a business partner they have said has ties to Russian intelligence.

Manafort is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mueller to have gone to trial. Several others including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen have pleaded guilty, while longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty.

Trump, a Republican who has called Mueller's investigation a politically motivated "witch hunt," has not ruled out giving

Manafort a presidential pardon, saying in November: "I wouldn't take it off the table."

"There's absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia," Kevin Downing, another Manafort lawyer, said outside the courthouse.

The Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, quickly accused Downing of making "a deliberate appeal for a pardon" from Trump.

Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said after the sentencing: "I believe Manafort has been disproportionately harassed and hopefully soon there will be an investigation of the overzealous prosecutorial intimidation so it doesnt happen again."

Mueller is preparing to submit to U.S. Attorney General William Barr a report on his investigation into whether Trump's campaign conspired with Russia and whether Trump has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Trump has denied collusion and obstruction and Russia has denied U.S. intelligence findings that it interfered in the 2016 election in an effort to boost Trump.

Manafort worked for Trump's campaign for five pivotal months in 2016 that included the Republican National Convention where Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, three of them as campaign chairman.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Andy Sullivan and Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne, Eric Beech and Makini Brice; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Peter Cooney)
By Roberta Rampton and David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he would be disappointed if North Korea were to resume weapons testing and reiterated his belief in his good relationship with its leader, Kim Jong Un, despite the collapse of a summit with him last week.

"I would be surprised in a negative way if he did anything that was not per our understanding. But we'll see what happens," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I would be very disappointed if I saw testing."

Trump's comments to reporters on the White House lawn before leaving to visit Alabama came after two U.S. think tanks and Seoul's spy agency said this week that North Korea was rebuilding a rocket launch site at Sohae in the west of the country.

There have also been reports emanating from South Korea's intelligence service of new activity at a factory that produced North Korea's first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States.

Trump said he thought his and the U.S. relationship with Kim and North Korea was "a very good one."

"I think it remains good," he said.

Trump, eager for a big foreign policy win on North Korea which has eluded his predecessors for decades, has repeatedly stressed his good relationship with Kim.

He went as far late last year as saying that they "fell in love," but the bonhomie has failed to bridge the wide gap between the two sides and a second between them collapsed last week over differences on U.S. demands for Kim to give up his nuclear weapons and North Korea's demands for sanctions relief.

North Korea has, however, frozen nuclear and missile testing since 2017, and Trump has pointed to this as a positive outcome from nearly a year of high-level engagement with North Korea.

Sohae has been used in the past to rest missile engines and to launch rockets that U.S. officials say have helped development of North Korea's weapons programs. Kim pledged at a first summit with Trump in Singapore in June that the site would be dismantled.

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U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton and other U.S. officials have sought to play down the activity spotted at Sohae, although Trump on Thursday called recent North Korean activity "disappointing.

A senior State Department official who briefed reporters in Washington on Thursday said he would "not necessarily share the conclusion" of the think tanks that the Sohae site was operational again, but said any use of the site would be seen as "backsliding" on commitments to Trump.

North Korean state media acknowledged the fruitless Hanoi summit for the first time on Friday, saying people were blaming the United States for the lack of an agreement.

"The public at home and abroad that had hoped for success and good results from the second ... summit in Hanoi are feeling regretful, blaming the U.S. for the summit that ended without an agreement," its Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary.

The paper directed fiery rhetoric against Japan, accusing it of being "desperate to interrupt" relations between Pyongyang and Washington and "applauding" the breakdown of the summit.

Washington has said it is open to more talks with North Korea but it has rejected an incremental approach to negotiations sought by Pyongyang and it remains unclear when the two sides might meet again.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he was hopeful he would send a delegation to North Korea for more talks in the next couple of weeks, but that he had received "no commitment yet."

The senior State Department official who gave a briefing on Thursday said the United States was keen to resume talks as soon as possible, but North Korea's negotiators needed to be given more latitude than they were given ahead of the summit.

"There will necessarily need to be a period of reflection here. Both sides are going to have to digest the outcome to the summit," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Fundamentally, where we really need to see the progress, and we need to see it soon, is on meaningful and verifiable steps on denuclearization. That's our goal and that's how we see these negotiations picking up momentum."

The official said complete denuclearization was the condition for North Korea's integration into the global economy, a transformed relationship with the United States and a permanent peace regime on the Korean peninsula.

Bolton, a hard-liner who has argued for a tough approach to North Korea, said this week that Trump was open to more talks, but also warned of tougher sanctions if North Korea did not denuclearize.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton, David Brunnstrom, Lisa Lambert and Susan Heavey in Washington and Hyonhee Shin, Joyce Lee and Ju-min Park in Seoul; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Brothers SP Hinduja and PP Hinduja. Photo: Natasha Hemrajani/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Indian-British businessmen the Hinduja brothers have overtaken chemicals entrepreneur Jim Ratcliffe to reclaim their place as the richest people in Britain.

Srichand, Gopichand, Prakash, and Ashkok, who together own eponymous conglomerate the Hinduja Group, now share the place of 54th richest person in the world, according to Forbes, which released its annual list of the worlds billionaires on Tuesday. The four brothers have a shared net worth of $16.9bn (12.9bn)  making them the richest Britons alive.

The Hinduja Group owns a range of businesses dealing with with trucks, lubricants, cable television, and banking, among other things. The brothers also own several valuable London properties.

READ MORE: Forbes reveals the richest women in the world

Ratcliffe, who founded and owns most of Ineos, the worlds biggest chemical maker, beat the brothers to become the richest Brit in 2018, but now trails behind in second place  110th overall  with a net worth of $12.1bn (9.2bn).

In third place in the UK is Michael Platt, the CEO of Europes third-biggest hedge fund BlueCrest Capital Management, which manages over 30bn. Platt, who co-founded the firm with American William Reeves in 2000, comes in at 183 on the rich list with a net worth of $8bn (6.1bn).

Simon and Paul Reuben share the spot of fifth richest Brit, with $7.5bn (5.7bn). The brothers built their fortune in real estate, technology, and investments before selling 49% of their data centre business GlobalSwitch to Chinese investors for nearly $3bn (2.3bn) in 2016. They then sold an additional quarter of the business to Asian investors for $2.7bn (2bn) in 2018.

READ MORE: How Kylie Jenner became the worlds youngest self-made billionaire at 21

Bet365 co-CEO Denise Coates is the fifth richest person and the richest woman in Britain with $6.5bn (5bn) to her name. Coates and her brother John each own half of Bet365, which facilitates over $65bn in bets annually. She controversially paid herself 280m in 2018, making her the highest-paid British CEO.




GRIMSBY, England (Reuters) - Britain will face ongoing uncertainty and may never leave the European Union if lawmakers next week vote down the exit deal negotiated with Brussels, British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Friday. "Back it and the UK will leave the EU, reject it and no one knows what will happen," she said in a speech in Grimsby, eastern England. She added: "We may never leave at all. The only certainty would be ongoing uncertainty. Months more spent arguing about Brexit when we could be focusing on improving our NHS, our schools and our communities." (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, writing by David Milliken; editing by Stephen Addison)
The United States Air Forces Thunderbirds" squadron performed a flyover at the premiere of Captain Marvel in Los Angeles, California, on March 4.

The air force described the flyover as a unique moment to honor the men and women serving in the Armed Forces who are represented in Captain Marvel.

The film stars Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, a former US Air Force fighter pilot who gains super powers. Credit: US Air Force via Storyful
New York (AFP) - The United States indicted Venezuelan industry minister and former vice president Tareck El Aissami on sanctions violations Friday, two years after naming him a narcotics "kingpin" for allegedly giving cover to drug traffickers.

Aissami, a close ally of President Nicolas Maduro, and businessman Samark Lopez Bello were indicted together in New York and charged with violating US sanctions by using private jets to fly to meetings around the world.

The indictment came as the US steps up pressure on the embattled government of Maduro, who the US has branded illegitimate.

"El Aissami and Lopez Bello allegedly used private jets to set up private meetings around the globe including Turkey and Russia," Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Angel Melendez said in a statement.

"It is necessary to impose sanctions against foreign persons seeking to gain power and control by circumventing the law."

The indictment covered activities by the two, along with four other men also indicted -- three in Florida and one from Panama -- that began in 2017 and continued through last week.

The indictment charged that they violated sanctions when they used US companies to arrange and pay for the flights between Venezuela, Turkey and Russia, the purpose of which was not explained.

Washington is leading international pressure to have Maduro replaced by opposition leader Juan Guaido, whom the US recognizes as the official interim president.

El Aissami and Lopez Bello were designated as complicit in narcotics trafficking in February 2017 under the US Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.

El Aissami, 44, has served as Venezuelan interior minister and was vice president from January 2017 to June 2018, when he shifted to lead the Industry Ministry.

The 2017 designation alleged that as interior minister El Aissami was paid to help protect shipments by Venezuelan drug boss Walid Makled Garcia, and helped coordinate them with Mexico's Los Zetas cartel.

Lopez Bello, the US Treasury said at the time, was a frontman for El Aissami and laundered drug proceeds.
Military forces on Friday waged simultaneous air and ground campaign against a large concentration of Islamic State-affiliated Abu Sayyaf Group in the hinterlands of Sulu. At break of dawn Friday, fighting still raged as helicopter gun ships and attack planes conducted air strikes and artilleries against some 200 ASG members in Brgy. Kabbun Takas, Patikul, the military said. Col. Gerry Besana, spokesman of the Western Mindanao Command, said the 200 ASG bandits were under their leaders Radulan Sahiron and Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan who were spotted converging in Sitios Agas-Agas and Limasan in Brgy. Kabbun Takas. There had been no specific numbers of casualties on both sides while fighting was reported continuing in the outskirts of Patikul, Sulu, the supposed haven of the terrorists. The offensive against the terrorists was part of the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to pursue the culprits of the Jolo Cathedral twin bombings which left 23 individuals including five soldiers dead and wounded 123 others last Jan. 27. Military ground commanders believed the consolidation of 200 ASG bandits was part of their plan to launch terror attacks. This military offensive is launched before they could carry out whatever terroristic action they are planning which I believe something big as they have consolidated such number of terrorists, JTF Sulu Commander, Brig. Gen. Divino Rey Pabayo Jr. said.We have stepped-up our tactical offensives against the ASG following the monitored and validated consolidation of the ASG terrorists in the hinterland of Patikul, Pabayo added. Anticipating diversionary attacks by the ASG, tight security was enforced in Metro Jolo. However, Pabayo said JTF Sulu will never loose focus in hunting down this terrorist that had been wrecking havoc in this part of the country. Hence, it would be better for them to surrender that he hunted as fleeing criminals of the society. Selective aerial bombardment was going on Friday as ground forces were maneuvering their final assault on ASG positions. As we build up the offensives against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu, the safety of our troops is at risk. In this regard, we ask everyone to please offer prayers for our valiant soldiers that they will be spared and be able to return home victoriously, said Lt. Gen. Arnel dela Vega, commander of the Western Mindanao Command.
HANOI (Reuters) - A Vietnamese academic has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party for posting comments on Facebook deemed to be critical of the party, the government said on Friday.

Tran Duc Anh Son, deputy head of the Danang Institute for Socio-Economic Development, was accused of "writing Facebook posts that were untrue and went against the party's views and state policies and laws," the government said in a statement.

Son had been critical at what he perceived as a soft approach by Vietnam on the South China Sea issue with China. Vietnam and China have long been embroiled in maritime disputes in the potentially energy-rich maritime territory.

Despite presiding over sweeping reforms and an increasingly market-oriented economy, the Communist Party of Vietnam tolerates little criticism.

"Tran Duc Anh Son's violations are very serious, causing negative public opinions, ... and damaging the prestige of the party," the government said.

Reuters could not immediately reach Son for comment.

His expulsion comes more than four months after the party publicly criticised a former vice minister of science and head of a publishing house, Chu Hao, for publishing translations of books it said were critical of socialism and one-party rule.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Friday.

Facebook is widely used in Vietnam and serves as the main platform for dissidents. Vietnam in January accused Facebook of violating a new controversial cybersecurity law by allowing users to post anti-government comments.

Global technology firms and rights groups have said the cybersecurity law, which took effect on Jan. 1 and requires companies to set up offices and store data in the country, could undermine development and stifle innovation in Vietnam.

Company officials have privately expressed concerns that the new law could make it easier for authorities to seize customer data and expose their Vietnamese employees to arrest.

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Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg alluded to the issue in a statement on his Facebook account this week.

"People should expect that we won't store sensitive data in countries with weak records on human rights like privacy and freedom of expression in order to protect data from being improperly accessed," he said.

(Reporting by James Pearson; Editing by Darren Schuettler)
Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed in a Medium post on Friday to dismantle so-called Big Tech  Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), and Amazon (AMZN)  but antitrust experts found serious flaws in her proposal.

The presidential hopeful is using a sledgehammer, that is, breaking companies up, to address problems like data privacy that could be solved in other ways, noted Herbert Hovenkamp, a leading authority on antitrust law.

Because of economies of scale, Hovenkamp noted, bigger companies can offer cheaper products, and forcing them to spin off businesses could hurt consumers.

Customers are not complaining about Amazon  its got some of the highest consumer evaluations in retailing. The story for smaller businesses is a little more mixed. But on balance, a lot of them like dealing with Amazon, noted Hovenkamp, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania law school.

Big, structural changes

Nevertheless, U.S. tech giants have still engendered their fair share of rage and distrust from the American people. Warren appeared to be trying to capitalize on that in her proposal to make big, structural changes to the tech sector.

Her proposal is two-pronged: First, she wants to push Congress to pass legislation requiring companies with annual global revenue of $25 billion or more that offer an online marketplace, an exchange, or a platform to be designated platform utilities.

Demonstrators hold signs during a protest against Amazon in the Long Island City section of the Queens borough of New York, U.S., February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Platform utilities and participants on those platforms could not be part of the same company. So, for example, Amazon Marketplace and AmazonBasics, its private label product line, would have to be split apart. Google search and Googles ad exchange could no longer be part of the same company, either.

Second, Warren would appoint regulators committed to unwinding supposedly anti-competitive mergers, including Amazons acquisition of Whole Foods; Facebooks purchase of WhatsApp and Instagram; and Googles ownership of Waze, Nest, and DoubleClick.

A lot of pushback

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Four antitrust experts told Yahoo Finance that it would be highly unlikely that Congress would move to force big companies to spin off parts of themselves.

It wont pass before the next election for sure and I think theres going to be a lot of pushback even within the Democratic party and the reason is these broad-scale divestiture or breakup provisions are likely to produce much higher prices, Hovenkamp noted. Democrats tend to represent a lot of lower income people  they may be the ones who are hurt the most.

A man walks past an advert for Amazon Locker outside a Whole Foods Market store in Santa Monica, California, U.S. March 19, 2018. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

While Amazons purchase of Whole Foods, for example, might hurt other grocers, its not clear the acquisition caused harm to the people buying groceries. Ultimately, antitrust law is about protecting consumers, not the competition.

At the end of the day, the real test is over the long run, are consumers worse off as a result of this behavior? Thats still pretty much the conventional theory, said George Hay, a professor at Cornell Universitys Law School.

It may also be tough for Warren to appoint regulators who will be successful at retroactively undoing mergers, like Facebooks purchase of Instagram. Technically, regulators do have the authority to challenge mergers that have already been approved. But those challenges will have to be upheld by federal courts.

The problem is youre going to make that case before the federal judiciary after four years of Trump appointments, including two Supreme Court appointments, Christopher Sagers, an antitrust expert and professor at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, told Yahoo Finance.

Remedies that are tailored to identify the harms

Still, Sagers said it makes his heart sing to hear a presidential hopeful push for more antitrust enforcement. While he agreed that her legislative push was politically implausible, Sagers disagreed with the notion that bigger companies are necessarily better for consumers.

Theres no evidence that firms need to be big just to be efficient, Sagers argued. I dont think that breaking up these companies is likely to make prices go up and impede consumer service. I do think that more competition actually drives innovation more than people want to believe.

Waze is seen on a smartphone in this photo illustration taken in Tel Aviv May 9, 2013. REUTERS/Nir Elias

In her post on Medium, Warren cited the Justice Departments 1990s-era antitrust case against Microsoft, which ended in a settlement requiring the company to disclose more information to competitors. Ironically, Warren contended that the deal allowed the very innovation that paved the way for Facebook and Google  the tech giants shes trying to cut down to size.

Notably, that case did not result in a breakup of Microsoft, which is also thriving today. Its possible that some concerns over Facebook, Amazon, and Google  including concerns over data collection  could be arguably be addressed through means other than shrinking the size of these companies.

If manipulation of information at a large scale is what were worried about, we need to go after the manipulation of information, not just break up the company, which could produce dramatically higher prices, Hovenkamp said.

Rather than going Warrens route, the U.S. may end up passing a federal data privacy law that could regulate tech companies much more heavily while leaving them intact. In the meantime, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and other tech giants may want to brace themselves for more criticism from lawmakers on all sides.

Erin Fuchs is deputy managing editor at Yahoo Finance.
DEIR AL-ZOR PROVINCE, Syria (Reuters) - Thousands of people could still be left inside Islamic State's last enclave in eastern Syria, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said, as the waves of evacuations from the tiny area continued on Thursday. The SDF has said it wants to ensure all civilians have been evacuated before launching a final assault on the besieged enclave of Baghouz. It is the last shred of populated territory held by Islamic State, which once controlled swathes of Iraq and Syria. "We are still hearing about the presence of thousands inside Baghouz," SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali told al-Hadath television. "We expect a fierce battle later on after the end of the civilian evacuation, given that those that will remain in Baghouz are the ones brimming with salafi jihadi ideology and the ones for whom surrender is not an option," he said. Even with its defeat at Baghouz looming large, Islamic State is still widely assessed to represent a security threat, with a foothold in patches of remote territory and the ability to mount guerrilla attacks. Many thousands of people, many of them the families of Islamic State fighters, have poured out of Baghouz over the last several weeks. Hundreds of Islamic State militants have also surrendered, the SDF says. One of those men emerging from Baghouz, Abu Mujahid, told Reuters he came to Syria in 2015 from China's far western region of Xinjiang, also referred to as east Turkestan, which is home to a sizeable minority Muslim population. "I came from China to here (Syria) because of unfairness. There is a lot of injustice in China and we cannot live with it," he said. Another man, Abu Ali Shishani, said he had come from the Russian region of Chechnya. The SDF announced it was launching a final battle for the enclave last month but has slowed its attack to allow civilians to leave. SDF commander Adnan Afrin said on Thursday he hoped the evacuations would "be completed today". GRAPHIC - Control of Syrian communities: https://tmsnrt.rs/2E6TwKX 'FAR FROM OVER' On Wednesday the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that monitors the war said preparations were underway in eastern Syria to announce the end of Islamic State there. But Colonel Sean Ryan, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition backing the SDF, said the international force had "learned not to put any timetables on the last battle". Islamic State suffered its major military defeats in 2017 when it was driven from the Iraqi city of Mosul and its Syrian headquarters at Raqqa by local forces supported by a U.S.-led international coalition. The head of the U.S. military's Central Command, General Joseph Votel, said on Thursday the reduction of Islamic State's territorial footprint was a "monumental military accomplishment", but the fight was "far from over". "What we are seeing now is not the surrender of ISIS as an organization," he told a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. Rather, he said, it was the group's "calculated decision to preserve the safety of their families and preservation of their capabilities by taking their chances in camps for internally displaced persons and going to ground in remote areas and waiting for the right time to resurge". Votel, who oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, said he was under no pressure to withdraw forces from Syria by any specific date, after President Donald Trump ordered the drawdown of most U.S. troops from Syria. (Reporting by Rodi Said and Tom Perry in Beirut and Aboud Hammam in Deir al-Zor; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Tom Perry and Lisa Barrington; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Frances Kerry)
Sherrod Browns decision to forgo a bid for the White House is the first big surprise of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

The Ohio Democrat was taking all the necessary steps to assemble a competitive bid. Brown had enlisted a savvy veteran of Iowa as a campaign manager-in-waiting, tapped a star adviser to Hillary Clintons orbit to lead efforts in New Hampshire, and his plan to play up his working-class cred gave him a fighting chance in Nevada, where the culinary workers union reigns supreme. In pitches to activists and donors alike, Brown was preaching his ability to retake the Midwest.

In interviews he sounded every bit the contender, framing himself as a lifelong progressive who could get white, working-class voters to pull the lever for a Democrat. I dont have to show my progressive bona fides. I am who I am. But Im also going to win the industrial Midwest, he told TIME in January, riding in his Ohio-made Jeep from Cleveland to Lordstown, Ohio, for a January union-hall conversation with soon-to-be-out-of-work automakers. No President since John F. Kennedy has won the White House without carrying Ohio, which Brown did easily last year, the lone Democrat to win statewide. A Brown candidacy, he said, would expand the electorate in ways Clinton failed. Despite his meager early polling numbers, many Democrats saw him as a sleeper threat.

Which is why it was a shock March 7 when Brown announced he saw his seat in the Senate as the best way for him to continue battling on behalf of working people. The best place for me to make that fight is in the United States Senate, he said in a statement.

Sen. Brown and his wife Connie Schultz attend a meet and greet at the home of the Black Hawk County Supervisor Chris Schwartz, in Waterloo, IA on Feb. 2, 2019.

Ultimately, Brown concluded his path was too narrow to be viable. Much of the Democratic base has its eyes on the history-shattering candidacies of Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar or Kamala Harris. Others are thrilled by the likes of social-media darlings Cory Booker and Beto ORourke. All signs point to former Vice President Joe Biden jumping in the race in short order. The gruff, plain-spoken Brown had a tough path to match would-have-been rivals charisma. While he may have offered Democrats their best shot at a Midwest revival that is desperately needed should the party stand a chance at the White House, he was unlikely to survive a crowded primary, one adviser told TIME.

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On top of the political questions, Brown had personal concerns. He consistently came back to the toll it could take on his family, especially his wife, the Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Connie Schultz. As Brown weighed a campaign, a Republican research firm filed a public-records request of her emails at Kent State University, where Schultz teaches journalism. If Brown were to run, it was unlikely Schultz would have been able to continue write her syndicated column.

For her part, Schultz was game for the race if it meant booting Trump. Our number-one goal must be to defeat Donald Trump. He is such as dangerous man, Schultz told TIME earlier this year. But she noted a campaign would come with costs. He really wants to be the best Senator he can be. If you run for President, youve got to make some choices.

In recent weeks, Brownthe 66-year-old son of a Republican doctor and a Democratic activisthad grown increasingly frustrated with reporters asking him to weigh in on topics that werent on his agenda. For instance, during one February session with reporters in Washington, the conversation kept coming back to an environmental proposal offered by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I want to get something done now, he told a breakfast organized by the Christian Science Monitor. I dont need to co-sponsor every bill that others think they need to co-sponsor to show my progressive politics.

Despite the hints of trepidation, the decision still came as a surprise. Brown had spent the last few weeks visiting early-nominating states, including South Carolina this past weekend. He drew curious crowds for his conversations with voters and caucus-goers about what he described as the dignity of work, a line borrowed from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Local party bosses were on hand to offer encouragement and to answer questions about idiosyncrasies of the early states. His financial supporters had a first wave of donations at the ready. All signs pointed to a launch this month. During his preliminary travel, advisers said, Brown heard strong encouragement. But, as his wife liked to remind him, the same people say the same thing when the next candidate comes to town.

Even though he wont be on the ballot, Brown could still be a major figure in the 2020 race. Ohios politics are tricky, and there are few in the Democratic Party who have so successfully navigated its intricacies. Only once since 1974 has Brown lost a race in Ohio. The failure of the blue firewall in Ohio in 2016 was a warning sign more broadly. If Trump was breaking through there, what was happening in places like Michigans Genesee and Wayne Counties, or Kenosha County in Wisconsinareas that saw sharp drop-offs in performance from Barack Obama in 2012 to Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Sen. Brown attends a tour at TechWorks in Waterloo, IA on Feb. 2, 2019.

With a finely tuned populist message, Democrats may be able to pierce Trumps rhetoric there. While Trump claims the economy is roaring, the industrial Midwest could prove his biggest vulnerability. Just a day before Brown bowed out of a race he hadnt yet joined, General Motors shuttered its final production plant in Ohio, a facility in Lordstown. Just 18 months ago, 5,000 people were working there on 6.2 million square feet of factory floor. Another 75 factories in Ohio supplied parts for the plant.

Browns thesis is one that other Democrats are studying. Its why, when they ran into each other last weekend in South Carolina, Booker made a point of listening to his Senate colleagues pitch. Its one Brown has been making for months, including a day TIME tagged along with him during an Ohio blizzard. National Democrats really see elections as you choose between the progressive base and working-class voters, Brown said, with the low hum of the Beatles playing in the background. You dont win Ohio, you dont win the Heartland, you dont win the Electoral College by making the choice. You win by talking to both groups.

Yet for all his convictions about how to win the presidency, he couldnt bring himself to try. From his first run for the Ohio Legislature as a fresh-faced Yale graduate, Brown has made little effort to conceal his disdain for the frivolity of politics. Even as he weighed a campaign, he downplayed the suggestions he run.

If youre a sentient human being and youre fairly high ranked in office, House or Senate. and you dont drool when you speak, someone will come up and say, You should be President, Brown told TIME in January. Ive heard that all my life.  But I never really thought, I want to run for President.

Ultimately, he decided he did not. At least not under these conditions.
Beth Ann Arnett outside of her home in North Judson, Ind. (Photo: Alyssa Schukar for Yahoo News)

For many American women, these are times when they are feeling seen and being heard.

More women ran for office in 2018 than ever before, a half-dozen are running for president in 2020 and a record number are serving in Congress. Powerful men are being toppled by women whose voices are being heard for the first time. Every January for the past three years, hundreds of thousands have joined in the Womens March. Rolling Stone put Nancy Pelosi and three new female members of the House on the cover with the headline Women Shaping the Future.

But for all the talk of womens issues and womens power and what women bring to the table, there are some  arguably a third of American women  who dont feel that this is about them at all. In these divisive times, women are as divided as the nation as a whole, and what women want depends on which women you ask.

I dont want these women who are marching and hollering and celebrating to represent me, says Beth Ann Arnett, 49, a home health aide from North Judson, Ind., who has also worked in a fiberglass factory and driving a tractor-trailer. I am ashamed of those ladies.

Agrees Sue Fariello, 71, a retired educator from Lake George, N.Y.: Those women dont speak for me.

A poll of 1,000 women conducted on behalf of Yahoo, HuffPost, Makers and other Verizon Media brands by Langer Research Associates found that while 62 percent of the respondents considered themselves liberal or moderate, 17 percent said they were somewhat conservative and another 11 percent called themselves very conservative. And to them the world looks nothing like the one that women on the other end of the political spectrum see.

The gender pay gap, for instance, which 64 percent of liberal women call a serious problem, is seen as not serious by 71 percent of conservative women. Among those is Arnett, who believes that women are paid the same as men when they do the same work, but that much of the time they are not capable of the same work and therefore earn less. When Im a truck driver and Im going to make the same money as a man, thats equal, she says. But when I was in the factory making fiberglass bathtubs, there were jobs that men do better than females, and thats nature, thats muscle tone.

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Asked whether efforts to ensure equal rights in this country have gone too far, Arnett is one of the 17 percent of all respondents who agree, compared with 46 percent who believe those efforts have not gone far enough and 34 percent who believe they have been about right.

So is Fariello, who says that she sees conversation about obstacles in the workplace as whining. At lunch several weeks ago, she says, a bunch of friends, all with daughters in their 30s and 40s, we all decided we were sick of their whining. We all had established careers, we had done well, we didnt whine.

If women are equal, and I believe they are, she concludes, they should just work and that will get them what they deserve. They dont have to whine.

Anna Ruman, of Coffeen, Ill., also thinks the spotlight on these subjects does not reflect her own life. Now a veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture doing emergency planning for outbreaks of farm animal diseases like foot-and-mouth and bird flu, Ruman used to be a harness-race driver, and yes, she says, she was treated differently because of her sex.

They would criticize me more, she says. Even if Id win a race, they would say, Why did you do this? Why did you drive that method? I would answer, Well, I won, didnt I? When it became clear that most owners wont search out a woman driver, she says she didnt complain about it, I just drove my own horses and showed them.

All this moaning that people need to change their thinking, or that the government needs to intervene, thats just people with too much time on their hands and theyre too far away from reality, she says.

Through this small but sharp lens, the recent wave of women into government, most of whom are Democrats, does not look like progress. Asked whether increased numbers of women in power was de facto good for the country, 88 percent of liberal women said they believed it was, while only 40 percent of conservative women said the same. And nearly 20 percent of strongly conservative women saw it as actually bad for the country.

Women are more bleeding hearts about issues where thats dangerous, says Ruman. For instance, I know all about the meat industry and how regulations have gone too far, and I know all about organics and how they are a bunch of nonsense. Women tend to be softer and they believe some of that goody-goody stuff. On guns too. I believe in guns, I can fit in a rural community and be seen as an equal because I can function in a lot of ways like a man in a mans world. A lot of women cant.

Arnett goes further still. I do not believe a woman should be president of this country, she says. If a woman is president, even runs for president, then we are now a weaker country in the eyes of North Korea and those kinds of places and they are going to attack.

(History doesnt bear out that analysis: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India and Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel all led their countries in war and were victorious.)

Photo: Alyssa Schukar for Yahoo News

I dont think women should be in the Senate or the House either, Arnett continues, rejecting mention of studies showing that the more women in a governing body, the more collegial and bipartisan it can be. The more women in the room the more drama, she counters. If theres less women in the room, men can get the job done quicker.

From where these women stand, the #MeToo movement and the growing attention to sexual harassment are not their issues either. While 91 percent of liberal women said they saw harassment as a problem, and 81 percent called it a serious problem, only 47 percent of conservative women described it that way. In part, they say, it is because the women with the biggest platform are nothing like themselves.

I am sick of Hollywood running the world, says Ruman. It might hit closer to home if these were hard-working women that I can relate to.

While 46 percent of liberal and moderate women felt the attention to sexual harassment had not gone far enough, 32 percent of conservative women believed the same. In contrast, 45 percent of conservative women said the movement to end sexual harassment had actually gone too far, while only 19 percent of liberal and moderate women agreed.

I was a truck driver, I worked in factories, I have done sexual harassment to men just like its been done to me, Arnett recalls. I would say, Ooh, Id like to try him on for size. Women do it too.

As for the presidential campaign of 2016, which fueled the #MeToo movement and the wave of women in office, that too looks different to this subset of women. When asked about the Access Hollywood tape in which Donald Trump was heard boasting that because he was a star he could touch women in intimate ways, all of the half-dozen women interviewed did not immediately recognize the reference.

Im not sure I saw that one, says Arnett.

Access Hollywood? I dont know enough about that to give you an answer, says Darlene Fisher, 64, who runs an antique mall near the border of Minnesota and South Dakota. I am not at all familiar with the tape. Once reminded, she replied, I am more suspicious of Bill Clinton than I am of Trump. I saw pictures of Joe Biden having his hand on womens parts that he had no right to have. What about Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton? Those facts are being ignored.

In fact, nearly all the signposts that liberal and centrist women cite as most enraging, or uplifting, or symbolic in the past few years have little resonance to their conservative counterparts.

The testimony by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford accusing then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault while in high school?

Innocent until proven guilty, Fisher said. I didnt see them prove the guilt.

Dont come out 20 years after the incident, dont wait 20 years to grow some balls, said Arnett. Come out when it happens.

The Womens March?

What I saw was women disgustedly showing off their vaginas, going braless, showing their breasts, said Fisher. They were not marching for me.

Did she attend any of the marches?

I dont think they had any in Sioux Falls, she said. [They did.] And even so I wouldnt go. I dont really see eye to eye with them.

The newly elected women sitting together and celebrating at the State of the Union address last month?

I watched because I am very interested in history and government and always have been, Fariello says. Not to watch some women act disrespectful.

And the tribute to the suffragette movement, that swath of women wearing white?

Thats rude after Labor Day, its not fashionable, Arnett quipped.

So what, the KKK dressed in white, said Fisher. They are tearing the nation apart. Thats what I saw, and I cant understand how anyone else didnt see it.

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What Women Want Now is a series by Yahoo News and sister sites dedicated to creating content about the issues and stories that matter most to women. Read more here.

Join the conversation with #WhatWomenWantNow.

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A new study reveals that while most women dont negotiate when it comes to a new job offer  those who try to get more money were generally successful.

In a study of 1,008 adult women produced for HuffPost, Yahoo, and CARE by Langer Research Associates, 64% said they did not try to negotiate their pay the last time they were hired.

But out of those who did negotiate, a whopping 71% said they were generally successful. Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran recently told Yahoo Finance, As a boss, I can tell you, everybodys got another $5,000, $10,000 in their pocket  trust me.

So why dont women negotiate more?

I think part of the reason we see fewer women negotiate, [is due to] this fear associated to it, Glassdoors community expert, Sarah Stoddard, told Yahoo Finance. While theres been a movement around salary transparency, theres a taboo nature when talking about salary.

This fear also stems from seeming like youre being selfish about what youre earning, added Stoddard. As a result, many women may be left in the dark about how much others in their position earn.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at an event to advocate for the Paycheck Fairness Act on Jan. 30, 2019. (Photo credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

Thankful to get the job

Another reason was that many women simply didnt even know they were in a position to negotiate their salary.

Michelle, a nurse from Massachusetts who participated in the survey, told Yahoo Finance that negotiating wasnt even on my radar, and that she was more thankful to get the job.

She added: I dont think I was ever prepped by anyone in my schooling and any sort of training to consider pay or contract negotiations as part of the interview process.

Her experience may not be unique. Its relatively new that career centers include negotiating when teaching resume writing, and job interviewing, Equal Pay Negotiations founder and pay equity expert Katie Donovan told Yahoo Finance. Many have not known [that negotiating] is part of the hiring process.

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Education may also be a key factor when it comes to salary negotiation. The survey found that 48% of women with postgraduate degrees negotiate their salaries, compared to 37% for those with at least some college and 18% for those with a high school degree or less. Of course, salary negotiation may be more common in general for jobs that require higher levels of education.

The survey for HuffPost and CARE also found that based on the last job offer they had accepted, 50% of those who did not negotiate their salary reported that they were satisfied and hence didnt feel the need to do so.

Particularly early in their career, often times people who are just graduating high school or from undergraduate degrees, they feel like they dont have the years of experience to negotiate for competitive pay, Stoddard said.

Hard thing to approach

But a significant portion  22% of those who did not negotiate  said they werent given a chance to negotiate.

One respondent from Florida who works with a religious organization said that she felt uncomfortable raising the topic because its a hard thing for me to approach.

She added her inability to explain to her boss exactly why she deserved a raise was also a significant obstacle.

For her part, Donovan said employers may present a job offer prefaced with language to diminish the likelihood of negotiating. This could be through sentences like Im confident you will be thrilled with how generous an offer it is,  [but] its hype... its all a bluff, said Donovan.

She added: They did nothing special and they have more money at the ready should you negotiate.

At $21.9 million, GM CEO Mary Barra was third highest-paid female CEO for 2017, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm. (Photo credit: Carlos Osorio, File/AP Photo)

Glassdoors Stoddard also made the point that if youre in the early stages of your career and you dont negotiate, you could miss out on a whole lot more as your career progresses.

If you are entering your career after graduating college and you dont negotiate, that difference in pay from what you accepted on the first offer to ten, twenty, thirty years down the line, Stoddard said. Thats thousands and thousands of dollars you could have been earning.

Leaning in

And that missed opportunity also worsens the overall pay gap between men and women suggested Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in her 2013 book, Lean In.

Encouraging women to be more assertive, Sandberg also acknowledged that its hard to work within the rules yet fight for better pay and promotions.

No wonder women don't negotiate as often as men, she wrote. It's like trying to cross a minefield backward in high heels.

Working women are estimated to miss out on $500 billion a year, according to a report last year from the American Association of University Women. Women are paid only 80 cents on average for a dollar paid to a man, according to the most recent Census data. (However, as Politifact has pointed out, that figure does not control for factors such as the number of hours women work or the degrees theyve earned.)

Negotiation tips

So whats the best way to negotiate? Stoddard said that in person or over the phone would be best.

But to Donovan, the means dont matter.

I had one client who was most comfortable texting, Donovan said. She texted her entire negotiation. And thats the trick. Try to conduct the negotiation in the mode that is most comfortable to you. The elements are the same regardless.

Source: Verizon Media

This HuffPost/Yahoo/CARE survey was conducted by telephone Jan. 21-30, 2019, among a random national sample of 1,008 adult women, with 71% reached on cell phones and 29% on landlines. Results have a 3.6 percentage point error margin for the full sample, including design effects due to weighting. The survey was produced by Langer Research Associates of New York. N.Y., with field work by Issues & Answers of Virginia Beach, Va.

Aarthi is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @aarthiswami.

Read more:

Women in the financial industry see the biggest gender pay gaps

The highest-paid CEOs in the U.S. banking industry

Chart: 'CEOs make 312 times more than typical workers'

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Canadian women hold the majority of jobs facing an elevated threat from automation, according to a report by RBC Economics.

The bank estimates 3.4 million positions, or about 35 per cent of all Canadian jobs, are at risk of being replaced. Women were found to make up 54 per cent of that figure due to higher numbers in fields such as administration, bookkeeping, and data-entry.

When thinking of disruption, what comes to mind? For many, its a male factory worker losing his job to a robotic arm, RBC Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist Dawn Desjardins wrote in the report. However, automation is showing up all over the economy, not just in manufacturing. As it makes further inroads into the services sector, women face a higher risk of having their jobs displaced.

The report argues that while women tend to work in lower-skilled, less-specialized jobs compared to men, the abilities they are honing will be highly sought-after in the future economy.

The future of work will rely on a new mix of skills  including critical thinking, social perceptiveness, writing, and problem-solving. And it is here that women possess a notable advantage, Desjardins wrote. Women may be better positioned than men for the jobs of the future.

Canadian men are more than twice as likely to work in at-risk manufacturing roles that dont have close substitutes, the report notes, adding that more generalist skill sets will be in increasing demand as machines displace task-oriented jobs.

Desjardins found women are more likely to be in jobs that involve direct contact with the

public and social dimensions. Today, these include at-risk occupations such as receptionists, library technicians, and office clerks.

The report found occupations where general and social skills are important have grown over 33 per cent faster than the national average, while those using specific technical skills lagging behind.

However, women were found to be less represented in the best-paying and least-automatable professions, and face a higher risk of losing jobs because they are less likely to rise to senior positions than their male counterparts.

Story continues

The report notes that men tend to gain management experience at an earlier age, giving them an edge in developing skills associated with organizing people and projects. For Canadians aged 25 to 29 years old, an employed man is almost twice as likely to be in a management occupation as a woman, 6.8 per cent versus 3.9 per cent.

While weve argued that disruption could find women more prepared than men, we believe theres room for smart policy to help them identify and match their skills to the jobs of the future, Desjardins wrote.

Much of the reskilling conversation in Canada has focused on the retraining of manufacturing workers who fall victim to well publicized plant closures. But many of the jobs that are under threat  and disproportionately held by women  disappear in silence.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  A World Bank arbitration panel ruled on Friday that Venezuela must pay U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips more than $8 billion as compensation for a decade-old expropriation dispute, roughly the same amount as the South American country's foreign currency reserves.

The bank's ICSID tribunal had ruled in 2013 that the 2007 expropriation of ConocoPhillips investments in two heavy crude oil projects violated international law.

"We welcome the ICSID tribunal's decision, which upholds the principle that governments cannot unlawfully expropriate private investments without paying compensation," said Kelly B. Rose, senior vice president, Legal, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of ConocoPhillips.

The law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP, which represented Venezuela before the panel, did not immediately respond a request for comment.

Collecting the money may be difficult as the Venezuelan economy has shrunk more than half since 2013 and sanctions by the Trump administration barring U.S investors from lending money to the government complicate President Nicolas Maduro maneuvering.

Venezuela faces around 20 arbitration cases at the World Bank, more than any other country in the world, with potential losses stretching into the billions.

The Venezuelan government and its state-owned entities currently owe around $150 billion to creditors around the world, while the country's foreign currency reserves have fallen to just $8 billion.

___

Luis Alonso Lugo on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/luisalonsolugo
Its almost time to make the jump to hyperspace.

Disney has announced the opening dates for Star Wars: Galaxys Edge , the theme park lands based on the iconic film franchise. The good news? Its opening earlier than expected.

Disneylands version will welcome fans on May 31 while its twin at Disneys Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida will make its debut on Aug. 29. Thats sooner than the summer and late fall timing, respectively, announced last year.

Now for the bad news: Only one of the two signature rides in Galaxys Edge will be ready at opening. Guests will be able to take the controls of the Millennium Falcon in the Smugglers Run attraction. However, they will have to wait a little longer for the other signature ride as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance wont open until later this year.

No date has been announced for what the company says will be the most ambitious, immersive and advanced attraction ever imagined.

(Photo: Disney)

The 14-acre themed lands will be set in a new Star Wars location called Black Spire Outpost, a village on the remote planet Batuu in the Outer Rim. Along with the physical space itself  including the ride and the shops  there will be an app, Star Wars characters and theme park workers acting in roles as locals in the outpost.

Guests will even be able to earn a reputation in the land that could change their interactions with all of the above.

An experience might begin on board the Millennium Falcon and follow you right out the door of the attraction and into the local watering hole, Imagineer Asa Kalama said at a panel discussion in 2017.

(Photo: Disney)

There will be plenty of opportunities for Star Wars merch, from plush to collectibles, as well as themed food and drink, including the blue milk from the original film and the infamous green milk from The Last Jedi. It will also sell alcohol, a first for Disneyland, which until now has been a dry park for regular guests. Several boozy brews and other drinks will be available at Ogas Cantina.

Story continues

Given the crowds expected for the long-awaited theme park land, guests will need a reservation to get inside for the first few weeks at Disneyland. The company said there will be no additional cost beyond park admission, and guests staying at one of the three Disney-owned hotels will receive a designated reservation.

So far, there are no plans for a similar system in Florida.

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Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Friday commended the Maritime Industry Authority for the establishment of eight Roll On-Roll Off terminals on missionary routes. Arroyo, as president from 2001 to 2010, initiated the creation of a nautical highway to speed up transportation of goods that resulted in the decrease of the price of certain commodities in urban centers. In addition, Arroyos nautical highway opened up new markets for products that were traditionally marketed certain regions or in certain localities. Arroyo said the openining of terminals by the MARINA would result in greater connectivity and strengthen economic interactions of the various islands of the archipelago. I am glad that the MARINA is working towards supporting the growth of trade and greater connectivity in the country. These new missionary routes will increase the efficiency of transportation and shipping which will ultimately spur growth in the regions, Arroyo said. The MARINA made the announcement during the Oversight Committee on Transportation hearing spearheaded by Arroyo to check on the status of the RORO system, a project she started when she was president. MARINA OIC Vice Admiral Narciso Vingson Jr. presented the new routes at the oversight meeting conducted in Hilongos, Leyte earlier this week. The new eight RO-RO missionary routes were the following: Daanbantayan, Cebu to Calbayog City, Samar; Tabuelan, Cebu to Ajuy, Iloilo; Laoay, Bohol to Cagayan de Oro; San Juan, Batangas to Calapan, Oriental Mindoro; Iloilo City to Cuyo, Palawan; San Pascual, Burias Island, Masbate to Pasacao, Camarines Sur; San Andres, Quezon to Pasacao, Camarines Sur; Lucena, Quezon to San Fernando, Cebu.Vingson that that being missionary routes, the proponent shipping operator will enjoy a five-year route exclusivity or protection of investment. On top of this, the operator will be granted a 50 percent discount on the regular fees to process all applications and renewal of ship documents, licenses, certificates, and permits. The establishment of the new routes, which were proposed by shipping operators, is done in support of the Road Roll-on/Roll-off Terminal System as well as the priority program relating to the upgrading of domestic shipping. This is further in line with the development of the nautical highway under the 10-year maritime industry development plan. While the acquisition of a proponent shipping operators Certificates of Public Convenience is being processed, the MARINA will issue a letter approval to give the operator four months to start vessel operation on its proposed route. The eight new industry-proposed missionary routes are in addition to the 19 missionary routes opened in January 2019. By February 2019, interest to ply the unserved routes flooded in as shipping operators submitted applications to serve seven of the 19 routes. The remaining 12 missionary routes that have been opened for prospective shipping operators include the following: Basco, BatanesCurrimao, Ilocos Norte; San Juan, BatangasAbra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro; Real, QuezonPolillo Island, Quezon; Lucena, QuezonBuyabod, Marinduque; Pantao, AlbaySan Pascual, Masbate; Calbayog City, SamarCataingan, Masbate; Cuyo, PalawanSan Jose de Buenavista, Antique; Oslob, CebuDumaguete, Negros Oriental; Punta Engano, Mactan Island, CebuJetafe, Bohol; Poro, Camotes, CebuIsabel, Leyte; Lipata, Surigao del NorteDapa, Surigao del Norte; and Siaton, Negros OrientalDipolog City The MARINA called on shipping operators to propose new RO-RO routes to expand the existing list.
We interrupt the talk of the president manufacturing a crisis at the border with this hair-raising report about the crisis at the border.

Alarming new numbers about border apprehensions from U.S. Customs and Border Protection should puncture the lazy conventional wisdom about the border being under control, except in the lurid imagination of President Donald Trump.

More than 76,000 migrants were apprehended crossing the southern border last month, the highest February in more than 10 years and the highest month of the Trump administration. The number of apprehensions tops any month during the 2014 border surge under President Barack Obama, which no one had a problem calling a crisis at the time.

Every indication is that the situation is going to get worse. We could be about to experience a migrant surge worthy of Angela Merkel at her most openhanded, even though, in immigration terms, Viktor Orban  the Hungarian prime minister who favors tough border enforcement  is president.

Yes, there were more overall apprehensions in the 2000s. But it was a different population, made up overwhelmingly of adult males from Mexico who might be apprehended trying to cross multiple times and were reliably returned home when they were caught. Now, we are apprehending people but not returning them.

Migrants are coming in greater numbers from Central American countries instead of Mexico, and are primarily families and children. In an astonishing shift, in 2012, 10 percent of apprehended migrants were families and children; in recent months, its been 61 percent.

The rules for dealing with migrants from noncontiguous countries and with family units make it all but impossible to swiftly return or detain them, not to mention that our physical facilities were built with single adults in mind.

There is no mechanism to return these migrants home, to hold them after they cross the border, or to remove them once they are in the interior. And word has gotten out. Theres a reason that the subset of migrants that we cant stop from getting into the country is growing so rapidly.

Story continues

Needless to say, a spiraling border crisis is maddening for a president committed to controlling the border, which is why weve seen such frenetic activity from Trump.

Hes tried to prosecute all adults crossing the border illegally, and had to abandon it in the (understandable) firestorm over the resulting family separations. Hes tried to jawbone Mexico into helping, with some success, although migrants are still traveling through Mexico in large numbers. Hes tried to tighten up asylum policy but been blocked in the courts. Hes tried to get Congress to fix the rules for dealing with migrants, to no avail. And, of course, hes tried to build a wall.

Trumps rhetoric may be over the top, but the impulse to get a handle on this is absolutely correct.

First, theres the question of basic sovereignty. If we are going to welcome a large number of migrants from three or four foreign countries, we should make that decision as a conscious policy, rather than slip-sliding into it unawares.

Then theres the matter of assimilation and legality. Poorly educated immigrants, like the ones coming from Central America, have the hardest time assimilating, and they will lack legal status on top of it.

Finally, theres the humanitarian question. Migrant families show up needing medical attention that we arent well prepared to provide. Wed be much better positioned to tend to the migrants under our care if the numbers werent overwhelming.

But we are at a stalemate. The New York Times editorialized the other day that Trump declared that theres a crisis at the border, contrary to all evidence. Then, the paper ran a news story headlined, Border at Breaking Point as More than 76,000 Migrants Cross in a Month.

Both of those pieces cant be right. Theres manufacturing a crisis, and then theres ignoring one for fear of conceding anything to Trump.

 2019 by King Features Syndicate

More from National Review
Last night, the New York School of Interior Design held its tenth annual gala to honor designers in the industry and raise money to support student scholarships. As always, the event drew hundreds of guests, including some of the biggest names of the industry and prominent NYSID alumni.

The school awarded Jeffrey Bilhuber with the Albert Hadley Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented by Architectural Digest editor in chief Amy Astley. The award commemorates Bilhubers vast body of work and career as one of the preeminent American interior designers.

Jeffrey is the quintessential American designer. His rooms are stylish, yet practical, says Astley. I adore his fearless use of bold, unusual color, and it always works, the mark of a true pro! He really is a master of an updated and fresh take on traditional decorating. That is his influence, and will be his legacy.

New York School Of Interior Design Annual Gala Photo: Sylvain Gaboury/PMC

Christopher Spitzmiller and Alberto Villalobos were also recognized with the newly created Larry Kravet Design Industry Innovation Award and Rising Star Award, respectively.

New York School Of Interior Design Annual Gala Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC

Im honored to be in such an esteemed place with my colleagues. Its a rare opportunity for us to get our peers together in one room and acknowledge excellence among each other, says Bilhuber. That has special meaning as the recipient of the lifetime award, but also for those who are receiving the innovation award and the rising star award. Its very powerful to be credited by those people whose opinions you value the most.

New York School Of Interior Design Annual Gala Photo: Sean Zanni/PMC

Rachel Edelstein, a 2018 graduate of the BFA program and a two-time recipient of the Charlotte Moss scholarship, also spoke about the scholarships' impact on her career. This years gala was hosted by chair Ellen Kravet and president David Sprouls, and cochaired by Jill H. Dienst, Alexa Hampton, David Kleinberg, Susan Nagle 97, Betsey Ruprecht, Patricia M. Sovern, and Maria Spears.

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Home | News | General | 2 feared dead, 35 vehicles destroyed, shops looted as warring APC factions clash in Lagos

- Facional members of the APC in Lagos clashed on Thursday evening, March 7

- At least two persons were feared killed in the violence which also led to the destruction of vehicles and the looting of shops

- The fracas occurred when supporters of an aggrieved party aspirant tried to prevent a candidate for the Lagos House of Assembly from entering the palace of the Oloto of Awori

Factional members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos allegedly engaged themselves in a free-for-all fight on Thursday evening, March 7, leading to fears that the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections holding on Saturday, March 9 may be violent.

According to Daily Trust, the clash between two warring APC factions occurred at Oto-Awori in Ijanikin area of Lagos, leading to the destruction of over 35 vehicles and the looting of shops.

The publication also reports that at least two persons were feared killed in the violence.

READ ALSO: PDP should recall past members for Buhari to investigate - Shehu Sani

Legit.ng gathers that the clash was between an aggrieved party member who felt he was robbed of victory during the partys 2018 primary elections, and supporters of a candidate of the party from Ojo contesting in the upcoming Lagos state House of Assembly election.

The clash reportedly occurred when the candidate, identified as Jafo, visited the palace of the Oloto of Awori, ahead of the election.

Some youths loyal to the aggrieved member, identified as Bibire, reportedly tried to prevent Jafo from entering the palace; claiming that the latter was the reason their aspirant was denied the partys ticket.

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In a similar development, Legit.ng previously reported that the campaign flag-off of the APC in Lagos ended abruptly as violence broke out mid-way into the well-attended programme.

Hoodlums suspected to be members of the National Union Road Transport Workers (NURTW) invaded the Skypower Ground Ikeja venue with guns, daggers and other dangerous weapons, engaging one another in a bloody factional fight.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service!

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Home | News | General | PDP should recall past members for Buhari to investigate - Shehu Sani speaks on monumental waste during opposition partys 16-year rule

- Senator Shehu Sani says he agrees with President Buharis demand for the PDP to explain how it squandered Nigerias resources

- The senator, however, says such explanation should involve all the partys past and present members

- Sani urged the opposition party to recall its former members to explain to the president, how it squandered the nations wealth

The senator representing Kaduna Central in the upper legislative chamber, Shehu Sani, says he agrees with President Muhammadu Buharis demand that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should explain how it squandered the nations resources.

The outspoken senator aired his views on his Twitter handle, @ShehuSani, on Thursday, March 7.

READ ALSO: Afenifere pushes for Yoruba presidency in 2023

Legit.ng notes that Sani, however, stated that such accountability should involve all the partys past and present members during its 16-year rule.

Many members of the opposition party have defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC); including governors and ministers.

Sani advised the PDP to recall its former members to prepare a report on the monumental waste during their years in power and present same to the president.

As he tweeted:

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Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that President Muhammadu Buhari said the PDP still owed Nigerians explanations on how it spent humongous resources that accrued to the country from oil sales between 1999 and 2014.

The president made the statement when he received the leadership of organized labour which came to felicitate with him on his electoral victory at the State House, Abuja, on Thursday.

He said the current administration met a country with dilapidated infrastructure all round in 2015 and the situation called for the serious explanation from the PDP, which was in power for 16 years.

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Home | News | General | Afenifere pushes for Yoruba presidency in 2023; endorses S/West governor as possible presidential candidate

- Senator Ayo Fasanmi, a factional leader of Afenifere, has called on Yorubas to get ready for the presidency in 2023

- The Yoruba leader also endorsed Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti as a possible presidential candidate for 2023

- An elder statesman and historian, Prof Banji Akintoye, also stated that Fayemi has the right ideas and knows what to do in the management of the countrys affairs

Senator Ayo Fasanmi, a factional leader of the Pan Yoruba group, Afenifere, and Prof Banji Akintoye, an elder statesman and historian, have urged Yoruba people to get ready for the presidency in 2023.

They made the call while speaking at a colloquium marking the 110th posthumous birthday of the late Obafemi Awolowo in Ekiti state on Thursday, March 7, Vanguard reports.

READ ALSO: Shakeup in Nigerian Army as new postings are announced

Legit.ng gathers that Fasanmi called on Yorubas to unite in order to produce the next president.

He further endorsed the state governor, Kayode Fayemi, as a possible presidential candidate for 2023; stating that Yorubas should support someone who shares Awolowos visions.

According to Fasanmi, Fayemi embodies the visions that Awolowo strived to actualize for Nigerians.

On his part, Akintoye, while delivering a paper titled New Engagements by Progressives, said Ekiti people could use their education advantage to become leaders in the African continent.

Akintoye called on the people of the state to rise up and lead because the country needs the values of hard work, excellence and integrity which they are known for.

He also called on Governor Fayemi to rise to the task ahead because he has the right ideas. The historian further stressed that Ekiti people must push for what is right and not let themselves be intimidated by what exists.

He said: Decent people of Ekiti should take the lead and help reposition the nation. I want to say that in 2023, we Ekiti want to aspire for what we have never aspired for. We want to produce the next president of Nigeria.

We know that it takes the Ekiti character to rebuild Nigeria. Kayode (Fayemi) has the right ideas. He knows what to do in the management of our affairs.

We must have the tenacity to push for what we think is right. We should not let ourselves be intimidated by what exists.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Afenifere group said that the south-west would prefer to vote for a presidential candidate who would push for the restructuring of the country over the prospect of a 2023 presidency.

Afenifere spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, said the All Progressives Congress (APC) was deceiving the south-west by promising them the 2023 presidency; a promise the party also made to the south-east.

Odumakin said Yorubas would vote for restructuring over the prospect of a 2023 presidency because it is the only condition in which the zone can rapidly develop.

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Home | News | General | OPINION: Lagos speaker Obasa and the promises that were not made by Lucky Oserah

Editor's note: Lucky Oserah, a political analyst and social commentator based in Lagos takes a critical look at the activities of Nigeria's politicians, their promises that are never or hardly fulfilled and how the citizens of the country, out of frustration, resign to fate.

Oserah says this is not the case in Lagos which is constantly maintaining the an envious number one position among the states in the country. He pencils the speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, as a case study

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Legit.ng.

Your own opinion articles are welcome at info@corp.legit.ng drop an email telling us what you want to write about and why. More details in Legit.ngs step-by-step guide for guest contributors.

Were ready to trade your news for our money: submit news and photo reports from your area using our Citizen Journalism App.

Contact us if you have any feedback, suggestions, complaints or compliments. We are also available on Twitter.

Nigerian politicians are mostly different from their counterparts almost everywhere else in the world where true democracy thrives. They mostly carry along with them, in their every day dealings, the toga of poor performance or, for want of the right phrase, extreme non-performance.

It thus becomes, most times, odd to see or hear that a political office holder decides to throw off that cloak for which they have become known, to do the extraordinary like meeting the needs of the people.

Interestingly, the citizens have adapted themselves to the failures of their supposed servants. It is easy to hear one being asked if one is a politician simply because one makes comments or promises that look too good to be true.

In the face of this negative attributes, it is, however soothing to, once in a while, find a politician whose inputs, both direct and otherwise, play great roles in community, state and national developments.

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On Monday, June 8, 2015, Mudashiru Obasa made his first speech on the floor of the Lagos state House of Assembly as its speaker. Did he make promises? The answer is obvious since he is a politician. He told his colleagues that day that he was hitting the ground running. Some of his promises centred on regular townhall meetings across the 40 constituencies of the state, improved capacity building and introduction of youth parliament in the state among others.

Since 2015, Lagos lawmakers have held regular town hall meetings and Lagosians have been the better for it. Just before the budget is prepared, the people of the state have the opportunity to list their areas of need. He has met that promise. He has also fulfilled the creation of youth parliament like he said he would do.

Obasa, who represents Agege constituency 1, did not promise to head a legislative assembly that would be the first in Lagos to bring together prominent Southwest traditional rulers including the Ooni of Ife the Alaafin of Oyo, the Alake of Egba and others to champion the course of a strong Yoruba identity. The speaker never promised to come up with a bill that would ensure the Yoruba language is never allowed to die. But he did. It can never be forgotten the accolade he has received for this move. Today, it is difficult to say Obasa is not held high in any of the palaces in the Southwest states as a result. The language is now compulsory in schools while the speaker has played host to various traditional rulers, mostly on a 'thank you' visit.

To ensure religious tolerance in the state, Obasa, a Muslim, became the first speaker in Lagos to ever attend a retreat of the Deeper Life Church. It was not a part of his promises. But he fulfilled it.

As speaker, Obasa only simply promised to support the executive arm to make the residents of Lagos enjoy the dividends of democracy. He did not state how he hoped to achieve this. He did not tell the people of the state that he would sponsor a bill for the establishment of the Neighbourhood Safety Agency to oversee a set of residents that would help combat crime. Today, at least 5,000 people are recruited into the Neighbourhood Safety Corps. This two-way approach of helping the state has paid off. There is relative peace and a lot of people are employed. This singular achievement is now being copied in many states of the federation.

One thing Obasa never promised was combating kidnapping. If he did, people would have asked how he hoped to achieve this when he is not in the executive arm. But the speaker achieved it. Thus, the highly celebrated trial of alleged billionaire kidnapper Evans can be attributed to the speaker's foresight. It is his bill, which became law, that is the reason Evans is being tried in Lagos. It is also as a result of this law that Lagos and its residents can sleep with their eyes closed considering what kidnapping has turned some other states into.

Again, Obasa never told the people of Lagos state that through him, a cancer institute to provide for the promotion, aiding and coordination of researches relating to the ailment as well as assist in its control would be established. But it happened.

This same man did not say in that his first speech that he would be known to sponsor the highest number of private member bills since 1999. The number of awards and honours he has received so far confirm his understanding of the yearning of residents of the state where he is the third citizen.

A long stretch of an ongoing flyover bridge has reshaped what used to be known as the Pen Cinema area of Agege that used to hell for motorists. The speaker did not promise to facilitate it, but he knew that under his watch, the project would take effect.

He never told anyone that since the Lagos legislative arm is not rubber stamp, he would not condone any provocation no matter how little. Yet, he never reacted to any. In his everyday dealing, he has never been known to lose his cool no matter the situation. He has carried with him that mixed air of being a leader and a servant. Obasa busies himself putting smiles on the faces of the disillusioned, a perfect example being the revival of a woman whose husband disappeared from home because she gave birth to a set of triplets.

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It was therefore not a surprise to many that he emerged the chairman of the conference of speakers of the 36 state Houses of Assembly in Nigeria, a cap only a person like him could be honoured with.

As he moves to speak again, it is already established that Agege constituency 1 has a person to be proud of, one they can picture as the face of true governance. It is also worthy of note that he was made in Lagos and Lagos is receiving back from him. In the next four years, like this one just ending, he will make little promises again and achieve big. It is an assurance.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have updated to serve you better.

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Home | News | General | Wike gives final statement hours before governorship election in Rivers

The governor of Rivers and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the governorship election of March 9, has declared that nothing would make him and his party be defeated during the exercise in the state.

The governor charged the people not to be intimidated by soldiers as they have a duty to vote for him and other PDP candidates on March 9, 2019.

There is no way that the PDP will lose Rivers state and they tell the world that the elections are free and fair.

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Even if we want to play politics, how would they explain to the international community that PDP lost to an unknown party that did not campaign.

How many soldiers will they deploy to implement the rigging. I am not worrtied about their bringing more troops from Sokoto and Kafanchan, God is our security. During the presidential and National Assembly elections, they struggled for 25 percent, but they did not get it, he said.

According to the governor, the state has passed the stage where a failed politician will direct the people on who to vote three days to the election adding that it amounted to playing God.

"Nobody should be afraid, come out and vote for the the PDP. Your votes will be counted. Your votes will be protected.

"We will win on Saturday because we know that God is with us. Those who think they have the power will face God. They want to disrupt the elections to instigate postponement. Do not fall into their hands, he said while noting that the illegal arrests by the military will not stop the victory of the PDP during the governorship and state Assembly elections.

Legit.ng reports that Wike also declared that the election would an opportunity to end illegal activities of the political monster of Rivers state.

A statement from his media office said Wike made the declarations at a town hall meeting with leaders of Rivers East senatorial district in Port Harcourt.

"If they arrest 2000 persons, they will see more 10, 000. Our people should be security conscious about their movement because these people are very desperate, the governor said while noting that he has planted key projects in all the local government areas of the state.

He promised to embark on more projects after his victory at the polls.

Speaking at the event, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Onueze Okocha, said Governor Wike had done well and would be voted in for a second term.

Okocha described Governor Wike as a great product that will lead the PDP to victory without noise.

On his part, a former governor of the state, Sir Celestine Omehia, said everything about the election has gone smoothly for Rivers PDP because of the involvement of God.

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Omehia said that the PDP will emerge victorious on March 9, 2019, adding that the people are solidly behind the governor.

"Never mind, there are threats and many of us are listed for arrest, people of Rivers East will stand with you till you emerge victorious, he said.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the minister of transport and leader of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers state, Rotimi Amaechi declared his support for Awara Biokpomabo, the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC).

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better.

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Home | News | General | Communal clash in Kogi leaves 7 killed, 50 houses razed - Police

- The was a communal clash between two ethnic groups, Sheria and Bassa, in Kogi state, that led to the death of seven persons

- The police command in the state confirmed that some houses were also burnt down during the clash

- William Aya, the spokesman of the police command in the state, revealed that the body of one person was recovered

An uproar in Sheria and Oguma communities in the Bassa local government area of Kogi left not less than seven persons killed and 50 houses burnt down on Thursday, March 7.

Daily Trust reports that the dealy clash was between Egbura Mozum and Bassa Kwomu ethnic groups in the area by some thugs, Daily Trust reports.

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Concerning the tragic development, William Aya, the spokesman of the police command in the state confirmed the incident, adding that the body of one person was recovered.

Ayay also revealed that policemen were alerted about the clash by a distress call from an undisclosed source in the area.

The police spokesman said the recovered body was taken to a general hospital in the area for autopsy.

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Aya said that the states commissioner of Police, Hakeem Busari, had deployed reinforcement to the area. He said the situation had been brought under control.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that the police command in Kogi on Thursday, January 10, said two persons were killed and many injured in a renewed hostility between Egbira and Bassa-Kwomu tribes in the state.

The spokesman for the command, Williams Aya, a deputy superintendent of police, who made this known in Lokoja, however, said that the situation was under control.

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2019 Election: We are retrogressing in Nigeria  83-year-old man says after voting| Legit TV

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Home | News | General | Group asks court to mandate CJN to probe $5m bribes allegedly collected by Governor Ganduje

- A human rights group, HEDA, has urged the court to compel CJN to probe $5m bribes allegedly collected by Governor Ganduje

- Governor Ganduje was in October, 2018, caught on camera allegedly receiving kickbacks from a contractor

- The group said an independent counsel should be appointed to investigate the grave allegations against the Kano state governor

A non-governmental group, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to mandate the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to investigate the $5million bribery allegations levelled against Governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje.

Sahara Reporters reports that the group in an application filed at the Federal High Court, is seeking an order of mandamus to compel the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to launch a thorough investigation into the bribery allegations against the governor.

Legit.ng gathered that the court case has already been assigned to Justice Ojukwu, and it would come up on March 21.

READ ALSO: Buhari commissions N1.2bn surveillance facility in Kaduna

It was reported that in October 2018, a series of videos in which Ganduje was caught on camera receiving kickbacks from a contractor was published by an online medium. The video series also prompted an in-house investigation by the Kano state House of Assembly.

''HEDA is seeking an order directing the Chief Justice of the Federation to investigate the allegations against Ganduje based on Section 52 of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission Act 2000 (as amended)'', the group said.

The rights group said an independent counsel should be appointed to investigate the grave allegations against the Kano state governor.

HEDA said it earlier requested the CJN to investigate the matter via a letter of request "which met official brick walls."

In the written address to support the application, citing Fawehinmi vs I.G.P (2002) 7 NWLR. 767, where the Supreme Court said: The prerogative writ of mandamus is issued or ordered by the Courts to secure or enforce the performance of a public duty," the group said: "the essence of the judicial review was as mandamus to secure or enforce the performance of a public duty."

According to HEDA, a group, lawyers for sustainable democracy, had called for investigation into the matter, after which the state House of Assembly began a probe into the allegations.

In December last year, the state House of Assembly suspended the probe, following a state High Court order, banning the House from investigating the allegations.

Ruling on an ex parte application filed by one Muhammad Zubair, national coordinator of the group, the presiding judge, A.T. Badamasi, had asked the lawmakers to suspend the probe.

Baffa Dan-Agundi, chairman of the committee investigating the allegations, said his members had received a court order to halt the probe.

We have received a court order that we should stop investigating the video clips showing Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje allegedly collecting bribe, he said.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that human rights lawyer, Audu Bulama-Bukarti, demanded for the certified true copies of videos showing Abdullahi Ganduje, the governor of Kano state, allegedly receiving bribe.

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"The U.S. does not maintain comprehensive sanctions against Zimbabwe. Suggestions that the U.S. intends to harm the Zimbabwean people with sanctions are false and misleading," explained the US Embassy in twitter.

"2/3 #Truth: U.S. targeted sanctions list: 84 individuals and 56 entities. People of Zimbabwe: 16 million +. Sanctions do not target the people of Zimbabwe. #FACTS"

The Americans have given detailed explanation, the truth and the facts on countless occasions and yet there is still the need them to do so again now, tomorrow, next month, etc. Why?

Well, because Zimbabwe is one of those countries where there is no freedom of expression and no free media. The Zanu PF dictatorship has stifled all meaningful public discourse and the regime's controlled public media has overwhelmed the nation with half-truths, lies and damned lies. The majority of our people have been thoroughly brainwashed, most are now incapable of soaking up any ideas much less think for themselves.

38 years of Zanu PF brainwashing has deprived most of our people of any intellectual depth it is hard to have any meaningful discussion with them. You can give them all the detailed explanations, the facts and the figures but most of it does not sink in because there is depth. Where there is a thin crust of soil, even a light shower is enough to soak the soil and have a run-off. And yet a few hour latter the plants on the same patch will be wilting.

The need to understand the linkage between the western imposed sanctions and holding of free, fair and credible elections is vital; especially after the Americans' detailed explanation of what Mnangagwa needed to do for the sanctions to be lifted. Anyone who understand the linkage will have no problem understanding that the sanctions are for the greater good in the push for free, fair and credible elections and good governance. Those who do not understand the linkage are like one trying to understand the genius of William Shakespeare by listening to a audio of his works in a language they do not understand.

The root cause of Zimbabwe's economic mess and political paralysis is the country's failure to remove Zanu PF from office even when it was clear as day the party was corrupt and incompetent. Ever since the day Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party got into power in 1980 the regime has worked tirelessly to undermine the country's multi-party democratic constitution and institutions to create the de facto one-party dictatorship we have to this day. With its dictatorial power the regime has become arrogant, confident the people were powerless to remove the party from office regardless how incompetent, corrupt and oppressive the party happened to be.

38 years of absolute power has allowed Zanu PF mismanagement and corruption to grow and spread to become the cancerous killer they are today. Zimbabwe's once promising economy has long been destroyed a country once upon a time the breadbasket of the region now is totally dependent on food aid, it commerce and industries have closed sending unemployment soaring into 90%, country's basic services such as supply of clean running water and health care have all but collapse, etc.

As long as Zanu PF continues to enjoy its dictatorial powers including carte blanche powers to rig elections the country will remain a pariah state ruled by corrupt thugs with no hope of ending the misrule and thus no hope of any meaningful economic recovery. By the late 1990s it was clear to many Zimbabweans that the only way to stop the country's economic decline was by stopping Zanu PF rigging elections hence the call for democratic change.

The Americans went to a great deal of trouble to explain to Mnangagwa that if he kept his promise to hold free, fair and credible elections in 2018 they would lift the sanctions. They even explained to him what they would want him to do; make sure every Zimbabwean entitled to a vote was given a chance to register and to vote, make sure there was a free public media, the election process was transparent, etc.

The link between sanctions and free, fair and credible elections and good governance is as clear as the tree trunk is the link between the roots and the leaves! Those who have struggle to see the linkage, there are many who have, is because they have been throughly brainwashed by Zanu PF propaganda, they do not know their left hand from right and hence are given to promoting Zanu PF's selfish interest at the expense of their own!

Mnangagwa and his cronies calling for the lifting of the sanctions will go to great lengths not to acknowledge the link between sanctions and the holding of free and fair elections. When put on the spot, they have maintained last year's elections were indeed free, fair and credible. Of course, they are lying and our task is to remind then that last year's elections were NOT free, fair and credible and hence the reason the sanctions must remain - to force the regime to hold free, fair and credible elections.

Zimbabwe's worsen economic meltdown is a product of the two cancers of gross mismanagement and rampant corruptions on the one hand and the country's failure to attract the much need investment on the other hand. Investors have shied away from investing in Zimbabwe for the last two decades, ever since it was clear Zimbabwe was a pariah state ruled by corrupt and lawless thugs. By blatantly rigging last year's elections Mnangagwa has confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state contrary to his claim otherwise.

The targeted sanctions and the worsening economic situation are the two forces acting in a pincer movement that will force Mnangagwa and his regime to accept meaningful democratic change and the holding of free, fair and credible elections.

No freedom loving Zimbabwean would ever want the targeted sanction against Zanu PF leaders lifted until there is democratic change. It is a great pity that some many Zimbabweans have been brainwashed by Zanu PF, one has to explain to them the true purpose of the sanctions a thousand times!
Singapore-bound CEB flight diverted

posted March 08, 2019 at 11:00 pm by Joel E. Zurbano March 08, 2019 at 11:00 pm

A Cebu Pacific Air flight bound for Singapore had to be diverted to Brunei after it encountered technical problem early Friday morning In a statement, the airline management said Flight 5J 803 (Manila-Singapore) has diverted to Bandar Seri Begawan at 1:45 am following a technical problem detected in the aircraft en route to Singapore. Another aircraft has been dispatched from Manila to take affected passengers to Singapore, Cebu Pacific said.Meanwhile, the return flight, 5J804 (Singapore to Manila), will be delayed. We apologize for the inconvenience as the safety of our passengers is our utmost priority. CEB officials said all affected passengers will be provided with meals and refreshments.

COMMENT DISCLAIMER: Reader comments posted on this Web site are not in any way endorsed by Manila Standard. Comments are views by manilastandard.net readers who exercise their right to free expression and they do not necessarily represent or reflect the position or viewpoint of manilastandard.net. While reserving this publications right to delete comments that are deemed offensive, indecent or inconsistent with Manila Standard editorial standards, Manila Standard may not be held liable for any false information posted by readers in this comments section.
Home | World | Africa | Auxillia Mnangagwa goes on three-week jaunt to New York

First lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, increasingly carving out a government role for herself, flew to New York on Monday to attend a United Nations gender summit.

The 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from March 11 to 22.

Although the conference does not start until Monday next week, ZimLive understands Mnangagwa left on March 4. She and her small delegation will spend close to three weeks in the United States on the taxpayer's tab.

The United States embassy in Harare declined to comment on her trip.

"We do not comment on individual visa cases and applicants' travel plans to the United States which are confidential," embassy spokesperson Stacy Lomba said in an e-mailed response.

The first lady, whose husband is subject of targeted United States travel restrictions, will be restricted to a 25-mile radius of the United Nations headquarters during the visit.

The Commission on the Status of Women is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. It draws government officials, UN entities, and non-governmental organisations from around.

The first lady has been seeking a greater role for herself in her husband's government, and her decision to attend the UN summit is the latest illustration of her growing influence.

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Home | World | Africa | 13 conned in vehicle buying scam

THIRTEEN people were allegedly duped by a 35-year-old man who purported to be a businessman selling different motor vehicles on a rent to buy basis.

Luke Mashopeko, who allegedly swindled 13 people of money amounting to $17 659 over botched car deals, pleaded not guilty when he appeared before Harare magistrate Victoria Mashamba.

He was remanded in custody to March 14 for trial commencement.

The State, led by Idah Maromo, had it that the 13 complainants are not related in anyway but they are in connection in this case only.

Allegations are that sometime in May last year, the complainants saw an advert through fliers to the effect that the accused was selling different motor vehicles on a rent to buy basis through his trading company known as Tamar Motors.

Further allegations are that all 13 complainants fell for the scam and went to Adven House with the intention of buying motor vehicles from Mashopeko who claimed to have his offices there.

It is further alleged that all complainants paid different amounts of money as a deposit for the purposes of purchasing the motor vehicles.

After all the payments of the deposits were done, the accused promised the complainants that the motor vehicles would be delivered in a few weeks' time and they were issued receipts as proof of payment.

The court heard that the motor vehicles were never delivered to the complainants hence having realised that they have been cheated, a complaint was lodged at the police leading to Mashopeko's arrest.

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Home | World | Africa | Zimbabwe male MPs fuel gender violations

WHILE a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, the journey to women's emancipation seems so close yet so far!

The day to day scenarios are characterised by women being victims of all sorts of abuse.

Women continue to be subject of unfair treatment as issues to do with objectifications have become events of the day, a daily bread.

Despite the unending calls from all corners to give women a voice, abuse remains a 'fashionable' trend which has gotten worse in Zimbabwe as more and more people embrace social media.

The various social media platforms have seemingly intensified the abuse of women, especially on political matters.

But where can women find shelter from such abuse?

All things being equal, parliament would be ensuring that the issue of women abuse is addressed either by ensuring implementation or amendments of existing laws to match current trends.

However, it seems the august house is housing men who are not honourable at all if activity on social media is anything to go by.

Most prominent is Zengeza West MP, Job Sikhala who posted an abusive tweet in response to news of rape accusations against his party's leader, Nelson Chamisa.

Sikhala is not just a member of parliament, he is a lawyer who is also into human rights. He crossed the line by posting a picture of the supposed rape accuser while asking his male followers on Twitter if they would be tempted to rape her given her physical appearance.

Following numerous protests by people to Twitter, Sikhala was forced to delete the offensive Tweet at a stage the damage had already been done.

But there were many issues around his deplorable conduct.

For starters, the picture of the woman that Sikhala used was actually a case of mistaken identity as she is a health worker based in Kadoma and unrelated to the matter apart from sharing the same name and surname.

As pointed out by Alex Magaisa, an academic at Kent Law School, it is both unprocedural and unethical to publish names or images in such circumstances.

"The general rule is to safeguard the identity of rape victims or at any rate, those who allege to be rape victims. Some people may question the fairness of this given that the accused are often named in the process. But there are sound public policy reasons for protecting individuals in such circumstances.

"One is that victims of rape usually prefer not to report abuse on account of the public shame that is associated with rape and indeed, the public reprisals that might follow such reporting. The result is that they would rather suffer in silence than expose themselves through reporting. Consequently, abusers can get away with it and go on to do it again and again. It was wrong to share pictures of the alleged victim. Unfortunately, there are those who abuse this sound system and make false allegations which damages the name of the accused who must go to great lengths to clear themselves."

Magaisa added that the social media recklessness led by Sikhala exposed the women to mob justice.

"This is an all-too-familiar challenge of social media: innocent people can, through no fault of their own, be hung out to dry in the unregulated court of social media. They can be vilified and subjected to mob justice with no room for response or recourse.

"What happened to this individual was utterly wrong and deplorable. If there is any to salvage, it is that the episode ought to be a lesson to everyone to exercise more caution on social media, especially when it comes to moral outrage and mob justice. This is important because it can have dangerous consequences. Some people have been driven to extremes, including suicide, on account of social media vilification and persecution. We ought to do better."

Former Harare West MP, Jessie Majome was among the prominent human rights lawyers who took to Twitter to express disappointment in Sikhala's actions.

She insists that women, can compete alongside their male counterparts and there is need for a shielding hand against bullying from male counterparts especially from supposedly honourable MPs.

"We castigated the objectification of women.

"Such language is unacceptable, women rights are human rights and women are not somewhat machines which you think you can use and throw away as garbage," she said.

Majome believes MPs should lead by example and show society that there should be acceptability of women and demystifying the perception that women did not deserve respect.

"It is very funny how these MPs insult and assault women when they know that women constitute more than 65 percent of the country's total population, which means whatever percentage that voted for those MPs more than 65 percent were women but these so called MPs do not even value that vote, not at all.

"They are expecting to get a seat again in the next election with this kind of behaviour and attitude.

"No one this this planet has the power to judge anyone or even measure other people's personal appearance, we were all created in the imagine of God and these MPs, Hon Job Sikhala in particular should take that into consideration, respect that and obey it."

Focusing on the Sikhala issue, Majome said:

"The whole scenario was just wrong, what if it was his sister, wife or mother, how would he feel?

"As a lawyer and a women representative I hope that this lady will take the correct measures, if it means a lawsuit let it be because it seems like the hounarables are always getting away with whatever they do, let this be at least a lesson to others today and in the future.

"The way he said it, it seemed as if being raped is actually a complement, only the so called beautiful women can be raped and the so called ugly ones are not worthy raping.

"As if men actually make choices on what is worthy raping and what is not worthy raping, as if women should celebrated after being raped, which is very wrong."

Responding to the sentiments made by Sikhala a on her twitter handle, Advocate Fadzai Mahere said:

"It's vile, disgusting abuse which betrays a complete failure to respect the dignity of this woman in particular and women in general."

Veritas Women also lambasted Sikhala:

"We condemn this tweet which emanated from Job Wiwa Sikhala's account in strongest of term.

"We will be issuing a detailed statement about it.

"This is most unfortunate especially coming from a supposedly honourable legislator."

A political movement, Build Zimbabwe Alliance added:

"Absolutely appalling Job Sikhala, and you have the audacity to call yourself a human rights lawyer.

"Hope you have corrected the mistake you have done."

Sikhala's moment of madness came at a time Norton MP, Temba Mliswa and Chivi South representative Killer Zivhu were involved in a Twitter war where women were central to the fallout. When Zivhu claimed there were suspicions Mliswa was gay, Mliswa responded:

"As a fact finding exercise I am inviting KZivhu to bring his wife and sister to verify whether I am gay or not. The butchery will be a good place for the exercise."

The tweet by Mliswa was received with lambasts:

"Women are not objects for pledge taking or completion or personal wars. This is wrong offending women in general and uncalled for."

***

"This issue is between two men and this should between them only. This equally offensive to people and women in Mliswa's life. Please stick to your wars and sort them alone live women out of your business."

***

"And you had to disrespect women, ko ingopisanaika mega, vakadzi vapinda papi apa."

In December there was an incident in parliament where Buhera MP Joseph Chinotimba was reported to the speaker by Thabitha Khumalo for calling her a prostitute.

"Thank you Mr Speaker Sir. I am back again here on a point privilege. Surely, I am shocked to the core, that we have Members of this parliament who call us names.

"Hon Chinotimba has just called me hure that is in Shona, in English  a prostitute.

"This must stop, I do not care who says what, this is wrong.

"It is not a crime for a woman to Stand and debate or challenge a situation, whether my challenge is wrong or right, no one has a right to call me names.

"Hon Chinotimba has no right to call me a b**ch. I am not a b**ch, I am a Hon Member who was brought to this parliament by Zimbabweans and as a woman I want to be respected.

"He must withdraw because if he does not, I am taking him to court."

Chinotimba withdrew the statement.

There are a lot more incidents in parliament which show that, as Zimbabwe commemorates the International Women's day, the country's supposed honourable men are going the opposite direction in the quest to give women the respect they deserve.

The struggle is real!

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(Bloomberg) -- Huawei Technologies Co., Chinas biggest smartphone maker, is using its financial and political clout to fight U.S. allegations that the company was involved in bank fraud, technology theft and spying.

The effort probably wont work, American legal experts say.

I dont see the U.S. backing away from these cases, said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor who is now a professor at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.

Huawei has aggressively fought U.S. claims it cant be trusted by business or government, allegations at the core of two indictments. The company has lobbied countries around the world to ignore American warnings against its products. On Wednesday, Huawei filed a lawsuit saying the U.S. broke the law by barring government agencies from using Huawei equipment in contracts. Its based on an argument that the company has been singled out for punishment by Congress in violation of the U.S. Constitution without a fair chance to defend itself.

And given that all of this is playing out amidst prolonged negotiations between China and the U.S. to resolve a trade war, theres intense speculation over how much the cases could be used as a bargaining chip for President Donald Trump.

Huaweis Legal Battles

Huawei CFOs Arrest Stokes China Fury Amid Key U.S. Trade TalksWhy 5G Phones and Huawei Have U.S. and Europe at Odds: QuickTakeU.S. Ramps Up Huawei Fight With Iran, Trade-Secret ChargesHuawei Goes on Legal Warpath With Twin North American Suits

The companys aggressive response to the criminal charges may reflect a desire to both wage a public relations campaign outside the U.S. justice system and combat claims within it that threaten billions of dollars in sales outside of China, said Alexander Capri, a visiting senior fellow at the National University of Singapore Business School.

Huawei is in a public relations blitzkrieg, Capri said. Spying allegations have done damage to the companys image and, if a significant number of U.S. allies were to block or restrict Huaweis access to either western tech or markets, the company would be in serious trouble.

Story continues

China has become addicted to western technology components, and Huawei cant afford to get cut off from U.S. suppliers, especially as it seeks to build the worlds next generation of wireless modems, Capri said. Last year, the Trump administration banned Chinese company ZTE Corp. from purchasing critical U.S. technology for violating export sanctions against Iran and North Korea. ZTE eventually paid more than $1 billion in fines.

Bombshell Arrest

But the Huawei prosecutions arent likely to get sidetracked, U.S. legal experts say. Thats in part due to the high-profile way in which theyre been handled, with a bombshell arrest in Vancouver on Dec. 1 of Meng Wanzhou, Huaweis chief financial officer and daughter of the companys founder, and a highly publicized press conference in Washington the following month when the indictments were unsealed.

In addition, the allegations at the heart of the two cases -- that Huawei stole trade secrets from an American company and that it violated U.S. sanctions on Iran -- are issues that the Trump administration has made top priorities. While prosecutors can always drop cases, its highly unlikely in this case -- even if it would help trade talks. A settlement on the other hand might be a more reasonable goal for Huawei.

What Bloomberg Opinion Says

The quest for justice is everyones right, yet Huawei risks coming off as belligerent instead of the calm and trustworthy partner its trying to portray. And the irony of appealing to Canadas rule of law when no such option exists back home isnt lost on the hordes of critics who were already wary of this new charm offensive.--Tim Culpan, columnistClick here to view piece.

I guess Trump could order the Justice Dept to dismiss the indictment, but that would be unprecedented, Henning said.

To be sure, Trump is an unusual president, and international trade professor Alan Sykes said the cases could be used as leverage in the negotiations.

Theres many ways for prosecutors to pull back on what theyre seeking, and U.S. attorneys are subject to the commands of the Attorney General, who works for the president, said Sykes, a professor at Stanford Law School. Theres a question of whether thats appropriate -- if it compromises the independence of the Justice Department. But its a logical possibility.

The prosecutions also may not interfere with trade negotiations, like when the European Union imposed billions of dollars of fines on Google or levied tax penalties on Apple Inc., Sykes said.

Multinational companies have legal issues in foreign markets all the time, he said. It doesnt mean the country that the company is based in and the country in which theyre operating cant negotiate constructively.

The U.S., citing security concerns, has urged allies to bar Huawei and other Chinese technology providers from building infrastructure for fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile cellular networks. China has dismissed the allegations against Huawei, saying U.S. actions are based on fear of facing a formidable industrial competitor.

In addition, it may be difficult for the U.S. to backpedal on the Huawei prosecutions after the Trump administration announced a get-tough initiative on Chinas business practices. In November, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the crackdown was intended to counter what he saw as a looming threat of Chinas economic espionage.

Trade Secrets

Among the enforcement actions being targeted were efforts by China to gain access to proprietary U.S. technology and trade secrets, through techniques such as computer hacking or theft by insiders. Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue, whose office is prosecuting Mengs case, is on a list of the nations top prosecutors on the Justice Departments Working Group for China.

And while Meng fights extradition from Canada -- she too has filed a retaliatory suit, claiming the Canadians violated her constitutional rights during her arrest -- the bank fraud and trade sanctions case that shes named in is moving forward all the same. Huawei is due to be arraigned in Brooklyn federal court on March 14. Both Meng and her company have denied any wrongdoing.

Given Mengs wealth and connections, she could drag out the extradition fight for years. But few have ever been successful in persuading a Canadian court not to extradite to the U.S., said Brad Simon, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, who is now a partner at Phillips Nizer LLP.

So, for Meng, too, the most likely positive outcome would be for a relatively lenient plea deal, given that under federal law, the charges she faces in Brooklyn carry as much as 30 years in prison.

--With assistance from Joel Rosenblatt.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Steve Stroth, Peter Blumberg

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

2019 Bloomberg L.P.
The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission has tapped two Department of Agrarian Reform officials to help in the investigation of corruption within their ranks. PACC Chairman Dante Jimenez tapped DARs legal services director Marvin Bernal and anti-corruption task force director Alexander Alimuddin Ali to assist and help the PACC evaluate cases, and to police their own ranks to ensure public accountability and good governance. We cannot do it alone. We need your help and we will have our regular meetings. If you have some creative ideas for the commission to adapt, tell us because we have around 100 million Filipinos who are expecting so much from the promises of the President to minimize the corruption in our bureaucracies, Jimenez said. The initiative to deputize the agencies is pursuant to Executive Order 43 granting the PACC the power to enlist their support to assist the commission in the investigation of cases falling within their jurisdictions.Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones created an anti-corruption task force to back initiatives of President Rodrigo Duterte to fight corruption in government. He directed the agencys anti-corruption task force to conduct thorough investigations into information received by the department. He also enjoined DAR employees to cooperate in the drive against corruption.
I honestly can't remember the last book I read by a woman and that's so pathetic. I've been working on finding more female directors in film but books, no progress. I think it's because I'm such a picky bitch when it comes to books. If it doesn't pull me by the first chapter then I probably won't read it.



That being said, 50 Women Artists You Should Know looks like a good read so thanks for the rec OP!

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for me it's the opposite oops



I think the only books I've read by men this year have been Crazy Rich Asians and GRRM's Fire and Blood

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for books i made a rule that i cant read more than 1 book by a white male per year and ive kept to that 3 years now, dont miss them at all!



im much worse with directors tho i do try to support women i get lazier there

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If you're interested, books written by women can be found here: https://rounest.wordpress.com  The Staircase Window.

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great list!



now i kind of want to rewatch the pillow book movie. boy was that a trip. such a weird ass movie lmao

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I love that movie so much! Naked, pre-asshole Ewan McGregor is always a good time, and the visuals and symbolism is stunning.

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i think i was too young when i last saw it because i only remember being creeped out by the overall vibe. also the skin book at the end really messed with me lmao

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eat pray love is one of my faves, it helped me when i was young. twilight, thought i don't really love it as much. probably cause it wasn't mine.

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I really like Antonia Fraser's book! I think she gave a really balanced, fair view of everyone.

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I really like Cleopatra: A life! It was very interesting and did a really great job of covering her politics and why she's such a genius.

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Not a novel but "Dance of Anger" by Dr. Harriet Lerner on why women find it so difficult to express their anger and use it constructively, it was originally printed in the 80ies but it's still (unfortunately) incredibly accurate today and so clarifying and helpful that I want to buy copies for all the women in my life

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is it narrated by Lucy Worsley? i love her voice so much, her documentaries are amazing!

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I'm reading "Notes from a Black Woman's Diary" and really enjoying it. Her words are like poetry, and I'm glad the author's work has been rediscovered since her death.

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Everything I never told you and Little fires everywhere, both by Celeste Ng. The stories are in no way groundbreaking but the narrative is beautiful, Celeste is a very gifted writer. Everything... broke my heart so much.

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I loved Little Flowers Everywhere. I can barely remember the plot, but something about it was so enjoyable to read.

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it is <3 have you read everything i never told you? bc if not, i 100% recommend it, it's a masterpiece.

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I sobbed after reading EINTY

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Everything I Never Told You was the best book I read last year. I love it so much.

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99% of the books i read are by women, and a while back i was trying to change that, but nah, i'm good.



rn, i'm reading my 4th shirley jackson, the bird's nest

i've been reading her work in chronological order, and i've enjoyed all of them so far.

i think hangsaman is my fave of the ones i've read.



this is my list for books to read this year:

[ Spoiler (click to open) ] i really want this, looks cute99% of the books i read are by women, and a while back i was trying to change that, but nah, i'm good.rn, i'm reading my 4th shirley jackson,i've been reading her work in chronological order, and i've enjoyed all of them so far.i thinkis my fave of the ones i've read.this is my list for books to read this year:

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oop, ty for letting me know.



hope you have a good reading year, too 

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If you haven't yet, read my girl Virginia Woolf - she will set you free.

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PS I'm doing a half-assed version of this challenge this year so if you wanna read more women, it's a good one.

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yesssssss! I've read 3 books by her this year (2 were re-reads from my college days) and I plan on reading two more as well. I love the way she writes about women's experiences.

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What's your favorite of her work?

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anyone have any good recs for books about body image / body acceptance / body positivity?

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Naomi Wolf's "The Beauty Myth"!

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Have you read Roxanne Gay's "Hunger"?

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If anyone has any good audio book recommendations. I'm not sure what I want to listen to next. I'm usually a history nut when it comes to books so anything with women in history is great.

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I just downloaded Behind Enemy Lines. The preview sounded great.

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If you haven't yet, Circe is a must, it's been a year and I haven't stopped thinking about it

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Same, it's been a year and I'm still haunted by it. My goal is to try and get everyone around me to read so I can talk about it.

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It looks really interesting and based on the responses it must be really good. I'll add it to my listening list! Thanks!

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I'll definitely check these out, the last biography I read was "the secret wife of louis xiv: francoise d'aubigne, madame de maintenon" by Veronica Buckley and I enjoyed it.



I've been thinking of reading "Lady Byron and Her Daughters" by Julia Markus or maybe "In Byrons Wake" by Miranda Seymour. I find Ada Lovelace to be very interesting and though I don't know much about Annabella Bryon, but I'm curious ever since I read some excerpts from Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Lady Byron Vindicated".



I'm also interested in reading "Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire" though I'm also really searching for a book that focuses on all the wives of Akbar the Great. I think I'm mainly interested because Jodhabai is such a huge almost like... pop-culture icon lmao, that I've never seen any of the other wives represented in media.

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if you liked the book about madame de maintenon, there's a wonderful french movie about her life called "l'allee du roi". ;)

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I've seen it actually! I've also read an English translation of the book it was based on lol! It really was a lovely film, I really enjoyed how it portrayed her life before going to Versailles and ngl... I teared up a bit at that ending.

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I feel like I always mention her but Joan Didion is my favorite female writer.



I tend to find someone I like and read all their stuff but sadly I can't think of many female authors who I've read most of theirs, for years I didn't read much fiction in general but I'm getting back into it.



And growing up Francesca Lia Block was really important to me.

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I read "Echo" in 9th grade and that was a formative book for me lol. Did you hear they're making a weetzie bat movie?

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Echo was my favorite of hers lol. I did, I actually reread the weetzie bat books a couple of years ago but I'll have to see the trailer to decide if I'm interested in seeing the movie. I wonder if younger girls even read her stuff anymore.

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Joan Didion <3

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Saudi Arabia pumped 10.1 million bpd of crude in February, a Saudi official told S&P Global Platts on Friday, in yet another sign that OPECs largest producer and de facto leader is cutting much deeper than it had pledged under the OPEC+ production deal that began in January.

Under the OPEC/non-OPEC deal for a total of 1.2 million bpd cuts between January and June, Saudi Arabias share is a cut of 322,000 bpd from the October level of 10.633 million, to reduce output to 10.311 million bpd.

At the end of January, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told Bloomberg that Saudi Arabias February crude oil production would likely be close to 10.1 million bpd, down from around 10.2 million bpd for January.

In an interview with the Financial Times in February, al-Falih said that the Saudis would further cut production to around 9.8 million bpd in March, some 500,000 bpd below the commitment in the OPEC+ deal. Al-Falih also said that Saudi Arabia would be cutting its crude oil exports to near 6.9 million bpd in March, slashed from 8.2 million bpd just three-four months ago.

In their push to rebalance the oil market and firm up oil prices, the Saudis are also significantly reducing exports to the most transparently reported oil market, the United States. Saudi Arabias crude oil exports to the U.S. are falling sharply, with shipments standing at just 1.6 million barrels near the end of February, according to U.S. customs data compiled by Bloomberg, versus 5.75 million barrels a year ago. Related: Is This As Good As It Gets For Oil?

For the whole of January, Saudi Arabia exported just 2.69 million barrels of crude to the United States.

OPECs production dropped to a four-year low in February, helped by Saudi Arabia and its Arab Gulf allies overachieving in their shares of the cuts, the monthly Reuters survey showed last week.

Official figures by OPEC and its secondary sources in the Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) showed that total OPEC production in Januarythe start of the new cutsdropped by 797,000 bpd to average 30.81 million bpd. Saudi Arabia slashed production by 350,000 bpd from December to 10.213 million bpd in January, and its Arab Gulf allies Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also cut output substantially.

OPEC will release its figures for the February production next Thursday, March 14.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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ExxonMobil plans to ramp up spending on multiple oil ventures over the next few years, an aggressive gambit to increase oil production and fatten profits. Wall Street, however, isnt so sure its a great idea.

It was a busy week for the oil majors. Exxon and Chevron put on their 2019 Investor Day presentations to lay out their medium-term strategic plans aimed at courting Wall Street and convincing the investing world of the wisdom of their multi-year spending plans.

There were a few key themes that jumped out. First and foremost, both oil majors are going all-in on the Permian basin, with both Chevron and Exxon each aiming to produce about 1 million barrels per day from West Texas and New Mexico over the next five years. The majors  with their hands in everything from offshore production, refining, petrochemicals and LNG  are increasingly becoming shale players.

But Exxon went further, unveiling aggressive plans to spend even more than it had previously aimed to on ramping up oil production. Exxon said it will increase spending by $4 billion this year to $30 billion. In 2020, spending will rise again to $33-$35 billion, and stay within a $30 to $35 billion range through 2025. Exxons leadership gushed over its plans, arguing that profits and production growth look better than at anytime in recent memory.

The spending plans are targeting higher production in several different areas. The oil major is developing the dozen oil discoveries in offshore Guyana, which could result in 750,000 bpd of output by the middle of the 2020s. It is beginning to develop its offshore acreage in Brazil. It gave the greenlight on a major LNG export terminal on the coast of Texas. And then, of course, there is the Permian. Related: Should We Rethink Nuclear Power?

Exxons size alone means that it has to spend heavily to avoid production declines. In fact, the oil supermajor has struggled with flat output for the better part of a decade. Exxon is so big it has to replace a lot of barrels every year. Theyre probably thinking with a longer-term focus than most Stewart Glickman, an energy analyst at CFRA, told CNBC.

But its new spending plans are billed as a way to pull out of that dynamic. Yet, Wall Street was not convinced. Exxons share price fell more than 2.5 percent immediately following the announcement, although it regained some lost ground as the day wore on. The same scenario played out a year ago. When Exxon announced plans to ratchet up spending, aimed at boosting production, its share price dropped.

It doesnt help matters that some of Exxons peers are using their additional cash flow to dish out higher payouts to shareholders, either in the form of share buybacks or dividends. Just a few weeks ago, Chevron announced a $25 billion share buyback program.

Exxon says that the spending will result in higher profits in the future when all the new oil and gas comes online. The company says earnings potential will rise by about 140 percent through 2025. Related: Bloomberg Launches Alternative To Green New Deal

There may be a logic to it, but Exxons outlook and its spending plans stand diametrically opposed to a scenario in which oil demand reaches a peak and enters decline. Exxon sees oil consumption rising through 2040, and likely thereafter. It argues that a rising global population, GDP and burgeoning middle class in emerging markets ensures demand will continue. Consumption will increase in transportation and petrochemicals. At the same time, depletion at existing oil fields requires hefty investments in new supply.

The skeptical response on Wall Street suggests that not everyone is as convinced as Exxons leadership in the longevity and stability of oil demand. If demand were to peak, say, in 2030 or so, that would call into question the multi-billion-dollar investments in projects that have time horizons measured in decades. If the world ever gets serious about the climate crisis, Exxons projects could become stranded assets.

It wouldnt even take a precipitous decline in consumption to kneecap some of these projects. A plateau in demand growth, or even a deceleration, could upend Exxons (and the oil industrys) aggressive growth plans. And thats exactly why shareholders are increasingly demanding payouts and punishing hefty spending.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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Just days after Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman finished his charm-offensive Asian trip to Pakistan, India, and China, the ever-simmering tensions between Pakistan and India flared up again over Kashmirthe territory the two countries have been disputing since 1947 when Britain partitioned its colonies and India and Pakistan became independent countries.

Commodity, currency, and equity markets were on edge last week while nuclear arsenal owners India and Pakistan were saying they carried out air strikes over the so-called Line of Controlthe boundary between Indian and Pakistani areas of control over Kashmir.

The two countries have dialed down hostilities since last week and Pakistan said last Thursday that it would release an Indian pilot it had been holding as a gesture of peace.

One of the first countries to send a high-profile official to seek de-escalation of the tension was Saudi Arabia, which had just pledged US$20 billion in investments into Pakistan and another US$100 billion in India, with a large part of these billions of dollars to be invested in the oil industries in both countries.

The worlds top crude oil exporter Saudi Arabia cannot easily ignore a potential new conflict between India and Pakistan, as it has strategic interests in both countries, (apart from the obvious worst-case scenarioa nuclear war in its backyard), Andrew Critchlow, head of news in EMEA for S&P Global Platts, writes in a blog post. Related: Is This The End Of Alaskas LNG Ambitions?

Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent last week the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, to Pakistan with a letter to the Pakistani leadership in an attempt to defuse the latest tension.

Days before that, Saudi Arabia signed US$20 billion worth of deals in Pakistan during MBSs visit to the country, including US$8 billion for an oil refinery in the city of Gwadar. Saudi Arabia has also provided US$6 billion in loans to cash-strapped Pakistan, which is struggling with an economic crisis with just US$8 billion in foreign reserves left and is seeking international funding.

After Pakistan, the Saudi crown prince visited India on his second Asian stop in last months tour, where the Kingdom pledged US$100 billion investments in Indias infrastructure and energy industries as it seeks to strengthen its position in the country that is registering the fastest growth in oil demand.

We want Saudi Aramco to be a household name in India, Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said, adding that India was the number-one priority for the Kingdoms oil giant. Related: Oil Majors Are Taking Over The Permian

Saudi Arabia and its state oil firm are increasingly looking to lock in future sales of its crude oil on the fastest-growing Asian market, by setting up joint ventures to build refineries, in India and China in particular.

India is expected to be the country with the largest additional oil demand through 2040, OPEC said in its 2018 World Oil Outlook published last September. In terms of incremental demand by 2040, India is forecast to be the country with the fastest average demand growth in the worldat 3.7 percent annually, as well as the largest additional demand5.8 million bpd. Thanks to this fast demand growth, India will likely pass the 10-million-bpd oil demand mark sometime towards the end of the forecast period, OPEC said.

According to the BP Energy Outlook 2019, Indias share of total global primary energy demand is set to roughly double to around 11 percent by 2040, underpinned by strong population growth and economic development. Domestic gas production in India is seen rising modestly, but demand is expected to surge by 240 percent by 2040, meaning Indias reliance on gas imports is set to continue to grow significantly, BP reckons.

Apart from building strategic relations with Pakistan and India, Saudi Arabia is securing energy deals in the two countries and it cant just shrug off a potential new full-blown conflict.

Most analysts dont expect immediate impact on oil demand in the region, if the tensions are contained, as they are currently. However, experts see why commodity producers, including oil producers, could be anxious over the Kashmir conflict.

India is a big player in the oil and LNG market. Pakistan is an emerging and key regional market to watch for LNG and fuel oil movements. So industry players will be keeping a very close eye on the situation there and how it develops, Kang Wu, Head of Asia at S&P Global Platts Analytics, said last week.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
Brent has gathered some momentum while WTI prices have shown just a little bit of hesitation.

The difference in the price movements of the two oil benchmarks reflects a slight divergence in fundamentals between the U.S. and the rest of the world. U.S. shale continues to grow at a brisk rate, with production at 12.1 million barrels per day (mb/d), up nearly 600,000 bpd from October levels. The EIA recently revised up its forecast for U.S. production to 12.4 mb/d this year, up from the previous 12.1 mb/d it had expected for 2019.

Many U.S. shale companies are showing signs of weakness, struggling to turn a profit and cutting spending in the face of investor pressure. But production growth continues, much of it increasingly led by the oil majors. In the EIAs most recent Drilling Productivity Report, the agency expects the major U.S. shale basins to add 84,000 bpd in March.

To be sure, there is a lag between major price movements and the knock on effects on rig counts, drilling activity and ultimately production. So, it could be the case that output growth slows as the year wears on. The rig count has already plateaued; a slowdown in production is entirely possible in the weeks and months ahead.

But so far the production numbers continue to surprise, weighing down the oil market. Just this week, the EIA reported a surprise jump in crude oil inventories by 7 million barrels. Part of that was an anomaly due to a rebound in imports after falling the previous week. However, production continues to climb. Related: Supertanker Rates Soar As U.S. Oil Exports Hit All-Time High

Meanwhile, the OPEC+ cuts are tightening up oil market conditions around the world. The group has taken more than 1.2 mb/d offline, and Saudi Arabia is going further, aiming to lower its output to 9.8 mb/d by this month, or 0.5 mb/d below its required ceiling.

As a result, the market is well-supplied in the U.S, but tighter elsewhere. This has translated into a price gap between Brent and WTI that has widened to $10 per barrel, up from a $6 to $8 range in January. The divergence in market conditions has also revealed itself in some bizarre trading movements.

Bloomberg reported in February that a series of supertankers are shipping oil from the U.S. to Asia, but then returning empty, carrying nothing but seawater for stability. The shippers are taking a huge financial hit by not bringing oil from the Middle East back to the U.S., for example, but supply conditions for that route are tight, while there are tons of barrels that need to head from the U.S. to Asia. And those barrels are priced at the lower WTI benchmark, so there is a bit of arbitrage going on, with cheaper U.S. oil heading east.

Whats driving this is a U.S. oil market thats looking relatively bearish with domestic production estimates trending higher, and persistent crude oil builds we have seen for the last few weeks, Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Bank NV in Amsterdam, told Bloomberg in February. At the same time, OPEC cuts are supporting international grades like Brent, creating an export incentive. Related: Kashmir Conflict Has Riyadh On Edge

Unplanned outages in Iran and Venezuela are magnifying this trend. Brent is continuing to profit from the OPEC+ production cuts and the involuntary supply outages in Venezuela and Iran. An unexpectedly pronounced rise in US crude oil stocks also failed to put any noticeable pressure on the price, Commerzbank wrote in a March 7 note. In fact, Brent even climbed to over $66 per barrel again overnight. WTI is lagging somewhat behind, widening the price gap to just shy of $10 per barrel again.

Notably, the price differential between WTI in Cushing and prices in Midland, Texas at the heart of the Permian has just about disappeared entirely. Last year, Permian prices traded at a $20-per-barrel discount at its widest point, due to pipeline constraints. But the discount recently fell to zero, thanks to the addition of the Sunrise pipeline in November 2018 and the announced conversion of the Seminole natural gas liquids pipeline to carry crude by the end of February 2019, according to the Dallas Fed.

Higher volumes of U.S. oil exports will also smooth out the differences between WTI and Brent. More export capacity is planned for the coast of Texas. But that will take time. In the interim, surging U.S. shale production at a time when OPEC+ is keeping supply off of the market, has widened the prices between the two oil benchmarks.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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It didnt take long for Florida Senator Marco Rubios comments that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had gone full gangster to make the news rounds all the way from the U.S. to the Middle East, across the globe and back again. The Republican senator made his controversial comments during Retired Gen. John Abizaid's nomination hearing Wednesday in Washington to be the Trump administration's first ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Despite increasing tensions between the two long-time allies, the U.S. has not had an ambassador to Saudi Arabia since Trump became president in January 2017. Abizaid is a retired four-star Army general who led U.S. Central Command during the Iraq war under the Bush and Obama administrations.

During the hearing, both Republican and Democrats pressed Abizaid over what they said were Saudi domestic repression, including lashings, electrocutions, beatings, whippings, sexual abuse, raids, the alleged detention and torture of activists and royal family members, the likely killing of Saudi dissident journalist, and U.S. resident, Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Turkey last October, as well as the recent alleged torture of a U.S. citizen.

Ruthless and reckless

Republican Sen. Jim Risch, the committee chairman, joined in, stating that Saudi Arabia has engaged in acts that are simply not acceptable. Another Republican, Sen. Ron Johnson reiterated Rubios full gangster remarks. Rubio added that He [bin Salman] is reckless, hes ruthless, he has a penchant for escalation, for taking high risks, confrontational in his foreign policy approach and I think increasingly willing to test the limits of what he can get away with the United States. Related: Local Gas Shortage Threatens Australias LNG Dream

Senators also condemned Saudi Arabias conduct in the ongoing war in Yemen, which the Crown Prince has been instrumental in. Abizaid, for his part, paid his part skillfully, which should help ease concerns among senators whether he is fit or not for the high-profile diplomatic post. Though defending the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia as strategically important, he also called for accountability for the murder of Khashoggi, and support for human rights.

In the long run, we need a strong and mature partnership with Saudi Arabia, Abizaid told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It is in our interests to make sure that the relationship is sound.

Part of the unbridled criticism over recent alleged Saudi misbehavior comes from frustrated American lawmakers that want to see the Trump administration take a harder line over Saudi Arabia, while both the House and Senate have passed resolutions to that would end U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. However, Trump has resisted such resolutions. Abizaid said that continued U.S. support bolsters the self-defense capabilities of our partners and reduces the risk of harm to civilians.

Significant take-aways

At the end of the day, several issues have to be examined. First, though lawmakers have the right to make such assertions at the hearing, the actions of Saudi Arabia are still the actions of a sovereign power beyond the scope of U.S. control. A comparison could even be made over human rights abuse claims, torture and other disconcerting claims in China, particularly in Tibet, where hundreds of thousands of citizens, mostly men, are detained for extended periods of time and endure what Beijing calls re-education. Yet, the U.S. relationship with China operates under different imperatives that the U.S.-Saudi relationship, so pressure over these alleged abuses isnt being promulgated on the same scale. Related: Oil Majors Are Taking Over The Permian

The second take away from remarks made at Wednesday's hearing centers on what can be called reality-geopolitics. The more than 70-year alliance between Washington and Riyadh that has survived World War II, being on the same side against Soviet expansion during the Cold War, surviving the fallout from both the 1967 and 1973 Arab oil embargo, managing Saudi angst at continued U.S. support of Israel, as well as now working together trying to reign in Iranian regional hegemony and support of terrorism - this fragile alliance has to be viewed through a different lens than other alliances.

Economic necessity

The U.S.-Saudi alliance is one born of necessity, mostly economic (global oil markets) as well as one of wrestling with middle eastern security. The two nations dont share common values, like the U.S. does with the U.K. or with much of Western Europe, doesnt share a similar history, whose values are derived from extremely a different religious history and perspective. The U.S. is the largest democracy in the world, while Saudi Arabia is a top-down authoritarian monarchy influenced in large part by its strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam.

Just the fact that two radically different nations can exist as allies for so long has to appreciate. Nonetheless, Senator Bob Menendez, the committees ranking Democrat, acknowledged the strategic importance of Saudi ties, amid threats from Iran. But we cannot let these interests blind us to our values or to our long-term interests in stability, he added.

However, another point to consider is growing U.S. energy independence, particularly as the country recent recently passed the 12 million barrels per day oil production mark, with that production amount projected to increase going forward to next year and beyond. Though U.S. crude is mostly light, sweet as opposed to heavier, sour crude mostly produced and imported from Saudi Arabia by U.S. refineries, growing U.S. global market share, reduced Saudi oil imports, could indeed lead to fracturing on the U.S.-Saudi alliance. Its oil first and middle eastern security second, which often goes hand in hand, that is the glue that keeps this fragile alliance from falling apart.

By Tim Daiss for Oilprice.com

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Four government troopers were wounded while scores of New Peoples Army suffered casualties after army soldiers foiled the rebels attempt to attack another construction firm in Quezon province Friday morning. Capt. Patrick Jay Retumban, head of the Armys 2nd Infantry Division, said the four wounded soldiers from a platoon of out Ranger were trailing a group of NPAs operating in Infanta, Quezon when they saw a separate group of rebels in Sitio Salok, Barangay Magsaysay at about 8:07 a.m. Retumban said the encounter site was located just three kilometers away from the Northern Builders, the contractor of the Kaliwa Dam project, whose 12 pieces of equipment were torched by the NPAs last Feb. 7. Lt. Col. Christopher Diaz, commander of the 80th Infantry Battalion said the latest clash was a result on an intelligence packet that detailed the rebels plan to burn construction equipment belonging to the Northern Builders. Retumban said the fighting were still raging and additional forces have been deployed in the area to pursue the fleeing terrorists, while the four wounded soldiers were evacuated to a military hospital for treatment. Authorities believed that the group of NPAs were the same terrorist elements the military had engaged in Luisiana, Laguna last Feb. 14 which resulted to the death of John Carlo Alberto, alias Damian and Inigo a student of the University of the Philippines in Los Banos.The NPAs where Alberto belongs fled at the boundary of Laguna and Quezon shortly after torching heavy equipment of Northern Builders but were intercepted by army troopers, which ignited the firefight that killed the UPLB student. Meanwhile, Major Gen. Rhoderick Parayno, commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, thanked the people of Infanta, Quezon for voluntarily providing information to security forces. This is not only a testament of their trust to their soldiers but a manifestation that they are already tired of the NPAs anti-people and anti-development terroristic actions, Parayno said. Local officials in the towns of Infanta and Real in Quezon where the NPAs had conducted atrocities is plan to declare NPA terrorists as persona non grata.
The first U.S. floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) project continues to plan future steps in its progress despite the U.S.-China trade war, a top manager at one of the projects partners told Reuters on Thursday.

The first U.S. floating LNG (FLNG) project, Delfin LNG, is planned to be located nearly 50 miles off the Louisiana coast in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. According to the projects website, it could use up to four FLNG vessels which would cut coastal LNG traffic, while minimize near-shore environmental impacts.

As early as in November 2017, Delfin Midstream, the developer of the Delfin LNG project, signed a preliminary agreement with China Gas Holdings, a city gas distributor, to supply 3 million tons of LNG annually.

But China, the worlds fastest-growing LNG demand market, slapped a 10-percent tariff on U.S. LNG imports amid the heated trade tariff tit-for-tat last summer.

Yet, Wouter Pastoor, the chief operating officer Delfin Midstream, told Reuters today that a resolution to the trade deal could arrive soon.

We do not believe the tariffs and trade disputes will last long, Pastoor told Reuters.

Delfin is currently working with a Chinese shipyard for the FLNG vessel and sees strong interest from China for both converting FLNG vessels and for importing LNG, according to Pastoor. Delfin has also seen strong interest from Chinese banks, among others, for financing of the project, the manager told Reuters.



Related: Local Gas Shortage Threatens Australias LNG Dream

The partners in Delfin LNG target a final investment decision (FID) by the end of 2019, potentially launching production in the latter half of 2023.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Chinas biggest refiner Sinopec is preparing to sign a 20-year LNG supply deal with Cheniere Energy when the U.S.-China trade conflict gets resolved as many in the energy market anticipate. If the U.S.-China trade war ends with a mutually agreeable deal, this would mean a lot not just for established exporters such as Cheniere, but for newcomers on the market who need funding to build their export terminals. To get it from banks, however, they need long-term delivery commitments and these have become hard to come by amid the trade dispute.

Besides the planned projects, there are three more due to come on stream by the end of this year: the Cameron LNG in Louisiana, the Freeport LNG in Texas, and the Elba Island LNG plant.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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The Iranian Navy has intervened to thwart a pirate attack on one of Irans oil tankers in the critical Bab el-Mandeb Strait around the Arabian Peninsula, Iranian media reported on Friday, quoting a Navy official.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is one of the three crucial chokepoints around the Arabian Peninsula. Located between Yemen, Djibouti, and Eritrea, Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.

According to Irans Mehr news agency, pirates on 11 speedboats attacked on Thursday a tanker carrying 150,000 tons of cargo and Iranian naval forces intervened to repel the pirates.

An Iranian fleet including a destroyer, a logistical warship, and a battleship started its mission in international waters on January 23, the Mehr agency reports, adding that Iran has dispatched in recent years more vessels to the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden to protect its ships from Somali pirates.



Related: Norways $1 Trillion Wealth Fund To Dump All Its Oil & Gas Stocks

Last month, as the U.S. sanctions on Irans oil industry had already started to mount pressure on Tehran and had halved Iranian oil exports, the Islamic Republic announced that its Navy would hold an annual drill in the Strait of Hormuzthe worlds most important oil chokepoint and one of the three chokepoints around the Arabian Peninsula together with Bab el-Mandeb and the Suez Canal.

Iran has threatened several times to close the Strait of Hormuz for all tanker traffic if the U.S. drives Iranian oil exports to zero.

The Strait of Hormuz is the worlds most important chokepoint, with an oil flow of 18.5 million bpd in 2016, the EIA estimates. The Strait connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea and is the key route through which Persian Gulf exportersSaudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and Bahrainship their oil. Only Saudi Arabia and the UAE have pipelines that can ship crude oil outside of the Persian Gulf and have additional pipeline capacity to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, which is a route of more than 30 percent of daily global seaborne-traded crude oil and petroleum products and more than 30 percent of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) flows.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Russian exports of oil and oil products to the United States surged in the last week of February to their highest level since 2011, with Russia taking advantage of the Venezuelan collapse, Russian news outlet RBC reports, quoting investment bank Caracas Capital Markets as saying in a note to clients.

At least nine tankers delivered 3.19 million barrels of oil and oil products of Russian origin to U.S. ports in the week February 23 to March 1, according to Caracas Capital Markets, which specializes in Venezuela. These 3.19 million barrels is the largest volume of Russian oil deliveries we have seen since 2011, Russ Dallen, Caracas Capital Markets Managing Partner, wrote in the note, as carried by RBC.

Most of the Russian oil deliveries were naphtha and fuel oil, and tankers from Novorossiysk and St Petersburg, among others, shipped the oil products to U.S. ports, Caracas Capital said, citing the U.S. database of shipping documents.

The rise in Russian oil shipments to the U.S. is the result of the U.S. markets adapting to the loss of Venezuelan oil, RBC quoted the bank as saying.

Ironically, Russiathe staunchest supporter of Nicolas Maduros regime in Venezuelais benefiting in the U.S. oil market from the U.S. sanctions on Maduros government, on the state oil firm PDVSA, and on the Venezuelan oil industry.

Meanwhile, Venezuelas crude oil exports to the U.S. are dropping.

U.S. crude oil imports from Venezuela slumped to just 83,000 bpd in the week to March 1, compared to 208,000 bpd in the previous week, according to EIAs preliminary data on crude oil imports by top 10 countries of origin, ranked based on 2017 data.

The U.S. sanctions on Venezuela are also prohibiting U.S. exports of naphtha to the Latin American country which uses the product to dilute its heavy crude. But Russias Rosneft is said to be coming to the rescue with shipments of heavy naphtha to Venezuela expected in the next few weeks, Bloomberg reported earlier this week, citing shipping reports and a source with knowledge of the plans.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Saudi Arabias Air Force shot down on Friday a drone flying over the Kingdoms airspace, which the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said was coming from the Houthi rebels, Saudi state television reported.

The Iran-aligned Houthi rebels have been fighting a Saudi-led Arab coalition in Yemen since 2015, and the Houthis have claimed over these years that they have targeted and hit oil facilities of Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia.

According to the Saudi-led coalition, the Houthis were responsible for launching the drone shot down today and were targeting civilians, the Saudi television said.

Colonel Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said that inspection of the drone debris showed Iranian characteristics and specifications.

Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported that before being shot, the drone had been flying toward residential areas in a town some 230 kilometers (143 miles) north of the Saudi border with Yemen.

According to al-Maliki, several civilians sustained minor injuries from the drone fragments when it was shot down.

he Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen said last summer that they had targeted Saudi Aramcos refinery in the Saudi capital Riyadh with a long-range drone.

The Houthi rebels also targeted a Saudi oil tanker in the Bab el Mandeb strait off the Hodeidah port in July last year, although it caused but minimal damage.

In December 2018, Yemens warring parties agreed to a UN-brokered ceasefire in and around the key port of Hodeidah, to facilitate the humanitarian access and the flow of goods to the civilian population who are suffering from the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

Three weeks after the UN-brokered ceasefire in Hodeidah entered into force, the warring sides continued to trade accusations in January over who had broken the fragile truce.

The Houthis violated the Hodeidah truce 1,112 times between mid-December and mid-February, in which 76 civilians died and 492 were injured, Arab News reported last month, quoting Saudi state news agency SPA.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Large volumes of natural gas have been found in the Red Sea, according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) which quoted Saudi Arabias Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih as saying.

Saudi oil giant Aramco is considering opportunities for acquisitions of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in the United States, al-Falih has also said, according to a Reuters summary of SPAs news item.

In January this year, Saudi Aramcos chief executive Amin Nasser told Reuters in an interview that the oil firm was looking to spend billions of U.S. dollars on natural gas acquisitions in the United States as part of Aramcos strategy to bolster its gas business and become a global natural gas player.

Last week, Nasser said at an industry event in London that Saudi Arabia aims to export as much as 3 billion cubic feet of gas per day by 2030 as part of its goal to boost the international footprint of its natural gas business.

Aramco will solely develop Saudi Arabias conventional and unconventional gas reserves, and the options for exports include exports via pipelines and LNG, according to Aramcos top manager.

In November last year, Nasser said at an event in Dubai that Saudi Aramco, already a top global oil producer but not as strong in gas production, will boost efforts to grow its natural gas output, from both conventional and unconventional reserves.

Saudi Aramcos gas development program is expected to attract as much as US$150 billion in investment over the next decade, Nasser said. Natural gas production is expected to jump to 23 billion standard cubic feet a day from the current 14 billion cubic feet a day, Aramcos top executive said in Dubai a few months ago.

We also have world-class unconventional gas resources that are rapidly supplementing our large conventional resources. Because a significant proportion of this unconventional gas is rich in both liquids and ethane, its production will play an important role in the further growth of the Kingdoms chemicals sector, Nasser said.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...
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The most expensive car in the world is a black carand yes, its literally named black car: La Voiture Noire. It made its debut at the 2019 Geneva International Motor Show in Switzerland.

French automaker Bugatti marked its 110th anniversary by unveiling its most expensive new car to-date: a 16-cylinder engine, 1,500 horsepower, jet black, luxury vehicle thats worth a whopping USD18.9 million.

According to Bugatti Chief Executive Stephan Winkelmann, the elegant and puristic car was inspired by an earlier model, the Bugatti Atlantic. Considered one of the most valuable and sought-after cars in the world, only four of them were ever made.

We are paying tribute to a long tradition, to France and the creative work of Jean Bugatti, Winkelmann added. At the same time, we are transferring extraordinary technology, aesthetics and extreme luxury to a new age.

Presently, Forbes reported that Rolls Royce Sweptail holds the record for the most expensive new-car ever built, cashing in a hefty USD13 million when it was commissioned.

Still, this does not mean that its the most expensive car ever, since the vehicle that holds this record is no other than the 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO that won the Tour de France in 1964. It was reportedly bought by the chief executive of automotive accessory maker WeatherTech, David MacNeil. And the price tag? Oh, just around USD70 million. That would be enough to buy around three La Voiture Noire.

The post Here is Bugattis Most Expensive Car in the World (So Far) appeared first on Carmudi Philippines.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi fielded nearly 20 questions on a wide range of topics during his annual press conference on the sidelines of the National Peoples Congress on Friday, including Chinas relations with major powers and neighbouring countries, and diplomacy in a rapidly changing world order filled with growing tensions and uncertainties.

In the two-hour briefing, Wang tried to put a positive spin on Chinas deteriorating ties with the United States amid the protracted trade war and the escalating tussle over Chinese tech giant Huawei.

Huawei gets Beijings backing for first time in US legal fight

He hailed Chinas relations with Russia, Japan, India, North Korea and Southeast Asian nations.

Wang also sought to play down growing international concerns over Chinas Belt and Road Initiative, Beijings expanding footprint in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, as well as the increasingly assertive posture of Chinese diplomats around the world.

He also touched on last months failed US-North Korea summit, flaring tensions between India and Pakistan, the ongoing talks with neighbouring countries over the South China Sea dispute, and the deteriorating situation in Venezuela.

Here are the key takeaways:

On China-US relations: stick to the path of cooperation with the US, and the two nations will not be locked in confrontation

Wang dismissed the rising calls in Washington for economic and trade disengagement from Beijing amid frustrations among American political and think tank elites that decades-long economic, social and cultural engagement policies have failed to transform China into a liberal democracy.

Decoupling is apparently unrealistic. Decoupling from China means to decouple from opportunities, the future and even the world, he said.

Wang admitted that China-US relations had faced a set of new and mounting challenges over the past two years, a move he said was contrary to the historical trend.

January marked the 40th anniversary of the normalisation of diplomatic ties between China and the US, but there were no major celebrations. Instead, both sides were in a sour mood over their unfolding rivalry, which some experts in Beijing and Washington say could slide further towards conflict and confrontation.

Story continues

Last month, a group of some 20 leading American experts on China issued a new report warning bilateral ties were on a collision course as a result of Beijings diplomatic ambitions and oppressive domestic policies, as well as US President Donald Trumps hardline approach on China. Trump has billed Beijing as a national security threat and one of his countrys biggest adversaries.

Wang said the most important lesson from the past 40 years of the China-US relationship was that both countries stood to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation.

Four steps the US and China can take to rebuild trust

He called on Washington to give up its zero-sum and cold war mentality and to work with Beijing towards healthy competition. Wang said he remained hopeful about the prospect of bilateral ties, despite the many challenges and difficulties.

He said the months-long trade war talks had made substantial progress and cited the negotiations as a positive example for both sides on forging ties in the future.

On North Korea talks: the North Korea nuclear issue will not be resolved overnight

Despite the failure of last months summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi to reach any agreement, Wang hailed their second face-to-face meeting within a year as a moderate success.

Calling for patience, Wang said denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula would not happen overnight. All parties should have reasonable expectations. We should not set a threshold too high, nor should we unilaterally impose unrealistic demands, he said.

Wang also called for all parties to break the cycle of mistrust, and to set up a road map for both North Korea and the US to act in a synchronised approach, starting with goals that would be easier to achieve.

Chinas role has been irreplaceable, Wang said, when asked about developments on the Korean peninsula, adding that China would continue to work with all sides to achieve the goal of denuclearisation.

Wang said China-North Korea ties would not be affected by temporary incidents, and that China fully supported Pyongyangs desire to explore a path suitable to its own development and to pursue a new national strategy focusing more on economic development.

He said Beijing would also support North Koreas legitimate concerns addressed in the process of denuclearisation talks with the US.

On criticism over the belt and road strategy: the second Belt and Road Initiative summit will be held late next month in Beijing

Wang confirmed that Chinese President Xi Jinping would deliver a keynote speech at the next belt and road forum to be held in Beijing in late April. He said the summit would be even bigger than the inaugural one two years ago, both in terms of the number of attending heads of state and the thousands of representatives expected from more than 100 countries.

This years event would have a specific focus on the business community, Wang said, adding that China would work with different countries to create a new batch of key projects and to enhance the compatibility in strategies between China and its partnering countries.

Asked about international criticism of the scheme, which is Xis signature initiative, Wang dismissed allegations that it was intended to be a debt trap and a geopolitical tool for China. Instead, he said, the belt and road strategy was an opportunity for economic development and improvements to peoples lives.

Wang said China would take an open, transparent and inclusive approach going forward. Responding to a state media question portraying China as a champion of multilateralism, Wang said China would continue to uphold the banner of multilateralism, as well as promote green and sustainable development and pay more attention to ordinary peoples lives with its projects.

On the India-Pakistan crisis: India and Pakistan should to seek long-term improvement in their relations

When asked about the ongoing crisis between India and Pakistan, Wang urged both countries to exercise restraint and to resolve disputes through dialogue.

He said China had played a constructive role in diffusing the tensions between India and Pakistan, and that China welcomed their recent determination to de-escalate the situation and start talks. We hope the two countries can get along and progress together. We advise both parties to seek fundamental and long-term improvements to their relations, Wang said.

When asked about Chinas relations with India, Wang said the two Asian giants should be partners. Last years historic summit between Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Wuhan had set a model for high-level interactions and for the direction for future cooperation.

As the worlds two biggest developing countries, with a combined population of 2.7 billion, Wang said the two countries should be partners in realising their respective dreams and in boosting their respective development, as well as contributing to Asias revitalisation and prosperity.

Wang also called for the two countries to strengthen cooperation in different sectors and advance people-to-people ties.

On the South China Sea disputes: seriousness and commitment and a warning against external interference

Wang reiterated Chinas seriousness and commitment to the completion of negotiations with Asean for a code of conduct (COC) in the South China Sea before 2021.

He said that, as the situation in the disputed area of the South China Sea had stabilised in recent years, negotiations over the COC would speed up and that China would be as transparent as we can regarding their progress.

But, in a subtle swipe at the US, Chinas top diplomat also warned against external interference and deliberate smears, and said the negotiations should be shielded from interference.

On China-EU relations: Xi Jinping will visit Europe in March

Wang confirmed that Xi would visit Europe later this month. European media has reported that Xi will visit Italy and France before heading to Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort to finalise the trade agreement.

He said the China-EU relationship was in good shape overall, despite the fact it was not insulated from external interferences  a veiled reference to Europes intention to follow the US example and exert pressure on China over trade rifts, as well as the inclination of some European countries to side with Washington on sensitive issues such as Huawei.

He repeated Chinas support for an integrated Europe.

On China-Russia relations: steady and mature

This year marks the 70th anniversary of China-Russia diplomatic ties. Wang described Beijings relations with Moscow as steady and mature.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the second belt and road summit and Xi will pay a reciprocal visit later this year. Apart from existing cooperation on energy and infrastructure, China and Russia would continue to expand their security, economic and financial cooperation and step up coordination on major global affairs, Wang said.

According to Wang, the Eastern route of the billion-dollar natural gas pipeline from Russia to China will be completed this year.

On Huawei and the Meng Wanzhou case: support from Beijing

Wang threw his support behind tech giant Huaweis legal action against Washington, and called upon Chinese companies not to be silent lambs.

His remarks came a day after the company filed a lawsuit against the US government in a bid to overturn a federal ban on its equipment.

We support the company and the individual in question in seeking legal redress to protect their own interests and refusing to be victimised like silent lambs, Wang said.

Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer and daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada in December at the request of the United States and is facing extradition on a number of charges.

More from South China Morning Post:

This article Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi calls for cooperation amid growing world tensions first appeared on South China Morning Post

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It turns out that peoples doubts were not unfounded, the Philippines air quality really isnt as great as what a recent study had us believe.

At least thats according to environmental organization Greenpeace Philippines, who said in a statement sent to the media yesterday that IQAirs AirVisual study showing that the Philippines has the best air quality in Southeast Asia, should be taken with a grain of salt.

The good ranking of Philippine cities in the global report is not a cause for celebration, as we have the least average number of monitoring stations per city in the region. In fact, the report highlights the urgent need for more comprehensive, governmental, real-time monitoring networks for the public to fully understand the state of air quality in the Philippines, Greenpeace Philippines campaigner Khevin Yu said.

Many were ready to raise their #PinoyPride flags high after the study revealed on Tuesday that the Philippine city of Calamba, Laguna has the cleanest air in Southeast Asia. Apart from Calamba, 10 other Philippine cities  7 from Metro Manila  were in the top 15.

IQAirs study was done with the help of Greenpeace Southeast Asia but the organizations local counterpart said that the results may not be showing the whole picture.

Because of a lack of clear air monitoring systems in the Philippines, they said the research was only based on 1 or 2 devices in the 16 cities highlighted, many of which are not located near coal-fired power plants.

These power plants are major contributors to dangerous PM 2.5 pollution, which the study was monitoring.

The report, therefore, represents only a small fraction of the air pollution situation in the country, Yu said.

Given the previous alarming studies related to coal emissions, it is imperative to conduct more thorough and comprehensive research in cities near coal power plants and other sources of air pollution.

According to a 2016 study by Greenpeace Philippines, coal plant emissions could kill about 2,400 Filipinos per year.

This article, Hold up, Greenpeace PH says countrys air quality isnt actually as good as recent study revealed , originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters!
South Africa: SA seized with Israel embassy downgrade

President Cyril Ramaphosa says government remains seized with the modalities of downgrading the South African Embassy in Israel.

The President said this when he fielded oral questions in the National Assembly on Thursday.

He said government is in the process of giving effect to a resolution of the governing party that South Africa should downgrade its embassy in Israel following concerns over the ongoing violation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the refusal of the government of Israel to enter into meaningful negotiations to find a just and peaceful resolution to this conflict.

In implementing this conference resolution, we are mindful of South Africas responsibility to continue engaging with all parties to the conflict to see where we would be able to provide assistance.

As such, the South African government remains seized with the modalities of downgrading the South African Embassy in Israel and we will communicate once Cabinet has fully finalised on this matter, he said.

This comes after the South African government resolved to recall its ambassador to Israel in May last year in protest against the Israeli attack in the occupied Gaza strip at the time.

At the time, the South African government condemned horrific acts of violent aggression carried out by Israeli armed forces along the Gaza border. At the time, Israeli forces had opened fire on Palestinians, who were protesting against the inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem.

Addressing Members of Parliament on Thursday, the President said government is concerned about the resurgence of confrontation and conflict in the region. He also expressed a concern about the grave humanitarian cost of further intransigence.

Our approach is also informed by an appreciation of the constructive role South Africa is being called upon to play in the quest for peace in the Middle East.

We are clear on our support for the achievement of the Palestinian state, alongside the right of the state of Israel to exist in peace and security with its neighbours, President Ramaphosa said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2019-03-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Between National Capital Region Police Office chief Director Guillermo Eleazar and the extortionist cop, the former is a no-brainer choice of a hero, according to Senator Panfilo Lacson as he defended the NRCPO chiefs outbursts. Yes, I understand his frustration and why he displayed such anger, having gone through the same experience almost 20 years ago, said Lacson, who served as chief of the Philippine National Police. Eleazar was roundly criticized after he was seen grabbing the hair of Police Corporal Marlo Quibete of the Eastern Police District drug enforcement unit, who was arrested for extortion in an entrapment operation in Pasig City on Wednesday. The police official forced Quibete to show his face to the media. He then grabbed his collar and continued to admonish him. Quibete reportedly extorted P200,000 from the family of a drug suspect whom they arrested. Lacson recalled an incident sometime in November 1999 right after he assumed the top police position. Deja vu. In November 1999, on my first night as CPNP, I hit the ground running with my anti-kotong campaign and there was this CHPG team who shot it out with a team of Special Action Force personnel whom I tasked to kickstart a relentless operation against mulcting policemen, Lacson said. He said that the shootout resulted in the killing of an SAF operative while three others were wounded. After I visited the wounded in the hospital, I proceeded to the police station where the kotong cops were detained after being arrested. In anger, I wanted to shoot them myself, recalled Lacson. I remember doing almost the same ritual that P/Maj General Eleazar did, he added. Senator Win Gatchalian, for his part, said that while police should practice maximum tolerance, he also acknowledge that there are some policemen who continue to taint the image of the government. If you remember, the palit puri pag may nahuli drug suspects, rape yung anak, kamag anak, nangyari yun, nangyayari ngayon, he said. Gatchalian, however, said Eleazar could have lost his temper because of what the policeman did. I cant blame him because there are many scalawags at that point in time. His frustrations came out, but as a whole we as public servant should always observe maximum tolerance, he added. President Rodrigo Duterte earlier took the cudgels for Eleazar, saying that the police official did the right thing since there are still police officers who are involved in irregularities. Eleazar has apologized for his outburst but insisted that what he did was right because police officers should not be treated as babies. Humihingi ako ng paumanhin kung di ako nakapagtimpi at nailabas ang aking emosyon, Eleazar said. Kinwelyuhan ko, tiningala ko ang mukha, at dinuro-duro ko. Eh dapat lang, he added. Still, Eleazars actions did not escape criticism from the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), who said that the NCRPO police chief may have violated Quibetes human rights. Maaaring may na-violate siya doon sa right to dignity, right to presumption of innocence, right to humane treatment and all that. Iyan yung mga posibleng karapatang pantao na nalabag, said CHR spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia in a radio interview. De Guias statement, however, did not sit well with the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), who slammed the CHR for defending a rogue cop, while disregarding the rights of his victim. CHR has no human side. The General is just passionate in cleansing their ranks of scalawags as the public is crying for total cleansing, VACC spokesperson Boy Evangelista said in a text message. Nasaan yung human rights ng mga biktima? Some are already six feet below the ground, he added. Quibete faces criminal charges for robbery and extortion and is detained in Camp Bagong Diwa after his arrest Tuesday. He is also facing administrative cases for grave misconduct. Meanwhile, aside from the president, Eleazar also drew support from Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano and his immediate superior, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde. Meanwhile, the police arrested another rogue cop, this time for alleged drug peddling while he was caught sniffing shabu at an apartment in Manila. Elements of the NCRPO and the Manila Police District (MPD) Station 4 caught patrolman Ferdinand Rafael, who was assigned at MPD Administration Holding Unit, sniffing the prohibited substance inside apartment Room B356 at the corner of Calabasita and Calabash Streets in Barangay 539 Zone 53, District 4 in Sampaloc around 11 p.m. last Thursday. Rafael is now detained at the NCRPO Regional Special Operations Unit detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City and will be charged with violation of sections 5, 11, 12, 14 and 15 of Republic Act 9165 (Dangerous Drugs Act). The authorities were tipped off by concerned residents, who said that the suspect was frequently visiting the said apartment to peddle illegal drugs.The NCRPO and the Manila police immediately conducted surveillance operations on Rafael who was discovered to be an active policeman assigned at the MPD. The police operatives then set a buy-bust operation against the suspect. The authorities also secured a video footage showing Rafael while in the act of sniffing shabu. Recovered from the suspects possession were 15 grams or 11 pieces of small heat-sealed sachet of shabu worth P102,000; a digital weighing scale; assorted drug paraphernalia and the P1,000 buy bust money. Rafael was the second Manila policeman caught in the act of sniffing the illegal substance. Late last year, Police Officer 1 Redentor Bautista, assigned at the Manila Police District Station 1 and a a resident of Tondo, Manila, was caught sniffing cocaine at the restroom of a posh bar in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City. This prompted Metro Manila police director Guillermo Eleazar to order all police commanders in the NCR to subject their personnel under drug examination as part of the internal cleansing to get rid of scalawags. In light of the discovery and arrest of a policeman sniffing cocaine in Taguig City, [I] issued a directive to all Police District Directors to intensify their random drug testing programs for their rank-and-file [personnel], said Eleazar in his directive to police commanders of Manila Police District, Quezon City Police District, Northern Police District, Eastern Police District and Southern Police District. Dismissal from the service awaits those who will be tested positive for drug use. Eleazar reiterated that he we will not tolerate any scalawag or abuse by any police officer. The NCRPO earlier ordered the relief of 44 policemen, two of them police commanders in Pasay and EPD, following their alleged involvement of two drug enforcement officers in kidnapping and extortion. Eleazar reminded police commanders to always ensure that their personnel are performing accordingly based on its mandated duties and responsibilities. He firmly stated that the performance of their personnel will reflect on their leadership and so proper guidance is a must. The internal cleansing program of the PNP is being carried out on a nationwide scale and the PNP leadership is determined to implement this until all the laggards and the undesirables are weed out and made to face sanctions, he said. According to PNP spokesman Col. Bernard Banac, some 8,440 erring police officers were slapped with administrative sanctions since 2016 under the PNPs internal cleansing program. Banac said that from January 2016 to February 28, 2019, a total of 2,528 policemen were dismissed from the service, 4,511 were suspended from their work, 601 were reprimanded, 507 were demoted in rank, 34 were placed in restriction, and 58 had their privileges withheld. Banac said this is proof that the PNP is serious in weeding out rogue cops from their roster. We are the ones who are implementing laws against illegal drugs and then we see police officers actually involved in illegal drugs. Thats not allowed because that is embarrassing for the PNP, he told reporters. Banac made the assurance that these police officers were given due process in their cases. Of the 2,528 dismissed police officers, 441 were involved in illegal drug activities; 322 tested positive for illegal drugs; while 119 others were involved in illegal drug-related cases, such as being a protector or user. The 119 involved in illegal drug activities were pinpointed by arrested drug personalities while some were caught in the act. Despite a strict selection process, aspiring policemen who do dirty deeds could still be qualified during recruitment, Banac said. We are strict in the process of recruitment but it cannot be denied that there are recruits who can pass the interview and neuropsychiatric test. When it comes to the service, they can be exposed to biting the temptation, in which we can see the weakness of their values and character, he said. Banac said the PNP is doing everything to change the negative mindset or behavior of police scalawags through counseling, leadership seminars, and Bible studies, among others. Albayalde has warned all police personnel that he would never tolerate illegal acts or wrongdoings committed by anyone within their ranks. When a recruit takes his oath as a professional police officer, he automatically loses or waives some of his rights in favor of organizational discipline, duties, and responsibilities. So, being scolded, reprimanded, bawled out, or dressed down for misdemeanor, misconduct or commission of crime is just part and parcel of his life being in the uniformed service, Albayalde said in a statement. He also reiterated that the PNP is serious in enforcing a culture change and character transformation among police officers. We continue to ask for the medias help because this way, we can emphasize that we are true and serious in our drive in wiping out scalawags within our ranks, Albayalde said in Filipino. This is a stern warning to all PNP personnel. We will be adding more teeth to our campaign against those rogues and scalawags among our ranks. We will not hesitate to relieve any official from their posts should any incident like this extortion and robbery case would happen again, he added. Albayalde earlier said that newly-recruited police officers would undergo Special Action Forces training as a way of disciplining them.
A Hungarian newspaper close to Prime Minister Viktor Orban's party urged it Thursday to quit the European Parliament's conservative group and forge a more radical alliance instead of yielding to an ultimatum over an anti-EU poster campaign. "The time has come to make a new alliance. But a new alliance can only be forged if we break up the old one," said the Magyar Nemzet daily, which is seen as the mouthpiece of the populist leader's Fidesz party. Orban's chief of staff Gergely Gulyas stressed Thursday that Fidesz wants to stay in the centre-right European People's Party (EPP). Though Fidesz has already said it will not yield to the ultimatum. After months of rising tensions between Brussels and Budapest, the EPP's Manfred Weber gave three conditions this week for Fidesz to remain in the grouping. Those included immediately withdrawing a "fake news campaign" against European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Weber is the EPP's leading candidate to replace Juncker after May's European elections. The editorial in Magyar Nemzet said "humiliating negotiations" with the EPP should end, and a new alliance should be forged with ruling far-right factions from Italy, Austria and Poland. "Only this way can the battle against immigration be led... The EPP no longer defends the nation, Christianity, or the traditional family model, or anything that can be called European tradition," it said. The EPP is the biggest party in the European Parliament and comprises the main centre-right movements in Europe, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU and France's Les Republicains, which have not moved against Orban. Orban's chief of staff, Gulyas, said Fidesz is "not negotiating with the European Parliament's radical parties". Harald Vilimsky, secretary general of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), has said his grouping in the European Parliament, the Europe of Nations and Freedom Group, would welcome Fidesz with "open arms".
A march organised in Baku, Azerbaijan, to end violence against women was halted by police, who confronted the demonstrators and pushed them towards a metro station, footage filmed on March 8 shows.

According to the events Facebook page, the purpose of the march, organised to coincide with International Womens Day, was to liberate society from patriarchy and to make the voice of women heard for the end of the hegemony of men.

The group also said that every year 100 women are victims of domestic violence in Azerbaijan and that the demonstration was to fight against sexual violence and domestic abuse.

However, police officers prevented the demonstration, forbidding the mainly female protesters from meeting at the Statue of the Liberated Woman in Baku, where the march was supposed to begin, according to the Turan Information Agency, based in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The news agency reported that police said the demonstration had not been coordinated with the authorities, resulting in protesters being pushed towards the Nizami metro station, and forced to leave the area. Credit: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty via Storyful
SEVEN media advocacy groups, led by National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), have called the publication and broadcast of a narco

SEVEN media advocacy groups, led by National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), have called the publication and broadcast of a narco list, which the government said it will release next week, a breach of professional ethics with adverse legal implications.

The list, containing 82 candidates in the May 13 elections, may ruin the reputation and chances of the aspirants for public office. The media groups allege the intelligence reports and wire-tapped information (provided by foreign governments) on which the information was based have not yet been validated. Publication before the case build-up and filing of charges against the suspects will violate journalistic values of fairness, accuracy and independence.

The pooled statement, released last March 7, does not specifically ask media not to print, post or otherwise circulate the narco list.

Why it must be reported

The groups must know that the list cannot not be reported once it comes out.

For one, it is impossible to suppress or squelch the information: with all the media platforms and the mean-spirited and gung-ho style in pretty much of social media.

For another, with all the controversy around it and its impact on rights of people and institutions, it cannot be ignored. Those who solemnly talk of fairness and accuracy know that in most of their journalism lives they placed a high premium on the publics need to know.

Authoritative source

Media does not balk at reporting questionable information if the source has authority, such as the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary or President Duterte no less. How much false information have been spewed out by public officials and yet were reported, which later turn out to be false or the media knew or suspected to be false?

Critics believe the new narco list is raw, unverified, and unsupported by evidence, citing the mistakes in the first list the president released on Aug. 7, 2016. Yet the law enforcement agencies reportedly lent their names to that list and presumably also support the second list thats coming.

Story continues

Warning, advice

No, the media groups didnt say, Dont publish. They just warned of the possible ethical and legal violations:

invasion of privacy, denial of due process and presumption of innocence. Would media in reporting and commenting be also as liable as the public officials who release the list? The groups said those aggrieved by the list might sue the reporters and editors that publish the story. They may and they can but the charges are not likely to stick, as most libel lawyers know. No one has been jailed for publishing a document officially released by the government.

NUJP, PCIJ and the other groups asked the news media:

[1] To exercise utter prudence and fastidious judgment in evaluating the story;

[2] Verify, verify, verify. And do so independently. That is the first thing the news media can do before running a list that tags and links people to hateful crimes...

Careful. careful

By utter prudence and fastidious judgment, the media groups must mean the news managers must be careful, careful about the story.

As to the multiple verify advice, the media groups may be reminded of (a) the present state of most mainstream newsrooms and (b) the state of mind of internet media.

Multi-tasked, if not overworked, mainstream reporters and editors cannot verify the names before publishing. The most they can do is call the local personalities that may be in the list and get their comment. As to net writers, what else do they do besides typing whats on their mind, often some snarky or hateful comment, or post an L.O.L. or a meme along with the highlighted name of the hated persons in the list?

What can be done

But heres what media can do:

n Put in qualifiers to the list, such as not yet validated and no charges filed, as prominently and well-situated as possible: in headline, teaser or blurb and body text. Use them whenever a political rival or critic uses the list for election advantage.

n Include as much information as available about local personalities in the list: get their side, in next-day stories if they cant comment promptly.

n Publish stories that rectify or tend to refute any part of the list. Sometimes, media hypes up the breaking story but obscures the findings of error that follow. Many people heard the president castigate a person in his first list but did not hear the apology he later gave.

Playing along

Media cannot refuse to publish what the government says or does but it can publish information that shows the story is, or may be, false or misleading.

It is not playing along with the government when leaders play fast and loose with due process and rule of law.

It is called doing the job.
The American Executive makes us believe that all Muslims are in Jihad, and that each of his pockets they have a bomb. It is an old trick: discredit a way of thinking, a religion - of Muhammad, but to the my same time out in conclusion that the American Government in functions you want to possess what people who discredit have: yellow gold oil. We are at the gates of the legislative elections of November in the United States.UU., and clear it, the Iraq war and national security will form the fundamental pillars of the political programmes, well-studied, Republicans and Democrats will present. The American people, who likes good living to the whole world, will vote conservatively stating that at the present time it is not possible to withdraw from Iraq, the disarray that since is this keeping in the Middle East would be increased. The American people will vote to Democrats, interpreting that Bush's foreign policy has failed flatly and without palliatives. In these opportune moments, the Democrats go to the polls more cohesive and convinced of his next triumph.



The U.S. Government their political strategy is trying to give a hundred and eighty degree turn, understanding that their confrontation is today against many more terrorists jihadists than there were five years ago. We all understand that the war on terror is cannot win, only and exclusively, with media military bombs, missiles of short and long range, bombs and more bombs, but that they have used political means of high diplomacia-clasica diplomacy, I would say that, in the long run, they have always given broader and better results. The latter has been little or no experienced by the White House. And it is that Mr Bush has become a kind of guardian of the world, and strongly believes that the policy is to not negotiate. For the negotiate equates to wasting time, and isolated in a single thought perhaps ignoring to the members of the armed forces, the State Department and the CIA itself superimposed military power available above all reasoning. He forgets that violence always begets violence. Ashley Montagu, an anthropologist, said: learning to speak it costs many months.



Learn to love can cost you years. No human being is born with hostile or violent impulses, and nobody becomes hostile or violent without taking the time to learn it. And there is a relevant fact: Iran slowly walks towards the construction of a nuclear weapon. This is another of fronts open in the Middle East, and, of course, no simple solution. And seen this event from another perspective, who really is the winner of the war in Iraq is the State of Iran. The Muslim terrorists who are being operating training, thinks one in Iraq, for sure, will form a guerrilla prepared and convinced to fight against U.S. imperialism. Before dying to lose life.
View of a research chip through a microscope: a high concentration of antifreeze proteins ensures that the drops freeze at temperatures that are less cold than usual (frozen drops are dark). Credit: Bielefeld University

Bacteria, plants, insects and fish use antifreeze proteins to protect themselves from the cold. The proteins block the growth of ice crystals. In a new study, a German-Israeli research team has confirmed that these proteins also possess an unusual second property: at low temperatures, they can promote rather than inhibit the growth of ice crystals.

The study brought together researchers from Bielefeld University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot (Israel). It is published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.

"We are studying how special, naturally occurring proteins influence the smallest of ice crystalsthe crystal embryos," says Professor Dr. Thomas Koop. The chemist heads Bielefeld University's Atmospheric and Physical Chemistry research group.

"Normally, such proteins ensure that crystal embryos are neutralized and do not grow into large ice crystals," he says. That dynamic is essential for the survival of the larvae of the mealworm beetle, for example. They use a protein to protect their skin and body fluids from damage caused by ice crystals. When the outside temperature drops, the larvae secrete an antifreeze protein into their body fluids. The protein molecules cover the surface of the crystal embryos, thereby preventing them from growing large enough to damage the cells.

"By contrast, there are many other organisms that can benefit from making water turn into ice," says Koop. This is the case with certain bacteria that trigger the formation of ice, for example. They secrete proteins on which crystal embryos can form, or nucleate from the cold liquid water, and thereafter grow into large ice crystals. Some bacteria can use this to split open the skin of a tomato.

Until now, science has viewed ice-promoting and ice-inhibiting proteins as two different types of protein. That is also indicated by their different sizes: Ice-inhibiting proteins are made up of small molecules; ice-promoting proteins, of large, long molecules.

"However, the new experiments show that an antifreeze molecule cannot just inhibit the growth of ice, it can also trigger its growth," says Koop.

The scientists have tested two naturally occurring antifreeze proteins: a protein of the larvae of the mealworm beetle and a protein of an Arctic fish, the ocean pout. They observed the effect of the proteins on thin microfluidic chips developed at the Weizmann Institute, which are permeated with microscopically small channels with droplet traps. They took pure distilled water and added a set concentration of the specific protein. Then they injected this protein solution into the chip. In the chip, minute drops of water were collected in the droplet traps. Then they placed the chips in a temperature-controlled cooling chamber that cooled them down to minus 40 degrees.

"The pure drops in our chip should actually first freeze at minus 38.4 degrees," says Koop. However, the opposite occurred. "When the drops contained the purportedly ice-inhibiting antifreeze proteins, the ice crystal embryos already began to form and grow at warmer temperatures." Hence, in the case of the protein of the larvae of the mealworm beetle, one-half of all the drops already started to freeze at minus 33.9 degrees. "This enabled us to show that whether the antifreeze proteins have ice-inhibiting or ice-promoting properties depends on temperature. There has been speculation over the ambivalence of such proteins for many years, but we are the first to confirm this experimentally," says Professor Dr. Ido Braslavsky from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Dr. Yinon Rudich from the Weizmann Institute adds, "It was only having the chip that enabled us to study the formation of ice through antifreeze proteins experimentally."

Some of the experiments for the study were carried out at Bielefeld University. Complementary freezing experiments and the chips used to study the water as well as the protein solutions came from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. The antifreeze proteins of the larvae of the mealworm beetle and the artic fish were produced at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at the Rehovot campus. Ice inhibition of the same protein solutions was also demonstrated there.

Ice-inhibiting and ice-promoting proteins are not just common in nature. Nowadays, they are also used as technical aids. For example, antifreeze proteins in varnish can help protect the varnished surfaces from frost. The proteins can also be added to ice cream to help keep it creamy. Ice-forming proteins are used in, for example, ski resorts so that artificial snow can already be produced at a temperature of minus 3 degrees without having to wait for temperatures to drop further.

Explore further Questioning conventional understanding of antifreeze proteins

More information: Lukas Eickhoff et al, Contrasting Behavior of Antifreeze Proteins: Ice Growth Inhibitors and Ice Nucleation Promoters, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (2019). Journal information: Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters Lukas Eickhoff et al, Contrasting Behavior of Antifreeze Proteins: Ice Growth Inhibitors and Ice Nucleation Promoters,(2019). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b03719
Do these look like Gauls to you? Three of the 103 new weevils identified in Indonesia were named after characters Asterix, Obelix and Idefix. Credit: Alexander Riedel

Forget the apes, we live on "The Planet of the Beetles". Welcome.

With an estimated 387,000 formally described species, beetles (Coleoptera) are the most species-rich of the five mega-diverse groups of insects. The others are wasps, ants and bees (Hymenoptera), flies (Diptera), true bugs (Hemiptera), and butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera).

Today's publication of 103 new species of weevils from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is a timely reminder that, after several hundred years of research, we have not even described half of the insect diversity out there. Not even close. Especially in the tropics.

This seems particularly important in light of recent media attention on the global loss of insects (which may or not be an "insectageddon," depending on how you look at the data).

Knowing what we have

Ideally, before we worry about what we are losing, it would be nice to know what we have.

Guesstimates of the number of beetle species on Earth suggest that only about one quarter of the species out there have been described.

Although most British species were described by the middle of the 19th century, in many parts of the world it is easy to find new species and will be for many decades, providing they hang on that long.

And it's probably best to set aside the notion of cracking a bottle of champagne with every new species discovery. As writer Simon Barnes says, referringin Ten Million Aliens: A Journey Through the Entire Animal Kingdomto people who discover new species, "they'd be pissed all day". If you work on weevils, you'd be comatose.

Welcome weevils

Alexander Riedel, a weevil specialist from Germany, and Indonesian museum curator Raden Pramesa Narakusumo are working on the Asia-Pacific weevil genus Trigonopterus.

These small weevils, mostly several millimetres long, are distributed from Samoa in the Pacific through northern Australia to Sumatra. Australian Trigonopterus (32 described species) are mainly restricted to subtropical and tropical rainforests of the east coast, north from around the Queensland/New South Wales border.

Asterix and Obelix dont like the Romans much.

The authors' latest paper describes 103 new species from Sulawesi (Celebes of old) including several they named after Asterix, Obelix and Idefixprincipal characters in the French comic series The Adventures of Asterix.

Species names are always lower-case and the genus always begins with a capital: for example "Trigonopterus asterix Riedel," named after Asterix. Italics are used to show that we are talking about a genus and/or species name. The author or authors primarily responsible for describing the species are traditionally appended to the end of the name.

A small greenish forest-dwelling species is named after Yoda of Star Wars fame, and several others after well-known biologists including Charles Darwin, James Watson and Francis Crick (the latter two identified the structure of DNA).

Naming is fun but hard

Naming species in novel ways is more common that you might think. Just this week one of 14 new northern Australian dung beetle species was named Lepanus sauroni Gunter & Weir, after, you guessed it, Sauron of Lord of the Rings fame. Part of the beetle's abdomen resembles the Eye of Sauron.

Most of the new Trigonopterus (and Lepanus) species are named after the locality where they were discovered, their collector, or distinctive characters they might have.

You might imagine coming up with 103 new names would be relatively easy, but it's not that simple. There were already 341 Trigonopterus described (mostly by Riedel and colleagues), and the new names have to be different. The names for new species of this genus described in the future, and there are hundreds more, will have to be different again.

Living in Melbourne, as I do, there are plenty of undescribed invertebrate species including, of course, weevils. If you know what you are doing, many of these are abundant and easy to find. Some may represent charismatic, colourful, fascinating or old evolutionary lineages. Many of these species are known and are preserved in national or international collections awaiting description, but plenty of others are unseen and uncollected.

Who cares? And why?

A widespread lack of enthusiasm for invertebrates translates to a broader lack of knowledge and engagement, and the inevitable "who cares anyway?".

In Wonderful Life, author Stephen Jay Gould writes: "Classifications are theories about the basis of natural order, not dull catalogues compiled only to avoid chaos."

Describing species, and revealing what is where, fundamentally underlies major fields of biology like ecology, evolution and biogeography, contributing to a deeper understanding of the complexity of life on Earth.

If we're to prevent the loss of major parts of our biodiversity to extinction, a deeper understanding of the planet's numerically dominant invertebrate life is critical. Fortunately, there are those like the authors of these papers who follow their passion, and back it up with a lot of highly skilled work.

Explore further Star Wars and Asterix characters amongst 103 beetles new to science from Sulawesi, Indonesia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Weaving stories and intriguing names into children's education about the natural world could help to engage them with species' conservation messages, new research shows.

A team at the University of Birmingham carried out a study to explore the potential of species' cultural heritage for inspiring the conservationists of the future. Focusing on magpies, one of the UK's most easily recognised birds, the researchers presented schoolchildren with information about the birds, and then asked them questions about their attitudes to magpies and the conservation of the species.

Around 400 10- and 11-year-olds participated in the survey, which took place across a number of different schools in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshirea town typical of expanding urban areas in industrialised countries. Divided into four groups, the children were given either only cultural information about the birds, only scientific or both. A control group was given no additional information at all.

The children were then asked to fill in a questionnaire about the birds, in particular whether they thought it was important to protect magpies, and the reasons for doing sofor example, because it's the right thing to do, or so that more can be learned about the species, or because of their cultural heritage.

Nigel Hopper, of the University of Birmingham's School of Biosciences, is lead author on the paper. He explained: "Magpies feature strikingly in folk stories, myths and rhymethink, 'One for sorrow, two for joy', and so on. They're often portrayed as sinister creatures, bringing with them bad omens, or as cheeky thieves with an attraction to shiny objects. They also have dozens of quirky names attached to them. We wanted to see if using some of this wealth of cultural information could help magpies steal the hearts and minds of pupils and persuade them to engage with species' conservation."

The survey results showed that the students who were given only cultural information valued that information and regarded it as a reason to protect magpies. Children given only scientific information had less regard for cultural information and were less likely to agree that magpies should be protected on account of their cultural heritage. This suggests a diluting effect of scientific information on appreciation for cultural heritage information.

"Most people are not natural-born scientists," says Hopper. Our results suggest that using species' cultural heritage to first engage people's imaginations could be an effective way of ensuring a captive audience for important scientific messages around species' conservation. And because adults love stories as much as children do, species' cultural heritage has the potential to inspire a conservation ethos that lasts a lifetime."

Dr. Jim Reynolds, a senior author also at the University of Birmingham, added "We have questioned for a long time the optimum age at which to engage with the general public about conservation issues. Our study reveals that children even as young as 10 or 11 years old can assimilate quite complex information and use it to express strong personal opinions.

"We now wonder whether children even younger might already be holding strong conservation values. Our research indicates that the form of communicated information may be crucial in translating personal interests and motivations into tangible and powerful conservation benefits. Get it right and the rewards for biodiversity conservation could be enormous."

Explore further New research calls for national database of Indigenous cultural heritage sites in Australia

More information: Hopper et al. (2019). 'Species' cultural heritage inspires a conservation ethos: The evidence in black and white'. Conservation Letters. DOI: 10.1111/conl.12636 Journal information: Conservation Letters Hopper et al. (2019). 'Species' cultural heritage inspires a conservation ethos: The evidence in black and white'.
The overall winning image, by Marianne Elias (Institut de Systematique, Evolution, Biodiversite, CNRS, MNHN, Sorbonne Universite, France) Credit: Marianne Elias (Institut de Systematique, Evolution, Biodiversite, CNRS, MNHN, Sorbonne Universite, France)

From bridges built by spiders, to marine mammals without table manners, and the unpredictability of volcanoes, the 2018 BMC Ecology Image Competition produced a terrific array of images that reflect the variety of research in progress in the field. All images are open access and available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

The overall winning image by Marianne Elias, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, France is a photo of the clearwing butterfly Hypomenitis enigma. The picture was taken in the southern Andes of Ecuador, the butterfly's natural habitat. The species' unique wing transparency is caused by the particular shape of its wing scales (which look like hair), and the presence of tiny structures on the wing surface that act as anti-reflectors, increasing the amount of light transmitted through the wing.

Guest judge, Professor Zhigang Jiang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "This photo does a fantastic job of showcasing the striking beauty of a rather enigmatic species little known to people, whose transparent wings still raise multiple questions regarding its evolution. Marianne Elias' entry not only shows the beauty often found in nature, but also highlights some of the research going on in the field of ecology in the biodiversity-rich tropics, making it a worthy winner of this year's competition".

The winner was chosen from more than 140 entries. There were two overall runners up and winners from five categories: Community, Population and Macroecology; Behavioral Ecology and Physiology; Conservation Ecology and Biodiversity; Landscape Ecology and Ecosystems; and the Editor's Pick.

Second runner-up in the BMC Ecology image Competition Credit: Matteo Santon, University of Tuebingen, Germany

The winning images and an additional six highly commended images highlight pressing issues in ecology, from the important roles that species play in their environment, to the mutually beneficial relationships they form, and the need for conservation and recovery of threatened habitats. All images are released free to use under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).

The Conservation Ecology and Biodiversity Research category winner called 'Little Treasure of the steppes', was captured by Pilar Oliva Vidal from University of Lleida, Spain, who also submitted one of the overall runners up. It depicts a steppe bird in its natural habitat, surrounded by bright red flowers.

Section editor Josef Settele, one of the judges, said: "We chose this picture because of the composition of colours, and because it highlights the importance of guaranteeing the conservation and recovery of habitats like steppes, and their species, through the appropriate management of human activities."

First runner up of the BMC Ecology Image Competition Credit: Pilar Oliva Vidal, University of Lleida, Spain

'Small Bridges', by Darko Davor Cotoras Viedma of the California Academy of Sciences, USA, was this year's Editor's Pick. The image shows the highly specific web created by a Wendilgarda galapagensis spider. Unlike the familiar orb webs produced by other spiders, W. galapagensis, which is endemic to the remote Isla del Coco in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, spins webs that resemble hanging bridges.

Now in its sixth year, the BMC Ecology Image competition was created to give ecologists the chance to share their research and photographic skills, and celebrate the intersection of art and science.

Senior editor Alison Cuff said: "We were delighted at the variety and quality of the images submitted to the 2018 competition. Having the input of respected scientists as our judges ensures our winning images were picked as much for the scientific story behind them as for the technical quality and beauty of the images themselves. As such, the competition very much reflects BMC's ethos of innovation, curiosity and integrity. We thank all those who took part in this year's competition, and congratulate our winning photographers; we hope our readers and the public enjoy their work as much as we have."

More information: BMC ecology image competition 2018: the winning images, Cuff et al. BMC Ecology 2019, Journal information: BMC Ecology BMC ecology image competition 2018: the winning images, Cuff et al.2019, DOI: 10.1186/s12898-019-0226-z
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Researchers in China have designed an improved energy-aware and self-adaptive deployment method for autonomous underwater vehicles. The team of Chunlai Peng and Tao Wang of the Guangdong University of Technology, in Guangzhou, provide details in the International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control.

The researchers explain that autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are essential mobile robots that can travel underwater and perform tasks that are considered to hazardous for people to carry out for various reasons. There are, however, problems that face the operators of AUVs, specifically the fact that control algorithms are not necessarily optimized for distance nor energy consumption.

The team's approach to enabling energy awareness, as well as self-adaptive deployment, has now been tested with ten AUVs. Their work demonstrates that they can reduce energy consumption with their algorithm in the test AUVs by almost a third. This could be a real boon for marine environment monitoring, military missions, search missions after the loss of a craft at sea, and perhaps even after a tsunami, earthquake or other geological catastrophes.

The team concludes their paper with a nod to the future direction of their research. "Future work will study an energy-supplying problem during the ocean rescue that generating trajectories for AUVs to rendezvous with energy-carrying robots, such as mobile charging stations, i.e., a rendezvous problem for AUVs and mobile charging stations," they explain.

Explore further Using behavior trees to improve the modularity of AUV control systems

More information: Chunlai Peng et al. An improved energy-aware and self-adaptive deployment method for autonomous underwater vehicles, International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control (2019). Chunlai Peng et al. An improved energy-aware and self-adaptive deployment method for autonomous underwater vehicles,(2019). DOI: 10.1504/IJMIC.2019.098005
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

One of Matthew Liao's most popular papers proposes that humans could genetically engineer themselves to collectively reduce our species' carbon footprint.

The piece, "Human Engineering and Climate Change," offers ideas such as stimulating an aversion to red meat (thereby reducing greenhouse gases from livestock farming); making people physically smaller (and thus likely to consume less food); lowering birth rates through cognitive enhancement (based on the idea that birth rates are negatively correlated with access to education for women); and enhancing our altruistic and empathetic responses in the hopes that, if people are more aware of the suffering climate change causes, they will be more likely to take positive steps.

But an essential caveat to the paper is that Liao, a moral philosopher and director of the NYU College of Global Public Health's Center for Bioethics, does not endorse any of these hypotheticals; the ideas, he says, are meant to provoke new conversations on an urgent topic.

And while he is open to genetic engineering in theory, he was rather horrified to see the recent news that twin girls had been born in China after a researcher genetically modified their embryos to resist HIV infection.

"My first reaction was, 'This is really bad,'" recalls Liao, Arthur Zitrin Professor of Bioethics.

First, Liao says, the scientist violated various ethical protocolsincluding basic principles such as transparency in research and international standards developed at the 2015 International Summit on Human Gene Editing. Second, he used a gene-editing procedureknown as CRISPR-cas9that has not been proven safe. And, third, the intervention was not medically necessary. Because of advances in treatment, people living with HIV are able to live full and productive lives, and the sperm of HIV-infected men can be "washed" to remove the HIV virus (a technique that was used with the girls' father).

Still, under the right circumstances, Liao, who served for two years on the Hinxton Group, which facilitates collaboration on stem cell research, believes genetic engineering can be used in an ethical manner. And, in a paper published last year, he puts forth a human rights-based approach to assessing which circumstances are right.

The paper, "Designing humans: A human rights approach," was published in Bioethics in 2018 and builds on Liao's previous writings, including The Right to Be Loved, a 2015 book in which he makes the case that children, as human beings, have the right to certain "fundamental conditions" necessary to pursue a good life (love is one such condition, according to Liao; so are food, water, and air).

In "Designing humans," Liao applies the same approach to gene editing and argues that part of the fundamental conditions necessary to have a good life are so-called "fundamental capacities," which might include but are not limited to: the capacity to act, to move, to reproduce, to think, to be motivated, to have emotions, to interact with others and the environment, and to be moral.

"The basic idea is that if we think about what human beings need in order to pursue a good life, maybe from there we can generate some principles that can guide us in reproductive genetic engineering," he says.

Liao introduces those principles with four "claims" on the ethics of genetic engineering:

Claim 1: It is not permissible to deliberately create an offspring that will not have all the fundamental capacities

Claim 2: If such an offspring has already been created, it is permissible to bring that offspring to term

Claim 3: It Is Not permissible to eliminate some fundamental capacity from an existing offspring

Claim 4: If it is possible to correct some lack of fundamental capacitywithout undue burdens on parents or societyit may be impermissible not to do so

Not surprisingly, Liao's claims have generated much debate and controversy, especially the notion of a "fundamental capacity" and its underlying premisethat embryos are humans who have rights, which is a premise that somethough not Liaohave used as the basis for criminal prosecution of pregnant women seeking an abortion. (Liao says he supports abortion rights and cites "A Defense of Abortion," a 1971 article by Judith Jarvis Thomson, for the idea that one being's rights do not override another's right to bodily integrity).

Ultimately, Liao observes that there are some who uniformly oppose gene editing of any kind, and who worry about the unintended consequences that may result.

"They're right to be concerned," he says. But in a world where such technology exists, he asks, "do we want a society where we say, 'Nobody can have it'?"

Explore further CRISPR gene editing will find applications in plastic and reconstructive surgery

More information: Human Engineering and Climate Change. Human Engineering and Climate Change. www.smatthewliao.com/wp-conten  andClimateChange.pdf
Wiretapped information from foreign sources linking Filipinos to crimes such as illegal drugs is a violation of Philippine law and the states policy to protect its citizens, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Thursday. Lacson likened the situation to a person who bought marijuana in a country where it is legal, but is arrested for violating the Philippine Dangerous Drugs Act once he or she brings it into the Philippines. Lacson, a former chief of the national police, contested Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarras pronouncement that if the wiretapped conversation came from a country where wiretapping is not illegal, it may be passed on to the Philippine government and considered admissible in Philippine courts. Mr. Secretary, possession of wiretapped material is also an offense, Lacson said in a post on his Twitter account Thursday. Under Republic Act 4200 or the Anti-Wiretapping Law, it is unlawful for any person not authorized by all the parties to any private communication or spoken word to secretly record such communication. Section 2 of the law adds it is also unlawful to knowingly possess records or copies of any communication or spoken word secured via wiretapping.Violators of the law, even those who aid or permit such wiretapping, face imprisonment of up to six years. Offenders who are public officials face perpetual absolute disqualification from public office. Lacson also said Malacanangs claim that its information on politicians involved in illegal drugs was based on wiretaps done by foreign governments does not make things right, except if those who conducted the wiretapping were armed with judicial authorization. He noted that under Art. III, Sec. 3 of the 1987 Constitution, the privacy of communication and correspondence shall be inviolable except upon lawful order of the court, or when public safety or order requires otherwise as prescribed by law. If we allow such wiretaps from foreign governments, is it now a government policy to condone invasion of privacy of its own nationals by other countries? he asked.
A speleothem that Ibarra retrieved from a cave in the Philippines was brought to Stanford to undergo geochemistry testing. Credit: Daniel Ibarra

Scattered throughout the Philippines are many caves containing precious geological formations that hold key information about past climate. But due to local quarrying, some of these formations may be destroyed. Now, one Stanford scientist is on a mission to save them.

Daniel Ibarra, BS '12, MS '14, Ph.D. '18, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. He recently teamed up with Stanford alum Carlos Primo David, Ph.D. '03, now a professor at the University of the Philippines at Diliman, to begin the process of retrieving these valuable climate archives. Ibarra is bringing them to Stanford where he will use sophisticated geochemistry techniques to reconstruct and extend past climate records.

"As climate scientists we have no way of baselining how climate has changed in the past beyond the instrumental record, except for using the geological record," Ibarra said. "So we study archives like tree rings, ice cores, lakes, marine sediments and caves."

Archival caves

One of the most important archives on land are cave deposits that contain large, icicle-shaped mineral deposits known as speleothems. Many of these caves are located in the Philippines. So in January, Ibarra traveled to Manila, where he met David and his graduate students. Together they explored a series of caves in Luzon to document and collect two types of speleothems: stalactites and stalagmites.

Stalactites form when water drips from the ceiling of a cave and slowly precipitates over time, leaving a climate record in the form of concentric circles similar to rings on a tree. Stalagmites form the same way, but grow upward from the floor and are the most useful of these cave deposits. Although these formations are estimated to be thousands of years old, very few have been studied in the Philippines. Because of industrial excavation occurring nearby, they could soon be gone forever.

"This is an area of active cement quarrying, so we only have a few years to get speleothems," Ibarra said. "It's a little bit of a rescue mission."

After carefully removing the speleothems from the caves, Ibarra brings them to Stanford, where the samples are drilled and dated through a process  similar to carbon dating  using the radioactive decay chain of uranium, measured on a mass spectrometer. Ibarra uses detectors that measure the different ratios of thorium and uranium isotopes, which tell him the age of the sample. Similar mass spectrometry techniques using stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon are used to determine what the temperature and rainfall levels were at the time the speleothems formed  data that will improve scientists' understanding of climate change.

Daniel Ibarra and alum Carlos Primo David, pictured, explored caves in the Philippines in search of geologic formations called speleothems. Credit: Daniel Ibarra

"We're focusing on samples that will extend the historic rainfall records back several hundred, maybe even a thousand years," Ibarra said. "And we can use what we infer about climate from these samples to benchmark climate models that we also use to project future climate change."

Weathering at Mount Pinatubo

Ibarra and David are simultaneously working on related research in the area around Mount Pinatubo, the active volcano about 100 miles northwest of Manila famous for its massive eruption in 1991. It's there that the chemical breakdown of rocks on the Earth's subsurface  a process known as weathering  is believed to occur at some of the fastest rates in the world.

The weathering of rocks is the primary way in which carbon dioxide is sequestered over geologic time, keeping the Earth habitable. Ibarra and David are measuring weathering rates by collecting water samples from rivers during different times of the year and measuring the chemical composition of the river waters for elements such as calcium, magnesium, sodium and silica  the main components of rocks.

"Chemical weathering and subsequent carbonate burial in ocean sediments sequester atmospheric CO2 back into the geologic carbon cycle," Ibarra explained. "Weathering modulates Earth's atmospheric CO2 levels from changes in volcanic degassing, or the long-term effects of human emissions, keeping temperatures regulated."

Both research projects are supported by an award Ibarra received from the Department of Science and Technology Balik Scientist Program, which encourages scientists of Filipino descent to return to the Philippines to share their expertise. Through the program, he is hosted by the University of the Philippines' National Institute for Geological Sciences and Professor David. In addition to conducting original research, Ibarra has given talks and lectures on climate science and geochemistry at the University of the Philippines.

Ibarra plans to return to the Philippines this spring to continue collecting cave deposits and river samples. He hopes this work will help people prepare for changes in the environment.

"Studying past climate gives us a roadmap for the kinds of changes we can expect in rainfall and temperature due to future changes in climate, which can inform adaptation strategies," he said.

Explore further Delving deep into caves can teach us about climate past and present
During his first week in office, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order known as the Expanded Global Gag Rule that cuts funding to foreign aid organizations that provide or refer women to abortions. A new journal article by researchers in the Global Health Justice and Governance program (GHJG) at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health argues that the policy is having a chilling effect, dampening debate, advocacy, and collaboration around abortion and other sexual and reproductive rights. A similar policy known as the Domestic Gag Rule is expected to go into effect by the end of April.

The article, which appears online in the Journal of International Affairs, a Columbia SIPA publication, reports that organizations receiving U.S. global health assistance have pulled out of reproductive health and rights meetings and coalitions.

"Organizations that comply with the rule often over-interpret its restrictions, whether because they lack information about what speech is allowed, they receive misinformation from U.S. government employees about what is allowed, or they fear a major donor," says first author Marta Schaaf, DrPH, director of programming and operations for GHJG. "As a result, organizations that comply with the rule often decline to participate in meetings where abortion or even contraception is discussed. In this way, the Global Gag Rule not only curtails free speech, but it limits the ability of organizations to deliver quality healthcare."

Similar chilling effects were documented when the Global Gag Rule was implemented under previous Republican administrations, but Schaaf and her co-authors argue that the newly expanded policy could be much worse. Whereas previous versions of the Global Gag rule applied to family planning assistance, the new rule applies to all global health assistance, affecting approximately $9 billion in funding, up from $600 million during the George W. Bush Administration. The U.S. is the world's largest global health donor; no other government can make up for the policy's restrictions. Moreover, the Expanded Global Gag Rule comes at a time when civil society organizations and activists in many countries are increasingly under attack.

According to an estimate by CIVICUS, a global civil society alliance, civil society is under attack in 111 of 196 countries worldwide, limiting people's freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of expression. As one example, in 2018 the government of Tanzania banned advertisements regarding family planning and criminalized the public dissemination of any statistical information contradicting official government figures, making the collection of public health or health service provision data by civil society or the media nearly impossible.

"We're seeing a crackdown on free speech and organizing around the world, particularly on individuals and groups defending women's human rights. The Expanded Global Gag Rule is feeding that trend," says Terry McGovern, JD, director of GHJG, chair of the Columbia Mailman Department of Population and Family Health, and co-author of the journal article.

Follow the money

Since the launch of GHJG last fall, members of the program have worked to document the far-reaching harms of the Global Gag Rule. Schaaf and her GHJG colleague Emily Maistrellis co-authored a draft policy statement of the American Public Health Association that argues that the rule is harmful to health and in violation of human rights; the statement is currently open for comment by APHA members. A forthcoming journal article by the researchers will report initial findings from a collaborative investigation with the Center for Health and Gender Equity, Washington D.C., funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The ongoing research with researchers and NGOs in Kenya, Madagascar, and Nepal is examining the ways that the federal policy is harmful to healtheven beyond the domain of sexual and reproductive health.

As one example, a Washington Post article highlighted the story of the nonprofit WaterAid, which works to improve access to clean drinking water, decided not to comply with the Global Gag Rule, as the nonprofit refers women who had been sexually assaulted while collecting water to comprehensive reproductive health services, many of which provide abortion services. As a result, WaterAid ended some projects and has stopped applying for USAID funding, and has significantly decreased the scope and reach of their work in several countries, including in Madagascar.

"The U.S. flow of funding touches so many actors and issues. To understand the impact of the Global Gag Rule, we followed the flows of money, and we followed the flows of people in the health system," Schaaf explains. "People don't realize the real social costs of the Gag Rule because they think all it does is prohibit U.S. funds from supporting abortion. They don't realize it affects all these other thingsthe integration of health services, referrals within the health system, health services beyond sexual and reproductive health, and free speech. It also undermines sovereignty in these countries. Nepal has liberalized their abortion law. It's not our business to intervene in that."

The GHJG team also has its eye on the domestic front. In late February, the Trump Administration announced that the Domestic Gag Rule will proceed within 60 days, a move that is already facing multiple legal challenges. Last summer, 24 faculty and staff in the Department of Population and Family Health submitted a public comment related to the new rule. Much like the Global Gag Rule, the Domestic Gag Rule aims to prohibit providers from performing, promoting, referring for, or supporting abortion as a method of family planning. The comment stated that the proposed rule "imposes serious risks to the health and well-being of millions of women and girls," particularly poor women of color. College-age women who often rely on programs like Planned Parenthood would also be disproportionally affected. Among the policy's anticipated consequences are an increase in unplanned pregnancies and abortions.

"Globally and domestically, these policies impose the political agenda of a minority of Americans on our health and human rights," says McGovern. "This is nothing short of an attack on women, and we are ready to fight back."

Explore further How the global gag rule affects women's health
In this on March 11, 2012 file photo, Dallas Seavey pulls in to the checkpoint in Unalakleet, Alaska, during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. As of Friday, March 8, 2019, 51 mushers are traveling long stretches between remote village checkpoints with no other company but the dogs pulling their sleds. Their progress is monitored from several hotel rooms in Anchorage, Alaska, whose 24/7 occupants are the Iditarod's electronic eyes and ears. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP, File)

Far from competitors tackling the frozen wilderness in Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a dozen people are holed up inside an Anchorage hotel behind banks of computers, tracking the punishing route and connecting with global fans seeking a real-time link to the off-the-grid sport.

As of Friday, 51 mushers are traveling long stretches between remote village checkpoints with no other company but the dogs pulling their sleds. But they're not competing in a vacuum on the 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) trail that spans two mountain ranges and the frozen Yukon River before it heads up the wind-scrubbed Bering Sea Coast to the finish line in the Gold Rush town of Nome.

Their progress is monitored from several hotel rooms whose 24/7 occupants are the Iditarod's electronic eyes and ears. Technology has increasingly made the 47-year-old race more immediate to fans and safer for competitors, said Chas St. George, acting CEO of the Iditarod Trail Committee, the race's governing board.

"This is a really low-tech event when you look at it from that perspective, but high-tech research has always been a huge part of the race," he said Wednesday during a tour of the Iditarod's hotel command post.

This is where volunteers and race contractors monitor the dog teams through sleds equipped with GPS trackers that allow fans to follow them online in real time and organizers to ensure no one is missing. Some serve as aircraft dispatchers for a cadre of pilots who ferry supplies as well as mushers and dogs that drop out.

In this March 6, 2017, file photo, Melissa, center, and Sarah, right, Burnett, both of Fairbanks, hoist handmade signs for passing Iditarod mushers on the Chena River in Fairbanks, Alaska. The women are avid race fans, following the mushers' GPS trackers obsessively and staying as up-to-date as possible with all race news. Technology has increasingly made the 47-year-old race more immediate to fans and safer for competitors, said Chas St. George, acting CEO of the Iditarod Trail Committee, the race's governing board. (AP Photo/Ellamarie Quimby, File)

Others process live video streamed from checkpoints along the rugged trail, using satellite dishes. Some volunteers handle race-standing updates sent through equipment first tested last year, making it possible to activate a super-size hot spot in the most remote places with satellite connections.

Long gone are the days where some race updates came through amateur radio and faxes, said Reece Roberts, a supervisor in the internal communications room who has been a race volunteer for 14 years.

"Now we use satellite phones and we have satellite modems essentially for data transfers," he said. "It's very slow, but it works."

In one room, Art Aldrich worked Wednesday in relative darkness, his face illuminated by his computer screen. He monitored a live video of two Iditarod pundits at the Nikolai checkpoint, 687 miles (1,100 kilometers) from the finish line on the race's third day. Veteran musher Matt Failor appeared on the feed in real time.

This March 16, 2009 file photo shows a team driving across Norton Bay just past the Shaktoolik, Alaska checkpoint on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race trail. Fifty-one mushers as of Friday, March 8, 2019, are traveling long stretches between remote village checkpoints with no other company but the dogs pulling their sleds. However, their progress is monitored from several hotel rooms in Anchorage whose 24/7 occupants are the Iditarod's electronic eyes and ears. (AP Photo/Al Grillo, File)

"Ladies and gentlemen, Matt Failorlive from Nikolai," Iditarod Insider interviewer Greg Heister announced, asking how the race was going for him.

"So far, so good," Failor said, grinning. "Are we really live right now?" He waved at the camera.

Aldrich also relays questions from live video chats to camera operators in the field. He said it's not the most sophisticated system, but it gets the job done. "The fans love it," he said.

The live chats, which are posted in the paid subscription platform Iditarod Insider, have attracted an online community from at least 164 countries, according to Mike Vann in the technology war-room.

In this Tuesday, March 5, 2019 photo, Wes Price explains how he helps with dispatching small aircraft flying to rural parts of Alaska as part of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from a hotel room converted into a war room in Anchorage, Alaska. The mushers' progress is monitored from several hotel rooms whose 24/7 occupants are the Iditarod's electronic eyes and ears. Price and others serve as aircraft dispatchers for a cadre of pilots who ferry supplies as well as mushers and dogs that drop out. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

"It's pretty amazing when we start interacting with them to see where people are joining us from," he said.

This year, race organizers introduced Gia, a digital sled dog mascot with a squeaky voice that fans can chat with through Facebook messenger. Before the race, the cartoon dog even helped organizers recruit donations of straw used for dog beds at the checkpoints, Iditarod officials said.

Veteran musher Scott Janssen is sitting out the race, but like other fans, is following the action through the GPS-rigged sleds required of every participant. As a competitor, he sees the benefits of GPS tracking and the satellite phones that mushers can now carry for emergencies.

Such technological additions make him feel saferto a point.

"But to be honest, I would say conservatively that 90 percent of mushers would prefer that we had nothing at all on our sleds," Janssen said, adding that the technology eliminates the remote aspect of the race. "It takes some of the toughness away from it. And that's why we're doing that race, is to prove we can do this on our own, completely."

In this Tuesday, March 5, 2019 photo, Iditarod spokesman Chas St. George, left, sits in front of a large screen set up inside a hotel in Anchorage, Alaska, for public updates in the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Technology has increasingly made the 47-year-old race more immediate to fans and safer for competitors, said St. George, acting CEO of the Iditarod Trail Committee, the race's governing board. (AP Photo/Rachel D'Oro)

In this Tuesday, March 5, 2019 photo, signs are posted outside the war room, a converted hotel room in Anchorage, Alaska, for those coordinating logistics for the Iditarod Air Force, which includes about 30 small airplanes and a helicopter. Several hotel rooms and work space areas have been converted into so-called war rooms to allow race officials and volunteers to track mushers on the trail, conduct aircraft dispatching for volunteers flying people, dogs and supplies to checkpoints and video and Internet communications for the race. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

In this March 11, 2009, file photo, Matt Hayashida of Willow, Alaska, drives his team alone the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race trail near the Takotna, Alaska checkpoint. Technology is used to track Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race far from the competitors tackling the off-the-grid route. Fifty-one mushers as of Friday, March 8, 2019, are traveling long stretches between remote village checkpoints with no other company but the dogs pulling their sleds. (AP Photo/Al Grillo, File)

In this Tuesday, March 5, 2019 photo, Art Aldridge of New York City explains how he coordinates live video from checkpoints along the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in remote parts of rural Alaska back to his master control set-up, three laptop computers set up in a darkened hotel room in Anchorage, Alaska. Far from competitors tackling the frozen wilderness in Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a dozen people, including Aldridge, are holed up inside an Anchorage hotel behind banks of computers, tracking the punishing route and connecting with global fans seeking a real-time link to the off-the-grid sport. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

In this March 16, 2016, file photo, Mats Pettersson, of Sweden, mushes along the frozen Bering Sea coast outside Nome, Alaska. He finished in 27th position in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Technology is used to track Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race far from the competitors tackling the off-the-grid route. Their progress is monitored from several hotel rooms in Anchorage whose 24/7 occupants are the Iditarod's electronic eyes and ears. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

In this Tuesday, March 5, 2019 photo, a collection of tags are shown that volunteer Jennifer Dowling keeps with her inside a hotel in Anchorage, Alaska, where she is helping to track the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. As of Friday, 51 mushers are traveling long stretches between remote village checkpoints with no other company but the dogs pulling their sleds. Their progress is monitored from several hotel rooms whose 24/7 occupants are the Iditarod's electronic eyes and ears. (AP Photo/Rachel D'Oro)

In this Tuesday, March 5, 2019 photo, Reece Roberts explains how he coordinates communications from checkpoints along the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in remote parts of rural Alaska back to a war room set up in a hotel space in Anchorage, Alaska. Fifty-one mushers as of Friday are traveling long stretches between remote village checkpoints with no other company but the dogs pulling their sleds. However, their progress is monitored from several hotel rooms in Anchorage whose 24/7 occupants are the Iditarod's electronic eyes and ears. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

Explore further Snow is largely a no-show for Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This LRO image of the moon shows areas of potential frost. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio

Scientists, using an instrument aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), have observed water molecules moving around the dayside of the Moon.

A paper published in Geophysical Research Letters describes how Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) measurements of the sparse layer of molecules temporarily stuck to the surface helped characterize lunar hydration changes over the course of a day.

Up until the last decade or so, scientists thought the Moon was arid, with any water existing mainly as pockets of ice in permanently shaded craters near the poles. More recently, scientists have identified surface water in sparse populations of molecules bound to the lunar soil, or regolith. The amount and locations vary based on the time of day. This water is more common at higher latitudes and tends to hop around as the surface heats up.

"This is an important new result about lunar water, a hot topic as our nation's space program returns to a focus on lunar exploration," said Dr. Kurt Retherford, the principal investigator of the LAMP instrument from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "We recently converted the LAMP's light collection mode to measure reflected signals on the lunar dayside with more precision, allowing us to track more accurately where the water is and how much is present."

Water molecules remain tightly bound to the regolith until surface temperatures peak near lunar noon. Then, molecules thermally desorb and can bounce to a nearby location that is cold enough for the molecule to stick or populate the Moon's extremely tenuous atmosphere or exosphere, until temperatures drop and the molecules return to the surface. SwRI's Dr. Michael Poston, now a research scientist on the LAMP team, had previously conducted extensive experiments with water and lunar samples collected by the Apollo missions. This research revealed the amount of energy needed to remove water molecules from lunar materials, helping scientists understand how water is bound to surface materials.

"Lunar hydration is tricky to measure from orbit, due to the complex way that light reflects off of the lunar surface," Poston said. "Previous research reported quantities of hopping water molecules that were too large to explain with known physical processes. I'm excited about these latest results because the amount of water interpreted here is consistent with what lab measurements indicate is possible.

Scientists have hypothesized that hydrogen ions in the solar wind may be the source of most of the Moon's surface water. With that in mind, when the Moon passes behind the Earth and is shielded from the solar wind, the "water spigot" should essentially turn off. However, the water observed by LAMP does not decrease when the Moon is shielded by the Earth and the region influenced by its magnetic field, suggesting water builds up over time, rather than "raining" down directly from the solar wind.

"These results aid in understanding the lunar water cycle and will ultimately help us learn about accessibility of water that can be used by humans in future missions to the Moon," said Amanda Hendrix, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and lead author of the paper. "Lunar water can potentially be used by humans to make fuel or to use for radiation shielding or thermal management; if these materials do not need to be launched from Earth, that makes these future missions more affordable."

"This result is an important step in advancing the water story on the Moon and is a result of years of accumulated data from the LRO mission," said John Keller, LRO deputy project scientist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Goddard manages the LRO mission for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Funding for the research came from LRO, and the team received additional support from a NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) cooperative agreement.

NASA is leading a sustainable return to the Moon with commercial and international partners to expand human presence in space and bring back new knowledge and opportunities.

Explore further Ingredients for water could be made on surface of moon, a chemical factory

More information: Amanda R. Hendrix et al, Diurnally-Migrating Lunar Water: Evidence from Ultraviolet Data, Geophysical Research Letters (2019). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Amanda R. Hendrix et al, Diurnally-Migrating Lunar Water: Evidence from Ultraviolet Data,(2019). DOI: 10.1029/2018GL081821
Decades of oil spills have left the southern Nigerian region of Ogoniland an environmental disaster zone

Young men in the Ogoniland area of southern Nigeria watch excitedly as engineers excavate heaps of polluted soil for treatment.

Decades of oil spills left their region an environmental disaster zonebut now hopes are high of a rebirth of farming, fishing and clean water.

Alode-Eleme, located outside the oil hub of Port Harcourt, is one of 21 sites that the state-run Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project has earmarked for restoration.

In 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimated that decontaminating Ogoniland could cost a billion dollars (880 million euros) and take 30 years to complete.

In 2016, to great fanfare, the government launched the cleanupalthough it took until January this year before engineers finally arrived.

"We are treating the soil for hydrocarbon contamination so as to make the land fertile for farming and vegetation," said Babatunde Benard, head of engineering firm Earthpro.

"Very soon, the water will be free of hydrocarbons."

Local youth leader Princewill Osaroejiji said he had been sceptical the cleanup would ever get going.

Today, though, he is relieved.

"At last, something concrete is happening," he said. "Very soon our people will begin to drink clean water, go to the farms and fish in rivers."

A cleanup has now begun at one of 21 sites in Ogoniland that the state-run Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project has earmarked for restoration

Devastation

Oil was first discovered in Ogoniland, a region of about 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles) on the northern edge of the Niger Delta, in 1957.

The early 1970s saw the start of major spills that made the region a byword for environmental catastrophe and, later, activism.

The maze of rivers and creeks are slicked black with oil, and nothing grows or survives.

Residents dig boreholes for water, but as soon as the taps are turned on, a smell emerges similar to used engine oil and cooking gas.

In places like Bomu, Bodo, K-Dere and Goi, signs warn residentsas if they needed itthat the water is not fit for use.

At a jetty in Bodo, one sign reads: "Polluted water! Do not drink, fish or swim here."

Some $180 million has been released to clean the water, restore the mangroves and other vegetation, says the head of the cleanup project

But children still swim and bathe in the foul-smelling, oily river.

"Getting clean water is like gold here," said Kelvin, 16. "We depend on this bad water because we cannot afford a borehole."

Anger

K-Dere is home to 52 oil wells owned by the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell but they are not currently in operation.

Shell was the only oil major in Ogoniland but quit production and exploration in the area in 1993 because of community unrest.

The company, which has contributed towards funding the HYPREP cleanup, has another 44 oil wells in the area which are also not currently producing.

However oil pipelines from the rest of the Niger Delta still snake through Ogoniland, leading to occasional sabotage.

Residents dig boreholes for water, and in some places, signs warn residents that the water is not fit for use

Shell plans to resume its operations but faces resistance from the 800,000 local community.

Activists want the firm to admit liability for pollution, pay them compensation and clean up the area.

The firm has been accused of not doing enough to prevent pollution and clean up spills in the delta. In its defence, it blames pipeline sabotage for worsening the problem.

"For cleanup and remediation to be successful, the repeated re-contamination of cleaned-up sites due to crude oil theft and illegal refining must end," Shell says on its website.

In January 2015, it agreed to pay more than $80 million to the Ogoniland community of Bodo for two oil spills in 2008, following a court case brought in London.

And in December the same year, a Dutch court ruled that four Ogoni farmers and fishermen could sue Shell for environmental pollution, potentially paving the way for other cases in the Netherlands.

Ogoniland's maze of rivers and creeks are slicked black with oil, and nothing grows or survives

Years of uncertainty

The UNEP assessment of Ogoniland made stark reading. The study found high concentrations of hydrocarbons and benzene, a carcinogen, in outdoor air and drinking water. In some locations, benzene levels were more than 900 times higher than World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

The head of the cleanup project, Marvin Dekil, said $180 million had been released to clean the water, restore the mangroves and other vegetation.

"A lot has happened since the flag-off in 2016 and now," he said. "Some people might think we are slow, yes.

"We did not want to do things the old ways, so as to achieve a better result."

Decontaminating the soil entails mixing it with a microbial treatment and nutrients that help to break down the hydrocarbons.

Alode-Eleme is the first site so far where the cleanup has begun, although work is due to start at the 20 others in the coming weeks, Dekil said.

Fishermen and traders complain of hard times because of the pollution

Environmental campaigners say locals remain guarded about how and where contaminated soil will be treated.

They also accuse the government agency of ignoring demands for drinking water as part of immediate measures before the work starts.

"HYPREP is only concerned about contract awards because that is an easy way to enrich individuals," said Fegalo Nsuke, who heads the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, founded by the executed writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Fisherman Bigboy Daamabel, who spent hours on the Bonny river, agreed.

"The fish are dead because of pollution. To get a handful, I have to set out early in the morning to the high seas."

As he disembarked from his wooden boat, traders rushed to buy the few fish he had managed to catch.

One trader, who gave her name only as Beatrice, said despite the new activity, people like her still face years of hardship.

The early 1970s saw the start of major spills that made the region a byword for environmental catastrophe and, later, activism

"Fish trading has been the only business I know how to do. But I hardly make enough money because almost all the fish are dead," said the 55-year-old.

"How long shall we continue like this?"

 2019 AFP
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., waits to speak to local residents Friday, March 8, 2019, in the Queens borough of New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Friday rolled out a proposal to break up the biggest U.S. technology companies, saying they have too much control over the economy and Americans' lives.

In her pitch to rein in the influence of tech giants, the Massachusetts senator envisions legislation targeting companies with annual worldwide revenue of $25 billion or more, limiting their ability to expand and forcing parts of Google and Amazon's current business structure to operate as separate entities.

As president, Warren said she would pick regulators who would seek to break up what she called "anti-competitive mergers" such as Facebook's recent purchase of Instagram and Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods.

She made the pitch ahead of a rousing town hall appearance Friday in the New York City neighborhood where Amazon recently scrapped plans to open a new headquarters.

It's Warren's latest effort to shape the policy agenda for the rest of the Democratic presidential primary, coming after earlier announcements of a "wealth tax" plan on households with high net worth and a universal child care proposal.

Her tech agenda, coming at a time of rising public concern about the growing power of the dominant players, could force the rest of her rivals for the 2020 nomination to follow her lead.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks to local residents Friday, March 8, 2019, in the Queens borough of New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

During remarks before a crowd of more than 1,000 people in Queens, Warren touted elements of her new tech-industry plan as part of her stump speech. She took aim at Amazon's search for lavish economic incentives from cities competing for its headquarters, likening the company's efforts to pit areas against each other to the dystopian film "The Hunger Games."

"That's what's wrong with the system. It's not just that big tech companies like Amazon have enormous market power, which they do. They have enormous political power," Warren told the audience, describing the industry's lobbying expenditures as a "good return on investment if they can keep Washington from enforcing the antitrust laws."

It remains to be seen whether Warren will introduce legislation in the current Congress aligning with the first element of her plan. A spokeswoman, Kristen Orthman, said a bill introduction was not imminent.

Warren's latest policy proposal also promised to be a central element of her scheduled visit Saturday to the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.

Sen. Kamala Harris of California represents the tech industry's home state, while Sen. Cory Booker has come under scrutiny for his past ties to tech companiesthough he's stepped up his criticism of the industry in recent years.

Facebook spokeswoman Monique Hall said the company had no comment on Warren's proposal. Representatives for Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Explore further Many shades of meaning behind 'Medicare-for-all'

 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
In this Wednesday, March 6, 2019 photo, provided by the NOAA Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, is an entangled subadult humpback whale that was freed of gear by a team of trained responders off Makena Beach, Hawaii. Officials say a number of private boats helped a team of federal responders free a young humpback whale from heavy gauge fishing gear off Hawaii. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a joint statement Thursday that the "subadult" humpback was first spotted Wednesday morning by a dive boat off Maui. (Ed Lyman/NOAA Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary via AP)

A number of private boats helped a team of federal responders free a young humpback whale from heavy gauge fishing gear off Hawaii, officials said Thursday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a joint statement that the "subadult" humpback was first spotted Wednesday morning by a dive boat off Maui.

The dive boat alerted officials that the whale was struggling, and NOAA's Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary coordinated a rescue effort with the U.S. Coast Guard and others. Several private boats, including a commercial fishing vessel, tracked the whale while waiting for officials to arrive.

The U.S. Coast Guard arrived and attached a tracking beacon to the whale in case they were not able to immediately remove the debris.

NOAA's Ed Lyman, the sanctuary's whale entanglement coordinator, was part of the team that cut the gear away from the whale. The whale was dragging about 500 feet (152 meters) of gear and the thick line was "deeply embedded" in the whale's mouth, he said.

Lyman said when this happens officials will leave a portion of the line where it is to prevent further injury. The line usually falls out on its own once the weight of the entangled debris is removed, he said.

The team was able to cut the line from the whale ahead of its tail, which reduces the risk of it getting further entangled.

In this Wednesday, March 6, 2019 photo, provided by the NOAA Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, trained responders work to free an entangled subadult humpback whale off Makena Beach, Hawaii. Officials say a number of private boats helped a team of federal responders free a young humpback whale from heavy gauge fishing gear off Hawaii. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a joint statement Thursday that the "subadult" humpback was first spotted Wednesday morning by a dive boat off Maui. (Anke Kuegler/NOAA Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary via AP)

The whale was "moderately emaciated" and had light skin and carpets of whale lice on it, Lyman said. "Those are all indicators that it had been carrying this gear for some time, likely months," he added.

It is possible the whale migrated from Alaska or another northern feeding ground with the gear already attached. The trap line that was found in the whale is typically used to catch crabs and other bottom fish in the north Pacific.

"This would not be the first time a whale has dragged gear 2,500 nautical miles," Lyman said. "This looks like it had been active gear, and it probably was up there and yes the whale probably dragged it, and there were impacts shown on the animal."

Lyman said this young humpback has an "excellent chance of surviving" now that most of the line has been cut off.

Hawaiian humpbacks feed in the cool waters around Alaska in the summer and then come to the warmer waters around Hawaii to mate and raise their young in the winter months.

There are are usually about 10 whale entanglement responses each year in Hawaii, Lyman said. There have been nine confirmed entanglements so far this season and 14 last year.

In November, a team of U.S. and international researchers, wildlife managers and federal officials met in Honolulu to discuss a decline in sightings of humpback whales in Hawaii.

Research into the decline points to a food chain disruption likely caused by warmer ocean temperatures in the whales' feeding grounds in Alaska, federal officials said .

Explore further Sickly humpback whale spotted in Hawaii waters

 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Activated chemical species (O 3 , OH radicals etc.) are generated by inducing an atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasma. These species promote desulfurization and denitration reactions with MnO 2 . In this paper, we evaluated the influence of ozone on the desulfurization and denitrification performance of an MnO 2 filter. Credit: Kanazawa University

Diesel engines are widely used in agricultural machinery, vehicles and ships because of their high thermal efficiency. The sulfur contained in diesel fuel is oxidized to sulfur dioxide by combustion. This sulfur dioxide not only harms human health but also causes deactivation of the catalysts used to treat NO x in the exhaust stream.

This problem can be overcome by using sulfur-free fuels based on biomass or clean coal technology, or by installing a desulfurizing filter to remove sulfur oxides upstream of the NO x catalyst. Researchers at Kanazawa university have developed a plasma-assisted MnO 2 filter that produces exhaust free of NO x and SO x . This technology augments the desulfurization properties of MnO 2 with the activity of ozone from an atmospheric-pressure non-equilibrium plasma (Figure 1). Activated chemical species (O 3 , OH radicals, etc.) present in the plasma promote desulfurization and denitration reactions.

MnO 2 reacts with sulfur and nitrogen oxides to produce sulfates and nitrates, respectively. The interaction between SO 2 and NO 2 degrades the performance of MnO 2 catalysts in eliminating both species. Prof Huang of the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion analyzed the MnO2 catalyst material after exposure to simulated exhaust gas containing both SO 2 and NO 2 and found that both manganese nitrate and manganese sulfate were produced.

Ozone generated in an atmospheric-pressure non-equilibrium plasma was passed through the MnO 2 filter together with simulated exhaust gas. The simulated exhaust gas consisted of 500 ppm SO 2 , 500 ppm NO 2 ,10wt% O 2 , 6wt% CO 2 , an N 2 base, and 50 ppm O 3 (when plasma is induced). The MnO 2 was supported on an alumina honeycomb filter and the flow conditions (space velocity of 104 h?1) mimicked typical vehicle exhaust streams and filter dimensions. Credit: Kanazawa University

We evaluated the impact of ozone on the performance of the catalyst for SO 2 and NO 2 removal (Figure 2). An atmospheric-pressure non-equilibrium plasma was generated by the dielectric barrier discharge method. The performance of the catalyst in eliminating both SO 2 and NO 2 was improved by the introduction of ozone at a low concentration of about 50 ppm. The enhancement in NO 2 elimination was particularly notable. The introduction of ozone seems to give a reaction to reduce nitrogen oxides to nitrogen. At the initial stage of the reaction, over 99% of SO 2 and NO 2 were removed from the exhaust stream. The Kanazawa University researchers, led by Yugo Osaka, demonstrated for the first time that zero emissions of NO x can be achieved even in the presence of sulfur oxides by using a plasma-assisted MnO 2 filter. The plasma-assisted filter seems to augment the elimination of SO 2 because of SO 3 generation and also reduce nitrogen oxides to nitrogen.

These findings are expected to be widely applicable in the purification of exhaust from diesel engines using sulfur-containing fuels. We have clarified the mechanism by which the induction of the non-equilibrium plasma augments the performance of the MnO 2 filter. We hope to spur further development of plasma-assisted MnO 2 filters and thus allow for a greater diversity of fuels to be used without adversely impacting air quality.

TEM images (a, b) of HSSA MnO 2 (MnO 2 having a high specific surface area of about 300 m2/g) and photographs (c, d) of the HSSA MnO 2 filter supported on alumina honeycomb used in these experiments. MnO 2 was laminated onto the alumina honeycomb substrate by the dip coating method. The packing density of MnO 2 was 50 g/L of filter Credit: Kanazawa University

More information: Yugo Osaka et al, Basic study on exhaust gas purification by utilizing plasma assisted MnO 2 filter for zero-emission diesel, Separation and Purification Technology (2018). Yugo Osaka et al, Basic study on exhaust gas purification by utilizing plasma assisted MnOfilter for zero-emission diesel,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.seppur.2018.12.077
Visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday warned against borrowing money from other countries for projects, saying it is better for countries like the Philippines to grow within its own means. In an interview with GMA resident analyst Richard Heydarian, Mahathir was asked about his thoughts on dealing with foreign investments in light of the Philippines aggressive borrowing to finance 75 projects aimed at boosting the economy and making the country more competitive. READ: Government debt rose to P7.5 trillion as of January If you cannot repay, youll come under the influence or direction of the lender... If you cannot pay your debt, you find yourself subservient to the lender, Mahathir said. It is better for us to grow within our means. If you have the capacity to borrow, it must be because we can repay. But when you borrow money which we cannot repay, you are endangering your own freedom. The Malaysian leader also vowed to extend help to the Philippines in resolving insurgencies in Mindanao, saying they only weaken nations. We know that such insurgencies only weaken nations. Only peace brings about wealth and prosperity. As long as there is result to conflicts and wars, there will be no development, he said. President Rodrigo Duterte and Mahathir reached an agreement on security cooperation after their expanded bilateral meeting at Malacanang on Thursday. The Malaysian PM left the country at 3 p.m. yesterday.Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez has assured the public that the Philippines is not drowning in debt to China. He said the government had been screening its debt to China using the same standards as with any other loans. The Duterte administration has committed to invest over P8 trillion until 2022 on the 75 projects. This pushed the countrys total debt to a new high of P7.293 trillion in 2018. In relation to Chinese investments, Mahathir, the worlds oldest national leader, reiterated that the influx of foreigners to one country might have adverse effects. We dont mind them setting up plans to produce goods. But when it comes to developing whole towns and cities and probably bringing their people to live there, that may have a very bad political effect on the country, Mahathir said. Earlier reports said at least 200,000 Chinese had flocked to the Philippines since 2016, many of them employed by online gaming firms that cater to Chinese players. READ: Government debt jumped by P758 billion to reach P7.2 trillion in November
BALUTAN

READ: Lawmakers

seek

revamp of PCSO
Before abortions legalization, most women with unwanted pregnancies were forced to turn to illegal, unregulated, and expensive abortionists. But in Chicago, those who could discover the organization code-named Jane found at least some level of protection and financial help. Laura Kaplan, who joined Jane in 1971, has pieced together the histories of those who broke the law in Hyde Park to help care for thousands of women in what they called the Abortion Counseling Service of Womens Liberation. The women of Jane transformed an illegal procedure from a dangerous, sordid experience into one that was life-affirming and powerful.

First published in 1995, Kaplans history of Jane remains relevant todaywith abortion rights once again in the crosshairs in the United States, while draconian measures already make abortions functionally inaccessible to many. Read on for an excerpt from chapter two of the new publication of Kaplans groundbreaking text.

Population control groups with an ominous eugenics slant joined the ranks of those lobbying for reform. They raised the specter of a dangerous global population explosion among the poor. In that view women were again, as in the medical model, the objects, not the subjects, of the abortion debate. Since their arguments supported the power of professionals to determine what was best for women, abortion was potentially a weapon used against women, rather than a tool for womens liberation. Population control groups were attacked as genocidal by Third World activists and communities of color. The first massive trials of birth control pills were carried out on poor women in Puerto Rico and Haiti. Although hospital boards approved far fewer abortions for women of color than for white women, reports of sterilization abuses in Puerto Rico and among women of color in the United States were beginning to surface in the media. In fact, while Jenny was begging for a tubal ligation, she had heard from her contacts in the radical medical community that poor women in public hospitals in the city were being sterilized without their consent. Their womens liberation abortion group had to reframe the arguments for abortion in terms of the control over their lives that individual women had a right to, regardless of their economic status or race.

They spent hours on the nuts and bolts of what they might do. How would they handle medical emergencies, such as a women with serious complications from an abortion? What if someone died? What would they do if one of the doctors they used was arrested, or one of them was arrested? How would they handle a police investigation? Claire cautioned them to maintain only minimal records so that, in the event of a raid, the police would find nothing incriminating. For security reasons they decided to keep their two main functionscontacts with the doctors who performed abortions, and contact with the womenseparate. One group member would initially speak with each woman and put her in touch with a counselor in the group. Someone else would be responsible for contacting the doctors and arranging for her abortion. Each counselor would follow up with the women she saw. Claire had the names of a few doctors but they knew they would have to expand on that list. How were they going to find new doctors? And how would women who needed abortions find them? They joked about handing out flyers on street corners. They tried to explore every logistical question they could think of, but they knew the answers would have to come from actual experience.

Claire had learned all she knew about abortion from the doctor on Sixty-third Street. If they planned to expand the operation, they needed more information. When they researched abortion in the library, they discovered that not only was there almost nothing on abortion but there was almost no information about womens bodies and womens health written for lay people. What each of them knew about her body she had found out through her personal medical problemsJennys Hodgkins disease, Karens fertility work. From one study of legal abortions in Sweden that they were able to locate, they learned that the basic procedure was fairly simple and, when performed by a competent practitioner, had few complications.

Since abortions in most states in the United States were illegal except to save the mothers life, most doctors knew little about them. The group suspected the accuracy of what they read in American journals, since those were likely to be tainted by lack of experience and the authors biases. They realized they would have to get the information they needed from other, possibly unofficial, sources and one source was going to be women who had abortions.

They continued meeting through the spring, but now, at Claires direction, rather than holding philosophical discussions, they practiced counseling techniques and sat in on counseling sessions. From Claire and a few women who had been working with her, they learned to describe the abortion procedure and to answer the questions women were likely to ask. They talked about ways to deal with the various emotions, like shame and self-blame, that women expressed in counseling sessions. Along with the medical information Claire wanted them to address the political dimensions and give each woman a sense that her personal predicament was part of the larger socioeconomic-racial-sexual struggles that were going on at that time.

Throughout those months of preparation Jenny kept thinking, Just give me the names and the numbers and were ready to go. Powerless, we were powerless, Jenny says, with the same impatience she felt then. We didnt even have the name of a person who could do abortions. We had this strict ideological teacher who insisted on our learning our lessons before she was going to give us any telephone numbers.

Late in the spring, they picked a name for their group: the Abortion Counseling Service of Womens Liberation. But they also needed a simpler code name. As they worried over the details of their work, Jenny said, It looks like were creating a monster. Lorraine answered, Well, in that case, I like my monsters to have sweet names, like Fluffy or Jane. Jane seemed a good choice. No one in the group was named Jane and Jane was an everywomans nameplain Jane, Jane Doe, Dick and Jane. The code name Jane would protect their identities while protecting the privacy of the women contacting them. Whenever they called a woman back or left a message for her, they could say it was Jane calling. No one else would know what the call was about. And having someone to call by name might make women more comfortable.

At the end of the training process Claire had them write a pamphlet to use for outreach and education. Jenny thought of it as their final exam. The pamphlet, Abortiona womans decision, a womans right, begins with the question: What is the Abortion Counseling Service?

We are women whose ultimate goal is the liberation of women in society. One important way we are working toward that goal is by helping any woman who wants an abortion to get one as safely and cheaply as possible under existing conditions . . . .

After a few words about the Abortion Loan Fund and a section describing the abortion and follow-up, the pamphlet continues:

. . . . the current abortion laws are a symbol of the sometimes subtle, but often blatant, oppression of women in our society . . . Only a woman who is pregnant can determine whether she has enough resourceseconomic, physical and emotionalat a given time to bear and rear a child . . .

The same society that denies a woman the decision not to have a child refuses to provide humane alternatives for women who do have children . . . .

The same society that insists that women should and do find their basic fulfillment in motherhood will condemn the unwed mother and the fatherless child.

The same society that glamorizes women as sex objects and teaches them from early childhood to please and satisfy men views pregnancy and childbirth as punishment for her immoral or careless sexual activity especially if the woman is uneducated, poor or black.

Only women can bring about their own liberation. It is time for women to get together . . . to aid their sisters . . . and make the state provide free abortions as a human right . . . .

There are currently many groups lobbying for population control, legal abortion and selective sterilization. Some are trying to control some populations, prevent some birthsfor instance poor people and black people. We are opposed to these and to any form of genocide. We are for every woman having exactly as many children as she wants, when she wants, if she wants.

Its time the Bill of Rights applied to women . . . . 

Throughout the winter and spring, attendance at meetings ebbed and swelled from five to fifteen women. By late spring, when they were ready to begin the actual work of counseling and referring, the group had winnowed down to a handful of committed women.

The months of meetings had given the core group a sense of each other and a cohesiveness. They were prepared. Karen remembers their exhilaration: This was our issue, not our mens issue, not our kids school, but ours. For the first time we had something that was our own and that was exciting.

Their last task was to divide up the work. Lorraine took the phone contact. She would be Jane; her home phone number was listed in their pamphlet. Karen continued to contact women with money to donate to the loan fund. Jenny and Miriam volunteered as the doctor contacts, the people to deal directly with the abortionists. Since the group was so small, every member, on top of her other duties, would be responsible for counseling women. For the time being they kept what they were doing word of mouth and grass roots, notifying other womens liberation groups around the city, using their pamphlet to get their message and phone number out. Claire handed Jenny and Miriam the contact names and phone numbers for the doctors and then she was gone.

It was, in Claires memory, a remarkable group. She loved being with women who were going to take this problem seriously and do something about it. They were clear thinking and goal oriented and there was little of the internal bickering that Claire was finding so wearing in student and Left politics. These women seemed decent and caring, both about each other and about the women they were going to be helping. That group of women, Claire muses, whether we were made that way because of the struggle and the things we had to face, or whether we were that way and therefore attracted to it, I dont know. Jenny was so sensitive and insightful and straightforward and truth telling. You had to be both inspired and carried along by working with her. Lorraine and Karen were efficient and methodical, and Miriam, the oldest of us, with more experience in the world, brought a kind of mothering instinct to the group. No one was pretentious or b.s.

The Story of Jane is available now! Find it on our website, online at any major booksellers, or at your local bookstore.

Laura Kaplan is a lifelong activist and a founding member of the Emma Goldman Womens Health Center in Chicago. She is a contributor to Our Bodies, Ourselves. You can learn more about her work here.
Sexism, difficulties balancing family and professional life, and threats both on and off line are a reality for women journalists around the world. On the sidelines of the (Un)Covered: Investigative Journalism for Europe conference organized by the European Centre for Press & Media Freedom and held earlier this year in Berlin, RFE/RL Jiri Dienstbier Journalism Fellow Masha Durkalic spoke to women investigative journalists Geesje van Haren (the Netherlands), Sanne Terlingen (the Netherlands), Pavla Holcova (Czech Republic), and Cecilia Anesi (Italy) about the challenges of their profession from a gender perspective.

When I was in journalism school in the Netherlands, my teacher told me to go and work at a woman's magazine, says Gessje van Haren. I said 'Hell no! I wanted to work in investigative journalism.

Van Haren decided in 2004 to set up her own media company, Vespers.nl, a platform for investigative journalism. Among their ongoing projects is Lost in Europe, an investigation into the disappearance of 10,000 migrant children after their arrival on the continent. The project is a collaboration of journalists from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy.

A Different Approach

Sanne Terlingen, who reports for the investigative program Argos VPRO aired on public radio in the Netherlands and also contributes to Lost in Europe, investigates human trafficking, sexual abuse of children, corruption, and migration, stories that regularly bring her in contact with some of the most vulnerable in society.

This is sometimes a problem, because I always hear that as a woman I empathize too much with the people in my stories, so I cant be critical, Terlingen said. For example, when Im working on something about sexual abuse of children, I hear from colleagues, She is identifying too much with this or she is being too sensitive about this topic and she wants to protect the victims. But I am critical, and I always fact-check my stories.

The empathy some women journalists show for their subjects, often derided as uncritical, can also be an advantage when working with marginalized groups.

We've been working on rape cases, and it was really useful to have women on the team to talk to the victims, said Cecilia Anesi, who is the co-founder of the Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI), which has carried out several high-profile investigations in southern Italy on topics like misuse of public funds, organized crime, and corporate wrongdoing.

In Southern European culture the perception is still that women shouldnt wander around doing dangerous jobs, Anesi said.

Prejudicial questions about womens fitness for the role aside, the long hours, low pay, and danger associated with investigative journalism can make combining work and family life a challenge for some women in the profession.

If you want to have a family at some point, investigative journalism is a hard career choice. Right now, I could not have kids, because I wouldn't have enough money to raise them.

Knowing Your Worth

Pavla Holcova founded the Czech Center for Investigative Journalism, which investigates topics ranging from arms smuggling to organized crime.

If I sometimes feel underestimated, it's by a white man of a certain age, which is basically a nickname for those who are old school, said Holcova. They often make skeptical comments, insinuating we dont know how to do our jobs properly and are not persistent enough.

As a woman who also founded her own investigative journalism platform, van Haren can relate to the experience of being unfairly criticized by older, male colleagues, particularly those working for more established media companies.

In the beginning, people from companies that had existed longer than mine always treated me like a little girl, she said. They would tell me, youre just a small organization, so you cant do this or that, and Id say watch me!

The perception that women are underestimated by the media establishment is supported by the evidence. In the most recent comprehensive report studying this issue globally, the 2011 Global Report on the Status of Women in News Media by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), reported that 73 percent of the highest managerial positions in journalism are occupied by men.

While investigative journalism can be a dangerous profession and carries risks for all practitioners, sexualized threats and harassment both on and off line are an added concern for women.

Attacks and Harassment: The Impact on Female Journalists and Their Reporting, a study conducted by the IWMF in 2018, found that 63 percent of women journalists were threatened and harassed online; 58 percent have been threatened or harassed in person; and 26 percent of them were physically attacked. The respondents often cited a gendered slant to the attacks.

Asked to give advice to young women wanting to enter the field of investigative journalism, the journalists said the key is for women in the profession to support each other and believe in themselves.

Help each other instead of competing. Use the advantages you have, said Sanne. Don't try to be a man. Try to be yourself.

Masha Durkalic is a journalist and feminist from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). In 2011 she began to focus her reporting on womens and LGBTI rights. Durkalic is the editor of the first LGBT info portal in BiH, LGBTI.ba. She is the author and editor of the publication Her Voice Echoes, a compilation of personal stories about women and investigative articles that explores the position of marginalized groups in BiH, and the co-creator, co-author and editor of the book #ZeneBiH, the first illustrated book on exceptional women throughout the countrys history.
TV-2 in Tomsk, Siberia, was among the last free and independent regional media outlets in Russia. But the company's unfettered journalism was not in sync with the country's increasingly restrictive political climate. The station's broadcasts were shut down without explanation at the end of 2014.

RFE/RL correspondent and former Tomsk TV-2 journalist Melani Bachina, who documents TV-2s story in Death Of A Station: The Rise And Fall Of Free Media In Russia, told RFE/RL Pressroom that the film illustrates not only the channels plight but the fate of independent media in Russia. With more than 100,000 views online and across social networks, her portrait about the power of a free press and how it can be silenced has resonated with audiences throughout the country.

RFE/RL Pressroom: Why did you make this documentary?

Melani Bachina: It was important for me to make this documentary not only because it forms part of my personal history, but also because I understood that the shutdown of TV-2 is not just a story about the closure of an independent television company in a small Siberian city. This is a story about a period of time, a story about choice, not only for the journalists who worked for TV-2 but for independent journalism. By sharing the fate of TV-2, I wanted to address the fate of free media in Russia and what has happened to it during Putin's era.

TV-2 turned out to be a vivid example of how independent media outlets emerged in the country, how they developed and flourished, and how they were destroyed. It was not by chance that the film received so many reviews. All sorts of viewers and journalists agreed that the documentary is about all of us.

Most importantly, the documentary explores the price of a compromise made by many Russian journalists and media managers when Putin entered in to power. It asks, where is the line? Must we give up our principles to survive, or is it better to remain true to our principles and die? This question is answered differently by the films protagonists, and the audience is left to draw their own conclusions. The fate of those who made compromises and those who refused to do so has taken shape in different ways.

I believe that this film is valuable for understanding what happened to independent media in Russia, from the moment journalists gained freedom of speech until they lost it  some of them by their own free will and others against it.

Pressroom: What impact has your documentary had in Russia?

Bachina: It is difficult for me to judge the impact of the film and how it was perceived in Russia, but I received a huge amount of positive feedback and not a single negative response. Many representatives of our profession, not only journalists and media managers, but also university teachers, wrote and said how important it was to make such a film in order to try to comprehend and understand what has happened to the profession of journalism in Russia over the past 25 years. People wrote in with words of gratitude about how important it was to collect the facts and tell this story.

I hope that this tremendous work was not done in vain and that we were able to answer some of the questions that torment people about the profession of a journalist. We were able to document what represents for many of us a difficult piece of history in the profession of journalism and its place in Russia.

-

Melani Bachina joined RFE/RL 14 years ago as a radio presenter before continuing her work as a freelancer in Russia, joining Tomsk TV-2 as a reporter and presenter in 2004. When Tomsk TV-2 was closed down by Russian authorities in 2014, Bachina joined RFE/RL to work on the launch of the Current Time Russian-language network. She is now a senior writer and producer for the Russian Service.

Contact her at LeonovaM@rferl.org
About Me Scott Because prophetic scriptures are found throughout the bible, it is obvious that a comprehensive, systematic approach would be useful, if not necessary, for the understanding of prophecy. Past prophecies have been fulfilled in a literal manner, as confirmed by the dating of these writings and historical records of confirmation. These past prophecies also serve as a model of how to interpret future prophecies. A literal view of prophecy clearly indicates a certain sequence of events will occur within a single generation, concluding with the Tribulation and Second Advent and these events will be obvious. The prophetic signs appear to be present in this generation and we believe these signs are revealed in the news from around the world. View my complete profile
DOWN, DOWN, DOWN. Jun Nunez, head wortks controller (inset) changes the numbers to properly reflect the water level at the La Mesa Dam which is now at a low level following the scorching heat of the tropical sun, not helped any by the threatening El Nino phenomenon. Manny Palmero

The water level in La Mesa Dam reached its lowest in 12 years on Friday and may go down to its critical level of 69 meters in the next two days in the latest sign of the worsening El Nino phenomenon The state weather bureaus dam monitoring section said that as of 6 a.m. Friday, La Mesa Dams water level was at 69.16 meters, 7 meters lower compared to the same period last year. READ: Avert water shortage, use supply wiselyMWSS Meanwhile, the water level of Angat Dam, which supplies 97 percent of water in Metro Manila, is at 201.75 metersstill over its critical level of 180 meters, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration said. Manila Water earlier said increased water demand of around 1.7 billion liters per day as a cause of the decreasing water level.] READ: Manila Water limits supply Also, San Jose town in Occidental Mindoro province is now under a state of calamity, as 11 island villages and 17 agricultural villages in the area continue to experience severe drought. According to Jojo Santiago, one of the farmers in San Jose, it has become difficult for them to get water after their well dried out. Our well dried up. We have another source of water supply but it is starting to dry up, too, Santiago told UNTV News. In another development, grid operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines has placed the Luzon Grid under yellow alert for several hours on Friday, the third consecutive day it has advised that the grid is suffering from low reserves. The company said it declared a yellow alert from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and then again at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.This is due to insufficient operating reserve. Yellow Alert means that the reserve power is low, the company said. Municipal Agriculturist Rommel Calingasan said they experienced El Nino too early this year, and that they usually experienced it in April and May. READ: Agriculture prepares to cushion El Nino We already felt the drought in January. Our farmers already felt their irrigation supply weakening, and at the same time the water current in our rivers slowed down as well, Calingasan said. Over 4,000 farmers in San Jose are affected by El Nino with over 1,300 hectares of farmland destroyed. The total damage cost over P55 million. It is too hot, we already requested for cloud seeding. Unfortunately, during evaluation there is no possible source of clouds to start the process. Zamboanga was the first city that was put under a state of calamity due to severe drought. Water production in the area has already decreased by 50 percent with 600 hectares of the farmlands affected. Meanwhile, the local government allotted P13 million for mitigating measures including cloud seeding operations, the rental of tankers for water distribution, the purchase of alternative crops, drilling rigs for farmers and others. READ: El Nino impact heats up early, drought in 22 provinces seen
BROTHERS FOR PEACE. President Rodrigo Duterte and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad clink their glasses for a toast underlining their countries being partners for progress during the state banquet hosted by Duterte in Malacanang on Thursday. Malacanang

READ: BI crackdown vs. illegal aliens picks up steam
BeijingChina has offered to conclude negotiations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea by 2021. In a press conference here Friday, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said more member states of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations supported their proposal to conclude the COC negotiations in three years. The COC negotiation is gathering pace under a clear road map. China offers the goal of concluding the negotiations in three years, in other words by 2021, Wang said. It shows Chinas seriousness and commitment to this endeavor. And more and more Asean members agree with and support Chinas proposal to speed up the negotiations. Wang made his statement even as President Rodrigo Duterte and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad called for the peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea, and for an effective code of conduct to help promote a sea of peace, stability, and prosperity. The two leaders held a bilateral meeting in Malacanang on wide-ranging issues, including enhancing cooperation on security, trade, and investment, and peace and development in the Bangsamoro autonomous region. We emphasized the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, security, stability, safety, and freedom of navigation and overflight over the South China Sea as well as the peaceful settlement of disputes, Duterte said. This is without resorting to the threat or use of force in accordance with the universally recognized principles of international law.Wang did not disclose details of the COC as the talks were still underway, but he noted that it would be an upgrade of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea or the DOC. It will be more suited to our regions need, more effective in regulating the conduct of the parties to provide stronger safeguards for safety and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and neighboring China and Asean members to build trust, manage disagreements, strengthen cooperation and maintain stability, Wang said. He said China and the Asean should stay focus on the COC discussions and shield the negotiations from interference. He said the peace and stability of the region was in the hands of the involved countries in the South China Sea issue, and the COC should be developed and honored by these nations. The South China Sea situation has stabilized and improved in recent years. This positive turn of events proves that the due track approach is a right way forward, Wang said. The South China Sea situation concerns regional stability. We must live up to this responsibility.
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So fight nice, kids.


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ParisA penis enlargement procedure cost a billionaire diamond trader his life, as he suffered a heart attack on the operating table of an upscale medical clinic in the City of Lights.

According to local media reports, Ehud Arye Laniado, 65, ultimately died from complications during surgery. The Belgian-Israeli dual national was said to have suffered the deadly heart attack just moments after getting an unknown substance injected into his penis. Citing Belgian media reports, The Sun on Wednesday claimed Laniado was a victim of the so-called Napoleon complexmeaning he was obsessed with his small size. While Laniados net worth is unknown, he had been forced to hand over more than $5 billion in penalties to Belgian authorities after getting into trouble for tax evasion. His company, Omega Diamonds, confirmed his death in a statement Wednesday.Farewell to a visionary businessman, the statement said. The diamond trader always focused on his appearance and how others perceived him, according to one friend, who spoke to Belgiums GVA newspaper. He reportedly checked his bank account multiple times a day just to make himself feel better. It turned out that he did have some talents, explained one friend. Internationally, he was one of the biggest experts in valuing raw diamonds.
After Amazon successfully put a majority of its retail "brick and mortar" competitors out of business, it is now cracking down on its own supply chain.

In Jeff Bezos latest move to boost flagging profits and razor-thin margins at the company's core e-commerce business, Amazon abruptly stopped buying products over the past two weeks from many of its wholesale vendors, encouraging them to instead sell their products directly to consumers on Amazons marketplace, even if that means disrupting relationships with longtime suppliers and potentially limiting customer choice. And, according to Bloomberg which cited consultants who help clients sell on Amazon, thousands of vendors are affected.

The departure from the company's traditional business model of serving as logistical middleman between buyers and sellers, is pushing suppliers directly onto the marketplace - rather than selling products itself - and lets Amazon offload the risk but more importantly, the cost of purchasing, storing and shipping the merchandise. Instead, leveraging its quasi-monopolistic scale, Amazon is moving to charge suppliers for these services while taking a commission on each transaction, resulting in much higher margins per transaction. The disruptive strategy is part of a larger effort to reduce overhead by getting more suppliers to use an automated self-service system that requires no input from Amazon managers.

Commenting on the change in the company's traditional operating model, Amazon responded to Bloomberg that it regularly reviews its selling partner relationships "and may make changes when we see an opportunity to provide customers with improved selection, value and convenience." What it meant is that it is now big enough to extract an even greater profit from each transaction as the company's vendors have no other choice.

And while their options may be limited, the vendors were not only shocked by the change in strategy, they are also furious: the abrupt cancellation of orders prompted panic this week at the ShopTalk retail conference that drew more than 8,000 retailers, brands and consultants to Las Vegas. Related: What's Behind New York's Struggling Housing Market?

Some attendees said Amazon stopped submitting routine orders last week for a variety of products, often without explanation. The drought continued this week, affecting more vendors and leaving them frustrated about the lack of communication from Amazon.

One vendor who has been selling products to Amazon for five years said he got a canned response when he inquired why his routine weekly purchase order never came through. The response gave him no clarity about his standing as a vendor, he said.

Meanwhile, unless sellers adopt to the new way of transacting, they could be stuck with massive losses as they find themselves with significant inventory, they are unable to find buyers for. As Bloomberg explains, because many suppliers source products from manufacturers months in advance, "theyll have to quickly shift their sales tactics if the expected Amazon orders dont come in."

Now more Amazon vendors will be forced to sell on the marketplace or risk getting stuck with unsold inventory, said Will Land, CEO of Marketplace Valet, an e-commerce logistics provider and consulting firm in Riverside, California.

When you get used to those big checks, he said, its hard to pull away.

If youre heavily reliant on Amazon, which a lot of these vendors are, youre in a lot of trouble, said Dan Brownsher, Chief Executive Officer of Channel Key, a Las Vegas e-commerce consulting business with more than 50 clients that sell more than $100 million of goods on Amazon annually. "If this goes on, it can put people out of business." Brownsher was among several consultants who said Amazons move has affected thousands of vendors. Related: Scientists Take Rare Look Inside 'Wire Gold' Specimen

In some ways the move shouldn't have come as a surprise: in recent years, Amazon has increasingly prioritized its marketplace. More than half of all products sold on Amazon in 2018 came from marketplace merchants, while revenue providing services to those merchants is growing at double the pace of revenue from the online store. This is reflected in the company's "sum of the parts" valuation: according to Evercore ISI analyst Anthony DiClemente, the marketplace business is worth about $250 billion, more than double the value of the online retail business.

It's almost as if having put many of its less efficient competitors out of business, Amazon has "gone hostile" against the very people who made its ascent to the throne of online retail monopoly possible in the first place.

Which once again begs the question: is Amazon a monopoly, and when will the FTC finally be forced to me a determination. One thing is certain: as Bezos - and Amazon - seek to also directly influence consumer behavior, don't be surprised not to find any mention of just how "capitalistic" Amazon has become, say, on the pages of the Washington Post, which is bundled as a "free" subscription to any paying member of Amazon Prime.

By Zerohedge

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Reducing the U.S. trade deficit has been a key plank of President Trumps policiesand a big reason why he has been playing hardball with U.S. trading partners. With that in mind, the latest revelation that the key metric has been expanding under his watch will probably rile him and give the Republican administration some food for thought.

A trade deficit, or surplus, is the difference between how much goods and services a country imports from other countries and how much it exports. A trade deficit is said to occur when imports to a particular country or region outstrip exports.

The latest data shows that in 2018, U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world jumped to $621billion (472.5 billion), a 10-year high. As a share of the economy, the deficit widened to 3 percent of GDP to 2.8 percent the previous year.

Still, the gap is only half the 6 percent average in the decade preceding the Great Recession.

Trumps policies to blame

The U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world widened to $1.01 trillion last year from $935.3 billion the previous year after eliminating the influence of currency fluctuations. The petroleum gap, however, shrunk to $141.7 billion as U.S. crude exports increased.

Its not like the rest of the world has suddenly gone cold on U.S. products, though.

Official data shows that both imports to, and exports from, the country grew, only that imports grew significantly faster thus widening the deficit. Exports during the period grew $148.9 billion but imports grew at an even faster clip--$217.7 billion. The $59.8 billion gap is the biggest since 2008.

One notable exception to that trend is China. The Chinese actually bought less American goods in 2018 than they did the previous year, yet Americans continued buying Chinese merchandise at a torrid pace. The trade deficit between the U.S. and China widened by $43.6 billion to $419.2 billion as U.S. exports to China fell while imports rose.

Trump has frequently cited the long-standing trade deficit between the U.S. and its trading partners as evidence that his predecessors trade policies had failed. He has even accused countries like China of ripping off the United States and demanded that they lower their tariffs on U.S. goods and also buy more of them.

Related: Abysmal Retail Sales Have Wall Street Scratching Head

Yet in the two years he has served as president, the trade gap has grown to $119 billion, and its not clear that it will shrink significantly even if he completes an accord to end tariff wars with China as cooling global growth is set to continue weighing on exports while healthy domestic demand keeps the import economy thriving.

Trumps trade policy are actually to blame for an even bigger trade deficit last year. The 25 percent tariffs that he threatened to impose on Chinese imports led to a phenomenon known as frontloading, whereby importers rushed to stockpile on goods ahead of the new duties as evidenced by a sharp increase in incoming traffic at West Coast ports.

Conversely, the retaliatory tariffs by Beijing took a big hit on major U.S. agricultural products such as soybeans with soybean shipments declining $4 billion.

Moreover, Trumps threat to impose tariffs on the European Union led to a similar effect by slowing the regions appetite for American goods while encouraging U.S. importers to binge on EU products.

In 2018, the deficit between the U.S. and the EU also increased by $17.9bn to $169.3bn. Encouragingly, Washington lifted tariffs on EU steel and aluminum after Trump and EC president, Jean-Claude Juncker, reached a truce last year and might choose to do the same to European car and parts.

Trade deficits are Ok

Many experts do not share Trumps obsession with trade deficits. In fact, some contend that a trade gap could be a sign of a healthy economy. For decades, the U.S. normally runs a deficit in merchandise and a surplus in services with goods accounting for roughly three-quarters of Americas total trade.

Is the availability of cheap labor overseas coupled with American profligacy responsible for the widening gap? Probably not; rather, the trigger for the rising deficit probably has its roots nearly half a century ago when President Nixon decided to take the U.S. off the gold standard in 1971. That monumental decision forced global investors to become a lot more selective regarding where they invest their money internationally.

By Alex Kimani for Safehaven.com

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" " The Lunar Library consists of all the world's knowledge and information on 25 DVD-sized disks made of pure nickel, each only 40 microns thick. Bruce Ha/Arch Mission Foundation

Rest easy, because much of the entirety of human knowledge has been backed up, and is on its way to the moon on an Israeli spacecraft called the SpaceIL "Beresheet" lunar lander. It will be among the solar system's first off-Earth libraries, and the only technology the aliens or post-apocalypse humans will need to access the data will be a rudimentary microscope  something we've had knocking around our planet since the 1700s.

That's cool, but do we need an Earth library on the moon? The answer is, nobody knows, but it's not a bad idea.

Advertisement

Nobody likes to think about what the apocalypse might be like or when it could come, but there's a non-profit organization that's thinking about that so you don't have to. The Los Angeles-based Arch Mission Foundation exists solely to produce and disseminate backups of humanity's most important knowledge, both on Earth and around the solar system. The project started as a childhood dream of co-founder Nova Spivack, who was inspired by Issac Asimov's "Foundation" novel series about a group of scientists who get wind of the collapse of civilization and work furiously against time and assorted intergalactic warlords to protect the collected works of humanity  and perhaps even humanity itself  before everything goes to pot.

Determining whether or not our civilization is on the way out is not the job of the Arch Mission Foundation, but according to some anthropologists and historians, the average lifespan of a regular old civilization is about 336 years. Often a civilization's demise is partly self-inflicted, and partly the product of outside pressures like climate change and environmental degradation, bureaucracy, social inequality and war.

What the Arch Mission Foundation wants to do is create an archive of what humanity has worked out over the past 5,000 years or so, and disperse these information caches all over the solar system and even in cave systems, on mountaintops and in underwater locations here on Earth so they can be retrieved later. In addition to the library headed to the moon (it's scheduled to touch down on April 11, 2019), there is another already in the glove compartment of the SpaceX Tesla Roadster that has been in orbit around the sun since February 2018. It'll just keep doing that indefinitely  in case anybody needs a compendium of human knowledge, that's one place to look.

But just how did the Arch Mission Foundation decide what information to include in the Lunar Library and the other information-caching missions?

"The Lunar Library contains a comprehensive back up of humanity's most important knowledge," says Matt Hoerl, the production director for the Arch Mission Foundation. "We try to curate other curated data sets that represent a broad and inclusive range of perspectives, experiences, ethnicities, nations, traditions and cultures in order to accurately reflect the entire scope of human diversity. No matter what we do, it is never going to be possible to satisfy every different group completely, so the only solution is to have so much storage space that curation really is not necessary. In the not-so-distant future, there will be enough space on the Arch Libraries for virtually everything that anyone wants to include."

What the Arch Mission Foundation's team of scholars and scientists have deemed to be humanity's most important knowledge come in the form of open data sets from the Wikimedia foundation, The Long Now Foundation, Project Gutenberg, and the Internet Archive, as well as many other data sets contributed by individuals and organizations. Basically, it's the proverbial kitchen sink of information crammed into 25 DVD-sized disks made of pure nickel, each only 40 microns thick.

Storing information in space is actually pretty tricky  especially if you want it to last billions of years. The Lunar Library, for instance, will not only have to withstand space radiation, but also the extreme heat and cold of the moon's surface. Because pure nickel doesn't decay and has no half life, it's basically indestructible, even in space. The top four disks in the Library have more than 60,000 extremely tiny images etched into them  photos and pages of books in a format called Nanofiche, so whoever finds them will only need a magnifying device in order to peruse the data.

The deeper layers of the library require a computer to retrieve the information, which tells us a little bit about the intended audience of the Arch Mission Foundation's work  they're doing this for future humans, not the aliens.

"Our hope is to provide an accurate picture of our past to beings in the distant future, and to do that we have to transmit not only our successes and triumphs, but also our mistakes and things we have come to regret," says Hoerl. "We do not want to see any history erased."

Now That's Interesting This is not the first time humans have launched information into interstellar space. In the 1970s, NASA sent up the Golden Record, which included greetings in 55 languages and musical recordings including some Johann Sebastian Bach, Navajo chanting and Chuck Berry's "Johnny Be Good."
Huitzuco de los Figueroa, MexicoMaria Herrera is scraping at the earth on a hill in the town of Huitzuco, in southern Mexico, looking for the mounds or sunken spots that indicate a decaying corpse. At 70 years old, Herrera is hoping against all odds to find her four missing sonstwo who disappeared in 2008, and two who vanished in 2010 looking for their brothers. Every time we come to one of these nasty places, we suffer.... Who heard their screams of pain? Who heard their last words? she said through tears as she dug in the dirt with a group of 100 other activists in the violent state of Guerrero. The small, gray-haired grandmother is the face of a dirty secret that has haunted Mexico for years: the countryside of Latin Americas second-largest economy is littered with bodies. More than 40,000 people are missing in Mexico, which has been swept by a wave of violence since the government declared war on the countrys powerful drug cartels in 2006. Herrera regularly goes out searching for her sons with other relatives of the disappeared. But she is also part of a smaller, even more tragic group: some 20 families who have lost children not once but twice when the ones who remained went looking for their missing siblings and ended up disappearing too. Herreras family comes from Pajacuaran, a small town in western Mexico where most people are farmers or emigrate to the United States. She and her husband decided they wanted something different for their eight children. They started a small business selling household goods door to door, then used the profits to launch a nationwide gold exchange. Part of the business, she said, involved traveling the country to buy and sell goldwhich is what Jesus Salvador, then 24, and Raul, then 19, were doing in Guerrero in 2008. Traveling with five employees in an SUV carrying nearly $90,000 in cash and gold, they did not realize a bloody cartel turf war was just breaking out in the state. My brothers had no idea when they arrived, said Juan Carlos, 41, their older sibling. He and his family believe a local cartel mistook the brothers and their co-workers for members of a rival group and had some crooked cops arrest them. Such stories are not uncommon in Guerrero. It is the state where 43 student protesters disappeared in 2014 after being arrested by state police, who apparently handed them over to cartel hitmen -- a notorious case that drew international condemnation and remains unsolved. With no news of their sons, and fed up with the lack of answers from the authorities, the Herreras hired private investigators and began searching on their own. Their situation got more desperate in February 2009, when Herreras husband died of a stroke. Taking up the family gold business -- and using their travels to search for Jesus and Raul -- two more brothers, Gustavo, then 27, and Luis Armando, then 25, started criss-crossing the country.Sometimes the drug traffickers take their victims somewhere else. Maybe well find them in another state, Herrera said Gustavo told her. They were on such a trip when they, too, disappeared. Moments after Gustavo called his wife to check in, on September 22, 2010, the brothers were detained by police in Poza Rica, in the eastern state of Veracruz -- another cartel hotspot known for hit squads run by corrupt cops. The family believes the police decided to get rid of the pair when they realized they were searching for missing persons. Looking for the missing can be dangerous in Mexico. Herreras latest group, the Fourth National Missing Persons Search Brigade, had to be escorted by federal police. Juan Carlos, her 41-year-old son, was attacked by an unknown gunman six months ago while organizing another search party. He managed to escape by jumping over a wall. Herrera has long given up hope of finding her four youngest children alive. But she wants to find their bodies to achieve some sort of closure. She joined her first search party in 2016, in Veracruz, and has since become an expert, learning the trade from forensic anthropologists -- things like how to hammer metal rods into the ground in a T to release any smells of decaying flesh. Her latest group found seven bodies during its two-week search. Others like it have found many more. Officials say there are probably more than 1,000 unmarked burial sites in Mexico. Unfortunately, the country has become a giant clandestine grave, Mexicos under-secretary for human rights, Alejandro Encinas, said recently. On top of that, there are around 26,000 unidentified bodies in the forensic system, according to the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office in December. His government recently announced a new plan to search for the missing, including a new forensic institute. Identifying the bodies languishing in the system would be a good start, said Herrera. Well keep looking. But please, for the love of God, let them identify the ones weve already found, she said.
The American multinational software company Citrix disclosed a security breach, according to the firm an international cyber criminals gang gained access to its internal network.

The American multinational software company Citrix is the last victim of a security breach, according to the company an international cyber criminal gang gained access to its internal network,

Hackers were able to steal business documents, but its products or services were not impacted by the attack.

Citrix discovered the intrusion after being notified by the FBI on March 6, 2019, the company announced to have secured its network and hired a forensic firm to assist with a forensic investigation of the inciden.

On March 6, 2019, the FBI contacted Citrix to advise they had reason to believe that international cyber criminals gained access to the internal Citrix network. reads a statement published by the company.

Citrix has taken action to contain this incident. We commenced a forensic investigation; engaged a leading cyber security firm to assist; took actions to secure our internal network; and continue to cooperate with the FBI.

FBI believes attackers used the password spraying technique to access the network and once inside, they worked to obtain more privileges, the company confirmed that an investigation is still ongoing.

While not confirmed, the FBI has advised that the hackers likely used a tactic known as password spraying, a technique that exploits weak passwords. Once they gained a foothold with limited access, they worked to circumvent additional layers of security, continues the statement.

Citrix deeply regrets the impact this incident may have on affected customers. Citrix is committed to updating customers with more information as the investigation proceeds, and to continuing to work with the relevant law enforcement authorities.

The security breach doesnt appear to be linked to the recent wave of attacks against cloud service providers that were attributed to China-linked APT groups (Operation Cloudhopper).

According to a report published by NBC, the software company was hacked by the Iran-linked APT group Iridium that penetrated the company years ago and have remained inside its computer network ever since.

Pierluigi Paganini

( SecurityAffairs  data breach, hacking)

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 Madoff gets sentenced to max of 150 years in federal prison! | Main | It was 37 years ago today, SCOTUS jurists decided to play... 

June 29, 2009

A new white-collar benchmark: the main reason the number 150 matters in Madoff

As many people recognized in anticipation of Bernie Madoff's sentencing, any prison term of 20 years or more was a functional life sentence for the 71-year-old super Ponzi schemer. And, notably, the presentence report for Madoff apparently recommended a term of 50 years, perhaps to give him a kind of break due to his decision to plead guilty and also because this was double the 25 years given to Bernie Ebbers for what was previously thought to be the biggest corporate fraud sentenced in New York federal courts.

But the government argued for a maximum permissible statutory sentencing term of 150 years in prison, and Judge Denny Chin apparently decided that only this term was "sufficient, but not greater than necessary" to achieve the purposes of punishment than Congress set out in 3553(a)(2). And though the choice of this magic sentencing number of 150 years  as opposed to 30 years or 50 years or 100 years  really means very little to Bernie Madoff, it could end up meaning a lot to the government and to some future defendants as a new white-collar sentencing benchmark.

Before Madoff, defendants like Ebbers and Jeff Skilling and others prominent white-collar defendants who were sentenced to around 25 years often served as the functional benchmark for sentencing debates for corporate fraudsters. In more than a few prominent white-collar cases, both the feds and defense attorneys would often compare and contrast the defendant to be sentenced to Ebbers and Skilling and the sentences they were given. Now, the most prominent benchmark will be Madoff and the number 150.

Because there will be few other Madoffs (we all hope), I suspect that few other defendants will also get the magic number 150. But if the original Madoff got only about 15 or 20 years in this case, lots of lesser fraudsters likely would be claiming that they deserved only a few years because Madoff caused so much more harm. But now that Madoff got 150, only the prosecutors are likely to be talking about the sentencing benchmark that his case has now set.

UPDATE: Ellen Podgor has lots of effective early commentary here at White Collar Crime Prof Blog.

June 29, 2009 at 12:33 PM | Permalink

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You raise some interesting points. Madoff's sentence is an example of the one-way ratchet in action. The public gets used to the idea that 25 years is about right for guys like Skilling and Ebbers, and heck, even Jamie Olis (later overturned). For Madoff, suddenly 25 years looks like leniency, even though it's the functional equivalent of life.

Now, if Skilling and Ebbers had gotten the 5-year sentences they deserved (assuming arguendo that both were guilty, which they denied), then 25 years for Madoff would look harsh. As I recall, Michael Milken (who admitted guilt) only served about 5 to 7, right?

Posted by: Marc Shepherd | Jun 29, 2009 12:55:53 PM

While Bernie Madoff's 150 year sentence comes in the highest profile white collar case ever, the longest white collar sentence in American history still belongs to Sholam Weiss, who received 745 years in 2001 from Judge Patricia Fawcett in the Middle District of Florida,after a 9 month long trial. See,"bop.gov", National Inmate Locator.

Like Madoff, Weiss received the statutory maximum sentence, although the damage caused by Mr. Weiss was much less than that caused by Mr. Madoff ($745 million vs. $65 billion). Mr. Weiss is more than 15 years younger than Mr. Madoff's 71 years, so he will probably serve far longer in prison before dying than will Mr. Madoff. Ironically, Mr. Weiss and Mr. Madoff are both New York Jews, who know one another from Wall Street. They may eventually end up in the same prison. Mr. Madoff will be designated to a prison by the B.O.P. and moved from the M.C.C. to that prison within 30 days or less. Given the length of Mr. Madoff's sentence, he will probably start off in the Bureau of Prisons in a maximum security pentitentiary, which houses many violent inmates, including gang members. In pentientiaries, 2/3 of all inmates have life sentnces, and 85% are serving 30 years to life. Given Madoff's age, with good behavior, he will probably eventually (within 2-3 years) be transferred to a somewhat safer medium security prison, where sentences average about 25 years. Even after spedning a few months in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhatten, Madoff has little idea what is waiting for him in a pentit- entiary. In Federal prison, all inmates, regardless of age, except those medically incapable of it, are required to hold jobs and work. The minimum maintenance pay is $5.25 per month. Madoff's life, as he has known it, is over and the rest of his biological life will be spent in a kind of living hell, although physical torture is not expressly permitted in U.S. prisons. His existence will be grim.

Posted by: Jim Gormley | Jun 29, 2009 1:12:08 PM

Marc: My memory of Michael Milken's case is somewhat different. For the detaills, refer to the book about Milken, "The Predators' Ball" (which was the unofficial name of his firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert's annual Christmas party in Beverly Hills, where employees' annual bonuses were announced). Milken originally received a 10 year paroleable sentence (pre-Guidelines, which came into effect in November 1987) for insider trading, not fraud. That sentence was reversed and remanded on appeal, and Milken was released from prison after serving only 2-3 years.

The Bureau of Prisons was pretty hard on Mr. Milken. They had him scrubbing floors in the dining hall for several months, before they let him become a G.E.D. tutor, teaching other inamtes who were seeking to earn their high school equivalancy diploma in prison.

To determine Milken's sentence, Judge Kearse (a black woman) had to make a factual finding the amount of financial harm caused by his crime. She determined that amount to be a paltry $360,000 or so. In addition to his prison time, Milken paid a $500 million dollar fine, but still had more than $500 million of net worth remaining. Today, Milken is a billionaire and a major philanthropist for research into on prostate cancer, from which he suffered and was treated following his release from prison. Milken's Application for a Presidential Parson made to President George W. Bush in 2008 was not granted, so Mr. Milken remains a convicted felon.

Posted by: Jim Gormley | Jun 29, 2009 1:30:57 PM

This still does nothing to explain why the line shouldn't be 50 rather than 150 say, and still stinks of absurdity. No one alive today is older than 113.

One argument on appeal ought to be that under 3553, any sentence that is not expressly a life sentence, that puts you in prison until longer than age 113 is unnecessary.

The benchmarking purpose described is relevant to a point, but not to the point where one gets into zombie in prison sentences.

Posted by: ohwilleke | Jun 29, 2009 4:03:03 PM

A sentence of 150 years flatly ignores the parsimony provision of the Sentencing Reform Act. Naturally, it will be entitled to a presumption of reasonableness since it is within the guideline range of life (assuming that circuit affords a presumption of reasonableness to within guideline sentences). It is difficult to surmise, however, just how a 50 year sentence or some other random number that will ensure Madoff never leaves prison would not be sufficient to satisfy the purposes of sentencing.

Posted by: Gogigantes | Jun 29, 2009 4:37:29 PM

I am an ex-felon. While a sentence of 150 years for this man seems like a lot, it is paltry in comparison to the harm that he committed. I have already served 22 years on a 20 year sentence for a $10,000 Mail Fraud, in which the court declared that I pay no restitution because the government failed to demonstrate I stole any money. He will spend the rest of his life in prison at age 71, I spent the prime of my life (28-50) in prison.

The paralells to Ebbers, Skilling, Miliken are non-existent and only serves to demonstrate the inequity in our criminal justice system.

Posted by: mark schmanke | Jun 29, 2009 6:13:33 PM

To me it is clear--150 manipulates the BOP classification system to keep Bernie from occupying a relatively more comfortable berth, at least during the first few years of his sentence. No Martha-Stewart-ish accommodations for The Bern. The breathtaking scale of his offense does not make a life sentence seem in violation of the parsimony principle (actually it is extremely hard to gauge--nothing to compare it with. Well, gauge it with the experience of Mr. Schmanke--not outrageous for Bernie at all, though Mr. Schmanke's sentence strikes me as ridiculously harsh). So 25 years for a 71 year old is a life sentence. I am not particularly upset with the 150 because the parsimony principle for Bernie is a nullity after he dies in, lets say, 25 years.

Posted by: t | Jun 30, 2009 11:44:06 AM

I was in a rural courtroom in Southern Illinois 30+ years ago where a judge sentenced an elderly male defendant to 15 years in prison. The defendant upon hearing the pronouncement of sentence said: Judge "I cant do fifteen years!" To which the Judge replied: "Well do as many as you can."

I suppose that if this particular NY judge comes up for nomination to a seat on the court of appeals he will sail through his confirmation hearing.

Yeah, Madoff stole a lot of money. But he did not expose the identity of a CIA agent to the world and thus seriously endanger the lives of every person who had lunch, dinner, casual conversations, or passing acquaintance with that agent in the third world dictatorships where she had operated in. If Madoff's handle was Scooter instead of Bernie he would have gotten less time.

Posted by: mpb | Jun 30, 2009 1:15:44 PM

AHA--additional fallout from the 150 year sentence: the court ruled that Sir Stanford's bond is revoked because it now regards him as a flight risk. Although not articulated, could it be because a judge might think that Sir Stanford, seeing the whacking long sentence given to The Bern, might vote with his feet and what is left in his off-shore accounts, and flee to a hidden but free rest-of-his-life somewhere beyond the reach of the law?

Posted by: t | Jun 30, 2009 5:52:32 PM

Yo Gormley -- "Judge Kearse (a black woman)"? WTF?

Posted by: anonymous | Jul 9, 2009 5:43:10 PM

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 "Proportionality Theory in Punishment Philosophy: Fated for the Dustbin of Otiosity?" | Main | Paul Manafort given (only?) 47 months in prison at first federal sentencing 

As reported here a few weeks ago, the new Governor of Ohio has imposed something of a de facto moratorium on executions because of concerns over the state's(historically troubled) lethal injection protocol. This new local article, headlined "DeWine delays three more executions due to lethal drug concerns," reports on the last official manifestation of this unofficial execution moratorium:

After urging from a federal judge, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine delayed three more executions today.

DeWine has said he doesnt want to carry out another execution until the judges concerns with Ohios current method are addressed. He has directed the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) to come up with a new protocol after federal Magistrate Judge Michael Mertz said the current three-drug protocol will certainly or very likely cause (the one being executed) severe pain and needless suffering.

David Stebbins, assistant federal public defender who is involved in Ohio death penalty cases, called the governors move a commendable first step. But the defense lawyer noted Ohioans still have no indication of what the new protocol will be, when it will be made public, or what kind of litigation schedule may ensue. On the current schedule, there is no guarantee that proper vetting can occur before the first execution in September.

In January, DeWine issued a reprieve of execution to Columbus killer Warren Henness, who had been scheduled to die Feb. 13.

So this morning DeWine delayed the death dates for Cleveland Jackson, who was scheduled to be executed May 29, to Nov. 13; Kareem Jackson, set for July 10, moved to Jan. 16, 2020; and Gregory Lott, slated for Aug. 14, now scheduled for March 12. This was not the first delay for Lott, a Cuyahoga County killer; he originally was scheduled for execution on Nov. 19, 2014.

DeWines office said the reprieves were granted because it is highly unlikely that the states new execution protocol, which is still in the process of being developed by DRC, would have time to be litigated by scheduled execution dates. Governor DeWine is also mindful of the emotional trauma experienced by victims families, prosecutors, law enforcement, and DRC employees when an execution is prepared for and then rescheduled.
 Ohio Governor officially postpones three more scheduled executions | Main | "3 more steps to make 'First Step Act' work" 

March 7, 2019

Paul Manafort given (only?) 47 months in prison at first federal sentencing

I worried that my prediction this morning that Paul Manafort would get 100 months at his first federal sentencing was a little low. Turns out, I was way too high: he got only 47 months today. Here are some details from The Hill:

A federal judge on Thursday sentenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison, well below the amount recommended in sentencing guidelines. The sentence handed down by Judge T.S. Ellis III, a Reagan appointee, was significantly less than the 19.5 to 24 years advised in federal guidelines. Ellis, in remarks from the bench, described Manaforts financial crimes as very serious but said the guideline range was not at all appropriate, and pointed to significantly more-lenient sentences handed down in similar cases. Manafort, who turns 70 next month, appeared in court in a wheelchair and wore a green jumpsuit. His prison sentence will include time served, meaning nine months will be knocked off for the time he has already spent in jail. As a result, he will be incarcerated for three years and two months. He was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and up to $24 million in restitution. Youve been convicted of serious crimes -- very serious crimes -- by a jury, Ellis said to a packed courtroom after a lengthy sentencing hearing in federal court in Alexandria, Va., that lasted nearly three hours. However, he added, I think that sentencing range is excessive. I dont think that is warranted in this case. Manaforts attorneys earlier this month asked for leniency, citing their clients age, poor health, low risk of reoffending and assistance in Muellers probe. On Thursday, defense attorney Thomas Zehnle pointed to other cases in which defendants received much less prison time for similar crimes. In remarks shortly before receiving his sentence, Manafort described himself as humiliated and ashamed of his behavior and for the pain he had caused his family. He thanked Ellis for a fair trial twice and asked him for compassion. My life professionally and financially is in shambles, Manafort said. To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement, I intend to turn my notoriety into a positive. However, Manafort did not express remorse for his actions -- something Ellis noted before handing down the punishment. I was surprised that I did not hear you express regret, said Ellis. That doesnt make any difference on the judgment that I am about to make  but I hope you reflect on that. Manafort was convicted by a jury in August of eight criminal charges -- five counts of filing false tax returns, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to report foreign bank accounts. The financial crimes were uncovered during special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. His case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia marked the first criminal trial in the Mueller probe. But as the defense noted, Manaforts crimes had nothing to do with Russian election meddling or collusion with the Trump campaign.... To avoid a second criminal trial on separate charges in Washington, D.C., Manafort reached a plea deal with Mueller that involved his full cooperation with federal prosecutors. But the federal judge presiding over his case in D.C. found that he lied to investigators and a federal grand jury about subjects material to Muellers investigation into Russian meddling and possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Manafort was initially scheduled for sentencing in early February, but Ellis postponed the hearing to let Judge Amy Berman Jackson in D.C. determine whether Manaforts misstatements were unintentional, as he had argued. Ellis said at the time he thought Jacksons ruling could impact his own sentencing of Manafort. Sentencing in the D.C. case is scheduled for Wednesday. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for conspiracy against the U.S. and conspiracy to obstruct justice by tampering with witnesses. Jackson will decide whether he should serve those years consecutively or concurrently with the ones handed down by Ellis. Manafort could walk free from federal punishment if President Trump decides to pardon him, but its unclear whether the president plans to pursue that avenue. The New York Times recently reported that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. is planning to bring state charges against Manafort regardless.

A few quick points in reaction:

1. Though I do not know exactly when Manafort will get out, I can confidently predict he will not serve exactly 47 months for two reasons: (a) he may get consecutive time at his next sentencing next week (and I suspect he will), and (b) he will surely earn good-time credits and perhaps have others means of getting released earlier as an elderly offender. (Good-time credit alone could get him seven months off possibly resulting in his release before the end of 2021 on the sentence he received today).

2. I have already seen lots of Twitter commentary complaining this sentence is way too lenient, but I sense many of the complaints really stem from folks rightly seeing a lot of other sentences as way too harsh. Title 18 USC  3553(a) calls upon a federal judge to impose a sentence "sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to comply with" traditional sentencing purposes. I have a hard time developing forceful arguments that a nearly four-year prison term for a nearly 70-year-old man, plus a $50,000 fine and $24 million in restitution, is not sufficient in response to a nonviolent crime.

3. Roughly a decade ago, when Bernie Madoff got a max sentence of 150 years, I speculated in this post about prosecutors using that high number as a sentencing benchmark in all sorts of other white-collar cases. Now I am thinking that Paul Manafort has produced a new kind of white-collar sentencing benchmark that now should be of great use to defense attorneys. Notably, not only was Manafort facing a guideline range of 19.5 to 24 years, but he went to trial and never fully accepted responsibility or even showed remorse. "If unremorseful Manafort only merited 47 months in prison," so the argument should go from many defense attorneys, "this white-collar defendant should get even less."

March 7, 2019 at 07:15 PM | Permalink

Comments

I think, if the guidelines are inappropriate in this case, they're more or less never appropriate and they need to be reexamined. He did everything wrong in the case, including affirmatively demonstrating lack of remorse or willingness to change after being convicted. I mean, I tend to agree that the guidelines seem excessive, but they need to make sure that's consistently applied in the future.

That being said, I don't think you can bring up his age when it comes to the sentence and then bring up the fine as if it's meaningful. He's almost certainly never going to pay that.

Posted by: Erik M | Mar 8, 2019 6:41:22 AM

I am wondering, not having any familiarity with the case law in the Fourth Circuit, how does Judge Ellis's explanation of his reasons for going this far below the guidelines match up with the reasonableness analysis done by that Circuit. I know that prior to Booker, the explanation of a downward departure was generally something that the judge found significant in the case that was not considered by the guidelines. But, at least the stories that I have seen seem to suggest that Judge Ellis just basically held that he did not agree with the guidelines. Is that something that could cause problems if the government appeals the sentence as unreasoanble?

Posted by: tmm | Mar 8, 2019 10:49:18 AM

One possible unspoken reason for this low sentence is the specter of a pardon. A harsh sentence would give Trump one more piece of rhetorical lumber in support of a pardon. This sentence removes that opportunity.

Posted by: Daniel | Mar 8, 2019 12:58:37 PM

1. The government can appeal the sentence --unless they bargained that away in the plea agreement, but I doubt that.

2. "Otherwise blameless life." I have argued that as a grounds for a downward variance hundreds of times; often successfully--albeit not to this degree.

3. A few weeks ago I wrote here that I thought Manafort's sentencing memorandum was very powerful and persuasive. I guess the judge thought so too. Kudos to his attorneys.



4. I would have given him more, but a four year sentence, or even a two year entence, for a near 70 year old is not a picnic. And then the cursed supervised release to follow!

Posted by: Michael R. Levine | Mar 8, 2019 1:47:34 PM

"I have a hard time developing forceful arguments that a nearly four-year prison term for a nearly 70-year-old man, plus a $50,000 fine and $24 million in restitution, is not sufficient in response to a nonviolent crime."

I tend to agree with that statement more than I disagree. I think a higher sentence was probably appropriate for a number of reasons; I think the judge ignored some important aggravating factors. But, that being said, I think the greater point here is the absurdity of the guideline itself.

My take away: The public should not be hung up on the amount of downward variance. It should be hung up on the height of the guideline to begin with.

Posted by: DEJ | Mar 8, 2019 8:27:30 PM

Agreed, DEJ, and I think some of the aggravating factors come in the ambit of the case before Judge Jackson. I think Judge Ellis wanted to give Judge Jackson some room to give effect to those factors. Lets see if she does.

Posted by: Doug B. | Mar 8, 2019 8:52:04 PM

Manafort is only being prosecuted because he was associated with Trump. That's a problem.

Posted by: federalist | Mar 9, 2019 7:50:05 AM

federalist, I would be eager to hear what you think would be appropriate judicial remedies/responses to this problem you have identified. E.g.,

-- Do you think a federal judge should be allowed to dismiss a prosecution he believes was brought for a questionable political purpose?

-- Do you think a federal judge should "discount" what sentence will be imposed in a (successful) prosecution he believes was brought for a questionable political purpose?

Posted by: Doug B | Mar 9, 2019 10:06:58 AM

Federalist seems to be the one putting forward a political grudge. It may be that Manafort was *investigated* only because he was associated with Trump, but the investigation led to prosecutable facts. The jury agrees. His association with Trump put him under the microscope, but a look through that lens revealed clear criminality.

Posted by: Jeffersonian | Mar 9, 2019 10:53:05 AM

"Do you think a federal judge should "discount" what sentence will be imposed in a (successful) prosecution he believes was brought for a questionable political purpose?"

I am not federalist but I will interject to say that my answer to this question by Doug B. is an unqualified "yes." Indeed, we see this mechanic play in the Schock case. He owes his freedom right now to Sotomayer pointing out that his initial charges were likely brought for questionable political purposes.

Posted by: Daniel | Mar 9, 2019 11:10:10 AM

Here's two other questions for you, federalist:

-- Police get a search warrant for Person A's computer to search for financial crimes. While validly conducting that search and looking in places authorized under the warrant, police find a trove of child pornography, both that he possessed and produced. Do you think Person A should be prosecuted for child pornography possession and production, or should police just turn a blind eye?

-- Police get a search warrant for Person B's house to search for stollen items. While validly conducting that search and looking in places authorized under the warrant, they find evidence that Person A is the leader of a major drug organization. Do you think Person A should be prosecuted, or should police just turn a blind eye?

Manafort is similar to Person A in both examples. It is NOT true to say he was prosecuted "because he was associated with Trump". Manafort was prosecuted because during an investigation, law enforcement discovered evidence of serious crimes he committed.

After finding evidence of serious crimes he committed, any decision NOT to prosecute Manafort would have been the "political" decision.

Posted by: DEJ | Mar 9, 2019 12:00:26 PM

Not a lawyer, but criminals are often sociopathic. Since they don't know the difference between right and wrong, they are using bad judgement in many endeavors and so that would be a reason to have a little more latitude in surveilling them and in overseeing them to protect society from them



Posted by: alponso | Mar 9, 2019 1:30:08 PM

My point in the above post was that since some criminals commit multiple crimes because of their sociopathy, society should have the option to look or other crimes when exercising a warrant that has meet whatever warrant thresholds exist to be legal/

Posted by: alponso | Mar 9, 2019 1:33:48 PM

The problem is not so much that the sentence was too low. Manafort's sentence contrasts with the absurd sentences handed down for far less harmful conduct. It highlights the enormous chunks of people's lives we devour for virtually any infraction that gets labeled a "felony". It's not that Manafort's sentence was too low: it's that other peoples' sentences are too high.

Posted by: Chris Jenkins | Mar 9, 2019 5:41:29 PM

Would Manafort have been charged or even investigated without his involvement with Trump? Keep in mind that his crime had nothing to do with his involvement in politics, regardless of his culpability. I'll be blunt: I find this aspect of his crime FAR MORE CHILLING than the lack of actual time that falls "within guidelines." Considering that Bob Menendez walked despite more comprehensive evidence against his financial shenanigans is indicative of the disconnect between members of different political parties and their punishments, or lack thereof.

And now Congress has potentially 80 people to investigate, and they will undoubtedly find crimes among them to attempt to get to Trump. Obviously, Democrats will disagree with this assessment, but the problem will exacerbate in the future if this is the new criminal investigation norm.

Posted by: Eric Knight | Mar 10, 2019 12:03:57 AM

Federalist and others say Manafort was prosecuted only because of his association with Trump.

Perhaps so. But this just shows that everyone whom Trump touches gets dirty. See "Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever Kindle Edition

by Rick Wilson (Author)"

Posted by: anon13 | Mar 10, 2019 12:12:18 PM

@anon13:

That's a ludicrous argument. "Dirty" is relative, unfortunately, to political bent, and as I have stated before, when politics enters the arena all investigations should restrict itself to the case at hand; in this case collusion with Russia. The fact that a political party can go after everyone of another political party to drum up charges is essentially enough to tell me we don't need Sentencing Law and Policy anymore, as all arguments can be construed two ways, RELEVANT facts be damned to smithereens, and the only pragmatic way to settle the arguments is on a Civil War battlefield. I don't mean to sound facetious, but I see no solution to this problem short of either war or complete destruction of the US Constitution. Pick and choose.

Posted by: Eric Knight | Mar 11, 2019 12:14:22 AM

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FILE PHOTO: A general view of Saint Peter's Square and the city of Rome is seen from the cupola of Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican March 14, 2013. REUTERS/Paul Hanna/File Photo

By Pamela Barbaglia, Stephen Jewkes and Arno Schuetze

LONDON/MILAN (Reuters) - European private equity firm Apax is sounding out prospective bidders for Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, a deal that could value the Italian IT services firm at more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.68 billion), sources told Reuters.

Apax bought about 37 percent of the firm in 2016 in tandem with investment firm NB Renaissance. The pair have since taken majority control and delisted the business from the Milan stock market.

Apax is now exploring strategic options to cash out of the company in a bid to take advantage of its strong performance, the sources said.

Rome-based Engineering - which serves various public sector institutions, banks, telecoms and utilities - is one of Italy's biggest technology firms providing anything from big data and analytics to business process management and cloud computing.

In 2017 its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose 13.5 percent to about 123 million euros while its revenues were up 10.1 percent to 1 billion euros.

A possible sale could be worth more than 1.5 billion euros, two sources said, representing a multiple of more than 12 times its 2017 core earnings. One source said Apax is targeting a valuation well in excess of that figure.

While a final decision has yet to be made, Apax has held preliminary talks with other private equity investors to gauge interest in a possible buyout, the sources said.

An initial public offering (IPO) is seen as another way to extract value from the business, one of the sources said, adding a return to the Milan bourse was first considered last year and remains an option.

Apax and NB Renaissance declined to comment.

Engineering employs about 11,000 staff and has been on a hiring spree in the past four years, recruiting about 1,000 people per year.

It plans to hire an additional 500 people by the end of the summer.

Apax has yet to select advisers and is expected to do so when it has received sufficient interest for the business to launch an auction process, likely to take place in the second half of the year, the sources said.

Story continues

"It's on everyone's radar screen," a banking source said, adding bilateral discussions with interested parties were taking place.

"They're sounding out the market," another source said, pointing to a possible auction process after the summer.

Engineering, whose operations span Europe, the U.S. and Latin America, is led by Chief Executive Officer Paolo Pandozy.

Founder Michele Cinaglia still has 12 percent of the company while the balance is equally split between Apax and NB Renaissance.

Engineering has carried out a series of acquisitions in recent years to help boost growth.

Last year it bought Tuscan business process outsourcing specialist Infogroup to reinforce its domestic operations.

Apax has frequently invested in technology companies across Europe. On Feb. 26 it sold its stake in Dutch firm Exact Software to KKR.

In 2014 Apax bought Norwegian IT company Evry and subsequently delisted it from Norway's stock market, only to bring it back to the Oslo stock exchange in 2017.

($1 = 0.8909 euros)

(Reporting By Pamela Barbaglia; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
AlexandriaUS President Donald Trumps former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison by a federal judge on Thursday for tax crimes and bank fraud in the highest profile case yet stemming from Special Counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Judge T.S. Lewis immediately came under fire from Democratic lawmakers for imposing what they described as a relatively light sentence on the 69-year-old Republican political consultant and lobbyist. Prosecutors from the Special Counsels office had argued for a stiff prison term for Manafort, the first target of the Mueller probe to be convicted in a criminal trial. Ellis said that while Manafort had committed very serious crimes, he had previously led an otherwise blameless life and the advisory sentencing guidelines calling for 19 to 24 years behind bars were excessive and disproportionate to sentences for similar offenses. The government cannot sweep away the history of all these previous sentences, the judge said. Manafort was convicted by a jury in August of five counts of filing false income tax returns, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to report a foreign bank account. He is one of a half-dozen former Trump associates and senior aides charged by Mueller, who has been investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. The charges against Manafort were not connected to his role in the Trump campaign, which he headed for two months in 2016, but were related to lucrative consulting work he did for Russian-backed Ukrainian politicians from 2004 to 2014. Prosecutors alleged that Manafort used offshore bank accounts to hide more than $55 million he earned working for the Ukrainians. The money was used to support a lavish lifestyle which included purchases of luxury homes and cars, antique rugs, and expensive clothes, including an $18,500 python jacket. His conviction was a stunning downfall for a man who also worked on the White House bids of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bob Dole. Speaking from a wheelchair and wearing a green prison jumpsuit with the words Alexandria Inmate on the back, Manafort told the court that his life, professionally and personally, is in a shambles. I feel the pain and shame, said Manafort, who the defense says suffers from gout. To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement, he said. Judge Ellis said he did not hear Manafort express regret or remorse but he said the sentencing guidelines were way out of whack. AFP I think what Ive done is punitive, Ellis said. He sentenced Manafort to a total of 47 months in prison for the eight counts and credited him with nine months of time served.Manafort was ordered to pay $24 million in restitution and a $50,000 fine. Manafort still faces sentencing in a money laundering and witness tampering case in Washington next week, where the maximum penalty is 10 years and the judge has appeared more sympathetic to prosecutors. Defense attorney Kevin Downing, speaking after the sentencing, said Manafort accepts responsibility for his conduct. And I think most importantly, what you saw today is the same thing that we had said from day one -- there is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia, Downing said. Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, described Downings remarks as a deliberate appeal for a pardon from Trump, who has denied any collusion with Russia and has denounced the Mueller probe as a political witchhunt. The statement by Paul Manaforts lawyers after an already lenient sentence -- repeating the Presidents mantra of no collusion -- was no accident, Schiff said. One injustice must not follow another. Trump has dangled the possibility of pardons for some of those indicted by Mueller -- including Manafort, whom he has praised as a good man who has been treated unfairly. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, also denounced the sentence. His crimes took place over years and he led far from a blameless life, Klobuchar said on Twitter. Crimes committed in an office building should be treated as seriously as crimes committed on a street corner. During Manaforts trial, much of the damaging testimony against him was provided by his former deputy Rick Gates, who reached a plea deal with the Special Counsels office. Besides Manafort and Gates, four other former Trump associates face charges or have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Mueller investigation. Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials and is awaiting sentencing. Trumps former personal attorney Michael Cohen is to begin serving a three-year prison sentence on May 6 for fraud, tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and lying to Congress. George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was sentenced to two weeks in prison. Another Trump advisor, Roger Stone, awaits trial.


The Work Project has unveiled MARK, a luxury business club only for C-suite executives in Capital Tower (Pictures: The Work Project)



Co-working operator The Work Project (TWP) has opened a new, 44,132 sq ft exclusive business club on the 20th floor of Capital Tower on March 4, named MARK. It accompanies a 11,000 sq ft Innovation Hub on the 24th level of the tower, with venues for workshops, training and conferences of up to 120 people.

On top of demand for conventional office space and a growing requirement for sizeable flexible workspaces, corporate tenants want amenity spaces like MARK, says Junny Lee, founder and CEO of TWP. Through discussion and survey of our customers, we found that there is an unmet need from senior executives to have an exclusive and private gathering space, he adds.

Created in collaboration with award-winning design studio HASSELL, MARK offers a variety of luxury spaces that TWP envisions senior corporate executives may need throughout their workday. There are a selection of private rooms with custom-designed furniture that can be used to host business meetings, exclusive events or celebrations.



We're very fortunate to have partnered with CapitaLand, because we found a partner where our strategic goals are completely aligned," says Lee. (Picture: Albert Chua/The Edge Singapore)



TWP has also partnered with Proof & Co to offer a complementary F&B menu at MARK. This is a club exclusively to the C-suites and senior execs of CapitaLands customers in Capital Tower, says Lee.

In Capital Tower, monthly hot desk membership rates will start from $395, while private offices from $800 per desk. In Asia Square 2, hot desks start from $495, with private office from $800 per desk.

C-Suite tenants within The Work Project and CapitaLand commercial properties will also enjoy a one-year complimentary access to MARK, based on an application process.

Joint venture with CapitaLand

In October last year, CapitaLand invested $27 million for a 50% stake in TWP, which at the time ran two co-working spaces in Singapore and another in Hong Kong. TWP still manages those spaces: in Singapore, they are the flagship 24,000 sq ft space in OUE Downtown and a 15,000 sq ft space in Park View Square; and in Hong Kong, a 36,000 sq ft space at Causeway Bay.

Story continues



The Work Project in Park View Square (TWP)



Since the collaboration, TWP has opened a 41,000 sq ft co-working space at Asia Square Tower 2 in Marina View in addition to the new space at Capital Tower. We're very fortunate to have partnered with CapitaLand, because we found a partner where our strategic goals are completely aligned, says Lee.

According to CapitaLand, Capital Tower and Asia Square 2 would be the first two of its commercial properties in Singapore to offer its office of the future ecosystem. This entails going beyond traditional property management to providing more value-add solutions and community experiences for its office tenants, says Lynette Leong, CEO of CapitaLand Commercial.

The partnership with TWP will support CapitaLand in achieving this transformation. The business club and the shared working spaces by The Work Project enhance CapitaLands core offerings and provide our tenants with excellent additional options, adds Leong.



Corporate clients in Capital Tower want amenity spaces like MARK, where senior executives can have a private gathering space, says Lee (Albert Chua)



The joint-venture partners also acquired the co-working platform of local co-working operator Collective Works, which had entered into a joint venture with CapitaLand to open a 22,000 sq ft co-working space at Capital Tower in 2012.

Singapore expansion

With the opening of the new spaces at Asia Square 2 and Capital Tower, and the acquisition of Collective Works, TWPs footprint in Singapore has expanded to 90,000 sq ft, says Lee.

In May, TWP will open a 12,000 sq ft co-working space at Great World City in partnership with Allgreen Properties, which owns the mixed-use commercial development that includes a shopping mall, office tower and serviced residences.



The Work Project will open a new co-working space at Great World City in May (Picture: The Edge Singapore)

According to Lee, the tenants in the office tower at Great World City comprise a wide mix of companies from shipping, to oil & gas and pharmaceuticals industries. The community there is very different from Asia Square and Capital Tower, and their needs will be very different, he observes. Just as it has done at Capital Tower, TWP intends to conduct character studies to help elevate the eventual user experience of the office-occupiers at Great World City.

The new space in Great World City will have 240 desks, and 40% of the total workspace has already been pre-committed.

Today, TWP has 180,000 sq ft of flexible workspace under its portfolio in Hong Kong and Singapore. Lee reckons the company is the fourth largest co-working operator in Singapore. A majority of the clients are companies engaged in professional services, asset and hedge fund managers as well as law firms. In Capital Tower, some tenants who have already moved in include: specialist communication agency Spurwing Communications, fintech investment firm Forum Capital, as well as digital asset exchange Bibox Singapore.



Most corporate clients that will move into the new space in Capital Tower are financial and professional services firms (Albert Chua)

The company is looking to expand into other key gateway cities in the Asia-Pacific region, specifically Tokyo, Sydney, and Melbourne where most of its key corporate clients are based, says Lee. Other major cities in Southeast Asia such as Bangkok, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur are not currently under serious consideration as most of our major corporate clients do not have a meaningful presence there yet, he explains.

Core-flex model

While growth of the co-working industry was initially spurred by demand from start-ups, most corporates have embraced it as part of their flexible workspace strategy. Unlike startups, corporates are less focused on the networking opportunities offered by co-working spaces. One of the things about our customer group is that privacy is very important to them, observes Lee. The [opportunity] to network is good, but too much is considered bad sometimes.

According to him, corporates are keen to move into flexible workspaces mainly due to cost savings. Technology has also enabled work to be more mobile and there is no reason why offices have to occupy as much space as before. Corporate businesses have become sensitive to how much footprint they really need.



The new Innovation Hub at Capital Tower has venues for workshops, training and conferences (TWP)



To this end, a typical corporate may still sign a long-term lease for 100,000 sq ft but combine this with a lease for 50,000 sq ft of flexible space that they can adjust according to their business needs, he states.

This scenario would usually require the tenant to approach two different providers; the landlord would offer the core conventional lease, while a co-working operator provides the flexible space.

As such, the partnership between TWP and CapitaLand that operates under such a coreflex model for CapitaLands commercial properties will be a one-stop shop that also offers amenity spaces, says Lee.

Capital Tower and Asia Square Tower 2 are the first two office buildings in Singapore to embrace core-flex offerings under this strategy, [and] more exciting offerings are in the pipeline, says Leong of Capita- Land Commercial.

See Also:






The minimum retirement age in Singapore is 62. (Photo: Borja Sanchez-Trillo/Getty Images)

By Melissa Cheok

(Bloomberg)  Singapore may raise its retirement and re-employment ages as citizens enjoy more years of good health and demonstrate sustained productivity at work.

The retirement age, which is now at 62, and re-employment age, 67, are set to be raised, though the exact timing of the changes and by how much have yet to be determined, the countrys Minister of Manpower Josephine Teo said in parliament on Tuesday. This comes after a working group comprising individuals from the government, labor unions and private sector in the city-state reached a consensus on the matter, she said.

A higher retirement age will motivate both workers and employers to invest in skills upgrading and job redesign for older workers, while increasing the re-employment age will afford companies the flexibility to reset employment terms, like salary and job scope, to cope with business uncertainties, Teo said.

We should carefully consider the timing and pacing of these moves, Teo said. Countries looking to raise their retirement ages typically make their intentions known five to ten years in advance. She cited Denmark, where its retirement age is set to go up from 65 to 68 by 2030, over 11 years.

The Southeast Asian nation, grappling with an aging population, has been attempting to ensure it remains a vibrant economy by limiting restrictions on high-skilled foreign labor as well as re-balancing its education system in order to attract investment and encourage enterprise.

 2019 Bloomberg L.P
Knowing how the Copyright Act works is important. Copyright serves to defend the way in which something is being communicated, and not the substance itself. This is also known as the idea and expression dichotomy. Examples of things that can be protected include artistic expressions such as music, art, script, computer programmes, film, photographs, choreography, engravings, sculptures, and source codes.

Youcan earn money through copyrights

As an intangible property, copyright can be purchased, sold, licensed, and exploited. As the copyright owner, you can prevent others from publishing, adapting, performing, reproducing, or communicating your work to the public. An infringement of copyrights happen when a substantial portion of the copyrighted works quality has been copied or when commercial gain is reaped. For instance, the copyrighted material can be sold or rented to others without permission from the owner. In such cases, while legal action can be taken against the party who infringed on your copyright, alternative dispute resolutions in the form of negotiation or mediation can be considered too.

By selling your copyright, you will transfer orassign ownership of that copyright to a third party. If you lease it, the otherparty will be able to use your copyrighted work in specific ways over apre-determined period of time. As such, you can create revenue streams throughyour copyright.

Copyrightis automatic.

Copyright is automatic inSingapore. This greatly differs from trade marks or patents in whichregistration is formalised. Once an author produces something in a tangibleform, copyright protection will follow immediately. Tangible forms includepieces of writing, or a recording saved in a thumbdrive. As such, it may beuseful for authors to e-mail a read-only soft copy version of their work atthe time of creation to proof that the work is created by them.

For a copyright to be valid, theoriginal work in question must also be produced with a sufficient degree ofindependent effort from the author. As such, the paragraphs of writings orrecording of melodies that you have been working on are all protected bycopyright, even though it is not officially registered.

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It is useful to note that the c symbol representing copyright () is also not necessary, although preferred. Having the symbol does not give the author any additional rights at all. However, having the symbol may affect the damages claimed should there be an infringement. It is advisable for copyright owners to print their names and the year of publication together with the copyright symbol.

Knowing the above is important to prevent infringements of copyright, which can scar your brand image and reputation. In 2015, Hotel Indigo Singapore Katong, a boutique brand of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), was found to have lifted Artist Richard Lees illustrations without permission in their publicity materials. This created bad press for the company.

Authors do not necessarily own copyrights.

Inmost cases, the author of a piece of work is the owner of the copyright.However, if you are an employee working for an employer, the work created byyou while being employed typically belongs to your employer. This is, unless,if you are a journalist working for a newspaper, periodical or magazine. InSingapore, your employee will have the rights to publish or reproduce yourworks during employment. However, as the author, you retain the right to alsopublish the work for other purposes, subject to the employment contract signed.

Thecopyright for commissioned works also typically go to the commissioning party,who is the person paying the author.

You can obtain copyrightpermission through various ways.

Seeking permission to use a copyrighted material goes beyond etiquette. It is imperative to note that wilful copyright infringement is considered to be a criminal offense, with a statute of limitations being six years. In 2015, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) sued two people from a socio-political website known as The Real Singapore (TRS) for reproducing at least 191 articles from SPHs newspapers without permission in the form of 177 articles on their site from January 2011 to April 2015.

Manyhave the misconception that the consent to use a copyrighted work can only bedone by asking the copyright owner directly. However, you can also check outthe CreativeCommons (CC) licenses associated with the copyrighted work thatyou are interested to use to see if you need explicit permission from thecopyright owner.

You can also try to obtain a license via the Collective Management Organisation (CMO), which handles the licensing of rights, collection of royalties and enforcement of rights on behalf of the copyright owners.

Regardless,it is a good practice to always check a sites terms and conditions about itscontents before using any of its materials. This information can typically belocated in one of the headers or at the foot of a homepage.

Conclusion

Technologicaladvances today has allowed intellectual properties to be created, transmittedand accessed in a plethora of ways at unprecedented speed. Understandingcopyrights is hence all the more important for creators, consumers, andbusinesses.

(By Vanessa Ng)

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Funding is just one aspect of government support. Businesses will also need to work with government agencies to build the right strategy and vision to succeed

This years Singapore Budget is building upon past initiatives to ensure the workforce and businesses in the country stay competitive and relevant in the disruptive economy. The aim is to help local companies build deep capabilities, scale up, receive financing, and adopt technology for long-term business sustainability.

To help small-and-medium businesses (SMEs) and startups decipher the Budget, Xero held its first edition of Xero Community, a quarterly series of events to share valuable insights into key trends. The goal is to empower businesses to deep dive into the 2019 Budget.

The panel of experts consisted of Chew Mok Lee, Assistant CEO of Enterprise Singapore; Keyis Ng, CEO and Co-founder of Cafebond.com; Natasha Toh, Co-founder and Director of The Fun Empire; and Kevin Fitzgerald, Regional director of Xero Asia.

The hour-long discussion focused on four main themes: driving business success and expansion, technology adoption, increasing access to working capital, and upskilling the workforce; giving startups an insight into how they should leverage the new government grants and schemes as they chart their growth in the new year.

Fostering business success and expansion

The governments efforts to offer a range of support for Singapores diverse range of small businesses, from budding and mature startups to traditional businesses, were warmly received by the business community.

Among the announcements this year were two new initiatives to help businesses scale and commercialise: Scale-up SG and the Innovation Agents programme.

The former aims to help high-growth local firms to grow and internationalise more rapidly, while the latter is a pilot programme that will allow smaller companies to draw commercial and technical advice from a pool of experts, drive their innovation efforts, and accelerate growth.

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In addition to the demand for newer, more innovative products driven by the increasingly affluent middle-class in Singapore, companies can also look beyond our local shores and venture overseas to tap into a larger customer base to increase their market share.

The new Budget initiatives also looked at strengthening business fundamentals  talent, innovation, and market connections  to ensure the businesses have done their due diligence before making the big move abroad.

Chew explained that Scale-Up SG programme aims to help Singapore create future champions and support companies that have a global aspiration. This will, in turn, provide better jobs to bolster the Singapore economy and serve as role models for aspiring entrepreneurs.

On the other hand, the Innovation Agents programme brings in intermediaries who are able to marry technology with the business, to ensure that the value of IP can be better extracted to drive business growth.

The objective is to increase the success rates of budding startups in their early stages of growth. Asia Regional Director for Xero, Kevin Fitzgerald, highlighted the importance of bringing experienced industry experts into the fold and serve as mentors to small businesses, commenting that, sometimes, you dont need an army  just the right connections and the right people.

Also read: Deciphering Singapore Budget 2019 for founders and business owners

Supporting tech adoption

As part of its focus to accelerate tech adoption among SMEs, the Singapore government announced it will allocate S$1 billion (US$740 million) over the next three years to fund initiatives that will drive these efforts.

This will include expanding the SMEs Go Digital programme and piloting the new Digital Service Lab (DSL) initiative.

As a founder of a team-building events company, Toh relied on grants like the earlier Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) to buy tech equipment, and the current Productivity Solutions Grant for digital accounting solutions  upgrades that would allow the company to improve productivity.

She said that her employees were significantly pleased with the additional services and that adopting tech solutions led to a marked improvement in productivity.

Going digital is not just about delivering higher productivity rates, Chew said. It can also create new business opportunities. She cited an example of how a food company is no longer constrained by physical shopfronts, but could now leverage vending machines to sell its food to customers over a larger geography, and even export its product overseas.

Although it is clear that tech adoption is imperative to business success, many companies still lack the confidence to embrace it. Fitzgerald suggested entrepreneurs overcome this by breaking down daunting problems to smaller manageable ones and then take them on one at a time.

Access to working capital

In order to deepen the pool of smart, patient capital as outlined in the Singapore Budget, the government has established SME Co-Investment Fund III. Existing financial schemes were also consolidated into one Enterprise Financing Scheme (EFS) umbrella, providing common eligibility criteria and a single application platform. This aims to help participating financial institutions (PFIs) and enterprises easily navigate between the various financing schemes. Additionally, the SME Working Capital Loan scheme (which will come under the EFS in October), has also been extended for two more years.

These are various avenues that help businesses fund their growth; but without a sustainable growth trajectory, the companies are still at risk of failing.

There also needs to be a clear strategy when sourcing for alternative financing  both the business owner and financial partner need to be aligned in their goals and strategy to ensure long-term growth and success.

Also read: Harnessing digitalisation: key takeaways from todays startup founders

Upskilling and reskilling the workforce

To remain competitive in the rapidly evolving global economy, workers  both young and old  need to be retooled and adopt new skills to remain future-ready.

Toh shared that her companys employees used online learning platforms to learn new skills. This allowed them to learn at their own pace and subsequently apply the new skills at work.

The objective of upskilling is to future-proof ones career and expand on current skills to facilitate more strategic and analytical work. Upskilling the workforce ensures that Singapore remains future-ready with a talent pool to foster a resilient and competitive economy.

All in all, government grants should be seen as an additional support system to aid businesses as they execute on their strategy based on judicious planning.

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The post Beyond government grants: 4 levers toward creating the next Singapore unicorn appeared first on e27.
Alema Dolamic, shows a picture of her sister who went to Syria, in Bedaci village, near Tesanj Alema Dolamic shows a picture of her sister who went to Syria, in Bedaci village, near Tesanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina, March 5, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

By Daria Sito-Sucic

TESANJ, Bosnia (Reuters) - A quarter of a century after their own country was devastated by war, three Bosnian women are struggling to bring home loved ones caught up in Syria's ruinous conflict and the collapse of Islamic State rule.

The Bosnian government, in common with its counterparts across Europe, lacks a clear plan to deal with the families of defeated fighters of the ultra-hardline militant group.

For Bosnia, the predicament has a particular historical resonance: Bosnian Muslims generally practise a mainstream form of Islam, but some adopted radical beliefs from the foreign fighters who came to the country during its 1992-95 war and fought with Muslims against Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats.

When Syria's war broke out in 2011, some Bosnians joined Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. But the three Bosnian women say the daughters and a sister whose return they seek -- plus their nine children -- have played no role in militancy.

"Our only goal is to bring our children back home and finish this agony as soon as possible," said Senija Muhamedagic from the northwestern town of Cazin, who joined forces with two other women to press authorities to help their relatives return.

Their daughters and sister, stuck with their children in a camp in northern Syria since November 2017, are desperate to return, saying they were forced to go to Syria by radicalised husbands and were ready to face charges at court if needed.

Alema Dolamic, whose sister was left widowed with three children after her husband was killed in fighting in 2017, has created a closed Facebook page for families of the people from the Western Balkans who are still in Syria to exchange information.

"It's been going for five years, I practically don't have my life anymore," Dolamic told Reuters in her home near the central town of Tesanj.

"I am trying to imagine reunion with her, with children, but it's unimaginable," she said, showing the pictures of the children on her phone.

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"THE CHILDREN ARE NOT GUILTY"

Hundreds of people are believed to have left Europe to fight for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. With the Islamist militant group down to its last shred of territory, more and more of them are asking to come home.

According to Bosnian intelligence, 241 adults and 80 children left from 2012-2016 from Bosnia or the Bosnian diaspora for Syria and Iraq, where 150 more children were born.

About 100 adults, including 49 women, remained there while at least 88 have been killed or died. About 50 have returned to Bosnia, including seven children.

"I feel terrible, miserable, because the children are not guilty, they did not have a choice," said the third woman, from Sarajevo, awaiting a government decision on the repatriation of her 22-year-old daughter and her two children from Syria.

"Every day I think, my God, when will this child of mine come, to see her, to hold her, to feel her, and then anything may happen, it won't matter anymore."

The three women have been talking to police, security and intelligence agencies and government ministries for more than a year, supplying them with information and documents in the hope that their children, who they say were not involved in any military activities, would come back.

But as elsewhere in Europe, the Bosnian authorities have been slow to address the families' pleas, their concern being the security challenges that might arise with the return of people from a war zone and environment of militancy.

REPATRIATION STILL NOT IN SIGHT

Their reunion still seems distant.

The Bosnian central government announced last year it would set up a coordination body to deal with the return of Islamic fighters and their families, but it has yet to be formed. It does not help that a new government has not been established after a general election in October.

"There are certainly security aspects of their return, it cannot be perceived as if just some women and children should be returned to Bosnia from somewhere," Security Minister Dragan Mektic told Reuters.

Mektic said Bosnia was obliged to accept the women who held its citizenship but not their children who were never registered as Bosnian citizens, adding also that it could not be determined with certainty if their warrior husbands were really killed.

And even if they return, they are set to face a difficult process of re-socialisation and reintegration in a country where programmes to address such problems do not exist, warned Vlado Azinovic, an expert on terrorism and lecturer at the Sarajevo University School for Political Sciences.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by William Maclean)
The subject of the Mutual Defense Treaty between the Philippines and the US has been recently revisited leading to certain developments. The good news is the US official statement that As the South China Sea is part of the Pacific, any armed attacked on Philippine forces, aircraft or public vessels in the South China Sea would trigger mutual defense obligations under Article 4 of our Mutual Defense Treaty. For this development, we commend Filipino and American officials who had contributed in releasing an official statement that we view as one of the most important since the ratification of the MDT in 1951. Having succeeded in moving forward, the not-so-good-news is the current debate about whether or not an official review of the MDT should be officially undertaken.We take the view that any agreement may be improved, but the prevailing circumstances will need to be carefully taken into account and assessed. With the recent clarifying statement by the US on defending the Philippines in the South China Sea, it is our firm belief that for now this is sufficiently appropriate as far as the MDT is concerned. What we must avoid at all costs is to launch an official review of the MDT while permitting our most powerful northern neighbor to exert both external force and internal influence to achieve results for its sole benefit. We note its inclination not only in defense and security but also in areas of vital and strategic importance. As adequate as it may already be, our MDT can no doubt be improved, but it is the wrong time to do thisnot when we have willingly allowed ourselves to have been made increasingly weakened by our northern neighbors doctrine of domination.
Reuters

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co said on Wednesday it planned to invest 40 billion rupees ($530 million) to launch six electric vehicles in India by 2028, making a clean driving push in a country with some of the world's most polluted cities. Hyundai, India's second largest carmaker, will launch affordable and premium electric models including sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and sedans, starting with its first electric vehicle (EV) in 2022, said Tarun Garg, director sales and marketing for Hyundai Motor India. "We want to be a key contributor to the EV story in India," Garg told Reuters.
This initiative under the Thailand 4.0 policy is a continuing progress of integrated development

Dr. Passakon Prathombutr, Senior Executive Vice President of the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA), officially signed a Tri-Party MoU with Unity and Spotwerkz to promote the exchange of technical know-how and technology exchange.

In recent weeks, DEPA has also officially signed MoUs with regional giants Willowmore, UnaBiz, Gobi Partners, and Ascent Solutions in Singapore. These companies are leaders in building global and regional IoT platforms and solutions, as well as venture investing. This effort will enable the utilisation of innovative platforms and strategies, elevating Thailand to global standards as well as its peoples skillsets.

According to Dr. Prathombutr, The official purpose of this trip to Singapore is to meet and exchange ideas, sign and initiate our partnerships with these companies and simultaneously commence work on our governments Thailand 4.0 policy.

He added that these partnerships will be used to spur the economic development of Thailand and stimulate the flow of foreign investment into the country. In addition, these will strengthen and enhance Thailands resources and help the nation gain a competitive position in the IoT industry within the ASEAN market.

Ultimately, these agreements will improve the lives of the Thai people, Dr. Prathombutr emphasised.

Also read: DEPAs Digital Park Thailand set to launch as ASEANs largest digital innovation center and hub

Heres a quick look at the six IoT innovation leaders that joined hands with DEPA:

Unity  A leading gaming platform, providing professional 3D automotive design, industrial and architectural services as well as film and animation services. This is essential to support digital transformation efforts for SMEs and manufacturing as well as Thailands creative industries in film and animation.

Spotwerkz  A big data analytics company, the licensee of Unity in Thailand

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Willowmore Singapore Pte. Ltd.  An industry leader in enterprise-grade smart padlock, smart cabinet locks, and a pioneer in the worlds first-ever portable Sigfox-Bluetooth gateway SigWAV. Willowmore is all about developing brilliant innovations and providing awesome solutions, from state-of-the-art access control, security systems technology, and IoT gateways.

Gobi Partners  Has a long history of working with government agencies. As part of developing a Matching Fund for this initiative, the firm is looking to invest in local startups from sectors such as AI, Data Analytics, and IoT. Simultaneously, the firm will be providing DEPA and the Thai government with expertise on funding startups, which should help to further increase the availability of funding for startups in the Thai entrepreneurial ecosystem.

UnaBiz  Asias first IoT dedicated network operator in Singapore and Taiwan, selling solutions in 28 countries. The MoU covers opportunities such as opening a training centre within the Thailand EEC digital park to explore the development turnkey IoT solutions for Thailands SMEs and large companies.

Ascent Solutions  A Singapore-based IoT company and provides services in various industries such as warehouses, logistics, freight forwarding, intelligent transportation, and e-passport tools. Through its partnership with DEPA, Ascent Solutions aims to develop innovative technologies and provide solutions to the Digital Park Thailand and IoT Institute.

Dr. Passakon Prathombutr concluded: The Thailand 4.0 policy will be a kick starter to the future generation of Thai digital business operators.

To learn more about the initiative, visit DEPAs website at www.depa.or.th, follow their official Facebook account here, or email them at doss@depa.or.th.

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Image source: 123rf.com / ID 48998222 / Kittikorn Nimitpara

The post DEPA partners with top IoT innovation leaders from Singapore to bolster Digital Park Thailand and IoT Institute appeared first on e27.
By Marie-Louise Gumuchian

LONDON (Reuters) - Campaigners for gender equality took to European city streets on Friday to mark International Women's Day with celebrations and protests, while in Turkey police fired tear gas to break up a crowd of several thousand women in Istanbul in the evening.

In Spain, hundreds of thousands of women, wearing purple and raising their fists, took to the streets of cities around the country calling for greater gender equality.

The issue has become deeply divisive in Spain ahead of a national election on April 28. A new far-right party, Vox, has called for a 2004 law on domestic violence against women to be scrapped, and stands to win dozens of seats, opinion polls show.

In Berlin, city authorities declared Women's Day a formal holiday and thousands joined a colourful demonstration under sunny skies at the German capital's Alexanderplatz.

In Paris, demonstrators from Amnesty International waved placards outside the Saudi Arabian embassy that read "Honk for women's rights", and called for the release of jailed women activists, including some campaigners for the right to drive in the deeply conservative kingdom.

In Athens and Kiev, women protesters demanded equality and an end to violence against women.

In Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, hundreds called for the release of Syrian women in jail. But in the evening, Turkish police fired tear gas to break up a crowd gathered for a march, Reuters witnesses said.

Hundreds of riot police blocked the marchers' path to prevent them advancing along the district's main pedestrian avenue. Police then fired pepper spray and pellets containing tear gas to disperse the crowd, and scuffles broke out as they pursued the women into side streets off the avenue.

It was not clear if anyone was hurt or if people were detained.

Turkish police regularly block the staging of protests in central Istanbul and elsewhere. Ankara tightened restrictions after the imposition of emergency rule following an attempted coup in 2016. The state of emergency was lifted last July.

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EQUALITY AND RESPECT

In Russia, where Women's Day has been an important festival since Communist times, flowers and congratulatory messages decorated public spaces.

In Spain, one of the country's largest unions, UGT, said an estimated 6 million people went on strike across the country for at least two hours to demand equal pay and rights for women.

Spain's government said it would not provide estimates on the rate of participation.

"Many people are trying to demonise feminism while it has always been a fight for equality," said Ana Sanz, 36, dressed in a red overcoat and white bonnet echoing the uniforms worn in the dystopian novel and TV series "The Handmaid's Tale".

Tens of thousands of women, mostly students, crammed streets and squares in the Spanish capital Madrid, chanting and carrying placards saying: "Liberty, Equality, Friendship" and "The way I dress does not change the respect I deserve!"

In Berlin's Alexanderplatz, protester Anna Lob told Reuters she had been sexually assaulted during an internship.

"A male colleague grabbed my ass while I was standing in a circle with some men," she said. "Physical assaults in any form or (sexist) comments, jokes or something you have to listen to over and over again - that is a form of discrimination."

Also in Alexanderplatz, Paula Schramm said she had seen some moves towards greater equality but many women remained disadvantaged in their daily lives. "And that is why I am here. I want to change this so that it becomes equal at some point."

In Paris, Cameroonian rights activist Aissa Doumara was honoured for her campaign against forced marriages by President Emmanuel Macron. At a ceremony at the Elysee Palace, he handed Doumara the first women's rights prize dedicated to the late French minister and abortion campaigner Simone Veil.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa joined a womens rights protest in downtown Lisbon. When there is a difference of 18 percent on average between the salary of men and women, disparity in political positions, and when there is barbarity such as gender violence, its a sign that there is still much to do in the fight for women's rights, he told the crowd.

Twelve women have died so far this year in domestic violence in Portugal.

"EMBRYONIC KICKING OF FEMINISM"

In London, Meghan, Britain's Duchess of Sussex, said she hoped the baby she is expecting this spring with Britain's Prince Harry would follow in her feminist footsteps.

The ex-"Suits" actress made the comment during a Women's Day panel discussion at King's College London.

Asked how the "bump" - her first baby - was treating her, the 37-year-old told the audience: "Very well."

"I'd seen this documentary on Netflix about feminism and one of the things they said during pregnancy was, 'I feel the embryonic kicking of feminism'," she said.

"I love that. So boy or girl or whatever it is, we hope that that's the case, with our little bump."

(Reporting by Sabela Ojea and Raul Cadenas in Madrid, Marie-Louise Gumuchian in London, Johnny Cotton in Paris, Catarina Demony in Lisbon, Andrea Shalal in Berlin and Reuters Television in Moscow; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Hong Kong bus driver behind crash that injured 19 jailed for 17 months over dangerous driving

A Hong Kong bus driver was jailed for 17 months on Friday for falling asleep behind the wheel and causing an accident that left himself and 18 others injured.

District Judge David Dufton said it was understandable that Ng Kim-wing, 58, felt tired and stressed caring for his cancer-stricken wife, but pointed out that Ng must have realised how dangerous it was to work under sleep deprivation.

As a public bus driver he should also consider the safety of passengers, Dufton said.

The District Court previously heard Ng was driving a double-decker on route N31 from the airport to Tsuen Wan when it rammed into a medium goods vehicle parked along a road shoulder.

The incident occurred on the North Lantau Highway at about 4.55am on November 30, 2017.

Both drivers were hurt, along with 17 passengers. Five suffered grievous injuries ranging from a spinal fracture to an eyeball rupture.

Three of the injured, including the truck driver, have yet to resume work.

Ng was also granted sick leave for 12 months. He was later told to resign because of the accident.

Last December, Ng, who had no criminal or traffic offence before this, pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm, an offence punishable by seven years imprisonment.

His counsel had asked the court to temper justice with mercy after revealing that he was sleep deprived because he had to nurse his wife.

According to his counsel, Ng, a bus driver of two decades, would sleep only two hours daily after working overnight, to prepare food and visit his wife in hospital.

The court also heard that Ng was under financial pressure to support the womans treatment, which cost about HK$40,000 to HK$50,000, with his monthly salary of HK$30,000.

His wife died in January.

Mitigation letters portrayed Ng as a family man who often felt guilty for causing the accident.

A psychologist report revealed that Ng had post-traumatic stress disorder. He was diagnosed with depression late last year.

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The judge said Ng had a high culpability for endangering the lives of passengers and the Court of Appeal had repeatedly stressed a deterrent sentence was needed to ensure all road users were safe.

Quoting from the higher court, Dufton said: A very substantial proportion of the population in this territory rely on buses  and in so doing they expect to be carried safely from one place to another, and the bus companies hold out the promise that the expectation will be fulfilled.

Considering Ng had caused the accident by falling asleep, Dufton adopted a starting point of sentence at three years imprisonment.

But the judge also accepted mitigation that Ng was genuinely remorseful, so he reduced this by nine months, before giving him a one-third discount to credit the timely guilty plea.

The term was further reduced by one month to acknowledge that Ng had donated blood 29 times since 2007.

He was also barred from driving in the next three years and ordered to complete a driving improvement course by the end of his disqualification period.

This article Hong Kong bus driver behind crash that injured 19 jailed for 17 months over dangerous driving first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019.
FILE PHOTO: Yahoo News Singapore

The Hume MRT station, currently a shell station on the Downtown Line, will be opened by 2025, said Senior Minister of State for Transport Janil Puthucheary in Parliament on Thursday (7 March).

However, he rejected a call by Nominated Member of Parliament Arasu Duraisamy to build a new MRT line to serve the Tuas South industrial area, as well as connect to the Jurong Island.

New developments warrant opening of station

Speaking during the debate on the budget for the Ministry of Transport, Puthucheary said the Hume station was not opened together with the other second-phase Downtown Line stations in 2015, as the pace of developments and ridership growth in the area did not warrant it being put into service then.

Since then, new development plans have been made, such as the redevelopment of the Rail Corridor and the transformation of the nearby Bukit Timah Fire Station into a gateway for the surrounding nature and heritage attractions.

With all these, there will be sufficient ridership to justify opening Hume Station, Puthucheary said in his reply to South West Mayor Low Yen Ling, who has repeatedly appealed for the Hume station to be opened.

When she asked if the station could be ready before 2025, Puthucheary said work still had to be done to complete the station. Also, the opening of the station needs to coincide with developments coming up in the area.

He added, In deciding which areas to extend our rail network to, we will have to balance between managing costs and benefitting the most number of Singaporeans possible, taking into account the characteristics of each area.

Not enough ridership to Tuas South

As such, he rejected NMP Duraisamys call to study the feasibility of a new MRT line to serve Tuas South and Jurong Island.

Duraisamy, the general secretary of the Singapore Port Workers Union, pointed out that several businesses operating in Tuas South  including companies dealing in biomedical parts, ship-building, electronic, logistics and petrochemicals  would benefit from an MRT station. New businesses will also spring up with the opening of the Tuas megaport, which is targeted for completion by 2040.

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However, he noted that the areas nearest MRT station is Tuas West station, which is 12 to 13 kilometres away.

In response, Puthucheary said there is not enough ridership in the near to medium term to support an MRT line in the Tuas South area. However, his ministry has taken steps to improve bus connectivity to the area, with two new public bus services 247 and 248 launched when the Tuas West MRT Extension was opened in June 2017.

When the Jurong Region Line and the Cross Island Line are completed, workers in Tuas South will also benefit, he added.

No added convenience in putting a station in Jurong Island

As for Jurong Island, there are also no plans to extend the MRT onto the island itself. Puthucheary pointed out that workers will benefit from the future Jurong Pier Station on the Jurong Region Line, which is located only a short distance away from Jurong Island Checkpoint.

He said, If we were to put a station on Jurong Island itself, it is unlikely to create any added convenience or time savings because the workers would still need to go through the Checkpoint security, and transfer to an onward last-mile shuttle to their final destination, given how spread out the developments are on the island.

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By Gergely Szakacs and Alan Charlish

BUDAPEST/WARSAW (Reuters) - Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday his nationalist Fidesz party may leave Europe's main conservative group over a row about anti-EU election campaigning.

On Tuesday, the head of the group, the European People's Party (EPP), German politician Manfred Weber, demanded Fidesz take down billboards attacking European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, part of its campaign for May's European Parliament elections in which populists and eurosceptics are well positioned to make gains.

Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, said Fidesz wanted to stay in the EPP, the most powerful conservative group in the European Parliament, and the posters would be replaced by others touting Orban's plans to increase Hungary's birth rate.

Orban told public radio he wanted to move the pro-EU EPP towards a more anti-immigration platform, and raised the prospect of Fidesz quitting the group, which will meet on March 20 to discuss the matter.

"The debate may end up with (Fidesz) finding its place not within but outside the People's Party," Orban said.

Weber, a member of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, told Bild newspaper he expected Fidesz to apologise to EPP members and called for Orban to end his anti-EU campaigns.

Orban did not apologise. He said he had talked with both Juncker and Weber on Thursday and on Sunday he planned to visit Poland, a regional ally governed by the Law and Justice (PiS) party, which is not in the EPP.

"If we need to start something new ... then obviously the first place to hold talks will be in Poland," Orban said.

Weber said it was up to Orban to decide which political family he wants to be in.

"Viktor Orban in the last years and months and days always was clearly committed that he wants to stay inside the European People's Party," Weber said.

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"We are a political family of values, we are a political family that has common ideas, and everybody who is based on these common ideas can stay ... others can leave or must be kicked out if this is not accepted anymore."

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is running for the European Parliament, said expelling Fidesz would play into the hands of the EPP's opponents.

"Forza Italia (Berlusconi's party) cannot vote in favour of the exclusion of Orban, who has been a dear friend of mine for many years," he said in a statement.

(Additional reporting by Sandor Peto in Budapest and Gavin Jones in Rome; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Well, well, well  The locale often touted as Peninsular Malaysias wettest town  Taiping, Perak  can now add a far more prestigious feather to their cap: Theyve been voted the third most sustainable city in the world at the ITB tourism expo in Berlin.

Yes, the same event where our Tourism Minister told a room full of journalists that there were no gays in Malaysia.

The award places Taiping just behind more the more well-known Ljubljana, Slovenia and Canadas sea and mountain-framed Vancouver. Recognizing cities that show leadership in urban sustainability and management in over-tourism, its incredible to think that a town of less than 250,000 three hours outside of Kuala Lumpur, can make such an impact globally.

Having heard the announcement yesterday, Taipings Municipal Council president, Abd Rahim Md Ariff, expressed his delight of having his beautiful, lush town earn a spot on the worlds eco-tourism radar.

This is the first time we received a prestigious international award, he said. This achievement is due to the hard work of the community and all relevant government agencies.

Both the Perak chief minister, and the states Tourism Committee chairman were present in Berlin to receive the honors.

Last year, the town managed to squeeze into the top 100. What an incredible feat  congrats.

Fancy a trip to Taiping? Well, theres an airport, but the easiest way to get there is to drive from KL along the very accessible North-South highway for about three hours. Carpool! Or if you like, theres also a regularly scheduled KTM train that leaves from KL daily. Theres a zoo. Theres fireflies. Theres so much greenery. Theres a hell of an incredible food scene. Go go go, if you havent already.

This article, Malaysian town Taiping ranked #3 in worlds most sustainable cities at awards, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters!
"The US will never come to our assistance if their participation in a possible conflict is not in pursuit of their interest." "The US will never come to our assistance if their participation in a possible conflict is not in pursuit of their interest."

The end of the Cold War saw states refocusing in terms of identifying their national interests. From that standpoint, states began to reassert the primacy of securing their interest not on the basis of ideological affinity. Rather, the removal of ideology in favor of pragmatic and practically application was to equate their interest as sovereign entity. With the end of the Cold War, states reverted to the old Westphalian concept of the sovereignty of state. The network of military alliances suddenly lost its value and relevance. Today, states seek to identify their national interest rather than reaffirm their alliances on the basis of ideology. This means that countries must first identify and validate what constitutes their national interest. Only then could the alliance subsist beyond the political limitations of the Cold War. The problem, however, is that the validation of what constitutes the countrys national interest has narrowed down the scope that makes military alliances relevant and viable. The end of the Cold War changed the paradigm to render military alliances anachronistic. After all, countries seldom have identical and parallel interests, a military dictum that justified NATOs slogan that an attack against one would be an attack against the rest of the members. However, measuring alone by degrees and proximity how each state will act in defense of the other is more than enough to remind that each can act differently to every given circumstance. This explains why many were appalled when US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said during his visit to the Philippines that the US would come to the defense of the Philippines if it is attacked, without naming the country likely to commit the aggression. Pompeo purposely avoided mentioning China because he knows that given the political situation, his declaration could draw sharp reaction than endear Filipinos to rely on the so-called protective umbrella of Uncle Sam. The renewed vigor of President Duterte to pursue closer ties with China awakened many that the Philippines and China have more in common in their desire to achieve progress and prosperity. The ideological affinity upon which the US seeks to justify its presence in this part of the world no longer exists. Rather, many Filipinos see their presence in the South China Sea as in pursuit of its own interest. It is no longer ideology that goads the US to remain in South China Sea. In fact, the strong statement is more of an imposition for the Philippines to adopt a policy to impede our deepening economic ties with China. The US needs only to be reminded that it is the principal architect why there exists a diplomatic row between this country and China in the South China Sea. If only the US observed the longitude and latitudinal demarcations in the Treaty of Paris on Dec. 10, 1898 for which it paid $20 million to Spain for the title of ceding this archipelago named after Felipe II, there would be no conflict in our claim over those uninhabited islands. In fact, it is the same title that excluded the Scarborough Shoal down to the Spratly group that was handed by the US to the Philippines when it granted us our independence in 1946.It is embarrassing because the US even announced in the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951 that Japan should relinquish its sovereignty over the Spratlys including the Paracel islands to China which declaration effectively acknowledged that those disputed islands belong to China. The Taipei Peace Treaty signed the following year reiterated the same provision, but ordering the return of those islands instead to the exiled Kuomintang government in Taiwan obviously because of the US support for the Chiang Kai Shek government. The renewed antagonistic posturing of the US against China soon developed after it realized that the economic growth of China was against its own interest in the global market. That rivalry today has nothing to do with ideology but the US is trying hard to blend it with Sinophobic undertones. Before that, it was the US that contributed to the economic miracle of China by allowing the massive migration of its own production plants to that country, thinking that cheap labor would forever work to its advantage. Today, invoking the Mutual Defense Treaty with the US sounds monotonous. As one would put it, it seems the US is the one invoking the treaty to secure its own interest against China, and not the other way around. Its policy makers continue to ignore that our mutual defense treaty with the US has lost much of its intrinsic value. The operational value of the MDT has always been designed to work in favor of the US, which reason why some call it an executive agreement than of a treaty. As the US persists in invoking its applicability, the Philippines could only follow as an unwilling member. Our tension with Malaysia over the Sabah claim in 1968 catalyzed the truth that the US will never come to our assistance if their participation in a possible conflict is not in pursuit of their interest. Since the creation of the now-defunct Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in 1954, it was the member-countries that contributed more to the defense of the region than of the US coming to their defense in conflicts classified as regional wars. The Indian-Pakistan war erupted three times, and the US as the promoter of that collective defense agreement, never came to the assistance of Pakistan despite its being an original member of SEATO. Similarly, during the war in Indochina, SEATO members contributed one way or the other to stop the North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam, drove out the communist Pathet Lao in Laos and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia despite the fact that the three Indochinese states were not members of SEATO or that the members of the alliance had an existing defense agreement with any of them. Today, some quarters in the defense establishment are again taking their cue from Washington to revise the MDT to include the disputed islands in the South China Sea. Maybe China would not rush to start a conflict with the Philippines over that issue. Certainly, however, that move could spoil the agreement between the Philippines and China for a joint exploration to extract oil in the South China Sea. It would be very difficult for the Philippines to answer if China insists that those islands are not part of our territory to be covered by our Mutual Defense Treaty with the US. Some suspect that the US only needs to see the Philippines locked in a juggernaut to derail the agreement, hoping that China would come across to allow the entry of Shell, Chevron and Philex Petroleum Corporation alongside with its state-owned CNOOC and of the countrys PNOC. Unless a possible compromise is reached to marginalize anew the share of PNOC, the area could remain a tinder box for the naval forces of China and the US, and permanently stall the joint venture agreement to the detriment of the country. [email protected]
Michelin Tire PLC , the French tire manufacturer, has launched a collaboration with Uniqlo Co. Ltd. for its The Brands Masterpiece series from the Spring & Summer Collection of the UT T-shirt brand.

The Brands Masterpiece series is a brand-collaboration project that uses logos or noted products from some of the worlds most famous companies as motifs. T-shirts featuring the Michelin Man will be sold at Uniqlo stores nationwide and via the Uniqlo Online Store, under license from Michelin Lifestyle Limited.

Uniqlo items featuring The Michelin Man include mens and childrens T-shirts. Mens shirt sizes are in Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large which are available in stores. Extra Small, 2XL, 3XL and 4XL sizes are only available online. Childrens sizes come in 110, 120, 130, 140, and 150 at Uniqlo stores, with sizes 100 and 160 available from the online store only.

Mens size T-shirts are already available startin on February 25, with childrens sizes coming on March 18. The shirts will have two designs and will be available in blue or grey.

Michelin x Uniqlo

Michelin x Uniqlo

Born in 1898, the Michelin Man turned 120 last year. Michelin is greatly honoured that Uniqlo has once again chosen this character, known and loved by people the world over, as a motif for its UT collection. Michelin intends to continue creating tires, guidebooks, maps, and lifestyle products to support everybodys mobility, based on the idea of making travel more enjoyable and more comfortable, which has been our ethos since our founding.

Countries and territories that will carry the T-shirts are: Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, France, Singapore, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, USA, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, UK, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Hollanda total of 21 territories.

The post Michelin Collaborates with Uniqlo for its UT T-Shirts appeared first on Carmudi Philippines.
A senior Mozambican priest said Sunday that Pope Francis will visit the southern African nation this year, the first papal visit to Mozambique since 1988. "I can tell you a secret... this year we will receive a very special visit. Pope Francis will be here among us this year," Giorgio Ferreti, the Maputo Cathedral priest told worshippers in the Mozambican capital. President Filipe Nyusi invited the pontiff to visit Mozambique during a trip to the Vatican last September, announcing the possible trip to reporters in a breach of Vatican protocol. The pope reportedly joked: "If I'm still alive." Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, has around four million Catholics. Though no date has been confirmed for a papal visit to Mozambique, September has been suggested as a plausible date for a trip that may include nearby Madagascar. Pope Francis kicked off the year with a historic public mass for an estimated 170,000 Catholics at a stadium in the capital of the United Arab Emirates in February. It capped the first ever papal visit to the Gulf where Islam was born. Francis has made outreach to Muslim communities a cornerstone of his papacy. Twenty percent of Mozambique's population are Muslim and the country has been rocked by a jihadist insurgency in the nation's north since October 2017. Pope John Paul II visited Mozambique in 1988 and witnessed first-hand the devastation wrought by the country's long civil war.
Norlia Ali Marican, 53, pictured here with 11-year-old Hyrul (not his real name), a foster child currently under her care. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman/Yahoo News Singapore)

For Norlia Ali Marican, having a simple meal at a shopping centre some years ago with a special needs child under her care was a challenging task.

The boy reacted badly to noisy crowds and bright lights. While the child was yet to be diagnosed then, he showed signs of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and global development delay, according to the 53-year-old homemaker.

But Norlia is not the biological mother of the boy, now 7, who is attending a special education school  she is his foster parent.

Recalling the incident, Norlia said things went berserk and the boy took off his shoes before throwing them. The incident ruined someones meal as the shoes had landed on a pizza.

We had to go over and apologise. When children have physical disabilities, people can see. But this boy looks normal, said Norlia, a foster parent for 15 years. People dont understand.

Despite the challenges of looking after the boy, she said the improvements in the boys behaviour over the last five years have made it worthwhile.

When he came to us, he had basically zero knowledge, she said. Even doing basic things (on his own) is an accomplishment for us.

For 55-year-old Gerard Nonis, a foster parent for 18 years, attending the wedding of a former foster child under his care was a moment of pride and joy for him. The bride had spent 10 months with Nonis and his family when she was 15 years old.

She introduced us to her husband as mummy and daddy. The husband was a bit confused. She told him, Its a long story. Lets talk about it later, quipped Nonis, a specialist trainer at the Singapore Police Force.

The introduction affirmed that the former foster child was not feeling embarrassed about her background, said Nonis.

Now, they remain in contact via Facebook as the emotional attachment is always there, he added.

Growing pool of foster parents

Norlia and Nonis are among 470 foster parents registered under the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) fostering scheme as of end-September last year, almost doubled from 243 in 2013.

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There were 550 children fostered as of end-September last year, up from 470 a year earlier, ranging from newborns to teenagers below 18.

These children have been placed under foster care for reasons such as physical abuse or neglect. Their parents could also be in prison, suffering from physical or mental illnesses, or have passed away, said an MSF spokesperson.

Individuals who want to be foster parents in Singapore have to fulfill a set of requirements. They must be at least 25 years old and married; residents of Singapore; medically fit to care for children; have a minimum household income of $2,000 and a per capita income of at least $700; and have at least a secondary school education.

The MSF is looking for foster parents who want to make a difference to vulnerable children, and those who can provide them with a caring environment to heal and grow to the best of their potential, said the spokesperson.

Foster parents would also need to work closely with the MSF officers and professionals in caring for the children and helping them to integrate them back to their birth families when it is appropriate.

Responding to media queries by Yahoo News Singapore, the spokesperson said that the MSF will review the Children and Young Persons Act and consult the public on the proposed amendments this year.

The ministry will also continue to increase its pool of foster parents and build a diverse pool of foster parents to meet the specific needs of children, said the spokesperson.

A calling to help

Nonis recalled the day when his 52-year-old homemaker wife, Susanna Daniels, received a calling to help foster children. Sometime in 2000, Daniels read an article on fostering and it spurred both her and her husband into action.

It was an easy choice to make as the couple came from very big families growing up  Nonis was one of seven siblings while Susanne was one of nine  and most importantly, they loved children, he added.

The couple, who have been married for 26 years, have four children of their own  three sons aged 27, 20, and 15, as well as a 25-year-old daughter.

Nonis said, She was immediately struck by how it was something we want to do and contribute back to society. She called me on the phone straight away. The next day we called the ministry.

Gerard Nonis (in red), 55, and his wife, Susanna Daniel (in white), 52, have four children of their own  three sons aged 27, 20, and 15, as well as a 25-year-old daughter . (PHOTO: Dhany Osman/Yahoo News Singapore)

Nonetheless, the couple had to consider the matter carefully as they would be taking care of somebody elses child. They vividly recalled the day when they became foster parents for the first time.

When we went to pick up the child, it was like going back to the time when we had small children, Nonis said.



Since then, the Nonis family has fostered six children. Three  two 18-year-olds and an eight-year-old  remain under their care. You must be to them what you are to your own children: a father, a friend, a teacher, a counsellor, he added.



The greatest satisfaction for him and his wife is that they have been a part of a foster childs life. It is really wonderful to see a child grow up. As they grow up, they have ownership of themselves and have achievements they attain along the way, Nonis said.

Norlia also had a similar epiphany in 2003 when she chanced upon an article about a foster parent who had stepped in to care for a child whose biological mother went missing, and was moved by the story.

Her husband had reservations initially but his perception changed when he saw the couples first foster child, a two-and-a-half months old baby boy.

The boy, who spent five years with the family, turned out to be the first of six children fostered by Norlia. Two of them  11-year-old Hyrul (not his real name) and the seven-year-old special needs boy  remain under her care.

Norlia has two children of her own: a 21-year-old daughter and a 31-year-old son. She is thankful for the support that she has received from her family on her fostering journey.

My husband is very supportive. From Monday to Friday is me but weekends, he or the children will take over. Without the help and moral support from family, I would have KO-ed (knocked out), she said.

Several of Norlias family members and friends were initially sceptical about her fostering cause. But some of them have been converted  a sister-in-law has been a foster parent for four to five years while some friends have sent out applications, Norlia said.



Maintaining bond after leaving

For foster parents, the toughest part is when it is time to send the children back to their natural families. Because of the painful experience, Nonis and his wife considered throwing in the towel and stopped fostering children.

But when we look back at the positive aspects of what we achieved when the child was with us, it makes everything go away. It makes us take back the towel, he quipped.



Norlia called it part and parcel of being a foster parent.

We are not there to take over the parents role. We are only taking over for the meantime to look after them. We are hoping we can fill that void while they are in our care, she added.

While the first foster child, now 15, has since integrated back into his natural family, he remains in contact daily with his foster family via WhatsApp, with his biological mothers consent.

The boy even joined Norlias family on overseas trips to Japan and Korea, photos of which are plastered on Norlias dining room. He is also close friends with Hyrul  as the latter described, almost like a brother.

As for Hyrul, Norlia said her foster son has done the family proud. Hyrul is doing quite well in school and received many awards, based on academic and behaviour. Thats the best part of being a foster parent, she added.

Norlia knows she would have to take baby steps and deal with the sadness when the time comes for Hyrul to return to his biological parents.

Hyrul was a mere two-week-old premature baby when he was placed under Norlias care. The boy said he still wants to live with her.

He added, When I grow up, I want to take care of her because she has taken care of me for 11 years. So I want to show her that I can also give back.



More Singapore stories:

National Council of Churches of Singapore relieved to hear of MHAs decision on Watain concert ban

45% feel women in Singapore who wear revealing clothes shouldnt complain about comments from men: survey

Shopping mall security officer fined $2,000 for stealing Watsons stores items
Foreign tourists in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines  Foreigners will no longer be allowed to work in the Philippines unless they secure a work visa from their country of origin.

According to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Thursday (March 7), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is crafting a new memorandum that will regulate the influx of foreign workers in the country.

Under the present rule, foreigners who wish to work in the country are allowed entry under a tourist visa.

It is only when they arrive that they are required to apply for either a Special Working Permit (SWP) at the Bureau of Immigration (BI) or the Alien Employment Permit (AEP) from the DOLE.

With the new order, according to Bello, such procedure will no longer be allowed as aliens will have to apply for work visas first in Philippine Consulates or the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) abroad before they can come to the country.

The joint memorandum order is expected to be completed on March 15,  Marje Pelayo

The post PH drafts work visa first policy for foreigners appeared first on UNTV News.
FILE PHOTO: Getty Images

A 47-year-old man who allegedly made off with $20,000 from a food court after staging an armed robbery in cahoots with its manager was charged in the State Courts on Friday (8 March).

Tan Lye Meng, a Singaporean, is accused of robbing the management office of Kopitiam at Rivervale Mall, Block 11 Rivervale Crescent, on Saturday (3 March).

He is said to have used a knife against the manager of Kopitiam Rivervale Plaza, Lee Kah Yeow, 48, placing Lee in fear of hurt. Tan is said to have taken $6,000 of the booty.

Lee reported the alleged robbery to the police at about 11.50am on Saturday.

However, police officers later uncovered inconsistencies in Lees account, suggesting that the Kopitiam manager may have plotted the robbery. According to the police, Lee sought Tans assistance in the robbery scheme through the recommendation of a 51-year-old acquaintance.

Lee and the 51-year-old man have since been arrested for their suspected involvement in the staged robbery. They have not been charged in court.

Tans identity was established and he was arrested on Thursday.

Apart from his robbery charge, Tan has pending drug charges from 2018, including the consumption of methamphetamine and possession of drug utensils. He will be back in court on 15 March.

If convicted of armed robbery, Tan faces a jail term of between five and 20 years, and at least 12 strokes of the cane.

Other Singapore stories:

Use of Mastercard contactless cards to pay for transport available from April, Visa later this year

Allowing metal band Watain to hold Singapore concert can affect religious and social harmony: Shanmugam

Watain Singapore concert ban: Our fans can decide for themselves about our music, says band vocalist
SINGAPORE (Mar 8): RHB Research is staying neutral on Japan Foods with a lowered target price of 45 cents from 48 cents previously.

In FY19, the group is expected to see profits dragged lower due to its ongoing rationalisation of stores and moderating consumer discretionary spending amid slowing economic growth.

Although the group may be seen increasing its efforts to improve operational efficiencies, expanding its regional presence, refreshing ageing brands and launching new franchise brands, near-term profits may still be depressed due to intense competition and tight labour supply.

In the latest Singapore Budget 2019, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat flagged that the F&B business is labour intensive, while announcing a reduction in foreign worker dependency ration ceiling (DRC) for the services sector.

The new DRC of 35% (from 40% currently) for foreign workers in a company in the services sector will be implemented progressively until 2021.

In a Friday report, analyst Shekhar Jaiswal says, In an already tight labour market, further reduction in DRC will make it difficult for F&B players to grow their businesses. Moreover, the need to improve productivity and implement technological solutions will lead to higher costs.

Amid weak consumer spending, the group continues to practice good restaurant portfolio management, by taking into account market demand and the individual restaurants profitability.

In the last 12 months, it closed two Ajisen Ramen restaurants and has temporarily closed one restaurant for re-sizing of floor space. In FY18, this brand accounted for about 40% of its total revenue. For other key brands, revenue declined y-o-y during 9M19 due to negative same-store sales growth.

In Dec 2018, the group entered into a 50:50 joint venture with Minor Singapore, which will allow it bring Minors Thai restaurants to Japan, while Mino will expand Japan Foods brands in Thailand and China.

See: Japan Foods announces regional expansion in partnership with Minor Singapore

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While we are yet to incorporate the earnings impact, we remain upbeat on the JV as it will make it possible for Japan Foods to leverage on operational strengths and industry experience of a strong partner and grow its business outside Singapore, says Jaiswal.

Nonetheless, the analyst believes that a net cash balance sheet, strong FCF generation and about 5% yield should provide support to Japan Foods share price.

In the consumer space, RHBs preferred pick is grocery retailer Sheng Siong. The research house has a buy call on the stock with a target price of $1.25.

As at 3.20pm, shares in Japan Foods are trading at 43 cents or 2.1 times FY19 book with a dividend yield of 4.2%.
Wika Media and StaffAny are like your friendly neighbourhood Spiderman, providing help for the little guys we know

Yesterday, 110 startups descended on WeWork and fought gallantly to be crowned TOP100 champions of the Singapore leg. They had three minutes to capture the hearts of the judges.

After an intense afternoon, Wika Media and StaffAny emerged victorious as the 2019 TOP100 winners for Singapore.

The Judges Choices awardees have been presented with a free booth at e27s Echelon Asia Summit from May 23-24, 2019. But while they have won the battle, the war is not over. At Echelon, they will be but one of many competitors pitching for over S$100,000 worth of prizes.

Lets dive a bit more into the two winning pitches that claimed the top spots:

Wika Media

Founded by Roland Benzon and Vic Icasas, a studio owner and a software developer, Wika enables media companies to extend their reach by making their content understandable in more languages.

Their hardware allows spoken, written, and even signed communications to be calibrated to the users preference. For example, if you are Vietnamese and you dont speak a lick of English, you can still indulge in an episode of FRIENDS with syncronised Viet subtitles or dubbing.

So far, Wika has engineered three products to help fracture the language barrier. GlassSign is a pair of smart glasses designed to display video-synchronised sign language or captions for the hard of hearing.

DubHub, on the other hand, is a nifty app that delivers synchronised dubbing in the users preferred language. Its set-top box counterpart Subhub takes any input video an overlays the preferred subtitles.

The two-man team aims to aid media companies in gaining and retaining viewers  creating a world of understanding.

StaffAny

Co-founded by Janson Seah, Jeremy Hon, Lee KaiYi and Eugene Ng, StaffAny integrates HR and ops management software for oversee hourly workers.

The app guarantees both employee and employer increased accountability, control of the team on-the-go, and easy integration of schedules.

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Since its incorporation in January 2018, StaffAny has experienced exponential growth in its deployment  growing 25 per cent per month. As of February 2019, the app has been deployed in 51 companies and has a projected 6x LTV:CAC ratio.

In the near future, the company sees itself as a solution to unsolvable problems like payday loans, shift-based hiring, performance-based resumes, part-timer insurance and blockchain.

In essence, the future of work.

Being a hero is about helping the little guy; the average joe. Congratulations to all who qualified! Look out for e27s other roadshows happening around Southeast Asia.

The qualifiers

For 22 other startups, the dream is not over. They have qualified for TOP100 at Echelon and have an opportunity at that prize! The qualified companies are as follows:

Aspire

BeamAndGo Pte Ltd

Codomo Pte Ltd

Glee Trees Pte. Ltd.

H3 Dynamics

iwonder

Keyless Technologies Ltd.

Neurobit Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

NEUTO Pte Ltd

NewCampus

Nodis Pte Ltd

Pitchspot

Prime Respi

RenGlobe Tech Solutions Pte. Ltd (RGTS)

SenzeHub

ShopJJ

SmartPeep

Spark Systems Pte Ltd

Thesocialdataco Pte Ltd

Universe Technology Singapore Pte Ltd

Unscrambl Inc.

Untangle AI



Photos by David Boot of e27.

The post Singapore TOP100 winners show why Southeast Asian startup scene is the worlds best appeared first on e27.
Vietnam's Communist Party has purged a prominent researcher whose work on his country's claims to the disputed South China Sea had threatened to ruffle feathers in Beijing, which says it owns most of the resource-rich waterway. Tran Duc Anh Son, deputy head of a state-run research institute in central Danang City, was expelled from the party this week after being accused of eroding its prestige, state media reported. "The violations by Tran Duc Anh Son are very serious, creating negative public opinion among cadres, party members and the people," Danang Online official news site reported Friday. He was also accused of "defaming the prestige of... the party organisation and the institute where he is working," it added, referring to the Danang Institute for Socioeconomic Development where he has been employed since 2009. The newspaper did not specify Son's alleged misdeeds, though the historian has previously criticised the Vietnamese government for not standing up to Beijing in its long-simmering fight over disputed territory in the sea. The outspoken researcher has collected documents that he says justifies Hanoi's claims in the waterway dating back to the 19th century, namely over the Spratly and Paracel islands. Son's patriotic Facebook posts have argued in favour of those claims and against China's 1979 invasion of Vietnam that sparked a bloody border war. Son was not available for comment Friday, but posted a cryptic message on Facebook after the news of his expulsion from the party broke. "This is a happy moment," he posted, quoting the controversial anti-war Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Hanoi and Beijing enjoy an at times uneasy alliance, with occasional flare-ups over the South China Sea. Though Hanoi disputes Beijing's so-called nine dash line -- its own historical justification over most of the South China Sea -- Vietnam is careful not to upset its powerful neighbour and leading trade partner. The dispute boiled over in 2014 when China moved an oil rig into waters claimed by Hanoi, sparking violent protests across Vietnam. Last year Vietnam scrapped a major exploration project off its coast in the South China Sea run by Spanish oil firm Repsol, a move seen as a sop to Beijing.
"There is no path to the resurrection except through the passion and crucifixion."

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Lent, a season of repentance and conversion. The Gospel calls on us to reflect on the temptation of Jesus in the desert. In the short gospel of Mark, Jesus was brought by the Spirit into the wilderness where he stayed for forty days. After which he went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. The time has come, he said. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news! This Gospel of Mark marks Jesus preparation for public ministry. He stayed in the desert for 40 days fasting, praying and being in communion with his Father in heaven. Forty is a significant number not only in the life of Jesus but in the history of salvation. The Jews stayed in the desert for 40 years, Moses stayed on Mt. Sinai for 40 days while receiving the law. Thus, 40 signifies a period of trial and chastisement. In the Gospel, Jesus stayed in the wilderness for 40 days during which God allowed Satan to tempt the Messiah. The desert is a desolate place; there, we become most vulnerable to the attacks of the devil. But the Gospel tells us that like Christ, praying, fasting, and focusing all senses towards God, we can overcome this sense of desolation and the temptations. Surely, it is when we are in the state of constant comfort and luxury that we are tempted to be complacent in our faith and charity such that we readily fall into the wiles of Satan and into all forms of sin. The sex abuse scandals now buffeting the Catholic Church show us that no one is immune from temptation. Even consecrated individuals who by virtue of their vows are the Alter Christus on earth have succumbed to the temptations of the flesh. This has been exacerbated and perpetuated by the cover up committed by many Church leaders. Motivated mostly by the need to avoid scandal, the actions have and are lacerating further the wounds of victims. Our very own Cardinal Chito Tagle eloquently framed this in the first presentation delivered during the Meeting of the Presidents of the Bishops Conferences on Safeguarding of Minors held in Vatican City last February 21-24, 2019: The abuse of minors by ordained ministers has inflicted wounds not only on the victims, but also on their families, the clergy, the Church, the wider society, the perpetrators themselves and the Bishops. But, it is also true, we humbly and sorrowfully admit, that wounds have been inflicted by us bishops on the victims and in fact the entire body of Christ. Our lack of response to the suffering of victims, even to the point of rejecting them and covering up the scandal to protect perpetrators and the institution has injured our people, leaving a deep wound in our relationship with those we are sent to serve. People are rightly asking: Have you, who are called to have the smell of the sheep upon you, not instead run away when you found the stench of the filth inflicted on children and vulnerable people you were supposed to protect, too strong to endure? Cardinal Tagle highlighted what is at stake in this crisis resulting from the sexual abuse of children and the Churchs poor handling of these crimes: Our people need us to draw close to their wounds and acknowledge our faults if we are to give authentic and credible witness to our faith in the Resurrection. This means that each of us and our brothers and sisters at home must take personal responsibility for bringing healing to this wound in the Body of Christ and make the commitment to do everything in our power and capacity to see that children are safe, are cared for in our communities.The Archbishop of Manila, who did not hesitate to show his emotions while speaking in the meeting, exhorted his audience and this is a message to all of our bishops and religious leaders, not to be afraid. According to him, we must not be afraid, indeed we should set aside whatever hesitation we have to come nearer to the wounds of the victims and their loved ones because we are afraid of being wounded ourselves. Cardinal Tagle emphasized the necessity of going through this passion: Yes, much of the wounds we will suffer are part of the restoration of memory we must undergo, as did those disciples of Jesus. The wounds of the Risen Lord reminded the disciples of betrayal, their own betrayal and abandonment of Jesus when they saved their own lives out of fear. They fled at the first moment of danger, afraid of the cost of discipleship, and in Peters case, even denying that he even knew the Lord. Jesus wounds also remind them and us that wounds are often inflicted by blindness of ambition and legalism and misuse of power that condemned an innocent person to die as a criminal. The wounds of the Risen Christ carry the memory of innocent suffering, but they also carry the memory of our weakness and sinfulness. Tagle explains that this is an act of faith: If we want to be agents of healing let us reject any tendency that is part of worldly thinking that refuses to see and touch the wounds of others, which are Christ s wounds in the wounded people. Those wounded by abuse and the scandal need us to be strong in faith in this moment. The world needs authentic witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus, who draw close to His wounds as the first act of faith. I will be stressing: this is an act of faith. One of the most important sections of Tagles presentation was his reflection on justice and forgiveness where we often are tempted to frame in either/or terms: We strive either for justice or we try to offer forgiveness. We need a shift to a both/and stance as we deliberately ask these questions: How can we serve justice and foster forgiveness in the face of this wound of sexual abuse? How can we prevent distorting forgiveness so that we do not equate it with just letting the injustice slide away or move on and dismiss the wrong? How can we keep an accurate view of forgiveness as offering a startling mercy of unconditional love to those who have done wrong, while at the same time, we strive for justice? How can we renew the Church by a firm correction of a definite wrong and walk with the abused, patiently and repeatedly begging forgiveness, knowing that giving such a gift can heal them even more? Finally, Cardinal Tagle meditates on the resurrection, how we could learn from the Risen Lord and his disciples by looking at and touching the wounds of victims, families, guilty and innocent clergy, the Church and society. By beholding Jesus, our Messiah, who himself was wounded by betrayal and abuse of power, we are able to also see the wounds of those hurt by those who should have protected them. According to Tagle: In Jesus we experience the mercy that preserves justice and celebrates the gift of forgiveness. The Church hopefully would be a community of justice coming from communion and compassion, a Church eager to go forth on a mission of reconciliation to the wounded world in the Holy Spirit. Once again, the Crucified and Risen Lord stands in our midst at this moment, shows us his wounds and proclaims: Peace be with you! May we ever grow in our faith in this great mystery. In Cardinal Tagles reflections on the sex abuse crisis is encapsulated the journey we are asked to traverse this Lent. As individuals, families, communities, and Church, we are called to conversion, to repent and change our ways, and to work for justice and practice forgiveness. Lent is followed by Easter but there is no path to the resurrection except through the passion and crucifixion. Facebook Page: Professor Tony La Vina Twitter: tonylavs
Mass protests were held in Algerian cities on March 8 against President Abdelaziz Bouteflikas decision to run for a fifth term of office, local media reported.

Train and metro services in the capital were suspended ahead of gatherings there, according to local reports.

Bouteflika, a veteran of Algerias war of independence, was reportedly in poor health in recent years. He has been in office since 1999 and recently turned 82.

Footage by Nadjib Belhimer, an Algerian journalist, shows crowds gathered near the Grand Post Office in Algiers. Credit: Nadjib Belhimer via Storyful
A shaky peace deal in South Sudan stands a chance of success despite delays in implementing it and many lingering unresolved issues, the UN envoy said Friday. The agreement signed in September provides for a power-sharing government that will prepare elections meant to turn the page on five years of war in South Sudan -- one of the world's worst conflicts. Critics of the deal say it is largely a repeat of a previous 2015 agreement that fell apart when heavy fighting broke out in Juba between President Salva Kiir's forces and fighters loyal to Riek Machar. "There are some who believe that a return to violence is inevitable," UN envoy David Shearer told the Security Council. "We don't concur. This agreement has broader buy-in from parties than the 2015 agreement. It is widely embraced by the population." Shearer said the parties were "well behind" in implementing the agreement and that key issues had been deferred, such as forming a unified army to be deployed in Juba and major towns, and providing security for opposition leaders returning from exile. A first test of the deal will come in May when a transitional government led by Kiir and five vice presidents including Machar, currently in exile in Khartoum, is to take over. - Financial backing - "This peace agreement is far from perfect. But it is the one that we have in front of us today and we are not going to get another chance at this," said Shearer. To bolster the peace deal, the UN envoy appealed for financial support through contributions to a newly-established trust fund that will help provide resources. But the United States, South Sudan's biggest financial backer, made clear that the Juba government must pour some of its own revenues from oil production into support for peace. "Absent such transparency, South Sudan's leaders cannot expect the international community to provide substantial financial support to implement the peace agreement," said US Acting Ambassador Jonathan Cohen. South Sudan descended into war in December 2013 when Kiir accused Machar, his former deputy, of plotting a coup. Under the previous deal, Machar returned from exile with a group of bodyguards in July 2016, sparking a major battle in Juba that forced the rebel leader to flee the country chased by tanks and helicopter gunships. The war has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted over one third of South Sudan's 12 million people and has seen horrific levels of sexual violence along with brutal attacks on civilians. The council was meeting ahead of a vote expected next week on renewing the mandate of the 16,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, known as UNMISS.
Adm. Phil Davidson, center, the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, speaks with the media in Singapore Thursday, March 7, 2019. Davidson told reporters Thursday that he is working with countries including South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and France, to enforce sanctions against North Korea at sea. (Mass Communication 1st Specialist Robin W. Peak/U.S. Navy via AP)

SINGAPORE (AP)  A U.S. military commander suggested Thursday that a loose security grouping of his country, Japan, Australia and India, also known as the quad, may be shelved for now.

Adm. Phil Davidson, who heads the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said he was on a panel with the other navy chiefs at the Raisina Dialogue, a multilateral conference in New Delhi in January.

Davidson said the issue came up "several times" but Indian navy chief Adm. Sunil Lanba "made it quite clear that there wasn't an immediate potential for a quad."

"That does not omit or prevent our ability to cooperate in crisis and conflict. And we continue collectively, all of us, to seek opportunities in which we might exercise and work together moving forward," he added.

Davidson was asked if the quad was relevant to his country's vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, which was the central theme of his lecture in Singapore.

The U.S. and the other three countries had come together to provide humanitarian assistance after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe then suggested they form the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which met three years later.

The meetings stopped for a decade after China formally reached out to each country to seek information on the meetings' purpose.

The quad met again in 2017. India's Ministry of External Affairs said they addressed "issues of common interest" such as terrorism and "proliferation linkages impacting the region."

While members have said the grouping is not in opposition to China, it is viewed as a counterbalance to Beijing's rising influence in Indo-Pacific.

India had stressed in the past that the quad was not a military grouping. Lanba noted at January's conference that the Chinese navy had added 80 ships in the last five years, according to Indian media.

"Chinese Navy is a force and it is a force that is here to stay," the Press Trust of India news agency reported him as saying.

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The U.S. is also keeping a close watch on North Korea following reported activity at a rocket launch site.

Davidson told reporters earlier Thursday that he was committed to maintaining U.N. sanctions against North Korea and a "readiness of our forces there."

He added that he was working with countries including South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and France to catch any sanctions breaches via methods such as ship-to-ship transfers.

"Many of those nations will contribute either maritime patrol aircraft or ships later this year," he said.

On Wednesday, foreign experts and a South Korean lawmaker who was briefed by Seoul's spy service said North Korea was restoring facilities at a long-range rocket launch site that it dismantled last year as part of disarmament steps. Satellite photos taken on various dates showed new activity at the Tongchang-ri launch site, northwest of Pyongyang.

The reports surfaced less than a week after President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in Vietnam but failed to reach any agreement on the North's nuclear program.

Davidson also addressed recent comments by Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who called for a review of a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty with Washington to prevent the Philippines from being dragged into a "shooting war" in the South China Sea.

China is pitted against the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries in multiple territorial disputes in the waters, which are crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves.

The treaty calls on the U.S. and the Philippines to come to each other's defense against an external attack. "I should note that the Philippines relies heavily on the freedom of the seas and the South China Sea especially," Davidson said.

He added that he takes the treaty "quite seriously" and that the U.S. Embassy was in contact with the Philippines regarding the matter.

Davidson took command of around 380,000 civilian and military personnel in the region last April.
Swedish black metal band Watain. (Getty Images file photo)

Over nearly 20 years of touring the world, Swedish black metal band Watain said they have never encountered such an old-fashioned move like the Singapore governments last-minute decision to cancel their concert here.

Responding via e-mail to questions from Yahoo News Singapore, Watain vocalist Erik Danielsson said that while the band understand that people are afraid of their Satanic brand of music, they view attempts to govern other peoples (sic) lives and decisions with scorn.

(As) if our supporters in Singapore were incapable of deciding for themselves what makes them strong or gives them encouragement to go on living their lives in freedom, he said.

The band had been scheduled to perform at the Ebenex Live Space on Thursday (7 March) night but the show was cancelled due to security concerns raised by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

A day earlier, a petition raised on the Change.org website called for Watain and Swedish death metal band Soilwork to be banned from performing in Singapore. As of Thursday night, the petition had gathered nearly 17,000 signatures. Soilwork are scheduled to perform in Singapore on 29 October.

Asked about the petition, Danielsson said the band were aware of it since entering Singapore. (We) treated it the same way we usually treat oppositionwith scorn and humiliation, he said.

Some commenters on the petition site had decried the bands Satanic and suicide themes and expressed concern that a concert here would corrupt young minds.

In response, Danielsson said, (Do) we feel that they are accurate in their accusations? Yes, some of them are. But how to approach such things, we believe, is for each and every grown man and woman to decide for themselves.

The comments were horribly wrong in many ways, according to Danielsson.

To say that we advocate self-destruction and suicide is like saying that the gospel of Jesus encourages people to crucify themselves, he added.

Having met many of their local fans face-to-face after the concerts cancellation, Danielsson said those they spoke with know exactly how we feel about the sudden turn of events.

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Describing these fans as being clever and cunning and proud and who are not sheep, he noted the irony of the anti-authority sentiments that have been provoked by the concerts cancellation.

Such is the seemingly obvious consequence of this unfortunate turn of events, said Danielsson.

Earlier Thursday at a doorstop interview at the Ministry of Law, Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam said allowing Watains concert to be held will be against public order interest and affect our religious and social harmony.

Shanmugam noted that the bands music is very offensive towards Christians, Jews, supportive of violence, including encouraging the burning of churches.

Related stories:

Allowing metal band Watain to hold Singapore concert can affect religious and social harmony: Shanmugam

IMDA cancels Watains concert in Singapore due to black metal bands Satanist views

Petition calls for ban on 2 Swedish heavy metal bands to perform in Singapore
Despite President Dutertes approval of NCRPO Chief Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazars rough handling of a rogue cop, the Metro Manila police chief apologized publicly for losing his cool on a policeman caught extorting P200,000 from an illegal drug suspect. Gen. Eleazar, who is known to be strict and a disciplinarian officer, apologized after he was seen on live video practically manhandling PO2 Marlo Quibete, of Drugs Enforcement Unit of the Eastern Police District. And who wouldnt get furious when this kotong cop, still had the nerve to lie that no other cops in his unit were involved in the extortion try when his text messages proved otherwise? Quibete, who demanded money in exchange for the release of Aris Ochoada, was arrested in an entrapment conducted by the NCRPO Special Operations Unit early Wednesday morning. Ochoada claims he was framed so he sought the help of the NCRPO Chief. I understand that General Eleazar, along with the Philippine National Police top brass headed by P/Director-General Oscar Albayalde, are working so hard to reform the PNP, and restore its good image. The PNP must mean business in straightening up its ranks, so owing to command responsibility, EPD Chief Director Bernabe Balba along with 15 cops belonging to the EPD drugs unit, including its chief P/Maj. Arnold Paranom have been relieved from their posts.Aside from being booted from the service, Paranom and his men will be charged with extortion in court. It is indeed as frustrating for Gen. Eleazar and as it is on the part of the general public to encounter cases where policemen who swore to serve and protect turn out to be the criminal offenders. People are likewise tired of hearing cases of crooked cops getting away with their crime so it was not at all surprising that viewers actually cheered at seeing the cop get a good dressing down from the general. During the live report on my program Tutok Erwin Tulfo over Radyo Pilipinas, it hit 25 thousand views and 2,000 shares within a few minutes. Many viewers said the kotong cop deserves more than what he got. I think so, too.
Audrey Chong, Ayala International and H.E. Scott Wightman, British High Commissioner to Singapore

Ayala Chief Sustainability Officer Jose Teodoro K. Limcaoco

Ayala Corporation has won Asias Best Integrated Report (Highly Commended) at the 4th Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards (ASRA), Southeast Asias highest recognition for corporate reporting. The awarding took place in Singapore last March 6, 2019.Sustainability reporting has become an important tool for investors and stakeholders to assess a companys full value. High quality reporting and disclosure allows organizations to communicate how they manage their economic, environmental, social and governance impacts, risks and opportunities to create value in the short, medium and long term, explained Rajesh Chhabara, managing director at CSRWorks International and the creator of the Awards. Ayala Corporations winning report demonstrates the companys leadership in sustainability reporting and a deep sense of commitment to transparency, disclosure and value creation. The Ayala groups first Integrated Report is the first of its kind in the Philippines. It shows how Ayala uses its different capitalsfinancial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social, and naturalto create business strategies that would benefit not just the company but the communities that it serves. The report details Ayala expansion from its core businesses in real estate, telecommunications, banking, and water, to more transformative businesses in healthcare, education, infrastructure, industrial technology, and energy that would serve broader markets and create shared value for all its stakeholders. The report also discloses how Ayala supports and aligns its environmental endeavors throughout the company, and the importance of groupwide interconnectivity in matters such as governance, risk management, and investor relations. We thank the organizing committee and judges for this honor. This confirms that we in Ayala are on the right direction in communicating our sustainability efforts and overall performance. We continue to innovate to make our reporting platform more comprehensive and informative. This achievement calls us to more action in taking greater responsibility to all our stakeholders. Ultimately, this inspires us to keep our focus towards our purpose of improving lives, said Ayala Chief Sustainability Officer Jose Teodoro K. Limcaoco.The awards ceremony was hosted by the British High Commissioner in Singapore H.E. Scott Wightman, and was attended by senior business leaders from 13 countries. Also in attendance were dignitaries from other fields such as academia, non-profit, embassies, trade associations and advocacy organizations. The awards were presented by the Guest of Honor Jessica Cheam, managing editor of Eco-Business, H.E. Scott Wightman, and special guests Dr. Lawrence Loh, Director of Corporate Governance, Institutions and Organizations at NUS Business School, and Dr. Wu Huijuan, Assistant Director, Singapore Institute of International Affairs. Ayalas award was received by Audrey Chong of Ayala International.A record 82 companies from 14 countries made it to the final round of the 2018 Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards across 17 categories. Finalists can be viewed at https://csrmatters.com/finalists-2018/
During her weekly press conference on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ran through a list of the agenda items Democrats had either passed already or would pass soon: expanded background checks for gun sales, a restoration of net neutrality rules, protections for Dreamers, equal-pay-for-equal-work legislation, a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and most notably, H.R. 1, also known as the For the People Act, which would enshrine sweeping democratic and electoral reforms.

Were busy with our legislative work, she said, despite what we might read in the press.

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Democrats may be busy with such work. It would be helpful for them, though, if they were less busy with self-inflicted wounds that stomp all over it.

Since the end of the shutdown, Pelosis ability to keep this powder keg of a House majority unified on messaging has been tested. Those tensions culminatedor so they should hopethis week. House Democrats plan to shine the spotlight on passing the catchall For the People Acttheir signature reform legislationwas dwarfed by infighting over how to respond to comments from freshman Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar that some within the caucus perceived as anti-Semitic. The intracaucus arguments have played out in public, on Twitter, and in private caucus meetings. On Thursday, House Democratic leaders finally voted on a resolution condemning all forms of hatredreally, just about any iteration they could think ofjust to give themselves a fighting shot of putting the episode behind them before voting on the For the People Act on Friday.

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The ugly week showcased the managerial challenges the Democratic majority has to contend with, challenges Republicans can now comfortably ignore. (In fact, this was the week the GOP members finally began to enjoy the extended paid vacation that is serving in the House minority.) Republicans struggled to unite their ideological factions, but the closest thing to an identity split they faced was Protestant versus Catholic. The Democratic majority might be more cohesive ideologically, at least in practice; as Pelosi contended, its not having any trouble passing legislation so far. But its far more diverse in makeup, with sensitive tripwires laid in every direction. That diversity is at once the pride of the caucus andat least for nowthe source of its squabbling.

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Last Wednesday at a progressive town hall, Omar, who had already gotten in trouble and been rebuked in Congress for tweets alluding to lawmakers being in the pocket of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, referenced the political influence in this country that says it is OK to push for allegiance to a foreign country. Some Jewish House Democrats, like Reps. Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey, and Ted Deutch, brought their concerns about the repeat offense to the Democratic leadership over the weekend, urging them to act in response.

Republicans couldnt resist gawking.

With Congress out of town Saturday and Sunday, but Democrats still facing pressure to respond, leaders decided to vote on a resolution rejecting anti-Semitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of the United States. The resolution didnt name Omar specifically. But with its extensive listing of historical events in which accusations of dual loyalty have been used to serve insidious, bigoted ends, it may as well have.

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Leaders erred, however, in drafting and agreeing to a vote on the resolution before giving the full caucus an opportunity to weigh in. Members of both the Black and Progressive caucuses, especially, felt it was unfair that a Muslim woman of color was being formally called out for a comment when, for example, Donald Trump says worse things every day.

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Outside progressives backed Omar. Democratic presidential candidatescompeting for points with those progressivesissued statements criticizing House Democratic leaders strategy, suggesting that overwhelming condemnations of Omar put a chilling effect on questioning policy toward Israel.

By Wednesday, Democrats had agreed to broaden the resolution to include condemnations of anti-Muslim bigotry. That, too, wasnt good enough for some elements of the caucus. Democrats continued adding categories to the resolution until about an hour before the vote on Thursday. By then, the list of traditionally persecuted peoples against whom hate was rejected in their resolution included African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other people of color, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and others.

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Exactly whom did this expansion of categories please? The left didnt think any resolution needed to be voted on because they believed Omars words had been twisted. Those Democrats who wanted Omar to be reprimanded in the first place couldnt understand why they werent directly and exclusively calling out anti-Semitism. Republicans couldnt resist gawking.

I dont know where to begin, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, said on the floor, wondering why they were debating a resolution we should have learned in kindergarten: Be nice. The resolution, he said, didnt need to be seven pages.

Its wordy! he said.

Collins had the common sense, still, to vote for a broad resolution rejecting hatred. Twenty-three of his Republican colleagues ended up voting against the resolution, and notorious white supremacydabbler Rep. Steve King voted present. In that, at least Democrats were able to squeeze one talking point out of what was otherwise their messiest episode in the majority yet.

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On the day in January that a deal to end the shutdown was reached, Pelosi explained to reporters why she didnt sweat managing conflicting interests among a diverse new majority whose new members werent particularly shy about sharing their opinions.

You have to remember who I am, she said. I was the chair of the California Democratic Party. There is nothing that anybody can show me, in terms of activism and the rest, that I wasnt there in the thick of, managing. She had seen peak unruliness, and this was not that.

Maybe she should have waited another couple of months.
The tide seems to be turning for Rep. Ilhan Omar. Last week, she made critical comments about American supporters of Israel that were interpreted by some as a reference to the anti-Semitic trope of dual loyalty. This sparked swift and widespread condemnation, including from the leaders of the Democratic Party who put forward a planned resolution condemning anti-Semitism as a rebuke of the congresswoman.

But an increasing number of progressives, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, have come to Omars defense in recent days. Many see a double standard at play. They argue that Omar, a black Muslim woman, is being unfairly singled out for a misstatement while the partys leaders stay silent on offensive remarks by other politicians. (After dissent from the progressive wing of the party, the Democratic resolution was amended to denounce all forms of hate. It passed in the House 407 to 23 on Thursday, with all Democrats ultimately voting for it.)

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Alongside the intraparty squabble, Jewish American leftists have emerged as a key source of support for Omar, writing a flurry of op-eds, petitions, and social media posts with the hashtag #IStandWithIlhan. Progressive Jewish organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice are responding to the Omar flap by emphasizing the difference between anti-Semitism and legitimate critiques of Israel and pivoting to discuss the threat of white supremacy to all minority groups. (Disclosure: I was a summer intern at Jewish Voice for Peace in college and am still a member.) This source of full-throated support of the congresswoman has the potential to shift the national conversation over anti-Semitism and how it operates. Its also a sign of the growing rift within the American Jewish community over Israel-Palestine, as leftist Jewish movements gain momentum.

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Leo Ferguson, the movement building organizer at Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, expressed hope that this controversy could serve as a valuable learning experience for the Jewish community and the American public more broadly. The opportunity here, if we take it, is for all of us to become much sharper in our understanding of anti-Semitism, Ferguson told me. There is an incredibly powerful opening for white Jews to understand their deep mutual interest and potential solidarity with black people, because white supremacy is coming for all of us.

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Rebecca Pierce, a member of the Jews of Color and Sephardi/Mizrahi Caucus, which organizes in partnership with Jewish Voice for Peace, agrees. (Sephardi refers to Jewish communities whose ancestors were expelled from Spain and Portugal in 1492. Mizrahi refers to Jewish communities from the Middle East, west Asia, and North Africa.) Pierce said the most important way to respond to this controversy is to develop a robust definition of anti-Semitism that goes beyond the context of Israel.

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Anti-Semitism is hatred, animus, bias toward Jewish people as a whole, and this is a historical thing  that predates the existence of the state of Israel, Pierce explained. Therefore, to have a definition of anti-Semitism that is totally wrapped up in how were allowed to talk about this modern ethno-stateit really is a disservice to the history of anti-Semitism and also to understanding how it operates in our society.

Pierce continued: If our definition of anti-Semitism is reduced to Are you criticizing Israel? you have no ability to grapple with someone like Richard Spencer. The prominent American white supremacist activist is also an avowed supporter of Israel.

Its completely understandable that Jews are on edge and are concerned and are looking around, trying to figure out who their allies are and who they can trust, Ferguson said. At the same time, he cautioned that Jewish Americans legitimate fears have at times been exploited by figures on the right as a way to pit Jews against other marginalized communities.

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There is definitely a pattern of  [hyperpolicing] the language of black activists and leaders when it comes to showing solidarity with Palestine, Pierce said. The pattern that Ive noticed is that someone will say something, and then critics  will twist their words in such a way that theyre really changing the fundamental point that was being made and trying to make it a generalization about Jews when someone is talking about Israel. And weve seen this over and over again.

This scenario has played out numerous times over the past few months. Since December, black activists including Marc Lamont Hill, Angela Davis, Michelle Alexander, and Ilhan Omar have all faced substantial blowback for their support of Palestinian rights.

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A lot of this is backlash to progress thats happening, and we need to refuse to cede that ground, Pierce said. Our struggles are connected, and were going to continue to  [acknowledge] that our common enemy is white supremacy, so we need to be working together to fight it.

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Imogen Page, an IfNotNow member who is active in the Twin Cities branch, explained why she felt it was significant for Jewish activists to express support for Omar: What were doing right now is standing up and saying no, you cannot use  our history and our pain and our trauma to drive a wedge between [Jews] and the other people you are marginalizing and putting in danger.

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Activists like Ferguson, Pierce, and Page acknowledge that their strategy is more challenging than condemnation and rejection, and requires far more patience and soul-searching, but they also hope that it will strengthen their movement.

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The campaigns to defend Omar could be seen as a detour from these organizations primary advocacy work around Israel-Palestine, but some activists see defending Omar as part of a broader push to shift conversations within the Jewish community.

Theres really an attempt to paint the people supporting Ilhan Omar as totally outside the norm, totally outside the Jewish community. Were actually all very involved in the Jewish community, Pierce said. Pierce explained that advocating for Omar is inherently connected to this issue of more recognition for diverse voices  in the Jewish community, and not letting the same [several] organizationsthat are incredibly out of touch a lot of the time with what our needs and experiences arespeak for us.

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Progressive Jewish activists have secured numerous victories in recent years: Public opinion on Israel-Palestine is moving to the left, especially among young people, and Jewish Americans are increasingly critical of Israeli government policies and the occupation. Vocal politicians like Omar are bringing these once-fringe positions further into the mainstream, and American Jewish leftists see this as a moment to amplify their message and pitch their position to a national audience.

Ive been in Palestine solidarity for a long timesince I was in collegeand Ive seen huge changes. Leaps and bounds, Pierce said. On Palestine, so many things that were taboo are now mainstream, and I dont think theres a way to shut it down.
A federal judge sentenced former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort Thursday to 47 months in prison for eight charges of tax and bank fraud, a punishment that came in far below advisory sentencing guidelines calling for between 19 and 24 years in prison as punishment for the 69-year-olds crimes. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis dubbed those guidelines excessive, saying they far exceeded penalties handed down for similar convictions and noting, somewhat incredibly, that Manafort had lived an otherwise blameless life. Along with the jail time, the judge ordered the former Trump adviser to pay at least $6 million in restitution to the government. Im convinced thats a just sentence for that conduct, Judge Ellis said as he delivered the sentence to the Virginia courtroom.

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Manaforts trial last year documented his career as an international lobbyist whose profligate spending habits were part of the evidence showing hed cheated the Internal Revenue Service out of $6 million by hiding $16 million in income, the Washington Post notes. Prosecutors painted the former Trump campaign chairman as an incorrigible cheat who must be made to understand the seriousness of his wrongdoing. Manafort contends he is mere collateral damage in special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election.

Manafort, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, addressed the court for several minutes before the sentence was handed down. I know it is my conduct that brought me here my lifepersonally and professionallyis in shambles, Manafort said. To say I am humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement. I ask you to be compassionate, Manafort said, addressing the judge. I am ready for your decision. Judge Ellis said that Manafort, who has been in jail since June 2018, did not receive special consideration for ultimately accepting responsibility for his crimes. I was surprised I did not hear you express regret for engaging in criminal conduct, Judge Ellis said before handing down the sentence. I hope you will reflect on that.

Manfort is still awaiting sentencing for conspiracy and witness tampering convictions, which CNN notes, he pleaded guilty to as part of his admission that he had orchestrated a vast lobbying and money laundering criminal scheme. Its not yet known what sentence prosecutors will seek during the hearing set for March 13th.
Trapped: A new federal gag rule would impose onerous restrictions on abortion providersclinics would have to set up entirely separate exam and waiting rooms for those seeking abortions and those accessing different forms of health careand prevent doctors from even letting patients know about the option to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. A number of lawsuits have already been filed against the rule, but this isnt just another case of how to interpret Roe v. Wade. Mark Joseph Stern lays out how the rule runs directly afoul of a federal statute, and wonders what the Supreme Court will do.

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Contender: Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro was hailed as a rising star in the Obama years, but now hes facing a crowded Democratic field in 2020. Leon Krauze asks the presidential candidate if he has what it takes to reach across racial divides.

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Chickening out: When CEO Dan Cathy made comments denouncing same-sex marriage in 2012, Chick-fil-A became a cause celebre among progressivesespecially after it was revealed the company donated to several anti-LGBTQ organizations. However, over the years, protesters have gone back to eating regularly at the fast food joint, effectively ending the boycott. Why did this happen? Ruth Graham investigates.

Ulterior motives: Mark Zuckerberg just announced a new privacy-focused vision for Facebook: consolidating messaging across Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram with end-to-end encryption. But Will Oremus explains how this pivot to privacy might be more for the social networks benefit than for its users.

For fun: How Wikipedia spread a made-up fact about Stalins bathroom.

Consider Popeyes,

Vicky
One week after the failed Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, the prospects for an agreement to dismantle North Koreas nuclear weapons seem dimmer stilland the chances of heightened tension, even conflict, have grown.

Last April, shortly before President Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un first met, in Singapore, Kim announced that he was shutting down the Sohae Satellite Launching Stationsatellite launches use the same technology as intercontinental ballistic missilesand halting all testing of long-range missiles and nuclear weapons, a pledge he has not yet broken.

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But commercial satellite photos taken March 2, two days after the Hanoi summit collapsed, revealed that North Korea has rebuilt the site. Subsequent pictures, taken on Wednesday, show that work had progressed to the point where the site has now returned to normal operational status, according to the website 38 North. The new imagery doesnt necessarily mean that Kim will resume testing ICBMs in the very near futurebut it does mean that he could if he wanted.

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Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he would be very, very disappointed in Chairman Kim if testing did resume. He added, with his customary overconfidence when speaking of his odd friendship with the tyrant from Pyongyang, I dont think I will be, but well see what happens. Well take a look. Itll ultimately get solved.

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The two leaders have this in common: Theyre both unpredictable when things get desperateand theyre both desperate in the wake of their recent diplomatic debacle.

Both had oversize hopes for the Hanoi summit. Trump was all-too-visibly keen to make a deal that would put him in the history books and distract attention from the investigations into his financial affairs. Kim needed to cement his reputation, which hed been crafting for a year, as the brilliant strategist who managed to develop a nuclear deterrent and recharge his countrys economy.

The two leaders have this in common: Theyre both unpredictable when things get desperateand theyre both desperate.

Both men overplayed their hands. Kim offered to stop production at one nuclear reactor (but not at any of the others) if the United States lifted all the sanctions that it (and the U.N. Security Council) has imposed on North Korea since 2016. Trump came to the table with a one-fell-swoop grand deal: He would lift all sanctions if North Korea dismantled its entire nuclear programall the reactors, uranium-enrichment facilities, uranium and plutonium stocks, finished weapons, missiles, everything.

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Each leader rejected the others proposal as too demanding and one-sided. Trump then ended the summit earlywalking out before the concluding lunch, much less the anticipated signing ceremonywith no deal on anything.

So now what? If Kim were a different sort of leader, even a less brutal sort of dictator, he might have found himself ousted from power by the time he got back to Pyongyang. A coup is still unlikely, given that Kim has murdered insidersincluding family memberswho display the slightest sign of disloyalty. However, he may depose certain key officials in order to evade responsibility for the failure. Trump has taken a similar, if milder, tact, blaming House Democratswhose hearing with his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, occurred on the same day as the summitfor weakening his position overseas.

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In the week since Hanoi, Trump and his team, far from altering their diplomatic approach, have doubled down on their insistence that North Korea denuclearize all at once, in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. This demand has always been a nonstarter for Kim and North Koreas entire elite. Top U.S. intelligence officialsall Trump appointeeshave testified that North Koreans will likely never surrender their entire nuclear arsenal, regarding it as vital to the survival of the regime.

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From the beginning, the North Koreans have insisted on a step-by-step process of concessions, but the Trump administration has rejected that notion ever since John Bolton became national security adviser in April 2018. This is mainly because Bolton doesnt want talks with North Korea at all. Bolton tried to sabotage the first summit in June, but once that attempt failedand as Trump embraced Kim as his new best friendthe canny operator, who has never read an arms control treaty that he liked, sat back, stayed mum, and waited for the bloom to fade.

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Now that the fading has begun, Bolton is likely to reassert his dominance. He may face some resistance from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has developed some stake in the negotiations, but only to the extent that it serves Trumps pleasureand, with Bolton a few steps from the Oval Office, this resistance too may subside. Until this year, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis played a role in encouraging talkshe had resisted Trumps earlier desires for a new war plan against North Korea, arguing that there were no good outcomes in such a fightbut now he is gone. His former deputy, Patrick Shanahan, is acting secretary of defense; still auditioning for the full-time slot, he has buoyantly agreed with all of Trumps positions. In any case, Shanahan is more a manager than a policy analyst.

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Meanwhile, Kim remains desperate for sanctions relief, and as he realizes that hes unlikely to get it from Trump, despite his assiduous courting of the man who loves to be courted, he will probably turn to China and Russia. China, which has long been North Koreas only stalwart ally, has somewhat cut back its trade since international sanctions were put in place last year, though President Xi Jinping may restore their former relationship to keep Kims regime from collapsing. Vladimir Putin might help Kim as well, if just to further his ambitions for closer ties with China and to bash the United States.

Xi has long been upset with Kims nuclear and missile tests; the fact that China didnt veto the last few U.N. sanctions against North Korea is proof of his growing impatience. Xi now has the upper hand in his dealings with Kim, who, after Hanoi, is less able to play the larger powers off one another. Maybe he can use the enhanced leverage to strike his own deal: China will boost its aid and trade if North Korea extends its moratorium on testing missiles and nuclear explosives.

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Trump has often said, at least since Singapore, that as long as the North Koreans dont test their rockets or weapons, he doesnt care how long it takes them to disarm. Were not playing the time game, he said back in September. If it takes two years, three years, or five months, it doesnt matter. Just this week, asked if he still thinks Kim is prepared to give up the countrys weapons and missiles, he replied, Well let you know in about a year.

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It shouldnt take nearly that long to formulate an answer. In addition to restoring their launch site, in very quick order, the North Koreans have also continued to build missiles and enrich uranium. They kept that work going, with no slowdowns, in the interim between the two summits, and they continue to do so now.

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Siegfried Hecker, a physicist at Stanford University, former director of the Los Alamos weapons lab, and one of the very few Americans who has been let in to see North Koreas nuclear facilities, said recently thatsince the Trump-Kim talks beganKims scientists have enriched enough uranium to build seven more nuclear weapons, bringing their total arsenal to about 37.

Its unclear how long Trump can afford to sit by and do nothing. He and his aides have lambasted President Obama for his policy of strategic patience. Trump may wind up following suit, though his strategy is a blank and its unclear what hes waiting for, or how he plans to help make it happen. Trump had placed all of his chipsall of our chipson his personal relationship with Kim. He didnt stop to think that they might have different national interests. Friendship, real or feigned, cant override those obstacles.

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Will U.S. and North Korean diplomats start really talking, now that the end run to the summit proved a dead end? Will Kim go back to testing missiles? If he does, will Bolton urge Trump to take out his fire and fury scriptand, if so, will Trump recite the lines in hopes of spurring Kim back to the table, or will the reprise be a prelude to war?

There is not much time for someonein Trumps administration, in Kims camp, or in some other country, which might play the role of intermediaryto step in and stop the juggernaut.
President Trumps executive order this week removing a requirement that the government disclose estimates of civilians killed by U.S. airstrikes outside of war zones wont change very muchin practice. But that doesnt mean its nothing to worry about.

Trumps order rescinds a requirement created in one issued by Barack Obama in 2016 that the director of national intelligence to disclose civilian casualty estimates from all strikes by U.S. government agencies. The White House says the requirement was superfluous since the Pentagon has its own congressionally mandated reporting requirements. But as Luke Hartig, who helped draft Obamas order, explains for Just Security, that law doesnt cover strikes carried out by the CIA.

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One of the reasons Trumps rollback will have only limited impact is that, as the New York Times reported, the Trump administration was already not following the order: The DNI has not issued these reports under Trump. Such strikes are a lot less common than they used to be. In Pakistan, once the heart of the drone war, the last strike was eight months ago, according to New Americas drone-tracking program. The previous one was five months before that. Contrast this with 2010, the height of Obamas drone war, when there were an estimated 122 strikes, according to New America. But Trumps move is still part of a larger, more troubling shift. As the U.S. enters a new era of counterterrorism operations, the administration is shifting toward less transparency and accountability, and further blurring the lines between whats a war zone and whats not.

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To be fair to Trump, much of this trend was established by Obama, who presided over a massive expansion of the covert drone war. But Obama did take some limited steps in his second term to rein in the legally murky state of affairs he had createdsteps the Trump administration has been steadily undoing. One of Obamas steps was shifting control of the lethal drone program from the CIA to the Pentagon, where it would be on firmer legal footing and more transparent. In the first weeks of his administration, Trump granted new authority to the CIA to conduct targeted killing operationsa curious move in light of his overall dim view of the countrys intelligence agencies.

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The Obama administration also instituted rules imposing high standards on lethal missions undertaken outside areas of active hostilities. The term has no official definition, but under the Obama administration these areas reportedly included Iraq, Afghanistan, and later Syria. A strike outside those countries could be aimed only at high-value targets with a minimal risk of civilian casualties and were subject to extensive vetting by the White House. (The degree to which the Obama administration actually complied with some of its own guidelines is debatable.)

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Trump has, in the words of one official, made Obamas guidelines effectively disappear. He first did this by designating large sections of Somalia and Yemen, where both administrations carried out airstrikes, as areas of active hostilities. Then he simply dismantled many of the Obama-era limits on strikes that could be conducted outside these areas. (Although the new standards have been reported in the New York Times and elsewhere, they have not been publicly released.)

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Does this matter given that such strikes occur only occasionally now? Absolutely. First of all, when it comes to lethal military action, even one instance is significant. Second, theres no way to know for sure if such strikes are as rare as were being told.

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Its true that you can only be so secretive when youre lobbing a missile at an inhabited area. News of strikes gets out via social media and local news reports, and organizations including New America, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and Long War Journal have set up to track them. But this information isnt always reliable, and attribution can be difficult, particularly in a chaotic war zone.

Obama did take some limited steps in his second term to rein in the legally murky state of affairs he had createdsteps the Trump administration has been steadily undoing.

Its very possible, if not likely, that CIA or other covert non-military strikes are occurring in Yemen, says David Sterman, a senior policy analyst at New America who runs the organizations drone-tracking program. Weve seen reports of strikes that are alleged to be U.S. strikes based on media reporting that [U.S. Central Command] has not claimed. That could be incorrect media reporting, or it could be covert strikes by the CIA or other actors. We just dont know.

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A recent investigation by the Nations Amanda Sperber in Somalia, where the U.S. has increased the number of counterterrorism operations since Trump took office, also found several examples of strikes that AFRICOM could not confirmwhich suggests that another US agency may also be launching air attacks in the region.

The New York Times reported last September that the CIA has been expanding its drone operations in West Africa, moving aircraft to northeastern Niger to hunt Islamist militants in southern Libya. While theres no indication that these aircraft have yet been used in lethal operations, under Trumps new guidelines, its quite likely that they could be, particularly with the Pentagon sounding the alarm about the growing unrest and influence of extremist groups in the Sahel region.

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Its remarkably dangerous and shortsighted to act as if this is not an enormous abdication of the executives responsibility to be transparent about how were fighting wars, says Sterman.

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Lately, theres been a growing movement in Congress to claw back some of the generous war powers that have been ceded to presidents over the years. The killing of U.S. troops in Niger in 2017 raised some alarm on Capitol Hill over the extent of ongoing U.S. counterterrorism operations outside established war zones. Both the Senate and House have voted in recent months on measures to end U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen. A new bill from Sens. Tim Kaine and Todd Young would rescind the still-in-effect 1991 and 2002 authorizations for war in Iraq. Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, responded to Trumps order this week by saying he would push to insert the reporting requirement in this years Intelligence Authorization Act, essentially codifying Obamas executive order into law. Some think the accountability could go further than that.

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Progressives arent going to find the status quo at the end of the Obama administration to be sufficient, and it wouldnt surprise me if we saw a move toward a legislative ban on the CIA conducting drone strikes entirely, says Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch.

Still, such a fix is probably a long way off with a Republican-controlled Senate and Trump in the White House. For now, theres little pressure to rein in these programs, which raises the question of why the Trump administration bothered with this weeks order at all. I wonder why they decided now to formally revoke it, Prasow says. That does raise concerns. I dont know if its just that John Bolton got around to noticing it or if it signals an expected change that they dont want people to know about.

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Prasow notes that its ironic that this move comes at time when the Defense Department has actually been getting better about providing information on its strikes.

But its also worth keeping in mind that Trump has been pushing to wind down formal military deployments in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. That doesnt mean the U.S. is giving up on targeting extremist groups like al-Qaida and ISIS. If anything the list of targets is expanding, with recent strikes in Pakistan and Shabaab targeting groups like the Taliban, Haqqani network, and al-Shabaabwhich are undoubtedly local threats but have posed little direct threat to the U.S. If Trump wishes to bring the troops home and reduce Americas military footprint around the world, it may mean that counterterrorism operations are increasingly carried out by groups other than the military, and well know much less about it.
In an American Workforce Policy Advisory Board meeting on Wednesday, President Trump mistakenly referred to Apple CEO Tim Cook as Tim Apple. The gaffe became an instant joke a la covfefe, and the next day Cook decided to change his display name on Twitter, trading in his last name for an Apple logo symbol. Whether in so doing he was trolling Trump, as some people read it, or palling around with him, as others did, depends on your interpretation.

Im not sure why the whole Tim Apple thing took off as a gag like it did, to be honest. Trump remembered that the guys first name is Tim and that he works for Apple, which is really not bad considering who were talking about here. Besides, for Trumps purposes, isnt it more important that Cook works at Apple than that his last is Cook? If Trump only has room for two things in his heada real possibilityit seems better that he would retain Apple and not Cook. (If Trump followed the Tim Apple formulation for his own name, interestingly enough, he would still be Donald Trump. Maybe this is how Trump thinks names should work.)

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My stance that Tim Apple isnt a big deal is also based on the reality that most of us are guilty of having Tim Apple-ed someone at sometime or another. You know, put someone in your phone contacts as first name + how you know them? Often because you dont actually know their last name? Online dating is notorious for generating contact lists full of Angela OKCupids and Greg Tinders, and IRL, first name + bar where you met them is a classic, as are variations like Brittany Canada Whore, first popularized by Brody on The Hills over a decade ago. At the opposite of the not-knowing-someones-full-name stage of relationships is when you do know their name and change it in your phone to something like Do NOT Answer This, or, more creatively, Trashfire Daddy.

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It works in nonromantic scenarios too: Looking through my phone, I see a Dr. Fertility for Story, which must be a fertility doctor I talked to for an article once, an Averys Dad Pete, an Averys Mom Kathleen (no, Im not going to explain why I have my friend Averys whole family in my phone), a Naz Downstairs, and a Lindsey Airbnb. Sure, this kind of context might be more suited to the memo or notes area of the contacts entry, but who has time for that? If it works, it works. If I ever met Tim Cook and got his number for some reason, shoot, I might put him in my phone as Tim Apple. I can just see myself getting a call from someone named Tim Cook and struggling to remember who in the world that is, but Tim Apple tells me all I need to know. Using the Apple logo would be a bridge too far, thoughsorry, Tim, I have an Android.
The big question after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebooks pivot to privacy was whether the company was really sincere about guarding users personal data. (The consensus among critics: probably not as serious as you might hope.)

What does seem sincere, however, is Zuckerbergs newfound commitment to messaging. He wants Facebook to dominate private online communication to the same degree that it dominates what we call social networking today.

When people pull out their phone to text their mother, or plan a party with a group of friends, Zuckerberg wants them to do that on WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram Directall of which will work with each other, and eventually with standard SMS systems, too. And in the long run, he wants them to use those platforms for much more than texting and chatting. The ultimate vision is something akin to WeChat, the Chinese super-app that people use for everything from messaging to sharing videos to making appointments, reviewing restaurants, and hailing rides.

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To accomplish that, however, Facebook will have to accomplish something no one else has yet been able to do: pull iPhone users off of iMessage, Apples enormously popular and user-friendly messaging platform. Ultimately, Facebook wants to build a whole suite of messaging-based services that would compete with popular iOS apps. That goal puts Facebook, for the first time, in direct competition not only with Snapchat, Google, and Twitter, but with Apple.

It could get ugly.

For years, Facebook and Apple offered largely complementary products. People bought iPhones, downloaded Facebook and Instagram, and spent large chunks of time on those social networks, while using Apples native apps for calling and texting. Facebook made money from the targeted ads in peoples feeds. Apple made money on the hardware, while its software kept users loyal (or locked in, depending on your perspective).

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IMessage in particularwith its user-friendly interface and end-to-end encryptionhas been a bulwark for Apple to keep people from switching to Android devices. It isnt an accident that Apple has never built an iMessage app for Android phones, even though demand for it is high. Google, for its part, has struggled to build a successful messaging product, which is why many Android users have turned to Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

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The recent slowdown in iPhone sales, however, has Apple looking to make more money on software, subscriptions, and payments. At the same time, the plateauing popularity of the main Facebook app has Facebook eager to invade new arenas. And so the giants have been circling each other warily, with Apple CEO Tim Cook jabbing Facebook over privacy failures, while Zuckerberg has hit back over Apples presence in China. The tensions boiled over in January, when Apple cut off Facebooks special developer access after TechCrunch reported that a Facebook VPN app had been flouting Apples rules.

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The clearest sign of the coming battle, in retrospect, came in October, on a Facebook earnings call. In a comment that passed with surprisingly little notice, Zuckerberg called Apples iMessage our biggest competitor by far. He went on: In important countries like the U.S. where the iPhone is strong, Apple bundles iMessage as a default texting app and its still ahead.

At the time, it sounded like hyperbole: Surely Facebooks biggest competitors were Snapchat and YouTube, not iMessage. But it wasnt hyperbole: It was a hint that Zuckerberg was already thinking about private messaging as his companys future and recognized iMessage as its greatest obstacle.

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Near-global dominance of messaging is not as far-fetched a dream for Facebook as it might seem to the average American. WhatsApp is already the most popular messaging app in many countries outside the U.S. and China, including Brazil, India, Mexico, Germany, and Turkey. Messenger is close behind and has become the default messaging app for many Android users in North America.

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One market where Facebook seemed to stand little chance is China, where WeChat already does all the things Zuckerberg dreams of doing, and more. That surely made it easier for Zuckerberg to announce in his privacy manifesto this week that Facebook will not build data centers in oppressive countriesa strong hint that its giving up on the Chinese market.

That move makes it all the more apparent that Facebook sees its path to growth blockaded by Apple and iMessage, especially in the United States. And it gives Zuckerberg fresh ammunition to fire back at Apple anytime Cook criticizes him on privacy. If Apple really cared about its users privacy, hell say, it would follow Facebooks lead in refusing to store data in China, whose government has a record of demanding access to users information.

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Nonetheless, Cook is sure to put up a fight. The analyst Ben Thompson makes a persuasive case that Apples struggles in Chinathe main culprit in its iPhone slowdownare due in large part to WeChats dominance there. With WeChat taking over many of the key functions of iOS for Chinese users, including messaging, Apple lacks the software lock-in that it enjoys in much of the rest of the world. As a result, Chinese users feel little loyalty to Apple products and have no trouble trading in an iPhone for an Android device.

Messaging will be the initial front in this contest, but it wont be the only one. The New York Times reported last month that Facebook is developing a cryptocurrency to enable instant payments within WhatsApp. That will put it in competition with Apple Pay, as well as Venmo and others. Zuckerberg didnt make clear how Facebook would monetize its push into private messaging, but payments, marketplaces, and e-commerce would be a logical approach.

If Facebook were to succeed in becoming the WeChat of the rest of the world, then Apples business outside China would start to look a lot more like its business inside Chinawhich is to say, weak. So its critical for Apple to find ways to block Facebook from achieving that. Its crackdown on Facebook over the VPN app looked like a warning shot, but it may have also been a show of force that foreshadowed the drawn-out conflict to come.
Facial recognition technology, traditionally both marketed and feared as a way to exponentially enhance surveillance capabilities, may one day become integral for producing pork.

According to a report from the New York Times, major Chinese tech companies like Alibaba and JD.com are developing artificial intelligence tools to detect disease and keep track of individual pigs using facial recognition. China hopes the technology will make large farms more manageable, allowing it to consolidate and close smaller facilities. The government claims that the move would cut down on pollution.

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Pig facial recognition would be invaluable to precision livestock farming, an animal husbandry practice most common in European countries and China that uses tracking technologies to maximize efficiency. Precision farming typically involves portioning out specific amounts of food to each animal depending on its age and weight in order to conserve resources. Animals are also constantly measured for growth and monitored for disease. Farmers can apply such techniques to pretty much any animal they may be raising, including pigs, chickens, cows, and sheep.

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Farmers usually puncture pigs ears with radio-frequency identification tags in order to track them, though this practice has been criticized as cruel and time-consuming. Using facial recognition to monitor animals instead could be more humane, and might even help to detect disease and distress. Whether its ready for day-to-day use on a farm is debatable, however. Mark Hansen, a senior research fellow at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, is one of the few academics who have conducted studies exploring ways to adapt the technology specifically to pigs. In a paper published in June, Hansen reports that he and a team of researchers were able to train a model to identify 10 individual pigs in a series of 1,553 images with a 96.7 percent accuracy rate. Not too shabby.

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The researchers on Hansens team first collected images of the pigs faces by setting up a motion-sensing camera behind a water vessel. Whenever a pig approached to take a drink, the camera would snap a picture of its face. Deep learning algorithms then scanned the images and honed in on distinguishing features, namely the snout, wrinkles, eyes, and markings that often appear on the top of the head.

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Facial recognition systems for pigs are not all that different from those used for humans. In fact, Hansens study found that a system trained only on human faces was able to distinguish between the 10 pigs with a 91 percent accuracy rate. This indicates that many of the same features that the network has learned to be useful for discriminating human faces are also useful for discriminating pig faces, the study reads, [and] hints toward how a trained network for faces in one species may be transferable to other species.

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It should be possible, then, to modify facial recognition models built for humans to work on other mammals. Doing so could help to address some of the shortcomings of facial recognition algorithms for pigs, which often struggle with variations in expression and brightness. Hansens study notes that farms are unconstrained settings in which sunlight and dirt are not as controlled as they would be in a lab setting. Recognition algorithms trained on humans are more adept at adapting to different environmental factors that may affect accuracy. That same adaptability should carry over when reconfiguring a human face algorithm for pigs.

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However, pigs have a number of characteristics that may pose challenges for facial recognition algorithms. Pigs typically age faster than humans, which would make it more difficult for a facial recognition system to track them through their growth. Facial recognition models tend to see a sharp decline in accuracy for pictures of a person taken more than seven years apart. Pigs reach maturity within a matter of six months, at which point theyre slaughtered. Pigs also attack one another from time to time, which can lead to injuries to the face, like a missing chunk of ear. And, as far as public research goes, it is currently unclear whether the recognition algorithms can adapt to different species of pigs.

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But theres a bigger problem. I think the technology is there in terms of the algorithms and the accuracy in real world settings, says Hansen. But we have to prove  whether or not its actually useful to the farmers. At the moment, the data that the algorithms spit out doesnt mean much without other contextual information. If [the technology] doesnt translate into a management system thats easy to use and robust, the farmers are not going to be willing to trial it, says Hansen. [Data] needs to be translated into Pig No. 671 needs be taken out of pen No. 4 because biting behavior is about to start. 

[Data] needs to be translated into Pig No. 671 needs be taken out of pen No. 4 because biting behavior is about to start.   Mark Hansen

Convenience and practicality are not the only factors that facial recognition companies will need to consider when trying to convince farmers to use the tools. Ian Werkheiser, an assistant professor in bioethics at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, notes that some farmers in the EU have been resistant to the encroachment of precision livestock farming. Researchers in the EU have traditionally attributed this unwillingness to poor marketing, though Werkheiser posits a different theory. Its possible that farmers are actually correctly seeing that this would lead to an alienation of them from their jobs, he says. He adds that relying on industrial automation, rather than humans, to handle pigs tends to cause more stress throughout the animals lives, which can lead to lower-quality meat products.

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Werkheiser also worries about the farm tools subtly encouraging more complacency around human surveillance. Companies that are making these technologies try to look for innocuous, even seemingly beneficial applications for the technology so that they can get people comfortable with it, he says, adding that the proliferation of hobby drones for consumers may similarly be making the public more comfortable with their use by law enforcement and the military. Its very much in these companies best interest to be able to say, [Facial recognition] is good for animal welfare. Its good for health concerns. And so create more social comfortability with the technology.

As we know, Chinese law enforcement is becoming increasingly reliant on facial recognition technology to keep tabs on citizens, particularly those who live in Xinjiang, home to the Uighur people. Facial recognition is also being aggressively introduced in the countrys stores, apartment buildings, and even public restrooms as a convenience perk. Marketing the technology as a quotidian farming tool may be yet another way to help people accept facial recognition as a quotidian component of modern society.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Twice a year, Americans come together to complain about time. In November, we set our clocks back and complain that we will now have to suffer shorter days, facing the gloom of an afternoon sunset. In March, we set our clocks forward and complain about a lost hour of sleep, as well as darker mornings when we wake up. These gripes are all perfectly fair. What is unjust, however, is the unlikely scapegoat for these grievances: Daylight Saving Time. Many Americans have come to blame DST for their clock- and sunset-based woes. If you are one of them, I am here to tell you that you are dangerously mistaken.

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Lets begin with a review of terms that everyone should know but hardly anybody does. When we spring forward this weekend, we will be entering DSTthe period between March and November when the sun sets later in the day. When we fall back in November, we will enter Standard Timethe period between November and March when the sun sets earlier.

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Our collective failure to grasp this basic terminology has led to a lot of confusion. Every November, countless Americans condemn DST because they conflate it with Standard Time. They think that the dreaded winter months of early sunsets and seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, are the fault of DST. I understand why: It is not obvious why daylight is saved when it is backloaded toward the end of the day. The terms are ambiguous, which leads would-be critics of Standard Time to unleash their anguish on their true ally, DST.

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To see how widespread this misapprehension is, look at coverage of Californias Proposition 7, which easily passed in 2018. The Los Angeles Times described the measure as ending daylight saving time; CBS called it the first step of abolishing DST. That is incorrect, as these outlets wouldve known if theyd read the proposition, which is titled the Permanent Daylight Saving Time Measure. As that name indicates, the measure permits the state Legislature to implement year-round DST by a two-thirds vote after obtaining federal approval. The medias inability to articulate the propositions purpose may have led to voter bewilderment, as illustrated in the CBS article, which features a California resident who asserts: I dont like Daylight Saving Time. It disrupts me every fall. Given that DST begins in the spring, this Californian probably meant to assail Standard Time but inadvertently contributed to anti-DST fervor.

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Standard Time amplifies the pain of winter by ushering in nighttime halfway through the afternoon.

I have no doubt that some Americans legitimately dislike DSTnot just the change of clocks, but the redistribution of sunlight from morning to afternoon. The best defense of this position is that DST may require children to go to school in the dark. That is true, but the issue here isnt DST: Its Americas outrageous school schedule. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared that most schools start too early, contributing to poor health in adolescents. Earlier school start times are linked to depression and anxiety in teenagers, as well as chronic sleep deprivation. Early start times also disadvantage young students, lowering their academic performance. It is absurd to blame DST on a problem created by the American school system. If more schools took the American Academy of Pediatrics advice and refused to start class before 8:30 a.m., DST would pose no impediment to schoolchildren.

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For the record, I am not a defender of our current system. It is irritating to reset clocksespecially those embedded in household appliances, whose cryptic instructions seem designed to thwart our puny human desire to know what time it is. And it may be perilous to lose an hour of sleep: Deadly car crashes, heart attacks, and workplace injuries all appear to increase after we spring forward. But the solution is not to end DST; it is to extend DST year-round. (There may be other benefits, including reduced crime, though it doesnt seem to reduce energy usage.) California had the right idea by passing Proposition 7. So did many of the 73,781 people who signed this petition to end DSTbut wrote comments demonstrating that they really want to abolish Standard Time. (I own a child care, every year we have children crying because, its getting dark and mommy or daddy have not picked me up yet.  Blame Standard Time, kids!)

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Ill admit that I am no impartial observer here. I suffer from SAD and spiral into fatigue and distress every winter unless I plant myself under a sunlamp and trick my brain into thinking were back in Florida. (Incidentally, my home state has passed a bill to implement permanent DST pending federal approval, the only good piece of legislation to emerge from Tallahassee so far this century.) I feel pathetic crawling under the sunlamp just to feel like a normal human, and I blame Standard Time. Yes, winter will always be unpleasant for those of us who are not vampires. But Standard Time amplifies the pain by ushering in nighttime halfway through the afternoon. I can stomach D.C. sunsets around 6 p.m. for a few weeks. But total darkness at 4:49 p.m.? Kill me. Id rather take my chances among Floridas sun-loving, gun-toting baby boomers.

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I am convinced that a majority of America would be with me on the clock question if they could master the distinction between DST and Standard Time. Our inability to hold Standard Time responsible for the crime of early sunsets has polluted the conversation to the point that even Ellen DeGeneres has it twisted. This weekend, please direct your complaints at Standard Time, and dont fault DST for giving us eight months of sunshine. Embrace it. And when soul-crushing afternoon darkness returns in November, remember who the real enemies are: Standard Time and all the misguided fools who seek to expand its tyranny.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren took a big swing on Friday, unveiling a plan to break up the largest tech companies in America. Her roadmap, one of the first major proposals of her presidential run, involves ambitious antitrust moves like undoing Facebooks purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp and separating Google Search from the companys ad business. She also wants legislation that would prevent platforms from competing on the same marketplaces they own: Amazon, for example, would no longer be able to sell its Basics brand on Amazon.com, an arrangement that gives a big advantage to the companys in-house products.

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How much is Silicon Valley freaking out right now?

However they feel, they wont want this idea to become a real problem. Which is why we can expect significant pushback no matter how Warrens candidacy fares, particularly if other Democratic presidential contenders unveil antitrust-themed policy proposals. (Even more moderate candidates like Sen. Amy Klobuchar have been tough on the internet platforms over the last couple of years.) The large tech companies have a huge lobbying presence in Washington and will likely offer their own, more industry-friendly proposals for reform. Theyll message loudly, perhaps through the platforms they control (and which Warren and others need for advertising and outreach). Theyll support candidates who are friendlier to the industry. And theyll dig trenches: Theres a good case that their business moves already reflect their concern over regulation. Earlier this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a new plan to merge his three main social media networks by building an encrypted messaging service that works across WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagrama move that was seen by many as fortifying against a potential attempt by lawmakers to break his companies apart.

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Silicon Valley knows how to spend to get its way, which may be one reason why the tech industry has been able to grow unhindered for so long. Facebook, Google, and Amazon have all hired former top aides from the Obama administration, and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, a Clinton administration veteran, was reportedly considered for two jobs in Hilary Clintons cabinet. As scrutiny of internet platforms has increased in the aftermath of the 2016 election, their lobbying shops have staffed up in order to protect their interests against politicians like Warren who think theyve become too big.

Amazon reportedly has amassed nearly 100 lobbyists and hired on more than a dozen lobbying firms to throw its punches. Facebook, Google, and Amazon spent a total of $48 million on lobbying last year. Since last summer, the industrys lobbyists have been pushing a version of a privacy legislation that they feel comfortable with, likely in an effort to get ahead of more aggressive, European-style privacy laws. They also want laxer federal rules that would pre-empt state privacy laws, like Californias recent voter measure that regulates online data collection. The tech industry tried to fight that one and failedbut Warrens proposal would be significantly more disruptive and a harder (if not Herculean) political task.

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What it will do, however, is test the Democratic fields appetite for translating the public frustration with Facebook and others into real policies. That certainly doesnt mean the mutual affinity of Big Tech and the Democratic Party will end. Expect tech companies and their deep-pocketed employees to throw their money at the candidates they think will go easiest on them. Tech executives gave tens of millions of dollars to Hillary Clintons presidential effort. Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna donated more than $20 million to various pro-Clinton PACs. While its too early to tell who Silicon Valley will put its financial heft behind this year, the two running darlings appear thus far to be Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.

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Warrens proposal will also test just how much voters care about the bigness of Silicon Valley, particularly if theyre susceptible to arguments that the Massachusetts senator wants to take away their Amazon Prime account. Its not clear that the industrys claims that they are taking privacy and security more seriously after scandals like Cambridge Analytica have been very convincingbut its also not clear a large number of users who like their services were bothered in the first place. If Amazon, Google, and Facebook become political punching bags for Democratic candidates this election cycle, it wouldnt be beneath those companies to mount ad campaigns in their own self-defense, like how Facebook ran a full-page ad in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal as the Cambridge Analytica scandal reached a boil. Even last year, though, usership didnt appear to drop overall and the company remained profitable despite the scandal (and a huge hit to its stock), probably because Facebook is so dominant that users had nowhere else to go. Not to mention the fact that antitrust, while an important issue for anyone concerned with structural inequities in the economy, isnt likely to be the thing that voters hang their hat on.

Warrens plan is compellingperhaps the strongest articulation of how lawmakers could start to rein in the power of tech platforms. She has hard financial lines in her proposal, like the suggestion that companies that make more than $25 billion in revenue and control an online marketplace on which they also compete be broken up. We dont know if this plan could have legs. But we can be sure the big tech companies will try to kneecap it before it has a chance to grow some.
Oslo-based exploration firm Aker Energy has found oil in the Pecan South-1A well, offshore Ghana after a drilling campaign in the West African nation.

The company has estimated the discovery at 450-550 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Further analysis is currently ongoing and the company will commence sidetrack drilling in order to confirm initial findings and determine recoverable volumes, Chief Executive Officer of Aker Energy, Jan Arve Haugan said.

The drilling result is another confirmation of the geological model for the area, he said.

Aker Energy sees further upsides in the area. The company has identified multiple well targets to be drilled as part of a greater area development after submission of the Plan of Development.

We will continue the appraisal drilling campaign, while finalizing the Plan of Development to be submitted by the end of March, says Jan Arve Haugan.

On Wednesday, Ghanas President Akufo-Addo has reiterated the countrys readiness for business and has urged investors from around the world to take advantage of the growing business-friendly climate in Ghana and to invest in the oil and mining sector.

He said since assuming power, his first order of business has been the implementation of economic policies to promote a business-friendly environment.

In 2018, Ghana has cemented its position as the most attractive destination for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), ahead of neighboring Nigeria, by attracting FDI commitments to the tune of well over $3.5 billion.
SOCIEDAD ASIATICA

THE ASIAN SOCIETY

COMISION DIRECTIVA



THE DIRECTIVE BOARD



PRESIDENTE:

Liliana Garcia Daris



Universidad del Salvador.

Argentina

VICEPRESIDENTE:

Won-ho Kim

Universidad de Hankuk de Estudios Extranjeros.

Corea

SECRETARIO:

Luis Diaz Brougton



Universidad de Santiago, Chile



PROSECRETARIO:



Martha Barriga Tello

Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru



VOCALES:



Mauricio Martinez



Universidad de los Andes, Colombia



Juan Uriburu Quintana



Universidad de Chenchi, Taiwan

CONSEJEROS ACADEMICOS

ACADEMIC ADVISERS



ASH NARAIN, Roy,

Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi.

India



GARCIA BAZAN, Francisco,



CONICET, Universidad Argentina John F. Kennedy



MATSUSHITA, Hiroshi,



Universidad de Kobe, Japon



MIEMBROS FUNDADORES



FOUNDING MEMBERS



ALBERT, Liliana



Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



ANTON PACHECO, Jose Antonio



Universidad de Sevilla, Espana



ANTONIJEVIC, Ingrid



Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile



BARRIGA TELLO, Martha



Universidad Nacional de San Marcos, Peru



BERGMAN, Sergio

Melton Institute de Jerusalem, Israel



BERTOLINI, Luis



Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



CABEZON, Jose



Universidad de Santa Barbara, Estados Unidos



CAGNI, Horacio



Universidad Catolica de La Plata, Argentina



CARRANZA, Francisco



Universidad de Dankook, Corea



CASTLETON, Barbara



Ohio State University of Athens



CASTRO, Jorge

Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



CHAOUL-REICH, Alejandro



Universidad de Texas, Estados Unidos



CHELMICKI, Hanna I.



Universidad del Salvador, Argentina



DIAZ BROUGHTON, Luis



Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile



FRANCO, Raul



Universidad del Salvador, Argentina



GADRE, Vasant



Universidad Jawaharlal Nehru, India



GARCIA DARIS, Liliana

Universidad del Salvador, Argentina

GLUCK, Carol



Universidad de Columbia. Estados Unidos

HOPKINS RODRIGUEZ, Eduardo



Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru



KIM, Wonho



Universidad Hankuk de Estudios Extranjeros, Corea



KO, Heysun



Univesidad de Dankook, Corea



LOPEZ DEL CARRIL, Luis Maria



Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



LUCO, Enrique



Universidad del Salvador



MARTINEZ, Mauricio



Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia



MASATERU, Ito



Universidad Nacional de Osaka, Japon



MATSUSHITA, Hiroshi



Universidad de Kobe, Japon



MINKOWICZ, Gabriel

Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires

MONETA, Carlos Juan



Universidad del Salvador, Argentina



MORROW, John Andrew



Minot State University, Dakota del Norte, USA



NGUYEN, Thiet Son



Academia de Ciencias Sociales de Vietnam, Vietnam

OVIEDO, Eduardo

CONICET. Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina

PEREIRA, Ronan Alves

Universidad de Brasilia. Brasil

PEREYRA, Violeta



Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina

REMETE, Andrea

Universidad del Salvador, Argentina



RIMOLDI DE LADMAN, Eve



Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina



ROMERO CASTILLA, Alfredo



Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico

TEDIN URIBURU, Virgilio



Universidad de Harvard, Estados Unidos

UEHARA, Alexander



Universidad de Sao Paulo. Brasil

URIBURU QUINTANA, Juan



Universidad de Chenchi, Taiwan



VITTOR, Luis Alberto



Universidad Argentina John F. Kennedy



XU, Shicheng



Academia China de Ciencias Sociales, Republica Popular China
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The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
Cecil's Country Store as seen in Dec. 2005. (somd.com File Photo)

CALIFORNIA, Md.

(March 7, 2019)For the past 23 years, Dawna Wible has run a popular antique and gift shop in the historic Cecil's Country Store building located in Cecil's Historic District on Indian Bridge Road, just off Route 5 near Great Mills. This April, Wible will be handing the keys over to Misty Knott, owner of Knotted Mercantile, LLC as Cecil's Country Store begins a new chapter in its history.Dedicated to preserving the delightful shopping experience that is the hallmark of Cecil's Country Store, Knott says she will continue to offer authentically Southern Maryland products produced by local vendors  including the artwork of Mary Lou Troutman, hand-painted signs by Donnie Poe, Old Line Candles, Apple Mill glassware, plus lots of Maryland-themed products and gift ideas. She also plans to introduce new product lines, an expanded collection of antique & vintage items, an extensive inventory of scrapbooking and stamping supplies, and even DIY craft classes.Across the street at Cecil's Old Mill, Rob Seltzer, master furniture builder for over 20 years and owner of Herring Creek Furniture will soon be opening a new retail store showcasing his unique handcrafted furniture collection. Rob is well-known both locally and throughout the region as a talented artist in furniture design. Each piece is built to showcase the unique natural beauty of the selected wood, and materials may include reclaimed windows, doors, old porch posts and other pieces of wood weathered by nature.Some improvements to the interior retail space at Cecil's Old Mill are underway which will allow visitors a better view of the existing antique mill equipment. Seltzer said they plan on holding events and will continue to improve the customer experience at Cecil's Old Mill."Everyone involved is excited with the new direction of Cecil's Historic District," said Wible. "It's such a special location with all its history and it's nice to know that its future will be in good hands with Misty and Rob."Herring Creek Furniture at Cecil's Old Mill will open in April with a grand opening date to be announced soon. For any additional questions about Cecil's Old Mill, call Rob Seltzer at 301-904-9900 or email rnswoodworks@gmail.com.Cecil Country Store is located at 20853 Indian Bridge Road, California, directly across from Cecil's Old Mill. Cecil's Mill was originally built as a cotton/textile factory in the 1800's. Later, it was transformed into a grist mill and saw mill. After restoration, Cecil's Old Mill has become a National Landmark in Historic St. Mary's County and is home to some of the finest local arts and crafts around.For more photographs of Cecil's Old Mill, visit forums.somd.com/media/albums/cecils-mill-dec-2005.250/
The invitation came after the Russian Embassy published an open letter concerning an op-ed written by the Defence Ministrys state secretary.

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The Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry summoned Alexej Fedotov, the Russian Ambassador to Slovakia, on March 7 due to an open letter published on the Facebook profile of the Russian Embassy in Slovakia.

The General director of the political section of the ministry, Marian Jakubocy, said during the meeting that cooperation between Slovakia and Russia is based on the principle of partnership, sovereignty and respect for each other, and that Slovakia wants to continue developing mutual relations with Russia.

However, Jakubocy stressed that it is unacceptable for the embassy to publicly comment on and evaluate a representative of a country, in this case the state secretary of the Defence Ministry, in a statement from the ministry.

Read also:

Read also: An opinion piece launched a diplomatic shoot-out Read more

Returning diplomatic notes

When commenting on a note verbale issued by the Russian Embassy in reaction to the opinion piece written by Robert Ondrejcsak, Jakubocy said that these attitudes are not the official position of the Slovak government.

From the point of view of protecting Slovakias security interests, it is very alarming that the basic principles of international law were violated by the annexation of part of the Ukrainian territory to Russia based on an illegitimate and illegal referendum in Crimea and Sevastopol.

Slovakia respects the principle of indivisibility of state borders and the observation of international law. In this respect, Slovakia supports the sovereignty of the Ukraine and its integrity within internationally approved borders, Jakubocy confirmed.

At the end of the meeting, Jakubocy handed a note verbale from Slovakia to Fedotov, the ministry wrote in the statement.
Dave Rubin recommends visiting the northernmost region of Slovakia.

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This week, we are back to Orava, this time with Dave Rubin, who recommends visiting the open-air museum in Zuberec. For Americans, its like visiting Williamstown, Virginia, but Zuberec is hundreds of years older, he says. The north of Slovakia is a place to go when you want to try the best of the countrys sheep cheese too.

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Caputova winning would be a great story, but the odds are it will hardly register internationally.

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One of the debates of this presidential campaign took place on the train. Maros Sefcovic speaking on the microphone, next to him sits zuzana Caputova. (Source: Petit Press)

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As the Romanian director Cristian Mungiu once noted: People always relate [my movies] to communism, because they dont know anything else. The same holds for Central (or in Mungius case, Eastern) Europe generally.

International discussion of the region repeats: Did you hear that shocking thing Milos Zeman said (again)? Viktor Orban really doesnt like George Soros (still). Are Poles really that Catholic (yes)? And, by the way, while you were reading this they just bought some more American weaponry.

For its part Slovakia is simply grouped with the rest of the region and there are a limited number of stereotypes acceptable for framing Central Europe in global media: still haunted by communism or fascism, hapless victims of Russian disinformation, rotten with corruption or generally irrational in the face of whatever the Dutch or Germans (or whoever) think is the way things should work. Inversions of all these themes are also acceptable: reckoning with the communist past, heroically confronting Russian malfeasance, cleaning up corruption or reasonably toeing the official European line.

In international editorial offices, pretty much everything else is deemed too complicated for fear it might confuse readers, watchers or listeners who have a certain impression of what Central and Eastern Europe is like.

Slovakias coming presidential election is a perfect example. On the surface, it looks to be a pretty good story. If we are to believe polls, Zuzana Caputova, a young, liberal female is on the verge of winning. This is interesting, exciting and almost certain to be ignored.

Pretty much the only way this ends up something of interest for international media is if Caputova enters a second-round runoff with someone like Stefan Harabin. In that instance, acceptable framing devices can be deployed  a youthful liberal does battle with an old oligarch-friendly strongman type, Westward-looking clashes with Eastern-oriented or europhile takes on euroskeptic.

 Central Europes (and Slovakias) branding problem comes in part from laziness and a lack of curiosity by foreign media, as well as public preference for negative stories. 

Any other scenario, say a second round Caputova victory over Maros Sefcovic, and the story doesnt make the cut. In fact, if the election moves according to the latest polls, the anniversary of  not the actual event or investigation  Jan Kuciaks and Martina Kusnirova murder will almost certainly receive more international coverage than a Caputova presidential victory.

With all due respect to the deceased (they were innocent young people cut down in their prime), an anniversary is what is known in news as a pseudo-event, whereby an election is an actual event.

Central Europes (and Slovakias) branding problem comes in part from laziness and a lack of curiosity by foreign media, as well as public preference for negative stories. But there is also sense that Central Europe must be doing something wrong in promoting itself.

Caputova winning would be a great story, but the odds are it will hardly register internationally. Her toughest job might be making sure thats different five years from now.
South Africa has accepted the accreditation of Moroccan veteran diplomat Youssef El Amrani as the kingdoms first envoy since 2014, the year the North African country recalled its ambassador to protest against Pretorias recognition of the pseudo- Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

The Moroccan foreign ministry has received South Africas acceptance of El Amranis appointment, reported news website Le360.

The Moroccan official who currently serves as Charge de mission in the Royal office, was appointed ambassador to Pretoria in August 2018 along with 13 other envoys.

Morocco in 2014 recalled its ambassador following Pretorias recognition of the SADR, self-proclaimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario.

El Amrani will take up his position once the Moroccan monarch hands him his credentials.
As Tea Week comes to a close here on Sprudge, were going ease ourselves back into robust coffee coverage (dont want to pull a hammy, yknow), and there is no greater middle ground than coffee tea.

Coffee tea is nothing new to the specialty coffee world. Normally, its comes in the form of cascara, made by steeping dried coffee cherriesa byproduct of coffee productionto create a sweet, pipe-tobacco-like flavored tisane. But theres a new product entering the market offering a new take on coffee tea. Made from the leaves of the coffee tree, Wize Monkey is rethinking coffee tea and hoping to provide a windfall for producers and pickers during the non-harvesting season.

For their lightly caffeinated product, the Vancouver-based Wize Monkey is working with Finca La Aurora, a coffee farm in Matagalpa, Nicaragua run by the Ferrufino familythe son, Enrique Ferrufino, is one of the co-founders of Wize Monkey along with Arnaud Petitvallet and Max Rivestwho have been producing specialty-grade coffee for three generations. After the three-month coffee harvest ending in March, Finca La Aurora lets the trees rest through the remainder of spring in order to regenerate for the next season. Then starting in June and lasting through fall, leaves are harvested from tree trimmings already being done to maximize the coffee harvest, ensuring the new product doesnt disrupt the health of the primary income.

The leaves are then processed on-site in a method Petitvallet describes as similar to that of oolong, containing notes of honey, hazelnut, some earthy layers, and happens to blend very well with all sorts of flavors without overpowering them. Having sampled a few of their offerings, Wize Monkeys coffee leaf tea is indeed a very mild beverage with a light, honey-like sweetness. It lends itself especially well to their Earl Grey, where the tea has a chocolatiness that lets the bergamot take center stage.

More than just an added revenue stream for the farm ownerswhich coffee leaf tea most certainly isWize Monkey is wanting to create a positive effect for the coffee pickers as well. Many of the people doing the actual coffee picking are migrant workers, traveling from farm to farm during the different harvesting seasons in order to make enough money to survive. This nomadic lifestyle can be especially hard on the children, who travel with the parents, rendering them unable to stay in one place long enough to attend school. According to Wize Monkey, by extending the work season from three months to something closer to nine, families are more able to establish roots. Petitvallet tells Sprudge that Wize Monkey current employs 100 people to harvest coffee leaves.

Looking forward, Petitvallet, Rivest, and Ferrufino are eyeing different processing methodscurrently a green and a black tea are in the worksto be used both in limited quantity micro-lots and in their blends.

Wize Monkey coffee leaf tea currently has eight flavor optionsoriginal, earl grey, mango party, sunset chai, ginger lemon, strawberry hibiscus, minty marvel, and jasminethat are available both in bags and as loose leaf. Their products can be found in grocers like Gelsons, Sprouts, Mothers Market, and Whole Foods as well as online via Amazon and their webstore.

For more information on Wize Monkey coffee leaf tea, visit their official website.

Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

Top image via Wize Monkey

Sprudge Tea Week is presented by Breville USA.
The schedule for 'the Internets favourite harness racing handicapping show' North American Harness Update (NAHU), is set for Friday, March 8.

Host Ray Cotolo will be joined by Mike Pribozie and Rod Allums Jr. to provide live coverage of the Pick 4 from The Raceway at Western Fair District and the Meadowlands Racetrack.

The Hanover Hustler Russ Adams from Rosecroft Raceway will also come on to preview racing action from Rosecroft for Sunday, March 10 including their signature Pick 3.

North American Harness Update airs Fridays from 9:00 - 11:00 pm (ET) on SRN One as well as on video livestream on Facebook Live, Periscope and YouTube, and can be accessed by archive via the YouTube page or from its website at nahupicks.com the day after it airs.

(with files from North American Harness Update)
In Liberia, about 102,000 households will soon be connected to the national grid to increase reliable access to affordable electricity throughout the West African nation, Liberia News Agency (LINA) reported.

This initiative will include the Monrovia Consolidation, Kakata Corridor and the Monrovia-Bomi Corridor, the state-run news agency said quoting Information Manager at the Public Affairs Department of the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), James Kpargoi.

He noted that LEC plans to erect four additional substations from Clara Town to Bo-Waterside in order to keep steadfast the work of the entity.

Kpargoi stated that electrical equipment has been procured, including meters, to facilitate the new connections within the Monrovia region.

Late last year, the Government of Liberia and the European Union entered into an 18.9 million contract agreement with MBH Power Limited-Nigeria for the design and construction of electricity distribution network in Monrovia to help address the increased demand for energy in various parts of the city.

The installation of the new power distribution network will allow the LEC to connect more homes and increase its customer base, to absorb the increased quantity and much cheaper energy.

The distribution network, according to the agreement, will connect 38,000 small households in Monrovia and its immediate environs, thus contributing to the increase of energy supply to its people.
Political opposition leader and presidential candidate Martin Fayulu still contends he is the rightful winner of the presidential election and that former president Joseph Kabila managed to hijack the election by getting CENI (Independent National Electoral Commission) to declare Felix Tshisekedi the victor. Several independent vote counting organizations, including Congos Catholic Church, have evidence Fayulu won outright with 59 percent of the vote. The data are so granular these had to be from sources within CENI. Tshisekedi, Fayulu says, is complicit in Kabilas fraud on the people of Congo. However, Fayulus complaints have remained verbal. So far there is no organized nation-wide opposition to Tshisekedi, much less armed opposition. However, some opposition groups in eastern Congo have called Tshisekedi illegitimate. Fayulu has made that charge himself; that Tshisekedi lacks genuine legitimacy even though Congos highest court declared Tshisekedi the winner. Fayulu says everyone knows the court is packed with Kabila allies. A ruling by the court may technically confer legality but it does not confer legitimacy. One of the UNs goals for Congo is creating accountable institutions. CENI has proved to be unaccountable and Tshisekedi has no interest in publishing the real election results. Kabilas party controls the parliament and vote fraud occurred in the parliamentary elections. Kabila and his cohorts are positioned to continue to control government trade and mining agencies. The national mining company, Gecamines, is run by a Kabila political ally. Call that cobalt stability. Major buyers of Congolese minerals, like China, can continue to do business with familiar faces. As for Tshisekedi, he has assumed the office and role of president. He has traveled Congo, visited a couple of neighboring states and touted his win as the first peaceful handover of executive power in Congos history. Tshisekedi is vowing to curb corruption Congo and he claims the new mining code is a vehicle for that. That remains to be seen. (Austin Bay)

March 5, 2018: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province), there was new violence as a Mai-Mai militia attacked an army position and killed two soldiers. One militiaman died in the attack. This took place near Butembo, which is a hotspot in the now seven-month-old Ebola epidemic. Another attack occurred near Goma, where the assailants shot one victim and, using machetes, hacked to death three more people.

Rwanda accused Uganda of supporting the Rwandan RNC and FDLR rebels. Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his government have long been the target of these two rebel organizations. The FDLR is regarded as a terrorist organization. Rwanda-Uganda political relations continue to get worse. In late February Rwanda once again closed the border crossing at Katuna to Ugandan trucks. The trucks have to take a 100 kilometer detour to another crossing point. Yes, its an economic penalty.

Burundi has followed up on its December 2018 demand that the UN withdraw its human rights officials and shut down their office in the capital. The government is now forcing the UN to close its human rights office in the largest city (Bujumbura). The human rights office began operations in 1995. Burundi suspended cooperation with that office in 2016. UN officials have been very critical of President Pierre Nkurunziza and his repression of political opponents. UN investigators believe that since 2015 over 1,200 people have died in violence stirred by Nkurunzizas decision to amend the constitution and run for a third term as president. The International Criminal Court has also authorized investigations into state-sponsored crimes  extra-judicial killings, torture and rape of members of the political opposition.

March 1, 2019: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province), a foreign medical aid NGO described how violent attacks on its personnel have forced it to suspend operations in many parts of North Kivu. A major attack occurred February 24 when a large group of men (from 20 to 100) appeared outside the groups clinic outside Butembo. The men hurled rocks then burned clinic supplies and water and sanitation equipment. Another attack occurred on February 27. Attackers rammed the facilities gate with a car then started shooting at the clinic. There were several patients infected with Ebola in the facility. Police showed up and a gunfight ensued. One police officer was slain. Some infected patients ran away in order to escape the gun battle. WHO (World Health Organization) reported all of the infected patients have been accounted for. The medical NGO officials said local police and the Congolese Army have demonstrated are not capable of defending the clinics and the organizations personnel.

February 27, 2019: In CAR (Central African Republic) WHO is in the process of airlifting 36 metric tons of food to a town 1,000 kilometers east of the capital, Bangui. Some 18,000 refugees and residents there are starving because general violence plus deliberate rebel attacks have closed the highways leading to town.

February 25, 2019: In southwest Congo (Maindombe province), UN investigators continue to find the bodies (535 so far) of victims of the December16-17 massacre. An estimated 3,000 men were involved in the mass murder. Congolese authorities said only six have been arrested.

February 22, 2019: The United States imposed travel restrictions on five Congolese officials, including the head of CENI, the president of the National Assembly and the head of the constitutional court. The U.S. accuses all five of enriching themselves through corruption during and after Congos presidential election. In other words, they were paid to throw the election and deny Martin Fayulu his victory. This is a turnabout. America had initially commended the constitutional court for ruling that Felix Tshisekedi had won the election. The restrictions also affect the sanctioned individuals family members

The AU (African Union) has asked Burundi to withdraw 1,000 soldiers from its contingent of 5,400 serving with the AU/UN peacekeeping force in Somalia. Burundi has agreed to withdraw 341 soldiers but asked that other nations providing troops withdraw the other 659.

February 21, 2019: In Congo, the government has been accused of committing extra-judicial executions  murders. The specific charge is 27 people killed in the capital (Kinshasa) by police during 2018. The new president, Felix Tshisekedi, said his government will end such abuses by the security forces.

February 20, 2019: Demand for Congolese cobalt is increasing. Congo now accounts for 60 to 65 percent of the worlds annual cobalt production. Geologists estimate Congo has 50 percent of the worlds known cobalt reserves. It takes around 22 pounds of cobalt to produce the lithium-ion batteries that power Chinas small electric cars.

February 17, 2019: WHO has updated (as of February 15) its statistics on the Ebola epidemic in eastern Congo where there are 840 total reported cases and WHO has confirmed 775. There were 473 confirmed deaths among the confirmed cases. This is why other sources reporting 600 or more deaths cannot be dismissed as sensationalism. The deaths occurred in areas medical experts could not access.) WHO has 5,745 Ebola virus contacts under surveillance.

February 15, 2019: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province), Virunga National Park has reopened. The park closed in May 2018 after the kidnapping of two tourists and their Congolese driver and the murder of a Congolese park ranger who tried to defend the tourists and driver. The park is huge, covering over 7,800 square kilometers.

February 12, 2019: The UN has asked Belgium to apologize for its imperial exploitation and colonization of Congo. A UN panel pointed out that Belgiums Africa Museum still has more than 180,000 items looted from Congo. During the colonial period, Congo was actually the personal property of the Belgian king.

February 11, 2019: In northeastern Congo (Ituri Province), over civilians have fled to nearby Uganda. The refugees are fleeing ethnic fighting between the Lendu and Bagegere tribes.

February 8, 2019: Congos new president Felix Tshisekedi made a state visit to the neighboring (across the Congo river) Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). The Republic of Congo currently hosts over 60,000 Congolese refugees. Tshisekedi assured Congolese who had gone into exile for ideological or political reasons that he wanted them to return. He said he would create new political conditions that would end their reasons for exile. Many Congolese exiles in the Republic of Congo are former Congolese soldiers from the Mobutu-era (President Mobutu Sese Seko) who fled in 1996. Another large group consists of supporters of Etienne Tshisekedi, Felixs deceased father.

February 5, 2019: The CAR government reached an agreement with 14 armed groups (militias) to end fighting with the government and among themselves. The deal was signed in Sudan. Warning: this is the seventh end internal warfare agreement signed in the CAR in the last decade. Some 13,000 UN peacekeepers have been in the CAR since 2014.
Chanel House co-owner Gerard Wertheimer will arrive in Armenia on March 9 at the invitation of President Armen Sarkissian.

During his first ever trip to Armenia Wertheimer will get familiarized with Armenias history, sites and cultural heritage and will study the light industry sector to assess investment potential and possible cooperation prospects, presidents office said in a statement.

Gerard Paul Philippe Wertheimer and his brother Alain own the House of Chanel perfume company. Their grandfather Pierre co-founded the House of Chanel.

Photo: GQ India

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Maher al-Assad has favoured Iran, a position that has conflicted with his brother's pro-Russian agenda writes Strategy Watch.

Maher al-Assad is finding himself in direct confrontation with Russian efforts that aim to clip his wings militarily. So far, it seems that they have succeeded in curbing his influence, which had been continuously growing before. What is happening to Maher cannot be separated from Russian-Iranian competition, which reflects the Assad regimes fragility.

Russia is trying to diminish Mahers influence, which is tied to his close relations with Iran. The report also presents an aspect of the conflicts occurring inside the Assad family, the roots of which extend back four decades, and which could push Maher to pursue similar behaviors with his brother, as those that were taken by Rifaat al-Assad with Hafez.

Russian forces began their moves against Mahers influence in a significant way in the last quarter of 2018, carrying out a widescale operation to purge regime military institutions of members loyal to Iran led by Maher al-Assad.

Since the removal of former Defense Minister General Fahd Jassem al-Freij and his replacement with General Ali Ayyoub, Russian forces have gone on to limit the position of Chief of Staff to 15 months, a precedent unknown in the Syrian military institution since its establishment in 1946.

Moscow has tried to implement a comprehensive plan to restructure the military institution and to bolster the networks of officers loyal to it.

The operation to restructure the armed forces has coincided with the Russian command adopting a plan that aims to weaken Iranian influence by dismantling the allied forces and militias loyal to Tehran. The Air Force Intelligence Directorate has ended the contracts of about 6,500 members of a militia loyal to it, and dissolved the Baath Commandos and National Defense militias in Barzeh and Qudisiyeh, as well as the Qalamoun Shield. It has arrested National Defense militia members in Deir ez-Zor. It also arrested a large number of other militia members, according to the report.

These measures have resulted in tensions in the relations between a network of pro-Moscow regime officers on one side and a network of pro-Iran officers on the other. The year 2018 saw an unprecedented series of assassinations and purges, which affected a number of field commanders in the army.

The period between October and December 2018 was the bloodiest in the Republican Palace. A group of officers accused of conspiring in secret against Bashar al-Assad were purged, and this operation affected most of those working in the palaces Information Office, led by Colonel Mazen Ghadoun, who was executed. More than ten officers of varying ranks were arrested from the office, and some of them were placed under house arrest, while others were put at the disposal of the Chief of Staff.

The conflict and clash of interests moved to a new stage during the first quarter of 2019 as the pace of the Russian anti-corruption campaign escalated, affecting the small circle around Maher al-Assad. This resulted in direct military confrontations that erupted in mid-January between members of the 8th Division and the 5th Corps on one side and the 4th Division under Maher al-Assad on the other.

The Air Force Intelligence and Military Security also arrested officers of the 4th Division and the Republican Guard against the backdrop of accusations linked to nepotism and corruption. The State Security agency was forced to implement Russian commands of withdrawing from cities and towns in Daraa.

To regain some of the influence he lost in the Air Force, Maher al-Assad tried in February to coordinate with Iranian forces to establish new missile production lines, whereby he was instructed to build storehouses and special bases to produce and develop new types of missiles and missile bases which had been destroyed by recent Israeli bombardment.

According to informed sources, the aim of establishing these bases was to supply the 4th Division in particular, as well as the Hezbollah militia with new missiles of the Fateh-110 type and the Golan-1000, whose shells are up to 450kg.

Russian forces did not delay in delivering a fierce blow to Mahers plans, appointing one of the most prominent commanders in the Tiger Forces to a command position in the 4th Division in an unprecedented Russian challenge to Maher al-Assad and his circle of his influence.

Dismantling Maher al-Assads financial empire

It is expected that the coming stage will witness a fierce battle between agencies loyal to Bashar al-Assad on one side and to his brother Maher on the other, to extend networks of funding, financial transfers, money laundering, and evading international sanctions. Bashar wants to empower Russia in this sector, unlike Maher, who prefers Iran.

These disputes could lead to Mahers network, which works through businessmen representing the views of giant companies which either he owns or of which he owns large shares. The most prominent are the head of the Damascus and its countryside Chamber of Industry, Samer al-Dibs and his wife Ghalia Midani, who are connected to various companies, along with businessmen Mohamed Hamsho and Khaled Qaddour.

Analysts believe that Bashar al-Assads surprise visit to Tehran on Feb. 25, 2019, was an attempt to calm the prevailing frustration in the halls of the Iranian government, which has been kept away from most of economic privileges in Syria in favor of Russia, as well as to soften the Revolutionary Guard, which was forced to withdraw a large part of its forces from the capital and to redeploy east in the al-Teyas base. The meeting was dealt with severe sensitivity by Rouhani and Zarif, as opposed to the rush of Khamenei and Qassem Soleimani.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Since the government took control of the south, Syrian refugees have been returning to their towns and villages via the Nasib border crossing writes SANA.

On Wednesday, the latest batch of displaced Syrians returned home from the camps in Jordan, via the Nasib border crossing, in line with the Syrian governments efforts to return those who have been displaced, back to their homes, following the expulsion of terrorists.

After crossing into Syria, the displaced were transported by bus to their towns, which were liberated from terrorists by the Syrian Arab Army.

A number of the returnees expressed happiness, as their suffering in the camps had come to an end, and thanked the army for purifying their regions from terrorism.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
The Syrian refugees had been hoping to reach the Kurdistan region, but were turned around in Turkey, who sent them back to Lebanon reports Alsouria Net.

Lebanese General Security arrested five Syrian refugees in the Rafik al-Hariri Airport in the capital Beirut and barred them from entering Lebanese territory for five years, according to a rights center on Thursday.

The Access Center for Human Rights said that authorities at Beirut airport had detained five refugees, including three women, after their depature from Lebanon to the Kurdistan Region through Ataturk Airport (transit). The center said that Turkey refused to facilitate the trip to the region, which forced them to return to Beirut.

Lebanese General Security placed a mark on the refugees passports and barred them from entering Lebanese territory for five years when they left on Wednesday morning from the Rafik al-Hariri Airport.

The rights center said, that by contacting the detained refugees, it had learned that members of General Security had threatened to transfer them to a military court in Beirut or deport them to Syria, without respect for their freedom to choose to depart Lebanon to any other country.

The airport authorities also prevented the refugees from using their phones in the airport, and so contact with them was lost at 3am Beirut time.

From time to time, Syrian refugees are arrested in the Hariri Airport, and their situation has gotten worse since Sudanese authorities imposed visa restrictions in January 2019, on all Syrians coming from outside Syria. Previously, Khartoum had been the one outlet that allowed Syrian refugees and those fleeing from Lebanon and Syria to enter without an entry visa.

In a previous statement, Diala Chehade, a Lebanese lawyer and director of the Center for the Defense of Civil Rights in Lebanon, and a former lawer in the International Criminal Court, said that the expulsion of the Syrians was a violation of the General Convention on Human Rights and on the international conventions against torture, but that Lebanon had not signed the Convention on the Status of Refugees, and so it is not binding in this respect, but that it is bound by the two prior conventions.

The lawyer, who spoke to Alsouria Net, believed that the future of Syrian refugees in Lebanon was to a large extent influenced by, the political, security and economic settlements in Syria, that is, with the residents of the areas that showed political or military opposition to the Bashar al-Assad regime. Media mobilization in this incident is useful for ensuring it isnt repeated and preventing the occurrence of deportations to Syria of people fleeing from Syria and were not actually in Syria, or who fled Syria now to escape security prosecution.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Qatars national flagship carrier has announced the launch late May of a new route to Morocco, connecting Doha to Rabat, in addition to already existing operations in Casablanca and Marrakech

Qatar Airways made the announcement at worlds largest tourism gathering, ITB, in Berlin on Wednesday as it unveiled seven new destinations.

Scheduled to start on May 29, the new route will expand from the already existing Doha-Marrakech itinerary. Doha Airway is planning three weekly flights on Monday. Wednesday and Friday, between the two capitals.

The Qatari carrier already operates seven flights to Casablanca via Marrakech.
The ambitious Nairobi Regeneration initiative is feeling the pinch, Environment CS Keriako Tobiko has revealed.

The Environment CS, who appeared before the parliamentary committee on Thursday, said only Sh110 million was allocated for the regeneration programme.

This is the amount we have been trying to see how to appropriate and focus it appropriately. We have settled on the Nairobi river because its part of the Nairobi regeneration initiative, Tobiko said.

Mr Tobiko further dismissed claims that Sh800 million had been allocated for the exercise.

I wish it was Sh800 million as Hon [Ben] Washiali said, Tobiko said.

The Mumias East MP had faulted the environment ministry saying it had little to show for the Sh800 million allocated.

Noting that there are challenges in regenerating the city on such a small budget, Tobiko invited the committee for a tour of Nairobi River.

I invite the chair and committee members one of these days to go with us from the source to the end of the Nairobi River ecosystem and you will realize the complicity and challenge that we have particularly from the informal settlements.

The CS said the biggest challenge is the lack of sanitation facilities in the informal settlements and slum areas.

And we have also public entities that are discharging effluent into the river, Tobiko added.

On the demolition of buildings constructed on public land and riparian reserves, Tobiko denied claims that the exercise was being done selectively.

He said a report on Seefar Apartments is yet to be completed by an independent expert.

Hopefully, we will be able to have this matter concluded before the expiration of the 90 day extension period of the demolition notice, he said.
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An ambitious vehicular innovation showcased by Laikipia County at the Devolution Conference in Kirinyaga is all the rave on social media.

The mini car is the brainchild of Samuel Gatonye alias Njogu, a Nyahururu-based, self-trained innovator who transformed a two-wheel bodaboda into a four-wheel tuk-tuk christened Laikipia BJ 50.

Njogu, as he is popularly known, has successfully assembled two units of Laikipia BJ 50 and already has about a dozen orders for the Sh450,000 innovation.

Each has a capacity of 7 passengers including the driver and a luggage capacity of 500 kgs with a maximum speed of 70km per hour.

The innovator has been receiving support from the Laikipia County Government. Other stakeholders working closely with Njogu are Numerical Machining Complex, Gear Box Kenya, Dedan Kimathi University of Technology Laikipia University and The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS).

While the BJ-50 has been proving to be a hit at the Devolution Conference, it has been the butt of jokes on social platforms.

Here are some photos and some reactions from the Twitter online community.

When you need a 2 in 1 car. Both box car and a lunch box or a box lunch.  Gladstone (@theratheman) March 7, 2019

Im all for start somewhere  but this is just straight laziness!  Black Bruce Wayne (@Blckbrucewayn3) March 7, 2019

??? That is not made in Kenya! However this is made in Kenya . pic.twitter.com/Fv6eOOQikm  Tito (@V_Chancellor) March 7, 2019

This is fucking hilarious . I though it was a toy car at first glance. ??? and the price. I wont take it if its free  Aeimeji???? (@DeeTwoGd) March 7, 2019

Thanks. I will trek  Snarky Comebacks (@Comeback_snarky) March 7, 2019

That shit just gave me an incentive to walk and be healthy  ThatQuestionMark (@ArapWalta) March 7, 2019

Is that a match Box ? ??? $4500 lol  Bigdanokwy (@DanielDaray) March 7, 2019

They arent made in Kenya but in Laikipia County, Kenya. They are making us all look bad.  Hon Kuria CBS (@OptaHos) March 7, 2019

Someone said inaitwa BJ because it sucks. https://t.co/or6Mh6f6v0  Mutinda? (@brianmutinda_) March 7, 2019

Delete this please ?? pic.twitter.com/lcAWfSerHF  For the Throne 254?? (@Jpaul254) March 7, 2019

@UKenyatta: The third pillar in my #Big4Agenda is Manufacturing. We will raise manufacturing sector contribution to GDP from 8.5% to 15%.

Laikipia: Hold my beer pic.twitter.com/tBUBGtd3Nh  Javan Onguru ?????? (@OnguruMeister) March 7, 2019
The scorching sun in Nairobi and most parts of the country will continue as the much anticipated long rains continue to delay, Weatherman Samuel Mwangi.

The long rains season, which usually begins mid-February to May in most parts of the country, is expected on the third or fourth week of March.

Farmers are advised not to rush to plant crops before seeking advice as the rains are likely to be poorly distributed.

Most counties are still sunny and dry. The counties of Kitui, Makueni, Machakos, Kajiado, Taita Taveta, Nairobi, Nyandarua, Laikipia, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Muranga, Kiambu, Meru, Embu and Tharaka are likely to receive rain on the third week of March. North Eastern and the coastal counties will receive rains in the fourth week of March, Mwangi said on Thursday.

The weatherman noted that heavy rains have stabilized in Kisii County.

Kisii county is experiencing increased rainfall intensities and amounts of more than 40mm of rain, he said.

According to a chart shared by the met department yesterday, sunny weather will persist for the next five days.

Temperatures will hit a high of 31 degrees in Nairobi and up to 39 degrees in Pokot and Samburu Counties.

In Garissa and Wajir Counties, temperatures will reach highs of 40 degrees.

The coastal strip will experience sunny weather of between 25 to 35 degrees.

The forecast, however, shows that Central, Lake and South Rift Valley regions will receive light rains in the afternoons.
A blog for students in my introductory classes in government, and any interested passersby. You'll find news items and random stories that illustrate any of the topics we cover in class. Special attention will be paid to the constitutional issues associated with contemporary issues and disputes. Feel free to send me stories you find important. Please note that due to spam, I'm limiting the ability of people to comment on these pages. My apologies.
The crew of the small armored artillery boat Vyshhorod of the Ukrainian Navy carried out PASSEX type joint exercises with TCG Barbaros frigate and TCG Marti assault boat of the Turkish Navy in the Black Sea.

The crew of the small armored artillery boat Vyshhorod of the Ukrainian Navy carried out PASSEX type joint exercises with TCG Barbaros frigate and TCG Marti assault boat of the Turkish Navy in the Black Sea.

TCG Barbaros (Picture source: Yoruk Isik)

According to the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the ships performed tasks for tactical maneuvering in warrants, anti-aircraft defense and communications training in accordance with NATO standards, the Dumskaya newspaper reports.

During the joint training, the Ukrainian artillery boat and Turkish ships carried out tactical maneuvering tasks, anti-aircraft defense exercises and communications training in accordance with NATO standards.

After carrying out its tasks, the Vyshhorod artillery boat returned to its permanent base and the Turkish boats moored at the quay wall of the marine station in Odessa.

Prior to these exercises, the Ukrainian military also carried out large-scale tactical exercises on the coast of the Sea of Azov in the Joint Forces Operation training range to check the troops combat readiness.

The visit of Turkish ships to Odesa will last until March 8. It became part of the annual marine exercises of the Turkish fleet, in which 67 ships of the Turkish Navy almost simultaneously will visit 40 foreign ports in the Marmara, Aegean and Black Seas.
The latest article analysing Statec's demographic at last revealed that foreigners account for nearly half of the Grand Duchy's population. We'll now take a closer look at the non-Luxembourgish populations, revealing which communities are most-represented in Luxembourg.

For the past few decades, immigration has been the main cause of the country's demographic growth, contributing to 80% of Luxembourg's growth.

Luxembourg's population is now made up of citizens from a staggering 170 different countries. The immediate questions evolving from that fact are which communities are most-represented in Luxembourg and where were Luxembourg's residents born?

At a glance, Statec's latest data reveals that the majority of Luxembourg's foreign population originate from fellow European countries, making up 85% of the foreign population. This is predominantly due to the Schengen area, which makes it much easier for citizens to work in a different country within the Schengen area.

We all know that the biggest demographic group in Luxembourg is obviously the Luxembourgish. They are then followed by the Portuguese, who, making up 97,000 residents, represent 16% of the whole population. Looking at the foreign population of Luxembourg only, the Portuguese represent nearly a third of that population.

Following on from the latest census data of 1 January 2018, the French follow the Portuguese as the third largest community with a total of 46,000 residents (7.6%). They also make up nearly 16% of the foreign population.

After the French come the Italians, Belgians, and the Germans in that order. In terms of non-EU citizens living in Luxembourg, Montenegro leads the rest with 4,000 citizens residing in the Grand Duchy.

The largest African community residing in the Grand Duchy is the Cape Verdian one. The American and Chinese communities living in Luxembourg represent the largest groups from their respective continents. Only 223 residents are from Oceania/Australia.

Finally, 171 people are qualified as not having any citizenship and a further 229 have a nationality which is unknown.

Where do the foreign populations live?

As for the distribution of Luxembourg's foreign residents, the largest community - the Portuguese - predominantly settle in the southwest of Luxembourg as well as in Larochette and the Nordstad area (which encompasses fifteen municipalities in the Diekirch canton as well as some in the Mersch canton and Vianden canton).

French citizens live in an around the capital and Italians live in both the capital and in the Minette area. Belgian citizens are mainly based along the Belgian border and the Germans are based in the east and southeast of Luxembourg. The largest proportion of non-EU citizens live in Wiltz, making up 8% of the population there. After Wiltz, they tend to live in Rumelange and Schifflange.

African communities mainly tend to settle in Wiltz and some Nordstad municipalities as well as Bourscheid. Statec's statistics reveal that the most residents with African citizenships live in Luxembourg City, in Esch-sur-Alzette, and in Differdange.

Americans have settled in and around the capital, notably in Strassen and Bertrange as well. Contrary to other communities, Americans do not tend to move to the north of the country.

Asians as well seem to live in Luxembourg City and the immediate surrounding area, much in the same municipalities as American citizens. However, unlike Americans, certain northern and eastern municipalities have relatively high proportions of Asian residents, notably Esch-sur-Sure, Bourscheid, Diekirch, Berdorf, and Beaufort.

Born in the Grand Duchy or abroad?

53% of Luxembourg's total population was born in Luxembourg. Amongst the foreign residents, those who are older than 20 years are likely to have been born elsewhere, although Statec highlighted that it is difficult to generalise.

Individual municipalities also show different results. In the municipality of Luxembourg City, only 18.9% of residents were born in Luxembourg. In contrast, nearly 70% of residents in Wahl were born here.
The initial American press release had called upon Luxembourgish politicians to put pressure on the Russian prime minister over Russia's annexation of Crimea.

On Wednesday afternoon, ambassador Randy Evans spoke with the press about the statement that had sparked some controversy on Monday. In fact, his press release urged Luxembourg to condemn the annexation of Crimea in talks with Dimitri Medvedev. In response, deputy prime minister Etienne Schneider expressed his astonishment that the USA's embassy would put such pressure on a different country's leadership.

The ambassador reacted on Wednesday, telling the press that the US is worried about the Crimea and that the US and Luxembourg actually have a communal position on the Crimea annexation.

He then went on to voice suspicion regarding Russia's timing of the visit, which coincides with the anniversary of the annexation. He believes that Russia minutiously selected the timing of Medvedev's visit in order to have an opportunity to gain good press. As a result, Luxembourg hosted the Russian prime minister on the 5th anniversary of the annexation.

He also stressed that he had no particular intent with his statement, explaining that the embassy publishes statements about most political visits.
On Wednesday, Fedil's executive committee announced its new president and vice-president.

In February, RTL already revealed that Detaille would take over the role of president. The news was confirmed on Wednesday when the executive committee met, making Detaille the first female president of Fedil.

Fedil represents over 600 members from 35 different industrial sectors.

 Screenshot Youtube

Detaille became the vice president of the association which describes itself as the "voice of Luxembourg's industry" in July 2018. As she moves up to succeed Nicolas Buck, Charles-Louis Ackermann will become the vice-president.

Fedil required a new president and vice-president, as Buck has taken up the role of president of Luxembourg's business association (UEL). At the same time, vice-president Michel Wurth also announced his departure.

The new president and vice-president will formally take up their roles on 25 April.
The general secretary of the Catholic Church in Luxembourg's justice and peace commission has stressed that the fight against unemployment is one of Luxembourg's biggest challenges.

The general secretary Jean-Louis Zeien told RTL that the gap between the rich and the poor in Luxembourg is constantly climbing, especially since 2011.

He explained that the commission recently provided the government with a report on relevant policies during the upcoming legislative period. Zeien stressed that fighting unemployment is one of the biggest challenges for the government and country at large.

He explained that many believe the improving economic situation has resolved structural issues such as unemployment and poverty. However, Zeien believes the opposite has occurred.

Since 2011, the risk of poverty has been on the rise. He highlighted that the situation is particularly concerning for young people between the ages of 18 and 24. As a result, Zeien called for the government to try and resolve the housing issue as soon as possible. The Church believes it is crucial for people to be able to live off their wages. Raising the minimum wage is, according to the commission, not enough of a solution.

As Zeien explained, it is unacceptable that the next indexation of family allowances will only take place at the end of the next legislative period.

The Church has also called for legislation which will check whether other legislation is sustainable enough to improve the quality of life in Luxembourg. Zeien explained that the first coalition agreement promised to introduce this. He stressed the importance of checking the consequences of new legislation on the economic and environmental reality of the country.

The Church is also concerned about increasing ship traffic, which was not specifically mentioned in the COP21 agreement. On a national scale, Zeien questioned the coalition agreement's promise to develop Luxembourg's shipping sector.
On Thursday morning, a man accused of raising a false alarm faced his trial in court.

The 53-year-old stands accused of having called 113 nine times in April 2017 to claim a bomb would go off at Abrigado, a 'Fixerstuff' (facility that provides a safe space for drug users to inject) in Luxembourg City.

The police consequently evacuated the shelter and the surrounding areas in order to take sniffer dogs to discover any explosives.

It quickly became apparent that the report was a false alarm. The defendant did not show for the trial on Thursday due to a recent operation. According to the prosecutor, the man was quickly identified. The police immediately linked him to the false alarms and a witness on a bus saw the man making one of the calls.

His defense lawyer apologised for his actions in court on Thursday. She explained that her client knew he had acted tremendously stupid and had been under the influence of both alcohol (with a blood alcohol content rate of 2.1 promille) and drugs, having taken a number of pills.

She claimed her client felt he was delirious and believed he was an angel who could jump out of a window. Her client is currently being treated for his issues and since calmed. She explained that her client had a tumultuous past and was ashamed of his actions. She consequently called for a Suspension du prononce, which means the court would acknowledge that he made a mistake, but not sentence him to any punishment.

In response, the prosecutor reiterated that nine police patrols were called to action and evacuated the area in order to sweep the building.

The man's actions had disrupted the Fixerstuff and he admitted to officers that he wanted to cause trouble. However, the prosecutor acknowledged that he was not dangerous and it would not be appropriate to send him to prison. Instead, the prosecutor recommended he be sentenced to community service.

The verdict is due on 28 March.
The history of International Women's Day can be traced back to the first IWD, which took place on 19 March 1911. Since 1921, the day has always been celebrated on 8 March.

Protests and celebrations are planned for all over the world on Friday to mark International Women's Day. The Luxembourgish organisation JIF (Journee Internationale des Femmes) has also called for solidarity with all the women striking all over the world.

At midday, there will be a solidarity march planned to go through Luxembourg City. The platform for action will address its demands to the European Union as well as Luxembourg in light of the upcoming European elections. Women remain underrepresented in European elections, JIF explains. The organisation highlighted that this issue affects Luxembourg as well.

The platform explained the significance of the gender disparity, stressing that half of the population is not adequately represented in those institutions which make decisions for the country. The platform has called for women to be more included in political decisions as well as a political strategy which will look to further increase gender equality.

A further demand is for the EU to name a commissioner to exclusively ensure that gender equality remains respected in EU member states. Finally, the platform called for an end to violence against women and female financial dependency on men.

The march assembled in front of the train station in Luxembourg at 12pm. The symbolic colour for the day is purple, in a nod to suffragette flags. The organisers also organised a flash mob and asked participants to bring brooms along.

VIDEO: Flashmob um Weltfraendag Den eischte Fraendag geet iwwregens op den 19. Maerz 1911 zereck. Zanter dem Joer 1921 ass en emmer um 8. Maerz.

A march in Berlin is expected to have around 10,000 participants marching for equality. Berlin is the only federal state in Germany to declare 8 March a legal holiday.
The Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps (CGDIS) reported an outbreak of a fire in Howald on Friday morning, just after 3.30am.

The fire broke out in a garage of an apartment block on Route de Thionville. By the time the fire brigade arrived, the flames had spread to the apartment above the garage.

Fire fighters evacuated one person who was still inside a flat on the top floor of the building.

The Hesperange fire brigade confirmed that a number of residents living in the building will have to temporarily relocate, as their accommodation is no long in a liveable condition following damage from the fire.

24 fire fighters from Hesperange were at the scene to extinguish the blaze, assisted by eleven fire fighters from Luxembourg City. All in all, the firefighters managed to extinguish the flames relatively quickly.

Photos show the significant damage the blaze had on the building. The cause of the fire is not yet known. The police is seeking a specific witness: a man in his mid-forties and 1.90 metres tall may have seen something relating to the fire's cause. He was in a black car and should get in touch with Luxembourg City's police station.

The photos published on this site are subject to copyright and may not be copied, modified, or sold without the prior permission of the owner of the site in question.

Aside from the fire, the CGDIS bulletin also reported that a motorist drove into a ditch on Route d'Esch in Kayl.

There were no injuries resulting from this incident.
Researcher helps revive the remarkable story of Michel Cojot-Goldberg

Many know about Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon, and the 1976 Entebbe hostage situation. Fewer will recognize Michel Cojot-Goldberg, a French Jew, who was a witness in Barbies trial and a critical asset to Israeli soldiers who freed the Entebbe hostages.

Associate Professor of French, Jewish, and European Studies, Gayle Zachmann is very familiar with Cojot-Goldberg. She has been developing research and courses in French and French Jewish studies and working on a documentary that traces his amazing life. Zachmann serves as producer and historical consultant with director Boaz Dvir 88, MA08, MFA14.

In 1975, Cojot-Goldberg, disguised as a journalist, sat and talked with Nazi Klaus Barbie in Bolivia, intent on killing him. Barbie imprisoned Cojot-Goldbergs father, who was deported to Auschwitz and died. His son was haunted by this and sought retaliation, but when face-to-face with Barbie, could not pull the trigger.

A year later, Cojot was on an Air France flight from Israel to France when it was highjacked by terrorists and rerouted to Entebbe, Uganda. Says Zachmann, When people think about Entebbe, they tend to forget that it is also a French and a French-Jewish story. Most people remember it as an Israeli story.

Amid the chaos and fear, Cojot-Goldberg served as a translator and spokesperson, convincing the terrorists to be compassionate. He managed to transmit information and diagrams of the holding site and the terrorists habits, invaluable to the rescue mission.

The documentary, Cojot, uses footage from the last 75 years, as well dozens of new interviews done by Dvir and Zachmann. The rough cut has been screened in various locations in the U.S. and was shown in Paris at Columbia Universitys Global Center on March 6. Zachmann painstakingly transcribed, translated, and subtitled the entire film into French.

Although the story of an individual, the life of Cojot-Goldberg spans the second half of the 20th century and speaks to a number of different histories, says Zachmann, from the resistance of individuals and families, hidden children, the rise of fascism and the plight of French Jews during the occupation, to those of post-war memory, justice, and modern terror.
Rice export prices rose for both the Indian and Vietnamese varieties this week, bolstered by a pick up in demand, while fresh supply and a lack of interest from overseas buyers weighed on Thai rice prices.

Prices for top exporter Indias benchmark 5 percent broken parboiled variety rose for the first time in four weeks to $383-$386 per tonne from last weeks $378-$383 range.

Demand is good, especially in containers from west Africa market, Nitin Gupta, vice president, rice business at Olam India, said.

Also supporting the Indian variety, the rupee was at its firmest since the start of the year, slashing exporters returns from foreign sales and prompting them to raise prices.

Vietnam, the worlds third-largest shipper of the grain after Thailand, also saw prices for its 5 percent broken rice variety gain to $355 a tonne from $345 last week.

The government said it would buy rice from farmers for stockpiling, and demand is also seen rising, a trader based in Ho Chi Minh City said.

However, increasing supplies from an ongoing harvest will likely keep prices from rising further.

The winter-spring harvest in the Mekong Delta will peak at the end of this month.

The countrys central bank earlier this week asked local commercial banks to lower their lending rates to 6 percent for short-term loans to farmers, rice processors and exporters to help absorb the winter-spring output.

Malaysia is buying, and we have also been approached by customers from China and the Philippines, who are seeking to buy Vietnamese rice, another trader said.

In Thailand, benchmark 5 percent broken rice prices eased to $380-$390, free on board Bangkok, from last weeks $383-$398.

Fresh supply and the weakening of the domestic currency contributed to the price dip, while demand remained flat, traders said.

There are now talks that there could be a drought during this dry season and that could impact supply next quarter, a trader said.

Exporters are still looking to the Philippines for a possible deal, but so far things have remained quiet.

Meanwhile, summer rice output in Bangladesh is expected to hit 19.62 million tonnes from 19.57 million tonnes last year, Mizanur Rahman, a senior official of Department of Agriculture Extension, told Reuters.

The summer-sown crop, also known as Boro, usually contributes more than half of Bangladeshs typical annual rice production of around 35 million tonnes.

Bangladesh, the worlds fourth largest producer, saw imports surge in 2017 after floods wrought havoc on local crops, prompting the country to act to shore up domestic reserves.
Here are todays leading news stories:

Society

-- Vietnam ranked second across Asia following the Philippines as the country with the highest proportion of female business leaders, according to the latest Women in Business released by service network Grant Thornton International.

-- A heat wave is forecast to hit southern for several days from today, March 8, with a high of 36 degrees Celsius and day-night temperature variation of ten degrees, which poses health risks, according the southern weather forecast agency.

-- The principal of a kindergarten the northern province of Bac Ninh, near Hanoi, was suspended as parents discovered food served in the schools kitchen unsafe on Tuesday.

-- A man who was a deputy police chief was killed following a physical fighting with other patrons at a karaoke bar in the major southern city of Can Tho on Tuesday.

-- Police in the northern province of Lang Son detained six young men accused of gang- raping a 14-year-old girl who they knew via Facebook.

Business

-- The Ho Chi Minh administration has asked for VND2.15 trillion ($91,735,000) from the national budget to pay off the outstanding debts it owes to contractors in charge of several units of the citys unfinished metro line, to preempt risks of litigation.

-- Sugarcane prices have plummeted to record low levels in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Ngai, potentially causing massive losses for local farmers.

-- The administration of the central province of Quang Ngai said it wanted a VND90 billion ($3.9 million) relief package from the national coffers to ease the drought and saline intrusion that are crippling local agriculture.

-- A bus ad auction was canceled for the fourth consecutive time in Ho Chi Minh City as no companies submitted offers to have their ads appear on inner city buses.

-- The number of Vietnamese areas that have African swine fever rose to ten as of Thursday as cases of the highly contagious disease were confirmed in two more provinces, all in the northern region.

-- The administration of the south-central city of Nha Trang has required all hotels to remove their chairs and umbrellas from the beach before it reorganizes the area. Following the reorganization, only those abiding its planning can place the items there again.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
On 60 Minutes Liam Bartlett hears from Meaghan Vass, who says she was on board the Four Winds and could hold a key to the case covered by Sevens Undercurrent doco.

Witness to Murder

Meaghan Vass has lived a wretched existence. For half of her 25 years her home has been the streets, where she mixed with the wrong crowd and became addicted to heavy drugs. But as down and out as she is, Meaghan could be the most important witness in Tasmanias most controversial murder case. Nine years ago Sue Neill-Fraser was jailed for the murder of her partner Bob Chappell on their yacht, Four Winds. She has always denied she did it, pleading that she wasnt even on the boat when he was killed. And thats where Meaghan Vass comes in. In a 60 Minutes special investigation she speaks publicly for the first time and admits to being on board the Four Winds at the time of the murder. She tells Liam Bartlett she saw everything, and reveals who killed Bob Chappell and why. Sue Neill-Frasers freedom rests on Meaghan Vasss evidence. But is she believable?

Reporter: Liam Bartlett

Producer: Laura Sparkes

The Odd Couple

Theyre two of the biggest personalities in Australian politics  and two of the most controversial and polarising. Now Pauline Hanson and Mark Latham are a couple, Mr and Mrs One Nation. By becoming Paulines proxy in New South Wales, Latham is tipped to win an Upper House seat at the state election in a fortnight. In return, Hanson gets to harness the former Labor Opposition Leaders undeniable campaigning skills, which will be especially useful in the run-up to this years federal election. But as Liz Hayes asks, will this political version of Married at First Sight last past the honeymoon?

Reporter: Liz Hayes

Producer: Gareth Harvey

8:30pm (ish) Sunday on Nine.
The Simpsons episode Stark Raving Dad has been dropped from TV syndication following allegations raised in HBO documentary Raising Neverland.

Michael Jackson infamously provided a voice for the episode, which aired in Season 3 premiere on Sept. 19, 1991. His involvement was uncredited, and only rumoured to be Jacksons voice until it was finally confirmed to actually be him, years later (Kipp Lennon provided the singing voice).

It feels clearly the only choice to make, executive producer James L. Brooks told the Wall Street Journal. Fellow executive producers Matt Groening and Al Jean also agreed with the decision. The guys I work with  where we spend our lives arguing over jokes  were of one mind on this, Brooks said.

This was a treasured episode. There are a lot of great memories we have wrapped up in that one, and this certainly doesnt allow them to remain, Brooks told the newspaper. He said it would take time, however, for the show to be removed from syndication.

Im against book burning of any kind. But this is our book, and were allowed to take out a chapter, he told the Journal.

Source: Variety
1 SEVEN NEWS 899,000 2 NINE NEWS 889,000 3 SEVEN NEWS AT 6.30 855,000 4 NINE NEWS 6:30 817,000 5 A CURRENT AFFAIR 718,000
(Bloomberg) -- Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou began her legal battle against U.S. extradition at a Vancouver court Wednesday claiming her case is politically motivated, citing comments by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Supreme Court of British Columbia was expected to schedule Mengs first extradition hearing but instead ordered another preliminary appearance on May 8 as Mengs defense argued that there were "serious concerns" about the U.S. handover request to face fraud charges in Brooklyn, New York.

There are concerns about political character, political motivations, comments by the U.S. president," said Richard Peck, one of Mengs defense lawyers. He said several legal matters must be dealt with, including a claim that her arrest was improper, before extradition hearings can proceed. "Its a complex case. We anticipate that it will proceed at a number of stages."

The comments shed some light on Mengs strategy in a politically explosive proceeding that could take years. History shows that if Canada follows the letter of its law, Meng will probably be extradited. But shes gearing up for a legal offensive, beefing up her phalanx of lawyers and suing the Canadian government for allegedly trampling her constitutional rights in an effort to discredit the case against her.

Political Character

China has accused Canada of abetting "a political persecution" against its biggest technology company and has demanded the release of Meng, daughter of billionaire Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei. Trump has muddied the legal waters with conflicting statements on whether he might try to intervene in whats supposed to be an independent law enforcement operation in order to boost a China trade deal.

"It appears the defense has seized upon President Trumps comments," said Philadelphia-based lawyer Theodore Simon, an expert in extradition who handled the case of American exchange student Amanda Knox. Mengs lawyers statements indicate her defense team has reviewed Article 4 of the U.S.-Canada extradition treaty, which says that extradition shouldnt be granted for requests "of a political character."

Story continues

"If theyre saying this offense and the extradition has a political character, it wouldnt surprise me for them to also argue that Meng isnt going to be treated fairly," Simon said. Even if Meng loses the first round and a Canadian judge orders her extradition, she can still appeal the decision to Canadas justice minister and argue her case is of a political character, he said.

Prisoner in Vancouver: Huawei CFO Awaits Fate in Splendor

Meng, who wore a wool cap, purple hoodie and yoga pants for her brief appearance, was greeted by protesters torching a Chinese flag and an "Extradite Meng" placard at the courthouse Wednesday.

U.S. prosecutors in New York accuse Meng of fraud, alleging she lied to banks including HSBC Holdings Plc to trick them into processing transactions for Huawei that potentially violated Iran trade sanctions. She faces multiple criminal charges, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, according to court documents.

Arrested on Dec. 1 while on a stopover at Vancouvers airport, Meng was released on C$10 million ($7.5 million) bail and has been living with her husband and youngest daughter in one of the familys two luxury homes in Vancouver, a city where theyd often spent their summer holidays.

Court Protesters

Her case has become entwined with that of two Canadians -- Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who were detained in China nine days after her arrest and remain in captivity. On Wednesday, protesters calling for her swift handover contrasted Mengs arrest with that of the two Canadians.

"I dont worry about Mrs. Meng -- I worry about these two people," in China, said Louis Huang, 49, who emigrated to Canada from China about two decades ago. Nearby, another protester used a cigarette lighter and fistful of newspaper to torch a red Chinese flag.

"Shell receive fair and transparent court proceedings, Huang said. If shes innocent, shell be freed."

Chinese Arrests Are All Too Familiar for Past Canadian Detainees

Spavor and Kovrig will soon mark three months in secret jails, where theyve had a total of seven consular visits combined and have yet to see a lawyer. After Canada last Friday formally moved Mengs case toward extradition proceedings, China responded swiftly, accusing Kovrig on Monday of spying and alleging that Spavor supplied him with intelligence.

Black Jails

In China, Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat on leave from the foreign service, was working for a Brussels-based nonprofit research group, while Spavor was a North Korea travel guide based in the Chinese border town of Dandong. They were whisked away by Chinas state security to extrajudicial detention centers known as "black jails."

Kovrig and Spavor are being held in isolation, questioned multiple times a day in cells where the lights cant be turned off, according to a person familiar with the situation. Kovrig has also been questioned on his activities as a diplomat. Canadian officials believe thats a violation of the Vienna Convention -- to which China is a signatory -- conferring ongoing immunity for that period in his life.

Chinas Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission announced Monday that Kovrig had severely violated Chinese law by spying and stealing state secrets while working for the International Crisis Group and said that Spavor was his primary contact. Also in January, a Chinese court changed the punishment for a third Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, from a prison term to a death sentence in a drug case in a one-day trial at a Chinese court.

--With assistance from Josh Wingrove and Peter Martin.

To contact the reporters on this story: Krista Gmelich in New York at kgmelich1@bloomberg.net;Natalie Obiko Pearson in Vancouver at npearson7@bloomberg.net;Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg, Elizabeth Wollman

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

2019 Bloomberg L.P.
By Hamid Ould Ahmed and Lamine Chikhi

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Algerians packed central Algiers to capacity on Friday to challenge President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's 20-year-old rule in the biggest protests in the capital in 28 years.

The demonstrations, the latest in two weeks of rallies across the country against the veteran leader, were mostly peaceful, but police in the evening stepped up their use of tear gas to block the road to the presidential palace. They also used it in several other areas of the capital.

Security forces detained 195 people, state television said, citing offences such as looting. It added 112 policemen had been injured. Unidentified people broke into a primary school and the nearby national museum, stealing some ancient items and burning parts of the building, state TV and Ennahar TV said.

Algerians desperate for jobs and angry at unemployment, corruption and an elderly elite seen as out of touch with the young have taken to the streets since Feb. 22 to protest against the 82-year-old's plans to remain in office.

"Bouteflika, go!" read one banner. "Algeria is a republic, not a kingdom", "No elections until the gangs are brought down", said others.

The demonstrations, the largest since 1991 when the army cancelled elections Islamists were poised to win, pose the most substantial threat ever faced by the president, who is standing for re-election on April 18.

Underscoring frustrations with the entire Algerian political system, protesters put signs on the heads of donkeys with the names of ruling party figures and a member of the opposition.

There were no official estimates of the size of the crowds. But Algiers' El Watan newspaper estimated more than a million Algerians demonstrated in the capital.

In its latest edition, quoted by the state news agency, the army magazine described the relationship between the country's powerful military and Algerians in positive terms.

Story continues

"Both belong to one country, no alternative to it," said Djeich magazine. Both the people and the army had the same vision and destiny, it said. It did not mention the unrest but the army chief of staff has said the military would not tolerate any threats to the stability of the country.

Unusually, one of the most popular imams, or prayer leaders, in Algiers did not pray for the president as he does every Friday, and only wished the best for Algeria and its people.

In another change, state news agency APS said protesters had demanded "regime change". The agency said in previous coverage of the event that the protesters wanted "political change". Its news service ignored the first few days of protests entirely.

By the evening most protesters had gone home, leaving the field to youths clashing with police as they tried to approach the presidential palace.

Several lawmakers of the ruling FLN party have resigned to join the mass anti-government protests, a source said. No details were immediately available.

Train and metro services in Algiers were suspended without explanation before Algerians gathered in the capital and several other cities including Constantine, Annaba, Skikda, Bouira and Tizi Ouzou to press the 82-year-old Bouteflika to step down.

The ailing Bouteflika is in hospital in Geneva and has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013.

On Thursday he issued his first warning to protesters, saying the unrest, now entering its third week, could create chaos in North African country, an oil and gas producer.

THREAT

His candidacy has angered many Algerians tired of the dominance of elderly veterans of the 1954-1962 war of independence against France.

Bouteflika has offered to limit his term after the election -- and even to change the "system" that runs the country -- but people from different classes of society, including students and young families, are still on the street.

Some long-time allies of Bouteflika, including members of the ruling party, have expressed support for the protesters, revealing cracks within a ruling elite long seen as invincible.

Older Algerians with dark memories of a civil war in the 1990s have tolerated crackdowns on dissent in exchange for stability, and Bouteflika avoided the kind of uprising that toppled Arab leaders in 2011 because the state had enough foreign reserves to boost state spending.

But the young want jobs and are tired of what they perceive as widespread corruption. More than a quarter of Algerians under 30 are unemployed.

Algerians have been urged to stage a "March of 20 Million" on Friday by an anonymous party on social media.

Riot police have been deployed in growing numbers in recent days, but the military has so far stayed in its barracks.

"Today will be a decisive day," said Mohamed, a teacher in Algiers.

(Reporting by Algiers bureau; Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva, Tarek Amara and Ulf Laessing in Tunis and Hesham Hajali in Cairo; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Robin Pomeroy, William Maclean)
The inaugural Simone Veil Prize of the French Republic has been awarded to Cameroonian woman Aissa Doumara Ngatansou, who runs an organisation that helps victimes of rape and forces marriage in ... The prize was awarded on International Womens Day by French President Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in front of a large black and white portrait of Veil, the revered politician and Holocaust survivor who died in 2017.Ngatansou said she dedicated the award "with much emotion to all the women victims of violence and forced marriage and to the survivors of the Nigerian insurgency group Boko Haram  whose activity has also spread to Cameroon.Macron pledged 120 million euros in support of the fight against violence and discrimination in the world, and said he hoped that as president of the G7, France could help advance women's rights in 2019.Measures would also be taken for girls, particularly in the Sahel, and for the creation of a women's entrepreneurship bank in Africa. Paris is also proposing to host a world conference on women in 2020, 25 years after the one held in Beijing in 1995.

The inaugural Simone Veil Prize of the French Republic has been awarded to Cameroonian woman Aissa Doumara Ngatansou, who runs an organisation that helps victimes of rape and forces marriage in ...

The prize was awarded on International Womens Day by French President Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in front of a large black and white portrait of Veil, the revered politician and Holocaust survivor who died in 2017.

Ngatansou said she dedicated the award "with much emotion to all the women victims of violence and forced marriage and to the survivors of the Nigerian insurgency group Boko Haram  whose activity has also spread to Cameroon.

Macron pledged 120 million euros in support of the fight against violence and discrimination in the world, and said he hoped that as president of the G7, France could help advance women's rights in 2019.

Measures would also be taken for girls, particularly in the Sahel, and for the creation of a women's entrepreneurship bank in Africa. Paris is also proposing to host a world conference on women in 2020, 25 years after the one held in Beijing in 1995.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday awarded the inaugural Simone Veil Prize to Cameroonian womens rights activist Aissa Doumara Ngatansou, who runs an association to help victims of rape and forced marriages in her home country. Speaking in front of a large portrait of Veil, the late Auschwitz survivor known for her battle to make abortion legal in France, Doumara said she accepted the award with "a lot of emotion".The 46-year-old dedicated the prize to "all women victims of violence and forced marriages, to all those who have escaped from Boko Haram," the armed Islamist movement active in northeast Nigeria and across neighbouring borders.The ceremony marked the 42nd International Women's Day and the award was created in tribute to the life and work of Veil, who died in 2017, aged 89.Last year, Veil became just the fifth woman to be laid to rest in the Pantheon in Paris, the burial site for Frances most distinguished citizens, along with her husband.>> Read more: At mausoleum for Frances Great Men, Simone Veil burial is most revolutionary yetThe Simone Veil prize is worth 100,000 euros ($112,000).French president hails Doumara's 'courage'Macron hailed Doumara for "her commitment of over 20 years in the service of women, carried out in silence, sometimes in disapproval.""This is an example of courage, of challenging the weight of legacies," he added.Macron also said that France would give 120 million euros to a fund to support "the fight against violence and discrimination inflicted on women" around the world.He said he wanted 2019 to be "a year for women's rights" while France holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of industrialised powers.Measures will be taken to educate young girls, particularly in the Sahel region, with the establishment of a bank to support women in business across Africa. Paris also proposed to host a global women's conference next year, 25 years after the last such gathering in Beijing."Many women are on the front line of this fight society as a whole should mobilise, including men," Macron said as he handed her the prize.(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday awarded the inaugural Simone Veil Prize to Cameroonian womens rights activist Aissa Doumara Ngatansou, who runs an association to help victims of rape and forced marriages in her home country.

Speaking in front of a large portrait of Veil, the late Auschwitz survivor known for her battle to make abortion legal in France, Doumara said she accepted the award with "a lot of emotion".

The 46-year-old dedicated the prize to "all women victims of violence and forced marriages, to all those who have escaped from Boko Haram," the armed Islamist movement active in northeast Nigeria and across neighbouring borders.

The ceremony marked the 42nd International Women's Day and the award was created in tribute to the life and work of Veil, who died in 2017, aged 89.

Last year, Veil became just the fifth woman to be laid to rest in the Pantheon in Paris, the burial site for Frances most distinguished citizens, along with her husband.

>> Read more: At mausoleum for Frances Great Men, Simone Veil burial is most revolutionary yet

The Simone Veil prize is worth 100,000 euros ($112,000).

French president hails Doumara's 'courage'

Macron hailed Doumara for "her commitment of over 20 years in the service of women, carried out in silence, sometimes in disapproval."

"This is an example of courage, of challenging the weight of legacies," he added.

Macron also said that France would give 120 million euros to a fund to support "the fight against violence and discrimination inflicted on women" around the world.

He said he wanted 2019 to be "a year for women's rights" while France holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of industrialised powers.

Measures will be taken to educate young girls, particularly in the Sahel region, with the establishment of a bank to support women in business across Africa. Paris also proposed to host a global women's conference next year, 25 years after the last such gathering in Beijing.

"Many women are on the front line of this fight society as a whole should mobilise, including men," Macron said as he handed her the prize.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
France appointed a new ambassador to Iran after a diplomatic spat with Tehran over an alleged bomb plot in Paris. The new French ambassador, Philippe Thiebaud, was previously posted in South Korea and before that as a member of the Board of Governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency.In return, Iran may appoint Bahram Ghassemi, the current spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, according to Irans Mehr News Agency, quoting unconfirmed reports.The rebirth of Franco- Iranian ties comes after a difficult period of mutual distrust.In June last year, European security services arrested four people suspected of planning an terror attack on a yearly gathering of the National Council of Resistance, an opposition group, at a conference center in Villepinte, just outside Paris.The suspects, two Belgian nationals of Iranian origin, a French Iranian and an Iranian diplomat are currently under detention in Antwerp, awaiting trial.In October, France security services said it was likely that Iran was behind the bombing attempt, and expelled Iranian embassy personnel.Assissination AccusationsAt the same time, The Netherlands and Denmark expelled diplomats after suspected assassination attempts on Iranian citizens on their soil, allegedly orchestrated by Tehran.Just this week, Iran expelled two Dutch diplomats, and Holland retaliated by recalling its ambassador for consultations.The accusations against Iran have put the EU in a difficult position, as the UK, France and Germany, as three of the six members of the P5 +1 (five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) try to salvage the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.Deal in jeopardyThe deal is in jeopardy after US President Donald Trump unilaterally walked away from the deal, saying it didnt offer enough guarantees that Iran wouldn't develop an atomic weapon.The EU partners of the deal said they would remain committed to the deal, and late last year started to develop plans for a non-US Dollar mechanism that EU countries could use to circumvent US sanctions while continue to do business with Iran.Ironically, on January 8, the EU also imposed new sanctions on Iran, singling out the Iranian Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) and two individuals. The sanctions were proposed by The Netherlands, together with the UK, France, Germany, Denmark and Belgium als expressed their grave concern with the Iranian authorities about probable involvement in hostile activities on European soil, but also stress that the sanctions are in no way connected to Brussels attempts to continue trade relations with Tehran.Washington has condemned the European trade mechanism, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying he was disturbed and disappointed by it.

France appointed a new ambassador to Iran after a diplomatic spat with Tehran over an alleged bomb plot in Paris.

The new French ambassador, Philippe Thiebaud, was previously posted in South Korea and before that as a member of the Board of Governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In return, Iran may appoint Bahram Ghassemi, the current spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, according to Irans Mehr News Agency, quoting unconfirmed reports.

The rebirth of Franco- Iranian ties comes after a difficult period of mutual distrust.

In June last year, European security services arrested four people suspected of planning an terror attack on a yearly gathering of the National Council of Resistance, an opposition group, at a conference center in Villepinte, just outside Paris.

The suspects, two Belgian nationals of Iranian origin, a French Iranian and an Iranian diplomat are currently under detention in Antwerp, awaiting trial.

In October, France security services said it was likely that Iran was behind the bombing attempt, and expelled Iranian embassy personnel.

Assissination Accusations

At the same time, The Netherlands and Denmark expelled diplomats after suspected assassination attempts on Iranian citizens on their soil, allegedly orchestrated by Tehran.

Just this week, Iran expelled two Dutch diplomats, and Holland retaliated by recalling its ambassador for consultations.

The accusations against Iran have put the EU in a difficult position, as the UK, France and Germany, as three of the six members of the P5 +1 (five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) try to salvage the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

Deal in jeopardy

The deal is in jeopardy after US President Donald Trump unilaterally walked away from the deal, saying it didnt offer enough guarantees that Iran wouldn't develop an atomic weapon.

The EU partners of the deal said they would remain committed to the deal, and late last year started to develop plans for a non-US Dollar mechanism that EU countries could use to circumvent US sanctions while continue to do business with Iran.

Ironically, on January 8, the EU also imposed new sanctions on Iran, singling out the Iranian Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) and two individuals. The sanctions were proposed by The Netherlands, together with the UK, France, Germany, Denmark and Belgium als expressed their grave concern with the Iranian authorities about probable involvement in hostile activities on European soil, but also stress that the sanctions are in no way connected to Brussels attempts to continue trade relations with Tehran.

Washington has condemned the European trade mechanism, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying he was disturbed and disappointed by it.
As the world marks International Womens Day, Friday 8 March, France is set to award its inaugural Simone Veil Prize of the French Republic in honour of the revered politician and Holocaust ... A sum of 100,000 euros will be handed out in recognition of actions around the world in favor of women's rights". The prize will be given at 10.30am local time, though its unclear if the first recipient will be a man or a woman.Elsewhere Friday, French feminist associations have called a strike, along with trade unions and some political movements. The action has been named March 8, 3:40pm, time to settle the score, in reference to the estimated time from which women work for free as a result of the gender pay gap.In 1911, International Womens Day was marked for the first time by more than a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. It has since grown into an festival of marches, ideas and celebrations. This year's theme is BalanceforBetter.A French public opinion poll Sunday found that Simone Veil, a former health minister who defended the 1975 law on the legalization of abortion in France, tops the list of personalities who "embody feminism the most. Veil defeated Michelle Obama and Simone de Beauvoir to take the top spot.

As the world marks International Womens Day, Friday 8 March, France is set to award its inaugural Simone Veil Prize of the French Republic in honour of the revered politician and Holocaust ...

A sum of 100,000 euros will be handed out in recognition of actions around the world in favor of women's rights". The prize will be given at 10.30am local time, though its unclear if the first recipient will be a man or a woman.

Elsewhere Friday, French feminist associations have called a strike, along with trade unions and some political movements. The action has been named March 8, 3:40pm, time to settle the score, in reference to the estimated time from which women work for free as a result of the gender pay gap.

In 1911, International Womens Day was marked for the first time by more than a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. It has since grown into an festival of marches, ideas and celebrations. This year's theme is #BalanceforBetter.

A French public opinion poll Sunday found that Simone Veil, a former health minister who defended the 1975 law on the legalization of abortion in France, tops the list of personalities who "embody feminism the most. Veil defeated Michelle Obama and Simone de Beauvoir to take the top spot.
Campaigners have protested at the headquarters of Irelands national broadcaster calling for them to boycott Eurovision.

This years Eurovision Song Contest is to be held in Israel and campaigners say the states record on alleged human rights abuses makes taking part in the competition unconscionable.

Protesters handed in a petition of more than 16,500 signatures to the studios on Friday, calling on RTE and Irelands Eurovision entry Sarah McTernan not to take part in the singing contest.

Around 50 people carrying Palestine flags, banners and placards gathered at the broadcasters Dublin headquarters built a fake stone wall to mimic the IsraelGaza security barrier.

About 50 people took part in the demonstration (Brian Lawless/PA)

Zoe Lawlor, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said the idea that Eurovision is non-political is false.

Israel has made this years Eurovision explicitly militaristic and political in nature, she said.

This is especially so as the contestants will be expected to perform in front of 500 soldiers from the Israeli military.

The boycott call has been supported by over 16,500 people in Ireland, the Musicians Union of Ireland, Irish Equity and many prominent figures associated with former Eurovisions, as well as respected public figures in the arts, humanities and human and civil rights fields.

Ireland has a proud tradition of standing with the oppressed and against injustice and we sincerely hope that Sarah McTernan will take this opportunity to stand on the right side of history by listening to the Palestinian and international calls for a boycott.

Fatin al Tamimi, a Palestinian woman who has lived in Ireland for 30 years, and chairwoman of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, says a boycott by Ireland would send a strong message of solidarity.

Irish Campaign to Boycott Eurovision spokesperson Betty Purcell will be on the Sean O'Rourke Show debating Keith Mills at around 10.30am this morning. You can tweet support @TodaySOR using hashtags #BoycottEurovision, or email todaysor@rte.ie or Text 51551 pic.twitter.com/EzKy1tAqMN  IPSC (@ipsc48) March 8, 2019

Palestine is watching and waiting and looking for Ireland to support them, there has been a civil call in society in Palestine to boycott Eurovision, she said.

Story continues

We dont want Ireland to take part in the white washing of Israel, which is an apartheid state.

Their postcard campaign during the programme will show illegal settlements in the occupied territories as part of Israel.

Dee Forbes, director general of RTE, said last year that the company would not sanction any workers whose consciences prevent them from travelling to Israel.

As a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), RTE has registered to take part in the 2019 contest.

In September, the broadcaster stated that: RTE is not aware of any regularly participating public service broadcaster who is planning to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest.

RTE have been contacted for comment.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft, lifts off on an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., March 2, 2019. REUTERS/Joe Skipper

By Joey Roulette

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - An unmanned capsule from Elon Musk's SpaceX splashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, successfully completing a mission crucial to NASA's long-delayed quest to resume human space flight from U.S. soil later this year.

After a six-day mission to the International Space Station, Crew Dragon detached at about 2:30 a.m EST (0730 GMT) and sped back to earth, reaching hypersonic speeds before an 8:45 a.m. EST (1345 GMT) splash-down about 200 miles (320 km) off the Florida coast.

A SpaceX rocket launched the 16-foot-tall (4.9-meter) capsule from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida last Saturday.

"Everything happened just perfectly, right on time the way that we expected it to," Benjamin Reed, SpaceX's director of crew mission management, said in a live stream from California.

It was a crucial milestone in the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Commercial Crew Program ahead of SpaceX's first crewed test flight slated to launch in July with U.S. astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken.

"This really is an American achievement that spans many generations of NASA administrators and over a decade of work," said current Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

Steve Stich, the crew program's deputy manager with NASA, said the vehicle was doing well after the splash-down.

The capsule, which was lifted out of the water by a boat using a crane, is due back on land by Sunday. The live stream showed its protective shell had been weathered from intense heat during re-entry.

The mission carried 400 pounds (180 kg) of test equipment to the space station, including a dummy named Ripley outfitted with sensors around its head, neck, and spine to monitor how a flight would feel for a human.

The space station's three-member crew greeted the capsule last Sunday, with U.S. astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques entering Crew Dragon's cabin to carry out air quality tests and inspections.

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NASA has awarded SpaceX and Boeing Co a total of $6.8 billion to build competing rocket and capsule systems to launch astronauts into orbit from American soil, something not possible since the U.S. Space Shuttle was retired from service in 2011.

Results from this mission will determine whether SpaceX can stick to its current 2019 test schedule following previous development delays for the Hawthorne, California-based company and Boeing.

"I don't think we saw really anything in the mission so far - we've got to do the data reviews - that would preclude us from having a crewed mission later this year," Stich said.

The launch systems are aimed at ending U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets for $80 million-per-seat rides to the $100 billion orbital research laboratory, which flies about 250 miles (400 km) above earth.

NASA resumed talks with Russia's space agency Roscosmos in February seeking two additional Soyuz seats for 2020 to maintain a U.S. presence on the space station.

The short-notice solicitation, posted on Feb. 13, "provides flexibility and back-up capability" as the companies build their rocket-and-capsule launch systems.

Boeing's Starliner crew capsule is poised to launch its maiden unmanned mission in April ahead of an August test flight carrying U.S. astronauts Michael Fincke, Chris Ferguson and Nicole Mann.

Bridenstine told Reuters the cost per seat on the Boeing or SpaceX systems would be lower than for the shuttle or Soyuz.

Privately owned SpaceX, also known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp, was founded in 2002 by Musk, who is also a co-founder of electric car maker Tesla Inc.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Additional reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Chris Reese)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian military has mounted air strikes against Islamic State militants and clashed with the jihadists in central Syria, the pro-Damascus al-Watan newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The flare-up in the area of al-Sukhna, between Palymra and Deir al-Zor, on Monday points to the foothold the ultra-hardline Islamist group still has west of the Euphrates even as U.S.-backed fighters are poised to seize its last enclave east of the river.

The Syrian air force mounted "a number of air strikes targeting Daesh movements in the eastern Badiya, specifically on one of the dirt roads leading to the town of al-Sukhna and southeast of the town", al-Watan said, citing a military source.

Daesh is the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been laying siege to Islamic State's last enclave east of the Euphrates, the village of Baghouz, for several weeks.

Some 200 of the jihadists surrendered in Baghouz after a ferocious battle at the weekend, but around 1,000 may still be holding out, a spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian force battling them said on Monday.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Commander Sean Robertson said that in addition to the nearly 1,000 foreign fighters held by the SDF, there were thousands of other suspected Islamic State militants from Iraq and Syria held by the U.S.-backed group.

While the group's defeat at Baghouz would mark a milestone in the fight against Islamic State, the group is expected to remain an insurgent threat inside Syria and Iraq.

The Syrian army recaptured Sukhna from Islamic State in 2017 as it pushed the jihadists back across central Syria in an advance along the crucial desert highway from Palmyra to Deir al-Zor.

However, some of its fighters remained in the rugged desert areas around and have carried out attacks on army positions and convoys, a pro-Damascus source has said.

(Writing by Tom Perry; editing by William Maclean and Jonathan Oatis)
Moved by shocking images of the violence meted out by the Islamic State armed group against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria, acupuncturist Elise Boghossian in 2014 decided to travel there to ... No one knows how many women and children were kidnapped and enslaved by the Islamic State armed group. In 2014, a medieval-style jihad unleashed by thousands of local and foreign fighters saw large swathes of northern Iraq and Syria fall under the groups control. The movement was underpinned by the principle that women and girls from religious minorities could be taken as slaves.The international community looked on in horror, but very few people took action. Elise Boghossian is an exception. Armed with her acupuncture needles, she traveled to northern Iraq, leaving her children and comfortable life in Paris behind.The first time I went to Iraq I was completely alone. I didnt have colleagues or work with a specific organization. I just had my acupuncture needles to offer people pain relief, explains Elise Boghossian.

Moved by shocking images of the violence meted out by the Islamic State armed group against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria, acupuncturist Elise Boghossian in 2014 decided to travel there to ...

No one knows how many women and children were kidnapped and enslaved by the Islamic State armed group. In 2014, a medieval-style jihad unleashed by thousands of local and foreign fighters saw large swathes of northern Iraq and Syria fall under the groups control. The movement was underpinned by the principle that women and girls from religious minorities could be taken as slaves.

The international community looked on in horror, but very few people took action. Elise Boghossian is an exception. Armed with her acupuncture needles, she traveled to northern Iraq, leaving her children and comfortable life in Paris behind.

The first time I went to Iraq I was completely alone. I didnt have colleagues or work with a specific organization. I just had my acupuncture needles to offer people pain relief, explains Elise Boghossian.
ATHENS (Reuters) - A man and his two children died on Thursday after attempting to reach Greece in a boat that probably sank off the Aegean island of Samos close to Turkey's coast, a Greek official said.

The Greek coast guard was alerted about a boat in distress in the early morning hours. They later found 11 people in the water off Samos, including two brothers aged four and a half.

"The twins were in a bad condition", a coast guard official said adding that it was not yet clear what happened to the boat. The children later died.

The body of a man was later found in the water and was identified by witnesses as the father of the two.

Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond have made the perilous journey from the Turkish coast to a chain of Greek islands, a gateway into the European Union. Many have drowned.

More than a million people made the journey in 2015, although the numbers have since dropped sharply after a deal the following year between the EU and Turkey, which agreed to take back Syrian refugees and other asylum seekers who cross by sea.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Peter Graff)
By Roberta Rampton and David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he would be disappointed if North Korea were to resume weapons testing and reiterated his belief in his good relationship with its leader, Kim Jong Un, despite the collapse of a summit with him last week.

"I would be surprised in a negative way if he did anything that was not per our understanding. But we'll see what happens," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I would be very disappointed if I saw testing."

Trump's comments to reporters on the White House lawn before leaving to visit Alabama came after two U.S. think tanks and Seoul's spy agency said this week that North Korea was rebuilding a rocket launch site at Sohae in the west of the country.

There have also been reports emanating from South Korea's intelligence service of new activity at a factory that produced North Korea's first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States.

Trump said he thought his and the U.S. relationship with Kim and North Korea was "a very good one."

"I think it remains good," he said.

Trump, eager for a big foreign policy win on North Korea which has eluded his predecessors for decades, has repeatedly stressed his good relationship with Kim.

He went as far late last year as saying that they "fell in love," but the bonhomie has failed to bridge the wide gap between the two sides and a second between them collapsed last week over differences on U.S. demands for Kim to give up his nuclear weapons and North Korea's demands for sanctions relief.

North Korea has, however, frozen nuclear and missile testing since 2017, and Trump has pointed to this as a positive outcome from nearly a year of high-level engagement with North Korea.

Sohae has been used in the past to rest missile engines and to launch rockets that U.S. officials say have helped development of North Korea's weapons programs. Kim pledged at a first summit with Trump in Singapore in June that the site would be dismantled.

Story continues

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton and other U.S. officials have sought to play down the activity spotted at Sohae, although Trump on Thursday called recent North Korean activity "disappointing.

A senior State Department official who briefed reporters in Washington on Thursday said he would "not necessarily share the conclusion" of the think tanks that the Sohae site was operational again, but said any use of the site would be seen as "backsliding" on commitments to Trump.

North Korean state media acknowledged the fruitless Hanoi summit for the first time on Friday, saying people were blaming the United States for the lack of an agreement.

"The public at home and abroad that had hoped for success and good results from the second ... summit in Hanoi are feeling regretful, blaming the U.S. for the summit that ended without an agreement," its Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary.

The paper directed fiery rhetoric against Japan, accusing it of being "desperate to interrupt" relations between Pyongyang and Washington and "applauding" the breakdown of the summit.

Washington has said it is open to more talks with North Korea but it has rejected an incremental approach to negotiations sought by Pyongyang and it remains unclear when the two sides might meet again.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he was hopeful he would send a delegation to North Korea for more talks in the next couple of weeks, but that he had received "no commitment yet."

The senior State Department official who gave a briefing on Thursday said the United States was keen to resume talks as soon as possible, but North Korea's negotiators needed to be given more latitude than they were given ahead of the summit.

"There will necessarily need to be a period of reflection here. Both sides are going to have to digest the outcome to the summit," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Fundamentally, where we really need to see the progress, and we need to see it soon, is on meaningful and verifiable steps on denuclearisation. That's our goal and that's how we see these negotiations picking up momentum."

The official said complete denuclearisation was the condition for North Korea's integration into the global economy, a transformed relationship with the United States and a permanent peace regime on the Korean peninsula.

Bolton, a hard-liner who has argued for a tough approach to North Korea, said this week that Trump was open to more talks, but also warned of tougher sanctions if North Korea did not denuclearize.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton, David Brunnstrom, Lisa Lambert and Susan Heavey in Washington and Hyonhee Shin, Joyce Lee and Ju-min Park in Seoul; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
It will be five years in April since the tragedy occurred (Amy May Trust)

A woman who suffered a severe reaction to a nut allergy on holiday in Hungary has returned home to her family after five years.

Amy May Shead, 31, will now live in a specially built annex at her parents Essex home, where she will receive 24-hour care.

The former ITV producer suffered anaphylactic shock after just one mouthful of a chicken meal at a Budapest restaurant in April 2014.

She is brain damaged, partially paralysed and unable to see or speak properly as a result.

Amy has bid farewell to Marillac Care, where she has lived for three years (SWNS)

Amys family have spoken positively about the care she received at Marillac Care (SWNS)

Amy May Shead, at home with her parents Roger and Sue (Amy May Trust)

Amy had been on a weekend away with friends when the tragedy happened.

She had shown her allergy card which warned of her severe allergies to the waiter, who had reassured her that the food she had ordered didnt contain nuts.

But after one bite of her meal, Amys throat immediately felt strange. She administered both of her EpiPens, but they failed to counteract the effects of the nuts.

Amy had been working as a producer for ITV Daytime (Amy May Trust)

The Amy May Trust works towards raising funds for Amy as well as raising awareness of nut allergies (SWNS)

READ MORE

Smiling teenager who posed with disabled woman covered in eggs and flour is fined

Amy went into anaphylaxis, then suffered a cardiac arrest. Her brain was starved of oxygen for six minutes.

After three weeks in intensive care in Budapest Amy returned home, spending nearly two years in hospital in London before moving to the Marillac Care facility in Essex.

Despite a lengthy investigation by specialist lawyers, Amys family received no compensation from the restaurant as it didnt hold public liability insurance.

Amy with her aunt Julie Martin and cousin Tom, who founded the Amy May Trust (Amy May Trust)

Wheelchair-bound Amy will now receive round the clock care from the purpose-built annex at the home of her parents, Sue and Roger.

Sue told the BBC: Amy was the most vivacious, outgoing, bubbly young lady you could ever wish to meet.

We are still devastated. Every day is hard to get through. But wed do anything for her.

Amys aunt Julie Martin and cousin Tom have set up the Amy May Trust, which raises funds to pay for her care while also working to increase awareness of the seriousness of nut allergies.

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[March 07, 2019] IDT Corporation Reports Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2019 Results

NEWARK, N.J., March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT) reported EPS of $0.01 and non-GAAP EPS* of $0.04 on revenue of $349.5 million for the second quarter of FY 2019, the three months ended January 31, 2019. 2Q19 HIGHLIGHTS

(2Q19 results are compared to 2Q18) Consolidated Results Revenue less direct cost of revenue decreased to $58.3 million from $58.7 million ;

from ; Income from operations increased to $1.5 million from a loss from operations of $480 thousand ;

from a loss from operations of ; Adjusted EBITDA* increased to $7.4 million from $6.3 million ;

from ; EPS of $0.01 compared to $0.06 ;

compared to ; Non-GAAP EPS increased to $0.04 from $0.00 . Growth Initiatives net2phone's unified communications as a service (UCaaS) revenue increased 86% to $6.0 million including Versature, the Canadian UCaaS provider acquired in 1Q19;

including Versature, the Canadian UCaaS provider acquired in 1Q19; National Retail Solutions (NRS) revenue increased 56% to $1.5 million . NRS operated 6,600 active terminals at January 31, 2019 compared to 3,800 a year earlier;

. NRS operated 6,600 active terminals at compared to 3,800 a year earlier; BOSS Revolution international money transfer revenue increased 35% to $5.4 million . Revenue from its direct-to-consumer channel increased 145% to $3.3 million . REMARKS BY SHMUEL JONAS, CEO OF IDT CORPORATION "IDT's technology-driven growth initiatives performed well in the second quarter. "Revenue generated by net2phone's unified communications as a service offering increased by 86% compared to the year ago quarter and achieved an annual run rate of over $24 million. We performed ahead of plan in our South American markets  most notably in Brazil. Operationally, our priority continues to be the incremental deployment of net2phone's proprietary technology platform. Reviews and feedback from customers on the new platform have been positive and enthusiastic. Also, within net2phone, we are focused on developing a robust direct-to-consumer channel in all of our markets worldwide. "National Retail Solutions revenue increased 56% in the second quarter to an annual run rate of over 6 million dollars, and its point-of-sale network now comprises over 6,600 active terminals. We have only begun to tap the potential of this business, and are building-out and optimizing the offerings that will more fully monetize the network's capabilities. "Our international money transfer business surpassed $20 million in annualized-run-rate revenue this quarter. Direct to consumer sales increased 145% year over year as we expanded our international disbursement network, enhanced our transaction fulfillment technology and intensified marketing. "We continue to focus on enhancing our profitability while investing in our growth initiatives. Consolidated revenue decreased by $46.4 million compared to the second quarter 2018 primarily because of a reduction in Carrier Services traffic on marginally profitable routes. The revenue decrease had a limited impact on margin contribution, and was offset by increased margin contributions from our growth initiatives and by reductions in SG&A expense  primarily generated from within our core business operations. As a result, we increased income from operations and Adjusted EBITDA compared to both the year ago quarter and the first quarter of this year."







2Q19 CONSOLIDATED RESULTS

Results (in millions, except EPS) 2Q19 1Q19 2Q18 2Q19 - 2Q18 Change (%/$) Revenue $349.5 $362.3 $395.9 (11.7)% Direct cost of revenue $291.2 $304.7 $337.2 (13.7)% Revenue less direct cost of revenue $58.3 $57.6 $58.7 (0.6)% Direct cost of revenue as a percentage

of revenue 83.3% 84.1% 85.2% (190) BP SG&A expense $50.9 $50.6 $52.4 (2.8)% Depreciation and amortization $5.8 $5.6 $5.7 +0.5% Severance expense - - $0.2 $(0.2) Other operating expense, net $(0.1) $(0.2) $(0.8) +$0.7 Income (loss) from operations $1.5 $1.3 $(0.5) +$2.0 Adjusted EBITDA* $7.4 $7.1 $6.3 +$1.1 Net income (loss) attributable to IDT $0.2 $(1.4) $1.5 $(1.3) Diluted earnings (loss) per share $0.01 $(0.06) $0.06 $(0.05) Non-GAAP net income (loss)* $1.0 $(0.5) $0.0 +$1.0 Non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share* $0.04 $(0.02) $0.00 +$0.04

*Throughout this release, Non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share, Adjusted EBITDA, and Non-GAAP net income (loss) for all periods presented are Non-GAAP measures intended to provide useful information that supplements IDT's or the relevant segment's core results in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to the Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures at the end of this release for an explanation of these terms and their respective reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measure.

Notes on Consolidated Results and Balance Sheet

Consolidated results for all periods presented include corporate overhead. In both 2Q19 and 2Q18, corporate G&A expense was $2.4 million. At January 31, 2019, IDT held $75.5 million in unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and debt securities. Current assets totaled $341.3 million and current liabilities totaled $361.7 million, inclusive of current assets and current liabilities "held for sale". IDT's intention is to sell its Gibraltar-based bank and it is continuing discussions with potential buyers. All of the bank's assets and liabilities at January 31, 2019 and July 31, 2018 are classified as "held for sale" in the consolidated balance sheets. On August 1, 2018, IDT adopted a change in GAAP related to the classification and presentation of changes in restricted cash in the statement of cash flows. Net cash provided by operating activities during 2Q19 was $29.8 million compared to $21.9 million in the year ago quarter. In the corresponding periods, capital expenditures were $4.9 million and $5.6 million, respectively. 2Q19 RESULTS BY SEGMENT

(Results are for 2Q19 and are compared to 2Q18 unless otherwise noted). For fiscal year 2019, IDT has modified the way it reports its business verticals within its two reporting segments to align more closely with IDT's business strategy and operational structure, as follows: Telecom & Payment Services (TPS)

IDT's TPS segment accounted for 96.7% and 97.8% of IDT's consolidated revenue in 2Q19 and 2Q18, respectively. The segment comprises Core and Growth verticals: Core includes IDT's three largest communications and payments offerings from both a revenue and cash generation perspective: BOSS Revolution Calling, an international long-distance calling service marketed primarily to immigrant communities in the US; Carrier Services, which provides international long-distance termination and outsourced traffic management solutions to telecoms worldwide; and Mobile Top-Up, which enables customers to transfer airtime and bundles of airtime, messaging and data credits to friends and family overseas and within the US. TPS Core also includes several smaller communications and payments offerings - many in harvest mode.

includes IDT's three largest communications and payments offerings from both a revenue and cash generation perspective: BOSS Revolution Calling, an international long-distance calling service marketed primarily to immigrant communities in the US; Carrier Services, which provides international long-distance termination and outsourced traffic management solutions to telecoms worldwide; and Mobile Top-Up, which enables customers to transfer airtime and bundles of airtime, messaging and data credits to friends and family overseas and within the US. TPS Core also includes several smaller communications and payments offerings - many in harvest mode. Growth comprises National Retail Solutions' retailer POS terminal-based services, the BOSS Revolution international money transfer service, and the BOSS Revolution mobile service. net2phone

IDT's net2phone segment accounted for 3.3% and 2.1% of IDT's consolidated revenue in 2Q19 and 2Q18, respectively. The segment comprises two verticals: net2phone-UCaaS is a rapidly growing, global, unified cloud communications offering for business.

is a rapidly growing, global, unified cloud communications offering for business. net2phone-Platform Services includes other offerings leveraging a common technology platform to provide cable telephony and other voice services. Revenue in 2Q19 and comparative periods for all verticals is provided in the following chart: Revenue by Segment and Vertical (in millions) 2Q19 1Q19 2Q18 2Q19-2Q18

% change TPS







Core $330.9 $345.7 $382.0 (13.4)% BOSS Revolution Calling $122.1 $123.5 $131.6 (7.2)% Carrier Services $127.9 $142.2 $170.8 (25.1)% Mobile Top-Up $64.3 $65.3 $62.1 +3.5% Other $16.6 $14.6 $17.5 (5.0)% Growth $7.0 $6.2 $5.0 +39.8% Total TPS $338.0 $351.8 $387.1 (12.7)% net2phone







net2phone-UCaaS $6.0 $4.8 $3.2 +86.4% net2phone-Platform Services $5.5 $5.7 $5.1 +8.5% Total net2phone $11.5 $10.5 $8.3 +38.8% Segment level financial results are summarized in the following chart: Results by Segment (in millions) TPS net2phone 2Q19 2Q18 2Q19 2Q18 Revenue $338.0 $387.1 $11.5 $8.3 Direct cost of revenue $287.9 $334.6 $3.2 $2.6 Revenue less direct cost of revenue $50.0 $52.4 $8.3 $5.7 SG&A expense $40.4 $43.7 $8.1 $5.3 Depreciation and amortization $3.7 $4.1 $2.1 $1.2 Severance expense - $0.2 - - Other gains $0.2 - - - Income (loss) from operations $6.2 $4.5 $(1.9) $(0.8) Adjusted EBITDA $9.6 $8.8 $0.2 $0.4 TPS Segment Takeaways:

TPS Core: The BOSS Revolution Calling service continues to be impacted by persistent, market-wide trends, including the proliferation of unlimited calling plans offered by wireless carriers and MVNOs and the increasing penetration of free and paid over-the-top voice and messaging services. Minutes-of-use for the BOSS Revolution Calling service declined 11% compared to the year ago quarter, while revenue decreased 7.2% to $122.1 million .

. Carrier Services' minutes-of-use decreased 10% year over year and revenue declined 25.1% to $127.9 million . Carrier Services' minutes-of-use and revenue will continue to be impacted over the long term as communications globally transition away from traditional international long-distance voice operators. However, minutes and revenue may fluctuate significantly from quarter-to-quarter, as the Company seeks to maximize gross profit economics rather than sustain minutes-of-use or revenue. TPS Growth: National Retail Solutions (NRS)' revenue increased 56% compared to the year ago quarter. NRS' point-of-sale terminal network has achieved sufficient scale to enable new revenue sources that supplement the monthly recurring fees generated by the use of its terminals. These emerging services include out-of-home advertising through the terminals' consumer facing screen, retail analytics, and credit card processing.

Revenue generated by IDT's BOSS Revolution money transfer service increased 35% compared to the year ago quarter. Direct-to-consumer sales increased 145% year over year driven by expansion of the service's global disbursement network. Direct-to-consumer sales now constitute the majority of money transfer revenue.

IDT is optimizing its BOSS Revolution mobile offering. Efforts this quarter focused on development of marketing campaigns, training of IDT's direct to retailer sales force, and improving the user experience. TPS Financial Results: TPS' income from operations increased 39.1% to $6.2 million . The impact of the $49.1 million reduction in revenue was offset by improved Carrier Services margins and by the continued growth of Mobile Top-Up revenue. SG&A expense decreased 7.5% year over year to $40.4 million reflecting reduced compensation expense partially offset by increased marketing expense. Adjusted EBITDA in 2Q19 increased to $9.6 million from $8.8 million in 2Q18. net2phone Segment Takeaways: net2phone-UCaaS revenue increased 86% compared to the year ago quarter driven by the acquisition of Canadian UCaas provider Versature, growth in South American markets, expansion to Mexico , and additions to its US channel partner network.

, and additions to its US channel partner network. During 2Q19, net2phone continued to deploy its new proprietary platform. The platform integrates voice, text, messaging and web chat services across devices. net2phone expects that the unified communications functionality afforded by the new platform will become a key driver of customer acquisition. IDT EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENT & SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

This release is available for download in the "For Investors" section of the IDT Corporation website ( http://idt.net/ir ) and has been filed on a current report (Form 8-K) with the SEC. IDT will host an earnings conference call beginning at 5:30 PM ET today with management's discussion of results, outlook and strategy followed by Q&A with investors. To listen to the call and participate in the Q&A, dial toll-free 1-888-348-8417 (from U.S.) or 1-412-902-4243 (international) and request the IDT Corporation call. A recording of the conference call can be accessed beginning approximately two hours after the call concludes through March 14, 2019 by dialing 1-844-512-2921 (toll free from the US) or 1-412-317-6671 (international) and providing this PIN code: 10128968. The recording will also be available via streaming audio at the IDT investor relations website ( www.idt.net/ir ) following the call. ABOUT IDT:

IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT) provides communications and payment services to individuals and businesses primarily through its flagship Boss Revolution and net2phone brands. IDT's wholesale carrier services business is a leading global carrier of international long-distance calls. For more information on IDT, visit www.idt.net . All statements above that are not purely about historical facts, including, but not limited to, those in which we use the words "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "target" and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgment of what may happen in the future, actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these statements due to numerous important factors. Our filings with the SEC provide detailed information on such statements and risks, and should be consulted along with this release. To the extent permitted under applicable law, IDT assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. IDT CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS



January 31,

2019

July 31,

2018

(Unaudited)





(in thousands) Assets





Current assets:





Cash and cash equivalents $ 74,445

$ 68,089 Debt securities 1,051

5,612 Trade accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $3,037 at January 31, 2019 and $3,166 at July 31, 2018 50,164

69,481 Prepaid expenses 20,432

19,550 Other current assets 28,078

28,877 Assets held for sale 167,083

137,272 Total current assets 341,253

328,881 Property, plant and equipment, net 36,186

36,068 Goodwill 11,273

11,315 Other intangibles, net 4,150

306 Equity investments 7,754

6,633 Deferred income tax assets, net 2,882

5,668 Other assets 6,680

5,020 Assets held for sale 5,962

5,706 Total assets $ 416,140

$ 399,597







Liabilities and equity





Current liabilities:





Trade accounts payable $ 35,288

$ 45,124 Accrued expenses 119,206

129,818 Deferred revenue 41,352

55,003 Other current liabilities 6,557

8,269 Liabilities held for sale 159,248

128,770 Total current liabilities 361,651

366,984 Other liabilities 853

768 Liabilities held for sale 433

542 Total liabilities 362,937

368,294 Commitments and contingencies





Equity:





IDT Corporation stockholders' equity:





Preferred stock, $.01 par value; authorized shares10,000; no shares issued 

 Class A common stock, $.01 par value; authorized shares35,000; 3,272 shares issued and 1,574 shares outstanding at January 31,

2019 and July 31, 2018 33

33 Class B common stock, $.01 par value; authorized shares200,000; 25,611 and 25,594 shares issued and 24,705 and 22,872 shares

outstanding at January 31, 2019 and July 31, 2018, respectively 256

256 Additional paid-in capital 271,959

294,047 Treasury stock, at cost, consisting of 1,698 and 1,698 shares of Class A common stock and 906 and 2,722 shares of Class B common

stock at January 31, 2019 and July 31, 2018, respectively (51,727)

(85,597) Accumulated other comprehensive loss (4,455)

(4,972) Accumulated deficit (163,366)

(173,103) Total IDT Corporation stockholders' equity 52,700

30,664 Noncontrolling interests 503

639 Total equity 53,203

31,303 Total liabilities and equity $ 416,140

$ 399,597

IDT CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited)



Three Months Ended

January 31,

Six Months Ended

January 31,

2019 2018

2019 2018

(in thousands, except per share data)



Revenues $ 349,473 $ 395,883

$ 711,789 $ 789,438 Costs and expenses:









Direct cost of revenues (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) 291,178 337,229

595,870 673,738 Selling, general and administrative (i) 50,900 52,358

101,452 102,429 Depreciation and amortization 5,762 5,735

11,357 11,408 Severance  195

 635 Total costs and expenses 347,840 395,517

708,679 788,210 Other operating expense, net (90) (846)

(285) (1,625) Income (loss) from operations 1,543 (480)

2,825 (397) Interest income, net 186 286

295 648 Other income (expense), net 496 370

(853) (456) Income (loss) before income taxes 2,225 176

2,267 (205) (Provision for) benefit from income taxes (1,736) 1,514

(2,926) 99 Net income (loss) 489 1,690

(659) (106) Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests (300) (174)

(601) (470) Net income (loss) attributable to IDT Corporation $ 189 $ 1,516

$ (1,260) $ (576)











Earnings (loss) per share attributable to IDT Corporation common

stockholders:









Basic $ 0.01 $ 0.06

$ (0.05) $ (0.02) Diluted $ 0.01 $ 0.06

$ (0.05) $ (0.02) Weighted-average number of shares used in calculation of earnings (loss)

per share:









Basic 24,816 24,643

24,323 24,635 Diluted 24,821 24,724

24,323 24,635























(i) Stock-based compensation included in selling, general and

administrative expenses $ 467 $ 987

$ 880 $ 1,797 IDT CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited)



Six Months Ended

January 31,

2019

2018

(in thousands) Operating activities





Net loss $ (659)

$ (106) Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash provided by (used in) operating activities:





Depreciation and amortization 11,357

11,408 Deferred income taxes 2,785

3,212 Provision for doubtful accounts receivable 620

696 Stock-based compensation 880

1,797 Other (78)

(68) Change in assets and liabilities:





Trade accounts receivable 17,333

(4,568) Prepaid expenses, other current assets and other assets 79

(15,109) Trade accounts payable, accrued expenses, other current liabilities and other liabilities (18,288)

(20,347) Customer deposits at IDT Financial Services Limited, our Gibraltar-based bank 29,015

4,481 Deferred revenue (4,997)

(4,710) Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities 38,047

(23,314) Investing activities





Capital expenditures (9,396 )

(10,931) Payment for acquisition, net of cash acquired (5,453)

 Proceeds from redemption of investments 1,000

 Cash used for purchase of investments (500)

 Proceeds from sale of interest in Straight Path IP Group Holding, Inc 

6,000 Purchase of IP Interest from Straight Path Communications Inc 

(6,000) Purchases of marketable securities 

(19,797) Proceeds from maturities and sales of marketable securities 4,555

31,610 Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities (9,794)

882 Financing activities





Dividends paid 

(9,440) Distributions to noncontrolling interests (737 )

(717) Proceeds from sale of Class B common stock to Howard S. Jonas 13,272

 Repayment of other liabilities acquired (615)

 Proceeds from borrowings under revolving credit facility 3,000

19,080 Repayments of borrowings under revolving credit facility (3,000)

(19,080) Repurchases of Class B common stock (3,870)

(61) Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities 8,050

(10,218) Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents (236)

9,490 Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents 36,067

(23,160) Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 203,197

211,963 Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 239,264

$ 188,803







Supplemental schedule of non-cash financing activities





Howard S. Jonas' advance payment used for sale of Class B common stock $ 1,500

$ 

On August 1, 2018, IDT adopted a change in GAAP related to the classification and presentation of changes in restricted cash in the statement of cash flows. The following table provides a reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents reported in the consolidated balance sheet that equals the total of the same amounts reported in the consolidated statement of cash flows:



January 31,

2019

July 31,

2018

(in thousands) Cash and cash equivalents $ 74,445

$ 68,089 Restricted cash included in other current assets 566

285 Cash and cash equivalents included in current assets held for sale 5,372

5,892 Restricted cash and cash equivalents included in current assets held for sale 158,881

128,931 Total cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and cash equivalents $ 239,264

$ 203,197 Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures for the Second Quarter Fiscal 2019 and 2018 In addition to disclosing financial results that are determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (GAAP), IDT also disclosed, for 2Q19, 1Q19, and 2Q18, Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share, which are non-GAAP measures. Generally, a non-GAAP financial measure is a numerical measure of a company's performance, financial position, or cash flows that either excludes or includes amounts that are not normally excluded or included in the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. IDT's measure of Adjusted EBITDA consists of revenues less direct cost of revenues and selling, general and administrative expense. Another way of calculating Adjusted EBITDA is to start with income (loss) from operations, and add depreciation and amortization, severance expense, and other operating expense, net. IDT's measure of non-GAAP net income (loss) starts with net income (loss) in accordance with GAAP and adds severance expense, stock-based compensation, and other operating expense, net, and subtracts the income tax benefits from The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. IDT's measure of non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share is calculated by dividing non-GAAP net income (loss) by the diluted weighted-average shares. These additions and subtractions are non-cash and/or non-routine items in the relevant fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2018 periods. Management believes that IDT's Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share measures provide useful information to both management and investors by excluding certain expenses and non-routine gains and losses that may not be indicative of IDT's or the relevant segment's core operating results. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA, among other measures, as a relevant indicator of core operational strengths in its financial and operational decision making. In addition, management uses Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share to evaluate operating performance in relation to IDT's competitors. Disclosure of these financial measures may be useful to investors in evaluating performance and allows for greater transparency to the underlying supplemental information used by management in its financial and operational decision-making. In addition, IDT has historically reported similar financial measures and believes such measures are commonly used by readers of financial information in assessing performance, therefore the inclusion of comparative numbers provides consistency in financial reporting at this time. Management refers to Adjusted EBITDA, as well as the GAAP measures income (loss) from operations and net income (loss), on a segment and/or consolidated level to facilitate internal and external comparisons to the segments' and IDT's historical operating results, in making operating decisions, for budget and planning purposes, and to form the basis upon which management is compensated. While depreciation and amortization are considered operating costs under GAAP, these expenses primarily represent the non-cash current period allocation of costs associated with long-lived assets acquired or constructed in prior periods. IDT's Adjusted EBITDA, which is exclusive of depreciation and amortization, is a useful indicator of its current performance. Severance expense is excluded from the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share. Severance expense is reflective of decisions made by management in each period regarding the aspects of IDT's and its segments' businesses to be focused on in light of changing market realities and other factors. While there may be similar charges in other periods, the nature and magnitude of these charges can fluctuate markedly and do not reflect the performance of IDT's core and continuing operations. Other operating expense, net, which is a component of income (loss) from operations, is excluded from the calculation of Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share. In fiscal 2019 and 2018, other operating expense, net primarily included legal fees related to Straight Path Communications Inc.'s stockholders' putative class action and derivative complaint. In addition, in 2Q19, other operating expense, net included a gain on the sale of a calling card business in Asia. From time-to-time, IDT may incur costs related to non-routine legal and regulatory matters or disposal of certain assets. However, such legal and regulatory matters and disposals do not occur each quarter. IDT does not believe the gains or losses from non-routine legal and regulatory matters or asset sales are components of IDT's or the relevant segment's core operating results. The other calculation of Adjusted EBITDA consists of revenues less direct cost of revenues and selling, general and administrative expense. As the other excluded items are not reflected in this calculation, they are excluded automatically and there is no need to make additional adjustments. This calculation results in the same Adjusted EBITDA amount and its utility and significance is as explained above. Stock-based compensation recognized by IDT and other companies may not be comparable because of the variety of types of awards as well as the various valuation methodologies and subjective assumptions that are permitted under GAAP. Stock-based compensation is excluded from IDT's calculation of non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share because management believes this allows investors to make more meaningful comparisons of the operating results per share of IDT's core business with the results of other companies. However, stock-based compensation will continue to be a significant expense for IDT for the foreseeable future and an important part of employees' compensation that impacts their performance. In 2Q18, IDT recorded an income tax benefit of $3.3 million for its anticipated AMT credit refund due to The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted in December 2017. This income tax benefit is excluded from IDT's calculation of non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share because the benefits were not directly related to the current results of IDT's core operations. Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, or superior to, income (loss) from operations, cash flow from operating activities, net income (loss), basic and diluted earnings per share or other measures of liquidity and financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. In addition, IDT's measurements of Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Following are reconciliations of Adjusted EBITDA, non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, which are, (a) for Adjusted EBITDA, income (loss) from operations for IDT's reportable segments and net income (loss) for IDT on a consolidated basis, (b) for non-GAAP net income (loss), net income (loss), and (c) for non-GAAP earnings (loss) per share, basic and diluted earnings per share.

IDT Corporation Reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to Net Income (Loss) (unaudited) in millions Figures may not foot or cross-foot due to rounding to millions.



Total IDT

Corporation

Telecom

&

Payment

Services net2phone All Other Corporate Three Months Ended January 31, 2019 (2Q19)











Adjusted EBITDA $ 7.4

$ 9.6 $ 0.2 $ - $ (2.4) Subtract (Add):











Depreciation and amortization 5.8

3.7 2.1 - - Other operating (gain) expense, net 0.1

(0.2) - - 0.3 Income (loss) from operations 1.5

$ 6.2 $ (1.9) $ - $ (2.8) Interest income, net 0.2









Other income, net 0.5









Income before income taxes 2.2









Provision for income taxes (1.7)









Net income 0.5









Net income attributable to noncontrolling

interests (0.3)









Net income attributable to IDT Corporation $ 0.2







































Total IDT

Corporation

Telecom

&

Payment

Services net2phone All Other Corporate Three Months Ended October 31, 2018 (1Q19)











Adjusted EBITDA $ 7.1

$ 9.3 $ - $ - $ (2.3) Subtract:











Depreciation and amortization 5.6

4.0 1.5 - - Other operating expense 0.2

- - - 0.2 Income (loss) from operations 1.3

$ 5.3 $ (1.5) $ - $ (2.5) Interest income, net 0.1









Other expense, net (1.3)









Income before income taxes 0.1









Provision for income taxes (1.2)









Net loss (1.1)









Net income attributable to noncontrolling

interests (0.3)









Net loss attributable to IDT Corporation $ (1.4)











IDT Corporation Reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to Net Income (unaudited) in millions Figures may not foot or cross-foot due to rounding to millions.



Total IDT

Corporation

Telecom

&

Payment

Services net2phone All Other Corporate Three Months Ended January 31, 2018 (2Q18)











Adjusted EBITDA $ 6.3

$ 8.8 $ 0.4 $ (0.5) $ (2.4) Subtract:











Depreciation and amortization 5.7

4.1 1.2 0.4 - Severance expense 0.2

0.2 - - - Other operating expense 0.8

- - - 0.8 (Loss) income from operations (0.5)

$ 4.5 $ (0.8) $ (0.9) $ (3.2) Interest income, net 0.3



Other income, net 0.4



Income before income taxes 0.2



Benefit from income taxes 1.5



Net income 1.7



Net income attributable to noncontrolling

interests (0.2)



Net income attributable to IDT Corporation $ 1.5



IDT Corporation Reconciliations of Net Income (Loss) to Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss) and Earnings (Loss) per share to Non-GAAP Earnings (Loss) per share (unaudited) in millions, except per share data Figures may not foot due to rounding to millions.



2Q19 1Q19 2Q18







Net income (loss) $ 0.5 $ (1.1) $ 1.7 Adjustments (add) subtract:





Stock-based compensation (0.5) (0.4) (1.0) Severance expense - - (0.2) Other operating expense, net (0.1) (0.2) (0.8) Income tax benefit - - 3.3 Total adjustments (0.5) (0.6) 1.3 Income tax effect of total adjustments - - 0.4

0.5 0.6 (1.7) Non-GAAP net income (loss) $ 1.0 $ (0.5) $ 0.0







Earnings (loss) per share:





Basic $ 0.01 $ (0.06) $ 0.06 Total adjustments 0.03 0.04 (0.06) Non-GAAP - basic $ 0.04 $ (0.02) $ 0.00







Weighted-average number of shares used in

calculation of basic earnings (loss) per

share 24.8 23.8 24.6







Diluted $ 0.01 $ (0.06) $ 0.06 Total adjustments 0.03 0.04 (0.06) Non-GAAP - diluted $ 0.04 $ (0.02) $ 0.00







Weighted-average number of shares used in

calculation of diluted earnings (loss) per

share 24.8 23.8 24.7















View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/idt-corporation-reports-second-quarter-fiscal-year-2019-results-300808867.html SOURCE IDT Corporation

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Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
Since Wu Lei signed with Espanyol, he has not disappointed, and after his goal against Valladolid, which was the first goal from a Chinese player in the history of LaLiga, he's been praised by stars like Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo dedicated nice words to Wu Lein, who in China got 14 times more impact in social networks with his goal than any score made by Lionel Messi, and yes, Kaka praised him recently but now is the Portuguese owner of five Balon d'Or, who surrender to the Espanyol attacker.

Weibo, that has around ten million users in China was the social network chosen by Ronaldo to post a picture of him with Wu Lei taken at a promotional event in Asia last July, in which both players exchanged shirts of their National teams, where Cristiano and Wu Lei wear the number 7.

Cristiano Ronaldo's post about Wu Lei Weibo

Post that follows with the message: "A goal in Spain, a great milestone for China."

There are those who see in Wu Lei the Chinese Messi. But Cristiano, for now, believes that the Espanyol player has a lot to say in LaLiga.
Houston, cars, and traffic jams seem to go together and is a vexing problem for those charged with getting people from Point A to Point B. The problem is very common in large cities and the proposed solutions are, unfortunately, all too familiar.

Houston Metros Plan

According to the Houston Chronicle, Houstons Metropolitan Transit Authority recently announced a $3 billion bond proposal to finance a 20-year transit plan that promises to add more bus lines, included dedicated bus lanes in lieu of expanding the citys light rail system. However, advances in self-driving vehicle and electric engine technology could make the traditional way we think of mass transit as obsolete as the horse-drawn carriage, at least in urban areas.

The Real Future of Transportation

A hint of what is to come can be seen in the growing popularity of ride-share services. A person can call a car from Uber or Lyft on his or her smartphone and, within minutes, be on their way to any destination desired. Another ride-sharing company, Hitch, offers rides between cities, starting with Austin and Houston. Ride-sharing, while more expensive than riding the bus or train, is more convenient. The service can take its riders directly from their front doors to their workplaces, or anywhere else, without them having to trudge to a bus stop or train station.

Self-driving technology will make ride-sharing cheaper in that it will make a driver unnecessary.

Advances pending in battery technology will expand the range of electric vehicles and reduce the time necessary for recharging them. Electric vehicles will be cheaper to operate and maintain once the technology matures. Such cars could bring the suburbs within reach of commuters who want to leave the driving to a computer.

Some futurists believe that self-driving vehicles will end the private ownership of cars.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

Why buy a car at great expense, while bearing the cost of maintenance, gas, and insurance, when you can just summon one the moment you need it? Ride-share companies will take care of all the incidental expenses of owning a car for you.

Self-driving vehicles wont greatly add to the traffic problem. Their navigation systems, using artificial intelligence and a suite of sensors, will handle traffic with far more efficiency than a million or so drivers who have to go to work and back five days a week.

The vehicles will also be less prone to get into accidents since navigation systems do not experience road rage and have faster reaction times than human drivers. Fewer traffic tie-ups will occur as hundreds of vehicles will no longer be stalled in front of active accident scenes.

2038, the year Houston Metro envisions completing its transit plan, will be far different transportation-wise, than 2019. Fewer and fewer people are likely to put up with the time and inconvenience of taking the bus and train, maybe getting to their destinations in an hour or so, when they can take self-driving cars, which could range from one or two-person pods to autonomous SUVs, and get to the same place in 15 or 20 minutes.

With the advances in self-driving vehicles in mind, one has to wonder why Houston Metro is still stuck on what is in effect 20th-century technology to move people from place to place. Instead of proposing to spend $3 billion on modes of transportation that are likely to be obsolete in 20 years, Houston Metro should start planning for a city sans trains or buses.

What should the Houston-area road network look like by 2038? Should people with low incomes be granted vouchers to help them pay for their self-driving car trips? Could Houston Metro develop a city-wide monitoring and navigation aid that can focus on making the flow of traffic quicker and smoother?

Flying cars instead of buses

If the idea of self-driving cars is not futuristic enough, CNBC recently reported that Uber is working on what is in effect a flying taxi.

These aerial rideshares would take off from designated sky ports or the rooftops of buildings and fly serenely above traffic. These vehicles, which the company advertises will cost as much as a ride on UberX, are scheduled to start testing in Los Angeles and Dallas/Fort Worth in 2020 and enter service in 2023. NASA is lending a hand in developing the navigation systems for these air taxis, according to the Verge. Imagine, therefore, getting from Clear Lake to the south of Houston or the Woodlands in the north to downtown in about 10 to 15 minutes instead of 45 minutes.
MR. TRUMP THIS IS WHO AMERICA IS! IT IS MADE UP OF MANY RACES AND CREEDS. THEY ARE ALL AMERICANS WHO SHOULD BE EQUALLY RECOGNIZED BY YOU! YOUR RESUME READS LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD.







President Trump claimed there were fine people among the Nazis and white supremacists at the ill-fated explosive Charlottesville March 2017. He is now pointing his finger and accusing House Democrats as being Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israel because of the comments of one of its members.





By James DiGeorgia

President Trump has been unwilling to speak out against the hatred and violence of several U.S. White Nationalist and Neo-Nazi groups even when they marched shouting Jews will not replace us during a nighttime march with fire torches reminiscent of Nazi rallies that took place in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.

Today Trump dared to call the Democratic Party anti-Israel and anti-Jewish in the aftermath of a House vote on a resolution that broadly condemned hatred and specifically condemning past alleged anti-Semitic comments by a freshman Muslim congresswoman.

Trump said Friday morning to reporters as he left the White House on route to Alabama to view tornado damage, the vote revealed something broader about Democrats.

I thought yesterdays vote by the House was disgraceful. I thought that vote was a disgrace, and so does everybody else if you get an honest answer.

The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party, theyve become an anti-Jewish party, and thats too bad.

The resolution condemned anti-Semitism and discrimination against Muslims in equal measure. A shift from a draft circulated Monday that rebuked only anti-Semitism. The 407-23 vote Thursday was a bid to end dissension among Democrats over congresswoman Ilhan Omars (D-MN) remarks made about Israel.

Trumps outrage on a resolution in response to comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar failed to acknowledge that while she voted for the resolution, it was 23 Republicans who voted against the resolution. Remember this was a vote to condemn bigotry and hate while 23 GOP House members voted against the resolution; not a single Democrat voted against the resolution. President Trump how does this simple justification of moral humanity weigh on your personal and GOP affiliations. American should have no tolerance for Hate! Hate is becoming the norm because of your actions and immaturity to the moral world.

The resolution was revised shortly before Thursdays vote to include Latinos, Asian Americans and LGBT people to the list of groups that are routinely subject to hate.

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The resolution also referred to what became a violent protest in Charlottesville in 2017 that was organized by white nationalists and neo-Nazis that turned deadly.

Trump apparently is suffering from memory loss forgetting the widespread condemnation in the aftermath of the 2017 Charlottesville for suggesting there were some very fine people on both sides, referring to the organizers and protesters.

Trumps grasp on reality and believe that American Jewish voters will ignore his racial hatred and anti-Semitism is remarkable says Michael London of the World Opportunity Investor. Trumps likely to find Jewish voters who will be focused on his support for the White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis, rather than his support for Israel. Nothing he has done in office has genuinely advanced the peace process in the Middle-East.






GLASTONBURY, Somerset, England  The 2019 Glastonbury Occult Conference (GOC) was held on February 23, and 24, 2019.

Now in its tenth year, this annual conference brings dozens of practitioners, scholars, and seekers to the famous and fabled town near the foot of Glastonbury Tor.

Liz Williams, Ph.D, author and Glastonbury resident, co-founded the conference in 2010.

We started the GOC around 2010, said Williams. We wanted to have a serious conference dedicated to the occult, a little narrower than the, Pagan, remit, as the Pagan Federation and other groups do a great job of organizing Pagan conferences.

Williams, who also co-owns the esoteric shop The Cat and the Cauldron with her partner, Trevor Jones, is a member of the organizing committee, along with Jones, Sally North, Ph.D, and James North.

We held the first one on January 9th, 2010, said Williams.Since then it has been run by different people, and we recommenced running the conference directly in 2019, although weve been involved with it for the last few years.

The two-day conference offered programs and workshops on a wide variety of topics, book-ended by opening and closing rituals.

We choose speakers rather than topics, explained Williams, and were all well connected with the British occult scene. So we leave topics up to the speakers.

This years roster of speakers included authors Ronald Hutton, Nikki Wyrd, David Rankine, Julian Vayne, Paul Weston, and Robert Anderson Plimer. Also featured were teacher and Secret Landscape Tours founder Louise Hodgson, goetic magician Jake Stratton-Kent, author Nikki Wyrd, and academic researcher and Ph.D candidate Deja Whitehouse.

Speakers topics ranged from Hodgsons, Deep Into the Land- the Beauty and the Terror, to Plimers, The Golem, to Wyrds, Age-Old Magic: Ways to Approach Death.

Craft, conjure, and occult history are also on the program.

Wyrd, Vayne, Rankine, and Plimer held workshops as well.

Wyrd and Vayne teamed up to present, Psychic Spring Cleaning Practice. Rankine and Plimer both hosted workshops on different aspects of Kabblalah.

In addition, conference co-organizer David North held a workshop titled, Rosicrucian Magic, Elementals and Faieries, while Satanic Temple International founder Zeke Appolyon presented, The Devil You Know: Modern Satanisms Changing Face.

Mima Cornish of Hedge Rose Healing and practitioner and author Thea Faye presented, Ritual Techniques and Personal Praxis.

Saturday evenings events included a launch party for Westons latest book, The Occult Battle of Britain, and a performance by comedian and poet Donna Scott.

It is difficult to imagine a setting better suited than Glastonbury to host an event of this type, a fact that is not lost on the organizers of the conference.

Were keen that people connect with the town, with the spirit of the place  that if they are coming from a distance, they get to see a little bit of Glastonbury as well as just attending the conference, said Williams. We had some American visitors and some guests from the Continent this year. Weve got some great pubs and cafes here, and our fellow shopkeepers have been very supportive, too.Even those in the community who are not necessarily part of the Pagan community are supportive of their efforts.

Weve had a lot of support from the Town Hall itself, where the Conference is held, explained Williams. They host a lot of Pagan and alternative events.

She also told The Wild Hunt that the event has not drawn the kind of pushback or protest that occult and Pagan events often do in other areas.

Williams reported that while attendance at the event has varied from year to year, the 2018 conference drew approximately one hundred guests. The upward trend continued in 2019. More than one-hundred twenty people attended this years conference.

The organizing committee, however, is already focused on the 2020 conference.

Williams told TWH that tickets will go on sale sometime around the Spring Equinox.

The exact timing of the event has not yet been determined, though. While they have scheduled the event around the same time of year to this point, Williams said that they were considering moving to later in 2020 due to travel problems associated with winter weather.

The safety and comfort of attendees is important to the organizers of the Glastonbury Occult Conference. Their affection and appreciation comes through in official statements posted on their Facebook page.

Some of you came from as far away as Canada and the US, some from northern Europe, Switzerland, from all over the UK, Ireland, and from our little vale of Avalon. So very touched by your support. Next year will be even better, and we have listened, are are still listening, to your feedback and suggestions  so keep them coming. Liz, Sally, Trevor and James wish you all the best until next year. Keep checking back here for news and updates as we put it together. For now  Hail and Farewell.

For those looking for information about the conference, the organizing committee maintains a website in addition to their Facebook page. Updates will be posted as events warrant.

Correction: TWH mistakenly listed Nikki Wyrd as the head of the British Isles Section of the Illuminates of Thanateros. Soror Brigantia is actually who is head of the British Isles Section of the Illuminates of Thanateros.
Qatar airways will launch a direct flight linking Doha to Rabat this year as part of an expansion plan in the Mediterranean region, the airlines director general Akbaar Al Baker said.

The air route will be operational on May 29 with three flights per week on board a Boeing 787-8, he said.

The Qatari airline will also operate new flights this year to Portugal, Malta, Turkey in the Mediterranean as well as new air routes to Somalia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The announcement was made at the ITB tourism fair Berlin, one of the largest travel trade shows in the world and the setting for major airline industry announcements.

Qatar Air has had a long-running feud with American airlines, which joined with peers to argue that the Doha-based airline was among Mideast operators benefiting from illegal state aid.

In the wake of this spat Qatar sought to buy about 10 percent of American airlines, but dropped the plan in August 2017 after US unions voiced their opposition.

Al Baker said restrictions imposed by neighboring countries in recent years have made operating more difficult, driving up costs that will lead to another loss this year.

The airline lost access to 18 Middle East cities in 2017 due to a diplomatic rift between Qatar and some other Arab states.
Moroccos phosphates and fertilizer producer OCP and Spains ACS industrial group signed an agreement to build two phosphorus factories for a total cost of 2.7 billion dirhams.

The factories will be built in the OCPs industrial hub of Jorf Lasfar with a production capacity of 5000 tons per day.

The two factories will be the largest sulfuric acid plants in the world and are expected to be ready in two years.

OCP has used Jorf Lasfar production plants as an export hub to Africa where the group intends to increase five folds its fertilizer sales.

Recently in Marrakech, OCP outlined its African fertilizer strategy, which aims at promoting the use of customized fertilizers and helping farmers access products to move from subsistence to commercial farming.

OCP, which has subsidiaries in some 12 African countries, is also planning production plants in Nigeria and Ethiopia.
Samantha Weinberg in More Intelligent Life:

The horrors of the battlefield are never far away in Tate Britains retrospective of Don McCullins work: the dead Khmer Rouge soldiers in a crater in Cambodia, Congolese soldiers tormenting freedom fighters in Stanleyville, young Christians on a bombed-out Beirut street, posing like a boy band over the body of a dead Palestinian girl. But McCullin has said again and again that he doesnt like to be called a war photographer; preferring, simply, photographer. He is as interested in the people fighting wars as the people caught in their rip tide. Starving Twenty Four Year Old Mother With Child taken in Biafra in 1968, shows a woman, so gaunt she appears elderly, trying to feed her baby, who is sucking on empty, wrinkled breasts. Another picture, taken in a psychiatric hospital in Beirut in 1982, shows a child curled up on a mattress, flies settled on his body. He is tied to the metal bedstead with string, to stop him wandering off amid the broken glass. There is no need to see or hear the bombs to understand their effect on the helpless, and the desperation of those who care for them.

Ive known Don McCullin for many years. Hes soft-spoken, occasionally gruff, but funny, too. He was born into poverty in north London, 83 years ago. His first published photograph, The Guvnors in their Sunday Suits (1958), shows some young men hed been at school with standing in a bombed-out building. When the men were caught up in a fight, during which a policeman was stabbed to death, McCullin sensed an opportunity to sell the photograph to the press. The Observer newspaper bought it and a few years later, after seeing the pictures he had taken of a freshly divided Berlin, would offer him a job. It was clear that he had a special eye  and more than that, an empathy that travelled down the lens to his subjects, and was reflected back to his audience.

Over the decades he has wandered the world, from one atrocity to the next, documenting humanity and inhumanity. In between he has turned his lens on Britain: on the poverty of Bradford and Londons East End; the humour of the country at play; the naked beauty of the landscape around his home in Somerset.

More here.
Taylor Martin and Colin Philips grew up in Marin and met in high schooland as any other teenage lovers, they spent every waking moment together.

Though they went to college on opposite ends of California, distance made their hearts grow fonder: After graduation, the pair moved back to the Bay Area, built a cozy little home in San Rafael and adopted a yellow lab named Sadie.

Work and travel took them around the world, and it was on a bucket list trip to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand that they got engaged. Amid the ancient ruins and lush landscape outside Hanoi, Phillips got down on one knee on top of a mountain overlooking rice fields.



Now living in Napa, the couple planned their wedding day in Berkeley at the picturesque Brazilian Room in Tilden Park. Surrounded by towering redwoods, they said their vows.

The day was filled with timeless charm: Martin wore a flowing deep V-neck gown with scoop back and a pretty floral headpiece. Pointed teal velvet flats added a fun color pop that allowed her to sashay and dance all night. Bridesmaids sported complementary blush-toned floor-length dresses and bouquets that mirrored the larger arrangements, while the groomsmen donned black suits with bowties and suspenders.

For the reception, they took to the sweet cottage on site with high ceilings and exposed beams. It was the perfect setting for the fairytale wedding. The decor was simplewhite linens with amber goblets and a touch of eucalyptus with baby's breath at each table. A frame topped with foliage and hanging candles floated over the head table. No one would have known that the crafty couple had DIY-ed everything themselves form the florals to the decor to ceremony arrangements.

Venue: Brazilian Room

Dress: Elizabeth Dye

Bridesmaid dresses: Show Me Your Mumu

Groomsmen attire: Banana Republic

Cake: Sweet Adeline Bakeshop

Caterer: Cafe Soleil

Photographer: Capture Create Studios
AARP Oregon wanted to explore the experiences of older workers around age discrimination in the workforce and in the job application process. They also wanted to find out if older workers feel the need for stronger age discrimination protections.

Oregons older workers are concerned about age discrimination. While many have seen or experienced it, very few actually report it. These workers want Oregons age discrimination laws strengthened to deter discrimination and protect against retaliation.

Oregon's older workers have experienced a variety of employment practices that enable age discrimination, such as asking for age or other dates on job applications or during interviews. At a minimum, such inquiries deter older workers from applying. Moreover, many have also been subjected to ageist comments on the job. This behavior does not facilitate a welcoming or equitable workplace.



Oregons older workforce believes the state government should do more to protect them, showing very strong support for laws outlawing questions that gather age-related information during the application process.



To explore experiences of older Oregon workers and their views on age discrimination legislation, a telephone survey was conducted of 1,000 people age 40 or older who either had a job or were looking for one. Both landlines and cell phones were used. Research was conducted December 13-28, 2018. The data are weighted to the civilian workforce by age, gender, and race/ethnicity according to 2018 CPS Census Bureau statistics.

For more information, please contact Rebecca Perron at rperron@aarp.org. Media inquiries should be directed to AARPs Media Relations Office at media@aarp.org.

Suggested Citation:

Perron, Rebecca. Age Discrimination in Oregon: A Survey of Adults Ages 40+. Washington, DC: AARP Research, March 2019. https://doi.org/10.26419/res.00284.001
The former Belgian Prime minister Elio di Rupo has voiced the shared will of his country and Morocco to strengthen their bilateral cooperation and to work with other African countries.

This triangular cooperation for a shared prosperity has been discussed with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita, said Elio Di Rupo at a press briefing held Thursday in Rabat after his talks with the Moroccan top diplomat.

The former Belgian PM, who met same day Speaker of the House of Representatives, praised Moroccos counter-terrorism strategy, paying tribute to the wise policy pursued by King Mohammed VI in this field.

Mr. Di Rupo also hailed the efforts made by the Moroccan security services and their collaboration with European partners to combat terrorism threat.
Taste: Leave these cookies out for Santa this Christmas
Egyptian security killed seven members of Hasm, a terror group-linked to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization, in clashes in capital Cairo.

The seven were killed in two different operations according to a statement of the interior ministry.

The State Security Department acted upon reliable intelligence that a group belonging to Hasm had been planning to plant an IED on Thursday morning, the statement said.

Police forces set up a checkpoint to stop a white-semi truck suspected to be carrying the terrorists, who opened fire after approaching the checkpoint, injuring one police officer, it added.

Three passengers of the truck were shot dead in the cross-fire.

Police forces later raided the hideout of the group in Cairos 6 October City and killed the remaining four others.

Egyptian authorities have linked Hasm (the Arms of Egypt movement) to banned Muslim Brotherhood, which has denied any connection with the militant group.

The group has claimed responsibility for several attacks on security forces, since its creations in 2016.
Chola.

Look up the word and youll find a woman of indigenous or partly indigenous ancestry.

Its a noun  and derogatory.

With its new exhibit, Que Chola, the National Hispanic Cultural Center is aiming to educate about the stereotype.

In the last decade or so, theres this resurgence of popularity, says Jadira Gurule, NHCC Art Museum curator. Its a cross-cultural interest, and its fascinating to see. We see on some occasions that there are caricatures created. But if you look closely, a chola is being drawn upon as a symbol of power.

The exhibition features artworks by 29 artists from New Mexico, California, Texas and Colorado. Themes include aesthetics, popular culture, womens solidarity, gender, practices of self-making, and cultural pride.

The exhibition is really about honoring the impact of a figure that can help us think differently about who we are and the social structures we are a part of, Gurule says. For some, the word chola may be foreign or conjure up a stereotype. For other museum visitors, there may be an intimate familiarity and cultural connection. Regardless of individual experience, we hope the exhibition provides an opportunity for learning and reflection.

The Que Chola Photo Board will be displayed in the exhibition and is an opportunity to honor the cholas in our lives, past and present, by sharing photos of homegirls showing off their style and pride.

Gurule says the term chola refers to women of a particular  usually Chicana/Latina  subculture in the U.S. characterized by cultural pride, a tough demeanor, and a distinctive style.

She is a figure that many young Chicanas grow up admiring or emulating, because she symbolizes youthful rebellion, strength and resilience in the face of racial, gender and economic adversity.

As an historical figure, the Chola has been featured in Chicana/o art for decades, and she has become an archetype in the Chicana/o imagination.

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The aesthetics of the chola archetype have influenced a great deal of art, fashion, and popular culture in ways that can be both inspiring and sometimes problematic.

However, the chola attitude, the essence of her power, cannot be contained within the boundaries of a label. Personal and cultural expression remain dynamic and fluid.

Gurule says that although the exhibit explores the symbolic power of the chola in artistic expression, this should not obscure the challenging realities faced by real people within our communities.

The chola persona is a defiant and necessary act of survival in the face of hardship.

She reminds us of broader social and systemic influences that contribute to ongoing racism, sexism, economic inequity, and violence.

Many Chicana feminist scholars discuss the chola, and her World War II-era precursor, the pachuca, for the ways that their challenge to racism and poverty is interlinked with a resistance to gender norms and dominant expectations of femininity.

These scholars notice that despite the figures presence in mainstream popular culture and being the target of negative stereotypes, the complexity of what and who she represents is a story that largely remains untold.

I dont think you have to try very hard to understand a chola as a feminist icon, Gurule says. It may have been overlooked. Those who have written about cholas have a different type of femininity and a challenge to gender roles. She makes for a very powerful female role model.

Que Chola

WHEN: 6-9 tonight, opening reception; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday through Aug. 4

WHERE: National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum, 1701 Fourth SW

HOW MUCH: Opening reception is free; $6 adults, $5 for NM residents; free for youth under the age of 16
Its been a two-year journey.

The National Institute of Flamenco is gearing up to present Yjastros 34: The Rise of Flamenco.

The performance will feature Spanish dancers Daniel Dona and Cristian Martin, as well at the NIFs repertory company, Yjastros.

The three will be joined by the Orchestra of New Spain, based in Dallas.

The conversation started about two years ago when the director of the Orchestra of New Spain contacted us, says Marison Encinias, associate director of the National Institute of Flamenco. Weve been working with them since then in developing. Daniel is from Granada, Spain, and lives in the Spanish capital, Madrid. He had been teaching at UNM in the fall of 2017, and we thought it would work out with him being involved.

Dona and Martin have garnered some of the most prestigious awards in flamenco and Spanish dance, including the Premio Ojo Critico and the Coreografia de Danza Espanola y Flamenco de Madrid, respectively.

The two dancers have created choreography that traces the lineage of flamenco beginning with early Spanish dance and music forms, such as fandangos, jacara, and tona.

Encinias says that with each Yjastros season, the NIF tries to create a new dynamic to the company.

The way the institute has grown is amazing, because we continue to bring in new elements to the show as well as give younger dancers a chance to gain experience, she says. With Yjastros, we have a company where dancers can move up. In my position now, Im able to use my creative energy in new ways and challenge myself, which is important.

The performance will also be the companys first with an orchestra.

The Orchestra of New Spain is under the direction of Grover Wilkins III, and it draws its principal repertory from manuscripts found in the court, public and cathedral archives of Spain.

Encinias says 10 guest musicians and vocalists will travel to Albuquerque for the show.

Every piece of this production celebrates the Spanish heritage, she says. Its four creative forces coming together as one, which will make for a spectacular night.
The New Mexico Italian Film & Culture Festival continues to grow in its 12th year.

The event will feature three films that screened at Festival de Cannes in 2018.

The films are our focus, and the film selection committee and our wonderful chair did some great research in getting the films, says Maria Arancio Berry, president and director of marketing and promotion for the festival. The films are some of the best that weve ever had. Many of these films will be shown for the first time in New Mexico. Its something different for Italian film aficionados.

The festivals opening-night comedy begins at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, March 12 when Benedetta follia/Blessed Madness screens. It stars renowned director, Carlo Verdone, in the story of Guglielmo, a religious man and faithful husband who gets dumped by his wife of 25 years. In an effort to forget her, he signs up on an internet dating app and embarks on a hilarious learning curve about modern-day dating and relationships.

Come un gatto in tangenziale/Like a Cat on a Highway, which also screened at Cannes, is the tale of Monica and Giovanni, parents from different socio-economic worlds who are awkwardly brought together when their young teenagers begin dating each other.

Completing the list of Cannes market screenings and premieres in the festival lineup is Io ce/Just Believe, a comedy starring Italys top actress, Margherita Buy, that charms and tickles with the story of Massimo, who transforms his bed-and-breakfast into a place of worship and invents a new religion.

The other films that will be screened are:

 Alessandro and Giorgio in Tutto quello che vuoi/Everything You Want, which follows young Giorgio, who forms an unlikely bond with elderly poet, Alessandro, who has Alzheimers disease.

 Questione di karma/Its All About Karma, tells the story of Giacomo, the last heir of an industrial dynasty. But after the untimely death of his father, Giacomo prefers to live as a dreamer.

 In Guerra per amore/At War With Love, a tender love story set in 1943, when Allied forces landed in Sicily.

 In Finche ce prosecco ce speranza/The Last Prosecco, audiences will find mystery and an environmental message.

A bonus film, Cucini  il documentario, will screen at 3:45 p.m. March 16. It explores the flavors, smells and colors of the Neapolitan gastronomic traditions through the eyes of five Neapolitan chefs.

Theres a saying in Italian  tutto il mondo e paese  used to express the concept that the world is the same wherever you go, Arancio Berry says.  These

films really capture that point. They are timely cinematic commentaries on universal issues and topics of today  all from an engaging Italian perspective.

A full schedule can be found at italianfestivalsnm.org.
Firefighters continued to battle a blaze Thursday night that has burned about a hundred acres northeast of Belen, consuming at least four homes and injuring one firefighter.

Valencia County Fire Chief Brian Culp said the firefighter, who is expected to be OK, was taken to an Albuquerque hospital as a precaution. Culp could not elaborate on the injury.

Weve had no other injuries that we know about, he said.

Culp said 20 people have been displaced after four homes were torched in the fire, which started near the Rio Grande around 4 p.m.High winds pushed it into surrounding farmlands and the Adelino neighborhood.

Culp couldnt give a containment level but said crews have beat the flames back so they arent endangering any more homes.

That was one of our biggest priorities, make sure we lessen the amount of homes that couldve been lost, Culp said. Were trying to contain everything.

He said the blaze continues in the bosque and wildlands east of the river but is no longer fed by the strong gusts that spurred it on earlier in the day.

The winds have died down but theyre not calm, Culp said. He did not say what may have caused the fire.

He said a shelter has been opened for displaced residents at the Del Rio Senior Center in Rio Communities.

Fire departments from Albuquerque, Bosque Farms, Peralta, and Bernalillo and Sandoval counties are assisting in the fight, along with others.
Americas Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is under direct attack. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently released a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) in preparation for oil exploration and drilling in the calving grounds of the porcupine caribou herd on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge. Just as BLM endangers the health and safety of indigenous communities in New Mexico by drilling for oil and gas near Chaco Canyon, BLM is downplaying the dangers of drilling on indigenous homelands in Alaska.

They are disregarding science and dismissing valid concerns about the health of what we call the sacred place where all life begins. This misguided rush disrespects long-held popular and bipartisan protections for the Arctic Refuge. Its yet another example of the Trump administrations contempt for indigenous rights in the push to sell out our public lands to big oil companies.

For decades, the Gwichin people have spoken in unified opposition to drilling the Arctic Refuge. The Arctic Refuge is our ancestral homeland, and it has sustained us for thousands of years. The migratory route of the Porcupine Caribou Herd flows through the Gwichin homeland. Protecting the caribou herd is more than just good sense, its a matter of our sustenance and our basic human rights. The caribou are essential to our spiritual and cultural life, and their calving grounds on the Coastal Plain must not be disturbed. Drilling there threatens the caribou migrations and would cause lower birth rates, risking everything we hold dear.

More than just Gwichin, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge belongs to all Americans, and drilling the refuge continues to be widely opposed by the American people. According to recent polling, 70 percent of American voters oppose drilling in the Arctic Refuge, yet the BLM has hosted only one public hearing across the continental United States on proposed Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling. This hurried and flawed process shows this administrations suppression of public participation, making it clear it would rather discourage public input than provide a fair opportunity to demonstrate public support for Americas largest national wildlife refuge and the people and wildlife that depend on it to survive.

Despite promising a robust, scientifically sound review process, the administration has repeatedly cut corners at every step of this process by placing arbitrary deadlines and limitations on its environmental review. Drilling in the refuges coastal plain would devastate an Arctic nursery of global significance. It would jeopardize food security and threaten the health and safety of indigenous communities and escalate the crisis of climate change.

The Arctic Refuge is one of our nations treasures. In addition to the caribou, its also home to denning polar bears, musk oxen, wolves and nearly 200 species of migratory birds. Its biological heart, the coastal plain, is no place for oil and gas development. The Arctic Refuge is not just a piece of land with oil underneath; it is the heart of the Gwichin people and our way of life. Caribou are not just what we eat; they are who we are. They are in our dances, our stories and songs and the whole way we see the world. The caribou provide us with food, clothing, shelter and tools. In return, we owe them the safety of a healthy ecosystem where they can give birth, free from drilling forever. Our very survival depends upon it.

Bernadette Demientieff joined leaders from Inupiaq and Dine nations and New Mexico congressional staff at the University of New Mexico this week to speak on the Arctic Refuge.
CHICAGO  President Donald Trump insists there is an emergency at the border. Yes, there are plenty of terrible and sickening emergencies involving immigrants that demand immediate attention. But these are not the issues Trump is focusing on.

Take, for instance, the stunning recent report by Axios that there have been nearly 6,000 complaints of sexual abuse of unaccompanied minors in the custody of the U.S. government in the past four years. These complaints, provided to Axios last week by Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., were made to both the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Deutch told a House hearing on migrant family separations that these accusations detail an environment of systemic sexual assaults by staff on unaccompanied children, which amounted to an average of one sexual assault by HHS staff on an unaccompanied minor per week.

The documents from fiscal 2015 allege adults in positions of authority over young migrants groped them, asked for sexual favors, sexually humiliated them in front of others or showed them pornography on smartphones. The allegations also include reports against foster parents with whom the children were placed while awaiting progress on their cases.

Many of these complaints are classified as having not been investigated at all, but others reflect that the person who was accused resigned or was removed from his or her position after the allegation was reported. Some workers were reinstated after allegations against them were determined to be unfounded.

Though the criteria and procedures for investigations into such allegations are made clear in Health and Human Services policy statements, the fidelity with which such probes are undertaken has been unclear.

This is how Cmdr. Jonathan White, an HHS representative, found himself in front of a congressional subcommittee late last month to answer why the information had been delivered to Congress buried in a data dump, without explanation.

Whites initial response seemed to focus on pointing out it was not HHS staff, but outside contractors, who were alleged to commit most of the abuses  as if that made a difference to the children involved.

And these complaints, you must remember, are just the cases of people who were able and willing to report the terrible things that happened to them in what amount to perilous circumstances.

In detention, it is very difficult to access channels to report abuse, said Victoria Lopez, a senior staff attorney at the Washington-based ACLU National Prison Project. People who are in immigration detention are navigating a legal system that is incredibly complex to begin with. And they are often separated from their families  their communities  and they are under a great deal of stress.

Lopez told me that it is very difficult to steer complaints through appropriate bureaucratic channels, and even more so for children who are unaccompanied and face language barriers, fear retribution or simply have no access to any independent authorities who can help investigate their reports of abuse.

Still, that were even hearing about these complaints at all goes to show the power that regular, everyday people and their representatives have in addressing horrific living conditions, abuses and other shortcomings in the many immigrant detention facilities spread out across HHS, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

To this point, Deutch was clear that last weeks hearing was just the start of what I believe to be a very important series of questions that the administration would have to answer for.

And anyone who cares about this issue needs to make sure they ask representatives to keep pushing for answers.

Its critically important for people to contact their members of Congress, Lopez said. Contact your representatives today. Clearly members of Congress are paying attention to immigration, so there is an important opportunity for the public to let representatives know that they want continued oversight over the detention system and for representatives to really dig deep into these allegations of horrific abuse.

It has never been easier to tell your representative how you feel about migrant children being victimized at the border. It can be as simple as messaging through a smartphone advocacy app, sending a lawmaker a message via social media or email, or leaving a voice recording.

Just be sure to actually do it. Thats the only way we can address the real emergencies at the border that so many simply choose to ignore.

E-mail estherjcepeda@washpost.com; Twitter: @estherjcepeda.  2019, Washington Post Writers Group.
WASHINGTON  On Ash Wednesday, the holy season of Lent began  and so did the annual fundraising drives by many of the nations Catholic bishops known as the bishops Lenten appeals.

My advice to my fellow Catholics? Dont give them a dime.

Last fall, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was supposed to vote on a resolution to create a special commission, including six lay members, to investigate bishops who cover up sexual abuse. At the last minute, Pope Francis barred the bishops from holding the vote. But its not clear the resolution would have passed. After all, the bishops did vote on a nonbinding resolution that declared Be it resolved that the bishops of the USCCB encourage the Holy Father to release all the documentation that can be released consistent with canon and civil law regarding the misconduct of Archbishop (Theodore) McCarrick. As they debated the wording, the National Catholic Register reports, they could not even agree on the inclusion of the word soon. 

Even the watered-down resolution was rejected 137 to 83, with three bishops abstaining. Want to know how your bishop voted? You cant. When I asked the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for the roll call vote, a spokesman replied, Sorry, the votes are anonymous so we dont know who voted for what. Thats their idea of transparency.

The situation in Rome is no better. This year, Francis reportedly informed Boston Cardinal Sean OMalley that he would not authorize a full-fledged investigation into the McCarrick coverup. In 2015, OMalley and a special Vatican advisory group Francis appointed him to lead made a simple recommendation: If any Vatican office receives a letter from an abuse survivor, it must acknowledge the letter. The pope approved the recommendation, but Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Vaticans Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has refused to comply  with no consequences from the pope.

The pope also agreed in 2015 to create a new tribunal, including laymen, to judge bishops who ignore or cover up sexual abuse. But a year later, he changed his mind. After an intense dialogue, Muller said, it was concluded that to confront possible criminal negligence by bishops we already had the competence of the Congregation for Bishops. Translation: The bishops can police themselves.

No, they cant. How is it that, 17 years after the abuse scandal first broke, we are still learning new information from grand juries and whistleblowers about the scandalous conduct of the bishops? Until every corrupt bishop who ignored or actively covered up abuse is exposed and removed, the laity should shun the bishops Lenten appeals. When your pastor hands you an envelope, hand it back empty  or better yet, send your bishop a letter explaining that he will get no financial support until the conspiracy of silence is ended and corrupt bishops are held to account.

I offer this advice with a heavy heart because I am, and will always remain, a faithful Catholic. I will never leave the church for one simple reason: I will not let Judas separate me from Jesus. But lets be clear: There are Judases in the ranks of todays successors of the apostles. They covered up or ignored sexual misconduct and moved around predator priests  and continue to do so. They made secret payouts to victims while requiring them to sign confidentiality agreements. They were told about McCarricks serial abuses and did nothing  in many cases because McCarrick helped them rise to the powerful positions they now hold.

The church is not a democracy, nor should it be. It exists to spread the views of its founder, not its followers. But that does not mean that the laity must tolerate the bishops who have overlooked, ignored or covered up abuse. We must demand every bishop who did so be held to account and removed from office. Clearly the outcry of the victims is not enough. The only way we can get accountability is by voting with our pocketbooks.

Some may object that the bishops Lenten appeals fund many good causes. Theres a simple solution: bypass the bishops and give directly to the many wonderful Catholic charities that help the poor and vulnerable. At the National Catholic Register, Simcha Fisher has a list of nearly two dozen worthy Catholic charitable groups dedicated to aiding the destitute, the disabled, the aged, the persecuted, the widowed, the unwanted and the unborn.

Give them what you would normally give to the bishops. Give more. But until church leaders cleanse themselves of the stench of corruption, boycott the bishops.

Twitter, @marcthiessen. (c) 2019, The Washington Post Writers Group.
Bailey Chase has portrayed characters that run the gamut.

With each role, Chase looks for a challenge.

For his role in the Netflix film Walk. Ride. Rodeo., Chase thought it would be fun to play a father because its something he knows about.

The film tells the story of Amberley Snyder, who at 19 and a nationally ranked rodeo barrel racer, barely survives a car crash that leaves her paralyzed from the waist down.

Her doctors say she will never walk again, let alone ride.

Snyder, played by Spencer Locke, sets out to overcome her prognosis, being back on her horse just 18 months later.

The film began to stream on Netflix on Friday.

Chase, a father of three, was also drawn to the powerful story of hope and determination.

Im getting a chance to play some dad roles now, he says with a laugh. This role challenged me to go to the place of a father. I tried to challenge myself of how I would handle this if it were happening to one of my children. It was intense to go there.

According to the New Mexico Film Office, the production filmed in Espanola, Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

Production took place from the end of July through mid-August.

It employed 60 New Mexico crew members, 20 New Mexico actors and 350 New Mexico background talent.

Chase has a long history with New Mexico.

He starred in Longmire as Branch Connally for 33 episodes beginning in 2012.

Coming back to New Mexico for three weeks was a treat.

My first child was born in New Mexico while I was shooting Longmire,  he says. Its a special place for me and any chance I get to come back to work is amazing.

While in Santa Fe, Chase visited his old haunts such as Marias, La Choza and The Compound.

Id also go hike on a trail near Ski Santa Fe, he says. I always have fun coming back to see all my old spots and the people. Im lucky in that New Mexicans really embraced me and I take the time to chat with them when I get the chance.

Chase will be back in New Mexico in the fall for another production.

He wants to encourage the Longmire Nation to check out the film.

This film lives in the world of rural America, he says. We can take a lot of things for granted. A story like this can happen to any of us at any time. Whats great about Amberleys story is what the power of a positive attitude can create.

Walk. Ride. Rodeo. is written by Sean Dwyer and Greg Cope White.

The film is directed by Conor Allyn along with producers Elizabeth Cullen and Dwyer.

We are incredibly blessed to have our storys inspiring real life heroine Amberley Snyder so intimately involved in both the development of the script and the physical production of our film, Allyn says in a statement. People are going to be impressed. It doesnt get more real than what they are going to see here.

The film also stars Missi Pyle and Sherri Shepherd.
BEAUREGARD, Ala.  Standing on a hill overlooking a debris field, President Donald Trump on Friday surveyed mangled trees and other damage that was left behind in a rural Alabama town after a powerful tornado roared through, killing nearly two dozen people.

We saw things that you wouldnt believe, said Trump, who first glimpsed the area by helicopter before he and first lady Melania Trump arrived in Beauregard, which bore the brunt of Sundays storm, and began meeting with victims.

The president visited a section of town that has been decimated by the tornado, with houses torn from foundations and tree roots pulled from the ground. Mangled metal siding, wood planks and piping lay strewn on the ground, along with the remnants of everyday life: items of clothing, a sofa, a bottle of Lysol cleaner, and a welcome mat encrusted with dirt.

Trump was briefed by a local official as he stood outside in the open. He also met with families affected by the storm, listening to their stories and, in some cases, reaching in to offer hugs.

The president and his wife also visited a disaster relief center at Providence Baptist Church in Opelika, where people were coming in search of clothes and such basic supplies as toiletries, diapers and food.

Trump was touring rural Lee County in eastern Alabama, where 23 people were killed after Sundays massive EF4 tornado that cut a path of destruction nearly a mile wide with 170 mph (270 kph) winds. It was one of at least 38 tornadoes confirmed to have lashed the Southeast in a deadly weekend outbreak.

Before Trump arrived in Beauregard, Renee Frazier stood amid bricks and lumber that used to be her mothers home and waved as the helicopter carrying Trump passed overhead. Minutes before, Frazier had been arguing with relatives who opposed Trumps visit, calling it more about politics than compassion.

Frazier disagreed, saying I want the president here to see what happened to my moms house. I want him right here on this land because my mom is about love and unity.

Down the road, where several people died, Trump supporter Bobby Spann said he hoped the president learned how to be a Southerner, and how to respect people during his brief visit.

Spann, 63, said he also hoped Trump realizes how much help is needed. The tornado had partially peeled away the roof of Spanns mobile home.

Houses need to be replaced. You cant help the dead folks, but you can try to help the ones thats still living, said Spann, chewing on a yellowroot twig.

Trump has said hes instructed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to give Alabama the A Plus treatment as the state recovers. The Alabama damage was officially deemed a disaster on Tuesday, with Trump ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts.

Gov. Kay Ivey has also signed a disaster assistance agreement with FEMA and ordered state flags flown at half-staff until sunset Sunday.

The twister that struck Beauregard was the deadliest to hit the U.S. since May 2013, when an EF5 twister killed 24 people in Moore, Oklahoma.

The Alabama dead included four children and a couple in their 80s, with 10 victims belonging to a single extended family. Several people in Georgia were injured by twisters that also extended to Florida and South Carolina, according to the National Weather Service.

Trump had said earlier this week that the country was sending our love and prayers to the incredible people of Alabama and that whatever we can do, were doing. He was traveling to politically friendly territory: Alabama supported Trump by a wide margin in the 2016 presidential election.

He carried about 60 percent of the Lee County vote in 2016 and blue Trump flags flying outside home are a frequent sight in Beauregard.

Trumps reaction to natural disasters at times has seemed to vary depending on the level of political support hes received from the affected region.

In the months after wildfires scorched California, Trump threatened to cut off federal aid unless the state embraced forest management policies he championed.

He also engaged in a sustained back-and-forth with lawmakers from hurricane-whipped Puerto Rico, repeatedly blaming the territory for its problems and noting how much money recovery efforts had cost the federal government.

The administration at one point considered redirecting disaster aid from places like Puerto Rico and California to pay for the presidents long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall. The administration ultimately chose to target other sources of federal dollars.

Trump had already been scheduled to fly south Friday for a weekend at his private Mar-a-Lago club and will head there from Alabama.

___

Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Beauregard, Alabama, Jonathan Lemire in New York and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow Colvin on Twitter at https://twitter.com/colvinj
The interior Ministry has decided to dissolve 76 political parties for scoring less than 1 per cent of the number of voters during 2013 and 2018 legislative elections.

The ministry has informed leaders of the targeted political movements in a memo, according to press reports.

The decision was made on the basis of political groups 2012-024 act. The law stipulates among others that parties that do not take part in two consecutive legislative elections or fail to garner less than one per cent of the votes in their constituency will be dissolved.

The law entered into force last year under a presidential decree.

The Rally for Unity and Democracy (RDU) founded in 1991 by former minister Ahmed ould Sidi Baba will disappear from the countrys political landscape, while some parties created in 2013 are spared.
SANTA FE  The state Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill Friday that aims to shine a light on how much New Mexico spends to settle allegations of discrimination in state agencies.

The proposal, Senate Bill 317, calls for the state to publish the nature of the claims, the agency against whom they were lodged and the total amount of state money used to settle the allegation, including damages and attorney fees.

The taxpayers of the state have a right to know, said Sen. Sander Rue, an Albuquerque Republican and co-sponsor of the legislation.

The measure won approval 40-0 and now heads to the House for consideration, with just eight days left in the session. Rep. Linda Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, is co-sponsoring the bill.

Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, said the state needs to have a broader conversation about the cost of litigation against the state.

This is taxpayer money, Candelaria said. I think at the very least we need to be transparent and make that information readily available.

Under the bill, the settlement information would be published automatically on the state sunshine portal online, after a certain period of time elapses. There would also be some redactions aimed at ensuring people arent discouraged from filing claims for fear of having their names disclosed, Rue said.

It would require posting of claims under the state Human Rights Act.
NEW YORK  Its a he said, he said where the he  no matter who he is  has a credibility problem.

The latest White House legal drama  whether or not the presidents former legal fixer asked him for a pardon  has pulled back the curtain on a whole cast of characters whose comments cant always be taken at face value.

Michael Cohen, Trumps former attorney who denies asking for presidential intervention, has himself pleaded guilty to lying to Congress  to back up Trumps own stories. His representative, Lanny Davis, has repeatedly had to walk back and amend statements about what Cohen knew and when. But Davis need to correct previous claims has only been topped by that of Rudy Giuliani, the Trump lawyer whose job description, at times, has seemed to be centered as much on fudging and on moving goalposts.

And then, of course, there is President Donald Trump, who declared for the first time on Friday that Cohen personally asked him for a pardon.

Trumps foes call him a liar and worse. He made dozens of misstatements in just one speech last weekend and is estimated, by one count, to have made more than 9,000 false or misleading statements since taking office.

So, in a production filled with unreliable narrators, who, if anyone, can be trusted?

My take is that its all a mess and I dont know if were ever going to know what really happened, says former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally who acknowledged that the battle over pardons has left him baffled. It seems now that we live in an age of total confusion.

The latest act in the Shakespearean tragedy  farce?  over Cohens fall from grace in Trumpworld came to light in the past week over a fierce debate as to whether the attorney had sought a pardon from the president after his office and hotel room were raided by the FBI last spring. Cohen, who spent a decade working for Trump before turning on him and cooperating with the special counsel investigating the president, testified before Congress last week that he had never sought a pardon from his former boss.

But in the days that followed, stories changed.

Davis, who was not Cohens lawyer at the time, said Cohen directed his attorney to explore a possible pardon with Giuliani and others on Trumps legal team, a statement that appeared to contradict Cohens sworn congressional testimony.

Then Giuliani said that two lawyers working for Cohen approached him about a pardon last spring. And Davis then allowed in a written statement Thursday that his client was open to the ongoing dangling of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media in the months after the FBI raid.

Trump took it one step further on Friday.

Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon. His lawyers totally contradicted him. He lied! Trump tweeted aboard Air Force One while en route to inspect damage from a deadly tornado in Alabama. Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again!

Cohens turn.

Just another set of lies by @POTUS @realdonaldtrump. Mr. President he wrote, before invoking the women whose hush money payments he helped facilitate for candidate Trump. Let me remind you that today is #InternationalWomensDay. You may want use today to apologize for your own #lies and #DirtyDeeds to women like Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford.

Cohen arranged payments to Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels, and McDougal to prevent them from speaking publicly about alleged affairs with Trump.

Giuliani again.

He said in an interview Friday that he remembered Trump telling him when he joined the presidents legal team eleven months ago that Cohen had asked for a pardon, something the former New York City mayor had never previously revealed, including in an interview about pardons the previous day.

This furor is far from the first time the players in this particular melodrama have, to put it charitably, arranged and rearranged their scripts.

Long before he entered politics, Trump embellished his record, posing as his own spokesman to plant flattering stories in New York gossip pages and declaring that the 58-story Trump Tower was actually 68 stories so it would be the tallest in that section of Midtown Manhattan. That track record continued during his campaign and as president. He trotted out big falsehoods  claiming that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and, later, that he wiretapped Trump Tower  and smaller ones, including when boasted that the crowd for his Inauguration was the largest in history.

His administration has had more than 9,000 misleading statements, according to The Washington Post  fake news, according to the president.

Cohen has become a key figure in congressional investigations since turning on his former boss. During last weeks public testimony, he called Trump a con man, a cheat and a racist. Trump, in turn, said Cohen is lying in order to reduce his prison time.

Indeed, Cohen was known to lie to reporters during Trumps 2016 campaign. He is to begin a three-year prison sentence in May for crimes, including lying to Congress  lying to support Trumps own statements about his real estate efforts in Russia.

Both mens lawyers  who act more as TV spokesmen then courtroom attorneys  have also struggled with keeping their facts straight, though sometimes the shifting stories appear to be deliberate efforts to create smoke screens rather than clear anything up. Davis, who served as White House counsel during President Bill Clintons early crises, has had to walk back at least one bombshell assertion over the past year, that his client could tell investigators that Trump had advance knowledge of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign.

Giuliani has fumbled facts and repeatedly moved the goalposts about what sort of behavior by the president would constitute collusion or a crime. He has defended his scattershot approach with a series of memorable turns of phrases, including one that could act as a motto for many of those involved in the saga.

Truth isnt truth, Giuliani has said.

___

Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire
REDDING, Calif. - Starting Friday, the Redding Municipal Airport will begin direct flights from Redding to Los Angeles.

Action News Now spoke with Assistant Airport Manager Sean Brennan to discuss excitement around the new flights.

He said that the new direct flights not only make travel easier for those within a 70-mile radius of the airport but also have a positive economic impact.

"For us, the LAX services involves a lot more destinations, especially for the local community," he said. "Our area is roughly 280,000 people within the Redding community so this is going to connect them to more destinations."

The airport is now one of the only in the area that provides a direct flight to the city.

"Sacramento is the closest airport, as we know it's about 150 miles," he said. "So we are expecting within a 70-mile radius to be pulling a lot more of those people toward the Redding airport exclusively for this service."

Brennan said that the ease of a direct flight was something that really attracted businessmen.

Additionally, members of the Chamber of Commerce in Redding said that they like the idea of the direct flight because it paves the way for business between Los Angeles and Redding to take place in both cities.

Brennan also said that the city could see a positive economic impact in regards to tourism.

The first flight between the two city's is scheduled to land in Redding on Friday night at 9:35 p.m.

The second flight will take off from Redding at 6:35 a.m.

Flights will be running from to and from the city's daily. The price tag on a roundtrip flight is roughly $360.
CHICO, Calif. - Administrators at Pleasant Valley High School in Chico reached out to parents on Thursday after a threat of violence was posted on social media.

School officials say that two students got into a fight on Tuesday. One student threatened the other and that threat led to rumors around campus, which were then posted online.

The school's administration called Chico police.

After officers interviewed witnesses and searched the campus and homes, they found the threat was not credible.

On Thursday, police identified the person who made the post about the threat.

School officials are not saying how the student was disciplined but did say expulsion was an option.
The renewal of the EU-Morocco farm and fisheries agreements will strengthen further the very important strategic ties binding the two partners, said, Thursday in Rabat, Elena Valenciano, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the European Parliament.

Morocco is a key country for the EU, affirmed the MEP at a press briefing held after meeting Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita.

The meeting was an opportunity to underline the importance of the new EU-Morocco agricultural and fisheries agreements adopted lately with an overwhelming majority by the European Parliament, despite hostile campaigns by the Polisario and Algeria.

In her press briefing, Mrs. Valenciano affirmed that the alliance sealed between the EU and Morocco will be very beneficial for both Moroccans and Europeans.

The European Parliament had adopted with a large majority, on Jan.16 and Feb.12 in two separate plenary sessions in Strasbourg, the new EU-Morocco agriculture and fisheries agreements, that include the Sahara.

The EU has extensive ties with Morocco in trade, political and security matters. The Union is Moroccos largest trading partner, accounting for 59.4 pc of its trade in 2017. The same year, 64.6 pc of Moroccos exports went to the EU, and 56.5 pc of Moroccos imports came from the EU.

Morocco is the EUs 22nd trading partner representing 1.0 pc of the EUs total trade with the world. Total trade in goods between the EU and Morocco in 2017 amounted to 37.4 billion.

Two-way trade in services amounted to 8.8 billion in 2016 with EU imports of services representing 5.2 billion and exports 3.6 billion.
Missing woman found dead in Placer County

A woman missing since Monday in Placer County has been found dead. The sheriff's office says Kathryn Jones of Carnelian Bay crashed her car on Highway 28 near Garwoods Grill and Pier Monday afternoon before walking away from the scene. Search and rescue crews found Jones' body in the snow.

Camp Fire debris removal postponed for 12 days

Camp Fire debris removal is on hold due to recent storms. The incident management team said Thursday that the wet soil is making it unsafe for workers, trucks and landfills. Officials will re-evaluate the conditions next Thursday, March 14.

Bankrupt California utility wants to give $235M in bonuses

The now-bankrupt PG&E is asking a judge to allow millions in bonuses for its employees. In a statement, the company says the short-term incentive plan would reward 10,000 employees with $235 million in bonuses even though the company is broke.

Flights from Redding to Los Angeles begin Friday

The Redding Municipal Airport now has direct flights to Los Angeles. This long-awaited direct service is scheduled to begin on Friday.

Good Samaritan saves litter of abandoned puppies in Butte County

A Good Samaritan has come to the rescue in a big way by saving a litter of abandoned puppies. The Butte County Sheriff's Office says a citizen spotted this litter just after midnight Thursday on Power House Hill Road in Palermo.

Carnival is back at the Chico Mall

The carnival is back in Chico. It's set up on the Chico Mall parking lot and will be in town for two weeks. It's $35 for a day pass with unlimited rides.

Recent storms cause super bloom across California's Anza Borrego Desert

Recent storms have spawned a spectacular super bloom across Southern California's Anza Borrego desert. It's the second big wave of wildflowers to pop up in two years.
Eco-friendly surf board wins Australian eChallenge France

Friday, 8 March 2019



Top prize in the University of Adelaides annual Australian eChallange France Awards has gone to Hexa Surfboard who have won one years business incubator space in Adelaide.



Hexa Surfboard won the top prize for their innovative approach to 3D printed eco-friendly surfboards.



The team, who are all surfers and engineers, includes Sylvain Fleury, Leo Bouffier, Corentin Macias, Jeremy Fleury and Thomas Duvinagehave, all from Ecole Centrale Lyon. They won $10,000 cash and one-years desk space, worth $36,000, at ThincLab Adelaide incubator in South Australia.



Surfboard manufacturing has not changed significantly since the 1960s. It has a large environmental footprint which goes against the values of the surfing community. Surfers can now choose the Hexa Surfboard, an eco-responsible board without compromising on performance. The boards will be made in France using 3D-printing techniques to form them out of recyclable plastic and bio-resin so they can be recycled at the end of their lives.



The winners, which were announced overnight in Paris, were selected from 16 teams from seven French universities.



This is the fourth year that aspiring French entrepreneurs have competed in the Universitys Australian eChallenge France Award.



The Australian eChallenge France Awards, powered by The University of Adelaide, offer French students an opportunity to launch their entrepreneurial ventures globally using ThincLab Adelaide as a start-up springboard, says Professor Noel Lindsay, Pro Vice Chancellor (Entrepreneurship), University of Adelaide.



Whatever industry or field, the eChallenge responds to the idea that future employment options lie in entrepreneurial activity and innovation, rather than in traditional career paths.



The Australian eChallenge France program encourages risk-taking and originality and develops individuals resilience and capacity to grow and build, both personally and professionally," says Professor Lindsay.



Please visit www.adelaide.edu.au/echallenge/echallenge-france for more information about the Australian eChallenge France Award or contact Zrinka Tokic at zrinka.tokic@adelaide.edu.au or phone +61 (0)8 8313 7131.



Above: Jeremy and Sylvain Fleury from Hexa Surfboard at the awards ceremony.

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Media Release
Tinaa Dattaa

"My role model is Mother Teresa, who lived a selfless life and did a lot for the nation by helping the poor and needy. I would like to tell the today's young women that life is precious and they should put their foot down and take a stand whenever and wherever needed. One should adjust and balance our career and life but not at the cost of self respect."

Ira Sone

"I love Beyonce and Melinda Gates and closer home, I am inspired by Mary Kom. What she achieved for the country being a mother of 3, I think thats inspiring. I am sure a lot of people will agree with me that shes a living example of noting is impossible and unbelievable, if you believe in something and work hard towards achieving it with your heart mind and soul. To the youth, I just want to say follow your dreams with honesty and integrity and have the courage to achieve your goals through and be proud of who you are."

Moon Banerrjee

"There have been many but my father's sister (my bua) has been my pillar of strength whom I lost a year back. She had a deep impact on me. She used to tell me to complete my studies irrespective of whatever you choose as a career and have wisdom, courage and compassion . No matter what, don't ever be harsh on yourself. Love yourself and the world will respond lovingly."

Kishori Shahane Vij

"My biggest role model in my life is my mom. She bought up all three daughters together and I have seen her struggling. She must be the best housewife, the way she struggled everyday, getting all three of us ready for the school, packing tiffins for us and doing everything herself. Again, in the evening, when we used to come back from school, she was there for us. She would teach us and be there for our dad. She is one of the best ladies I must have ever seen, sacrificing so much in life, taking care of the whole family. Even in the ups and downs of my dad's career, she was always there for him, to give moral support. That's why I believe that my mom is the greatest role model for me. The advice which I would love to give to give to today's young women is to have a lovely career ahead of you. But it's important to prioritise too. Career is not the only thing you should live for, it's important to have a good family, children and a good career. "

Mahhima Kottary

"My role model has been my mother. She is wise, patient, extremely optimistic and the strongest person I know. She has taught me how to overcome challenges in life and make wise choices, even in the most uncertain situations. I would like to tell all the women out there that dont rely on somebody else for your happiness and self-worth, love yourself, follow your instincts and remember, you are beautiful and you are enough!"

Ridheema Tiwari

"Rosario Dawson has been one of my female role models/inspiration. I love Rosario Dawson, as shes determined and unique. And like me, she also speaks her mind. Most of all, I love that she worked hard for everything she has today. Raised in New York, her mother moved her family, including Dawsons half brother and step father, into an abandoned building in Manhattan. They squatted on the property and overtime installed their own plumbing and electrical wiring. Eventually, she was discovered at the age of 15 on her front porch by a screenwriter who had the perfect role for her in his upcoming film, Kids. Dawson was a natural, and has since starred in over fifty films. Dawson, who is of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, is involved in numerous charities and advocacy groups, including the Lower East Side Girls Club, Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and serves on the board of V-day, a global movement to end violence against girls and women. She is also an advocate for equal pay for women and people of color  even going as far to challenge Hollywood pay rates. I appreciate her candor and passion for human rights, women of colour, and female inequality. I also love the fact that like me, she too believed that imperfection is beautiful and all women are beautiful in their own unique ways. I would advice the same to all the beautiful unique women out there accept yourself and love your unique self... Don't fall prey to comparisons and don't lose your identity. Acknowledge your strengths more than weaknesses."

Adaa Khan

"My role model is my mother Parvin Khan. She has given me an excellent upbringing and values. She is not in this world anymore but her blessings are with me all the time. It is because of my mother that I became very independent as a person and I can fight all my battles. As far as advice is concerned to young women, it is to love and respect yourself first and never compromise on your values and emotions."

Smiriti Kalra

"Our scriptures say, Mother, Father and Guru are the 3 most important people in one's life. So born from my mother, Kiran Kalra and guided by my father and guru, Sudhir Kalra, I never had to look beyond for a role model. More than having a professional role model, being an amazing human being like them is what I aspire to be. We have been told as little girls that we are delicate, fragile princesses. I say, be a warrior princess. Think, plan and fight your own battles and it is okay to be afraid. Courage is not absence of fear but overcoming it. A warrior princess commands respect and makes her choices, so decide what you want. Career does not have a gender. And now since you have decided to be a warrior princess, you dont need validation. So, dont go around looking for one. You are the warrior princess of your world, rule it."

Jasmin Bhasin

"I admire Jhansi ki rani, she was a true warrior. She has been an inspiration to not only me but all the women in India. She stood for her rights and lived fearlessly. My advice to young women is to follow your heart and dreams, be independent financially and emotionally and live life with a positive attitude."
The Egyptian photojournalist known as Shawkan is free.

Sort of.

Shawkan, whose real name is Mahmoud Abou Zeid, was released this week by Egyptian authorities, five years after he was arrested while covering a 2013 protest in Cairo during which hundreds of supporters of the countys ousted president, Mohamed Morsy, were killed by Egyptian security forces.

Shawkan, who shoots for the Demotix news agency, and hundreds more arrested during the deadly clash were charged with several crimes, including membership in the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned organization, noted PDN. In 2018, a prosecutor called for Shawkan and the others arrested to receive the maximum penalty, death by hanging.

Human rights organizations and press groups around the world demanded Shawkans release. In 2015, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that Abou Zeid had no knowledge of the charges against him. In 2018, Abou Zeid received the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

In a CBS interview that aired in January, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi denied holding political prisoners, noted CNN. He was responding to a question about a Human Rights Watch report that estimated that at least 60,000 of Egypt's prisoners were held on political grounds.

It was just last September that Shawkan was formally charged with with weapons possession and other charges, noted PDN. His recent release comes with conditions: He must report to a police station every day for the next five years and spend every night in jail. These outrageous measures will severely restrict his liberty and should be lifted immediately," Amnesty International said in a statement.

Meanwhile, The New York Times recently spotlighted the the Chobi Mela photo festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which over the past 20 years has become one of the worlds premier photo events. It was unclear whether the event would happen this year, however.

Last August, Shahidul Alam  a photographer, human rights advocate and the festivals founder  was jailed by the government for speaking out against its violent repression of student-led protests. His imprisonment was also widely condemned by human rights groups. Alam was released on bail in November, though charges against him have not been dropped and he potentially faces 7 to 14 years in prison under a law that lets the government arrest people who criticize it online.

He and the team behind the Chobi Mela festival decided in any case to go on with the event, which runs through March 9. Its an act of defiance, an act of resistance, really, Alam said in an interview with The Times.

But, noted Hyperallergic, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police staged an act of their own, revoking permission for Indian novelist Arundhati Roy to stage a talk with Alam during the festival.

Here are some of the other photo stories we featured this week:

______________________________

1. The Black Cowboys of Mississippi

Mississippi-based photographer Rory Doyles ongoing project Delta Hill Riders challenges the stereotype of the American cowboy. The series, which began in 2017 when Doyle attended a rodeo in Greenville, Mississippi, celebrating cowboy heritage in the region, documents an African-American subculture that has been underrepresented, noted the PrintSpace gallery of London, where the work is on view through March 26. Doyle notes that after the Civil War, one in four cowboys were black.





2. Alejandro Cegarra Captures Venezuela in Crisis

Alejandro Cegarras photo series State of Decay, nominated for a 2019 World Press Photo award, is an unflinching portrait of Venezuelas collapse, noted The New Yorker. A native of Caracas, Cegarra depicts life in his home town as precariously strung-out and pared-down, shorn of any softness, writes the magazines Jon Lee Anderson. In a sense, notes Anderson, Cegarras own story tracks with that of Venezuela: He was born in 1989, the year many Venezuelans cite as the original point of rupture in their society.





3. Leland Bobbe Photographs NYC's Hard Hat Workers

New York City constantly reinvents itself. The towers of Manhattan rise, fall, and are replaced with taller towers, like trees in a forest striving for sunlight. Nature builds forests, but in the city it's people who do the work. And those people wear hardhats. Over the past year, New York-based photographer Leland Bobbe began taking pictures of construction workers at lunchtime, when they came down from their lofty perches for food. "I thought they really stood out on the street from everyone else. I thought they would be great subjects for street portraits," Bobbe told us.





4. Mona Kuhn's Abstraction of Being

I got into photography because Im a little restless, and I liked that it was fast, says Brazilian photographer Mona Kuhn, who has just published her sixth book with Steidl, She Disappeared Into Complete Silence. The new book, noted The British Journal of Photography, began as an experimental project shot in Acido Dorado, a reflective house in the middle of the Californian desert designed by American architect Robert Stone. Here, Kuhn presents a solitary nude on the edge of the desert, removed from any symbols of time.





5. Doggy Dignity, Despite the Canine "Cone of Shame"

Traditionally, a canine cone of shame  the medical device that prevents an animal from biting or licking a wound  is made of plain plastic. Dogs cant help but look undignified when wearing them. But, noted Colossal, photographer and dog mom Winnie Au sought to flip the narrative with her series Cone of Shame. In her images, dogs proudly wear a variety of elaborately fashionable cones handcrafted by costume designer Marie-Yan Morvan. Theres now a Cone of Shame notecard Kickstarter campaign.
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A request to incorporate the old Aiken County hospital property into Aiken's historic overlay district has been withdrawn.

Lucy Knowles, one of two extension applicants, notified Aiken City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh of the withdrawal early Thursday. Mayor Rick Osbon confirmed the withdrawal later that day.

A formal retraction is expected on Friday, Bedenbaugh said.

The overlay extension matter is not on the Aiken City Council's March 11 meeting agenda.

"It has been removed," Bedenbaugh said.

City Council was otherwise expected to take up the measure in the very near future.

The historic overlay district is a zoning designation that, among other things, mandates additional standards for construction and opens a pathway to lucrative tax credits.

At the start of January, the Design Review Board recommended extending the overlay district to include the entire 9.3 acre hospital property, which is located along Richland Avenue West.

Knowles is a member of the Design Review Board; she recused herself from the debate and vote.

Marian Group withdraws Aiken applications for old hospital property rework "We appreciate all the hard work everyone put forth on this challenging project, and we wish it success in the future."

In February, the Planning Commission, another advisory body, overwhelmingly voted to not recommend extending the historic district to include the hospital property.

"I think the group ultimately felt this decision wasn't their role, and it would be up to the Aiken City Council," Planning Director Ryan Bland said at the time.

The withdrawal means the overlay extension process, if a new request is made, would have to start all over again: Design Review Board, Planning Commission, City Council.

"When they withdraw the request, it's not like a continuance," Osbon said.

Earlier this week, the Aiken County Council approved selling the old hospital property to WTC Investments LLC for $1.1 million. WTC Investments has discussed building a hotel and convention center on the property, according to a handful of city and county officials.

Prior to the WTC Investments deal, the county was working with the Marian Group, a firm from Kentucky. The Marian Group targeted the hospital property for 160 apartments plus amenities.

The Marian Group, though, withdrew from the deal near the end of January.

The hospital property, some of which dates back to the 1930s, was once home to the Aiken County government. The property has sat vacant for years now.

Knowles' application was first submitted in May 2018, according to city documents.
Four Hamas members who were abducted en route to the Cairo airport more than three years ago arrived Feb. 28, unannounced, back at the Gaza Strip. Neither Hamas nor Egyptian authorities had mentioned anything about the matter ahead of time.

For years, Egypt repeatedly denied any connection to the disappearance of the men, who were taken by unidentified gunmen in Sinai on Aug. 19, 2015. The Hamas members had been on a bus heading from the Rafah border crossing to Cairo International Airport.

Their release came after a three-week visit from a high-ranking delegation headed by Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh to Egypt, where he held talks with officials in the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate. Upon returning to the Gaza Strip on Feb. 28, Haniyeh said the talks had centered on the abducted men. He thanked the Egyptian leadership for its decision, which he said reflects the deep relations between the two peoples.

The men were Abdel Dayem Abu Labda, Abdullah Abu al-Jabin, Hussein al-Zebda and Yasser Zanoun. Four other men unaffiliated with Hamas who had been kidnapped at the same time also were released.

Egyptian authorities made no official comment about the release.

The sudden development in the case raises questions about what commitments Hamas might have made in exchange for Cairo settling the situation, especially with the imminent declaration of the US peace plan for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Leaks about the still-unseen plan say it will seek to establish a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told Al-Monitor that Egypt's decision "is not about promises that Hamas made, but rather a deepening trust in Hamas-Egypt relations. He added that Egypt is genuinely interested in the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, and both parties want to secure their shared interests on the border and the Rafah crossing.

Qassem said Egypt is expected to work on conciliation understandings between Israel and the Palestinian factions in Gaza, which Cairo is brokering. The understandings aim to de-escalate the Great Return March protests on the Gaza Strip border with Israel, in exchange for improving conditions in Gaza.

Hamas-Egypt relations, which worsened when Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was elected Egypt's president in 2014, started to improve last year after both sides reached a security agreement. Also, Egypt and the UN helped broker an unofficial understanding regarding a Hamas-Israel truce.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Hamas rival Fatah, hasn't been involved in negotiations to improve the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip and therefore doesn't approve of them. It accuses Hamas of serving US interests, calling it a conspiracy tool" for the US peace plan.

Fatah also accuses Hamas of sending messages to Israel and the administration of US President Donald Trump confirming Hamas approval of the deal. According to the leaks, the plan would establish a Hamas-controlled Palestinian state in Gaza  and not the PA-controlled West Bank. In return, the deal supposedly calls for a long-term truce; Fatah says this would be detrimental to the goal of a united, independent Palestinian state set up according to 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital and the right of refugees to return to territory Israel now occupies.

Qassem denied that Hamas is involved in the deal and wants to separate the two Palestinian territories.

The PA is the one that wants to separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank by announcing the dissolution of the Palestinian Legislative Council in December and imposing sanctions against employees, he said in reference to the PA cutting the salaries of dozens of PA employees in Gaza in January.

Qassem noted, We clearly spoke with our Egyptian brothers and told them that we refuse any solution that undermines Palestinian rights or any measure that would separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank.

PLO leader Zulfiqar Swairjo told Al-Monitor that Egypt's leadership saw in Hamas' recent visit to Cairo a change in Hamas strategies regarding the nature of the conflict with Israel. As a result, Hamas-Egypt relations warmed up, and Egypt released the abducted men.

But Swairjo seemed suspicious about Egypt's intentions behind releasing the men and said, I dont think the release is innocent, and I believe it is related to the [US peace plan]."

Egypt is playing a key role in the deal as it seeks to push Hamas to accept a truce with Israel in exchange for opening the Rafah border crossing permanently, which would alleviate the blockade and improve the economic situation in the Gaza Strip.

The Qatari-funded Al-Araby al-Jadeed newspaper in July cited Egyptian political sources as saying, The Egyptian army started implementing new instructions in North Sinai in the past few days, in light of regional political understandings that are part of Trumps plan to settle the Palestinian cause.

Swairjo added that the deal the US administration plans to propose after the Israeli elections in April will take advantage of Gazas pressing needs and fund politicized economic and humanitarian projects.

Mukhaimer Abu Saada, a political science professor at Al-Azhar University, told Al-Monitor, We can't predict the commitment Hamas made in exchange for the release of the four abducted members. But, we can't overlook the clear development in Hamas-Egyptian relations since June 2017, after Yahya Sinwar was elected as leader of Hamas in Gaza and met with sovereign parties in Egypt. These meetings were crowned with a security agreement, per which the borders were secured and [Hamas] smuggling operations were controlled.

Under that agreement, Hamas established a buffer zone on the border with Egypt and tightened its security grip on the crossing to prevent smuggling of weapons and militants, in exchange for Egypt opening the Rafah border crossing permanently.

Abu Saada added, Egypt is concerned with ensuring the situation in Gaza doesn't turn into a humanitarian crisis and making sure things don't go downhill in a way that would affect Israeli-Hamas relations and diverge them from the truce efforts.

In cooperation with the UN and countries in the region such as Qatar, Egypt is seeking to improve the humanitarian situation and curb tensions on the Gaza border with Israel to ensure stability in the region.

UN Middle East Envoy Nikolay Mladenov announced that 10,000 temporary jobs are being created for unemployed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. He tweeted Feb. 28 that this step is part of efforts to calm the situation there. He added, Glad to see agreements have been finalized.

The US administration is expected to announce its peace proposal between Palestinians and Israelis after Israel's parliamentary elections in April. Leaks indicate the plan includes granting the Gaza Strip self-rule that is politically connected to West Bank self-rule areas, in addition to big economic incentives.

The PA refuses to discuss any peace plan with the United States, citing Trump's official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017.
I remember that it was the first of Esfand, the former senior Iranian official recalled, referring to Feb. 20 in the Iranian calendar, I was at the Supreme National Security Council with Mr. Rouhani, and I told him that we wont have any vacation for Nowruz this year. He asked: What do you mean? I responded that I would be at his service. The prediction turned out to be true.

As secretary of Irans top decision-making body, Hassan Rouhani spent the Iranian New Year holidays of March 2003 coordinating its daily meetings. The sessions were not held at the ordinary address in downtown Tehran. Rather, they were convened at the Center for Strategic Research, a think tank that Rouhani headed, overlooking a former palace of the shah in the leafy north of the Iranian capital. In contrast, the Supreme National Security Council had only met once every week or two, even in the months prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Almost 16 years later, Rouhani will embark on his first official trip to Irans western neighbor as president. The landmark visit next week has been preceded by a string of trips by his first vice president, oil minister, the governor of the Iranian central bank and other top officials. In mid-January, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spent five straight days touring the country.

Rouhani will not land at a remote air base in the dark and promptly leave Iraq without having met any top official. Rather, he will be accompanied by a major political and trade delegation and be feted by an array of senior Iraqis, including Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi as well as President Barham Salih, who formally extended this invitation. Rouhani met parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi in Iran on March 7 but can be expected to meet with lawmakers, too. In line with the agenda of Zarifs tour in January, meetings will likely also be held with other prominent figures, such as former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Popular Mobilization Units commander Hadi al-Amiri and National Wisdom Movement leader Ammar al-Hakim.

The visit is of great significance because it has both domestic and international dimensions, and relatedly, also due to its timing.

The Trump administration has sought to curtail Irans nuclear and missile programs as well as its regional influence through the reimposition of harsh sanctions. One key target of the United States is thus Irans trade with Iraq, which has ballooned since the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Iran has not sat idly by amid the pressure. Rouhanis visit will focus on trade and investment. At present, bilateral exchanges stand at $12 billion per year, and the two sides seek to increase it to $20 billion. Indeed, while US sanctions have sought to restrict Irans regional linkages, data suggest that the opposite has occurred. Isolated from international markets, Iran has focused its energy on its neighbors. Moreover, as sanctions have weakened the rial, Iranian goods and services have become more attractive. As a result, back in October, Iraq even overtook China as Irans prime non-oil export market.

One major contention is US pressure on Iraq over its imports of Iranian natural gas and electricity, which have left Baghdad stuck between a rock and a hard place. In December, the Trump administration issued a second waiver that allowed Iraq to continue paying for such imports for another 90 days. The Iraqis have responded by saying that they need around two years to adapt, and last month, reportedly signed a one-year contract to renew electricity imports from Iran. The government in Baghdad cannot afford renewed civil unrest over electricity shortages, particularly as summer approaches.

Yet it ought to be noted that while Iraqs energy reliance on Iran has grabbed headlines and become the focus of US attention, such trade only makes up one-quarter of the growing bilateral trade volume. In this vein, the two sides can be expected to discuss the development of banking and other infrastructure to facilitate broader economic exchanges, including the effort to create a free trade zone along the border. The Iraqi side can also be expected to seek progress on a number of other issues, including longstanding disputes related to the border and water rights.

Another crucial aspect of the visit will be the question of whether Rouhani will meet with the most powerful figure in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The Iranian presidents predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-13), was notably boycotted by the supreme religious authority, who carefully manages his audiences with dignitaries to send important signals to Baghdad and foreign capitals alike. Therefore, when it comes to Iranian officials, the credibility boost of a meeting with the grand ayatollah  who has a large following inside Iran  functions as a vivid example of how influence is not a one-way street in the bilateral relationship.

Indeed, beyond avoiding partisanship at home, the top cleric also insists on Iraq maintaining balanced foreign relations. For instance, his office has condemned Trump over his statement that he wants to keep US forces in Iraq to watch Iran. It has additionally clarified that Irans aid in the fight against the Islamic State is welcomed only if offered via the Iraqi government and if it doesnt affect Iraqs sovereignty. Of further note, the top cleric in Iraq has been loath to offer Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani an open audience.

Therefore, a meeting between Rouhani and the supreme religious authority would send a powerful message to three key audiences.

First, to Iraqi leaders, some of whom may prefer to deal with other centers of power in Iran  such as the Quds Force  but who also need the top clerics tacit blessing.

Second, to Iranian leaders, who pay very close attention to the grand ayatollah as not only a major source of influence but also a bellwether of Irans standing with a key neighbor.

Third, such a meeting would make clear to the Trump administration and its Arab allies that while Iraq is open to engagement to achieve mutual benefits, it will neither abandon Iran nor allow itself to be used as a launchpad against any third country.

Against this backdrop, it is important to note that the Iranian Foreign Ministry is presently on the offensive to defend its authority, as US pressure has empowered its hard-line detractors. The ministry recently received a boost when Zarifs attempted resignation  triggered by his being excluded from meetings with Syrias visiting president  rallied most political elites and much of the public behind it. Indeed, even Soleimani  who has enjoyed great influence over regional policies  had to come out to describe Zarif as responsible for the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, adding that the chief diplomat enjoys the approval of senior officials, particularly the leader of the Islamic Revolution.

As such, boosted by this support, Rouhanis landmark visit to Iraq  and particularly if it involves a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Sistani  signals that his administration may be growing bolder about asserting its authority on regional files.
Bill Shine. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

In a development that comes as a surprise to nobody, White House communications director, Bill Shine, has decided to spend more time with his family and less time being humiliated by Donald Trump. Trumps first communications director, Sean Spicer, blew up his credibility on day one by following Trumps orders to tell the national press corps that Trump pulled the largest inaugural crowd in history. In February 2017, Spicer gave the communications director job to William Dubke, who gave it back to Spicer when he resigned in May. On July 21, Spicer was replaced by Anthony Scaramucci, who left after ten days, and was replaced in August by Hope Hicks, who resigned last February, in favor of Shine last July.

Throughout these five or six (depending on how you count Spicers two nonconsecutive terms) press chiefs, Trump has had consistently abysmal coverage in the non-party-controlled media. Trump has analyzed the pattern and identified the one constant: His many communications directors keep somehow failing to get the media to show what an honest, well-informed, compassionate president he truly is.

Trump reportedly hired Shine at the recommendation of their mutual buddy, Sean Hannity. But, as he always does, Trump began to blame Shine for failing to turn Trumps horrible decisions into glowing press coverage. In December, Trump spurned the pleas of party leaders and impulsively announced he was shutting down the government and would accept all the blame for doing so. Shines effort to rescue the situation consisted of arranging a trip to the border. Trump spun the trip to news broadcasters in a private meeting by telling them these people behind you (pointing at Shine) had arranged the photo op that was not going to change a damn thing.

Trump has spent months complaining about Shines work, even grousing he was sold a bill of goods by Hannity.

Its maybe just possible that the best place to get advice on how to win over skeptical journalists is not the man who is so comically obsequious that he introduces Trump at rallies he is supposedly covering and who was privately assessed by Trump as rating a 10 out of 10 for loyalty.

Its also possible that Trumps communications directors arent the problem. Its presumably difficult to generate a lot of positive press attention when youre the subject of so many different criminal and ethical investigations that your best single communications asset is the medias inability to keep track of them all. Eliminating all the crimes would be a big ask, but maybe Trump should consider doing fewer?
It was only a matter of time before someone along Israel's political spectrum demanded that the Central Election Committee disqualify candidates from running in the April 9 elections for the 21st Knesset. Who would get there first? The left, seeking to disqualify right-wing candidates, or would representatives of the right beat them to the punch, demanding the disqualification of candidates representing the countrys 21% Arab minority? Either way, the outcome would stand to be a foregone conclusion. Barring a shocking decision, the Supreme Court will overrule any election committee disqualifications.

Lawmakers from the left-wing Meretz and the center-left Labor Party were the first to the committees door, demanding that it bar Michael Ben Ari and Itamar Ben Gvir of the radical-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) from running as part of the Union of Right-Wing Parties. Their petition, delivered Feb. 26, cites reports by human rights organizations that the two men have engaged in incitement to racism, one of three legal grounds for disqualification.

The following day, the Likud petitioned the committee to demand that the Arab Raam-Balads representatives be prohibited from running. At the same time, Ben Ari and Ben Gvir sought the disqualification of two other Arab parties, Hadash and Taal. Their petition cited the two other grounds for banning Knesset candidates: negation of Israels right to exist as a Jewish state and support for armed struggle against Israel.

In an opinion submitted to the election committee, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit stated that he supported banning Ben Ari but opposed disqualifying Ben Gvir and the Arab slates. As expected, both the right and left expressed disappointment with Mandelblits position and turned him into the punching bag de jour in the volatile arenas of Israeli politics and the media.

On March 6, the election committee rejected Mandelblits recommendations and disqualified the only Jewish candidate from Hadash, Ofer Kasif, along with the Arab Raam-Balad slate. On the other hand, the committee authorized the candidacy of Ben Ari. The next round in these struggles will take place at the Supreme Court. Whatever the court rules, it will come under heavy fire from both sides.

In 2003, the Supreme Court, in a rare unanimous decision by an 11-justice panel, rejected the Central Election Committees decision to prevent Israeli Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi from running for the 16th Knesset. Six years later, in 2009, nine justices accepted an appeal by the Arab Raam-Taal list and overturned the committee decision to prevent its members from running for the 18th Knesset. A majority of eight justices also ruled against the committees decision to disqualify Balad. The justices wrote that the committee by its very nature was a political body, and its considerations were distinctly political, negatively affecting its members objectivity and the seriousness of their deliberations.

No indepth discussion of the submitted evidence was held, wrote Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch, outlining the courts 2009 ruling, adding that committee members had also failed to address the attorney general's arguments. The discussion was conducted in the format of slogans without establishing a sufficient evidentiary infrastructure as mandated by the seriousness of this issue.

Beinisch further stated that disqualifying candidates, even if their party is not a democratic one, contradicts the basic democratic principle of a free marketplace of ideas and may even constitute abuse by a majority in oppressing a political minority. On the other hand, the justices asserted, a democracy has a right to defend itself against those rising up against it.

On the eve of the 2015 elections, the countrys top court overturned the Central Election Committees decision to bar the candidacy of Haneen Zoabi from Balad and Baruch Marzel, a disciple of the late extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane. Justice Hanan Melcer, who currently heads the election committee, wrote at the time that despite Zoabi and Marzels harsh pronouncements and actions, they were insufficient to allow their disqualification.

This brings to mind a question: Who is a greater threat to Israels democracy? Is it the Kahanist duo from Otzma Yehudit appended to a rather marginal right-wing alliance or the sitting prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has excoriated every pillar of that democracy  the judiciary (denouncing both the attorney general and the state prosecutor), law enforcement (denouncing impartial police investigators as well as the police commissioner) and the press (attacking independent journalists from the print media to television).

Who has spread hatred of the Arab minority among wide swathes of the Jewish public? Was it the attorney Ben Gvir or the prime minister who tried to scare voters by warning in 2015, Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves, and who plants seeds of hatred against anyone he labels a leftist, which means anyone who doesnt suck up to him?

Netanyahu is currently exploiting a fraudulent symmetry between Kahanes racial doctrine and a minoritys struggle for equal rights to justify his insistence on Otzma Yehudits Knesset run and to incite against Israels Arab citizens. He describes his controversial alliance with Otzma Yehudit, which advocates the expulsion of Israels Arab citizens, as forging a Zionist bloc to counter the Arab bloc, which is supposedly conspiring to wipe out Israel.

Netanyahu is not alone. In January 2013, Yair Lapid, chair of the centrist Yesh Atid, at the start of his political career, made the notorious and offensive pronouncement that he would not serve in any government that relied on the support of the Zoabis, a reference to Haneen Zoabi and her fellow Arab lawmakers. (He later retracted his use of the term.) These days, Lapid and his co-chair of the Blue and White alliance, Benny Gantz, spooked by Likud propaganda depicting them as collaborating with the Arabs, have been quick to shake off any hint of a potential partnership with Arab parties.

Rather than declaring all-out war against the de-legitimization campaign by right-wing and centrist parties against anyone who is not a member of their political Jewish camp, the left is essentially cooperating in the disqualification of Israels Arab citizens. Ben Gvir and Ben Ari are diverting attention from the main enemy of Israeli democracy, serving as camouflage for Netanyahu.
The new Blue and White party published March 6 for the first time its platform, omitting the two-state solution. Paradoxically, this vague and general diplomatic-security platform is the life preserver of the only Zionist left parties, Labor and Meretz.

The recent union between Yair Lapids Yesh Atid and Benny Gantz Israel Resilience party created Blue and White  a powerful new party, according to the polls. Subsequently, the Labor and Meretz parties lost more of their already weak power, threatening their existence. The Labor Party has recognized the potential of the vague Blue and White platform and released a sharp response that said, among other things, Whoever runs away from the two-state solution will get a single state with an Arab majority and the end of the Zionist vision. The Labor Party is the only party committed to the vision of two states for two peoples and to maintaining the Jewish majority.

Thus, the new Blue and White party became the biggest party in Israel overnight, at least according to the polls, at the expense of the left-wing parties, among other things. Blue and White defines itself as a centrist party with a big wink to the right, and from the start it wasnt clear how former Minister of Defense Moshe Yaalon, a clear right-winger from the Likud, and Knesset member Ofer Shelah (Yesh Atid), would sit together. The solution for Gantz-Lapid is a total blurring of positions in order not to chase away potential right-wing voters. Thus, for instance, the two-state solution or a Palestinian state werent mentioned in the platform.

So what is actually Blue and Whites diplomatic plan? We will initiate a regional summit with Arab nations that seek stability and deepen the process of separation from the Palestinians, while uncompromisingly safeguarding the security interests of the State of Israel and the freedom of action of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] everywhere. We will strengthen the settlement blocs. United Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel, the party's platform states.

These general statements were meant for the ears of Likud supporters, whom Gantz and Lapid hope to catch in their net. They further promise in the platform, There will not be another disengagement [such as the 2005 Gaza disengagement]. Any historic diplomatic decision will be brought to the people in a referendum or would be authorized in the Knesset with a super majority. Likud voters would also live in peace with such a commitment.

What more does Blue and White promise? Three chiefs of staff and a senior minister in the diplomatic-security Cabinet have 117 years of security experience among them and will lead the security outlook. We will stop protection money to Hamas, distance Iran and bring back the policy of strategic ambiguity that is an important security foundation, it says. Again, these are declarations that have little to do with policy. It is not clear what the connection is between 117 years of security experience and a world view and alternative to the current regime.

The Gantz-Lapid party is against Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] but for Bibis policy, said former Minister Haim Ramon in an interview to Army Radio on the day Blue and Whites security-diplomatic platform was revealed. Ramon, a leftist who was one of the founders of the Kadima Party  the centrist party that tried to move toward separation from the Palestinians through unilateral disengagement  argues that the center-left is afraid of confronting the most critical question. As he sees it, According to the Blue and White platform, disengagement from the hell in the Gaza Strip was a mistake. They think we should have left 8,000 settlers to live among 1.5 million Palestinians. For the information of Yaalon and Gantz, between 2001 and 2005, 115 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed in Gaza and 6,000 mortars and Qassam rockets were fired on the area surrounding Gaza.

Blue and Whites platform was written in haste in merely a few days by three people: Shelah on behalf of Lapid, Hili Tropper on behalf of Gantz and Yoaz Hendel, Yaalons representative. While large parts of the Yesh Atid platform on religion and state were adopted, the part that dealt with the State of Israels security principles, which Shelah wrote, were left out. This no coincidence. The topics of security and policy are the most explosive, especially as Netanyahu attempts to etch in public consciousness that Blue and White is a left-wing party. Those who had to compromise in Blue and White on these questions were those on the left, like Shelah, who declared in 2013 that the occupation corrupts. Gantz had also spoken of two states in closed conversations before the alliance of his Israel Resilience with Yaalons Telem Party, and even of letting go of some neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

Blue and White is a party that presents a center-right diplomatic agenda, but the critical mass of its voters hails from the center-left bloc. Most of them believe in the two-state solution. According to the polls, the party would win more than 30 mandates, which drifted over from parties such as Labor, Tzipi Livnis Hatnua and even from Meretz  and also of course from Yesh Atid.

Thus, its distancing from the two-states-for-two-people banner, or refraining from presenting a detailed diplomatic plan for separation from the Palestinians, could chase voters away back to the Labor and Meretz parties. Still, Blue and White is not worried, since after the election these two parties would recommend Gantz to form the next government in any case. (Obviously, these parties would not recommend Netanyahu.) The strategy of Blue and White is that even if they lose voters, it would bring over new voters from the soft right, from the Likud, and thus create a change in the political map. Of course, this carries a significant risk.

The Blue and White party enjoys the support of a huge public of voters that is interested in advancing separation from the Palestinians as a world view. Thus Gantzs evasion from a clear leadership statement on the core issue that is perhaps the most significant for the future of the State of Israel is grating. The grave danger in this situation is that the public, which so longs to replace Netanyahu, would completely abandon Labor and Meretz and come over to Blue and White. This would fatally crush the Israeli left and would create an imbalanced political map.

Thus, its the opportunity and the responsibility of Labor and Meretz to fly the diplomatic flag of negotiations with the Palestinians. Paradoxically, the release of Blue and Whites platform made them relevant again.
Hamas decided to reject a tranche of Qatari aid funds at the end of January, accusing Israel of imposing new conditions on the money entering the Gaza Strip.

It took the Hamas leadership about a month to understand that it had made a grave mistake. Surprisingly, the movements seasoned, broad-based leadership thought it could find an alternative to the aid Qatar has been supplying the Strip since October 2018.

Hamas must have reasoned that the funds it has been using to pay thousands of its employees were making it took as though the movement was selling out the hallowed jihad or unable to administer Gaza and take care of its residents. After the rejection, a temporary compromise was reached under which the UN transferred $9.4 million as humanitarian aid. The Qatari aid money to the Gaza Strip administration was thus transformed into aid money for needy Palestinian families  a bit of a euphemism given that most of the Strips two million residents are in need.

As it usually does, Hamas decided to fix its mistake by heating things up with Israel. The group went back to launching incendiary balloons and escalated violent demonstrations on the border fence. The number of Palestinian casualties has climbed after weeks of Egypt urging it to avoid escalation and wait until after Israels April 9 elections to complete the long-term cease-fire deal that has been months in the making. However, growing shortages have increased pressure on the Hamas leadership. How can one ask thousands of civil servants to wait for their pay until after Israel deals with its domestic political affairs?

Hamas recently warned Israel through Egyptian mediators that it does not intend to wait. It also upped the ante, demanding $20 million. To underscore its message, Hamas started dispatching balloons carrying explosives. On March 7, a single rocket was fired into Israel.

On March 5, a senior delegation headed by deputy head of Egyptian intelligence Amr Hanafi and senior intelligence official Ayman Badiye arrived in Gaza. Joining them was Hama Abu-Zid, Egypts consul at its embassy in Tel Aviv. Qatari envoy Mohamed Al-Emadi awaited developments in Tel Aviv, saying that whatever Hamas and Egypt agreed would be acceptable to Qatar and its emir. According to an Egyptian source, prior to their meetings in Gaza, the Egyptian team met in Israel with Mossad chief Yossi Cohen.

In Gaza, the delegation met with Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar. A Hamas source told Al-Monitor it was the first time the Egyptians realized they had to work jointly with Qatar to resolve the Gaza crisis despite the high tensions between the two countries. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi views Qatar as a destabilizing force in the Middle East, but understands that regarding Gaza, it is also the solution. Egypt does not want and cannot afford to be Gazas sole donor.

At their meeting, the Egyptians and Hamas discussed replacing the suitcases full of Qatari cash sent into Gaza in recent months for containers of humanitarian aid, at least until after the Israeli elections. Egypt and Qatar both know that the wheel cannot be turned back; Israel wont change its mind and will not allow cash payments to enter Gaza again. Approving the resumption of the cash transfers would be political suicide for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Therefore, instead of money, the Qataris would send in trucks full of food, medicine and other essential goods  real humanitarian aid the Israelis will accept as necessary. Netanyahus rivals will stop attacking him for handing over cash to Israels enemies, and Hamas will not appear to be selling its soul to remain in power.

Although Israeli security officials understand that Hamas does not want to draw Israel into an unnecessary war at this point, every balloon bomb results in military retaliation. Experience has shown that any small escalation can turn into a major one, especially when Israeli decision-makers are on edge.

On March 7, Netanyahu toured the Gaza and Egypt border areas. During his visit, a volley of shots was fired at Israeli forces along the border with Egypt. Netanyahu responded with a warning. Hamas should understand that any display of aggression will be met with twice as great a response from the Israeli side, Netanyahu told reporters. They would do well to understand this now rather than later.

Netanyahu will have to decide in the coming days what to do with Gaza. Will he reject out of hand any proposal to ease pressure on the Strip or explain to his voters that Israel is willing to allow humanitarian aid as long as it does not reach Hamas?

According to security sources, before the Egyptian delegation returned to Cairo, its members asked Hamas to give Netanyahu a few days to make his decision now that Israel understands that Gaza cannot wait until after the vote. The way Hamas sees it, Netanyahu cannot wait, either.
TYRE, Lebanon  If a woman were sitting with you and said the things we say on stage, you might get into an argument with her, tell her why she is wrong, Jana Ismail, a member of the Tiro Association for Arts, told Al-Monitor. But once on the stage, alone and directly in front of the audience, she is freer to express herself, her views. Herein lies the power of monodrama, an art form in which a single actor delivers an extended monologue or a dance piece.

Tiro, along with the Lebanese National Theater and others, is a co-sponsor of the Lebanon International Theater Festival of Women Monodrama, which will bring together seven female artists, including from as far away as Mexico, to address issues of motherhood, displacement, and resilience in the face of conflict. The festival, premiering at the Istanbouli Theatre in Tyre on March 8, International Women's Day, runs through March 12.

The Istanbouli Theatre plays a symbolic role in highlighting Tyres turbulent past. The city, the capital of South governorate, was devastated during the Lebanese civil war, losing many of its cultural spaces to the conflict. The Istanbouli, called the Cinema Rivoli from 1959 to 1988, stood abandoned for nearly 30 years.

Ismail explained that the theater had become a mess, full of garbage and rats, before being renovated through the efforts of Tiro and the help of dedicated volunteers who sometimes slept in the building so they could continue cleaning in the morning after a few hours of shut-eye. The effort put into the renovation, Ismail said, reflected the community's appetite for bringing theater back to Tyre. The Istanbouli opened in 2016.

We thought we should change something in our society. We should have cultural places, and people should be more drawn to theater, Ismail asserted. We started asking ourselves what sorts of issues our society needed to address.

The role of women was one of the topics that emerged from self-reflection. Meanwhile, it also became clear to Ismail that monodrama could be the perfect medium for women, who often lack a platform in both the public and private spheres to express their opinions without suppression or interruption.

Women in our society, and in general, are suffering, Ismail said. Some women who find it difficult to speak up in real life may find it easier to do in a theater. We wanted to give them a free space to do that, without getting into fights with other people.

In this regard, Ismail may as well have been describing Fatima Diab, a theater student at the Lebanese University who grew up in Tyre, has worked with Tiro in the past and has written On the Beat, the monodrama she will perform at the women's festival.

In Tyre, we need something like this. We need to have a theater, Diab told Al-Monitor. My family doesnt really want me to be an actress, so that is why I came here, to show them I can do this. And it was here that I found love and [another] family.

On the Beat addresses the concerns of the prominent women in Diab's life, and how their voices were often ignored by men. I respect women in Lebanon and the whole world, and I love my mum and my grandma, she said. I was inspired by all the problems I have listened to in my life and wrote about them in the play, choosing the most important problems that we have in Lebanon.

The issues Diab addresses include the inability of Lebanese women to pass their nationality on to their children because of a 1925 law passed for fear of Lebanons sectarian demographics being disrupted. She also takes on child marriage in a country where girls as young as nine can be married off because Lebanon lacks a unitary civil code stipulating a minimum age for marriage.

Diab examines these issues through the character Zomourod, an amalgamation of Lebanese women who expresses her frustrations through words and dance. The only stage prop is an unresponsive, wooden male mannequin.

I talk to the mannequin, but he does not answer, Diab explained. I talk and dance, and he just watches silently. Men in general are like this.

Diab is new to monodrama, which is itself still rarely performed in Lebanon. She remarked, It is difficult,  but monodrama for women is the best, because women can say everything they want without any pressure.

Although monodrama can reduce societal pressure by giving voice to women and their concerns, the art itself can be nerve-racking. Miren Tirupu Goikoetxea, from Basque Country, Spain, can vouch for this. She asserted, It is hard, and you have all the responsibility, so if it goes well it is great, but if it is goes badly, its [on] you.

At the monodrama festival, Tirupu Goikoetxea will perform Manifestu Bat, a play consisting of three internal monologues by one character's ego, superego and id on the eve of the characters death. The characters gender is intentionally left ambiguous, because Tirupu Goikoetxea wants everyone in the audience, regardless of gender, to identify with what is being said.

Some of the other festival performers will focus directly on the gender divide. Manar Zein, an Egyptian will direct her first monodrama, Meaningless, performed by Wissam Oussama. It tells the story of a husband and wife whose lack of emotional connection leads to the breakdown of their relationship.

Zein told Al-Monitor that her play was inspired by the situation in Egypt. It speaks about Egyptian women and what they live through now, she said. Monodramas open doors to seeing other people. This is the point of art, and only art can show people what they have in common.
Russias Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently concluded a four-day trip to the Persian Gulf. As Lavrov tried to navigate a political minefield, he carefully chose his words and was cautious about the topics he discussed. He avoided sensitive issues and tailored a custom approach for all his destinations: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Sometimes he chose his words so carefully, and without much specificity, that he barely said anything at all. Reporters, accustomed to Lavrov's usual vivid style of speech, could not find much to report on, given the lean nature of his statements.

Contrary to some assessments, Lavrov preferred to focus on prospects of economic cooperation rather than politics. It made sense since the trip's purpose was to invite Arab nations to several events Moscow is hosting in April, including the fifth ministerial session of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum, the Arabia-EXPO forum and a session of the Russian-Arab Business Council. Whether the Gulf countries will send high-level visitors is still undetermined.

The list of guests will clearly indicate whether the Arab business community is actually willing to develop its relations with Russia, a source in the Russian Ministry of Economic Development told Al-Monitor.

In each Gulf country, Lavrov pushed the same message on economic relations: While cooperation is developing and trade is growing, theres still more to wish for. The Russians understand that the Gulf is traditionally oriented toward the West, particularly the United States and the UK, and that competition with Western powers is virtually useless. But they believe a niche or two can still be found.

Economic cooperation is practical and has the potential for success in only one of the four stops Lavrov made in the Gulf: the UAE, Russias most significant trading partner in the Gulf. Last year, bilateral trade amounted to $1.7 billion, placing the UAE third among all Arab nations, surpassed only by Algeria and Egypt, according to the Russian Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. More than 3,000 Russian companies work in the UAE and about 60,000 Russian nationals live there.

Business contacts between Russia and the Gulf are now routine and no longer require additional support from the Russian Foreign Ministry. Investments, too, are on the rise. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), in partnership with the Mubadala Investment Company, a sovereign Emirati fund, provided around $1.4 billion to more than 40 projects in various fields, from the oil industry to sports.

RDIF interacts with all Gulf nations, specifically Saudi Arabia, where its scope spreads beyond economic projects. The fund became Riyadhs bridge to Russian ministries, various business structures, museums, theaters and even media. The relations are burgeoning, causing jealousy in Qatar, although Qatar is also gradually creating a lobby in Russia.

Though trade volume between Russia and Qatar is among the lowest levels in the Arab world  $73.5 million, exceeding only Bahrain and Palestine  Qatar is the regions largest investor in the Russian economy. Last year, Russias minister of energy, Alexander Novak, hinted that Moscow and Doha were discussing joint projects that would amount to $12 billion.

Compared to its ties with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Russias relations with Kuwait do not stand out. Lavrovs Kuwait visit aligned with a session of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. The event had been delayed for more than a year, according to Al-Monitors sources, and if it were not for Lavrovs trip it might have not taken place at all.

The deliverables, however, were intentions, not real initiatives. The session's final protocol states that Russias KAMAZ car company is interested in sending installments of cars and special equipment to Kuwait, while Russian Railways is willing to launch infrastructure projects in the country. Previously, Russia planned to take part in the construction of the Trans-Arabian Railway, which would link Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE. However, this endeavor would first require regional reconciliation.

Military-technical cooperation is complicated by the US factor. Washington pressures its regional partners to block Russias entry into the Gulf market. Furthermore, US sanctions hamper the signing of new agreements and the implementation of existing agreements.

The first part of Lavrovs trip was particularly stressful, as the top Russian diplomat crammed meetings with Qatar and Saudi Arabia into a single day. The ministers route through the Gulf itself caused suspense. According to Al-Monitors sources, the Saudis were displeased that Lavrov would arrive in Riyadh directly from Doha. The sources from the Russian Foreign Ministry said this move was not meant to signal some hidden agenda and that the trips schedule had been set long ago.

Lavrov, in turn, insisted that Russia would avoid playing the mediator between Doha and its neighbors, though he admitted Moscow hopes to see the Gulf crisis resolved.

Russia does not have any initiatives of its own here, he said during a press conference in Kuwait, adding that Moscow supports Kuwaits reconciliation efforts.

Considering the bitter rivalry between Doha and Riyadh, the possibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin visiting the region became another sensitive topic. As Putins trip to Saudi Arabia is being planned, other Gulf monarchs, including the emir of Qatar, are also seeking a visit from Putin. Last summer, Nurmahmad Kholov, Russia's ambassador to Qatar, told TASS news agency that the countrys elites were awaiting Putins visit. The diplomat later said a visit may take place, given the emirs invitation, but Arab media outlets interpreted the ambassadors vague statements as an official announcement.

When asked about this matter during a press conference in Doha, Lavrovs own reaction was ambiguous.

His Highness, Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, had invited President of Russia Vladimir Putin to visit your country," Lavrov said. "Our leader accepted the request along with the invitations to a number of neighboring nations. The precise date of the trip will be set by the protocol offices of the national leaders.

Al-Monitors sources claim that Putins trip to Qatar has not been planned and that the current priority was to justify such a visit to Saudi Arabia. The visit was supposed to take place last winter, but had been delayed multiple times. One alleged reason for the delays is the absence of potential deliverables from the trip. Basically, theres nothing big for Putin to sign there. Al-Monitors sources in the RDIF said, however, that several projects were being prepared for the visit.

As for Lavrov's political agenda in the Gulf, he addressed the conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Palestine at each visit. Lavrov was particularly eager to discuss the Palestinian issue in the context of President Donald Trumps deal of the century, making his most vivid comments on the issue in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.

He said that efforts were being made to "turn this [Arab] initiative upside down, at first normalizing relations between the Arab nations and Israel and only then considering whether it is necessary to work with Palestinians, Lavrov said in Riyadh.

The discussions on Syria were more complicated. Lavrov was hoping to have his Gulf counterparts publicly announce Syrias return to the Arab League. Qatar gave the Russian diplomat the cold shoulder, giving an adamant no, whereas the Saudis and Emiratis reacted more vaguely. Lavrov has repeatedly thanked Riyadh for its commitment to encourage the Syrian opposition residing in Saudi Arabia to make constructive contributions to the political process. Lavrov met a Syrian opposition delegation led by Nasr al-Hariri in Saudi Arabia.

Kuwait, in this respect, was in tune with Russia on nearly all the significant issues. This became obvious during Lavrovs press conference with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah. The latter said his country will be happy to see Syria back in the Arab family. By that time, Lavrov had spent almost a week discussing Syrias return to the Arab League and was certainly willing to share this happiness.
Turkey is increasingly becoming a blacked-out country in terms of news reporting. With scores of media outlets shut down since 2016, Turkeys mainstream media has come fully under government control, and now things are getting tougher for the foreign press as well. Government officials had targeted foreign journalists directly or used various methods to pressure them in the past, but Ankaras refusal to renew accreditations is making their work in Turkey altogether impossible.

The problem, which has been going on for several months, came to the fore Feb. 28 at a high-level economic meeting between European Union and Turkish officials in Istanbul. A number of journalists, including reporters for prominent German media such as Suddeutsche Zeitung, ZDF, Tagesspiegel and ARD, were barred from the event, which led EU Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen to publicly chide the restrictions. Katainen said he deeply regretted the barring of the journalists, adding that the EU was working with Turkish authorities to make sure freedom of the press is respected.

In response, Turkeys Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak acknowledged the accreditation controversy. Some [reporters] have had their accreditations renewed. As you see, they are here, freely asking questions, he said. The accreditations of others have not been renewed. Every countrys press freedom functions according to its own rules. Some may have [their accreditations] renewed and can attend next year, and some may not.

The real issue here is not about the ability of accredited journalists to freely ask questions, but the arbitrariness seen in the renewal of the government-issued press cards. Moreover, the problem is not limited to just several journalists.

Thomas Seibert, Tagesspiegels Turkey correspondent for more than two decades, Jorg Brase, the ZDFs Istanbul bureau chief, and Halil Gulbeyaz, a reporter for the NDR channel, were notified in early February that their renewal applications had been rejected. According to the Foreign Media Association, renewal applications by at least 50 reporters from various countries remain unanswered since Dec. 31. Among them are Turkey veterans such as German journalist Susanne Gusten, who has never encountered such a problem before during her 22 years in the country.

How many of those journalists will have their accreditations extended remains unknown. The denial of accreditation effectively prevents foreign reporters from doing their jobs, but beyond that, it makes their stay in Turkey impossible because press cards are the prerequisite for residence permits. Hence, those denied renewal are forced to bid farewell to Turkey.

Journalists are informed of the rejections via email, with no grounds cited for the decision. The message simply reads, Your press card renewal application for the year 2019 has not been granted.

Gulbeyaz, who has already returned to Berlin, told Al-Monitor, I was sent a brief message with no reason cited. The channel I work for protested and wrote a letter. The legal department will now appeal the decision. If we fail to obtain a result, we wont be able to work in Turkey.

Gulbeyaz believes his accreditation was terminated because of reports not to the governments liking. Documentaries I did about violations of human rights and press freedom could have caused annoyance. But thats our job  our reports can be both positive and negative, he said, If they are sanctioning us only on the basis of our critical reports, thats wrong. I did many cultural programs that contributed to Turkeys promotion and I had received many positive reactions for them.

Unlike the other German reporters, Gulbeyaz is of Turkish descent and a former Turkish citizen, which entitles him to residence rights in the country. What he hopes for, however, is to continue working as a Turkey correspondent, a post he has held for 12 years.

Press advocacy groups have called on the German government to put unequivocal pressure on Ankara. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert urged Turkey earlier this month to not obstruct the work of foreign reporters, stressing that critical reporting cannot be a reason to deny accreditations. Tagesspiegel editor-in-chief Mathias Muller von Blumencron, for his part, described the rejections as a grave intervention against press freedom.

Even before the latest controversy, Reporters Without Borders had written to the presidencys communication department, which is in charge of the press cards, asking for a transparent evaluation of applications. Its letter, too, remains unanswered.

While the government does not bother to explain the rejections, pro-government media are waging a smear campaign against their foreign colleagues. The German-language website of the Sabah daily claimed March 5 that the journalists who were denied accreditation had links to the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization, the officialese for followers of Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen; the Gulenists are held responsible for the 2016 coup attempt. The website also claimed that Tagesspiegels Seibert wrote for the Ahval news site, which is the subject of an access ban in Turkey. I have never written for Ahval, Seibert tweeted. Ahval has republished some of my articles for The Arab Weekly, without my knowledge. The Arab Weekly also issued a statement, confirming that Seibert was one of its contributors and had nothing to do with Ahval. Yavuz Baydar, Ahval's editor-in-chief, denied any connection with Gulenists. "Ahval is an independent and free news website," he told Al-Monitor, adding that they were preparing to take legal action against the claims.

Why is the government turning Turkey into a minefield for foreign reporters?

Given that European journalists in particular are being crossed off, one could interpret the accreditation denial as a form of retaliation against the EU; Turkish-EU political and diplomatic tensions have risen significantly in recent years.

German journalists Deniz Yucel and Mesale Tolu, both of Turkish descent, spent a year and eight months behind bars respectively amid storms in Turkish-German relations in 2017. They were made political bargaining chips before being released and allowed to return to Germany last year.

The score-settling with the EU aside, Ankara refuses to acknowledge its domestic problems, including a serious economic crisis, and instead is trying to black out the realities. Hence, any uncontrollable media is a serious problem for the government.

The Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders, Erol Onderoglu, said the government has turned the accreditation procedure into a tool of sanctioning and deterring journalists. He said that leaving applications unanswered or delaying decisions is the governments way of saying, We didnt like your reporting, now youve fallen into my hands.

Onderoglu told Al-Monitor that the treatment of German journalists in particular looked like a reaction against political spats with Germany. Yet the accreditation and press card problem is a general, covert way of expressing discontent with journalists, he added.

Referring to the upcoming municipal elections March 31, he said, The rejection or stalling of press card applications ahead of local elections will make things difficult for those media outlets. For a government that keeps the [Turkish] mainstream media under control, restricting the international media in a tough election season is not surprising.

Taking advantage of the state of emergency after the botched coup attempt in July 2016, Ankara shut down scores of media entities, including 31 TV channels, 34 radio stations, five news agencies, 62 newspapers and 19 magazines, and took the mainstream media under control. Now that the economic crisis is threatening to deal the ruling party electoral blows, Ankara feels compelled to scrutinize all platforms that can sway public opinion. Ankara is confident that those outside its control in the national media are not capable of such influence. And what about the foreigners? Since domestic censure mechanisms cannot extend abroad, booting foreign journalists out emerges as a convenient solution. Journalists who have managed to remain in Turkey are expected to be amenable to avoid the fate of colleagues who had to leave.

Foreign reporters have largely refrained from raising their voices thus far, hoping that silence will help them overcome problems. The fear of deportation is strong. Many journalists and writers known as Turkey experts are trying to stay away from the country, fearful of being detained or deported. Apprehension is particularly strong among those who have closely covered the Kurdish question. Some have chosen to follow Turkey and the region from Athens or Nicosia rather than Istanbul, but remain reluctant to speak out, wary of losing contacts and sources.
Prospects for improved relations between Ankara and Cairo appear dimmer than ever following the recent executions of nine men in Egypt for alleged involvement in the assassination of chief prosecutor Hisham Barakat in 2015.

Those executed were reportedly members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has close links to President Recep Tayyip Erdogans Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP).

During a live interview with CNN Turk on Feb. 23, Erdogan condemned the executions and vowed never to speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

I am answering those who ask why Tayyip Erdogan does not meet with Sisi, because there are mediators who come to us from time to time. I will never talk to someone like him, Erdogan said.

To start with, he has to declare a general amnesty and release all those in prison, he added, referring to the scores of Muslim Brotherhood members or supporters incarcerated in Egypt. If he doesnt release them we will never talk to Sisi.

Erdogan also accused the West of turning a blind eye to human rights violations in Egypt, although it rarely missed an opportunity to criticize Turkey in this regard.

The EU-Arab League summit, held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, a day after Erdogans remarks, and under the shadow of the executions in Egypt, merely added to Ankaras indignation.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Europe had reached the pinnacle of double standards by holding this summit in Egypt.

For EU leaders to go and support Sisi and to be with him in the same place at a time when nine [young men] were executed is a picture of exactly what we are saying, Cavusoglu said.

Commentators in the pro-government media were quick to take the cue from Erdogan and Cavusoglu. Selcuk Turkyilmaz, a columnist for the Islamist Yeni Safak daily, established a link between the EU-Arab League summit and the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.

The execution of nine innocent young people in Egypt also shows what awaited Turkey after 2016 [if the coup attempt had not failed], Turkyilmaz wrote.

He claimed that by attending the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, EU leaders endorsed the executions in Egypt. Turkyilmaz recalled how the EU had also chosen to remain silent as the abortive coup attempt in Turkey was underway.

The state of Turkish-Egyptian ties has changed little since Sisi toppled the countrys democratically elected Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi  a close ally of Erdogan  in a military coup in 2013.

All attempts at rapprochement have been rebuffed by Ankara. Erdogans latest remarks show that the situation is unlikely to change soon.

During the now all-but-forgotten Arab Spring, Ankara was confident its close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood would secure its entry to the Middle East as a game-changing power.

Ankaras reliance on Arab streets to force undemocratic regimes to be toppled one by one, and replaced by elected Islamist governments, proved to be the historically flawed premise on which its dreams in the Middle East foundered.

It is not clear what Turkey has gained from its current policy, but it is evident what it has lost.

Its mistaken assumptions came to a head with the coup in Egypt. After Morsis electoral victory in 2012, Ankara invested most of its regional expectations in Egypt. Egypt, however, ended up being the country that ended these flawed expectations.

While the Egyptian coup dealt the first blow to these expectations, the second blow came when most of the regions Sunni Arab regimes, starting with Saudi Arabia, supported Sisis takeover. The third blow came with the banning of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group by many Arab states, with a few exceptions, like Qatar.

Many analysts cautioned at the time that historic undercurrents in the Middle East should not be underestimated. These included Arabism and Arab nationalism, as well as the abhorrence among Arab regimes of political Islam, which they feared would undermine the regions existing order.

Ankaras misconceptions have now come home to roost. Turkey is more isolated in the Middle East than it ever was in the past due to its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that most Arab leaders consider to be an existential threat.

This support has also left Ankara facing accusations of backing terrorism. Cairo repeated this accusation in its response to Erdogans remarks about Sisi.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said in a statement that Erdogan had shown his hatred for Egypt. He added that Erdogan also expressed his continued embrace of the terrorist Brotherhood group.

In an effort to turn the tables on Ankara, Hafez said Turkey has 70,000 political prisoners in addition to imprisoning 175 Turkish journalists. Additionally, around 130,000 government employees have been fired over alleged links to the 2016 coup attempt.

"This narrative illustrates the lack of credibility of what the Turkish president is promoting," Hafez said.

Despite his refusal to normalize ties with Cairo, Erdogan is facing a dilemma. Far from being isolated in the world, Egypt is making headway internationally, as demonstrated by its hosting of the EU-Arab League summit.

It has also established alliances with Turkeys rivals  Greece, Cyprus and Israel  to jointly extract, process and supply natural gas from rich resources discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Many former Turkish diplomats and independent analysts agree that Ankaras ostracizing of Cairo at a critical time in the Middle East is working against Turkeys interests.

Retired Ambassador Suha Umar, who has served in Amman, pointed first to the irony of Erdogans blasting Sisi for the executions in Egypt.

There may be moral basis to [Erdogans] remarks, but he himself said after the coup attempt [in Turkey] that he would willingly sign the return of the death penalty if this was brought before him, Umar told Al-Monitor.

Umar said that historically speaking Turkey, along with Egypt and Iran, was always a player in the Middle East, a position that required Ankara to tread cautiously in its dealings in the region in the past.

What the AKP did, however, was to start interfering in the domestic affairs of Arab countries and this lost it its regional influence, Umar said.

For Turkey to be at loggerheads with the regions most influential powers is not a clever move, he added, pointing to the strains in Turkeys ties with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Umar believes that Ankaras ties with Tehran are also not as rosy as the government is trying to present.

By all means, criticize Egypt if you must, but do this diplomatically without harming Turkeys interests. That is the aim of foreign policy, Umar said.

According to political science professor Ilter Turan, from Istanbuls Bilgi University, Egypt under Sisi prevented Turkey from establishing the Sunni bloc it desired in the Middle East. Erdogan is finding it hard to come to terms with this, Turan told Al-Monitor.

Turan added that Turkey had also expected major economic gains from Egypt after the Arab Spring but this also fell through due to Ankaras policies. Meanwhile, Egypt is working with Israel, Greece and Cyprus to prevent Turkey from participating in Eastern Mediterranean energy projects, Turan said.

Turan added that because of Egypts influential regional position, Ankaras relations with the Arab world were also being harmed by its ostracism of Cairo.

Underlining that Turkey has no chance of influencing events in Egypt, Turan said, It is not clear what Turkey has gained from its current policy, but it is evident what it has lost.
A birthday cake is placed at the conference table at WomanTV, a three-month-old news station that provides in-depth coverage of womens issues in Turkey. Men and women, mostly in their early 30s, wait for Duygu Ozel Tapan to get out of the studio so they can cut the cake that will mark the presenters birthday.

It is a good team  we both work hard and enjoy working together, Ahu Ozyurt, the editor-in-chief of WomanTV, told Al-Monitor. We are around 60 people  men and women of all ages. It is a channel about womens issues, but we have never intended it to be a women-only team. Our aim is to change the language of coverage on women  which seems to center around women as either victims of violence or happy consumers of cooking or fashion programs on TV.

WomanTVs broadcasts started Dec. 24 against a gloomy backdrop of increasing femicides and domestic violence in the country. According to the We Will Stop Femicides Platform, a non-governmental group with a strong organization and network all around Turkey, 440 women were killed by men in 2018. Femicides in 2019 so far number 86. On March 8, International Women's Day, WomanTV, like most TV stations in Turkey, started the morning news with a report that a Mongolian woman had been killed by her boyfriend in Istanbul.

Although violence is perceived as the biggest problem of women in Turkey, according to a 2018 poll by Kadir Has University, women of the country suffer from inequality on a wide range of issues from employment to political rights. The World Economic Forums gender gap index placed Turkey at 130th place among 149 in 2018. While recording progress on closing its gender gap in labor force participation as well as professional and technical roles, the report warns of worsening wage inequality for similar work. It also says that Turkey improved the share of women in parliament, though 17% (up from 14.7% in the previous parliament) falls considerably short of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's average of 28.8%.

WomanTV appears on Turkey's troubled press landscape at a time of increased state censorship and the concentration of Turkish media organs in the hands of businessmen who support the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). In April 2018, the countrys largest media group, Dogan Media, was bought by Demiroren Group, whose chairman Erdogan Demiroren was known for his vocal and flamboyant admiration of President Recep Erdogan. After the takeover, hundreds of journalists were either laid off or left, including Ozyurt, Dogan's Washington bureau chief 2007-2009 and anchor for CNNTURK until the sale.

Media industry insiders say that the station's owner Recep Canbolat, a journalist who served as a consultant to Binali Yildirim, ex-prime minister and current AKP candidate for Istanbul mayor, wanted to establish a news station but failed to get authorization from the Turkish Radio and Television Authority, the countrys media watchdog. Canbolat then changed his plans.

A specialized channel on women is actually a new avenue for many of us, admitted Ozyurt, pointing out that many members of the team previously worked for mainstream news outlets. The station's president, Ali Guven, was CNNTURKs news coordinator.

Ozyurt said that working outside the fast pace of breaking news gives us a great deal of liberty," explaining, "We can go in depth on key issues relevant for women. We do not need to cover a femicide in five minutes, then move on to the next breaking news.

Guven agreed. One of my favorite broadcasts was when we had as a guest Ismail Cet, the father of Sule Cet, a university student who allegedly committed suicide by throwing herself off a building in Ankara, Guven said. We were able to get his side of the story and the judicial process. We in the studio were genuinely moved by his story, his pain.

The Sule Cet case has become a rallying point about femicides, which are often hushed up, particularly when the men accused are prominent members of society and the victim had known or agreed to be alone with them. In the case of Cet, two businessmen stand trial for rape and murder of the 20-year-old university student. The accused claim that they tried stop Cet from committing suicide.

While crimes against women, legal rights and health issues feature high on the agenda, both Ozyurt and Guven are quick to note that they will not indulge in pessimism. We want to showcase strong, successful and brilliant women, Ozyurt told Al-Monitor. We want to give hope and motivation to women in the country with compelling success stories. We want to convey the success of the amputee swimmer, women farmers who are involved in ecotourism in Anatolia or students who study robotics.

But the team is aware that it needs to thread carefully in politics  particularly with the upcoming local elections on March 31. We do not avoid political issues, we simply cannot, Ozyurt said. We cover the new vegetable stalls, violence against women or equality at work. But we do not invite politicians, particularly electoral candidates, as guests. We want to come across as above political partisanship.
The decision of the Donald Trump administration to close the US Consulate in Jerusalem that served the Palestinian population and merge it with the US Embassy has prompted strong reactions from former US diplomats. The Americans, many of whom served in the mission, made strong public statements critical of the move. Some anticipated its reversal if a Democratic candidate wins the next US presidential elections.

Daniel Shapiro, US ambassador to Israel from 2011-2017, took to Twitter, writing a series of posts outlying why the Trump administrations decision was wrong. The closure of the US consulate in Jerusalem & its merger with the US embassy to Israel is a big mistake. It undercuts what should be our strategic objective (...) by depriving us of a diplomatic structure that points toward that goal.

Shapiro, who also sat on the US National Security Council during the Barack Obama administration, revealed that Israel had not asked for such a thing before. Israel didn't care for the mission, but literally never raised it (at least in my years in gov't) as something they wanted to see changed. They wanted us talking to the Palestinians, he added.

Lara Friedman, director of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, was a diplomat at the consulate from 1992 to 1994. She told Al-Monitor that the move, coupled with the closure of the Palestinian mission in Washington, signified the United States' formal de-recognition of the Palestinians as a people.

It relegates them  for the first time in history  to the status of an internal Israeli issue, to be reported and understood exclusively through the lens of the US-Israel relationship. In so doing, this move will make the situation on the ground worse, will make the possibility of peace more remote and will further isolate the US in its self-imposed bubble of bad policies shaped not by the facts or expert, apolitical analysis, or even by US interests, but instead by the agenda of a handful of messianic ideologues, she added.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo first announced the merger in October 2018, some five months after Trump moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Angered by Trumps embassy move, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected mediation by the US administration, saying Washington was no longer qualified to serve as the sole mediator in the decades-long conflict with Israel and that an international mechanism should be devised to replace the United States in the peace process.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman closed the consulate March 4, praising the service and professionalism of Consul General Karen Sasahara. No specific new position has been announced for her yet. This decision was driven by our global efforts to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our diplomatic engagements and operations, read a US State Department statement.

But Israeli lawyer Daniel Seidmann rejects such a simplistic explanation of what he sees as a highly political move. The consulate will not merge, but it will be subsumed into the embassy to Israel, Seidmann told Arab News. This is no mere technicality, it precisely reflects current US policies: All things Palestinian are subservient to Israeli interests.

Nicholas Burns, former undersecretary of state and now a Harvard Kennedy School professor, called the closure a mistake, tweeting that all US presidents prior to Trump had understood its importance as our bridge to the Palestinian people. I was proud to serve there in the 1980s.

Dennis Ross, who served both Republican and Democratic administrations as chief peace envoy, was critical of the move, calling it unfortunate in press statements. Ross argued that Palestinians would see in the act a sign of indifference to them.

Ross believes that instead the US administration badly needed to take steps to reach out to Palestinians if it is to have any hope for its plan.

In a statement issued on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi said that the merging of the consulate with the embassy is not an administrative decision. It is an act of political assault on Palestinian rights and identity, and a negation of the consulates historic status and function, dating back nearly 200 years.

Speaking to the National Public Radio, former US diplomat Ed Abington, who served in the consulate from 1993 to 1997, noted that historically the position of Washington had been that the embassy in Tel Aviv and the consulate in Jerusalem should not be merged. He warned, The effect on our ability to deal with the Palestinians is being greatly damaged.

Gershon Baskin, founder of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, told Al-Monitor that the move is another disastrous and foolish decision by what he called the irresponsible Trump administration.

Jerusalem is not a political toy which can be played with. Any formula for peace between Israel and Palestine must be based on a model of sharing Jerusalem. This step further distances the Palestinian public from seeing the US as a possible impartial mediator (which it has never been, anyway), he added.

Hady Amr, a US diplomat who worked in the consulate from 2014 to 2017, expressed sorrow and pain in a tweet: My heart is heavy. America should be playing the taps. A place I was honored to work out of during many trips in support of [the mission of Secretary of State] John Kerry.

The Palestinian government slammed the United States for playing into the hands of the Israeli occupying power. Replacing a mission that was established in 1844 with a department dealing with Palestinian affairs within the embassy is a rejection of Palestinian statehood and the legitimate Palestinian national rights, the government said in its weekly statement.

While the critical statements from former US diplomats will do little to change the trajectory of the Trump administrations moves to appease Israel, a much bigger problem is being ignored. Closing the US mission will do little to help Israel, but will also deny US decision-makers from the crucial local reporting that the mission provided to whatever administration was sitting in Washington. The closure of the consulate was a self-destructive act with little benefit to show for it.
Update: Casey has been found and is safe, police said Friday.

Earlier: The Birmingham Police Department was asking the publics help in finding a 65-year-old man who disappeared Monday.

Preston Lee Casey was last seen Monday leaving his home near 42nd Street Southwest and Viola Avenue to walk to a doctors appointment, police said.

Casey was described as a black male with gray hair and brown eyes. He is 6-foot-1 inches tall and weighs 139 pounds.

Authorities did not have a clothing description for Casey but said the 65-year-old was known to carry a metal walking cane.

Anyone with information about Caseys wherabouts was asked to call police at 205-297-8435 or 911. Anyone with additional investigation into the case was asked to call Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
White nationalists rallying in Charlottesville, Virginia, 2017 Photo: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The Democratic Party spent the week working through an ugly internal drama arising from Representative Ilhan Omars depiction of supporters of the U.S. alliance with Israel as promoting allegiance to a foreign country. Pro-Israel Democrats wanted to get the party on record calling such claims a form of anti-Semitism. Omars allies rallied around her.

Democrats managed to smooth it over with an anti-hate resolution, first incorporating more fulsome disavowals of anti-Muslim bigotry, and then language denouncing bigotry against  basically everybody (African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other people of color, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and others). The resolution declared Nazis are bad, Martin Luther King Jr. was good, and  the real heart of the matter  rejected the pernicious myth of dual loyalty and foreign allegiance, especially in the context of support for the United States-Israel alliance.

It was a very Democratic Party solution. Adding to the comedy, 23 House Republicans voted no on the resolution, joined by a judicious abstention from white nationalist Steve King. Amazingly, after spending days focusing relentlessly on Omars comments, Republicans voted against a resolution specifically deeming those comments to be anti-Semitic. And their stated reason is that the resolution also attacked other kinds of racism.

Louie Gohmert says he will vote against the resolution, because it now "defends just about everything" instead of just anti-Semitism.  Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) March 7, 2019

Possibly their actual gripe was that the resolution noted, On August 11 and 12, 2017, self-identified neo-Confederates, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and Ku Klux Klansmen held white supremacist events in Charlottesville, Virginia, where they marched on a synagogue under the Nazi swastika, engaged in racist and anti-Semitic demonstrations and committed brutal and deadly violence against peaceful Americans.

The House resolution vote had good people on both sides. But all the bad people were on the Republican side.

Some conservative attacks on the resolution have revealed the hollow bad faith of their objections. Ben Shapiro calls it a sham resolution constructed to shield an open anti-Semite. Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly Strassel complains that it mentioned the Nazi rally in Charlottesville:

So just to be clear: A Somali-American Democrat engages in repeated anti-Semitism, and Democrats pass a resolution that condemns "white supremacists" (and gets in a reference to Charlottesville).  Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) March 7, 2019

The resolution did not shield Omar. It specifically cited the form of anti-Semitism she employed, even repeating her exact terms and specifically defining them as a kind of anti-Semitism. This was a step several presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren refused to take. Both Warren and Sanders released statements portraying Omar as having been smeared as an anti-Semite for her innocent criticisms of Israel. The House resolution plainly contradicted that stance.

Now, what about the fact that the resolution also highlighted other kinds of bigotry? That does not undermine its renunciation of Omars anti-Semitic remark. It does reveal a lot about where her right-wing critics are coming from, though.

Omars allies kept deflecting the question of her anti-Semitism to the worse bigotry on the right. Bringing up the other sides flaws is inadequate as a substitute for addressing your own. But its fine if you do it in addition to addressing your own.

And it is actually true that the Republican Party is far more bigoted, in far more ways, and that Omars use of anti-Semitic tropes is hardly the gravest crisis of racism in the United States. Its notable that the formal denunciation of anti-Islamic bigotry, a widespread and serious phenomenon that George W. Bush tried to halt but which has been stoked by Donald Trump, has never passed Congress before last night. Republicans blocked such an effort in 2016.

Republicans may be offended that the resolution mentions a Nazi rally. But the fact that Trump is the first president to inspire Nazis to rally to his side is hardly irrelevant to the issue of bigotry. And their objection to its inclusion highlights the bad faith of their whole effort. Their real goal is not to oppose dual-loyalty smears. Its to focus single-mindedly on this one form of bigotry as a way of excusing the bigotry on their own side.

This was not a fight over whether Democrats are as compromised by bigotry as the Republicans. It was a fight over how much higher its standards would remain. The answer is: much higher.

This post has been updated throughout.
A drawing made by two north Alabama high school students of a black friend and classmate that featured images of the Ku Klux Klan and a burning cross is under investigation by the Marshall County Sheriffs Office.

We had an incident where two students developed a drawing of another student and it had some threatening language on there as well as some racial comments, Marshall County Schools Superintendent Cindy Wigley told AL.com news partner WHNT 19 in Huntsville. Its very inappropriate and its just something that were not going to tolerate.

The principal at Douglas High School notified Wigley about the racially charged drawing shortly after it was made around noon Wednesday, according to WHNT.

I immediately called the sheriffs department and law enforcement, and they reacted immediately and they had investigators on scene [Thursday] morning at 7:30, Wigley told the station.

The students who allegedly made the drawing will not be allowed on the Douglas High School campus while the investigation is ongoing, the superintendent said.

Were going to do our investigation and if any charges or if anything happens well refer to the DAs office and the juvenile authorities," Marshall County Sheriff Phil Sims told WHNT.
Alabamas Kelsey Barnard Clark is really cookin on Top Chef.

Clark, executive chef and owner of KBC in Dothan, is one of three finalists on the Bravo reality series this season.

She clinched that spot tonight, competing in an episode called The Tao of Macau. Although most of Season 16 was filmed in Kentucky, the top five finalists on Top Chef traveled to Macau, China, for the last few episodes.

Clark whipped up dishes for two challenges on the 7 p.m. program: a breakfast parfait using durian fruit for the initial Quickfire challenge and a low country boil with Asian ingredients for the crucial Elimination challenge. The decision-makers on "Top Chef -- Tom Colicchio, Nilou Motamed, Padma Lakshmi and guest judge Abe Conlon -- praised her low country boil, for the most part, although some found the flavors rather intense.

Clark is one of 15 contestants originally chosen for Season 16 of Top Chef, which was filmed in 2018. Shes also the only Alabama chef on the show this season. Over the past 13 episodes, Clark had risen to the top of the pack, along with Michelle Minori of San Francisco, Eric Adjepong of Washington, D.C., and Sara Bradley of Paducah, Kentucky.

Minori was eliminated on tonights program, leaving Clark, Bradley and Adjepong to compete in the finals on March 14. The winner of Top Chef receives $125,000 and a prize package. Clark and Adjepong are also in the running for the title of fan favorite, determined by viewer votes. The winner receives $10,000.

On the website for KBC, a restaurant, bakery and catering company, Clark is described as a small town girl, big city chef. Shes an Atlanta native who was raised in Dothan, according to her bio on the Alabama Gulf Seafood website, where she was featured as Chef of the Month in December 2018. Clark attended Auburn University, but left college to train at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. When she returned to her hometown, Clark started a catering company, then founded KBC Butcher Block on Westgate Parkway in Dothan. KBC followed at 151 N. Foster St., and its now Clarks primary focus as a chef.

Heres Clarks official bio from the Top Chef website:

Kelsey Barnard Clark is a born and raised 'Gulf Southerner from Dothan, Alabama. She got her start in the food industry as a middle school student with a baking obsession and catered her first wedding at age 15. Kelseys most impressionable memories were made at the beach catching, gutting and eating fresh fish with her large family. At 20 years old, Kelsey dropped out of college and left the deep South to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. While in New York, she fine-tuned her skills and learned the art of elevated food by working under Gavin Kaysen at Cafe Boulud and then in pastry at John Frasers Dovetail. Kelseys passion is cooking from the heart, and from her memory. Her dishes are inspired by Southern classics with her French techniques sprinkled throughout. Kelsey runs her restaurant and catering company, KBC, in Alabama with her husband, baby Monroe and two horse-dogs.

Win or lose, Clark will be celebrated on March 14, the evening of the Top Chef finals, at a street festival hosted by the Dothan Convention and Visitors Bureau. The free festival will be held on North Foster Street, 6 p.m.-10 p.m., and include music, food vendors, presentations and a shelter pet adoption event. TV screens will be set up along the street, so people can watch Top Chef, according to the Visit Dothan website.

Theres also an wrap party at The Grand on Foster, an event space in Dothan at 170 N. Foster St. The 8:30 p.m. event includes music by the KJAMS, a champagne toast and an appearance by Clark. Tickets are $50, available via the KBC website. Proceeds will benefit area animal shelters.

Video: See Clark work with durian, a fruit thats native to Southeast Asia, in the Quickfire challenge from tonights episode.
Two Alabama Congressmen were among 23 Republicans who voted against an anti-hate resolution, saying it didnt go far enough to condemn comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Muslim representative from Minnesota.

Reps. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, and Mike Rogers, R-Saks, were among the almost two dozen Republicans voting against the measure, which condemned anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry.

Republicans wanted Omar mentioned by name in the resolution. The Somali-born Representative has been criticized in recent weeks for what many said were anti-Semitic comments apparently questioning the loyalty of Jewish people in the U.S.

The Republican votes came after House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming rejected the measure, saying it failed to address the issue that is front and center.

Rep. Omars comments were wrong and she has proven multiple times that she embodies a vile, hate-filled, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bigotry. She deserves to be rebuked, by name, and removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee so that there is no mistake about the values and priorities that the House stands for, she said.

The final version condemned anti-Semitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values and aspirationsof the United States. In a more pointed criticism against Omar, the resolution said comments about Jews being more loyal to Israel or to the Jewish community than to the U.S. constitutes anti-Semitism.

A last-minute change by Democrats added Latinos, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, as well as the LGBT community, to the list of persecuted people targeted by white supremacists. A previous version had only included African-Americans, Native Americans, and other people of color, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, immigrants, and others, The Hill reported.

The final vote was 407-23.
A Chilton County grand jury this week refused to indict a school principal for the paddling of a 9-year-old boy with autism.

Melissa Dunaway, of Clanton, said her son was held down by two teachers while the principal paddled him five times during an incident last fall.

She said she was used to driving to Jemison Intermediate School to help calm down her son when he grew upset. Dunaway said her son, who was recently diagnosed with autism, also has severe ADHD and is prone to tantrums.

In October the schools principal, D.J. Nix, called Dunaway after the child would not settle down. A teacher had confiscated the boys Pokemon card, Dunaway said. But this time, Dunaway was in Hoover and not available to get to the school immediately. She said Nix gave her two options: he could call the police to have them address the child or he could paddle the boy.

Figuring it would be less traumatic than getting the police involved, Dunaway said she told Nix to Give him the one pop and send him back to class.

AL.com reached out to Nix and a teacher the boy said held him down, but neither responded to calls or email. Chilton County superintendent Jason Griffon said he could not comment on personnel matters.

When Dunaway arrived to pick her up her son, he was asleep. She said Nix told her everything was fine now, but that her son had run outside when he knew he was to be paddled. Dunaway said her son was quiet and reserved after they came home. But two days later she discovered bruising on her sons bottom. She asked what happened and her son told her two teachers had held him down while he was paddled five times.

AL.com reviewed photos showing significant bruising.

Dunaway filed a police report. She then questioned the child and he stated that Mr. Nix administered five hard strikes from the paddle as hard as he could. She stated that the child took off running trying to get away from the (sic) Mr. Nix, police wrote in the report.

I got called down to Butterfly Bridges [a childrens advocacy center that aids in abuse cases] they informed me and DHR that the teachers said they hit him five times and the teachers held him down, Dunaway said.

The case against Nix was heard at the grand jury on Monday and Tuesday and was ultimately dismissed on Thursday. Chief Assistant District Attorney CJ Robinson said the jury heard from witnesses and were presented with photos of the bruised boy.

It was a case where there was not an arrest on the front end, there was a report done, and 18 members of the public heard the facts, Robinson said. I respect their decision.

Dunaway said she is frustrated that Nix is still employed at the intermediate school.

I feel like I dont understand why he hasnt been arrested, Dunaway said. My son was beat, you should be taking care of the children first, not a principal that is paddle happy.

Dunaway plans to appeal. I think thats a bunch of bull. How can you see those pictures and not press charges?

Alabama is one of 19 states that allows corporal punishment in school.

Alabama law specifically gives teachers the authority to "use appropriate means of discipline up to and including corporal punishment as may be prescribed by the local board of education."

But the law does not spell out how much force is allowed.

And there have been other criminal cases involving educators. In 2015, an assistant principal at Escambia County Middle School was indicted for child abuse after paddling a fifth-grader. A judge later dismissed the case. In 2017, an assistant principal at Etowah Middle School, Nathan Ayers was indicted on felony child abuse and second-degree assault charges after he paddled a 12-year-old boy twice and left deep-tissue bruising.

While state law does not address how much force is too much, the law does say that as long as teachers follow board policy while disciplining students, they "shall be immune from civil or criminal liability."

Jemison Intermediate Schools requires parents to sign a waiver saying they will or wont allow their child to be paddled.

According to the Chilton County Schools handbook: The Board of Education permits reasonable corporal punishment. Except for those acts of conduct, which are extremely antisocial or disruptive, corporal punishment should never be used as a first line of punishment. Also, subject to this exception, it should never be used unless the student is informed beforehand that specific misbehavior could occasion its use.

Twelve of the 19 states that allow paddling are in the South. Conecuh county has the highest rates of paddling in the state according to 2013-2014 data with more than one out of three disciplinary incidents resulting in paddling.

According to a study by the United States Government Accountability Office, using data from 2013-2014, black students and students with disabilities are disproportionately disciplined in public schools, specifically paddling.

In 2017, the Alabama Association of School Boards voted to amend their stance on corporal punishment from encouraging schools to discourage corporal punishment to prohibiting. 

For Melissa Dunaway, this experience has changed her view on corporal punishment in schools. Im seriously thinking about pulling my kids out and homeschooling because I think its laziness when you result to whipping a child rather than talking to them and reasoning with them, Dunaway said.
Salacious claims levied at one of Roy Moores accusers became public Thursday in court filings of the lawsuit brought by Leigh Corfman.

The claims, which include allegations that Corfman was sexually promiscuous, were included in a motion by Moores defense team seeking a subpoena of a recording made by Breitbart News reporters in November 2017.

Matt Boyle, a Breitbart reporter, has admitted recording the Nov. 13, 2017 meeting that included former Corfman attorney Eddie Sexton, Sextons friend Gary Lantrip, Lantrip business partner Bert Davi and Breitbart reporter Aaron Klein, according to a document filed by Moores attorneys.

The date of the meeting is four days after Corfmans accusations of sexual misconduct by Moore were first reported by The Washington Post and about a month before the U.S. Senate special election in which Moore was the Republican nominee.

Moore has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Corfmans current attorney, Neil Roman, said he had no comment about the filing.

According to the motion, filed by Moore attorney Melissa Isaak, "there is much disagreement as to the content of the conversation" attended and recorded by Breitbart.

"The issuance of a subpoena to Breitbart is appropriate and necessary to resolve the disagreement regarding what was actually said during the meeting about attorney Eddie Sexton's disparagement of his own client, Leigh Corfman, regarding her sexual promiscuity over the years and regarding his testimony about disbelieving her story (alleging Moore of sexual misconduct)," the motion said.

The recording of the meeting, the motion said, would resolve any disagreement. Moore's attorneys are seeking to subpoena Breitbart News and Boyle, the reporter who recorded the meeting.

In that November meeting, Lantrip testified in his deposition taken last year that Sexton talked about having Corfman as a client in the immediate aftermath of her bombshell accusations against Moore.

At the same time, Sexton said he planned to drop Corfman as a client, according to Lantrip's deposition.

In his deposition, Lantrip testified that Sexton said Corfman had fd everybody in Gadsden, including himself. Lantrip also said in his deposition that Corfmans dad was a doctor and they used to throw sex parties when she was young so she was put in with that as a young girl and hes known her whole life.

In the meeting, Lantrip business partner Davi said that Breitbart could do the story that Sexton was dropping Corfman as a client, according to Lantrips deposition.

Sexton gave a deposition in the Corfman v. Moore lawsuit on Tuesday. According to the motion, Sexton denied speaking disparagingly about Corfman but said he had engaged in sexual intercourse with Corfman and had known her for many years. Sexton also testified earlier this week that "over the years he had heard of sex parties in Corfman's home from various members of the community and from people at the Gadsden Country Club."

Corfman grew up and lived as an adult in the Gadsden area.

Boyle, the Breitbart reporter, disputes Sexton's account of the meeting, according to the motion. Sexton "sat there talking s--- about his client" throughout the meeting, according to the motion.

The motion is asking Circuit Judge John Rochester permission to grant a foreign subpoena to Breitbart and Boyle.
Standing on a hill overlooking a debris field, President Donald Trump on Friday surveyed mangled trees and other damage that was left behind in a rural Alabama town after a powerful tornado roared through, killing nearly two dozen people.

"We saw things that you wouldn't believe," said Trump, who first glimpsed the area by helicopter before he and first lady Melania Trump arrived in Beauregard, which bore the brunt of Sunday's storm, and began meeting with victims.

[Trump lifted off in Air Force One from Georgia at 2:19 p.m.]

The president visited a section of town that has been decimated by the tornado, with houses torn from foundations and tree roots pulled from the ground. Mangled metal siding, wood planks and piping lay strewn on the ground, along with the remnants of everyday life: items of clothing, a sofa, a bottle of Lysol cleaner, and a welcome mat encrusted with dirt.

Trump was briefed by a local official as he stood outside in the open. He also met with families affected by the storm, listening to their stories and, in some cases, reaching in to offer hugs.

The president and his wife also visited a disaster relief center at Providence Baptist Church in Opelika, where people were coming in search of clothes and such basic supplies as toiletries, diapers and food.

Trump was touring rural Lee County in eastern Alabama, where 23 people were killed after Sunday's massive EF4 tornado that cut a path of destruction nearly a mile wide with 170 mph (270 kph) winds. It was one of at least 38 tornadoes confirmed to have lashed the Southeast in a deadly weekend outbreak.

Before Trump arrived in Beauregard, Renee Frazier stood amid bricks and lumber that used to be her mother's home and waved as the helicopter carrying Trump passed overhead. Minutes before, Frazier had been arguing with relatives who opposed Trump's visit, calling it more about politics than compassion.

Frazier disagreed, saying "I want the president here to see what happened to my mom's house. I want him right here on this land because my mom is about love and unity."

Down the road, where several people died, Trump supporter Bobby Spann said he hoped the president learned "how to be a Southerner, and how to respect people" during his brief visit.

Spann, 63, said he also hoped Trump realizes how much help is needed. The tornado had partially peeled away the roof of Spann's mobile home.

"Houses need to be replaced. You can't help the dead folks, but you can try to help the ones that's still living," said Spann, chewing on a yellowroot twig.

Trump has said he's instructed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to give Alabama "the A Plus treatment" as the state recovers. The Alabama damage was officially deemed a disaster on Tuesday, with Trump ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts.

Gov. Kay Ivey has also signed a disaster assistance agreement with FEMA and ordered state flags flown at half-staff until sunset Sunday.

The twister that struck Beauregard was the deadliest to hit the U.S. since May 2013, when an EF5 twister killed 24 people in Moore, Oklahoma.

The Alabama dead included four children and a couple in their 80s, with 10 victims belonging to a single extended family. Several people in Georgia were injured by twisters that also extended to Florida and South Carolina, according to the National Weather Service.

Trump had said earlier this week that the country was "sending our love and prayers to the incredible people of Alabama" and that "whatever we can do, we're doing." He was traveling to politically friendly territory: Alabama supported Trump by a wide margin in the 2016 presidential election.

He carried about 60 percent of the Lee County vote in 2016 and blue Trump flags flying outside home are a frequent sight in Beauregard.

Trump's reaction to natural disasters at times has seemed to vary depending on the level of political support he's received from the affected region.

In the months after wildfires scorched California, Trump threatened to cut off federal aid unless the state embraced forest management policies he championed.

He also engaged in a sustained back-and-forth with lawmakers from hurricane-whipped Puerto Rico, repeatedly blaming the territory for its problems and noting how much money recovery efforts had cost the federal government.

The administration at one point considered redirecting disaster aid from places like Puerto Rico and California to pay for the president's long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall. The administration ultimately chose to target other sources of federal dollars.

Trump had already been scheduled to fly south Friday for a weekend at his private Mar-a-Lago club and will head there from Alabama.

Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Beauregard, Alabama, Jonathan Lemire in New York and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
A former City of Prichard Chief of Staff plead guilty Thursday to 50 separate criminal counts of theft after entering into a blind plea deal with prosecutors and the judge in the case.

James Blackman, 30, stole in excess of $157,000 from the City of Prichard while assistant to city Mayor Jimmie Gardner, according to the Mobile District Attorneys office. He was arrested in February 2018.

Following a complaint issued in 2018, the Mobile County District Attorneys Investigative Unit and White-Collar Crime Unit began their formal investigation, said a statement from the District Attorneys office. During the course of this investigation it was discovered that the defendant used his position with the City of Prichard to unlawfully enrich himself and his immediate family.

Blackman, a former Mobile County teacher, is said to have abused his power within the city to purchase two separate properties that had outstanding tax liabilities. One property was later sold to a third party and the second was transferred to his spouse, according to court documents.

Among the array of criminal convictions for theft, Blackman was also convicted of abusing his position for personal gain as well as producing multiple fraudulent invoices.

A blind plea deal is one that comes waives a right to a jury trial but comes with no set sentence, as is often the case with deals that are made with prosecutors and judges. A blind plea means that the judge will decide Blackmans sentence.

Blackman is set to be sentenced May 5.
Developers today announced the latest building and tenant in the large commercial park they are building just outside Redstone Arsenals gates in Huntsville.

Georgia Tech Research Institute will occupy half of the space in a new building under construction at Redstone Gateway, developer Paul Adkins told a groundbreaking audience.

The new building is one story with 76,000 square feet of office space. Its scheduled to open in the fall, and developer Corporate Offices Properties Trust is in negotiations with another defense contractor for the remaining space.

COPT is a real estate investment trust registered on the New York Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of $5 billion, Adkins said. It owns and manages 8 million square feet of space.

The trust has real estate developments near Defense Department installations in Washington, northern Virginia, Maryland and San Antonio, Texas, Adkins said. Those are some pretty great peers to have, Adkins said, and it shows how much Huntsville is truly on the rise.

Adkins said the company is committed to developing a first-class, pedestrian-friendly and highly visible development that offers conveniences to attract and retain talent.

Chuck Nickey, director of operations for Georgia Tech Research Institute, said the new building will allow consolidation of existing staff. We have 75 people in town now, and were going to be moving them from multiple suites on Perimeter Parkway into the new facility and doing some prototyping and lab work, Nickey said. We do a lot of defense work in town.

Nickey said the institutes presence in Huntsville is growing and the space it is leasing in the new building is already going to be less than we need. The institute is already considering expanding, he said.

Alabama companies involved in the project include B.L. Harbert construction, Fuqua and Partners architects, Sain Associates engineering, Building & Earth engineering, GreenView Studio landscape architects and SSOE Group engineers.
Montgomerys first public charter school was given the go-ahead by the Alabama Supreme Court in a ruling on Friday, though its unclear when the school, LEAD Academy, plans to open.

Todays ruling reverses a lower court ruling that a vote to approve the charter schools application by five of the nine Alabama Public Charter School Commission members did not constitute a majority vote.

We are thrilled, LEAD board president Charlotte Meadows told AL.com, and ready to make this happen---if at all possible---but will focus on quality and success before speed.

LEAD Academy officials originally planned to open at the start of the current school year, but the lawsuit, filed by the Alabama Education Association and two Montgomery County public school employees, stalled forward progress.

The Court, in a 6-to-2 decision, ruled that because state law defines a quorum of the Commission as six members, a majority of the quorum constitutes a majority vote and the approval of LEAD Academys application stands.

The Court also ruled that state law only requires the Commission to add a local school district representative, referred to as the 11th member," to the Commission when considering an appeal of a denial of a charter school applicant by that local charter school authorizer.

In an official statement, LEAD Academy wrote, We continue to believe that this lawsuit was nothing more than an attempt to protect the status quo that for far too long has failed to put the needs of students first.

"Hopefully we can all move past the petty arguments of adults," the statement continued, "and focus our attention on what our education system should be focused on - ensuring every child in Montgomery has an opportunity to receive a high-quality education."

A spokesperson for Montgomery schools said the Board had not yet seen the ruling and would review the Courts decision.

The Alabama Education Association did not return a request for comment prior to the publication of this article.

Charter schools are public schools but have much more autonomy on issues such as hiring, curriculum and scheduling than traditional public schools. The flexibility is intended to encourage innovative programs that serve some students better than traditional schools.

In exchange for the autonomy, public charter schools are expected to meet certain benchmarks such as academic improvements. The charter school can be closed if it fails to meet those benchmarks.

Montgomery County has 10 schools that were declared failing under the Alabama Accountability Act dropping from 11 in 2018.

The Alabama Department of Education intervened in the Montgomery school system in 2017, pointing to low student achievement and financial difficulties the district was experiencing.

The Montgomery County Board of Education refused to take action on Feb. 19 to approve a contract with the Montgomery Education Foundation to convert four current public schools in the district to charter schools. State Superintendent Eric Mackey said the decision of the board was final.
A convicted murderer stabbed to death inside the St. Clair County state prison in February was denied protection by prison officials in the days and weeks before his death, according to the Equal Justice Initiative.

Steven Eric Mullins, 45, was found unresponsive Feb. 26 inside a St. Clair Correctional Facility housing area by officers responding to an assault, Alabama Department of Corrections officials announced.

Mullins was airlifted to an area hospital where he was treated for multiple stab wounds. Hospital officials later reported that Mullins had died from his injuries.

In the days and weeks before his murder, ADOC received numerous reports that Steven Mullins was at risk, had been threatened with violence, and could not live safely without protective housing. Rather than place him in a protective unit, he was placed in a dorm known for violence and serious assaults, commonly referred to as the "hot bay, an EJI statement read.

On Monday, February 25, Mr. Mullins reported to ADOC officials that he had been threatened with stabbing and sexual assault and that he needed immediate assistance from prison officials. No action was taken. He was stabbed to death the next day, the statement continued.

Asked by AL.com about the allegations, ADOC spokesman Bob Horton said only that the circumstances that led to Mullins death remain under investigation.

Charlotte Morrison, a senior attorney at EJI, told AL.com they came to believe Mullins was denied protection after investigating the death.

The EJI, a Montgomery-based nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners. has been monitoring reports of threats and violence inside Alabama prisons. In December, the EJI released a report stating Alabamas prisons have the highest homicide rate in the country.

We are taking reports every day from every facility, Morrison said. Our finding is (Mullins) made these requests for safety and protection.

Morrison visited the St. Clair prison on Thursday and says the facility poses a threat to inmates, staff and the public. She says Mullins was the fourth person stabbed to death at the prison in six months.

Its very understaffed. There are daily stabbings and there are constant threats of violence. They are unable to perform basic security functions. We believe an emergency exists at St. Clair, Morrison said.

AL.com journalist Carol Robinson contributed to this report.
Former Vice-President Joe Biden. Photo: Nati Harnik/AP

The 2020 election is still 20 months away, but theres already reason to worry for Democrats: The front-runner for the nomination for a major political party is a white septuagenarian who has openly praised white supremacists and called for the unchecked empowerment of demonstrably racist law-enforcement entities. I refer to, of course, Joe Biden.

Its a troubling development in the age of mass incarceration and Unite the Right, and to be fair, Biden is undecided about whether he will actually seek the presidency. But speculation has reached a fever pitch of late, with the New York Times reporting on Thursday that the former vice-president is 95 percent committed to running. And theres reason for him to believe his prospects are good: Biden leads the field of would-be nominees in poll after poll. We need a nominee who can speak to the whole country, who can speak to the electorate that the party has been losing, a firefighters union leader told the Times, and that quite frankly includes some of my members that were once dependable Democrats.

Indeed, Biden has cultivated an image as a down-to-earth straight talker with roots in the white working class  which has led some to argue that hes the Democratic candidate best-equipped to lure such voters away from Trump. But his popularity also hints at a prospect that seems, on its face, counterintuitive: Despite the outrage directed by liberals and others at Trumps racism, Biden is far from his polar opposite. On the contrary, he shares several of the presidents blemishes. Perhaps thats the point  polling indicates that ousting Trump is the Democrats top priority, even more so than supporting a candidate who shares their values. Still, its ironic that, if Biden runs and his current polling lead holds, the Democrats would nominate a man who is, of all their available options, arguably the most similar to the president theyre seeking to depose.

A big portion of Bidens polling dominance can no doubt be attributed to name recognition. Aside from Bernie Sanders  who, incidentally, is a close second to Biden in most polls  the former vice-president is the best-known contender in the field. But the reason everyone knows who Biden is may be even more important: He served for eight years as the second-in-command to President Obama, a figure upon whom almost Christlike reverence and liberal nostalgia is lavished. I think hed have a big advantage because of his name recognition and because of the imprimatur of the Obama vice presidency, Al Sharpton told the Times. As such, Bidens success in the polls may not reflect actual support for his politics  which is encouraging, because it grows clearer by the day that Obama was the redeeming factor Uncle Joes otherwise smudge-ridden political legacy needed.

Bidens affiliation with the black former president  to whom he once referred as the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean  seems, for example, to have dimmed the collective liberal memory of his affection for white supremacists like Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms. In 2003, he eulogized Thurmond, the former segregationist senator from South Carolina who, in preparation for Thurmonds record-smashing filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957, reportedly took steam baths every day to dehydrate his body so it could absorb fluids without his having to leave the Senate chamber for the bathroom. He was one complex guy, Biden said during Thurmonds eulogy. He lived a long and good life. During a May 2015 address to Yale University graduates, the then-vice-president said similarly of his relationship with Helms  the late North Carolina senator whose weaponization of racist voter-suppression tactics is legendary  Never once have I questioned another mans or womans motive before getting to know them. Because when you question a mans motive, Biden elaborated, its awful hard to reach consensus.

Reaching consensus with white supremacists is probably among the last items on most Democrats 2020 wish lists. Yet many of them are on track to nominate a man to defeat Trump whose insistence that some white supremacists are okay guys is not substantively different from the presidents claim that there were very fine people on both sides of a white supremacist rally. Bidens affection for these men was more than just rhetorical: In the mid-1970s, he shared their politics as a vocal opponent of busing measures intended to integrate public schools. The parallels dont stop there: Trumps invocation of Richard Nixons 1968 call to reinstate law and order in 2016 would have resonated with Biden circa 1989, when he characterized as soft then-President George H.W. Bushs billion-dollar investment in the War on Drugs. [The] Presidents plan does not include enough police officers to catch the violent thugs, enough prosecutors to convict them, enough judges to sentence them or enough prison cells to put them away for a long time, Biden said.

Times change, of course, as do people: Biden and Trump diverge in notable ways. The former vice-president has expressed qualified regret with his role in promoting mass incarceration. He has been a vocal advocate for preventing sexual assault on college campuses, and worked to expand voting rights and end employment discrimination and supported affirmative action during his time as a U.S. senator. Conversely, Trumps behavior cannot be dismissed as a product of its time; indeed, it very much defines and enables his present.

But no would-be Democratic nominee has remotely as much baggage as Biden does. And in a field that includes firebrand leftists and comparatively youthful nonwhite prospects, the 76-year-olds demographic profile, past support for racist policies, affection for flagrant white supremacists, and disconcerting behavior toward women marks him as the most Trump-adjacent challenger the Democrats could conjure. This may all be a moot point. Who is to say that Biden will be the last Democrat standing once the dust clears next summer? Assuming he runs, there are several worthy opponents who could resonate more with primary voters. His path to the nomination is rocky, to say the least. And should he reach the general election, he would be meet an opponent in Trump who is notorious for defying expectations.

Yet if nothing else, Bidens relevance illustrates the degree to which the terms of the conversation have been shifted by Trumps success. Ten years ago, the Obama presidency seemed to open the door to myriad less-conventional prospects than even himself  women of color or LGBTQ candidates, for example. Instead, the rise of a reactionary white conservatism has forced liberals and progressives into a defensive crouch. Rather than pushing the envelope further, Democrats in particular must weigh the strategic merits of running candidates over the next handful of elections who are not closer to some egalitarian ideal, but merely incrementally less like Trump. There is reason for optimism. Trump is unpopular, and the Democratic field boasts the most progressive candidates it has run in decades, including possibly Americas first black woman major-party nominee. But it was not long ago that nearly half of the voting public  and the majority of white voters  sent an openly racist and misogynist to the White House. If winning back those same voters from him requires gentle coaxing by Democrats rather than a dramatic about-face, then Biden might be Trump-like enough to get the job done.
A Decatur man has been indicted on federal charges after authorities say he planned to livestream minor children engaged in sexual conduct.

Benjamin Eugene Walter, 38, was arrested Thursday, according to a joint announced by the U.S. Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and FBI Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp Jr.

The indictment against Walter was issued on Feb. 27. He is charged with five counts of production of child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of receipt of child pornography.

The indictment alleges that, between Nov. 2013 and July 2014, Walter used and attempted to use five minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of transmitting a live visual depiction of such conduct. Additionally, records state, distributed child pornography in December 2015 and received child pornography between November 2013 and December 2015.

"Preying on young children for the sexual gratification of others is simply repulsive,'' Town said. Anyone in this district engaged in this sort of sordid behavior can expect to be charged, expect to be tried and, when convicted, expect a long stay in federal prison.

This investigation is a part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

The FBI is investigating the case. Trial Attorney William M. Grady of the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Leann White are prosecuting the case.

Federal authorities do not release the mugshots of suspects. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
A man whose first murder trial in the 2017 killing of a teen in Tarrant ended in a hung jury was acquitted by a Jefferson County jury on Thursday.

Daniel Lee Jelks, aka Two Gunz Vito, was found not guilty in the shooting death of 17-year-old Ralph Woodfin III, the nephew of Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. The trial began Monday in the courtroom of Jefferson County Circuit Judge Shanta Craig Owens.

Jurors heard three days of testimony as well as opening statements and closing arguments before delivering the verdict Thursday morning, according to court records.

The 26-year-old Tarrant man has been in and out of jail for the past two years following the deadly shooting at his Thomason Avenue home. The shooting happened about 2:30 p.m. on August 11, 2017. When police arrived on the scene, Woodfin was found dead on the back porch of the home, a weapon lying next to him. Jelks told police Woodfin was trying to rob him at gunpoint; police said the two were arguing over guns and a stolen car.

Prosecutors said Woodfin was at Jelks home in a stolen Jeep and was trying to leave when the car got stuck in the yard. A neighbor came over to help the teenager, and asked Woodfin to get a chain so they could pull the car out.

At some point shortly after Jelks went inside his house, Woodfin went around to the back porch of Jelks' home and was at the back door--the bottom third of which was chewed away by dogs--when Jelks shot four times through the door.

Woodfin was struck twice and was pronounced dead at the scene. Jelks called police and said he shot Woodfin because the teen was trying to rob him. Prosecutors said the teen was looking for a chain on the back porch.

Jelks was initially arrested on Aug. 13, 2017 and released from the Jefferson County Jail on Dec. 31, 2017 after posting $250,000 bond. He had previously asked for a bond reduction, but now-retired Judge Laura Petro denied that request and kept Jelks' bond set at $250,000. In that order, she cited Jelks' "reputation with the Tarrant Police Department" as partial reason to keep the bond which was higher than the suggested range for the murder charge.

In March 2018, Jelks was sent back to the Jefferson County Jail after authorities said he was caught on a video brandishing a gun and making threats. According to Petro's order in that incident, Jelks while out on bond made a video visitation call to an unnamed inmate by using someone else's registration. Petro noted that while Jelks was with others in the vehicle, he was the dominant person in the conversation.

"The defendant brandished more than one semi-automatic weapon and high-capacity magazines and referenced his ability to 'stop a motor' using them,'' Petro wrote in her order. "Jelks also inferred that he could 'take care of' a witness coming to testify against one of the inmates participating in the (video) visit."

At an earlier hearing in the murder case, Petro stated, Tarrant police testified that Jelks "had a bad reputation with that department for selling drugs, having large numbers of people frequent his home in the Tarrant community, and the numerous 911 calls regarding shots fired and assaults at his residence."

His June 2018 trial ended in a hung jury. A previous court order issued by Petro noted the majority of jurors voted not guilty in the case against Jelks.

In July 2018, Petro added an electronic monitor to Jelks' $280,000 bond, putting him on house arrest and allowing him to leave only for meetings with his attorney or a medical emergency. "The court is aware that it is setting these bonds is contrary to the law which does allow victims or their family representatives a chance to be in court for a bond hearing to let their voice be heard,'' Petro wrote then. "However, during the trial (which resulted in a hung jury) the behavior of the friends, family members and other representatives of both the victim and the defendant's caused this court great concern for safety in having another public hearing on this matter."

He was arrested again in October 2018 after authorities say he removed his electronic monitoring device and spent nearly two months on the run. He was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force on Scenic View Drive. The suspect ran into a back bedroom but was arrested without further incident.

He had been sought by lawmen after Petro revoked his bond on the murder charge because he had been arrested by Birmingham police on drug charges. Jelks was arrested in August for possession of hydrocodone. He was booked in to the Jefferson County Jail and released on $5,000 bond while, at the same, prosecutors were asking for his bond to be revoked. He has not yet gone to trial on the drug charges.

Jelks' attorney, Erskine Mathis, in August filed a motion to dismiss the murder charge under the state's Stand Your Ground law. Following Thursdays verdict, Mathis said the killing happened during a home invasion and the jury came to the right verdict.

Jail records indicate Jelks remains held without bond on three charges of failure to appear and one charge of first-degree robbery.
Several large explosions sparked a fire at the Grand Mariner Marina in Mobile County on Thursday afternoon, severely damaging the pier and destroying several boats.

The fire started on a marine vessel and has spread to nearby structures, according to the Mobile Fire Department. Thick plumes of black smoke can still be seen for miles.

No injuries were reported in the incident, the department and EMTs said.

The marinas roof partially collapsed and a portion of the structure was wilted from the blaze.

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was seen circling the scene from above; eight fire engines were on the scene.

Firefighters battle a blaze at the Grand Mariner Marina in Mobile County on Thursday afternoon.

City of Mobile first responders are at the scene, while U.S. Coast Guard boats and a helicopter were also at the scene.

The fire is at the 6000 Block of Rock Point Road, nest to the south side of the Dauphin Island Bridge.

This is a developing story and will be updated.
In our Alice in Wonderland hyper partisan world, where issues swirl around like Disneylands Mad Hatters Tea Cup Ride, and journalists, pundits and politicians approach the events that move us with their Whack-a-Mole mallets, the subject of criticism of Israel has now bubbled up again for discussion.

In the next few paragraphs, I want to put out a primer on what this one rabbi believes is acceptable grounds for debate, and what really should be off limits. I am speaking for myself only. I do not represent all Jews. I do not represent Democrats or Republicans. I am only trying to lay the groundwork for sane and rational debate.

1. It is permissible to criticize the government of Israel and its leaders. Israel is a democracy. Israelis criticize their government and their leaders. Unlike so many countries in the world, Israel has a vibrant press and a discerning public that expresses its views freely and passionately. Being a democracy, Israeli governments and leaders assume power and are relieved of power peacefully. This is unique in Israels neighborhood. And this peaceful transfer of power is not a widespread phenomenon among the family of nations.

2. It is not permissible to criticize the existence of the State of Israel, now 70 years old. Israel is a strong and vibrant nation today and home to almost nine million people. It exists as a Jewish state that protects the rights of minorities. If the very existence of the State of Israel is illegitimate, just what do Israels detractors have in mind for the safety and welfare of the Jews and all people who live there today? It would also be good if the criticisms leveled at Israel were leveled equally to her detractors.

3. It is permissible to criticize Israels continued occupation of territories captured in 1967. Few Israelis enjoy occupying people not their citizens.

4. It would be helpful for those who criticize the occupation to acknowledge that Israeli did retreat from the Sinai and did disengage from Gaza in 2005--with horrendous consequences. Do put forward a plan how Israel could disgorge itself from the remaining territories without far worse consequences for the lives of Jews and Arabs alike. Cross boarder rockets and tunnels and incendiary kites do not build confidence that this would be a wise move today.

5. It is permissible to criticize the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

6. It would help the dialogue to acknowledge that the Palestinians will not countenance a single Jew living among them, while Israel has preserved the Arab minorities living in the majority Jewish state. There should be the same standard for all people.

7. It is permissible to believe that Israel is a burden to the American public.

8. It is also permissible to believe that Israel is Americas closest ally, and that the dependable military, security, and intelligence that flows between the two countries strengthens America and her interests.

9. It is permissible to call out the faults and imperfections in Israels civic society.

10. It is not permissible to only cast a bright light on Israels faults, and not cast the same light on other nations whose faults can be far more egregious.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, shakes hands with US National Security Advisor John Bolton, during a joint statement to the media follow their meeting, in Jerusalem, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, Pool)AP

I want to make one more point as clearly as I can. American supporters of our countrys relationship with Israel have every right to participate fully and legally in the political process. This transcends the issue of religious identity. As Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists or members of the flat earth society, all Americans are guaranteed the same right to petition our government, lobby our legislators, and work for the things we hold dear.

Pro-life and pro-choice and the NRA and the Parkland High School students and environmentalists and climate change deniers all have a right in our country to make their views known and try to influence the public at large.

Our elected officials can say whatever they want and vote however they see fit. And we can encourage or discourage their efforts and work to support them if we agree with them or vote them out of office if we disagree. Israel is Just like any other issue. Americans can support those leaders with whom they agree and oppose those with whom they disagree.

As Americans, we also have the right to call out falsehood and hatred and bigotry, whether we see it coming from the White House, the Congress or the media.

It is not permissible to accuse Jews alone of acting wickedly when we participate as Americans in the public square and encourage everyone else to do what is denied to Jews. That is anti-Semitism.

I hope this primer can be a helpful guide for constructive discussion.
Despite high, muddy water and excessive current flow, Captain Mike Gerry reports excellent bass action from Lake Guntersville, with lots of quality fish moving into the 3 to 10 foot zone in pre-spawn mode. He said the SPRO Aruku shad, a lipless rattlebait, has been the best producer in the cloudy water.

His anglers also caught fish on the Picasso Shock Blade, a bladed swimjig. Gerry reminds anglers to be very careful running any of the TVA lakes for the next few weeks due to abundant floating debris large enough to take out a lower unit.

Also from Guntersville, Captain Mike Carter has been guiding his anglers to some bass of 4 pounds and better in water 2-4 feet deep, including some that have moved into backwater areas in flooded swamps and woods. He said best action was on the Bill Lewis Echo squarebill in the shallows, and the half-ounce Rat-L-Trap in deeper areas. Carter echoes Gerrys warning on careful navigation during the flood period, citing debris floating everywhere, some of it just awash where its very hard to see, especially from a boat moving at high speed.

From Weiss Lake, guide Mark Collins reports water has dropped back to near normal level but remains muddy, and fishing is generally difficult for both bass and crappies. However, he expects crappie fishing to head rapidly toward the spring peak as soon as water returns to normal clarity. Best action is likely to start on the channel edges in 8 to 12 feet in Yellow Creek and the Bay Springs and Embo areas, where the fish can be located by very slow long-line trolling Jiffy Jigs from 1/16 to 1/24 ounce. By the end of the month, many of the fish will be headed to bays, brush piles, docks and grassy shorelines to spawn. Live minnows become the best bet during the spawn, though some anglers to well by shooting the docks with ultra-light spinning gear and tiny jigs. The bass fishing should improve rapidly with the warm, cloudy days forecast for the coming week,

Stripers will be a good target on Lewis Smith Lake as the fish move up the tributary rivers to spawnRock Creek, Brushy Creek and Sipsey River all draw lots of fish. Trolling large swimbaits or live shad on downriggers is a good way to locate the schools of fish. Spotted bass are moving into the gravel-bottom bays in pre-spawn modeshaky heads and small soft plastics on drop shot rigs are the best bet, but deep running jerkbaits can also do well in the clear waters here. Below the dam, trout fishing remains dependable on Berkley Gulp trout bait under a cork.

At Pickwick Lake, Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks reports water remains high and muddy, with dangerous current directly below the dam. However, anglers downriver are finding some quality bassit took 22 pounds to win a tournament last weekend. Alabama-rigs, lipless crankbaits, Chatterbaits, spinnerbaits and paddle tail swimbaits are good lure choices. Anglers are targeting gravel bars and other current breaks along the river. Other alternatives in cleaner water off the main river are shaky head jigs and the Ned rig. Crappie fishing is slow but should get very good as soon as the water starts to clear, trolling tiny jigs in Bear, Indian and Yellow creeks in 8 to 15 foot depths near the channel.

For those visiting the coast, Captain Bobby Abruscato reports topwater fishing for trout is just around the corner, with lunker fish moving into wade-fishing depths just off the marshes as soon as the current slug of fresh water and mud flushes out of Mobile Bay. Both trout and reds should also start schooling on bait in open water this month, as well as around the many gas rigs and artificial reefs in the lower baylive shrimp under a popping cork is the cant miss offering, but the Vudu Shrimp also catches lots of fish. Larger reds often stack up on the ends of the barrier islands at this time of yearjigs or gold spoons get them. There are pompano and lots of whiting in the surfFishBites EZ Flea artificial bait, live sand fleas or fresh-cut shrimp fished in the holes and troughs just off the beach will get them..
Nationality law bars Lebanese women married to foreigners from passing citizenship to their children.

Beirut, Lebanon  Aziza Chami wipes away tears as she describes the toll Lebanons misogynistic citizenship laws have taken on her daughter.

My daughter graduated three years ago but still cant find a job, Chami told Al Jazeera. I tried to get her work at the hospital where I have been working for 20 years as a cleaning lady, but they refused, claiming she is not Lebanese.

Chami is a Lebanese citizen. But her daughter was denied that birthright because her father  Chamis late husband  was Egyptian.

Under a law dating back to 1925, Lebanese women married to foreigners cannot confer nationality on their children and spouses, only the children of Lebanese men are eligible for citizenship.

Lebanon does extend the right to citizenship to children born in Lebanon who cannot claim citizenship elsewhere through birth or affiliation, and children whose parents are either unknown or whose parents have unknown nationality.

But children whose mothers are Lebanese and fathers are foreign are denied citizenship.

The antiquated law has been criticised for placing some children at risk of statelessness. It can also have severe implications on their quality of life.

Children denied Lebanese citizenship under the law cannot work in certain fields or access public healthcare. They also need a residence permit to stay in the country, renewable every three years.





Chami says the institutional discrimination has become too much for her daughter to bear.

This is the third time my daughter has been hospitalised for stress, but we dont have enough money to pay for it, said Chami. I no longer know what to do.

Children like Chamis daughter need a work visa to be legally employed in Lebanon; a hurdle which can make them less attractive to prospective employers.

My son tried to work in Lebanon but the companies he met with did not want to bother with all the paperwork, Nadira Nahas, a Lebanese woman married to a US citizen, told Al Jazeera.

Nahas said her son wanted to be a pilot, but when the airline he approached learned he was a US citizen, they said they could not hire him.

Now, he lives in Dubai, she said.

Some mothers try to proactively steer their children away from certain jobs to avoid disappointment.

We are losing our children because of this law, Hanadi Nasser, a Lebanese married to a Syrian, told Al Jazeera.

I have already told my children not to consider certain jobs because I know they will not be able to work in these fields, she said. My eldest son has already told me he will leave the country.

Though there are no firm official estimates, a United Nations study published in 2009 offers some clues about the potential scale of those affected. The UN analysis found that between 1995 and 2008, there were some 18,000 marriages between Lebanese women and non-Lebanese men.

But the problem is not unique to Lebanon. According to an annual report published last year by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 25 countries do not grant women equality with men in conferring nationality to their children.

Demographic balance

Efforts to overhaul Lebanons citizenship rules have so far proved fruitless. Politicians have argued that amending the law could destabilise the country by upsetting its demographic and sectarian balance.

Some believe it would jeopardise Lebanons religious balance and allow the integration of Palestinian and Syrian refugees.

In 2010, former Interior Minister Ziad Baroud made some headway in easing the bureaucratic burden for children born to Lebanese mothers and foreign fathers by spearheading efforts to abolish residency visa renewal fees.

But his attempts to introduce a new draft law to overturn existing rules failed to gain traction.

It has never been submitted to the council of ministers, he told Al Jazeera. There was no way to talk about this subject at that time apparently.

Some hope the new Lebanese government will be more open to reform. Four women have been appointed to Lebanons cabinet in January, including the first woman to serve as interior minister in the Arab world.

Six members of parliament are also female.

Shaar has been campaigning against the nationality law problems [Virginie Le Borgne/Al Jazeera]

Activists who have long campaigned to abolish the discriminatory citizenship law are hopeful change is on the horizon.

Mustafa Shaar founded the NGO My Nationality, My Dignity in 2011 to draw attention to the issue.

In addition to organising sit-ins, marches and workshops, Shaars NGO receives dozens of people a day in its offices in Beirut and the northern city of Tripoli.

He told Al Jazeera about a 17-year-old man who was prepared to set himself on fire to protest against the citizenship rules.

He told me I swear to God I will do it, because I am as good as dead right now anyway. I want to die to help the others who are like me, said Shaar, who added that his case is far from isolated.

Lebanons hypocrisy

Lebanon is often depicted as a relatively progressive country in the region. But activists like Lina Abou Habib believe the misogynistic citizenship law makes a mockery of that image.

This is the Lebanese hypocrisy, Abou Habib told Al Jazeera. We pretend we are modern people while our laws are null and void.

International Womens Day explained

Abou Habib has been campaigning for nearly two decades to change the law. Her current efforts are focused on a new bill drafted last summer.

It is a very good one, said Abou Habib. We are currently starting to take the necessary steps to the ministers of women and the one of the interior, to push them to consider this draft law. We will soon have a workshop with MPs to talk about it. It will be challenging, but at some point, it will work.

But bigoted attitudes remain a threat to reform.

Last spring, Gebran Bassil, minister of foreign affairs, sparked an outcry when he said he would propose a new draft bill stating that Lebanese women may pass on their citizenship, but that it would not apply to women who marry men from neighbouring countries, which many interpreted to mean Syrians and Palestinians.

Reform efforts are also winding their way through Lebanons courts.

In 2009, Judge John Qazzi, president of the first instance court at the time, ruled that the children of Samira Soueidan, a Lebanese married to an Egyptian man, should obtain the Lebanese nationality.

The state appealed Qazzis decision. A final ruling is still pending.

I am an intruder in this system, Qazzi told Al Jazeera. I am optimistic about the fact that this law will be amended because more and more voices are being raised on this issue.

Abou Habib also believes the nations progressive instincts will prevail.

Lebanon has made great progress in terms of political and social debates, on different topics. Violence against women, nationality, LGBTQ rights, personal civil status, she said.

Meanwhile, mothers such as Nadira Nahas continue to wait for the state to abolish the near century-old law and finally grant citizenship to the children of Lebanese women.

Laws are like medicines. They have an expiry date, she said. We should update our laws.
A few days ago, I received a message from my sons secondary school announcing that it is celebrating International Womens Day (IWD) on Friday. The message read: The school is selling Feminist jumpers to mark the event. Jumpers are on sale for 10 pounds ($13)  please ask your daughter or son to bring 10 pounds cash to the English office if she/he would like to wear one.

A few hours later a friend called to tell me, tongue-in-cheek, that International Womens Day t-shirts are passe and that sex toys are the new t-shirts, sending me a link to IWD sex toys currently on sale.

The irony is that International Womens Day began as an initiative of the Socialist Party of America to honour the 1908 garment workers strike in New York, which, at the time, was the biggest industrial action ever taken by women workers in the United States. Hence, the dedication of a day to women began as a struggle against capitalist economic exploitation, where women demanded better working conditions and higher wages.

It is true that, over the course of the 20th century, International Womens Day has undergone many transformations. In certain countries and contexts, it has served as a day simply to celebrate women and their accomplishments. It has also been a catalyst to mobilise women around the world to rally for a variety political causes: from working womens rights through the right to vote and participate in politics to anti-war protests and, more recently, gender equality.

There is, of course, always a certain problematic tokenism when setting aside one day during the year in which we either celebrate women and/or protest gender inequality.

But in the past few years, and particularly with the rise of Trumpism and the far-right across Europe, South America, India and many other places, International Womens Day has taken on increased potency and significance.

Indeed, the demonstrations organised on March 8 across the globe have become more militant and intersectional since 2016. One has only to think of Spain, where last year millions walked out to protest against gender inequality and sexual discrimination, or the US, where the Feminism for the 99% movement called for a womens strike.

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The agendas of many of these protests go well beyond equality: They are demanding gender, racial, economic, and climate justice, understanding that these issues are inextricably linked.

And yet, as the message from my sons school and the IWD sex toys reveal, alongside the more militant direction of International Womens Day, there has also been another parallel development, namely, the increasing commodification of March 8 and its branding by corporations.

Scholars call this brand activism, where corporations attempt to improve their reputation by using some popular and often progressive cause in their PR and advertising campaigns. The businesses and corporations thus give in order to get.

An example of this is the fashion e-tailer Net-a-Porter who has launched an exclusive limited-edition collection of IWD T-shirts in collaboration with six women designers. It is true that all of the profits go to a charity supporting women survivors of war, but activism and empowerment here is equated with buying an expensive t-shirt with words like You Go Girl. Women, in other words, are encouraged to express their solidarity not through struggle or protest, but by shopping.

This corporate appropriation is clearly part of a wider cultural phenomenon  the rise of neoliberal feminism.

This kind of feminism encourages women to invest in themselves and their own aspirations, inciting them to build confidence and lean in. And while such feminism acknowledges the gendered wage gap and sexual harassment as signs of continued inequality, the solutions they posit, such as encouraging individual women to take responsibility for their own well-being, do not challenge the structural and economic undergirding of these phenomena.

Neoliberal feminism is palatable and marketable precisely because it is a non-threatening feminism. It doesnt address the devastation wrought by neoliberal capitalism, neo-imperialism or systemic misogyny and sexism, so it is easy to embrace and it sells well on the marketplace. Its message is the exact opposite of the one advanced by the womens strikes at the beginning of the 20th century.

Moreover, given the rise of this feel-good feminism, it is not hard to understand why suddenly everyone is eager to claim the feminist label: from movie stars like Emma Watson to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Nor is it difficult to understand why this feminism makes good business today.

The popularity of feminism and its widespread embrace is not a bad thing per se. But it is crucial to understand what kind of feminism has become popular and why. A watered down and defanged feminist message is neither going to uproot patriarchy, nor is it going to help us resolve the existential threats to life on earth.

We thus have two competing forces at work at the moment. On the one hand, we have a popular, commodity-driven feminism that serves as a handmaiden to neoliberalism. On the other hand, we have a growing movement of mass feminist mobilisation that is demanding transformative social justice.

In the US, such mass mobilisation has been spearheaded by activists like Alicia Garza, who is one of the cofounders of Black Lives Matter and Linda Sarsour, who was cochair of the 2017 Womens March, the 2017 Day Without a Woman, as well as the 2019 Womens March. Their feminism is a threatening one because it challenges the intersecting systems of oppression: from white supremacy through Islamophobia to misogyny and neoliberal capitalism. These women carry on the revolutionary spirit that sparked the first IWD over a century ago.

Which feminism wins in many ways depends on us. I, for one, have made my choice. Today, I will join the Global Womens Strike and will bring my two sons along.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Over the past few years, the topic of womens rights in the Gulf has attracted much attention in the region and beyond. It has become a favourite subject of public forums, conferences, academic scholarship and the local and international press.

Even those who are most concerned about womens rights in the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula cannot deny the fact that much progress has been made in the area over the past two decades. The movement for womens rights, which has been joined by men as well, has sought relentlessly to empower women and to secure the same opportunities in education, work and other aspects of public life afforded to men in the region.

Although empowerment has been achieved at different levels in Gulf countries, given the difference in local political and social circumstances, there are a number of remarkable achievements that have to be highlighted.

Education, work, and wealth

Education was the key that opened the door to womens participation in public life. The first girls schools in the region were established in Bahrain and Kuwait in the 1920s. By the 1950s, educational institutions for girls had been founded across the region.

Education slowly started changing traditional perceptions of gender roles and womens position in society. In the following decades, women secured not only the right to higher education but also the opportunity to pursue studies abroad, eventually supported by government scholarships.

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Although the Gulf was relatively late in introducing womens education compared with the rest of the Arab world, over the past 60 years it has not only managed to catch up with other Arab countries, but has even overtaken them.

The region now boasts the highest education rates for women in the Arab world. Gulf women are also more educated than Gulf men. In Qatar, for example, 54 percent of university-age women are enrolled, compared with just 28 percent of men; in Bahrain and Kuwait, women also outnumber men in institutions of higher education.

Gulf women also enjoy higher labour participation rates than women in other Arab countries, with Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar leading in this statistic. Growing access to work and business opportunities for women has also increased their personal wealth. According to a 2012 report, enterprises managed by Gulf women hold assets worth $358bn. Last year, two Saudi women made it to the Forbes most powerful women ranking: Lubna Olayan and Rania Nashar.

Political opening for women

Being increasingly more educated and active in the labour force, Gulf women have also sought political empowerment. Their attainment of political rights has not lagged too far behind mens given the constricted political space in the region. In the early 2000s, Gulf countries finally started allowing women to pursue and occupy political posts (in some instances, these rights were given at the same time as men).

In 2002, Bahraini women were given the right to vote and run in elections for the first time; four years later Lateefa al-Gaood became the first Bahraini woman elected to parliament.

In 2005, Kuwait also allowed women to vote and stand for election. Four years later, four Kuwaiti women were elected to the parliament: Massouma al-Mubarak, Salwa al-Jassar, Aseel al-Awadhi and Rola Dashti.

In 2003, the Gulf also witnessed the appointment of its first women ministers. In March of that year, Sheikha Aisha bint Khalfan took charge of the National Authority for Industrial Craftsmanship in Oman and in May, Sheikha Ahmed al-Mahmoud became Qatars education minister.

Now, a decade and a half after this modest political opening, there have been more steps made forward and a few backward. The speaker of parliament in Bahrain and the vice chairperson of the state council in Oman are both women (Fawzia Abdulla Yusuf Zainal and Suad al-Lawati respectively).

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have also started to give opportunities to women to occupy important government posts. In 2013, the late King Abdullah appointed 30 women to the Shura Council and last year King Salman entrusted the post of deputy minister of labour and social development to Tamader bint Yousif al-Rammah. In the UAE, Amal Abdullah al-Qubaisi became the first woman to hold the post of speaker of the Federal National Council in 2018.

The struggle continues

There are still many challenges ahead. Some achievements in the political arena, especially in Bahrain and Kuwait, have been rolled back. Women face a lack of social and financial support that makes it difficult for them to run for office. Various levels of political repression across Gulf states have also affected women and womens rights activists. And despite appointments to official positions, political decision-making largely remains in the hands of men.

Large sections of the Gulf societies are still dominated by views that reduce the importance of womens participation in the public sphere. These are very much reflected in various provisions of family and personal status laws, which can restrict certain social and economic activities of women and put them at a legal disadvantage to men, with Saudi Arabia still retaining a strict guardianship law.

Although Bahrain (2006), the UAE (2008), Qatar (2010) and recently Kuwait (2018) allowed women to become judges, the judiciary and the interpretation of the law is still very much dominated by men.

Despite these major challenges, it has to be recognised my generation witnessed the transformation from ground zero to the impressive level of public participation Gulf women enjoy today. The struggle of the next generation will indeed be difficult and change will be slow, but they will be aided along the way by the established consensus in the Gulf that womens socioeconomic empowerment has to be part of any comprehensive development strategy and any future vision plans.

Policies on womens participation are no longer just a bunch of nice words that grace reports of international organisations; they are real and tangible despite all the remaining political and social barriers. Indeed, the difficulties that were surmounted to get us where we are today are considerably bigger than the ones that lie ahead.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
It could have been worse for former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort after his conviction for bank and tax fraud. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Former Trump campaign manager and veteran lobbyist for unsavory clients Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in federal prison today. It could have been a lot worse for the man who earned the first criminal conviction produced by the Mueller investigation. Federal sentencing guidelines had suggested a 19-to-24-year stretch in the hoosegow for the eight charges of bank and tax fraud he was convicted of last August (the jury deadlocked on 10 other charges), and prosecutors had urged the judge to refuse anything less than that. But Virginia-based district court judge T.S. Ellis apparently found Manafort to be a sympathetic figure, as CNBC reports:

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Before delivering his sentence, Ellis said that Manafort has been a good friend to others, a generous person.

The judge added: He has lived an otherwise blameless life.

That may be going a bit far, but Manafort did try to tug at some heartstrings:

Manafort, seated in a wheelchair and clad in a green prison jumpsuit during the hearing, spoke of the hardship he has faced as a prime figure in the high-profile Mueller investigation.

The last two years have been the most difficult for my family and I, Manafort said in his plea for compassion from the judge.

It seemed to work, but Manaforts not out of the woods just yet, as the Associated Press noted:

Manafort still faces sentencing in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty in a separate case connected to illegal lobbying.

Manaforts legal trouble, at this point at least, hasnt been related to the Trump campaign, but rather to his work for the Russian-backed former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

Reaction to Manaforts light sentence was mostly negative, with this observation being among the most pertinent:

For context on Manaforts 47 months in prison, my client yesterday was offered 36-72 months in prison for stealing $100 worth of quarters from a residential laundry room.  Scott Hechinger (@ScottHech) March 8, 2019

And there was this:

Ex-federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner reacts to the Manafort sentencing: "As a former prosecutor, I'm embarrassed. As an American, I'm upset ... I am just as disappointed with Judge Ellis ... It's an outrage and it's disrespectful of the American people."  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 8, 2019

Being a rich old white man comes with some privileges, even when hes about to put on an orange jumpsuit.
Since the Oslo Accords, systematic efforts have been made to depoliticise womens rights activism in Palestine.

Although International Womens Day has its roots in revolutionary and anti-capitalist grassroots womens movements, in the Global South its celebration has come to be dominated by the UN and the NGO sector. The occasion is often used to reinforce certain development narratives of womens rights and to fundraise for projects.

This year, in Palestine, UN agencies, various international organisations, and local NGOs launched a week-long campaign called, My Rights, Our Power, which is meant to to raise awareness on womens fundamental human rights and domestic violence, in particular.

It focuses on five areas of concern: the right to a life free of violence, the right to achieve justice, the right to seek help, and the right to equal opportunities and the right to make ones own choices.

However, organisers have made one glaring omission in the campaign message: It does not mention the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as a major contributing factor to rights violations committed against Palestinian women. The words occupation or Israel are nowhere to be found in distributed press releases and campaign materials.

So, are we to believe then that Palestinian women are able to achieve justice and a life free of violence in the context of the continuing Israeli project of ethnic cleansing and cultural erasure?

This omission is clearly not a mistake or an oversight, rather it reflects a noticeable trend in the discourse of the international aid and donor community which talks about issues and barriers in the field of womens rights as if they all happen in a political vacuum.

In Palestine, this trend accelerated after the Oslo Peace Accords which served as a catalyst for the de-politicisation of Palestine. Twenty-five years ago, Oslo introduced a new frameworks for peace and state-building which not only undermined the Palestinian liberation project but also set in motion a fundamental transformation of the Palestinian civil society.

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Under this new framework, foreign aid was channelled into Palestine and used to systematically depoliticise its civil society by making it dependent on external funding and forced to follow the agenda of foreign donors.

While this process of NGO-isation has demobilised many groups within Palestinian society, women remain disproportionately affected. Patriarchal tendencies within Palestinian institutions have also assisted in the process of excluding women from the public sphere, including politics.

The de-politicisation of women is particularly noticeable in the use of a post-Oslo lexicon on womens rights in Palestine. Many concepts pertaining to human rights and activism have been purposefully assigned a limited definition by UN agencies and other international organisations. One example is the term empowerment, which on the surface sounds revolutionary, but in the context of NGO-led projects and public discussions is almost always limited to the socioeconomic sphere.

That is, the NGO sector never talks about political empowerment of Palestinian women that could strengthen their ability to resist Israeli gendered and colonial violence.

Since its foundation in 1948, the Israeli regime has consistently and systematically used gendered oppression against Palestinian women, particularly those who are politically active.

Its tactics include harassment, threats of violence and imprisonment  the latter being the most effective way to punish politicisation.

Palestinian women who actively defy the Israeli occupation and refuse to be coopted by official Palestinian political order created by the Oslo accords, such as legislator Khalida Jarrar, who was detained for 20 months without trial and poet Dareen Tartour, who was sentenced to five months in prison over a poem she wrote, quickly become targets of the Israeli security services.

Interrogations by Israeli soldiers or security forces often include sexual harassment or threats of sexual violence to put pressure on women and girls to sign confessions or to give information.

Last year, a leaked video showed Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi, who was arrested for slapping an Israeli soldier, being subjected to harassment during an interrogation.

Unfortunately, the violations of Palestinian womens rights have become an accepted fact of life and those that are supposed to ensure these rights are upheld have become complicit in their very violations.

While Palestinian women must be empowered to fight internal patriarchy, particularly within the private sphere, it cannot be ignored that gender violence is inherently tied to the Israeli regime which controls most aspects of Palestinian life.

Acknowledging the destructive role Israeli settler colonialism plays in Palestinian womens lives also does not absolve the Palestinian society at large of its role in womens oppression.

The failure to recognise that colonial and patriarchal power structures overlap and are together complicit in the victimisation Palestinian women and men has greatly limited progress on womens rights in Palestine. In this context, we would do well to remind ourselves that radical feminism was established by women of colour who insisted on a complex and nuanced understanding of female oppression that factors in colonialism, structures of racial hierarchy, class and capitalism. It is only with this understanding in mind that we can hope to dismantle womens oppression in Palestine and around the world.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Two years after disappearing, fate of missing Malaysian airliner continues to draw speculation  some of it wild.

From a hijacking to an alien abduction, countless theories have arisen about the fate of the Malaysian airliner that disappeared nearly two years ago.

With search crews just months away from finishing their thus-far fruitless sweep of a remote stretch of seabed where Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 is believed to have crashed, officials appear no closer to solving one of the most mind-boggling mysteries of modern times.

That stubborn lack of resolution has only increased speculation about what might have happened to the Boeing 777 after it vanished with 239 people on board on March 8, 2014.

Some believe officials are simply looking in the wrong part of the Indian Ocean, while social media sites are peppered with comments suggesting theyre looking on the wrong planet: MH370 was abducted by aliens, reads a typical tweet.



Conspiracy theories run wild over MH370 loss

We knew this was a very high-profile, publicised event and because it was such a great mystery, there was going to be a lot of scrutiny, said Australian Transport Safety Bureaus chief commissioner Martin Dolan, who is leading the search for the plane far off Australias west coast.

We are always open to informed criticism. What we find a bit more difficult is when occasionally people criticize us on the basis of a misunderstanding or a misrepresentation of what were doing or saying.

Heres a look at a few of the theories that investigators have considered but view as unlikely:

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THE PLANE WENT NORTH INSTEAD OF SOUTH

After veering off course shortly after takeoff on its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, officials believe the plane flew south on a straight path into the abyss of the southern Indian Ocean.

They arrived at that conclusion after analyzing exchanges between the planes engine and a satellite. But some people insist the plane instead flew north into Asia, and that the satellite data indicating otherwise was tampered with.

Dolan dismisses that theory, noting that British satellite company Inmarsat, which provided the satellite data to investigators, is a widely respected company with a solid track record. Theres no reason to doubt their data, he said.

Those sorts of theories just seem to overcomplicate whats going on here, Dolan said. We think that had any data been manipulated, there would have been a trace of it.

Beyond that, a wing part from the plane washed ashore on Reunion Island in the western Indian Ocean in July, effectively eliminating the possibility that the rest of the plane ended up in the Northern Hemisphere.

That said, a few people have suggested the wing flap was planted on the island by terrorists.



MH370 disappearance: A year without a clue

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IT WENT WEST TO THE MALDIVES

Some argue the plane must have traveled west to the remote Indian Ocean island nation of the Maldives after early reports emerged of locals spotting a low-flying plane in the area around the time Flight 370 vanished.

The military in the Maldives told Malaysia that those reports of sightings turned out to be false. Last year, Malaysian investigators traveled to the Maldives to examine possible debris that had washed ashore, but it was determined to be unrelated to Flight 370.

Former Australian transport minister Warren Truss has said while the plane may have had enough fuel to reach the islands, it wasnt detected by air traffic control or any other local authority. The flight path to the Maldives is also inconsistent with investigators satellite and radar data.

It is not considered a likely possibility, Truss said last year.

___

IT WAS SHOT DOWN

One of the earliest theories suggested the plane was headed towards Diego Garcia, a British atoll in the Indian Ocean where the US has a military base. The former head of the now-defunct Proteus Airlines, Marc Dugain, voiced his own theory that US military, fearing a September 11-style attack, may have shot down the plane as it approached the atoll.

The US has denied the aircraft came anywhere near Diego Garcia.

___

IT WAS HIJACKED BY PASSENGERS

Immediately after the plane disappeared, many speculated that one or more passengers hijacked the plane. This theory gained traction after it was discovered that two Iranians on board were traveling on stolen passports. Investigators cleared the two after finding nothing linking them to terrorist groups; it is believed they were trying to illegally immigrate to Europe. Police scrutinised the backgrounds of every passenger on the plane  but nothing suspicious was found.
Almost 5,000 civilians were killed or injured in 2018, with children accounting for a fifth of all casualties.

Almost 100 civilians were either killed or wounded every week in Yemen last year, with children accounting for a fifth of all casualties, the United Nations has said.

According to figures released by the world bodys refugee agency on Thursday, more than 4,800 civilian deaths and injuries were reported over the course of 2018,

Children accounted for 410 deaths and 542 injuries, the UNHCR said.

Relying on open source data for its findings, the agency noted that nearly half of all the casualties  48 percent  were reported in the western city of Hodeidah, whose strategic port has been the scene of fierce fighting between Houthi rebels and Saudi-UAE-backed fighters supporting Yemens government.

The UN figures also showed that a staggering 30 percent of the civilians were either killed and wounded inside their homes, with non-combatants also targeted when travelling on roads, working on farms and at other civilian sites.





The report illustrates the staggering human cost of the conflict, said Volker Turk, the UNHCRs assistant high commissioner for refugees.

Civilians in Yemen continue to face serious risks to their safety, well-being and basic rights. Exposed to daily violence, many live under constant fear and suffer in deteriorating conditions, turning in desperation to harmful coping mechanisms in order to survive.

10,000 killed?

Despite the ferocity of the conflict, a figure of 10,000 has frequently cited by journalists and relief agencies to describe the number of civilian deaths in the conflict.

That number is based on figures released by the UN in August 2016.

However, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), at least 60,223 people may have been killed since January 2016, nine months after Saudi Arabia launched a massive aerial campaign in support of the forces fighting the Houthis.

The figure does not include deaths caused by disease or malnutrition, with charities such as Save the Children estimating as many 85,000 children may have starved to death.

The war has been at a stalemate for years, with the coalition and Yemeni forces unable to dislodge the Houthis from the capital, Sanaa, and other urban centres.

The fighting and ensuing economic collapse have also unleashed the worlds most urgent humanitarian crisis, with 14 million of the impoverished countrys 29 million population on the brink of starvation.

The cost of food has jumped by an average of 68 percent since 2015, according to the UN, while the price of commodities such as petrol, diesel and cooking gas has increased by at least 25 percent in the past year.
The shipment now moves into the hands of the Colombian government, until it can be safely transported into Venezuela.

The deputy director of the US government aid agency is in Colombia, where the latest shipment of international assistance for Venezuela has arrived.

Since February 4th, more than $195m in food, hygiene kits, medical equipment and other aid has been delivered, but is not making into Venezuela.

President Nicolas Maduro has blocked this aid from crossing the international borders leading into the country, saying that Venezuela is not a country of beggars.

Al Jazeeras Manuel Rapalo reports in Cucuta, Colombia.
Israeli forces have beefed up security in and around the Old City of Jerusalem, following recent tensions surrounding the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Palestinian sources said that more than 40,000 worshipers performed Friday prayers inside the compound on Friday, but 140 others have been banned by Israeli forces from accessing the site.

Speaking from occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeeras Harry Fawcett said so far there has been a relatively calm atmosphere.

There are expressions of solidarity for the 140 people who have been barred access to the compound, among them senior scholars of the Waqf  the Islamic trust that runs the compound in cooperation with the Jordanian government, he said.

Gate of Mercy

Israeli authorities closed the prayer hall, also known as the Gate of Mercy or Golden Gate, in 2003 claiming it was being used to organise activities that they said were linked to Hamas, which Israel classifies as a terrorist group.

At the end of last February, Israeli police closed the metal gate leading to Bab al-Rahma with chains and locks, which Palestinians saw as an indication of the Israelis intent to divide the mosque compound between Palestinians and Jewish settlers.

Palestinian protesters managed to reopen the site for the first time in 16 years and hundreds have been praying at the site, their biggest achievement since forcing Israel to remove the unilaterally installed metal detectors from the compound in July 2017.

Israel has issued a court order that the site will be reclosed on Monday, but the Waqf council has rejected the ultimatum.

We will not respond to courts of the occupation regarding the issue of Bab al-Rahma and Al-Aqsa Mosque and it [does not have authority over the matter], the council said in a statement last Tuesday.

A senior Jordanian official confirmed that his country is still engaged in intensive talks with Israel and the international community in order to defend the Bab al-Rahma chapel in Al-Aqsa mosque.

Jordan is trying to preserve the legal and historical status quo in the chapel of Bab al-Rahma, the official told local Jordanian news agency al-Ghad, stressing that Amman opposes Israeli requests to close it.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognised by the international community.
Dozens of factions from across the political spectrum meet to discuss ways of uniting efforts against Algerian leader.

Tens of thousands of Algerians are expected to rally against President Abdelaziz Bouteflikas plan to seek a fifth term in office on Saturday, in what may become Algerias biggest protest since its independence in 1962.

Protesters have staged daily demonstrations across the country since February 22, nearly two weeks after Bouteflika confirmed via a letter that he would stand in the April 18 polls.





The grassroots and largely peaceful anti-Bouteflika movement has galvanised the fragmented Algerian opposition, which until recently spent as much time dealing with internal disputes as it did fighting the government.

But since the protests started, a number of opposition groups have resumed dialogue to come up with a joint strategy to keep the pressure on President Bouteflika.

Nearly 30 political groups, ranging from secular to Islamist factions, met on March 7 in Algiers, at the headquarters of Talaie El Hourriyet party founded by Bouteflikas top challenger, Ali Benflis, in 2015.

This is the second and the largest gathering of opposition forces since Bouteflika announced his intention to run for reelection, Faycal Hardi, a high-ranking Talaie El Hourriyet member, told Al Jazeera.

Louisa Hanoune, the head of Algerias Labour Party, Mohcine Belabbas, the president of the liberal Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), and Abderrazak Makri, the leader of Algerias Islamist Movement for Society for Peace (MSP), took part in the negotiations to discuss ways to cooperate against Bouteflika.

They were joined by anti-government figures, such as human rights lawyer Mustafa Bouchachi, and former Minister of Finance Ahmed Benbitour, among many others.

All have previously called for a boycott of April elections amid allegations of ballot fraud in favour of President Bouteflika, who has been in office for the past two decades.

Here, nobody believes that the presidential election will be free, it will be controlled by the administration, Hardi said.

April 18 ballot is more a nomination of the incumbent president than a real and transparent vote, he added.

Despite the encroaching vote, participants left the meeting with no agreement, saying they needed more time to discuss the issues.

This is only the beginning of the consultations. We cannot expect to reach a national consensus so quickly, RCDs Belabbas told Al Jazeera.

There are so many issues that remain to be discussed. For instance, we need to question the nature of the regime we would like to establish after the implosion of this long-lasting system.

We should ask ourselves if we really want to preserve a presidential system.

Blatant incapacity

Opposition parties remain divided on whether to demand the impeachment of ailing President Bouteflika or pursue other means to remove him.

Some of his opponents say that Bouteflika is no longer fit to lead Africas largest country in terms of territory and have called for the enforcement of article 102 of Algerias Constitutional Law, which states that if an illness prevents a leader from governing the country (they) must step down.

Wheelchair-bound Bouteflika, who has been barely seen in public and has cancelled several official engagements since suffering a stroke in 2013, is reportedly still receiving treatment in Geneva, where he arrived for routine medical tests on February 24.

Bouteflikas prolonged medical stay in Switzerland shows his blatant incapacity to rule the country, the Labour Partys Hanoune said.

According to Benflis, Algeria has experienced a vacuum of power and extra-constitutional forces have been governing the North African country without official position nor accountability for many years.

Many observers say that the vacuum has empowered those around the president, including his younger brother, Said Bouteflika, who plays a powerful role in his inner circle.

Other opposition parties have pledged a far more radical stance, demanding the immediate resignation of both President Bouteflika and his government.





There is no need to implement article 102 of the Constitution as the law as it is already obsolete, RCDs Belabbas said.

This will only offer more time for the same long-standing rulers to find a way to stay in power. The best option is to agree on the establishment of an inclusive and transparent body, either a temporary government or a constitutional assembly, to handle the transitional process, he added.

Some senior opposition figures are still reluctant to collaborate.

The Mouwatana (Citizenship) umbrella opposition movement and the liberal Jil Jadid (New Generation) did not take part in the opposition gathering.

We cannot reconcile our differences as long as some opposition parties have deputies sitting in parliament, Walid Hadjadj, member of Jil Jadid, told Al Jazeera.

They must resign because the parliament is not a legitimate institution. They cannot have one foot in the opposition and the other one in the regime. They must choose.
Tens of thousands demonstrate across Algeria in a bid to keep up the pressure on ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Tens of thousands of Algerians have defied large contingents of riot police and resumed mass demonstrations against ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflikas bid to extend his 20-year rule.

A rally on Friday in the capital, Algiers, was slowed to a near-crawl by the huge numbers taking part, with participation swelled by women marking International Womens Day. Train and metro services were suspended without explanation.

While the rallies were mostly calm, police used tear gas in several areas of the city, including to block the road to the presidential palace, news agencies reported.

Later on Friday, state TV said security forces had detained 195 protesters, citing offences such as looting as grounds for the arrests.

Anti-Bouteflika protests were also staged in several other cities, including easterly Oran and westerly Constantine, according to Algerias TSA news website.

The demonstrations marked the third consecutive Friday on which Algerians have taken to the streets in a bid to press the 82-year-old president to step down.

The largest display of discontent in the North African country since the 2011 Arab Spring was sparked by the wheelchair-bound leaders announcement last month he would stand for a fifth term in office in a presidential election scheduled for April 18.

A democratic celebration

Nassim Bala, an Algerian political activist present at the protest in Algiers on Friday, said the capital was gripped by a mass democratic celebration.

People are now finally expressing themselves against the government, which has been reducing their rights for decades, Bala told Al Jazeera.

People are marching into the streets  [and] distributing roses and candies  today is very special, he added.

Other protesters, meanwhile, said they were demonstrating in a bid to secure a better future for their children.

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We want to bring down the regime  the problem is the regime, a female protester said.

Bouteflika has been all but absent from the public eye since suffering a debilitating stroke in 2013, prompting critics to question whether he is being used as a puppet candidate by a shadowy cabal of civilian and military figures close to the octogenarian.

He is currently in hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, for what the presidency has described as routine medical tests.

Swiss police said Rachid Nekkaz, an increasingly popular political activist opposed to Bouteflika, was arrested on Friday for trespassing at the facility where Bouteflika is being treated.

Nekkaz was denied the right to stand in the upcoming elections because he has previously held French nationality, even though he has renounced it and gathered the 60,000 voter signatures needed to run in the ballot.

He is supporting a cousin of the same name to run on his behalf.

Algerias constitutional committee is due to determine on March 13 if the presented candidacies are legitimate.

Bouteflika raises alarm over interference

Nekkazs arrest came a day after Bouteflika issued his first warning to protesters, saying the rallies could destabilise the country.

In a letter carried by Algerias Press Service news agency on Thursday, Bouteflika cautioned against infiltration from internal and external parties aimed at stirring seditions and spreading chaos.

He also flagged the risk of a return to the national tragedy of Algerias years-long civil war in the 1990s and of the crises and tragedies caused by terrorism in neighbouring countries.

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In a bid to quell the protests against him, Bouteflika has offered to limit his term after the April election and even to change the system that runs the country.

Some long-time allies of the president, including members of the ruling FLN party, have expressed support for the protesters, revealing cracks within a ruling elite long seen as invincible.

Algerias private Ashourouq TV station reported on Friday that several FLN party legislators had resigned to join the anti-government campaigners, but did not provide any further details.

Jeremy Keenan, an anthropology professor at the UK-based School of Oriental and Africa Studies, said Bouteflikas government was under unique pressure.

Keenan told Al Jazeera the gang around the presidency had miscalculated hugely in putting the war veteran forward for a fifth term in a move which demonstrated they were completely out of touch with Algerians.

They have robbed Algeria of much of its wealth  [and] they have utter contempt for the people, he said.
The baby son of a British teenager stripped of her citizenship for joining ISIL in Syria has died, according to a spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Mustafa Bali was quoted as saying by news agencies on Friday that Shamima Begums infant had died at a camp in northern Syria. He did not provide any further details.

Separately, a paramedic told the BBC that Jarrah, the nearly three-week-old baby, died on Thursday after battling a lung infection.

The infant had been suffering from breathing difficulties, the paramedic said.

The lawyer representing the family of Begum, Tasnime Akunjee, also confirmed the news on Twitter, after saying earlier on Friday that he had received unconfirmed reports of the babys death.

His death has been confirmed .  Akunjee  (@mohammedakunjee) March 8, 2019

Begum was discovered last month in a refugee camp in Syria by a reporter with the UK-based newspaper, The Times, four years after she was last seen aged 15 fleeing from her East London home. She, along with two female friends, left the UK to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) armed group in 2015.

Now 19, Begum told journalists she wanted to raise Jarrah in the UK, alleging she had lost two other children in Syria to malnutrition and disease.

I dont really want to stay here, I dont want to take care of my child in this camp because Im afraid he might even die in this camp, she said in an interview with British broadcaster Sky News shortly after giving birth.

The UK government moved to revoke Begums citizenship, however, blocking her return on the basis she was a dual-national with access to Bangladeshi citizenship.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid confirmed Begums son was a British citizen but said it would be incredibly difficult to facilitate the return of a child from Syria.

Begums family has denied she is a dual citizen and said it plans to challenge the UKs decision. A Bangladeshi foreign affairs official had told Al Jazeera Begum is not a Bangladeshi.

International law forbids countries from making people stateless by revoking their only citizenship.

The case of Begum has highlighted a dilemma facing many European countries, divided over whether to allow ISIL members or sympathisers home to face prosecution or bar them as the groups so-called caliphate collapses.
Mortars were fired on Thursday at a commemoration on the death anniversary of a leader of the ethnic Hazara minority.

The death toll in a mortar attack on a high-profile political gathering in Afghanistans capital increased to 11 from three, a government statement has said.

A Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi, said in a statement on Friday that 95 people were also wounded in the attack, which was initially described as a rocket attack in western Kabul. Rahimi blamed the Taliban for the attack.

On Thursday, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group had claimed responsibility for the attack.

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The shelling took place on Thursday in Kabuls western neighbourhood of Dasht-e Barchi, predominantly populated by ethnic minority Hazaras, as politicians and members of the public gathered to remember Abdul Ali Mazari.

Mazari was a leader of the Hazaras killed by the Taliban in 1995.

Afghan Deputy Interior Minister Khoshal Sadat wrote on Twitter that one person involved in the attack had been arrested and a compound where the mortars were fired from was surrounded.

Several key Afghan politicians, including former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, as well as former national security adviser and presidential candidate, Hanif Atmar, participated in the gathering.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack.

The Hazaras have long suffered oppression and persecution in Afghanistan. They are now often targeted by groups swearing allegiance to the ISIL.
Court commutes sentences of three women who say they were prosecuted after suffering miscarriages, obstetric emergencies

Ilopango, El Salvador  Alba Lorena Rodriguez embraced her 11- and 14-year-old daughters as a free woman for the first time in nearly a decade on Thursday.

Since 2010, Rodriguez has been behind bars for an abortion-related conviction in El Salvador, a country with one of the harshest abortion bans in the world.

During that time, the 39-year-old mother has only been able to see her daughters on designated family visit days every 15 days, sometimes seeing them less frequently when the family did not have enough money to travel to the Ilopango womens prison on the outskirts of San Salvador.

Rodriguezs mother-in-law and daughters were excited and anxious as they made the trip one last time.

Im going to hug her, said Gloria Rivas, Rodriguezs mother-in-law, as she waited outside for her daughter.

On Thursday, Rodriguez was released from prison after the supreme court commuted her 30-year sentence.

Two other women sentenced for suspected abortions  Maria del Transito Orellana, and Cinthia Marcela Rodriguez  were also released in the latest win for womens rights activists fighting to loosen the countrys strict abortion laws.

Maria del Transito Orellana (left), Cinthia Marcela Rodriguez (centre) and Alba Lorena Rodriguez are pictured before being released from the womens prison in Ilopango [Marvin Recinos/AFP]

Since the Central American nation banned abortion under all circumstances in 1998, dozens of women have been sentenced to up to 30 years for abortion-related crimes. Those convicted are mainly from poorer communities and have limited resources to pay for a lawyer to defend them in court, as was the case for the three women released on Thursday.

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The women say they had a miscarriage or obstetric emergency in the second or third trimester of their pregnancy, according to lawyers. The state accused them of aggravated homicide and sentenced them to 30 years.

Lawyers representing the women have insisted that they have been wrongfully imprisoned and convicted without evidence.

Alba Lorena Rodriguez (centre) and Cinthia Marcela Rodriguez (right) are pictured shortly after being released from the womens prison in Ilopango [Marvin Recinos/AFP]

Both Rodriguez and del Transito Orellana already had children at the time of their conviction.

Separating mothers from their children under the abortion law shows the hypocrisy of the ban because the state imposes maternity on women but also unjustly separates them from their children, according to Morena Herrera, director of the Citizens Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion.

Thirteen women freed

The court recently decided the womens sentences were disproportionate and immoral given that the economic support of these women for their families is fundamental.

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The three women are members of Las 17, a group of women imprisoned for abortion who were identified by activists in 2013 as part of a campaign to demand their release.

Their efforts have started to pay off. In 2018 and 2019, 13 women have been freed, including Teodora del Carmen Vasquez, 35, who was released in February 2018 after a decade behind bars for an abortion-related crime.

We have been victims of a justice system that is very judgmental. We also know that the women inside have experienced the same, del Carmen Vasquez said outside the prison on Thursday. Our responsibility as women who have been released is to stand up and demand that the Salvadoran state release all the women.

Efforts to decriminalise abortion through the countrys legislative assembly have been unsuccessful.

In 2018, two legislators proposed bills to legalise abortion under certain circumstances in the Salvadoran assembly. But the proposals never came to a vote. In May 2018, new officials took office and the countrys right-wing party gained the upper hand in the legislature, squashing the possibility of approving either law.

On February 3, El Salvador elected Nayib Bukele, former mayor of San Salvador and candidate for centre-right party GANA, as president. In a November 2018 debate, Bukele said he was only in favour of legalising abortion in cases where the pregnancy is a threat to the life of the mother.

But lets not assume the presumption of guilt of a poor woman who had a [miscarriage or obstetric emergency], he said at the time.

Activists demonstrate outside the womens prison in Ilopango, El Salvador [Marvin Recinos/AFP]

With abortion still criminalised, activists and lawyers have been forced to argue for the freedom of each woman on a case-by-case basis. Lawyers have identified 18 incidents of women currently imprisoned in abortion-related cases in El Salvador.

They believe their strategic litigation has established an important legal precedent to increase equal access to justice in the country  and that it will lead to the eventual release of all the women imprisoned in relation to the countrys total abortion ban, according to a recent press release.

This doesnt end here, said Vasquez. There is still more to do.

What do we want for Las 17 and more? activists chanted outside the prison minutes before Rodriguez finally walked free. Freedom.
Finish the Wall means a second term for Trump. Photo-Illustration: Konstantin Sergeyev/Intelligencer; Source Images: Oliver Contreras-Pool/Getty Images (Trump); Frank Ramspott (wall)

In an insightful discussion of Donald Trumps epic, Castro-length address to CPAC last weekend, Ron Brownstein offered this particularly interesting observation:

The speech demonstrated yet again that hes more comfortable positioning himself as the lone sentry manning the watch at midnight in America than as the optimist who has delivered morning in America, as Ronald Reagan memorably put it 

As a preview of 2020, Trumps CPAC speech once again showed how closely he is likely to echo the central arguments of conservative populists, from Joseph McCarthy to George Wallace to Pat Buchanan. Like those predecessors, he portrayed his preponderantly white followers as caught between disdainful elites and dangerous minorities. Trump lambasted the failed ruling class that he claimed has betrayed working Americans with free-trade deals. He described college campuses as biased against conservatives, and he insisted that Hollywood discriminates against our people. And as he has done since his first day as a national candidate, Trump warned darkly of immigrants coming to steal Americans jobs or menace them with crime 

As he summoned all these dangers, Trump simultaneously portrayed himself as the one force that could block them. As [Public Religion Research Institutes Robert] Jones described it, Trump offered himself to his supporters as a kind of wall, a resolute barrier against the forces of social and economic change.

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This last comment helps explain why Trump has been so obsessively fanatical about emphasizing his border-wall pledge despite plentiful evidence that the public doesnt support it. The wall isnt just a wall, and its not just an emblem for fears about immigration: Its a symbol of fears about every kind of fear Trump supporters, actual and potential, might harbor. Trumps faith in the political potency of those fears is so strong that hes all but sacrificing the usual advantages of incumbency at a time when the countrys not at war and the economy is doing well. Trump may have synthesized the essence of his reelection strategy in just three words toward the back end of his two-hour harangue, said Brownstein: Ill protect you.

For all the endless predictions of a Trump pivot, or at least a recognition that swing voters (however sparse) exist and matter, hes giving every indication that hes reprising his 2016 message and making his incumbency an act of defiance of the baby-killing secular socialists, activist judges, criminal immigrants, and traitorous CEOs he suggests are still in charge of the country. Instead of proudly defending his accomplishments (though he will always throw some boasting into his communications), the 45th president is running again as a bulwark against otherwise inevitable and terrifying change.

This adds a new resonance to the Finish the Wall slogan that has adorned signs at Trumps recent rallies. This isnt just a nod to his on-again, off-again claims that a border wall is already in existence, or is nearly completed. The wall has already entered the largely symbolic land of fantasy, as my colleague Jonathan Chait recently observed:

As time goes on, just as a childs imaginary friend becomes more elaborate and fully developed over time, the wall will surely acquire more specific attributes. It will be strong and powerful, beautiful yet forbidding, possibly even festooned with solar panels. In truth, nearly everybody who wanted to believe in the wall in the first place will believe it exists.

But more importantly, the wall can live on without physical manifestations because it has become a metaphor for Trump himself, who is holding back the multicultural hordes and needs more time to throw them off the ramparts definitively with another four years of conservative judicial appointments, ICE raids, tariff barriers, insults to international and domestic elites, attacks on Planned Parenthood, battles with the hippies of California, and yes, conflicts over immigration policies. He just needs that second term to finish building that wall.
When pressed by Mehdi Hasan on Head to Head, Blackwater founder Erik Prince said the meeting was about Iran policy.

Erik Prince, the founder of the private American security company Blackwater, has admitted to meeting with members of the Trump campaign in August 2016 after, according to a public transcript, apparently failing to disclose the gathering during his testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee last year.

When asked by Mehdi Hasan on Al Jazeeras Head to Head programme about the August 3, 2016, Trump Tower meeting that reportedly took place between Prince, Donald Trump campaign officials, an Israeli social media specialist and an emissary for two Gulf princes, the former Blackwater CEO did not deny the meeting took place.

We were there  to talk about Iran policy, Prince said when pressed by Hasan.

According to the New York Times, that meeting was attended by Prince, Donald Trump Jr, George Nader, a former Blackwater employee and emissary for the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Stephen Miller, then a top aide to the Trump campaign and currently a senior policy adviser to the president and Joel Zamel, whose company Psy-Group employed former Israeli intelligence operatives and specialised in social media manipulation and was reportedly contacted by Rick Gates, a top Trump campaign official, for proposals for social media manipulation to help Trump win the election.

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Prince, however, apparently did not disclose information about the meeting when testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on November 30, 2017, according to a public transcript.

Prince testified under oath that he had no official, or, really unofficial role in the Trump campaign. He also told the House panel that he did not have any formal communications or contact with the campaign other than policy papers given to Steve Bannon, attending some fundraisers and a yard sign.

When asked by Al Jazeeras Hasan about why he didnt then disclose the August 2016 Trump Tower meeting, Prince initially said he disclosed any meetings, the very, very few he had.

When pressed further by Hasan, Prince said, I dont believe I was asked that question.

Prince later contradicted himself, saying he did tell the panel about the meeting. When asked to explain why it was not in the transcript, Prince said, I dont know if they got the transcript wrong.

He later also said that not all of the discussion that day was transcribed.

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He added that he certainly remembers discussing the meeting with investigators.

A staff member of the House Intelligence Committee told Al Jazeera that Prince was not asked about the August 3, 2016 meeting in Trump Tower during his testimony and any redactions that were made to that testimony were done to protect personally identifiable information.

The Blackwater founders comments to Hasan is the first time that Prince or anyone else who reportedly attended the meeting has publicly acknowledged it and the first indication that it could have been about Iran policy. At the time, Nader was reportedly seeking to advance a clandestine plan to destabilise Iran through the use of private military contractors.

Since coming to office, Trump has taken a hawkish stance towards Iran, pulling out of the nuclear deal in 2018 and blaming the country for the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS). Last month in Warsaw, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the conference, You cant achieve stability in the Middle East without confronting Iran. US National Security Advisor John Bolton has also advocated for regime change in the country.

In Head to Heads wide-ranging interview with Prince, the Blackwater founder also responds to questions about his meeting in the Seychelles with a Russian businessman close to the Kremlin and discusses the private security companys history during the Iraq war, including the Nisour Square massacre, as well as his proposal for ending the war in Afghanistan.

Blackwaters Erik Prince: Iraq, privatising wars, and Trump will air on March 8, 2019 at 20:00 GMT and it will be repeated on March 9 at 12:00GMT, March 10 at 01:00 GMT and March 11 at 06:00 GMT.

You can also watch it online.
The House of Representatives in the United States on Thursday voted to condemn anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim discrimination and other bigotry against minorities, with the Democrats trying to push past a dispute that has overwhelmed their agenda and exposed faultlines that could dog them through elections next year.

The one-sided 407-23 followed the postponement of an earlier vote condemning anti-Semitism after some Democrats and some Jewish groups expressed concern over comments made last week by Representative Ilhan Omar, one of the first Muslim women in Congress, in which she suggested House supporters of Israel have dual allegiances.

I want to talk about  political influence in this country that says its OK for people to push for allegiance for a foreign country, Omar said during a Washington, DC event. I want to ask why is it OK for me to talk about influence of the NRA, or fossil fuels industries, or big pharma, and not to talk about powerful lobbying that is influencing policy.

After the event, Jonathan Greenblatt, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that the comments were a vile anti-Semitic slur. Some in the House, including Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey, publicly criticised Omar and demanded an apology.

Pelosi, along with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, reportedly drafted a resolution over the weekend condemning anti-Semitism that did not mention Omar, but was seen as an indirect rebuke of the congresswoman.

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The House passed a similar measure last month after Omar came under fire for using what some called an anti-Semitic trope. Omar apologised at the time.

A statement posted to Omars Facebook after the vote, and signed by two other Muslim lawmakers, praised Thursdays resolution.

We are tremendously proud to be part of a body that has put forth a condemnation of all forms of bigotry including anti-Semitism, racism, and white supremacy, it said.

At a time when extremism is on the rise, we must explicitly denounce religious intolerance of all kinds and acknowledge the pain felt by all communities. Our nation is having a difficult conversation and we believe this is great progress.

Stifling debate

Following the most recent events, however, many Democrats came to Omars defence, saying this weeks condemnation would have unfairly singled out Omar at a time when President Donald Trump and others have made disparaging racial comments.

Last week, Omar was also the subject of an anti-Muslim attack in the West Virginia legislature, where a poster was displayed at a Republican-sponsored gathering that falsely linked her to the 9/11 attacks.

The congresswoman has also said she is subjected to near-daily death threats.

In a statement this week, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said, Branding criticism of Israel as automatically anti-Semitic has a chilling effect on our public discourse and makes it harder to achieve a peaceful solution between Israelis and Palestinians. She said threats of violence, including those made against Omar, are never acceptable.

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, said in a statement to US media that he fears that House Republicans and others are targeting Omar as a way of stifling  debate about Israel.

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Anti-Semitism is a hateful and dangerous ideology which must be vigorously opposed in the United States and around the world. We must not, however, equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government in Israel. Rather, we must develop an even-handed Middle East policy which brings Israelis and Palestinians together for a lasting peace, he said.

The divide within the party reportedly prompted Democratic leaders to consider a resolution that included broader language.

Its about all forms of hate

Thursdays resolution condemns anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities as hateful expressions of intolerance.

The seven-page document details a history of recent attacks not only against Jews in the US but also Muslims, as it condemns all such discrimination as contradictory to the values and aspirations of the people in the US. The vote was delayed for a time on Thursday to include mention of Latinos to address concerns of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The addition came under a section that stated in the end, Whereas white supremacists in the United States have exploited and continue to exploit bigotry and weaponize hate for political gain, targeting traditionally persecuted peoples, including African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders and other people of colour, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and others with verbal attacks, incitement, and violence.

Speaking before the vote, Pelosi said she does not believe that Omar understood the weight of her words or that they would be perceived by some as anti-Semitic. The resolution does not mention Omar by name.

Its not about her. Its about these forms of hatred, Pelosi said. Asked whether the resolution was intended to police politicians words, Pelosi replied, We are not policing the speech of our members. We are condemning anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and white supremacy.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York called the new version of the resolution appropriate.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, they are allowed to have free speech in this country, Gillibrand said. But we dont need to use anti-Semitic tropes or anti-Muslim tropes to be heard.
Top court appoints arbitration panel to mediate in decades-old dispute between Hindus and Muslims over a religious site.

Indias Supreme Court has appointed an arbitration panel to mediate in a decades-long dispute over a religious site in northern Uttar Pradesh states Ayodhya city.

The court on Friday ruled that the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, as the contentious case is known as, will now be mediated through a panel headed by retired Supreme Court judge FM Kalifulla.

The other members of the arbitration panel include senior advocate, Sriram Panchu, and self-styled Hindu godman, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

The 70-year-old case involves a dispute over a one-hectare site in Ayodhya, where right-wing Hindus plan to build a temple dedicated to Lord Ram on the ruins of a 16th-century mosque demolished in 1992.

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The Supreme Court-appointed arbitration panel has been given eight weeks to come to an agreement, which coincides with Indias national elections, due in April and May.

Hindu nationalist forces affiliated with Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have ratcheted up their long-standing demand for the construction of a temple in the run-up to the election.

Festering wound

A five-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, said the order is a bid to heal the hearts if possible.

The court described the dispute as a festering wound which has touched the religious sentiments of Hindus and Muslims for decades and led to multiple rounds of communal violence.

In 1992, a Hindu mob tore down the Mughal-era mosque, triggering riots that killed about 2,000 people in one of the worst instances of communal violence in India since the 1947 partition of the country.

Out of concern for the sensitive nature of the subject, the court has directed the panel members to maintain utmost secrecy. The media has also been banned from covering its proceedings.

While holding control over the controversial site, the Supreme Court had been weighing petitions from both the communities on what should be built there.

Earlier, a five-judge panel, headed by Gogoi, had asked both Hindu and Muslim groups involved in the case to explore the possibility of resolving their dispute through mediation.

Indias most divisive issue

After lower courts heard the case for several years, the Supreme Court took up the matter in 2011, when it suspended a high court ruling that the disputed site be split into three parts, with one portion going to Muslims and the other two to Hindus.

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Hindu and Muslim groups challenged the verdict and appealed to the Supreme Court, which criticised the ruling and said the high court overstepped its authority by ordering the partition.

Hindu groups say there used to be a temple at the site before the mosque was built by Mughal ruler Zahir-ud Din Babar in the early 16th century.

It is the most divisive dispute between Indias majority Hindus and minority Muslims, who make up around 14 percent of the countrys 1.3 billion people.

Right-wing groups affiliated to the BJP had called for legislation to allow a temple to be built, bypassing the Supreme Court. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi later said the judicial process should be allowed to take its course.

Far-right Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), or the World Hindu Council, which has led the Ram temple campaign over the past three decades, organised rallies in recent months to press its case.
Debate over the gender pay gap seems almost peripheral in a country where tradition forces women to keep house and work.

Jakarta, Indonesia  Psychologist Jackie Viemilawati wakes up at 5:30am every day to get her eight-year-old son Noah ready for school. She makes sure he showers and eats his breakfast, prepared by the familys domestic worker, and gets his bag ready before he leaves with his grandmother at 6:15am.

Then Viemilawati steels herself for her commute to the office.

It takes me four hours to get to work and back, said Viemilawati, 41, when Al Jazeera met her at her office in south Jakarta. I catch the commuter train and then a minibus.

Fortunately, the non-profit organisation where she works offers flexible hours, introduced after the staff  mostly mothers themselves  realised how tough it was to juggle their various duties.

Despite having a Masters degree from the University of Londons School of Oriental and African Studies, Viemilawati earns only 10 percent of what her husband, a local employee at a UN agency, makes.

International Womens Day explained

My work is basically social work with a small wage as a bonus, she laughs.

If I was fired tomorrow, or got divorced, I wouldnt have a rupiah to my name. No money, no social security. My salary doesnt cover my familys needs.

While a recent survey by recruitment firm Korn Ferry on womens salaries across Asia found the male-female pay gap at senior levels small, the reality is most Indonesian women earn less than men  and theyre also expected to look after the house, children, and even elderly parents.

Indonesians call it dapur, sumur, kasur  the kitchen, the well, and the bed  womens traditional place in society.

Evi Mariani takes her son to work with her in Jakarta about once a month [Kate Walton/Al Jazeera]

Invisible barriers

A 2017 report from the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Economic Governance found that the Indonesian women were only paid 70-80 percent of what men got per hour.

Research by the International Labor Organization in 2014 on female garment workers also showed that women earned 10-20 percent less than men in Indonesia.

However, it appears Indonesias dynamic economy has prospered women. The same Korn Ferry survey found that the pay gap between Indonesian women and men was only five percent (as opposed to a 16 percent globally and 15 percent in Asia). And a few women at the very top actually earned 1.2 percent more than their male colleagues.

But as Korn Ferry admitted, the numbers dont paint a complete picture.

Women also suffer from a lack of pay transparency. In Indonesia, wages are not advertised or standardised. Many employers ignore regional minimum wages, while others give offers based on past salaries.

Some employers choose to pay returning female staff the same salary as years ago  the same rate they got before they took time off to care for their children.

The equal-pay-for-equal-work measures may be pretty accurate, but in themselves, they are not a good indicator to capture the extent of gender inequalities in the labour market, explained Ariane Utomo, a lecturer in demography at the University of Melbourne.

Comparing the wages of male and female managers is misleading, because a big chunk of the women dont make it that far up the career ladder, or have dropped out of the workforce completely before reaching the age of 40.

As Utomo points out, many women are doubly burdened, doing a full days work then coming home to more housework and childcare.



Thus only 51 percent of women in Indonesia work, compared with 80 percent of men, according to the National Socioeconomic Survey. In Vietnam, that rate is 73 percent.

Few Indonesian companies offer facilities that would encourage women to remain at work, such as daycare centres or breast-feeding rooms. And flexible working hours are rare.

The government is trying to encourage businesses to provide such facilities, but with few incentives, implementation has been slow.

Domestic help

Families who can afford it often hire domestic staff to assist, because they would not be able to cope otherwise.

Viemilawati has a maid who helps around the house. We made the conscious decision not to have a nanny, though, she added. We want to look after our son ourselves, and are fortunate that my mum also lives with us.

Even so, she almost always goes straight home after work.

Like many Jakarta families, both parents work, but Viemilawati has a husband who also wants to spend time with the couples son.

My husband is very concerned about equal parenting, she said.

Evi Mariani, managing editor at The Jakarta Post, Indonesias largest English-language media outlet, realised when she had a baby that she could not continue working without a live-in nanny.

My working hours are not nine-to-five, and there is little daycare available, she said.

Mariani and her husband decided to hire Yuni five years ago when their son was born. They kept her on as he got older. Yuni now cooks, cleans, and does laundry as well. Mariani estimates her family spends about one-quarter of their income on domestic help.

But I also have this guilt [over employing a nanny], Mariani, 42, told Al Jazeera. I know she left her children behind in her village. I feel very guilty about this.

Jackie Viemelawati leaves her office in the rain for her two-hour journey by train and bus back home [Kate Walton/Al Jazeera]

No options

But working from home in the morning and going to the office from 2pm until at least 7pm doesnt leave her much choice. If I didnt have a child, this wouldnt be a problem. We have to have a support system in place as a result.

For women such as Yuni, stopping work is not an option. Her family relies on her income. Yunis husband works as a labourer and moves around the country frequently, while her niece and other family members look after Yunis two children back in Central Java.

Shes very stoic about it, Mariani said, glancing across at Yuni who is in her early 30s while she cooks. Shes been working as a domestic helper for 16 years.

Around 80 percent of women in Indonesias poorest households work  in other peoples homes, as farmers, fisherwomen, tailors, day labourers or run a kiosk or food stand. Although they have jobs, their income is still seen as supplementary, even if they earn more than their husbands do.

When asked about her family, Yuni just smiles and shrugs.

Its just the way things are, she said, scooping rice porridge into a bowl and adding some vegetables. She excuses herself and goes to give Marianis son his lunch, while his mother gets ready to leave for work.
President Omar al-Bashir remains defiant and so are the protesters, leaving no solution in sight to end the deadlock.

Anti-government protesters in Sudan are defying a state of emergency.

Political parties aligned to the government of President Omar al-Bashir say they are committed to starting talks to end nearly four months of demonstrations.

But its unclear who the government can talk to because the protest movement doesnt have obvious leaders.

Al Jazeeras Hiba Morgan reports from Khartoum.
Rights groups say deporting four Egyptians is illegal because they face imprisonment and torture under Sisis rule.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Human rights organisations have criticised Malaysian authorities for detaining four Egyptians critical of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi with the intention of returning them to Egypt.

Describing the move as a violation of human rights law and legal procedure, the groups expressed fear the Egyptians will face severe punishment back home.

An official at Malaysias Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Friday that four Egyptians had been detained in an operation by Special Branch, the intelligence arm of the countrys police, and the immigration department.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the men were not registered as refugees.

We can confirm the four have been arrested under SOSMA, the official said. They are in the hands of the immigration department and the Egyptian embassy has been informed.

SOSMA, the Security Offences (Special Measures Act), replaced Malaysias Internal Security Act in 2012, and is supposed to be used to fight terrorism. Critics say it is draconian and open to abuse.

Eyewitnesses said one of the men, Mohammed Fathi, had his vehicle stopped and he was taken away by three masked men in Malaysian military uniform, along with several others in civilian clothes.

The wife of Abdullah Hisham Mustafa, another man facing deportation, said she had no idea about his fate. She said her husband could face torture or execution if handed over to the Egyptian authorities.

Ahmed Azzam, Union of Non-Governmental Organizations in the Islamic World [Al Jazeera]

Shameful

Ahmed Azzam, deputy secretary-general of the Union of Non-Governmental Organizations in the Islamic World, accused Malaysian authorities of attempting to cover up the deportations.

Calling the move shameful, Azzam alleged Malaysian police and Egyptian intelligence may have plotted the renditions without the knowledge of government officials.

He told Al Jazeera Malaysias anti-terror law authorises the security services and police to act without informing the government.

A researcher at the Institute of Malaysian Studies, who declined to give his name, also said officials may have been kept in the dark about the planned deportations.

Lawyer and human rights activist Latheefa Koya said on Twitter the extraditions endangered the lives of the four Egyptians.

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, a government-supported body, told Al Jazeera it was not aware of the detentions.





Sisis crackdown

Sisi led the overthrow of Egypts first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-2013.

The state has since arrested thousands of dissidents, including activists and journalists, as well as Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Egypt has also been accused of arbitrary detention, disappearances and torture, and has silenced most independent media.

Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein was arrested in December 2016 after returning to Egypt to visit family. Hes been imprisoned without charge ever since.

Human Rights Watch estimates Egypt has imprisoned as many as 60,000 political activists. In an interview late last year, Sisi denied Egypt was holding any political prisoners.

Kate Mayberry contributed to this report
Widespread outrage in Aden after killing of Raafat Danbaa who testified against men accused of raping boy aged seven.

Protesters have rallied in Yemens port city of Aden for the fourth day, angry at the killing of a man who testified against four Emirati-backed fighters accused of raping a seven-year-old boy.

Raafat Danbaas mother said members of an Emirati-linked militia abducted her son outside their home and later killed him.





His killers took him right in front of my eyes, outside the front door. They didnt even respect my presence, said the woman, identifying herself as Umm Raafat.

I was looking at them and I was crying, but they took him anyway an entire armed unit grabbing one man, she added before begging Yemens President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi for help in bringing the killers to justice.

I call on the president to ensure they are brought to justice and that my son finally gets retribution.

Yemens government has set up a committee to investigate Danbaas death, which comes against a backdrop of human rights abuses carried out by the UAE-linked militias and the countrys armed forces directly.

In June 2018, an Associated Press investigation found that the Emirati military officers ran a prison in southern Yemen, where they tortured detainees, including with acts of sexual abuse.

A report later obtained by Al Jazeera revealed the existence of a network of 27 such sites, used to imprison and torture Yemeni opponents of the UAE.

The report alleged that 49 people had died as a result of the torture they had undergone at the sites.

Yemen has been suffering from a war, which began in 2014 and escalated in 2015 when Houthi rebels swept across much of the country, forcing Hadi to flee and prompting intervention by a Saudi and Emirati-led alliance.

The conflict has destroyed much of the countrys vital infrastructure and left it on the brink of famine, with around 11 million people facing starvation.

Death tolls vary significantly, but one observer group put the number of dead at 60,223 since January 2016.
Families push government to reopen investigation, resume search for airliner that disappeared with 239 on board.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  For a legion of armchair enthusiasts, the disappearance of MH370 is an opportunity to spin increasingly far-fetched conspiracy theories about what happened to the plane once it vanished from radar on March 8, 2014.

For the families of the 239 passengers and crew who were on board, the worlds biggest aviation mystery has meant five years of grief, bewilderment and disbelief.

KS Narendrans wife was one of the passengers.

Every March, since she disappeared, he has travelled from his home in Chennai, India to Kuala Lumpur to remember those on board and keep up the pressure on Malaysias government to continue the search.

This year, the fifth anniversary of the planes disappearance, he admits he thought twice about making the trip.

I felt ambivalent about being here, Narendran said. Everything that can be said, has been said.

Soon after the Boeing 777-200 vanished  less than an hour into an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing that should have taken around six hours  it emerged its communications systems had been turned off.

Military radar then revealed the aircraft had turned back across Malaysia, skirted the island of Penang, and headed towards the northern tip of Sumatra.

Some 26 countries joined the search-and-rescue mission, but could find nothing.

Weeks later, the Malaysian government announced MH370 had flown until it ran out of fuel, ending its journey thousands of kilometres from Beijing in the depths of the southern Indian Ocean.

Officials were able to reach that conclusion after discovering the aircraft had been responding to satellite pings sent out by the Inmarsat system, which enabled them to plot an arc of where the plane might be.

Malaysias Transport Minister Anthony Loke (third from left) plants a tree with families of the passengers and crew onboard MH370 [Kate Mayberry/Al Jazeera]

Back to the beginning

The official investigation report, amounting to nearly 500 pages and numerous appendices, was finally published last July, but it offered little that was new.

It acknowledged shortcomings in Malaysias response to the planes disappearance and said foul play could not be ruled out even though there was no evidence of stress or strange behaviour among the crew or passengers.

After five years, and the discovery of only a few pieces of wreckage, experts say the time has come to take another look at the initial investigation.

The government has to release everything and go back to the beginning, said Gail Durham, executive director of the National Air Disaster Alliance Foundation, who was in Beijing when the plane disappeared. Thats what scientists do. We have to look at what we have in light of what we know now. We have nothing to lose.

In the immediate aftermath of the planes disappearance, the government, the national carrier and Malaysias civil aviation authorities were widely criticised for their handling of the crisis.

But that administration was removed in elections last May, raising hopes the new leadership  Malaysias first change in government in 60 years  would show a renewed interest in discovering what happened to MH370.

There was a certain expectation that things would be different, Narendran said.

But to the government [MH370] seems a reminder of something that did not go well, and they just want to get past it.

Three pieces of wreckage from MH370, including this one found on a beach off Tanzania, have been recovered since it went missing [Kate Mayberry/Al Jazeera]

Credible leads

Malaysias Transport Minister Anthony Loke joined the families memorial on Sunday, planting a tree and inspecting two pieces of wreckage put on public display for the first time.

He insisted all the information gathered during the investigation had been published, but said the government was willing to consider new search proposals based on credible leads.

We are awaiting a specific proposal, especially from Ocean Infinity, he told reporters.

The US technology group Ocean Infinity scoured the seabed over five months last year in an ultimately fruitless search for the fuselage. The official search, covering some 200,000 square kilometres of remote ocean and conducted by Australia, China and Malaysia, ended a year before that.

Ocean Infinity focussed its operations to the north of the arc established by the Inmarsat data after the final report of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) suggested that might be the planes final resting place. Drift modelling as a result of the wreckage found in Africa also pointed to the northern end of the arc.

The companys CEO Oliver Plunkett in a video broadcast from Argentina said the team had been refining and improving their search equipment after successfully recovering a submarine that had been lost for more than a year.

It is now offering to resume the search on the basis, once again, that the company will be paid only if the plane is found.

Families of the 239 people onboard MH370 when it went missing remember their loved ones at a memorial event in Kuala Lumpur [Al Jazeera/Kate Mayberry]

When, how, who

Family members are urging the government to consider all search offers, setting aside a budget of $70m, the amount it would have had to pay Ocean Infinity if it had found the aircraft last year.

Its a risk-free investment in the future of aviation safety, said Grace Nathan, whose mother was on board MH370. She is now the spokeswoman for the families support group known as Voice370.

You only have to pay out if the plane is found and if the plane is found then we can work out how it disappeared, why it disappeared and when it disappeared, and a similar tragedy can be prevented in future.

ATSB concluded the plane had probably hit the water in a high and increasing rate of descent. The confirmed wreckage also suggests the effect took place at medium to high speed.

Since MH370 vanished, airlines have made improvements to their operations and many aircraft are now tracked in real time, especially across oceans.

We need to find the wreckage so we can get the black boxes, said Gerry Soejatman, an aviation analyst based in Jakarta.

If it turns out to be a freak accident, we need to find out why so it doesnt happen again. Or if it was interference, how that happened so it doesnt happen again. We are not just talking about 239 people. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people who fly every day.

The aviation industry often describes flying as the worlds safest form of transport.

Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick was the inflight supervisor on MH370, recalls he often said the same thing.

But with MH370 still lying somewhere in the remote Indian Ocean, family members say only when the wreckage is found, the black boxes recovered, and answers found to the questions of what caused the 777s disappearance can that claim really be justified.

When, how, who  we need to know, Gonzalez urged the government at Sundays memorial. Dont let it remain a mystery. Dont let it become a cold case.
Security analysts warn there is a risk of election-related violence in parts of the country.

Abuja, Nigeria  Millions of Nigerians are expected to cast their ballots on Saturday in local elections, two weeks after the countrys presidential and legislative polls were marred by violence and fraud allegations.

On the eve of the vote, which will see governorship and state assembly elections being held in 29 out of Nigerias 36 states, security experts expressed worries over potential unrest in some parts of the country.

Rivers State is the main concern, while in Kwara, Kano, Lagos and Kaduna the concern is intimidation from gangs as evidenced in the presidential election in Lagos, Murtala Ibin, a security analyst, told Al Jazeera.

Threats from bandits in Zamfara state and Boko Haram in Borno and Yobe will be of concern for voters in the affected states, Ibin said.

In the lead-up to last months presidential and legislative polls, security analysts at the International Crisis Group (ICG) had also warned that there was a risk of election-related violence in the northern and southern parts of the country.

I ntimidation will not be tolerated

Last year, during political party primaries, there were isolated incidents of violence by supporters of rival politicians.

Attacks resulted in the deaths of party supporters and soldiers were deployed to take control of security during the recently concluded elections.

In one incident in Abonnema, in the countrys southern Rivers state, dozens of people were allegedly killed by the military, which later resulted in a reprisal attack that led to the death of at least two soldiers last week.

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All of this is creating tension in the Niger Delta region, Udengs Eradiri, a youth leader, told Al Jazeera.

We are deeply concerned about the use of military to not only suppress voter turnout but also to hijack electoral materials, Eradiri said.

Legal experts, meanwhile, have said the use of the military during elections is a breach of the countrys electoral laws.

The Nigerian government has deployed more police to defuse tensions ahead of the elections.

Police say they have adequately prepared to prevent security breaches witnessed in the recently concluded polls.

We will deal with anyone caught violating our laws. The harassment and intimidation of voters will not be tolerated, police spokesman Frank Mba told Al Jazeera.

Credibility of polls

Saturdays polls, as well as the presidential and legislative elections, were delayed by a week after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cited logistical problems and sabotage.

The February 23 polls, which saw the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, win the presidential election with 56 percent votes, ended with opposition allegations of rigging and voter suppression.

Political analysts say the disputed outcome has cast further doubts about the credibility of the commission.

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But the INEC has pledged to improve its handling of logistics, including security for Saturdays elections.

We have identified the challenges, especially those that are man-made from the last exercise to ensure a hitch-free exercise, INEC spokesman Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi told Al Jazeera.

We have engaged with the police to ensure a violence-free exercise, he added.

Only 35 percent of the 84 million registered voters took part in last months elections  the lowest in 20 years.

Political observers are worried that the turnout for the state elections could be lower due to security concerns.
Female candidates are hopeful women voters will show support in Saturdays local elections in Nigeria.

Abuja, Nigeria  Nigerian women are hoping to use Saturdays local elections to change the countrys political dynamics by triggering an upset in the polls.

Womens groups have been mobilising support for female candidates seeking office, appealing to women voters to utilise their numerical strength to support their own during the governorship and state house of assembly elections.

Women have to rise up and now that some of us are here to challenge the status quo, it should be an encouragement, Adebisi Ogunsanya, who is running for the first time, told Al Jazeera.

I encourage them to vote for me because I understand what their problems are, Ogunsanya said on Thursday as campaigning ended.

She is seen as a dark horse in the race to become the governor of Lagos state because of her minimal political experience. Shes also contesting under a new political platform, the Young Progressive Party (YPP), in the commercial capital, Lagos.

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Ogunsanya will be up against 38 male and six other female candidates.

A total of 80 female candidates will be vying for state governorship positions across 29 states. They will face a total of 987 male candidates, many of whom are well-funded and grounded in political history.

However, what female candidates lack in financial muscle is compensated by their voting power as they constitute 47 percent  39.6 million out of 84 million eligible voters registered by the electoral commission.

Breaking barriers

Womens groups such as the Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF) are providing support to ease the burden of female candidates as part of its commitment to growing the pool of women in the political space.

We are providing technical support to our women seeking elective positions. We encourage our women to vote women and we also encourage the women to pay attention to the manifestos of the various candidates, NWTF spokesperson Mufilat Fijabi told Al Jazeera.

The group, established in 2011, aims to address growing concerns about gender imbalance in elective and appointive positions, according to a statement on its website.

About 80 women are running as candidates in Saturdays elections [Sunday Alamba/AP]

All-boys club

Some political analysts, however, are not convinced women can pull off any major upsets in Saturdays elections.

The top of the tickets for the major parties is basically an all-boys club. There will be a couple of female deputy governors but that wont be an upset, Stanley Azuakola, founder of vote-watchdog Civic Monitor, told Al Jazeera.

Frankly, women are yet to collectively see the lack of female voices at the table as a serious issue, says Azuakola.

Reports of violence marred Februarys elections [File: Ben Curtis/AP]

Februarys presidential and legislative elections were marred by allegations of violence, vote-rigging, and voter suppression.

This resulted in low voter turnout across the country with voters and electoral commission officials killed and injured.

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The scale of the election violence, especially in Lagos, has left Ogunsanya and other candidates worried about security for Saturdays vote.

But shes confident women will turn out despite the risks to support female candidates.

Barring any threats and violence, I expect the women to vote for me, said Ogunsanya.
American Jews are pretty strongly anti-Trump. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Its no surprise that Republicans continue to try to make hay out of the Ilhan Omar controversy, even though, arguably, Democrats turned the tables on them by developing an anti-hate resolution which they unanimously supported, whereas 23 Republicans just couldnt endorse such a sweeping condemnation of bigotry.

Characteristically, the leader of the GOP, one of the most skillful hate-mongers in major-party political history, is asserting that Democrats lost the battle over Omar while exposing their deep animus toward Jews and Israel, per CNN:

I thought yesterdays vote by the house was disgraceful because it has become, the Democrats have become an anti-Israel party. I thought that vote was a disgrace. If you get an honest answer from politicians, they thought it was a disgrace. The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party and anti-Jewish party, Trump said.

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Lets look at the record.

There are 27 Jews currently serving in the U.S. House. Twenty-five of them are Democrats; 2 are Republicans. There are nine Jews in the U.S. Senate. All of them are Democrats (if you consider Bernie Sanders a Democrat). Republicans: zippo.

Are all these Democratic Jews in Congress self-loathing?

A look at Jewish voting patterns is equally revealing. According to the best available data, Democrats have carried the Jewish vote in 24 consecutive presidential elections, dating back to 1924. In six of the last seven presidential elections, the Jewish vote was more than 70 percent Democratic (the one exception was in 2012, when Barack Obama won 69 percent of the Jewish vote). Hillary Clinton trounced Trump among Jews by a 71/24 margin. 2018 exit polls showed 79 percent of Jews voting Democratic in the midterms.

Did Democrats just become the anti-Jewish party since November of last year?

Trumps anti-Israel smear is only slightly more credible. Yes, a significant minority of congressional Democrats are less slavish to Benjamin Netanyahus policies than nearly all Republicans (who are beholden, for the most part, to militantly pro-Likud conservative evangelicals rather than to Jews on the whole). But the vast majority of Democratic elected officials have supported a robust U.S. alliance with Israel dating back to Israels founding, in which Democratic president Harry Truman played a key role. The most recent congressional vote on military assistance to Israel, in 2018, showed the measure passing both Houses on voice votes; 36 Democratic senators, including their Jewish leader, Chuck Schumer, were original co-sponsors.

Were all these Democrats hiding an anti-Israel bias while voting for a measure that AIPAC praised as ensur[ing] that Israel has the means to defend itself, by itself, against growing threats? And speaking of AIPAC, if Democrats are anti-Semitic and anti-Israel, why did that organization greet the results of the 2018 midterms with this comment:

Americans elected a solidly pro-Israel Congress, declared the lead article in Near East Report, a monthly publication distributed by AIPAC to its followers across the United States. While polarized on many issues, the 116th Congress remains committed to the U.S.-Israel relationship on a bipartisan basis, it stated.

The presidents smear against Democrats may even be a projection of his own issues with Jews, who are naturally suspicious of the Christian nationalism he keeps flirting with, which is historically associated with anti-Semitism. After all, a lot of the fervent support for Bibi and a Greater Israel in Christian Right circles is grounded in hopes that the Middle East will be consumed in an apocalyptic war that will inaugurate the end times and give Jews two options: conversion to Christianity or eternal damnation. These arent the kind of allies you can really trust.
Islamabad insists the initiative has nothing to do with the recent standoff with India.

Pakistani authorities have begun a crackdown on groups it claims are linked to banned organisations.

So far, more than 100 people have been arrested and the governments also seized more than 150 seminaries, schools and colleges and even four hospitals that it claims are linked to the outlawed organisations.

The groups say they will challenge the confiscations in court, arguing theres yet to be any legal convictions against them.

Many groups boast a great deal of popularity thanks to the assistance that they have provided to the poor.

Al Jazeeras Kamal Hyder reports from Lahore.
Tamer Arafat, 23, died from his wounds after being shot in the head during Fridays protest, Gaza health ministry says.

Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian man and wounded more than 40 as thousands protested near the Gaza Strips perimeter fence, the enclaves health ministry has said.

Tamer Arafat, 23, died from his wounds on Friday during the 50th week of demonstrations, said Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesman for the ministry.

Qidra also said that 48 Palestinians had been wounded by Israeli gunfire, including four medics, two women and 15 children.

The Israeli military said over 8,000 Palestinians took part in the demonstration, throwing rocks and explosives towards soldiers, and that some tried to breach the fence into Israel.

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A spokesman for the military said Israeli forces responded with riot dispersal means and fired in accordance with standard operating procedures.

Palestinians have staged weekly protests near the border with Israel as part of the Great March of Return protests, which began in March last year.

The demonstrators are calling for the lifting of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed on Gaza since 2007 and for the right to return to their ancestral homes in Israel, as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

Egypt tries to restore calm

Cross-border violence has increased in recent days with Israels military saying it had carried out air raids on a compound belonging to Hamas after explosives attached to balloons were launched from the coastal enclave towards Israel.

Egyptian officials, who have frequently brokered ceasefires between Israel and Hamas, have been shuttling between the sides to try to restore calm, a Palestinian official told Reuters.

According to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, 267 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since March 30.

Of them, 190 were killed during demonstrations, including 40 children, two women, two journalists, three paramedics and eight disabled people.

Another 14,673 have been injured, including 3,128 children.

Most of the Palestinians killed during the demonstrations were shot in weekly clashes, but some have been hit by Israeli tank fire or air raids.

Israel has accused Hamas of using the demonstrations as cover for infiltrations and attacks, but rights groups and Palestinians say the protesters have posed little threat.

Last month, UN investigators said there was evidence pointing to crimes against humanity by Israeli security forces.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the reports findings, saying it was setting new records of hypocrisy and lies, out of an obsessive hatred of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.
Police in Colorado confronted the black man picking up rubbish on his front lawn assuming that he was holding a weapon.

Police in the US state of Colorado have launched an internal investigation following an incident where police officers confronted a man picking up rubbish on his front lawn.

In a video of the March 1 incident taken by a neighbour and widely shared on social media, the man is seen confronting three police officers, including one who had his gun drawn.

The man repeatedly tells the officers that he lived at the apartment complex, was simply picking up rubbish and was not armed. He also shows the officers his university ID.

I dont have a weapon. This is a bucket, this is a clamp, the man angrily says, showing the items he was using to pick up rubbish.

https://twitter.com/MoneyMakersEnt_/status/1103747313674141702?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Youre on my property with a gun in your hand threatening to shoot me because Im picking up trash? he is heard screaming in the 16-minute video posted on YouTube.

One officer tells the man to just relax while another orders him to drop the weapon and sit on the ground.

The video was shared on Facebook by Vanardo Merchant, a friend of the man in the video from inside their house.

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On Facebook, where he shared the video, Merchant wrote that he started filming after the interaction began.

He also wrote that Zayd [the man in the video] is picking up garage outside of our home and 8 police officers pull up on him with guns [threatening] to shot [shoot] him telling him to put down the weapon [a bucket & rubbish clamps].

In a statement issued earlier this week, the Boulder Police Department said the man, who has not been identified, was questioned after he was spotted in a partially enclosed patio area to determine if he was allowed to be on the property.

It said that the officer who initiated contact had called for backup, indicating that the man was uncooperative and unwilling to put down a blunt object.

The object the man was holding was used to pick up trash, the statement added. Officers ultimately determined that the man had a legal right to be on the property and returned the mans school identification card.

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The Boulder Police Department stated on their website that they launched an internal affairs investigation over the incident.

It said a review of the incident would take place in 60 to 90 days.

This is an extremely concerning issue, and one that we are taking very seriously, police chief Greg Tesla told a local council meeting on Tuesday.

Many who attended the meeting held metal rubbish grabbers and others carried signs that said Black Lives Matter and Doing Yard Work While Black.
Lisbon has become simultaneously the most welcoming and yet least well-known potential destination for refugees.

The rise of far-right politics in parts of Europe has been matched by a growing reluctance to accept refugees.

One country thats bucking the trend is Portugal, which is actively seeking new arrivals.

Portugal has reached out to Greece and Italy, and is in advanced talks with Germany, about relocating thousands of people.

The country has accepted many more from Turkey and Egypt. Everything happening here is the opposite to the rest of the European Union.

Al Jazeeras Laurence Lee reports from Lisbon.
Residents in Jordans capital hit the stores to back owners who suffered major losses after heavy rains led to floods.

Jordan, Amman  Thousands of shoppers have descended on central Amman in a show of support for business owners whose stores were badly affected by heavy rains last week.

The spending spree on Friday was in response to a social media campaign launched by activists after flooding hit the Jordanian capitals Downtown market on February 27 and 28.

You can see how crowded the markets are, its not like this every Friday, Mohammad Gabartawi, one of the founders of the #OffToDownTown campaign, told Al Jazeera.

The sunny weather also motivated more people to join, the 30-year-old added.

Gabartawi said he and his colleagues created a Facebook event to help the flood-hit merchants after videos showing the widespread damage began circulating online.





What happened is very sad; we are trying to do what we can to support these poor people, said Warda Saudi, one of the shoppers at Ammans largest market.

Talat Abbas, the owner of a shop selling blankets, said he had lost more than 10,000 Jordanian dinars ($14,000) in the flooding, the first to hit his shop of 30 years.

I got rid of damaged blankets, now Im selling defected blankets for half the price; this is a huge loss, the 50-year-old told Al Jazeera, in-between price negotiations with a customer.

I hold the Amman municipality responsible for my loss; the infrastructure is poor, and the drainage network is bad that could not take this amount of rain.

Talat Abbas: I hold the Amman municipality responsible for my loss [Abeer Ayyoub/Al Jazeera]

In recent days, many others have also taken to social media to criticise Ammans local authorities for being unprepared for the severity of the bad weather.

In response, the municipality formed a committee to determine responsibility and vowed to take the result of its investigation seriously. It also announced a two-year exemption from registration license and waster fees for merchants  a move, however, that was described as inadequate by those affected.

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Mohammad Haimour, one of the customers to hit the stores on Friday, said it was up to citizens to help each other at times of need.

We know that the government will not help these people, this is why its our job to stand for each other, and to support each other, said the 30-year-old, who bought clothes for his children.

At a store not far away, Yehya Abu Zuhdi, the owner of a cosmetics shop, said it was unlikely that the authorities would help him with his losses.

The government is not taking us seriously; I lost my money and no one really cares about this, said Abu Zuhdi.

Jordans Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz visited the market a week ago, talking to shop owners and listening to their complaints. Al-Razzaz acknowledged that the situation was painful and vowed that the government would examine the matter thoroughly and act accordingly.

Last weeks flooding was the latest in a number of bad-weather incidents to hit Jordan in recent months. In November, more than 20 people, mostly children, were killed when flash floods swept a school bus near the Dead Sea.
Unmanned capsule designed to take humans into space returns to Earth, completing landmark mission for Elon Musks firm.

An unmanned SpaceX capsule has successfully splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean after a short-term stay on the International Space Station (ISS).

The return of the Crew Dragon spacecraft to Earth on Friday morning capped the first orbital test mission in US space agency NASAs long-delayed quest to resume human space flight from US soil later this year.

Good splashdown of Dragon confirmed! the SpaceX account tweeted along with an image of the capsule showing its four main white and orange parachutes deployed as two boats sped towards it.

Successful splashdown of the #CrewDragon right on time at 8:45 a.m. ET. pic.twitter.com/0qHhHzD4Js  NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) March 8, 2019

After a five-day mission on the orbital outpost, Crew Dragon autonomously detached about 2:30am EST (07:30 GMT) on Friday and sped back to Earth reaching hypersonic speeds before an 8:45am EST (13:45 GMT) splash-down in the Atlantic, about 320km off the Florida coast.

A SpaceX rocket launched the 16-foot-tall capsule from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday.

The first-of-its-kind mission, in advance of SpaceXs crewed test flight slated for June, brought some 180kg of test equipment to the space station, including a dummy named Ripley, outfitted with sensors around its head, neck and spine to monitor how a flight would feel for a human.

The space stations three-member crew greeted the capsule last Sunday, with US astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques entering Crew Dragons cabin to carry out air-quality tests and inspections.

The crewless mission, called Demo-1, was SpaceXs chance to show it can build a spaceship that can carry people.

The company, founded by celebrity entrepreneur Elon Musk, has so far shuttled only cargo to the ISS.
A new generation of rappers and artists are staring down the countrys powerful military rule.

Bangkok, Thailand  The country that points a gun at your throat. Claims to have freedom but no right to choose.

Rap Against Dictatorship (RAD), a Thai hip-hop group, pulls no punches when rapping about their countrys military rulers.

Its lyrics like these that have struck a chord with the Thai public and shaken up the generals in charge of the country in the lead up to a long-delayed election.

The groups hit song What My Countrys Got, a lyrical onslaught against the military government, went viral after it was released last year, and has attracted almost 60 million views online.

The country where the government is untouchable. The police use the law to threaten people. Though youre enlightened, you have to pretend to sleep, they rap.

In a country where anyone who criticises the military can receive lengthy jail terms, these young rappers take risks few are willing to emulate.

RAD, as the group is known, is on the front lines of a battle for the right to speak out in the lead up to a pivotal election that could set Thailand on a course back towards democracy, or see it reach new depths of state control.

Since the military took control in May 2014, authorities have arrested activists for acts as seemingly innocuous as a defiant hand gesture and banned the George Orwell book, 1984.

Thai group Rap Against Dictatorship perform their hit song in downtown Bangkok [David Boyle/Al Jazeera]

According to Human Rights Watch, authorities prosecuted more than 100 pro-democracy activists in 2018.

But even after their song became an online sensation, RAD is still walking free and unleashing their rap tirades against the military at gigs across Thailand.

Our work went viral at a time when it hit the government the most. Theyd shown they arent able to improve the situation and people are upset, says Hock, one of the bands cofounders.

He sees the power in numbers and believes the huge popularity of their video has helped keep his collective out of jail.

Militarised senate

RADs provocations come at a sensitive time for the regime.

Almost five years after they seized power at gunpoint, the military finally confirmed an election would take place on March 24. They had made five previous promises to hold elections.

The constitution and electoral rules they have imposed have been heavily criticised.

They are stacked with provisions that ensure no single party can win a majority while the entire senate is appointed by the military. Incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha is tipped to remain in power.

However, high-profile corruption scandals implicating senior members of the ruling elite and heavy-handed attacks on those who dare to criticise them have tested the patience even of some who originally supported the intervention.

Trade the microphone for a spray can and you get graffitist Headache Stencil. The artist has defied censorship threats to skewer some of the military governments top brass, including coup leader Prayuth, in stinging satirical works on walls across Thailand.

I just know that dictatorship will never be good for any of us. Thats why I stand up for myself and do something about it, he says.

I have seen many military supporters are now unwilling to support them. I think this is the turning point.

Headache Stencil has defied censorship threats to skewer some of the military governments top brass [David Boyle/Al Jazeera]

Stencil hit a nerve with a public growing tired of political corruption when he produced a stencil of Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwans face inside a clock following revelations of the politicians vast, undeclared luxury watch collection.

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It was swiftly painted over but lives eternally on social media platforms such as Instagram.

We love freedom

Lieutenant-General Peerapong Manakit is the commissioner of Thailands National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), which regulates how politics is covered by the media.

Believe me that we are impartial and we love freedom. We promote democracy. We are not a servant to one side, he tells Al Jazeera.

When it comes to regulating [media] during the campaign period, we are actually more careful about not bothering them so much.

But the NBTC has come under fire for temporarily shutting down a television station linked to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra  Voice TV  just months out from the election for airing content causing confusion and inciting divisions.

Advocates say it is a case of stifling press freedom. Peerapong says the station was repeatedly warned and the timing is just a coincidence.

Meanwhile, one image that Thailands ruling elite had effectively whitewashed from the historical record has become a focal point for artists.

In 1976, state-led forces massacred more than 40 students at Thammasat University who had been protesting the return of a former military dictator.

Renowned photographer and film producer Manit Sriwanichpoom depicts the massacre in Shakespeare Must Die, a film that has been banned by Thai censors.

They dont even put it in history textbooks because they know that this symbolises the spirit of the people fighting for democracy, he says.

Manit Sriwanichpoom depicted a 1976 massacre in a film that was banned by Thai censors [David Boyle/Al Jazeera]

Rap Against Dictatorship and Headache Stencil are now openly featuring the massacre in their work by referring to an iconic photograph of a student being lynched.

Its the kind of work Somrak Sila promotes at her Bangkok gallery, WTF, one of the few that dares to showcase political work.

I want to provoke but Im also scared to do that, she says.

You have to be obviously careful and smarter, you cant do anything straightforward, or the message that you want to deliver. It has to be more layered, more dimensional.

But Somrak is getting bolder. For her latest show, shes given Headache Stencil free rein to pillory the powerful on the walls of her gallery.

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People are excited about the election and theyve been watching every move and they want to know as well how the government will react to this kind of art during this period of time, she says.

Power of art

Actor Pornthip Mankong knows how high the stakes are better than most.

The military regimes courts jailed her for more than two years for her role in a play deemed to violate the countrys lese majeste laws  some of the strictest in the world.

I think the military or the police, they will think that I will not be on the stage any more. That I will not make some artwork any more, she says.

But why I will not do that? Because I know the power of art. Because I saw. I saw the fear of the military. Thats why they put me in jail  because they fear.

Theatres wont work with her so shes taking to the streets for pop-up performances demanding answers to why shes been banned from politics for 10 years.

They must control the people. We had to make a confession when we got arrested because under the military rule we will not win the case, she says.

This is the real life that you have to face with the threat of the military.
The UN says around 1.4 million people have returned to their homes in Syria last year.

The United Nations says hundreds of people who fled fighting in the town of Suran  in Syrias Hama province  are slowly rebuilding their lives.

They left in 2016, when armed groups took over the town, seeking refuge in Lebanon, Turkey or other towns in Syria.

But as they gradually made their way back, they are facing new challenges.

Al Jazeeras Scheherazade Gaffoor reports.
The talks enter second week raising expectations that there could be some progress towards ending the Afghan war.

The United States and the Taliban negotiators announced a two-day break from talks in Qatar following extensive discussion for 11 days in a renewed bid to restore peace to Afghanistan.

The fifth round of peace talks in Doha started on February 25 after the two sides hailed significant progress in the previous rounds of talks, also held in the Qatari capital.

The two sides agreed on a draft framework that included US troops withdrawal and discussions of a Taliban commitment that the Afghan territory would not be used by international terror groups.

The Taliban, in a statement released on Thursday, said the current round of peace talks is focused on the withdrawal of all occupying forces from Afghanistan and not allowing Afghanistan to harm others.

Comprehensive discussions are taking place about these two subjects. Other issues that have an internal aspect and are not tied to the United States have not been under discussion, the statement said.

During the talks, the US suggested a gradual troop pullout but the Taliban representatives said they want a withdrawal by the end of 2019, sources told Al Jazeera. Currently, 14,000 US troops are stationed in the country.

The talks will resume on Sunday, according to the Taliban.

US officials have not released any statement or comment on the ongoing talks.

The Doha meetings mark the highest level of negotiations between the two sides since the US ramped up peace efforts last year as the Trump administration is eager to end the nearly 18-year war.

Cofounder of the Taliban, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was released from a Pakistani prison in January to head the Taliban team in Doha. Sher Mohammed Abas Stanekzai is the main Taliban negotiator at the talks.

Sticking point

A major sticking point is that the US wants the Taliban to negotiate any final deal with the Afghan government led by President Ashraf Ghani, something the Taliban has repeatedly refused to do, calling the government a puppet of the West.

Ghani, who is seeking a second term, seems to have been sidelined from the peace process ahead of the key July presidential elections.

The US forces overthrew the Taliban from power in a 2001 invasion for hosting al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US.

Since then, the Taliban has conducted an armed rebellion exacting a heavy toll on Afghan security forces, civilians and US-led NATO forces, with 3,804 civilian killed last year  the deadliest since 2001.

The UN says at least 32,000 civilians have been killed and another 60,000 wounded in the past decade, when it began compiling the data.

In January, the Afghanistan president said that about 45,000 security forces have been killed since 2014.
At least six dead in Malawi because of ongoing heavy rain, say the local media reports.

A tropical disturbance that formed over the Mozambique Channel earlier this week has moved inland over Mozambique and brought days of heavy rain to neighbouring Malawi as well.

While the area of low pressure did not intensify, it continued to spread heavy rain across much of the already saturated regions of central Mozambique and southern Malawi.

News reports from Chikwaw, Malawi confirmed at least 6 deaths due to floods, mostly near swollen rivers. Police have urged the public not to cross rivers until they have receded.

Southern Zambia also saw some relief from the rain as the disturbance helped break the ongoing dry spell.

The forecast for the next several days says the storm will track east over the Mozambique Channel and will rapidly intensify.

The development of the storm will mostly be encouraged by the warm waters now running between 28-29 degrees Celsius.

Once it develops over the warmer water of the Mozambique Channel, the storm is expected to begin making a turn to the south, staying over open water.

Northwestern Madagascar could then see up to 300mm of rain by Sunday.

If the storm continues to strengthen over the Mozambique Channel next week, forecasts suggest there could be a second landfall in southern Mozambique.
California attorney general Xavier Becerra. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Stephon Clark was shot and killed on March 18 in his grandmothers backyard in Sacramento by two police officers who claimed they thought his white cell phone was a handgun. As with Michael Brown and Freddie Gray before him, his name became shorthand for a nationwide pattern of police violence against black men. That his killers would not face trial was the probable outcome well before Xavier Becerra made it official.

Speaking on Tuesday to reporters in Sacramento, the California attorney general cited a ten-page report summarizing an almost yearlong investigation by the states Department of Justice into the incident. Our investigation has concluded that no criminal charges against the officers involved in the shooting can be sustained, Becerra said, echoing a similar conclusion announced on Saturday by Anne Marie Schubert, the Sacramento County district attorney. I know this is not how Clarks family wanted this story to end.

Surely not, but the decision was far from unexpected: Just 80 American police officers were charged with murder or manslaughter for on-duty shootings between 2005 and 2017. This despite the staggering number of civilian deaths by firearm for which they are responsible  hovering between 900 and 1,000 during each of the past three years, according to a running Washington Post tally. Of the 80 charged, just 35 percent have been convicted, a figure that attests to the difficulty of securing criminal convictions for men and women who are granted de facto impunity to take lives.

Becerra is certainly aware of this track record. And by refusing to let a jury decide the officers fate, he has joined a robust legacy of prosecutors unwilling to take firm stances against the police. This approach was desirable among his fellow Democrats for much of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. The party was fixated then on burnishing its tough on crime bona fides as an electoral strategy against Republicans and, sometimes, in response to actual crime spikes. But today, it has arguably become a liability  both for criminal-justice reform broadly, and for Becerras credibility more specifically. At a time when advocates and officials in his home state are fighting to reshape Californias criminal-justice system by eliminating cash bail and rebuking President Trumps anti-immigrant crackdowns, Becerras decision belongs squarely among the mistakes of his predecessors.

Clark, 22 when he died, had allegedly spent the minutes before his flight from police smashing a car window and throwing a cinder block through a neighbors sliding glass door. He was mentally unwell  a fact affirmed by an internet-search history rife with inquiries about how to commit suicide, and a series of subsequent suicidal threats hed made to his girlfriend in the days prior. He had allegedly assaulted the same woman two days beforehand as well, which had nothing to do with the circumstances around his death but was nevertheless a point of emphasis in Schuberts rationale for declining to charge his killers.

Clark was shot eight times that night, with an independent autopsy concluding that almost all of the bullets had entered his back. Becerra and Schuberts offices both pursued independent investigations of the shooting, in Becerras case at the request of local police. Nearly a year later, their conclusions suggest that, despite several years marked by anti-police brutality protests, some prosecutors continue to err on the side of protecting their relationships with police, and police unions, rather than pursue accountability for law enforcement within a system stacked against it.

Becerra  despite his background as a pro-workers rights progressive during his time in Congress  is in some ways an exemplar. In February, his office threatened legal action against a group of Berkeley, Californiabased journalists who had received a list from state commissioners, apparently by mistake, of California law enforcement officers who had been convicted of crimes. Becerra received more than $300,000 from police unions statewide during his last campaign  suggesting a coziness with law enforcement that might explain his opposition to greater accountability and transparency for them, despite what the Berkeley reporters said is the publics right to know. But this approach may be nearing its last hurrah.

Central to the current pushback against law enforcement overreach from progressives and the Democratic Partys left wing is a growing awareness that prosecutors are key drivers of inequality. At the local level in particular, they both over-prosecute their poor and often black or brown constituents and regularly decline to take police to task for misconduct and brutality. The latter perception has led to protests  most famously, those affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement  and the ouster by voters of top cops in several jurisdictions, like Anita Alvarez in Cook County, Illinois; Timothy McGinty in Cuyahoga County, Ohio; and Robert McCulloch in St. Louis County, Missouri, to cite three.

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The ramifications of this approach to crime policy have already been felt at the national level. Senators Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar and former Vice-President Joe Biden are on the wrong end of the sea change in their partys approach to criminal justice. All three of their burgeoning or prospective campaigns for the presidency in 2020 are waging an optics war against their records as punitive, police-friendly prosecutors (or, in Bidens case, as a United States senator)  records marked by what many view today as an excessively harsh approach to crime.

Harris and Biden have addressed this shift by expressing varying degrees of regret for their past conduct, while also maintaining, in so many words, that their behavior was a product of its time. We were told by the experts that crack, you never go back, that the two were somehow fundamentally different, Biden said at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast hosted by Al Sharpton, attempting to absolve himself of the mistake he made in the 1980s by supporting laws that criminalized crack more harshly than powder cocaine. For her part, Harris has attempted to recast herself as one of the original progressive prosecutors  a claim partly supported by her implementation of diversion programs for first-time offenders and anti-bias trainings for her staff, but undercut by some truly horrific pursuits, like prosecuting the parents of truant schoolchildren during an era of falling crime rates. (Klobuchar, who is currently facing allegations that she terrorizes her young staff by humiliating them publicly and throwing objects at them, has made no such concessions.)

Yet even if one finds these arguments convincing  and I am inclined not to  Becerra has no such excuse. He is fortunate, as all of us are, to exist at a time when it is clearer than ever that unaccountable law enforcement paired with a punitive approach to crime and mental health crises in black communities does significantly more harm than good. He is no helpless victim of his era, as his predecessors have claimed to be. Americans have decades of misled policy to look back upon and use as a bellwether for today. To the extent that history can be used as a guide, the lessons regarding how to earn public trust is clear. Instead, Becerra has embraced the old way. It is to his detriment, and to Californias.
Authorities say at least 29 others injured after truck carrying dozens of migrants overturned in southern Mexico.

At least 25 Central American migrants and refugees died and dozens more were injured on Thursday after the truck they were travelling in overturned in southern Mexico, according to authorities.

The Chiapas state prosecutors office said in a statement late on Thursday that 29 others were injured in the accident. It appears the driver lost control of the truck near the town of Francisco Sarabia in the municipality of Soyalo.

The injured were transported to hospitals. Authorities did not provide the nationalities of the victims, and say the investigation continues.

The truck involved in this accident was carrying an estimated 80 people, said Isidro Hernandez of the local Red Cross. Some who were not injured may have fled.

The fatalities include at least one minor, Hernandez added.

Chiapas is the main entry point for Central American migrants arriving in Mexico from Guatemala.

People from a caravan of Central American migrants walk alongside a highway, on their way towards the US [File: Getty Images/Mario Tama]

Every year, thousands of Central Americans, mainly from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, attempt dangerous trips through Mexico trying to reach the United States or attempting to find opportunities for work in Mexico.

Many travel in group caravans for safety, while others hire human traffickers who put them in overcrowded trucks with often unsanitary conditions.

Central Americans have told Al Jazeera they are fleeing poverty, violence and political persecution.
Though the longest jail term to date in Robert Muellers probe, it could have been much worse for Paul Manafort.

US President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, much less than what was called for under sentencing guidelines.

Paul Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he deals with complications from gout, had no visible reaction on Thursday as he heard the 47-month prison sentence.

While that was the longest to date to come from special counsel Robert Muellers probe, it could have been much worse for Manafort. Sentencing guidelines called for a 20-year-term, effectively a life sentence for the 69-year-old.

Manafort still faces the possibility of additional time from his sentencing in a separate case in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty to charges related to illegal lobbying.

Before Judge TS Ellis III imposed the sentence, Manafort told him that saying I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement. But he offered no explicit apology, something Ellis noted before issuing his sentence.





Manafort steered Trumps election efforts during crucial months of the 2016 campaign as Russia allegedly sought to meddle in the election through hacking of Democratic email accounts. He was among the first Trump associates charged in the Mueller investigation and has been a high-profile defendant.

But the charges against Manafort were unrelated to his work on the campaign or the focus of Muellers investigation: whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russians.

A jury last year convicted Manafort on eight counts, concluding that he hid from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) millions of dollars he earned from his work in Ukraine.

Manaforts lawyers argued their client had engaged in what amounted to a routine tax evasion case, and cited numerous past sentences in which defendants had hidden millions from the IRS and served less than a year in prison.

Absolutely no evidence

Prosecutors said Manaforts conduct was egregious, but Ellis ultimately agreed more with defence attorneys. These guidelines are quite high, Ellis said.

Neither prosecutors nor defence attorneys had requested a particular sentence length in their sentencing memoranda, but prosecutors had urged a significant sentence.

Outside the court, Manaforts lawyer, Kevin Downing, said his client accepted responsibility for his conduct and there was absolutely no evidence that Mr Manafort was involved in any collusion with the government of Russia.

Prosecutors left the court without making any comment.





Though Manafort hasnt faced charges related to collusion, he has been seen as one of the most pivotal figures in the Mueller investigation.

Prosecutors, for instance, have scrutinised his relationship with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate US authorities say is tied to Russian intelligence, and have described a furtive meeting the men had in August 2016 as cutting to the heart of the investigation.

Defence lawyers had argued that Manafort would never have been charged if it were not for Muellers probe. At the outset of the trial, even Ellis agreed with that assessment, suggesting Manafort was being prosecuted only to pressure him to sing against Trump.

Prosecutors said the Manafort investigation preceded Muellers appointment.

Bruce Fein, a former justice department official, called Thursdays prison sentence exceptionally lenient.

The judge has a reputation for disliking special counsels. He thinks they target people and then look for crimes, rather than the other way around, Fein told Al Jazeera.

I think you could detect some of his disdain for some of the prosecution itself, where he would interject comments suggesting that he didnt think certain things had anything to do with Russian collusion  why was the special counsel going after Mr Manafort for things unrelated to Russian collusion.
The operation around the rebel-held enclave is part of agreement reached last year, Turkish defence minister says.

Turkey and Russia have launched joint patrols in Idlib province, the Syrian oppositions last major bastion in the country.

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters on Friday that the operation followed an agreement made in September last year that was aimed at preventing the Syrian government from launching an attack on Idlib  home to nearly three million people.

Idlib province is the last major area held by Syrian rebels and is controlled by Hayet Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was previously affiliated to al-Qaeda.

According to the agreement, Russian forces would patrol the edge of the rebel-held province while the Turkish army would operate in the demilitarised zone.

There were restrictions on the use of Idlib and Afrin regions airspace but these have been lifted from today, Akar said, adding that the patrols marked a significant step for the continuation of ceasefire and maintaining stability in Idlib.

Our cooperation with Russia has improved. We see this as a significant step for the continuation of the ceasefire and ensuring stability.





Al Jazeeras Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said Turkeys defence minister tried to draw a picture of what could happen if the ceasefire in Idlib was broken.

It is an overcrowded area. At least 3.5 million civilians are said to be living in Idlib. Akar said if the situation escalates in Idlib, these people are going to flood not only Turkeys borders but also Europe, she said.

Turkey has long feared that any attack on Idlib could force hundreds of thousands of new refugees to flow to its borders. It already hosts over three million Syrian refugees.

Of course, for Turkey, these patrols are also crucial for sustaining the security and stability in Syrias last rebel-held area, Koseoglu said.

Turkey has a 900km border with Syria, thats why its important for them.

The Syrian civil war started as a largely peaceful uprising against Assad in March 2011, but quickly developed into a full-scale conflict after the Syrian leader refused to concede power.

The former UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, estimated at least 400,000 people had died over the first five years of conflict. The current death toll is unknown.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been imprisoned in Iran for nearly three years on espionage accusations.

The UK government has ramped up efforts to protect a British-Iranian woman imprisoned in Iran for nearly three years by granting her diplomatic protection.

The move pm Friday followed allegations that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had received insufficient medical care and raised her case from a consular matter to the level of a dispute between two states, meaning that an injury to her would now be considered an injury to the UK.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said in a video statement that the UK was formally asserting that Iran had failed to meet its international obligations in its treatment of Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Iran rejected the exceptional decision, saying it contravened international law.

Governments may only exercise such protection for own nationals, Hamid Baeidinejad, Irans ambassador to the UK said in a tweet on Friday.

As the UK government is acutely aware, Iran does not recognise dual nationality. Irrespective of UK residency. Ms Zaghari thus remains Iranian, he said.

UK Govt's extension of diplomatic protection to Ms Zaghari contravenes int'l law. Govts may only exercise such protection for own nationals. As UK Govt is acutely aware, Iran does not recognize dual nationality. Irrespective of UK residency, Ms Zaghari thus remains Iranian.  Hamid Baeidinejad (@baeidinejad) March 7, 2019

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 at Tehrans Imam Khomeini airport while travelling with her then-22-month-old daughter on charges of plotting against the Iranian government.

The 40-year-old, who had been working with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said she was in Iran visiting family and has consistently denied all charges against her.

She is currently serving a five-year jail sentence in Tehran.

Not a magic wand

Fridays move was welcomed by Zaghari-Ratcliffes husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who has become a prominent voice in the campaign for his wifes freedom.

He told BBC radio on Friday that getting a doctor to provide urgent medical care to Zaghari-Ratcliffe was a top priority.

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A couple of months ago she went on hunger strike because she wasnt getting any treatment and was promised it but it didnt happen, Ratcliffe said.

Concerns first emerged about Zaghari-Ratcliffes health after it deteriorated following a previous hunger strike in 2016 and intensified when lumps were found in her breasts in late 2017.

In August 2018, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was granted a temporary three-day release from prison.

My statement on exercising diplomatic protection for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. #FreeNazanin pic.twitter.com/xP7Oq2fuL3  Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) March 7, 2019

UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned that diplomatic protection is not a cure-all and has repeated his calls for Iran to release Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Its not a magic wand, its not going to solve things overnight but it does create a different legal and political context, he said.

My decision is an important diplomatic step, which signals to Tehran that its behaviour is totally wrong  No government should use innocent individuals as pawns for diplomatic leverage.

The UK government has long been seeking Zaghari-Ratcliffes release without success, placing additional strain on British-Iranian relations.
Venezuela blames opposition leader Juan Guaido and the US after much of the country plunged into darkness.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday blamed American imperialism for a prolonged power outage which affected most of the South American country.

The embattled president blamed the blackout on the electrical war announced and directed by American imperialism against our people, he said on Twitter.

But US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denied Washington was behind it. Power shortages and starvation are the result of the Maduro regimes incompetence.

State-owned electricity operator Corpoelec blamed the outage on the act of sabotage at the Guri Dam, one of the worlds largest hydroelectric stations and the cornerstone of Venezuelas electrical grid.

Speaking from the capital Caracas, Al Jazeeras Teresa Bo described the city as being completely in the dark.

The government is saying that the opposition and its leader Juan Guaido are behind this attack, as well as the US, she said, adding that many states remain without electricity.

For his part, Guaido, the self-declared interim leader said early on Friday that all but one of Venezuelas 23 states had no electricity and that capital Caracas had been without light for a record six hours.

This blackout is evidence of the usurpers inefficiency, Guaido said on Twitter, referring to Maduro.

Venezuelas Communication Minister Jorge Rodriguez told state broadcaster Telesur that some 10 states had been affected by the blackout, which he called brutal electrical sabotage, adding that the power was back on in three states and the rest of the country would follow within hours.

Whats the intention? he said. To submit the Venezuelan people to various days without electricity to attack, to mistreat, so that vital areas would be without power.

Rodriguez also accused US Senator Marco Rubio of being involved in the sabotage, claiming that he predicted the power outage before it happened.

My apologies to [the] people of Venezuela, Rubio responded on Twitter. I must have pressed the wrong thing on the electronic attack app I downloaded from Apple. My bad.

Maduro has presided over a massive economic crisis since he succeeded Hugo Chavez as president in 2013. The prolonged crisis has seen large numbers of people facing food and medicine shortages forcing millions to leave the country.
Widespread outrage in Aden after killing of Raafat Danbaa who testified against men accused of raping boy aged seven.

Protesters rallied in Yemens southern city of Aden for the fourth day on Friday.

The killing of a witness, who testified against four Emirati-backed soldiers in a child rape case, has caused widespread outrage.

Al Jazeeras Ijeoma Ndukwe reports.
Last February 15 marked the four-year anniversary of the martyrdom of 21 Christians -- 20 Coptic Orthodox from Egypt and one Ghanaian. It was commemorated by several groups, including Coptic Solidarity, which summarized the event in a February 15, 2019 statement:

This week in 2015, 21 men were brutally beheaded on a Mediterranean beach in Libya, by members of ISIS. They had been captured by ISIS a few months earlier and pressured to renounce their faith in Christ and convert to Islam. These 21 modern martyrs chose their faith and love for Jesus Christ over the opportunity to extend their mortal lives All were given the opportunity to convert to Islam to save their lives, yet each chose the love they had for Jesus above the love they had for their families and own lives. Reportedly, the Ghanaian captive on seeing the faith of his fellow Coptic Orthodox captives chose their faith and death over saving himself.

Inasmuch as the 21 martyrs should be remembered and commemorated, the fact is, they are ultimately modern-day reflections of an ancient (and ongoing) phenomenon that permeates nearly fourteen centuries of history: Muslims slaughtering Christians who refuse to renounce Christ and embrace Muhammad.

Indeed, this week, the Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates 42 other Orthodox Christians who were slaughtered under very similar circumstances 1,170 years before half their number -- the 21 Copts/Ghanaian -- were slaughtered on the shores of Libya. Known as the 42 Martyrs of Amorium, their story follows:

In 838, Caliph al-Mutasim -- at the head of eighty thousand slave-soldiers -- burst into Amorium, one of the Eastern Roman Empires largest and most important cities. They burned and razed it to the ground and slaughtered countless individuals; everywhere there were bodies heaped up in piles, writes a chronicler. The invaders locked those who sought sanctuary inside their churches and set the buildings aflame; trapped Christians could be heard crying kyrie eleison -- Lord have mercy! in Greek -- while being roasted alive. Hysterical women covered their children, like chickens, so as not to be separated from them, either by sword or slavery.

About half of the citys seventy thousand citizens were slaughtered, the rest hauled off in chains. There was such a surplus of human booty that when the caliph came across four thousand male prisoners he ordered them executed on the spot. Because there were so many womens convents and monasteries in this populous Christian city, over a thousand virgins were led into captivity, not counting those that had been slaughtered. They were given to the Moorish and Turkish slaves, so as to assuage their lust, laments the chronicler.

When the young emperor, Theophilus (r. 829842), heard about the sack of Amorium -- his hometown, chosen by the caliph for that very reason, to make the sting hurt all the more -- he fell ill and died three years later, aged 28, reportedly from sorrow. Meanwhile, the Muslim poet Abu Tammam (805845) celebrated the caliphs triumph, since You have left the fortunes of the sons of Islam in the ascendant, and the polytheists and the abode of polytheism in decline.

Among the many captives the caliph carted off to Iraq were forty-two notables, mostly from the military and clerical classes (which in early Christianity were often closely associated). Due to their prestigious status and in order to make them trophies of Islam, they were repeatedly pressured to accept Islam:

During the seven years of their imprisonment, their captors tried in vain to persuade them to renounce Christianity and accept Islam. The captives stubbornly resisted all their seductive offers and bravely held out against terrible threats. After many torments that failed to break the spirit of the Christian soldiers, they condemned them to death, hoping to shake the determination of the saints before executing them. The martyrs remained steadfast

Interestingly, some of the arguments used by Muslims indicate that they acknowledged Christ as the Prince of Peace and Muhammad as the Lord of War -- and played it to great effect. One Theodore, a Christian cleric who fought in defense of Amorium, was goaded as follows: We know that you forsook the priestly office, became a soldier and shed blood [against Muslims] in battle. You can have no hope in Christ, whom you abandoned voluntarily, so accept Mohammed. Theodore replied: You do not speak truthfully when you say that I abandoned Christ. Moreover, I left the priesthood because of my own unworthiness. Therefore, I must shed my blood for the sake of Christ, so that He might forgive the sins that I have committed against Him.

In the end, none would recant; and so, on March 6, 845, after seven years of torture and temptation failed to make them submit to Muhammad, all 42 Christians -- like their 21 spiritual descendants, the Coptic/Ghanaian martyrs -- were marched to a body of water, the Euphrates River, ritually beheaded, and their bodies dumped into the river.

In the video of the 21 martyrs made by ISIS, some could be seen saying, Oh Lord Jesus Christ immediately prior to having their heads carved off. Commenting on this, Coptic Orthodox Bishop Anba Antonios Aziz Mina, said: The name of Jesus was their last word. Like the passion of the early martyrs, they entrusted themselves to He, who moments later, would welcome them into his embrace. (emphasis added)

Sadly, past and present, some things do not change.

For more examples throughout the centuries of Christian martyrs of the Islamic jihad, see the authors recent book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West.
Photo: Vendors

The cover story of the most recent issue of this very magazine is about contemporary socialism: what it means to be a socialist in 2019, and how the movement transformed from  as writer Simon van Zuylen-Wood put it  irrelevant, [from] the dustbin-of-history to something near-ubiquitous, at least among a certain type of under-35-year-old. For those whore interested in learning more about the origins of the movement, weve consulted a slew of experts, including Maxine Phillips, the former Executive Editor of Dissent, Bhaskar Sunkara, the founding editor of the socialist quarterly Jacobin Magazine, Vijay Prashad, a Marxist intellectual and Executive Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Sarah Leonard, a senior editor at The Nation, Mitchell Cohen, a professor of political science at Baruch College, Chiara Cordelli, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and Corey Robin, the author of Fear: The History of a Political Idea, on the best books to get started with. As always, each book is recommended by at least two experts.

Essential Works of Socialism $349 Two of our experts recommend books by Irving Howe, a Bronx-born, prominent figure of the Democratic Socialists of America (and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship) who died in 1993. Maxine Phillips recommends his Essential Works of Socialism, an anthology of major socialist writings by Marx, Engels, Bukharin, Plekhanov, Lenin, Luxemburg, and essays from people like Djilas, Silone, Orwell, and Harrington on topics from welfare, to economic power, to work alienation, to the Russian Revolution. This was the text for my first ever socialist reading group, said Philips. It spared me from having to read thousands of pages of Marx, Engels, and others. $349 at Amazon Buy $349 at Amazon Buy

Socialism And America $294 Bhaskar Sunkara and Mitchell Cohen recommend Howes 1985 Socialism and America, a collection of six essays (written by Howe himself) that survey the socialist movement and reflect on its future. Howe takes us from the days of the populists through to the creation of the Socialist and Communist parties to give us a sense of just how firmly rooted the socialist tradition was, for a time, in America and also why it faded away for so long, says Sunkara. $294 at Amazon Buy $294 at Amazon Buy

Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1 $10 Several of our experts, unsurprisingly, recommend Karl Marxs 1867 text (the most cited book in the social sciences published before 1950), in which he analyzes the economic patterns underpinning capitalism. Its such a great book, says Vijay Prashad. It gets under the skin of commodity-driven economy, its so well written, it has such funny literary references and even better footnotes. Its the one book I would take with me if I were to be stuck on an island for the rest of my life. Sarah Leonard agrees, and argues that the book isnt as challenging as its often made out to be. Hear me out, she says, anyone can read Capital! I recommend taking it on with David Harveys free online lectures (or his books) and a few good friends. You dont need to read Capital to be a socialist, but no book clarifies the logic of capitalism so elegantly. There are also vampires in it. $10 at Amazon Buy $10 at Amazon Buy

The Romance of American Communism $249 Two of our experts recommend the 1977 book The Romance of American Communism, in which author Vivian Gornick (who grew up in a Jewish immigrant family in the Bronx) interviews some 45 former Communists to ask them why they joined the Party, how it affected their lives, and how they feel about it now. Socialists often get caricatured as ideologues and automatons, zealots without an inner life. says Corey Robin. Gornicks Romance may be the best book ever written about that inner life. Yes, Gornick was talking about members of the Communist Party, but she was really talking about everyone in the socialist tradition who was fundamentally committed to creating a world without capitalism, why they saw their personal destiny bound up with that struggle, and what happened to them when they were confronted with its crushing disappointments and terrible realities. Sunkara agrees. When we think of the Communist Party USA, we often associate it with the drab and monolithic Marxist-Leninism of the Soviet Union. But Gornick uncovers the rich network of social institutions, clubs, and dance halls that defined membership in the party for tens of thousands of Americans in the 1930s and 40s. $249 at Amazon Buy $249 at Amazon Buy

The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues $16 now 13% off $14 Many of our experts recommended titles by Angela Davis, a political activist, academic, and author, who was a member of the Communist Party until 1991. Professor Cordelli and Professor Wolin recommended The Meaning Of Freedom, in which Davis confronts the interconnected issues of power, race, gender, class, incarceration, and conservatism. This is an important book for understanding why class struggle cannot be separated from other forms of social struggle, including, most obviously, race and gender struggles, says Professor Cordelli. This collection of speeches Davis gave between 1994 and 2009 is indispensable, says Professor Wolin, and highly accessible. $14 at Amazon Buy $14 at Amazon Buy

Women, Race, & Class $17 now 18% off $14 And three of our experts, including Kate Aronoff, Bhaskar Sunkara, and Sarah Leonard recommended Women, Race, & Class, in which Davis exposes the close tie between the anti-slavery campaign and the struggle for womens suffrage  and demonstrates how the racist and classist bias of some in the womens movement has divided its own membership. This book is very important, says Leonard. And heavily cited in a foundational text of the reproductive justice movement, Killing the Black Body, also essential reading. $14 at Amazon Buy $14 at Amazon Buy

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I cant believe Im still writing about climate change. Id have stopped long ago were it not for persistent calls to blow up the U.S. economy in order to save the planet. The cult-like demand for action permeates every part of public life, government, media, academia, even K-12. Rep. Among the draconian policy solutions, Ocasio-Cortezs Green New Deal would have enormous negative impact on our economy.

For the record, climate does vary -- think ice ages. And a combination of natural climate variability and measurement problems make the likelihood of singling out a human fingerprint very low. I look here at how climate alarmism is being sold in a distinctly unscientific manner.

The term science properly refers to the scientific method, which is a system of inference designed to weed out incorrect ideas in favor of those supported by experiment and observation. The crux of the scientific method is rejection of theory rather than proof of it. From Bacon to Hopper and Feinman, it has been well understood that scientific theory must be falsifiable, that is, subject to test and rejection. Falsifiability depends on narrow and specific conditions imposed by theory. If the conditions fail, the theory is wrong.

On the other hand, we hear a lot these days about consensus, skepticism, and denial. Warmists often cite the 97-percent consensus that manmade climate change is true and settled. This claim stems from a single study of article abstracts dealing with climate. The study suffers from a number of serious method flaws and has been roundly debunked. A more reasonable conclusion from the study is that 3% of the abstracts support manmade warming, not 97%. In reality the science is not at all settled.

What else is wrong with climate change alarm?

First, how did global warming get to be climate change? At least with warming there is a scientific theory: increase CO2 levels and get two or three degrees of direct and indirect warming. Why the switch to talking about too cold/too hot and other severe weather? Perhaps its because satellite and weather balloon data have failed to bear out GW theory for almost 20 years. Well, says NASA, surface weather station data do show warming as expected. But this picture emerges only as a result of serial and unexplained fudging of the data. Plus, NASA is from the government and has made such a mess of land and sea surface data as to make it useless as evidence for anything but data manipulation.

Second, theres an awful lot of argument from authority going on in the alarmist camp. The researchers there call themselves climate scientists and make the ostentatious claim that only they can understand the atmosphere. Did you get what I said about the scientific method? What in that description suggests that only experts can be critics? Not to mention, the most powerful cohort in the warmist universe is the computer modelers. These guys design code that reflects theory, what they think is going on in the air. CO2 is in; solar is out. Then they run the models to get a whole bunch of curves and say, well then; that proves it. The models did just what we told them to do. Anything funny about this logic?

The climate wonks have a receptive audience. A couple of generations of smart people who learned about science stuff in school say: if scientists say its going to be bad then by golly it will be bad. One of these smart people, presidential candidate Sen. Kamela Harris, declares climate change to be existential and demanding of action, no matter the cost. Existential? A couple of hypothetical degrees Celsius is existential? How do you think your petition to lighten up would fare in her office? How about Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse calling for RICO prosecution of deniers. Or former President Obama implying that climate change deniers dont believe in the moon or think it is made of green cheese. Im pretty sure we did away with the green cheese theory a long time ago.

It kind of sorts out into curious folks who arent much impressed with the historical record of Malthusian doom-casting and smart people who just know that our evil species is bad for the planet. The curious folks think about the evidence and the smart people just dont understand why curious folks dont like science. What? If I dont believe in string theory I dont like science?

But what if it isnt about science in the first place?

The question of greenhouse gas warming has been around a bit more than 100 years, working its way through Fourier, Arrhenius, Callender and Revelle. But the political interest in CO2 is relatively recent. The global warming juggernaut began in the mid 70s as a crisis epiphany under the leadership of the late UN diplomat Maurice Strong. Mr. Strong served as the first executive director of the United Nations Environment Program and recognized the potential value of CO2-induced warming theory as a tool to proselytize for globalization. Strong was the driving force behind Agenda 21, a program to enforce sustainable energy development through public education and training.

The scientific arm of Agenda 21 is the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which name telegraphs its staff of bureaucrats. IPCC has published Summaries for Policy Makers (SPM) based on existing refereed science papers. One of IPCCs noteworthy accomplishments has been to assure that its SPMs are unencumbered by underlying technical detail. Translation: the SPMs say whatever the bureaucrats want them to.

Mr. Strong believed that pending environmental disaster required a globalist solution. His thinking was bold and not necessarily restricted to scientific inference:

 in order to save the planet, [a group of world leaders] decides: Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsibility to bring that about?

Later on, German economist Ottmar Edenhofer, Co-chair of the IPCC Working Group III Mitigation of Climate Change, opined:

One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy,  We redistribute de facto the worlds wealth by climate policy. (Philosophy and position on climate change)

And more recently, Christiana Figueres, a former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and a leader of the 2015 Paris Accords said in an official UN press release:

This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution.

Wait a minute! You mean to tell us weve been pouring tens of billions down a climate change rat hole for a couple of decades and what you really want to do is screw up the economy? Weve been robbed!

Dr. William Lippincott is a retired environment scientist. His inferences are based on extensive literature research on the mechanisms of climate variability, a task open to any student of the scientific method.
The shrinking of the ISIL Caliphate from the size of Britain to the size of Londons Hyde Park is a military triumph worthy of celebration, but it belies an uncomfortable reality: beneath the rubble of al-Baghdadis Islamic State there remains the Islamic state of mind that spawned it -- and will mutate to spawn again in one deadly form or another.

And so it is with California, at least to every defender of individual, religious, and economic freedoms. Like the current Islamic State, its not so much a place as it is a crusading ideology -- a brave new spiritual caliphate with a brave new caliph: Gavin Newsom.

But this caliph is not your typical leftist lodestar, nor is he brave in the dystopian sense. Hes a Jesuit-trained thinker who's brave enough to set himself above the crowded constellation of presidential hopefuls trying to outshine each other with ever more generous promises of governmental gifts.

Newsom knows better, because he knows that the national electorate -- even the Democratic electorate -- is smarter than that. And in due time this former business-friendly progressive will become his partys brightest light. The all-but-socialist agenda he outlined in his gubernatorial campaign will be all but forgotten, as he morphs back into a mainstream liberalism designed to attract the widest swath of voters possible.

Gavin Newsom is the consummate politician, and like al-Baghdadis somber speeches and black-on-black style, the new governors problem-solver polemics and dazzling persona are straight out of central casting: the telegenic good looks of a Kennedy, the optimism of a Bush 41, the faux earnestness of a Bill Clinton and, best of all, a record of private-sector success that will blunt center-right criticism.

Of course, like most white leaders of the left, hes enjoyed a safe and privileged home life, raising his four children in the rich and 91% white enclave of Kentfield, California, far from the huddled masses he champions. And like al-Baghdadi, Newsom continues to use Middle East oil money -- courtesy of the Getty family in his case -- to fuel his entrepreneurial enterprises, while miraculously retaining his bona fides as an environmental justice warrior.

Democrats just dont seem to care about his hypocrisies except, that is, for the far left. Like a lapsed jack Mormon, Newsom is seen by Californias Chomskyites as a jack jihadi, especially now that hes downsizing their recurring dream of building the nations fastest and largest high-speed rail system, a classic Democratic patronage project plagued by cost overruns and mismanagement that could have tripled its original price tag to more than $100 billion.

Newsom can afford the blowback, however, because his eyes are on a bigger prize, and tacking toward the center, as every good Hyannisport sailor knows, is necessary to win a national election, especially the presidency in 2024.

Why 2024 instead of 2020? Because hes not ready and neither is the Democratic Party.

Newsom had to wait patiently -- as mayor of San Francisco and then as lieutenant governor -- for Californias revered ayatollah, Jerry Brown, to lay down the terrible swift sword he used to decapitate federal immigration laws, radically raise carbon emission standards, hike tax rates for the wealthy up to another 32 percent, promote a $400 billion-per-year single-payer health care system, enact the most restrictive gun ownership statutes in the nation, and sign into law a bill forbidding faith-based colleges and universities to act on many of their religious tenets should any of their students receive tuition assistance from the State.

In those eight years Brown, along with his Democrat-dominated legislature, succeeded in making California the American lefts shining city on a hill.

No doubt that helped Newsom make the calculation that the governorship of California would be more politically valuable than a Senate seat, garnering him both the liberal medias adulation and the executive experience hell tout to make the strongest case possible for being the nations chief executive in 2024.

As for his partys diehard leftist message in 2020 -- it will be a suicide bombing that Newsom knows will only reinforce President Trumps characterization of Democrats as jackbooted collectivists hell-bent on destroying Americas vibrant economy, traditional values, and personal liberties -- to wit, Venezuela on steroids.

Sober strategist that he is, Newsom will also make sure that he adds to his governance just enough Clintonesque triangulation to produce a track-record of common sense progressivism that will appeal to independent voters in battleground states, the key to winning the presidency in 2024.

Until he secures that Oval Office territory, however, hell keep the black flag of socialism under lock and key, mindful of another uncomfortable reality: that the clash of civilizations that most threatens us today is not coming from the Muslim world. Its coming from our own hearts and minds, and its not simply dysfunction or polarization or gridlock.

Its a dogma-eat-dogma holy war between two theologies whose faithful are as steadfast in their beliefs as Sunnis and Shiites and whose visions of America are just as irreconcilable -- from abortion to immigration to free speech and religious freedom to energy policy, tax policy, and capitalism itself.

With 60% of Americans entrenched on either side of this great divide, it will take a masterstroke by a master politician to convince the malleable middle of the electorate that there is still hope for our hopelessly contentious country.

Gavin Christopher Newsom knows that he will be that predominant politician, that accommodation avatar, that sincerest of shape-shifters who can bring pragmatism back to Americas politics and the presidency back to a confused and conflicted Democratic party.

For him its not a question of "if." Its kismet.

Timothy Philen is an opinion writer and author of Harper & Row/Lippincotts You CAN Run Away From It!, a satirical indictment of American pop psychology.
The Democrats will not produce a meaningful resolution denouncing anti-Semitism. The vile hater, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, will not be named. Her position on the powerful Foreign Relations Committee will be as secure as ever. The resolution will dilute anti-Semitism by conveniently placing it among other hatreds.

Such duplicity is reminiscent of the New York Times burying the Holocaust in the back pages.

They covered it, just not where you could see it. The Times, like the Roosevelt administration and the British Foreign Office, knew of the Holocaust since 1942 and chose to ignore it.

The Democratic Party has once again abandoned the Jews. The Jews, however, refuse to abandon the Democratic Party.

I grew up in a Democratic home in Chicago where Franklin Roosevelt was revered as if he were some form of deity.

Little did my parents and grandparents know the Roosevelts State Department worked tirelessly with the British Foreign Office to obstruct and delay the rescue of European Jews so that Hitler could continue to kill them as the clock ran out and, consequently, eliminate the problem. Like todays Democrats, they created mechanisms to give the symbolic appearance of being concerned about the plight of the Jews while doing nothing until the last days of the war.

Little did my family know that Roosevelt fumed at Casablanca about the Jews being overrepresented in the professions and worried that if not restricted by quotas, after the war, North Africans would have the same justifiable resentment toward Jews as did Germans. Roosevelt exaggerated the role of Jews in the professions just as he exaggerated the threat of loyal Japanese Americans.

Harry Truman recognized Israel, but then his administration cut off arms to both sides, ignoring that the Arabs already had arms. The Israelis did not.

You had to look at the black community to find a higher portion of voters supporting Obama than did the Jews. Yet, Obamas attitudes toward Jews are now dramatically revealed in his adulation -- along with other members of the black caucus -- of the Rev. Louis Farrakhan.

Obama released 150 billion dollars to the theocratic tyranny of Iran that denies the first Holocaust while promising Jews the second. It is the greatest exporter of terror in the world, much of it directed against Jews with the funds Obama released.

During Israels war with Hamas, Obama cut off air transport to Israel, something that was not done even to Damascus or Kabul, on the specious grounds that landing in Tel Aviv was dangerous.

Ilhan Omar is being rescued by both the progressives and the Black Caucus in the Democrat Party. The progressives have created a Red-Green alliance, and the Black Caucus, whose prominent members hugged Farrakhan, will protect Omar because identity politics requires it. Omar is one of them.

The Democratic apologists have portrayed the partys division on anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism as a conflict of generations. But it is much more than that. As one moves to the extremes on the political continuum, there is one unifying hatred both sides can embrace -- anti-Semitism.

Progressives have become inherently anti-Semitic. Such groups as Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow are cited by the mainstream media as Jewish groups, but they are anything but that. They are progressives who traffic in their limited Jewish identity to instill Zionophobia while pandering to tropes historically associated with Jew-hatred. They are often found fostering Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel and give cover to professional Jew haters. Frequently, they are outside the large and oversized tent in Jewish communities. Some have gone so far as to sign a petition in support of Omar.

They reflect the progressive face of the Democrat Party, and indeed, they are not far from Bernie Sanders justifications of Palestinian violence, most recently those carried out from Gaza. The Democratic divide is less about generations than ideology and identity politics, which eschews Jews as being privileged whites.

The Democrats will come up with some milquetoast resolution. Jews, for whom being a Democrat is a commandment from the Almighty, will find a rationale in it for their continued self-exploitation and self-hatred.

But there is hope that the Zionophobia of the Democrats, will make some Jews rethink their party identification. For in the end, as Martin Luther King, Jr. so insightfully noted, it is not actually about Israel; it is really about Jews. Being anti-Israel is the cover for being anti-Jewish. If you dont believe that, how do you explain a euphoric Barack Obama, and members of the Black Caucus, embracing the Rev. Farrakhan or the support Ilhan Omar is getting for her hatred?
Everyone agrees that American citizens should have the right of due process. But what about illegal aliens and asylum-seekers?

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled unanimously that a man who crossed the U.S.-Mexican border in order to seek asylum in the U.S. has a right to go before a judge to hear his plea.

The case involves a Sri Lankan man who says he was tortured in his home country after joining the armed opposition to the government, the Tamil Tigers. Escaping his country, he made his way to Mexico, where he crossed the border in 2017 and was immediately apprehended by the Border Patrol. A Border Patrol officer questioned him and determined he did not have a sufficient case to apply for asylum.

But the appeals court ruled that those denied asylum in their initial claim have a right to go before a judge. The ruling sets up a showdown at the Supreme Court that could radically expand the rights of those who enter the country illegally.

Fox News:

Actually obtaining asylum is significantly more difficult, and most people do not end up receiving asylum. The Trump administration last year rolled back an Obama-era expansion of potential asylum justifications, which extended protections to those alleging domestic abuse or gang-related attacks back home. The White House argued that the asylum system was already overburdened, and that asylum law was never meant to provide safe haven to everyone suffering unfortunate circumstances in their homelands. The number of asylum seekers has ballooned in recent years, and immigration officials say it's in part because migrants know they will be able to live and work in the U.S. while their cases play out. That process could take years, in part because the immigration court has a backlog of more than 700,000 cases. In his case, Thuraissigiam said that the agent rejected his claim after conducting only a cursory hearing, refusing to hear important contextual details that would have bolstered his plea. He asked for a court hearing to appeal the decision, but was denied it. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued on his behalf. The 9th Circuit panel agreed that Thuraissigiam has a right to go before a judge.

The 9th Circuit is notorious for its radical-left decisions, and this one is not at all different.

We've been on a slippery slope with regard to expanding the rights of illegals for several decades. It's why there is a backlog of more than 700,000 immigration cases. The U.S. immigration legal system simply wasn't designed to handle this tsunami  something immigration lawyers take full advantage of.

In fact, by the time an immigration judge gets around to hearing a case today, the illegal probably has a job, a place to live, and establishment in the community. And if he lives in a sanctuary city or state, he can even commit a crime and not be deported.

Can't we strike a balance between the rights of illegals and the necessity of protecting our borders and our security? A three- to five-year backlog in hearing asylum cases simply isn't acceptable, either for the asylum-seeker or the American people. But as long as open borders advocates see clogging up the legal system as the best way to achieve their goals, the situation is only going to get worse.

Perhaps the Supreme Court will rule on the impracticality of allowing appeals by asylum-seekers. It should certainly be a determining factor in whether this vast expansion of due process rights becomes law.
Congresswomen Omar and Tlaib are employing the time-tested, drip-by-drip method used successfully by Islamists in Europe against Jews and Israel. Week after week, poisonous remarks against Israel or Jews are made by Islamists, with the goal being a continuous seepage of anti-Jewish caricatures into the political discourse and into the minds of a country's population. Forced apologies are insincere, an expedient  a breather until the next time. It's death by a thousand cuts to Israel and her supporters.

After a rightful uproar, Islamists try to silence critics by claiming that criticism against what they said is rooted in Islamophobia, a term created by CAIR, the American offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Not only does this chill and silence people down the road who accurately hear anti-Semitic and dismantling-of-Israel pronouncements, but it is intended to make critics and the political class feel guilty for somehow being "anti-Muslim." The upshot: Instead of what should be a clear statement against the anti-Semitism of people like Omar and Tlaib, statements are watered down to now include warnings against Islamophobia, with implicit assertions that the national population has been anti-Muslim.

The Europeans have genuflected and played into the hands of this Islamist strategy. The Muslim Brotherhoodjihadist ploy seems to be working. Over time, the actual anti-Semitic act is forgotten, and, instead, the secondary statement regarding Islamophobia grows in stature and becomes, on record, the primary focus when speaking of the need to stop "hate." The result has been more focus on Islamophobia rather than on anti-Semitism or anti-Christianism, even though anti-Muslim attacks fall in number far below attacks against Jews and despite the fact that there are far more physical attacks today from Muslims against Jews and Christians than by Jews and Christians against Muslims.

The more attacks by Muslims on Jews and Christians, starting with 9/11, the more focus has been placed on stopping "Islamophobia." Imagine if there were increasing attacks by whites against blacks, with black criticism of these attacks resulting in white people calling blacks anti-white for bringing up the issue. And instead of pronouncements against racism, we end with proclamations condemning "whitephobia." Such a thing would never happen, but today, Islamophobia has been elevated to the top of the phobia charts, with almost everything secondary and subservient to it.

The unwillingness of the Democrat leadership to immediately denounce Ilhan Omar specifically and to stop this anti-Jewishness dead in its tracks is a worrisome sign that, as with their Labor Party counterpart in England, Corbyn-ism is far heavier in the Democratic Party than we thought. The Democrat leadership seem to be making a choice, preferring the intersectionality voting blocs with whom they envision their future. David Duke has, like the Black and Progressive Caucuses, tweeted his support for Omar as well.

Down the road, this unwarranted but official congressional proclamation today against Islamophobia will muzzle any rightful criticism of sharia or terrorism as a manifestation of bigotry, with calls for censure of those shining the light on the dangers to us from Islamism. Omar commits verbal anti-Semitism, and in consequence, America is warned not to be Islamophobic. Talk about creating victory out of defeat, as well as how our side allows itself to be held guilty for sins done by others.

The Jewish organizational community, almost entirely liberal and Democrat, has not pressured the Democrat leadership in any way near the degree they would have if the victim of hate had been black, Islamic, Hispanic, or LGBT. Furthermore, there has been no unified call by the 36 Jewish Democrat members of Congress against Omar. Most liberal Jews seem unconcerned when anti-Semitism comes from the political left, their home base.

It's also no surprise that Jewish organizational clout has diminished, since the Democrat leadership knows full well that Jewish votes and funding will continue as before. They always do. It seems that most Jews need the Democratic Party more than the party needs them. Most are more afraid of American conservatives than they are of the Muslim Brotherhood, more afraid of Republicans than anti-Semitic groups on the Left, more fearful of whites than minorities. It's not logical, but emotional. A terrible error...and perhaps a form of prejudice.

Rabbi Aryeh Spero is author of Push Back, president of Caucus for America, and spokesman for the National Conference of Jewish Affairs.

Image: Lorie Shaull via Flickr.
Venezuela's ruling Cuban and Chavista socialists put on quite a show last night. So much for Vladimir Lenin's famous dictum: "Communism is Soviet government plus the electrification of the whole country."

The "plus," they decided, was dispensible.

Here is what Caracas looked like last night:

Little to no information coming out of Venezuela right now. People report empty streets and dying batteries. https://t.co/SaNAohLQ6N  Caracas Chronicles (@CaracasChron) March 8, 2019

View from my Caracas apartment during the blackout. You wouldnt think two million people live in this city. pic.twitter.com/pgJRigkyd2  Angus Berwick (@AABerwick) March 8, 2019

Here's what the airport looked like:

Here's what the intensive care unit of a local hospital maternity ward looked like:

Mothers and relatives wait outside of an intense care room for babies at a clinic without electricity tonight in #Caracas (photo by @CubillosAriana): pic.twitter.com/Y5T4wp8hrq  Christine Armario (@cearmario) March 8, 2019

Here's the impact of what happened:

Venezuela in midst of its most prolonged and widespread powercut in living memory. Entire city of Caracas in darkness. Many hospitals and clinics without functioning generators. Grave concern as to what the effect of this will be on the most vulnerable.  Stephen Gibbs (@STHGibbs) March 8, 2019

And the disaster was confined just to Caracas, but to dozens of cities nationwide. If your heart doesn't break for those women in that maternity ward, you aren't human.

It's the spectacle of a whole country going dead, with its socialist rulers turning the nation into something quite similar to parts of eastern Nigeria, where the impoverished locals in remote rural areas live with little electrical infrastructure (Lagos and Abuja have no such problems), or, even more similarly, into Pol Pot's inhuman communist regime, which was a nationwide project by Khmer Rouge central planners to rebuild the entire society from the ground up, destroying anyone touched by education.

I have my doubts that this nationwide blackout was just the characteristic incompetence of socialism and its Cuban masters. Cubans have made a hash of the electrical grid in Venezuela, it's true, but they also seem to be following the plan of doing what it takes to make Cuba the electrical disaster it also is. The Maduro regime has got its Baghdad Bobs out, making extraordinarily mendacious claims about hoarders and wreckers and saboteurs, as well. The blackout not only is a bid to starve the country into submission, as Cuba and North Korea have done, but is also about killing off Venezuela's democrats.

That's because this blackout comes at a time when Venezuelans are mobilizing to pressure dictator Nicolas Maduro to get out and leave the country and allow the legitimate acting president, Juan Guaido, to take over. A nationwide blackout is extremely convenient for halting all internet services and the social media that are propelling this mass movement to retake the country. Internet blackouts and blockages have been predicted from the beginning of Guaido's entry onto the scene. Update: Richard Fernandez has much more to show for those forecasts.

It now seems to be happening, and if it's not the work of socialist incompetence, as is likely to be assumed in the West, it's the work of a socialist regime determined to make the country as blackened out from the world as North Korea and communist Cuba.

It's frankly very ominous, given the threat to Venezuela's democrats  and not solely because of the terrible pictures from those baby wards.

Image credit: Twitter screen grab.
Am I the only one who is fed up with this? It's time for the Democrats to start impeaching and stop threatening or talking about it.

Go for it, Democrats!

Like many of you, I feel that impeachment will backfire big time on the Democrats.

Don't take my word for this. Read what Doug Schoen wrote this week:

I support the special counsel's investigation, and firmly believe that the American people have the right to know whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia, and whether the president has obstructed justice or engaged in illegal activity. However, there has not been any factual information released thus far that has built a bipartisan coalition for the impeachment or removal of the president.

Add Mark Penn to the mix:

House Democrats shouldn't impeach Trump  It will anger voters and the Senate won't remove him.

That's right. The voters will not buy a partisan impeachment and will remove Democrats rather than Trump.

The Democrats should also be very careful about combing through President Trump's business activities. It may be a case of "be careful what you wish for, because you may get it."

The fact is that the Trump was very generous to Democrats in the past:

Kamala Harris received money from Donald Trump as recently as six years ago. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner hosted a Park Avenue fundraiser for Cory Booker. Kirsten Gillibrand took in Trump family donations three times across a seven-year period  and then gave a similar amount of money to a nonprofit years later after the president mocked her in a tweet. As the president gears up for his re-election fight, donor records show that six of the declared or potential Democrats itching to take him on have themselves been the beneficiaries of his  or his daughter's  largesse. Harris, Booker, and Gillibrand -- along with Joe Biden, John Kerry and Terry McAuliffe -- all share a common bond of receiving Trump family donations, adding another wrinkle to a crowded primary where candidates are expected to trumpet their distance from the president.

To my knowledge, not a dime was returned because Trump was a racist.

So go ahead and start impeaching. It will blow up in your faces!

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
The world's oldest hate finally, officially has found purchase in America with the support of the world's oldest political party, the Democratic Party of the United States. Yesterday's shameful House resolution was not so much a turning point for American Jewry as a view of the turning point in the rear view mirror.

Faced with clear examples of Ilhan Omar's Jew-hatred ("anti-Semitism" is a wishy-washy 19th-century British euphemism that implies that the same people equally hate Jews and Palestinians because they are both Semitic; claiming "dual loyalties" is not about legitimate criticism of Israel's policies), House Democrats chose to condemn not her, but "white supremacists" and "Islamophobia."



Photo credit: Leopaltik.

Fully cognizant of the successful jiu-jitsu making the victim the aggressor, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez immediately started fundraising using AIPAC (The America Israel Public Affairs Committee) as a bogeyman:

BREAKING: Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is raising money by claiming that the pro-Israel group AIPAC is coming after her, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib



This comes as Democrats are embroiled in an anti-Semitism scandal pic.twitter.com/TvFEDh1UvW  Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 7, 2019

Useful idiot Rep. Jan Schakowsky, nominally Jewish, actually defended Omar's Jew-hatred as understandable because she "comes from a different culture." The notion that importing Jew-haters is a bad idea never occurs to her, nor does the idea that immigrants should assimilate and reject such hatred when they come here.

Omar herself recognized her triumph, joined by two other Jew-haters who are members of the Congressional Black Caucus:

Our nation is having a difficult conversation, but we believe this is great progress. pic.twitter.com/gSua9a8mki  Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) March 7, 2019

And another member of CBC, James Clyburn, ranked the Holocaust as a subordinate event to the effects of jihad in Somalia that led Omar to a refugee camp in Kenya, then to Minnesota, and then to Congress:

So very disappointed in Mr. Clyburns comments. Many of us have felt pain as a minority. All groups have painful pasts. Please dont suddenly make one minority groups pain more justified or personal than anothers. #SouthCarolinaDoesNotThinkThisWay https://t.co/3ym4Sj1foX  Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) March 7, 2019

John Hinderaker of Powerline notes the suddenness of the reversal of Democrat behavior:

That is quite a change from the long-ago days (less than a month ago, actually) when Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer issued a statement saying, among other things, Congresswoman Omars use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israels supporters is deeply offensive. The Democratic Party leaderships climbdown is complete: today, as predicted, Omar voted for the resolution that began life as a censure of her anti-Semitism. So Pelosi has been humiliated, and Omar and her friends are ascendant.

With Jew-haters in charge now, voters potentially handing power to Democrats in 2020 would launch America down a path whose endpoint will be a catastrophe not just for the Jews  the canary in the coal mine  but for the Republic that the founders bequeathed to us and to "our sacred posterity."
The OECD Observer online archive takes you on a journey through half a century of public policy and world progress.

Since November 1962, the OECDs experts and leading guests offer insights on the questions facing our member countries with concise and authoritative analysis, and provide our audiences with an excellent opportunity to understand policy debates and consider solutions.

Each edition of the OECD Observer reports on a core theme of the OECDs on-going work, from economics and society through governance, finance, and the environment, and articles are bolstered by tables and graphs.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 lineup  including the Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+  are some of the best smartphones that are currently on the market. These smartphones offer just about everything that you can think of. Now that they are all on sale and available to everyone, its time to talk about some accessories for the Galaxy S10 smartphones. If you missed out on some of the other lists for the Galaxy S10 smartphones, we have them linked below. But these are going to be the best accessories available, period, for the Galaxy S10 smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy S10e Cases

Samsung Galaxy S10 Cases

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Samsung Galaxy S10+ Cases

Car Mounts

Anker 10W Fast Wireless Charger

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The Galaxy S10 smartphones do all support fast wireless charging once again, and thats what makes this wireless charger from Anker such a good accessory to pick up. Its pretty cheap, coming in at under $20, and it also doubles as a stand, so that you are able to put your Galaxy S10 on it and use it as a clock next to your bed.

You can charge the Galaxy S10 in both portrait and landscape mode, on this fast wireless charger.

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At 10W, youre getting some pretty decent speeds, and it should be able to fully recharge the Galaxy S10 in about two and a half hours. Basically, its better to use at night when you arent waiting for your phone to fully recharge so you can go to work or something.

The Anker 10W Fast Wireless Charger is available from Amazon right now for just $16.79, through the link below.

PopSockets

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The Galaxy S10, and especially the Galaxy S10+, are pretty large smartphones. Given that these are glass-backed smartphones, they can be pretty difficult to hold onto, largely because glass is slippery. But if you slap a PopSocket onto the back, youll be able to hold onto it much easier. In fact, itll almost be impossible to drop it with a PopSocket.

The PopSocket also pulls double duty, as it can also work as a stand for your phone. Imagine you are on a plane, and want to watch a movie on your phone. Normally youd need to hold your phone the entire time. Thats not the case with a PopSocket, you can simply stand it up and watch your movie.

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PopSockets come in all sorts of colors and designs, starting at $9.90 and going up from there. You can pick one up from Amazon using the link below.

Whitestone Dome Tempered Glass Screen Protector

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Tempered Glass screen protectors look, and feel much better than some of the other screen protectors out there. But since the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ have that ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, most tempered glass screen protectors dont work with the sensor. But Whitestones does, somehow.

This is a pretty expensive screen protector, coming in at $49.99. But the reason for this is the insane install process that it takes. It comes with a UV light to dry the adhesive and keep the screen protector on your phone. If you are looking for the best screen protector available, this is the one to get.

You can pick up the Whitestone Dome tempered glass screen protector from Amazon using the link down below.

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SanDisk Ultra 200GB Micro SD Card

All of the Galaxy S10 models start with 128GB of storage inside, and go up to 1TB for some more cash. If for some reason, 128GB of storage is not enough for you though, you can pop in a micro SD card and get plenty more space. This micro SD card is an A2-rated card, so it can run apps and games if it needed too. It is also great for storing your pictures, movies, music and much more. Given how great the camera is on the Galaxy S10, youll definitely be taking a lot of pictures.

You can pick up the SanDisk Ultra 200GB Micro SD Card from Amazon for $36.29 using the link below.

AUKEY Flush Fit Car Charger

Despite having some pretty large batteries built-in, the Galaxy S10 is going to need to be charged at some point. Why not charge it in the car? This car charger from AUKEY has two ports, each are 2.4A speed. So you are going to be able to get fast charging while youre in the car. Remember that Samsung does not support Quick Charge 3.0, only its own Adaptive Fast Charging which is about the speed of Quick Charge 2.0. That might be a disadvantage for some, but for Samsung smartphones, it doesnt really matter.

This car charger is also one that will fit flush in your car, so itll look like your car had USB ports built-in, even though it doesnt. Giving people a pretty clean look, for charging their smartphone. Not to mention that there is a second port here, which will allow the passenger to also charge their phone while they are in the car.

You can pick up the AUKEY Flush Fit Car Charger from Amazon using the link below, for just $8.99.

Anker PowerCore Lite 10000mAh

There will be times where youll need to charge your Galaxy S10, and the Anker PowerCore Lite 10000mAh is a great option. This is a thinner and lightweight battery pack, that offers up to 10,000mAh capacity. Thats enough to charge a Galaxy S10 a little more than two full cycles.

Anker uses a single USB-A port on this power bank, so you can only charge one device at a time. There is also PowerIQ Technology available, for fast charging. As far as input goes, there are two ports available  micro USB and USB-C. So you can use whichever cable you want to charge your battery pack. Since the Galaxy S10 uses USB-C, you can use that same cable to charge the PowerCore Lite 10000mAh. That makes things pretty convenient, as you only need to carry one cable with you when you are traveling.

You can pick up the Anker PowerCore Lite 10000mAh from Amazon using the link below, for $33.99.

Samsung DeX Pad

These days smartphones are very powerful. But are they powerful enough to use as a desktop? Samsung seems to think so. With DeX, you can plug your Galaxy S10 into a monitor and get a desktop-like experience that is being run by your phone. And the DeX Pad is one of the best ways to do just that. It lays your phone down so you can still use the fingerprint sensor when it is plugged in.

DeX may not be as great as Windows or macOS, but it is still pretty decent for doing some desktop work. Like editing a Word document, or a spreadsheet.

The DeX Pad is available right now for $55, and it works with any Samsung flagship newer than the Galaxy S8.

Samsung Galaxy Buds

The Galaxy Buds are Samsungs newest pair of truly wireless headphones, and while these will work with any smartphone, youll get a better experience with the Galaxy S10. Just open up the case, and the phone will prompt you to pair them. Making things super simple to get started. After that, just flip open the case, and they will automatically pair each time.

Samsung purchased Harman a few years ago, and since then, its audio quality has drastically improved, largely due to it using AKG to tune all of its devices. And thats the case with the Galaxy Buds. These are tuned by AKG and offer up some really great audio quality for those that are audiophiles.

Users will get around six hours of playback on the Galaxy Buds, you can get a bit longer if you decide to store music on the Buds themself, instead of streaming from your smartphone. With the case, youll get about another seven hours. So itll charge it a little more than one full charge. Samsung has also included a quick charging feature where you can plug these in for about 15 minutes and get around 1.7 hours of playback.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds are a great pair of headphones to pick up, especially if you are no longer interested in dealing with wires. These are available from Samsung.com right now for $129, which is $30 cheaper than the Apple Airpods, and $50 less than most other truly wireless headphones.

Wrap Up

The Samsung Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ are all really great smartphones. These are the smartphones to beat in 2019, and Samsung has set a high bar for these phones already. But with these accessories, you can make your Galaxy S10 experience even better, in the long run. Whether youre looking for an easier way to hold your Galaxy S10, or if you want a way to charge your phone quickly in the car, or even use it as a desktop. Theres something here for everyone.

Thats not to say that you do need any or all of these to use a Galaxy S10 smartphone. These enhance the experience of the Galaxy S10, and are great options for everyone to pick up for their brand new Galaxy S10 smartphone.
According to a new report, Facebook is planning to alter the design of the Facebook app again. This time around, the company seems to be planning to make the apps design even whiter than it is right now.

This move probably has everything to do with Googles Material Design guidelines in Android 9 Pie, as the Mountain View giant has been removing color from its applications for quite some time now. Lets take Google Keep (aka Keep Notes) as an example, that app combined yellow and white colors, it had yellow accents, and its main header was yellow, but Google decided to remove the vast majority of that from the app. Same happened to Gmail in the new design as well, there are some colored accents in the app, but the red color was removed from the main header, and from a number of other places within the app.

Based on the information provided by XDA, which includes images, Facebook is looking to do something similar to Google. At the moment, the main header in Facebooks application is blue, as is the status bar when you open the app (depending on your phone), but that will all change soon. The status bar will default to the standard color, while the main header will become completely white, well, its background will.

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The navigation tabs below the main header will accommodate two more shortcut icons, for videos and profile view. Dark mode for the Facebook app is nowhere to be seen, though, at least for now. Google had already released dark mode for a number of its apps, including YouTube, Phone, Contacts and the dark mode is even available in Chrome Canary, though its still buggy. The company is expected to release dark mode to a number of additional apps moving forward, Gmail will hopefully make the list.

Having said that, Facebook did release dark mode for the Messenger app quite recently, that option is still in beta, but it was extremely stable during our testing, which probably means its almost ready to go. Activating dark mode in Facebook Messenger isnt exactly as easy as navigating to the settings, you will need to use an emoji in order to do it, click here for more information.

Facebook did not mention anything about the dark mode in its application, but considering that the apps design is about to become whiter than ever, releasing dark mode for the app would definitely make sense, in order to contrast all that whiteness. On top of that, OLED displays are consuming less power when dark elements are on the display, and considering that Facebooks application is one of the main offenders when it comes to battery consumption, a dark mode would certainly be a considerable improvement.

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Facebook did not exactly follow Googles Material Design guidelines with its Messenger app, Facebooks main app is not exactly in line either, even though its closer than Messenger, so its a bit surprising the company opted to make both applications white to Googles initiative. In any case, if youd like to check out what will Facebooks main app soon look like, screenshots are included down below. We still do not know when will you receive this update, but the change is being tested through a server-side switch as we speak, for some users.

Old UI:

New UI:
Ron Masas, a researcher from cybersecurity company Imperva has detailed how a security vulnerability in Facebook Messenger could have been exploited by hackers to find out who a particular person has been talking to. Facebook was alerted about the bug in November and fixed it by the end of the next month. The issue only affected the browser version of Messenger and not the mobile app for Android and iOS.

The uncommon attack would have enabled cybercriminals to exploit iFrame elements on a web browser to find out who their target communicates with using Facebooks messaging service and which users are not on the contact list. An iFrame is basically the code used by browsers to embed content on pages.

To launch the attack, the hacker would have to lure an unsuspecting user into visiting a malicious website and then clicking anywhere on it while they are logged into Facebook on another tab. This would have enabled cybercriminals to siphon off personal data by running queries on a new Facebook tab, unbeknownst to the target. By working out how many iFrames have been loaded, the hacker would have been able to figure out who a particular person has been sending messages to. Moreover, the bug could also find out who you have never spoken to via Messenger by analyzing the iFrame binary stream. So, if someone was never spoken to, this would be reflected with a specific drop in iFrames.

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When the bug was first flagged to Facebook, the social media giant responded by randomizing the number of iFrames. However, this didnt work as the aforementioned drop in the pattern was still there. This compelled Facebook to change the interface of the Messenger and it completely removed iFrames.

Imperva has confirmed that the security flaw couldnt grant hackers access to the content of the messages, which is a little reassuring. However, it could have still put power users at a risk. For its part, Facebook appreciates Masas for finding the bug but at the same time, it absolves itself of any responsibility by stating that the issue was related to the way web browsers handle embedded content.

Previously, Masas had unearthed a similar bug which let hackers see users likes, interests, and location history. That flaw was also linked to cross-site frame leakage (CSFL). Recently, Facebooks CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to focus on encrypted messaging to step up the privacy of his platform. However, Masas says that the bug he has identified is impervious to encryption as it uses iFrames to extract information.

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He went on to say that browser-based attacks should be taken more seriously and while top guns such as Facebook and Google are now catching up, others in the industry are still behind. He also warned that the technique can increasingly be used in 2019 by nefarious actors as its not traceable. To prevent data breaches, steps would have to be taken by browser makers and web standard groups. Moreover, web application makers should also do a security audit to remove any vulnerability that can make their users susceptible to such an attack.
LG seems to be developing a wide range of new AI-powered robots and assistants, as revealed by a number of trademark applications filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) this week.

Specifically, a total of six Bot related trademarks have been filed with EUIPO on March 6  the MentoBot, MateBot, GestureBot, CamBot, SocialBot, and CareBot. Interestingly, CareBot sounds an awful lot like Samsungs Bot Care showcased at CES 2019 in January, and Bot Care itself looked very similar to LGs CLOi AI robot unveiled a little over a year ago at CES 2018.

All of these trademark applications are filed under classifications 7, 9, and 11, which cover a wide range of potential uses, from robot for household purposes to robots for industrial use, digital sensory devices, application software for robot, security surveillance robots, light emitting diodes (LED) lamps and so on.

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Aside from these six applications, LG also filed to trademark the names SNOWWHITE and Display Speaker. The latter is filed under classification 9 and should be self-explanatory. Its likely a(nother) smart speaker featuring a display and AI features.

SNOWWHITE, on the other hand, can be a number of things. It fits in classifications for vacuum cleaners for household purposes and presumably it could be a Rumba-like vacuum cleaner. On the other hand, the moniker is also classified under software for ice-cream makers, powders for making ice cream and other products related to ice cream.

In a way, the SNOWWHITE moniker fits both of these descriptions. But realistically, its likelier that the trademark targets some form of vacuum cleaner for household purposes. That is unless LG wants to create a smart robot capable of making ice cream, which would be interesting to see, admittedly, and not entirely impossible given its fair market share in the kitchen appliances segment.

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LG is already deeply involved in the AI-driven robot market, and last year the OEM announced a partnership with Korean retail outlet E-mart Inc. for the development of AI-driven robots that can double as smart shopping carts.

The LG CLOi AI platform already includes products like the CLOi Home and CLOi LawnBot designed for households, as well as several business solutions including GuideBot, CleanBot, PorterBot, ServeBot, and CartBot.

Each of these robots specializes in specific tasks denoted by their names, so by following this same philosophy, its relatively clear what purposes some of the newly-trademarked monikers might have. CamBot could be a security surveillance robot, SocialBot could be focused on human interaction, and Care Bot could be designed for health care. On the other hand, its not entirely clear what functions MentoBot, MateBot, or GestureBot might serve.

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As usual with these types of trademark applications, theres no guarantee that each moniker will end up being used for an end product and it could be that LG simply wanted to secure these names in case it might have a use for them in the future. But the various name tags at least indicate that they are each meant for different applications and LG isnt attempting to secure potential names for a single product which may or may not be in development. Rather, the applications suggest that LG will continue its involvement in the AI-driven robot market, and new additions to the OEMs lineup could make an official appearance this year.
Samsungs Galaxy S-series flagships may be among the very best offerings on the Android side of the mobile market but they also represent a genuinely poor monetary investment according to recent figures from BankMyCell. Tracking the overall trade-in value of handsets on an hourly basis from 2018 to this year, the company says the Samsung Galaxy S9 lost 59.72-percent of its value in only nine months from its March 2018 launch.

For the Galaxy S9 specifically, that equates to a shift from its $720 initial sale price to just $290 and 41.66-percent of its total value was lost in the first month. Among all other cell phones, it ranked third in terms of physical value lost too, with the Galaxy S9 Plus falling in fourth. The former handset depreciated in physical value by $156, compared to the latter devices drop of $147.

Blame the iPhone?

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BankMyCell seems to attribute drops in Android handset trade-in value to the launch of new iPhones. Pointing to the trends around the release cycle of the Samsung Galaxy S6 through the Samsung Galaxy S8, the company says that the announcement of new Android devices doesnt result in big drops in resale value. On average, the depreciation on that side of the equation only occurs at around five to thirteen percent.

The drop in trade-in value also applies to Apples own gadget trade-ins, with sales of the iPhone X averaging more than $100 more prior to the following Apple announcements.

Summarily, the sudden drop in trade-in value for Samsungs Galaxy handsets cant be attributed to the launch of new devices from Samsung or other Android OEMs but there may be at least one more factor to consider in this equation. Namely, Samsung is among the most highly-leaked companies on the mobile scene. Rumors, speculation, and alleged documentation begin appearing for its next-generation smartphones almost as soon as the current-generation device launches.

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One example of that is the appearance of Samsung Galaxy S10 leaks, including details about new innovations and even some specs in the weeks and months following the launch of the Korean tech giants Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus. More recently, the same pattern has occurred following the August launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9  regarding the next-generation Samsung Galaxy Note 10.

Speculation has also already begun to circulate about began circulating about the next iteration of the core Samsung Galaxy S series, indicating that the company may abandon that branding for those handsets. Importantly, the Samsung Galaxy S10 hasnt even arrived yet for many users who pre-ordered it.

That rapid cycle of hype-building could feasibly have much more of an impact on the resale, physical, and trade-in values for Samsungs models than the actual release of a new device. Samsung isnt along on that front either. Nearly every top Android manufacturer suffers the same type of leaks-before-release cycle.

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But what does this mean?

For the average user, the value a smartphone holds arguably has more to do with its capabilities and features than its ability to hold value over time. Studies have previously shown a rising trend of consumers holding onto their devices for longer. Samsung fans and fans of other rapidly-depreciating smartphones who do update regularly arent going to get a great return on their investment, particularly if they dont update relatively quickly. But consumers are shifting away from yearly updates and toward ensuring they get their moneys worth with each new handset. So, while the value reductions are bad news for some, the trend isnt necessarily going to have a widespread negative impact for end users.
Posted on: March 8, 2019 3:44 PM

The Bishop of Nzara, Samuel Peni, has been elected Bishop of Yambio and Archbishop of the Church of South Sudans Internal Province of Western Equatoria. He will be installed into both new roles on Sunday to succeed Archbishop Peter Munde Yacob, who was also the Provincial Dean. Archbishop Peter died in October last year after a short illness.

After the results of the electoral college were announced, the other candidate, Bishop Wilson Kamani from the Diocese of Ibba, congratulated the Archbishop-elect and the two bishops hugged.

The electoral college took place in All Saints' Cathedral in Yambio; which will host Archbishop-elect Samuels installation on Sunday. The Primate of South Sudan, Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, arrived in Yambio on Tuesday with his wife Mama Joyce and a team from the Provincial Office. We were warmly welcomed by the bishops and Christians of the Internal Province of Western Equatoria, he said on Wednesday. After being welcomed at All Saints' Cathedral we took time to pay our respects at the grave of Archbishop Peter Munde.

Archbishop Justin presided at an Ash Wednesday service in the cathedral, and the bishops held a time of prayer and fasting ahead of yesterdays election. Please join me in praying for [Bishop Samuel] as he prepares to take up this new role, Archbishop Justin said.
Posted on: March 8, 2019 2:31 PM

The Anglican Communions Environment Network (ACEN) is encouraging Anglicans to reduce their use of plastic in Lent. Organisers hope that those taking part in the plastic fast will learn to use less plastic in the longer term in order to protect the earths environment. The Environmental Co-ordinator for the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Canon Rachel Mash, said that that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish. Plastic is already entering into our drinking water, she said. Plastic clogs our rivers, leaches into our soil and is one of the greatest challenges the planet faces.

ACEN has produced a set of daily challenges linked to weekly themes: plastic bottles and lids, food shopping, bathroom, kitchen, clothing and kids. The challenges began with a commitment to using your own glass or reusable bottle to reduce the estimated one million plastic bottles bought around the world each minute.

They include banning the use of polystyrene in churches, schools and community groups; and sourcing alternative storage facilities, such as lidded containers rather that cling film for food stuffs. There is a creative edge to the challenges too, including a suggestion that parents could bake their own snacks for school lunches rather than purchasing plastic-wrapped products.

Lent is a time when we prepare our hearts and lives before celebrating the wonder of Easter, Canon Mash said. It is a time to break free from bad habits that are hurting God, our neighbour and Gods Creation. On Ash Wednesday when we are signed with the cross, the priest will say: turn away from sin and believe the good news, This Lent we are challenged to turn from the sin of damaging Gods planet and hurting our neighbours by our over use of single use (throwaway) plastic.

She said that single-use or disposable plastics  including items such as plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, drinks bottles and most food packaging  are used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. We produce roughly 300 million tons of plastic each year and half of it is disposable, she said. Worldwide only 10  13 per cent of plastic items are recycled.

The nature of petroleum based disposable plastic makes it difficult to recycle and they have to add new virgin materials and chemicals to it to do so. Additionally there are a limited number of items that recycled plastic can be used.

Petroleum based plastic is not biodegradable and usually goes into a landfill where it is buried or it gets into the water and finds its way into the ocean. Although plastic will not biodegrade  decompose into natural substance like soil  it will degrade  break down  into tiny particles after many years.

In the process of breaking down, it releases toxic chemicals  additives that were used to shape and harden the plastic  which make their way into our food and water supply. These toxic chemicals are now being found in our bloodstream.

The Moderator and Primate of the united Church of South India, Bishop Thomas K Oomen, has endorsed the plastic fast; and in a message to his Church he has called on Christians to make 10 Green Confessions during Lent.

These Green Confessions are not only to be prayed, but also to be practised, the Moderator said. If we live a life committed to avoiding all kinds of disposable plastics, the manufacturers would be forced to avoid all disposable plastics, and thus we would be contributing towards a lesser carbon footprint.

If lent is a time we think upon how to foster life, rather than destroying life, it is our spiritual commitment to avoid plastics since it kills life. As I hope that this years lent would be a meaningful time to reflect, repent, reorient and rededicate our lives to accomplish Gods will, I ardently pray that God would enable all of us to continue our life in an eco-spiritual pilgrimage fighting against all causes of ecological catastrophes, particularly the disposable plastic catastrophe.
Posted on: March 8, 2019 4:06 PM

[Episcopal News Service, by Mary Frances Schjonberg] Church Divinity School of the Pacific, or CDSP, and Trinity Church Wall Street announced this week (Monday) that the New York parish has acquired the Berkeley, California-based seminary. CDSP president and dean, W Mark Richardson, told the Episcopal News Service in an interview that the deal will put the school on a solid financial footing and position it for growth. CDSP and its assets now belong to Trinity, he said, and the value of those assets will be a fund, among other resources they have, that supports the program at the school and operation.

Itll be starting point of the kinds of funds we need to, say, augment faculty or to provide scholarship funding for students, he said. This becomes part of their assets that are poured back into the mission of the school.

Trinity sees CDSP as part of its strategy to present and offer the curriculum that will bring new leaders into the world that can gather communities and resource them in a way that we have not been able to do currently, Trinitys rector, William Lupfer, told ENS in an interview.

Ultimately, Trinity and CDSP hope to add more faculty and an expanded curriculum that will train clergy and laity for a changing church, especially in the areas of leadership development, formation and community organising. Making theological education more affordable is also a goal, church and seminary officials say. Both organisations hope to expand their current relationships across the Anglican Communion.

Its going to strengthen and enhance our programming, Ruth Meyers, the schools academic dean, told ENS. Trinity has this history of not only doing work in leadership development but [building] relations around the Anglican Communion, and I think thats really going to enhance the work were doing at CDSP.

Trinity Wall Street includes the church in Lower Manhattan, nearby St Pauls Chapel, and the Trinity Retreat Centre in West Cornwall, Connecticut, as well as partnerships that involve housing for the elderly, the homeless and people with disabilities, among others. The parish also has a $6 billion [USD, approximately 4.6 billion GBP] portfolio that includes major real estate holdings, primarily in New York where it is both a developer and a landlord.

The churchs vestry is now the seminarys governing body. But our vestry will not manage CDSP, Lupfer said. We will have staff members supporting the folks who are currently managing CDSP.

The Association of Theological Schools, the accrediting agency for all Episcopal Church-tied seminaries, has agreed to continue to accredit CDSP under the new governance structure. That means CDSP can continue to grant degrees. CDSP is not going away, Meyers said.
The Supreme Court Friday ordered a court-monitored mediation in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case to arrive at a "permanent solution" to the politically and religiously sensitive issue. The five-judge constitution bench appointed a panel of 3 mediators in the title suit with Retired Justice FM Kallifulla chairing the court-appointed and monitored mediation process.

The apex court also said that the mediation proceedings are to be kept confidential and should be held in Faizabad. The mediation hearing will start in one week and the status report of the mediation committee will have to be completed in four weeks.

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had earlier advocated a peaceful resolution to the otherwise politically and religiously sensitive issue.

Also Read: Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case: Here's a look at Ayodhya's history from 1528 up till now

Hindu Mahasabha, however, is opposed to mediation in the matter, terming it a futile process, which in the past also did not elicit any favorable outcome.

The apex court had on Wednesday reserved its order on the issue of referring the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case to the court-monitored mediation. One of the lawyers during Wednesday's hearing had opposed the mediation process saying that even if the parties agreed to resolve the matter amicably, the public would not agree to a compromise, to which Justice SA Bobde said that mediation didn't mean necessarily compromise by one party and a win for the other.

Also Read: Ayodhya case: Supreme Court may order court-monitored mediation today

The judge also stated, "We cannot undo Babar invading etc. We can only look into the current situation." "We understand the gravity of the case. Past cannot be undone. We can only decide what happens in the present," he added.

The five-judge constitution bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice SA Bobde, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Abdul Nazeer had on February 26 advocated an amicable resolution to the Ram Mandir case through mediation.

Also Read: Ayodhya case: SC to decide on mediation in Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid issue today

The apex court in its observation had favoured peaceful dialogue be given a chance to solve the contentious issue. Justice Bobde had proposed the suggestion while hearing the case. "We are considering the possibility of healing relations between two communities. We, as a court, can only decide the property issue." Justice SA Bobde said.

Meanwhile, the lawyers of the Hindu parties had opposed the idea of mediation saying that such attempts had failed in the. The petition challenging the 2010 judgment by Allahabad High Court has been pending for almost nine years. The court had ordered to equally divide the 2.77 acres of the disputed land in Ayodhya.

Also Read: Ayodhya case: SC reserves order on mediation in Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit
Search engine giant Google is celebrating International Women's Day by dedicating a doodle. The Google doodle comprises 13 inspirational quotes in 13 different languages by successful women across the world.

The Google doodle begins the word 'woman' written in 11 languages, including Bangla, Hindi, Spanish, English, Portuguese, Japanese, Arabic, German, Italian, French and Russian.

The doodle slideshow begins with quote by Dr Mae Jamison, American astronaut and physician that says, " Never be limited by other people's limited imagination." In the sixth slide, Indian boxer Mary Kom's motivational line written in Bangla gives out a motivational message to all the women. "Do not say you weak, because you are a woman," says the message.

The fifth slide is of the Google doodle features quotes by another Indian, NL Beno Zephine. Zephine was the first visually impaired person to be inducted into the Indian Foreign Service. "Hum itne anmol hai ki nirasha kabhi humare dilo-dimaag mein bhi nahi aani chaiye (We are too precious to let our disappointments enter our minds," reads Zephine's quote.

The doodle also features a line by Yoko Ono, who was married to Beatles star John Lennon. "A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality," reads out Ono.

Other inspirational lines that Google has featured to mark the occasion are:

Feet, what do I need them for if I have wings to fly? By Frida Kahlo, a Mexican artist. Let nothing bind you in the world other than your highest inner truth by Emma Herwegh, German writer I am stroonger than myself by Clarice Lispector, Brazilian novelist I really believe in the idea of the future by Zaha Hadid, British-Iraqi architect Courage calls to courage everywhere by Millicent Fawcett, British writer Wings are freedom only when they are wide open in flight. On one's back they are a heavy weight by Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian writer. The future can awaken in a more beautiful way than the past' by George Sand, French novelist, among others.

Also read: International Women's Day: Air India to fly on 52 routes with all-women crew; GoAir offers complimentary upgrade

Also read: International Women's Day 2019: Tips to help single women reach financial stability
Serebrennikov, the enfant terrible of Russian theatre, cinema and ballet, has been shuttered in his apartment for two years, accused of embezzlement in what his followers consider politically motivated charges. But hes now finishing his third opera staging under these conditions  an updated Verdi Nabucco in Hamburg. Thank heaven for USB sticks.  Yahoo! (AFP)
David Patrick Stearns talks with the youthful 37-year-old composer about his new organ concerto (titled Register), the operas hes written already, the massive amounts of music hes churned out, and what hes learned about his mental health.  The Philadelphia Inquirer
Paramilitary groups, the most active of which is called C14, have existed as a form of art critics since 2009, when they first burnt down the Gudimov Centre for its presentation of a book with a provocative name: 120 Pages of Sodome. Since then, they have intended to impact Ukraines cultural life, censoring the topics of gender, sexuality, and politics in art.  Hyperallergic
Lee has been tasked to lead the new Arnold & Porter office. He is an expert in complex cross-border business disputes, class-action defence, arbitrations, and business torts. He launched White & Cases office in Seoul in 2015, relocating from Los Angeles, where he was the head of the firms Korea practice group.

Kim is known for his work in complex, cross-border transactions. He advises on M&A, private-equity investments, international joint ventures, financings, and general corporate matters.

Richard Alexander, Arnold & Porter chairman, explained why the firm opened the office.

Korea is an important market for our firm. We have close ties to many clients who turn to us for advice on US and other international legal matters. The new office will enable us to better serve our clients with a team of lawyers providing on-the-ground support in real time and leveraging the expertise of other lawyers throughout the firm, he said.

Shearman & Sterling recently opened a Seoul office, manned by two senior lawyers from Singapore.
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has boosted it Brisbane team, welcoming to the firm a specialist in workplace health and safety law.

Aaron Anderson has joined the firms partnership and its employment, industrial relations, and safety (EIRS) team. He moved from Norton Rose Fulbright, where he was a partner for nearly 10 years.

His practice handles workplace health and safety law, industrial relations, and regulatory and compliance matters, serving clients in a range of industries including construction, resources, energy, retail, tourism, life sciences and transport. He has advised on some of Australias most complex and sensitive workplace health and safety matters, the global firm said.
Tata Motors share price fell in early trade after its UK arm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) clocked a fall in February sales. Tata Motors share price fell 3.65% to 182.30 compared to the previous close of 189.20 on BSE. Tata Motors share price has fallen 46.81% during the last one year and gained 6.60% since the beginning of this year.

Tata Motors plans to bring plenty of EVs not just for fleet, govt sales but also for private consumers

15 of 37 brokerages rate Tata Motors share "buy" or 'outperform', 18 "hold", three "underperform" and one "sell", according to analysts' recommendations tracked by Reuters.

Tata Motors share price was trading above its 50-day moving average of 174.26 and below its 200-day moving average of 195.21 levels, respectively.

On BSE, Tata Motors share hit 52-week high of 372.40 on April 5, 2018 and 52-week low of 141.90 on February 8, 2019.

Tata Motors turnover rose to Rs 14.88 crore with 8.07 lakh shares changing hands on BSE. Tata Motors was the top loser on Sensex and Nifty today.

Tata Motors unveils the Altroz at 2019 Geneva motor show

On Nifty, the stock fell nearly 3.50% to 182.25. Morgan Stanley said for the stock to re-rate, JLR needs to exhibit stable and positive free cash flows. It maintains 'equal-weight' on the stock with a price target of Rs 184.

Positive free cash flows can be achieved either by strong internal cost cutting and a China rebound, or the company could tie up with another player to share capex spending, the brokerage said. JLR recorded a 4.1% year on year fall in retail sales in February at 38,288 vehicles.

Weak customer demand in China coupled with run out of the old Range Rover Evoque led to the weak sales show for the UK-based firm.

JLR Retail sales rose significantly in North America (25.4%), UK (11 .3%) and modestly higher in Europe (1.1 %) but weaker market conditions continued to weigh on sales in China (down 47.6%). Jaguar retail sales in February were 12,235 vehicles, up 5.8% year-on-year reflecting increased sales of E-PACE and the all-electric I-PACE.

Land Rover retailed 26,053 vehicles in February, down 8.1% year-on-year as strong sales of refreshed Range Rover and Range Rover Sport were more than offset by the run out of the Evoque and lower sales of other models primarily impacted by the weaker conditions in China.

Edited by Aseem Thapliyal
Leading the practice will be computer scientist and professor Peter McBurney who is based in London and is a former head of department in the Department of Information at Kings College London.

Disruptive technologies have an unprecedented impact on information-intensive industries, particularly those subject to heavy regulation such as financial services, McBurney said. The firms new technology consulting practice is dedicated to helping financial institutions, corporations and start-ups develop and implement these new businesses processes.

NZ law society urges firms to embrace gender equality

The New Zealand Law Society has reminded law firms of its Gender Equality Charter.

With the first anniversary of the charter approaching, firms are being urged to take advantage of the long-term benefits of being a signatory.
Does a 309 visa applicant has to go to Australia from a country they applied from?



This is me again, asking a question on a different matter. I addition to difficulties listed in my other post, I plan to bring my dog to Australia. We all know what a pain this is, as my partner will have to spend 6 months in a Category 2 country (Serbia in my case), before she can bring the dog to Australia. The question is: if she applied for a 309 visa as a Russian resident, does she have to depart from Russia? Or would there be needed any additional paperwork etc for her departure?
EV

kWh

Rimac is doing better than ever, and this optimism also inspired Porsche to acquire 10 percent of the company. Theres no denying the Germans want a piece of thetechnology, more so considering that Porsche prepares to roll out their first electric vehicle in the guise of the Taycan.Turning our attention back to the C_Two , how does 1,914 PS (1,888 horsepower) sound by hypercar standards? The 2,300 Nm (1,696 pound-feet) of torque enables the four-motor land missile to accelerate to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 1.97 seconds. The quarter mile? Thats finished in 9.1 seconds, thank you!With a range of 550 kilometers (342 miles) under the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure, the C_Two also happens to be appropriate on the long haul. On the downside, the motorsport-inspired suspension isnt the most comfortable out there for extended driving periods.How much does this piece of wonderfulness cost? If you insist, Rimac asks in the ballpark of $2 million for an example of the breed. Back in March 2018, the chief executive of the Croatian outfit let it slip that nearly all had been spoken for . Speaking of which, production is strictly limited to 150 units.The C_Two follows the Concept One that Richard Hammond crashed while filming a segment for The Grand Tour in Switzerland in June 2017. The car also happens to be capable of completing two consecutive laps of the Ring without a significant drop in performance, which speaks volumes about the technologies that Rimac integrated into the C_Two.The individual-drive setup is made possible by a LiNiMnCoO2 battery capable of storing 120of energy. Thats more than Tesla in the 100D, and guess what? The Rimac happens to be lighter than the Model S with the 100-kWh battery at 1,950 kilograms (4,300 pounds) compared to 2,196 kilograms (4,841 pounds).
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This week, AVwebs blog space will feature a two-part story from James Belton, a Gen X pilot who has done what the previous generation of pilots could not: Evolved from pistons, to jets, to drones. Heres part two, the authors transition to drone pilot and unit commander.

Its one kind of flying to sit above hostile territory in an airplane as capable as the F-16 and quite another to fly a similar mission with a remotely piloted aircraft like the Predator. Although I never expected to, I have done both.

The Predator was an armed recce or reconnaissance drone that could shoot Hellfire missiles. The MQ9 Reaper is a larger, faster and far more capable weapon system. Its not the sort of thing any fighter pilot necessarily expects to operate, but thats where my career took me.

While deployed to Balad Airbase, Iraq, in 2006, I was lucky enough to see the first Reaper take off for a combat mission from that location. Pilots a half a world away in Nevada were flying the Reaper in chunks of sky called kill boxes. If you had told this fighter pilot that he was gonna fly a Reaper, I would have said you were crazy.

As luck, politics and funding would have it, I flew my first Reaper combat sortie in May of 2010. After the Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission hinted that New York Air Guards 174th Fighter Wing was a place fighters would no longer fly, the units military leadership saw that the new Reaper mission would be a windfall for the Guard.

The Air Force was looking for a place to man its new armed recce drones. A mutually beneficial decision landed the MQ9 mission right at Hancock field in Syracuse. In a blink, my days as a fighter pilot were over. I flew my last F-16 sortie in January 2010. I reported to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico later that month and learned to fly the Reaper.

While the Reaper was the latest in drone weapon technology, I was unimpressed by the interface and system presentation of this weapon system. Not only was the Reaper underdeveloped, pilots typically were only trained to fly combat missions. A typical pilot did not perform takeoffs and landings.

You gained the aircraft while it was already airborne. A launch and recovery crew accomplished takeoffs and landings at the remote locations the Reaper operated. Combat pilots didnt live with the aircraft. That was the charm of the system. It provided for a very small footprint of personnel in the combat zone.

My training was not top notch, to be honest. It felt nothing like when I was learning to fly the F-16. Everything was new and the entire course felt underdeveloped and incomplete. At Holloman, we shared the ramp with an F-22 squadron. The best of the best with an also ran.

I felt like the second string on the JV team. The holes in the MQ9 training have been slowly filled in over the years but initially, my impression of flying a remotely piloted aircraft was mediocre at best. Part of the charm, or lack thereof as a Reaper pilot, was the heavy reliance on the autopilot. An awkward control rack and instrument display obviously designed by engineers who werent pilots made flying the MQ9 an unfulfilling experience.

As a pilot who virtually wore the F-16 like a flying suit and felt every G and ripple of excitement that this magnificent machine carved in the sky, the sublime and even mind-numbingly boring operation of the Reaper was worse than kissing your sister.

Many Reaper pilots rely so heavily on the autopilot system and stay so narrowly in their assigned airspace that Reaper ops was not much like real flying at all. Not to sell this experience too short, the Reaper is an extremely effective weapon and surveillance system. It is very stable and can carry a significant load of weapons.

You can deliver these weapons on a moments notice with pinpoint accuracy while going unnoticed by anyone in the target area, all while remaining in the kill box for more than 20 hours. Granted, the F-16 was exciting and effective as a weapon in its own right, but the Reaper was just as effective in delivering weapons. As far as gathering intelligence and loitering in the target area, the Reaper is unmatched, especially for the price. The cost of this type of battlefield technology combined with the small support troop footprint was a windfall in combat operations in battle-spaces where fighters had achieved air supremacy.

In 2012, I was selected to standup a Launch and Recovery Element Detachment (LRE) for the 174th Attack Wing. The fighter wing had become an attack wing with the placement of Reapers. Although the lions share of time flying a Reaper is spent in a recce mission, most war fighters prefer attack and fighter nomenclature over surveillance and recce monikers.

I attended training for the Reaper LRE at Creech Air Force Base, north of Las Vegas. This is where I finally had learned to fly the Reaper. Creech is where I performed my first walk-around inspection of a Reaper prior to flying one. This came a full two years after I flew my first Reaper at Holloman Air Force Base.

Any pilot of a manned aircraft would agree that this was indeed a strange and perhaps a brave new world of aviation. Pilotless aircraft were not a notional but a real threat to the dashing figure we all see in the mirror. Would this new technology and remote endeavor replace pilots as we know them? On a long enough timeline, yes it will.

This foreboding opinion is based on experience that none of my pilot friends want to hear about. We all fancy ourselves as fearlessly irreplaceable. Unfortunately we are not. The very F-16s I was flying in Syracuse were flown to the panhandle of Florida and retrofitted to replace the F-4s that I used to shoot missiles at in the Combat Archer squadron. The F-16 is now a target drone.

My training at Creech for work as an LRE detachment commander was far more complete and refined than my initial Reaper school. Syracuse was selected as a new schoolhouse for Reaper pilots. We were chosen to augment training occurring at Holloman and Creech in the active duty. The Air National Guard had found an important niche and was now training the next generation of Remotely Piloted Aircraft pilots.

RPA is a more accurate name for the drones flown by the Air Force. These large aircraft are not the same machines that drone enthusiasts fly for taking pictures and videos of their friends and family. Not to diminish what a small drone can do, but an 11,000-pound turboprop RPA armed to the teeth is a very different responsibility than a handheld drone.

In my job as an LRE commander, I was stationed at Fort Drum in far upstate New York. The reason we decided to operate out of an Army Airfield was because the FAA mandated that large RPAs required a chase aircraft with pilots providing see-and-avoid services concerning other aircraft nearby.

Manned aircraft are required to see and avoid each other. While RPAs have robust sensors and cameras, the old guard at the FAA was not comfortable enough with these systems to turn them loose in the National Air Space without a set of good old fashioned eyeballs. This, of course, requires an expensive and clumsy workaround with two aircraft in formation and limited to visual meteorological weather conditions.

The army airfield serving Fort Drum is located just over a mile from the restricted military airspace, so the FAA would allow Reaper operations without chase to transit that airspace. We operated out of Fort Drum for several years until the FAA approved a Course of Action that involved a Civil Air Patrol chase plane to escort our Reapers to Restricted Airspace. Although we have operated the Reaper for almost 15 years in the Air Force and for six years in upstate New York, the FAA still requires the chase aircraft. Robust ground-based sense-and-avoid systems are currently being tested, but the pace of change toward routine RPA operations in the NAS is comparable to the typical hot air balloon.

The FAA is actively developing rules and regulations towards integration of RPAs in the NAS. Smaller drones are in their own category and are restricted by altitude and distance from airport operations. Incidents like the drone interference recently near Gatwick Airport in England that resulted in many airline diversions does little to instill confidence in the government efforts to allow RPAs to operate freely.

In my life as a pilot I used every cue I could to maintain the highest level of safety. As a drone pilot, I could no longer use the seat of my pants to fly the aircraft. It was like learning a different language. The explosion of drone technology and camera clarity as well as sensor and positioning systems outpaced regulations and industry structure.

Even though drones are considered pilotless, a well-trained and qualified pilot is still required to operate these aircraft. When I found out that I would be a drone pilot, I worried that my profession was disappearing. The more familiar I became with the near future limits of technology, I was reassured that pilots will fly in airliners for my lifetime.

To operate an RPA beyond visual range, the system must employ satellite or other expensive technology. While using this technology, you can certainly accomplish the job, but at the end of the day, a pilot sitting in the cockpit flying by the seat of his pants is cheaper and probably safer and more reassuring to passengers.

Whereas technology creates many opportunities, the almighty dollar remains the delineator when it comes to what will be commonplace. Having a pilot on the pointy end of an airliner ensures that there is a human in the loop. There is a person who cares very deeply about their own well-being as much as those who ride behind in the cabin. I understand that the march of technology may indeed help to replace pilots in the aircraft, but what can never be remotely replaced is that level of professionalism and care a well-trained pilot brings to the aviation equation.

Lt Col James T. Belton
Reed Enger is a Product Designer at Google creating meaningful design systems and teaching machines to feel. He's also a historian and the founder of Trivium Art History, an arts & humanities platform designed for discovery that shares 30,000 years of diverse human creativity.

At Awwwards Conference New York, Reed shared his experience evolving a design system at Google, creating a system to rewrite history and share how design systems can be used to create meaningful experiences, tell stories, and embrace constant change.

Every element of your design system should have soul

Subscribe now - watch the hottest digital design talks and interviews from Awwwards, on our official YouTube Channel.

Next stop: get your ticket for - Awwwards Conference San Francisco May 8-10 2019 Talks, Workshops, Meetups and Parties for digital creatives to learn key tools, current trends and emerging web technologies from leading agencies whilst making connections within the international design community.
Since the beginning of this month, cash-strapped Jet Airways has grounded nine aircraft "due to non-payment of amounts outstanding to lessors under their respective lease agreements". Yesterday, in a regulatory filing, India's second-largest airline said that it had grounded three more planes - taking the total to 28 - but was "making all efforts to minimise disruption to its network due to the above and is proactively informing and re-accommodating its affected guests".

In addition, according to reports, several more of Jet Airways' planes are non-operational since its ongoing cash-crunch is making it difficult to finance spare parts and engines. According to a senior DGCA official, in total 49 of the airline's planes are currently grounded. "At this moment, they [Jet Airways] have 70 aircraft that are operational. At early December, they were operating 100 aircraft," the official told PTI yesterday. According to the airline's website, it boasts some 119 aircraft in its fleet, which means over 41% of its fleet is currently not flying.

The planes on the ground reportedly include the newly-introduced Boeing 737 Max, Boeing 737 NG and Airbus A330 planes. Describing the situation as "dynamic" - indicating more aircraft could be grounded in the near future - the aviation watchdog source claimed that the airline has been told that in case its flights are cancelled, "the passengers should be properly compensated" or offered alternative flights. "We should not be receiving any complaints regarding that," he explained, adding that Jet Airways has also been directed to "get their schedule approved in advance so that the passengers are informed" and the cancelled flights are removed from the official website.

Jet Airways has been grounding aircraft in tranches since February 7, but it has been maintaining that it is actively "engaged" with all its aircraft lessors and regularly provides them with updates on the efforts undertaken to improve its liquidity. "Aircraft lessors have been supportive of the Company's efforts in this regard," the airline added in regulatory filings.

According to latest DGCA data, Jet Airways' domestic passenger count was down 9% year-on-year during January while its market fell to 11.9% - the lowest in at least five years and behind national carrier Air India's 12.2%. Burdened with a debt of around Rs 8,200 crore, Jet Airways has been scrambling to raise funds for operations. Shareholders of the beleaguered airline approved proposal for conversion of its debt into shares at the recent extraordinary general meeting (EGM), during which Deputy Chief Executive Officer Amit Agarwal announced that Jet has been talking to various investors for capital infusion.

However, while the buzz earlier was that its strategic partner Etihad, which currently owns a 24 per cent stake in the domestic carrier, would pump in around Rs 1,400 crore, things seem to have taken a U-turn. As per The Financial Express, Abu Dhabi-based carrier may be unwilling to infuse any funds in the interim - not till the bank-led resolution plan (BLRP), which is being piloted by State Bank of India, is finalised and approved. Etihad had reportedly abstained from voting on various proposals during the EGM.

So, with the bailout plan likely to take a while to get finalised and implemented, Jet Airways urgently needs funds in the interim to pay pilots, vendors and aircraft leasing firms and avoid more planes getting grounded. Hence, the airline reportedly pledged fixed deposits worth Rs 1,500 crore with SBI to borrow Rs 225 crore earlier this week.

Significantly, Jet Airways has to move quickly to get its house in order with large repayments of Rs 2,444.5 crore due in FY20 and Rs 2,167.9 crore in FY21. Moreover, Jet Airways had defaulted in servicing its loan obligations on December 31, 2018, and the 90-day window before its loans are dubbed non-performing assets (NPA) ends on March 31.

Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal with PTI inputs

Also read: Naresh Goyal may step down from Jet Airways board, but on one condition
The fifth article in a series by Interaction Designer and Jury member Matteo Rostagno, who shares his adventures discovering the web design scene across the world. We last heard from poor Matteo on the beach in Fiji ;) - coming up he shares with us what he's discovered in New Zealand.

Visiting this country has always been a dream for me: I am very passionate about any fantasy genre and, before starting my career in interaction design, I used to work in the film industry as a VFX artist/animator. As this is the land of the Lord of the Rings and one of the greatest film post-production companies in the world (Weta), its quite easy to understand why this place has always had a special place in my heart.

This amazing country is also the hometown of one of the most creative digital studios on the planet: Resn. Sara and I had the opportunity to visit their office in Wellington, where we had a lovely conversation with the team and a little taste of the famous kiwi welcome.

For the few people who don't know them, Resn is a digital production studio founded in 2004. They are renowned for pushing the boundaries of digital design and creative since they first came on the scene. Born from the minds of two friends  Rik Campbell and Steve Le Marquand  they now have offices in Amsterdam and Shanghai with more than 60 employees worldwide.

D, Matt and Gregoire.

Wellington is the creative capital of New Zealand, achieving worldwide acclaim and commercial success across the creative and digital sector. I met Deirdre, Gregoire, Matt, Steve, Wade and the rest of the team at their incredible office  an eccentric studio/home/museum full of art objects, retro computer collections and curious bric-a-brac. Not to mention the many industry awards hanging on their walls. We like the idea of having lots of stuff around us, sort of quirky elements. Its kind of like a comfortable cave, Steve said.

A really curious fact is that Resn has a very low profile in New Zealand. This is because they work predominantly with overseas clients in a vast range of countries like the US, Japan, Singapore, and others. Deirdre told me: The majority of local digital projects are quite corporate or government-focused, and dont have the level of budget or scope that allow us to create ground-breaking work. Having said that, we are always looking for opportunities to work with New Zealand clients, particularly when it comes to projects for good causes like the Breast Cancer Foundation NZ campaign with our friends at Colenso BBDO.

The majority of local digital projects are quite corporate or government-focused, and dont have the level of budget or scope that allow us to create ground-breaking work

As we discovered traveling around New Zealand, Kiwi mentality is very much about problem-solving and achieving as much as possible with the tools and the opportunities available  sort of like MacGyver. Its a matter of pride for them and so for Resn too. As is their typically relaxed Kiwi attitude: One of our magic ingredients is the fun factor. We always aim to have a good balance of fun and getting right to the point, in whatever we do, as Gregoire and Deirdre said.

Steve underlined that another important element of their success is their ability to get extraordinary people on board from everywhere around the world. Its very important for Resn to have a multicultural team: different experiences and cultural backgrounds bring different ways of working that are challenging and innovative, creating the unique final result. But the process of finding great talent is a difficult task in New Zealand, as Deirdre admits It's very hard finding people locally that have the right experience, talent and culture fit. There are some really promising juniors in Wellington, but finding senior staff with experience in our field isn't easy, and we often have to recruit talent from overseas.

The amazing view from their office.

As a sparsely populated country, the local community is very connected. Its easy to get to know people in the industry, so they dont really need huge sector events to catch up on how things are going. On the other hand, Gregoire revealed the first thing hed been told when he moved was: Never f**k anybody off in New Zealand because everybody knows everybody, which I found really funny.

Never f**k anybody off in New Zealand because everybody knows everybody.

Wellington is the perfect place to feed your creativity and Wellingtonians have always supported arts and culture. The city is home to many national arts and cultural organizations, such as the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, City Gallery Wellington, Te Papa Tongarewa National Museum of New Zealand, NZ Symphony Orchestra and Creative NZ. The convergence of creative and technological expertise has resulted in innovative businesses and people. There is a close connection between local industries and educational institutions that ensures future talent will continually find a home in the creative and digital sector. Places like the Massey Universitys College of Creative Arts and the Miramar Creative Centre provide the learning and industry connections necessary to support pathways into careers in film-making, game design, visual effects and multimedia design. New Zealand has experienced a massive ramp-up in terms of innovation over the last two years. The tech and innovation industry is also growing, thanks to government agencies like Callaghan Innovation.

But Wellington is not just about work. Its very much about great craft beers, amazing coffee places, restaurants, meeting old friends and making new ones. We really enjoyed meeting the lovely people at Resn and we seriously considered staying for a couple of years, to properly dive into Kiwi life. This incredible island, Aotearoa, seems the perfect environment to nurture your creativity and make big dreams come true.

Kia ora!

Interviewees:

Steve Le Marquand - Executive Creative Director and Founder

Deirdre Crowley - Executive Digital Producer

Gregoire Cortesi - Interactive Producer

Justus Smith - Marketing and Communications Manager

Matt Halford - Creative Technical Director
A first-ever address by a sitting secretary of state and the economic crisis in oil-rich Venezuela are set to drive the agenda at a conference next week in Houston of the worlds biggest energy companies.

The big picture: This is the first time the conference, held for almost 40 years, is occurring with America as the worlds biggest crude oil producer, a milestone reached last year.

Daniel Yergin, host of the conference dubbed CERAWeek, calls the U.S. boom, driven by surging production from shale formations, an earthquake in the world oil market.

Driving the news: The weeklong event is bringing together a record 4,500 attendees, Yergin told Axios in an interview on Thursday, which includes CEOs of the worlds biggest oil and natural gas producers and, increasingly, companies and leaders banking on renewable energy.

Yergin, a Pulitzer-Prize winning author, is the vice chairman of conference host IHS Markit and co-founder of Cambridge Energy Research Associates (which IHS bought in 2004).

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will give a speech Tuesday addressing how Americas energy revolution strengthens national security in an age of renewed great power competition.

This is the first time a sitting secretary of state has spoken at the conference, says Yergin, who will be on stage with Pompeo and most other speakers.

The secretary general of OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries mostly from the Middle East, is speaking Monday. OPEC has been a regular speaker at this conference the last few years, driven largely by the rise in American oil production. The official, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, attends the conference for 2 reasons, Yergin says.

To understand this dynamic, new element that is like an earthquake in the world oil market called U.S. shale.

The second thing is his message that this is not the OPEC of the 70s or 80s. This is an international organization that is dedicated to try to promote stability and understanding.

The economic crisis hitting Venezuela, which is a member of OPEC, will also be a top focus. The countrys ambassador to the U.S., Carlos Vecchio, and Luisa Palacios, chairwoman of the Citgo Petroleum Corporation, are slated to speak Tuesday. Citgo is a subsidiary of PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company.

The Trump administration has imposed crippling sanctions

Venezuela was not so many years ago a very important player in world oil, Yergin said. Under Maduro it has shriveled up as a producer and the human tragedy; Venezuela is going to rival Syria in terms of creating penniless, suffering refugees.

A leader-in-waiting of Denmark is set to speak Wednesday on that nations impressive wind resources.

Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary Elizabeth of Denmark, is speaking for the first time at the conference.

Denmark has among the highest  if not the highest in the world  penetration of renewable energy, at 52.4% in 2018, according to

A lot of this is offshore wind, which is being increasingly driven by big oil companies that are adapting their know-how in offshore drilling to wind.

Go deeper: Old oil seeks Silicon Valley swag
The House voted 428-1 on Wednesday to pass a bill that would ban all imports from the Chinese region of Xinjiang unless the U.S. government determines that the products were not made with forced labor.

Why it matters: Both the Trump and Biden administrations, as well as several foreign parliaments, have recognized China's repression of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang as genocide.
Justin Trudeau broke his silence on the biggest scandal of his premiership this morning, insisting there was nothing illegal or unethical about his handling of a corruption case against engineering and construction giant SNC-Lavalin.

Why it matters: Trudeaus popularity has been slumping ahead of his re-election bid in October. With his former attorney general claiming she felt inappropriate pressure to settle the case against SNC, Trudeau is now having to defend the image of an honest and transparent leader he's polished during his 4 years in office.

The latest: Trudeau suggested today that the controversy was the result of an erosion of trust that developed, unbeknownst to him, between his office and the former attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould.

Asked if he had anything to apologize for, Trudeau was defensive: In regards to standing up for jobs and defending the integrity of our rule of law, I continue to say that there was no inappropriate pressure.

Trudeau was defensive: In regards to standing up for jobs and defending the integrity of our rule of law, I continue to say that there was no inappropriate pressure. The prime minister has seen his top aide and 2 Cabinet members resign since the SNC affair emerged in the pages of the Globe and Mail newspaper last month  and this isnt going away.

Catch up quick: SNC would be banned from bidding for government contracts for 10 years if convicted of fraud and corruption over its dealings with the Moammar Gadhafi regime in Libya from 2001 to 2011. That puts thousands of jobs at risk, many of them in Trudeaus home province of Quebec.

Wilson-Raybould testified last week that she faced consistent and sustained pressure from Trudeaus top aide, Gerald Butts, and other officials to settle the matter out of court.

last week that she faced consistent and sustained pressure from Trudeaus top aide, Gerald Butts, and other officials to settle the matter out of court. She claims Trudeau personally asked her to find a solution that wouldnt force SNC to slash jobs or relocate.

personally asked her to find a solution that wouldnt force SNC to slash jobs or relocate. Trudeau said today: Even though she indicated to me that she had made a decision, I asked her if she could revisit that decision  and she said that she would. He added that he now realizes she felt it was inappropriate when we continued to talk about it  but claimed she never raised such concerns at the time.

In Trudeaus telling, this was all about jobs. His rivals say it was all about cynical politics. Wilson-Raybould, meanwhile, has suggested it caused her to lose her job.

Trudeau denies that. He said he intended to move her to Indigenous Affairs during January's Cabinet reshuffle to signal that portfolio was a top priority, but she rejected that move. She wound up as Veterans Affairs minister before resigning from the Cabinet last month.

He said he intended to move her to Indigenous Affairs during January's Cabinet reshuffle to signal that portfolio was a top priority, but she rejected that move. She wound up as Veterans Affairs minister before resigning from the Cabinet last month. Next to go was Butts, sometimes described as Trudeau's "right-hand man," who resigned in an attempt to slow the fast-moving scandal. He defended Trudeau before a parliamentary committee yesterday, saying: All we ever asked the attorney general to do was to consider a second opinion.

sometimes described as Trudeau's "right-hand man," who resigned in an attempt to slow the fast-moving scandal. He defended Trudeau before a parliamentary committee yesterday, saying: All we ever asked the attorney general to do was to consider a second opinion. Jane Philpott made Trudeau's headache worse on Tuesday by resigning as president of the Treasury Board over her serious concerns about the allegations.

Between the lines: This has been a month of controversy that "in some ways seems mild  no money changed hands and no laws appear to have been broken, the NYT notes. Nevertheless, it's dominating Canadian politics in an election year.
Armenia may have to increase its public debt in order to receive large-scale economic assistance from the European Union, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday.

Speaking two days after his latest visit to Brussels, Pashinian said that the EU is prepared to finance mega-projects proposed by the Armenian government. The projects relate to the construction and renovation of roads, schools, water reservoirs and even prisons, he told members of his cabinet.

While being ready to help, the EU is not prepared to finance those projects by 100 percent and it expects Armenia to seriously participate in those projects, Pashinian went on. In order to be able to co-finance those projects the Armenian government needs to significantly improve tax collection and/or obtain more foreign loans, he said.

Pashinian added that he will discuss the matter with relevant government bodies and the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) in the coming weeks to see whether the country could manage a higher public debt.

The premier said nothing about the amount of additional aid which the EU is ready to provide to Armenia or possible external borrowing required for obtaining it. He hinted only that the government could consider raising a legal limit on the size of its outstanding debts to local and foreign creditors. That debt ceiling is currently set at 60 percent of GDP.

Armenias overall public debt, which also includes sums owed by the Central Bank, was on course to reach $7.1 billion in December 2018. The figure is equivalent to roughly 57 percent of the countrys GDP.

The Armenian state budget for this year sets aside $735 million for debt servicing. The sum will account for over one-fifth of the governments overall budgetary expenditures. Debt repayments are projected to peak at $800 million in 2020.

Pashinian met with European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and other senior EU officials in Brussels on Tuesday.

Speaking after the talks, Tusk praised the Armenian governments ambitious reform agenda and said the EU is ready to support it with enhanced technical and financial assistance. But he did not give any numbers.
Armenias new leadership has had trouble recruiting women for high-ranking state posts, a senior lawmaker said on Friday, commenting on a continuing lack of female presence in the government.

Armenian women have traditionally held few ministerial or other senior positions in the executive branch. This situation has hardly changed since last years velvet revolution that brought younger and more progressive individuals to power.

Only one member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians current cabinet, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Zaruhi Batoyan, is a woman. Pashinians first cabinet formed in May 2018 had two female ministers. One of them, Lilit Makunts, now leads the parliamentary group of the ruling My Step alliance.

Speaking on International Womens Day, a public holiday in Armenia, Makunts insisted that the new authorities have tried hard to appoint more women to run ministries, other government agencies or provincial administrations but have so far been thwarted by conservative public attitudes.

Nothing works out artificially, she told reporters. If you force a person to do things she doesnt want to do, the quality of that work will suffer and we wont get want we want to see in the social sense.

There are many [female] professionals. Its just that social and political pressure [on them] is extremely strong, said Makunts, who served as culture minister until January. Many women refuse to take up senior positions at the urging of their husbands and other relatives, she explained.

Especially in the regions, its quite hard to find women familiar with local problems for leadership positions, said Tsovinar Vartanian, another female parliamentarian representing My Step.

Women make up almost one-quarter of Armenias 132-member parliament elected in December, a record-high percentage in the countrys post-Soviet history. Twenty-three of the 32 female deputies are affiliated with Pashinians bloc. One of them, the 25-year-old Sona Ghazarian, is the youngest member of the National Assembly.

Makunts, 35, said that attracting more women to politics in the socially conservative country has proved just as difficult.

Women are not forgiven for things that can be ignored in the case of men, said the former university lecturer, who faced intense media scrutiny during her seven-month ministerial stint. All these factors dont allow women to be more audacious and get actively involved in [political] processes.

Makunts made clear that the authorities will continue to seek greater female presence in the higher echelons of political and administrative power. We will definitely work in that direction, she said. I find it very important. I may not be objective but I think that relationships are friendlier and compromises more commonplace in places where women are involved.
Zhoghovurd reports that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday delicately rebuked unnamed Armenian diplomats for not showing support for last years velvet revolution led by him and promoting its significance in the international arena. The paper says Pashinian implied that he will forget that if the diplomats now help him carry out his promised economic revolution in the country. It claims that Armenian diplomatic missions abroad can indeed play a key role in attracting more foreign investment in Armenia.

Zhamanak backs the Armenian governments continuing calls for Nagorno-Karabakhs direct involvement in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks, saying that is a necessary condition for progress towards the Karabakh conflicts resolution. The paper says that Azerbaijan opposes that just like it objected to taking confidence-building measures in the conflict zone which were agreed by Baku and Yerevan in 2016. It also notes that the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group are not openly rejecting Yerevans stance. They say that the conflicting parties themselves should decide on Karabakhs being a party [to the negotiations,] it says. That is to say that they give equal weight to both the Armenian demand and the Azerbaijani refusal.

We, Armenians, find it strange when an American woman does not let a man hold up a coat or open a door for her, writes Aravot in an editorial devoted to International Womens Day. Also unusual for us is the oriental practice of a man walking three or four steps ahead of his wife and children and paying no attention to what his family members are doing. We, Armenians, have our own perception of the woman. It can be said that we have chosen the middle ground, steering clear of [womens] extreme emancipation and equally radical subordination.

(Lilit Harutiunian)
By Trend

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has expressed dissatisfaction with the invitation of representatives of the separatist regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories to the Lazarev Club meeting, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministrys statement on March 7.

Media reports say that the second meeting of the Russian-Armenian Lazarev Club was held in Moscow on March 5-6, 2019, the statement said.

"The official representatives of the executive and legislative powers of the Russian Federation represented by Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation Sergey Glazyev attended the meeting. Glazyev conveyed greetings of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as First Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the Russian State Duma for CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots Konstantin Zatulin to the meeting participants," said the ministry.

Earlier, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry expressed dissatisfaction and indignation to the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with the invitation of representatives of the separatist regime created in the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia to the first meeting of the aforementioned club, as well as with the statements made during the first meeting that openly infringe upon Azerbaijans sovereignty and territorial integrity," the statement reads.

On the eve of the second meeting of the Lazarev Club, in response to a correspondents question about the position of the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding the invitation of the leaders of the separatist regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories to the meeting, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that it is about the event with participation of the representatives of a civil society and non-governmental organizations and there is no information about the participation of representatives of the state bodies of the Russian Federation in the event. Moreover, it was stated that as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Russian Federation fulfills all its obligations, the statement said.

"In this regard, we update the Russian side that the available specific data on the participation of high-ranking officials of the state bodies of the Russian Federation at the aforementioned meeting on March 5, 2019, where they were present along with representatives of the illegal regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, is grossly contrary to the obligations of a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.

The obligations have been determined upon the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, clearly indicating that in their activity the co-chairs will follow the OSCE principles and standards, the UN Charter and the decisions of the OSCE forums, including the decision of the Council of Ministers on March 24, 1992, and in particular the decision of the Budapest Summit, as well as the corresponding resolutions of the UN Security Council"," the ministry said.

"Once again we call on the Russian side to fulfill the commitments undertaken within bilateral relations, in particular, compliance with the provisions of the Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Security between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation of 1997, the statement reads.

The agreement specifically states that "the Parties undertake not to support separatist movements, as well as prohibit and suppress the activity of individuals directed against the state sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of other Party"."

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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By Trend

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov received Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mikhail Bocharnikov, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

The sides exchanged views on several issues in the agenda covering bilateral relations, including the development of cooperation in economic, trade, cultural, humanitarian and other spheres, as well as the continuation of successful cooperation in multilateral format.

Bocharnikov, upon the Russian leaderships instructions, invited Mammadyarov to take part in the meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers scheduled for April 5 in Moscow.

In turn, Mammadyarov expressed gratitude for this invitation. The Azerbaijani foreign minister underlined the strategic nature of the existing relations between Azerbaijan and Russia and stressed Russias role as one of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In this regard, Mammadyarov stressed that the participation of the Russian officials in the second meeting of the Russia-Armenia Lazarev Club, which took place in Moscow on March 5-6 with the participation of representatives from the illegal regime created in the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan occupied by the Republic of Armenia, has caused the Azerbaijani side's protest.

The minister also said that the Azerbaijani side expressed dissatisfaction to the Russian side in connection with the invitation of representatives of the separatist regime to the first meeting of the above-mentioned Club held in Yerevan in late 2018, where provocative statements against Azerbaijans sovereignty and territorial integrity were made.

Such cases contradict the normative legal framework defining the basis of the Azerbaijani-Russian bilateral relations, as well as Russia's role as mediator, the minister added.

At the meeting, the sides also exchanged views on the recent regional and global developments.

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By Trend

Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar, Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry told Trend March 7.

T.Klaar emphasized with satisfaction his meeting with H.E Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and said that very fruitful discussions took place at the meeting.

Minister informed the EU Special Representative about the current negotiations process on the resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Referring to the recent statements of the Armenian leadership Minister Elmar Mammadyarov highlighted that such statements undermine the negotiations process. Minister Elmar Mammadyarov pointed out that non-resolution of the conflict is a serious obstacle to sustainable development and prosperity of the region, adding that the international community unequivocally supports the withdrawal of the occupying forces from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan, the return of the internally displaced persons to their homes and thus ensuring peace in the region. In this regard, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov referred to the latest statements of the EU officials made on the conflict settlement.

In his turn, T.Klaar stressed the importance of the substance of the negotiations and noted the readiness of the Union to contribute to preparation of the populations for peace.

Furthermore, the sides exchanged their views on the current status of the bilateral relations between the European Union and Azerbaijan, the mutual exchange of visits, as well as the ongoing negotiations on the new agreement, which will constitute the legal basis of the relations.

At the meeting the sides also discussed the regional issues of mutual interest.

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Merced Heights

by Woody LaBounty



Merced Heights, the center of the OMI neighborhoods, lies upon an east-west ridgeline in southwestern San Francisco. The ridge runs from San Jose Avenue on the east to Junipero Serra Boulevard on the west with a rocky outcrop at its center peak of Orizaba Avenue. The western knoll of Brooks Park stands out like an island above the blocks of houses with trees and a grassy slope facing the Pacific Ocean.

The name Merced Heights dates only from the first years after World War II, when most of what was open hillside on the west succumbed to new housing. Before that, locals called the Brooks Park summit Kite Hill or Poppy Hill. The rest of the ridge was lumped in with surrounding development names such as Lakeview, Ingleside, Columbia Heights, and Ocean View. Even today, the name Merced Heights is mostly applied to the later-developed west half of the ridgeline.

Mapping the Hill

Maps created as early as the 1860s laid streets and street names over the very top of the Merced hills with great commercial ambition, but with no consideration of the steep grades. One almost gets the idea the surveyors drew up the plans without visiting the site. Some of the streets of Merced Heights took eighty years to become more than lines on a map.

In 1862, George Black surveyed and filed the map for San Miguel City on the northeast slope. The tract stood beside the San Francisco-San Jose railroad line and across the Ocean Road from the new Industrial Schoola juvenile hall of its time. By the turn of the twentieth century only a few houses, mostly occupied by railroad workers, clung to the hillside. George Blacks plan was slightly realigned and cut with new streets on the east side, and completely overwritten on the west, but todays Howth and Tara Streets originate from the original 1862 map.

Most of the other streets of Merced Heights date from the plat maps of competing Ocean View homestead associations on the south and the Ingleside neighborhood on the north. The streets of the Railroad Homestead Association (1867) and City Land Association (1870) were separated and offset from each other by Orizaba Avenue. The City Land map extended completely over the hill to Holloway Avenue, but asphalt, sidewalks, and houses wouldnt arrive until the twentieth century. Some of todays street names are original to the 1870 mapShields, Monticello, Vernon, Victoria, Brightwhile others were changed, such as Thurston (Beverly), Ford (Byxbee), Walnut (Ralston), and State (Ramsell).

The Ingleside street grid on the north side of the ridge was created in 1890 as a development called Lakeview, and its map overwrote the west half of San Miguel City. The Ingleside and Ocean View grids, north and south, reached to each other at the Merced Heights ridgeline, but into the early twentieth century only the often-muddy paths of Plymouth and Capitol Avenues truly split the hills spine to connect the communities on each side. Anyone walking or driving a wagon would naturally skirt the heights and come around the old routes south on Mission Street and San Jose Avenue.

The last puzzle piece of Merced Heights came in 1893 on the east-facing slope between San Miguel City and Ocean View when the real estate firm of Easton, Eldridge & Co. filed the map for their Columbia Heights development.

Slow Growth

Distant from downtown, with poor transit options for most of the nineteenth century, the area around Merced Heights would be better described as a suburb or country village than part of the city of San Francisco. With plenty of available land closer to the heart of the city and no water, sewage, or gas service on the ridgeline, just a few hardy individuals made their homes up on the hill before the twentieth century.1

The creation of the Ingleside horse racing track in 1895 brought cottages occupied by hostlers, trainers, jockeys, and other racetrack workers to the Merced Heights slope south of the track. Some of these houses can still be found on the blocks between Holloway Avenue and Garfield Street from Beverly to Ramsell Streets. The track closed in 1905 and served as an earthquake refugee camp from 1906-1908. With the dispersal of refugees after the camps closing, a few more houses dotted the hillside, and when the residence park development of Ingleside Terraces took over the old racetrack land in 1912, real estate salesmen and the residents of the slope began using the name Ingleside Heights.

Enough residents occupied Ingleside Heights to begin serious lobbying for basic services, including water, and the housing boom of the 1920s spurred builders to begin filling in the blocks south of Holloway Avenue with Sunset District-style stucco houses. Even during the Depression of the 1930s, federal mortgage subsidies kept housing creeping up both slopes of the hill from Ingleside and Ocean View. The steep ravine on the southwest side of the ridge, however, remained mostly undeveloped. When the Municipal Railways M-Oceanview streetcar line opened in 1925, the tracks ran through mostly open farmland along the diagonal section of 19th Avenue and Randolph Street.

Low interest loans to returning veterans fueled a house construction boom after World War II. In 1946, the name Merced Heights began being used as a neighborhood name in real estate ads for pre-war Junior 5 models.2 In many of the ads, owners are mentioned to be moving soon and wanting quick sales, hinting at the broader white flight to the suburbs that would hit the area in fuller force over the next two decades. Much of the new housing that filled the hillside in the 1950s was marketed to and purchased by African-Americans.

"A Higher Class Negro District"

In the 1950s, the non-white population between Junipero Serra Boulevard, Orizada Avenue, Holloway Avenue, and the San Francisco county line rose by 36 percent, while the Ocean View neighborhood to the east saw its minority population go up 55 percent. A study by the Council for Civic Unity in 1961 recorded an influx of African-Americans to the city and noted that racist practices and pressures primarily limited their residence to three areas: the Fillmore, Hunters Point, and the OMI. The last was called in the report a higher class Negro district with primarily single dwelling units.3

As the hillside blocks began filling in with houses and families, the city quickly planned a school for the growing new neighborhood. The postwar baby boom had overloaded the citys public schools in general and new small campuses for kindergarten to third grade childrenhome schoolswere created to relieve the pressure. Originally called the Ocean View Heights Home School, Jose Ortega School opened at Sargent and Ramsell Streets with a 250-student capacity in the fall of 1953.4

By the early 1960s, the single-family houses of Merced Heights were 65% African-American occupied. Real estate agents not only steered black buyers away from predominately white neighborhoods to new houses on Merced Heights, but boosted their business with scare tactics to established white residents to sell before the neighborhood become a ghetto. Genevieve Jefferson, who lived on Ramsell Street, testified to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1967 that real estate agents swooped down on white people with offers to relocate and urged her to get out while you can. She even had two friends trying to buy a home in her neighborhood who were told, Caucasians were no longer wanted there.5

Jefferson was part of the Merced Heights Neighborhood Association (MHNA), an improvement group formed in October 1961. MHNA engaged in typical community association activities such as street cleanup days and lobbying for better bus service, but also promoted the harmonious integration in the neighborhood. Real estate agent Julius T. Johnson, one of the groups leaders, expressed the groups hope that through working out our neighborhood problems together, the two races will get to know each other better. Well find the areas we have in common, sit down over a beer or a cup of coffee and talk things out.6

MHNA was one of the first of a series of improvement groups that blossomed in the 1960s and led to a broader Ocean View-Merced-Ingleside community identity that continues today.

Contribute your own stories about western neighborhoods places!
By Laman Ismayilova

"No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens..."

Michelle Obama

On March 8 every year, the world community celebrates the International Women's Day to shine light on the women who have contributed to society with their talent, perseverance and timeless wisdom.

Every year hundreds of businesses, government offices, educational institutions host various wide-scale events focused on unity, reflection, action and advocacy.

It is a day when women are recognized for their accomplishments without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political.

Women's Day has emerged as such in the early 1900's from the movements for women's rights.

International Women's Day has been celebrated by the United Nations on March 8 since 1975.

The idea of celebration was put forward for the first time by Clara Zetkin, German activist, at an International Conference of women-socialists, held in Copenhagen.

Many women joined the struggle for their equality. The first countries celebrating this day were Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark.

The theme for International Womens Day 2019 is "Think equal, build smart, innovate for change".

The theme is focused on innovative ways in which we can advance gender equality and the empowerment of women, particularly in the areas of social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure.

Azerbaijan is one of the countries celebrating International Women's Day on March 8. It is an official holiday and day-off in the country.

This holiday has started to be marked in Azerbaijan since 1917.

Azerbaijan was the first country to have granted women the right of vote.

Today, Azerbaijani women play an important place in modern society and enjoy the same legal rights as men.

They are closely involved in the socio-political, socio-economic, scientific-cultural and other areas of life. More women are being engaged in entrepreneurship.

The State Committee on Family, Women and Childrens Problems was established in Azerbaijan in 1998.

Azerbaijan is also represented in the Council of Europes bureau on women and is a full-fledged member of the UN Commission on womens issues.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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By Trend

New US ambassador to Azerbaijan Earle (Lee) Litzenberger is looking forward to assuming his duties as the US ambassador in Baku.

My wife and I are extremely happy and thrilled to be here in Baku. I am looking forward to assuming my duties as the US ambassador here, getting to know the people, the culture and the officials here and working to deepen and strengthen the relations between our two countries and two peoples, he said, Trend reports March 7.

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By Trend

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of Senegal Macky Sall.

I sincerely congratulate you on your re-election as President of the Republic of Senegal, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter. I am confident that we will continue our efforts towards developing the relations of friendship and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Senegal. I wish you the best of health, happiness and success in your activity for the well-being of the friendly people of Senegal.

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By Trend

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received a delegation led by President of the Russian Jewish Congress Yuri Kanner on March 8.

President of the Russian Jewish Congress Yuri Kanner said that as part of their visit to Azerbaijan they traveled to the city of Guba, adding they saw development processes in the country`s regions.

He praised the fact that all conditions were created in Azerbaijan for representatives of all nationalities, including Jews, to live in prosperity.

President Ilham Aliyev said that different nationalities and religious communities have been living in Azerbaijan as a single family for centuries, pointing out the existence of necessary conditions for representatives of all nationalities, including Jews to live in peace.

The head of state underlined the importance of Azerbaijan`s hosting major international events aimed at strengthening dialogue among civilizations and cultures.

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By Trend

Minister of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan Colonel General Zakir Hasanov met with the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk, Trend reports referring to the ministry.

During the meeting, an exchange of views was held on the current situation at the contact line of the troops, the results of the monitoring and the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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By Trend

Large-scale military exercises will be conducted in Azerbaijan under the supervision of the country's minister of defense in the period of March 11-15, Trend reports referring to Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan.

The exercises will be conducted in accordance with the plan approved by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev.

The exercises will involve up to 10,000 military personnel, up to 500 tanks and other armored vehicles, up to 300 missiles and artillery systems of different caliber, multiple launch rocket systems, and mortars, up to 20 army and front-line aviation for various purposes.

In the course of the exercise, troops will fulfill tasks in preparing an offensive operation, striking an imaginary enemy in several directions, breaking through defense and defeating military groups, as well as launching missile and artillery strikes against military and strategic targets located in the enemy's defensive depth.

At the same time, combat firing will be carried out in training centers and combined-arms ranges using new weapons systems, including the practical launch of missiles.

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By Trend

Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector (AGRI) project is expected to be implemented after 2024-2026, Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation, one of the shareholders of AGRI LNG Project Company, told Trend.

"Currently, the shareholders of AGRI LNG Project Company are discussing the issues related to further development and implementation of AGRI project, supposedly after 2024-2026 years when realization of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz Phase 2 and other fields development projects are completed," said the company.

AGRI project envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to the Black Sea coast of Georgia via gas pipelines. Azerbaijani gas delivered to Georgia's Black Sea coast will be liquefied at a special terminal and following this, it will be delivered in tankers to a terminal at the Romanian port of Constanta.

Further, it will be brought to the gaseous state and sent via Romanian gas infrastructure for meeting the demands of Romania and other European countries.

The project is the first of its kind to be developed in the Black Sea, aiming the transport of natural gas from Caspian region to Europe.

The participants of the AGRI project are SOCAR, Georgia's Oil and Gas Corporation, as well as MVM (Hungary) and Romgaz (Romania). The parties established the SC AGRI LNG Project Company SRL with the purpose of developing the Feasibility Study.

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By Trend

A meeting with delegation of Russian Ministry of Economic Development headed by Minister Maxim Oreshkin was held at the Uzbek Ministry of Finance, Trend reports with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Finance.

The meeting discussed the Program of Economic Cooperation between the Uzbek and Russian Governments for 2019-2024, the implementation of which is already yielding results. Active work is underway on 54 projects, in particular in such sectors as agrarian, fuel and energy and engineering.

Moreover, within the framework of agricultural development projects and increasing its export potential, joint optimization of the supply chains of agricultural products is planned through the creation of a network of wholesale distribution centers.

The importance of further development of bilateral relations between states was emphasized.

In connection with the implementation of systemic tax reforms aimed at creating more favorable conditions for both business and population of Uzbekistan, the usefulness of cooperation between Uzbekistan and Russia in terms of technical and advisory assistance was noted.

Another opportunity to develop contacts is to provide expert assistance from Russian Federal Service for State Registration, Cadaster and Cartography specialists to evaluate approaches in organizing work with maintaining and updating the cadaster of land plots and real estate objects, discussing the methodology and results of modeling the value of objects, the need for their refinement and optimization.

Furthermore, Russia's experience in privatization of land and real estate objects is interesting, as well as measures to protect the rights of owners, including in cases of buying land for state and public needs.

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By Trend

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations chief Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed on Friday the recent developments at the Indian-Pakistani border, and the latest situation in Syria over the phone, the Directorate of Communications of the Turkish Presidency said, Trend reports referring to Daily Sabah.

Tensions between Pakistan and India, two nuclear-armed rivals, have soared since a suicide bombing in Kashmir on Feb. 14 by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed militants killed 40 Indian paramilitary troops. India has long accused Pakistan of cultivating such militant groups to attack it. Pakistan has denied any involvement in the suicide attack.

Indian aircraft then crossed into Pakistan last week, carrying out what India called a pre-emptive strike against militants blamed for the bombing. Pakistan retaliated by shooting down an Indian fighter jet last Wednesday and detaining its pilot, who was returned to India last Friday as a peace gesture.

Russian and Turkish forces started patrolling in and around Idlib on March 8 under a deal reached between the two sides last year to establish a buffer zone in the enclave, in efforts to prevent a major offensive by the Assad regime there.

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Imran Khan directed Punjab govt to give Nawaz Sharif access to any hospital

Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the Punjab government to give former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif access to any hospital or doctor of his choice for medical treatment, according to an update shared on Twitter by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Thursday.



As per Chaudhry, the premier has directed the Punjab government to provide the former premier with the best facilities for treatment and called for the recommendations of a medical board that recently examined Sharif to be implemented.



Later, while briefing the media on cabinet decisions made in Islamabad this afternoon, Chaudhry said the direction indicates that the PTI government has no personal enmity with any person, Radio Pakistan reported.



The minister noted that corruption cases against Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari were filed during the tenures of previous governments and incumbent government has nothing to do with these. Nonetheless, the government will not pervert the course of justice or obstruct the work of the National Accountability Bureau to benefit any influential personality, he was quoted as saying by Radio Pakistan.



Separately, Chief Minister Punjabs Spokesperson Dr Shahbaz Gill shared that he had met with the former prime minister on the directives of Prime Minister Khan and Chief Minister Usman Buzdar. While addressing a press conference after the meeting, Gill said that he hoped God would give Nawaz  and everyone in Pakistan who was unwell  good health. He said that politics is one thing, and a persons health another.



Gill noted that when you have had a bypass or if you are diabetic, you need to take medication for life. This is normal procedure, he said. He noted that the medical board which examined Sharif had said that any arterial blockage should be examined with an angiography. While clarifying that he was not saying anything for certain, Gill said that, according to doctors, if there was an angiography they would be able to figure out how to remove any blockage, such as through a stent.



Gill said he had once again assured the former premier that if he wanted to be shifted to any government health facility, he would be. He also offered that Sharif consult with any doctor he wishes to consult with via video link.
Islamabad desires better bilateral relations with New Delhi: Shah Mehmood

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday said Islamabad desires better bilateral relations with New Delhi and wants to de-escalate tensions with the countrys eastern neighbour, Radio Pakistan reported.



FM Qureshi made the statement during his meeting with Pakistans High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood and added that direct contact is necessary to reduce the tension prevailing between the two countries. He further said that the two countries will hold discussion on March 14 in New Delhi. The high commissioner and the foreign minister also exchanged views on Pak-India relations during the meeting.



Sohail Mahmood will depart for New Delhi after the meeting. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday thanked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for timely intervention amid simmering tensions between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India. Briefing the Pak-China Economic Cooperation Conference, Qureshi appreciated the advice offered by Chinese leadership post-Pulwama. China offered mediation and urged for dialogue, he elaborated.



Qureshi said the recent tension between Islamabad and New Delhi is reducing and Pakistan has decided to send back its High Commissioner to New Delhi after consultations. He said Pakistan has increased the diplomatic efforts and Prime Minister Imran Khan was fully committed to conducting countrys foreign policy in honour, dignity, national interest and as per the aspirations of the people of Pakistan.
Pakistan intensified its crackdown against banned outfits

Pakistan intensified its crackdown against banned outfits on Thursday, with the government announcing it had taken control of 182 religious schools and detained more than 100 people.



The interior ministry said law enforcement agencies have placed 121 people in preventive detention as part of the crackdown that began early this week. Provincial governments have taken in their control management and administration of 182 religious seminaries (madaris), the ministry said in a statement. It said institutions from different groups have been taken over, including 34 schools or colleges, 163 dispensaries, 184 ambulances, five hospitals and eight offices of banned organisations. Interior ministry is working closely with the provinces in crackdown on the banned outfits, the statement added.



Many banned groups run seminaries, which counter-terrorism officials say are used as recruiting grounds for militant outfits. Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which operates hospitals and a fleet of ambulances, is estimated to run about 300 madaris across the country. JuD called the crackdown unfair and said it would seek to counter the government action in courts.
Event for experts from academia and industry, including talks, live demo sessions, and panel discussion

Keynote lecture to be held by Bruce Levine, PhD, Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy, University of Pennsylvania

Award ceremony of the Sartorius & Science Prize for Regenerative Medicine & Cell Therapy 2018

GOTTINGEN, Germany and BOHEMIA, USA, March 08, 2019 / B3C newswire / -- Promoting interdisciplinary exchange and fostering potential collaborations between academia and industry on highly promising scientific fields relevant to both scientists and businesses: this is the objective of Sartorius in hosting its third Research Xchange Forum (RXF2019) on April 25, 2019, which will spotlight CAR-T cell therapy. The forum is being organized in collaboration with Science/AAAS. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the worlds largest general scientific society, and the forum will be held at the AAAS headquarters in Washington D.C. Experts from the academic, clinical and biotech sectors will offer insights on novel developments in CAR-T cell therapies.

Guest speakers will include Prof. Bruce Levine (University of Pennsylvania), Rick Morgan, Sr. VP Immunogenetics (Editas Medicine), and others from institutions such as UCLA, Boston University, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Horizon Discovery, Colorado State University, MaSTherCell and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

The Sartorius & Science Prize for Regenerative Medicine & Cell Therapy will be awarded in an invitation only post-event ceremony. Through sponsoring the award, Sartorius and Science/AAAS aim to recognize outstanding research contributions made in the regenerative medicine and cell therapy fields by the next generation of young scientists, the next thought leaders shaping our future as a society. To register free of charge for the RXF2019, please visit our website: https://www.sartorius.com/us-en/company/conferences/rxf-2019

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About Sartorius

The Sartorius Group is a leading international partner of biopharmaceutical research and the industry. With innovative laboratory instruments and consumables, the Groups Lab Products & Services Division concentrates on serving the needs of laboratories performing research and quality control at pharma and biopharma companies and those of academic research institutes. The Bioprocess Solutions Division with its broad product portfolio focusing on single-use solutions helps customers to manufacture biotech medications and vaccines safely and efficiently. The Group has been annually growing by double digits on average and has been regularly expanding its portfolio by acquisitions of complementary technologies. In fiscal 2018, the company earned sales revenue of some 1.6 billion euros according to its preliminary figures. Currently, more than 8,100 people work at the Groups approximately 60 manufacturing and sales sites, serving customers around the globe.

About Science/AAAS

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journals, Science, Science Translational Medicine, Science Signaling, Science Advances, Science Immunology, and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 254 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science, founded by Thomas Edison, has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of more than 400,000.The non-profit AAASwww.aaas.orgis open to all and fulfils its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. Science's daily online news is always free to the public, as are editorials, any paper with broad public health significance, and all research articles 12 months after publication. Science further participates in various efforts to provide free access for scientists in the world's poorest countries.

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Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers late. Low 48F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers late. Low 48F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Punjab govt appointed administrators at JuD

LAHORE: The Punjab government has appointed administrators at the Chowburji head office of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) Jamia Al Qadsia and main centre in Muridke after taking over charge of the premises.



In Lahore, the authorities on Thursday barred JuD chief Hafiz Saeed from leading prayers at the Jamia Masjid Qadsia at Chowburji Chowk and appointed an official administrator there.



Police contingents were dispatched to Jamia Qadsia Masjid to help the administration take its control. Police locked the adjoining head office of the JuD late in the night.



The official said the JuD leaders and other activists present there offered no resistance and rather cooperated with the law enforcement agencies.



He said the JuD leadership in Lahore had also handed over 75 ambulances to police. The ambulances have been handed over to Rescue 1122 with a directive to redesign them and make them permanent part of the emergency service.



Similarly, the official said, security had also been tightened at the Muridke Markaz of the JuD where the government had appointed six administrators, including two female officers, at its various sections.



The official said a woman government schoolteacher had been appointed as administrator at a girls school at the Muridke Markaz, while a doctor had been posted at the hospital. A tehsildar had been appointed as administrator to run the affairs of the entire premises of the JuD Markaz which was housing more than 300 families, he added.



In reply to a question, the senior official said Lahore housed hundreds of mosques under the administration of JuD which would be taken into official control in the coming days in phases. The authorities have seized a JuD seminary in Bajaur tribal district.



According to a statement issued by Deputy Commissioner Usman Mehsoods office, the action was taken following directives by the federal government to take over assets of proscribed organisations.



It stated that madressah Taleemul Islam, situated in Lagagari area of Mamund tehsil, which was being controlled by the JuD was seized by the district administration.



After taking control of the seminary, the administration had appointed Sher Wali Khan, headmaster of Laghari government high school, as in charge of the madressah.



The statement did not specify anything about the arrest of the seminarys teachers and principal. Meanwhile, the district administration took over on Thursday a health care facility run by the Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation, a charity wing of the banned JuD, in Chitral.
Saudi Arabia assured Pakistan of complete support

Saudi Arabia on Thursday assured Pakistan of Kingdoms complete support in seeking peaceful settlement of all outstanding disputes with India, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Office.



Saudi Arabias Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al Jubeir arrived in Islamabad on Thursday on a one-day visit in follow-up to Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salmans two-day visit last month. Conveying sincere wishes of Saudi crown prince to the leadership and people of Pakistan, the visiting dignitary expressed deep appreciation for Islamabads restraint in the existing charged environment with New Delhi. Taking note of Pakistans peace overtures to de-escalate the situation, he assured Islamabad of the Kingdoms support to seek peaceful settlement of all outstanding disputes between Pakistan and India, the FO statement said.



While welcoming Saudi Arabias steadfast support to Pakistan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi hailed the crown princes offer to help resolve the current stand-off between the two neighbours. With regard to the crown princes landmark visit to Pakistan last month, Qureshi appreciated the announcement of release of 2107 Pakistani prisoners, increase in the hajj quota to 200,000 and the Road to Makkah project.



He expressed confidence that the establishment of Pak-Saudi Supreme Coordination Council will help in advancing the bilateral relations in a targeted and time-bound manner.



Later the Saudi Minister called on prime Minister Imran Khan at the PM Office. Recalling the landmark visit of Saudi crown prince to Pakistan, the prime minister expressed the confidence that decisions regarding release of 2107 Pakistani prisoners and increase in hajj quota to 200,000 will be implemented in a smooth and timely manner. He said the Saudi crown prince had won the hearts of the people by his generous offer of supporting the Pakistani community.



Expressing satisfaction over the progress towards medium- and long-term economic and investment cooperation, he hoped that the newly launched Pak-Saudi Supreme Coordination Council will help build a comprehensive, tangible and result-oriented relationship between the two countries.



Conveying sincere wishes of the Saudi crown prince to the leadership and people of Pakistan, Adel Al Jubeir expressed deep appreciation for Islamabads peace overtures to normalize current situation. He acknowledged the role played by Pakistan for regional peace and stability.



The Saudi minister also called on Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the GHQ. The meeting between the two revolved around matters of mutual interest, regional security and [the] current situation between Pakistan and India, according to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).



The statement said the visiting dignitary appreciated Pakistans positive role for regional peace and stability and reaffirmed Kingdoms support to Pakistan. General Bajwa thanked Al-Jubeir for taking on the mantle of peace effort in very difficult circumstances.
Cannon Beach History Event: Buffalo Soldier Connection to Oregon Coast

Published 03/06/2019 at 2:23 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Cannon Beach, Oregon)  A tiny but fascinating corner of Oregon coast history comes to light on March 14 in Cannon Beach, as the local history museum presents a talk on an early African-American trailblazer and his connections to the north Oregon coast. (Above: the Cannon Beach History Museum).

At the close of the Civil War, a Louisiana-born black man named Moses Williams joined the army and began a distinguished military career that lasted 31 years and included some time on the north Oregon coast. Sgt. Williams led troopers of the 9th U.S. Cavalrys Buffalo Soldiers, receiving the armys highest award, the Medal of Honor. From his posting as ordnance sergeant at Fort Stevens on the Oregon coast, Williams petitioned the War Department for the honor of fifteen years after demonstrating what the assistant secretary of war later called most distinguished gallantry in action with hostile Apache Indian in the foothills of the Cuchillo Negro Mountains in August 1881. Williams was posted at Fort Stevens on October 15, 1895 and served for three years.

The talk is given by Portland historian Greg Shine, who recently penned an article on Buffalo soldiers in the Pacific Northwest and their time in Washington and Oregon. His presentation will focus primarily on Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Moses Williams and his connections to Fort Stevens.

(At right: Moses Williams). Shine is best known to north Oregon coast residents for his extensive work in researching the USS Shark, the ship from which the cannon came that eventually got Cannon Beach its name. That carronade is on display at the museum.

In addition to his work in the Oregon/Washington State Office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Greg serves as a lecturer in the History Department at Portland State University and volunteers on the editorial board of the Oregon Encyclopedia and the board of the Friends of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site nonprofit organization. For nearly 30 years, Greg has produced studies, reports, presentations, technical papers, and digital media for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. National Park Service; contributed chapters to books including Exploring Fort Vancouver (UW Press, 2011) and The Civil War Remembered (Eastern National, 2011); edited and co-written books including Revealing Our Past: A History of Nineteenth Century Vancouver Barracks through 25 Objects (National Park Service, 2013).

Shine has also appeared on PBS's History Detectives and OPB's Oregon Experience episodes. Alongside that, hes known for numerous articles for journals and the online Oregon Encyclopedia, including "Respite from War: Buffalo Soldiers at Vancouver Barracks, 1899-1900," for the Oregon Historical Quarterly which he will draw upon for his History Center presentation.

Shine and his family live in Portland but can often be found exploring the Oregon coast - especially Cannon Beach.

This event is free to the public and begins at 1 p.m. Seating for Shines presentation is very limited so youll want to arrive a little early to get a seat, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and peruse the museum before the lecture starts at 4:00 p.m. Doors are closed at 4:15 p.m. 1387 South Spruce Street. 503.436.9301. Lodging in Cannon Beach - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours













Above: Fort Stevens





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When the Shark Bites: Why and How These Attacks Happen on Oregon Coast

Published 03/07/2019 at 5:23 AM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Pacific City, Oregon)  Warnings of a shark cruising the waters of Pacific City are being posted around the north Oregon coast town after a local surfer had an encounter Tuesday. Sign proclaiming the dangers are up near Cape Kiwanda  actually the second time in a little over a year. (Above: Cape Kiwanda).

Pacific City resident Nathan Holstedt was nearly bitten when the shark went for his surfboard, missing the surfers leg by six inches. Holstedt managed to swat the shark with his surfboard and paddled back to shore quickly without injury.

It was a major scare by any stretch of the imagination. Holstedt said he suddenly found himself pulled underwater for a brief period when the creature got hold of his board.

Shark attacks are fairly rare along the Oregon coast, and so far records dont indicate any known death in the states waters because of such an encounter.

How often do these occur? Why? And what does it mean?

It is cause for caution. In this case, not only did signs go up but a state parks ranger is now posted to the beach access to explain the situation. In fact, back in November of 2017, a series of shark sightings resulted in signs being posted to beware. State officials did not actually urge people to keep out of the water, however.

State officials are not necessarily telling people to stay out now, either.

The frequency of shark attacks seems to average every two to three years, and always involves a surfer or someone on a body board. The reigning theory about these situations is that they are a case of mistaken identity, according Jim Burke, director of animal husbandry at Oregon Coast Aquarium.

Theres clusters Burke said. Weve had a few years where weve seen them three years in a row. Weve had give or take 25 incidents in the last 45 years. Almost entirely surfing or entirely surfing. And theyre always accidental bites.

Indeed, public information on shark attacks along the Oregon coast backs that up: most records indicate 28 attacks since 1975 and none of them fatal.

Sharks chomp down on a lot of seals and sea lions, and in the water its difficult for a shark to tell the difference between seal and surfer. The blackish wet suits dont help, either.

Surfers have a similar silhouette when seen from down below, Burke said. Its a case of misidentification. Theyre not necessarily targeting a person.



A strange and surprising bit of shark science is how it tests its prey  an odd kind of sixth sense it uses when approaching something its hunting.

According to Dr. Bill Hanshumaker, with the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, sharks have an unusual set of sensing organs called the ampullae of Lorenzini, a grouping of pores in its snout. Its difficult to say if this plays a major part in the sharks decision to stop biting a human or surfboard if it realizes this is not prey.

Part of the sharks offensive weapons are these pores in the nose of the shark, Hanshumaker said. It closes its eyes and then relies on an electrical field detection by the ampullae of Lorenzini for close identification. So if a shark misidentifies something  especially around here, for some reason - the shark bites it and lets go. Part of the reason they do that is to lacerate the animal to see if it will bleed out, so they wont get hurt. I dont know if it has anything to do with prey identification, but its advantageous to not have an animal hurt by its prey.

What kind of shark tried to chomp on Holstedt is unknown. Great whites are about the only kind of shark found along the Oregon coast known to try and bite humans, but theyre not especially plentiful. Other sharks common to the Oregon coast: the Thresher shark, Pacific Sleeper, Blue shark, Short Fin Mako and the Soupfin.

Most sharks on the Oregon coast are seen after they wash up on the beaches: photos of such incidents below, courtesy Seaside Aquarium.

















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A Beaumont doctor who performed more than 30,000 eye operations, including one that restored a blind mans vision and led to a lifelong friendship, has died after being struck by a car in downtown Houston.

Dr. Richard Tony Levacy, known in Beaumont for his 30-year career as an ophthalmologist, had attended a play on Wednesday at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts with his family. After being struck by the car, he was transported to a hospital, where he later died.

Levacys family released a brief statement about the incident, which occurred while was was crossing a street.

The Houston Police responded quickly and appropriately and are handling the ongoing investigation of the accident, the family said. For that reason, we will not comment further and ask for privacy.

Levacy is survived by his wife, five children and eight granddaughters.

Sandra Melton, chief financial officer of Eye Centers of Southeast Texas, said she is going to deeply miss the man who hired her some 25 years ago.

Melton said she was looking for a new job after her former employer, IBM, decided to leave Beaumont, when she was introduced to Levacy. At their first meeting, she said, she stood up out of respect but was met with a stern look from a man obviously shorter than her.

He fixed me with this look and said, Shes too tall, Melton said. Eventually, he started laughing and I realized he was joking. I said, This is a unique personality, and it was true.

Levacy performed an estimated 30,000 eye surgeries and saw more than 200,000 patients during his career, Melton said.

He began his practice in 1978 after graduating from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and completed his residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Dr. Kevin Harmon joined his practice in 1993, and the pair formed Levacy & Harmon Eye Center in 1995. In 1998, they partnered with Beaumont Eye Associates and eventually became Eye Centers of Southeast Texas.

Levacy had also beaten a cancer diagnosis while continuing to treat patients. Melton said he had been given an clear diagnosis early last year.

The doctor was also known for the people he helped through the years, a legacy of changed lives for those who needed it most.

Ricky Jason, community activist and filmmaker, said he had taken to calling Levacy Daddy because of the role he played in his life.

When Jason was 11, he said he began to have eyesight issues that prompted his mom to take him to several specialists. A diagnosis was never reached, and eventually Jason lost all vision.

One day, I just couldnt see, Jason said. But, I remember when they contacted Dr. Levacy. He told my momma, Im not going to let him go blind. She was shocked.

Jason said his family didnt have insurance and he couldnt imagine being able to pay for a cure even if he got the right diagnosis. He said he consigned himself to a future of being blind, and was mostly worried about being a burden to his mother.

Thats when Levacy stepped in. A cornea transplant from a cadaver was cutting-edge technology in the 70s when Jason was going through his illness, but Levacy performed the surgery without cost. When Jason had to have an extended stay in the hospital to recover, he said, Levacy paid for that as well.

He gave me my life back, and I didnt realize how precious that was, Jason said. I thought it was over for me. My mother raised me by herself and I didnt want to be a burden.

After the surgery, Levacy continued to check in with Jason. He said the doctor encouraged him to make a future for himself and make the most out of the gift he had been given. When Jason started receiving awards for his documentary on the murder of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Levacy was there to congratulate him on his success.

Its been a hard time, Jason said. I had to go there yesterday to pick up some new lenses, and I couldnt get myself to walk through the door. I couldnt hold myself together.

No funeral or memorial details were available as of late Thursday.

jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com

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Tensions rose Thursday night as the family of a 35-year-old man killed in a Port Arthur officer-involved shooting in late December viewed body cam footage of the shooting for a second time.

Shayne Lyons family arrived at the police station Thursday evening thinking all their questions, such as the name of the officer involved in the shooting that killed Lyons, would be answered.

Andre Molo, Lyons brother, brought his questions in a well-worn spiral notebook. But he and his wife left about 30 minutes after they went into the police station, both visibly upset, saying they werent getting answers.

The rest of the family  including Harold Molo, Lyons uncle who drove from Louisiana to view the video for the first time Thursday  stayed with police for some 20 minutes after Andre Molo left. But they werent given any more information.

Lyons was killed after he refused to drop a large weapon and advanced on an officer despite being told several times to drop the weapon, police said at the time.

But the family began to dispute those details after watching the body cam footage Wednesday and Thursday.

Andre Molo said he didnt see his brother advance at the officer with the machete he was carrying. Instead, he questions why the officer didnt call for backup, why he got out of the car with his gun drawn and why he shot Lyons eight times, among other questions.

Paula Singleton, Lyons mother, said she hopes to get her answers  such as the name of the officer involved and how he feels about the situation  Friday.

Regardless, the family seems poised to take further action.

Harold Molo wouldnt give any details about whats to come but said it would become clear in the next few days.

This was wrong, he said. He didnt have to kill my nephew. Justice will prevail.

Earlier this week, the family postponed a protest planned for Thursday after Port Arthur police told them they would be allowed to view the body cam footage from the shooting.

Several members of the family emphasized that it wasnt canceled, but was put on hold until they determined what to do next.

Andre Molo noted the support hes received from the community, from people saying they were planning to attend the protest to using the hashtag #Justice4Shayne, has made the situation easier to bear.

The Port Arthur Police Department investigation into the incident is ongoing.

A Jefferson County grand jury declined to take action against the officer late last month.

However, these two investigations could have different outcomes.

Generally speaking, a criminal indictment determines whether someone will face criminal charges for an incident, while an administrative investigation by a police department determines whether certain procedures, such as when force can be used, were followed correctly.

During a grand jury hearing a group of 12 jurors determine if theres enough evidence to bring a case to trial. They apply the same set of standards for a police officer as they would for any other resident, Jefferson County Assistant District Attorney Cory Kneeland said.

When looking at whether its likely a prosecutor could prove a shooting was justified, the grand jury examines the threat of death or serious bodily injury that any reasonable person would perceive, among other considerations.

Kneeland said the public doesnt know all the facts in Lyons case and hes supportive of the grand jurys decision. He said he didnt give the grand jury a recommendation of what to do in the case.

They chose methodically, logically and unemotionally, he said.

Its during an administrative review of an officer-involved shooting by the police department that details about the officer, including their age, level of training and experience will likely be taken into account, according to best practices put forth by the U.S. Department of Justice and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

There could be administrative training issues, but were almost all citizens with the same rights, Kneeland said, speaking generally.

Port Arthur are expected to release the body cam footage Friday morning to people who submitted a public information request for it.

kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/KaitlinBain
Christus Southeast Texas Orthopedic Speciality Center and Beaumont Bone and Joint Institute have recruited Dr. Stephen Todd Jones to the orthopedic surgery staff. Jones graduated from the University of Texas Health Science Center in 2012 and completed his residency in 2017 at the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center. He completed a fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in 2018.

Workforce Solutions Southeast Texas honored the following: KAT Excavation and Construction, 2018 Outstanding Local Employer of Excellence award; Allied Universal, Large Employer of the Year; U.S. Security Associates, Veteran-Friendly Employer of the Year; Lamar University, Vocational Rehabilitation Employer of the Year; and Kids Harbor Learning Center, Childcare Provider of the Year. Sue Daniels chairs the Southeast Texas Workforce Development Board and Marilyn Smith is executive director.
THE EUROPEAN Union is set to remove Ghana from the dirty money list.



This follows EU member states rejection of the proposal by the EU Executive Commission to blacklist Ghana and other 22 countries.



Ghana had already expressed regrets about its inclusion on the dirty money list, describing the decision as regrettable.



The Finance Ministry had maintained that the decision of the EC to add Ghana to its list of countries defaulting in the anti-money laundering and the financing of terrorism framework, was unfair.



The ministry had observed that Ghanas commitment to enforcing the anti-money laundering and the countering of financing terrorism framework has been acknowledged by the global standard regulatory body, the Financial Action Task Force [FATF]



The EC had argued that the countries were placed on the blacklist for having strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing frameworks.



But in rejecting the proposal, EU member states said in a statement issued on Thursday, March 7, 2019, that the proposal was not established in a transparent and resilient process.



Also included on the list were nations such as Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Nigeria, and four U.S. overseas territories.



The list is used to increase checks and investigations on financial transactions from those countries and territories to find suspicious money flows.



With the rejection, DGN Online understands that the EU Commission will now have to set up a new list and take the concerns of the member states into consideration.



Some newcomers to the list are Nigeria, Libya, Botswana, Samoa, the Bahamas and the four United States territories of American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam.



The other listed states are Afghanistan, North Korea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and Yemen.







Source: Daily Guide









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Columbus-based The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Ohio State College of Medicine plan to hire 350 clinicians and 150 researchers as the university develops multiple facilities, Columbus Business First reports.

1. Wexner Medical Center has already asked 50 new faculty members to join the research program.

2. The recruitment process is expected to continue through 2023.

3. Wexner Medical Center is building a new hospital tower, as well as an ambulatory center that will provide outpatient surgery, urgent care, diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology.
Physician preference items can pose a challenge for ASCs. Here are three things to know about them:

1. They can represent a large portion of a surgery center's supply chain budget. PPIs often account for over 60 percent of supply chain costs, although sometimes it can be much more.

"Physicians are trying to work with these specific items and don't want to move. At BroadJump, we've found price variances [of] up to 442 percent for PPIs, making this a challenging area when it comes to controlling costs," said Ann Castro, BroadJump's vice president of non-acute sales. Instead of asking the physician to switch products, the ASC should identify where the variation is and focus on how to fix it. An easy way to do this is by using a comparative analytics tool and [using] their positioning in the market to pay a more realistic price for these products."

2. Challenges can be tackled through case costing. PPIs can present unique challenges for ophthalmology and orthopedic procedures.

"Our biggest pain point has been taking years of inventory buildup and establishing appropriate par-levels based on schedule and need," said Ashley Verbitsky, executive director of Langhorne, Pa.-based The Ambulatory Surgery Center at St. Mary's. "We also deal with many duplicitous supplies and equipment in our multispecialty, physician-owned center, as our early years were spent catering to individual physician interests. Establishing parameters for case costing and providing feedback on variations between surgeons for the same procedure is on the docket for the coming months."

3. Some items are worth the cost. Certain items are "must-haves" because they make physicians' jobs easier.

"My physicians are tried and true and have decades of experience. They know what they want, and I explain to all representatives that if you want my doctors to want your product, you will have to appeal to their preferences," said Beverly Bryant, RN, administrator and director of Yuma (Ariz.) Endoscopy Center. "My physicians feel that certain items are worth the increased cost because it improves ease of their job, and in turn, maintains patient safety."
The following hospital and health system credit rating and outlook changes or affirmations occurred in the last week, beginning with the most recent:

1. S&P downgrades Northern Arizona Healthcare System's rating from 'AA' to 'AA-'

S&P Global Ratings lowered its long-term rating for Flagstaff-based Northern Arizona Healthcare System from "AA" to "AA-."

2. Moody's affirms Rush University Medical Center's 'A1' rating

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A1" long-term underlying rating for Chicago-based Rush University Medical Center, affecting $466 million of rated debt.

3. Moody's affirms 'Baa2' rating for Jupiter Medical Center

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Baa2" rating for Jupiter (Fla.) Medical Center, affecting $38 million of outstanding debt.

4. Moody's affirms 'Baa3' rating for OU Medicine

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Baa3" rating for Oklahoma City-based OU Medicine, affecting $1.2 billion of debt.

5. Moody's affirms 'A3' rating for Tampa General Hospital

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A3" rating for Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital, affecting $155 million of debt.

6. Fitch assigns 'AA-' issuer default rating to Cedars Sinai Medical Center

Fitch Ratings assigned an "AA-" issuer default rating to Los Angeles-based Cedars Sinai Medical Center and affirmed its "AA-" revenue bond rating.

7. Moody's assigns 'Aa3' rating to Wellspan Health, upgrades Summit Health to 'Aa3'

Moody's Investors Service assigned an "Aa3" rating to York, Pa.-based WellSpan Health and upgraded Chambersburg, Pa.-based Summit Health's rating from "A2" to "Aa3" after Summit formally became part of WellSpan.

8. Moody's affirms 'A3' rating for Spectrum Health

Moody's Investors Service has affirmed its "Aa3," "Aa3/VMIG 1" and "Aa3/P-1" ratings for Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Spectrum Health.

9. Moody's affirms 'A2' rating for WellStar Health System

Moody's Investors Service has affirmed its "A2" long-term senior revenue rating for Marietta, Ga.-based WellStar Health System, affecting $872 million of rated debt.

10. Moody's downgrades Baxter Regional Medical Center to 'Baa3'

Moody's Investors Service downgraded its rating for Mountain Home, Ark.-based Baxter Regional Medical Center from "Baa2" to "Baa3," affecting $43.7 million of rated debt.

11. Moody's affirms 'A3' rating for Anne Arundel Health System

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A3" rating for Annapolis, Md.-based Anne Arundel Health System, affecting $301 million of debt.

12. S&P revises MidMichigan Health outlook to stable

S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook for Midland-based MidMichigan Health from positive to stable.

13. S&P affirms 'BBB-' rating for Trinitas Regional Medical Center

S&P Global Ratings affirmed its "BBB-" rating for Elizabeth, N.J.-based Trinitas Regional Medical Center.

14. S&P revises outlook for Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County to negative

S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook for Rock Springs, Wyo.-based Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County from stable to negative.

15. Moody's affirms 'MIG 2' rating for Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "MIG 2" short-term rating for McComb-based Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, affecting $18.6 million of hospital revenue notes that mature June 1.

16. Moody's upgrades Community Hospitals of Central California rating to 'A3'

Moody's Investors Service has upgraded its rating for Community Hospitals of Central California from "Baa1" to "A3," affecting $507 million of rated debt.
The board that oversees River Valley Medical Center in Dardanelle, Ark., has asked a federal judge to appoint a receiver to take over operation of the hospital, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

River Valley Medical Center, a critical access hospital operated by Shreveport, La.-based Allegiance Health Management, is in "an operational and financial crisis  one that is putting hospital patients at risk," according to an emergency motion the board filed March 5.

The hospital lacks basic supplies and no longer has a functioning laboratory, and vendors are repossessing lifesaving equipment, according to the court filing.

In addition to seeking a receiver to take over operation of River Valley Medical Center, the board is requesting the court resolve a dispute over the lease agreement between Allegiance and the hospital. The board claims the lease has been terminated, but Allegiance disagrees.

More articles on healthcare finance:

Alabama hospital to close March 8

Top HCA execs see boost in pay as profit grows

FAIR Health outlines potential solutions to surprise billing problem
Legislation to end surprise billing failed in the Georgia House on March 7, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Five things to know:

1. House Bill 84, sponsored by state Rep. Richard Smith, R-Columbus, aimed to address situations where an insured patient visits an in-network hospital and then receives an unexpected bill from an out-of-network provider.

2. It would have required medical providers, if asked, to give patients information about which physicians involved in their impending nonemergency hospital procedure are in network, according to the report.

3. Although House Bill 84 failed, another surprise-billing measure, Senate Bill 56, is still up for consideration by lawmakers.

4. The Senate bill, sponsored by state Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, primarily focuses on emergency room bills. It would require insurers to pay out-of-network providers using a formula that includes a benchmarking database from nonprofit organization FAIR Health. However, insurance companies argue that those prices they would have to pay are too high, the Journal reports.



5. The state House will now consider the Senate bill.





More articles on healthcare finance:





Stanford Health Care CFO Linda Hoff on standardizing care to contain costs

Pennsylvania rural hospitals to experiment with new payment model

#WheresThePrice aims to keep hospitals honest on transparency
The MCE for Ayawaso West Municipal Assembly, Hon. Sandra Owusu-Ahinkorah is currently attending the Women Economic Forum in Amsterdam as part of the International Womens Day 2019 Celebrations.



The forum arm of the global network ALL Ladies League (ALL), the Women Economic Forum (WEF) is an multinational forum platform enabling women and leaders from all walks of life worldwide to expand business opportunities and enhance personal influence through networking across borders while being inspired by some of the worlds most successful entrepreneurs, authors, thought leaders and celebrities.



The Women Economic Forum is also an international forum platform enabling global connections for empowering womens entrepreneurship and leadership.



Hon. Sandra Owusu-Ahinkorah is a guest speaker along side H.E Laura Chinchilla Miranda, President , Costa Rica (2010-2014), Ingrid Van Engelshoven, Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Netherlands, Hajia Salman Mohammed Sani Adams Kuta MCE of Ayawaso East Municipal Assembly, Ghana, Sharon Callix Founder of making money using social media, UK, Kia Monique Jones Founder & CEO for Brown Girls Inc, USA among many others.



Hon. Sandra Owusu-Ahinkorah received a special award after her excellent address on the Topic: Empowering The Social Good: Vibrant Civil Societies.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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A joint committee has recommended a sales tax to help Hiawatha (Kan.) Community Hospital, according to a Hiawatha World report.

The committee, which includes representatives of the city of Hiawatha, the city of Horton, Brown County and the hospital board, voted March 4 to approve the hospital's proposal for a half-cent countywide sales tax for 10 years.

The hospital also is requesting a $2 million bond to help it meet short-term cash needs, said John Broberg, interim CEO of the hospital.

He told Becker's the sales tax will be used to pay off the bond, and the remaining sales tax money would go to the hospital to help with operations.

County officials still must OK the hospital's proposal, and registered voters would need to approve the sales tax initiative in a special election.

More articles on healthcare finance:

Genesis HealthCare posts $6.9M net loss for 2018

Colorado hospital 'bed tax' is legal, court rules

RCM tip of the day: 3 strategies for building a patient-financing program
The Texas Medical Association has come out against proposed legislation designed to end surprise emergency room billing for most state residents with health insurance coverage, according to a Houston Chronicle report.

The association, which represents about 53,000 physicians, is urging state lawmakers to "hold health insurers accountable for the products they sell to Texans," the report says, citing a flyer the association is taking to lawmakers' offices.



At issue is legislation introduced Feb. 28 by Kelly Hancock, R-Fort Worth, in the state Senate and Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, in the state House.



The legislation is meant to protect patients from high, unexpected bills after receiving care from an out-of-network provider at an in-network facility.



It would leave patients out of the middle of disputes between the service provider and insurer, and it leave it up to the service provider and insurer to seek mediation, Mr. Hancock said in a news release. It would also ban providers from billing people insured through state-regulated health plans for services received at an in-network facility above their out-of-pocket expenses as defined under the insurance coverage. The medical association placed the blame for surprise ER bills on insurers who they say severely limit networks, underpay physicians and choose to deny claims submitted appropriately, according to the report.



The association said the proposed legislation would allow insurers to "determine unilaterally what they pay for care provided out of network" and "skirt responsibility for the products they sell."



Mr. Hancock said in a statement obtained by the Chronicle: "It's a shame the association chose to take a staunch position against patient protections instead of working with us on the bill."



While the association opposes the legislation introduced by Mr. Hancock and Mr. Martinez Fischer, it said it does support two companion bills filed this session, HB 2967 in the House and SB 1591 in the Senate, that "remove the patient from these difficult situations but also hold insurers accountable for the products they sell."

More articles on healthcare finance:





Stanford Health Care CFO Linda Hoff on standardizing care to contain costs

Pennsylvania rural hospitals to experiment with new payment model

#WheresThePrice aims to keep hospitals honest on transparency
Nine recent health IT vendor contracts and go-lives:

1. Attleboro, Mass.-based Sturdy Memorial Hospital signed a seven-year agreement to transition to Cerner's EHR.

2. New Albany, Ind.-based PMC Regional Hospital installed a Meditech EHR system Feb. 25.

3. Chicago-based Saint Anthony Hospital added to its contract with Allscripts, signing a Paragon EHR expansion and integrating more solutions.

4. The Kentucky Hospital Association and Kentucky Office of Rural Health have teamed up with software company Collective Medical to develop a statewide hospital data-sharing network.

5. Arise Austin (Texas) Medical Center and The Hospital at Westlake Medical Center in Austin will implement Allscripts' EHR.

6. Brewton, Ala.-based Escambia County Healthcare Authority's two hospitals will install the Cerner Millennium EHR.

7. Birmingham-based Children's of Alabama hospital will integrate digital health developer Locus Health's telehealth platform for remote monitoring of pediatric cardiology patients.

8. St. Augustine, Fla.-based Flagler Hospital will open three telehealth sites at Publix pharmacies in St. Johns County, Fla.

9. University of Virginia Health System's Children's Hospital in Charlottesville created an app with Locus Health, a digital health developer, to enhance patient follow-up care.
Thirteen recent updates on major health IT and technology companies:

1. Electronic health records company Epic Systems confirmed a report from CNBC that it paused new enrollment in its app store in December due to security and privacy concerns.

2. Fitbit rode the fitness tracker wave up  and when smartwatches came out  back down, but its CEO James Park is now is now optimistic its smartwatch and healthcare business will buoy future growth.

3. Fitbit unveiled three activity trackers and a new edition of its smartwatch at a lower price.

4. Google shared a finding March 4 from its annual study on pay equity: Men who are Level 4 software engineers were paid less than women in the same job category.

5. IBM's X-Force Red, a team of security experts, has released a new blockchain testing service aimed at identifying weaknesses and strengthening blockchain security.

6. Alphabet's cybersecurity division, Chronicle, formerly Google X, released details on its first security data platform.

7. With the release of its latest Apple Watch, Apple touted features that detect if wearers have atrial fibrillation, but some cardiologists are questioning the feature's effectiveness and potential for harm.

8. The National Federation of the Blind refiled a complaint against EHR vendor Epic.

9. Microsoft plans to shut down support May 31 for its Health Dashboard applications and services, including those for the wearable device Microsoft Band.

10. Solve.Care, a blockchain-focused startup, is teaming up with Lyft to give its users better access to healthcare.

11. Online retail giant Amazon continues its push into healthcare with a $2 million investment in Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to test artificial intelligence.

12. Digital health company Livongo Health unveiled its new Amazon voice-enabled blood pressure monitoring system.

13. Fitbit shares dropped 12 percent Feb. 27 as the company struggles to compete with Apple's smartwatch.
The following hospital lawsuits were reported in the past month, beginning with the most recent.

1. Insurer off the hook for California hospital's $42M false claims settlement

A district court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Los Angeles-based Pacific Alliance Medical Center against its insurer for refusing to cover the hospital's $42 million False Claims Act settlement and costs related to a federal investigation.

2. HCA accused of billing fraud: 3 things to know

A former nurse at Regional Medical Center in San Jose, Calif., filed a federal lawsuit alleging the hospital and its owner, Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, submitted false claims to Medicare.

3. Texas hospital owner convicted in $20M healthcare fraud scheme

A federal jury convicted a physician and the owner of a Houston hospital of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, 17 counts of healthcare fraud and three counts of money laundering.

4. Arizona hospital fires back at physician staffing company with lawsuit

Santa Cruz Valley Regional Hospital in Green Valley, Ariz., filed a counterclaim against Global Hospitalist Solutions after the Memphis, Tenn.-based physician staffing company sued the hospital for more than $1.9 million.

5. UPMC sues Pennsylvania AG, says state can't interfere in Highmark dispute

Pittsburgh-based UPMC claimed Pennsylvania's attempt to compel the health system to work with rival Highmark after a state-brokered agreement expires is an overstep of authority.

6. Physicians accepted $40M in kickbacks from Texas hospital, feds say

The federal trial for 10 defendants, including four surgeons and a pain physician, accused of participating in a $200 million healthcare fraud scheme kicked off in late February.

7. Intermountain: Whistle-blower provisions of False Claims Act are unconstitutional

Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare argues the False Claims Act's whistle-blower provisions are unconstitutional in a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case.

8. Bank sues Tennessee hospital for $2M

A local bank is suing Lauderdale Community Hospital in Ripley, Tenn., to recoup loan payments.

9. Nurses sue CHI over on-call pay: 4 things to know

Seven current and former nurses at CHI Health St. Elizabeth in Lincoln, Neb., filed a federal lawsuit against the hospital's parent company, Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives.

10. Prime Healthcare, CEO settle billing fraud allegations

Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare Services and its founder and CEO Prem Reddy, MD, agreed to pay the federal government $1.25 million to settle false claims allegations.

11. California hospital system underpaid by Blue Shield for ER services, jury finds

Fairfield, Calif.-based NorthBay Healthcare may recover $16 million-plus from Blue Shield of California after a federal jury in San Francisco found the health insurer underpaid the hospital system for emergency care.

12. New York hospital retaliated against 2 physicians for reporting dangerous care, lawsuits claim

Two physicians filed lawsuits against Auburn (N.Y.) Community Hospital, alleging the hospital retaliated against them for raising concerns about another physician's dangerous conduct.

13. Florida hospital owes $35K for supplies, lawsuit contends

A lawsuit filed against a Florida hospital claims that the facility's owner has not paid invoices dating to 2017 and owes more than $35,000 for medical supplies.

14. Pennsylvania hospital accused of firing technician in cancer treatment

The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia faces allegations that it fired an anesthesiology technician who asked for extended medical leave during breast cancer treatment.

15. Pennsylvania attorney general takes legal action against UPMC over patient access

The Pennsylvania Attorney General's office filed a petition against UPMC, arguing the Pittsburgh-based health system is not in compliance with the state's Public Charity law.

16. Georgia hospital enters $5M settlement with feds to resolve false claims case

Union General Hospital in Blairsville, Ga., agreed to pay $5 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act and Stark Law.

17. Woman awarded $1M in discrimination lawsuit against California hospital

A jury awarded a former employee of Camarillo, Calif.-based St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital $1.03 million in a discrimination lawsuit.

More articles on legal and regulatory issues:

Anthem accused of sending massive checks to patients to force providers in network

Former Mayo Clinic employee faces 10 felony charges for alleged theft

Vanguard Healthcare will pay $18M to resolve billing fraud lawsuit
From the American Medical Association suing the Trump administration to a federal judge ousting the operator of an Oklahoma hospital, here are the latest healthcare industry lawsuits making headlines.

1. Oklahoma hospital owner forced to turn over operations

A federal judge ruled that the owner of Prague (Okla.) Community Hospital must allow another company to take over management of the facility.

2. Former UPMC employee pleads guilty to criminal HIPAA violation

A former patient information coordinator at Pittsburgh-based UPMC pleaded guilty to wrongfully disclosing a person's protected health information.

3. Blind advocacy group sues Epic, again

The National Federation of the Blind refiled a complaint against EHR vendor Epic. The organization previously claimed the company's software isn't suitable for blind and low-vision users.

4. Payroll employee charged with stealing $550K from NY hospitals

A man who worked in the payroll departments of two New York City hospitals allegedly stole more than $550,000 from the hospitals over a three-year period.

5. Insurer off the hook for California hospital's $42M false claims settlement

A district court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Los Angeles-based Pacific Alliance Medical Center against its insurer for refusing to cover the hospital's $42 million False Claims Act settlement and costs related to a federal investigation.

6. Oklahoma hospital operator ousted over 'immediate threat' to patient safety

In a ruling issued Feb. 27, a district judge in Oklahoma determined Fairfax (Okla.) Community Hospital's financial troubles pose a threat to patient safety.

7. Anthem accused of sending massive checks to patients to force providers in network

San Clemente, Calif.-based Sovereign Health is suing Anthem and its Blue Cross entities for sending more than $1.3 million in payments to patients that is allegedly owed to facilities that treated them.

8. Ohio physician accused of fatal medication orders is immune from civil suits, lawyer claims

A lawyer for William Husel, DO, the former Columbus, Ohio-based Mount Carmel Health System physician accused of ordering potentially fatal painkiller doses for 35 near-death patients, said he is "immune from civil litigation" under state law.

9. AMA sues Trump administration over abortion referral rule

The American Medical Association filed a lawsuit that seeks to block a final rule issued by the Trump administration to prohibit taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from providing referrals for abortion.

More articles on legal and regulatory issues:

CVS-Aetna merger is bad for Medicare patients, AMA says

Update to Stark Law coming later this year, CMS chief says

Former Mayo Clinic employee faces 10 felony charges for alleged theft
A former patient information coordinator at Pittsburgh-based UPMC has pleaded guilty to wrongfully disclosing a person's protected health information, according to the Department of Justice.

Linda Sue Kalina worked at UPMC and its affiliate, Tri Rivers Musculoskeletal Centers in Mars, Pa., from March 7, 2016, through June 23, 2017. During that time, she violated HIPAA by improperly accessing the health information of 111 UPMC patients, according to federal prosecutors.

In August 2017, Ms. Kalina disclosed two patients' gynecological health information. By disclosing the information, she intended to embarrass those patients and cause them mental distress, according to the Justice Department.

Ms. Kalina is scheduled to be sentenced June 25. She faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

More articles on legal and regulatory issues:

Payroll employee charged with stealing $550K from NY hospitals

Insurer off the hook for California hospital's $42M false claims settlement

Former Mayo Clinic employee faces 10 felony charges for alleged theft
A birthing center owned by Prisma Health, the health system formed through the combination of Columbia, S.C.-based Palmetto Health and Greenville (S.C.) Health System, is stopping births due to financial pressures, according to the Greenville News.

Greenville Midwifery Care and Birth Center said in a Facebook post it would soon halt deliveries and transition all births to Greenville Memorial Hospital, also owned by Prisma.



"Please know this is purely a financial decision with some circumstances out of our control," the original post read, as cited by the Greenville News. "It is not a result of poor quality or poor outcomes."



Kacey Eichelberger, MD, vice chair of academics with the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Prisma, told the publication in a statement that "payer reimbursement limitations" led to the change.



More articles on patient flow:

20 people to lose jobs as hurricane-wrecked hospital won't resume baby deliveries

Hawaii ambulance breaks down on way to call; patient dies at scene

Patient shoots physician at Florida hospital, authorities say
Humana CEO Bruce Broussard made 231 times what an average employee at the health insurer did in 2018, according to a recent proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The median compensation for Humana employees was $70,498, compared to Mr. Broussard's $16.3 million. Humana has 41,600 employees.

Under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, businesses are required to disclose CEO pay ratios in regulatory filings for fiscal years starting on or after Jan. 1, 2017.

In 2018, the health insurer raised the minimum hourly wage for its U.S. employees to $15.



More articles on payers:

5 must-reads on payer-provider relationships

8 recent lawsuits involving payers

State of the payer market: the growing need for infrastructure and operations


Anthem doesn't plan to acquire a large amount of physicians like rival health insurer UnitedHealth Group, according to Forbes contributor Bruce Japsen.

During an annual investor day presentation March 7, Anthem CEO Gail Boudreaux said, "The bottom line: We don't have to own care provider practices, but we can enable our partnerships to define, create and deliver value."



Anthem has acquired some physician practices in Florida under its America's 1st Choice deal. At the same time, UnitedHealth's Optum arm has steadily been adding providers to its ranks, and has about 32,000 employed or aligned physicians. However, Anthem is leaning toward partnering with physicians and clinics instead of acquiring them, according to Mr. Japsen.



"We are partnering with our providers," Prakash Patel, MD, executive vice president and president of Anthem's diversified business group, said during the presentation, as quoted by Forbes. Dr. Patel added that Anthem wants to help physicians better manage patients' care.



For the full Forbes article, click here.



Listen to the annual investor day presentation here.



More articles on payers:

5 must-reads on payer-provider relationships

8 recent lawsuits involving payers

State of the payer market: the growing need for infrastructure and operations


Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings has bemoaned the deteriorating state of Ghanas sanitation, noting that it breaks her heart. According to Mrs. Rawlings, she has lived the most part of her life in the Ridge area of Accra and that what she has observed over the years with respect to sanitation is not pleasing at all.



Speaking on TV3s New Day, the former first lady, who recently launched her book It takes a Woman, did not seem enthused about the situation. She answered in the affirmative when host Johnnie Hughes asked whether the situation breaks her heart. I have lived in Ridge since I was like 7 years. I have seen the way it used to be. I have used how it has been and I have seen the deterioration and its sad, she said.



The wife of Ghanas longest-serving head of state cited an example of a clinic she said is close to her office. She claims the clinic dumps its refuse across the street and she is contemplating writing to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) about it.



The conversation about Ghanas sanitation was triggered by a chapter in her book which she titles Ghana Rising. In the said chapter, she makes an allusion to a time in Ghanas history where our mothers, like other Ghanaians, saw the filth and hated it but only hoped someone or something happened to change the situation.



She believes sanitation is a problem in Ghana and that it is not just enough for the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to talk about Accra becoming the cleanest city. She believes it is possible for Accra to attain that feat but that there should be actions accompanying the talk.



She observes that even though there is a minister in-charge of sanitation, more needs to be done to achieve the dream of Accra becoming the cleanest city.



It can be done, but it has to be done with all the forcefulness it deserves, with education. While were educating and there is force from the ministry and the rest of us, we should let the populace know you cant just throw paper where you want, she said.



Watch full interview here:

Source: 3news.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Angela McGowan is director of the CBI here

The head of the CBI in Northern Ireland has said the province's economy is suffering daily damage with growth at a near standstill due to the continuing uncertainty over Brexit.

Angela McGowan urged MPs to back a deal instead of holding out for the unachievable.

The CBI regional director said businesses were getting on with the day job but the "spectre of no deal" was holding them back from investment.

She also insisted that last-minute deal-making would not help the economy.

"A no-deal (exit) would unleash a minefield of consequences on the local economy that cannot be circumvented by mini-deals and last-minute horse-trading," she said.

"Holding out for unicorns will guarantee no deal. Only backing a deal will take business uncertainty off boiling point.

"MPs must put jobs and the UK's economic wellbeing before dogma and finally agree a way forward.

"Get behind the Prime Minister's deal, but if you can't, then get behind something else fast to protect communities and living standards."

The CBI also highlighted the results of a UK survey of 273 services, manufacturing and distribution firms. It said nearly 60% of them face rising costs and over 40% are stockpiling goods.
Northern Ireland will be "in the eye of the storm" if the UK leaves the EU without a deal on March 29, it has been claimed (stock photo)

Northern Ireland will be "in the eye of the storm" if the UK leaves the EU without a deal on March 29, it has been claimed.

Niall Harkin, chairman of the Chartered Accountants Ulster Society (CAUS), said he found it difficult to believe the UK had still not struck a withdrawal agreement and was still in danger of a hard Brexit and a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The accountancy expert also warned that Northern Ireland's lack of government was hampering the region at a critical time and described every day of delay as a "step backwards".

"Our members feel that if the UK crashes out without a deal, Northern Ireland will be in the eye of the storm," Mr Harkin told the CAUS annual dinner last night.

"In the Brexit debate it seems that too little thought has been given to what business and industry need if we are to create jobs, grow our economy and ensure future prosperity for all in Northern Ireland."

Among the CAUS's main concerns, he explained, are customs administration, customs duties and supply chain distribution.

Stressing that such fears should not be ignored, Mr Harkin told the audience: "Brexit was, and is, too big an issue not to have strong input from a local devolved Government.

"It is now over two years since we have had a functioning Executive and Assembly.

"As it stands today, we have no programme for government, no plan for Brexit and we have no shared vision for Northern Ireland.

"Every day of delay is a further step backwards.

"We want the institutions restored, built on trust and a shared vision for the future.

"We need our politicians to compromise and to work on the many things where they can find common ground, such as our health service, education, the economy, inward investment and an investment programme in our ailing infrastructure."

Mr Harkin acknowledged Northern Ireland had a traditional of "remarkable resilience" that helped make it a great place to work and live.

But he added: "Wouldn't it be great if we moved past needing to be resilient and into an era where we really flourished, where we didn't just have to get by but truly thrived?"

Despite the issues, the CAUS chairman urged companies not to turn away from politics.

"We still believe in the potential that peace created and we cannot afford to turn away," Mr Harkin said. "I'm asking that each of us use whatever influence we have to get our political institutions working again.

"Northern Ireland business has a lot to offer and with the right support we could achieve so much more."

His speech came after the Financial Times reported that aerospace giant Bombardier had been putting pressure on the DUP and its 10 MPs to ensure that they vote through the Brexit withdrawal agreement when it comes before the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Those claims came after William Barnett, the head of Belfast-based trading conglomerate W&R Barnett, said he did not believe politicians were listening to business.
The Duchess of Cambridge wearing a dress by LK Bennett

The future of two Northern Ireland branches of womenswear retailer LK Bennett is in doubt last night after it collapsed into administration.

The brand has appointed corporate undertakers at EY to carry out the process, which puts the jobs of 500 staff in 41 UK stores at risk.

The chain operates a shop at outlet centre The Boulevard outside Banbridge, and another in Belfast's Victoria Square Shopping Centre.

Known for its kitten heels and smart daywear, the brand has attracted celebrity fans during its near 30-year history, including the Duchess of Cambridge.

Last month it emerged that the chain had appointed advisers to decide its future.
Ryanair has blamed air passenger duty and a weak market in the UK for pulling four winter routes from Belfast International

Ryanair has blamed air passenger duty (APD) and a weak market in the UK for pulling four winter routes from Belfast International.

The budget airline has said it will not run flights to three Polish destinations this winter, with Malta also being cut from the schedule.

Flights to London Stansted and Manchester are also being reduced.

The announcement came as Ryanair confirmed just nine routes from Belfast International Airport for its 2019 winter schedule.

In a statement yesterday, the Irish air carrier said: "Ryanair's routes to Gdansk, Malta, Warsaw Modlin and Wroclaw will not operate this winter, while our services to London Stansted and Manchester will reduce from three and two times daily, to twice weekly services, due to the weak UK market, and UK air passenger duty, which is currently payable at both airports on domestic routes (26)."

Asked whether the routes will return next year, Ryanair said that it will not confirm its summer 2020 plans until the autumn.

Reacting to the development, Belfast International Airport said: "We are disappointed in the reduction of service, but fully understand the reasons for Ryanair's decision to reduce their Northern Ireland network. The airline can make a greater commercial return across the breadth of their European network where they don't have the taxation disadvantage posed by APD.

"We have extensively highlighted the problem which APD in Northern Ireland creates for air service development and job creation, so far with very limited success.

"We will continue to fight for the abolition of APD and trust that those with decision making powers will act with the necessary urgency to make the changes required to maintain and develop an effective air travel sector in Northern Ireland."
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge meet Dame Mary Peters during their visit to Belfast Empire Hall for an informal party to celebrate inspirational young people who are making a real difference in Northern Ireland as part of their two day visit to Northern Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday February 27, 2019. See PA story ROYAL Cambridge. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

To mark International Womens Day today, some of Northern Irelands female trailblazers tell Leona ONeill how they achieved success  and they offer their advice for young women trying to succeed.

Barbara McCann (61) is a UTV journalist. Barbara says that a belief in herself, instilled by her mum and dad, has carried her far in life.

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"The best thing about being a woman is that we are very powerful and creative," says the Hillsborough woman. "We are an influential force now. It might not have been seen in the past like that, but I think we are capable of showing more compassion, we are strong and soft at the same time. We can do anything we put our minds to today.

"And I think a lot of younger women are coming up having that mindset and are finding it easier, realising that we can do anything. "I was very fortunate that my mother Margo and father Brendan made me believe that I could be anything I wanted to be." Barbara, who has more than 40 years' experience in the media industry, having worked in a wide variety of radio and TV roles throughout her career, says a career highlight for her was covering the Gulf War. "I reported from the Gulf War in 1991," she says.

"That was a highlight for me. I was there for three months, before, during and after the war. I headed out with my cameraman. We got into Kuwait before any of the British television journalists, including Kate Adie." On a personal level, Barbara says recovering from an air crash is another highlight in her life. "I overcame the physical and psychological effects of a helicopter crash 23 years ago," she says.

"Myself and a number of other journalists were on a press trip in Fermanagh. We took off for Derry and were about 1,500ft up when something got stuck in the rotor blade and we crashed. I broke my back and dislocated my kneecaps. "Being in that traumatic event and getting back on my feet again and becoming a staff member with UTV is definitely personal highlight." Barbara says she never believed there was a glass ceiling in her line of work. "I always knew that if I wanted to go for a job I would go for it," she says.

"And I am where I want to be, and where I have always wanted to be. So for me I think it's all a myth. I know there are others who will have had personal experiences. But my experience is that I've got to where I want to be, and if I didn't get what I wanted I'd have gone another route." Barbara says that a belief in oneself will take you far in life. "Believe in yourself," she says. "Women can do anything they want. And if you face any obstacles on the way, go over, around or under them. Don't take no for an answer."

Eibhlin de Barra (49) is a director of Young at Art and the Belfast Childrens Festival

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Eibhlin, who lives in Hollywood with her husband Simon and twin boys Noah and Conor (20), says that freedom is the best part of being a woman in 2019.

In my career in particular, I dont feel that Ive ever been held up by being a woman, she says. I think that the best thing about being a woman in a liberal democracy like Ireland is all the opportunities that we have. I certainly have not experienced any gender pay gap. But Im very aware that that is not everyones experience. But the best thing is that we have such personal freedom.

Eibhlin says being able to travel the world is one of the highlights of her career so far.

I would say my career highlight is the job Im doing now, she says. I get to travel all across the world to see performances with a view to inviting them to the Belfast Childrens Festival. We have a show called Oorlog (War) by Theater Artemis at the MAC this Sunday which is amazing. To be able to bring that type of work to Belfast gives me such a thrill.

And its her personal life, watching her two sons grow and thrive, which brings her immense pride.

The highlight of my personal life has been just bringing up our two boys, she says. I think they are just fab, and really good craic and a credit to us. And they have turned into really, really lovely young men. They are both at university now and have secured themselves cracking placements for next year. So that is really exciting, watching them take off.

And Eibhlin has this advice for other women.

I would say to other women to go with their gut instincts and do what you love, she says. Dont let people talk you out of it. Just go for it. What is the worst that can happen?

Lady Mary Peters (79), 1972 Olympics pentathlon champion, fundraises to help young people achieve their sporting dreams through her Trust

Lady Mary says that men tend to listen more to women these days.

The best thing about being a lady today is being respected and admired, says the Dunmurry woman. Men listen to women nowadays whereas they didnt use to.

She says that the highlight of her career so far has undoubtedly been her Olympic success.

My career highlight was winning a gold medal at the Munich Olympics in 1972, she says. It changed my life forever because it gave me a purpose to build a running track for the people in Belfast. It gave me a platform as a woman to serve on many committees which would never have contemplated having a woman on them before. It also allowed me to do a lot of charity work.

The highlight of my personal life would have to be surviving open heart surgery last October. I had a heart valve that needed replacing. They told me that if I did not have the operation I wouldnt be here in a years time. But now Ive got an extra 10 years, unless something else happens. So after a six-hour operation I have recovered totally and feel wonderful.

And her advice to other women, striving for success in their particular fields, is to be yourself.

I would advise women not to be too pushy, she says. Be yourself and work hard. Plan ahead. Its like being an athlete, you have to train to be successful in business. Work with other people well and enjoy life.

Cate Conway (42) co-hosts the Q Radio Breakfast Show with Stephen Clements

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Dunmurry woman Cate says that, thankfully, many preconceived notions about how women should live their lives have been eradicated.

I think attitudes to women have changed dramatically since I was growing up, she says. I felt there was an expectation that you would love education, get a job, get married and have kids in that order and that your career would end when you had children.

I dont know many people whose lives followed that path even though they might have felt pressure and maybe some guilt because it didnt. That seems to have moved on, thank goodness. Society recognises all kinds of families now and employers are more tuned in to what they can do to support them. Im not saying its perfect now  far from it  but I think we are facing the right direction.

I think working life had changed for women dramatically thanks to the efforts of so many people over a long period of time. There are so many female-led companies doing amazing things and supporting womens development and progress  but that needs to be across the board.

Cate says one of her career highlights was switching on the Christmas lights at Belfast City Hall.

Ive had two careers, she says. I used to work in marketing at Belfast Met and then I started a new career in media when I was in my early 30s. Ive had so many opportunities and amazing experiences in my current job but I think the most surreal one was when Stephen and I turned on the Christmas lights at Belfast City Hall last year. Hes like me  he changed career in his 30s and moved into radio. That evening was a really big deal for both of us as were both very grateful and a bit amazed that we get to do our dream job.

Cate says that the day she became an aunt for the first time was her personal highlight.

That day was life-changing for me, she says. I dont have any kids and I was 35 before I had any nieces or nephews. It made me feel so different about life and the future.

And the most amazing thing happened as a result of something we talked about on Q Breakfast. My new year resolution was to take it up a notch. This means that I was going to just do little things every day to boost my own confidence or do things a wee bit better. Small things like wearing the dress Id usually keep for good, buying different colours of lipstick, walking instead of taking the stairs  that kind of thing.

The Belfast Model School for Girls heard this and took it to heart. They introduced it into their school council and started to think of ways they could all take it up a notch. They paid each other compliments, baked brownies for their class, and put a little more effort into their tasks. I went to visit them and found an incredible group of young women who were looking after their own mental health and each other.

So that would be my advice  take it up a notch. No matter what you are doing in work or life, do it a little bit better, dont ever think thatll do and leave something half done  and that includes a compliment you could pay someone or a helping hand you could offer someone. It makes you feel better and youll do better.

Aideen Kennedy (39) is a U105 journalist who previously worked for UTV News

Aideen says that women can be who they want to be in this modern era.

One of the best things about being a woman today is choice, she says.

One of the people I really admire is Tara Lynn ONeill. We were teenagers when we did the musical Grease together in Belfasts Grand Opera House. And now shes fulfilling her dreams appearing in the brilliant Derry Girls.

Aideen says that one poignant news story really stands out for her in her career.

My career highlight was getting an exclusive with the family of one of the Disappeared, she says. They were so gracious.

I wouldnt say I was especially academic but I worked hard and got a first class degree and a scholarship to do newspaper journalism. That allowed me to fulfil my dream of becoming a reporter.

A highlight in my personal life is of course my two children  my six-year-old daughter, Eva, and my 10-year-old son, Jacob. After my brother and sister passed away, Jacob said: We are a very unlucky family but at least I have two angel bodyguards in Heaven. I thought that was a beautiful way to look at life.

Aideen has this advice to the next generation of women navigating their chosen field.

Chose your career carefully, she says. A job that might seem glamorous now may not be so glamorous 30 years on. However, if you love a job and its in your veins, make it work for you.

Heather Monteverde (56) is head of services at Macmillan Cancer Support

Heather, a mother-of-three from Ballygowan, Co Down, says despite the many opportunities available to modern women, being in a senior position is still tough.

When I look back at my mothers generation  she was a nurse like I was, but she had to give up work when she got married, Heather says. So youd like to think things have changed and stereotypes have been challenged. But there is still a culture of having it all  a perfect work life, home life, personal life. There are many more opportunities, but it still isnt easy to be a woman working full time in a senior role.

Heather says becoming Northern Irelands first ever cancer nurse specialist was a highlight of her career.

Im a nurse, and that is really the core of who I am, she says. I was the first cancer nurse specialist in Northern Ireland, starting in 1986. Since then the highlight for me has been my role with Macmillan  we have developed a plan and funding to ensure that everyone diagnosed with cancer has access to a cancer nurse specialist. I feel really privileged to have had a role in that.

Family means the world to Heather  she and husband Peter have three daughters, Giuliana (28), Sara (25) and Katie (21).

Its no mean feat these days to have been married to the same person for 33 years, she says. Having three lovely daughters who have grown into strong independent women forging careers for themselves is fantastic.

Heather has this advice for the next generation: Younger women are more ambitious and less likely to take no for an answer. But I think they still find it tough. Believe in yourself, and enjoy your career. Its not all about money, you get rewards in other ways.

And I would also say treat others the way youd want to be treated yourself. There is something in women supporting and looking out for each other.
Talking to Maggie Gyllenhaal can be a little disorienting. She has a high-pitched, cartoonish voice, which she uses to express deep things. One critic memorably said that she possessed a "Kewpie-doll silliness", but maybe it's a flaw in our culture that we expect serious thoughts to be couched in sonorous tones. "We live in a masculine world," she says, "and in America - especially very recently - as much as we would like to believe otherwise, it's a misogynistic world."

The 41-year-old, Oscar-nominated for Crazy Heart (2009) and so mesmerising in BBC2's thriller The Honourable Woman (2014), is explaining the difficulties women encounter in clearly expressing something feminine in art. "It's not impossible, and it certainly happens," she says, "but I think just because something is written by a woman, or directed by a woman, that doesn't necessarily make it feminine - because the context that we're in is fundamentally masculine."

We meet in a hotel in London's Mayfair to discuss her new film The Kindergarten Teacher. She's dressed in a dark tailored suit, her hair is cropped. Those enormous blue eyes, capable of conveying both hardened resolve and a kind of bruised melancholy, haven't been dimmed by a long-haul flight.

She's "particularly proud" of The Kindergarten Teacher, which she also produced. A remake of a 2014 Israeli film, developed almost entirely by women, it's a psychodrama, a dark exercise in obsession that ripples with moral ambiguity.

Gyllenhaal seems to have a fondness for films that are hard to sit with. While she has shown up in big studio fare such as The Dark Knight (2008) and Mona Lisa Smile (2003), the actor has spent much of her career making independent work - often dramas about complex and discomfiting subjects. Spot the laughs in her drug-addicted ex-con in 2006's heartbreaking Sherrybaby, or her fractured Israeli-British heiress in The Honourable Woman.

She also has a knack, best exhibited in the S&M satire Secretary (2002) and the tragicomic fable Frank (2014), for adding weight and nuance to characters who might otherwise have been written off as simply "quirky".

Although she has gained considerable clout in Hollywood by now, the process of getting there wasn't easy.

When she was younger, she auditioned for a "really bad movie with vampires", she told The Hollywood Reporter. "I wore a dress to the audition that I thought was really hot. Then I was told I wasn't hot enough."

More recently, Gyllenhaal - who is married to fellow actor Peter Sarsgaard, with whom she has two daughters - was told by a producer that, at 37, she was "too old" to play the lover of a 55-year-old man. So be it, she says - she is "happier with" her recent work than anything she's done before.

"Right now," she explains, "I've been trusting my instinct about what jobs to take and it's been really serving me well."

Gyllenhaal is voluble and expansive but occasionally checks herself, as if an abort switch has been triggered. For instance, she's done plenty of films where she has thought, "Oh, wow, I'm not proud of that", but when I ask her to list them, she simply shuts down. She just tells herself, "That (film) was a mistake, and here's what I learnt from it. The product itself is not what is valuable about that".

One thing she doesn't consider a mistake is working with James Franco on The Deuce, the gritty Seventies dawn-of-the-porn-industry drama. Franco, who plays twin brothers on the show, has been accused by a number of women of sexual misconduct. Even though he has denied the allegations, Gyllenhaal says that the show's producers - of which she is one - took them very seriously, asking all the female cast and crew if they were comfortable still working with him. They were.

Emily Meade, who plays a budding porn star, had a separate concern, however - shooting the sex scenes. As a result, and in the wake of #MeToo, The Deuce became the first HBO show to require a female "intimacy co-ordinator", who ensured that the actors never felt uneasy on set.

Gyllenhaal, a leading figure in the Time's Up movement against sexual harassment and gender inequality, says there has been progress within the industry: "I've seen over the past maybe 10 years so many women who are working as a first assistant camera, and I'm just anticipating all of them graduating to become cinematographers - and that will really change film-making."

Should male actors help lead the charge by taking pay cuts? "Mmm, yes," she says with a wry smile. "But there are lots of different ways to help. HBO, for example, gave me a raise for The Deuce so that I would have pay parity with James Franco."

Although reticent about discussing her younger brother, Jake, with whom she co-starred in the 2002 cult favourite Donnie Darko, Gyllenhaal says she does compare her on-set experiences with him.

"I have to be more considerate," she explains. "I would see a cut of an episode on The Deuce and would then spend hours perfectly composing the email that I wanted to send with my notes attached. I'd think, 'Does my brother have to do this? Probably not - he'd just pop off an email', you know what I mean?"

She is just as vehement on politics as on film. Born in Manhattan's Lower East Side to director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, she was raised to be a liberal.

In 2005, she risked national vituperation when she said that the US "is responsible in some way" for the 9/11 attacks.

She hasn't changed her tack since Donald Trump's election, and also frequently calls out the president for his chauvinistic rhetoric.

Last October, she was, in her own words, "heartbroken" when Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as Supreme Court Justice, despite Christine Blasey Ford telling Congress that she believed Kavanaugh was going to rape her at a party three decades ago. Gyllenhaal was quoted as saying that Ford's testimony "lacked performance". Does she think women are punished for not performing in a way that's expected of them?

"I don't know," she says. "To me, it felt like people were very struck by her lack of performance, because that isn't what we're used to seeing. It felt so truthful in a moment where I think we're really lacking truthfulness, and I think both sides agree about that.

"You hear the far right saying all of the media is fake, and you know our president just shamelessly lies to us all the time. So, to see somebody stand up and say, 'I'm terrified, but what happened was deeply not okay', was... well, it had a real impact on me."

Gyllenhaal isn't planning on acting in her next project, an adaptation of Elena Ferrante's The Lost Daughter, which she intends to be her directorial debut.

"My playwright friend sent me this Anne Carson quote the other day and it just knocked my socks off," says Gyllenhaal. "It's this quote from a foreword of her translation of some Greek tragedies by Euripides. She says, 'There is a theory that watching unbearable stories about other people lost in grief and rage is good for you... Do you want to go down to the pits of yourself all alone? Not much. What if an actor could do it for you? Isn't that why they are called actors? They act for you. You sacrifice them to action'.

"Basically, it's an actor's job to help you work through something painful without you having to destroy your own life."

The Kindergarten Teacher is in cinemas now
A woman diagnosed with ovarian cancer has called for more awareness around the disease.

Pat Taylor (67) received the devastating news two years after she first attended her GP because of frequent urination and bloating - classic symptoms of the cancer.

She was referred to a bladder clinic in 2014 and it was only when she developed more alarming symptoms in 2016, prompting further investigation, that she received the diagnosis.

Like many women Pat, from Carrickfergus in Co Antrim, misguidedly believed cervical smear tests would also show other forms of cancer.

She is urging women to be aware of the symptoms, saying early diagnosis could give them a 90% chance of survival.

"It took two years for me to find out I had stage four ovarian cancer," she said.

"When I started to bleed, years after I had been through the menopause, I was sent for a scan, which showed I had ovarian cancer.

"I had to undergo chemotherapy from October 2016 to February 2017, which shrunk my tumours enough to allow surgery to go ahead. In May 2017 I had radial surgery to remove my ovaries, womb, spleen and appendix. Since then I have been getting regular check-ups and getting on with my life as best I can because that is all you can do."

Pat said she had always wrongly believed a smear test would show up ovarian cancer.

"The thing is, there is no test for ovarian cancer, which is why it is so important women and doctors know the symptoms and act on them quickly," she added.

"Ovarian cancer can strike any woman at any age, so every woman needs to go to their doctor if they experience symptoms like going to the toilet frequently, feeling full all the time and bloatednes."

Speaking during Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, she continued: "Having a month dedicated to raising awareness is so important because it will make women aware but it will also keep it to the forefront of doctors minds because the early symptoms are similar to other conditions like irritable bowel syndrome.

"Early detection will almost certainly save a woman's life because the chance of survival is 90% but that drops to around 50% if symptoms go unreported."

Research by Target Ovarian Cancer and YouGov has shown as many as one in five women is unaware cervical screening will not detect ovarian cancer.

Confusion and lack of awareness means many are at risk of assuming they are 'protected' from ovarian cancer and are writing off any symptoms. This could lead to a late diagnosis, when the disease is harder to treat.
Hardline dissident republicans see Brexit as an opportunity to radicalise a new generation of Irish youths to take up arms against the British presence on the island of Ireland, according to the leader of Irish republican party Saoradh.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Brian Kenna, who chairs the party, said: "Brexit has been a small pilot light in reigniting that side of physical force to British occupation."

The Dubliner is a former employee of the Health Service Executive (HSE) in the Republic of Ireland and an ex-prisoner.

He was jailed for a foiled IRA armed raid in Wexford before being released in 1995.

Kenna later worked for the HSE's drug addiction services.

After he was caught carrying notes from dissident prisoners in jail to the leadership in Northern Ireland, he was jailed in 2017 for IRA membership.

Kenna subsequently lost his job, but on his release he was elected chairman of Saoradh.

"Every generation, going back 800 years, Irish republicans have confronted British occupation," he told the Guardian.

"I don't see any reason why that's going to stop. Brexit is a huge opportunity.

"It's not the reason why people would resist British rule, but Brexit just gives it focus, gives it a physical picture. It's a huge help."

"The republican movement is very adaptable.

"Necessity is the mother of invention.

"Young people are now getting involved in an armed campaign without a personal experience of oppression."

Saoradh, the Irish word for 'liberation', was formed in 2016.

The PSNI say the group is closely aligned to the self-styled New IRA terror gang that planted a car bomb at a Londonderry courthouse earlier this year.

Police suspect the paramilitary organisation was behind three days of terror, hijackings and disruption in the city in January.

The group was also responsible for the murders of prison officers David Black and Adrian Ismay.

Last year, the PSNI in Craigavon said Saoradh was linked to drug-dealing after the group encouraged attacks against police officers.

In January this year, Saoradh began legal action against the social media giant Facebook, claiming it had removed pages from the site at the behest of British security agencies.

Although seeing Brexit as a useful propaganda and recruitment tool, Saoradh's members are also opposed to Ireland's membership of the EU, which they see as a club for capitalists and something that undermines the country's sovereignty.

The Saoradh leadership last year said they hoped Brexit would be "as hard as hell", adding that they were backing the move because it would "quicken the end of one of the most repulsive and destructive nations that has ever existed".

The group has also vowed to exploit any visible hard border in Ireland to gain support.
The EU has offered the rest of UK a unilateral way out of the backstop provided the key measures still apply to Northern Ireland.

In an unusual change of approach, the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier has this evening tweeted details of the EUs latest bid to end the impasse.

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However, his proposals are unlikely to be enough to satisfy hardline elements with Prime Minister Theresa Mays government or the DUP.

Mr Barnier said the EU has committed to giving the UK an option of exiting the Single Customs Territory unilaterally, while the other elements of the backstop must be maintained to avoid a hard border

UK will not be forced into customs union against its will, he said, adding: The EU will continue working intensively over the coming days to ensure that the UK leaves the EU with an agreement.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar hinted at this approach earlier today when he said if Great Britain does not want to be part of the backstop thats fine  but Northern Ireland must be in order to ensure there is never a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.

 I briefed EU27 Ambassadors and EP today on the ongoing talks with #UK. Following the EU-UK statement of 20 Feb, the EU has proposed to the UK a legally binding interpretation of the #Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. Most importantly:  Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) March 8, 2019

2/5 The arbitration panel can already, under Article 178 WA, give UK the right to a proportionate suspension of its obligations under the backstop, as a last resort, if EU breaches its best endeavours/good faith obligations to negotiate alternative solutions.  Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) March 8, 2019

3/5 EU ready to give legal force to all commitments from January letter of @eucopresident and @JunckerEU through joint interpretative statement. https://t.co/kCUbTk4nYA This will render best endeavour/good faith obligations even more actionable by an arbitration panel.  Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) March 8, 2019

4/5 EU commits to give UK the option to exit the Single Customs Territory unilaterally, while the other elements of the backstop must be maintained to avoid a hard border. UK will not be forced into customs union against its will.  Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) March 8, 2019

5/5 The EU will continue working intensively over the coming days to ensure that the UK leaves the EU with an agreement.  Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) March 8, 2019

The original backstop was only applicable to Northern Ireland but Mrs May convinced the EU to make it UK-wide after the DUP complained about the creation of a virtual border down the Irish Sea.

Bear in mind elements of that compromise like extending the backstop on a UK-wide basis, the single customs territory involving all the United Kingdom, these were compromises that the British government sought.

We were and remain happy to apply the backstop to Northern Ireland only if they want to go back to that, he said.

Asked if there was anything Ireland could offer to help break the impasse, Mr Varadkar replied: Whats not obvious is what the UK government is offering the European Union and Ireland should they wish us to make any further compromises. We have received no offer from them as to what they would give us in return for any changes.

It requires a change of approach from the UK government to understand that Brexit is a problem of their creation, he said.

In a speech today, Mrs May implored to the EU to give her legally-binding changes to the backstop ahead of a vote on the Withdrawal Agreement in parliament next Tuesday.

She said one more push was needed to get MPs on board. However, at the same time she delivered a message to politicians in London, saying: "Back it and the U.K. will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen."
Member of Parliament for Bantama constituency, Daniel Okyem Aboagye has commended President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for holding the 62nd Independence Day of Ghana at Tamale in the Northern Region.



Ghana was 62 years on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 after attaining independence in 1957.



As part of measures to foster unity among the people in Northern Region following the installment of a new Overlord for them, the country's Independence celebrations were held in Tamale.



This is the first time the nation has held its Independence Day in another Region aside the capital city, Accra.



Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Hon. Okyem Aboagye told Kwami Sefa Kayi that the move by the President should be an opportunity for the nation leaders to focus on nation building and therefore address the plight of Ghanaians.



According to him, the 62nd Independence of Ghana shouldn't be seen as just a celebration of the country's freedom but rather ensure that the "toil and blood of our forefathers" don't go in vain.



We have a lot of challenges as a nation . . . Lets remember that we have obligation and a duty to make sure that the progress of Ghana wont happen to us by chance. We have to be very intentional about where we want to go and how to reach there. But if we leave it to chance, it will happen to us by chance . . . Going forward, we have to be very [very] intentional and very responsible in moving this country forward because we shouldnt let the toil and blood of our forefathers be in vain, he said.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Britain First leader Paul Golding will contest two hate crime charges at Ballymena Magistrates' Court in May, it has emerged.

The 37-year-old, with an address in Dartford, Kent, was accompanied to court yesterday by around half a dozen supporters, some of whom were wearing jackets bearing the Britain First insignia and 'BFD' on the back.

As his backers took their seats in the public gallery, District Judge Nigel Broderick called for "some quiet, please".

Golding is accused of distributing written material in Ballymena on October 20 last year which was abusive or insulting and likely to stir up hatred and of possessing similar material four days later.

The defendant first appeared in court in Ballymena in mid-November last year.

Yesterday's hearing was told his contest would hear from four prosecution witnesses and two defence witnesses.

The charges followed his arrest on October 24 last year in connection with alleged incidents in the Ballymena area on October 20 and 24.

He had been visiting Ballymena in relation to the far-right group, which has held rallies in the Co Antrim town.

Golding spoke at the first rally in the area, but police bail conditions prevented him from attending a second.

After appearing in court in November, the defendant was released on 500 bail and with conditions barring him from being within 500 metres of any parade, protest or public demonstration in Northern Ireland, and from entering Ballymena, apart from to attend court.

Golding was also banned from possessing any material which could stir up hatred and from distributing leaflets.

He was bailed to an address in Belfast and had to report to police once a week.

Golding was initially banned from travelling to England without first notifying police, but his conditions were later varied to allow him to return home.
Police in Co Armagh have uncovered a significant amount of ammunition and terrorism-related equipment in a forest close to the border.

Component parts for mortars, including six mortar tubes, were found in a forested area at the Carewamean Road area of Forkhill following a search on Wednesday.

The road runs to within just a few yards of Co Louth in the Irish Republic.

Detective Inspector Graham Orr, from the PSNI's Terrorist Investigation Unit, said early indications pointed to dissident republican activity.

"Police were made aware of suspicious items and, following a search earlier today, we discovered the items buried in the ground in a wooded area in a constructed hide," the officer explained.

"It is vital that people remain vigilant, wherever they are and whatever they are doing.

"Our inquiries are progressing and a detailed forensic examination of all these items will take some time.

"At this stage, it is too early to attribute ownership of these materials to any particular grouping or individual. We will continue to work with our communities to disrupt the activities of the small group of people who are intent on using violence.

"There is no place for this type of activity and the vast majority of people in our communities just want to live in a peaceful society.

"Due to the location of the find and the items located in it, I believe vehicles or machinery may have been used to transport the items and access the site.

"The investigation is in the early stages and we are still working to establish the timeframe, but initial observations suggest that this is a more recent hide linked to dissident republican activity.

"I would appeal to anyone who has noticed any suspicious activity or vehicles in the Carewamean Road area to contact detectives on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference number 846."

Speaking to the Belfast telegraph last night, Newry, Mourne and Down District Ulster Unionist councillor David Taylor said the discovery of the weapons cache in the forest was "concerning."

Mr Taylor also described the find as a "very worrying development".

"The police are linking this find to dissident republicans," the councillor said.

"It will be a relief to many people in the community that these weapons have been taken out of circulation before they could be used.

"I also want to praise the action of the police in discovering and recovering this terrorist arms cache.

"I am certain that lives will have been saved by this discovery today."
The DUP has rejected a proposal by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier which would see the backstop measures only apply to Northern Ireland.

In an unusual change of approach, Mr Barnier this evening tweeted details of the EUs latest bid to end the impasse.

Read More

Mr Barnier said the EU has committed to giving the UK an option of exiting the Single Customs Territory unilaterally, while the other elements of the backstop must be maintained to avoid a hard border

UK will not be forced into customs union against its will, he said, adding: The EU will continue working intensively over the coming days to ensure that the UK leaves the EU with an agreement.

However, DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds MP said the proposal was something that had already been rejected.

This is neither a realistic nor sensible proposal from Michel Barnier," he said.

"It disrespects the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom. This is an attempt to get ahead of a possible blame game and appear positive when in reality it is going backwards to something rejected a year ago.

"As the Prime Minister has said, no United Kingdom Prime Minister' could sign up to an arrangement which annexes Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.

"Whilst the European Union has spoken often about their value of the peace process in Northern Ireland, this proposal demonstrates that they have a one-sided approach and a lack of understanding about the divisions in Northern Ireland.

"Just as nationalists and republicans oppose a new north-south border, unionists oppose any new east-west border which would place a new barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

"We need to work for a sensible deal which can work for everyone in Northern Ireland. It is possible but there must be less intransigence in Brussels.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had hinted at this approach from the EU earlier today when he said if Great Britain does not want to be part of the backstop thats fine  but Northern Ireland must be in order to ensure there is never a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.

 I briefed EU27 Ambassadors and EP today on the ongoing talks with #UK. Following the EU-UK statement of 20 Feb, the EU has proposed to the UK a legally binding interpretation of the #Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. Most importantly:  Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) March 8, 2019

2/5 The arbitration panel can already, under Article 178 WA, give UK the right to a proportionate suspension of its obligations under the backstop, as a last resort, if EU breaches its best endeavours/good faith obligations to negotiate alternative solutions.  Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) March 8, 2019

3/5 EU ready to give legal force to all commitments from January letter of @eucopresident and @JunckerEU through joint interpretative statement. https://t.co/kCUbTk4nYA This will render best endeavour/good faith obligations even more actionable by an arbitration panel.  Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) March 8, 2019

4/5 EU commits to give UK the option to exit the Single Customs Territory unilaterally, while the other elements of the backstop must be maintained to avoid a hard border. UK will not be forced into customs union against its will.  Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) March 8, 2019

5/5 The EU will continue working intensively over the coming days to ensure that the UK leaves the EU with an agreement.  Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) March 8, 2019

The original backstop was only applicable to Northern Ireland but Mrs May convinced the EU to make it UK-wide after the DUP complained about the creation of a virtual border down the Irish Sea.

Bear in mind elements of that compromise like extending the backstop on a UK-wide basis, the single customs territory involving all the United Kingdom, these were compromises that the British government sought.

We were and remain happy to apply the backstop to Northern Ireland only if they want to go back to that, he said.

Asked if there was anything Ireland could offer to help break the impasse, Mr Varadkar replied: Whats not obvious is what the UK government is offering the European Union and Ireland should they wish us to make any further compromises. We have received no offer from them as to what they would give us in return for any changes.

It requires a change of approach from the UK government to understand that Brexit is a problem of their creation, he said.

In a speech today, Mrs May implored to the EU to give her legally-binding changes to the backstop ahead of a vote on the Withdrawal Agreement in parliament next Tuesday.

She said one more push was needed to get MPs on board. However, at the same time she delivered a message to politicians in London, saying: "Back it and the U.K. will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen."
The statue was stolen from the church sometime over the last few weeks

An eight foot tall statue of Jesus has been stolen from a church in Belfast.

The bronze statue was stolen from inside the Church of the Resurrection on the Cavehill Road, which has been disused for several years, some time over the last few weeks.

Large bronze doors worth around 40k that were specially commissioned for the church were also taken off their hinges and "irreparably damaged", police said.

Police have appealed for anyone with any information regarding the stolen statue to contact them on 101 quoting reference 1318 of 01/03/19.
A heroin addict discovered at public toilets with a needle still attached to his arm has avoided prison.

Gerard Walsh was given a four-month suspended term for being caught with the Class A drug near Queen's University in Belfast.

The 26-year-old, of Moyard Crescent in the west of the city, also had 400 in counterfeit bank notes when arrested on January 6 this year.

Belfast Magistrates' Court heard police saw him and two others acting suspiciously close to the toilet block.

A prosecution lawyer said Walsh had a needle attached to his arm while a silver spoon full of brown liquid was spotted on the ground.

Searches recovered a bag containing the fake currency and other items.

During interviews Walsh said another man had injected heroin just before police arrived.

He had attempted to mix the residue with water in a bid to get a hit for himself, the court heard.

The defendant claimed he found the bag on the ground while making his way to the toilets.

Defence barrister Conn O'Neill acknowledged the incident had occurred just weeks after his client's release from prison for other offences.

Mr O'Neill stressed, however, that Walsh is now trying to gain help for his addiction issues.

Imposing a total of four months imprisonment for possessing the heroin and counterfeit currency, Deputy District Judge Liam McStay told the defendant to stay away from drugs.

He warned: "If there's a repetition you will be going to custody."
Karen Bradley was given a number of pictures of Stephen McConomy (Peter Byrne/PA)

The sister of a man shot dead by the Army has urged the Northern Ireland Secretary to resign.

Frances Meehan, whose brother Michael Donnelly was hit with a plastic bullet in 1981, said Karen Bradleys position was untenable.

On Wednesday, Mrs Bradley said killings carried out by the police and military during the Troubles were not crimes, rather the actions of people fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way.

The comments sparked fury among some victims and political parties. A delegation of relatives travelled to the Governments offices in Belfast on Friday to discuss the furore.

Ms Meehan said: I wanted to meet her because I wanted to look her in the eye to tell her how I felt about her comments in the House of Commons.

I also wanted to say to her that on this day, International Womens Day, that she is an insult to women.

Families emerge from meeting with Karen Bradley - they looked her in the eye and told her she needed to resign pic.twitter.com/Ri3YcZEQ9R  Relatives 4 Justice (@RelsForJustice) March 8, 2019

We know she has apologised but her position is completely and utterly untenable and she needs to resign.

The families gave Mrs Bradley a photograph of an 11-year-old boy in his coffin after he was shot dead by the British Army.

Stephen McConomy was killed by a plastic bullet close to his home in Londonderry in 1982.

Photographs of the schoolboy also included one of him in his school uniform two weeks before he was killed and another of him on a life-support machine.

Representatives from campaign group Relatives for Justice said Mrs Bradley was left speechless.

Ms Bradley said it was humbling to listen to the personal and deeply moving stories of victims.

I heard about the hurt and suffering endured over many years  about the experiences of those whose family members died at the hands of the security forces.

This cannot have been felt more deeply than by those who lost children during the Troubles.

The families I met today referred to unarmed civilians and 82 children who lost their lives in incidents involving the security forces.

Families from throughout Northern Ireland and from all parts of the community, who suffered as a result of the Troubles, rightly want to see justice properly delivered.

Where there is any evidence of wrongdoing this should be pursued without fear or favour whoever the perpetrators might be.

Relatives of those killed in shootings involving the Army in Ballymurphy in west Belfast in 1971 refused to meet Mrs Bradley.

John Teggart, whose father Danny was shot 14 times at Ballymurphy, said: We will not meet her, and have one request for Mrs Bradley and that is for her to resign immediately.

There is nothing dignified in how my father was murdered she needs to resign pic.twitter.com/ozIfdr4uch  Relatives 4 Justice (@RelsForJustice) March 8, 2019

Mairead Kellys brother Patrick was one of eight IRA men killed at Loughgall on May 8 1987.

Civilian Anthony Hughes was also killed in the incident.

Ms Kelly, director of the Loughgall Truth and Justice Campaign, said: We dont accept her apology, she is unfit for office.

We requested more than once to meet with her in light of the Hughes judgment and she refused. I dont believe she is genuinely sorry, it was not an unintentional slip of the tongue remark.

She is demonstrating how she truly feels about their armed forces and I think the timing of it is crucial, also the nodding heads of some of the backbenches should also put them in the spotlight because they are clearly in agreement with her.

Mrs Bradley made it clear on Thursday that she would not be leaving her role, vowing instead to work to deliver for people she had offended.

I want to get on and get this job done, she said.

Downing Street has said Prime Minister Theresa May retains full confidence in her.

The ministers comments carried added significance as they were made a week before long-awaited decisions from Northern Ireland prosecutors on whether 17 soldiers involved in the Bloody Sunday shootings in Londonderry in 1972 will face prosecution.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson told BBC Radio 4 podcast Political Thinking With Nick Robinson that they needed to give protections to service personnelto ensure we dont have spurious prosecutions.

He said: No one in the Armed Forces wants to be above the law, but what we did need to do is to ensure that they do have the protection so that they dont feel under threat.

Its not just about Northern Ireland, but about Iraq and Afghanistan, conflicts before that and in the future.

In relation to Bloody Sunday prosecutions, he added: Sadly I dont think that will come in time.

I think we have to ask a real question as to Northern Ireland has moved on. Theres been so much progress  weve got to look to the future, not at the past.

Ms Bradley returned to the Commons on Wednesday in a bid to clarify the comments and, on Thursday, issued a statement of apology, saying she was profoundly sorry.

Karen Bradley makes clear shes not quitting & pledges to rebuild trust w/ bereaved families & Stormont parties. Says shes fallible & deeply sorry for her mistake. Rejects suggestion shes out of her depth - Im determined to prove myself by delivering for the people of NI. pic.twitter.com/7tR79q7yur  David Young (@DavidYoungPA) March 7, 2019

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Mrs Bradleys apology was genuine and heartfelt.

In Dublin he said: She has accepted that her comments were insensitive and wrong.

Whats important now is that its followed up on, from words must follow actions. That involves full funding for legacy inquests and it involves setting up the historical inquiries team which has been committed to by the UK Government.

Where there was wrongdoing by members of the security forces, whether it was north or south of the border, they need to be be properly investigated and prosecuted if there is a case.

Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle ONeill said the issue went to the heart of British policy in Ireland.

They want to cover up what happened in the past, they want to cover up the role of state forces in the past.

This is actually the real British Government state policy.

What Karen Bradley did is she gave the game away.

She added: Their priority is to protect their own.
A murderer from Co Antrim who was released from prison only to kill again in a "monstrous" attack on a woman has been condemned to die in prison after losing an appeal.

William McFall (52) and an accomplice murdered Vietnamese nail technician Quyen Ngoc Nguyen in a four-hour ordeal on Wearside in England in August 2017.

She was lured to the house, raped by accomplice Stephen Unwin and brutally attacked before she was dumped in a car which was then set alight.

McFall and Unwin had met in prison in Northern Ireland, where McFall, originally from Greencastle, was serving a sentence for murdering local pensioner Martha Gilmore in 1996.

In February last year, the pair were convicted at Newcastle Crown Court of 28-year-old Ms Nguyen's murder and given life sentences.

The trial judge ordered that they serve "whole life tariffs", meaning they would never be freed.

Yesterday, McFall was back before a court as he launched an appeal against the term, claiming his crime was not so serious that he should spend the rest of his life in jail. But three senior judges, led by Lord Justice Gross, rejected his case at the Court of Appeal in London.

"His own role in this brutal murder and, in the light of his previous conviction for murder, amply warranted a whole life order," he said.

The court heard McFall was jailed in Northern Ireland in 1997 for the savage murder of 86-year-old widow Mrs Gilmore during a break-in.

She disturbed him and he attacked her in her Carrickfergus home, striking her repeatedly with a hammer.

Ms Nguyen, a mother-of-two was killed after being attacked at Unwin's home in Shiney Row, near Sunderland, where she had been lured.

Afterwards, her body was placed in a car which was driven to a secluded spot and torched.

The judge said the murder involved "significant planning and pre-meditation", with a sadistic, sexual and financial motivation.

She had endured significant mental and physical suffering during an "unimaginable four-hour ordeal".

McFall claimed yesterday that the whole life sentence he received was too tough.

But the judge said he was a previously convicted killer, who was capable of "monstrous" acts and who was "chillingly devoid of any human empathy".

"He was party to the sexual and financial motivation behind the luring of the victim to the house and was party to the attack while she was there," Lord Justice Gross said.

"A whole life order must never be passed as a reflex reaction or routinely. It wasn't so passed by the judge.

"It is upheld by us after careful consideration, but with no hesitation whatsoever.

"The justice of this case plainly requires that he should spend the remainder of his life in prison," the judge added.

The appeal was refused.
A new cancer strategy for Northern Ireland has been welcomed by charities - even though a Health Minister minister needs to be in place to decide how it will be implemented.

The local cancer strategy was last updated in 2008.

Department of Health permanent secretary Richard Pengelly said: "Significant progress has been made over the past 20 years in developing cancer services in Northern Ireland.

"This has involved investing in a wide range of preventative, treatment and care programmes that have contributed to improvements in survival rates for cancer patients.

"However, the anticipated demographic change in forthcoming years means there is likely to be a significant growth in demand for cancer services, and we must prepare for these challenges.

"A new strategy would help us do that."

In an announcement yesterday, the Department of Health said: "The central goal of the new strategy will be to identify new ways of working to secure further advances across cancer care."

It said that it will work with patients, staff and cancer charities to develop the strategy, adding that it sees merit in the model used by NHS England to support the development of its cancer strategy.

The department added: "This involved the establishment of an independent cancer taskforce which worked closely with professional cancer services staff, patients, cancer charities, commissioners, care providers and other key stakeholder groups.

"Discussions are planned with local cancer charity representatives on the commissioning of the strategy and the potential development of a taskforce model.

"Decisions on the implementation of a new strategy would be for a future Health Minister."

Head of services for Macmillan here, Heather Monteverde, said it was delighted to support the department to progress a cancer strategy and was looking forward to a meeting later this month about the potential development of a taskforce model.

"Macmillan has been calling for a cancer strategy for many years and we acknowledge the department's willingness to build on the learning and insight gained from other locations, in particular NHS England," she added.

"We are keen to work with the department towards a cancer strategy that recognises our unique Northern Ireland context and will translate into the world-class cancer, patient-centred care that people living here deserve."

Marie Curie head of policy and public affairs Joan McEwan said that cancer was still the leading cause of death here and it was critical that local patients with a terminal cancer diagnosis were able to access timely and holistic care and support at the end of life.

"We hope the new cancer strategy will provide an opportunity for statutory and voluntary sector service providers to work even more closely together to make this a reality for as many people living and dying with cancer as possible," she said.

Chief executive of Cancer Focus NI Roisin Foster said her organisation and others had been campaigning for a new cancer strategy for some time.

"Our last strategy was published 10 years ago and figures from the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry predict incidences of the disease here will rise by almost two-thirds by 2035," she said.

"We also welcome the setting up of an independent taskforce.

"The world of cancer is ever-changing and we need a cancer strategy now so that we can join up every aspect of cancer treatment and research, from prevention, earlier diagnosis, finding better treatments to delivering palliative care, and ensure that caring for people with cancer is central to the overall transformation of health and social care."

Cancer Research UK's Margaret Carr said the news was tremendously welcome, and described the current strategy as "hugely out-of-date".

"This is a major step forward for cancer patients as we know from other parts of the UK and Ireland that focused strategies can help target finite resources effectively and drive vital service improvements for patients," she said.

"We look forward to working with the Department of Health to ensure that a new strategy will help prevent more cancers, diagnose more cancers earlier, provide patients with the right treatment for their disease in the right place and ensure that research is at the heart of cancer treatment.

"We will continue our work to ensure that a new strategy has measurable actions implemented within agreed time scales."

Heather Blake, director of support and influencing at Prostate Cancer UK, said: "An ambitious, overarching plan for cancer will play an essential role in improving the outcomes and experiences of men affected by prostate cancer, as well as ensuring that workforce and service provision is scaled up to cope with the increasing number of men diagnosed.

"We are ready and willing to join the independent taskforce and champion the needs of men with prostate cancer throughout the development process.

"In the meantime, we want to see a clear timeline agreed for completion.

"The sooner the strategy is developed, the sooner we can roll out improvements for men and save more lives."

Ulster Unoinist Party health spokesman Roy Beggs welcomed the announcement, but warned that the absence of a Health Minister would cause delays in getting it implemented.

"Richard Pengelly immediately deflated any positivity surrounding the announcement by saying that the implementation of the new strategy would only be for a future Health Minister to decide upon," he pointed out.

"Many will rightly even question the point of his statement in the first place, when it looks almost certain that we are very unlikely to have a minister any time soon."

He urged Secretary of State Karen Bradley immediately introduce direct rule if local ministers cannot be appointed.

He added: "At least then this new strategy may have a chance of actually helping people."

Case Study

A Bangor cancer survivor has said the new cancer strategy would help improve patients quality of life and ease strain on the public purse.

Founder of the NI Cancer Advocacy Movement, Melanie Kennedy (41) was diagnosed with incurable secondary breast cancer in 2014. But following treatment she was told she now showed no evidence of active disease.

The mum-of -two said the announcement that a cancer strategy is to be commissioned represents a step forward but were not there yet.

We are going into a world where cancer will become more of a long-term chronic, liveable condition, she said.

I have outlived my prognosis by quite some way. Im living proof that if you get the right treatment at the right time you can survive and it can save money.

A cancer strategy would be good for patients quality of life and for the Department of Healths purse-strings.

But I find it extremely concerning that there is no sign of politicians going back to Stormont. Its a concern not just for cancer patients, but for all patients in Northern Ireland who dont know what the future holds.
Newry High School has paid tribute after a 15-year-old pupil was found dead on Thursday.

Allison Marimon-Herrera was found dead alongside her mum Giselle and an unidentified 38-year-old man at a flat in the Glin Ree Court area.

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Born in Spain, Allison had moved to Northern Ireland in 2017.

Principal of Newry High School Iestyn Brown said that Allison would be fondly remembered by all at the school.

The entire Newry High School community is deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of our Year 11 pupil Allison," she said.

"Allison was a talented, kind, courteous and well-mannered pupil with a beautiful smile. Both staff and pupils are profoundly saddened by her death and she will be remembered with great affection by her fellow pupils and staff alike.

"Our hearts go out to Allisons family circle; they are foremost in our thoughts and prayers at this sad time.

Allison's cause of death has not yet been established. Post mortems are being carried out on all tree bodies on Friday. Results are expected in the coming days.

Expand Close Allison Marimon-Herrera. Credit: PSNI / Facebook

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Whatsapp Allison Marimon-Herrera. Credit: PSNI

Police have said they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths and it is understood the three victims were known to each other and that they died in a violent manner.

Initial reports suggested detectives were treating the incident as a suspected double murder and suicide, but this has not been confirmed.
Tom Carson, who has died at 91, was the features editor of the Belfast Telegraph during the worst of the Troubles.

He worked for some 35 years at the paper from the 1960s until the early 1990s, and served under a number of editors including John E Sayers, Eugene Wason and Roy Lilley.

Paying tribute, Mr Lilley said: "Tom had a sensitive feel for language and an acute ability to spot writers who could light up a sentence or a paragraph with a single word or phrase.

"He was a man of ideas who put a premium on accuracy and detail, and he appreciated the virtues of research and determination."

Edmund Curran, who worked as a feature writer for Carson and later edited the Belfast Telegraph, said: "He shone a light through some of the darkest days in Northern Ireland.

"He developed and expanded the features pages of the paper with insight and with investigations of the Troubles.

"He was also a craftsman of newspaper design, and a most creative journalist."

Born in Belfast on February 7, 1928, his father was chief telegraphist in the newspaper and his mother was a nurse who had served during the First World War.

He was the first of his family to go to university and he graduated in civil engineering at Queen's.

He learned his trade in small East Midlands weeklies in the early 1950s.

He later returned to Northern Ireland and spent the rest of his career with the Telegraph.

Former colleague Louis McConnell said: "Tom was a brilliant journalist and features editor. He was simply a kind man and a good friend.

His son, journalist Steve Carson, said: "I was told by Seamus Heaney that my dad was one of the first people to publish one of his poems. He used to take a keen interest in the arts scene, and wrote theatre reviews and other material, and was supportive of the emerging generation of Ulster poets, writers and artists.

"He was mentioned in James Ellis' book Over The Bridge.

"Dad had a management role but during the Battle of the Bogside he was sent to Derry at short notice and filed a colour piece where he spotted a wedding taking place during the mayhem.

"Capturing love, hope and commitment during a riot was very much my dad."

He was a supporter of peace organisation the Corrymeela Community, a founder member of the Alliance Party and a member of the National Union of Journalists. He took a lead role in the prolonged strike of Belfast Telegraph journalists in the 1970s.

His first wife Patricia Miller was one of the first Alliance councillors. Some 12 years after her death in 1973 he married Kathleen Campbell, a widow, and became stepfather to Teresa, Yvonne, Raymond and Karen.

He is survived by three children from his first marriage - Steve, Linda, who works for a healthcare training agency, and Carol, who is an independent social work consultant.

He is also survived by his wife, stepchildren, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Former National Organizer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress [NDC], Kofi Adams, has described President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as a hypocrite for his call to disband party militia in Ghanas politics after Manasseh Azures expose.



Joy News reported that a militia group associated with the governing New Patriotic Party [NPP] is being trained at the Christiansburg Castle, popularly called the Osu Castle in Accra.



The group named 'De-Eye Group' has been meeting at the facility for close to two years  investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni claimed in his expose.



President Nana Addo is believed to be aware of the operations of the 'De-Eye Group' at the important state facility classified as a security zone.



Manassehs expose has, however, raised many questions on President Akufo-Addo's recent call for both NPP and NDC to dialogue on disbanding the party militia during his State of the Nation Address.



Speaking on the issue on NEAT FMs morning show Ghana Montie, Kofi Adams was of a view that the Presidents two-faced approach of handling issues mainly on parties militia has been exposed.



The President is a hypocrite. He doesnt mean well in his speeches. According to the video [expose], he [President Nana Addo] is aware of the vigilante camp at the castle, yet wants NPP and NDC to dialogue on vigilantism, Kofi Adams said.

















Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Police have released the names of the mother and daughter found dead at a flat in Newry on Thursday afternoon.

The bodies of 37-year-old Giselle Marimon-Herrera and her 15-year-old daughter Allison were discovered in the Glin Ree Court area.

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Police confirmed Ms Marimon-Herrera was from Colombia and had lived in Northern Ireland for around four years.

Her daughter Allison was born in Spain and had lived in Northern Ireland since 2017. She attended Newry High School.

The body of a 38-year-old man was also discovered at the property. He has not yet been named.

Principal of Newry High School Iestyn Brown said the school was shocked by Allison's death.

The entire Newry High School community is deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of our Year 11 pupil Allison," she said.

"Allison was a talented, kind, courteous and well-mannered pupil with a beautiful smile. Both staff and pupils are profoundly saddened by her death and she will be remembered with great affection by her fellow pupils and staff alike.

"Our hearts go out to Allisons family circle; they are foremost in our thoughts and prayers at this sad time.

PSNI Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said police did not yet "have any preliminary or definitive causes of death" and would not speculate.

He said that his thoughts were with the family and friends of the mother and daughter.

"My thoughts today are also with the teachers and pupils who knew her. They too are trying to come to terms with Allisons death," he said.

Detective Superintendent Murphy said that he believed Giselle and Allison were still alive in the early hours of Sunday morning but family members had been unable to contact them since.

"The exact circumstances of what happened in their home remains the subject of our investigation," he said.

"I would appeal today to anyone who came into direct contact with either Giselle or Allison or communicated with them via text or social media since Friday to contact detectives in Newry.

Expand Close Police at Glin Ree Court after three bodies were found in a flat Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

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Whatsapp Police at Glin Ree Court after three bodies were found in a flat

"We are currently supporting the families of those involved as well as Newry High school. I would ask that they are given the time and space to come to terms with these tragic events."

Post mortem examinations are set to be carried out on all three bodies on Friday and police said they expect the results "in the coming days".

Police have confirmed that it was not currently seeking anyone else in connection with the deaths.

Initial reports suggested detectives were treating the incident as a suspected double murder and suicide, but this has not been confirmed.

It is also understood that the three victims were known to each other and that they died in a violent manner.
Police are carrying out searches in Craigavon.

Police are currently carrying out searches in Craigavon as part of an investigation into dissident republican activity.

The searches are taking place in the Tullygally Road and Drumbeg areas.

The Tullygally shops themselves are not part of the searches but access to them is closed.

Upper Bann MLA Carla Lockhart said that there was "significant PSNI presence in the area".

"It is significant in scale so there is traffic disruption and a heavy police presence," the DUP MLA said.

"I've been with the PSNI this morning and they are working hard to keep our communities safe."
Police carried out a number of enquiries into the murder of David Murphy on Friday as they attempt to establish a motive for the crime.

The body of the 52-year-old was found at his home on the Church Road in Glenwherry last month.

Police visited a large number of locations across Ballymena and Keels on Friday as part of their investigation into his murder. They circulated leaflets appealing for information on Mr Murphy's murder.

PSNI Detective Chief Inspector Geoff Boyce said that Mr Murphy died as a result of gunshot wounds.

"We are working extremely hard to pinpoint a motive for this senseless murder and to retrace Davids steps in the days leading up to the killing," he said.

"We hope that todays investigative operation will provide fresh leads and new information that will lead us to Davids killers.

"I would ask anyone with information that could help us to please get in touch by calling 101. Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime.

A friend of Mr Murphy found him dead at his home after he had been shot twice with what they believe was a shotgun.

Mr Murphy was known to police and had previously been accused of possessing firearms and ammunition, and having the items in his possession for an act of terrorism for the UVF.

He was accused of blackmail and threats to kill last March and had been bailed after denying the charges.
The PSNI has been given 16.5m to deal with the challenges of Brexit

The PSNI has been given 16.5m to deal with the challenges of Brexit.

However, an overall policing budget has yet to be agreed just three weeks from the start of the new financial year.

The revelation came at a Policing Board meeting yesterday.

The money will be used to pay for 308 additional officers and a small number of staff for Brexit planning.

More than 100 of the new officers have already been recruited, with 208 to be taken on by the end of March 2020 - on top of the planned intake of 300 recruits next year.

Most of the money will be spent on operational and training needs, but a small amount will be used to fund more officers at ports and airports to manage the flow of trade.

Despite the extra money, a number of PSNI officers expressed concern that they "still don't have clarity on what our budget is going to be".

Chief Constable George Hamilton told the Policing Board that in the current fiscal year 800,000 had been spent on "head-scratching" exercises and preparing his force for the UK's exit from the EU.

"It (Brexit) consumes part of our days, every day," he said.

While the lack of certainty over a budget makes concrete planning impossible, Mr Hamilton said he was satisfied the PSNI was as prepared as it realistically could be.

"We are in as good a place as we can be, given all the uncertainty that is befalling us politically," he explained.

The PSNI could lose access to European Arrest Warrants, information databases and key alert systems in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

It was revealed yesterday the force had been working with police across the UK to ensure there is a "joined-up" approach to tackling offending amid concerns criminals will exploit any introduction of tariffs on goods.

"If you have a disorganised exit that creates the ability for organised crime to step into that space and make money, more people will get involved," a senior officer warned.

"We need to be match-fit to respond to that."
A resident has lost a High Court battle over permission being given for a new development in a seaside village near the Giant's Causeway.

Stuart Knox was challenging the decision to approve plans to convert and alter an "historic vernacular building" metres from his home in Portballintrae, Co Antrim.

In March 2018 local developer Seymour Sweeney secured permission to build a new detached dwelling unit on the site adjacent to a public car park.

But Mr Knox sought to judicially review Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, claiming it had failed to provide adequate reasons for giving the go-ahead.

His lawyers also pointed to the status of the Giant's Causeway - approximately two miles away - as the only World Heritage Site in Northern Ireland.

It was contended that by approving the development the Council failed to put into practice a policy within its own local development plan to protect this "national jewel".

Instead, they argued, the authority seemed to have given precedence to another planning policy in a different code.

The court also heard a planning officer recommended refusing the proposed development, believing it did not qualify as an exception to strict planning controls in the area.

But a Council committee instead decided to approve the scheme on the basis that conversion of the barn was acceptable in principle.

It also concluded there was no policy requirement for a private amenity space, and that the proposed development would be an improvement to what was currently on the site.

Mr Justice McCloskey identified the reasons given as the crucial issue for determination in the legal challenge.

Despite indicating the Council could have provided more expansive details, he held there was "sufficient clarity, coherence and intelligibility".

Dismissing Mr Knox's challenge, the judge said: "I conclude, by an admittedly narrow margin, that the recorded reasons pass muster in law."
Police came under attack in north Belfast

A 16-year-old boy has been arrested after a second night of disorder in north Belfast.

Police responded to a report of public disorder in the North Queen Street area on Thursday evening.

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Shortly before 7.25pm, police received reports of a group of youths throwing missiles and attempting to block the road.

Police attended the area and spoke to a number of local representatives and the young people dispersed.

It follows a similar incident in the area on Wednesday night.

The 16-year-old was arrested on suspicion of riotous behaviour and is currently in police custody.

Inspector Laura Kelly said that CCTV footage had been gathered and would be reviewed as part of their investigation into the incident.

It is totally unacceptable and those that involve themselves in this type of behaviour need to understand the distress they are needlessly causing to the community," she said.

Police continue to work with community representatives and it is clear that there are people still choosing to ignore our repeated warnings.

We will also continue to deploy resources, from local officers, supported by our tactical support group and evidence gathering colleagues patrolling North Belfast to prevent anti-social behaviour and detect those involved.

We do not want to criminalise young people however as we have previously said, if any offences are identified we will deal with these robustly.
A man convicted of attemptiong to kill a police officer has been jailed (PA)

A committed dissident republican terrorist has been jailed for 25 years after he was found guilty of planting a bomb under a police officers car.

Sean McVeigh, 38, of Victoria Street, Lurgan, was convicted in February of the attempted murder of the officer at his home using an under-car bomb following a non-jury Diplock trial.

The bid was foiled when the officers wife, who is also a serving police officer, raised the alarm at their home in the Eglinton area of Co Londonderry in the early hours of June 18 2015.

A sentencing hearing last week was told during submissions from the prosecution and defence that McVeigh has shown no remorse, before the hearing was adjourned for a week while Judge Stephen Fowler considered what he had heard.

McVeigh reappeared in the dock at Belfast Crown Court on Friday morning to be sentenced.

I have no doubt this was a terrifying ordeal for both officersJudge Stephen Fowler

Judge Stephen Fowler described McVeigh as a committed dissident republican terrorist.

He said the device which McVeigh had planted had one purpose, to kill anyone unfortunate enough to be in the car and noted that McVeigh has shown no semblance of remorse.

The judge said there were two potential victims, the police officer and his wife.

He said it was entirely fortuitous that the planting of the bomb was disrupted and that both could have been in the car, and added that given the car was parked in a residential area there could easily have been multiple deaths.

I have no doubt this was a terrifying ordeal for both officers, Judge Fowler said.

The judge sentenced McVeigh to 25 years in prison.

As McVeigh was led from the dock, a group of men in the public gallery raised their right arms with clenched fists.

Speaking outside court, PSNI Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell said Northern Ireland is a safer place with McVeigh in custody.

Sean McVeigh chose to attack two officers who had selflessly chosen to protect their community and keep people safe despite the ever-present threat posed by dissident republicans, he said.

I am thankful that despite Seans evil intentions, he was unable to take these people away from their families and destroy numerous lives all in the name of his warped ideology.

Sean gave little thought to the community of Eglinton and his reckless actions could have caused devastating harm to residents living in the area if the bomb had exploded. Furthermore, the incident caused considerable disruption and upset to the local community, some of whom had to be evacuated from their homes in the middle of the night.

Todays success follows a rigorous investigation by detectives and I welcome the fact that Sean McVeigh is behind bars. His plan was to destroy lives and it demonstrates the ruthlessness and recklessness of those opposed to peace and who live for violence.

Northern Ireland is a safer place with this terrorist removed from our streets.
Police have launched a murder inquiry following the discovery of three bodies in an apartment complex in Newry yesterday.

The bodies of a 38-year-old man, a woman aged 37 and her 15-year-old daughter were found in a flat at Glin Ree Court at around 11am.

The PSNI confirmed that its was not currently seeking anyone else in connection with the deaths.

"At this time the three have not been formally identified and cause of death has not been established," said Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy.

"Post-mortem examinations will take place in due course.

"We received a call from a concerned member of a family, worried that someone had not been in contact for a number of days.

"Officers responded and forced entry to the property, where they found the three bodies.

"Our investigation is ongoing at present and our thoughts at this time are very much with the loved ones of those who have died."

Initial reports suggested detectives were treating the incident as a suspected double murder and suicide, but this has not been confirmed.

It is also understood that the three victims were known to each other and that they died in a violent manner.

Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Police at Glin Ree Court after three bodies were found in a flat Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy speaks to the media at the scene at Glin Ree Court in Newry Police at Glin Ree Court after three bodies were found in a flat Kevin Scott / INM / Facebook

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"At this stage it would not be appropriate to elaborate further on the circumstances, as our enquiries at an extremely early stage," said Mr Murphy.

The nationalities of the victims have not yet been confirmed, but local sources indicated the two females were originally from South America and the man was from Scotland.

It's understood the woman worked for a Belfast-based engineering company.

News of the murder has shocked the normally quiet area of the city.

Surrounded by churches, Glin Ree Court has several apartment blocks off Downshire Road.

During the course of the afternoon schoolchildren walked past on their way home, surprised at the police activity in their neighbourhood as the PSNI's forensic team arrived on the scene.

Floral tributes later began arriving near the flat where the three people died.

An emotional woman visited the cordon with a child who carried a bunch of flowers, but they were not allowed into the sealed-off area.

"This is a quiet, normal sort of town and this is a part of that town," SDLP MLA Justin McNulty said.

"That makes this all the more shocking, all the more sad.

"The news has truly cast a dark cloud over our city today. My thoughts and prayers are with the family and close friends of the deceased."

SDLP councillor Michael Savage said the deaths were a tragedy.

"We believe a very tragic story is unfolding here," he said.

"This news has sent shock waves across our city and has left many people unnerved. At this stage it's too early to speculate and it's not helpful to do that.

"We will know over the coming hours and days what the circumstances around this very tragic incident are. People in the city I've talked to are very shocked.

"It's not something we wanted to wake up to any day, any week and it can't have been a very nice scene for those who found the bodies this morning to have gone in to and our thoughts go to them as well.

"The police have been understandably very vague until now, and I would ask anyone who can help with their investigation to do so. It's a shocking incident.

"The scale of it, to lose three citizens of our city in one day, in one incident is quite shocking to take in. It's a very, very sad day for our city."

Ulster Unionist councillor David Taylor said the news had caused disbelief.

"I am extremely saddened to hear of the tragic news breaking in Newry where the bodies of three people have been discovered at Glin Ree Court in the city," he said.

"There is understandably great shock within the local community regarding this news and my thoughts and prayers are with the family members of the deceased at this time.

"Obviously the PSNI are in the early stages of their investigation into this incident and they will need time to establish the full details as to how these three tragic deaths have occurred."

DUP MLA William Irwin said: "This is an awful tragedy and I understand police have commenced investigations into this very concerning discovery.

"I extend my sincerest sympathy, thoughts and prayers to the wider family of the deceased individuals at this awful time." Sinn Fein councillor Charlie Casey offered his sympathies to the families of those involved.

"Details are still emerging and a police investigation is under way and that should be allowed to proceed," he said.

"I would encourage anyone with information on this incident to bring it forward to the PSNI."

Independent councillor David Hyland said it was awful to hear of the incident. "There's a tremendous sense of shock in the city. I don't know the people involved, but it's very concerning to have this happen on your doorstep," he said.

"You normally hear of these types of incidents, murder suicides, happening around the world, not in a quiet residential area like Glin Ree Court."

Flowers carried by members of an emotional family arrived at the scene last night.
Kevin Skelton, whose wife Philomena died in the blast during the ceremony for victims of the Omagh car bombing on Market Street on the 15th August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People gathered on Market Street, Omagh, during the ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing on 15 August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People gathered on Market Street, Omagh, during the ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing on 15 August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People gathered on Market Street, Omagh, during the ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing on 15 August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People observe a minutes silence on Market Street, Omagh, during the ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing on 15 August 1998. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Richard Scott reads a poem entitled "Reality" during the ceremony for victims of the Omagh bombing at the site where a car bomb exploded on Market Street in Omagh on 15 August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

White Rose petals are thrown into a pond at the Omagh Memorial garden by people who attended the ceremony for victims of the car bomb on Market Street on the 15th August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People visit the Omagh Memorial garden after attending the ceremony for victims of the car bomb on Market Street on the 15th August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People visit the Omagh Memorial garden after attending the ceremony for victims of the car bomb on Market Street on the 15th August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People gathering on Market Street, Omagh, during the ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing on 15 August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People gathering on Market Street, Omagh, ahead of the ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing on 15 August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People gathering on Market Street, Omagh, ahead of the ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing on 15 August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People gathering on Market Street, Omagh, ahead of the ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing on 15 August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People gathering on Market Street, Omagh, ahead of the ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing on 15 August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

People gathering on Market Street, Omagh, ahead of the ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing on 15 August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Floral tributes left at the Omagh Bomb Memorial, located on Market Street, ahead of the ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing on 15 August 1998. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday August 15, 2018. The worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict killed 29, including a woman pregnant with twins. See PA story ULSTER Omagh. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People throw white petals into the Omagh bomb remembrance garden after the ceremony on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People throw white petals into the Omagh bomb remembrance garden after the ceremony on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People gather white petals to throw into the Omagh bomb remembrance garden after the ceremony on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Members of the fire service throw white petals into the Omagh bomb remembrance garden after the ceremony on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Members of the fire service throw white petals into the Omagh bomb remembrance garden after the ceremony on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People throw white petals into the Omagh bomb remembrance garden after the ceremony on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People throw white petals into the Omagh bomb remembrance garden after the ceremony on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People throw white petals into the Omagh bomb remembrance garden after the ceremony on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People throw white petals into the Omagh bomb remembrance garden after the ceremony on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People throw white petals into the Omagh bomb remembrance garden after the ceremony on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People throw white petals into the Omagh bomb remembrance garden after the ceremony on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. One of the victims Jolene Marlow's family pictured during the ceremony on the spot of the bombing on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. One of the victims Jolene Marlow's family(right) pictured during the ceremony on the spot of the bombing on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People are seen through the Omagh bomb memorial as the ceremony takes place on the spot of the bombing on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. A woman lays flowers at Omagh bomb memorial as the ceremony takes place on the spot of the bombing on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. A bell is rang once during the ceremony for each person who died and then one at the end for everyone. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People are seen through the Omagh bomb memorial as the ceremony takes place on the spot of the bombing on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. A bell is rang once during the ceremony for each person who died and then one at the end for everyone. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. A woman lays flowers at Omagh bomb memorial as the ceremony takes place on the spot of the bombing on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People are seen through the Omagh bomb memorial as the ceremony takes place on the spot of the bombing on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. People are seen through the Omagh bomb memorial as the ceremony takes place on the spot of the bombing on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. A young girl is seen through the Omagh bomb memorial as the ceremony takes place on the spot of the bombing on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. A young girl is seen through the Omagh bomb memorial as the ceremony takes place on the spot of the bombing on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. A young girl is seen through the Omagh bomb memorial as the ceremony takes place on the spot of the bombing on Market Street. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Pacemaker Press 15/08/2018 Prayers are held at at St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast on the 20th anniversary of Omagh bombing. Prayers are to held at 3.10pm to remember the victims of the bomb in Omagh 20 years ago today. 29 candles where lit for the victims. Picture Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 15th August 2017 Omagh bomb 20th anniversary remembrance ceremony. 29 people were killed in the Co. Tyrone town on 15th August 1998 when a dissident republican bomb exploded on Market Street on a busy Saturday afternoon. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

A man whose son died in the Omagh bomb said last night he was "lost for words" after another Tory ministerial gaffe about Northern Ireland.

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was murdered in the 1998 bombing, spoke out after Foreign Office minister Mark Field suggested the Omagh bombing set Northern Ireland on the path to the Good Friday Agreement when, in fact, the agreement was signed 13 weeks before the Real IRA atrocity.

The blunder came a day after Secretary of State Karen Bradley suggested deaths caused by soldiers and police during the Troubles were not crimes.

"I just am lost for words, to be honest, at the lack of knowledge and understanding of the sensitivities by people in high office," Mr Gallagher said.

"Omagh was the first atrocity of peacetime. That's how we see it."

Mr Field had been speaking in Parliament about a suicide bombing in Kashmir which killed 40 people.

He suggested the atrocity could be a "wake-up call" for peace in the disputed territory, just as the Omagh bombing had been here.

Mr Field added: "I'm reluctant to make a comparison with Northern Ireland, but it was actually the worst single civilian attack in Omagh in 1998 that, I think, finally became the moment at which many, not just in Northern Ireland but in surrounding countries, thought something absolutely, fundamentally had to change.

"I think that was the path towards that Good Friday Agreement."

Mr Field was responding to a question from Tory colleague Steve Baker about events in Kashmir.

Mr Gallagher said: "It doesn't give you confidence or much hope that the people making the most serious decisions - about Brexit, for example - are going to get that right when they can't get something about the Troubles right that we have all known about for over 40 years."

The Foreign Office was contacted for comment but had not responded by time of going to press.
Plans to hold a major rally in Strabane to commemorate the hunger strikers have been criticised by unionists.

Thousands are expected to attend the National Hunger Strike Commemoration on August 4, which will marks 38 years since 10 republican prisoners died in the Maze in 1981.

The event was launched by Sinn Fein MLA Raymond McCartney.

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Local DUP councillor Allan Bresland said it should not be held in the predominantly natoinalist Co Tyrone town.

He added: "A lot of UDR men who lived in the town were shot out of it during the Troubles. Republican terrorists also tried to kill me when I was in the UDR in 1981.

"Strabane was a very cold place for Protestants and it's not getting much better. I would say the best thing is to not hold it."

Kenny Donaldson from victims' support group South East Fermanagh Foundation also hit out.

He added: "Innocent victims across Northern Ireland remember their loved ones every day with dignity and respect.

"Everyone has the right in this society to remember their loved ones, but the way in which terrorism chooses to publicly glamorise it is obviously very difficult for innocent victims to stomach.

"There's also the message it sends out to today's generation, it almost excuses and explains the use of terrorism as a legitimate activity when it obviously was not."

Last year the annual commemoration was held in Castlewellan and was attended by Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald.

At the time Sandra Harrison, who lost her brother Alan in Kilkeel 30 years before, criticised the event, saying it was "an insult" to his memory.

Foyle MLA Mr McCartney, who spent 53 days on a fast during the first hunger strike in 1980, was in Strabane last Friday.

Launching the event, he said: "By October 3 of that year, 10 Irish republicans died on hunger strike to defeat Maggie Thatcher's policy of criminalisation.

"We are hoping that as many people from around west Tyrone in particular and throughout the island of Ireland will come to ensure that we celebrate the memory of 10 courageous Irish republicans."

Also present at the launch were local Sinn Fein representatives Catherine Kelly and Declan McAleer.

West Tyrone Sinn Fein MP Orfhlaith Begley said: "The 1981 hunger strike was a watershed in Irish history and had a profound impact in terms of radicalising communities throughout Ireland.

"This impact was particularly felt in areas like here in Strabane, where pride in the hunger strikers, their courage and sacrifice, remains undiminished almost 40 years on."
The assortment of ammunition and bomb-making components found during searches of a house in west Belfast

The assortment of ammunition and bomb-making components found during searches of a house in west Belfast

A west Belfast man linked to a haul of ammunition and components for bomb-making has been handed a five-and-a-half year prison sentence.

Kevin Anthony McLaughlin (38) was informed by Belfast Recorder Judge David McFarland that he was being sentenced for either storing the items or transporting them to be stored - and that some of the items were "potentially lethal."

McLaughlin, from Ballymurphy Drive, will serve half his sentence in prison and half on supervised licence, with Crown barrister Michael Chambers commenting: "It is clear these were items that were being stored on behalf of a terrorist organisation."

The terrorist offences arose following the search of a house in the Twinbrook area on November 22, 2015.

A large bag was located in the attic and inside were smaller bags containing three mercury tilt switches, 695 assorted cartridges, detonators and a magazine for an AK47.

McLaughlin had no links to the house that was searched, but his palm and finger prints were present on some of the bags containing the items.

Swabs were also taken from the handles and knot of a plastic bag and a mixed DNA profile was obtained. A major contributor to that profile was McLaughlin.

Also found during the search was a Paypoint receipt, which indicated a cash payment made at a shop on Springhill Avenue on March 28, 2015, bearing the name 'E McLaughlin' with an address at Ballymurphy Drive.

McLaughlin was arrested, and when he was interviewed in February 2017, he declined to answer any questions.

He also declined to give evidence during the short trial, where he faced five charges including possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances, possessing firearms and ammunition in suspicious circumstances and possessing ammunition designed to penetrate armour plating or body armour.

Last month, McLaughlin was convicted by Judge McFarland on four of the five charges, but was cleared of possessing the items with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property.

Defence barrister Eilis McDermott QC highlighted a delay in bringing the case to court and spoke of her client's long-standing medical issues. She also revealed that while McLaughlin has never been employed, he has dedicated his time as a volunteer in a mental health facility in his community.

Sending McLaughlin to prison, Judge McFarland said that while he accepted the "quality and quantity" of the explosives was "modest", the components could be used to make a bomb.

The judge also noted that the armour-piercing bullets were designed to cause maximum damage.
US President Donald Trump will host Irish leader Leo Varadkar at the White House next week to celebrate St Patricks Day.

On Thursday, the Taoiseach will participate in the annual shamrock ceremony  presenting President Trump with a bowl of Irelands famous greens.

St Patricks Day this year is on a Sunday.

The White House says the two are to discuss how to strengthen relations between the United States and Ireland, enhance economic and people-to-people ties and maintain progress achieved by the Good Friday Agreement.

The 1998 agreement set in place a historic powersharing assembly that took over some of the decision-making powers from London.

The agreement also reduced the UK militarys operations in Northern Ireland.
Campaigners have protested at the headquarters of Irelands national broadcaster calling for them to boycott Eurovision.

This years Eurovision Song Contest is to be held in Israel and campaigners say the states record on alleged human rights abuses makes taking part in the competition unconscionable.

Protesters handed in a petition of more than 16,500 signatures to the studios on Friday, calling on RTE and Irelands Eurovision entry Sarah McTernan not to take part in the singing contest.

Around 50 people carrying Palestine flags, banners and placards gathered at the broadcasters Dublin headquarters built a fake stone wall to mimic the IsraelGaza security barrier.

Expand Close About 50 people took part in the demonstration (Brian Lawless/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp About 50 people took part in the demonstration (Brian Lawless/PA)

Zoe Lawlor, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said the idea that Eurovision is non-political is false.

Israel has made this years Eurovision explicitly militaristic and political in nature, she said.

This is especially so as the contestants will be expected to perform in front of 500 soldiers from the Israeli military.

The boycott call has been supported by over 16,500 people in Ireland, the Musicians Union of Ireland, Irish Equity and many prominent figures associated with former Eurovisions, as well as respected public figures in the arts, humanities and human and civil rights fields.

Ireland has a proud tradition of standing with the oppressed and against injustice and we sincerely hope that Sarah McTernan will take this opportunity to stand on the right side of history by listening to the Palestinian and international calls for a boycott.

Fatin al Tamimi, a Palestinian woman who has lived in Ireland for 30 years, and chairwoman of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, says a boycott by Ireland would send a strong message of solidarity.

Irish Campaign to Boycott Eurovision spokesperson Betty Purcell will be on the Sean O'Rourke Show debating Keith Mills at around 10.30am this morning. You can tweet support @TodaySOR using hashtags #BoycottEurovision, or email todaysor@rte.ie or Text 51551 pic.twitter.com/EzKy1tAqMN  IPSC (@ipsc48) March 8, 2019

Palestine is watching and waiting and looking for Ireland to support them, there has been a civil call in society in Palestine to boycott Eurovision, she said.

We dont want Ireland to take part in the white washing of Israel, which is an apartheid state.

Their postcard campaign during the programme will show illegal settlements in the occupied territories as part of Israel.

Dee Forbes, director general of RTE, said last year that the company would not sanction any workers whose consciences prevent them from travelling to Israel.

As a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), RTE has registered to take part in the 2019 contest.

In September, the broadcaster stated that: RTE is not aware of any regularly participating public service broadcaster who is planning to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest.

RTE have been contacted for comment.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the ratification of the Bill was an important step to combat violence against women (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said there is an epidemic of violence against women in Ireland.

His comments come as the country formally ratified the Istanbul Convention, which works towards preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

Following a special cabinet meeting to mark International Womens Day, Mr Varadkar said the Government agreed on a number of measures to promote greater gender equality.

There is an epidemic of violence against women, it needs to stop, he added.

We know the names of many of the women who have had violence perpetrated against them and the ratification of the Istanbul Convention today is a very important part of that.

Had special Govt meeting on #InternationalWomensDay. We ratified the Istanbul Convention against gender-based violence. We need to end the epidemic of violence against women. Also agreed a new law to close the #GenderPayGap. Women earn 14% less than men here. Thats got to change pic.twitter.com/w7bM7JStkK  Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 8, 2019

He added that the ratification of the Bill is an important step to combat violence against women.

The Istanbul Convention was adopted by the Council of Europe in 2011.

It is an international legal instrument which requires governments to fully address the issue of violence against women, to protect women and to prosecute perpetrators.

Formal ratification took place at a ceremony at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on Friday morning, making Ireland the 34th Council of Europe Member State out of 47 to ratify the Convention.

Mr Varadkar was joined by a number of ministers at The Academy in Dublin for the event.

The Academy building was the location of a public meeting on September 5 1911, when the Irish Women Workers Union was founded. Constance Markievicz was among those to address the meeting.

Domestic and sexual violence can have devastating consequences for victims as well as society as a wholeCharlie Flanagan

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said the Act puts the victim centre stage.

Protecting and supporting victims has been a key priority for this Government. Domestic and sexual violence can have devastating consequences for victims as well as society as a whole, he added.

Ratifying the Convention delivers on a Government commitment and sends an important message that Ireland does not tolerate such violence.

That message is all the more appropriate given that today is International Womens Day.

Director of the National Womens Council of Ireland (NWCI) Orla OConnor said: We are here today because of the campaigning from womens groups, survivors and organisations campaigning to end violence against women.

Today, it is important to give a special thank you to women who showed such bravery in speaking out about their experiences of domestic and sexual violence and abuse, and their experiences of being re-victimised in family and criminal courts.

The Istanbul Convention prides the framework that we need to protect women and children and to work towards eliminating violence against women.

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre also welcomed the ratification.

Its CEO Noeline Blackwell said: Todays ratification will be the end of the journey of preparation and the beginning of a journey of implementation of the steps required by the Convention, which is the first legally binding treaty identifying violence against women as both a human rights violation and as downright discrimination.

The Cabinet also agreed to the text of the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill, which will require new employers of more than 250 employees to complete and publish a wage survey.

The Taoiseach said it would help reduce the pay gap that exists between men and women.
The latest developments in the countdown to Brexit (Yui Mok/PA)

As the countdown continues to the scheduled date of Brexit on March 29, here is what has been happening over the past week.

Days to go

21  or possibly more, depending on next weeks crunch Commons votes.

What happened this week?

Talks in Brussels involving Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay and European Union negotiator Michel Barnier appeared to hit a brick wall.

Both sides described the discussions on changes to the Northern Ireland backstop as difficult  usually diplomatic code for a complete breakdown.

Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn met Tory ex-ministers Nick Boles and Sir Oliver Letwin and Labour backbenchers Stephen Kinnock and Lucy Powell about their Common Market 2.0 plan for a soft Brexit.

What happens next?

Theresa May is pleading with the EU to give ground ahead of Tuesdays Commons showdown on her Withdrawal Agreement.

Negotiations are expected to continue over the weekend in the hope of a late breakthrough.

If the Withdrawal Agreement is rejected in the Commons on Tuesday, MPs will vote on Wednesday on whether they want a no-deal departure from the EU.

Assuming they do not, then MPs will be asked if they want to seek a short, limited extension to Article 50  delaying Brexit beyond March 29.

Good week

Nick Boles and Sir Oliver Letwin

Mr Corbyns talks with the Tory pair about their Norway-style plan, which would keep the UK in both the single market and a customs union, were described as positive and constructive. The Labour leader said he was more certain than ever that a sensible deal could be agreed  something which could reduce the chances of him fully throwing his weight behind a second referendum.

Bad week

Geoffrey Cox

His efforts to secure legally-binding changes to the backstop appear to have stalled, with critics dubbing his efforts to cover up what they view as the deals flaws Coxs codpiece.

Quote of the week

European Commission chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas: Michel Barnier informed the commissioners that while the talks take place in a constructive atmosphere, discussions have been difficult.

No solution has been identified at this point that is consistent with the Withdrawal Agreement, including the protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, which, as you all know, will not be reopened.

Tweet of the week

Labour MP Lucy Powell: Very positive and constructive meeting with @jeremycorbyn today together with our cross-party alliance for Common Market 2.0 @NickBoles @oletwinofficial @SKinnock. We discussed areas of agreement and where we differ and how we could work together to break the Brexit deadlock.

Very positive and constructive meeting with @jeremycorbyn today together with our cross-party alliance for Common Market 2.0 @NickBoles @oletwinofficial @SKinnock. We discussed areas of agreement and where we differ and how we could work together to break the Brexit deadlock.  Lucy Powell MP (@LucyMPowell) March 6, 2019

Word of the week

Codpiece

The Attorney General insisted it remains Government policy to achieve changes to the backstop that would allow him to alter his legal advice that the UK could potentially be trapped indefinitely in the arrangement.

I would say that it has come to be called Coxs codpiece, he told MPs. What I am concerned to ensure is that what is inside the codpiece is in full working order.
Criminals caught with knives should be punished with harsh sentences, a chief constable has said (Aaron Chown/PA)

One of Britains most senior police officers has demanded harsh sentences for criminals caught carrying knives as the countrys stabbings death toll continues to rise.

Andy Cooke, chief constable of Merseyside Police, said judges needed to get tough on people who end up before the courts for carrying weapons, and urged the Government to unite in tackling the issue of knife crime, rather than putting an obstacle in the way at every turn.

His comments come in the wake of a string of fatal stabbings on Britains streets which have prompted warnings of a national emergency.

On Thursday a teenager who was stabbed in West Kensington became the 17th person killed by a knife in London alone in 2019.

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Mr Cooke told the Daily Express: We need harsh sentences for people carrying knives. We need to ensure that those sentences are being carried out.

I think the sentencing guidelines for knife possession are about right. We just need to make sure that those sentences are actually being carried out.

We need the judiciary to be sentencing at the higher end of the sentencing that they can achieve on each and every occasion.

His calls follow a backlash against Chancellor Philip Hammond, who demanded that police shift existing resources into tackling knife crime rather than expect more funding.

Mr Hammond said forces should move officers away from lower priority crime and on to knife violence.

His words, which also included a suggestion that public services would get more cash if MPs voted for Prime Minister Theresa Mays Brexit deal, were lambasted by the Police Federation of England and Wales.

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The organisations national chairman John Apter said: Children are dying on our streets and he has the audacity to suggest that the police need to prioritise. Let me assure him  this is a priority.

Across England and Wales, my members are the ones working flat out to prevent more young people being killed.

They are often the ones on their knees in the street trying desperately to save the lives of these young victims, they are the ones who have to deliver the terrible news to families that their loved one will never be coming home again.

And they are doing it with almost 22,000 fewer colleagues than when the Conservative Government came to power.

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Mr Hammond insisted that police budgets were rising, and said knife crime was an immediate problem, you cannot solve it by recruiting and training more officers  that takes time.

The number of police officers across the 43 forces in England and Wales has fallen by more than 20,000 since 2009 but the Prime Minister has said there is no correlation between the decline and certain crimes.

Calling on Mr Hammond to leave his Westminster bubble and increase funding, Mr Apter said: It is an insult to my dedicated and hard-working colleagues, and it shows a shocking lack of awareness or understanding of the reality of the crisis happening right now in towns and cities across the country.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell accused Mr Hammond of being tin-eared and acting like a management consultant.

Its an insult to grieving families, to police officers, to the victims and to the public. His comments were ill informed, insulting and misguided. #bbcqt https://t.co/qtZHqGmZjb  John Apter (@PFEW_Chair) March 7, 2019

He said: The two most senior members of the Government are in total denial about the impact of police cuts. You cant protect people on the cheap.

Also on Friday, police announced the death of a 37-year-old man who had been injured in a stabbing in Soho on Sunday, while David Martinez was named as the 26-year-old Spanish man who died after a stabbing in Leyton, east London, on Wednesday.

And Peter Chesney, the father of 17-year-old Jodie Chesney who was knifed in the back in a seemingly motiveless attack in Harold Hill, east London, last Friday, made an emotional appeal for someone to do the right thing and help catch her killer.
An Old Bailey jury found the woman guilty of FGM in February (Nick Ansell/PA)

A mother has been jailed for 13 years after becoming the first person to be convicted of barbaric Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

The 37-year-old Ugandan woman was found guilty of cutting her three-year-old daughter despite deploying witchcraft to shut up her accusers.

Her former partner, a 43-year-old Ghanaian, was cleared of involvement in the offence in August 2017.

On Friday  International Womens Day  the mother, from Walthamstow, east London, appeared to be sentenced.

Its a barbaric practice and a serious crimeMrs Justice Whipple on FGM

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry QC told the court the young victim had recovered well but she was likely to have reduced sexual sensation in the future and long-term psychological damage.

Mrs Justice Whipple jailed the woman for 11 years for FGM plus two further years for indecent images and extreme pornography.

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She said: FGM has long been against the law and lets be clear FGM is a form of child abuse.

Its a barbaric practice and a serious crime. Its an offence which targets women, particularly inflicted when they are young and vulnerable.

The judge said it was not known why the woman inflicted FGM on her child, contrary to her culture, although witchcraft was a possibility.

On the psychological effect on the victim, she the told defendant: This is a significant and life long burden for her to carry.

You betrayed her trust in you as her protector.

The trial had heard how the girl was subjected to deliberate cutting with a sharp instrument at her mothers dirty home, the court heard.

Medics raised the alarm after she was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital with severe bleeding.

Authorities were told the child had been reaching for a biscuit when she fell and cut herself on the edge of a kitchen cupboard.

But the victim later confided in specially trained officers that she had been cut by a witch.

While the defendants were on bail, police searched the unemployed mothers home and found evidence of witchcraft.

Ms Carberry had said: Two cow tongues, they were bound in wire with nails and a small blunt knife also embedded in them, 40 limes were found and other fruit which when opened contained pieces of paper with names on them.

The names embedded included both police officers involved in the investigation of the case, the social worker, her own son and the then director of public prosecutions.

These people were to shut up and freeze their mouths. There was a jar with a picture of a social worker in pepper found hidden behind the toilet in the bathroom. Another spell was hidden under the bed.

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Whatsapp A total of 40 frozen limes contained spells aimed at silencing police, social workers and lawyers in the Female Genital Mutilation case (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Giving evidence, the mother, who has previous convictions for benefits fraud, denied cutting her daughter, saying: Its a big accusation. Someone who would cut a childs private parts, theyre not human. Im not like that.

A jury at the Old Bailey rejected her explanation and found her guilty of FGM in February.

Mitigating, Natasha Wong QC said the child had not been subject to an FGM protection order, adding: Things may have been a lot worse if she had not been taken to hospital.

The mother had been threatened during her time in custody meaning her sentence would be harder, she said.

During the sentencing hearing, the mother also admitted having indecent pictures of a child, publishing videos of sexual activity with a dog and a snake and possessing extreme pornographic images.

This landmark case sends a very clear message that FGM will not be tolerated in this country under any circumstancesJohn Cameron, Childline

Her sentences for those offences will run consecutively to the FGM term.

Her former partner pleaded guilty to two charges of possession of an indecent image of a child and two charges of possessing extreme images showing people having sex with a horse and snake.

Mrs Justice Whipple sentenced him to 11 months in prison, although he has already served his time on remand.

The court heard it would be up to the Home Office to decide whether to allow him to continue living in Britain.

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John Cameron, head of the NSPCCs Childline, said: This landmark case sends a very clear message that FGM will not be tolerated in this country under any circumstances.

Some cultures consider FGM a necessary part of bringing up a young girl. There may even be pressures for families to conform. The truth is it is a horrific form of child abuse and a criminal offence which has no place in todays society.

If we want to protect girls from this dangerous and potentially life changing practice we need to talk about FGM, encourage people to seek help and advice and report any concerns if they believe a child has been cut or is about to be.

Leethen Bartholomew, head of the National FGM Centre, which is run as a partnership between Barnardos and the Local Government Association, said: The first person to be convicted and sentenced for FGM is truly a watershed moment and sends a strong message to society that this crime will not be tolerated and offenders will be held accountable.

It has caused shockwaves in communities which practise FGM and we hope that this prison term will act as a deterrent, while encouraging other survivors to come forward to seek support.

Lynette Woodrow, of the CPS, said: People have rightly noted that this is the first conviction for FGM in the UK. FGM is an extremely serious form of child abuse and todays sentence underlines that fact.

We at the Crown Prosecution Service have kept in mind all the way through that at the heart of this case is a three-year-old girl.

Her mother planned and arranged for this procedure to be carried out. She knew it was wrong. When it went wrong, her daughter was seriously injured. She then tried to cover up her crimes by lying about what had happened.

But our prosecution was able to present evidence to the jury that cut through her lies.

I am very proud of my team of prosecutors at the CPS who have worked so hard with police and counsel to successfully prosecute this crime.

We hope that this conviction encourages those who have experienced FGM, or have suspicions about FGM offences, to come forward knowing that we will treat everyone with sensitivity and respect.

It has been an extremely challenging investigation, and it has further strengthened our commitment to investigating FGM and bringing prosecutions where there is strong evidence in order to keep young people safeDetective Chief Inspector Ian Baker

Detective Chief Inspector Ian Baker, of Scotland Yard, said: Todays sentencing brings to a close an appalling case where a young girl has suffered life-changing FGM injuries at the hands of her mother.

While she may never recover from the emotional trauma of what has happened to her, she is now safely being cared for and we hope that she and her sibling can start to rebuild their lives.

It has been an extremely challenging investigation, and it has further strengthened our commitment to investigating FGM and bringing prosecutions where there is strong evidence in order to keep young people safe.
Ox tongues with screws embedded in them were found in the defendants home (Met Police/PA)

A mother is facing up to 14 years in prison after becoming the first person to be found guilty of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

The 37-year-old Ugandan woman was found guilty of cutting her three-year-old daughter despite deploying witchcraft to shut up her accusers.

Her partner, a 43-year-old Ghanaian, was cleared of involvement following an Old Bailey trial.

The couple, from Walthamstow, east London, had been jointly accused of carrying out FGM on their daughter over the 2017 summer bank holiday.

The girl was subjected to deliberate cutting with a sharp instrument at her mothers dirty home, the Old Bailey heard.

Medics raised the alarm after she was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital with severe bleeding.

The defendants told authorities that their daughter had been reaching for a biscuit when she fell and cut herself on the edge of a kitchen cupboard.

But the victim later confided in specially trained officers that she had been cut by a witch.

Her older brother told police he saw his sister crying and blood dripping on the floor.

While the parents were on bail, police searched the unemployed mothers home and found evidence of witchcraft.

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Prosecutor Caroline Carberry QC said Two cow tongues, they were bound in wire with nails and a small blunt knife also embedded in them, 40 limes were found and other fruit which when opened contained pieces of paper with names on them.

The names embedded included both police officers involved in the investigation of the case, the social worker, her own son and the then director of public prosecutions.

These people were to shut up and freeze their mouths. There was a jar with a picture of a social worker in pepper found hidden behind the toilet in the bathroom. Another spell was hidden under the bed.

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Giving evidence, the mother denied cutting her daughter, saying: Its a big accusation. Someone who would cut a childs private parts, theyre not human. Im not like that.

She told jurors that she resorted to spells because cutting your child, thats not something for any person. So, as a mother, I knew I did not do it.

The father denied having an interest in voodoo or witchcraft and claimed he was outside when his daughter was hurt.

The court heard FGM would need more than one person to do it, although police have not identified anyone else in the case.

Mrs Justice Whipple will sentence the mother at the Old Bailey on Friday.

Type II female genital mutilation, of the type inflicted on the toddler, involves the mutilation of the clitoris and removal of the labia minora, the court heard.

Immediate effects include bleeding, severe pain, shock and susceptibility to infection, with long-term impacts including gynaecological problems, reduced sexual enjoyment, higher risk pregnancies and mental health problems.

FGM carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

There have been just three other trials involving FGM  two in London and one in Bristol  which all ended in acquittals while some 298 prevention orders have been put in place to safeguard children at risk.
MSPs want the circumstances surrounding the two GSA fires to be explored in a public inquiry (Andrew Milligan/PA)

There should be a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the two fires in four years that left the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) badly damaged, a Holyrood Committee report has found.

The renowned art school was extensively damaged last June while it was undergoing a 35 million restoration programme following the previous fire in May 2014.

The Scottish Parliaments Culture Committee published its report on Friday after taking evidence on the circumstances surrounding the blazes.

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The report found that in the period up to the 2014 fire, GSA appears not to have specifically addressed the heightened risk of fire to the Mackintosh building and was not convinced an adequate risk management approach had been taken by the art school with specific regard to the building.

The committee also said it was concerned about the length of time taken for a mist suppression system to be installed in the Mackintosh building and questioned whether more could have been done in the interim period to protect the building.

Committee convener Joan McAlpine said: The board of Glasgow School of Art were custodians of this magnificent building, one of the most significant to Scotlands rich cultural heritage.

They had a duty to protect Mackintoshs legacy.

Glasgow School of Art itself must learn lessons from its role in presiding over the building, given that two devastating fires occurred within their estate in such a short space of time.

The committee is calling on the Scottish Government to establish a public inquiry with judicial powers.

The devastating blaze that ripped through the famous Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed building in June 2018 also spread to nearby premises on the citys busy Sauchiehall Street.

Art school bosses have previously said they are confident the Mackintosh will be rebuilt.

GSA said: The Glasgow School of Art would like to thank the committee for the time and energy that has been put into this report and for making it available so quickly.

There is much to be welcomed that will be useful for those who, like the GSA, are custodians of some of Scotlands most important historic buildings.

As a nation we are rightly proud of being able to provide unique places of learning, whose history continues to inspire generations of students.

It is one of the significant factors in attracting students to Scotland.

There are always lessons that can be learned and we are happy to take forward the most appropriate and helpful as we bring this much-loved building back to life.

The GSA said there were some factual inaccuracies in the report, adding it was surprised it does not expressly clarify the legal distinction between the GSA and Keir Construction (Scotland) Ltd in relation to responsibility for the site, stressing that Keir had full control of the site.

It added: The Mackintosh Building is a national (indeed international) treasure but it is not lost and it will certainly return.
Christine McLaughlin will take part in the MoonWalk in June (Danny Lawson/PA)

An NHS chief has signed up for the MoonWalk after a lump she thought was a cyst turned out to be breast cancer.

Christine McLaughlin, chief finance officer for NHS Scotland, hopes to raise awareness  and cash  by taking part in the June fundraiser in Edinburgh.

The MoonWalk, organised by breast cancer charity Walk the Walk, has to date raised more than 21.3 million to support people with the condition.

Ms McLaughlin, director of health finance at the Scottish Government, was diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer in October last year.

She said: Id felt a very obvious lump in my breast and assumed it was a cyst.

Id been really healthy up until that point and had no history of breast cancer in my immediate family.

Having said that, I had a very strong awareness of breast cancer and I also have a twin sister whose work is in developing oncology drugs.

But it still wasnt really in my mind that the lump would be cancer and I was convinced it was nothing to worry about.

My goal is that everyone should be able to get all the help and support they need at whatever stage in their own cancer journeyChristine McLaughlin

Ms McLaughlin has recently finished six rounds of chemotherapy over 18 weeks and is having a lumpectomy later this month, followed by radiotherapy.

She said: A few weeks ago, I was sitting in the Breast Cancer Unit at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh and I saw a sign on the wall celebrating the grants which Walk the Walk has made.

Id already signed up for The MoonWalk Scotland at that point, but I hadnt told everyone I was taking part, or indeed about my breast cancer.

Having seen that Walk the Walk sign and the positive impact of the grant first hand, it gave me the courage to be more public about my own diagnosis and I decided to tweet about my fundraising effort.

Through doing events like The MoonWalk and raising money, my goal is that everyone should be able to get all the help and support they need at whatever stage in their own cancer journey.

To sign up for the event on June 8 go to www.walkthewalk.org
The UK will be plunged into uncertainty and may never leave the European Union if MPs reject the Brexit deal next week, Theresa May said.

In a warning ahead of Tuesdays Commons showdown on her Withdrawal Agreement, the Prime Minister acknowledged no one knows what will happen if her plan is defeated.

Mrs May said both the democratic and economic cases for backing her deal are clear, and issued a plea to MPs: Lets get it done.

The Prime Minister is urging Brussels to give ground in order to help her deal survive Tuesdays crunch vote by agreeing changes to the Northern Ireland backstop measures.

In a speech in Leave-voting Grimsby, the Prime Minister said: Next week MPs in Westminster face a crucial choice: Whether to back the Brexit deal or to reject it.

Back it and the UK will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen.

We may not leave the EU for many months, we may leave without the protections that the deal provides. We may never leave at all.

Everyone now wants to get it done, move beyond the arguments, past the bitterness of the debate and out of the EU as a united country ready to make a success of the future.

In a plea to Brussels for support in making changes, she said what the European Union does over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.

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Aiming her words directly at EU leaders, she said: Now is the moment for us to act. Weve worked hard together over two years on the deal. Its a comprehensive deal that provides for an orderly exit from the EU and sets the platform for an ambitious future relationship.

It needs just one more push to address the final specific concerns of our Parliament. So lets not hold back. Lets do what is necessary for MPs to back the deal on Tuesday.

Mrs May also sent a message of warning to hardline Brexiteers considering voting against her deal next week.

Any delay to the Withdrawal Agreement could lead to a form of Brexit that does not match up to what people voted for, or to a second referendum, she said.

A softer Brexit deal could mean no end to free movement, no ability to strike our own trade deals, no end to the big annual payments, no taking back control  which is what the British people voted for, said Mrs May.

And she accused Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of supporting a divisive second referendum that would take the UK right back to square one.

She added: If MPs reject the deal, nothing is certain. We would be at a moment of crisis.

MPs would immediately be faced with another choice. Either we leave the EU with no deal on March 29  I dont believe that would be the best outcome for the UK or the EU  or we delay Brexit and carry on arguing about it, both amongst ourselves and with the EU. That is not in our interests either.

More talking will not change the questions that need to be settled and delay risks creating new problems.

Mrs May warned that if the UK asks for a delay simply to give MPs more time to decide what to do, the EU might insist on new conditions that were not in our interests before they agreed to such an extension.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned Brussels that a failure to co-operate on securing changes to the Brexit deal could poison relations with the EU for years.

This is a moment of change in our relationship between the UK and the EU and history will judge both sides very badly if we get this wrong, Mr Hunt told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

We want to remain the best of friends with the EU. That means getting this agreement through in a way that doesnt inject poison into our relations for many years to come.

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The EU said technical discussions are ongoing and it insisted Brussels has come forward with ideas to resolve the deadlock.

European Commission spokesman Alex Winterstein told reporters in Brussels: The EU side has offered ideas on how to give further reassurances regarding the backstop. You are aware of all this.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar said the UK Government had failed to offer any solutions on the Withdrawal Agreement.

Speaking in Dublin, he said the deal reached in November, including the Irish backstop, was already a compromise delivered in response to British requests.

We were and remain happy to apply the backstop only to Northern Ireland if they want to go back to that, it doesnt have to trap or keep all of Great Britain in the single customs territory at all or for a long period, said Mr Varadkar.
Shamima Begum, 15, who fled the UK to join the Islamic State terror group (PA)

The baby son of Islamic State runaway Shamima Begum has died.

Ms Begum, 19, gave birth in a refugee camp in the middle of February, having already lost two children.

Her third childs death was confirmed on Friday by her familys lawyer Tasnime Akunjee.

His death has been confirmed .  Akunjee  (@mohammedakunjee) March 8, 2019

He had earlier tweeted: He was a British citizen.

Ms Begum, from Bethnal Green in east London, was 15 when she and two other schoolgirls went to join the terror group in February 2015.

She resurfaced heavily pregnant in a refugee camp in northern Syria last month and spoke of her desire to return to the UK, as the self-styled caliphate collapsed.

On February 17, her family announced the boys birth and said they believed he was in good health.

In an earlier interview with the BBC, Ms Begum said: Losing my children the way I lost them, I dont want to lose this baby as well and this is really not a place to raise children, this camp.

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Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped Ms Begum of her British citizenship amid a fierce national debate over whether she should be allowed to return.

Her family, who pledged to appeal against the decision, also wrote to Mr Javid pleading with him to allow a safe passage for the boy to come to the UK.

Last month, Mr Javid confirmed the boy was a British citizen and said he had considered the childs interest when deciding to revoke Ms Begums citizenship.

Following news of the boys death, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott criticised Mr Javids decision.

She tweeted: It is against international law to make someone stateless, and now an innocent child has died as a result of a British woman being stripped of her citizenship. This is callous and inhumane.

Dal Babu, a former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent and friend of the Begum family, described it as an entirely avoidable death of a British citizen.

He told BBCs Newsnight: The family reached out to the Home Office and requested help. The Home Office sent a reply and said Youve come to the wrong department, you need to speak to Foreign and Commonwealth Office. There was no attempt to help by the Home Office.

What we have here is a totally innocent child, whatever you may think of Shamimas shortcomings, the mistakes she made as a 15-year-old child when she was groomed on our watch.

We failed to safeguard her and now we have failed, as a country, to safeguard a child  a totally innocent British subject.

He added that he believed the decision regarding Ms Begums citizenship should be urgently reviewed.

Mr Javid, when asked whether there was any plan for Ms Begums son, had previously told the Commons Home Affairs Committee it would be incredibly difficult for the Government to facilitate the return of a child from Syria.

If it is possible somehow for a British child to be brought to a place where there is a British consular presence, the closest place  it might be Turkey for example  in those circumstances I guess potentially it is possible to arrange for some sort of help with the consent of the parent, he added.

Inside Syria, whether in a camp or maybe somewhere else, there is no British consular presence.

A Government spokesman said: The death of any child is tragic and deeply distressing for the family.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has consistently advised against travel to Syria since April 2011.

The Government will continue to do whatever we can to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and travelling to dangerous conflict zones.
Flowers near the scene in St Neots Road in Harold Hill, east London, where 17-year-old Jodie Chesney was stabbed to death (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Police investigating the fatal stabbings of two 17-year-olds have made a string of arrests.

Scotland Yard on Friday said that a second male had been arrested on suspicion of murdering teenager Jodie Chesney.

She was stabbed in the back as she socialised with friends in a park in Harold Hill, east London.

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Officers also arrested four males  two 15-year-olds and two others aged 17 and 18  on suspicion of murdering the second teenager in West Kensington, in the west of the capital.

The victim was named locally as Ayub Hassan, with a family friend paying tribute to him as a kind and handsome boy with ambitions of becoming a barrister.

Jodie was in the park when she was approached by two males and knifed from behind in what police called a savage, evil attack at about 9.25pm on March 1.

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Scotland Yard gave no age for the male who is in custody after being arrested in London on Friday morning.

A 20-year-old man arrested in Leicester on Tuesday evening remains in custody on suspicion of her murder, police said.

Ayub was found with stab injuries to the chest in Lanfrey Place on Thursday afternoon.

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After laying flowers at the scene, family friend Amina Osman said: He had ambitions, he was looking forward to being a barrister. He was looking forward to being a grown-up man.

He was good with his words, he was very kind and handsome.

But she said the fatal attack was the fourth attempt on his life, having previously been found unconscious in a park, run over and had been stabbed on another occasion.

Community support worker Ms Osman said the boys mother Siraad collapsed with shock when she heard of his death.

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Jodie was playing music with five other teenagers in the park when they became aware of two males who left at around 9pm without interacting with them, police said.

About 30 minutes later, the pair returned and one stabbed the girl scout in the back without saying a word, officers added.

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The latest stabbings will add to growing urgency for action to be taken to tackle knife crime across the UK.

Police have called for a reverse in the cuts to the number of officers under austerity measures, but Chancellor Philip Hammond on Thursday told forces to refocus their existing resources.

Meanwhile, an 18-year-old man was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of murdering 26-year-old David Steven Martinez-Valencia, Scotland Yard said.

The Spanish-Colombian is believed to have been fatally stabbed in a home in Leyton, east London, on Wednesday, before dying in the street.

At this stage it is understood the victim and suspect were known to each other. The incident is not thought to be gang-related, the Met said.
The EIS had been demanding a 10% pay rise for teachers (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Scotlands largest teaching union has suspended plans to ballot members over strike action after a revised pay offer was put forward.

Members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) last month voted against a deal offering a 9% increase, with a further 3% next year.

The strike ballot was set to begin on Monday as part of the campaign to secure an improved settlement.

A revised pay offer was put forward by the Scottish Government on Thursday, however, with a letter confirming the proposal on Friday, the union said.

The EIS Council has now agreed overwhelmingly to recommend teachers accept the fresh deal.

The new offer is for a 3% rise backdated to April last year, 7% from this April and a further 3% from April 2020, the EIS said.

The union said the offer represents a significant success for Scotlands teachers and it has called off the move towards possible strike action.

The Scottish Government welcomed the decision to suspend the ballot on industrial action.

EIS general-secretary Larry Flanagan said the union has been campaigning for action over issues such as the recruitment and retention of teachers, professional development, workload, and the level of support for pupils with additional support needs, as well as pay.

He said: The new proposed offer outlined in todays letter from the Scottish Government represents a positive attempt to address these issues.

It offers a 3-year pay settlement of 3% from April 2018, 7% from April 2019 and 3% from April 2020 for a compounded total increase of 13.51% over three years.

It also includes additional commitments aimed at tackling workload, supporting teacher professional development, and enhancing the teacher leadership programme.

Taking all of these elements together, it represents a package that the EIS is now recommending to Scotlands teachers.

Very pleased we have reached an agreement on pay, workload and empowerment with @EISUnion. This creates an excellent opportunity to strengthen Scottish education and make sure our young people can fulfill their potential.  John Swinney (@JohnSwinney) March 8, 2019

In October last year, thousands of teachers and their supporters marched through Glasgow as part of their campaign for a larger pay hike.

Responding to the development on Friday, Deputy First Minister and Education Secretary John Swinney said: I welcome the EIS decision to suspend the ballot on industrial action.

The Scottish Government and (local government body) Cosla made a strong offer to teachers which, by a narrow margin, was rejected.

Given the importance we place on valuing teachers and improving the attractiveness of the profession, I have looked again at the investment the Scottish Government is making.

He added: This landmark agreement brings together a partnership with local authorities and professional associations to tackle critical issues, in tandem with a settlement on pay.

It is an agreement that removes the threat of industrial action, will provide the stability we need to make the reform Scotlands education system needs and deliver the best possible outcomes for our young people.

Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: This is a positive development, nobody wants to see strikes in our schools.

Now it is up to teachers to decide if the offer is acceptable.

However, it should never have come to this and it should not have taken John Swinney nearly two years to listen to what teachers are saying about pay erosion and workload.

Scottish Greens education spokesman Ross Greer said: This is great news for Scotlands overworked and underappreciated teachers, after a near 25% pay cut over recent years.
President Donald Trump talks to Apple boss Tim Cook during meeting in tt the White House (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

To President Donald Trump, it was an awkward slip of the tongue. To Apple chief executive Tim Cook, it was an opportunity to poke some sly fun at a president who has often clashed with the tech industry.

A day after Mr Trump mistakenly referred to Mr Cook at a White House meeting as Tim Apple  an understandable slip, perhaps, coming from the owner of the Trump Organisation  Mr Cook quietly altered his Twitter profile, replacing his last name with the Apple logo.

Mr Cook did not publicly acknowledge the change, but it did not take long for Apple fans to notice and spread the word.

Non-Apple fans, though, may not get the joke.

Mr Cooks Apple-logo icon is only visible on iPhones and Mac computers.

Dreamers are our co-workers, friends and neighbors. They contribute to our economy and communities. Their dreams are our dreams. Were calling on the new Congress to uphold American values and permanently protect the Dreamers.  Tim Cook (@tim_cook) February 11, 2019

On Windows, it is a blank square; on Android, it renders variously as an X-ed out or blank grey rectangle. (Tim Square was probably not the connotation the Apple boss was going for.)

That is not wholly surprising for Apple, which famously prefers its own devices and software over others.

Apple did not respond to a query about the logo misstep (if indeed it was a misstep).

The White House, meanwhile, appears to be engaged in some damage control.

In the official transcript of the meeting , the words Tim and Apple are separated by a dash as if Mr Trump had paused, possibly to thank both the executive and the company.
Paul Manafort, Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, has been sentenced for tax and bank fraud (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians.

Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he deals with complications from gout, showed no visible reaction as he heard the 47-month sentence, a significant break from sentencing guidelines that called for a 20-year prison term.

The sentence caps the only jury trial following indictments stemming from special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. It was not related to Manaforts role in Donald Trumps presidential campaign.

Before Judge TS Ellis III imposed the sentence, Manafort told him that saying I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.

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But he offered no explicit apology, something the judge noted before issuing his sentence.

Manaforts lawyers argued that their client had engaged in what amounted to a routine tax evasion case, and cited numerous past sentences in which defendants had hidden millions from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and served less than a year in prison.

Prosecutors said Manaforts conduct was egregious, but the judge ultimately agreed more with defence lawyers.

These guidelines are quite high, Mr Ellis said.

A jury convicted Manafort on eight counts last year, concluding that he hid from the IRS millions of dollars he earned from his work in Ukraine.

Manafort still faces sentencing in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty in a separate case connected to illegal lobbying.

Outside court, Manaforts lawyer, Kevin Downing, said his client accepted responsibility for his conduct and there was absolutely no evidence that Mr Manafort was involved in any collusion with the government of Russia.

Prosecutors left the courthouse without making any comment.

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Though Manafort has not faced charges related to collusion, he has been seen as one of the most pivotal figures in the Mueller investigation.

Prosecutors, for instance, have scrutinised his relationship with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate US authorities say is tied to Russian intelligence, and have described a furtive meeting the men had in August 2016 as cutting to the heart of the investigation.

After pleading guilty in the DC case, Manafort met with investigators for more than 50 hours as part of a requirement to cooperate with the probe.

But prosecutors reiterated at Thursdays hearing that they believe Manafort was evasive and untruthful in his testimony to a grand jury.

Manafort was wheeled into the courtroom in a green jumpsuit from the Alexandria jail, where he spent the last several months in solitary confinement.

The jet black hair he bore in 2016 when serving as campaign chairman was gone, replaced by grey.

Expand Close Lawyer Kevin Downing following the sentencing of his client, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort (Cliff Owen/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Defence lawyers had argued that Manafort would never have been charged if it were not for Mr Muellers probe.

At the outset of the trial, even Mr Ellis agreed with that assessment, suggesting that Manafort was being prosecuted only to pressure him to sing against Mr Trump.

Prosecutors said the Manafort investigation preceded Mr Muellers appointment.

The jury convicted Manafort on eight felonies related to tax and bank fraud charges for hiding foreign income from his work in Ukraine from the IRS and later inflating his income on bank loan applications.

Prosecutors have said the work in Ukraine was on behalf of politicians who were closely aligned with Russia, though Manafort insisted his work helped those politicians distance themselves from Russia and align with the West.

In arguing for a significant sentence, prosecutor Greg Andres said Manafort still has not accepted responsibility for his misconduct.

His sentencing positions are replete with blaming others, Mr Andres said.

Mr Andres also said Manafort still has not provided a full account of his finances for purposes of restitution.

The lack of certainty about Manaforts finances complicated the judges efforts to impose restitution, but Mr Ellis ultimately ordered that Manafort could be required to pay back up to 24 million dollars (18 million).

In the DC case, Manafort faces up to five years in prison on each of two counts to which he pleaded guilty. The judge will have the option to impose any sentence there concurrent or consecutive to the sentence imposed by Mr Ellis.
As apologies go, it wasn't half-hearted. Karen Bradley offered a complete and sweeping 'sorry' for her comments on security force killings.

But given the gravity of her original remarks, the question remains whether words are enough to put right the wrong.

If she had said the same about controversial killings in Britain, would she still be in a job? Damn sure she wouldn't.

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The Secretary of State was speaking as the inquest continues into the killing of 11 civilians by the Parachute Regiment in Ballymurphy in 1971.

Prosecutors are also set to announce their decision next week on the prosecution of soldiers involved in the deaths of 14 innocents in the Bogside.

If these events had taken place in Birmingham and Liverpool, not Belfast and Londonderry, Karen Bradley would have been out on her ear within an hour of making her offensive statement. It was deeply alarming that there was no automatic, immediate reaction - even on the Opposition benches - in the House of Commons when she said that security force killings were never crimes.

Should Karen Bradley resign following her comments on security force killings in Northern Ireland? Posted by Belfast Telegraph on Thursday, March 7, 2019

Had she suggested that police officers who had shot dead English women, children and male civilians had been "fulfilling their duty in a dignified and appropriate way", there would have been instantaneous uproar in the chamber.

"I was wrong. It was factually wrong. It's not what I believe," the Secretary of State said yesterday.

"It was a heat-of-the moment slip of the tongue. Whatever you want to call it, there is no excuse for it.

"I shouldn't have said it and I want to say sorry to all those people, all those families, that have been kind enough to share their experiences with me."

Anybody can misspeak and the words from the Secretary of State sounded heartfelt. But the problem is that they occurred against a backdrop of a government which has shown a callous disregard for victims right across the spectrum.

If Mrs Bradley was part of an administration which had genuinely tried to address legacy issues, it would be different. Instead, it has dragged its feet and furthered the distress of those injured and bereaved in the Troubles.

In her 'mea culpa' interview round last night, the Secretary of State pledged to do everything possible to rebuild trust with victims.

Her advisers will have to come up with something very significant to even begin to do that.

When Mrs Bradley landed the job 14 months ago, she knew next to nothing about Northern Ireland. It is clear that she hasn't been on a steep learning curve. Do we not deserve better?
Are you a school leaver seeking access to the workplace? Or maybe you're an employer looking for the talent of the future? Connect to Success is a trusted and free website that offers just that

Designed and maintained by the Department for the Economy (DfE) the website aptly titled Connect to Success allows those in search of apprenticeships and work experience and employers offering opportunities to connect.

For those seeking an apprenticeship, this website will allow you to see the opportunities that are available.

If you're a pupil at school, you can use Connect to Success to search online for school work experience placements. It has opportunities from a range of employers and occupational areas across Northern Ireland.

The free website provides employers with a simple advertising forum to showcase their opportunities, no matter what the sector; from hospitality to manufacturing, retail and tourism, this website taps into all industries.

Accessed by young people on the hunt for ideas and opportunities, the website is also an important tool for parents and schools guiding young people on their route into the workplace.

Providing a world of opportunity for young people, opportunities on the site can span welder apprenticeships in the North West to an administrator in Antrim, tourism and leisure positions in Armagh and sales and accountancy apprenticeships in Belfast. The apprenticeships covered traverse all four corners of Northern Ireland and all industries.

Apprenticeships on the website combine on-the-job practical work with day release for training all while offering paid employment.

As an apprentice, you can work alongside experienced staff that will teach you the skills needed to thrive in your chosen world of work. It also involves off-the-job training where you will achieve vocational qualifications to enhance and build your future career.

Connect to Success also includes higher level apprenticeships, equivalent to foundation or bachelor's degree level, in exciting and growing areas including engineering, creative media and IT.

If you are an employer and would like to advertise your apprenticeship https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/connecttosuccess or if you would like to access a world of opportunities, visit https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/services/search-apprenticeship-opportunities
Its easy to see why many celebrities in Hollywood quickly fall into the dangerous traps of the secular world. Hollywood is not a fan of religion, particularly Christianity, so many stars find their identity in worldly materials, possessions and people. There are a few celebrities, however, that have chosen to take the path less traveled. They have decided to keep their identity firmly in Christ, despite the spotlight and fame they have acquired.

Christian Athlete Tim Tebow is known for being a lover of Christ, and shares it regularly with his large audience. In his book Shaken: Discovering Your True Identity in the Midst of Lifes Storms, Tebow writes out how no matter how successful he becomes in sports, that his real identify is with the Lord.

Regardless of how your life will impact others and what that will look like, I just know that when your identity is grounded in God, when you trust in Him, you become part of a bigger picture. And you begin to live out this wonderful poem He has written for your life. This is the truth when life is smooth sailing, and this is the truth when storms come.

Tebows fiance, Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, has also been vocal about her Christian roots. The Miss Universe 2017 winner spoke to The Christian Post and said, I grew up in a Christian home; I grew up with a Christian family and for me, finding my identity has always been in Christ. Things dont always go the way that you plan it out to be, but you know that He has a plan for your life.

Miss Universe was amazing. And its a year that I will treasure forever. But Im not defined by that. Im not defined by a title! she stressed. It gave me a platform to be able to do and stand and speak up about the things that I am passionate about and that I have a heart for. I feel like what we do with the platform that we get is what defines us way more than the platform.

Kristoffer Polaha, who stars in the upcoming movie Run the Race, also spoke with The Christian Post about finding your identify in such a secular world. He encouraged those that struggle to find themselves to ask the question whose am I and then find your identity in Christ.

I think with Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and this cultivated life where you get to basically say, Hey, look how amazing my life is, and then [you] feel like youre not pretty enough, or smart enough, or handsome enough, or skinny enough, Polaha said. If you put your identity in these things that fade so quickly, that tends to cause a lot of pain and ultimately a lot of hurt.

Chris Pratt has grown to be one of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood, but that doesnt stop him from celebrating his religion. Pratt has been known to speak out about Christ; for example sharing I love God, thats my thing I love Him! And you should too! at the 2018 Teen Choice Awards. Pratt didnt have faith his entire life, and actually was led to Jesus when he was 20 years old. A man invited Pratt to church, and the rest was history.

At that moment I was like, I think I have to go with this guy. He took me to church. Over the next few days I surprised my friends by declaring that I was going to change my life, Pratt recalls.

Being a Christian in Hollywood isnt easy, but these celebrities prove that it can be done.
Guwahati: At least three persons were killed and 12 others injured after a truck fell into a deep gorge in Manipur's Churachandpur district on Thursday.

According to the reports, the incident took place between Tuliaphai and P Sehjol village along Tipaimukh road in Churachandpur district.

The truck bearing registration number MN-04-3798 was ferrying road construction workers when it fell into a deep gorge.

Locals and security personnel had recovered three bodies and rescued 12 other injured labourers.

The injured persons were rushed to nearby hospital.

(By Hemanta Kumar Nath, Guwahati)
The Last Supper refers to the last meal Jesus ate with His disciples before His betrayal and arrest. The Last Supper is recorded in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26:17-30; Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-30). It is not recorded in the Book of John. The meal is the last time Jesus spends with His disciples and He tells them what is to happen.

The Last Supper was more than Jesus last meal; it was a Passover meal as well. Maundy Thursday is the name given to the day on which Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples. It is the fifth day of Holy Week, followed by Good Friday, on which the Crucifixion of Jesus is commemorated. One of the important moments of the Last Supper is Jesus command to remember what He was about to do on behalf of all mankind; shed His blood on the cross thereby paying the debt of our sins (Luke 22:19).

In most depictions, Jesus and His 12 disciples drink wine and bread  all hallmarks of a Passover celebration. The books of Mark, Matthew and Luke all describe the Last Supper as a Passover Seder. Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples in the traditional Seder that were prescribed in His time by the sages. This was the order which He employed in the Last supper. Paul gives us the liturgical order for recognizing Jesus sacrificial death in the Passover celebration. The Bible tells us: For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lords death until He comes.' The Lord s Supper occurred in a Passover Seder. Communion represents the final Passover.

In addition to predicting His suffering and death for our salvation (Luke 22:15-16), Jesus also used the Last Supper to give the Passover new meaning, institute the New Covenant, establish an ordinance for the church, and foretell Peters denial of Him (Luke 22:34) and Judas Iscariots betrayal (Matthew 26:21-24).

The Last Supper brought the Old Testament observance of the Passover feast to its fulfillment. The first of Gods seven annual festivals is the Passover (Leviticus 23:5). This falls in early spring in the Holy Land. The celebration of the Passover is in remembrance of the time in Israels history when the Lord moved through Egypt destroying the firstborn of all animals and people. This is described in great detail in the Old Testament in Exodus 11 and 12. The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years. God commissioned Moses to lead the Israelites out slavery and out of Egypt but Pharaoh refused to let them leave. Though Pharaoh told his servants that he would release them, He never followed through on His promises and God took action. The plagues were Gods judgment in action on Egypt as a result of Pharaohs refusal to release the children of Israel, Gods people.

The Passover references the final of the ten plagues God placed upon Egypt as a way to force Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave the country and their enslavement. The final plague was death of the first born, the most horrific of the ten. The Bible tells us at around midnight one night, all the firstborn children of the Egyptians began to die, including the first child of Pharaoh, which was the highest position in Egyptian society, and the first child of the maidservants, which was the lowest occupation in Egyptian society. The Israelites were commanded by God to take the blood of a male lamb that was without blemish, and smear it on the doorposts of their home. When the Lord saw the blood, He would pass over that house. This foreshadows the coming of Jesus, the spotless lamb of God whose blood would cover our sins for those who believe in Him. Gods judgment passed over believers who honored His command. Since that night, Jews have celebrated Passover in remembrance of Gods grace to them  it commemorated the time when God speared them from the plague of physical death and brought them out of slavery in Egypt (Exodus 11:1-13:16).

During the Last Supper with His apostles, Jesus took two symbols associated with Passover and infused them with fresh meaning as a way to remember His sacrifice, which saves us from spiritual death and delivers us from spiritual bondage: After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes. And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you (Luke 22:17-20).

The words He used during the Last Supper about the unleavened bread and the cup echo what He had said after He fed the 5,000: I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirstyI am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the worldWhoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink (John 6:35; 51; 54-55). Salvation comes through Christ and the sacrifice of His physical body on the cross.

The Last Supper was rooted in the Old Covenant even as it heralded the New. It was a very significant event and proclaimed a turning point in Gods plan for the world. In comparing the crucifixion of Jesus to the feast of the Passover, we can see the redemptive nature. As symbolized by the original Passover sacrifice in the Old Testament, Christs death atones for the sins of His people; His blood saves us from slavery and rescues us from death and through His death we find new life.
The other day I was in one of those rare states of being in between both print/digital and audiobooks. When I was thinking about what to read next, I remembered March is Women's History Month. This prompted me to sort through my new releases to see which titles would fit the theme. I found books geared to young adult readers and to adults. My mix includes fiction and nonfiction, and one is written in verse.



Although not all the books I feature today are technically women's history, I think they all nicely celebrate the spirit of Women's History Month.



American Princess by Stephanie Marie Thornton (Berkley, March 12): Alice Roosevelt, daughter of President Teddy Roosevelt, was a no-nonsense, you-can't-stop-me kind of woman. She grew up in the public eye and knew how to use that platform to its best advantage, without stifling her wild side. Yes, she smoked cigarettes in public, but she also understood Washington, DC. Even so, she was less savvy when it came to friendships and love, and her flamboyant personality veiled some deep sorrows. This well-researched novelized version of Alice's life begins in 1901 with her father's unexpected presidency (after McKinley was assassinated) and ends in late 1970s, just before her death. Alice witnessed two world wars, women's suffrage, two presidential assassinations and one resignation, and great changes in technology and society. Audiobook: Penguin Audio; 15 hr, 27 min; read by Elizabeth Wiley.



The Real Wallis Simpson: A New History of the American Divorcee Who Became the Duchess of Windsor by Anna Pasternak (Atria; March 5): You know who Wallis Simpson was: the woman who caused a king to give up his throne. Simpson's disruption of the monarchy is often thought of as the least of her sins. She was supposed to have been a Nazi sympathizer and spy and self-promoting schemer. Pasternak's new biography provides an alternate perspective of what lay behind the gossip and public perceptions and paints a different picture of the woman who was shunned by Britain, suggesting that the royal family took advantage of the situation to dethrone Edward, whom they thought unfit to rule. In this account, Simpson is less concerned with becoming a queen than she is with the welfare of her husband, being the only one who knows how to placate his whims and moods. Pasternak also suggests a fairly innocent reason for the Windsors' interest in Hitler. Did Simpson get a raw deal from the royals and the media or did she deserve her bad press? This biography helps round out Simpson's story. Audiobook: Simon & Schuster Audio; 11 hr, 37 min; read by Laura Kirman.



Salt on Your Tongue by Charlotte Runcie (Canongate, March 5): It's a little hard to describe this book of personal essays because Runcie covers so much territory within its covers. As the subtitle--"Women and the Sea"--suggests, the unifying thread of her pieces is the ocean. Some of the essays are clearly nature writing; some are about motherhood; and others take a literary, mythology, or history bent. Women have always had a mixed relationship to the sea. The ocean took their husbands and sons but also provided food, beauty, and recreation. Runcie explores the shoreline and tidal pools, recalls songs and poems celebrating the sea, and turns to the waves when life is overwhelming. Shakespeare, folk tales, Greek mythology, and science all make appearances, but Runcie's Scotland and its rugged coast is the star. This is a book for those who love the beach. Audiobook: Cannongate; 8 hr, 48 min; read by Jessica Hardwick.



Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc by David Elliott (HMH Books for Young Readers, March 26): This novel in verse geared to young adult readers imagines Joan of Arc's last day through multiple perspectives, some living, some not. Elliott uses a variety of poetic forms, which are signaled by typeface, placement of the words on the page, and ornamented initial capital letters. We hear from Joan's mother and Catholic saints; from the king and from her childhood friends. We also hear from inanimate objects, like a church's altar; from animals, including a stag; and from emotions and states of being, such as lust. Elliott bases at least some of his work on the historic records of Joan's two trials. The first trial includes Joan's own words and resulted in her being burned at the stake. The second trial, held years after her death, documents the voices of the people who knew her well. The book includes a map, a guide to pronunciations, and an index of poetry forms used. Forget the "young readers" label; this is for you too. Audiobook: no information.



Women Who Dared to Break All the Rules by Jeremy Scott (Oneworld, March 12): This collection of short biographies focuses on six women who defied their gender stereotypes and/or societal expectations to follow their own advice. Some are well-known women, such as Mary Wollstonecraft whose equal rights document has inspired women for centuries. Others are more obscure, such as Margaret Argyll, who was often the subject of a hostile press as she pursued her passions (and divorces). The other women are Victoria Woodhull (women's suffrage), Aimee Semple McPherson (a preacher), Edwina Mountbatten (last vicereine of India), and Coco Chanel (fashion icon). This collection provides a good introduction to interesting women who were a force to be reckoned with during their lifetimes; some of them are still making waves today. The book is illustrated with black-and-white photos and ends with a bibliography of the sources used. Audiobook: no information.



Yes She Can compiled by Molly Dillion (Schwartz & Wade, March 5): This book collects the stories of 10 young women who served in the White House during the Obama administration. Now a few years older and in a different America, these women give us an inside look at the everyday workings of the White House, share their thoughts on being part of a historic presidency, and inspire women and girls to find their own place in American government. Although these women helped shaped their country and the world, they aren't afraid to share their blunders and mistakes, and it's exactly this personal and down-to-earth viewpoint that makes these essays so accessible. You too, no matter your age, can make a difference: get out the vote, become an activist, volunteer, find a new job--just do what you can to make the world a better place for everyone. The book includes a glossy photo insert and ends with a guide for how young people can become involved in the day-to-day business of running the government. The target audience is young adult, but these smart, capable women are speaking to all American citizens. Audiobook: no information.
For Immediate Release, March 8, 2019 Contact: Patrick Donnelly, (702) 483-0449, pdonnelly@biologicaldiversity.org Protections Sought for Two Rare Plants in Nevada's Clark County Wildflowers Threatened by Urbanization, Mining LAS VEGAS The Center for Biological Diversity today notified the state of Nevada that it will seek federal endangered species protection for two rare wildflowers with highly restricted habitats. The Las Vegas bear poppy (Arctomecon californica) is threatened by gypsum mining, unmanaged off-highway vehicle recreation and illegal cattle grazing. The white-margined beardtongue (Penstemon albomarginatus) is threatened by Clark Countys plans to privatize public lands south of Las Vegas for subdivisions and industrial sprawl, as well as other factors. These precious rare plants are indicators of the health of our unique Mojave Desert ecosystem, and theyre in big trouble, said Patrick Donnelly, the Centers Nevada state director. Mining and urban sprawl threaten to crush these beautiful wildflowers out of existence. They must be protected before its too late. The Las Vegas bear poppy has fuzzy leaves and delicate yellow flowers. It grows in soils with high gypsum content, primarily on public land surrounding Lake Mead, including in Gold Butte National Monument. It also grows in isolated patches in Arizona. The Center has previously petitioned to protect the plants pollinator, the Mojave poppy bee. The white-margined beardtongue has abundant pink flowers and unique white-fringed leaves and grows in wind-blown sandy soils. It stabilizes low sand dunes known as coppice dunes, which provide nesting and burrowing sites for wildlife. While it grows in isolated populations in California, Arizona and Nevadas Nye County, the most robust and essential population grows in and around Clark Countys Hidden Valley, which the county has proposed privatizing for development. The Endangered Species Act is the worlds most successful way to prevent extinction, said Donnelly. These vulnerable, beautiful wildflowers are essential to the ecosystems supporting Clark Countys iconic desert wildlife, including the desert tortoise and the desert bighorn sheep. Protecting these plants as endangered species will help ensure a vibrant, healthy desert for future generations. The Endangered Species Act requires that states be notified 30 days before petitions for listing are submitted. The Center will submit the petitions to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this spring.
University of Wisconsin-Madison postdoctoral researcher Alex Linz examines a plate streaked with N. aromaticivorans (in yellow), a soil bacterium that could turn a renewable source -- lignin from plant cells -- into a replacement for petroleum-based plastics.

With a few genetic tweaks, a type of soil bacteria with an appetite for hydrocarbons shows promise as a biological factory for converting a renewable -- but frustratingly untapped -- bounty into a replacement for ubiquitous plastics.

Researchers, like those at the University of Wisconsin-Madison-based, Department of Energy-funded Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, hoping to turn woody plants into a replacement for petroleum in the production of fuels and other chemicals have been after the sugars in the fibrous cellulose that makes up much of the plants' cell walls.

Much of the work of procuring those sugars involves stripping away lignin, a polymer that fills the gaps between cellulose and other chemical components in those cell walls.

That leaves a lot of useful cellulose, but also a lot of lignin -- which has never carried much value. Paper mills have been stripping lignin from wood to make paper for more than a century, and finding so little value in the lignin that it's simply burned in the mills' boilers.

"They say you can make anything from lignin except money," says Miguel Perez, a UW-Madison graduate student in civil and environmental engineering.

But they may not know Novosphingobium aromaticivorans as well as he does.

Perez, civil and environmental engineering professor Daniel Noguera and colleagues at GLBRC and the Wisconsin Energy Institute have published in the journal Green Chemistry a strategy for employing N. aromaticivorans to turn lignin into a more valuable commodity.

"Lignin is the most abundant source -- other than petroleum -- of aromatic compounds on the planet," Noguera says, like those used to manufacture chemicals and plastics from petroleum. But the large and complex lignin molecule is notoriously hard to efficiently break into useful constituent pieces.

Enter the bacterium, which was first isolated while thriving in soil rich in aromatic compounds after contamination by petroleum products.

Where other microbes pick and choose, N. aromaticivorans is a biological funnel for the aromatics in lignin. It is unique in that it can digest nearly all of the different pieces of lignin into smaller aromatic hydrocarbons.

"Other microbes tried before may be able to digest a few types of aromatics found in lignin," Perez says. "When we met this microbe, it was already good at degrading a wide range of compounds. That makes this microbe very promising."

In the course of its digestion process, the microbe turns those aromatic compounds into 2-pyrone-4,6-dicarboxylic acid -- more manageably known as PDC. By removing three genes from their microbe, the researchers turned the intermediate PDC into the end of the line. These engineered bacteria became a funnel into which the different lignin pieces go, and out of which PDC flows.

Bioengineers in Japan have used PDC to make a variety of materials that would be useful for consumer products.

"They have found out the compound performs the same or better than the most common petroleum-based additive to PET polymers -- like plastic bottles and synthetic fibers -- which are the most common polymers being produced in the world," Perez says.

It would be an attractive plastic alternative -- one that would break down naturally in the environment, and wouldn't leach hormone-mimicking compounds into water -- if only PDC were easier to come by.

"There's no industrial process for doing that, because PDC is so difficult to make by existing routes," says Noguera. "But if we're making biofuels from cellulose and producing lignin -- something we used to just burn -- and we can efficiently turn the lignin into PDC, that potentially changes the market for industrial use of this compound."

For now, the engineered variation on N. aromaticivorans can turn at least 59 percent of lignin's potentially useful compounds into PDC. But the new study suggests greater potential, and Perez has targets for further manipulation of the microbe.

"If we can make this pipeline produce at a sufficient rate, with a sufficient yield, we might create a new industry," Noguera says.
The Conversation Africa is an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community. Its aim is to promote better understanding of current affairs and complex issues, and allow for a better quality of public discourse and conversation.Go to: https://theconversation.com/africa
Guwahati : Three villages in Nagaland have been declared as tobacco free village. Tobacco free declaration program was held at Nsunyu village community hall on Wednesday for Nsunyu, Chunlikha and Likhwenmchu villages.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Tseminyu Nokchasashi Kichu as special guest of the program delivered a brief speech.

He expressed his gratitude to the leaders of the three villages (Nsunyu, Chunlikha and Likhwenchu villages, called Kithagha group) for initiating and bringing themselves into reality as tobacco-free villages.

Kichu also said that village councils are the right bodies for taking up such firm decisions having tremendous impact on the entire community, and also challenged the neighbouring villages to follow the same.

District Nodal Officer (NTCP) Kohima, Dr Arenla Thong gave power point presentation on community sensitization as awareness to control using tobacco, during which she challenged the upcoming youth to save themselves from the influence of using Tobacco.

At the program, State Nodal Officer (NTCP) and Joint Director, Department of H&FW, Dr Hotokhu Chishi made the declaration and said that there are four tobacco free villages in Tseminyu Sub-Division and twelve tobacco free villages in the State at the same time.

Pledged taking ceremony in support of Tobacco Free Movement was led by Board Chairman NBC, Asao Seb.

The program was chaired by VCC, Jesse Seb Nsunyu. Zukeya Woch. VCC Chunlikha shared about the initiative taken by the three village councils in Tobacco Free Movement. Invocation prayer and vote of thanks were pronounced by Pastor Nsunyu Baptist Church, Khitima Magh and Precilla Magh from Kithagha Mothers Association.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
This week on social media

Acumen Media has collated the week's biggest news stories on South African social media. Most South Africans had been fixated on the abuse story involving gqom queen Babes Wodumo - it reached over 70% of the coverage in the top 10.



President Cyril Ramaphosa's Q&A made an impact along with the ongoing State Capture Inquiry and Eskom's never-ending financial woes.



Karima Brown's showdown with the EFF left many shaking their heads from both sides of the fence. On the flipside, EFF leader Julius Malema's birthday was the most positive story this week.



The upcoming elections and the Guptas are still on the charts, however, they are small in comparison to other stories. The Coligny sunflower murder conviction was praised across the nation, except for Afriforum who have indicated that they would appeal.
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The long-awaited expansion of the Daly Overpass got a major boost Thursday with the province announcing $70 million for the project.

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The provincial government announced $70 million for the Daly Overpasss long-awaited expansion, in its 2019 budget released on Thursday. (Chelsea Kemp/The Brandon Sun)

The long-awaited expansion of the Daly Overpass got a major boost Thursday with the province announcing $70 million for the project.

In releasing the 2019 provincial budget, Finance Minister Scott Fielding said the province is spending more than $350 million on highways infrastructure, including the Daly Overpass project.

The Brandon overpass is under the umbrella of the Manitoba government.

In August 2015, Brandon-Souris Conservative MP Larry Maguire announced the federal government would chip in one-third of the then $60-million cost for the Daly Overpass, or $19.2 million, through the New Building Canada Fund.

A spokesman for Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler said Thursday that the federal share of the Daly Overpass investment is approximately $20 million.

Maguire said Thursday he is pleased to learn the overpass project has finally got the money to proceed, along with federal funding that survived the change in government.

The project, he said, "will be very exciting to alleviate some of the traffic flows on 18th Street."

The province has previously indicated it hoped to begin construction on the Daly Overpass last November. However, the city had yet to receive a final design for the Daly Overpass, nearly a year after possible options for the aging bridge were presented at a public open house, The Brandon Sun reported.

City manager Rod Sage told The Sun in November the project is being handled by the provincial government and as far as he was aware, nothing had been presented to city administration or council.

"So until someone sees a final design, no work is going to start. Thats basically just general engineering practice," he said.

Despite the delays, Coun. Shaun Cameron (University) said he is happy with Thursdays funding announcement. Part of the overpass sits in his ward.

Having a funding commitment from the province on paper is "nice to see," he said, adding it will help move the project forward.

Mayor Rick Chrest was equally enthusiastic with the news.

The overpass project, he said, "has been nicely working along through the conceptual and design stage, but the funding needs to be available when the time comes."

Now that the funding has been announced, he said, "thats quite a big one and important one for Brandon ..."

The current configuration of the overpass has been described as creating a bottleneck on 18th Street, due to the fact it has only one northbound lane.

Four options for the project, to expand the more than 50-year-old overpass from its current three lanes to four, were brought forward at an open house at the Victoria Inn in December 2017.

The work would involve two separate structures, each with two lanes, with a pathway on both sides for pedestrians and cyclists.

Part of the project would also involve a new extension of Pacific Avenue from 18th Street to 26th Street. The work is expected to impact area homes and businesses and require potential annexations.

The province is working with Landmark Planning and Design, as well as Dillon Consulting, on the project.

 brobertson@brandonsun.com, with files from Drew May, staff

 Twitter: @BudRobertson4
After she went blind, Brandon University student Andrea McIvor thought she would never gain her independence.

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After she went blind, Brandon University student Andrea McIvor thought she would never gain her independence.

The then 17-year-old from Swan River was still in high school.

Brandon University student Andrea McIvor shakes hands with Cathryn Smith before receiving the International Women's Day Outstanding Woman of 2019 award on Thursday. (Melissa Verge/The Brandon Sun)

"I had to stay in high school for an extra three years just so I would be able to adjust," McIvor said.

Up to that point, she had no vision in her left eye and very little in her right eye, but she could still see. However in 2014, she got a CT scan done that found a tumour in her left optic nerve was causing her limited vision.

She got an operation that removed most of it, and she ended up going blind.

"I was kind of thrown into the world of blindness very quickly," she said.

She spent time giving presentations in her small community about being visually impaired, and an extra three years in high school learning to adjust to life not being able to see.

Since then, the now 21-year-old has started her post-secondary education at Brandon University.

McIvor was one of 21 women honoured during an Outstanding Female Students Reception at Brandon University on Thursday. With International Womens Day taking place today, the event was held to celebrate women in the community and their accomplishments.

It was a bit challenging to move to Brandon, McIvor said, but she adjusted quickly with the help of her orientation and mobility specialist from Canadian National Institute for the Blind.

"Hed help me at first get around campus, to be able to go to and from my classes," she said. "Once I got a handle on navigating campus, thats when I moved out into the community, so he taught me how to get to and from places walking and taking buses."

Technology helps McIvor do her school work, she said. She has a screen reader on her computer that reads out everything, and her textbooks come in PDFs that can also be read out.

After graduating from Brandon University, McIvor plans on pursuing a masters degree and help other visually impaired people find their independence.

"I thought after I go blind I wouldnt be able to do anything, but then here I am four years later living on my own (and) doing all this stuff I thought I would never be able to do," she said. "Thats what I hope to help other visually impaired people find."

Sometimes, not being able to see can be isolating, she said, so she wants other people to know that they shouldnt be afraid to say hi to someone whos visually impaired.

"Having a white cane kind of makes you different, so people arent sure how to approach someone," she said. "So, just not being shy about saying Hi, this is my name, how are you."

 mverge@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @Melverge5
ROSSER, Man. - Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says he will not be introducing a motion of non-confidence against Justin Trudeau despite saying the prime minister has lost the moral authority to govern because of the SNC-Lavalin affair.

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Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer speaks during a press conference in Toronto on Thursday, March 7, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

ROSSER, Man. - Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says he will not be introducing a motion of non-confidence against Justin Trudeau despite saying the prime minister has lost the moral authority to govern because of the SNC-Lavalin affair.

"It's up to his party now to determine whether or not they want to keep him on as leader," Scheer said during a news conference in Rosser, Man., on Friday.

Scheer said his party will be introducing motions "aimed at getting to the bottom of this" but a motion of non-confidence is not on the table.

Scheer added that if Trudeau respected his office, he would step aside.

"The role of prime minister is bigger than any one individual, it's bigger than Justin Trudeau himself and if he truly had respect for the office he holds, he would do the right thing and step aside."

Trudeau is in the midst of a controversy over allegations his office leaned on former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to help SNC-Lavalin avoid prosecution.

On Thursday, Trudeau said he was not aware at the time that there was an erosion of trust between his officials and Wilson-Raybould. He said he continues to believe there was no inappropriate pressure put on her to offer the Montreal-based engineering firm a remediation agreement instead of proceeding to trial for bribery and fraud.

The former justice minister has alleged she was improperly pressured to stop the criminal prosecution and was punished for refusing by being moved to the veterans affairs portfolio. Wilson-Raybould and her cabinet ally, Treasury Board president Jane Philpott, resigned from cabinet in the wake of the controversy.

SNC-Lavalin lost a court bid early Friday to overturn the public prosecutor's refusal to negotiate an agreement that would see the company avoid a criminal trial.

When asked whether he would have offered SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution, Scheer said that he would never interfere in a court case.

"What Justin Trudeau stands accused of is overstepping that line for political purposes. That is a very dark and dangerous path that we do not want to go down as a country," he said.

The Opposition leader was in Manitoba to announce that he would remove the GST from home heating and energy costs if the Conservatives were to win the October election. Scheer said the policy would put $1.6 billion back into the Canadian economy.
WINNIPEG - Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister says his long-promised cut to the provincial sales tax will take effect July 1, even if the opposition delays the legislation that enacts it.

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Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister speaks to media following the delivery of Manitoba's 2019 budget, at the Legislative Building in Winnipeg, Thursday, March 7, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski

WINNIPEG - Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister says his long-promised cut to the provincial sales tax will take effect July 1, even if the opposition delays the legislation that enacts it.

Opposition parties in the Manitoba legislature are allowed to choose up to five bills each spring and hold them back until the fall. Pallister said Friday his government will make the cut effective as of Canada Day, even if the bill is still before the legislature.

"Just as the NDP did," Pallister told The Canadian Press, pointing to 2013 when the then-NDP government raised the sales tax to eight per cent from seven on July 1, even though the Progressive Conservatives opposition delayed passage of the relevant bill until December.

"We stayed here through the long hot days of the summer on principle, opposing their attempt to break their word to Manitobans. But they still imposed the (tax) hike."

Pallister promised to reverse the tax increase during the 2016 election campaign. On Thursday, the government introduced a budget that, among other things, would bring the sales tax back down to seven per cent.

Opposition NDP Leader Wab Kinew said Friday his party has not yet decided whether to delay the budget bill, which would also change some income tax measures and eliminate a subsidy to political parties.

"We want to see what else this government's legislative agenda looks like," Kinew said.

Kinew acknowledged the government has the ability to enact the tax cut as scheduled, regardless of his efforts.

It's common for governments to raise taxes on items such as tobacco and fuel immediately on budget day, even though the budget bills are not passed into law for weeks or months.

But last year, the NDP delayed a bill that would have enacted a provincial carbon tax beyond the initial Sept. 1 start date. The government reacted by pushing back the start date to December and later, in a dispute with the federal government, abandoned the tax altogether.

Kinew and Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont have already indicated they will vote against the sales tax cut, although they cannot block it due to the Progressive Conservative majority in the legislature.

Kinew said the tax cut is coming at the expense of proper funding for health care, education and other programs.

Pallister said the cut will put a little extra money in people's pockets.

"The money is staying with the senior couple that's trying to make ends meet ... the money is staying with the single mom trying to support her kids, the money is staying with a family-owned business that's trying to create jobs."
SAINT JOHN, N.B. - Dennis Oland has denied his personal financial problems were a motive to kill his multimillionaire father, Richard, but there's little doubt he was caught in a severe money crunch on the day his dad was beaten to death.

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Dennis Oland heads from the Law Courts as he continue his testimony in Saint John, N.B., on Thursday, March 7, 2019. His trial in the bludgeoning death of his millionaire father, Richard Oland, is by judge alone. The verdict from Olands 2015 murder trial was set aside on appeal in 2016 and a new trial ordered. Richard Oland, 69, was found dead in his Saint John office on July 7, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

SAINT JOHN, N.B. - Dennis Oland has denied his personal financial problems were a motive to kill his multimillionaire father, Richard, but there's little doubt he was caught in a severe money crunch on the day his dad was beaten to death.

Oland, 51, told his second-degree murder trial on Friday he was shuffling around debt after several months of rising expenses and shrinking income from his job as an investment adviser.

"I agree it was tight," Oland said during testimony at his trial for the murder of his father, former Moosehead Breweries executive Richard Oland.

Dennis Oland had bounced a payment on the collateral mortgage on his home  a property that had been in the Oland family for many years. As well, a monthly cheque for $1,667 on an earlier, interest-only loan from his dad for $500,000 had bounced the day before he visited his father in his Saint John office on July 6, 2011.

Oland said he was not aware the cheque had been returned when he visited his father on the day of the killing. He is the last known person to have seen Richard Oland alive.

"Your total spending in the period from January to July, 2011, was about $120,000  almost four times your income in that same period. I suggest, Mr. Oland, you were living beyond your means," Crown prosecutor Jill Knee said to Oland during her cross examination on Friday.

"Yes," replied Oland.

"It wasn't sustainable was it?" she asked.

"I would have to grow my income or decrease my spending  I was in the process of increasing my income," he said.

Oland's salary from January to July, 2011, was just $34,124.02. In addition to paying $4,300 per month in spousal and child support from his first marriage and the monthly instalments to his father, he and his second wife, Lisa, had taken several costly international trips.

His credit cards were maxed out and he had just borrowed $8,000 from his employer, CIBC Wood Gundy, as an advance on his pay.

Despite the challenges, Oland told Knee he was not desperate.

"If I needed more money, I would have borrowed more," he said.

Knee pressed Oland on his financial situation, suggesting his dire need for money contrasted sharply with his father's comfortable situation. Among other things, the 69-year-old multimillionaire was having an expensive racing yacht built in Spain, she said, but he was not going to help his son.

"You were mad Richard Oland wasn't going to bail you out," she said.

"No," he answered.

Oland said he did not discuss money during his visit with his father. He said they talked about his family history research.

Knee also explored Oland's troubled relationship with his father, referring often to his police interview from July 7, 2011,  the day his father's body was found.

Oland told police the father-son relationship was often strained and difficult. He said his father could be unreasonable and demanding, but he told Knee it wasn't all bad.

"He was a good dad," he said. "He wasn't the best dad, but he was a good dad."

Oland denied Knee's allegation that he lied to police when he told them he was wearing a navy jacket on the day he visited his father rather than the brown one he did wear. The brown jacket was later found to have four small bloodstains on it and Richard Oland's DNA.

Oland also failed to tell police that he actually went into his father's office three times on the afternoon of July 6, 2011, during a roughly one hour period. He had mentioned only two visits.

Oland insisted they were simply mistakes, oversights caused by the stress and shock of the day.

"We were distraught," he said, referring to the Oland family.

Knee told him the third visit he failed to mention to police was when he killed his father  an allegation Oland denied.

"Absolutely not," he said.

Dennis Oland was charged with the second degree murder of his father in 2013. He was convicted in a jury trial in 2015 but the verdict was set aside on appeal and the new trial ordered.

The trial resumes on Tuesday. Justice Terrence Morrison has agreed to a defence request to visit the crime scene, Richard Oland's office, on Tuesday afternoon.

Morrison said the public is not allowed to be part of the tour.
TORONTO - A group of doctors pushing for tighter gun laws says one of its leaders has been targeted in an "organized campaign of mass harassment" fuelled by gun rights activists.

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TORONTO - A group of doctors pushing for tighter gun laws says one of its leaders has been targeted in an "organized campaign of mass harassment" fuelled by gun rights activists.

Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns says dozens of complaints filed with Ontario's medical regulator are about Dr. Najma Ahmed, a Toronto trauma surgeon who treated victims of a fatal mass shooting in the city's Danforth neighbourhood last summer.

Dr. Philip Berger, one of the group's co-founders, said Friday the complaints against Ahmed amount to a "personal attack" for speaking on the issue.

He said the argument made by detractors that doctors should not wade into such debates ignores that advocacy is considered a core competency for physicians.

"There is a public duty and responsibility of doctors to speak out, and speak out loudly, when they have identified external conditions, circumstances and policies that are making their patients sick or impeding their recovery from illness," he said.

"By the same argument I suppose doctors shouldn't talk about cigarette smoking or drunk driving or any condition which affects people's health and lives."

The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, an advocacy group representing legal gun owners, has urged its supporters to file complaints about Ahmed with the college, arguing physicians should not take political positions.

In a tweet last month, one of the coalition's staff members said she was submitting a complaint because it is "immoral" for a doctor to use her influence for political purposes.

The group's executive director, Rod Giltaca, said firearm ownership, unlike seatbelt laws and other similar issues that doctors have weighed in on, is "incredibly complex."

"They formed a group and the credibility they're bringing to that group is that they're medical doctors  medical doctors are not firearms experts by any means," he said.

"Right now what they're doing is they're thrashing around, advocating for policies that they truly do not understand the ramifications (of)."

A video posted on the group's website shows Giltaca suggesting that banning private ownership of handguns could lead police to raid homes and accidentally shoot children.

In an interview Friday, Giltaca  who has experience in firearms training  said the video was a "desperate" effort to highlight how little others understand the effects of gun policies.

"What that is, is my attempt to get people to listen to avoid those things from happening," he said, noting his group has offered to help inform the doctors' group.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, meanwhile, said it cannot confirm the content of the nearly 70 complaints it has received in the last month related to doctors advocating gun control, nor which physicians are named.

The college said a committee is reviewing the complaints and will determine whether to investigate further or designate them as "frivolous and vexatious."

"The CPSO's legislated complaints process is generally intended to focus on clinical care or professional behaviour," the college's registrar, Nancy Whitmore, said in a statement.

"The CPSO's role is not to resolve political disagreements when clinical care/outcomes or professional conduct is not in question. We recognize that physicians can play an important role by advocating for system-level change in a socially accountable manner."

Whitmore also expressed concerns that complaints about political issues could divert resources from examining complaints related to clinical care.
TORONTO - It's often the first source students turn to when doing research, but an archivist says many Canadian women's accomplishments are left off Wikipedia.

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TORONTO - It's often the first source students turn to when doing research, but an archivist says many Canadian women's accomplishments are left off Wikipedia.

A group of librarians, archivists and students is working to fill in these gender gaps at an "edit-a-thon" hosted by York University Libraries in honour of International Women's Day.

Jean Augustine is seen in Ottawa, Friday, Dec. 12, 2003. It's often the first source students turn to when doing research, but an archivist says many Canadian women's accomplishments are left off Wikipedia.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Anna St.Onge, director of digital scholarship infrastructure for the Toronto university's library system, says participants have been scouring the stacks to back up their edits and citations on the open-access online encyclopedia.

The list of biographies slated to be bolstered includes the late poet Libby Scheier, Toronto-based filmmaker Ann Shin, and trailblazing former MP Jean Augustine, who also served as Ontario's first Fairness Commissioner.

New articles have also been created for York University history and women's studies professor Varpu Lindstrom, who died in 2012, and Sherrill Cheda, the late chief librarian of Seneca College.

According to the Wikimedia Foundation, only 17 per cent of Wikipedias biographies are about women, and St.Onge says Friday's event is part of a broader effort to improve those numbers.

"It's a way of contributing to the discourse in subtle ways, and redressing some of the ... imbalances," she said.

"Sometimes those individuals had profound impacts in their community, and for whatever reason, and there's lots of factors, their story sort of gets erased or subsumed through larger narratives."

St.Onge pointed to a Wikipedia article suggesting that the site's gender bias reflects the fact that most volunteer editors are men. Librarians and archivists have been working to address this underrepresentation by trying to recruit new and diverse contributors, she said.

"I see Wikipedia as a bit of an ecosystem that we as libraries and archivists, we can be contributing to that, and making sure that other voices are heard in that space," said St.Onge.

"Part of the way of addressing inequities ... is to actively engage with those communities, bringing our own stories."
Cross your eyes and break out the 3D glasses!

NASA's New Horizons team has created new stereo views of the Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule -- the target of the New Horizons spacecraft's historic New Year's 2019 flyby, four billion miles from Earth -- and the images are as cool and captivating as they are scientifically valuable.

The 3D effects come from pairing or combining images taken at slightly different viewing angles, creating a "binocular" effect, just as the slight separation of our eyes allows us to see three-dimensionally. For the images on this page, the New Horizons team paired sets of processed images taken by the spacecraft's Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at 5:01 and 5:26 Universal Time on Jan. 1, from respective distances of 17,400 miles (28,000 kilometers) and 4,100 miles (6,600 kilometers), offering respective original scales of about 430 feet (130 meters) and 110 feet (33 meters) per pixel.

For this view, cross your eyes until the pair of images merges into one. It might help to place your finger or a pen just a couple of inches from your eyes, and focus on it. When the background image comes into focus, remove the closer object and concentrate on the image.

The viewing direction for the earlier sequence was slightly different than the later set, which consists of the highest-resolution images obtained with LORRI. The closer view offers about four times higher resolution per pixel but, because of shorter exposure time, lower image quality. The combination, however, creates a stereo view of the object (officially named 2014 MU69) better than the team could previously create.

"These views provide a clearer picture of Ultima Thule's overall shape," said mission principal investigator Alan Stern, from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, "including the flattened shape of the large lobe, as well as the shape of individual topographic features such as the "neck" connecting the two lobes, the large depression on the smaller lobe, and hills and valleys on the larger lobe."

For this view, change your focus from the image by looking "through" it (and the screen) and into the distance. This will create the effect of a third image in the middle; try setting your focus on that third image.

"We have been looking forward to this high-quality stereo view since long before the flyby," added John Spencer, New Horizons deputy project scientist from SwRI. "Now we can use this rich, three-dimensional view to help us understand how Ultima Thule came to have its extraordinary shape."

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, designed, built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The MSFC Planetary Management Office provides the NASA oversight for the New Horizons. Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio, directs the mission via Principal Investigator Stern, and leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

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A businesswoman has been released from custody after she apologised to the High Court and undertook not to interfere with the receivership of several properties owned by her and her husband.

Wendy Whitty was jailed by Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds earlier this week, arising out of her contempt of court for failing to comply with court orders not to interfere with or collect rent from eight properties in Co. Wexford and Co. Cork owned by her and her husband, Mr Scott Dyer.

Last month she gave undertakings before the Judge not to interfere with or collect rent from tenants at the properties.

However, in a letter Ms Whitty sent to the court, and others including the President of Ireland, politicians and judges, she challenged the court's jurisdiction and said the undertakings were given under duress and that "duress voids all contracts."

Arising out of her resiling from the undertakings, Ms Whitty was remanded in custody by the Judge on Thursday afternoon.

Today the mother of four of Kilbrainey, Gusserane, New Ross, Co Wexford, after obtaining legal advice from a solicitor, apologised to the court and promised to co-operate with the receiver.

Her solicitor Mr Martin Lawlor, who had agreed to represent Ms Whitty today said his client was sorry for her actions, wished to purge her contempt and would now co-operate with the receivership.

Mr Lawlor said it was accepted that sending the letter "full of jibber jabber." to the court and others, was stupid.

His client, however, did not accept that she had interfered with the receivership since giving the undertakings.

Brian Conroy Bl for the receiver Siobhan O'Dwyer said his client had several concerns about the matter, and that there has been clear interference with the receivership.

These included that a demand was made on some of the tenants to pay rent to a "sham" company that was a front for the couple after the undertakings were given to the High Court.

Ms Justice Reynolds said she was satisfied for Ms Whitty to be released from custody after she gave a sworn undertaking not to interfere with the properties.

Ms Whitty also agreed to write to the tenants informing them that rent is to be paid to the receiver.

Ms Justice Reynolds told Ms Whitty that if there was any further interference with the receivership by her, Mr Dyer or any of their servants and agents there would "be serious consequences."

The letter sent by Ms Whitty, the Judge said, was in itself a contempt of court, and "brought the court into disrepute."

On Wednesday, the Judge committed Ms Whitty to Mountjoy Prison over her failure to comply with her undertaking not to interfere with the receivership.

Mr Conroy told the court that despite giving the undertakings there had been continued interference by the couple.

The court also heard that the couple had threatened to evict tenants who co-operated with the receiver.

Proceedings have also been brought by the receiver against Mr Dyer over the alleged interference.

That action stands adjourned to allow the receiver's lawyers to obtain further details about Mr Dyers's medical condition, who it is claimed is too ill to attend court.

Injunctions were secured against the couple by the receiver in 2017 due to their alleged ongoing interference with what are investment residential properties.

The injunction was sought after a Polish family living in one of the couple's Cork properties, who had co-operated with the receivership, were evicted by Mr Dyer and two male associates in 2016.

The couple obtained mortgages in respect of the properties from AIB, who appointed Ms O'Dwyer as receiver over the properties in 2015 after the couple failed to satisfy a demand to repay 747,000 allegedly owed to the bank.

The couple disputes the validity of the receiver's appointment.

The receiver's actions against the couple will return before the court next week.
Latest: The 15-year-old girl found dead at a flat in Newry was strangled, the PSNI said.

Spanish-born Allison Marimon-Herrera was found dead with her mother and a man at a flat in Co Down, yesterday.

Detective superintendent Jason Murphy said there was a "strong possibility" that Giselle Marimon Herrera, from Colombia, had been strangled.

He added: "I can confirm that her 15-year-old daughter Allison was strangled."

He said a 38-year-old man, Giselle's partner, who also lived at the address, died by hanging.

The PSNI have launched a murder investigation and are not looking for anybody else.

Earlier: 'Unspeakable tragedy' as mother and daughter found dead in Newry flat named

A mother and daughter who were found dead with a man at a flat in Co Down, in what has been described as an unspeakable tragedy, have been named as Giselle and Allison Marimon-Herrera.

Detectives from the PSNI launched a murder inquiry after the bodies of the man, 38, and the mother and daughter, 37 and 15, were found at Glin Ree Court in Newry, Co Down yesterday.

The circumstances and causes of death have not yet been established, police said. The man has not been named.

Detectives say they're not looking for anyone else as part of the murder investigation.

Ms Marimon-Herrera is originally from Colombia and moved to Northern Ireland four years ago.

She worked in the Newry area.

Her daughter Allison was born in Spain and has lived in Northern Ireland since 2017. She attended Newry High School.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said they were working to find out what exactly happened at the flat in Newry and described it as an unspeakable tragedy.

I believe that Giselle and Allison were still alive in the early hours of Sunday morning but family members have not been able to contact them since, he said.

Forensic officers at flats in Newry where the bodies were found (Niall Carson/PA)

I would appeal today to anyone who came into direct contact with either Giselle or Allison, or communicated with them via text or social media since Friday, to contact detectives in Newry.

We are currently supporting the families of those involved as well as Newry High School. I would ask that they are given the time and space to come to terms with these tragic events.

Mr Murphy said definitive causes of death have not been established, adding that post mortem examinations were under way.

While our investigation remains at an early stage, there is no evidence at this time that anyone else was involved, he said.

This is an unspeakable tragedy and anyone with information should contact detectives on 101.

PA

Earlier (11:55am): Suspected murder-suicide may have been carried out by neighbour - reports

Police are due to provide an update shortly on the investigation into the deaths of three people in suspicious circumstances in Newry, Co Down.

A Colombian woman aged 37, her 15-year-old daughter, and a man aged 38 were found dead at around 11am yesterday at Glin Ree Court.

It is understood that they died in a violent way and one line of inquiry is a murder-suicide.

It is also understood that the three people were known to each other, with reports that it may have been carried out by a neighbour.

A police officer is handed flowers outside flats at Glin Ree Court in Newry. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Police are not seeking anybody else in connection with the deaths.

Officers were called by a concerned member of a family worried they had not been in contact with a family member for several days.

Police forced entry to the building and found the bodies inside.

Local representatives have said at least two of the victims may be foreign.

Emotional members of a family arrived at the scene with flowers last night.

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: I do not believe that anybody else was involved in the deaths of those three individuals and I am not currently seeking anybody else in connection with their deaths.

At this time, the three have not been formally identified and cause of death has not been established.

Our investigation is ongoing at present and our thoughts at this time are very much with the loved ones of those who have died.

A woman visited the cordon with a child who carried a bunch of flowers but they were not allowed into the sealed-off area.

Officers attended the scene and police tape marked the area preserved for forensic investigation in front of whitewashed flats.

In reference to the victims identities, SDLP Assembly member Justin McNulty said: There is an international dimension.

This community is in shock and a dark cloud hangs over Newry this afternoon. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased.

Local Sinn Fein councillor Charlie Casey said: I would encourage anyone with information on this incident to bring it forward to the PSNI.

PA & Digital Desk

Earlier (7:06am): Murder investigation launched after three bodies found in Newry

A murder investigation has been launched by the PSNI following the discovery of three bodies in Newry yesterday.

The bodies of a 15-year-old girl, a 37-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man were found at Glin Ree Court in Newry, Co Down, at around 11am, police said.

It is understood they died in a violent way and one line of inquiry is a double murder and suicide.

The deaths are being treated as suspicious and it is believed the deceased knew each other and may have been related.

The PSNI has confirmed they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths.

Police said the three individuals have not been formally identified and cause of death has not been established as yet.

Officers remain at the scene this morning and police tape marked the area preserved for forensic investigation in front of whitewashed flats.

In reference to the victims identities, SDLP Assembly member Justin McNulty said yesterday: There is an international dimension.

He said he believed nobody else was in danger from an assailant, adding: It was all contained within the apartment.

Digital Desk
The Director of Public Prosecutions is to look for a victim impact statement from the little girl slapped by her father at a supermarket despite indications there would be no such statement.

The DPP has also decided to drop the charge against the man for allegedly intimidating a witness in the same case.

Sergeant Ann Marie Twomey said the DPP was withdrawing the intimidation charge.

The alleged intimidation occurred outside Cork District Court on Anglesea Street during a previous court appearance in relation to the same case on October 25, 2018.

When Sgt Twomey asked for the case to be adjourned for a victim impact statement, defence solicitor, Eddie Burke, said he could tell the court there would be no statement from the four-and-a-half-year-old.

Sgt Twomey said that the DPP indicated that a statement could be prepared instead by a parent or guardian of the accused.

In the course of the trial of this case where the childs father was the defendant, his wife was called as a defence witness and she spoke up for her husband.

Judge Olann Kelleher said of the prospect of a victim impact statement, I would be surprised if there is one.

Mr Burke said: I wonder how the state is going to approach this one I can tell the state now, there wont be one. This is going back nearly two years and there has been no issue since.

The judge adjourned the matter for one week. Judge Kelleher previously found the facts of the assault proved against the father.

In the original trial, two mothers spoke of contacting gardai because they were so shocked to see a man allegedly slapping his daughter at a supermarket.

One of them heard him say, Have you enough now? as he raised his hand a number of times and reached into where she was sitting in the car seat.

A second witness said there had been an earlier incident in the supermarket.

Judge Olann Kelleher asked: Did you see him assault the child? The witness replied: I did, I saw him force her legs (in a shopping trolley). The child was very distressed. Her pitch went higher and she did not want to be there.

The defendant testified: I am never aggressive with my kid. If I want my kid to do something I tell her. (And if she wont do it) I say now you are not getting a toy but I dont hit her.

He said that if he showed violence she might use violence to get what she wanted and he would not give her that example.

The defendants wife cried during the trial and said the whole experience had been terribly upsetting for the family. She was not present in the supermarket on the day and said she did not think the two witnesses were racially motivated but felt they might be prejudiced against her husband seeing him as a foreigner.

She described their daughter, who was almost three at the time, as fantastic and lovely.
Drug overdoses have risen in Dublin and Cork, in contrast to a national downward trend, official figures show.

And non-overdose drug-related deaths, such as suicides and medical fatalities, have risen in Dublin, with significant increases also in Kildare, Tipperary and Meath.

Breakdown details by county and by local drug task force areas emerged today following the

Read More:

The national figures showed that the total number of drug-related deaths reached a new high in 2016 (the most recent year for which figures are available), with 736 fatalities.

It was just one higher than the previous year, but marks a continuing, steady rise in drug deaths over the last 13 years, when records began.

Drug fatalities have risen from 431 in 2004, to 629 in 2008, to 661 in 2012 and to 736 in 2016.

Deaths are broken down between poisonings (overdoses) and non-poisoning, which refers to deaths caused by trauma (such as hangings, drownings, road traffic crashes and shootings/stabbings) and medical causes (such as cardiac events, liver disease and cancer).

The National Drug Related Deaths Index showed that there were 354 poisonings in 2016, compared to 365 in 2015, continuing a downward trend since 2013 (400).

A number of counties have gone against that trend and witnessed a rise in overdose deaths: Dublin (140 to 155); Cork (34 to 41); Kildare (12 to 14), Limerick (12 to 14), Kerry (9 to 12) and Cavan (less than 5 to 9).

Counties that saw a significant decrease include Tipperary (19 to 8), Carlow (10 to 5) and Waterford (17 to less than 5).

National figures for non-overdose deaths show there were 382 such deaths in 2016, up from 370 in 2015. Non-overdose deaths have risen by 130% since 2004.

The index shows that certain counties have seen the largest increases: Dublin (191 to 200); Kildare (7 to 15); Tipperary (9 to 14); Meath (5 to 11) and Westmeath (5 to 8).

There were decreases in many counties, including Wexford (10 to 7), Clare (9 to 5) and Louth (11 to less than 5).

The Cork figure dropped slightly (34 to 32).

Speaking after the publication of the index, drugs strategy minister Catherine Byrne said the 2016 figures were deeply concerning and represented a tragic loss of life and were a stark reminder of the devastating impact of drugs on families and communities.
Latest: Former Northern Ireland Minister for Justice David Ford says there is a concern that if Northern Secretary Karen Bradley were to resign would her replacement be any better.

If we got a different Secretary of State from the current leadership of the Tory party would they be any better? he said on RTE radios Today with Sean ORourke show.

There's absolutely no doubt that there were major problems, both in the way she made that utterly inappropriate statement at question time in the House of Commons, a Secretary of State who couldn't deal with a relatively routine question without making a complete mess of it, then there was the so called clarification a few hours later which clarified nothing and it took 24 hours for an apology.

If she'd been straight back into the House of Commons within the hour or two to apologise then she would have been in a better position, the real question now is whether she is completely damaged beyond any formal role or whether anybody else could do any better given the difficulties that we have in dealing with the current Conservative government who seem to listen to the DUP and nobody else in Northern Ireland even though the DUP represent only a minority of us.

You would wonder about the people briefing Karen Bradley, it's not just her, look at the article Boris Johnson wrote in the Telegraph about prosecution of soldiers.

"We've had the Prime Minister, including this week, repeating the line that the balance of investigation is being solely directed against members of the armed forces of the RUC which is completely fallacious, it's approximately a third, not everything is being directed against them.

So there are real questions about the whole of this current government and backbenchers like Boris Johnson, it's not just an issue of Karen Bradley, but it does raise serious questions as to how she reads her briefing notes because I cannot imagine that Northern Ireland office civil servants would have put the mistake that she made into the notes she had so was she incapable of understanding things the same as she doesn't understand how people vote in Northern Ireland or many other things.

When asked if he thinks British soldiers should be prosecuted he said: There is no statute of limitations on serious crimes like murder in the United Kingdom and anybody who acts that way should be prosecuted if there is evidence.

I've had conversations with police officers, at very senior level to middle acting grades who feel they are insulted when there's a suggestion that there should not be prosecutions of what they regard, and I would agree with them, is the small number of people who disobeyed their instructions, who went against the law and who carried out murder or other serious offences whilst still wearing uniform.

The way in which we defend the integrity of the great majority who acted honourably in difficult circumstances is by ensuring that measures are taken when possible against those who didn't do as they should have.

Earlier: Bradley comments either 'crass or attempt to suck up to the DUP'

The leader of the UKs Liberal Democrats party, Vince Cable, says that if Northern Secretary Karen Bradley makes a genuinely heartfelt apology then she should be moving on to other jobs.

He told RTE radios Morning Ireland that with Sinn Fein not taking their seats in the House of Commons there is nobody to represent Nationalists from Northern Ireland.

There has been a one-sided version of history and Northern Irelands role which is an unfortunate state of affairs.

Mr Cable said it seemed like the Northern Secretary should be more aware of modern history and that there are two versions of events.

Given the sensitivity of the situation, Ms Bradley really should be considering her position, he said.

It is right and good that she has apologised, but what she said caused enormous harm.

Either it was crass and insensitive or a deliberate attempt to suck up to the DUP.

It may have been a slip of the tongue, but the timing was terrible.

SDLP politician Colum Eastwood says that the timing of the comments of Northern Secretary Karen Bradley is suspicious.

I dont know if it was a slip of the tongue, he told RTE radios Morning Ireland.

He said that she was not in primary school and could not just apologise and expect to move on.

These families have been put through the wringer. They are being used as political pawns.

Mr Eastwood said that the future cannot be built without first dealing with the past. People should be held to account.

The families of the victims of Bloody Sunday have waited almost five decades for justice, he added. For the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to stand up in the House of Commons and say that the actions of the soldiers were not crimes was not good enough.

It was an indication of what is really going on behind the scenes in the British government.

On the same programme Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty said that Ms Bradleys comments had been incredibly insensitive and wrong and she had moved to correct that mistake with her apology.

However, there was now an opportunity for Ms Bradley to move on from words and to do something to prove her sincerity.

This situation was a reminder of how much words matter, said Ms Doherty, and of how sensitive the situation is in Northern Ireland.
RTE is reporting that a former member of the Defence Forces has been detained in Syria over alleged membership of ISIS.

According to reports, the Defence Forces member is a woman who had left the forces around five years ago.
The North American Amateur Drivers Association is set to kick-off its 2019 season at Monticello Raceway on Thursday, March 14 with a two-track competition for its members.

The following Thursday (March 21) the competitors will move on to Yonkers Raceway for a leg at the Hilltop oval. Races will be held weekly on Thursdays until the top point earners vie for a $15,000 final at Yonkers on May 23.

However in this series there is an added attraction where one of the top three point leaders will get a chance to compete against their Italian counterparts on racetracks in Northern Italy.

There is a nominal fee to join the North American Amateur Drivers Association but NAADA offers races for its members both home and abroad throughout the entire season.

NAADA vice president Alan Schwartz further explains.

Our first Spring NAADA Trot race will begin on March 14. One of our top three point leaders at the end of this competition will be drawn to win ONE ticket to compete in a competition to begin July 1st in Padova, Italy.

The itinerary thus far is as follows: Tuesday. July 2: Trieste, Wednesday July 3: Padova and Friday July 5: Cesena.

The trip will be a highlight of the driving career for the one fortunate enough to be selected. You have to compete to win, so don't miss a leg.

To become a member of NAADA please contact the organization's president Joe Faraldo (718-544-6800), or call Alan Schwartz at 845-292-8128.

Below are the race dates, the tracks, and the purses offered:

1st leg  March 14  Monticello - $5,000

2nd leg  March 21  Yonkers - $6,000

3rd leg  March 28  Monticello  $5,000

4th leg  April 4  Yonkers - $6,000

5th leg  April 11  Monticello - $5,000

6th leg  April 18  Yonkers - $6,000

7th leg  April 25  Monticello  $5,000

8th leg  May 2  Yonkers - $6,000

9th leg  May 9  Monticello  $5,000

10th leg  May 16  Yonkers - $6,000

Consolation  May 22  Monticello  $8,000

Final  May 23  Yonkers - $15,000

(NAADA)
There will be a sustained period of unsettled, windy and at times wintry weather this weekend, Met Eireann has warned.

The forecaster says a "highly mobile Atlantic regime" looks set to dominate our weather pattern through this weekend and the coming week.

Some parts of the country will see showers of hail, sleet and snow.

"A very strong jet stream will help to push some vigorous and potentially disruptive Atlantic weather systems over Ireland during the period," said meteorologist Liz Walsh.

There is certainly potential for warnings to be issued over the coming days, so please do stay up to date with the Met Eireann forecast.

There will be strong and blustery winds from Saturday through to at least Wednesday, with frequent gales at sea. Sea conditions will be very rough and there will be exceptionally high seas and swell in Atlantic coastal regions at times.

Tonight will be cloudy and blustery with clear spells and occasional showers. Some showers may turn wintry with falls of hail and sleet, especially on high ground.

Tomorrow will be a bright breezy day with good dry and bright spells during the morning. Scattered showers will occur too. The showers will merge to a spell of heavy rain across Munster and south Leinster during the afternoon and evening.

Saturday night will be cold with showery rain, merging into longer spells of rain at times. However, rain will turn to sleet and snow in the northwest and north and over higher ground. There is also the risk of some hail.

Sunday will be a very cold day with sunny spells and scattered showers. Over the northern half of the country showers will be wintry with the risk of hail. There will be fresh, gusty westerly winds, strong in coastal areas.

The Meteorologist's Commentary has been updated on our website discussing the unsettled weather that will affect Ireland this weekend and early next week.https://t.co/EUO3EbKt12 pic.twitter.com/TtotRclkKG  Met Eireann (@MetEireann) March 8, 2019

On Sunday night scattered showers will become confined to the west and north with some turning wintry, especially over higher ground. But elsewhere showers will become isolated with good clear spells. It will be cold with frost and icy patches.

The temperature will rise on Monday. It will be mostly dry apart from a few spots of drizzle. It will become dull or cloudy with patchy rain and drizzle affecting Atlantic coastal counties by evening and quickly spreading eastwards later in the evening and early in the night.

The rain will become persistent and heavy on Monday night and clear southeastwards to scattered showers.

Tuesday will be windy with widespread heavy showers, some of hail with a risk of thunder. Strong, gusty westerly winds, reaching gale force along western coasts, are likely. It will continue very windy and showery on Tuesday night and on Wednesday.

Thursday will be mostly cloudy with outbreaks of rain and not as cold with top temperatures likely to be around 8 to 11 degrees.

Current indications suggest that showers or showery rain will continue and possibly turn colder over the bank holiday weekend.
Ireland has ratified the Istanbul Convention today which aims to prevent and combat domestic violence and violence against women.

The Minister for Justice and Equality Charlie Flanagan made the announcement following a special Government meeting held to mark International Womens Day.

The Convention is an international legal instrument which requires criminalising or legally sanctioning different forms of violence against women, including domestic violence, sexual harassment and psychological violence.

Ireland signed the Convention in November 2015, but the Government said that pieces of legislation and other actions needed to be carried out before formal ratification could take place.

These were identified in an action plan in October 2015 and included in the Second National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence which was published in January 2016.

The Strategy provides for the training of public sector officials, the implementation of the Victims Directive and the enactment of legislation such as the Victims of Crime Act 2017 and the Domestic Violence Act 2018.

The recent enactment of the Criminal Law (Extraterritorial Jurisdiction) Act 2019 was the final legal action needed so that todays ratification could go ahead.

Formal ratification took place at a ceremony at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg this morning.

Domestic and sexual violence can have devastating consequences for victims as well as society as a whole," Minister Flanagan said.

"Ratifying the Convention delivers on a Government commitment and sends an important message that Ireland does not tolerate such violence. That message is all the more appropriate given that today is International Womens Day.

Ratification does not mean the end of our efforts. The Government will continue to work in providing protections to victims of domestic and sexual violence and holding perpetrators to account.

"The prevalence of this violence means we cannot lessen our efforts in this regard. Rather ratification signals a renewal of our commitments," he said.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission welcomed the announcement saying it will be a positive "spur to press forward on legislative and policy developments to see a comprehensive and coordinated response to violence against women and domestic violence".
A 30-year-old man has been arrested after cannabis worth 360,000 was seized in Dublin.

The intelligence-led operation targeting an organised crime group operating in the Dublin and Kildare regions was carried out yesterday.

A van in the Coolock area was intercepted by gardai from the Eastern Region, supported by the Garda National Drugs & Organised Crime Bureau.

Cannabis Herb with an estimated street value of 360,000 was seized and the man was arrested.

He is currently detained in Ballymun Garda Station under the provisions of Section 2 of The Criminal Justice Drug Trafficking Act 1996.
A 50-year-old man arrested in connection with an investigation into criminal damage and an assault in Co Roscommon has been released without charge.

He was arrested yesterday and detained at Castlerea Garda station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, 1939.
Gardai investigating a break-in and theft at St Michan's Church have arrested a man in his 20s.

The man was arrested yesterday and is detained at Bridewell Garda Station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

Last month, a crypt at St Michan's Church was broken into and the head of one 800-year-old mummy called The Crusader was stolen.

On Wednesday, the head and another skull were recovered after Gardai were tipped off about there whereabouts of the items.

The head of the Crusader mummy and another skull were found in a bag on the church grounds, which appeared to be dumped there two weeks after the theft.

The Archdeacon of St Michan's Church said he was "extremely grateful that we have this back and now we can lay him to rest,".
The PSNI are investigating two shootings in the North tonight.

A man was injured following a paramilitary-style shooting in Derry city this evening.

The 25-year-old was shot in both legs in the incident which happened in Lisfannon Park shortly after 7pm.

He was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment.

Police have described the shooting as a vicious and sickening attack, and are appealing for anyone who may have information to contact them.

The second shooting took place in the Westrock Park area of west Belfast at around half 8.30pm.

Police are at the scene where a man received gunshot wounds to both legs.

He has been taken to hospital for treatment to his injuries.
Former Miss Ireland and TV star Pamela Flood and husband Ronan Ryan will not have to pay any of the 1.2m debt they owe against the plush North Dublin home they have lived in rent free for the past nine years.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane was also told in the Circuit Civil Court today that the couple will also not have to pay the huge legal costs bill two banks have run up in trying to re-possess their family home at 136 Mount Prospect Avenue, in leafy Clontarf, Dublin 3.

The couples barrister Eoin OShea, who appeared with David M. Turner Solicitors, told the court that restaurateur Ryan and his wife, Pamela, had given the American-owned Tanager bank an undertaking they and their children will have vacated the property by July 9 next.

In return, the bank would undertake to limit the couples indebtedness to whatever it could recover from the sale of the property. In effect, this means they will not have to pay legal costs, nor repay the 374,000 arrears that have built up since 2010, nor the 1.25m outstanding on the mortgage.

Rudi Neuman, counsel for Tanager Dac, told Judge Linnane that Ms Flood and Mr Ryan, who had taken out a 1.1m mortgage with Bank of Scotland just before Christmas 2006, had consented to the court granting Tanager an order for possession against them.

Mr Neuman, who appeared with Amoss Solicitors, told the court the bank had agreed to a stay on the execution of the order for four months on condition the couple delivered up vacant possession of the house, worth up to 800,000, along with all keys, fobs, electronic access devices and alarm codes and an undertaking to co-operate with an auctioneer to show the property.

He said the bank sought an order restraining the couple from damaging the house or removing any fixtures and fittings, and, subject to their full compliance with the terms of the settlement document, their indebtedness would be limited to the sum recovered from the sale. The bank was also not seeking any order for costs against the couple.

Mr OShea told Judge Linnane the terms of the settlement agreement had been explained carefully to his clients who had put forward the vacant possession proposal that had been accepted by the bank.

Judge Linnane, who heard that any other suggested arrangement would now be wholly unsustainable, said it was a pity such a settlement agreement could not have been reached much earlier in the proceedings and the judge made court orders in the terms of the proposed settlement.

The couple now have up to four months to find alternative accommodation for themselves and their four children.

The court heard earlier that Ryan (48) had not paid anything off his 1.lm mortgage since August 2010. His 47-year-old wife had not been named on the 2006 mortgage documents with Bank of Scotland but had been joined as a Notice Party to the proceedings following her marriage to Ryan in 2014.

Tanager, described as an American-owned vulture fund, has a registered office at Clanwilliam Square, Grand Canal Quay, Dublin. It snapped up more than 2,000 distressed Irish home loans almost 10 years ago at heavily discounted rates from Bank of Scotland. More than 90% of those loans were two years or more in arrears.

Ryan used to own three restaurants which were hit by the financial recession of 2008. Flood, a former host of Off the Rails television series and several RTE shows, was to have presented a TV3 documentary series about older mothers but this was shelved after Virgin Media took over the station. The former model and now mother of four won the Miss Ireland pageant 26 years ago.

Under the agreement the couple, after a period of two weeks following todays court case, will facilitate house sales representatives access to their home for the purpose of photographing and assessing the property for inclusion in sales brochures.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal concerning the rights of individuals who enter into civil marriages here later deemed by the State to be marriages of convenience.

In a published determination, a three-judge court said the appeal raised issues of general public importance and the law needs to be clarified because of apparently conflicting High Court judgments on the issues raised.

It will fix a hearing date later for the appeal brought by a Pakistani man, an EU citizen woman and her child.

The man was an asylum applicant when he married the woman here in February 2010.

In April 2010, he applied for an EU residence card and got that in October 2010.

In March 2011, the couple separated and the woman later had a child by a different man, who later died.

The Pakistani man claimed the couple, who had not divorced, reunited in April 2015 and recommenced their existing marital relations.

After he made a fresh application in October 2015 for a residence card, the Minister for Justice later decided the marriage between the pair was one of convenience and that decision was upheld on review.

After a deportation order issued in March 2017, the couple and the woman's child sought judicial review in the High Court.

When they lost, they asked the Supreme Court to hear a "leapfrog" appeal directly to that court.

It was argued a question of general public importance arose as to whether a marriage under the Civil Registration Act 2004 is a nullity at law as a result of the Executive's later decision it is one of convenience or do rights still emanate from the marriage, depending upon the facts and circumstances of an individual case.

In opposing any appeal, the State argued the High Court's Mr Justice Richard Humphreys had held the couple were never validly married at all and referred to their alleged marriage as a purported marriage.

It argued no issue of general public importance arose and the High Court applied well-established case law in dismissing their case.

In its determination, the Supreme Court noted Mr Justice Humphreys had said the State had launched a direct attack on the correctness of another High Court judgment of 2011 which held a marriage of convenience was valid in law.

It said Mr Justice Humphreys held the 2011 decision was incorrect and, insofar as it was material to the case before him, declined to follow it.

Mr Justice Humphreys also said the issues considered in the 2011 case had been discussed in a 1996 High Court judgment, which was not referred to by the trial judge in the 2011 case.

He further held that a statutory process, such as civil marriage, should not be used as a "mechanism of fraud".

The Supreme Court said, while the State's case opposing any appeal was "forcefully made", there is a need to clarify the law.

It cannot be said that there is "no uncertainty", it said.

"On the face of it, there are two High Court judgments which are not easily reconcilable," it said.

This was "a matter of general public importance", the significance of which goes beyond the facts of this particular case, it said.
Heavy rain has caused flash flooding and landslides in areas of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan over the last few days. Parts of Kandahar Province in Afghanistan recorded around half its annual rainfall in 30 hours. Parts of Pakistan have also been affected by severe snowstorms. According to media reports, as many as 50 people have died as a result of flooding, landslides or collapsing buildings across the 3 countries.

Weather warfare! Deadly floods hit AFghanistan, Iran and Pakistan beginning of March 2019. via Twitter

Afghanistan

Heavy rain in Afghanistan has caused flooding in the provinces of Kandahar, Kunar, Zabul, Nimroz, Hirat and Farah, according to a report by the United Nations. Infrastructure as well as hundreds of homes have been damaged.

Kandahar Province

Heavy rain fell in Kandahar Province from 01 March, 2019. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said that flooding affected Kandahar city and the districts of Zheri, Dand, Damand, Arghandab, Spinboldak, and Takhtapu.

Around 97 mm of rain fell in 30 hours, which is the equivalent of about half the annual rainfall for the area. As recently as January parts of the province were suffering from drought.

Initial reports suggested that as many as 20 people had died in Kandahar Province when their homes collapsed or the vehicles they were traveling in were swept away. A further 10 people were reported as missing and it was feared that up to 2,000 homes have been damaged. Schools and public buildings have suffered damage.

#Afghanistan National Army evacuated those affected by floods in Punjwaye district of #Kandahar province. Taking timely steps, the government has set up shelters for thes ppl in Kandahar city.

The man (with a winter hat talking to a woman) is deputy governor Abdul Hanan Munib. pic.twitter.com/3F6qhk4P8R  Malali Bashir (@MalaliBashir) March 2, 2019

Since then updated reports have confirmed 8 fatalities, with 18 people injured and 10 missing. More than 1,000 people stranded by the flood waters have been rescued by the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). In Arghandab district alone, an estimated 1,500 families have been affected by the floods; the majority of the affected people are from the Kochi (nomadic) community.

Farah Province

In Farah Province, local media reports say that 85% of Farah City is underwater following heavy rains on 02 March, 2019.

                     .

                 . pic.twitter.com/AbWgBeZ3zx  Ariana News (@ArianaNews_) March 2, 2019

UNOCHA say that the districts of Korji, Qala-e-Ghulam Sediq, Police Districts 1, 2, 3, Hanif Abad, Shaikh Abad and Anar Dara in the province have also been severely affected by flooding. Roads have been blocked by flood water causing severe transport problems. Telecommunications are down, hampering communication between flood-affected people, local authorities and humanitarian partners.

A total of 500 families have been displaced in the province, according to UNOCHA, while ANSF are carrying out rescue operations to relocate people trapped by the flood waters.

Hirat Province

In Hirat, flooding has been reported in Shindand, Zawol, Zirkoh, Pashtunzarghun and Obe districts. In Shindand 200 houses have reportedly been swept away. UNOCHA said that the full extent of the damage in other affected districts is still being assessed.

Pakistan

Military have carried out large-scale rescue operations in Balochistan province after flash flooding. Meanwhile as many as 14 people have reportedly died in severe weather in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. This is the second spate of deadly flash flooding within two weeks in the two provinces.

Balochistan

Local media report that as many as 10 people have died after heavy snowfall and flooding in parts of Balochistan province. Around 1,500 stranded families have been rescued by military in Lasbela and Qillah Abdulla districts.

Pak security forces busy in rescue operations in and around flood hit Turbat, Balochistan pic.twitter.com/7REZ3Z5VkB  Khalid khi (@khalid_pk) March 3, 2019

Chagai district has also been severely affected. Pakistan military have distributed relief items and food rations to 3,500 families in the rain-affected areas.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Local media also said that heavy rain and snow had caused landslides and flooding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, leaving as many as 12 people dead and 14 injured. The affected districts include Khyber, North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Charsadda and Tank.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwas Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said that bad weather caused damage to 31 houses in different parts of the province.

Iran

Meanwhile local media in Iran report that 3 border guards have died in flash flooding in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, which borders Pakistans Balochistan Province.

Three #Iranian border guards were killed in heavy rain and flood that hit the city of #Mirjaveh in Irans southeastern province of #Sistan and #Baluchestan pic.twitter.com/YVHHDhtLYD  Tasnim News Agency (@Tasnimnews_EN) March 3, 2019

Meanwhile the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said it has offered relief services to over 11,700 people and travellers who needed help due to snowfall and flooding from 27 February. IRCS said that as many as 163 towns, villages and nomad groups in 25 provinces have been affected.

Are some countries trying new WEATHER WEAPONS of mass destruction?

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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the "epidemic of violence" against women must come to a halt, as the Cabinet agreed measures and laws to combat gender inequality.

Increasing the number of women on state boards, paying parties more money to run female council candidates and highlighting gender wage gaps in firms were among the measures agreed.

Cabinet also ratified the Istanbul Convention, an international treaty that requires members to take action against domestic violence, to strengthen laws protecting women and to fund support groups.

The special meeting of ministers to mark International Women's Day took place in the Academy Building in Dublin city centre, also the location of a 1911 public meeting where the Irish Women Workers Union was founded.

I think a lot of people will recognise that there is an epidemic of violence against women," said Mr Varadkar.

It needs to stop. We know the names of many women who have had violence perpetrated against them and the ratification of the Istanbul Convention today is a very important part of that.

The meeting agreed a new law requiring firms with over 250 employees to reveal gender wage gap details, based on hourly rates. At a later stage, firms with more than 150 workers will be obliged to do the same - in the future, the requirement will apply to companies with more than 50 employees.

The government said the measures will help reduce the gender pay gap, which currently stands at 14%.

Separately, it was agreed that political parties which ensure at least 30% of their local election candidates are women will get financial incentives.

The funding scheme will reward parties that reach that threshold with 250 per candidate. Those who increase their numbers of female candidates from the 2014 elections will get 100 per candidate.

"That funding has to be ringfenced and used exclusively for equality and diversity and promoting the role of women in politics. It is the carrot rather than the stick [approach]."

Mr Varadkar said the intention was, at a later stage, to look at full gender quotas for local elections.

While not going as far as introducing full gender quotas that now apply to general elections, the government said the incentives for the May elections were a start and would be added to with research on issues surrounding female participation on councils. A number of rural councils have little or no women. Offaly has no women councillors at present.

Elsewhere, ministers discussed increasing the number of women on state boards. The Government has set a target of 40% female representation on all state boards. The percentage of boards currently meeting the 40% target is only 47.6%. Junior justice minister David Stanton said: The record is uneven. More than 50% of Boards are not achieving the target. It is no longer acceptable that some sectors are not playing their part or that women are not getting a fair share of the seats at key decision-making tables.

A new inter-department group will now help increase womens awareness of vacancies on boards and introduce more robust obligations for agencies.
Four-year-old twins have been hailed as heroes for helping to save their grandmother's life.

Sean and Emma OSullivan, from Clonakilty in West Cork, were presented with special bravery medals at their pre-school in the town today in recognition of their heroics in the face of a medical emergency.

Medics said if they hadn't raised the alarm when they did, and handled the emergency with cool, calm heads, their grandmother, Ruth Clarke, was at risk of suffering permanent brain damage and could have died.

At the time, we didnt really appreciate the enormity of what had happened but as every day passes, we now realise just how lucky we are, and how great the twins were. They are our brave little heroes. The gods were looking after us, their proud mum, May, said.

The drama unfolded at the twins' home last Monday week where they were being cared for by granny Ruth as their parents, May and Brian O'Sullivan, were enjoying a short break in Tralee.

When Sean, who woke at around 6am, couldnt wake Ruth, he knew immediately that something was wrong.

He found her unlocked mobile phone in the bedroom, scrolled through the most recently dialled numbers and started pressing buttons.

He got through to Ruth's husband, Stephen, who was at home nearby, but hung up after a few seconds. It was enough for Stephen to know something was wrong too.

He jumped in his car and raced to the twins home where Sean had now managed to phone his mother, May.

She said: Hes never used a mobile phone before and I dont know what caused him to pick up the phone but he just knew something was wrong.

He kept screaming 'I can't wake nanny, I can't wake nanny'.

We were in a state in Tralee and couldnt think straight. Brian was packing our bags as I was listening to all this unfolding on the phone.

All I could think was that there were two helpless children in the house and that my mother had died. It was very frightening.

Ruth, 69, had suffered an apparent seizure overnight and fell unconscious in bed.

As Sean continued shouting down the phone to his mother, he began sticking crisps in his grannys eyes and her mouth in a bid to rouse her. Emma helped by clearing from crisps from her face.

May could hear the entire drama being played out over the phone. Within 10-minutes, Stephen arrived at the house but the front door was locked.

Sean dropped the phone, went downstairs, pushed a bike against the door, and managed to unlock its double-locking system to allow his grandfather in.

As May and Brian were leaving Tralee, they could still hear the panic in the room through the phone, and knew that paramedics were on the way.

I could hear the paramedics coming in to the room, and could hear what was being said, May said.

It was about 30-minutes before someone saw the phone on the floor and realised I was still on the line, and spoke to me about what was going on. It was the longest two-hour drive home, May said.

Ruth was taken to Cork University Hospital where she remained in intensive care for two days.

She regained consciousness two days later and remembers little of the drama.

Shes fine now, a bit emotional, but otherwise fine. Sean doesnt think he didnt anything special. Emma is affected a bit more by it but they are all fine now, May said.

The manager of their Naionra, Naiscoil Chloch na gCoillte, Fidelma Ni hUallachain, praised the twins for the heroics.

It is 100% certain that Sean saved Ruths life. He is a worthy hero. Emma helped save her nanny too by cleaning the crisps from her nannys eyes, she said.

Children this age are often not recognised for their capabilities and most certainly should be empowered with the knowledge to help towards their own safety.

The pre-school children have been discussing Seans bravery and have reenacted various scenarios to help them problem-solve and to react in unexpected events. They have also learned how to dial 999, and what to say in the event of an emergency.
Two Romanian men have been remanded in custody after they were charged in connection with an investigation into ATM skimming devices.

Daniel Munteanu, 30, with an address at Slane Road, Navan, Co. Meath was charged with 39 offences. He faced 30 counts of thefts of sums totalling appropriately 30,000 at various locations in 2018 and 2019.

These offences allegedly happened in Dublin as well as in counties Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Cavan, Louth and Wicklow.

He also faced three charges for possession of false identity documents.

Mr Munteanu also had one charge under Section 29.3 of the Theft and Fraud Act for possessing ATM skimming paraphernalia at Slane Road, Navan.

Co-defendant Iulian Craciun, 49, who is of no fixed address faces a single charge for having ATM skimming paraphernalia at Slane Road, Navan.

The case follows an investigation by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau.

They were detained at Navan Garda station where they were charged today. The pair were then brought to appear before Judge David McHugh at a late sitting of Dublin District Court.

Detective Garda Stephen Kelly told the court Mr Munteanu made no reply when charged. Directions needed to be obtained from the Director of Public Prosecutions, he said.

Mr Munteanu, who is unemployed and has no PPS number, did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody to appear via video-link at Trim District Court on March 14 next.

A statement of his means was handed in to court.

A ruling on whether he will qualify for legal aid was deferred until the next hearing after Garda Kelly objected. He referred to bank accounts with large sums of money in Romania.

Detective Garda Paulina Szramowska told Judge McHugh that Mr Craciun also made no reply when he was charged. His solicitor Maurice Regan said there was no application for bail and his client was also remanded in custody.

He is also to appear via video-link at Trim District Court on next Thursday.

A statement of his means was furnished to the court and Judge McHugh granted legal aid to Mr Craciun after noting there was no Garda objection.

The judge also made a direction for a Romanian interpreter to attend their next hearing.

The pair remained silent during the proceedings this evening and gave no indication of how they intend to plead.
The Children's Minister says it would have been wrong for her to not tell parents to seek assurances before sending their children on over-night trips with Scouting Ireland.

Tusla wrote to the organisation last month outlining a number of serious concerns regarding child safety.
Superannuation funds are poised to own more than half of the Australian sharemarket by 2030, raising concerns they could soon wield too much influence.

The total value of Australian shares owned by Australian superannuation funds rose from $279 billion in 2008 to $650 billion at the end of 2018, according to a Rainmaker analysis for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Super fund ownership rose from 29 per cent to 37 per cent over the decade, the analysis shows. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

That includes all ASX-listed shares held by both self-managed funds and larger regulated funds, both industry and retail.

As a proportion of the value of the total sharemarket, super fund ownership rose from 29 per cent to 37 per cent over the decade, the analysis shows.
David Jones is also under pressure from a collapse in sales and profit, and Ian Moir, boss of its South African owner Woolworths, described the business as a "burning platform" that had to be fixed, and soon. Loading After churning through its fourth boss in five years with the departure of David Thomas last month, Moir is now running David Jones himself while it looks for a new CEO. Myer and David Jones are trying frantically to reshape their businesses as they, like department stores worldwide, fall out of favour with shoppers now spoilt for choice by online retailers, specialty stores and international fast-fashion giants such as H&M and Zara. "Department stores really are very much a house of brands and now consumers are shopping very differently, aided by technology," says retail analyst Brian Walker, of the Retail Doctor Group.

"Myer is kind of like a large steam ship in a harbour, capable of getting from A to B but its got speed boats zipping all around it." Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Thursday illustrates the point. Retail sales grew by a weaker than expected 0.1 per cent month-on-month in January, as cost of living pressures, low wage growth and falling house prices keep a cap on consumer spending. Department stores fell 2.1 per cent, following a 1.3 per cent decline in December. But King, who previously led the British store House of Fraser, says claims that department stores are a dead format have been greatly exaggerated. There's still a need for department stores, but they have to have a reason to exist," he says.

Loading "The reason for us to exist is that well have a fantastic choice and range of brands and products both in store and online," he says. "Theres a reason to come to us because theres an experience and a brand offer that you cant get anywhere else. Shrinking Myer's legacy footprint in suburbs and towns across Australia is a key priority in King's plan to revive the company's fortunes, to reduce the rent it pays in line with the fall in bricks-and-mortar sales. The reduction will be significant, but King says all but one of its stores are profitable and he would rather return floor space to landlords than close stores outright. King sees value in keeping a large network of better-run stores that serve customers who want to shop in person or collect the things they buy online.

In the US and in the UK, some stores have 40 per cent of online orders bought online but picked up in a store," he says. "Currently, over 20 per cent of our online sales are picked up in stores, and then one in five of those customers makes an unplanned purchase in the store. So its really about how we marry the two [online and offline] together." Myer expects store sales to be bumpy for a while longer, as a number of concession stores and brands pull out or are booted. Nike is cutting back its presence while Woolworths has yanked brands it owns such as Country Road from Myer shelves to be exclusive to David Jones. There's still a need for department stores, but they have to have a reason to exist. John King, Myer CEO About 20 new brands are coming in to fill that void, including some Australians won't be familiar with, such as British suit maker Twisted Tailor, fashion labels Selected and Girls on Film, and Italian fragrance house Acqua di Parma. Much is made of the rise of specialty fashion retailers being a threat to department stores, but King sees Myer as a less intimidating and more comfortable environment for customers - particularly older or larger ones who might prefer the anonymity of his large stores to the in-your-face experience of a hip boutique.

And global fast-fashion giants H&M, Zara and Uniqlo, which have colonised Australia's malls and shopping centres, are not direct competitors, he says, even against his lucrative private-label brands such as Piper, Blaq and Basque. "Im not going to get into the $10 jeans business," he says. The new David Jones shoe floor features 85 brands. Credit:Wolter Peeters He wants to grow Myer's house brands from 17.5 per cent of sales to 20 per cent, improving profit in the process. David Jones is trying some of the same strategies, shrinking its footprint by about 20 per cent in the medium term, and trying to secure exclusive brands but at a higher price point. Last year, it opened a shoe floor in its mid-renovation flagship store on Sydney's Elizabeth Street, which is stocked with Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci and Louboutin.

David Jones is also experimenting with eat-in and ready-to-eat food, which it says emulates some of the world's greatest department stores, such as Le Bon Marche in Paris, and London's Selfridges and Harrods, in mixing food and fashion to drive foot traffic. Where the two companies diverge is with their price gun. King has sworn to get Myer off the "discounting drug", which drives sales but eats into profitability, while David Jones has continued to run sale-heavy promotions. Its only a matter of time until the pressure is just too great. Brian Walker, Retail Doctor Group. Accordingly, Myer's total sales fell 2.8 per cent in the last half but its underlying profit went up 3 per cent, as its profit margin improved and it cut costs. David Jones grew sales 1 per cent but its profit crashed 29 per cent. Citi analyst Bryan Raymond says the biggest risk to Myer continuing to improve its profit margin is if David Jones starts to clear stock aggressively, which is a prospect given its current high inventory levels. "If David Jones discounts, Myer has to follow to some extent," Raymond says.

Raymond also thinks Myer's strategy of discounting less and cutting labour will be effective only in the short term, and that it eventually needs to grow sales again to cover increasing costs from things like wages. "Theyre still obviously a long way from that," he says. Anton Tagliaferro, whose fund Investors Mutual is Myers second-largest shareholder, sitting just behind Lew with about 10 per cent of its stock, is feeling more confident in his investment than he did six months ago. "Theres a long way to go, but it certainly is moving in the right direction," he says. Tagliaferro has backed Myers board amid attacks from Lew, the boss of the Just Jeans and Smiggle empires who wanted new directors and has secured two shareholder "strikes" against the company's executive pay in the process.
HISTORY

The Seventies: The Personal, The Political And The Making Of Modern Australia

Michelle Arrow

Newsouth, $34.99

Michelle Arrow has had the happiest of experiences for a historian: the discovery of a superbly rich archive, in this case the records of the Whitlam government's royal commission on human relationships (1974-1977).

Germaine Greer at a women's liberation march in Sydney in 1972, during what was a transformative decade for Australia socially and politically.

In 2012 the Macquarie University academic began opening boxes containing the royal commission submissions at the National Archives "and the voices of mid-1970s Australia spilled out". Some were typed, others handwritten, some were on letterhead and others on floral stationery or plain lined paper. Whatever the form, many were riven with emotion: "love, anger, loneliness, bewilderment, determination".

Some letters were "deeply, almost unbearably personal", Arrow recalls. She recounts one from a woman who had seven miscarriages in three years in the 1950s, caused by her ignorance of contraceptives, her then husband's "fear of responsibilities" and his "resultant method of eradicating them by the use of a few well-aimed kicks to the stomach and breasts".
In a different time, this story might have ended here.

I wasnt sad and I wasnt down about it, said Rose. I just felt like I had the right to know where I came from.

While she had always known she was a sperm-donor child, by the time she began searching for her biological father, almost four decades after her 1975 conception in Melbourne, records of her early beginnings had been lost or misplaced, as she was told in a letter from the doctor who performed the procedure.

Instead, the archaeologist is the product of one of Australias earliest insemination clinics, recognised for their culture of secrecy and strict promise of donor anonymity.

Rose Overberg used to stare in the mirror at her funny eyebrows and wonder where they came from. She says they are short  like they are missing a finishing flourish. But she didnt inherit them from the mother or the father who lovingly raised her.

Thats whats happening through DNA testing. With that comes potential shock and disappointments, but it also brings really important information  the truth.

Basically you are seeing the end of secrecy, said Charlotte Smith, manager of the Victorian Adoption Network for Information and Self-Help (VANISH).

There are many consequences of this, some of them unforeseen. People are discovering they were the product of an affair, conceived via insemination programs or adopted. Others, such as Rose, are using the technology proactively to track down their unknown parents. Many find they have brothers and sisters they never knew existed.

Today, at least 26 million people globally are estimated to have shared their DNA with leading websites such as 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, LivingDNA and FamilyTreeDNA  making it increasingly easy for people to identify their blood relatives.

Rose would find her biological father, but it would prove a long and complicated journey.

Finding your family is a modern detective story, using a combination of genetic code and online sleuthing to unlock the past.

But now a surge in Australians uploading their DNA to genealogy databases is solving cases such as Roses, and exposing family secrets at an unprecedented rate.

But a lot of people dont realise that you also get a list of people you share DNA with.

People realise when they are doing these tests that they are going to get an ethnicity estimate, like theyre 10 per cent Viking, Rose said.

Rose turned to DNA in 2016 when the large genealogy companies were just starting to offer at-home testing kits in Australia. She bought three from different sites, spitting in a tube and taking cheek swabs which she sent off to be analysed.

The man she identified, without a scrap of official information, was an elderly retired historian. Hed donated sperm in his 40s, after hed had his own family.

My funny eyebrows, my hands, my colouring  right there on someone else, Rose said. I felt physically ill and so excited I could barely breathe.

When she clicked on his photo, which had been already uploaded to an online family tree, the resemblance was striking.

Over six months, using her cousins family trees, she traced three clusters of her relatives through the 19th and 20th centuries. She finally reached the point where these families intersected, at the only child of a working-class couple from country Victoria.

My funny eyebrows, my hands, my colouring  right there on someone else.

But after doing some online research about DNA detective work in America, Rose realised there was more she could do.

Her results matched her with two third and fourth cousins on her biological fathers side. At first, they were too remote to be of any immediate help, other than identifying distant relatives. She found farmers from Dorset in Britain settled in seaside Portland in Victoria, and a couple buried in a churchyard in a tiny town out of Geelong.

Conceived out of wedlock in the dying months of World War II, her arrival had been an embarrassment. Her biological mother had been serving with the Navy on a base in Fremantle, and her baby was soon hurried off in a troop plane to live with a family in Melbourne.

Growing up in Melbourne in the 1950s, Pauline Ley sensed the neighbours knew something about her that she didnt. When she was 16, she confronted her mother and her suspicions were confirmed: she was adopted.

Pauline Ley didn't know who her biological father was for 70 years. Credit:Eddie Jim

After solving her own mystery, Rose found the father of a friend, who discovered she was sperm-donor conceived after seeing a big sticker on her medical file saying she wasnt meant to read it. Rose even helped a woman aged in her 80s learn the identity of her father, proving time is no barrier in the era of DNA detectives.

While Rose, 42, refuses to charge for her services, it can be lucrative work. The professional research arm of Ancestry.com offers an unknown parentage research service, with prices starting at about $3500 for 20 hours.

Since this discovery, Rose has gone on to solve another 35 cases for other people looking for their biological parents, and has another seven on the go.

I cant remember, her biological mother told her many years ago. Its too long ago and Ive blocked it out.

Dislocated and disconnected is how Pauline described spending most of her life only guessing about the man that helped create her. That's until eight years ago, when a friend encouraged her to send a saliva sample to AncestryDNA.

She had low expectations, thinking shed just receive confirmation that she had Anglo-Celtic origins. But she was immediately connected with about 100 people on her paternal side, most of whom had Jewish-sounding names.

I thought they had made a mistake, she said.

Pauline would befriend one of these newfound relatives, a retired New York art teacher who is her third or fourth cousin. But despite their combined efforts, they could not find the answer she was looking for.

It became evident that unless I got a closer match, it would be unlikely wed identify the right person.

My biological mother was whisked off to a home for fallen women.

Years went by, and there was nothing. Then one day a 15-year-old schoolgirl living in the US state of Maryland uploaded her DNA, popping up as a match. Her grandmother would later be identified as Paulines first cousin.

With the help of a genetic genealogist, they found the man who was not only a genetic fit for Paulines father, but who had been in the right place at the right time.

A seven-decade-old mystery had been solved.

The youngest of six sons from an Orthodox Jewish family in New York, this man spent a number of wartime years in the Pacific as a US submariner, including a short stay in Perth in late 1944 and early 1945 as his submarine underwent repairs.

He died in 2004, almost certainly never knowing he had a daughter.

He had left Perth within weeks of my conception, Pauline said.

And my biological mother was whisked off to a Presbyterian home for fallen women as soon as her pregnancy was confirmed, so she would have lost control of any further contact. You couldnt send texts back then.

Secretive past practices mean that many adoptees have gone a lifetime not knowing the names of their first parents, nor the reasons why they look the way they do. In some cases, records were forged so that the birth certificates only showed the name of adoptive parents. Or the biological fathers name was omitted.

Meanwhile, the majority of the children conceived in the first large insemination programs, now aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s, were never told about their origins by their parents, according to Victorian research.

In the past two years alone, membership of AncestryDNA has increased from three million to more than 10 million. The agencies that assist adoptees and donor-conceived people say they deal with the fallout of shock genetic discoveries daily, with DNA results innocently gifted for Christmas just now bearing fruit.

Rose Overberg is aware of roughly 20 cases in the past year where people have met siblings online who were completely unaware they were donor-conceived because their parents had never told them, including one woman who has found eight siblings through DNA.

Hayley Smith with her parents, Murray and Jenny, on Hayley's wedding day.

When 29-year-old Hayley Smith was genetically matched with a stranger on Ancestry.com two years ago, she knew that there were only a few possibilities. The pair could be aunt and niece, or grandmother and granddaughter  though this was unlikely, given that they were about the same age.

Or they could be sisters.

Hayleys parents, Murray and Jenny Smith, had explained to her when she was a child that her father hadnt been able to conceive naturally. As Murray recalled, you needed roughly 20 million sperm per millilitre to conceive, and he had barely any at all.

The high school sweethearts from Ringwood considered adoption, fostering or not having children at all, before eventually settling on insemination via an anonymous donor.

One morning in 1989, Murray held his wifes hand during the procedure in a quiet room in Prince Henrys Hospital. The couple were given flowers as they left.

Although the parents-to-be didnt think much about it at the time, sperm from the same donor (then a geology research assistant) would be used to create another 21 children in Victoria, which is how their daughter found herself emailing a stranger she was pretty confident was her half-sister.

Is she going to hate me for breaking this family secret? It was really complicated.

Hayley thought she might meet her siblings one day, but the environmental scientist wasnt anticipating that her new relative would be completely oblivious to the fact that she was donor-conceived, as became apparent after the pair shared their first tentative messages.

I was in this really tricky situation, said Hayley, who now has a close relationship with her half-sister.

Am I the right person to be the one to break this news to her? Is it better she knows? Is it better if she doesnt know? Is she going to hate me for breaking this family secret? It was really complicated.

Hayley chose not to reveal her suspicions immediately but instead encouraged her half-sister to talk to her own parents, who eventually revealed that they had also used a sperm donor.

Looking at DNA matchers on a train is not the best idea: Hayley Smith

For many families it has been a relief to reveal these secrets finally, often after decades of carrying the shame and guilt. In other cases, the person learning the news has been angry and resented being told by a stranger.

Authorities are now urging parents to tell their children the truth about their origins themselves, rather than wait for the secret to be clumsily revealed through unexpected DNA matches, often with cousins and other relatives who may be less than discreet with the information.

I think people thought it was a secret they could keep  that if they didnt tell anyone else it might go to the grave, said Kate Bourne, donor registers service manager at the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority.

But were really finding that it is coming out.

As they observe the impact of DNA discoveries, groups such as VANISH harbour concerns about some of the potential pitfalls of the technology. They worry that people are getting shocking news without appropriate support, and are yet to be convinced that DNA companies will not sell peoples intimate personal data.

The feedback we have received is that opting out is not as easy as companies indicate on their websites, Charlotte Smith said.

But they also know that for many people, DNA represents their only hope of finding their unknown family.

For most of her life, Pauline Ley had believed she was an only child.

Since discovering her biological father, shes met her half-brother, a partner in an interior design studio in New York, and the pair have since made numerous trips across the Pacific to spend time with each others families.

She has been able to see photos of her grandparents, migrants from Belarus, and visited her biological fathers headstone in a huge Jewish cemetery on Long Island in New York. It brought her comfort to see the words inscribed on it: a brave and gentle man who is forever loved.

I just feel more whole as a human being having that history, and that had been erased, said Pauline.

I think people are very anxious about DNA testing. Its creating disturbance in peoples lives, but I would say there is a beauty about it because its the truth.

He was surprised I found him: Rose Overberg

Rose Overberg had spent months crafting the letter that she would send her biological father. In September 2016, it finally arrived in his mailbox.

When he called her three days later, they spoke for two hours. The historian was amazed she had managed to find him, but perhaps he shouldnt have been, given their shared professional expertise in history and research.

We just hit it off, Rose said.

Not wanting to rush things, the pair had been talking about meeting in person for the first time when, 10 months after they made contact, Rose learned that he had died aged 83. While it was sad, the mother-of-three also believes she got the answers she was after.

I just wanted to be acknowledged and know where I came from.

Ive got a great dad, I didnt need a dad. I just wanted to be acknowledged and know where I came from, she said.

And as that chapter closed, Roses work as a DNA detective continued.

Before he died, her biological father confided to her that he had made multiple donations to couples over a number of years, and that he had been told informally about three other babies.

Officially, there is no way for Rose to confirm this, as all records of his donations have vanished. But as DNA networks expand, this only child is eagerly awaiting the day when she finds one, or all, of her siblings.

It might happen in 20 years, when someone is doing a family tree, she said.

Or it might happen tomorrow.
One way members of the public can temporarily access the road is to attend official events such as the upcoming Duntroon Dairy and Duntroon Heritage Walk, hosted by the National Trust (ACT) and led by architect Eric Martin. This one-off event, which will follow Lavarack Road into Duntroon and feature the RMCs Parade Ground, Changi Chapel, Duntroon House and the original gate house, is scheduled for April 28 (9.30am11.30am) and is part of the upcoming Canberra & Region Heritage Festival. Cost: $10. Bookings essential via: events@nationaltrustact.org.au or Ph: 6230 0533. Oh, and for the record, Lavarack Road is named after General John D Lavarack, who was Commandant of RMC Duntroon between 1933 and 1935. Missing piece of Tuggeranong Parkway Have you noticed this 5km-long cutting which runs alongside the Tuggeranong Parkway? Credit:Colin Whittaker By far the most commonly reported ''ghost road'' in my mailbag this week is the cutting immediately west of, and parallel to, the Tuggeranong Parkway, and which runs for almost the entire five-kilometre stretch between Sulwood Drive and Heysen Street, Weston.

This plan of proposed suburb names of Tuggeranong shows the Tuggeranong Parkway running to the west of Kambah and suburban development on the western side of the Murrumbidgee River. Credit:Courtesy of ArchivesACT "I was wondering if this was to be the original alignment of the Tuggeranong Parkway until somebody realised it was in the wrong place," says Colin Whittaker of Torrens, who advises curious Canberrans "can access this 'road to nowhere' from the track off the end of Daplyn Close, Weston". Rob Nelson of Kambah provides a possible clue to this unfinished highway. "As a long-time Canberra resident I remember the Tuggeranong Parkway being built, and it was originally meant to be a far grander carriageway than what we have now," reports Nelson. Meanwhile Philip Nugent, also of Kambah, has dug up a 1975 map of the Tuggeranong valley's proposed suburbs "which shows original plans for the Tuggeranong Parkway were for it to run to the west of Kambah". Nugent believes the map which features proposed development on both sides of the Murrumbidgee River may explain some of the road oddities in his suburb, "such as very wide verges and some excavations along Kambah Pool Road".

"I suspect these wide verges were where the Tuggeranong Parkway was originally intended to be routed before it was decided there'd be no development west of the river," reports Nugent who also believes "this may also explain why the Tuggeranong Town Centre is rather strangely stuck on the edge of the town centre." Tharwa Thoroughfare A remainder of the old Pine Island Road located behind the South Tuggeranong ACT Fire & Rescue Station. Credit:Mark Dawson It turns out your akubra-clad columnist isn't the only compiler of ghost roads; the good folk out at ArchivesACT have also delved in Canberra's lost roads and even published a 'Find of the Month' in January 2015 which throws the spotlight on the original alignment of several of Canberra's early roads, including old Tharwa Road. "Some of those hidden remains are short sections of rural roads, some of which have origins dating back to the 1830s," reports the archives. "These rural roads form an interesting component of the early settlement of Canberra that is still present to explore".

Often all signs of these roads disappear during the construction of new suburbs, but the archives reveal that "by looking at old maps, you can sometimes locate and track down what remains of these roads". While much of the current-day Tharwa Drive follows the same route taken by the old Tharwa Road, a short section of the original road remains tucked away in a corner of Calwell and has been repurposed as part of the bicycle path connecting Calwell and Gordon. "If you look closely, there is also another short section of sealed road with faded line markings running off the eastern end of this section of bike path," reports Mark Dawson, a regular contributor to these pages on quirky historic matters. Gunning Gate When zoomed in sufficiently, a feint ring of roads appears, revealing Halloran's vision for Environa.

While Henry Halloran's 1920s vision for Environa, an exclusive estate near Hume, continues to bemuse many who stumble upon its grand street plans, it isn't the only location around the ACT where Halloran's ghostly streets appear as feint lines on online maps if you zoom in sufficiently. Luke Wensing reports, "Halloran also planned the northern 'gates' of Canberra, namely Gunning, Majura and Gundaroo, with a similar network of roads. "Gunning Gate is at the edge of the ACT border near Mulligans Flat, while 'Gundaroo Gate' can be found by zooming in on Poppet Rd close to Wamboin," reports Wensing. "Halloran's theory that freehold blocks located just across the ACT border would entice home creation just didn't add up," explains Halloran. Henry Parkes was friends with Halloran's grandfather and there is ''no doubt in my mind that some of Parkes's conjecture about a 'Utopia' encouraged Halloran to be very speculative about landholding".

Belconnen baffler Binns Place, Fraser: No man's land. Credit:Tim the Yowie Man One of the more perplexing phantom roads in Canberra is at the end of Binns Place in Fraser. "There's a perfectly good loop with street lights, curbs, but not one single house," reports one ACT government insider. "It's a mystery as to why it remains empty." According to Sean Coggan of Torrens, a self-confessed "closet ghost-road researcher and map geek", Binns Street "is just one of over a dozen ghostly streets hidden in our suburbs".

One of the other puzzling streets which features on his list, which is far too comprehensive to replicate here, is Wienholt Street in Gowrie which appears on maps to lead off Bugden Avenue between the pedestrian underpass and Conway Place. "This is a 'paper street', existing only on some road maps as a copyright trap," reports Coggan. "Except the ghost of this road also exists in Google Maps and even ACTMapi [a web-based tool for viewing maps and geographic information about Canberra and the ACT]. "There are even traces of the street in the 'real world', a short section of Bugden Avenue has no kerb, right where Wienholt Street should be," explains Coggan who would like to know "how long the ghost street was incorrectly gazetted when Gowrie was planned or if it's proposed for a future development''.

Simulacra Corner A floppy-eared rabbit on the hop in New Zealand. Credit:Stephen Roxburgh "I know you appreciate a good rock-masquerading-as-a-critter snap," writes Stephen Roxburgh of Weston who on a recent holiday across the Tasman snapped this photo "of a giant floppy-eared rabbit lurking in southern New Zealand near Poolburn". "Those familiar with the Lord of the Rings movies, may be aware Poolburn was the site of the village of Rohan," reports Roxburgh, adding, "maybe the Orcs left this beast behind." However, Roxburgh explains the bunny is unlikely to be well-known as it's an isolated location and he suspects "it's sudden 'appearance' was a lucky combination of the viewing angle and the light".

A giant rabbit spotted in Namadgi National Park. Credit:Mark Jekabsons Meanwhile, closer to home, Mark Jekabsons photographed this over-sized rabbit in Gudgenby Valley in Namadgi National Park. On the subject of rabbits, on a recent stroll up Mt Ainslie I noticed more rabbits than I have for a long time. Are there more rabbits appearing in the bush near your place?

Where in Canberra (from a balloon)? Do you recognise this location? Credit:Tim the Yowie Man Clue: Is this our city's most famous zig-zag? Degree of difficulty: Hard

Last week: Toad Hall at ANU. Credit:Tim the Yowie Man Congratulations to Tam Le of Franklin as the first reader to correctly identify last week's photo (viewed from an airborne balloon) as Toad Hall, a student residence at ANU located at 30 Kingsley Street in Acton. The triumphant Tam just beat Craig Dingwall of Ngunnawal, Judith McArthur of Hughes and Roxanne Missingham to the prize. Roxanne was one of the first residents of Toad Hall back in 1974. "Toad [Hall] was a major innovation [with] rooms for student focused around central kitchens," reports Roxanne. "We formed strong communities and shared cooking, stories and supported each other through our study." The clue related to the student hall's location amongst willow trees on the banks of Sullivan's Creek which led to it being named after the fictional home of Mr Toad, a lead character in Kenneth Grahame's popular 1908 children's novel The Wind in the Willows.
The company behind the controversial delivery drone trial in Bonython tested its new quiet drone on Friday morning.

The test of the new drones follows community concerns primarily focussed on the noise of drones during the trial.

But Project Wing originally barred filming or recording of the test "as recordings do not accurately portray the sound profile of the technology".

The ban was then lifted to only allow recording from 20 metres away from the drone, which the company argued would be the distance between neighbours and the delivery address.
"I grew up in Hollywood, I've been there most of my life and I moved out into a little bit of the countryside to get out of Hollywood and I can't stand going back. It's hard for me to go back. "But the insanity of Hollywood has just gotten worse to me. So I separate myself." Katherine Kelly Lang as Brooke Logan Forrester, and Ronn Moss as Ridge Forrester in The Bold and the Beautiful. It's not the Ronn Moss we're used to, this is someone a little more serious and introspective. We're more used to those tongue-in-check appearances on Rove when he'd joke about his ponchos and re-enact those suspenseful mid-distance stares on The Bold and the Beautiful. He's still got that sense of humour. But it's as if freed from the shackles of Ridge Forrester he can be more himself, more candid.

So fill us in, how has Hollywood become more insane? Exactly. "Oh, lots of ways. Politically, it's absolutely fricking insane," Moss said. "And the insanity of showbusiness, it makes me not want to be a part of it, because of some of the people that are involved in it. And then I think of the creative aspects of it, and I go, 'Okay, I'm doing it for my own creative reasons but I'm not going to take all that bullshit that people go through with, with Hollywood'.'' Ronn Moss turned 67 on March 4, his hair and drop-dead gorgeous cheekbones still in place. "I don't want to talk too much about politics but there's a liberal insanity that has taken over Hollywood and for me, I'm sorry, but it is insanity. It defies logic, it defies human rationale. And I don't understand it."

Is he talking about the #MeToo movement? "It's all of that. There's an insane sort of thing that's taken over," he said. "And I know why it's happening but that would be far too long a conversation.... There's a force behind it that knows exactly what it's doing and everyone in Hollywood is falling for it. "It's making them accuse everyone else of being racist and homophobic, whatever other adjectives you want to use, when they're actually the ones perpetuating it. I call it transference. Where you transfer to somebody else the very qualities that you are yourself projecting.

"But you transfer it to make sure everybody else is that way when, actually, it's you. That's kind of what's happening and it's happening on such a grand scale that I don't even want to go to Hollywood anymore." That much is clear. When Moss left The Bold and the Beautiful, he suggested it was simply time. And salary issues. But there was much more to it. "I pretty much left Bold and the Beautiful because I felt I couldn't continue to do it,'' he said. "I was in a pretty bad car accident which really debilitated my ability to keep going with that show. I think I'll probably talk about this when I come there for my shows because people keep asking and they don't really know the real reason.'' The accident was in July, 2012, around the time he announced he was leaving The Bold and the Beautiful, a fixture of the soap since its inception in 1987.

"I kind of stayed mum about it because there was a legal aspect to it and the insurance. And I'm not one to complain, that's my problem. If I'd been one of the fricking complainers, then everyone would know, 'Oh, no, I was in an accident'," he said. "I just kept that to myself because I didn't want to seem so much of a whinger. Is that an English term or is that an Australian term? "I don't like doing that. My wife after the fact said, 'Why don't you tell people the real reason of what's going on?' and I was like, 'I don't want to whine about something like that'. I can't stand that." The accident virtually made it impossible for Moss to keep acting with the show. "We got whacked really hard and I was kind of the centre of the storm and fractured my shoulder in three places and it gave me a bit of a concussion and it made it hard for me to memorise all the fricking dialogue we had to do on the show," he said.

Actor Ronn Moss has two adult daughters but is in no rush for grandchildren, telling his daughters to "go out and enjoy your lives". "And I was just struggling for the last two weeks struggling to get through it, going, 'What the fuck is going on with me?'. I lost all strength in my left hand, my left arm. "And I went, 'Oh my God is this going to permanent? I don't know'. So a lot of things were compiling on me and I just went, 'I don't know if I can keep going on this show. I think I'm really at a loss here'. Because I'd never been in an accident before. I'd never had that experience before." The accident, as terrible as it was - he and his wife Devin DeVasquez were hit at full force by another vehicle while their car was stationary - it was a catalyst for change. "This was just a facilitator for me to go and do something different," he said

"The short story of it is, 'Things are thrown at you in life and you either pick up the ball and run with it or you try to fight against it'. And I wasn't going to fight against it, I was going to run.'' He's certainly not in retirement mood. Moss turned 67 on March 4, a birthday he celebrated just ahead of his departure to Australia. He is producing movies in Europe. Keeping an eye on his two adult daughters - the boyfriends have been vetted. And excited to keep working and concentrating on his music. His show, called An Intimate Evening with Ronn Moss, will feature clips, stories and music from his career. He knew, at 11 years old, after watching The Beatles appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, that he wanted to play music, or be Ed Sullivan, or both. His band Player had a No.1 hit with Baby Come Back and toured with the likes of Eric Clapton, Heart and The Little River Band. Moss returns to Australia with his good friend, musician Jawn Star, performing alongside him, rather than a full band.

"We're going to do a very unplugged, very intimate, one-on-one thing with our Australian friends," he said. Moss' Bold and the Beautiful co-star Katherine Kelly Lang is also a regular visitor to Australia and recently appeared in the local version of, I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! Would he consider doing that kind of show? "Over the last four years, they've asked me three times to do it and it's never really worked out,'' he said. Again, he says the car accident prevented him from doing I'm a Celebrity for Australian TV. It's a shame because, despite his more introspective musings, he seems like one Hollywood star who doesn't take himself too seriously.
A forklift has run over a man's leg at a workplace in south-east Queensland.

The man, aged in his 60s, suffered serious injuries to his lower leg when it was run over about 10.20am on Friday.

Paramedics were called to Glanmire, an industrial suburb at Gympie, about 160 kilometres north of Brisbane, to treat the man.

Paramedics assessed him on scene before he was taken to Gympie Hospital in a stable condition.
A Gold Coast woman has been found guilty of arranging for her ex-husband to be killed by a man who took her money and ran without carrying out the hit.

Theresa Dalton, 67, paid $20,000 to have Malcolm Stewart killed in early 2010, after their 24-year marriage broke down some three years earlier.

Theresa Dalton is seen leaving the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Tuesday. Credit:AAP

She was found guilty by a Brisbane Supreme Court jury on Friday of attempting to procure the commission of his murder.

"I had nothing to do with this. Nothing whatsoever," Dalton said from the dock after the verdict.
Two young Taiwanese men who landed in Brisbane with a combined $4 million of methamphetamine strapped to their bodies were caught after police noticed one waddling.

Australian Federal Police pounced on Hao-Chen Liu at baggage collection after he got off his flight from Taipei in April last year because they noticed his walking was hindered.

A search revealed the 21-year-old was carrying about two kilograms of the drug ice in four vacuum sealed bags.

Two of the bags were strapped to his upper thighs and the others concealed under a girdle.

Liu's arrest led to countryman Yung-Chan Chiu, 20, being found with a similar amount of the drug after he arrived on a flight from Taipei about 45 minutes later.
A prominent Brisbane business identity has been named by a convicted criminal as the mastermind behind Brisbanes Whiskey Au Go Go fire bombing, in which 15 people died in March 1973.

And a researcher, who spent five years investigating the notes of the Whiskey Au Go Go lead detectives, believes 77-year-old William "Billy" Stokes's comments should be investigated seriously.

Former Whiskey Au Go Go waitress Donna Phillips and convicted murderer and Port News editor, Billy Stokes, in Amelia Street where the Whiskey Au Go Go was located. Credit:Tony Moore

Stokes, 77, the former editor of the Waterside Workers Union magazine Port News, named the businessman at a commemoration service to those who died in the nightclub, when two barrels of petrol were rolled into the ground-floor foyer of the Whiskey Au Go Go on March 8, 1973.

Due to a lack of corroboration, Brisbane Times is not naming the businessman.
A maths teacher whose classroom anecdote allegedly prompted a student to urinate in a bin is fighting for $80,000 in wages and entitlements after he was sacked and subsequently reinstated at a lower pay grade.

The teacher, from a northern suburbs state high school, was fired by the Education Department in October 2017 after he shared a story with his year nine maths class about a 1989 incident in which, after asking to go to the toilet and being denied, a student relieved themselves in the classroom bin.

The anecdote arose from a seemingly innocent classroom inquiry by one of the year nine students who'd asked the teacher, in the words of a Supreme Court judgement, What is one of the craziest things that has happened to you?

It was then that one of his current students took it upon himself to first pretend to urinate in the bin and then, according to court documents, actually do so.

According to a classmate who gave evidence, the teacher then asked the student to take the bin out, "so it doesnt smell inside the classroom". The incident wasn't reported and the student wasn't disciplined. It instead came to light at a parent-teacher interview.
Such mystery prompted Willoughbys choice to write Heysens biography as part of her PhD at the University of WA. She discovered a woman always overshadowed by her father, always introduced in the press as Hans Heysens daughter, never sure if her work was truly good, or whether she was getting all the attention because of him. I think she would scream loudly, 'I am not a feminist'. And yet she never pushed herself forward, never self-promoted, Willoughby said. Others, such as Margaret Preston, were good at getting noticed, but even when Heysen won the Archibald, all she wanted was for the press to go away so she could do her work.

Rather than use that as a platform she retreated, and wanted the work to speak for itself. As we know, thats not really the way things work. And that was one of the reasons she remained obscure. Asked if, given that attitude, how Heysen might react to being lauded on International Womens Day more than a century after her birth, Willoughby said she probably would be mortified. I think she would scream loudly, I am not a feminist, Willoughby said. But she is, by default. Whatever your definition of feminism, she is a great example of womanhood and whats achievable despite all the barriers. 'Unnatural and impossible for a woman'

Anne-Louise Willoughby. Such barriers were thrown into sharp relief after her 1939 Archibald win. Fellow entrant Max Meldrum was famously quoted in city newspapers saying, A great artist has to tread a lonely road. He needs all the manly qualities  courage, strength and endurance  I believe that such a life is unnatural and impossible for a woman. He was only one of those angry at Heysen's win. And it wasn't just the anger that formed a barrier to Heysen being taken seriously. Willoughbys book details an Australian Womens Weekly article published after her win, headlined Girl Painter Who Won Art Prize is also Good Cook, accompanied with a photo of Heysen peeling vegetables at the sink.

With two recommended recipes to boot. Even when war broke out and she was asked to be a war artist, they couldnt give her the security they believed a female needed at the front, and she could not get as close to the action as a man would have. So she went into clearing stations, but she felt stymied and that as a man she would have been able to have a crack at better subjects, Willoughby said. Willoughby said Heysen was sidelined in the art world after a build-up of untimely interruptions by the men who held influence in her life; and also by the outbreak of WWII, the social constraints of the day, and by her own responses to all these circumstances. Yet she persevered.

She kept going no matter what was put in front of her, Willoughby said. She lost her adopted son to AIDS-related illness. She lost the love of her life. She lost a sister in very trying circumstances, the result of social restrictions of the day. So many tragedies that could have made her throw in the towel, but she said she wanted her last memory to be that she put something on paper and she did; she died in 2003 still producing work right up to the very end. She is perhaps one of Australias longest-producing artists. Willoughby said that in the three years researching and two years writing the book, her subject had taught her persistence. She believed that if something was worth doing, if you kept going and you were patient, you would triumph. You would get a result, she said. I was a journalist for 30 years and sometimes we arent patient. We want to get to the bottom of it. There is all this urgency.
Eyebrows have been raised in legal circles over Attorney-General Christian Porters decision to appoint a junior barrister he knew at law school to the Federal Court.

Industrial relations specialist John Snaden was a prominent Liberal student politician whose time at the University of Western Australias law school overlapped with Mr Porters for several years.

John Snaden, a junior industrial relations barrister, attended the University of Western Australia law school around the same time as Attorney-General Christian Porter.

The decision to appoint someone so young, known to the Attorney-General and with past political links raised genuine questions about transparency, according to one law professor.

Mr Snaden, 43, who has been named as a close friend by two other Liberal politicians, will be sworn in next month and eligible to sit on the bench until 2046.
The Queensland Government Insurance Fund has decided not to appeal a decision to award more than $1.45 million in damages to former assistant health minister Chris Davis after he was denied a job.

Dr Davis successfully argued to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal he had been discriminated against when he missed out on a job in the months after he left the State Parliament after a falling out with then-premier Campbell Newman.

Former assistant health minister Dr Chris Davis was awarded $1.45 million in a QCAT judgment.

He was awarded $1,450,771.69 on February 11, which the Metro North Hospital and Health Service was ordered to pay within 30 days.

On Friday afternoon, a Metro North Hospital and Health Service spokeswoman said the decision not to appeal the QCAT decision was made after "careful consideration".
The Liberal National Party will put Deputy Premier Jackie Trad last on its how-to-vote cards at the next Queensland election.

The decision, an attempt to unseat Ms Trad and destabilise the government, was agreed to at a meeting of the party's state executive in Townsville on Friday.

The Liberal National Party will tell voters to put the Greens ahead of Deputy Premier Jackie Trad at the October 2020 state election. Credit:AAP Image/ Dan Peled

The state executive agreed to a motion, from president David Hutchinson, to place Ms Trad last in her inner-city electorate of South Brisbane, or in any other seat she contested.

The controversial move will mean the LNP will direct preferences to the Greens ahead of Labor.
Almost 150,000 Victorian households and 45,000 small businesses signed up to the worst electricity offers on the market will have their bills slashed by hundreds of dollars from July 1.

Energy retailers will be forced by law to transfer those customers who are on expensive standing offers on to a cheaper deal, if a draft Victorian default offer proposed by the Essential Services Commission is adopted.

The Essential Services Commission has proposed to scrap expensive standing offers. Credit:Leonie Smyth

The regulator has calculated that households on the most expensive default offers which also use about 4000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year will save between $390 and $520 a year on their bills.

Average-sized small businesses on standing offers that consume about 20,000 kilowatt hours will save about $2500 annually.
The ability to map not only makes the robot quicker and more efficient, but lets it integrate more closely with smart homes. Once it's explored your house a few times, the i7 will present you with a map via its smartphone app, which Angle says tends to be "maybe 80 per cent right". The robot might assume for example that one room is your kitchen, when actually half is your dining room. But once you've drawn lines on the map and named your rooms, the robot becomes very efficient at getting from its home base to a specific room you request. This eliminates the need to use physical boxes to create "virtual walls", as was necessary with previous generations, because if there's a specific area you want cleaned or avoided during the regularly scheduled vacuuming you can just point it out And if you spill the cornflakes while getting ready for work, you don't have to wait for the scheduled cleaning time or fire up the app. You can just ask a Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa device to "tell Roomba to clean the kitchen". The Roomba i7+ and its automatic dirt disposal clean base. Credit:Tim Biggs This ability to recognise rooms is a bit of a turning point, and Angle says the company's future robots, including vacuums, mops and more, will be able to share information for more efficient and autonomous cleaning. They'll also get smarter over time thanks to monthly updates.

"Now that we have memory ... we can learn. If your robot got stuck, we can figure out where and not do it again. If there are areas that tend to be dirtier than others ... we could spend more time cleaning there," Angle says.

Set and forget Aside from the processing and imaging tech, the biggest hardware update is a change to the charging base. Previously, when the robot's dust bin was full, a human had to clean it out. But the i7+ silently returns home, where the dust is (not so silently) sucked into a special chamber, then returns to its job. You do still need to physically take the bag and put it in the garbage, but not often. Credit:Tim Biggs The base can take 30 times the amount of dust that fits in the robot, so you could potentially go months having your floors vacced every day without having to do anything (besides making sure the floors are relatively clear). When the base is eventually full you just need to lift out the filter bag, which closes automatically, throw it away and insert a new one.

With all the updates taken together you have a machine that roams your house autonomously, mapping the layout and scanning for changes, that you can set and forget for months at a time and that will only get more capable of processing the data it collects as time goes on and it receives updates. It's not a wild assumption to say this is the kind of data Google, Amazon and other smart home companies would jump at the chance to tap into, especially since iRobot claims Roomba is the No. 1 brand of vacuum in the US and parts of Europe. Angle says those conversations are already happening, but vows that selling user data or giving third parties access without user permission is not something iRobot will do. Loading "It's part of our architecture that if something is going to go up to the cloud to be stored, the user has the ability to say whether they want that to happen," he says. "That's part of our ground-up commitment to privacy and making sure the owner of the robot stays in full control of everything that's going on." "If there is an opportunity make your home smarter by sharing some of this information, it would be you the consumer saying 'hey, I'll make this linkage to this other company, to make the light bulbs turn on when I walk here ... or so they know the shape of my living room and where it is."
Couples who are very comfortable with each other might start dressing the same. Or finishing each other's sentences. And then there's the Kims, Sinyeol and Sung-do, originally from South Korea, who made the unusual decision back in 1991 to move to  well, CNN put it best  "a lonely outcrop of islands at the heart of a long-standing territorial dispute between Japan and South Korea". (Real estate agents might prefer to describe the area as "up-and-coming", having learnt the hard way that "lonely outcrops" don't do well at auction.)

Illustration: Simon Letch Credit:

But who knows what goes on inside a marriage, right? Because it turns out the couple loved their life there. Mrs Kim worked as a freediver (the Korean term is haenyo) until 2017, when she quit at the age of 79. Mr Kim died last October, but his wife is still there. I haven't named the island because that's a whole other can of sea slugs: it's part of what the Koreans call the Dokdo Islands, but the Japanese refer to the chain as Takeshima.

"She said living on Dokdo is relaxing," Kim's son-in-law told reporters recently. "Being there, her mind is at ease." This makes some sense. Hell is, after all, other people, and there are none around to complain about parking. Also, islands are often what we imagine when conjuring a vision of peace and serenity: palm trees dipping lazily into azure seas, golden sands dotted with hairy coconuts. Some of the world's most sought-after tourist destinations are islands. Bora Bora. St Lucia. The Maldives. Santorini.

And yet. I've been living on an island for some time now, a real one, by which I mean you can get from one side to the other in a day. Not an island continent, as we were taught Australia was as schoolkids. (Somewhat confusingly, as it happens, because most geographers consider islands and continents to be separate things.)
Milwaukee: A federal judge in Los Angeles has dismissed a lawsuit brought by adult-film actress Stormy Daniels to end a hush-money agreement she had with US President Donald Trump.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed a lawsuit in March 2018 to rescind a non-disclosure agreement that kept her from discussing her alleged 2006 sexual relationship with Trump in the final weeks before the 2016 US presidential election.

Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.

Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen has said the agreement, under which Daniels was paid $US130,000 ($185,000) was struck to help Trump capture the White House.
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Friday

March 8

Faux pass

Feel like an exotic Parisian as you party to tunes from Les Sans Cullotes, Brooklyns fake French rock band. The leader of the seven-piece banters between songs with an outrageous Gallic accent, and the band lays down some excellent, danceable grooves. Opening acts Spanking Charlene and Heap will start the night at 9:30 pm.

11:30 pm at Hanks Saloon [345 Adams St. near Willoughby Street Downtown, (718) 8852427, www.hcfoo dpark.com/ hanks ]. $10.

Saturday

March 9

The rich is back!

If you have an extra $250 laying around, you might be able to score a ticket to Elton Johns final show at Barclays Center, part of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road good-bye tour. The Honky Cat will play Sad Songs from the last 50 years, and whether you love Philadelphia Freedom or the Circle of Life, youve got to Believe hes going to play Your Song.

8 pm at Barclays Center (620 Atlantic Ave. at Pacific Street in Prospect Heights, www.barcl aysce nter.com ). $250 (and up!).

Monday

March 11

Cartoon cuts

Animation is not just for kids  and sometimes it shouldnt be for them at all! J.R. Pepper will discuss the history of cartoon censorship in her lecture Think of the Children: Banned Cartoons, which will cover the many reasons that animation can run afoul of the authorities, from cultural differences to cartoonists slipping in subtle adult jokes.

8:30 pm at Prospect Heights Brainery (190 Underhill Ave. in Prospect Heights, www.brook lynbr ainer y.com ). $10.

Children will listen: Rapunzel (Shuyan Yang) listens to the Witch (Julia Goretsky) in Theater 2020s production of Into the Woods, playing through March 17. John Robert Hoffman

Tuesday

March 12

Hang in there!

The documentary RBG, about butt-kicking United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, may not have won at the Academy Awards, but it is still a great flick. It will screen tonight as part of the Brooklyn Historical Societys The Feature is Female series, introduced by former New York State Attorney General Barbara Underwood.

6:30 pm at Brooklyn Historical Society (128 Pierrepont St. between Henry and Clinton streets in Brooklyn Heights, www.brook lynhi story.org ). Free.

Wednesday

March 13

Witch way

Stephen Sondheims Into the Woods, which mashes up a dozen different fairy tales into a magical musical, gets an intimate, affecting, and often very funny production from the Brooklyn Heights company Theater 2020. The show closes on Sunday, so get in while you have a chance!

8 pm at Founders Hall at St. Francis College (180 Remsen St. between Court and Clinton streets in Brooklyn Heights, www.theat er202 0.com ). $40.
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Sunset Park

Standing O gives a big welcome to Dr. Sam Serouya, a gastroenterologist who recently joined the medical staff at NYU Langone HospitalBrooklyn.

Serouya specializes in advanced therapeutic endoscopy  which allows direct evaluation of the gastrointestinal tract and non-invasive treatment of digestive disorders and diseases. He is proficient in using state-of-the-art tools and performing leading-edge endoscopic procedures to detect and treat precancerous and cancerous growths.

He joins a highly trained team of gastroenterologists headed by Dr. Adam J. Goodman, chief of gastroenterology and director of endoscopy and quality in the Department of Medicine. The team works collaboratively with surgeons, oncologists, radiologists, and a variety of disease specialists to provide patients with innovative minimally invasive approaches to treatment.

NYU Langone HospitalBrooklyn offers the latest generation of technologies for upper and lower endoscopy, including colonoscopy, of the gastrointestinal tract, which includes the mouth, esophagus, stomach, and intestines, as well as nearby organs like the liver, pancreas, and bile duct. Advanced endoscopy includes endoscopic ultrasound, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, and a wide range of endoscopic surgical procedures.

These technologies provide a detailed image of the lining and walls of the digestive tract, as well as surrounding tissues, and these procedures allow direct evaluation and innovative treatment of digestive problems, says Serouya. Advanced endoscopy is a cutting-edge field that is constantly expanding to provide more and more modalities for the diagnosis and treatment of both benign and malignant conditions.

A stellar student, Serouya graduated summa cum laude and earned Phi Beta Kappa honors as a pre-med undergraduate at Tufts University in Boston. He completed his medical education at NYU School of Medicine, followed by an internship and residency in internal medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center.

Additionally, he completed a three-year gastroenterology fellowship at Mount Sinai Beth Israel and a one-year advanced endoscopy fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center.

Serouya cautions that certain symptoms should not be ignored, including yellowing of the eyes or skin; abdominal pain, weight loss, blood with vomiting or defecation, pain with swallowing, or a sense of bloating.

Any of these conditions should be brought to the attention of a primary care provider who can make a referral to a specialist in gastroenterology.

Borough wide

Pick your favorite teacher

Know a deserving teacher who has gone above and beyond for his or her students? Nominate that teacher for a Blackboard Award!

New York Family magazine is looking for nominations for its 2019 Teachers Blackboard Awards, which honor and celebrate educators of excellence.

The teachers who are picked as 2019 honorees will be feted at a ceremony in June.

City teachers from all grade levels (nursery school through high school) and from every educational sector (public, private, parochial, and charter) are eligible for nomination. Please include a brief explanation of why this teacher is special.

In addition to nominations from parents, nominations from educators and students are also welcome.

The deadline to nominate a teacher is April 5, 2019.

For more information and to nominate your teacher, visit blackboardawards.com. Courtney Donahue
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Shes at the end of her rope!

A local dominatrix is coiling her whips and packing up her paddles as she prepares to flee her BedfordStuyvesant neighbor, a woman who vilifies the businesswoman as part of an ongoing harassment campaign, according to the dom.

She just stays outside screaming, mostly to neighbors, about us, saying things like, Theyre kinky weirdos,  said dominatrix Charlotte Taillor. I told my friends that shes a humiliatrix, but I dont have a safe word!

Charlotte Taillor moved her adults-only classroom, called the Taillor Collective, from nearby Crown Heights to a Quincy Street residential unit between Bedford and Nostrand avenues in December, where she offers paid workshops catering to the sexually adventurous, including lessons on bondage and paddling, cross-dressing events for guys, dirty drawing workshops, and pegging classes for women  a workshop that attracts a disproportionate amount of Jersey girls, the kink maven claimed.

Housewives from Jersey want to know how to peg their husbands, Taillor said.

But once her neighbor Laurie Miller found out that the stream of people filing into the building next door visited to study the art of kink, she called the cops, alerted local Councilman Robert Cornegy and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries  neither of whom got back to her, she claimed  and reported the operation to the Department of Buildings, complaining the neighborhoods residential zoning should be enough to prohibit her Bdsm business.

Miller also organized several meetings of the 200 Quincy St. Block Association to complain about Taillor, most recently convening the group on March 6, where she derided some of the doms clients as creepy kidnappers.

It may be a prejudice of mine, but once the activity they have doesnt get them off anymore, what are they going to do, snatch a kid, or a woman off the street? she said. Some of these guys are really creepy looking, thats what really bothers me.

Following the meeting, Miller clarified her accusations, telling this newspaper Taillors clientele are transients and that she doesnt like to see strangers on her block.

Theyre not people that are regular to our neighborhood, she said. You watch whos who in the neighborhood, and whats going on, you want to know where theyre coming their from. We really dont know these people.

And when asked what specifically made the male patrons she ridiculed creepy, Miller pointed to big afros and generally unkempt looking, scruffy individuals.

Some neighbors stood behind Miller at the recent block-association meeting, including one woman who exclaimed, But what about the kids?!

But other Quincy Street residents supported Taillors brand of kinky commerce, with another resident admitting she had no idea about the sex business on her block until Miller raised a stink.

As a neighbor, this sounds like a business Id be happy to have on this street, said Rebecca Israel.

City law allows locals to operate home businesses in residential buildings, but require that the property be primarily used as a residence, that at least one occupant work as an employee, and that the business take up no more than a quarter of the overall space, according to Buildings Department spokesman Andrew Rudansky, who said the agency has yet to inspect Taillors property.

Still, the dominatrix  whose dilemma was first reported by Patch  is doing everything in her power to break her lease and move, she claimed, including setting up an online fund-raiser to help cover the cost of relocating, which she hopes to do by the end of April.

Were taking off, please stop trying to break us, were already leaving, Taillor told Miller at the block-association meeting.
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Theyre ready to roll!

Advocates of Mayor DeBlasios beloved BrooklynQueens streetcar project are so confident officials will fill the schemes $1-billion funding gap that they invited experts from other cities with trolley systems to discuss such infrastructures pros and cons with local business owners on Tuesday.

The citys recent decision to tap an engineering firm to conduct an environmental-review for the so-called Brooklyn Queens Connector is sign enough that the project wont derail, according to the leader of the projects main advocacy group.

I think actions speak louder than words, and were seeing action from the city to move it forward, said Jessica Schumer, the daughter of Sen. Chuck Schumer (DNew York), who runs the Friends of the BQX. It is moving forward. The city just announced it is starting its environmental-review process, so thats a really exciting opportunity to get the community to weigh in on it, evaluate the impacts of the project, and the necessary steps to move it forward.

Last month, officials awarded a $7.2-million contract to firm VHB to study how the light-rail will affect neighborhoods it is set to snake through, which include Red Hook, Gowanus, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Downtown, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and other areas in distant Queens. That news came months after Hizzoner dialed back his initial promise that the streetcar  whose initial $2.5-billion budget ballooned to $2.73-billion  would pay for itself via tax revenue generated by development along its tracks, and called on the Feds to foot $1 billion of its price tag  a request Brooklyn pols on both sides of the political aisle deemed unlikely at the time.

But part of the environmental review will be looking into other revenue streams, according to Schumer, who said theres still plenty of time for the Feds to come through with some cash, too.

The environmental review is looking at all types of funding, she said. Federal funding is one of the options and were glad the city is looking at it. You never know.

Schumer and her group hosted four speakers  hailing from Seattle, Wash.; St. Paul, Minn.; Kansas City, Mo.; and Portland, Ore.  at the recent small-business summit emceed by Borough President Adams, where the visitors explained how entrepreneurs from those cities got involved in the construction of their trolley systems, and tackled issues relating to construction, parking, and displacement.

The St. Paul panelist, who also leads a do-good group in her hometown, said the Midwestern citys light rail helped revitalize some vacant, transit-starved areas, but in turn raised some property costs to prices that threatened to push out long-time locals for new residents with deeper-pockets.

We are worried about gentrification, because in many of our neighborhoods we want to be sure that this investment is really truly benefiting the people that have been there, and thats always a challenge, said Isabel Chanslor, the vice president for national programs at the Neighborhood Development Center in St. Paul.

Chanslor admitted that St. Pauls trolley didnt hike property values on its own  pointing to other causes such as an influx of younger residents to the city in the decade since the streetcar debuted. Still, she encouraged local officials to demand that any developer who might receive tax breaks or subsidies for building along the BrooklynQueens light rail in turn reinvest in nearby communities.

If any city, state, or federal money went into those projects, there should be a mandate that says, Okay what are you willing to provide as a community benefit? It either has to be a small space for a small business to incubate at a lower rent rate, or it has to be something that is given back to the community, she said. Because you cant just have exterior ownership.

A spokeswoman for the citys Economic Development Corporation, the agency overseeing the streetcar project, said officials expect VHB to start its environmental review soon, which must be completed before the firm leads the scheme through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure that the proposal must pass before any straphangers can hop aboard.

But the rep confirmed that the city still needs federal cash to complete the trolley, which it still plans to subsidize in part with tax revenue from potential development along the route, she said.

Were seeking federal funding to support its primary construction, as well as other sources, said Stephanie Baez. Were looking at a mix of federal and city funding, in addition to value capture.
In what could be one of the first major investments by an auto company in a ride-hailing firm, Korean auto giant Hyundai is reportedly in talks with Ola to pick up a four per cent stake in the firm for $250-300 million. The deal, if it goes through, would be part of Ola's ongoing fund-raising round where the Bengaluru-based company is looking to raise $400-500 million at a $6-billion valuation.

The deal would also help Hyundai increase its fleet of vehicles operating in the country. ALSO READ: Ola's electric mobility unit gets Tiger, Matrix financial backing The ...
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating Philip Morris International Inc and its Indian partner Godfrey Phillips for alleged violation of laws in India, a senior directorate source told Reuters on Thursday. The Enforcement Directorate has been looking into both the companies and the scope of the investigation is much broader than the alleged foreign investment law violations highlighted in a Reuters story published on Wednesday, the source said. Philip Morris has for years paid manufacturing costs to Godfrey Phillips to make its Marlboro cigarettes, circumventing a ...
The company, which has completed the sedan line-up with the launch of the latest version of its Civic sedan priced between Rs 17.7 lakh and Rs 22.3 lakh, is also looking to fill gaps in its SUV line-up going forward to make a bigger presence in the Indian market. "In the April to February period this fiscal, our sales have grown 6.5 per cent. We expect to sell around 17,000 units in March ...

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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Every year, Vimmi Sadarangani sifts through the stack of admission forms at Tolani College of Arts and Science in Adipur, Gujarat, looking for markers of Sindhi names, many of which end in -ani or -ja. A professor of Sindhi and Hindi, Sadarangani then tries to reach out to the applicants in the hope that theyll pick up Sindhi as one of their subjects.

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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The projects included foundation-laying of the Regional Rail Transport System (RRTS) that would connect Delhi and Meerut via Ghaziabad, inauguration of a new civil terminal building at the Hindon airport, and an extension of the Delhi Metro's Red Line. The RRTS is being built for more than Rs 30,000 crore. Once the work is completed on the RRTS, the distance between Delhi and Meerut could be covered in just one hour, he ...

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Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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This has ensured that there will be no chance for the policy to take effect before the general elections in April. The decision to extend the initial submission date of March 9 was taken on Friday after 30 online majors such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, Ola, Uber, Amazon, Netflix and Microsoft met government officials and raised a series of issues on the current draft policy, a senior official from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade ...

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The journalist Silvana Paternostro was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, the place where Gabriel Garcia Marquez congregated with friends and fellow writers, several of whom became characters in his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. Paternostro had moved to the US as a teen before she grasped Marquezs towering importance for herself. Later, she would attend a three-day journalism workshop led by the author. In writing Solitude & Company, her oral history of the Nobel Prize winners life before and after he found fame, she learned that several people ...
"Accompanying Mr (Narendra) Modi to the Wimbley stadium was one fundamental mistake that I made," former British Prime Minister had told Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Jaitley recalled the conversation on Friday during the launch of 'Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas' in New Delhi. 'Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas' is a book which contains selected speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Britain for the first time when David Cameron was the Prime Minister. NRIs had organised a function for him in Wembley Stadium," Jaitley said.

"After he (Cameron) stepped down as Prime Minister, he visited India for some media conclave. Some people were invited for lunch (with Cameron). I asked him what was the one mistake that he made during his tenure as a Prime Minister," the Union Minister said.

"He told me there was one fundamental mistake that he made. I (Jaitley) thought he will say Brexit or something else. But, he said that it (mistake) was accompanying Mr Modi to Wembley Stadium. I asked why and he said that when Modi began to speak, I felt like a stranger in my own country," Jaitley said recalling the conversation.

Jaitley also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his abilities of 'quick learning' and 'clarity of thoughts'.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Army on Friday said to be fully prepared to deal with the "emerging challenges" out of the current scenario of "disinformation campaign" being orchestrated by the "terror sponsors."

"In the current scenario, the Indian Army remains fully prepared for emerging challenges. In the last three weeks, disinformation campaign by the adversary on digital media has increased," said a spokesperson of the Indian Army in a statement.

"All ranks have been well sensitised of these disinformation campaigns and all ranks can see through the lie, deceit, and deception of the terror sponsors," he said.

On his official visit to India, General Raymond Thomas, Commander, US Special Operations Command, US Army, on Thursday called on the Army chief General Bipin Rawat.

"Both the Generals deliberated on the developing regional security environment, the issue of global terrorism and Pakistan's continued support to terrorism was also discussed," said the statement.

"Acknowledging India's role in peace and stability in the region, General Raymond emphasised on the need for further military cooperation in the field of technology and military to military exchanges between the two countries," said the statement further.

The meeting two top Generals had come days after India launched a "pre-emptive" and "non-military" strike against JeM in Pakistan's Balakot. The fighter jets of the two countries engaged in a dogfight in the skies of Jammu and Kashmir after Pakistani F-16 planes transgressed into the Indian air space.

The United States has reiterated its support to India's decision to take action against Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror camp on the soil of Pakistan. India's air strike on JeM's largest training centre at Balakot was in retaliation of Pulwama terror attack on February 14 in which 40 jawans were killed.

After the IAF's air strikes, US Secretary of State Michael Richard Pompeo had said: "I spoke to Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi to underscore the priority of de-escalating current tensions by avoiding military action, and the urgency of Pakistan taking meaningful action against terrorist groups operating on its soil."

Acknowledging Indian actions as "counter-terrorism" action, Pompeo had said: "Following Indian counter-terrorism actions on February 26, I spoke with Indian Minister of External Affairs Swaraj to emphasise our close security partnership and shared the goal of maintaining peace and security in the region.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Friday referred the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute for court-appointed and monitored mediation, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said that even if Sunni Waqf board wins title suit in the court, the land will not go to them.

"The Government of India under Narasimha Rao nationalised the entire land. Under 300 A of the constitution, the central government holds the ownership of the land. This law was passed by the government, Narasimha Rao had decided that it was in the public interest and taken over the entire land," he said.

"Even if Sunni Waqf board wins title suit in the Supreme Court, that land will not go to them. Only compensation will go to them. Therefore, I don't know why Muslim parties are fighting. They are not going to get the land. The government will give the land to Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas to built a temple. I say building a temple is inevitable and shifting of Masjid is also inevitable," he added.

Swamy reiterated, "If Ram was born there then I have a fundamental right to pray and that cannot be taken away. Therefore, there has to be a temple on the spot."

On the question of building Masjid next to the temple, he said, "Masjid can be built anywhere. Masjid, according to the Supreme Court, is not an essential part of Islamic religion and in Islamic countries, masjids are broken to built roads. Masjid is only a place to read namaz and namaz can be read anywhere. There is nothing holy about a place where masjids stand. So, the Muslim community easily can have masjid anywhere which the Indian government would be happy to finance and thereby the problem could be solved. This is one solution but Ram temple will be built on the spot where it used to be before and where faith says Lord Ram was born."

On the promise of starting construction of Ram temple before elections, Swamy said, "I don't think the government ever said that. They said they will build a Ram temple in their manifesto and build it by legal means. They are still committed to that. Of course, I will agree that they could have built the Ram temple before elections but they have chosen not to do so.

"The government has delayed it by asking the apex court to release the (67 acres of acquired) land. There was no block at all. It was government land. It has been nationalised under Narasimha Rao's time. They could have straight away given the land to Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas Samiti to start construction of the temple. But they did not do it and went to SC. The court has not listed their petition. It is a waste of time," he said.

Uttar Pradesh's Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said, "We won't question the Supreme Court's order. In the past, efforts were made to come to a solution, but with no success. No Lord Ram devotee or saint wants a delay in construction of Ram Mandir."

"We are not against mediation or Supreme Court's decision. The third option is when we get no results out of mediation and court's decision, legislation may be brought in Parliament," he told ANI.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Uma Bharti asserted that she will stop anyone who tries to construct anything on Ram Janmbhoomi other than a Ram temple.

"I respect Vatican City. If anyone goes there to construct temple, I will stop him. I would also stop anyone who goes to construct Church in Mecca-Madina (holy place of Muslims). In the same way, if anyone tries to construct anything on Ram janmbhoomi other than Ram temple, I will stop them," she said.

Bharti denied commenting on the Supreme Court-nominated mediators in the case, but added: "As a Hindu, this is my right that no construction should be there on that land other than Ram temple, and temples of Sita and Lakshman there."

Conference (NC) chief Farooq Abdullah opined that the Supreme Court will have the last word on the matter, and all parties will accept its decision.

Earlier in the day, a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Friday referred the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for court-appointed and monitored mediation while imposing a media ban on its coverage.

Retired top court judge F M Kallifullah will be the chairman of the panel, a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.

The panel will also include Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, it said.

In its order, the bench said that the mediation proceedings will be held in-camera in Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh and the state government will provide mediators with all the facilities as required. Court has also stated that the mediators can seek further legal assistance as and when required.

The Constitution Bench has said that the mediation process shall begin in a week and a progress report should be filed within four weeks. The court has also ordered the mediation process to be completed in eight weeks.

The apex court also said that there will be no reporting of the mediation proceedings in the media.

"The court-monitored mediation proceedings will be confidential," Justice Gogoi said.

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The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday approved three of the six corridors proposed under Phase-IV of the Delhi Metro.

The three corridors comprise of Aerocity to Tughlakabad (15 stations) , R. K Ashram to Janakpuri West (25 stations) and Maujpur - Mukundpur (6 Stations) . The 3 corridors consist of both underground (22.359 km) and elevated (39.320 km) sections.

The project comprises of 3 priority corridors, with the total length of these 3 corridors being 61.679 km. Out of the total 61.679 km, 22.359 km will be built underground and 39.320 km will be constructed as an elevated section.

"These corridors will consist of 46 stations, of which 17 stations will be underground and the rest 29 stations will be constructed as elevated sections," said the government in a statement.

While the total completion cost of three metro corridors will be Rs.24,948.65 crore. The project will be implemented by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.

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Congress leaders have become "poster boys of Pakistan as far as the issue of terrorism is concerned," said BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav here on Friday.

"Congress leaders and their statements are being discussed all over in Pakistan. Their media is quoting only Congress leaders, who are issuing statements that are supportive of Pakistan's stand on terrorism and against India's interest," Madhav told ANI

"The Congress leaders are everywhere in Pakistan, starting from media to the Parliament. They have become poster boys of Pakistan as far as the issue of terrorism is concerned," Madhav said.

Madhav's response comes in view of the raging slugfest between the ruling and opposition leaders over the count of casualties after India's recent surgical strikes at Jaish-e-Mohammad's (JeM) largest training centre at Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out the daring anti-terror operation in retaliation of the debilitating attack on the convoy of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Pulwama in south Kashmir on February 14 in which 40 jawans were killed.

Senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh stirred a political controversy by terming Pulwama terror attack as an "accident." He had also questioned the casualty claims with regard to Balakot anti-terror operation.

Hailing Balakot airstrike, Madhav said: "In response to Pulwama attack, we were successful in sending a strong message through multiple air strikes. We were successful in isolating Pakistan diplomatically as well."

"We want Pakistan to act sincerely against the terror outfits operation from their soil," said the BJP leader.

The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, who has made several controversial statements in the past, had also questioned the casualty claim in the February 26 strike in Balakot in Pakistan and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to all doubts in this regard.

"Prime Minister, some ministers of your government say 300 terrorists were killed. The BJP president says 250 were killed. Yogi Adityanath says 400 people were killed and your minister SS Ahluwalia says that no one died. And you are silent about this issue. The country wants to know who is a liar in this," Singh had said.

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The CRPF's first women battalion, 88 Battalion on Friday celebrated International Women's Day 2019 at their headquarters in Dwarka, Delhi.

Many fun-filled activities along with a guest lecture on women's health were organised for the celebration.

Dressed in white shirts, black waistcoats and checked skirts, the women personnel participated in activities like fashion show, 'Gol Gappa' eating competition and singing competition.

One of the Commandant's of the battalion, Poonam Gupta, said Women's Day can be celebrated every day. She also opined that family support becomes very crucial because whenever there is an emergency.

Neera Upaddhya, the Assistant Commandant and the commander of the fourth bus of the convoy that came under attack in Pulwama, said, "When the Scorpio banged the first bus, our Mahila Jawans got shocked and stunned and the scenario turned black that time. They did not have weapons at that time so they took the position and secured themselves from cross firing".

On being asked about the message on Women's Day, she said, "Never feel that you are less than anybody in the world, you are unique in your own capability. There is no comparison of women to any other thing in the world.

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The Andhra Pradesh Government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Thursday to probe into the data theft case.

On Wednesday, Telangana Home department also formed an SIT to probe the case.

A delegation of the YSRCP led by YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Wednesday met Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan and demanded an inquiry into the case.

The delegation asked the Governor that if Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is involved in the matter then action should be initiated against him. They alleged that a private firm IT Grids is having all the data of the Andhra Pradesh people and they have access to the data not without the help of government. They further alleged that they are using this data to identify TDP voters and others.

However, the Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday dismissed allegations of data theft.

The state government assured that Aadhaar data, including the demographics and the biometrics of the citizens, is stored only in the 'Central Identity Repository (CIDR)' of UIDAI in a secured manner."

Dismissing all the claims of data leakage, the IT department said the state government has commenced a unique cyber security wing called 'APCSOC' (AP Cyber Security Operations Center) to keep a vigil on the usage of data and monitoring transactions.

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The Delhi government on Friday approved proposals at a meeting of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) that will facilitate expansion of educational institutions in the capital.

The committee approved the Directorate of Training & Technical Education's (DTTE) proposal for the construction of Smart classrooms in Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT) Campus in Dwarka. The project is estimated to cost around Rs 26.79 crore.

The project was approved as the name of Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT) was changed to Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT) in 2018, leading to an increase in the number of students in the campus. The building will now be able to accommodate an additional 1500 students. Accordingly, a consultant has been appointed to prepare detailed drawings of the classrooms.

Another project put forth by DTTE received a nod by EFC, which involves the construction of six building in NSIT Campus in Dwarka, which is estimated to cost Rs. 202.12 crores.

DTTE contented that the present infrastructure is planned for 2650 students, while the total strength is 3500, therefore, to cater to the increased student strength at the campus, infrastructure is required.

For this, approval of Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC) has also been received, while other approvals such as Fire, Environment, forest clearance are being pursued.

Family Welfare Department (FWD) proposal for the construction of G+22+ double basement building at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, estimating Rs 533.91 crore was also cleared in the EFC meeting. The building will be used as Medicine, Maternity and Advanced Paediatric Centre.

At present, the total number of beds in the hospital is 2550 and another 1570 beds are proposed to be added.

Statutory clearances from DUAC, Fire Department and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for the project has been obtained, while environment clearance is under process.

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Senior BJP leader Gopal Bhargava on Friday launched a scathing attack on Digvijaya Singh of Congress for calling the Pulwama attack an "accident" and said Singh is suffering from a "venereal disease".

"Unki ungliyon aur munh mein ek guptrog hai. Jab tak wo apni ungliya nahin chala lete mobile pe, jab tak apne munh se kuch desh ke khilaf bayan nahi de dete, tab tak Digvijay Singh ko bhojan nasib nahi hota. (He has contracted a venereal disease in his fingers and mouth. Until he uses his fingers on mobile, until he uses his mouth to say something anti-national, Digvijaya Singh doesn't get food)," the BJP leader said while speaking to ANI.

Bhargava is the Leader of the Opposition in Madhya Pradesh Assembly.

Recently, Singh stirred a political controversy by terming the February 14 Pulwama terror attack an "accident".

The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, who has made controversial statements in the past, had also questioned the casualty claim in the February 26 strike in Balakot in Pakistan and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come clear on it.

"Prime Minister, some ministers of your government say 300 terrorists killed, BJP president says 250 are killed, Yogi Adityanath says 400 people were killed and your minister SS Ahluwalia says that no one died. And you are silent about this issue. The country wants to know who is a liar in this," Singh had said.

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As many as 36 countries, including all 28 members of the European Union (EU), signed a statement condemning Saudi Arabia's human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

The countries on Thursday called on Riyadh to release 10 activists and cooperate with a UN-led investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its Istanbul consulate.

Iceland's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Harald Aspelund read out the unprecedented joint statement which was also backed by Canada and Australia but not the US, reported Al Jazeera.

"We are particularly concerned about the use of the counter-terrorism law and other national security provisions against individuals peacefully exercising their rights and freedoms," Aspelund said, reading the text.

It called on Saudi authorities "to disclose all information available" about its own investigation while cooperating with separate UN inquiries into the death of Khashoggi, who was killed on October 2 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

"The circumstances of Mr Khashoggi's death reaffirm the need to protect journalists and to uphold the right to freedom of expression around the Investigations into the killing must be independent and transparent. Those responsible must be held to account. We call on Saudi Arabia to take meaningful steps to ensure that all members of the public, including human rights defenders and journalists, can freely and fully exercise their rights to freedoms of expression, opinion and association, including online, without fear of reprisals," read the statement.

This is the first rebuke of the Gulf nation at the UN forum since it was set up in 2006. The step came amid growing international concern about Saudi violations of basic freedoms such as freedom of expression.

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Thursday, March 7, 2019 at 8:42PM

by Nathaniel R

Sakura Ando and Kirin Kiki in "Shoplifters"

Awards season never truly ends. Someone somewhere in the world is always handing out a prize. The latest are the Japanese Academy film prizes, where Hirokazu Kore-eda thoroughly dominated with the exquisite and also Oscar-nominated Shoplifters. It was nominated in every category it was eligible for. It won 8 awards, including both of the female acting prizes for Sakura Ando and Kirin Kiki. Sadly, Kirin Kiki's prize was posthumous as she died a few months after the movie won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

A list of winners, including (sigh) their choice for foreign film, is after the jump...

Film Shoplifters

Director Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shoplifters

Actor Koji Yakusho, The Blood of Wolves

Actress Sakura Ando, Shoplifters

Supporting Actor Tori Matsuzaka, The Blood of Wolves

Supporting Actress Kirin Kiki, Shoplifters (posthumous)

Screenplay Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shoplifters

Animated Feature Mirai

Music Shoplifters - Haruomi Hosono

Cinematography Shoplifters- Ryuto Kondo

Lighting Direction - Shoplifters -Isamu Fujii

Art Direction - The Blood of Wolves Tsutomu Imamura



Tori Matsuzaka and Koji Yakusho won the male acting prizes for the gangster drama "The Blood of Wolves" which also took some craft prizes

Sound Recording - The Blood of Wolves Kazuharu Urata

Film Editing - One Cut of the Dead - Shinichiro Ueda

Foreign Language Film - Bohemian Rhapsody (UK)

All of the foreign film nominees were American or British. The other nominees were: The Greatest Showman, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards, and Mission: Impossible - Fallout.

The have a Newcomer of the Year prize but all the nominees win, apparently, so there are 8 of them this year. Here's a billboard featuring them all....

Moka Kamishiraishi  A Forest of Wool and Steel

 A Forest of Wool and Steel Shuri  Love At Least

 Love At Least Yurina Hirate  Hibiki

 Hibiki Kyoko Yoshine  Kasane and Samurai's Promise

 Kasane and Samurai's Promise Kentaro Ito  Cafe Funiculi Funicula

 Cafe Funiculi Funicula Taishi Nakagawa  Kids on the Slope and Lock-On Love

 Kids on the Slope and Lock-On Love Ryo Narita  Stolen Identity and The Antique

 Stolen Identity and The Antique Ryo Yoshizawa  River's Edge

Most of these actors are so new they don't even have photos up yet on their IMDb pages. We've only heard of Ryo Yoshizawa thus far, because he was in so many movies in 2018 that one of them even made it here to the US via Netflix. He's the archer in that insane Bleach movie you can stream. He's reteaming with his Bleach director for a costume epic action film called Kingdom this year. Here's the poster

Even though its a Japan production in Japanese it is about and set in China. It should not be confused with Netflix's Kingdom series, which is a Korean costume epic actioner, starring Doona Bae (Sense8, Cloud Atlas).
Globsyn School (GBS) organised its 3rd Vision Seminar under the aegis of Globsyn Management Conference (GMC), on 'Corporate Ethics and Responsible Leadership' at The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industries on March 8, 2019. Vision Seminar now in its third year, saw the attendance of management student, faculty and corporate professionals.

Globsyn School has envisaged the Vision Seminar as an annual event to bring together diverse minds touching upon subjects that explore the issues and challenges faced by managers in the new era, create awareness on the implementation of the best practices across organizations, and encourage innovation induced by environmental challenges. The Seminar was inaugurated by Bikram Dasgupta, Founder & Executive Chairman, Globsyn Group, Chief Guest Dr H P Kanoria, Chairman & Managing Trustee, Kanoria Foundation and Guest of Honor Abraham G. Stephanos, MD, TSPDL. The valedictory address at the Seminar was delivered by Swami Narasimhananda, Ramakrishna Mission, Mayawati (Uttarakhand). The occasion also witnessed the latest edition of the Globsyn Management Journal being unveiled by Dr H P Kanoria.

"Globsyn Management Conference - one of the six Beyond Education verticals of Globsyn School - is aimed at promoting academic discourse and camaraderie among the faculty of postgraduate management education, through its Vision Seminar, Research Seminar, and Globsyn Management Journal. The Vision Seminar, now in its third edition, is organized with an objective of influencing and developing young managers to help them think clearly, give them a reason to be and make their work more beautiful.", said Founder & Executive Chairman of Globsyn Group, Bikram Dasgupta.

A plethora of iconic speakers from across the globe, representing the both academic and corporate world, participated in multiple lively and stimulating panel discussions on the theme of the Seminar. Panel members included Prof. Antonio Argandona, IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain; Prof. Lewis W.

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Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday hit out at the Centre over the air strikes carried out recently, and said the government is "not able to discern between trees and structures," despite there being 48 satellites.

Sidhu's remark comes as images have surfaced of the area the IAF struck on February 26, targetting terror launch pads in the region.

Moreover, Sidhu highlighted "serious aspersions" on security while referring to the theft of certain documents related to the Rafale deal."World's biggest defence deal file lost...Intelligence failure led to martyrdom of 40 Jawans...1708 terrorist acts...48 Satellites but Govt not able to discern between trees and structures... Serious aspersions cast on security. #IsTheCountryReallyInSafeHands??" Sidhu tweeted along with snapshots of various media articles.The Centre had told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that certain documents pertaining to the Rafale fighter jets deal were stolen from the Defence Ministry and a probe has been initiated into the matter.

In the wake of the Pulwama terror attack that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel, Sidhu had demanded a permanent solution through dialogue. He had also stated that a country cannot be blamed just because of a few individuals.

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Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria will be returning to Islamabad on Saturday after having completed his consultations with India in connection with Pulwama terror attack.

Ministry of External Affairs Official Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on Friday said, "High Commissioner of India to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria, is returning to Islamabad after having completed his consultations in India. He will reach Islamabad on 9 March 2019 and resume his duties."

India had called Bisaria to New Delhi for consultations - a move which was mirrored by Pakistan, who called back their High Commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood on February 18, "for consultations".

The tensions between the two nations escalated after a CRPF convoy moving from Jammu to Srinagar, was attacked by a suicide bomber in Lethpora area on the national highway at around 3.15 pm on Thursday.

Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the attack.

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Shafeek Al Qasimi, former Imam of Tholicode Jamaath in Thiruvananthapuram who is accused of sexually assaulting a minor, was arrested on Thursday by Kerala Police.

The cleric, who has been absconding for the last one month, was apprehended from Tamil Nadu'sMadurai.

On February 13, Kerala Police had filed an FIR against the former Imam on charges of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old-girl.

The case was registered against him under relevant sections of the Prevention of children from sexual offences (POCSO) Act based on the statement given by the president of the Jamaath committee.

He was also suspended by the All India Imam's Council.

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Various litigants unanimously welcomed the mediation ordered by Supreme Court to resolve the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.

AIMPLB member and convener of Babri Masjid Action Committee Zafaryab Jilani said, "We have already said that we will cooperate in the mediation. Now, whatever we have to say, we will say to the mediation panel, not outside."

Syed Sahkeel, Counsel for Sunni Waqf Board, praised the court decision terming it a good move.

"Of course, we are with the mediation order. We have said that we will agree (with the decision) and whatever we have to say, we will appear before mediators and put our submissions," he said talking to reporters outside the Supreme Court.

Retired top court judge F M Kallifullah will chair the mediation panel that also includes Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate of the Madras High Court Sriram Panchu.

When asked about about the panel Sahkeel said, " If we have to say something. We will say it when we appear there (before the mediators). Supreme Court has directed not to say anything in public."

Iqbal Ansari, the sole Muslim litigant in the matter, "Court has asked for mediation and we will try. If other stakeholders are ready, we will talk. The court's decision has increased our hopes. We have full faith in law, the Constitution and judges."

Swami Chakrpani of Hindu Mahasabha also greeted the Supreme Court decision. "We appreciate the three names suggested by the Court. We hope they will be like Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. This is a big problem for our nation. We hope it will become a symbol for Hindu-Muslim unity and will ensure the construction of Ram Temple."

He also blamed political interference as the main reason behind failure of previous attempts at mediation.

'We tried for this earlier too but we could not resolve it because of political interference. Now, the solution to this problem will certainly be found. Curtains will be down on those who deliberately tried to make it into a political problem," he said.

"We appeal to all stakeholders to think positively," he added.

Mahant Dharam Das, another litigant expressed his happiness over the decision. "I am happy that the Supreme Court wants a decision on this soon. We have no objection over that," he said.

Dharam Das cautioned people not to look at mediators through 'Hindu-Muslim' lens.

"Those who are seeing the judge through Hindu-Muslim angle are violating the law. We welcome the panel (of mediators) that has been constituted," Dharam Das told ANI.

"We will not run away from the mediation. We will talk with whosoever comes. Temple will be constructed through mediation. Whatever the court wants to do, it should do that quickly. The problem is on the verge of being solved," he added.

A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Friday referred the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for court-appointed and monitored mediation while imposing a media ban on its coverage.

Retired top court judge F M Kallifullah will be the chairman of the panel, a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.

The panel will also include Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, it said.

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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro decried the "electric war directed by US imperialism" against Venezuela, as a blackout hit 22 out of 23 states here on Thursday evening (local time).

"The electric war announced and directed by US imperialism against our people will be defeated. Nothing and no one will be able to defeat the people of Bolivar and Chavez. Maximum unity of the patriots!" Maduro tweeted in Spanish.

The blackout led to chaos as subway, telephone and internet services were wiped out on Thursday evening. Non-operational traffic lights led to major traffic jams, as the electricity went out while workers were leaving their offices in the evening.

People resorted to banging pots and pans near their windows in protests, according to Deutsche Welle.

"Chaos, worry and outrage. This blackout demonstrates the inefficiency of the usurper. The recovery of the electricity sector and the country goes through the cessation of the usurpation," self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido tweeted.

"We have El Guri, Tocoma and Caruachi. We have Planta Centro and Tacoa. We have water, oil and gas. But unfortunately, we have a usurper in Miraflores," read another tweet in Spanish, in reference to Maduro.

On January 23, opposition leader Guaido proclaimed himself as the new President of Venezuela, dismissing Maduro's leadership amidst cheering protesters. The self-proclaimed President's bid was immediately supported by the USA, who recognised him as the interim President of the South American nation and rallied for other countries to support Guaido.

Maduro has held on to his post despite calls for fresh elections by the international community, reinforcing that he would continue being the President of Venezuela. Countries like China, Russia have denounced external interference in Venezuela, despite most of the global community extending its support to Guaido.

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Maryam Nawaz Sharif, daughter of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, on Friday requested the authorities of Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore to provide resuscitation facilities and a life-saving unit for her ailing father.

"Just met MNS. Since he hasn't agreed to be shifted to the hospital & his heart disease has worsened (according to cardiologists sent by the govt to examine him y'day), I request the Jail authorities to establish an immediate resuscitation and life saving unit on Jail premises." she tweeted.

"Being a 3 times Prime Minister & leader of the biggest political party & of millions of people, this is the least he deserves," Maryam added.

The family members of Sharif, 69, including his daughter Maryam and his brother Shehbaz Sharif, earlier this week, had complained that the former Prime Minister is only being taken from one hospital to another without proper treatment.

"The government has not yet provided any treatment facility, [I am] only being troubled," he said. "I will prefer to die honourably, but humiliation is unacceptable. The insulting behaviour of the government is not acceptable," Geo news had quoted the former Prime Minister as saying.

On Wednesday, Shehbaz confirmed that his elder brother's condition was unsatisfactory.

"Nawaz is suffering from pains in his arm repeatedly, which is an alarming symptom," Shehbaz told reporters.

Sharif was shifted to Jinnah Hospital on February 15 after he complained of fever, stomach ache, and headache. However, he was later moved to the jail after Islamabad High Court last week rejected his petition seeking bail on medical grounds.

Sharif, who is serving a seven-year jail sentence, was shifted to Kot Lakhpat jail in December 2018 following his conviction in the Al-Aziziya Steel Mills corruption reference in line with the Supreme Court's July 2017 verdict.

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The Indian Air Force on Friday trolled Pakistan with a poem suggesting that its Mirage 2000 fighter jets had to cross over into Pakistan as Islamabad had crossed its limits by attacking CRPF personnel in Pulwama.

The Indian Air Force through its Twitter handle @iaf_mcc tweeted a Hindi poem by a poet named Bipin Illahabadi titled 'Hadd Sarhad Ki, (limits of the border) this morning which suggests the reasons for the Air Force to have crossed the border and attack the Jaish terrorist camp in mainland Pakistan.

The poem in Hindi, in the beginning, says that a fighter whose name is 'Mrigmarichika' (Mirage) had to cross over the boundaries as someone had crossed all the limits.

The poet has hinted about the cross-border strike by the Air Force on the night of February 26 in which 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets crossed over the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

About the late night air strike, the poet also suggests that the enemy would be extra cautious in the nights as they would be living in fear of "fireworks" at that time.The poem says that we have crossed the boundaries this time and touched the adversary in a unique way to warn him to mend his ways.

The poem also goes on to say that the adversary has been given a dose of truth and he cannot lie now.

The Air Force has come up with the Hindi poetry to troll the Pakistanis at a time when Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan started tweeting in Hindi on the ongoing conflict with India.

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Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed a supplementary charge sheet in a case against Abdul Kadir who is accused of procuring, trafficking and circulating fake Indian currency.

The agency had arrested Kadir from Malda in December last year and seized a mobile phone with two SIM cards, including one Bangladesh Grameen SIM, at the time of his arrest.

According to NIA, Kadir was in regular contact with his associates based in Bangladesh as well as in India who were involved in FICN procurement, trafficking and circulation. He used to procure high denomination FICN in huge quantities from his associates based in Bangladesh through smuggling for further supplying and circulating the same in various parts of India including Bengaluru.

Earlier, Madanayakanahally Police Station recovered FICN having a face value of Rs. 6,34,000 from the possession of four persons in August 2018. The police had arrested four persons-Mohammed Sajjad Al, M G Raju, Gangadhar Ramappa Kolkar and Vanitha J on the basis of information provided by NIA.

A case was registered at Madanayakanahally Police Section under section sections 489B, 489C, 120B r/w 34 of IPC.

NIA had earlier filed a charge sheet against all arrested before the NIA Special Court at Bengaluru in November 2018 under section 120B, 489B, and 489C of IPC.

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Taking no stand against Pakistan's support of terrorism, China on Friday said it had played a "constructive role" in mediation efforts and "defusing" tensions between India and Pakistan, in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack, the responsibility for which has been claimed by Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed.

At a press conference on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Conference here, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China wants to see an improvement of relations and "encouraged" New Delhi and Islamabad to "return to negotiations", hoping that "both sides can transform crisis into opportunity", Chinese state media reported.

Significantly, he made no mention of China's position on asking Pakistan to stop supporting terrorism, even as India lost over 40 CRPF personnel after a JeM terrorist targeted their convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama on February 14. There was again, no mention of China telling Pakistan to cease its backing to terrorists and terror outfits, when Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou visited Pakistan on March 6.

At the behest of Pakistan, China has previously blocked India's attempts at listing JeM chief Masood Azhar at the UN Security Council. The Foreign Minister did not comment on China's support towards listing Azhar as a global terrorist in the wake of Pulwama terror attack, even as countries like France have shown their outright support for the same.

Speaking on the prevailing heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, Wang said that China "played a constructive role" in the "mediation efforts" between the two countries, even as the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong recently visited Pakistan and held meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa.

"The Chinese side maintains that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be earnestly respected and is unwilling to see acts that violate the norms governing international relations," China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs outlined.

"The Chinese side calls on Pakistan and India to refrain from taking actions that aggravate the situation, show goodwill and flexibility, launch dialogue as soon as possible, and work together to maintain regional peace and stability. The Chinese side is ready to continue to play a constructive role in this regard," the ministry noted, while talking about Kong's visit to Pakistan.

The Pakistani side, on the other hand, called China, Pakistan's "most reliable friend," appreciating "Chinese side's efforts to cool down the situation" according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Notably, China has refrained from making its stand clear regarding Pakistan's support for terrorism, even as the global community has thrown its weight behind India following the Pulwama terror attack. The United States had told Pakistan to stop providing support and a safe haven to terror outfits and terrorists in the immediate aftermath of the ghastly attack.

JeM's chief, Masood Azhar, continues to roam about freely in Pakistan, even after the February 14 attack. Even though Pakistan added Hafiz Saeed's JuD and FIF in its proscribed list on March 5, there has been no new action against JeM or its kingpin.

Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, on March 5, admitted that JeM is a terror organisation and claimed that Pakistani intelligence had used the outfit to carry out suicide attacks in India during his tenure.

India has repeatedly underlined that necessary conditions have to be created for the resumption of India-Pakistan talks. During the recent visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to India, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Crown Prince called on all countries to reject the use of terrorism against other countries, dismantle terror infrastructure and cut off all support to terrorism besides punishing the terrorists.

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Amid mounting pressure in the wake of Pulwama terror attack, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said his government will not allow any terror group on Pakistani soil which carries attacks outside the country.

Khan, who took over in August last year, blamed the previous governments for the flourishing of terror and extremist groups in the country, saying none had taken any action against the banned individuals and outfits.

However, after the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) took over, the National Action Plan (NAP) for countering terrorism and extremism was taken seriously, he said while addressing a public meeting in Tharparkar district of Sindh.

The remarks came amid mounting international pressure on Pakistan to act against terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack.

In his speech, Khan said Pakistan wants peace with India but will retaliate in case of any "aggression" by the neighbouring country.

"We want peace and not war. But no one should remain mistaken. Pakistan is awake. Any aggression or misadventure by India will receive a befitting reply. We are ready to fight till our last breath," the Prime Minister added.

"Agar aapko lagta hai ki Pakistanio ka khun karke aap election jeetenge to aisi galat faimy mei mat rehna. Aap kuch bhi karoge uspe jawabi karwayei hogi (if you think that you will win elections by killing Pakistanis, you should not be in that mistaken notion. If you do anything, there will be an answer to it)," he said.

There has been heightened tension between India and Pakistan since India carried out an air strike at Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan on February 26.

The IAF action came in the wake of Pulwama terror attack by JeM on February 12.

Speaking on the outcry over the anti-Hindu remarks by his party's minister who hassince been sacked, Khan said his government stands with the minority communities in Pakistan.

Khan noted that half of the Sindhi population belongs to Hindu religion.

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United Nations on Friday urged women to participate "actively" in decision-making in Afghan peace talks, on the occasion of International Women's Day.

"As we celebrate International Women's Day, let us be reminded, women cannot be left behind as Afghanistan charts its way towards sustainable peace. Having women actively and substantively participating at the peace decision-making tables is a fundamental and key step towards the shaping gender-responsive laws and policies for the benefit of all Afghans," said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan in a statement to the UNAMA.

According to the UN, Afghanistan has made important advances in gender equality and the empowerment of women, but much work remains to be done. A gender-responsive social protection system is important if it is to benefit all citizens, the statement adds.

International Women's Day is celebrated globally on 8th March to commemorate the pioneering role of women around the to secure women's rights and build more equitable societies. The first time this event was celebrated on March 8th in 1917. This was after women in Soviet Russia finally gained suffrage. The day was henceforth declared as a holiday in Soviet Russia and was eventually adopted as an internal event by the United Nation in 1975.

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"Fight for your space and do not consider yourself less than any man," Congress President Rahul Gandhi said on Friday during an interaction with women in Odisha's Koraput district on the occasion of International Women's Day.

Addressing the gathering at Siva Sai function hall, Rahul said, "Fight for your space and do not consider yourself less than any man. When you are being oppressed, you should not retreat."

"Eight women are being raped in Odisha every day and only seven women get justice in one year. We will have 'zero tolerance' in rape cases," he said.

Rahul further said, "Maternity-related deaths should be battled with information and access to high-quality healthcare. We should not only help farmers and women of Koraput, but we need to connect the youngsters of Koraput to the rest of the world."

"We are trying to bring Women Reservation Bill in Lok Sabha and Legislative assembly. When our government will be formed, we will try to pass the bill in Lok Sabha," he underlined.

Hours ahead of the interaction, Rahul had tweeted: "While saluting the undaunted, fighting spirit of women this #InternationalWomensDay, I would also like us to recommit ourselves to breaking the barriers that continue to hinder their path to freedom & equality.

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"I heard about a few incidents against Kashmiri children. I want to convey a message to the entire country - Kashmiris are, were and will remain our people," he said while addressing a BJP event here.

"If somebody conspires and troubles our Kashmiri students, then it's the responsibility of BJP workers to stand with the Kashmiri students," the senior leader of the ruling party told the gathering of party cadres here.

He said he has also asked Chief Ministers of all the states to ensure that Kashmiri students are "protected and loved".

Singh's comments came against the backdrop of an incident in Lucknow on Wednesday when two Kashmiri dry fruit vendors were assaulted by some members of a right-wing fringe group.

The Uttar Pradesh police acted swiftly and arrested four people in connection with the incident which had evoked a nationwide outrage.

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Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja helped fire Australia in the must-win third one-day international (ODI) of the five-match series against India, setting 313 runs for five at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi on Friday.

Australia got off to a strong start after being asked to bat. Finch and Khawaja hammered the hosts with their regular boundaries, stitching together a 193-run partnership for the first wicket before India got their much-needed breakthrough as Kuldeep Yadav trapped Australia captain, who missed out on his 12th ODI ton.

Glenn Maxwell came in at number three for Australia with a solid foundation. Maxwell along with Khawaja formed a quick 46-run stand for the second wicket, which saw Khawaja registering his maiden century off 107 balls in the format.

India shrugged off the pressure for a while as Mohammed Shami struck Khawaja for 104 in the 39th over of the innings. The Australian opener was caught at mid-wicket by Jasprit Bumrah.

In spite of losing both its settled batsmen, Australia did not let go off the momentum as Maxwell smashed three sixes and three boundaries before getting run-out, courtesy excellent fielding and alertness from wicket-keeper MS Dhoni. Maxwell returned to pavilion three shy from half-century.

Marcus Stoinis and Alex Carey in the middle helped ticking the scoreboard to push Australia to 300-mark. The pair of Stoinis and Carey remained unbeaten on 31 and 21.

For India, Kuldeep returned three wickets while Shami picked up a piece as India restricted Australia to 313 for five.

India, with a 2-0 up, will aim to win the third match to take an unassailable lead in the five-match series.

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Russian senators on Thursday passed two bills that impose a ban on spreading fake news and criminalises disrespect of the state.

According to Al Jazeera, the lower house, the State Duma, approved the bills, which are also expected to pass in the upper house soon before President Vladimir Putin signs them into law.

The bill banning fake news imposes restriction on the spreading of "unreliable socially-important information" that could "endanger lives and public health, raise the threat of massive violation of public security and order or impede the functioning of transport and social infrastructure, energy and communication facilities and banks."

The bill also prescribed fines for publishing materials that portray disrespect to the state, its symbols and government authorities. Repeat offenders could face a 15-day jail sentence, reported Al Jazeera.

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Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking direction to link Voter Identity cards with Aadhaar card to improve the electoral process.

A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi asked lawyer and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay who had filed the petition to approach the Election Commission (EC) which will pass an appropriate order on the issue.

The petitioner in his plea contended that the chances of duplication in Aadhaar are almost negligible, as it is beyond the realms of possibility and probability to fudge biometric details which is a pre-condition for Aadhaar enrollment.

"In the given circumstances, the use of Aadhaar details by the Election Commission will not only improve the overall health of electoral rolls by enabling deletion of duplicate entries but would also enable the Election Commission to provide additional services," he added.

The plea had also sought direction to link Aadhaar with movable and immovable property documents so that Benami transactions can be tackled.

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Assessing the threat perception in the wake of Pulwama terror attack, Rajesh Ranjan DG, CISF said, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is already in place to ensure the safety of airspace around the airport from any intrusive drone devices until the time alternative technology is brought in place.

"The technology which is to be deployed is being studied. Till the time alternative technologies are deployed we have an SOP in place to ensure that the airspace around the airport remains protected from any intrusive drone devices," said Rajesh Ranjan, DG CISF.

"We are operationally prepared for tackling any eventuality. Whenever we get any input from sister agencies about any vulnerability or any particular threat perception we immediately take measures to ensure that those threat perceptions inputs are addressed well and in time," said DG.

"We do a constant assessment of the SOP's in place to ensure that we are ahead of the anti-social and anti- element," he said.

India lost over 40 CRPF personnel in the ghastly February 14 terror attack, following which it launched a pre-emptive, anti-terror strike against a major JeM terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot, where many top JeM commanders and terrorists were killed, according to Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale.

Ranjan also said that CISF works in close coordination and synergy with other paramilitary forces and Army to ensure the security of its units.

"At some of the units in Jammu and Kashmir we are barely 1-3 Km from the LoC and we have great synergy with the Army units and other Central Armed Police Forces units working in the area which is why we have been able to hold our positions very strongly," he said.

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United States President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign chairman, Paul Manafort was awarded 47 months in prison on Thursday.

He was convicted on charges of stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election.

Manafort, who is 69, was earlier looking at a minimum of 25 years in prison, a sentence that could have essentially kept him in jail for the rest of his life, reported CNN.

However, even at just under four years, Manafort's sentence is the longest given yet to any defendant in the Mueller probe.

Last year, he was convicted on charges of tax fraud, bank fraud and failure to report foreign bank accounts last year.

Manafort also failed to pay taxes on millions of dollars in income he earned from Ukrainian political consulting.

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Two drug peddlers were arrested by Narcotics team of the Detective Department (DD) from Sealdah's Pragati Maidan area of Kolkata on Thursday evening and confiscated 460 grams of heroin worth Rs 4 lakh from them.

The drug peddler, identified as Sabina Bibi along with her close confidant Bapi Molla, was held by the Narcotics team.

Both of them operated in many parts of the city, such as Sealdah, Entally and, other surrounding areas.

Heroin, packed in around 4,300 multi-coloured small plastic bags, was reportedly being sold to students in educational institutions in Sealdah.

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If the public votes for the Congress, these votes would go down the drain, said Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) working president KT Rama Rao.

"In the coming polls if BJP and Congress come together they can't form the government in the Centre, the centre would need the support of the state governments in the coming elections. The votes will go down the drain if public votes for the Congress," said KTR while addressing a meeting of the party workers on Thursday.

"If Telangana Congress leaders want to go to the bathroom, they'll go to Delhi. We can also see that the popularity graph of PM Narendra Modi is decreasing. PM is not doing any work but only speaking," he added.

He also urged the public to vote for TRS and help win the 16 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, adding that it can help Telangana government in getting more funds from the Centre.

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GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare Ltd is quoting at Rs 7036.1, down 0.57% on the day as on 13:24 IST on the NSE. The stock in last one year as compared to a 7.68% in NIFTY and a 14.88% down 50.47% in the Nifty FMCG index.

GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare Ltd is down for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at 7036.1, down 0.57% on the day as on 13:24 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is down around 0.41% on the day, quoting at 11012.65. The Sensex is at 36595.97, down 0.35%.GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare Ltd has lost around 6.93% in last one month.Meanwhile, Nifty FMCG index of which GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare Ltd is a constituent, has increased around 0.55% in last one month and is currently quoting at 29904.05, down 0.04% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 12683 shares today, compared to the daily average of 22818 shares in last one month.

The PE of the stock is 32.7 based on TTM earnings ending December 18.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

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Two NASA astronauts are scheduled to carry out the first ever all female spacewalk in history on March 29.

NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch will share the credit of performing the spacewalk at the International Space Station, CNN reported.

The two will receive support on the ground by Canadian Space Agency flight controller Kristen Facciol.

"I just found out that I'll be on console providing support for the first all female spacewalk with @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Christina and I cannot contain my excitement," Facciol said in a tweet.

The March 29 spacewalk is second in a series of three planned spacewalks, NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz told CNN.

"Anne also will join Nick Hague for the March 22 spacewalk. And of course, assignments and schedules could always change," Schierholz added.

While McClain is currently on the ISS, Koch is set to blast off on March 14 to reach the space station.

The March 29 spacewalk is likely to last about seven hours, but NASA has not yet specified what tasks the two astronauts will perform.

--IANS

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Kolkata Police arrested two seasoned heroin dealers from the city and seized 460 grams of heroin amounting to Rs 4 lakh, a senior police officer said on Friday.

"Sabina Biwi, a seasoned heroin dealer, and her associate Bapi Molla were arrested from Pragati Maidan police station area on Thursday. 460 grams of heroin packed in around 4300 multicoloured packets were recovered from them," Joint Commissioner of Kolkata Police (crime) Praveen Tripathi told reporters here.

The officer said Biwi was involved in selling heroin to students of a number of schools and colleges in the city's Sealdah, Entally and E.M. Bypass areas.

Mollah used to collect the narcotic substance from Biwi and sell it to the students of a few prominent schools in central Kolkata.

The accused have been charged under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, the officer added.

--IANS

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Activists and political figures across the divide on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to appoint a three-member committee to mediate on the Ayodhya issue, albeit some did it with a bit scepticism in view of the fate of past attempts on mediation.

The apex court on Friday ordered mediation to settle the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Ayodhya title dispute case by a three-member panel.

The panel will be headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice F.M.I. Kalifulla, with Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Shriram Panchu as its members. The mediation proceedings would be held at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh and commence in a week.

Reacting to the development, the Congress said it has unequivocally maintained that the decision of the Supreme Court in the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid case should be final and binding on all parties.

"We respect the decision for constituting a mediation panel by the Supreme Court," party's spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, adding that unfortunately, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has politicised a faith-based issue for their own political gains for the last 27 years.

"Since 1992, BJP has kept the issue alive so as to use in every election for political vote garnering and has relegated the Ram Mandir issue to the annals of history post election - to be revived again in the next election. We sincerely hope that people of India are able to see through the duplicity and doublespeak of BJP," Surjewala added.

Welcoming the court's decision, Advocate Niaz Ahmed Farooqui of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind said that the mediation should be given a chance.

"It is good. There must be an attempt to resolve the issue amicably. All the Muslim bodies which are party to the case had given their consent for the talks initiative. The problem should be solved. We are positive about this and we will offer all kind of cooperation in it," Farooqui told IANS.

Navaid Hamid, President of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM), an umbrella body of major Muslim organisations, said he appreciates the apex court's concern for resolving the Ayodhya dispute, and added that the mediation team should be expanded.

"The AIMMM strongly thinks that though all efforts for a negotiated settlement of the dispute have failed in past and there are little chances for it in future too, but still there is no harm if the Supreme Court-monitored mediation team explores ways to resolve the dispute with a clean slate and in a non-partisan manner," he said.

"Keeping the complexity of the issue in mind and the difficulties of making a consensus for resolving the dispute, it is required that as per the mandate of the SC, the mediation committee should co-opt more members in it," he said.

However, Jama Masjid's Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari sounded more sceptical, saying he is not sure that the issue can be resolved through dialogue and insisted that the apex court should reach a decision on its own.

"We think that this issue can only be solved through the court, not by dialogue," Bukhari told IANS.

He said that in the past too, repeated attempts had been made to resolve it through parleys but to no avail, but added that there is no harm in making one more attempt.

He said that "sincere persons from all sects" should be included in the committee and those with "vested interests" should be kept away, though he did not specify who those vested interests are.

"The Muslim parties should not adopt political or emotional approach for reaching a solution. Instead efforts should be made to resolve the matter in the light of the Shariah (Islamic jurisprudence)," Bukhari said.

Senior BJP leader Vinay Katiyar also welcomed the Supreme Court decision but underlined that the panel should "give its decision considering the sentiments of the Hindu community".

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) spokesman Vinod Bansal was sceptical about the outcome of the parleys on the issue, saying past efforts have not yielded any result.

"The past experiences of talks on this issue have not been pleasant. Similar efforts were made during (former Prime Ministers) Rajiv Gandhi's time, V.P. Singh's time and Chandra Shekhar's tenure, too. But the Muslim community has always tried to evade the talks," Bansal said.

He said mediation should not be used as a "delay tactic" by some people.

--IANS

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With Punjab government employees on strike in support of their demands, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday promised employees that his government would implement the decisions taken by the Committee of Ministers on Employees' Issues in letter and spirit.

Amarinder urged the striking government employees, who went on strike on Thursday, to resume duties immediately in the interests of the people of the state.

The Chief Minister reviewed the decisions taken by the committee, comprising Health Minister Brahm Mohindra, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, and reiterated the state government's commitment to protect their interests and welfare.

"The Chief Minister made it clear after the review meeting that the decisions taken by the Committee of Ministers shall be implemented in a time-bound manner and urged the employees to end their strike immediately and work with diligence in the interest of the people of Punjab," said Chief Minister's Media Advisor Raveen Thukral .

Amarinder clarified that despite the financial constraints of the state government, 7 per cent dearness allowance had been released to all employees from February 1, as decided by the Committee of Ministers after a meeting with the Punjab State Ministerial Services Union on February 27.

Thukral said the balance of the DA and its arrears will be released in due course as and when the financial position of the state government improves further.

The striking employees are demanding rollback of the Punjab government's decision to delink DA, reducing the probation period from three years to two years, including the probation period for ascertaining seniority and pension of the staff, restoration of old pension scheme and regularizing services of temporary and ad hoc employees.

--IANS

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A BJP delegation led by senior party leaders met the Election Commission (EC) officials on Friday and alleged that the Andhra Pradesh government was involved in electoral data theft and had "subverted" all the government processes to gain undue advantage over its political rivals.

The Bharatiya Janata Party team urged the poll panel to take "corrective steps" to nullify the undue advantage taken by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

"With the active connivance of people in high positions in the Andhra Pradesh government, confidential and secure data of the states' voters and residents have been leaked to the ruling TDP.

"This large-scale data theft has not only put the people of the state at a great risk, but has also given undue advantage to the ruling party," the BJP said in a memorandum submitted to the EC.

It alleged that the ruling party has gained illegitimate access to data like Aadhaar numbers and linked bank accounts, photographs of all the voters from the master voter database of the EC and social mapping and political preferences of the voters obtained through government sponsored surveys.

"The state government has subverted all the government processes to gain undue advantage over its political rivals. Corrective steps must be taken so that the undue advantage gained by the ruling TDP is nullified," the memorandum stated.

The party also alleged that a large number of bogus voters have been added to the electoral rolls with duplicate names and "juggling" of names.

"The complaints to the Chief Electoral Officer of Andhra Pradesh have not yielded much results as the verification exercise through the revenue officials of the state government has been subverted to favour the TDP," the delegation said.

The BJP also sought to make changes in the leadership of the state police force ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

"The Director General of Police (DGP) and a few other high-ranking officers must be sent out of the state during the elections to give confidence to the political parties and the voters that the poll process is free and fair," the party said.

The BJP delegation also raised apprehensions that "bribes" may be directly deposited in the bank accounts of the voters on the eve of the elections.

"We suspect that information regarding bank accounts have been leaked to the private companies working for the ruling party to effect bribe transfers ahead of the elections. This hi-tech 'direct bribe transfer' can completely vitiate the election process and alter the poll dynamics," the BJP said.

The party claimed that to woo voters, the state government has issued post-dated cheques to people under many schemes only to hoodwink them ahead of the polls.

"We appeal to the EC to declare this as a fraudulent practice and make all such actions null and void," the BJP delegation said.

--IANS

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Amid border tensions with Pakistan, Army chief General Bipin Rawat has asked his troops to be prepared for "all eventualities" in close coordination with the Air Force.

Gen Rawat has been visiting forward posts along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border to review the operational deployment and preparedness of the forces.

On Thursday he visited forward locations at Barmer and Suratgarh sectors in Rajasthan where he was briefed on the current operational situation, prevailing security scenarios and preparedness of the formations.

The visit came close on heels of his visit to forward locations along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir and the international border in Jammu region on Sunday.

Gen Rawat expressed his confidence in the capabilities of the Indian Army to thwart the enemy's "nefarious designs".

The Army on Friday said that in the current scenario, it was fully prepared for emerging challenges.

"In the last three weeks, disinformation campaign by the adversary on digital media has increased. All ranks have been well sensitised of these disinformation campaigns and all ranks can see through the lie, deceit and deception of the terror sponsors," an Army spokesperson said.

In a related development, Commander of US Special Operations Command, General Raymond Thomas, who is on an official visit to India, on Friday called on Gen Rawat here.

The two Generals deliberated upon the regional security environment, issue of global terrorism and Pakistan's continued support to terrorism among other things.

Acknowledging India's role in peace and stability in the region, Gen Raymond emphasised on the need for further military cooperation in the field of technology and military to military exchanges between the two countries.

The developments come amid tensions between India and Pakistan in the wake of a suicide bombing on February 14 that killed 40 CRPF troopers in Jammu and Kashmir and which was claimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) group.

--IANS

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The Delhi Cabinet has given the green light to hike the auto-rickshaw fares from existing Rs 8 per km to Rs 9.5 per km, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said on Friday.

The base fare will be Rs 25 for first 1.5 km instead of existing limit of 2 km as per the revised new auto-rickshaw rate, the Minister tweeted.

He, however, did not mention the exact date since when the new fare would be implemented.

Gahlot said the waiting charges of 75 paisa per minute would be applicable for every minute when vehicle is stationary or stuck in traffic or moving slow. There is no change in night charges and the luggage charges. The Aam Aadmi Party government will issue a notification to this effect soon.

He said the last revision in the auto-rickshaw fare was done in 2013.

In 2013, the Delhi government had hiked the fares of auto-rickshaws by 25 per cent, keeping in view the increase in prices of CNG and spare parts. The base fare of auto then was raised from Rs 19 for the first 2 km to Rs 25 and the fare for every subsequent kilometre was raised from Rs 6.5 to Rs 8.

--IANS

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West Bengal BJP leaders on Friday paid tributes to the two slain security personnel from the state, who were killed in Jammu and Kashmir earlier this year.

BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha presented mementos to the bereaved family members of CRPF trooper Bablu Santra, killed in Pulwama terror strike on February 14 and BSF Assistant Commandant Vinay Prasad, shot dead in sniper fire from across the border in Kashmir's Samba sector on January 15.

Banamala Santra, the mother of Pulwama martyr from Howrah district, said she was proud of her son, adding no politics should be involved in the programme at the state BJP headquarters.

"I am happy and honoured to be able to come here. I am proud of my son," she said.

Mother and wife of the other slain soldier Prasad were also present.

--IANS

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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer the nation's highest military honour, Param Vir Chakra, on Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

In a letter to Modi, the text of which was released to the media here, Palaniswami said Abhinandan who piloted a MiG 21 Bison was taken into custody by Pakistan armed forces.

Palaniswami said Abhinandan displayed amazing poise and confidence in the face of adverse conditions, which has won him many hearts across the country.

"It is appropriate that he be awarded India's highest military honour, Param Vir Chakra (PVC), for displaying most inimitable gallantry and valour," Palaniswami said.

Palaniswami said a suicide terror attack by a Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) on February 14 led to the martyrdom of 40 brave CRPF troopers.

"In response, India initiated counter terrorism action against a training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Pakistan. One Pakistan Air Force fighter was shot down by MiG 21 Bison of the Indian Air Force when it tried to violate our air space," Palaniswami said.

--IANS

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The Congress on Friday boycotted Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy's address in the state Assembly over his call to boycott "everything Kashmiri" following the February 14 Pulwama terror attack.

The Congress legislators also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not sacking Roy for his "anti-national" message.

"With a heavy heart, we would like to share our agony and anger in respect of the narrative that was generated by Governor Roy. He said that all Kashmiri goods should be boycotted, people should not visit Jammu and Kashmir. It is overwhelming when a person holding a constitutional post engages in this kind of message which is capable of creating a rift among the citizens," Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma told the media.

"We have seen what happened immediately after the incident. Lots of attacks took place across the nation," he said after chairing an urgent meeting of the Congress Legislature Party.

Noting that when there was a terror attack, the nation's fight was against militants and not against a community.

"If such a terrorist attack takes place in the northeast, will people like the Governor ask everyone to boycott the region?.

"These are the kind of people who are dividing the nation and trying to give fodder to anti-national forces.

"The Prime Minister should have pulled out the Governor and he (Roy) should have been removed from the office in the nation's best interest," Sangma added.

On February 19, Governor Roy had tweeted: "Don't visit Kashmir, don't go to Amarnath for the next 2 years. Don't buy articles from Kashmir emporia or Kashmiri tradesman who come every winter. Boycott everything Kashmiri. I am inclined to agree."

His comment came after a suicide bomber killed 40 CRPF troopers in the Kashmir Valley.

--IANS

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With the Left Front and the Congress yet to firm up any alliance, the fight for the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal is fast developing into a direct contest between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP.

As against the hive of activity in the Trinamool and the BJP camps, there is virtual ennui in the LF and Congress ranks, save occasional media meets, and some tweets from the leaders.

The two forces are locked in what has seemingly become long-drawn sit adjustment talks, now stalled over the Congress' adamant refusal to part with two seats - Raiganj and Murhidabad, won by LF major CPI-M five years ago.

After negotiations among state leaders failed to break the ice, both sides decided to lob the contentious matter to their chiefs. It is now for Congress president Rahul Gandhi and CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury to sit across the table and try to find a formula acceptable to their respective party units that could save the alliance from the brink.

Congress leaders admit that the formation of the alliance is crucial to ensure the Congress and the Left remain relevant.

"We badly need the alliance. Otherwise, it will be a direct fight between the BJP and the Trinamool," said a state Congress vice president on condition of anonymity.

"But if the seat adjustment talks succeed, the BJP will be pushed on the backfoot," he added.

But the BJP pooh-poohed such talks, saying they will gain in case of a triangular fight.

"It is surely a direct fight between the BJP and the Trinamool. It is a fight of equals," BJP General Secretary in-charge of West Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya told IANS.

"The CPI-M and the Congress are far, far behind. In fact, they are nowhere. It is for this reason that they are trying to work out an alliance. But take it from me. Even if there is a triangular fight, we will be the beneficiary," he said.

Apparently, the BJP's calculation is based on hopes for a likely division in Muslim votes - which otherwise could mostly go the Trinamool way - that the LF-Congress alliance can bring about. The party feels that in such a scenario, it could fare well in seats with a mixed population by projecting itself as the only party upholding the Hindu cause or by canvassing loudly on issues like infiltration and national security.

While Shah has set a target of winning at least 23 of the 42 seats up for grabs from the state, Vijayvargiya prophesied his party could go past the figure. The BJP had won two seats - Asansol and Darjeeling - in 2014.

"We will surely go beyond the number set by Shah," he said.

On the ground, BJP campaign managers have identified 17-18 "winnable seats" where the party would focus during the campaign.

The party had finished second or third in these seats five years back and even improved its vote share in subsequent by-polls in some of them.

"But these seats do not include Asansol and Darjeeling," said a leader.

As part of the party's Look East policy for the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has been pulling out all stops to better its show in Bengal - an erstwhile red citadel where the Communist Party of India-Marxist led Left Front enjoyed power for 34 years at a stretch (1977-2011).

The constituencies thus identified include Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Malda North and Malda South, Jhargram, Midnapore, Bolpur, Birbhum, Purulia, Howrah, Hooghly, Diamond Harbour, Barrackpore, Dum Dum, Basirhat, Krishnanagar, Kolkata North and Kolkata South.

(Sirshendu Panth can be contacted at s.panth@ians.in)

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the opposition parties' demand for proof of the Balakot air strike was making Pakistan "happy".

Addressing a rally here, Modi slammed the opposition parties, particularly the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress, for "not believing" the security forces with regard to the air strike in Balakot on February 26. The Prime Minister asked the opposition parties to stop making Pakistan "happy".

"Tell me, if you do something wrong which is applauded by Pakistan, would you like it? Would you not be sad? Will you not regret? Would you do something that people in Pakistan applaud," he asked.

"Some parties have been doing this for the last few days. When the surgical strike happened, these people raised doubts. Did they not insult the forces," Modi said.

He said the government was silent after the Balakot air strike despite "the act of bravery".

"Pakistan spoke about it first. Is Pakistan a fool to say that it was beaten up. Our people are asking for proofs. I would like to tell the opposition parties that the trust of 130 crore countrymen is my proof. I request you to stop making Pakistan happy," he said.

Taking a dig at the erstwhile UPA government for its "inaction" over the terror attacks that happened during its rule, Modi said his government has taught Pakistan a lesson soon after the Pulwama attack.

The Prime Minister said the UPA government did not act when hundreds of people died in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and other such strikes in the country.

"The then government in Delhi should have taken steps and questioned Pakistan. But it sat idle. Is it not injustice to the people of India? Was the Delhi government sleeping? Is it not guilty," asked the Prime Minister.

"Was Modi supposed to remain silent after the Pulwama terror attack killed 40 CRPF troopers? If I had to act like the previous governments, why did you choose me? Would you accept if I behave like them? Should I not follow what the nation seeks," Modi said.

Asking the gathering if the country wanted to teach Pakistan a lesson and put an end to terror activities, Modi asked, "Would your blessings be there if a war takes place in future."

--IANS

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The Indian member of the terror outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), who was arrested in Tripura earlier this week and is now under 12-day police custody, confessed that he is a close associate of the terror outfit and involved in terror activities, police said on Friday.

"JMB cadre Nazir Shaikh confessed that a few years back he was a follower of the terror group and paid Rs 500 per month as subscription to the outfit... For the past two years, he is a member of the banned group," a top police officer told IANS.

Two senior officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), besides other central and state intelligence officials, are interrogating the 25-year-old JMB man at a police station on the outskirts of the capital city.

"The JMB terrorist confessed to have committed many crimes in different parts of India, including in West Bengal and in Bengaluru, and gave significant information about the terror outfit's clandestine plan and ongoing works. NIA officials after taking transit remand from the court might take him outside the state as part of their investigation," said the officer, who also questioned the detainee.

Arrested in Tripura on March 5, the JMB cadre was on Wednesday sent to 12 days' police custody by a local court here. He would be produced in the court again on March 18.

"For the past two weeks, he had been working in a private construction firm in Arundhitinagar (on the outskirts of the capital city in western Tripura)."

Tripura Director General of Police (DGP) Akhil Kumar Shukla had earlier said that the detainee had been involved in many terror activities both in Bangladesh and India.

"Shaikh, a resident of West Bengal's Murshidabad district, is an expert in making IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices)."

Shukla told the media that the JMB, banned both in Bangladesh and India, conducted simultaneous explosions in 63 districts in Bangladesh in 2005.

"Nazir Shaikh was involved in the Bodh Gaya blasts in January last year. He was involved in various terror activities in India. We would try to find out all possible angles about his arrival in Tripura ahead of the Lok Sabha elections," he said.

At the time of explosion in Bodh Gaya, Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, along with several Buddhist pilgrims, was camping in the town to participate in the month-long Kalachakra puja.

The Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police and the West Bengal Police have arrested some JMB terrorists and collaborators in the state over the past few years.

Five Indian states -- West Bengal (2,216 km), Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km) -- share 4,096-km border with Bangladesh.

Though the large portions of the frontiers have barbed wire fencing, there are unfenced, mountainous and riverine borders prone to crime and smuggling, besides trans-border illegal movements.

--IANS

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday questioned Robert Vadra, brother-in-law of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, for over eight hours in connection with a money laundeering case.

According to ED officials, Vadra arrived at the agency's office here at 10.40 a.m and left after eight hours at 7.25 p.m.

During the questioning, the ED officials demanded some documents from Vadra, which were later provided by Vadra's lawyers.

The documents related to bank accounts and properties of Vadra, according to the Directorate officials.

Vadra has been questioned by the ED officials in connection with the case related to his ownership of overseas assets in London.

Vadra, husband of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, is on interim bail till March 19.

He had also deposed before the ED twice in Jaipur in connection with another money-laundering case related to an alleged land scam in Bikaner. His mother Maureen, too, was questioned by the agency once.

Ahead of his appearance before the ED for questioning in a money laundering case, Vadra extended International Women's Day greetings, saying that he was surrounded by "four strong women".

"Wishing all wonderful women, a Happy Women's Day! I am happy to be surrounded by four strong women, 'my mother (Maureen Vadra), my mother-in-law (Sonia Gandhi), my wife (Priyanka Gandhi) and my daughter (Miraya Vadra)'," the businessman said in a Facebook post earlier in the day.

"The keywords to describe them are 'hardworking, courageous, compassionate and determined.

"I will celebrate the day with them, once I am back from the ED interrogation... I have already deposed for 10 days for almost 64 hours, cooperating with the interrogations. I believe in truth and justice," he wrote.

--IANS

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The government of Finland resigned on Friday, a month before parliamentary elections, citing a failure of the plan to reform the public healthcare system.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto accepted the resignation of the government led by centrist Prime Minister Juha Sipila, national broadcaster Yle reported.

"The social welfare and healthcare reform was one of our government's most important objectives," Sipila said at a press conference. "The snapshot of the situation that I got from the Parliament obliged me to examine if there was a possibility of continuing the reform process. There wasn't.

"My conclusion was that my government had to hand in our resignation," he said. "I take my responsibility."

The government's collapse came after Sipila failed to push through reforms that had been considered a crucial part of the country's three-party governing coalition plan to balance public finances, Efe news reported.

"Prime Minister Sipila requests to resign because the healthcare reform cannot be accomplished during this government term," tweeted Antti Kaikkonen, the Head of Sipila's Centre Party's parliamentary group.

"If anyone asks what political responsibility means, then I would say this is an example of that," he added.

A majority of politicians agreed that some sort of reform to the system was required but they spent the past decade debating how to make it happen, the report said.

The government's efforts were finally brought down by a parliamentary constitutional committee which contended that the proposed cuts did not respect equal rights among all Finns.

Sipila had previously said he would dissolve his centre-right coalition government if it failed to push through its health care, welfare and local government reforms.

President Sauli Niinisto has asked Sipila to remain in office as a caretaker Prime minister until an April 14 parliamentary election.

--IANS

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The Gallops of India, being held for the first time in the country from March 2-9, here in Rajasthan, brought 70 riders from across the world to the desert state.

The earlier editions of the event were organised in Morocco in 2018 and in Oman in 2014.

The riders have come from 16 different nations including India, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxemburg, Norway, Oman, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the US to share their common love and passion for horse riding.

The ride covering a distance of 200 km started from the Shekhawati town of Mandawa on March 2 and witnessed the participation of professional as well as amateur riders from across ages and backgrounds.

The riders also included the cavalry members of India and Oman, the former Miss France as well as the 93-year-old Philippe Perrier from France.

The Gallops of India's major objective is the promotion of the Marwari Horses - the indigenous breed of Rajasthan, said Angad Deo Mandawa, co-organizer of the event.

He said that Marwari horses are hot blooded and are known for their aggression and speed. "So, hey are ideal for this exemplary competitive endurance ride," he said.

Sharing her experience of riding through the small towns of Shekhawati, Former Miss France Camille Cerf said that it is a fascinating and colourful experience.

Perrier said the experience of participating in the Gallops of India is quite different from the earlier editions held in Oman and Morocco.

The prime reason for this are the Marwari horses.

These horses are more intelligent than any other breed in the world, added Perrier. He also emphasized on the need for treating horses with utmost care and love and not think of them as a mere medium of transport.

Participants were riding for six hours every day covering a distance of 40 km. In between, there was a 30-minute halt for lunch and at night, they stayed in camps where folk music and dance programmes were organized.

The 200-km-long ride began from Mandawa and covered Alsisar, Mahendar, Bika Ki Dhani and Fatehpur before concluding at Mandawa. On 9 March, there will be a polo match at Mundota.

--IANS

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After destroying the tourism industry with demonetization and the Goods and Services Tax, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to help a 'crony capitalist' friend to make Goa into a coal hub, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said on Friday.

Addressing a meeting of Congress party's booth committee workers at an indoor stadium near the state capital, Gandhi also said that his party would form a government in Goa as well as other states soon.

"First, this was a tourism centre, now Narendra Modi has started making Goa a coal centre for his crony capitalist friend," Gandhi said.

The opposition leader's comment comes at a time when residents of the port town of Vasco in South Goa have been protesting against increasing coal pollution in the vicinity, caused by coal handling in berths handled by companies promoted by Adani ports and JSW steel.

Gandhi also said that decisions like poorly planned and implemented decisions like demonetization and GST had badly affected the coastal state's tourism industry, which is one of the key sectors responsible for Goa's economy.

"Goa was a tourism centre. Their government came, Narendra Modi ordered demonetization, 'Gabbar Singh Tax' and Goa's tourism has disappeared too. Wherever you see, whether it is the Rafale file, Goa government, tourism, employment, future of farmers, everything has gone missing," Gandhi said.

The Congress President also said that the Congress would work towards resuming the state's mining industry -- which has been banned by the Supreme Court for over a year -- with a sustainability roadmap.

"They (NDA) have destroyed the economy. In Goa, you have mining issue. Lakhs of people are affected. And we have taken a decision in Goa that the Congress will start sustainable mining," Gandhi said.

The Gandhi scion also said that the Congress would bounce back to form a government in Goa.

"Congress will form a government in Goa. You do not forget that. In Goa and in several other states, where BJP has stolen governments from the people by using money power. Goan people and youth should not forget this," Gandhi said.

--IANS

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Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday released the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) that seeks to provide an integrated approach towards cooling and related areas including reduction in the cooling demand, in order to reduce emissions.

Reduction of cooling demand across sectors by 20-25 per cent and refrigerant demand by 25-30 per cent by 2037-38 are the goals of the ICAP.

Curtailing the cooling energy requirements by 25-40 per cent by 2037-38 is also a part of the ICAP goals besides training and certification of 100,000 serving sector technicians by 2022-23.

"The action plan we have released today could be the first any country has done so. We have worked with all stakeholders and incorporated inputs from global experiences," Harsh Vardhan told reporters.

"We can see results now. The mindset of the industry has changed. New air conditioners, refrigerators are being manufactured with new dimensions and new thoughts."

He had released a draft ICAP in September last year during the World Ozone Day celebrations.

Encompassing refrigerant transition, enhancing energy efficiency and better technology options with a 20-year time horizon are among the features of the plan.

Assessment of cooling requirements across the sectors in the next 20 years and the associated refrigerant demand and energy use is one of the objectives of the ICAP.

The ICAP also focuses on providing skill training to RAC (Refrigeration and Air Conditioning) service technicians and suggests interventions in each sector to provide for sustainable cooling and thermal comfort for all.

It also aims to map the available technologies to cater to the cooling requirement including passive interventions, refrigerant-based technologies, and alternative technologies such as not-in-kind technologies.

It also seeks developing a research and development (R&D) innovation ecosystem for indigenous development of alternative technologies.

--IANS

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The top envoy to Colombia of Venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president on Thursday rejected the possibility of a Colombian military intervention in the neighbouring country.

"The last thing you want to see is a Colombian military incursion ... in Venezuela. That would mark us for the rest of our days. So you have to manage these things with a lot of prudence," Humberto Calderon Berti said at the "What Will Happen in Venezuela?" forum, organised by Colombian weekly magazine Semana.

"We're in this neighbourhood and we can't move away. Everything we do much be done with extreme prudence," he said, reports Efe.

Calderon said his calls for caution have prompted "attacks from radicals," who call him an "old dinosaur" when he expresses opposition to potential military action.

Juan Guaido, the speaker of Venezuela's opposition-controlled but toothless National Assembly (unicameral legislature), declared himself that country's interim president in late January, saying that leftist head of state Nicolas Maduro's re-election victory in May 2018 was fraudulent.

Around 50 countries, including the US, Germany, the UK, Colombia and Brazil, recognise Guaido as acting president and are calling for new presidential balloting.

Russia, China and India are among the dozens of nations that still regard Maduro as the legitimate president of the South American nation.

Asked about what has happened with Venezuela's embassy building in Bogota after Maduro's move late last month to sever ties with Colombia, Calderon said it is now completely empty.

Maduro broke off bilateral ties amid a row over the opposition's unsuccessful attempt to bring in tons of humanitarian aid.

Venezuela's government has refused to accept that assistance, saying it is a Trojan horse and that he would be paving the way for a US-led military intervention if he did not use his army to block it from entering from Colombia and Brazil.

Calderon said his duties as Guaido's envoy to Colombia include extending a hand to Venezuelans living there.

He also expressed concern for unaccompanied children who have crossed the border, as well as the situation of kids who were born in Colombia to undocumented parents and who "aren't Colombians and aren't Venezuelans."

--IANS

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On the occasion of International Womens Day, 21 women such as actresses Neena Gupta and Swara Bhasker, rapper Hard Kaur and yoga expert Natasha Noel came together to celebrate womanhood through a music video titled "Fire within me".

The video, which features the women, is part of the campaign #ishapemyworld by Levi's brand. Prior to the launch of the video on Friday, the women had gathered here on Thursday.

Swara said: "As an artiste, my job is not just to express but to engage. Films are transformative, they are humongous Kubbra's (Sait) performance (of a transgender) in 'Sacred Games' was found inspiring by many people from that community, it was a representation of that community.

"Rest is whatever resonates with the audience, but a performance, a good film, a good story - has a power. So, we should engage people globally with our art because we are not just artistes but also citizens."

Referring to the #MeToo movement, she said: "One hashtag that started many years ago, restarted in 2017...it has changed our mind on how we look at our workplace and why certain behaviour from people in the position of power is not accepted."

Talking about engaging the audience with art, comedian Kaneez Surkha said: "As a comedian, I find 'improv' more engaging than stand-up comedy and every time I am doing it, I am doing it out of passion without intending to break the norms."

"But it made me realise that I'm pushing the boundary whenever I face obstacles and stand strong with my conviction that I will do 'improv'".

On one of the defining moments of her journey that changed her life, actress-host Kubbra said: "My mother protected me so much when I was a child that I was scared to go beyond my call of duty. Then one day when I was 21 years old, my mother put me on a flight to Dubai saying that 'You get yourself a job!' I was scared..I mean a girl who did not even travel alone and now in a different country, searching for a job?"

"But when I think about it...my mother gave me constant support, had confidence in me, I won every situation. When I took up the role of Kukko in 'Sacred Games', though people said that it was a bold choice, I did not look at it that way. It was not courageous to play that (a transgender character), I was just doing my job."

"If it played out that way and created impact, it is great. But initially, that was not my intention, I did what my job, my craft allowed me to do," she explained.

Natasha Noel, a survivor of sexual violence, spoke about how she reached a point and decided not to be defined by the sorrow of her life.

"I was three years old when my birth mother burnt herself live in front of me. Of course that affected me but like all of us would love to believe that things will be fine with time, mine got worse."

"So much so that I started getting comfortable with the pain and then, I realised that I was carrying the pain with me all the time. I thought without my pain, I could not be anything. But hey, I don't want to be defined by my pain Thus, I picked myself up and found my way to heal myself," the yoga expert said.

--IANS

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The Delhi High Court has rejected a plea by multinational footwear manufacturer Crocs Inc seeking to restrain some companies from copying its registered design, saying that "a registered design cannot constitute a trade mark".

"However, if there are features other than those registered as a design and are shown to be used as a trade mark and (with which) goodwill has been acquired, it is only those extra features which can be protected as a trade mark," Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said in its March 5 order.

"In my opinion, a registered design confers on the registrant only the right to restrain another from infringing the design and not to also claiming the registered design as its trademark/ trade dress and restraining another from passing off its goods as that of the registrant, by copying the registered design."

The court was hearing a plea of American footwear company Crocs, Incorporated seeking permanent injunction for restraining various other footwear companies from adopting and copying the shape trademark and design of the plaintiff (Crocs).

The Crocs is using a registered design as a shape trademark.

Crocs has initiated the litigation for restraining some of the defendants (other footwear companies) from infringing the registered design of the plaintiff with respect to "Crocs" footwear.

Crocs argued that the design of the subject footwear of the plaintiff and defendants' is the same.

The counsel for the defendants argued that no additional features qualifying as trade dress, which are not part of the registered design, have been pointed out.

The court noted that Crocs has not been able to show any extra, besides the design, which is used as a trademark.

The court said that the plaintiff has not pleaded anything extra, which is used and has goodwill as a trademark and which can be protected in these actions for passing off.

The court said that the law relating to designs is that what is registered as a design cannot be a trademark, not only during the period of registration as a design but even thereafter.

It noted that "as per the definition of design in the Designs Act, if the feature of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines or colours applied to any article is being used as a trademark, it cannot be registered as a design".

The court also said that use of registered design as trademark and restraining other from using the design is not permissible in law.

--IANS

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In an interim relief to sidelined AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran, the Delhi High Court on Friday stayed a trial court order regarding framing of charges against him in a case of bribery involving the party's "Two Leaves" symbol.

Justice Sunil Gaur's interim order came while hearing Dhinakaran's plea challenging a trial court order which had framed charges against him under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court asked Delhi Police to respond to the plea and listed the matter for March 20.

Dhinakaran's aide Sukesh Chandershekar, T.P. Mallikarjun and B. Kumar were also charged with criminal conspiracy and bribery in the case filed and probed by Delhi Police.

The court discharged five other accused -- Nathu Singh alias Naresh, Lalit Kumar K. Shah, Pulkit Kundra, Jai Vikram Haran and Narender Jain -- observing that in the absence of grave suspicion, no charge of conspiracy can be framed against them.

Dhinakaran, now an independent MLA and heading the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), is accused of having tried to bribe Election Commission officials to get the "Two Leaves" symbol for the faction led by his aunt V.K. Sasikala after a split in the AIADMK following the death of Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

He was arrested on April 25, 2017 and granted bail on June 1, 2017. The bribe amount is said to be to the tune of Rs 50 crore.

The Delhi Police on July 14, 2017 chargesheeted Chandrashekhar for forgery.

Later, in December 2017, police filed a supplementary chargesheet in the case naming Dhinakaran, his long-time friend Mallikarjun, alleged middleman Chandrashekhar and others as accused in the case.

Police said a criminal conspiracy was hatched by Dhinakaran and others to bribe Election Commission officials.

--IANS

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Politicians on Friday expressed their admiration for women on the occasion of International Women's Day, hailing them as the backbone of the society and called for ensuring constitutional rights for them.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi admired the "fighting spirit" of women and exhorted the general public to remove those obstacles that hinder their growth.

"While saluting the undaunted, fighting spirit of women this International Women's Day, I would also like us to recommit ourselves to breaking the barriers that continue to hinder their path to freedom and equality.

"In doing so, a better, brighter, braver world awaits us," Gandhi said in a tweet.

Bahujan Samaj Party Supremo Mayawati said on Twitter: "Hearty greetings on International Women's Day to all women, who are half of the 130 crore population especially to those who are dedicated towards serving interest of family, society and country."

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called women the backbone of the society and reminded people of the long-delayed Women Reservation Bill for parliamentarians.

"Women are the backbone of our society. They are our pride. On International Women's Day 2019, I want to congratulate all the women around the world. Today I will participate in a march to mark the occasion in Kolkata.

"While the Women's Reservation Bill has not yet been passed in Parliament, I am proud that our party AITC has 35 per cent women MPs in the 16th Lok Sabha. We have also reserved 50 per cent seats in local bodies for women candidates," she said on the social media platform.

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also extended their greetings on the occasion.

The theme this year for the International Women's Day, which is celebrated annually on March 8, is 'Balance for Better'.

--IANS

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If we look at government or independent research figures, Internet users in India are growing exponentially -- currently hovering around 560 million and likely to cross 600 million by the end of the year.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India has amn Internet subscriber base of nearly 560 million, including 482 million broadband subscribers - which means 43 per cent overall Internet penetration.

The country has 366 million Internet subscribers in urban locations and 194 million in rural areas, says the latest TRAI report that came out in December.

The "ICUBETM 2018" report from market research firm Kantar IMRB said this week that the number of Internet users in the country will reach 627 million by the end of this year.

The numbers are overwhelming but when it comes to the methodology behind deriving the average number of Internet users, there appears some gap.

For example, if a person in a family has 2 mobile numbers and he or she uses multiple devices for Internet access, how is that accounted for?

According to industry experts, the research methodology to derive the average number of Internet users would entail a large-format survey.

"Such a survey would typically cover 50,000 to 1,00,000 households in India, spread across urban and rural India, and covering all socio-economic classes (SEC) segments," says Satya Mohanty, Head-User Research Practice, CyberMedia Research (CMR).

According to Mohanty, Internet usage is calculated based on the number of people using Internet.

"Therefore, if in one household, there are three people using one device PC/smartphone, then it is calculated as three users instead of one user," he told IANS.

The average number of users derived from the sample survey is extrapolated to the total number of households in India to find out total number of users.

"For example, consider that the survey findings point to the average number of Internet users per household being 2.5. And, in India, there is 250 million households. Replicating the average figure of 2.5 with the total number of households, we have 625 million Internet users in India," Mohanty elaborated.

According to Kantar IMRB, their latest "ICUBETM 2018" report covered over 70,000 individuals, selected through a sampling process across over 400 urban areas and more than 1,500 rural locations.

"ICUBE members are of users and not subscribers. Thus people carrying multiple phones will be counted as a single user," Biswapriya Bhattacharjee, Executive Vice President, Kantar IMRB, told IANS.

Similarly, Bhattacharjee added, a person using his or her spouses/parents' phone for Internet access will also be counted as an Internet user.

One thing, however, is clear: the data usage is growing thanks to Reliance Jio, along with the increasing number of smartphone and entry-level feature phone users.

"Jio has been a transformative force in enabling digital inclusion, by connecting the unconnected. Since its foray, Jio has achieved a remarkable feat of covering 95 per cent of India's population with aggressive 4G network roll-out aided by innovative pricing strategy," Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, told IANS.

"As data costs plummeted, more Indians than ever before are experiencing broadband for the first time on mobile," Ram added.

(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)

--IANS

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday released a book "Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas", a compilation of selected speeches delivered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Releasing the book on the occasion of International Women's Day, Jaitley said that the Prime Minister has an excellent knowledge of subjects and his speeches are a clear reflection of that knowledge.

Stating that speeches should be effective so that they can have a grip on the audience, Jaitley said: "The Prime Minister has a good grip over a wide bandwidth of subjects including political history, economy, foreign policy, strategic issues, among others."

"He is a quick learner coupled with clarity of thinking, which together ensure delivery of flawless speeches by him," he added.

Recalling a few great orators from India's recent history including Mahatma Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Jagjivan Ram and Indrajit Gupta, the Finance Minister said their speeches are etched in the memory and consciousness of the country.

He said there is a difference between the speeches of ordinary politicians and those who want to be a statesman.

"Many ordinary politicians think of only making it to headlines this evening or tomorrow morning. But, if you rise to a higher level, you are thinking of the next generation," he said.

Compiled in five volumes, the book brought out by the publications division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, was released in Hindi as well as English. It is edited by publication division member Kanchan Gupta.

Each of these volumes is categorized into five segments, covering the Prime Minister's ideas on good governance; making India competent and efficient; hailing bravehearts, farmers and brilliant scientists; taking along people on an inclusive path of growth and hope; and sharing the message of a resurgent India with the international community.

Last week, Jaitley had also released a book that was a compilation of Modi's message in the first 50 episodes of his monthly radio programme "Mann Ki Baat".

On the occasion, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said that the speeches of the Prime Minister are a repository of practical solutions which are inspired by his simple, down to earth and connected to roots lifestyle.

--IANS

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Japan is keen to extend all possible financial and technical help for the development of Tripura and Mizoram, particularly in the fields of infrastructure, bamboo development, agriculture, disaster management and human resource development, Kenji Hiramatsu, Japanese Ambassador to India said on Friday.

The Japanese envoy visited Mizoram and Tripura in the past three days and met the Chief Ministers of the two northeastern states - Zoramthanga and Biplab Kumar Deb - and discussed various developmental issues and possible collaboration.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had earlier given Rs 1,364 crore to Tripura in two phases for the promotion of forest based livelihood of the tribals and other backward people and value addition of non-timber forest produces. The-JICA sponsored projects are now going on.

In 2016, the JICA had extended Rs 4,000 crore soft loan to India to improve two National Highways (NH 54 and NH 51) in Mizoram and Meghalaya.

While talking to the media here on Friday, Hiramatsu said there are huge potentiality in Tripura in the bamboo handicrafts, tourism, bamboo cultivation and their value addition, connectivity and forest management for multi dimensional growth.

He said that both India and Japan in the 2nd meeting of "Japan-India Act East Forum" in October last year in New Delhi had agreed for deeper cooperation in various sectors including building infrastructure in northeastern region, forest management projects of Tripura and Meghalaya.

"Japan can also help in disaster management, collaborative efforts and technical support in diverse areas," the envoy told the media before leaving for Kolkata on Friday evening.

Hiramatsu is the first Japanese Ambassador to India to visit Tripura and Mizoram.

--IANS

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The 60th National Exhibition of Art, an annual event by the Lalit Kala Akademi, is all set to host works by artists selected in Tier 1 of the 60th National Academy Awards, which are expected to be announced by March 13.

The exhibition, one of the grandest and most prestigious events for the national academy of art, will showcase in the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) and Sir JJ School of Art here a vast repository of unseen works by the selected artists, Lalit Kala Akademi Chairperson Uttam Pacharne told IANS.

At least three special exhibitions by veteran, invited and tribal artists will also be on view. The exhibition will take place from March 25 to April 8.

As per Lalit Kala Akademi data, the awards, which will be given to 15 winners, received over 6,100 entries by 2,836 artists this year. The figures indicate a significant -- almost double -- jump from last year's 1,433 artists applying for the awards.

The entries received last year were a little above 3,600, which also seem to have almost doubled.

The National Academy Awards will now be announced by a Tier 2 jury, which will hopefully go on floor by this weekend, Pacharne, a renowned sculptor, said.

Works of art are always inspired by the society, according to him.

"The society gives the topical food for thought to the artist, who then reflects what she or he feels and sees on the canvas."

He also hopes that the exhibition will help establish that Indian art is at par with international art, and that it reflects the "times we're in" globally.

The final 15 winning artworks and artists will be selected out of the pool of 286.

While selecting the larger pool, the jury, whose names are being withheld till the final selection, noted in its report: "While it is important to underline that the senior artists follow their established styles, the younger ones show certain amount of experimental verve to chart their future artistic careers."

The jury appointed by the Akademi has also selected 17 veteran artists for a special section in the exhibition for their "lifetime achievement in art". Some of them are Ram V. Sutar, G.S. Gaitonde, Akbar Padamsee, and Tyeb Mehta.

Seven contemporary artists -- named by jury as the "seven shades of the rainbow" who make India's colour palette strong -- have been nominated under the 'invited' category for the exhibition. They are: D. Venkatapathy, Brij Mohan Sharma, Jayesh Shukla, Neeraj Gupta, Viren Tanwar, Ganpath Shankar Majgaonkar and Sudhakar Vitthal Chavan.

About 80-100 tribal artists will also find space in the special exhibitions.

According to an Akademi official, a collateral event which will kick off in parallel to the exhibition will be the Akademi's Kala Mela 2019, an art fair that promotes new artistic trends. A unique creative platform, it will have about 150 stalls for displaying artworks by artists, art organisations, galleries or other bodies.

(Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in)

--IANS

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The government on Friday set up a five member committee headed by Legal Affairs Secretary Alok Srivastava to examine issues related to framing of a structured scheme for providing insurance cover to advocates.

The committee would also suggest modalities for the implementation of such a scheme and would submit its report within three months, the government said.

The other members of the committee would include a senior representative from the Department of Financial Services and a representative from the Department of Legal Affairs. The committee will also have one representative each from the Bar Council of India and the State Bar Councils, an official statement said.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad directed that the committee shall recommend a comprehensive insurance scheme for the welfare of advocates all over India to address concerns relating to untimely death and medical insurance.

The committee may take the opinion of all stakeholders including the representatives of the insurance companies to devise the proposed scheme, the statement said.

Earlier this month, a delegation of lawyers, which included members of the Bar Council of India and office bearers of various Advocates Associations, met Prasad in connection with their concerns and demands.

Prasad said that the scheme may include assistance from central and state governments as also the involvement of State Bar Councils and the representatives operating the lawyers welfare fund.

--IANS

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Farmers suicides in Maharashtra have virtually doubled during 2015-2018, under the tenure of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, compared to the period 2011-2014, a RTI reply has revealed.

According to the data received by RTI activist Jeetendra Ghadge, compared to 6,268 cases of farmers suicides recorded between 2011-2014 during the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party rule, under the present Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena regime it has almost doubled to 11,995 between 2015-2018.

The highest number of cases have been notched in the Amravati Division of the suicide-prone districts in Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra.

Incidentally, Fadnavis hails from Nagpur in Vidarbha, as also Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.

Despite the high number of suicides, the RTI replies submitted by the Revenue Department have revealed that even the compensation of Rs 100,000 is also denied to the farmers' families.

In 2014, 1,358 farmers' families received the compensation while another 674 cases were rejected. But in 2018, total compensation was given in 1,330 incidents while 1,050 claims were rejected, Ghadge pointed out.

Again, the high suicide areas in Amravati Division have recorded the highest number of rejections of compensation cases, and in 2016 and 2018, there were more rejections than approvals.

In March 2015, the then Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse had announced in the legislature that the compensation in such cases would be increased from Rs 100,000 to Rs 500,000, plus a life insurance policy covering all farmers.

"With reference to increasing the compensation amount, the decision is still pending. For life insurance, the government has launched the 'Gopinath Munde Accident Insurance Scheme' in December 2018. Strangely, however, the government circular covers only 'accidents' and there is no mention of 'suicide' in it," Ghadge told IANS.

He said the situation of farmers in the past few years has only worsened with initiatives like loan waivers or crop insurance failing to have the desired effect.

Moreover, on the question of rehabilitation of the families of those farmers who commit suicide, the government keeps rejecting compensation proposals even for a mere Rs 100,000, as the agrarian crises maintains its vice-like grip on the farmlands in the state.

"It is indeed shocking that the 'Gopinath Munde Accident Insurance Scheme' that covers all farmers does not cover 'suicides'. The government seems to be making only announcements without any follow-up action," Ghadge said.

--IANS

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Kickstarting her party's Lok Sabha poll campaign on International Women's Day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government, saying that it had reached its "expiry date" and that the country needs a "people's government" for future years.

She accused the Centre of showing off its military prowess and playing war games to influence people ahead of the forthcoming general elections, and claimed that the new government formed by the opposition parties will fight against terrorism and reinstate peace in the Kashmir Valley.

"Elections are near. So now they (Centre) are busy showing off the missiles and playing war games. Your expiry date has come. The new government will fight terrorism and bring back peace in Kashmir.

"It is our promise to reinstate peace and harmony in the country. All of us will do it together," Banerjee said at a rally in central Kolkata's Dorina Crossing.

"So many incidents of terror strikes like Pathankot, Uri, Pulwama took place in the last five years. Where was the government then? Remember, the country needs a people's government. It needs a united India government," she said, referring to the anti-BJP alliance.

Coming down heavily on the Centre for saying that the documents related to the Rafale fighter jet deal have been stolen, she questioned whether documents related to the country's internal security have also been misplaced.

She wondered how the Central government could ensure the nation's security when it cannot protect simple documents.

"They are saying Rafale documents have been stolen. Has the nation's internal security documents also been stolen? When you cannot protect Rafale documents then how will you provide security to the country?" the Trinamool Congress supremo asked.

Renewing her attack on the Prime Minister, Banerjee said Modi has stolen the nation's property and destroyed all the institutions in the country and raised the slogan of 'Modi hatao Desh Bachao' (oust Modi, save the nation).

"You (Modi) have stolen the entire country. What is left of it? When you are removed from power, the country would come to know how you have stolen all our assets. All the institutions are destroyed. Such is the situation that the RBI chief had to resign and the CBI chief was forced to leave.

"Only Modi-bhai campaign is going on," she said.

Earlier in the day, Banerjee, accompanied by senior women leaders of her party walked from central Kolkata's Sradhananda Park to Esplanade to celebrate the power of womanhood on the occasion of International Women's Day.

"I congratulate all the mothers and sisters on International Women's Day. I strongly condemn the atrocities on Dalits, tribals, women, minorities and farmers in the name of lynching," Banerjee said.

"Bengal has highest respect for women. Trinamool Congress is the only party where 35 per cent of its elected members in Parliament are women. In the coming elections, we will make sure that more than 35 percent of our candidates are women," she added.

--IANS

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Mathura-based entrepreneur Pawani Khandelwal will be representing India at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation's conference on women entrepreneurship and economic empowerment next month.

The conference, part of the Foundation's programmes on the World Economic Order, will be held in Washington DC and Chicago from March 22.

Khandelwal, 24, runs "Aatm Nirbhar", an all women two-wheeler driving school for women in Mathura, Agra, Lucknow and Jaipur.

She told IANS that nine other women heading social organisations in different countries had been selected for the fully-funded programme after a rigorous process.

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation receives thousands of applications every year for the programme and someone from India getting selected was rare.

Khandelwal will talk about women empowerment, opportunities for women in the social sector, role of women in economic growth and importance of female employees in an organisation.

"Aatm Nirbhar has so far empowered over 5,000 women and will add a few zeros to the figure very soon," she said.

--IANS

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A MiG-21 Bison fighter jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed on Friday near here during a routine mission after reportedly suffering a bird hit but the pilot ejected safely, officials said.

An IAF spokesperson said the MiG crashed after getting airborne from Nal, near Bikaner. He said initial inputs indicated that the jet crashed after it reportedly hit a bird.

A Commission of Inquiry will investigate the cause of the accident.

A few minutes after taking off, the aircraft lost contact with the Air Traffic Control. Its debris fell in Shobhasar village near Bikaner.

The "Bison" is an upgraded version of the MiG-21 jet, which was first inducted into the IAF in the 1960s, soon after the India-China war. The upgrade to the Bison version was done in 2006.

The upgraded version was equipped with the Phazotron Kopyo airborne radar which is capable of simultaneously tracking eight targets and engaging two of them with air-to-air missiles.

Initially, the MiG-21 could carry only free-fall bombs (those without guiding system). It is now capable of carrying a wide range of guided munition, including the R-73 air-to-air missile that hunted down a Pakistani F-16 aircraft during a dogfight on February 27.

--IANS

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The central government is fully committed to women's safety, security and empowerment for which it has rolled out several schemes, programmes and projects, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Friday.

Addressing a gathering of women at a convention of the National Livelihood Mission, coinciding with the International Women's Day, Modi said that it was his good fortune that earlier in the day he had the privilege to kickstart the work on the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, a project taken up by Ahilya Bai more than 200 years ago.

"On the International Women's Day, I bow to women power and salute every daughter and mother in this country as they are engaged in many ways in nation building and realizing the idea of a New India," he said.

He also referred to the bravery and valour of the Indian defence personnel and said that it were only due to the blessings of "mothers and sisters" that the soldiers were involved in protecting the nation.

Referring to Ganga river, Rani Laxmi Bai and Ahilya Bai Holkar, the Prime Minister said that all of them had a connection with Kashi and in their own ways they contributed immensely to what Kashi is known for.

While Mother Ganga provides salvation to all, Laxmi Bai sounded the bugle against the British and sowed the seeds of freedom while Holkar initiated the revamp of the Kashi Vishwanath temple, Modi said.

Many schemes of his government like providing help during pregnancy, extension of maternity leave, free immunization and provision of capital punishment for rapists were meant for women's safety, security and empowerment.

--IANS

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The city bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Friday cleared ArcelorMittal's Rs 42,000 crore resolution plan for insolvent Essar Steel, which is likely to put an end to the long-drawn battle for the steel asset.

The decision, which paves ArcelorMittal's entry into India, came after 583 days of the stressed asset being referred for insolvency proceedings, instead of the mandatory resolution period of 270 days as per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

The NCLT bench approved ArcelorMittal's resolution plan, which was voted as winning bid in October 2018 by the Committee of Creditors (CoC) and which included upfront payment of Rs 42,000 crore and post-deal infusion of Rs 8,000 crore in Essar Steel.

"We welcome today's pronouncement by the NCLT Ahmedabad. While we will need to review the full written order once it becomes available, we hope to complete the transaction as soon as possible," ArcelorMittal said in a statement after the verdict.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had last month directed the NCLT Ahmedabad bench to take a final decision on ArcelorMittal's bid for the acquisition of Essar Steel by March 8, failing which it would pass an order.

While the NCLT verdict came as a major setback to the Ruias who wanted to retain control of the company and had offered Rs 54,389 crore after the CoC approved ArcelorMittal's bid, the promoters of Essar Steel believe they still have a chance.

"We continue to believe that our settlement proposal of Rs 54,389 crore is the most compelling one available to Essar Steel creditors and fulfills the IBC's declared overriding objective of value maximization, which has been established time and again by courts at all levels," Essar spokesperson said after the judgment.

"We are also confident of the legal validity of our said offer made under Section 12A, which provides for the withdrawal from the IBC process by making full payment to the creditors. We are awaiting a copy of the NCLT order, and will take a call on next steps after examining the same," he added.

Further, the NCLT Ahmedabad bench dismissed the application filed by the suspended board of directors of Essar Steel to view the resolution plan. On its verdict on ArcelorMittal's bid, the bench it cannot impose judicial view over banks' wisdom.

However, the Ruias are not yet ready to surrender the 10 million tonne steel mill, which owes Rs 49,000 crore to financial creditors. Sources in the group said once they get the court order, they would definitely go for an appeal in NCLAT and if need be, may even approach the Supreme Court. Earlier, Essar's appeal in these two higher courts have been dismissed.

The NCLT bench is also learnt to have suggested financial creditors to sacrifice some of its dues for the sake of operational creditors. It suggested the CoC to reconsider distribution of dues and give 15 per cent of total offer to operational creditors.

While there were attempts to delay the resolution process and there was a growing angst in the market leading to doubts over the efficacy of new insolvency law IBC, resolution of Essar Steel, fourth in the NCLT's first list, is likely to help the stressed assets market.

Essar Steel is among the list of top 12 large corporate debtors, referred as 'dirty dozen' where Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sought resolution in the insolvency courts.

Essar Steel is among the largest single location steel producers with a 10 million tonnes per annum liquid steel capacity. The integrated facilities comprises hot rolling facilities, cold rolling facilities, plate mill etc. located in Hazira, in the western coast of Gujarat.

It also has downstream processing and distribution capacity of 4 MTPA. ESIL also has beneficiation and pellet making capacity of 20 MTPA spread across Vizag and Paradeep. The company employs approximately 4,500 persons directly and more than 30,000 people indirectly.

--IANS

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Authorities here on Friday carried out a controlled blast to raze the luxurious beach bungalow of absconding diamantaire Nirav Modi, one of the prime accused in the Punjab National Bank scam, official sources said.

Over 100 dynamite sticks were strategically placed within and outside the bungalow near Kihim beach, and the blast took place at 11.15 a.m. amidst tight security, said an eyewitness from the site.

Few days ago, detonators were fixed at various points on the bungalow - located around 110 km from Mumbai - to carry out the 'implosion' and bring it down in a single-shot.

With the complete structure razed to the ground, labourers will now start the work of removing the debris from the venue over the next couple of weeks.

On January 25, the Collectorate had initiated the demolition process using traditional methods of bulldozers, excavators and other such manually-operated equipment, but it proved to be a slow and tedious process.

Attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in December 2018, the bungalow was stripped off all its valuables, art works, paintings and other expensive items. All glass structures were removed to enable the controlled blasting.

Modi, along with his uncle Mehul Choksi and others, are the prime accused and fugitives in the Rs 14,000-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud admitted in February 2018.

Though the Alibag bungalow was not directly linked with the PNB scam, it was attached by the ED along with his known assets in Maharashtra, Gujarat and other places in an effort to recover a part of the dues from Modi.

Built in 2009-2010, on a 70,000 square feet plot, the 33,000 square feet bungalow with several bedrooms is accessible through a long driveway, protected by high metal fencing and a huge security gate, and was noted for lavish parties hosted here regularly.

The demolition process followed orders of the Bombay High Court in a Public Interest Litigation filed by NGO Shamburaje Yuva Kranti (SYK), seeking action against various illegal bungalows, hotels and resorts violating the high tide and low tide zones in tiny villages dotting the beaches of Raigad.

SYK state chief Surendra Dhavale said that so far 10 bungalows have been demolished in the past few months, and now Modi's bungalow was razed, with at least another four dozen on the Collector's demolition list.

"The claimed value of the (Modi) property is cited as Rs 13 crore, but given the current market rates, this bungalow is worth over Rs 100 crore," Dhavale told IANS.

Besides, Choksi - now a citizen of Antigua & Barbuda, many celebrities, industrialists, top businessmen, film and television personalities own big and small properties on this picturesque stretch of central coastal Konkan region, barely an hour's boat ride from the mainland at Gateway of India.

--IANS

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Union minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday said the Congress-Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alliance will not pose any threat to the BJP and that it would win all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.

"We do not see any challenge regardless of an alliance. We will win all seven seats in Delhi," he told reporters here.

The Bharatiya Janata Party will break all records of the past in the upcoming general elections, the MP from Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency said.

--IANS

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A nuclear war between India and Pakistan is "most likely" and the "relative calm" is not a solution as long as the two neighbours refuse to deal with their core dispute of Kashmir, the New York Times has said in an opinion piece.

In the Thursday write-up, the daily's Editorial Board said that although the India-Pakistan tensions had diffused for now, their "nuclear arsenals mean unthinkable consequences are always possible".

The board wrote that "this relative calm is not a solution" and the US needed to get involved in defusing the tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.

"As long as India and Pakistan refuse to deal with their core dispute - the future of Kashmir - they face unpredictable, possibly terrifying, consequences."

According to the NYT, the next confrontation between the two neighbours might not end "so calmly".

"With Pakistan's Army most likely shaken by the Indian raid and unwilling to slide into protracted conflict, Prime Minister Imran Khan returned the pilot to India, in what was seen as a goodwill gesture, called for talks and promised an investigation into the bombing. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi took the opportunity to back off further escalation", it said.

"The next confrontation might not end so calmly," it added.

Tensions between India and Pakistan worsened after a Kashmir suicide bombing on February 14 killed 40 CRPF troopers and was claimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

India retaliated by bombing the terror group's biggest training camp in Balakot, Pakistan. Pakistan hit back with its air force the next day.

Islamabad also captured an Indian Air Force pilot after a February 27 dogfight between the two air forces. He was released on March 1 as a "peace gesture" by Pakistan.

The NYT said the the US "could help India strengthen its counterterrorism capabilities to prevent future attacks and it could encourage India to modify its approach to those opposing its rule in Kashmir, which the UN and other groups say involves widespread human rights abuses.

"And while it's good when India and Pakistan decide to walk back from the brink, as they seem to be doing now, the US should be ready to assist if they cannot."

The article stated that Islamabad and New Delhi were "long among the world's most antagonistic neighbours" and that it was fortunate they found "the good sense to de-escalate".

The NYT stated: "The JeM, which seeks independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan, took responsibility (for the Kashmir bombing). While it is on America's list of terrorist organisations and is formally banned in Pakistan, the group has been protected and armed by the Pakistani intelligence service."

The NYT said that the situation between India and Pakistan "could have easily escalated, given that the two countries have fought three wars over 70 years, maintain a near-constant state of military readiness along their border and have little formal government-to-government dialogue.

"Adding to the volatility, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is waging a tough re-election campaign in which he has used anti-Pakistan talk to fuel Hindu nationalism," it said.

The daily said that Pakistan "has never seriously cracked down on militant groups that attack India and the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.

"In recent days, Pakistani authorities said they detained 44 members of various armed groups, including a brother of Masood Azhar, the head of JeM, and planned to seize assets of militants on the UN terrorist list. But Pakistan has rarely followed through on such promises."

The NYT said that without international pressure, a long-term solution was "unlikely and the threat of nuclear war remained".

"While the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations aggressively worked to ensure that India-Pakistan confrontations in 1999, 2002 and 2008 did not spiral out of control, the (Donald) Trump administration has done little but issue a few statements urging restraint.

"It's hard to see a role as a mediator for Trump, who has shifted the US more firmly against Pakistan and towards India, where he has pursued business interests.

"A solution to a conflict that touches so many religious and nationalist nerves must ultimately come from within, through talks among India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir," it said.

--IANS

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Marking the occasion of International Women's Day, Google on Friday showcased an interactive, slideshow doodle featuring inspirational quotes by women.

The doodle begins with "woman" written in 11 different languages -- Hindi, Arabic, French, Bangla, Russian, Japanese, German, Italian, English, Spanish and Portuguese.

The quotes in various languages are from 14 international female trendsetters, including Indian boxer Mary Kom, British writer and suffragette Millicent Fawcett, American astronaut and physician Mae Jemison, and British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.

"The process of choosing the fourteen quotes was extremely difficult, but we aimed to include a diverse representation of voices on a day which celebrates the past, present, and future community of diverse women around the world," Google said in a blog post.

The quotes were designed by a group of female guest artists from around the globe.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi tore into the opposition on Friday and slammed them for making "politically motivated" statements that are "demotivating the defence forces".

Addressing a public rally in Kanpur, Modi said he is making this "serious charge" against some political opponents who, blinded by their dislike for Modi, are harming the interests of the nation.

"For political mileage and benefits, some political parties are making statements questioning the air strikes and the bravery and valour of our Army personnel, deliberately," he said.

As people cheered him, Modi said at a time when the country is "fighting a decisive battle against terrorism to uproot it forever", there are some who are making statements in a language that become a "weapon in Pakistan's armoury" to speak against India on the global stage.

He also talked about the Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF troopers were killed.

The Prime Minister asked the crowd to tell him whether they are satisfied with his reaction to the dastardly attack. When people responded with a yes, he said: "While your chest is getting pumped up and feeling proud of the air strikes, opposition parties are using the issue to settle political scores with me. Will the country ever forgive them?"

Calling it a matter of disgrace, Modi went on to say that the "insiders in India" are doing things that are music to Pakistan's ears. "They are doubting the bravery of the armed forces, they are levelling dirty allegations against the government... Who will it help at the end of the day?" he said, alleging that the "enemies of the nation are doing this deliberately".

There is immense pressure on Pakistan for patronising and protecting terror groups, the PM said, adding that the masterminds of the terror outfits smile when these allegations are made against him by "our very own" political parties.

"Utterances, statements of our very own are giving ammunition to Pakistan, which has been caught red-handed in terrorism. Terrorists know it is end game for them and hence they are rattled. The grenade attack on bus in Jammu on Thursday was such an attempt," he pointed out.

Assuring the people that the Union government is closing in on them and would uproot them for ever, he however stressed on the need for unity, peace and harmony in the country to enable his government to take decisive action against terror.

Referring to the recent assault in Lucknow on two dry-fruit sellers from Kashmir, the Prime Minister lauded the Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Adityanath government for acting promptly and urged all state governments to act against such incidents.

"Peace, unity and harmony in the nation will give me the intrinsic strength to take decisive action against terror," he said while seeking people's support in this endeavour.

He also castigated the opposition for trying to stick up an alliance.

"They are not bothered about the nation, poverty, terrorism, middle class, industry, army, Ganga...nothing," he said pointing out how the "mahamilawat alliance" is between people, "some of whom are in jail, some are soon going to jail and the others who are on bail".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MIM President Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court order for mediation to settle the Ayodhya dispute but voiced concern over Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar being made a mediator saying he was related to the subject matter and was also a party to the dispute.

The Hyderabad MP said Ravi Shankar had made a statement on November 4, 2018 threatening violence. He said the spiritual leader had warned that if Muslims did not give up the land, India will become a Syria.

Owaisi said Ravi Shankar had also asked Muslims to give up their claim as a goodwill gesture. He said it would have been better if the Supreme Court had not appointed him as a mediator.

He, however, hoped that Ravi Shankar would realize the huge responsibility entrusted to him by the apex court and act as a neutral mediator.

The MP said he was welcoming the Supreme Court order on behalf of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). He said the All India Muslim Personal Law Board would spell out its stand.

The MIM leader, also a member of Personal Law Board, said the Muslim side should go to the three mediators appointed by the Supreme Court and put forward its view.

He also welcomed the Supreme Court order that the mediation process would be confidential. He said this would leave no room for speculation in media and thus avoid a situation where politicians could draw mileage for electoral gains.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In yet another setback to the Congress in Gujarat, the party's sitting legislator Jawahar Chavda from Manavadar constituency in Saurashtra region, put in his papers here on Friday and joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Chavda submitted his resignation as MLA to Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi who accepted it.

A four-time Congress MLA and son of Congress veteran Pethalji Chavda of Junagadh district, Chavda told reporters after joining the BJP: "I had no issues with the Congress party at all, I just thought it for some time and made my decision."

"I thought one must support Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this hour of crisis when he has shown courage to send our armed forces inside Pakistan and teach them a lesson," Chavda added.

He did not give any more reasons for his quitting the party and joining the BJP. Party sources claimed Chavda may be inducted into the Cabinet or given a Lok Sabha ticket to contest from Junagadh seat.

Neither he nor Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja, who ushered in Chavda, confirmed this. "I have no such expectation and there was no bargaining," Chavda said. Jadeja said, "He has just now joined, there is no talk of ministership right now."

Senior Congress legislator Shailesh Parmar, speaking on behalf of the party, told reporters: "We are shocked at Chavda's resignation since he had never raised any issues nor has he given any reasons for quitting. In fact, he has been given important responsibilities ahead of the CWC (Congress Working Committee) meeting in Ahmedabad (on March 12)."

"The BJP is trying to sabotage the Congress prospects knowing well that the party can never repeat its 2014 performance of winning 26 out of 26 (Lok Sabha) seats. It is playing a dirty game," he added.

Political circles are agog with speculation that at least three more Congress legislators are in touch with the BJP leadership and may quit anytime soon.

This includes OBC leader and young legislator Alpesh Thakore, who had joined the Congress in the run-up to the 2017 assembly elections.

While Thakore has been denying any such moves, it is known that he has had meetings with Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and state BJP chief Jitubhai Vaghani. Simultaneously, he has also met Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

Chavda's resignation comes days after Congress MLA from Unjha, Asha Patel joined the BJP. Months ago, key Congress MLA Kunwarji Bawalia joined the BJP and was made a cabinet minister the same day.

--IANS

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The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), the country's premier research organisation, faced huge embarrassment as the February salaries of scientists and staff members were delayed by nearly a week, official sources said here on Friday.

On the condition of anonymity, a TIFR official confirmed that the salaries, of which only 50 per cent was paid earlier, have not been fully paid to all. He refused to elaborate on the reasons.

The development, a first ever in the TIFR's 74-year-old history, was reportedly on account of an unexplained "cash crunch" in the organisation which comes under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) which is handled by the Prime Minister's Office.

On March 1, the employees were irked when salaries were not deposited into their bank accounts and on March 6, the situation worsened when the TIFR Registrar's notice on the delayed salaries reached the staffers.

"Due to insufficient funds, all staff members and students/post-doctoral fellows of TIFR in centres and field stations will be paid 50 per cent of the net salary for the month of February. Remaining part of the salary will be paid when sufficient funds are available. All deductions will be calculated on full salary and will be deposited to respective authorities as per rules," said the notice dated March 6.

A copy of the notice promptly found its way onto the social media, embarrassing the TIFR over the public perceptions of its financial health, and was the subject of intense debate, though the issue was resolved on Thursday evening.

Anticipating the situation, the DAE had even sought interim funds of Rs 70 crore from the Tata Memorial Centre specifically to tide over the crisis till its funds arrived from the Centre.

Enjoying the status of a "Deemed University", the TIFR was founded in 1945 with the late nuclear physicist Homi J. Bhabha as its first director. It now has centres in Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, employing hundreds of people in different categories.

--IANS

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: Political circles in Gujarat were agog with speculation that Congress' OBC legislator Alpesh Thakor might resign and join the BJP anytime, even as two other party MLAs quit on Friday with one of them embracing the ruling party.

Alpesh Thakor, who joined the Congress in the run-up to the 2017 assembly elections and is among the young trinity of Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mevani, has been evasive about his move even as political grapevine has it that the BJP may give him a cabinet berth or a Lok Sabha ticket.

It is also being speculated that while he would be made a minister, his wife might be given a Lok Sabha ticket.

Congress spokesperson Ashok Punjabi, however, told IANS on Friday evening: "Alpesh is not going anywhere and is going to stay in Congress. He has had a wonderful meeting with Rahul ji and our central leadership today. He will clarify everything in his press brief on Saturday. You will see."

Thakor could not be reached despite repeated attempts. Congress sources, meanwhile, said Thakor had been hankering for a Lok Sabha ticket but the Congress leadership has not given any commitment. He met senior leader Ahmed Patel in New Delhi on Friday though it was not known what transpired in the meeting, while he was also expected to meet party president Rahul Gandhi.

Thakor also had issues with the Gujarat Congress leadership that he was being sidelined or ignored in the party and had conveyed that he would decide the future course of action after meeting the AICC chief.

Meanwhile, the Congress party suffered a setback after its four-time MLA Jawahar Chavda from Manavadar in the Saurashtra region quit and joined the BJP here on Friday, while hours later another legislator Parshottam Saparia from Dhrangadhara put in his papers and was likely to embrace the ruling party.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
South Korea's Samsung Electronics and China's Huawei Technologies have agreed to settle their two-year patent battle over wireless technology in the US, court documents showed on Friday.

Huawei, the world's biggest telecom equipment maker, had in 2016 brought suits against Samsung in San Francisco and China, claiming that the South Korean company used its cellular technology without a licence.

Samsung argued that it made significant concessions to Huawei to resolve the dispute amicably, but the two failed to agree on reasonable terms, Yonhap news agency reported.

In 2017, a Chinese court ordered Samsung to pay Huawei $11.6 million for patent infringements.

In an electronic case filing issued by the US District Court for the Northern District of California on February 26, the world's two largest smartphone makers agreed to "complete the pending steps to finalize the settlement" within the next 30 days.

The intellectual property dispute that has pitted the two companies against each other illustrates the cut-throat competition under way in the wireless market.

On Thursday, Huawei sued the US government challenging a recent law that bans federal agencies from buying its products.

The Shenzhen-based tech firm refuted US claims that its technology poses a security threat and said the ban would ultimately harm American consumers.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has assured Pakistani leaders of his country's "cooperation for peaceful solution to all problems," Pakistani officials said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and the top Saudi diplomat have discussed bilateral and regional matters, a spokesman for the prime minister's office said, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

Al-Jubeir also held talks with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi and discussed matters of mutual interest, including Pakistan-India tension and regional peace.

--IANS

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The Elon Musk-owned SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday for its return to Earth which will end the first unmanned flight test of the vehicle built to carry humans.

"Departure Confirmed! At 2.32am ET, @SpaceX's #CrewDragon spacecraft undocked from the @Space_Station. The spacecraft is slowly maneuvering away from our orbital laboratory into an orbital track that will return it and its cargo safely to Earth," NASA said in a tweet.

The uncrewed demonstration mission, called Demo-1, has one final milestone and that is the safe return to Earth with a scheduled splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean around 8.45 am EST (7.15 pm India time) on Friday, NASA said in a blog post.

After beginning its first unmanned flight on March 2, the Crew Dragon capsule docked with the ISS on March 3.

It is the first flight test of a space system designed for humans and built and operated by a US commercial company through a public-private partnership.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Spanish sanitaryware major Roca is on the lookout for a suitable faucet and plastic product manufacturing unit in north India and it will retail imported bathroom tiles in India, said a top official of its Indian subsidiary here on Friday.

The official said that bathrooms are becoming technology-oriented, with sales of Bluetooth-enabled showers showing an increasing sign and the parent Roca planning to launch voice-controlled toilets.

"Our faucet and plastics (toilet seats and other items) business is logging good growth and are on the lookout for buying a manufacturing unit in north India," K.E. Ranganathan, Managing Director, Roca Bathroom Products, told reporters here.

Asked about the investment/ ticket size for the acquisitions, Ranganathan said for the faucet business it will be around Rs 40-50 crore and for the plastics Rs 15-20 crore.

Ranganathan said the production capacity at its various plants are sufficient and by 2022, evaluation will be done whether to go for a greenfield project or expand in the existing facilities.

He said the business is picking up after the dip in 2018 due to the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST), The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 and the effects of demonetisation.

The company has launched its first product display studio in Tamil Nadu here, so that end-customers and architects can see and experience the products at leisure, while sales will be done by the dealers.

According to Ranganathan, the company has launched six such display studios and there will be one studio each in Bengaluru and Hyderabad soon.

The Spain-based Roca is nearly a Rs 15,000-crore group and the share of the Indian company is around Rs 1,200 crore.

According to Ranganathan, Roca in India is present in all the segments in the Rs 2,000-crore Indian sanitaryware market -- luxury (Armani Roca), premium (Roca, Johnsson Suisse), mass premium (Parryware) and budget (Johnson Pedder).

He said the company will soon come out with kids and elderly people-friendly range of bathrooms.

Queried about voice-controlled toilets, Raimundo Garcia-Figueras, Senior Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Roca, said the company is developing the product on its own and would soon launch the same.

Ranganathan said the sale of electronic urinals/ toilets are on the rise in India.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Adult film star Stormy Daniels' lawsuit against US President Donald Trump over a non-disparagement agreement has been tossed out of federal court.

On Thursday, US District Judge James Otero said the suit, which sought to invalidate the $130,000 agreement that kept Daniels from speaking publicly about her allegations of an affair with Trump ahead of the 2016 election, "lacks subject matter jurisdiction", CNN reported.

By saying that the lawsuit should be sent back to the California Superior Court, where it was first filed, Otero made it clear the case was over.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has claimed that she and Trump had an affair in 2006, after he married First Lady Melania Trump and she gave birth to their son, Barron.

Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.

Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, arranged the agreement and paid Daniels $130,000.

He admitted in federal court that "in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office", he kept information that would have harmed Trump from becoming public during the 2016 election cycle.

He has since said that the candidate was Trump.

Cohen has een sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to nine charges, including campaign-finance violations related to payments he arranged to silence women who claimed affairs with Trump -- including Daniels.

Trump has also denied having affairs with the women.

Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti told CNN on Thursday night that by dismissing the case, the judge essentially gave Daniels what she wanted all along -- to be able to tell her story without the fear of being sued for millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, Trump's attorney, Charles Harder, told CNN: "The US District Court confirmed today that the claim against the President has no basis in law.

"Combined with the attorneys' fees and sanctions award in the President's favour totalling $293,000, the President has achieved total victory."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Telangana's Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing data theft case on Friday seized the office of IT Grids, the firm providing IT services to Andhra Pradesh's ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

Intensifying the probe, the SIT seized the office of the company located in Madhapur in the information technology hub here.

The police, which already seized some hard-disks and electronic gadgets, also took possession of computers and some other material and sealed the office. Some police personnel were deployed there to prevent entry of any person.

The nine-member SIT, constituted on Wednesday, is analyzing the data in the hard-disks. It is also making efforts to arrest IT Grids CEO D. Ashok, who remained at large.

Cyberabad police had booked a case against IT Grids on March 2 on a complaint by T. Lokeswara Reddy that sensitive data including personal information of citizens of Andhra Pradesh was being processed illegally by the company without consent of the citizens.

The data was allegedly used by the company for an app developed by it for TDP cadres.

This triggered a row between the Telugu states with Andhra Pradesh alleging that TDP's data was stolen under a conspiracy by Telangana's ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and YSR Congress party.

Telangana government constituted SIT headed by Inspector General of Police Stephen Ravindra for a thorough investigation into the case.

In a tit-for-tat, Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday set up SIT to probe data theft case against Telangana.

This followed a case registered in Guntur district on a complaint by cabinet minister K. Kala Venkat Rao, who is also president of Andhra Pradesh unit of TDP. He alleged that a conspiracy was hatched between YSR Congress leaders and some senior police officials of Telangana to steal the data belonging to TDP.

He also alleged that they conspired to engineer en-masse requests for deletion of names from the voters' list.

Additional Director General of Police and Transport Commissioner N. Bala Subramanyam, who is heading the Andhra Pradesh SIT, along with some other members of the team, on Friday met Director General of Police R.P. Thakur to discuss the case.

Bala Subramanyam said if necessary they would go to Hyderabad for the investigations but this would depend on the evidence they get in the case.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, was sentenced to 47 months in federal prison for tax and bank fraud on Thursday, much shorter than expected.

Prosecutors had recommended a sentence between 19.5 to 24 years behind bars, reports Xinhua news agency.

In a federal courtroom in Virginia on Thursday afternoon, an attorney from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office said Manafort "failed to accept responsibility and is not remorseful."

"The last two years have been the most difficult of my life," Manafort said in court before US District Judge T.S. Ellis handed down the sentence. "To say I am humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement."

The charges against him stemmed from Mueller's ongoing investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and possible ties with Trump's campaign. Russia had repeatedly denied the allegation while Trump called the probe a "witch-hunt."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, was sentenced to 47 months in federal prison for tax and bank fraud on Thursday, much shorter than expected.

Prosecutors had recommended a sentence between 19.5 to 24 years behind bars, reports Xinhua news agency.

In a federal courtroom in Virginia on Thursday afternoon, an attorney from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office said Manafort "failed to accept responsibility and is not remorseful."

"The last two years have been the most difficult of my life," Manafort said in court before US District Judge T.S. Ellis handed down the sentence. "To say I am humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement."

Ellis noted that Manafort "is not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government."

The judge said though Manafort's financial crimes were "very serious," he found the sentencing guideline range for him was "not at all appropriate."

In addition to the sentence, Ellis ordered Manafort to pay a $50,000 fine, the lowest fine provided for by guidelines that recommended a fine between $50,000 and $24 million.

The charges against Manafort stemmed from Mueller's ongoing investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and possible ties with Trump's campaign. Russia had repeatedly denied the allegation while Trump called the probe a "witch-hunt."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud, far short of what had been expected and recommended by the sentencing guidelines.

The sentence imposed by Judge T.S. Ellis III on Thursday was significantly less than the 19 to 25 years Manafort could have received under the advisory recommendations.

Manafort was convicted in 2018 of hiding millions of dollars of income earned through his political consulting in Ukraine.

The charges against him stemmed from an inquiry by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

The crimes, though serious among white-collar offences, did not relate directly to Manafort's work as Trump's 2016 campaign chairman, CNN reported.

Prosecutors painted Manafort as an "incorrigible cheat" who must be made to understand the seriousness of his wrongdoing. Trump's former aide said he was "mere collateral damage" in Mueller's probe.

At a trial last year, Manafort was convicted for defrauding banks and the government as well as for failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars in income he had earned from Ukrainian political consulting.

Prosecutors highlighted his lavish lifestyle, saying his crimes were used to pay for high-end clothes and multiple properties.

In a federal courtroom in Virginia, an attorney from Mueller's office said Manafort "failed to accept responsibility and was not remorseful".

"The last two years have been the most difficult of my life," Manafort said in court before Ellis handed down the sentence. "To say I am humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement."

Judge Ellis said that Manafort was "not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government" and added that though Manafort's financial crimes were "very serious", he found the sentencing guideline range for him was "not at all appropriate".

"Life is making choices, Manafort, and living with the choices you make," the judge said before he delivered the sentence. "You made choices to engage in criminal conduct."

In addition to the sentence, Ellis ordered Manafort to pay a $50,000 fine, the lowest fine provided for by guidelines that recommended a fine between $50,000 and $24 million.

Manafort will also receive a sentence from the other federal judge next week, for the two crimes he pleaded guilty to last year -- witness tampering and conspiracy related to years of illegal Ukrainian lobbying and money laundering -- which could stack on top of the time he received on Thursday.

--IANS

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The two days of calm on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir was shattered on Friday as the Pakistani and Indian armies clashed again in Poonch district.

Defence Ministry spokesman Lt Col Devender Anand said that Pakistan initiated the "unprovoked ceasefire violation" by firing mortar shells and small arms in Shahpur and Kerni sectors.

"The ceasefire violation started around 6 p.m. Indian positions retaliated strongly and effectively," he said.

Police said a special police officer (SPO), Syed Shah, was injured in the Pakistani firing. He was shifted to a hospital.

Friday's border clash occurred after two days of uneasy calm on the LoC, which divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

--IANS

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The UK will provide diplomatic protection to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman sentenced to five years in jail in Tehran for spying, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said here.

Hunt told the BBC late Thursday night that the move was unlikely to be a "magic wand" to get her released, but was an "important diplomatic step".

He said it "demonstrates to the whole world that Nazanin is innocent" and signalled to Iran "that its behaviour is totally wrong".

Asked if he was prepared to take Iran to international court, sanction it, or summon its ambassador, Hunt said: "All these things are possible, but we would like to solve this in an amicable way".

The development means the case will now be treated as a formal, legal dispute between Britain and Iran.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was jailed in 2016 after being convicted of spying, which she has denied.

The Iranian Ambassador to London said the decision "contravenes international law".

Iran refuses to recognise dual nationals, so it does not recognise Zaghari-Ratcliffe's right to be represented by the UK.

Diplomatic protection is a rare legal procedure in international law. States can use it to help one of its nationals whose rights have been breached in another country.

It is very different to diplomatic immunity, which is something given to diplomats to ensure their safe passage and protection from prosecution.

Meanwhile, Richard Ratcliffe, who has been campaigning for his wife's release and for the UK government to take this step, welcomed the news.

--IANS

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The UN in Bangkok on Friday marked the International Women's Day (IWD) by calling for gender equality and the empowerment of women under its global theme "Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change".

Echoing the theme for the 63rd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63), the International Women's Day 2019 explored ways where women can be more innovation-inclusive.

UN Women Deputy Regional Director Anna-Karin Jatfors said a "think equal and innovate for change" mindset can bring changes for women, according to Xinhua news agency.

"The problem for women in the Asia-Pacific Region is that despite the girls being educated, it is not translated to equal rights to labour market... and the main reason is social-norm," Anna-Karin said, adding that women still do a lot of unpaid care work and domestic work than men as a result of gender bias.

Kalpana Viswanath, who launched a mobile navigation application for women in India to get from one place to another safely, said it was vital to encourage women to become innovative-inclusive as technology can facilitate their everyday lives.

"In India, very often in the cities during night time, women don't dare to venture outside of their homes, fearing insecurity and perhaps violence that may inflict upon them," said Viswanath, who created a navigation application "Safetipin".

"And just like Google Map, women can use Safetipin app to find out whether an area is safe or not by reading comments posted by users."

As part of the celebrations, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, UN Women and partner organizations "ring the bell" for gender equality to raise awareness of the pivotal role the private sector can play in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment.

In Nepal, the UN Women partnered with United Nations Population Fund on a photo exhibition showcasing women in non-traditional jobs.

In Myanmar, a women leaders' forum was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, to showcase innovative solutions and provide recommendations for a road map to strengthen women's access to economic autonomy and opportunity.

--IANS

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In a controversial resolution that initially split the Democrats before being expansively reworded, the House of Representatives has condemned hate against Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims and other minorities and denounced accusations of dual loyalty.

A key element in the resolution adopted on Thursday is the condemnation of dual loyalty that insinuates doubt about patriotism of sections of citizens that has a resonance for Indian-Americans who sometimes face that accusation for expressing support for India.

While 234 Democrats backed the resolution and one abstained, 173 Republicans voted for it and 23 against it.

The Executive Director of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), Suhag Shukla, welcoming the resolution pointed out that "our communities have also faced suspicion and bigotry from people on the far-left end of the political spectrum with baseless accusations of dual loyalties to India".

The build-up to the resolution exposed a deep divide within the Democrats as the party leadership faced a rebellion from its Left and African-American groups, while the moderates pushed for the original version that targeted only anti-Semitism.

There is risk the divide that is also being reflected in the ideological divisions economic and social policies also may grow and undermine party unity to the advantage of Republicans.

The resolution was first proposed as a response to repeated anti-Jewish statements by a newly elected Muslim Representative of Somali descent, Ilhan Omar, who had accused supporters of Israel as having "allegiance to a foreign country" and tweeted that support for Israel was motivated by "Benjamin's Babies" - an anti-Semitic slur referring to $100 notes - which implied lawmakers were being bought.

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposal to condemn anti-Semitism faced opposition from the left wing of the party as well as the African-American bloc in the House, even though the initial draft did not mention Omar.

Indian-American Senator Kamala Harris, for example, said that it would draw attention to Omar and endanger her.

As a compromise to get the vocal dissenters to back the resolution, references to Muslims and African-Americans were added. The final version included other religions, Asians, immigrants, gays, lesbians and transgender people and other minorities.

But it left out Budhists, Mormons and others.

The HAF had lobbied for the inclusion of Hinduism in the resolution along with other groups.

Rajwand Singh, the senior adviser to the National Sikh Campaign, said: "We welcome the resolution as it hits home for us as we have been victims of hatred and violence because of our identity."

The opposition was because of the watering down of the resolution to deflect the prime reason for it - anti-Jewish comments from a Democrat. A Jewish Representative Lee Zeldin, for example, called the resolution resolution "spineless".

Omar and two other Muslim Representatives, Rashida Tlaib and Andre Carson, turned it around making it a victory for themselves and proclaimed: "It's the first time we have voted on a resolution condemning anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation's history."

The resolution prominently mentioned White Supremacists, but also included others saying, "whether from the political right, centre or left, bigotry, discrimination, oppression, racism and imputations of dual loyalty threaten American democracy and have no place in American political discourse".

The reasons for the sensitivity to accusations of dual loyalty and use of money power is because they were the starting point of the anti-Semitism in Europe that led to the Nazi holocaust in which six million Jews were killed.

Similar accusations have also led to anti-Semitism in the US leading to violence and discrimination against Jews.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, about 60 per cent of the hate crimes in the US targeted Jews and showed an increase of 37 per cent from the previous year.

During World War II, Japanese Americans were accused of dual loyalty and lack of American patriotism and herded into internment camps under extremely harsh conditions.

The American Jewish people are unfairly targeted for the US support to Israel through unfair stereotyping. In reality, they are not the monolithic, powerful force behind support for Israel as many claim. Many Jews, including politicians, criticise Israel and oppose President Donald Trump's policies in support of Israel like recognising Jerusalem as its capital.

It is, in fact, the Christian fundamentalists who are the staunchest and uncritical supporters of Israel and drive US policy towards that country. Trump's Israel policies are aimed at this bloc that is the core of his base.

In the mid-term elections, 75 per cent of Christian fundamentalists voted for the Republican Party in contrast to 79 per cent of Jews who voted for the Democratic Party, according to Pew Research Centre.

Many Jews themselves oppose the Christian fundamentalists' backing for Israel because the reason for their support is that according to their interpretation of the Bible, Jesus Christ will return when Israel is reconstituted.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a broad resolution condemning racism, anti-Semitism and bigotry amid tensions stemming from a Democratic lawmaker's Israel-related remarks.

The vote for the resolution, launched by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was 407 in favor and 23 against, Xinhua news agency reported.

"This is an opportunity once again to declare as strongly as possible opposition to anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim statements" and "white supremacist attitudes," said Pelosi before the voting.

"Whether from the political right, center, or left, bigotry, discrimination, oppression, racism, and imputations of dual loyalty threaten American democracy and have no place in American political discourse," the resolution states.

It condemns "anti-Semitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values and aspirations that define the people of the US and condemning anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contrary to the values and aspirations of the US."

The voting came after controversial remarks by Democratic lawmaker Ilhan Omar were panned as anti-Semitic since they appeared to question whether people advocating for Israel were more loyal to that country than the US.

"I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country," she said during a forum last week, referring to Israel.

Omar voted for the resolution together with all other House Democrats. All "no" votes were Republican.

Democrats made a last-minute change on Thursday to add Latinos, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, and the LGBT community to the list of "traditionally persecuted peoples" targeted by white supremacists, according to local media.

--IANS

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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison sparked outrage on the International Women's Day on Friday by saying that men should not have to make way for women's empowerment.

"We're not about setting Australians against each other, trying to push some down to lift others up. We want to see women rise. But we don't want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse," Morrison said at a function organized by Australia's Mining Industry, according to CNN.

The Prime Minister, who has been criticized for the lack of female representation among his party's leadership, was slammed on social media for his comments.

"Men who are threatened or worried of women achieving equality is the bloody problem," tweeted Australian Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

Independent MP Kerryn Phelps, who last year won a by-election seat given up by Morrison's predecessor Malcolm Turnbull, gave the Prime Minister "the emoji treatment", posting a single wide-eyed, shocked face in response to his comments.

After the event, Morrison tweeted: "Today is about appreciating all the women in our lives and our nation -- celebrating their value and achievements."

During his speech, Morrison told the Chamber of Minerals and Energy that a stronger Australian economy would improve job prospects for women.

However, several resignations from female members of Morrison's government led many to question his commitment to jobs for women within his ruling Liberal Party.

Independent parliamentarian Julia Banks told a crowd at an event that Morrison's leadership style was akin to "Mad Men crossed with House of Cards". She quit Morrison's Liberal Party last November, citing a "culture of gender bias, bullying and intimidation".

Former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will leave Parliament altogether at the next election, which is due before the end of May.

The Prime Minister also addressed on Friday his party's efforts to remedy its "bad-for-women" reputation, saying: "I have been doing a bit of advancement of women lately myself. There are now seven women in my Cabinet, which is the highest number of women ever in a Cabinet in Australia's history."

Morrison's online detractors pointed out that just 22 per cent of sitting Liberal Party members across Australia's two houses of Parliament were women.

--IANS

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The Supreme Court on Friday warned the Haryana government that it would be in "trouble" if it tried to interfere in the Aravalli ranges, its forest cover or top court's order on razing unauthorised dwellings in the posh locality Kant Enclave on the outskirts of the national capital.

The court has sought from the state government a copy of the Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2019.

In the last hearing in the case on March 1 as well, the apex court had sought a copy of the Bill and directed the Haryana government "not to act under the Amendment Act without its permission".

on Friday, a bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Deepak Gupta told the state government, "In case, Aravalli, its forest cover, the Punjab Land Preservation Act, or Kant Enclave is interfered with, you will be in trouble."

The court conveyed its stern position after Haryana government's counsel Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought to dispel the impression that the amendment to the Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2019 was aimed at taking away the protection of the Aravalli ranges.

The Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2019, amending the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900 was passed by the Haryana Assembly on February 27.

The Bill takes the protection cover off the Aravalis and Shivaliks exposing nearly 28,000 acres of land in Gurugram, Faridabad and seven other districts adjoining the national capital to private builders and land sharks.

However, Mehta said what was being told to the court was based on newspaper reports which did not depict the correct position. "There is no Act. It is still a Bill. It is before the Governor," said Mehta.

Contesting Haryana government's position, senior counsel and amicus curiae on environment matters Ranjit Kumar told the court that the Bill seeks to do what has been reported in the media. "It (amendment) has been made retrospective from 1966," Kumar said.

Facing strong resistance, Mehta asked Kumar who he was appearing for.

Kumar replied that he was amicus curiae in the matter, after which Justice Mishra told Solicitor General Mehta, "You are also supposed to be the amicus of the court and not the counsel for Haryana. You are first the amicus of the court."

Granting three weeks time to place the amended law before it, the court posted the next hearing for the first week of April.

--IANS

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A youth has been arrested from West Bengal on charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a minor girl. The victim, a resident of the national capital, was safely rescued from his hideout, a police officer said on Friday.

"Sumit Raj, 19, a resident of Bihar had on August 29 kidnapped the minor girl, Rubina, 14, after luring her from west Delhi's Khyala area. A case on the complaint of victim's mother was registered in Khyala Police Station," ADCP Sameer Sharma said.

"During investigation, police teams and victim's mother suspected on Sumit Raj who used to live in the neighbouring area went missing from the locality," he added.

"Sumit Raj was arrested on Thursday from Durgapur in West Bengal from his hideout where he also kept the minor. The victim was rescued and was medically examined following which Raj was booked under POCSO act," Sharma added.

"During interrogation, Raj disclosed that he was already married in his village at Bihar's Nalanda. He in 2018 had come to Delhi for searching job and stayed at a relative house. During this period, he was infatuated with the victim. He with the intention to marry her, started luring her with false promises and won her confidence," he said.

"The accused later kidnapped the victim and took her to Bihar and later shifted to Durgapur to evade his arrest," he said, adding that a reward of Rs 20,000 was also declared by Commissioner of Police on November 29 last year to nab him.

--IANS

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Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that there should be zero tolerance on violence against women in the country, adding that the Women Reservation Bill will be passed in Parliament if Congress comes to power in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

While addressing a women's convention on the occasion of International Women's Day in Jeypore city, Gandhi also admired the "fighting spirit" of women and urged people to recommit themselves to break barriers that hinder the path to equality.

"Fight for your space and don't consider yourself less than anyone," he said.

He also said that while around eight women are getting raped every day, only seven victims are getting justice per year.

"If Congress forms the government in Odisha, girls will get free education," he added.

The Congress president is slated to address a public meeting in the city later in the day.

--IANS

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It was actually samosas, artist Paresh Maity tells me in a soft, Bengali-accented tone, recalling his motivation to attend a sit-and-draw painting contest at a local municipal hall when he was still in seventh grade at Hamilton High School. It wasnt cash or honours, it was the free snacks that got the attention of a hungry boy.

But the thing was, he had competition. Because 199 other students also threw their hats in the ring and when their work went on display, Maity flatly says, he was shocked. My painting was the worst of them all. He became a laughing ...
The other day I went to the Okhla Bird Sanctuary. Its not far from my home in Delhi, but I had never got around to visiting the place. I read that more than 320 bird species had been recorded there, including nearly 70 migratory ones.

The very names of the birds on the sanctuarys website conjured up visions of beauty and colour  White Throated Kingfisher, Redwattled Lapwig, Greylag Goose, Common Teal I was looking forward to making my bones as a bird watcher. But when I went there, the birds seemed to have decamped. I walked down the forest path overhung ...
Ali Fazal began his career a decade ago with Aamir Khan-starrer "3 Idiots" and the actor says the superstar's hunger for knowledge has stayed with him throughout his journey.

Ali, who had a cameo appearance in the Rajkumar Hirani-directed 2009 blockbuster, says film was a learning experience for him.

"I used to always observe Aamir. Between takes, we would snap out and play chess and read books. That stuck with me for some reason. His thirst for knowledge, that even at that level the man was going nuts, trying to figure out and say 'I haven't learnt enough'," Ali told PTI.

The actor says he is glad he realised so early in his career that a performer should never get complacent.

"I realised it's never enough, especially for artistes. We are doomed if we are satisfied. We have got to keep going. If I'm completely satisfied with 'Mirzapur', that's the death of me," he added.

Ali will be next seen in Tigmanshu Dhulia's "Milan Talkies". While the filmmaker has been wanting to make the film since 2012, a chance visit to Tigmanshu's office landed Ali the lead part in the romantic-drama.

"I met Tigmanshu randomly four years ago in his office. I had gone to congratulate him for 'Paan Singh Tomar' and he told me he's making 'Milan Talkies.' Then four years later he calls me for the same film!



"It was such a well-written script. I couldn't put it down. I've always admired Tigmanshu as a writer and director. He's a rockstar, and he was in such fine form with this one," he added.

Ali, who was recently seen in films such as "Happy Phir Bhaag Jayegi", "Fukrey Returns" and the Hollywood project "Victoria and Abdul", believes people who do not hail from a film family have to often prove themselves.

"For somebody who doesn't have those connection, sometimes you have to prove yourself. You are your last hit film. Now I know I have to really plan, be careful.

"Of course, I can't say I can't deliver a flop, no one can. But what helps us is that there are no expectations from someone who's an outsider. You can quietly do your work and keep going."



"Milan Talkies" is scheduled to release on March 15.

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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a USD 26-million loan as additional financing for improving drainage infrastructure in Dibrugarh town of Assam under the ongoing Assam Urban Infrastructure Investment Program.

An agreement in this regard was signed between the ADB and the government, said an official release Friday.

The ongoing loan of USD 51 million under the programme is helping to improve water supply infrastructure in Guwahati, and solid waste management and drainage infrastructure in Guwahati and Dibrugarh cities of Assam.

"The additional financing will further support in improving drainage system in Dibrugarh,and also support project management activities," the release said.

The programme was approved in 2011 to improve urban infrastructure in the two key Assam cities.

Meanwhile, visiting ADB Vice-President Shixin Chen has reiterated the multilateral lender's commitment to further strengthen and expand its partnership with India.

Chen was on a four-day visit to India beginning March 5.

During his visit, he met the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg.

A release of the ADB said Chen acknowledged Garg's "strong leadership and guidance" in achieving a record USD 3.03 billion of ADB sovereign lending commitment to India in 2018.

"We recognise DEA's proactive intervention in ensuring high-quality project proposals, project readiness, and disciplined implementation," said Chen.

He affirmed the ADB's readiness to scale up its India lending to USD 4 billion annually, focusing on the government's flagship programmes in infrastructure, economic corridors, low-income states, enhancing support to social sectors, and addressing climate change impacts.

The ADB's ongoing India portfolio constitutes 80 projects worth USD 14.3 billion in the sovereign sector and USD 1.6 billion in the private sector.

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The security situation in most of Jammu and Kashmir is stable, but the administration is focusing on "fragile" parts to ensure smooth conduct of polls whenever they are announced, advisor to the governor, K Vijay Kumar, said Friday.

"Security scenario is stable in most situations, but fragile in certain parts, which has been the case with J-K for some time. We are focusing on all these areas both the stable areas to keep it as stable as possible (and) where there is fragility, to have our combined action of all the multiple security forces.

"We are at it to make it as easy and smooth and facilitate the common man to come for voting as and when the process is announced. That is our aim and we are hoping for that," Kumar, in-charge of the Home Department, said.

The advisor to Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik was speaking to reporters after inaugurating the first DNA profiling laboratory in the state set up by the J&K Police at Bemina on the outskirts of the city here.

Describing the grenade attack at Bus Stand in Jammu on Thursday as unfortunate and a despicable act, Kumar said the attacker a Class 9 student from Kulgam district of Kashmir - was an "ordinary youngster" and made into a "mercenary" by anti-social elements.

"(It is a) very unfortunate incident. He (the attacker) is only the tip of the spear, there are elements who have motivated him. He is a very ordinary youngster and they have made him into a mercenary. You may not be remembering, but in Yemen, for 50 pennies or whatever, young boys were made to throw grenades. This is as cruel or brutal or inhuman as that to use an innocent mind for achieving some target which they will never achieve, because we are all together in this.

"You saw the kind of public affected 11 people from the Valley, 10 from Jammu and nine from across the country. What is that? What is he trying to achieve and show? Why did he do this gruesome act? That boy alone is not the thing, there are agents behind him, so we are at it and this is a very despicable act. So, the entire security forces with the help of society the common society has condemned it so with their help, we will be at it," he said.

The advisor said appropriate security measures will be taken to prevent such attacks in future.

"Whatever is appropriate to the situation, the calculation will be on a dynamic mode. We are working on it and we will meet the requirement," he said.

Asked about the withdrawal of security to several mainstream politicians in the state, Kumar said such decisions are taken after deliberate discussions and thought.

"There is a committee, a conscious, deliberate decision making body. I do not get into those nitty-gritty details. It was after deliberate discussions and thought that this decision was made," he said.

Speaking about the laboratory, Kumar said it is the first DNA lab in Jammu and Kashmir.

"This is a very advanced lab for forensic applications and will be very beneficial. The technicians are trained and we will be training more people from all the police stations. It will be a major thing, a development, an advancement, in the investigative field," he said.

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With the expected to announce anytime now, the Delhi government Friday cleared a number of proposals, including those relating to over 18 per cent hike in auto fares and construction of integrated campus of GB Pant Engineering College.

The fare hike was a long-pending demand of auto-rickshaw drivers who are considered a vote bank of the ruling AAP, and the move is seen as an attempt to pacify them just before the general elections.

According to the government, the Delhi Cabinet Friday approved recommendations of a fare revision committee to hike auto-rickshaw tariffs by Rs 1.50 per kilometre.

The meter-down charge of Rs 25 per two kilometres has also been revised by the committee to Rs 25 for 1.5 kilometre, said Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot.

The Lok Sabha poll schedule is likely to be announced in the next few days. Once the model code of conduct comes into force, any party in power cannot announce any major policy decision.

In an official statement, the government said the Cabinet also approved construction of an integrated campus of GB Pant Engineering College and Polytechnic at Okhla Industrial Estate at an estimated cost of over Rs 520 crore.

"GB Pant Polytechnic has been functioning in an old building since 1961 and GB Pant Engineering College has been functioning in old hostel buildings of the polytechnic with poor infrastructure facilities which is insufficient for any educational institution," the statement read.

The Cabinet accorded its administrative approval and expenditure sanction for the PWD's proposal for the revised cost of the corridor improvement project of Outer Ring Road From IIT to NH-8.

The Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) at its meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia Friday cleared several projects.

The EFC has cleared a proposal of the Directorate of Training and Technical Education to construct smart classrooms in Netaji Subhas University of Technology Campus in Dwarka at an estimated cost of Rs 26.79 crore.

A proposal of the Health and Family Welfare Department was also approved by the committee for the construction of double-basement building for establishing new block for Medicine, Maternity and Advanced Paediatric Centre at Lok Nayak Hospital at an estimated cost of Rs 533.91 crore.
Algerian businessman Rachid Nekkaz was arrested at a hospital in Geneva on Friday after demanding access to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika who is being treated there.

Nekkaz, who sought to run against Bouteflika in Algeria's upcoming elections, said he had come to the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) to seek information about the ailing 82-year-old leader.

He staged a demonstration with several dozen supporters outside HUG and then announced he was going inside.

He was arrested for trespassing following a complaint by the hospital, and was also accused of resisting arrest, police spokesman Jean-Philippe Brandt told AFP, adding that Nekkaz would be held overnight and presented to a prosecutor on Saturday.

Bouteflika, in power since 1999, has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013.

His bid to secure another term at Algeria's April 18 election has sparked waves of protests, dominated by youths who have called for the defiant president to stand aside.

On Friday, tens of thousands protested across the country, chanting "No fifth term -- hey, Bouteflika!" and waved Algeria's green-white-and-red flags.

"There are 40 million Algerians who want to know where the president is," Nekkaz told the crowd of a few dozen people that had assembled outside HUG.

Bouteflika has been in Switzerland for nearly two weeks receiving what his office has called routine medical checkups.

Algeria has not officially confirmed that Bouteflika is at HUG, but multiple Swiss media reports have place him at the hospital.

An AFP journalist also heard hospital staff discussing Bouteflika's presence on HUG's eighth floor, where the VIP wing is located, and there was a large deployment of police outside the hospital on Friday.

Nekkaz -- an increasingly popular activist with a large social media following -- suggested that Bouteflika was actually dead.

"The entire world, and all of Algeria knows that he is no longer of this world," he told reporters, charging that powerful players in Algeria had an interest in maintaining the illusion that Bouteflika was alive to keep their grip on power in the country.

Bouteflika's campaign manager Abdelghani Zaalane meanwhile insisted Thursday that the president's health raised "no worries".

The medical examinations Bouteflika had been undergoing in Switzerland were nearly completed, he said.

Nekkaz was himself earlier this week denied the right to stand in the vote, apparently falling foul of a law which bans candidates who have ever possessed a nationality other than Algerian.

This despite the fact that he had renounced his French citizenship and also gathered the necessary 60,000 voter signatures needed to run.

But Nekkaz instead put forward the candidacy of his cousin and namesake, an Algerian mechanic, with the explicit intention of using inventive measures to take over the presidency if his relative is elected.

Algeria's constitutional committee is due to determine on March 13 if the presented candidacies are legitimate.

Nekkaz urged the committee not to accept the candidacy of Bouteflika. "It is impossible to continue to support an election with a candidate who is in fact dead," he said.

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The organisers of the annual UK-India Week summit on Friday unveiled the first all-women jury for their flagship UK-India Awards ceremony to mark International Women's Day.

The awards, organised by UK-based media house India Inc. in London in June this year, recognise the achievements of individuals and institutions that contribute to strengthening India-UK bilateral relations.

This year's winners will be chosen by six high-profile women business and political leaders from both countries, including Director and Chief Counsel of Rolls-Royce plc Deborah D'Aubney and prominent Indian-origin anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller.

Others on the judging panel for the awards, which will mark the conclusion of UK-India Week on June 28, include Ruth Davidson, Leader of Conservative Party in Scotland; Patricia Hewitt, former UK Cabinet minister and Chair of the Advisory Board for the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development; Falguni Nayar, Founder of Mumbai-based beauty retailer Nykaa; and Shalni Arora, CEO of Savannah Wisdom, a charitable foundation geared towards social change in countries like India.

"Women are setting the pace in global ties between the UK and India and making enormous contributions to the global influence of these two partners," said Manoj Ladwa, CEO of India Inc. and Founder of UK-India Week.

"As bold partners on the world stage, the UK and India are leaders in tackling global issues, driving change and innovation and excelling in business and leadership. Our first all-women panel of judges will ensure all achievements are duly recognised," he said.

The awards, now in their third year, will conclude a week-long series of events celebrating the UK-India partnership.

The UK-India Week opens on June 24 with a first-ever 'India Day' within the UK Parliament complex in London before moving to the English countryside of Buckinghamshire for a Leaders' Summit a three-day exchange of enterprise and innovation opportunities among international business leaders and policymakers as part of a UK-India Conclave and Global Investors' Conclave.

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Icons of the Bengali film industry, including Aparna Sen and Soumitra Chatterjee, will take to the streets this Sunday against bar on the screening of 'Bhobisyoter Bhoot' (Future Ghosts), a political satire, at cinema halls in the city.

The film was allegedly withdrawn from single screen theatres and multi-plexes a day after its release on February 16. Director of the film, Anik Dutta, has alleged that the owners of the theatres were forced to stop the screening though it ran to packed houses in many places on the day it released.

An appeal to join the march in the city, issued by industry stalwarts such as Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Sen, Tarun Majumder, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, veteran poet Sankha Ghosh, said, "Amra Hatbo Dale Dale, Chhobi Phirchhena Kano Hall-a" (We will walk in large numbers to ask why the film is not coming to theatres).

The story of the film revolves around a group of ghosts, including a politician, who assemble at a refugee camp and try to be relevant in the contemporary times.

"It is a deplorable act, the way a film was taken off theatres within a day of its release," Dasgupta told PTI.

The multiple National Award winning director said he will participate in the rally despite poor health "as everyone should protest such undemocratic and fascist act where a film is stopped from screening but there is no word from any quarters about the reasons".

"I think everyone should join the protests," Dasgupta added.

In a statement, director Aparna Sen said, "I am appalled to learn that Anik Dutta's film has been removed from theatres after the first date of screening. I do not know who or what is responsible for this. I do not know what the film had to say, but whatever it may be there cannot and should not be any reason to stop its screening without flouting the fundamental right granted by our Constitution to every individual, freedom of speech."



Director Sandip Ray said he might not be able to attend the protest march because of other commitments but he would send a letter where "I will register my protest against the move (withdrawal)".

Young film-maker Utsav Mukherjee, one of the organisers of the protest, said, "Personalities like Aparna Sen, Soumitra Chatterjee, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Sankha Ghosh, among others have issued appeal for the rally and we hope that thousands will turn up that day."



The film has Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Moon Moon Sen, Kaushik Sen and veterans Barun Chanda and Paran Bandyopadhyay in leading roles.

The cast and crew of the film has held several protest meets across the city over the past few weeks.

At an earlier protest meet, Chatterjee, who is 84, had said, "I am stunned. How can a film, passed by the Censor board, can be withdrawn from theatres in such a manner? It is autocracy."



"...the step to withdraw Bhobisyoter Bhoot from Kolkata theatres after release looks like a revengeful step for me...There is ample reason to infer that the step to take off the film from theatres is related to some comments made by director Anik Dutta at a discussion in recent Kolkata International Film Festival," Chatterjee had said in an open letter penned to voice his protest.

Dutta, who is known for his outspokenness, had earlier hinted during an interview that he had to face lots of pressure during the making of the film and promotion.

He said the multi-plex owners and theatres could not produce any written document or instruction with regard to sudden halt in screening of the film.

The film had been released in more than 40 screens across the state.

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General Raymond Thomas, the Commander of the US Special Operations Command, met Army Chief General Bipin Rawat here Friday, during which the two officers deliberated on the developing regional security environment and discussed Pakistan's "continued support to terrorism", according to a statement.

Raymond emphasised on the need for furthering military cooperation in the field of technology and military-to-military exchanges between the two countries.

"Both the generals deliberated on the developing regional security environment, issue of global terrorism and Pakistan's continued support to terrorism was also discussed," the statement said.

The visit of the senior US Army officer comes days after the Indian Air Force struck at the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp near Balakot, deep inside Pakistan, on February 26.

A day later Pakistan also retaliated by attempting to target Indian military installations. However, the IAF thwarted the plan.

The Indian strike on the JeM camp came 12 days after the terror outfit claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in Kashmir, in which 40 personnel were killed.

The statement further said in the current scenario, the Indian Army remains fully prepared for emerging challenges.

"In the last three weeks, disinformation campaign by the adversary on digital media has increased. All ranks have been well sensitised of these disinformation campaigns and all ranks can see through the lie, deceit and deception of the terror sponsors," the statement said.

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Australia will play its Fed Cup semi-final against Belarus on the hardcourts of Brisbane in the first meeting between the two countries.

The Ashleigh Barty-led Australians booked their place in the last four with a 3-2 win over the United States away in February, while Belarus thrashed Germany 4-0.

The April 20-21 clash between the two nations will take place at the Pat Rafter Arena, the venue for the annual Brisbane International.

There had been some speculation that the tie could be played on clay ahead of the European clay season, but hardcourts have instead been picked.

"The whole team, led by Ash (Barty) worked hard for the win over the USA and I can honestly say that winning the tie was one of the highlights of my career," said Australia skipper Alicia Molik late Thursday.

"Belarus has a group of incredibly strong players and we expect them to be tough. But we also know we'll have terrific support from the fans and look forward to a great turnout in Brisbane."



Belarus is spearheaded by world No.9 Aryna Sabalenka, two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka and 2018 Brisbane finalist Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

They have reached the semis for the last three years, with their best result making the final in 2017.

Australia is looking to earn a place in the final for the first time since 1993.

The other semi-final is between France and Romania.

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The Delhi Cabinet Friday approved recommendations of a fare revision committee to hike auto-rickshaw tariffs by Rs 1.50 per kilometre.

The meter-down charge of Rs 25 per two kilometre has also been revised by the committee to Rs 25 for 1.5 kilometre, said Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot.

The revised charges will be implemented after the Transport Department's notification, Gahlot said.

In reply to a question, the transport minister said fare revision is not a reserved subject and there is no need for the approval of the Lieutenant Governor.

The existing auto-rickshaw fare in the city is Rs 8 per kilometre which has been raised to Rs 9.50, an increase of 18.75 per cent.

The auto-rickshaw meters will be re-calibrated to charge the revised fare, the minister said.

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The Supreme court's idea on Friday, favouring amicable settlement of the politically and religiously sensitive Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case through mediation, was mooted earlier as well by the top court -- on March 21, 2017.

A bench headed by the then Chief Justice J S Khehar had said that fresh attempts must be made by all parties concerned to find a solution to the Ayodhya temple dispute which is a "sensitive" and "sentimental" matter.

However, the contesting parties were hesitant to support the suggestion made by the then bench, which also comprised Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul.

The matter later came up for hearing before a bench, headed by his successor Justice Dipak Mishra, which tried to take forward the appeals against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

Justice Misra, the then chief justice along with Justices Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer, had refused to refer the matter before a five-judge Constituiton Bench, had treated it as case of title dispute over a property.

The idea of settling the dispute through mediation as suggested by a bench headed by Justice Khehar was revived by a bench headed by present Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

While several developments connected with the dispute, including the recusal of judges like Justices U U Lalit and N V Ramana, delayed the proceedings, the bench headed by Justice Gogoi on February 26 sprang a surprise by toing the suggestion mooted by the apex court in March 2017.

The current bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer on February 26, 2019, again asked the contesting parties to explore the possibility of amicably settling the decades old dispute through mediation, saying it may help in "healing relations".

Even if there is "one per cent chance" of settling the dispute amicably, the parties should go for mediation, the bench had suggested.

The suggestion for mediation was mooted during the hearing when both the Hindu and the Muslim sides were sparring over the veracity of documents related to the case which were translated by the Uttar Pradesh government and filed with the apex court registry.

"We are considering it (mediation) very seriously. You all (parties) have used the word that this matter is not adversarial. We would like to give a chance to mediation even if there is one per cent chance," the bench had said.

"We would like to know your (both parties) views on it. We do not want any third party to make a comment to jeopardise the entire process," the bench had said.

While some of the Muslim parties had agreed to the court's suggestion on mediation, some Hindu bodies including the Ram Lalla Virajman opposed it, saying several such attempts have failed in the past.

"Do you seriously think that the entire dispute for so many years is for property? We can only decide property rights but we are considering the possibility of healing relations," the bench had said.

Even in 2017, the bench headed by Justice Khehar had said that such religious issues can be solved through negotiations and offered to mediate to arrive at an amicable settlement.

"These are issues of religion and sentiments. These are issues where all the parties can sit together and arrive at a consensual decision to end the dispute. All of you may sit together and hold a cordial meeting," the bench had said.

"You must make fresh attempts to arrive at a consensual decision. If required, you must choose a moderator to end the dispute. If the parties wants me to sit with mediators chosen by both the sides for negotiations, am ready to take up the task. Even the services of my brother judges can be availed for the purpose," the bench headed by Justice Khehar had said.

The present bench had said it wanted to explore the possibility of mediation to utilise the time till the next date of hearing by which translated documents would be ready if the need would arise for adjudicating the matter or merits.

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Former VHP leader Praveen Togadia Friday said the air strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Pakistan has not yielded desired results as terror attacks have not stopped in Jammu and Kashmir.

Terrorist attacks have not stopped due to the "weak" leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he alleged.

Without naming then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Hindutva leader praised the country's leadership during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, which led to the creation of Bangladesh.

"My question is, have terror attacks stopped after the air strike in Balakot? After the air strike, two majors and 10 jawans had been killed (in separate incidents in J&K). There was a grenade attack in Jammu yesterday," he said.

"If the surgery has been done, what is its importance (if the disease has not been cured)? Surgery (for me) means to get the patient rid of cancer," Togadia, a qualified cancer surgeon, told reporters here.

To a question, Togadia said what is the use of air strikes if solders are still dying?



"We split Pakistan in 1971, but at that time the leadership was with somebody else," said the firebrand Hindutva leader.

Apparently referring to Modi, who made a surprise visit to Pakistan in 2015-end, he said, "The leadership which without invitation goes to eat the cake of (former) Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif) is weak."



"Official figures say 488 soldiers had been killed in 53 months (in J&K). Why was Pakistan the most favoured country for Modiji?" he asked.

Togadia said it was baffling that separatist leaders in Kashmir were provided security.

"Modi should answer this. Modiji has neglected national security," he charged.

"Life of every human is of great importance but that of soldier is of paramount importance to us," Togadia said.

He disapproved of the ongoing over the February 26 the air strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed camp inside Pakistan.

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The Bihar Cabinet Friday gave its nod to a set of rules for quick redressal of service related grievances of both serving and retired government employees.

According to the Bihar Government Servant Grievances Redressal Rules 2019, the grievances will have to be addressed within 60 days, an official said.

The decision has been taken on the lines of the Bihar Public Grievance Redressal Act that empowers people to get their grievances redressed within a specific time frame.

"With the state cabinet giving its nod to the Bihar Government Servant Grievances Redressal Rules, serving and retired government employees can now also get their service related grievances redressed within a specific time frame," the Principal Secretary of Cabinet Secretariat Department, Sanjay Kumar, told reporters here.

"Its effective implementation would also help in reducing the service related cases in courts," Kumar said.

Both serving and retired employees can submit online applications relating to different kinds of grievances such as appointment, medical reimbursement, promotion and retirement benefits, he said.

Officers in the rank of Additional District Magistrate (ADM) in the districts and an officer in the rank of a Deputy Secretary at department level have been nominated as 'Service Grievance Redressal Officer', Kumar said.

The grievances will have to be addressed within 60 days, failing which the aggrieved can file an appeal before the district magistrates in the districts, and before the secretary, principal secretary and additional chief secretary at department level, Kumar said.

In another major decision, the Cabinet sanctioned Rs 5,193 crore for subsidy to different category of power consumers in the state for 2019-20.

It also gave its nod to five projects worth Rs 392.08 crore under the Namami Gange project for construction of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) at Fatuha, Maner and Bakhtiarpur towns in Patna district, and Chapra and Sonepur towns in Saran district, an official said.

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The BJP Friday forged an alliance with opposition Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) to contest the coming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state.

The details of seat sharing between the two parties would be announced soon, BJP's Sikkim in-charge Nitin Nabin said.

SKM president P S Golay and BJP's North-East in-charge Ram Madhav finalised the alliance in New Delhi, he said.

"The two parties have decided to form an alliance for the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Sikkim," Nabin, who was present during the meeting between Golay and Madhav, said over phone from New Delhi.

In an identical post on Facebook and Twitter, Madhav announced that the two parties joined hands for the polls and described the SKM as the "main opposition party" in Sikkim.

Elections will be held simultaneously for the 32-member Assembly and the lone Lok Sabha seat in Sikkim later this year.

In the 2014 Assembly election, the SKM had won 10 seats but now it has only two MLAs in the House.

Seven of the MLAs had defected to the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) in 2015, while Golay was disqualified from the membership of the Assembly in 2016, following his conviction for a year in a corruption case.

The ruling SDF did not want to comment on the SKM-BJP alliance.

"We have nothing to say on this issue as of now," SKM spokesperson K T Gyaltsen said.

On the SDF's status in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Gyaltsen said his party continues to be a part of the coalition at the national level.

The BJP's Sikkim in-charge, however, denied this.

"No...the SDF is not part of the NDA," Nabin said.

The SDF, led by the country's longest serving Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling, has 29 MLAs in the Assembly.

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Former VHP leader Praveen Togadia Friday said before the announcement of Lok Sabha election schedule, the Narendra Modi government should bring an ordinance to facilitate construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

He declared that his political outfit Hindustan Nirman Dal (HND) would bring in an ordinance for building a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya in a week if voted to power.

"The dates of national elections have not been announced yet. Modiji bring an ordinance and start construction of Ram temple. Or, no Ram Temple, no vote to BJP," he told reporters here.

Slamming the Modi government, the Hindutva leader said, "Three ordinances have been promulgated on triple talaq for Muslim women. Why not one for the mandir?"



"For the cause of Ram temple, a yatra was taken out from Somnath to Ayodhya," he said, referring to the BJP patriarch L K Advani's yatra of 1990.

"Kar sevaks were killed. In the name of Ram, the party won elections from panchayat level to Parliament. Why Modiji did not get a law enacted for the construction of Ram temple in five years of his rule?" he asked.

"Hindus are demanding answer. I am seeking an answer," he added.

"Our party (HND) will fight general elections. Neither the Congress nor the BJP can build the Ram temple. We (HND) will construct the Ram temple after fighting the national election," he said.

"If we get the mandate, in a week we will bring an ordinance and construct the Ram temple. We will build Ram temple in Ayodhya, give a Hindu government, employment to youth, respect to jawans and improve farmers' life," he added.

However, he parried a question on how many seats his political party will contest across India.

Togadia, however, said his party will definitely contest the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat.

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Can a Parliamentarian or MLA claim immunity from criminal prosecution for taking bribe to give a speech or vote in an assembly or the Parliament?



This crucial question with "wide ramification" and of "substantial public importance", will be dealt by the Supreme Court as it has decided to revisit its 21 year-old verdict in the sensational Jharkhand Mukti Morch (JMM) bribery case.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has referred to a larger bench the appeal of Sita Soren, incidently also a JMM MLA, against the high court order for quashing criminal case lodged against her for allegedly taking bribe to vote for a particular candidate in Rajya Sabha elections held in 2012.

Sita Soren is also the daughter in-law of former union minister Shibu Soren who was involved in the JMM bribery case.

Shibu, along with his four party MPs, had allegedly taken bribe to vote against the no-confidence motion against the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao government in Centre in July 1993.

"Having considered the matter, we are of the view that having regard to the wide ramification of the question that has arisen, the doubts raised and the issue being a matter of substantial public importance we should be requesting for a reference of the matter to a larger bench, as may be considered appropriate, to hear and decide the issue arising," it said in an order, uploaded Friday.

The bench, also comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khana, directed the registry to place the records of the case before the Chief Justice on the administrative side for appropriate orders.

The top court Thursday considered its 1998 five-judge constitution bench verdict given in the PV Narasimha Rao versus CBI case.

It earlier verdict held that parliamentarians had immunity under the Constitution against criminal prosecution for their speech or vote given in the house.

The bench said that the majority view of the 1998 verdict despite "acutely conscious of the seriousness of the offence" felt that the wrongful act and the 'sense of indignation' of the court should not lead to a narrow construction of the constitutional provisions which may have the effect of impairing the guarantee to effective Parliamentary participation and debate.

Referring to the minority view of the 21-year-old verdict, the bench said Thursday that it took the view that the protection under Article 105(2)/194(2) of the Constitution and the immunity granted cannot extend to cases where bribery for making a speech or vote in a particular manner in the House is alleged.

Sita Soren has sought quashing of the criminal case lodged against her for allegedly taking bribe to vote in favour of a particular candidate in the Rajya Sabha election of 2012.

Advocate Vivek Kumar Singh, appearing for Sita Soren sought quashing of the case against her saying that she had immunity under Article 194(2) of the Constitution for her voting in assembly.

He said that under Article 194(2) an MLA cannot be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of anything said or any vote given by him or her in the legislature.

Since the 1998 verdict was delivered by a five-judge bench, the question of law is likely to be sent to a seven-judge Constitution bench.

The Jharkhand High Court had on February 17, 2014 dismissed the plea of Sita Soren seeking to quash the criminal proceedings initiated against her.

She was charged by CBI for allegedly taking bribe from one candidate and voting for other.

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Hyundai Motor India Friday said it would launch subscription model initially in six cities across the country as part of its partnership with self-drive car-sharing firm Revv.

Hyundai Subscription aims to provide an opportunity to the customers to experience Hyundai product portfolio, with hassle-free ownership, flexibility and limited commitment through subscription-based ownership model.

The pilot project of the initiative covering six cities -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad -- will commence from this month itself.

"This strategic alliance will provide a unique opportunity for today's millennial customers to experience Hyundai's diverse product offerings that blend with their personality," Hyundai Motor India Senior Director (Sales & Marketing) S J Ha said in a statement.

With the company's deep understanding of Indian consumers and progressive tech-driven mobility solutions, Hyundai aims to forge a new market for the new-age Indians, he added.

Hyundai had joined hands with Revv last year.

The shared mobility space is evolving at an exponential rate, from USD 900 million in 2016 to USD 1.5 billion in 2018, it is projected to expand to USD 2 billion by 2020.

India's 15,000 car-sharing vehicles are expected to grow to 50,000 by 2020, and 150,000 by 2022.

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Carlton Cuse, the showrunner of Amazon's "Jack Ryan" series, will not be returning for the show's third season.

Amazon had renewed the spy thriller series, based on the character from several Tom Clancy novels, for a third season in February this year.

Cuse is currently working on the sophomore season of the smash-hit show, which features John Krasinski in the lead.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cuse will be stepping back from day-to-day showrunner duties after the second season. He, however, will remain involved in the series as an executive producer.

The makers have started looking for a new showrunner.

After the second season of "Jack Ryan", Cuse is expected to focus his attention on his Netflix series, "Locke & Key". He is also developing shows for Disney's upcoming streaming service Disney+.

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National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Friday said separatists and militants have always tried to stall the election process in Jammu and Kashmir and the Election Commission's decision on holding the assembly polls in the state on time will reflect whether the Centre has defeated the intentions of these forces or "surrendered" before them.

"The next few days & the forthcoming decision of the Election Commission of India (based on Centre & state Govt inputs) will make everything clear. Everyone is watching #Elections2019 #ElectionCommissionOfIndia," the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said in a series of tweets.

A team of Election Commission led by Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora visited Jammu and Kashmir on Monday to assess whether state assembly polls could be held simultaneously with Lok Sabha polls.

All the major political parties, during their interactions with the Election Commission team, called for holding assembly polls together with Lok Sabha polls.

"For all the tough talk & talk of tough measures being taken in J&K the choice is very clear it's not what Modi ji says it is about what he does - will he surrender or will he ensure the forces inimical to elections are put in their place & their intentions defeated," Abdullah said.

The former chief minister said since 1995-96, Pakistan, militants and separatists have always tried to ensure elections do not take place in J&K.

"Successive governments since H D Deve Gowda have ensured all attempts at disruption fail.

"Now @PMOIndia @narendramodi Sb has to decide whether Parliament AND Assembly elections will take place on time or he will surrender to the forces that we have kept at bay since 1995/96," he added.

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China will host a second global meeting on its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) here next month, which Foreign Minister Wang Yi said would be "much bigger" that the first.

The number of heads of state and government expected to attend the next month's meeting will be much more than that of the first Belt and Road Forum (BRF), Wang told annual media conference here.

It will be a "much bigger event" with thousands of delegates from over 100 countries expected to attend, he said.

The BRI includes USD 60-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which India opposes as it traverses through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The US, India and several other countries have raised concerns over the BRI as China doled out huge loans to smaller countries for infrastructure projects without taking into consideration their ability to pay back the money.

India boycotted the first BRF meet held in 2017, which was attended by 29 heads of state and government, the UN Secretary General and heads of World Bank and IMF and a host of officials from different parts of the world.

Defending the BRI, Wang refuted US, Indian and several other countries criticism that the initiative is driving smaller countries in debt traps.

The BRI is not a "debt trap" that some countries may fall into but an "economic pie" that benefits local population, Wang said.

"It is not a geopolitical tool, but a great opportunity for shared development," he said.

The initiative has become the world's largest platform for international cooperation, he said, adding that a total of 123 countries and 29 international organisations have signed the BRI agreements with China.

"They have cast a vote of support and confidence in the BRI," he said.

He cited various projects in different countries to prove his point.

"Thanks to the BRI, east Africa now has its first expressway. Maldives has built its first inter-island bridge. Belarus is able to produce sedans. Kazakhstan is connected to the sea. Southeast Asia is constructing a high-speed railway. And Eurasian continent is benefiting from the longest distance freight train service," he added.

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China wants to have a permanent military presence in Africa through the multi-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and may look for ports which it can connect to ports in southern Pakistan, a top American Commander has said.

Describing the CPEC as an artery of the One Belt One Road (OBOR), General Joseph Votel, Commander of US Central Command, told members of the House Armed Services Committee that the project in progress right now is definitely a Chinese influence in that particular area.

The OBOR is Chinese President Xi Jinping's multi-billion project that focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among Asian countries, Africa and Europe.

"As they develop that land route what they are attempting to do and then we expect then be looking for ports they can connect that to ports in southern Pakistan leading to ports in AFRICOM (US Africa Command), and for us it's going to lead to a permanent presence of Chinese maritime military maritime activity in the region that we will need to be concerned with, Votel said.

Africa is the only place where China has an overseas military base, said the US Africa Command Commander General Thomas Waldhauser.

"Djibouti is the first overseas Chinese base. I have said before I don't believe it will be the last. They are looking for other areas and so forth to especially ports because what they want to do to a large degree the infrastructure, they build ports, roads, bridges and whatnot is tied to the extraction, mineral extraction, they are conducting in those countries, he said.

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The following is the chronology of events in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case in Ayodhya in which the Supreme Court Friday referred the politically sensitive case for mediation to a panel headed by former apex court judge F M I Kallifulla and gave it eight weeks to complete the process.

- 1528: Babri Masjid built by Mir Baqi, commander of Mughal emperor Babur.

- 1885: Mahant Raghubir Das files plea in Faizabad district court seeking permission to build a canopy outside the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid structure. Court rejects plea.

- 1949: Idols of Ram Lalla placed under a central dome outside the disputed structure.

- 1950: Gopal Simla Visharad files suit in Faizabad district court for rights to worship the idols of Ram Lalla.

- 1950: Paramahansa Ramachandra Das files suit for continuation of worship and keeping the idols.

- 1959: Nirmohi Akhara files suit seeking possession of the site.

- 1981: UP Sunni Central Waqf Board files suit for possession of the site.

- Feb 1, 1986: Local court orders the government to open the site for Hindu worshippers.

- Aug 14, 1989: Allahabad HC ordered maintenance of status quo in respect of the disputed structure.

- Dec 6, 1992: Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid structure demolished.

- Apr 3, 1993: 'Acquisition of Certain Area at Ayodhya Act' passed for acquisition of land by Centre in the disputed area.

- Various writ petitions, including one by Ismail Faruqui, filed in Allahabad HC challenging various aspects of the Act.

- Supreme Court exercising its jurisdiction under Article 139A transferred the writ petitions, which were pending in the High Court.

- Oct 24, 1994: SC says in the historic Ismail Faruqui case that mosque was not integral to Islam.

- Apr, 2002: HC begins hearing on determining who owns the disputed site.

- Mar 13, 2003: SC says, in the Aslam alias Bhure case, no religious activity of any nature be allowed at the acquired land.

- Mar 14: SC says interim order passed should be operative till disposal of the civil suits in Allahabad HC to maintain communal harmony.

- Sep 30, 2010: HC, in a 2:1 majority, rules three-way division of disputed area between Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

- May 9, 2011: SC stays HC verdict on Ayodhya land dispute.

- Feb 26, 2016: Subramanian Swamy files plea in SC seeking construction of Ram Temple at the disputed site.

- Mar 21, 2017: CJI JS Khehar suggests out-of-court settlement among rival parties.

- Aug 7: SC constitutes three-judge bench to hear pleas challenging the 1994 verdict of the Allahabad HC.

- Aug 8: UP Shia Central Waqf Board tells SC mosque could be built in a Muslim-dominated area at a reasonable distance from the disputed site.

- Sep 11: SC directs Chief Justice of the Allahabad HC to nominate two additional district judges within ten days as observers to deal with the upkeep of the disputed site.

- Nov 20: UP Shia Central Waqf Board tells SC temple can be built in Ayodhya and mosque in Lucknow.

- Dec 1: Thirty-two civil rights activists file plea challenging the 2010 verdict of the Allahabad HC.

- Feb 8, 2018: SC starts hearing the civil appeals.

- Mar 14: SC rejects all interim pleas, including Swamy's, seeking to intervene as parties in the case.

- Apr 6: Rajeev Dhavan files plea in SC to refer the issue of reconsideration of the observations in its 1994 judgement to a larger bench.

- Jul 6: UP government tells SC some Muslim groups were trying to delay the hearing by seeking reconsideration of an observation in the 1994 verdict.

- Jul 20: SC reserves verdict.

- Sep 27: SC declines to refer the case to a five-judge Constitution bench. Case to be heard by a newly constituted three-judge bench on October 29.

- Oct 29: SC fixes the case for the first week of January before an appropriate bench, which will decide the schedule of hearing.

- Nov 12: SC declines early hearing of petitions in the case requested by Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha.

- Nov 22: SC dismisses PIL seeking direction to organisations and public at large to "behave" and not air their views that can spoil the atmosphere till it decides the title dispute case.

- Dec 24: SC decides to take up petitions on case for hearing on January 4.

- Jan 4, 2019: SC says an appropriate bench constituted by it will pass an order on January 10 for fixing the date of hearing in the title case.

- Jan 8: SC sets up a five-judge Constitution Bench to hear the case headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices S A Bobde, N V Ramana, U U Lalit and D Y Chandrachud.

- Jan 10: Justice U U Lalit recuses himself prompting SC to reschedule the hearing for January 29 before a new bench.

- Jan 25: SC reconstitutes 5-member Constitution Bench to hear the case. The new bench comprises Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer.

- Jan 27: SC cancels the January 29 hearing due to non-availability of Justice S A Bobde.

- Jan 29: Centre moves SC seeking permission to return the 67-acre acquired land around the disputed site to original owners.

- Feb 20: SC decides to hear the case on Feb 26.

- Feb 26: SC favours mediation, fixes Mar 5 for order on whether to refer matter to court-appointed mediator.

- Mar 6: SC reserves order on whether the land dispute can be settled through mediation.

- Mar 8 : SC refers the dispute for mediation by a panel headed by former apex court judge F M I Kallifulla.

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The Congress and the BJP Friday sparred over Attorney General K K Venugopal 's claim that the Rafale documents were not stolen from the Defence Ministry with the opposition party dubbing it a "lie" and the ruling party slamming Rahul Gandhi for his attack on the government over the issue.

The heated exchange between the Congress and the BJP came after Venugopal said that the Rafale documents were not stolen from the Defence Ministry and that what he meant in his submission before the Supreme Court was that petitioners in the application used "photocopies of the original" papers, deemed secret by the government.

Reacting to the remarks, BJP chief Amit Shah launched a scathing attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi saying: "Lies and Rahul Gandhi are synonymous. In this chain, he had yesterday said that Rafale's documents have disappeared from the Defence Ministry, but today it has become clear that no documents had disappeared. Another lie of Rahul Gandhi is in front of the public."



"Sometimes he lies about the foundation stone laying of the Ordnance Factory in Amethi, sometimes he lies about loan waiver, sometimes he lies about the Congress's role in the Sikh riots, sometimes he lies about meeting the Chinese ambassador during the time of Doklam, and sometimes he lies about the price of fruit and vegetables," Shah said in a series of tweets.

He alleged that Rahul Gandhi "lies habitually" and currently has no credibility in Indian

On the Rafale issue itself, Rahul Gandhi has spoken over a dozen lies, Shah claimed.

"On Rafale's price, French prime minister, meeting Manohar Parrikar... he has lied on everything. Moreover, he also lied in the temple of democracy --Parliament," the BJP chief alleged.

Reacting to Venugopal's remarks, Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the government whose Attorney General does not know the difference between theft of defence ministry files and photocopies, is claiming that the country is in safe hands.

"Art of serving hundred lies to hide one truth! Yesterday in Supreme Court -- Rafale files have been stolen. Today -- Photocopies of Rafale files have been stolen," he tweeted.

"Modi ji, What's the 'duplicity' for tomorrow? Now every impossible lie is possible," he said.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a tweet, cited Venugopal's remarks that the Rafale documents were not stolen from the Defence Ministry and that what he meant in his submission before the Supreme Court was that petitioners in the application used "photocopies of the original" papers, deemed secret by the government.

Shah, in his tweets, also said: "Insult of Iron Man Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, who symbolizes unity and integrity of the country, is nothing new for the Congress. Rahul Gandhi called India-made Sardar Patel's 'Statue of Unity' as 'Made in China'."



Shah alleged that to grab the votes of farmers, Rahul made a "false promise" of debt waiver.

Gandhi had promised that if within ten days the farmers of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are not given debt waiver, the CM would be changed, he claimed.

"So far, even loans of 10% farmers has not been waived and now he says say that debt relief is not the solution," Shah said.

Venugopal's comments in the apex court on Wednesday that Rafale fighter jet deal documents were stolen caused a political row, with Congress president Rahul Gandhi targeting the government over stealing of such sensitive papers and seeking a criminal investigation.

"I am told that the opposition has alleged what was argued (in SC) was that files had been stolen from the Defence Ministry. This is wholly incorrect. The statement that files have been stolen is wholly incorrect," he told PTI, in an apparent damage-control exercise.

Venugopal said the application filed by Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushant, seeking from the court a review of its verdict dismissing pleas for a probe into against the Rafale deal, had annexed three documents which were photocopies of the original.

Official sources said the AG's use of word stolen was probably "stronger" and could have been avoided.

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The Opposition Congress Friday boycotted the address of Governor Tathagata Roy in the Meghalaya Assembly for his tweet backing the boycott of "everything Kashmiri" following the Pulwama terror attack.

Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma said such tweets by a person holding constitutional office does not augur well for the people and Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have pulled up the governor and removed him from office in the best interest of the nation.

"An appeal from a retired colonel of the Indian Army: Don't visit Kashmir, don't go to Amarnath for the next 2 years. Don't buy articles from Kashmir emporia or Kashmiri tradesman who come every winter. Boycott everything Kashmiri. I am inclined to agree," Roy had tweeted after the Pulwama terror attack.

"The PM should have pulled up the governor. He should have been removed from the high office in the best interest of the nation ..., " Mukul Sangma told media persons.

In his address on the first day of the budget session, Roy expressed concern and condemned the attack on the CRPF jawans at Pulwama.

"We express our deepest condolences to the family members of the deceased jawans," he said.

He, however, lauded the state administration and the Meghalaya police for having effectively dealt with few agitations on issues like Inner Line Permit, border dispute with Assam and setting up of entry-exit points in the past one year.

On women and children safety, Roy said all measures are being taken to ensure safety and security for all the citizens, with particular emphasis on combating crimes against women and children and human trafficking.

He said capacity and competence building programmes have been organised from time to time to equip the investigation officers in handling such cases professionally.

Admitting that Meghalaya is becoming susceptible to cyber-crimes, the Governor said there has been an increase of cyber-crimes cases reported in the state and a cyber-crime wing has been created under the administrative control and management of CID.

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The Supreme Court Friday told the Tamil Nadu government that defacement of public places cannot be allowed by political parties with advertisements and slogans.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the Tamil Nadu government to inform within two weeks about the steps taken regarding prevention of defacement of natural resources like hills, mountains, rocks and public places.

"We will not allow the defacement of public places and properties with advertisement and slogans of political parties," the bench, also comprising justices S A Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna, observed at the outset of the hearing.

The apex court had on January 11 issued notice to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government on a plea seeking to restrain political parties from erecting digital banners on roadside across the state.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a charitable trust 'In Defence of Environment and Animals' and had asked why the plea should not be kept open, enabling the Madras High Court to monitor the developments in the case.

The plea had sought preventing encroachments via religious symbols and political graffiti, advertisements by private parties on natural resources like mountains, hills, hillocks, avenue trees and on national and state highways.

The Madras High Court had on December 19 last year issued an interim order restraining political parties from putting up digital banners on roadside unless the state government and local bodies came out with a clear undertaking that the rules and various orders passed by the court would be strictly implemented and no violation would take place.

The court while passing the orders had said such banners distracted the road users, especially two-wheeler riders, and obstructed pedestrians.

The high court had expressed its displeasure over the unjustified reasons given by authorities in the past five years for failing to implement court orders regarding unauthorised banners.

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On the occasion of International Women's Day, the Delhi Police reiterated its commitment for safety and security of women and said zero tolerance towards crime against women was its utmost priority.

In the aftermath of the December 16, 2012, gang-rape incident there was a paradigm shift in dealing with cases rated to crime against women, police said.

Sexual assault survivors stood up and reported their cases, leading to an unprecedented increase in registration of rape and molestation cases, they said.

For instance, 850 rape and 1,869 molestation cases were registered during the first six months of 2013 as against 327 rape and 279 molestation cases during the corresponding period in 2012, police said.

The Delhi Police has been continuing its special efforts to ensure that women's grievances are registered immediately and they are treated with respect and sympathy, an official said.

All 178 territorial police stations in all the 15 districts of Delhi have separate women help desks, run by women officers round the clock, with exclusive direct telephone help lines, police said.

Self-defence training 'Sashakti' was initiated in 2002 by the Special Police Unit for Women and Children with an objective to empower women by way of demonstration and training in techniques of martial arts and educate them about self-defence tactics, they said.

Under the 'Nirbheek' programme, officials pay regular visit to co-educational as well as only for girls schools and conduct interactive sessions with girl students, police said.

The aim of these sessions is to instill a sense of confidence among them and to sensitise them about basic precautions to be taken against sexual abuse, they added.

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Dependency on someone to go to school acts as the biggest disabler for girls and 90 per cent of girl children are impacted by it in four states of Haryana, Bihar, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, a study has found.

On International Women's Day, the Child Rights and You (CRY) released a study that focuses on the enablers and disablers that significantly impact access and continuation of girls' education.

It also explores the role of incentive schemes for boosting girl child education in India.

The study found that dependency on someone to go to school is the biggest disabler for girls in attending educational institutions and 90 per cent of girls are impacted by it.

"Frequent absenteeism (29 per cent) and discomfort in absence of female teacher (18 per cent) were identified as some of the other disabling factors that are often interlinked with the drop out of girl children," it stated.

Delving deep into the reasons behind frequent absenteeism from school, frequent illness (52 per cent) and being engaged in household chores (46 per cent) surfaced as the biggest deterrents across the four states, according to the study.

Also, infrastructural issues like poor roads and unavailability of transport to schools were highlighted as some of the top reasons for girls to miss education.

Girls in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh mentioned about the distance and cost of transportation as some of the main reasons to miss school, the study stated.

In Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, menstruation emerged as another important reason for missing school, which highlights the vital need for improved infrastructure and amenities in school



"Though 87 per cent of schools reported to have separate toilets for girls, not all of them were found to have running water and hand wash facilities," the study stated.

Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, the study was conducted with more than 3,000 interviewees from 1,604 households across the four states.

Among the enablers, self motivation to go to school (88 per cent) and inspiration from family (87 per cent) were the most sought after motivating factors for girls to go to school.

"No resistance from family (94 per cent) and community (95 per cent) were also reported as some of the prominent encouraging reasons by majority of school going girls, while 70 per cent of school going girls claimed to have received government incentives and/or benefits in the school," the study stated.

However, while analysing the most prevalent factors likely to hinder girl child education, the most spontaneous responses from the parents highlighted requirement of female labour within the household, indicating discontinuation of studies for the girl child.

The interesting aspect is that when both the spontaneous and the aided responses are combined, marriage of girls (66 per cent) emerged as the chief factor that hinders girls' education, followed by household chores (65 per cent) and cost of education (62 per cent), the study found.

Amongst the underlying causes, elopement/love affairs followed by caring for siblings, predetermined gender roles and physical insecurity of girls were some of the top responses in this area, it said.

Besides assessing different factors impacting girl child education, the study also evaluates the effectiveness of 21 government education incentivisation schemes, of which 12 are monetary and the rest provide non-monetary incentives.

Despite a large number of schemes being implemented, the analysis reveals that 40 per cent of parents across the four states were unaware of the schemes.

"This indicates that though a number of government schemes are available for promoting girl child education, their benefits are yet to reach and touch the lives of girls due to lack of awareness and knowledge about the schemes," said Puja Marwaha, the CEO of CRY.

"For increased utilisation of incentive schemes, there must be better implementation to ensure timely provision of scheme benefits. It is also required to address the disablers through policy provisioning, which include safe and frequent transport facilities; provision of entitlements under the RTE; investing in social behaviour change and communication to enhance status of girl child, and universalising crche facilities," she added.

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Robert Vadra, the brother-in-law of president Rahul Gandhi, was Friday questioned by the for about seven hours in connection with a case related to the purchase of alleged illegal assets abroad, officials said.

They said the businessman was grilled the entire day after he appeared before the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case at the agency's office at Jamnagar House in central Delhi.

Vadra has been questioned in this case multiple times in the past. He has also deposed before the agency in Jaipur where a separate case is being investigated by the (ED).

The officials said the agency is confronting Vadra in Delhi with documents and statements of other accused being investigated in the case and his statement is being recorded under Section 50 (powers of authorities regarding summons, production of documents and to give evidence) of the Prevention of Act (PMLA).

A Delhi court, on February 16, had extended his interim bail till March 19 in the money laundering case being probed in Delhi.

The agency had told the court that day that he was not cooperating in the matter and it needed to question him further. The court had then directed Vadra to cooperate in the investigation.

Vadra's appearance before the is related to a criminal complaint on allegations of money laundering to purchase assets abroad in an alleged illegal manner.

His legal team has denied the charge and said he was ready to come for questioning as and when called.

The case against Vadra relates to allegations of money laundering in the purchase of a London-based property, located at 12, Bryanston Square and worth 1.9 million pounds, which is allegedly owned by the businessman in a "benami" way.

The agency had told the court that it had received information about various new properties in London that belonged to Vadra. These include two houses -- one worth 5 million pounds and the other valued at 4 million pounds -- six flats and other assets.

Vadra has denied the allegation of possessing illegal foreign assets and termed it a political witch-hunt against him. He has said he is being "hounded and harassed" to subserve political ends.

His first appearance before the ED last month had acquired political overtones after Vadra, his wife and general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, had accompanied him to the investigating agency's office and picked him up after questioning another time.

Vadra had also deposed before the ED twice in Jaipur in connection with another money-laundering case related to an alleged land scam in Bikaner.
The Bombay High Court directed the Maharashtra government on Friday to file a reply on a plea moved by activist Vernon Gonsalves challenging his arrest in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.

A bench of justices B P Dharmadhikari and Revati Mohite-Dere directed the state to file its reply by April 9.

Gonsalves, arrested in October last year and currently in judicial custody, in his plea filed this year argued that his custody was illegal since the prosecution had failed to follow due procedure while seeking extension of time for filing the chargesheet against him and others in the case.

Gonsalves was arrested by the Pune police and booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) following raids at the houses and offices of several activists in connection with a December 31, 2017 event to commemorate the battle of Bhima-Koregaon.

The UAPA mandates that the prosecuting agency must file its chargesheet against a person within 90 days of his arrest.

However, if there is a delay on a valid ground, the public prosecutor is permitted to file a report before the trial court, explaining the reasons for the same, and seek more time to submit the chargesheet.

The Act mandates that if the trial court is satisfied with such a report, it can extend the time for filing the chargesheet by up to 180 days.

In the present case, however, a Pune court had granted the police an additional 90 days, following an application from the Investigating Officer (IO) and written submissions by an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) and not the prosecutor.

The state's counsel, Aruna Pai, told the bench that in October last year, activist Surendra Gadling, a co-accused in the case, had filed a similar plea (challenging his arrest).

While Gadling's plea was allowed by the high court, later, the Supreme Court had set aside the high court order and held the arrest to be legal.

Gonsalves and several other activists were booked by the police following an Elgar Parishad event on December 31 2017, which the police had alleged triggered violent clashes at Bhima-Koregaon village, near Pune, the next day.

According to the police, the event was funded and supported by Maoists.

At the event, certain activists had made inflammatory speeches and provocative statements that had contributed to the Bhima-Koregaon violence on January 1, 2018, the police had said.

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India's first east coast LNG import terminal at Ennore in Tamil Nadu will help state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) fast-track its city gas distribution plans, said Wood Mackenzie.

The 5 million tonne per annum (MTPA) liquefied natural gas (LNG) import and regasification terminal, built by IOC at a cost of Rs 5,150 crore, was commissioned earlier this week.

"IOC has already secured captive customers for 2 MTPA of capacity. The Ennore terminal will also help fast-track IOC's city gas distribution plan, as gas from the terminal will be supplied to consumers around Chennai and Madurai," Wood Mackenzie's senior analyst Kaushik Chatterjee said in a report.

India plans to double its LNG import and regasification capacity to 56.5 MTPA by 2025 to meet the energy needs of a fast-growing economy.

In order to supply natural gas to various consumers, IOC is laying a 1244-km pipeline for evacuation of gas from Ennore terminal. The pipeline from the terminal will go up to Madurai, Trichy and Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu and branch out to Bengaluru via Hosur in Karnataka.

Imported gas at the terminal will meet fuel requirement of Chennai Petroleum Corp, Madras Fertilisers, Tamil Nadu Petroproducts and Manali Petrochemicals.

Ennore LNG terminal is part of India's plan to raise the share of natural gas in the country's energy basket to 15 per cent by 2030 from current 6.2 per cent.

"In the longer term, Ennore could become integrated with India's national gas network via a pipeline to Vijayawada or Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.

"Historically, delays in intra-state pipeline construction have impeded gas and LNG usage in India. The pipeline connecting the Kochi regasification terminal in Kerala to Mangalore in Karnataka is a glaring example," Chatterjee said.

IOC, he said, has additional plans to connect remaining refineries to gas pipelines, which will likely at least double its gas demand.

IOC has signed a 0.7 MTPA contract with Mitsubishi for 20 years, with supply coming from Cameron LNG in the US.

"We believe the commissioning of Ennore may also lead IOC to source more LNG directly rather than via Petronet LNG Ltd," he said.

India has four LNG import and regasification terminals on the west coast -- 15 MTPA Dahej plant in Gujarat operated by Petronet LNG , Shell's 5 MTPA Hazira terminal in the same state, GAIL's 1.2 MTPA plant at Dabhol in Maharashtra and Petronet's 5 MTPA terminal at Kochi in Kerala.

"Indian regas capacity had constrained imports in recent years. Both Dahej and Hazira operated at maximum levels through much of 2018. The commissioning of Ennore will be the first in a series of regas projects coming online in 2019; Mundra (in Gujarat) and Jaigarh FSRU are next," the consultancy said.

Another terminal is under construction at Dhamra in Odisha and is expected to be completed in 2022.

Furthermore, Dahej's capacity is being increased by 2.5 MTPA to 17.5 MTPA , while the completion of the Kochi pipeline and Dabhol breakwater is also likely by 2020.

"Once all these terminals and enhancements are completed, India's regas capacity will reach 56.5 MTPA by 2025 from the existing 25.5 MTPA. Beyond this, India's ability to import significant volumes of LNG could be enhanced further if several other proposed regas terminals proceed," it said.

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The Centre Friday asked all states and Union territories to ensure safety and security of people from Jammu and Kashmir by strengthening the existing mechanism, and take strict action against offenders.

The fresh advisory came two days after two Kashmiri dry-fruit sellers were attacked in Lucknow by members of a little-known right-wing group. Four people allegedly involved in the incident have been arrested so far.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs through an advisory issued today to the states and Union territories asked them to reinforce the existing arrangements to ensure safety and security of persons belonging to Jammu and Kashmir residing in their respective jurisdictions," a Home Ministry spokesperson said.

It also referred to its earlier advisory issued on February 16 asking the states to take all possible steps to ensure security of students and people belonging to Jammu and Kashmir as many of them were attacked in different parts of the country after the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed.

"In view of some students and residents of Jammu and Kashmir experiencing intimidation and harassment, the MHA urged state/UT police authorities to take strict action against the offenders as per law," the spokesperson said quoting the advisory.

Following a directive of the MHA, all states and union territories have already appointed nodal police officers who may be contacted by distressed people belong to Jammu and Kashmir.

Some people belonging to Jammu and Kashmir were attacked in states like Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Jammu city after the Pulwama attack.

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The US is helping its allies and partner countries in evaluating the "risks" before engaging Huawei, a senior official has said, after the Chinese telecom giant sued the American government for barring its agencies from buying its products.

The Chinese telecommunication company on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the US government for prohibiting the federal agencies of using its equipment.

"We are in the process of routinely engaging our allies and our partners to provide them with information to help them to evaluate the risks, to exercise vigilance, so they can secure their own systems and protect their own people," State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino told reporters at his biweekly conference.

He said the US advocates for secure telecom networks and supply chains that are free from supplier's subject to foreign government control or undue influence, which would pose risks of unauthorised access and malicious cyber activity.

"Because we believe that these risks posed by vendors subject to extrajudicial or unchecked compulsion by foreign states that do not share our values need to be weighed rigorously before making procurement decisions on these technologies," Palladino said.

He said this is something that the US is engaged in with other countries, and this is a decision that every nation must make for itself.

Meanwhile, several US lawmakers slammed Huawei for filing a lawsuit against the government.

"Huawei is a Chinese state-directed telecom company with a singular goal: undermine foreign competition by stealing trade secrets and intellectual property, and through artificially low prices backed by the Chinese government," Senator Marco Rubio said.

The Communist Chinese government poses the greatest, long-term threat to America's national and economic security, he said, adding that the US must be vigilant in preventing Chinese state-directed telecoms companies, like Huawei, from undermining and endangering critical US systems and infrastructure.

"That is why Congress recently acted well within our constitutional authority to block Huawei from our telecommunications equipment market due to concerns with the company's links to China's intelligence services," Rubio said.

Congressman Mike Conway said that the Chinese government continues to deny their well-established use of state-directed commercial technology companies like Huawei to spy on the US.

"Congress acted decisively and well within our constitutional authority in the FY19 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to prevent Huawei and other similar companies from gaining access to US government communications. Unsurprisingly, China and Huawei are not happy about it," he said.

The NDAA is the name for each of a series of US federal laws specifying the annual budget and expenditures of the Department of Defense.

Senators Jim Risch and Bob Menendez, chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Thursday introduced bipartisan legislation that commends Canada for upholding the rule of law and expressing concern over actions by China in response to a request from the US to Canada calling for extradition of Huawei Technologies executive, Meng Wanzhou.

"China invests in Italy's factories, buildings, and culture: welcome China wants to invest in your PORTS, however, don't be fooled: They are looking for a stranglehold," Senator Mitt Romney said in a tweet.

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: Manufacturer of bathroom products Roca is in the process of exploring opportunities to acquire Indian companies, a top official of the firm said Friday.

Roca India, a subsidiary of Spain-headquartered firm, has eight factories (four sanitaryware, one faucet, three plastic) located in Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand.

"We are keen to acquire some factories to make faucets and plastics.. Right now, we're evaluating a few opportunities," Roca India managing director K E Ranganathan said.

The company was eyeing acquisitions in faucet and plastic manufacturing facilities, preferably located in North India, he told reporters here.

Ranganathan said the company was also expanding its capacity at its plant in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. Besides, Roca would introduce Roca brand tiles serving the premium market.

"It will be a very niche segment. We will be importing them from Spain", he said.

The top management of Roca was here for unveiling of the Display Studio which is sixth such facility to be set up in the country.

The company has similar studios in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kochi, Lucknow and Chandigarh. The display studio would showcase a wide array of bath fixtures by three brands of Roca including Laufen from Switzerland, Roca and Parryware.

"We are excited to launch our first display studio in Chennai. It is one of our most successful markets with over 400 Parryware outlets in the city," Ranganathan said.

"We are also planning to open our studio in Hyderabad and Bengaluru by the end of the year," he said.

Roca's senior managing director Raimundo Garcia-Figueras said the company has fantastic facilities in the country and has invested a lot.

"We have been investing heavily in factories. We are continuously investing in the market, we are also investing in people," he said, adding the Indian subsidiary has about 3,500 employees.

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A former Customs appraiser, on the run for 20 years after being charged with corruption and bribery by the CBI, has been nabbed from a private medical college in Uttar Pradesh, where he had bagged the job of an internal medicine professor on the basis of fake degrees, officials said on Friday.

Abhinav Singh was working as an associate professor at the K D Medical College Hospital and Research Centre at Akbarpur, Mathura, under the pseudonym -- Rajeev Gupta.

He was teaching internal medicine to MBBS students, officials at the hospital told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

Singh's recent arrest has raised serious questions on the quality of education being imparted to students who will be future doctors, a senior official said.

Singh, a former Customs appraiser in Mumbai, fled after the CBI booked him in a case on September 29, 1999 for allegedly causing a loss of Rs four crore to the Customs department by confirming fake DEPB scrips (Duty Entitlement Pass Book).

He was also alleged to have taken a bribe of Rs five lakh and a Maruti Zen car, the officials said.

"The accused was absconding for the last about 20 years and was declared a proclaimed offender by the court," a CBI spokesperson said here.

Singh has been taken to Mumbai, where he is being questioned by CBI sleuths.

A resident of Jhansi, Singh told the interrogators that he was employed at the K D Medical College for the last two-three years. Before that, he had worked at a number of medical colleges in Faridabad and other cities, sources said.

In order to evade arrest, Singh had even ensured that his children adopted his assumed last name -- Gupta -- they added.

"The accused did not join the investigation and was absconding. He was removed from service by the competent authority," the CBI spokesperson said.

He added that a chargesheet was filed on March 27, 2002 in a special court in Mumbai against Singh and the other accused in the case and the trial was in progress against the other accused.

"It was alleged that while working as an appraiser in the Customs department, Mumbai, he had abused his official position and dishonestly confirmed fake DEPB scrips, submitted by the other accused companies and persons, as genuine," he said.

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Facebook launched an offensive Thursday to suppress the spread of misinformation about vaccines on the 2.3-billion-member social network.

The company has faced pressure in recent weeks to tackle the problem, amid outbreaks of measles around the United States attributed to growing numbers of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children.

US lawmakers have decried the higher incidences of preventable diseases in the wake of a movement against child vaccination, in large part due to rumors they can cause health or developmental issues.

Monika Bickert, Facebook's vice president for global policy management, said the social media network would reduce the distribution of false data and provide users with authoritative information about vaccinations.

"We will reduce the ranking of groups and pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in feed and search," Bickert said in a statement.

Facebook also will remove the misleading content from search recommendations and predictions, reject advertisements found to contain misinformation about vaccines, and disable accounts that continue to violate company policies on vaccine information, she said.

The company no longer allows targeting based on users' interest in "vaccine controversies" and will share educational materials with users that come across such misinformation.

The World Health Organization and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified "verifiable vaccine hoaxes," Bickert said, and, "If these vaccine hoaxes appear on Facebook, we will take action against them."



WHO in February listed "vaccine hesitancy" among its top 10 most pressing global health threats for 2019 and the UN last week warned against "complacency" as measles cases soared worldwide.

The resurgence in some countries has been linked to debunked claims that vaccines cause autism. Prior to taking office, US President Donald Trump promoted this claim.

New research published this week, which followed 650,000 Danish children for more than a decade, again concluded that vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella did not increase the risk of autism.

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Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Friday distributed farmland certificates to family members of martyrs, including jawans killed during India-Pakistan wars.

He also paid rich tributes to the martyrs and hailed their valour.

"The government stands firmly behind the families of martyrs. Lending them a helping hand is the government's responsibility," Fadnavis said.

At a function organised on the occasion of International Women's Day, the chief minister met mothers and wives of slain jawans at Sahyadri state guest house, where he handed over the farmland certificates to them.

"The lives of jawans who sacrifice themselves for the country can never be compensated monetarily.

"However, the state government has decided that apart from a financial compensation, the families of martyred jawans will get lands in their own district, which could be used for farming purpose," Fadnavis said.

The chief minister added that Friday, family members of seven martyred jawans from Raigad district were given farmland certificates.

Every district in the state will be covered under the government's efforts to rehabilitate and support such families, he said.

The jawans, whose families were provided certificates are - Raghunath Sawant, Vithoba Sawant, Nathuram Kasare, Prakash Sawant, Kushaba Jadhav, Nilesh Tuntune and Dhondu Yadav.

These jawans lost their lives in different military actions - Indo-Pak wars (1965, 1971), Operation Rakshak I & II and the Second World War (1939 to 1945).

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Faizabad - the first capital of Nawabs of Awadh - around 7 km from Ayodhya will be the seat of mediation for exploring the possibility of amicable settlement in the decades-old politically sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.

The Supreme Court Friday said a 3-member panel of mediators, headed by former apex court judge FMI Kalifulla, will conduct the mediation proceedings at Faizabad.

It said adequate arrangements including venue for mediation, place of stay of the mediators, their security, travel should be arranged by the Uttar Pradesh government so that proceedings can commence immediately.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also appointed spiritual guru and founder of Art of Living foundation Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, a renowned mediator, as members of the mediation panel.

Sri Sri Ravishankar had last year reportedly visited the twin city of Faizabad and Ayodhya, trying to settle the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute by holding talks with various stakeholders.

Records state that the historic city of Faizabad was made first capital of Awadh, a princely state established in 18th century by then Nawab Saadat Ali Khan I.

The bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer, said the mediation process will commence within a week from Friday and the panel will submit the progress report within four weeks.

It said mediation proceedings, which would be held "in-camera", be completed within eight weeks which is the interregnum period granted earlier by the apex court to the parties in main Ayodhya case to go through translations of oral and documentary evidences.

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

On December 6, 1992, the Babri Masjid, constructed at the disputed site in the 16th century by Shia Muslim Mir Baqi, was demolished.

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The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has taken over administrative control of Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) at Kavarathi, Lakshadweep Islands.

The CMFRI, coming under the Indian Council of Agriculture Research Institute (ICAR), has drawn up an actionplan for activation of the KVK which is aimed at facilitating the islanders efficiently tap its agricultural resources on land and sea for quality life, an official press release said here Friday.

The KVK would focus on enhancing agricultural roductivity, farmers income, employment opportunities to locals, especially women, value-added products by micro-enterprises and market access, the release said.

An agricultural extension centre under the ICAR for linking the agricultural research institutions and the farmer, the KVK would involve in various eco-labelling efforts for unique commodities of the islands, it said.

This includes green certification of Lakshadweep coconut and MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) certification of tuna fisheries that would facilitate market advantage for these commodities from the islands, the release said.

Taking over of the KVK would add impetus to the CMFRIs interventions in the islands with the KVK forming the base for the operation of various activities of the institute, said Dr A Gopalakrishnan, director of the CMFRI, in the release.

The Lakshadweep islands are well known for its unique varieties of coconut and high-value oceanic tunas as well as the eco-friendly approach for coconut cultivation and tuna- fishing," he said.

The institute is running a range of research projects, including on coral reef associated marine biodiversity of the islands and fishery management plan for tuna, aimed at sustaining the ecosystem and the fisheries in Lakshadweep, he said.

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Karnataka Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar Friday said that the four rebel Congress MLAs have responded to notices he issued to them on a petition by the party, seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law.

He said he would give a verdict after hearing both sides.

Official sources said the hearing is scheduled for March 12 in the afternoon.

"After hearing both sides, I will have to give my verdict...I cannot reveal things to the media beforehand," Kumar said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said that notices were given to all the four MLAs, based on the petition given and all of them had given an explanation.

"Hearings need to happen in accordance with the law, for it (case) to be decided," Kumar said.

Referring to rebel MLA Umesh Jadhav quitting his assembly membership, the Speaker said the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business book were clear on how to deal with a resignation.

Also the the Constitution and 10th schedule (anti-defection law) are clear on the matter, he said.

"...We have sought some clarification, we have written a letter to him (Jadhav)...to which he will need to give us an explanation," he added.

Jadhav had on Monday had submitted his resignation to the Speaker and subsequently joined BJP on March 6 at Prime Minister Narendra Modis rally in Kalburgi, from where he is is tipped to be the saffron partys candidate for Lok Sabha polls, against Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge.

The Congress has petitioned the Speaker, seeking disqualification of Jadhav along with Ramesh Jarkiholi, B Nagendra and Mahesh Kumathali under the anti-defection law.

The four MLAs had kept the party on tenterhooks for several weeks, defying its whip twice to attend the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meetings on January 18 and February 8 and had skipped the early part of the budget session.

During the recent political turmoil that engulfed the state, following BJP's alleged attempts to topple the Congress-JD(S) coalition government by poaching their MLAs,the four MLAs had gone incommunicado and were said to be camping in Mumbai, with a plan to jump ship to the saffron party.

After they refused to fall in line, the Congress had petitioned the Speaker to disqualify them under the Anti-Defection Law.

However, the four MLAs subsequently attended the session and voted in favour of the finance bill, with an intention not to violate the whip and avoid any stringent action.

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Rear Admiral Didier Malterre, Commander of the French Joint Forces deployed in the Indian Ocean, visited India last week and discussed ways to enhance bilateral defence engagement with top officials.

The French Joint Forces Commander, during his maiden official trip to New Delhi after assuming command, first visited the Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) and the Information Fusion Centre (IFC).

His trip to the two centres came after Admiral Christophe Prazuck, Chief of the French Naval Staff, made a trip there two months ago, a french Embassy statement said.

Jointly run by the Indian Navy and the Coast Guards, IMAC focuses on the analysis of maritime information across the world.

It draws on numerous sources of information for building its database on the global maritime situation, particularly by relying on its agreements with partner countries.

At the end of 2018, India also established IFC to monitor the region. It plays a central role in coordinating information in the Indian Ocean.

During the visit from February 26-28, the Commander of the French Joint Forces deployed in the Indian Ocean held meetings with top officials of the Indian Navy such as Vice Admiral M S Pawar, Chief of Staff, Eastern Naval Command, and Vice-Admiral Ashok Kumar, Vice Chief of the Indian Navy, as well as at the Integrated Defence Staff level, represented by Lieutenant-General Amarjeet Singh Bedi.

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Taking its demand for full statehood to Delhi to the next level in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the ruling AAP will stage a two-day gherao at the offices of the BJP and the Congress from March 10 to press them to make their stand clear on the issue.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will also deploy 20 'mini prachar rath' (campaign vehicles) each in all seven Lok Sabha constituencies in the national capital, a move aimed at informing voters how the BJP and the Congress "misled" them on this issue.

Talking to reporters here, AAP's Delhi convener Gopal Rai said he on February 25 had written to Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and state Congress president Sheila Dikshit, seeking clarity on their stand on the issue.

"We have not got any reply to our letters from the Congress and the BJP so far. If the AAP does not get an answer till tomorrow, we will gherao the Delhi BJP office on March 10 and the state Congress office on March 11," Rai said.

In the past, leaders of the BJP and the Congress have supported the demand for full statehood to the national capital, but the parties are now silent on it, the AAP leader said.

Giving details about the party's 'mini prachar rath', he said that e-rickshaws will be used for this purpose, which will play recorded audio and video speeches of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on how both the parties have "deceived" the people of Delhi on the issue.

Rai, a cabinet minister in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government, accused the BJP-led central government of "misleading" the people of Delhi on the issue of unauthorised colonies for five years.

"Formation of the committee is just an eyewash. BJP leaders and Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri should apologise to Delhiites," he said.

On Thursday, the Centre approved a proposal to constitute a committee, under the chairmanship of Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal, to recommend a process to confer ownership or transfer rights to residents of unauthorised colonies here.

The move, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, is likely to provide major relief to 30 per cent of Delhi's population who live in unauthorised colonies amid a constant fear of action by authorities.

About the Centre's decision to approve three out of six corridors of Metro Phase-IV, Rai sought to know why the BJP-led central government did not give its nod to the rest of the corridors.

The Union Cabinet approved three -- Mukundpur-Maujpur, R K Ashram-Janakpuri West and Aero City-Tughlakabad -- of the six corridors proposed under Metro Phase-IV.

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A decision to grant bail to could risk "destruction of evidence" in the financial misconduct case against the former chief, a senior prosecutor said Friday.

walked out of a local jail Wednesday after more than 100 days of detention following an unexpected decision from the District Court, despite strong opposition from prosecutors.

has strict limits on his movement and communications, with a ban on his contacting executives and others with links to the allegations against him, as well as restrictions on his computer and cell phone use.

But the prosecution still "believes that there remains risk of destruction of evidence", said Shin Kukimoto, deputy chief of the District Public Prosecutors Office.

"We believe the conditions for the bail are not effective," he added.

Kukimoto said his office would nonetheless work with the new conditions and prove the charges against Ghosn.

The prosecutor stayed tight-lipped about whether Ghosn, who is on a one billion yen (USD 9 million) bond, may face rearrest or new charges.

While on bail Ghosn, who had two previous bail applications rejected, will live at a designated residence with a surveillance camera.

He is allowed to go outside but has pledged not to leave Japan and to stay away from the internet.

Doubters have questioned the effectiveness of the conditions, with Japanese media speculating that Ghosn could easily leave his residence and call or meet people involved in the case.

Ghosn was first arrested on November 19, and faces multiple charges of financial misconduct.

A towering figure once revered in Japan for turning around Nissan's fortunes, Ghosn also forged a successful alliance between Nissan, and France's

Ghosn has maintained his innocence since his arrest and claimed the allegations against him are part of a "plot" by opponents of greater integration between the three firms.

It may be several months before Ghosn's trial begins and his defence lawyer Junichiro Hironaka said the case was expected to run over a "very long time.
A girl committed suicide in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir after a man allegedly posted her objectionable pictures on social media, police said Friday.

The girl committed suicide on Thursday night by consuming some poisonous substance at her home in the Murran area of Pulwama district, a police spokesman said.

Police arrested the accused, Mudasir Ahmad Khanday, on the charges of abetting suicide of the girl, whose age was also not revealed.

The parents of the girl alleged that Khanday had posted some objectionable pictures of their daughter on social media which forced her to take the extreme step, the spokesman said.

The girl was taken to hospital where she died, he said.

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The government Friday gave out the 7-croreth free cooking gas (LPG) connection as the scheme to make available cleaner fuel in every household kitchens runs ahead of schedule.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said 7 crore connections have been realised in last 34 months under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) which translates into nearly 69,000 connections per day.

PMUY was launched on May 1, 2016, with a target to give 5 crore connections to women member of poor households by March 2019. The target was later raised to 8 crore connections by 2021 and now envisages giving all households a connection.

The scheme together with a government push to replace polluting firewood in kitchens has led to LPG coverage rising to 93 per cent of the population from 55 per cent in May 2014, he said.

"On the occasion of International Women's Day, we have crossed 7-crore connection mark. The scheme is running ahead of schedule," he said on the occasion. "As many as 42 per cent of the total connections have gone to SC/ST."



The maximum 1.26 crore connections have been released in Uttar Pradesh followed by 78 lakh in West Bengal and 77.51 lakh in Bihar. As many as 63.31 lakh connections have been released in Madhya Pradesh and 55.34 lakh in Rajasthan.

Pradhan said nearly 6,800 new distributorships have been added to strengthen the rural supply chain.

As many as 23 crore refills or about 4 cylinders of 14.2-kg each have been bought by PMUY beneficiaries in a year, he said rejecting criticism of the scheme that households reverted to firewood and other mediums of cooking once the initial free LPG cylinder was exhausted.

Under the scheme, the government provides a subsidy of Rs 1,600 to state-owned fuel retailers for every free LPG gas connection that they give to poor households. This subsidy is intended to cover the security fee for the cylinder and the fitting charges.

The beneficiary has to buy her own cooking stove. To reduce the burden, the scheme allows beneficiaries to pay for the stove and the first refill in monthly instalments. However, the cost of all subsequent refills has to be borne by the beneficiary household.

In December 2018, the government extended PMUY to all poor households. The scheme originally targeted giving free LPG connections to mostly rural women members of below the poverty line (BPL) households. The list was later expanded to include all SC/ST households, forest dwellers, most backward classes, inhabitants of islands, nomadic tribes and tea estates among others.

The step will further increase penetration of LPG to 100 per cent households, he said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) hailed PMUY as decisive intervention by the government to facilitate the switch to clean household energy use, thereby addressing the problems associated with indoor household pollution.

Incidentally, functions previously organised to mark giving of 5-croreth and 6-croreth connection in August 2018 and January this year saw a Muslim lady being chosen for the purpose. On Friday, the 7-croreth connection was handed over to a Hindu lady and the connection after that to a Muslim lady.

Pradhan said, only 13 crore cooking gas connections were given in the first 50 years since the launch of LPG and almost a similar number of connections have been given out by the present government in last 55 months.

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The government Friday notified the second phase of the India scheme with a Rs 10,000-crore outlay to encourage adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles.

"The scheme is proposed to be implemented over a period of three years, with effect from April 1, 2019, for faster adoption of electric mobility and development of its manufacturing ecosystem in the country," a notification issued by the heavy industries ministry said.

Under the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India (FAME-II) scheme, 10 lakh registered electric two-wheelers with a maximum ex-factory price will be eligible to avail incentive of Rs 20,000 each. It will also support 5 lakh having ex-factory price of up to Rs 5 lakh with an incentive of Rs 50,000 each.

will offer an incentive of Rs 1.5 lakh each to 35,000 electric four-wheelers with an ex-factory price of up to Rs 15 lakh, and incentive of Rs 13,000 each to 20,000 strong hybrid four-wheelers with ex-factory price of up to Rs 15 lakh.

It will support 7,090 e-buses with an incentive of up to Rs 50 lakh each having an ex-factory price of up to Rs 2 crore.

The scheme will have a Rs 1,500-crore outlay in 2019-20; Rs 5,000 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 3,500 crore in 2021-22. It will cover buses with EV technology; electric, plug-in hybrid and strong hybrid four wheelers; electric three-wheelers including and electric two-wheelers.

An inter-ministerial empowered committee, 'Project Implementation and Sanctioning Committee' (PISC), headed by the heavy industry secretary, shall be constituted for overall monitoring, sanctioning and implementation of the scheme.

"In order to rationalise the incentives across segments and across vehicle technologies, it is initially proposed to extend uniform demand incentive at Rs 10,000 per KWh for all vehicles including plug in hybrid EVs and strong hybrid, except buses. This will be subject to review and revision by PISC," the notification said.

Besides, to encourage public transport, for buses, initial uniform maximum demand incentives at Rs 20,000 per KWh is proposed subject to review and revision by PISC. The amount of incentives for buses may further be subject to competitive bidding among the original equipment manufacturers, conducted by public sector transport undertakings based on the opex (operational expenditure) model.

The demand incentives for electric buses will be provided only on the opex model adopted by state or city transport corporations and other public entities working in transport sector to augment the fleet of electric vehicles.

The proposed incentives would be reviewed annually or earlier by the PISC based on price trends for various components and assemblies and market parameters such as offtake of vehicles.

To begin with, the cap on incentives for buses will be 40 per cent of the cost of vehicles and for all other categories, it will be 20 per cent, the notification said.

To meet the qualifying criteria for demand incentives, a hybrid and electric vehicles, including its variants, should be manufactured in India and have such percentage of localisation as may be notified from time to time, the notification said.

The demand incentive for all segments, except buses, shall be disbursed through an e-enabled framework and mechanism set up under the Department of Heavy Industries.

The scheme also envisages support for setting up of adequate public charging infrastructure to instill confidence amongst EV users.
Hours after resigning as a Congress MLA in Gujarat, senior leader Jawahar Chavda Friday joined the ruling BJP at the party's headquarters in Gandhinagar.

Chavda, 55, was inducted into BJP by state Home Minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja and senior party leader K C Patel.

The four-time MLA from Manavadar seat in Junagadh district tendered his resignation as a legislator to the Gujarat Assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi earlier in the day.

After joining the ruling party, Chavda said he did not quit the Congress due to discontent or differences with the party leadership.

Chavda, a prominent OBC leader from Ahir community, said he also resigned from the primary membership of the Congress and sent a letter to party president Rahul Gandhi to inform him about it.

Talking to reporters, Chavda claimed that the BJP has not offered ministership to switch sides ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

"It is not true that I am joining the BJP to become a minister. I am in to serve the people. I am joining the BJP as I felt that I can serve the people in a better way if I join the party that is in power.

"I also felt it necessary to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the current security scenario of the country," Chavda said.

Chavda had won the Manavadar seat in 1990, 2007, 2012 and 2017.

Though speculations are rife that he would be made a minister in the coming days, both Chavda and Jadeja dismissed the reports.

"The party will decide whether to give me a cabinet berth or not. Otherwise, I do not have such aspirations. I left the Congress because I was not enjoying there. I was feeling suffocated for quite some time," he added.

According to Jadeja, Chavda joining the BJP will strengthen the party in Saurashtra region.

"As of now, he has joined the BJP only as a member. Chavda has not demanded anything for joining the BJP. The party leadership has not decided anything about giving him any cabinet berth as of now. I cannot comment about the cabinet expansion at this moment," Jadeja said.

Chavda is the third Congress MLA to have resigned from the House in the past few months.

In July last year, senior Congress MLA Kunvarji Bavalia had resigned as the legislator. He was later made a cabinet minister in the current BJP dispensation.

Last month, first-time MLA from Unjha seat in Mehsana, Asha Patel, had resigned from the House and the Congress, and later joined the ruling BJP.

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Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed was barred by Pakistan's Punjab provincial government from delivering the Friday sermon at Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) headquarters in Lahore, where a government-appointed cleric led prayers and delivered the weekly sermon.

This is for the first time since the establishment of Jamia Masjid Al-Qadsia, JuD headquarters, some two decades ago that a government nominated cleric delivered the Friday sermon.

Saeed was never stopped from delivering Friday sermons even during the years when Masjid Qadsia's control was under the Punjab government.

On Friday, heavy contingent of police was present in and around the JuD compound since morning.

Over the years this compound is housing residential quarters, a library and book shops.

"As the government has taken a complete control of the JuD compound, only a few local people turned up to offer Friday prayers. Qari Abdul Rauf appointed by the Punjab government delivered the Friday sermon which was apolitical," an official of the Punjab government told PTI.

Before the government's action, a large number of people, mostly JuD activists and its sympathizers, would gather at the mosque every Friday to listen to Saeed's sermon.

"All other activities of the compound have been shut. All the residential quarters, the library and book shops have been sealed and police personnel have been deployed there," the official said, adding that only the mosque area has been left open for the public to offer prayer.

"The mosque area will be opened five times a day for offering prayers only," he said.

The official said Saeed and other top JuD leaders did not visit the compound on Friday. "In fact the JuD leadership has been warned not to visit the compound since it has been taken over by the government," he added.

Before the government took over the control on Thursday, a good number of JuD security guards equipped with weapons were deployed outside the compound.

"Saeed requested the Punjab government to allow him give sermon on Friday at Qadsia Masjid but it was turned down," the official added.

Pakistan authorities on Thursday sealed the Lahore headquarters of JuD and FIF and detained over 120 suspected militants as part of an ongoing crackdown on banned groups.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. It had been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.

The US Department of the Treasury has designated its chief Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.

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All sales and distribution for Juggernaut Books' print list will be handled by HarperCollins India from now on, the two publishing houses have announced.

This move is aimed at providing Juggernaut Books and their authors a much wider reach and visibility across the Indian subcontinent and beyond.

Founder and Publisher of Juggernaut Books, Chiki Sarkar, said her team is "delighted to be working with HarperCollins and the dynamic Ananth Padmanabhan and his brilliant team".

HarperCollins India CEO Ananth Padmanabhan said the publishing house has been focusing on quality and growth and "this collaboration is one more step".

Focused on the growing smartphone usage in India, Juggernaut aims to give readers and authors a digital as well as a traditional publishing platform.

In addition to this, its self-publishing arm, Juggernaut Selects, is a platform where aspiring writers can submit their work, find over readers and be discovered by its editors.

According to Juggernaut Books CEO Simran Khara, "We have had an outstanding two and a half years with books that have been both hits and critically acclaimed. In this next phase, as we work towards doubling our revenues, we have chosen to go with HarperCollins India as our sales and distribution partner. We are excited by their growth and vision and look forward to partnering with them.

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The Punjab and Haryana High Court Friday recalled its order of granting relief to former Moga SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma after the office of Punjab advocate general sought an opportunity to be heard on the matter.

After taking up petition of the former SSP, the court of Justice Ramendra Jain granted him relief wherein the Punjab Police would give him a seven-day advance notice before initiating any action against him in connection with the 2015 police firing incidents in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in Faridkot.

After the court passed the order, Additional Advocate General Punjab Rameeza Hakeem approached the court and pointed out that the state was not given an opportunity of being heard in the matter.

She also pointed out that the matter was "suspiciously" listed in the urgent supplementary list at the last moment rather than being in the main list, and the state did not even have a copy of the petition which had been allowed by the court.

Charanjit Singh Sharma, who was arrested in connection with the Behbal Kalan firing incident by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), was presently lodged in the Patiala Central Jail.

Suspended inspector general (IG) Parmraj Singh Umranangal, who was arrested in the Kotkapura firing case by the SIT, was also granted relief by the high court on Thursday.

Taking immediate note of the objections raised by the state counsel, the court agreed that the state had the right to be heard on the matter before any order was passed, Punjab Advocate General Atul Nanda said.

"When we approached the court and pointed out that the state was not given any opportunity of being heard in this matter, the court took note of our submissions and recalled the order after calling the counsel of petitioner," said Nanda.

Appearing before the court on behalf of the former Moga SSP, his counsel SPS Sidhu said after the office of AG Punjab sought that they should also be heard in the matter, the court recalled the order and issued a notice.

The court issued a notice for March 28 in this case.

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The Bombay High Court has restrained "Hotel Mumbai PTY Ltd" from entering into any pact related to the movie "Hotel Mumbai", based on 2008 terror attacks, forARC nations.

The interim order, which restrained the firm from "entering into any agreement or creating any third party rights" for the film, was passed by Justice G S Kulkarni on Thursday.

The court has posted the plea for further hearing on April 4. Hotel Mumbai PTY Ltd is one of the parties involved with the film.

The suit has been filed by a Dubai-based firm, Plus Holdings, seeking to block Netflix from screening the movie which is based on the November, 2008 terror attacks on the Taj Hotel in south Mumbai.

Plus Holdings claimed that it has rights over the film and Netflix was in breach of an arbitration award granted to the Dubai-based firm's favour in Singapore.

"The petitioner has become aware that Respondent No.4 (Netflix Global LLC), in breach of the Emergency Award and of the Petitioner's unique rights and entitlements in the said Film, intends on shortly releasing the said Film in India.

"Hence, the Petitioner is constrained to file the present petition under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996," the suit said.

Netflix Global LLC informed the court that its licence rights to air the movie 'Hotel Mumbai' on its platform has been terminated by Hotel Mumbai PTY Ltd.

Netflix then sought to be deleted as respondent party in the suit which was accepted by the high court.

Justice Kulkarni, after hearing arguments in the case, noted that there was substance in the petitioner's contentions.

"It appears that the rights of the petitioner with regard to the film in question have been sufficiently recognized," the court said in its order.

"Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, it would be necessary to grant interim protection to the petitioner. Accordingly respondent No. 3 (Hotel Mumbai PTY Ltd) is restrained from entering into any agreement or creating any third party rights in relation to the film "Hotel Mumbai" for theARC territories," Justice Kulkarni said.

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The Delhi High Court Friday sought response of the Centre, Election Commission of India and prisons authorities on a plea seeking to grant and facilitate voting rights to all the persons lodged in jails across the country.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao asked the ministries of Home and Law and Justice to respond to the petition filed by three law students.

The petition has challenged the constitutionality of section 62(5) of Representation of People Act, which deprives prisoners their right to vote.

The three law students Praveen Kumar Chaudhary, Atul Kumar Dubey and Prerna Singh contended in their plea that blanket ban on right to vote of prisoners is violation of the spirit and soul enshrined in the Constitution and also to the basic principle of equality.

The petition said that all the persons in any kind of confinement either in the jails or police station or at any other place shall be allowed to vote and requisite facilities for the same shall be made available.

The plea, filed through advocate Kamlesh Mishra, said the denial of voting rights will ostracise the prisoners from the mainstream political decision making of world's largest democracy.

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Krishna Kumari Kohli, Pakistan's first female senator from the Hindu Dalit community, on Friday chaired the session of the Upper House of Parliament on occasion of International Women's Day.

"Chairman Senate of Pakistan decided to make our colleague Krishna Kumari Kohli aka Kishoo Bai to Chair the Senate for today on Women's Day," Senator Faisal Javed tweeted.

Krishna, 40, was elected as senator in March 2018 after spending many years working for the rights of bonded labourers in Muslim-majority Pakistan. She is the first Thari Hindu woman to be elected to the Pakistan senate.

She belongs to the Kohli community from the remote village of Dhana Gam in Nagarparkar area of Sindh province where a sizeable number of Hindus live.

"I consider myself very fortunate today to be sitting on this seat...," she said before starting the session.

International Women's Day is observed across the world on March 8.

Born to a poor peasant, Jugno Kolhi, in February 1979, Krishna and her family members spent nearly three years in a private jail owned by the landlord of Kunri of Umerkot district.

She was a grade 3 student at the time when held captive. She was married to Lalchand at the age of 16, when she was studying in 9th grade.

She pursued her studies and in 2013 she did masters in sociology from the Sindh University. She had joined the Pakistan Peoples Party as a social activist along with her brother, who was later elected as Chairman of Union Council Berano.

Krishna's election to Senate represented a major milestone for women and minority rights in Pakistan.

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DMK president M K Stalin hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the government's assertion on Rafale documents being 'stolen' from the Defence Ministry and sought to know how could he protect the country when he could not even safeguard documents.

The opposition has, therefore, joined hands against the BJP, he told reporters here.

"My question is how Modi, who cannot even protect documents, can protect the country? That is why such an alliance has been formed," he said, referring to the mega coalition against the BJP.

Stalin was responding to the government's submission in the Supreme Court that documents related to the Rafale aircraft deal have been stolen from the Defence Ministry.

On the DMDK's war of words with his party Treasurer Durai Murugan and its criticism of his party, Stalin said he did not want to waste time over such issues by responding to them.

While DMDK had claimed that two of its party functionaries had met Durai Murugan on Wednesday for some personal work, the DMK leader had, however, said that they had sought accommodation for their party in the DMK-led camp in the state ahead of LS polls.

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Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday that the IAF pilots were on a targeted mission to destroy terrorist facility in Pakistan and did not go on any pleasure trip or to shower petals.

He said Pakistan's desperation after the air strike in Balakot was reasonable, but it is sad that a few people in India are in a shock and asking for proof of its success.

"IAF pilots had targeted terrorist facility based on credible intelligence input to destroy them. The pilots had not entered Pakistan for any pleasure trip or to shower petals," Singh told a party meeting in Beawar town of Ajmer district.

IAF pilots have made Pakistan realise that it would have to pay a heavy price if the terrorists operate from its land, the senior BJP leader said.

"Warriors don't count people killed in war. But the Congress and its friends have a misleading and dangerous stance. They give respect to terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden and Hafiz Saeed by calling them Osama Ji and Hafiz Ji," Singh said.

He said that such people do not have clear policy and intention on terrorism. All political parties should stand united to tackle terrorism.

"Our army jawans have achieved victory by eliminating terrorists on foreign land thrice in the past five years," Singh said.

IAF carried out an air strike in Pakistan's Balakot last month following the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants India to become the world leader and added that the party's is based on justice and humanity.

On the issue of Kashmiris, Singh said the people of Jammu and Kashmir are and will always be with the country and Kashmiri students studying anywhere in the country will be protected.

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On International Women's Day, IIT Delhi students have launched a period pain relief roll-on to provide relief from the discomfort women face during menstruation.

An Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi incubated start-up Sanfe launched 'Sanfe Period Pain Relief Roll-On' developed by B Tech students Archit Agarwal and Harry Sehrawat and Professor Srinivasan Venkataraman.

The product has been medically tested and Food Safety and Drugs Administration (FDA) approved with no side effects, the students said.

The roll-on is an oil-based natural formulation which can be applied on cramp-affected areas (lower abdominal area, lower back and legs), they said.

"It provides a soothing action on the cramp-affected areas followed by a heating sensation which relieves the menstrual cramps. Sanfe Period Pain Relief Roll-On comes in a 10 ml bottle which can last up to three months and costs



Rs 10 for single-day use," the third-year students said.

The students said they spent close to seven months on developing the concept.

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A number of senior BJP leaders made it clear Friday that building Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya is the only way out of the impasse, soon after the Supreme Court ordered a time-bound mediation to resolve the long-pending issue.

Union minister Uma Bharti said one has to respect the Supreme Court order but asserted that she stands for building the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and a mosque can be built only outside its vicinity.

BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao said that keeping the dispute pending for long is not in anyone's interest.

"It is important to resolve the issue but it is more important and essential to build a grand temple at Sri Ram Janmbhoomi. This cannot be kept pending for a long time," he said.

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy also stressed that the construction of Ram temple is non-negotiable. "There is no question of not building a temple where we believe Lord Ram was born," he added.

The party has been insisting that it stands for building a grand temple at the earliest at the site, where Hindus believe Lord Ram was born.

Union minister Giriraj Singh, known for his hardline stand on Hindutva issues, said he had no comments to offer on the court order, but asked Muslims "not to be obstinate" as he pitched for building the Ram temple.

"Can there be anything other than a mosque in Mecca and Madina?... Do Hindus have not even this much right after partition that we can offer prayers to Lord Ram in Ayodhya?" he asked.

The Supreme Court on Friday referred the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation by a panel headed by retired apex court judge F M I Kalifulla to explore the possibility of an amicable settlement and gave it eight weeks to complete its proceedings. The other members of the panel are spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu.

In a statement, Swamy, who is a petitioner in the case, said the court's decision is welcome but claimed that the mediation panel will have to "map the problem within the parameters so far set by the apex court starting from its 1994 constitutional bench judgment and ending with the a three-judge verdict of Sept 27, 2018".

The parameters include that worshipping in a temple, built on the faith that it is the birth place of Lord Ram, is a fundamental right under the Constitution, he said, adding that such a temple cannot be shifted.

"A claim by a suit to the title of the property is just an ordinary right and is superseded by a fundamental right. Hence the Hindus' right to re-building the demolished temple is guaranteed by the Constitution," he claimed.

Swamy also contended that a mosque "is not an essential part" of Islamic theology and hence it can be shifted by government.

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Holdout Islamic State group fighters hunkered down in a riverside camp in eastern Syria Friday as US-backed forces looked to expel them from the last scrap of their dying "caliphate".

Thousands of men and women have poured out of the pocket of territory in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border in recent days, suitcases and dust-covered children in tow.

The extremist group created a proto-state across large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, ruling millions of people, but has since lost all of it except a tiny patch in Baghouz by the Euphrates River.

The last IS fighters and their families are cornered by the advancing US-backed forces in an improvised encampment on the water's edge.

Footage obtained by AFP showed men, as well as women draped in black, walking among a sea of pickup trucks and rudimentary tents scattered across the uneven riverbank.

A black cow grazed on a patch of dry grass between the makeshift dwellings.

The images, filmed by the Free Burma Rangers aid group, showed a motorbike darting between a dark earth berm topped with clumps of reeds and a line of temporary shelters.

Just a few metres from the river, a few figures sat behind a wall of breeze-blocks erected among a thick bed of reeds, shielding them from the other side of the waterway, which is held by regime troops.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, who are backed by air power of a US-led coalition, are waiting for all civilians to be evacuated before moving in to retake the last scrap of IS-held territory.

SDF spokesman Adnan Afrin said no civilians had been evacuated on Friday, but expected more to flow out on Saturday.

"The situation has completely stalled except for some intermittent clashes," he added on the situation on the frontline.

In the neighbouring desert hamlet of Sousa, nearly destroyed by earlier battles to push out IS, Kurdish women fighters from the SDF gathered to mark International Women's Day.

Amid bullet-pocked homes and gaping holes in roads hit by air strikes, the fighters waved flags for the Kurdish Women's Protection Units (YPJ) and performed a traditional dance around a fire to music blasted out of a loudspeaker.

More than 7,000 people, mostly women and children, have left the Baghouz enclave this week, into territory held by the Kurdish-led SDF.

A stream of wounded men has emerged from the dregs of the "caliphate", limping on crutches or supported by others.

Around a tenth of the nearly 58,000 people who have fled the last IS bastion since December were jihadists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.

It is unclear how many people remain inside, but the SDF has been surprised by the seemingly endless exodus from the final jihadist redoubt.

At the height of its rule, IS imposed its brutal interpretation of Islam across an area the size of the United Kingdom.

After it lost major cities in both countries in 2017, the fall of Baghouz would be a symbolic end to its territorial control.

But many warn the battle is far from over, and some of those fleeing jihadist territory appear to have their devotion intact.

At an SDF position outside Baghouz this week, women covered from head to toe in black stood in front of journalists, pointing their index fingers to the sky in a gesture used by IS supporters to proclaim the oneness of God.

"The Islamic State is here to stay!" they cried in unison.

One woman added: "We will seek vengeance, there will be blood up to your knees." General Joseph Votel, head of the US Central Command, warned Thursday that many of those being evacuated are "unrepentant, unbroken and radicalised".

He stressed the need to "maintain a vigilant offensive against this now widely dispersed and disaggregated organisation".

Beyond Baghouz, IS fighters are still present in Syria's vast Badia desert and have claimed deadly attacks in SDF-held territory.

US President Trump stunned allies in December when he announced all 2,000 US troops would withdraw from Syria as IS had been defeated.

The White House later said that around 200 American "peace-keeping" soldiers would remain in northern Syria.

Syria's Kurds hold hundreds of foreigners accused of fighting for IS, and family members, but their home nations have been reluctant to take them back.

Baghouz is the latest front in Syria's eight-year civil war, which has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions.

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India and Israel should strengthen their partnership to define the digital world's new norms, the president of a leading trade association of Indian IT companies has said here.

NASSCOM President Debjani Ghosh said that collaboration, being integral to the DNA of India and Israel, has inspired innovation.

"My trip to Israel has convinced me that innovation is not something that you do. Innovation is about how you think. I think there is a huge difference there. There is a huge difference between what we see in Israel and what we see pretty much elsewhere in the world," Ghosh said after interacting with the leading Israeli IT companies as part of the India-Israel Innovation Week.

Touching upon the history of Israel's establishment, she noted that for the "immigrant society here assembled from various parts of the world, collaboration was very much in the DNA which inspired innovation".

Ghosh noted that the Indian IT sector was blessed with some extremely visionary leaders who believed that the country had the potential to do something big to become a powerhouse in the IT sector.

Similar to Israel, they also believed that they could not do this alone and it was possible to do only through collaboration, which gave birth to NASSCOM, she said.

"Two things define us. We dream big. We love to dream big. It started by saying if we can go from 50 million (USD) to a billion. Very soon it became 10, 20, a 100 and today we are a 181 billion USD industry and growing.

"Indian companies have footprint across 80 countries. It's a fantastic transformational journey. Indian IT sector today is not only about IT and BPM sector, it is big on R&D. The industry is diversifying and is now impacting across sectors including health, energy and many others. Everything almost today is digital," Ghosh said.

Emphasising on the strong partnership built between India and Israel in the field of technology, the NASSCOM chief said that after going through a phase of lot of knowledge sharing, the stage was now set to take the relationship to the next level.

"We need to think as to how to unleash the power of collaboration. We can play together in this. How do we work together to define the new norms of the digital world to create a future that we want," she said.

In a panel discussion as part of the OurCrowd Global Investor Summit, Ghosh outlined how technology through a collaborative effort penetrated the grassroots in India by impacting on people's livelihood while she worked on a project as the Head of Intel for South Asia.

"The technology adoption in India was limited to urban areas. And that is roughly 30 per cent of the Indian population. The next billion, the most interesting piece, was totally untouched. So the biggest challenge was how to take technology to the next billion.

"One thing that you realise in India is the power of the ecosystem. As one company you can do very little. But if you bring the entire ecosystem to play, it changes everything. We asked the government to intervene and we got all sorts of companies like Google, Mocrosoft, not just Intel, all sorts of Indian companies, the academia, all joined hands to set up the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM)," Ghosh said.

She said that the big challenge was to show the farmers how technology actually impacts their earnings because explaining technology itself would not have resulted into anything.

"So you have to talk about benefits in a way that is relevant. NDLM was about taking technology to the grassroots in a way that it connects to livelihood," Ghosh said.

The India-Israel Innovation Conference was inaugurated by India's Ambassador in Israel Pavan Kapoor and DST Secretary Ashutosh Sharma earlier this week.

The India-Israel Joint Committee on Science and Technology held its meeting in Tel Aviv earlier this week to review ongoing cooperation and agreed to broaden scope of joint research projects to the new and emerging fields.

It was also agreed that India will host first women's STEM conference later this year, officials said.

"We have taken collaboration to another level and the participation of a large delegation is a reflection of our continued interest and the potential we see in the sector. The participation in OurCrowd fit directly into our objective of giving Indian start ups a platform for collaboration," Kapoor told PTI.

Some 24 Indian companies have participated in the India-Israel Innovation Week and showcased their ideas at the OurCrowd Investor Summit in Jerusalem at the India pavilion set up for the first time at the prestigious event.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India and Pakistan should quickly turn the page following the Pulwama terror attack and convert the present tensions into opportunity for long term improvement in their relations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.

Wang also said post-Wuhan summit between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China wants to develop closer ties with India and forge ahead like the "Yangtze and Ganges" rivers despite Beijing's all weather ties with Pakistan.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in February 14.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.

"China hopes Pakistan and India will transform the crisis into opportunity and meet each other halfway," Wang said.

He was replying to questions on the present India-Pakistan tensions following the Pulwama terror attack and how China plans to carry forward the spirit of last year's Wuhan summit between Prime Minister and President Xi.

"We advise both the parties to quickly turn the page and seek fundamental, long term improvement in their relations. When confrontation gives way to dialogue and disagreement are settled, we can create a better future through cooperation," he said.

Recent events focussed international attention on the India-Pakistan relations, he said stating that China played a constructive role to resolve the tensions between the two neighbours.

"China has stressed from the beginning the need to exercise restraint prevent an escalation, find out what has happened and resolve the matter through dialogue," Wang said adding that Beijing tried to play a mediatory role.

"In the meantime, country's sovereignty and territorial integrity should fully respected. China followed these principle in its mediation and played a constructive role in defusing the tension, he said.

China recently dispatched its Vice Foreign Minister Kong Kong Xuanyou to Pakistan where he held talks with Prime Minister Imran Khan, Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, besides Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua, on the India-Pakistan tensions.

His visit coincides with the US, the UK and French application in the 1267 counter terrorism committee of the UNSC to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. If listed by the committee, Azhar would face a global travel ban and asset freeze. the JeM has already been banned by the UN.

While China blocked India's previous attempts to declare Azhar as a global terrorist, expectations are high that this time Beijing may take a different stand considering JeM has admitted its role in the Pulwama terror attack.

"In the last couple of days both Pakistan and India indicated a desire to de-escalate the situation and start talks. We welcome this. Pakistan and India are neighbours and always have to live with each other," Wang said.

"Both countries face important opportunities to realise stability, development and prosperity. China hopes the two countries will get along and progress together," he said.

Asked post-Wuhan summit, how China plans to develop its relations with India in the light of challenges and Beijing's close ties with Pakistan, Wang said 2018 was an "year of great significance for China and India relations".

"The historic meeting between Xi and Modi at Wuhan has created a new model of high level interactions between our two countries deepened and trust between our leaders and set the direction for our future relations," he said.

The priority now is to see that the strategic understanding reached by the two leader should go down to the people and become their common view through conscious efforts, he said.

"China will work with India to comprehensively strengthen sectoral cooperation and people-to-people ties which are vital importance in the current context so that our friendship and cooperation will forge ahead like the Yangtze and Ganges giving strong and sustained impetus to our relationship," he said.

Wang said India and China are ancient civilisations with combined population of 2.7 billion besides being the largest developing countries and neighbours.

"China and India should be each other's partners in pursing our respective dreams and each other's important opportunity for growing our respective economies. Collectively we must make our due contribution to Asia's revitalisation and prosperity," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India and Pakistan should quickly turn the page after the Pulwama terror attack, meet each other halfway and transform the present crisis into an opportunity for a long term and fundamental improvement in their bilateral relations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.

He also said that after the historic Wuhan Summit between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April last year, China wants to develop closer ties with India and forge ahead like the "Yangtze and Ganges" rivers despite Beijing's all weather ties with Pakistan.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in February 14.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.

"China hopes Pakistan and India will transform the crisis into opportunity and meet each other halfway," Wang said at his annual press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress, China's Parliament.

He was replying to questions on the present India-Pakistan tensions following the Pulwama terror attack and how China plans to carry forward the spirit of last year's Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi.

"We advise both the parties to quickly turn the page and seek fundamental, long term improvement in their relations. When confrontation gives way to dialogue and disagreement are settled, we can create a better future through cooperation," Wang said.

Recent events in South Asia focussed international attention on the India-Pakistan relations, he said stating that China played a constructive role to resolve the tensions between the two neighbours.

"China has stressed from the beginning the need to exercise restraint prevent an escalation, find out what has happened and resolve the matter through dialogue," he said adding that Beijing tried to play a mediatory role.

"In the meantime, country's sovereignty and territorial integrity should fully respected. China followed these principle in its mediation and played a constructive role in defusing the tension", he said.

China recently dispatched its Vice Foreign Minister Kong Kong Xuanyou to Pakistan where he held talks with Prime Minister Imran Khan, Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, besides Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua, on ways to ease the India-Pakistan tensions.

His visit coincided with the US, the UK and French application in the 1267 counter terrorism committee of the UNSC to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. If listed by the committee, Azhar would face a global travel ban and asset freeze. the JeM has already been banned by the UN.

While China blocked India's previous attempts to declare Azhar as a global terrorist, expectations are high that this time Beijing may take a different stand considering JeM has admitted its role in the Pulwama terror attack.

"In the last couple of days both Pakistan and India indicated a desire to de-escalate the situation and start talks. We welcome this. Pakistan and India are neighbours and always have to live with each other," Wang said.

"Both countries face important opportunities to realise stability, development and prosperity. China hopes the two countries will get along and progress together," he said.

Asked post-Wuhan summit, how China plans to develop its relations with India in the light of challenges and Beijing's close ties with Pakistan, the foreign minister said that 2018 was an "year of great significance for China and India relations".

"The historic meeting between President Xi and Prime Minister Modi at Wuhan has created a new model of high level interactions between our two countries deepened and trust between our leaders and set the direction for our future relations," he said.

The priority now is to see that the strategic understanding reached by the two leader should go down to the people and become their common view through conscious efforts, he said.

"China will work with India to comprehensively strengthen sectoral cooperation and people-to-people ties which are vital importance in the current context so that our friendship and cooperation will forge ahead like the Yangtze and Ganges giving strong and sustained impetus to our relationship," he said.

Wang said India and China are ancient civilisations with combined population of 2.7 billion besides being the largest developing countries and neighbours.

"China and India should be each other's partners in pursing our respective dreams and each other's important opportunity for growing our respective economies. Collectively we must make our due contribution to Asia's revitalisation and prosperity," the foreign minister said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Marches and protests are held Friday across the globe to mark International Women's Day under the slogan #BalanceforBetter, with calls for a more gender-balanced world.

The day, sponsored by the United Nations since 1975, celebrates women's achievements and aims to further their rights.

Thousands of women walked off the job in Spain, joining millions more around the world demanding equality amid a persistent salary gap, violence and widespread inequality.

In Spain, where women's rights have become one of the hot topics in the run-up to a general election next month, many female employees didn't show up to work Friday. Others also halted domestic work or left to men the care of children and ill or elderly people.

In neighboring Portugal, the Cabinet observed a minute of silence Thursday as part of a day of national mourning it decreed for victims of domestic violence. Portuguese police say 12 women have died this year in domestic violence incidents the highest number over the same period in 10 years.

In France, the first Simone Veil prize went Friday to a Cameroonian activist who has worked against forced marriages and other violence against girls and women. Aissa Doumara Ngatansou was married against her will at age 15 but insisted upon continuing her studies as a young wife. She has since turned her attention to victims of Boko Haram extremists.

The French award is named for the trailblazing French politician and Holocaust survivor Veil, who spearheaded the fight to legalize abortion.

Meanwhile in Russia, International Women's Day is a public holiday but it mostly lauds gender roles that are now outdated. As is his custom every year, President Vladimir Putin gave a speech thanking women for their patience, good grace and support.

"You manage to do everything: both at work and at home and at the same time you remain beautiful, charismatic, charming, the center of gravity for the whole family, uniting it with your love," Putin said.

In Turkey, four female members of Turkey's gendarmerie units found an unusual way of marking the day: rappelling down from Istanbul's 15 July Martyrs' Bridge connecting the city's European and Asian sides and into the waters of the iconic Bosporus.

In India, hundreds of women marched on the streets of New Delhi demanding an end to domestic violence, sexual attacks and discrimination in jobs.

In Indonesia's capital Jakarta, several hundred men and women carried colorful placards calling for an end to discriminative practices such as the termination of employment for pregnancy and exploitative work contracts.

"Our action today is to urge (the government) for our right to a society that's democratic, prosperous, equal and free from violence," said Dian Trisnanti, a labor activist. Girls and women in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, have equal access to education but face higher unemployment, lower wages and poorer working conditions than men.

Both Koreas marked the day. In the South, women wearing black cloaks and pointed hats marched against what they describe as a "witch hunt" of feminists in a deeply conservative society.

College student Noh Seo-young said that South Korea struggles to accept that women are "also humans" and that women have to fight until they can "walk around safely."



In the North, where Women's Day is one of the few national holidays that is not explicitly political in nature, people dressed up for family photo shoots or bought roses for their mothers or wives at the many small, bright orange street stalls in central Pyongyang that sell flowers. The stalls normally do most of their business selling flowers to be placed at the feet of statues to the country's leaders.

In the Philippines, hundreds of women in purple shirts used a noisy march and protest in Manila to call for the ouster of President Rodrigo Duterte, whom they rebuked for the often sexist jokes he cracks and authoritarian moves they say are threatening one of Asia's liveliest democracies.

They toppled an ugly head effigy of Duterte from atop paper blocks with slogans depicting him as an American lapdog.

On the eve of International Women's Day, U.S. first lady Melania Trump saluted women from 10 countries for their courage.

The recipients of the International Women of Courage Award included human rights activists, police officers and an investigative journalist. They came from Bangladesh, Djibouti, Egypt, Ireland, Jordan, Montenegro, Myanmar, Peru, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. "Courage is what divides those who only talk about change from those who actually act to change," Mrs. Trump said at a ceremony Thursday that was also attended by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pompeo separately recognized women in Iran for protesting the requirement that they wear a head covering known as a hijab in public and a Ukrainian activist who died in 2018 after she was attacked with sulfuric acid.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The new-born baby of Shamima Begum, a Bangladeshi-origin London schoolgirl who fled the UK to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group in Syria, may have died, according to her family's lawyer.

In an online message on social media on Friday, Mohammed Akunjee said the family has received unconfirmed reports from within her refugee camp in the Middle East that her baby named Jerah has passed away.

"We have strong but as yet unconfirmed reports that Shamima Begum's son has died. He was a British Citizen," Akunjee stated on Twitter.

As the baby was born while Begum was still a British national, his status remains that of a British national.

The of his possible death follows a plea from Begum's London-based family to UK home secretary Sajid Javid to assist them in bringing the baby back to the UK based on his rights as a British citizen.

It was in reaction to the minister's decision to revoke 19-year-old Begum's British citizenship on security grounds, indicating that she would have the right to acquire Bangladeshi citizenship by virtue of her parents' heritage.

"My number one job is to do whatever I can to keep this country safe," Javid had said last month when announcing the revocation of citizenship.

Begum's son was born on February 17, days after she was tracked down heavily-pregnant by in a refugee camp in Syria. She told reporters at the time that she had already lost two babies one to malnutrition and another to ill-health during her time with ISIS and pleaded with the UK government to allow her and her new-born baby to return to the Britain.

"I would like them to re-evaluate my case with a bit more mercy in their heart. I am willing to change," she said, following the revocation of her citizenship.

She was 15 when she fled to join ISIS in February 2015 and married Dutch ISIS recruit Yago Riedijk as a so-called jihadi bride. Her 27-year-old husband, who is being held in a Kurdish detention centre in north-eastern Syria, recently said in a media interview that he wanted his wife and baby to be allowed to return to the Netherlands.

Both the Netherlands and Bangladesh have since denied that Shamima Begum would have a right to entry into either country.

Earlier this week, her father Ahmed Ali, who now lives in Bangladesh, blamed the UK authorities for failing to prevent Begum fleeing the country on her sister's passport.

"The British immigration system is very informed, the most informed system in the world. I always say how did (Shamima) get there using another person's passport? She doesn't even have her own passport. These matters should be investigated," the 60-year-old said, urging the UK to allow his daughter to return and face the British legal system.

Under international law, the UK can revoke a citizenship of a British national only if the individual would not be made stateless.

Begum's British citizenship was revoked on the grounds that she is eligible for citizenship of Bangladesh until the age of 21 through her parents' Bangladeshi dual nationality.

But Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has since ruled out such a possibility of her being considered for Bangladeshi citizenship.

Begum is currently believed to be in a refugee camp closer to the Iraqi border after being removed from the Al-Hol camp in the north of Syria due to alleged threats following the worldwide media attention she attracted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A day after a grenade attack at the crowded general bus stand here left two persons dead and 31 others injured, the Jammu and Kashmir Police Friday appealed to shopkeepers to install CCTV cameras to help the force to keep the city safe.

Inspector General of Police, Jammu, M K Sinha made the appeal in a post on his twitter account.

"Appeal to all market associations in Jammu city. Help Jammu police in keeping your city safe. Install as many CCTV cameras looking out from your shops and establishments as possible. Early action would be very helpful," he wrote on the micro-blogging site.

A grenade blast rocked general bus stand Jammu in the heart of the city around Thursday afternoon, killing a teenager Mohammad Sharik of Uttrakhand and injuring 32 others.

One of the injured, Mohammad Riyaz from Kashmir, succumbed to injuries at Government Medical College hospital in the early hours Friday, taking the death toll in the incident to two.

Within hours of the incident, police arrested the accused based on the oral testimony of the eye-witnesses and the CCTV footage and said he was tasked by terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen to carry out the attack.

Yasir Javed Bhat, a resident of Khanpora-Dassein village in Kulgam, was tasked by HM district commander, Kulgam, Farooq Ahmad Bhat alias "Umar" to carry out the attack, Sinha had told reporters here Thursday evening.

He said Bhat, who had reached Jammu along with the grenade Thursday morning after he left Kulgam the previous night, was fleeing after the attack when he was arrested by alert policemen at Nagrota on the outskirts of the city.

The third grenade attack by terrorists on Jammu bus stand since May last comes just three weeks after the Pulwama terror strike on February 14 that killed 40 CRPF jawans, bringing India and Pakistan on the brink of war.

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Japanese ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu Friday said connectivity improvement of Indias North East with South Asian countries is a focus area of the Japan government.

"Connectivity improvement of Indias North East with the South Asian countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar is one of the priority areas of the Japan government. We are attaching importance to this project and the Japan government would support it, he told reporters here.

This is the first-ever visit of the Ambassador in Tripura.

Hiramatsu said after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Japan last year, the two countries have decided to cooperate in different development sectors including connectivity, forest management and supporting local communities in making bamboo-based handicrafts.

"We are happy to support bamboo industries in Tripura and we have sent experts to the bamboo and cane development institute in Tripura," he said.

The Ambassador said that Japan would like to see more infrastructure and incentives from the local government for setting up industries in the region.

"We are trying to encourage Japanese companies to set up industries in the region," he said.

Hiramatsu said that the trade relations between the two countries are very cordial and Japanese companies have set up many automobile and electronics manufacturing inits in other parts of the country.

"We also want companies to come to the north eastern region," he added.

He said Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has extended help in developing bamboo-based handicrafts in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An inquiry commission probing late Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa's death on Friday submitted in the Madras High Court that the Apollo Hospital could not seek to stall its proceedings at a stage when 90 per cent of hearing was over and that too after participating in it.

Opposing the hospital's plea for restraining it from looking into the medical treatment given to Jayalalithaa, the Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry also contended before a bench of justices R Subbiah and Krishnan Ramaswamy that such a relief could not be sought without first challenging the terms of reference of the panel.

Senior Counsel ARL Sundaresan, who presented the final arguments on behalf of the commission, termed the hospital's petition against going into the records on the treatment given to Jayalalithaa as a knee-jerk reaction.

If the prejudice argument of the hospital was to be accepted, the inquiry had to be wound up, he said.

The counsel said the commission was yet to prepare its final report as it had to question the politicians concerned. Till now, only doctors, officials and others have been examined.

The Apollo Hospitals was free to challenge the final report of the commission once it was out, but they could not challenge the proceedings at this stage, he said.

Rejecting the charge of bias and prejudice levelled by the hospital, he said a bundle of facts had already been collected and recommendations would be made by the commission in its report to the government, which would then take a call on accepting or rejecting those.

Legally, such allegations could not be levelled against a commission of inquiry since it was not an adjudicating authority, he added.

Sundaresan said the ultimate mandate of the commission was to find out the truth and rule out rumours regarding the circumstances leading to Jayalalithaa's death.

Noting that 90 per cent of the proceedings was already completed, he said the hospital could not seek to stall the proceedings without challenging the government order setting up the panel or the terms of reference, that too after participating in the hearings so far.

Recording the submissions, the bench directed the commission and the hospital to file their written arguments by March 12 and adjourned the matter to that date.

Jayalalithaa died on December 5, 2016, over two months after being treated for various complications, including infection, since September 22.

The state government had set up the inquiry commission headed by retired high court judge A Arumughaswamy to look into the circumstances leading to the death of the late AIADMK supremo, citing doubts expressed by various people.

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The Kurdish forces holding Islamic State (ISIS) families in northern Syria have denied reports that the newborn baby of Shamima Begum, a Bangladeshi-origin London schoolgirl who fled the UK to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group, may have died in a refugee camp in the region.

In a message posted on social media on Friday, the teenager's family lawyer Mohammed Akunjee said the family has received unconfirmed reports from within her refugee camp in the Middle East that her newborn son named Jerah has passed away.

"We have strong but as yet unconfirmed reports that Shamima Begum's son has died. He was a British Citizen," Akunjee stated on Twitter.

As the baby was born while Begum was still a British national, his status remains that of a British national.

However, the report was countered soon after by a spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is holding Begum and thousands of other ISIS family members.

"Leaks said that ISIS bride Shamima's son died are fake. The bebe [sic] is alive and healthy," wrote Mustafa Bali, in response to Akunjee's message on Twitter.

The lawyer has urged Bali to contact the family directly for "confirmation of the situation".

The conflicting reports of the baby's well-being follow a plea from Begum's London-based family to UK home secretary Sajid Javid to assist them in bringing the baby back to the UK based on his rights as a British citizen.

It was in reaction to the minister's decision to revoke 19-year-old Begum's British citizenship on security grounds, indicating that she would have the right to acquire Bangladeshi citizenship by virtue of her parents' heritage.

"My number one job is to do whatever I can to keep this country safe," Javid had said last month while announcing the revocation of citizenship.

Begum's son was born on February 17, days after she was tracked down heavily-pregnant by in a refugee camp in Syria.

She told reporters at the time that she had already lost two babies one to malnutrition and another to ill-health during her time with ISIS and pleaded with the UK government to allow her and her new-born baby to return to the Britain.

"I would like them to re-evaluate my case with a bit more mercy in their heart. I am willing to change, she said, following the revocation of her citizenship.

She was 15 when she fled to join ISIS in February 2015 and married Dutch ISIS recruit Yago Riedijk as a so-called jihadi bride. Her 27-year-old husband, who is being held in a Kurdish detention centre in north-eastern Syria, recently said in a media interview that he wanted his wife and baby to be allowed to return to the Netherlands.

Both the Netherlands and Bangladesh have since denied that Begum would have a right to entry into either country.

Earlier this week, her father Ahmed Ali, who now lives in Bangladesh, blamed the UK authorities for failing to prevent Begum fleeing the country on her sister's passport.

"The British immigration system is very informed, the most informed system in the world. I always say how did (Shamima) get there using another person's passport? She doesn't even have her own passport. These matters should be investigated," the 60-year-old said, urging the UK to allow his daughter to return and face the British legal system.

Under international law, the UK can revoke a citizenship of a British national only if the individual would not be made stateless. Begum's British citizenship was revoked on the grounds that she is eligible for citizenship of Bangladesh until the age of 21 through her parents' Bangladeshi dual nationality.

But Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has since ruled out such a possibility of her being considered for Bangladeshi citizenship.

Begum is currently believed to be in a refugee camp closer to the Iraqi border after being removed from the Al-Hol camp in the north of Syria due to alleged threats following the worldwide media attention she attracted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The European Union and the Jawaharlal Nehru University on Friday inaugurated the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for European Union Studies in India at the varsity.

The Centre of Excellence for European Union Studies in India (CEEUSI) at JNU will provide greater visibility to EU studies in India and South Asia, a statement said.

After Manipal Academy for Higher Education, JNU is one of only two Centers of Excellence awarded EU funds in India.

JNU vice-chancellor professor M Jagadesh Kumar welcomed the setting up of the centre in the varsity and said it will help expand the range of options available to students and researchers.

Ambassador of the European Union to India, Tomasz Kozlowski, said, "We are delighted to support the Centre of Excellence at JNU. EU-India relations are moving to an exciting new phase with the launch of the new EU Strategy for India in November 2018.

"One of the focus areas in the new strategy is on more people-to-people exchanges and cooperation on and skills. The new Centre of Excellence at JNU will provide additional opportunities to students and researchers to work on EU studies in India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Karnataka PWD Minister H D Revanna Friday stoked a controversy, saying multi-lingual film actress Sumalatha, wife of late Congress MP Ambareesh, entered the political fray within months of losing her husband.

Even as the remarks drew flak from BJP, the Minister, son of JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda, later said he did not say she should not contest elections and refused to apologise.

Sumalatha, who has decided to contest the coming Lok Sabha elections from Mandya -- a stronghold of JDS -- said she was hurt and pointed out it was an irony that such a statement had been made on International Womens Day.

Speaking to a private Kannada channel in Delhi, Revanna said Sumalatha had come to politics ...it is not even a few months since her husband passed away."



Sumalatha was not grateful to what Chief Minister H D Kumarasawmy did for actor-politician Ambareesh, who passed away in November last year, he said referring to the arrangements made by the state governmnent for his funeral.

"She is not even grateful to what Kumaraswamy has done for her, said Revanna, who is the brother of Kumaraswamy.

He was reacting to Sumalathas decision to contest from Mandya, a district dominated by Vokkaligas, the dominant agrarian caste of Karnataka.

The JD(S) has decided to field actor Nikhil Gowda, the third generation of Deve Gowda clan and son of Kumaraswamy.

It always considered Mandya as its citadel having emerged as a party of Vokkaligas. Deve Gowda too belongs to the same community.

Kumaraswamy had no plans to send Nikhil to parliament. His intention was to field an ordinary party worker. When she gave us the challenge, some of us insisted on fielding Nikhil. It was done because she had challenged us, Revanna claimed.

BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa condemned Revanna's remarks.

Such statements are uncalled for. It does not suit a minister, he told reporters.

He said BJP had not taken any decision on the contest in Mandya. Sumalatha too had not approached the party for ticket, he added.

Sumalatha said: Former prime minister Deve Gowda was a father figure to us. Our respect for him will continue. I am deeply hurt with his statement...," she told a TV channel.

Revanna later clarified that he did not have any other intention behind his statement.

I never said she should not stand for election. Everybody has freedom to contest election, he told reporters in Delhi.

He however, said he would not apologise for his comment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Kashmiri students' body Friday asked the Uttarakhand government to ensure safety of Kashmiri students here and blacklist colleges where they were allegedly harassed after the Pulwama terror attack.

"The students have made up their mind about returning and resuming their studies but the state government will have to ensure their safety. If anything untoward happens with them on their return, the government alone will be responsible," Kashmiri Students Association spokesman Nasir Khuehami said.

He also asked the state government to blacklist colleges from where incidents of harassment of Kashmiri students were reported after the Pulwama attack.

He also alleged that some elements from Chandigarh were trying to create fear in the minds of Kashmiri students studying in Uttarakhand.

Asking students to not pay heed to rumours, he said they had no reason to feel unsafe.

"We met Kashmiri students and their parents in Srinagar over the last couple of days to convince them. The first batch of Kashmiri students will return to Uttarakhand in two to three days," Khuehami said.

He also asked Kashmiri students to not issue any provocative statements on social media which could hurt sentiments.

A WhatsApp message sent by a Kashmiri student here exulting over the Pulwama terror attack had triggered angry protests against Kashmiri students, prompting scores of them to return to Jammu and Kashmir out of fear.

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Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Avdhut Wagh Friday abused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after which the latter complained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "rein in the person whom you follow on Twitter".

Insinuating on Twitter that Kejriwal is a "secret colonel of the Pakistan Army", Wagh followed the label with another crass remark.

Kejriwal hit back, addressing a tweet to Modi. "Prime Minister, you follow him (Wagh) on Twitter. He is your disciple and a BJP functionary," he said.

"We can also hurl abuse but we are Hindus. Our Hindu culture doesn't teach us to use abusive language," he added.

Wagh, a mechanical engineer, is no stranger to controversy.

In October last year, Wagh had described Modi as the "11th incarnation" of Lord Vishnu, prompting ridicule by the Opposition, with the Congress calling it an "insult" to the gods.

AAP leader Preeti Sharma Menon dubbed Wagh's remarks against Kejriwal an "insult to democracy" and sought police action against him.

"Mumbai police should take cognisance of Wagh's bid to instigate hatred and violence and take action against him," she said.

When contacted, a state BJP spokesperson declined to comment on Wagh's remarks.

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Jurgen Klopp insisted Liverpool are in the Premier League title race thanks to Mohamed Salah's goals despite the Egyptian's faltering form of late.

Salah missed two huge chances as Liverpool drew for the fourth time in six league games in a 0-0 stalemate away to Everton last weekend to fall one point behind Manchester City at the top of the table.

Last season's Premier League Player of the Year has now scored just once in his last seven games.

However, he remains only one goal behind City's Sergio Aguero in the race for the Premier League golden boot.

"When you are a striker or offensive player and you have chances in a game, you want to score with them, that's clear," said Klopp ahead of Burnley's visit to Anfield on Sunday.

"But as a manager I'm more than used to that, that players don't score all the time, so that's how it is.

"He has an unbelievable record, that's all. His goals brought us where we are - not only (his goals), but a big part of it." Liverpool no longer have a first title in 29 years in their own hands with nine games of the Premier League season remaining.

However, with City feeling the physical strain of trying to complete a historic quadruple of trophies, Klopp insisted there is still plenty of reason for optimism.

"We always said we wanted to be in a position to fight for the top spot in the league and we are still in it," added the German.

"That's all we need to be positive, optimistic and excited in a very positive way about the challenge." And Klopp is not just concentrating on pre-match preparation for his players, but Liverpool fans too with Sunday's clash kicking off at midday.

"Our people are very important, we spoke a lot about that - we need atmosphere at 12 o'clock," he added.

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The resignation of Kummanam Rajasekharan as Mizoram Governor has triggered speculations that the senior BJP leader from Kerala may enter the fray in coming Lok Sabha elections from Thiruvananthapuram constituency, held by Sashi Tharoor of Congress.

Though the BJP leadership is yet to announce the candidate list, party sources here said chances are high that Rajasekharan could contest from Thiruvananthapuram, one of the few constituencies on which the saffron party pins high hopes to open its account in Lok Sabha from the state.

A staunch RSS man and former chief of state unit of BJP, Rajasekharan was made the Mizoram Governor in May last year when the crucial Chengannur bypoll was round the corner.

Since then, a section of party workers had been demanding and speculating about the coming back of the senior leader to electoral

If Rajasekharan is chosen for the prestigious Thiruvananthapuram constituency, a fierce triangular contest can be expected between the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) and the BJP.

Though the Congress-led UDF is also yet to announce its candidate list, the sitting member Tharoor is expected to seek a third term from here.

The LDF had already named CPI's sitting MLA, C Divakaran for the seat.

When sought for his reaction on Rajasekharan's possible contest from the constituency, Tharoor said the BJP leader was a good human being, but it was the ideology of the party which the candidate represented mattered.

"As far as I know, he is a good human being. But, not the individual but the ideology of the party which he represents and what kind of India that they envisage is most important. People of the constituency know very well what I have done for them in the last 10 years," he told reporters here.

Divakaran said who would be the rival candidate did not matter for him.

"If Rajasekharan contests from here, its good actually... because we will get a chance to debate with him on the performance of the BJP-led government at the Centre," he said.

BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai said as of now he could not confirm whether Rajasekharan would contest the coming polls.

"It is up to our national leadership to announce the candidates. But, his (Rajasekharan) centre of action during the upcoming election will be Thiruvananthapuram," he said adding Rajasekharan's return to the state would give more strength to the party during the time of elections.

Senior BJP leader and the party's sole MLA in the state assembly, O Rajagopal had given a tough fight to Tharoor in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

He had garnered 2,83,226 votes then with Tharoor winning by a margin of little over 15,000 votes.

The BJP has high hopes on Thiruvananthapuram this time especially in view of the Sabarimala issue over which a large number of people, including women, had come out against the LDF government's decision to implement the supreme Court verdict permitting women of menstrual age to offer prayers at the Lord Ayyappa shrine.

President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted the resignation of Rajasekharan as Mizoram Governor, a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said in New Delhi Friday.

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Amid the ongoing seat-sharing talks between the CPI(M) and the Congress in West Bengal, the Left Front on Friday announced its candidates for the Raiganj and Murshidabad Lok Sabha seats, a bone of contention between the two parties.

The announcement drew sharp reactions from the Congress, which was not ready to compromise on those two seats, that "if needed, the party will fight alone in all the 42 Lok Sabha seats but will not compromise with its dignity".

The announcement of candidates in these two seats held by the CPI(M) might lead to a breakdown in the seat-sharing discussions between the two parties and eventually pave the way for a four-cornered contest in the state in the upcoming general election.

Besides the CPI(M) and the Congress, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are vying for a large number of seats in the politically important state in the upcoming polls.

The current MPs -- Mohammed Salim and Badaruddoza Khan -- would contest from Raiganj and Murshidabad respectively, Biman Bose, chairman of the CPI(M)-led Left Front, said.

The West Bengal Congress, in a press statement, said it was unfortunate that the Left Front had announced the two candidates while the discussion over seat adjustment was on.

"Our national leadership has been in touch with their (Left Front) national leadership. It was decided by the leaders of both the parties to convey the resolution of Friday's Left Front meeting to our central leadership. But they have announced the candidates unilaterally. We are sending a report to our national leadership about the development as the AICC is monitoring the matter right now," the statement said.

"Mohammed Salim and Badaruddoza Khan had won these two seats the last time. We have decided not to field candidates in the four Lok Sabha seats won by the Congress the last time.

"We want to ensure the maximum polling of anti-BJP and anti-TMC votes and that is why we have decided not to contest the four Lok Sabha seats won by the Congress the last time," Bose said.

Asked whether the Left Front would stick to its stand if the Congress did not respect its "no mutual contest" proposal, he said if they took a different stand, then the Left leaders would discuss the matter and take a call.

Reacting to the development, a senior state Congress leader, who was privy to the talks, told PTI, "If the CPI(M) thinks it can use these pressure tactics against us, it is wrong. If needed, we will fight alone. We have nothing to lose. We too want the maximum polling of anti-BJP and anti-TMC votes, but not at the cost of our dignity."



"We still have 10-11 per cent votes in Bengal, the Left should not forget that", he said.

The development came at a time when Congress president Rahul Gandhi had asked the Congress in-charge of West Bengal, Gaurav Gogoi, to speak to CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury in order to resolve the impasse over seat-sharing between the two parties in the state.

Gandhi had also met West Bengal Congress chief Somen Mitra to discuss the matter. The state Congress had requested Gandhi to take a call on the matter.

The CPI(M) central committee on Monday came out with a proposal of "no mutual contest" in the Lok Sabha polls in the six seats jointly held by the two parties in the state.

It was seen as a move to untangle the seat-sharing formula between the two parties to consolidate the anti-BJP and anti-TMC votes.

While the Congress had bagged four seats in the state in the 2014 general election, the Left party had won only Raiganj and Murshidabad.

The seats -- though won by the CPI(M) in 2014 by a slender margin -- are known as Congress bastions.

The CPI(M) had won the two seats in a four-cornered contest the last time.

While North Dinajpur's Raiganj has been a pocket borough of Congress stalwart Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, Murshidabad's has been dominated by the party's firebrand leader, Adhir Chowdhury, who is also a vociferous supporter of the alliance with the Left.

The two seats have been a bone of contention between the two sides since the beginning of the discussions.

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The coming Lok Sabha election will be marked by "more money, violence and hatred" given the way political parties fight amongst themselves, former chief election commissioner (CEC) T S Krishnamurthy warned on Friday.

Krishnamurthy, who oversaw the 2004 Lok Sabha election, rejected suggestions from some leaders of Opposition parties who raised questions on the (EC) for not announcing the poll dates yet.

"More money will be spent, more violence will be there, more hatred will be there, I suppose," Krishnamurthy told PTI when asked about the upcoming general election.

"Every conceivable complication will take place because of the way in which political parties are fighting amongst themselves," the former CEC said.

In this kind of situation, he said, the big challenge for the EC would be the implementation of the model code of conduct.



Read our full coverage on Lok Sabha elections 2019

Krishnamurthy, however, expressed confidence that the EC was capable of facing the challenges.

On the Opposition raising question on the EC for the delay in announcing dates for the general election, he said: "There is a date by which the House has to be constituted. So long as the schedule is such that it ensures constitution of (the) Lok Sabha, we have to leave it to the discretion of the EC to decide, because they have to take into considerations conditions in various states."



Institutions should be allowed to function and as long as they do their job, there is no point in questioning, Krishnamurthy said.

Senior leader Ahmed Patel had last Monday raised questions on the EC not announcing dates for the general elections and asked whether it was waiting for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "official travel programme" to conclude.
A Maharashtra government official was Thursday sentenced to 16 months rigorous imprisonment by a court in the neighbouring Raigad district for accepting a bribe.

Raigad Additional District Judge B C Kamble convicted Ashik Bharti, a deputy engineer with the Kharbhoomi Sarvekshan and Anveshan Department of Pen, under the Prevention of Corruption Act and fined him Rs 5,000, said a senior Anti-Corruption Bureau official.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (ACB) Mahesh Patil said Bharti had demanded Rs 5 lakh from a contractor to get his bills cleared.

The contractor approached the ACB following which a trap was laid on November 6, 2015 and Bharti was nabbed while accepting Rs 1 lakh, Patil said.

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SujayVikhe Patil, the son of Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Friday met Maharashtra minister and BJP leader GirishMahajan, sparking rumours of his entry into the ruling party, sources said.

SujayVikhe Patil is a practicing neuro surgeon in Ahmednagar district and has openly declared his political ambitions of contesting the LokSabha elections.

Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil is also the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

The Ahmednagar Lok Sabha seat is in the NCP quota, but the Congress wants to field its candidate from the constituency in western Maharashtra.

In the past, SujayVikhe Patil has said he need not be in the Congress just because of his family connection.

Sources in Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil's office said Sujay Vikhe Patil had sought time from Mahajan to discuss technical issues in the post-graduate medical courses entrance exams and the latter had given him appointment.

"Sujay met the minister at his official bungalow here after the cabinet meeting. If he plans to join the BJP, will he meet the minister at his official bungalow?



"NCP hasn't refused yet to give the seat to the Congress," the sources said.

Interestingly, Mahajan is the BJP's pointsman in north Maharashtra and played a pivotal role in the party's victories in Jalgaon, Dhule and Ahmednagar civic elections.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande took a swipe at Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, saying he is sending his son in the BJP to avoidan ED probe.

"In the last few years, everyone has seen how Vikhe Patil has been ineffective as the Leader of Opposition," she added.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the Modi government on Friday of stealing the country's reserves to fund the BJP and wondered how would it protect the country when it could not safeguard the Rafale deal files.

Launching her party's campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Trinamool Congress chief claimed that the country would have a new, people's government after the election.

Trashing the bravery chants of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders after the Indian Air Force carried out airstrikes on terror camps in Pakistan to avenge the killing of 40 CRPF jawans in a terrorist attack at Pulwama last month, Banerjee claimed that Jammu and Kashmir had witnessed a 260-per cent rise in terror-related incidents under the present regime.

The current government, which had gone past its "expiry date", could not restore peace in the Valley, she said, adding that a new government at the Centre would bring stability in Kashmir.

"You (the BJP-led central government) have stolen all the reserves and money of this country and you are using it to fund your own party. From where is the BJP getting so much money to buy motorcycles for their cadre? We are not fools, we understand everything.

"Earlier, they (BJP leaders) did not have the money to afford two square meals, now they are buying motorcycles for the cadre. You are using the public money you have looted in the Rafale deal and demonetisation to buy motorcycles," Banerjee said, while addressing the International Women's day rally organised by her party.

BJP president Amit Shah launched a countrywide motorcycle rally from Madhya Pradesh last week.

BJP workers in states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra reached out to people to share the achievements of the Narendra Modi government with them.

Mocking at the Modi government over its alleged failure to protect the files related to the Rafale fighter jets deal, the TMC supremo wondered "how will it protect the country when it can't protect the Rafale files".

"They (Modi government) are saying the Rafale files have been stolen. You have stolen the entire country's (reserves), nothing is left. Once you leave office, the people of this country will get to know how the reserves and public money have been looted.

"Such is the condition that RBI governors, CBI directors have to resign. You have destroyed all the institutions," she said.

Attorney General K K Venugopal informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the Rafale files were stolen from the Defence Ministry.

The government also threatened The Hindu newspaper with action under the Official Secrets Act for publishing articles based on data allegedly taken from the stolen documents.

Led by Banerjee, thousands of TMC workers and supporters marched from Shraddhananda Park to Esplanade in the city. They were carrying party flags and posters against the BJP government.

In the upcoming general election, besides the Congress and the CPI(M), the TMC will have to fight against a resurgent BJP in West Bengal, which has 42 parliamentary seats.

Currently, the TMC has 34 Lok Sabha MPs from the state, the Congress four, while the CPI(M) and the BJP have two each.

Criticising the government for its alleged failure to restore peace in Jammu and Kashmir in the last five years, Banerjee claimed the state had witnessed a 260-per cent rise in terrorism under the current regime.

"Now they are saying they will fight terrorism after five years. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi had said acts of terror would reduce after demonetisation. On the contrary, there has been a 260-per cent increase in terrorism," she said.

Questioning why terror attacks such as the ones at Uri, Pathankot, Pulwama took place despite intelligence reports, Banerjee said as polls were round the corner, the government was trying to create a "war-hysteria".

Shouting slogans like "Gali gali mein shor hai, Modi sarkar chor hai", "Rafale mein shor hai, Modi sarkar chor hai" and "Modi hatao, desh bachao", she alleged that lynching of Dalits, tribals, minorities, farmers and women had become the order of the day under the current regime.

Hitting out at the BJP government for its "failure" on all fronts, the TMC chief claimed that over two crore people had lost their jobs as a fallout of the decision to scrap old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.

"History is being distorted and the geography of the nation is being altered under the Modi government," she said.

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Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, much less than what was called for under sentencing guidelines.

Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he deals with complications from gout, had no visible reaction as he heard the 47-month sentence. While that was the longest sentence to date to come from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, it could have been much worse for Manafort.

Sentencing guidelines called for a 20-year term, effectively a lifetime sentence for the 69-year-old.

President Donald Trump said Friday that he feels "very badly" for Manafort.

"I think it's been a very, very tough time for him," Trump said before leaving Washington to survey tornado damage in Alabama.

Judge TS Ellis III, discussing character reference letters submitted by Manafort's friends and family, said Manafort had lived an "otherwise blameless life."



Manafort has been jailed since June, so he will receive credit for the nine months he has already served. He still faces the possibility of additional time from his sentencing in a separate case in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty to charges related to illegal lobbying.

Manafort told the judge that "saying I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement." But he offered no explicit apology, something the judge noted before issuing his sentence Thursday.

Manafort steered Trump's election efforts during crucial months of the 2016 campaign as Russia sought to meddle in the election through hacking of Democratic email accounts. He was among the first Trump associates charged in the Mueller investigation and has been a high-profile defendant.

But the charges against Manafort were unrelated to his work on the campaign or the focus of Mueller's investigation: whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russians.

A jury last year convicted Manafort on eight counts, concluding that he hid from the IRS millions of dollars he earned from his work in Ukraine.

Manafort's lawyers argued that he had engaged in what amounted to a routine tax evasion case and cited numerous past sentences in which defendants had hidden millions of dollars from the IRS and served less than a year in prison.

Prosecutors said Manafort's conduct was egregious, but Ellis ultimately agreed more with defense attorneys. "These guidelines are quite high," Ellis said.

Neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys had requested a particular sentence length in their sentencing memoranda, but prosecutors had urged a "significant" sentence.

Outside court, Manafort's lawyer Kevin Downing said his client accepted responsibility for his conduct "and there was absolutely no evidence that Mr Manafort was involved in any collusion with the government of Russia."



Trump said Downing went out of his way to say there was no collusion with Russia.

"The judge, I mean for whatever reason, I was very honored by it, also made the statement that this had nothing to do with collusion with Russia. ... Guess what, there is none," Trump said.

Ellis didn't say there was no collusion. He said Manafort wasn't being sentenced for collusion.

Ellis noted that when Manafort's legal team argued before trial last year that the special counsel's mandate to probe Russian collusion should have prevented the tax and bank fraud case against the former Trump campaign chairman, the judge dismissed their concerns.

Ellis said he "concluded that it was legitimate" for Mueller's office to charge Manafort with financial crimes even if the case was not about collusion.

Prosecutors left the courthouse without making any comment.

Though Manafort hasn't faced charges related to collusion, he has been seen as one of the most pivotal figures in the Mueller investigation.

Prosecutors, for instance, have scrutinized his relationship with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate US authorities say is tied to Russian intelligence, and have described a furtive meeting the men had in August 2016 as cutting to the heart of the investigation.

After pleading guilty in the D.C. case, Manafort met with investigators for more than 50 hours as part of a requirement to cooperate with the probe. But prosecutors reiterated at Thursday's hearing that they believe Manafort was evasive and untruthful in his testimony to a grand jury.

Manafort was wheeled into the courtroom about 3:45 pm in a green jumpsuit from the Alexandria jail, where he spent the last several months in solitary confinement. The jet black hair he bore in 2016 when serving as campaign chairman was gone, replaced by a shaggy gray.

He spent much of the hearing hunched at the shoulders, bearing what appeared to be an air of resignation.

Defense lawyers had argued that Manafort would never have been charged if it were not for Mueller's probe. At the outset of the trial, even Ellis agreed with that assessment, suggesting that Manafort was being prosecuted only to pressure him to "sing" against Trump. Prosecutors said the Manafort investigation preceded Mueller's appointment.

The jury convicted Manafort on eight felonies related to tax and bank fraud charges for hiding foreign income from his work in Ukraine from the IRS and later inflating his income on bank loan applications.

Prosecutors have said the work in Ukraine was on behalf of politicians who were closely aligned with Russia, though Manafort insisted his work helped those politicians distance themselves from Russia and align with the West.

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Manappuram Finance Friday said it would offer door-step delivery of gold loan to customers in Delhi and Mumbai.

The company will offer the doorstep facility across 50 branches each in Mumbai and in Delhi, it said in a release.

The service was piloted and launched successfully last year in Chennai and Bengaluru where it is available across 107 and 183 branches, respectively.

"Customer centricity has been one of the foundational pillars...With this launch, we address the convenience and security factors in one go, as customers don't have to commute with gold or cash, and the money gets transferred directly to their accounts," said Joshy V K, head of sales, online gold loan, Manappuram Finance.

The company said it has also introduced a helpline for customers who wish to avail this service in Delhi and Mumbai.

The service is available during office hours on 09072606215 for Mumbai and 09072606202 for Delhi.

Two employees of the company carrying proper identification will visit the customer's residence to appraise the gold and then make immediate disbursement through NEFT or IMPS to the customer's bank account.

The company has set up a dedicated team of employees in Mumbai and Delhi for this purpose, it said.

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The Goa Forward Party and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, both allies in the Manohar Parrikar government, Friday hit out at each other over the MGP's decision to contest bypolls in the state against official ruling coalition candidates.

Bypolls to Shiroda and Mandrem Assembly seats were necessitated after the respective Congress MLAs resigned from the House and joined the ruling BJP.

The MGP has announced its candidate for the Shiroda bypoll and has said it would fight the Mandrem election as well.

Attacking the MGP Friday, GFP vice-president Durgadas Kamat said the move could bring about instability in the Parrikar government.

"If the MGP wants to contest bypolls on its own, then it should move out of the Parrikar government. When bypolls are taking place, the ruling coalition should work together to win all the seats," Kamat said.

Kamat added that his party and its chief Vijai Sardesai could ensure the stability of the BJP-led government in the state even if the MGP were to walk out of it.

In reply, MGP president Dipak Dhavalikar Friday said his party was fighting the bypolls to show its opposition to defections.

"The Manohar Parrikar-led government is stable. We are going to fight the bypoll as we are against defections. The GFP is in the government for the sake of power," the MGP chief claimed.

The MGP and GFP have three MLAs each in the 40-member Goa Legislative Assembly.

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National Conference president Farooq Abdullah Friday said the ruling dispensation was creating rifts between various religions and the minorities were feeling "threatened".

He was speaking at a function organised here to welcome former IPS officer Shafqat Ali Wattali into the party fold.

"Unfortunately, in this election, the party that is ruling is creating a rift between various religions that is a tragedy for the country. Muslims feel threatened, minorities feel threatened...that is unfortunate," Abdullah told reporters.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should make it clear that the country does not belong to only "one party or a particular sect of people".

Reacting to the Supreme Court's decision to refer the politically sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation, the NC leader said he would not go against the court's decision.

"It is fine that both the parties agreed for mediation under the Supreme Court. And we too accept the decision," he said.

The Supreme Court on Friday referred the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation by a panel headed by former apex court judge F M I Kallifulla and gave it eight weeks to complete the process.

On the crackdown on separatists and Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said "repressive measures" and jailing people won't solve any issue.

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Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching a smear campaign against his government on the issue of cash benefit transfer to farmers under the recently launched ambitious PM-Kisan scheme.

At a BJP rally in Kalaburgi in Karnataka on March 6, Modi had said the state government was not sharing the details of farmers eligible for cash benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme.

The scheme, announced in the Union Budget in February, provides for cash transfer of 6,000 per year in three installments to 12 crore small and marginal farmers holding cultivable land up to 2 hectares. The Centre has decided to give the first instalment of Rs 2,000 by March.

"At a public rally in Gulbarga, the prime minister claimed the state government is not sharing details of eligible farmers and blocking cash transfer to farmers. It is spreading misinformation," Kumaraswamy told reporters.

Modi criticised the state government on the implementation of the PM-Kisan scheme. "It was not expected of his stature to do," he said.

Kumaraswamy said about 59.48 lakh farmers in the state will benefit under the scheme. The state government has so far submitted the details of 3.45 lakh eligible farmers to the central government.

"Out of 3.45 lakh farmers, the Centre has transferred Rs 2,000 to only six farmers. Surprisingly, out of six bank accounts of farmers, one account has received Rs 950 instead of Rs 2,000. This is the level of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme of Modi government," he claimed.

Kumaraswamy said that the central government has rejected 40,000 farmers' accounts for lack of details such as IFSC code.

"Aadhaar number details were provided and there was no need for the central government to reject," he said.

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The Congress in Arunachal Pradesh Friday released a "progress report" of performance of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and the state and declared that both the dispensations have "failed".

The 20-page document criticised both the Narendra Modi government and the Pema Khandu administration for their alleged mis-governance and failure to fulfil the promises made to the people and other issues.

Releasing the "progress report" here, state Congress president Takam Sanjoy slammed the Centre for the "Rafale scam", the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, hike in fuel prices, "religious intolerance", non-waiver of farmers' loan and "failure" to deposit Rs 15 lakh to in the account of every Indian.

Major institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India, the CBI, the Election Commission and the Central Vigilance Commission were attacked under the NDA government, he claimed.

In a "step-motherly treatment", the Centre has also withdrawn special category state status of three Northeastern states - Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh - as enshrined under Article 371 (H) of the Constitution, Sanjoy alleged.

The document attacked the Centre and the state governments for allegedly stopping or delaying financial grant to state institutes like the NIT, the Rajiv Gandhi University and the North East Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST).

Sanjoy lashed out at the BJP government in the state alleging that the Pema Khandu ministry failed on all fronts.

Three persons were killed in "police firing" last month during the movement protesting Permanent Resident Certificate issue, he said.

Law and order was deteriorated in various districts with reports of rape and murder increasing, he claimed.

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Sharpening his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal, Congress president Rahul Gandhi Friday accused him of having prepared the new contract for purchase of fighter jets from France, sidlining the official negotiating team in order to benefit Anil Ambani.

Gandhi, who addressed a Congress rally and interacted with women on the International Women's Day here, said public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which produces fighter aircraft, was ignored by Modi in Rafale deal.

The Congress chief claimed that Defence Ministry documents published in an English daily showed "Modi prepared a new contract ignoring the negotiating team. Modi's aim was to hand over Rs 30,000 crore to Ambani".

The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group has persistently rejected Congress's claim and said the central government had nothing to do with the company bagging the offset contract from Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of the Rafale jets.

Referring to HAL's unit in Odisha near here, Gandhi said engines of MiG and Sukhoi fighters were made at the plant in Sunabeda. The country's youth, mainly in Odisha, played a role in its defence through the unit.

"But Modi, who speaks of nationalism and patriotism, doled out Air Force's money to Anil Ambani, who has no experience in aircraft manufacturing.

"This is the truth.... by snatching away Rafale from HAL, Modi has deprived thousands of youth of jobs," he said.

While HAL has no pending loans, Ambani owes his lenders a debt of Rs 45,000 crore, Gandhi said, adding the previous UPA government had decided to award the contract for manufacturing Rafale to the state-owned aerospace and defence major.

Each of the 126 jets proposed to be acquired was to cost Rs 526 crore, but the price was escalated to Rs 1,600 crore apiece to benefit Ambani, the Congress chief alleged.

The prime minister, he claimed, had even told France that if Rafale jets were to be purchased, the (offset) contract should go to Ambani and that HAL should not have any role.

Accusing the prime minister of neglecting farmers, the Congress chief said PM-KISAN scheme launched by the BJP-led government is nothing but an attempt to make a "mockery" of poor farmers by doling out a paltry sum of Rs 6,000 annually.

Though the Modi government refused to waive farm loans and hike the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy, it readily decided to write off the debts of over Rs 3.5 lakh crore of a handful of industrialists, he claimed.

The Congress, on the other hand, waived farm loans and raised MSP for paddy to Rs 2,500 per quintal in states where it came to power after the recent elections.

He also promised loan waiver for farmers and a hike in MSP for paddy to Rs 2,500 from Rs 1,600 per quintal in Odisha within 10 days if the Congress forms its government after the upcoming election.

The Congress president also lashed out at the Centre for trying to amend the Land Acquisition Act so it could easily snatch away the land of tribals and farmers, and hand them over to industrialists. However, the Congress foiled the "evil design" at least thrice as it believes that no tribal land should be acquired without the consent of its owners, he said.

Insisting that tribal land acquired for setting up industries must be returned if no unit is established within four years, he said land parcels in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district were returned by the Congress dispensation on this ground.

He said the minimum guaranteed income proposed by his party would be a historic move.

The Congress leader accused the prime minister of having misled people by giving "false" information on several issues including unemployment figures, farmers problems, Swachh Bharat scheme and women's safety.

"The number of lies that Modi has told the country is more than the lies told by all previous prime ministers put together," Gandhi said, blaming the Centre's policies for alleged growing unemployment and crimes against women.

Winding up his speech at the well-attended rally in this south Odisha town in tribal-dominated Koraput district, the Congress president, in an apparent dig at Modi said, "We do not want to make you hear our mann ki baat, we want to provide a government that hears your mann ki baat."



This was Gandhi's third visit to Odisha, the state where the Congress has been out of power for nearly two decades, in the last two months.

Earlier in the day, reaching out to the huge constituency of women voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Gandhi promised passage of the Women's Reservation Bill, in limbo for the last nine years since being cleared by the Rajya Sabha, if his party is voted to power.

Interacting with women on the International Women's Day, Gandhi exhorted them to fight for "space" in every sphere of life as the country cannot progress without their effective and equal participation.

"You must fight for your space and don't consider yourself lesser than a man. Women should fight for due place - be it the Assembly, Lok Sabha or the business field," he said responding to a query by a woman delegate at the conclave.

"There is an urgent need to provide reservation for women in state assemblies and Lok Sabha to ensure their empowerment. Congress is keen to ensure this and will do it if it voted to power," Gandhi said, calling Women's Reservation Bill an effective instrument for their empowerment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hong Kong: Frank Chan to visit Nordic countries

Secretary for Transport & Housing Frank Chan will visit Denmark and Norway from March 11 to 15 to promote Hong Kong as an international maritime centre.

Mr Chan will lead a delegation to be made up of Maritime & Port Board members and representatives of the maritime industry.

The delegation will arrive in Copenhagen on March 11 and visit the Danish Maritime Authority, the Danish Ship Finance and the Danish Maritime Fund.

They will meet local shipowners and industry representatives and tour the Copenhagen Business School.

The delegation will then travel to Oslo on March 13, where Mr Chan will meet Norwegian Minister of Trade & Industry Torbjorn Roe Isaksen.

Mr Chan and the delegation will also meet representatives of DNV GL, an international accredited ship classification society.

On March 15, they will visit Bergen to learn about the development of green shipping.

Mr Chan will return to Hong Kong on March 16. Under Secretary for Transport & Housing Raymond So will be Acting Secretary during his absence.

This story has been published on: 2019-03-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
by Franco Cagnasso

In 1989 the Italy-based missionary institute decided to welcome members from non-Christian majority countries. A simple rule was established, namely that whoever enters PIME is sent to work in countries other than his own, a sign that his Church - even a small and young one  is open to giving, and can serve as a new stimulus for the Church that welcomes him.

Dinajpur (AsiaNews)  Fr Franco Cagnasso, a missionary in Bangladesh, talks about his society, the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), which 30 years ago, in 1989, chose to open itself and welcome missionaries from countries with a non-Christian majority. Until then the prevailing view was to remain tied to its origins as an institute that embodied the missionary spirit of the Italian Church.

Today the face of the congregation has changed, open to African, Asian, Latin American priests, "a wealth of people" as Fr Cagnasco put it. Opening up was decided not to seek vocations to ensure the institutes survival, but rather as a way to propose our institute as a tool of mission with a universal vocation. Fr Cagnascos thoughts follow for this aptly called Anniversary.

Gradually, our small group of PIME missionaries in Bangladesh is no longer seen as the "Italian missionaries". In fact, Italians are fewer, and older. Missionaries have come from other countries, like Cameroon, Brazil, Colombia, and India. Others, an Italian, one from Guinea Bissau and another from India are waiting for their visa. Every now and then, Bengali PIME missionaries come along, when they take a break and come home from their mission in Cameroon, Guinea Bissau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and PIME headquarters institute in Rome, which is also a mission, isnt it?

During our assembly in Dinajpur (PIMEs Bangladesh capital) on 26-27 February I looked around, and was quite gratified, if I may say so. It occurred to me that we could mark an anniversary since this wealth of people started coming almost 30 years ago, September-October 1989, when PIME chose to open itself to members from non-predominantly Christian countries.

Until then, this did not happen for two reasons. PIME felt somehow tied to its origins as an institute that embodied the missionary spirit of the Italian Church, in various ways linked to it. At the same, the Institute wanted to spend all its energies in setting up local churches and training the local clergy. For this reason, it directed those who asked to join it to PIME-founded diocesan seminaries.

The 1971 General Assembly had reiterated these principles, nipping in the bud an initial attempt to include Indian members some years earlier. It was the answer to the problem that for foreigners it had become practically impossible to obtain visas to work in India, and for this reason there was the prospect of leaving parishes and works founded by us without any clergy, until they gradually disappeared, like in West Bengal, or disappearing like in Andhra Pradesh, where we had set up so many Christian communities, parishes, dioceses, schools, hospitals, social centres and so on.

At the time, the majority felt that this was not compatible with what we were. Joining PIME and then working in one's own country was something unprecedented, and would have challenged various aspects of our traditions, including spiritual ones. It was a hard and even painful choice, especially for those who believed in it, the more so for our Indian confreres (including several of my personal friends), but I agreed with the reasons and supported it.

In the general assembly that took place 18 years later in Tagaytay (Philippines), it was decided instead to open up and I came out in favour. Was I turncoat? I do not think so. The reasons were different, and the ways of opening up were thought out in such a way so as to ensure that PIME remained itself, opening itself up however to the different places that had developed over time and of which we had become better aware.

What places? It was increasingly clear that the mission could not be identified as coming from "Christian countries", i.e. Europe and the Americas, and going towards "non-Christian countries". The former were seen less and less as Christian, whilst the latter saw the development of lively and fruitful local Churches, despite their minority status. We were convinced that the mission was not a greater duty only for those who have a lot of "vocations", or even for unemployed priests, but that it was an aspect of the Church herself, big or small.

By welcoming members from Christian-minority countries without fear of poaching in those Churches, PIME had to help them express their missionary aspect abroad as well, because this would contribute to their development and growth, as well as offer new openings, methods, views to the traditional "missions".

The aim that prevailed was not about "seeking vocations" to ensure the institutes survival, but rather a way to propose our institute as a tool of mission with a universal vocation to the Churches we had founded or in which we had been working for a long time. A simple rule was established, namely that whoever joins PIME is sent to work in countries other than his own, a sign that his Church - even a small and young one  is open to giving, and can serve as a new stimulus for the Church that welcomes him.

Opening up to missionaries from these Churches had to be decided on a case by case basis, in harmony with the local episcopates. It began immediately, with its heavy work and collateral errors. But at present, looking around at our small assembled group, listening to the various speakers, thinking about where my confreres work - both Italian and those from "non-Christian majority countries", eating and praying together ... I felt great joy and satisfaction.

It was the right decision, providential even. As an Italian who joined PIME well before they were born, I am happy to listen, watch, and exchange experiences, ideas and programmes with missionaries from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Together, we can better express the reality of the universal Church, everywhere, at home as well as abroad.
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The Supreme Court Friday said the issue of considering linking Voter ID cards with Aadhaar numbers to curtail bogus and duplicate voting in polls falls in the Election Commission's domain.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna, which declined to entertain the plea, said it will be open for the petitioner approaching the apex court again if it is not satisfied with the EC order.

"We do not entertain the public interest litigations at this stage. Instead we would ask the petitioners to move the Election Commission of India and thereafter the Election Commission will pass a reasoned order in the matter.

"If the petitioners are still aggrieved, it will be open for them to come to this court once again," the bench said and disposed of the petition.

Advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, who had filed the PIL, had sought a direction to the EC to take appropriate steps to implement an 'Aadhaar based election voting system' to ensure maximum participation in election and "curtail fake, bogus and duplicate" voting in the spirit of section 17-18 of the Representation of People Act.

It also sought a direction to the Centre through the Ministry of Law and Justice to take appropriate steps to link movable and immovable property documents of citizens with their Aadhaar number to curb corruption, black money generation and 'benami' transactions.

The plea alleged that duplicate voting was prevalent in the country as the current system has not been able to control booth capturing and bogus voting.

"The current system is better but not the best. Aadhaar based election-voting system has more authentication of voters, better security of voting process, it can protect the voted data and most importantly, the voter can cast his vote from any corner of the country," the plea said.

The proposed Aadhaar-based voting system involves fingerprint of the voter which is saved in the government's database with an individual's Aadhaar number, the petition said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On the occasion of the International Women's Day on Friday, the Madan Mahal railway station here turned into a 'pink station', with all its operations being managed only by women staffers.

The station falls under the West Central Railway (WCR) zone.

"Madan Mahal station becomes the first railway station of the WCR to be fully operated by the women staffers. Forty one women employees will henceforth operate the station round-the-clock," WCR chief public relation officer Priyanka Dixit told PTI.

The women staffers will handle all the responsibilities, including ticket-checking, reservation and booking, security and the train operations, she added.

The station is located just a few kms away from Jabalpur station and falls under the Jabalpur-Itarsi section of Jabalpur division of the WCR.

Over 7,000 passengers board the trains from Madan Mahal station daily, Dixit said.

The WCR comprises three railway divisions- Jabalpur and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and Kota in Rajasthan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday inaugurated a Multi Skill Development Centre (MSDC) for maritime logistics at JNPT which will provide placement to over 1,050 students every year in the port and shipping sector.

"This is a step towards achieving 100 per cent skilled manpower at all major ports and will ensure that local people are able to truly reap the benefit of development in their areas," the road transport and shipping minister said in a statement.

The key training areas at the centre are warehouse management, consignment and tracking, inventory management, EXIM trade documentation and other related courses in the maritime logistics domain.

The physical infrastructure has been provided by Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and CIDCO and the centre will be managed and operated by logistics company AllCargo Logistics Ltd.

The MSDC at JNPT will meet the upcoming skill manpower need in the surrounding areas.

Three major projects -- namely, the SEZ which is supposed to be pre-dominantly be a logistics hub, the Navi Mumbai International Airport which would provide opportunities in fields as diverse as cargo handling and hospitality, and JNPT's new terminal the PSA Bharat Mumbai Terminal -- will see demand for highly skilled logistics manpower.

It is expected that the trainees trained in MSDC can provide skilled manpower for these projects and beyond, the shipping ministry said.

Gadkari also inaugurated two multi purpose berths at Deendayal Port at Kandla through video conferencing.

The minister also laid the foundation stone for the Central Inland and Coastal Maritime Technology at IIT Kharagpur.

Speaking on the occasion, Gadkari said all the three developments were very significant for the maritime sector and the socio-economic development of the country.

He said the two shipping berths at Kandla will increase the port's capacity by over 115 lakh tonnes, adding that the larger ships will be able to anchor at the port, enabling handling of larger volumes of cargo.

"This will help lower logistics costs and bring prices down," the minister said.

Speaking about the state-of-the-art Centre for Inland and Coastal Maritime Technology being setup at IIT Kharagpur under Sagarmala programme, Gadkari said the project is of strategic long-term interest for the port and maritime sector.

He said the centre will be a hub for latest technology tools for maritime sector and reduce India's dependence on foreign institutions.

It will also reduce the cost of research drastically and result in cost and time savings for work in the port and maritime sector, the minister said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Violence is being inflicted on the Muslim community on "petty pretexts" like eating beef under the BJP rule, says TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee in a scathing indictment of the saffron party in her latest book.

The book 'India in Distress' was released on Friday in the presence of Trinamool Congress parliamentary leader, Rajya Sabha, Derek O'Brien.

Banerjee said India was being converted into a country of "religious orthodoxy" and its secular non-violent fabric was being distorted.

"It is as if with the BJP in power, hooligans have got a license to practice violence and riots. They are not afraid of anyone anymore. We see that violence is being inflicted upon the minority Muslim communities across the country. We see that on various petty pretexts like eating cow meat to 'love jihad', Muslims are being slaughtered in various corners of the country.

"They have launched a campaign to destroy the religious harmony that this country has always been proud of," she writes in the book.

The West Bengal chief minister also claimed that a conspiracy was afoot to erase the memory of Mahatma Gandhi and secularism was being replaced by "violence and brutality".

"Organising programmes to celebrate Gandhiji's 150th birth anniversary cannot mask the fact that a plot is afoot to try and undo Gandhiji's contribution towards the making of a secular India," she said.

Writing on the Pulwama attack, Banerjee sought to know whether there was intelligence failure on part of the security agencies and if such a threat was discussed in meetings of senior officials.

"...Why the standard operating procedure (SOP) for convoy movement including sanitisation of the entire route was not followed? Why 78 vehicles were allowed in a convoy movement in a very sensitive zone? Why 'naka' checking at the point of barriers on frequent intervals en route was not carried out?" are some of the questions raised by the TMC leader in her book.

"It is reported that the CRPF had asked for airlifting their jawans, but it was not cleared. Why? Who are responsible for such glaring lapses and lack of coordination? I am constantly asking myself are the jawans and the people of this country safe and secure in the hands of the government?" she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
North Korea's state media Friday acknowledged for the first time the collapse of the summit between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump last week without a deal.

The high-stakes meeting in Vietnam was supposed to build on the leaders' historic first summit in Singapore last year, but ended without any agreement on walking back North Korea's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

Pyongyang's official KCNA agency, however, had made no mention of the breakdown of the high-stakes summit until Friday.

"The public at home and abroad... are feeling regretful, blaming the US for the summit that ended without an agreement," an editorial published by KCNA wrote.

In the aftermath of the summit's abrupt ending, each side sought to blame the other's intransigence for the deadlock.

But immediately after the summit North Korean media said only that Pyongyang and Washington have agreed to continue "productive" discussions on denuclearisation. The following day Rodong Sinmun, the North's state-run newspaper, carried a front-page picture that showed Kim and Trump shaking hands.

Earlier this week, North Korean television aired a 75-minute documentary on Kim's diplomacy with Trump without mentioning that the second meeting ended without a deal.

Following the stalemate in Hanoi, researchers said this week that Pyongyang was rebuilding the Sohae long-range rocket site after Kim had agreed last year to shut it as part of confidence-building measures.

Trump said he would be "very, very disappointed" if the reports proved true.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah Friday questioned the release of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) founder Masood Azhar in Afghanistan by the then BJP government in 1999 in exchange of the hijacked Indian airlines flight IC-814 despite his opposition.

He strongly opposed the ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and said the time has come when banning should end, and meeting with these outfits should start.

"Who released Azhar (JeM founder) and who took him to Kandahar (Afghanistan)? The centre should reply. When I told them not to release Azhar, they did not listen to me (at that time). Today I am anti-national and they are national," Abdullah, who was the chiefminister during the hostage crisis in 1999 told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Azhar was arrested on February 11, 1994 at Khanabal Chowk in Anantnag district of south Kashmir but was released in exchange of passengers of IC-814 on December 31, 1999 by the then BJP government along with two other terrorists.

Asked about the ban on JeI, Abdullah said, "Banning is not the way out because the minute you ban anything they go underground and they become more vicious."



"The time has come when it is not (about) banning, it is meeting them (recognised/unrecognised entities) politically, that is important. Unless you meet them politically, you are never going to be able to sort out these people," he said.

The Centre Thursday last banned JeI Jammu and Kashmir for five years under anti-terror law on grounds that it was "in close touch" with militant outfits and was expected to "escalate secessionist movement" in the state.

A notification banning the group under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs after a high-level meeting on security chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Asked about the involvement of Hizbul Mujahideen terror outfit, considered JeI's militant wing, in Thursday's grenade attack in Jammu which left two persons dead and 31 others injured, the NC leader said, "I do not know whether the group is really JeI's militant wing.

"I do not know... I have been chief minister and I have never had any such input that they belong to JeI. I think this brigade (responsible for the grenade attack) is the one that is run by Sallauddin from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir," he said.

In response to another question on the centre's decision to ban JeI, he said "I am not in power now. Information on them will be available only with the intelligence and the governor who rules (the state) today. I have no intelligence input about them now."



He said when Jagmohan was the governor of the state JeI schools were banned and those teachers were inducted in government schools.

"Did he do right or did he do wrong? The same people then met the Prime Minister and the home minister so that we could find a way out," he said, referring to the Hurriyat leaders talks with the centre.

"Look at the history, you have to meet them, not ban them or put them in jail. You have to meet them by talking to them and finding out why are they not part of this nation. What stops them from being part of this nation. That is what we need to do," he said.

Abdullah further said his party never questioned the air strikes by India in Pakistan on February 26.

In a separate function organised to welcome prominent persons from Basholi area of Kathua district into the party fold, the NC leader called for isolation of divisive forces and maintaining of harmony, saying the of divide is against the ethos of the nation and the state, which encompasses all religions, castes and regions.

"We are passing through the most difficult times and there is crucial need of maintaining guard against polarising forces and defeating their machinations by upholding our unity," Abdullah said.

He said division of society under the guise of ultra-nationalism is all the more dangerous, cautioning that those gloating over such posturing are needed to be isolated.

"Practising hate and intolerance is (a) new low in Indian that brings one segment of society face to face against another which is detrimental for amity and brotherhood," he said.

He said the onus lies on the youth to sensitise the people against divisive

"This may have short-term gains for some but the nation is at a loss by such misadventure," Abdullah said and advised the youth to get abreast with the chequered history of the country and the state as it will help them analyse political developments in the right perspective.

The history, he regretted, is now being distorted and the version the young minds are being fed is far from the facts.

Abdullah asked the youth to gear up for upcoming elections, saying their entry into public life will bring a fresh breath of life in the political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir.

"Youths have to be the catalyst of change and National Conference has all along provided an appropriate platform to them and harness their energies in productive pursuits," he maintained.

Abdullah also dwelled on the prevailing 'fluid political situation' and said that being a premier political party of the state, the National Conference cadre had to get further activated to meet the challenges.

"Dejected and disillusioned people of the state are looking towards National Conference with hope and we have to prepare ourselves to meet their aspirations," he said and asked the functionaries to mobilise workers for identifying the problems.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) Friday directed the bench of the NCLT to decide over JSW Steel's bid for the debt-ridden by March 31.

A two-member NCLAT bench headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya has also directed the (NCLT) to hear the representatives of operational creditors, promoters along with dissenting banks also.

"We expect adjudicating authority (NCLT) to decide the case at an early date to ensure that the matter is decided before the end of this financial year," the appellate tribunal said.

During the proceedings, Bhushan Power promoter Sanjay Singal through his counsel offered to settle all dues of the lenders.

On this, the appellate tribunal has directed NCLT to also take a decision over Singal's offer to settle.

"Liberty is given to adjudicating authority to decide who should be heard as representative of operational creditors or promoters or dissenting financial creditors, if any," it said.

Earlier, on February 4 the NCLAT had dismissed the plea of and upheld lenders' decision to approve resolution plan of for

had challenged an NCLT order that had allowed the CoC of Bhushan Power and Steel to the resolution plan submitted by Liberty House Group. had contended that NCLT cannot provide numerous opportunities at the belated stage.

The NCLAT had said the Committee of Creditors' (CoC) decision was well within its rights to negotiate better terms with resolution applicants.

had revised its offer from Rs 11,000 crore to Rs 18,000 crore and later to over Rs 19,000 crore, whereas Tata Steel's last offer was at Rs 17,000 crore after it had refused to revised its bid.
In a setback to engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd, the (NCLT) has admitted an plea against the company filed by

A two-member Principal Bench headed by Justice M M Kumar has admitted the lender's plea to initiate proceedings against for a default of Rs 853.83 crore.

Confirming the development, said in a regulatory filing that the company was waiting for the copy of the full order to provide further details.

"We hereby inform you that NCLT Principal Bench, vide order pronounced on March 8, 2019, has admitted the petition filed by under Section 7 of the and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 in respect of an alleged default amount of Rs 853.83 crore," said in the filing.

Last year in June, had filed an application before NCLT against Punj Lloyd alleging default by the company.

However, at that time, its other lenders including SBI opposed the insolvency plea, saying that the company has several ongoing projects and favoured restructuring of its debts.

Punj Lloyd has total debt of around Rs 6,000 crore, in which ICICI Bank has debt of around Rs 854 crore.
JD(U) national vice-president Prashant Kishor has said he did not concur with party chief Nitish Kumar's method of realigning with the BJP and the exit from the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance), which should have ideally been followed by a fresh mandate.

The poll strategist-turned-politician made the observations during an interview with a portal, which uploaded the over-an-hour video on Thursday.

Kishor's remarks have ruffled some feathers within his own party as the interview went viral on the social media on Friday.

In the interview, Kishor has, however, pointed out that turnarounds by politicians were not unique to Kumar.

"You can look at Chandrababu Naidu, Naveen Patnaik and parties like the DMK. Looking back further, we have the example of the V P Singh government, which was supported both by the Left and the BJP," he said.

Kishor also said there was no yardstick to measure if Kumar was right in taking the drastic decision of walking out of the "Mahagathbandhan" -- comprising the RJD and the Congress -- in July, 2017.

"For those who saw in him (Kumar) a potential challenger to (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi, the move was a let-down. But those who were of the view that he had begun to compromise on governance in his zeal to take on Modi would feel he was right," he said.

Asked to comment on the episode, Kishor said, "Keeping in view the interests of Bihar, I think it was okay. But I do not agree with the method adopted. I have said this earlier and I still hold the view, upon taking the decision to return to the BJP-led coalition, he should have ideally sought a fresh mandate."



Kishor had earlier worked with Kumar as a poll strategist during the 2015 Bihar Assembly election, wherein the latter was the chief ministerial candidate of the Mahagathbandhan, which came into being as a result of his forging an alliance with arch rival Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

Corruption cases against Prasad's younger son Tejashwi Yadav, then the deputy chief minister, made Kumar queasy and he ultimately resigned as chief minister, but was sworn-in again in less than 24 hours as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came up with its offer of support on a day of dramatic developments.

Reacting to Kishor's remarks, RJD MLA and the party's chief state spokesman Bhai Virendra said, "The JD(U) national vice-president's statement is tantamount to admitting what has been our charge. Nitish had got the mandate as a candidate of the Grand Alliance, which comprised the RJD as well as the Congress, and his act of crossing over to the NDA without seeking a fresh mandate was tantamount to stabbing the Mahagathbandhan in the back."



JD(U) MLC and party spokesman Neeraj Kumar sought to remind Kishor, who was inducted into the party in September last year and elevated to the post of national vice-president weeks later, that he was taking baby steps in

"I do not wish to comment on his utterances but would like to show him the mirror," he said.

"He is offering 'pravachan' (discourse) on seeking a mandate. Where was his 'gyan' (wisdom) when the party took the decision to realign with the BJP? Moreover, does he not remember that his own formal entry into the JD(U) came after the development which he is raising questions about now," the JD(U) leader said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday claimed that "non-cooperation" by the previous Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh was responsible for the delay in start of a beautification project in his Lok Sabha constituency.

He was addressing a gathering here after laying the foundation stone for the Kashi Vishwanath Temple's approach road and its beautification.

"In the first three years there was non-cooperation of the state government. The developmental projects here took pace after you (people of Uttar Pradesh) made Yogi Adityanath the chief minister," he said.

"Had there been cooperation earlier, we would have launched the project instead of laying the foundation," Modi said.

Attacking previous governments, the prime minister said, "In the past 70 years no government thought of Baba (Lord Shiva) and were silent. They took care of themselves but not of this place."



Noting that it was his "pleasure" to have initiated the work here at Kashi Vishwanath, he said, "I had dreamt for a long time to work for this place. When I was not in politics I came here several times and used to think that something should happen here."



"Bhole Baba ney tai kiya hoga baatein bahut karte ho yahan aao kuch karke dikhao," (Lord Shiva must have decided that you talk much, so now you should come here and do something)," he said, adding that due to blessings the fulfillment of his dream has started.

About the beautification project, Modi said this is "mukti (freedom) for Kashi Vishwanath Dham" which was surrounded with encroachment.

"For the first time, we acquired nearby buildings, removed encroachments after which 40 ancient temples came to the fore. Many of them were encroached, kitchens were set up and people were living there," he said.

Appreciating those involved in the project, Modi said, "I have seen a lot of government employees as I was CM for a long time. But I want to say with pride that the team of officers deployed here by Yogi ji is doing work with 'Bhakti' (devotion) and 'sewa bhav'."



It was difficult to take people into confidence to give their properties and ensure the project does not take political colour, he said.

"I thank people of Kashi, who gave their properties for Baba. This is the biggest 'daan' they have given for Baba," the prime minister said.

Stating that the Kashi Vishwanath temple was "targeted by enemies", he said they tried to destroy it but it again took "rebirth due to the faith" of people.

"When Gandhiji came here, he was pained why is this place is like this. In his address in the BHU, he expressed his thoughts," Modi said, suggesting the university should make the entire project a case study for research so that when it is completed the world can know how it happened.

"We will also try to trace the history of 40 temples discovered here and the government will also take care of them," the PM said, adding the project will be a model for "protection and preservation" of temples and a combination of modern technology with ancient faith.

"It will give new identity to Kashi in the world. Maybe it's in my fate. In 2014, when I came here I said 'mai aaya nahi mujhe bulaya hai' (I did not come here on my own, I was summoned). Maybe I came here for this work," he said.

Earlier, the prime minister visited the Kashi Vishwanath Temple and also inspected the project site.

During his brief stay in his constituency, Modi will attend the National Women Livelihood Meet 2019 at Deendayal Hastkala Sankul and distribute appreciation letters to five Women Self Help Groups, whose members will share their experiences with the prime minister.

Women SHGs aided by Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - NRLM, Uttar Pradesh will hand over a cheque to the prime minister for contribution to the 'Bharat Ke Veer' Fund.

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Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest and which is fuelled by petrodollars, will dump stakes in oil and gas exploration and production companies to reduce its exposure to black gold, the government said Friday.

While the decision was based solely on financial considerations and not on the environment or climate change, a divestment by an investor worth more than USD 1 trillion was seen as a major blow to polluting fossil fuels.

The government of Norway, the biggest oil and gas producer in western Europe, said it was specifically targetting exploration and production companies, "rather than selling a broadly diversified energy sector."



"The objective is to reduce the vulnerability of our common wealth to a permanent oil price decline," Finance Minister Siv Jensen said in a statement, stressing the move should not be intrepreted as a lack of confidence in the future of the oil sector.

A government proposal is expected to sail through parliament.

Sovereign funds are state-owned investors in various kinds of assets that aim to generate revenue for government programmes and pensions.

The Norwegian decision follows a headline-making 2017 recommendation by the Scandinavian country's central bank, which manages the fund, aimed at limiting the state coffers' exposure to a steep drop in oil prices, as in 2014.

Oil and gas represent almost half of Norway's exports and 20 percent of the state's revenues.

Revenue from state-owned oil and gas companies are placed in the sovereign wealth fund -- commonly referred to as the "oil fund" but formally known as the Government Pension Fund Global -- which Oslo then taps to balance its budget.

At the end of 2018, the fund had holdings worth around $37 billion in the oil sector, with significant stakes in Shell, BP, Total and ExxonMobil among others.

Friday's proposal concerns $7.5 billion of those stakes, Jensen told reporters.

The minister, like the central bank before her, insisted that Friday's decision "does not reflect any specific view on the oil price, future profitability or sustainability of the petroleum sector. This assessment is thus independent of the government's current petroleum policy, which remains unchanged."



Jensen noted that the oil industry "will be an important and major industry in Norway for many years to come." For environmental organisations and climate change activists, the position was a clear victory as the world struggles to meet Paris Agreement goals.

"If this passes through parliament, it will cause a shockwave on the market, dealing the biggest blow yet to the illusion that the fossil fuel sector still has decades of business ahead of it," said Yossi Cadan of 350.org, an organisation engaged in the fight against climate change.

"The decision should be seen as a red flag for private banks and investors whose oil and gas stocks are becoming increasingly high-risk and morally untenable," he said in a statement.

Beyond the sums involved, the decision is also important because positions taken by the fund -- which controls 1.4 percent of global market capitalisation -- are closely watched by other investors.

The fund has already pulled out of the coal industry, both for environmental and financial reasons.

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Something has fallen from the sky, a villager told an Army officer in Bhudal in Jammu and Kashmir's Peer Panjal range on February 27, giving forces the clue they were looking for to establish that Pakistan had used an F-16 jet to attack India, officials recounted on Friday.

The 'tehsil', a cluster of 51 villages about 25 km from the district headquarters of Rajouri in Jammu region, has become the celebrated centre of intelligence cynosure since the villager's account on the day that Pakistan violated Indian air space in Rajouri.

Officials also disclosed that the Pakistan Air Force fired 11 bombs at six military targets in Rajouri area in which a girl received splinter injuries.

February 27, the day after the strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed camp in Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, is when aerial combat broke out between India and Pakistan for the first time since 1971.

"Kuch mila hai. Aasman se kuch gira hai. Humare ek aadmi ko lagi bhi (We have found something and it fell from sky. One of our persons is injured)," a villager is believed to have told an Army officer posted in a camp in Bhudal.

As tensions ran high along the Line of Control, a team was sent to see what had fallen from the sky, an official said, recounting events as they unfolded that dramatic day.

The team gathered the parts and returned to base in the area. It was handed over to Indian Air Force officials, who knew that they had struck a jackpot, he recalled.

The parts were that of Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) which can be fired only from an F-16 aircraft.

The injured person, according to officials, is out of danger and his identity as well as that of the informer is being kept under wraps for security reasons.

India shared the details of the AMRAAM with the United States as well.

While Pakistan claims no F-16 jets were used, the US State Department has said America is seeking more information from Pakistan on the potential misuse of American-made F-16 fighter jets by it against India in violation of the end-user agreement.

PAF fired two AMRAAMs on February 27, officials here said. One fell at Bhudal and other hit an IAF MiG 21 Bison that led to the capture of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman by the Pakistani army.

The IAF pilot, who was released on March 1, fell four kilometres inside Pakistan occupied Kashmir, the officials said.

The soil from the crater caused by the bombs that fell in Rajouri has been taken by the Indian Air Force officials for a forensic study of the bombs used by the PAF, they said.

Fourteen of 51 villages in Bhudal, about 250 km from Srinagar and 200 km from Jammu, are close to the LoC.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in February 14.

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Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hailed the contribution of women in building the nation and the state on the occasion of International Womens Day Friday.

On his official twitter handle, Kumar posted a sticker inscribed with the message in Hindi heartiest congratulations and good wishes to women who have been doing their bit in building the nation and the state.

In his more than a decade-long tenure, the Bihar Chief Minister has come up with a number of programmes aimed at improving the lot of women including ban on alcohol, campaigns against child marriage and dowry besides schemes for providing school-going girls with bicycles, uniforms and sanitary pads.

Patna Sahib MP Shatrughan Sinha took the opportunity to state he was proud of his daughter Sonakshi Sinha, who is one of the promising Bollywood actresses of her generation.

Whether it is defence, technology, art, cinema or social service, women are leading the way everywhere. It is only when the woman is empowered at home that she can truly be liberated. I appeal to all fathers to become the wind beneath their daughters wings, the actor-turned-politician tweeted.

It begins at home because behind every successful woman is a father who trusted her. I am so proud of my daughter @sonakshisinha and her great mother. May every man have the opportunity to be the cheerleader in the lives of his women. Happy Womens Day, Sinha said in another tweet.

RJD heir apparent and leader of the opposition in Bihar assembly Tejashwi Yadav tweeted a woman performs all the duties of a man but a man cannot do all that a woman can do. Warm greetings, love and regards to all and added hashtags #InternationalWomansDay and #HappyWomensDay2019.

Yadavs elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav known to be a favourite of mother Rabri Devi and eldest sister Misa Bharti and recently in for filing a petition seeking to divorce his wife of six months posted on the micro-blogging site a Hindi verse which stated power thy name is woman. You are tender but not frail You are the giver of life and the vanquisher of death.

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On the occasion of International Women's Day, the Women and Child Development Ministry and the Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry entered into an agreement to provide skills training and employment to women.

The officials of the two ministries signed the agreement in the presence of WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi and Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Gandhi said the agreement would help women in becoming self-sufficient.

"The WCD Ministry through the Rastriya Manila Kosh (RMK) will identify the skill sets and their geographical relevance which is suitable for enhancing livelihood of women through self-employment," she said.

Pradhan said the agreement would train thousands of women and promote self-employment or wage employment.

The Skill Development Ministry will provide details of women to the WCD Ministry who have received skill development training and engaged in producing goods or services after their training, he said.

The WCD Ministry through the RMK shall assist such women to on-board into the Mahila e-haat platform, a digital platform for selling products produced by women, according to the details of the agreement.

The RMK and the National Skill Development Council will be the implementing partners on behalf of the two ministries, Gandhi said, adding that the agreement would be valid for a period of three years.

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A Pakistani intruder was on Friday arrested along the international border (IB) in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir, the Border Security Force (BSF) said.

The intruder was apprehended by BSF troops in Ramgarh sector, an official of the border guarding force said.

He said alert BSF personnel noticed the person and caught him soon after he sneaked into this side from Pakistan.

He was arrested and is being interrogated, the official said without giving further details.

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Pakistan has never seriously cracked down on militant groups that attack India, a leading US daily has said, warning that the threat of nuclear war between the two nations remains as a long-term solution to the conflict is unlikely without international pressure.

The New York Times in an Op-ed titled 'This Is Where a Nuclear Exchange Is Most Likely. (It's Not North Korea.)' said the current focus on North Korea's growing arsenal obscures the fact that the most likely trigger for a nuclear exchange could be the conflict between India and Pakistan.

The paper said the relative calm after last week's confrontation between the two nations is not a solution.

"As long as India and Pakistan refuse to deal with their core dispute the future of Kashmir they face unpredictable, possibly terrifying, consequences," it said.

The current crisis started on February 14, when a suicide bomber killed at least 40 CRPF personnel in Pulwama. Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Muhammed took responsibility for the attack.

While the JeM is on America's list of terrorist organisations and is formally banned in Pakistan, the group has been protected and armed by the Pakistani intelligence service, the paper said.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.

The situation could have easily escalated, given that the two countries have fought three wars over 70 years, maintain a near-constant state of military readiness along their border and have little formal government-to-government dialogue.

The next confrontation might not end so calmly, the paper said.

The two countries have crossed into dangerous territory, with India attacking Pakistan and engaging in aerial duels. The next confrontation, or the one after that, could be far more unthinkable, it said.

Pakistan has never seriously cracked down on militant groups that attack India.

Pakistani authorities said they detained 121 members of various armed groups, including a brother of Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Muhammrd, and planned to seize assets of militants on the United Nations terrorist list.

But Pakistan has rarely followed through on such promises, the paper said.

Without international pressure, a long-term solution is unlikely, and the threat of nuclear war remains.

China is a major ally and lender to Pakistan, and if it stopped blocking moves in the United Nations Security Council to add Azhar to the United Nations terrorist list, it would signal to Pakistan that it has to curb the militant groups, the daily said.

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India has said that Pakistan's use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy is a "central problem" and the international community must unequivocally condemn terrorism and its perpetrators.

Addressing the 40th Session of the Human Rights Council on Thursday,



Permanent Representative of India to the UN in Geneva Ambassador Rajiv Chander said, "Terrorism is the most fundamental violation of human rights and we overlook it at our own peril."



He told the Council that the "central problem is cross-border terrorism and Pakistan's use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. This fact needs due recognition."Chander called for a UN-led consensus on zero tolerance on terrorism, saying the international community needs to unequivocally condemn terrorism and those who perpetrate it.

"We firmly believe that UN-led consensus on zero tolerance on terrorism is as much an international obligation as it is a commitment to our own people. We all need to unequivocally condemn terrorism and its perpetrators, he said at the Interactive Dialogue with the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

On the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, the envoy said India's views on the state have been made clear in the Council.

"The whole state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. Pakistan remains in illegal occupation of a part of our territory," Chander said



Earlier, Pakistan's Acting Permanent Representative Tahir Hussain Andrabi had made references to Kashmir in his statement to the Council.

Chander said India's efforts towards protection and promotion of human rights are second to none.

"This is reflected in the Constitution of India that guarantees its citizens fundamental political and civil rights and provides for the progressive realisation and enforcement of economic, social and cultural rights," he said.

The diplomat underscored that India is a secular state and safeguarding the rights of minorities forms an essential core of its polity.

"The Indian Constitution enshrines various provisions for the protection of rights and interests of the minorities. The State makes no distinction between caste, creed, colour or religion of a citizen," he said.

Chander underlined that along with being the world's largest democracy, Indian polity also weaves in immense diversity along with respect for tolerance and mutual understanding.

"An independent judiciary, free and vibrant media, and, a vocal civil society are all active in this regard within the legal framework of the State. National and State level Human Rights Commissions along with other specific Commissions continue to monitor complaints from minority communities regarding issues of discrimination and disadvantage faced by them," he said.

The government has issued Communal Harmony Guidelines which lay down Standard Operating Procedures to deal with communal violence, the envoy added.

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Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Friday that people had the right to know about the truth behind the Balakot airstrike.

"The world media has been claiming that nothing has been found on the ground as claimed by India and creating confusion over the incident. Shouldn't the people have a right to know and shouldn't the government come out with a clarification so that the rumours and confusion could be put to end?" Gehlot told reporters in Jodhpur.

Instead of telling the truth, the Congress leader said, every person from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was engaged in tossing different versions, adding that it was intensifying the confusion and distrust.

"Those in power should address this suspicion instead of leveraging the incident for targeting the Opposition and winning election," Gehlot said after a visit to the border areas with the Border Security Force officials and paying obeisance at the shrine of folk deity Baba Ramdeo.

The Opposition has been demanding that the Centre come out with the details, including the number of terrorists killed, of airstrikes by the Indian Air Force in Pakistan's Balakot last week.

The chief minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had behaved "irresponsibly" when questions are being asked about the number of casualties in the airstrike. "In such a situation, statements of the prime minister should be such which could infuse trust, boost confidence and strengthen unity among the country and fellowmen. But, instead of this, he has behaved very irresponsibly both in words and demeanour."



Gehlot accused Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah of diverting national discourse in order to win the election. "But people have understood what has been happening around today and would reply by their votes in the election."



Asked about fielding his son, Vaibhav Gehlot, in the upcoming general election, the chief minister said every decision about the candidates would be taken by the party high command and he would follow their decision.

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Former media executive Peter Mukerjea is the "silent killer" of Sheena Bora, the daughter of his wife Indrani Mukerjea from a previous relationship, the CBI told a special court Friday while opposing his bail plea in the 2012 murder case.

Peter Mukerjea, arrested in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case in 2015, had moved the bail application in November last year before special CBI Judge J C Jagdale. This is the third time he has approached the court for bail.

Opposing his bail plea, special public prosecutor Bharat Badami argued that the CBI has sufficient evidence to prove Peter Mukerjea's role in the murder conspiracy.

Badami told the court Peter Mukerjea didn't take any step to find Sheena Bora, who had gone missing, despite the fact that she was his son Rahul Mukerjea's fiancee.

"Peter was knowing everything...he was not a statue of the family. He took no step when Rahul was desperately asking about Sheena..... Peter is silent killer of Sheena," the CBI lawyer said.

Rahul Mukerjea is yet to depose before the court and if Peter Mukerjea is released on bail, he may try to win over the witness (Rahul), the lawyer added.

Badami argued there was sufficient material against Peter Mukerjea that led to framing of charges against him. Therefore, the accused cannot seek bail by merely stating the charges against him were "defective", he said.

One of the reasons forwarded by Peter Mukerjea for not being involved in the Sheena's murder was that he was in London when the murder took place.

However, the CBI contested this argument.

Hafiz Saeed (LeT chief) was in Pakistan when the 26/11 Mumbai attacks took place, but that doesn't mean he wasn't involved in the attacks. So, even if Peter Mukerjea was in London (at the time of the murder) it doesn't mean he was not part of the criminal conspiracy, the CBI counsel argued.

The April 2012 murder of Sheena Bora (24), Indrani Mukerjea's daughter from an earlier relationship, came to light in August 2015 when her driver Shyamvar Rai spilled the beans after being arrested in another case.

Indrani Mukerjea, a former media executive, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna, Rai and Peter Mukerjea were arrested in the case. Rai later became an approver and was pardoned.

Indrani Mukerjea, who is in jail since her arrest in August 2015, is facing murder charge, while Peter Mukerjea has been accused by the CBI of being a part of the criminal conspiracy.

The CBI has claimed a financial dispute led to the killing of Sheena Bora.

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Prime Minister Friday asked state governments to take stern action if there is any attack on Kashmiris, calling those who targeted them recently in Lucknow "crazed people".

In an apparent reference to remarks by opposition leaders after the recent air strikes against the Balakot terror camp in Pakistan, Modi also lashed at those demeaning the valour displayed by the armed forces after the Jaish-e-Mohammed attack against the CRPF in Pulwama.

Addressing a public meeting here, Modi brought up the Lucknow incident in which two Kashmiri vendors were thrashed on Wednesday, allegedly targeted by members of a right-wing group over the Pulwama attack that killed 40 paramilitary personnel last month.

The prime minister called the perpetrators sirphirey log (crazed people) in near identical remarks at the meeting and on Twitter.

"It is very important to maintain an atmosphere of unity in the country," Modi said.

He congratulated the Yogi Adityanath government for acting promptly over what some crazed people did to our Kashmiri brothers in Lucknow.

"I would also like to request other state governments to take the strongest action possible wherever there is an attempt to do something like this," he said.

The prime minister was addressing the meeting after flagging off the commercial run on Lucknow Metro's North-South corridor, through video conferencing from Kanpur itself.

Modi also symbolically laid the foundation stone for the Agra Metro Rail project at the same event.

He visited Varanasi and Ghaziabad too on Friday, launching development projects and addressing public meetings.

In an apparent reference to opposition parties, the prime minister said it is sad that the bravery displayed by the armed forces was being demeaned.

"The valour shown by our armed forces after the Pulwama attack was witnessed by the entire nation, he said.

But it is very sad that continuous efforts are being made back home to demean the valour of the armed forces. Today, when the entire world has built pressure on Pakistan and it has been caught red-handed over terrorism, at this juncture statements which help Pakistan are being made," he said.

"Does this behove them (the political parties)? he asked.

Do not forget that based on your statements Pakistan is spreading lies in the world," Modi said.

"The statements being issued for vested political interests and the language used are giving strength to the enemies of the country," he said.

He said the terrorists had been left confused, and the recent terror attack in Jammu was a result of that.

Taking a dig at opposition parties, the prime minister called their proposed grand alliance grand adulteration. He said they dislike him though he is fighting a decisive war against terrorism, corruption and poverty".

Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other UP ministers attended the event.

Modi also distributed keys to houses built under the Prime Minister's Awas Yojana.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday asked state governments to take strict action if there is any attack on Kashmiris, calling those who targeted them recently in Lucknow "crazed people."



"It is very important to maintain an atmosphere of unity in the country," Modi told a gathering here, while referring to the recent assault on some kashmiri vendors in Lucknow.

He said the UP government immediately acted against some "crazed people" who had targeted our "our Kashmiri brothers".

"I would also like to request other state governments to take strict action, wherever such acts take place," he said.

The prime minister was addressing a gathering after flagging off the commercial run on Lucknow Metro's North-South corridor, through video conferencing from Kanpur.

Modi also laid the foundation stone for the Agra Metro Rail project at the same event.

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: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday launched a blistering attack on the opposition for raising questions over the air strikes on the Balakot terror camp in Pakistan, even as he asked state governments to act tough on those who target Kashmiris.

Addressing a public meeting in Kanpur and on Twitter he called those who assaulted two Kashmiri traders in Lucknow "crazed people", using the Hindi term sirphirey log for them.

"It is very important to maintain an atmosphere of unity in the country," Modi said.

He congratulated the Yogi Adityanath government for acting promptly over what some crazed people did to our Kashmiri brothers in the Uttar Pradesh capital.

"I would also like to request other state governments to take the strongest action possible wherever there is an attempt to do something like this," he said.

Two Kashmiri traders were thrashed in Lucknow, the latest in a series of such incidents after terrorists killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in a car bomb attack in Pulwama last month.

The prime minister lashed at opposition leaders who have sought proof of the damage inflicted on the Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp at Balakot in the Indian Air Force strike in retaliation to the Pulwama attack.

He said a Pakistan Army spokesperson had tweeted about the air strike first, and asked if that country would be moorkh (stupid) enough to admit that it had been struck.

But this is our people asking for proof, he mocked.

The trust of 130-crore people is my proof. Please stop playing games that make Pakistan happy," he said.

Apart from addressing public meetings, the prime minister launched a slew of development projects during his visits Friday to his parliamentary constituency Varanasi, Kanpur and Ghaziabad.

The Uttar Pradesh trip comes just days ahead of the expected Election Commission announcement of Lok Sabha poll dates.

He asked people at the Ghaziabad rally if they would do anything that gets applause from Pakistan.

But some of our opposition leaders have been doing just that for the past 10 days. Identify these people, they are not worried about the country, but are scared of going behind the bars and that is why they want to capture power at the Centre," Modi said.

Modi accused the previous Congress-led government of doing nothing after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

"When terrorists killed our 40 soldiers in Pulwama, should Modi also have kept quiet? If I had to behave like the previous governments, why did the people elect me?" he said.

He hit out at the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, charging that they were not prepared to trust the armed forces.

Modi said these were the same people who questioned the 2016 surgical strike across the Line of Control after the terrorist attack in Uri.

But when full facts on that military operation emerged, they turned speechless", he said.

The prime minister said the remarks by the opposition parties were demeaning the valour shown by the country's armed forces after the Pulwama attack.

Taking a dig at them, he called their proposed opposition mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) a maha-milawat, or grand adulteration.

Such people remember the poor, the farmers, the youth, the Ganga and the industries only when they go out to seek votes, he said.

They say come let's do 'maha-milawat', let's unite those who are in jail, those who will be going to jail and those who are out on bail. And they say come let's finish Modi unitedly. I say we should unitedly finish terror."



In Varanasi, Modi claimed that "non-cooperation" by the previous Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh was responsible for the delay in beginning a beautification project in the holy city.

He laid a foundation stone there for Kashi Vishwanath Temple's approach road.

In Kanpur, the prime minister laid the foundation stone for the Panki thermal power plant.

He flagged off the commercial run on Lucknow Metro's 23-km-long north-south corridor, through video conferencing from Kanpur itself and symbolically laid the foundation stone for the Agra Metro Rail project at the same event.

He laid the foundation stone for a project to build the ambitious Regional Rail Transport System (RRTS) that would connect Delhi and Meerut via Ghaziabad.

"The RRTS is being built at a cost of more than Rs 30,000 crore. Once work on the country's first RRTS is completed, the distance between Delhi and Meerut can be covered in just one hour," Modi told the gathering in Ghaziabad.

He also inaugurated an extension of the Delhi Metro's Red Line and a new terminal building at Hindon airport.

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Police on Friday lathicharged a mob protesting against eviction of illegal settlers in Assam's Karbi Anglong district, police said.

A mob of about 1500 people had gathered at Lankajam area under Barjangphar police station to protest against eviction in the area going on since March two last.

The mob started pelting stones at the officials and security forces engaged in removing people, who have settled illegally on government land.

The police resorted to a mild lathicharge to disperse the crowd and the situation which had turned tense was soon brought under control, the police added.

There was, however, no reports of any injury.

The district administration has so far demolished 646 houses, with 104 done Friday.

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A private plane carrying "Aquaman" star Jason Momoa had to make an emergency landing after a fire scare.

The private jet which was on route to Phoenix, Arizona made the landing shortly after taking off from Palm Springs, California, according to Fox

The 39-year-old actor also shared the on his Instagram story.

"We got ourselves a slight delay half an hour out in Palm Springs and the plane wanted to start a fire," the actor said in a video.

"So yeah, good ole' fire department, gotta love 'em," he added as he showed fire trucks on the tarmac. He also posed for photographs with the firefighters.

It was later discovered to be a case of a false alarm, but by that time another plane arrived to take Momoa to his destination.

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Families of the 40 CRPF personnel, killed in a recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, have been paid over Rs 1 crore ex-gratia funds till now as per service rules, the force said Friday.

Officials said the 'next of kin' of these slain personnel will also get an additional ex-gratia amount that has been announced by various state governments, where the troops hailed from, in a case-to-case basis.

A total amount of over Rs 1.01 crore has been paid to the families of the 40 personnel who were killed in the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, an official from the force said.

He added that this amount includes Rs 35 lakh given by the central government as ex-gratia to the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel killed in the line of action, Rs 21.50 lakh under the risk fund, Rs 15 lakh from the 'Bharat Ke Veer' corpus and Rs 30 lakh from the SBI paramilitary service pay insurance cover.

The families additionally are also being provided financial benefits from various government and non-government agencies even as some institutions have volunteered to take care of education of the wards of these personnel, he said.

"Liberalised Pension Award (LPA) is being given to all the 40 families and this amount equals to the last basic pay plus dearness allowance drawn by the killed personnel. This amount will be paid lifelong," the official said.

He added that while in some cases, the 'next of kin' of the killed personnel have been offered jobs by state governments, they are also eligible for compassionate appointment for jobs in the CRPF.

The force is soon going to launch a special mobile application which has been designed specifically for redressal of grievances relating to the families of killed personnel of the force. This will be launched soon, he said.

The 40 CRPF personnel were travelling in a force bus when a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the bus on February 14.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has deployed as many as 61 battalions in the state, with about 65,000 personnel, and is the lead counter-terrorist and internal security force in the Kashmir valley.

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Congress President Rahul Gandhi would kickstart tomorrow the party campaign for the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana, where it fared badly in the Assembly polls three months ago.

AICC in-charge of party affairs in Telangana, R C Khuntia told PTI Friday that the Congress chief would address booth committee members.

In the December 7 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress secured only 19 seats in the 119-member House with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) returning to power after winning in 88 constituencies.

The Congress had forged an opposition alliance "Prajakutami" (People's Front) for the Assembly election, along with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the CPI and the Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS).

But this grouping came a cropper at the hustings. The TDP, led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, picked up only two seats, while the CPI and TJS drew a blank.

For the coming Lok Sabha elections in Telangana, due by May, Khuntia said the Congress has decided to contest all the 17 seats on its own, and appealed to "like-minded parties" to support its candidates.

Asked if the TDP, CPI and TJS promised support to Congress candidates, Khuntia said: "They have said they will talk (discuss) in their party".

On when the Congress would announce candidates for the 17 seats, he said it's expected by next week-end.

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Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday promised to strive for the passage of the women's reservation bill in the Parliament and adopt a policy of zero tolerance towards atrocities on women if his party comes to power.

Gandhi said if the party is voted to power in Odisha, all women would be provided free education, be it in engineering or medical or any other field.

"There is an urgent need to provide reservation for women in state assemblies and the Lok Sabha to ensure their empowerment. The Congress is keen to ensure this," Gandhi said during an interaction with women at a convention in Jeypore town of Odisha's Koraput district.

Noting that reservation for women in panchayats has benefited women significantly, the Congress chief lamented that the number of women ministers in states like Odisha had remained "abysmally low".

Speaking on the occasion of the International Women's Day, Gandhi said: "If the Congress comes to power, our approach will be zero tolerance towards atrocities against women. They should get speedy justice."



Referring to Odisha, the Congress president said: "All women, particularly tribals, Dalits and those belonging to the backward categories, should get free education to ensure they are truly empowered."



Gandhi pointed out to the alleged rape of a woman by a BJP MLA in Uttar Pradesh last year, saying it was "unfortunate" that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had remained silent on the issue.

"In case of rape and atrocities on women, the prime minister and chief ministers must make their views clear," he added.

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With less than 100 days left for the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections in Odisha,



Congress president Rahul Gandhi Friday sought to woo women, farmers and tribals by promising free education for girls, farm loan waiver and protection of 'adivasi' land rights.

On his third visit to Odisha in less then two months, he addressed a public meeting in tribal-dominated Koraput district, a strong hold of Congress for generations.

Taking a dig at the Naveen Patnaik government, Gandhi alleged that it was run by "only four to five officers". He said a handful friends of Patnaik were reaping benefits, while majority of the people were denied their rights.

On the BJD chief's push for passage of the Women Reservation Bill, the Congress leader mocked that Odisha has only two women ministers.

The Congress and the BJP are making efforts to give a strong challenge to the well-entrenched Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the upcoming polls.

The BJD is in power in Odisha since 2000. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the party led by Patnaik had won 20 out of the total 21 seats in the eastern state. Union minister Jual Oram had managed to win from Sundergarh constituency.

Speaking on the International Women's Day, Gandhi read out a portion of his party's election manifesto for the state and said the Congress if elected to power in Odisha, will provide financial assistance for the marriage of poor women, free higher education for girls, Rs 2,000 monthly widow pension among others.

Voicing anguish over rising atrocities on women, he said the party will appoint special women officers in all the gram panchayats to ensure speedy justice to the victims.

The Gandhi scion said only seven rape survivors get justice in a year, while the state on an average records at least eight rape cases daily.

The Congress president also promised setting up of financial corporations to promote entrepreneurship among the women of Odisha.

While speaking on tribal rights, the Congress leader hit out at both the Naveen Patnaik and Narendra Modi governments, accusing them of ignoring the poor and favouring industrialists.

The Patnaik government has snatched away the lands of the poor and gifted them to industrial houses without taking the consent of the affected as enshrined in the Land Acquisition Act.

Apart from promising farm loan waiver, Gandhi said the farmers of the state would get above Rs 2,500 per quintal as the minimum support price (MSP) on a quintal of paddy.

During his two previous tours of Odisha on January 24 and February 6, Gandhi had alleged that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was remote controlled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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The Rajasthan government has reduced the tenure of the Lokayukta to five years from eight years, reversing the previous Bharatiya Janata Party regime's decision.

The government has issued notification late on Thursday night through the Rajasthan Lokayukta and Up-Lokayukta (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019, to reduce the tenure.

As per the notification, state Governor Kalyan Singh has given the approval to the ordinance. The ordinance has come into immediate effect and before the culmination of Lokayukta S S Kothari's five-year tenure.

It effectively ends the tenure of Kothari, a former judge of the Rajasthan High Court, the notification reads.

In March last year, the Vasundhara Raje government had issued an an ordinance, extending the Lokayukta's tenure by three years by amending the Rajasthan Lokayukta and Up-Lokayukta Act, 1973.

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An action plan has been prepared by Ranchi-based Central Mine Planning and Design Institute for resumption of coal mining in Meghalaya in line with the directions of the National Green Tribunal, Governor Tathagata Roy said on Friday.

He was speaking in the state legislative assembly on the first day of the Budget session.

The state government has also framed guidelines for coal mining, the Governor said.

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma was also present in the House with his ministers and legislators.

The state government had launched a crackdown on illegal coal mining despite a ban imposed by the NGT in 2014 after a major disaster in East Jaintia Hills district when 15 diggers got trapped in a rat-hole mine.

Roy said the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI) has started exploration activity in 1 sq km coal block of Khliehriat-Sutnga for preparation of Geological Report and Feasibility study.

The government has framed guidelines for coal mining and an action plan has been prepared by the CMPDI to start coal mining in line with the direction of NGT, he said in his address.

The Governor said the government was committed to promote "scientific, secure and environment-friendly" coal mining in the state, complying with all statutory central legislations pertaining to environmental protection and safety of mine workers.

Commenting on the rescue operations after the East Jaintia Hills mine tragedy on December 13 last, Roy said the state government had taken all possible steps in co-ordination with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and Disaster Management Department for rescue of the trapped miners.

This involved participation of various agencies such as SDRF, NDRF, Odisha Fire Service, Indian Navy, National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) and Coal India Limited, he said.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) helped in air lifting heavy equipment, heavy duty pumps and experts from Chennai, Bhubaneshwar and Ahmedabad till Guwahati airport, the Governor said, adding the Army provided logistical support for the rescue operation.

The district administration along with police, fire service and officers of various other departments were fully involved in the rescue operations, Roy added.

Although, the rescuers saw five bodies, they could manage to retrieve only two highly-decomposed bodies.

On March 1, the team of rescuers from the Navy and Army announced to leave the operation site, 60 days after launching the search operation for tracing the 15 miners trapped in a 370 feet-deep illegal coal mine in a remote area.

The state government had announced Rs 1 lakh interim relief to each of the identified miners trapped in the coal mine owned by Krip Chullet, who was arrested on the following day of the accident.

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Luzette King, having had her charge of causing inconvenience to the public withdrawn, is yet to decide on her next move.

The court case against Luzette King - social activist and host of the now discontinued Global Highlights radio programme - has been withdrawn.

King was charged with causing inconvenience to the public in exercise of common rights, during a protest action in Kingstown, March 6, 2016, which challenged the result of the 2015 general election.

When King turned up at the Mesopotamia Magistrates Court on Friday 1st March, Prosecutor Coleen Samuel withdrew the case against her. However, Kings legal team was expecting the case to be dismissed al- together, referencing to the possibility of the matter resurfacing.

King had attended court hearing each time the matter was , but for Friday 1st February, 2019, when she failed to turn up and was subsequently arrested as per a bench warrant issued by Magistrate Bertie Pompey.

She spent the night in a cell at the Questelles Police Station and was released the following day, after Magistrate Pompey himself turned up and revoked the warrant, citing Kings interest in the matter and her cooperation with the police as the basis for his decision.

Speaking after last Fridays withdrawal, King said that the fact that she was arrested on a bench warrant, only to be told now that the case was withdrawn, leaves her angry. "I am furious because it must have been something that she (the Prosecutor) was going to do the last time when she asked for a bench warrant, while they had outstanding the order for disclosure, said King.

She said that her attorney had planned to go to court to ask for the case to be dismissed, but by the prosecution withdrawing the case, there is a possibility of the matter could be brought back to court.

King said that during the hearing on Friday, Magistrate Pompey spent some time trying to extricate himself from what transpired with regard to the bench warrant and her spending overnight in a cell.

She said that Pompey had issues with her comment, "Pompey did not do me a favour when he went to the Questelles Police Station and revoked the bench warrant, which she explained was a response to a related question that a journalist from another publication had asked her.

On the issue of the bench warrant, the activist said that, based on legal advice from a former Magistrate and QC, the right procedure should have been for her to be issued another summons instead of a bench warrant.

"You have to bear in mind as well that they moved the case from Kingstown and I didnt know; they changed the date for the court case and I didnt know. It was my lawyer who checked the list and realized that I was not on the list for February 15th, she highlighted, adding that she is still to decide on her next move.

"To me, this is abuse of power, intimidation, harassment and everything else. This is a case where they strip me naked for the world on the 6th January 2016, so I am yet to decide if I should leave the matter like this, said King.
A stray pup, rescued by the police, has become the first street mongrel to join the elite dog squad of West Bengal Police.

Asha, as named by the Kolkata Police officers who rescued her from stone-pelting kids on the city streets, has been trained in the last one-and-half years to become member of the dog squad of the West Bengal Police Training Academy, Barrackpore, deputy inspector general of police Dipankar Bhattacharya said.

"Initially, we did not have plans to train her or include her in our dog squad as we never had any street dog in the squad. But the then inspector-general (Training) K Jayaraman thought of providing training to the stray dog and see if she could be included in the canine squad," Bhattacharya said.

Asha who will be joining "pedigreed" members such as German Shepherds and Labradors in the dog squad, has proved to be a good sniffer dog in detecting explosives, the DIG said.

"I am happy that Asha has proved that not only pedigreed dogs can be part of a police dog squad. She has proved herself to be as smart and intelligent as pedigreed dogs.

"We are proud that we are successful in training a stray dog to handle situations. She is ready for work and will join the squad soon," the IPS officer said expressing his willingness to try to include more street mongrels in the squad after training them.

"Asha is a well-mannered dog. She picked up very quickly and started following instructions on how to heel and walk, crawl, lie down, roll over and salute just like others pedigreed dogs," another senior officer in the West Bengal Police's dog squad said.

"But if you ask me, I will tell you that Asha was very good at training and most of the times, she was better than the pedigreed dogs. She is the fastest runner dog in our squad and quite clever. That's her mettle," the officer said.

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The cabinet Friday approved a proposal to exempt residential properties up to 500 sqft from

The decision was taken at the cabinet meeting held in Mumbai

The proposal had been put forward by the before the pre-poll alliance with the was finalised. Chief Minister had announced that the demand would be accepted.

In another decision, the cabinet also extended the deadline for subsidy on onion sold till February 28. Earlier, it was extended till January 25.

In December last year, the state government had announced Rs 150 crore financial assistance to onion growers. It was in the form of subsidy on the onions sold from November 1 to December 15 last year, due to the drop in onion prices.

The financial relief consisted of ex-gratia payment at the rate of Rs 200 per quintal (with an upper limit of 200 quintal per farmer) for the produce sold between November 1 and December 15, 2018.

Talking to reporters about it, Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan said, the deadline has been extended twice from the earlier December 31, 2018.

"The government will bear the burden of Rs 140 crore and the decision will benefit 1.4 lakh onion growers," he added.

In another significant decision, the cabinet approved a proposal to give on ownership basis the co-operative housing societies meant for Panshet flood-affected people in

Food and Civil Supplies Minister Girish Bapat, who is also the Guardian Minister of Pune, told reporters that 103 societies were given land on 99 year lease.

These societies will now be on ownership basis. Due to the decision, residents can sell off their houses or go for re-development.

The cabinet also decided to give tax benefits to co-operative housing societies on the government, semi government and private land, to encourage them to go for self re-development.

The government has decided to start a new scheme of ashram schools for Scheduled Castes (SC), wherein primary and secondary ashram schools for SCs are run by NGOs, which do not get central grants.

The cabinet also decided to provide 33 acres and 35 guntha land in Borivali on lease to the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) at a nominal rate.

(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.)
A truck packed with Central American migrants swerved off a highway in southern Mexico late Thursday, leaving at least 25 dead and 29 injured, officials said.

The accident happened in Chiapas state which borders Guatemala, the state attorney general's office said in a statement.

The three-ton truck ran off the road and overturned, it said. Every year thousands of Central Americans, mainly from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, attempt dangerous trips through Mexico trying to reach the United States.

Many travel in group caravans for safety, while others hire people traffickers who put them in overcrowded trucks with appalling and sanitary conditions.

In October a caravan with as many as 7,000 people traveled through Mexico all the way to Tijuana on the border with California before eventually disbanding.

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The RSS Friday lauded the Indian Air Force (IAF) for hitting terror launch pads in Pakistan and also praised the government for taking the decision.

A resolution to this effect was passed on day one of the three-day meeting of the Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha, RSS' highest policy-making body, which began here Friday.

"The meeting passed an 'abhinandan prastav' lauding the IAF for the air strike and also praised the government for this decision," RSS joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya RSS told reporters.

"The government has taken the right decision to deal with the anti-national forces and Indians should also remain cautious of such elements," he said.

The meeting also expressed deep sorrow over the Pulwama and other terror attacks that killed armed forces personnel, he said.

"India's sahishnuta (tolerance) should not be treated as its weakness," Vaidya said.

Around 1,400 members of the Pratinidhi Sabha including RSS head, Mohan Bhagwat and Sarkaryavaha Bhaiyaji Joshi are taking part in the meeting, which will also discuss the Sabrimala shrine issue, he said.

Vaidya said after the Supreme Court ruling, Kerala government is working against the spirit of the court decision by playing with the faith of Hindus and forcing the temple entry of women who are not Hindus.

On the Ram temple issue, he said all those associated with the matter are putting their views in the Supreme Court.

"We have full faith in the judicial system and hope the all obstacles will be cleared and the temple constructed," Vaidya said.

He said no separate discussion will take place in the meeting on the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, adding the RSS believes that maximum number of people should vote.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The RSS Friday lauded the Indian Air Force (IAF) for hitting terror launch pads in Pakistan and also praised the government for taking the decision.

A resolution to this effect was passed on day one of the three-day meeting of the Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha, RSS' highest policy-making body, which began here Friday.

"The meeting passed an 'abhinandan prastav' lauding the IAF for the air strike and also praised the government for this decision," RSS joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya RSS told reporters.

"The government has taken the right decision to deal with the anti-national forces and Indians should also remain cautious of such elements," he said.

The meeting also expressed deep sorrow over the Pulwama and other terror attacks that killed armed forces personnel, he said.

"India's sahishnuta (tolerance) should not be treated as its weakness," Vaidya said.

Around 1,400 members of the Pratinidhi Sabha including RSS head, Mohan Bhagwat and Sarkaryavaha Bhaiyaji Joshi are taking part in the meeting, which will also discuss the Sabrimala temple issue, he said.

Vaidya said the Kerala government is working against the spirit of Supreme Court ruling on the shrine by playing with the faith of Hindus and forcing entry of women who are not Hindus in the temple.

On the Ram temple issue, he said all those associated with the matter are putting their views in the Supreme Court.

"We have full faith in the judicial system and hope the all obstacles will be cleared and the temple constructed," Vaidya said.

He said no separate discussion will take place in the meeting on the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, adding the RSS believes that maximum number of people should vote.

Participants at the three-day meet will share their ideas and experience on issues like social harmony, environment conservation, saving water, reducing use of plastic and tree plantation, Vaidya said.

The number of RSS 'shakhas' (branches/units) increased this year, compared to last year, he said. In 2018, there were 58,967 shakhas and the number now is 59,266, he said.

As part of the meeting, Sangh workers of 35 bodies associated with the RSS will place their views before Bhagwat, he said. The meeting will also decide next year's agenda for the organisation, he added.

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South Korea and the United States have signed a deal that would increase Seoul's financial contribution for the deployment of U.S. troops in the Asian country.

After rounds of failed negotiations, chief delegates from the two countries last month agreed on Seoul paying about 1.04 trillion won (USD 924 million) in 2019 for the US military presence, up from about USD 830 million last year.

President Donald Trump earlier pressured Seoul to increase its share, triggering worries in South Korea that he might withdraw some of the 28,500 US troops here if Seoul refused to accept his demand.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and US Ambassador Harry Harris signed the new cost-sharing deal on Friday.

The deal requires parliamentary approval in South Korea.

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A South Sudan military court Friday sentenced three soldiers to death by firing squad, and a fourth to 10 years' imprisonment, for killing two civilians in their homes in robbery-motivated attacks last year.

The victims -- Lilian Lurit, mother of a nine-month-old child, and Ayol Majak -- were killed in separate attacks at night, as gangs robbed their homes.

Two civilians who acted with the soldiers were also convicted -- one of them sentenced to life imprisonment and the other to eight years in jail.

All four soldiers, two of them with the rank of sergeant, have been dismissed from the army.

Brigadier General Santo Domic, a military spokesman, said the prosecution was the first of its kind to hold accountable soldiers who terrorise residential areas in South Sudan's capital, Juba, and elsewhere at night.

"This is a signal that the SSPDF (South Sudan People's Defence Force)... does not accommodate criminality," he told reporters after the ruling.

The convicted men's lawyer said they would appeal.

Amnesty International last year accused the government of South Sudan and its allied militias of carrying out "war crimes" of "staggering brutality" in attacks on civilians who it said in a report were "shot dead, burnt alive, hanged in trees, and run over with armoured vehicles."



The group also documented "systematic sexual violence", rape and gang-rape as well as abductions of women and girls, and the deliberate killing of young boys and male infants.

War broke out in the world's newest nation in December 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup.

The ensuing battle for power between Kiir, a member of the Dinka tribe, and Machar, a Nuer, meant the conflict quickly took on an ethnic character with civilians targeted by both sides for massacre and widespread rape.

The vicious war has killed nearly 400,000 people, pushed millions to the brink of starvation and scattered refugees across East Africa.

Kiir and Machar signed a ceasefire deal last year that the UN and observers warn appears to be breaking up.

In September last year, 10 soldiers were found guilty of an attack on a hotel in the capital Juba in which five foreign aid workers were gang-raped and a South Sudanese journalist killed.

But commanders and their political masters are not held to account for such acts.

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Giving another chance for mediation, the Supreme Court Friday ordered setting up a three-member panel headed by a former apex court judge F M I Kalifulla to explore a possible settlement of the decades-old politically sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute in Ayodhya.

Spiritual guru and founder of Art of Living foundation Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, well known for his mediation experience, will be the other two members of the panel. Interestingly, all the three men appointed by the apex court hail from Tamil Nadu where the Ayodhya dispute does not have much resonance.

The mediation process in Faizabad of Uttar Pradesh, around 7 km from the twin city of Ayodhya, will commence within a week and the panel will submit a progress report within four weeks, the top court said in its order that came ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

It said the mediation proceeding to be held "in-camera" and in "utmost confidentiality" will be completed within eight weeks which is the interregnum period granted earlier by the apex court to the parties in the main Ayodhya case to go through translations of oral and documentary evidences.

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it does not find any "legal impediment" to make a reference to mediation for a possible settlement of the dispute.

"We therefore order accordingly, and having taken note of the names suggested by the parties, we are of the view that the following panel of mediators should be appointed to go into the dispute with liberty to the mediators to co-opt other members of the panel, if so required," it said.

Declaring the names, the bench said: "Justice (retd) Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla - Chairman, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar - Member, senior advocate Sriram Panchu - Member."



The bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer, was told earlier by Hindu bodies, except for Nirmohi Akhara, and Uttar Pradesh government, that they oppose the court's suggestion for mediation. The Muslim bodies supported the proposal.

However, both sides suggested the panel of names for possible mediators.

The three panel members separately said they will strive to achieve a resolution of the vexed dispute.

"For the present, I can only say that if the committee has been constituted, we will take every step to resolve the dispute amicably," Kalifulla said in Chennai. He had earlier served as a judge of the Madras High Court.

While Ravishankar said everybody must move together to end long-standing conflicts, Panchu said the court has given a "serious" responsibility and he will do his best.

Ravishankar also said the decision is in the best interest of the country.

A number of senior BJP leaders made it clear that building Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya is the only way out of the impasse.

Union minister Uma Bharti said one has to respect the court order but asserted that she stands for building the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and a mosque can be built only outside its vicinity.

BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao said keeping the dispute pending for long is not in anyone's interest.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) welcomed the court order, saying it would be most befitting that the matter is resolved through negotiations.

While BSP leader Mayawati called the move "appreciable", AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said Ravi Shankar should act in an "unbiased" manner.

The Congress said it respects the Court decision and noted that the court's verdict should be final and binding on all parties.

CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said the previous mediation efforts had failed to yield results but this time, the Supreme Court is monitoring it and all the parties who have gone to the court are in agreement with the decision and it is to be seen what will be the result.

While opposing the suggestion of mediation, Hindu bodies have argued that earlier attempts of reaching a compromise have failed and provisions of Civil Procedure Code (CPC) require public notice to be issued before the start of mediation process.

"Considering the provisions of the CPC..., we do not find any legal impediment in making a reference to mediation for a possible settlement of the dispute(s) arising out of the appeals. Whether the said provisions of the CPC would apply in the event parties arrive at a settlement/compromise in the mediation proceedings is a matter left open to be decided at the appropriate stage," the bench said.

The top court directed that the mediation proceedings be conducted with "utmost confidentiality" for ensuring its success and the views expressed by any of the parties including the mediators should be kept confidential and not be revealed to any other person.

"We are of the further opinion that while the mediation proceedings are being carried out, there ought not to be any reporting of the said proceedings either in the print or in the electronic media," the bench said.

However, it refrained from passing any specific restrain order at this stage and instead empowered the mediators to pass necessary orders in writing, if so required, to restrain publication of the details of the mediation proceedings.

"The Chairman of the mediation panel may also inform the registry of this court any difficulties that the panel may face in carrying out the task assigned to it by the present order and also to inform of any requirement to facilitate the mediation and to conclude the same at the earliest."



Fixing the seat for mediation process in Faizabad, the court said adequate arrangements including the venue of the mediation, place of stay of the mediators, their security, travel should be forthwith arranged by the state government so that proceedings could commence immediately.

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

On December 6, 1992, the Babri Masjid, constructed at the disputed site in the 16th century by Shia Muslim Mir Baqi, was demolished triggering communal riots across the country in which nearly 2,000 people were killed.

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The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim police protection to a Kashmiri nurse at a government hospital who had filed a plea seeking protection from her alleged sexual harassers.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued notice to the Jammu and Kashmir administration, directing it to provide adequate police protection to the nurse.

"The petitioner to be provided with adequate police protection as may be considered necessary by the concerned authority upon being approached by the petitioner," the bench also comprising Justices S A Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna said.

The woman, in her plea, alleged that while she was working as a nurse at a government hospital in the state, she was sexually harassed by some of her superiors.

She claimed that police initially refused to register an FIR as the accused persons were influential and they registered it only after she approached the judicial magistrate.

The plea alleged that after the woman file a complaint, she was transferred illegally and her salary was withheld without any reason.

The petitioner sought protection claiming threat to her life.

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The Supreme Court on Friday referred the politically sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation by a panel headed by former apex court judge F M I Kallifulla and gave it eight weeks to complete the process.

The other members of the panel will be spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, said a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

The bench directed that the mediation will be held at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh and the process should start within a week from Friday.

The bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer, said the panel should file a progress report of the proceedings within four weeks and complete the process within eight weeks.

The apex court said "utmost confidentiality" should be maintained to ensure success of the mediation process and no media, neither print nor electronic, should report the proceedings.

The panel of mediators can co-opt more members in the team, it said. In case of any difficulty, the chairman will inform the apex court registry about it, it added.

On Wednesday, the bench had reserved the order after hearing various contesting parties.

Hindu bodies, except Nirmohi Akhara, have opposed the apex court's suggestion to refer the issue for mediation, while Muslim bodies have supported it.

The bench had concluded the hearing by asking stakeholders to give the names of possible mediators.

The apex court in its Wednesday hearing observed that the issue is not about 1,500 square feet land, but about religious sentiments.

The bench said it was conscious of the gravity and impact of the issue on "public sentiment" and also on the "body politic of the country".

It said the judges were aware of the history and were seeing that the dispute be resolved amicably. "it is not only about property. it is about mind, heart and healing, if possible," the bench said



The bench also said it was not appropriate to pre-judge that the mediation would fail and people would not agree with the decision.

"We are not concerned what has happened in the past. Don't you think we have read the history. We are not concerned what Babar did in the past or who was the king and who invaded. We cannot undo what has happened but we can go into what exists in the present moment," the bench said when a lawyer contended that injustices were meted out to Hindus by invaders in the past.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the legal heirs of original litigant M Siddiq, said outlining of the dispute is not necessary and the court can order mediation by an mediator, when parties are unable to settle it.

To this, the bench said that there may not be one mediator but a panel of mediators to deal with the issue.

During the hearing, Justice Chandrachud said it would be very difficult to bind millions of people by way of mediation considering it is not just a property dispute between parties but a dispute involving two communities.

Senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, appearing for Hindu deity Ram Lala Virajman, said, "We are even willing to crowd-fund a mosque somewhere else but no negotiations can take place with respect of Lord Rama's birthplace. Mediation won't serve any purpose," he said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, said the court should refer the matter for mediation only when there exists an element of settlement.

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Justice Stanley John retires to a period on study and contemplation as he prepares to hand down a verdict by March 21.

Oral closing arguments in the Election Petitions matter ended yesterday, Thursday, following the submission of written arguments on March 1.



Petitioners

Lead Counsel for the petitioners, Stanley Stalky John Q.C got things underway on Wednesday.

He argued that, based on the evidence presented and witnesses cross-examined, there were a number of breaches of the rules, meaning that the conduct of the 2015 elections was not compliant with the tenets of the Representation of the People Act (RPA).

"Not only was the election not conducted in accordance with the RPA, but the results were also affected, "John said.

There were many breaches, but the most pivotal of them, according to John, was that of defective ballots, with the added concern about the absence of the official mark and initial on some of the ballots, and the unavoidable breach of the secrecy that ensued, the senior counsel explained.

He further explained that during witness testimony, it had been revealed that some of the ballots had the official mark while others did not.

The issue of contention, therefore, was that those ballots that did not contain the official mark ought not to have been counted.

"And if this is the case, then it must be concluded that one of the fundamental rules of the RPA was not followed, and this would have affected the results of the elections, John said.

He further noted that the respondents failed to provide a paper trail in order to consistently and accurately verify the authenticity of the election results.

Keith Scotland, counsel representing petitioner Lauron Baptiste petition, objecting to the results for the constituency of North Windward in the 2015 general elections, argued that the first and most fundamental breach was that there was no Form 16 presented for the polling station NW1, nor was there a final count.

Cheryl Sutherland, called in to observe the proceedings as a neutral observer during the last elections, said, under cross-examination, that she did not recall seeing any Form 16s, the document used to record the preliminary and final count, and that there was no official final count.

Respondents

However, Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, on behalf of the respondents, asserted that the petitioners had no case.

He argued that ballots in polling stations CLF and CLF1 did not have the official stamp on the ballot, but on the counterfoil.

He said that the stamp for both these polling stations were located above the do not fold beyond this line mark on the ballot, which essentially was the counterfoil.

"The petitioners need to point this out, we did in our submissions, the Senior Counsel said.

He further noted that the court had to make a decision to resolve the issue that polling station CLB also had markings on the counterfoil.

And there was no issue if the stamp was placed on the counterfoil, he argued. This was based on the rules and regulations of the electoral process.

Mendes further stated that, based on evidence given by Zita Barnwell, who stated clearly that she saw creases on the ballots, unlike evidence given by Chester Charles and Esla Sam who both said that they saw the presiding officer, Kathleen Jeffers adjust the ballot in such a way that suggested that she looked to see how they each voted.

But neither said how they folded the ballot, Mendes noted.

In the event that ballots do not have the official stamp and initials of the presiding officer, then the ballot has to be invalidated according to the rules.

And according to Mendes, the petitioners argued that there were 321 bad ballots in the constituency of Central Leeward, with the margin between Sir Louis Straker and Benjamin Exeter being 313.

Justice Stanley John will now prepare for his ruling promised by March 21.It was explained to the court that the official mark and initials of the presiding officer were important in ensuring that the ballot issued to the voter is the ballot returned after the voter casts his/her vote."So, this is a neutral person coming to give evidence in the court.,,, She said that she saw no Form 16 or Form 6. No individual votes were counted. I ask you to take her as a witness of integrity, Scotland implored.However, if votes have become invalidated, then counts for both candidates would have to be deducted from the original figure indicating that there would be no change in the result.
Suspected terrorists Friday snatched the service rifle of a policeman in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district, officials said.

The policeman is posted as a personnel security officer (PSO) of district development commissioner, Kishtwar, Angrez Singh Rana.

PSO Daleep Kumar claimed that some masked gunmen intruded into his residence at Shaheedi Mazar area of the town late night and decamped with his AK-47 rifle and mobile phone after threatening him and his family, the officials said.

They said the area was immediately cordoned off and a massive hunt has been launched to nab the gunmen and recover the looted weapon.

The PSO was being questioned, the officials said adding further details are awaited.

Suspected terrorists killed a senior BJP leader and his brother in the town in November last year. The case was handed over to the National Investigation Agency but the culprits are still at large.

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The Shahpurkandi dam project will reduce the outflow of the Ravi river water to Pakistan once it is completed, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday said.

The Rs 2,700 crore Shahpurkandi dam project, being set up on the Ravi river, will generate 206 MW of power, besides having the potential to irrigate 5,000 hectares of land in Punjab and 31,000 hectares of land in Jammu and Kashmir's Sambha and Kathua districts.

"This water, which was supposed to irrigate fields in Punjab and J-K, was going towards Pakistan. This project will reduce the water flowing into Pakistan drastically and will help save the critical water resources of the state," Singh said while addressing the gathering here.

The chief minister, who was here for rededicating the project to people of Punjab, said it will be completed in three years.

Of the estimated cost, which is in addition to Rs 640 crore already spent till 2014, Rs 1,408 crore would be spent on the power component, with 100 per cent share of the Punjab government, and Rs 685 crore on the irrigation component, with a share of Rs 485 crore to be contributed by the central government and Rs 179.28 crore by the state government.

The Shahpurkandi dam project is being constructed on the Ravi river, 11 km downstream of the Ranjit Sagar Dam project and 7 km up stream of Madhopur Head works.

The Shahpurkandi dam project was described as a "national project" by the Centre in 2008.

However, this project, which was initially a Punjab and J-K joint venture, was held up in year 2014.

The work was stopped by J-K authority on August 30, 2014 on its side "under the guise" of the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act 2004, as per an official release.

However, after the intervention of the Centre, both Punjab and the J-K governments signed an agreement in September last year to restart the work on the project.

The project will be monitored by a team comprising a Central Water Commission member and chief engineers from the two states.

Singh said as many as 230 families ousted as a result of the project were offered jobs and another 34 would be given jobs shortly.

The chief minister, who was accompanied by MP Sunil Jakhar and MLA Bhoa Joginder Pal, personally handed over appointment letters to five employees recruited for the Shahpurkandi dam construction.

Asserting that the border belt up to Shahpurkandi would be one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the world, Singh said the project would also give impetus to tourism, besides supplementing the income of residents in the region.

With the construction of the Shahpurkandi dam, the historic Mukteshwar Temple would also be saved from submergence by creating a retaining wall, he added.

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Scientists have discovered 103 beetle species in Indonesia which are new to science, and named one of them after the Star Wars character Yoda while three others after characters from French comics series The Adventures of Asterix.

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi has been long known for its enigmatic fauna, including the deer-pig and the midget buffalo, said researchers from the Natural History Museum in Germany and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

However, small insects inhabiting the tropical forests have remained largely unexplored, they said in a statement.

Only a single species of the tiny weevils of the genus Trigonopterus had been known from the island since 1885.

In the study published in the journal ZooKeys, the researchers discovered a total of 103 new species, all identified as Trigonopterus.

"Our survey is not yet complete and possibly we have just scratched the surface," said Raden Pramesa Narakusumo, curator of beetles at the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense (MZB), Indonesian Research Center for Biology.

"Sulawesi is geologically complex and many areas have never been searched for these small beetles," Narakusumo said in a statement.

While some of the weevils were best associated with their localities or characteristic morphology, others received quite curious names, researchers said.

A small greenish and forest-dwelling species was aptly named after the Star Wars character Yoda, while a group of three species were named after Asterix, Obelix and Idefix -- the main characters in The Adventures of Asterix.

Naturally, Trigonopterus obelix is larger and more roundish than his two 'friends', researchers said.

Other curious names include T artemis and T satyrus, named after two Greek mythological characters: Artemis, the goddess of hunting and nature and Satyr, a male nature spirit inhabiting remote localities, they said.

The names of four of the newly described beetles pay tribute to renowned biologists, including Charles Darwin, Paul D N Hebert, who implemented DNA barcoding as a tool in species identification, and Francis H C Crick and James D Watson, the discoverers of the structure of DNA.

Sulawesi is at the heart of Wallacea, a biogeographic transition zone between the Australian and Asian regions, researchers said.

They assume that Trigonopterus weevils originated in Australia and New Guinea and later reached Sulawesi.

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A suspicious object found outside the main entrance of Jammu airport here Friday created panic among the local residents, officials said.

However, the bomb disposal squad found nothing incriminating, they said.

The bomb disposal squad along with sniffer dogs rushed to the spot after authorities received information that a suspicious object was lying adjacent to a security picket on the main road leading to the airport in Satwari area.

An electric circuit and a battery was found during inspection, the officials said, dispelling rumours that a bomb-like substance was detected outside the airport.

Police and other security forces are on high alert in the Jammu region following a grenade attack inside the general bus stand area on Thursday, which left two people dead and 31 others injured.

Police said the attacker, a juvenile hailing from south Kashmir, was arrested within hours of the blast which was carried out at the behest of terror group Hizbul Mujahideen.

An official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said the airport operations remained unaffected.

"The item detected does not contain any explosive. The airport operations are quite normal and security agencies have done the needful," he said.

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Union ministers Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari Friday laid the foundation stones for two high-speed highway corridors -- Rs 90,000 crore Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and Rs 9,000 crore Dwarka Expressway here.

The ministers also dedicated the Rs 1,217 crore Jaipur Ring Road to the nation.

The Dwarka Expressway, once completed, will open newer avenues for industrial development in the entire region, Finance Minister Jaitley said at the event.

These expressways will improve overall development, he added.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari said his ministries had undertaken works worth about Rs 15 lakh crore in the last five years.

The greenfield Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will be India's longest expressway at 1,320 km and would reduce the travel time between the metropolises to 13 hours from the present 24 hours, he said.

Gadkari said the expressway will be completed in three years and has the potential to generate 50 lakh man-days of employment during construction.

The expressway will pass through underdeveloped areas and about 15,000 hectares of land is being acquired for it at an estimated cost of Rs 25,000 crore, he added.

In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India vision, all transactions related to land acquisition, including transfer of compensation to landowners, are being done digitally.

"Delhi-Mumbai will be India's most environment friendly expressway with a tree cover of 20 lakh trees and rainwater harvesting system at every 500 metres," Gadkari said.

The expressway has taken a record time-frame of less than one year from conceptualisation to award, with 148.5 km of works already awarded and a further 400 km to be awarded this month, he said. The remaining 800 km will be awarded in the next six months.

The Delhi-Mumbai national corridor (NH-8 section of the Golden Quadrilateral) is one of the busiest and most critical routes of the national highways network, witnessing an average traffic of more than 80,000 passenger car units (PCUs) per day.

Considering the present traffic scenario, it was decided to develop an alternative alignment connecting Delhi with Vadodara, which on linking up with the proposed Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway would create seamless connectivity between Delhi and Mumbai.

The Delhi-Vadodara-Mumbai expressway would result in overall reduction of about 150 km in the present distance between Delhi-Mumbai, Gadkari said.

The Delhi-Vadodara Expressway, part of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project, will be implemented at a cost of Rs 45,000 crore.

The Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway part will also be executed at a cost of Rs 45,000 crore.

The Dwarka Expressway is 29 km long, out of which 18.9 km will fall in Haryana and 10.1 km in Delhi. It will be developed in four packages.

It is also proposed to provide western connectivity to Indira Gandhi International Airport from Dwarka side.

It will also provide direct access to the upcoming Exhibition-Cum-Convention Centre (ECC) in Sector 25 of Dwarka.

The Dwarka Expressway will be an eight-lane highway with provision of three-lane service roads on either side.

Union ministers Mansukh L Mandaviya, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Rao Indrajit Singh were also present on the occasion, along with Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and BJP MP Manoj Tiwari.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union ministers Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari Friday laid the foundation stones of two high-speed highway corridors -- Rs 90,000-crore Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and Rs 9,000-crore Dwarka Expressway here.

The ministers also dedicated the Rs 1,217-crore Jaipur Ring Road to the nation.

Addressing a gathering on the occasion, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the three projects are a gift for Delhi and Haryana.

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will change the future of Mewat region, and will bring it on industrial map of the country, she said appreciating that over 20 lakh new trees will be planted on these new roads, and these roads have the potential of becoming tourist attraction in near future.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitely said the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway would link two most important freight centres of the country, and will boost economic activity and generate great employment opportunities.

He appreciated Road Transport, Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, Ganga Rejuvenation and River Development Minister Nitin Gadkari's efforts in developing the national highway network in the country and said that he has successfully brought up this sector to building of 29 km of National Highways a day.

Jaitley said nearly 91 per cent of the country's villages are linked with main roads. The Dwarka Expressway, once completed, will open newer avenues for industrial development in the entire region, he said and added these expressways will improve overall development.

Gadkari said while developing expressways and highways, full attention is being given to minimising pollution levels.

He said the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, Dhaula Kuan flyover, etc, will definitely reduce traffic congestion, thereby improving the air quality in the city.

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will also speed up the development and smart cities will develop along them generating vast employment opportunities for the local people.

He said projects worth over 15 lakh crore are underway in the ministry, and these are being taken up with full transparency in a corruption-free atmosphere. He said all projects are being completed within time schedules.

The greenfield Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will be India's longest expressway at 1,320 km and would reduce the travel time between the metropolises to 13 hours from the current 24 hours, he said.

Gadkari said the expressway would be completed in three years and has the potential to generate 50 lakh man-days of employment during construction.

The expressway will pass through underdeveloped areas and about 15,000 hectares of land is being acquired for it at an estimated cost of Rs 25,000 crore, he added.

In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India vision, all transactions related to land acquisition, including transfer of compensation to landowners, are being done digitally.

"Delhi-Mumbai will be India's most environment-friendly expressway with a tree cover of 20 lakh trees and rainwater harvesting system at every 500 metres," Gadkari said.

The expressway has taken a record time-frame of less than one year from conceptualisation to award, with 148.5 km of works already awarded and a further 400 km to be awarded this month, he said. The remaining 800 km will be awarded in the next six months.

The Delhi-Mumbai national corridor (NH-8 section of the Golden Quadrilateral) is one of the busiest and most critical routes of the national highways network, witnessing an average traffic of more than 80,000 passenger car units (PCUs) per day.

Considering the present traffic scenario, it was decided to develop an alternative alignment connecting Delhi with Vadodara, which on linking up with the proposed Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway would create seamless connectivity between Delhi and Mumbai.

The Delhi-Vadodara-Mumbai expressway would result in overall reduction of about 150 km in the present distance between Delhi-Mumbai, Gadkari said.

The Delhi-Vadodara Expressway, part of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project, will be implemented at a cost of Rs 45,000 crore.

The Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway part will also be executed at a cost of Rs 45,000 crore.

The Dwarka Expressway is 29 km long, out of which 18.9 km will fall in Haryana and 10.1 km in Delhi. It will be developed in four packages.

It is also proposed to provide western connectivity to Indira Gandhi International Airport from Dwarka side.

It will also provide direct access to the upcoming Exhibition-Cum-Convention Centre (ECC) in Sector 25 of Dwarka.

The Dwarka Expressway will be an eight-lane highway with provision of three-lane service roads on either side.

Union ministers Mansukh L Mandaviya, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Rao Indrajit Singh were also present on the occasion, along with Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and BJP MP Manoj Tiwari.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Stepping up pressure on Pakistan, the US has asked Islamabad to take "sustained and irreversible" actions against terrorist groups operating from its territory to prevent future attacks and promote regional stability.

The State Department statement came as Pakistan, under global pressure after the Pulwama terror attack and India's air strikes against Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on February 26, started taking actions against some of the terrorist outfits and their leaders over the past few days.

In Islamabad, the Interior Ministry on Thursday announced that a total of 121 members of the proscribed groups have so far been taken into "preventive detention" across Pakistan.

State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino told reporters at his biweekly conference on Thursday, "I would say that we, the United States notes these steps and we continue to urge Pakistan to take sustained, irreversible actions against terrorist groups that will prevent future attacks and promote regional stability".

"We reiterate our call for Pakistan to abide by its United Nations Security Council obligations to deny terrorists safe haven and block their entry to funds," he said.

Responding to questions, Palladino refrained from giving a direct answer on the move at the United Nations Security Council to designate JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist.

However, he said that the US and its allies in the UN Security Council want to update the UN list of terrorist organisations and leaders.

"Our views on Masood Azhar and Jaish-e-Mohammed are well-known. Jaish-e-Mohammed is a United Nations-designated terrorist group that has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks and is a threat to regional stability. Masood Azhar is the founder and leader of JEM," Palladino said.

Questions on the United Nations Sanctions Committee deliberations are confidential and as such it is not something that the State Department is going to be able to comment on specific matters on the issue, he said.

"But we will continue to work with the sanctions committee to ensure that the list is updated and that it is accurate," Palladino said.

At the US Capitol, India's Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla met Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives and discussed the issue of terrorism.

"We must stand strong against acts of terrorism and work together to improve trade between our nations," the top Republican leader said after the meeting.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group JeM killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in February 14.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.

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The Taliban denied on Friday that they were discussing a ceasefire and dialogue with the Kabul government during ongoing talks with the US in Doha, contrary to statements from Washington.

"This phase is about fleshing out the details of the two issues... the withdrawal of all occupying forces from Afghanistan and not allowing" the country to be used as a base for international militancy, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

He described them as "external" aspects of the 17-year conflict. "Other issues that have an internal aspect and are not tied to the United States... have not been held under discussion." On Tuesday, US State Department spokesman Robert Palladino had affirmed the opposite.

"What we're focusing on are the four interconnected issues that are going to compose any future agreement," Palladino said -- listing them as "terrorism", "troop withdrawal", "intra-Afghan dialogue" and "ceasefire". He said progress was being made.

The latest round of talks, believed to be among the longest held between Washington and the militants, began on February 25 in the Qatari capital. Both sides have remained tight-lipped, however, and it is not clear how many days have involved direct negotiations.

The talks have already been paused at least once for two days, and the Taliban said Friday that they were again being suspended for a day, due to resume Saturday. It is not clear how much longer they will go on for.

Expectations remain high. The previous round, in January, saw the US and the Taliban walk away with a "draft framework" that focused on the issues Mujahid said were being discussed this time: a potential US troop withdrawal and a pact to prevent Afghanistan from harbouring terrorists.

The Taliban have repeatedly refused to meet with the Afghan government, whom they dismiss as "puppets".

US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who is leading the diplomatic push, had earlier hinted that headway was being made on the issue, however.

He also met with the Taliban's top political leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar at the start of the current round in Doha, in what has been touted as the highest-level engagement between the two sides in the months-long diplomatic thrust. General Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has also attended at least some of the talks.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced his eagerness to end America's involvement in Afghanistan, where 14,000 US troops are still deployed.

On Thursday, General Joseph Votel, head of US Central Command, said the military has received no directions yet to withdraw from Afghanistan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has suggested he could visit Doha to help advance the negotiations "in a couple (of) weeks".

Afghanistan has been enmeshed in nearly constant conflict since the Soviet invasion in 1979, which was followed by civil war, the Taliban regime, and the post-9/11 US invasion in late 2001.

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/ -- The mega B2B gem and jewellery extravaganza by UBM India, with a special focus on South India's repertoire



A three-day glittering trade extravaganza by UBM India for India's leading jewellers Over 100 exhibitors; 30 luxury brands An Artisans' Zone: Features innovative skills of artisans who make distinctive jewellery. Some of the displays include Miniatures and Silver suits. Hall of Fame: Displaying leading jewellery designs like Gold, Diamond and Antique Jewellery Three-day insightful Knowledge and Technical Seminars: Taking place concurrently at the fair to discuss topics such as 'Identifying the Colour Stones' and 'Awareness on Natural and Synthetic Colour Stones' by All Gem Lab London LLP The Chennai Jewellery & Gem Fair (CJGF) 2019, commenced today at the Chennai Trade Centre (CTC). Chief Guest Shri Vishal Krishna, Actor, Producer Secretary General for Nadigar Sangam, President of Producer Council, Anti-piracy Activist. along with key dignitaries Mr. Yogesh Shah, President, Chennai Jewellers Association; Mr. Uday Vummidi Vice President, Chennai Jewellers Association; Mr. Rajesh Vummidi, Honourable Secretary and Chairman of Chennai Jewellers Association; Mr. Sultan Mohideen, Vice President, Chennai Jewellers Association; Mr.Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India and Mr. Abhijit Mukherjee, Group Director, UBM India inaugurated the fair in the presence of other dignitaries from the jewellery trade.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/675607/UBM_Logo.jpg )



(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/828492/CJGF_March_Logo.jpg)(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/832873/UBM_CGF2019_Inauguration.jpg)A three-day exhibition, (8th to 10th March, 2019), the CJGF is South India's largest International gems & jewellery B2B exhibition with participation of over 100 exhibitors comprising jewellery brands, wholesalers, retailers, importers and exporters, jewellery manufacturers, machinery manufacturers, diamond, gemstone, pearl suppliers and traders, precious metal and jewellery mounting traders and suppliers, and representatives from trade and governmental bodies.

A stunning array of heritage jewellery that includes Temple Nakshi Jewellery, Stone Studded Jewellery, and Bridal Jewellery such as Manga Malai, Kasu Mala, and Pachhi Designs modified by the contemporary touch was on display. CZ Jewellery, Casting Jewellery, Hollow chains, exclusive Men's jewellery and seasonal trending jewellery such as pearls, multi layered neckpieces, arm cuffs, and bejewelled brooches along with the latest machinery used in the manufacturing process and other related products and services were also showcased.

Some of the key highlights of the expo were the Artisans' Zone that featured innovative creations of artisans and designers who made distinctive jewellery including miniature products. The expo also showcased a 'Hall of Fame' which displayed unique products and designs. Knowledge seminars included discussions on topics such as 'Identifying the Colour Stones' and 'Awareness on Natural and Synthetic Colour Stones' by All Gem Lab London LLP. A number of world-class features such as Gold, Silver, Gem Stones, Machinery and Luxury Pavilions were graced by key stakeholders and celebrities.

The expo witnessed participation by leading players from Chennai, Bangalore, Kerala, Mumbai, Jaipur, Delhi, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, to name a few. These included Laxmi Chains- Bangalore, CNB Diamonds, Jewel 4 u, Khandan Chains. Bonitas, JKS Jewels Pvt Ltd, Shanti Gold, Suman, Angel Gold, Devansh Creations, Surya Gold, Shree Vaaru Jewellers, to name a few. In addition to Tier I, II and III cities in India, the exhibition saw participation from countries such as Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Recognised as an integral part of the jewellery sector by 600+ associations from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and other Indian states and the industry at large, the expo has key support from associations such as the Diamond Association Bangalore (DAB), All Kerala Gold & Silver Merchants Association (AKGSMA), Surat Jewellery Manufacturers Association (SJMA), Gems & Jewellery Association of Rajkot and the The Jewellers's Association (JAB).

The fair is a gateway to the Indian jewellery market, with a special focus on South India's range of designer jewellery. It provides an excellent platform for the gems and jewellery industry to come under one roof to meet, connect, network and grow their businesses. The expo continues to attract well-reputed local and overseas buyers, reinforcing the expo's position as a proven and trusted sourcing hub for the industry.

Speaking at the inauguration of CJGF 2019, Mr. Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, said, "The rising demand for Indian gems and branded jewellery from across the globe is primarily being driven by the rising per capita income of the consumers and a stronger purchasing power of the middle-class today. In fact, the sector is now revolutionizing in terms of consumer's penchant for jewellery. Contributing 29 per cent to the global jewellery consumption, the Indian jewellery industry is already seeing an influx of established brands that are helping cater to the changing consumer preferences and making the market become more organized. Government initiatives like standardisation on gold hallmarking, Gold monetisation Scheme for individuals, trusts and mutual funds and building India's largest jewellery park will also open up more opportunities for the sector to grow in a more organised manner. Understanding the love for sparkle and the need for an organised market structure, UBM India in association with Chennai Jewellers Association through the CJGF aims to further boost the morale of this sector by offering immense opportunities to the industry."



"The show is set to provide a truly international experience and will be marked by the presence of premium exhibitors and will include attractive features such as Hall Of Fame, Artisans Zone, Technical and Knowledge Seminars, over a 100 hosted Buyer-Seller Meet and a Networking Night in an uber-stylish ambience during the on-going wedding season and as a preparatory to Akshay Thrithiya," he further added.

The CJGF is one of the five-city jewellery shows (Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi) that will be hosted throughout the year by UBM India. Internationally, UBM plc organises the World's Biggest Jewellery Trade Event - The Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair.

About CJGF:



CJGF is a bi-annual event, strategically taking place in October and March every year will be organized by UBM, which in June 2018 combined with Informa PLC to become a leading B2B information services group and the largest B2B Events organiser in the world. Please visit https://chennai.jewelleryfair.in/mar for more information on the CJGF and http://www.ubm.com/global-reach/ubm-asia for our presence in Asia.

About UBM Asia:



UBM Asia recently became part of Informa PLC, a leading B2B information services group and the largest B2B Events organiser in the world. Please visit http://www.ubm.com/asia for more information about our presence in Asia.

Source: UBM India Pvt. Ltd.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday slammed Opposition parties for seeking proof of air strike in Balakot in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack, saying Pakistan itself had first tweeted about the air strikes and his government did not seek any credit for it.

Modi said the previous government had done nothing after the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 and if the people wanted a similar response to such incidents, they would not have elected him.

"When terrorists killed our 40 soldiers in Pulwama, should Modi also have kept quiet? If I had to behave the way previous governments did, why did the people elect me?," he said at a public meeting here after inaugurating a slew of development projects.

"Is Pakistan stupid to do this (tweet)? The 130 crore people of India are my proof. Please stop appeasing Pakistan," he added.

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The Jamaican Government has announced an imminent ban on that countrys conch industry, placing it on the brink of collapse.



According to an article published in the Jamaica Gleaner of Feb. 24, the ban took effect on March 1 and is expected to run until January 31, 2020.

The basis for this action was the discovery that conch was being overfished, and that the situation was so bad that the one-year ban may not be enough to replenish supplies to service the annual US$600 million industry for that country.

Jamaica  SVG conch connection

This situation referenced this countrys 2019 Budget presentation, during which Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves announced that a Jamaican company - Rainforest Seafoods was expected to begin construction here of a US$3.5m seafood processing facility at Calliaqua.

That facility was expected to provide 40 permanent jobs, and committed itself to purchase $20 million in lobster, fish and conch annually.

This, according to Gonsalves, was a "game-changing market expansion with positive implications on lives and livelihoods.

SVG Conch stock

Back in 2013, a survey was conducted, primarily in the Southern Grenadines, by Martha Prada and Robert Glazer from the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute, to determine the state of the local conch supply.

According to the study, over the past 30 years in particular, and even dating back to the 1960s, the overall harvesting of conch had showed marked increase, and there were signs that the conch resources were being depleted because fishermen were being forced to dive deeper.

Protective measures

Recognising that the conch population was threatened, a number of agencies worked successfully to encourage a series of treaties and agreements to ensure the sustainable use and trade of the queen conch, the species that is common to the Caribbean sea.

"At the regional level, several organizations are promoting regional management of the queen conch resources; namely, the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism Secretariat (CRFM), Caribbean Fisheries Management Council (CFMC), FAO, and several universities and scientific institutions, the study stated.

The document further indicated that Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are the largest producers of queen conch, and that in countries such as St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines, the industry is targeted by a limited group of divers who defy regulations and harvest conch during the closed season.

Encouragement

However, there was some optimistic news in that the survey discovered that the normal size distribution of the local stocks, the relatively high juvenile conch density, and the expected presence of reproductive individuals at deeper sites, all suggested that the population may be recovering.

This may be due to a reduction in the fishing pressure and to the formalization of the Tobago Cays Marine Park in 2006, especially at sites between the eastern side of Mayreau, and the Western side of the Tobago Cays including Horseshoe Reef, as protected areas.

There were some recommendations made including extending enforcement and surveillance in order to allow for the juvenile conch to mature and reproduce; it was also recommended that a programme be developed to monitor conch landings across the entire Southern Grenadines.

In this respect, it is also recommended that special zones for conch recovery should be established within the existing protected areas, the document stated.

All of this attracts foreign interest as per the Jamaicans who have enjoyed the benefits of a multi-million dollar conch trade.

A similar situation also exists in The Bahamas where conch supplies have fallen drastically due to overfishing, loose regulations and lax law enforcement.But the question remains: What about the impact on the environment and the ability to sustain the conch industry over time here in SVG?This, the report advanced, was driven by increased market demand, the result of increasing resident populations and a developing tourism industry; and fishing for conch in previously unexploited waters.Results indicated that the queen conch populations were dominated by juveniles in the relatively shallow area and adults in deeper, exposed areas.A new question abounds: How long can we sustain the Jamaican demand, as that countrys traditional traders in conch seek to recover lost ground (market) because of depleting stocks in their country?
Three persons were detained Friday for their alleged involvement in unlawful activities in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

Mohammad Ashraf, Mohammad Yaqoob and Shokat Ali-- all residents of Rehan village -- were taken into preventive custody under various sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on the orders of executive magistrate Rajouri, a police official said.

They were involved in unlawful activities and were sent to jail, he said.

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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami Friday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for deciding to rename Chennai Central Railway Station after AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran.

Kicking off a AIADMK-BJP-PMK alliance campaign for the upcoming general election here a few days back, Modi had said the Centre has decided to rename the century-old railway station after the late AIADMK founder fondly known as MGR.

In a letter to the prime minister, Palaniswami said the Tamil Nadu Cabinet had in September 2018 unanimously resolved to recommend to the Centre to rename the station as 'Puratchi Thalaivar Dr M G Ramachandran Railway Station' in memory of the charismatic and popular former chief minister of the state.

Palaniswami termed Modi's announcement a "great honour" and "befitting tribute to the great leader".

"On behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu, I express my heartfelt thanks to you for the announcement," he said.

The chief minister recalled that M G Ramachandran was honoured with the highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to public service in 1988.

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Torrential rains and flash floods in the tribal districts of northern Pakistan in recent days have killed at least 43 people, injured 54 others and damaged hundreds of houses, officials said Friday.

Of the total deaths, 27 are women and children, a spokesman for Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) said, adding that in North Waziristan district alone 15 children and a woman lost their lives while 21 others were injured.

The rains have damaged scores of house in the merged areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Army helicopters were employed in some areas to rescue stranded people.

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US President Donald Trump blasted Democrats as "anti-Israel" and "anti-Jewish" Friday after they passed a congressional measure opposing hate speech in general instead of specifically condemning alleged anti-Semitic comments by a Muslim congresswoman.

The remarks by the Republican leader follow days of tense debates in Congress addressing sensitive questions about national allegiance, age-old discriminatory tropes aimed at Jews, and accusations of show votes that failed to call out a member for controversial comments.

"I thought yesterday's vote by the House was disgraceful," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The resolution was originally intended to deliver a direct rebuke of anti-Semitism following controversial comments by a Muslim Democratic congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, that were deemed anti-Semitic and offensive by many colleagues.

But after blowback from progressives, it was revised to more broadly condemn discrimination against Muslims and other minorities as well. Trump seized on the shift, and the tensions among Democrats.

"The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party and anti-Jewish party," he said.

The issue has caused a deep rift. Some Democrats wanted to include language condemning other forms of bigotry, and expressed concerns about singling out Omar.

The resolution, which made no mention of Omar, ultimately passed 407 to 23. Republicans who voted against it complained it had been watered down.

The debate made clear that Democrats' growing diversity in Congress -- in ethnicity, religion, gender, age and ideology -- has created new challenges for the party.

Among those is policy about Israel. Omar had sparked fiery debate with her repeated criticisms of Israel and how a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington exerts influence on US politicians.

"I am told everyday that I am anti-American if I am not pro-Israel. I find that to be problematic and I am not alone," Omar tweeted. "Our nation is having a difficult conversation."



But Democrats insisted Trump was out of bounds to suggest their party was anti-Jewish.

"As illustrated by history and yesterday's overwhelming vote to condemn anti-Semitism, there is strong support for Israel and the Jewish faith among Democrats," Congresswoman Elaine Luria, a military veteran who is Jewish, told AFP.

There are currently 35 Jewish members of the US House and Senate, according to the non-partisan American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. Only two of them are Republican.

The debate comes amid a rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the United States. The Anti-Defamation League reported a 58 percent increase in such incidents between 2016 and 2017.

In October, a gunman killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, in the deadliest attack ever on Jews in America.

Trump proclaims himself as Israel's closest ally. He proudly moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and has forged a close alliance with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But he and other Republicans have also courted controversy with the Jewish community, and have been accused of trafficking in dangerous, age-old tropes about money that anti-Semites have used to attack Jews for centuries.

Speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition in 2015 during his presidential campaign, Trump said "you're not going to support me because I don't want your money." "But that's okay," he went on.

"You want to control your own politician." Trump drew outrage in 2016 with a tweet showing his rival Hillary Clinton and a Star of David -- with words accusing her of being "corrupt" -- superimposed over a blanket of USD 100 bills.

And his final main campaign ad before the 2016 election contained alarming messaging, with images of prominent financial figures George Soros and Janet Yellen, both Jewish, as Trump speaks of "those who control the levers of power in Washington."



As president, Trump sparked a firestorm by saying there were "very fine people on both sides" at a white nationalist rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, where demonstrators chanted "Jews will not replace us.

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US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison Thursday for tax crimes and bank fraud.

It was the stiffest sentence yet given to an associate of the president in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling -- but significantly lighter than many expected for the 69-year-old political consultant.

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Former Fox executive Bill Shine has resigned as President Donald Trump's communications director, the White House said Friday.

"Assistant to the president and communications director Bill Shine offered his resignation to the president yesterday evening, and the president accepted," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Sanders didn't go into Shine's reasoning but said he continued to support Trump and his agenda and would be a senior advisor to the 2020 re-election campaign.

Shine, 55, was appointed co-president of Fox in August 2016, following the abrupt resignation of its chief Roger Ailes in the face of a sexual harassment lawsuit.

Shine resigned from the US television network less than a year later over questions concerning his handling of the Ailes case and accusations that he had helped cover up alleged misbehavior.

His resignation comes as accusations mount over Trump's closeness to the network, whose prime time star anchor Sean Hannity served as an informal advisor to the then-candiadate during the 2016 election campaign.

An article in this week's New Yorker magazine suggested Fox was a "propaganda" vehicle for Trump and alleged that in 2016, the network went so far as killing a story about the president's alleged affair with a pornographic film actress.

The Democratic Party responded by banning the network from hosting any of its primary candidate, after published revelations suggested it was a "propaganda" vehicle for Trump.

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said a story in this week's New Yorker magazine on the White House's apparently close relationship with the channel prompted the decision.

"Recent reporting in the New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration and Fox has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates," he added in a statement to The Washington Post.

The New Yorker piece detailed how Trump has given dozens of interviews to Fox and repeatedly tweets claims that have been made on the popular cable news network, owned by media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

Trump often refers to Fox's rivals CNN and MSNBC, as well as The New York Times and The Washington Post, as "fake news".

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US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison on Thursday for tax crimes and bank fraud in the highest profile case yet stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

It was the stiffest prison sentence given so far to an associate of the president in Mueller's probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election but was significantly lighter than many expected.

Judge TS Ellis said the 69-year-old Manafort had committed "very serious crimes" but he rebuffed arguments by prosecutors from the Special Counsel's office for a longer sentence.

Advisory sentencing guidelines called for a prison term of between 19 and 24 years but Ellis dismissed that as "excessive" and disproportionate to what other defendants have received for similar crimes.

"The government cannot sweep away the history of all these previous sentences," the judge said.

Manafort was convicted in August of five counts of filing false income tax returns, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to report a foreign bank account.

Prosecutors alleged that Manafort used offshore bank accounts in Cyprus and other countries to hide more than USD 55 million he earned from political consulting services he provided to Ukrainian politicians.

The money was used to support a lavish lifestyle which included purchases of luxury homes and cars, antique rugs, and expensive clothes, including an USD 18,500 python jacket.

His conviction was the culmination of a stunning downfall for a man who, in addition to Trump's campaign, worked on the White House bids of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H W Bush and Bob Dole.

Speaking from a wheelchair and wearing a green prison jumpsuit with the words "Alexandria Inmate," Manafort told the court before sentencing that his "life, professionally and personally, is in a shambles."



"I feel the pain and shame," said Manafort, who the defense says suffers from high blood pressure and gout.

"To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement," he said.

Imposing his sentence, Judge Ellis said he did not hear Manafort express regret or remorse but he said the sentencing guidelines were "way out of whack." "I think what I've done is punitive," Ellis said.

He sentenced Manafort to a total of 47 months in prison for the eight counts and credited him with nine months of time served for the period he has already spent in prison.

He ordered him to pay millions of dollars in restitution -- the exact amount remains to be determined -- and a USD 50,000 fine.

Manafort still faces sentencing in a second case in Washington next week, where the maximum penalty is 10 years and the judge has appeared more sympathetic to prosecutors.

The charges against Manafort involved work he did for 10 years on behalf of Moscow-allied politicians in Ukraine, and nothing related to the 2016 election -- an issue he argued in asking the court for leniency.

Defense attorney Kevin Downing, speaking after the sentencing said Manafort had "made clear he accepts responsibility for his conduct.

"And I think most importantly, what you saw today is the same thing that we had said from day one -- there is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia," Downing said.

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President Donald Trump declared Friday that he rejected a personal appeal from his former lawyer Michael Cohen for a pardon, the strongest assertion yet that Cohen may have lied under oath.

Trump tweeted his claim after days of swirling questions about Cohen over the issue of pardons. It has emerged as a key line of inquiry for Democrats launching a series of sweeping investigations into Trump's political and personal dealings.

"Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon. His lawyers totally contradicted him. He lied!" Trump tweeted aboard Air Force One while en route to inspect damage from deadly tornados in Alabama.

"Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!"



Cohen took to Twitter minutes later to deny the accusation.

"Just another set of lies by @POTUS @realdonaldtrump. Mr. President" he wrote, before invoking the women whose hush money payments he helped facilitate.

"Let me remind you that today is #InternationalWomensDay. You may want use today to apologize for your own #lies and #DirtyDeeds to women like Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford."



Lanny Davis, Cohen's lawyer, said in a written statement Thursday that his client was "open to the ongoing 'dangling' of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media" in the months after the FBI raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room in April 2018.

Davis, who was not Cohen's lawyer at the time, said Cohen "directed his attorney" to explore a possible pardon with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others on Trump's legal team.

The statement appears to contradict Cohen's sworn testimony last week at a House Oversight Committee hearing that he had never asked for, and would not accept, a pardon from Trump.

Davis' comment raises questions about whether Cohen who is slated to begin a three-year prison sentence in May for crimes including lying to Congress lied to Congress again last week. Cohen's legal team argued that his statement was correct because Cohen never asked the president himself for a pardon.

Trump did not immediately provide evidence of Cohen's attempt to secure a pardon or reveal when the alleged request was made. Earlier Friday, speaking to reporters on the White House lawn, he said that Cohen had told a "stone cold lie" when he testified that he did not seek presidential intervention.

In response to Trump's tweet, Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat and member of the House judiciary and intelligence committees, called on Trump to testify under oath.

"Michael Cohen gave sworn testimony. Will you? Under oath to Mueller or Congress? If not, get out of our Twitter feed and find a less obstructive way to spend your executive time," he tweeted.

There is nothing inherently improper about a subject in a criminal investigation seeking a pardon from a president given the president's wide latitude in granting them. But investigators want to know if the prospects of presidential pardons were somehow offered or used inappropriately.

It is hard to untangle the conflicting narratives given the unreliability of some of the central characters.

Cohen, for instance, has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and saw his credibility attacked last week by Republican lawmakers.

Davis has had to walk back at least one bombshell assertion over the last year that his client could tell investigators that Trump had advance knowledge of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign and Giuliani has fumbled facts and repeatedly moved the goalposts about what sort of behavior by the president would constitute collusion or a crime.

Congressional investigators, meanwhile, appear to be focusing on presidential powers as a significant line of questioning in their probes.

Giuliani said Thursday he was contacted in May or June about a possible pardon for Cohen.

"My answer was the president is not going to consider or give any pardons now," Giuliani said in an interview.

"As I have said in the past, the president has the right to, and that doesn't mean he won't consider it when the investigation is over. But there are no plans to do so; that's the answer that Jay and I and the president settled on. 'The best thing for you to do,' I would tell everyone, 'is assume you don't have the pardon.'"



Jay Sekulow is another Trump lawyer.

Cohen has become a key figure in congressional investigations since turning on his former boss and cooperating with the special counsel. During last week's public testimony, he called Trump a con man, a cheat and a racist.

Trump, in turn, has said Cohen "did bad things unrelated to Trump" and "is lying in order to reduce his prison time."



As questions grew this week, Cohen's legal team stressed that he was one of Trump's closest confidants and if he wanted a pardon, he would have just asked Trump himself which the president, for the first time on Friday, claimed is what happened.

Cohen arranged payments to Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels, and McDougal to prevent them from speaking publicly about alleged affairs with Trump.

Cohen on Thursday sued the Trump Organisation over its decision to stop paying his legal bills, which Trump declared to be "the most ridiculous suit I've ever seen.

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US President Donald Trump said Friday his relationship with North Korea's Kim Jong Un "remains good," despite the failure of a summit last week between the two leaders.

North Korea's state media had earlier acknowledged for the first time the collapse of the high-stakes Hanoi summit, which ended without any agreement on reducing Pyongyang's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

"I have a feeling that our relationship with North Korea, Kim Jong Un and myself, I think it is a very good one. I think it remains good," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The meeting was supposed to build on the leaders' historic first meeting in Singapore last year.

Trump repeated his frequent claim that he had brought the US back from the brink of war with North Korea since coming to office.

"This was a disaster. I inherited a mess. It is straightening out a lot. We are doing very well there," he said.

"I inherited a mess with North Korea and right now you have no (missile) testing. You have no nothing."



Following the stalemate in Hanoi, researchers said this week that Pyongyang had started rebuilding the Sohae long-range rocket site after Kim had agreed last year to shut it as part of confidence-building measures.

"I would be surprised in a negative way if (Kim) did anything that was not per our understanding. But we'll see what happens," Trump added.

Trump's remarks, which came as he was departing the White House to visit tornado-hit Alabama, also touched on the fractious US-China trade relationship, domestic and the Mueller investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia.

Asked about the months-long trade war with China, the president said he would not agree to any solution unless it was a good deal for the United States.

"I am confident but... if this isn't a great deal, I won't make a deal," Trump told reporters.

US and Chinese officials have said they are making progress toward a resolution, but a US diplomat in Beijing said earlier an agreement was not imminent.

Negotiations were extended through Sunday as officials race to reach a deal ahead of a deadline next week when US duty rates are due to rise sharply.

Trump's remarks came a day after his former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison by a federal judge for tax crimes and bank fraud in the highest profile case yet stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

"I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it has been a very tough time for him," Trump said.

The Republican president also weighed in on the row engulfing the Democrats over anti-Semitism which has led to the party's biggest crisis since reclaiming the House majority two months ago.

The party passed a resolution against bigotry following an acrimonious debate over how to reprimand Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, who sparked a firestorm over repeated criticisms of Israel and a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington that exerts influence in US

"The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party and an anti-Jewish party," Trump said.

The president was due to visit victims of last weekend's tornado that devastated Lee County in eastern Alabama last weekend, killing at least 23 people and injuring dozens.

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Two elderly women from Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, who had to discontinue their due to circumstances decades ago, have fulfilled their long-cherished dream of pursuing higher studies.

The two women, including a tribal, completed different academic programmes from the Nagpur regional centre of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) recently.

These two, along with another woman student of the IGNOU, were honoured with the 'Inspirational Academic Achievement' award by the university on the eve of the International Women's Day for their determination and academic achievement.

Nagpur-based Aarti Mukherjee, 62, had to discontinue her studies in the final year of graduation 40 years ago. But decades later, she decided to take up BA Hindi programme and completed the course in December 2018.

"All these years, I had pain in my heart that I could not complete my studies. My mother knew about it. Eight years back, when she was ill, she asked me to complete my dream. In 2015, I took admission to the BA course in IGNOU," she said.

Mukherjee, who now plans to pursue MA, said other women who could not complete theirstudies, should also pursue their dream like her.

Kamla Dhakade, 65, a tribal from Wadsa village in Gadchiroli district, had to leave studies after Class IV.

But after a gap of 55 years, she resumed studies and joined the Bachelor Preparatory Programme (BPP) course and completed it December last.

"I always had liking for studies," Dhakade, who manages the finances of a Self Help Group (SHG) in her village, said. She now plans to do BA in Social Science.

Forty-four-year-old homemaker Monika Kasat (Kothari) from Amravati, who was also given the award on Thursday, had bagged IGNOU's gold medal in BA exam conducted in 2010. She now plans to pursue MA English.

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Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has had the uncomfortable task of steering the airline through some turbulent skies.

Regional airline LIAT is looking for another bailout.



The word following the completion of the 30th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) held in St. Kitts and Nevis 26-27, February 2019, was that the airline needed an immediate infusion of some US$5m, to keep it in the skies.

Indications were, according to Dr. Keith Rowley, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, and reported by LOOP News, that the airline only had enough cash to function for the next 10 days, and faced a shut down if CARICOM did not intervene.

Staying in the air

Whatever the challenges that currently impact LIAT, the airlines CEO, Jennifer Reifer-Jones, assured the shareholders and the region, that LIAT will continue to fly across the region.

She noted, according to LOOP News, that the airline "continues to operate to destinations where there has been no support from governments and authorities, so as to ensure that critical connectivity is maintained.



New investors

The Daily Observer of Antigua reported that countrys Prime Minister, Gston Browne as saying a move is now afoot to encourage the governments of St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Grenada and Guyana to come on board and purchase shares within LIAT.

According to PM Browne, who reports said was peeved by Dr. Rowleys comment about 10 day, all the existing shareholder governments have committed to the restructuring of LIAT, to include issues affecting staff, performance of management and to building a healthier culture within LIAT.

This might be so, but it does not remove the fact that the airline is in need of a cash injection, immediately.

And that has been addressed by at least one major shareholder, Barbados, through its Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds, who sent a warning shot that Barbados wont be the lone ATM machine for the cash-strapped airline.

Symmonds told last weekends Sunday Sun newspaper, "From last year, it was clear that LIAT required radical restructuring of their operations, and that their situation was one which needed immediate attention. Between October last year and now, there have been limited improvements.

Notwithstanding the above, Prime Minister Brownes recent call might just have fallen on at least one listening ear.

The St Kitts and Nevis Government indicated last Monday that it is looking into the possibility of providing some kind of assistance to the struggling airline.

WINN FM reported Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris as saying that his Cabinet was expected to meet that very Monday with LIAT officials.



Independent audit

But the carousal did stop there. President of the Leeward Islands Pilots Association (Lialpa) Carl Burke entered the fray, telling WINN FM that advice offered to one shareholder government years ago should have been heeded and is still relevant.

Burke says it is not too late to undertake the independent audit suggestion Lialpa made to Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves in 2009.

"The airline obviously has issues, we believe that the airline is hemorrhaging, we dont want to start pointing to areas where we believe the hemorrhaging is taking place. We have asked Dr Gonsalves, and he made a promise to us in 2009 that he would get an independent forensic audit done in the airline, that has not been done up to this point, Burke said.

Currently, Barbados is LIATs major shareholder with 49.5 percent, Antigua and Barbuda 13 percent, St. Vincent 12 percent, and Dominica with less than 10 percent.

T&T, once a major shareholder, has a one per cent share in LIAT.

Dr. Rowley posited that LIAT shareholders needed to act with urgency in order to keep the airline afloat.As it stands, LIATs financial woes are exacerbated by its significant debt to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), which the shareholders now are required to address.Discussions with regional Governments are underway and are intended to put in place new arrangements to provide a basis for sharing the burden amongst all the countries currently benefitting from LIATs services, Reiffer-Jones said.In light of this, there have been fresh calls for more Caribbean countries to consider investing in LIAT.St Kitts and Nevis is not a LIAT shareholder, however, the airline has regular flights to and from the federation.The question remains: Where is the bailout cash going to come from this time around?
Two former Odisha bureaucrats-- Nalinikanta Pradhan and Ramesh Chandra Sai-- Friday joined BJD sparking speculation that they would be fielded for Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections respectively.

Both Pradhan and Sai joined the ruling party in presence of BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

While Pradhan is former engineer-in-Chief-cum-Secretary of Works Department, Sai served as director of the SC & ST Development Department.

Pradhan had resigned from the service on February 28 after getting one-year extension.

Sources in the BJD said that Pradhan may contest from Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat while Sai could be fielded in Athamalik assembnly segment.

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A special POCSO court Friday sentenced two people to death and one to life imprisonment for raping and killing minors.

In the first case, a five-year-old child was raped and left severely injured by Suman Kumar Jha (39) on March 16 last year, said Additional Public Prosecutor Ujjwala Moholkar.

The child was saved by passersby, Moholkar said, adding that 19 witnesses, including a jeweller to whom Jha had given the victim's earrings, were examined in the case and CCTV footage was analysed.

Special POCSO Judge S A Sinha Friday sentenced Jha to life imprisonment under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

In the second case, Ram Kiran Munnilal Gaud (34) a residential complex watchman, kidnapped a three-and-half year-old girl on September 30, 2013 and took her to a vacant room in a transit camp and raped her.

He then bludgeoned her to death and dumped the body in a nearby pond, the APP said.

Eighteen witnesses were examined in the case, she added.

Judge Sinha sentenced Gaud to death, Moholkar said.

In the third case, powerloom worker Mohammad Abez Ajmer Shaikh (21) was sentenced to death by Judge Sinha for raping and killing a four-and-half-year-old girl in Bhiwandi in the district on April 1 last year, the APP said.

A total of 22 witnesses deposed in the case, she said.

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Uttarakhand's annual flower festival Vasantotsav will begin at the Raj Bhawan here Saturday, with around 150 varieties to be on display apart from several new features added to the event aimed at promoting floricultural activities in the state.

About 125 out of 150 varieties of flowers to adorn the event are grown at the Raj Bhawan lawns, while the rest, mostly varieties commercially more in demand, are from outside.

The two-day festival, to be inaugurated by Governor Baby Rani Maurya Saturday morning, is likely to be attended by nearly 1.5 lakh people, including florists, flower enthusiasts.

She will also issue the cover of the event being released by India Post depicting Uttarakhand's native Akarkara flower, considered to be rich in medicinal qualities.

Describing Vasantotsav (spring festival) as an event reflecting huge floricultural potential of the state, the governor extended invitation to people to visit the show over the next two days during which the Raj Bhawan gates will remain open for everyone.

She expressed happiness that the area under flower cultivation in Uttarakhand, which stood at a meagre 150 hectares before the state came into being, now stands at 1,533 hectares.

The main attractions of the event will be competitions to be held under different categories like potted plants management, loose flower management, cactus and succulents, hanging pots, on-the-spot photography, painting competition.

About 150 awards will be up for grabs under nine broad categories and 50 sub-categories to be distributed by the governor on the concluding day of the show on March 10.

There will be a total ban on the use of polythene at the event.

Apart from flower growers, other institutions like THDC, NHPC and commercial banks have also been invited to put up their stalls to inform people about the schemes being run by them for farmers.

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Britain on Friday extended diplomatic protection to a British-Iranian mother jailed in Tehran in a move that was immediately branded by the Islamic republic as a violation of international law.

The fate of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been a bone of contention between Tehran and London since her arrest in Iran in January 2016.

The 41-year-old was returning from a family visit with her infant daughter when she was detained at Tehran airport.

Her husband Richard said Zaghari-Ratcliffe suffers from a range of health problems and that a lack of medical access in jail forced her to go on a brief hunger strike in protest in January.

"She's been getting very low, partly despairing.. what's the escalation beyond that?" he told AFP.

"I'm really glad that the foreign secretary has made this the escalation... It will make a difference."



Ratcliffe said the move made it clear to Iran that Britain believes his wife has suffered an injustice and that the government will keep up the pressure.

"These are all really important and welcome steps, so we're very happy," he said, adding Zaghari-Ratcliffe would also be "thrilled".

Diplomatic protection is a rarely-used mechanism allowing nations to seek protection on behalf of its citizens on the grounds that they have been wronged by another state.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt noted Friday it "hasn't happened for an individual, we don't think, for more than 100 years".

Hunt said he made the decision because he wanted to signal to Iran that Britain had no intention of letting Zaghari-Ratcliffe languish in jail.

"We hope the Iranians will react constructively to this and understand that we are not going to drop this," he told BBC radio.

"At the heart of this is an innocent woman, vulnerable, unwell and scared and she has a four-year-old daughter.

"She should not be paying the price for the disagreements you have with the UK." But Iran quickly branded London's decision a violation of international law.

"UK Govt's extension of diplomatic protection to Ms Zaghari contravenes int'l law. Govts may only exercise such protection for own nationals," Tehran's London envoy Hamid Baeidinejad tweeted late Thursday.

"As UK Govt is acutely aware, Iran does not recognize dual nationality. Irrespective of UK residency, Ms Zaghari thus remains Iranian," he wrote.

Ratcliffe said he had discussed the expected negative reaction from Iran with the Foreign Office, and they hoped the "enough is enough" message would sink in.

"There'll be parts of the Iranian regime that are sympathetic to that, and there'll be parts -- that are holding Nazanin -- who are digging their heels in and may well dig their heels in further," he added.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation -- the media group's philanthropic arm -- and made frequent visits to Iran.

But she was on a private holiday and not a work assignment at the time of her arrest.

She was sentenced to five years in prison in September 2016 for allegedly trying to topple the Iranian government.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation and the British government have consistently denied the charges against her.

Ratcliffe told reporters in January that Iranian authorities were trying to make his wife spy on the British government for them once she is released from jail, but she had refused.

He has also been highly critical of Tehran for denying her requested medical attention after he says she suffered panic attacks and other health issues.

Ratcliffe said Friday he hoped the diplomatic decision would mean British officials could now visit her for the first time, and allow for access to an independent doctor to "check just how ill she is".

"Now it is effectively a British government case," he told the BBC. "All the injustices that have been done to Nazanin are effectively injustices to the British government.

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British Prime Minister Theresa May was battling Friday to stave off another defeat for her Brexit divorce deal, imploring the European Union to make concessions to help her win approval from Parliament.

In a speech just three weeks before Britain is due to leave the EU, May planned to tell the bloc that "it is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal."



May's office said she will urge the EU to make changes to its withdrawal agreement with Britain, warning that "decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote."



Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said May's speech sounded like "a sign of desperation." British lawmakers are due to vote for a second time Tuesday on the deal, which they overwhelmingly rejected in January.

May has been trying to secure changes that can persuade reluctant legislators to back the deal, but the EU is unwilling to reopen the 585-page agreement. Last-minute negotiations have stalled, with EU leaders saying Britain has not provided concrete proposals.

If Britain's Parliament throws out the deal again, lawmakers will vote on whether to leave the EU without an agreement an idea likely to be rejected or to ask the EU to delay Brexit beyond the scheduled March 29 departure date.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt underscored May's appeal to the EU, urging the bloc to be "flexible" because "history will judge both sides very badly if we get this wrong." "We want to remain the best of friends with the EU. That means getting this agreement through in a way that doesn't inject poison into our relations for many years to come," Hunt said.

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The UN human rights office announced Friday that it will send a team to Venezuela next week to meet victims of rights violations, following an invitation from the government.

The "technical mission", which is expected to be in Venezuela from March 11 to 22, will also try to pave the way for a future visit by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, her office said in a statement.

"The team will seek to meet with Government officials, representatives of the National Assembly, civil society organisations and victims of human rights violations," it said.

Venezuela's foreign minister Jorge Arreaza invited Bachelet to visit his country in an address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last week.

Before Bachelet can visit, the advance team will try to ensure that she will be given "unfettered access to the people and places she would need to visit to be able to gain a clear understanding of the human rights situation in the country," the statement said.

Venezuela has been gripped by a devastating political crisis and economic meltdown, which the United States and other countries blame on what they describe as the misrule of President Nicolas Maduro.

The US has led a diplomatic campaign in support of opposition leader Juan Guaido who has declared himself interim president and is recognised by about 50 countries, notably within the EU.

Bachelet, the former president of Chile, has been critical of Maduro's government but this week also said that economic sanctions pushed for by Washington have "exacerbated" the crisis.

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UN Women and a business conglomerate Friday joined hands for an event, aiming to provide the right exposure to issues and discrepancies faced by women in the corporate world, and find a solution, officials said.

The event marking International Women's Day was held here epitomising the day's theme for UN Women -- Think equal, Build smart, Innovate for change.

"It also lay focus on advancing women's leadership in corporate roles and boosting participation in strategy and planning ranks right from inception, irrespective of the business," the organisers said in a statement.

The event witnessed the presence of leading women from various walks of life.

"It aimed at not only providing the right exposure to the issues and discrepancies faced by women at the management and employee ranks, but also to find a solution," the O P Jindal Group said in the statement.

In a statement, Deputy Country Representative, UN Women, Nishtha Satyam, said, "Women dedicate almost three times more effort in unpaid work that contributes significantly to the nation's GDP."



"There is a need to start measuring this contribution by women. With this year's theme for International Women's Day, UN Women is focusing on inclusive growth; infrastructure and innovation being key factors to developing smart cities. Out of the 193 countries making up the UN, India has the onus to demolish stereotypes and empower womanhood in its entirety," she said.

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The United States indicted former Venezuelan vice president Tareck El Aissami on sanctions violations Friday, two years after naming him a narcotics "kingpin" for allegedly giving cover to drug traffickers.

Assaimi and businessman Samark Lopez Bello were indicted together in New York and charged with breaking US sanctions by using private jets to set up meetings around the world.

"El Aissami and Lopez Bello allegedly used private jets to set up private meetings around the globe including Turkey and Russia. It is necessary to impose sanctions against foreign persons seeking to gain power and control by circumventing the law," Home Land Security special agent Angel Melendez said in a statement.

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The administration of US President Donald Trump has asked the Department of Defense to prepare to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied migrant children amid what it calls a mounting "crisis" at the US-Mexico border, the Pentagon said Thursday.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), "requested DoD support to identify space to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied alien children on DoD installations, if needed, through September 30, 2019," said Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis.

"DoD will work with the military services to identify potential locations for such support, and will work with HHS to assess any DoD facilities or suitable DoD land for potential use to provide temporary shelter for unaccompanied alien children," he said.

The request for beds is preventative -- they will not definitely be used.

But it comes amid a surge in the number of families and unaccompanied children crossing the US border from Mexico illegally, most of them fleeing poverty and violence in Central America. Most request asylum.

According to the Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP), the number of minors apprehended after entering the country illegally without family in February hit 6,825, up from 5,119 in January and 4,968 in October.

CBP hands the children over to HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement, which seeks to place them with relatives or other families in the United States while their requests to remain in the country are processed, which can take two years.

At times last year they had more than 15,000 such children in their care at one time.

CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said on Tuesday that illegal immigration in February surged to the highest level in years, with 76,000 people stopped or apprehended, and was straining government facilities.

"We are currently facing a humanitarian and national security crisis along our southwest border," he said.

"The vast increases in families and children coming across our border, in larger groups and in more remote areas, presents a unique challenge to our operations and facilities, and those of our partners." On Wednesday Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said they were expecting the numbers to grow in the coming months.

Nielsen though said in many cases the children were being used as "pawns" to get into our country, and even "recycled" by smuggling rings to help multiple groups cross the border and get a foothold on US soil.

She said she sympathized with the migrants but insisted that, as Trump formally declared last month, "It is an emergency.

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Union Minister Harsh Vardhan Friday released the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) aimed at reducing emissions and providing thermal comfort to citizens.

The Union minister launched here the ICAP along with five other publications, including a report on the ministry's five years of achievements and faunal biodiversity in protected areas.

"The overarching goal of ICAP is to provide sustainable cooling and thermal comfort for all while securing environmental and socio-economic benefits. This will also help in reducing both direct and indirect emissions," Vardhan said.

He said the plan provides an integrated vision towards cooling across sectors encompassing inter alia reduction of cooling demand, refrigerant transition, enhancing energy efficiency and better technology options with a 20 year time horizon.

Besides Vardhan, the event was addressed by ministry officials -- Joint Secretary A K Jain and DG Forests Siddhanta Das.

Jain said, "With rise in adverse impact of climate change, thermal spells or hot spells in the country have started worsening. A number of deaths and other diseases are becoming a norm in our country."



"Our aim is not merely to address the air conditioning issue by bringing better cooling gases, but provide larger thermal comfort to citizens. This initiative was taken on Ozone Day last year and I am happy to report that in such a short span we have been able to complete it," the joint secretary said.

ICAP aims at reducing cooling and refrigerant demand across sectors by 20-25 per cent by 2037-38.

The ministry said ICAP will provide thermal comfort for all, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, double farmers' income as with better cold chain infrastructure, a grower will get better value of produce.

Another set of publication from the Zoological Survey of India was released by Vardhan and the ministry officials.

"The ZSI is tasked with the responsibility of inventorising the zoological wealth of the country. We are releasing two publications -- Faunal diversity of protected areas of Chhattisgarh and Faunal diversity of select districts," Jain said.

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Theme: Think equal, build smart, innovate for change

To mark International Womens Day 2019, the Committee for the Development of Women (CDW) calls to memory the Fourth World Conference on Women and the process leading to the Bejing Platform for Action in September, 1995.

The records show that "in two weeks of political debate, heated at times, representatives of 189 governments hammered out commitments that were historic in scope. Thirty thousand non-governmental activists attended a parallel Forum and kept the pressure on, networking, lobbying and training a global media spotlight on issues affecting women. By the time the conference closed, it had produced the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing womens rights.

As a defining framework for change, the Platform for Action made comprehensive commitments under 12 critical areas of concern. Today, 24 years later, it remains a powerful source of guidance and inspiration, and finds resonance with the Theme for this years celebration of International Womens Day.



Education

While an education revolution is ongoing in St. Vincent and the Grenadines from the time of E. T. Joshuas call for children not to be confined to the fields, but attend school up to age 14, to other ground-breaking actions of successive governments up to the present time, under Strategic Objective 88  there is a need to Create flexible education, training and retraining programmes for life-long learning that facilitate transitions between womens activities at all stages of their lives.

This will lead to ongoing acquisition by women and girls, of the knowledge and skills required for living in, contributing to and benefiting from their communities. In a changing environment with new challenges, there is a need to innovate in this way, so that women can balance work, study and family responsibilities.



Health

The First National Congress of Women held from 21st -22nd March, 2012, paid great attention to this aspect of the advancement of women. As expressed in 10 smart and innovative paragraphs of its Outcomes Statement, the Congress call to action is just as valid today. The recommendations, equally beneficial to men and women, included: ...

(a) Promote a concept of health that embodies total wellness, including health of the body and the mind, and that provides for the use of traditional methods of prevention and care.

(b) Provide adequate support to the mental well-being of women by ensuring access to mental health care throughout the health system, including at the community level, as a part of the practice of total wellness.

(c) Ensure that women with disabilities have access to health care, including reproductive health care.

(d) Support research on cancers and auto-immune deficiency diseases affecting women, men and children, and introduce health care support to assist those in need of surgery and other remedies.

The latest PAHO Report is particularly relevant. It states that 56,000 women in Latin America and the Caribbean are diagnosed with cervical cancer, and more than 28,000 die annually. Cervical Cancer can be prevented through Vaccination against Human Papillomavirus (HPV), a vaccine has been available for over a decade. PAHO officials lament that this window to health is greatly under-utilized. Here is where a different type of non-text book education is necessary.

This Womens Day, will women join the education campaign to stop Cervical Cancer? Will they pledge to act beyond March 8 to educate on health issues towards reducing cancers impact?



Nelcia Robinson

Coordinator

Committee for the Development of Women

While all 12 critical areas of concern do not apply to all countries in the same way, many areas have not received the attention they should in the Caribbean, e.g. in Education and Health.CDW pays tribute to Mrs. Millicent Iton, a woman of substance whose commitment and innovative approach built a firm foundation of Early Childhood Education, in St. Vincent & The Grenadines. VINSAVE and the Pre-School Centers not only met the developmental needs of the child, but also allowed women working outside the home to have safe care of their children.Article 89 of the Platform for Action says that, "Women have the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. The enjoyment of this right is vital to their life and well-being and their ability to participate in all areas of public and private life.Womens organisations must now "Think Equal, Build Smart, and Innovate to bring the informal educational standard of women to new levels, and lift them to an increasingly improved state of physical and mental health.
PepsiCo India's bottling partner Varun Beverages (VBL) on Friday announced opening of its Rs 550-crore facility in Pathankot, Punjab, which would roll out products from the cola major's beverage portfolio.

The integrated facility will produce PepsiCo's Tropicana range of fruit juices, dairy-based products, carbonated soft drinks, Aquafina water, Gatorade and Lipton ice tea, according to a joint statement.

Spread over 41 acres, the company has commenced trial production in this greenfield production facility, which will be the first fully backward integrated facility to produce PepsiCo's beverage portfolio items.

Besides, the facility is also expected to create over 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state.

PepsiCo India President and Chief Executive Officer Ahmed ElSheikh said: "This new facility will act as a hub to address the growing demand for our well-loved beverage portfolio among consumers in the state and beyond."



Varun Beverages Chairman Ravi Jaipuria said: "The facility is strategically located close to target markets which will reduce time to market and enable optimisation of freight and logistics costs, aiding margin expansion."



VBL has been associated with PepsiCo from 1990s and has franchises for various products across 22 states and two Union territories.

It also has franchise rights for various PepsiCo products for Nepal, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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PepsiCo India's bottling partner Varun Beverages has set up a Rs 800 crore facility in Pathankot that is expected to generate 5,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The facility, spread over 41 acres allotted by the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, was inaugurated on Friday by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, according to a release by the state government.

The fully backward integrated facility, in which VBL has invested Rs 550 crore, would manufacture the complete range of Tropicana juices, dairy based-products, carbonated beverages and Aquafina water, according to a company filing to the BSE.

Trial production at the unit, which will be the first fully backward integrated facility to produce PepsiCo's beverage portfolio items, in the Growth Industrial Centre, Pangoli, has already begun trial production of the products.

The chief minister said the PepsiCo project would catalyse industrial growth in the state, according to the government release.

Member Parliament Sunil Jakhar said the commitment of the Amarinder government towards industrial development could be gauged from the fact that the Pepsico franchisee project has become operational within 10 months, said the release.

The chief minister also announced a Dairy Development Extension Centre to be established in the region by Guru Angad Dev Veterinary Sciences University (GADVASU) to provide the best animal health care services to the dairy farmers, besides improving the breed of milch cattle to enhance the milk quality, it added.

PepsiCo India President and Chief Executive Officer Ahmed ElSheikh said: "This new facility will act as a hub to address the growing demand for our well-loved beverage portfolio among consumers in the state and beyond."



He added said PepsiCo started its India journey from Punjab over 30 years ago and this latest investment by the PepsiCo ecosystem was a reiteration of its commitment to its India business growth story.

Varun Beverages Chairman Ravi Jaipuria said: "The facility is strategically located close to target markets which will reduce time to market and enable optimisation of freight and logistics costs, aiding margin expansion."



VBL has been associated with PepsiCo from 1990s and has franchises for various products across 22 states and two Union territories.

Varun Beverages Ltd (VBL) applied to Invest Punjab in April 2018 and all requisite clearance related to setting up of projects etc were completed within a period of just 10 months.

It also has franchise rights for various PepsiCo products for Nepal, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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Former world number one Venus Williams emerged from a back-and-forth battle with a 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 victory over German Andrea Petkovic to reach the second round at Indian Wells.

The US veteran said she wasn't feeling her best, and was at a loss for words to explain the win on Thursday.

"I don't know honestly. I'm still trying to figure it out," said Williams, who closed out the first set after a visit from the trainer, before Petkovic had the second set all her own way.

Williams was broken as she served for the match at 5-2 in the third, wasting one match point.

Petkovic had a game point to extend the match before Williams broke her in the final game seal the victory.

"Every day is not your best day but that doesn't mean the heart and desire aren't there," Williams said. "I'm just happy things went my way in the third set. It got really close there.

Williams was playing her first match since a third-round loss to then world number one Simona Halep at the Australian Open.

"I haven't played in forever, so that was challenging in itself, to get back into competition," said the 38-year-old who next faces third-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova -- this year's Australian Open runner-up.

Serena Williams, also playing her first tournament since falling in the Australian Open quarter-finals, opens with a blockbuster second round match against another former world number one Victoria Azarenka.

Azarenka, now ranked 48th in the world, defeated Vera Lapko in straight sets on Wednesday to set up the clash that will highlight Friday's night session. Williams, seeded 10th, has won 17 of their 21 prior encounters but Azarenka won their most recent meeting -- in the 2016 Indian Wells final.

Since then both have become mothers, Serena to daughter Alexis Olympia and Azarenka to son Leo.

"It's obviously going to be a really difficult match," Azarenka said. "It's not a second-round match for sure. But it's going to be a huge challenge. We haven't played for three years, we haven't played since we both became moms, so it's going to be a special one."



France's Kristina Mladenovic booked her second meeting in three weeks with world number one Naomi Osaka, beating China's Zheng Saisai 7-5, 6-2 to reach the second round.

"It's pretty funny, playing her back-to-back," said Mladenovic, who toppled Osaka in Dubai in the Japanese star's first match since winning the Australian Open.

"It's going to be a brand new match," Mladenovic said.

"I'm sure her game suits well here as the defending champion, and I'm sure she wants to build on some wins again. I'm going to go out there confident, show a fight, and execute as well as I did a few weeks ago.

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Union minister Vijay Goel Friday undertook a 10-km march in Karol Bagh, and hit out at both the Congress and AAP, alleging that the two parties were "desperate to forge an alliance".

During his 'Dhol Padyatra', he was joined by several party workers.

In a statement, Goel alleged that "Kejriwal and his coterie" know that they would never come back to power again in Delhi, and "so they are trying every dirty trick possible to win elections".

Even if it means spending taxpayers' money on "false publicity or joining hands with the same Congress, whose tales of corruption were repeatedly told by Kejriwal during previous Assembly polls," he claimed.

Goel claimed that the two parties were "desperate to forge an alliance", and both the parties are "indulging in closed-door conspiracies" which, he shall expose to people of Delhi through the 'Dhol Andolan'.

He also said that many residents of unauthorised colonies have come to meet him to express their happiness over the Cabinet's decision to constitute a committee to look into the process of conferring them ownership or transfer rights.

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Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday promised to strive for the passage of women's reservation bill in Parliament and a policy of zero tolerance towards atrocities on women if his party comes to power.

"There is an urgent need to provide reservation for women in state assemblies and Lok Sabha to ensure their empowerment. The Congress is keen to ensure this," Gandhi said during an interaction with women at a convention in Jeypore town of Odisha's Koraput district.

"If the Congress comes to power, our approach will be zero tolerance towards atrocities against women. They should get speedy justice," Gandhi said.

Referring to Odisha, Gandhi said if the grand old party is voted to power in the state, all women would be provided free education, be it in engineering or medical or any other field.

"All women, particularly tribals, Dalits and those belonging to the backward categories should get free education to ensure they are truly empowered," Gandhi added.

At the outset, the Congress chief congratulated women on the occasion of International Women's Day.

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A young woman entrepreneur from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh has been invited for representing India at an international conference in the United States.

Pawani Khandelwal (24), promoter of a unique initiative to empower women by teaching them to drive two-wheelers, said she will represent the country at the conference on women entrepreneurship and economic empowerment to be held in Washington DC and Chicago from March 22.

Khandelwal runs an organisation called 'Aatm Nirbhar' (meaning self-dependent) in five cities. It is run by women and for women. The organisation plans to spread its wings to 120 cities of the country by 2020.

"Aatm Nirbhar has so far empowered over 5,000 women and will add a few zeros to the figure very soon," she told PTI, feeling immensely happy and grateful to have come this far.

Khandelwal and nine other women heading social organisations across the globe have been selected for a



fully-funded program by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation North America.

The young entrepreneur from Mathura will talk about women empowerment, opportunities for women in the social sector, role of women in economic growth and importance of female employees in an organisation.

She is a graduate from the Symbiosis Institute of Management, Pune and has been selected for MBA program by the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

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A rally to raise awareness about crime against women, giving away Mahila Shakti Award and honouring women teachers is how Rajasthan celebrated the International Women's Day on Friday.

On this day, various government departments of the state organised events to honour women.

The Women and Child Development Department (WCDD) took out a rally to emphasise on women empowerment.

"Women should make efforts to establish their identity without being dependent on anyone. It is the government's effort to create an empowered state by empowering its women," WCDD Minister Mamta Bhupesh said.

She urged people to walk together to eliminate bad practices such as child marriage, female foeticide and gender discrimination.

Kusum Lata Jain was conferred with Mahila Shakti Award. She was presented with a cash prize of Rs 51,000 and a certificate for exemplary work in the sector of women empowerment.

Minister Govind Singh Dotasra announced to give priority to honouring women teachers.

"Every year, 1,500 teachers will now be honoured instead of 30 to 40 teachers. Teachers build the foundation of the society we live in," he said.

Ajmer Dargah Dewan Zainul Abedin said it was wrong to undermine women power, adding Islam has given equal rights to women to live at par with males.

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Women are still under-represented at the top positions and face "motherhood wage penalty" globally, according to a UN report which said in India only about 10 per cent of managers with children under six years of age are women as compared to nearly 90 per cent of their male counterparts.

As the world marked International Women's Day, the report titled 'A Quantum leap for gender equality: For a better future of work for all' by International Labour Organization (ILO) said women's job opportunities have barely improved since the early 1990s.

"Women are still under-represented at the top, a situation that has changed very little in the last 30 years, according to the report.

"This is despite that fact that they are likely to be better educated than their male counterparts education is not the main reason for lower employment rates and lower pay of women, but rather that women do not receive the same dividends for education as men."



There is also a 'motherhood leadership penalty': only 25 per cent of managers with children under six years of age are women. Women's share rises to 31 per cent for managers without young children, the report said.

In India, women make up about 10.2 per cent of managers with children under the age of six and 16.3 per cent with no children. In contrast, 89.8 per cent managers with children under six years of age are men while this percentage is 83.7 for men with no children.

"A number of factors are blocking equality in employment, and the one playing the largest role is caregiving," said Manuela Tomei, Director, ILO Conditions of Work and Equality Department.

"In the last 20 years, the amount of time women spent on unpaid care and domestic work has hardly fallen, and men's has increased by just eight minutes a day. At this pace of change it will take more than 200 years to achieve equality in time spent in unpaid care work.

UN labour experts warned that female workers are still penalized for having children and looking after them.

According to the ILO's findings, women's pay is 20 per cent lower than men's, as a global average. This discrepancy is linked to a career-long motherhood wage penalty, which contrasts with the fact that fathers enjoy a wage premium.

The ILO said that a "quantum leap" is needed to make progress, including by changing policies that would ensure equal opportunities, the right to be free from discrimination, violence and harassment, and equal pay for work of equal value.

The ILO report found that 1.3 billion women were in work in 2018, compared with two billion men a less than two per cent improvement in the last 27 years.

'Glass ceiling' concerns over the lack of upward mobility at work also persist, given that fewer than one third of managers are women.

Worryingly, between 2005 and 2015, there was also a 38 per cent increase in the number of working women who did not have young children, compared to those who had. This is despite an ILO-Gallup 2017 global report which found that 70 per cent of women prefer working rather than staying at home something men largely agree with, the organization noted.

"A number of factors are blocking equality in employment, and the one playing the largest role is caregiving," Tomei said.

"In the last 20 years, the amount of time women spent on unpaid care and domestic work has hardly fallen," she said, while men's participation has increased "by just eight minutes a day. At this pace of change it will take more than 200 years to achieve equality in time spent in unpaid care work".

In 2018, according to the report, women were more likely to work in low-skilled occupations and face worse employment conditions than men.

Women are also "more exposed" to informal jobs lacking social protection in more than 90 per cent of sub-Saharan countries, 89 per cent of Southern Asian States and almost 75 per cent of Latin American nations.

"Women are also often found in occupations that are the most vulnerable such as in domestic, home-based or contributing to family work, the ILO report notes.

In terms of solutions that can help create a better future of work for women, the report calls for a quantum leap of transformative policy choices.

These include creating or reviewing laws to establish equal rights for all sexes in the world of work, and repealing bans on women entering certain professions, or from working at night or underground.

Efforts are also needed to create time to care, the ILO report stresses, explaining that greater time sovereignty is needed to allow workers to exercise more choice and control over their working hours.

Those with families would benefit particularly, it explains, while Tomei added that when men share unpaid care work more equally, more women are found in managerial positions as well.

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The Supreme Court warned the Haryana government Friday that it will be in "trouble" if it has done "anything" with Aravalli hills or forest area by passing amendments to an Act to allow construction there.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta observed this after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was appearing for Haryana, said he will satisfy the court that amendments in the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900 were not done to "help somebody".

"We are concerned with Aravalli. If you are doing anything with Aravalli or Kant Enclave (where the top court had ordered demolition of buildings due to illegal constructions in forest area) you will be in trouble. If you are doing anything with forest, you will be in trouble. We are telling you," the bench told Mehta.

On March 1, the bench had come down heavily on the Haryana government for passing amendments to the law and said the state would not act on it without the court's permission.

On February 27, the Haryana Assembly had passed amendments to the Act opening up thousands of acres of land to real estate and other non-forest activity in the area that was protected under it for over a century.

The amendments to the Act were passed by the state assembly amid vociferous protests and walkout by opposition parties.

Haryana Chief Minister M L Khattar had said that the Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2019, was the "need of the hour", and had added that it was a "very old" Act and much has changed over a period of time.

This issue has cropped up in the court which is dealing with a matter in which it had earlier directed demolition of illegal constructions in forest area of Aravalli hills in Haryana.

During the brief hearing on Friday, Mehta told the bench that the Assembly has passed the bill but it has not become an Act yet.

He also said that media reports which claimed the amendments was passed by the state government to favour real estate developers were not correct.

"I have examined them (amendments). It does not say what the newspapers have said," he told the bench, adding, "When the matter will come up for hearing, I will be able to satisfy the court that it (amendments) is not for helping somebody".

Mehta told the bench that he will file the copy of the amendments in the court.

The bench has posted the matter for further hearing in the first week of April.

The court was earlier told that despite the apex court's order to demolish certain structures in Kant Enclave, the state government has made certain amendments in PLPA to permit construction in the forest area and PLPA region also.

The PLPA was enacted by the then Punjab government in 1900 and it provided for conservation of subsoil water and prevention of erosion in areas found to be subject to erosion or likely to become liable to erosion.

The orders and notifications issued under the provisions of the act extend to approximately 10,945 sq km, accounting roughly for about 25 per cent area of Haryana and it covers, wholly or partly, 14 out of the state's 22 districts.

The top court had in January this year extended till July 31 the deadline for house owners, whose buildings were ordered to be demolished due to illegal constructions in forest area of Aravalli hills, to vacate their premises subject to furnishing of undertaking in this regard.

The court had said the 33 house owners in Faridabad's Kant Enclave, who were earlier directed by the apex court to vacate their premises by March 31, would get time till July 31 if they file undertaking that they would vacate the properties by then.

On September 11 last year, the apex court had termed "frightening" the illegal construction in the forest area of Aravalli hills and directed the Haryana government to demolish the unauthorised structures built there after August 18, 1992.

The court had lashed out at the Haryana government and said the construction activity carried out by R Kant and Company, a private realtor who was a party to the case, was clearly in violation of the August 18, 1992 notification and also in blatant defiance of the court's orders.

The 1992 notification issued under the provisions of the Punjab Land Preservation (PLP) Act had prohibited clearing or breaking up of land not ordinarily under cultivation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Theresa May urged the European Union on Friday to make "just one more push" to break the Brexit deadlock but proposals from the bloc's chief negotiator fell short of anything that would win over the British parliament. Three weeks before Britain is due to leave the EU, May has failed so far to secure the changes to her divorce deal that she believes would gain the support of lawmakers, who handed the government a defeat of record proportions in January. At the heart of the dispute is the so-called Northern Irish backstop, an insurance policy to ...
From the National Council of Women

International Womens Day 2019 is celebrated under the theme; "Think equal, build smart, innovate for change.



"On March 8th, 1975, the first International Womens Day was celebrated, during the International Womens Year by the United Nations. In 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Womens Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by member states, in accordance with their historical and national traditions. The General Assembly recognized the role of women in peace efforts development, and urged an end to discrimination with an increase of support for womens full and equal participation.

As we join with many countries around the world in celebrating International Womens Day 2019 under the theme; "Think equal, build smart, innovate for change. Let us as women and girls recognize the achievements of our women in the areas in which they have excelled without regard to divisions; national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. It is an occasion for looking back on past struggles and accomplishments, and for looking ahead to the untapped potential and opportunities that await the future generations of women.

There are many social ills in our society that we need to speak up and out against. We have been faced with too many incidents of rape, sexual molestation and harassment of our girl babies and our young women, and scourge of domestic violence, and other violent acts which would cause long term emotional and psychological effects.

The National Council of Women reminds that the age of consent is the age below which a minor is considered to be legally incompetent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a minor younger than the age of consent cannot claim that the sexual activity was consensual, and such sexual activity may be considered statutory rape. The purpose of setting an age of consent is to protect an underage person from sexual advances. Statutory Rape is a criminal act in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and should be dealt with expeditiously. Too many of these matters are thrown out, dismissed or reduced penalties for lack of evidence.

The National Council of Women condemns Statutory Rape and other forms of sexual violence against children and women. We are calling on all relevant authorities to do ALL within our power and authority to bring justice to the victims of these crimes committed against our babies and children.

Beverly Richards, President.

We are calling for a review of the New Domestic Violence Act 2015, a registry of sexual offenders especially those who were convicted for Statutory Rape, and for the change of the age of consent to 18 years.
Norway's trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, will sell its stakes in oil and gas explorers and producers but still invest in energy firms that have refineries and other downstream activities, according to a government plan. The proposal announced on Friday said the fund's stakes in integrated companies, such as Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and other majors involved in everything from exploration to selling fuel at the roadside, would not be sold. The state, which has built its wealth on the back of North Sea oil and gas reserves, also has no ...
are likely to take cues from global developments on Friday. Springing a surprise, European Central Bank (ECB) pushed out the timing of its first post-crisis rate hike until 2020 at the earliest and offered banks a new round of cheap loans to help revive the euro zone economy. ECB President Mario Draghi said the economy was in a period of continued weakness and pervasive uncertainty.

Besides, movement of against the US dollar, stock-specific action, prices and other global cues will also influence investor sentiment.

On Thursday, the S&P BSE Sensex ended at 36,725, up 89 points while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 11,058, up just 5 points.

TRADE SET-UP

Asian stocks were trading lower in the early trade on Friday after the European Central Bank slashed its growth forecasts and launched an emergency round of policy stimulus, leaving investors fearing the worst for the global economy. MSCIs broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.3 per cent while Japans Nikkei dropped 0.9 per cent.

In the overnight trade, US stocks, too, ended in the red following ECB's surprise policy moves.

STOCKS TO WATCH

Bharti Airtel: Bharti Airtel on Thursday said GIC, formerly known as Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, has committed to subscribing to the companys rights issue of Rs 25,000 crore.

Suzlon Energy: The company has hired Houlihan Lokey, an investment banking firm, to help it restructure its foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) worth Rs 1,200 crore, which is due in July.

Sun Pharma: According to a report by The Economic Times, a whistleblower has alleged that Sun Pharma used its subsidiary Aditya Medisales (AML) to give gifts to doctors in violation of pharma industry guidelines.
South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Company is in advanced talks with homegrown cab-hailing platform Ola for an investment of $250-300 million. Hyundai could pick up 4% stake in Bengaluru-based Ola that is looking to bring in more funds for a valuation of $6 billion. If the deal follows through, it would be Hyundai's second investment in the Indian startup ecosystem. It had earlier led a Rs 100-crore funding round in car rental startup Revv in August last year.

Hyundai's investment would bring in another major investor in the company. It is likely to even out the power scales that is heavily tipped in the favour of SoftBank and could protect the rights of founders Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati.

The latest investment could close over the next few weeks, a report in The Economic Times said. This investment is part of Ola's current $500-million equity financing round that has also seen the participation of Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal. After Bansal's exit from Flipkart, the entrepreneur invested Rs 650 crore in Ola in what is the largest personal investment in the domestic internet sector.

Also read: Why Tata Motors share is the top loser on Sensex, Nifty today

Hyundai's Ola move comes after it invested $250 million in Singaporean cab-hailing platform Grab in November last year. Its competitors such as General Motors, Ford Motor Co and Toyota Motor Corp have all backed ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft as they are bracing for slower car ownerships across the world.

In India too, Mahindra and Mahindra, and Ford have pumped in money in car-rental firm Zoomcar over multiple rounds. Toyota also led a $30-million funding round in auto services company Droom last year.

Investment firm Temasek also picked up a stake of around 5% in Ola's parent company ANI Technologies for about $150-200 million last year.

Also read: NGT fines Volkswagen Rs 500 crore for using cheat devices in diesel cars

Also read: Passenger vehicle sales down 1.11 %, car sales drop by 4.33% in February
The CBIC Thursday clarified on the vexed issue of levy of GST on sales promotion schemes like 'buy one get one free' offered by FMCG firms, saying taxes would be paid on the price recovered from the customer.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), under the Finance Ministry, said that in case of offers like Buy one, Get one free' it may appear at first glance that one item is being supplied free of cost' without any consideration.

"In fact it is not an individual supply of free goods but a case of two or more individual supplies where a single price is being charged for the entire supply. It can at best be treated as supplying two goods for the price of one'," the CBIC said.

PwC Partner and Leader Indirect Tax Pratik Jain said it has been clarified that 'under buy one get one' scheme, GST would be paid on the price recovered from the customer without reversing the input credit.

With regard to free samples and gifts', like in the pharmaceutical industry to provide drug samples to their stockists, dealers and medical practitioners without any consideration, the CBIC said this shall not be treated as supply under GST and hence will not be liable to tax.

"Samples which are supplied free of cost, without any consideration, not qualify as supply under GST," the CBIC said.

Under Goods and Services Tax law supply includes all forms of supply of goods or services such as sale, transfer, barter, rental, lease or disposal made or agreed to be made for a consideration by a person in the course of furtherance of business.

Jain said the clarification on tax treatment of sales promotion schemes under GST is a welcome relief particularly for FMCG and Pharma, where these promotional schemes are very common.

"The clarification would help in reducing avoidable litigation and is line with global practice," he added.

EY Tax Partner Abhishek Jain said, "The explicit clarification on availability of credit on goods supplied under 'Buy One Get One Scheme' would be quite welcome by most industry players.
Pakistan's forestry department has filed an FIR against Indian Air Force pilots for bombing and destroying trees in Balakot, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province during its operation on Jaish-e-Mohammed's (JeM) terror den on February 26.

The FIR against unidentified IAF pilots also contains details of the damage suffered by 19 trees after Indian jets "hastily dropped their payload", Express Tribune newspaper reported.

The neighboring country is also considering to lodge a complaint against India at the United Nations (UN) accusing it of eco-terrorism. Climate Change Minister Malik Amin Aslam told Reuters that there has been serious environmental damage to dozens of pine trees that had fallen during IAF's strike.

Also Read: IAF takes on detractors, submits proof of Balakot air strike

"What happened over there is environmental terrorism. There has been serious environmental damage "the Minister said.

The UN General Assembly Resolution 47/37 says, "Destruction of the environment, not justified by military necessity and carried out wantonly, is clearly contrary to existing international law."

Also Read: IAF to arm Sukhoi Su-30s with Spice-2000 bombs used to destroy JeM camps in Balakot air strike

The IAF in a morning raid on February 26 struck and bombed JeM's terror camp in Pakistani territories of Balakot, Chakothi and Muzaffarabad nearly two weeks after the dastardly attacks on 44 CRPF troopers in Pulwama district of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).

The airstrike reportedly killed over 200-300 terrorists across the Line-of-Control (LOC) in what India calls to be a 'non-military pre-preemptive' action to counter multiple potential fidayeen attacks on the country.

12 Mirage 2000 jets dropped around 1,000 kg laser guided bombs on the training camps of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the terror outfit behind the suicide attack on the CRPF personnel in Pulwama.

Also Read: IAF pilot Abhinandan choked, beaten, sleep deprived as Pakistan tried to extract sensitive info: report

Meanwhile, Pakistan in a retaliatory attack on its territory, claimed to have shot down two Indian aircrafts that had ventured in its airspace. The Director General (DG) of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Asif Ghafoor in his tweet said that one of the aircrafts fell inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmit while the other fell inside Indian territory.

The Pakistani army also captured IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman from Horra'n village (barely 7 Kms from the LoC) in Bhimber district of PoK after ejecting from his jet which caught fire in a mid-air dogfight with Pakistani fighters. However, it released the IAF pilot 60 hours after keeping him in captivity.
In 2012, the induction of INS Chakra, a Russian-built Akula class attack submarine (SSN), had propelled India into a tiny club - we became the world's sixth country to operate a nuclear-powered submarine. The over 8,000-tonne steel shark, which had been taken on a 10-year lease from Russia in 2011, was at the time the single biggest force-multiplier India acquired to counter the entry of the Chinese navy into the Indian Ocean. And the country will soon bag a bigger, better avatar of this lethal submarine.

Yesterday, India and Russia inked yet another mega defence deal worth over $3 billion for leasing another Akula-class SSN from Russia to replace the INS Chakra, which is nearing the end of its lease, The Times of India reported. This, incidentally, is the second time India has defied the threat of sanctions from the US under Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) following the $5.4 billion contract for Russian S-400 Triumf missile systems signed in October. The Act mandates the Trump administration to punish entities engaging in significant transaction with the defence or intelligence establishment of Russia.

Defence sources told the daily that the new submarine, tentatively christened INS Chakra III, will be ready by around 2025, includes a comprehensive package for refurbishment of the nuclear boat lying mothballed at Severodvinsk, its sustenance and spares support for 10 years, as well as training and technical infrastructure for its operations. "INS Chakra's existing lease will be extended till at least 2025 through another contract till the new submarine, which will be bigger and more advanced than it, becomes operational," explained a source.

Late last year, a naval delegation visited Russia to inspect two Akula-1 class submarines, the Bratsk and the Samara, laid up for a deep refit at the Zvezdochka shipyard in the Arctic port of Severodvinsk. As India Today previously reported, the naval delegation's visit was followed by a four-day visit to Russia by Navy Chief Admiral Lanba, where he reportedly discussed the Chakra lease. The buzz at the time suggested that the newly leased submarine will be put through an intensive 72-month deep refit and rebuild, where the nuclear reactor will be replaced and a number of indigenous systems installed on board.

So what are SSNs?

These submarines use a nuclear reactor for propulsion but are usually armed with conventional weapons like missiles and torpedoes to hunt other warships and submarines and strike at targets on land. They are not equipped with long-range nuclear missiles due to international treaties. SSNs, however, can be used for multiple tasks like hunting enemy submarines, escorting nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) - like the indigenous Arihant class submarines - and aircraft carriers as well as stalking and chasing enemy aircraft carriers and their warship escorts. Furthermore, SSNs can be deployed for ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) missions due to its stealthy nature and capability to stay underwater for extended periods. If SSBNs are like bombers, then SSNs are like fighter jets. All of the Indian Navy's tasks are currently performed by its single platform, the INS Chakra.

Incidentally, training personnel to man the Arihant class nuclear submarines is one of the primary roles of the INS Chakra. Three more SSBNs are being built at the ship-building center at Vizag under the secretive Rs 90,000 crore Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) programme.

But that is not enough. India needs at least 18 conventional submarines, six SSNs and four SSBNs for effective deterrence.

Also Read: Power generation from conventional sources sees its steepest monthly fall in January

Also Read: Women's Day 2019: Female labour force participation fall from 36.7% in 2005 to 26% in 2018
Political parties have resorted to big poll campaigning on social media with the Lok Sabha elections 2019 just a few months away. Pro-BJP groups spent over Rs 2.15 crore out of the total Rs 4.13 expenditure all parties incurred on political advertisement on Facebook in February, as per the social media site's Ad Archive Report. The Facebook pages that topped the chart included 'Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat', which ran 1,168 ads and spent Rs 1.01 crore. This was followed by another page 'Nation with NaMo', which spent Rs 52.24 lakh and 'MyGov India' that splurged over Rs 25.27 lakh on ads. The funds for these ads were not necessarily paid by the party but by its supporters, claimed the company.

All the top spenders on Facebook -- Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat, Nation with NaMo, and MyGov India -- ran their ads without any disclaimer, shows Ad Archive Report. The official Facebook account of the BJP spent just Rs 6.6 lakh. BJP chief Amit Shah's official FB page accounted for Rs 2.12 lakh worth of political ads. BJD Chief and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's account spent around Rs 4.48 lakh on its Facebook campaigning. The main Opposition party, Congress, and its affiliates spent around Rs 10.3 lakh, while other regional parties pumped in Rs 19.8 lakh, collectively, on their social media campaigning. Facebook's Ad Archive Report says total 16,556 ads worth Rs 4.13 crore were posted on its network from February till March 2.

Also read: Facebook wants to become a 'private' messaging platform like WhatsApp

Other top spenders on the social media platform included DailyHunt App, Great Learning, and MyGov India (Akash Jain). Some active pages campaigning for the Congress include 'I m with Congress', 'Congress Party admirers forum' and 'Vote for Congress' but their spending didn't amount much during this period.

There was no mention of any specific date after which Facebook started collecting the data on these ads, but the company said on February 7 that it would enforce new policy for ads on political campaigning after February 21. As per the new policy, Facebook will provide weekly aggregated insights for advertisements related to politics. The company said it would refresh the ads data on weekly -- from Sunday to Saturday -- basis.

Facebook has said it would carry 'disclaimer' on each political advertisement by those running these ads on its platform. The effort has been taken to bring transparency into political ads ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in the country. The recent measures by Facebook come in the wake of a stern warning by the government of India over the increasing reports of the misuse of social media platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Google. Recently, Twitter's Head of Public Policy, Colin Crowell, appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on IT. Crowell appeared on behalf of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The panel had asked Dorsey to appear before it after several reports of alleged "bias" by the platform.

Edited by Manoj Sharma

Also read: Bug in Facebook Messenger exposed users' data, also revealed who they were chatting with
On Friday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not waiving the debt of poor farmers, while giving money to industrialists and waving off corporate loans worth Rs 3.5 lakh crores.

He alleged that the PM-KISAN scheme launched by the Centre is nothing but an attempt to make mockery of poor farmers by doling out a paltry sum of Rs 6,000 annually.

"Prime Minister waived off debt amounting to Rs 3.5 lakh crore of 15 rich industrialists in the country in past five years including that of country's richest industrialist. Everyone knows his name. But when it comes to farmers, he cannot waive off a single rupee," said Rahul Gandhi.

Ahead of the upcoming elections for the Odisha State Assembly as well as the Lok Sabha, the Congress chief came down heavily on the Prime Minister. Over the Rafale deal, Gandhi alleged that reports in an English daily stated that the Prime Minister himself prepared a new contract in the fighter jet deal and held parallel negotiations.

"This is the truth," he said and alleged that France was told to give the job contract to Anil Ambani and not to HAL.

Gandhi further claimed that the Prime Minister makes tall claims about patriotism on one hand, but takes Rs 30,000 crore from IAF and hands it over to Anil Ambani. "The UPA government had decided to purchase 126 Rafale jets for Rs 526 crore, but the BJP-led government went for less number of aircraft at a high price of Rs 1,600 crore in order to dole out Rs 30,000 crore to Ambani," he said.

While pointing at the benefits given to Ambani and the missing Rafale files, he added that the delay was costing the Indian Air Force (IAF) heavily, whose pilots' lives had been endangered by Modi.

Gandhi covered several issues ranging from the farm distress to poverty, drugs, besides national issues like Rafael deal, increasing poverty, among others. Rahul Gandhi also attacked Modi for allegedly failing to honour promises he made five years back, such as two crore jobs each year and remunerative prices for farmers. Taking on the Naveen Patnaik government in the state, Gandhi said it was being run by four to five bureaucrats.

The Congress president promised if the party were voted to power in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, it would "try to pass the Women's Reservation Bill" for better representation of women in legislatures, provide financial assistance for marriage of poor women in the state and a widow pension of Rs 2,000 per month.

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The Supreme Court will today deliver its judgement on whether to refer the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation or not.

The five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had earlier advocated a peaceful resolution to the otherwise politically and religiously sensitive issue.

Meanwhile, the Hindu Mahasabha has said that it is opposed to mediation in the matter, terming it a futile process, which in the past also did not elicit any favorable outcome.

The apex court had on Wednesday reserved its order on the issue of referring the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case to the court-monitored mediation.

Also Read: Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case: Here's a look at Ayodhya's history from 1528 up till now

One of the lawyers during Wednesday's hearing had opposed the mediation process saying that even if the parties agreed to resolve the matter amicably, the public would not agree to a compromise, to which Justice SA Bobde said that mediation didn't mean necessarily compromise by one party and a win for the other.

The judge also stated, "We cannot undo Babar invading etc. We can only look into the current situation." "We understand the gravity of the case. Past cannot be undone. We can only decide what happens in the present," he added.

The five-judge constitution bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice SA Bobde, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Abdul Nazeer had on February 26 advocated an amicable resolution to the Ram Mandir case through mediation.

Also Read: Ayodhya case: SC reserves order on mediation in Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit

The apex court in its observation had favoured peaceful dialogue be given a chance to solve the contentious issue. Justice Bobde had proposed the suggestion while hearing the case. "We are considering the possibility of healing relations between two communities. We, as a court, can only decide the property issue." Justice SA Bobde said.

Meanwhile, the lawyers of the Hindu parties had opposed the idea of mediation saying that such attempts had failed in the past, the Muslim parties' lawyers for the negotiations if a regular hearing on the matter goes on simultaneously.

The petition challenging the 2010 judgment by Allahabad High Court has been pending for almost nine years. The court had ordered to equally divide the 2.77 acres of the disputed land in Ayodhya.

Also Read: Ayodhya case: Supreme Court may order court-monitored mediation today
The Supreme Court Friday ordered a court-monitored mediation in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case to arrive at a "permanent solution" to the politically and religiously sensitive issue.

The five-judge constitution bench appointed a panel of 3 mediators in the title suit with Retired Justice Kalifullah chairing the court-appointed and monitored mediation process. The other two members are spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu.

All three panel members hail from Tamil Nadu and have been asked to hold the proceedings in Faizabad by the apex court ensuring full confidentiality. The mediation process will start in one week and the status report of the mediation committee will have to be completed in four weeks with 8 weeks deadline to conclude the hearing.

Also Read: Ayodhya case: Supreme Court orders mediation in Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute

1. Retired Justice F M Ibrahim Kalifulla: Justice Kalifulla started his law practice in Chennai. He was appointed Madras High Court judge in 2000. He was named as the Chief Justice of High Court of Jammu & Kashmir in 2011. He was later elevated to the Supreme Court in the year 2012.

The retired SC judge has delivered landmark judgments in a lot of cases, one of them related to inclusion of Vedic astrology as a scientific study course in Indian universities. Justice Kalifulla retired from the Supreme Court in 2016. He was also instrumental in providing valuable insights by suggesting a way forward in the BCCI case.

Talking to reports on the top court's decision to appoint him on the mediation panel, Justice Kalifulla said, "I'm yet to receive order copy. I can say if committee has been constituted we'll take every effort to resolve the issue amicably."

Justice(Retd)FM Ibrahim Kalifullah on Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case: I understand SC has appointed a mediation committee headed by me. I'm yet to received order copy.I can say if committee has been constituted we'll take every effort to resolve the issue amicably pic.twitter.com/AgSfBzfuGU - ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2019

Also Read: Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case: Here's a look at Ayodhya's history from 1528 up till now

2. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Founder of Art of Living foundation, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was born in Papanasam, Tamil Nadu and has made a lot of controversial statements about the Ayodhya case in the past. The spiritual guru in early 2018 had tried his hands at an out of court settlement in the matter by holding talks with leaders of both Hindu and Muslim communities.

He had advised Muslims to give up their claim on the contested land saying the land is Lord Ram's birthplace and doesn't hold much importance for them.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board however dismissed Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's proposal.

Causing a stir again Friday, the spiritual guru said that India will become Syria if Muslims do not give up their claim on the disputed site in Ayodhya. His appointment to the mediation panel might raise a few eyebrows due to his unflinching stand on the case.

Taking to his Twitter handle about the apex court's decision today Sri Sri Ravi Shankar tweeted, "Respecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society - we must all move together towards these goals. #ayodhyamediation"

Respecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society - we must all move together towards these goals.#ayodhyamediation - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) March 8, 2019

Also Read: Ayodhya case: Supreme Court may order court-monitored mediation today

3. Sriram Panchu- Senior Advocate and an expert mediator, Sriram Panchu has been mediating cases since 1990s. He founded The Mediation Chambers, India's first such centre in 2005 and is also on the board of the International Mediation Institute (IMI) as a director.

Panchu is regarded instrumental in making mediation a part of Indian legal system. The senior advocate had in the past been appointed by the Supreme Court to mediate a 50 year old boundary dispute between the Assam and Nagaland.

After being selected to be in the mediation panel today, Panchu said, "It is a very serious responsibility given to me by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. I will do my best."
To say that Winston Gaymes or the other electoral officers did not come to give evidence, amounts to nothing, if nothing was brought forward by the petitioners.

So said Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes while delivering oral closing arguments in the 2015 general election petitions hearing on Wednesday, when the issue of Winston Gaymes not being called to give evidence was raised.

Three other persons - Grady King, Kendal Osment and Cheryl Hoyte  fell into a similar situation.

Gaymes was a Returning Officer in the Central Leeward constituency during the 2015 General Election, and his name surfaced on a number of occasions during the week-long trial which got underway on February 11.

He was expected to give evidence via video link, but the trial ended and he was not called by either the petitioners or respondents to give oral evidence.

Mendes said to Justice Stanley John that there was a sworn affidavit, which was exhibited by Benjamin Exeter, the New Democratic Partys Central Leeward candidate in the 2015 general elections and one of the two petitioners.

The Senior Counsel argued that there was a similar case in Dominica when that countrys Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerritt was challenged ahead of the 2009 general elections, on the grounds that he was a French national bearing a French passport.

"This is the same type of case we are dealing with, he said.

In the end, Skerritt never appeared in court, and the court ruled that if no evidence was produced, then the case amounts to nothing.

He continued, saying that it was not possible for the court to give a judgment on an undefended claim.

According to Mendes, Skerritt never swore an affidavit to say that he did not have a French passport."So to say that Gaymes or the other officers did not come to give evidence amounts to nothing, Mendes said."The absence of the response of something does not mean guilt of something. The petitioners must still present the case, Mendes said.
Pakistan intensified its crackdown against Islamist militants on Thursday, with the government announcing it had taken control of 182 religious schools and detained more than 100 people as part of its push against banned groups.

The crackdown represents Pakistan's biggest move against banned organisations in years and appears to be targeting Islamic welfare organisations that the United States says are a front for militant activities.

Pakistan is facing pressure from global powers to act against groups carrying out attacks in India, including Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which claimed responsibility for an attack on Feb. 14 that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police.

An Indian official, who requested anonymity, said New Delhi was sceptical that the crackdown was real, saying Pakistan had conducted such operations after previous attacks in India only to release detained militants in a "revolving door policy."

"Whether these actions are cosmetic or credible is something yet to be seen," said the Indian official, adding that Pakistan must take "credible, verifiable and immediate" action to end what he charged is a policy of using extremists to wage proxy attacks in India and Afghanistan.

Islamabad denies having such a policy.

Increased tensions between India and Pakistan after last month's bombing led to a confrontation between the nuclear-armed rivals, with both countries carrying out aerial bombing missions and even engaging in a brief dogfight.

Pakistani officials say the crackdown is part of a long-planned drive and not a response to Indian anger over what New Delhi calls Islamabad's failure to rein in militant groups operating on Pakistani soil.

Previous large-scale crackdowns against anti-India militants have broadly been cosmetic, with the proscribed groups able to survive and continue operations.

The interior ministry said law enforcement agencies had placed 121 people in "preventive detention" as part of the crackdown that began this week.

"Provincial governments have taken in their control management and administration of 182 seminaries, the ministry said in a statement, referring to religious schools, also known as madrasas.

What to do with madrasas is a thorny issue in Pakistan, a deeply conservative Muslim nation where religious schools are often blamed for radicalisation of youngsters but are the only education available to millions of poor children.

The interior ministry said other institutions from different groups had been taken over, including 34 schools or colleges, 163 dispensaries, 184 ambulances, five hospitals and eight offices of banned organisations.

Many banned groups such as JeM run seminaries, which counter-terrorism officials say are used as recruiting grounds for militant outfits.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which operates hospitals and a fleet of ambulances, is estimated to run about 300 madrasas across the country. Pakistan's government banned the group this week.

JuD calls itself a humanitarian charity but the U.S. State Department has designated it a "foreign terrorist organisation" and calls it a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), a Pakistan-based group accused of orchestrating attacks in India, including the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people.

JuD called the crackdown unfair and said it would seek to counter the government action in courts.

"The whole nation is asking that what message the government wants to send by sealing welfare organisations and kicking students out," said JuD spokesman Yahya Mujahid.

Pakistan has long used Islamist groups to pursue its aims in the region, but it has denied New Delhi's accusations it actively supports militants fighting Indian forces in India's part of Muslim-majority Kashmir.

The South Asian neighbours have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir which they both claim in whole but rule in part.
A MiG-21 fighter jet of Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed near Shobhasar ki Dhani, located 12 km from Bikaner city on Friday. The MiG-21 jet had taken off from Nal near Bikaner for a routine mission before it crashed. The pilot of the aircraft ejected safely, an IAF spokesperson told PTI.

Reports so far suggest that the MiG-21 jet crashed due to a bird hit. A Court of Enquiry will be formed to ascertain further details of the incident, the IAF spokesperson said.

A few days back, the IAF lost one of its Mi-17 chopper near Garend Kalan village in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. The crash resulted in the deaths of six IAF personnel and a civilian.

Of late, IAF's MiG-21 jets have been in the limelight amidst heightened tensions with Pakistan. A few days back, IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman's MiG 21 had also crashed after a dogfight with an F-16 fighter jet of Pakistan Air Force, after which he was taken into custody by the Pakistani army. Abhinandan was released to India after 70 hours of detention in Pakistan.

ALSO READ: Fishbed vs Falcon: Why the ancient MiG-21's F-16 kill is no fluke
Jubilant Life Sciences share price fell in trade today after US health regulator issued a warning letter to the company for its Roorkee facility.

Jubilant Life Sciences share price fell 4.67% to 747.30 level compared to the previous close of 783.90 on BSE. Jubilant Life Sciences share closed 1.96% or 15 points lower at 768.50 on BSE. Jubilant Life Sciences share price has fallen 3.84% during the last one year and gained 8.29% since the beginning of this year.

The Jubilant Life Sciences share price closed above its 50-day and 200 day moving averages of 740 and 727 levels, respectively. The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) may withhold approval of any new applications or supplements till the company addresses all issues raised by the agency, Jubilant Life Sciences said.

The company did not provide any details about the issues raised by the USFDA in its warning letter.

"However, we believe that the existing manufacturing and sale of products from this facility will not be impacted. US revenues from the facility is about 4 per cent of the total revenues of the company," Jubilant Life Sciences said.

The company is committed to implementing the necessary corrective actions required to address USFDA concerns and is in the process of providing a thorough and comprehensive response to the USFDA within 15 working days, it added.

Earlier on December 8, 2018, the company had said in a regulatory filing that the US health regulator had classified its inspection of the company's Roorkee solid dosage formulations facility as Official Action Indicated.

The facility was inspected by USFDA in August 2018, it added. According to the US regulator, when FDA finds that a manufacturer has significantly violated FDA regulations, FDA notifies the manufacturer. This notification is often in the form of a warning letter.
Just a day after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spoke about its "privacy-focused vision" for WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, a cybersecurity firm Imperva detailed a bug in Facebook Messenger that allowed websites to gain access to users' data, including the person they were chatting with. The vulnerability in the web version of the Messenger allowed any website to expose who you have been messaging. Facebook said Thursday it had patched the bug in December.

In a blog post, Ron Masas, researcher with cyber security company Imperva, said that the bug was a threat to users' privacy and revealed the person you were in touch with. The bug, however, did not reveal the content of the messages.

"It could be sent to high-profile targets to figure out who they've had a conversation with," Masas said. "If you sent a message to a bot to order pizzas, I would know."

The hack was done by sending a link of the malicious site to the Messenger user. Once the user clicked anywhere on the page, a new window would open - potentially out of view of the user - and allow the hacker to spy whether the user had been or had not been in conversation with other users on Messenger.

Once the vulnerability was patched, a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement, "We've updated the web version of Messenger to ensure this browser behaviour isn't triggered on our service." The spokesperson also made several recommendations to the browser makers and web standard groups to take steps to prevent such issues in other web applications.

Earlier in a blog post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said that the future of communication is shifting towards private and encrypted services.

"As I think about the future of the internet, I believe a privacy-focused communications platform will become even more important than today's open platforms," Zuckerberg wrote. "I expect future versions of Messenger and WhatsApp to become the main ways people communicate on the Facebook network."

Edited By: Udit Verma

Also Read: Facebook wants to become a 'private' messaging platform like WhatsApp
Prime Minister Theresa May urged the European Union on Friday to make "just one more push" to break the deadlock over Brexit by offering her changes to a deal to help persuade Britain's deeply divided parliament to approve it.

With just three weeks left before Britain is due to leave the European Union, May has failed so far to get the changes to her divorce deal that she believes would win over lawmakers who handed the government a defeat of record proportions in January.

In a last-ditch appeal to the EU and to lawmakers at home, May spoke in the northern English port town of Grimsby to say it was time to end the uncertainty over Brexit and approve the deal on Tuesday.

Warning that lawmakers could risk putting Britain's departure into doubt or triggering many more months of arguments over Britain's biggest shift in foreign and trade policy for decades, May had a simple message: "Let's get it done."

"It needs just one more push to address the final, specific concerns of our parliament," May told her audience in Grimsby, where 70 percent voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.

"So let's not hold back. Let's do what is necessary for MPs (members of parliament) to back the deal on Tuesday," said May, who at the end was criticized by a woman journalist for allowing so few female reporters to ask questions on Women's Day. May replied: "You've had answers from a woman prime minister."

London and Brussels are at loggerheads over the so-called Northern Irish backstop, an insurance policy to prevent the return of border controls between Northern Ireland and Ireland - the only land frontier between the United Kingdom and the bloc.

Under pressure from some lawmakers in her own Conservative Party, May wants legally binding assurances from the EU that Britain will not be trapped permanently in the backstop, which would keep Britain in a customs union with the bloc.

Asked if she was responsible for the uncertainty that has forced many businesses to put off investment decisions, May again said there was only one way to ease their concerns - and that was to vote for her deal and move on.

Otherwise, she said Brexit might never happen and voters would be betrayed. Or, she added, Britain could leave without a deal to soften the shock, a nightmare scenario for many companies.

Those arguments largely restated her well-worn line. Eurosceptics say her agreement does not offer a clean break with the EU, while EU supporters want to maintain closer ties.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said the appeal was "more like a sign of desperation."

"These are very serious times. We don't need any more delays and dithering by the government," he told Sky News. "They've got to recognize her deal isn't going to work, it doesnt get support, and will not get through parliament."

It was the first time that May had turned directly to the EU, showing signs of frustration that talks to secure changes to the backstop this week had as yet produced no breakthrough.

That frustration was matched on the EU side. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the British, not the EU, had to compromise, and the decision to leave the bloc had been "a problem of their own creation."

EU diplomats, responding to excerpts of Mays speech released overnight, said she was preparing to blame the bloc for a fresh defeat of her plan.

"We are expecting a blame game after she loses the second 'meaningful vote' next week, so it looks like she is already preparing the ground for this," one of the diplomats said.

May desperately wants her plan to pass in parliament on Tuesday. If it is defeated, lawmakers will be able to vote on Wednesday and Thursday on whether they want to leave the bloc without a deal, or ask for a delay to Brexit - all but wresting control of Brexit from the government.

In a last-minute flurry of diplomatic activity, May was due to speak to EU leaders by telephone over the weekend and a European Commission spokesman said "intensive work" was going on between London and Brussels.

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, charged with negotiating the changes to the deal, or another member of the government, could travel to Brussels on Saturday or Sunday if the talks progress.

Foreign minister Jeremy Hunt held out some hope that a deal was "entirely possible" in time for the vote.

"We want to remain the best of friends with the EU; that means getting this agreement through in a way that doesn't inject poison into our relations for many years to come." (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Finalists from over 14 counties gathered in the RDS Concert Hall last night for the Small Firms Association National Small Business Awards 2019.

The awards celebrate the achievements of small business in Ireland and recognise the vital contribution of the sector to the Irish economy. The winners were selected from hundreds of applications received for the 2019 programme.

Blueacre Technology was named the winner of the Overall SFA National Small Business Awards 2019.

Blueacre Technology, founded in 2006 by Dr. David Gillen, is based in Dundalk, Co. Louth and employes 15 people. It provides specialist laser micromachining equipment to the medical device and other manufacturing industries. Processing thousands of high value parts daily from its 24/7 facility in Dundalk, Blueacre Technology offers highly sophisticated solutions to the most demanding engineering problems.



The award categories are sponsored by Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland, Bord Gais Energy, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Three, PermanentTSB and One4All. The Emerging New Business section is sponsored by IE Domain Registry. Skillnet Ireland is the SFA Awards management training partner and Irish Independent is the media partner.

The Awards prize package for ALL finalists included participation in the SFA Business Connect event in February, a strategic management masterclass weekend, as well as broad-ranging national and local media coverage, all valued at 50,000.

The category winners were presented with a trophy and free membership of the Small Firms Association for one year. The overall winner also received a bursary of 5,000 to present to a charity of their choice (funded by the 2013 Overall Winner, Megazyme International Ireland).



The seven category winners are:

* Manufacturing: Blueacre Technology (Louth)

* Food & Drink: The Foods of Athenry (Galway)

* Highly commended: Fenit Fruit & Veg (Kerry)

* Services: Ryan's Pharmacy (Kildare)

* Highly commended: Contracting PLUS (Dublin)

* Innovator of the Year: NVP Energy (Galway)

* Highly commended: OVVO (Louth)

* Exporter of the Year: Prodigy Learning (Dublin)

* Sustainable Energy: Monasterboice Inn (Louth)

* Outstanding Small Business (up to 5 employees): Horan Automation (Tipperary)

The following Emerging New Businesses (under 2 years) were recognised on the night.

* Get the Shifts (Clare)

* Gym+Coffee (Dublin)

* PeachyLean (Dublin)

* Zarrdia (Dublin)

* The UX Studio (Galway)



Announcing the winner, SFA Chair and Chair of the Awards Judging Panel, Sue ONeill said, "This is a fantastic example of real innovation in small business. Dr. David Gillen founder of Blueacre Technology adapted his experience in the semi-conductor industry to an opportunity he spotted in the medical technology sector in which Ireland is recognised as one of the five global emerging hubs. Its this innovation and ambition in small business that we need to harness and support to ensure Irelands future economic success."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
It was announced today that a future medical technology investment by Galway based Aerogen will be supported by a EUR 30 million loan agreed with the European Investment Bank highlighted at the first sector focused EIB-IBEC financing workshop.



The new loan to Aerogen is the first direct lending to a medtech company under the EIBs EUR 150 million Irish corporate financing initiative. The programme enables the European Investment Bank to provide direct loans to mid-cap companies across the country for the first time and streamline the appraisal of financing applications.



Aerogen specialises in more efficient drug delivery using aerosol technologies, that both reduces drug use and overall hospital emissions. The EIB loan will be used by Aerogen to back more than EUR 60 million of new investment. This will expand research and development of new medical technologies by the world-leading drug delivery company, as well as expand manufacturing facilities in Galway.

The new EIB financing will help to accelerate business development by Aerogen and further strengthen research and development by the company, including in specialist pharmaceutical fields. It is expected that 50 new jobs will be created in Galway following expansion of Aerogen research and manufacturing facilities backed by the new EIB loan.



European Investment Bank Vice President, Andrew McDowell said, "The new EUR 30 million European Investment Bank loan agreed with Aerogen is the first direct medtech financing under the EIBs streamlined corporate lending programme for Ireland. This investment will both help to improve medical treatment by patients using Aerogen technology and create new specialist jobs in Galway."

He added, "Following this agreement we look forward to working with Ibec and other Irish partners to ensure that other leading companies across Ireland can benefit from financing under the initiative and expect to announce new support for leading Irish medtech firms shortly.

Source: www.businessworld.ie


by Wang Zhicheng

At a press conference in the company headquarters in Shenzhen, the company charges the US of blocking fair competition and damaging American consumers. In 2010, the US National Security Agency violated Huawei's servers to verify the links between the company and the Chinese army. "Transparency" operation in Shenzhen and announcement in the Wall Street Journal.

Shenzhen (AsiaNews) - Huawei, the technology giant, has denounced the US government for a law that blocks the sales of its products in the country. Moreover, responding to US charges that the company spies for China, it replied that in the past the US government has spied on Huawei.

At a press conference held today at Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen, the rotating president, Guo Ping, said that "the US Congress has failed to produce any evidence to support restrictions on Huawei products." " This ban not only is unlawful, but also restricts Huawei from engaging in fair competition, ultimately harming US consumers ".

The technology giant wants to abolish Section 889 of the National Defense Act of 2019, which prohibits government agencies from purchasing Huawei and ZTE, another telecommunications company. The law was signed by President Donald Trump last August.

Guo Ping also accused the US government of hacking accused the US of previously hacking into its servers. While not making precise references, Guo Ping perhaps refers to articles by the Financial Times and the New York Times, according to which in 2010, the US National Security Agency hacked Huawei's servers to verify the links between the company and the Chinese army.

This morning's press conference is another of the tools in a campaign to oppose the US government that has restricted the use of Huawei products for reasons of national security. The United States also pushes its allies to do the same. Australia and New Zealand have blocked the use of Huawei products, while Great Britain and Germany have put the collaboration on stand-by, wanting to study the situation.

The us Governments' fears are based on the past of Huawei's founder, Ren Zhengfei, a former liberation army engineer, and in a law that forces China-based groups to give technical help to the country's intelligence services.

In addition to boycotting Huawei products, the US accuses the company of fraud and violating US sanctions against Iran. This is why Huawei's financial director Meng Wanzhou, Ren Zhengfei's daughter, was arrested in Canada and risks being extradited to the United States.

Ren said that his daughter's arrest is "politically motivated".

Meng has denounced the Canadian government for violating her fundamental human rights. On the other hand, China has arrested two Canadian personalities accusing them of espionage. Huawei is also carrying out a "transparency" campaign, inviting all journalists to visit its headquarters in Shenzhen. It even bought a full page add in the Wall Street Journal to address the Americans, telling them not to "believe everything you hear.
Commissioner of Police Colin John urged his officers to recognise and accept that communication is an effective tool in the discharge of their duties.

This countrys constabulary is improving its interaction with the public, and they will, among other means, sharpen their skills in this regard through a programme dubbed Protect and serve.



The programme, described as not a stereotypical production, makes use of technological trend with cooperation from STV online, and will be presented Thursdays from 8:30 pm for an hour.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Junior Simmons, Head of the Police Complaints and Public Relations Unit, announced the commencement of the programme when he addressed the launch of a Communications Workshop for Police Officers last Tuesday.

The ASP noted the daily interaction between the police and the public, and highlighted the importance of communicating the right message.

"We are upping our game, Simmons declared.

His boss, Commissioner of Police Colin John, stressed the role of communication as a "vital tool in the execution of police duties. He pointed to the sensitive nature of some information, and reminded officers about such matters.

John noted that Police officers could be called upon at any time, and advised that, "We have to be able to respond in an effective manner, even as he cautioned that divulging too much information could be detrimental.

John pointed to communication with respect to verbal and non-verbal means, the latter referencing deportment and "the way one carries oneself.

Body language carries a big statement as far as John was aware, and interacting with people comes at both formal and non-formal ways.

The Neighbourhood Watch programmes have Johns endorsement. He sees them as effective tools in the crime fighting armoury, and echoed support for their proliferation.

The CoP acknowledges the medias role, and asserted that they can "make or break you. He pointed to the need for balance by police officers when conveying information to the media. Matters of national security must be heeded, to the extent of relaying information, John disclosed. Officers must know what, when and how to relate matters to the media.

The Commissioner also covered the issue of prejudices and stereo- types and declared that "not everyone with dreadlocks is a criminal.

Every citizen must be dealt with on merit and that homosexuals and gays must be given the full protection of the Police, John told his subordinates.

"We are moving away from the stereo type. We have to treat everyone with respect, he asserted and acknowledged that "though we may not promote (homosexuality), we have to be tolerant of their opinion and lifestyles.

John took issue with Police officers who make uncomplimentary remarks about other officers on social media.

The Workshop addressed topics as per: Community/Customer Relations, Neighbourhood Watch programmes, Relationship with the Media, Prejudices and Stereotypes, Image of the Police, and Social Media: friend to foe.

It was held at the Fisheries Conference Room every Tuesday and Wednesday, and facilitated by Corleta Ollivierre and Inspector Hawkins Nanton. It was themed: New perspectives towards greater relations, reinforcing effective communications as a force of change.

For Simmons, one negative incident bears the possibility of erasing the confidence of the public in the Police. He was happy with the new online programme and that the Police has carved its own niche on social media.Seventy officers participated in the workshop.
AVIS AUX FEMMES CAMEROUNAISES: LES MANIFESTATIONS DU 8 MARS SONT CONSACREES A VOS DROITS :: CAMEROON

Le 8 mars c'est la Journee internationale des droits des femmes.Cette journee est issue de l'histoire des luttes feministes menees sur les continents europeen et americain. Le 28 fevrier 1909, une Journee nationale de la femme (National Woman's Day) est celebree aux Etats-Unis a l'appel du Parti socialiste d'Amerique. A la suite d'une proposition de Clara Zetkin en aout 1910, l'Internationale socialiste des femmes celebre le 19 mars 1911 la premiere Journee internationale des femmes et revendique le droit de vote des femmes, le droit au travail et la fin des discriminations au travail. Des rassemblements et manifestations ont des lors lieu tous les ans.Mais faut-il confondre l'objectif de ces rassemblements et manifestations a l'exercice d'une fete de rejouissances populaires?

En effet, lorsqu''en 1977 les Nations unies officialisent la journee internationale de la femme, invitant tous les pays de la planete a celebrer une journee pour les droits des femmes, l'idee n'est pas de demander aux femmes de s'abetir dans un breuvage ehonte et des scenes ehontees comme c'est le cas au Cameroun. Dans sa dynamique jouissive a tout crin, ce pays confond souvent des moments comme celui-ci qui suppose des declarations, le bilan des avancees des droits des femmes, des demandes de progression legitime de leurs droits a des festivites marquant leur attachement a la premiere dame et a des sorties pour le moins bizarroides dans les bars de la place ou est mis en relief leur feminite , leur sexualite, on parlerait de virilite s'il s'agissait des hommes.

Le Cameroun est le seul pays au monde qui a fait de ce moment une parenthese sur la reflexion relative aux droits des femmes. Sous l'impulsion. d'un regime et d'une elite qui aiment la jouissance, ces pauvres femmes en sont a se torturer les meninges pour acheter le pagne, appartenir a une bande qui ira de bistrots en bistrots le 8 mars abandonnant enfants et epoux et posant pour certaines des actes incontrolees et ignobles qui conduisent malheureusement dans bien de cas au divorce.

La Journee internationale pour les droits des femmes fait partie des 87 journees internationales reconnues ou initiees par l'ONU. Cest une journee de manifestations a travers le monde .Mais loccasion de revendiquer l'egalite et de faire un bilan sur la situation des femmes dans la societe ne signifie pas desacraliser les valeurs qui doivent accompagner les droits. Dans tous les pays du monde, les camerounaises arborent le pagne consacre a l'evenement comme leurs surs vivant au pays mais tres peu d'entre-elles abordent la question de leurs droits. La fete a lieu dans les maquis , les bistrots et les restaurants. Autant dire que ce jour est devenu pour chacune comme le jour de son propre anniversaire.

. Chers camerounaises,soyez des femmes militantes et preparer des manifestations partout dans le monde, pour faire aboutir vos revendications, ameliorer la condition feminine au Cameroun. Ne devoyez pas le sens de cette fete que je vous souhaite plutot reflechie et belle par ce truchement.

Jean-Claude NDJAMEN.

Journaliste/Ecrivain.

Version anglaise



NOTICE TO CAMEROON WOMEN

The demonstrations of 8 March are devoted to your rights and not to immorality!

March 8th is International Women's Rights Day. This day comes from the history of feminist struggles on the European and American continents. On February 28, 1909, a National Woman's Day was celebrated in the United States at the call of the Socialist Party of America. Following a proposal by Clara Zetkin in August 1910, the Socialist International of Women celebrated the first International Women's Day on 19 March 1911 and claimed the right to vote for women, the right to work and the end of discrimination job. Gatherings and demonstrations take place every year. But should the purpose of these gatherings and demonstrations be confused with the exercise of a feast of popular rejoicings?

Indeed, when in 1977 the United Nations formalized International Women's Day, inviting all the countries of the world to celebrate a day for women's rights, the idea is not to ask women to ' Abject in shameless brew and shameless scenes as is the case in Cameroon. The country is often confused with moments such as this, which presupposes declarations, the record of advances in women's rights, demands for legitimate progression of their rights to festivities, marking their attachment to the first lady And at least bizarre outings in the bars of the place where their femininity, their sexuality is highlighted, we would talk about manhood if it were men.

Cameroon is the only country in the world that has made this moment a parenthesis on the reflection on the rights of women. Under the impulse. A regime and an elite who love enjoyment, these poor women are torturing their brains to buy the loincloth, belonging to a band that will go from bistrots to bistros on March 8, abandoning children and spouses and posing for some Uncontrolled and ignoble acts which unfortunately lead in many cases to divorce.

International Day for Women's Rights is one of 87 international days recognized or initiated by the United Nations. It is a day of protests throughout the world. But the opportunity to claim equality and to take stock of the situation of women in society does not mean desacralizing the values that must accompany rights. In all the countries of the world, Cameroonians wear the loincloth dedicated to the event like their sisters living in the country but very few of them address the issue of their rights. The festival takes place in the maquis, the bistros and the restaurants. Suffice to say that this day has become for each as the day of his own birthday.

. Dear Cameroonian women, be militant women and prepare demonstrations all over the world, to make your demands come true, to improve the status of women in Cameroon. Do not deviate from the meaning of this festival that I wish you rather thoughtful and beautiful by this interpreter.

Jean-Claude NDJAMEN.

Journalist / Writer.
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There was a lovely moment at the 2019 Citizen of the Year award announcement at the University of Canberra on Friday when Virginia Haussegger was confronted by, well, Virginia Haussegger. The announcement that the Canberra Capitals and their supporters had been named Citizen of the Year was done in front of a huge image of Haussegger, the director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis at the University of Canberra, the team's major sponsor. It made sense, given Haussegger's ongoing campaign for equality for women, her inspiring quotes on the poster, and the award's acknowledgement of a team of truly excellent women. The 2019 Australian of the Year for the ACT, Haussegger arrived at the event simply to show her support, in a Wonder Woman t-shirt and a purple International Women's Day ribbon pinned to it. She had no idea the poster was even there and took a moment to recognise herself. "I thought, 'That woman has the same glasses as me'," she said, with a laugh. UC is placing six of the mega-images around the campus, including of students, to tell their story about why they are at the university. Haussegger had attended eight International Women's Day events during the week, spoken on panels and given speeches, despite still receiving treatment after undergoing surgery last year for bowel cancer. We all want to know how she is going. "I'm doing very well and I've got to say I feel so, so grateful for the incredible support I've received from the community since my diagnosis was made public," she said. "I've been really touched by how people responded, in a way I could never have imagined. "I can't even find the words to explain how strengthening that support was, particularly when I was in a lot of trouble and very unwell and going through chemotherapy. I had a bad reaction to my first round of chemotherapy and spent a bit of time in emergency. "And every now and then I get messages from people, many of whom I don't know, and the strength that gave me is almost indescribable. It was extraordinary. I'm not someone who prays but people would write to me or send me messages on social media and say, 'I'm praying for you' and I could feel it. I could feel it. I think it's really carried me. "It's a journey...I will get my next test mid-year and we'll see how we go." The much-loved former ABC-TV newsreader said being around so many inspirational women this week leading to International Women's Day had lifted her. "I have been so buoyed by the young women that I'm hearing talk, talk about what they're doing and why and how they're doing it," she said. "I've actually driven away from every event feeling really uplifted and that everything's okay." Virginia, you are a wonder woman.

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An International Women's Day event held by construction giant Geocon is an insult to every woman in Canberra, ACT Labor backbencher Bec Cody says. The free event, which was held on Thursday night, had been touted as a panel of well-known women sharing their property investment expertise. Its hosts also offered attendees some "great incentives" and investment opportunities. Geocon's record of sexism and objectifying women was "bloody awful", Ms Cody said. Its managing director, Nick Georgalis, apologised in 2016 after lingerie waitresses were hired to serve drinks to employees at a work party. ACT Minister for Women Yvette Berry blasted the company in June last year for its "sexualised" marketing campaigns. A promotional video for its new Braddon building, Tryst, featured images of women who looked "semi-unconscious", UnionsACT said. Geocons treatment of women remain an embarrassment to the people of Canberra," Ms Cody said. [Its] approach to advertising devalues women by placing their bodies at the centre of the value proposition, rather than valuing brains, personalities and contribution to the community." The member for Murrumbidgee threw her support behind a protest, organised by UnionsACT, which was held outside the Tryst building on Thursday afternoon. About 60 people - mostly women but some men - attended. "It's International Women's Day. We should be celebrating the fact that women work hard, women do things to make themselves be better people, women stand up for the rights of themselves, their families and everyone around them," Ms Cody said at the protest. "Geocon quash that every time they put a sexist advert up and every time they stand there and sexualise their building sites. Shame on them." Geocon had alerted police to the protest over concerns that people would diverge on a company sales centre nearby, a spokesperson said. Women working in construction, teaching, nursing, administration, and the public service were among the protest's attendees. "I do think it's quite concerning that Geocon are wasting police resources on a peaceful, political International Women's Day protest calling out their sexism," women's committee convener Emma Turner said. No police were seen to have attended the protest. Nina, who lives in O'Connor, saw the images on Geocon's Tryst building site when she was in Reid for the National Multicultural Festival. "I thought they were disgusting. Then I thought maybe I was just being a rabid person thinking that they were awful. I saw [UnionsACT's] Facebook site and it showed that other people didn't like them too," she said. "I thought, 'Good, I'm not alone in this'. This protest has given me a way to say, 'I support you and this isn't right." The UnionsACT group wanted the sexual imagery used on Geocon's Tryst building site taken down and similar images removed from any other marketing material, UnionsACT president Lyndal Ryan said. "It might only be a small protest but it should send a message to the people at Geocon who are either completely sexist or don't understand the offence that they are causing," she said. Geocon is being challenged in the Fair Work Commission by the construction, forestry, maritime, mining and energy union in relation to its enterprise agreement application, a spokesperson said. The protest was just another example of unions trying to pressure Geocon into doing things their way and had nothing to do with International Women's Day. "The notion that holding an event to empower women and women standing against it is insane. There are ulterior motives here," the spokesperson said. "Geocon welcomes discussions on community issues and recognises that varied views will be expressed concerning its marketing initiatives." Geocon's marketing campaigns complied with advertising standards, the spokesperson said.

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By Trend

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov received the newly appointed Ambassador of India Bawitlung Vanlalvawna, Trend reports referring to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.

At the meeting, the sides highly appreciated the current level of bilateral relations between the two countries and at the same time underlined the great potential for further development of cooperation. Briefing on the infrastructure projects realized and implemented by Azerbaijan, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov invited Indian companies to benefit from these projects.

Furthermore, the sides expressed confidence that direct air connection between Azerbaijan and India would give impetus to the further enhancement of people-to-people contacts and in this regard noted the necessity of holding mutual tourism fairs.

At the meeting the sides discussed the cooperation issues with the UN as well as the Non-Aligned Movement and other issues of mutual interest.

Ambassador Bawitlung Vanlalvawna presented the copy of his credentials to Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

Minister Elmar Mammadyarov wished the newly appointed Indian Ambassador every success in his diplomatic activities.
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The blood and the bullet holes need no explanation. When bikie gangs go into battle over disputed territory like Canberra then anyone in the immediate vicinity, whether sharing the same restaurant or mowing the lawn next door, faces the very real risk of becoming collateral damage. The ACT has seen the outcome of this time and again over the past 18 months, from the nightmarish street gunfire and car torchings in suburban Kambah to chair-throwing and vicious punch-ons in a quiet Southern Cross Club restaurant. ACT police acknowledge that four bikie gangs are set up in Canberra  the Comancheros, Rebels, Nomads and the Satudarah. A fifth gang, the Finks, now have reportedly left town but for how long is anyones guess; in this high-stakes game, territory is never easily surrendered. Police, through their gang-targeting team Taskforce Nemesis, together with ACT Attorney General Gordon Ramsay, advise that there are about 60 fully patched bikies in the territory. They offer up this information as if to assuage community concerns. What they wont say however, is that gangs such these have an iceberg-like composition; whats readily visible isnt the full picture. When the head of ACTs crime investigations, Detective Superintendent Scott Moller, is asked how many part-patched, hangers-on and associate members orbit around those same 60 patched members, he clearly knows the number but with a grim smile, wont disclose it. Thats because its a lot. Those who know the scene estimate that around the fully patched members circulate as many as two or three times that number in associates. Canberra gained its newest gang just months ago in the form of the Satudarah, the first of the European outlaw motorcycle gangs here and carries such a violent reputation that it has been banned in Germany. Another ban within its native Holland is currently being appealed. These gangs, all with international connections, come here because Canberra is awash with money. We're a wealthy city. Money buys drugs, and drugs are the bikie gangs key product. Its as simple as that, Superintendent Moller says. Across in Europe, four years ago a brave Dutch filmmaker named Joost van der Valk made a phone call to a leader of a notorious gang called the Crips. Van der Valk knew the Crips gang boss well because hed helped the film-maker gain inside access to the gang for the 2009 critically acclaimed documentary, Strapped n Strong. Van der Valk is an unusual kind of film-maker. Hes an anthropologist, speaks five languages, and skillfully films, directs, and produces material across a range of subject matter for such diverse outlets as the BBC, Al Jazeera, and most recently, Netflix. The Crips boss made a call to his contact, personally vouched for Van der Valk, and together with his partner Mags Gavan then began a two-year project resulting in a compelling, self-shot feature length doco called Satudarah  One Blood. The milieu in which the Satudarah and other outlaw motorcycle gangs operate is familiar the world over: a close-knit hierarchy of male gang members, patched or part-patched, predominantly from dysfunctional, violent and/or broken homes, finding their identity in a group which uses fear and intimidation as important levers to conduct illegal business activity, mostly drug distribution. Where the Satudarah diverge from the conventional however, is the gang was founded around a specific cultural grievance. In Indonesia's struggle for independence between 1945-49, professional Moluccan soldiers (from the Maluku islands, now part of Indonesia) were recruited by the Dutch to fight in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL), to maintain order and disarm the rebels. In return the Moluccans were promised their own free state. The promise was not kept and when Indonesia eventually achieved its independence, the Moluccans were seen as collaborators and had to go to The Netherlands. This minority ethnic population was put into camps during the 1950s, became highly politicized as a result, and have railed against ongoing discrimination and disadvantage, and against the dishonoured promise of the Dutch government. The founders of the Satudarah are mostly grandsons of KNIL members. They understand the benefits of organisation and ruthless discipline within the ranks. From modest beginnings in 1990 in Holland, the gang has grown to 40 chapters worldwide including in Norway, Spain, Indonesia, Thailand, Belgium, France and Australia. Van der Valks documentary also reveals how family dysfunction and economic disadvantage provides so much source of raw material for bikie gangs. These guys are not just like that for nothing, he said. Their issues are grounded in the past with their relationships with their father, or the absence of a relationship with their father, van der Valk said. Of the three main characters [in the documentary], one of them didnt have a father, another had a father who hit him and almost tortured him, and then [the third one] had an incredibly troublesome relationship with his father. Van der Valk walked a cautious line with this documentary. In his film he wanted to show the world of rituals and brotherhood on the one hand, but also the darker side of bikie club life, which mostly happened off-camera, on the other. To ensure the audience understand the nature of some gang members business, he used excerpts from radio and TV news broadcasts, together with court footage in which the members appear on charges such as the seizure of automatic weapons and serious wounding. What he observed over two years of sporadic filming at gang gatherings and inside clubhouses, mostly with his hand-held camera, was a well-organised club overlaid, in the case of the Satudarah, with a cultural connection which attracts the disaffected. It is also a very profitable club. Like any successful CEO, the leader of the chapter arrives at the party in a late-model S-Class Mercedes-Benz. Superintendent Moller, of ACT police, says the bikie gang business model is the same the world over. The bigger the gang, the bigger the problem. The gangs with international connections are positioned to profit most handsomely, as demonstrated recently by the seizure of $1.29 billion in drugs including methylamphetamine, cocaine and heroin, concealed within audio speakers bound for Australia. The Australian Federal Polices head of organised crime, Commander Bruce Hill, openly admitted that a deal had been done between the Mexican cartel which produced and packaged the drugs, and an un-named bikie gang. Outlaw motorcycle gangs are involved, one hundred per cent, Commander Hill said. We continue to play top dollar for our drugs and this is an absolute drawcard for organised crime. Superintendent Moller said that the image of the average Anglo-Saxon male with a big beard riding a Harley was no longer applicable to outlaw motorcycle gangs. He painted a picture of a sophisticated criminal network which uses its gang branding as a way of establishing its business credentials with other organised crime syndicates, like the Mexican cartel behind the AFP's recent billion-dollar ice bust. "In organised crime circles, that OMCG patch is like a trusted brand," he said. "A gang like the Satudarah has a network established across Australia, into Thailand, into Europe, and they know they can use that network to get the product they want at a reasonable price." While the patches, rockers and leathers are part of the show, the business model was more like a sophisticated franchise inculcated through fear, intimidation and violence. I lot of them don't ride bikes. We look upon outlaw motorcycle gangs as organised crime syndicates, because thats what they are, he said. They establish a franchise, that might be a Comancheros franchise, a Rebels franchise or a Satudarah franchise, and from that gain a network of other franchises they can tap into, to gain access to illicit substances and goods. Within that network they have their own rules that they strictly adhere to, and that gives them the protection from the police that they need. They use violence and intimidation and they use that very well; and thats why their business model succeeds above the others because they have that violence and intimidation. Its a complete business model. He said that young men in Canberra actively recruited by these groups were being completely used by the senior members of the groups to commit violence and significant crime and the young guys are getting locked up for it and the old guys just move on to the next young recruit thats coming through, and feed off them. A key part of the outlaw motorcycle gang business model, he said, was racketeering. He acknowledged that the current turf wars experienced in Canberra had their basis around the desire for each of the rival clubs to expand their drug distribution network, and to exert control over that network through racketeering. Its all about dominance and control, securing a piece of the market, if you like, he said. They [the gangs] are actually getting two bites of the cherry. They sell the drugs to the drug dealer, and they also get a kickback for allowing those dealers to sell drugs in their area, so its a lucrative business. He admitted that police cannot arrest their way out of this issue. There are at least 23 outlaw motorcycle gang members currently serving time for various offences in Canberras jail, including two presidents of the local new Satudarah chapter who were locked up in quick succession. So shattering this glorified bikie imagery is a key part of the prevention message. "We want our kids growing up to choose another life," he said. "We want them to be able to say: 'Hey that's not the life I want'."

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Australia is locked in to a diesel-electric submarine capability after signing a $50 billion "framework agreement" with French shipbuilding company DCNS to build 12 Shortfin Barracuda subs in Australia. It is said to be the largest, most complex defence-acquisition project in our history. Neither major political party questioned the need for the future submarine project; they feared voters would see them as soft on national security. Our first new "attack-class" sub is due to enter service about 2035. The construction of the rest of the fleet will probably extend to 2050. The subs should remain in service until the 2070s. The Shortfin Barracuda will displace 4500 tonnes (surfaced), measure 97 metres long, have an 8.8-metre beam, use pump-jet propulsion, have a range of 18,000 nautical miles, a top speed greater than 20 knots, an endurance of 80 days and a crew of 60. The Collins class, which it is replacing, was the first diesel-electric submarine specifically designed for Australian conditions  notably long transit distances and diverse sea states. The Collins was an original design with inherent noise problems. There was no evolved design concept to replace it. The preferred options to replace the Collins class were to rework it or buy an existing submarine design and modify it for Australian conditions. The government opted for the latter, and chose a conventionally powered variant of the French Barracuda-class nuclear-powered sub. Some commentators asked: "Given our requirements, why not just go for a couple of nuclear-powered submarines?" Six nations use nuclear-powered submarines: France, the United States, Britain, Russia, China and India. Our close allies France, the US and Britain now only use nuclear-powered subs, while Russia, China and India have mixed fleets. (Nuclear-powered subs are used for long-range, blue-water deployments; conventional vessels are deployed mainly in coastal waters.) The Australian government ruled out nuclear propulsion because of: our lack of an indigenous nuclear industry; concerns about maintenance dependence and sovereignty issues if we bought or leased a nuclear-powered sub; and likely public opposition to nuclear technology. So the Royal Australian Navy was not given the option of considering nuclear power. It would, however, have been cheaper and more practical, because we could have bought a proven nuclear-powered vessel (such as the US Virginia class), without the need to modify it, for about $4 billion each. (Virginia-class subs are designed for a broad range of open-ocean and shallow, coastal-water missions.) Because the government delayed its decision and did not choose an "off-the-shelf" option, Australia's Collins-class subs will require a "life of type" 10-year extension so they last until the mid-2030s. The Defence Department and the military can argue, with reasonable justification, that we don't know what the strategic environment will be like in the lifetime of major weapons platforms (to the 2070s, in the case of our future subs) and we can't afford to be caught short. Submarines were certainly devastating weapons in past conflicts. German U-boats in both World Wars were very effective in enforcing blockades against enemy shipping. During the Falklands war in 1982, the sinking of Argentine cruiser Belgrano by British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror effectively kept the Argentine navy out of the conflict. We could be caught short, though, as new technologies become available that make long lead-time platforms more vulnerable  even redundant. Large warships in particular will be at risk in future decades, which is an argument for smaller, more capable, stealthy surface vessels or submersibles (not new destroyers). But you can't convince navies that bigger isn't better. One important underwater development is unmanned underwater vehicles (or UUVs). They can be divided into two categories: those controlled by a remote human, and autonomous vehicles that operate independently of human input. The current technical challenges facing these drone subs include endurance (due to limits on power sources) and command-and-control at extended ranges. Once these challenges are overcome, military UUVs (like drone aircraft) will provide significant advantages over manned systems. In the interim, some hybrid systems will enter service. Russia is reportedly developing a submarine-mounted variant of its Poseidon drone sub that will be able carry a nuclear warhead; it could be deployed in the late 2020s. The intent would be to explode the warhead underwater near a coastal city, creating a tsunami to destroy the city. Two Poseidon-carrying submarines are expected to enter service with Russia's Pacific fleet. Each submarine would carry up to eight drone subs. Their primary aim would be to deter a US attack, but their deployment in the Pacific will concern allies with major coastal cities, such as Sydney. China's "912 project" aims to develop a new autonomous drone-sub capability to mark the Chinese Communist Party's centenary in 2021. The project is said to be a countermeasure to the US Navy's development of long-range, extra-large drone subs. China's first-generation drone subs will reportedly be able to lay mines and conduct surveillance. In the future, drone subs could have a variety of purposes: launch attacks  while on the move or from long-term "sleeper" positions  against land targets, enemy submarines and surface ships; lay mines; place seabed sensors; surveillance and reconnaissance; gather intelligence; and so on. They will be much cheaper to build and operate than manned submarines, and without the crewing challenges. Collins-class submarines now have 58 crew members, but we have never been able to raise more than four crews for our six submarines. (The US Navy has duplicate crews for its operational vessels so that it can deploy them for protracted periods.) Past measures to try to improve our navy's crewing included: increasing each sub's complement to spread the workload; having mixed crews; reducing the length of patrols; increasing shore leave; paying bonuses to submariners; and providing internet access on-board. Some of these measures reduced the submarines' effectiveness. There is little point in having next-generation submarines that can stay at sea for 80 days if sailors aren't prepared to be away from home that long  or can't exist without regular internet or smartphone access. Assuming these crewing problems continue, it's likely our new subs will spend most of their time in port. And if our subs become more vulnerable to enemy action in future, as seems inevitable, that will presumably make it even harder to recruit submariners. For all of these reasons, it was extravagant and foolhardy to commit ourselves to a $50 billion program for 12 modified diesel-electric submarines over a 30-year time frame. But the program will create Australian jobs and, of course, a federal election is on the horizon. Clive Williams is a visiting professor at the ANU's centre for military and security law, and an adjunct professor at ADFA. clive.williams@anu.edu.au

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Abu Dhabi-based Turbine Services & Solutions (TS&S) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Honeywell for collaboration on maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of Honeywell Auxiliary Power Units (APUs), T-55 Turboshaft Engine Localization and other engine platforms.



TS&S is a leading MRO provider for aero engines and industrial gas turbines that is wholly owned by Mubadala Investment Company.



The MoU was signed by Mansoor Janahi, chief executive officer of TS&S and Norm Gilsdorf, president, High Growth Regions, Middle East, Russia and Customs Union at Honeywell, in the presence of Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi, chief executive officer, Aerospace, Renewables & ICT, Mubadala; Darius Adamczyk, chief executive officer, Honeywell; Badr Al Olama, chairman, TS&S; Tim Mahoney, president and chief executive officer Aerospace, Honeywell.



Designed to capitalise on the growing demand for APUs and engines, the MoU focuses on:

The family of APUs which power the commercial, single-aisle Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft.



Honeywell T-55 Turboshaft Engine Localization

The family of military turboshaft engines which power the Boeing CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters, for which Honeywell is the sole provider of engines globally.



Janahi said: This is a very important undertaking by TS&S commercially and operationally. In collaboration with Honeywell, we will widen the spectrum of our service offering; effectively expanding our customer base to new industry segments.



Through our collaboration with Honeywell we aim to localize the MRO capability for these APUs and engines to support the regional market and beyond. Through our partnership with globally leading OEMs we are well positioned to deliver differentiated solutions locally and regionally, he added.



Gilsdorf said: We are committed to providing our customers with the highest level of support.



We are proud to partner with industry leading companies such as TS&S to localise MRO capability in Abu Dhabi to better serve this region, he added.



Established more than three decades ago in Abu Dhabi, TS&S  with its 370 strong international workforce composed of over 30 nationalities - provides high quality service with the latest customized technical support in partnership with major OEMs and global airlines from its state-of-the-art facilities at Abu Dhabi International Airport.  TradeArabia News Service
Large crowds gathered at Londons Heathrow airport on February 18 to welcome the British Airways Boeing 747 painted in the iconic design of its predecessor, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC).



Fresh from the paint bay at Dublin Airport, the BOAC Boeing 747 flew directly to Heathrow on February 18. It re-entered the flying schedule the very next day when it departed for New York JFK.



The aircraft entered the IAC paint bay at Dublin Airport on February 5 where it was stripped of its current British Airways Chatham Dockyard design before being repainted with the BOAC livery which adorned the BOAC fleet between 1964 and 1974.



Alex Cruz, British Airways chairman and CEO, said: The enormous interest weve had in this project demonstrates the attachment many people have to British Airways history. Its something we are incredibly proud of, so in our centenary year, its a pleasure to be celebrating our past while also looking to the future. We look forward to many more exciting moments like this as our other aircraft with heritage designs enter service.



The newly painted aircraft will continue to fly British Airways 747-operated routes, proudly showcasing the design as part of the airlines centenary celebrations.



The BOAC livery will remain on the Boeing 747 until it retires in 2023, to allow as many customers as possible to have the chance to see it. By this time, British Airways will have retired the majority of its 747 fleet, replacing them with new state-of-the-art long-haul aircraft. This includes taking delivery of 18 A350s and 12 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in the next four years  which feature new cabins and are more environmentally efficient  as well as another 26 short-haul aircraft, all part of the airlines 6.5 billion ($8.5 billion) investment for customers. - TradeArabia News Service
Women play a significant role in the society specifically in the underdeveloped or developing countries because of the superstitious barrier. Growing up as a woman in the male-dominated society is often considered as a gruelling task. The modern women are not only standing up against the odds but also challenging the adversity.

When the world is moving forward, women are now leading with a progressive society. Many women across the world including India made it clear that success is not confined to gender. Here we have listed some of the Indian women who have not only stand out in their industry but also courageous in life.

On this International Women's Day, which is celebrated across the world to display the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, tour some of the most influential and inspiring women in India.

Top 10 Women's Day Inspirational Quotes For Students

10. Indra Nooyi

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is an Indian-American businesswoman and popular for serving as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of PepsiCo. Currently, she is a board member of Amazon.

9. Kiran Bedi

Kiran Bedi is not only famous for getting selected as the first women to join the Indian Police Service (IPS) but also bringing various reforms to safeguard women. She is an inspirational icon to many Civil Service aspirants.

8. Dr Tessy Thomas

How many of us know that not only Missile Man (Abdul Kalam) we have Missile Women of India. Tessy Thomas is the first women scientist to lead the missile project in India. She is also called as Agni Putri for her contributions to Agni-IV.

7. Laxmi Agarwal

Never give up is more appropriate for Laxmi Agarwal. She was acid attacked at the age of 15 in 2005. Laxmi played a crucial role in changing the reforms in the sale of acid in the country. She was awarded the International Women of Courage in 2014.

6. Neerja Bhanot

The 22-year-old Neerja is a flight attendant and received Ashoka Chakra from India and Tamgha-e-Pakistan from Pakistan for saving hundreds of passengers on Pan Am Flight 73, which was hijacked in Karachi in 1986. She was shot dead while helping passengers to escape through an emergency exit.

5. Arunima Sinha

Most of us know how difficult it is to scale Mount Everest. Surprisingly, Arunima scaled the Mount Everest, Mount Vinson and many other with a prosthetic leg. She created history by becoming the first female amputee climb to climb Mount Everest.

4. Saalumarada Thimmakka

An environmentalist, Saalumarada Thimmakka is a perfect example that age and education are nowhere connected to be good and to do good. She is known for planting over 300 banyan trees along the highway between Hulikal and Kudur in Karnataka. Thimmakka achieved a place in the BBC's 100 most influential women at the age of 105.

3. Irom Sharmila

Irom Chanu Sharmila popularly known as the Iron Lady or Mengoubi is a civil rights activist. She is on a hunger strike for 16 years protesting against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which grants special powers to the Indian Armed Forces in disturbed areas. She went on a hunger strike because of the power misuse by the army.

2. Shakuntala Devi

Shakuntala Devi also called as ''Human Computer'' because of her skill in large mental calculations. She entered into the Guinness Book of World Records in 1982 for demonstrating the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers which was answered correctly in 28 seconds.

1. Gauri Devi

Gauri Devi stands on top when it comes to inspiring women in India because of her contribution during the Chipko Movement or Chipko Andolan in Reni village in the 1970s. Devi along with fellow women staged a protest against cutting down of trees. Gauri with local women protested by hugging the trees for an over three days against loggers. Later, the government has declared the Reni forest as ecologically sensitive.

20 Interesting Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Mahatma Gandhi
Aim Group International, a leading company specialised in congresses, events and communication, today opened a new office in Dubai.



With this new office in the UAE, Aim Group strengthens its international network to include 17 offices. The offices opening in Dubai is linked to the partnership agreement signed with Challenge Network, a company specialised in corporate training and management consulting, with headquarters in Rome and active in Dubai for more than three years.



"In Dubai, we set up the collaboration with Challenge network, managing to get the best of both worlds by pooling our experiences and skills which are complementary in many aspects," said Gianluca Buongiorno, president Aim Group International.



"Through this excellent collaboration, we can offer corporate and association clients complete solutions ranging from business consulting to events organisation, from communication to training."



The Dubai office, affiliate partner of AIM Group International, is managed by Mariano Genzone, regional manager of Middle East & Africa, who has been operating in Dubai for more than eight years, firstly in destination management and then in corporate consulting and training. The Dubai team will support clients with innovative and effective solutions for their growth through training projects and the organisation of meetings and events; moreover, given the attractiveness of the destination, it will also be active as a Destination Management Company.



"Dubai is one of the emerging destinations in the international meetings market. The government is investing heavily to further develop this industry over the coming years," noted Marco Quagliarella, director - International Operations of Aim Group International. "Because of these characteristics, we identified it as a considerable opportunity for growth and internationalisation. Expo Dubai 2020, a huge event dedicated to development and innovation, was another key influencer in deciding to undertake this collaboration and will undoubtedly positively impact our growth prospects."



Roberto Santori, president of the Challenge Network, explained: "We decided to export our skills to Dubai several years ago because we considered it as a strategic economic hub and a bridge to the East. It is imperative for all companies that are striving to be global. Challenge Network in Dubai applies the training expertise established for decades with large customers and partners in Italy. The collaboration with Aim Group International consolidates the value creation for clients and allows them to experience a unique 360-degree customer journey." - TradeArabia News Service
Jordan's Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) was recently recognised by the Airports Council International (ACI) 2018 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards, claiming the title of Best Airport by Size and Region: Middle East for airports that serve five to 15 million passengers.



The official ASQ Awards Ceremony is scheduled to take place between September 2 and 5 in Bali, Indonesia - as part of the second ASQ Forum and ACI Customer Experience Global Summit. The announcement was made during a media roundtable organized by Airport International Group and attended by a host of local media representatives.



Winning this prestigious accolade is a true reflection of our commitment to continuously enhancing the quality of services extended at QAIA and providing our passengers with a positive travel experience, whether it be through improved facilities, expedited procedures or passenger offerings. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our partners, stakeholders and employees for their unwavering support, as we continue to reach greater heights of success in the future and further reaffirm QAIAs stance as the Kingdoms prime gateway to the world, stated Airport International Group CEO, Kjeld Binger.



Released on March 6, the ASQ Survey results were collected by measuring passenger views on 34 key performance indicators at participating airports, including aspects such as check-in, security, wayfinding, food and beverage, among others. Since its creation in 2006, the ASQ Survey has become the worlds leading airport passenger satisfaction benchmark, covering over 390 airports across 90 countries and available in 48 languages. - TradeArabia News Service
What We Do
Loma Negra reports rise in net revenue

08 March 2019

Argentinas Loma Negra has reported a 7.9 per cent YoY increase in net revenue to ARS26,807m (US$789m) in 2018, compared with ARS24,839m of the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA climbed 14.5 per cent to ARS7121m, while the EBITDA margin rose from 25 per cent to 26.6 per cent.



"During 2018 cement demand in Argentina turned much weaker in the second half of the year resulting in a 2.6 per cent year-on-year decline for the year as a whole. Looking into 2019, we expect the negative cycle that started in the second quarter of 2018 to turnaround by mid-year following expectations of overall economic recovery in the country. We remain focused on balancing growth and profitability while leveraging our leadership position," said Sergio Faifman, Loma Negra's CEO.



"The expansion in L'Amali plant continues to be a key element of our long-term growth strategy, as it will let us optimise our production footprint while providing much needed capacity for when demand recovers," added Mr Faifman.

In the 4Q18 net revenue rose 2.8 per cent YoY to ARS6936m on the back of positive results from the Paraguayan cement segment.

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Text and video by Atul Anand for TwoCircles.net

The first week of March 2019 has seen two major protests against the NDA government and the countrys apex court. In January 2019, the Supreme Court had upheld the Allahabad High Courts verdict on adopting a 13-point roster system which treats a department/subject of a university/college as a unit for reservations in recruitment. After the Supreme Court upheld the High Courts verdict in January, universities have advertised positions according to the 13 point roster system with considerably reduced or no seats for the marginalized groups.

In February 2019, the Supreme Court in another order rejected more than 20 lakh land claims by Adivasis and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTDF) families. The court had asked different states to evict them from their land by July 2019. Around one crore Adivasis and OTDFs are feared to be affected by this decision. Joint Adivasi Yuva Forum, Bhartiya Adivasi Manch and various other organizations had called for a protest march in New Delhi on Saturday, March 2, 2019. It was followed by a nation-wide strike on March 5, 2019, for demanding actions on the issue of Forest Rights, the 13-point roster system and different issues concerning the people of the country.

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On March 7, 2019, the Union Cabinet approved the HRD Ministrys proposal to bring an Ordinance to restore 200-point roster system. However, the Central Government had created these situations by not doing proper representations in the FRA and the 13-point roster issue.
By Nikhat Fatima, TwoCircles.net

Right after the Pulwama attacks, Kashmiri Muslims were targeted all over India and a feeling of hatred towards Pakistan was in the air. Anyone who spoke of negotiations and peace and took an anti-war stance was called anti-national by the self-proclaimed nationalists.

With such an atmosphere prevailing in every household, how can children not be affected? Incidents of Muslim children in schools being bullied, singled out and taunted began surfacing creating apprehension among the Muslim parents.

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The first incident was highlighted when the employer of a domestic help whose children were humiliated for being Muslims posted it on her social media account; whereupon several parents shared the experiences of their children.

In one of the schools, the Muslim children were asked to go to Pakistan while in another they were told that they are responsible for the Pulwama attack. And in another school, the Muslim children are made to shout anti-Pakistan slogans.

Noida-based writer, author of Mothering a Muslim Nazia Erum shared on the social media the concerns of other parents and also in an interview said that she is preparing her daughter to face such situations where Muslims are singled out and forced to display their Indian-ness.

These growing incidents of religious slurring have become a cause of worry amongst many Muslim mothers and they are not sure how to deal with it.

Some parents blame the television channels for this who indirectly promote hate through their nationalistic attitudes and the way they read out the news showing Muslims in a bad light.

Experts are of the opinion that such incidents of humiliation can have a lasting impact on the victimised children.

One way of trying to solve these occurrences and help children change their perceptions is to have regular conversations with them about the current affairs that involve India and Pakistan. And show them the difference that although Muslims live in both Pakistan and India, they are different. Muslims of India are not pro- Pakistan simply because they follow the same religion explained a college professor Aziz Khan to TwoCircles.net.

Shaikh Mohsin Ali, a journalist for a TV channel in Hyderabad shared that this happened to his son who is studying in class II. His friends told him tum Musalman log bahut kharab ho, Hinduon ko maar daalte (You Muslims are very bad, you all will kill Hindus). Mohsin says he was shocked when his son told this to him.

If it is happening in my sons school, I think it could be happening with other children too, he added.

Sharifa Siddiqui, a counsellor running her own counselling centre told TwoCircles.net, Bullying based on race, colour, religion etc. is a terrible symptom of a hate-filled society schooled and inculcated by media and significant adults. It can leave long-lasting scars and if the bullied child is not counselled with empathy, they can have lasting psychological effects. I would say that both bullied children, as well as the bullying, are victims of prejudice.

Speaking to Twocircles.net, Tejaswini Madhubashi, a feminist and social activist said, Its terrible that children are facing such discrimination and hatred. I think the whole situation today is thanks to jingoistic Indian media. They should take responsibility and behave in a civilised way. For long, Indian media has demonized even the children of Kashmir calling them stone pelters and terrorists. Its high time they look at Kashmiri issues and aspirations with respect.

Another activist who works extensively on human rights, Sajaya Kakarla shared,  The biased media is mainly responsible. It is a terrible situation. The Hindutva-isation of the media and the mindless notion of nationalism is creating irrational attitudes.

Peace initiatives and dialogues between two countries will change the situation. And at the same time within the country also these should be initiated by civil society groups, she added.

Apart from counselling and peace initiatives, it is equally important to sensitise both the adults and children on building the right perspectives about nationalism and learn to not get carried away by what the media presents.
Governor Bill Lee signed an executive order on Thursday enabling further recovery efforts and beginning the process for declaring a federal disaster after record rains in February caused statewide damage.

As waters recede and we are now able to fully review the extent of flooding damage across our state, I signed an executive order as a key step in working with the federal government for further recovery efforts, said Governor Lee. We thank the first responders who are working diligently to keep citizens safe and deliver services.

Currently, 83 counties have reported damage. The Department of Agriculture, Department of Transportation and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) have been coordinating with local authorities to collect the necessary data for further recovery efforts.

The executive order suspends certain laws to enable smoother delivery of health care, insurance, relief supplies and personnel, and other recovery components. The order is retroactively effective Feb. 6, when the flooding and severe weather began, to ensure that it covers all relief efforts, and it will remain in effect through April 7.

The order will also help facilitate the repair of the more than 232 locations on Tennessee state and federal highways damaged by the flooding, with more areas likely to be identified as floodwaters recede.

This will also begin the process of engaging the federal government for funding and other resources.

Governor Lee will survey damages in Hardin County and surrounding areas on Friday.
Samuel and George Williams had great aspirations in the business world, including promising coal lands in Marion County. After a sizable investment, they later concluded that the coal embankment was too thin to be a paying proposition.

The same site was later mined by the McNabb family and a settlement known as Shakerag grew up there. It had a hotel, commissary, coke ovens, miner homes and other buildings. There were 34 building foundations documented there in the 1980s. The name Shakerag came from the fact that some of its citizens would bum a ride on a passing river vessel by shaking a rag to get the pilot's attention.

David McNabb gave a deposition in an interesting long-running Williams lawsuit that was found last year. He said, "My understanding there is a tract of about 1,200 acres. It lies on the side and the top of the mountain opposite Kelly's Ferry and Savannah Island. Samuel Williams came down there and said we would have to be stopped from working at the coal banks - that there were minor heirs who had an interest and it was sort of a difficult case that a back slam might come against a fellow after a while. I rented the coal banks from Mr. Williams and gave him my obligation for a third of the coal that we took out. His third was to be left at the bank. I think he received $5 or $6 from Mr. Sterling for rent of the coal lands. Mr. Pearson bought 20 yards of the coal bank. He was to pay for some coal he had previously dug. Robert Jack, who lives on Sale Creek, said he had sold it to Williams. The coal had been discovered at the time of the sale. It went by the name Jack's Entry. Williams sold the land to me for $300. I was acquainted with Allen White. He lived in a house on the mountain. He had been ailing for some time and went there for his health. He died at the house. I lived at the north side of the Tennessee River in Marion County about two miles above Kelly's Ferry. I have been living in the same neighborhood for 20 years or more. John Haley sold a coal bank to George and Samuel Williams. It was about seven or eight miles from my coal bank. Haley and Evans worked it some."

To get to the Hamilton County Courthouse at Harrison from Suck Creek Road, it was a long trip for McNabb, who collected $20 for his appearance. He said he had to use four ferries to get there.

John Haley said, "Samuel Williams informed me he had received a large sum of money to invest in land. Col. James A. Whiteside drew a bond for the land, and I signed and Charles Haley signed. During the partnership I lived about five miles from G.W. Williams and about nine miles from Samuel Williams. There was a coal bank near Kelly's Ferry that the heirs of my father claimed. I was working there and received notice from Samuel Williams that he claimed the land. I quit working there until it could be settled.

John Haley said there is a 50-acre tract in Marion County on the north side of the Tennessee River a short distance below the Suck, an undivided half of which belongs to G&S Williams.

Col. Whiteside remembered, "In December of 1839 an agreement was reached to invest in coal lands in Marion County. It was between myself and Samuel Williams of one part and Farish Carter, Ker Boyce and Richard K. Hines of the second part. They were to advance $20,000 and more later if it was thought advisable. They advanced $20,000 first in bank notes of Georgia not receivable at our land office which were returned and they drew Bills of Exchange in New York for the amount and Samuel Williams had them discounted at the branch Bank of Tennessee at Athens. The proceeds went into the possession of the Williams' - mostly into George's hands I think for he was generally the most active businessman. The coal lands were bought from John Haley and placed in the Hines Company account. When George Williams died on Aug. 9, 1842, Col. Carter and Ker Boyce were at Chattanooga to close the business. On the 11th or 12th, Samuel Williams and myself made a deed to Col. Carter."

Col. Whiteside also said, "The purchase of property from John Haley for $1,000 was made in 1839 and was part of the Carter, Boyce and Hines $20,000 investment. I had purchased of Allen White some mountain lands and interests in some coal banks in 1840 or 1841 for the Boyce, Carter and Hines Company. I later approached Samuel Williams about taking the White deed. He said he had purchased a piece of mountain land from White in about 1845, being all he could get for a bad debt. White was insolvent and owed him. He requested me to take a deed from White for him. I now consider it not worth more than $300. The strata of coal is too thin to be valuable."

The ruins of Shakerag - where Samuel Williams once hoped for a thriving coal industry - are in the Prentice Cooper State Forest along Suck Creek Road.

* * * * * * * * * *

A demolition project on Walnut Street unexpectedly turned up documents from Chattanooga's earliest days in March 2018.

Rob Bentley, a young man who has developed a love for Chattanooga's history, said he got a call from his friend Robert Parks about the discovery. His company, T. U. Parks, was doing the demolition and build-out of the former Elks Building at Walnut and Seventh and the small adjacent former Title Guaranty and Trust building.

Mr. Bentley, who works at the venerable Chattanooga firm of T.T. Wilson and Company, said, "When they were demoing the old vault the workers found the old documents. Robert went to look at them and a check made out to T.T. Wilson was on top of the pile so he called me to let me know what he had found. I asked him if they would stop the demo of the vaults so i could come take a look at the papers.

"By the time I got to the job site some of the documents had already been thrown into the dumpster and destroyed. I loaded up all the documents I could save out of the dumpster and the ones not yet thrown away into my truck. I went home and organized them the best I could."

The cache included many other checks to pioneer Chattanooga businesses.

The retrieved items included some 800 pages of old documents related to a lawsuit against Chattanooga pioneer Samuel Williams. Some of the documents date to well before the Indian Removal and to the earliest days of Hamilton County.

Mr. Bentley later met with Sam Hall, who has been saving thousands of old Chattanooga photos and documents through his Deepzoom Chattanooga website (now ChattanoogaHistory.com).

Mr. Hall was excited about the find and began scanning the Williams legal documents. He scanned a large group that was saved before some were thrown in the dumpster. Those retrieved from the dumpster, he photographed. Portions of those documents had water damage so that about a fourth of each page cannot be read.

Some of the documents bear the signature of H.C. Beck, one of the founders of Title Guaranty and Trust. The title company later built a much-larger headquarters next door. Both are directly across from the County Courthouse.

Through the years, the upstairs portion of the initial Title Guaranty building was rented to attorneys, including Lewis Coleman, a protoge of Coca Cola bottling magnate Jack Lupton. It is believed that the papers that were located were from one of the attorneys renting the upstairs office or from the Title Guaranty operation itself.

Later the small building was merged with the Elks Building next door. The county named the pair of buildings the Mayfield Annex. The county in recent years vacated the buildings and they are being renovated by Lamp Post Properties, which has been restoring several downtown historic buildings for new uses.

The Williams documents can be read on ChattanoogaHistory.com. They are in two files - the undamaged scanned ones and the photographed pages with water damage.

The links to the Williams papers on Sam Hall's website are here.


Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, P.C. honored the 2018-2019 John C. Stophel Distinguished Students from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga during the firms annual Stophel Scholars community reception Thursday evening. The reception at the Chambliss Conference Center in Liberty Tower offered the six award recipients the opportunity to meet and engage with members of Chattanoogas business community.This years recipients include: Bailey Coppedge, Entrepreneurship (Chattanooga) Andrew Cox, Economics and Entrepreneurship (Nashville) Nathan Goza, Human Resources Management (Chattanooga) Luke Hutchins, Finance (Chattanooga) Katie Maxwell, Accounting and Finance (Chattanooga) Caroline Waldron, Marketing (Maryville)Sharing what the Stophel Scholars mentor program means to him, one of last years scholars, Colter Parker, said, The Stophel Scholars program offers a unique opportunity to connect with influential members of the Chattanooga community and gain insight into the city's thriving business and legal culture.Meeting the attorneys at Chambliss and being paired with a fantastic mentor changed the course of my future career.We are proud to recognize these students for their dedication to academia as well as their remarkable accomplishments beyond the classroom, said Mike St. Charles, managing shareholder at Chambliss. We're glad to connect these young leaders with the many community and business leaders who are eager to offer their own personal stories of perseverance, motivation, and success."The Stophel Scholars program, which is in its 12th year, aims to "foster local talent and encourage promising students to build long-lasting mentor relationships with Chattanooga professionals." The John C. Stophel Distinguished Student Award is presented annually to recognize high performing business students who have "made significant and meaningful civic contributions to UTC and the Gary W. Rollins College of Business while maintaining a strong academic record." Award recipients are chosen based on their strong leadership, decision-making and communication skills, as well as the presence of a high degree of self-motivation.The Gary W. Rollins College of Business is proud to celebrate this outstanding group of John C. Stophel Distinguished Students, said Dr. Robert Dooley, dean of UTCs Gary W. College of Business. These students are exceptional leaders who demonstrate a strong commitment to community service. We certainly appreciate the commitment Chambliss has made through the John C. Stophel Award to recognize their accomplishments. Not only is this event an opportunity to introduce them to the Chattanooga community, but it gives the students a chance to connect with potential mentors and future employers.Chambliss law firm established an endowment at UTC in 2008 to honor the legacy of Mr. John C. Stophel, a founding member of the firm. Mr. Stophel practiced law for more than 50 years, during which he led numerous civic, charitable and religious efforts to benefit the Chattanooga community. He additionally served as chairman of the University of Chattanooga Foundation board of trustees from 2001 to 2004.
Wondering which states in the country are the most senior-friendly? With help from Stannah, we take a look at the top 15. (The state coming in at No. 1 probably wont surprise you.)

15. South Dakota

South Dakota sign | wellesenterprises/ iStock/ Getty Images

As the most western-based of the states to make the top 15, South Dakota ranks seventh overall across states that allow individuals 55-and-over to maintain or improve their finances and sixth overall for its accessibility to social activities.

Next: Coming in at No. 14 

14. Illinois

Illinois state line | wellesenterprises/ iStock/ Getty Images

Due to large urban areas in the state, Illinois ranks in the middle of the pack when it comes to crime levels and safety  something Stannah notes is important for the senior community.

Next: Coming in at No. 13 

13. Delaware

Delaware sign | Lady-Photo/ iStock/ Getty Images

Delaware makes the top-15 for its preferable weather conditions and is noted to be one of the top states in the country when it comes to staffed hospitals. ActsRetirement.org adds that the small state is also close enough to travel to big cities and be active.

Next: Coming in at No. 12 

12. Missouri

Missouri sign | Lady-Photo/ iStock/ Getty Images

Despite note ranking very high on the environmental front  lets face it, Missouri has some pretty intense weather  the Show-Me State has a low cost of living that the senior community may find more favorable than in other spots.

Next: Coming in at No. 11 

11. Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania sign | AndreyKrav/ iStock/ Getty Images

Pennsylvania is noted to have one of the lost burglary rates across the union and, according to Stannah, they also offer free education for individuals 55-year-old and up. Act55.com adds that the State of Independence is very tax-friendly to retirees.

Next: Coming in at No. 10 

10. New Jersey

New Jersey sign | AlexLMX/ iStock/ Getty Images

New Jersey is top notch when it comes to safety and has an average life expectancy is over 77 years old. So perhaps its no surprise that of the 44,000 or so individuals that live in the states Manchester Township, about 29,000 are spread out among its 21 retirement communities.

Next: Coming in at No. 9 

9. South Carolina

South Carolina sign| wellesenterprises/ iStock/ Getty Images

Seniors looking for affordable cost of living should consider South Carolina, which is ranked ninth overall in the finances category. Plus, theyre ranked No. 1 in the states for the top quality of their drinking water.

Next: Coming in at No. 8 

8. Louisiana

Louisiana sign| Ingo Dorenberg/ iStock/ Getty Images

If Cajun cooking isnt reason enough for seniors to consider residing in Louisiana, the low cost of living and accessible public transit may be appealing. (Just beware  the weather isnt always so ideal.)

Next: Coming in at No. 7 

7. New Hampshire

New Hampshire sign | Lady-Photo/ iStock/ Getty Images

New Hampshires low crime rate and good air quality help it crack the top 10 on our list. Maybe then its no surprise its ranked second overall in the country when it comes to access to national parks.

Next: Coming in at No. 6 

6. Ohio

Ohio sign | Thomas Pajot/ iStock/ Getty Images

In Ohio, public transportation is accessible, cost of living is low, and the cities are safe and walkable. Plus, its home to Cleveland Clinic and a number of top-notch university-affiliated hospitals bringing the best in healthcare.

Next: Coming in at No. 5 

5. Georgia

Georgia sign | suesmith2/ iStock/ Getty Images

Looking for assisted living options? The Peach State is where its at, ranked second overall in the entire country with affordable assisted living expenses. According to After55.com, individuals 65-year-old and older get a $65,000 deduction per person on all retirement income that isnt social security.

Next: Coming in at No. 4 

4. Kentucky

kentucky sign | AndreyKrav/ iStock/ Getty Images

With the average cost of home care roughly $20 per hour, Kentucky is a good residential option for seniors who need a little extra help around the house. HomeSnacks.net calls Glasgow, Danville, and Somerset as the top three cities in the state to retire in.

Next: Coming in at No. 3 

3. Alabama

Alabama sign | wellesenterprises/ iStock/ Getty Images

Remembering how we said earlier that finances are important among individuals 55-years-old and older? Its worth taking a look at Alabama, which is ranked No. 1 in the country when it comes to cost of living for seniors.

Next: Coming in at No. 2 

2. New York

New York sign | wellesenterprises/ iStock/ Getty Images

Despite being home to one of the most famous big cities in the world, New York state overall has a surprisingly low crime rate and is considered one of the safest places for seniors to live.

Next: Coming in at No. 1 

1. Florida

Florida sign | Ingo Dorenberg/ iStock/ Getty Images

No wonder so many retirees head for South Beach. Florida is considered the best state in the country for seniors thanks to its average annual temperature of about 70 degrees and a wealth of activities for the senior community.

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Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton are in the news every day for one reason or another, but most of the time the two make headlines together, its because of some supposed royal feud that the media cant quit covering. However, in recent months, the feud rumors have appeared to die down a bit. And now, a new story reveals that Meghan actually gets some important advice from the Duchess of Cambridge.

Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle seemingly get along after all. | Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images

Meghan and Kate have reportedly been fighting ever since Meghans wedding

The feud rumors between the two duchesses have been swirling ever since Meghan and Prince Harry were planning their royal wedding. A source close to the family revealed that Kate apparently was crying during Princess Charlottes dress fitting, and from there, story after story was published with close sources claiming the two duchesses hate each other. It seemed like every day, there was a new addition to the feud. And since Meghan and Kate dont attend too many events together, it was easy for the public to believe that there was bad blood between the two women.

On Christmas Day, the two women did their best to squash the rumors

Meghan and Kate finally made an appearance together on Christmas Day. They attended mass alongside their husbands, and the four of them looked like absolutely nothing was wrong. Meghan and Kate were all smiles, and their body language didnt indicate any major problems between them. They were then spotted at another recent event together, and things once again appeared to be going well for the two women. So either the rumors were extremely embellished, or the alleged feud was never actually as bad as everyone thought.

It was recently revealed that Meghan gets fashion advice from Kate

In addition to the rumors being squashed, it looks Meghan and Kate might actually like each other. Who wouldve thought! Elle recently reported that Meghan styles her own outfits and does her own makeup. But even the most fashion-obsessed people often look to others for style advice. While Meghan is her own stylist, the duchess reportedly has taken plenty of fashion advice from Duchess Kate. Meghan has certainly turned to Kate for guidance and inspiration, a source familiar with Meghans fashion routine revealed to Elle. Since Meghan is still familiarizing herself with the dos and donts of royal fashion, it makes sense that she turns to Kate for occasional style advice.

It looks like the friendship between the two is blossoming, regardless of what tabloids say

Despite all of the rumors last year, it looks like things between Meghan and Kate are going well. Sure, the duchesses might not be best friends, but they dont need to be. Plenty of people marry into families they get along with but arent best friends with, and that might just be the case for Meghan and Kate. Still, the duchesses seem to lean on one another from time to time, and when Meghan and Harry welcome their new baby, the couples may begin spending even more time together while the young cousins bond.

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Baby Sussex isnt born yet and already the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are trying to figure out where their future child will attend school.

Ahead, get all the details on what Meghan Markle and Prince Harry want in a school for their firstborn child and learn where the baby may go to school.



When is Baby Sussex due?



Theres been a lot of speculation about when the next addition to the royal family will arrive since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they were expecting.



LONDON, ENGLAND  MARCH 5: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend a reception to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the investiture of the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace on March 5, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Dominic Lipinski  WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Thankfully, we know that Markle is due to give birth to Baby Sussex in early spring. For those who want a more exact date, the first day of spring is March 20.

Expect to be glued to your TV waiting for Markle and Prince Harry to make their worldwide debut with their newborn Baby Sussex sometime after that date.



The Duke and Duchess make jokes about pregnancy



During their three-day tour of Morocco, a representative from a local school congratulated Markle on her pregnancy, according to E! News. In fake shock, Prince Harry immediately replied, What, youre pregnant? Is it mine? To which Markle replied, Surprise!



Clearly, both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have a good natured sense of humor and are able to make light of the big change in their lives that will be happening in the very near future.



Where will Prince Harry and Meghan Markles Baby Sussex go to school?



Prince Harry and Markle have already been looking at schools for their unborn Baby Sussex. And they have certain wants when it comes to schools for their little one.



They are thought to want a more diverse education for their child, a source told E! News. Meghan is also keen for her child to be fully aware of his or her American heritage.



One school Markle and Harry are considering is ACS Egham INternational School in Egham, Surrey.

A private, co-ed institution, ACS Egham International School is like other schools of its kind but with one distinct difference. Their students from ages 4 to 18 have the option to take an American curriculum.

The schools curriculum certainly meets Prince Harry and Markles criteria for their babys education. Plus, the schools location couldnt be better. Its near Windsor Great Park.



Where do Baby Sussexs cousins go to school?



Unlike his father, Prince William, and uncle, Prince Harry, who attended boarding school, Prince George goes to a private prep school, Londons Thomass Battersea, according to E! News.

William and Kate have both been seen at drop off and pick up times on school days showing that they make a considerable effort to provide normalcy to the upbringing of their children.

TOPSHOT  Britains Prince George (C) accompanied by Britains Prince William (L), Duke of Cambridge arrives for his first day of school at Thomass school where he is met by Helen Haslem (R) head of the lower school in southwest London on September 7, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / RICHARD POHLE (Photo credit should read RICHARD POHLE/AFP/Getty Images)

After her family moved to London from Norfolk, Princess Charlotte started attending Willcocks Nursing School, according to Town and Country.



As for Prince William and Kate Middletons youngest child, Prince Louis isnt a year old yet so hes not of age to attend school. However, theres a good chance hell attend Willcocks Nursing School like his big sister.
Information in the West Plains Police News is a service to the readers of the Cheney Free Press and is only intended to provide information about local law enforcement activities. Any individuals listed as cited, charged or arrested are innocent until proven guilty.

Last updated 3/7/2019 at 8:46pm

CHENEY

Feb. 11

Second-degree theft was reported on the 300 block of North 7th Street. A trumpet was taken.

Domestic violence/verbal dispute was reported on the 1000 block of Betz Road.

Feb. 12

Rape was reported on the 100 block of North 9th Street.

Fourth-degree assault was reported on the 2200 block of North 6th Street.

Roger L. Walters, 31, was arrested on the 2800 block of Al Ogdon Way for third-degree driving while license suspended (DWLS).

Feb. 13

Twenty-four vehicles were towed from various locations around Cheney due to violations of the citys snow removal ordinances.

A rape that occurred in January 2018 in Pullman was reported to the Cheney police station.

Third-degree malicious mischief was reported on the zero hundred block of Columbia Street. Tires on a vehicle were slashed.

Police assisted the Julietta, Idaho, police department and the Latah County Sheriffs Office on a theft of motor vehicle report.

A Sigsauer handgun was reported lost on the 1800 block of 4th Street.

A mental health issue was reported on the 2400 block of University Lane. The individual was involuntarily committed.

Financial fraud, unauthorized use of a debit card, was reported to the police station.

Feb. 14

Domestic violence/verbal dispute was reported on the 200 block of South Cheney-Spangle Road.

Adam C. Culp, 37, was arrested at Cheney Municipal Court on a misdemeanor warrant out of Spokane.

Police assisted a woman who came into the police station to turn in her late-husbands guns and ammunition.

Robbery was reported on the 500 block of North 6th Street. A vaping device was stolen from an individual who was subsequently dragged for a distance by the suspects vehicle.

Lori E. Foster, 33, was arrested on the zero hundred block of 4th Street for fourth-degree assault/domestic violence.

Third-degree theft was reported on the 100 block of East Betz Road. Possible employee embezzlement incident.

Feb. 15

An abandoned auto was towed from the 300 block of 3rd Street. The vehicle, a 2005 Chrysler Town & Country, was parked blocking the travel lane.

Feb. 16

Domestic violence/verbal dispute was reported on the 2400 block of University Lane.

Third-degree theft was reported on the 2700 block of 1st Street. Suspect refused to pay a cab driver the required fare.

An incorrigible juvenile was reported on the 1700 block of 3rd Street.

Feb. 17

Fourth-degree assault was reported on the 800 block of West 1st Street.

Steven R. Maley, 23, was arrested on the 1000 block of Betz Road for second-degree assault/domestic violence.

Fourth-degree assault/domestic violence was reported on the 2200 block of 1st Street.

Feb. 18

Domestic violence/verbal dispute was reported on the 300 block of Erie Street.

Travis J. VanHorne, 43, was arrested on the 2300 block of 1st Street for third-degree DWLS.

MEDICAL LAKE

Feb. 12

An assault was reported on the 800 block of Maple Street.

A suspicious vehicle was reported on the 300 block of West Idaho Street.

A threat was reported on the 800 block of Maple Street.

A vehicle prowl was reported on the 100 block of South Lefevre Street.

Feb. 13

A fire was reported on the 500 block of East Campbell Street.

Abuse was reported on the 800 block of Maple Street.

A disorderly person was reported on the 200 block of East Barker Street.

Police conducted a welfare check on the 500 block of North Walker Street.

Medics were called to the 600 block of East Barker Street.

An assault was reported on the 800 block of Maple Street.

Medics were called to the 200 block of East Barker Street.

Fraud was reported on the 200 block of North Sherman Avenue.

Abuse was reported on the 2300 block of South Salnave Road.

Abuse was reported on the 800 block of Maple Street.

Feb. 14

Police responded to an argument on the 800 block of East Barker Street.

Police responded to a report of a suspicious person on the 500 block of East Ladd Street.

A threat was reported on the 500 block of East Ladd Street.

A fire was reported near South Hallett Street and East Campbell Street.

Police conducted a welfare check on the 800 block of West Maple Street.

Feb. 15

A vehicle prowl was reported on the 100 block of North Walker Street.

Abuse was reported on the 800 block of West Maple Street.

An arrest was made relating to an assault on the 800 block of West Maple Street.

Feb. 16

A prowl check was conducted on the 1300 block of South Lefevre Street.

Medics were called to the 1000 block of East Campbell Street.

An animal/wildlife problem was reported on the 600 block of North Legg Street.

Feb. 17

Police were called to a civil disturbance on the 300 block of East Barker Street.

A vehicle prowl was reported on the 2300 block of South Salnave Road.

Police responded to an accident near West Brooks Road and North Lefevre Street.

Feb. 18

Police responded to an injury accident near East Lake Street and North Stanley Street.

AIRWAY HEIGHTS

Feb. 13

Criminal trespassing occurred on the 14300 block of West Highway 2.

Theft occurred on the 14300 block of West Highway 2.

An argument occurred on the 13900 block of West 12th Avenue.

A shoplifter was reported on the 1200 block of South Hayford Road.

Domestic violence was reported on the 1300 block of South Central Lane.

Feb. 14

A domestic violence order of protection violation was reported on the 12700 block of West Chandler Ave.

A commercial alarm occurred on the 2700 block of South Garfield Street.

A traffic accident occurred on the 10300 block of West Highway 2.

Domestic violence was reported on the 11800 block of West Center Lane.

Criminal trespassing occurred on the 14300 block of West Highway 2.

Feb. 15

A commercial alarm occurred on the 12800 block of West 12th Avenue.

A suspicious vehicle was reported on the 10300 block of West Highway 2.

Theft occurred on the 1200 block of South Hayford Road.

A suspicious person was reported on the 13600 block of West 6th Avenue.

An attempted suicide was reported on the 1300 block of South Hayford Road.

Feb. 16

A reckless driver was reported on the 1200 block of South Hayford Road.

Driving under the influence of intoxicating drugs and/or alcohol was reported on the 10400 block of West Highway 2.

Domestic violence was reported on the 300 block of South Aspen Street.

A traffic accident occurred on the 1200 block of South Hayford Road.

A juvenile runaway was reported on the 800 block of South Aspen Street.

Feb. 17

A suspicious vehicle was reported on the 1200 block of South Garfield Street.

Criminal trespassing occurred on the 700 block of South Beeman Street.

Criminal trespassing occurred on the 1500 block of South Campbell Street.

A shoplifter was reported on the 1200 block of South Hayford Road.

An animal complaint occurred on the 12500 block of West Highway 2.

Feb. 18

A vehicle prowling was reported on the 800 block of South Aspen Street.

An argument occurred on the 10900 block of West 6th Avenue.

An attempted suicide was reported on the 100 block of North Hayford Road.

An animal call occurred on Aspen Street and 10th Avenue.

A welfare check was conducted on the 14200 block of West Highway 2.

Feb. 19

A suspicious person was reported on the 12800 block of West 12th Avenue.

A suspicious person was reported on the 100 block of North Hayford Road.
Some 20,000 technology experts and investors attended Israels largest technology meeting in its history.

The OurCrowd Global Investor Summit took place Thursday, March 7 in Israel and allowed technology innovators and inventors to show their designs and products to potential investors.

OurCrowd is the largest investment platform for investors to invest in startups online and in person in events like this OurCrowd summit, said Jon Medved, CEO and founder of OurCrowd.

"What's most exciting about (the) event is that we're focused on impact, on how startups can focus on global challenges. How we can look right in the eye these issues of climate change, pollution, hunger, health care, transportation, energy and how can startups bring to humanity a huge impact for the better, Medved said.

One Israeli company, Watergen, showed how it turned air into water by pulling air from the atmosphere into a machine that filters the air and is then processed and condensed into purified water.

"We think that we found the solution for the entire world, for the new source of drinking water, Watergen executive chairman Maxim Pasik told CBN News.

Another company, NSLComm, told attendees, that it wanted to connect more people using microsatellites.

"There are four billion people in the world who are not connected  They need to be able to choose to whether to connect, to be connected, NSLComm CEO Raz said.

Betty Wu Adams, OurCrowds U.S. Director of Investor Relations, said the event is a testament to our Creator, adding that the event is one small way that biblical prophecy is being fulfilled.

God is our first Entrepreneur, she said. He created the world out of nothing in the first six days. I believe there's a calling for us as Christians to partner with OurCrowd as we invest in companies that are going to transform and change the world, she said.

Photo courtesy: Alexandre Debieve/Unsplash

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America is getting older. In 1950, near the beginning of the Baby Boom era, the average life expectancy of Americans was 68. Today, it is 79. By the year 2040, one in five Americans will be over the traditional retirement age of 65.

With so many facing life at or beyond retirement age, a new group of Christian leaders based in Colorado Springs is asking us to engage in some non-traditional, but thoroughly biblical, thinking about retirement itself.

This group says that age 65 isnt the age to retire. Its an age to re-fire, re-boot, and re-focus on your calling, influence, and ministry. Its a time to pursue purpose, not pastime.

To focus their commitment, this group has produced a Retirement Reformation Manifesto, which begins: Reforming retirement requires a reframing of our thinking, allowing us to shine a light into the purposeless retirement void and finding freedom from unending leisure, indulgence, and self-gratification.

The group is led by Bruce Bruinsma, a 77-year-old entrepreneur and financial planner still active in business. Bruinsma says the Bible teaches that Christians are called to bear fruit in every season of life. Thats why the Manifesto aims to inspire a movement where every Christ follower is confident in Gods plan for a lifetime of faithful service and committed to helping the Body of Christ reform its understanding of retirement.

Bruinsma said: As Christians, we are to remain faithful for a lifetime. My hope is that the Retirement Reformation Manifesto will inspire many, many people to believe God still has more for them in their later years.

According to a statement released by Bruinsma and the other drafters of the document, the 10-point manifesto challenges signatories to overturn traditional attitudes toward senior years as merely a time of relaxation and leisure. Instead, they are urged to embrace their final quarter of life as time to find spiritual fulfillment and meaning in using their life experiences and resources to serve and enrich others.

Among the commitments those who sign the manifesto make are to:

challenge societys typical view of retirement

exercise wise physical and financial stewardship to ensure making the most of what could be as many as 30 years of post-work

build intergenerational community

The topic of retirement is one we care about at the Colson Center, in large part because Chuck Colson himself talked about it often in the last years of his life. He swore hed never spend his final years chasing a little white ball around. Older Christians, he firmly believed, should be actively pouring their lives into other, younger people who could carry on Kingdom work.

In fact, the Colson Center owes its current vitality in part to Chucks belief that Christians should always die with our boots on. Chuck modeled that for us when, at 80 years old during The Colson Centers 2012 Wilberforce Weekend, he collapsed on-stage mid-speech and had to be helped into a waiting ambulance. He died just a few weeks later.

In that speech and in many others, Chuck said that senior-citizen Christians might give up their 9 to 5 jobs, but they should never retire from Kingdom work. Deuteronomy says that teaching our children and our childrens children to love and fear the Lord is a part of the Christians job description. The Apostle Paul praised Lois, Timothys grandmother, for discipling her grandson in the faith.

Bruinsma and the Retirement Reformation team is taking up that message. We believe that the Retirement Reformation Manifesto has the potential to be history-making, said Bruinsma. Imagine what might happen if millions of seniors are inspired and equipped to approach their retirement radically differently, finding meaning and satisfaction through helping extend Gods kingdom, as they pursue purpose rather than just pastimes.

I can imagine it. Come to BreakPoint.org, click on this commentary, and well link you to the Retirement Reformation Manifesto.

BreakPoint is a Christian worldview ministry that seeks to build and resource a movement of Christians committed to living and defending Christian worldview in all areas of life. Begun by Chuck Colson in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on todays news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. Today BreakPoint commentaries, co-hosted by Eric Metaxas and John Stonestreet, air daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people. Feel free to contact us at BreakPoint.org where you can read and search answers to common questions.

John Stonestreet, the host of The Point, a daily national radio program, provides thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.

Publication date: March 8, 2019

Photo courtesy: Jordan Whitt/Unsplash
The American Center for Law and Justice filed Freedom of Information Act demands with the state of Virginia, requesting all records regarding The Repeal Act. The act, numbered HB 2491, would remove almost all restrictions on abortion from Virginia Law.

When Virginia House of Delegates member Kelly Tran presented the bill, House majority leader Todd Gilbert pressed her on just how close to the moment of conception a woman could have an abortion. He asked if a woman could request an abortion when she was dilating. Tran responded, Mr. Chairman, that would be a decision that the doctor, the physician, and the woman would make at that point. Gilbert pressed further, saying, I understand that. Im asking if your bill allows that. Tran answered, My bill would allow that, yes.

Pro-life groups expressed outrage at the bill and Trans frank admission about the bills implications. A few days later, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam appeared on WTOP radio and discussed the controversy. He said that legislators, who are mostly men, shouldnt be telling a woman what she should or shouldnt be doing with her body.

The hosts asked Northam what would happen in the event that a baby was born alive after a failed late-term abortion. He responded, The infant would be resuscitated if thats what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother. The governor later issued a clarification, saying that he was only addressing a case where there were severe fetal abnormalities.

ACLJ said they requested the documents about this bill because By Governor Northams own admission, that living, breathing baby would still not be afforded the basic rights and protections as a human being, until someone else decided whether that living breathing child deserved them or not. They also questioned Northams clarification, saying, the governor went from infanticide to straight up eugenics.

The ALCJ requested all documents related to the bill because they want to know what the bill is really about and what role Planned Parenthood or other pro-abortion groups played in the drafting of the legislation.

The ACLJ promised to take the subjects of the FOIA requests to court if they do not reply, vowing We will leave no legal stone unturned in the fight for life.

A House subcommittee tabled HB 2491 and referred it to the Committee for Courts of Justice.

Scott Slayton writes at One Degree to Another.

Photo courtesy: Feliphe Schiarolli/Unsplash

Did you know you can get Christian Headlines flash briefings on Amazon Alexa?
Gay UMC pastor to conduct same-sex weddings despite Traditional Plan passage

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An openly gay pastor in the United Methodist Church said he will conduct same-sex weddings despite the denomination's recent vote to maintain its view that homosexuality runs counter to the Gospel and will enforce tougher punishments for violating church discipline.

Pastor Mark Thompson, a 61-year-old father of three, is a pastor at Central United Methodist Church in Lansing, Michigan, who has lived openly as a homosexual for the past 10 years, according to WKAR.

Since the UMC Book of Discipline considers homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching, Thompson said it has been hard for him to stay celibate and ignore his desire to be in a same-sex relationship.

Although he will continue to refrain from being in a romantic relationship, Thompson doesnt believe that other Christians who are same-sex attracted should be required to live celibate lives.

Thompson said he will now perform same-sex wedding ceremonies despite the passing of the Traditional Plan at the special session of the UMC General Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, last week.

The Traditional Plan bolstered the 12 million-member denominations stance against homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and the ordination of noncelibate same-sex attracted pastors. Included in the plan was a vow to better enforce the denominations rules, considering some UMC pastors are in openly gay relationships and marriages.

Despite the vow, Thompson asserted that he needs to marry same-sex couples in order to treat people with equity.

I do that in every other part of my life," he told the local television station.

When you dont have that (a relationship) then what slowly happens [is] your spirit starts to shut down, Thompson continued. You just start to feel the sadness, you just start to feel the loneliness and it works away at you.

According to WKAR, Thompson plans to retire next year and will pursue a same-sex relationship when he's done with the ministry. For now, Thompson plans to stay celibate in an attempt to change the debate in the church.

I long to be in a deep love relationship with a man and I just have to ignore those feelings, Thompson said, lamenting that the denomination's biblically based rules on marriage and sexuality. It's very difficult.

Thompson made the trip to St. Louis for the special session. He had hoped that the delegates would pass a resolution giving him the freedom to live out his life fully, according to WOODTV.com.

However, Thompson said he left early because it got to the point where the pain was too great.

According to Michigan Bishop David Bard, about two-thirds of American delegates favored more inclusive plans but were outweighed by delegates representing Africa and Asia who were more supportive of the Traditional Plan.

Ill continue to toe the line at this present time, but I do look forward to retirement, Thompson told WOODTV.com.

Mark Doyal, the director of communications with the UMC Michigan conference, confirmed last week to WKAR that there would be additional, stronger mandated consequences for violating the discipline of our church under the new proposal.

However, Doyal stressed that the UMC Judicial Council hasnt yet decided if the plan is constitutional.

Another gay pastor who traveled to the UMC special session last week is David Meredith, the pastor of Clifton United Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Meredith is openly gay and married his husband and partner of 29 years, Jim Schlachter, in 2016. Because of this, Meredith has faced denominational discipline hearings since 2017, which have carried the possibility of losing his job.

Meredith told Cincinatti.com that he's not sure what the status of his job security is now that the Traditional Plan has passed. He claimed that his marriage is honorable in the eyes of God. He said he was disappointed by the vote.

I know the people who are called United Methodist are better than the General (Conference) that met yesterday, Meredith proclaimed. "It does not speak for the people who call themselves United Methodist."

Meredith also claimed that UMC has betrayed its identity and that the decision launches us into a new resistance within the denomination."

Although LGBT supporters favored the One Church Plan, conservative delegates opposed the One Church Plan because it contradicts the words of our Savior. That plan would have allowed individual clergy and congregations to conduct same-sex weddings and would have allowed individual conferences to make their own decisions on the ordination of gay pastors.

[I]n so doing, [this] deceives young persons into believing that same-gender marriage is OK with God when clearly it is not," Nancy Denardo, a delegate from the Western Pennsylvania Conference who was critical of the One Church Plan, said, according to Cincinnati. com. "There is danger to that not only to those being deceived but the deceivers as well."

Pastor Talbot Davis of Good Shepherd UMC of Charlotte, North Carolina, told The Christian Post last week that he favored the passage of the Traditional Plan.

[W]e believe in the beautiful picture of celibacy in singleness and faithfulness in heterosexual marriage that is woven throughout the pages of Scripture as well as church teaching for since its inception, Davis said.
Christian band praises God after they escaped tour bus crash unharmed

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Award-winning Christian rock band Seventh Day Slumber is giving God all the glory after they survived a tour bus crash in Hillsboro, Texas, over the weekend.

Please keep us in your prayers. We are all ok, just banged up. A few are still at the hospital being looked at. Also, please say some prayers for the firefighters. Those guys were so nice and this was pretty traumatic for them as well! frontman Joseph Rojas wrote on Facebook Sunday morning along with a photo of the bands totaled tour bus.

The bus slammed into the rear of a fire truck early Sunday morning on Interstate 35, Rojas said, as he detailed how their bus driver had nowhere to go when, after driving over a hill they were met with a fire truck in front of them and an 18 wheeler in the right lane next to them.

We had nowhere else to go. Our driver was going under the speed limit. We support all first responders and we pray for them and their families. This was unavoidable for us, he said.

According to news station KWTX, the driver of the bus swerved and struck the fire truck to miss an 18-wheeler whose driver braked abruptly.

"For some reason the 18-wheeler decided to brake unexpectedly. The tour bus driver immediately took evasive action trying to steer around the 18-wheeler to avoid the crash and when he went to the right he struck the fire truck, Hill County Emergency Management Coordinator Tom Hemrick told the news outlet.

The bus driver and several others on the tour bus suffered minor injuries. Rojas said his wife banged her head pretty badly and suffered a seizure but is now fine. All those injured were treated at a nearby hospital and later released.

We walked away from this and were all banged up and bruised but we walked away from this and we know it was God that did that, Rojas testified in a Facebook Live video taken at the scene of the crash.

The same God that kept us alive during this wreck is the same God that will take care of us further down our road, he added.

Christian bands Building 429, Sanctus Reel, and Lady Antebellum have also experienced tour bus crashes and fires in the past.

Keep us all in prayer, all us bands, its rough out here, Rojas concluded in his message to fans.

Seventh Day Slumber was charged $9,000 by a local tow company to transport their tour bus after the crash. Although the members were in shock after the accident, later that evening they performed at a concert in Victoria, Texas.

For more information, visit the bands Facebook page.
Actor Jaden Smith, Michigan church teaming up to fight Flint water crisis

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A charitable organization that's supported by actor and musician Jaden Smith is partnering with a Michigan church to help provide clean water to residents of Flint, Michigan.

Over the past few years, residents of Flint reported increasingly contaminated water, with residents reporting issues as early as 2014. By early 2016, then President Barack Obama declared an emergency for the area and ordered federal aid.

On Saturday, 501CThree, a philanthropic group Smith is part of, joined First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church of Flint to announce a partnership to help residents gain access to cleaner water.

Catrina Tillman, wife of the lead pastor at First Trinity who's been spearheading the project, told The Christian Post that they had heard about the work we were already doing in the city.

Our church has been on the front lines of the water crisis, explained Tillman, noting that her church has been distributing clean water to residents nearly every week for the past three years.

And thats sent by way of donations from other churches from all across the country, organizations, individuals, and companies. So weve been able to service the community for three years on a weekly basis.

Tillman said the partnership will specifically focus on distributing a device known as the Water Box, which is a portable system designed to filter out several types of bacteria, heavy metals, and sediments.

The plan is to, hopefully, one day have water boxes all across the city of Flint and in other cities as well, continued Tillman. Flint has been on the front lines of lead issues, but there are other cities as well that could utilize this filtration system.

In a statement posted to its Facebook page, First Trinity said they were still in awe of what took place this past Saturday when meeting with 501CThree members.

Serving is the greatest gift we can give to each other to express Gods love for one another. For the past three years First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church has done just that, stated the church.

This innovative box that weve created together is more than a Water Box. Its a box of pride, confidence, hope and ownership that the residents of Flint can ALL benefit from! No longer do we have to rely on an outside source to get the bare essentials of life such as clean water!
Morgan Freeman hopes 'Story of God' 3rd season helps viewers become more tolerant of all faiths

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The third season of National Geographic's "The Story of God with Morgan Freeman," premiered Tuesday night, and the Academy Award-winning actor says he hopes the series helps viewers become more tolerant of different religions and belief systems.

Freeman takes a darker look at world religions this season as he explores the question: Who is the devil? He also seeks to learn more about visions, whether performing rituals brings believers closer to God, and how people combat sin as he travels the world in search of answers.

We're hoping that most people will take away something in particular, and that particular thing would be: we must all be tolerant of other belief systems because they all narrow down and they all boil down to the same core idea  that love works, Freeman told The Christian Post last Friday, when asked what he wants Christians to take away from this season.

Lori McCreary, an executive producers of the Story of God who's also a Christian, added to Freemans comment saying: Jesus told His disciples, 'Love one another as I have loved you. I think the only way we can love each other is by knowing each other. And thats one of the things that this series we hope can do, help people understand that they can have a connection with someone who doesn't believe the same and therefore open themselves up to being in a relationship with them.

In the episode titled God Among us, Freeman explores historical facts about Jesus, and looks at other spiritual leaders who some considered to be gods in the flesh. When asked if those investigations revealed anything new to him about Jesus, Freeman replied, No.

I'm raised in the South, which is real Jesus country. So I don't think that there was anything that I learned in this process. That was not new information for me, he explained.

McCreary added, When I first met Morgan 20 years ago I was surprised how much he knew about the Bible and Jesus because I didn't know his background and he sometimes corrects me.

"I think Christians might find some aha's in this, she continued. When we find the place where, for the first time Jesus is referred to as God, I think that's so enlightening and so surprising for me as a Christian that there's a place like that.

In a previous interview with CP, Freeman said he felt most closely aligned with Zoroastrianism.

I think that probably the most realization that I had in all of this was the realization of what faith I could adopt. I grew up like most southerners, somewhere between Methodist and Baptist in the Protestant faith, not much of a practitioner, Freeman admitted.

But what I learned in terms of being able to claim a religion, was that Im mostly attuned to Zoroastrianism. This is a very ancient religion with the simplest of tenants  good thoughts, good words, good deeds  so easy to live by, he said.

Season 3 features six episodes that take viewers on an interfaith journey around the globe, traveling to 30 different cities of historical and anthropological importance, including Jerusalem, Kathmandu, Jericho, Rome, Bethlehem, Paris, Prague, Hanoi, Toronto and Lourdes. The series filmmakers met with 13 religious experts, eight priests, three druids, three shamans, one imam, one rabbi, one former executioner, one nun, two 'living goddesses' and hundreds of monks. The series interviews believers of many faiths including Christians, Jews, pagans, druids, Muslims, Hindus, Jains, animists, Buddhists and agnostics, the shows synopsis reads.

Visit National Geographic for more information on The Story of God with Morgan Freeman.
8 notable women in Christian history

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March is Womens History Month in the United States, a time in which Americans focus on the many contributions women have made in the past.

The observance has its federal roots in a February 1980 proclamation by President Jimmy Carter meant to celebrate National Womens History Week during the week of March 8, which is International Womens Day. It became an official annual month celebration by an act of Congress in 1987.

Through the centuries, women have made substantial and various contributions to church history, from evangelism to leadership. Indeed, there are too many to list in a single piece.

With that noted, here are eight notable women from Christian history. They include a French warrior, a prolific hymnist, a famed abolitionist and a Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian.

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Abortion Kills a Baby, Comedian Accidentally Admits at White House Correspondents' Dinner

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Comedian Michelle Wolf has been rightly rebuked for her vile joke about abortion, but within the joke she spoke truth  abortion kills a baby.

Vice President Mike Pence "thinks abortion is murder. Which, first of all, don't knock it 'til you try it  and when you do try it, really knock it. You know, you've got to get that baby out of there," Wolf said as she illustrated "knocking" a pre-born baby with her elbow.

Many pro-lifers have pointed out the joke was unfunny and inappropriate.

"This was beyond tasteless. Beyond crass. Almost beyond belief," Michael Brown wrote in an op-ed for The Christian Post.

But Wolf also revealed the object of an abortion  it's a "baby."

Pro-choicers often use language to avoid this admission. "It's not a person, it's a fetus," is an argument I often hear, as if one can't be both.

Are teens not people because they're teens? Are senior citizens not people because they're senior citizens? Are pro-choicers basically just opposed to synonyms?

Teen, senior citizen, fetus  all these words are subcategories of a person at a different life stage.

And yes, like Wolf said, a fetus is a baby, or "extremely young child," as defined by Merriam-Webster.

Supporters of legalized abortion must avoid truth to advance their arguments, but like whack-a-mole, truth keeps popping up, even in their own language.

In January, Planned Parenthood of Maryland shared a New York Times story about a successful surgery performed on a fetus. The tweet was the story's headline, which read, "After Surgery in the Womb, a Baby Kicks Up Hope." The tweet was deleted after the abortion provider realized it embarrassingly celebrated a baby's life in the womb.

In fact, you will often hear those on the liberal side of the abortion debate reveal the truth that a fetus is a baby when they talk about pregnant women who haven't chosen abortion: "It's a boy." "It's a girl." "When's the baby shower?" And usually-liberal celebrity magazines often feature photo spreads of pregnant celebrities with "baby bump" in their headlines.

Truth won't stay hidden. It's a baby.
The U.S. trade deficit in goods with China set a new record during President Donald Trumps second year in office, despite his efforts to rein in what the administration views as Beijing's trade transgressions. The trade gap rose to $419.2 billion in 2018, from the previous record of $375.5 billion in 2017, a Commerce Department report released Wednesday showed. As Politico writes, a senior Democrat slammed Trump for failing to make progress on his promise of reducing the overall goods deficit, despite lobbing tariffs at both China and other trade partners in 2018.

"Today's announcement that the merchandise trade deficit for 2018 topped $891 billion shows that the president has flunked the test he set for himself," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in a statement. "It is time for President Trump to acknowledge that his scattershot approach to trade policy is failing and explain how he intends to change course and reverse these record deficits." Over the course of last year, Trump imposed tariffs on over $250 billion worth of Chinese goods to pressure Beijing into trade talks between the two countries that could produce an agreement in coming weeks.

The negotiations are aimed in part at reducing the U.S. trade gap with Beijing, but imports from China actually increased during the last months of 2018, as companies sought to get ahead of Trumps initial plan to raise his 10 percent duty on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent on Jan. 1. The other $50 billion in Chinese goods already faces a 25 percent tariff. Trump delayed the planned tariff increase to March 2 and recently postponed it indefinitely, saying that talks with China had made substantial progress towards a deal. That could result in China buying more U.S. soybeans, liquefied natural gas and manufactured goods like Boeing airplanes. But any reduction in the U.S. trade gap with China could be offset by higher deficits with other countries, as U.S. exports are diverted away from other markets.

The United States imported $539.5 billion worth of goods from China in 2018, compared with $505.5 billion in 2017. U.S. goods exports to China totaled $120.3 billion last year, dropping from nearly $130 billion in 2017. Beijing responded to Trumps tariffs by imposing duties on about $110 billion of U.S. exports. A spokesperson for the U.S. Trade Representatives office did not respond directly when asked how a trade deal with China might address a growing trade deficit. Instead, she pointed to the goals outlined in the administrations recently released trade policy agenda, which outlined a strategy for rebalancing the global economy through policies of imposing tariffs for national security reasons, pursuing new trade deals with strategic partners and enforcing U.S. trade laws.

More specifically, the spokesperson highlighted page 30 of the report, which recognizes a persistent imbalance with countries like China, Japan, Germany and South Korea and the need to address the issue in 2019. The administration has already taken significant steps to create a more balanced and sustainable trading system, including by withdrawing from the TPP, revising NAFTA and KORUS, and ramping up enforcement of U.S. trade remedies laws, the report says.

Trump also levied tariffs of 10 percent on aluminum and 25 percent on steel on the grounds that imports of those two metals from a host of trading partners posed a threat to national security because they undermined the strength of the domestic industry. Against that backdrop, overall imports of U.S. goods and services continued to rise on the strength of the U.S. economy, which grew by an estimated 2.9 percent in 2018 compared with 2.2 percent in 2017.

Overall imports grew 7.5 percent, to a record $3.1 trillion, while overall exports grew 6.3 percent, hitting a record $2.5 trillion, a Commerce Department highlights sheet showed. The resulting overall trade deficit of $621 billion was the highest since 2008. Both the goods trade deficit and the services trade surplus individually set records. The U.S. trade deficit tends to rise when the economy grows because American businesses and consumers increase purchases of all goods, including imports.

In contrast, the trade deficit decreased by about 45 percent in 2009 during the period known as the Great Recession, when the U.S. economy contracted by more than 4 percent and businesses and consumers sharply cut back on spending. The United States imported record amounts of goods in several categories in 2018, including food, feeds, and beverages ($147.4 billion), capital goods ($693.3 billion), automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($372.3 billion), and consumer goods ($647.9 billion).

Trump is currently mulling whether to impose a tariff on imports of autos and auto parts to protect U.S. national security, a move that could expose the United States to more trade retaliation from countries in Europe and Asia.

The U.S. had record exports to 53 countries in 2018 led by Mexico ($265 billion), Japan ($75 billion), and the United Kingdom ($66.2 billion), and record imports from 60 countries led by China, Mexico ($346.5 billion), and Germany ($125.9 billion), the Commerce Department said. The U.S. energy boom pushed petroleum exports to a record $172.4 billion, reducing the petroleum trade deficit to it lowest level since 1998, the department said.
Appeals court: Judge abused discretion by denying trans teens name change

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An appeals court in Ohio has overturned a judges decision to deny a trans-identified teenager preparing to go through hormone therapy a legal name change until the age of 18.

Judge Joseph Kirby had denied a trans-identified teenage boy named Elliott Whitaker (a biological female born with the name Heidi) the ability to legally change names. The Ohio Court of Appeals in the states twelfth appellate district overturned that decision.

[W]e find that the probate court abused its discretion by failing to consider appropriate best interest factors before it denied the name change application, the appellate courts opinion reads.

A change-name application was filed in April 2018 in Warren County Court. Whitakers mother, Stephanie, requested the name change because "the child picked a name to suit gender identity." The application for a name change was submitted with consent from both the mother and father.

A hearing for the name change was held in probate court on June 18, 2018, during which the parents and child testified. The child expressed the "feeling of distress  from as far back as I can remember."

The family explained that the child had seen a therapist many times and that people in the school were referring to the child by preferred pronouns and name.

On June 22, 2018, Kirby ruled that a name change was not reasonable and proper and in the child's best interest." He reasoned that a name change request by the child could have been motivated by short-term desires or beliefs that may change over the passage of time as the child matures.

Kirby added that the child should be given time to age, develop and mature and that the child could reapply for a name change as an adult. His ruling came as health experts, studies and critics have warned over the years that gender dysphoria often does not persist into adulthood for many children.

Stephanie Whitaker appealed the decision, arguing that the judge abused his discretion by denying the name change. She argued that the denial was arbitrary, unreasonable and based solely upon the transgender status of her child.

The appellate court agreed.

[T]he probate court failed to recognize that it was H.C.W.'s mother, and not H.C.W., who sought the name change, the twelfth district's opinion reads. In doing so, the probate court neglected to consider the preferences of H.C.W.'s parents and their assessment of H.C.W.'s best interest.

The opinion cites the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case Troxel v. Granville, in which the plurality ruled that so long as a parent adequately cares for his or her children  there will normally be no reason for the State to inject itself into the private realm of the family to further question the ability of that parent to make the best decisions concerning the rearing of that parent's children."

The Supreme Court further added, "if a fit parent's decision of the kind at issue here becomes subject to judicial review, the court must accord at least some special weight to the parent's own determination."

Instead of giving some special weight to H.C.W.'s parents' preferences regarding the name change, the probate court summarily dismissed them, the decision reads.

In its sole reference to the parents' preferences, the probate court discounted them as simply a desire to assuage their child. However, in contrast to assuaging H.C.W.'s preference to change his name, the record plainly shows that the parents engaged a therapist specializing in transgender issues, kept H.C.W. in therapy for a year, consulted with the therapist, consulted with Dr. Conard of Children's Hospital concerning testosterone therapy, associated with a support group, and had extensive discussions among themselves before seeking the name change.

The appellate court also accused the judge of not considering Whitakers mental health counseling and upcoming testosterone therapy.

In addition to appealing the case, the Whitakers and other families sued Judge Kirby in his personal capacity for what they say was a "pattern and practice" of denying transgender name changes. Kirby was accused of discriminating against transgender individuals.

Last October, U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman tossed out the lawsuit against Kirby on grounds that "the proper way to challenge an adverse judgment is to appeal, not to sue the judge.

Bertelsmann ruled that appellate courts have the ability to overturn Kirby's decision and rule if he has "abused his discretion.

Although the Ohio appellate court suggested the state has no business in injecting itself to question the ability of the parent to make the best decisions concerning the rearing of that parent's children, other courts have done just that.

Last year, another Ohio judges ruling allowed a transgender teen to continue hormone therapy against his parent's wishes. The parents wanted a Christian therapy for their son.

The parents were also stripped of legal custody, which was awarded to the childs grandparents who are more affirming of the childs gender identity.
Christians demand Walmart take down gay dating ad

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More than 137,300 people have signed a petition urging Walmart to take down its gay dating ad.

Last month, Walmart launched a Valentines Day themed ad campaign called Love Is in the Aisle: A Dating Show at Walmart, which had three episodes, one of which included a same-sex couple (watch here).

In a petition started last week, the socially conservative American Family Association denounced the ad and called on Walmart to remain neutral in culture war and remove pro-homosexual promotional video.

For most Christians and other traditionalists, the idea that marriage is between a man and a woman is sacred. We've seen many large corporations reject that in their marketing, but I honestly never thought Walmart would join the cultural revolution and reject the beliefs of its customer base, said AFA.

We have no choice but to ask our supporters to let the company know how they, the customers, feel about Walmart's shift away from neutrality on this controversial issue to full support for same sex relationships.

As of Friday afternoon, the AFA petition as garnered more than 137,300 signatories, with the AFA expressing a sense of betrayal over Walmarts decision to air the ad.

At least with a company like Amazon, we knew they were liberal from the outset. But this seems more like a betrayal from a well-known friend. Sam Walton is probably turning over in his grave, continued AFA.

Based in Arkansas, this is not the first time that Walmart has expressed pro-LGBT sentiments. In 2015, the Arkansas legislature approved House Bill 1228, which was modeled off the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon denounced HB 1228, arguing in a social media post that the proposed legislation was anti-gay.

"Today's passage of HB1228 threatens to undermine the spirit of inclusion present throughout the state of Arkansas and does not reflect the values we proudly uphold," McMillon said at the time. "For these reasons, we are asking Governor [Asa] Hutchinson to veto this legislation."

The Christian Post queried Walmart in 2015, asking what specific part of HB 1228 they objected to. A spokesperson responded at the time that they could not name a specific quote or section of the bill that they objected to.
Russia to deport 2 American Mormons arrested at church under anti-evangelism law

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Two Americans affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were arrested in Russia and will soon be deported back to the U.S., their lawyer says.

Russian attorney Sergey Gliznutsa told CBS News that Kole Brodowski and another unidentified volunteer were arrested while they were teaching English at a church in Southern Russia.

He went on to explain that the deportation order was given earlier this week, but because of a national holiday, Brodowski and the other man will likely not be released and deported until sometime next week.

Russia has barred foreign missionaries from evangelizing in that country, but the LDS Church maintained that the two Americans fit the definition of volunteer and were not violating any laws.

Eric Hawkins, a spokesman for the LDS Church, said in a statement that he was concerned about the decision by authorities to detain and deport the two Americans.

While we are grateful these young men are reportedly in good condition and are being treated well, we are troubled by the circumstances surrounding their detention, said Hawkins, according to Fox News.

They have both spoken to their parents. We will continue to work with local authorities, and encourage the swift release of these volunteers.

In 2016, Russia passed an anti-missionary law as part of a broader anti-terrorism law. The measure targets religious minorities to the benefit of the influential Russian Orthodox Church.

About a year after the law was enacted, the Norway-based group Forum 18 recorded 181 cases of Russian authorities using the law to crack down on non-Russian Orthodox religious groups.

The 181 prosecutions included more than 80 cases against individuals representing various Protestant churches, as well as 41 cases against Jehovahs Witnesses, and several cases against Buddhists, Muslims, and a dozen Hare Krishna members.

The detaining of the Mormon volunteers comes a month after a Russian court sentenced Danish citizen Dennis Christensen, a Jehovahs Witness, to six years in prison due to the religious sect being declared extremist under the nations criminal code.

Christensen was arrested in 2017 while giving a sermon.

The case against Christensen and the raids against Jehovahs Witness adherents violate the right to freedom of religion, denying them the right to worship, and cannot be justified as either a necessary or proportionate measure to protect public safety or public order, stated Human Rights Watch.

The conviction is a blatant violation of the rights to religious freedom and expression. Russian authorities should immediately move to set aside the conviction and free Christensen.
South African court rules Dutch Reformed Churchs gay marriage ban is unconstitutional

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A court in South Africa ruled Friday that the Dutch Reformed Churchs rules against same-sex marriage are unlawful and invalid.

The decision comes from the bench of the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria led by Judge Joseph Raulinga, which reversed a decision to not recognize same-sex marriage in the church that was made by the denominations general synod in November 2016.

The general synods 2016 decision came after the Dutch Reformed Church moved in 2015 to allow individual church councils to recognize same-sex marriages. The decision was reversed a year later after immense pressure from church members.

Along with not allowing same-sex marriage, the church required lesbian and gay people to remain celibate if they choose to serve as clergy.

The synods 2016 decision was challenged by the Rev. Laurie Gaum, his father, Frits Gaum, and eight other members of the Dutch Reformed Church, all of whom advocate for LGBT issues and launched litigation in an attempt to have the synods decision ruled unconstitutional.

They claimed that the churchs position violated section 9 of the South African Constitution that deals with equality and discrimination, according to SABC News.

Minister Andre Bartlett, who fought for the right of same-sex relationships, praised the courts decision.

Gay members of the church are fully accepted and can be elected to all positions in the church, whether they are in relationships or not, Bartlett told the South African television outlet eNCA after the ruling. It also means that church councils that dont feel free to elect people to their councils can do so.

Bartlett assured that the ruling means that gay ministers can be licensed and ordained whether they are in relationships or not.

The only norm would be that all relationships in the church  whether they are heterosexual or homosexual  there are certain norms that have to be held to, he said.

The 24-hour television news broadcaster reports that the Dutch Reformed Church is reviewing the high courts decision but has not yet indicated that it will appeal the courts ruling.

Dutch Reformed Church General Secretary Gustav Claassen told eNCA outside the courtroom that for now, the church holds to its 2016 position against same-sex marriage.

Our current position is that of 2016, Claassen said. So I cant actually react on that but we will scrutinize the judgment and we will come back and comment on it.

Guam said that he is grateful and elated by the decision. Guam said the ruling is just the first step and now it is up to everyone on the grassroots level to step up to the plate.

The courts actually assist us in moving forward and making clear to us what is really discriminatory. It is an infringement on human dignity as the court has said in this case, he told eNCA in a phone interview. Therefore, the church, by all means as a religious institution, is supposed to embody what the Gospel  the good news  is supposed to be all about.

In the interview, Guam was asked if he anticipates that other denominations will face a similar fate in the courts and if he plans to assist others who want to challenge the traditional marriage stances of their churches.

It is not only applicable on our internal denomination but also [for] religious institutions in general and institutions in general, Guam said. It holds them up against the background of the Constitution to which all of us in South Africa need to adhere. The Constitution is helping us and we should see it as an invitation for all institutions, especially for churches and religious institutions.

The president of South African Union Council of Independent Churches, Archbishop Patrick Shole, told eNCA in an interview that he believes the Dutch Reformed Churchs policy on sexuality is correct. He added that his church also does not recognize same-sex marriage.

He voiced his support for a South African constitutional courts decision last year to throw out a lawsuit filed by a lesbian minister against the Methodist Church of South Africa. The minister was fired after she announced in 2010 that she was marrying her partner.

According to our statement of faith, we dont conduct lesbian and gay marriages, Shole said, adding that practicing homosexuals probably would not feel welcome in many Pentecostal or charismatic churches in his network. God created man and woman, not same-sex. It is man and woman.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in South Africa since 2006.
Teacher apologizes for forcing student to wipe off Ash Wednesday cross

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A teacher in Utah has apologized to a fourth-grade student whom she ordered to remove the ash cross that was on his forehead for Ash Wednesday.

William McLeod of Bountiful, Utah, went to school Wednesday with an ash cross on his forehead that he had received earlier that morning at church.

A lot of students asked me what it is. I said, Im Catholic. Its the first day of Lent. It's Ash Wednesday, McLeod told local news outlet FOX13.

He was the only one in his class with the ashes on his forehead.

William attempted to explain what it meant to his teacher but she required him to wipe it off and handed him a disinfecting wipe.

After hearing about what happened, the schools principal phoned McLeod's family to apologize.

I was pretty upset, said Karen Fisher, McLeod's grandmother.

I asked her if she read the Constitution with the First Amendment, and she said, No, Fisher said, recounting the conversation she had with the teacher who had ordered her grandson to remove the cross from his forehead.

The school district has also apologized, saying every student should be welcomed regardless of their faith.

Why that even came up, I have no idea, said Chris Williams, a school district spokesperson.

When a student comes in to school with ashes on their forehead, its not something we say 'Please take off.'"

The teacher, who gave a handwritten apology to McLeod along with some candy, also might face disciplinary action.

I hope it helps somebody and I hope it never happens again, Fisher said. I dont think it will.

The imposition of ashes is an observance celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church and in other liturgical churches to mark the beginning of the 40 days of Lent. As the ashes are imposed on each forehead the priest will say something like "remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return."

As The Christian Post reported this week, worshipers usually choose to leave the ashes on their foreheads for the remainder of the day as an outward sign and symbol of grief, as well as purification and sorrow for sins.

In the Old Testament, the prophet Daniel speaks of seeking the Lord for the release of His people from Babylonian exile with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes (Daniel 9:3).

In some churches, palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday service are saved, and then burned to produce the ashes for the Ash Wednesday service.
A short history of babies born alive during an abortion

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The U.S. Senate failed last month to pass the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. To understand why this bill was deemed necessary, look at the history behind it.

Jesse Floyd

In the 1977 case of Floyd v. Anders, an abortionist, Dr. Jesse Floyd, was tried for murdering a baby. He "botched" the abortion, meaning his attempt to kill the fetus failed and instead resulted in a live baby who survived for 20 days then died due to his induced pre-mature birth.

The case presented an interesting question for the courts. The U.S. Supreme Court made abortion legal in 1973 based upon a "right to privacy" for the mother. But if an abortion fails to result in a dead fetus and instead results in a baby born alive, now outside its mother, does the mother's "right to privacy" still have any bearing on the life of the child? In other words, does the right to an abortion end when the baby has fully exited the birth canal, or does that right continue? Is abortion about a woman being able to control what is inside her body, or about being able to legally kill her baby?

Judge Clement Haynsworth concluded the right to an abortion necessarily includes the right to a dead baby.

If a state may not legislate for the protection and preservation of the life of such a fetus, it surely cannot make the surgical severance of the fetus from the womb murder under state law, he wrote.

Pro-lifers were disturbed by the precedent set forth by the reasoning in this case. If you attempt to kill a fetus, fail, and instead deliver a live baby, you still have a right to kill the baby, the judge was saying. This would mean that a baby born alive but marked for abortion does not have the same legal rights as a baby born alive but not marked for abortion; the right to an abortion entails the right to a dead baby even if that baby is no longer inside her mother.

Jill Stanek

On July 12, 2001, nurse Jill Stanek testified before a congressional subcommittee on "induced labor abortions" taking place at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, where she had worked.

For late-term abortions, Christ Hospital was inducing labor, delivering the babies, then leaving them alone to die, testified Stanek, who is now a pro-life speaker and activist.

"Christ Hospital performs abortions on women in their second or even third trimesters of pregnancy. Sometimes the babies being aborted are healthy, and sometimes they are not. The abortion technique that Christ Hospital and other hospitals use, called 'induced labor abortion,' sometimes results in infants being aborted alive, because throughout this particular abortion procedure the fetus is not killed in the uterus. The focus of this method is to forcibly dilate a woman's cervix so that she will prematurely deliver a baby who dies during the birth process or soon afterward," she said.

The uncomfortable truth revealed during this testimony is that the safest late-term abortion (for the mother) is to deliver the baby whole, rather than dismember the baby inside the womb. This is why Christ Hospital used that method. But once the baby is delivered, and viable outside her mother, the "her body, her choice" argument is no longer valid. This is why abortionists have resorted to other methods that kill the fetus before removing her.

Abortion survivors

Not every person who survived a botched abortion was left to die. Some were kept alive, adopted, grew up, and are now old enough to tell their stories.

Two of the most prominent abortion survivors are Gianna Jessen, a pro-life activist and speaker, and Melissa Ohden, founder of Abortion Survivors Network, which provides support for and gives a voice to those who survived an abortion attempt. Both of them have testified before Congress on multiple occasions.

In her 2015 testimony, Jessen asked, "If abortion is about womens rights, then what were mine? You continuously use the argument, 'If the baby is disabled, we need to terminate the pregnancy,' as if you can determine the quality of someones life. Is my life less valuable due to my Cerebral Palsy?"

Abortion Survivors Network has been in contact with 260 abortion survivors.

There is no good data on the frequency of abortion survival since they're usually not reported, Abortion Survivors Network says, but based upon the failure rate of late-term abortions that number could be as high as 44,000 in the U.S.

Born-Alive Infants Protection Act

The idea for the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, a law to recognize the legal rights of abortion survivors, originated with Hadley Arkes, a political science professor at Amherst College. For Arkes, the legislation wasn't only to protect abortion survivors, but was also a way to advance the conversation on abortion about when a person should be recognized as a person under the law.

The question of why a baby born alive has rights leads to the question of why an almost-born fetus doesn't have rights, for instance.

The mere statement of an end, or an objective, does not supply the reasons, and the main point behind this simplest of proposals is to start launching the conversation and bringing forth those reasons, Arkes wrote in Natural Rights & the Right to Choose.

Due in part to the testimony of people like Jessen, Ohden and Stanek, Congress passed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002.

Planned Parenthood initially opposed the bill in the House but decided not to oppose the bill when it went before the Senate. It passed the House by 186-107 and by unanimous consent in the Senate.

While the law provided the legal rights to an infant marked for abortion but born alive, it did not include any enforcement mechanisms.

Kermit Gosnell

In 2010, authorities raided abortionist Kermit Gosnell's Philadelphia facility. The gruesome scene included 47 intact dead babies, baby feet kept in jars, and toilets clogged with baby body parts.

Gosnell was charged with involuntary manslaughter for the death of Karnamaya Mongar, who died after Gosnell performed a late-term abortion on her, and three counts of first-degree murder for killing babies  babies delivered alive, then killed. Like Christ Hospital, one of Gosnell's late-term abortion methods was to induce labor, deliver the baby, then kill the baby.

During Gosnell's trial, most of the national media first chose to ignore it, calling it a local crime story, until they were shamed into reporting it.

USA Today opinion columnist Kirsten Powers, a pro-life Democrat, was one of those who brought attention to the liberal bias behind certain media's initial choice to look away from this shocking crime story being revealed in a Philadelphia courtroom.

"You don't have to oppose abortion rights to find late-term abortion abhorrent or to find the Gosnell trial eminently newsworthy. This is not about being 'pro-choice' or 'pro-life.' It's about basic human rights," she wrote.

"The deafening silence of too much of the media, once a force for justice in America, is a disgrace."

Gosnell is now in prison for murder, but as Powers also pointed out, what he did would've been legal if he had only murdered those babies while they were still in the womb: "Regardless of such quibbles, about whether Gosnell was killing the infants one second after they left the womb instead of partially inside or completely inside the womb  as in a routine late-term abortion  is merely a matter of geography. That one is murder and the other is a legal procedure is morally irreconcilable."

Ralph Northam

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who is also a pediatrician, was defending a late-term abortion bill during a Jan. 30 radio interview when he went a step further and defended denying medical attention to babies born alive after an attempted abortion.

Late-term abortions, he said, are "done in cases where there may be severe deformities, where there may be a fetus thats not viable, so in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable. It would be resuscitated if thats what the mother and the family desired and then a discussion would ensue between the physician and the mother."

Defenders of Northam argue he was only speaking about do-not-resuscitate orders, which are legal and common with near-death patients of any age. But his comments were said in defense of an abortion bill, and his description sounded similar to the late-term abortion methods used by Christ Hospital, where babies were delivered but denied medical attention and allowed to die.

Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act

As a result of Northam's comments, there has been a renewed effort to amend the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act to include enforcement. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act was pushed in the Senate by its sponsor, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb.

The bill would require health workers to treat all newborns the same, regardless if they are marked for abortion. It does not, as a New York Times "fact check" claimed, require physicians to use extreme measures to keep an abortion survivor alive. Rather, it requires the physician to treat the abortion survivor the same as any other baby in her care.

It states in part: "In the case of an abortion or attempted abortion that results in a child born alive: ... Any health care practitioner present at the time the child is born alive shall ... exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age ...."

A similar bill already passed in the House, but on Feb. 25, the Senate failed to pass the 60-vote threshold to advance the legislation. Only three Democrats voted in favor of the bill.

Pro-life defenders of born-alive legislation sometimes say it's "not about abortion." That's only partly true. The law would be in effect only after an attempted abortion, not during or before. So in that sense, it has no bearing on the legal right to an abortion.

But in a broader sense, the legislation is certainly about abortion because it deals with botched abortions, and it helps pro-lifers put forth their arguments. Pro-choicers want to make the debate about a woman's freedom to choose an abortion. Pro-lifers want to make the debate about personhood and when the right to life begins. Talk about protecting the lives of babies born alive helps pro-lifers frame the debate on their turf.

The legislation is necessary, if babies marked for abortion but born alive are to have legal protections, but it's also useful for advancing a pro-life argument: If a the life a fetus marked for abortion but born alive should have a right to life, why shouldn't every other fetus?
Jerry Falwell Jr. invites Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to speak at Liberty after alleged threat controversy

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Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. has invited Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to speak at the evangelical Christian school after quashing claims that he threatened her in comments he made about the Green New Deal and his herd of cattle at a Conservative Political Action Conference event last week.

A Twitter spat ensued after Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat congresswoman from New York, retweeted an incendiary clip posted by Bishop Talbert Swan of Spring of Hope Church of God in Christ in Springfield, Massachusetts, that shows Falwell speaking about concealed carry permits in 2015 following a terror attack at an office Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, where 14 people were killed and 21 others were injured.

I always thought that if more good people had concealed carry permits, then we could end those Muslims [unintelligible] ... Ocasio-Cortez wrote alongside the retweeted video where she falsely claimed: This was just this weekend at CPAC, the conference attended by the President and members, to 1000s. Wheres the resolution against Islamophobia?

The clip, however, was from December 2015 following the San Bernardino terror attack, not last week's CPAC event.

And Falwell shot back a response.

She claims this was @CPAC last week when it was actually in 2015 the day after the deadly CA attacks by radical Muslims (those Muslims I referenced) She also deleted the last part of my quote before they walk in and kill us, he tweeted.

The dispute heated up when Ocasio-Cortez shared another video on Twitter by Vic Berger IV, who claimed that it showed Falwell threatening to shoot @AOC at @CPAC this past weekend.

The clip, however, was shown without context.

During CPAC last week  held at National Harbor, Maryland, and three other locations including Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, last week  Falwell was among a number of speakers who poked fun at the targeting of cows in Ocasio-Cortezs Green New Deal.

A Green New Deal fact sheet released by Ocasio-Cortezs office last month mentioned the need to "fully get rid of farting cows.

An actual phrase in the proposal reads: "We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we arent sure that well be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast."

While apparently joking about his family always being armed, Falwell suggested that Ocasio-Cortez would have a hard time if she tried to seize his 100 head of cattle.

My boys always had guns in their hand," Falwell is heard saying in a clip that was retweeted by Ocasio-Cortez without an explanation that the discussion was about the movement to raise children gender neutral and gender fluid, and the tendency of girls to gravitate toward playing with dolls and their boys' interest in toy guns. "Thats not something you teach them, thats something theyre born with.  As far as those cows you mentioned, Ive got 100 cows  you just let Alexandria Cortez show up at my house and try to take my cows away, Falwell said during a panel discussion with Donald Trump Jr. at Liberty University last Friday.

I love cows, Jerry  theyre delicious, Trump Jr. responded.

CPAC speakers have said a lot of wild stuff about Democrats wanting to ban cows. Heres a supercut. pic.twitter.com/HfmBnlRGyo  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 2, 2019

Last Thursday, North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows also quipped at the conference: You know, with this Green New Deal, theyre trying to get rid of all the cows. But Ive got good news: Chick-fil-A stock will go way up because we are gonna be eating more chicken!

A short time later, Sebastian Gorka, a former official in President Trumps administration, accused Democrats of wanting to take away your hamburgers and said burger-banning is what Stalin dreamt about but never achieved.

On Friday, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas also quipped that he hopes to see PETA supporting the Republican Party, now that the Democrats want to kill all the cows.

Despite the disagreement, Falwell shot down the mischaracterization of his comments and invited Ocasio-Cortez to share her views at Liberty.

@AOC Although we disagree on most of our politics, I would love to offer you the invite to come present your ideas at Liberty Convocation. Unlike most schools we welcome free speech and hearing from those who differ from our political views, he tweeted.

Without speaking directly to the issue of farting cows, Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview on Showtimes "Desus & Mero" that climate policy should examine reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.

In the deal, what we talk about is ... that we need to take a look at factory farming, period. Its wild, she told the hosts Desus Nice and The Kid Mero.

And so its not to say you get rid of agriculture. Its not to say were going to force everybody to go vegan or anything crazy like that. But its to say, listen, weve got to address factory farming. Maybe we shouldnt be eating a hamburger for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Like, lets keep it real, she continued. We have to take a look at everything.

A report in The Hill noted that while cow flatulence is frequently noted as a source of methane, it is the cows' belches that produce the danger from their enteric fermentation. The Environmental Protection Agency says livestock, especially cows, generate nearly one third of the methane produced from agriculture and it is on the rise.

Livestock, especially ruminants such as cattle, produce methane (CH4) as part of their normal digestive processes. This process is called enteric fermentation, and it represents almost one third of the emissions from the agriculture economic sector, the agency notes.

But agriculture only accounts for 9 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, according to data from the EPA. Emissions from electricity and transportation sectors collectively account for 56 percent of the total while industry accounts for 22 percent. Commercial and residential activity produces 11 percent of the emissions.
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Most people can appreciate a practical joke. Some people are really good at setting them up.

During Hollywoods golden years, there was a fellow in the film industry who was probably the best that there has ever been at practical jokes. Writer and Movie Director, Jack McDermott would go to great lengths to pull off a good one.

One of his favorite gags was to take his guests for a ride in his Model T. Ford into the mountains of California, where he would careen around curves at terrifying speeds. When his guests would protest for fear of their lives, he would yank the steering wheel from the column and throw it over the mountainside while still driving. The panic-stricken passenger was unaware McDermott had installed foot controls for steering.

McDermott also lived in a house with secret places, sliding panels, and specially designed rooms for his antics.

One featured room was hidden and upside down. The rugs and furniture were attached to the ceiling. The drapes and pictures, along with the fireplace, were upside down. Even the floor had a chandelier that extended straight up from its center. If a house guest had too much to drink at one of his wild house parties, McDermott would take the drunken individual to that upside down room and place him on the floor to sleep it off. You can imagine what it was like to wake up in there.

When we look around at our country today, many of us feel like we are waking up in an upside down room. Seemingly everything has become topsy-turvy.

Here are a few recent happenings that I noticed which appear to demonstrate the point.

Some states dominated by the Democratic Party have joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which means these states intend to circumvent the Electoral College and award the results of a Presidential election to the popular vote. But in North Carolina, my home state, a Democratic Judge knocked down the votes of 4 million people who were in favor of two state constitutional amendments, one which provided for a cap on state taxes and the other which required a photo ID for casting a ballot. Democrats in the state have been supporting the Judges terrible ruling. Why instead havent Democrats at home and across the country, who believe every vote should count, decried the Judges decision?

This seems upside down to me.

The #MeToo movement vehemently speaks out against toxic masculinity, sexual harassment, and the sexual assault of women. However, the same movement is cravenly silent about a recent federal court ruling that says its unconstitutional to require only men to register for the military draft. Wheres the outrage by that same movement that women would now be coerced to do combat? Surely they dont think theyll only be fighting other women, and that if they were defeated in battle and captured that it would never involve a sexual assault.

Hmmm.this turns the matter of womens rights on its head.

Speaking at a forum in Omaha, Nebraska, on Thursday of last week, former Vice President Joe Biden called Vice President Mike Pence a decent guy. But when leaders in the LGBTQ community bitterly complained about Bidens assessment of Pence, Biden backpedaled and faulted Pences position on gay rights, saying, There is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the Vice President.

So does this mean former Vice President Biden considers the millions of Americans who still believe, as Pence does, that sexual practices outside of marriage between one man and one woman constitute immorality, are indecent people? Either Biden believes that Pence, and everyone who holds to a traditional view of marriage is decent or indecent, which is it? He cant have it both ways.

Any way one looks at this, its the wrong way up.

Last week, Republican Rep. Mark Meadows from North Carolina invited Lynn Patton, a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) official, who is black, to address the accusations Michael Cohen made during the House Oversight Committee that the President is a racist. Patton, born in Birmingham, Alabama, said she would never work for a man who was a racist.

Later in the hearing, Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib from Michigan said calling on a person of color like Patton to testify, was nothing more than a racist prop by Rep. Meadows.

Patton was puzzled by Talaibs accusation, asking why anyone on the House Oversight Committee would place more creedence on the word of a self-confessed perjurer, and criminally convicted white man, over a highly-educated black woman, who rose up the ranks of one of the most recognized global real-estate companies in the world, spoke before 25 million people at the Republican National Convention, and now successfully oversees the largest HUD program office in the country?

Good question! Anyone seeing it? Its a form of inverted racism.

I think Michael Medved described this kind of topsy-turvy thinking when he said: A quick glance at the American left reveals a movement in the midst of a nervous breakdown, displaying behavior that goes beyond inconsistency into the realm of bipolar moods and multiple personality disorders.

According to the apostle Paul in Romans 1:25, the defining moment for the incredible Roman Empire came when she exchanged the truth of God for a lie.

Isnt this what America has done? Isnt this where our moral relativism has taken us? Paul adds, And because they did not think it worthwhile to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them over to a worthless mind (v.28).

Nothing else better explains this upside down nation in which we are now living. And that aint no joke!

Rev. Mark H. Creech is executive director of the Raleigh-based Christian Action League of North Carolina Inc.
Pakistan: 13-y-o Christian girl abducted, forced to convert to Islam and marry captor

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UPDATE: This story has been updated to include comments from ICC.

A Christian teenager in Pakistan was recently abducted and forcefully converted to Islam. And now her abductors are using the countrys legal system to keep her from returning home.

The Christian persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern reported that on Feb. 6, 13-year-old Sadaf Masih was abducted by three men identified as Maqbool Hussain, Mubashir Hussain Baloch and Azhir Hussain Baloch.

When Masihs family became aware of the Christian girls abduction, they reached out to the family of the abductors who told them that she would be returned to them.

However, after eight days, the abductors told the Christian family that Masih was married and had converted to Islam. They then showed the family a marriage certificate which falsely claimed she was 18, an age old enough to get legally married in Pakistan.

When her family protested, the abductors threatened them and warned that if they tried to contact the teen, there would be consequences of the law.

ICC notes that abductions and forced conversions to Islam are common for religious minorities in Pakistan, as an estimated 1,000 women from Pakistans Christian and Hindu communities are abducted, raped, and forcefully converted to Islam each year. Pakistan ranks as the fifth worst nation in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA's World Watch List.

"Violence against women and girls  including rape, murder through so-called honor killings, acid attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage  remained routine," noted a recent Human Rights Watch report on Pakistan.

William Stark, regional manager for South Asia at ICC, commented to CP, What is most disturbing in many of these cases is how rape is used as a weapon to entrap victims. For many women in Pakistan, securing a good marriage is the only way to secure a good life. When these victimized women are raped, they feel trapped because it takes away their ability to secure a good marriage due to the shame associated with being a rape victim.

Another disturbing element of forced conversion cases is the issue of custody. When abductors claim a victim has been married to them, especially when the victim is a woman, they maintain custody over their victim. This makes it especially difficult for Christian women who have been abducted, forcefully converted to Islam, and forcefully married to their abductors to provide testimony against their abductors.

In recent years, numerous reports have emerged of Christian women in Pakistan being abducted, raped and forced to marry their rapists. Oftentimes, the abducted girls are forced to convert to Islam, which makes their subsequent marriages legal under Pakistani law.

Additionally, Muslims who have abducted Christian girls and women and forced them into marriages have often been treated a level of impunity by local authorities.

Last year, a 12-year-old Pakistani Christian girl was abducted and forced to convert to Islam and marry her abductor, according to World Watch Monitor. When her father attempted to seek legal assistance, he was detained by police for filing false charges against her captor.

Eventually, the girl was returned home after she was unable to convince the court that she had willingly converted to Islam.

Last April, Fouzia Bibi, a Christian mother of three who was abducted and forced into an Islamic marriage with her boss, was granted freedom and divorce by a family court in Lahore.

The ruling came nearly two years after Bibi was first abducted. It also came after her family was previously pressured by local authorities to return Bibi to the Muslim boss' home after she had escaped.
The arrested include the brother and son of Masood Azhar, head of the Islamic group that carried out the attack in Kashmir on 14 February. The Pakistani authorities freeze the accounts of some terrorists. Satellite photos reveal that the terrorist training base in Pakistan is intact.

Islamabad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - At least 44 alleged militants have been arrested by Islamabad authorities in the last crackdown against Islamic terrorism. The arrests represent the attempt by the Pakistani government to ease the tension with India, rekindled in recent weeks following the bombing of February 14 in Pulwama, Kashmir, during which over 40 Indian soldiers were killed.

Pakistani Interior Minister Shehryar Afridi reports that among the inmates there are also two close relatives of Masood Azhar, the leader of the fundamentalist group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), who claimed the massacre in Kashmir. This would be mufti Abdul Rauf and Hammad Azhar, respectively brother and son of Masood. Both men appear on the list of suspects of the attack that Delhi delivered to Pakistani last week.

Although the JeM group has been banned by the Islamabad authorities, its militants continue to hold sway over portions of territory that are difficult to control by state forces, especially in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and tribal areas.

It is in the aforementioned Pakistani province, in the locality of Balakot, that on 26 February the Indian air force raided to destroy a training camp of the JeM militants. After the air raids, the Delhi Defense Secretary claimed the killing of at least 350 militants.

In retaliation, the Islamabad Air Force shot down two Indian fighter jets who had illegally entered their airspace, taking one of the pilots as prisoners. As a "gesture of peace", the government in Islamabad returned Lieutenant Colonel Abhinandan Varthaman, who was given a heros welcome to India.

The arrests of alleged Islamic militants could help defuse clashes even further. Among other things, the satellite images released this week by Reuters reveal that the madrassa (Koranic school) hit by the bombs at Balakot is intact. By comparing the photos before and after the raids, the structure does not show any obvious damage.

Finally, the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered to freeze and block the accounts of individuals and Islamic associations linked to Pakistan and included in the list of terrorists drawn up by the United Nations at the global level.
A dire need for massive investments to revive its flagging economy is seen ass the motive force behind Italy's decision to formally endorse China's global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). As Business Times writes, should Italy and China sign a memorandum of understanding next month during the state visit of President Xi Jinping, Italy will become the first G7 country to support BRI and its controversial infrastructure projects. Other G7 nations, especially the United States, staunchly oppose the BRI.

"We want to make sure that 'Made in Italy' products can have more success in terms of export volume to China, which is the fastest-growing market in the world," said Michele Geraci, an official in Italy's Economic Development Ministry.

Xi will visit recession-plagued Italy at the end of this month before proceeding to France and to the United States where he will meet with president Donald Trump. It is uncertain if both leaders will sign an agreement to mitigate the growth-killing effects of Trump's trade war with China.

BRI is a massive trade and infrastructure project that intends to link China with Europe, Africa, and Asia through a series of new Chinese-funded ports, railroads and roads along land and sea trade corridors.

Italy formed a China Task Force in October 2018 to investigate economic opportunities in China, including the possibility of endorsing the BRI. Li Ruiyi, China's ambassador to Italy, attended the first meeting of the task force in Italy and spoke about bilateral relations. "Italy and China were linked by the ancient Silk Road in the past," said Li. "We expect the Task Force to help strengthen the two countries' cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and contributing to a closer EU-China relationship."

The announcement of Italy's participation is welcome news for Beijing as more and more countries question China's motives behind the BRI and the benefits they stand to derive. Italy's decision to endorse but not become a partner in the BRI was taken amid the furor surrounding Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, the world's leading supplier of networking equipment, and a leader in the new 5G technology. The U.S. is engaged in a campaign to dissuade its allies, Italy included, from using Huawei equipment for their national 5G projects.

Italy's struggling economy shows no sign of improvement in the near term without massive investments. It shrank 0.1 percent in the last three months of 2018 as it did in the third quarter. It was the second straight quarter of GDP decline and plunged Italy into recession for the third time in a decade. Italy's GDP growth rate averaged 0.59 percent from 1960 until 2018.

The U.S. government has always said BRI projects impose massive debts on developing countries for hardly any economic benefit. China is also using BRI to extend its military and political power overseas, according to some BRI critics.
Former Archbishop of York John Habgood dies aged 81

The former Archbishop of York, John Habgood, has died at the age of 81.

He served as the Church of England's second most senior archbishop from 1983-1995, having formerly served as Bishop of Durham.

His successor at York, Most Rev John Sentamu, paid tribute to him saying: 'The sad news of the death yesterday of former Archbishop of York, John Stapylton Habgood, comes as northern bishops gather for a Diocesan mission in Liverpool.

'As a hugely distinguished scientist, theologian and philosopher, Archbishop Habgood's faith in Christ gave him a particular perspective and a persuasive witness both to church and nation for his time. His many books simplified big and complex questions, revealing an incredibly perceptive intellect. I'm very glad to have confirmed his grandchildren and dedicated a room in his honour at Bishopthorpe Palace.

'His towering presence, physical, intellectual, and spiritual, was a gift to all who knew him. My prayers are with his family at this time. May he Rest in Peace, and rise in glory.'

A former principle of the ecumenical Queen's College in Birmingham, he was a strong supporter of women's ordination. He wrote widely on science and religion, warning of the 'Protestant extremism' that has led to the rise of creationism and arguing that accounts of supernatural events in the Bible should be seen in the context of the cultural beliefs of the time.
Collecting guide: icons of Italian mid-century design

How Gio Ponti, Carlo de Carli, Carlo Mollino, Carlo Scarpa and Fontana Arte transformed Italian furniture and interiors. Illustrated with outstanding pieces previously offered at Christies and more featured in upcoming sales

Gio Ponti Giovanni Gio Ponti (1891-1979) was a modern Renaissance man. With a career spanning seven decades, his work as a designer and architect ranged from armchairs to cars to skyscrapers, while he also edited magazines for more than 50 years.

After training as an architect, Ponti began to design neo-classical villas while also, from 1923 to 1930, serving as art director for the Richard Ginori ceramics factory, creating classically inspired porcelain. His later furniture designs would come to epitomise post-war Italys design confidence  one of his most iconic pieces, the Superleggera (super light) chair was so strong and yet also so light that a schoolchild could lift it with one finger.

Gio Ponti (1891-1979), A pair of rare wingback armchairs, designed circa 1947. Each 26 x 34 x 39 in (67 x 87 x 101 cm). Sold for 118,750 on 6 March 2019 at Christies in London

Ponti created his furniture for some 120 different companies, with a view to making his work as accessible to as many people as possible. Each manufacturer adapted his designs to fit their production  thus, Pontis designs tend to show subtly different proportions, construction and materials. Gio Ponti was prolific across diverse media, says Christies International Design specialist Simon Andrews. Probably the two most crucial periods of his influence were the early years of the 1930s, during which he supported the internationalisation of the Italian identity through the founding of Domus magazine, and then the post-war period of around 1945-1960. Works from these periods have become increasingly scarce, and are actively sought after by collectors. Ponti is currently the subject of a major retrospective at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris.

Carlo Mollino Carlo Mollino and Gio Ponti were great friends and respected each others work, Andrews continues. However as practitioners, the two could not have been more different: unlike Pontis more universal, international approach to design, Mollino preferred to remain active only within his immediate environment of Turin. Born into a wealthy family, Carlo Mollino (1905-1973) could afford to be selective with his projects. Many of his furniture designs were one-off commissions for friends or private clients, such as the unique wooden cabinet for the Casa Albonico (below) in Turin and the record-breaking glass and oak table for the Casa Orengo (also below). The Tipo B side chair was created as a wedding gift for Gio Pontis daughter, Lisa.

Carlo Mollino (1905-1973), A unique cabinet for the Casa Albonico, Turin

Mollino used his furniture to explore his interests in cutting-edge technology and new materials, as well as to indulge in his love of symbolism. Both a Modernist and a Surrealist, Mollino was a man of many eclectic passions  in addition to architecture and design, he was a trained pilot and racing car driver, and a creator of erotic Polaroids.

Many of the bespoke interiors Mollino created for his clients were dismantled in the 1970s and 80s, with works immediately entering private collections or museums, notes Andrews. Consequently, the appearance of any of Mollinos unique furnishings on the auction market is always met with enthusiasm.

Carlo Scarpa Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978) studied architecture but never obtained a professional license, although that didnt stop him from later designing some of Italys most celebrated buildings. For the first 20 years of his career, however, he was a designer of Venetian glass, pushing the boundaries of Venices venerable glassblowing traditions.

Some of Scarpas finest work as an architect was the renovation and redisplay of Italys most historic museums and galleries. While working at the Correr Museum in Venice, Scarpa designed his famous easel, made of wood, steel and brass, fully adjustable but with no screws or bolts. Scarpa liked these easels so much that he continued to use them throughout his career. Scarpa occupies a legendary position in the evolution of the Italian design personality, says Simon Andrews. He was both prolific and revolutionary as a glass designer between the 1920s and 1940s, revealing a built or constructed quality to many of his vessels, which was consistent with his training as an architect. Despite his broad and visionary talent, Scarpa designed relatively few furniture designs, which were mainly delivered for site-specific installations for private clients, or in the case of this rare easel, designed to integrate seamlessly within a gallery environment.





Carlo de Carli Carlo de Carli (1910-1999) was a practising architect, respected academic and writer, and prolific furniture designer. After graduating from the Polytechnic University of Milan in 1934, he worked for a while under Gio Ponti, before setting up a studio of his own.

As a furniture designer, de Carli worked with some of the leading manufacturers of his time, including Cassina and Tecno. He also worked on private commissions, such as all the furnishings for Casa Galli in Milan, designed to fit around the inhabitants lifestyles. As he once stated: A chair, an armchair or a table must be elements in which one can feel an individual presence. De Carli may be included amongst the new generation of post-war architects and designers who were instrumental in guiding the democratisation of good, effective modern design, says Andrews. Prolific in his output, de Carlis commissions included those for ocean liners and hotels (often in collaboration with Gio Ponti), in addition to serial-manufacturers and unique pieces for private clients, which remain amongst the most sought-after of his works.





Carlo de Carli 1910-1999, A desk and a pair of armchairs, 1949. Each chair: 33 in (85.5 cm) high; 22 in (57 cm) wide; 20 in (52.5 cm) deep. Sold for 15,000 on 26 October 2016 at Christies in London

De Carli strived to create designs that incorporated the bodys movements and posture. The relationship between human form and design is particularly evident in his chairs and beds, which, to some extent, dictate the pose of their user.

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Fontana Arte Fontana Arte was founded in 1932 by glass artisan Luigi Fontana, architect Gio Ponti and designer Pietro Chiesa. More than eight decades on, the company is still considered one of the leading makers of glass lighting, furniture and home accessories. Sophisticated in their design and of flawless execution, the furniture, lighting and objects produced by Fontana Arte have represented the very pinnacle of the skills of Italian craftsmanship and innovation, confirms our specialist.





Under Chiesas directorship in the 1930s, Fontana Arte expanded from decorative stained-glass products to tables, mirrors and lighting, with many of its early designs remaining in production today. Simon Andrews explains that todays collectors and decorators are increasingly drawn to the dramatic and stylish chandeliers, appliques and lamps that represented the breadth of the often-bespoke production of the 1950s and early 1960s.






The Collection of Drue Heinz, a legendary patron of the arts

The collection assembled by the philanthropist, long-time publisher of The Paris Review and renowned literary patron will be offered across the Impressionist and Modern Art sales in New York in May, and a dedicated multi-category collection sale in London in June

A philanthropist and generous supporter of the literary and visual arts, Drue Heinz (19152018) was an influential figure in cultural, social and literary circles in both the United States and Britain. Over the course of her three-decade marriage to Henry J. Jack Heinz II, of the Heinz foods empire, Drue, who was born in England, assembled a remarkable collection of fine and decorative arts, centred on first-tier works from major figures of the early modern period. The Heinz Collection includes extraordinary examples of the best of 19th- and 20th-century art, from Monet to Matisse, Picasso to Modigliani and Bonnard, says Jessica Fertig, Head of Evening Sale for Impressionist and Modern Art in New York. It was displayed in the Heinz homes so that at every turn the eye would fall on something thought-provoking and beautiful. On 13 May, Christies will offer for sale The Collection of Drue Heinz, featuring her important modern paintings, during 20th Century Week in New York. The wider contents of her London and New York homes will be offered in a dedicated London sale in June.

A leading patron of the arts As well as being a great collector and leading advocate for literature and writers, Heinz was a loyal supporter and board member of the Carnegie Museums in Pittsburgh, the Royal Academy in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She created a rich legacy in literature, the performing arts, architecture, and education.

Drue Heinz bought works of exceptional quality and rarity... In her early days as a collector, she astutely solicited advice from friends who were connoisseurs

Literature was her consuming passion, and she developed close friendships with many of the major literary figures of the 20th century, among them Harold Pinter, George Plimpton, Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, John Le Carre, Edna OBrien, Tom Stoppard and Seamus Heaney. In 1971 Drue Heinz founded Ecco Press, which published the literary magazine Antaeus, and from 1993 to 2008 served as publisher of The Paris Review, having helped to establish the quarterly publication in 1953. The Paris Review went on to publish original work by the likes of Samuel Beckett, Philip Larkin and Jack Kerouac, and under her leadership sought to establish deeper links between literature and art, publishing a series of prints and posters by New Yorks leading post-war artists. Other notable contributions to the arts included her funding of the Monday Night Lecture Series in Pittsburgh, which continues to draw Americas top literary figures; founding literary retreats; and her endowment of the Drue Heinz Literarture Prize, a collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Press that enables the publication of short fiction. Drue Heinz was named an Honorary Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1995, and selected as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002. Proceeds from the sale of her collection, which also includes works by Magritte, Giacometti and Dali, will go to support her beloved Hawthornden Literary Retreat in Scotland, among other charitable projects.

Highlights from the collection Drue Heinz bought works of exceptional quality and rarity. Much of the collection was formed after her marriage to H.J. (Jack) Heinz II in 1953 and although he joked about his wife being the art connoisseur, I live from snowfall to snowfall, Jack, an avid skier, was interested in and supported acquisitions. It was Drue, however, who was often the scout, finding interesting works to add to the collection. In her early days as a collector, she astutely solicited advice from friends who were connoisseurs and could help to expand her knowledge of 20th-century art.

Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), Lunia Czechowska (a la robe noire), 1919. 36 x 23 in (92.4 x 60 cm). Sold for $25,245,000 on 13 May 2019 at Christies in New York

Leading the collection is Amedeo Modiglianis Lunia Czechowska (a la robe noire), painted in 1919. Modigliani was infatuated with his young sitter, a Polish emigree who was married to a close friend of the artists dealer, Leopold Zborowski, and would go on to paint her likeness in 10 known paintings. Czechowskas serious demeanour and youthful figure lent themselves well to the primary influences the artist liked to incorporate in his portraits  the elongated forms of the 16th-century Italian Mannerists Parmigianino and Pontormo, filtered through his modernist attraction to African tribal art. In this painting, Czechowskas fine, delicate features convey an intelligence and sensitivity that illustrate Modiglianis talent as a portraitist.

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), La Terrasse ou Une terrasse a Grasse, 1912. 49 x 52 in (125.3 x 134.4 cm). Sold for $19,570,000 on 13 May 2019 at Christies in New York

Pierre Bonnards La Terrasse or Une terrasse a Grasse is one of the finest examples of the artists terrace series and one of the two largest canvases he painted during a productive stay at Grasse, near Cannes, between January and May 1912. Both of these grand-scale works visualise the Cote dAzur as a modern-day Arcadia. In La Terrasse, Bonnard creates a private, enclosed world that evokes the sultry heat and languorous reverie of a Mediterranean afternoon. Marthe Boursin, his future wife, only emerges on second glance, her sun-dappled blue jacket and brown cloche hat seeming to merge with the surrounding ground of the terrace. Sasha Newman, the American art critic and curator, has described Marthe as a dreaming feminine presence in Bonnards pictures, and one who so often appears in cut-off views  glimpsed on a balcony, through a door, or reflected in a mirror. She is, Newman maintains, central to the underlying air of mystery in much of Bonnards art.

Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Nu a la fenetre, 1929. 25 x 21 in (65.3 x 54.5 cm). Sold for $6,517,500 on 13 May 2019 at Christies in New York

Henri Matisses Nu a la fenetre, also known as Nu nacre (Pearly Nude) for the iridescent quality of its light, entered the Heinz Collection in 1961. Painted in 1929 in the artists new studio in Nice, this high-keyed canvas, reproduced later that year in two important monographs, one by Florent Fels and the other by Roger Fry, depicts a nude model named Loulou, one of several ballet dancers from the Compagnie de Paris, standing beside a window in a classic contrapposto pose. The Odalisques were the bounty of a happy nostalgia, a lovely vivid dream, and the almost ecstatic, enchanted days and nights of the Moroccan climate, recounted Matisse. I felt an irresistible need to express that ecstasy, that divine unconcern, in corresponding coloured rhythms, rhythms of sunny and lavish figures and colours. The paintings that Matisse created in early 1929 represent the culmination of his work at Nice during this transformative period. The Heinz Picasso Course de taureaux (estimate: $3,500,000-5,500,000) is a rare early work by the artist, capturing the brief, electrifying moment immediately before the bull charges into the corrida. It was painted in 1900 when Picasso was just 18 years old. Picasso had returned home to Barcelona the previous year, after a brief stint at the prestigious but stiflingly traditional Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. At this point in his life he was just months away from his first trip to Paris, and fuelled by a determination to prove his worth in the very centre of the art world.

The homes of Drue Heinz Drue Heinz furnished houses in both America and the UK. On 4 June, the contents of her London and New York homes, both of which featured interiors by Lorenzo Mongiardino (1916-1998), will be offered at auction in London. The London mews house, which Mr. and Mrs. Heinz bought in 1955, is particularly notable for its untouched interiors laid out by John Fowler (1906-1977) for Colefax & Fowler in the early 1950s. A second phase of development and decoration was undertaken in the 1980s by Mongiardino, the Italian architect, interior designer and production designer who was twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Drue and Mongiardino were introduced through close friends Gianni and Marella Agnelli, and the designer went on to integrate a neighbouring mews property, formerly a car showroom, into the home, creating a theatrical ballroom, the walls of which are painted with vistas inspired by the Villa Falconieri in Rome.



The entrance hall to Drue Heinzs New York townhouse

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Big Oil dodged a bullet.

Norway took a partial step in divesting oil and gas stocks in its massive $1 trillion wealth fund, approving the sale of smaller exploration companies while sparing the biggest producers such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp.

After more than a year of deliberation, the government on Friday approved excluding 134 companies classified as exploration and production companies by FTSE Russell, including Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Chesapeake Energy Corp., Cnooc Ltd. and Tullow Oil Plc. The proposal would see the fund sell about $7.5 billion in stocks.

FUEL FIX: Get energy, oil and gas news updates each weekday

It reflects to a larger extent the risk we ourselves have -- the bulk of the states exposure in Norway is upstream activity, Finance Minister Siv Jensen said. Were reducing our vulnerability by choosing to withdraw the fund gradually from this segment.

The government goes part of the way in meeting a 2017 proposal from the fund, which rattled global markets by arguing for a full divestment of the sector to limit Norways overall exposure to oil. The plan was hailed as a potential huge step by climate activists, some of whom on Friday lamented the limited scope of the decision. It has been a hot-button issue in Norway, which is seeking to project an image as a responsible environmental steward while pumping oil and gas at a fast clip.

Sony Kapoor, managing director at think tank Re-Define, said in a message that the limited divestment represents a victory of Big Oil lobbying over financial prudence and common sense.

Jensen defended her decision to keep the big oil companies in the portfolio, citing their increased investments in renewable energy. Norways own oil company, Equinor ASA, is also increasing renewable energy investments, and even recently changed its name from Statoil.

It would be sad if the pension fund would not be able to invest in those companies in the future, Jensen said in an interview.

The partial move underscores the changing political climate in Norway, where opposition to oil and gas exploration is on the rise. Prime Minister Erna Solbergs Conservative Party has been a long-time friend to the oil industry. Junior government coalition partner, the Liberals, were supportive even though they had backed a larger divestment.

Norways Labor Party, the biggest in opposition, also expressed support. They are taking a more cautious step than what Norges Bank advised, said Svein Roald Hansen, a Labor Party legislator. But its better than no step at all. There seems to have been a tug of war within the government.

The $1 trillion fund has been built up over the past two decades from oil and gas revenue and Norway also uses large chunks of income from its offshore fields each year to pay for its lavish welfare state. The managers of the fund, which is overseen by the central bank, therefore argued in their proposal that it makes little sense for Norway to be doubly exposed to oil both in its revenue stream and through its investments.

--With assistance from Kelly Gilblom and Annmarie Hordern.

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The United States' surging oil and gas production will soon allow the country to surpass Saudi Arabia in liquid petroleum exports.

While Saudi Arabia will remain the top crude oil exporter, the U.S. is destined to usurp the kingdom as soon as late 2019 when it comes to overall liquid petroleum exports, including fuels and some natural gas liquids, according to a new report from the Norwegian research firm Rystad Energy.

"Increasingly profitable shale production and a robust global appetite for light oil and gasoline is poised to bring the U.S. to a position of oil dominance in the next few years," said Rystad Energy senior partner Per Magnus Nysveen.

The U.S. is producing a record high of more than 12 million barrels of crude oil a day, including about 5 million barrels daily from Texas alone, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

The country is exporting more than 8 million barrels of petroleum liquids per day, including about 3 million barrels of commercial crude oil.

The other petroleum liquids include gasoline, jet fuel, natural gas liquids like propane, other oils and distillate fuel oil, which is used to make diesel and heating oils.

That compares to Saudi Arabia exporting 9 million barrels of liquid petroleum products a day, including 7 million barrels of commercial crude.

RELATED: Oil slides on economy fears, stuck in tightest range since 2017

"The political and economic impact of this shift in global trade has already been dramatic, and will be even more pivotal within the next five years," Nysveen added.

"The U.S. trade deficit will evaporate and its foreign debt will be paid quickly thanks to the swift rise of American oil and gas net exports," he said. "The tanker shipping industry will see the boom of the millennium, as the excess fossil fuels from America will find plenty of eager buyers in fast-growing Asia."

U.S. crude production should exceed 13 million barrels a day by the end of the year, including about 4 million barrels of crude exports daily.

The rush to build a slew of pipelines from West Texas' booming Permian Basin to port hubs near Houston and Corpus Christi is ongoing. And, in concert with that growth, there's also the race to construct a bunch of new crude export terminals along the Gulf Coast.
Now that the Catholic season of Lent is in full swing through mid-April, Houstonians looking for meat-free dishes on Fridays can rest assured the Bayou City can deliver.

But who wants a healthy seafood dish when you can have some southern style, deep-fried catfish and fried shrimp? The Chronicle compiled a list of 15 Houston area restaurants that offer the most raved about fried fish and fried seafood dishes in town that will keep your Lent commitments in check and your tummy full and satisfied.
United Airlines' catering workers successfully fought to join a union, and now they're rallying at Bush Intercontinental Airport ahead of contract negotiations set to being March 13.

Chicago-based United has 2,700 catering workers in five cities across the U.S. With more than 800 in Houston, local workers are set to picket at the corner of John F. Kennedy Boulevard and Greens Road on Friday.
Financially struggling Venezuela must pay Houston's ConocoPhillips $8.7 billion for the government's expropriation of the company's investments in Venezuela more than a decade ago, a legal dispute arm of the World Bank ruled Friday.

The new tribunal ruling keeps a focus on Houston-based Citgo Petroleum, the multibillion-dollar U.S.-based refining arm of Venezuela. Citgo is considered the top prize for companies that Venezuela owes billions of dollars if the country can't afford to pay in cash installments.

The new ruling is even more troubling news for the socialist nation that's already undergoing a geopolitical and financial crisis, as well as a fight over the nation's leadership with President Nicolas Maduro being challenged by opposition leader Juan Guaido, who's declared himself as interim president. A massive power outage even swept across much of Venezuela on Thursday.

And Venezuela, an oil-rich nation, is producing just more than 1 million barrels of crude a day, the lowest volumes in roughly three decades.

The World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes previously ruled in ConocoPhillips' favor in 2013, but the financial award of $8.7 billion wasn't determined until Friday.

RELATED: Board, named by Venezuelan opposition, takes control at Citgo

"We welcome the ICSID tribunal's decision, which upholds the principle that governments cannot unlawfully expropriate private investments without paying compensation," said ConocoPhillips General Counsel Kelly Rose.

Venezuela can still contest the ruling.

A separate tribunal last year awarded ConocoPhillips $2 billion from Venezuela, and they reached a settlement involving an initial $500 million payment last year with additional quarterly payments through 2022.

However, it will be much harder for Venezuela to pay the newer and larger penalties in cash, even on a delayed payment system. And that's where assets like Citgo come into play. Other companies also are seeking penalty payments from Venezuela, so there are no simple legal answers. And Russia's Rosneft holds a lien over Citgo as collateral for its loans to Venezuela's state oil company.

With the White House's support, the opposition leadership in Venezuela recently appointed a new board of directors and interim leadership for Citgo, ousting the top Maduro loyalists.

In a recent interview before the new tribunal ruling, ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO Ryan Lance acknowledged he's eyeing the proceedings with Citgo.

"We're really watching it closely because it's a considerable asset for the Venezuelans," Lance said. "It does represent an asset that's held in ownership of the Venezuelans outside of their country, so everybody is trying to focus on that and figure out where the pecking order stands for the value of those assets."

Lance added, "It's safe to say any asset they own outside of Venezuela we are very aware of, and that includes Citgo."

Lance acknowledged the plight of feeling concern for Venezuela's citizens while also having to fight for ConocoPhillips' interests.

"Unfortunately the country is in an awful state right now. It's not the citizens' fault, but it's the government's fault for kind of leading them astray from our perspective," he said. "We're using all the tools we can to make sure we get our fair share back out of what's due to us for taking some pretty significant assets away from the company."
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Party City, alleging the company fired a pregnant employee at its Pearland store because of health complications stemming from her battle with cervical cancer.

The EEOC, which enforces federal laws banning discrimination in the workplace, said the New Jersey-based party goods retailer violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when it denied a Houston-area woman reasonable accommodation and terminated her employment after she notified the company of medical restrictions issued by her doctor because of her high-risk pregnancy. Federal law prohibits discrimination against employees who are pregnant and have disabilities.

According to the EEOC's complaint, filed in Houston, Jahneiss Groce began working for Party City in April 2015 as a team leader, stocking shelves and helping customers. Prior to her employment, the Brazoria County resident was diagnosed and treated for cervical cancer with a medical procedure that increased the likelihood of miscarriage and preterm labor and often imposes restrictions on cancer survivors who become pregnant.

In the fall of 2015, Groce found out she was pregnant and notified her supervisor, according to the complaint. In December of that year, the suit said, she experienced cramping and some bleeding at work, and visited a local emergency room for examination and followed up with her personal physician.

In late December, Groce's doctor issued a medical note, restricting her from lifting objects over 10 pounds and climbing ladders. Party City's job description for Groce's team leader position requires that employees be able to lift, push and pull 25 pounds, climb ladders and stand the entire shift.

The EEOC alleges that Groce submitted her doctor's note to her supervisor and district manager, who passed it along to Party City's human resources office, who sent a "light duty" form for Groce to have completed by her doctor. In January, Groce's doctor completed the form, stating that Groce could stand and walk eight hours a day, lift up to 10 pounds for seven or more hours but not climb ladders.

Groce did her job "satisfactorily" until she was fired on Feb. 1, 2016, the EEOC lawsuit said. Party City wrote in her termination letter that "when your doctor releases you to return to work, and if you would like to return to work at Party City, you may apply for any open positions for which you are qualified."

A Party City representative, citing company policy, said it could not comment on matters of pending litigation.

RELATED: EEOC sues Walmart for refusing to hire Houston amputee seeking stocker job

Lloyd Van Oostenrijk, an EEOC trial attorney based in Houston, said companies do not have to accommodate pregnant employees, but they must accommodate employees who have a disability. In either case, companies cannot fire employees because of medical restrictions, he said.

"It's a tricky situation any time you're dealing with the intersection of these categories," Oostenrijk said. "The company only looked at this as a pregnancy case, and not a disability case. Unfortunately, it's something we see with some frequency nationally."

The EEOC, which attempted to reach a pretrial settlement through a conciliation process, is seeking back pay with interest as well as additional compensation for "emotional and mental anguish" from Party City on behalf of Groce. The federal agency is also seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting Party City from engaging in any disability discrimination in the future.

The EEOC has sued Party City in the past over accusations of discrimination against workers with disabilities. Last year, the EEOC filed a lawsuit against Party City in New York for allegedly discriminating against a job candidate who had autism and severe anxiety.
Over the past year at least 24 attacks, as well as at least 26 cases of intolerant vandalism were recorded in Russia. There were at least 36 cases like that in the same period of 2017. 30 cases were recorded in 2016, and 32 in 2015. This data was provided by Alexander Brod, member of the Russian President's Civil Society and Human Rights Council and member of President's Council on Interethnic Relations.

According to him, regional geography of these attacks is as follows: Belgorod, Kaluga region, Moscow, Moscow region, Republic of Dagestan, Kalmykia, St. Petersburg and Tyumen region are sadly in the risk group. Traditionally, Moscow and St. Petersburg lead this anti-rating. As for acts of vandalism, the risk group includes Arkhangelsk region, Kaliningrad region, Moscow, Republic of Karelia, Tatarstan, Perm Territory, Rostov and Ryazan regions. According to Brod, over the past year, sociological studies showed certain increase in xenophobic sentiments in public consciousness: After several years of steady decline, especially in 20142017, which showed the lowest level of xenophobia, we can see return of negative sentiments to public opinion. Growth of xenophobic sentiments is occuring against the background of overall increase in protest sentiments in Russia, which are tied to pension reform, prices and taxes growth."

In addition, existing confrontation with the West, a new wave of sanctions, informational pressure, russophobia in the foreign media, as well as discrimination against Russians and compatriots abroad strengthen anti-Western and anti-migrant sentiments. As a result, more and more people believe that Russia is isolated, which in turn generates hostility towards others, while some politicians and the media try to present internal problems as something that comes from abroad, without resolving these issues. All of this also contributes to strengthening of xenophobic and nationalist sentiments, Alexander Brod noted.

He promised that these issues will be raised at the meeting of the Interethnic Relations Council, as well as in the Duma Committee on Interethnic Relations and at other platforms. As we see, law enforcement officers are already facing final form of this intolerance, which is expressed in violations of the law, violent protest actions and intolerance on the internet, human rights activist said.

Meanwhile, Brod stressed that extremist and terrorist threat in the North Caucasus has been minimized: "In our recommendations we once again drew attention to improving coordination of implementation and development of the youth and educational policies. We propose to shift focus from ceremonial and festive activities to paying more attention to projects that can help to unite society, to generate intolerance towards xenophobia and extremism... A lot of attention should be given to development of independence of judiciary system, improvment of law enforcement agencies' work, since those factors often become catalysts for discord."

According to member of the Interethnic Council, chief researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Zorin, there's no single point of view on Russia's migration policy and its problems: Recently, the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology carried out a study in Moscow, which showed that the most negative opinion regarding migration was expressed by civil servants, government officials and many experts who see all existing problems. We underestimated two important documents - updated version of the State National Policy Strategy and the Migration Policy Concept. But today there's no unified approach to issues of adaptation and social integration of migrants or foreign workers. The Law on Adaptation and Integration of Migrants, which we began to develop, hasn't been adopted yet."

According to Zorin, it's important to resolve issues of adaption to training and working in new conditions, to clarify documents on implementation of presidential decrees: "The main issue lies in the work of municipalities that implement national and migration policies. It's necessary to resolve existing issues in order to train highly qualified specialists. In 2014, presidential administration instructed to create departments of ethnopolitology, which would train professionals who know the entire range of problems: interethnic relations, migration, and religious relations. In five years, only one such department has been created - at the St. Petersburg State University, at the Faculty of Political Science."

Member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, head of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Russia, Albir Krganov, agreed with Zorin: It's important to have qualified specialists. Today we have hundreds of thousands of migrants who receive Russian passports. They are our citizens. they work for Russia. Was Pushkin really purely Russian? No, but he's still one of the greatest Russian poets! There's nothing wrong with people coming here, living here, working for our state. Confrontation of ideologies shouldn't exist!"
Most social networks make it as easy as possible to sign up. Just create a user name with a valid email address and youre in. But becoming a part of Houston-based SocialChains has a higher bar.

Yep, theres email verification, as with other networks. And then theres phone number verification. Then, you submit your drivers license or government photo ID. Oh, and dont forget the facial recognition that matches a selfie to your IDs picture.

Then, and only then, are you granted access to a network that rewards you with tokens tied to a cryptocurrency.

SocialChains is in its infancy, with only about 5,000 users right now, but each is a real person who has full control over his or her data posted to the community. In fact, some parts of a users profile can even be hidden from Social Chains administrator, said founder and Chief Executive Srini Katta.

On social networks, anyone can set up an account and say they are the real one, Katta said. But sometimes they are not who they say they are.

MINING IT: Cryptocurrency miners in Houston spin virtual gold

Social Chains is still in beta mode, Katta said, but its drawing between 20 and 30 new signups a day. Most signups come by word-of-mouth and referrals from current members, who receive tokens for recruiting newcomers.

The budding social network is built on blockchain technology, the distributed, secure electronic ledger, and is among a group of nascent social networks that have done the same. Kattas offering is based on the same flavor of blockchain as Ethereum, a popular cryptocurrency platform. Using blockchain allows the platforms members to better control their data, granting access to it only when they choose, he said.

It also allows for Social Chains to have its own cryptocurrency. Users receive 10,000 S tokens just for signing up. Recruiting a new member earns another 1,000 tokens, and those who recruit 500 get another 100,000 tokens on top of those.

Then, 1,000 S-tokens will eventually be redeemable for a single cryptocurrency token called an SOCT, and that will be equal to $1, Katta said. The S-tokens can be used to among members who wish to conduct commerce among themselves.

Sixty percent of the S-tokens are reserved for members, Katta said. Sixty percent of the SOCT tokens also are dedicated to members.

Only some of this functionality is built out, said Katta, who prefers to call Social Chains a social economy platform rather than a social network. For the moment, the SOCT tokens arent being distributed, and they wont initially be convertible into traditional currency.

Lets say I am looking for a travel package from Houston to Hawaii, Katta explained. I indicate what my budget is, when I want to go, and with enough people on the platform, there may be a thousand people wanting to go to Hawaii in that period.

DEBATE: Is crypto the future of currency, or just a suckers bet?

A travel service granted access to the community can then market to those who have given permission, and the final transaction takes place off the platform, Katta said.

This component will kick in when Social Chains hits at 50,000 members, or 10 times bigger than it is now. Katta said initial marketing plans call for Social Chains to be promoted at Houston-area universities, then at schools around Texas. When membership reaches 100,000, Katta said the doors will be thrown open wide.

The company will make money by brokering ads that users give permission to be shown. Katta said the Social Chains will give 50 percent of the profits from these ads back to users.

Katta, who founded Mogo Labs, a mobile customer relations management platform, and iServiceGlobe, a CRM and SAP cloud platform, said he put $3.5 million of his own money into Social Chains, and has raised $200,000 from investors. Hes seeking another $1.5 million.

The company currently has 15 full-time employees, mostly working in Houston and Kattas native India.

Dan Wallach, professor of computer science at Rice University, said Social Chains faces a real challenge trying to gain traction against giants like Facebook and LinkedIn, even with its verified identity policy and blockchain underpinnings.

The thing that draws people (to a social network) is your friends  you go where your friends are, Wallach said. He cited the failure of Google+, the social network launched by Google in 2011 thats now in the process of shutting down, as an example of how tough that business can be.

Google has a scale that people only dream of, but theyre turning off Google+, saying, Sorry, bye, Wallach said. You wouldnt do that if you could be making a profit off it.

Admitting hes a cryptocurrency skeptic, Wallach also said that sprinkling blockchain fairy dust on a social network isnt enough to make a difference.

Saying you can make a killing in crypto by joining early is something of a yawner these days, he said.

OIL PATCH: blockchain platform for oil and gas goes live

But thats exactly why Kevin Kempf, 41, a former insurance investigator whos now in sales, became one of the 5,000 early adopters on Social Chains. After meeting Katta at an event at the startup incubator Station Houston, Kempf went through the process to become a member.

He was initially attracted to the cryptocurrency aspect of it.

Right now, (Social Chains) is not built out where it needs to be, Kempf said. I think there is an opportunity for me to be at the ground floor of something that I think is going to be the future.

At the moment, Social Chains and LinkedIn are the only two social networks Kempf uses regularly.

I got an Instagram account so I could be educated before I let my daughter use it, but Im not active on it, he said. I had a Facebook account but deleted it two or three years ago. Facebook is at the top of the trend of disinformation, and I really understood where privacy is going. I just didnt want to play on that playground anymore.

Some users balk at turning over their drivers license information to a startup few have ever heard of, but Katta said it is deleted once verification is complete. And once people are on it, they feel more comfortable posting because they have more trust in the platform and the people on it.

When someone posts a picture, you know these are real names, and real pictures, he said.

Avivah Litan, an analyst at market research firm Gartner who specializes in blockchain technologies, said Social Chains approach may solve the problem of spreading disinformation on social networks.

You control your data, and when someone posts something, you can track the provenance of the post, she said. You cant get all these Russian bots on the network.

But, like Wallach, she is not convinced that Social Chains faces a tough road in reaching a critical mass of users.

Facebook has billions of users, she said. How do you compete against that?

Interested in joining Social Chains? Enter the code SOCH38 when signing up at SocialChains.io.

Dwight Silverman is the technology editor for the Houston Chronicle and the grillmaster for the TechBurger tech news site. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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Cy-Fair ISD families looking to transfer their children to another school within the district now have a list of options for next school year.

During the March 7 school board meeting, trustees approved the open and closed campus designations for in-district transfer students for the 2019-2020 school year.

Eight high schools, five middle schools and 25 elementary schools will be designated as open for transfer, according to a presentation delivered by Cy-Fair ISD director of general administration Kristi Giron.

There are currently 13 high schools, 18 middle schools, 56 elementary schools in the district.

The Cy-Fair ISD school board designates which district campuses are open, or closed, for in-district transfer to reduce overcrowding in schools, Giron said.

Each year, the board is asked to approve our recommendations for open campuses, Giron said. A campus will be designated as open if the projected enrollment is 95 percent of the building capacity without portables.

Related: Large class sizes bringing Jersey Village down, Cy-Fair parents say

According to the school board transfer policy, open campuses accept a certain number of transfer students from within the district who wish to attend another CFISD school. Parents who want to transfer their children must fill out an application with the reason a transfer is needed.

This does not apply to students moving to CFISD from outside of the district, to whom all schools are open.

CFISD schools are categorized into three tiers: open transfer for any students; open transfer for children of employees; and schools closed to all transfers.

A school reaches the third tier if enrollment is greater than 115 percent for elementary schools, 110 percent for middle schools and 105 percent for high schools. Schools classified as third tier cannot accept transfers unless the student is a child of a district employee who works in a facility within the attendance boundaries of the chosen school, Giron said.

If the projected enrollment is less than 95 (percent), that campus is open to all residents and employees with a designated amount of spots determined by student services, she said. If (enrollment) projection is between the 95 (percent) and the 105 (percent for high schools), 110 (for middle schools) and 115 (percent for elementary schools), those are tier two and only open to CFISD employees.

Related: Cy-Fair ISD calls for $1.7 billion bond election in May

Giron said the student services department will begin informing the community about transfer applications through the CFISD website, social media, school messenger and newsletters.

Student services will soon be calculating the number of open spots available for each campus based on the tier system, Giron said. If the board approves this list, student services will advertise the campuses that are open starting March 8. April 1, the registrars and student services will start accepting those applications and then June 3 will be the deadline to apply.

Parents can select the school they want to transfer their student to based on the options available. Some parents commented on their disappointment in the selected middle schools during the regular meeting March 2, saying that schools available for transfer lack diversity and quality of education.

Parent Pamela Duckworth said some people suggested she move and sell her house to access better schools, but that it is not an option for her.

Its not an option because if I do try to sell my house, if my house does not sell within a certain amount of time and (the) school year starts and I havent already requested a transfer, then my daughter is stuck going to Campbell, she said. Of (the) five schools, there is only one I would consider sending my daughter to and I dont know if that transfer would be granted based on the number of students and their parents are applying for a transfer for their child as well.

During the school board work session held on March 4, trustee Tom Jackson asked if this would affect school choice for transfer students due to many schools being left out. During the presentation, all 38 schools chosen were presented as open campuses.

One of the things that we like to make sure the public knows is that we do have school choice here in Cy-Fair ISD, said Superintendent Mark Henry. Obviously, not all campuses are not open but we do, as you can see, have a sizable number of campuses ... in all geographic portions of the district that are available for transfer.

2019-2020 open transfer schools include:

Elementary Schools

Adam, Andre, Bane, Copeland, Danish, Duryea, Farney, Frazier, Gleason, Hairgrove, Hoover, Jowell, Keith, Kirk, Lamkin, Lee, Metcalf, Moor, Reed, Rennel, Sampson, Tipps, Walker, Wells, Willbern

Middle Schools

Campbell, Goodson, Hopper, Kahla, Labay

High Schools

Bridgeland, Cy-Fair, Cypress Creek, Cypress Falls, Cypress Park, Cypress Ranch, Cypress Springs, Langham Creek

Applications for transfer can be found on the CFISD website.

chevall.pryce@chron.com
The music of Los Tigres del Norte spans generations. Sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, grandparents and beyond all have stories about the regional Mexican group's songs. They see their lives in the lyrics. They feel their hearts in the music.

It's made the band of brothers a pivotal force, not only in norteno music, but Latin music in general. For more than five decades, they have been voices for the unheard, exploring drug trafficking, immigration and politics.

COMO LA FLOR: Camila Cabello honors Selena at RodeoHouston

Jorge Hernandez, the band's vocalist and accordionist, says he had "no idea" the band would forge such a lasting legacy.

"We came from Mexico when I was a little kid, me and my brothers. We never had any idea this was going to happen," he says. Los Tigres are all U.S. citizens but spent several years as undocumented immigrants.

"When we sing the first song we recorded that the people made famous ('Contrabando y Traicion'), now 50 years later, it still feels brand new."

The group, who has sold more than 30 million records and won seven Grammys, performs Sunday for what could be another record-breaking Go Tejano Day at RodeoHouston. Hernandez spoke about new music, keeping things topical and supporting Beto O'Rourke.

What was one of the earliest indicators of success for the group?

Go Tejano Day at RodeoHouston with Los Tigres Del Norte When: 3:45 p.m. Sunday Where: NRG Stadium Tickets: $18-$350; rodeohouston.com See More Collapse

We recorded "Contrabando y Traicion." After that, we recorded another song called "La Banda del Carro Rojo." Every year, we'd bring new songs into market. At that moment, I said, "These are going to be very, very busy days in my life."

Your first song in three years is out today, a tribute to regional Mexican legend Vicente Fernandez called "Un Consentido de Dios."

He's been my friend for a long time. A friend of ours composed the song. I said, "Oh, my God, this is good. One of these days, we'll go to Vicente's house and show it to him and see what he thinks about it." We, me and the group, went to visit him. We talked a little bit about it, not too much. But he was excited. The lyrics are very true. He's the greatest artist in the Mexican industry of mariachi-type music. He puts them in high regard. His voice is authentic, and his person is authentic. We have a lot of history together. I hope that people feel it.

What's something people may not know about him?

Sometimes, when you know the artist but not the person, you have a lot of thoughts about how he behaves. But he's a fantastic person. Sometimes, I don't believe the way he is. He's very spontaneous. He likes to tell chistes  jokes. He's always happy and talking. He's been in the business so many years, but he doesn't have a big head.

Are you working on a new album?

Yeah, it's coming. We just finished. We're putting the photos together. We're making videos. We're going to have the whole package ready the first or second week in June. It's going to be very interesting. I think people will be surprised. They're going to identify with the songs when they hear them.

Los Tigres has never shied away from issues. You received a GLAAD Media Award for the song "Era Diferente" ("She Was Different"), about a girl in love with her best friend. Why was it important for you to transmit that message?

We have a lot of friends that related to that song. They inspired us to do that. We connect with them. They come see us. But we never did anything for them. We have to look at what is necessary in music, what topics we haven't sung about. I think in our career we've sung about almost everything. I said, "Let's try it, and see if they like it." Thank God it was a good fit. We were proud to do it. The award was very important for us, that they recognized us. It's a beautiful, beautiful song. I hope one of these days I can do something else strong for (the LGBT community). We have to participate.

Do you ever worry about the reactions to any of the band's lyrics?

We have to think about it. We have to think about our career, we have to see if it's a fit, if it's the right thing, how the market is moving. Sometimes you go against the people. It's like fashion. Sometimes you might be out of style. One of the songs that made me very, very scared in Mexico was "El Circo." We mentioned the president of Mexico and his brother (Carlos and Raul Salinas). I was terrified. I thought maybe something was going to happen to us. But it was a big hit, and everything was OK. Thank God we're still here.

FITTING TRIBUTES: Which Selena song should each RodeoHouston performer cover?

You supported Beto O'Rourke at a concert and rally in Edinburg. What do you think of his presidential potential?

We had a lot of fun that night. We talked about projects and things that we want to do. We have a lot of respect for him and what he's doing. He has a lot of charisma. He knows what he's talking about. He speaks with truth. He has a big heart and a big way to communicate with the people.

You're playing RodeoHouston for the first time since 2002. What are your memories of that show for 67,000 at the Astrodome?

I remember they took us in a truck and then put us on the stage. But we didn't want to be on the stage. We wanted to be on the floor singing to the people. They threw little flags from up top. It was a lot of memories for us.
David Byrne wants to bring people together. Its a practice, in fact, hes been doing for 25 years in Friendswood with his involvement in Coalition of Hispanic Ministries.

Byrne, 61, had been working in a ministry in Mexico for about eight years, when in 1994, he and his wife Joyce began examining ministries that we felt furthered the things we felt strongly about  bridging the gap between Hispanic and Anglo churches, he said.

The couple learned that Friendswood Friends Church had a similar vision.

In the early 90s, there was huge growth in the Hispanic population in the Houston area, David Byrne said. So, we felt that this would be a good place to call home. We founded CHM and started thinking of ways to bring our churches together.

The organization strives to promote ministry, provide outreach and coordinate ministries to the local Hispanic community. Support comes from Friends churches, associations and individuals as well as from churches from other denominations.

It can be hard bringing these two communities together; so we want to provide as many ministry resources as we can, Byrne said. We provide educational materials, classes and guidance to Hispanic churches. We help in church plantings. If we find out that a church needs something done, we say, Well, lets have at it. At the end of the day, whats most important to us is bringing these two groups together. Its all about bridging that gap.

Support is a large component of what CHM does, Byrne said.

If a Hispanic church is just getting started and were their Anglo partners in ministry, well walk beside them until they develop their own infrastructure, their own ministry, he said. Its also important to us that we teach the Anglo churches that the Hispanic community has unique needs that need to be met. We try to teach them what those needs are and how to meet them. Anglo churches want to reach into their communities and cross cultural boundaries, but they have to really understand the churches theyre trying to reach. They have to understand those needs.

In the 25 years the ministry has existed, evolution was a natural pathway for the organization. Classes developed for new church ministers were originally done on recorded VHS tapes, then DVDs. Now those classes are available through online streaming. The group has also started their own program to teach leadership to prospective Spanish-speaking ministers.

There arent very many seminary-level programs for Spanish-speaking leaders in our community, he said, so we developed the Instituto ALMA: Alcanzando al Mundo Alrededor. With this, Spanish-speaking church leaders go through Bible seminars and leadership training so that they have the tools they need to lead their own churches.

So whats next for the organization? Byrne said to continue bridging gaps.

It would be such a blessing to continue this mission, he said. To keep bringing our communities together. Thats what its all about.
Friendswood police officers reported charging six people with driving while intoxicated during the first Mardi Gras weekend.

The roundup began at 12:25 a.m. Feb. 23 with the arrest of a 42-year-old Dickinson man, police said. He was charged with DWI-second offense in the 3000 block of West Bay Area Boulevard, according to the report.

Next, a Houston woman, 29, was charged with DWI at 12:59 a.m. in the 100 block of Heritage Drive, police said.

BREAKING NEWS UPDATES: Get your Houston breaking news alerts delivered to you

Police charged a Friendswood man, 27, with DWI and unlawfully carrying weapons at 2:01 a.m. in the 200 block of East Parkwood Avenue.

A 34-year-old Alvin woman was charged with DWI-second offense at 3:04 a.m. in the 1600 block of West Parkwood Avenue, police said.

RELATED: Man found dead in Tomball home after wife and son found shot in street

Then, Feb. 24, police charged a Friendswood woman, 35, with DWI at 1:55 a.m. in the 100 block of East Shadowbend Avenue.

Finally, an Alvin woman, 30, was charged with DWI at 2:35 a.m. in the 1300 block of West Parkwood Avenue, police said.

Police investigate park vandalism

Authorities have asked for the publics help in identifying four individuals linked to property damage Feb. 23 at Stevenson Park, 1100 S. Friendswood Drive.

Suspects broke light covers on two fans at the pavilion near the splash pad, removed a water spigot from a pipe and damaged a wooden box covering electrical controls.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call Friendswood Police, 281-996-3300.

Burglary

Police charged a Friendswood man, 19, with motor vehicle burglary after a witness reportedly saw him breaking into a vehicle at Salem Square Apartments, 107 Clearview Ave. An officer took the suspect into custody at the Quaker Village Townhomes, adjacent to Salem Square, police said. Bond was set at $1,500.

Theft

Theft of a license plate was reported Feb. 19 at Bay Meadows Apartments, 17201 Blackhawk Blvd., police said.

Healthcare workers are suspected of multiple thefts at a home in the 900 block of Riverside Court, according to a Feb. 20 police report. The victim reportedly set up a camera and caught a worker rummaging through drawers and stealing bait money.

A purse was stolen Feb. 21 at 24 Hour Fitness, 130 W. Parkwood Ave., police said. The victim used a combination lock to secure her purse in the womens locker room and returned to find her belongings missing and the lock damaged, according to the report.

Police filed a package theft report Feb. 22 in the 100 block of Bandera Creek Lane. The package allegedly was delivered and signed for in December, but the victim was not home at the time of the delivery, police said.

Police conducted a theft and forgery investigation after a woman sent her granddaughter a check in December only to have the name on the document changed, according to a Feb. 22 police report. The new name is associated with a woman who has multiple convictions for identity theft and burglary, police said.

Fraud

A Friendswood woman discovered a $3,882 fraudulent charge at a Pearland Kay Jewelers during her weekly credit check, according to a Feb. 20 police report.

A Friendswood woman received letters from Associated Bank, Walmart, Amazon, Kohls and JCPenney about lines of credit she had not opened, according to a Feb. 21 police report. She closed the accounts, police said.

A Friendswood woman received a letter confirming an address change she had not requested, according to a Feb. 22 police report.

Narcotics

Police charged an 18-year-old man and two 17-year-old men, all of Friendswood, with possession of drug paraphernalia after a witness reported a suspicious vehicle Feb. 20 in the 800 block of Hidden Woods Lane. Officers arrived to find the three men smoking near a nature trail, police said. An officer shined a flashlight and the men appeared to eat what they were holding, according to the report.

A Friendswood man, 26, was charged with possession of a controlled substance after a witness reported an intoxicated person Feb. 21 at the intersection of Greenbriar Drive and Murphy Lane, police said. He reportedly was found in possession of oxycodone, Adderall, Xanax, trazodone and acetazolamide as well as a syringe, a bag of pills and a hollowed-out pen with a pill inside. He also had two pill bottles with the names of two individuals, according to the report.

Police charged a 14-year-old Friendswood High School student with marijuana possession Feb. 22 after school administrators acting on a tip found marijuana in aluminum foil inside an empty water bottle. The student was transported to Friendswood Police Department for processing and then turned over to a parent, authorities said.

Police charged a Friendswood woman, 17, with marijuana possession in a drug-free zone Feb. 22 at Friendswood High School, 702 Greenbriar Drive. School administrators turned over a marijuana bud found in the womans possession, police said. Bond was set at $1,500.

A Rosharon man, 23, was charged with possession of a controlled substance after a traffic stop for speeding Feb. 23 in the 1800 block of South Friendswood Drive, police said. The officer reportedly found four small plastic bags containing cocaine during a weapons check. The officer found two more small bags of cocaine and a bag containing drug paraphernalia that belonged to the passenger during a vehicle search, according to the report. The suspect had 2.2 grams of cocaine, police said, and bond was set at $5,000.

Traffic

Police charged an Alvin woman, 24, with driving while license invalid after a traffic stop for an insurance violation Feb. 20 in the 100 block of East Parkwood Avenue.

Weapons

Police charged a Friendswood man, 37, with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon after a traffic stop for expired registration Feb. 20 in the 700 block of West Parkwood Avenue.

An Alvin woman, 25, was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm after a witness reported a suspicious vehicle Feb. 23 in the 2100 block of Lundy Lane, police said. An officer conducted a stop in the 2500 block of West Parkwood Avenue and determined the woman had expired insurance and a 2018 assault, family violence conviction, according to the report. The woman allegedly told the officer she had two firearms in the console. Both firearms and boxes of ammunition were seized, police said.

Other events

School administrators confiscated tobacco products from a 17-year-old student Feb. 22 at Friendswood High School, 702 Greenbriar Drive, police said. Administrators also searched the students vehicle and seized a cigarette box containing a Juul e-cigarette, three pods and two lighters, according to the report. The student will receive a summons to municipal court for possession, purchase, consumption or receipt of cigarettes, e-cigarettes or tobacco products by a minor.

Police investigated after a letter containing a suspicious substance was delivered to a resident in the 1200 block of Edinburgh Drive, according to a Feb. 23 report. A former co-worker is suspected of sending the letter, police said.

A 16-year-old Friendswood High School student was caught with a vaping device and vaping oil Feb. 21 on campus at 702 Greenbriar Drive, police said. An administrator reportedly questioned the student after receiving a tip the student was using the device in the school parking lot. When confronted, the student provided the Juul device to the administrator, according to the report. The student will receive a summons to municipal court for possession of a tobacco product by a minor.

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A charming drifter promises he can end a West Texas drought  for a price  in The Rainmaker, a romance by N. Richard Nash that plays through March 31 at Bay Area Harbour Playhouse in Dickinson .

The drought is not only in the weather, but also in the lives of the characters, director Mike Fabian said.

The Friendswood attorney knows the play well, as he played its charismatic leading man, Bill Starbuck, when Harbour produced the show in 2005. This time, Fabian portrays the sheriff, who never encounters Starbuck, who is wanted by the law, in the script.

Meanwhile, Starbuck competes with the plays small-town deputy for the affections of a spinster, Lizzie Curry, who doubts the drifters ability to make it rain.

She doesnt even believe thats is his real name.

Of course, it isnt, says Starbuck, who grew up as Mike Smith.

Now what kind of handle is that for a fella like me? he says. I needed a name that had the whole sky in it! And the power of a man! Starbuck! Now theres a name  and its mine!

More Information Want to go? What: "The Rainmaker" Where: Bay Area Harbour Playhouse, 3803 Highway 3 in Dickinson When: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, through March 31 Admission: $6 children, $12-17 adults Information: (281) 337-SHOW (7469), www.harbourtheater.com See More Collapse

Starbuck encourages Lizzie to pick a new name for herself and to unleash her dreams and ambitions.

How all this works together toward the ending is, to me, fascinating, Fabian said. Its always been one of my favorite shows. The author is a poet.

Fabian was born and raised in Houston but has lived in Friendswood for 24 years.

His mother, the late Virgie Smith, moved from Conroe to Pearland to be closer to Fabian.

She was a big fan of community theater and became involved with Harbour, the director said. Long story short, thats how I got involved with Harbour. I did my first show there in 1999, and Ive been active ever since.

Fabian enjoyed playing Starbuck because, in addition to being the male lead, its a good character part, one an actor can really sink his teeth into.

Edward Waddell of League City plays Starbuck in the current production, opposite Brandi Kiekel as Lizzie. She is a 2003 graduate of Clear Creek High School who teaches theater at Austin Middle School in Galveston.

I think she captures all of the emotions and insecurities that the author had in mind for Lizzie, Fabian said.

This has been one of my dream roles, said Kiekel, explaining that she performed a scene from the play in high school, but encountered creative differences with Fabian after he cast her in the part.

I always thought of Lizzie as very sarcastic and a no-nonsense, tell it like it is sort of person, she said.

When Fabian directed Kiekel to play her as less sure of herself, It threw me for a loop, she said, but I realized that it gives her a stronger arc, by beginning the story as a sad person.

Fabian chose a number of Harbour veterans for the plays supporting cast, including Sam Kee, C.T. Gomez, Jon Barajas and Daniel Partida.

They are some of our old hands around Harbour, with lots of experience, said the director. I think the audiences are in for a real treat with this caliber of a cast.

The first show Fabian directed was Run for Your Wife in 2007.

Since then, Ive directed about two dozen shows, he said. Directing is a lot of work, to put it mildly. Directors are responsible for everything: casting, rehearsing props, set design and construction, programs, music, publicity, the whole nine yards. I try to delegate much of it, but its still an all-consuming project. Directing a play, start to finish, usually takes 10 weeks, sometimes longer. When you finish, you feel like its a permanent part of you.

Don Maines is a freelance writer who can be reached at donmaines@att.net
Humble ISD candidates outlined their experience and perspective on important topics at a candidate forum hosted by the Kingwood Area Democrats at Los Cucos Mexican Restaurant in Kingwood on March 6.

Candidates were asked about their current and previous involvement with Humble ISD, their thoughts on attendance zones, property taxes and special education.

All of the candidates except Ryan Engolio attended. Engolio had a scheduling conflict.

KAD President Charlotte Reinemeyer said the forum gives community members an opportunity to meet the candidates. William Williams, KADs co-program chair and former president, served as the moderator.

This is an important (election) for those of us who want to see our children succeed, Williams said.

Each candidate had about 3 minutes to answer each question.

Regarding property taxes, the candidates were asked about House Bill 2 and Senate Bill 2, also known as the tax cap bills. Williams asked the candidates what the budgetary impact would be for Humble ISD and their concerns about these new bills.

Position 6 Incumbent Colin Carney gave a breakdown of the bill.

We have whats called a rollback tax rate, and thats currently 8 percent. So what that means is if the tax revenue of the district increases by more than 8 percent then in order for the district to reap the rewards of the growth of that tax [base] effectively we would have to go to the voters and ask for approval in order to claim that excess tax revenue, Carney said.

Position 6 challenger Lori Twomey said the focus should also be on State Rep. Dan Huberty's HB 3, which injects about 9 billion in funding into the public school system. The bill also provides relief to stressed homeowners, Huberty said.

"The other thing to keep in mind is that just [this week], I think, HB3 was filed, which was actually the bill related to the reforms to the school funding," Twomey said. "Once people had a chance to digest SB 2 then they will have an opportunity at the next stage to go in and reevaluate the fiscal note or and then make the appropriate recommendations or insight at that particular time."

Contested race: Twomey challenges Carney for position 6

Position 7 Incumbent Nancy Morrison spoke after Carney. Morrison encouraged the audience to look at the Texas Plan website.

First of all the priorities in the state are to do something about the taxes, to lower property taxes and to do something about school funding. When it goes through the processes, then well see what happens, Morrison said.

Janie Branham, a candidate for position 2, said the question asked also relates to the STARR test.

When I was a teacher in the classroom we had total control. The teachers wrote their lesson plans, the school district, the school board had a vision what student achievement needed to look like. The superintendent held the principals accountable and the principals held the teachers accountable. We do need some type of accountability but not necessarily has to be the STAAR test, Branham said.

Contested race: Four vie for Humble ISDs position 2

Nikki Roux, another position 2 candidate spoke after Branham.

This particular tax rate hasnt been reviewed in about 8 years so that 8 percent mark was about 8 years since its last review. I do feel like that by the time it does make it through the rigorous process and a lot of people have put into it, there will be some changes on that, Roux said.

Robert Scarfo, another candidate for position 2, spoke after Roux. Scarfo feels these new bills focus on appraisal values.

Last week spent two days (in Austin). I was part of the chambers delegation to lobby our legislators and these were some of the issues we were talking to our legislators about. I think what we should really focus on instead of this one is the bill that Rep. (Dan) Huberty came out with yesterday, HB3. I tell you after years and years of seeing these things come through I have finally (think) that we may get some real money into public education this time around.

kaila.contreras@chron.com
The runway went to the dogs, and a bird, recently at Hotel ZaZa for the recent 6th annual Best Friends Brunch.

The event raised nearly $107,000 for AniMeals, a program of Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston that assists senior citizens with care for their pets by providing veterinary services and pet food.
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Three people have been arrested in the shooting death of a Kingwood teen found in a ditch in Montgomery County, according to authorities.

Isaiah Parker, 18; of Kingwood, Jorge Ramirez, 17; of Porter, and a third teen were arrested in the four days since the body of 18-year-old Tristan Maddux was found shot to death Sunday in the 18800 block of Hill Road, police said Thursday.
Sixteen-year-old Jason Flatt was a talented athlete, a decent student and very involved with his church youth group. After he took his own life on July 16, 1997, his family and friends were left trying to understand it all.

Months later, his father Clark Flatt started The Jason Foundation to help raise awareness about youth suicide and how to prevent it. Last year, the Tennessee-based nonprofit educated more than 610,000 young people, 500,000 adults and approximately 228,000 educators. In total, it impacted more than 2.3 million people last year if you include its work through social media.

According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death of people in Texas aged 10 to 24 years (only behind a broader category of unintentional injuries that includes fatalities from things like car accidents, drug overdoses and accidental gunshots).

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Flatt said he never expected that his son had been struggling.

Jason had a lot of friends and was always up for going places and trying new things. From all appearances, my son loved life, Flatt said. That being said, looking back, Jason did exhibit warning signs. We just did not know how to recognize them.

A couple of decades ago, people just werent talking about suicide, Flatt said, even though back then it was still the third leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 24. Flatt went to PTA meetings, seminars on drug and alcohol abuse and bullying, but he said no resources existed back then to warn parents about the dangers of youth suicide.

He said, The third most likely thing to take my sons lives was suicide, and no one was talking about it. I didnt know what to look out for or what to do if I had recognized the signs.

Susan Childs is a counselor at Bellaire High School. She said different factors can drive students to suicide, ranging from chemical imbalances causing clinical depression to situational depression from their environment or circumstances to teenage hormones raging. Bellaire is competitively academically, so Childs also sees students struggling with those pressures.

Keeping an ongoing conversation around mental health and suicide is important to helping students understand that others are there to support them and that they dont have to go the fight alone, Childs said.

The first thing it does, it really helps that person understand that theyre not alone and that other people are currently in the same situation or have been and they can share their experiences, Childs said. And that person can see especially if its an adult, Wow, they came out of this, and these are some things that helped them.

According to Flatt, four out of five people that attempt suicide exhibit clear warning signs beforehand. He named five main signs. First, if you ever hear a person make suicide threats, either boldfaced or subtler like saying, Nobody cares about me, or If I werent here, nobody would miss me, take action and tell someone like a counselor.

RELATED: How can recognize and prevent suicide?

Next, Flatt said previous suicide attempts that go unaddressed often progress into further attempts. If someone opens up to you about an attempt, do not keep it to yourself.

Flatt said depression or feelings of hopelessness are also warning signs but can sometimes be hard to spot because they affect people differently: some eat more, others eat less; some sleep more, others cant sleep.

He said acting out of character such as a change in hygiene or a students grades dropping significantly can also indicate issues. Finally, giving away prized possessions and seemingly putting final affairs in order can be another indicator, Flatt said.

While these behaviors do not necessarily indicate that someone is suicidal, Flatt encouraged people to bring them up and ask if anything is wrong. In his many conversations with young people that have attempted suicide, one common thread he has seen is that many of them wondered why nobody asked them what was going on or what was wrong.

One of 11 counselors at Bellaire, Childs has a case load of about 400 students. While there has not been a successful suicide at the high school recently, she said students do try. Last semester, one student tried unsuccessfully and later discussed the situation with Childs when she came back to school.

I said, You know, Ive never had one die on my watch of suicide, and I dont intend to start now. But had it been successful, the people in your life, the ripple effect of that happening to the people in your life, starting with your [family], is devastating. And you dont even know how much it would destroy other peoples lives, had you done that, like me. Im way down that food chain, but I would never ever forget that.

When discouraged students speak to Childs about their problems, she tries to give them perspective through an idea she calls the Rule of Tens.

The fact that is whatever is going on in your life right now, how much is this going to matter in 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days, 10 weeks, 10 months, 10 years? she said. So it might matter in 10 days and 10 months, but it likely wont matter so much in 10 years. And even the 10 months is unlikely.

Suicide used to be just the second leading cause of death in 15- to 24-year-olds, but as of 2016 it is now also the second leading cause among children 10 to 14 years as well, according to the CDC. Flatt said that trend is alarming. It is a scary thing because it showing that not only suicide is an issue for teenagers and young adults, its now going backwards and getting into our preteens, and thats very, very disturbing, he said.

Childs urged those struggling to reach out and those concerned about someone they know to find someone that can help.

You are not alone, and if you are feeling that way, youve got to talk to somebody, Childs said. And if you know someone whos feeling that way, you need to tell someone, especially if youre a teenager because they dont really know where to go, and kids go to their friends first.

The Jason Foundation has 127 offices in 34 states. All of its programs for parents, educators and students are provided free of charge, and most are available online. For more information, visit http://jasonfoundation.com/.

If you are facing suicidal thoughts, tell an adult you trust like a parent, teacher or counselor. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is also available 24/7 at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you feel more comfortable texting, text HOME to 741741 to get help 24/7 from a crisis counselor at Crisis Text Line.

tracy.maness@hcnonline.com

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On March 8, on the occasion of the International Women's Day, the world famous Italian musician and laureate of jazz festivals Fabio Lepora will perform a special program at the Rotunda Jazz Hall. A member of the Association of Singing Teachers sings in his native and English languages, using not only his own music in his performances, but also works of jazz and various other composers, created over the past decades. On the eve of his concert, Fabio Lepora answered questions of Vestnik Kavkaza.

- What kind of program did you prepare for your concert in Baku?

- It will be an hour and a half long concert of Italian music - a mix of jazz and traditional Italian motifs. Songs will be performed in Italian. I will also sing a few songs in English, and before I begin, I will try to say a few words in Azerbaijani. Musicians who will participate in the concert are from Baku.

- Do you know anything about Azerbaijani jazz?

- Just yesterday my collegues told me about him. I promised myself that during my next visit to Baku, I will prepare better and will know about Azerbaijani jazz.

- When will this happen?

- Maybe this summer, since Baku will host a concert on the occasion of release of my new composition with Gypsy Jazz Musicians. I'm also going to visit Baku next month for new Salvatore Russo Gypsy Trio project. Salvatore and his trio are guitar virtuosos. They produce fantastic music. I'm help them with my singing. In addition, I plan to visit Baku in October and participate in the Baku Jazz Festival.

- What surprised you in Baku the most?

- I saw a modern city that is still true to its tradition. This is what I like the most in places outside of Italy. I like traditional culture as well as modern cities. I really liked Baku and Azerbaijani cuisine.

- Did you know that Baku and Naples are sister cities?

- Very good! Then on Friday I will sing another Neapolitan song. I would like to invite more people, I will be happy to see everyone on Friday. I want to get to know Azerbaijani audience better.
Though the Feb. 28-March 2 Feed the Hunger Katy Packathon fell short of its goal of 1 million meals to feed the hungry in Katy, in the United States and abroad, the event set records.

Regina Alexander, Packthon coordinator, said, We set a 50-year record for Feed the Hunger by packing 217,000 meals during one two-hour shift which was on Saturday, March 2, from 9-11 a.m. Feed the Hunger had never accomplished that before. We had a record number of stations and record number of meals packed. So basically, we had 871 packers, 217,920 meals and we had 34 stations (of volunteers) that day. Each station has 25 volunteers.

That blows everything out of the water theyve done before, said Kandee Brock, who serves on the Feed the Hunger Katy Packathon planning team. A total of 603,840 meals were packed, she said.

Brock, a member of Redeemer Community Church, participated in the first Katy packathon in 2016.That church was one of three packing sites for that event. The first-year goal also was 1 million meals. More than 2,000 volunteers packed 625,680 meals in 2016.

When it first came about, my daughters wanted to pack, explained Brock. They had done something similar in Chicago. We decided wed do it as a family. We had a great time doing it as a family.

We were planning one in the fall of 2017. When Harvey hit, we knew churches, resources and people in Katy and everything was drained, said Brock. It was not a good time to have a packathon.

Brock joined the planning team in 2017 and did a little bit of everything at this years weekend event from labeling bags to directing volunteers to helping set up and clean up.

Brock said she loves the way the nonprofit distributes food with some staying locally and the rest distributed to people in America and then internationally. Alexander said the packages include dry uncooked rice, hydrogenated beans, vegetables and vitamins.

Alexander said, We had various churches sponsoring as many stations as they possibly could.

That included churches who have supported the effort from the beginning such as Grace Fellowship United Methodist Church which sponsored 27 stations and The Fellowship at Cinco Ranch which sponsored 22 stations, as well as churches new to the program from as far away as The Woodlands. The cool part is that it wasnt based on one particular religion, added Alexander who listed volunteers coming from nondenominational, Baptist, Mormon and Methodist congregations among others. She thanked everyone for their support.

I attribute our success to God, said Brock. He put together an incredible team. We had more churches involved than weve ever had. More corporations involved that weve ever had. Its the largest planning team weve had.

The best thing about the event was seeing people from all over Katy participate, added Brock. They all had a good time packing with strangers. It was so much fun to get to know new people.

Plans call for a packathon next year with a similar goal of 1 million meals. Visit Visit www.feedthehunger.org/Katy for more information.

We have no doubt well reach the million meals in 2020, said Alexander. We planted so many new seeds  new organizations, new companies and new churches  participating who had never packed before, she said.

Planning will start in June for next years event which Alexander said would be nice if it could be held in a facility of the Katy Independent School District like this year. This years packathon was in the pavilion at 6301 S. Stadium Lane. Alexander also would like next years packathon to be around the same time  late February and early March.

In addition to Katy, Alexander would like to see packathons in the four quadrants of Houston. If anyone is interested in hosting their own packathon within a church or organization, Feed the Hunger is open to helping facilitate that, she said. Visit https://www.feedthehunger.org/ for information.

Feed the Hunger was started by J.L. and Patt Williams 50 years ago and their family continues to operate the nonprofit. Alexander said the first mission was to Mexico in August 1968.

karen.zurawski@chron.com
The Conroe Noon Kiwanis Club was honored to have County Judge Mark Keough at our meeting last week. Judge Keough shared his philosophy on transparency, fiscal responsibility, and public service as an elected official. It was a very informative meeting, and we appreciate his time filling us in on what to expect from Commissioners Court in Montgomery County.

Last week the club approved the sponsorship for four officers from the Caney Creek High School Key Club to go to the Kiwanis District Convention next month in Dallas. The students are looking forward to the experience and we cant wait to hear their stories at a luncheon in the future. Hopefully this will be a spring point for other local students to get involved in the Key Club.
Wow, it seems like the new year of 2019 just started and here we are a few days from the official start date of spring. Most of us are all sitting around anxiously awaiting for the spring time flowers to pop up, the grass to turn green once again, the 70-75 degree weather and BAM, POW, BANG - one more freeze. I guess the saying of Spring has Sprung  is now Spring has Frozen. Well regardless of the crazy weather around here I still wouldnt live anywhere else other than the great state of Texas.

Speaking of spring, you know the great thing about this time of year is that the Montgomery County Fair is right around the corner. This year the Fair will run from March 29 through April 7. This is one of the best fun-filled events a Conroe Noon Lion can enjoy. You know the old saying You really get to know someone when you spend a little time hunting and fishing with them - well the fair concessions is as good as it gets when it comes to getting to know someone. For all you new Lions out there its a great way to meet your fellow Lions and be able to take one more step in changing that Red badge to Blue. Of course for all those Lions that have a little tenure already, its a great way to show all those new Lions the comradery and fun the Lions enjoy. Remember each member must sign-up to work at least one shift; havent signed up for a shift yet please get with ME, Jason Miller and Id be glad to help you out. Or go to our website at www.conroenoonlions.org and sign up electronically.
Its a little after 6 p.m. in a classroom on the second floor of Magnolia West High School. Its been a cold, misty day, and the parents, who trickle into the classroom in groups of two and three, come still dressed in their hoodies and boots from work or with their kids in tow.

Kimberly Thompson, a Spanish teacher at Magnolia West, sets up table after table as the groups of adults walk in. As they settle into their desks, they all unpack a three-ring binder of worksheets and notebook paper, ready to learn English as a second language.

They help us put up, they help us clean up, they put up all their stuff before they leave, Thompson said. Its kind of the opposite of teaching high school.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, two teachers from Magnolia West lead an English class of about 40 Spanish-speaking parents. The classes are free, and childcare and snacks for the children are provided. The class, which started up again in October, was canceled six years ago because of budget cuts. The teachers, however, worked out a way to fund the program  they get paid about $50 a week and also rely on student volunteers from the IB program and National Hispanic Honors Society for help.

One of those students is Zared Romero. The 17-year-old IB student comes with her parents and three siblings every Tuesday and Thursday to English class. Romero and her sister help the adults in the class while her youngest sister helps babysit the younger children. Its a family affair.

(My mother) really wants to learn, but she never has the time, Romero said.

Romero and her family emigrated from Mexico 11 years ago. Her parents work every day of the week as horse trainers in Magnolia. Romero said her parents can go to this English class because it doesnt conflict with work, and they dont need to hire a babysitter.

Texas is tied for second with the highest share of residents who are Limited English Proficient, meaning a persons primary language isnt English and they have a limited ability to read, speak, write or understand English, according to 2015 U.S. Census Bureau data. But the number of people who are considered LEP has dropped since 1980, even though immigration has risen, from 44 percent in 1980 to 40 percent in 2015.

Claudia Dominguez, an associate principal at Magnolia West, said she restarted the program because she saw a need in the community.

A lot of parents are nervous about going to their sons or daughters school because their English isnt good enough, Dominguez said.

One of the first classes was a school-related lesson to teach parents how to pick up their kid from school or how to let the school know that their son or daughter is sick.

We want the parents to know that theyre welcome here, Dominguez said. The class is also available to everyone in the community, not just parents of children who attend Magnolia ISD schools, she said.

On that Tuesday night, as parents were learning the verb to be, Romero, wearing a maroon Harvard sweatshirt, walked around the classroom holding notecards and read aloud verb tenses.

She said its interesting to see how much her mother has learned since she started attending the classes in November.

Yesterday we were in the car, and me and my sisters were all talking in English, she said. My parents were just listening, and they were like Oh yeah, I remember that day. They started talking to us in Spanish but knowing what we were saying. And it makes me feel proud that Im helping my parents learn and understand a language thats been so hard for them to learn because weve been here for 11 years, and they still havent caught on.

Romeros mother, Maria Gonzalez, said she only has an elementary school education. She said its sometimes difficult with work and kids, but she tries to come to the twice-weekly class because its helping her and her family.

We are all trying to get ahead besides all the obstacles, she said.

ana.goni-lessan@chron.com
A partially clothed woman was found dead early Friday in a field near a southeast Houston home.

The woman had something wrapped around her neck when Alfredo Herrera saw her about 6:50 a.m. in the 12200 block of Sandy Hook Drive.

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He was walking his dog when he saw the woman's body behind a fence.

"My dog, he found it," Herrera said. He then called home. "I tell my daughter I found somebody out here."

The woman was face down and was wearing a camisole that was ripped, he said.

"She got something on the neck, like wrapped," he added.

RELATED: Man found dead in Tomball home after wife, son were found shot in the street

She had no pulse in her hand or her neck, Herrera said. He called 911 and the dispatcher told him to perform CPR on the woman.

The woman did not appear to have gunshot or stab wounds, said Houston Police Department Detective Willis C Huff. He said that police believe the woman, who appeared to be about 25 to 30 years old, was a prostitute.

He also said that police are investigating a report of a suspicious person at an apartment complex in the Edgebrook community that may be related to the woman's death. Police received that report about 6 a.m., he said.

A gray or while SUV parked at the complex at 3918 Arlington Square Drive may belong to a possible suspect, he added.

The field where Herrera found the woman's body is at the end of a dead end street in the city's Elliington neighborhood.

"I was surprised because sometimes people come with the four-wheelers," Herrera said, adding that he hasn't seen anything "like that."

Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.
The driver of a Houston ISD bus hit and killed a bicyclist who inadvertently slid under the vehicle Thursday afternoon while trying to avoid a collision in the Heights.

The rear wheels of the yellow school bus ran over the male cyclist and killed him almost instantly around 3 p.m., according to witnesses and police. The impact knocked the cyclists one-speed ride to his side in the intersection of East 8th Street and Heights Boulevard.

Ronny Smeink was shopping for antiques across the street from the crash and heard screams.

"I thought somebody was looking for their dog, Smeink said. I looked up and saw somebody on the ground."

The shopper ran across the boulevard to help the cyclist and called 911 as another man tried to get the riders backpack off him. Smeink checked for a pulse and felt nothing.

There was no sign of life, Smeink said.

A blood-soaked sheet later covered the cyclist as police investigated the crash.

The cyclist was peddling north in a bike lane along the boulevard and appeared to have the right away as the bus stopped at a stop sign on East 8th, Houston Police Department Lt. Thurston Roberson said at a press conference. The bus driver continued through the intersection and went in front of the bicyclist and hit him, Roberson said.

One child was on board the bus and going home at the time of the fatal crash, Houston ISD officials said in a statement. The unidentified driver was completing the afternoon route from an unspecified school.

The driver and student were not injured.

The unidentified bicyclist was believed to be in his early 20s, Roberson said. A wallet could be seen lying on top of his back pack.

The driver remained on the bus with umbrellas and sheets covering the windshield for at least three hours as police interviewed her and investigated the crash. Three of her relatives who came to the scene within an hour of the crash declined to comment.

Shes fine, said one of the relatives.

A grand jury will later determine if the driver will face charges in the fatal wreck.

A camera on the bus was running at the time of the crash and investigators are reviewing it frame-by-frame to determine what happened and who was at fault.

The school district said its transportation services is cooperating with the police investigation.

A woman walking her dog at an apartment complex adjacent to the crash site mournfully looked at the cyclists body.

Its not my child, but I feel so bad for whose ever he is, she said, without providing her name.

Also gathered on the sidewalk Thursday evening was 25-year-old Hayden Eckhardt, who used to be an avid bicyclist in the Heights.

I dont any more because of (expletive) like this, Eckardt said, pointing to the cyclists body in the street. Its scary to be a bicyclist in Houston, Texas.

His fear is not unfounded. Local drivers have mowed down nearly 2,000 pedestrians and cyclists in the past 16 years. From 2001 to 2016, 235 of them were cyclists killed on greater Houston roadways.

Eckardts friend, Andrew Hemingway, 29, said he was nearly hit Thursday afternoon by a vehicle using a nearby bike lane to pass him.

jay.jordan@chron.com

nicole.hensley@chron.com
A Houston narcotics officer under an internal police investigation following a botched January drug raid is retiring, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

Steven O. Bryant put in his paperwork this week while under investigation following the shooting deaths of two residents in an unannounced raid of a Pecan Park residence in south Houston on Jan. 28. The Harris County District Attorneys Office is reviewing more than 800 criminal cases brought by Bryant during his 23-year career. Sources said his last day is Friday.

HPD officials relieved Bryant of duty as questions mounted about his actions leading up to the drug raid, in which a team of officers burst into a house at 7815 Harding St. after obtaining a no-knock search warrant. A gun battle ensued, and police killed homeowners Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. Four officers were hit by gunfire, and a fifth officer was injured.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: FBI opens civil rights investigation into botched Houston drug bust, police chief says

The Pecan Park bust  and the officers' actions  have drawn close scrutiny because police did not find any heroin, only a small quantity of cocaine and marijuana. Investigators later failed to find the confidential informant police relied on to obtain a search warrant.

The case agent, Gerald Goines, was shot in the neck as he entered the private home, but he has also been relieved of duty after Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said the veteran officer appeared to have lied about the undercover drug buy that served as justification for the search warrant used by the squad to raid the house.

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Two other narcotics officers, including a longtime partner of Goines, have quietly retired from the department in recent weeks, including one who is under investigation for an unrelated matter, according to police documents and sources. Each officer had more than 20 years experience with the department.

In a search warrant for Bryant's phone data, an investigator with HPD's Special Investigations Unit wrote that Bryant told investigators he had retrieved two bags of heroin from the center console of Goines' police car at the instruction of another officer.

That, however, was not consistent with the affidavit used to obtain the warrant for the Jan. 28 raid, in which Goines wrote that Bryant identified heroin brought out of the house.

Though he took the two bags of drugs for testing to determine that they were heroin, Bryant eventually told investigators he had never seen the narcotics in question before retrieving them from the car.

Multiple law enforcement sources confirmed Bryant put in his retirement paperwork this week. An ongoing investigation would not affect his compensation benefits.

READ MORE: Houston police officer Gerald Goines had previous allegations against him

Bryants retirement is the latest fallout from the deadly raid, and comes as Acevedo has launched a wide-ranging probe into the division and its operations following the raid. The FBI has launched a rare civil rights investigation into the operation.

The Harris County District Attorneys Office has announced it is investigating 2,200 of the former criminal cases of Goines and Bryant. Acevedo has dramatically curtailed no-knock raids, and said he will equip raid teams with body cameras to record the operations. At the time of the raid, none of the members of the raid team was wearing cameras.

Houston Police Officers Union President Joe Gamaldi declined to comment on Bryants departure, citing the fact that it is a personnel matter and the ongoing investigation.

Acevedo did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon. Bryant could not be reached and union attorneys representing Bryant did not respond to a request for comment.

st.john.smith@chron.com

keri.blakinger@chron.com

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A man is dead after police believe he shot his wife and son at their Tomball home, according to Tomball police.

The man was found dead with a gunshot wound inside the home, but Tomball police said they could not confirm whether it was a self-inflicted wound.

Officers found the wife and son in the street in front of their home near McPhail and Cherry, police said. One was transported to the hospital by LifeFlight in critical condition, and the other was taken by ambulance in stable condition.

Both are now stable, police said.

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Tomball police initially responded to the report of a shooting around 10 p.m. Thursday. After they located the wife and son, they called Harris County SWAT officers to the home because they believed the shooter may be inside.

Deputies entered the home after about three hours and found the husband dead with the gunshot wound.

Tomball police spokesman Brandon Patin said investigators have been gathering reports that the husband was ill at the time. Investigators are working on getting more details on the possible illness, he said.

RELATED: Woman fatally struck by SUV while running across North Freeway

The man's other son showed up on the scene after the shooting and spoke to ABC13.

"It sucks," he told the station through tears. "I don't [have] a father no more. He's gone."

Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.
A Houston man has been found guilty in the death of a Bellaire police officer who crashed while chasing him through the Meyerland area in 2016.

Dante Moore, 30, stood trial for evading arrest, causing death in the July 12, 2016 pursuit. The chase began when motorcycle Officer Marco Antonio Zarate heard of shoplifters in the Meyerland Plaza Target and took off after Moore and his twin brother.

After more than five hours of deliberation over two days, the jury of four men and eight women ultimately agreed on Friday with the state, that Moore's evasion directly caused the 52-year-old's death.

"Marco didn't die in vain," said Sean Teare, chief of the Harris County District Attorney's Office Vehicular Crimes Division. "It validates the fact that Marco really, truly died a hero."

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The trial lasted for the better part of four days as the state called up witness after witness who testified to the grisly details of the crash. Some Bellaire police officers who testified at the hearing got emotional thinking back to the day their friend died.

As Zarate's family walked out of the courtroom Friday morning, they broke down in tears. Moore didn't visibly respond to the verdict.

Moore's family grappled with the outcome after the verdict. His aunt, Felicia Ratliff, said she was obviously unhappy with the jury's decision.

"He would never want this to happen," Ratliff said. "Hes guilty of some things, but not of that situation."

The jury's decision hung on defense attorney Danny Easterling's claims that Moore indirectly caused the crash. He questioned Bellaire Police Department's chase policy, casting doubt on whether Zarate was allowed to continue chasing Moore past a certain period of time. Motorcycle officers aren't supposed to continue chases past three minutes, according to the department's rules, but prosecutors and several police officers who testified disagreed with Easterling's interpretation.

RELATED: Chase policy in question during trial of Bellaire police officer's death

Prosecutors said the pursuit was shorter, considering Zarate lost sight of Moore's vehicle for a time. And the police officers said they're trained to know that if a felony is at the root of the chase, it can continue past three minutes.

The trial included dash cam footage of Zarate on a bumpy pursuit. He crashed into a parked landscaping truck and was rushed to the hospital, where he died.

The jury could have elected to convict Moore of evading arrest or detention. The decision had several strikethroughs, indicating that they "worked hard," prosecutors said.

Moore surrendered to authorities a day after the wreck. The charge of evading arrest, causing death carries two to 20 years of confinement, but the sentence could be increased under certain conditions. Moore could see 25 years to life, because he's been in prison twice before, prosecutors said.

The jury will meet later this morning to determine the punishment.

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A sapper from Armenia was wounded in the foot after a landmine explosion Thursday, and while carrying out a humanitarian mission in Syria, News.am reported.

Nazeli Elbakyan, public relations officer at the Armenian Center for Humanitarian Demining and Expertise, told Armenian News-NEWS.am that the right foot of this sapper has been amputated.

She noted that this landmine explosion victim will be transported back to Armenia soon.

In Elbakyans words, this sapper was carrying out humanitarian mission in Syria since February 8.

He is part of the 83-member teamcomprising deminers, doctors, and their security professionalsthat traveled from Armenia to Syria on February 8, to provide humanitarian and professional assistance to the Syrian people.
It was a packed house at Safari Texas on Thursday afternoon as community leaders and residents turned out to learn about the state of the city of Rosenberg.

Rosenberg Mayor William (Bill) Benton his address began by honoring and recognizing city employees and dignitaries, including Fort Bend County Judge KP George and Precinct 1 Commissioner Vincent Morales Jr.

Ongoing construction in and around Rosenberg is often an issue for area residents, which Benton approached with a bit of humor.

I saw some of the construction guys on the side of the freeway and I stopped and asked them when this construction and they said 2050, Benton said. Thats not true.

According to Benton, since the year 2000, Rosenberg has grown from a city of about 24,000 to one of about 40,000 today. From 2008 to 2018, the net taxable value has increased about 200 percent.

He said the taxable value has increased from about a billion to $3 billion. We need to applaud that.

With the increase in taxable value, the cost for services gets spread out across a wider swath of residents.

That figure has given us the opportunity to cost share, Benton said. We have more people paying less taxes than less people paying more taxes.

Benton lauded new commercial developments in the area, including a new Aldi distribution center. Since 2013, the mayor said 4,000 new homes have been built in the city. He added that home values have increased from $114,000 to $180,000.

In 2018, the city for the first time eclipsed S20 million in sales tax, Benton said. Thats a big deal when it comes time to fund things. We have to have the resources to do it. Were always looking for ways to reduce property taxes.

The expansion of the property tax base has resulted in the city reducing its tax rate in recent years. In 2017, the tax rate stood at 46.2 cents per $100 valuation. Today, the rate is 43 cents per $100 valuation which represents nearly a 7 percent drop in the property tax rate for area residents. The tax rate was 47 cents per $100 valuation in 2016.

It was the largest single year tax reduction in 30 years in Rosenberg, Benton said of the most recent decrease. I can assure you that was not easy to achieve. Weve done all this while maintaining or increasing all city municipal services.

Benton went on to laud the work done on road expansions  including Bryan and Spacek roads, and Bamore Road at I-69  and the Public Works Departments work on reconstruction, repaving, striping and work on alleys around the city.

Because the rain has wreaked havoc on our alleys, we are behind, Benton said. As soon as we get the opportunity were going to get in and repair those alleys.

The mayor also spoke of the Brazos water project, which includes 38 miles of pipe to bring water from Angleton to Rosenberg.

Weve had to spend a lot for water, Benton said.

Other highlights of Bentons presentation included in the last year that the:

Police Department added Police Chief Johnathan White. Benton added that violent crime fell 4 percent over the last year. So were a little bit safer.

Fire Department got a new fire engine, six new personnel and obtained a new rescue boat.

Finance Department has earned transparency stars and honored for excellence for financial reporting for the 32nd consecutive year.

Planning and Code Enforcement has approved 2,000 new lots in the city and ETJ. We had to reinstate the dangerous building abatement program.

Rosenberg is growing and the growth is good as long as it is managed properly, Benton said. I believe that should be the goal of every city.

For more information on the city of Rosenberg, go to https://rosenbergtx.gov.

rkent@hcnonline.com
Tomball City Council approved a contract during their meeting March 4 to repair the centrifuge at the citys south side wastewater treatment plant.

The council awarded a $132,849 contract to Alfa Laval for centrifuge repairs, which the agenda packet states was a project recommended in a 2016 Critical Needs Assessment by Freese & Nicols.

Centrifuges are used in wastewater plants to separate solid and liquid waste, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website.

The $132,849 in repairs would help bring the centrifuge up to a like new condition, the agenda packet states, whereas an entirely new centrifuge would cost over $1 million.

Tomball City Council also approved an agreement from the Tomball Economic Development Corporation to provide a $118,908 incentive to Breaux Machine Works for the purchase of new machines.

The incentive would partially pay for two lathes and a crane.

What that would allow them to do is to bid on jobs and allow them to do new machine components that they were not able to do as well as other competitors. There really isnt any in our area thats able to do that, said Kelly Violette, executive director of the TEDC.

In a letter written by owner Tommy Breaux, an additional six workers would be hired as machine operators and one as support personnel.

Council agreed to reimburse ExxonMobil $123,384 for the cost of cutting and removing sections of an abandoned pipelines. Exxon Mobil would remove three sections of abandoned pipelines along the future M121 West drainage channel, which would run between Theis Road and Holderrieth Road.

Based on the alignment of M121W drainage channel improvements, there will be a need for the city to cut and remove pipelines at three locations owned by ExxonMobil Pipeline Co., states the agenda packet. ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. requires that the work is done by their company and that the city enter into a reimbursement agreement for the associated costs.

mayra.cruz@chron.com
Yesterday, Minister of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan Colonel General Zakir Hasanov met with the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk, Trend reported referring to the ministry.

During the meeting, an exchange of views was held on the current situation at the contact line of the troops, the results of the monitoring and the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Iranian naval forces intervened to repel pirates who attacked an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden, Reuters reported citing state television.

The broadcast said pirates in 11 speedboats attacked a tanker with a cargo of 150,000 tonnes on Thursday. It showed naval forces opening fire on speedboats, without saying whether the footage was from the latest incident.

Irans navy has extended its reach in recent years, dispatching vessels to the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden to protect Iranian ships from Somali pirates.
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has congratulated women of Kazakhstan on 8th March, Kazinform reported.

"Dear women! 8th March is a great women's holiday. It symbolizes fascination with women's beauty, your love for family values and traditions. This great day brings harmony of the nature awakening in spring to your lives. Men full of the most sincere feelings try to surprise you and to impress you. They are trying at least, aren't they?," the Head of State said extending March 8 congratulations at Akorda.

"The woman's image as a mother, a keeper of family hearth, beloved and trustworthy wife has been sacred throughout the millennia. That is the dream of all men. The woman brings a new life into the world. Kazakhstan welcomes annually more than 400,000 little Kazakhstanis," the President noted.

According to him, children were and are the wealth and pride not only of one family but are the precious wealth of the whole nation.

"Maternity is the lifetime appointment. It is impossible to replace her. The world is based on a mother's love. The country rests on family wellbeing and stable family standards,' the Head of State stressed.
Angela Merkel resisted US pressure to deploy German Navy warships to the Kerch Strait for naval exercises during her February 16 meeting with the US Vice President Mike Pence on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Sputnik reported citing Bloomberg.

Paraphrasing the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Bloomberg indicated that Pence wanted Merkel to send Deutsche Marine ships into Russian waters to "show Putin that Western powers" wouldn't "surrender their access to those waters."

Merkel reportedly rejected the proposal, the sources said, citing 'reservations' from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that the one-time maneuver wouldn't keep the strait open permanently.

The German government declined to comment on Bloomberg's report.
The Russian Black Sea Fleets naval ships together with the vessels of the Turkish Naval Forces have conducted a passing exercise to improve interoperability in possible mine danger areas, Black Sea Fleet spokesman Capt. 2nd Rank Alexei Rulyov said, Sputnik reported.

"The crews of two vessels of the Novorossiysk naval base of the Black Sea Fleet  patrol ship Vasily Bykov and minesweeper Valentin Pikul  have held joint Turkish-Russian exercise PASSEX with the crews of corvette Burgazada and minesweeper Akcay," Rulyov said.

According to Rulyov, the crews worked on interoperability between the two naval forces in the Black Sea and conducted a passing exercise in possible mine danger areas.

On March 6-8, Turkish warships were in the port of Novorossiysk with a business call as part of national naval exercises dubbed Mavi Vatan-2019.
The top US general overseeing military operations in the Middle East warned Thursday that despite the terror group's territorial losses the fight against ISIS is "far from over," cautioning that the remnants of the group are positioning themselves for a potential resurgence.

"Reduction of the physical caliphate is a monumental military accomplishment but the fight against ISIS and violent extremism is far from over," Gen. Joseph Votel the commander of US Central Command told the House Armed Services Committee, CNN reports.

Votel acknowledged that the terror group's territory had shrunk from some 34,000 square miles at the height of its power to an area that is currently less than a single square mile in the Syrian town of Baghouz.

But he cautioned that many ISIS fighters have left these last pockets and have dispersed across Syria and Iraq.
More than 5,000 species are endangered in Asia, around 800 in the Greater Mekong region alone. Plants and wildlife are used to produce traditional medicines, clothes and accessories. Hunting and poaching are practiced in about 70 pe cent of sanctuaries. In Southeast Asia and the Pacific regions, the illegal trade in wildlife is worth about US$ 19.2 billion a year.

Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Myanmar is home to 331 endangered species, this according to the latest report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), including birds, orangutans, elephants, deer, freshwater turtles, pangolins and tigers.

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the IUCN presented its report, Larger than Tigers, in Yangon on Tuesday, documenting the risks faced by more than 5,000 species in Asia, about 800 of them in the Greater Mekong region, which includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

According to the report, the biodiversity of the Greater Mekong is under threat because of habitat loss and exploitation. Local plants and wildlife are exploited to make traditional herbal medicines, clothes and accessories, for food and for pets.

It notes hunting and poaching was found in about 70 per cent of sanctuaries, and that the annual illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region is worth about US$ 19.2 billion.

In May, Myanmars Parliament passed the Protection of Biodiversity and Conservation Areas Law, which prescribes harsh penalties for hunting and illegal wildlife trading as defined by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Violators can face up to ten years in jail.

In October, the Yangon Region government also imposed a ban on selling items made with wildlife parts at souvenir shops or selling wildlife curries at restaurants. However, due to strong financial incentives, the illegal wildlife trade remains rampant.

The World Wildlife Fund (Myanmar) has also warned that Myanmars elephant population could disappear in the next decade if the government fails to effectively prevent poaching.
The process of deploying Russian advanced S-400 air defense missile systems in Turkey will begin in October, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said at a meeting with editors of the Anadolu news agency, TASS reports.

"The deployment of S-400s will begin in October and the Air Force is studying, in which regions it is better to deploy them," the defense minister said.

Turkeys defense chief reiterated that the acquisition of precisely Russian air defense systems was not "Turkeys preference, but was a forced measure."

As Akar stressed, the S-400 surface-to-air missile systems are needed "to protect the countrys population."

The Turkish defense minister also said that Ankara and Washington "are continuing their negotiations on the delivery of US Patriot air defense missile systems to the republic."

The S-400 Triumf is the most advanced long-range air defense missile system that went into service in Russia in 2007. It is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including medium-range missiles, and can also be used against ground installations.

The S-400 can engage targets at a distance of 400 km and at an altitude of up to 30 km.
Lawyers for hundreds of people who contend they were harmed by an explosion at a Crosby chemical plant after Hurricane Harvey met in a Houston federal court Thursday to hash out pretrial issues.

U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison instructed the lawyers on both sides to work together to resolve disputes over discovery materials.

The civil lawsuit was brought by area residents and first responders who may have been harmed after explosions prompted more than 20,000 pounds of toxic chemicals to be released into floodwaters and the air. The group members are seeking compensation from Arkema for health care expenses and damage to homes, as well as punitive damages.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: In Houston and beyond, Harvey's spills leave a toxic legacy

They claim the evacuation zone was not large enough to encompass the breadth of the damage. The judge has set a hearing on class action status for May 1, at which time the court will assess the request that anyone within a seven-mile radius of Arkemas Crosby facility be included in the class.

Arkema executives lost control of the plant after floodwaters cut power and wiped out its back up generators. With the power out and cooling systems failing, volatile organic peroxides exploded multiple times over a week, producing towering pillars of fire and thick plumes of black smoke.

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A Texas Commission on Environmental Quality report cited in the lawsuit said the potential carcinogens released included volatile organic compounds and ethylbenzene, and toxins such as tert butyl alcohol, which irritates skin and can cause vomiting and dizziness. Some residents suing the chemical company reported respiratory problems, and one suffered burns and blisters on his legs after wading through contaminated flood waters.

Arkema attorneys have rejected the suits claims.

The company is also facing civil suits from Harris and Liberty counties.

An investigation by the Houston Chronicle in 2016 found that Arkema was among 55 facilities in the Houston area posing a high potential for harm to the public, based on an analysis performed with Texas A&M University. The study assessed potential harm based on the amount and type of dangerous chemicals on site and their proximity to the public.

Gabrielle.Banks@chron.com

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A 14-year-old stabbed outside a Houston ISD school Wednesday died in an area hospital Friday, police said.

The boy had just left Jane Long Academy in the 6400 block of Bellaire Boulevard when he and another juvenile got into some sort of argument around 4:30 p.m., according to Houston police.

During the altercation, the other juvenile pulled a knife and stabbed the 14-year-old. He was rushed to Memorial Hermann Hospital in critical condition but died Friday.

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The suspect fled east on Bellaire Boulevard and remains at large.

RELATED: Three arrested in shooting death of Kingwood teen

In a statement, Houston ISD said counselors will be available at Jane Long Academy for support and guidance.

Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message
UN chief Antonio Guterres is continually monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan and his office is available to both parties, his spokesperson said, The Indian Express reported.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric was asked if the UN chief had spoken with the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan to de-escalate tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.

The Secretary General and members of his staff are in touch have been in touch with the parties at various levels. We continually monitor the situation and [are] available to the parties, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
A Houston man accused of gunning down a 26-year-old around in December 2016 is now behind bars.

Rakym Mullen, 23, is facing a first-degree murder charge for allegedly killing Sir Don Bell in an apartment complex parking lot near County Creek Street and Deering Drive in southwest Houston on Dec. 30, 2016.
A 19-year-old Houston man has been charged with murder in the deaths of two people  including an 18-year-old Lamar High School student  as part of an ongoing gang war between local groups, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Friday.

Kendrick Johnson, who was already in custody on two unrelated aggravated robberies, faces murder charges in the Nov. 13 shooting death of Lamar student De'Lindsey Mack and the Sept. 23 killing of Kenneth Roberson, 24, in southeast Houston.

"We're here to urge the killings to stop, to talk to the individuals, the young people, making choices about giving their loyalty to groups that murder one another," said Ogg said, flanked by the mothers of the victims. "We're here to say it's time for young men to stop dying on our streets."

Yvonne Ferguson-Smith, Roberson's mother, had a plea to the teens embroiled in violence that had claimed her son's life.

"If you love your mother and don't want your mother, your father, your family to go through this, please put the guns down," she said.

Ogg said Johnson  whom she described as a "poster child for representing a threat to the community"  committed both murders as part of an ongoing war between members of a local street gang, 100 Percent Third Ward (103), and another local clique, the Young Scott Block, or YSB, gang.

Johnson is also facing charges in a third case in which he is accused of shooting a person in the neck on Jan. 8 in a drive-by shooting.

About 20,000 gang members  in roughly 300 gangs  live in the greater Houston area, according to law enforcement estimates.

Mack, who was a new transfer student at Lamar High School, was walking home from classes on Nov. 13 when two people jumped out of a car and shot him. One of the two gunman stood over him and continued to shoot as he lay dying on the pavement, according to law enforcement records.

The assault sent the River Oaks campus into lockdown. In the aftermath of the shooting, Mack's parents said they hadn't known about an online persona he'd created on Instagram in which he portrayed himself as a member of the Backstreet/Freemoney gang, a group closely associated with YSB.

But at least twice before Mack's death  as far back as December 2016, when he was attending Yates High School  his mother warned police he was being threatened by gang members.

A string of alleged crimes

Johnson's criminal history includes a string of dangerous assault, murder and robbery charges dating back to 2014, when he was convicted as a juvenile in an aggravated robbery case.

Law enforcement records show that police arrested Johnson in December on a July 26 aggravated robbery of a night motel clerk in south-central Houston. At the time, he had a 9 mm handgun. Investigators compared  and matched  a cartridge from that weapon with bullet casings collected at the scene where Mack was killed, records show.

They were also able to match the weapon with casings collected from a Nov. 11 aggravated assault. Johnson has also been charged with aggravated robbery in a December 2017 incident.

And months before Mack's death, Johnson allegedly shot and killed Roberson in a drive-by shooting in the 7300 block of Long Drive.

According to police records, two people in a gray Jeep Renegade drove alongside Roberson's car, and a passenger in the Jeep began shooting, hitting Roberson several times. Roberson, who appears to have been affiliated with YSB, crashed into the median and died at the scene, according to law enforcement records. There, too, police recovered bullet casings and compared them to other cartridges they collected from the November assault.

An attorney who represented Johnson in the July aggravated robbery case did not respond to a request for comment.

Every life is 'precious'

On Friday, Police Chief Art Acevedo, Mayor Sylvester Turner and the parents of the two victims all shared a common message: Bring this violence to an end.

"A bullet may have taken their son, but we don't want that bullet to take their families," Turner said. "We don't want to give the enemy  those who disrespect life the power to take more than what they have already taken."

Acevedo thanked Mack's and Roberson's families for cooperating with investigators and urged the public's help solving other violent acts caused by gang violence.

"We don't care if a suspect shoots a gang member, a nongang member  we don't care who it is," he said. "Every life in this city is precious."

At times growing emotional, the mothers of the two victims urged other parents to make sure they knew what their kids are up to and to be active in their lives.

"Pray with your kids, take them to church ... teach your kids," said Dalia Mack, De'Lindsey Mack's mother. "Get to know their friends; get to know what they're doing on social media."

"Never say what your child wouldn't do, or what your children wouldn't do," said Ferguson-Smith, Roberson's mother. "Because we don't know."

st.john.smith@chron.com

twitter.com/stjbs
Mayor Sylvester Turner plans to lay off up to 400 firefighters as he prepares to award pay raises required by Proposition B, the voter-approved charter amendment that grants firefighters the same pay as police of corresponding rank, according to five Houston City Council members who were briefed on the plan.

The move to fully implement the pay parity measure comes after talks between the city and fire union about phasing in the raises over five or more years became strained last week.

Meanwhile, city officials are preparing council members for the difficult task of closing a $197 million deficit in the annual budget that must be adopted for the upcoming July 1 fiscal year. About $80 million of that budget gap comes from the firefighters raises, council members were told.

In addition to the firefighter layoffs, Turner will seek to close the deficit by asking all city departments to cut their budgets by at least 3 percent, a move that is likely to require layoffs of as many as 100 municipal workers, the council members said. Councilwoman Brenda Stardig said she was told no police officers will be laid off.

On May 9, Turners administration plans to issue back pay to firefighters retroactive to Jan. 1, which will total about $30 million, several council members said.

So, basically, on May 9 you want to be hanging out near a firefighter because hes going to be buying, said Councilman Greg Travis. Hes going to have a lot of money on that day.

The city plans to mail layoff notices to firefighters within weeks, Travis said. Among the layoffs are 68 fire cadets who Turner has declined to promote amid a citywide hiring freeze than has spanned more than five months. The mayor nonetheless promoted more than 60 police cadets Monday.

The fire cadets filed grievances against Turner Thursday claiming the mayor was discriminating and retaliating against them.

I feel sorry for those guys because in about two or three more weeks theyre going to get the notice, Travis said. Its last in, first out.

Turners plan would cut about $25 million out of the fire departments $503 million budget, Fire Chief Sam Pena told council members. Officials have said that despite the cuts, the number of firefighters on duty at any time will not change.

Pena also has proposed a reduction in the number of firefighters dispatched to small fires at single-family homes, saying that sending about a third fewer personnel would free up resources without preventing the department from handling minor emergencies.

Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association President Marty Lancton said the layoffs would put the city below national safety standards.

The mayors hatred of firefighters now will have terrible consequences for us and for the public. Hes willing to destroy public safety in Houston to punish firefighter families, Lancton said. A world-class fire department is being destroyed from within by third-rate politicians.

Turner, who campaigned against Prop B and repeatedly warned of potential layoffs if it passed, told reporters Friday that his hands were tied because the charter amendment did not come with a funding mechanism. He also said the fire union rejected a city proposal to phase in pay raises. That offer did not appear to fully implement the charter amendment over the citys proposed five-year window, falling short of increases in incentive pay that the finance department projects would be necessary to reach full parity.

People want to put the administration in a box, Turner said. If you dont implement Prop. B, people criticize you for not implementing Proposition B. When we move to implement Prop. B, people say, We dont want the layoffs. Well, you cant have it both ways.

During negotiations since Prop B passed in November, the firefighters proposed to phase the raises in over three years, retroactive to July 1, 2018. The raises then would be distributed based on firefighters length of service, with all members reaching full parity by July 1, 2020.

Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Cohen said fire union officials should support the idea of phasing in the raises over five years, which she considers a more reasonable time frame.

One of the critical things in this discussion is that, if the union would agree to implement the expenses over a five-year period, then we wouldnt be looking at layoffs, Cohen said. Thats the key issue, as far as Im concerned.

Turners slow implementation of the pay parity measure, which was approved with 59 percent of the vote Nov. 8, has prompted sharp criticism from the fire union. Lancton has said Turner was denying firefighters higher pay unlawfully, while the mayor insisted his administration was figuring out how to define parity across the fire and police departments.

One uncertainty appeared to stem from differences in educational requirements between the departments. For example, police officers must have a masters degree to be promoted to assistant police chief, a stipulation that does not exist for assistant fire chiefs and fire marshals. Under Turners plan, firefighters would receive reduced raises if they lack the degree required by the corresponding police department position, multiple council members said, explaining why the latest cost estimate of $80 million falls more than $30 million below Turners previous estimate.

Councilman Mike Knox said he was not convinced that Turner could use the educational requirements to justify smaller raises for some firefighters.

Im not sure thats going to fly, Knox said.

Turner defended the move, saying the requirements are part of what constitutes parity between the departments.

If within police, if there are educational requirements to get to a certain rank, then the same thing ought to be expected of fire, if you want parity, Turner said.

Lancton disagreed, saying Turner was picking and choosing which parts of equal police-fire pay he will implement.

Playing games with the education and compensation part of Prop B is dishonest and not with the letter or spirit of the proposition, he said. City council members already tell us theyre uncomfortable with what hes doing."

Meanwhile, Councilman Dwight Boykins said he again would propose a monthly garbage fee at the next city council meeting intended to reduce the number of layoffs. He floated a fee of $8 to $10, a total that likely would not cover the entire cost of firefighters raises, but still generate tens of millions of dollars in new revenue. The fee would be tacked on to residents water bills and exempt disabled veterans and seniors, Boykins said.

The District D councilman said Turner was noncommittal and told him to gather support from other council members.

A spokesman said the mayor told council members to bring their revenue suggestions to the council table.

Boykins originally pitched the idea of a garbage fee to help fund firefighter raises last December. At that time, he recommended a monthly fee of $25 to $40. Turner rejected the idea, saying he will not support forcing Houston homeowners to pay a costly new tax on trash collection to pay for firefighters salaries.

Travis speculated that the confusion over what constitutes parity likely would spark a lawsuit. Already, the parity issue has played out in court through a case in which the city has alleged that Prop. B violates the state constitution, and another where the city is seeking a ruling that effectively would render the fire unions collective bargaining rights unconstitutional.

The fire union also has asked a judge to force the city to begin implementing the pay raises.

Turners opponents in the 2019 mayoral election, Bill King and Tony Buzbee, criticized the mayor on Friday. Buzbee said Turner should prioritize cuts among other city departments, such as libraries and parks, while King said Turners "failure to negotiate in good faith" with firefighters led to the Prop. B-induced budget shortfall.

Reporter St. John Barned-Smith contributed to this story.
A San Antonio woman charged with animal cruelty decided to voluntarily surrender the 23 dogs and puppies she is accused of hoarding in her home, according to Animal Care Services officials.

Monique Smith, 30, was arrested on Feb. 26 on suspicion of cruelty to non-livestock animals after investigators obtained a search warrant and removed the animals from her home.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a unit within the US Department of Defense that specializes in futuristic inventions, has awarded a $63.3 million contract to help produce a hypersonic weapon, Raytheon announced.

"This latest contract adds to Raytheon's growing number of hypersonic weapons programs... to quickly field these advanced weapon systems and provide our nation's military with the tools they need to stay ahead of the escalating threat," Raytheon Advanced Missile Systems Vice President Thomas Bussing said in the release, UrduPoint reported.

For a tactical-range boost glide weapon to achieve hypersonic speeds - velocities greater than Mach 5 - a rocket accelerates its payload to high speeds, according to the DARPA website.

"The payload then separates from the rocket and glides unpowered to its destination," the website explains.

DARPA has a history of exotic inventions, including the internet and global positioning system, that eventually become part of everyday life.
TravelSkills on SFGate is brought to you by Visa

California's cold, wet winter sure makes a sojourn to the South Seas mighty appealing. And if you can make your flight reservations now, you can jet down to Fiji nonstop from San Francisco for just $396-- round trip!

You read that right. For less than $400, you can fly nonstop on Fiji Airways from San Francisco to Nadi, Fiji in April, September or October.

UPDATE March 9- most of these fares have now flown away; there are still a handful at around $466.

The 11-hour, 5,500 mile nonstop flight is on an Airbus A330-200. Flights are are overnight in both directions, departing SFO three days a week: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

According to Google Flights, these "Bula Special" fares are available on roundtrip flights in April, September, October and early November.

April flights | Sept-Oct flights

GReat Circle Mapper

Fiji Airways is a Oneworld partner. Please note these fares were available on March 7 and are subject to change.

According to SeatGuru, Fiji Airways' Airbus A330-200 has 273 seats in a 2-class configuration. There are 12 angled lie-flat seats in Business Class (2-2-2) and 249 seats (2-4-2) in Economy Class.

Don't miss out on a shred of important travel news! Sign up for our FREE bi-weekly travel alert emails!

Most cheap seats are available on flights in September or October, which is a fine time to be there with just 3-4 inches of rain per month and temps in the 80s. Rainy season runs from November to April. Here's some more interesting information about travel to Fiji for first timers.

Have you been or do you dream about going to Fiji? Tell us about it in the comments!

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Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.
HERE IS A SELECTION OF LETTERS AND EMAILS weve received since January. Please send correspondence to [email protected], along with your name, address, and any relevant affiliation.

Must aid be an ethical dilemma?

Feb 19

As journalists, we must be humans first. I belong to the National Press Photographers Association, which has a Humanitarian Award fellow photographers who provide aid on the scene, because they arrive before first responders or because they are the only one who can help. We can and should help, as long as its within the scope of our training and does not make the problem worse. What we should avoid is becoming the story. Of greater benefit is getting the story out, so others can see the scope and scale of the distress and take action to relieve the suffering.

Peter Roof

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The thankless, fruitless art of the presidential interview

Feb 14

I am a reader, not a reporter. I think there is a time to ignore Trump, or at least play down things that he claims or simply says. Give more weight to things he actually has done. (I dont want to hear what he tweeted, but I do want to hear about the person he nominated for a cabinet position.) This president has changed the way a president behaves. Why shouldnt the news media change the way it covers a president?

Scott Goldstein

Reuters article highlights ethical issues with native advertising

January 24

I run a small local journalism site and depend on what we call partnered content. Our sponsored pieces are all labeled as such and focus on telling the stories of small businesses in the community. Our readers actually enjoy them and appreciate our transparency. Taking money to further a political message is a clear red line. Government propaganda should never be used as native advertising. But stories like this paint a negative light on a revenue model that can in fact help support independent journalism.

Sean Baker

What Is Fox News? Researchers want to know

January 23

Ten years before there was Fox News, there was the Christian Broadcasting Network. I was executive producer of The 700 Club in the 1980s, and CBN, we wrote the playbook Fox News follows. We inserted ourselves at the far right of everybody doing news, because we believed the conservative point of view was not being presented sufficiently by the news media, who were, quite frankly, not interested in the opinions of Rush or others of his ilk. We faced no real pushback from the press, because they didnt consider our reach large enough to warrant inspection. That was a big mistake. We tested the waters for the Fox News. At every turn, we supported Reagans views, even during Iran-Contra (Oliver North was a friend of ours). This included administration-friendly guests of all sorts. We encouraged the belief that the country was hellboundand argued this was due to good people not getting involved in politics. It was a powerful message, especially for fundraising. To our audience, armed with religious zealotry, there was nothing we could say or do that would be met with disapproval. In order to study Fox News, one must begin with their audience. Fox is, after all, just responding to a demand it created itself, just like CBN did in the 1980s.

Terry Heaton

Huntsville, Alabama

The world according to Russ Baker

Mar 1, 2016

I came across your flattering profile of Russ Baker, the founder of the non-profit news site WhoWhatWhy, that ran in your publication a few years ago. In the piece, the author mentions that Baker works on a very low budget, but what the article does not share is what appears to be a potentially exploitative business model. This was highlighted by a journalist recently who provided public documents on Twitter showing that Baker takes in a nice salary, far more than what any journalist I know earns, while most everyone else on the staff is a volunteer. (Freelance editors and writers are paid using donations to the site, the document showed.) Baker has been mostly honest about his approach, making explicitly clear in his job postings that WhoWhatWhy is looking for consistent hours and a long term commitment from professionals with at least five years of experience, for no pay. But what neither Baker nor the author expressed in the article is how much money Baker pays himself. In 2015, the year before your article was published, Baker took $128,000 of the $300,000 donated to the site. I wonder if the author would have written this sentence if he had known: Baker even asks staff members who can afford it to take less money so that others can have more. This is a good reminder to always look at documents, regardless of my trust in the subject.

Daniel Krieger

New York City

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The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.
About a hundred miles from New York City, among the trees in East Hampton, Long Island, sits the Ross School. Started in 1991 by Steven Ross, who founded Time Warner, and in larger part by his wife, Courtney, as a tutoring group with extravagant field trips, today the school is a campus of glass and stone. In attendance are some 450 day and boarding students from across Long Island and around the world, in kindergarten through 12th grade. In front of the high school building, at the back of campus, is a reproduction of the Winged Victory flanked by a fountain.

One day in November, students in navy blue and khaki uniforms filed into a classroom in the basement. Their chatter was multilingualEnglish, Czech, Chinese, German. The teenagers, in grades 9 through 12, took their seats at three tables arranged into a U. Their teacher, Paul Gansky, 33, wore a gray blazer and a button-down with brightly colored stripes. He carried a jade-colored teacup. (Its a Fire-King milk glass, he says.) His students call him Paul.

Gansky directed everyones attention toward a projector screen displaying an image of a factoryrow after row of bright-yellow machines with robot armsbelonging to Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer. This was the Apple supplier in Shenzhen, China, that, several years ago, earned significant media attention when China Labor Watch reported on conditions there. After a quick review of the report (it was a survey of a small number of workers, Gansky explained, and those who spoke about their experiences did so at significant personal risk), Gansky asked the class how much workers tasked with assembling laptops should be paid. What would be a fair wage? How many hours do you think it would take to assemble a single computer?



Hands shot into the air. Estimates varied widely. Luisa said $70 an hour; Cristina suggested $8 and change. Katharina, a boarding student from Germany, said that assembling the computers required skilled labor. So I would expect a good wage, she explained.

Gansky pulled up the real numbers. A student, visibly shocked, whispered Fuck! under his breath. According to the 2012 report that Gansky had in hand, workers at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen earned $250 a monthless than $2 an hourand paid up to $18 for dorm rental as well as fees for the privilege of having been given an opportunity to interview for the job. The class scribbled notes: on hundreds of workers sleeping on cots in a single room, on the dangers of working with copper, on what low-level radiation and excessive heat do to the body, on suicide rates. Gansky encouraged the students to consider why Foxconn might insist that its workers use banana oil, which is toxic, to polish screens before theyre packaged and shipped around the world, erasing fingerprints as if nobody built this machine at all.

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The class, e-commerce, an elective, is a component of the Ross media literacy program, aimed at teaching students not just how to consume and produce different types of media but also how to interrogate a narrativehow to pick it apart, flip it around, and inspect it for flaws that its makers worked hard to conceal. Over decades, Ross has set scholars on the task of crafting its curriculum, with ample resourcesannual tuition is $72,800 for boarding students, $41,200 for dayyielding a sophisticated approach reminiscent of graduate-level programs. The result is a scholastic counterpart to the refinement of the Hamptons, an area known for its beachfront mansions, luxury cars, and elite social scene. (Alexa Ray Joel, daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley, attended the Ross School, as did Scott Disick, onetime love interest of Kourtney Kardashian, among other children of the Hamptons upper class.)

For Gansky, the decision to tackle media literacy as part of an education in the culture industry at largewith attention paid to journalism as well as film, advertising, video games, and other kinds of storytellingis about restoring a sense of political agency lost in the hyperpolarized world in which Ross kids live. His most effective message to the class is You guys are living in a sort of media narrative thats been designed for you, he tells me. And they kind of perk up across the board, whether were people who read news or who play Fortnite. Thats when you start to see, across nationalities, folks begin to go, I can interrogate that. My video game is actually worth analyzing the same way that a news article is. 

The next day, the class watched a segment of a documentary about Shenzhen produced in 2016 by Wired magazine as part of a series called Future Cities. Before Gansky hit play, he asked his students to predict what information from the China Labor Watch report might appear. Liam Murray, 17, suggested that American income stagnancyand with it the fight to raise the minimum wagemight be offered as a point of comparison for US viewers, to encourage empathy for the low-paid employees of Foxconn. American viewers familiar with disappointments in wages could relate, he said. Harlan Beeton, 18, thought the filmmakers might try to make an explicitly political statement, exploring what the US and Chinese governments were doing to combat the human rights offenses the class had discussed a day earlier.

But the beginning of the film offered none of that. Instead, it was a glossy introduction to Shenzhen: the camera sweeps through a busy market where salesmen offer iPhones, tablets, and the tools needed to take them apart. Drone shots ogle a crowded, booming metropolis, its buildings fitted together like Legos. Oh my gosh, I love Shenzhen, a man says. You cant talk bad about Shenzhen.

About 10 minutes in, Gansky hit pause and turned on the lights. He wanted to talk about what the class had seen so farand what it hadnt. Our students are coming from incredible privilege, and many of them end up writing New York Times best-selling books, or they end up being editors at major newspapers, or at places like CNN, or they become film producers, he tells me later. They have a real leg up in terms of where theyre going to be in the culture industry. I want them to know, as producers, that they need to take the same sense of critical analysis to the projects that they deal with as professionals. Because theyre setting the discourse. Theyre really shaping how our country thinks of itself.

In the wake of the 2016 elections, lawmakers, aghast at the prevalence of fake newsoutright lies designed to look like legitimate informationsprang into action. States began adopting legislative fixes. In Rhode Island, Governor Gina Raimondo signed two bills mandating that the states education department consider adding media literacy to its curriculum. In Washington State, the superintendent of education conducted a media literacy survey and launched a website enumerating practices for incorporating relevant lessons into curricula. Similar bills have been introduced or passed in Connecticut, New Mexico, California, Hawaii, Arizona, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Internet resources like Snopes (a fact-checking site), FactCheck.org, and Common Sense Medias Digital Citizenship curriculum are being adopted for use in classrooms all over the country. The dizzying election cycle that delivered Donald Trump the White House heightened Americas media-related anxieties, giving them tangible form. The need to devise a solution became urgent. Now its about mobilizing students, Gansky tells me.

But media literacy has been on the minds of educators for generations. When, on October 30, 1938, Orson Welles broadcast The War of the Worlds, a radio account of a fictitious alien invasion, and caused panic in American households, the public came to understand the technologys dark potential. The extent of the hysteria has since been called into questionmedia historians note that newspapers, eager to discredit the new medium cutting into their ad revenue, grossly exaggerated the reaction; even so, the broadcast sparked concern about radios application in the widespread dissemination of propaganda. Scholars began to study radios impact; a group of researchers, teachers, and journalists founded the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA) at Columbia University. In a 1939 report, Howard Cummings, an IPA researcher, wrote of a need to teach the public general habits of analysis and attitudes of skepticism.

In addition to researching how public opinion is influenced, the IPA promoted study groups in public schools that would teach children how to identify propaganda. Edward Filene, the department store baron, funded the institute and, working with Clyde Miller, a former reporter at the Cleveland Plain Dealer and a faculty member at Columbias Teachers College, gave more than $1 million to create what was essentially a media literacy curriculum. Miller oversaw the publication of articles with such titles as How to Detect Propaganda and How to Analyze Newspapers. The materials were shipped to thousands of teachers, librarians, and college professors.

In the fifties, as television came to the fore, teachers adjusted their efforts to suit a new generation of kids. In 1964, Marshall McLuhan determined that the medium is the message in his book Understanding Media, which turned up in classrooms all over. During the seventies, Elizabeth Thoman founded an influential magazine, Media & Values, that would lead to the opening of an organization called the Center for Media Literacy. Eventually, focus landed on the production of media, including film. The eighties and nineties ushered in cable television and the so-called 500-channel universe. Media literacy emphasized the minimization of harmful messages that could be delivered through TV (sexism, racism, violence).

By the following decade, legislators were receiving complaints, spurred in part by the religious Right, of violence in the media. Media literacy came up again, Renee Hobbs, part of a fledgling group that would soon become the National Association for Media Literacy Education, recalls. We all got to go to Washington to meet with President Clinton and talk about media as prevention strategy. Broadcasters, in an effort to avoid congressional regulation, created educational programming focused on health and crime prevention.

While Congress aired concerns about violence in media, agents of the state could be seen on camera brutalizing people. Hobbs, a professor of communications at the University of Rhode Island, made a documentary instructing viewers in critical analysis of the distressing scenes they saw on the news. Called Tuning In to Media, it examined coverage of Rodney King, a construction worker in Los Angeles who was beaten by police, and the riots that ensued in response. She sought to prevent desensitizationa goal that has not become easier to achieve in the years since. The fact that the media is always changing means media literacy is also always changing, Hobbs tells me. Its a moving target.

When Courtney Ross wasnt in the Hamptons, or at her home on Park Avenue, in Manhattan, she was traveling the world with her daughter, Nicole, whom she homeschooled. The experience, Ross realized, was an opportunity to help her child make connections across subjects and cultures. Soon, she started bringing along Nicoles friends; after Steven died, of cancer, in 1992, she became an edupreneur, pouring more than $330 million into building the Ross campus. To formalize the academic offerings, she tapped her extensive network of accomplished friends; in 1995, William Irwin Thompson, a poet and historian, and Ralph Abraham, a chaos theorist, developed the spiral curriculum, which thematically links all subjects into a narrative telling the evolution of human consciousness. During those early years, the school was for girls only and had no class periods; learning would not be circumscribed by arbitrary limits on time.

It follows that instruction in media literacy at Ross was always highly experimental. Thats thanks in part to Marie Maciak, a documentary filmmaker the school hired in 1996 (along with a Tibetan monk and a Maasai warrior, both scholars in residence). She came to capture the schools attempt at building a learning environment that would, in Courtneys terms, produce global citizens.

In my early years at Ross this was a very vibrant community where people were coming in and discussing current events and issues that, in their specific fields, were cutting-edge, and seeing where those issues fit in a K12 education, Maciak tells me over lunch in the schools Center for Well-Being (it houses the gym and a cafeteria that rivals those of corporate offices). One day, a group of students approached her in the studio on campus where she edited her work, curious about what she was doing. Interest grew, she recalls. Within a year I was asked to set up a proposal for integrating media into the curriculum.

Maciak suggested a focus on construction and deconstructionteaching kids how to make media, evaluate it, and use it to effect change. Working with people like Goldie Red Burns, the founder of New York Universitys Interactive Telecommunications Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, Maciak began to build an outline. We started to lay out the structure of how we can ensure that kids are empowered to produce their own messages but can also think critically.

The message to Ross students is: You guys are living in a sort of media narrative thats been designed for you.

Over the years, Maciak tailored her students media projects to align with themes they were learning about in other classes, like social studies. In the early aughts, Rosss fifth graders were studying ancient Sumer, so Maciak gave out assignments connecting that region to current events. We were talking about the upcoming possible bombing of Iraq, and kids were very active, she says. Kids were protesting, were making PSAs. Maciak, who had been working on a film about refugees in Syria, connected her class with a group of Iraqi children living in Damascus. Using Skype, the students collaborated on a project: those in Syria would write a play about their experience, and those at Ross would perform and record it for them. They Skyped back and forth, sometimes working on the script (with help from an interpreter) and sometimes just talking.

Technological advances forced changes in how Ross approached media. Cameras became smaller and less expensive, which made production appealing, but the long blocks of time needed for kids to edit footage were impractical for a school schedule. (By this point, periods had been introduced.) Classes that focused on filmmaking became electives or independent studies. Today, Maciak explains, In the courses that are mandatory, we put the whole focus on understanding how media functionsmedia consumption issues, ownership. Students are asked, Who created this? What is their agenda? They look at conventional outlets, such as the Times and CNN, and turn to resources like Democracy Now! and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a media watchdog group.

Gansky, originally from Colorado, received a PhD in media studies from the University of Texas at Austin and arrived at Ross in 2016. Reflecting on his period immersed in scholarship, he recalls, The big focus at that time was moving away from areas where mass audiences were constructed for television and radio, and into these more complex and, in some cases, much more insidious realms. One of his professors was especially interested in Alex Jones, based in Austin, who for years had been broadcasting conspiracy theories via InfoWars, his multimedia company. It was really hair-raising to see how he weaponized information, Gansky says. He wanted to reach a certain audience, to create extremism in the discussion for that audience, and he really couldnt care less about any sort of empirical truth. I was totally hooked.

Gansky took a teaching job at Rossa place that he says has both the money and the political chutzpah to prioritize a serious media studies programand worked with Dan Roe, formerly a teacher and now the schools communications director, on writing an updated media literacy curriculum. The framework would be based on an exploration of persuasionhow thoughts, actions, and speech are transformed or engineered, Gansky explains, and would feature both production and critical-studies tracks. It would be intended for students in every grade; by high school, he says, students are ready to consider the fact that reality is constructed.

The embrace of a theory-heavy approachMy influences are primarily Natasha Dow Schull, Jonathan Sterne, Paul Lazarsfeld, and Elihu Katz, he saysis unusual for children. Students frequently work with news articles and film, but their conversations go much further than simply identifying material as credible or not. After Ganskys class watched the Wired documentary, Murray, who has been a student at Ross since grade 9, told me how his perception had shifted: I was expecting to see an expose, like, Oh my god, look at this horrible thing. Instead he found himself musing about Wireds interest in portraying Shenzhen in a certain way. Wired is a company that benefits off of every electronic that those sorts of companies produce, he said. When I first thought about what I was going to see, I didnt take into consideration that it was Wired, a tech magazine. I didnt really think about how theyd frame it. Then as Im watching this, Im like, Of course. China Labor Watch are the ones putting this information out. So Wired doesnt really have an obligation to say, Look at this terrible thing happening. 

Until recently, so-called digital nativeschildren born after computers and cell phones became ubiquitouswere assumed to be better equipped than their parents to parse the constant flow of information. But kids, supposed masters of the screen, tend to be novices at interpreting the information they are so adept at sharing. Meme culture on social-media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, where huge numbers of young people convene, further complicates matters.

In 2015, researchers at Stanford Universitys History Education Group set out to measure what they called civic online reasoning, the ability of young people, from middle-school to college age, to assess the credibility of information they consume on the internet. The group evaluated 7,804 student responses to 56 media-related tasks in 12 states. The goal was not to ask participants to make murky distinctions about the best answers to questions. Instead, the group set a series of what they believed to be reasonable benchmarks: For middle schoolers, the hope was that theyd be able to distinguish between a news story and an advertisement. The researchers hoped that high school students reading about gun laws would notice that the origin of a chart was a political action committee for gun owners. And by the time students reach college, the researchers thought, they should look askance at a website with a .org URL that focused on just one side of a contentious subject.

But in every case and at every level, we were taken aback by students lack of preparation, the researchers wrote in 2016, when the first results were published. Over 80 percent of the 203 middle schoolers surveyed believed that native advertisingeven when labeled sponsored contentwas a legitimate news story. The high schoolers, meanwhile, were asked to examine a website on the minimum wage that included links to news articles published by the Times; the site was managed by the Employment Policies Institute, which self-identified as nonpartisan. Only 9 percent of students enrolled in an Advanced Placement history course could correctly identify the group as a front for a conservative DC-based lobbying firm. (A quick Google search of the organizations name pulls up several trustworthy results identifying it as such.)

By the end of high school, Gansky says, students are ready to consider the fact that reality is constructed.

Later, 25 undergraduates at Stanford were asked to spend 10 minutes examining two websites: that of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a trusted group with an 88-year history, and one for the American College of Pediatricians, a fringe organization classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group for its stance linking homosexuality to pedophilia. The students were asked to determine which site was more credible. More than half chose the American College of Pediatricians and, even among those who selected the AAP, most spent their time on the organizations websites; they failed to venture out and independently investigate details about the groups before making a judgment.

News outlets have lamented a decline in trust from adult readers, but kids, unable to reliably interpret information online, dont engage with credible journalistic outlets either. In December, a Knight Foundation survey of high school students found sharp drops in teen news consumption: just 14 percent of high schoolers said they often watch their local TV news stations, compared to 30 percent in 2016; 12 percent reported watching cable news often, a fall from 26 percent.

Even engagement with news on social media, where teenagers spend hours daily, dipped from 51 percent in 2016 to 46 percent in 2018. The proportion of respondents who said they hardly ever share news articles on their time lines jumped from 53 percent to 64. Eighty-one percent said they hardly ever talk about news at all.

There are numerous ways to teach media literacy, and Hobbs says many teachers rely on resources like the New York Times Learning Network, which provides grade-appropriate lesson plans for teachers looking to use the days paper in their classrooms. Some approaches focus on teaching kids to identify the genre, author, and source of information in order to categorize articles on a continuum from fallacious to credible. Another method, created by librarians at the Association for College and Research Libraries, advises that media literacy (they call it information literacy) focus on six core frameworks, including Authority Is Constructed and Contextual and Information Has Value.

But the most effective programs, according to Hobbs, take up media literacy not merely as a set of skillshow to spot a fake headline or fact check an articlebut as a sensibility that must be taught, nurtured, and practiced. One of the dispositions teachers complain about is intellectual curiosity, Hobbs tells me. Ironically, they have a powerful search engine at their fingertips, but kids have difficulty generating questions.

At schools without the resources that Ross haswhich is to say, nearly every other schooltaking a holistic, long-term view of media literacy can be an unaffordable luxury. Access to curricula costs money and time, and public schools are bound by state requirements that private schools have leverage to ignore. Particularly for students living in under-resourced districts in cities or rural areas, there isnt likely to be a whole lot of room for experimentation and unique elective coursework of the sort students at Ross enjoy.

Still, Hobbs insists that private, moneyed schools are not the only places meaningful media literacy education can happen. She points to the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, a public school in Bensonhurst for gifted elementary and middle school students, which partnered with Rhys Daunics The Media Spot to integrate media literacy into the curriculum. Classes led by Amanda Murphy, a social-studies teacher at Rhode Islands Westerly High, are among the most impressive Hobbs has seen, thanks to Murphys integration of media literacy concepts. In Philadelphia, Mighty Writers, an after-school workshop for public-school kids, offers sessions on fake news that make use of tools like Snopes and Checkology, a partnership between the News Literacy Project and the Facebook Journalism Project. Teenagers dissect memes, discuss where they get their news (or dont) and why, and hear from journalists on how they conduct investigations.

But once kids learn to be skeptical of what they read online, everything can be thrown into question. At a recent workshop in Philadelphia, a clever boy asked the instructor, How do you monitor Snopes? If theyve told the truth before, they could slip in a lie without you noticing.

The pressure on children to question all they see can be overwhelming. The same feelings of burnout and disillusionment that adults have reported while following the news over the past several years have affected kids, too. Especially when it comes to the fake news that fills their phones, the idea that they might not be able to trust is a heavy burden to carry, Gansky explains. As much as they like to perform being adults, man, you can hit just a couple of pressure points and they go, I dont like being in the deep end. What do you want me to know? 

Students pick up on the declining faith in major news organizations. A couple years ago, when I began teaching, calling the New York Times the paper of record raised no eyebrows, Gansky says. But the polarization of politicsand of news consumptionhas changed that. Now I think students are dealing with a lot of cognitive dissonance where they go, God, everything has to be interrogated; theres no stable referent here. How many betwixt-and-between conversations can they deal with before you have to draw a line in the sand and say this can be empirically proven, and this seems like supposition or speculation? And are there very, very clear ways that we can tell those two apart?

The types of news media that Ross students consume vary widely, and international students bring a range of perspectives. An assumption of belief in the existenceand necessityof a free press cant be taken for granted. My Chinese students present a really different scenario, Gansky says of his e-commerce pupils. They will say, Well, we know that everything is fabricated by our state. So my job is to say, hey, there are certain things that we can tell are true, and if you follow these steps in terms of basic research you can start to tease out whether this thing has legs or not. For them, its working through their immediate cynicism.

The most effective programs take up media literacy not as a set of skillshow to spot a fake headline or fact check an articlebut as a sensibility that must be taught, nurtured, and practiced.

American students are usually the worst at judging the credibility of information found online, Gansky tells me. They are so confident in their abilities to tell whats true and whats not that they often dont do the basic research. Theyll just trust their emotions. German students, he adds, tend to be good at spotting where the truth has been stretched.

When all of these backgrounds come together in a classroom, teaching can be complicated. During a lesson on Airbnb and Uber as disruptive technologies, the e-commerce class sifted through news articles, academic reports, and op-eds offering divergent viewpoints on the two companies. The frustration of the class, Gansky recalls, led to a mutiny. He explains: They were saying that the data didnt stack up and they didnt know what I want them to get from this. Whats the multiple-choice answer? What do you want from me? Youre my sense of authority.

He was honest with them. I share your confusion and I share your fear about what might be true and what isnt, Gansky remembers telling the class.  What you guys are feeling is not just an 11th-grade problem. Its a problem that adults are having. That is kind of refreshing for them.

Ross has long looked for ways to bring current events into the media curriculum in real time. In the past several years, the tone of the news seems to have become grimmersexual assault, mass shootings, war, family separations, racist comments from the White Houseand even though Ross students come across as particularly savvy, they are still children. Maciak recalls the sense of despair her class felt after spending several weeks engaged in news media. Many kids would react by saying, This is incredibly depressing. When are we going to talk about something happy in this class? I just want to shut this off,  she says. When the content of the news is inherently age-inappropriate, how do you bring it into the classroom in a responsible way?

That question was put to the test in late September, as the country geared up for a contentious confirmation hearing: Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court nominee who was credibly accused of sexual assault, was set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions about allegations made against him by Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor from California who knew him when they were teenagers.

The Ross Academic Councilmade up of administrators and teachers, including Ganskymet to consider how best to approach the event. Should they round up the students, sit them in the gym in front of a television, and screen the hearing? Gansky says there were concerns about plunging them into the deep end without the necessary context. Did the students, especially those from abroad, sufficiently understand the nuances of the Supreme Court and its history with allegations of sexual abuse? Were they prepared to discuss a womans assault with sensitivity and maturity? As for the faculty, could they handle the trauma that such a conversation might evoke in students? Some felt that 11th and 12th graders could handle it, but middle schoolers had barely gotten to sex education, Gansky recalls. Middle school teachers said, We dont feel comfortable bringing this into the classroom. We havent done enough groundwork. 

Gansky had discussed related news stories in his classes. His students had learned of the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal, and when they arrived at school talking about it, Gansky assigned reading from the Times and The New Yorker to facilitate a class discussion about the allegations. At the time of the Kavanaugh hearing, Gansky says, I was really hoping to pair up with a history teacher so theyd get some understanding of the judiciary and I could explain how the narrative was instructed by news media.

When are we going to talk about something happy in this class?

The council, which makes recommendations to the head of the school, decided against a mandatory Ross-wide screening of the hearing, advising instead that teachers make case-by-case decisions based on student preparedness and age. The hearing was, of course, a spectacle, lasting eight hours; afterward, Gansky wanted to let his students decide whether they would discuss it in class. The topic was clearly on their minds, but Gansky says the group, perhaps uncomfortable with the subject matter, opted for business as usual.

Still, the lessons theyd been learning helped them process the events of the dayand would stand them in good stead for those yet to come. In November, for instance, Beeton voted for the first time. If I read something and I dont think that its the full truth, then Ill ask someone about it, or look it up online, or find a different article about it, he says. I think this e-commerce class and the 11th-grade media class helped everyone who took them get to a place where we can critically question or analyze information. Not to a point where were constantly distrusting of the news, but we know how to question and we know where to look.

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Alexandria Neason was CJRs staff writer and Senior Delacorte Fellow. Recently, she became an editor and producer at WNYCs Radiolab.
The Director of the U.S. Navys National History and Heritage Command has announced a public meeting concerning the Navys Trade and Exchange Program which will take place on March 12th at the National Naval Aviation Museum (NNAM) in Pensacola, Florida. According to well-known aircraft salvor, Taras Lyssenko of A&T Recovery, the meeting is intended to come up with a format whereby civilians may gain actual ownership of former U.S. Navy assets, whether this be a recently retired Beech T-34C Turbo-Mentor, or a sunken WWII Douglas SBD Dauntless, in a similar process to the way this used to take place prior to the mid-90s. Lyssenko, as most readers will be well aware, has been involved in the recovery of thirty or so vintage military aircraft from their wartime crash sites at the bottom of Great Lakes and oceans. All of these have been in close cooperation with the National Naval Aviation Museum. Despite popular misconceptions, the NNAM has long wanted to return to the earlier procedures when civilian exchanges were possible; it was a time of mutually beneficial exchanges which rewarded civilian contributions while also leading to the preservation of important historical artifacts. In fact A&T Recovery was involved in five such recoveries where some WWII airframes reached civilian hands while also leading to the recovery of unique aircraft, such as the Vought SB2U Vindicator for the NNAM. However Navy bureaucracy further up the food chain brought a virtual halt to those earlier productive days. Hopefully this is now set to change

In conversation with Lyssenko yesterday, he noted that he had just received word that Congress is taking the meeting seriously enough to send military legislative assistants, and it seems likely that the Senate will as well. The Secretary of the Navy is also involved, so this will be a major opportunity to get positive movement which will hopefully lead to the preservation of important historical artifacts, some of which may one day take to the air again under civilian ownership.

While the public is very much invited to attend either in person or via conference call, this should not be seen as a venue for an ill-informed gripe session, as that would be incredibly counterproductive.

The U.S. Navys formal announcement for the meeting is as seen below.

The Department of the Navy is seeking to revitalize and improve its Trade and Exchange Program.
Something weird was going on at the border. In early February, the LA Timess Kate Linthicum, Cindy Carcamo, and Molly OToole reported that two photojournalistsKitra Cahana, a Canadian-American freelancer, and Daniel Ochoa, a Spanish photographer for the Associated Presshad been harassed by both US and Mexican authorities as they covered the arrival of the migrant caravan. Border Patrol agents, they said, took pictures of them while they worked; meanwhile, Mexican police officers photographed their passports. Between them, Cahana and Ochoa were subsequently denied passage to Mexico at three separate ports of entry. (Two immigrant rights attorneys also said theyd been turned away.) Im in limbo, Cahana told the LA Times as she weighed her options. What kind of list am I on?

A week after that story dropped, The Intercepts Ryan Devereaux added more details. In a long and damning report, he wrote that four different photojournalistsincluding Cahanahad been pulled into immigration screenings after Mexican police snapped their passports. One of them said US authorities showed him a book of border-based activists and asked him to identify who he knew; others said their notebooks, cameras, and phones were confiscated. It appeared this harassment was coordinated: when Mexican police stopped a second group of photojournalists and photographed their passports, an officer said they were doing it for the Americans. The Intercept also posted a video in which a Border Patrol agent can be heard accusing journalists of aiding and abetting migrants illegal entry into the US. If you come to the United States, we could conceivably get [an] arrest warrant for whoever was doing that, he said.

ICYMI: Why the Left Cant Stand The New York Times

The multiple sources cited in the two stories left little doubt that US authorities were deliberately targeting journalists. On Wednesday, we saw some proof. An anonymous source inside the Department of Homeland Security handed Tom Jones, Mari Payton, and Bill Featherthree journalists with NBCs San Diego affiliatedocuments showing that the US government kept a secret database of journalists, activists, and instigators tied to the caravan; compiled intelligence on them; and, in some cases, flagged their passports. Of the 10 journalists listed, seven are US citizens. The source said the database was used by five agenciesCustoms and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Border Patrol, Homeland Security, and the San Diego branch of the FBIand stressed that it constituted a clear abuse of power. We cant create dossiers on people, they said. This is an abuse of the Border Search Authority.

Press-freedom advocates responded with outrage. Lets be clear: This is unconstitutional, wrote Esha Bhandari and Hugh Handeyside of the American Civil Liberties Union, adding that Customs and Border Protections response to NBCthat it was tracking journalists to learn more about what happened during a violent episode at the border in Novemberconstitutes an end-run around Department of Justice guidelines regulating the coercion of journalists in investigations. The secret database likewise got the attention of politicians. Bennie Thompson, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, yesterday wrote to the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection requesting more information; Darren Soto, a Democratic congressman, called the database McCarthyism. According to BuzzFeed, the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security is investigating the matter.

Keeping dossiers on journalists and, in some cases, impeding their movements is clearly abhorrent to press freedom. But when it comes to the border, in particular, more is at stake. Reporters there have done essential work documenting official abuses of the law and human rights against very vulnerable people. As Guillermo Arias, a Mexican photojournalist with AFP, told The Intercept, Border Patrol agents could, in the past, turn away migrants without properly processing them. When you have media, you cant do that, he said.

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Below, more on the border:

A cruel image: According to The Intercept, the harassment of journalists intensified after November 25, when Customs and Border Protection first used tear gas to repel members of the caravan at San Ysidro. The episode quickly came to be defined by a photo of a Honduran family running to escape the gas. Shortly afterward, CJRs Amanda Darrach interviewed Kim Kyung-Hoon, the Reuters photographer who took the picture.

According to The Intercept, the harassment of journalists intensified after November 25, when Customs and Border Protection first used tear gas to repel members of the caravan at San Ysidro. The episode quickly came to be defined by a photo of a Honduran family running to escape the gas. Shortly afterward, CJRs Amanda Darrach interviewed Kim Kyung-Hoon, the Reuters photographer who took the picture. Improving coverage: Last week, Tiffany Stevens reported for CJR on the journalists who have relocated to the border. In the past year, both the LA Times and The New York Times have sent reporters to live in border cities, in hopes they might better learn about, and from, the people who make their homes there, she wrote.

Last week, Tiffany Stevens reported for CJR on the journalists who have relocated to the border. In the past year, both the LA Times and The New York Times have sent reporters to live in border cities, in hopes they might better learn about, and from, the people who make their homes there, she wrote. Excellent coverage: The border beat has seen some outstanding reporting in recent months, particularly around family separations. While such reporting has often slipped down the news cycle, it hasnt let up. Last weekend, for example, The New York Timess Manny Fernandez tracked the hidden nightmare of sexual violence on the border.

The border beat has seen some outstanding reporting in recent months, particularly around family separations. While such reporting has often slipped down the news cycle, it hasnt let up. Last weekend, for example, The New York Timess Manny Fernandez tracked the hidden nightmare of sexual violence on the border. Illegal spyware: In November, The New York Timess Azam Ahmed reported that the administration of Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexicos then-outgoing president, may have used sophisticated spyware to hack Mexican journalists phones.



Other notable stories:

ICYMI: Facebook says the future is private messaging, not public posts

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
Nurses, nurse aids, orderlies, emergency medical technicians and physical and occupational therapists have some of the highest numbers of nonfatal occupational injuries. Chronic back pain and musculoskeletal injuries resulting from unsafe patient handling contribute to days missed from work and employee compensation claims and are a leading reason these professionals change careers.

To educate health care workers and facilities on these risks and provide solutions, Rutgers School of Public Health has launched the states first Safe Patient Handling Conference on March 19, in collaboration with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Zero Lift Task Force in New York.

Mitchel Rosen, director of the Center for Public Health Workforce Development at Rutgers School of Public Health, which organized the conference, discusses why health care workers and facilities should scrutinize their patient handling procedures.

What injury risks do health care providers face?

Health care workers often are so focused on their patients that they do not take their own health into consideration. Teaching health workers how to care for themselves is an essential  but sometimes overlooked  part of their training and ongoing education.

Musculoskeletal injuries account for 54 percent of injuries that result in days away from work and are the main cause of workers compensation claims in hospitals and long-term care facilities. The most common risks these workers face are back injuries and strains sustained through overexertion and repeated manual patient handling, including heavy lifting of patients. These professionals are often charged with high-risk activities such transferring patients from the bed to the toilet to shower, repositioning them in bed and moving them throughout the facility. As the population grows increasingly obese and elderly, injuries resulting from patient handling are becoming more common and severe.

Take, for example, emergency medical technicians who must lift patients onto stretchers and then transport them to an ambulance and then into the hospital. Nurses and health professionals like orderlies, aides and physical therapists and occupational therapists likewise have very physical jobs that require constant moving of patients. Workers should know that there are transfer and lifting devices that can reduce the risk of injury to patients and staff associated with lifting, transferring, repositioning or movement of patients.

Who is most affected?

In its most recent survey, OSHA reports that 249 out of 10,000 health care workers sustained musculoskeletal injuries, which is more than seven times the average for all industries. These injuries can become a vicious cycle: Employees experiencing chronic pain are likely to be less productive and attentive and may place themselves at risk for additional injuries. OSHA reports that up to 20 percent of nurses leave the profession due to the risk of injury.

How can facilities promote safe patient handling?

Health care facilities should already be adhering to the New Jersey Safe Patient Handling Act and have best practices in place to protect workers and to reduce workers compensation and disability claims and the costs associated with hiring replacements for professionals who miss work due to on-the-job injuries.

Management should provide workers with the technology to move patients rather than rely on manual patient handling. Employees also should be regularly trained and evaluated on their understanding of safe patient movement procedures.
A federal judge overseeing PG&E Corp.s safety compliance backed off the aggressive fire prevention plan he sought to impose in January, conceding to the bankrupt utilitys complaint that it was unrealistic.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said hes prepared to order PG&E to keep its dividend payments suspended until the utility trims trees around its power lines to comply with state rules. Earlier, the judge said he planned to mandate that the entire power grid be inspected and repaired before the fire season begins, an effort PG&E said would cost $150 billion.

Alsup, who oversees PG&Es criminal probation, said he wants to reform the dismal management that led to wildfires in the state. PG&E has until March 22 to argue why the order shouldnt be implemented. Lawyers representing wildfire victims, meanwhile, were quick to criticize the newest plan.

Existing law was too lax, and PG&E was not complying with it, said Mike Danko, a lawyer representing fire victims suing the company for damages. The judge is now saying you have to comply with existing law. Im not sure if its an answer to anything.

PG&Es performance with respect to vegetation management has been dismal. -- U.S. District Judge William Alsup

The shares rose 1.4 percent to $18.56 at 12:44 p.m. in New York. PG&E, which suspended its dividend in December 2017, said in a statement it is committed to completing the work in its wildfire safety plan, and will work to develop comprehensive, long-term safety solutions. The company said it would respond to Alsups latest ruling within the time frame requested.

State Laws

State laws require that the utility trim or remove trees and branches growing within specified distances of its power lines. The company must also meet its own targets in a wildfire safety plan that it submitted to state regulators, Alsup said.

PG&Es performance with respect to vegetation management has been dismal, Alsup wrote in his ruling issued late Tuesday. If complying with state or federal laws is too strict, he added PG&Es remedy would be to seek the relaxation of such laws through its well-oiled lobbying efforts.

Alsup has wielded his role like a club, threatening to subject the company to criminal sanctions if it failed comply with his plan to reduce to zero the number of wildfires caused by the utilitys equipment in 2019. The judge also ordered unannounced inspections of PG&Es compliance with vegetation management, and required the company to keep monthly records.

Dividend Payouts

In 2016 and 2017, PG&E paid $1.9 billion in dividends to common shareholders, Alsup said, while failing to trim or remove thousands of trees that posed a fire hazard. Some of these dividends could and should have been kept and used to bring PG&E into compliance with state and federal law, Alsup wrote.

Alsup also postponed for a few weeks a decision about his hotly contested suggestion that PG&E should be required to shut off its power in fire prone areas during high winds.

Kit Konolige, an analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, said the latest ruling seems to have taken a more realistic view of what is reasonable to expect the company to do under the circumstances. All the parties would agree safety needs to be first, and needs to improve.

The case is U.S. v. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., 14-cr-00175, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
Special achievement: Laurel School senior Julia Lynn, a Cleveland Heights resident, has been chosen as the National Speech and Debate Association District Student of the Year.

To put this into perspective, only about 100 students nationally are awarded this recognition. Julia received the honor for her contributions to the speech and debate community through her research on gender disparities in debate and persuasive speaking.

Come June, she will travel to the national tournament in Dallas, where she will be eligible to become the NSDA National Student of the Year. Good luck to Julia.

Video Game pianist: Martin Leung, who will appear from 2 to 3 p.m. March 17 in a Beachwood Arts Council concert at the Beachwood Community Center, 25225 Fairmount Blvd., is known as the Video Game Pianist, as he specializes in playing music from popular video games.

And, by the way, he is also known as a fine classical pianist.

Born in Hong Kong in 1986 and raised in California, Leung started piano lessons at age 4. He holds degrees in piano performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music (bachelor of music), Yale School of Music (master of music), and the University of Southern California (doctor of music arts).

Leung is also the first pianist to gain international recognition for playing video game music on the piano.

If you want to hear how that sounds, attend this free concert, made possible by grants from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and the Ohio Arts Council. For further information, call the Beachwood Arts Council at 216-595-3400 or visit beachwoodartscouncil.org.

Advancing to the Sweet 16: The debate team from Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown School has advanced to the national Sweet 16 in the International Public Policy Forum (IPPF) debate competition.

Because of this advancement, the team remains eligible to win a $10,000 grand prize and an all-expense-paid-trip to the IPPF Finals on April 27 in New York City.

It all began in November, when the nations top 64 teams began a single-elimination, written debate competition. Each team was assigned a position, affirmative or negative, and then volleyed papers back and forth via email for the next six weeks. A panel of judges reviewed the essays and selected the winners that brought us to the final 16.

In the Sweet 16 round, Hathaway Brown is competing against Alpharetta High School, of Alpharetta, Ga. The Elite 8 will be announced March 25.

Good luck to the HB girls.

Retired public employees: Ohios Public Employee Retirees will have an opportunity to learn more about their Health Retirement accounts at a seminar to be held from 1 to 2:30 p.m. March 22 at the Mayfield Library, 500 S.O.M. Center Road in Mayfield.

There are more than 200,000 Ohio Public Employee Retirees. If youre one of them, this will be your chance to learn how easy it is to get your money thats accruing in your HRA account.

The seminar will feature speaker Rick Lawrence, who has conducted such seminars throughout Ohio for hundreds of retired state employees.

The seminar is sponsored by Chapter 95 of Public Employee Retirees Inc.

The workshop is free, but registration is required. To register, or for more information, contact ppressly33@gmail, or call 216-469-6939.

If you dont act, your money will end up in the unclaimed file, and you dont want that to happen.

Calling all artists: It was 50 years ago, in 1969, that the Cuyahoga River famously caught fire. What do we do when faced with an anniversary such as this? Why, we hold a barrel-painting contest, thats what.

Yes, The Friends of Euclid Creek, the Collinwood Painted Rain Barrel Project and the City of Beachwood have teamed to sponsor a rain barrel painting competition.

Did you know that the Cuyahoga River fire contributed to the establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Act, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act? So, some good things came from it. On the bad side, so did a lot of Cleveland jokes.

Twelve artists designs will be selected, then those artists will be commissioned to paint their designs on rain barrels. When completed, the barrels will be exhibited in the gallery space at the Beachwood Community Center.

Commissioned artists will be given a 55-gallon rain barrel on which to complete their design and will be paid $100 for their finished barrels. The barrels will be sold via silent auction during the community centers art exhibit, with the proceeds benefiting The Friends of Euclid Creek Conservation Fund.

Valuable prizes will be awarded for the top three designs in the categories of Professional Artist, Amateur Artist and Child Artist, as determined by a jury of local artists and art professionals.

The release I received doesnt state what kind of valuable prizes will be given out, so I guess the winners will be surprised.

For more detailed information, visit the website found here. The application is free, although there are some "small" expenses associated with preparing a proposal.

Again, they didnt let me know what small may mean, but I bet it is, indeed, small.

Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood has Purim fun events scheduled for all ages later this month.

Purim fun: Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood is inviting all to enjoy some Purim fun on March 17.

Purim -- and I had to look this up, as I did last year -- is a Jewish holiday commemorating the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, who sought to kill all Jews in a single day in ancient Persia. The whole thing ended with Haman being hanged. Read more about it here. Hamans failure makes this a jolly holiday.

Anyway, back in Beachwood on March 17, all the fun will start at 10:30 a.m. with the Purim Spiel. A cast of students, clergy and temple members will share the story of Purim, told through the tunes of popular songs. The family fun will also include a parade of costumed children.

Next up, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., will be the annual Purim Carnival, which will include childrens games, a show by Jungle Terry and his animals, cotton candy, pizza and more. The carnival is sponsored by the temples youth group, Anshe Chesed Temple Youth.

Also, a free Purim celebration for young families will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. March 20. Families with young children (up to second-graders) are invited to come together for a free and fun Purim party with a light dinner and crafts. Children are welcome to attend in costumes.

RSVP for this event by calling Julie Moss at 216-464-1752, or emailing her at Jmmoss@fairmounttemple.org.

And, the fun doesnt end there. At 7:15 p.m. March 20, there will be a Purim take on the popular show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Its a readers theater-style Purimspiel, and an opportunity for adults to celebrate Purim. I have no idea what a theater-style Purimspiel is, and Im not hip to Mrs. Maisel, but Im sure it will be a ball.

To RSVP, contact Ronna via email at fivefoxes@sbcglobal.net.

The temple is located at 23737 Fairmount Blvd.

Schizophrenia: Local author Lori Rochat will discuss her book, What is a Schizophrenic Supposed to Look Like? from 7 to 8:30 p.m. March 21 at the Coventry Village Library branch, 1925 Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights.

Rochat will share her life experiences as they relate to her mental illness, with a focus on helping to end the misunderstanding, stigmatization and stereotyping of schizophrenia. A book signing will follow.

Also, from 9 to 11 a.m. March 27, a womens support group hosted by Saraswati Gurung, of ASIA Inc., will include group discussion of such topics as maintaining healthy relationships, mental health awareness, and knitting and sewing. This program will take place at the Noble Neighborhood Library branch, 2800 Noble Road in Cleveland Heights.

Dr. Robert Fox (Photo Courtesy of Tom Merce)

Shaker doctor awarded: Dr. Robert Fox, of Shaker Heights, has won a Cleveland Clinic Sones Innovation Award.

A multiple sclerosis expert, Fox was honored for leading pioneering advancements in brain imaging and treatment of the challenging progressive forms of MS.

Fox is vice chair of research at the Cleveland Clinic's Neurological Institute, and published major findings last year on a new treatment for progressive MS, which currently has no approved treatments. Fox's work showed that a promising new drug, ibudilast, slowed brain shrinkage by nearly half.

You can read more about Dr. Fox's work here.

Here is a design under consideration for secondary gateways into University Heights.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs: As you may or may not know, the City of University Heights is now working with Guide Studios on new city signage. The new signs will include the citys new mosaic logo and will be situated at gateways to the city, on banners and at parks.

The selection of a final sign design has not been made, but we have here for you a couple of the latest concepts that are under consideration.

Word from the mayors office is that sign designs and materials will get approval this spring, so that signs can start going up in the summer.

In the design concepts shown, the mosaic "UH" design would be transparent, like stained glass.

School voucher discussion: The League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland, Cleveland Heights-University Heights Chapter, will present a free public forum titled How Do School Vouchers Affect Our Public Schools and Taxpayers at 7 p.m. March 14 at the Lee Road Library branch, 2345 Lee Road in Cleveland Heights.

The forum is being co-sponsored by the Heights Coalition for Public Schools and the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Council of PTAs.

The panel, moderated by Jayne Geneva, past chair of the Lay Finance Committee of the CH-UH Board of Education, will present information on how Ohio's school voucher policies impact the CH-UH Schools, as well as other schools in Cuyahoga County and beyond. Panel members will answer written questions from the audience.

Panel members will include Susie Kaeser, of the LOWV and the Heights Coalition for Public Education; James Posch, president of the CH-UH Board of Education; Scott Gainer, CFO and treasurer of the CH-UH School District; and Meryl Johnson, District 11 representative for the Ohio Board of Education.

Literary learning: Case Western Reserve Universitys Siegal Lifelong Learning, in partnership with Literary Cleveland, will be offering upcoming classes that include Writing the Short Story: Character, Plot and Conflict, from 10 a.m. to noon Mondays from April 1-15, and Developing a Writing Habit, from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesdays from April 3 to May 1.

Classes will be held at the Landmark Centre Building, 25700 Science Park Drive in Beachwood.

For information, visit case.edu/lifelonglearning, or call 216-368-2091.

If you would like to see an item included in Press Run, send me an email, at least 12 days prior to an event, at jeff.piorkowski@att.net.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- New talk of a statewide customer-paid subsidy for FirstEnergys old nuclear reactors, now owned by bankrupt FirstEnergy Solutions, could kill the development of new gas turbine plants burning Ohio shale gas, says a prominent power plant developer.

William Siderewicz, whose companies built gas turbine power plants in Lordstown and Oregon, near Toledo, says he has all of the permits and a portion of the funding needed to build two more turbine plants next door to the plants he completed last year.

But potential investors are concerned about a bailout, said Siderewicz in an interview this week.

And talk among lobbyists that an FES package might also include subsidies to save Ohios remaining coal-fired power plants and maybe something for renewable power has only added to the concerns of gas plant investors.

Investors keep seeing this stuff about FirstEnergy wanting to turn the free market system upside down, he said. We are right now trying to raise $1.85 billion for the two projects.

So, are the new plants a go or not?

I wish I had the answer. We have the permits. But its really the financial community that makes that decision for us, he explained. If they look at the landscape in Ohio ... and see that Ohio is changing the rules ... they are going to think twice about writing the checks.

PJM Interconnection, the manager of the high-voltage power grid in Ohio and 12 other states, has already ordered the accelerated transmission system upgrades in western Pennsylvania to maintain stability once the FES nuclear plants are shutdown.

PJMs 2018 Baseline Reliability Assessment issued January 30 shows the total cost of the transmission upgrade projects at $207 million, including about $25 million ordered last year. The assessment included gas turbine plants already running or under construction.

With reliability analysis complete, PJM determined that the following new and existing [transmission] baselines resolve identified impacts," the report notes. "As a result, these units [nuclear reactors] can retire as scheduled. Operational flexibility can be used to bridge any delays with the transmission upgrades.

The second Lordstown gas turbine project comes just as GM has stopped manufacturing the Chevy Cruze at its sprawling Lordstown assembly plant. The last Cruze rolled off the assembly line Wednesday, and GM says the idled plant is now in an unallocated status.

Siderewicz wants to begin construction of the second Lordstown plant this summer. He estimated construction will take 34 months and entail about 2 million hours of work and provide jobs for about 950 workers.

From the standpoint of permanent jobs created, gas turbine plants typically do not require more than 25 to 30 employees to operate.

The power generated by the second Lordstown plant would feed directly into FirstEnergy substations and high-voltage lines, said Siderewicz, keeping power levels stable in the region, even if the Perry nuclear power plant is closed.

The second turbine plants planned for Lordstown and Oregon are among five gas turbine plants that the Ohio Power Siting Board has approved for construction, but which so far have not been built.

Construction is now under way on a sixth state-approved plant in southern Columbiana County.

Another four turbine plants developed by independent companies are already operating in the state, according to siting records. In addition to the Lordstown and Oregon plants, there are new gas turbines operating in Carrol County and Warren County in southwest Ohio.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  City Council will not hold its weekly meeting next Monday for lack of a quorum.

Eight of 17 members and the council clerk will be attending the Congressional Cities Conference held annually in Washington by the National League of Cities. One other council member is out of town.

City Council needs at least nine members present to meet.

The committee schedule resumes Tuesday.

The Washington meeting is one of two National League of City events that City Council sends members to annually.

Council President Kevin Kelley said having members attend such conferences is important because it allows cities to compare note and share ideas on common issues.

At a conference in Los Angeles, Kelley recalled, Councilman Brian Kazy arranged an informative meeting with that citys police chief about community engagement.

Clevelands 3-1-1 information system grew out of discussions from a National League of Cities conference, Kelley said.

The meetings also help cities to develop strategies for lobbying the federal government.

Its no secret that Washington is not friendly to cities, Kelley said.
SEVEN HILLS, Ohio -- City Law Director Richard A. Pignatiello notified Councilwoman Stacey Kelly, Councilwoman Leslie Stager, Councilman Tom Snitzky, Councilman Pat Elliott and Councilman Bob Wrobel on Monday (March 4) that they may have violated Ohios Sunshine Law.

In a letter, Pignatiello suggested that a quorum of council members discussed via email an ordinance putting a proposed charter amendment on the May ballot that, if passed, would change the law director from an elected position to a mayoral appointment.

Pignatiello said an email chain among the council members was an issue.

You cant have councilpeople talking about an ordinance or debating it outside of (the) eyes of (the) public, Pignatiello said.

City Council Pro Tem Kelly had no comment, while cleveland.com was unable to reach Stager, Snitzky and Wrobel.

Councilman At-Large Pat Elliott, who questioned why his name was attached to the Sunshine Law violation letter, said he wasnt involved in any email chain involving a discussion about the ordinance.

I wasnt involved in any of it. Im not even sure what hes talking about, Elliott said. In my opinion, there was a lot of intimidation going around for us not to put this on the ballot so the people can vote on it.

Im pretty sure thats why he put my name on it. I dont know why he did what he did. Im sure this is another scare tactic.

Elliott added: There were conversations he had with councilpeople telling them its not a good idea to do this. Basically, he has a war chest behind him and hes going to use it if we put this on the ballot, which in my opinion is 10 times worse than any email that anyone sent out if they did.

Regarding Elliotts claims, Pignatiello said: No comment. Thats ridiculous. All they have to do is follow the law. They can put it on the ballot.

Elliott said the issue also involves the Seven Hills Charter Review Committee, which last year considered recommending the proposed charter amendment pertaining to the law director position. However, it was not one of the suggested charter amendments presented to City Council last summer.

We had several women from the Charter Review Committee come to us and say this should have been taken care of last year, Elliott said. The chairperson, Tom Littlepage, has intimidated some members of council, as well. So this isnt going away. This will actually be looked into.

The chairperson himself even mentioned that he thought it was a great idea to put this on the ballot, and then he turned real quick after possibly colluding with Mr. Pignatiello, Elliott said.

Littlepage, who served on City Council from 2006 to 2009, said the proposed charter amendment was discussed by the Charter Review Committee, but ultimately its members recommended that council look at it further.

Im not sure what the issues are between Mr. Elliott and Mr. Pignatiello, but Mr. Pignatiello and I have always had not the very best relationship, Littlepage said. We were not close allies when I was on council.

As for Elliotts intimidation allegation, Littlepage said: Id like him to explain that to me. Mr. Elliott made that statement on the dais, and Im saying its patently untrue. Its not an issue. Ive spoken to the individual -- Stacey Kelly -- who was supposedly intimidated. If you talk to Ms. Kelly, our relationship is fine.

The former Charter Review Commission chairman added that hes in favor of the proposed charter amendment going to a vote of the people.

Certainly no issue should ever be blocked from going to the electorate for the sake of blocking it from going to the electorate, LIttlepage said.

As for the timing of Pignatiellos letter arriving on the same day City Council was scheduled to vote on an ordinance that was directly related to the future of his current elected position in the city, the law director said: It came to my attention that very morning that thats what had been happening. It was total coincidence.

That morning, I found out they were deliberating via email, and its illegal. It impacts the validity of the ordinance. So I had to bring it to their attention. Thats my job," Pignatiello said.
SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The Shaker Heights Board of Education has announced two finalists for superintendent, with plans to fill the post by the end of the month.

One is David Glasner, the districts executive director of curriculum and instruction, who is currently serving as the interim principal at Shaker High School.

The other is Elizabeth Kirby, chief of school strategy and planning with the Chicago Public Schools.

Kirby also happens to be one of four finalists in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School Districts superintendent search.

Although she has spent much of her career with the Chicago Public Schools, Kirby grew up in the Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood and graduated from Hawken School before earning her bachelors degree from Harvard University with a special concentration in urban studies.

Kirby is scheduled to interview with the CH-UH school board today (Friday, March 8), then take part in a community meet-and-greet from 6 to 7 p.m. in the cafeteria at Wiley Middle School on Miramar Boulevard in University Heights, as the last of the four finalists presented this week.

Prior to his appointment as the districts curriculum and instruction director last July, Glasner served for four years as principal at Shaker Middle School, coming over from the New York City Department of Education, where he had served as principal of a small public urban high school for five years.

In November, Glasner was appointed to the post of substitute and, more recently, interim high school principal when his predecessor, Jonathan Kuehnle, was placed on administrative leave in November after 2 1/2 years as principal, amid a number of staffing controversies.

Glasner holds both bachelors and masters degrees in history from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as another masters degree in social studies education from the Teachers College at Columbia University. More recently, Glasner earned his doctorate in urban education from Cleveland State University.

Kirby holds her masters degree in social science from the University of Chicago.

Its still to be determined who will go first, but Glasner and Kirby will each be introduced in two separate public meetings from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday (March 12) and Wednesday (March 13) in Shaker High Schools Upper Cafeteria.

This will follow respective day-long meetings with district administrators, teachers, staff and students on those days.

After the public forums and gathering feedback solicited from all stakeholders prior to making its final decision, the Board of Education expects to name a new superintendent by the end of the month, in time for spring break, district spokesman Scott Stephens said Thursday (March 8).

Stephen Wilkins has served as interim superintendent for the 2018-19 school year since the departure of Gregory Hutchings after five years, when he returned to his hometown of Alexandria, Va., to take over as superintendent there.

Wilkins previously served for four years as the Shaker districts assistant superintendent of business operations and human resources.

Recorded video will be available for community members to watch after both candidates meetings are complete.

For more information on this search process and timeline, visit the districts Superintendent Search webpage on shaker.org.
Discovery Park of America offering limited bottles of wine to members
AKRON, Ohio -- Five Akron men are facing drug trafficking charges after a years-long investigation led local and federal authorities to search two Akron-area homes where they seized about 88 pounds of marijuana and more than $150,000.

Detectives in December 2018 learned key new details in a joint drug trafficking investigation between the Akron Police Departments Narcotics Unit, the Summit County Drug Unit and the DEA, Akron police Capt. David Laughlin told cleveland.com.

The investigation was on-and-off for several years, Laughlin said. We received some information about these guys in varying degrees, but really, December of last year is when we got some good, strong, actionable information."

Based on that information, investigators in late February obtained a search warrant for a home on the 800 block of Fried Street, between Diagonal Road and Stoner Street, in West Akron, Laughlin said.

Law enforcement searched the home on Feb. 27 and seized about 88 pounds of marijuana and about $128,000 in cash, Laughlin said. Detectives also seized a bank account containing $35,000.

Based on the search of the Fried Street home, detectives obtained a search warrant for a house about five miles away, on the 2700 block of Glenhaven Avenue in Copley, where officers recovered about $22,000, Laughlin said. Laughlin did not indicate what evidence in the Fried Street home led detectives to the address on Glenhaven Avenue.

Police arrested five men who face felony drug charges, according to Akron Municipal Court records: Andrew Richmond, 24, of Crestview Avenue; Seth Kane, 27, of Thurmont Road; Michael Beckett, Jr., 30, of Mull Avenue; Marc Moorer, 38, of Jason Avenue; and Donte Winn, 25, of Kenmore Boulevard.

To comment on this story, visit Fridays crime and courts comment section.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- No injuries have been reported in a fire that broke out Friday at a vacant apartment building on Clevelands East Side, fire officials said.

Crews were working just before noon to extinguish the fire on East 73rd Street near Simpson Avenue. Firefighters are being kept outside the building in case the roof collapses, the fire department said on Twitter.

Firefighters battle blaze at vacant apartment building on Clevelands East Side. Hannah Drown is on scene for the latest. Share your thoughts in the comments section. Posted by cleveland.com on Friday, March 8, 2019

#CLEFIREONECENE Triple 2 Alarm. Multiple Apartments on Fire. East 73rd and Simpson in Battalion 5. Assistant Chief calling for exterior attack, moving personnel out of collapse zone. Updates to follow... pic.twitter.com/qibgEQ81b0  ClevelandFire (@ClevelandFire) March 8, 2019

Cleveland.com has reporters heading to the scene. This post will be updated when more information is available.

To comment on this story, visit Fridays crime and courts comment section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Rep. IIhan Omar has shown her earlier apology for using anti-Semitic tropes on twitter was insincere with her continued unapologetic use of anti-Semitic tropes and her tone-deaf statement on the passage of the Houses watered-down resolution against hate speech.

Omar had deleted and apologized for tweets in which she used anti-semitic tropes talking about a pro-Israel lobby groups influence on American politicians. They Hypnotized the world and Its all about the Benjamins Omar had tweeted.

After the tweets were condemned by both Democrats and Republicans, and received a formal Congressional rebuke, Omar apologized, saying that she was unaware the comments were anti-Semitic tropes and that no malice had been attended. But not long after, Omar was again using the anti-Semitic trope about Dual Allegiance at a town hall meeting. She has yet to apologize for doing so.

I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says its is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country., said Omar at a bookstore town hall. It should have been held at a pet store, because Omar is showing she can use as dog whistle as well as Trump.

Omars latest anti-Semitic comment prompted Congress to draft a resolution to address it. But the resolution was delayed by debate over the resolutions text. The final resolution made no mention of Omar and instead focused generally on all hate speech.

The resolution passed 407-23. The no votes were all Republicans who objected to Rep Nancy Pelosi throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, into the resolution. But even Democrats who voted for the resolution, objected to the final watered-down version.

I wish we had a separate resolution on anti-Semitism, said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel. I think we deserve it. We shouldnt mix anything, said the Jewish Democrat from New York.

"Why are we unable to singularly condemn anti-Semitism? asked Rep. Ted Deutch.

Apparently one reason that wasnt possible is because House Speaker Pelosi was confident that Omars words were not based on any anti-Semitic attitude and that she just didnt have a full appreciation of the history of the anti-semitic stereotypes and their cultural impact." I do not believe she understood the full weight of her words, claimed Pelosi. Did she not understand it all three times, or just the first?

When asked why Omar wasnt named in the resolution, Pelosi said because Its not about her.

Omar appeared to agree that it wasnt about her repeated anti-Semitic comments with the way she opened her official statement on the resolutions passage.

Today is historic on many fronts. Its the first time we have voted on a resolution condemning Anti-Muslim bigotry in our nations history, read the joint statement by Omar, Rep. Rashida (impeach the Mother******) Tlaib, and Rep. Andre Carson

Its telling that Omar leads with Anti-Muslim bigotry and not her own anti-Semitic tropes that instigated the resolution.

Criticizing Israeli policies towards Palestinians is not inappropriate in itself. Over the years, I and many political cartoonists have done critical cartoons on Israel, Palestinians and their leaders. However, criticizing Israel using anti-Semitic tropes is inappropriate and should be condemned.

The first times Omar did it, you could say it was because she was unaware. But when she continues to use tropes, its fair to conclude shes doing so because those are her true feelings.

The language Omar is using hurts her cause and the Democratic party. Right now, she and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are the best thing to happen to the Trump re-election campaign.

Omar and AOC have gotten a lot of attention, but their extreme views do not actually represent the majority of the freshman Democrat class and do not reflect the views of Democrat voters, according to a recent poll.

The majority of freshman members of Congress lean more to the middle. Several are veterans. Many come from States Trump won. A recent poll showed the majority of Democrat voters have moderate positions and reject the socialism of AOC.

Right now, the Democrats strongest candidate to beat Trump is Irish Catholic Joe Biden. For Irish-American Catholics, like Biden and myself, anti-Semitic tropes like Dual Loyalty hit close to home. Until Irish Catholic John F Kennedy was elected President, Irish Catholic candidates, like Al Smith, were routinely accused of having a "Dual Loyalty/Allegiance to the Pope.

With Steve King and Rep, Omar, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have employed a double standard. After King made his latest racist comments, Democrats justifiably pounced. So did Republican House leaders, who immediately removed King from all his committee assignments. But Pelosi and House Dems have been slow to respond to respond to Omar.

It should have been a no-brainer for the Democrat-led House to promptly issue a resolution condemning Omars repeated hate speech. Because Omar has proven she is truly unapologetic for her anti-Semitic tropes, it should also be a no-brainer to remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which she clearly doesnt deserve to be on.

As the 2020 presidential campaign gets underway, the Democrats are again showing their biggest opponent is not Donald Trump, its themselves.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Cleveland students will join kids across the globe and skip school next week to demand solutions to climate change.

The Youth Climate Strike  launched after a Swedish teen started skipping school on-and-off last summer to protest the nations response toward climate change  aims to push leaders to acknowledge and respond to climate change. It also demands policy changes in the United States: a shift to renewable energy by 2030, a nationwide ban of construction of new pipelines, coal plant and fracking infrastructure and upgrades to the electrical grid.

The Cleveland strike, set for 9:30 a.m. on March 15 at Public Square, is the brainchild of three Shaker Heights High School students. Speeches and presentations will start at noon.

If Im being honest, Im kind of really scared about what the future holds in terms of climate change and so I think thats kind of what fuels my passion, 16-year-old organizer Sophia Stein said.

She and two classmates, Chloe Friedland and Marina DeNunzio, decided to organize the Cleveland strike because they knew many Cleveland kids are passionate about climate change and would want to attend. Stein originally planned to attend a strike in another city, like Chicago or Washington D.C., but knew many kids wouldnt have the opportunity to travel.

So she will skip school March 15 and head downtown to register her concerns over climate change.

I love to go out and see nature and the idea that thats being threatened right now is horrible to me, she said. I know that theres so much more that we can do as a society and there so many solutions but theyre just not being promoted.

So far, she knows some kids who attend Shaker High will attend, and one girl from Brecksville is also working to spread the word. Some girls are even driving up from Columbus to attend the strike, Stein said.

Shes even received some under-the-radar support from her teachers, though they cant actively advocate skipping school.

My teachers overheard us talking to students about it and asking them to attend, Stein said. Of course, they cant promote skipping school, but they thought it was like a very courageous thing to do and they thought it was important to bring attention to this event and the whole climate change crisis.

You can learn more about the Cleveland event on its Instagram page or Facebook event. Register to attend here.
COLUMBUS, Ohio  A police officer was in stable condition after he was ambushed and shot late Thursday night, reports say.

According to 10tv.com, the officer was working on an investigation alone in plain clothes Thursday night and was following a group of suspects in his vehicle.

Authorities tell 10tv.com the suspects realized they were being followed and managed to get their vehicle behind the officers vehicle. The suspects then pulled up alongside the officers vehicle and opened fire.

Police tell WCMH Channel 4 the unidentified officer was taken to Grant Medical Center in Columbus. Reports did not detail where the officer was wounded.

Three suspects were later arrested at another location and a weapon was recovered, 10tv.com reports.

To comment on this story, visit the crime and courts comments page.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A proposed University of Akron reorganization plan would eliminate the College of Applied Science and Technology, moving its programs into different colleges.

The plan would take effect in July 2020, changing the structure over the schools engineering and science programs. The College of Arts of Sciences would lose multiple departments, including chemistry, biology and math.

Interim President John Green presented the plan to Faculty Senate on Thursday afternoon. Though Green is leading the reorganization, he likely wont be in office when it begins. UA is beginning a nationwide presidential search.

Trustees last summer asked Green to investigate the feasibility" of a partial reorganization. The university announced it would phase out 80 degree or degree-track programs as the result of a year-long review.

Though some reorganization plans were discussed in the fall, Green put the process on hold until the end of 2018 so that professors could balance preparing materials for the reorganization and budget proposals with regular work.

Though input is welcomed, Green said in his presentation a partial reorganization plan is necessary.

The status quo at UA is insufficient to our current needs and obsolete in todays intensely competitive higher education environment, he wrote in presentation materials. Therefore the status quo must be excluded as a default option.

Some key takeaways from the plan:

The College of Arts and Sciences will keep fine arts, humanities and social science divisions.

Programs moved out of the College of Arts and Sciences and the eliminated College of Applied Technology would move to two new colleges tentatively called "Polymer, Chemical, and Biological Sciences and Engineering, Science and Technology.

There would be a new Innovation College which would house online and adult learning programs, along with Military Service and International centers. This college would not grant degrees, but provide service to specific groups seeking degrees.

Some College of Arts and Sciences programs would move to other, existing colleges. For example, the bachelors degree in organizational supervision could move to the College of Business Administration.

The plan would go in front of the Board of Trustees in June and be approved in July. Then UA would form a committee for the reorganization and begin to look for deans of the new colleges.

There are no planned involuntary layoffs planned as part of the reorganization.

Other schools would remain unaffected.

Those interested can see presentation materials, a letter about the reorganization and the proposed structure on UAs website.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to confirm former Ohio Solicitor General Eric Murphy as a federal judge over objections from Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who objected to arguments Murphy made in Ohio cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Murphy, a former clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, was confirmed in a 52 to 46 vote to fill the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacancy created when Judge Alice Batchelder took senior status.

He grew up in the Cincinnati area, graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and earned his law degree from University of Chicago. Before becoming Solicitor General, he practiced in the Columbus office of Jones Day. As Solicitor General, he successfully defended Ohios methods of culling its voter rolls before the U.S. Supreme Court. He also defended Ohios laws against gay marriage in the landmark Obergefell v. Hodge case that legalized same-sex nuptials nationwide.

Congratulations to @realDonaldTrump's recent nominees to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.



Eric Murphy and Chad Readler will be great additions to the federal bench and I look forward to them being approved in the Senate.



Read more here: https://t.co/8mIhsyxqE6  Jim Renacci (@JimRenacci) June 8, 2018

Brown criticized Murphy for his arguments against marriage equality and his defense of a "voter purge that unfairly stripped Ohioans, innocent Ohioans, of their vote registration. He also said Murphy defended the Trump administrations ban on people entering the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries.

I cannot support nominees who have actively worked to strip Ohioans of their rights, said a statement from Brown. Special interests already have armies of lobbyists and lawyers on their side, they dont need judges in their pockets.

Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman supported his nomination, calling him highly experienced and noting that he was highly ranked by the American Bar Association.

During his confirmation hearing, Murphy declined to discuss his personal opinions on hot button issues , but vowed to follow precedents set by Supreme Court decisions.

He said clerking for Kennedy and Fourth Circuit appeals Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson "taught me many things including the importance of an independent judiciary, of keeping an open mind, of the difference between law and policy and of the requirements to, in Justice Kennedys word, sometimes make decisions we do not like when the law compels that result.
Rotunda Rumblings

Brownout: After weeks of indicating he would jump into the race, Sen. Sherrod Brown announced Tuesday that he would not seek the Democratic nomination for presidency in 2020, cleveland.coms Seth Richardson reports. The move was a surprise, but Brown did leave open the possibility that he could still be a vice-presidential candidate.

Where he stands: As a VP candidate, Brown would bring with him a long legislative history on a number of issues. Cleveland.coms Sabrina Eaton has the details on Browns positions.

Adding things up: Brown still maintains a pretty impressive record in Ohio, with 16 wins in 17 races. Cleveland.coms data guy Rich Exner tabulated the results going back to 1974 and found Brown has accumulated 13,595,884 votes, or 54 percent all-time.

Time marches on: If you cant tell, we prepared a lot of stuff in the event Brown decided to run for president, including this timeline of his political career from Richardson, which were sharing with you so it doesnt go to waste!

Zooming to the Senate: The Ohio House passed its version of the upcoming two-year transportation budget Thursday afternoon, sending it over to the Senate. One big change came on the House floor before the vote: The gas tax increase, while remaining at the same rate of 10.7 cents, will increase over two years instead of three, cleveland.coms Laura Hancock writes.

Bird is the word: Hancock also explains how low-speed electric scooters such as those run by Bird and Lime would be regulated in the transportation budget bill.

The right stuff? Punctuated by his State of the State address this week, the early moves of Mike DeWines governorship havent been especially conservative, writes cleveland.coms Andrew Tobias. Progressives have lauded DeWines call for increased funding for early-childhood education, waterway protection, lead-paint abatement and public-health funding. I think were all just punch drunk cause Kasich is gone, cracked Democratic Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley.

For the kids: DeWine on Thursday proposed doubling the states funding for helping abused and neglected children from $74 million to $151 million, write the Columbus Dispatchs Catherine Candisky and Rita Price. Most of the funding will go to county child-protection agencies.

Six-figure salaries: The average JobsOhio in 2018 made more than $100,000 in compensation, Tobias writes. The top-paid official for the state economic development corporation was outgoing President and Chief Investment Officer John Minor, who pulled in 621,322.62 in total compensation. In all, 39 employees received at least $100,000, and 11 received more than $200,000.

Cleveland civic leader dies: Sam Miller, the longtime real-estate magnate, Cleveland political kingmaker and civic leader, died Thursday at the age of 97. An obit penned awhile back by former cleveland.com politics reporter Henry Gomez recounts Millers rags-to-riches life, while former and elected officials including DeWine, Rob Portman and Dennis Kucinich shared their recollections of Miller, the co-founder of Forest City Enterprises.

More executions delayed: Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday pushed back the execution dates of three more death-row inmates, stating that the state needs more time to review its lethal-injection protocol that a federal judge compared to waterboarding. As cleveland.coms Jeremy Pelzer writes, DeWine previously postponed another scheduled execution after the judge said the current lethal-injection method is likely unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

Murphys law: The U.S. Senate has confirmed former Ohio Solicitor General Eric Murphy as a federal judge, Eaton reports. Brown objected to the Cincinnati-area natives confirmation because of his arguments in past cases against same sex marriage, in favor of Ohios voter purge process and others.

Place your bets: Ohios casinos and racinos had another good month, which means money for the state. About a third of the profits on bets end up with the state to be distributed for various purposes. Exner reports gambling revenue totaled $155 million in February, up 5.4 percent from last February.

Buckeye Brain Tease

Question: Ohio is about in the middle for religiousness -- 26th most religious in the country. About 38 percent of the states residents say they attend services every or almost every week, according to Gallup. What religious organization has the most members in Ohio?

Email your response to capitolletter@cleveland.com. The first correct respondent will be mentioned in next weeks newsletter.Thanks for responding to last weeks trivia question: Ohio is called the Birthplace of Aviation, because of the number of pioneers in that field who come from the state. Can you name five NASA astronauts from Ohio?

Last weeks answer: Ohio is home to 25 astronauts. For a complete list, click here.

Capitol Letter reader and state Rep. Mary Lightbody was the first to send in the correct answer, listing John Glenn, Jim Lovell, Judith Resnick, Neil Armstrong and Greg Harbaugh. Thanks to everyone who emailed us!

Birthdays

Saturday, 3/9: State Rep. Jim Hoops

Sunday, 3/10: State Reps. Jack Cera and Tavia Galonski

Straight From The Source

I support my husband, always. It will surprise no one, I suspect, to know that I still think @SenSherrodBrown would be a wonderful president.

 Columnist Connie Schultz on Twitter, commenting on the news that her husband, Sen. Sherrod Brown, will not run for president in 2020.

Capitol Letter is a daily briefing providing succinct, timely information for those who care deeply about the decisions made by state government. If you do not already subscribe, you can sign up here to get Capitol Letter in your email box each weekday for free.
COLUMBUS, Ohio  Vice President Mike Pence, during an Ohio visit Friday, called on members of the U.S. Senate to vote against the measure that would overturn President Donald Trumps emergency declaration on the southern U.S. border.

So let me be clear: A vote against the president's emergency declaration is a vote against border security, Pence said. A vote against the presidents emergency declaration is a vote to deny real a humanitarian security presence on our southern border.

Pence spoke at the annual meeting at the Ohio Oil and Gas Association in Columbus, a friendly crowd to the Republican, which applauded him several times throughout his speech.

Pence called out Ohios Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown by name, but said all senators need to vote against the legislation expected on the Senate floor next week.

The emergency order diverts billions from military construction projects  possibly including $61 million planned for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton -- to construct a border fence or wall that Trump campaigned on.

Pence described the inflow of drugs and the violence against immigrants  including the sexual assault of women  at the border as an urgent crisis and one we ought to all be attending to.

Brown has said the emergency declaration is reckless and irresponsible. He said hell vote to overturn it.

Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman  who Pence praised Friday for his work on bills combating the opioid epidemic  has said he doesnt know how hell vote on the legislation next week. Portman said hell bring an amendment to ensure the national emergency process is not being abused and to clarify that there is money from sources like drug seizures that Trump could use for the border wall.

The resolution has already passed the House. If the Senate passes it, which is likely, Trump will probably veto it. The issue may be decided in the courts.

Pence also criticized Democratic proposals for universal health care and the so-called Green New Deal as limiting freedom. He said the only green in the Green New Deal will be the money that it will cost -- which elicited laughs from the audience.

It was freedom, not socialism, that gave us the most prosperous economy in the history of world," Pence said.

Pence praised Ohios oil and gas producers, who mostly work in the eastern part of the state and have experienced a boom in business recently, due to fracking and drilling in the Marcellus shale.

Pence noted that Trump won Ohio in 2016.

We need of you to stand with us to make sure Ohio chooses four more years of freedom and prosperity," he said.

David Pepper, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, doesnt think the administration has produced prosperity for everyone.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence havent lifted a finger to save the GM factory in Lordstown and the thousands of Ohio jobs that are on the line," he said in a statement. "Trump broke his promise to the people of the Mahoning Valley that manufacturing jobs would be coming back, so the vice president can spare us whatever fake outrage of the week he wants to drum up. Pence and Trump need to stop making flowery speeches and get to work saving Ohio jobs.
COLUMBUS, OhioState spending on foster-care programs and other childrens services initiatives would nearly double over the next two years under Gov. Mike DeWines new state budget plan, according to his office.

However, it remains to be seen how DeWine would pay for the additional $148 million in spending on the childrens programs, one of several areas the governor says need a boost in state funding.

Under the governors budget plan for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (JFS), state money given to county JFS offices for childrens services  called the State Child Protective Allocation -- would rise to $90 million during each of the next two years. Thats a 50-percent increase over current spending levels.

Funding for Family and Children First Councils would jump from $1.3 million this fiscal year to $25 million annually during the next two fiscal years. The councils coordinate with different state agencies to help children with physical, mental, or behavioral issues.

Another $4.5 million per year would go to expanding the Ohio START and 30 Days to Family programs. Ohio START aims to help kids whose parents have a substance-abuse problem, while 30 Days to Family tries to keep children from entering foster care by placing them with relatives.

Finally, $2.6 million per year would be used to set up a new records management system for welfare workers, according to DeWine spokeswoman Breann Almos.

All of the money for these programs would come out of the states general revenue fund, Almos said.

For too long our state has been last in the nation for state support of foster care, DeWine, a Greene County Republican, said in a statement. As budgets are strained by an influx of children needing care because one or more of their parents has substance use disorder, our foster care system is at a critical juncture. Ohios children deserve better.

Additional details about the governors proposed JFS budget will be released when he unveils his full state budget proposal on March 15, according to a DeWine release.

Its extremely unlikely that DeWines budget proposals will take effect as written, as state lawmakers are all but certain to make major alterations before passing the budget.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Joe Schiavoni, the former Democratic Ohio Senate minority leader from Youngstown, is considering running for the Mahoning Valley congressional seat if Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan enters the race for president.

Ryan, whos represented the Youngstown area in Congress since 2003, is deciding whether to jump into the crowded Democratic presidential primary. A spokesman for Ryan said he would make a decision in the next few weeks. He declined to comment on any potential replacements.

Schiavoni said in an interview with cleveland.com that people have pushed him to run if Ryans seat opens up.

Its not like people in D.C. are calling my cell phone and telling me to run, Schiavoni said. But its people when Im picking up my kids at preschool and kindergarten saying, Joe, you would do great at this job if you could go down there and get this stuff straightened out.

Schiavoni, 39, of Youngstown, served 10 years in the Ohio Senate starting in 2009. The caucus elected him minority leader in 2014. The former boxer had a reputation for a blunt, tough-nosed style but also working across the aisle.

I always tried to come up with plans to tell people why things would be better if we did this or we did that or if we could get this done or that done, Schiavoni said. Working across the aisle and only fighting when you have to is the way to do it.

He most recently ran for governor in 2018, losing the primary to former federal consumer watchdog Richard Cordray.

After leaving the Senate in January, he returned to his Youngstown law firm full time where he mostly works on workers compensation cases.

I understand what people need here, Schiavoni said. We need somebody who is going to work hard and be honest with people and go to Washington and try to get things done to make this community stronger and better.

Schiavoni said a possible run was hypothetical at this point and he wont mount a primary challenge against Ryan.

If Tim is going to run for president, thats good for the area too, Schiavoni said. But while hes figuring it out, there has to be conversations about who would potentially run for his seat.

The 13th Congressional District that Ryan currently holds includes parts of Mahoning, Trumbull, Portage, Stark and Summit counties. The main population center is Youngstown, with parts of Akron also in the district.

Its also the site of the Lordstown General Motors plant, which recently ceased production on the Chevy Cruze, putting 1,400 people out of work  not including the other businesses that closed as a result.

Ryan, 45, of Niles, has represented the Mahoning Valley in Congress since 2003 and has frequently flirted with running for higher office.

His national profile increased significantly after the 2016 election when he challenged U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi for that spot. While unsuccessful, the spotlight brought him to the attention of Democrats nationwide, and hes made multiple trips to both Iowa and New Hampshire since then.

Ryan giving up his seat to run for the presidency isnt remotely close to a lock. In fact, he wouldnt have to.

Maggie Sheehan, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Frank LaRose, said there was nothing in Ohio law that barred Ryan from running for both Congress and president simultaneously.

Even if he decides to run, no U.S. representative has successfully sought the presidency since James A. Garfield  a fellow Ohioan  in 1880.

But if Ryans seat were to open up, it could potentially become a prominent battleground district that Republicans would look to flip.

Democratic President Barack Obama won handily in the 13th district in 2008 and 2012 with more than 62 percent of the vote.

But former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton only won with 51 percent of the vote in 2016. Republican President Donald Trump captured 44.6 percent of the vote.

That trend hasnt plagued Ryan. He won with nearly 68 percent of the vote in 2016, but he did experience a slight dip in 2018 by winning with only 61 percent against the virtually unknown Republican Chris DePizzo.
Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow told CNBC on Thursday that his company and Newmont Mining could more effectively boost gold mining in Nevada as a single operator, instead of as a joint venture.

The chief defended the company's competing bid to merge with Newmont. But Newmont CEO Gary Goldberg is interested in merging with Goldcorp for $10 billion and would rather form a joint venture with Barrick Gold to mine in Nevada.

"There's been debate about the Nevada joint venture. That is a large part of the missing billions," Bristow said in an interview with "Mad Money's" Jim Cramer. "Maybe he's being a little defensive on the bigger deal, but what he has said to the market and what we are engaged with right now is can we find a way to deliver real value out of Nevada where all this conversation started and then we can worry about the rest later."

Barrick Gold has said its proposal to merge in an all-share transaction has $7 billion net present value of real synergies. The deal would give Barrick 55 percent and Newmont 45 percent of economic interest, according to analyst consensus. It also proposes that both companies would have an equal amount of representation on the management and technical committees.

Nevada is "capable of delivering a lot more" in gold mining, Bristow said. His company reported producing 4.5 million ounces of gold in 2018. Barrick Gold contends Nevada, where about 76 million ounces are available, could be worth a lot more under one operator.

"If you put these assets together and we unlock those [billions], we can do it without issuing a single stock," Bristow said.
EPAM Systems Inc.: "I don't know it. I gotta do work. I have not talked about EPAM Systems. We'll do the work."

Exact Sciences Corp.: "It works. It works. Exact Sciences works. It's a way to cut down on colon cancer."

Avalara Inc.: "If I'm gonna be in [finance software], I'm gonna be in Intuit. That's the one I like. I-N-T-U."

Philip Morris International Inc.: "I don't like to recommend tobacco stocks on this show, I'm sorry. I did have a chartist, he did say that they're good, though."
This morning I was doing some coffee thinking. I was thinking about several years ago (5 to be exact) when I wrote an e-mail to an American living in Russia. He had several good articles about how wonderful Russia was and how great it was in Russia. He had been in Russia for about 5 years at that time and I was excited to see someone with a good attitude about Russia. So I wrote him an e-mail

The response I got back was one of confusion for me at the time. Now 5 years later I no longer am confused by what his response to my e-mail was

I remember that my e-mail consisted of how happy I was to be able to come and live in Russia. I was interested in meeting him in Russia and was looking forward to knowing that there was an American in Russia that enjoyed Russia. I of course never considered that he would not be thrilled about another American coming to Russia to live and try to get to know what Russia is about. The response was one of, Dont come to Russia and push your American attitude and dont mess it up for us (Americans) that are happy here 

I remember that it was a long letter in reply to me and I could tell that he did not want me to come to Russia. He in fact, to put it in a nutshell, he wished that all Americans would stay away from Russia. For Russia is a wonderful and fantastic world that I (we) would only mess up royally in normal American fashion 

I remember seeing him twice on the metro over the years. (He had a picture of himself on his blog.) I left him alone and observed him from across the metro car. I knew on the second time that I saw him, that he realized I was an America. He escaped silently and quickly down the metro car and out the door at the next stop. He still writes about Russia and he still teaches English in Moscow. I can tell he will never go home to America again

Now Sveta was sitting next to me in my American home when we received that letter and I remember she said, He is stupid, do not listen to him, Russia is great place. Of course Sveta and I were already an issue so the situation was final at that point anyway. I was just a few days from leaving America at that point. As you could tell Sveta was with me in America and I knew that staying in America was not going to happen. Sveta was disenchanted with America. Her first words were about how much of a police state America is and so many rules and regulations that interfered with life and fun

I was actually confused by her feelings toward America at first. But I learned what she meant after a few months in Russia. I also started to understand about this gentlemans response to me about the e-mail that I wrote

I had an article a month ago that confirmed my thinkings. It was an article and video from another American that triggered everything and made it congeal in my mind

The clincher in the whole interview was the end when he said, Dont come here (to Russia)! because well, You will muck it up

That hit home with me and I realized that most Americans that I meet in Russia feel the same way. Paul Eng said what we all think in an interview with Russia Today. He tried to make it like a joke. But he was dead serious

So I have found myself fighting that same feelings inside myself. I really think that it is a stage that we go through and I will grow out of it in time. But I find myself worried about Russia as I watch her become more like America everyday. That is why I cheer when Walmart decides to pull out and am saddened when I see how much control McDonalds has on the management world in Russia. I have said this same thing multiples of times in Articles that I write. I do not want to see Russia become a controlled environment with police state tendencies

Dont get me wrong. I want you to come to Russia. I believe in my heart that your life here would be forward-looking over what you know in America. But then I feel that way if you went to most any part of the world. I know Americans who live in China, Panama, India, Korea, Ukraine and so on and so on. They all will tell you that the world is not what you are made to believe from America

I could rattle on for hours, so we will end it with

Russia is still the wild west and as far as I am concerned it needs to stay that way. That is what I love about Russia

Windows to Russia!
Manafort, seated in a wheelchair and clad in a green prison jumpsuit during the hearing, spoke of the hardship he has faced as a prime figure in the high-profile Mueller investigation.

Manafort is expected to serve only 38 more months of the 47-month sentence because of time he has already spent incarcerated. In addition to the sentence, Ellis ordered Manafort to pay a $50,000 fine, the lowest fine provided for by guidelines that recommended a fine between $50,000 and $24 million.

The decision from federal judge T.S. Ellis in Virginia comes less than a week before Manafort's second sentencing hearing in another case in Washington, D.C., district court. Both cases were brought on charges lodged by special counsel Robert Mueller in his ongoing probe of Russia's election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

A federal judge on Thursday sentenced President Donald Trump 's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort to serve 47 months in prison, a far shorter length of time than prosecutors in the case had argued for.

"The last two years have been the most difficult for my family and I," Manafort said in his plea for compassion from the judge.

"To say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement," he said.

Before delivering his sentence, Ellis said that Manafort has "been a good friend to others, a generous person."

The judge added: "He has lived an otherwise blameless life."

Manafort had been convicted in the Virginia court last summer on eight counts of bank fraud, tax fraud and failing to file a foreign bank account report. The charges mostly pertained to Manafort's past work for Ukraine's Russia-backed president at the time, Viktor Yanukovych.

Manafort was not convicted on 10 other criminal counts in that case, which were deadlocked by the 12-person jury.

Manafort's lawyer argued in court that the amount of time Manafort spent talking to prosecutors  50 hours in total  reflects significant cooperation in the government's investigation.

But Mueller's team said bluntly that Manafort's interviews only took so long because he misled them.

"Fifty hours with us was because he lied," prosecutor Greg Andres told Ellis. "He lied, so it took longer to provide the truth to him."

Manafort "did not provide valuable information to the special counsel that wasn't already known," Andres said.

In a sentencing memo last week, Manafort's attorneys argued that Manafort should receive a sentence "substantially below" the 19-to-24-year prison length suggested by federal guidelines. Manafort is a "first-time offender," they wrote, and noted that he admitted his guilt on separate charges launched by Mueller in Washington, D.C., federal court.

Ellis apparently agreed that the guidelines were too high, calling the calculated range "excessive."

Still, Ellis said before delivering the sentence that he was "surprised" he did not hear Manafort "express regret" in his remarks.

Manafort's attorneys also accused the special counsel of attempting to "vilify Mr. Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon," as well as "spreading misinformation about Mr. Manafort to impugn his character in a manner that this country has not experienced in decades."

But Mueller countered in a Tuesday night filing that Manafort's request for leniency should be ignored at his sentencing, arguing that Manafort has not taken responsibility for his crimes. The special counsel also highlighted additional wrongdoing Manafort is alleged to have done since his cases began, including witness tampering and lying to investigators.

While Ellis had often been curt and impatient toward prosecutors during Manafort's three-week trial, most of his rulings before announcing Manafort's sentence appeared to favor the government's position.

Ellis reportedly shot down multiple objections from Manafort's lawyers regarding a pre-sentence report prepared by federal probation officials. The judge also declined to give Manafort any credit for accepting responsibility for his crimes.

Both the defense and the prosecution agreed to delay a decision about Manafort's restitution until after his second sentencing in D.C. next week.

Trump has consistently and aggressively denounced the Mueller probe as "illegal" and a "witch hunt" motivated by partisan politics. His fiery criticisms have raised alarm among Mueller's defenders, who suspect Trump may be considering a pardon for Manafort or other targets of the Russia probe.

"It's very sad, what happened to Paul," Trump said of Manafort in November. "I have not offered any pardons," he said at that time, but added, "I'm not taking anything off the table."

New York authorities are reportedly prepping charges against Manafort if Trump does pardon his crimes.
The trade deal between the United States, Canada and Mexico is crucial for future trade agreements and needs to be "put on the books," Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., told CNBC on Thursday.

In fact, it was that deal  and not China negotiations  that was the main focus of a meeting between lawmakers and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Thursday. "The priority is to get Mexico-Canada done," said Reed, co-chair of the Bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, the group that met with Lighthizer.

The trade agreement between the three nations sets the stage for future deals, Reed said on "Power Lunch."

It has "gold-standard type of language" that can be applied to agreements with China and other countries, he said. "Getting this on the books is really critical for the future trade negotiations for America."

The leaders of the three nations signed a revised North American trade pact  known as USMCA  in November. It replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement, but it still needs to be approved by both chambers of Congress before it can go into effect. It also needs to be ratified by lawmakers in Mexico and Canada.

"If we don't pass it, not only is it going to hurt American industry but Canada and Mexico will see a significant impact  potentially recession type of results," Reed said.
"It has been a privilege to serve alongside our Airmen over the past two years and I am proud of the progress that we have made restoring our nation's defense," Wilson said in a statement. "We have improved the readiness of the force; we have cut years out of acquisition schedules and gotten better prices through competition; we have repealed hundreds of superfluous regulations; and we have strengthened our ability to deter and dominate in space."

"Since there is a state mandated 21-day waiting period, she will likely take that [time] to meet with faculty, students and staff," a UT System spokeswoman told CNBC.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents selected Wilson on Friday as the finalist for the top job at the school. However, under Texas state law there is a required waiting period before the Board of Regents can approve and hire Wilson.

U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, rumored to be a top candidate for secretary of defense, is slated to become the next president of the University of Texas at El Paso.

The U.S. Air Force's top civilian will resign from her post at the Department of Defense at the end of May, a U.S. defense official told CNBC.

In her resignation letter to President Donald Trump, Wilson cites her previous service as a university president and her love for the Southwest as part of her decision to step down.

"As you know, I left a university presidency to become Secretary of the Air Force and our family home is in New Mexico, a few hundred miles north of El Paso on the Rio Grande. If approved by the Regents, I look forward to returning to the west to help lead this fine institution," Wilson wrote to Trump.

Trump acknowledged Wilson's resignation in a tweet Friday saying, "Heather has done an absolutely fantastic job as Secretary of the Air Force, and I know she will be equally great in the very important world of higher education. A strong thank you to Heather for her service."

Wilson, 58, came to the Pentagon in 2017 to become the 24th Secretary of the Air Force. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Wilson served as a congresswoman from New Mexico from 1998 to 2009. She also was president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology for four years.

Her resignation comes as the Air Force deals with a fresh scandal involving sexual assault. Earlier this week, Sen. Martha McSally dramatically disclosed that she was raped by a superior officer while serving in the Air Force. "Like many victims, I felt like the system was raping me all over again," McSally said during the hearing when explaining why she did not come forward.

"We are appalled and deeply sorry for what Senator McSally experienced and we stand behind her and all victims of sexual assault. We are steadfast in our commitment to eliminate this reprehensible behavior and breach of trust in our ranks," the Air Force said in a statement.

Following the announcement of Wilson's departure, McSally wrote on Twitter that she was grateful for her service and that "her successor will have a big jet stream to fill."

What's more, the Air Force is still working to create Trump's proposed Space Force.

Currently the U.S. Air Force manages the space domain through the U.S. Space Command. Space Force would stand alongside the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. However, the newest branch is expected to be akin to the structure of the Marine Corps, which is a component of the U.S. Department of the Navy but has separate representation on the Joint Chiefs.

The new sister service branch will be represented on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and overseen by an Air Force undersecretary for space.

Read Secretary Wilson's resignation letter to Trump:
Stocks in major Asian stock markets closed lower on Friday as investors grappled with fresh concerns over the state of the global economy, with Chinese trade data for February coming in below expectations.

Mainland Chinese shares cratered on the day, with the Shanghai composite falling 4.4 percent to close at 2,969.86 and the Shenzhen component slipping 3.248 percent to finish at 9,363.72. The Shenzhen composite shed 3.791 percent to close at 1,605.28.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index declined more than 1.8 percent in its final hour of trading.

Chinese customs data on Friday showed that dollar-denominated exports for China fell 20.7 percent for the month of February from a year ago, missing a 4.8 percent decline that economists polled by Reuters had expected.

Dollar-denominated imports fell 5.2 percent in February from a year ago, missing economists' forecast of a 1.4 percent fall.

Analysts, however, say data from China in the first two months of the year must be treated with caution due to business distortions caused by the timing of the week-long Lunar New Year public holiday which started on Feb. 4 this year.

"A 20-percent decline is a big number. I think the market is clearly disappointed by this," Sarah Lien, a director and client portfolio manager at Eastspring Investments (Singapore), told CNBC's "Capital Connection" on Friday. "But to put things into perspective, I think we've been talking about a global growth slowdown and a China slowdown for a long time now, so it's not completely unexpected to see a negative number."

Lien added that Eastspring remained "very bullish" on China, and the country's long-term outlook looked constructive. In particular, she pointed to China's "hugely growing" domestic market, where there was "plenty of opportunity" for investors.
That diplomatic snafu led Chinese officials to grow worried Trump could do the same in trade talks, a senior administration official told CNBC on Friday.

Nuclear talks between Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un were cut short after the two sides failed to reach an agreement . The collapse of the Hanoi summit came as a surprise as many experts had predicted that both leaders would try to reach a deal on smaller items.

After last week's fumbled nuclear summit in Vietnam, Beijing is worried President Donald Trump might walk away from the negotiating table.

"The Chinese saw him walk away from North Korea and they're concerned he will walk away from the China deal," the official said. "You don't want to send Xi to Mar-a-Lago and have Trump walk away. That would be a diplomatic catastrophe."

The official said a face-to-face meeting between China's Xi Jinping and Trump is still a ways off, given that the two to three weeks of summit preparation work has not started yet. To ensure such a summit would not follow the same fallout as the nuclear talks in Hanoi, the official said Beijing and Washington are going through "line-by-line negotiations."

"What they don't want is to send their guy here and POTUS says 'nope I'm out of here, see you on the 9th hole,'" the official said.

Earlier Friday, there were reports that a meeting between the two leaders at Mar-a-Lago was cancelled. The White House said that nothing has officially been scheduled or cancelled.
A Chinese flag flies on a vessel moving past shipping containers being unloaded at a Tianjin Port Group Co. dock in Tianjin, China. Nelson Ching | Bloomberg | Getty Images

China on Friday reported worse than expected trade data for the month of February, customs data showed amid Beijing's trade dispute with the U.S. Dollar-denominated exports plunged 20.7 percent for the month of February from a year ago, missing economists' expectations of a 4.8 percent decline, according to a Reuters poll. January exports had risen 9.1 percent from a year ago. Dollar-denominated imports fell 5.2 percent in February from a year ago, missing economists' forecast of a 1.4 percent fall. January imports had fallen 1.5 percent on-year. China's February trade balance was also significantly weaker than expected at $4.12 billion. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the overall trade balance to come in at $26.38 billion. The country's trade balance in January had been $39.16 billion. China's politically sensitive trade surplus with the U.S. narrowed sharply to $14.72 billion in February from $27.3 billion in January.

'A lot of headwinds'

Although the 20.7 percent decline in Chinese exports for the month of February was a "big number" and the market will be "clearly disappointed," the negative number should not come as a surprise as investors have been expecting a slowdown both globally and in China, said Sarah Lien, director and client portfolio manager at Eastspring Investments. "There are a lot of headwinds; there's a lot of moving parts in market," Lien told CNBC. Analysts have been warning of an impending slowdown in Chinese exports even though overall economic data out of the country has been robust for the last year. Asia's largest economy continues to negotiate through a trade dispute with the U.S., its largest trading partner. Exports held up for much of 2018 as many exporters were rushing to ship their goods out before heavier tariffs hit. According to sources who spoke to CNBC, Washington and Beijing appear to be approaching the finish line on trade negotiations that could end later this month.

Holiday distortion, but outlook still gloomy
Joan Cros | NurPhoto | Getty Images

China's government voiced its support for Huawei's legal challenge against the U.S. on Friday, saying the technology firm has the right to refuse to be "victimized like silent lambs." Huawei filed a lawsuit on Thursday claiming that a ban on U.S. government agencies buying its telecommunication equipment is unconstitutional. Wang Yi, China's top diplomat, said the regime in Beijing backs the company's legal battle. "China has and will continue to take all necessary measures to resolutely protect the legitimate and lawful interests of Chinese businesses and citizens," Wang said, according to an official translation of a Mandarin comment made during a Friday address. "At the same time, we support the company and individual in question in seeking legal redress to protect their own interests and refusing to be victimized like silent lambs," he added to the statement made during China's National People's Congress, a big annual event at which Beijing formally announces major policy elements such as economic growth targets.

The "company and individual" in question refer to Huawei and the company's Chief Financial Officer, Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Canada in December and is facing extradition to the U.S. The U.S. has accused her of fraud. Huawei's lawsuit against the U.S. government focuses on a particular section of the National Defense Authorization Act, which prohibits government agencies from procuring Huawei gear. Huawei, along with rival ZTE, is explicitly named in that the law. The company's lawyers want that provision, known as Section 889, scrapped in the hope that it could help restart talks with the U.S. government. Meanwhile, Meng's lawyers are now suing Canadian authorities, alleging they arrested, detained and searched her in violation of her constitutional rights.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks to potential voters during a campaign stop at the Veterans Memorial Building on February 10, 2019, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

"Today's big tech companies have too much power  too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy," Warren wrote. "They've bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation."

In a blog post , the Democratic presidential hopeful from Massachusetts wrote that she wants to make "big, structural changes to the tech sector to promote more competition." Those overhauls would include "breaking up" Amazon, Facebook and Google  companies that have come under scrutiny for user data security and consolidation of services such as e-commerce and digital advertising.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled a plan Friday to break up massive technology companies such as Amazon and Facebook , the clearest proposal yet in the 2020 presidential race to limit the growth of Silicon Valley.

Though Warren's post did not mention Apple, her campaign said the plan would affect the tech behemoth. The company could have to choose between running its App Store or building its own apps, Warren spokeswoman Saloni Sharma said.

Warren's proposal comes as pockets of the 2020 Democratic primary field have called for more drastic action to protect consumers and workers from what they call Silicon Valley abuses. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has floated legislation to protect consumer data amid concerns about what user information Facebook shares with third-party companies.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent running for president as a Democrat, has repeatedly targeted Amazon by urging it to boost wages and benefits for workers.

Warren says her plan would have two planks. The senator writes that she would push to pass legislation to designate certain companies "platform utilities." She defines those as "companies with an annual global revenue of $25 billion or more" that "offer to the public an online marketplace, an exchange, or a platform for connecting third parties."

Warren writes:

These companies would be prohibited from owning both the platform utility and any participants on that platform. Platform utilities would be required to meet a standard of fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory dealing with users. Platform utilities would not be allowed to transfer or share data with third parties.

Various parties would have the right to sue over the violation of those rules. A company in violation would have to pay a fine worth 5 percent of annual revenue.

Under this standard, Amazon Marketplace  where third-party vendors sell products  would split from AmazonBasics, the company's in-house brand, Warren wrote. Google would have to spin off its search business, among other services.

The senator also said she would appoint regulators to undo what she called "anti-competitive mergers," such as Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods, Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram and Google's purchase of Waze.

"Here's what will change: Small businesses would have a fair shot to sell their products on Amazon without the fear of Amazon pushing them out of business," Warren wrote. "Google couldn't smother competitors by demoting their products on Google Search. Facebook would face real pressure from Instagram and WhatsApp to improve the user experience and protect our privacy. Tech entrepreneurs would have a fighting chance to compete against the tech giants."

Facebook and Amazon declined to comment on Warren's plan. Apple and Google did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests to comment.

All of the companies Warren targeted have fought characterizations of having too much of a hold on their industries for years. For instance, Apple has various competitors in the smartphone and computer markets. Amazon also faces numerous rivals not only online but also in the form of physical retailers.

The big tech companies have faced increasing scrutiny in recent months over allegations of improper monopoly behavior.

Google has been tangling with regulators in Europe for years, and in July was slapped with a record $5 billion fine by the European Commission, which found that the company violated the European Union's antitrust rules. Amazon and Facebook have also faced scrutiny from American lawmakers and academics over alleged monopoly behavior, though the companies have vehemently rejected such designations.

In the U.S., Apple is embroiled in a legal fight at the Supreme Court over its App Store marketplace that experts say could lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and force a reworking of its app platform. If the company loses, the iPhone owners who brought the case will be permitted to move forward with an antitrust suit against the company for allegedly inflating prices.

Apple has said it cannot be sued over the matter. A decision is expected by late June.

WATCH: What Democrats' plans could mean for growth, spending and inequality
Facebook says it removed fake accounts that spread articles, videos and memes aimed at inciting hate and political division in Britain and Romania.

The social media giant said in a blog post Thursday evening on its blog that it took down 137 Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups in the U.K., and another 31 Facebook accounts, pages and groups in Romania.

Facebook Head of Cybersecurity Policy Nathaniel Gleicher said the platform discovered a network of people operating fake accounts in the U.K. to "engage in hate speech and spread divisive comments on both sides of the political debate."

Meanwhile, in Romania, the company said it found both fake and real accounts on the platform spreading posts in support of the country's Social Democratic Party (PSD). Some of the accounts had ties to an individual associated with the PSD, Facebook said.

The firm shared examples of the posts being circulated. One post in Britain criticized Gerard Batten, the leader of the pro-Brexit U.K. Independence Party (UKIP), for calling Islam a "death cult," while another said people on the left of the political spectrum "don't have to know anything."
CNBC studied the net changes by industry for February jobs based on the data from the Labor Department included in the jobs report released Friday. The government said the U.S. economy added just 20,000 jobs last month, far short of the 180,000 increase expected by economists polled by Refinitiv.

Professional and business services added to a hot streak of strong employment gains, but big losses in the construction industry threw cold water on the February jobs report, the worst month for job growth since September 2017.

The construction industry posted a net loss of 31,000 jobs in February, with declines of 13,000 jobs in both civil engineering and specialty trade contractors. Building construction also posted minor losses as economists theorized that poor winter weather could have contributed to the jobs shortfall.

To be sure, the construction industry has been one of the strongest in terms of job growth in recent years and is often affected by seasonal climate patterns. Even including February's losses, the sector is up 223,000 jobs in the past 12 months.

"The best we can guess it probably has something to do with weather," said Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the Associated General Contractors of America.

"You know there was snow in Los Angeles ... but [the losses] just don't seem to sync up with what we're seeing," he added, citing reports of labor shortages flagged by employers.

The manufacturing industry, a priority for President Donald Trump, saw more muted hiring in February after a similarly anemic January. The sector added 4,000 jobs last month versus January's gain of 13,000 and December's 32,000. Manufacturing jobs are up an average of 22,000 per month over the last 12 months.

The only sector with significant job outperformance was professional and business services, which added 42,000 positions in the month of February. The sector, which includes lawyers, accountants and consultants, is up more than 530,000 jobs in the past year.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) answers questions during her weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol February 28, 2019 in Washington, DC.

House Democrats passed a bill Friday aiming to reduce money in politics and expand voting rights, following through on their top policy priority since they regained control of the chamber.

The proposal would also require presidential and vice presidential candidates to release their tax returns  a clear swipe at President Donald Trump, who broke with precedent in refusing to release his financial information.

The plan, a key plank of Democrats' 2018 strategy known as H.R. 1, passed the chamber by a 234-193 party-line vote. With the proposal, Democrats hope to cast themselves as the party better equipped to root out corruption and boost participation in the U.S. political system. The plan was overshadowed for most of the week by an anti-hate measure passed Thursday in response to comments from Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., that various critics deemed anti-Semitic.

The Democrats' ethics reform bill has little chance of becoming law. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has lambasted the measure as a federal power grab by Democrats. Trump has threatened to veto the legislation.

The massive legislation would require so-called dark money groups  which do not have to disclose their donors  to reveal their sources of funding, while setting up a public funding method for congressional campaigns. It would create a national automatic voter registration, make Election Day a federal holiday, and boost early voting and same-day registration.

Ahead of the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the plan one that "restores the people's faith that government works in the public's interest, the people's interest, not the special interests." She said it "ensures clean, fair elections and fights voter suppression."

McConnell has signaled he will not even bring the bill to a vote. The Kentucky Republican has repeatedly called it the "Democrat Politician Protection Act."

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The worst is over for India's public sector banks, which have struggled in recent years with large levels of bad debt that have hamstrung their growth, according Jayant Sinha, the country's minister of state for civil aviation. India has massively reformed its public sector banks over the last five years, he told CNBC's "Street Signs" on Friday. "We were very, very seized with that matter and we started to put in place a very important reform package, which, in fact, has moved forward quite aggressively over the last few years," Sinha said. Public-sector financial institutions control about 70 percent of all banking assets in India and they have had the highest exposure to soured loans. Banks are a key source of funding for Indian companies and as their levels of bad debt grew, their lending capabilities were reduced.

People queued in front of banks from early morning in India. Saikat Paul | Pacific Press | LightRocket | Getty Images

To tackle the problem, the government and the country's central bank introduced a series of measures to clean up the struggling lenders. Those included asset quality reviews to make sure all of the bad debt was declared, recapitalizing the public-sector banks, consolidating smaller banks and introducing reforms for many of their lending practices. A new bankruptcy law also helped to give the government a better handle on the way banks dealt with defaulters. The situation has shown signs of improvements through recent earnings reports for banks as well as resolutions happening under India's insolvency and bankruptcy act. The central bank predicted that the ratio of gross non-performing assets at the lenders may decline further. "We can conclusively say that the worst is behind us," Sinha said. "Overall, when you look at it ... you'll see that the entire nature of commercial banking in India has changed."

Airline troubles

While there might be signs of progress for India's struggling government-owned banks, troubles are emerging in the country's airlines sector. Local carrier Jet Airways has been cash-strapped and grounded about 28 planes for not being able to pay its dues, reports said. Previously, Kingfisher Airlines struggled with cash flow problems despite having a sizable chunk of the domestic air travel market and ultimately closed down in 2012. Its chairman, Vijay Mallya, fled the country to avoid paying outstanding debt and accumulated interest. Meanwhile, the government has struggled to find a buyer for its stake in national carrier Air India, which is also saddled with debt. Last year, India said it was working on a relief package for the airline industry to help carriers deal with mounting losses, according to Reuters. Sinha said Jet Airways was struggling against the low-cost carriers, while Air India, excluding its outstanding debt, was doing "very well." "You really have to look at the business models of the different airlines to understand which airlines are going to do well in a fast-growing domestic market like India," he said, adding that the country is also building out airports at an "unprecedented rate."

Election date 'imminent'
President Donald Trump's aggressive tariffs have taken their toll on the Chinese economy, giving Washington the edge in trade talks with Beijing, top White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said Friday.

"We have them over a barrel," said Kudlow, director of the president's National Economic Council. "On the other hand, we would like a good deal. Both countries should benefit."

Kudlow, a former CNBC commentator, pointed to overnight economic data from China, showing that dollar-denominated exports there plunged 20.7 percent last month from a year ago, missing expectations by a wide margin.

"We have hurt them," Kudlow said on "Squawk on the Street," as both sides hope the finish line to resolving their trade war is near. "We are still negotiating by phone and teleconference."

"The documents from two weeks ago advanced enormously. That's why the president is optimistic about the potential for a deal," Kudlow added. But he stressed, "I don't want to hang a timetable on this."

However, Kudlow did signal that Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping could meet regarding their trade dispute later this month or early next month at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. "Nothing in cement, but there's a lot of talk."

As Kudlow was speaking on CNBC, Trump told reporters at the White House that he remains confident a trade deal will be reached. But the president added that the U.S. will do well with or without an agreement.

Kudlow emphasized Trump's message. "He's very serious, if we don't get a good deal for the United States ... then we won't get a good deal. You saw him walk away from North Korea" nuclear talks in Vietnam last week.

Trump and Xi agreed in December, at a dinner after the G-20 summit in Argentina, to halt any new tariffs until March as negotiators continued talks. Last month, Trump extended that deadline, citing progress in trade talks.

The U.S. has imposed import levies on $250 billion in Chinese products: 25 percent on $50 billion worth and 10 percent on the rest. Trump has threatened to also raise the rate on the $200 billion to 25 percent if a deal were to be elusive. China has hit $110 billion in U.S. goods with tariffs.

In the same CNBC interview Friday, Kudlow said the shockingly low reading on job growth in the government's February employment report was "very fluky." He said he wouldn't pay any attention to it.

 Associated Press contributed to this report.

WATCH: Here's the full Kudlow interview
When the LGBTQ Equality Act was first introduced in 2015, three companies publicly supported it: Apple, The Dow Chemical Company and Levi Strauss & Co. Now as the bill  which would expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity  heads back to Capitol Hill, it has 161 corporate backers.

"More and more companies have come to realize just how important it is to have a nationwide standard that treats all employees equally, no matter where they live," said Stephen Peters, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer civil rights organization.

The HRC announced Friday that support has been growing over the years, and now 161 companies have joined the organization's Business Coalition for the Equality Act, a group of leading U.S. employers that support LGBTQ people in anti-discrimination laws. "The harsh reality is that right now LGBTQ people face a patchwork of protections based on what side of a city or state line they live on," Peters said.

The Equality Act has faced a tough legislative climb in its effort to extend anti-discriminatory protections for LGBTQ people across the U.S. A similar bill, introduced in 2015 by Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Democratic Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, died in committee, then suffered the same fate in a 2017 effort. The Equality Act is expected to be introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives within the coming week.

Nearly 50 percent of LGBTQ Americans currently reside in the 30 states that lack statewide legal protections for LGBTQ people, according to the HRC. The supporting companies  which now include Twitter, Amazon, Google and Facebook  have operations in all 50 states and total more than $3.7 trillion in revenue, according to HRC.

"The more than 160 leading American companies that have joined HRC's Business Coalition for the Equality Act are sending a loud and clear message that the time has come for full federal equality," said HRC President Chad Griffin.

On Thursday, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty wrote a letter addressed to Rep. Cicilline and Sen. Merkley detailing her support for the Equality Act on behalf of the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs from the leading companies in the U.S. In the letter, Rometty argued that most American companies already included sexual orientation and gender identity in their nondiscrimination policies long ago, and now it is time for the federal government to do the same.

Although the bill has a chance in the Democratic-controlled House, it most likely will face scrutiny in the Republican-controlled Senate, said Jonathan Lovitz, senior vice president of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). Lovitz said that recent rulings by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission covering sexual orientation discrimination based on existing civil rights regulations, as well as a similar ruling from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, stress the value of legal efforts supporting equal LGBTQ opportunities.

"Our economy simply does not achieve all it can unless everyone is included ... and the protections of the Equality Act bring us much closer to the inclusion we need for the American Dream to be accessible to every LGBT American," Lovitz said.

The Equality Act does not include provisions that would include LGBT-owned businesses in federal contracting opportunities, an effort that has been taken up by three states and recently introduced in cities like Nashville and Baltimore, Lovitz said. If passed, the act would cover employment, education, housing, public accommodations, jury service, federal funding and credit.

"A level playing field ensures that merit is the only factor that allows someone to succeed in business," said NGLCC Co-Founder & CEO Chance Mitchell. "Think of the endless opportunities to contribute to the economy that await the LGBT business community when they are no longer afraid of being fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes, denied service in restaurants and shops simply for being who they are."

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Rice farmers oppose military juntas new rice bill. The 24 March election will mark the countrys return to democratic politics. Support for the rural north-east was fundamental to the Shinawatra familys electoral success. The Constitutional Court disbands the Thai Raksa Chart Party for putting forward a royal princess as candidate.

Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Rice farmers are at the centre of Thai politics once again.

As a result of their opposition, the government has indefinitely postponed a controversial bill. Farmers are in fact one of the most influential groups in the country.

The next general elections is set for 24 March, the first since 2011, marking the countrys return to a democratic regime, almost five years after the military seized power.

The Thai Raksa Chart Party will not take part in the elections though. The Constitutional Court ordered its dissolution after it dragged the monarchy into politics by presenting the king's sister as a candidate.

The party was loyal to the still influential Shinawatra family, which dominated Thai politics for years.

Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was overthrown by the military in 2014; three years later, the Supreme Court sentenced her in absentia to five years of imprisonment for "negligence" in a controversial scheme to subsidise rice production.

Despite the court decision, she has always maintained her innocence, claiming to be the victim of the ruling junta's attempt to prevent her family from returning to power.

Her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, is also a former prime minister who was overthrown by a coup in 2006 and sentenced (in absentia) to two years in prison for offences related to conflict of interests.

Support for the rural northeast of Thailand was a key part of the Shinawatras electoral success, based largely on subsidies to rice farmers.

A rice bill proposed by the junta would have established a government-controlled board to oversee the industry, granting the state sole authority to license certain strains of rice seeds for sale.

The bill passed the first reading in the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) in January but was postponed last week due to growing opposition from rice farmers who claim it would exclusively benefit large-scale producers by banning the distribution of rice seeds not approved by the proposed new board. The bill will be reconsidered after the elections on 24 March.

According to some analysts, dissatisfaction with the bill can hurt incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who will run in March as the candidate for the pro-military Palang Pracharat party. A former commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai army, Prayuth led the military coup of May 2014.

The latest controversy over rice policy could provide an opportunity for the main opposition, Thai Pheu Party, founded by Thaksin Shinawatra.

It is not yet clear however, what impact yesterdays dissolution of its ally, the Thai Raksa Chart Party, by the Constitutional Court will have.

The Election Commission had asked the court to dissolve the party after it named Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi as its candidate for the prime minister position, claiming that the candidacy went against the constitutional monarchy.

The court ruling includes a ban on the members of the Thai Raksa Chart Party executive council from political activities for ten years. On social media, the princess described the verdict as "sad and depressing".
Prime minister Abiy Ahmed has launched a crowdfunding campaign aimed at making the capital a site for urban tourism by developing greener spaces along a 56-kilometer river stream.

Prime minister Abiy Ahmed has launched a crowdfunding campaign aimed at making the capital a site for urban tourism by developing greener spaces along a 56-kilometer river stream.

Ethiopias capital Addis Ababa is about to get cleaner and greener. But first, it needs your money.

Dubbed Dine for ShegerSheger is a moniker for Addis Ababa  the three-year initiative is targeting individuals, local and global businesses, international organizations, and members of the diplomatic corps.

The project will also help mitigate against the flooding at the riverbanks, create bicycle paths and walkways, and nurture a green economy that would make the city more competitive, according to Quartz Africa.

To kickstart the project, Abiys office will hold a dinner at a cost of 5 million birr per plateor $175,000. The premiers office promises anyone who donates will have a plaque with their name placed along the river routes besides scoring a private photo-op with Abiy himself.

The event is symbolic of the many ways Abiy, who rose to power a year ago, is trying to change Ethiopias strategic importance both globally and in the Horn of Africa. The choice of Addis Ababa is also critical, given how much the federal capital was at the heart of the anti-government protests that eventually led to the resignation of ex-PM Hailemariam Desalegn and launched Abiy to power. Since taking the mantle, the 42-year-old has preached the philosophy of medemer, or unity, in contrast to the ethnic compartmentalization that has plagued the Horn of African nation for decades.

Yet for all the optimism his leadership has inspired, Abiy knows his administration has to institute reforms that would create more opportunities for its 100-million population. The prime minister has so far embarked on opening up key state-controlled sectors like aviation and telecom, promising to streamline banking regulations, increasing agricultural and manufacturing productivity, and boosting domestic and foreign investment.

Abiy has also helped establish the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund, an independent outfit meant to crowdfund among Ethiopias over 3-million strong diaspora population. The funds website notes they have so far collected over $2.4 million in donations from as little as $30.

The green initiative could prove transformative for Addis Ababa, one of Africas largest and storied cities. The city has a huge diplomatic presence and is home to both the headquarters of the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

The efforts to transform Ethiopias capital also comes as cities like Kigali and Johannesburg move to create jobs and reduce the effects of climate change by developing greener and smarter cities.

Jonathan Tadese, a US-based Ethiopian strategy consultant says a lot of organizations and individuals would be interested given the kind of opportunities it will open up for the city and its people at this crucial juncture. So far, Abiys plan has found a hearty supporter: during a visit this past weekend, Kenyas president Uhuru Kenyatta said Kenyan companies will contribute to the Dine for Sheger fundraiser.
An investor watches the electronic board at a stock exchange hall on July 2, 2018 in Hangzhou, China.

Shares in mainland China crumbled on Friday after Chinese trade data missed expectations by a wide margin.

All major Chinese indexes closed the day deep in negative territory. The Shanghai composite plunged 4.4 percent, the Shenzhen component tumbled 3.248 percent and the Shenzhen composite dropped 3.791 percent. The CSI 300, which tracks the largest shares on the mainland, plummeted nearly 4 percent.

The significant losses in Chinese stocks came as overall sentiment in Asia was downbeat for the day. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 1.5 percent, as of 3:14 p.m. HK/SIN.

China on Friday reported worse than expected trade data for the month of February. Dollar-denominated exports plunged 20.7 percent for the month from a year ago, missing economists' expectations of a 4.8 percent decline, according to a Reuters poll. February's dollar-denominated imports, meanwhile, fell 5.2 percent from the prior year, missing an expected 1.4 percent fall.

China's February trade balance was also significantly weaker than expected at $4.12 billion. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the overall trade balance to come in at $26.38 billion. The country's trade balance in January had been $39.16 billion.

In a note on Friday, ANZ said the release of the trade numbers reinforced its view that "China's trade recession has started to emerge."

China will require a stronger dose of stimulus to support growth, said Raymond Yeung, ANZ Research's chief economist for Greater China.

"Looking ahead, we find little reason to expect a rebound in the near term on the back of a sluggish global electronics cycle," he explained in the note, adding that Asia's export figures are pointing to a "sobering" outlook.

That sentiment was echoed by Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics.

"We expect subdued global trade and the impact of US tariffs to continue to weigh on exports in the coming months, although the tariff suspension by the US and China and increased likelihood of a more lasting agreement should help eventually," Kuijs said in a note following Friday's data release.

 CNBC's Huileng Tan contributed to this report.
Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, waves while exiting federal court in Washington, D.C. Aaron P. Bernstein | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Paul Manafort's surprisingly light first sentence in his legal battle with special counsel Robert Mueller shocked experts and energized President Donald Trump's supporters. But Manafort, who ran Trump's presidential campaign for several months in 2016, could face a less-lenient judge in his final sentencing next week. The 69-year-old longtime Republican operative was given a 47-month prison sentence Thursday night, after being convicted in Virginia federal court on eight criminal counts including tax and bank fraud. That was much shorter than the 19-to-24 years in prison recommended by federal sentencing guidelines. Manafort was also slapped with a $50,000 fine. That was the bare minimum recommended by federal guidelines, which had suggested a fine of up to $24 million.

The sentence was immediately viewed as a crushing loss for Mueller's prosecutors. While Judge T.S. Ellis had been widely expected to hand down a sentence below what the guidelines suggested, few had predicted he would give Manafort such a light prison term. Mueller's team clearly wanted a more severe punishment. They had blasted Manafort in recent court filings as an unrepentant felon and liar who gave no indication that he would avoid committing crimes in the future. And while they did not recommend a specific sentence, they did not dispute the hefty prison term suggested by the guidelines.

Charges against Manafort

Most of the charges against Manafort related to income earned from his work as a political consultant for Ukraine's Russia-backed former president, Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort was accused by Mueller of defrauding the U.S. and its financial institutions after Yanukovich lost power in Ukraine, which dried up Manafort's consulting operation there. Mueller's team accused Manafort of hiding millions of dollar in income from the U.S. government in overseas accounts, and lying to banks to secure millions of dollars in loans. Much of that money, prosecutors argued, was used to maintain Manafort's opulent lifestyle. Despite that long-term misconduct, Ellis said before delivering his sentence that Manafort has "lived an otherwise blameless life." Manafort has "been a good friend to others, a generous person," Ellis added. While many legal experts were surprised by the leniency in Virginia, they predict that he will be slapped with a harsher sentence next Wednesday, when he appears in Washington, D.C., federal court before Judge Amy Berman Jackson. After being convicted at trial in Virginia last August, Manafort struck a plea deal with prosecutors on the eve of his second trial in D.C., which would have dealt with crimes related to the Virginia case, as well as to witness tampering. But that cooperation agreement imploded several months later, when Mueller's team accused Manafort of breaking the deal by lying to investigators.

A tougher audience
As if stuck in a partially clogged drain, oil from the hottest U.S. shale play has been caught in a bottleneck due to a lack of pipeline capacity.

But the transportation tie-up at the Permian Basin is about to ease up, and a new network of pipelines will help U.S. producers unleash more crude into the Gulf Coast and then onto the world market.

"There's a lot of shale capacity being prepared. There's a lot of pipeline capacity. We're going to triple pipelines going into the market from 3 to 9 million in three years, from last year to late 2021," said Francisco Blanch, head of commodities and derivatives at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Much needed pipeline capacity is being added to take Permian crude from the heart of Texas down to the Gulf Coast, to oil refineries but also to Texas ports that are making plans for more and larger ships to carry oil exports from the U.S. to customers in Asia and elsewhere. The Permian Basin covers an area of more than 75,000 square miles in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

Citigroup energy analyst Eric Lee said Permian output at just under 4 million barrels a day is up about 1 million barrels from a year ago and should be a million more, or 5 million a day, a year from now, in early 2020. The Permian has benefited from consistent improvements in technology, which increasingly have been capable of extracting more oil from the shale formation.

"We're happy to look out to 2023, when it gets to 8 million. ... They figured out how to access it at very low break-evens, like $30/$40. ... There are more layers below it. It's hard to know what those are going to mean, break-even-wise," said Lee. His estimates depend on the price of crude and world oil demand. Breakeven is the price a producer of a barrel of oil needs to recover expenses, or where a producer breaks even.

As Permian and other production has grown, so have U.S. exports of crude, allowed by a change in law in late 2015. In one week in the past month, exports reached a record 3.6 million barrels a day, according to U.S. government data. Last week, 2.8 million barrels a day were exported, and the four-week average was about 3 million barrels. The U.S. is now the largest oil producer in the world, pumping 12.1 million barrels a day, according to Energy Information Administration data.

Source: Bank of America Merrill Lynch

"Every incremental barrel that the United States produces will be exported. We're in a situation, of course, where the quality of what we produce is actually higher than what we need," said Raoul LeBlanc, vice president, North American Unconventional at IHS Markit. "U.S. refineries, which turn crude oil into the products we use, were designed to turn cheap crude oil into high quality and upgrade it into the fuels we use."

The Permian and other U.S. shale basins produce light sweet crude, while the Gulf Coast refineries were built for heavy crudes, like those from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico. With Venezuela under sanctions, there is less available heavy crude, but analysts say so far the refineries are able to find enough but at a higher price differential.

"We like to say we're exporting champagne and importing beer," said LeBlanc. The U.S., in the past week, imported 7 million barrels a day. Twice in the past several months, weekly data showed the U.S. to be a net exporter of crude and refined products.

"The growth estimates [for the Permian] just kept getting bigger and bigger. They didn't' know what they didn't know," said CFRA energy equity analyst Stewart Glickman. "You do have to be cognizant of the fact that these wells decline very quickly. Between year one and year two there's a pretty big dropoff. You have to drill more well in order to expand. It really depends on whether technological innovations can keep pace with that. For everyone to double in five years might be a stretch. I'm not saying it can't be done," Glickman said.

U.S. crude in the Permian is increasingly being drilled by the oil majors.

"This is sort of typical for the industry. You start with wildcatters, then the smaller E and Ps move in. Then the big guys move in. We're seeing it again here. it's kind of like a neighborhood gets gentrified by the artists before the mainstream moves in," Glickman said.

This past week, both Chevron and Exxon announced plans to bump up production significantly in the Permian. Occidental Petroleum and British Petroleum are also active there.

"They are doing these big integrated projects that are not that price sensitive," Lee said. "If they okay a project, it's going to move like a big project, more than a small to mid-cap producer, which are drilling fewer wells and are more sensitive to price." He said smaller and mid-cap companies are also being impacted by capital discipline.

Exxon said it hoped to reach 1 million barrels per day of oil equivalents in five years, and Chevron said it expects to more than double its output, taking production to 900,000 oil equivalent barrels by the end of 2023.

"The big thing that I think has changed is the shale game has become a scale game, and so people that can do things at large scale and bring the capabilities to bear that a company like Chevron has are the ones that really can take this to the next level," Chevron Chairman and CEO Michael Wirth told CNBC's "Closing Bell" Tuesday.

As for the Permian bottleneck, Chevron said it has had more than sufficient takeaway capacity and primarily relies on pipelines, but also a few trucks. "Our offtake strategy allows us to keep up with our production," the company said in a statement. "In 2018, we had takeaway capacity for oil and liquids that was more than sufficient, and we have already added more capacity this year."

Lee said the expansion of pipelines to the point where they will now provide surplus capacity is typical of the industry. "Once you get to the first quarter of 2020, almost certainly the Permian will be fully de-bottlenecked for now," he said.

The majors may be more impactful in terms of making sure there is plenty of pipeline space available.

"They're going to plan not to have bottlenecks. ... The bottlenecks are more a function of just the short term, mini boom- busts we've seen since the 2014 oil price crash," Lee said.

In periods of higher oil prices, the focus turns to building pipelines, and if prices fall pipeline space becomes more plentiful. "Oil prices have been recovering. The pipelines are now catching up. They slowed down after being overpiped," Lee said, adding that there is currently more capacity coming on ahead of the expected increase in production.

Glickman said the Gray Oak pipeline is adding 800,000 barrels a day; Epic is adding 600,000 and another named Cactus 2, owned by Plains All American, is adding another 600,000 barrels a day. The Gray Oak, built and operated by Phillips 66, is an 850-mile pipeline stretching from south of Midland down to Corpus Christi.

"Those are just the ones coming on line late this year. That's a lot of volume," he said.

Oil in Midland, Texas, the center of the Permian, is priced lower than crude at the Gulf Coast, and the differential has been about $10 per barrel or more. West Texas Intermediate crude is just above $56 per barrel.

"They realized prices they were getting for Permian were getting weak. The installation of new pipelines should boost realized prices, if you are a Permian producer. If you have a choked highway and someone adds a couple lanes to the freeway, you're eventually going to encourage more drivers," Glickman said.

John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital, said the production plans could create a temporary glut. "But with all the new projects being lined up, liked the push by Exxon Mobil and Chevron, there will still be a battle for pipeline space in the future," said Kilduff.

WATCH: Here's what drives the price of oil
Priscilla Chan, who co-founded the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative with her husband, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is supporting higher taxes for the wealthy.

"For people who can afford it, paying higher taxes is not a bad thing," Chan said Friday at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. "We should be doing that."

Chan's comments came during an interview with CNN journalist Poppy Harlow, who asked Chan if she was in support of higher taxes for the wealthy. Harlow followed by asking Chan if she supported Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's proposal for a 70 percent wealth tax.

"I don't know enough about her proposal, but I do think we should be thoughtful about how we can get more resources for these important systems," Chan responded.

During the session, Chan spoke about her organization's philanthropic initiatives in science, education and prison reform. Her comments come on the same day as 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled a new plan to break up large tech companies like Facebook and Amazon.

WATCH: Here's how to see which apps have access to your Facebook data  and cut them off
Could china be intentionally choking Africa with debt ?








Stacey Abrams catapulted into the national spotlight during a Georgia governor's race riddled with allegations of voter suppression. After a narrow loss to her Republican opponent Brian Kemp, Abrams refused to concede and claimed that democracy had "failed" the state.

Now, Abrams is channeling her anger over the defeat into a fight for voter rights in Georgia. After her loss, Abrams founded the voting rights group Fight Fair Action to promote fair elections and combat voter suppression. The group has sued Georgia officials over voting irregularities that it argues warped the election outcome.

Last week, Abrams told the audience at the Lesbians Who Tech summit in San Francisco that despite her loss, she's vowed to fix Georgia's "broken" electoral system. She highlighted that her campaign turned out record numbers of Latino, Asian and black voters, and increased youth participation rates by 139 percent. She also pointed out that in 2018, 1.2 million African-Americans voted for her, and that she received a higher percentage of white voters than President Barack Obama in Georgia.

Abrams officially lost by 55,000 votes against then-Secretary of State Kemp, who was also the senior state official overseeing election rules.

"On the day we had to end the campaign, the day of my non-concession speech  cause I don't concede," she said, to great applause, "on that day, I had to figure out what was next."

"I'm angry and sad, but I don't know how to be still anymore. I believe we can fix what is broken," she said.

Abram's Fair Fight Action filed the November lawsuit right after the election. It claimed that officials "grossly mismanaged" the election and deprived black and minority voters of fair participation by failing to send out absentee ballots on time, purging voter rolls and taking extreme measures to block voter registrations through the "exact match" policy.

The lawsuit said Georgia has a "history of neglecting its elections infrastructure and suppressing votes  particularly of people of color."

At the end of January, Georgia election officials called for the lawsuit to be dismissed. The House Oversight and Reform Committee is now investigating allegations of voter suppression against Kemp.

"Voter suppression, it works by convincing people in practice that they don't count," Abrams said on Friday. "It is designed to silence those voices, say that there are people that do not count."

"Voter suppression happens in every election, in every state. I need you all to talk about voter suppression all the time," she said. "We need to talk about voter suppression the way we talk about the Kardashians...with such insistence that people have to respond."

Georgia is seen as a potential battleground state in a 2020 presidential election where voter rights has become a national issue for Democratic candidates. There is speculation that Abrams will enter the presidential race, and she has said that she will decide by the end of March. But she has also met with top Senate Democrats to discuss a potential 2020 bid in Georgia.

"I can't go back and win 2018, but I can win 2020 and 2022," Abrams told the audience, adding, "Let's be clear  that was not an announcement."

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Don't miss: Employing more women could boost economies by 35 percent, says IMF chief Christine Lagarde
Michael Cohen, former attorney for President Donald Trump, testifyies during the House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 election on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019. Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call Group | Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Friday retweeted an unsubstantiated claim that the father-in-law of his former lawyer Michael Cohen is a "loan shark." Tweet That retweet was one of a series of re-tweets that Trump posted Friday of original tweets by Paul Sperry, a conservative author and political commentator at the right-leaning Hoover Institute. Cohen, 52, last week called Trump a "racist" and a "con man" during testimony at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. After working for Trump for more than a decade, Cohen began cooperating last year with special counsel Robert Mueller and other federal investigators who are probing Trump. Cohen pleaded guilty last year to multiple charges.
Michael Cohen, former attorney to President Donald Trump testifies before the House Oversight Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building on Wednesday February 27, 2019 in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump on Friday claimed that his former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen last year "directly asked me for a pardon."

But Cohen, who recently testified that he had "never" sought a pardon from Trump, said that the president's claim was "just another set of lies."

The exchange was the latest back-and-forth between the Trump and Cohen camps over the question of if and when Cohen had actively sought a presidential pardon for the crimes he admitted to last year.

"Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon. His lawyers totally contradicted him," Trump tweeted, referencing Cohen's testimony last week claiming he had not and would not seek a pardon from his ex-boss for his crimes.

"He lied! Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!"

Tweet

Trump had teased his new claim about an hour earlier when he spoke to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House.

"His [Cohen's] lawyer said that they went to my lawyers and asked for pardons," Trump said. "And I can go a step above that but I won't go to it now."

A half-hour after Trump's tweet, Cohen responded on Twitter.

Tweet

Cohen's legal advisor Lanny Davis had no immediate comment on the president's allegation.

The White House had no immediate comment.

Last week, Cohen testified at length under oath before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about Trump.

"I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from President Trump," Cohen told the committee.

The 52-year-old disbarred lawyer is due to begin a three-year prison term in May for multiple crimes, some of which relate to his work for Trump.

Cohen, as part of his guilty plea, said Trump directed him to facilitate the payments of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal shortly before the 2016 presidential election to keep them both quiet about their alleged affairs with Trump. Cohen also pleaded guilty to having lied to Congress about details of an aborted plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and denies having had sex with either Daniels or McDougal.

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen in the spring of 2018 told his lawyer at the time to ask about the possibility of a pardon from Trump, several weeks after the FBI raided his Manhattan home, office and the hotel room where he has been living with his family during ongoing home renovations.

Davis on Thursday said in a statement that before Cohen decided last year to leave a joint defense agreement with Trump's lawyers, "Michael was open to the ongoing 'dangling' of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media."

"During that time period, he directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump," Davis said.

"But after July 2, 2018, Mr. Cohen authorized me as a new lawyer to say publicly Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from President Trump even if offered. That continues to be the case. And his statement at the Oversight Hearing was true  and consistent with his post joint defense agreement commitment to tell the truth."

House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said Thursday that he planned to look into Cohen's testimony about the issue of a pardon given the Journal story and the comments by Davis since last week. Cummings noted that he had warned Cohen about the need to be truthful in his testimony.

"I told him, 'I will nail you to the cross [if you lie].' And I meant that," Cummings said Thursday. "I gotta make sure they are true inconsistencies and not outright lies. And then I gotta find out if it meets even the threshold that the [Department of Justice] would even want to look at it."

Trump has hinted that he would be open to pardoning some of his associates who, like Cohen, have been investigated in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian election interference and possible collusion with Trump's presidential campaign in 2016.

In November, Trump said a pardon was "not off the table" when asked about his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was convicted on bank and tax fraud charges and later pleaded guilty to other crimes in cases lodged by Mueller.

Trump denied at the time that a pardon for Manafort had ever been discussed. Manafort's spokesman has declined inquiries about whether the ex-campaign chief sought a pardon.
















From the calmness of the salt white beaches peppered with picturesque thatched roof villas to the crystal-clear turquoise waters and the myriad of activities thereby, traveling to Maldives is like stepping in to a dream

Rampant with natural beauty as it is, this tropical archipelago is a treat any time of the year. However, the dry period from November to April will give you more options to be outdoorsy. And since there are so many islands; all so widely dispersed, the touristy crowd that comes with a busy season most places, will not bother you here.

Getting Around

Of the countrys three international airports, you will most likely land at Velana International near the capital city of Male. For onwards travel to your resort, you will have to catch a ferry or, if the island is further out, a sea-plane. Public transport is provided by MTCC, though private charters are readily available (not 24/7, so dont fail to plan!). If it isnt already part of the resort booked, first time travelers are often caught off-guard by the exorbitant price of some of these transfers which may go north of $200.



A special feature of Maldivian transport are the traditional dhonis or the local sailboats that service the water routes between the islands. The most economical way to get around, you mustnt miss any opportunity to be closer to the coral abundant, pristine waters!

The Resort Life

Coming back to the gorgeous villas, the country is host to plenty of famed resorts like the Coco Prive (which hosts royalty and celebrities) and Four Seasons at Landaa Giraavaru. If youre like me, youll need to explore your options to score a good deal on the handsomely priced accommodation and activities offered. Or you could splurge and book an all-inclusive, over-water bungalow, complete with a butler to serve your every whim and not another soul in sight!



Maldives is about the luxury experience and disconnect from technology, so the order of the day is to soak up sun rays as you dip your toes in a private pool, with occasional sips from your Pina Colada. But should you choose to be more active, there are spas, clubs and restaurants offering international cuisinewith settings that are as charming as they are unparalleled in design. An ideal setting for romantic getaways!

Unique Experiences

This slice of the Indian Ocean has spectacular coral reefs and a peerless marine eco-system; every divers fantasy! Spotting the Big Five (manta rays, eagle rays, sharks, sea turtles and dolphins) is a top to-do list item but even if aquatic depths are not your terrain, the glass-like water exhibits fantastic flora and fauna that you can get close to with a bit of shallow snorkeling. The memories (& pictures) you take back will be well worth the trip!

While not wholly exclusive to Maldives, underwater dining is taken to the next level when done at Ithaa Undersea Restaurant, the first one to be built 16 feet under, entirely of glass! You get to experience tantalizing European cuisine while sharks idle by. However, because of sunlight and heat during lunchtime, dinner is a much more rewarding affair at this ritzy restaurant!

Resorts are created upon their own islands, so you may spend the entire vacation without seeing the true Maldives. With a bit of island hopping, you can witness the marvel of a star-spangled sea at Vadhoo Island or renascence of life and culture at Maafushi Island after it was devastated by the tsunami in 2004.



Whatever your preferences, Maldives will give you an experience of a lifetime!
U.S. beef exports soared to record levels in 2018 thanks to exports to Asia, but it wasn't sales to China that drove the growth.

"We just regained access to China in the middle of 2017, so about a year later we got slapped with a higher tariff rate," said Joe Schuele, a spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation, a trade group. "China is still the fastest-growing beef market in the world, and we feel there's a lot of potential there, but a lot of obstacles keep it from being a major market for us at this time."

A 14-year ban on U.S. beef entering China ended in 2017, with the U.S. beef industry hoping it would be able to capture a large share of the growing Chinese beef market. But so far the exports have been disappointing, and the trade war with Beijing hasn't helped. China shut its market to American beef producers after a case of mad cow disease was detected in the U.S. in late 2003.

According to the USMEF, exports last year soared to $8.33 billion, shattering the previous year's record by more than $1 billion and representing a 15 percent increase in dollar terms. South Korea accounted for more than half of the total increase, as red-meat consumption continues to rise there.

"Korea definitely was the shining star, but we also had a good year in Japan, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and in the Western Hemisphere markets such as Mexico," said Schuele. The tariff rate for U.S. beef going into South Korea is nearly 19 percent, while competitors supplying the market, such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada, face higher duties.

On a volume basis, 2018 U.S. beef exports were up 7 percent to 1.35 million metric tons, which is above the previous record tallied in 2011.

The U.S. exported only about $60 million in beef to China last year despite the Asian country having the second-largest consumption after the American market. The ban on U.S. beef exports to China caused the U.S. to lose business, while other major sellers gained share, including Australia and South American countries.

"Our exports to China even without the higher tariff would still make up only a small portion of our global exports, because we're just now starting to get the product reintroduced into China," said Schuele.

The retaliatory duties China slapped on American beef last year raised the tariff from 12 percent to 37 percent. That went into effect in July 2018 and made it more difficult for U.S. beef producers to get a foothold in the Chinese market.
Fearing that China could be spying on them using power cords and plugs, several U.S. technology companies have asked their Taiwanese suppliers to shift production of some components out of the mainland, Nikkei Asian Review reported on Friday.

The report cited unnamed executives from two Taiwanese companies: Lite-On Technology, a manufacturer of electronic parts, and Quanta Computer, a supplier of servers and data centers. Lite-On's clients include Dell EMC, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, while Quanta counts Google and Facebook among its customers, according to Nikkei.

The executives told Nikkei that some of their American clients  without specifying which companies  asked them to move out of China partly because of cyberespionage and cybersecurity risks. The U.S. tech firms were worried that even mundane components such as power plugs could be tapped by Beijing to access sensitive data, according to the report.

Lite-On and Quanta did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.
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Dolores Huerta, 88, the Mexican-American social activist who formed a farmworkers union with Cesar Chavez, stands for the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish while visiting the New Mexico Statehouse on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019. The New Mexico-born Huerta was honored by the House for "Dolores Huerta Day" as lawmakers work to save her birthplace in Dawson, New Mexico.
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More information

The forum was co-sponsored by the following organizations:

Mid-Missouri Peaceworks

Osage Group Sierra Club

Renew Missouri

Citizens Climate Lobby of Columbia

The Columbia-Boone County League of Women Voters originally planned to co-sponsor the event, but they prefer not to sponsor events in which other sponsors have already endorsed a candidate, Mark Haim said. In this case, the Sierra Club endorsed Mayor Brian Treece.

The Sierra Club did not directly participate in the mayoral forum because they had endorsed Treece.
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
At the recent Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, companies made a number of key announcements that will ultimately have a major impact on the smartphone market. While the technical details of the announcements have been well covered, lets dig a little deeper and see what they mean for device futures and average users.

Foldable devices

One of the biggest headline grabbers was foldable smartphones. While Samsung went first and slightly before MWC with its Galaxy Fold, Huawei made a major splash with its Mate X at MWC. And even some non-household names had foldables (e.g., Royole). Is there really a future for a phone that cost $2,000 or more? The current models were specifically designed to be halo devices that appeal only to the elite buyer. And, yes, there are plenty of buyers who are willing to spend $2K or more on a premiere device that buys them a unique status position and bragging rights. But the better way to evaluate these devices is to look at what it means for the long term evolution of smartphones.

In the past, new smartphone technology (e.g., edge-to-edge displays, OLED, multi-cameras, assistants like Siri and Bixby, biometrics, and 4GLTE/GB LTE) started out initially in high-end devices and then filtered down into the mid tier and lower end over time. There is every reason to believe the same will be true of foldable displays, and I estimate that in one to two years, youll find a foldable display device in the $700-$800 range, which today is the mainstream sweet spot of the market. And there will be a variety of such devices (e.g., screen size, intelligent features, etc.) available.

While regular displays arent going away, foldable displays will become mainstream unless there is some fundamental problem with the technology, such as high failure rates, that we are not currently aware of, especially for users who really value a larger tablet-size display at times but want the convenience of a smaller form factor.

5G devices

Several devices with 5G capabilities were announced at MWC, although shipping dates and final prices were not. The battle was on to see who could provide the processing and modem engines to enable 5G devices in the rush to deploy the technology. Samsung and Huawei, in particular, battled it out by announcing and showing 5G devices. Huawei claimed its own in-house-developed and proprietary processor and modem powering the MateX runs faster than the competing Qualcomm chips in the Samsung and other devices. But thats hard to judge at this point because Qualcomm has much credibility and technological prowess in 5G.

However, Huawei has no plans to ship any of its devices in the U.S. Samsung did not indicate when it will ship its 5G model, nor did the makers of more than 20 design wins that Qualcomm claims for future 5G devices. I expect to see them in the market near the end of this year in time for the holiday rush.

But from a user perspective, the real question is not so much when these premiere devices will ship but when Ill want to buy one. Early devices will likely be sold at a premium. But the real benefits of 5G will take two to three years to fully be deployed, as it will take that long to achieve 5G connectivity at the more than 75 percent of the time I want it (early implementations this year will be highly limited in coverage). Further, its not yet clear what premium the carriers will charge for 5G, although T-Mobile already started the price battle by saying it wont charge a premium. Finally, its not yet clear what the impact on battery life will be. In the past, new generation wireless connections had an adverse effect on the battery life of devices until the technology matured.

While many operators claim the 5G rollout will be much faster than for 4G and hence users will want 5G phones now, I believe that many people will wait until the benefits of 5G are clear (many are quite happy with their current 4G/LTE devices). Its likely the initial devices will be expensive, and there is major consumer pushback to buying a new device when the one they have seems perfectly adequate. I expect the real boost in 5G phone sales is at least one to two years away.

Smartphone cameras

The capabilities of cameras in smartphones have undergone some drastic improvements over the past few years. In fact, most consumers are more interested in the features and functions available for the camera than they are in the quality and ability to make phone calls. Its the era of social media, after all, and photo capability is absolutely critical to many users. Smartphone makers are not only adding more cameras (e.g., super wide angle in the new Galaxy devices), but also IR and other enhanced technology for better focus, selfies, biometrics, etc.

Also, many vendors now include automated, artificial intelligence-based processing capability to enhance the photos and videos, making for much better quality than weve been able to achieve in the past. I expect this push towards better, automated, intelligent photography to continue as companies look to differentiate their devices.

For the casual user wanting the best possible stills and videos, this is a real advantage over past devices, and in certain cases may actually be why a consumer buys a new device.

Its not just about the high end

While its easy to concentrate on the high-end devices where the buzz is, about 25 to 30 percent of phones sold in the U.S. are in the feature phone category. These smaller devices with slower processors, less memory, and fewer overall features are a significant and important part of the market. HMD, using the venerable Nokia brand, has new feature phones at the $300 to $400 price point that will do well in this tier (other vendors also offer phones in this space). While not as sexy, its still an important market that often gets overlooked. I expect many of the features we see in todays crop of higher-end smartphones (e.g., bezel-less screen, biometrics, intelligent assistants) to make their way downstream over the next two to three years, and it will likely take that long for these devices to be 5G-enabled, as well.

The bottom line

MWC is typically where the major vendors get to show off their latest tech and show consumers whats coming next. And many of the devices shown were quite impressive. But its important to recognize that looking beyond the hype, not all of the technology will be quickly available, affordable, or attractive to a large swath of users, at least in the first iteration. But MWC does clearly show us where the devices are going longer term and what it means for all of us who cant live without our smart devices.
The organization behind most of the world's cross-border money and security transfers is deploying a blockchain proof-of-concept (PoC) for clients' shareholders to use in electronic voting.

SWIFT said this week it will jointly conduct the PoC in the Asia Pacific region with securities software provider SLIB and the Singapore Exchange (SGX), along with Deutsche Bank, DBS Bank, HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered Bank.

"Shareholder voice in corporate decision-making is stifled by the existing paper-based voting process. Technology is the solution to enhancing shareholder say," Tony Lewis, head of Securities Services at HSBC, said in a statement. "E-Voting using [distributed ledger technology (DLT)] has the potential to create greater efficiencies, transparency and participation."

SWIFT has previously carried out DLT PoCs around Nostro Vostro account reconciliation (bank-to-bank account transfers), as well as serving as a potential connector allowing DLT and other e-commerce and trading platforms to use SWIFT's global payments innovation network (gpi).

"We continue to explore a wide range of new and emerging technologies to best meet the needs of our customers, including the use of APIs that provide rapid cross-border payments on SWIFT gpi," a SWIFT spokesperson said via email.

SWIFT is among a groundswell of financial services firms testing blockchain as a more efficient and transparent way of conducting cross-border financial transactions, unhampered by much of the regulatory oversight to which current networks must adhere.

SWIFT may also be feeling pressure as more and more firms in financial services pilot, or outright adopt, DLT technology.

"There is a lot of competition now," said Avivah Litan, Gartner vice president of research. "If you think about SWIFT, it was just a big banking network that moved money quickly and authenticated users, but it costs a lot to do that. And now there are competing initiatives using blockchain."

Litan pointed to J.P. Morgan Chase, CLS Group and Ripple, a permissioned blockchain ledger that moves money using a proprietary cryptocurrency, as prime examples of those developing blockchain for cross-border financial transfers. "Ripple is a competitor in the sense that they are trying to set up a bank-to-bank network," Litan said.

In October, J.P. Morgan created what at the time was arguably one of the largest blockchain payments networks in existence. The Royal Bank of Canada and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. were the first two banks to join the blockchain network, "representing significant cross-border payment volumes," JP Morgan said at the time.

J.P. Morgan said its blockchain-based Interbank Information Network (IIN) would significantly reduce the number of participants needed to respond to compliance and other data-related inquiries that delay payments.

Last month, J.P. Morgan announced plans to launch what is considered to be the first cryptocurrency backed by a major bank, a move that could legitimize blockchain as a vehicle for fiat cryptocurrencies.

"J.P. Morgan could run an international network. They're the largest ACH processor and credit card processor domestically," Litan said. "All this points to stablecoins for international transfers and blockchain DLT as more efficient  and SWIFT is threatened by it."

Nearly two years ago, New York-based cash settlement system provider CLS (Continuous Linked Settlement) announced it was building a payments service with IBM that would enable cash trades on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain platform. Along with SWIFT and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), CLS Group was a founding member of the Hyperledger Project, which is overseen by the Linux Foundation.

At the time, more than a half dozen banks agreed to support CLS' blockchain platform, including Bank of America, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

In November, CLS Group announced that its DLT platform, CLSNet, was live with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The blockchain network offers a standardized, automated bilateral payment netting service for more than 120 currencies. Six additional banking partners from North America, Europe and Asia, including Bank of China (Hong Kong), committed to joining the service, CLS said in a statement.

"This really isn't a revolution, it's just a big incremental improvement to doing business as usual. It's more efficient to move money through DLT," Litan said.

Blockchain distributed networks are a good way to move money because each participant in the network has their own independent copy of the electronic ledger and can verify the transactions are moving properly. There is no central banking authority.

"If you want to see if your money is moving right, you don't need to call SWIFT or log into SWIFT's network, you can look at your own node," Litan said. "You can also participate in validating the transactions if you want to."

In most cases, financial institutions using permissioned blockchain networks to move money aren't interested in participating in the validation process  known as blockchain consensus  but they may eventually want that power, Litan said.

"They trust [the financial services firms] to run the network, but they want their own copy of the ledger because then they can run their own smart contracts and do other things that [the financial services firms] may not do," Litan said.

SWIFT, which stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, provides a messaging network that allows banks and other financial services to transmit information about monetary transactions in a standardized and secure format.

SWIFT is behind most cross-border money and security transfers, serving 10,000 member institutions who send about 24 million messages daily over the network.

SWIFT's PoC, which will use the Hyperledger Composter blockchain platform, will explore whether the technoloogy can help simplify "the currently inefficient management of shareholder meetings and the associated voting processes that are often time-consuming and resource intensive," SWIFT said in a statement.

"Proxy voting, in particular, often results in avoidable complexity and errors that could be eliminated through greater transparency and automation," SWIFT said.

SWIFT will facilitate the PoC in its DLT sandbox testing environment with Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered Bank joining as participants, while Singapore-based DBS and SGX serve as both participants and issuers. The participants will reuse the SWIFT network and their existing SWIFT infrastructure and interfaces to access, test and validate the applicability of DLT.

The PoC, which will run during the first half of 2019, is designed to test the deployment of a voting system in collaboration with issuers and a Central Securities Depository (CSD), where the information is stored and managed on the permissioned, private blockchain.

The distributed ledger will also demonstrate the viability of hybrid solutions based on ISO 20022  the standard for electronic data interchange between financial institutions  combining messaging and DLT to enable interoperability between institutions and avoid market fragmentation. And, it will test SWIFT's capacity to host third-party applications in its sandbox and reuse its security and interface stack.
India to increase Saudia Arabia flying rights by 40 per cent from April 1

Saudi Arabia is one of the only beneficiaries of Indias tightly managed foreign flying rights by allowing the oil-rich nation a 40 per cent hike in quota from April 1.

Saudi Arabia has become the only country within a 5,000-km flying distance from India to have its quota increased by the Indian government, according to a report in Times of India.

Requests for an increase in flying rights by others like Dubai, Qatar, China, Singapore and Malaysia, among others, have been rejected.

There has been growing proximity between the two countries strengthened following the recent visit of Saudi crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman to India.

Saudi Arabia has become the only country within a 5,000-km flying distance from India to have its quota increased by the Indian government. Photo courtesy: Wikimedia

During his visit, the Saudi crown prince announced plans to invest USD100 billion in Indias infrastructure. In addition to this, Saudi Arabia also backed India against Pakistan at the recent Organisation of Islamic Cooperation meet.

This Muslim country is also believed to have played a key role in defusing tensions between the neighbours and ensuring the return of Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, whose aircraft was shot down in Pakistan.

Notably, according to the rules, flights between two countries are governed by air services agreements  also called bilateral flying rights.

Under the new aviation policy, no country within 5,000 km flying distance from India will be allowed any extra seats unless Indian carriers exhaust 80 per cent of the flying rights quota.

However, in Saudi Arabia the utilisation by Indian carriers is still about 74 per cent (barring Dammam), but the aviation ministry expects it to cross 80 per cent by April.



Saudi Arabia has unilaterally allowed Indian carriers to add as many flights as they want to Dammam. If flights to Dammam were to be included, India operates more flights to Saudi Arabia than vice versa.



The external affairs ministry insisted on implementing the increase in quota on the back of various incentives provided by Saudi Arabia.
Brexit: May to urge EU to compromise in speech today

Prime Minister turns screw on Brussels  Daily Express

EU gives UK 48 hours to come up with a new plan  Daily Telegraph

Theresa May will make a last-ditch attempt to persuade the EU to give her a better Brexit deal on Friday, as she struggles to hold her crumbling government together following a day of cabinet embarrassments in Westminster. The prime minister will plead with EU leaders to offer further concessions, as it became clear that talks in Brussels have stalled and hardline Eurosceptics in her party are likely to vote down the deal for a second time in parliament next week. Senior Tory critics of May expressed astonishment that her strategy was a refusal to change course in the face of defeat, with one cabinet source saying No 10 realised it was about to lose the meaningful vote but seemed unable to make a coherent case to MPs why they should vote for it.  The Guardian

More:

Javid urges Cabinet to back incendiary levy on EU workers  The Sun

Head of no-deal planning to retire early on March 31  The Times

>Today:

as Cox pulls out of visit to Brussels

The PMs last ditch plea comes as her high stakes stand-off with Europes bosses over the Irish backstop rolls into a third day. With talks still stalled after Tuesdays Brussels bust up, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox last night called off a new trip to the Belgian capital today  with only four days to go until a final Commons showdown. No10 aides privately admitted the situation was pretty bleak, and the PM may now need to press ahead with Tuesdays vote without a new deal in the thin hope a majority for her hoped-for legal changes wins the EU round During Tuesday nights testy talks, Government legal chief Mr Cox put forward Britains plan for a new dispute system to allow the UK to leave the backstop. Under his blueprint, a panel could decide Britain was entitled to end the border fix if it had made good enough proposals for alternative arrangements to kick in.  The Sun

Officials insist EU concession puts agreement within reach  The Times

Flights set to continue in no-deal scenario  FT

Ulster:

Technological solutions ignored in talks  Daily Telegraph

Ireland blames Britain for backstop row  Daily Express

>Today: George Eustice in Comment: We have bungled this negotiation. The best means of putting matters right is to embrace No Deal if we have to.

Gove urges free votes

Mays authority on the line as defeat looms  FT

Up to 30 Labour MPs who could yet save Mays Brexit deal  The Sun

Inquiry will see if MPs changed vote after threats  The Times

and soft Brexit ministers press for indicative votes

If Mrs May loses Tuesdays vote MPs will vote on whether or not to block no deal, followed by a vote on whether to delay Brexit. Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, is understood to have warned that the Government will collapse if MPs are not given a free vote on a no deal Brexit. The Telegraph has learned that at a meeting with Gavin Barwell, the Prime Ministers chief of staff, Mr Gove said ministerial colleagues were prepared to quit if they were not allowed to vote with their conscience. Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, described Mrs Mays speech as an admission of failure.  Daily Telegraph

The prime minister is being warned by Remainers in the cabinet that she will lose control of Brexit next week unless she holds a series of humiliating votes on alternatives to her deal if it is defeated a second time. Theresa May is expected to lose the vote on Tuesday after failing so far to win concessions from Brussels on the Irish backstop Remain-supporting cabinet ministers are pressing Mrs May to commit herself to a series of indicative votes to see whether there is a parliamentary majority for any other Brexit outcome. Philip Hammond, Amber Rudd and David Gauke are among those urging her to seize the initiative, which they say will otherwise be wrested from her by parliament. Mrs May fears that the votes could pave the way for a Brexit that does not honour the referendum result.  The Times

Remainers ramp up plan to keep UK in the customs union  The Sun

Chancellor warns Eurosceptics over Brexit deal vote  FT

Grieve leads Remainers plotting second vote  The Sun

Comment:

Is Hammonds plan to thwart a true Brexit about to come to fruition?  Fraser Nelson, Daily Telegraph

Young people must march for Brexit  Stephen Edginton, The Sun

Editorial:

Rejecting Mays deal would be a huge gamble for Brexiteers  The Sun

CCHQ fears local elections meltdown

Rees-Mogg says Government is not right-wing  Daily Telegraph

Tory party chiefs fear they could lose 1,000 councillors in a local elections meltdown, sealing Theresa Mays fate in No10. The Governments ongoing Brexit turmoil and an impossibly high bar from 2015s success will mean losses at the May 2 polls will stretch into the high hundreds, one senior figure has claimed. The PMs allies suspect her mounting army of Tory MP critics will wait for the expected ballot box battering before demanding she resigns. In a final roll of the dice for Mrs May to cling to power, Cabinet loyalists are urging her to carry out an immediate and wide-ranging reshuffle immediately after the local polls to bring on a raft of younger Tory MPs. The council elections in eight weeks time across most of England except London were last contested on the same day as the 2015 general election.  The Sun

Analysis:

Leadership candidates jostle for position  Sebastian Payne, FT

>Yesterday:

Cabinet Minister Blunder 1) Bradley faces calls to resign over Troubles comment

Theresa May suffered a string of gaffes by cabinet colleagues yesterday, including one by a close ally that harmed relations with Ireland. Karen Bradley, the Northern Ireland secretary, was under mounting pressure to resign for suggesting that deaths caused by soldiers during the Troubles were not a crime. Her comments triggered a row with Ireland at a sensitive time in the relationship. Mrs Bradley said that she was profoundly sorry for her remarks, made in a Commons debate on Wednesday. Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, said her comments were insensitive and wrong and that it was a matter for the prime minister whether Ms Bradley could remain in post. His deputy, Simon Coveney, told Mrs Bradley that she had caused deep offence.  The Times

Northern Irish Secretary has lost credibility, Labour insist  The Guardian

>Yesterday: Henry Hills Red, White, and Blue column: Bradley faces fresh calls to resign as Williamson seeks to protect troops

Cabinet Minister Blunder 2) Leadsom under pressure for Islamophobia gaffe

Lewis accused of repeatedly ignoring racism complaints  The Guardian

Cabinet Minister Blunder 3) Rudd apologises for referring to Abbott as coloured

Separately Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom was slammed for saying MPs concerns about Islamophobia should be directed to the Foreign Office. Critics said it suggested British Muslims were foreigners. Ms Leadsom had been speaking to MPs in the Commons. Labours Naz Shah was asking for the chance of a debate about Islamophobia. Ms Leadsom said she should discuss a way forward with the Foreign Office. Ms Shah said it horrifically alludes to British Muslims as foreigners. A spokeswoman for the Commons Leader insisted Ms Leadsom thought the Labour MP was referring to a global definition of Islamaphobia. Of course, any form of Islamaphobia in the UK would be dealt with swiftly by the Home Office or Communities Department as appropriate.  The Sun

Amber Rudd apologised yesterday after describing Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, as coloured during a radio interview. Ms Rudd, the work and pensions secretary, was discussing the level of abuse and harassment female politicians suffered. She told BBC Radio 2: It definitely is worse if youre a woman and its worst of all if youre a coloured woman. Diane Abbott gets a huge amount of abuse and I think thats something we need to continue to call out. Ms Abbott responded on Twitter: The term coloured is an outdated, offensive and revealing choice of words. Downing Street said that the apology should close the matter. A spokeswoman said: She apologised very swiftly. She has described it herself as clumsy language. That was absolutely the right thing to do.  The Times

Why I refuse to join the outrage bandwagon  Angela Epstein, Daily Telegraph

Knife crime: Police round on Hammond over claim they need to make do on funding

budgets, Mr Hammond said of senior officers requests for emergency funding: If your house is on fire, you stop painting it and you go and get a bucket and start pouring water on the fire.  The Times

Javid calls for 300 million to tackle epidemic  The Sun

Police chiefs rounded on the chancellor yesterday after he told them they would have to make do with current budgets despite forces pleas for emergency funds to tackle the knife crime epidemic. Senior officers reacted with outrage after Philip Hammond accused senior officers of failing to prioritise the staff and resources available. Labour called the suggestion monstrous As a rift grew between Theresa May and Sajid Javid, the home secretary, over police

Comment:

Police waste too much time over silly spats  Clare Foges, The Times

>Yesterday:

as Hinds defends schools over exclusions

The education secretary has criticised suggestions that schools are to blame for a spate of stabbings, insisting there is no causal link between exclusions and knife crime. In a column for The Times, Damian Hinds backs the right of head teachers to remove pupils permanently from their schools. By the time a child is excluded many have already been in serious trouble, and other pupils have the right to be educated in safety, he said. It is right that a school has the ability to permanently exclude when that last resort is needed. Pupils need to know where they stand and who is in charge, he said. Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, is the latest public figure to blame schools for the surge in knife crime in London, Birmingham and elsewhere. He has co-signed a letter along with six police and crime commissioners to Theresa May calling on her to fix the broken system of school exclusions that he said set teenagers on a path to crime.  The Times

London Mayor under fire after admitting he can do no more  Daily Telegraph

Khan links Tories education reforms to knife surge  Daily Telegraph

Damian Hinds: Schools have a key role, but cannot do it alone

Khan should take responsibility for stopping knife crime  Iain Duncan Smith, Daily Telegraph

Every child needs an education which is a safe and calm environment for learning. We have strengthened teachers powers so they can take action if they suspect a pupil has brought a prohibited item, including knives, into school. Any form of violence in a school is completely unacceptable. It is right that a school has the ability to permanently exclude when that last resort is needed. Pupils need to know where they stand and who is in charge. Obviously young people who have been excluded from mainstream education have problems  but an exclusion should not just be the end of something but be the start of something new and positive.  The Times

>Yesterday: Nick de Bois in Comment: The evidence and expertise exists to drive down knife crime  we need the political will to use it

Lancaster unveils pension boost for Gurkhas

Gurkha soldiers will be rewarded with a bumper new pension deal, it was yesterday announced. Armed Forces Minister Mark Lancaster confirmed a new support package for 22,000 Gurkha veterans and their families. Under the new deal, they will get a 15m increase in the Gurkha Pension Scheme. And some veterans could receive increases of up to 34 per cent extra in their pensions  depending on service  with the increases being backdated to 1 January 2016. Alongside the upped pensions, the MoD also announced a new 25m injection over the next decade for medical support for veterans living in Nepal The announcement comes after Lancaster recently visited Nepal, where he met with the President Bidya Devi Bhandari, to present the annual report of the Brigade of Gurkhas.  The Sun

Claim of one civilian death in RAFs raids on ISIS ridiculed  The Guardian

Hunt says May would refuse calls for second Scottish referendum

Foreign Secretary criticises Salmond over Russian network show  Daily Telegraph

Sturgeon slaps down deputy over illegal referendum  Daily Telegraph

Brexit row hits Scottish Labour ahead of conference  FT

Theresa May would of course refuse the Scottish Government permission to hold a second independence referendum, Jeremy Hunt has warned. The Foreign Secretary has made clear the Prime Minister would reject any attempt from Nicola Sturgeon to hold another legally binding vote on the issue. Asked what Theresa Mays answer would be if the First Minister asked for a section 30 order be granted to allow this, Mr Hunt stood firm on the possibility. He said during a visit to the University of Glasgow: The answer of course would be no for the very simple reason that we think the Scottish Government should be focusing on the concerns of Scottish voters. The latest rejection came as the SNPs deputy leader Keith Brown insisted such a move should not prevent a fresh vote on breaking up the UK from taking place.  Daily Express

Comment:

First Minister faces a furious internal row  Alan Cochrane, Daily Telegraph

Jenrick urges banks to tackle gender funding gap

Banks will be compelled to publish regular updates on how much they invest in businesses run by women as part of a series of new measures to help female entrepreneurs, in a victory for The Telegraphs Women Mean Business campaign. The Treasury on Friday launches its Investing in Women Code, which will force financial institutions that sign up to commit to distributing funding with gender balance in mind. Lloyds, RBS and UK Finance, the banking trade body, have already committed to the code, which will require annual updates on progress Robert Jenrick, the Treasury minister who commissioned Alison Rose, an RBS executive, to carry out the review, said its findings confirmed my worst fears and has called on banks to raise their game.  Daily Telegraph

Special report: women in business  FT

Female MPs read out abusive tweets  The Sun

More:

UK productivity growth accelerating, says Bank policymaker  FT

Comment:

FGM is abhorrent, but were stamping it out  Penny Mordaunt, Times Red Box

Corbyn ally calls for EHRC to be scrapped

its handling of antisemitism in recent years, including internal communications such as text messages and emails.  The Times

How did the Opposition end up being probed for institutional racism?  Julie Lenarz, Daily Telegraph

Labours problem is institutional  Adam Wagner, The Guardian

A member of Labours ruling body called for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to be shut down yesterday after it said that the party may have discriminated against Jewish people. The EHRC was responding to complaints about antisemitism and said that Labour may have unlawfully discriminated against people because of their ethnicity and religious beliefs. The commission is now setting out its concerns to the party and if Labours response is found to be unsatisfactory it could open a formal inquiry and impose fines. The announcement is highly embarassing for Mr Corbyn, who has previously suggested that politicians should listen to the EHRC. Under a statutory investigation the commission will be able to use its legal powers to compel Labour to reveal details of

Editorial:

Labour is rotting from the top  The Times

>Yesterday: Profiles: Nimble, eager to please, unembarrassable. The inconstant Gardiner, capable of demolishing Labours Brexit policy in seconds.

MPs call for database of people linked to dirty money

MPs have called on the government to create a database of politicians, public officials and others linked to corruption in an effort to reduce the amount of dirty money tainting the UKs financial system. In the week when ministers announced stricter rules on so-called golden visas for wealthy foreign investors, the Commons Treasury committee gave its support to a centralised list of politically exposed persons (PEPs)  individuals with prominent public functions, plus their families and close associates  suspected of activity such as money laundering and fraud Under Britains 2017 money laundering regulations, however, the definition of a PEP extends to individuals in the UK as well as overseas.  FT

UK vulnerable to money laundering on a massive scale  The Guardian

Tories criticised for tax haven donations  The Times

News in Brief:
Cllr Damian White is the Leader of Havering Council.

One issue that tends to dominate when talking about local government performance is the state of our roads.

The situation in many parts of the country is so bad that the AA has likened the situation to a national emergency. They reported that nine out of ten drivers say that there has been a significant deterioration in the past decade.

In our part of London in Havering, this a problem I know only too well. When my Conservative-led administration was elected last May, we inherited a situation where our residents told us that the state of our road and pavements, and particularly the proliferation of potholes, was their biggest concern.

In response, we have just agreed to spend 40 million over the next four years fixing the problem in what is one of the biggest road and pavement improvement programmes in the country.

This goes way beyond the 895,000 given to us by the Department of Transport, which has been useful in identifying short-term fixes. It is clear to me that we need to be focused on a much longer, more strategic, programme of road and pavement improvements to carry us over the next five years and beyond.

In doing so, we will be fixing 7.5 miles of roads and around 1,000 potholes a month on what is the second biggest road network in London.

What this shows is that, even during times of austerity, Conservative-led councils like mine can still champion the issues that matter to our residents the most. Investment in roads is much more than laying asphalt. It is about improving connectivity, building pride in where people live, and championing our borough as a place that is open for business when it comes to economic growth.

The investment is part of a much wider plan where we are being as clear as possible about what we want to achieve for our community over the next year and beyond. We used to call it a Corporate Plan, which is a terrible term because it suggests an inward-looking process which is more about the bureaucracy of the organisation than the place.

The Havering Plan is very outward-looking, carrying just four priorities, of which the road improvement is an integral part. The focus is on improving our neighbourhoods, by giving people a helping hand in life by ensuring that there is an appropriate safety net, making life better by creating new jobs, skills and business opportunities, and by making life easier through the investment in transport and digital connectivity, of which our 40 million investment programme is part.

By publishing our Havering Plan as an external (not internal) document, we are being as clear and transparent as possible with our community about how their council is spending their money. In many ways, our community has helped to shape our plan.

The Havering Plan embodies the principles of what I believe are the foundations of every good Conservative council: a dedication to providing value for money and keeping council tax increases low, ensuring that people are proud of where they live, setting an environment in which people can fulfil their ambitions, and providing a safety net through investment in children and adult social care.

Like all councils, we know that we need more money to do the job. Local government has taken the brunt of the Governments austerity agenda, but it is incumbent on all of us to spend less time moaning, and more time putting out energy into where we can get the best return on our limited resources. In Havering, our sleeves are rolled up delivering on that premise.
Thank you Matthew for that introduction and thank you to rsted for hosting us today.

Your work in off-shore wind does not just provide skilled jobs here in Grimsby, it makes a direct contribution to the UKs efforts to reduce our carbon emissions and protect our environment.

Achieving the economic benefits of the global shift to sustainable green growth is one of the four Grand Challenges in our Modern Industrial Strategy.

The UK is the world-leader in oshore wind, and yesterday we launched our Offshore Wind Sector Deal to build on that success.

As an international company investing in the UK, rsted is making a major contribution to that success and I am delighted to be with you today.

Next week, Members of Parliament in Westminster face a crucial choice. Whether to back the Brexit deal  or to reject it.

Back it and the UK will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen.

We may not leave the EU for many months. We may leave without the protections that the deal provides. We may never leave at all.

The only certainty would be ongoing uncertainty. Months more spent arguing about Brexit, when we could be focusing on improving our NHS, our schools and our communities.

It will be for the 630-odd MPs at Westminster who will be voting next week to take this decision.

But they will take it on your behalf  and on behalf of tens of millions of people across the UK. Parliament gave the decision to leave or remain in the European Union to you. Thirty-three and a half million people took part in the referendum  the biggest turnout for a generation.

The result was close, but it was clear.

If it had gone the other way, we would be staying in. But the decision was to leave  and that is what we must do.

As Prime Minister, my job has been to negotiate the very best deal I could.And I believe that is precisely what the Government has done  working with the EU team led by Michel Barnier.

Discussions have at times been difficult and robust but we have both worked in a spirit of mutual respect and co-operation to get a good deal over the line.

I have made a lot of speeches about that deal over the last few months. Most of them have been in the House of Commons. On Tuesday I will be making another one, when I open the debate ahead of the vote.

But Brexit does not belong to MPs in Parliament. It belongs to the whole country. It belongs to the people who voted for it and want to see it implemented, so we can all move on to a prosperous future. And that more prosperous future also belongs to those who voted against Brexit, and who expect politicians to make reasonable compromises to bring our country back together.

Everyone now wants to get it done. Move beyond the arguments, past the bitterness of the debate  and out of the EU as a united country, ready to make a success of the future.

That is why I have come here to speak to you today to explain why this debate is dragging on and what is at stake.

Because it was in places like Grimsby that the referendum was decided and where what is at stake can be seen most clearly of all. People here in North East Lincolnshire voted decisively to leave the European Union in 2016  by a ratio of 7 to 3.

Everyone had their own reasons for voting. But having spent much of the past three years talking to people about Brexit  about their hopes, their aspirations and their fears too  some common themes emerge.

People wanted more control over the things that matter to them. And the Brexit deal before Parliament gives them that control.

Today, vast amounts of taxpayers money is paid to the EU  in 2017 we made a net contribution of over 8.9 billion. The deal stops that. Instead we will spend our money on our own priorities, like our long-term plan for our precious NHS.

Today, immigration between the UK and the EU is defined by free movement. People can move from one EU country to another without a job offer. They make a big contribution to our economy, our public services and our society. But it means our Government does not have control of how many people move to Britain every year.

The deal I have negotiated ends free movement and takes back control of our borders. We can then create an immigration system built around peoples skills, not the country they come from.

Today, the European Court of Justice has jurisdiction in the United Kingdom. The deal will end that. We will make our own laws and British judges will determine how they are applied.

Today, the terms of our international trade are decided by the EU. We cannot negotiate trade deals with other countries around the world  the EU does that on our behalf. The deal means we will take back control of our trade policy in our own interests.

Many of our farmers feel that the Common Agricultural Policy does not work for them; many in fishing communities feel the same about the Common Fisheries Policy. The deal takes us out of the CAP, so we can design our own support for farmers. The deal takes us out of the CFP, restoring full sovereign control of our waters  the biggest opportunity for our fishing industry for 40 years.

These are the changes people voted for. They were my priorities in the negotiations. And they are what the deal delivers.

But when people voted in the referendum, it was not just about our relationship with the EU. It was about much more than that. It was also a vote for real change in our own country. And it was a message to those in positions of power that for too many people working hard up and down the country, life was too hard.

It expressed a desire for positive change. Not just to take back control from Brussels, but to empower communities here in the UK. To create greater opportunity for the next generation.

And Grimsby is a place determined to build that better future. Like many towns it has its share of challenges. But it also has huge potential. And last year it became the first town in the UK to sign a Town Deal.

I want to congratulate everyone who worked so hard to land the deal, including both local MPs  Melanie Onn for Great Grimsby and Martin Vickers for Cleethorpes.

The deal represents a collaboration between local and central government, businesses and the wider community. It sets as its goal making the most of Grimsbys assets. The UKs busiest port by tonnage, ready to expand its operation after we leave the EU and strike new trade deals. Its location on the Humber Energy Estuary, ideally placed to consolidate its position as one of Europes leading centres for off-shore wind  with firms like rsted making a major contribution. And its maritime and fishing heritage, central both to Grimsbys identity and its future.

The deal is a model for other towns to follow  and it has inspired the new 1.6 billion Stronger Towns Fund that we launched this week. That fund stands alongside the other support we are giving to local areas  over 9 billion of local growth funds, 3.4 billion for the Northern Powerhouse, 1.6 billion for the Midlands Engine  as a key part of our wider Modern Industrial Strategy.

The central aim of that strategy is to ensure that good jobs of the future are available in every community.

We are lucky as a country to have in London one of the worlds great cities. But it is no good all the growth in our economy and the opportunities that growth brings being concentrated in London and the South East. We need an economy that works for everyone, a country where everyone can be proud of their community and every community offers people the opportunity to get on in life.

That is the opportunity that awaits our country if we agree the Brexit deal. We can build the stronger communities that must be the real legacy of the vote to leave.

So the deal delivers on the priorities of those who voted to leave. And it also addresses the concerns of those who voted to remain.

By maintaining the close relationships between our police and security agencies, the deal means we can carry on working with our EU allies to keep people safe.

By reflecting the interests and serving the needs of Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland and England, the deal will keep our precious Union of four proud nations strong and united.

And maintaining that strength is crucial. More than ever before, we live in an interconnected world. One in which every country is affected by the decisions of its neighbours and partners across the globe.

That will not change after we leave the EU. And neither will the values that guide our actions as a responsible actor on the world stage.

We will be a strong voice on the UN Security Council and in NATO, the Commonwealth and the World Trade Organisation. We will be a leading military power, meeting our obligations to uphold global security.

And we will keep our promises to the worlds poorest people, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it is in our national interest.

The deal also safeguards the protections that EU membership currently gives us and which people rightly value. That starts with the rights of all those from the EU who have moved here, contributed to our country, and built their lives in the UK.

We have also committed to protecting the rights and standards currently set at the EU level  from workers rights to environmental protections.

Brexit will not be a race to the bottom. In fact in most of these areas the UK has led the way, ahead of the EU. And this week we have said that if the EU expands workers rights, we will debate those measures in Parliament and decide if we want to follow suit.

Our ongoing commitment will start with the two directives that will come into force after we have left, and which the UK supports. But we will not tie ourselves in automatically to follow EU changes without Parliament having its say. That would mean weakening workers rights if the EU ever chose to do so. And it would not be taking back control.

The UK has led the way in the EU, and we will lead the way outside it. Leaving with the deal means workers rights will be protected.

And if they back the Brexit deal on Tuesday, MPs will give our whole economy a boost.

In spite of the unavoidable uncertainty of the Brexit process, our economy continues to do well, thanks to its underlying strengths. The employment rate is at a record high, the unemployment rate is at a 40 year low, borrowing this year is at a 17 year low, and debt is falling.

Just imagine how much more we could achieve with the certainty of a deal. Our energy would be focused on building our future relationship, forging new trade deals with the rest of the world, and tackling the other issues that matter to people. Businesses will invest and create more jobs. Money that would be spent guarding against the economic shock of a no deal exit could be put to better use  on the services people need and on growing our economy.

And the UK would send a message around the world  a giant open for business sign to investors.

The democratic case for backing the deal is clear. And so is the economic case. It not only removes the risk of a no deal exit, it allows us to reap the enormous benefits of leaving with a deal.

I have set out why I believe MPs should back the deal next week. It takes back control of the issues people care about. It delivers the change that communities voted for. It protects the things we value. And it sets us on course for a prosperous future.

Next week Parliament will make its choice.

In January, MPs said no to the deal for a variety of reasons. Some wanted to stop Brexit altogether. Jeremy Corbyn opposed it because he wanted a General Election  and said he would vote against the deal without even reading it.

But others voted against it because they had genuine concerns  and they felt there was time for the Government to get changes to address them. The biggest concern was about the so-called Northern Ireland backstop.

The backstop is an insurance policy. It is there to guarantee that if we run out of time to agree our new relationship with the EU during the next phase of the negotiations it will not lead to a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Like any insurance policy, no side ever wants to use it. It is part of the deal that the backstop cannot be permanent. And it is not in the EUs interest for it to be permanent, because they fear this would give us a competitive advantage in the long-term.

But there are genuine concerns that there is no clear way out of the backstop if the future negotiations break down.

I have taken those concerns to Brussels. I have explained them to every single EU leader. And we have put forward serious, detailed proposals to address them.

The Government is in discussions with the EU right now, focused on getting the legal changes MPs have asked for.

As I have said before, this will not in any way alter our enduring commitment to the Belfast Agreement, and to avoiding a hard border, in all circumstances.

The Belfast Agreement was a landmark achievement for the UK Government, the Irish Government, and the political parties in Northern Ireland. It brought peace to our country after many years of tragedy. The people of Northern Ireland are our people and their security and well-being is our security and well-being.

But just as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice too.

We are both participants in this process. It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal. We are working with them but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.

European leaders tell me they worry that time is running out, and that we only have one chance to get it right.

My message to them is: now is the moment for us to act. We have worked hard together over two years on the deal. It is a comprehensive deal that provides for an orderly exit from the EU, and that sets a platform for an ambitious future relationship. It needs just one more push, to address the final specific concerns of our Parliament.

So lets not hold back. Lets do what is necessary for MPs to back the deal on Tuesday. Because if MPs reject the deal, nothing is certain.

It would be at a moment of crisis. MPs would immediately be faced with another choice.

Either we leave the EU with no deal on 29 March. I do not believe that would be the best outcome for the UK or the EU. Or we delay Brexit and carry on arguing about it, both amongst ourselves and with the EU. Thats not in our interests either.

More talking will not change the questions that need to be settled. And a delay risks creating new problems.

If we were simply asking for a bit more time to pass the legislation we need to implement Brexit once we have agreed the deal, a delay would be straightforward. But if it were a delay to give MPs even more time to decide what we are going to do, the EU might insist on new conditions that were not in our interest before they agreed to such an extension.

And that might lead to a form of Brexit that does not match up to what people voted for. It could mean no end to free movement. No ability to strike our own trade deals. No end to the big annual payments. No taking back control  which is what the British people voted for.

And a delay could lead to something else  a second Brexit referendum. The chances of that have increased since Jeremy Corbyn said he would back one.

It has become clear to me that Jeremy Corbyn is not really interested in finding a solution. Since we met to discuss a way forward for our country on 30 January, I have repeatedly offered him another meeting to follow it up. In return, after multiple requests from my office, he has offered just one hour over the last five weeks when our teams could meet.

And we now know why. Because despite his promise at the last election to deliver Brexit, he now supports holding a divisive second referendum that would take the UK right back to square one.

Not completing Brexit and getting on with all the other important issues people care about. Just yet more months and years arguing. If we go down that road, we might never leave the EU at all.

That would be a political failure. It would let down the more than 17 million people who voted to leave the EU and do profound damage to their faith in our democracy.

Some of the people who voted in the referendum did so for the first time in years. Why should they ever bother doing so again if their decision were over-turned without ever being implemented?

My message to those MPs who agree with me that we should not risk that is simple: the only certain way to avoid it is to back the deal the Government has secured with EU on Tuesday. Lets get it done.

MPs face a historic choice next week. I am ready to take us out of the EU with a deal that is good for the UK. Ready to implement the decision of voters here in Grimsby and across the UK. And ready to get on with making a success of a new chapter for our country.

But I can only do that if Parliament supports the deal on Tuesday.

I need the support of those who, like me, voted remain but believe in honouring the result, and believe that leaving with a good deal is much better than leaving with no deal. And I need the support of those who voted to leave, but who accept that compromise is necessary if we are bring our country back together.

There may be some on both sides who are not prepared to back a negotiated deal with the EU. Some because they cannot accept leaving the EU at all; others because they cannot accept any compromise on their vision of Brexit.

I do not doubt the sincerity of their views  but I profoundly disagree with them. Ironically, both sides would find themselves in the same lobby come the vote next week, each voting the same way, but each hoping for the opposite result.

I hope that they will be in the minority.

The British people have already moved on. They are ready for this to be settled. By coming together as a Parliament, we can bring our country together. Boost our economy. Safeguard our security. Protect our Union. And take a decisive step toward the bright future that the British people voted for, and which you and our whole country deserve.

Lets get it done.
George Eustice is MP for Camborne, Redruth & Hayle, and is a former Minister of State at DEFRA.

First they tell you we should try to block it. Next they say that since its happening anyway, we should try to change it. Eventually, they say that while we didnt get many changes, the Commission did give us something, so it would probably be bad etiquette to vote against it now, and we should therefore support it.

For anyone who has been a Minister in a Department like Defra, this is the familiar pattern of advice that comes from policy officials as a succession of EU dossiers meander their way through technical working groups. The existence of Qualified Majority Voting creates a particular dynamic and fosters a particular culture that leads to comfortable defeat. No one need take a hard decision to get up and walk out of the room. No one need worry that an agreement might never be reached. QMV means that everyone can have their say, and probably have a few crumbs to brandish back home, while the EU ploughs on relentlessly with its own agenda.

The reason our negotiations to leave the EU have got in to trouble is that we have played to their rules, and we have used the familiar tactics of being an EU member when we needed to adopt totally different ones. We have approached the negotiations as if we were in a safe space that would allow compromise and comfortable defeat, but defeat this time round will not be comfortable at all. We have given the impression that we believe we can only do what the EU grants us permission to do. Instead, we needed to behave like an independent country. Rather than asking ourselves how we might accommodate EU concerns and demands, we should have been asking ourselves how we could face down their demands.

If the Prime Ministers deal does not pass next week, we must have the courage to take our freedom first and talk afterwards. We must not take No Deal off the table; instead, we should embrace No Deal. The EU has stated in terms that they will not even discuss a future partnership until after we have left. As always, this is dressed up as some kind of legal problem, but its deliberate. So lets take them at face value and, if necessary, just head for the exit.

No Deal is a bit of a misnomer anyway. It doesnt mean No Deal for evermore. What it really means is No Deal yet. In effect, it would morph into an informal nine month transition period, during which talks could continue and we could conclude a deal. We already know that there is no border infrastructure in Ireland, and we can reassure our Irish friends that the UK will definitely not be putting any up.

If we leave without a deal, we should give a unilateral undertaking to dynamically align all our regulations with the EU for a short period of nine months. If we do that, then the EU has the internal justification it seeks not to bother much with Border Inspection Posts and other infrastructure, while the talks continue. We have already decided what we will do. We will have a light touch approach to border checks, judging that if we trusted goods from the EU on the day before we left there is no reason not to the day after we have left. We will have a unilateral tariff schedule in the short term that stabilises prices and allows tariff-free trade to continue in most product lines. We will recognise everything from protected food names to fertiliser labels for a short transitional period.

The civil service has done a sterling job preparing for no deal. We are in the process of laying hundreds of Statutory Instruments to make retained EU law operable. There are a few that have been de-prioritised and will not be done by the end of March but, when I went through the small number that were being left behind, it was pretty clear that they were a collection of inconsequential rules that were either not particularly relevant to the UK anyway or were where alternative powers already existed.

In all of our no deal planning, the difference between a reasonable best case scenario and a reasonable worst case scenario really comes down to one thing: would the EU behave in a sensible and pragmatic way or will they behave recklessly and irresponsibly? If the former, there would be some bumps along the way, but things would essentially work out fine for both parties. If its the latter, things would indeed be much harder, but at least we would know where we stand. The only way to find out for sure is to do it and see.

Within Whitehall, fears that the EU would behave recklessly and irresponsibly in a No Deal scenario have receded in recent weeks. The body language from the EU has been very much signalling a willingness to have an informal understanding over a nine month transition period. For instance, they have already asked us whether we might dynamically align our regulations on food for a period of nine months and we have agreed, provided we are listed as a third country from day one to enable exports to continue. We have also learnt more about what is planned at Calais. The French have devised a plan that when lorries board in Dover they could be given colour coded windscreen posters to denote what sort of goods they are carrying so that things can flow more easily at the other end. Border inspection of foods probably wont actually take place at Calais at all. Instead, a site has been identified six miles away from Calais to ensure there is no disruption to the port should queues develop.

There had been some concerns about whether a restriction on transport permits for lorries might affect the ability of British haulage companies to operate in the EU affecting logistics, but the latest indication is that there is likely to be flexibility with little change to current arrangements for a period of, you guessed it, nine months.

About a decade ago, I met Brigadier Ed Butler, who was the British Commander in Afghanistan at the time. I always remember him saying that British soldiers have all the training its possible to have, but that no amount of training can ever fully prepare a 19 year old for their first deployment in a theatre of war. It is only once they have done it that they become fully ready for the next mission. We are as ready as we are ever likely to be to leave the EU without an agreement. The only question is whether Parliament has what it takes to make the decision.
Helen Whately is the Conservative Partys Vice-Chair for Women, and is MP for Faversham and Mid-Kent.

A fundamental principle of both feminism and Conservativism is the belief in equality of opportunity  something we have worked on for over a century. It was a Conservative Home Secretary, George Cave, who steered the 1918 Representation of the People Act through Parliament, giving women the right to vote in parliamentary elections for the first time. And it was a Conservative peer, Robert Cecil, who introduced the Qualification of Women Act later that same year, enabling Nancy Astor to stand for the Conservatives in a parliamentary by-election in 1919, and to become the first woman to take her seat in the Commons.

Astor was the lone female voice among 643 men for almost two years. She not only eased the path to national politics for the women who joined her in 1921, but paved the way for every female MP since. Despite calling herself a feminist and strongly advocating for womens rights, she and other Conservative women have often been overlooked for not being radical enough  though I would argue the reason is one of style rather than substance.

Emmeline Pankhurst, known for her use of deeds, not words to progress the Suffragette movement, was considered radical both at the time and nowadays. She joined the Conservative Party in 1926, and was selected as a parliamentary candidate for the 1929 election.

Pankhurst sadly passed away in June 1928, just two weeks before the Conservative government passed the Equal Franchise Act granting women equal suffrage with men, adding fivr million women to the electoral roll.

Thirty years later, another Conservative Government passed the Life Peerages Act 1958, bringing women into the House of Lords for the first time.

Then in 1975, Conservative MPs elected Margaret Thatcher as their party leader  the first woman leader of a British political party.

Her three successive election wins made her not only the first female Prime Minister of the UK, but our longest serving head of government in modern times. The fact that we had a woman as our Prime Minister during my childhood meant I took for granted that women could succeed at whatever career they chose  including a political one.

With Theresa May as our second female Prime Minister, my daughters are growing up with the same assumption. May has had her own firsts: she became the first female Chairman of the Conservative Party in 2002, and was the first woman to hold two great offices of state.

And just as Margaret Thatchers leadership showed girls of my generation that there should be no limits to our ambition, thousands of women have expressed solidarity with our current bloody difficult woman. We know she is not afraid to get things done; frustrated at the slow rate at which women were becoming MPs, she joined forces with Anne Jenkin in 2005 to set up Women2Win. Part of the organisations mission is the normalisation of women in politics and, during its 14 years, it has helped to identify, train and mentor female candidates for public office, enabling an increase in women Conservative MPs from 17 after the 2005 election to 67 in 2017.

Being one of 209 of female MPs makes Parliament a much friendlier place than I suspect it was for Nancy Astor, but at 32 per cent its still not enough. After all, more than half of the population are women. Thats why Brandon Lewis is driving the Conservative Party to do more to support women, including setting an ambition for our parliamentary candidate list to be 50:50 between men and women. Since that announcement, more than 400 women have come forward to say they are interested in becoming Conservative parliamentary candidates  double the number of women MPs currently in parliament.

For me, campaigning for true equality for women is a natural consequence of being a Conservative. After all, ours is the party that believes in equality of opportunity, in everyone having the chance to fulfil their potential, irrespective of where you come from or who you are  including your gender.

And we have been putting this theory into practice. In 2017, we introduced legislation which means that, for the first time ever, businesses report on their gender pay gap  at its lowest level since records began in 1997, while the female employment rate is at a record high.

This Conservative government has brought in policies to protect and support women suffering domestic abuse through the Domestic Abuse Bill, including the first ever legal definition of domestic abuse. And weve committed more than 100 million in funding between 2016 and 2020 to tackle violence against women and girls, as well as making the largest ever single investment in tackling FGM, providing an extra 50 million to support work across some of the most affected countries in Africa.

Theres more to do. We have to tackle not just the well-known forms of abuse and discrimination against women, but also more hidden barriers to equal opportunity. And as we do so, Im confident we can make things better for men too. This isnt a zero-sum game. I know Im an MP in a party that has done so much for women and is committed to doing more. Thats why I am proud to be the 436th woman to become an MP, and the Conservative Partys Vice Chair for Women.
Syed Kamall is Chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group and is an MEP for London.

The predictions were dire. Brussel bubble commentators were looking forward to the days when the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group, created at the initiative of David Cameron five years earlier, would lose so many seats that it would either dwindle into insignificance or disappear from the Brussels political landscape altogether.

They claimed his experiment had failed. It would be back to business as usual in the European Parliament.

But it did not happen. The ECR emerged from the 2014 European elections as the Parliaments third largest political group, with more MEPs and much greater influence. Guy Verhofstadts Liberals, fanatical supporters of a United States of Europe, had been relegated into fourth place.

Fast forward five years and, as Brexit and new European Parliament elections loom, the Brussels establishment is at it again. According to their narrative, the loss of the British Conservatives will seriously undermine the ECR, so the best it can possibly hope for is to cling on as the fifth largest group.

But just as in 2014, it is looking like these predictions will prove to be wishful thinking by our opponents and all those in Brussels unable to conceive that the public may not share their 1950s vision of transferring ever more power from national governments to the European Union.

The ECR is gaining support from across Europe. Just last week emerging French and Dutch parties announced their MEPs would be joining after the elections.

A stronger ECR group would be good for the European Parliament, since the Parliament would then better reflect the citizens it serves: those who want a moderate, euro-realist voice to be heard loud and clear. Of course, as the current co-leader of the ECR Group I declare an interest. However, I believe the ECRs achievements speak for themselves.

Since that 2014 election the ECR Group has been ahead of the debate on migration. Initially we were criticised for making a distinction between genuine refugees and economic migrants. The ECR has long argued that genuine refugees and asylum seekers need our help and should be quickly identified, processed and resettled. Economic migrants are deserving of our understanding, but must apply for visas through the proper channels, and not seek to bypass the system by turning up on Europes shores.

Now, after several wasted years of attempting to compulsorily relocate refugees to sometimes reluctant member states, the EU has finally heeded our call to seek more consensus on the way forward.

Common sense, pragmatism, and negotiating skill has enabled our ECR MEPs to pilot some of the most difficult pieces of legislation through the European Parliament, too.

ECR MEPs balanced the often conflicting views of environmentalists and business to secure reform of the EUs Emissions Trading Scheme. We led on overhauling regulations following the Paris attacks to ensure terrorists would not find it so easy to obtain semi-automatic weapons. We led on introducing an EU-wide data sharing system to identify suspicious travel movements and tackle terrorism and organised crime. We also led the EUs main legislative response to the Dieselgate crisis. Not a bad track record.

From a purely British perspective, being one of the largest national parties in the ECR has provided Conservative MEPs with a seat in most of the important negotiations, rather than having to watch MEPs from other countries and with other views represent our interests, as often happened prior to us leaving the christian-democratic European Peoples Party in 2009.

In the European Parliament, the ECR alone occupies the middle ground between federalists promoting ever-closer political union on one side, and political groups consisting of parties whose goal it is to break up the EU on the other.

It comprises neither pro-EU fanatics nor anti-EU radicals. Instead, it presses for a reformed, free-trading EU, which does less but better, respects national parliaments, and intervenes only when necessary. An EU that listens to voters, not one that only takes notice when the peoples views accord with its own.

The ECRs core principles are shared by many voters in the remaining 27 EU countries. If the ECRs voice was quietened, then those voters views on the future direction of the European Union would go unrepresented in Brussels. That would not only be bad for those who want to see a reformed European Union, but also bad for post-Brexit Britain, in whose interests it is for our neighbours and trading partners to prosper.

As the UK prepares to embark on an exciting new future outside the EU, history will record Brexit as one of David Camerons chief political legacies. In future years, the ECR Group will increasingly be seen as another.
How far from the border you have lived. An automatic multiplier of your tax liability. And a visa for the country that wont actually permit you to do any work! Whoever said that Brexit, and contracting overseas after it, is going to be boring?!

While these three foibles of contracting overseas, in the Netherlands, France and Nigeria respectively, do not stand to be altered once the UK leaves the EU, it does not make them any less important to be wary of, writes Michelle Reilly, chief executive of overseas contracting advisory 6CATS .

That said, the nuances in employment and other legislation overseas arent all negative -- far from it in fact. Heres a look at the weird and wonderful that UK nationals can encounter when working abroad temporarily. Visas that dont actually let you do any work included!

Contractors in the Netherlands are eligible to apply for a special 30% ruling, a Dutch tax exemption for employees who were hired abroad to work in the country. If a number of conditions are met, the employer is allowed to pay 30% of a contractors salary as a tax-free allowance.

However, this comes with some strict requirements, and the 30% ruling is only applicable if the employee has not lived within 150km of the Dutch border for the last 16 out of 24 months at the time of hiring, and has a salary of at least  53,280 per annum.

In Hungary, contractors are very much welcome. So much so that the government has aimed to make life as easy as possible for them. Cue the KATA Small Business Tax scheme, which frees contractors from the obligation of paying corporation and, personal income tax, as well as social security, pension, employment, and healthcare contributions!

This is all achieved by paying an initial lump sum of tax. The KATA system provides tax relief on the first 38,630.08 per annum. Any earnings above this threshold are taxed at 40%.

In France, by joining the Centres de Gestion Agrees (CGA) for an annual cost of approximately 292, professionals can make life far more straightforward.

This is because joining the CGA will grant an individual a more accurate and fair tax calculation. If a contractor does not join, their income will be multiplied by 1.25% for tax purposes!

In Singapore, high-earning foreign professionals can apply for a Personalised Employment Pass (PEP). PEP holders have greater job flexibility than with any other work pass. However, the last drawn fixed monthly salary of a PEP applicant must be at least SGD18, 000, and a PEP holder must earn a fixed salary of at least SGD 82,564 per calendar year to keep the PEP.

Authorities are strict about this, and any contractor without a job for a continuous period of six months will have the PEP cancelled and be sent home! As we said, the legal nuances of contracting overseas arent all negative  but some definitely are!

In Portugal, contractors can take advantage of an attractive tax scheme for non-residents. Individuals who have become a temporary tax resident in the country and have not been taxed as resident for any of the previous five years may apply for this scheme.

This means they are taxed at a flat rate of 20% compared to rates potentially as high as 48%. In fact, they have the right to be taxed as a non-habitual resident for a period of up to 10 consecutive years!

In Sweden, often considered to be one of the most liberal countries in the world, tax authorities are actually very strict. For instance, parents are required to have their child's name approved by the Swedish tax agency before the child turns five to avoid a fine.

Contractors contracting in Sweden should be aware of the fact that the domestic tax agency has more power than the police in some cases, and has legal permission to enter a home without a warrant if they suspect non-compliance! Ouch.

The one youve been waiting for! In Nigeria, a country where witchcraft still carries a prison sentence, the visa system can be equally as baffling.

Here, a Business Visa (BV) wont actually permit a contractor to do any work! In fact, it is only to be used for meetings, interviews and seminar purposes. Being caught doing anything more than this on a BV could lead to serious trouble. For a full work permit, contractors will need to enter Nigeria with an STR (Subject to Regularisation) Visa. If they arrive with any other entry visa, they will be sent packing.

Clearly, international tax legislation can be confusing. While these examples demonstrate some of the more light-hearted aspects of foreign regulations, in reality, authorities around the world are getting far stricter, even when enforcing the eccentric rules. So its case of smirk at your peril!

The move towards tougher tax systems has been underway for a while now, and contractors can expect to face increased scrutiny wherever they choose to work. Thats not going to change post-Brexit, and may even increase. Avoiding any potential mistakes and miscalculations, and being on the right side of the law, is set to become more important than ever.
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ACREX 2019 was held at Mumbai Exhibition Center from February 28 to March 2, 2019. After years of development, ACREX has become one of the most famous international HVAC&R exhibition. SANHUA is the worlds leading intelligent control components & MCHE manufacturer, and let's take a look at the shining moments of SANHUA's ACREX 2019 journey!

SANHUA debut at curtain Raiser of ACREX 2019

The Curtain Riser of the 2019ACREX was held on the evening of February 27, 2019 at Sahara Star Hotel in Mumbai. SANHUA is the first Chinese company to become the sponsor of this event, and contributed a wonderful night together with ISHRAE.

SANHUA prepared the signature event called To celebrate Indian peoples effort to make the world greener. The idea was inspired by the recent NASA news "China and India makes the earth greener than 20 years ago", which fits perfectly with the green environmental concept advocated by HVAC&R industry. The signature event was subsequently moved to the SANHUA booth to continue.

At the opening ceremony, Mr. Wang Peng, Global Marketing Director of SANHUA Commercial BU, gave a speech. Mr. Wang talked the relationship between China and India comes from the story of "Journey to the West". The summer weather is hot in India, we could imagine the buddha would also prefer to have Air conditioner if have a choice. The interesting opening remarks caused the audience burst into laughter. He said: There are still many people in developing countries like India can't afford to buy air conditioners. SANHUA has the confidence and dream: Work together with refrigeration equipment manufacturers to make every family in India can use high-quality, cost-effective air conditioners and enjoy frozen food, lets make the next miracle in India!

Then Saharabh Bhonat, the account manager of SANHUA India company, gave a speech of SANHUA company introduction. The opening video of SANHUA VOC showed the audience why more than ten customers worldwide choose SANHUA brand, Which SANHUA products they use, and how they feel about SANHUA. In the following PPT speech, he quoted many famous words from Gandhi, to tell the story how SANHUA acquired Ranco 4-way reversing valve business, and how SANHUA wholeheartedly serve customers to achieve a win-win cooperation.

Finally, Mr. Wang , together with the officials of India and European Refrigeration Association came to the stage to have a wonderful talk show. They looked forward to the bright future of the Indian HVAC&R market from the perspectives of Europe and China: the potential of the Indian refrigeration market is huge. Hope that the Indian government will increase infrastructure construction, become more open, and introduce more foreign brands to develop together.

SANHUA booth overview

The exhibition area of the SANHUA booth reached 150 m2, with the double storey design. The large-screen display at the top and middle of the booth attracted a lot of visitors' attention, highlights the strength of Chinese manufacturing and the high-end image of Chinese brands.

SANHUA mainly presented 4 packaged products solutions: VRF, precision air conditioner, cold room unit, screw chiller, as well as other fluid control components such as EEV, TXV, solenoid valves, MCHE and All aluminum PHE.

Star products

SANHUA new LPF series EEV + controller package for refrigeration application and VPF series EEV + drive solution for chillers, attracted a large number of visitors.

Students are the key for the India refrigeration industry development, Mr. Wang gave detailed introduction of how various components applied in various refrigeration systems to student visitors groups.
The CAREL group is continuing its international expansion, consolidating its presence in Eastern Europe through the opening of a new sales subsidiary in Kiev, Ukraine.

Ukraine and Eastern Europe are important regions for Carel, commented Mirco Cauz, Regional Coordinator Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. We have gained significant market share in the area thanks to the support of our local partners, and we believe there is room for further growth, both in refrigeration and air-conditioning. The new Kiev office is intended to consolidate our presence on the Ukrainian market, one we consider very interesting, reinforcing our commercial partnerships and looking to make direct contact with our final customers.

The new subsidiary will in fact provide faster and more direct assistance and support to customers in the area. Such support will be implemented through additional assistance in systems integration, after-sales services and training.

In order to consolidate its position and fully exploit possible synergies in Eastern Europe, Carels Kiev subsidiary will work closely with Alfaco Carel, based in Wroclaw, Poland.
A guide to student credit cards

Students and recent graduates can start their financial journey smoothly with a credit card tailored just for them. From statement credits on good grades to rewards on streaming services and food-related purchases, you can find the perfect card for college life. Exploring the top offers will help find the perfect student credit card for you. In this guide to college student credit cards, youll learn:

Editors picks: Student credit card details

Capital One SavorOne Student Cash Rewards Credit Card: Best for entertainment seekers

Why we picked it: Students who are already spending dollars on dining, entertainment and streaming can reap ample rewards with the student version of this popular Capital One credit card, which offers a best-in-class return on non-rotating bonus categories among student credit cards.

Pros: The 3% cash back rate on dining, select grocery stores, popular streaming services and entertainment is not only super generous for this card category, it fits the common spending habits of so many college students nationwide. Plus, students will enjoy consumer-friendly terms, like no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees.

Cons: If you dont spend money on the cards bonus categories, youll probably be better-served by a flat-rate student rewards credit card. Undisciplined spenders might also find the ability to earn ample rewards distracting, particularly since the bonus categories largely focus on discretionary spending versus everyday expenses.

Who should apply? Students who already devote a portion of their budget to streaming, dining and entertainment (and can commit to paying balances off in full each month) will find this card very lucrative.

Read our Capital One SavorOne Student Cash Rewards Credit Card review.

Capital One Quicksilver Student Cash Rewards Credit Card: Best for flat-rate cash back

Why we picked it: The student version of this popular cash back credit card from Capital One now offers a best-in-class 1.5% cash back on all purchases (the standout rate for flat-rate cash back student credit cards.)

Pros: Its easy to earn and redeem rewards. Plus, students will enjoy a number of consumer-friendly benefits, including no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees.

Cons: Some students might not be ready for a rewards credit card. If youre worried about spending to earn rewards, consider a no-frills student credit card with credit-building incentives.

Who should apply? Overall, this is a great first credit card for students, combining consumer-friendly terms with a straightforward (and generous) rewards program.

Read our Capital One Quicksilver Student Cash Rewards Credit Card review.

Discover it Student Cash Back: Best for everyday spending

Why we picked it: The Discover it Student Cash Back gives 5% cash back on a different category each quarter (such as gas stations, restaurants, Amazon.com, etc.) up to the combined quarterly maximum, then 1% (activation required), plus 1% cash back on all other purchases. With calculated spending, students can take advantage of strong rewards while sticking to a college budget.

Pros: This no annual fee card offers a 0% intro APR for your first six months on purchases (12.99% to 21.99% variable thereafter), allowing you to carry an interest-free balance during that time period. Also, Discover will match the cash back youve earned at the end of your first year, increasing the value of your rewards. Thanks to this perk, its no surprise that this card and the Discover it Student chrome are considered to be two of the top choices by our experts.

Cons: The rotating categories may not be helpful for someone just starting out because it takes a fair amount of organization to use  you have to sign up each quarter and track which categories apply for those three months. Also, theres no sign-up bonus, so you have to wait until the end of your first year to get your matched rewards.

Who should apply? Any student prepared to get started with a credit card should take a good look at the Discover it Student Cash Back. Its affordability and consistent rewards are some of the best in its class, and you can take advantage of Discover matching your cash back at the end of the first year.

Read our Discover it Student Cash Back review.

Petal 2 Cash Back, No Fees Visa Credit Card: Best for earning rewards + avoiding fees

Why we picked it: The Petal 2 is a great option if youre trying to build credit. This unsecured credit card doesnt require a deposit and has a fast preapproval process, which will not affect your credit score. Plus, it comes with no annual fee, late payment fee, foreign transaction fee or penalty APRs.

Pros: Youll immediately earn 1% cash back on every eligible purchase. After making six on-time payments, that rate grows to 1.25% for eligible purchases, followed by 1.5% on all eligible purchases once you make 12 on-time payments. There are even select merchants where you can earn anywhere from 2% to 10% cash back.

Cons: Your credit limit can be as low as $300. With a limit that low, even carrying over a balance of $100 could impact your credit utilization ratio and credit score. Paying your balance in full each month will help ensure you stay on a positive credit-building course.

Who should apply? If your goal is to build credit, the Petal 2 is a great choice, thanks to an absence of fees and the chance to earn rewards.

Who should skip? If you have a history of missed payments or delinquency, your chances of approval drop. If thats the case, take a look at our credit cards for bad credit.

Read our Petal 2 Cash Back, No Fees Visa Credit Card review.

Discover it Student chrome: Best for cash back

Why we picked it: With this no annual fee card, youll earn 2% cash back at gas stations and restaurants for up to $1,000 in combined purchases per quarter (then 1%) and 1% on all other purchases. Plus, all the cash back you earn is matched at the end of your first year thanks to Discover.

Pros: This card comes with several perks: no credit history required, access to your FICO score and no penalty APR for late payments. Another notable feature is the 6-month introductory 0% APR on purchases (then 12.99% to 21.99%, variable).

Cons: There arent many downfalls when it comes to this card  just be sure to pay your bill on time to avoid any interest charges. Even though there is no penalty APR for late payments, a late payment fee of up to $40 will apply after your first time.

Who should apply? Thanks to high-traffic categories, matching cash back and a slew of benefits, the Discover it Student chrome might be the most well-rounded student card out there. Its a great option for anyone getting started.

Read our Discover it Student chrome review.

Chase Freedom Student credit card: Best for sign-up bonus

Why we picked it: The Chase Freedom Student is one of the rare student credit cards to offer a sign-up bonus: New cardholders earn a $50 bonus after their first purchase is made within the first three months from account opening.

Pros: Cardholders earn 1% cash back on all purchases, and through March 2022, you can earn an additional 4% cash back on Lyft rides. Theres also a $20 Good Standing Reward: Cardholders receive 2,000 points (or $20) after each account anniversary year for their first five years if their account is in good standing (meaning their minimum payments are being made on time). Additionally, this card comes with no annual fee, a low APR (14.99% variable) and access to a free look at your credit score each month.

Cons: While the base rewards earnings (1% cash back on general purchases) are good, there are a few student credit cards that could net you more cash back, depending on your spending habits. For instance, the Discover it Student Cash Back offers stronger rewards on rotating quarterly bonus categories.

Who should apply? Students looking for consistent earnings without extra homework would benefit from this card. Plus, getting started with a Chase card can lead to great graduation opportunities in the future and the chance to get familiarized with Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Read our Chase Freedom Student credit card review.

Deserve EDU Mastercard for Students: Best for Amazon Prime

Why we picked it: This card offers some benefits that are hard to come by  for instance, an intriguing sign-up bonus: One year of Amazon Prime Student after spending $500 in the first three billing cycles (lifetime value of $59), a unique feature for the student who buys textbooks on Amazon.

Pros: The Deserve EDU Mastercard is a solid option to help build your credit history. Like our other top picks, it comes with no annual fee, plus other perks like no foreign transaction fees, no credit history needed, price protection, travel assistance, extended warranty and ID theft protection.

Cons: This cards 1% cash back on all purchases can be easily beat by its competitors. Also, theres no introductory APR offer or cash sign-up bonus.

Who should apply? This card can be a great choice if you dont have a traditional credit history, if youre an international student or if youre especially interested in the free shipping and streaming options provided by Amazon Prime. Otherwise, if you qualify for competing student cards, you may want to look in their direction.

Read our Deserve EDU Mastercard for Students review.

Discover it Secured Credit Card: Best secured student credit card

Why we picked it: If your credit score is preventing you from opening an account, secured cards can be a surefire way in. Like most secured credit cards, the Discover it Secured Credit Card requires a security deposit to open an account. This options minimum deposit is quite low at just $200. Plus, theres no annual fee.

Pros: Not all secured cards offer the ability to earn rewards. The Discover it Secured Credit Card truly stands out, offering 2% cash back at gas stations and restaurants (up to $1,000 in combined purchases per quarter, then 1%) and 1% cash back on all other purchases. On top of that, theyll match all the cash back you earn in your first year. Additionally, this card comes with benefits built to help your credit score, such as automatic reviews starting at seven months to see if you can transition to an unsecured line of credit and have your deposit returned.

Cons: The APR for purchases is unusually high (22.99%, variable). If theres a chance you might be carrying a balance, you should prioritize a low interest rate over this cards excellent rewards structure. Also, putting down the deposit up front might not be a realistic payment schedule for everyone.

Who should apply? Those looking to get started with a secured option should look no further. The Discover it Secured card might be the best of its kind, offering easy access, strong rewards and credit-building opportunities.

Read our Discover it Secured Credit Card review.

Comparing the best student credit cards

Our experts at CreditCards.com analyzed 109 student credit card offers to find our top recommendations. Below are our picks for the nine best student credit cards. The Discover it Student Cash Back tops our list as the best credit card for students because of its rewards rates and special perks, but there are several strong options:

What is a student credit card?

Student credit cards are designed for people with limited credit history, whether theyre building credit while in school or theyre just a newcomer to the world of credit. Student credit cards differ from regular credit cards in a couple ways. For example, when compared to traditional rewards cards, student cards lack large sign-up bonuses, the required credit score will usually be lower for a student card, and you wont start with as high of a credit limit. Finally, student cards will sometimes have special features specific to the needs of college students.

The specific features of student cards can vary greatly. For example, only 2 of the 11 student cards we surveyed offered a bonus worth more than $200, and one had a $50 sign-up bonus. Additionally, some cards offer greater rewards in college-friendly categories.

Still not sure whether you should get a student card? Because of the way scoring models are set up, the easiest way to build credit is with a credit card. In addition, credit cards are safer than debit cards because of federal protections that are in place, so building your credit history with a credit card is the perfect journey to begin while on campus.

How do student credit cards work?

Here well look at how to get your first credit card and how to understand the features of the card:

How to get your first credit card

When youre ready to get your first credit card, do your homework. Check your credit reports, find your credit score, and research cards that fit your needs. There are a number of student credit cards available, most with unique features and conditions. Take special notice of annual fees, rewards offered, and APRs.

Narrow your selection and apply to only one card. Every time you apply for a credit card (this is called a hard pull), its noted on your credit report. Multiple applications can negatively impact your credit score and make it more difficult to get approved for a card.

How to get a student credit card with no credit or bad credit

Just because youre a college student doesnt mean youll automatically get approved for a student card. Because of the Credit CARD Act of 2009, a consumer under 21 must have their own source of income, even if the card requires no credit. There are also ways around this by having a co-signer help you out or becoming an authorized user. Otherwise, applying for a card, no matter your credit, is pretty much the same  you need to make sure you have the right required credit, and you will be asked a series of questions on the application that will help the card issuer decide if you are a good credit risk. If you dont qualify for a student card, a secured credit card may be a better choice for you.

Is a secured card a good choice for a student?

For a student who doesnt mind putting down a deposit to start an account, the right secured card could be a solid choice. One thing to note: Student cards are typically unsecured, which means no security deposit is required, the credit limit is usually lower, and the average APR on student cards is 17.79%.

Understanding your student credit cards features

There are a number of moving parts to a credit card, for example:

APR  The annual percentage rate is the interest you will be charged on balances carried from month to month.

Credit limit  The credit limit is the maximum dollar amount you can charge at any point. For most student credit cards, the limit is $1,000 or less.

Rewards  Many credit cards, student cards included, offer rewards to the user. Rewards include cash back, points, and sign-up bonuses. Cash back is simply a percentage of the charges you make credited back to your account. Rewards points can usually be redeemed for travel, gift cards, electronics, and other prizes.

There are also fees to be aware of, including:

Annual fees. Though most student credit cards do not have annual fees, many rewards cards typically do. This fee is usually $50-$500.

Balance transfer fees. These fees can run 3%-5% or $5-$10, whichever is greater.

Cash advance fees. Users can pull cash from their credit card, usually with an extremely high APR.

Foreign transaction fees. Typically about 3%, these can put a crimp in your plans to travel abroad for Spring Break or to study, so check for this.

Convenience fees. Occasionally charged by the merchant, you can end up paying about 3% for tuition by using your credit card, so ask your school first.

There are also penalty APRs that can come into effect when minimum payments are not met. Penalty APRs are usually the highest interest rates credit cardholders will experience.

Pros and cons of student credit cards

Pros of student credit cards

Low barriers of entry . Most student cards are open to almost all levels of credit scores, but you might have to provide proof of income to get approved. Student cards allow for young and inexperienced cardholders to build credit, spend conveniently and get into the routine of the right habits.

. Most student cards are open to almost all levels of credit scores, but you might have to provide proof of income to get approved. Student cards allow for young and inexperienced cardholders to build credit, spend conveniently and get into the routine of the right habits. Dont lose out on rewards . Typically, cards for new credit users and bad credit scores come with low value rewards or no rewards program at all. With student credit cards, you can enter into the world of credit cards while still earning worthwhile cash back rates.

. Typically, cards for new credit users and bad credit scores come with low value rewards or no rewards program at all. With student credit cards, you can enter into the world of credit cards while still earning worthwhile cash back rates. Student-centric benefits. Many student credit cards feature things that the college-aged cardholder would appreciate, such as credit-building perks and no annual fee. Some cards even reward high-traffic student spend categories, such as supermarkets, dining purchases, entertainment and Lyft rides.

Cons of student credit cards

Pricey APRs . Carrying a balance could be costly for a student cardholder. Because student cards are able to provide options for so many and still give substantial rewards, theres some additional interest cost if you dont fulfill the cards payment terms.

. Carrying a balance could be costly for a student cardholder. Because student cards are able to provide options for so many and still give substantial rewards, theres some additional interest cost if you dont fulfill the cards payment terms. Lack of bonuses . Student cardholders can still capitalize on Discovers Cashback Match offers, but most student cards come without large sign-up bonuses or any other money-saving treat.

. Student cardholders can still capitalize on Discovers Cashback Match offers, but most student cards come without large sign-up bonuses or any other money-saving treat. Ability to overspend. For rookie cardholders with an easy new way to spend, its essential that basic concepts of budgeting are instilled. Many college students arent used to managing their own bills, so it may take some planning and practice to be sure that payments dont become too steep.

How to choose a student credit card

Who should get a student credit card

The shopping student . If youre spending on textbooks, food, clothes for school or anything else regularly, a student credit card could be a great help. Student cards arent strangers to cash back rewards, so you could earn some money back when you swipe your card on campus. While a small percentage back may not seem like a major impact, savings add up over time and will help when it comes time to make monthly payments.

. If youre spending on textbooks, food, clothes for school or anything else regularly, a student credit card could be a great help. Student cards arent strangers to cash back rewards, so you could earn some money back when you swipe your card on campus. While a small percentage back may not seem like a major impact, savings add up over time and will help when it comes time to make monthly payments. The student saver . Homebody students and those with a tight budget have lots of advantages with a student credit card. Opening a credit card account while in college is a great way to establish your credit score, and managing your payments with just a few purchases each billing period is an easy way to start strong.

. Homebody students and those with a tight budget have lots of advantages with a student credit card. Opening a credit card account while in college is a great way to establish your credit score, and managing your payments with just a few purchases each billing period is an easy way to start strong. The new cardholder. These cards are often more generous than other cards for low credit and come with credit-building perks, so it can be an ideal way for newbies to get started if you qualify.

Who should skip a student credit card

The rewards chaser . Although student credit cards feature worthwhile rewards rates and bonus rewards in certain categories, an experienced cardholder would find more value out of a high end card. If todays top rewards cards are out of your range, the options here are a great way to grow your credit and earn along the way.

. Although student credit cards feature worthwhile rewards rates and bonus rewards in certain categories, an experienced cardholder would find more value out of a high end card. If todays top rewards cards are out of your range, the options here are a great way to grow your credit and earn along the way. The traveler . Students vacationing and studying abroad will appreciate cash back rewards and the lack of foreign transaction fees that student cards can bring to the table, but a more typical traveler likely wants more. If youre looking to turn purchases into future trips and improve your travel experience, reroute to the best travel cards.

. Students vacationing and studying abroad will appreciate cash back rewards and the lack of foreign transaction fees that student cards can bring to the table, but a more typical traveler likely wants more. If youre looking to turn purchases into future trips and improve your travel experience, reroute to the best travel cards. The tight-budget student. If youre already dealing with debt from student loans, textbooks or any other expense, it might be best to wait on applying for a student card. Credit cards are useful tools to grow credit, spend conveniently and earn rewards, but they can escalate into a major burden if you cant afford to pay off your purchases and fall behind schedule.

How to make the most of your student credit card

When used responsibly, a student credit card is a phenomenal tool for building your credit history. Just remember: as a college student, its imperative that youre on top of your spending and know what it takes to stay on track financially. Here are some good tips to keep in mind to avoid common mistakes and to make the most of your student card:

Pay your balance in full each month . This is one of the most important habits to establish as a new cardholder. When you pay off your balance each month it helps your credit score and prevents interest from accumulating.

. This is one of the most important habits to establish as a new cardholder. When you pay off your balance each month it helps your credit score and prevents interest from accumulating. Track your spending . Use your card for the smaller, everyday purchases, like gas and groceries. Some cards offer tools like spending trackers, but there are also apps that you can download to keep track of where you have room to spend more and where you need to cut back. You can also set alerts that will notify you when youre reaching your monthly spending limit.

. Use your card for the smaller, everyday purchases, like gas and groceries. Some cards offer tools like spending trackers, but there are also apps that you can download to keep track of where you have room to spend more and where you need to cut back. You can also set alerts that will notify you when youre reaching your monthly spending limit. Know your rewards . Whether your card comes with heightened rewards in certain categories, rotating rates or a flat-rate rewards program, its important to know how you earn. Be sure to use your card whenever youre spending in a well-rewarding category to get the most out of your purchases.

. Whether your card comes with heightened rewards in certain categories, rotating rates or a flat-rate rewards program, its important to know how you earn. Be sure to use your card whenever youre spending in a well-rewarding category to get the most out of your purchases. Budget . You need a budget and a limit for emergencies when they inevitably happen. Its important to avoid spending recklessly and to plan out a certain amount each month for emergencies, so if something does happen, you wont be left with an unexpected balance you cant pay off.

. You need a budget and a limit for emergencies when they inevitably happen. Its important to avoid spending recklessly and to plan out a certain amount each month for emergencies, so if something does happen, you wont be left with an unexpected balance you cant pay off. Be responsible with your payments . Set up a system in which you pay the same time every month, like a bill. Autopayments can be extremely helpful if available, and some cards offer a monthly reminder to pay on time. If your card doesnt offer these features, designate a day and time each month to pay off your balance.

. Set up a system in which you pay the same time every month, like a bill. Autopayments can be extremely helpful if available, and some cards offer a monthly reminder to pay on time. If your card doesnt offer these features, designate a day and time each month to pay off your balance. Last but not least, check your credit score and credit reports. You can access your credit reports for free each year through AnnualCreditReport.com, and you can access your credit score through MyFICO.com for about $20 each. Also, some cards offer the feature of free access to your credit score.

What should you do with your student credit card when you graduate?

If you are preparing to graduate this year, youll likely want to think through your credit and credit card. Should you add a card? Maybe lose the card you have? And what do these actions do to your credit? Heres what we have to say about that.

Should I get rid of my credit card?

Unless you have an annual fee, there is pretty much no reason to get rid of the credit card, and even then you want to make sure there are no benefits to counterbalance getting rid of the card. In fact, holding onto the card may help your credit score, and it may be time for some upgrades.

Can I get a credit limit increase?

The biggest change you might want to make is to increase your credit limit. Heres how: Once you start your new job out of college or have set a trend of being a responsible cardholder, contact the card issuer, and just ask. With your new salary, you should get a sizable increase, which helps with your available credit if you have a balance.

Can I upgrade my card?

Heres another tip: Check with your card issuer and see if you qualify for an upgrade that will allow you to keep your credit history. You might be able to graduate from a 1% cash back card to a 1.5% cash back card, for example. Just make sure its an upgrade and not a new account so that your history continues to grow. Also, there should be no hard inquiry if its an upgrade.

Should I add a credit card?

With all the cards available today, you can build points and cash back, earning for spending every day. Additionally, pairing cards with different utilities can be a great way to capitalize on all that credit cards offer. They can even reward you for your loyalty to your favorite airline or hotel. Also, credit cards are one of the fastest ways to a great credit score, unlocking doors to new opportunities. Look at our best credit cards to see if there is one that suits you.

Credit card tips for parents with college students

There are a number of ways to help your kids build their credit. Whatever your comfort level, you can help them in a big way, whether its making them an authorized user or just sharing a few valuable tips. So, here goes:

Make your student an authorized user

The easiest way and fastest way to build credit is with a credit card, but that can be a tough nut to crack for consumers under 21 years old. Luckily, theres a way to help your student improve their credit relatively easily  make them an authorized user. While becoming an authorized user can help your credit, theres some details to know beforehand.

For this example, lets say youre making your daughter an authorized user  meaning shell benefit from your credit habits, but she isnt responsible for the balance. Another great benefit, its easy to be placed on the account and even easy to be taken off. However, there are a few things to know:

When she is removed from your card, the card drops off of her credit files, which means your good habits are no longer there. Thats why she needs to get a card of her own when she can. Make sure the card issuer will report to all three major credit bureaus for her credit files. Some dont. If you dont make sure of this, then her credit may not benefit. Ensure that you have good credit and keep paying your bills on time so that she benefits. The authorized user doesnt have to be 18, which means you could give your underage teen a card, depending on the card issuer.

Teach them proper card use

If you and your student feel shes ready for a credit card, its now time for some ground rules. Even if you choose to make her an authorized user, establish these rules:

Have her track her spending and tell you when it reaches a certain amount during the month. If its her card, help her set up alerts so that she knows when shes approaching her monthly limit. Give her a limit for emergencies, and make sure she tells you immediately when they occur. With her own card, she needs to make sure she has a place in her budget for emergencies so the card isnt a crutch. Make her responsible for her spending. Set up a system in which she pays you the same time every month, like a bill. With her own card, help her set up a monthly reminder to pay the card on time. Teach her to pay in full each month so that shes building good credit habits. Show her how to check her credit score and credit reports. She can access her credit reports for free each year through AnnualCreditReport.com, and she can access her credit scores through MyFICO.com for about $20 each.

Tell your student about co-signing

A friend or roommate may at some point ask your student to co-sign for them on a card or loan, particularly if she has independent income. The simple answer: Dont do it.

Co-signing makes her equally responsible for the bills, even if its the friends car. Even if theres no falling out between them, your student can easily lose track of whether the payments are being made on time and only get the bad news after the account has become a problem. Also, its very difficult to be removed from an account as a co-signer, unlike an authorized user. While its unlikely she would be asked to co-sign for a card, because few if any card issuers accept co-signers, she might be asked to be on the hook for a car or personal loan.

Teach your student about budgeting

Sit down with her and show her  on a spreadsheet, an app, whatever  how you manage your budget each month. Make sure she understands that this is a monthly affair, not a one-time endeavor. Be sure to give her tips about how to track her card spending so that she doesnt begin to freely make purchases without a care in the world.

How we picked the best student credit cards

Research methodology: We thoroughly analyzed 109 student credit cards in order to choose the top options for young adults and new cardholders. While a number of factors were considered in narrowing down our list, the most notable were:

Credit-building perks : Credit cards for students are best utilized when establishing a good credit score. We made sure the cards here have benefits that will help students get into the right habits and will report those habits to the three major credit bureaus.

: Credit cards for students are best utilized when establishing a good credit score. We made sure the cards here have benefits that will help students get into the right habits and will report those habits to the three major credit bureaus. Affordability : Because students and rookie cardholders are often on a tight budget, we searched for cards that avoided an annual fee, have reasonable terms and dont hit you with extraneous costs.

: Because students and rookie cardholders are often on a tight budget, we searched for cards that avoided an annual fee, have reasonable terms and dont hit you with extraneous costs. Student benefits: Many student cards come with incentives specifically designed for college-goers. We looked for unique perks, rewards rates in applicable categories and other benefits thatll help out around campus.

Our full criteria include: Regular APR, foreign transaction fee, sign-up bonus, credit needed, rewards rates and categories, redemption options, ease of application, customer service, security and miscellaneous benefits.

Additional information on student credit cards

For more information on all things student credit cards, continue reading content from our credit card experts:
Regent Seven Seas Cruises today announced that Captain Serena Melani will helm the cruise lines newest ship, Seven Seas Splendor, making her the first woman in cruise industry history to captain a new ocean cruise ship at launch, the company said.

Captain Melani, 45, began her nautical career at age 16 as a cadet while attending school working on cargo ships in her hometown of Livorno, Italy, along the Tirrenian Sea in the Tuscany region.

After graduating from Nautical College in 1993, she was one of only a few females to hold roles of increasing responsibilities on oil tankers, cargo and container vessels.

Captain Melani joined Regent in 2010 as a Bridge Officer, then served as Navigation Officer, Safety Officer and Staff Captain on Seven Seas Voyager.

She became the companys first female Master Captain in 2016 and has led Seven Seas Explorer, Seven Seas Mariner and Seven Seas Navigator during her tenure.

Captain Melani has distinguished herself as a trailblazer in the maritime and cruise industries, said Jason Montague, president and chief executive officer of Regent Seven Seas Cruises. She is an international role model and admired by our guests and crew. We are proud to appoint Captain Melani as the industrys first female captain to deliver a new cruise ship and look forward to her many future successes leading Seven Seas Splendor in the years ahead.

There is a growing number of very talented female captains emerging in our industry, and were proud to be pioneers for those women who aspire to lead the Bridge, Captain Melani said. Exploring the world and leading ship teams has been a love of mine and I enjoy sharing this passion with everyone who sails with us. Ive always believed in the motto that the cure for everything resides in salt water -- sweat, tears and the sea.
Its no secret that most businesses and organizations work better when they embrace mobility. The old formula of having droves of suited workers sitting at their desks from nine to five every day, typing away with desktop computers or even older technology simply doesnt hold up in todays always on, always connected world.

Modern workers must be connected with the tools and data they need to perform their jobs from anywhere, and at any time. And while we have the technology to enable that to happen, securing it has proved more challenging.

In the beginning, companies took a brute force approach to mobile security, purchasing thousands of devices for themselves, locking them down, and then distributing them out to their employees for work use only. That might have been a relatively safe plan, but it was also extremely expensive and required organizations to buy, maintain and constantly upgrade a fleet of relatively sparsely used mobile devices.

Today, almost everyone has a smartphone that can be used for work in a BYOD (bring your own device) type program. But that does not mean that users will surrender control of their personal hardware. No employee is going to allow their bosses to install monitoring software, agents and other draconian security methods. Just because someone is employed by a company does not mean that they cant play Angry Birds, watch movies, enjoy social media or talk in private to whomever they choose in their off-hours on their own personal devices. Yet, what happens if those activities endanger company secrets, or pose a risk to an organizations cybersecurity defenses?

The innovative Bitglass platform aims to tackle this conundrum by completely securing and controlling official work-related interactions between a mobile device and company resources, without infringing on, or in some cases even touching, a users smartphone or their personal applications. They do this by leaving the phone alone, and instead securing the connections and the data flowing to it, but only when a user is working with protected applications and data. The system works with any endpoint, including iOS, Android and Windows devices.

Bitglass is installed in the cloud, which technically makes it a cloud security program, or more specifically, it makes the company a cloud access security broker (CASB). How it works is that users on mobile devices first sign into a portal and then access all of their work data through Bitglass. The interface is seamless to users, with only the Bitglass name being inserted into the URL field at the top of the browser page to indicate that Bitglass is enforcing policies on those interactions. The program resides inside the secure Amazon cloud, or organizations with heightened security concerns such as financial institutions or government agencies can instead have the brains of the program installed on an internal, private cloud.

To keep the pricing model simple, and to avoid forcing organizations to count devices, the cost of Bitglass is dependent on the number of users being protected and the number of applications where policies and security are being enforced. For example, a user can have a desktop, a laptop, a tablet and two smartphones, and it will still only cost as much as a single user in terms of billing. That same user could even access company resources from new or unknown devices, such as a kiosk at a hotel or the computer at their grandmothers house and it would not affect the cost  though the program would likely enforce different policies on the user when working with an unknown or public device.

John Breeden II Administrators can customize which interactions are allowed between users on mobile devices and applications. The detail runs deep, and takes into account the user, type of device and the applications capabilities.

From a users point of view, there is not much involved with setting up Bitglass. Nothing gets installed on their personal devices. For this testing, we just needed to authenticate the apps that we wanted to use and everything automatically configured to work with the Bitglass service. There are no agents and no software to install. Thereafter, whenever we wanted to use protected apps, we first signed on to the Bitglass portal. Personal or non-work related apps were accessed in the normal way, and not affected by the Bitglass protection or monitoring.

Back on the admin side, complete control is given in terms of what users are allowed to see and what information gets transferred, or is blocked from transferring, to their systems though those official channels. The whole thing works because Bitglass is able to use multi-protocol proxies to control data going to devices.

John Breeden II Bitglass keeps track of interactions with applications and reports on any attempted violations or security issues encountered by users on mobile devices.

The control offered is extremely precise. For example, specific devices can be given higher permission levels than others. That way an employee accessing a company database using their phone might be okay, while doing the same thing from a public computer might not. But Bitglass goes well beyond the typical allow and block options. For example, apps can be set to read only, meaning that a person could use them and get information but not send any data back out to them. Or coaching is also an option. In coaching, users are given a warning about using an unsanctioned application and are directed to an approved app that has the same functionality.

Data can also be automatically encrypted or even redacted before it gets to a user. And the circumstances that initiate those acts can be tightly configured. For example, when we downloaded a confidential document to an approved laptop, it came through fine and we were able to work with it. However, when the same user account attempted to download the Word file to another, unknown device, the entire contents were redacted and replaced with a note that the contents were removed according to company policy.

John Breeden II When we tried to download a protected file using our smartphone, Bitglass redacted its contents to keep sensitive or protected information from exposure.

Another great feature with Bitglass is that it has lots of features normally only found inside complex mobile device management (MDM) platforms. For example, when a user leaves an organization, all an administrator needs to do is remove them from Active Directory. Immediately, Bitglass will change their permissions so that any company files they still possess point to a null data version, essentially wiping them from their mobile devices.

John Breeden II You can see what users are doing with their mobile devices through the Bitglass main console. Alternatively, the actual user names can be redacted in situations where users need to maintain their privacy.

Its worth noting that all testing for this feature was conduced with the agentless version of Bitglass. For organizations that still own their mobile devices, an agented version is also available. Having the agent sitting on phones allows administrators an additional level of control, including controlling what apps can be installed and used on them. The agent version of the program wouldnt be appropriate on something like a user-owned tablet, but does really lock things down for company-owned devices.

John Breeden II Bitglass provides a snapshot of what users are doing with their mobile access, including how many people are using specific apps, and if security policies are being followed.

Any organization that wants to tap into the unprecedented productivity offered by a mobility program but doesnt want to purchase a fleet of smartphones or worry about an increased attack footprint should give Bitglass a try. Its essentially an agentless and lightweight MDM platform without any of the over-burdensome complexity or draconian rules those mobile management tools normally require. Bitglass can instead bolster organizational cybersecurity for mobility programs while also being unobtrusive and even mostly invisible for users.
Connecticut sales tax collections spiked in December after the state enacted new rules for taxing online purchases.

The states total then tailed back off in January, even as Gov. Ned Lamont readies to add several services to the states standard 6.35 percent sales tax and eliminate what has been an annual holiday on sales taxes during the back-to-school shopping season.

Sales tax collections in the state totaled $467 million in January, a full 10 percent below the amounts collected in January 2018, excluding hotel room taxes and use taxes on items purchased elsewhere by Connecticut residents and businesses.

Only the month before, the state Department of Revenue Services had reported a 34 percent increase in sales taxes, despite the annual Black Friday shopping weekend arriving a week earlier than normal, and so perhaps siphoning off some shopping that would ordinarily take place in December.

On Dec. 1, DRS implemented a new requirement that online vendors collect and remit sales tax on transactions shipped to Connecticut, with the state General Assembly having passed a law to that end as the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling explicitly authorizing states to do so.

Traditional retailers had long complained of being at a competitive disadvantage to websites that did not charge tax, even as Amazon and other companies built other advantages like massive inventories available for purchase with a few clicks, and overnight delivery.

For the first seven months of the states fiscal year, which started last July, sales tax collections are up 6 percent to $2.2 billion, offset partially by a 16 percent decline in business use taxes to $23.6 million. This could represent some online purchases generating sales taxes up front rather than paid on the honor system that the states use tax represents.

In his biennial budget proposal presented last month to the Connecticut General Assembly, Lamont proposed removing sales-tax protections on a number of products, to include boat sales that had been taxed at just under 3 percent; downloads of digital files including movies and music, which had carried a 1 percent sales tax; and over-the-counter drugs.

A large number of services would also be exposed to sales taxes, to include boat storage and vehicular parking, architects and engineers, barbers and salons, lawyers and accountants and building services like waste collection. In the aggregate, it adds up to an extra $280 million in revenue or $78 on a per capita basis.

Factor those projected totals on top of last years sales tax collections, and it would have been the equivalent of pushing Connecticuts sales tax that year to above 6.7 percent, up only a few rungs on a January ranking of state and local sales tax rates nationally published by the Tax Foundation.

Lamont is also looking to raise to 17 percent Connecticuts sales tax on hotel rooms, which is already highest in the nation at 15 percent, despite past hospitality industry protests that the tax crimps their bookings.

The governor is also looking to end an annual sales tax holiday Connecticut has scheduled each August, which the state Office of Policy and Management projects would recoup the state about $5 million a year.

Due to a reporting error, an earlier version specified landscaping as a service proposed to be added to the state schedule of taxable services. Landscaping is already subject to Connecticut sales tax.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
WASHINGTON  Fractious House Democrats on Thursday came together and voted unanimously for a resolution that condemned anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism and other forms of bigotry.

The resolution also acknowledges the dangerous consequences of perpetuating anti-Semitic stereotypes and rejects anti-Semitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of the United States.

The vote on the resolution, which was delayed to include Latinos to its list of traditionally persecuted peoples targeted by white supremacists, was a reaction to the uproar caused by Minnesota freshman Rep. Ilhan Omars criticism of Israel.

Republicans seized on Omars comments and demanded censure, pointing to the punishment meted out to Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, after he questioned why the terms white supremacist and white nationalist were offensive. To head off a political firestorm that threatened to derail the Democratic agenda, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

But Democrats were split over the wording of the resolution and in a spirited caucus meeting on Wednesday, several lawmakers, including Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, protested the evolving resolution was being pushed too quickly by Pelosi to the floor.

My comments were about the process we are using when concerns arise, Hayes said in a statement. As a member of Congress, I should not get important information from cable news.

The vote on the measure was 407-23. Every Democrat, including Omar, voted for it and all opposed to the resolution are Republican. King voted present.

I dont think anybody saying something anti-Semitic is okay, Hayes said after the vote.

Democrats are betting that the vote on the resolution will put the issue to bed.

I hope it puts this whole episode behind us, said Rep. Jim Himes, D-5th District.

Rep. John Larson D-1st District, said the vote on the resolution was common sense.

I think its important as a teaching tool, Larson said. Whether its anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobiatheres no place for it and this was the right vehicle.

Omar, who is Muslim, provoked the contentious debate by criticizing people who push for allegiance to a foreign country in comments she made in a Washington D.C. coffee shop last week.

For many, that comment played off of the dual loyalty accusations that have been used to harass and persecute Jews throughout history.

Thursday was the second time the U.S. House voted to condemn anti-Semitism as a rebuke of Omar, although she is not named in either resolution. The first time was in response to tweets about Jewish money and influence on American politics.

Omar apologized for her tweets, but not for the comments she made last week.

After the vote, Omar avoided reporters, but issued a statement with three other Muslim lawmakers, Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich: Its the first time we have voted on a resolution condemning Anti-Muslim bigotry in our nations history, the three Democrats said.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-2nd District, said it was not important to censure Omar in the resolution.

The issue for me is were not condoning anti-Semitism or anti-Muslim sentiment, she said.

The flap over Omars comments exposed differences in the Democratic caucus, with younger, more liberal Democrats more willing to criticize Israel.

To criticize (Israeli Prime Minister) Bibi Netanyahu does not make you anti-Semitic, said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the co-sponsor of the resolution, who is Jewish.

Raskin also said the debate over the resolution has been a very difficult process for the caucus, but also a very healthy one.

Republicans, even those who voted for the resolution, criticized that it had been expanded to take the focus off anti-Semitism - and Omar.

Lets be honest, we are here today because of rhetoric said by one member or this chamber, again and again and again, said Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. If that member had been a Republican, that members name would be in this resolution and this resolution would be all about condemning anti-Semitism, and it would be done so forcefully.

President Donald Trump tweeted It is shameful that House Democrats wont take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference. Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and its inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!

Himes shot back with his own tweet that said Guy who says there were good people on both sides of a Nazi march weighs in. And, as usual, lies.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwestern Connecticut has shut down its donation centers in Norwalk, Newtown, North Haven and Ansonia.

The drop-off centers had been run through a partnership with a for-profit thrift retailer called Savers, and were shuttered in January. Norwalks drop off center was in an old gas station on Main Avenue just north of the Merritt Parkway. The green building no longer has the Big Brothers Big Sisters sign.
You cant go a single day without hearing the phrase "brand purpose," but what does it actually mean? In short, its a brands reason for existence beyond making money. Today, a growing number of companies are jumping at the chance to signal their social and environmental credentials. For good reason too -- its what people want. Consumers are determining the fate of brands with their purchases. And when all things are equal, they will choose to buy from a brand that has a positive impact.

Doing good has become the ultimate competitive advantage -- a golden ticket to future-proofing your business. Getting it right will earn you a place in popular culture, improve your reputation and increase your market share. Getting it wrong could spark public outrage, claims of insincerity and the possibility of a boycott. The stakes have never been higher, and success depends on converting brand purpose into action. After all, purpose without action is pointless. Its like buying a book and never reading it.

Related: Young People Will Reward Brands That Take a Stand

Get the basics right.

The journey towards social impact starts with making sure that your brand is doing no harm. It can be easy to forget that business is a part of society. Thus, companies have a duty to make a positive contribution to peoples lives. For brands, this begins with paying tax: an agreed fee for doing business and making a profit. Yet, most brands view tax as a cost to be minimized, rather than an investment back into society. Corporation tax helps to fund essential healthcare, education and social services for the very customers and employees who buy and work for a business. In truth, theres not much point in having a lofty brand mission if youre not even holding up your end of the bargain.

Sadly, some of the worlds biggest brands are using tax loopholes to legally avoid paying its debt to society. In the U.K., Facebook only paid 15.8m in tax last year despite collecting a record 1.3bn in sales. Avoiding tax can cause long-term reputational damage, as seen in the past with Starbucks, Amazon, Google and others. In contrast, brands that pay their fair share will no doubt win public approval. A great example is Patagonia, who used $10 million in U.S. tax savings to combat climate change. So, when Patagonia says, were in business to save our home planet, people believe them. Fulfilling your responsibility as a business provides a foundation for brand activism. It begins with paying your taxes, looking after your employees and not destroying the environment.

Related: 10 Companies That Are Doing Good While Doing Well

Think long-term.

Building a meaningful brand is hard work. It requires changing the way things have always been done. If it were easy, everyone would do it. But its not. You need courage, conviction, vision and a champion at the very top. The scale and depth of transformation demand a long-term approach. A rare commodity, considering that the average CEO spends less than five years in the job. To make matters worse, most companies are under constant pressure to deliver short-term results for shareholders; often at the expense of building long-term value. This is despite overwhelming evidence indicating that long-term companies deliver superior financial performance.

The good news is that were reaching a tipping point, characterized by mass adoption of socially responsible and environmentally sustainable business practices. For example, renewable energy is set to become cheaper than fossil fuels by 2020. To quote Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Srensen, In the long term, social and environmental issues become financial issues. In 2010, Unilever launched an ambitious plan to decouple business growth from environmental impact. Nine years later, Unilevers sustainable brands are now delivering 70 percent of its growth. Such success is predicated on making society a stakeholder in your business. This can be achieved by aligning your business objectives with the UNs Sustainable Development Goals: a set of 17 goals, agreed by 193 nations of the UN to end poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change.

Embrace co-creation.

The complexity of global issues is far too great for anyone to tackle alone. Such problems require new thinking, innovative approaches and an unprecedented level of collaboration. To use a famous African proverb, If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. We cant save the world in silos; doing so requires collective, collaborative action. To change things for the better, brands need to look beyond their own boundaries. This means collaborating with start-ups, individuals, civil society and so-called competitors to co-create a more equitable and sustainable future for all.

Co-creation represents a substantial growth opportunity for brands. Its a chance to embed new thinking, practices and doing good into the core of their business. One of the best examples of co-creation is Lego which has teamed up with Sesame Workshop to help Rohingya and Syrian refugee children to learn and heal through play. Lego is realizing its brand purpose by investing $100 million into the program. This move will help Lego win the hearts and minds of a new generation of fans -- 87 years on from the companys inception. To reap the full benefits of co-creation, brands need to make sure their new project or partnership reflects their own offering as a business. Finding the right strategic partner will help turn a global mission into local, grassroots social and environmental activation.

Related: Innovation? It Needs to Be Woven Into Every Aspect of Your Company's Culture

What it all means.

Doing good has become the ultimate competitive advantage for brands in the 21st century. In an increasingly overcrowded market, your brands contribution to society becomes the decisive point of difference for consumers. The first step in the process is making sure that youre not doing any harm. Once thats established, brands can then begin to do good by adopting a collaborative mindset and a long-term approach to problem-solving.

By in large, brand activism fueled by conscious consumerism is going to fundamentally change the nature of business. The scale and depth of change are comparable to the rise of digital technology in the 1990s and early 2000s. In a similar way, those who embrace this new reality will win the hearts and minds of a new generation of consumers. On the flipside, those who fail to adapt risk entering the annals of irrelevancy, which already includes a long list of extinct brands. In the end, like most things, the difference between the two scenarios will boil down to the level of talk versus action.

Related:

Brand Activism: Turning Your Purpose Into Action

Ground-Breaking PR Trends That are Going to Dominate 2019

How Spider-Man Can Help Your Brand Keep Its Edge



Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Four years after their 85-year-old ailing father died, his two daughters are accused of killing him in his Florida home.

It was the perfect murder until the scheme came unraveled when Mary-Beth Tomaselli, 63, and Linda Roberts, 61, became romantically involved with the same man, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told news outlets on Tuesday. The sisters have been charged with first-degree murder.

The sheriff said the man, whose identity wasnt made public, contacted investigators in February, saying a woman he was dating confessed that she and her sister killed their father. He explained that he met Tomaselli at a bar in August. Sometime later, she introduced him to her sister, Roberts, and he became involved with her as well.

The Tampa Bay Times reports the man told detectives that Roberts acted odd and it was clear something was troubling her. On Feb. 12, he went to Roberts home and she confessed to euthanizing her father, Gualtieri said.

The man used his cellphone to video Roberts detailing what she said happened on March 5, 2015.

The sheriff said the sisters both knew Anthony Tomaselli might die soon and hed made it clear he didnt want to go to an assisted living facility. So, Guiltieri said, the women decided to make it appear that he had died in his sleep.

He said the women gave their father a sleeping pill enhanced alcoholic drink. But the alcohol diluted the pills, Guiltieri said. As he lay on the couch with labored breathing, the women used a pillow to try to suffocate him. When that didnt work, they shoved a rag down his throat and pinched his nose until he stopped breathing, he said.

Paramedics pronounced the man dead the next morning when they were called to the home.

Deputies interviewed both sisters separately and they both said their father fell asleep on the couch and when they went to check on him, they couldnt wake him. His long-time doctor agreed to declare that the man had died a natural death.

Investigators said the sisters faked the story, staging his body, performing CPR and eventually calling 911.

Gualtieri said they got away with it because no autopsy was performed due to his age and health history.

After his death, the sisters and their brother, who played no role in the scheme, sold the house and split the $120,000 profit, Gualtieri said.

When detectives questioned the sisters recently, they both confessed. Gualtieri said Mary-Beth Tomaselli in particular spilled her guts.

They clearly knew what they were doing, Gualtieri said.

Its unclear if the women have lawyers.
Its been more than a decade since Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the world to the concept of the modern blockchain. But weve come a long way from the early days of bitcoin. Not only has the cryptocurrency market exploded, thanks to the use of this revolutionary technology, but private and public sector organizations are rapidly investing in modernizing their technology stacks around it.

Because of the rapid adoption speed and the fragmented nature of the technology, though, collaboration has been stilted until recently. Academic pursuits occurred in a silo separate from private corporation investment and government exploration. As the technology has matured, though, new blockchain organizations have launched to bridge these gaps, advocate for the technology and help establish international standards. Here are six of the most important of these organizations and what they offer the blockchain ecosystem.

Related: Don't Let Blockchain Technology's Security Loopholes Go Unnoticed

1. Cambridge Blockchain Forum.

Launched in 2018, the Cambridge Blockchain Hub and Cambridge Blockchain Forum, are a venture incubator and a think-tank, respectively, dedicated to blockchain policy. Some of the collaborators include Swisscom Blockchain, the British Business Federation Authority, Hedera Hashgraph, Samsung Catalyst Fund, TodaQ, Coinfirm, Keiretsu Forum and several others. The goal of the Hub is to explore new collaborations and ventures that bring together academia in Cambridge with public and private sector stakeholders to grow the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Founded by Jon Bradford, Hazem Danny Al Nakib, and chaired by Hermann Hauser KBE, the Cambridge Blockchain Forum is working toward identifying and addressing the UKs strategic objectives around regulation and new implementations of blockchain technology across a variety of sectors that are solving real issues through a collaborative and cross-disciplinary approach. Current projects include regulatory gap analysis with the British Business Federation Authority, creating new draft legislation around blockchain and preparing use cases for public sector implementations that provide a tangible benefit to society.

2. Blockchain Research Institute.

Launched in 2017 by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, authors of Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business and the World, the Blockchain Research Institute is a network of experts in the field who work together to address challenges perceived by the founders. Now a global think-tank, The Blockchain Research Institute works with top thought leaders in blockchain, as well as many large companies implementing the technology and world governments.

The think-tank is currently managing more than 100 research projects focused on technologies related to blockchain. Projects are all published online and distributed with multimedia for easier sharing in both public/private sector environments and academia. They focus on ten sectors that include energy and power, finance, government, healthcare, telecom, manufacturing, media, resources and mining, technology and retail.

3. Cleveland Blockchain and Digital Futures Hub.

Announced in late-2018, this new think-tank is the result of a partnership between Case Western and Cleveland State University. While not solely dedicated to blockchain, the research being conducted by this organization touches on several important areas including the Internet of Things, virtual reality, augmented reality and use of blockchain technology in both public and private sector applications.

The area has become well known in recent years for its investment in blockchain research and technology, with the founding of Blockland, which focuses on training new blockchain developers as well as launching new projects such as the Digital Futures Hub.

Related: The Scalability Conundrum of Blockchain Networks

4. Slovenian Blockchain Think Tank.

Slovenia has been an early leader in Europe in adopting and exploring new applications for Blockchain technology. This was most notable after Prime Minister Miro Cerar gave a speech in October 2017 discussing the potential of blockchain and how Slovenia was investing in it. The result was the launch of a Blockchain Think Tank by the Slovenian Digital Coalition. This new think-tank was designed to focus on education, raising awareness in the EU and drafting new legislation around blockchain technology.

Slovenia has been an upward trajectory since it emerged from the fiscal crisis that ravaged much of Europe earlier this decade. They have seen slow and steady GDP growth for the last five years, and the government sees blockchain as an opportunity to take that growth to the next level.

5. ThinkBlockTank.

Another European think-tank launched to address the growing importance of blockchain in the Union, this one was launched by Letzblock members to address token regulation, distributed ledger technologies and blockchain as a whole. Based in Luxembourg, this non-profit has experts from more than 15 countries performing research around blockchain technologies.

The new Think Tank was launched on Nov. 28, 2018 with the release of its first paper, EU Token Regulation Paper. The paper is an iteration of the Token Regulation Paper originally published by Blockchain Bundesverband in February 2018. The new paper is a European effort, with 50 professions in the space from throughout 20 European countries contributing.

Related: Become a Blockchain Expert for Less Than $20

6. CRYSTAL Centre.

Launched by the National University of Singapore (NUS) School of Computing, CRYSTAL Centre stands for Cryptocurrency Strategy, Techniques and Algorithms. The academic research project is led by Assistant Professor Prateek Saxena and Associate Professor Keith Carter and is designed to help shape new technology initiatives related to blockchain and cryptocurrency. Only recently announced, the think tank aims to consist of 5-10 faculty members with expertise in fields such as program language design, distributed computing algorithms, security and market economics.

The research will be focused on a number of overlapping areas, with the goal being full academic transparency in their findings. Early project topics include verification and testing techniques, applications for blockchain, cryptocurrency, P2P network utilization in these systems and more. The organization also plans to hold several events including an annual workshop on research and business starting in 2019.

Related:

The Most Important Blockchain Organizations You Should Know About

Lakshmi Vilas Bank's MD Shares Why Bankers Should Take Lessons from New Age Fintech Lenders

For Europe to Lead in Blockchain, it Needs to Focus on Education



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At 405 pages, a Bridgeport Police Department Internal Affairs report on the response to a 2017 house party is a damning document that portrays a city in danger of losing whatever is left of the publics trust.

The report was released Wednesday to Hearst Connecticut Media in response to a Freedom of Information request that was filed in January. There is no excuse for the city to have taken that much time. It was only when pressure started to rise, particularly from one of Mayor Joe Ganims top challengers in this years election, that the city made the report public.

State Sen. Marilyn Moore, in calling for the reports release, adding a political dimension to the growing crisis. Regardless, she was right to demand it be made public, and she joined a chorus of other elected officials in calling the report truly shocking and heartbreaking.

The Oct. 21, 2017, house party in question drew a response from more than 40 police officers to what was initially a noise complaint. It devolved into a situation in which 17 officers are facing discipline and nine could be fired over a variety of misconduct allegations including using excessive force and lying to investigators.

Adding to the tragedy of the situation, two police officers caught up in the investigation have committed suicide in recent months. There is no indication they are directly linked to the Internal Affairs probe, but their deaths brought even more questions as to what might be in the report, which the city made worse by holding the report back.

And this is only one of the Police Departments problems. Like many cities, Bridgeport has a problem with violent crime, and the departments relationship with city residents can be fraught. Documented incidents of excessive force and, just as seriously, other officers lying about what can be seen on film only add to the distrust.

The city is also still dealing with the after-effects of the 2017 killing of a 15-year-old by a police officer. That incident in addition to the Internal Affairs report contributes to a sense of discord under Police Chief Armando Perez, who Ganim chose for the job. At the end of the day, this is happening under the chiefs watch, state Rep. Christopher Rosario, D-Bridgeport, said.

The chief must do better. And Ganim, who will be fighting for his political life this year, must understand that regaining trust with city residents is more important than any election. People need to see that when a report as serious as this one comes to light that real action follows. It cant be allowed to be swept under the rug.

This is something that could be termed a sentinel event, said John DeCarlo, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven, something that we learn from and change basic policies, training, things, so it doesnt happen again.

That change needs to start now.
HARTFORD  A union representing Connecticut taxi drivers is among several labor groups supporting a legislative proposal that would raise wages for taxis biggest direct competitor: Uber and Lyft drivers.

The United Auto Workers, which represents taxi drivers in Stamford, testified Thursday in favor of a bill that would block transportation network companies from taking more than more than 25 percent of the fee a person pays for a ride or more than 25 percent of a drivers total fares in a day.

For up-to-date information on public policy issues, sign up for the CT Politics newsletter.

The transportation network economy should be regulated in the same way that the taxi industry is, so that its a fair playing field, said Beverley Brakeman, director of UAW Region 9A. The gig economy is sort of the next level of workers who are being exploited.

Connecticuts Uber and Lyft drivers are not unionized. They face an uphill battle to organize because they are considered independent contractors by the National Labor Relations Board.

The bill is part of a nationwide backlash against the two largest ride-sharing companies, which have long rebuffed regulations imposed on traditional taxi service by claiming they are an app-based service connecting independent drivers to fares, not a livery company.

An unofficial coalition of Uber and Lyft drivers from New Haven successfully lobbied the legislature to consider this proposed law. Seventy-five drivers came to the Capitol Thursday to testify in favor of it.

Uber opposes the bill, arguing it might actually significantly reduce drivers earnings.

The bill is predicated upon the incorrect assumption that drivers are paid a set percentage of riders fares, said DeShawn Wright, senior manager of public policy for Uber Technologies Inc. Riders pay an upfront price, while a drivers fare is based on a pre-set time and distance rate.

In previous years, unions have favored tighter restrictions on Uber and Lyft. Two years ago, the General Assembly passed a compromise bill that created rules for ride-sharing companies and required background checks and registration for drivers  but did not address pay for the drivers.

The state requires Uber and Lyft drivers to have insurance that covers bodily injury of at least $1 million. Uber said it now pays for this insurance, but it would not pay for the insurance if the bill passed.

Drivers, most of whom are part-time, would have to pay around $4,500 to operate in Connecticut, Wright said.

New York City passed a minimum pay ordinance for app-based drivers in December, setting an earnings floor of $17.22 an hour. Seattle is also considering legislation to set minimum charges across all parts of the for-hire transportation industry.

Connecticuts proposal is different, but it has won the support of some Democratic lawmakers.

Other unions are also backing the Uber and Lyft drivers. Three Teamsters union representatives attended a meeting of the New Haven drivers in February to show their support.

Well commit our lobbyist, said Dave Lucas, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Union Local 671.

Stacy Zimmerman, associate director of the Connecticut State Council of the Service Employees International Union, said SEIU is also backing the bill.

emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
Washington DC is the adult version of Disney Land. There are those of us who love the place and return year after year; there are those of you who visit the place, cant stand it and vow never to return again and finally there are those of you who go simply out of a sense of obligation to your kids. No matter why you go to DC, if you are one of the more than 5,000 people joining the industry in the nations Capital this week, you are actually coming at one of the most unique times you are ever going to see. For me this years trip is not so much about specific legislation as it is about getting a sense of how credit unions can best integrate themselves into a vastly changed political landscape.

For example, there are 101 new representatives and 10 new Senators. Not only that but this is the most diverse class of representatives ever including a large influx of women and minorities. In the New York delegation alone we have 29-year-old Congresswoman/celebrity Ocasio-Cortez who personifies so many of these trends. You have to go back to Teddi Roosevelt to find a young person who has had a bigger impact on New York politics so quickly. We also have several new members including Antonio Delgado, Anthony Brindisi, Max Rose from Staten Island, and former Assemblyman Joe Morelle.

With so many new members and so many new staff, the most important thing to do next week is not simply to advocate for credit union priorities but to explain what credit unions are, how they are different from banks and why they are worth protecting. We are seeing more than a generational shift. Many of the newest members do not come from traditional political backgrounds which means that they are taking a fresh look at stale issues and wondering if things can be done differently.
STORY LINK Pound to Australian Dollar Exchange Rate Today - GBP/AUD Falls as UK-EU Tensions Rise on Irish Backstop

AUD/GBP Exchange Rate Rises as Iron Ore Prices Increase

GBP/AUD Forecast: Pound Could Soar if Mays Brexit Deal Gains Traction

Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues:

The Pound to Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate is down today and is currently trading around AU$1.8619 on the inter-bank market.Sterling (GBP) fell against the Australian Dollar (AUD) today as the UK is coming under increasing pressure to remedy the Irish backstop issue, and with a the lack of developments forthcoming from recent negotiations, this has left many Pound traders feeling jittery.Prime Minister Theresa May, meanwhile, is due to meet workers in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, today, in which she is expected today:[J]ust as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice too. We are both participants in this process. It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal. We are working with them but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.This is causing many Pound traders to remain cautious, however, for if the Irish backstop issue fails to draw a consensus between the UK and the EU, this would likely see Theresa Mays Brexit deal being rejected by the House of Parliament on 12 March, which would weaken the GBP/AUD exchange rate.The Australian Dollar, meanwhile, has gained against a weakened Pound today despite a raft of disappointing Chinese data stats, with Chinese exports for February plummeting by -20.7%. With China being Australias closet trading partner, this has left many Aussie traders nervous.Kevin Xie, an economist at the Commonwealth Bank, commented:The outlook for Chinese exports remains soft because of the global economic slowdown. We expect import growth to remain weak until the announced fiscal stimulus flows through the real economy later 2019.The Aussie has however benefited from yesterdays Australian trade balance figures for January which shot up above consensus to 4,549m, buoying optimism in the possibility of a recovering economy.Kristina Clifton, a Senior Economist at the Commonwealth Bank, was optimistic, saying:The trade surplus has been on an improving trend over the past year This trend is helping to lift company profits and government revenues.AUD has also benefited today from increasing iron ore prices today, with the price for benchmark 62% fines rising by 0.6%, and with the Australian economy heavily iron-reliant, this has buoyed optimism in the Aussie today.The financial services company, HSBC, however, warned:Iron ore prices have overreacted to small supply disruptions We believe this is unsustainable and expect spot prices to correct materially towards the $60s over the medium-term.Aussie traders will be looking ahead to tomorrows release of the Chinese CPI figures for February, and with any improvement of the Chinese economy this could provide some uplift for the Australian Dollar.Tomorrow will also see the publication of the Chinese year-on-year PPI figures for February which are expected to increase.Pound traders, however, will be looking ahead to Tuesday, which will see the publication of the UK manufacturing production figures for January, and with any signs of improvement this could prove Sterling-positive.The GBP/AUD exchange rate will remain particularly sensitive to Tuesdays UK parliamentary vote on Theresa Mays Brexit deal, and if MPs show any signs of backing the withdrawal agreement, this could see the Pound soar.

International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements.

TAGS: Pound Australian Dollar Forecasts
NATO Defense Spending Should Privilege Cyber

The acting Pentagon chiefs visit to NATO headquarters recently hardly reassured allies rattled by President Trumps talk of quitting the alliance. But while Trumps rhetoric is less than encouraging, his criticism of allies who put less than the agreed-upon 2 percent of national economic output toward defense should prompt us to rethink how we define defense spending in todays fast-changing world.

Of NATO 28s member states, only five meet the goal; German defense spending is just 1.2 percent of GDP. In this way, at least, Trump has a point: NATOs economics are clearly not working out, and this disorganization is undermining the alliance. But the crucial adjustment that is needed is not the amount of spending, but what it seeks to fund.

The face of war is changing dramatically as cyber and electronic attacks become increasingly commonplace, and so must our allies understanding of defense.

Over the past year, state-sponsored Russian hackers have targeted both US elections and critical components of the countrys infrastructure. Chinese hackers appear to be equal, if not more, alarming. The number of data breaches at US companies rose 27 percent in 2017. Yet the most recent NATO document to outline financial expectations remains the Wales Summit Declaration of 2014, which dedicates only two paragraphs to cyber defense and focuses on conventional defense expenditures, including the deployability and sustainability of land, air and maritime forces.

Over the last few years, NATOs member-states have started to acknowledge this oversight and have taken steps to jumpstart the development of cyber capabilities. The alliance has recently announced the imminent release of its first holistic cyber-operations doctrine and the construction of a new cyber command center expected to be fully staffed and operational by 2023.

The United States, Britain, Denmark, Estonia, and the Netherlands have pledged to use their digital defense systems to respond to a serious cyber-attack on a fellow member-state.

The alliance has launched Locked Shields and other exercises to fine-tune digital battle tactics. And in the communiques that followed last years summit, cyber appeared more often than terrorism.

Yet NATO remains woefully unprepared for digital warfare, as highlighted in a Belfer Center report published last week. One example: only a fraction of a $3 billion fund for satellite communications and computer systems, around $100 million has been used to strengthen critical cyber-defenses. We need to be spending differently rather than simply more.

Instead of pressing fellow member-states for greater financial contributions in general, Trump should launch the development of a more precise economic strategy based on the nature, likelihood, and danger of the threats we currently face. This starts by working with our allies to revise and broaden the current understanding of what defense spending entails. An updated definition would focus on the categories that are most critical to transatlantic security given recent Russian and Chinese activities, but that are not currently included within the scope of the 2-percent target, such as the cyber-defense of electoral processes and of civilian infrastructure.

Digital defense is cheaper and more easily deployable than its more traditional, asset-heavy counterparts. Thus, revising NATOs current spending requirements to encourage member-states to spend even a fraction of GDP on bolstering their most vulnerable cyber-fronts would likely be more effective and achievable than current objectives.

Most importantly for the successful implementation of such changes, recent developments have shown that NATO member-states are indeed willing to spend more on cyber-defense.

Recently, the Italian defense minister Elisabetta Trenta, a member of Italys populist Five Star Movement and a known critic of military spending, demonstrated interest in boosting her countrys defenses in the digital arena.

Spending money to develop cyber security defenses should count the same as spending money to buy tanks, she argued.

While this view may prove a bit extreme for most NATO leaders, it does suggest a path forward for productive compromise, improved security, and a healthier alliance.

DefenseOne:

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Cyber Attribution Could Tear Apart NATO:




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Inter-University Computation Center (IUCC) delivers communication and network infrastructure services to Israels National Research and Education Network (NREN).

IUCCs Cyber Unit safeguards Israels NREN. The IUCC Cyber Unit activities are governed by an inter-university steering committee that cooperates on joint procurement of network security programs for the academic community, resulting in significant cost savings for Israels universities.

The IUCC Cyber Units services and activities include: the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), the National Cyber Testbed and Cyber Research.
It's not a goat or calf, but a white deer, also known as a rare piebald
Ethos is a nationally recognized, award-winning independent student publication. Our mission is to elevate the voices of marginalized people who are underrepresented in the media landscape, and to write in-depth, human-focused stories about the issues affecting them. We also strive to support our diverse student staff and to help them find future success.



Ethos produces a quarterly free print magazine full of well-reported and powerful feature stories, innovative photography, creative illustrations and eye-catching design. On our website, we also produce compelling written and multimedia stories.



Ethos is part of Emerald Media Group, a non-profit organization thats fully independent of the University of Oregon. Students maintain complete editorial control over Ethos, and work tirelessly to produce the magazine.



Since our inception as Korean Ducks Magazine in 2005, weve worked hard to share a multicultural spirit with our readership. We embrace diversity in our stories, in our student staff and in our readers. We want every part of the magazine to reflect the diversity of our world.
Dear Editor:

Ilhan Omar, one of two Muslim women elected to Congress, has gone over the line in suggesting that politicians are influenced by money they get from the Israel lobby. It is OK to say that our leaders are paid off by Big Oil, Big Pharma and Wall Street. But it is anti-Semitic to imply the Israel lobby would do such things.

There should be a law making it illegal to reveal how much Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer get from the Israel lobby. It is anti-Semitic to report that the two of them met recently with multibillionaires Haim Saban and Sheldon Adelson and promised an extensive list of pro-Israel lawmakers would be appointed to important committees.

Boycotts, although they have a long history of being used against slave owners, Nazis, Jim Crow racists and homophobes, are simply anti-Semitic when used against apartheid Israel and should be illegal. In fact, even mentioning the Palestinian people is an attempt to deny that Israel is a Jewish state. Talking about the occupation is anti-Semitic as well. Why not talk about human rights abuses in Darfur?

The effort to stop anti-Semitism has to start with the First Amendment. How dare our Founding Fathers promise freedom of speech and press without some qualifiers! Sure, citizens should be able to criticize politicians and foreign countries, but not a country that claims to be a religion, like Israel.

No U.S. citizen should ever have the right to say Israel has enormous power over our government.

Fred Nagel

Rhinebeck, N.Y.
FX Setups for the Week of March 11: USDJPY, EURJPY, AUDUSD and USDCNH

Forex Talking Points:

- DailyFX Quarterly Forecasts are available directly from the following link: DailyFX Trading Guides, Q1 Forecasts.

- For trading ideas, please check out our Trading Guides. And if youre looking for something more interactive in nature, please check out our DailyFX Live webinars.

- If youd like more color around any of the setups below, join in our live DailyFX webinars each week, set for Tuesday and Thursday at 1PM Eastern Time. You can sign up for each of those sessions from the below link:

Tuesday: Tuesday, 1PM ET

Thursday: Thursday 1PM ET

Do you want to see how retail traders are currently trading the US Dollar? Check out our IG Client Sentiment Indicator.

The first full week of March has proven to be a notable outing across global markets for a number of reasons: The ECB announced a fresh round of LTRTOs yesterday morning, helping to kickstart a bearish run in the Euro; and after two months of clean-running bullish trends, US stocks started to pullback for an apparent variety of reasons. The US Dollar also saw some interesting events, as prices broke-out to re-test the 21-month high but, at this point, buyers have been unable to push through.

Next week brings a few items of note, with the Brexit vote in the UK as likely one of the key events on the docket. The Bank of Japan hosts a rate decision on Thursday afternoon (Friday morning in Tokyo), and high-impact US data is set to be released on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. This comes on the heels of a very disappointing NFP report that saw 20k jobs added in the month of February versus the expectation of +180k.

Given the moves that have shown this week, carrying weekend risk could be especially problematic here. As such, the four setups looked at below are designed for next weeks price action, looking to avoid weekend gaps through stops that may eliminate the attractiveness of the setup before it ever has a chance to get started.

US Dollar Runs into Resistance at the 21-Month-High

Bullish USDJPY on Hold Above 110.30

USDJPY has done a fairly good job of mirroring the risk trade so far this year, with an incredibly clean topside trend in January and February matching the risk-on themes in US stocks over the same period. But  before that clean running bullish trend could develop, USDJPY started the year with a spark of Yen-strength that had many on the edges of their seats. Risk aversion roared in Q4, and upon the open of the New Year, a surge of strength developed in the Japanese Yen that made it look as though the Q4 risk sell-off might continue into 2019.

Global markets stepped back from the proverbial ledge in January, and this helped USDJPY to recover. As the page turned into February, I began looking for bullish breakouts in the pair as prices interacted with a set of Fibonacci levels at 108.47, 109.67 and 110.86, which are the 38.2, 50 and 61.8% retracements of the November 2017  March 2018 major move. That bullish trend lasted all the way into this week, at which point sellers reacted to resistance around the 112.00 handle to elicit a pullback all the way back down to the 110.86 Fibonacci level.

That level has since held as support; and if buyers can continue to support the move, this can keep the door open for bullish strategies targeting the 76.4% retracement of the same Fibonacci study at 112.34, which was last showing as swing support in November and December of this year.

USDJPY Eight-Hour Price Chart

Bearish EURJPY on Hold Below 125.95

On the other side of the Yen, risk aversion themes priced-in very visibly against the Euro this week. The bearish side of EURJPY was my Top Idea for 2019, and this market similarly plunged in the opening days of the New Year to test below the 119.00 handle, albeit temporarily. The next two months saw recovery take-hold as the pair built into a bear flag formation; and last Friday saw prices jump up to test resistance at prior support of 127.50.

Since then, however, bears have very much made their mark, and this caught an assist from the ECB announcement earlier this week. Prices in EURJPY plunged below the key level at 125.00, showing a short-side break below the bullish channel that made up the bear flag, and this can open the door for further downside in the pair.

From a strategy basis  this could also offer the trader an opportunity for a synthetic play on the short side of EURUSD. EURUSD may be constrained at long-term support considering the resistance thats holding in the US Dollar; so, for traders looking at bullish exposure in USDJPY along with bearish exposure in EURJPY, the net outlay would be synthetic EURUSD short, using prevailing forces in the Yen to assist with each side of the pair (risk-on helping with the long side of USDJPY or risk-off helping with the short side of EURJPY).

EURJPY Eight-Hour Price Chart

Bullish AUDUSD on Hold Above .7000

AUDUSD tested a big level this week when the .7000-handle came into play, which helped to set the low on Friday morning, just ahead of the USD sell-off on the heels of Non-Farm Payrolls.

On a longer-term basis, the .7000 level is an area thats been staunchly defended by bulls; with only a handful of occurrences in which prices tested-below, each time with buyers soon pushing spot prices back-above. This can make for an interesting backdrop for USD-weakness strategies, particularly for traders that want to look at a bigger-picture reversal in the US Dollar following this weeks failed resistance test.

In AUDUSD, targets could be sought around prior areas of support/resistance such as .7075, .7125-.7150 and then the big zone that runs from .7185-.7206.

AUDUSD Four-Hour Price Chart

Bearish USDCNH on Hold Below 6.7600

Those that regularly read this piece probably already know that I dont spend much time trying to call tops or bottoms. But I made an exception in November of last year when looking at USDCNH inching towards the pairs all-time-high while the US Dollar was incredibly strong (this was around the time the first failed test at 97.71 showed-up in DXY).

Since then, USDCNH has unraveled-lower and that trend has remained fairly-clean so far throughout 2019 trade. The past week has seen a bit of pullback in that trend, and the door may be soon opening to continuation approaches. If prices can stay below the Fibonacci level at 6.7581, the door can remain open for bearish trend strategies. Targeted objectives could be sought at 6.7000, followed by a re-test of the nine-month-low at 6.6750 and then the 6.6161 Fibonacci level.

USDCNH Daily Price Chart

Chart prepared by James Stanley

To read more:

Are you looking for longer-term analysis on the U.S. Dollar? Our DailyFX Forecasts have a section for each major currency, and we also offer a plethora of resources on USD-pairs such as EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, AUD/USD. Traders can also stay up with near-term positioning via our IG Client Sentiment Indicator.

Forex Trading Resources

DailyFX offers a plethora of tools, indicators and resources to help traders. For those looking for trading ideas, our IG Client Sentiment shows the positioning of retail traders with actual live trades and positions. Our trading guides bring our DailyFX Quarterly Forecasts and our Top Trading Opportunities; and our real-time news feed has intra-day interactions from the DailyFX team. And if youre looking for real-time analysis, our DailyFX Webinars offer numerous sessions each week in which you can see how and why were looking at what were looking at.

If youre looking for educational information, our New to FX guide is there to help new(er) traders while our Traits of Successful Traders research is built to help sharpen the skill set by focusing on risk and trade management.

--- Written by James Stanley, Strategist for DailyFX.com

Contact and follow James on Twitter: @JStanleyFX
When the actor David Niven was buried in Switzerland, the largest wreath was sent by British Airways staff with a note inscribed: He made a porter feel like a king.

Members of the House of Commons may feel similarly disposed towards Geoffrey Cox, he of the basso profundo voice and swooshy theatrical rhetoric.

In a Cabinet of faceless dullards, the Attorney General radiates the sort of grace and old-school charm now sadly lacking in modern politics.

He treats legal queries from his peers with the gratitude and deference of a bowing and scraping Abyssinian courtier. Some ministers work for the Prime Minister. Mr Cox (Sir Geoffrey before long, surely) is very much one who serves her.

The QC travelled to Brussels this week on Mrs Mays behalf in a last-ditch attempt to seek a supplementary agreement on the Irish backstop.

In a Cabinet of faceless dullards, the Attorney General radiates the sort of grace and old-school charm now sadly lacking in modern politics, says Henry Deedes

Or as Brexiteers have dubbed it, Coxs codpiece.

It is relatively uncontroversial to say that his mission was not a soaraway success.

In fact, not since Jack the giant-slayer returned from the market with a punnet of magic beans in exchange for the family moo has any negotiation been deemed so disappointing. Lesser souls would have been ripe for humiliation.

And yet there Sir Geoffrey was at Attorney Generals Questions yesterday, presiding over the chamber with such kingly grandeur it was as though he were draped in ermine. How he delights the House with his stately munificence. How he endears himself to all sides with his archaic courtesy.

Questions aplenty on the backstop. Helen Goodman (Lab, Bishop Auckland) wanted to know whether the Government was still seeking change to the EUs Withdrawal Agreement.

Sir Geoffrey said they were but he had not yet been satisfied. Or as he put it: I am concerned to ensure that what is inside the codpiece is in full working orderrrrr!

Hilary Benn (Lab, Leeds Central) had a fiendishly convoluted query about the backstops mechanism way beyond my legal understanding. Sir Geoffrey generously acknowledged he could see he was dealing with a Parliamentarian worthy of his name.

That is a question, he purred, his arrows narrowing, his voice descending a further semitone, I would have expected from such a sophisticated Select Committee chair.

There Sir Geoffrey was at Attorney Generals Questions yesterday, presiding over the chamber with such kingly grandeur it was as though he were draped in ermine

Mr Benn beamed back at him like an infant awarded an extra ration of sweeties. Mark Francois (Con, Rayleigh and Wickford), a geezerish rabble-rouser noted for his rampant Euroscepticism if not always his eloquence, wasnt keen on Sir Geoffrey negotiating with Brussels while also acting as the Governments legal adviser.

This would effectively mean he would be marking his own homework if he wrung any changes out of them.

Mr Francois concluded: He will end up examining his own codpiece in front of the House of Commons.

Gadzooks! Sir Geoffreys eyebrows hopped like a pair of jumping slugs. The law is law, he replied, sucking his gums. There are many lawyers  Too many! yelled shadow arts minister Kevin Brennan  capable of deciding whether he had got his judgment right or wrong.

The Attorney General spun to face colleagues, he slapped the despatch box, he waved his half-moon specs with a baroque swish of the wrists. All the while his swotty frontbench opponent Nick Thomas-Symonds (Lab, Torfaen) politely bobbed along in his wake like a skiff trailing an oil tanker.

Towards the end, Philip Hollobone (Con, Kettering) asked about reviewing the Treason Act which he suggested might be applied to British citizens who elope to fight with IS.

Hang em n flog em Hollobone retains forthright views on law and order.

It was mildly reassuring to see his suggestion provoked almost zero enthusiasm.
Throughout my life, Ive been called many things, most of which I wouldnt want to repeat in front of my mother.

But one epithet I wear with pride is this newspapers description of me, some years ago, as the Pope of Political Correctness.

It was referring to my role as the founder chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), responsible for enforcing Britains anti-discrimination laws.

As the public face of the EHRC for over six years, I was forced to spend many hours on TV and radio, wearily opining on whether it was racist to use the word coloured (Amber Rudd can be reassured it isnt, and people of colour have many better things to be offended about); or whether schools with some Muslim pupils could celebrate Christmas with a crib containing the baby Jesus (almost every British Muslim would join in the celebration of someone they regard as one of humankinds great prophets).

But the Commissions real work has always risen above this kind of silliness and in doing so it has transformed many lives.

Trevor Phillips, founding chairman of the equalities watchdog and a Labour Party member for 30 years, has said he's proud Corbyn's fanatics will face a reckoning

When we came into being in 2007, the EHRC was the first body anywhere in the world given the mandate to seek out prejudice of all kinds and to eliminate it.

And no one should be surprised that Britain was the first country to take such a bold step; youd have to travel a long way to find a nation as wedded to the idea of fair play.

Thats why yesterdays courageous decision by the Commission to investigate the Labour Party was a proud moment for me.

I know that EHRC lawyers would have considered the decision with the utmost thoroughness, and I am sure the Board would have weighed the risk of controversy carefully. And then they did the right thing  just as youd expect a pioneering body empowered to attack injustice without fear or favour to do.

On the other hand, it was a moment of utter shame to find a political party of which Ive been a supporter and member for more than 30 years, for which Ive stomped the streets and felt the breeze of a hundred doors slamming in my face, was in the dock for harbouring the oldest prejudice of all: anti-Semitism.

It is not the first time the Commission has found itself in the awkward position of having to decide whether a political party has broken the law.

Back in 2005, as a relatively new chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (a EHRC forerunner), I was confronted with dozens of complaints about the Conservative Partys anti-immigration election poster with the slogan Are You Thinking What Were Thinking?

It wasnt unlawful, but it was ugly, borderline racist, and the new leader David Cameron wasted not a minute on dumping the message.

Four years later, we took the British National Party to court over their constitution: it is unlawful for a political party to exclude people from membership because of their race. The BNPs legal defeat presaged their financial and political collapse  an act about which I have never had a moments regret.

The Labour Party, however, is different.

In 1963, after the state-run bus company in Bristol refused to employ black or Asian conductors  white female passengers were said to be too frightened to travel with them at night  residents of the city mounted a four-month boycott.

In the end the owners backed down on this blatantly racist policy. But it was Harold Wilson who, moved by the boycott, ordered his ministers to bring in Britains first anti-discrimination laws in 1965. Five years later, spurred on by the protests of women at Dagenhams Ford plant (where my own sister worked as a nurse), the Labour minister Barbara Castle forced her male Cabinet colleagues to accept the Equal Pay Act.

Yesterdays courageous decision by the Commission to investigate the Labour Party was a proud moment for me

And so on through the decades to 2010, when Harriet Harman steered our Equality Act through Parliament. It is widely acknowledged to be the most comprehensive piece of anti-discrimination law anywhere in the world.

This is the party I had always wanted Labour to be. And it is this history that makes Labours fall from grace so humiliating for its members and so tragic for our country.

How has it come to this?

I always knew, and so did many others, that lurking at the edges of our party there were many who regarded anti-discrimination as window dressing; equal pay a sop to women and race equality law just a way of garnering black votes.

When the EHRC took the BNP to court, senior Labour MPs told me to stop wasting time. And I know that without Harmans determination, the 2010 Act would have been dumped in the Brown administrations dying days.

That is because for many in Labours far-Left there are only two battles worth fighting. One is against the class enemy represented by the Tories; the other, internationally, is the war against the imperialist Americans and their allies, whose principal running dog is, of course, Israel.

And anyone who supports Israel, as do most Jewish people, stands in the enemy camp.

For this faction of the Labour Party, the distinction between Israel as a country and Jews as a race, has long since ceased to matter. If you are not for us, they say, you must be against us. They cannot understand why anyone who sympathises with the Palestinians, as I do, doesnt also agree with them that the only way to end their misery is to destroy Israel and all who support her.

The short step to believing that these people  America, Israel, Jews  are bound up in a single vast conspiracy has been widely adopted on the far-Left.

And unfortunately, by their behaviour, the Labour leadership seems to have bought this barrel-load of nonsense completely. The lunatics have taken over the asylum and  whatever they think they are doing  are behaving like anti-Semites.

I am sure any defence of the EHRCs action in starting an investigation will become part of a fresh conspiracy theory. It happens that the chief executive of the EHRC is Jewish. The Twitter-sphere is already in overdrive and last night Labours National Executive Committee was calling for the EHRC to be abolished!

Let me be clear: Had I still been at the EHRC, I would have supported this decision 100 per cent.

The EHRC has written to the Labour Party inviting its hierarchy to respond to 1,000 pages and more of allegations. I do not know what they will find but I am sure the party will respond with its usual platitudes, assert that its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, does not have a racist bone in his body, and insist everyone in the party is treated equally.

As several Jewish MPs have discovered  Margaret Hodge, Louise Ellman, Luciana Berger among them  there is more than one way to freeze someone out of an organisation.

The BNP did it with a nakedly racist rule. Labours anti-Semites may have been more subtle, but are no less repulsive. They are the true betrayers of Labours values.

The party has proven it cannot be reformed from the inside. Our democracy needs Labour to be rescued from itself  and perhaps the EHRC can start that process.

Yesterday the Commission proved just why it matters. Whatever else is happening in politics at least someone is standing up for the best in Britain.
Most sensible organisations would not appoint to an anti-Semitism complaints investigation team someone who herself is being sued for libel by an anti-Semitism campaigner.

But then Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party is not a sensible organisation.

No wonder Labour MP Dame Louise Ellman has said that the appointment of Laura Murray  who is Corbyns stakeholder manager (whatever that means)  puts a major question mark on whether the people running this organisation understand the concerns.

Laura Murray (pictured above with the Labour leader) is a fellow member of the Hampstead branch. And like Gardiner and his wife, she is close to Corbyn, not least because her father is one of his advisers. Andrew Murray, a Communist for 40 years, joined Labour when Corbyn became leader in 2015

Dame Louise was challenging whether the secondment of 30-year-old Ms Murray (the daughter of one of Corbyns gurus) to the National Complaints team, was appropriate given that shes been accused of libel by Countdowns Rachel Riley.

Whats more, Ms Murray reports directly to Thomas Gardiner, a lawyer and councillor, who is the Partys witchfinder general in charge of investigating the enormous backlog of anti-Semitism complaints.

There was talk, too, when Gardiner was appointed last year, if he was right for the job. In 2016, he tabled a motion in his local party arguing Labours anti-Semitism problem had been over-stated.

And those concerns have returned to haunt Labour. Not least over the decision Gardiner took last year involving activist Kayla Bibby. She posted an image on Facebook of an alien  with the Star of David on its back  plastered over the Statue of Liberty.

Ms Bibby, 33, added: The most accurate photo Ive seen all year! She also posted an image of presidents George W Bush and George Bush senior with the words: 100 per cent Jew Tools.

A junior official who reports to Gardiner argued that Ms Bibby should be suspended. Gardiner, however, disagreed.

She was let off with a warning and attended last years party conference. It was only after an objection  again from the Jewish MP Dame Louise Ellman  that Ms Bibby was suspended.

Gardiner, who is married to an economics adviser to Corbyn, Maryam Eslamdoust, is a member of Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Party, which has blocked some of its Jewish members from debating anti-Semitism.

Laura Murray is a fellow member of the Hampstead branch. And like Gardiner and his wife, she is close to Corbyn, not least because her father is one of his advisers.

Andrew Murray, a Communist for 40 years, joined Labour when Corbyn became leader in 2015.

Many of Labours critics believe the row over Ms Murray and her alleged attack on Rachel Riley is symbolic of how allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour have, at best, been dealt with cack-handedly. The row erupted on Sunday when an egg was thrown at Corbyn while he was visiting a mosque.

Ms Murray tweeted: Today Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for Visit My Mosque Day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer. Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi. This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever.

In fact what Ms Riley had done was retweet a Corbyn supporters observation that throwing eggs at Nazis was sound life advice.

This appears to have been based on her highlighting a comment from activist Owen Jones in which he said if you dont want eggs thrown at you dont be a Nazi. (He was referring to ex-BNP leader Nick Griffin.)

Ms Riley responded to Ms Murrays comment by saying it was an appalling distortion of the truth, adding: The same woman who called me dangerous and stupid for talking about anti-Semitism yesterday? What seriously? Is that how she got the job?! Cant be true...?!

She has instructed lawyer Mark Lewis to pursue a libel claim against Ms Murray. Which makes it all the more bizarre that on Monday Labour confirmed Ms Murray was being drafted in to help with the backlog of complaints.

Most sensible organisations would not appoint to an anti-Semitism complaints investigation team someone who herself is being sued for libel by an anti-Semitism campaigner. But then Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party is not a sensible organisation [File photo]

Ms Murray certainly feels at home in Corbyns Labour. Shortly before she deleted her entire Twitter feed this week, she revealed an insight into her view of the world  tweeting her support for Fidel Castro.

And on her Instagram account, theres a picture of her under a poster of Lenin.Her father, who works for union baron Len McCluskey, would approve. A defender of Stalin, two years ago he spoke at an event to celebrate the centenary of the Russian Revolution.

Since her move to the complaints investigation team, its been revealed that Ms Murray opposed the suspension of a female Labour member who said an anti-Semitic mural in London, showing hook-nosed men sitting around a Monopoly board on the backs of slaves, was great.

With a degree in Politics, Philosophy and History from Birkbeck College, London, Ms Murray is passionate about politics. She is a long-standing critic of Israel and supporter of Palestine  views which many feel should disqualify her from being seconded to the complaints unit.

In her defence, shes written: Ive campaigned for Palestine my entire adult life and know that censorship of free speech on Israel is a very real and dangerous thing.

It remains to be seen if her actions match her words.
As we get closer to the day we are supposed to leave the EU, every news bulletin brings another harbinger of imminent Armageddon if we dont swallow Mother Theresas dismal, defeatist deal.

I thought the parcel bombs this week were a nice touch. Project Fear has been warning the IRA will start kicking off again unless we sign up to the so-called Irish backstop.

Were told the bombs had Dublin postmarks, but I shouldnt be surprised if they were sent from closer to home by increasingly desperate Remoaners.

Confused? Youre supposed to be. The politicians are trying to batter us all into submission. If youre anything like me, you reach for the remote whenever the word Brexit is mentioned.

Sometimes, though, theres no escape. So Ive assembled an A-Z of Brexit, listing the lexicon of doublespeak and some of the leading runners and riders, in dictionary form. Youll find the real meaning of each expression in italics . . .

Richard Littlejohn has assembled an A-Z of Brexit, listing the lexicon of doublespeak and some of the leading runners and riders, in dictionary form

A is for Article 50 Extension. Remain.

B for Backstop, Irish; Blind Brexit; BRINO; Brexit means Brexit (May, Theresa). Remain.

C for Chequers plan; Customs Union; Customs Territory; Common Rule Book; Crashing Out; Cliff Edge; Chlorinated chicken from America; Corbyn, Jeremy, lifelong anti-EU campaigner, now backing Norway Option (see elsewhere). Remain.

D for Deal, as in Theresa Mays Deal is the only one on the table; Dave, Call Me, It will be your decision and we will honour it; Delay Article 50 (see above). Remain.

E for Extension, see Article 50; ECJ jurisdiction, temporary; Emergency, National, to be declared in the event of No Deal. Remain.

F for Free Movement; Future Relationship; Frictionless Trade; Facilitated Customs Arrangement; Far Right. Remain.

G for Guaranteed rights for foreign nationals; also, Gove, Michael, former Leave campaigner who wants to become Prime Minister and now claims that opposing Theresa Mays Deal (see above) will damage democracy. Remain.

H for Hard Brexit, as in, end of the world as we know it; Honda to quit Britain because of Brexit, even though its not true; Hammond, aka Spread Fear Phil. Remain.

I for Implementation Period, also see Transition Period; IRA, as in they havent gone away, you know. Remain.

J for Jobs Brexit, as millions will be sacked in the event of a Hard Brexit (see above). Remain.

K for KitKats, disappearing from shelves after No-Deal Brexit. Remain.

L for Leave. Remain.

M for Mars Bars, which will disappear from the shelves, etc (see Kit Kats, above); Medicine shortages; Meaningless jargon like Meaningful Vote. Remain.

N for Norway Option; No Deal is better than a Bad Deal (May, Theresa); No one voted to be poorer. Remain.

O for Osborne, George Gideon, aka Nine Jobs George, former Chancellor who promised to honour the referendum result (see also, Dave, Call Me) and has since moved heaven and earth to stop Brexit; Olly, as in Robbins, fanatically pro-EU civil servant, put in charge of Leave negotiations. Remain.

P for Project Fear; Peoples Vote; Parliament, as in must be given the final say; Passports, which will become invalid after No Deal. Remain.

Q for Queen, The, who will be evacuated to Canada in event of No Deal. Remain.

R for Rudd, Amber, Cabinet minister sister of Rudd, Roland, the PR spiv running Project Fear (see above); also for Respect the outcome of the referendum, as in, we promise to; Red Lines, which we will not cross. Remain.

S for Single Market; Soft Brexit; Sensible Brexit; Second Referendum; Soubry, Anna; Sheep, millions of which will have to be slaughtered in the event of No Deal, etc. Remain.

T for Transition Period; Troubles, return of; Taking Back Control; Toyota to quit Britain because of Brexit, even though its not true (see also Honda). Remain.

U for Umunna, Chucky, who stomped out of the Labour Party, demanding a second referendum; Ukip (see Far Right); Ultras, smear used against those democrats who want to uphold the wishes of 17.4 million Leave voters. Remain.

V for Vote (see Meaningful and Peoples, above); Verucca, Lenny, pipsqueak Irish Prime Minister, trying to stop Brexit; VAT, as in Valued Added Tax  not large one, please, Dave  which will continue to be imposed by Brussels after Withdrawal Agreement (see below). Remain.

W for Workers Rights, protected in line with EU; mrs mays Withdrawal Agreement or no Brexit at all. Remain.

X for Xenophobes, common smear used against Leave voters, along with Little Englanders, racists, etc (see also Ultras, Far Right, Ukip). Remain.

Y for Your Decision will be implemented, blah, blah, blah, blatant lie from all leading politicians. Remain.

Z for ZZZZZZZZ . . . the boredom of most sane British people, which is what all those plotting to stop us leaving the EU are relying upon to prevent it ever happening.
Trouble getting off to sleep, tossing and turning throughout the night or waking up in the early hours are all very familiar scenarios for people with cancer.

But while the side-effects of surgery and other treatments like radiotherapy are widely talked about, problems sleeping is barely mentioned.

Yet sleep is vital  particularly when youre ill. It not only helps your body heal but boosts the immune system which it vital, particularly if youve been undergoing chemotherapy.

Trouble getting to sleep, or staying asleep, is a common side effect of cancer treatment

Whats more, it can boost your mood too.

Thats why, in the run up to World Sleep Day on March 15, the experts at Live Better With Cancer have launched a new 7-day sleep course full of expert advice to help you get a good nights rest.

It contains practical information on just how many hours you need, when to get your head down and the best positions to lie in for different aches and pains.

Theres also advice on mental health, nutrition, exercise and even the right room temperature for sleeping. And to help you get as well read on all things sleep as possible, they have curated a free e-book packed with everything you need to know and do to get as much vital rest as possible, ensuring you, or your loved one, has one thing less to worry about.

From sleep-boosting recipes to the mechanics of how your medication affects your body, the e-book - available to download here - is essential reading for anyone struggling to drift off.

WHY AM I SLEEPING SO BADLY?

It could simply be stress  a cancer diagnosis is bound to worry you and make you anxious, neither of which will help you get a good night.

Certain medications, such as steroids, can stop you sleeping well, while others, including antihistamines, can make you doze off in the day so you dont get a good nights rest.

Alternatively side effects from your treatment, like night sweats or itchy skin, could also be having an effect.

In a chapter of the e-book, written by sleep experts, it explains: 'Some cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, can cause side effects which make it hard to sleep, including nerve pain (neuropathy), sore or itchy skin, flu-like symptoms, nausea and vomiting, and needing to visit the toilet frequently.

'You might also experience night sweats  episodes of excessive sweating which occur during the night, making you feel very uncomfortable and making it difficult to sleep.'

Certain medications, such as steroids, can stop you sleeping well - your doctor can advise

WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT?

Try to stick to a routine to get your body used to going to bed at a certain time  maybe do a little light exercise such as walking or yoga beforehand to tire yourself out.

Avoid napping later in the day as this could stop you sleeping later on and dont use a computer or mobile phone for a couple of hours before you retire as they can stop you sleeping.

Instead, spend that time relaxing  have a warm bath, drink a hot milky drink, burn a scented candle or read a good book  they all promote rest.

Try to relax with a good book, a warm bath, a hot drink or a scented candle

Make sure your bedroom is at a good temperature for you and invest in an eye mask, ear plugs or blackout curtain if need be.

And if worry is the problem, try yoga and mindfulness techniques like breathing exercises or destress naturally with essential oils or a steam aromatherapy diffuser.

As the exclusive e-book explains, anxieties while battling cancer are completely normal and understandable - but that doesn't mean it makes them disappear when you're trying to drift off.

In a sneak peak from the section about worrying, the book explains: 'If you're feeling stressed or anxious, it can be very hard to sleep properly. Many people find that practising some simple relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing, yoga and meditation, can help. It can also help to write down your worries, or talk to a close friend or family member. Cancer professionals can recommend specialists who help with the psychological aspects of cancer.

'Finally, online forums such as the Live Better With Cancer Community can also be a very useful source of advice and support, from people who have been through a similar experience.'

To read more from the e-book, click here, or sign up to the Live Better With Cancer Community to share experiences and advice with other cancer fighters.

GET COMFORTABLE

If you believe your medication is stopping you sleeping, speak to your doctor about maybe changing the time you take it or swapping to a different drug.

If you think your medication is affecting your sleep, ask your doctor for their opinion

Choose nightwear and bedding made from cotton and bamboo, which are naturally soft and absorb moisture, and, if you have to lay down a lot, try a mattress tilter to help find the most comfortable position.

For sore or itchy skin, apply a skin oil, while a warm body wrap can ease the pain caused by a tumour or treatment area.

Getting into a nightly routine can also help, the e-book explains. It reads: 'Try to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, to get your body into a rhythm. Avoid excessive daytime napping if you can, as this can interfere with your quality of sleep at night.

'Avoid using digital devices in the hours leading up to bedtime, as the blue screen light can interfere with your brains sleep patterns. Instead, listening to music or doing something relaxing such as reading or mindful colouring can help you to de-stress.

'A hot bath before bed does help you to sleep, since the cool-down period afterwards relaxes you.'

HOW LIVE BETTER WITH CAN HELP

Its often the unexpected side effects of cancer that catch patients out. While they might expect to lose their hair during chemo, other issues like problems sleeping, mouth ulcers and nausea can be surprise. So Live Better With has been set up to provide an advice and support platform for people living with the disease. Not only does it offer a curated range of proven products, recommended by its community and experts, the site also provides information and advice on all aspects of dealing with cancer and its side-effects. Theres also a thriving community forum where people with cancer can discuss anything from their treatment to their concerns or individual problems. To see if it can help you, got to livebetterwith.com...

CANT SLEEP? TRY THESE INGENIOUS SOLUTIONS

LUXURY MATTRESS TILTER, 49.99

Lying in bed for days or weeks following an operation can be uncomfortable. This tilter can be placed under an existing mattress to lift it by 5ins to help reduce respiratory difficulties, reflux, varicose veins and sleeping problems.

THE LITTLE BOOK OF MINDFULNESS, 6.99

Packed full of five-to-ten minute mindfulness exercises, this little book can help you reduce stress and anxiety which can result in a better nights sleep.

MICROWAVABLE BODY WRAP, 9.99

If youre suffering from aches and pains, pop this soothing lavender-scented body wrap into the microwave and wrap it around the affected area for relief.

BADGER SLEEP BUNDLE, 9.99

Contains both the Night Night Balm which is full of the calming scents of both lavender and chamomile and the Sleep Balm which has essential oils to quiet your thoughts to let you fall asleep more easily.

BAMBOO DOUBLE DUVET COVER, 39.99

Bamboo bedding has many properties that make it perfect for people with cancer  it feels soft and silky against sore skin, its naturally antibacterial to help those with a weakened immune system and it you cool throughout the night.

All of these  and more  are available at livebetterwith.com...
Think of Van Gogh and you probably picture him flame-haired in a frenzy, painting sunflowers and golden wheat fields under a dazzling sun in the south of France.

Youre less likely to imagine him in a top hat strolling over Westminster Bridge in the fog on his daily commute to an office job.

But he spent the best part of three years in his early 20s in London and on the Kent coast.

He worked for an art dealer and then as a teacher and preacher and what he saw, read and experienced here stayed with him for the rest of his life.

As Louis van Tilborgh of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has put it, the Van Gogh we know was being born in London.

A new exhibition at Tate Britain reveals the connection between Van Gogh and Britain, pictured: a self-portrait on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington

Now a major new Tate Britain exhibition, Van Gogh And Britain, explores the impact this country and its art had on him, and how he inspired artists here.

More than 50 of Van Goghs works have been gathered, including a late self-portrait from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Pollarded Willows from the Kroller-Moller Museum in Amsterdam (which has never been shown here), The Prison Courtyard from The Pushkin State Museum in Moscow and Sunflowers (from Londons National Gallery).

They are joined by paintings he saw and admired here, and works by British artists who were influenced by him, from Vanessa Bell to Francis Bacon.

Only a few drawings survive from his time in the UK, including a sketch of a London house he lived in and a view from the school he taught at in Ramsgate, but they are too delicate to travel to the exhibition.

Van Gogh arrived in London in 1873, aged 20, to work for Goupil & Co art dealers off the Strand. It all started so brightly.

He was earning 90 a year (around 60,000 today), the most he would ever earn, and led a comfortable life.

He spent weekends looking round Londons museums and galleries, and taking walks through the parks or beside the Thames. Its also where he first fell in love.

Things are going well for me here, he wrote to his brother Theo.

I have a wonderful home and its a great pleasure to observe London, the English way of life and the English themselves.

He lodged in a house which still stands in Hackford Road in Brixton, south London.

Tate curator Carol Jacobi revealed Van Gogh became disillusioned with commercial life and began talking about becoming a missionary, pictured: Van Goghs Pollarded Willows

As well as following the fashion for top hats (you cant be in London without one, he wrote to his parents), he also picked up on our eating habits: Bread is the staff of life, is a proverb of the English, though they are fond of meat too, and in general take too much of it.

But the joy didnt last. Before long he was rejected in love, became lonely and then lost his job.

He also came face to face with the darker side of city life, seeing deprivation in Londons slums, which deeply affected his outlook on life and his art.

His is a story of two halves, says Tate curator Carol Jacobi.

Hed been quite successful as an art dealer in The Hague, and then arrived in London, where he spoke of romance.

'But then something happened  many people think it was a failed love affair with Eugenie Loyer, the 19-year-old daughter of his landlady.

'He moved to another house on Kennington Road and his writing became much more melancholy.

'He became disillusioned with commercial life too, and he started to become more religious and to talk about becoming a missionary.

View from a London gaol Tate Britain's exhibition features both Van Gogh's painting of The Prison Courtyard (left) and the engraving of Newgate Prison by Gustave Dore (right) which his piece was based on In his final year Van Gogh painted The Prison Courtyard (1890, left), which recalls his time in London. Its based on an engraving of Newgate Prison by Gustave Dore (right) and both are in the show. Van Gogh was in an asylum and feeling ignored  to reflect this, in his version the prison official in the bottom right looks down, and not at the inmates. Advertisement

Van Gogh was sacked from Goupils in January 1876 during a stint at their Paris offices, apparently for being tactless with customers.

But by April he was back in England as a teacher of French, German and arithmetic at a school in Ramsgate.

He went with the school when it moved to Isleworth in west London, and in July 1876 he moved to a nearby school run by a church minister, where he taught, preached and began to fulfil his dream of being an urban missionary.

London at the time was a centre of dissent, with a lot of radical writers and dissenting ministers, says Carol Jacobi.

It was also a place where poverty was conspicuous.

Van Gogh didnt become an artist until 1880, four years after his time here.

By then his chances of a religious career were fading, but what hed seen in London never left him and proved to be a fruitful training.

While his initial impressions of British art werent positive  he said the paintings at the Royal Academy Summer Show of 1873 were with a few exceptions very feeble  he did come to admire artists including John Everett Millais and John Constable.

Four illustrations Van Gogh used as study aids feature in the exhibition, pictured: Van Goghs Sunflowers, painted in 1888, will be in the exhibition

And the black-and-white illustrations he saw here, in particular for The Graphic magazine, truly excited him.

The illustrations were of city life, as well as the sufferings of the downtrodden.

This fitted with his love of Charles Dickens.

For me the English black-and-white artists are to art what Dickens is to literature, he wrote.

They have the same sentiment, noble and healthy, and one always returns to them... I am organising my whole life so as to do the things of everyday life that Dickens describes and the artists Ive mentioned draw.

During his time in England he would almost certainly have seen a copy of an 1872 book by Gustave Dore called London: A Pilgrimage, which portrayed life in Victorian London in lurid detail.

Later, once Van Gogh had become an artist, he managed to get 17 of the illustrations to use as study aids.

Four of those he owned are in the exhibition.

In December 1876 Van Gogh left England.

By 1890 he was in a mental asylum in Provence, and it was here he painted The Prison Courtyard, based on one of Dores prints (see previous page).

Van Gogh (portrayed) rejected middle-class measures of success and had a desire to make art of the people for the people says Carol Jacobi

He identified with prisoners and talked about himself as an outsider too, especially when he was in the asylum, says Carol Jacobi.

He left the asylum in May 1890, and two months later he was dead, aged just 37, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Its a shame Van Gogh is still viewed through his death and his mental illness, but I hope this show will encourage us to think of him as more than just a tortured artist, says Carol Jacobi.

Id like people to remember his intellectual curiosity and to feel exhilarated by his work.

'While in London he realised there are different definitions of success.

'He rejected a middle-class measure of success; he wanted to live with ordinary people, and to make art of the people for the people.

We have certainly responded since.

The last Van Gogh exhibition held at the Tate back in 1947 was so popular the organisers asked the Arts Council to reimburse them for three years worth of wear to the gallerys floors that had happened in just five weeks.

As Van Gogh grows ever more popular, we can only hope the Tates floors are sturdy enough for the new show.

Van Gogh And Britain is at Tate Britain from 27 March until 11 August
A massive wolfdog, who was left at a kill shelter by his owners when he became too much to handle, was rescued, and given a second chance at life, by an animal sanctuary.

Yuki was abandoned by his owners and left at a kill shelter - a shelter that has a time limit on how long animals stay before they are euthanized to make space for incoming animals - by his owners.

He was rescued by volunteers at Shy Wolf Sanctuary, in Naples, Florida, in 2008, where he has been living ever since.

Woah! Yuki (pictured), was bought by owners and left in a kill shelter when he was eight months old when he became too much for them to handle

Gorgeous! Yuki, who weighs approximately 120 pounds and is a wolfdog - a cross between a domestic dog and a wild wolf - was rescued by the Shy Wolf Sanctuary in 2008

Brittany Allen, a staff member of the sanctuary - which was founded in 2001 - said Yuki is one of the highest content wolfdogs they currently have at the facility.

According to Animal Law Source, a wolfdog is a cross between a domestic dog and a wild wolf.

They have a mixture of traits, which results in behavior patterns that are less predictable than those typically associated with a dog or wolf.

Beautiful: Staff at the sanctuary, based in Naples, Florida, discovered that Yuki is 87.5 per cent Gray Wolf, 8.6 per cent Siberian Husky, and 3.9 per cent German Shepherd

Brittany told Bored Panda that when tests were carried out on the animal, it was discovered that Yuki is 87.5 per cent Gray Wolf, 8.6 per cent Siberian Husky, and 3.9 per cent German Shepherd.

Explaining Yuki's background, Brittany said: 'We rescued him from a failed house pet situation. Someone purchased him from a breeder and realized he was too much to handle. They dumped him at a kill shelter at eight months old.

'We stepped in and provided a home for him and he has been with us ever since,' she added.

Brittany explained that wolfdogs demand respect, and that she would have a 'much different' encounter with one if she met them in the wilderness.

She said: 'They definitely are creatures that demand respect. It would be a much different encounter in the wild than what I do with these guys.

'The animals I work with have never been in the wild and never will be, so they are more socialized.

'We show off their adorable moments in the hope of helping people identify with them at least and maybe change their fear response into a healthy respect through education.

'And also giving an animal a chance at a decent life when otherwise they would be euthanized,' she said.

Special: Yuki, who celebrated his birthday on February 5, is described by one of the workers at the facility as one of the most 'interesting' animals they currently have living there

Favorite: One of the directors of the sanctuary said staff at the facility once even considered having Yuki as the ambassador for the sanctuary

Comparing wolfdogs to other animals, Brittany said that they can be a bit difficult, because you can't tell how much wolf and dog behavior they will have.

She explained: 'Yuki isnt necessarily more social vs. the pure wolves. We have pure wolves who will run away when they see new people because they are generally shy, curious animals. Yuki, however will run straight to a new person and if he doesnt like them will become aggressive towards them.

'With the pure wolves, once they know you and feel comfortable with you, they can be affectionate and loving but they will always be wolves you cant get in the way of them and their food, and you must respect their boundaries.

Bond: One of the sanctuary's workers, Brittany Allen (pictured), said wolfdogs are selective with who they choose to have as companions - with both animals and humans

'They are both social with people they accept in their space, but they are very selective as well. This also applies to other wolf/wolfdog companions. They are very selective but when they bond it is pretty unique,' she added.

Back in January, Brittany posted a short video that showed her as she sat beside Yuki, and the video garnered over 26,000 views on Instagram.

However, despite the wolfdog appearing absolutely huge in the snippet, Brittney insists he isn't quite as big as he appears.

She told the publication that she weighs around 120 pounds, but isn't as big as the post makes her out to look.

One of the directors of the sanctuary, which boasts staff and over 30 volunteers who work year-round, Jeremy Albrecht, said that Yuki has become a definite favorite at the facility.

He said: 'Today, Yuki is one of the most interesting animals in the sanctuary. He is not an easy guy to get to know, but he does have a small number of volunteers he has bonded with.

'He has gained the nickname "Woowoo" because when he sees any of his chosen volunteers that is the noise he makes, beckoning that volunteer to come spend time with him,' he explained.

Judy, a volunteer, said: 'Yuki is one of those animals that he lets you know if he wants you in his enclosure or not. He has a very small group of women that he allows in his enclosure called his "harem".'

One director of the sanctuary said staff at the sanctuary once considered having Yuki as the ambassador for the sanctuary.

However, they revealed that things took a turn for the worst when he had an accident that affected his leg.

Doing good: The Shy Wolf Sanctuary was founded in 2001 by a woman named Nancy Smith, and now boasts staff and over 30 volunteers who work year-round

Kind: The facility aims to provide sanctuary and rehabilitation to wild and captive bred wolves, and other animals, at a two and a half acre property in Naples, Florida

They said: 'Yuki came to us in 2008. He was in reasonably good health compared to a lot of the animals that come to us and had a very outgoing personality initially. We even considered him for ambassadorship at one point.

'Shortly after arriving at Shy Wolf Sanctuary Yuki managed to catch a leg on a palmetto and opened up a wound on his right rear knee.

'The wound ended up taking a total of 5 surgeries to finally repair and in that time Yuki became cage aggressive,' they explained.

Devastating: Yuki was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year, and workers at the sanctuary say they are making the most of the time they have left with him

And things recently became worse for the staff at the sanctuary, when it was discovered that Yuki had a terminal illness last year.

Jeremy said: 'He was diagnosed with cancer last year and unfortunately it is terminal. We have dealt with this particular cancer before and ultimately you dont really know how fast you caught it and how much time they have.'

He added that Yuki has been fighting the illness for quite a while now and staff are trying to make the most of the time they have left with him at the moment.

'When the day comes that he starts showing symptoms we will, as we always do, make the right decisions for Yukis quality of life. Saying goodbye to one of our animals is always difficult for our staff and volunteers, and Yuki will be no different.

'But its important to remember that while many of these animals have rough beginnings, their stories always have happy endings once they get to Shy Wolf Sanctuary.

'When their time with us is over the last thing they do is make room for our next rescue and happy ending,' he added.

Shy Wolf Sanctuary Education and Experience Center was founded in 2001 by Nancy Smith.

The facility aims to provide sanctuary and rehabilitation to wild and captive bred wolves, and other animals, at a two and a half acre property in Naples, Florida.
A makeup artist has shown off her stunning facial alterations that have transformed into stars as diverse as Taylor Swift, Johnny Depp and even Albert Einstein.

Using nothing but cosmetics and wigs, He Yuya, 28, from Chongqing, China, has turned herself into the mirror image of Scarlett Johansson, Cristiano Ronaldo and others.

And while all of her past makeup conversions have left 540,000 online fans stunned, her latest Taylor Swift transformation has taken her 'imitations' to an even higher level.

 Slide me  A makeup artist has wowed thousands with her ability to transform herself into celebrities using nothing but cosmetics and wigs (pictured as Taylor Swift)

He Yuya (pictured), 28, who lives in the city of Chongqing in China, looks completely unrecognisable once she completes her transformations

A video of the transformation shows Ms Yuya covering over her eyebrows before re-drawing them, over-lining her lips and adding careful lines of blush and contour to her cheeks.

She then puts in blue contacts and adds a blonde wig to complete the look.

'Wow you have got the talent girl,' one follower commented.

'I'm impressed, this is a next level makeup transformation!' Said another.

The variety of unique celebrities Ms Yuya has imitated goes to show how extensive her talent really is.

 Slide me  Her Johnny Depp transformation also blew followers away after she used faux facial hair and heavy contouring to replicate his facial structure

Ms Yuya captures Scarlett Johansson's Avengers character Natasha Romanoff in this astonishing snap (left) and looks very similar to Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn (right)

Ms Yuya recreated this iconic shot of Albert Einstein and you can barely tell the difference

The black and white photo of her dressed as Johnny Depp is so convincing that many would swear it was the actor himself.

The likeness is so uncanny that many commenters have raised doubts about whether it's really her behind the makeup.

'You are the greatest makeup artist on earth,' a fan wrote.

Although her Instagram feed is littered with a multitude of current famous people, she has also recreated Audrey Hepburn, Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe.

Although her Instagram feed is littered with a multitude of current famous people, she has also recreated Audrey Hepburn (pictured), Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe

She has managed to perfectly recreate each stars' unique features (pictured as Marilyn Monroe)

She has managed to perfectly recreate each stars unique features, with each look taking her four to six weeks.

The talented artist has even gone as far as to recreate some of the world's most famous portraits including Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Vermeer's The Girl with the Pearl Earring.

It was her version of the Mona Lisa that first saw her make headlines, after her followers had tasked her with the makeup challenge.

It was her version of the Mona Lisa, however, that first saw her make headlines

For all of these looks she used nothing but cosmetics, including when she recreated Christiano Ronaldo (pictured)

'The response is just overwhelming,' she said at the time.

'I appreciate all the support I've received and I'm so happy that viewers like the transformation.'

Ms Yuya draw-dropping transformations have earned her a loyal Instagram following where she boasts over 523,000 followers.

Her fans have made many requests for the celebrities they would like to see next, so further transformations can be expected soon.
An author has praised the anonymous 'angel' who comforted her 21 years ago as an overwhelmed first-time mother.

In a moving Twitter thread, Amanda Jennings told of the woman who crept in to comfort her while she was sobbing in a London hospital ward, and reassured her that she was 'the only mother her baby needed'.

Jennings, now a mother-of-three, says she still thinks of the woman to this day and now passes this advice onto new mothers as 'acts of kindness are so important'.

Her post has been liked 6,000 times on Twitter, and inspired other mothers to share their own stories of supportive strangers.

Author and mother Amanda Jennings, pictured at a book launch in 2012, shared her moving story on Twitter, admitting that as a new mother she was overwhelmed and sobbing

Amanda Jennings signing copies of her book, The Cliff House. The now mother-of-three says she shares the kind advice with other mothers she sees, sparking a chain of kindness

The writer said that after her first child was born, she was in hospital feeling overwhelmed, out of her depth, and unsure how to soothe her newborn baby.

She was comforted by another anonymous mother, who had just given birth to her third child, who crept through the ward at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London to hug her.

Jennings, who says she often thinks of the unidentified woman still to this day, says the woman told her: 'You are the best and only mum your baby wants.'

Amanda shared her heartwarming story on social media, inspiring thousands of other mothers to do the same.

She wrote:' If there's a lady out there with a 3rd child aged 21, born around 25th Nov, who 21yrs ago crept through the curtains in a ward at Queen Charlotte's to comfort a sobbing new mum who felt overwhelmed, hugged her and said 'you are the best and only mum your baby wants'. THANK YOU. '

Amanda went on to praise the unidentified woman for the gesture, writing:'I think about that lovely woman a lot. It was such a simple gesture. So lovely.

The post, which has gone viral on Twitter, inspired hundreds of other mothers to share their own stories of supportive strangers

Jennings went on to say that she thought about the lovely woman a lot, and now shared her message with other new mothers

'I felt very lost, unsure how to soothe my baby, out of my depth, and she was like an angel.'

'I often pass her message on to other new mums. These small acts of kindness are so important.'

The story inspired thousands to respond to her tweet with their own stories of kindness from strangers.

'After my Caesarian I was afraid to look at my scar. The woman in the next bed showed me her scar, which made mes less afraid,' one woman wrote,'Apparently when she was afraid, another woman showed her scar. So later I showed my scar to someone else. I hope the chain is still going on.'

Another wrote:'How lovely! Similar 11 years ago when I was trying not to cry while pushing miserable newborn (undiagnosed silent reflux) around the City of London. A besuited woman stopped and said, 'It doesn't feel like it, but you're doing brilliantly.' Made my heart well up.'

Other mothers took to Twitter to tell their own moving experiences with a newborn, with many remembering the kind words of strangers

Others shared stories of feeling frazzled trying to parent older children and the kind words of strangers that they wouldn't forget.

One wrote:' Sounds like the lovely lady who approached me in a supermarket when my two daughters aged 10 months and 2 years at the time were both having a tantrum from hell. She touched me on the arm and said 'it does get easier, I promise' while others were glaring with disapproval. Saviour.'

Another said: 'My kids struggled with potty training. Years ago, in a public bathroom, my kid was apologizing and crying due to an accident. When we came out a woman told me she loved how kind and patient I was. Two words I did NOT feel. I won't forget that either.'
Female British Airways pilots have revealed jokes from men about their jobs as they told about working in a 'man's world' for International Women's Day today.

Pilot Jess Arnand told Mail Online: 'We've been asked by a group of passengers if we'd like any help reversing the plane!

Female British Airways pilots like Amie Kirkham have revealed men's jokes about them as they told about working in a 'man's world' for International Women's Day today

Jess Anand, Senior First Officer, A320 at London Heathrow, told how she went plane-spotting with her dad as a child and became hooked on flying during her first lesson while at university

'On another occasion, a man informed us that he had a private flying license and offered us his assistance if we needed it  it was safe to say that we didn't take him up on his offer!

'It's quite easy to laugh off such remarks, as most are said in jest.'

The commercial pilot who works out of London's Heathrow Airport told how she went plane-spotting with her dad as a child and became instantly hooked on flying during her first lesson while at university.

Amie Kirkham, who comes from a family of pilots, said: 'My most exciting flight was when I was flying solo at 6,000ft around the Phoenix desert in Arizona in a light aircraft'

Amie added: 'My career highlight was a cute six-year-old girl wearing a full pilot's uniform she wears whenever she flies visiting the flight deck once after landing into Heathrow from Milan, Italy. She told me her dream was to be become a British Airways pilot'

She added: 'Flying isn't about bravado or wrestling a heavy machine through the sky. Women shouldn't change their image or behaviour to fit into a 'man's world'. You can be female and proud and you can still be a pilot like I am.'

Her colleague Amie Kirkham  who comes from a family of pilots and joined BA three years ago - said: 'My career highlight was a cute six-year-old girl wearing a full pilot's uniform she wears whenever she flies visiting the flight deck once after landing into Heathrow from Milan, Italy. She told me her dream was to be become a British Airways pilot.

'My most exciting flight that I'll never forget was when I was flying solo at 6,000ft around the Phoenix desert in Arizona in a light aircraft.

Jess opened up about men's funny reactions to them piloting an aircraft when she said: 'We've been asked by a group of passengers if we'd like any help reversing the plane!'

She added: 'Flying isn't about bravado or wrestling a heavy machine through the sky. Women shouldn't change their image or behavior to fit into a 'man's world'. You can be female and proud and you can still be a pilot like I am.'

'I first sat in a flight deck seat at a very young age and that sparked my passion in becoming a pilot. I remember telling my school, aged 10 and wearing my father's BA Captain's uniform, that I wanted to fly a jumbo jet one day.'

British Airways enters this its centenary year and International Women's Day with more female pilots than any other UK airline with over six per cent.

It's aiming to recruit more with initiatives such events where teenagers are invited to experience flying an aircraft simulator, meet female pilots and to learn the challenges they face in the skies, to help inspire them into joining the profession.
A 24-year-old breast cancer survivor has revealed how she came to terms with her stage three diagnosis in April last year.

Sofi Leota, who underwent a mastectomy at just 23, said that the physical changes were confronting.

'Some days were definitely harder than others,' the Queensland woman told FEMAIL. 'It was hard to look in the mirror.'

'It was hard to look in the mirror': A breast cancer survivor who underwent a mastectomy at just 23-years-old, revealed to FEMAIL on Friday how she came to terms with her diagnosis

Survivor: Sofi Leota (pictured) was diagnosed with stage three invasive breast cancer in April last year. She has undergone a mastectomy of her right breast, lymph node removal, multiple rounds of chemotherapy, radiation and IVF treatment

Sofi described herself as feeling 'numb' when diagnosed with stage three invasive breast cancer.

'I felt numb and my mind went into a frenzy,' she told FEMAIL.

'I had zero words. It was a horrible, horrible feeling. I would never wish it upon my worst enemy.'

Sofi underwent a mastectomy of her right breast, lymph node removal, multiple rounds of chemotherapy, radiation and IVF treatment within a week of being diagnosed.

Challenges: She admitted that she had to come to terms with the mastectomy 'pretty quickly' as she had no choice, however the loss of hair and weight gain were harder to face

She admitted that she had to come to terms with the mastectomy 'pretty quickly' as she had no choice but to have it, and so within a week of being diagnosed it was carried out.

However, it was the loss of her hair and weight gain that were the hardest to face.

'With the mastectomy I came to terms with it pretty quickly because I had no choice,' she said.

'I was diagnosed on a Tuesday and had the mastectomy booked in for the following Monday.'

'All of the other physical changes were a work in progress,' Sofi added. 'Some days were definitely harder than others, especially when looking in the mirror.'

Acceptance: Sofi said she finally came to terms with the physical changes, when she realised it was all temporary: 'My physical features did not define me as a person or as a woman. I was more than a head full of hair or two boobs'

Sofi said she finally came to terms with the physical changes, when she realised it was all temporary.

'I knew it was all temporary and it was necessary for me to live a long life afterwards. I also came to know that my physical features did not define me as a person or as a woman. I am more than a head full of hair or two boobs.'

Going into remission in January this year, Sofi said she now pays more attention to how she's feeling, having never taken much notice a year prior.

'I never paid attention to my body or wondered why I was feeling a certain way,' she admitted. 'I hadn't taken much notice. If I hadn't of felt the lump, I probably wouldn't have thought something was wrong.'

Her diagnosis has given Sofi a new appreciation for life and has redefined her idea of beauty.

Reflection: Going into remission in January this year, Sofi said she now pays more attention to how she's feeling, having never taken much notice a year prior. Pictured prior to her diagnosis

'Life is too short and beauty truly does lie within,' she said. 'We need to care more about ourselves and love ourselves. We are all so wonderful and beautiful in our own ways, both men and women.'

With Friday March 8 being International Women's Day, Sofi believes an emphasis needs to be placed on regular self examinations, and for women to notice any changes in their bodies.

'We're told not to really worry about these things until we're older, so I think it's important for all women to check regularly, and to know what they're checking for,' she said.

Beauty lies within: Her diagnosis has given Sofi a new appreciation for life and has redefined her idea of beauty. 'Life is too short and beauty truly does lie within,' she said. 'We need to care more about ourselves and love ourselves'

Worthy cause: Sofi, who is an ambassador for skincare brand Biologi, is campaigning on International Women's Day, to raise $100K for Breast Cancer Network Australia

What are the breast cancer statistics? * Estimated that 18,087 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 * 148 males were also diagnosed * 3,128 estimated female deaths in 2018 * 28 estimated male deaths in 2018 Source: Cancer Australia Advertisement

'We're told not to really worry about these things until we're older, so I think it's important for all women to check regularly, and to know what they're checking for,' she said.

'I definitely didn't know or realise any of this, prior to finding the lump on my breast.'

Sofi, who is an ambassador for skincare brand Biologi, is campaigning on International Women's Day, to raise money for Breast Cancer Network Australia.

She is hoping to raise at least $100,000 over 24 hours, with 100 per cent of profits on Biologi products going to Breast Cancer Network Australia.

Head to www.biologi.com.au to purchase products or make a donation today.
Few people would willingly work through their cancer treatment but mother-of-five Kelly Warren never took a break from running the charity BK 2 Basics, which gives food and household supplies to families in need.

In June last year the 48-year-old was diagnosed with cervical cancer and underwent treatment but never considered stepping aside from running the Melbourne-based charity.

'I did it right through treatment - I didn't have a day off,' she said.

BK 2 Basics began after Kelly Warren (pictured) and her family assisted the homeless by creating dental packs, shaving packs, clothing and hygiene items

'It has never been about me. It has been about the people we help. It has absolutely never been about me.'

Despite her selfless approach, there were some personal needs that had to be met, and the New Zealand-born woman's friend set up a Go Fund Me page to help her family pay for parking, petrol and medication while she underwent 56 days of treatment.

As she awaits an update on May on the progress of her treatment, she hasn't slowed down at all, gathering donations and building partnerships with groups such as OzHarvest and private companies such as Coles.

BK 2 Basics began a couple of years ago when Kelly and her family started assisting the homeless by creating dental packs, shaving packs, clothing and hygiene items.

When her daughter was eight she noticed children at school weren't bringing lunch to school so they began making snack packs.

Then they progressed to families.

Everyday the family and their volunteers offer food to the community - with people coming from Melbourne suburbs such as Werribee to Narre Warren

'It was all families. We don't discriminate and we don't judge,' she told FEMAIL.

'You don't have to be on a benefit - things happen like insurance and car repairs.

'Sometimes people just can't afford to buy food for a week.'

Everyday the family and their volunteers offer food to the community in Melbourne's outer southeast suburbs.

She said part of the appeal of BK 2 Basics was it offered food services without demanding identification like some other charities.

However in June 2018 the 48-year-old was diagnosed with cervical cancer and underwent treatment

In a week they family-of-seven and their volunteers receive between 3,000 and 5,000 kilograms of food.

However she said it was never enough.

'If I was to win Lotto or someone could give me a premises where we could hold more food - that would be amazing,' she said.

'We're working from our home and it is very limited.'

But her battle with cancer didn't stop her from going out and helping the homeless and families in need

She has also organised a haircutting day later this month and was seeking donations to find a new place to hand out food.

They had also expanded their scope beyond the homeless. On Saturday, the charity took the stock they had for 1,000 Country Fire Association workers, before asking what they needed.

Within hours of putting a call out online the charity was gifted with 1,000 litres of milk, three pallets of Coca-Cola and two pallets of water.

They also created more than 5,000 snack packs.

'Our motto is bringing communities together because you just don't see it now,' she said.

She has also organised a haircutting day for those in need later this month and is seeking donations to find a new place to hand out food

'And it is not just for crises - it is for domestic violence victims and their children or furnishing homes.

'When the community does get together things happen very quickly. I just think community spirit is back.'

However the experience can occasionally be tarnished, by greedy people grabbing items, people getting aggressive with volunteers, and witnessing some of the heartache among those living on the margins.

'I cry when I get home,' she said.

'Seeing some stuff we've seen in the last 18 months is terrible. You see a domestic violence victim and you can't even .....

'It's not very nice to see but it makes you want to do something and change people's thinking.'

However between people being greedy at grabbing items, people getting aggressive with volunteers and witnessing heartache things can weigh on Kelly

She said it is important to remember the homeless population isn't solely made up of drug addicts - she knows of former lawyers and accountants who live on the street through no fault of their own.

'You've got to deal with the bad but you do get a lot of good as well,' she said.

You can find more out about BK 2 Basics here with further information about their haircut day on March 24 and their plans to move locations to be able to provide further help.
A vegan dessert that resembles a pot plant is being sold at a trendy vegetarian restaurant.

Doko Demo V, in Miami, on the Gold Coast, is selling the potted ice-cream based dessert, topped with crunchy soil that 'melts in your mouth'.

But at first glance the tempting treat looks exactly like an edible homegrown herb or or a flower shoot.

'It's like a piece of art. Everyone who wants to eat it wants to take a photo first, maybe for five or ten minutes,' restaurant co-owner and chef Jared Peck told 9News.

A vegan dessert that resembles a pot plant is being sold at a trendy vegetarian restaurant

The $7 dessert's ice-cream tastes of a combination of chocolate, caramel and coffee flavours.

But Mr Peck would not reveal his secret as to how he made the dessert's crunchy soil look so realistic.

The creative idea came to life after Mr Peck and his partner Vivian Wu went to Taiwan and were inspired by the unique dishes on offer.

The pair combined their inspiration with Ms Wu's love of plants to create a dessert that resembles a pot plant.

Mr Peck said the dessert idea was carefully thought out, taking about two weeks to 'get it right'.

The affordable $7 dessert's ice cream tastes of a combination of chocolate, caramel and coffee flavours

'We played around with ten to 15 different dessert flavours ... until we got it perfect,' he said.

While many may confuse the clever dessert as a table decoration at first glance, Mr Peck said it's been a hit with customers ever since.
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It's not often that we see Crown Princess Mary, 47, in anything other than perfectly blowdried hair, stiletto heels and a form-fitting ballgown.

But the glamorous Princess - who is renowned for her style and poise - was more than happy to don a khaki military uniform and combat boots when she took a training course with the Danish Home Guard on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Australian-born royal, who participates in land and water exercises with more than 5,000 members of the Home Guard each year, was snapped at Vordingborg Barracks in Denmark.

Glamorous Princess Mary donned a military uniform and combat boots when she took a training course with the Danish Home Guard on Wednesday and Thursday (pictured)

The purpose of the course was to give the Crown Princess and other participants educational qualifications for a subsequent appointment with the captain (pictured)

In the course, Princess Mary learned how to manage operational considerations as well as the preparation of commands - she did this with other members of the Danish Home Guard (pictured)

The purpose of the course was to give the Crown Princess and other participants educational qualifications for a subsequent appointment with the captain.

During the course, Princess Mary learned how to manage operational considerations as well as the preparation of commands.

For the occasion, the 47-year-old mother-of-four donned full military uniform, complete with a green beret, glasses and combat boots. Mary also wore a maroon scrunchie in her hair.

For the occasion, the 47-year-old mother-of-four donned full military uniform, complete with a green beret, glasses and combat boots - she also wore a scrunchie in her hair (pictured)

Crown Princess Mary, who has her title emblazoned on the front of this military uniform, has always made a point of visiting the Danish Home Guard (pictured)

Crown Princess Mary was given the title of First Lieutenant in September, 2015, during a field exercise

The Danish Home Guard Control Center was created for radar surveillance during the Cold War period, monitoring traffic in the Baltic Sea and air space.

The Crown Princess joined the Home Guard, which supports the Armed Forces, police and emergency services, voluntarily in 2008.

Princess Mary was promoted to First Lieutenant in September 2015, after taking part in the Danish Home Guard's field exercise 'Svend Gonge'.

The Crown Princess joined the Home Guard, which supports the Armed Forces, police and emergency services, voluntarily in 2008

The Danish Home Guard Control Center was created for radar surveillance during the cold war period, monitoring traffic in the Baltic Sea and air space

'We greatly appreciate the recognition Crown Princess once again shows the Home Guard, the volunteers and the tasks that they contribute to the Armed Forces and society,' Major General Finn Winkler said

Major General Finn Winkler commented on the Princess' performance following the September drills:

'The Home Guard is happy and proud of the Crown Princess' participation in this exercise.

'We greatly appreciate the recognition Crown Princess once again shows the Home Guard, the volunteers and the tasks that they contribute to the Armed Forces and society,' he said.

'It was also a great honour to appoint Crown Princess lieutenant of the exercise.

The mother-of-four visits the Home Guard annually, participating in drills and other tasks included guarding and surveillance in crisis and emergency situations, police assistance drills, sea rescue challenges and environmental tasks.
Mel B, pictured outside 10 Downing Street, apparently talked to the PM's team about helping abused women

Excuse me. Is that former Spice Girl Mel B posing in front of No 10 as the new champion of abused women?

Apparently, this week she 'talked' to the Prime Minister's team about how the Government could be doing more to help women who are trapped in abusive relationships and cannot afford to leave.

In reality, it seems, she handed in a petition on behalf of Women's Aid and made sure to have lots of photographs taken, including one with the ghost writer of her memoir.

One cannot be too churlish. Well done to Melanie Brown for supporting such an important cause  it is certainly one of the better things she has done in her life. Yet it does have the occasional self-serving, even ridiculous, element.

I mean, what does Mel B  and her sordid, extravagant and wasteful existence  have in common with ordinary women who are poor and abused?

She has claimed that ex-husband Stephen Belafonte controlled her money, beat her up and forced her into making sex tapes and having threesomes during their ten-year marriage. Yet several involved witnesses claimed that she was an enthusiastic participant in the sex games. She was no slouch at spending money either  and why not? She had earned it, after all.

Certainly, Belafonte has a history of violence against women and is such a ghastly character he might as well have 'BAD LOT' tattooed across his forehead. But can she really blame her marriage collapse entirely on him?

The divorce that ensued lasted more than eight bitter months, as both sides battled over her 40 million fortune.

In the end, as the principal earner, she was furious about having to pay his legal bills plus 12,000 a month for three years as part of the settlement. Yet if a husband had to pay such sums to a wife, no one would have batted an eyelid. In fact, it would be seen as a feminist triumph.

Mel B said that, at her lowest point, she 'had no money to buy Christmas presents, so I had help from my best friend who bought all the Christmas dinner for me and bought all the kids' presents and stuff'.

When you think of those women who are truly trapped in abusive relationships, who really don't have money or rich friends to pitch in when times are tight, well, it is such humbug. After all, Mel B is about to go on a Spice Girls reunion tour and make millions. She's not bunking up in a shelter with no money and no home to call her own.

Yet here she is propounding the ideology that women are the weaker sex and portraying herself as the hapless victim du jour. Not only is that hard to swallow, it also plugs in to the currently fashionable narrative that the mere fact of being female confers a kryptonite shield of innocence.

At a Women's Aid fundraising event on Wednesday night, Mel B was photographed with David Challen. He is the son of Sally Challen, who was jailed in 2011 for murdering her husband, Richard, with a hammer.

David has been campaigning for his mother's release for years, on the grounds that she was a victim of emotional abuse during the marriage.

Now that coercive control  a form of emotional abuse  is recognised as a crime, Sally Challen has won the right to a retrial. And Mel B has hitched herself to Challen's cause, which means that Challen and other abused wives have her as a champion.

There was Mel at Downing Street, posing in her marvellous designer frock (left)  did I see a Chanel handbag peeking out?  with her lovely face reportedly altered by expensive procedures. No money to buy Christmas presents! How she has suffered!

The lure of celebrity and the accompanying coverage that it brings must be overwhelming for organisations such as Women's Aid, but surely there are better patrons than Mel B?

Yes, she has much to be proud of, but I still see her as a girl-power fraud; a woman who always portrayed herself as independent, smart and tough  until it suited her not to. Is she the kind of role model they really want?

She will be writing messages on bananas next, mark my words.

The Prince of psycho-babble

Listen up people! Be braver, be stronger, be kind to each other  change your thoughts and change the world.

So says Prince Harry, who has taken a sudsy bath in eternal wisdom bubbles, been through the Meghan mangle and come out the other end spouting Californian yoga-speak and thinking that he is some kind of new age messiah. And we all know he is not the messiah, he is just a very naughty boy.

Until his laughable speech at the WE Movement this week, it had been difficult to gauge the true extent of his wife's influence on Harry's thinking, his drinking, his every royal blinking.

Certainly, he has lost weight and stopped smoking. He doesn't drink much  or he doesn't drink as much, but who could? There are rumours that he has even stopped shooting game, a formerly much loved pastime, because it upsets the missus.

Elsewhere, he wears open necked shirts and suede desert boots to official occasions and has gone all touchy feely, even though he often storms around looking strained and furious, as if an urgent trip to the bathroom is required.

Prince Harry is pictured at London's Wembley Arena this week. He has lost weight and stopped smoking, does not drink as much and is rumoured to have stopped shooting game

Most noticeable of all, he has eschewed the services of the canny royal speechwriters he has used to good effect over the years. This week he left behind the traditional and squirearchal for the full blast Markle, embracing the kind of pseudo-profoundo new age blather that goes down a storm in Malibu juice bars.

Oh lordy, how the scales have fallen from our eyes. Now we can see that dopey Harry was just an empty royal cipher all along, one into which Meghan has poured all her fresh-pressed, dreamweaver jabber  and he has swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

Values. Change-makers. Raindrops. Your true north. Jupiter aligned with Mars. Love will steer the stars. Please make it stop.

The result is awful to behold, like The Beatles going through their Maharishi phase. The question is, what next?

Will the Duke and Duchess of Sussex really raise their child gender free, make a pilgrimage to Burning Man, and move to a commune in Brighton? If Prince Harry really believed in all this nonsense, he would give up his titles, donate his fortune and  at the very least  insist that commoners did not bow or curtsey in his presence. Don't hold your breath.

The thigh's the limit, Cinders!

Hang on to your loin cloths and strategically positioned pot plants. One of the world's greatest supermodels is posing a question about nudity.

'At what age is being naked not beautiful any more?' wonders Cindy Crawford (above), as she poses nude at the age of 53.

At what age is being naked not beautiful any more? wonders Cindy Crawford (pictured above), as she poses nude at the age of 53

To be honest, Cinders, I think for a great number of us in the civilian population the answer is somewhere around six months old.

Yet Cindy feels there is no sell-by date on her looks  and she is right. With the right flattering filter and a kind photographer, she could probably carry on until 86 at least. 'If we take care of ourselves, why not?' she says.

Begum blame game goes on

The Shamima Begum blame game continues. The jihadi bride has said people should 'have sympathy' for her because basically nothing was her fault.

Then her lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, blamed her bloodthirsty choices on a 'litany of failures' by Tower Hamlets Council, the Metropolitan Police and her school, Bethnal Green Academy.

He also said that it was 'almost inconceivable' that no agency had been investigated or held to account over the schoolgirl's departure for Syria in 2015. Anyone else?

Shamima Begum is. pictured in a camp in Kurdish Syria. Her father, Ahmed Ali, has called for immigration authorities to be investigated for allowing his daughter to travel to Turkey

Yes. Apparently the Met Police's counter-terrorism department's 'inadequate' handling of her case was one of the key reasons she was 'pushed' to join her friend in Syria.

Now her father, Ahmed Ali, has joined in, calling for immigration authorities to be investigated for allowing his darling daughter to travel to Turkey on someone else's passport in the first place.

What about his role? Couldn't he and Shamima's mother have done more to instil decent values in their daughter and teach her the difference between right and wrong? That is a question he doesn't answer. Meanwhile, Shamima would still be in the caliphate raising warriors, had her side not been defeated.

Come fly with me, lipstick and mascara!

Virgin Atlantic has said it is fine for female flight attendants to stop wearing cosmetics, and Air New Zealand is following suit. No doubt other airlines will do so, too.

Air travel is so dreary these days, an ungroomed female attendant pushing a breakfast trolley down the aisle would be no surprise. However, it would be a shame. If I want to see a pasty faced hag with wild hair in the morning, I'll look in the mirror.

Virgin Atlantic has said it is fine for female flight attendants (stock photo) to stop wearing cosmetics, and Air New Zealand is following suit

No female flight attendant should be 'forced' to put on make-up and keep her hair tidy. But if you are face to face with the public as part of your job, shouldn't you take a little care with your appearance?

Personally speaking, I just adore make-up. I don't feel subservient wearing it, I feel empowered. In years to come they will have to prise my mascara wand out of my cold, dead hand.

That's why I hate to see lipstick and blusher portrayed as something demeaning and even sinister. Don't give up the warpaint sisters! It is our armour against the world.

Shallow to say drinking is a disease

In the hit film A Star Is Born, Ally (Lady Gaga) goes to visit the disgraced Jack (Bradley Cooper, pictured together in the film) after he has been in rehab for two months in a bid to cure his alcohol addiction.

'It's OK. It's not your fault. It is a disease,' she tells him in a moving scene.

However, that is simply not true. In fact, it is indeed shallow. Claiming that addiction is a disease is not only scientifically baseless, it hinders rather than helps many addicts because it undermines hope.

It makes them believe they do not have agency over their condition, that they are helpless in the face of a greater force.

Whereas they are the only ones who can help themselves.
The Countess of Wessex has vowed to devote herself to championing and supporting women peace-builders and the victims of sexual violence in conflict.

In a passionate speech at Buckingham Palace today, the Queens daughter-in-law said she was drawn to help place women and girls at the heart of resolution conflict and would make this a central pillar of my work in the coming months and years.

Addressing an audience of key figures in womens peacebuilding from around the world, include representatives from government, NGOs, charities and academia, she said: Good afternoon and may I begin by wishing you all a happy International Women's Day.

The Countess of Wessex with Visaka Dharmadasa, the founder and Chair of the Association of War Affected Women and Parents of Servicemen Missing in Action. The Countess said that silence was the biggest barrier to ending this kind of terror

The Countess of Wessex talks with a guest during a reception at Buckingham Palace, London, for Women Peacebuilders on International Women's Day

The efforts to raise awareness of and support women peace-builders form part of the UK's strategy have placed the UK in a pivotal role of putting more women and girls at the centre of conflict resolution, including encouraging more women peace-builders, female mediators, as well as supporting the survivors of sexual violence in conflict, she said.'

As someone who firmly believes in the equality of men and women, I feel drawn to your cause and to do what I can to help raise further awareness of your work.

'To help give voice to women and girls who are being denied their fundamental rights as humans and are being subjected to harm and violence as a result of conflict, to promote those who seek to play a part in finding peace, and to support others as they attempt to rebuild their lives. 

She added: Since last year I have been attending a number of conferences, meetings and events, and have encountered some extraordinary people during this time.

The Countess of Wessex talks with guests during the Buckingham Palace reception for women peacebuilders. She said the level of effort to tackle issues of sexual violence were 'widespread'

'People like yourselves who are devoted to doing what they can to tackle these issues from UK government representatives to the international diplomatic community, from academics to survivors.

'Whether their role be encouraging governments to do more to prevent violence being used as a weapon of war, or working to bring justice to the survivors of brutality, or supporting the many NGO's and agencies working to help women and girls rebuild and retake control of their shattered lives the level of effort is widespread. '

'But as yet it is sadly still not enough and we all know that so much more needs to be done.

'We must ensure that the silence that hides pain and suffering is turned into voices of hope and a reason to continue to act, the Countess said during an impassioned speech

The Countess was joined by Lord Ahmad, the Prime Minister's Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, and Visaka Dharmadasa, the founder and Chair of the Association of War Affected Women and Parents of Servicemen Missing in Action.

She said that silence was the biggest barrier to ending this kind of terror.

And this is another reason for holding today's event. We must ensure that the silence that hides pain and suffering is turned into voices of hope and a reason to continue to act, she said.

I know that everyone in this room works tirelessly to push these agendas forward, whether you are here in the UK, or abroad, and I thank you for all of your efforts.

'What I have learned already is that working against a tidal wave of conflict, engrained cultural behaviours, disputed boundaries and ownership of valuable national resources, as well as a thousand other reasons for conflict, it is difficult, costly, complicated and slow.

The Countess vowed to devote herself to supporting women peacebuilders and victims of sexual violence in an impassioned speech

However, I know that none of you here will stop doing what you can to continue to strive for peace, for justice and for each and every survivor of sexual violence and torture.

'The survivors of conflict whether they be female or male, or a child born of rape, are at the heart of everything we all do and this International Women's Day is an opportunity to fill the silence and loudly pay tribute to their braveness and their hope for a better world.

Sophie with Visaka Dharmadasa. Visaka's son, Achintha, an army officer, went missing during an attack by Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka 20 years ago and hasnt been seen since

'I look forward to working with you all, to championing these important agendas and to finding solutions.

Sophie met with Visaka Dharmadasa, Chair of the Association of War Affected Women, whose son, Achintha, an army officer, went missing during an attack by Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka 20 years ago and hasnt been seen since.

She also described Mossarat Qadeeem, co-founder of Paiman Alumni Trust, which works to prevent extremism in Pakistan, as incredibly brave as she heard how she had gone into Taliban families to persuade them to renounce violence.

She told the countess how she found one mother sewing suicide vests for her son and when she persuaded the boy not to go through with his attack, the youngster was thrown out of his home for renouncing Jihadi.

She called me an infidel but we sat and spoke and she is now one our biggest proponents, she said.

The Countess paid tribute to the women present at the reception who worked 'tirelessly to push these agendas forward'

The Countess of Wessex opened the London Stock exchange this morning for International Women's Day.

Sophie, 54, arrived bright an early for the opening ceremony and looked smart in a double-breasted brushed wool coat from Max Mara, while her coral Embellished wool wrap Valentino skirt added a pop of colour.

The royal accessorised with a patterned Sophie Habsburg clutch bag and a pair of trusty nude heels.

This morning, she will chair The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Women's Network Forum, of which she is the founder.

The Duchess of Wessex, next to Sir Donald Brydon, Chairman of the London Stock Exchange Board. The Duchess opens the London Stock Exchange in the city of London on International Women's Day

The Countess of Wessex taking a look at the 'Fearless Girl' statue, which is located in London's financial district. It is a copy of The Fearless Girl, by Kristen Visbal, which was unveiled in New York City in 2017

As Sophie arrived this morning, the royal viewed the 'Fearless Girl' statue, which was installed at the London Stock Exchange right in time for International Women's Day.

The bronze statue of a defiant girl was installed in London's financial district to highlight the importance of female leaders in business.

The Countess of Wessex at the opening of the London Stock exchange this morning. The Countess is the chair of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Women's Network Forum, of which she is the founder.

Sophie Countess of Wessex as she arrives at the London Stock Exchange, escorted by Sir Donald Brydon. The Countess was wearing a double-breasted brushed wool coat from Max Mara with a Valentino coral skirt that she accessoried with a Sophie Habsburg clutch bag

The Fearless Girl, by Kristen Visbal, was unveiled in New York City in 2017, and the London statue is a copy of the original.

The Duchess of Wessex announced she would champion the work of the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI), which was set up by Angelina Jolie and former foreign secretary William Hague in 2014.

The programme works offers support to survivors of sexual violence during times of conflicts and to children born of wartime rape.

The Countess of Wessex arriving in London's financial district with Sir Donald Brydon for a day of engagements to mark International Women's Day

Women of the royal family will be busy this Friday, with several event celebrating International Women's Day.

The Duchess of Sussex is to join a discussion panel of leading feminists and national figures to mark International Women's Day at King's College, London.

The discussion panel was convened by The Queen's Commonwealth Trust. The event will bring together a panel of female 'thought-leaders' and activists to discuss a range of issues affecting women today.

Those joining the duchess include Annie Lennox and former prime minister of Australia Julia Gillard.
The Duchess of Cambridge and the Queen will carry out a rare joint engagement together this month, it has been announced.

Kate, 37, will join the Queen, 92, at Kings College London, where they will reopen Grade II-listed Bush House following a renovation.

While they have attended dozens of events with the wider family, it will be the first time the pair have made an appearance without other royals since their first joint outing in March 2012.

The Duchess of Cambridge and the Queen will carry out a rare joint engagement together this month, it has been announced. It will be the first time the pair have made an appearance without other royals since their first joint outing to Leicester in March 2012, pictured

They carried out a second engagement together that year to launch a military initiative at Fortnum & Mason, London, but were joined by the Duchess of Cornwall, pictured

On that occasion, less than a year on from the Cambridges' 2011 wedding, Kate and the Queen made a number of stops in Leicester as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee tour of the UK.

They carried out a second engagement together that year to launch a military initiative at Fortnum & Mason, London, but were joined by the Duchess of Cornwall.

The Queen and the Duchess of Cambridge were last seen together on Tuesday when they attended a Buckingham Palace reception celebrating 50 years since Charles' investiture as the Prince of Wales, pictured

The Queen and the Duchess of Cambridge were last seen together on Tuesday when they attended a Buckingham Palace reception celebrating 50 years since Charles' investiture as the Prince of Wales.

The upcoming outing on 19 March will see the Queen officially open Bush House, which previously served as the headquarters for BBC World Service but is being leased by Kings College London.

The Queen is patron of the College and previously visited to open the Somerset House East Wing with the Duke of Edinburgh in 2012.

The Duchess of Sussex, 37, carried out her first and only joint engagement with the Queen in June last year, pictured, when they visited Cheshire just weeks after the royal wedding

Kate, who has had a busy start to the year, last visited the institution in January 2018.

During that visit she learned more about the work being done to support new mothers at the Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute.

The Duchess of Sussex, 37, carried out her first and only joint engagement with the Queen in June last year, when they visited Cheshire just weeks after the royal wedding.
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Fluffy, frizzy and flamboyantly dressed pooches have been on parade for the second day of the Crufts dog show in Birmingham today - although many of them looked like they'd rather have a snooze.

Todays competition at the world-famous dog show is dedicated to working and pastoral breeds  those traditionally used in livestock farming.

But it wasn't all about hard work for some dogs, who were seen putting on adorable displays of affection by cuddling up to their proud owners.

Competitors arrived at the NEC at the crack of dawn to make sure they had plenty of time to prepare, primp and preen for the judged classes, which start at 8.40am.

And some canines seemed to be feeling the early start, including some rather grumpy-looking Boxers who were spotted taking time out on the benches.

Many of the thousands of dogs heading into the arena - including unique breeds such as the Bergamasco, an ancient sheepdog breed, Bearded Collies and even a statuesque Pyrenean Mountain Dog - were sporting onesies, bibs and even shoes to keep their coats and paws competition-ready.

Canine cuddles! A Komondor hugs its owner at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre on day two of Crufts

They do say dogs look like their owners! Boris, the Pyrenean Mountain Dog, and his owner Susan Reilly went for matching looks

Best pals: Claudia Kelleway with her dog Ruby a Harlequin Great Dane at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre

All this showing off is hard work! Boxers rest on their benches during the second day of the Crufts Dog Show in Birmingham

An unimpressed Old English Sheepdog is groomed during the second day of the Crufts Dog Show in Birmingham, today

A boxer dog came across all shy as it peered out from its pen at Crufts. Todays competition at the world-famous dog show is dedicated to working and pastoral breeds  those traditionally used in livestock farming

Competitor Jesika Junehall from Sweden has a quick rest with her gigantic leonberger dog in a vacant show ring

Shaking it off! A woman runs with her Komondor dog, who proved to be something of a star, as it was judged in a show ring

A Samoyed gives good side eye during the competition

A very fluffy boy! An Old English Sheepdog could barely see after his fur was given a thorough combing by his owner

A dog waits patiently as it is thoroughly inspected by judges at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre

Being put through their paces: Seven of the larger breeds take to the ring with their owners during day two of the competition

A woman kisses her Border Collie as they wait for their turn to hit the ring at day two of Crufts in Birmingham

A Great Dane rests on its bench. Competitors arrived at the NEC at the crack of dawn to make sure they had plenty of time to prepare

Size matters: An Italian Bullmastiff towers over a nervous-looking Chihuahua on the second day of Crufts in Birmingham

Time to shine: A great dane dog looks on during judging in a show ring

A pre-competition snuggle with a Bearded Collie. Right: A little light reading about the day ahead, while a dog with a very expressive face looks on

Dog tired: A beautiful snow-white Samoyed dog rests at its pen during a break in competition

A besuited schoolboy gets to grips with a handheld game during a lull in proceedings, while a St Bernard in the neighbouring pen enjoys a few quiet moments

A shaggy dog story! This statuesque Bergamasco, and its fantastic coat arrives for the working dog competition. Right: These two bearded collies put on a united front with fleeces in United Kingdom country colours

There were more celebrity faces in attendance today as Love Island's Jack Fincham make an appearance at the NEC

The reality television star was without current squeeze Dani Dyer but seemed to have found a new companion to snuggle up to

Shetland sheepdogs look attentively at their owners as the judges peruse them in the show ring

A quartet of lovelies! These beautiful white, brown and black dogs pose on the second day of competition at Crufts

The show is set to pull in 170,000 visitors during its four-day take-over at Birmingham's NEC arena

Shoes on! This pooch wandered in wearing what looked like four green swimming caps on its feet to keep paws pristine. Right: This dog is wearing all of its caramel coloured coat up front, with just a tuft-covered tail at the back

An owner appears to morph into her pet as three competitors rest in the green pens ahead of being called to perform

A lady dons a Dalmatian-style onesie as she arrives at Crufts for the pastoral and working dogs competition with her pet, a lofty-looking Great Dane also sporting a dappled black-and-white coat

Oh so pretty! This duet of toy poodles came dressed as zebras but will be hoping to walk away winners in the pastoral section

Day two! A grey Bedlington Terrier wanders in for its moment in the Crufts spotlight as the Birmingham NEC arena welcomes thousands of pastoral and working dogs on day two of the competition. The breed was developed in the 13th Century to hunt vermin and looks rather lamb-like

A trio of fluffy-coated Rough Collies, made famous by the Lassie films in the 40s and 50s, made their way through the hallowed doors of the NEC as the green showfloor awaits

The annual event, founded by Charles Cruft in the late 19th century and now held at the Birmingham NEC, brings thousands of dogs to the Midlands city, with many vying for the coveted Best in Show rosette.

The first day of competition yesterday was dedicated to gundogs, and saw animals put through their paces with points awarded for agility, flyball, heelwork and displays.

Among the doggy-loving community there was also a smattering of celebrity faces with Love Island's Jack Fincham spotted browsing the shopping area of the show. The reality television star was without current squeeze Dani Dyer but didn't seem to mind snuggling up to a canine companion instead.

The packed daily programme runs from 8:45am in the morning until 20:40 in the evening with More4 showing all 13 hours of coverage, while Clare Balding hosts an hour-long Crufts catch-up nightly on Channel 4.

Day one saw a Border Collie called Skiffle, with his owner Lucy Creek from Stratford-on-Avon claim the Heelwork to Music Freestyle Final prize. Lucy and Skiffle have won the competition for the last five years.

A very regal pair Welsh corgis, with pristine sand-coloured coats, look competition-ready on day two at the NEC

A dog's life: A lady wears a pair of Croc-style shoes covered with hundreds of different breeds of dog

Here's looking at you! A drooling St Bernard, famous for being one of the most gentle but expensive dogs to keep, makes its way into the arena

Dressed for business: This little pooch arrived in a waterproof coat wearing a set of woollen socks for the journey to the famous green show floor of the NEC

What have we ear? Two cuties, sporting the Welsh dragon on their colleagues head into the arena

Over four days some 170,000 spectators are expected in Birmingham, with the Best in Show category the climax on Sunday

Thousands of the dogs competing turned up in an array of eye-catching outfits including these poodles in animal print

This handsome hound, sporting a blue bin in contrast to snow-white paws, looked entirely casual about the day of competition ahead

The event, which runs from Thursday, March 7th to Sunday, March 10th, has courted controversy in recent years with protesters calling the competition 'cruel', although the UK Kennel Club, who are behind the event, say they're 'committed to ensuring that all dogs have the opportunity to lead healthy, happy lives, with responsible owners'.

The pooch-filled pow-wow was established by Charles Cruft in 1891 as a much smaller event held at the Royal Agricultural Hall in Islington, and has grown to become the world's biggest dog show.

There was a sprinkling of celebrities at the event yesterday, with rapper Professor Green and Love Island star Chris Hughes showing their affection for four-legged friends.

Final touches, a dog owner takes the trimming scissors to this pooch, who sits patiently on a table

Former Hollyoaks actress Jorgie Portas was also in attendance on the first day with her dog Lady.

Green said: 'I just think dogs are brilliant for so many reasons, they always put a smile on my face, however miserable I might be feeling.

'They give back a hell of a lot - they're not like cats where they just take you, use you and sod off!

'I love dogs and have always loved dogs, which is quite a surprise because one of my first instances with dogs was a little Jack Russell when I was about seven years old.

'It was running around and around and me and I was half sure he was going to bite me, thank God he didn't.

'Quite strangely I still love dogs, because enough happened in my early years to be petrified of them.

'I love them, I've had dogs for an awful long time.'

James Middleton on the Pets as Therapy Stand. Kate's younger brother made some furry friends on Day 2 of Crufts. James said that his own dogs Ella, Inca, Luna, Zulu, and Mabel have been important in his recovery from depression

This one can barely contain his excitement! James Middleton made friends for life at the Pets as Therapy stand

Every year bookmakers see dog fans placing bets on breeds likely to scoop the top prize. Last year's overall winner was Tease, a whippet from Scotland but Bookies Betway has revealed that this year's favourite to walk away with the rosette is the gundog category, which last won the category in 2017. Odds are currently at 11/8 with terriers nipping at the heels with odds of 7/4.

Oh the glamour: A duo of lustrous-coated dogs look prepped for their big moments, although one wonders whether the hound on the right can actually see

As well as 'Best in Show', this year five pets are in contention for Crufts' dog hero competition, proving that some pups go above and beyond in being mankind's best friend.

The Kennel Club's Friends for Life competition looks to showcase the animals across five categories including working dogs, assistance dogs, pets and rescue dogs.

Among them is Finn the German shepherd who saved owner Pc David Wardell's life while working as a police dog, receiving life-threatening injuries in the process.

The pair were chasing a robbery suspect in October 2016 who turned and attacked with a knife, stabbing Finn in the head and chest as he leapt to protect David.

This year's show will be aired on Channel 4 with a daily hour-long show until Sunday. More4 will offer additional live coverage every day.
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The Duchess of Sussex has joined forces with Annie Lennox to mark International Women's Day with a star-studded panel discussion hosted by the Queen's Commonwealth Trust.

Dressed in a 185 Reiss dress, a 1,245 Alexander McQueen blazer, 495 Manolo Blahnik heels and a 134 Karen Walker heart gold ring, Meghan, who was announced this morning as vice president of the Trust, was joined at the event by model and activist Adwoa Aboah and Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia.

During the discussion, pregnant Meghan spoke excitedly about 'our little bump' and joked that she could feel the 'embryonic kicking of feminism' inside her.

'I'd seen this documentary on Netflix on feminism and one of the things they said during pregnancy was, 'I feel the embryonic kicking of feminism,'' Meghan said. 'I love that. So boy or girl or whatever it is, we hope that that's the case, our little bump.'

It is thought she was referring to Johanna Demetrakas's 2018 film Feminists  What Were They Thinking? in which comedian Lily Tomlin speaks of the day she felt the 'embryonic kicking of feminism', a term coined by her wife and collaborator Jane Wagner.

She told the panel that once International Women's Day was over she planned to 'put her feet up,' adding: 'I feel that's a deserved treat, especially at this stage of pregnancy.'

The Duchess of Sussex shares a joke with Adwoa Aboah, left, and Julia Gillard, right. Today's event was designed to bring together a special panel of female 'thought-leaders' and activists to discuss obstacles faced by women

Today's event, hosted at King's College London, was designed to bring together a special panel of female 'thought-leaders' and activists to discuss some of the most pressing issues affecting women today

L-R Model and activist Adwoa Aboah, former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the Duchess of Sussex, journalist Anne McElvoy and CAMFED regional director Angeline Murimirwa pose before todays' panel discussion

...and Harry benefits from 'gender stereotype shifting'! Prince Harry has embraced gender stereotype shifting, his wife suggested. Meghan said: For men to understand they can be feminists as well, I think when we talk about gender stereotype shifting... what it means to be masculine, what it means to be feminine. You can be feminine and feminist. You can be masculine, and in terms of masculinity you understand your strength includes knowing your vulnerabilities. And your sense of self and security, your confidence, comes in knowing that a woman by your side, not behind you, is something you shouldnt be threatened about but opposed to that. You should feel really empowered in having that additional support  that this is really about us working together. Thats what gender equality means for me, and having men part of that conversation, saying theres nothing threatening about a woman coming up to the same level thats gender neutral, if you really think about it. So I hope that men are part of the conversation. My husband certainly is. Advertisement

Meghan also claimed she does not read newspapers or engage with Twitter to avoid getting 'muddled' by the 'noise', whether positive or negative.

Meghan was asked by the chairwoman, Anne McElvoy, senior editor of The Economist, how she responded to newspaper headlines describing her feminism as 'trendy' and whether it was 'water off a duck's back'.

The duchess said: 'I don't read anything, it's much safer that way, but equally that's just my own personal preference, because I think positive or negative, it can all sort of just feel like noise to a certain extent these days, as opposed to getting muddled with that to focus on the real cause.

'So for me, I think the idea of making the word feminism trendy, that doesn't make any sense to me personally, right? This is something that is going to be part of the conversation forever.'

When asked later if she looked at Twitter she replied: 'No, sorry no. For me that's my personal preference.'

Today's event, hosted at King's College London, was designed to bring together a special panel of female 'thought-leaders' and activists to discuss some of the obstacles faced by women today.

The duchess was greeted on arrival with a somewhat awkward kiss from Lord Geidt, former Private Secretary to the Queen and current chairman of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust.

The Duchess of Sussex arrives at King's College London this morning. She was greeted on arrival with a somewhat awkward kiss from Lord Geidt, former Private Secretary to the Queen and current chairman of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust

Queen of accessorising! Meghan, who is eight months pregnant, teamed her head-to-toe monochrome ensemble with a Stella McCartney bag and Manolo Blahnik heels as she arrived at King's College London on Friday afternoon. She was greeted on arrival by university principal Professor Edward Byrne (far right) and Lord Geidt, former Private Secretary to the Queen

Meghan is joined by L-R Anne McElvoy, Annie Lennox, Adwoa Aboah, Julia Gillard, Angeline Murimirwa and Chrisann Jarrett on a panel to discuss issues facing women, organised by the Queen's Commonwealth Trust on Friday

The Duchess of Sussex spoke passionately during today's panel discussion. According to onlookers, Meghan said she agreed with co-panellist Lennox that women 'must be global feminists and include men and boys'

The Duchess of Sussex sat in between Adwoa Aboah, left, and Julia Gillard, right. Meghan, who is eight months pregnant, teamed her sixties-inspired 'Azzura' dress with a 540 Stella McCartney bag and 495 Manolo Blahnik 105 BB pumps

Meghan, who is eight months pregnant, teamed her sixties-inspired 'Azzura' dress with a 540 Stella McCartney bag, 495 Manolo Blahnik 105 BB pumps and a pair of 2,700 Jessica McCormack earrings.

It is the first time the 37-year-old has stepped out in Reiss, the UK label loved by her sister-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge, while her tailored McQueen blazer is an old favourite.

According to onlookers, Meghan said she agreed with co-panellist Lennox that women 'must be global feminists and include men and boys'.

She also told audience members: 'If there's a justice and a lack of inequality someone needs to say something - and why not you?'

In her new role the duchess joins her husband Harry, who is president of the Trust, while the Queen is its patron of the body which aims to champion, fund and connect young leaders around the world.

While speaking with model and activist Adwoa Aboah (left), Meghan spoke excitedly about 'our little bump' and joked that she could feel the 'embryonic kicking of feminism' inside her

Meghan joined a panel of campaigners and activists at today's IWD event. It is the first time the 37-year-old has stepped out in Reiss, the UK label loved by her sister-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge, while her McQueen blazer is an old favourite

During today's International Women's Day panel discussion at King's College London, the Duchess of Sussex told audience members: 'If there's a justice and a lack of inequality someone needs to say something - and why not you?'

The Duchess of Sussex at King's College London on Friday. During the discussion, Meghan spoke excitedly about 'our little bump' and joked that she could feel the 'embryonic kicking of feminism' inside her

Speaking alongside a panel of leading women and activists this afternoon, Meghan said: 'I'd seen this documentary on Netflix on feminism and one of the things they said during pregnancy was, 'I feel the embryonic kicking of feminism.' I love that. So boy or girl or whatever it is, we hope that that's the case, our little bump'

Meghan has previously discussed feminism and gender equality on her now-defunct blog The Tig, as well as writing a piece on the impact of menstrual health on girls' education for TIME magazine.

Since joining the royal family she has made women's issues a cornerstone of her public work and was recently announced as patron of Smart Works, which provides support for unemployed and vulnerable women.

Today's panel, chaired by The Economist's Anne McEvoly, included activists Chrisann Jarrett, founder of Let us Learn, and Angeline Murimirwa, executive director of the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) in Africa.

Appearing in front of an audience of students and young leaders, Meghan discussed the importance of International Women's Day, and the spotlight it can bring to obstacles which still affect female empowerment across the world.

The panel spoke about issues including access to education and limitations within employment, also covering the positive opportunities that come when women are given wider access and equal opportunity, both in the UK and elsewhere in the world.

Meghan arrives for today's panel discussion at King's College London. Since marrying into the royal family she has made women's issues a cornerstone of her royal work and was recently announced as patron of Smart Works

Meghan arrives at King's College London on Friday. Dressed in a white floral dress and black blazer, Meghan, who was announced this morning as vice president of the QCT, was also joined by model and activist Adwoa Aboah

Wearing her hair in a signature messy bun, Meghan is all smiles as she arrives at King's College London. Since marrying into the royal family she has made women's issues a cornerstone of her royal work and was recently announced as patron of Smart Works, which provides support for unemployed and vulnerable women

The Duchess of Sussex makes a glamorous entrance at this morning's International Women's Day event. Meghan is an ardent feminist and previously discussed gender equality on her now-defunct blog The Tig, as well as writing a piece on the impact of menstrual health on girls' education for TIME magazine

The Duchess of Sussex was greeted by university officials after arriving at King's College this morning. Meghan, who is eight months pregnant, teamed her sixties-inspired 'Azzura' dress with a Stella McCartney bag, Manolo Blahnik heels and Karen Walker Jewelry

Huge crowds arrived to greet Meghan at the London university this morning. In her new role, Meghan, who is thought to be eight months pregnant, will highlight the QCT's partnerships with young people across the Commonwealth, and in particular its work supporting women and girls

The Duchess of Sussex is all smiles as she arrives for this afternoon's panel discussion. Appearing in front of an audience of students and young leaders, Meghan will discuss the importance of International Women's Day, and the spotlight it can bring to obstacles which still affect female empowerment across the world

Meghan, who was announced this morning as vice president of the QCT, will be joined by model and activist Adwoa Aboah and Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia today at an International Women's Day panel. She greeted on arrival by university principal Professor Edward Byrne and Lord Geidt, former Private Secretary to the Queen

The panel was organised by the Queen's Commonwealth Trust, an organisation designed to champion, fund and connect young leaders around the world who are serving their communities.

The Trust, of which the Queen is patron and Prince Harry president, is working in partnership with a number of organisations to reach and connect with young people worldwide, and support those that are the most vulnerable.

It focuses on helping those who are driving positive social change, serving their communities and providing hope, work and self-employment opportunities for others.

In her new role, Meghan, who is thought to be eight months pregnant, will highlight the QCT's partnerships with young people across the Commonwealth, and in particular its work supporting women and girls.

Announcing her appointment on Friday morning Lord Geidt, Chairman, said: 'The Queen's Commonwealth Trust is thrilled to welcome the Duchess of Sussex as its Vice President.

Meghan arrives at King's College London this morning wearing a 185 Reiss dress. The panel was organised by the Queen's Commonwealth Trust, an organisation designed to champion, fund and connect young leaders around the world who are serving their communities

Meghan's appearance comes after she was announced as vice president of the QCT. Announcing the news on Friday morning Lord Geidt, Chairman, said: 'The Queen's Commonwealth Trust is thrilled to welcome The Duchess of Sussex as its Vice President'

Meghan arrives at King's College this morning. She was greeted on arrival by university principal Professor Edward Byrne and Lord Geidt (pictured), former Private Secretary to the Queen and current chairman of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust

Wellwishers gather to catch a glimpse of Meghan this morning. Today's panel, chaired by The Economist's Anne McElvoy, included activists Chrisann Jarrett, founder of Let us Learn, and Angeline Murimirwa, executive director of the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) in Africa

Large crowds turned out to catch a glimpse of Meghan this morning. She was greeted on arrival by university principal Professor Edward Byrne and Lord Geidt, former Private Secretary to the Queen and current chairman of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust

The Duchess leaving the venue: Dressed in a 185 Reiss dress and 1,245 Alexander McQueen blazer, Meghan was joined at the event on Friday by model and activist Adwoa Aboah and Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia

Meghan discussed the importance of International Women's Day, and the spotlight it can bring to obstacles which still affect female empowerment across the world

Megha greets crowds after today's discussion. The panel was organised by the Queen's Commonwealth Trust, an organisation designed to champion, fund and connect young leaders around the world who are serving their communities

The Duchess of Sussex is escorted from the venue by Lord Geidt, former Private Secretary to the Queen and current chairman of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust following today's panel discussion for International Women's Day

Meghan leaves today's International Women's Day event. Dressed in a 185 Reiss dress and 1,245 Alexander McQueen blazer, the duchess, who was announced this morning as vice president of the Trust, was joined by a line-up of high-profile women and activists

'The support and encouragement which Her Royal Highness will bring to the young leaders with whom we work promises to have a profound effect.

'We are enormously grateful to The Duke and Duchess of Sussex for this signal of commitment they are making to our work, helping The Queen's Commonwealth Trust to pursue its ambitions right across the Commonwealth and beyond.'

Nicola Brentnall, QCT chief executive, added: 'We are particularly delighted that the first opportunity of formally working together with Her Royal Highness comes on International Women's Day.

'This squares perfectly with our focus on amplifying the work and contribution of those furthest away from power.

'Women across the Commonwealth and the globe often face the biggest impediments to success. So we are delighted to have our Vice President's support in helping others to overcome those obstacles.'
Perfumer Jo Malone has revealed that leaving behind her eponymous business was the biggest mistake of her life.

Now, 55, she grew up on a council estate in Bexleyheath, Kent and left school at 15. She went on to found her eponymous brand and sold it to Estee Lauder for 'undisclosed millions' in 1999, making hers the ultimate rags to riches story.

She stayed on as founder and creative director before letting go of the reins in 2006 - a move she now admits was 'the biggest mistake of her life'.

'I lost my best friend,' the 55-year-old told The Telegraph. 'I know it sounds odd, but thats how I felt  I didnt talk to my best friend.'

The entrepreneur also appeared on Loose Women today, and revealed how losing her sense of smell during treatment for breast cancer in 2003 was instrumental in her giving up her role at Estee Lauder.

'It took my sense of smell. I thought it had gone forever. After I quit Jo Malone and walked away, it came back eight weeks later. How cruel is that?' she said.

Jo Malone, who appeared on Loose Women today, admits walking away from her multi-million business was the 'biggest mistake of her life'

Jo's distinctive fragrances are loved by the likes of Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, with the Duchess of Cambridge famously burning her Orange Blossom candles in Westminster Abbey as she married Prince William in 2011.

In her Telegraph interview, Jo said of her decision to walk away from the brand: 'Id made the biggest mistake of my life. I lost my purpose, I lost my values, I lost my way in those five years.'

She said she became 'very anxious' in the period that ensued and felt isolated from the industry she'd spent years carving out her name in since becoming a beautician as a teenager after leaving full-time education.

She wasn't even allowed to say she liked a product in print due to a 'lock-out clause' in her contract, and admitted it 'hurt' to walk past stores on the high street emblazoned with her name.

Mum-of-one Jo, pictured after being made a CBE at Buckingham Palace in November last year, said letting go of the reins left her feeling anxious and isolated from the industry

Jo discussed her battle with breast cancer and how the treatment for it claimed her sense of smell on Loose Women today

On Loose Women today, she opened up further about losing her sense of smell.

'I thought everyone could smell what I smell, but they can't. I smell fragrance before I see colour,' she said, putting her heightened sense down to being dyslexic.

'Three years into it [at Estee Lauder] I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and when I came through this pioneering treatment I was a different person and I lost my sense of smell,' she said.

The British perfumer, from Bexleyheath, Kent, is known for her fancy fragrances which are a favourite among Royal Family members

'I was one of the first women to take chemotherapy every five days, I was given a very grim diagnosis.

Determined to fill the gap, Jo started a new fragrance company, Jo Loves, in 2011.

'I just missed it, I missed creating fragrance,' she explained.

'It's like if someone took away your voice, you'd be lost.'

While she admitted the first two years of building up the new business were 'excruciatingly difficult and hard', she said she's now 'flying' and 'life couldn't be better'.

She calls Jo Loves her 'new best friend' - and it's certainly proving to be a profitable companion, with a flagship store in Belgravia, and a platform on Net-a-Porter and SpaceNK.

Walking past Jo Malone stores these days she admitted she doesn't feel 'jealous' and manages to look at the brand 'with love'.

Jo, pictured with her husband Gary Wilcox and son Josh, said her new brand Jo Loves is her new best friend
Barron Trump made a rare appearance alongside his parents on Friday morning, having apparently been allowed to miss a day of school in order to join the president and first lady on a trip to tornado-ravaged Alabama, before heading on a weekend trip to Mar-a-Lago.

The 12-year-old towered over his mother as the duo walked out of the White House to join Donald, 72, who addressed reporters before the family boarded Marine One to start their trip to Alabama.

Barron, who attends school in Maryland, looked subdued as he walked across the South Lawn with Melania, 48, who appeared to be in great spirits, and was seen smiling and waving at the cameras as they made their way to the waiting helicopter.

Skipping school? Barron Trump, 12, appeared to have taken a day off school on Friday in order to join his parents on their trip to tornado-ravaged Alabama, before flying to Mar-a-Lago

Friday feeling! Melania, 48, and Donald, 72, both appeared to be in great spirits as they walked across the South Lawn, with the president flashing a wide smile at his sneaker-clad wife

They grow so fast! Barron towered over his mother as they made their way to Marine One, and Trump was overheard telling reporters that his son is 'getting so big'

To the plane! Trump smiled and held onto a MAGA hat as his family walked up behind him

Style star: The first lady went for a somewhat low-key look, wearing gleaming white Adidas sneakers, burgundy J Brand jeans, and a Tommy Hilfiger pea coat

Her happy mood was apparently shared by her husband, who was seen grinning at the first lady as she walked to join him on the grass, looking chic but casual in a pair of gleaming white $100 Adidas sneakers, and a pair of $188 burgundy J Brand jeans.

Melania completed the low-key ensemble with a white knitted sweater and a navy blue Tommy Hilfiger pea coat. She also wore a pair of dark sunglasses, despite the gray and cloudy weather.

Barron meanwhile, was dressed in a warm $368 Polo Ralph Lauren coat, which he wore with a pair of beige chinos and matching New Balance sneakers.

As he and Melania met Donald on the lawn, the president actually remarked how much his son has grown, telling reporters: 'He's getting big!' while pointing proudly at the youngster.

The first family then turned towards Marine One, with Trump placing his right hand on his wife's back in a sweet show of affection, before guiding her across the grass towards the helicopter, with Barron following on behind them.

Support: The president put his hand on his wife's back as they walked together across the lawn while their son followed on behind

Off they go: The Trump family left D.C. this morning to visit parts of Alabama hit by tornadoes

Weekend away: Donald, Melania, and Barron will fly straight from Alabama to Mar-a-Lago in Florida, where they will spend the weekend with some of Barron's half-siblings

Big kid: Barron was dressed warmly in a padded Polo Ralph Lauren coat, beige chinos, and matching New Balance sneakers

School's out! The pre-teen mostly kept his eyes down in front of the press as they switched planes at Andrews Air Force Base, moving from Marine One to Air Force Once

Still growing: Trump commented on his son's height, pointing out that he has gotten 'big'

The president was dressed in a navy windbreaker, complete with the presidential seal, as well as a pair of beige chinos - much like those worn by his son - and a pair of dark brown shoes. He was also seen carrying a red MAGA hat.

Donald, Melania, and Barron are heading to Alabama this morning to visit towns touched by recent storms, and were seen boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Base, before touching town at Fort Benning on the Georgia-Alabama border a few hours later.

The first couple is expected to visit rural Lee County in eastern Alabama, where 23 people died Sunday in a tornado with 170 mph winds, however it is not known if Barron will join his parents for their visit to the area.

Donald and Melania were seen leaving Air Force One shortly after its arrival at Fort Benning, however their son was not seen with them, suggesting that he will skip out on the official engagements and reunite with his parents before the family flies to Florida.

Barron is currently enrolled at a school in Maryland, where he started seventh grade in the fall of 2018. The school does not appear to have a half-day or holiday scheduled for Friday, which indicates that Barron may have missed a day in order to join his parents on their trip.

Greeting: The president was seen shaking the hand of a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force as the first family exited Marine One and prepared to board Air Force One

Off they go: As the trio boarded Marine One at the White House, Trump was also seen saluting

Arrival: When Donald and Melania left Air Force One at Fort Benning, Barron was not with them, suggesting that he will not join them for their engagements during the day

Saying hello: The first couple waved for the photographers waiting on the tarmac, before making their way to meet Alabama Governor Kay Ivey

After visiting tornado-struck areas in Alabama, Donald, Melania, and Barron will fly straight to Mar-a-Lago, where they will spend the weekend soaking up the sun, alongside Don Jr and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is celebrating her 50th birthday this weekend.

It is thought that some of the president's other children will also join them in Florida, where Trump will host two evening events, a joint fundraising committee roundtable and a reception for Trump Victory, a Republican National Committee operation working in tandem with his 2020 reelection campaign.

The first family's exact Alabama schedule was not shared prior to their departure on Friday morning, however it is thought that they will leave for Palm Beach by 3pm CST.

'Today, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will travel to Lee County, Alabama to survey the devastation from the recent tornadoes, meet with survivors and local officials, and thank our brave first responders,' the White House said of their trip as they departed.

Lee County was one of at least 38 tornadoes confirmed to have touched down across the Southeast in a deadly weekend outbreak.

Good mood: Though Barron avoids looking at photographers, Melania waved and flashed them a smile

The extras: The first lady accessorized with a pair of sunglasses and a ring

High flyers: The group left from the White House this morning and switched planes at Andrews Air Force Base

Busy day: The first family's exact Alabama schedule was not shared prior to their departure on Friday morning, however it is thought that they will leave for Palm Beach by 3pm CST

Speaking out: The president stopped to speak to reporters outside of the White House before going to board Marine One

As the family left the White House, Trump said he would meet with Governor Kay Ivey and people who 'got hit very hard by the tornadoes.' He also planned to thank first responders.

The president also stopped to speak to reporters outside the White House about his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who received a 47-month prison sentence on Thursday for tax and bank fraud.

Trump told members of the media that he empathizes with Manafort, saying: ''I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it's a very, very tough time for him.'

At the same time, he falsely claimed the judge who sentenced his former 2016 campaign chairman cleared his campaign of conspiring with the Kremlin to affect the presidential election's outcome.

'Both his lawyer  a highly respected man  and a highly respected judge, the judge said there was no collusion with Russia. This had nothing to do with collusion,' Trump said on the South Lawn of the White House.

'There was no collusion. It's a collusion hoax. It's a collusion witch hoax. I don't collude with Russia.'
A police department in Kansas has shared the details of the most 'ridiculous' call they have received so far this year in a hilarious Twitter thread that has gone viral.

The story, as told by the Lawrence, Kansas Police Department on Twitter, began when two police officers were sent to intervene in a 'road rage' incident on February 27.

When the police officers arrived to the scene at a parking lot, they were shocked to find two stubborn car drivers who wouldn't move out of each other's way, leaving them both stuck in the car park.

Viral: The Lawrence, Kansas Police Department revealed the most 'ridiculous' call they received so far this year, which involved two drivers refusing to move out of each other's way

The Twitter thread read: 'So two officers get sent to a road rage in progress last night. Two unfortunate souls are dispatched to handle it. Keep in mind this is time they will never get back.

'Upon arrival, the first officer finds two cars in a parking lot, well call the drivers Karen and Chad. The cars are facing each other in close proximity.

Bizarre! The station said that two officers were sent to a 'road rage' call, and when they arrived, they found two drivers who were refusing to move out of each other's way, blocking each other from entering and exiting a parking lot

'So Karen wants out of the parking lot, Chad wants in. BOTH OF THEM ARE REFUSING TO GET OUT OF THE OTHER ONES WAY,' they said.

The officer behind the hilarious Twitter post added that the problem would have been easily solved if one driver backed up and made room for the cars to move.

They explained: 'Literally all they have to do is back up. Nay, all ONE OF THEM has to do is back up and the other one can go. By the time we arrive, the great parking lot standoff of 2019 has been going on at least 20 minutes.

'So Chad says "I got nowhere to go, I can just stay here all night." But why, Chad? Why dont you just move? Apparently because this is a principle issue, and because 2019.

'Ok, lets try Karen. Maybe Karen can be reasonable. Karen, could you please just back up so Chad can go? "Nope, Im not moving. He can move."

'Karen claims she cant back up because her vehicle is too large and she will literally crash it. Karen is driving a *mini*van. Mini is emphasized because the van is not particularly large, and if Karen cant back it up, maybe Karen should refrain from driving,' they said.

The thread continued: 'So a sergeant shows up to get more information on this "road rage in progress" call and as soon as he finds out what the issue is nopes out of there like the day old donuts just got set out at the gas station.

Entertained: People on Twitter found the whole situation hilarious, as the post garnered 21,000 likes and more than 500 comments from entertained users

'Ok, listen Chad, this is really a massive waste of our time. Can you just move? "Nope, I didnt call you guys, she did. Ill sit here all night if I have to."

'Karen, sooo hows about you move your car now and we can move on with our night? "WHY WONT YOU JUST MAKE HIM MOVE UGH THE POLICE SUCK".

'First of all, KAREN, we dont have the legal authority to make either one of you move, this is private property. Second of all, grow up. Third of all, were leaving. Have a good night.

Concluding the story, they added: 'As far as we know, Chad and Karen are still sitting there. And so concludes the story of the most ridiculous call of 2019 (so far) Fin.'

The hilarious incident has gone viral since the police department detailed it on Twitter last month.

It has received 21,000 likes and over 8,000 retweets.

The post also received more than 500 comments from people who found the whole scenario entertaining.

Twitter user @pghmike78 wrote: 'This 1000 per cent has made my day.' Another user, @kcwolfman, said: 'What a story! I laughed, I cried, I parked.'

User @neubauer_nikki said: 'I'm laughing hysterically at this in the school parking lot waiting for my son.

'Pretty sure the guy in the car next to me is becoming concerned about my sanity,' she added.

Impressed: Several Twitter users praised the police station's 'social media person' for sharing the hilarious story - with one calling them a 'Twitter miracle'

However, some people thought the ordeal was a waste of everyone's time, and that the pair should have been punished for their actions.

'They should have been fined for wasting the police's time,' user @iMakeArtifacts added.

Another, user @Bkcheckers dubbed the whole situation a 'colossal waste of public safety time.'

And the funny situation itself wasn't the only thing people were thankful for.

Many others praised the person behind the police department's Twitter and social media accounts for sharing the funny story.

One user, @jaborgman, said: 'SNL should hire you as a writer... hysterical! And I would LOVE to see the body cam footage of Karen and Chad.'

Another, user @BrandonWLewis added: 'Gosh I love your social media person! Keep it up... you never disappoint!'
He is said to prefer notebooks and handwritten letters to iPhones - but the Prince of Wales got to grips with a state-of-the art Apple computer during a visit to a college on Friday.

Charles, 70, was visiting the University College of Estate Management in his role as patron of the establishment when he gave the Apple iMac a whirl.

During his visit, he toured UCEMs headquarters in Reading and attended a reception in celebration of its centenary year.

Dressed in a blue pinstriped suit, the royal heard how UCEM has adapted its teaching to meet the needs of its students, now providing supported online education through its Virtual Learning Environment.

The Prince of Wales (left) with Lynne Downey (centre) and Kate Lindsey (right), tries out an Apple computer during a visit to the University College of Estate Management's headquarters

He was also shown the online learning platform, before visiting UCEMs filming studio, where a tutor was preparing a short film to introduce final year BSc Construction Management students to an Integrated Management Project being recorded.

Charles then visited the Student Hub to meet some current students, who were taking part in an apprenticeship training workshop.

The VIP visitor viewed a display of historic artefacts charting UCEMs history, including the provision of learning to Irene Bailey, who went on to become the first female Chartered Surveyor, and a variety of historical learning resources dating back to the Second World War.

These artefacts will later be displayed at Reading Museum as part of a year of centenary celebrations.

The Prince of Wales joins an Architecture class full of apprentices during a visit to the University College of Estate Management's headquarters in Reading, Berkshire, to celebrate of its centenary year

The Prince of Wales during a visit to the University College of Estate Management's headquarters in Reading, Berkshire, to celebrate of its centenary year

Before leaving, Charles attended a reception of trustees, alumni, students and staff, before unveiling a plaque to commemorate his visit.

Formed in 1919, and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1922, University College of Estate Management (formerly The College of Estate Management) was established to support the training and development of professionals in land or property-based jobs.

It offered correspondence courses to students, and during the Second World War provided over 17,000 courses of instruction to servicemen and prisoners of war, as well as providing training to the Womens Land Army.

The Prince of Wales (left) with Lynne Downey (centre) and Kate Lindsey (right), tries out parts of an online course during a visit to the University College of Estate Management's headquarters

The Prince of Wales chats to staff member Hannah Plaisted at UCEM on Friday. Since its foundation, it is estimated that UCEM has provided training for over 150,000 surveyors

Charles takes a look at an architect's sketchpad as he joins a class full of apprentices during a visit to the University College of Estate Management's headquarters in Reading

Since its foundation, it is estimated that UCEM has provided training for over 150,000 surveyors.

In November 2015 the institution was granted University College title by the Privy Council, and shortly afterwards was rebranded as University College of Estate Management.

UCEMs core purpose is to provide accessible, relevant and cost-effective education to enable its students to enhance their careers and contribute to a better built environment.

It delivers programmes at Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels, as well as Degree Apprenticeships and Level 3 Apprenticeship programmes.
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Women have taken to the streets of London to call for the decriminalisation of prostitution on International Woman's Day.

Dozens held up banners and placards which read 'sex work is work' and marched through Leicester Square on a cold evening in central London.

Among those braving the cold include the English Collectives of Prostitutes, who were protesting against what they claim are the sexist, racist and criminal laws that jeopardise the lives of sex workers.

Dozens held up banners and placards which read 'sex work is work' and marched through Leicester Square on a cold evening in central London. Pictured: A woman holds up a banner which reads 'sex work is work' in Leicester Square on Friday night

Despite the cold temperature, it did not stop protesters stripping down to their underwear in central London

Exotic dancers perform in Piccadilly Circus in central London during a demonstration against discrimination of sex workers held on International Women's Day

Hundreds of people took part in a protest march to demand full decriminalisation of sex work, ability to unionise, provide better working conditions and protection against violence experienced by sex workers

A woman holds up a benner which reads 'sex work is work' outside Platinum Lace in Leicester Square, which brands itself as the 'Best Gentlemen's Club & Strip Club in London'

A tattooed person holds up two placards at the protest in Leicester Square tonight. She also wears a hat which reads 'tip her'

A woman in a yellow hi-viz safety vest holds up banners calling for an end to police raids and closures on sex workers

A huge banner calling for an end to sex work being decriminalised is held up outside the Burger King in Leicester Square

Among those who took part in the march include the English collectives of prostitutes

Strikers are demanding that their work is decriminalised so they can work collectively, keep each other safe and organise better working conditions

Women braved the wet and cold weather to protest about the laws, which they say is damaging to sex workers

Among some of the main complaints the women have is that the current laws do not protect sex workers enough

Earlier today, women of all shapes and sizes have taken part in a body positive march down Regent's street in London to mark International Women's Day.

Braving chilly temperatures of 9C, participants proudly sported underwear and bodices as they chanted and marched with their fists in the air.

One woman wore a short body suit to show off her prosthetic leg as she made her way down the street alongside a fellow marcher in a wheelchair.

Women of all shapes and sizes have taken part in a body positive march down Regent's street in London to mark International Women's Day, including a woman who wore a one piece that showed off her prosthetic leg

Women in Regent's Street were seen carrying balloons as they took part in a march to mark International Women's Day

While fully clothed Londers sheltered themselves from the cold, women wore flesh coloured underwear as they marched through one of the capital's busiest shopping streets.

The chilly March temperatures didn't keep the women from smiling and enjoying themselves, although some made sure to wear a scarf with their underwear.

London will be bustling with events centered around the global celebration of womanhood this weekend.

While the participants were wearing underwear, some made concessions to the the chilly spring weather by wrapping scarves around their necks

Nothing but smiles! A woman beamed for the camera as she walked through Central London in her underwear and a black shawl, while clutching a speaker, for an International Women's Day celebration

The Women of the World (WOW) festival started this morning and will go on until Saturday.

The WOW festival, which will take place at the Southbank Centre, celebrates women and girls, taking a frank look at what prevents them from achieving their potential.

Since its launch in London in 2010, the phenomenon has spread globally, reaching more than two million people in 17 countries from Australia to China and Nepal.

The event will see talks with Annie Lennox, Sandi Toksvig and Julia Gillard, along with legendary activist and writer Angela Davis, and journalist Naomi Klein.

This woman dared to bare on Regent's Street today to celebrate International Women's Day

Comedian Jo Brand and writer Catherine Meyer will also take part, and the weekend is set to feature the Women on the Move Awards.

Additionally, two global conversations will be taking place: 'WOW presents: What now?' and 'WOW presents: What next?'

The talks will discuss the future of gender equality across all industries and communities.

The global theme for this year's event is #balanceforbetter, a call-to-action for a more gender-balanced world through collaboration.

Meanwhile The Duchess of Sussex joined forces with Annie Lennox to mark International Women's Day with a star-studded panel discussion hosted by the Queen's Commonwealth Trust.

Dressed in a 185 Reiss dress and 1,245 Alexander McQueen blazer, Meghan, who was announced this morning as vice president of the Trust, was joined at the event by model and activist Adwoa Aboah and Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia.

During the discussion, pregnant Meghan spoke excitedly about 'our little bump' and joked that she could feel the 'embryonic kicking of feminism' inside her.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex departs after joining a panel discussion convened by The Queens Commonwealth Trust to mark International Womens Day at King's College London

'I'd seen this documentary on Netflix on feminism and one of the things they said during pregnancy was, 'I feel the embryonic kicking of feminism',' Meghan said. 'I love that. So boy or girl or whatever it is, we hope that that's the case, our little bump.'

It is thought she was referring to Johanna Demetrakas's 2018 film Feminists  What Were They Thinking? in which comedian Lily Tomlin speaks of the day she felt the 'embryonic kicking of feminism', a term coined by her wife and collaborator Jane Wagner.

The Duchess told the panel that once International Women's Day was over she planned to 'put her feet up,' adding: 'I feel that's a deserved treat, especially at this stage of pregnancy.'
Kimberly Guilfoyle celebrated her milestone 50th birthday a few days early with the 'people she loves'  the Trumps.

The former Fox News host, who turns 50 on Saturday, kicked off her birthday weekend with a special dinner with her 41-year-old boyfriend Donald Trump Jr., members of his family, and their friends at Omar at Vaucluse in New York City on Thursday.

Kimberly took to Instagram the day after the party to share a photo of herself smiling from ear to ear while posing inside the restaurant with her beau, his brother Eric Trump, and his sister-in-law Lara.

Family: Kimberly Guilfoyle celebrated her 50th birthday with her boyfriend Donald Trump Jr. (center), his brother Eric (right), and his sister-in-law Lara (left) a few days early on Thursday

Grand entrance: Kimberly, who turns 50 on Saturday, kicked off her birthday weekend with dinner at Omar at Vaucluse in New York City

Guests: Eric, 35, and Lara, 36, tucked their son Luke into bed before arriving at the party flanked by Secret Service agents at about 7 p.m.

'Lovely evening celebrating my birthday with people I love,' she captioned the image.

'@donaldjtrumpjr @laraleatrump @erictrump Thank you for a great dinner kicking off the bday weekend. #birthday #birthdaygirl #familyandfriends.'

In the image, Kimberly is cuddled close to Don Jr. while Lara and Eric stand on opposite sides each other. Both couples appear to be enjoying their night on the town and are smiling for the camera.

Eric, 35, and Lara, 36, arrived at the restaurant together, flanked by Secret Service agents as they made their way inside the venue at about 7 p.m.

Lara, who was carrying a black gift box, wore a long tan coat over a white long-sleeve top and tan pants.

She added some glitz and glamour to her outfit with a pair of sparkly heels that complemented her suit.

Outfit of the day: The former Fox News host was decked out in a backless, sleeveless white top, which she tucked into a pair of black dress pants that featured a tied bow at the waist

Gotta show off that outfit: Despite the chilly winter weather, she didn't wear a coat and was seen warming her hands in the pockets of her pants

Romantic gesture: Don Jr. led the way and grabbed the door for his girlfriend

Eric, meanwhile, sported a black suit and white button-down, which he wore sans tie. He was the first to step inside the restaurant, and he walked in without holding the door for his wife.

The couple was followed by Don Jr. and the birthday girl, who also had Secret Service detail.

Kimberly was decked out in a backless, sleeveless white top, which she tucked into a pair of black dress pants that featured a tied bow at the waist.

The television personality appeared to be more concerned with her outfit than keeping warm. Despite the chilly winter weather, she didn't wear a coat and was seen warming her hands in the pockets of her pants.

She topped off the look with a pair of black sky-high stilettos and dangly statement earrings that peeked out from underneath her long brown waves.

Entourage: Don Jr. held the door for the birthday girl as their Secret Service detail followed them inside

She's got it: Eric and Lara arrived before the guest of honor. Eric was the first to step inside the restaurant, and he walked in without holding the door for his wife

On the go: Eric walked ahead of Lara as they made their way to the restaurant. She was on her phone, possibly looking at directions

Trump style: Like his brother, Eric donned a suit and a button-down shirt, which he left open at the collar

Don Jr. paired his navy suit with a pink and white gingham button-down shirt, and like his brother, he left it open at the collar.

The president's eldest son led the way as they walked into the restaurant together for her birthday dinner, but he held the door for his girlfriend and let her walk in first.

Don Jr.'s younger sister Ivanka Trump, 37, was home in Washington, D.C. with her three children around the time of the bash.

The first daughter, who spent Thursday meeting with female leaders from around the world, took to Instagram Stories later that night to share a photo of her children sound asleep in her bed.

In the photo, seven-year-old Arabella is lying between her younger brothers, Joseph, five, and Theodore, who turns three this month. While she sprawled on top of the white comforter, her brothers are comfortably nestled underneath.

Birthday present: Lara, who walked alongside a Secret Service agent, carried a black gift box

Outfit: Lara, who was carrying a black gift box, wore a long tan coat over a white long-sleeve top and tan pants. She topped of the look with sparkly heels

Arrival time: Lara trailed behind Eric as he walked inside ahead of her

Ivanka captioned the image: 'Mom life...'

The White House senior adviser may have missed out on Kimberly's birthday dinner, but there were plenty of other guests there to celebrate.

Among the attendees were Sen. Rand Paul's spokesman Sergio Gor, businessman, Russ Coniglio, businesswoman Yaz Hernandez, the restaurant's owner Omar Hernandez, and Fox News commentator Jesse Waters.

Emma DiGiovine, who worked on Jesse's Fox News show Watters' World, was also at the dinner. Last year, Jesse, 40, admitted to cheating on his wife Noelle Watters with Emma, his then-25-year-old associate producer.

The up-and-coming Fox News star, who just landed his own show in 2017, told his bosses about the affair shortly after Noelle filed for divorce, sources previously said.

Fox and friend: Fox News commentator Jesse Waters was among the guests at the bash

Another present: Jesse, 40, arrived at the restaurant carrying a gift box that was wrapped with ornate gold paper and gold ribbon that was tied into a bow

Going solo: Emma DiGiovine, who had an affair with Jesse while working on his Fox News show, was also at the party, but they did not arrive together

Busy: Don Jr.'s sister Ivanka Trump, 37, spent Thursday meeting with female leaders in Washington D.C., including Angeline Kasipo, the first female mayor in Zimbabwe

Sound asleep: Ivanka took to Instagram Stories later that night to share a photo of her children Joseph, Arabella, and Theodore (left to right) sleeping in her bed, writing: 'Mom life...'

After he revealed his affair with Emma, she was transferred to work for The Ingraham Angle, but the pair continued to date, sources said.

Emma no longer works at Fox News and hasn't been with the network in nearly a year.

Jesse appeared to be by himself when he arrived at the restaurant carrying a gift box that was wrapped with ornate gold paper and gold ribbon that was tied into a bow.

The party lasted a little over three hours, with everyone leaving the restaurant at 10:30 p.m.

Don Jr. and Kimberly will be celebrating her actual birthday soaking up the sun at the Trump family's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

The couple will be joining his father, President Donald Trump, his stepmother, First Lady Melania Trump, and his half-brother, Barron, at the resort.

However the weekend won't be entirely dedicated to Kimberly's birthday celebrations however; Trump is due to host two evening events on Friday night, a joint fundraising committee roundtable and a reception for Trump Victory, a Republican National Committee operation working in tandem with his 2020 reelection campaign.

Proud mom: Ahead of the dinner, Lara shared a video of herself snuggling up with her one-year-old son Luke before tucking him into bed

Look of love: Journey's hit 'Any Way You Want It' is playing in the background, and Luke sweetly smiles when his mom gives him a kiss on the cheek

It's unclear if Eric and Lara are also headed to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend.

Ahead of Kimberly's birthday dinner, Lara shared a video of herself snuggling up with her one-year-old son Luke before tucking him into bed.

In the video, the proud mom is using filming herself holding her son using a filter that gives them glasses and animal ears.

While Lara has on the white top she wore to the party later that night, little Luke is decked out in his PJs.

Journey's hit 'Any Way You Want It' is playing in the background, and Luke sweetly smiles when his mom gives him a kiss on the cheek.

'A little Journey before bedtime,' Lara captioned the clip.
A throat cancer sufferer has hailed his 'miraculous' recovery from painful sores and blisters after using a cream originally used to treat the udders of milk cows.

Luke Luetkemeyer, 63, from Las Vegas, Nevada, underwent radiation treatment for the cancer after he was diagnosed in May last year.

Shortly after starting, the school supervisor started to break out in painful blisters all over his face and neck, which persisted with each round of radiation treatment battling cancer in his lymph nodes.

His sores and blisters stemmed from the base of his neck to the sides of his face and behind his ears.

His wife Cindy, 61, a speech therapist, had read about a cream that is popular in Australia, MooGoo Skincare, which was originally used to treat the udders of milk cows and had reportedly helped others with eczema and blisters.

She ordered it online in September, and within a couple of weeks of applying it three times a day, his blistering side effects were barely visible in pictures.

Luke Luetkemeyer, 63, from Las Vegas, had radiation treatment for cancer after he was diagnosed in May last year but it gave him sores. His wife found a cream for cows' udders online which cleared up his sores as the radiation therapy cleared his cancer

Transformed: The cream cleared Luke's blisters within days (see before, left, and after, right)

Cindy said: 'I saw a difference within 24 hours. I know it sounds dramatic but it's true. I was astonished. It really was a miracle.

'My husband was in so much pain, and this cream completely turned his life around as he went through the radiation treatment.'

Luke's ordeal began in May, when he first noticed a lump on his neck while shaving.

However, it wasn't until he was at a retreat a few weeks later he realized it could be something serious.

'There was a doctor there and he told me I needed to go get it checked out,' Luke said.

'I happened to have a visit with my cardiologist and I showed him the lump. and asked him what he thought.

'He referred me to someone and the next morning they did a biopsy. Four days later they called me to come into the office.

'He told me I had throat cancer, which was of course a shock.'

Two days later, Luke and his wife were on their way to UCLA. He was told he had a tumor at the base of his tongue, around the size of half his little fingernail. The lump on his neck was a result of his lymph nodes being infected.

Luke was told he needed surgery, and the surgeons needed to cut a significant part of his tongue out, which could have a severe impact on his speech and ability to eat.

However, he decided to opt for radiation therapy instead, and went to the M.D. Anderson Center in Houston.

Luke said: 'I wanted to go with function over cure, so I decided to have the proton radiation therapy treatment [a targeted form of radiotherapy].'

At the beginning of July, Luke and Cindy packed up their stuff and moved to Houston so he could get treatment.

It was just two weeks after the radiation started he began to get painful blisters and welts over his neck and face.

Luke said he had some 'really dark, dark days, and I didn't know I was going to make it through the process' but he said: 'God was good and my wife was incredible as far as her care went, and I made it through and I'm fine'

Luke said: 'I couldn't tell whether the pain was on the inside of the outside. They gave me some good medication, but it was still terrible.'

The burns and blisters are a typical side effect of radiation treatment.

Cindy first started applying an ointment called Egyptian Magic, which had been recommended, but it wasn't giving Luke any relief.

Then they heard stories about other people finding relief from MooGoo.

The lotion made in Australia was originally developed to keep cows' udders soft. The firm's founder, Craig Jones, noticed his mom was slathering her face with a thick paste to treat a skin condition. He asked her what it was, and she said it was the same thing she used on her cows' udders to keep them supple.

Jones helped reformulate his mom's recipe so it was lighter to use, and then decided to market the product out.

It soon became a hit in Australia, and is spreading worldwide as a treatment for a variety of human skin conditions, including severe cases of eczema.

Luke says the relief was instant: 'There was a soothing relief. And then it seemed to penetrate into the skin with a tremendous soothing relief.'

Blisters are common side effects of radiation therapy. Patients are advised to use ointments but it didn't do anything for Luke until he got the cream

He used it from that moment on throughout his treatment, which lasted 14 days, and then up until November, using it three times a day.

Luke added applying the cream also brought him closer to his wife: 'It was a very intimate time for Cindy and I because she was applying this stuff to my neck, which was pretty messed up, and they were such a comfort in it.

'It was one of the closest times we have had while we have been married and we have had a good marriage.'

He added: 'I had some really dark, dark days, and I didn't know I was going to make it through the process.

'But God was good and my wife was incredible as far as her care went, and I made it through and I'm fine.'

Cindy says even the hospital staff in Las Vegas were staggered by the difference: 'We started on the Wednesday and came back on the Friday and they asked, "What have you been putting on his neck? How come it looks so much better?" They were stunned.'

Thanks to Luke's radiation therapy, he now has no signs of cancer.
The rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are rising rapidly among US adults above age 40, a new report has found.

From 2016 to 2017, chlamydia rates increased the most among middle-aged Americans while cases of syphilis nearly doubled.

Additionally, outbreaks of chlamydia and gonorrhea have led to Alaska being named the state that leads the nation in rates of infection.

The findings are in line with a report last year from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that found STDs hit a record high in 2017.

About 2.3 million Americans were diagnosed, which is 200,000 more than the year before.

The team, from Health Testing Centers, says the findings show that more education and access to preventative services needs to be made nationwide to drive down the staggering numbers.

The number of STDs in the US over the last 76 years has increased by 248 percent from about 679,000 to around 2.3 million. After a slight dip in the 1990s, they've continued to climb year-over-year

Alaska came in first in chlamydia cases with nearly 800 cases per 100,000 residents, and leads the nation in STD infection rates

For the report, the team looked at data from the CDC's 2017 Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report.

They found that, over the last 76 years, the number of STDs in the US has increased by 248 percent from about 679,000 to around 2.3 million.

After a slight dip in the 1990s, they've continued to climb year-over-year.

In 2017, chlamydia increased by 6.9 percent, syphilis increased by 15.3 percent and gonorrhea increased by 18.6 percent, from the previous year.

'Chlamydia has had a sharp increase from the '80s,' Meg Piedmont, an account manager who works on behalf of Health Testing Centers, told DailyMail.com.

'Gonorrhea still had the biggest percentage increase, but they're starting to catch up to each other.'

The report found that despite STDs rising overall, specific states and demographics contracted them more than others.

For gonorrhea, Mississippi had the highest rate in 2017 at about 310 cases per 100,000 with Alaska not far behind in the number two spot

In regards to chlamydia, Alaska had the highest rate with nearly 800 cases per 100,000 residents.

However, this was not surprising to researchers as the recent outbreak of chlamydia and gonorrhea has placed Alaska leading the US in STD rates.

In fact, Susan Jones, HIV/STD Program Manager at the Alaska Division of Public Health, told KTVA that Alaska has ranked first in the nation for chlamydia since 2001 SITE

For gonorrhea, Mississippi had the highest rate in 2017 at about 310 cases per 100,000 residents, with Alaska not far behind in the number two spot.

While the spike in gonorrhea cases has not been as extreme as that of chlamydia, it has continued to spread.

Researchers believe this likely because the STD has become more and more antibiotic-resistant, which has made treatment very difficult.

Syphilis was the least common of the three infections. Louisiana led the US with the most at 61 cases per 100,000 residents.

According to a CDC report released last year, Louisiana had the highest rate of babies born with congenital syphilis.

'To protect every baby, we have to start by protecting every mother,' Dr Gail Bolan, director of the CDC's Division of STD Prevention, said in a press release at the time.

'Early testing and prompt treatment to cure any infections are critical first steps, but too many women are falling through the cracks of the system.'

Syphilis was the least common of the three infections. Louisiana led the US with the most at 61 cases per 100,000 residents

While all three STDs were most prevalent among young men and women, the older age brackets saw a big uptick.

From 2016 to 2017, chlamydia rates were highest in those 45 years and older and rates of gonorrhea were highest between people between ages 30 and 44.

Additionally, cases of syphilis nearly doubled from 7.5 percent among men ages 40 to 44 to 14 percent among men ages 45 to 54.

'It applies to everyone,' said Piedmont. 'It shows that you can't assume that as people age that they're protecting themselves and having safe sex.'

Despite the number of STDs rising, the stigma surrounding these infections is still present and strong.

According to a poll conducted in 2015 by HIV Plus Magazine, 25 percent of people who were diagnosed with an STD didn't tell their partner.

Additionally, another 49 percent said they had never been tested.

While all three STDs were most prevalent among young men and women, the older age brackets saw a big uptick

STDs are often associated with promiscuity, but Americans have been having less sex over last 20 years.

In fact, one 2017 study found that US adults are having sex nine times fewer a year on average compared to the late 1990s.

'There's a taboo in talking about it, educating people, even [people] asking their partners if they've been tested,' said Piedmont.

'That's a roadblock to change and for the overall healthcare for Americans and how to protect yourself.'

One way she says this stigma can be broken is to make STD tests widely available and accessible across the US.

'[STDs] can be shocking and worrisome, but this is a way we can impact people in lives in a positive way,' Piedmont said
(ANSA) - Genoa, March 8 - Premier Giuseppe Conte said Friday the government's mooted project with China is an "important one of infrastructural connectivity which proposes great willingness on the part of China to cultivate an exchange. With all due caution, I think it can be an opportunity for our country. The upcoming meeting in Italy with the Chinese president will be an occasion to sign the framework accord. It doesn't mean that we will be bound the day after, but we will be able to enter and dialogue".

Conte was referring to Italy possibly signing up for the Belt and Road Initiative, the 'new Silk Road', on which talks are at an advanced stage.

If the deal goes through, Conte said he could rule out reprisals by US ratings agencies.


Georgia and Tennessee joined a string of states moving to enact tough abortion restrictions when Republican House lawmakers passed bans on most abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

Fetal heartbeats may be detected via ultrasound as early as six weeks, though the method is typically not reliable until 10-12 weeks into pregnancy.

About one in 400 to 500 women are unaware they are pregnant until they are some five months along.

Opponents of so-called 'heartbeat legislation' argue it flies in the face of Roe v Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, which many pro-life advocates hope will be overturned at the hands of the two new Justices.

Georgia and Tennessee join other states, including Mississippi, Florida, Kentucky, Ohio and South Carolina, that are also considering this type of legislation.

The bills will next head to each state's respective Senate. If they pass, the states' governors will have to sign them into law, as Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has said he intends to do.

Several woman legislators brought coat hangers into the Georgia House Thursday, March 7, 2019 to show opposition to the state's proposed bill to ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

During a tense debate in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, several Democratic lawmakers opposed to the bill turned their backs to its author, Republican Representative Ed Setzler.

Earlier in the day, some Democratic lawmakers brought in wire coat hangers in reference to unsafe home abortions.

Setzler said his bill 'seeks to recognize that the child in the womb, that is living distinct from their mother, has a right to life that is worthy of legal protection.'

The Tennessee House passed similar legislation earlier Thursday after its Republican supermajority forced an end to debate without letting some Democrats speak.

If the measures in Georgia and Tennessee win Senate approval and are signed into law, they would trigger immediate legal challenges.

Abortion opponents across the country are hopeful the US Supreme Court - with new Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh - will either reverse Roe v Wade, or uphold specific state laws that could undermine the court's 1973 ruling establishing the right of women to abort a fetus that can't survive outside the womb.

Democratic Rep Renitta Shannon, speaking against the bill and about her own past abortion, went over time and her microphone was cut off. She refused to yield the floor until colleagues surrounded her and implored her to walk away.

Before her microphone was cut, Shannon spoke about the illegal and unsafe abortion options women faced before Roe v Wade.

'Let's be clear, no matter what kind of law you pass to outlaw abortions, women will continue to seek and have abortions,' Shannon said.

Women in Georgia can currently seek an abortion during the first 20 weeks of a pregnancy. A fetal heartbeat is generally detectable at around six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant.

The bill would make exceptions in the case of rape and incest, but only when the woman files a police report first. It also allows for abortions when the fetus is determined to be not compatible with life due to serious medical issues.

Setzler previously said he had 'misgivings' about those exceptions, saying that 'those children are just as innocent as others.'

Republican Rep Darlene Taylor asked a rhetorical question: 'Who speaks for baby fetus?'

'Today I do,' Taylor answered, as she read a prepared speech as if she was a baby fetus that did not want to be aborted.

Democratic Rep. Mike Wilensky said the bill clearly violates the constitution.

'We know that this bill is unconstitutional. We know that there are going to be huge costs to litigate this,' Wilensky said.

The fast-tracked bill came to the floor in the final minutes before a legislative deadline by which bills must generally pass out of one house or the other to remain in play for the session.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who pledged as a candidate to sign the toughest abortion laws in the country, endorsed the proposal in a news conference after its passage in the House, but said there is more work to be done in the Senate.

'I value life and I proudly support this legislation, which protects the right of the unborn at the heartbeat,' Kemp said.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee has said he would sign the Tennessee bill, downplaying constitutional concerns as an issue for the courts, not his office.

Democrats and abortion-rights advocates say they'll continue to fight the bill and for safe access to abortion in Georgia.

___

Kimberlee Kruesi reported from Nashville, Tenn.

Rep Ed Setzler presents his bill to the Governmental Affairs Special Subcommittee in Atlanta. Amid tears, gasps and handshakes, a Georgia House committee has approved legislation that would outlaw abortion after a heartbeat can be detected (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)

Opponents to HB 481 hold a press conference led off by Rep Park Cannon (at podium) D - Atlanta (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Protesters from Planned Parenthood and other groups gather in front of the Tennessee House chamber to oppose a so-called fetal heartbeat bill before the vote in Nashville, Tennessee on Thursday (AP Photo/Jonathan Mattise)
Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland are the happiest countries in the world, according to a league table.

People from the five nations placed themselves at 7.5 out of 10 on a life satisfaction scale for 2017, the most recent set of figures available.

In comparison, the UK scored just 6.7 - despite being slightly more satisfied than the year before, while the US fared slightly better with 6.9.

The figures were revealed in a report by the Office for National Statistics. It delved into the well-being of the UK and how it has improved slightly.

The UK scored 6.5 in 2016. However, the latest figure is a slight drop on the score of 6.8 the UK received in the 2013 edition.

Experts have in the past suggested people in northern European countries are happier because they earn a lot of money, live long lives and have good government support services.

The proportion of people in the UK saying they are satisfied with their lives was above average for comparable countries but lower than in the US and Scandinavian countries

The ONS data comparing European and developed nations also showed mental wellbeing improved by 4.6 per cent between 2011 and 2016 in the UK. However, it remains below the EU average.

There has also been a steep decline in the proportion of people saying their health is good or very good, with a drop of more than 10 per cent since 2010.

However, those in the UK are less likely to say they struggle to make ends meet, with a fifth of people feeling 'very satisfied' with their household income.

And the data showed Britons have a lower than average level of trust in the European Union. Statisticians did not speculate as to why.

In a slightly sadder figure, the proportion of people in the UK who felt their life was worthwhile was 86 per cent.

Although this suggests more than one in 10 think the opposite, the figure for 2016 was an increase from 82 per cent in 2011.

WHAT IS HYGGE, THE SCANDINAVIAN COSINESS CRAZE? Hygge is about an atmosphere and an experience rather than about things, says Meik Wiking, CEO of The Happiness Research Institute  based in the Danish capital of Copenhagen  and author of The Little Book of Hygge. It is about being with the people we love, a feeling of home, that we are safe, that we are shielded from the world and can allow ourselves to let our guard down. Hygge, a Scandinavian lifestyle which has soared to popularity in recent years, focuses on finding comfort in everyday activities in and around the home. It is supposed to produce a feeling of comfort and contentedness, boosting people's happiness. Typical hygge-related activities could include: Sitting round a friendly dinner table, bathed in the yellow glow of candlelight

Curling up with a good book and a cup of tea in a corner

Going for a winter walk along a beach

Having coffee and cake as the afternoon light fades

Snuggling under a blanket watching a film

Roast pork and cold beer

Sitting round a bonfire with friends in comfortable silence

Baking bread in a warm kitchen Advertisement

Despite improvements, the UK also has slightly worse mental health than European Union countries on average.

It scored 63.2 per cent on a score made up of questions about how often they felt calm, active, rested, cheerful and interested.

This was a rise from 58.6 per cent in 2011  a higher score shows better mental wellbeing  but still below the EU average of 64 per cent.

'The new ONS figures paint a positive picture for mental health in the UK,' said Josh Krichefski, chief executive of MediaCom, an international business communications firm.

'This is very encouraging news in a period of deep political and economic uncertainty.

'But mental health still remains misunderstood, underreported and terribly underfunded.

Ireland was the highest scoring for mental health, with 70.5 per cent, whereas Croatia scored lowest with 57.3 per cent.

In 2016, only five per cent of people in the UK said they felt lonely most or all of the time, a drop from seven per cent in 2011.

The UK last year became the only country to have a Government minister for loneliness, with Chatham & Aylesford MP, Tracey Crouch, appointed to the post.

More than two thirds (69 per cent) of people aged over 15 say they are in good or very good health  continuing a decline from a peak of 79.4 per cent in 2010.

The 10 per cent decline is far larger than the 0.4 per cent average for the EU as a whole between 2010 and 2016.

The number of people in the UK saying they are in good or very good health (69 per cent) has been falling since 2010 and is now lower than in Turkey, but higher than France

People in Canada claim to be the healthiest, with 88.4 per cent of them saying they are in good health.

IS BRITAIN HAPPIER THAN IT WAS FIVE YEARS AGO? 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 6.8 6.9 6.8 6.5 6.7 Score: Average life satisfaction - out of 10 Advertisement

While in Japan, widely regarded as a developed country on par with Europe and North America, only 35.5 per cent of people think their health is good.

Financially, the UK has far fewer people than average saying they struggle to make ends meet  14 per cent compared to 21.6 per cent in the EU.

And one in five people in 2018 said they were 'very satisfied' with their income, a figure also above average for the continent.

As Brexit rumbles on, people in the UK's relationship with the EU has stagnated  while trust in the organisation has risen on the continent, it remained unchanged in the UK between 2016 and 2018.

Fewer than a third of people say they trust the EU  compared to 42 per cent of people living inside the bloc.

In the past, experts have said people living in Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Finland and Norway are happier because of their quality of life.

The nations often place at the top of global happiness rankings and have dominated the top spot of the United Nations's World Happiness Report since it began in 2012.

The countries have high incomes, long life expectancy and good government support services, which could explain why they rate so well.

They are also said to have good community spirit among the population, and have job security and positive working environments.

WHY ARE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES SO HAPPY? Nordic countries  Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden  consistently rank highly in surveys of quality of life around the world. They have dominated the top spots in the UN's World Happiness Report since it began in 2012. Meik Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute  based in Denmark  says the countries 'are doing something right in terms of creating good conditions for good lives.' The countries have high average incomes, long life expectancy and good government support services, which could explain why they rate so well. They are also said to have good community spirit among the population, and have job security and positive working environments. Unemployment insurance  and work experience schemes to get people back into jobs  plus child support also contribute to wellbeing. Danish people, for example, pay high taxes  up to 51.5% of their income for a high earner  and the money is reinvested in society. In return they get free university education, free healthcare, generous maternity leave and unemployment benefits. Sources: Happiness Research Institute, BBC and TIME Advertisement
The US Government has been scorned for lifting its ban on experiments to engineer deadly bird flu which could infect humans.

Research into the viruses will soon be allowed to carry on, despite experts warning people could die if the pathogens break out of laboratories.

Scientists say they want to study the virus 'to protect human health' so they can learn more about it and be better prepared for a pandemic.

But Professor Steven Salzberg, a biomedical engineering expert at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, said he cannot fathom why the US National Institutes of Health, which has permitted the 'dangerous' research, is allowing it to happen.

Researchers from the US and Netherlands will be allowed to continue experiments trying to engineer a strain of bird flu which could infect humans (stock image of a flu virus)

'I've said it before, more than once,' he wrote in a column for Forbes magazine.

'Engineering the flu to be more virulent is a terrible idea... This research has the potential to cause millions of deaths.'

Professor Salzberg claimed two scientists have spent years trying to mutate the avian flu to spread between humans.

But the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US Government's medical research agency, put the research on hold in 2014 because of safety concerns.

Despite a letter signed by hundreds of scientists from around the world, the NIH has now lifted the ban and will allow Ron Fouchier and Yoshihiro Kawaoka to continue their experiment.

Science magazine reported last month a government board had decided to allow the research to continue but would not publicly release details of its review.

As a result, the government will consider new funding applications for research in this specific area of virology.

In 2014, the NIH granted professors Fouchier and Kawaoka more than $600,000 (458,000) towards their project spreading bird flu between mammals.

Their research explored ways in which existing bird flu viruses could mutate so they would be able to pass between droplets of breath from ferrets.

'One of the deadliest strains of avian flu circulating today is H5N1,' Professor Salzberg wrote.

'This strain has occasionally jumped from birds to humans, with a mortality rate approaching 50 per cent, far more deadly than any human flu.

'Fortunately, the virus has never gained the ability to be transmitted directly between humans.

'That is, it didn't have this ability until two scientists, Ron Fouchier in the Netherlands and Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin, engineered it to gain this ability.

Professor Steven Salzberg said engineering bird flu so it could spread between people is a 'terrible idea'

'(Actually, their work showed that the virus could be transmitted between ferrets, not humans, for the obvious reason that you can't ethically test this on humans.)'

Professor Salzberg's fear of the researchers creating a virus which could kill millions of people stems from flu outbreak death tolls from history.

In 1918, for example, the Spanish flu outbreak which spread to people from birds killed around three per cent of the world's population  between 50 and 100million people.

There are fears of another devastating virus outbreak, and more densely populated areas and faster travel round the world could help one spread out of control.

Professor Salzberg rubbished the two scientists' claims their research would help authorities predict or prevent an outbreak of mutated bird flu in the future.

He said: 'We don't even stockpile vaccines for the normal seasonal flu, because it mutates too fast, so we have to produce new vaccines each year.

'And the notion that anyone can predict a future pandemic strain so precisely that we could design a vaccine based on their prediction is laughable.'

Professor Salzberg called on the US Congress to intervene.

Professor Kawaoka told Science: 'We are glad the United States government weighed the risks and benefits  and developed new oversight mechanisms.

'We know that it does carry risks. We also believe it is important work to protect human health.'
A woman born with a port wine stain that covers her face is shunning treatment after learning to love her 'gecko-like' appearance.

Shannon Stoner, 35, from McMinnville, Tennessee, suffers from birthmarks that cover around 80 per cent of her body.

She was born with Sturge-Weber syndrome, which causes abnormal blood vessels to develop in the skin, which causes the birthmarks.

Growing up, children would cruelly call her 'gecko' and say she had 'Kool Aid on her face'.

Ms Stoner started laser treatment to stop her birthmarks thickening at just 12 years old.

However, after enduring 15 sessions, she is keen to keep the therapy to a minimum because she does not like how it reduces her blemishes.

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Shannon Stoner (left) was born with a port wine stain that covers her face due to Sturge-Weber Syndrome. Pictured right aged seven, doctors worried the now 35-year-old was bruised when she was treated in hospital for pneumonia. She claims she now loves her 'gecko-like' looks

Pictured with her father at three months old, Ms Stoner's parents told her the birthmarks - which cover 80 per cent of her body - were 'angel kisses' and 'made her special'

At just two months old, doctors initially worried Ms Stoner was bruised while she was treated in hospital for pneumonia.

After the police were nearly called, Ms Stoner's paediatrician explained her birthmarks were normal and not a sign of abuse.

Speaking of her childhood, Ms Stoner said: 'I was raised like any other kid, I was told from a young age my birthmarks were angels kisses and I was made special.'

Although Ms Stoner's family encouraged her to embrace her appearance, cruel comments from strangers wore her down.

'A cashier once looked at me and said, "shame your mum couldn't have washed the Kool Aid off your face", my mum told her, "you know it's a birthmark, right?",' she said.

'One time a little girl kept pestering me and told me I looked like a gecko.'

Although the bullying continued as Ms Stoner grew up, she believes it made her stronger.

'In my teen years I felt differently but I grew mentally,' she said. 'There are so many things that are much worse than a birthmark.

'When I worked in retail I would deal with a lot of kids, they believed it was a rash as they had gone through rashes before, their parents seemed to be the most disturbed by it.

'It's not like it's contagious, the only hindrance I believe is when applying for jobs - I think some people may not have hired me because of my birthmark.'

Despite her parents' support, cruel strangers would say Ms Stoner (left) had 'Kool aid' on her face. Pictured right aged six months, her birthmarks are darker on some days than others

Despite the setbacks, Ms Stoner - whose birthmarks appear darker on some days than others - worked hard to embrace her uniqueness.

Speaking of her blemishes, she said: 'It reminds me of a barbed-wire tattoo on my one arm, then my leg it looks like cheetah spots, and it kind of reminds of a map of Africa and Australia, and covers the entire left side of my face.

'We are all different, so you may as well roll with it you know, when comments would hurt I would absorb it all and think about it later.'

She claims her friends and family are almost oblivious to her appearance now.

But Ms Stoner - who works at a church - added one child continually asked her why she 'looks so weird'.

Ms Stoner - who works at a church - claims a child kept asking her why she 'looks so weird'

Ms Stoner is pictured with the actress Paige Billiot, who stars in One of Us, Earthtastrophe and Dam Sharks. Paige also has a birthmark across her face and the pair did a shoot together

Although she has had laser treatment to stop her birthmarks thickening, Ms Stoner wants to keep the therapy to a minimum because she does not like how it changes her appearance.

'If I could I would keep as much of my birthmark as possible because it's such a huge part of who I am,' she said.

'I would be a different person completely if I wasn't gifted with my birthmark and all that comes with it.

'If I wanted to cover it up I could, but I don't want to use make-up, I like living my life this way, it's a birthmark not something horrible.

'I wear my birthmark with pride.'

Ms Stoner is still undergoing treatment to remove granulomas - a small area of inflammation, which can affect organ function.

She last had laser treatment on her blemishes in 2018.

'I want to show people what I go through on a day-to-day basis,' she said.

'There are so many people with birthmarks and it's way easier to connect now than when I was a kid, you don't feel as alone anymore.

'Don't be afraid to go out and live. Don't worry about what other people think.'

After years of laser treatment to lighten her birthmarks and prevent them thickening, Ms Stoner is now shunning the therapy because she does not like how it hides her blemishes

Ms Stoner (pictured left and right) claims she would be a 'completely different person' if it was not for her port wine stain. She has a YouTube channel where she encourages other people who were born different to 'go out and live', and 'not to worry about what other people think'
Two Americans contracted measles from a third, infected passenger on a flight to San Francisco, US health officials reported Wednesday.

The San Francisco Department of Health announced in a statement that the three people were flying from an undisclosed foreign country to the US in February.

One of them had previously caught the virus, and one San Francisco resident and one Santa Cruz, California, resident were infected in the air.

Though measles is highly contagious, the health officials assured the public that no additional cases had been reported in connection to the three passengers, and that these would have appeared within 21 days of the exposure.

Measles outbreaks have cropped up across the globe, and two likely unvaccinated people traveling from a foreign country to San Francisco contracted the virus on a flight

In 2000, the US declared that the country was free of measles, attributing the elimination of the deadly infection to the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine.

But, now, on the heals of the anti-vaxxer movement, the measles are back, and threatening the lives of babies, children and people with compromised immune systems for the first time in nearly two decades.

This year, there are 11 states with ongoing outbreaks.

The dangerous disease is spreading in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

Typically, the makes its way into the US when travelers from other countries with lower vaccination rates and higher rates of annual cases travel enter the country before being diagnosed.

In Washington, where a single county has seen 70 cases of measles, prompting the declaration of a state of emergency, the outbreak has been traced back to a traveler from Israel.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, measles have also been brought back from the Ukraine, which is in the midst of its own major outbreak.

States like Washington have laws in place that allow children to be exempt from shots based on religious or philosophical beliefs.

Following a major outbreak in 2014-2015, California struck its own law allowing such exemptions, instead instituting one of the nation's toughest vaccination policies.

Some experts have worried that measles could travel to California from other neighboring states, but the health department's recent report suggests that some California populations may still be unvacinnated - in spite of tougher policies.

The good news for Californians is that three infected travelers flew into San Francisco back in February.

Measles symptoms become clear within 21 days of exposure, and no one else in the individuals' respective counties has been diagnosed with the life-threatening illness.

The health department assured the public that others were at 'very low risk' of contracting the disease, but residents should still be watchful for the tell-tale blotchy rash, fever, sore throat, eye inflammation and cough that mark the measles.

And officials are insistent that vaccination is more key than ever.

'Making sure you have all your immunizations is especially important for travelers, because measles is circulating in many countries outside the United States,' the health department advised in a brief statement.

'Early immunization with MMR vaccine is recommended for infants ages 6-11 months before going on an international trip.'
PAST LIFE by Dominic Nolan (Headline 14.99, 432 pp)

PAST LIFE

by Dominic Nolan (Headline 14.99, 432 pp)

This beautifully written debut starts with a chilling abduction. DS Abigail Boone is a high-flyer in the Met, investigating the disappearance of a young woman named Sarah. Then shes taken by a ruthless band of people-traffickers intent on killing her.

Waking up beside a womans dead body, she escapes after four days by attacking her captors. But Boone has been so traumatised by her experience that she is diagnosed with retrograde amnesia.

She does not even recognise her clinical psychologist husband or their teenage son.

Her police career is wrecked, but the former detective tries to piece together what happened to her by returning to the search for Sarah as a private citizen.

It is a brave decision, but one that will cost her dearly, for the corruption she confronts runs deep. Never afraid of portraying the bleakness of the human soul, this is a moving story, poignantly told.

FADE TO GREY

FADE TO GREY by John Lincoln (No Exit Press 11.99, 320 pp)

by John Lincoln (No Exit Press 11.99, 320 pp)

Cormoran Strike the private detective with a prosthetic leg created by J. K. Rowling  has a lot to answer for.

For he has spawned another private detective with a disability, Gethin Grey  except this time, it is a gambling addiction, rather than a physical infirmity.

Grey is just about capable of running his small Cardiff-based firm, Last Resort Legals, which specialises in victims of miscarriages of justice.

Suddenly, he is offered a high-profile case . . . Muslim Ismail Mohammed was imprisoned for the murder of a young woman. He has recently written a book on his experiences, which has prompted a faded diva of the silver screen to ask Gethin to investigate the case and prove his innocence.

Gethin may finally earn enough to pay his teams wages, but hell also be tempted to gamble again. He is resourceful, wry and engaging. This is not to be missed.

A GIFT FOR DYING by M. J. Arlidge (Michael Joseph 12.99, 480 pp)

A GIFT FOR DYING

by M. J. Arlidge (Michael Joseph 12.99, 480 pp)

Five years ago, I welcomed British television screenwriter and producer Matt Arlidges arrival with his excellent debut, Eeny Meeny. Seven further DI Helen Grace stories followed.

But now, Arlidge has branched out with a standalone tale of Chicago teenager Kassie, who is blessed (or should it be cursed) with a terrifying gift: she can foresee when and how some people will die.

A serial killer appears in the Windy City, and the police wonder whether the teen might be an accomplice.

Forensic psychologist Adam Brandt investigates and finds himself caught up in Kassies life as the bodies begin to mount and she tries to save them.

Can she really predict death? Gradually, Brandt starts to believe shes telling the truth  and that she may even be able to foresee her own demise.

Strikingly well-told, and with a compelling central character, it has the feel of a television drama.
LOVE WITHOUT END by Melvyn Bragg (Sceptre 18.99, 320 pp)

LOVE WITHOUT END

by Melvyn Bragg (Sceptre 18.99, 320 pp)

The fate of the 12th-century lovers Abelard and Heloise is the tragic subject of this time-shift novel.

In 1117, Paris is an intellectual hub, and the brilliant radical philosopher Peter Abelard is at its centre.

He falls for his learned and beautiful student, Heloise, the niece (but probably the daughter) of Canon Fulbert, who is enraged when he discovers their relationship and takes brutal revenge.

In the present day, novelist Arthur is in Paris researching a novel about them.

Together with his feminist daughter, he analyses the affair and its consequences  which includes castration and Heloises incarceration in a nunnery.

The novel asks: Can we understand the religious and cultural mindset that led to the lovers downfall?

In this fascinating, haunting evocation of two people aflame with passion and love of learning, Melvyn Bragg dramatises the struggle to find consolation in faith.

MRS MOHR GOES MISSING by Maryla Szymiczkowa (Oneworld 12.99, 320 pp)

MRS MOHR GOES MISSING

by Maryla Szymiczkowa (Oneworld 12.99, 320 pp)

Billed as an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, this is the first in a projected series. Happily married, but bored, the socially ambitious Zofia Turbotynska visits a retirement home in Krakow run by nuns to drum up support for a charity raffle.

Her attention is diverted by the unexplained deaths of two of the residents. To her secret enjoyment, she and her quick-witted servant, Franciszka, are soon hot on the trail of an explanation.

The unravelling of the mystery is ingenious and takes us through a social setting quivering with snobberies and dos and donts.

Its fun and sparky and the glimpse of turn-of-the-century Polish manners and mores is beguiling.

THE COURIER by Kjell Ola Dahl (Orenda 8.99, 276 pp)

THE COURIER

by Kjell Ola Dahl (Orenda 8.99, 276 pp)

Working as a courier for the resistance in the war, Jewish Ester is betrayed and flees Oslo for Stockholm, leaving behind her family and her friend Ase, who is in a failing relationship with resistance hero Gerhard Falkum.

Then Ase is found dead. Nazis? Collaborators? Natural causes? Or revenge?

Cleverly braiding together past and present, the who and why of murder and betrayal are unpicked.

The detail is impressive and the tone unflashy. After a little resistance to the time switching, the novel grew on me.
The Government is set to appeal a court decision which found the controversial Right to Rent scheme has lead to landlords discriminating against potential tenants because of their race.

The High Court ruling on Friday found that the Government scheme breaches human rights law.

The controversial scheme makes landlords responsible for checking the immigration status of their tenants with the prospect of fines or imprisonment if they fail to do so.

It was introduced by Theresa May while she was Home Secretary as a key plank of the Government's 'hostile environment' strategy for illegal immigrants.

But on Friday, Judge Justice Spencer ruled that the scheme had caused landlords to discriminate against tenants they deemed to be potentially non-British.

The scheme was first introduced by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary in 2013

'The evidence strongly showed not only that landlords are discriminating against potential tenants on grounds of nationality and ethnicity but also that they are doing so because of the scheme,' Mr Justice Spencer ruled.

UK landlords are forbidden from renting property to non-UK, EU or Swiss nationals who don't have the right to remain in the UK.

Under the scheme, if landlords don't check the relevant documents - such as passports - before renting out a property, they are liable to prosecution.

This week the Minister of State for Immigration Caroline Nokes said: 'It is disappointing that the Right to Rent Scheme was declared incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

'The High Court ruled that Parliaments decision to impose right to rent checks is outweighed by the potential for race discrimination by those with the duty to perform the required checks.

'We disagree with this finding and the Home Office has been granted permission to appeal all aspects of the judgment.'

Government was warned

The controversial scheme was first floated in 2013 under the coalition Government and attracted criticism from industry groups and stakeholders from the get go.

A summary of consultation responses found that 'concern was raised that the regulations would result in discrimination motivated not because of overt prejudice but because of administrative convenience where some people are more likely than others to have readily available documentation'.

In other words, the Government was warned that the legislation could cause landlords to avoid foreign-born applicants out of fear that they would be more complicated to process than British applicants.

Six out of 10 respondents to the Government's consultation had expressed concern that the policy might lead to greater racial discrimination, including a perceived risk that landlords might discriminate on the basis of administrative convenience, the court found.

It also found that the Government had been made aware of concerns during the consultation process that 'the new rules might lead landlords to discriminate against people who they perceive to be foreign rather than conduct proper checks to ascertain their actual status'.

This means the Government was warned the scheme could lead to people with foreign names or foreign accents being discriminated against regardless of their right to live in the UK, or regardless of whether they were actually British citizens.

The Home Office dismissed these concerns, stating that the levels of extra work involved for landlords would not be enough to discourage them from processing applications from potential tenants they thought were non-British.

Despite this, Mr Justice Spencer found that the Government was 'alive to the risk that the scheme would cause unlawful discrimination' and then 'proceeded to enact the legislation through Parliament' anyway.

Caroline Nokes MP said: 'The Right to Rent Scheme was launched to prevent illegal migrants from accessing the private rental sector, and to tackle unscrupulous landlords who exploit vulnerable migrants, sometimes in very poor conditions.

The RLA has called for a meeting with Home Secretary Savid Javid but are yet to receive a reply

'The law was and remains absolutely clear that discriminatory treatment on the part of anyone carrying out these checks is unlawful. And the Right to Rent legislation provides for a Code of Practice which sets out what landlords are expected to do.

'The Scheme was trialled in the West Midlands. This trial was evaluated in full, with the results published in October 2015. They included 539 responses to online surveys, 12 focus groups, 36 one-to-one interviews, and a mystery shopping exercise involving 332 encounters.

'The Home Office evaluation found there was no systemic discrimination on the basis of race.'

Right to Rent immediately led to racial discrimination

The scheme was piloted in the West Midlands before being rolled out nationwide in May 2015.

In September that year the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants published a study finding that 'in the first seven months the scheme had resulted in discrimination against people with foreign accents, foreign names and those without British passports'.

People with complicated immigration status, unclear documents and those who required time to provide relevant documents, were less likely to be considered and accepted for a property as a result of the scheme despite having a 'right to rent'.

Importantly, 42 per cent of the landlords surveyed said that because of the scheme they were less willing to let to people without a British passport and 27 per cent said they were reluctant to rent to people who appeared foreign.

Despite this, the Home Office responded in the following month publishing its own 'Policy Equality Statement', in which it stated that it had 'found no hard evidence of systematic discrimination towards foreign nationals from letting agents or landlords'.

Chief immigration official warned the Home Office the scheme wasn't working

Following the initial study the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration released a report on the scheme, finding in essence that it had failed to help tackle illegal immigration.

Residential Landlords Association policy manager John Stewart

The report concluded that the scheme 'is yet to demonstrate its worth as a tool to encourage immigration compliance' and that the Home Office had 'failed to co-ordinate, maximise or even measure effectively its use, while at the same time doing little to address the concerns of stakeholders'.

The Home Office did not accept the Inspector's recommendations in full.

The Residential Landlords Association and the JCWI have written to the Home Secretary seeking an urgent meeting, but say they are yet to receive a reply.

John Stewart, Policy Manager for the RLA, said: 'This ruling is a damning critique of a flagship Government policy.

'We have warned all along that turning landlords into untrained and unwilling border police would lead to the exact form of discrimination the court has found.

'We call on the Government to accept the decision, scrap the Right to Rent scheme, and consider what else can be done to sensibly manage migration, without having to rely on untrained landlords to do the job of the Home Office.'

The scheme was ruled incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights on Friday

The reforms lead to dozens of crackdowns and fines for landlords in the years proceeding its implementation.

Financial penalties totaling 37,000 were handed out in the first eight months after the Right to Rent scheme was rolled out across England.

Chai Patel, Legal Policy Director for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said: 'There is no place for racism in the UK housing market. Now that the High Court has confirmed that Theresa May's policy actively causes discrimination, Parliament must act immediately to scrap it.'

Caroline Nokes MP added that the Government is looking at options for a further evaluation of the operation of the Scheme.

'As part of this, we will look to develop further mechanisms to monitor the operation of the Scheme to provide ongoing assurance about its impact,' she said.

As the Government appeals, the scheme will remain in force with the Home Office yesterday confirming there will be no immediate changes to the operation of the policy.

Landlords and letting agents are still obliged to conduct Right to Rent checks as required in legislation.
I would like a smart meter, but want a more advanced second generation version.

I'm also aware that switching energy providers with a first generation meter can cause it to stop working.

Why are some people able to have a second generation meter fitted while others are given the old tech? What can I do to get a second generation one?

Will there one day be a smart meter that all suppliers can use, meaning it will be easier to change supplier?

Many people with first generation smart meters have found they can go 'dumb' after a while

Grace Gausden, This is Money, replies: Smart meters are a contentious topic with many people choosing not to have one fitted, while others have reported problems with the ones they already have.

At present, more than 13.5million devices have been installed, with a quarter of homes having one fitted - but this isn't nearly enough to reach the Government target of every household and small business having one by 2020.

The majority of these fitted are the first generation (SMETS1) meters - nearly 500,000 second generation (SMETS2) devices have been installed.

However, there's good news in terms of your question - from next week, first generation smart meters should not be installed because energy firms will not be allowed to install them  they will only be installing second generation meters.

Readers - who after the 15 March 2019 - have a smart meter installed that is not a SMETS2, feel free to get in touch: grace.gausden@thisismoney.co.uk

Many who have a first generation meter fitted are concerned they aren't getting the second generation smart meters they were promised some time ago  a much needed update after reports circulated about first generation devices going 'dumb' after customers tried to switch provider.

A meter going 'dumb' means they will stop sending automatic meter readings or the in-home display, which show energy usage in pounds and pence, stops working properly.

Some first generation meters still haven't regained functionality after initially failing.

Many of the first generation meters have known to go dumb when customers have switched energy suppliers with new research from Which? finding that 58 per cent of people with meters installed had this problem, raising serious concerns about the effectiveness of the Government's smart meter roll out programme.

Just 42 per cent of energy customers in Which?'s survey said they were able to switch supplier without problem with a smart meter.

In a Which? survey, 58% of smart meter users found theirs went dumb after changing suppliers

Another 32 per cent of people who switched supplier after getting a smart meter said their new supplier replaced their smart meter - but Which? also said it has received reports of energy customers whose replacement devices stopped working.

The consumer group believes the Government should make sure customers are not shut out from the benefits of using a smart meter and should ensure they can switch suppliers, hassle free, to get the best possible deal.

It is hoped the full roll out of the second generation meters will combat this issue as they won't go dumb when switching suppliers.

According to the Smart Data Communications Company, Ofgem has also licensed them to build a new central switching service that will allow a switchover to happen in one working day that will allow customers to switch energy providers easily and quickly.

This is Money contacted all of the Big Six energy providers to find out why some customers have been eligible for a second generation meter installation while others can only have a first generation.

EDF and SSE confirmed that eligibility for second generation meters can be dependent on a customers geographical location with EDF saying new technology is soon to be installed on its network meaning more regions will be eligible.

The Big Six companies said location could stop second generation meters being installed

SSE also said there are some industry-wide challenges outside of their control that relate to how the meters connect with the national network, which limit eligibility.

Many factors can affect geographical locations including what type of house you have, whether it has thick walls, where the meter is located in the house and how good the phone signal is - which is what the smart meter runs off.

Npower also confirmed there are a number of technical eligibility factors that currently determine the type of smart meter that is installed and location is only one of them.

It said the industry is working towards an operation where there is no discernible customer experience difference between the meter generations available.

British Gas said they had installed over 100,000 second generation meters so far and will install them where possible.

Eon also confirmed it was installing second generation meters when it can but Scottish Power did not respond when asked for comment.

Sarah Threadgould, Which? chief customer officer, replies: Consumers need reassurance that the smart meter rollout will bring greater convenience and a fairer energy market - not just hassle and soaring costs funded by their bills.

The Government needs to outline clear solutions for millions of people stuck with smart meters that risk cutting them out of the benefits of being able to monitor their energy use and use this information to switch to a better deal.

For now, our advice is for energy customers with a first-generation meter not to be discouraged from switching, as they could still save money, despite the risk of their meter going 'dumb'.

Robert Cheesewright, Director of Corporate Affairs at Smart Energy GB, replies: We share the frustrations of consumers whose first generation smart meters have lost their smart service, but these problems are being resolved.

Later this year first generation meter customers will start to get their service back and nearly half a million second generation meters are now in homes across Britain, enabling seamless switching between suppliers and putting us a step nearer to a cleaner and more affordable energy system.

A Data Communications Company spokesman replies: The Government has instructed the DCC to build a tool to migrate first generation meters on to the central network so that consumers who have them can switch without losing their smart functionality.

The first energy suppliers will be able to begin migrating from this summer and all meters will move over by the end of 2020.

The DCC is also working with Ofgem to build a new central switching service that will eventually enable consumers to switchover their energy supplier within 24 hours.

Grace Gausden, This is Money, adds: Currently, having a first generation meter could be a barrier for households to switch energy providers, which the Government strongly recommends them to do, due to the devices going dumb.

Having a second generation meter should solve the problem of both displays going dumb and easing the switching of energy providers.

But as the Big Six firms revealed, there are still hurdles to overcome, including issues with location and technical difficulties that are currently being reviewed.

However, if your supplier isn't offering access to a second generation smart meter at present, you can still ask to be contacted when they are available and you can also get in touch to ask to have one installed if they are rolling them out.
John Lewiss boss warned that the crisis crippling the High Street will last another ten years as the company slashed bonuses to the lowest level since 1953.

In a bleak assessment of the industrys future, Paula Nickolds, the department stores managing director, said: We should expect to see this as a five to ten year change in the nature of retail.

The stark warning came as the John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose, handed its 83,000 staff a bonus totalling 3 per cent of salaries, equivalent to almost two weeks pay.

Trouble ahead: In a bleak assessment of the industry's future John Lewis Paula Nickolds warned that the crisis crippling the High Street will last another ten years

It is dramatically lower than the 20 per cent given to employees in 2008 and the lowest since 1953 when staff got nothing. The retailer blamed a downturn on the High Street for its struggles.

Sir Charlie Mayfield, chairman of John Lewis Partnership, said it had been a challenging year.

The John Lewis Partnership suffered a 45 per cent slump in profits to 160million in the year to January 26.

Despite an increase in profits and sales at Waitrose, the department store dragged on the group as it posted a 56 per cent dive in profits 114.7million and a 1.4 per cent fall in sales compared with a year earlier.

John Lewis has a unique partnership structure which distributes profits to all its employees  who are described as partners  through bonuses.

The group said cutting the bonus for the sixth year in a row will allow it to continue slashing its debt pile and investing in stores.

However, many staff expressed relief at the news of a 3 per cent bonus with some reports suggesting it could be axed altogether.

Mayfield said: Downstairs in the dining room here there was a cheer louder than weve had sometimes on 15 per cent.

Laith Khalaf, a senior analyst at investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, said that, given current trading conditions, the bonus of 3 per cent is better than a poke in the eye.
(ANSA) - Rome, March 8 - Four Italians have been arrested on charges of killing an Albanian man and hiding his body in a cavity behind wall in Genoa.

Lamaj Astrid had disappeared in January 2013 and his corpse was found on January 15, 2019 in a flat in Senago, near Monza.

The four men were identified thanks to an investigation by Carabinieri police and arrested in Muggio, Enna, and Genoa.


Melrose Industries has made a 550million loss following its 8.1billion hostile takeover of British engineering stalwart GKN, largely due to costs related to the deal.

Bosses were upbeat about the progress of the deal, which was doing better than City analysts had expected and the company said it had made an underlying profit of 784million.

Shares in the FTSE 100-listed takeover specialist rose as much as 6 per cent after management said its performance in 2018 had been 'transformational' and beaten the board's own hopes.

Melrose bosses were upbeat about the progress of the deal, which was doing better than City analysts had expected and the company said it had made an underlying profit of 784m

Melrose narrowly won a bitterly fought contest last year to take over GKN, in the biggest hostile bid since Kraft swooped on Cadbury in 2009.

Melrose brought in 8.6billion of revenue in 2018, up from 2.1billion the year before  reflecting the size of the GKN acquisition. It boosted its annual dividend by 10 per cent, meaning investors will take home 4.6p per share.

Chief executive Simon Peckham made a string of outspoken criticisms of the previous GKN management, highlighting the scope for improvement.

He described its previous relationships with its customers as 'troubled' and said the company used to have a 'significant creditor stretch'  meaning it took a long time to pay its suppliers.

Around 10 per cent of revenues come from loss-making contracts, according to Melrose.

New initiatives in the last year include a 17million investment into a new Aerospace Global Technology Centre in Filton, Gloucestershire, which will make aircraft wings. The Government is putting 15million into the project.

A spokesman for Melrose said it ploughed 350million worth of investment back into the company last year, 200million of which went to GKN-related businesses.

Melrose's takeover led to speculation that it could sell GKN's aerospace business, which raised national security concerns.

The Government green-lit the deal, which was criticised by unions, politicians and the media, after Melrose agreed to tell ministers of any decision to sell a part of GKN that works on defence contracts.

But the firm has come under fire for the hefty pay packages handed out to its four top executives who received 42million apiece in 2017.

Melrose fired the starting gun on its break-up of GKN earlier this week, saying it would net 200million from the sale of a GKN division as well as the sale of a minority stake in an aerospace firm.

Melrose said it was selling Walterscheid Powertrain Group, which makes gearboxes and driving shafts for mining and farming vehicles, to US private equity firm One Equity Partners.

GKN's powder metallurgy business, which makes car and industrial components from powdered metal, is thought to be on the market for 1.6billion.

A spokesman said that because the unit performed well last year, Melrose will not actively seek to sell it. But if the right offer came in, it would consider a sale. Melrose shares rose 2 per cent, or 3.7p, to 183.75p.
Brussels Jewish museum killer Mehdi Nemmouche is facing life in jail after being found guilty of the 'terrorist murder' of four people.

The 33-year-old was armed with a Kalashnikov and a handgun as he went on a rampage lasting less than 90 seconds at the museum in the Belgian capital in May 2014.

The atrocity was Europe's first attack by an Islamist fighter returning from the war in Syria.

Sporting a trimmed beard and wearing a navy blue sweater, Nemmouche showed no emotion and stared into space as the verdict was delivered.

The 12 jurors, accompanied by the presiding judge and two other magistrates, had deliberated for two and a half days in secret at a Brussels hotel before returning their verdict. Sentencing is now not expected to take place before Monday, the court said.

Jihadist Mehdi Nemmouche (pictured) has been found guilty of carrying out a massacre at a Jewish museum in Belgium

Prosecutors claimed Nemmouche fought with ISIS in Syria. The 12 jurors also found fellow Frenchman Nacer Bendrer 30, who was accused of supplying the weapons, to be the co-author of the attack. The two defendants are shown in a court sketch

The 12 jurors, accompanied by the presiding judge and two other magistrates, had deliberated for two and a half days in secret at a Brussels hotel before returning their verdict. There was high security outside the court room yesterday (pictured)

This CCTV image from the day of the attack shows the suspect of the killings in the Jewish Museum in Brussels

Nemmouche was found to have killed the four victims in cold blood in less than 90 seconds, but he denied the accusation telling the court he had been 'tricked'.

Presiding judge Laurence Massart, who read out the jury's verdict, said: 'The existence of a trap was not presented with enough credibility and must be ruled out.'

This referred to arguments made by defence lawyers that Nemmouche was not to blame for the cold-blooded slaughter, but that he was caught up in some kind of plot targeting the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.

The argument involves Israeli couple Miriam and Emmanuel Riva, the first two of the four people killed in the attack.

A young Belgian employee, Alexandre Strens, and French volunteer Dominique Sabrier were also murdered.

The defence team has suggested that the Riva couple were intelligence agents murdered by an unknown man who had hunted them down.

The Riva family's lawyers have furiously rejected the theory and said attempts to pass off the tourists as secret agents was 'an absolute scandal'.

'Let's stop the joking,' prosecutor Yves Moreau told the court on Tuesday, describing the arguments presented by the defence as 'complete nonsense' against compelling evidence.

Miriam Riva worked for Mossad but, as an accountant, she was not operational, said the investigating judges who travelled to Israel during their investigation.

Belgian police transport Mehdi Nemmouche back to prison from the courthouse after he was found guilty

Nemmouche was armed with a Kalashnikov rifle and a handgun as he went on a rampage that left four dead at the museum in Brussels in May 2014

Police issued this CCTV grab of a man entering the museum. He was wearing a blue shirt and dark trousers, and carrying two shoulder bags

Yohan Benizri, the head of Belgium's Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organisations, denounced what he called a 'nauseating conspiracy theory'.

The 12 jurors also found fellow Frenchman Nacer Bendrer, 30, who was accused of supplying the weapons, to be the co-author of the attack.

Seated next to Nemmouche in the defendant's box, encased by bullet-proof glass on the sides, Bendrer then hung his head low for a few minutes before covering it with his hands. He also faces a life jail sentence.

The investigation showed that the two men had dozens of telephone conversations in April 2014, when Nemmouche allegedly prepared the attack.

Six days after the massacre, Nemmouche was arrested in the French city of Marseille in possession of a revolver and a Kalashnikov-type assault rifle.

At the trial, Bendrer admitted that the Nemmouche had asked him for a Kalashnikov when he came to Brussels in early April, but claimed he never delivered it.

Among other personal effects, Nemmouche upon arrest carried a nylon jacket with gunshot residue, as well as a computer in which investigators found six videos claiming the attack with an off-camera voiceover thought to be Nemmouche.

In total, the prosecution said it had identified 23 pieces of evidence pointing to Nemmouche, who also physically resembles the shooter seen on the museum's surveillance video.

The verdict said: 'The defence limited itself to outlining a set of scattered deductions without ever elaborating on them.'

It added that Bendrer, by supplying the weapons, was aware of aiding a crime committed by 'a longstanding radical,' alluding to Nemmouche.

'We are both deeply convinced that the two accused did indeed commit these acts,' one of the two prosecutors said in their indictment.

The prosecutors say the attack was the first carried out in Europe by a jihadist returning from fighting in Syria.

The Brussels killings came 18 months before the November 13, 2015, Paris attacks which left 130 dead.

Nemmouche's journey from a French foster home to a Brussels court began not in a Middle Eastern desert but in a run-down industrial town.

He is already a case study in the radicalisation of some young European Muslims.

Belgium and France, in particular, fear the defeat of groups like ISIS in Syria will send more angry young men homewards.

There was high security outside the Brussels Palace of Justice in the Belgian capital yesterday

A jury last night found the 33-year-old Frenchman guilty of carrying out the anti-Semitic mass murder. Police are pictured outside the Brussels Palace of Justice yesterday

But Nemmouche seems to have been on a radical path long before he set off, in early 2013, for the so-called 'caliphate' on the Euphrates.

The investigation into the May 2014 massacre in the museum has pieced together elements of his background.

Nemmouche was born on April 17, 1985, in the northern French town of Roubaix, to a family of Algerian origin.

He never knew his father and his mother was judged not 'capable' of raising him, investigators say.

Aged only three months, he was moved to a foster family in the northern industrial city of Lille, where he would stay - off and on - until he was 16.

But his upbringing was not stable. He would make difficult trips to stay with his grandparents, and sometimes to care homes or a Parisian orphanage.

His foster parents, in documents seen by AFP, describe him as an 'angry' youth, 'capable of the worst as well as the most kindly' acts.

He committed his first known crime at 13, then at 16, he spent three weeks in a juvenile prison for a hold-up with an air pistol after being convicted by a children's court.

His criminal record grew ever longer in his late teens, with traffic offences and muggings, and his grandmother lost track of him after his second jail term.

In 2007, aged 22, he headed to Provence in southern France after gaining a vocational qualification as an electrician, but soon fell back into trouble.

'What an enormous waste,' his former lawyer Soulifa Badaoui said after the museum murders, lamenting the fact that the authorities had not helped Nemmouche to integrate.

'No one knew what to do with an intelligent, lively young man who wanted to get out, become an ordinary French citizen,' she told AFP.

Between December 2007 and December 2012, he spent five years in custody - and investigators believe this is when his ideas hardened.

In prison, he was known as an 'extremist proselytiser' who tried to organise group prayer and spoke of jihad and the 1995 'genocide of Muslims in Bosnia'.

This linked him to the 'Roubaix gang' - French Islamists who returned from the Bosnian war and carried out robberies to fund Al-Qaeda, some of whom he knew.

When his grandmother saw him in Tourcoing in December 2012, he had a long beard and was praying daily, something she had not seen before.

Less is known about his experiences in Syria, but three former French hostages have identified him as their 'strict and violent' overseer.

They say he did not hide his admiration for Mohammed Merah, who murdered three French soldiers, a Jewish teacher and three young children in 2012.

Former hostage Nicolas Henin told the trial last month that he had 'absolutely no doubt' that Nemmouche was his jailer and torturer in Syria.

Henin described him as a 'sadistic, playful and narcissistic' man.

Nemmouche, who was extradited to Belgium over the museum shooting after being arrested in Marseille, will go on trial in France over the hostages at a later date.

Held under tight security at a prison in Leuze-en-Hainaut, his lawyers describe him as a man of 'steely will' who was bearing up well under the pressure of incarceration.

'When he greets me with a warm, relaxed smile it's as if we're not in prison,' defence counsel Francis Vuillemin told AFP. 'The walls seem to slip off him.'
Girl Power may be synonymous with the Spice Girls and in the year when the former pop chart toppers make their comeback their motto has taken on a whole new meaning for two British businesswomen who are driven to 'helping build a monster global sisterhood.'

Forget Posh, Scary, Baby, Sporty and Ginger and meet Fiesty entrepreneurs Debbie Wosskow OBE and Anna Jones, who are on a mission to transform the UK into the 'best place in the world to be a female leader.'

Their catchphrase 'Every women, every age, every stage' resonates across the country and further afield as they vow to 'empower women everywhere.'

The inspirational pair, both mothers-of-two, Northerners and hugely successful at business, formed an alliance after first meeting over a gin and tonic three years ago.

Their company The AllBright, launched last March on International Women's Day, is on track to helping close the gender-based funding gap that prevents many women from launching and succeeding with their business ideas.

Entrepreneurs Debbie Wosskow OBE (left) and Anna Jones (right) run The AllBright, launched last March on International Women's Day

Their company is on track to helping close the gender-based funding gap that prevents many women from launching and succeeding with their business ideas

They connect the community through a swanky members club in Bloomsbury, central London, with a new one set to open in the capital in Mayfair in May and they are venturing across the Atlantic with their first American club, launching in Los Angeles in July.

'We're taking on the world, amazing things happen when you get women in a room together', boasts Ms Wosskow, 45, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, who admits she has now 'gone posh' after losing her regional accent.

The founder and ex CEO of Love Home Swap, a world favourite home exchange service, says: 'I'm lucky enough to work with and be inspired by some amazing women.'

Ms Jones, 43, from York, is a mother and ex-UK CEO of publishing giant Hearst magazines

She spoke out as the Alison Rose review is launched today to mark International Women's Day.

Ms Rose, newly appointed Deputy CEO and a Director of NatWest Holdings, was appointed to lead a government review to identity barriers faced by women when starting a business and explore what can be done to overcome them.

Women looking to start and grow a business are facing unfair barriers not seen by their male counterparts, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Robert Jenrick said when he launched the review and vowed action to tackle the issue.

He stated: 'The fact that Britain is home to so many new, innovative businesses is something to be proud of. But the fact that so few of them are started by women is shocking. This is not because of a lack of talent or appetite.

'Therefore, it's vital that we identify the barriers that are hampering entrepreneurial women from securing the backing that businessmen have taken for granted. Alison's vast experience in investment banking will be invaluable to helping us level the playing field and empower even more talent in our economy. Women looking to start and grow a business are facing unfair barriers not seen by their male counterparts.'

The multi-folded review has considered whether female-led firms are less likely to seek or receive financial backing; the drivers of this disparity between men and women and examples of best practice for investors and banks looking to avoid gender-bias in their decisions.

The women connect the community through a swanky members club in Bloomsbury, central London with another opening in Mayfair in May

Ms Rose describes it as 'an important new initiative' and previously said: 'If we want to strengthen the UK's position as one of the best places in the world to start and grow a business, then no-one can be left behind. Unfortunately, statistics show that women make up only a third of all entrepreneurs in the UK. To better drive the UK's economy, we need to understand, and tackle the barriers and reasons as to why this is. More can be done to support women in enterprise.'

And Ms Wosskow agrees wholeheartedly. It is her raison d'etre for The AllBright. She says in an exclusive interview with MailOnline on the eve of jetting off to California for her forthcoming LA expansion: 'We want to help and support women build a monster global sisterhood. In the UK only one in five small to medium-sized employers are being run by women and it's rarely single-handedly. Most companies are co-founded by two women like us!

Ms Wosskow, 45, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, said: 'We are taking on the world'

'It's not that women are scared to run a business, although some maybe are, it's that all the money for investment is controlled by men. But women-girl power is holding up the flag. We're here to back Britain and now America.'

So why aren't more women out there proving it?, our female reporter asks.

'It's complicated!', Ms Wosskow initially responds. 'And that's what The AllBright is trying to sort out. We are trying to change conversation to get better access to capital, women are less aware of the funding options available. Some have a crisis of confidence and fear public speaking, many don't think they have the skills but want to give it a go.

'Statistics show that women-led business delivers 35 per cent better return than male run ones. One in ten women in the UK say they want to try and start their own business but don't,Three quarters don't think they have the skills.'

The AllBright, which takes its name from formidable former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, aims to help through its club and three more on the way - the fourth due to open in New York in 2020 - and its Academy, a digital education platform offering free business courses in the UK and US.

Ms Wosskow and Ms Jones, former UK CEO of publishing giant Hearst magazines, were introduced in 2016 by a mutual friend Warren Johnson, a communications expert. She explains: 'Me and Anna met over a gin and tonic and we started to discuss why are most of the venture capital businesses in Britain led by men - where are the women? We are not at the table and must be. Random serendipity changes your life.

'And that's how The AllBright was born. It's all about giving women a space to build relationships, their careers and businesses and ultimately to change the economic landscape for working women in the UK. We thrive most when we see what people like us - other women  have achieved and women have said they're more productive and find it easier to network in these environments.'

Ms Wosskow and Ms Jones, 43, from York, who each both have a son and daughter and value their Northern roots have written a new book about empowering women and help them 'supercharge their career', to be published by Penguin in May.

Meanwhile their current private members club - and new one to open in Mayfair - offers a place and space for women across all major industries and of all ages to hone practical skills and network but also to relax and socialise in five storey and five star luxury.

Their private members club offers a place and space for women across all major industries and of all ages to hone skills and network but also to relax and socialise in five star luxury

Household names amongst 'normal' members include Oscar-winning actress Naomie Harris, fashion designer Mary Katrantzou, and Lastminute.com co-founder Martha Lane-Fox hooked on its mantra 'seeking to encourage, nurture and promote female leadership and networking.'

Hailing from a family of female entrepreneurs Ms Wosskow has been inspired by her grandma, who ran a chain of sweet shops and off licences before her death three years ago aged 96, and her mother who owned a printing and packing company with her father.

She says: 'I'm very, very driven and you have to be in it to see it. We are going to close that gender-based gap which has been stopping so many women from launching and succeeding with their business ideas.'

The graduate with an MA in Philosophy and Theology from New College, Oxford, was awarded an OBE for services to business in 2017 and was championed the Evening Standard Entrepreneur of the Year 2018.

With the publication of the Alison Rose Review, Ms Wosskow, who was a key contributor, has been keen to reflect on her company which is taking huge strides in enhancing the landscape for women in business just one year after opening.

Some key statistics revealed in the review are:

Low access and awareness of capital  Women's average starting capital is 50% below men with women less aware of funding options available and only 8% of Venture Capital investors being women.

Greater risk awareness - Women are 55% more likely to cite fear of doing it alone as a primary reason for not starting a business.

Perceived missing skills and Experience  39% of women are confident in their capabilities to start a business versus 56% of men, and rate themselves less highly in high growth knowledge areas and skills.

Lack of relatable sponsorship, mentorship and role models  Women are significantly more likely to value external networks but are less likely to identify themselves as having a strong female role model and sponsor to help them grow.

Ms Wosskow says: 'We enjoy helping women build the skills, confidence and connections they need to super-charge their careers and businesses.'

Asked if her immense efforts in business in the past have made her a millionaire or multi-millionaire, she simply replies: 'I think I've done alright!'
The foster carers of the Parsons Green bomber are taking legal action against the council that placed him in their home.

Iraqi teenage asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan, who pretended to engage with the anti-terrorism Prevent scheme as he plotted mass murder in London, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 34 years at the Old Bailey last year.

Hassan's foster parents Penny and Ron Jones, who were awarded an MBE in 2010, are suing Surrey County Council, claiming that the council presented him 'merely as a troubled young person' and did not disclose key information about the danger he posed.

The teenager, who lived in Sunbury, Surrey, made a bomb with 400g of 'Mother of Satan' explosives and 2.2kg of shrapnel while his unsuspecting foster carers were on holiday in Blackpool.

The bomb injured 51 passengers on September 15 2017.

His trial heard how Hassan arrived in Britain illegally in 2015 and told officials he had trained with Islamic State (IS).

Ahmed Hassan's 400lb bomb injured 51 people. Hassan pictured on a train headed to Brighton

Mr and Mrs Jones, who fostered 269 children in 47 years, say they have been 'betrayed' and 'hung out to dry' by Surrey County Council, as they have not been asked to foster any more children since Hassan's arrest.

Mrs Jones, 72, said: 'We want to make sure that no other foster carers are ever treated like we have been.'

The couple are claiming that the council was negligent in not telling them the full story about Hassan's past and that they breached their right to family life as protected under the Human Rights Act.

Mrs Jones said: 'They told me that he had tried to kill himself and would only be released if he was fostered into a stable home so we took him in.

'On the surface he was a lovely boy. He wouldn't let Ron mow the lawn and he would always carry the shopping in from the car. So when it came out he was building a bomb in our home it was a real shock.'

Mr Jones said: 'We were told that the amount of explosives he had was enough to blow up this entire block of six houses. It's terrifying.'

Mrs Jones added: 'When Ahmed's trial was going on, I was asked if I knew if he had said he was trained to kill by Isis and I said no, we would never have taken him if we'd known. Caring for kids was my life and now this has been taken away from us.'

Hassan's foster carers were oblivious to the fact he had enough explosives to blow up their whole block and say the council breached the human right to family life

Jocelyn Cockburn, a specialist civil liberties solicitor from Hodge Jones & Allen, who represents Mr and Mrs Jones, said: 'Surrey County Council owed Penny and Ron a duty to disclose key information about the danger Ahmed posed, and to ensure any information given was accurate, before asking them to invite him into their home.

'Instead he was presented merely as a troubled young person. This is a clear failing by the council and gives rise to claims in negligence and under the Human Rights Act 1998.

'Had the appropriate disclosure been made, Penny and Ron would not have agreed to foster Ahmed and accordingly not have suffered the distress and other difficulties they have endured.'

A Surrey County Council spokesman said: 'We are defending this claim, however we acknowledge this has been a very difficult time for Mr and Mrs Jones and their family.

'We place a high value on openness with all our foster carers, share information about any risks with them from the outset and continue to keep them informed. This was our approach with Mr and Mrs Jones.'

Mr and Mrs Jones are raising money for a legal fighting fund to help pay for their legal action on www.crowdjustice.com.
Emma Bartholomew has won a landmark case against a council raking in over 100k-a-week from a new a new traffic enforcement camera

A motorist has won a landmark case against a council raking in over 100,000-a-week from a new traffic enforcement camera.

Emma Bartholomew successfully appealed against a 65 fine after her mother made a left turn at a junction in Hackney, East London.

She took the council to a tribunal who ruled the new signs banning the left turn at certain times of the day were 'inadequate'.

Since being installed more than 20,000 people have been hit with penalty charge notices raking in 14,000 a day for the council.

Emma has now encouraged other motorists hit with the fine from Hackney Council to consider launching an appeal.

'I was able to argue my case that the signs at the junction are not clear and confusing for motorists,' said Emma.

'I am pleased the tribunal ruled in my favour and I think others who have fallen foul of the camera and been sent fines should consider making an appeal.'

Last June Hackney Council banned drivers from turning left at a junction in the hope of reducing air pollution at a nearby school.

The traffic enforcement camera has reaped close to 1m in just nine months for the council making it one of the most profitable in the UK.

The mother-of-three successfully appealed against a 65 fine after her mum made a left turn at a junction in Hackney, London (pictured) in a tribunal decision meaning more could appeal

Despite complaints about poor signage and a difficult road layout, the council have refused to take down the camera which monitors cars turning into Richmond Road from Mare Street.

Mother-of-three Emma said her 72-year-old mother Pam was 'flashed' by the camera as she turned off Mare Street on her way to drop off clothes at a local hospice.

She said: 'My mum was visiting and I had been having a clear out and she volunteered to drop the clothes off on her way home.

'She had no idea about the camera and the first we knew was when a fine appeared in the post. The conditions she was driving in were not very good and she just did not see the sign.'

Emma, a journalist on the Hackney Gazette, had an initial appeal against the fine rejected by the council.

She applied for her case to be heard at the London Tribunal and appeared in person to argue the no left turn sign  which is enforced during rush hour only  was confusing and poorly sighted.

Had she lost the appeal she would have been forced to pay 130.

But after showing the tribunal adjudicator photos of the sign and explaining her case he ruled in her favour and dismissed the fine.

Despite complaints about poor signage and a difficult road layout, the council have refused to take down the camera which monitors cars turning into Richmond Road from Mare Street

Emma has now encouraged other motorists hit with the fine from Hackney Council to consider launching an appeal against the poorly signposted camera on the left turn

Allowing the appeal, Mr Sean Stanton-Dunne said: 'The no left turn sign is positioned beyond the traffic lights so that it may not be clearly seen before the lights.

'The lights are in front of the sign and so risk causing an obstructed view from car level in the left hand lane.

'There is an advance warning sign further back from the lights but this is tilted at an angle so that it does not directly face the approaching motorist.'

Emma said she was thrilled to win her case and strike a blow for other motorists.

Emma, a journalist, had an initial appeal against the fine rejected by the council

She said the tribunal chairman told her a small number of motorists had appealed against the fines.

Hackney Council banned drivers from turning left at the junction in June in the hopes of reducing pollution at a nearby school.

'Poor signage' and a 'difficult road layout' have been blamed by motorists for the small fortune the council has amassed.

In the first nine weeks of the camera being installed the authority had dished out nearly 14,000 fines.

With the cost of a fine standing at 65 if paid within two weeks, the council has generated a whopping 898,235 for itself in that period.

This works out at nearly 100,000 every week - or 14,000 a day.

One 74-year-old Islington Council worker - who has been using the junction for 30 years - has been slapped with 21 tickets, totalling 1,365.

The country's highest earning speed camera only made a comparatively low 1.5 million - or 250,000 a month - in the six months between April and October 2016, despite being located on London's busy North Circular Road.

Residents have vented their frustrations at Hackney Council's perceived money-grabbing tactics.

Twitter user Baz commented: 'This restriction is poorly conveyed (judging by the amount of PCNs [penalty charge notices] issued and the number of repeat PCNs), and is definitely not in the spirit of the law, regardless of whether the signage meets the standard required or not.'

Also writing on Twitter, Trajon2000 said: 'Councillors will be giving themselves a big pat on the back for that, oh and a big payrise.

'Just a thought here, if they put more of these signs around the borough to catch people out, could we have a council tax reduction please.'

Figures released by the council show that of the 20,869 penalty charge notices issued since June 3,705 were appealed. Of these only 1544 were upheld.

A Hackney Council spokesperson said: 'Two thirds of cases heard by the adjudicator have been won by the Council. There are three signs warning of the no-turn before and at the junction, as well as an illuminated sign on the traffic light which warns drivers when the restriction is in force. These signs are Department for Transport approved, and go over and above the requirements for a restriction of this type.

'Nonetheless we always remain open to making further improvements, and will be inviting an adjudicator to visit Richmond Road so that we can discuss any concerns they may have, and agree how to address them for the benefit of motorists.'
Another woman targeted by the NRL Memes Facebook page has threatened to sue after rugby league great Mark Geyer said he was pursuing legal action against the page for linking his daughter to the NRL sex tape scandal.

NRL Memes was taken down by Facebook on Wednesday for breaching 'community standards' after Geyer announced on Monday he would take action against the page for false accusations against his daughter Montanna.

Ms Geyer began legal proceedings on Thursday by contacting the administrator of the page, a man understood to be from Sydney's western suburbs, through her representation at Brydens Lawyers.

Ms Geyer (right with father) began legal proceedings on Thursday by contacting the administrator of the page through her representation at Brydens Lawyers

Amid the legal proceedings, a friend of another woman who had 'previously been the subject of comment on that page' spoke with Brydens Lawyers on Thursday, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The firm's principal Lee Hagipantelis said the woman was weighing up her options and what legal action she could take against NRL Memes, and that currently the firm had been briefed to take defamation proceedings.

The administrator of the page was not at home when legal documents were delivered to his property on Thursday, with Mr Hagipantelis believing the man had gone into 'hiding'.

'Chances are he'll go underground. (But) further action will be taken, and we will pursue him through the courts,' Mr Hagipantelis said.

Brydens Laywers is yet to receive a response from the administrator.

Geyer told News Corp he wanted to clear his daughter's name, as any father would, and that the allegations she was in one of the sex videos was 'bulls**t'.

Amid the legal proceedings, a friend of another woman who had 'previously been the subject of comment on that page' spoke with Brydens Lawyers on Thursday

The page which, had over 300,000 supporters, leaked lewd sex tapes of player Dylan Napa who has since been handed a fine.

On Tuesday, Panthers player Tyrone May was charged with allegedly filming and disseminating two graphic videos without consent.

May, 22, has been stood down under the NRL's new no-fault policy announced last week, which was implemented after a raft of players were accused of serious criminal offences including assault and sexual assault.

He will be unable to play until his May 1 court appearance at Penrith Local Court.

The NRL is also yet to decide the fate of the other two players who appeared in the leaked videos.
The NSW government has promised to tackle 12 of Sydney's worst bottlenecks in a new $450 million plan to upgrade congested.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the Liberal's and National's plan to remove the major 'pinch points' across Sydney today, targeting suburbs such as Carlingford, Beverly Hills, Fairfield and West Ryde.

The welcome upgrades are just part of the plan, with Ms Berejiklian also set to announce a pledge to fund a fleet of 100 government controlled drones that will fly over NSW roads.

The drones will record real-time traffic information to motorists which will help avoid bottlenecks.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced today the Liberal's and National's plan to remove 12 major 'pinch points' across Sydney - including bottlenecks in Beverly Hills and Fairfield

The '12 pinch points' around Sydney are believed to be the worst bottlenecks and include roads in Fairfield, Smithfield and Peakhurst

Traffic congestion costs Sydney $6 billion every year and is a major concern for voters.

The upgrades will include adding extra turn bays, replacing roundabouts with traffic lights and widening small sections of road, but each will be tailored to that specific intersection.

The bottleneck at The Grand Pde and President Ave in Brighton-Le-Sands have already been upgraded and travel times have seen an improvement of 12.5 per cent in the morning peak and 21 per cent in the evening.

The number of incidents involving collisions have also decreased.

The upgrades are just part of the plan to ease Sydney's traffic congestion problem with Ms Berejiklian also set to announce a pitch to release an army of 100 drones that will fly above NSW roads

Ms Berejiklian also plans to announce a separate pitch to release the horde of drones to battle congestion-prone roads. One-hundred drones will over roads in Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Lake Macquarie and Newcastle

The enormous $450 million investment comes on top of the $825 million that has already been budgeted to fix bottlenecks - taking the total expenditure of road congestion to $1.2 billion.

'We are making this investment to keep our roads moving so drivers can spend less time sitting in traffic and more time doing what they need to or what they enjoy,' Ms Berejiklian said during the announcement last night, the Daily Telegraph reports.

'We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to ease congestion, whether it is through methods such as eliminating pinch points or new technology such as drones.'

Ms Berejiklian also plans to announce a separate pitch to release the horde of drones to battle congestion-prone roads.

One-hundred drones will hover over roads in Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Lake Macquarie and Newcastle.

They will be flown by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and will cost an extra $15 million.
A couple who had their engagement ring stolen while on a romantic getaway in New Zealand were touched when they were flooded with offers to replace it.

Nico Lustig, from Germany, had planned to propose to his girlfriend Janina Hinnear while the couple were travelling around New Zealand for four weeks.

During a visit to Ahipara, northwest of Auckland, all their luggage was stolen from their car, which was parked at a campground on Monday.

Nico Lustig (right), from Germany, had planned to propose to his girlfriend Janina Hinnear (left) while the couple were travelling around New Zealand for four weeks

On the list of stolen items were clothes, electronics and a $600 engagement ring, NZ Herald reported.

News of the theft has since spread around the country and sparked a heartwarming response.

Carrie Johnston - who lives in Taupo, more than 600kms south of Ahipara - has offered the couple an engagement ring and matching wedding band.

'I'm sure none of my boys would mind if I gifted the rings to Nico, if he'd like them,' she said.

On top of the offer of a ring, the mother-of-three extended her hospitality to the pair.

'I only have a small apartment (three teenage boys take up a lot of room), but they would be welcome to stay for a couple of days as long as they don't mind the couch in the living room,' Ms Johnston said.

And Ms Johnston isn't the only person who is extending a helping hand.

A jeweller located on the other side of the island has also offered the pair a ring, and a woman living in the US said she is open to adding money to a fundraiser.

With so many offers brought forward, Nico and Janina's getaway just might be saved.

Daily Mail Australia reached out to Nico Lustig for comment.
BBC boss Lord Hall has mocked popular streaming service Netflix as he claims only 7million British viewers watched its big hitter The Crown, while 17million tuned into The Bodyguard finale.

The streaming giant, which has 10 million UK subscribers and is known for shows like Sex Education, Stranger Things and House Of Cards - does not reveal how many people watch its shows.

Despite the BBC being paid for by a license fee, Tony Hall yesterday boasted that the corporation's top shows had left Netflix trailing in the British ratings league.

Lord Hall said more Britons had watched the finale of Bodyguard in four weeks than saw The Crown in nearly one and a half years.

Director general of the BBC, Tony Hall (pictured above) has recently mocked the viewing figures of subscription service Netflix

The Bodyguard, which starred Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes (pictured) proved to be a significant success for the BBC, with an audience of 10.4 million watching the series finale live

The director-general told a media conference that the final episode of BBC's hit political thriller reached 17 million viewers in a month, while 'our data suggests The Crown reached seven million users in the UK in 17 months'.

The series  which starred Keeley Hawes and Richard Madden  is one of the most-watched BBC dramas of all time.

Paid subscription service Netflix, which has ten million subscribers in the UK, does not release any viewing figures and yesterday said it did not recognise Lord Hall's ratings for The Crown.

Neflix original The Crown, based on the life of the Royal Family, have proved popular with audiences and critics but audience figures have not been released by Netflix

The streaming platform is expected to release a third season of The Crown, starring Olivia Colman as the Queen, later this year.

Lord Hall said it was estimated that Netflix spent as much as 13 billion dollars on movies and shows last year, while Amazon has a content spend of around five billion dollars.

'They're reportedly setting aside one billion dollars for five series of Lord Of The Rings. Disney has a 100 million dollar budget for a single series of Star Wars,' he said.

'The BBC's TV content spend taken altogether is around 1.5 billion across a whole year.'

Following his comments, social media users hit out at the 68-year-old, with some branding him the 'worst director general of the BBC'.

Rob Watson said: 'Is Tony Hall quite possible the worst Director General of @bbc in recent memory? Instead of snipping at your rivals, why not reform the BBC so that it can serve the public properly and doesn't have to chase fads and gimmicks? #mediareform #reformbbc'.

This is while Phil Huntley said: 'Tony Hall there, not really getting Netflix BBC only show things on iPlayer a short while after broadcast, scarcity creating a rush. I didn't discover some of my favourite shows on Netflix (Fargo, IASIP, etc) until years after they were available on there.

Phil Huntley suggested that the BBC only show things on iPlayer a short while after broadcast

One social media users accused Tony Hall of being the worst director general in recent memory

The purpose of the BBC, as set out in its mission statement is that it is a public organisation with public purposes.

Their ''core mission' is to inform, educate and entertain. With factual programming being one of the BBC's most popular programming schedules.

As of the financial year 2017/2018 the amount of license fee holders in the UK came in at 25,836,495.

This is while Netflix has 10 million subscribers. MailOnline has contacted Netflix.
A seemingly healthy mother who was nine months pregnant with her second child has suddenly died at home along with her unborn baby.

Janay Johnstone, a 31-year-old photographer from Auckland, has been mourned by family and friends on social media after a death made even more tragic by the fact that much of her work involved helping families of sick and deceased children.

Ollie Dale, the president of the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography of which Ms Johnstone was a member, has created a Give A Little page to raise money for her grieving husband Mark and three-year-old son.

'As far as I know she had no health issues, it was completely unexpected and she was a vibrant and bubbly person,' he told the New Zealand Herald.

Janay Johnstone, a 31-year-old photographer from Auckland, has been mourned by family and friends on social media after her unexpected death

Ms Johnstone (left) and her unborn baby died at home unexpectedly and she was found by her husband Mark (right)

'She was found at home by her husband slumped over and had passed away and, sadly, was nine months pregnant.'

Mr Dale described the talented photographer as 'bubbly and vivacious with a heart of gold'.

The 31-year-old ran her own business, Tee-Jay Photography, where she combined her passion for photography with her love of motherhood.

'My passion for newborn photography started with my son, the moment I watched my son being photographed as a newborn, I thought would be the best job in the world,' the Facebook page says.

'Working with the most precious little miracles, what more is there to love.'

'My aim is to always capture your precious little bundle in a way your heart will melt every time you look at them.'

The 31-year-old (left with husband) ran her owned her own business, Tee-Jay Photography, where she combined her passion for photography with her love of motherhood

Ms Johnstone shared numerous updates to her Facebook throughout her second pregnancy, including an ocean photoshoot where she embraced her growing belly.

In mid-February, her family hosted a baby shower to celebrate the little girl she was nurturing and Ms Johnstone wrote: 'please don't make me wait longer'.

Mr Dale launched the funding page to give the community's photographers a way to donate money to her grieving family.

'It is with deep regret that we mourn the passing of Janay Johnstone,' the page says.

'A wife, a mother, a photographer; Janay was a wonderful mum to her beautiful boy and so excited to meet her wee girl due this month.'

Mr Dale said Ms Johnstone volunteered for Heartfelt, a charity where photographers visited hospitals to photograph babies who were severely ill or had died during birth.

'A wife, a mother, a photographer; Janay (pictured) was a wonderful mum to her beautiful boy and so excited to meet her wee girl due this month,' the Give A Little page says

'Among her other endeavours, Janay was a Heartfelt photographer, giving herself and her precious time for other families who suffered their own tragic losses,' Mr Dale wrote.

'If you would like to donate to help Janay's husband Mark and Janay's family, please do so here. All funds go directly to Mark.'

Almost 200 people had donated to the page by Friday morning, raising over $10,000.

Social media has been inundated with messages of support to Ms Johnstone's mourning husband and son amid the tragedy.

'No words can express the amount of sadness this brings. All my love to you and your beautiful son,' one wrote to Ms Johnstone's husband.

'Words can't express what you are all going through right now. Janay was such a beautiful kind and caring soul. We send our love and condolences to the family,' wrote another.

You can donate to the Give A Little page here.
(ANSA) - Rome, March 8 - Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has been placed under investigation for alleged corruption in legal procedures.

The case concerns a ruling on March 3, 2016, by the Council of State, Italy's top administrative court, that annulled the obligation for the ex-premier's holding company to sell a stake held in financial services group Mediolanum. Berlusconi's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini has told media outlets that he is sure the case will be dropped and expressed the hope it will happen soon.


Michael Barnhill (above), 30, was arrested last week after police say he shot and killed his wife and two friends in a drunken birthday dispute in Winona

A Mississippi man was arrested last week after allegedly shooting dead his wife and two friends at her birthday party when they tried to stop him from driving drunk.

Michael Barnhill, 30, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted homicide, authorities revealed.

Family friends Jim and Brooks Harrell had been hosting a karaoke party in Winona for the defendant's wife Marlee Barnhill, on March 1 - but the 27th birthday celebration would end in a bloodbath.

According to Carroll County Sheriffs, Michael had started the night in good spirits, but as the evening went on he became increasingly drunk and belligerent, before a rage descended.

Police say party-goers tried to discourage Michael's drunken antics, causing him to become 'angry and combative'.

Marlee Barnhill (left) had been celebrating turning 27 on March 1, when her husband Michael (right) became drunk and aggressive, police say

Family friends Jim and Brooks Harrell (pictured) were hosting a karaoke party for Marlee at their home, when an argument broke out and Michael attempted to drive home drunk

Michael is then said to have stormed out the party and asked Marlee to hand over the keys to their truck, which she refused to do.

Incensed, the defendant allegedly went out to the unlocked vehicle and returned to the party clutching a .40 caliber pistol.

He then reportedly approached his wife, aggressively slapped a cigarette from her hand, and shot her in the chest from close range.

Attempting to protect Marlee, party co-host Jim Harrell was also shot by Michael, police say.

Rushing to attend to her husband, a third shot was discharged and struck Brooks.

The other two women at the party ran to protect the Harrells' 10-year-old son, who was asleep upstairs. They locked the child in the closet, barricaded themselves in the bedroom, and dialed 911.

Police arrived to find Marlee and Jim dead at the scene. Brooks was airlifted to hospital but died in transit.

Michael Barnhill was reportedly nowhere to be seen. Officers say he returned to the property later that evening, claiming as though he 'didn't know what had happened.'

The two surviving witnesses reportedly identified him as the killer. Police say he then attempted to flee but was subdued by a taser gun and was taken into custody.

The suspect is said to have gone out to the unlocked vehicle and fetched a .40 caliber pistol. He returned to the party and shot his wife in the chest

Jim Harrell (right) attempted to protect her but was shot dead, shortly followed by Brooks. Two other guests ran upstairs to protect the Harrell's sleeping 10-year-old son

Happy March 1!!!! New month, New Goals, and my BIRTHDAY MONTH! Shares are appreciated  Posted by Get Glamorous with Marlee on Friday, March 1, 2019

'These were all good friends having a nice time together,' Carroll County Sheriff Clint Walker in a statement.

'Marlee was trying to do the right thing to protect his life and the lives of other drivers.'

Just hours before the party, Marlee had posted a video to Facebook exclaiming how excited she was for the evening ahead.

'Happy March 1!!!! New month, New Goals, and my BIRTHDAY MONTH!,' she posted.

Michael Barnhill remains in custody in Carroll Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility without bond.
Ronald Hamilton will spend the rest of his life in prison after being formally sentenced on Thursday over the 2016 killings of his wife Crystal Hamilton, 29, and 28-year-old officer Ashley Guindon

An Army staff sergeant convicted of fatally shooting his wife and a rookie Virginia police officer has been sentenced to seven consecutive life terms after he was spared the death penalty by a hung jury.

Ronald Hamilton will spend the rest of his life in prison after being formally sentenced on Thursday over the 2016 killings of his wife Crystal Hamilton, 29, and 28-year-old officer Ashley Guindon.

A jury spared Hamilton's life in October last year when it deadlocked on whether he should get the death penalty.

He was instead sentenced to multiple consecutive life sentences after the court heard emotional impact statements from the mothers of his two victims.

Guindon's mother called Hamilton a 'vicious, cold-blooded, heartless killer', while his former mother-in-law almost collapsed in the witness box.

'My heart is bleeding. He took everything. He's a coward ... He shot my daughter in the back,' Crystal's mother told the court.

Hamilton wiped tears from his face during the hearing.

Crystal Hamilton, 29, (left) and officer Ashley Guindon, 28, (right) were both shot dead by Hamilton at their home in 2016. Guindon was working her first shift as an officer when she was killed

Guindon was working her first shift as an officer with the Prince Williams County Police Department when she responded to a domestic violence call at the Hamiltons' home (above)

He was convicted of repeatedly shooting his wife with a handgun after they got into an argument about her attending a male dance revue with her girlfriends.

The couple's 11-year-old son was inside the home when the shooting occurred.

Guindon was working her first shift as an officer with the Prince Williams County Police Department when she responded to a domestic violence call at the Hamiltons' home.

When police arrived at the home, Hamilton opened fire with a military-style rifle and killed Guindon.

Two other officers, Dave McKeown and Jesse Hempen, were also shot by Hamilton but survived.

McKeown testified last year the death-penalty trial, saying he recalled kicking down the door of the home and seeing Hamilton standing there with the AK-47.

Two other officers, Dave McKeown (right) and Jesse Hempen (left), were also shot by Hamilton but survived

Hamilton was convicted of repeatedly shooting his wife Crystal with a handgun after they got into an argument about her attending a male dance revue with her girlfriends. The victim's sister is pictured above at a makeshift memorial outside their home

'All my vision went to was the barrel of the gun,' McKeown said at the time.

He said he saw the flash of the muzzle but doesn't remember hearing the shots.

'I started feeling the impacts on my body,' McKeown said. 'I tried to draw my gun, but my arm stopped working. I knew I needed to get out of the way of the rifle.'

After the shooting, McKeown testified that he knew his circumstances were dire by the reactions of the officers who arrived to render aid.

'They were trying to stay calm, but they were definitely panicked - I could see their faces and hear their voices,' he said.

McKeown said he has had at least 15 surgeries since he was first brought in to Inova Fairfax Hospital, most of them in an effort to reconstruct a badly damaged right elbow.

Hamilton was an active duty Army staff sergeant assigned to the Joint Staff Support Center at the Pentagon at the time of the killings.
A mother has claimed that her young son has escaped an attempted abduction thanks to a clever safety measure that she set up.

The boy's mother Rhea Schulte said her son was approached by a stranger near Darling Heights State School in Toowoomba.

Posting in the Toowoomba Crime Alert & Discussions Facebook group, Ms. Schulte said the man, who was driving a red van, told the young boy : 'Your mum isn't picking you up today. Jump in the van and I'll take you home'.

Rhea Schulte has claimed that her young son has escaped an attempted abduction thanks to a clever safety measure that she set up

However the stranger was foiled because the mother had planned ahead for just such a circumstance and set up a password for anyone who was picking her son up.

When the boy asked for the password, the stranger wrongly guessed the word 'puppet', so the boy ran away to safety.

Ms. Schulte's son described the man as a 'skinny white guy with a black hooded jumper and tattoos on his neck'.

Ms. Schulte said the man, who was driving a red van, approached her son at Darling Heights State School in Toowoomba and said: 'Your mum isn't picking you up today. Jump in the van and I'll take you home'.

Queensland Police said the report was 'unfounded' and were not pursuing any lines of inquiry.

Daily Mail Australia contacted Darling Heights State School and they said 'we are looking into the matter.'
HBO released the first teaser trailer for its latest true-crime documentary on Thursday.

The cable network is taking on the infamous case of Michelle Carter - the teen girl who encouraged boyfriend Conrad Roy by text message while he killed himself five years ago.

The preview for 'I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs. Michelle Carter' comes less than a week after HBO debuted 'Finding Neverland' about allegations of sexual abuse by Michael Jackson.

The latest two-part documentary is directed by Erin Lee Carr, and is set to debut at SXSW in Austin, Texas on Saturday.

Carter was sentenced to 15 months in prison after she urged her 18-year-old suicidal boyfriend to end his life during the summer of 2014.

The trailer for 'I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter' was released on Thursday

Carter, then 17, was found guilty for the involuntary manslaughter of Roy even though she never laid a finger on her victim. Her only weapon was a smart phone.

Thousands of text messages between the couple, who lived an hour apart and met less than five times in person, showed Roy was extremely depressed in the weeks leading up to his death.

Carter even made Roy promise he'd follow through with his suicidal impulses.

Conrad Roy (pictured), 18, killed himself with carbon monoxide on July 13, 2014

'You just need to do it Conrad,' she texted Roy at one point. 'The more you push it off, the more it will eat at you.'

Their cellphone interactions led to Roy leaving a family trip at the beach in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts the evening of July 12, 2014 to park his truck in a Kmart parking lot in Fairhaven.

He filled his truck with carbon monoxide from a generator and eventually succumbed to the fumes.

During his final moments, Roy called Carter twice and spoke to her for a total of about 90 minutes.

Michelle Carter cries after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the suicide of Conrad Roy III, in Bristol Juvenile Court in Taunton, Massachusetts on June 16, 2017

Investigators obtained text messages between Carter and her friends that were sent after Roy's death.

The messages showed Carter told her friends that Roy momentarily changed his mind about killing himself that night and even got out of his truck, according to NBC News.

But Carter, who was on the phone with him at the time, talked him into keeping his promise, telling him to 'get back in'.

It was those three words that a judge Lawrence Moniz said were criminal.

Legal scholars have debated the ramifications of Carter's conviction since it was handed down. The case raised many legitimate questions about how much responsibility an individual has over the life of another in an information age when cyber bullying, trolling, swatting, and other newly-codified crimes committed in the digital world that often have violent, real-world consequences.

'I Love You, Now Die' is set to hit HBO some time this summer, according to Deadline.
A woman has demanded answers after her husband drowned after falling from a charter boat and was left to drown because no-one went to look for him.

Five years after Damien Mills' body was found 5km off a Perth beach his wife Nicole is looking for an explanation as to why no one has been held responsible for his death.

Mr Mills fell off a Rottnest Island charter boat, Ten-Sixty-Six, and was left treading water for 12 hours awaiting rescue which never arrived, The West Australian reported.

Five years after her husband's body was found 5km off a Perth beach, Nicole Mills is looking for an explanation as to why no one has been held responsible for his death

According to a coronial inquest, Mr Mills had a 99.9 per cent chance of being found alive if police knew what charter boat he had fallen from

According to a coronial inquest, Mr Mills had a 99.9 per cent chance of being found alive if police knew he had fallen into the water.

Mr Mills was found in his underwear indicating that he fought to survive while waiting for help.

The tragic accident has left Mrs Mills raising their three children alone, and she is heartbroken that no one has been held responsible.

'I find it very hard to live with what has happened,' Mrs Mills told The West Australian.

'If the wrong thing has been done, nothing happens? That is concerning to me. It is just unbelievable, this is unbelievable.'

Damien Mills fell off a Rottnest Island charter boat, Ten-Sixty-Six (pictured), and was treading water for 12 hours

The charter company, Dolphin Dive Centre and skipper Daniel Lippiatt have not charged or fined.

The inquest found they did not adhere to safety rules but they did not break the law.

Mrs Mills said she wants whoever is responsible to be held to account to ensure the same thing doesn't occur to someone else.

'I just don't want somebody else to feel the pain of waking up every day without their husband, and looking at my children knowing there was a 99.9 per cent chance that he could have been found alive,' she said.

The Senate inquiry into Mr Mills death will begin its hearings in Perth on March 21.
Theresa May will allow MPs a free vote on whether to pursue No Deal next week if her own proposals are defeated, two of her allies said last night.

They said she accepted it would be impossible to whip a vote on No Deal without causing a destabilising wave of resignations that could bring down her fragile government.

'Whichever way you whipped it, it would split the party,' one said. 'A free vote is inevitable.'

Chancellor Philip Hammond also hinted at the move yesterday. Asked if he would resign if he was ordered to vote for No Deal, he said: 'That is something I don't think will happen.'

Theresa May (pictured in Downing Street) will allow MPs a free vote on whether to pursue No Deal next week if her own proposals are defeated, two of her allies said last night

With Brussels still stalling on negotiations and Eurosceptic opinion hardening again, ministers are braced for potential defeat when MPs vote on Mrs May's deal a second time on Tuesday.

But sources insist the PM believes there is still hope of a last-minute turnaround  provided the EU gives ground on the controversial Irish backstop.

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox and Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay are on standby to return to Brussels as early as today if officials indicate there is the prospect of a breakthrough.

Mrs May is also ready to fly to Brussels for talks with EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, which could take place on Monday morning, barely 24 hours before the vote.

In a speech in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, today she will warn Brussels that it will bear responsibility if the talks collapse, saying the EU's decisions over the next 72 hours will have 'a big impact on the outcome of the vote'.

She is expected to add: 'Just as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice, too.

'We are both participants in this process. It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal.

'We are working with them but the decisions the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.' She will also warn Eurosceptic MPs they risk having Brexit watered down beyond recognition  or losing it altogether  if they vote down her deal.

The Government lost the first 'meaningful vote' on Mrs May's deal in January by a record 230 votes.

The prospect of Brexit being delayed or blocked left some Eurosceptic MPs suggesting they could be persuaded to back the deal the second time around.

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, pictured, could return to Brussels as early as today if officials indicate there is the prospect of a breakthrough

Some Labour MPs have also suggested that they could vote for it following concessions by Mrs May on protections for workers' rights after Brexit and a 1.6billion fund for towns in the North that have been 'left behind'.

But senior Tories admit that opposition to the deal has hardened, and fear it is set for a second heavy defeat unless there is a breakthrough in Brussels.

If it is defeated, Mrs May has promised to hold votes in the following days on whether to pursue No Deal on March 29 or ask the EU to delay Brexit.

Allowing Tory MPs to vote against Government policy on the two issues will embarrass the Prime Minister and anger Eurosceptic MPs. But allies believe it will be less damaging than resignations caused by trying to order MPs to vote for or against No Deal.

Cabinet ministers, including Mr Hammond, Justice Secretary David Gauke and Business Secretary Greg Clark, are also urging the PM to then hold 'indicative votes' on softer Brexit options, such as a customs union or a Norway-style deal, to find a consensus.

A cross-party group of MPs has already warned it will try to seize control of Brexit if the Prime Minister's deal is defeated. Former Tory minister Sir Oliver Letwin said MPs would try to hold indicative votes on March 19 in the hope of finding a consensus.

Mr Hammond warned pro-Brexit MPs they risked a softer Brexit if they joined forces with Labour to defeat Mrs May's deal. He said: 'If the deal does not get approved, it is likely the Commons will vote to extend Article 50, to not leave the EU without a deal. Where we go thereafter is highly uncertain.'
A mother and son have been jailed after keeping two Slovakian men as 'slaves' for eight year.

Roman Slavik, 29, and his mother Maria Slavikova, 46, controlled the two victim's back accounts and housed them in squalid conditions, gave them awful food and did not allow the men to return home.

The vulnerable men were approached on the streets of Slovakia before being brought over the the UK and exploited, the court heard.

Over the course of eight years, the first victim, aged 30, was paid around 12,900 from Slavik and Slavikova - although the total money he earned, including benefits, was 118,700.

Roman Slavik, 29, (right) and his mother Maria Slavikova, 46, (left) controlled the two victim's back accounts and housed them in squalid conditions

The second victim, 46, was only given 13,600 over eight years but had earned around 80,100.

Both men lived with the Slavik family in Peterborough and were paid as little as 30 a week. They were given different fridges from the rest of the family and threatened with homelessness if they did not work.

The 30-year-old victim's only venture out of the house other than to work was to the shops and he was not even given a key to the property.

He was taken to Peterborough Job Centre to claim benefits by Slavikova, who spoke English on his behalf. She lied to staff, saying he had a wife and children, and he was subsequently given around 100 every two weeks.

The man was paid 200 to marry a woman from the Philippines, who he had met once, so she could stay in the UK. He never saw her again after the wedding.

The second victim was unemployed and living in a derelict building in Nitra, Slovakia before he was introduced to the Slavik family.

He was brought to the UK with just one change of clothes and his Slovakian ID card, the court heard.

His abusers took out a number of different phone contracts in his name and a gym membership. He became financially trapped.

Both victims were moved to a number of addresses in Peterborough between 2008 and 2016, until police arrested Slavik and Slavikova in August 2016.

In police interview, Slavik answered no comment to the majority of questions to him.

At Peterborough Crown Court (pictured), Slavik was found guilty of arranging the travel of a person within the UK for exploitation, assisting unlawful immigration in relation to the sham marriage and two charges of fraud by abuse of position

Slavikova told police she came to the UK in 2007 with Slavik. She claimed both victims were alcoholics and drug users, before repeatedly denying allegations against her and her son.

At Peterborough Crown Court, Slavik was found guilty of arranging the travel of a person within the UK for exploitation, assisting unlawful immigration in relation to the sham marriage and two charges of fraud by abuse of position.

Jurors found Slavikova guilty of two counts of fraud by abuse of position.

They were sentenced on March 6, where Slavik was handed six and a half years. Slavikova was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

DC Pete Wise, who investigated the case with DCI Rob Hall and DC Peter Hume, said: 'The Slavik family benefitted directly from their hard work and clearly disregarded providing them with what was rightfully theirs.

'The victims spoke little or no English and worked extremely long days, making the opportunity for social integration away from their 'home' address virtually impossible.'
A federal judge on Thursday tossed out porn actress Stormy Daniels' lawsuit against President Donald Trump that sought to tear up a hush-money settlement about their alleged affair.

U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles said the suit was irrelevant after Trump and his former personal lawyer agreed not to penalize Daniels for violating a nondisclosure agreement she signed in exchange for a $130,000 payment.

Attorney Michael Cohen admitted in federal court he arranged the payment to silence Daniels and help Trump win the presidency. He pleaded guilty to campaign violations.

When Trump and Cohen sought to dismiss the lawsuit, they effectively gave Daniels what she was initially seeking and they vowed not to seek penalties against her for breaking the NDA agreement.

She broke the NDA agreement multiple times speaking out on her affair with Trump, which she alleged took place in 2006, in her book Full Disclosure and on CBS' 60 Minutes.

Stormy Daniels' lawsuit against President Donald Trump has been dismissed because Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen agreed to not enforce the NDA agreement she had with them

The case was tossed out on Thursday by Judge James Otero in Los Angeles. Despite her NDA agreement and $130,000 settlement payment, Daniels still spoke out on her affair with Trump

She tweeted Thursday evening that the dismissed case was a win for her as it tossed out the NDA agreement

Trump has denied the alleged 2006 affair.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, had wanted a court to declare the agreement illegal so she could speak out without fear of financial penalties if she violated it. In the end the case was dismissed in favor of the defendants.

The shell company Cohen set up to handle the deal, Essential Consultants, had once sought to fight Daniels in arbitration for violating the nondisclosure agreement by speaking in public about the alleged affair. Cohen had even threatened a $20 million lawsuit against her before vowing not to.

Daniels had fought dismissal of the case because she wanted to record sworn testimony from the two.

Daniels tweeted on Thursday saying that the thrown out case was a win for her.

'Correction: Judge tosses out NDA! More than a year ago when I was being threatened with a 20 million lawsuit, I asked a judge to toss out this illegal NDA. Glad I stood my ground & kept fighting,' she said.

Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, made no mention of that broader goal in declaring victory Thursday.

Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti praised the dismissal as a victory for the porn star writing: 'The Court specifically found that Stormy received everything she asked for in the lawsuit - she won'

Avenatti tweeted about the victory for Daniels on Thursday evening

She broke the NDA agreement multiple times speaking out on her affair with Trump, which she alleged took place in 2006, in her book Full Disclosure and on CBS' 60 Minutes

'The court found that Ms. Daniels received everything she asked for by way of the lawsuit - she won,' Avenatti said in a clarifying tweet on Thursday evening.

'How people can claim this is a "loss" after we forced Trump and Cohen to cave and Cohen has been convicted, etc. is a mystery,' he added.

Avenatti had said he would seek legal fees in the case, but the judge said that was no longer an issue for him to decide.

Otero sent the case back to Los Angeles Superior Court, where it was initially filed. He said that move does not mean the litigation would continue there, but said Daniels may be entitled to legal fees.

Last year, Otero ordered Daniels to pay Trump $293,000 in attorney's fees after dismissing a defamation lawsuit she brought against him.

Attorney Charles Harder, who represents Trump, said the ruling on top of the previous award of fees represents a 'total victory' for the president.
Jayme Closs's kidnapper Jake Patterson claims he plans to plead guilty in court, according to a handwritten letter he shared with a local news station.

The 21-year-old has been charged with kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme from her Barron, Wisconsin home and murdering her parents Denise and James Closs on October 15.

Patterson not only says he wants to plead guilty, but expresses his remorse for the killing and kidnapping attack saying, 'No one will believe or can even imagine how sorry I am for hurting Jayme this much.'

Patterson penned the letter from his cell at Polk County jail on February 28, explaining his actions and regret in his tiny and disjointed handwriting.

'Plead guilty,' he wrote in response to mailed questions from local Minnesota station KARE11. 'I want Jayme and her relatives to know that. Don't want them to worry about a trial.'

Jake Patterson, 21, says he'll plead guilty to murdering Denise and James Closs on October 15 and to kidnapping their daughter 13-year-old Jayme Closs

He said he'll plead guilty because he doesn't want Jayme's family to 'worry about a trial', according to a handwritten letter he sent to KARE11 on February 28 from Polk County jail

'Was actually going to on the 6th,' he said referring to his last court hearing. 'but in a case like this isn't not really allowed.'

The judge then moved the next hearing to the 27th of March.

He penned the note to reporter Lou Raguse and even wrote 'I'm not sure if I'm going to send this.' On some notes he scrawled out his answers, thinking twice about how much he wanted to reveal.

'I knew when I was caught - which I thought would happen sooner - that I wouldn't fight anything. I tried to give them everything, wasn't completely honest, so they wouldn't interview Jayme. They did anyways and hurt her more for no reason,' he revealed in the letter.

When asked why he kidnapped Jayme in the first place, Patterson responded: 'It's not black and white'.

Jayme was held captive in this Gordon, Wisconsin home for 88 days

The reporter asked Patterson if he had any regret for the bloody murders or holding Jayme captive for 88 days in his Gordon, Wisconsin home where he forced her to hide under his bed when guests came over.

'Huge amounts. I can't believe I did this,' he wrote.

She finally escaped in January and was discovered disheveled and barefoot and found help in a neighbor walking her dog.

When Patterson was questioned about his long-term plan in kidnapping Jayme, he refused to explain but added, 'It was really stupid though looking back.'

He revealed his family truly had no clue that he had kidnapped the vulnerable girl and his father had no suspicions during his weekly Saturday visit.

Patterson added he followed the massive and frantic search for Jayme on his phone. When it came up on TV as he and the teenager were watching, he would change the channel.

He said: 'I'm not sure what she knew'.

His arraignment is set for March 27, where he's expected to enter a plea. Pictured above on February 6, 2019

Jayme pictured above safe and sound after her rescue in January surrounded by relatives

Patterson said his murderous plot was 'mostly on impulse', adding 'I don't think like a serial killer'.

Though he didn't detail what triggered him to launch the killing spree he said he was 'really pissed' at the time.

'I didn't want to. The reason I did this was complicated,' he added.

On the back of the note he wrote 'I'm Sorry Jayme' in giant balloon letters.

Prosecutors say Patterson spotted Jayme getting off a school bus near her home and made up his mind to take her.

Patterson's attorneys did not immediately respond to messages from AP.

He is being held on $5 million bail pending a March 27 arraignment, where he's expected to formally enter a plea.
Here Sam Greenhill and Daniel Martin detail some the most shocking examples of anti-Semitism by Labour party members.

Labour member shared post accusing Jewish people of eating the organs of their enemies and accused Jews of inventing modern terrorism by saying IRA murderers took their cue from Jews. But in May 2018, the party sought to delay his suspension until it was found whether his disability had left him vulnerable.

A member was not suspended even though he was reported in May last year for saying Jewish MPs cant rein in your killers in the Middle East, referred to the Jewish brigade and said Jews desire the Labour Party to comply with their demands.

Party member from Luciana Bergers Liverpool Wavertree constituency attacked people on Twitter who opposed anti-Semitism. He had already previously been suspended from the Labour Party and issued with warning for sending abusive messages to several Labour MPs, but was then allowed back into the party and no further action was taken, last April.

Last year the Mail revealed a photo of Mr Corbyn during a 2014 visit to Tunis, holding a wreath yards from the graves honouring the masterminds of the Munich Olympics massacre

A Labour member posted this cartoon that Jewish groups say denies the Holocaust

Party let off branch secretary for using offensive word zio despite it being a second offence - and instead sought to reprimand the person who complained, in April last year.

Activist Kayla Bibby shared a picture of an alien bearing the Star of David choking the Statue of Liberty but escaped suspension from her party as image was not anti-Jewish, in May 2018.

Labour candidate posted Jews are often agents rather than instigators of exploitation but her suspension was blocked and she was elected as a councillor last year.

Member repeated abusive posts about Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth and had previously been suspended by the party but faced no action as officials decided last May she was not someone in engaging in anti-Semitism.

Labour activist supported the notorious mural - but escaped suspension because she hasnt displayed any specific anti-Semitic attitudes herself, more just general ignorance and lack of education.

Chris Williamson, one of Corbyn's allies, has been criticised by several Labour MPs for saying the party has been 'too apologetic' over anti-Semitism

Revolting: the anti-Semitic mural in east London - Mr Corbyn spoke out against its removal

This grotesque post, spotted by the Jewish Labour Movement, was shared by a Labour councillor

A message posted by a Labour councillor invoking anti-Semitic tropes about the Rothschilds

Labour councillor in Wales posted YouTube videos to his Facebook page with titles such as: Is ISIS good for the Jews? and The whole story of Zionist conspiracy. In April 2018, party considers investigation without suspension.

A file of 45 cases of repugnant messages posted online by Labour members is being examined by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick.

A serving councillor made more than a dozen racial slurs including calling someone a Jew boy.

From THAT mural to his Hamas 'friends'

In his long career as a Labour MP, Jeremy Corbyn has repeatedly embraced enemies of Israel.

Last year the Mail revealed a photo of Mr Corbyn during a 2014 visit to Tunis, holding a wreath yards from the graves honouring the masterminds of the Munich Olympics massacre

A 2013 video emerged of him saying British Zionists had no sense of English irony

Mr Corbyn described his friends from Hezbollah and Hamas in a 2009 speech

In 2012, Mr Corbyn pledged his support to a graffiti artist who painted a mural in London portraying several known anti-Semitic tropes

He praised Palestinian thug Abed al-Aziz Salaha who lynched two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank in 2000

Mr Corbyn described Raed Salah  jailed in 2008 for inciting anti-Jewish racism and violence  as a very honoured citizen

He has several times shared a stage at anti-Israel events with Leila Khaled, who hijacked a plane in 1969 and blew it up.

A vile anti-Semitic cartoon in a discussion about the 'master race'

This post called the BBC a 'Zionist Propaganda puppet show' with a racist cartoon of Jewish presenter saying 'here's what we want you to think'

Comedian David Baddiel drew attention to this image of an alien bearing the Star of David smothering New York's Statue of Liberty

TREVOR PHILLIPS: I'm proud Corbyn's fanatics will face a reckoning

Throughout my life, Ive been called many things, most of which I wouldnt want to repeat in front of my mother.

But one epithet I wear with pride is this newspapers description of me, some years ago, as the Pope of Political Correctness.

It was referring to my role as the founder chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), responsible for enforcing Britains anti-discrimination laws.

As the public face of the EHRC for over six years, I was forced to spend many hours on TV and radio, wearily opining on whether it was racist to use the word coloured (Amber Rudd can be reassured it isnt, and people of colour have many better things to be offended about); or whether schools with some Muslim pupils could celebrate Christmas with a crib containing the baby Jesus (almost every British Muslim would join in the celebration of someone they regard as one of humankinds great prophets).

But the Commissions real work has always risen above this kind of silliness and in doing so it has transformed many lives.

Trevor Phillips, founding chairman of the equalities watchdog and a Labour Party member for 30 years, has said he's proud Corbyn's fanatics will face a reckoning

When we came into being in 2007, the EHRC was the first body anywhere in the world given the mandate to seek out prejudice of all kinds and to eliminate it.

And no one should be surprised that Britain was the first country to take such a bold step; youd have to travel a long way to find a nation as wedded to the idea of fair play.

Thats why yesterdays courageous decision by the Commission to investigate the Labour Party was a proud moment for me.

I know that EHRC lawyers would have considered the decision with the utmost thoroughness, and I am sure the Board would have weighed the risk of controversy carefully. And then they did the right thing  just as youd expect a pioneering body empowered to attack injustice without fear or favour to do.

On the other hand, it was a moment of utter shame to find a political party of which Ive been a supporter and member for more than 30 years, for which Ive stomped the streets and felt the breeze of a hundred doors slamming in my face, was in the dock for harbouring the oldest prejudice of all: anti-Semitism.

It is not the first time the Commission has found itself in the awkward position of having to decide whether a political party has broken the law.

Back in 2005, as a relatively new chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (a EHRC forerunner), I was confronted with dozens of complaints about the Conservative Partys anti-immigration election poster with the slogan Are You Thinking What Were Thinking?

It wasnt unlawful, but it was ugly, borderline racist, and the new leader David Cameron wasted not a minute on dumping the message.

Four years later, we took the British National Party to court over their constitution: it is unlawful for a political party to exclude people from membership because of their race. The BNPs legal defeat presaged their financial and political collapse  an act about which I have never had a moments regret.

The Labour Party, however, is different.

In 1963, after the state-run bus company in Bristol refused to employ black or Asian conductors  white female passengers were said to be too frightened to travel with them at night  residents of the city mounted a four-month boycott.

In the end the owners backed down on this blatantly racist policy. But it was Harold Wilson who, moved by the boycott, ordered his ministers to bring in Britains first anti-discrimination laws in 1965. Five years later, spurred on by the protests of women at Dagenhams Ford plant (where my own sister worked as a nurse), the Labour minister Barbara Castle forced her male Cabinet colleagues to accept the Equal Pay Act.

Yesterdays courageous decision by the Commission to investigate the Labour Party was a proud moment for me

And so on through the decades to 2010, when Harriet Harman steered our Equality Act through Parliament. It is widely acknowledged to be the most comprehensive piece of anti-discrimination law anywhere in the world.

This is the party I had always wanted Labour to be. And it is this history that makes Labours fall from grace so humiliating for its members and so tragic for our country.

How has it come to this?

I always knew, and so did many others, that lurking at the edges of our party there were many who regarded anti-discrimination as window dressing; equal pay a sop to women and race equality law just a way of garnering black votes.

When the EHRC took the BNP to court, senior Labour MPs told me to stop wasting time. And I know that without Harmans determination, the 2010 Act would have been dumped in the Brown administrations dying days.

That is because for many in Labours far-Left there are only two battles worth fighting. One is against the class enemy represented by the Tories; the other, internationally, is the war against the imperialist Americans and their allies, whose principal running dog is, of course, Israel.

And anyone who supports Israel, as do most Jewish people, stands in the enemy camp.

For this faction of the Labour Party, the distinction between Israel as a country and Jews as a race, has long since ceased to matter. If you are not for us, they say, you must be against us. They cannot understand why anyone who sympathises with the Palestinians, as I do, doesnt also agree with them that the only way to end their misery is to destroy Israel and all who support her.

The short step to believing that these people  America, Israel, Jews  are bound up in a single vast conspiracy has been widely adopted on the far-Left.

And unfortunately, by their behaviour, the Labour leadership seems to have bought this barrel-load of nonsense completely. The lunatics have taken over the asylum and  whatever they think they are doing  are behaving like anti-Semites.

I am sure any defence of the EHRCs action in starting an investigation will become part of a fresh conspiracy theory. It happens that both the chair and chief executive of the EHRC are Jewish. The Twitter-sphere is already in overdrive and last night Labours National Executive Committee was calling for the EHRC to be abolished!

Let me be clear: Had I still been at the EHRC, I would have supported this decision 100 per cent.

The EHRC has written to the Labour Party inviting its hierarchy to respond to 1,000 pages and more of allegations. I do not know what they will find but I am sure the party will respond with its usual platitudes, assert that its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, does not have a racist bone in his body, and insist everyone in the party is treated equally.

As several Jewish MPs have discovered  Margaret Hodge, Louise Ellman, Luciana Berger among them  there is more than one way to freeze someone out of an organisation.

The BNP did it with a nakedly racist rule. Labours anti-Semites may have been more subtle, but are no less repulsive. They are the true betrayers of Labours values.

The party has proven it cannot be reformed from the inside. Our democracy needs Labour to be rescued from itself  and perhaps the EHRC can start that process.

Yesterday the Commission proved just why it matters. Whatever else is happening in politics at least someone is standing up for the best in Britain.
Balkans: Kosovo's 'platform' irritates Belgrade Serbia announces 'measured' and 'responsible' response

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, MAR 8 - There is a confrontation between Serbia and Kosovo after the Parliament in Pristina passed a 'platform' for the final stage of the dialogue, through a document which the government in Belgrade considers unacceptable. The document, approved by 61 Kosovar MPs out of 120, sets precise objectives and targets for Pristina within the dialogue with Belgrade, that is now at a stalemate.



The platform considers Kosovo's independence a fact and establishes that the outcome of the negotiations with Serbia must be mutual recognition within the current borders, and this step is seen as the way to unblock Kosovo's accession into the UN, the Council of Europe and the EU. The strategy also aims at the revocation of the UN resolution 1244, which in fact has placed Kosovo under international protectorate in 1999. The government in Pristina aims to set up a court to judge the war crimes committed by Serbs between 1998 and 1999.



Serbia considers the document 'inadmissible' and the Kosovar government's move has deeply irritated the government in Belgrade. The premier Aleksandar Vucic has urgently convened the National Security Council meeting yesterday, after a summit between Vucic and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale. During the meeting with Hale, Vucic underlined that the 'platform' essentially confirms Kosovo's will to stop the dialogue with Belgrade. In addition, the Serbian president said that Serbia will soon announce its response to the measures taken by Kosovo.



Serbian reaction, however, will be ''measured'' and ''responsible'', said Serbian premier Ana Brnabic, who described Pristina's platform as the third blow to dialogue, after Kosovo's failure to comply with the 2013 Brussels agreements and the duties imposed on Serbian and Bosnian goods in November.(ANSA).





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The mother of an eight-year-old boy has been left outraged after she says her son was forced to wet himself in-front of classmates after a teacher refused to let use the bathroom.

Sonia Mongol held a press conference outside of Manhattan Place Elementary School in Los Angeles on Thursday, demanding answers from officials at the school.

According to Mongol, her son's requests to urgently use the restroom were repeatedly refused by a teacher at the school in November.

When he could hold it no longer, his teacher allegedly offered him the option of urinating into a trash can in the classroom and 'exposing himself in front of all the other students'.

Sonia Mongo (above) held a conference outside of Manhattan Place Elementary School in south Los Angeles on March 7, after she claims he son has repeatedly been refused access to the bathroom - even after an embarrassing incident

Last November, Sonia says her eight-year-old son (above) was forced to wet himself in front of classmates and was later dressed in a trash bag to cover his damp clothes

The incident, Sonia says, has led to her son being bullied. Other teachers have also refused him access to the bathroom as a result, she claims

Mongol's son wet himself and was reportedly forced to sit in his urine-soaked clothes. He was later given a trash bag to wear over them, which he kept on for the rest of the day.

During her conference, Mongol said her son 'went to the nurse's office, [but] he received no help.'

The concerned mother went on to detail how her son is now bullied for the incident and claims teachers have subsequently denied him use of the bathroom since.

This week, Mongol says her son was again refused access to the restroom. When the teacher finally acquiesced, she claims he was locked out of the classroom.

'Why would you make a child expose himself in front of the classroom and then put a garbage bag over him when he came to you for help? Why would you treat a child that way?' Mongol rhetorically asked. 'Hes a kid.'

Protesters gathered outside of the school and demanded to meet with the principal, but the doors to the building stayed locked.

The boy attends the Manhattan Place Elementary School in South LA, where the first incident took place last year

Protesters gathered outside the elementary school on Thursday requested a meeting with Samos, but the school's doors were not opened

Supporting Mongol was retired LA teacher Latricia Mitchell, who said teachers can refuse a student's bathroom request - as the privilege is often abused - but when asked twice 'they should realize something's going on.'

Mongol is demanding the school readdress their current bathroom policy.

Principal Evelyn Samos (above) is yet to address the allegations publicly

'New restroom laws need to be put into place. Children should be able to go to the restroom whenever they have to go. Our child did not deserve this, no child deserves to be treated this way,' Mongol said.

'We are outraged, but this will be used not just to make conditions better for our child but for our children.'

Mongol also says principal Evelyn Samos is still yet to respond to the allegations. She say's she's going to take up the issue with the school board for review instead.

In response, the LA Unified School District board issued a statement, CBSLA reported.

'Los Angeles Unified takes all matters concerning the safety and well-being of our students very seriously. Upon learning about this allegation, law enforcement was notified immediately, and the District is fully cooperating in the investigation.'

The employee who put the trash bags on Mongol's son no longer works at the school, ABC 7 reported.
Empire actor Jussie Smollett has been charged with making a false police report after allegedly staging a hate crime attack on himself to get a payrise

The Chicago Police Department has launched an internal probe into Jussie Smollett's case after information was leaked during the course of the investigation.

The investigation was recently opened by the Chicago PD's Chief of Detectives due to concerns that someone within the force was leaking the information.

Investigators indicated that 'inaccurate' information about the Smollett case made its way into the media and the department wants to determine how it got out.

'A lot of the information out there was inaccurate and there were numerous agencies involved in this investigation,' a Chicago PD spokesman said.

'As a standard procedure when there are allegations of information being leaked, an internal investigation has been opened and we are also looking at our vulnerabilities.'

Smollett's attorney has previously slammed the police department over its investigation and claimed the leaks were an attempt to skewer the Empire actor.

Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson has previously defended the department's investigation into the attack and condemned Smollett after the actor was charged with filing a false police report.

The Chicago Police Department has launched an internal probe into Jussie Smollett's case after information was leaked during the course of the investigation. Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson (above) has previously defended the department's investigation into the attack

Police say they have overwhelming evidence Smollett paid two Nigerian brothers to attack him on January 29 in a staged hate crime because he wanted a higher salary.

Smollett maintains he is innocent and claims he was attacked by homophobic, racist assailants who shouted: 'This is MAGA country!' while beating him, putting a noose around his neck and pouring bleach on him.

The Superintendent has batted away Smollett's claim that a $3,500 check for the brothers he allegedly paid to attack him was for personal training and said there was surveillance footage, physical evidence and testimony that proves it was a hoax that is yet to be presented.

'He still has the presumption of evidence and he'll get his opportunity in court if he chooses to go that route,' Johnson said, rejecting Smollett's lawyers claim that he has been unfairly vilified by the police department and prosecutor's office.

Police say they have overwhelming evidence Smollett paid two Nigerian brothers, Abel (left) and Ola (right) Osundairo, to attack him on January 29 in a staged hate crime because he wanted a higher salary

Jussie Smollett, pictured leaving county jail last week, maintains he is innocent and claims he was attacked by homophobic, racist assailants who shouted: 'This is MAGA country!'

'I can tell you this, there's a lot more evidence that has not been presented yet that does not support his version of the incident.

It comes as dozens of nurses claim they were fired for looking at Smollett's medical records after he was treated in the emergency room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on January 29.

One nurse told CBS Chicago that she was merely scrolling past Smollett's record to get to another patient's file.

They said hospital bosses still fired them and that others received similar treatment.

Smollett, who will return to court March 14 to face a felony disorderly conduct charge for allegedly making the entire story up, went to the hospital in the early hours of the morning on January 29 after speaking to police.

He had some scratches and bruising on his face and also claimed to have bruises on his ribs.
Labour was yesterday facing a humiliating full-scale official inquiry into the anti-Semitism crisis.

In one of the darkest days in its history, equalities watchdogs said the party may have unlawfully discriminated against Jews.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will now consider whether to launch a formal probe.

The EHRC could compel Jeremy Corbyns party to overhaul the way it deals with anti-Semitism cases, which would be enforceable by the courts. Mr Corbyn remained silent over the threat of an investigation [File photo]

Labour would have to hand over email and other correspondence so investigators can see how the party dealt with discrimination claims.

The EHRC could then compel Jeremy Corbyns party to overhaul the way it deals with anti-Semitism cases, which would be enforceable by the courts.

It would only be the second time the watchdog has taken action against a political party. Nine years ago it forced the BNP to drop its whites only membership rule.

Labour said it will co-operate fully with the EHRC, but said it rejects completely any suggestion it has acted unlawfully. Last night moderate Labour MPs predicted high-level resignations.

Labour MP John Mann, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism, predicted the EHRCs move would eventually lead to resignations of senior party figures

The move comes two days after it emerged that Mr Corbyns aide Laura Murray sought to block the suspension of a member who described an anti-Semitic mural of a group of hook-nosed men as great.

It was reported yesterday that another ally of the leader, Thomas Gardiner, had intervened repeatedly to downgrade suspensions for anti-Semitism.

The EHRC  which was founded by the Blair government  said it acted after receiving two dossiers showing examples where anti-Semitism was not dealt with properly by Labour. One was from the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, and the other was from the Jewish Labour Movement.

On a shameful day for Labour, Mr Corbyn remained silent over the threat of an investigation.

Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth, who has been subjected to anti-Semitic abuse, called it a devastating indictment.

She added: Decent members will be horrified that we have got into this position. I welcome the EHRC intervention but today is another dark day in the history of our party which could and should have been avoided if concerns raised had been heeded last year.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said he was deeply saddened at the EHRC move.

He said he would contact Labour general secretary Jennie Formby to ask for all relevant files and data to be retained so that investigators can form a clear picture of the processes and culture around Labours response to anti-Semitism.

Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said it was utterly disgraceful and unacceptable that the party had taken so long to deal with anti-Semitism.

We need to remove this stain from our party, and we need to expel these despicable individuals, so we can go into the next election, united by our historic values, not poisoned by this vicious disease, she said.

The EHRC will now contact Labour to set out its concerns. If the response is found to be unsatisfactory, it could launch a formal investigation.

A spokesman for the watchdog said: Having received a number of complaints regarding anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, we believe Labour may have unlawfully discriminated against people because of their ethnicity and religious beliefs.

The EHRC said it acted after receiving two dossiers showing examples where anti-Semitism was not dealt with properly by Labour. One was from the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism [File photo]

Our concerns are sufficient for us to consider using our statutory enforcement powers. As set out in our enforcement policy, we are now engaging with the Labour Party to give them an opportunity to respond.

A Labour spokesman said: We completely reject any suggestion the party has acted unlawfully and will be co-operating fully with the EHRC. Labour is fully committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish community and its organisations.

Labour MP John Mann, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism, predicted the EHRCs move would eventually lead to resignations of senior party figures.

Obviously there will be resignations from those in power as this fully unfolds, he said. Everyone should let the EHRC do its job.

Gideon Falter, of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said: It is a sad indictment that the once great anti-racist Labour Party is now being investigated by the equality and human rights regulator it established. Since the Holocaust, Britain has led the world in promoting human rights, and it could scarcely be more important to British society that the Jew hatred festering in the Labour Party is firmly brought to an end.

The Jewish Labour Movement said it asked the EHRC in November last year to investigate the allegation that the Labour Party was institutionally anti-Semitic.

Huda Elmi, a Momentum-affiliated member of Labours ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), responded to the EHRCs decision by calling for the watchdog to be scrapped. A file picture of Momentum's badges and leaflets is pictured above [File photo]

It said in a statement: After years of anti-Jewish racism experienced by our members, and a long pattern of denial, obfuscation and inaction by those with the power and ability to do something about it, we felt there was little choice but to secure a fully independent inquiry, not encumbered by corrupted internal practices. Everything that has happened in the months since our referral supports our view that the Labour Party is now institutionally anti-Semitic.

Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: This proposed independent investigation confirms what the Jewish community has known for a long time: that the Labour leadership has a problem with anti-Jewish racism which it is unable or unwilling to solve.

But Huda Elmi, a Momentum-affiliated member of Labours ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), responded to the EHRCs decision by calling for the watchdog to be scrapped.

She tweeted: The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a failed experiment. If tomorrow it were to cease in existence, most of the people it was created to support wouldnt even notice.

We need to abolish it and bring back separate, well-resourced governmental bodies for each equality strand.
A conservative group has targeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a second ethics complaint - this one alleging she abused her congressional privileges when she set up an official House email address for her boyfriend Riley Roberts.

The Coolidge Reagan Foundation previously lodged a complaint that her campaign may have illegally funneled thousands of dollars through a PAC with ties to her boyfriend.

'This Complaint alleges Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez improperly converted U.S. House resources to her non-official, personal use by obtaining an official '@mail.house.gov' e-mail address for her boyfriend, despite the fact he was not employed by her congressional office,' reads a line from the complaint obtained by Fox News.

A conservative group has targeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a second ethics complaint over her giving boyfriend Riley Roberts a congressional email account

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (left) said she gave boyfriend Riley Roberts (right) a congressional email address so he could access her work calendar

'Moreover, it appears she obtained the e-mail address for him by falsely designating him a 'staff' member.'

Ocasio-Cortez's office did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for a response.

The self-described socialist Democrat came under fire last month after it emerged she gave Roberts a congressional email account with an official @mail.house.gov address.

She defend her actions on Twitter and insisted it's only so he can look at her calendar.

Political consultant Luke Thompson tweeted a picture of Riley's official House email address, which quickly went viral.

He tweeted: 'While you were having a nice Valentine's Day, @AOC decided to put her boyfriend on staff - drawing a salary on the taxpayer's dime. Nice to see her adapting to the swamp so quickly.'

But AOC hit back, writing: 'Actually this cal designation is a permission so he can have access to my Google Cal. Congressional spouses get Gcal access all the time.

'Next time check your facts before you tweet nonsense.'

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi performs a ceremonial swearing-in for US House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She was joined by Riley Roberts, sixth from left

Political consultant Luke Thompson tweeted a picture of his official House email address

But Ocasio-Cortez hit back and insisted it's only so he can look at her calendar

Her chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti also posted to Twitter, defending the account

WHO IS RILEY ROBERTS? Riley Roberts is the head of marketing at HomeBinder.com, according to Marie Claire. He also works with tech startups. Riley from is Boston, Massachusetts and is reported to have gone to uni there, too. He was pictured at her swearing in, telling the New York Post it was 'a really incredible day, really special'. They lived together in the Bronx before moving to Washington D.C. Advertisement

Her chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti also argued the move was normal for a spouse or partner.

He wrote: 'He's not paid. We have no volunteers in the office. He's not doing any government work. He can see her calendar just like spouses/partners/family members in other congressional office.

'Spouses and partners normally get http://mail.house.gov e-mail addresses for the purpose of getting calendar access.'

And spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, David O'Boyle, told Fox News: 'From time to time, at the request of members, spouses and partners are provided House email accounts for the purposes of viewing the member's calendar.'

The freshman Democrat from New York also denied any violation in campaign finance law after a conservative watchdog group filed a complaint charging that her top congressional aide funneled $1 million in contributions from a PAC he controlled to his own companies.

'There is no violation,' she told Fox News this week.

She also denied that the Federal Election complaint, filed against her and her chief of staff, connected her to 'dark money' in her campaign.

'No, no,' she responded.

Ocasio-Cortez responded after the National Legal and Policy Center's Government Integrity Project filed an FEC complaint saying her top aide shifted the funds in what it argued could have been a bid to avoid disclosure.

The aide, chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti, set up the Brand New Congress PAC as a way to collect contributions to boost new members of Congress.

Rep. Alexanadria Ocasio-Cortez also denied any violation in campaign finance law after a conservative watchdog group filed a complaint that her now chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti had money funneled to a PAC he controlled

PACs face disclosure requirements beyond what a company would be required to reveal about how funds get spent.

Chakrabarti tweeted about the unusual arrangement in response to media reports Monday. 'We were doing something totally new, which meant a new setup. So, we were transparent about it from the start,' he said.

Conservative watchdog group National Legal and Policy Center, which previously had researchers investigating longtime New York Rep. Charles Rangel  a senior lawmaker like the one Ocasio-Cortez knocked off in a primary in her Queens district  named both Ocasio-Cortez and her top aide in the complaint.
The DUP slapped down Michel Barnier's apparent Brexit offer tonight warning it would effectively carve up the United Kingdom.

The Northern Ireland party - which props up Theresa May in No 10 - is a crucial power broker in Tuesday's crunch vote on the deal.

It said Mr Barnier's offer tonight that Britain could unilaterally exit only parts of the Irish border backstop failed to 'respect' the UK constitution because it would place a border down the Irish Sea.

The immediate reaction from Whitehall sources was to say they were 'unimpressed' by Mr Barnier's offer, which echoes proposals already rejected by Mrs May in September.

In a sign of just how far UK-EU talks have deteriorated, the EU negotiator decided to tweet out his response to Theresa May's plea for 'one more push' on the border plan this afternoon.

Theresa May was in Grimsby today begging Brussels for concessions on the Irish border backstop and warned MPs who sink her deal there may be no Brexit at all if they do

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator outlined his position on Twitter. Mrs May needs to convince Brexiteers and Labour rebels to vote for her if she is to have any chance of winning on Tuesday night

Michel Barnier outlined his proposed concessions in a Twitter thread this afternoon after meeting with the 27 ambassadors to the EU

Britain has demanded a unilateral exit mechanism from the backstop - part of the divorce deal designed to guarantee there is never a hard border in Ireland - if trade negotiations fail to secure a long-term UK-EU deal.

What has Barnier offered on the backstop and what does it mean? What is the Irish border backstop? The backstop was invented to meet promises to keep open the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland even if there is no comprehensive UK-EU trade deal. The divorce deal says it will kick in automatically at the end of the Brexit transition if that deal is not in place. If effectively keeps the UK in a customs union with the EU and Northern Ireland in both the customs union and single market. This means many EU laws will keep being imposed on the UK and there can be no new trade deals. It also means regulatory checks on some goods crossing the Irish Sea. What do Brexiteers want? Getting out of the backstop - even if there is a trade deal - can only happen if both sides agree people and goods can freely cross the border. Brexiteers fear the EU will unreasonably demand the backstop continues so EU law continues to apply in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland MPs also hate the regulatory border in the Irish Sea, insisting it unreasonably carves up the United Kingdom. They have demanded either a time limit or a unilateral exit mechanism. What has Michel Barnier offered? Barnier today said Britain could unilaterally quit the customs elements of the backstop - but not the rest. It effectively means Northern Ireland will be held in the single market until the EU agrees a trade deal replaces it. Will it work? Probably not. The DUP has already rejected it and Whitehall sources said they were 'unimpressed'. Advertisement

The current backstop requires the whole UK to stay inside the EU customs union - meaning it cannot sign trade deals - with Northern Ireland also staying in parts of the single market.

Mr Barnier today said the EU was prepared to let the United Kingdom quit the customs part of the treaty without prior agreement from the bloc.

But he said Britain would have to accept the single market continuing to apply in Northern Ireland until both sides agree it is no longer necessary to keep an open border with the Republic.

Mr Barnier said he was also prepared to attach a letter signed by Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk in January to the legal text of the deal. The letter sets out promises the backstop is temporary but was rejected by MPs.

The proposal is essentially the Northern Ireland-only backstop rejected by Theresa May last year. She warned in September it could never be acceptable because it carves up the United Kingdom.

Mr Barnier's apparent shift comes hours after Mrs May pleaded with the EU to give 'one more push' to break the impasse that has left talks stalled for months.

The Prime Minister was in Grimsby - a seat where 71 per cent of people voted to leave the EU - and warned those plotting to stop the UK leaving the EU: 'Brexit does not belong to the MPs in Parliament - it belongs to the people of this country'.

Without a huge swing in her favour MailOnline research has revealed that her deal to leave the EU on March 29 will be defeated by almost 100 votes on Tuesday. The following day the Commons is expected to vote to stop Britain leaving without a deal.

In a direct plea to Tory Brexiteers and Labour rebels opposed to her deal the PM said today: 'Back it and the UK will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen.

'We may never leave at all. It would be a moment of crisis'.

She added: 'Everybody wants to get it done. Let's get it done'.

Mrs May also used her make-or-break speech to urge Brussels to give negotiations 'one more push' this weekend and get her deal over the line by giving her an end date to the Irish backstop to avoid wasting 'more months arguing about Brexit'.

She is said to be willing to fly to Brussels this weekend and in direct message to the EU's negotiators she said: 'Now is the moment to act. We have worked hard together.

'It needs just one more push to give Parliament what they have asked for'.

This afternoon Brussels' chief negotiator Michel Barnier hit back: 'The EU stands united. We are not interested in the blame game. We are still working'.

But he then tweeted: 'Following the EU-UK statement of 20 Feb, the EU has proposed to the UK a legally binding interpretation of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. Most importantly:

'The arbitration panel can already, under Article 178 WA, give UK the right to a proportionate suspension of its obligations under the backstop, as a last resort, if EU breaches its best endeavours/good faith obligations to negotiate alternative solutions.

'EU ready to give legal force to all commitments from January letter of Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker through joint interpretative statement. This will render best endeavour/good faith obligations even more actionable by an arbitration panel.

'The EU commits to give UK the option to exit the Single Customs Territory unilaterally, while the other elements of the backstop must be maintained to avoid a hard border. UK will not be forced into customs union against its will.'

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay countered by pointing out that one of the options was ruled out by Britain last year. With a very real deadline looming, now is not the time to rerun old arguments, he said.

The UK has put forward clear new proposals. We now need to agree a balanced solution that can work for both sides.

A DUP spokesman said: 'The EU must respect the constitutional and economic integrity of the UK. This proposal does not.

'It is no more acceptable to place a new border between NI and GB than it would be to put a new border between NI and RoI.'

Brexiteer Tory Paul Masterton said: 'An exclusively NI backstop would be far more unacceptable, which is why securing a UK wide position was (for all its been slaughtered from various quarters) a 'win' in the current draft.'

Theresa May faces another defeat of almost 100 votes on Tuesday even if she gets back around half of the Tory rebels from last time - and needs most of them and Labour rebels to save her deal

With Mrs May admitting if she loses Tuesday's vote Britain faces 'crisis', she begged:

The EU to break the deadlock in Westminster by budging on the Irish backstop that will kill off her Brexit;

In a message to Brexit-backing MPs, she said: 'The only certain way to avoid it is to back the deal the Government has secured with the EU on Tuesday. Let's get it done';

PM warned the prospect of a second referendum had increased since Jeremy Corbyn said Labour would support or put forward a plan for a public vote - and said Labour's leader has offered one hour of his time to meet;

Brussels' chief negotiator Michel Barnier has hit back and said: 'The EU stands united. We are not interested in the blame game'

Mrs May is said to be considering a last minute trip to Brussels to meet Jean-Claude Juncker and before that will make a frantic round of calls to EU leaders as she begs Brussels to give ground.

May: Corbyn has 'only offered one hour in five weeks' for second round of cross-party Brexit talks Theresa May accused Jeremy Corbyn of offering only one hour in five weeks for a second round of cross-party talks. The Prime Minister insisted her office had tried to be flexible in inviting Mr Corbyn for new talks. But she said the Labour leader had refused to take part in further talks - accusing him of playing politics. She claimed Mr Corbyn's adoption of a second referendum had dramatically improved the changes a new poll would happen. Mr Corbyn attended one meeting with Mrs May in her Commons office at the end of January but no further talks have been held since. In her Grimsby speech, Mrs May said: 'It has become clear to me that Jeremy Corbyn is not really interested in finding a solution. 'Since we met to discuss a way forward for our country on 30 January, I have repeatedly offered him another meeting to follow it up. 'In return, after multiple requests from my office, he has offered just one hour over the last five weeks when our teams could meet. 'And we now know why. Because despite his promise at the last election to deliver Brexit, he now supports holding a divisive second referendum that would take the UK right back to square one.' A Labour spokeswoman denied Mrs May's claim. She said: 'We have not received a request for Theresa May to meet with Jeremy Corbyn since their first meeting.' Advertisement

She also urged member of the Tory ERG Brexiteer group, which includes Jacob Rees-Mogg, to change their minds and save her deal from another humbling defeat on Tuesday night.

Mrs May warned: 'If MPs reject the deal, nothing is certain. We would be at a moment of crisis.

'MPs would immediately be faced with another choice. Either we leave the EU with no deal on March 29 - I don't believe that would be the best outcome for the UK or the EU - or we delay Brexit and carry on arguing about it, both amongst ourselves and with the EU. That is not in our interests either.

'More talking will not change the questions that need to be settled and delay risks creating new problems.'

Mrs May warned that if the UK asked for a delay to give MPs more time to decide what to do, 'the EU might insist on new conditions that were not in our interests before they agreed to such an extension'.

In her speech today, Mrs May warned Brussels: 'Just as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice too. We are both participants in this process.

'It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal. We are working with them but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.'

In her final appeal to MPs, Mrs May said: 'Let's get it done.'

The Prime Minister said: 'I'm ready to take us out of the EU with a deal that is good for the UK, ready to implement the decision of voters here in Grimsby and across the UK.

'And ready to make a success of a new chapter for our country - but I can only do that if Parliament supports the deal on Tuesday.'

She said she needed the support of Remainers, who believe in honouring the result and do not want to leave without a deal, as well as Brexiteers, who 'accept that compromise is necessary if we are to bring our country back together'.

'The British people have already moved on: they are ready for this to be settled. By coming together as a Parliament we can bring our country together: boost our economy, safeguard our security, protect the union.

'And take a decisive step toward the bright future that the British people voted for, and which you and our whole country deserve. Let's get it done.'

Asked whether a delay was inevitable given the amount of legislation needed to be passed by Parliament, the Prime Minister said: 'If MPs vote for the deal on Tuesday then what happens is the usual channels, there are processes in Parliament, get together and work out how they can take through the necessary legislation.

'That would happen when the vote goes through on Tuesday.'

Mrs May also sidestepped questions over whether she would allow Tory MPs to block a no-deal Brexit.

'My focus is on the deal and debate that will take place on Tuesday and getting that vote through,' she said.

'That vote would enable us to leave with a deal, and for those who don't want us to leave without a deal actually the best way is to vote for the deal so that we leave with that deal.'

Mrs May gave her speech at Orsted A/S in Grimsby, an area where 71 per cent of residents voted to leave the EU

The PM said that talks are going to the wire and claims that the EU has the power to end the deadlock in Westminster - but the numbers look grim

Theresa May said that concerns for workers' rights after Brexit should be allayed by her promise to allow Parliament to vote on whether to adopt any new protections proposed by the EU.

'Leaving with a deal will mean workers are protected,' she said. 'And if they back the Brexit deal on Tuesday, MPs will give our whole economy a boost.'

May bombards EU leaders with frantic round of calls ahead of crunch vote Theresa May will work through the weekend with a frantic round of calls to EU leaders as she begs Brussels to give ground on the Irish border backstop. The Prime Minister spoke last night to the leaders of Bulgaria, Denmark and Portugal and her spokeswoman said calls would continue 'tonight and through the weekend'. Her spokeswoman said: 'She is working incredibly hard to deliver this deal.' Each call takes around ten to 15 minutes and is focused on Mrs May's case for amending the deal to ensure Britain leaves with a deal, her spokeswoman said today. The PM has spoken to every EU leader at least twice since the last meaningful vote on January 15, as well as making a last minute decision to join a EU-Arab summit in Egypt last month. Mrs May is expected to spend the weekend working from her constituency and could still travel to Brussels on Sunday or very early Monday to seal a deal in person. Advertisement

In spite of the 'unavoidable uncertainty' of the Brexit process, Mrs May said the UK economy was doing well.

'Just imagine how much more we could achieve with the certainty of a deal,' she said. 'Our energy would be focused on building our future relationship, forging new trade deals with the rest of the world and tackling the other issues which matter to people.

'Businesses will invest and create more jobs. Money that will be spent guarding against the economic shock of a no-deal exit could be put to better use - on the services people need and on growing our economy.'

Agreeing a deal would put up 'a big 'open for business' sign' for investors, she said.

'The democratic case for backing the deal is clear, and so is the economic case,' she said.

The Prime Minister spoke last night to the leaders of Bulgaria, Denmark and Portugal and her spokeswoman said calls would continue 'tonight and through the weekend'.

The frenzy of diplomatic activity came as Attorney General Geoffrey Cox axed a planned trip back to the EU capital today as technical talks have failed to bridge the huge gap between London and Brussels.

Talks have foundered on Britain's demand it be able to get out of the backstop in Northern Ireland if trade negotiations fail because the EU says this is when it is needed most.

In Brussels, the EU summoned all 27 ambassadors for an update on Brexit. Failure to get any new concessions means Mrs May almost certainly faces a repeat of the crushing defeat of her deal on Tuesday night.

The PM must have a deal by the early hours of Monday morning if she is to present anything new to MPs at the vote on Tuesday - and could still fly to Brussels before dawn that day if there is hope of a breakthrough.

Downing Street had hoped she would fly to Brussels to seal a deal on Sunday but the plans have faded as talks stalled again.

Ahead of the speech, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned future generations will blame the EU if it fails to come to an agreement.

He told the Today programme: 'This is a moment of change in our relationship between the UK and the EU and history will judge both sides very badly if we get this wrong.

'We want to remain the best of friends with the EU. That means getting this agreement through in a way that doesn't inject poison into our relations for many years to come.

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox has axed a planned trip back to the EU capital today as technical talks have failed to bridge the huge gap between London and Brussels. EU negotiator Michel Barnier has refused to give ground on the Irish border backstop part of the divorce deal

How the numbers stack up against the PM's deal AYE VOTES 273 Government payroll vote and the Tory Loyalists on January 15: 198 (unchanged) The Ministers and Tory MPs who voted for the deal last time are expected to vote Yes again. George Eustice and Alberto Costa resigned from the Government but both will vote for the deal. Returning Brexiteers: 61 (up 61) Everything turns on how many Tory rebels return to vote for the deal. Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, has led the charge saying he is ready to return with changes to the backstop. Labour rebels: 10 (up seven) The effort to convert Labour MPs to save the deal looks to have mostly failed. Just three backed it last time and a package of money for struggling towns and workers' rights has convinced few. Independents: 4 (up one) A handful of Eurosceptic independent MPs voted for the deal last time and will do so again. Ian Austin has left the Labour party and is now in the independent  but not the TIG  column. NO VOTES: 365 Tory Brexit Rebels: 46 (down 61) Many hardcore Brexiteers who hate the deal will not be persuaded to return. This is the battleground: if the European Research Group says no, the rebels will consign May to a second painful defeat. Tory Remain Rebels: 8 (down 3) Pro-EU Tory MPs who voted against the deal last time are likely to do so again. They include former ministers such as Jo Johnson and Sam Gyimah. Most back a second referendum. Three of the group went to TIG. DUP: 10 (unchanged) May's DUP allies are waiting to see what Geoffrey Cox agrees in Brussels. They loath the border backstop and without legally binding changes will vote against the deal for a second time. Labour: 233 (down 13) Labour has vowed to vote against the Brexit deal for a second time  both to pursue its own plans and in theory now to get a second referendum on the deal. Most Labour MPs will follow orders. The Independent Group: 11 (up 11) The defectors from the Labour and Tory ranks all voted against the deal last time and they will do so again. All of them want a new referendum on leaving the EU. SNP: 35 (unchanged) The SNP is deeply opposed to Brexit and will continue to vote against the deal. It wants Brexit stopped and sees political advantage in a new referendum to boost its independence hopes. Others: 22 (unchanged) An assortment of Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru, Green and Independent MPs who are broadly anti-Brexit. They voted no last time and will do so again. Advertisement

'That's what the UK has said we want to do, it's what most people in the UK want and feel very strongly about.

'But it does need the EU also to be flexible in these negotiations and understand that we now have a very, very clear ask.

'We know what it would take to get a deal through the House of Commons, and that is for a significant change to allow the Attorney General to change his advice to the Government and say we couldn't be trapped in a customs union forever.

'That's not an unreasonable thing to ask and we have made, I think, some progress in the last few days. There's a bit more to make. It's entirely possible to get there.

'And frankly I think future generations, if this ends in acrimony, will say that the EU got this moment wrong. And I really hope they don't.'

If MPs reject the deal for a second time on Tuesday night, the Commons will then vote on no deal on Wednesday and delaying Brexit on Thursday.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: 'It's becoming increasingly clear that Theresa May will not be able to deliver the changes she promised to her failed Brexit deal.

'This speech looks set to be an admission of failure.'

International Trade Secretary Dr Fox urged Tory Brexiteers to rally behind the deal in order to ensure the UK does break away from Brussels.

'The thing that I fear is that there will be  a risk that we might not deliver Brexit at all,' he told BBC's Newsnight.

'In Parliament there are a large number of MPs who do not see it as their primary objective to deliver on the referendum and would want to keep us locked to the European Union.'

In a message to fellow Brexiteers, he added: 'You can never allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good, many of us have made compromises throughout this process.

'The quicker we can rally behind a common position that shows we have a united front in terms of how we want to approach the future, the better.'

But European Research Group deputy chairman Mark Francois told Newsnight: 'We will look very carefully at what  if anything  comes back from Brussels and then we will take a decision.

'But if it is some very minor, meaningless tweak then of course we will vote against it.'

Negotiators are preparing to work through the weekend in a frantic effort to break the deadlock over the backstop measures, which are aimed at preventing a hard border with Ireland if no alternative trading arrangements are in place.

The European Commission confirmed 'technical talks' were continuing and said president Jean-Claude Juncker was 'available 24/7' to meet Mrs May if a deal was close.

In the Commons, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox  who has been leading for the UK in the latest negotiations  said the talks would 'almost certainly' carry on through the weekend.

In practical terms the Government needs an agreement by Sunday night at the latest as any new documentation relating to the deal must be published by Monday  the day before the vote.

Number 10 is believed to hope a deal can be reached by Sunday night, with the possibility of the Prime Minister travelling to Brussels on Monday morning to meet Mr Juncker.

Ministers were said to be braced for another heavy defeat on Tuesday after the previous 'meaningful vote' was lost by a majority of 230, with many MPs deeply unhappy about the backstop.

The PM's warning to MPs was stark - don't back her deal and accept that Brexit may now never happen

Ahead of the speech, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned future generations will blame the EU if it fails to come to an agreement

European Research Group deputy chairman Mark Francois told Newsnight (left last night) a minor change to the withdrawal agreement would not win Brexiteer rebels over

Mr Cox told MPs he was continuing to press for legally binding changes to the backstop that would ensure the UK could not be tied indefinitely to EU rules.

He rejected claims that the Government had again failed to come forward with concrete proposals, insisting there had been 'focused, detailed and careful discussions'.

However there was clear frustration on the EU side, with chief negotiator Michel Barnier reportedly complaining that Mr Cox had produced 'a legal solution to a political problem' and France's Europe minister Nathalie Loiseau saying they were still waiting for a 'sustainable proposal' from the British side.

'You've had answers from a woman Prime Minister!': May delivers withering response to journalist who shouted she had only taken one question from a female reporter on International Women's Day

Theresa May slapped down a complaint she only took one question from a female reporter today by declaring 'you've had answers from a woman Prime Minister'.

The Prime Minister took press questions following a Brexit speech in Grimsby.

But as she walked off the platform ITV News' Libby Wiener stood up to shout she had only taken one question from a woman on International Women's Day.

She said: 'Only one question from a woman reporter on International Women's Day - pretty poor show isn't it? Only one question.'

Mrs May answered to applause: 'You've had answers from a woman Prime Minister.'

As Mrs May walked off the platform (pictured) ITV News' Libby Wiener stood up to shout she had only taken one question from a woman on International Women's Day

Mrs May turned back to the room and answered to applause: 'You've had answers from a woman Prime Minister.'

Author Will Self sparks furious backlash after claiming 'every racist and anti-Semite probably voted for Brexit' in BBC spat with Tory Brexiteer MP

Will Self today stared out a leading Tory Brexiteer during an extraordinary live TV row where he claimed: 'Every racist and anti-Semite probably voted for Brexit'.

The author was branded 'snide' and accused of 'trolling' ERG member Mark Francois and the millions who want to leave the EU.

Mr Francois, who is refusing to vote for Theresa May's deal, looked furious and called the incendiary statement: 'A slur on 17.4million people' and said: 'You should apologise on national TV outrageous thing to say'.

Mr Self, who appeared to be enjoying himself, then hit back: 'What apologise to racists and anti-Semites?'.

Politics Live host presenter Jo Coburn then tried to talk to other guests but the camera panned back to the warring pair who both refused to drop their gaze with some fearing they might come to blows.

Will Self and Tory MP Mark Francois were involved in an extraordinary on-screen staring contest after the author claimed that: 'Every racist and anti-Semite probably voted for Brexit'

Rob Burley, the BBC's head of political programmes, said was also astonished by the row

BBC presenter Emily Maitlis appeared to enjoy the stand-off and called Mr Self's response to apologise 'superb'

The spat caused a huge reaction on Twitter with Mr Self accused of deliberately trolling Mr Francois and those who voted to leave.

The extraordinary TV row in full Will Self (WS): 'Your problem really Mark is that you have to be a racist or anti-Semite to vote for Brexit, it's just that every racist and anti-Semite in the country did Mark Francois (MC): I think you should apologise on national television. I think that's an outrageous thing to say.' WS: 'Oh well, you seem to find a lot of things outrageous though don't you?' MC: 'Are you saying that 14.4 million people are racists and bigots because they voted for Brexit?' WS: 'No, that's not what I said.' MF: 'That's pretty close to what you said.' WS: 'It's not remotely what I said.' MF: 'What exactly are you saying?' WS: 'You seem to be a little exercised sir.' MF: 'Well, because I'm offended.' WS: 'What I said was every racist and anti-Semite, pretty much probably voted for Brexit.' MF: 'How do you know that in a secret ballot?' WS: 'I don't know it but I suspect it.' MF: 'I think you should apologise.' WS: 'To who? To racists and anti-Semites?' Advertisement

But for many the higlight was the stare-off at the end with some claiming it was one of the most compelling TV moments of 2019.

Rob Burley, the BBC's head of political programmes, said: 'I've worked in telly for 23 years and I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it'.

Alan Stewart tweeted: 'Will Self staring out Mark Francois on #politicslive has made my day'.

The row on BBC 2s Politics Live started when Mr Self claimed that you don't 'have to be a racist or an anti-Semite to vote for Brexit, it's just that every racist or anti-Semite in the country did'.

Mr Francois then said: 'I think you should apologise on national television. I think that's an outrageous thing to say. Are you saying that 14.4 million people are racists and bigots because they voted for Brexit? Madness'.

Mr Self, who famously once took heroin in the toilet of former prime minister John Major's campaign plane, replied: 'Oh well, you seem to find a lot of things outrageous though don't you?'.

Then the extraordinary stare-off then ensued.

It is not the first time Mr Self has been involved in an on-screen row.

He and journalist Peter Hitchens clashed during an electric episode of Question Time in 2012 as they expressed their strong views on the decriminalisation of drugs.

The controversial author and former heroin addict told the Mail on Sunday journalist to 'take a chill pill' during their furious arguments on the BBC One programme.

Mr Self, who once snorted heroin on the then-prime minister John Major's plane, argued that drug use should be legalised in order to focus on treating addicts. But

Mr Hitchens responded that his claims were based on 'propaganda'.

Mr Francois put down his drink and said that the author should apologise to the 17.4m people who voted for Brexit

Viewers were enthralled by the TV row with some fearing the men might come to blows

Mr Self was sacked by The Observer in 1997 after it emerged he had snorted heroin on John Major's campaign plane.

The 6ft 4ins writer has been open about his previous use of drugs and visits to crackhouses.

Last year the divorce battle between him and his wife Deborah Orr took a rather bizarre turn.

Self faced accusations that he was demanding  through the courts  access to his former home, after three years away from it, to put stickers on 'his' belongings.

Ms Orr, 55, laid bare their private battle by posting on Twitter on September 2018 and said that: 'My ex wants to divide up the contents of the former marital home by coming round, when I'm not there, putting a red dot on absolutely anything he wants, then getting me to organise it all into a place where he can have it picked up. Anyone else had this?'

Her thousands of followers then pitched in with their support, and Ms Orr detailed alleged further unreasonable behaviour by Mr Self, who she claims has compelled her to put their home on the market for around 1.5million.

She had earlier published a letter from Mr Self, 56, to her lawyer in which he claimed Ms Orr was 'suffering a protracted mental breakdown', and refused to co-operate with her attempt to divorce him.

Mr Self, renowned for his loquacity on TV panel shows, declined to make any comment on his spat with Ms Orr at the time.
Maryland police apprehended a man on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list for the 2014 strangulation of his fiancee in New Jersey, and who is wanted in the stabbing death of his girlfriend in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

Lamont Stephenson, 43, allegedly strangled his fiancee, Olga Dejesus, a 40-year-old mother of two, and killed the family chihuahua in their Newark, New Jersey, apartment, on October 17, 2014 before taking flight.

Dejesus became reacquainted with Stephenson at a high school class reunion in 2014 shortly before becoming engaged in a whirlwind romance, according to NJ.com.

Stephenson's girlfriend, Natina Kiah, 40, was stabbed to death and found with her dead cat in her apartment on Wednesday, according to NBC Washington.

Olga Dejesus (left) was asphyxiated in the home she shared with Stephenson and her dog was killed in 2014, and Natina Kiah (right) was found dead in her Washington D.C. home on Wednesday night. Lamont Stephenson is the suspect in both their murders

Kiah, a mother of four, was a security officer at a Washington D.C. homeless shelter, where Stephenson had been staying. Family members say the two were dating, and that Kiah had not known he was a fugitive.

'My baby's gone, but I feel so happy and so blessed that they got him,' said Jennifer Wallace, Natina's mother.

'The FBI believes the way Stephenson killed Olga and her dog shows that he has a strong tendency to act out in rage and the concern is he is is a threat to other woman and the community as a whole,' FBI supervisory special agent Carl Pretty said about the fugitive at the time he was placed on the top 10 list last year.

Lamont Stephenson was spotted by surveillance cameras in Penn Station shortly after the murder of Olga Dejesus in October of 2014 before he was apprehended this Thursday

Prince George's County police Chief Hank Stawinski told reporters that three of his officers approached Stephenson, 43, who was in a truck, in response to a suspicious person call early Thursday.

Patrol officers approached him and checked if Stephenson had any open warrants. Police say a weapon was found on his person, but did not specify what kind.

As officers continued to run a check on him, Stephenson told them he was wanted in New Jersey for murder, according to Stawinski.

Lamont Stephenson in custody is transported by Prince George's County Police on Thursday

Olga Dejesus, a mother of two, had been engaged to Stephenson shortly after reacquainting with him at high school class reunion earlier that same year

Natina Kiah, 40, a mother of four, worked security at the homeless shelter in Washington D.C. where she met Stephenson before dating him in recent weeks

He then told the officers he also committed a crime in D.C. on Wednesday night.

After being taken into custody on an unlawful flight to avoid prosecution warrant, Stawinski added that Washington, D.C., police have a warrant charging Stephenson in a slaying there Wednesday.

The FBI said Stephenson, wanted in the strangulation of DeJesus, had been on its Top 10 list since October last year, and is currently in its custody.

Lamont Stepheson, center, has been living as a homeless person in the D.C. metro area, according to Prince George's County Police
German supermarket giant Kaufland will establish a distribution centre in Melbourne's north as part of its move into Victoria, creating 1600 jobs.

The retailer announced on Friday an initial $459 million investment to bring stores to Victoria, with three already approved for Dandenong, Chirnside Park and Epping.

A new distribution centre, almost six times the size of the MCG, will be built in Mickleham as the company looks to open stores across the country in coming years.

Kaufland is described as a low-price combination of Aldi, Kmart and JB Hi-Fi, selling 60,000 different products, ranging from grocery goods to electronics.

German supermarket giant Kaufland will establish a centre in Melbourne's north as part of its move to Victoria

The retailer announced on Friday an initial $459 million investment to bring stores to Victoria, with three already approved for Dandenong, Chirnside Park and Epping

By comparison Aldi typically stocks around 1,500 products per store, while Coles and Woolworths can stock up to 25,000.

The German supermarket hoped to create a 'village-like atmosphere' in Victoria by sub-letting out retail space to businesses such as cafes and restaurants, which will surround their stores.

A further three stores are proposed for Oakleigh South, Coolaroo and Mornington, subject to approval.

Kaufland, which has received state government help to set up shop in Victoria, says it's engaging with local suppliers to source products locally, where possible.

Economic Development Minister Tim Pallas hailed its arrival as a vote of confidence in the economy.

'Kaufland's investment will boost our economy, create jobs and provide opportunities for local businesses, not to mention open up a whole new world of supermarket shopping for Victorian families,' he said.

Construction of the Mickleham distribution centre is expected to also create jobs for local builders, workers and apprentices.

Kaufland, which has received state government help to set up shop in Victoria, will create 1,600 jobs

Kaufland, the fourth largest retailer, had reportedly spent $25 million acquiring the Le Cornu site on Anzac Highway, Forestville in Adelaide.

The Kaufland Australia website describes the company as 'offering a unique shopping experience by bringing our values to life and making "a difference" in the lives of our customers'.

Kaufland, which has more than 1,230 stores and 150,000 employees across Europe, is the latest global retailer to choose Victoria as its entry point into the Australian market, after Costco, Aldi, Uniqlo, H&M and MUJI.
Malcolm Turnbull's critics have called him 'delusional' and 'the most selfish man in Christendom' after he said colleagues ousted him over fears he would win the federal election.

The former Prime Minster, who was dumped by the Liberal Party in August, said in a BBC interview in the UK on Thursday that conservative MPs wanted him out because they didn't like his relatively progressive agenda.

'You could argue their concern was not that I would lose the election but rather that I would win it,' he said.

Mr Turnbull's comments received sympathy from Labor MPs including deputy leader of the party Anthony Albanese who said: 'I think Malcolm's right.'

But his critics jumped at the chance to savage the former Liberal leader.

'I think this man needs medication,' radio 2GB host Alan Jones said on Friday morning.

'You'd lost, Malcolm Turnbull, 40 Newspolls in a row. You didn't have a hope in hell of winning.'

Jones' co-host Ray Hadley said Mr Turnbull's interview with British TV legend Andrew Neil was 'one for Ripley's Believe It or Not'.

'I first heard this at 3.30 this morning. I thought I was in a dream, a bad dream, really a nightmare,' he added.

'I think this man needs medication,' radio 2GB host Alan Jones (pictured) said this morning

'He's cuckoo. He's delusional.'

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett had the most scathing insult of all.

'He would have to be a candidate for the most selfish, self-centred human being in Christendom,' the 71-year-old told Sunrise.

'It is all about him. He's just amazing, he never stops,' Mr Kennett continued.

'I mean, how ridiculous. How absolutely self-centred is this individual? It has been the story of his whole life. It is all about him. It is not about the country, the party that gave him the opportunity to be prime minister, it is about Malcolm.'

Mr Kennnet said Mr Turnbull was very intelligent but out of touch with voters.

Host David Koch asked him if he thought Mr Turnbull was an egomaniac and he replied: 'Words to that effect, yes.'

The fierce criticism came as Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese defended Mr Turnbull.

'I think Malcolm Turnbull's right,' he told Sky News.

'It was madness for him to be replaced with a fourth choice leader in Scott Morrison, who only got elected Prime Minister because people disliked either Malcolm Turnbull or Peter Dutton more.

'Since then, Scott Morrison hasn't been able to explain why he's the Prime Minister, rather than Malcolm Turnbull, who was elected by the Australian people.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) has spoken about the Liberal party coup that saw him ousted from the office and claimed it was done because of fears he would win the next election

Alan Jones was also among critics to tweet his disbelief at Mr Turnbull's comments

'And when you look at the facts, the Coalition was on 49 per cent for a couple of polls in a row, they had been increasing their primary and their two-party preferred vote, and Malcolm Turnbull had won 58 Newspolls in a row as preferred Prime Minister.

'So it was a very strange event indeed.'

Mr Albanese's view was tentatively supported by ABC journalist Barrie Cassidy who described Mr Turbull's claim as 'not totally illogical.'

He said: 'I think what he was driving at is that there are those on the right who didn't want to see a progressive Liberal succeed, because if a progressive Liberal succeeded, then that would dent their agenda. You know, around energy policy, climate change and the rest of it.'

He would have to be a candidate for the most selfish, self-centred human being in Christendom Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett

Speaking to the BBC in London, Mr Turnbull described the August coup as a 'peculiarly Australian form of madness'.

He claimed he was removed because he was on track to beat Labor Leader Bill Shorten.

Mr Turnbull said the Liberals were just two points behind in the public polls, and ahead in internal polling of marginal seats.

The former prime minister pointed out the Liberal Party was now polling poorly compared to his own performance ahead of the August spill.

'It still could win the election, the Liberal government, but its position is much less favourable than it was in August.'

After the interview, senior Liberals lined up to douse tensions reignited by Mr Turnbull's leadership spill comments.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who was a key figure in the coup, described the ugly episode as 'ancient history'.

'We have a responsibility to give ourselves the best possible opportunity to be successful at the next election, and that is what we are all focused on,' he told Sky News.

Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O'Dwyer was uncomfortable fielding questions about Mr Turnbull's intervention.

'I've got to say there is an obsession in wanting to talk about these past historical issues,' she told ABC radio.

Defence Minister Christopher Pyne also had no appetite for re-opening old wounds.

'I think we have raked over those coals quite enough in the last few months. I don't propose to talk about it any further,' he told the Nine Network on Friday.
A Jeremy Corbyn ally called for Britain's equality watchdog to be abolished after it announced it was probing anti-Semitism claims in the Labour party.

Huda Elmi, a member of Labour's ruling NEC, said the Equality and Human Rights Commission was a 'failed experiment' and should be scrapped.

The Momentum activist's comments came after the EHRC said Labour may have 'unlawfully discriminated' against Jewish people.

Labour said it will co-operate fully with the Commission, but said the party rejects 'completely' any suggestion that it has acted unlawfully.

Huda Elmi (far right, with Jeremy Corbyn in 2016), a member of Labour's ruling NEC, said the Equality and Human Rights Commission was a 'failed experiment' and should be scrapped

Writing on Twitter, Ms Elmi said: 'The Equality & Human Rights Commission is a failed experiment.

'If tomorrow it were to cease in existence, most of the people it was created to support wouldn't even notice.

'We need to abolish it and bring back separate, well resourced governmental bodies for each equality strand!'

She later clarified that she supported Labour's co-operation with the EHRC and had long opposed the watchdog because 'different equality agendas are best dealt with individually'.

'The Labour Party has said it will fully cooperate with the EHRC, and I completely support that approach,' she said.

Her comments sparked a fierce reaction from Labour MP Lilian Greenwood, who said: 'Am sure there are legitimate concerns about the EHRC, after all it has suffered devastating cuts under this Tory Government. But this is...well... words fail me.'

Liberal Democrat peer Lynne Featherstone said: 'This is a world gone mad. Huda - dissing the EHRC because it says something you don't like is fascism. Shame on you!'

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson said he was 'deeply saddened that the EHRC feels there is sufficient evidence to investigate Labour for breaches of discrimination law'.

Huda Elmi wrote on Twitter (pictured) that the EHRC should be scrapped. She later clarified that she supported Labour's co-operation with the equality watchdog

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson (pictured) said he was 'deeply saddened that the EHRC feels there is sufficient evidence to investigate Labour for breaches of discrimination law'

The development comes after a string of complaints of anti-Jewish comments by Labour members.

It also follows the resignation of prominent Jewish MP Luciana Berger from the party, which she said had become 'institutionally anti-Semitic'.

In a statement, an EHRC spokesman said: 'Having received a number of complaints regarding anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, we believe Labour may have unlawfully discriminated against people because of their ethnicity and religious beliefs.

'Our concerns are sufficient for us to consider using our statutory enforcement powers.

'As set out in our enforcement policy, we are now engaging with the Labour Party to give them an opportunity to respond.'

A Labour spokesman said: 'We completely reject any suggestion the party has acted unlawfully and will be co-operating fully with the EHRC.

'Labour is fully committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish community and its organisations.

'Anti-Semitism complaints received since April 2018 relate to about 0.1% of our membership, but one anti-Semite in our party is one too many. We are determined to tackle anti-Semitism and root it out of our party.'
A European backpacker, who was kidnapped and raped in an old pig shed in South Australia, says she breaks down every time she thinks about the ordeal.

The 26-year-old was in the District Court in Adelaide on Friday after Gene Charles Bristow was earlier this week found guilty of rape and aggravated kidnapping in February 2017.

'What happened to me was really horrible, terrifying and deadly,' she said in a victim impact statement read by a prosecutor.

The 26-year-old Belgian backpacker who was kidnapped, raped and held by Gene Charles Bristow (pictured), 54, revealed in an impact statement that she thought she would die in Australia and never see her family again

The woman has said that she suffered lasting psychological and physical damage and asked that Bristow (pictured) never be released

'I was afraid I would never see my family again because I thought I would die in Australia.

'I tried not to think of them because it was just too painful but it was because of them that my instincts to survive kicked in.'

The woman said she had suffered lasting psychological and physical impacts and asked for Bristow never to be released.

'I would never want anyone else to ever have to go through what I went through,' she said.

A jury returned the guilty verdicts against Bristow on Monday after deliberating for about three hours at the end of the month-long trial.

The 54-year-old was found guilty of one count of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of rape, two counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape.

The charges stemmed from a Gumtree advertisement the woman posted in search of temporary farm work.

Bristow offered her a job through Gumtree and after picking her up from a Murray Bridge bus stop took her inside a disused pig shed on his property at Meningie, southeast of Adelaide (pictured)

Bristow offered her a job and after picking her up from a Murray Bridge bus stop took her inside a disused pig shed on his property at Meningie, southeast of Adelaide.

There he bound her hands and feet and chained her to the ground.

He raped her and threatened to shoot her if she tried to escape before she managed to raise the alarm using her laptop.

Bristow drove her back to Murray Bridge the next day, helped her check into a motel and left.

Threatening to shoot her, her then bound her hands and feet and chained her to the ground shortly before raping her - Bristown was found guilty on Friday




Shanghai (Gasgoo)- China-based EV startup WM Motor announced on March 8 a completion of a series C round financing that raised a total of RMB3 billion, which is expected to further elevate the company's valuation.

The latest fundraising is led by Baidu and involves other investors such as Linear Venture and Taihang Industrial Fund. The capital raised this time will be used to research and develop technologies and improve users' experience. Up until now, the startup has cumulated nearly RMB23 billion in all rounds of fundraising.

Freeman Shen, founder, chairman and CEO of WM Motor, stated that the EV maker is going to upgrade its technology, products, new retail modes as well as intelligent manufacturing ability in 2019. To be specific, WM Motor will strengthen its deployment in autonomous driving area and is ambitious to make a breakthrough in R&D of intelligent cockpit. To meet consumers' more diversified needs, the company will focus on upgrading product quality, enriching product matrix and mass producing cutting-edge technologies. Moreover, the startup will also make efforts to lift its capabilities in delivery and service, optimize and enlarge offline marketing channels and reinforce the C2M (Customer-to- Manufactory) manufacturing ability as well the ability to industrialize R&D achievements, so as to expand production capacity and accelerate mass delivery.

As for the deployment in technology R&D, WM Motor will team up with Baidu to co-build and co-operate the "WM Motor & Baidu Apollo Intelligent Vehicle Joint Research Center" for the R&D of L3/L4 autonomous driving solutions.

On February 26, the startup appointed Dr. Mei Songlin (), former Vice President and Managing Director of China Operations for J.D. Power Asia Pacific, as its Chief Data Officer. Meanwhile, Liu Xianzhi () was named as the company's Vice President, who will take charge of auto finance business.
ROME - Large natural gas deposits have been found in the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia's official new agency SPA reported on Friday. The announcement was made by Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih.



The minister noted that Saudi's oil giant Aramco is looking into projects linked to liquid natural gas in the US.
The Duke of Sussex faces the prospect of accusations of hypocrisy for taking a private helicopter trip just two days before his Wembley Arena speech to youngsters about climate change.

Harry took the helicopter just 125 miles from London to Birmingham for two official engagements on Monday.

But two days later he and Meghan were on stage in the capital telling 12,000 young fans to 'wake up' and act 'on the damaging impact our ways of living are having on the world'.

He talked about how 'our world's greatest assets are threatened every day' adding: 'Every blade of grass, every ray of sun is crucial to our survival.'

Last month the Duchess flew to a New York baby shower by private jet to the fury of environmentalists.

Harry and Meghan praised young people for their attitudes to climate change on Wednesday

A spokesman for Friends of the Earth told MailOnline: 'Private air travel obviously comes with a huge carbon footprint.

'Perhaps for future trips the Duchess could consider less carbon intensive modes of travel. We invite her to set a good climate trend by flying less'.

Prince Harry had a number of alternatives for his trip, including a seat on the train from Euston to Birmingham New Street.

A first class ticket, booked in advance, costs just 34 and the train runs every 10 to 20 minutes, taking around 80 minutes to complete the journey.

The Duke of Sussex arrived by helicopter at Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, to officially open a memorial dedicated to victims of the 2015 terror attacks in Tunisia

Harry brought his wife out onto the stage at the SSE Arena in Wembley yesterday, shortly before the pair went their separate ways

But a helicopter charter between England's first and second cities costs 6,000 to 6,500 and takes around three quarters of an hour.

Research by Eurostar has found train travel saves between 70 and 90 percent of the carbon emissions of air travel over similar distances to the Duke's journey.

During his three-hour visit to the Midlands, Harry visited a hospital and opened a memorial to the victims of the 2015 Tunisia terror attacks.

Then two days later at the Wembley event to mark WE Day  which celebrates young people making a difference in the world - he said: 'Climate change is a humanitarian issue and one where we've been far too slow in waking up to the issues and acting on the damaging impact our ways of living are having on the world.

On Monday Harry had two official engagements in Birmingham - including this memorial to the victims of the 2015 Tunisia terrorism - and flew by helicopter from London

Donning a smart blue suit, the Duke of Sussex offered out his hand and returned several handshakes as people lined the streets in Birmingham ahead of his visit to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham

'We now have the facts, the science, the technology and the ability to save not just our planet, but ourselves.'

He told the youngsters: 'I know you don't sit back and wait for solutions, you take action and create them.

'Our world's greatest assets are threatened every day . . . every forest, every river, every ocean, every coastline, every insect, every wild animal. Every blade of grass, every ray of sun is crucial to our survival.'

Speaking in October on a visit to Fiji in the South Pacific, he told students: 'One of the greatest challenges is undoubtedly climate change, and all of you living here are confronted with this threat in your daily lives.

'You're actually experiencing changing weather patterns, ferocious cyclones and rising sea levels.

'You've been living with this for many years, way before the world actually started talking about it.'

Thoughts of the duke ...and words of a King: Harry's speech at Wembley on Wednesday: Prince Harry let rip when he took to the stage at the WE Day event yesterday On youth: 'You are the most engaged generation in history. You don't judge someone on how they look, where they're from, or how they identify. In this room, you see the world for what it is - vibrant, colourful, mixed and full of promise. 'That is what makes me feel proud to stand in your presence as you tackle the world's greatest issues. And you guys know as well as I do, we've still got so much to do.' The environment: 'Climate change is a humanitarian issue not a political one... We now have the facts, the science, the technology and the ability to save not just our planet, but ourselves. 'I know you don't sit back and wait for solutions, you take action and create them.' Social media: 'Every day you are inundated with an overexposure of advertising and mainstream media, social media and endless comparisons, distorting the truth, and trying to manipulate the power of positive thinking. But you don't let them sway you. 'You confidently voice your opinions because you can embrace them proudly.' Quoting Martin Luther King: 'As my wife often reminds me with one of her favourite quotes by Martin Luther King Jr: 'Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.'' The older generation: 'You may find yourselves frustrated with the older generation when it seems like they don't care. Try to remember that not everyone sees the world the way you do, but that doesn't mean they don't care. 'You have the incredible opportunity to help reshape mindsets, to empower those around you to think outside the box, and to work with you, not against you, to find solutions. 'You know that if you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything. So let that be your true north, let that be your call to action - to inspire those who stand for nothing, to stand for something - and to stand with you.' His to do list: 'Be braver. Be stronger. Be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves. Have less screen time, and more face to face time. Exceed expectations. Eliminate plastics. Conserve water. Protect wildlife and their unique habitat. Keep empathy alive. Ask your friends how they are doing and listen to the answer. Be honest. Take risks. Change your thoughts and change the world. Dare to be the greatest generation of all time.' Advertisement

William and Kate routinely use helicopters for public duties. They took one to Blackpool on Wednesday.

Kensington Palace told The Sun: 'Travel decisions are based on a number of factors, including effective use of time, security and minimising the impact on others, while ensuring the full schedule can be delivered.'

Harry was at the event at Wembley speaking in his capacity as President of The Queens Commonwealth Trust.

He told them: 'You are the most engaged generation in history. You care about values, doing the right thing, and championing the causes that will shape your future, he said.

'You dont judge someone based on how they look, where theyre from, or how they identify.

'In this room, you see the world for what it is  vibrant, colourful, mixed and full of promise.

'That is who you are, and that is what makes me feel proud to stand in your presence as you tackle the worlds greatest issues. And you guys know as well as I do, weve still got so much to do.'
Hudaifa Elgerbouzi (pictured), from West London, has been unmasked as the fifth member of the ISIS 'Beatles'

A fifth member of the British Islamic State execution gang known as 'The Beatles' was unmasked last night.

Hudaifa Elgerbouzi, from West London, managed to fly under the radar for many years despite being the first Briton to join the terror group in Syria, ITV News reported.

Fellow fighters in the jihadi stronghold knew him only as 'Red Beard', it was reported, after he masked his face, but kept his gingery whiskers on show, and deleted any online trace of his previous life back in Britain.

But he was a senior ISIS figure, sources said, directly involved in the kidnapping of Western hostages and believed to be a member of the all-British team responsible for high-profile executions.

Elgerbouzi was friends with known 'Beatle' Alexanda Kotey in west London, it was claimed, and the pair travelled to Syria together to join the self-proclaimed caliphate.

Kotey is currently languishing in a Syrian jail alongside another member of group, El Shafee Elsheikh, who also grew up in London. Both have had their British citizenship revoked by the government.

They, along with Mohammed Emwazi, aka 'Jihadi John', were given the moniker 'The Beatles' by their captives because of their British accents.

There has been speculation that, as prisoners never saw the men's faces, there could well have been more than four members of the unit which beheaded Westerners on camera and sent threatening messages to the world.

Officials believe Arsenal-supporting Elgerbouzi was killed during fighting in Syria last year while Emwazi died in a drone strike.

Alexanda Kotey (left) and Shafee Elsheikh (right), two of the members of the ISIS 'Beatles'. Kotey was reportedly friends with Elgerbouzi

Mohammed Emwazi (left), also known as Jihadi John, and Aine Davis (right), who was jailed in 2017 in Turkey for belonging to the terror group

'He was a psychopath trying to fulfil his violent and criminal fantasies with God's stamp of approval,' a friend in Syria told ITV News as he spoke of Elgerbouzi's 'unquestioning commitment' to the IS cause.

'He was willing to justify anything sadistic or anything wrong that IS had done without feeling in any way funny about it.

'These guys were essentially like an intelligence branch. If we were to talk business, Kotey would be the Chief Executive while Red Beard would be described as Chief Operations Officer.

'He was in charge of a lot of the logistics. He would get them things and move them around.

'He would disappear for periods of time saying he was going to do work, without specifying what he was doing. He was very trusted by these guys and they seemed to hold him in quite high regard.

'The killing of western hostages, I don't know about, but the kidnapping and the captivity of these men, I am fairly sure he was (involved).'
Long-suffering rail passengers face a two-year wait for modern trains designed to reduce overcrowding  because station platforms are too short.

Travellers on the Northern franchise were hoping new six-carriage services, due to replace outdated Pacer trains this year, would alleviate rush-hour misery.

The higher-capacity trains had been expected this December, but the company has blamed Network Rail, which is carrying out a 161million upgrade at Leeds station, for the delays. Routes linking Leeds with Ilkley, Bradford and Skipton are among those affected. The new trains would be too long for existing platforms and could not be used for safety reasons.

Travellers on the Northern franchise were hoping new six-carriage services would tackle rush-hour misery (stock photo)

Passengers reacted with fury on social media and asked why some train doors could not be locked and commuters asked to walk through carriages before getting off.

A Northern spokesman said: The six-carriage formation trains will run when that platform capacity is created.

Network Rail said six platforms at Leeds were too short for the longer trains and were being altered, while another was being built. It denied being at fault, saying it had never committed to a date for the work to be completed.

Last May Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: Improving the service for Northern customers is the number one performance priority for my department.

Rail passengers have been told to expect some teething problems when the new summer timetable takes effect in May. But the industry insisted there would be no repeat of last years chaos.
Universities with high dropout rates were accused by the Education Secretary yesterday of only caring about bums on seats.

Damian Hinds spoke out after figures showed that up to a fifth of students at some institutions leave in their first year.

Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are particularly hard-hit, with data across all universities showing they are around 50 per cent more likely to drop out than their peers from wealthier homes.

Mr Hinds urged universities to throw more effort into student retention or face intervention from the official regulator, the Office for Students, which can impose fines or even closures [File photo]

The figures come amid fears that many universities are taking on students who cannot cope with their course  and when they arrive no one helps them to catch up.

Some universities are now dishing out unconditional offers  meaning students get a place regardless of A-level results  and many courses are taking students with very low grades.

Mr Hinds told the worst-offending universities that their figures create the impression they are only interested in bums on seats, rather than offering all-round support for students throughout their studies to complete their degree.

We have made huge progress in ensuring universities are open to all, with record rates of disadvantaged and under-represented groups in higher education, but every step we make on access is undermined if a larger number of students then drop out, he said.

No student starts university thinking they are going to drop out. It is important that all students feel supported to do their best  both academically and in a pastoral sense.

Mr Hinds urged universities to throw more effort into student retention or face intervention from the official regulator, the Office for Students, which can impose fines or even closures.

The figures for English universities, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, are for the academic year 2016/17, the most recent available.

London Metropolitan University had the worst all-round dropout rate, with 18.6 per cent quitting in their first year. The University of Bolton was in second place, with 15.4 per cent.

Overall, across all universities, the dropout rate for disadvantaged students was 8.8 per cent, while for more advantaged students it was 6 per cent. Across all students, the average drop-out rate was 6.3 per cent [File photo]

When looking at dropout rates among disadvantaged students only, the University of Bolton was the worst offender, with 21.3 per cent failing to make it to their second year. London Metropolitan University was second, with 20.8 per cent. Universities with the worst dropout rates are mostly former polytechnics.

Overall, across all universities, the dropout rate for disadvantaged students was 8.8 per cent, while for more advantaged students it was 6 per cent. Across all students, the average drop-out rate was 6.3 per cent.

Dr Kondal Reddy Kandadi, pro vice-chancellor of the University of Bolton, said: Our student community is one of the most socio-economically challenged in the country. Additionally we have very high levels of students who declare as having a disability.

A London Met spokesman said: We are proud to be the most socially inclusive university in England, but that also means our students often have more complex lives than their peers at other institutions, and this impacts on their continuation.
Mobile phone giants want to build 165-foot masts in parts of the countryside where users struggle to get a signal.

The taller structures would let them transmit across larger distances meaning they would need fewer overall, they claim.

But campaigners fear the masts could ruin precious rural views and have instead called for firms to bolt equipment on to existing tall buildings such as churches.

Mobile phone companies are set to build 165-foot masts in parts of the countryside where users struggle to get a signal (stock photo)

The move comes after Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright told telecoms companies to eliminate signal black spots for 95 per cent of the UK. He warned them they could be forced to share infrastructure if they do not come up with a voluntary solution to tackle so-called not spots.

A quarter of the country still only has mobile coverage from two mobile operators at a time, with customers on other networks left without services.

Vodafone UKs technology chief Scott Petty yesterday said there were plans to ensure 85 per cent of Britain had coverage from all four mobile operators  Vodafone, O2, Three and EE  but said planning rules limiting masts to a maximum height of 82ft had to change.

Daniel Carey-Dawes, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: There are solutions available, like fixing new masts to churches or farm buildings, and thats what phone companies should focus on.

Helen Lamprell, Vodafone UKs external affairs chief, said: Everybody wants their phone to work, nobody wants a mast.
RAF pilots have killed or injured 4,315 Islamic State fighters since the campaign against the terror group began, official figures show.

But only one civilian died in the airstrikes, the Ministry of Defence claimed.

The numbers, released to charity Action on Armed Violence, show 4,013 combatants were killed between September 2014 and January this year, while 302 survived with injuries.

The one civilian died in March last year, crossing into the strike area on a motorbike just before a blast, the MoD said.

RAF pilots have killed or injured 4,315 Islamic State fighters since the campaign against the terror group began. Pictured: an airstrike in Kobani, Syria, in 2014

It comes as Islamic State nears total defeat on the battlefield. Remaining die-hard fighters in the village of Baghouz in Syria are expected to be routed by Kurdish-led forces within days.

The low RAF casualty toll has been met with some scepticism, however.

Action on Armed Violence executive director Iain Overton said the ratio of one civilian casualty against 4,315 enemies must be a world record in modern conflict. He added that the numbers were only an estimate.

An MoD spokesman said: After every British airstrike we conduct detailed battle damage assessment.
Disgraced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort addressed the court for the first time on Thursday to complain that his life had become a 'shambles' - but failed to apologize for his crimes.

Manafort, who will turn 70 next month inside Cumberland Federal Correctional Institution in Allegany, Maryland, was pushed into the courtroom in a wheelchair because of an undisclosed ailment.

He wore a green prison-issue boiler suit with words 'Alexandria Inmate' stamped across it - a far cry from the sharp suits and neckties he sported during his trial before Judge Ellis said he should dress like any other convicted felon.

The longtime GOP operative chose not to speak in his own defense during the trial phase but took the opportunity to deliver a brief pre-sentence statement.

Disgraced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort addressed the court for the first time on Thursday to complain that his life had become a 'shambles' - but failed to apologize for his crimes

Manafort was given leave to remain in his seat because of his supposed poor health but Judge Ellis interrupted him immediately because the court couldn't out make what he was saying.

'The last two years of my life have been the most difficult that my family and I has ever experienced,' Manafort repeated in a low voice, betraying barely a flicker of emotion and staring down at his notes.

'The person that the media has described me as is not someone I recognize. To say I've been humiliated and shunned is a gross understatement.'

Manafort told the court he hoped in time to 'show the world who I know I really am.'

He also complained that his mental health had deteriorated after being held in solitary at the Alexandria Detention Center ever since his bail was cancelled for alleged witness tampering.

The closest he came to taking responsibility for the eight tax and bank fraud charges he was convicted off last August was when the father-of-two said: 'I know it is my conduct that has brought me here.'

Manafort, who will turn 70 next month inside Cumberland Federal Correctional Institution in Allegany, Maryland, was pushed into the courtroom in a wheelchair because of an undisclosed ailment

But he went on to complain: 'I can tell you I feel the punishment from these procedures already. My life professionally and financially is a shambles.

'Being in solitary confinement I've had much time to reflect on my life and choices.'

Manafort ended by thanking the court for a fair trial. Addressing the judge directly, he added: 'I am ready for your decision and I ask for your compassion.'

In his own sentencing remarks, Ellis admonished Manafort for failing to say sorry to the US taxpayers and the banks he defrauded.

'I was surprised I did not hear you express regret for engaging in wrongful conduct,' he said. 'In other words you did not say that I really, really regret not doing what the law requires.

Judge Ellis ordered that restitution should be no less $6 million and no more than $25 million. He also hit Manafort with a $50,000 fine.

Manafort ended by thanking the court for a fair trial. Addressing the judge directly, he added: 'I am ready for your decision and I ask for your compassion'. He is pictured with Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2016

Manafort remained seated until the very last moment when he slowly rose to his feet as Judge Ellis left the courthouse, using a wooden cane to balance himself.

He turned and flashed a brief smile at his 66-year-old wife Kathleen, who had sat silently a few feet behind him in the public gallery as she had throughout his three week trial late last summer.

With that Manafort sank back in his wheelchair and a court guard quickly wheeled him out of the room.

His lawyers have claimed in filings that Manafort suffered from gout and depression.

He appeared at a previous court hearing in a wheelchair because of an undisclosed ailment causing his leg to swell.
Feral cats are wiping out endangered species.

Researchers from leading Australian universities revealed that feral cats 'binge on' a range of near-extinct species including small snakes, birds, turtles, and mammals after they looked at 10,000 samples of cat excrement throughout Australia.

Cats, mostly feral, kill 377 million birds every year, and they are becoming more hungry, The Conversation reported.

Researchers say stopping pet cats from roaming will stop them eating viciously like ferals (file picture)

Every day feral cats eat more than 20 small lizards, while pet cats kill 53 million reptiles every year (file picture)

Professor of Conversation Biology at Charles Darwin University, John Woinarski, who specialises in native animals, said as more species become extinct, Australia's soil becomes less productive.

'The quality of life in Australia can decline because of this,' he said.

'Australia is distinctive for its natural environment... these are animals that turn over the soil and add fertility to it.

'Since Australia was settled we have lost 34 mammal species, including types of bandicoot, wallabies, delightful animals,' he said.

Australia's 3.9 million pet cats kill 53 million reptiles each year, some of them are pets (file picture)

Prof Woinarski said one of the reasons cats kill so many animals is because of their ancestry.

'Cats and lions are from the same family, they are descendants of master hunters and are very skilled at killing other animals.'

These are Australian reptiles and bird species that feral cats 'binge on,' 11 of which are endangered, such as the Great Desert Skink, of which there are 4000 to 10,000 left in the wild.

Researchers warn that native animals in dry regions of Australia are most likely to be killed by cats (file picture)

The research also said native bird species, especially in dry regions of Australia, are at most risk.

'We conclude that, on average, bird-kill rates are highest in arid Australia (up to 330 birds per square km per year) and on islands, where rates can vary greatly depending on size,' the research said.

Feral cats in Australia also kill four times more lizards than American cats, and on average, each kills 225 reptiles per year (file picture)

Prof Wonarski said pet owners need to help.

'There's nothing wrong with keeping a pet, it's great for people to have that connection with an animal, it's good for the soul,' he said.

'But the owner has to contribute responsibility for our environment and moderate the damage their pets can do, keep them stimulated and in contained areas.'
The federal judge who jailed Paul Manafort for less than four years has been widely criticized for showing leniency to the former Trump campaign chairman after his sentence was far shy of federal sentencing guidelines.

Judge T.S. Ellis has been accused of being skeptical about Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia election collusion after making it clear during Manafort's sentencing that his financial crimes were in no way related to the probe.

Manafort was sentenced in Alexandria, Virginia on Thursday to 47 months for financial crimes uncovered during Mueller's probe into Russia's role in the 2016 election.

From the start of the hearing, Ellis sought to establish that Manafort wasn't being punished for crimes related to the Russia investigation.

'He is not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government,' Ellis, who was appointed to the bench by Republican former President Ronald Reagan, told the court during the sentencing.

Federal Judge T.S. Ellis (left) who jailed Paul Manafort (right) for less than four years has been widely criticized for showing leniency to the former Trump campaign chairman

Manafort was found guilty by a jury last August of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

While prosecutors had not recommended a specific sentence, they had cited federal sentencing guidelines that called for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison.

The sentence that was eventually handed down was even less than what defense lawyers had sought. The defense, who asked for between 4-1/4 and 5-1/4 years in prison, had written in their sentencing memo that Mueller's 'attempt to vilify Mr Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts before this court.'

Judge Ellis described the sentencing guidelines as 'excessive' and said that for all its intricacies it was fairly typical fraud case.

The 78-year-old judge went on to laud aspects of Manafort's character, saying that while the longtime lobbyist's crimes were 'very serious' he has lived an 'otherwise blameless life'.

The sentence has already reignited a debate about possible bias that first exploded during the trial phase when federal prosecutors filed a string of complaints that Ellis was belittling their case and badgering them.

Ellis repeatedly interrupted prosecutors, told them to stop using the word 'oligarch' to describe people associated with Manafort because it made him seem 'despicable,' and objected to pictures of Manafort's luxury items they planned to show jurors.

Manafort was sentenced in Alexandria, Virginia on Thursday to 47 months for financial crimes uncovered during Mueller's probe into Russia's role in the 2016 election

The sentence has already reignited a debate about possible bias on behalf of the judge with Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe expressing surprise over the leniency of the sentence

'It isn't a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending,' Ellis told prosecutors during the trial.

As part of the sentence Ellis handed down on Thursday, Manafort was ordered to pay a fine of $50,000 and restitution of just over $24 million.

Ellis called the sentence 'sufficiently punitive,' but noted that Manafort's time already served would be subtracted from the 47-month sentence.

Manafort faces sentencing in a separate case next Wednesday in Washington on two conspiracy charges to which he pleaded guilty last September. While he faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson potentially could stack that on top of the sentence imposed in the Virginia case, rather than allowing the sentences to run concurrently. Jackson was appointed by Democratic former President Barack Obama.

Some legal experts expressed surprise over the leniency of the sentence.

'Manafort's 47-month sentence in ED Va is outrageously lenient. Judge Ellis has inexcusably perverted justice and the guidelines. His pretrial comments were a dead giveaway. The DC sentence next week had better be consecutive,' Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe said.

Judge T.S. Ellis has been accused of being skeptical about Robert Mueller's (above) investigation into Russia election collusion after making it clear during Manafort's sentencing that his financial crimes were in no way related to the probe

He added: 'Calling Manafort's life of criminal collaboration with murderous dictators and of stealing tens of millions of dollars from American taxpayers 'otherwise blameless' is a sick joke. It's as though Judge Ellis himself was angling for the pardon Trump dangled in front of Manafort.'

Former federal prosecutor David Weinstein said: 'This is a tremendous defeat for the special counsel's office.'

Before his sentencing, Manafort thanked Ellis for conducting a fair trial.

He expressed no remorse but talked about how the case had been difficult for him and his family.

Manafort, who opted not to testify during his trial, told the court that 'to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.' He described his life as 'professionally and financially in shambles.'

Trump, who has called Mueller's investigation a politically motivated 'witch hunt,' has not ruled out granting a presidential pardon to Manafort, saying in November: 'I wouldn't take it off the table.'

California Rep. Adam Schiff criticized Manafort's following the sentencing, tweeting: 'The statement by Paul Manafort's lawyer after an already lenient sentence - repeating the President's mantra of no collusion - was no accident. It was a deliberate appeal for a pardon. One injustice must not follow another.'
This is the shocking moment a thug smashes a beer bottle over another man's head at a popular drinking bar in the Thai city of Pattaya.

CCTV footage of the attack shows a well-built Australian man, 48, following his victim before he tries to leave the Triangle Bar.

The unprovoked thug smashes the beer bottle over the man's head, who then falls to the ground instantly.

Ugly sights like these conflict with the tranquility, sandy beaches and relaxing lunches Asia is adored for

Social media users were both livid and saddened by what the tourist is alleged to have done

He appeared to be unconscious as staff and other customers rushed to help him.

The attack happened last week but has only recently be shared on social media.

The incident appears to have been completely unprovoked, according to reports, and resulted in the victim needing 70 stitches and casts for broken ribs and writs.

It is believed the thug was arrested following the attack and is currently in jail awaiting a court hearing.

The tourist industry brings millions, if not, billions to Asia each year, so do they really want the party to stop?

A proposal was introduced by the Alcohol Control Committee in Thailand earlier this year and, if approved, alcoholic beverages will not be sold on April 13 - Thai New Year.

The South East Asian region has long been viewed as a great and affordable holiday destination. This year eight million people flocked to Pattaya to exeprience its cuinse, culure, shoppimg anmd cultural practices,

With expensive domestic flights in Australia, more travellers are choosing to fly elsewhere for their luxurious getaways.
Turkey: Women's Day protests against gender-based violence Large march in Istanbul, 'at least 440 femicides in 2018'

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, MARCH 8 - Numerous demonstrations were being held on Friday in Turkey for International Women's Day.



Demonstrators took to the streets in dozens of cities with slogans including 'We want a city where we don't get murdered'. The main initiative is planned for Istanbul, from the central Istiklal street to Taksim Square, where - like every year - thousands are expected to call for more rights and protest violence against women. The demonstrations are focusing on femicides and abuse, which NGOs active in the country saw are rising sharply.



In 2018, at least 440 women were killed in gender-based killings, over double the 210 estimated in 2012 by the 'Stop the Femicide' platform. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has said that some 133,809 women had been subjected to violence in 2017. According to a previous government study, almost one in every four Turkish women have suffered physical or sexual abuse in their life.(ANSAmed).




Suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel (pictured) filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming his position was unjustly taken away by Gov. Ron DeSantis

The sheriff who was suspended over his handling of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, where 17 people were killed, is suing to get his job back.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel was suspended for his alleged poor leadership in the moments leading up to and during the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida last year.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took action just three days after being sworn into office in January and suspended Israel from his elected position.

Ina lawsuit filed on Thursday, Israel's attorneys said the governor suspended the sheriff for political reasons.

Israel's deputy, Scot Peterson, was the assigned and armed officer at the scene of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018 who opted not to engage the shooter after shots rang out inside the school that day.

Instead, Peterson cowered outside and waited for back up while 17 people - including 14 students - were massacred.

Defenseless students and faculty were reportedly heard screaming and fleeing for their lives, surveillance video obtained by the Sun Sentinel showed.

Shooter Nikolas Cruz was later caught outside the building trying to blend in with victims as they were escorted away from the scene.

A student mourns the loss of her friend at Pine Trails Park during an event on February 15, 2018, the day after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, in Parkland, Florida

Some time before the shooting, Israel had changed his department's policy to say deputies 'may' confront active shooters, instead of 'shall,' meaning his officers weren't required to engage gunmen to prevent loss of life.

A judge later affirmed the deputies had no obligation to protect the Parkland victims, according to USA Today.

That county sheriff's policy has since been updated.

State lawmakers have the authority to override the governor's suspension of Israel.

During his state of the state address on Tuesday, the GOP governor condemned any legislator who would re-instate Israel, a Democrat, in place of the acting county sheriff Gregory Tony, also a Democrat, who became Broward County's first black sheriff after DeSantis' appointment.

Florida Gov. Ron Desantis delivers his state of the state address on March 5, 2019, in Tallahassee, Florida

'The failures of the former sheriff are well-documented,' DeSantis said. 'Why any senator would want to thumb his nose at the Parkland families and eject Sheriff Tony, who is doing a great job and has made history as the first African-American sheriff in the history of Broward, is beyond me.'

In the lawsuit he filed on Thursday, Israel's attorneys said DeSantis suspended Israel for political reasons and overstepped his authority as governor in doing so.

'The Governors suspension of an elected official is an affront to the Florida Constitution and the fundamental right of voters to choose their elected officials,' the complaint reads.

DeSantis' office cited Israel's 'neglect of duty and incompetence' in both the Parkland slayings and a mass shooting at the Fort Lauderdale Airport in early 2017 as just cause for his suspension.

Suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel (center) has said he plans to run for re-election in 2020

'It is lamentable that Scott Israel refuses to be held accountable for his actions and continues to hold disregard for the law,' DeSantis' spokeswoman Helen Ferre said in a written statement.

The new governor has said Floridians have expressed they want Israel to lose his job, saying he is partly to blame for the deaths of 17 people who were fatally shot at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018.

Peterson, the deputy assigned to the Parkland school who hid while the shooting was unfolding, has since moved to a rural cabin in the Appalachian forest.

Cruz remains jailed, charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has given a rare glimpse into his family life with a newly released and touching photo album.

The heartwarming snapshots track the 50-year-old father of two's journey with his wife Jenny and daughters Lily, 9, and Abbey, 11.

Amid the rose-tinted family portraits with his family are pictures of a very down-to-earth Mr Morrison enjoying life as a family man.

In one photo, a dressed-down Mr Morrison is seen sporting an apron and open collared shirt as he joins in on baking time.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has given a rare glimpse into his family life with a newly released and touching photo album (pictured, Scott Morrison with wife Jenny and daughters Abbey and Lily)

In one photo, a dressed-down Mr Morrison is seen sporting an apron and open collared shirt as he joins in on baking time

In another photo, the Morrisons enjoy a car trip as Lily and Abbey pose with wide grins in the backseat while their parents sit in the front

With his sleeves rolled up, Mr Morrison kneads the dough with a rolling pin as his daughters and wife stand around the bench.

In another photo, the Morrisons enjoy a car trip as Lily and Abbey pose with wide grins in the backseat while their parents sit in the front.

Mr Morrison made public the heartwarming collection of pictures in his video address for International Women's Day.

There he chose to direct his appreciation for his wife and two children.

'As you know Jenny and I have two beautiful daughters, Abbey and Lily,' he said.

'They are the centre of our lives.

'When I see my girls and I remember when they were born, my heart just filled with just wanting them to be everything they could be,' he said.

'To be happy, confident and have the choices in life they would want for themselves.'

International Women's Day comes shortly after the body of Sydney dentist Preethi Reddy was found in a suitcase packed in her car as police continue inquiries into the cause of her death with her ex-boyfriend a suspect.

The incident is a stark reminder of the ongoing violence directed against women.

'As you know Jenny and I have two beautiful daughters, Abbey and Lily,' Mr Morrison said. 'They are the centre of our lives'

Mr Morrison made public the heartwarming collection of pictures in his video address for International Women's Day

'When I grew up my father was a police officer and he was always very careful where mum would walk,' Mr Morrison said in the video.

'Ive always had a strong consciousness of the fact that women just cant walk around safely in our country and that was true when I was growing up, and sadly true today.

'I would like there to be a time in the future where that was not the case, and my girls would be able to walk the streets a lot more freely and safely than women prior to them and their grandmother and mother.

'I want them to be safe in their home of course - and thats what we seek to provide as a family - but also the homes they will live in, in the future.'
Philip Hammond rebuffed chief constables demands for more cash to tackle rising knife crime and told them to use resources they already have to deal with the outbreak of violence.

The Chancellor said instead of asking for money, police forces should transfer staff from lower priority crimes.

His comments were seen as a sharp slap-down of Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who this week said Ministers have to listen to chief constables when they talk about resources, while police union leaders called the remarks an insult.

Philip Hammond rebuffed chief constables demands for more cash to tackle rising knife crime and told them to use resources they already have to deal with the outbreak of violence

Mr Hammond hinted that uncertainty over Brexit was holding back any boost to spending. He told the BBCs Today programme: Weve got adequate fiscal reserves now because the public finances have improved very significantly over the past couple of years, but weve been holding those in reserve because of the possibility that the UK would leave the EU without a deal and we would need a pot of money to support the economy through the inevitable disruption that that would cause.

Now, if that money is spent on dealing with the disruption of a No Deal exit it cant be spent on policing, on social care, on schools, on defence and all the things that people want to see money directed to.

He added: Recruiting and training more officers takes time. What you have to do is redirect resources, change your priorities, to deal with the immediate priority issue.

John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said: It is an insult to my colleagues, and it shows a shocking lack of awareness or understanding of the reality of the crisis happening right now in towns and cities across the country.

The police have received an extra 460million this year, and will see budgets boosted by nearly 1billion from April. But Downing Street left open the door to coming up with more cash. A spokesman said: There are additional resources but we will always listen to the case made by the police.

London mayor Sadiq Khan was accused of playing party political games last night after he blamed Conservative education policies for the rise in knife crime. Mr Khan told Sky News he had done as much as I am allowed to do under the law and blamed the expansion of academies and free schools for leaving councils with little oversight of pupils drawn into violence.
A man who helped his fiancee kill her ex-husband in a 'disturbing' murder and dump him on the side of the road has been jailed, but will be freed in four months.

Paul Andrew Wilkinson, 40, was sentenced to at least four years jail at the NSW Supreme Court today for his role in the brutal killing of his then- fiancee Raquel Hutchison's ex-husband in Sydney in 2014.

Claiming to be a 'white witch', Hutchison had tried to kill her 'ghost-hunter' ex-husband, who goes under the pseudonym Brett Walker, with spells and voodoo dolls before luring him to his home, blinding him with Exit Mould and torturing him.

Paul Andrew Wilkinson, 40, was sentenced to at least four years at the NSW Supreme Court today for his role in the killing of his then- fiancee Raquel Hutchison's (pictured) ex-husband in Sydney in 2014

Claiming to be a 'white witch', Hutchison (pictured) tried to kill off her ex-husband with spells and voodoo dolls before luring him to his home, blinding him with Exit Mould and torturing him

Justice Peter Hamill sentenced to Wilkinson eight years with a non-parole period of four years and nine months in jail.

However, he could be eligible for release after the judge took into account his work ethic, citing case reports by the Department of Corrective Services detailing his time in prison, where he has been working in maintenance.

Wilkinson was described by one officer as 'very positive, courteous and polite' and the best inmate maintenance worker he'd come across.

'Based on all of this evidence, I am satisfied Mr Wilkinson is generally a person of good character in spite of his relatively minor criminal history,' Justice Hamill said.

'I am satisfied he has good prospects of rehabilitation.'

The victim, (pictured) who goes under the pseudonym Brett Walker was found dumped on an isolated dirt road near Wisemans Ferry in Sydney's north-west

Previously Justice Hamill had jailed Hutchison in January to nine years with a non-parole period of five-and-a-half years over her role in Mr Walker's death, but due to her mental health issues, her non-parole period was reduced.

Hutchison's sentence is backdated to her 2014 arrest, meaning she will be eligible for release in April 2020.

The victim's sister Amanda said that her distraught family were 'disheartened with the result'.

'With the nation that's trying to reduce the impact of domestic violence on households - this doesn't send a very positive message,' she told Nine News.

In January, Justice Hamill said Hutchison, the 'prime mover' and main perpetrator of the violence, was 'extremely angry and full of hate' towards her ex-husband when she tricked him into returning to his home.

There was evidence Mr Walker was repeatedly punched, tasered or prodded with an electrical device and sprayed with Exit Mould.

Hutchison and Wilkinson later dumped his body by an isolated dirt road near Wisemans Ferry in Sydney's north-west.

Hutchison (pictured) was sentenced in January for nine years with a non-parole period of five-and-a-half years but due to her mental health issues, her non-parole period was reduced and could be free by April 2020

At Hutchinson's sentencing, Justice Hamill labelled Mr Walker's murder 'undignified, untimely and horrible'.

'The details of the killing... are chilling and the brutality involved in the crime is disturbing,' he said.

The court heard how Hutchison had worried her ex-husband was abusing children and exposing them to paranormal activity such as demonology and exorcism.
A soldier who was deployed to Afghanistan has surprised his son with an emotional homecoming reunion in front of the boy's school classmates.

Michael Anderson, who spent the last seven months overseas with the Australian Defence Force, surprised his son William on stage at assembly last Friday.

Heart-warming footage of the boy bursting into tears during the emotional reunion was uploaded to Highlands Christian College's Facebook page on Thursday.

A soldier (pictured) who was deployed to Afghanistan has surprised his son with an emotional reunion homecoming in front of the boy's school assembly

In the video, William is seen on stage while his dad appears - via video link - to thank the school for their commitment to sending letters and care packages to his platoon.

'Thanks for all the care packages and letters everyone at the school has sent over to us - that support goes a long way with all the soldiers, lieutenant Anderson said.

'It's gives us plenty of fond memories of opening up some of the the jokes, (and) some of the questions that everyone wrote us.'

Lieutenant Anderson gave a special shout out to his son William, before saying he missed him and was looking forward to seeing him soon when he returned home.

As the clip comes to an end, the boy's father said he wanted to give the school a special gift and he asked the assembly to wait while he went to get it.

Instead of reappearing in the video, Lieutenant Anderson then emerged from behind the stage and is reunited with his son, who is clearly overcome with emotion.

As the school gives the solider a round of applause, the father gives his teary son a hug, before announcing he has a gift from the platoon to show their appreciation.

Lieutenant Anderson then reveals a rectangular banner with his platoon's symbol and the words 'Operation Highroad Camp Qargha 2018-2019' written across it.

In the video, lieutenant Anderson emerged from backstage and reunited with his son, who was clearly overcome with emotion

'I've had every member of my platoon sign the back - so thanks for your support. It goes a long way with all the guys and girls,' he said.

'It won't be forgotten either - many thanks a lot for that.'

The soldier then presented the autographed banner to Head of Primary Warren Seip, who gave thanks on behalf of the school.

'I just want to thank you for your service. I know that it's a huge sacrifice giving up your life and leaving your family for an extended period of time,' Mr Seip said.

The soldier (pictured with his son William) then presented the autographed banner to the principal, who gave thanks on behalf of the school

Lieutenant Anderson (pictured) revealed a rectangular banner with his platoon's symbol and the words 'Operation Highroad Camp Qargha 2018-2019' written across it

'On behalf of the school, we just want to thank you for your service, and can you please pass on our thanks to your platoon as well.'

The Facebook post has since been viewed by thousands of people, with many taking to social media to comment on the touching reunion.

'Oh wow. What an amazing reunion. How wonderful that the school acknowledges and thanks him and the platoon for their service,' one person wrote.

'What a wonderful video...certainly a tear jerker,' another person said.

A third person added: 'That is so lovely well done to all involved xox.'
Olympian Zali Steggall snapped at Tony Abbott to 'let her finish' during a fiery pre-election debate on Friday morning.

Ms Steggall, an independent candidate, is contesting Mr Abbott's Sydney seat of Warringah and it did not take long for the pair to clash.

The first topic up for discussion was the Northern Beaches Tunnel, which is the centre of Mr Abbott's campaign.

Ms Steggall told the former prime minister that she has seen the media clips from 1994, when the tunnel was first promised to residents.

Tony Abbott has been shut down by Olympian Zali Steggall during a heated pre-election debate

Ms Steggall was not impressed when the former prime minister interrupted her as she was debating her points

As they were discussing the controversial tunnel, Mr Abbott interrupted Ms Steggall, who was not impressed.

'So you're in favour of it if the business case pans out,' Mr Abbott asked.

'No, I'm in favour of it and I want to make sure the Australian people, and the electorate, are not sold a dud,' she replied.

'So you think it might be a dud?' Mr Abbott said as he interrupted her again.

'Would you like to let me finish?' Ms Steggall shot back.

'It has to be future proof. We don't want another cross-city tunnel disaster, that has no financial model, that basically the people of the electorate are left paying and subsidising something that doesn't work.'

Sky News political editor David Speers, the debate moderator then threw a question at Mr Abbott asking for his reaction about what Ms Steggall said.

As he started to answer, Ms Steggall took it upon herself to interrupt him.

'Can I just say, this tunnel needs to take into account clean, future public transport. It's the main issue the people of Warringah want to see,' she said.

In response Mr Abbott said: 'Look, it just has to go ahead. It just has to go ahead,' Mr Abbott said.

'This is a necessary investment in the amenity of an area which has been neglected by state and federal Labor governments for far too long.'
A man who lied about having cancer to escape a prison sentence put a blue straw down his pants to trick a court into believing it was the top of a colostomy bag.

David Andrew McArthur, has been due to serve a seven month sentence in 2015 for deceit, theft and dishonestly dealing with stolen property.

The sentence was suspended with a good behaviour bond that McArthur subsequently broke which should have landed him in jail.

But in an unbelievable ploy to escape a prison term he lied to the court about having cancer, fooling his own lawyer and the magistrate.

At a sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Port Adelaide Magistrates Court heard how the 51-year-old took a hospital discharge form from a man with cancer and passed it off as own, The Advertiser reported.

MacArthur managed to fool his lawyer and the magistrate but the police prosecutor uncovered his fraudulent acts and he was sentenced to two years and three months in jail (stock image)

'Despite your counsel's submissions, there was nothing really amateurish about falsifications ... the substitution was not obvious to the solicitor who was acting for you,' Judge Barrett said.

'Although the magistrate might not have had much opportunity at that stage to look at the document, he did not regard it as suspicious either.'

The court heard how McArthur had clocked up a six-page criminal record in total which was littered charged like giving false names to police and dishonestly dealing documents.

His 2015 sentence was suspended and he was ordered with a good behaviour bond and to remain drug-free for 15 months.

The bond was extended after McArthur continued to return positive samples of amphetamines.

McArthur attempted to fool legal authorities when he faced court with a lawyer to defend breaching his good behaviour bond through continued drug use on June 21, 2018.

The 51-year-old had 'obtained a hospital discharge form' from a man who lived near his father.

The form was altered to include his name and indicated he had cancer when McArthur faced court again.

McArthur told his lawyer he had 'severe medical problems' and backed up it with the incomplete discharge form.

He even put a straw down his trousers to fool the court into believing it was the top of a colostomy bag.

But the prosecution did not accept the incomplete form and the case was adjourned.

David McArthur has faked his illness by using passing a cancer patient's discharge form as his own and by putting a blue straw down his pants and pretended it was the top of a colostomy bag (stock image)

MacArthur managed to fool his lawyer and the magistrate but the police prosecutor uncovered the fraud after calling the hospital.

He was taken into custody on August 21 and charged with 'using medical documents known to have been altered with the intention of influencing the outcome of judicial proceedings'.

Judge Barrett said there would have been a miscarriage of justice if the prosecutor had not been diligent.

McArthur's was sentenced to two years, three months and 14 days in prison, including the previous suspended sentence, with a non-parole period of one year, one month and three weeks.
Some of the nation's worst criminals have been left under minimal supervision after prison guards across the state walked off the job on Friday.

Staff walked off the job just before midday, with all prisoners placed in lockdown and only a skeleton staff in jails.

The walkout even includes the nation's toughest prison Goulburn Supermax.

At Sydney courthouses, trials have been put on hold after guards informed judicial staff they will not be bringing up inmates after 2pm.

The decision by prison officers came after the soft stance taken by the NSW District Court against notorious inmate Bassam Hamzy last month for his assault on a guard.

Daily Mail Australia revealed last week that Hamzy, 35, had a sentence of 20 months quashed by the court for his assault on a prison officer in 2017.

Some of the nation's worst criminals have been left under minimal supervision after guards at prisons across New South Wales walked off the job on Friday (Pictured is Goulburn Supermax)

Staff walked off the job just before midday, with all prisoners placed in lockdown and only a skeleton staff - including leaving the guard towers empty - throughout the jail (Stock image)

Sources from inside the prison told the Goulburn Post the move had come because of a perceived lack of support for guards.

'We are tired of being punching bags,' one source said. 'What if it had been a shiv?'

In a statement, Corrective Services New South Wales said a meeting had been set for Monday which they hoped would resolve the issue.

'Staff safety and security is the highest priority for Corrective Services NSW,' they said.

'The Public Service Association raised the issue of staff safety in Goulburn's High Risk Management Correctional Centre with CSNSW senior management earlier this week and a meeting has been scheduled for Monday.'

Hamzy was originally jailed for the 1998 shooting murder of a teenager outside a Sydney nightclub and has been a menace since entering custody. He founded the Brothers 4 Life gang from behind bars and ran a drug ring from his jail cell.

The ISIS sympathiser grinned as Acting Judge Geoffrey Graham told the New South Wales District Court last week that he was quashing the additional sentence.

The decision by prison officers came after Daily Mail Australia revealed the soft stance taken by the NSW District Court against notorious inmate Bassam Hamzy (pictured), who assaulted a guard in 2017

Acting Judge Graham told the court Hamzy had been wrongly punished twice for his 2017 attack on a prison officer, first by losing his jail privileges and secondly through the extension to his already lengthy sentence

Acting Judge Graham told the court Hamzy had been wrongly punished twice for his 2017 attack on a prison officer, first by losing his jail privileges and secondly through the extension to his already lengthy sentence.

'Restriction of prison privileges make existence and a quality of living intolerable (for prisoners),' Judge Graham said.

'It is a form of punishment and it can be real punishment.'

Hamzy, who can not apply for release from prison until 2035, represented himself in the matter after studying the appropriate legislation behind bars.

He argued that the 'parallel punishment' he received through his sentencing and the loss of privileges was an 'extreme injustice'.

'If an inmate is punished externally he is not to be charged internally your honour,' he told the court in November last year.

'It is not for the commissioner to create a parallel punishment system - the Behaviour Management Plan (BPM) - by simply giving it another name.'

Acting Judge Graham said the way prisoners were punished within the four walls of the Goulburn Supermax (highlighted on the map), as well as in the courts 'constituted an extreme case of oppression'

Inside one of the austere cells at the High Risk Management Correctional Centre at Goulburn, which is 197km south-west of Sydney. All inmates in 'Supermax' sleep just one to a cell

Acting Judge Graham agreed with the inmate in overturning the NSW Local Court's sentence on Thursday.

He said the way Goulburn Supermax punished prisoners within their own four walls, as well as in the courts, 'constituted an extreme case of oppression'.

'The appellant (Hamzy) has been subjected to what he describes as a "compounding injustice" after the decision to regress him on the Behaviour Management Plan,' he said.

'It's a breach of the statuatory regime set up to govern the way correctional facilities operate.'

Acting Judge Graham granted Hamzy a stay in proceedings and set aside the added jail time he received from the local court in 2018.
Maggie Gyllenhaal has slammed a reporter who wrote that her voice was 'high-pitched' and 'cartoonish' in a profile piece about the actress.

The 41-year-old called out The Independent reporter on Twitter after she spoke to him at length about sexism in Hollywood.

'To writer @PatrickHJSmith Of course you're free to think anything you like about the 'silliness' of my voice and my face,' Gyllenhaal tweeted.

'But when you open your piece in @independent commenting on that, it serves to undermine everything we spoke about.'

Maggie Gyllenhaal has slammed a reporter who wrote that her voice was 'high-pitched' and 'cartoonish' in a profile piece about the actress

Smith later replied to Gyllenhaal's tweet apologizing for the way it may have come across.

'I apologize if that's how it came across. The quote you're referring to was from another writer. I wanted to highlight it as an eg of the way you've been underestimated for superficial, gendered reasons. I think you and your work are brilliant, which I tried to make apparent,' he tweeted.

In the first paragraph of the profile piece about Gyllenhaal, Smith wrote that speaking to the actress can be 'a little disorienting'.

'She has a high-pitched, cartoonish voice, which she uses to express deep things,' he wrote.

'One critic memorably said that she possessed a 'Kewpie-doll silliness,' but maybe it's a flaw in our culture that we expect serious thoughts to be couched in sonorous tones.'

The 41-year-old actress called out The Independent reporter Patrick Smith on Twitter after she spoke to him at length about sexism in Hollywood

The article, which was published ahead of the release of her new film 'The Kindergarten Teacher', went on to quote Gyllenhaal speaking about the #MeToo movement and the gender pay gap in the film industry.

'We live in a masculine world and in America - especially very recently - as much as we would like to believe otherwise, it's a misogynistic world,' Gyllenhaal said.

Gyllenhaal, who starred and produced The Deuce with James Franco, also spoke about her involvement in the #MeToo movement.

She said the show's producers took sexual harassment allegations made against Franco very seriously. He has denied any sexual misconduct.

Gyllenhaal went on to say that she had to adjust her own thinking to make sure she was properly advocating for herself.

'I would see a cut of an episode on The Deuce and would then spend hours perfectly composing the email that I wanted to send with my notes attached,' she wrote.

'I'd think, does my brother have to do this? Probably not - he'd just pop off an email, you know what I mean?'
Former Australian horse trainer John Nikolic has been sentenced to 23 years in jail for importing cocaine into Fiji on his luxury yacht.

He and wife Yvette were arrested after Fijian authorities discovered more than $20 million worth of drugs, along with two guns, on their vessel - named Shenanigans - as it arrived in Port Denarau in June 2018.

While Ms Nikolic was acquitted on all charges, Mr Nikolic was last week found guilty of drug importation, possession, and failure to declare arms and ammunitions to a customs officer following a trial at the High Court in Suva.

Former Australian horse trainer John Nikolic (pictured) has been sentenced to 23 years in jail for importing cocaine into Fiji on his luxury yacht

Justice Daniel Goundar handed down a sentence of 23 years' imprisonment with no parole for 18 years on Friday, Fiji Village reports.

While prosecutors called for a sentence of at least 20 years as a deterrent, Mr Nikolic's lawyers said he had tested positive for a gene that causes the degenerative Huntington's disease and was at risk of developing it years to come, according to the Herald Sun.

'There is a likelihood my client will contract the disease because two of his uncles [did],' defence lawyer Wasu Pillay said, ABC reported.

The couple had been travelling across the Pacific and stopped at Fiji after visiting Colombia, on their way home to the Gold Coast, drawing the suspicions of customs officers who raided the boat and found 10 blocks of cocaine, the court heard during the trial.

Justice Goundar outlined the facts during sentencing, tracking the route of the yacht.

'The vessel left Florida on February 2, 2018 and travelled to Colombia, Panama, French Polynesia and Tahiti before arriving in Fiji,' Justice Goundar told the court.

'The final destination was Brisbane, Australia.

'Your wife is the registered owner of the vessel. She was with you on board, with three crew members.'

Mr Nikolic had claimed sole responsibility during the search, pointing officers to more hidden cocaine, before attempting to take his own life in an overdose after asking to use the bathroom, prosecutors said.

Justice Goundar last month ruled Ms Nikolic had no case to answer because the evidence against her was circumstantial.

She has since returned to Australia.

Mr Nikolic was in 2015 banned from racing for nine months for doping a horse.

Mr Nikolic and wife Yvette were arrested after Fijian authorities discovered more than $20 million worth of drugs, along with two guns, on their vessel, Shenanigans, as it arrived in Port Denara in June
Algerian candidate says 'everyone knows Bouteflika is dead' Nekkaz stopped outside Geneva hospital. Protests in Algiers

(ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 8 - Algerian opposition presidential candidate Rachid Nekkaz was stopped by Swiss law enforcement officials in front of the hospital in Geneva where elderly Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who intends to run for a fifth time for president, is currently being hospitalised, according to the website Tribune de Geneve.



It said Nekkaz was "together with about a hundred fellow citizens".



On Thursday evening during an interview with broadcaster Europe 1, the French-Algerian businessman said he wanted to go to Geneva "to see" in person if Bouteflika "is well", "when everyone knows that he's dead".



French media said the Algerian Constitutional Council rejected Nekkaz's candidacy due to his French nationality.



Nekkaz then allegedly decided to run his eponymous cousin who, in the event of a victory, would create a vice presidency especially for him with which he could de facto lead Algeria.



Meanwhile in Algiers, thousands of people are demonstrating on Friday in a procession about a kilometre long, protesting against another Bouteflika presidential run, said the Associated Press.



It said protesters are gathered in the centre of the capital, some chanting, some waving Algerian flags, along with posters calling for Bouteflika's resignation.



The march is being supervised by security forces and the authorities have blocked train traffic and closed the city's subway, said the website Le Monde.



The protesters are amassed around the "Grande Poste" building, a symbol of Algiers, for this protest which is taking place for the third consecutive Friday.



Anti-riot gear, including a water cannon, has been placed in usual gathering places and a helicopter is surveilling the city.



Fifteen opposition parties and four Algerian unions have backed the protests against another Bouteflika presidential run.



The Associated Press said during a meeting that ended late on Thursday evening, the groups also criticised the government's "stubborn" stance on insisting that elections be held as soon as next month.



The protesters are calling for a general strike if the government doesn't give in.(ANSAmed).




A mother and eyelash technician who was caught driving over the legal limit said she 'accidentally' drank a large vodka and Red Bull at work.

Mother-of-one Yolanda Genevieve Criaco, from Brisbane, appeared at Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Thursday after she blew a blood alcohol count (BAC) of 0.081 at about 6.27am on New Years Day.

The Instagram model, who hadn't slept for 24-hours when she offended, claimed her co-workers served her an alcoholic drink which she unwittingly consumed, Sunshine Coast Daily reported.

A mother and eyelash technician (pictured) who was caught driving over the legal limit said she 'accidentally' drank a large vodka and Red Bull at work

Yolanda Genevieve Criaco (pictured), from Brisbane, appeared at Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Thursday after she blew a blood alcohol count (BAC) of 0.081 on New Years Day

Criaco thought she had stopped drinking at midnight but recorded a BAC of 0.1 or twice the legal limit on a work breathalyser at about 4.30am.

Criaco explained she ate some food and watched a movie before making the drive home after 6am but she was still over the legal limit of 0.05 when she was pulled over by police.

The mother-of one said she underestimated how long it took for alcohol to leave the system as her attempt to wait it out failed.

'I'm not much of a drinker, I still breastfeed, I thought it was 0.05 an hour,' she told the court.

Criaco, who pleaded guilty to driving over the general alcohol limit, apologised to the court on Thursday for her actions and claimed she took the incident 'extremely seriously'.

'I'm a sole parent of my son... I was working really hard trying to get out of a situation with my mother who is drunk and abuses me every night,' she told the court.

The Instagram model, who said he hadn't slept for 24-hours when she offended, claimed her co-workers had served her a drink she unwittingly consumed

Criaco (pictured) thought she had stopped drinking at midnight but recorded a BAC of 0.1, twice over the legal limit, while she was still at work at about 4.30am

Criaco believes her work breathalyser could be faulty.

She told the court she recently moved to Brisbane from the Sunshine Coast to study and launch her own business.

Promoting herself as a living a 'holistic lifestyle', Criaco has over 5,700 followers on Instagram.

Magistrate Haydn Stjernqvist told Criaco that you're at the highest concentration an hour after drinking and lose 0.02 per cent an hour.

She was handed a two-month driving disqualification and was fined $350.
U.S. Department of Defense officials are evaluating Elon Musk's federal security clearance status after the billionaire's viral pot-smoking moment on comedian Joe Rogan's podcast six months ago.

Tesla CEO Musk was filmed sharing whisky and a joint with Rogan during an interview with the comedian on his popular show The Joe Rogan Experience on September 6, 2018.

A Pentagon official told reporters on Thursday that the Air Force referred Musk case to the DOD, which is examining Musk's behavior.

A Pentagon official told Fox Business the DoD would be focused on whether the CEOs behavior 'comports with the type of person who has access to classified information.'

Secret-level security status requires federal employees and contractors seeking clearance to acknowledge any illegal drug use over the past seven years.

Musk was previously granted secret-level security clearance because of his role as founder and CEO of Space Exploration Technologies, aka SpaceX.

Headquartered in Hawthorne, California, the aerospace company manufactures and launches advanced spacecrafts and rockets and is currently certified to launch military spy satellites.

It was founded by Musk in 2002 with the aspiration of enabling people to live on other planets.

Bloomberg News reports marijuana use is prohibited for federal employees or contractors with security clearances despite being legal for recreational or medicinal use in many states.

Texla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk smoked a joint with comedian Joe Rogan during a September 18, 2018 interview on his podcast show

'The Department of Defense is following its normal process when information which may affect an individuals clearance eligibility is brought to our attention, the service said in statement emailed to Bloomberg News.

Tesla stock price plummeted six percent in the immediate after of Musk's viral interview in September, according to the Guardian.

Musk has refiled his SF-86 security form in response to an investigation.

It's possible his security clearance could be suspended or revoked, which would require another SpaceX executive to apply for the clearance for the company to continue it's work with the U.S. government.

A SpaceX official said the matter hasn't affected the company's day-to-day operations.

This isn't the first time Musk has faced conflict with federal officials.

A month prior to the weed-smoking debacle, the Securities and Exchange Commission went after him for tweeting that he had secured a deal to take Tesla private, when it turned out that claim was false.

He and Tesla were fined $20 million a piece in response and Musk resigned as chairman of the company, but maintained his role as CEO, CNBC reported.

Since then Musk has reportedly tweeted without using a tweet monitor, which violated the terms of his settlement with the SEC.
A notorious Comanchero bikie who survived taking nine bullets while getting tattooed has been jailed for at least 13 years.

'Crybaby' Comanchero Robert Ale, 36, was jailed on Friday for heading a violent criminal gang associated with a wide range of offences including drive-by shootings, assaults, attempted hits, drug trafficking and arson.

While he delivered the sentence, County Court judge Paul Higham compared Ale to a 'predator' who coerced his friends and family into helping him organise crime, the Herald Sun reports.

'Crybaby' Comanchero Robert Ale, 36, (pictured) was jailed today over a range of violent offences ranging from drive-by shootings, attempted hits as well as drug trafficking and arson

The leader of street gang The Last Kings, Ale (pictured) commanded its members to do the 'dirty work' to try and keep the heat off the notorious Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang

Ale was the head of street gang The Last Kings, a splinter group set up to do 'the dirty work' of the Comanchero so police wouldn't link it back to the to notorious outlaw motorcycle gang.

The court heard how Ale often commanded his members to commit brutal crimes such as assaults, arson, and burglaries.

In November 2016, he called on member, Mustafa Baydar, 33, to shoot at a Dreen house in a drive-by over a drug debt, texting Baydar moments before saying: 'Be safe brother, enjoy the adrenaline rush! It doesn't last long lol.'

In the same month Ale also planned to burn down Kittens nightclub in South Melbourne, ordering one of his men, Omid Said, 30 to set it alight.

But the attack never happened.

Ale (second from left) is a close associate of Mick Murray (right of Ale) - Comanchero national president and former owner of Nitro Ink

Between October 2016 to March 2017, Ale also ordered friends to traffick $1.2 million worth of meth, cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis in a major cross-border syndicate.

In court on Friday Judge Higham said Ale believed he was 'above the law.

An earlier court hearing was told that Ale found it 'truly chilling' how his associates accepted Ale's jobs without merely considering the consequences.

'You were a kind of predator, seeking out vulnerable man,' he said.

Ale will have to serve 13 years and nine months before he's eligible for parole.

Ale, the right-hand man of the gang's national president Mick Murray, was riddled with bullets in February 2018 at the Nitro Ink tattoo parlour in Melbourne's south-east.

He was dubbed the 'crybaby' in 2017 after his lawyer told the the Melbourne Magistrates' Court, in an attempted bail application, that he had 'broke down and cried like a baby'.
A rising footy star once known as the 'other Sam Burgess' has been charged with kidnapping and assaulting a man for several hours in a bid to extract $10,000 from him.

Former South Sydney Rabbitohs player Samuel Gerrey-Burgess was arrested on Thursday and charged with kidnapping and assault.

The 25-year-old rugby league centre is one of three men who are accused of terrorising a man in an apartment near the Sydney Harbour Bridge a fortnight ago.

Former South Sydney Rabbitohs Samuel Gerrey-Burgess was arrested on Thursday and charged with kidnapping and assault on February 20

Gerrey-Burgess is accused of inflicting actual bodily harm on a 35-year-old man in an apartment at Milsons Point, on Sydney's Lower North Shore, on February 20.

His alleged victim had to be treated for facial and chest injuries and Royal North Shore Hospital.

The former Rabbitohs player, who lives at Carringah in Sydney's south, appeared briefly in Sutherland Local Court on Friday and did not apply for bail.

He was arrested shortly after 3pm on Thursday and charged with two counts of detaining someone to get an advantage, causing actual bodily harm, and possessing a prescribed restricted substance.

The 25-year-old rugby league player is one of three men who are accused of terrorising a man in an apartment at Milsons Point (pictured) near the Sydney Harbour Bridge

The latest accusation caps off an off-season blighted by scandal for the National Rugby League, which saw St George Dragons lock Jack de Belin charged with allegedly pinning down and raping a 19-year-old girl.

The 27-year-old New South Wales State Of Origin star was stood down from his $600,000-a-year contract on Thursday, as he vows to fight the charges in court.

Gerrey-Burgess's court appearance on Friday came a day after the NRL launched its 2019 season at the Bondi Icebergs pool.

He was once known as a 'the other Sam Burgess' for having the same name as the Rabbitoh's 2014 Grand Final hero try scorer.

The NSW Police Force on Thursday also arrested another man, 32, who lived at Milsons Point and another male, 22, from Botany.

They were both charged with detaining someone in company to get an advantage and causing actual bodily harm, and were also refused bail.
A mother who has been missing for two days with her five-month-old baby girl has not been answering calls or messages from her family.

Sheena Miller and her baby daughter were last seen at a Darra address, in Brisbane, around 9am on Wednesday.

The 39-year-old either left later that morning or early afternoon that day.

Sheena Miller (pictured) and her baby daughter around 9am on Wednesday

Ms Miller's family and police hold concerns her and her daughter's safety and wellbeing.

She was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, grey shirts, with her hair possibly tied in a bun.

Ms Miller is an Aboriginal woman, approximately 170cm tall, with a large build, brown eyes and black hair.

Police are urging anyone with any information on their whereabouts to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or Policelink on 131 444.
President Donald Trump says he's a 'little disappointed' by reports North Korea appears to have restored normal operations at a long-range rocket launch site it partially dismantled last year as part of disarmament steps.

South Korea's military said it is carefully monitoring the North Korean missile research center and long-range rocket site after U.S. analysts said normal operations appeared to have been restored.

Some experts say North Korea is trying to convey displeasure over the breakdown of a summit between leader Kim Jong Un and Trump over what the Americans said were Kim's excessive demands for sanctions relief.

North Korea-focused website 38 North said Thursday that commercial satellite images from March 6 indicate that the launch site appears to have returned to 'normal operational status' following rapid construction to rebuild a launch pad and a rocket engine test stand.

President Donald Trump said Thursday he's a 'little disappointed' by reports North Korea appears to have restored normal operations at a long-range rocket launch site it partially dismantled last year as part of disarmament steps

The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies published similar findings on Thursday and said the North's actions amount to a 'snapback' from the moderate dismantlement it undertook following the first Trump-Kim summit last June.

Asked if he was disappointed in the new activity, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was 'a little disappointed.'

Then he said time will determine the future of U.S. efforts to get North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to give up his pursuit of nuclear weapons in exchange for relief from sanctions stalling economic growth.

'We'll let you know in about a year,' Trump told the reporters.

The Sohae satellite launching center in Tongchang-ri, a seaside region in western North Korea, is where the North carried out satellite launches in recent years, resulting in U.N. sanctions over claims that they were disguised tests of banned missile technology.

Some experts see the North as trying to put pressure on Washington and Seoul, which has acted as a mediator, to make a deal by creating an impression that it could resume missile or rocket tests.

South Korea's spy agency has also told lawmakers in a closed-door intelligence briefing that increased vehicle movement was detected at a missile research center on the outskirts of Pyongyang where the North is believed to build long-range missiles targeting the U.S. mainland.

North Korea-focused website 38 North said Thursday that commercial satellite images from March 6 indicate that the launch site appears to have returned to 'normal operational status'

South Korea's Defense Ministry said Thursday that it is carefully monitoring North Korean nuclear and missile facilities and that the U.S. and South Korean militaries were closely coordinating intelligence over the developments at Tongchang-ri and the missile research center.

Briefing reporters at the State Department later, a senior U.S. official said that despite the new activity and the failure of last month's Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi to reach a denuclearization deal, the administration still believes it can reach and implement an agreement by the end of the president's first term.

The official said that the U.S. is still trying to determine exactly what North Korea is doing with recent activity but that the administration will seek clarification from the North as well as intelligence analysts.

The official said the Trump administration did not necessarily agree with nongovernmental analysts who believe the activity is a sign of North Korean anger following the summit.

Trump said on Wednesday that his relationship with Kim remained 'good' even though Trump walked away from negotiations at their high-profile meeting in Vietnam, saying the North's concessions on its nuclear program weren't enough to warrant sanctions relief.

Trump has favored direct talks with Kim, but the next stage of negotiations is likely to be conducted at lower levels.
A 17-year-old boy will stand trial for murder after allegedly stabbing a university student to death at a party.

The Melbourne boy, who cannot be named due to his age, told the court he stabbed 19-year-old Laa Chol in the stomach with a pocket knife on the 56th floor of the CBD EQ Tower on July 21, 2018, at about 5am.

But the Sunshine North youth claims it was manslaughter and pleaded not guilty to one count of murder at a children's court.

A 17-year-old boy will stand trial for murder after stabbing 19-year-old Laa Chol (pictured) to death at a party

The Melbourne boy, who cannot be named due to his age, admitted to stabbing Ms Chol in the stomach with a pocket knife at the 56th floor of the CBD EQ Tower (pictured)

According to Esta Quirino, one of the girls inside the apartment, things turned ugly when a 'gang' of 'aggressive African and Caucasian men' gatecrashed the party.

Kenyan-born Ms Chol bravely confronted the group, telling them to leave.

The court heard on Friday the boy stepped forward and stabbed Ms Chol to the torso with a knife, with 'moderate' force.

The blade entered to a depth of 8.5cm and pierced the right ventricle of her heart, causing a hemothorax - bleeding inside the chest.

Ms Chol was also punched, kicked and stabbed as her mobile phone was stolen.

Ms Quirino said she was devastated when she learned her friend had died after paramedics were unable to revive her at the scene.

'She would always back up anyone up if she sees wrong. And for standing up for others this is what she got in return ... death,' Ms Quirino told The Herald Sun.

The court heard on Friday the boy stepped forward and stabbed Ms Chol to the torso with a knife, with 'moderate' force

In November, prosecutors refused to accept a defence offer for the boy to plead guilty to manslaughter.

On Friday however, his lawyer argued the murder charge should be discharged as he didn't intend to cause death or serious injury to Ms Chol.

He said there wasn't evidence of sufficient weight to support a murder conviction, and although the boy's actions were deliberate, they did not show intent to kill or seriously injure.

But the magistrate deemed the boy's intent at the time was a matter for a jury to determine.

She said CCTV footage clearly showed Ms Chol being held by another boy as she was stabbed.

'There appears to be some ill feeling between the victim and (the two boys) right before she dies,' the magistrate said.

'It was a stab wound in the chest. I'm trying to understand the argument about a jury not being able to find he intended to cause serious injury when he stabbed her torso.'

The blade entered to a depth of 8.5cm and pierced the right ventricle of her heart, causing a hemothorax - bleeding inside the chest

As details of her death were described, Ms Chol's family wept.

Outside court, Ms Chol's father Daniel Kunyrith told reporters it was up to the courts to deal with his daughter's killer.

'Let the law deal with him,' he said.

'I do not hate his family...but we should look at the problem, to let people continue their good life.

'I can't get another Laa. My life - finished - it's gone. She's the first-born for me.

'Laa (was) doing good...but now they took it, they throw it in the rubbish somewhere.'

The boy faces the Supreme Court on March 13 for a directions hearing.
An emotional father has thanked a Good Samaritan who bravely intervened after a sex attacker assaulted his daughter and tried to drag her into the bushes.

The 18-year-old girl was on her way to her job at a supermarket about 5.40pm on Thursday, and when the perpetrator came up behind her she originally thought it was her friend giving her a surprise hug.

But it was in fact an unknown man who said 'come with me' and tried to drag her backwards in Craigieburn's Malcolm Creek Park outside of Melbourne, police told reporters on Friday.

Police revealed the man who intervened had rushed to her aid and pulled her away from her attacker after she screamed out in distress.

The passer-by had been with a woman and a child at the time of the assault.

Her father Jason spoke of how his daughter was a 'bright, bubbly and very funny' person before tearing up as he offered his thanks to the person who helped save her.

'I would like to find out who those people are that helped her - and say thank you for what you have done because you have ultimately saved my daughter's life,' he said.

The father revealed he was at his son's basketball practice when his daughter called him to tell him what had happened - who was only five minutes or so away from work when she was attacked.

He said his daughter was 'very numb' during the day following the attack.

'She's been thinking about the what ifs and we're trying to reassure her she's going to get the help she needs,' he added.

'She thought it was a friend of hers at first, coming up to cuddle her, and as she turned around she turned around and saw the man she just panicked and was shocked, terrified,' he told reporters.

A teenage girl has been saved by a courageous couple as a sex attacker grabbed her and dragged her towards a creek (stock image)

'I would like to find out who those people are that helped her - and say thank you for what you have done because you have ultimately saved my daughter's life,' her father said

'I would like to find out who those people are that helped her to thank them, and say thank you for what you've done because you've ultimately maybe saved my daughter's life.'

The man who intervened has not come forward and police are actively searching for the sex attacker.

Police described the attacker as Caucasian, in his 20s, of thin build, wearing a baseball cap and standing at about 183cm and has dirty brown or dark hair.
A former police sergeant in New York has been arrested after surveillance video showed him beating and stomping on a homeless man's head after he was wrestled to the ground.

Cordell Fitts, 34, was taken into custody on Thursday following the altercation with the man at the Bellevue Men's Homeless Shelter in Manhattan two years ago.

Fitts, who was a police sergeant for the New York City Department of Homeless Services, was also charged with falsifying a police report.

Surveillance video from the incident on March 6, 2017 showed Fitts in the lobby of the homeless shelter with other law enforcement officers.

Cordell Fitts, 34, (right) was taken into custody on Thursday following the altercation with the man (left with patterned pants) at the Bellevue Men's Homeless Shelter in Manhattan in 2017

Fitts and a man in the lobby, who was seeking help at the shelter, could be seen exchanging words.

He was caught on camera putting his hands on the man's chest before the man responded by throwing punches at the officer.

Fitts and the other officers wrestled him to the ground, the surveillance video shows.

While standing up, Fitts punched the man in the head and he kicked and stomped on his head nearly a dozen times.

As the other officers were placing the man in handcuffs, Fitts was caught on video approaching him and punching him an additional two times.

In his police report, Fitts wrote that the use of force was 'necessary' to 'safely detain' the man. Fitts also wrote in the report that the man had claimed to have stopped taking his psychiatric medications.

Fitts, who was a police sergeant for the New York City Department of Homeless Services, was charged over the assault and for falsifying a police report

Surveillance video from the incident on March 6, 2017 showed Fitts in the lobby of the homeless shelter with other law enforcement officers

Surveillance video shows Fitts and the other officers wrestling the man to the ground after an altercation. Fitts repeatedly punched the man in the head and he kicked and stomped on his head nearly a dozen times

A criminal complaint related to Fitts' charges alleges that the police report included those fabrications to cover up and justify the assault.

'Fitts' alleged conduct not only betrayed his duty as an officer to protect those under his charge, but also violated the law,' Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement.

New York's Department of Investigations Commissioner Margaret Garnett added: 'Instead of upholding the law, this sworn officer allegedly broke it by violently attacking a man seeking assistance at a Manhattan homeless shelter.

'Shelters should provide a safe environment for the homeless of our City, not one where clients fear the officers employed to protect them.'

If convicted of both criminal charges against him, Fitts faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. He is charged with deprivation of rights under color of law through use of excessive force and falsifying a report.

He was released from jail on bond after a court appearance on Thursday.

As the other officers were placing the man in handcuffs, Fitts was caught on video (above) approaching him and punching him an additional two times
A bizarre argument about whether Christians and Muslims should marry is believed to be what led to a shooting at a Melbourne cafe.

The interfaith dispute erupted between customers at the Babylon Coffee Shop in Broadmeadows, 16km from Melbourne in June 2018, the Victorian County Court heard on Friday.

The gunman, Nasser El Kheir, pleaded guilty to conduct endangering life and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.

Nasser El Kheir (pictured) pleaded guilty to conduct endangering life and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm

At the time of the incident, El Kheir was kicked out of the cafe and became 'highly agitated, gesticulating and yelling', court documents show.

The 56-year-old is then said to have gone home, grabbed a handgun and returned to the cafe.

When he returned to the coffee shop he fired two shots at the ceiling near patrons, although none were injured.

He is believed to have yelled: 'Where is the motherf***er? I'll kill him'.

The incident took place at Babylon Coffee Shop (pictured) in Broadmeadows, 16km from Melbourne in June 2018

The owner of the cafe attempted to stop El Kheir from walking to the rear of the premises, but was pushed aside.

El Kheir then turned and fled the scene.

An extensive police search failed to find the gunman, but El Kheir eventually handed himself in almost a week after the shooting.

The firearm has not been recovered.

There were also claims aired in court a man at the cafe had gestured he would cut El Kheir's throat.

At the hearing at Victorian County Court (pictured) Judge Gabriele Cannon said she was satisfied El Kheir demonstrated remorse

At a hearing, Judge Gabriele Cannon said she was satisfied El Kheir demonstrated remorse but it was concerning he was affected by alcohol at the time of the shooting.

The judge wanted the firearm surrendered to police but recognised people were hesitant to hand in the weapon, worried they would be criminally charged.

She ordered El Kheir to undergo an assessment for a community corrections order but did not rule out a term of imprisonment.

He is due to be sentenced on April 30.
BELGRADE - Serbia has said that a platform for the final phase of dialogue and normalisation of relations with Kosovo approved on Thursday by the Pristina parliament is ''unacceptable''.



The Serbian national security council met on Thursday evening after being summoned by President Aleksandar Vucic.



The Kosovo platform calls for reciprocal recognition between Serbia and Kosovo within the current borders and a revocation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244. The Resolution gave Kosovo the status of 'protectorate' of the UN under international control and made the NATO KFOR force the only armed force authorized on Kosovo territory. In recent months, Kosovo announced the creation of its own army.

The document approved by Kosovo does not make any reference to ethnic Serbs in Kosovo, their interests, or their demands for security, Serbia said. Serbian leaders say that this position puts a de facto end to dialogue and shows Pristina's lack of willingness to consider a compromise. It also calls for Kosovo's admittance to the UN, the Council of Europe, and other major international organizations.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
A motorcyclist is trying to track down the woman who helped save his life after he crashed his bike, so he can say thank you.

Justin Long was riding home through the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, on February 17 last year - and has shared pictures of the Good Samaritan attending to him at the side of the road.

Mr Long said he believed the woman was a trained nurse and he remembered her helping to load him onto a stretcher and into an ambulance.

A motorcyclist (pictured following crash) is trying to track down the woman (right) who helped save his life after he crashed his bike

'From what I can remember this woman was the first [knowledgeable] person on the scene, she kept me calm and talking up until the ambulance arrived,' he said in a social media post.

The biker added the woman, who can be seen in the photos wearing red sunglasses and a blue floral dress, may not even think he is still alive.

Mr Long said despite him being thrown over a railing and being forced to drag himself up a hill to the roadside, he thankfully did not suffer any serious neck injuries.

In a bid to track down his roadside helping hand the motorcylist asked for help finding her in a Facebook post early on Friday morning, which has since been shared almost 1000 times.

By mid-afternoon on the same day, Mr Long revealed he may have already tracked down the woman.

'We have a breakthrough!' he wrote.

In a bid to track down his roadside helping hand the motorcylist asked for help finding her in a Facebook post early on Friday morning, which has since been shared almost 1000 times (woman pictured)

By mid-afternoon on Friday, Mr Long revealed he may have already tracked down the woman

'More than one person has inboxed me saying she works in emergency at Sutherland hospital.'

Mr Long said he was planning to go for a drive to see if the nurse was on shift, before coming back with flowers and thanking her for coming to his aid.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the motorcyclist to see whether he was able to reunite with the woman.
The family of a Dutch model who died after a drug-fuelled swingers party in Malaysia have expressed their outrage after a coroner ruled she was dead before she fell from a 20th floor apartment - but that no crime had been committed.

The naked body of Ivana Smit, 18, was discovered on the sixth floor of an upmarket high rise in Kuala Lumpur on December 7, 2017.

She had been partying at the home of US tycoon Alexander Amado Johnson, 45, and his wife Luna Almaz, 31, who claim they had been having sex with the teenager in the hours before her death.

A Malaysian coroner today said there was evidence of a struggle, including trauma to the back of her head and the DNA of Mr Amado Johnson being found under her fingernails, but still ruled no crime had been committed.

This was slammed by the Smit family's lawyer, who told reporters: 'Surely a dead body can't walk over and take a dive? Somebody threw her body down.'

Found dead: The naked body of Ivana Smit, 18, was discovered on the sixth floor of an upmarket high rise in Kuala Lumpur, having fallen from an apartment on the 20th floor

Intimate relations: Alexander Amado Johnson, 45, and Luna Almaz, 31, claimed they had assumed Ms Smit had left their apartment - despite her belongings remaining there

Seen together: At 5.22am on December 7, 2017, cameras in a Kuala Lumpur club appear to show Johnson carrying Ms Smit in his arms through the hall toward an elevator bank

Miss Smit's uncle Fred, who has led the family campaign for justice for the teenager, said he was disgusted by the fact the inquest had gone ahead, without two main witnesses.

The Johnsons should have been there to tell the world what happened in their own words.

They was the last two people to see Ivana alive. Surely their evidence is more important than anything.

So the question that still needs an answer is how can a dead body go over a balcony? Why were they allowed to leave Malaysia on the first place and where are they now?

The coroner has heard that Ivana was dead before she went over their balcony. There was evidence of a struggle and that she had injuries before she died.

Findings: A Malaysian coroner today said there was evidence of a struggle, including trauma to the back of Miss Smit's head, bruising, and the DNA of Mr Amado Johnson was found under her fingernails, but still ruled no crime had been committed

Final moments: Police believe Ivana fell from the couple's balcony at around 10am. Her naked body was not found for another five hours, at around 3pm

'So what went on in their flat. If she was dead. She didnt just get up and throw herself from the balcony

This whole matter had been a disgrace and we have lost a beautiful young member of our family. We will not rest. I appeal to anybody who knows where the Johnsons are to tell the authorities.

We will appeal this inquest and we will go in fighting for the Malaysian police to bring the Johnsons back so that can tell what happened.'

Handing down her ruling in Kuala Lumpur today, Coroner Mahyon Talib acknowledged there may have been a struggle between Smit and the couple, but ruled no one was criminally involved in causing the model's death.

'Grip marks on her arm, the trauma at the back of her head, the broken bottles and (American man) Alex's DNA under Ivana's nails suggest that there might have been a possibility that there was a struggle,' she said.

The coroner also agreed with a Dutch pathologist, who had concluded Smit likely died in the apartment, before her body was found on the sixth floor balcony.

'We cannot know what actually happened between the three of them,' the coroner said, adding that the death was being classified as 'misadventure', meaning it was likely an accident.

Her ruling was the conclusion of an inquest prompted by Miss Smit's family's complaints about the local police investigation.

Critical: The Smit family's lawyer criticised the ruling, questioning how the coroner had accepted that the 18-year-old was likely killed in the apartment and then concluded the death was 'misadventure'

Johnson and Almaz, who admitted to having sex with the teenager, have left Malaysia and are believed to be in the United States

Kuala Lumpur police ruled her death an accident or suicide, but Ms Smit's family believe she was murdered, resulting in the inquest being opened in 2018.

The family's lawyer has slammed the police investigation and accused the investigating officer of being biased towards Johnson and Almaz.

Johnson, who is originally from Houston, Texas, and Almas are believed to be in the United States, having left Malaysia via Singapore in March 2018.

On the evening and morning before her death Ms Smit spent several hours in the home of Johnson, who works in cryptocurrency, and Almaz.

Almaz and Johnson claim they both had sex with Ms Smit, and that they had been having intimate relations with the Dutch model in the weeks leading up to her death.

Almaz claims the 18-year-old had told them she was 26.

At 5.22am on December 7, cameras in a Kuala Lumpur club show Johnson carrying Ivana in his arms through a hallway.

At 7.30am, Ms Smit sent her boyfriend a selfie of herself with Luna, telling her she was 'chilling'.

Police believe that around two hours later, at 10am, Ivana plunged from Johnson's 20th-story balcony and landed on a six-story roof. Her body, which was naked, was not found until around 3pm that day.

Two subsequent autopsies, carried out in Malaysia and in the Netherlands, found alcohol, ecstasy and cocaine in her system.

Timeline: At 7.30am, Ms Smit, right, sent her boyfriend this selfie of herself with Luna Almaz, left, just a few hours before her death

Inquest: Ms Smit's grandparents, left, are accompanied by her uncle Fred Agenjo, centre, as they arrive at the Coroner's court in Kuala Lumpur at the opening of the inquest last year

The Dutch autopsy also found significant head bruising and multiple bruises on her arms.

'Something happened before she fell from the balcony. Maybe she slipped or maybe someone hit her on the head. Bruises like this one are only possible when the heart is still beating,' Pathologist Frank van de Goot said.

Speaking to Dutch media last year, Dr van de Goot said the lack of blood at the scene of the fall suggests the young model was dead before she fell.

Her father, Marcel Smit said he saw bruises on her neck 'like fingerprints, as if someone had grabbed her there' when he identified her body.

He told Dutch media: 'At about 10am she would have fallen from the balcony at 20 floors high. How is that possible? It is strange that she was not found until 3pm.

'She is tall, 1.81 meters (5ft 11in), but the barrier is also 1.20 meters (4ft). Only when you bend over, do you fall off. She did not fall and did not jump either.'

Ms Smit was born in Sittard, in the Netherlands but grew up in Malaysia with her grandparents Hendrik Smit, 78, and Susan, 77, before returning briefly to the Netherlands as a teenager.
An alleged victim of the Blue Mountains circus family sex ring allegedly wrote a letter to his mother admitting he had lied about being sexually assaulted.

The defence solicitor for Theresa Cook, 59, Paul Cook, 53, Yyani Cook-Williams, 34, and Clarissa Meredith, 24, who have been accused of raping three young boys, made the shocking revelation in Penrith Local Court on Friday.

Bryan Wrench told the court the boy had written a letter saying: 'Mum I'm really sorry I've been lying about the whole thing. Nobody hurt me, I've been lying to you.'

He claimed the boy's mother had hidden the note from investigators and could now 'change the turn of events' in the case, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Therese Cook, 59, who ran the circus school in Katoomba is believed to be the ring leader. She was charged with 43 offences including aggravated assault of a child, sexual intercourse with a child under 10. Her brother Paul Cook, 53, (right) is accused of filming at least one encounter on his mobile phone

Therese's daughter Yyani-Rose Cook-Williams (left) 34, was accused of 'inciting' a boy to rape another little boy on Anzac Day in 2016. Adopted daughter Clarissa Meredith (right) was charged with rape, assaulting two of the boys and depriving a boy of his liberty

Pictured above is a circus performer at the Blue Mountains circus school

The family, who had been running the circus school in Katoomba since 2009, is facing more than 120 charges after allegedly sexually abusing three boys under the age of ten from 2014 to 2016.

Police had alleged Therese Cook had been the ringleader and organised the 'systemic rape and detention of the boys' which included getting her daughters to participate in the alleged assaults.

She was charged with 43 offences - the most of any of those accused - including aggravated assault of a child, sexual intercourse with a child under 10 and holding children against their will.

Her sibling, Paul Cook, was accused of filming at least one encounter on his mobile phone and three counts of aggravated sexual assault in company.

One of the most heinous allegations was against her daughter, burlesque dancer and actress Yyani-Rose Cook-Williams, from Canterbury.

Cook-Williams was accused of 'inciting' a boy to rape another little boy on Anzac Day in 2016. Police claim she also raped both of the little boys in company with her mother.

Pictured is an interior shot of the circus school. The boys were not students at the school

Yyani Cook-Williams is seen left in performance costume. Police claim she also raped both of the little boys in company with her mother

The family is alleged to have lived together in two homesteads on a dilapidated rural property next to a dog pound on the outer reaches of Sydney

Cook's adopted daughter Clarissa Meredith was charged with rape, assaulting two of the boys and depriving a boy of his liberty.

All four pleaded not guilty to the slew of charges last February.

The family is alleged to have lived together in two homesteads on a dilapidated rural property next to a dog pound on the outer reaches of Sydney.

Wrench had previously claimed the incidents had been 'fabricated' arguing that there was no medical or DNA evidence corroborating the claims against the family members.

The family had also been accused of taking part in 'blood rituals' and sticking needles in an eye.

The case was adjourned until May 3.
Emotional relatives of those on board the doomed Flight MH370 have demanded answers and called for the hunt to resume, on the fifth anniversary of the plane's disappearance.

The Malaysia Airlines jet vanished on March 8, 2014 carrying 239 people - mostly from China - en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Its disappearance is one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries and the cause of many conspiracy theories surrounding the fate of the plane and its passengers.

Malaysian and international investigators believe the jet veered thousands of miles off course from its scheduled route before eventually plunging into the Indian Ocean.

The cause of the planes sudden diversion off course is still not known.

No sign of it was found in a 46,000-square mile (120,000-square kilometre) Indian Ocean search zone and the Australian-led hunt, the largest in aviation history, was suspended in January 2017.

Wang Yulian, whose daughter was on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, wipes her tears as relatives of the passengers on missing Malaysia Airlines jet gathered outside the foreign ministry to demand answers

Relatives of passengers of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 walk to the Foreign Ministry in Beijing today on the fifth anniversary of the tragedy

A US exploration firm launched a private hunt last year but it ended after several months of scouring the seabed without success.

Around 50 relatives of Chinese passengers travelled to Beijing from around the country to mark the anniversary and gathered outside the foreign ministry, with some weeping as police officers looked on.

Hu Qiufang said that family members had spent the past year pleading to see the foreign minister but they were only granted a meeting with a low-level official Friday, who told them there were no updates.

The 78-year-old, whose son was on the flight, said: 'The Chinese government doesn't listen to us, we feel very helpless. As our country, China should be supporting the families.'

Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the flight, said he was still haunted by the tragedy: 'It's like a living nightmare, the scene replaying in my head.'

Malaysian family members meanwhile called for the search to be restarted.

They were given a glimmer of hope last weekend during a memorial in Kuala Lumpur when the Malaysian transport minister said he was open to hearing proposals to resume the hunt.

Chinese police officers push back journalists from relatives of passengers who gathered outside the Chinese Foreign Ministry demanding answers, in Beijing

A piece of debris belong to flight MH370 displayed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during the remembrance ceremony to mark the fifth anniversary of the flight's disappearance

Grace Nathan, whose mother Anne Daisy was on the flight said: 'We will continue to do whatever we can to make sure the search goes on.

'As long as there's the possibility of a search, we remain hopeful that the plane can be found.'

Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was an MH370 flight steward, said that 'every time March comes it's like it was only yesterday that our loved ones went missing - it's very hard'.

In a long-awaited final report into the tragedy released in July last year, the official investigation team pointed to failings by air traffic control and said the course of the plane was changed manually.

But they failed to come up with any firm conclusions, leaving relatives angry and disappointed.

Investigators released the 495-page report, saying the plane's controls were likely deliberately manipulated to take it off course but they were not able to determine who was responsible.

Hijacking was not ruled out as the reason behind the plane diverting from its course.

Relatives of missing Chinese passengers waiting to meet officials outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing to call for the search for the missing plane to begin again

Thai soldiers carry a piece of suspected aircraft debris after it was found by fishermen on January 23, at a beach in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat

This week, journalist Ean Higgins in his book 'The Hunt for MH370' claimed the 'rogue pilot' - Zaharie Ahmad Shah - carried out a complex murder-suicide plan so that the plane's remains and the bodies of all 239 people onboard would never be found.

Much attention has focused on the possibility of a mechanical or structural failure.

Some experts have put forward the theory that a fire could have broken out in electronic components, which produced smoke that filled the plane and led to the passengers and crew falling unconscious.

The plane then continued on autopilot over the Indian Ocean, where search efforts have been focused, before running out of fuel and crashing, the theory goes.

The idea of a so-called 'mass hypoxia event' - 'hypoxia' refers to a lack of oxygen - has been supported by a number of analysts.

Malaysian Minister of Transport, Anthony Loke (centre) looks at the wing flap found on Pemba Island, Tanzania, which has been identified a missing part of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

In a 2014 report setting out details of a search area, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau - which led the main hunt for the jet - said that an 'unresponsive crew/ hypoxia event' appeared to fit the final stage of MH370's flight.

Last November relatives of people who went missing have retrieved what they believed were new pieces of debris from the aircraft and hoped the discovery would reveal some new clues.

Investigators on a TV documentary said the plane almost certainly ran out of fuel after flying in the wrong direction over the Indian Ocean for six hours.

This could have been caused by the right engine breaking down first, meaning the autopilot would have lurched the plane to the left to compensate.

In July 2015, a wing part known as a flaperon was found on Reunion Island, east of Madagascar. Since then, 27 pieces of debris have been found.

One of the pieces was a TV monitor, found by amateur wreckage hunter Blaine Gibson.

In October 2018 a pilot claimed to have discovered parts of flight MH370 in the same area of the Cambodian jungle where a filmmaker was forced to abandon his pursuit of the plane's wreckage because of 'illegal loggers high on meth'.
The detective assigned to investigate murdered student Lauren McCluskey's complaints against her ex-boyfriend in the weeks before he killed her has left the force.

The unidentified female officer joined the University of Utah campus police department in 2016, but the Salt Lake Tribune reported and a university spokesman confirmed that she is no longer employed there.

McCluskey, a 21-year-old track star from Pullman, Washington, was fatally shot by Melvin Rowland on October 22 last year.

A detective who was assigned to look into complaints made by University of Utah track star Lauren McCluskey about her ex-boyfriend before he murdered her has left the police force

As much as ten days before she had pleaded for protection and made a number of extortion and harassment complaints against Rowland, who committed suicide in a church hours after killing McCluskey.

University spokesman Chris Nelson declined to disclose whether the detective in question quit voluntarily or was fired, saying he could not comment on 'personnel issues'.

The detective told the Tribune she did 'not have a statement at this time,' and declined to say whether she had been dropped from the force.

Earlier this year it emerged that the student athlete called the police six times in the 10 days leading up to her horrific murder in the backseat of a car in her dorm's parking lot.

Rowland, 37, murdered McCluskey three weeks after she ended their brief relationship upon discovering he was a convicted sex offender and had lied about his name and age.

McCluskey, 21, was shot to death by Melvin Rowland, 37, in the backseat of a car in her dorm's parking lot on October 22. Rowland killed himself hours later inside a church

She repeatedly called campus police with her concerns about his threatening messages and revealed she was being blackmailed with their intimate photos.

On the day she was killed, McCluskey attempted to contact the detective but did not hear back from her, following which she sent several emails containing screenshots of Rowland's attempts to lure her from her room.

The detective did not open these emails until after McCluskey was dead.

The young woman's parents, Matthew and Jill McCluskey, have called for the female detective and another officer who worked on the case to be disciplined.

The pair ought to be accountable for 'neglecting (Lauren's) numerous, persistent attempts to seek help,' they said.

The student athlete had called the police six times in the 10 days before her horrific murder in the backseat of a car in her dorm's parking lot

Red flags were already raised before McCluskey broke up with Rowland when two of her friends contacted the resident adviser in their dorm with concerns about him on September 30.

They their adviser that Lauren was 'very sad' and that Rowland wasn't letting her 'hang out with friends'.

A report by the University of Utah Department of Public Safety (UUPS) states: 'The friends feel Lauren does not sound right and they notice that week that Lauren's physical appearance had begun to change.

'Both believe Lauren was too trusting and was being taken advantage of by Rowland.

'They are very concerned about Lauren, that she is in an unhealthy relationship with an older man who was controlling her and is practically living with her. They are also concerned that this man had been talking about getting Lauren a gun very soon.'

After conducting various reviews, University of Utah officials decided not to 'overstep' and not to assist Lauren 'unless she was seeking support'.

Just days later, McCluskey discovered that Rowland had lied about his identity when they met at a bar on September 2 and began to date.

Rowland had told the star athlete he was 28 years old and that his name was Shawn Fields.

When McCluskey confronted Rowland about the lies and the fact that he was a registered sex offender, he said he had 'many identities'.

Rowland murdered McCluskey three weeks after she broke up with him upon discovering he was a convicted sex offender and had lied about his name and age.

In the weeks before her death, McCluskey repeatedly called the police with her concerns about Rowland and revealed she was being blackmailed with their intimate photos

McCluskey asked Rowland to come to her dorm room on October 9 and broke up with him. But she allowed him to stay the night and borrow her car the next day to run errands.

'He was very good at getting people to trust him,' University of Utah Police Chief Dale Brophy said in a press conference after McCluskey's murder.

'His skill and ability to do this and to con people has been evidenced in the past.'

On the same day she broke up with him, McCluskey received a text message from someone claiming to be Rowland's friend saying she had broken her ex-boyfriend's heart.

The friend told Lauren he would drop off her car. Another message told McCluskey to 'go kill yourself'.

On October 10, McCluskey's mother contacted campus police. She was aware that her daughter had found out incriminating details about her boyfriend and wanted a campus escort to help retrieve her car.

A dispatcher called McCluskey, who denied assistance and said Rowland was going to drop off her car at her apartment later that day.

McCluskey then called campus police that night at 5pm and asked for a security escort to take her to her car at the stadium parking lot, where Rowland had dropped it off instead.

On October 12, McCluskey called the police and said she received texts messages claiming Rowland had died in a car accident.

McCluskey thought Rowland's friends were 'trying to lure her away from campus and into a trap', according to the UUPS report.

'Police tell Lauren not much can be done if the messages do not contain threats, but to contact UUPS if things escalate,' it reads.

Rowland murdered Lauren at her dorm, the South Tower Medical Plaza Student Housing, before going on a date with a woman and visiting the State Captitol. Hours later, he killed himself at Trinity AME Church

On October 13, McCluskey contacted campus police again, revealing she received texts and email addresses she believed belonged to either Rowland or his friends.

She told police that the messages were demanding money in exchange for not posting 'compromising photos' of her and Rowland on the internet.

McCluskey sent $1,000 to keep the photos private, and then called police.

A University of Utah detective was assigned to screen for sexual extortion charges and on October 19 a formal investigation began.

'We now realize it was more than likely Rowland used his manipulative tactics to make it seem like his friends were involved,' Brophy said at the press conference.

'He had multiple cell phones, texting apps, and emails to cover his identity. We believe Rowland was behind all of this and using it as another tactic of manipulation to confuse Lauren.'

McCluskey called Salt Lake City Police on October 19 and expressed concern that University of Utah police weren't doing enough to stop Rowland's harassment.

'I'm worried because I've been working with the campus police and last Saturday I reported and I haven't gotten an update,' she can be heard saying in a 911 call.

'They haven't updated or done anything.'

McCluskey also said she feared there could be an 'insider' within UUPS because Rowland knew 'all about her contact with the police', the UUPS report reads.

McCluskey repeatedly called police as she continued to receive text messages from numbers claiming to be Rowland's friends that she feared were trying to lure her out of her dorm

Three days before her death, McCluskey called Salt Lake City Police and expressed concern that University of Utah police weren't doing enough to stop Rowland's harassment. Pictured is the dorm parking lot where McCluskey was murdered

'Dispatch advised her to contact UUPS and speak with the officer in charge of her case.'

Police later discovered that Lauren had given Rowland access to her computer and accounts, so he was able to read every email she was sending to police in real time.

During the next few days, from October 19 to October 22, Rowland was captured on security cameras at 'various locations on campus'.

'He was looking for Lauren, without her knowledge,' Brophy said.

On October 22, McCluskey emailed the police department and said she received a message from an unknown number claiming to be the UUPS deputy chief and asking that she come to the police station.

'Can you come to the station as soon as possible. There is something you need to see. I will go over the details when you get here,' the message read.

From the hours of 3pm to 6pm that day, Rowland spent the afternoon waiting for McCluskey with some of her friends in her dorm building.

'He had spent 30 days in a relationship with Lauren and became friends with many of her friends,' Brophy explained. 'They allowed him into the dorm at any time.'

At 8.20pm Rowland spotted McCluskey as she was returning to her dorm from a night class and speaking on the phone with her mother.

After murdering her, Rowland went on a date with a woman. He later ran into Trinity AME Church (pictured) after police spotted him and killed himself inside

He confronted her and quickly dragged her into the parking lot, causing her to drop her phone and belongings.

McCluskey's mother heard her yell 'No, no, no!' before the phone went silent.

Rowland then forced McCluskey into the backseat of a car, where he shot her in the head.

Right after murdering McCluskey, Rowland went on a date with a woman he had met on a dating website just days earlier.

Campus police located Rowland by 12.46am on October 23, engaging him in a foot pursuit and following him into Trinity AME Church.

Rowland broke in through the back door of the church and committed suicide.

The UUPS concluded that Rowland was an 'evil, violent, manipulative, predatory sex offender who took the life of a promising young woman'.

'Rowland was controlling, manipulative, and coercive. When Lauren refused to go along with his manipulation and reported his actions to police, he stalked and killed her,' it reads.

According to his jail records, Rowland was convicted on July 19, 2004 of attempted forcible sexual abuse and enticing a minor. He served nine years in prison

Lauren, of Washington, was an accomplished student athlete and a star on the University of Utah's track and field team. She is pictured here signing her letter of intent in 2014

The university admitted there were 'several indications' that McCluskey was 'in trouble'.

'Had victim advocates been engaged, Lauren might not have been left to assess the dangerousness of her situation on her own. There were shortcomings both systemically and individually,' the report reads.

'While the University has developed systems and programs to respond to student welfare issues, those systems were not engaged nor utilized.'

The report also noted that the UUPS detective who was assigned to McCluskey's case should have checked on Rowland's parole status after discovering he was a convicted sex offender.

Rowland had in fact been on parole when he murdered McCluskey.

'In the final analysis we will never know that this tragedy could have been prevented without these deficiencies,' the report concluded.

Lauren's parents look on as a vigil is held for their daughter at the university campus

'What we can say is that correcting the issues we have identified in this report might lessen the probability of such a tragedy occurring again.'

McCluskey's parents wrote a rebuttal to the review, writing that they 'respectfully disagree with the conclusion that Lauren's murder could not have been prevented'.

'There were numerous opportunities to protect her during the almost two weeks between the time when our daughter began expressing repeated, elevating and persistent concerns about her situation and the time of her murder,' they added.

McCluskey was an accomplished student athlete and a star on the University of Utah's track and field team.

Rowland was a resident of Salt Lake City and in 2004 was convicted of attempted forcible sex abuse and enticing a minor over the internet, according to court records. He was released from Utah State Prison in 2013 after nine years behind bars.
Iran has claimed the UK's move to grant 'diplomatic protection' to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe flouts international law and the regime will not recognise it.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt invoked the rarely-used diplomatic device in response to Iran's treatment of the dual national, who has been held since 2016 on spying charges.

But Tehran refused to acknowledge the British-Iranian mother's dual nationality and said the UK's actions were illegal.

Hopes of a breakthrough were dealt a blow by Iran's ambassador to the UK Hamid Baeidinejad who rejected the Foreign Office announcement.

He said governments could only offer diplomatic protection for their own nationals and the UK was 'acutely aware' that 'Iran does not recognise dual nationality'.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband Richard said he hoped Mr Hunt's move would lead to a resolution to her case within months.

Mr Ratcliffe told BBC Radio 4's Today: 'It changes the status for Nazanin's case.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her daughter Gabriella. She is serving a five-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2016 on false spying charges

United Nations human rights experts have called on Tehran to stop withholding healthcare from jailed Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, as they warned the treatment may amount to torture

'Now it's also the British Government's case and all the injustices that happen to Nazanin are effectively injustices against the British Government.'

Suggesting the move might provide 'a route to solving this case', Mr Ratcliffe added: 'Probably the first things are to get a doctor in, then we've talked about doing stuff at the UN, then maybe summoning the ambassador.

'You can't jump straight into legal action, there are a whole series of things that legally you need to do first before you are entitled to, and that's months away. Hopefully we are not months away from a solution.'

Mr Ratcliffe said it would now be more difficult for Iran to turn down UK requests for visits to Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe in prison to check her condition.

He said his wife's health was 'obviously not in a great position, but I'm not sure how bad'.

But these hopes were dashed by Iran's refusal to acknowledge her dual nationality and therefore the British government's authority to issue diplomatic protection.

Mr Baeidinejad 'Irrespective of UK residency, Ms Zaghari thus remains Iranian.'

Mr Hunt responded: 'Well, I would expect some kind of negative reaction from Iran.

'All I would say to them is that we have really done everything possible.'

A video of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's arrest by members of the Revolutionary Guard at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport in April 2016 as she and 22-month-old daughter Gabriella were due to board a flight back to London was release on Iranian TV

The move by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt (seen in Glasgow on March 7) means that Iran could now be forced to release Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe

He told BBC Radio 4's Today that there had been three specific tests before he acted, saying: 'First of all, the commission of an internationally wrongful act, secondly, the exhaustion of what are called local remedies, and thirdly, what's called proof of nationality for which we had to conclude that she is predominantly British, which addresses, I think, the dual nationality issue.'

While Mr Hunt acknowledged the move was unlikely to be a 'magic wand' that secures her immediate release, he said it escalated the UK's response to the situation.

Mr Hunt said he had taken into account Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's 'unacceptable treatment' by Iran since she was detained, including the denial of medical treatment and the lack of due process in the proceedings against her.

The Foreign Secretary said Tehran's actions had been 'totally wrong' and that no state was entitled to use innocent individuals as 'pawns for diplomatic leverage'.

'This represents formal recognition by the British Government that her treatment fails to meet Iran's obligations under international law and elevates it to a formal state-to-state issue,' he said.

Diplomatic protection is a mechanism in international law through which a state may seek reparation for injury to one of its nationals from an 'internationally wrongful act' by another state.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband Richard and their daughter young Gabriella, who is still in Iran

Effectively it represents the right of states to raise the treatment of their nationals by other states and to call on them to account for their actions on the international stage.

It is distinct from diplomatic immunity, which covers the status of accredited diplomats.

While it does not automatically dictate any particular course of action, the Foreign Office has indicated it will take the steps it believes are most likely to secure the goal of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 at Tehran airport as she was returning home to London with her then 22-month-old daughter, Gabriella, following a family visit.

She was subsequently sentenced to five years' imprisonment, despite strenuously denying the charges against her, while Gabriella remains in the country cared for by family.

Repeated calls for her release by the British Government - including a direct appeal by Theresa May to Iranian president Hassan Rouhani during last year's UN general assembly in New York - have failed to produce results.

Mr Ratcliffe has previously said his wife was told by judges in court that her case related to an unpaid 400 million debt the UK owes to Iran in relation to the purchase of Chieftain tanks in the 1970s.

Mr Ratcliffe speaking about his wife being given diplomatic protection on today's Good Morning Britain

In January, she went on hunger strike for three days saying the Iranian prison authorities had refused her treatment for a series of medical conditions, including lumps in her breasts, severe neck pain, and numbness in her arms and legs.

Mr Ratcliffe said earlier today his wife's mood has 'really lifted' after she was given diplomatic protection by the UK government.

Jeremy Hunt had hoped the move means the UK can raise the case at the UN.

Speaking today on Good Morning Britain, Richard Ratcliffe said: 'Nazanin was pretty low in the build up to this but this has really lifted her  just the fact that the Foreign Secretary has so robustly defended her.'

Iran does not recognise dual nationals and so regards the charity worker as an Iranian citizen the UK has no claim over.

However, diplomatic protection means Iran would be forced to meet its obligations to her under international law. It is the first time the UK has used the diplomatic tool  one of the strongest available  in recent memory.

Mr Ratcliffe said he hoped it would allow British diplomats to visit Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe for the first time and that she will receive medical attention.

It comes after she went on hunger strike earlier this year to demand access to doctors. Mr Hunt said his decision was 'extremely unusual' but sent a signal to Tehran that its behaviour was 'totally wrong'.

Richard Ratcliffe speaking at a press conference at the Frontline Club in London to mark the beginning of her hunger strike in January

'Formally what this means is that our family case becomes a case of the UK government, so it is a dispute between the UK government and Iran,' he said.

'It also gives us more power to arrange a visit to Nazanin to check her medical needs are being met.

'The Iranian government could still refuse a visit but under international law that process could be escalated.'

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested by members of the Revolutionary Guard at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport in April 2016 as she and 22-month-old daughter Gabriella were due to board a flight back to London.

She was sentenced to five years in jail for plotting to topple the Iranian government, allegations she denies.

Though largely symbolic, the declaration represents a significant diplomatic escalation, and the UK hopes other countries will back its stance.

It is a formal recognition her treatment has failed to meet Iran's obligations under international law and means the case can be taken to the UN and brought before the International Court of Justice.

The decision could also potentially open the door for the UK to take legal action.

The Iranian regime will now face increasing international pressure as it upgrades the issue from a consulate issue to a state-on-state issue.

Mr Ratcliffe has called for the British government to introduce the measure and it has been under discussion for several months.
David Martinez-Valencia was stabbed to death in east London on Wednesday. His family in Spain are trying to get his body returned to Valladolid for a funeral

Relatives have paid tribute to an aspiring chef who was stabbed to death after moving to London to pursue his career - as an 18-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder.

David Martinez-Valencia, 26, who had dual Spanish and Colombian citizenship, was repeatedly stabbed at a flat in Leyton, east London, on Wednesday. He ran down the street but collapsed in front of shocked passers-by and bled to death just after 5pm.

Colombian-based music producer Yohan Martinez posted a 2005 photo of the two of them together as children alongside a message which said: 'He lived like most would have wanted to live, getting to know the world in the simplest way, working and helping his family out.

'I admire him and we will always admire him. His loss pains us. This photo is the only one I have of him. We didn't take photos last time you came, thinking it wouldn't be the the last time I was going to see you.'

Recalling Mr Martinez-Valencia confused to help them in their bakery after learning how to make bread, he added. 'My mum is heartbroken today because she loved you as if you were her own son. We miss you and will always miss you.

'You don't know how much it hurts that you've gone. I hope you make the best recipes in Heaven.'

Police arrested a 18-year-old man yesterday on Thursday on suspicion of murder and remains in custody at a central London police station.

A police tent set up behind the police cordon is covering the crime scene as forensic officers conduct their enquiries

A post mortem took place yesterday, but the results have yet to be released. Pictured: Mr Martinez-Valencia next to the London Eye

Scotland Yard has already said the killing is not believed to be gang-related and the victim and suspect, who is still on the run, were known to each other.

A post mortem took place yesterday, but the results have yet to be released.

A Met Police spokesman said: 'The investigation was launched after police were called to North Birkbeck Road, 4.26pm on Wednesday, March 6 following reports of a stabbing.

'Officers, London Ambulance Service and London Air Ambulance attended and found a man suffering from knife injuries.

'He was pronounced dead at the scene at 5.10pm - his next of kin have been informed.

'Although formal identification awaits, the deceased is David Steven Martinez-Valencia, 26, who had dual Spanish and Colombian nationality.'

The motive for the fatal attack may have been jealousy, according to the Spanish newspaper El Norte de Castilla, which is based in the city of Valladolid where David's mother lives.

The paper quoted an unnamed source as saying: 'We have been told that one of the boys had argued with him because he said he had stolen his girlfriend off him.'

Mr Martinez-Valencia's grief-stricken mother is said to be trying to repatriate his body as soon as possible for a funeral in Valladolid, where she reportedly lives alone after his two siblings left Spain to seek work in Switzerland and Belgium.

The 26-year-old was born in Colombia but moved to Spain as a child. He worked for a car manufacturer in Spain before moving to London.

Former colleague Josechu Sanz said in a social media tribute: 'Very sad news for all those who worked with David, a really great person aged only 26 who has been murdered in London. Rest in peace and I hope justice is done.'

Valladolid-based DJ pal Jose Antonio Maraca said: 'Rest in peace my friend. Life can be so cruel.'

A spokesman for Scotland Yard confirmed this morning that no one has been arrested over Mr Martinez-Valencia's murder.

She said: 'The suspect and victim were known to each other and the killing was not gang-related but we are not saying anything at this stage about the circumstances and possible motives or detailing how they knew each other.'

Police say the victim knew the suspect and they do not believe the incident was gang related. No arrests have been made

Mr Martinez was attacked at an address on North Birkbeck Road in Leyton before leaving and collapsing in the street. He was declared dead at the scene at around 5.10pm on Wednesday.

A local resident said: 'He got stabbed at the flats. He was screaming for help and crying. He just kept repeating, 'Help, help, help, they are after me.

'I was inside and my husband who saw it came running in and said 'Call an ambulance.'

'People were getting towels to soak up the blood. A girl had blood all over her hands. We were all in shock.'
Three women jailed for 30 years after being accused of aborting their babies have been freed by El Salvador's supreme court.

The three women had spent about ten years in prison on aggravated homicide charges for allegedly having abortions, when all claimed they had miscarriages.

Maria del Transito Orellana and Alba Rodriguez both served nine years in jail, while Cinthia Rodriguez was imprisoned for more than 11 years.

El Salvador's Supreme Court on Thursday commuted the 30-year sentences of all three women, lessening their punishment to time served and ordering them released immediately.

When they emerged from the prison at Llopango outside San Salvador, the women were greeted with loud cheers from well-wishers and rights' groups.

One of the women became pregnant after being raped while another was a victim of domestic violence.

Cinthia Marcela Rodriguez (centre), Alba Lorena Rodriguez (left) and Maria Orellana (right) shortly after being released from the Women's Rehabilitation centre in Ilopango, El Salvador

Cinthia Rodriguez, who was sentenced under charges of abortion, walking with her relatives as she is released from jail yesterday

An additional 18 women remain behind bars for abortion convictions in El Salvador, where abortion is illegal in all situations.

The Central American country has some of the world's most draconian abortion laws with women found to have had the procedure facing between two and eight years in prison.

This can rise to up to 40 years if they are found guilty of aggravated homicide, as these women were.

Dozens of women have been given jail sentences for the deaths of their foetuses in cases where they said they had suffered miscarriages or stillbirths.

The court found that the women were victims of social and economic circumstances and ruled that the original sentences were unreasonable.

Cinthia Rodriguez told reporters as she hugged relatives outside the prison walls: 'I am happy, happy to recover my freedom, happy for everything that I've been waiting for for a long time.'

Upon being released from the women's prison in the capital, Alba Lorena Rodriguez, 31, said: 'We hope the government will recognise that a lot of women in here are innocent, and God willing, they will be freed.'

Cinthia Rodriguez being hugged by activists and relatives as she is released from jail after the Supreme Court of El Salvador commuted her sentence, in IIopango

Alba Lorena Rodriguez, Cinthia Marcela Rodriguez and Maria del Transito Orellana after their release from prison

Cinthia Marcela Rodriguez, 30, had no medical insurance when she was arrested in 2008 after what she said was a miscarriage.

Alba Rodriguez, 30, was pregnant from a rape and lost her baby five months into her term in December 2009.

The mother of two other children, she was arrested by police at the hospital she subsequently went to for post-natal treatment and charged with aggravated homicide, according to the Center for Reproductive rights.

Six months later she was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. She served nine years and two months of her sentence.

Maria Orellana miscarried in 2010 while working as a domestic and was arrested after being taken to hospital in San Salvador.

Later, she too was sentenced to 30 years - she served nine years and three days until she walked free on Thursday.

Cinthia Rodriguez worked as a cleaner in a clothing factory when she miscarried without seeking medical assistance. She was convicted under the abortion laws and sentenced to 30 years in 2009.

She walked out of prison having served 11 years, one month and three days of her sentence.

Cinthia Marcela Rodriguez said that 'justice is slow' after she was released from her 30-year jail term after serving more than 11 years

Women demanded the El Salvador government free women prisoners who are serving 30-year prison sentences for having an abortion, outside court in San Salvador yesterday

The Supreme Court said in its ruling that the sentences handed down to the women were 'disproportionate and immoral', the abortion rights organisation ACDATEE said.

The court commuted her sentence 'for reasons of equity and justice, based on her economic, social and personal situation'.

El Salvador's deputy justice and security minister Raul Lopez handed the women a letter notifying them their sentences had been commuted by the court on the eve of International Women's Day.

'Justice is slow', Rodriguez told a crowd of supporters as she left prison. 'Keep fighting for the 18 who remain inside'.

'In all three cases, the court recognised that the women have had adverse social, economic and family situations, and the sentences were disproportionate and immoral', said the Foundation for Research on the Application of the Law.

Morena Herrera, president of ACDATEE, said: 'We will continue in the fight until we have no women in prison for an unjust law which violates their rights.'

The Citizen's Group for Decriminalizing Abortion said the high court's rulings 'set a judicial precedent to review the situations of other women who remain in prison'.

In February, the court overturned 20-year-old Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez Cruz's 30-year abortion sentence, ordering a new trial for her.

She had been sentenced to 30 years in prison after giving birth to a still-born baby in a toilet.
A mother-of-six who was bashed and strangled by her former partner of 17 years as she lay in bed has spoken out after he pleaded guilty but was given immediate parole.

The Bundaberg District Court heard how crossfit gym-owner Tyson Karapa Hepi Tehuia, 39, dragged his former partner Krista Hepi-Tehuia out of bed by her hair before grabbing her by the throat and smashing her head into a wall in July 2017.

After she fell to the floor from the blow to her head the court heard how Tehuia picked her up and threw her back into the bed.

Krista Hepi-Tehuia, a mother who was bashed and strangled by her former partner Tyson Karapa Hepi Tehuia (pictured) as she lay in bed has spoken out after he pleaded guilty but was given immediate parole

The Bundaberg District Court heard how Tehuia, 39, dragged his former partner Krista Hepi-Tehuia out of bed by her hair before grabbing her by the throat and smashing her head into a wall in July 2017

She was left with blurred vision and had trouble breathing as Tehuia threatened to kill her, the News Mail reported.

Now Mrs Hepi Tehuia has spoken out about her estranged husband being granted immediate parole.

'There is something seriously wrong with these violent offenders strangling women and getting immediate parole,' she said.

'What message is that sending.'

She was left disgusted that her husband's past work as a chaplain and community pastor was used to try and reduce his punishment or paint him in a more positive light.

'How is any of that relevant when he strangled his wife and threatened to kill her, makes me sick to think he can walk on parole, while I am left to suffer with PTSD,' she said.

'It's such a disappointment that people defend perpetrators of DV. People should know that the most horrific DV happens behind closed doors.

'They don't know the "real" Tyson - Tyson is a street angel, home devil.'

Mrs Hepi Tehuia (pictured) has hit out at her ex-partner getting immediate parole after he was found guilty of assault occasioning bodily harm after strangling her and slamming her into a wall

Tehuia plead guilty to the charge of assault occasioning bodily harm and was sentenced to 18 months jail with immediate parole.

The former chaplain now runs a CrossFit gym in Bundaberg and spent two years as the Bundaberg State High School chaplain.

Defence barrister Steven Kissick argued his client's time as a high school chaplain and now as a gym owner was a sign of his 'worthwhile contribution to the community'.

Meanwhile the crown prosecutor argued the relationship between Tehuia was a 'volatile' one.

'The complainant could not breathe at the time,' Judge Moynihan said.

'You threatened to kill your partner and you smashed her head against the wall a number of times before she fell to the ground.

'You then picked her up and threw her on the bed... she felt pins and needles in her face, suffered blurred vision, and she thought she was going to die.'
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A second arrest has been made as detectives continue to investigate the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Jodie Chesney in an east London park.

Detectives said today that a man, whose age has not been released, was arrested in London this morning on suspicion of murder and he is currently in custody.

A 20-year-old man arrested in Leicester on Tuesday over the brutal stabbing in a park Harold Hill, Romford, remains in custody, Scotland Yard said.

The youngster's heartbroken family have made a heartfelt plea for anyone with information about her death to come forward, as her father urged people to 'do the right thing'.

The Explorer Scout was sitting with friends in a children's playground in Harold Hill, east London, when she was brutally knifed in the back in a seemingly motiveless attack last Friday.

Detective Chief Inspector Dave Whellams - who is leading the investigation, said: 'This was a savage, evil attack. We're progressing well with the investigation and continue to ask the public to assist us.

'At this time, there being no clear motive is very unusual. We retain an open mind and can't rule anything out.

'I ask the public and those in the local area to contact us if they suspect anyone of having any involvement in this terrible incident.

A man has been arrested in London this morning on suspicion of murder over the fatal stabbing of Jodie Chesney (pictured), who was stabbed in a park in east London last week

People carry purple balloons through Romford town centre, near to where Jodie was brutally killed on Friday in a children's play park

Hundreds of people took part in the march through east London tonight to denounce knife crime in the capital

'Is there anyone you know who is acting differently from usual? Have they become withdrawn? Maybe they've become nervous and have shown character changes that are unusual. If you suspect something may be amiss then you need to let us know.'

It came a day after hundreds of wellwishers marched through Romford town centre tonight in support of Jodie who was brutally stabbed to death in a children's playground while with friends.

Protesters looked visibly moved as they made their way through Romford last night carrying purple balloons in honour of Jodie

Men, women and children all took part in the march through east London on Thursday evening, carrying their own placards. One sign read 'lives not knives RIP Jodie'

Huge banners were brought out onto the march with read 'RIP Jodie', along with love hearts drawn onto the sign

People march through Romford town centre to protest the fatal stabbing of Jodie Chesney

A young boy ties a purple ribbon in Romford town centre to protest the fatal stabbing of Jodie Chesney

Last night, people carrying purple balloons and placards denouncing knife crime marched near Jodie's home, as the capital struggles to get to grips with escalating knife crime.

Earlier on Thursday, Jodie's heartbroken father, Peter, has described his daughter as 'the nicest person ever' and that she 'wouldn't have done anything to deserve this - no way.'

In a direct message to the killer, he said: 'Youll never know the pain youve caused and the beauty youve taken away.'

Her distraught father Peter Chesney, told Sky News yesterday 'She was the nicest person any of us know or knew, everything about being kind and good and thoughtful.

The heartbroken family of Jodie Chesney spoke out yesterday. Pictured: Peter, stepmother Joanne and sister Lucy

'There's just no way you could do this to a nicer person. I mean, everybody is going to say that about their own kids obviously, but really, look what everyone is saying in other interviews and stuff, she really was just the nicest person ever.

'She would not have done anything to deserve this.'

The arrest came after police received a tip-off the suspects travelled to the east Midlands - nearly 115 miles away - following the brutal stabbing.

Mr Chesney has issued a plea for those with information about the attack to come forward.

He added: 'The message is just do the right thing. Someone knows who did this... the person needs to be caught. Jodie needs justice.

'We need for Jodie to have justice. No one thinks this is OK. Surely nobody who knows the guy who did this thinks it is OK.

'You can't get kudos for stabbing a 17-year-old in the back. So, just dob them in, grass them up, this is not alright.

'It was obviously a murder as well, it wasn't accident... it was so ferocious the attack. She lost so much blood. This was on purpose, someone meant to murder her.'

Peter Chesney alongside his daughter Lucy and partner Joanne. The heartbroken family said Jodie was the 'nicest person any of us know'

A man arrested in Leicester is thought to have travelled more than 100 miles away from London to Leicester

Mr Chesney said Jodie's death has torn the family apart and that they are 'a mess', adding: 'We don't know how to deal with it.

'Everyone is suffering because she was so good... everyone just can't believe - why her? It is not one life deserves to be killed over another, but specifically her, she was so kind.'

Asked what Jodie was like, he said she was a 'proud geek', who was a 'great girl', and added: 'The fibre of her being was just about being good, kind... there was nothing bad in her body.'

Her stepmother Joanne said Jodie, who did not realise how popular she was, was 'very dry' and 'did not have a filter', who said exactly what she thought whether someone wanted to hear it or not.

Family members of murdered teenager Jodie Chesney. Devastated stepmother Joanne and sister Lucy hold each other

'Infectious personality, easy to get along with, no pretension at all. She wouldn't have hurt anybody,' Mr Chesney added.

Jodie's stepmother Joanne said: 'Even now it is still going on days later, the next day someone was killed. And then now a few days after that another person. Tomorrow someone else probably, Saturday someone else probably.

'When, where do you stop? How many more families are going to have to sit here and go through this?'

Asked for their thoughts on the calls for tougher sentences for those who carry and use knives, Mr Chesney said 'that would do it - 100%'.

Mr Chesney, who was wearing a purple ribbon pinned to his chest that was made by Jodie's friends, said many of her peers are dying their hair purple in her honour.

The colour was her favourite, her family said.

'There is purple everywhere in the area, I like that. But people who know Jodie, she will be remembered for being kind,' Mr Chesney said.

'It is nice to know she is being remembered by so many people. It is good, I love it.'

Her family said she loved animals - particularly dogs - and had once wanted to be a vet.

Asked what message the family have for those who carry knives or are thinking about it, Mr Chesney said: 'I don't know when this happened, when this was OK to carry knives and use them, it wasn't like that when I was at school.'

He added: 'The message is, just think about what you are going to do with your life. If you are going to carry a knife and if you're going use a knife, you are going to ruin your life, and others - and why?'

Police said the killer and an accomplice were spotted watching the five friends, who were socialising on Friday evening in a playground in Harold Hill.

Composite picture of some of the people who have lost their lives to knife crime this year. Top row, from left: Tudor Simionov, Jaden Moodie, Nedim Bilgin, Lejean Richards, Dennis Anderson. Middle row, from left: Patrick Hill, Sidali Mohamed, Bright Akinleye, Abdullah Muhammad, Glendon Spence. Bottom row, from left: Kamali Gabbidon-Lynck, Hazrat Umar, Che Morrison, Jodie Chesney, Yousef Ghaleb Makki

Sadiq Khan rolls his eyes when probed on knife crime funding Major of London Sadiq Khan yesterday rolled his eyes when he faced questions from a Sky News reporter about funding for the fight against knife crime. Mr Khan claimed he had done 'as much as I am allowed to do under the law' by setting up a 45million youth fund and raising council taxes. But the Major insisted cuts in funding from central government had left him hamstrung. Sadiq Khan during today's interview on knife crime 'I've raised council tax three years in a row, but also used the money from business rates to invest in policing and youth services,' he told Sky. 'The investment we are putting in doesn't fill the massive hole left by the Government.' At this point Sky's Sarah-Jane Mee interrupted, saying: 'You keep shifting it onto central government.' Mr Khan then rolled his eyes in frustration, before the presenter asked why he wasn't 'taking personal responsibility' for the issue. Advertisement

The duo left but returned at 9.30pm wearing balaclavas and one of them, described by the Metropolitan Police as a young black male, stabbed Jodie once in the back, all without saying a word. The pair then ran off in the direction of Romford Road.

Friends from Havering Sixth Form College said Jodie had no enemies and suggested she could be the victim of mistaken identity.

Eddie Coyle, her 18-year-old boyfriend, screamed for help as his girlfriend lay bleeding with the knife lodged in her back. She was pronounced dead an hour later.

Detective Chief Superintendent Shabnam Chaudhri, who is leading the police response to the murder in the local community, said on Monday afternoon: 'We still don't have any idea (why Jodie was attacked).'

She said investigators were 'focusing totally' on a witness appeal to try and track down the suspects. Police have asked anyone who may have CCTV or dash cam footage between 7pm and 11pm on March 1.

Ms Chaudhri refused to speculate on whether the attack could have been some form of gang initiation.

She said the Met's Violent Crime Taskforce had been deployed in the Havering area as well as on additional patrols in the boroughs of Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham and Havering.

A post-mortem carried out on Sunday established that the cause of Jodie's death was trauma and haemorrhage, and police released a photograph of the teenager on the same day.

Jodie was a Girl Scout and school friends said students at Havering College would be wearing purple next Friday in honour of Jodie and her Barking & Dagenham scout troop colours.

She posted a photograph on Instagram with fellow scouts at 10 Downing Street on Remembrance Day last year, with the caption: 'I'm basically famous now  this was such a good opportunity and so much fun.'

It came as two teenagers were charged over a fatal stabbing attack on Yousef Makki in Hale Barns in Trafford on Saturday night.

Greater Manchester Police say a 17-year-old boy had been charged with Yousef's murder.

He has also been charged with possession of a bladed article. A second 17-year-old boy has been charged with assisting an offender and possession of a bladed article.

The boys, neither of whom can be named due to their age, were kept in custody overnight to appear before youth court in Manchester this morning.

The scene of the crime in Romford on Sunday where Jodie Chesney was knifed to death. Forensic police officers search the park as flowers and lanterns are left nearby

The family of Ms Chesney are among those to back tougher sentences to tackle the knife crime crisis.

Relative Karen Chesney appealed on Facebook for support for a petition calling for a 10-year jail term for knife possession and 25 years for using a knife.

It comes as a man in his 20s has become the 14th stabbing fatality in 16 days as police and politicians struggle to contain the wave of violence.

The Spanish national, named by police as David Martinez, was stabbed six times inside a house in Leyton, east London, before being chased barefoot down the street, reportedly by three men, before collapsing and dying.

Within hours of his death, the 22-year-old victim of an attack in Oxford on February 27 died in the John Radcliffe hospital. He had been run over and repeatedly stabbed, police said.

Police officers fought in vain to save Britain's latest stabbing victim, pleading with the dying man 'My friend. Can you hear me? Talk to me' as he lay on the street in Leyton, east London.

Another witness described seeing the victim running down the street with no shoes on after first being attacked in his home. After being pursued he collapsed on the pavement.

Despite frantic efforts by police, and witnesses who rushed to bring blankets to the injured man and gave him a cushion to rest his head, the man died at the scene in East Leyton at around 5.10pm.

Officers cut away his clothes and attempted to stem the flow of blood before paramedics arrived. One was heard to say as he cut away the trousers: 'He's been stabbed in the leg too.'

As blood poured out of the victim's body a bystander screamed: 'Oh my god.' The officer begged the victim to stay awake at one stage pleading: 'My friend. Mate, mate, mate, talk to me. Can you hear me.'

Another officer says: 'Are you with me? No, he's going.'

Within minutes paramedics arrived and took over giving him oxygen and attempted to save his life. The officer could be heard desperately urging the victim to 'stay with me' as the ambulance arrived and paramedics took over.

In Coventry a 14-year-old schoolgirl was chased by up to 15 other teenagers before being attacked with what one witness described as scissors. The victim's injuries are not life-threatening an a 16-year-old girl was arrested.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Parliament petition had been signed more than 33,000 times. A total of 100,000 signatures are required before a petition can be considered for debate by MPs.

Britain's most senior police officer, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, clashed with the Prime Minister on the issue, insisting there is 'obviously' a connection between reductions in officer numbers and street violence. She also refused to rule out calling in the Army to help.

Police officer numbers in England and Wales have dropped by more than 20,000 since 2010, while levels of violent crime have risen in recent years, and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said the military would be 'ready to help' play a part in tackling knife crime.

Ms Dick told LBC: 'If you went back in history, you would see examples of when police officer numbers have gone down and crime has not necessarily risen at the same rate and in the same way.

'But I think that what we all agree on is that, in the last few years, police officer numbers have gone down a lot, there's been a lot of other cuts in public services, there has been more demand for policing and therefore there must be something, and I have consistently said that.

'I'm basically famous now': The innocent caption Jodie Chesney posted on the day she visited 10 Downing Street months before she was brutally stabbed in the back in a park in Romford

'I agree that there is some link between violent crime on the streets obviously and police numbers, of course there is and everybody would see that.'

Asked if he thought the British military could help play a part in tackling knife crime, Mr Williamson told the Press Association the armed forces and Ministry of Defence 'always stands ready to help any government department'.

Mr Williamson said they have had no requests for assistance but 'would always be ready to respond'.

'As we look at all of this, obviously our thoughts and prayers are with those family and friends of those who have lost someone,' he said.

'I know that the Home Secretary is looking very closely at how he can ensure that everything is done to tackle this problem at the moment.'

At a Cabinet meeting on the issue of knife crime on Tuesday, Mrs May said the killings of Jodie and Yousef last week were 'absolutely appalling' and told ministers her thoughts and sympathies were with the teenagers' families.

Her official spokesman said she had tasked the Home Office with co-ordinating an urgent series of Cabinet-level ministerial meetings and engagements to accelerate the work Government is doing to support local councils and police.

Mrs May said the problem would require 'a whole-of-Government effort, in conjunction with the police, the wider public sector and local communities'.

Meetings will take place 'as soon as possible' and were being treated as 'a priority' by the PM, said her spokesman.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Tuesday evening: 'Since 2010, we've seen 21,000 police officers taken off our streets and 760 youth centres closed.

'We've experienced the tearing of the social fabric of our communities.

'The Prime Minister says there is no link between cuts to our police and soaring levels of violent crime.

'She needs to listen to grieving families, police chiefs across the country and her own Home Secretary, and the communities decimated by cuts.

'Young people shouldn't pay the price for austerity with their lives.'

Jodie's grandmother Debbie Chesney wrote on Facebook on Monday: 'This is a nightmare as you can imagine. I just hope that they catch the boy who did it'

Police figures show violent crime rose by nearly a fifth in the year to September 2018, intensifying the debate over whether the increase is linked to falling officer numbers.

Chairwoman of the National Police Chiefs' Council Sara Thornton, who will attend Wednesday's meeting, and Labour former minister Vernon Coaker called for the issue to be treated as 'a national emergency'.

Several MPs, including a former Home Office minister, have called for the Government to convene a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid will today meet police chiefs amid claims of a national knife crime emergency.

Senior officers from seven of the forces most affected by violent crime - the Metropolitan Police, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, West Midlands, South Wales, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire - will attend Wednesday's meeting.

Mr Javid is reported to have demanded the Treasury for more money to tackle the issue.
One of Britain's biggest holiday firms is taking a disgruntled customer to court after he used its logo on complaint leaflets.

Edinburgh gym owner Bradley Welsh has claimed Jet2 'abandon families' and said the company should not be trusted.

He made the allegation after he lost his baggage while travelling with the firm last month.

Mr Welsh is facing a showdown in the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, after distributing the leaflets in Edinburgh.

Bradley Welsh is facing a showdown in the Court of Session, Scotland's highest civil court, after distributing 15,000 leaflets with Jet2's logo in Edinburgh

Jet2 is seeking an interdict to stop him using its logo.

Mr Welsh, who played a gangster in director Danny Boyle's Train-spotting sequel T2, has accused the company of trying to gag his complaint after his suitcase was lost following a flight to Lanzarote.

He claims the firm refused to accept liability, so he printed 15,000 leaflets, which he then distributed in the city centre. These say: 'Package holidays you CAN'T trust.'

Mr Welsh's leaflets, bearing the Jet2 logo, allege that: 'Jet2 abandon families, Jet2 lose your luggage, Jet2 employees lie to you, Jet2 have no care for families.' The flyers add: 'Edinburgh beware.'

He said: 'They are basically saying they're not responsible for any baggage that's not in the hold. My bag was effectively stolen, because they don't have information of how it was taken.

Mr Welsh, who plays gangster Doyle in T2 Trainspotting, says his 'clean underwear, Viagra and a gift for his fiancee' were in a case taken by mistake

He printed of 15,000 leaflets which accused Jet2 of not caring about families and employing staff who lie

'They have a generic line on not having any responsibility for anything on their plane. They call themselves the package holiday you can trust which they're not.'

Mr Welsh said that after going public about the loss of his case, around 15 other travellers contacted him to claim they had suffered similar problems.

He added: 'I am doing this on behalf of the people, it's essential I go to court to represent the people... all I care about are the other families in similar situations.'

The Court of Session confirmed that the case of Jet2 versus Bradley Welsh had been adjourned until later this month. Mr Welsh will defend himself in court.

A Jet2 spokesman said: 'We have made every effort to assist Mr Welsh and have made it clear that Jet2.com and Jet2Holidays are not liable for the accidental removal of hand luggage from the flight in question by another passenger.

'Despite this, Mr Welsh has continued to make a number of defamatory statements and threats, and as a result we have now instigated formal legal proceedings. With these proceedings ongoing, we are unable to comment any further at this time.'
A Romanian man has been jailed for more than four years after trying to smuggle eight Vietnamese children and two men into the UK in an adapted fridge.

Ciprian Scorteanu, 45, was stopped at the Port of Hull on October 27 last year so that his cargo of used tyres could be searched.

Hours later, however, when steam started coming from the lorry's refrigeration unit, officers pulled off its front and found ten Vietnamese nationals.

The eight Vietnamese children and two men were found at Hull's port after steam started coming from the adapted fridge they were hiding in

It is believed they had already been in there for 36 hours, having started their journey to the UK in Germany

Scorteanu had abandoned the lorry after it was seized for 48 hours by border forces when they became unsatisfied with his answers to their questions.

The Vietnamese nationals were believed to have been in the fridge for 36 hours with only drinking water since Scorteanu started travelling from Germany.

Mark Robinson, Humberside assistant director for Border Force said: 'This was a deliberate attempt to bypass the UKs border controls. The trailer had been adapted for the sole purpose of smuggling.

'It is a testament to my officers training that they found the people and found them so quickly.

'Without their expertise the Vietnamese nationals could have been trapped in these confined conditions for 48 hours. The risks to their welfare are obvious.

'Border Force officers are on the front-line keeping our borders safe and secure.

'We will continue to work with law enforcement colleagues to ensure that people smugglers and traffickers, who often put the lives of others at risk through their actions, face the consequences of their crimes.'

Ciprian Scorteanu, 45, was jailed for four years and six months at Hull Crown Court after admitting the offence

The two men were refused entry to the UK and sent back to Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The eight children have been taken into the care of social services

After finding the Vietnamese nationals, police were alerted and Scorteanu was arrested the same day in Lincolnshire where the A15 meets the A180.

The investigation was passed to Immigration Enforcement Criminal and Financial Investigation (CFI) officers and Scorteanu was charged with assisting unlawful immigration into the UK.

Katie Brown, from CFI, said: 'Scorteanus callous disregard for their safety is frightening.

'We work closely with Border Force colleagues to rigorously investigate allegations of immigration related criminality and put those responsible before the courts.'

The Vietnamese men found in the fridge were refused entry to the UK and removed to Rotterdam in The Netherlands. The eight children were taken into the care of social services.

Scorteanu, who did not have a fixed UK address, was jailed for four years and six months at Hull Crown Court on March 7 having admitted the offence at an earlier hearing.

Anyone with information about suspected immigration abuse can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously or visit the Crimestoppers website.
Callous thieves stole a three-year-old boy's $10,000 prosthetic leg which was adorned with minions, but a local hospital have vowed to replace it.

Last Thursday, Brie Rainey's car was parked outside her home in Belleville, Illinois, when thieves stole Josiah's leg.

They vandalized the vehicle and made off with a black backpack with the toddler's prosthesis inside.

But in the wake of the heartless theft, a local hospital which has treated Josiah since he was one have pledged to replace the prosthetic leg.

Prosthetist Darren Rottmann (right) measures Josiah Rainey, three, for a new prosthetic leg at Shriners Hospitals for Children in St. Louis, while his mother, Brie Rainey, looks on

Brie said her toddler found the theft deeply upsetting as he relies on the limb to get around

Adorable Josiah has vacterl syndrome, a rare birth defect that caused him to be born without his left leg.

The condition also affects the little one's heart, lungs and kidneys and he has already endured multiple surgeries and hospitalizations.

The youngster relied on a prosthetic limb to get around before it was stolen last week.

Brie, 30, who runs her own health and wellness company, said: 'It's a body part, even though it's not attached.

'It was so upsetting. He relies on the prosthetic for his independence and mobility and to take that away from somebody is just crappy.'

Brie discovered the theft last Friday morning as she got into her car at the start of the school run.

She had left the vehicle unlocked the night before because her daughter Aaliyah, four, had fallen asleep in the back and she had to carry her inside.

'When I opened the door in the morning, there was stuff scattered all over my seat and I quickly cleaned it up.' Brie said.

'At first I blamed my husband or my kids but then I couldn't find my wallet.

Adorable Josiah has vacterl syndrome, a rare birth defect that caused him to be born without his left leg

Josiah getting cast for a new prosthetic at the hospital in St Louis which has pledged to replace it after the theft

'I realized that Josiah's backpack was gone and inside his backpack was his leg.

'I was instantly devastated but I had zero time to process it. I had to get the kids to school and I had to cancel my credit cards.'

She reported the theft to the police and asked friends and family to spread the word about the prosthetic leg in the hope that the thieves would hand it in.

Luckily Josiah, who has worn a prosthetic leg since he was one, was not distressed by the theft.

'He doesn't understand what happened because he can't speak because of developmental problems,' Brie said.

'It's a blessing that he doesn't know what's going on and he doesn't have to stress about it.

'He wears the leg everyday at school. It's covered in minions stickers because he loves them. He got his first prosthetic when he turned one.

'We have been working with a physical therapist every week to help him walk.

'He loves to crawl and go as fast as possible and he loves walking in the park, climbing ladders and steps. He was walking better than ever.'

After the theft, Shriners Hospital for Children in St Louis, Illinois, which has treated Josiah for two years, offered to donate a limb to Josiah and Monday doctors made a cast of his leg.

They hope the limb will be ready in just one week, when the process usually takes up to four months.

Brie and Josiah out for a walk (left) and cuddling at home with the toddler (right) - Josiah's grandmother Karen said the family feel blessed by the support they have received

'They are actually rushing the process so he won't go that long without a leg,' said Brie.

An acquaintance also set up a GoFundMe to raise funds for a wheelchair for Josiah after Brie's insurance declined to cover it.

The campaign raised $4,160 in just five days.

Brie, who is married to store manager Craig, 30, said that Josiah has maintained his positive attitude throughout the ordeal.

Josiah's grandmother, Karen, says she is overwhelmed by the support the family have been given and said they felt blessed.
This is the horrifying moment a crocodile trapped in a fishing net is beaten to death with a claw hammer by cruel fishermen.

The footage, believed to have been captured off the coast of the Sarawak region of Borneo, Malaysia, shows the reptile being dragged onto the sand before it is beaten to death.

The 10ft-long male saltwater crocodile had been swimming across an estuary along the coast when it became tangled in the net put out by local fishermen.

The saltwater crocodile is dragged onto the shore before it is beaten to death by local fishermen in Borneo, Malaysia

The local fisherman raise his claw hammer above the reptile's head before striking the animal repeatedly

The 10ft-long male saltwater crocodile, which was swimming across an estuary off the coast of Borneo, writhes around in pain

During the clip, the crocodile, which is entwined in the fishing net, begins to thrash around as it is brought to shore.

The local fishermen then mercilessly hit the animal across its body as blood begins to pour from the reptile's mouth and it writhes around in agony. The men then leave the crocodile on the beach to die.

An investigation is now underway to identify the fishermen in the video.

Susan Yek, from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC), said: 'Officials from the department are investigating the case. We are trying to determine the exact location that it happened.'

The distressed crocodile had become tangled in a net off the coast of the Sarawak region in Borneo

As it is repeatedly battered, a large quantity of blood begins to pour out of the crocodile's mouth

Local fishermen watch the brutal beating and capture the footage on their mobile phones

Mrs Yek said that officials have been sent to the area around the coastal city of Miri after intelligence suggested it happened there.

She added: 'We have sent our enforcement team to the ground in Miri to check on the details as shown in the video.'

While crocodiles are not a protected species in Borneo and culling them is allowed, killing them in the wild could lead to charges of animal cruelty.

Miri Nature Society (MNS) chairperson Musa Musbah said the crocodile was crossing an estuary during a high tide caused by the new moon while looking for mates. It then became tangled in the net used for catching fish.

Mr Musbah said: 'Those in the video can be charged with animal cruelty. They should have just called the authorities to handle the case because in the video, the crocodile is already caught in the net.'
Police in south China have come up with a creative way to warn citizens about the potential dangers of online dating.

In an amusing video, a male officer from Shunde district police in Foshan, Guangdong province transformed himself into a 'sexy woman' to alert the public about fake dating profiles.

'Think she's attractive? Think you're falling in love? #Stop Fraud,' Shunde police wrote along with their viral video post on their social media accounts on Thursday.

In an amusing video, a male officer from the Shunde district police in Foshan, Guangdong province transformed himself into a 'sexy woman' to alert the public about fake dating profiles

With an intense gaze and a flirtatious smile, the male officer attempts to demonstrate how easy it is to fall prey to catfishing on dating websites

The 20-second clip, published on Shunde police's official accounts on microblogging site Weibo and video platform Douyin, starts with the officer wearing a hoodie with the Chinese word 'suspect' written on it.

He then puts on a wig and the camera cuts to him after the impressive makeover with eye-makeup, blush and lipstick.

With an intense gaze and a flirtatious smile, the officer attempts to demonstrate how easy it is to fall prey to catfishing on dating websites.

At the end of the video, another officer in uniform appears and handcuffs the 'fraudster'.

The 20-second clip, published on social media, starts with the officer wearing a hoodie with the Chinese word 'suspect' written on it and then transforming into an attractive woman

A trending topic page on Weibo titled 'officer transforms into female thug for campaign' has gained more than 37 million hits, with net users applauding the officer's efforts

'Shunde police would like to remind you to be careful when making friends on the Internet. Online dating can be risky,' the arresting officer warned.

The campaign has been widely shared on Chinese social media, with netizens applauding the officer's effort.

A trending topic page on Weibo titled 'officer transforms into female thug for campaign' has gained more than 37 million hits.

'So funny! I watched it 10 times. This officer's got some moves!' one user commented.

'He is quite a natural. I'd probably be catfished if I met him online,' another comment read.

At the end of the video, another officer in uniform appears and handcuffs the 'fraudster' and warned people about the dangers of making friends on dating websites

'He puts me, a woman, to shame! So pretty,' one person said.

'Can you please release a make-up tutorial? another asked.

'Such a dedicated officer, going to great lengths for his job!' another uses said.

Police in China have been ramping up efforts to crack down on dating sites, which have long been plagued by scammers and fraudsters.

Last June, police in Guangdong arrested 1,310 suspects involved in 13 online dating fraud rings. The scammers, who posed as attractive women and models, used messaging app WeChat to trick men into buying expensive tea products.

Each gang could approach up to 1,500 victims per month, according to police.
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Britain is set to be battered by heavy winds and rain this weekend as a 'very active' jet stream brings 70mph gusts to parts of the country.

Forecasters are predicting torrential downpours and strong winds all the way through until Sunday, with temperatures also set to drop as the wintery conditions show no sign of abating ahead of spring.

Much of the unsettled weather will hit the north of England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, but gale-force winds could also strike in the south before the end of the weekend due to developing low-pressure system.

The Met Office even warned that forecasted hill snow in the north and Scotland could also spread to lower ground by Sunday, with temperatures as low as -5 expected overnight in certain places.

This weekend's unsettled conditions come days after Storm Freya left a trail of destruction, with coastal areas battered by huge waves as 75mph winds felled trees and closed roads across the country.

Waves from the North Sea crash against the Tynemouth Lighthouse wall at sunrise, with high winds coming into effect during the weekend

A jet stream pointing straight at us from the Atlantic will bring repeated fronts of showery and windy weather. Shown left to right is the stream developing from Friday, through to Saturday, and finally, into Sunday

Forecasters are predicting torrential downpours and strong winds all the way through until Sunday, with temperatures also set to drop as the wintery conditions show no sign of abating ahead of spring

A beautiful sunrise on Avon Beach, Mudeford, Dorset, this morning. Snow could strike the UK this weekend as temperatures plummet and winterly conditions return, with today also expected to be cold with rain over parts of the country

Wales and the south-west bore the brunt of the strong winds as Storm Freya, the sixth named storm of the season, struck on Sunday night.

Top speeds of 76mph were recorded in Swansea and 70mph in Yorkshire, with fallen debris causing travel disruption. More than 2,000 homes were left without power in Wales.

Richard Miles, spokesman for the Met Office, told MailOnline: 'The jet stream is pointing straight at us from the Atlantic so it's just bringing repeated fronts of showery and windy weather.

'Tomorrow there will actually be a bit of reasonably fine weather for southern England but for northern areas and Scotland, as well as Northern Ireland, it will be wetter and windier.

'On Sunday there's the possibility of gales in the south of the UK but it's uncertain at the moment. It depends on the low pressure system to the south, how it develops.

'Next week, we are looking at even stronger winds on a more widespread basis. It will be fairly settled on Monday but midweek we are looking at very strong gusts.'

The Met Office forecast reads:

Tonight (Friday night): It will be a cloudy evening with outbreaks of rain across England and Wales. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, there will be clear spells and wintry showers. Later in the night, it will become cloudy for most while it will become wet for Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England. Breezy.

Tomorrow (Saturday): Tomorrow there will be sunny spells and showers, which will be frequent and possibly wintry in the north-west, especially over high ground. Southern and eastern parts will be mostly dry with sunny spells but the odd shower is possible. It will be cloudy later in the south. Brisk south-westerly winds.

UK Outlook (Sunday and Monday): On Sunday, there will be a mixture of sunny spells and showers, many of which will be wintry in the north and west, even down to low levels. Southern areas will see sunny spells and the odd light shower. Windy. Monday will start dry and bright but it will turn wet in the north-west later. Breezy.

Britain is set to be battered by heavy winds and rain this weekend as a 'very active' jet stream brings 70mph gusts to parts of the country (shown left, areas in red over Europe will be hit by winds as high as 170mph, the Met Office said

Tomorrow there will be sunny spells and showers, which will be frequent and possibly wintry in the north-west, especially over high ground
A woman and her 15-year-old daughter who were found dead at a flat in Northern Ireland were strangled in a suspected double murder suicide.

Police have revealed that Allison Marimon-Herrera, 15, born in Spain, was strangled and that there was a 'strong possibility' her mother Giselle Marimon-Herrera, 37, from Colombia, was also throttled.

A 38-year-old man, Giselle Marimon-Herrera's partner, who also lived at the address, died by hanging, with all three bodies laying undiscovered for three days at the flat in Newry, Co Down.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: 'I can confirm that her 15-year-old daughter Allison was strangled.'

Mother and daughter Giselle (left) and Allison (right) were found dead in their home yesterday

Officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have launched a murder investigation and are not looking for anybody else.

Police received post-mortem examination results on Friday.

Mr Murphy added: 'This is an unspeakable tragedy. I believe that Giselle and Allison were still alive in the early hours of Sunday morning but family members have not been able to contact them since.'

According to the Irish Times, the victims' family have requested consular assistance to allow them to travel to Northern Ireland.

Fabian Marimon, reportedly the woman's father, said he was seeking help through diplomatic channels to visit Newry to find out what happened to his daughter.

Yadeli Marimon, the sister of the dead woman, told local media that the family had become worried after not hearing from the mother or daughter since the weekend.

Police forensic officers were pictured entering the flat at Glin Ree Court in Newry earlier today

Pictures were earlier revealed of the mother and her 15-year-old daughter who lay dead in their flat for three days after the suspected 'murder suicide'.

Ms Marimon-Herrera, teenager Allison and a 38-year-old man, who hasn't been named, were found dead at the home in Newry, Co Down, on Thursday.



Ms Marimon-Herrera is originally from Colombia and moved to Northern Ireland four years ago. She worked in the Newry area. Her daughter Allison was born in Spain and has lived in Northern Ireland since 2017. She attended Newry High School.

The man, said to be from Scotland, is believed to have been in a relationship with Ms Marimon-Herrera, according to Belfast Live.

Speaking to Belfast Live a friend of the mother and daughter said: 'She was a quiet girl, hard working. When she was with us she was very funny.'

The pair are said to have lived in the flat in Newry with their two dogs and had just one family member in the area, with Ms Marimon-Herrera's sister reportedly living close by.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has launched a murder investigation following the discovery of the bodies

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said they were working to find out what exactly happened at the flat in Newry and described it as an 'unspeakable tragedy'.

'The exact circumstances of what happened in their home remains the subject of our investigation.

'I would appeal today to anyone who came into direct contact with either Giselle or Allison, or communicated with them via text or social media since Friday, to contact detectives in Newry.

'We are currently supporting the families of those involved as well as Newry High School. I would ask that they are given the time and space to come to terms with these tragic events.

'While our investigation remains at an early stage, there is no evidence at this time that anyone else was involved,' he said.

'This is an unspeakable tragedy and anyone with information should contact detectives on 101.'

Police in Northern Ireland sealed off the scene in County Down after three bodies were found in a flat

Officers were at the scene at Glin Ree Court yesterday, and police tape marked the area preserved for forensic investigation in front of some whitewashed flats.

Newry is close to Northern Ireland's border with the Irish Republic.

SDLP politician Justin McNulty yesterday said: 'Terrible news breaking.

'This community is in shock and a dark cloud hangs over Newry this afternoon.

'My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased.'
A Campbelltown man has been arrested and charged with murder four months after the body of a 46-year-old father was found in a vacant lot in Sydney's west.

Nathan McIvor, 37, was arrested outside his St Helen's home Thursday morning following an extensive four-month manhunt.

Footage of the arrest show police tackling McIvor to the ground before handcuffing him while he is still barefoot.

Jamie Phillips with his daughter

Police arrested 37-year-old Nathan McIvor on Thursday for the murder of Jamie Phillips

The man is accused of killing Jamie Phillips, whose naked body was found stabbed and dumped at the end of Englorie Park Drive in Rosemeadow on October 25.

Police said the murder had been a 'targeted attack.'

But after news broke of the suspect's arrest, Phillips's family revealed they had never seen or heard of the accused killer.

The family appeared in court on Friday to come face-to-face with their son's alleged murderer for the first time, but McIvor was refused bail to appear at Campbelltown Local Court.

'My brother was beautiful and he didn't do anything or hurt anyone my whole life, and I just wanna know why,' Phillips's sister Kellie told 9news.

'His girls haven't got a father. He'll never be a pop, he'll never see his children married,' his mum Cheryl added.

Footage of the arrest show police tackling McIvor to the ground before handcuffing him while he is still barefoot
Nearly 20 couples who were set to marry at one of Australia's most sought after wedding venues have suddenly been told their big day has been cancelled.

Sydney's renowned Eschol Park House, which has featured on hit reality shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, was sold to Navarra Venues early this year.

The company announced this week the property would close for renovations from April to December - leaving 18 furious brides and grooms-to-be scrambling to rearrange their wedding plans.

Sharlene Cannavaro and her fiance Brad booked their wedding at Eschol Park House in May last year and were set to tie the knot in October.

'It's just devastating, I'm heartbroken. This was my dream wedding venue and now it's not going to happen,' Ms Cannavaro told A Current Affair through tears.

Sharlene Cannavaro and her fiance Brad booked their wedding at Eschol Park House in May last year. The were set to tie the knot in October

Change of plans: Sydney's Eschol Park House, which has featured on hit reality shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, was sold to Navarra Venues early this year. The company announced this week the venue would be closing for nine months for renovations

'I had 100 per cent confidence that my wedding day was going to be absolutely perfect, and now I've got zero confidence.'

The 18 couples who were scheduled to tie the not at the venue during its closure were sent an email on Wednesday, informing them their weddings would not go ahead.

'I couldn't even make it all the way through the email, I just started bawling my eyes out,' Ms Cannavaro told the Wollondilly Advertiser.

'I was up until midnight crying. I couldn't even tell my fiance what was wrong, I just had to forward him the email.'

The property's new owners said the run-down state of the venue does not allow them to host the 18 upcoming weddings.

'We want to make it five-star so we can deliver the best weddings and events for our guests,' Navarra Venues sales manager Bupesh Dihr told the Channel Nine program.

Ms Canavarro revealed she also chose the Eschol Park House since it is close to her father, who is disabled

Devastated: Eighteen couples have been affected by the abrupt cancellation. Sharlene Cannavaro and her fiancee Brad (pictured left) booked their wedding at Eschol Park House in May last year. They were set to tie the knot in October. Couple Eileen Neave and Peter Hamilton (right) planned to marry on September 14 and were expecting guests from Ireland and the US

The couples are now left to choose one of three options: getting a refund, postponing their wedding date to 2020, or booking another one of the company's venues.

If they choose to wait until next year or to book another venue, however, they could be forced to pony up more cash for additional costs.

'We are giving them an upgraded room, menus on offer, what we are offering at a very marginal rate is actually amazing. I mean I would take it,' Mr Dihr added.

Ms Cannavaro said she considered switching over to another venue but was worried about the extra costs.

'They've given the option to go to other venues but I just wanted a small, intimate wedding and John (former owner) had worked with our budget,' she said.

She said she had planned for a $1,000 bar tab, but that option is not offered by Navarra.

She revealed she also chose the Eschol Park House to accommodate her father, who is disabled.

'I wanted something local to his place. He can't get up and down stairs so it's just a matter of finding somewhere which Eschol Park had,' she added.

Sharlene's fiance groom-to-be Brad claimed the response from Navarra Venues response had been 'very poor.'

The couples were notified earlier this week that their weddings will not go on. They are now left to choose one of three options: getting a refund, postponing their wedding date to next year, or booking another one of the company's venues

Tristan and Rebecca are among the 18 couples who were left high and dry and said the abrupt cancellation could mean the money they have already spent could end up going to waste

'Supposed to be one of the biggest venues in Sydney and they treat people like this,' he said.

Couple Eileen Neave and Peter Hamilton were also expecting to marry at the location on September 14 after booking the venue last April.

The pair said they had already sent out invitations to their guests, including family members in Ireland and the US who were flying out for the nuptials.

'I've got people coming from America and from Ireland. Ireland's a long haul, you know, and they can't change their dates. I'm a bit anxious and stressed because we haven't got a venue,' Ms Neave said.

'We are having the wedding in Narellan so it was close by for us; if we changed to one of their other venues wed be paying extra for the photographer, cars and other services to travel,' she told the Macarthur Chronicle.

Renovating: The property's new owners said the run-down state of the venue does not allow them to host the 18 upcoming weddings

Mr Hamilton said he wants the company to compensate them for the wedding invitations and to refund their deposit

Mr Hamilton said the company should be held accountable for their actions and that the public should be aware of the 'how they operate.'

'They're the ones who cancelled, not us; we sent the invitations out saying Eschol Park House in good faith because we'd made the booking,' he said.

He now wants the company to compensate them for the wedding invitations and to refund their deposit.

Another couple left high and dry was Tristan and Rebecca, who said the abrupt cancellation could mean the money they have already spent may end up going to waste.

'[I was] pretty upset, especially only seven months out from the wedding,' Tristan told A Current Affair.

'And we've got multiple table favors and glasses specifically engraved with the date, so if we lose the date, we'll lose a fair bit of money.'

Navarra Venues said the current state of Eschol Park House, which will be renamed Eschol Park Manor, does not allow them to provide 'five-star' service

Tristan said his fiancee spent the day calling family members and friends asking if they would be able to attend the wedding on a different date if needed.

Eschol Park House's former owner John Masina, whose family owned the venue for 28 years, told 9news that he would still try do everything to accommodate the couples on their big day.

'We love what we do. We love looking after people,' he said, visibly emotional.

'It's disappointing that we don't get to do their weddings, we're a little bit upset with that.'

In a statement provided to A Current Affair on Thursday, Navarra Venues said it 'has always valued its customers'.

'Our business and reputation is built on trust. The Directors of Navarra Venues hopes and shall endeavour to resolve these concerns amicably.'

It added: 'The closure is necessary so that Navarra Venues can carry out extensive renovations in order to bring Eschol Park House, to be renamed Eschol Park Manor, into line with Navarra Venue's existing 5-star venues.

'Eschol Park House is a historic site and requires time to be restored and brought back to its former glory.'
Labour's peers chaired by Toby Harris (pictured) escalated the party civil war over anti-Semitism today as they condemned Jeremy Corbyn's 'failure' and backed deputy Tom Watson

Labour's peers escalated the party civil war over anti-Semitism today as they condemned Jeremy Corbyn's 'failure' and backed deputy Tom Watson.

The 185 peers - which include a raft of former cabinet ministers including David Blunkett and Peter Mandelson - said the scandal was an 'embarrassing and hugely damaging mess'.

They said Mr Corbyn's failure to get a grip 'diminishes the moral authority of the Labour Party' and was a 'matter of great shame'.

The group condemned party general secretary Jennie Formby's criticism of deputy leader Mr Watson for trying to tackle the scandal head on.

The new escalation came as Diane Abbott admitted she 'feels sorry' for Luciana Berger after she was driven out of the party by anti-Semitic abuse.

But the shadow home secretary defended Labour over anti-Semitism, insisting the party has 'tried to do its best' over rampant abuse.

Mr Corbyn insisted today his party had 'nothing to hide' from a probe by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), before taking the stage in Dundee to tell the Scottish Labour conference that the party is 'obsessed' with tackling 'the problems faced by everyday people', rather than the constitution.

The letter from the Lords, in the name of the chairman of the Labour Peers Group Toby Harris, said: 'This failure diminishes the moral authority of the Labour Party, undermines our whole ethos and calls into question our wider commitment to anti-racism.'

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn addressing Scottish Labour's Annual Conference in Dundee this afteroon

Mr Corbyn was welcomed to the stage by Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard

He added: 'Labour Peers are also firm in their view that the failure to deal with what is now a crisis in the Labour Party is a political failure and not one of process or resourcing.

'Until the people making the decisions about discipline and expulsions accept as antisemitic words and actions viewed by the Jewish community as antisemitic nothing will change and the crisis will continue.'

Peers demanded answers on whether Ms Formby had written the incendiary letter attacking Mr Watson or if it was drafted in Mr Corbyn's office.

They also probed whether Corbyn aide Andrew Murray and his daughter Laura Murray were involved in Labour's complaints process.

The EHRC could compel Jeremy Corbyn's party to overhaul the way it deals with anti-Semitism cases, which would be enforceable by the courts. Mr Corbyn has so far remained silent over the threat of an investigation

Mr Harris said: 'We think it wholly right and proper that Tom as Deputy Leader should have taken the initiative that he did.

'Labour Peers - and I would suggest the vast majority of our MPs - have lost confidence in the processes and in the way that they have apparently been operating.

'Finally, may I make it clear that this letter is not intended to be a criticism of our Party staff.

'We have a huge admiration for them and the fantastic job that they do. Our concern is not with them but with a political failure of leadership.'

Labour is facing a humiliating full-scale official inquiry into the anti-Semitism crisis and the resignation of Jewish MP Ms Berger was described as 'the worst day of shame in the Labour Party's 120-year history'.

The Liverpool MP, who gave birth to her second child this week, was 'bullied out of her own party by racist thugs', Mr Watson said last week.

Today Ms Abbott said she had sympathy for Ms Berger - but defended Labour's handing of the crisis.

She told The House Magazine: 'The one I do feel sorry for is Luciana [Berger]. You've got all this stress and strain, extraordinary general meetings, votes of no-confidence, it's the kind of stress no one should endure when they're eight months pregnant'.

But when asked if the party had handled the anti-Semitism issue she added: 'I think the party has tried to do its best'.

Of the Harris letter, a Labour spokeswoman said: 'Jeremy Corbyn has made clear that he is a militant opponent of antisemitism and that rooting it out of our Party is an absolute priority.

'The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms.

'Since becoming General Secretary, Jennie Formby has made procedures for dealing with complaints about antisemitism more robust.

'Staff who work on disciplinary matters have always led on investigations and recommendations on individual cases, and the Leader's Office is not involved in this process.'

the resignation of Jewish MP Luciana Berger was described as 'the worst day of shame in the Labour Party's 120-year history'.

In one of the darkest days in Labour's history yesterday, Britain's equalities watchdog admitted the party may have 'unlawfully discriminated' against Jews.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will now consider whether to launch a formal probe.

Labour would have to hand over email and other correspondence so investigators can see how the party dealt with discrimination claims.

The EHRC could then compel Jeremy Corbyn's party to overhaul the way it deals with anti-Semitism cases, which would be enforceable by the courts.

Labour MP John Mann, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism, predicted the EHRC's move would eventually lead to resignations of senior party figures

It would only be the second time the watchdog has taken action against a political party. Nine years ago it forced the BNP to drop its 'whites only' membership rule.

Labour said it will co-operate fully with the EHRC, but said it rejects 'completely' any suggestion it has acted unlawfully. Last night moderate Labour MPs predicted high-level resignations.

The move comes two days after it emerged that Mr Corbyn's aide Laura Murray sought to block the suspension of a member who described an anti-Semitic mural of a group of 'hook-nosed' men as 'great'.

It was reported yesterday that another ally of the leader, Thomas Gardiner, had intervened repeatedly to downgrade suspensions for anti-Semitism.

The EHRC  which was founded by the Blair government  said it acted after receiving two dossiers showing examples where anti-Semitism was not dealt with properly by Labour. One was from the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, and the other was from the Jewish Labour Movement.

On a shameful day for Labour, Mr Corbyn remained silent over the threat of an investigation.

Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth, who has been subjected to anti-Semitic abuse, called it a 'devastating indictment'.

She added: 'Decent members will be horrified that we have got into this position. I welcome the EHRC intervention but today is another dark day in the history of our party which could and should have been avoided if concerns raised had been heeded last year.'

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said he was 'deeply saddened' at the EHRC move.

He said he would contact Labour general secretary Jennie Formby to ask for all relevant files and data to be retained 'so that investigators can form a clear picture of the processes and culture around Labour's response to anti-Semitism'.

Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said it was 'utterly disgraceful and unacceptable' that the party had taken so long to deal with anti-Semitism.

'We need to remove this stain from our party, and we need to expel these despicable individuals, so we can go into the next election, united by our historic values, not poisoned by this vicious disease,' she said.

The EHRC will now contact Labour to set out its concerns. If the response is found to be unsatisfactory, it could launch a formal investigation.

A spokesman for the watchdog said: 'Having received a number of complaints regarding anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, we believe Labour may have unlawfully discriminated against people because of their ethnicity and religious beliefs.

The EHRC said it acted after receiving two dossiers showing examples where anti-Semitism was not dealt with properly by Labour. One was from the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism [File photo]

'Our concerns are sufficient for us to consider using our statutory enforcement powers. As set out in our enforcement policy, we are now engaging with the Labour Party to give them an opportunity to respond.'

A Labour spokesman said: 'We completely reject any suggestion the party has acted unlawfully and will be co-operating fully with the EHRC. Labour is fully committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish community and its organisations.'

Labour MP John Mann, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism, predicted the EHRC's move would eventually lead to resignations of senior party figures.

'Obviously there will be resignations from those in power as this fully unfolds,' he said. 'Everyone should let the EHRC do its job.'

Gideon Falter, of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said: 'It is a sad indictment that the once great anti-racist Labour Party is now being investigated by the equality and human rights regulator it established. Since the Holocaust, Britain has led the world in promoting human rights, and it could scarcely be more important to British society that the Jew hatred festering in the Labour Party is firmly brought to an end.'

The Jewish Labour Movement said it asked the EHRC in November last year to investigate the allegation that the Labour Party was 'institutionally anti-Semitic'.

Huda Elmi, a Momentum-affiliated member of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), responded to the EHRC's decision by calling for the watchdog to be scrapped. A file picture of Momentum's badges and leaflets is pictured above [File photo]

It said in a statement: 'After years of anti-Jewish racism experienced by our members, and a long pattern of denial, obfuscation and inaction by those with the power and ability to do something about it, we felt there was little choice but to secure a fully independent inquiry, not encumbered by corrupted internal practices. Everything that has happened in the months since our referral supports our view that the Labour Party is now institutionally anti-Semitic.'

Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: 'This proposed independent investigation confirms what the Jewish community has known for a long time: that the Labour leadership has a problem with anti-Jewish racism which it is unable or unwilling to solve.'

But Huda Elmi, a Momentum-affiliated member of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), responded to the EHRC's decision by calling for the watchdog to be scrapped.

She tweeted: 'The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a failed experiment. If tomorrow it were to cease in existence, most of the people it was created to support wouldn't even notice.

'We need to abolish it and bring back separate, well-resourced governmental bodies for each equality strand.'
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Stunning photos show preparations on Brighton Pier for the 1952 summer and Easter holidays.

Snapped in March that year, the shots show dozens of people beavering away to get the iconic pier and whole town ready.

The evocative pictures show one engineer tucked away inside a jukebox making delicate last-minute repairs, bold painters risking life and limb to repair the towns iconic pier, and deckchair attendants ensuring their loungers were in good working order.

Brighton pier was stripped of its boards in places as it was feared the German's could use it for an invasion. A man is pictured helping to hammer wooden boards back onto the pier in March 1952

The pier is pictured as it looks today. It even has the same-style barricades that it had more than six decades earlier

 Slide me  A brave man hangs over the side of the pier to paint it, while another stays on the 'safe side'. Amazingly, the barriers are still the same style today as they were in 1952. The building on the pier labelled 'Deck Cafe' is also still there, as are some of the houses on the seafront. The same area as it looks today is pictured above in this sliding image

This sign for the pier's attractions is one of several being repaired in this photo. Brighton's arcades are famous, with many people enjoying the chance to spend one and two pence coins in them

Another set of lip-smacking photos show workers creating the legendary Brighton Rock  a must have for tourists young and old alike on their visit to the coast.

The remarkable photos evoke memories of donkey rides on the beach, greasy fish and chips on a bench facing the sea, and gaudy Punch and Judy shows drawing crowds along the promenade  perhaps a product of their time.

In 1952, Brighton like much of the country was still getting back on its feet after the war and the Pier Pavilion was starting to look back to its best. Just a few years previously it had been stripped of all its boardwalks as there had been mounting fears the Germans may have used it as a landing platform.

Stonemasons help bring the town up to scratch in time for the holiday season. Behind them former royal residence Brighton Pavilion's archway can be seen

Stonemasons also worked on the roof of the Brighton Pavilion (Pictured) to get it ready for the upcoming holidays

Brighton Pier even had a ghost train in 1952 these pictures reveal. Back then it cost just one sixpence, or two and a half pence today

Another iconic attraction in Brighton is the seafront train. (Pictured) The train is driven up the line with happy passengers as the crossing lights are repaired. A sign warns people to 'Beware of the Trains'

The tram still runs up and down the track today (pictured) and is hugely popular with many tourists visiting Brighton Pier

Even though airfares became increasingly affordable throughout the 1950s and 60s, a trip to the seaside was still a staple for most families lucky enough to get a break. On a sunny day in Brighton, the town was swamped with people from all over south-east England, and especially from London.

Usually families would stay in a seafront guesthouse or a Hi-De-Hi style holiday camp, which offered a brief respite before the children would be back on the beach building sand castles, rock pooling or, more likely, begging for coins to feed the enticing arcade games.

And what would a trip to the seaside be without a piece of rock?

Hotels and Guesthouses also got involved in the preparations. Here 'Burlington house' gets a wash on its window frame

You could also get your portrait taken in Brighton for a sixpence, or two and a half pence in today's money

The deckchairs to go on Brighton's shingle beach also had to be prepared for the thousands of visitors. They cost threepence

Fascinating photos show how the sugary sweet was initially wrapped into a huge roll of candy, approximately one foot wide, before it was endlessly stretched and chopped to its more recognisable form.

At first, each of the letters crafted by the sweet-makers would measure a couple of inches high. Then it would be slowly stretched over 180 yards until the Brighton Rock writing only measured a fraction of an inch.

The pictured slab of candy would probably make just under 1,000 mouth-watering sticks of rock.

A deck chair is repaired in time for the holiday season. It would have offered visitors a place to sit on the shingle beach

An engineer makes some final repairs to a Wurlitzer jukebox to make sure it will keep working during the holiday season

The pier also needed repairs on its underside to ensure it was safe for people to walk on

An iconic sweet from Brighton is the sugary 'Brighton Rock'. Workers are preparing the sugary rolls to spell out the sweet's name in this photo. After that they will be rolled together and stretched

These long sticks of Brighton Rock, the name being just visible at the top of them, are ready to be cut into several sections

This large slab of sugar candy could make as many as a thousand sticks of rock candy

A Brighton fisherman carefully mends his net. Brighton is also famous for its fish and chips which is very popular

An arcade owner tinkers with his horse racing contraption on the seafront making sure it still works
Theresa Dalton (pictured) was found guilty by a jury of attempting to procure the commission of her former husband of 24 years

A former flight attendant who still maintains her innocence has been found guilty of trying to arrange the assassination of her ex-husband.

Theresa Dalton, from the Gold Coast, is accused of stomping up a hefty $20,000 fee to hire a hitman to kill her ex-husband Malcolm Stewart in 2010.

She attended Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday, where she was found guilty by a jury of attempting to procure the commission of her former husband of 24 years.

Mr Stewart attended the hearing in which his ex-wife was found guilty.

'She can rot in hell after what she's done to me,' Mr Stewart told 9News as he made his way out of the courtroom.

The court heard Dalton wanted Mr Stewart dead because she feared he would take too big a share of their $3million of assets when their marriage broke down around 2007.

And three years later, she came up with a plan.

It's thought the 67-year-old had badgered her then-boyfriend Anthony Werner to enlist the help of his old friend Matthew Neels to carry out the hit.

It was said she asked for Mr Neels to commit the murder after Werner had told her of his 'sleazy reputation'.

In a bid to keep her hands clean, Dalton had worn gloves to count the $20,000 cash she would use to pay the hitman to get rid of Mr Stewart.

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Mr Stewart attended the hearing in which his ex-wife was found guilty and told reporters his ex-wife could 'rot in hell'

It's believed Dalton (pictured left) enlisted the help of a hit man to kill Mr Stewart (pictured right) because she believed he would take too big a share of their $3million of assets

However, it's believed that Mr Neels took the cash and fled without carrying out the hit.

Its alleged Mr Neels met Werner in a Gold Coast location where he handed over half of the agreed fee.

But Mr Neels is believed to have bolted back to his home in New South Wales without having killed Mr Stewart.

Dalton and Werner headed for Tasmania the next day, and while they were there they took a call from Mr Neels who falsely claimed a photo of him and Werner together had been slipped under the hotel room door.

Dalton's (pictured) defence barrister claimed Werner, who is on parole after previously being convicted of soliciting the murder, acted alone

Dalton (pictured right) and Mr Stewart (pictured left) had been together for 24 years before their marriage broke down in 2007

Mr Neels testified he had never intended to kill Mr Stewart, but admitted he had spent the money on fishing holidays and household goods.

'Ultimately he proved to be a thief, not a killer,' crown prosecutor Michael Lehane said.

Mr Lehane also likened the property settlement between Dalton and Mr Stewart to 'World War III'.

'The accused at this time was going round the twist with a property settlement that, let's face it, resembled World War III,' Mr Lehane told the jury.

Matthew Neels (pictured leaving the court) testified that he had never intended to kill Mr Stewart

'We have extreme circumstances where we have such pure hatred and real venom and murderous intent was formed by the accused.

'She had the degree of cunning required to let Werner do the dirty work, when she could have clean hands,' he added.

Dalton's defence barrister claimed Werner, who is on parole after previously being convicted of soliciting the murder, acted alone.

However, the jury decided otherwise and found Dalton guilty.

'I had nothing to do with this. Nothing whatsoever,' Dalton said after the verdict was given.

Dalton has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced at a later date.
An elderly couple have told of the terrifying moment a machete-wielding thug attacked them in their home before the husband bravely fought them off with a chair.

The couple, named by police only as Josephine and Colin, were ambushed outside their home at 3pm on February 11, when a robber demanded the keys to their VW Golf.

Eventually the gang fled empty handed after the couple's neighbours in Stevens Road, Stourbridge, West Midlands, ran to help them.

Dashcam footage captured the yobs fleeing the scene on a scooter following the daylight attack.

A retired couple in their 70s, named by police only as Josephine and Colin, were attacked in their own home by a machete wielding robber

Speaking at a police press conference yesterday, she said: 'They got me by the garage door and it all escalated from there.

'Me and Colin got ourselves into the house via the garage door and there was this young boy in the sitting room with a chair and a knife in his hand.

'Colin had to pick up a chair to defend us. I was just telling him to put the chair down and I would get him the keys.

'I thought if I could get him into the hall I could get him out of the house but once we got to the hall there was a neighbour standing there and neighbours outside and they just fled.

'But prior to that they'd smashed a lovely vase in the hall, smashed a glass. They were quite violent and so loud, totally out of control.

'I think we're probably settling down now but I will never forget the knife and the noise.

Dashcam footage shows the machete-wielding attacker making off with an accomplice

The pair fled on a Sym 50cc moped. Police are appealing to anyone with any information

Josephine added: 'It was just so loud I cannot really describe it. I'll never forget the knife, it was quite big.

'They were shouting: "Mrs, Mrs, keys, keys!" It was so just intimidating which is what I suppose they were trying to do, just to intimidate us to give in and pass over the keys - but they got the wrong couple.

'Why should we give into these young people? They need to know that this is not the way to carry on. It really is appalling behaviour.

'I can still hear the sound vibrating in my head. "Keys, keys, Mrs!" I was thinking he won't really kill me because he'll end up with life in prison.'

The attack unfolded on the driveway of the couple's home in this suburban street last month

Colin added: 'There is no reason we were targeted at all, it just came out of the blue. They were just opportunists.

'We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Immediately after we saw the moped, one of the men had a knife to Josephine at the garage door.

'It all happened so quickly. The paramedics said that if we were perhaps not so physically fit we could've been on the floor with a heart attack. It was all very traumatic.'

Detective Sergeant Leighton Shingles, of West Midlands Police, said: 'We have identified the moped as a Sym 50cc but do not have registration plate.

'The moped was moving too fast and because of that it has been impossible to get the registration plate down.'
Ilhan Omar has embroiled herself in controversy again after she retweeted comments accusing Meghan McCain of 'faux outrage' in response to her Israel tweets.

McCain appeared tearfully on ABC's The View on Thursday to say that she had found Omar's rhetoric 'very scary.'

It comes as Congressional Democrats backed a resolution condemning antisemitism and other bigotry, belying infighting which has engulfed the party since Omar's recent comments on Israel.

But despite the spotlight shining brightly on her, Omar decided to retweet a statement accusing McCain of 'faux outrage.'

Meghan McCain became tearful on The View as she discussed Omar's comments about Israel which she found 'very scary'

Ilhan Omar walks to the chamber on Thursday, on Capitol Hill in Washington, as the House was preparing to vote on a resolution to speak out against bigorty

Omar retweeted comments made by Al Jazeera host Mehdi Hasan who accused Meghan McCain of 'faux outrage'

Omar retweeted Mehdi Hasan, an Al Jazeera host, who said: 'Meghan's late father literally sang "bomb bomb bomb Iran" and insisted on referring to his Vietnamese captors as "g**ks".

'He also, lest we forget, gave the world Sarah Palin. So a little less faux outrage over a former refugee-turned-freshman-representative pls.'

McCain broke down during her appearance on the ABC show, saying: 'What Ilhan Omar is saying is very scary to me and it's very scary to a lot of people. And I don't think you have to be Jewish to realize that.

She added: 'These are dog whistle comments for Jewish Americans and they hear what she is saying.'

McCain said the junior Congresswoman's comments were 'very dangerous.'

Omar caused fury last month when she stated that the US relationship with Israel was 'all about the Benjamins,' referencing Benjamin Franklin on the $100 bill.

She had previously claimed that 'Israel had hypnotized the world.'

Omar later apologized saying: 'Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes.'

Before the vote on Thursday, Democrats wrestled with whether or how to punish the Minnesota representative, one of two Muslim women in Congress.

Republicans generally joined in the favorable vote, though nearly two-dozen opposed the measure, one calling it a 'sham.'

Generational as well as ideological, the argument was fueled in part by young, liberal lawmakers - and voters - who have become a face of the newly empowered Democratic majority in the House.

These lawmakers are critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, rejecting the conservative leader's approach to Palestinians and other issues.

They split sharply from Democratic leaders who seemed caught off guard by the support for Omar and unprepared for the debate. But the leaders regrouped.

Omar walks to the chamber Thursday with a smile on her face as she prepares to vote on the bill

Ahead of the vote on Thursday Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi said: 'It's not about her. It's about these forms of hatred'

'It's not about her. It's about these forms of hatred,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before the vote.

The resolution approved Thursday condemns antisemitism, anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities 'as hateful expressions of intolerance.'

Omar, a Somali-American, and fellow Muslims Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Andrew Carson of Indiana, issued a statement praising the 'historic' vote as the first resolution to condemn 'anti-Muslim bigotry.'

Some Democrats complained that Omar's comments on Israel had ignited all this debate while years of President Donald Trump's racially charged rhetoric had led to no similar congressional action.

The seven-page document details a history of recent attacks not only against Jews in the United States but also Muslims, as it condemns all such discrimination as contradictory to 'the values and aspirations' of the people of the United States.

The vote was delayed for a time on Thursday to include mention of Latinos to address concerns of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

It was inserted under a section on white supremacists who 'weaponize hate for political gain' over a long list of 'traditionally persecuted peoples.'

An earlier version focused more narrowly on anti-Semitism. The final resolution did not mention Omar by name.

Getting this debate right will be crucial for Democrats in 2020.

US-Israel policy is a prominent issue that is exposing the splits between the party's core voters, its liberal flank and the more centrist Americans in Trump country the party hopes to reach.

Some Democrats complained Omar's comments had received unfair scrutiny compared to those of President Donald Trump (pictured at the White House on Thursday)

Omar's rhetoric is taking Democrats to a place that leaves many uneasy.

The new lawmaker sparked a week-long debate in Congress as fellow Democrats said her comments have no place in the party.

She suggested Israel's supporters were pushing lawmakers to take a pledge of 'allegiance' to a foreign country, reviving a trope of dual loyalties.

Pelosi said she did not believe that Omar understood the 'weight of her words' or that they would be perceived by some as anti-Semitic.

Asked whether the resolution was intended to 'police' lawmakers' words, Pelosi replied, 'We are not policing the speech of our members.'

Instead, she said, the goal was to condemn anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and white supremacy.

Some of the House's leading Jewish Democrats wanted to bring a resolution on the floor simply condemning anti-Semitism.

But other Democrats wanted to broaden the resolution to include a rejection of all forms of racism and bigotry. Others questioned whether a resolution was necessary at all and viewed it as unfairly singling out Omar at a time when Trump and others have made disparaging racial comments.

There remained frustration that the party that touts its diversity conducted such a messy and public debate about how to declare its opposition to bigotry.
A Question Time audience member has blasted Amber Rudd's offensive description of black MP Diane Abbott and said: 'It's only curtains that are coloured'.

The unnamed woman was clapped and cheered on the BBC show last night as she criticised the under-fire minister's choice of language and said: 'It's about time that lady learned'.

Today the Work and Pensions Secretary looked frosty as she left her central London home today and refused to answer questions about her blunder.

When asked if she had anything to add to her humbling apology for referring to Ms Abbott as 'coloured' she said repeatedly: 'Good morning' before getting into her ministerial car.

Her comments on BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show yesterday where she called Ms Abbott a 'coloured woman' during a debate about racism and abuse of women have been branded 'bloody outrageous'.

The issue was discussed on Question Time in Dudley last night and the audience member told the panel: 'I am a black lady. I'm not interested in politics. I'm not interested in religion. I'm interested in people. I think it's about time that lady learned to know it's only curtains that are coloured.

The pensioner who blasted Amber Rudd was clapped and cheered on Question Time last night as she said: 'It's only curtains that are coloured'

The woman said Ms Rudd had made the mistake of looking at a person's race before seeing them as a human being. The minister looked frosty and refused to comment this morning

'And if you want to speak about people you do not look at their colour. You look at it as they are human beings like everybody else'.

Yesterday Ms Rudd was forced to apologise yesterday after she referred to Labour frontbencher Diane Abbott as 'coloured' on a day of blunders by senior Tory women.

The Work and Pensions Secretary prompted a fierce backlash after using the 'outdated' and 'offensive' term while being interviewed about online abuse suffered by women.

Miss Rudd later said she was 'mortified' by her use of language. She wrote on Twitter: 'Mortified at my clumsy language and sorry to @HackneyAbbott. My point stands: that no one should suffer abuse because of their race or gender.'

She was among three female Cabinet ministers who came under criticism yesterday for controversial comments.

In response to a question about internet trolling, Miss Rudd told BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine: 'It definitely is worse if you're a woman, and it's worst of all if you're a coloured woman.

'I know that Diane Abbott gets a huge amount of abuse and I think that's something we need to continue to call out.'

Tory minister Amber Rudd was forced to make a grovelling apology to Diane Abbott after calling her a 'coloured woman' on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 show yesterday while they debated racism and abuse of women

Ms Rudd quickly issued her own apology for the gaffe but the remarks had by then been widely shared online

Ms Abbott, 65, (pictured on Sunday) responded on Twitter, saying: 'The term 'coloured', is an outdated, offensive and revealing choice of words.'

Ms Abbott was quick to pick up on Ms Rudd's choice of words on the radio, taking to Twitter to call it out

And fellow Labour MPs were quick to attack the Tory's slip, suggesting she used outdated language that belonged int he past

Miss Abbott, the shadow home secretary, responded: 'The term 'coloured' is an outdated, offensive and revealing choice of words.'

Amber Rudd's comments show she is 'out of touch' Amber Rudds coloured slur showed the Work and Pensions Secretary is out of touch, according to a leading cultural expert. Professor Andrew Canessa, head of sociology at Essex University, said the language Ms Rudd used to describe Labours Diane Abbott yesterday was outdated. I suspect that she did it innocently but ignorantly, Dr Canessa said. If somebody was familiar with African and Caribbean populations in the United Kingdom you just wouldnt have used that word. I cannot divine her motives but I suspect it was well-intentioned and that she was trying to be polite, but she was using a kind of politeness from the 1960s rather than a form of politeness from the 21st century. It does show that people are out of touch with contemporary Britain and that is an issue - the lack of familiarity with British culture. It suggests she doesnt know many African and Caribbean people. He added: The reason its offensive now is because its not the preferred term of choice for people of African and Caribbean heritage. Its also inaccurate. Theyre not really coloured and it references the colour of someones skin rather than a cultural heritage. Its outdated to say the least. Its a bit like calling people half-caste, which was broadly acceptable or seemed to be 40 or 50 years ago but is actually now quite offensive. Advertisement

In the interview, Miss Rudd went on to refer to a report by Lord Bew, the former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, into the trolling of public figures. 'It definitely was the case that women get it more, black and black minority ethnic women get it additionally,' she said.

'It is just a particularly nasty form of attack that focuses on gender and colour.'

Responding to the minister's comment, Labour MP Danielle Rowley claimed Miss Rudd 'clearly gets her language from the same bygone era as her abhorrent welfare policies'.

Another Labour MP, David Lammy, added: 'You might forgive your grandma for saying it, but Cabinet ministers in 2019 should know better than this. Using the term 'coloured' to describe anyone who is not white is offensive because it assumes being white is somehow normal or the default.'

SNP MP Martin Docherty-Hughes described Miss Rudd's comments as 'bloody outrageous'.

But Tory MP Johnny Mercer tweeted: 'Ridiculous stuff going on around one of the loveliest members of Parliament up here, who was speaking out against racism. Mis-spoke, apologised. You can't say you want human beings as MPs and then hammer them for inadvertent slip-ups. Move on.'

Earlier in the day, to mark International Women's Day, Miss Rudd had posted a video of herself reading out abuse she suffered online.

Following her 'coloured' comments, she was subjected to a wave of abuse from internet users who described her as a 'dinosaur', 'nasty little racist' and 'disgusting'. The apology by Miss Rudd, seen as a potential future Tory leadership challenger, comes four months after she returned to the Cabinet after resigning as home secretary last April over the Windrush scandal.

Last month former Labour MP Angela Smith, who quit the party to join the new Independent Group, apologised after she seemed to suggest people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds had a 'funny tinge'.

Advice on racial terminology issued to UK universities describes the term 'coloured' as 'outdated', although 'still fairly commonly employed'. It adds, however, that its usage tends to cause offence.
Michael Jackson's sister LaToya alleged he was a paedophile in shocking footage unearthed from an MTV interview in 1993.

LaToya, 62, claimed she had seen hush money cheques paid to youngsters for 'very, very large sums.'

She made the accusations after the father of 13-year-old Jordy Chandler accused the King of Pop of molesting his son - there was a subsequent settlement.

Speaking to MTV in the unearthed video from 1993, LaToya says: 'Michael is my brother, I love him a great deal but I cannot, and will not, be a silent collaborator of his crimes against small, innocent children.

In the shocking footage from a 1993 interview with MTV, LaToya says: 'Michael is my brother, I love him a great deal but I cannot, and will not, be a silent collaborator of his crimes against small, innocent children'

LaToya later retracted her incredible allegations, saying she had been convinced to make them by her then husband

Michael Jackson in Disneyland in 1988 in a screenshot from HBO's 'Leaving Neverland'

Michael Jackson with Wade Robson (left) and James Safechuck (right), lawyers for the Michael Jackson estate say the men are 'admitted perjurers'

'If I remain silent then it means I fuel the guilt and humiliation these children are feeling and I think it's very wrong.'

The comments have come to light after HBO's bombshell documentary aired on television for the first time this week.

There had been persistent rumours throughout Jackson's life, but no allegations were ever substantiated.

LaToya asked pertinent questions in the footage which will leave some dumbfounded as to why it had not been widely circulated before.

She said: 'Now you stop and think for one second and you tell me, what 35-year-old man is going to take a little boy and stay with him for 30 days?

'And take another boy and stay with him for five days in a room and never leave the room? How many of you out there are 35 years old?

'How many would take little kids and do that? That are nine, 10, 11 years old? I love my brother but it's wrong. I don't want to see these kids hurt.'

LaToya was estranged from her family at the time of making the comments and was accused of

Jackson and James Safechuck who alleges that Jackson abused him at the age of ten

Michael Jackson and Wade Robson, aged 5, in 1989

LaToya continued: 'I am a victim myself and I know what it feels like. These kids are going to be scarred for the rest of their lives and I don't want to see any more innocent, small children being affected this way.

'I love Michael very dearly but I feel even more sorry for these children because they don't have a life anymore, they don't.'

In the video she also claimed she was abused by her father.

At the time of the interview she was estranged from her family and had been accused of slandering her brother to make money.

She later retracted the claims she had made, saying her then husband had convinced her to denounce her brother.

The four-hour two-part documentary - which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year - has made sure those allegations continue a decade after he died of an overdose.

The abuse alleged in the film was so appalling there were counsellors on hand for traumatised viewers.

Unfair: The documentary is also biased and one-sided, according to the co-executors of Jackson's estate, John Branca and John McClain (Safechuck above)

Allegations: 'He was arguably the most famous person on the planet but possibly also one of the loneliest,' says the suit of Jackson (Robson above)

Jackson's estate has denied wrongdoing and filed a $100 million (76m) lawsuit against HBO.

The 53-page complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims HBO was violating a 'non-disparagement' agreement by airing the documentary.

'Ten years after his passing, there are still those out to profit from his enormous worldwide success and take advantage of his eccentricities,' the suit claimed.
Carla Couperthwaite (pictured above) was jailed for 16 months following the incident in Bolton

A woman who went on the rampage with a steak knife outside a corner shop because 'another customer was staring at her' has been jailed for 16 months as a judge tells her blades are a 'concerning national issue'.

Carla Couperthwaite chased a man into a convenience store before repeatedly stabbing at the door with the serrated blade.

The sentencing of the 22-year-old comes amid Britain's growing knife crime epidemic, which has seen numerous incidents across the UK in recent weeks.

During the rampage Couperthwaite, from Bolton, spent five minutes trying to get into the store before setting about a second man who happened to be walking down the road.

The second victim was bundled to the ground and appeared to be kicked as Couperthwaite berated him whilst 'frothing at the mouth.'

Police were called to the scene and arrested Couperthwaite at her mother's house nearby. It is thought that neither man was injured.

Couperthwaite who has previous convictions for violence later admitted she had been drinking heavily and said the way the first man had been looking at her was 'troubling.' It is thought she got the knife from her home nearby.

At Bolton Crown Court she was jailed for 16 months after judge Timothy Stead adjourned sentencing so he could examine the blade - saying knife crime in the UK was a 'concerning national issue.'

Carla Couperthwaite (pictured left and right) chased a man into a corner shop before setting on another man who was walking by

He said: 'The current climate amounts to it being mentioned every time you turn on the television news. The knife which features in this case was brought to court and I actually have it in my chambers. It appears to be a steak knife with a serrated blade.

'It appears to be blunted at the end, which is consistent with the defendant's actions where she stabbed the door with force.

He told Couperthwaite: 'You are 22 years old and you have a lengthy record of offences for somebody your age. Heavy drinking and intoxication seem to be a big part of your life and it featured in this offence.

'You pleaded guilty to two offences, one of affray and one of possessing a bladed article in a public place. The CCTV recording of the incident began with a young male running across the road and running into a shop and he must have locked or barricaded the door from the inside as you were unable to gain entry.'

Carla Couperthwaite's sentencing was held at Bolton Crown Court (pictured above)

Couperthwaite (pictured above) has previous convictions for violence and admitted she had been drinking heavily

He added that she had been chasing the man with one arm raised and that she had been holding the knife like a dagger.

'It is a steak knife which has been blunted, which is consistent with you stabbing the door with force.

'You were effectively launching a frightening and ferocious attack on the door to get to this man, fortunately there was another woman trying to calm you down and she managed to get the knife off you.

'You were described as frothing at the mouth and completely out of control. Your attacks on the door were not the end of this offence.'

Couperthwaite pleaded guilty to affray and possessing a bladed article

Couperthwaite's lawyer said she had been through many challenges in her life and had started drinking at the age of 13

Judge Stead said a male stranger had been walking along and had visible reacted to her carrying the knife.

'So you attacked him. You got him to the ground and you can be seen kicking him and stamping at him.

'We do not know what damage you did to this man because he remains a stranger. There is no other option I have but to give you a custodial sentence.'

Couperthwaite (pictured above) said one man was looking at her in a 'troubling way'

The court heard the attack occurred at 6.45pm on February 4 after Couperthwaite had been drinking with friends. She was seen attempting to batter down the door of the shop to get to the first man before turning her attention to another man who was walking past.

She attacked him, pushing him to the ground and appeared to be kicking him, although she did not use the knife on him.

Couperthwaite pleaded guilty to affray and possessing a bladed article.

Her lawyer Nicholas Ross said in mitigation: 'The knife can be described as an eating knife rather than a cutting, kitchen knife. There are no excuses but she now wants to take opportunities.

'The male in question, she felt, had been looking at her on a number of occasions in a manner she felt was troubling. She had seen the man staring at her several times previously. What she did then however has absolutely no excuse. She is ashamed by her conduct.

'She had a number of challenges in her life and had begun drinking at the age of 13 as a way of dealing with lack of self-esteem.'
Christians are facing an alarming rise in persecution, a church group has warned, as it reveals the most dangerous countries in the world to worship the religion.

The international Open Doors organisation has updated its World Watch List of the 50 most dangerous countries to be a Christian.

It expressed concern at the increased strength of Islamic militant groups in countries like Somalia, Libya and Yemen and warned that as extremists were driven out of the Middle East almost 30 fundamentalist groups were relocating to sub-Sharan Africa.

Asif Ashraf Jalali (centre), head of Islamic political party Tehrik Labaik Ya RasoolAllah, condemns the release of Christian mother Asia Bibi after her acquittal on blasphemy charges

The 50 worst places to be Christian Church group Open Doors has updated its World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer persecution. 1 North Korea 2 Afghanistan 3 Somalia 4 Libya 5 Pakistan 6 Sudan 7 Eritrea 8 Yemen 9 Iran 10 India 11 Syria 12 Nigeria 13 Iraq 14 Maldives 15 Saudi Arabia 16 Egypt 17 Uzbekistan 18 Myanmar 19 Laos 20 Vietnam 21 Central African Republic 22 Algeria 23 Turkmenistan 24 Mali 25 Mauritania 26 Turkey 27 China 28 Ethiopia 29 Tajikistan 30 Indonesia 31 Jordan 32 Nepal 33 Bhutan 34 Kazakhstan 35 Morocco 36 Brunei 37 Tunisia 38 Qatar 39 Mexico 40 Kenya 41 Russian Federation 42 Malaysia 43 Kuwait 44 Oman 45 United Arab Emirates 46 Sri Lanka 47 Colombia 48 Bangladesh 49 Palestinian Territories 50 Azerbaijan Advertisement

But Syria, where ISIS is close to defeat after eight years of sectarian conflict that has impacted on the country's ancient Christian community, dropped to 11 on the list. Neighbouring Iraq was at number 13.

The group said Nigeria and Pakistan saw the highest levels of violent persecution of Christian.

In Nigeria's Middle Belt region, the report said, decades of climate change, desertification and population growth had fuelled conflict between nomadic Muslim Fulani cattle-herders and Christian farmers.

'The murder of entire families in their homes has led many Christians to claim such attacks amount to a campaign of ethno-religious cleansing,' Open Doors said.

Fears over Pakistan Christians were raised last year after 53-year-old mother Asia Bibi was banned from leaving the country while aquittal on blasphemy charges was reviewed.

Leaders of the Islamist Tehrik Labaik Ya RasoolAllah party demanded her hanging

In Myanmar, where the international focus is on the plight of Rohingya Muslims, Open Doors said that thousands of members of the mostly Christian Karen minority had been killed and 120,000 displaced.

Communist China rose 16 places to 27 on the list after the new Regulations for Religious Affairs came into force in February 2018.

Open Doors said the rules forbid children and youth from hearing sermons, forcing churches to put up signs banning under-18s from services and to close Sunday schools and nurseries.

North Korea tops the list for the 18th year running, where Open Doors claimed 'any faith not placed in the Supreme Leader is a political crime.'

Christian Open Doors said Turkish Presidnet Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been 'stirring up ultra-nationalistic sentiment for some time' which had 'cause difficulties' for Christians there

But the group welcomed the release by the 'stiflingly authoritarian regime' last year of three Korean-American Christians jailed for alleged 'hostile acts' amid the ongoing detente between Washington and Pyongyang.

Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi faced a travel ban while her aquittal on blasphemy charges was reviewed. Islamist parties demanded her execution

Two of them, Tony Kim and Kim Hak-Song, worked at the private Pyongyang University of Science and Technology which is funded by evangelical Christians in the US and China.

Seven of the top 10 countries on Open Doors' list are majority Muslim countries, but the group also blamed nationalist politics for the persecution of Christians.

It accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of 'stirring up ultra-nationalistic sentiment for some time,' which has 'caused added difficulties for Christians in Turkey, especially Evangelicals.'

The World Watch List report also alleged an 'extremist militant Hindu agenda' by Indian President Narendra Modi, leader of the Hindu-first BJP party.

Open Doors said persecution of Indian Christians had 'dramatically increased' since Modi's election in 2014, with the latest annual figures showing that 12,500 individulas and about 100 churches had been attacked, at least 200 people arrested 'solely for their faith' and at least 10 killed.

In his former position as chief minister of Gujarat state, Modi was accused of inciting the 2002 sectarian riots that left at least 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus dead.
The shocking moment a bouncer was forced to defend himself with a bar stool against a group of tourists has been caught on camera.

Onlookers filmed a group of at least five men and women allegedly punch and kick two security guards in the doorway of The Alfred Hotel in the western Sydney suburb of Camperdown on Wednesday night.

Footage showed the two bar employees fend off the group - one of whom is shirtless - for about 40 seconds before one of the bouncers started using the stool to keep them away.

The shocking moment a bouncer was forced to defend himself with a bar stool (pictured) against a group of tourists has been caught on camera

The pub's co-owner Bill Smith told 2GB the group were tourists who had been staying in the nearby area.

They had been asked to leave the venue after becoming rowdy, the co-owner alleged.

He added one of the male members of the group stood outside the front of the venue and would not move on - sparking the fracas.

A New South Wales Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia three people were arrested on Thursday morning following an incident on Missenden Road.

A woman, 19, and two men, 20 and 42, were arrested and charged over the alleged assault of two men aged 27 and 54.

Mr Smith defended his staff's actions, saying they did not deserve what happened to them.

'Our staff acted with all due care to try and stop a situation from escalating.'

'These people need to be charged and face the full brunt of the law.'
are now demanding that the city council install gates on the street

Disgruntled residents of a picturesque street popular with Instagram users are now calling for authorities to restrict access to its cobbled road.

Rue Cremieux in Paris has become a popular landmark for savvy social media users eager to strike a pose against the backdrop of the street's pastel-coloured houses but now the residents of the famous road are taking a stand.

Over the years, thousands of tourists donning fancy dress and elaborate poses have descended upon the street before posting the images on social media with the hashtag #ruecremieux.

Residents on Rue Cremieux in Paris are now calling for gates to be installed on the colourful street

Every year tourists descend upon the street to take quirky poses in front of the pastel-coloured houses

Social media uses are spotted doing a yoga-style handstand before uploading the picture online

One girl poses in the doorway of a house on the Parisian street before posting the image on social media

Another person performs a handstand in front of a pastel-coloured house in an effort to capture the perfect picture

However residents along the Parisian street are now demanding that the city council of the 12th arrondissement install gates to keep out those looking for the perfect Instagram picture during peak hours.

One Rue Cremieux resident told radio station France Info: 'We sit down to eat and just outside we have people taking photos - rappers who take two hours to film a video right beneath the window, or bachelorette parties who scream for an hour.

'Frankly, its exhausting.'

A scroll through the clubcremieux Instagram account reveals an array of different tourists attempting to create the perfect pose along the idyllic street.

One image features a couple performing a yoga-style hand stand while another shows a woman pose on the boot of a car with a violin.

One woman holds a violin as she poses on the boot of a convertible car while her friend takes a picture

Another social media user performs a curved handstand as she poses on the picturesque street

A person poses for the perfect picture along the picturesque Parisian street between Rue de Lyon and Rue de Berc

In another picture, a group of dancers can be seen performing a routine as amused passers-by walk past.

The colourful street, situated between Rue de Lyon and Rue de Berc, is 144 metres in length and is bordered by small houses painted in pastel colours.

The popular street was named after the French lawyer and politician Adolphe Cremieux.
A loving young woman bashed to death by her boyfriend in her Sydney apartment had no chance of surviving his 'insane jealousy' and 'utter contempt for women', her mother says.

Rhonda Baker's family broke down in court on Friday, also International Women's Day, as they detailed the profound loss of their daughter, granddaughter, niece, cousin, workmate, aunty and sister.

The 26-year-old was murdered by Onitolosi Etuini Atiai Latu in Liverpool in August 2016.

Rhonda Baker (pictured), bashed to death by her boyfriend Onitolosi Etuini Atiai Latu in her Sydney apartment, had no chance of surviving his 'insane jealousy' and 'utter contempt for women', her mother says.

Latu's NSW Supreme Court trial heard he had sent emails threatening to 'cave' his girlfriend's head in prior to her death.

The 30-year-old has a history of violence towards women and had once karate-kicked another female partner unconscious.

'A partner's role is to care and love but instead she suffered a life of constant abuse, harm and threatening behaviour,' Rhonda's mother, Darcel Baker, read from her victim impact statement on Friday.

'She had no chance of ever surviving. She lived in constant fear not only for herself but that of her family.'

Latu, found guilty of murder by a jury in December, did not react as Ms Baker's mother wept loudly.

'Our daughter was ridiculed by him because of his insane jealousy towards her. To me, his infidelity and arrogance towards my daughter shows his utter contempt for women in general,' she said through tears.

Her firstborn daughter was found unconscious, not breathing and had no pulse when help arrived after Latu made a triple-zero call from the apartment.

She had fluid frothing from her mouth, a bleeding nose, facial fractures, broken ribs and various other injuries.

Baker was bashed to death by Onitolosi Etuini Atiai Latu (pictured) in Liverpool in August 2016

Latu's NSW Supreme Court trial heard he had sent emails threatening to 'cave' his girlfriend's head in prior to her death

Latu told emergency services she had been 'jumped' and then had a seizure as he asked what had happened.

Ms Baker suffered a serious brain injury and died in hospital on August 7.

The jury heard evidence she regularly took sick days off work but would return with facial bruises and swelling.

One friend testified Ms Baker had said she couldn't leave Latu unless she knew he was going to jail for 'a very long time' because otherwise 'he would find her and hurt her'.

Ms Baker's father, Tim Tetava, described her as an easygoing and 'undemanding' girl who never complained.

She was the first to call him on his birthday, loved spaghetti and would join him for dinners every week.

'Since she died I realise she avoided telling me the bad things that were happening in their relationship,' Mr Tetava said in his statement.

He said it's hard to accept his daughter was 'gone forever' while Latu was still alive.

'I hope we get justice and he serves a long sentence. I am worried for the safety of the community,' he said.

Tamania Stampoulis said she was 'tormented with disbelief' at the death of her older sister and 'second mother'.

Latu's sentence hearing before Justice Julia Lonergan will resume in May.
Thousands of pilgrims are travelling to western India to take part in a Sufi Muslim festival which sees followers perform bizarre self-torture acts.

Sufi holy men can be seen poking out their eyeballs with swords or piercing their tongues with metal stick to mark the death anniversary of the saint that established their branch of Islam.

The Urs Festival celebrates Moinuddin Chishti, who founded the Chishtiya Sufi order around 800 years ago.

An Indian Muslim devotee performs a stunt by using a knife to bulge out his eyeball as he takes part in a religious procession for the annual Urs festival at the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, in the Indian state of Rajasthan

Devotion: Another man has pierced his tongue with a metal stick and seen cash notes stuck onto it during the procession

The Urs Festival celebrates Moinuddin Chishti, who founded the Chishtiya Sufi order around 800 years ago

The religious procession through the city of Ajmer, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, is part of the six-day long celebration of the saint.

Unlike other branches of Islam, Sufis devote themselves to particular saints - a concept other strands of Islam do not recognise.

It traces its principles from the prophet Muhammad through his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib.

Sufis believe that they are practising ihsan [perfection of worship]' as revealed by the Archangel Gabriel to Muhammad.

Sufi Muslims consider themselves as the original true proponents of a pure and original form of Islam.

Thousands of Sufi devotees from different parts of India travel to the shrine for the annual festival, marking the death anniversary of the Sufi saint
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This is the incredible moment a deep sea diver escaped being feasted on by a Bryde whale after he was sucked into the large mammal's mouth.

Director of Dive Expert Tours Rainer Schimpf, 51, from South Africa, had set off with his team of divers to document a sardine run when events took a surprising turn off Port Elizabeth Harbour, east of Cape Town.

In a situation reminiscent to the Old Testament's Jonah and the whale, Mr Schimpf was left facing a potentially fatal outcome as he entered the inside of the large creature's mouth.

Mr Schimpf and his team, who had split into two groups, had been documenting a natural event which sees the likes of gannets, penguins, seals, dolphins, whales and sharks come together to capture large quantities of fish.

Deep sea diver and dive tour operator Rainer Schimpf, 51, from South Africa, is sucked into the mouth of a Bryde whale along Port Elizabeth Harbour

The dive tour operator is sucked into the mamma's mouth as he is documenting a sardine run along the eastern coast of South Africa

Mr Schimpf is left facing the inside of the large whale's mouth as he and his team set out to document an event which sees sea creatures gather fish into bait balls

Diver Rainer Schimpf told Barcroft TV : 'I could feel the pressure on my hip, there is no time for fear in a situation like that  you have to use your instinct'

The team were 25 nautical miles from shore when the sea suddenly began to churn and Mr Schimpf was swallowed into the mouth of the beast like the Bible's Jonah.

During the biblical story, Jonah is tossed into the water during a storm and stuck in the belly of the beast for three days before he is thrown up onto the shores of Nineveh.

Following the incredible incident, Mr Schimpf told Barcroft TV that he had been trying to film a shark going through a bait ball when his surroundings suddenly became dark and he felt the large whale grab hold of his body.

He told Barcroft TV: 'I could feel the pressure on my hip, there is no time for fear in a situation like that  you have to use your instinct.'

Mr Schimpf added: 'Nothing can actually prepare you for the event when you end up inside the whale  it's pure instinct.

'I held my breath because I thought he is going to dive down and release me much deeper in the ocean, it was pitch black inside.'

As the experienced diver, who has been a dive tour operator for more than 15 years, was sucked into the whale's mouth, his colleague and photographer Heinz Toperczer kept the camera focused on Mr Schimpf and watched on in horror from the team's boat.

Photographer Heinz Toperczer kept the camera focused on Mr Schimpf and watched on in horror from the team's boat

As Mr Schimpf tried to capture footage of a shark he could feel the water around him churn and felt the large mammal grab hold of him

The Bryde whale slashes around in the water as it accidentally sucks diver Rainer Schimpf into its mouth off the coast of South Africa

Mr Schimpf and his team in the ocean after the diver is released from the Bryde Whale's mouth. The team had set out to the harbour to document a sardine run

He later described how he saw dolphins leap out of the water and a white spray erupt from the top of the whale as his colleague was swallowed by the sea animal.

After being spewed out of the creature's mouth, Mr Schimpf was able to swim back to his boat unharmed.

Bryde Whales are known to grow up to 40-55 feet in length and are typically found in Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific ocean.

The whales are usually dark grey and can dive to depths of 300 metres.
Chuka Umunna today published a manifesto featuring means tested tuition fees and extra taxes to pay for the NHS.

The 50-page pamphlet sets out a raft of policy ideas which Mr Umunna says are based around six 'progressive' values.

The MP for Streatham insisted it was a 'personal' manifesto and not one agreed by the new Independent Group - but said the other 10 MPs on the group did back much of the document.

Mr Umunna was appointed 'spokesman' for the new group last week but is not yet its formally its leader - despite his role organising the shock defections.

Chuka Umunna (pictured on Tuesday at the Electoral Commission today published a manifesto featuring means tested tuition fees and extra taxes to pay for the NHS

Mr Umunna told the Independent his ideas were based on six key values and principles  'unity, reciprocity, work, family and community, democracy and patriotic internationalism'.

He said: 'Our departure from the status quo parties was in part framed by reference to what we were against and what we disliked both about the policies and the cultures of what we had left.

'This pamphlet sets out what I think those who subscribe to progressive politics are actually for.'

Mr Umunna said the other members 'agree with much of what I have written', but stressed: 'This pamphlet is written in a personal capacity and deliberately so.'

In his seven point plan, Mr Umunna proposes:

Means testing tuition fees to help students from low income families get to university. He opposes axing all tuition fees because it would be a 'waste of money'

A hypothecated tax to raise extra money specifically for the NHS

Mandatory citizen's service for school leavers to tackle 'social apartheid' in the UK

Cracking down on excessive board room pay

Reforming utilities by creating 'public benefit companies' that enshrine public purposes in privatised firms

Reforming the tax system so unearned income is taxed at the same rate as wages with the extra revenue diverted to universal child care

Public funding for political parties to deter big money donors and malign influence from Britain's democracy

The MP for Streatham insisted it was a 'personal' manifesto and not one agreed by the new Independent Group (pictured at their first formal meeting last week) - but said the other 10 MPs on the group did back much of the document

Mr Umunna said: 'It is time we dump this country's old-fashioned politics and create a new politics that does justice to who we are today and gives this country a politics fit for the 21st century, not the last one.

'A politics that looks, listens and learns from ideas and experience elsewhere in the world to better inform the course we take at home.'

TIG has eight former Labour MPs including Mr Umunna and three ex-Tories.

In a call for more to join them, Mr Umunna said: 'The truth is too many progressive people are sitting in parties which, through those parties' words and deeds, are no longer true to their values.

'This leads to the inescapable conclusion that our politics needs to be reconfigured to better reflect modern Britain and that it is time for the different progressive political traditions to come together under one roof - a new progressive party.'
A never-before-seen letter from a grieving Queen Victoria to poet Alfred Lord Tennyson about the loss of her son and husband will go on sale.

The mourning monarch wrote of her 'terrible sorrows' three days after her youngest and favourite son Prince Leopold was killed in an accident in 1884.

The two-page folded letter - which is in its original envelope - will be sold at Swann Auction Galleries, New York, on March 21 and is expected to sell for around 3,000.

Queen Victoria's letter (pictured) to Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson is to be sold at Swann Auction Galleries in New York. The letter, dating from March 31, 1884, details Victoria's grieving at the death of her son Prince Leopold three days earlier

In the letter, written from Windsor Castle, she said: 'But tho' all happiness is at an end for me in this world, I am ready to fight on, praying that I may be supported in bearing my heavy cross. 'All these terrible sorrows show us, however, truly and really that here is not our abiding home!'

Alfred Lord Tennyson (pictured), who is best known for his poem The Charge Of The Light Brigade, was a close friend of Victoria and Prince Albert. It was Albert who lobbied for Tennyson to be made Poet Laureate, which was granted in 1850 after the death of William Wordsworth. Tennyson held the post until 1892 - the longest tenure of any laureate

In the letter to the Poet Laureate, written from Windsor Castle, Victoria wrote: 'Almost all I needed most to lean on are taken from me!

'But tho' all happiness is at an end for me in this world, I am ready to fight on, praying that I may be supported in bearing my heavy cross.

'All these terrible sorrows show us, however, truly and really that here is not our abiding home!'

On Leopold's death and vowing to carry on as Queen, she added: 'It is very hard to see such a young life, so full of talent, so gifted and so useful cut off so soon.

'While I live, I shall devote myself to the good of my dear country, who has on all occasions of sorrow shown such sympathy with me.'

Prince Leopold (pictured) was Victoria's youngest and favourite son. But he died on March 28, 1884, after he fell and hit his head. He had haemophilia and was sent to the south of France by doctors. His fall caused a cerebral haemorrhage and he died aged 30

Prince Albert is believed to have died of typhoid 23 years before Victoria penned the letter, but she was still grieving.

At that time she had taken solace in Tennyson's 1850 poem In Memoriam - which he wrote after the death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam.

Victoria and Albert were very close to Tennyson - who is best known for The Charge Of The Light Brigade - and Albert had lobbied for Tennyson to become Poet Laureate in 1850.

Victoria, who became known as the 'Widow of Windsor', met Tennyson in 1883 when she told him how helpful his work had been to her.

But less than a year later she turned to him as a shoulder to cry on following Leopold's death.

The intellectual prince, who had been a mentee to Tennyson, suffered from haemophilia and in February 1884 he went to the south of France on doctor's orders.

In the letter Victoria was still grieving over the death of her husband Prince Albert (pictured) despite it being 23 years later. It is believe the prince died of typhoid in 1861. To help get over the death, Victoria sought solace in Tennyson's poem In Memoriam, which was published in 1850 and about the death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam

A month later he fell, hit his head and died from cerebral haemorrhage aged 30.

She turned to Tennyson three days later in the letter, which is dated March 31, 1884.

Little is known about its origin, but in 1980 it was bought by an Oxfordshire book dealer.

It was then sold to a private collector based in Massachusetts who kept it for nearly 40 years.

Victoria pictured with her family. From left to right: Alice, Arthur (later Duke of Connaught), The Prince Consort (Albert), The Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), Leopold (in front of the Prince of Wales), Louise, Queen Victoria with Beatrice on her knee, Alfred (later Duke of Edinburgh), The Princess Royal (Victoria) and Helena

Ivan MacQuisten, a consultant for Swann Auction Galleries, said: 'This letter appearing now brings back into the public limelight one of the more interesting members of the Royal Family.

'Because Leopold died so young and he was never going to be king, he disappeared from the public's consciousness.

'But he was very close to his mother and she called him her favourite son. He was particularly bright and this was something that Tennyson recognised in him.

'Victoria was very taken with Tennyson. When Albert died everybody knows how bereft she was and she told Tennyson that 'In Memoriam' really comforted her.

'You can see in her letter that, bearing in mind it was over 20 years after Albert's death, she was still referring to her loss.

'It was written three days after Leopold's death and was probably in response to a letter of condolence sent from Tennyson.

'The letter shows that grief was a massive part of her life but also she accepted her fate in life which was devoted to the god of her country.

'The letter is completely new to me. I don't pretend to be a scholar in this field but I have been in the industry for many years and I have not seen any mention of this letter before.'
A Chinese zookeeper has been spotted violently tossing bamboo shoots at a panda during feeding time instead of giving the food to the animal gently.

The shocking footage, filmed on Wednesday and released by BJ News, shows only one of the many cases, in which the popular Chengdu Zoo has abused two giant pandas aged 27 and 29, according to visitors.

Visitors has also accused the park of illegally displaying the two elderly pandas as a relevant regulation has banned pandas above the age of 25 from being shown in public.

A zookeeper at China's Chengdu Zoo has been caught chucking bamboo shoots at a panda

The bamboo hits 29-year-old Ya Ya hard. The female panda is about 87 years old in human age

'Elderly pandas should not be exhibited. But these two (pandas) have to receive many tourists every day at the Chengdu Zoo and lead a very hard life,' one visitor, known by her surname Lv, told BJ News.

One year for panda equals to about three years for a human.

This means the 27-year-old panda, named Li Li, and the 29-year-old panda, named Ya Ya, are in their 80s in human age. They are among four giant pandas kept at the panda pavilion in Chengdu Zoo.

As a way to protect the precious animals, pandas under the age of two and above the age of 25 are not allowed to be loaned by China's state-run panda breeding centres to other organisations in the country and exhibited in public, according to a regulation from the country's National Forestry Bureau.

Ya Ya is pictured with her fifth cub in January, 2016, after giving birth to it in Chongqing Zoo

The visitor, Ms Lv, also accused the zoo of providing 'hard food' to Ya Ya, resulting her to have serious wounds in her mouth after being forced to eat the meals.

'Ya Ya has given birth to 12 cubs and nursed many other cubs in her life. I think a "heroic mother" like her should be looked after well in her later years,' Ms Lv said.

In response to the allegations, the director of Chengdu Zoo told BJ News that Chengdu Zoo and Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding - where the two pandas belong to - had been run by the same organisation; therefore the two pandas should not be subjected to the national 'panda-loaning' regulation.

However, Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding did not appear to agree with the zoo's explanation. A spokesperson from the research base said the pandas were on loan, but she failed to explain why they were still on loan at such old ages.

In an online statement yesterday, the research base said it had transferred Ya Ya from the zoo to a 'care home'. The statement said a physical examination had been given to Ya Ya, which showed the panda had good health.

The base, which looks after 152 pandas as of 2015, said it had also sent a team of experts to the zoo to provide physical care to the other pandas and observe their living condition.





It remains unclear if 27-year-old Li Li would be moved too.





The giant panda was shifted off the endangered species list in 2016 by The International Union for Conservation of Nature after years of intensive conservation efforts led by Chinese experts.





However, Chinese panda breeding centres which are all run by the country have been accused of animal cruelty in the past.
A mother monkey is seen refusing to leave the lifeless body of its baby in the wilderness in south-west China.

The heart-wrenching moment was filmed on Thursday by visitors on Emei Mountain, an extremely popular tourist destination in Sichuan province.

The distraught mother was seen cradling the dead monkey in her arms as she forages for food near the visitor's trail on the mountainside.

The distraught mother monkey was seen cradling the dead baby in her arms as she forages for food near the visitor's trail on the mountainside on Emei Mountain, in Sichuan province

The mother's display of grief was also captured in another clip, showing it sitting helplessly on the snow-covered ground with the carcass of her baby next to it

The baby had died shortly after it was born, a site employee told Beijing News.

The mourning mother was filmed pacing back and forth in the cold as she carefully held the motionless baby in her arm, refusing to put in down.

The mother's display of grief was also captured in another clip, showing it sitting helplessly on the snow-covered ground with the carcass of her baby next to it.

The baby had died shortly after it was born, a site employee told Beijing News

The mourning mother was filmed on Thursday pacing back and forth in the cold as she carefully held the motionless baby in her arm, refusing to put in down

The employee, surnamed Chen, said the baby died of natural causes after birth.

'Sometimes animals are known to carry their dead offspring, perhaps to get over the loss,' he added.

'The mother monkey has been carrying it with her around the mountain. Only when the carcass starts to decay would she go and bury it,' Chen said.

Last August, a killer whale was spotted carrying her dead calf on her back for 17 days off the shore of Vancouver Island in Canada, the longest period of mourning on record for any orca.

Net users, many of them animal lovers, were saddened by the incident.

'Sometimes animals are known to carry their dead offspring, perhaps to get over the loss,' an employee said, adding that she would only bury the baby when it started to decay

Located near the provincial capital of Chengdu, Mount Emei, or Emeishan, is a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of China's sacred Buddhist mountains

Its famed Golden Summit (pictured) is 3,077 meters (10,000 feet) above sea level and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year

'This is the power of a mother's love,' one person commented on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.

'Is she waiting for her baby to wake up? This is so sad,' another user said.

'Sometimes animals show more devotion and commitment than humans do,' one added.

Located near the provincial capital of Chengdu, Mount Emei is a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of China's sacred Buddhist mountains.

Its famed Golden Summit is 3,077 meters (10,000 feet) above sea level and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.
A man covered in blood walked into a Pennsylvania hospital and told staffers he had just fatally stabbed his boyfriend during an argument about their relationship.

Manheim Township police say 30-year-old Matthew Van Zandt is charged with homicide in the death of 31-year-old Ian Shannon, whose body was found Wednesday in a Lancaster home.

Authorities say Van Zandt walked into St Luke's Hospital in Allentown early Wednesday seeking a treatment for a cut on his hand and told an emergency room nurse about the slaying.

Domestic violence: Matthew Van Zandt, 30 (left), has been charged with homicide in the stabbing death of his boyfriend, 31-year-old Ian Shannon (right)

Police found Shannon naked on a bed inside his and Van Zandt's home on Dickens Drive in Manheim Township, Pennsylvania

The nurse described Van Zandt as being 'saturated in blood,' which he said was not his and came from a dead person, recorded WFMZ citing police records.

Police say he also told a hospital security guard that the knife he used in the killing was in his backpack.

Authorities had gone to the Lancaster home in the 400 block of Dickens Drive shortly before 1am Wednesday for a reported domestic dispute but got no response at the residence and left.

They returned more than two hours later after learning of Van Zandt's confession and found Shannon lying naked on a bed. The room where the crime took place was said to be awash in blood.

According to police, the victim was 'obviously deceased,' having been stabbed and slashed 'numerous' times.

Van Zandt confessed to killing Shannon (left), telling police the man mocked him during an argument about their relationship, which the suspect had wanted to end

Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Steadman told Fox43 that prior to the attack, VanZandt and Shannon had an argument concerning their impending breakup.

The neighbor who made the initial domestic disturbance report told officers at the scene that he heard loud screams. He also said that Shannon and Van Zandt had a history of disputes.

When interviewed by police following his arrest, Van Zandt confirmed that earlier that morning, he told his boyfriend he wanted to end their relationship, according to a criminal complaint cited by PennLive.com. In response, he said Shannon began mocking him, which led Van Zandt to grab a pocket knife and stab his partner in the face, neck and torso.

Shannon was a superfan of the rock band Third Eye Blind, whose members on Wednesday posted a message on social media mourning his death

The officer who conducted the interview described Van Zandt as 'calm and monotone.'

Wednesday's arrest was not Van Zandt's first run-in with the law: court records indicate that in the past he was picked up on charges of shoplifting, DUI and disorderly conduct.

Shannon was a superfan of the rock band Third Eye Blind, and on Wednesday the group posted a message on Facebook mourning his death.

'Today our community is struck with grief,' the post read. 'Ian Shannon wasnt just a fan or an expert - he is Third Eye Blind. Ian traveled all over the United States to see us play, always front row. Thank you Ian for bringing so much love to us and our community. We will remember you forever.'
A teenager who gatecrashed an 18th birthday party and stabbed the 19-year-old who asked him to leave has been warned to expect a 'significant' prison sentence.

Sheryar Newaz, 19, was just 17 years old when he stabbed his victim and left his intestines hanging out of his abdomen.

A Hull Crown Court jury took five and a half hours to find Newaz guilty of wounding with intent after his victim described the 'gruesome' sight of his own intestines leaving his body when he was stabbed near Pocklington, Yorkshire, on Halloween 2017.

Sheryar Nawaz, 19, stabbed his victim in the abdomen after he asked him to leave the 18th birthday party in Pocklington, Yorkshire

He threw up in the ambulance on the way to the hospital as he watched the 'yellow, fatty tissue' of his intestines 'come out even more and more', the victim told the jury.

He spent a week in hospital and had major bowel surgery.

Nawaz stood in the dock and showed no emotion as the foreman of the jury announced the guilty verdict by a majority of 10 to two - although sobs could be heard from the public gallery.

His barrister, Abdul Iqbal QC, did not ask for more time for a probation service report but the judge ordered the report due to Nawaz's age when he committed the crime.

Nawaz had told the jury he was asked to go to the party, at a detached house near Warter, by two friends, one of whom had been invited by a girl. Prosecutors described Nawaz wearing 'bling', including a silver chain around his neck

Turning to the defendant Judge Mark Bury said: 'Sheryar Khan Nawaz, stand up.

'You have been convicted of wounding [the victim] unlawfully with the intent of causing him grievous bodily harm. A serious aggravating feature here is that you took a knife to a party.

'The result of this, unfortunately for you, is a significant sentence of imprisonment.

'But because you are 19 now and you were only 17 at the time, and you have no record and I have heard something about you in the trial to suggest you have a positive character, it wouldn't be fair to you, in my view, to sentence you without a report prepared by the probation service.

'But you must understand that the consequences of this conviction are that only a sentence of immediate imprisonment, or custody in your case because of your age, is going to be passed. In the circumstances your bail is revoked and you are remanded into custody. Go with the dock officer please.'

The judge then thanked the jury for their service, calling it a 'harrowing' case.

The victim had been one of about 100 guests aged between 15 and 19 who all had connections to Pocklington school.

Nawaz had told the jury he was asked to go to the party, at a detached house near Warter, by two friends, one of whom had been invited by a girl.

The victim said the three men from Hull stood out because they 'were all wearing tracksuits', while everyone else wore 'smart, casual clothing'.

Prosecutors described Nawaz wearing 'bling', including a silver chain around his neck.

The victim said he and another guest were asked to tell the men to leave after rumours surfaced they were carrying knives.

Co-defendant Kieran Mortimer, 18, of Worcestor Road, west Hull, had earlier been found not guilty of affray by unanimous verdict

He said Nawaz, who he did not know at the time, became 'quite aggressive' and pushed him in the chest, so he pushed him back. He said Nawaz then stabbed him in the abdomen after putting his right hand behind his back.

He said he felt 'a lot of pain' and 'looked down, lifted my T-shirt and saw a lump of yellow, fatty tissue hanging out'. He said he was 'very lucky' the host's father, a doctor, was there because 'I literally thought I was going to die'.

The victim threw up in the ambulance after seeing his intestines 'come out even more and more'. He identified Nawaz on Facebook the day after his operation.

Co-defendant Kieran Mortimer, 18, of Worcestor Road, west Hull, had earlier been found not guilty of affray by unanimous verdict.

A third defendant, Rami Omar, 21, who arrived at the party later, was found not guilty of affray earlier in the trial on the directions of Judge Bury.

Almost at the same time the verdicts were being delivered, police in London announced the death of a teenager in West Kensington, who was found with multiple stab wounds to the chest.

Another man also died on Thursday from wounds suffered during a knife attack in the capital on Sunday.
An asylum seeker on Nauru was sent to Taiwan to have kidney stones removed last year on a private jet - costing the Australian taxpayer $300,000.

Nisar Haji stayed for three months on the island for the operation - and was flown there and back on a privately chartered Gulfstream plane.

The Indian refugee's Facebook account shows him relaxing on board the luxurious aircraft on both legs of his trip.

Nisar Haji, a refugee on Nauru (pictured) was sent to Taiwan to have kidney stones removed last year on a private jet - costing the Australian taxpayer $300,000

On the return flight, he could be seen enjoying full access to the jet's mini-bar.

At the end of Mr Haji's time in Taiwan, he enjoyed holiday-like adventures around some of the island's top sights, according to The Courier Mail.

He was pictured at a famous rock formation in Yeh Liu Geo Park near the capital Taipei and at a zoo, and was seen taking in other tourist attractions.

The hospital where Mr Haji was put up for his surgery costs between $300-$400 a day, according to its International Priority Care Centre's rates.

His situation is not a one-off, with other refugees taken overseas for medical treatment instead of to the Australian mainland.

Mr Haji stayed for three months on the island to have his kidney stones removed, and was flown there and back on the privately chartered Gulfstream plane (inside of plane cabin pictured)

At the end of Nisar Haji's time in Taiwan, he enjoyed a holiday-like jaunt around some of the island's top sights

It is understood the man is still on Nauru and does not want to go back to India.

A Home Affairs spokesperson said they would not comment on an individual case.

The revelations come less than a month after Labor's medevac bill passed through parliament, allowing asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island to be medically evacuated to the Australian mainland on the advice of two doctors.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed those asylum seekers needing medical treatment but who were deemed a threat to Australia would be sent to Christmas Island rather than the mainland.

That category is believed to apply to a group that includes 57 men, of which some have allegedly been charged with murder, inappropriate behaviour or terrorist activity.

He was pictured at a famous rock formation in Yeh Liu Geo Park near the capital Taipei, at a zoo and taking in other tourist attractions

It is understood the Indian man (pictured) is still on Nauru and does not want to go back to India
A New York police officer who ran a heroin-trafficking ring with her boyfriend out of their Bronx apartment has been found guilty by a federal jury.

Yessenia Jimenez, 32, described as 'a drug dealer in a cop's uniform' by prosecutors, was unanimously convicted on Thursday after a one week trial in a Manhattan court.

The jury heard how she and her boyfriend Luis Soto, 35, stashed kilos of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine inside their Bronx apartment, as well as hundreds of thousands dollars in drug money.

Yessenia Jimenez, 32, was found guilty on Thursday of conspiracy to distribute heroin, possession of heroin and using and carrying a firearm in relation to heroin trafficking

Jimenez and her boyfriend, Luis Soto, turned their Bronx apartment into a drug stash house

Their expansive operation, which spanned Mexico, Boston and New York, began to unravel in January 2018, when authorities seized over $70,000 in cash from a suspected drug dealer in Queens.

A search of the suspect's cell phone revealed the phone number of a person authorities say is a known drug trafficker in Mexico.

Text messages from the Mexican contact contained Soto's phone number.

After federal agents learned of Soto's identity, they conducted surveillance operations outside of his Bronx apartment.

During the course of their investigation, they learned Soto was living with Jimenez, who had been working as an officer for the NYPD since 2015.

In March, DEA and NYPD officers stationed outside the couple's home found them returning at 2.00am from a meeting with a Massachusetts heroin trafficker.

In an effort to explain the NYPD-issue Glock 9-mm and $25,000 cash in her purse, Jiminez told officers she was 'on the job' - or conducting official police business.

The couple were carrying a total of $50,000 cash. Soto was detained, following which agents obtained a search warrant for the apartment.

A a months-long investigation into heroin trafficking led them to Jimenez and Soto, who ran an operation that spanned two states

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: 'As proven at trial, Yessenia Jimenez, an NYPD officer, trafficked heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine in New York City, a city she took an oath to serve and protect, and used her NYPD service firearm to carry out her drug dealing.

'Simply put, Jimenez was a drug dealer in a cop's uniform. Thankfully, Jimenez now stands convicted and faces at least 15 years in prison.'

Soto and four other members of the operation pleaded guilty.

The DEA first learned of Jimenez and Soto in January 2018, when authorities seized over $70,000 in cash from a suspected drug dealer in Queens

At the time of the arrest, NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said in a statement the arrest and allegations are troubling.

'Cops are charged with enforcing the law, not breaking it,' the commissioner said.

'Today's arrest - for serious allegations of trafficking heroin - are troubling.'

Both Jimenez and Soto were charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin, possession of heroin, possession of at least 100 grams of heroin with intent to distribute, and using and carrying a firearm in relation to their heroin trafficking.
President Donald Trump is plowing ahead with his national emergency on the border, despite a looming Senate vote to terminate it and multiple court challenges.

The president taunted his critics in a Friday morning tweet that borrowed on the former construction boss' longtime mantra.

'The Wall is being built and is well under construction. Big impact will be made. Many additional contracts are close to being signed. Far ahead of schedule despite all of the Democrat Obstruction and Fake News!' he said.

President Donald Trump is plowing ahead with his national emergency on the border, despite a looming Senate vote to terminate it and multiple court challenges

The president will issue the first veto of his presidency to prevent Congress from interfering in his border wall construction

Later, as he left the White House the president predicted he would do 'very well' in next week's vote in the upper chamber on his emergency powers.

'The border -- we're doing a great job. We're apprehending record numbers of people -- 75,000 over the last short period of time,' the president told a reporter who asked about the potential for an ironclad vote that leaves no room for a veto override. 'That's a lot of work. And with a wall, we wouldn't have to do it.'

Democrats in the House passed a resolution revoking Trump's emergency with the support of 13 Republicans, many of whom believe the president surpassed his authority when he unilaterally decided to tap into $8 billion of federal funds to build his wall.

The bill is set to come before the Senate by the end of next week, before the next congressional recess.

Four GOP senators have declared their intentions to support the legislation. Combined with the chamber's 47 Democrats, the ayes will have it.

More could join the rebellion, GOP Sen. Rand Paul said on Monday. He predicted at least 10 of his colleagues would defect.

Paul said that he was voting for the resolution, because he believes Trump took extra-constitutional action when he reprogrammed the funds against the will of Congress.

Trump shrugged off the rising rebellion on Friday afternoon as he spoke to reporters.

'No, I think we're doing fine in Congress. They understand it's an emergency,' he said.

The president will necessarially have to issue the first veto of his presidency to prevent Congress from interfering in the border wall construction. Dissenters do not currently have the two-thirds support in the House and the Senate that the Constitution requires for lawmakers to override him.
The UK's court system ground to a halt for at least four and a half hours yesterday due to a 'software problem'.

Courts in Teesside, Liverpool, Manchester, York and the Old Bailey in London were among more than 20 that could not operate normally, according to the Criminal Bar Association.

The technology disaster, which disrupted trials and sentencing hearings, comes as courts faced a complete IT outage six weeks ago when the system was updated.

IT systems in at least 26 courts across the country, including Liverpool (pictured), were affected by the blackout

A spokesman for the Criminal Bar Association, which represents practising lawyers, said: 'We first heard about problems in Teesside at 11.30am, and then suddenly from all over the place.

Courts affected, according to the Criminal Bar Association 1. Harrow 2. Snaresbrook 3. Teesside 4. Kingston 5. Woolwich 6. Warwick 7. Liverpool 8. Reading 9. Wood Green 10. Inner London 11. Birmingham 12. Isleworth 13. Nottingham 14. Manchester 15. York 16. Carlisle 17. Sheffield 18. Norwich 19. Basildon 20. Southwark 21. Exeter 22. Norwich 23. Basildon 24. Bradford 25. Northants 26. Belfast Advertisement

'They were simply unable to log onto the Digital Case system. That is the equivalent of walking in and being told that some one has taken all your records, locked them in the cupboard and lost the key.'

When court workers tried to log on to the system, they were met with a message that said: 'We are aware of users experiencing slowness when using DCS.

'Our suppliers are investigating as a priority. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.'

The IT system started working again from 4pm. There have only been further IT problems in Croydon today.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service wrote on Twitter: 'We are aware that some users are experiencing issues with our Digital Case System.

'Our supplier is working hard to fix this and well update you once the issue has been resolved. Were sorry for the disruption. Wifi remains unaffected.'

'Our supplier has made some changes and the vast majority of DCS users should already be seeing an improvement. Users are being asked to restart DCS as work continues to fully resolve the problem.'

At 3pm they advised users to log out and log back into the system, as they had made some changes to fix the problem.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: 'We are not aware that there are any issues today.

'It was a software problem that affected users.'

The outage may have affected victims of crime the most, who would have taken time off work to come to court and find closure on what they had experienced, according to the Criminal Bar Association.

The IT failure comes just six weeks after 75,000 lawyers and judges were locked out of their emails in a court update glitch.

The government announced this week that the completion of its 1billion court modernisation programme has been delayed until 2023.

The Ministry of Justice budget is due to have another 300million shaved off it this year, bringing the total to 6billion, having already suffered budget reductions in previous years.
An inmate with a number of facial tattoos who escaped from a California detention center on Thursday has been rearrested at a house in San Bernardino.

After receiving information Friday morning, deputies from the Specialized Enforcement Division surrounded the location and Mario Abraham Tafoya, 19, was taken into custody without incident.

Tafoya was held at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga when he disappeared at around 3.20pm, Thursday.

He was seen running, without his shoes, in a north-east direction in the area of Etiwanda Avenue and 6, according to the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department.

Mario Abraham Tafoya, 19, was being held at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga when he escaped on Thursday

Tafoya was initially arrested on January 31 for assault with a deadly weapon and evading police/disregard for public safety.

'Deputies from the Specialized Enforcement Division, Specialized Investigations Division, Sheriff's Aviation and K9 Units assisted in the search,' according to a police statement.

The 19-year-old is said to be transient. He is known to frequent the areas of San Bernardino, Redlands and Highland.

Tafoya escaped from the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga



Police described him as Hispanic, 5'6'', 152 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes.

Tafoya has a number of facial tattoos on his cheeks, jaw and forehead.

He will now be transported to West Valley Detention Center and booked for the escape.
The wartime diary of a Nazi officer which claims hundreds of trucks filled with gold, looted art and valuables are hidden across Poland has been unveiled.

The diary, written by SS officer Egon Ollenhauer, claims Adolf Hitler ordered 260 trucks laden with treasures to be hidden away in 11 locations in Poland to keep them safe from the advancing Soviet Red Army.

Ollenhauer was a key figure in the operation, acting as a link between other SS officers and local aristocrats who wanted to hide their treasures from the Red Army.

Claims: The diary, written by SS officer Egon Ollenhauer, claims Adolf Hitler ordered 260 trucks laden with gold, looted treasure and valuables to be hidden in 11 locations in Poland

According to the diary, which for decades was held by a 1,100-year old masonic lodge in the German town of Quedlinburger, the treasures were taken to 11 locations in Poland.

One location is said to contain 28 tonnes of gold from a branch of the Reichsbank in what was then Breslau, now the Polish city of Wroclaw.

Other locations contain gold coins, medals, jewellery and valuables given to local Nazis by wealthy people for safekeeping.

The diary also says one cache contains 47 works of art thought to be stolen from collections in France, including works by Botticelli, Rubens, Cezanne, Carravagio, Monet, Durer, Raffael and Rembrandt.

And another stash is said to contain religious objects stolen from around the world in an attempt to find evidence for Hitler's racial theories.

Roman Furmaniak from the Schlesische Brucke (Silesian Bridge) Foundation which now owns the diary told thefirstnews.com: 'About ten years ago, after many discussions, the Quedlinburger lodge decided to hand the diary to the foundation.

Unveiling: The diary had been kept by a Freemasons' lodge in Germany for decades, but has now been unveiled

'We are releasing information about the diary now as we wanted to wait until all persons who could be connected to the events and the diary had passed away, particularly officers of the Waffen SS. This was the wish of the Quedlinburger lodge.'

Furmaniak said that the diary's authenticity has been verified by five institutions in Germany, including the Department of Art History at the University of Gottingen.

He added: 'We wanted to release the information to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence and also the 1,100th anniversary of the establishment of the lodge in Quedlinburger.

According to the diary, Hitler wanted to hide treasures from the Soviet army

'It is the wish of the lodge that possessions found are reunited with their heirs if this is possible.

'However, this probably won't be possible in every case. But it is our intention that the property is returned to its rightful owners.'

The foundation is now monitoring the places listed in the diary to make sure they remain secure.

According to the Foundation's founder, businessman Darius Franz Dziewiatek from the Polish city of Opole, one of the locations is a deep well in a palace park and another is at the bottom of a pond in another palace park.

Other locations are a concrete sarcophagus under the bottom of a stream, an underground orangery in another palace park and a secret room between the walls in yet another palace.

Historian Joanna Lamparska said: 'The diary is very interesting because it contains a lot of details about what was happening at the end of the war in Silesia, it also contains information about where they planned to hide things.

'But in my opinion, no treasure will be found using the diary. If these people really knew where the treasure was, they would not be acting in this way.'

She added: 'The diary may be genuine, but a lot more work needs to be done.'
Charge was dropped last month after judge ruled police video was inadmissible

In March 2017, a man who was 15 at the time, was charged with her murder

Cheryl Grimmer (right) vanished from outside a surf club at Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong, south of Sydney, on January 12 1970 and her body was never found

New independent legal advice has been sought in the case of murdered toddler Cheryl Grimmer after NSW's chief prosecutor decided to not appeal a key judgement.

Supreme Court Justice Robert Allan Hulme in February ruled a 1971 police interview - in which a 17-year-old confessed to murdering the little girl - was inadmissible.

Subsequently a murder charge against the now-adult suspect was dropped due to a lack of other evidence.

NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman on Friday said he was seeking his own independent legal advice after the director of public prosecutions decided not to appeal Justice Hulme's decision.

'I recognise the deep hurt felt by Cheryl's family as a result of the decision which I'm assured was taken after careful consideration of the judgment by the DPP,' he said in a statement on Friday.

'I have nevertheless requested my own independent advice from the Crown Advocate Dr David Kell.'

Cheryl vanished from outside a shower block while with her mother and three older brothers at Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong on January 12 in 1970.

Ricki Nash (pictured centre), 55, one of Cheryl's older brothers, said the heart had been 'ripped' out of the family and described the DPP as 'spineless' for not appealing dropped case

The DPP said there would be no appeal against the court's decision on Wednesday. Cheryl is pictured centre

The family of the murdered toddler are adamant police found the right man and are desperate for him to front a jury (pictured: Cheryl with her father John)

Her former accused killer, who cannot be named as he was underage at the time, was 15 when Cheryl disappeared and 17 when he was interviewed by police for one hour and 40 minutes in April 1971.

Justice Hulme said no parent, adult or legal practitioner was present at any stage of the police interview.

At the time, there was no mandatory requirement, legislative or otherwise, or even a guideline by way of police instruction, for an adult support person to be present during the interview.

The former accused was arrested in Victoria in March 2017 and pleaded not guilty in September 2018 to murdering the three-year-old.
The South Australian cattle farmer who kidnapped and raped a female Belgian backpacker had researched date-rape drugs and tasers, weeks before carrying out his attack.

Gene Charles Bristow, 54, was found guilty of six charges on Monday, including aggravated kidnapping and indecent assault and rape, after he held a 26-year-old woman captive in his home for two days in February 2017.

Evidence that was not included in the trial has revealed the cattle farmer had conducted internet searches for Rohypnol, commonly known as a date-rape drug, and tasers just four weeks before he abducted the woman, The Advertiser reported.

The jury heard Bristow had also searched on eBay for handcuffs, shackles, and a toy gun.

Authorities never found drugs nor tasers but prosecutors argued the searches proved the attack was premeditated.

Gene Charles Bristow, 54, was found guilty of six charges on Monday, including aggravated kidnapping and indecent assault and rape, after he held a 26-year-old woman captive in his home for two days in February 2017

Evidence that was not included in the trial has revealed the cattle farmer (pictured during his arrest) had conducted internet searches for Rohypnol and tasers

Bristow drove the backpacker to his property after responding to a Gumtree ad she posted looking for farm work, but the situation quickly turned dire.

In her evidence, the woman told the court that Bristow responded to her advert and offered her a job, later picking her up from a bus stop at Murray Bridge and driving her to his hobby farm at Meningie, 150km southeast of Adelaide.

She said he took her inside a disused pig shed where he asked to check the soles of her feet for needle marks and then pressed what turned out to be a fake gun to her back.

The 54-year-old bound his victim's hands and feet, and chained her to the ground before leaving her alone in the shed.

Shocking images that were shown in court, show the squalid conditions she endured, including the couch she was shackled to for two days.

He faces the possibility of a life sentence.

The images were shown to the court before Bristow was found guilty of six charges, including aggravated kidnapping, indecent assault and rape (pictured is the couch)

The horrific scene where a Belgian backpacker was held captive with shackles and raped by a farmer who lured her with the promise of work have been revealed (pictured)

Bristow, 54, had lured the young woman to the property (pictured) with the promise of farm work when he kidnapped her and kept her captive before raping her repeatedly

Bristow threatened to shoot the woman if she tried to escape and told her he was working with others in a kidnapping ring.

The 26-year-old was seen weeping when evidence, including the ties she was shackled with, were tendered to the court.

'I was feeling like it wasn't real, you know, you wouldn't believe that something was happening like that,' she told the jury.

'I was feeling terrible and I would think about my family a lot. I thought I wouldn't see them again.'

The 26-year-old was seen weeping when evidence, including the ties she was shackled with, were tendered to the court (pictured are chains used to detain the woman in the shed)

Bristow used a toy gun (pictured) to contain the backpacker while he shackled her to the bed in the run down pig shed on his family's farm

'(I thought) I was going to die there,' she said.

Police launched a full scale search for the missing backpacker after she managed to free her hands long enough to get to her laptop and alert family and friends to her dire situation.

Bristow was pulled over by police during the large scale search.

Shortly after, he shaved his head and transported the backpacker to Murray Bridge. He was arrested the next day.

He will face court again on Friday for a pre-sentencing hearing.
President Donald Trump said Friday that he empathizes with his former campaign chairman who drew a 47-month prison term a day earlier, telling reporters that 'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it's a very, very tough time for him.'

At the same time, he falsely claimed the judge who sentenced his former 2016 campaign chairman cleared his campaign of conspiring with the Kremlin to affect the presidential election's outcome.

'Both his lawyer  a highly respected man  and a highly respected judge, the judge said there was no collusion with Russia. This had nothing to do with collusion,' Trump said on the South Lawn of the White House.

'There was no collusion. It's a collusion hoax. It's a collusion witch hoax. I don't collude with Russia.'

President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday outside the White House that he feels 'very badly' for Paul Manafort after a judge sentenced him to 47 months in prison for bank and tax fraud

Trump also claimed, incorrectly, that Manafort's judge had cleared his campaign organization of allegations that it had colluded with Russia to swing the 2016 election; Judge T.S. Ellis had merely said he wasn't sentencing Manafort for anything related to those unproven accusations

Judge Ellis gave Manafort a lenient sentence  far less time than the 19-24 years prosecutors had asked him to impose on the former Trump campaign chairman

Minutes after a packed Virginia courtroom came to order Thursday afternoon, Judge T.S. Ellis said Paul Manafort was 'not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election.'

Judge T.S. Ellis didn't offer an opinion on Thursday about whether allegations about a Trump-Russia nexus have any merit

That allegation is at the center of the many-tentacled legal probe that led Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team to uncover Manafort's tax and bank fraud.

Ellis never offered an opinion about whether the unproven allegations about a Trump-Russia nexus have any merit.

Trump painted a different picture on Friday as he left Washington for a visit to tornado-scarred Alabama and a weekend at his Palm Beach, Florida resort club.

'Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!' the president tweeted.

Kevin Downing, who has been Manafort's criminal attorney since his arrest, told reporters outside the Alexandria, Virginia federal courthouse Thursday evening that the trial had confirmed 'there is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia.'

Like Ellis  but unlike Trump  Downing didn't claim the trial ruled out the existence of a conspiracy.

Trump said Friday at the White House that Downing 'went out of his way, actually, to make a statement last night: No collusion with Russia. There was absolutely none.'

He seemed to goad reporters, expecting that they would write the opposite.

'Keep it going,' Trump told them. 'Let's go. Keep the hoax going. It's just a hoax.'

Both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have concluded that the 'collusion' narrative is without foundation. The House panel, since commandeered by Democrats, has reopened its probe.

Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, had faced up to 24 years in jail for bank and tax fraud. He is pictured leaving the federal courthouse in Washington last April

Trump stunned Manafort trial-watchers Friday morning with his misinterpretation of what Ellis told a packed courtroom a day earlier

Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing said outside the courthouse, like Ellis, that his client wasn't facing prison time for anything related to the Trump campaign; but he didn't claim the trial ruled out the existence of a conspiracy.

Proving his campaign didn't secretly connive with Vladimir Putin's government to steal the 2016 election from Democrat Hillary Clinton has become Trump's white whale. His sing-song pronouncements that 'there was no collusion' are common at the White House.

Trump hasn't commented on the lenient sentence Ellis handed down, but he has long sought to disentangle Manafort from the collusion allegations that launched his presidency's most persistent nightmare.

'These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion  a Hoax!' the president tweeted last year after Manafort's first criminal trial got underway. He added then that notorious mobster Al Capone was treated better than Manafort, who at the time had been 'convicted of nothing.'

Prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller's (pictured in 2007 testifying in Capitol Hill) office said on Tuesday that Manafort 'blames everyone from the Special Counsel's Office to his Ukrainian clients for his own criminal choices'; they asked for a long prison sentence

'Where is the Russian Collusion?' Trump asked then.

Weeks later, after Manafort's jury convicted him on 8 of 18 federal counts, Trump wrote on Twitter that he had 'such respect for a brave man.'

'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family,' he wrote on August 22. 'Justice took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to break - make up stories in order to get a deal.'

Cohen will report to prison in May following his guilty pleas to charges of lying to Congress, tax and bank fraud, and committing federal campaign finance violations. Despite cooperating with Mueller, he received a three-year sentence  less than a year shorter than Manafort's.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani came down hard Friday on Mueller's prosecution team, blasting them for 'mistreating' Paul Manafort  and relishing the light sentence the disgraced former lobbyist received a day earlier

Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani blasted federal prosecutors on Friday for 'their horrendous mistreatment' of Paul Manafort, hinting that his light prison sentence was a slap at Mueller for unsuccessfully trying to turn the disgraced former lobbyist into an anti-Trump witness.

Manafort's prison term for tax and bank fraud was far more lenient than the 20 years or more that federal guidelines suggested.

'The sentence was a lot less than the out of control Angry Democrat prosecutors wanted,' Giuliani said in a text message.

'They should be ashamed of their horrendous treatment of Paul Manafort who they pressured relentlessly because, unlike Michael Cohen, he wouldnt lie for them.'




Theresa May slapped down a complaint she only took one question from a female reporter today by declaring 'you've had answers from a woman Prime Minister'.

The Prime Minister took press questions following a Brexit speech in Grimsby.

But as she walked off the platform ITV News' Libby Wiener stood up to shout she had only taken one question from a woman on International Women's Day.

She said: 'Only one question from a woman reporter on International Women's Day - pretty poor show isn't it? Only one question.'

Mrs May answered to applause: 'You've had answers from a woman Prime Minister.'

As Mrs May walked off the platform (pictured) ITV News' Libby Wiener stood up to shout she had only taken one question from a woman on International Women's Day

Mrs May turned back to the room and answered to applause: 'You've had answers from a woman Prime Minister.'

Mrs May had used her speech to say 'let's get it done' as she urged the EU to give 'one more push' to solve the impasse over the border backstop and warning MPs defeating the deal would trigger a 'moment of crisis' on Tuesday night.

She warned those plotting to stop the UK leaving the EU: 'Brexit does not belong to the MPs in Parliament - it belongs to the people of this country'.

Without a huge swing in her favour MailOnline research has revealed that her deal to leave the EU on March 29 will be defeated by almost 100 votes on Tuesday. The following day the Commons is expected to vote to stop Britain leaving without a deal.

In a direct plea to Tory Brexiteers and Labour rebels opposed to her deal the PM said today: 'Back it and the UK will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen.

'We may never leave at all. It would be a moment of crisis'. She added: 'Everybody wants to get it done. Let's get it done'.

In her speech to workers and reporters (pictured) Mrs May used her speech to say 'let's get it done' as she urged the EU to give 'one more push' to solve the impasse

Mrs May also used her make-or-break speech to urge Brussels to give negotiations 'one more push' this weekend and get her deal over the line by giving her an end date to the Irish backstop.

The PM is said to be willing to fly to Brussels this weekend and in direct message to the EU's negotiators she said: 'Now is the moment to act. We have worked hard together.

'It needs just one more push to give Parliament what they have asked for'.

She also pointed the finger at Jeremy Corbyn, accusing him of only offering an hour of his time in the past five weeks to find a cross-party solution to the Brexit stalemate at Westminster because he wants a second referendum.
A man has been charged with murder as police continue to investigate the disappearance of a woman in January.

Samah Baker, 30, was last seen after she was dropped off by a friend at her Parramatta home, in Sydney's west, in the early hours of Friday, January 4.

She was reported missing by relatives later that day when they were unable to contact her.

Samah Baker (pictured) was last seen by a friend who dropped her at her Parramatta home on January 4

A man, 32, (pictured) was formally charged with murder at Kogarah Police Station on Friday

Detectives from Parramatta Police Area Command, assisted by detectives from the Homicide Squad, then established Strike Force Boutcher to investigate Ms Baker's disappearance, which was being treated as suspicious.

A 32-year-old man was arrested at a shopping centre in Hurstville, in Sydney's south, about 10.30am on Friday morning.

He was taken to Kogarah Police Station, where he was later charged with murder.

It is understood the accused and Ms Baker knew one another.

The man was refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Bail Court via video link on Saturday.

Ms Baker's body remains undiscovered.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Samah Baker went missing in early January - a man has been charged with her murder but her body hasn't been located

The man (second from left) was taken to a nearby car before he was charged with murder
A teacher has been suspended after telling her students to have their parents call the school board and complain about how cold their Michigan classroom is kept.

Mary Logan wrote the note and projected it on a screen at Taylor High School after temperatures dropped to just 58 degrees Fahrenheit.

She wrote: 'It's 58 degrees in here. No heat. Call your parents. Tell them to call the board office if you are cold.'

But, despite admitting they have heating problems, the school placed her on paid administrative leave for three days for the note.

And that a decision has been labelled 'ridiculous' by the Taylor teachers' union.

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The note teacher Mary Logan projected on the screen at Taylor High School in Michigan

Despite admitting they have heating problems, Taylor High School, pictured, placed Logan on paid administrative leave for three days. She has since returned to teaching

President of the union, Linda Moore, told The News Herald: 'Our position is that, if (the school district) didn't like it, they should have given out a statement of what they would like teachers to tell students and parents, then give them a script to read.

'This teacher was just trying to give her class an education, without spending 55 minutes talking about it being cold.

'Because she's right - she can't solve the problem, and the administrator can't solve the problem. The board office can solve the problem by making it a priority. And I really don't think that they're not making it a priority. It's just not easy.'

Moore claims if the temperature inside the school falls under 60 degrees the students should be moved.

She added: 'Our teachers are just irate that theyre disciplining a teacher over something she has no control over. Thats really the bottom line  that she does have freedom of speech.'

Ms Logan is now back at work following the incident and the school has agreed to space heaters in the cold classrooms until it fixes the problem.

President of the Taylor teachers' union, Linda Moore, left, has spoken out against the decision. The school say they hope the heating problems will be resolved over the summer

Ben Williams, superintendent of the Taylor School District, said the construction of the school leaves it with an open design which can cause heating problems, leaving 'hot and cold boxes'.

He added: 'We have over 65 classrooms inhabited every hour. On a given day, four to six classrooms run a little hot or cold. In extreme cases, the principal does have discretion to relocate a class.'

Williams - who refused to comment on Logan's case - said they hope the heating problems will be resolved over the summer and said there is a system in place for complaints.

He added: 'We have a work order system. Two or three work orders make it into the system at the high school each day, with four to five smaller things getting solved in-house.

'Without the work order, we cant figure out how to triage for a given problem.'

DailyMail.com has contacted Taylor High School and the Taylor teachers' union for comment.
This is the moment a mother whose two children have been targeted by blade-wielding gangs in recent weeks confronted the Home Secretary and asked: 'What are you doing about knife crime?'

Fiona Raychell, 50, challenged Sajid Javid this morning as he visited Birmingham, which has been put in 'lock down' by police after three stabbings inside a week.

Mr Javid, who was in Northfield to speak to frontline officers after they were issued with stronger stop and search powers, spoke at length with the mother-of-two.

She revealed that her 15-year-old son had been mugged at knifepoint inside Highbury Park, Kings Heath, a fortnight ago by a gang of 10 thugs.

Ms Raychell, from Kings Norton, still holding on to her shopping bags, continued to question the Home Secretary and said: 'What are you doing about it, though?'

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Fiona Raychell (pictured left) challenged Sajid Javid this morning as he visited Birmingham, which has been put in 'lock down' by police after three stabbings inside a week

The epidemic of 26 knife murders in 2019 has sparked a frenzied political debate, with three such deaths in Birmingham (shown)

Mr Javid, who was in Northfield to speak to frontline officers after they were issued with stronger stop and search powers, spoke at length with the mother-of-two (shown)

Shaking with anger, she pressed Mr Javid for answers following two knife attacks on her two teenage sons in recent weeks.

The city has seen several knife attacks in recent weeks, with three men dying in the last month.

Mohammed Sidali, was stabbed outside Joseph Chamberlain College in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, on Wednesday February 13.

Abdullah Muhammad was discovered fatally stabbed near a park in the Small Heath area of the city at about 8pm on February 20.

Meanwhile, Hazrat Umar, 18, was stabbed to death as he made his way to a gym in Birmingham on February 25.

Birmingham is currently the only city to introduce emergency section 60 stop-and-search powers, allowing officers to search suspects without 'reasonable grounds'.

The controversial powers have been introduced by West Midlands Police after three teenagers died in just 11 days.

The force says that it has taken dozens of blades off the streets since the order was enforced last week.

Speaking after confronting the Home Secretary, Ms Raychell said: 'I was only shopping and passing when I saw him.

'I just wanted to ask him about what he's going to do about cuts to the police and knife crime in Birmingham.

Birmingham is becoming one of Britain's bloodiest stabbing spots. Hazrat Umar (left), 18, was found knifed to death on February 25 and a only 12 days earlier Mohammed Sidali (right), 16, was fatally killed

'Both of my children have been mugged at knifepoint, one only two weeks ago, and they shouldn't be put at this risk.

'I blame the Tory government for that, I blame it for cutting police; for cutting youth centres; for austerity in general.

'Things have been cut back so far, people just don't have a chance.'

When asked about a recent knife attack on her 15-year-old, which followed a similar mugging on her 17-year-old son previously, she said: 'It happened in Highbury Park in Kings Heath, he was leaving and was mugged for his phone.

Birmingham introduces stronger stop-and-search powers Stop-and-search powers must be reintroduced in Britain to combat the country's stabbing crisis, a senior police officer has claimed. Richard Cooke, chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, has called for emergency section 60 powers to be rolled out across the country. He said that the use of the temporary order, which allows police officers to search suspects without needing 'reasonable grounds', would help stem the bloodshed. The controversial powers have been introduced by West Midlands Police after three teenagers died in just 12 days. The force says that it has taken dozens of blades off the streets since the order was enforced last week. Mr Cooke said the impact of such powers had been 'tangible' in Birmingham, with officers feeling 'the operation is paying dividends across the city'. Advertisement

'There was three originally and then a gang of 10, more than one knife. It's just not OK.

'My son was shaken, really shaken. [Children] lose confidence, they don't want to go out.

'And I'm really angry. I'm not angry with the police, I'm angry with the government because it's their fault.'

Birmingham is becoming one of Britain's bloodiest stabbing spots, with a spate of recent knife attacks plaguing the country's 'second city'.

There have been 269 recorded knife crimes in the West Midlands city this year alone.

Mr Javid said Ms Raychell represented the general feeling among people across the city.

Reacting to being confronted, he said: 'She was absolutely, rightly concerned about the rise in knife crime she's seen.

'She's also had people in her own family that have been affected - young people - and I'm with her.

'I think like she does and I think that she represents what people are concerned about.

'I have young children as well and I worry and I think we all do.

'What people are looking for is a proper, united response; no party politics, people just working together and dealing with this properly for the long term.'

The row comes as:

Peter Chesney, father of 17-year-old Jodie Chesney who was knifed in the back in a seemingly motiveless attack in Harold Hill, east London, on Friday, made an emotional appeal for someone 'to do the right thing' and help catch her killer.

A male teenager was killed in a stabbing in Lanfrey Place, West Kensington, on Thursday afternoon.

Police announced the death of a 37-year-old man who had been injured in a stabbing in Soho on Sunday.

David Martinez was named as the 26-year-old Spanish man who died after a stabbing in Leyton, east London, on Wednesday.

A 22-year-old man who was attacked in Oxford on February 27 died on Wednesday.

West Midlands Police investigate whether knives were involved in an incident at Matthew Boulton College in Birmingham on Wednesday afternoon, which left two teenagers in hospital.

A 17-year-old accused of murdering teenager Yousef Makki in a knife attack in Hale Barns on Sunday was granted bail at Manchester Crown Court.

Greater Manchester Police's Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said his force would be asking for more cash from the Home Office so he can pay officers overtime to tackle knife crime.

Jodie Chesney (left) was stabbed in London on Friday while Yousef Makki (right) died after a knife attack in Hale Barns, Manchester

On Wednesday, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said after an emergency meeting with chief constables that resources were 'very important' and the Government should 'listen' to police.

The number of police officers across the 43 forces in England and Wales has fallen by more than 20,000 since 2009 but the Prime Minister has said there is no correlation between the decline and 'certain crimes'.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan and seven Police and Crime Commissioners have written a letter to Mrs May, warning that a 'broken' school exclusion system is exacerbating the surge.

'It cannot be right that so many of those who have committed offences have been excluded from school or were outside of mainstream education,' it said.

The letter, sent on Thursday, also urged an end to 'off-rolling' - removing pupils from school registers - to increase average exam results.

Another victim of Bloodbath Britain: Mother's agony as son, 17, dies after being stabbed three times in chest in Kensington - in 'fourth attempt on his life

A mother has today revealed her agony as her son, a 17-year-old who dreamed of being a barrister, was knifed to death after what was said to be the fourth attempt on his life.

Ayub Hassan - who had a brother, 9, and a sister, 11 - was described by his family as a 'victim' of gang violence since he was aged 12.

He was fatally stabbed near a Waitrose by West Kensington tube station in London at around 2pm yesterday. A local businessman said he was knifed three times in the chest. MailOnline asked police if the killing was 'gang related' but officers said they were 'keeping an open mind'.

Mr Hassan's mother, Siraad Aden, 38, collapsed when she heard that her son had been killed in London's fifth knife murder in just seven days.

Later she told The Standard through tears at the family home on the White City estate in nearby Shepherd's Bush: 'He wasn't only a son, he was my best friend. We want justice.'

After laying flowers at the scene, family friend Amina Osman revealed the fatal attack was 'the fourth attempt on his life', having previously been found unconscious in a park, run over and stabbed on another occasion.

Ayub Hassan (pictured left, in an undated image taken in hospital, and right) was fatally stabbed near a Waitrose by West Kensington tube station in London at around 2pm yesterday

Family friend Amina Osman arrives today to lay flowers near the police cordon on Lanfrey Place where Mr Hassan died yesterday

Relatives and friends of Ayub's family were seen talking to detectives at the murder scene earlier today

Three men, aged 18, 17 and 15 have been arrested on suspicion of murder, police said today. Another teenager, 15, was arrested later today. Pictured: The road in West Kensington today where Mr Hassan was stabbed

She added: 'He had ambitions, he was looking forward to being a barrister. He was looking forward to being a grown-up man. He was good with his words, he was very kind and handsome.'

Three men, aged 18, 17 and 15 were this morning arrested on suspicion of murder, police said today. Another teenager, aged 15, was arrested later today.

The part of west London where the murder happened has been plagued with gang activity in recent years.

Groups with names such as 12 World regularly taunt each other with drill music videos and have regularly been involved in fights with their rivals.

The number of fatal stabbings in London now stands at six in just seven days, while nationally 26 people have died this year.

The epidemic has sparked a frenzied political debate, with Chancellor Philip Hammond facing criticism yesterday for ignoring police demands to reverse cuts imposed under austerity measures and refocus their resources instead.

An aunt, who did not want to be named, said the teenager was studying at Hammersmith College.

A Little Waitrose store is located just behind the police cordon, where a forensic tent remained in place today

Forensic officers were searching drains near the crime scene last night and recovered what appeared to be a knife.

Mr Hassan was brutally knifed in the chest at around 2.15pm yesterday. An air ambulance took him to hospital from where he was stabbed in Lanfrey Place but he died a short time later.

Yousef Bahadooy, who runs a launderette in West Kensington, said he saw a group of five boys shouting and arguing outside his shop while he was ironing at the window on Thursday afternoon.

He recognised the group who he said he regularly saw 'hanging out together' on the high street, and claimed Ayub was murdered by his friend.

Mr Bahadooy said: 'They were his friends and cousins - there were about five of them, all boys, aged around 16 to 19. They were talking outside the shop at first, and then they started shouting.

'One of the boys pushed Ayub against the window while I was in the shop doing the ironing.

'They walked towards the Waitrose still shouting at around 2pm. Then, 10 minutes later, somebody called me and said 'somebody has been stabbed'.'
Pope Francis has denounced anti-Semitism and declared it part of a wave of 'depraved hatred' sweeping a number of countries across the world.

Speaking to the American Jewish Committee during a visit to the Vatican, he urged people of all faiths to be vigilant against anti-Semitism, and said interfaith dialogue can help counter it.

Pope Francis also reiterated that it was sinful for Christians to hold anti-Semitic sentiments because they shared a heritage with Jews.

Pope Francis, pictured conducting a mass earlier today, warned that anti-Semitism is part of a wave of 'depraved hatred' sweeping some countries

'A source of great concern to me is the spread, in many places, of a climate of wickedness and fury, in which an excessive and depraved hatred is taking root,' Francis said.

'I think especially of the outbreak of anti-Semitic attacks in various countries.'

Francis did not name any of those countries, but government statistics released last month showed more than 500 anti-Semitic attacks occurred last year in France, which has Europe's biggest Jewish community. That was a 74 percent increase from 2017.

'I stress that for a Christian any form of anti-Semitism is a rejection of one's own origins, a complete contradiction,' Francis said.

A European Union study last month showed that more than one in three European Jews have considered emigrating in the past five years because they no longer feel safe.

Inter-faith communication: Pope Francis meets with members of the American Jewish Committee at the Vatican earlier today

Episodes of anti-Semitism have coincided with the rise of populist or nationalist parties in predominantly Christian countries such as Italy, Germany, Poland and Hungary.

In Britain, nine lawmakers quit the Labour party last month, citing the leadership's handling of anti-Semitism in the party as a reason for leaving.

In December, 20 cobblestones commemorating members of two Italian Jewish families who were deported to Auschwitz or killed in Rome were dug up and stolen in what the Jewish community said was an anti-Semitic attack.

On Monday, Pope Francis announced that he has decided to open fully the Vatican's secret archives on Pope Pius XII, something which Jews have been seeking for decades.

Some Jews have accused Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust during World War Two by not speaking out forcefully. The Vatican has said Pius worked quietly behind the scenes to save Jews and avoid worsening the situation for many.
This is the astonishing moment a mob of men stormed a supermarket in South America and escaped with bottles of booze.

Footage from the stores CCTV system shows the 15-second heist on Tuesday afternoon in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while a pair of customers were being assisted by a male employee at the cash register.

A shirtless man leads about three dozen looters, including some children, through the supermarkets entrance.

Man (pictured front center) leads a band of almost three dozen looters in robbing liquor from a supermarket in Buenos Aires, Argentina

A female employee (pictured in the top right corner) is shocked as the bandits raid the store for booze

He takes two liquor bottles from a shelf before helping himself to another one as one of his cohorts ushers him out.

Two members of the group follow him to the same shelf to grab more bottles of booze as the store becomes engulfed in chaos and shattered glass litters the floor.

One of the bandits is seen carrying a bucket in which he placed two bottles before he dashes out the supermarket.

The male employee than runs out from behind the cash register counter in an attempt to stop them.

At least three dozen looters, including children, were caught on CCTV stealing booze

A store employee (picture top right) is about to reach for an object to fight off a flash mob while a young boy (pictured center) ultimately escapes

The man then swings at a shirtless young boy before the minor fled the store.

The employee is later attacked by another looter who smacks him in the head with a bucket.

No arrests have been reported.

A store employee (left) tries of detain some of the looters but is hit with a bucket
The Chinese entrepreneur who founded Orchids of Asia Day Spa & Massage was seen rooting for the New England Patriots at Mar-a-Lago alongside President Donald Trump early last month.

Li Yang shared a photo of herself and a friend sitting directly behind President Trump at the event, which took place just two weeks before Patriots owner Robert Kraft would be charged with two counts of misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution for incidents that allegedly transpired at that spa.

Kraft is accused of visiting the spa on two consecutive days in January, with a worker performing a manual sex act on the billionaire during his first appointment while another worker performed an oral sex act during his second sojourn.

He is planning to fight those charges and denies claims he was the recipient of any sexual act at the spa, despite police claiming there is video evidence in the case.

Kraft is one of Trump's closest friends, while Yang is one with deep pockets.

Records obtained by DailyMail.com show that she donated $8,100 to the Trump Victory Fund in 2018, listing her occupation on federal election forms as Chairman of the Women's Charity Foundation

She is also a Trump Republican, having beenann inactive voter with no declared political party for the decade before the current president ran for office.

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Yang gang: Orchids of Asia Day Spa founder Li Yang, 45, posted a photo of herself watching the Patriots win the Super Bowl with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago (Yang in foreground with President Trump and a guest)

Bros: Two weeks later, Patriots owner Robert Kraft would be charged with soliciting prostitution at the spa after a manual and oral sex act were allegedly performed on him (Yang with Don Trump Jr on left and Eric Trump on right)

Squad: Yang, 45, is a frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago and has also visited The White House (above) and Trump Tower multiple times since President Trump took office

Picture perfect: 'Leaders like you are the key to fulfilling our bold agenda to Make America Great Again,' wrote Trump in a note to Yang signed by himself and the First Lady (above)

That Super Bowl party was just one of the many events Yang has attended at Trump's private club in Palm Beach.

Her social media accounts show frequent visits to Mar-a-Lago in the years since President Trump took office.

During those visits she has posed up alongside Donald Jr and Eric Trump, actor Jon Voight, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Sarah Palin and even Don King.

She has also been a guest at both the White House and Trump Tower, where she had an audience with the president.

Yang, 45, owns a string of day spas in south Florida, an area where human trafficking has run rampant of recent, according to a Miami Herald report siting crackdowns on spas in at least three counties.

In Miami-Dade County, at least 205 spas offer sexual services according to the Herald.

Showing her support: Yang's social media accounts show frequent visits to Mar-a-Lago in the years since President Trump took office. During those visits she has posed up alongside actor Jon Voight (left holding a MAGA clutch bag) and Lara Trump (right)

Work: She owns three homes in neighboring counties in Florida and is still a registered cosmetologist Yang above at the White House)

Fight night: Yang donated $8,100 to the Trump Victory Fund in 2018, and on federal forms listed her occupation as Chairman of the Women's Charity Foundation (left with Don King and right with Senator Rick Scott)

Fashion forward: Yang poses with Sarah Palin an a friend while she showing off her custom Trump clutch (above)

Yang, who according to property records owns homes in Wellington, Pembroke Pines and West Palm Beach, has few infractions on her own record, having only been cited for a traffic violations in Palm Beach County.

She is however involved in litigation in Broward County for allegedly fleeing an establishment she owns in February and not paying rent since that time.

She and her husband are still listed as the owners of at least one spa in Florida.

Yang told the Herald that she has sold all of her spas and is out of the business, but would not acknowledge whether or not she knew about allegations that sexual acts were being performed on clients by women who may have been trafficked.

She also revealed that she would be moving to Washington DC.

Yang and the 'Yanne: The spa founder poses up with Kellyanne Conway at an event last year

Behind the scenes: Yang attended events alongside the likes of Sebastian Gorka (left in 2017) and Brad Pascale (right in 2018)

The finer things: Yang and a friend at a 2018 event with Trump surrogates Diamond and Silk

The future is female: Yang at an event for Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro (left) and with Transportation Secretary Elaine Cho (right)

Don't rain on her parade: Yang also attended Trump's inauguration, and says she is planning to move to DC (above)

President Trump seems to be impressed with Yang, heralding her business accumen in a signed photo from himself and First Lady Melania Trump.

'Thank you for your friendship and dedication to our cause,' read the note.

'Leaders like you are the key to fulfilling our bold agenda to Make America Great Again.'
A 21-year-old allegedly crashed into a van, killing its 45-year-old driver, as he drag-raced a biker in Argentina.

Gaston Abraham Dlugovitzky appeared on a surveillance camera drag racing down a street in the Argentine province of Santa Fe while a motorcycle tried to keep pace at 10.44pm Wednesday.

About one minute later, the thrill seeker crashed his Ford Focus into Fabian Cragnolino's sanitation work van at an intersection in the town of Rosario, killing the father-of-three instantly.

Video taken at the scene shows Dlugovitzky laying on the floor in pain.

A camera captures the moment Dlugovitzky zooms by an intersection in the town of Rosario. The fatal accident occurred just a minute later

Gaston Abraham Dlugovitzky allegedly killed the father-of-three while drag racing

A resident in Rosario, Argentina, records the moment Dlugovitzky (pictured) is lying on the ground following the horrific accident on Wednesday night. He was arrested but later released

Contexto Tucuman reported that the district attorney's office was working towards charging Dlugovitzky with a reckless homicide. He has been released from custody.

The district attorney also requested private and public CCTV cameras be seized within a five-block radius of the accident as part of the ongoing investigation.

Argentine media outlets reported that Dlugovitzky was traveling over 100kph (60mph) before the fatal crash.

The young man apparently had a thirst for speed evidenced by videos shared to social media.

Fabian Cragnolino (second from left) was killed in the tragic car accident. Cragnolino was a father-of-three

Dlugovitzky (pictured in an image taken December 31, 2017) boasted that 'for those of you that don't know me, I love to speed'

On December 31, 2017, Dlugovitzky shared a four-minute long video on his Facebook account, which since has been shut down, where the daredevil claimed of topping out at 180kph (100mph) on a street.

At one point he holds the steering wheel with one hand as the car is in motion while holding a cell phone with another.

'For those of you that don't know me, I love to speed,' he boasted.

Investigators raided Dlugovitzky's home on Thursday and seized two cell phones which he reportedly used to film his high-speed races.

Cragnolino was laid to rest Friday morning. One of his three children is scheduled to start kindergarten next week, Argentine television station CN5.

Investigators raided Dlugovitzky's home on Thursday and seized two cell phones which he reportedly used to film his high-speed races. His car is pictured above
This is the shocking moment a group of takeaway workers chase down and beat up a man after he was caught on camera assaulting a female employee.

Astonishing footage filmed by witnesses at Big John's restaurant in Birmingham city centre shows several staff surrounding the man and battering him in the street.

This is just after the same man has thrown a drink in the face of the female worker, which was filmed on CCTV while he was leaving the fish and chip chop.

Astonishing footage shows workers from Big John's restaurant in Birmingham attacking a man after he had thrown a drink at a female employee inside the restaurant (left)

But despite the man then trying to escape punches in the street from the angry workers, they refuse to stop even when he tries to run away.

The video of the revenge attack, which took place on Monday March 5, has been viewed more than 10,000 times since it was shared earlier today on social media.

The first 4-second clip appears to show the woman recoiling as the man throws the drink and empty can at her before trying to escape down the street.

But she follows him out of the door with three male colleagues, all of whom try to fiercely punch the man in the head and face.

In the final clip, people laugh as they film the man running further down the street as he is still chased by the workers.

They continue to try to punch him but the group are eventually called off by their boss and the man runs away.

As the workers continue to enthusiastically hurl punches at him, the man makes no attempt to fight back and puts out his arms meagerly to defend himself

People commenting on the video were shocked at the level of violence used by the workers.

One, Kaiser Caan, wrote: 'What a big shame on behalf of the staff for hitting the man the way they did. No matter what the issue, violence is not the way forward.

Another, Antonio So, wrote: 'I think staff should know they can't do that.

'All three should have grabbed him and kept him there and placed him under citizen's arrest until police arrived, not throw fists.'

Khalid Khan, a spokesman for Big John's, told MailOnline that staff had reacted after the man in the video made rude remarks to the female worker.

He said: 'She went to tell the manager who came over to escort him out of the store.

Eventually, the workers are called off by their manager, but not before they throw a few more punches. Khalid Khan, a spokesman for Big John's said staff, 'just reacted and chased him. They shouldn't have. The manager went out to try and stop the incident'

'Within that time he spat and then threw a can of pop over her and decided to run off.

'The video clearly shows this. The staff member suffered a cut to her head and was very shaken by the event.

'Other team members went to get hold of him and restrain him to call the police, however he managed to get away.'

Mr Khan added that staff 'just reacted and chased him. They shouldn't have. The manager went out to try and stop the incident.'

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: 'Police were called to reports of an assault at a fast food restaurant in Corporation Street, Birmingham, at 5.30pm on Monday, March 4.

'It is believed an argument took place between a man and a member of staff.

'The man became verbally abusive and threw a drink in her face before leaving the premises.'

'Officers are also investigating reports of a second assault outside the restaurant on a man soon after.

'CCTV is being reviewed and investigations remain ongoing.'
Amid the public document fight between the White House and the House Oversight Committee over Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's security clearance, the panel has already procured key documents through a leak.

Even as the White House dug in over its claim of a privilege to withhold the documents, the panel as documents that outline the entire approval process that resulted in the power couple getting their security clearances, Axios reported.

The committee, which has broad jurisdiction and has been looking at the White House clearance process for more than a year, has had the documents since February.

The House Oversight Committee has already obtained documents detailing the security clearance process for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump  even as the White House fights to preserve the materials

A Democratic aide told the publication they represent "part of the puzzle that we would be asking for.'

House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland ramped up his requests following a New York Times report that President Trump intervened on behalf of son-in-law Jared Kushner's clearances.

The White House countered by attacking the committee's request and saying there needs to be a process of negotiation.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland is demanding the White House turn over the materials so his panel can investigate if national security was jeopardized

White House adviser Jared Kushner got his clearance over the objections of former White House chief of staff John Kelly and White House Counsel Don McGahn

CNN reported that Ivanka Trump also got her clearances over objections from both career and political officials

White House lawyers blasted 'unprecedented and extraordinarily intrusive demands' in the congressional request for information, and called the area of deciding who gets a clearance one of the administration's 'prerogatives.'

'Although we are prepared to continue negotiations in good faith, the Committee seeks unilateral concessions without any offer of accommodation on its part, and then complains that the White House has refused to simply turn over everything the Committee inappropriately seeks,' White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in a March 4 letter published by the committee.

He stated flatly that deciding security clearances is among the Executive Branch's 'constitutional prerogatives.'

'We will not concede the Executive's constitutional prerogatives or allow the Committee to jeopardize the individual privacy rights of current and former Executive Branch employees,' he said.

Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, fired back: 'The White Houses argument defies the Constitutional separation of powers, decades of precedent before this Committee, and just plain common-sense. The White House security clearance system is broken, and it needs both congressional oversight and legislative reform. I will be consulting with Members of the Committee to determine our next steps.

The revelation that the panel already has key documents in its possession comes after a bombshell report that former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly wrote a memo detailing that President Trump 'ordered him' to overrule officials and grant Kushner's clearances.

The CIA and other agency officials had recommended Kushner not get the high level clearance he was seeking, according to the New York Times report. Former White House counsel Don McGahn also wrote that he was against granting the top secret clearance.

CNN then reported that Trump had also overruled Kelly and McGahn in the case of daughter Ivanka Trump's clearance. She is a senior advisor to the president, and had stated publicly her father had 'no involvement' in getting her or Kushner clearances.
More than half (52 percent) of American women say their gender is not treated with respect and dignity  a record high, according to a new report.

The Gallup survey of 1,000 adults focused on how women felt in 2018  dubbed by many as 'the Year of the Woman' thanks, in part, to the record number of women who were elected to Congress and the #metoo movement reaching new heights.

Despite those benchmarks, the number fell from 2017, when just 38 percent of women felt their gender was disrespected and devalued by society.

The number reached a high in 2012, when 75 percent of women said they felt their gender was respected.

This graph illustrates the share of men (in blue) and women (in green) who believe women are respected in society, showing a significant decline among women in 2018

Men felt very differently on the topic, with 70 percent saying that women are respected in society, though that number was down from 74 percent in 2017.

Since the survey began in 2011, men have consistently responded in much higher numbers than women with the belief that women get respect, with the peak in 2012, when 80 percent of men said women get respect.

However, the divide between men and women on the subject stretched to a record 22 percentage point difference in 2018.

The poll was conducted August 13  September 30, 2018  before and during the first public hearing for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexually abusing Palo Alto University Professor of Psychology Christine Blasey Ford when the two were in high school.

The perception among women that their gender is not respected was more pronounced for those who disapprove of the nation's leadership under President Donald Trump.

This graph illustrates the number of women who believe their gender is respected, broken down by those who approve of government leadership (in purple) and those who disapprove (in green). The brackets show where Obama's presidency ends and Trump's begins

For example, 79 percent of women who approved of the country's leadership in 2018 said they felt women are respected, compared to just 34 percent among those who disapprove of Trump and his policies.

Both numbers have declined since 2017, when 87 percent of female Trump supporters felt women were respected, compared to 49 percent of women who oppose his leadership.

Overall, a majority (59 percent) of women surveyed in February believe that society treats men better than women, with 32 percent saying the genders are treated equally.

Men took a different view, with 51 percent saying men and women are treated equally and just 34 percent believing that men are treated better.

Those numbers represent an increase compared to 2000, when just 43 percent of men believed the genders were treated equally and 41 percent said men were treated better.
President Trump blasted Democrats as anti-Israel and anti-Jewish on Friday after they declined to formally reprimand Rep. Ilhan Omar for making allegedly anti-Semitic comments.

He called the vote on a resolution condemning hate language a 'disgrace' and contended that anyone who says otherwise is being dishonest.

'The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party, they have become an anti-Jewish party,' he said as he left the White House for Alabama. 'And I thought that vote was a disgrace. And so does everybody else, if you get an honest answer.'

President Trump blasted Democrats as anti-Israel and anti-Jewish on Friday after they declined to formally reprimand Rep. Ilhan Omar for making allegedly anti-Semitic comments

The House passed a resolution condemning hate language on Thursday after alleged anti-semitic comments from Rep. Omar consumed lawmakers' attention this week, caused an internecine war among Democrats and bringing the wrath of Republicans.

It did not condemn Omar specifically, and at the last minute, Democrats added hate language about minority groups, including Muslims, to the resolution.

The final vote was 407 to 23 with one lawmaker voting present. All no votes came from Republicans.

As the gavel slammed down to close the vote, it carried with it the hopes of Democratic leaders that the issue could be put to rest and the party could move forward to their signature legislation  a sweeping anti-corruption in bill that comes for a vote on Friday.

Republican Rep. Steve King, who has been accused of supporting white supremacists, was the sole present vote.

The House passed a resolution condemning hate language 407 to 23

Democrats in the House of Representatives will vote Thursday on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other hateful speech following anti-Israel comments by Ilhan Omar, who is seen Thursday at a House Foreign Affairs Committee

Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert took to the House floor before the vote on the anti-hate resolution to announce his opposition to it, arguing the original measure 'should never be watered down' with additional minority groups.

'There's never been a persecution of people like the Jewish people,' he said.

Some Democrats agreed with him yet supported the legislation anyway.

Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, who is Jewish, said he would vote for the resolution but was disappointed the House did not bring forward a separate resolution condemning Omar's comments.

Democratic leaders had hoped to dispatch with the issue quickly through a hastily-written resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

But they broadened the text to include Islamophobia and white supremacism after Omar's defenders said one form of hate should not be singled out over others.

Minutes before the scheduled vote, Democrats pulled the resolution again, to add several groups not included in the original measure, including Latinos, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and the LGBTQ community.

Lawmakers held a contentious debate on the House floor for nearly an hour before the vote occurred, with Republicans questioning why such a resolution was necessary.

'We shouldn't have had to go through the number of versions we have had to,' GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy said.

He added: 'I will pledge to you this: from this side of the aisle  and I hope you understand this clearly, any hatred, we take action.'

Republican Rep. Doug Collins said lawmakers were 'debating a resolution we should have learned in kindergarten. Be nice.'

He also criticized the measure as so 'thrown together at the last minute' that 'we left out disabled people.'

The chaos surrounding the vote reflected the disarray among the Democrats after Omar made a series of comments that were alleged to be anti-Semitic.

'We're not policing the speech of our members,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of the measure condemning hate speech.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi cleared Rep. Ilhan Omar of intentional anti-Semitism, saying the freshman lawmaker didn't appreciate how her comments were interpreted by others

Pelosi defended the decision to drop Omar's name in the 1,400 word text, which some Democrats had argued for while the congresswoman's defenders countered that would require a resolution any time a lawmaker said or tweeted something offensive.

'One resolution is not mentioning her name because it's not about her,' Pelosi argued.

Democrats had battled over the wording of the resolution  should it directly refer to Omar and anti-Semitism or should it be broadened to condemn all hate speech.

A battle broke out between the older, powerful Jewish members of Congress, who accused Omar of anti-Semitism and the younger, progressive members who have stormed the House floor after the 2018 election and defended Omar's right to speak.

Leadership pushed vote in the hopes the party can move past the controversy that has engulfed Democrats and brought about the wrath of Republicans.

'I don't think the congresswoman perhaps doesn't appreciate how it was heard by other people although I don't believe it was intended as anti-Semitic although that's how it was interpreted,' the speaker said.

Omar, who is one of the first Muslim women in Congress, came under fire for suggesting last Friday that supporters of Israel were urging lawmakers to have 'allegiance to a foreign country.'

Rep. Ilhan Omar's Controversial Tweets 'Our democracy is built on debate, Congresswoman! I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee. The people of the 5th elected me to serve their interest. I am sure we agree on that!' - her March 3 tweet in response to Rep. Nita Lowey's criticism of her 'It's all about the Benjamins baby' - her February 10 tweet interpreted to mean lawmakers defended Israel because of financial donations 'AIPAC!' - Omar's tweeted the name of the powerful Jewish group in response to a tweet asking her who she meant when she said 'it's all about the benjamins' 'Israel has hypnotized the world. May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel' - a tweet from 2012 now deleted Advertisement

Her words have split Democrats down the middle and left Pelosi in a bind: too harsh a resolution would alienate the liberal lawmakers - led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - who have rallied to Omar's side but not harsh enough will anger powerful Jewish lawmakers and their supporters, who vote Democratic and contribute heavily to the party.

The vote, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed among the outrage and as Pelosi tried to unsettle her ruffled lawmakers.

The controversy has tried leadership patience and overshadowed their top legislation priority: an election and ethics reform bill scheduled for a Friday vote.

Several Democratic lawmakers confronted Pelosi at a contentious meeting Wednesday evening that ended with Pelosi dropping the mic and walking out.

The tension came after freshman Rep. Jahana Hayes confronted Pelosi about wanting more input into the process of writing the resolution.

Pelosi responded the text was not final yet.

And when Hayes turned to talk to another member, Pelosi left.

'Well if you're not going to listen to me, I'm done talking,' she said, then set down the microphone and walked out of the room, sources told Politico.

Hayes said she did not hear Pelosi speaking to her.

'My comments were about the process we are using when concerns arise,' Hayes said in a statement. 'As a member of Congress I should not get important information from cable news.'

Rep. Rashida Tlaib

Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch, who is Jewish, called on the House to condemn anti-semitism

House Democrats updated their resolution on condemning hate language, changing the original version (left) to include Latinos, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and LGBTQ community (right)

President Donald Trump, who has himself drawn accusations of anti-Semitism on several occasions, denounced Democrats on Twitter.

'It is shameful that House Democrats won't take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference,' the president tweeted. 'Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and it's inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!'

It's at least the third time Omar has forced older, pro-Israel Democrats who run the House into awkward territory over U.S.-Israeli policy. The first was her claim, later retracted, that moneyed Jews buy the support of U.S. lawmakers with a strategy that's 'all about the Benjamins baby.'

'When a colleague invokes anti-Semitic lies three times, then this body must condemn antisemitism. Antisemitism is worthy of being condemned on its own,' Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch, who is Jewish, said on the House floor on Thursday.

Omar has not apologized for her latest comments.

New York Rep Nita Lowey, a senior Democrat who chairs the powerful Appropriations Committee, blasted Omar over the weekend as the pressure for an apology increased.

'Lawmakers must be able to debate w/o prejudice or bigotry. I am saddened that Rep. Omar continues to mischaracterize support for Israel. I urge her to retract this statement and engage in further dialogue with the Jewish community on why these comments are so hurtful,' she tweeted Saturday.

Trump, who has himself been accused of anti-Jewish commentary in the past, said anti-Semitism 'has fueled atrocities throughout history'

Pelosi would not be drug into the debate over whether or not Omar should apologize.

'It's up to her to explain but I don't believe she understood the weight of her words,' the speaker said on Thursday.

Omar got a boost Tuesday from allies who point out that she, too, has been the target of threats and bigotry.

'I am so honored to serve with @IlhanMN, an incredible courageous woman,' tweeted Rep. Rashid Tlaib, a fellow Muslim whose arrival in Washington was marred by her boast that anti-Trump lawmakers planned 'to impeach the motherf***er.'

'Every time I worry about her and the ugly attacks, I remember what she said to me two months ago: 'I survived war, I can survive this',' Tlaib wrote of Omar.

Ocasio-Cortez suggested in a tweet that her fellow freshman was being treated unfairly.

'No one seeks this level of reprimand when members make statements about Latinx + other communities,' the New York Democrat wrote.
The damages to the cafe cost between 5,130 (6,000) and 6,000 (7,000)

This is the moment two men in a cafe end up soaking wet when the glass of a huge aquarium behind them suddenly breaks and all of the water floods out.

The incident was caught on CCTV security cameras inside the cafe in the city of Niksic in western Montenegro.

The two men, whose names are not reported, were enjoying a chat over a cup of coffee at the Cafe Macka.

Suddenly, the glass in a huge aquarium behind them suddenly smashes and gallons of water pour over them and onto the floor.

The shocked pair stand up and look down at their soaking wet clothes and at the water swirling around the floor of the cafe.

Igor Vucurovic, a worker at the cafe, told Central European News (CEN) there were no fish inside the aquarium which had been especially made for the cafe by a firm in the Serbian capital city of Belgrade.

Unaware the man furthest from the tank reaches to grab a sip of his coffee as they enjoy a quiet mid-morning coffee

Water floods out in a dramatically quick moment, the cafe dwellers barely have time to register what is happening

The pressure of the water can be seen to push the men's heads down towards their coffee as they duck

Igor told CEN: 'It was probably a factory mistake in the glass. The aquarium was new it had only been there for two days so we had no time to put fish in it.

'The men are not injured and luckily there were no children there. But the damage was huge, between 6,000 EUR (5,130 GBP) and 7,000 EUR (6,000 GBP).

'They will not give us a new aquarium or cover the damages because it seems it's not their fault as they apparently purchased the glass somewhere else.

'We have no insurance. The damages were so high because the water ruined a lot of new stuff and unique furniture.'

Igor said the cafe was now open again, after extensive mopping and cleaning, and the incident had become a real talking point among customers.

Social media user Luka Vasov Gazivoda joked:'Drinking coffee with the fishes',

Djuro Sekulic said:'They deserve to drink coffee for free for a year.'
A sighting of a 14-foot Atlantic sturgeon in the Hudson River has left researchers astonished, and buoyed hopes that the endangered species could be making a comeback.

'When I first saw it, I said, "You've got to be kidding me,"' University of Delaware geologist John A. Madsen told National Geographic in a story about the amazing sighting published on Thursday.

In June, Madsen and colleague Dewayne A. Fox, of Delaware State University, were using side-scanning sonar to survey the river bottom near Hyde Park, New York as part of a survey to determine potential impacts of an anchorage on sturgeon spawning grounds.

The were encouraged to see several scans of 10-foot sturgeon, but could hardly believe their eyes when the scan clearly showed a 14.1-foot female Atlantic sturgeon.

Atlantic stugeon, such as this one in a file photo, are threatened after decades of over fishing. Scientist were amazed to see a 14-foot specimen in the Hudson River last summer (stock image)

The detailed side-scan sonar image shows a 14.1-foot sturgeon near the river bottom. Researchers estimate the female could be 75 years old and weigh 800 pounds

'I remember working... on sturgeon in the Hudson River a long time ago, when a sturgeon of this size seemed mythical,' wrote Tom Lake, a consulting naturalist with the Hudson River Estuary Program, in a notice of the finding.

'We heard stories from 'old timers' of sturgeon 14-feet long. Of course we never believed them,' Lake wrote.

Once abundant in the rivers and coastal waters of the East Cost, Atlantic sturgeon were decimated by decades of overfishing.

Though they spawn in fresh water, they spend most of their lives in the ocean, swimming upriver again to reproduce.

Sturgeon were highly sought for their roe, which was prized as caviar, and their meat, which was described as tender as veal, and was known in the Hudson Valley as 'Albany Beef' in the late 1800s.

University of Delaware geologist John A. Madsen gives a talk in January about his side-scanning sonar technique to detect sturgeon in their Hudson spawning grounds

River pollution also had an impact, and in 2012 the species was federally designated as endangered.

Protections have been put in place, and sturgeon are now illegal to catch or possess, and must be returned to the water if accidentally caught.

Researchers say that sighting fish as large as the one seen near Hyde Park is a good sign, as large females can produce vastly more eggs than smaller ones - up to eight million per year.

Scientists estimate that the 14-footer may weigh as much as 800 pounds, and be about 75 years old.
The only daughter of Nazi military leader Hermann Goering, who once said that her father was only trying to do 'the best for Germany', has died at the age of 80.

Edda Goering, who fought the German state for damages for many years, died in the Bavarian capital of Munich in southern Germany on December 21 last year but her death had been kept secret up until now.

Spokesman Johannes Mayer of the Regional Administrative Office (KVR) confirmed that Ms Goering had been secretly buried at the Waldfriedhof Cemetery in Munich.

However the exact location of her grave remains undisclosed.

Edda Goering, the only daughter of Nazi military leader Hermann Goering, died at the age of 80 in the Bavarian capital of Munich in southern Germany

Hermann Goering pictured with wife Emmy and their daughter Edda in 1938

Ms Goering, who was born on June 2, 1938, was the daughter of the First World War fighter pilot and his second wife, actress Emmy Sonnemann.

Born a year before the outbreak of the Second World War, she spent most of her childhood with her parents in the extravagant Carinhall hunting estate to the north-east of Berlin.

During this time her father, Hermann Goering, became one of Adolf Hitler's closest confidantes.

Among other roles, Hermann Goering was also Supreme Commander of the Nazi Luftwaffe, receiving the title Marshal of the Reich after the fall of France which gave him superiority over all other army officers.

A week after the start of the Soviet invasion, Hitler issued a decree naming Goering as his successor in the event of his death.

However, when the German Fuhrer announced his intention to take his own life in his Berlin bunker, Goering telegraphed Hitler on April 22, 1945, asking formal permission to take control of Nazi Germany.

A furious Hitler stripped Goering of all his titles and possessions and ordered his arrest, considering his request akin to treason.

Adolf Hitler stands next to Emmy Sonnemann during the baptism of Edda Goering at Carinhall

Goering was arrested by the US Army on May 6, 1945, and sentenced to death on charges of conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials.

However the night before he was due to be hanged, Goering took his own life by swallowing a cyanide capsule in his cell.

For many years, Edda Goering battled with the authorities over her share of her father's estate, which had been confiscated after the Second World War.

During the Second World War Hermann Goering became one of Adolf Hitler's closest confidantes

However the petitions, which were considered controversial due to Hermann Goering's position within the Nazi party, fell on deaf ears.

Ms Goering, who never married, worked in a hospital laboratory and supported her mother Emmy until her death in 1973.

In a rare interview she gave in the 1980s, Ms Goering said that she only had good memories of her father and said that he would love to 'prepare a table full of gifts for everyone' at Christmas.

She said: 'Above all of the love and care my parents gave me, I had a very nice childhood.'

When pressed about his involvement in Nazi war crimes, Ms Goering said that she still thought he was a good man.

She commented: 'I am convinced that my father, when he teamed up with Hitler, believed that he was doing the best for Germany.

'My father was extremely popular, even abroad. He had the right background, personality and natural warmth.'
Former Bradenton Police Sgt. Leonel Marines, 36, is accused of using his badge and access to databases in order to stalk nearly 150 women for dates since 2012

A former Florida cop is under FBI investigation for allegedly abusing his authority as a police officer and misusing databases in order to obtain dates with women.

Leonel Marines, 36, was initially suspended for three days without pay in 2012 for an incident involving targeting women in 2011, according to the Bradenton Herald, but continued his behavior for six more years, an internal police probe revealed.

In November of 2011, he showed up at the door of a woman after he had accessed her drivers license information twice, according to internal affairs. She said he asked her personal questions unrelated to any police investigation at the time.

'Ultimately, we were able to locate and interview nearly 150 women in association with this case,' Bradenton Police Chief Melanie Bevan said in a press conference detailing Marines' years of questionable behavior.

'From there, a smaller subset was identified in which we were clearly able to show that Marines engaged in negative and inappropriate direct contact with them while presenting himself as a Bradenton police officer both on and off duty,' she continued.

Bevans also added that the majority of that subset turned out to be Hispanic women.

The Bradenton Police Department (headquarters shown) became suspicious of his behavior after a woman complained that Marines had followed her to her parents' home

The Bradenton Police Department became tipped off to his continuing actions after a woman accused Marines of following her in June of last year.

Marines, who had tailed this woman in his police cruiser to her parents home after a 'chance' encounter in a parking lot, later would approach her parents to speak with their daughter 'regarding a domestic matter.'

The parents refused to allow their daughter to speak with Marines who persisted before they asked him for his identification and supervisor information at which point he left without answering them.

The concerned parents then called the department where a watch commander determined that Marines was the officer that approached them.

Bradenton Police Chief Melanie Bevans stated in her press conference that she ordered an internal investigation into Marines that yielded several hundred inappropriate database queries on women over the years

Chief Bevaudns says she decided on the press conference to maintain transparency in the case and ask anyone with additional information on Marines to come forward as an FBI investigation is still ongoing (file photo of a Bradenton Police vehicle)

'I sat down with her and her parents and I told them they were heroes, as far as I was concerned,' the Chief Bevan said. 'In this day and age, I think it takes a little bit of courage to be willing to tell a police officer standing at the door, "No, we don't want to let you talk to our daughter."'

When Marines was confronted with the parents' complaint, he claimed to have followed the woman in her car because one of her headlights was out and he thought she might have been impaired.

This touched off an internal probe that continued even after the 12-year veteran of the force resigned in October. An audit of his motor vehicle license and registration searches revealed 'several hundred questionable database queries of women.'

He would use the information gleaned from the queries to make contact with women 'via social media, cold telephone calls, visits to their homes' and was 'successful at times' at finding dates in this manner.

'Our internal investigation was recently closed with a finding of numerous administrative violations involving gross misconduct to include misuse of criminal justice information, violation of our record security policy and sex on duty,' according to Bevans.

Bevans concluded the press conference saying she met with most of the women who were victimized by Marines in the case and issued an apology to them

Marines was placed on administrative leave as the investigation progressed.

'Had Marines not resigned, he would have been fired,' she added.

Bevans explained that an FBI probe into possible criminal charges was ongoing, and that the press conference was for the purpose of maintaining transparency regarding the case.

Chief Bevans concluded the press conference saying she met with most of the women from the subset of Marines' victims in an effort to regain their trust in the police department, 'and also simply to tell them I'm sorry.'
Ten adults have been arrested in France for allegedly repeatedly raping three children aged four, seven and ten.

The horrific abuse is said to have taken place during 'private family parties' where the children had been regularly 'used as sex toys', police said.

According to local media, the children were raped over several years by various adults in their entourage, including family members.

After a lengthy investigation the ten suspects aged between 30 and 64 were arrested arrested this week. They were picked up near Bourgoin-Jallieu and in Chambery in the Isere department of the eastern French Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes.

The alleged crimes took place between 2016 and December 2018. The three siblings are two girls aged four and seven and their 10-year-old half brother.

The mother, stepfather, uncle and grandmother of the young victims have been remanded in custody, according to the Grenoble public prosecutor Eric Vaillant.

Isere river and cable car in the centre of Grenoble, France. The 10 suspects were arrested in the Isere department of the eastern French Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes

While in police custody, the ten detainees reportedly rejected the accusations before later admitting to them.

Four women and one man have been indicted, two were imprisoned, and the other three have been placed under judicial supervision.

The victims' mother and stepfather were placed in pre-trial detention on Thursday afternoon.

The stepfather has been charged with child rape while the mother has been charged with incestuous child rape, among other charges.

Three other suspects, whose identities have not been revealed by the prosecution, were indicted on Wednesday 'for similar acts' and have been placed under judicial control.

The prosecutor told local media: 'Not everyone agreed to answer questions during the interrogation, so they will be the subject of further hearings and investigations.'

According to the French newspaper Le Dauphine Libere, who first broke the story, 10 adults aged 30 to 64, unnamed in reports, were arrested and placed in police custody on Monday morning.

The prosecutor said that the abuse, which reportedly took place between summer 2016 and the end of 2018, 'and especially after the children's mother started a relationship' with the stepfather, was revealed last September by the 10-year-old half brother.

The family were arrested near the towns of Bourgoin-Jallieu and in Chambery, not far from Val-d'Isere in the French Alps

He claimed that his own mother and stepfather had repeatedly raped him for years and that his sisters had been subjected to the same ordeal.

The children were also reportedly made to carry out sex acts on one another and have sex with the family dog.

A judicial inquiry, opened on October 25 2018, gave rise to 'numerous environmental and technical investigations'.

Vaillant said: 'As the months passed, the boy and his seven-year-old sister made new revelations to their teachers and other adults, referring to repeated and regular sexual abuse by the people around them including their mother, aunt, uncle, grandmother and family friends'.

The abuse allegedly took place during 'private family parties', according to local media.

The three children, who have been placed in foster care since January 2018, are said to be suffering from 'developmental delays and behavioural problems', according to the prosecutor.

However, he added that they 'have evolved positively since being placed in foster care'.

The investigation is ongoing.
Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been jailed for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating Wikileaks.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning to jail Friday after a brief hearing in which Manning confirmed she has no intention of testifying.

She told the judge she 'will accept whatever you bring upon me.'

She was booked into the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia, which houses about 400 inmates.

Chelsea Manning was booked into the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia on Friday

Manning is seen outside the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia before she was taken into custody on Friday

'Specific details about Ms. Manning's confinement will not be made public due to security and privacy concerns,' Sheriff Dana Lawhorne said in a statement Friday. 'We will work closely with the U.S. Marshals to ensure her proper care while she remains at our facility.

Manning has said she objects to the secrecy of the grand jury process, and that she already revealed everything she knows at her court martial.

The judge said she will remain jailed until she testifies or until the grand jury concludes its work.

A typical grand jury term is 18 months.

Manning anticipated being jailed. In a statement before Friday's hearing, she said she invoked her First, Fourth and Sixth amendment protections when she appeared before the grand jury in Alexandria on Wednesday.

Manning's attorneys, Moira Meltzer-Cohen (left) and Christopher Leibig (right), are seen outside the federal courthouse after the hearing

The former Army intelligence analyst was ordered to jail for refusing to testify to a Virginia grand jury investigating Wikileaks. She is shown here Tuesday outside of court

She said she already answered every substantive question during her 2013 court-martial, and is prepared to face the consequences of refusing to answer again.

Manning's lawyers had asked that she be sent to home confinement instead of the jail, because of medical complications she faces from her gender reassignment and because she's a public figure.

The judge said U.S. Marshals can handle her medical care.

Manning's attorney, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, said it would be 'an act of tremendous cruelty' to send her to jail, but did thank prosecutors who 'bent over backwards to accommodate' her medical needs.

Manning confirmed that the investigation concerned WikiLeaks' publication of the more than 700,000 classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that she gave the group for publication in 2010.

The transgender Manning, who was a US Army intelligence analyst known as Bradley Manning at the time, was eventually arrested and sentenced to 35 years in prison for the leak.

President Barack Obama later commuted her sentence, leading to her release in May 2017.

She became a hero to anti-war and anti-secrecy activists and her actions helped make WikiLeaks a force in the global anti-secrecy movement.

Manning said the questions she was asked on Wednesday 'pertained to my disclosures of information to the public in 2010.'

Assange has been living in Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid arrest.

Assange says the United States wants him extradited to stand trial over WikiLeaks' activities, which he says are no different than what journalists do.
Startling new figures reveal how knife attacks have more than doubled over five years in some parts of the UK, as Britain's streets are rife with bloody violence that has seen sixth teenagers stabbed to death in the space of a week.

Several counties, including Cambridgeshire, Gloucestershire and Hertfordshire, recorded an increase of more than 100 per cent in crimes involving knives or sharp instruments from 2013 to 2018.

The figures come on the day a 19-year-old woman was stabbed to death in Leeds, while two men were attacked with knives in separate incidents in Grimsby and Manchester.

Startling new figures reveal how knife attacks have more than doubled over five years in some parts of the UK, as the country faces one of its worst stabbing epidemics in memory

Several counties, including Cambridgeshire, Gloucestershire and Hertfordshire, recorded an increase of more than 100 per cent in crimes involving knives or sharp instruments from 2013 to 2018

The attack in Grimsby this morning happened just hours before Theresa May gave a speech on Brexit at the Orsted offshore wind plant a mile-and-a-half down the road.

West Midlands Police, which became the first force to issue emergency section 60 stop-and-search powers last week, has seen knife attacks rise 96 per cent, from 1,585 to 3,108.

In Birmingham today, Sajid Javid was today confronted by a furious mother during a walkabout with officers in the city.

Fiona Raychell, 50, challenged the Home Secretary about what he, personally, was doing about knife crime, after both her two children were mugged at knife-point, with her teenage son, 15, robbed just a fortnight ago.

Meanwhile, City of London saw an unprecedented rise of 638 per cent in such crimes, rising from 8 to 59 in that time.

The Metropolitan Police, which dealt with more than twice as many such incidents than any other force, recorded 14,788 such crimes in 2018, compared to 10,837 in 2013, an increase of 36 per cent.

The number of murders in the capital so far in 2019 has reached 26 - with four murder investigations launched in the space of 24 hours.

David Martinez, 26, was stabbed to death on Wednesday, then a man was killed in Soho hours later.

Met Police launched a third probe the same day after the body of film producer Laureline Garcia-Bertaux was found in a shallow grave in the garden of her Kew home, with a fourth investigation launched following the lethal street-stabbing of 17-year-old Ayub Hassan.

The epidemic of 26 knife murders in 2019 has sparked a frenzied political debate, with three such deaths in Birmingham (shown)

The force is preparing to carry out up to 1,000 stop-and-searches every day in the capital in a bid to stem violence that has seen more than 20 murders in London this year.

Composite picture of some of the people who have lost their lives to knife crime this year. Top row, from left: Tudor Simionov, Jaden Moodie, Nedim Bilgin, Lejean Richards, Dennis Anderson. Middle row, from left: Patrick Hill, Sidali Mohamed, Bright Akinleye, Abdullah Muhammad, Glendon Spence. Bottom row, from left: Kamali Gabbidon-Lynck, Hazrat Umar, Che Morrison, Jodie Chesney, Yousef Ghaleb Makki

The staggering figures come as:

Peter Chesney, father of 17-year-old Jodie Chesney who was knifed in the back in a seemingly motiveless attack in Harold Hill, east London, on Friday, made an emotional appeal for someone 'to do the right thing' and help catch her killer.

A male teenager was killed in a stabbing in Lanfrey Place, West Kensington, on Thursday afternoon.

Police announced the death of a 37-year-old man who had been injured in a stabbing in Soho on Sunday.

David Martinez was named as the 26-year-old Spanish man who died after a stabbing in Leyton, east London, on Wednesday.

A 22-year-old man who was attacked in Oxford on February 27 died on Wednesday.

West Midlands Police investigate whether knives were involved in an incident at Matthew Boulton College in Birmingham on Wednesday afternoon, which left two teenagers in hospital.

A 17-year-old accused of murdering teenager Yousef Makki in a knife attack in Hale Barns on Sunday was granted bail at Manchester Crown Court.

Greater Manchester Police's Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said his force would be asking for more cash from the Home Office so he can pay officers overtime to tackle knife crime.

How knife crime has DOUBLED in some areas of the Britain Below is a list of the police-recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments. The data is presented in the year to September 2013; the year to September 2018; and the percentage change. Avon and Somerset: 392; 554; 41% Bedfordshire: 273; 415; 52% British Transport Police: 80; 167; 109% Cambridgeshire: 201; 430; 114% Cheshire: 202; 403; 100% City of London: 8; 59; 638% Cleveland: 187; 428; 129% Cumbria: 110; 149; 35% Derbyshire: 325; 577; 78% Devon and Cornwall: 243; 440; 81% Dorset: 143; 249; 74% Durham: 145; 273; 88% Dyfed-Powys: 75; 156; 108% Essex: 267; 541; 103% Gloucestershire: 137; 308; 125% Gwent: 42; 141; 236% Hampshire: 338; 834; 147% Hertfordshire: 177; 513; 190% Humberside: 370; 570; 54% Kent: 483; 873; 81% Lancashire: 618; 923; 49% Leicestershire: 377; 801; 112% Lincolnshire: 164; 249; 52% Merseyside: 612; 1,181; 93% Met Police: 10,837; 14,788; 36% Norfolk: 94; 270; 187% North Wales: 89; 277; 211% North Yorkshire: 120; 249; 108% Northamptonshire: 260; 472; 82% Northumbria: 336; 298; down 11% Nottinghamshire: 587; 880; 50% South Wales: 378; 735; 94% South Yorkshire: 516; 960; 86% Staffordshire: 389; 689; 77% Suffolk: 159; 198; 25% Surrey: 33; 65; 97% Sussex: 276; 305; 11% Thames Valley: 776; 1,431; 84% Warwickshire: 111; 226; 104% West Mercia: 281; 448; 59% West Midlands: 1,585; 3,108; 96% West Yorkshire: 1,161; 2,717; 134% Wiltshire: 95; 243; 156% Below is the police recorded homicides relating to knives or sharp instruments in the same period. The data is also presented in the year to September 2013 and the year to September 2018. Avon and Somerset: 3; 8 Bedfordshire: 4; 4 Transport Police: 0; 1 Cambridgeshire: 5; 2 Cheshire: 3; 4 City of London: 0; 0 Cleveland: 1; 5 Cumbria: 4; 1 Derbyshire: 1; 0 Devon and Cornwall: 2; 3 Dorset: 1; 0 Durham: 3; 1 Dyfed-Powys: 2; 1 Essex: 2; 9 Gloucestershire: 1; 3 Gwent: 0; 1 Hampshire: 3; 7 Hertfordshire 2; 8 Humberside: 3; 3 Kent: 4; 7 Lancashire: 6; 5 Leicestershire: 5; 5 Lincolnshire: 2; 1 Merseyside: 6; 9 Met Police: 52; 83 Norfolk: 0; 3 North Wales: 1; 1 North Yorkshire: 3; 1 Northamptonshire: 2; 6 Northumbria: 10; 3 Nottinghamshire: 3; 6 South Wales: 4; 5 South Yorkshire: 6; 9 Staffordshire: 0; 1 Suffolk: 2; 3 Surrey: 1; 2 Sussex: 1; 5 Thames Valley: 3; 11 Warwickshire: 1; 3 West Mercia: 3; 5 West Midlands: 18; 21 West Yorkshire: 8; 5 Advertisement

Another victim of Bloodbath Britain: Mother's agony as son, 17, dies after being stabbed three times in chest in Kensington - in 'fourth attempt on his life'

A mother has today revealed her agony as her son, a 17-year-old who dreamed of being a barrister, was knifed to death after what was said to be the fourth attempt on his life.

Ayub Hassan - who had a brother, 9, and a sister, 11 - was described by his family as a 'victim' of gang violence since he was aged 12.

He was fatally stabbed near a Waitrose by West Kensington tube station in London at around 2pm yesterday. A local businessman said he was knifed three times in the chest. MailOnline asked police if the killing was 'gang related' but officers said they were 'keeping an open mind'.

Mr Hassan's mother, Siraad Aden, 38, collapsed when she heard that her son had been killed in London's fifth knife murder in just seven days.

Later she told The Standard through tears at the family home on the White City estate in nearby Shepherd's Bush: 'He wasn't only a son, he was my best friend. We want justice.'

After laying flowers at the scene, family friend Amina Osman revealed the fatal attack was 'the fourth attempt on his life', having previously been found unconscious in a park, run over and stabbed on another occasion.

Ayub Hassan (pictured left, in an undated image taken in hospital, and right) was fatally stabbed near a Waitrose by West Kensington tube station in London at around 2pm yesterday

Family friend Amina Osman arrives today to lay flowers near the police cordon on Lanfrey Place where Mr Hassan died yesterday

She added: 'He had ambitions, he was looking forward to being a barrister. He was looking forward to being a grown-up man. He was good with his words, he was very kind and handsome.'

Three men, aged 18, 17 and 15 were this morning arrested on suspicion of murder, police said today. Another teenager, aged 15, was arrested later today.

The part of west London where the murder happened has been plagued with gang activity in recent years.

Groups with names such as 12 World regularly taunt each other with drill music videos and have regularly been involved in fights with their rivals.

The number of fatal stabbings in London now stands at six in just seven days, while nationally 26 people have died this year.

The epidemic has sparked a frenzied political debate, with Chancellor Philip Hammond facing criticism yesterday for ignoring police demands to reverse cuts imposed under austerity measures and refocus their resources instead.

An aunt, who did not want to be named, said the teenager was studying at Hammersmith College.

A Little Waitrose store is located just behind the police cordon, where a forensic tent remained in place today

Forensic officers were searching drains near the crime scene last night and recovered what appeared to be a knife.

Mr Hassan was brutally knifed in the chest at around 2.15pm yesterday. An air ambulance took him to hospital from where he was stabbed in Lanfrey Place but he died a short time later.

Yousef Bahadooy, who runs a launderette in West Kensington, said he saw a group of five boys shouting and arguing outside his shop while he was ironing at the window on Thursday afternoon.

He recognised the group who he said he regularly saw 'hanging out together' on the high street, and claimed Ayub was murdered by his friend.

Mr Bahadooy said: 'They were his friends and cousins - there were about five of them, all boys, aged around 16 to 19. They were talking outside the shop at first, and then they started shouting.

'One of the boys pushed Ayub against the window while I was in the shop doing the ironing.

'They walked towards the Waitrose still shouting at around 2pm. Then, 10 minutes later, somebody called me and said 'somebody has been stabbed'.'
This is the creepy moment a former Stanford lecturer and Juilliard-trained musician is accused of peeking into California homes while naked.

Surveillance footage shows a nude man getting out of a van, prowling the streets of San Jose while smoking and knocking on front doors before fleeing the scene.

In another incident a suspect is seen at a front door wearing a purple dress before knocking on the door and exposing himself.

Police say they have arrested Mark Veregge, of Mendocino, in connection with the incident and he now faces multiple counts of misdemeanor peeping and prowling.

The dad-of-three, who taught percussion at Stanford until July 2017, is accused of carrying out the acts between February 15 to March 5, NBC Bay Area reports.

Surveillance footage shows a naked man at the door of a home in San Jose, California

The suspect appears to look through the window of the home while smoking a cigarette

He then flees the scene, still naked, after knocking on front doors and 'unnerving' residents

Police say they have arrested Mark Veregge, of Mendocino, in connection with the incident. Veregge now faces multiple counts of misdemeanor peeping and prowling

And it is not the first time the principal percussionist for the California Symphony has been accused of lurking outside homes.

In 2017 he was charged with stalking the home of his former student while dressed in women's underwear.

He would reportedly creep up to his student's car and check to see if it was unlocked, before heading back to his car and driving off.

This time around neighbor Leslie Semple told CBS: 'Its scary, its creepy. Its very, very unnerving.'

Another resident, Mark Rubino, added: 'Its kind of disturbing to have a naked guy prowling around your neighborhood.'

In another incident a suspect is seen wearing a purple dress before exposing himself

Mark Veregge is accused of visiting his former student's home in San Francisco in 2017 after footage showed a man going to the home wearing women's underwear

Veregge was a renowned lecturer and even performed with the California Symphony

In the 2017 case, he is said to have pleaded no contest. He was accused of visiting his victim's home in San Francisco in the middle of the night in just a bra and heels.

Its not clear why the suspect allegedly targeted the homes in San Jose.

Veregge was booked into Santa Clara County Jail and his bail is set at $50,000.

He has been a member of the California Symphony since 1987 after getting his degree at San Jose State University.
A man was arrested in Georgia after more than 700 dogs were found at a puppy mill in conditions that police described as 'out of control and inhumane.'

Reason Craig Gray, 58, of Nashville, is facing charges of animal cruelty and obstruction, the Berrien County Sheriffs Office said in a statement late Thursday.

Gray ran a licensed pet-breeding business known as Georgia Puppies. It sold sold miniature breeds including teacup Yorkies and toy poodles for up to $600 per dog, according to NBC.

Investigators with Berrien County Sheriffs Office obtained a search warrant for Georgia Puppies with animal control welfare officers on standby on Thursday.

Reason Craig Gray, 58, of Nashville, is facing charges of animal cruelty and obstruction after more than 630 were found at his lisensedd breeding business, the Berrien County Sheriffs Office said in a statement on Thursday

They had been informed by Department of Agriculture that he had brought 85 animals back to the property on Barney Parker Road.

This came a week after after authorities discovered 630 dogs, most of them young puppies, living in horrific conditions at the property a week previously.

Berrien County Sheriff Ray Paulk said in a statement: 'There are numerous charges pending on Gray, and as the investigation continues to unfold, there is no way to tell just how many charges will be filed.

'Due to the extent of this operation and as many documents and veterinary reports that are currently being inspected by the Sheriffs Office, there is no way to know at this time how many charges there will be.'

Multiple animal care not-for-profit organizations rushed to a South Georgia property on Thursday to help more than 700 dogs

'These dogs were living in filthy conditions and have had zero vetting. Many have medical issues and injuries,' Releash Atlanta said

Gray 58, of Nashville is currently booked in the Berrien County Jail pending charges for the cruel treatment of these dogs and obstruction.

Sheriff Paulk added: 'There are many questions yet to be answered and one huge one is how this licensed pet dealer was allowed to have an operation with this many beautiful creatures to be able to populate to the point of being out of control and inhumane.'

Last week Releash Atlanta, Atlanta Humane Society and other local groups shared shocking photos of the mangy dogs that were part of an 'extreme hoarding puppy mill case'.

'These dogs were living in filthy conditions and have had zero vetting. Many have medical issues and injuries,' Releash Atlanta said in a Saturday post.

The not-for-profit organization was only able to retrieve six of the pups from the South Georgia facility

A majority of the dogs had 'been living in crates their whole lives- one tiny crate stacked on top of another. Theyre matted, covered in feces and have never been held or walked.'

Most of the dogs will need some fore of medical attention

The not-for-profit organization was only able to retrieve six of the pups from the South Georgia facility, adding that other rescues 'came together to help'.

The Atlanta Humane Society added that a majority of the dogs had 'been living in crates their whole lives- one tiny crate stacked on top of another. Theyre matted, covered in feces and have never been held or walked.'

'Thank you to USA Rescue Team for working tirelessly on site and to Humane Society of Valdosta Lowndes County for bringing these animals to Atlanta,' the Society continued.

The Humane Society of Valdosta Lowndes County partook in the largest part of the effort, moving around 250 animals to a staging area.

According to USA Rescue Team, photos weren't allowed of the facility where the dogs were

The group shared that the 'breeder' called authorities on Thursday asking for help to close his operation

'Of the 250 dogs that we transported to the staging area, we were able to further transport ten of the 630 dogs found on the property,' the organization said.

'Many of the dogs were coated in feces, had extremely overgrown nails and damaged teeth. They have never known a quiet life of love outside of a cramped cage.'

They continued: 'They were shockingly trusting and calm as if to say "thank you for saving me. I know you are here to help.

'Please say a prayer for those pups as they set out to find a new life and for every person involved in this, for it was truly a team effort involving many people and many rescue organizations.'

USA Rescue said that their team was on the scene for 36 hours straight working with the dogs

According to USA Rescue Team, they shared that Gray had called authorities on Thursday asking for help to close his operation.

'We will not go into details of the operation or how the authorities are handling this because our focus was on removal, placement, and the care of the pets,' they said in their Saturday post.

'You will not see photos of the facility as we were instructed there would be no cell phones or cameras permitted on the premises and we complied!'

USA Rescue said that their team was on the scene for 36 hours straight working with the dogs.

Releash Atlanta managed to raise more than $3,200 for the dogs while the Atlanta Humane Society raised more than $16,000. The USA Rescue Team has raised more than $5,000

It is unknown what will happen to all of the dogs

Many people have been asking how they can help send supplies to the shelters

Pups wait in cages until they are seen by medical professionals

Some of the groups had sections on their posts that was dedicated to raising money for the dogs and their medical expenses.

Releash Atlanta has managed to raise more than $3,200 for the dogs while the Atlanta Humane Society raised more than $16,000. The USA Rescue Team has raised more than $5,000.

The groups have asserted that the dogs will be made available for adoption.

Releash Atlanta posted another photos of the dogs in a separate post, instructing dog lovers to do their research when seeing where their new pooch was coming from.

'We know many of you support rescue, which is why youre following this page, but many of you that read this today may not and you may be considering a new puppy,' they said in the Sunday post.

'If you dont take your time to make sure beyond sure, that your puppies didnt come from parents that look like this - then YOU are responsible for this.'

They added: Take your time and DO YOUR RESEARCH.

The groups have asserted that the dogs will be made available for adoption

The USA Rescue Team shared photos of some of the dogs they've already helped find homes for
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President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump spent the afternoon consoling families who lost their homes in a deadly tornado that struck Alabama.

They had private talks with storm victims inside a Baptist church doubling as a disaster relief center, where clothes, diapers, toiletries and school supplies are being distributed. They participated in a walking tour earlier, at which time the president hugged grieving family members of a community leveled by the storm.

At Providence Baptist, the president signed hats and bibles for volunteers, who eagerly reached out across a table of clothes to photograph and touch the nation's chief executive.

'I've never seen anything like it,' the president said of the devastation. 'We love you all. We love the state of Alabama.'

Outside the church the first couple honored the dead, holding a moment of silence as they stood hand-in-hand before a memorial made of crosses representing the 23 victims of last weekend's storms.

The Trumps were visiting Alabama on their way to Florida, where they are spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago and raising money for the president's reelection campaign.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump spent the afternoon consoling families who lost their homes in a deadly tornado that struck Alabama

They held a moment of silence at a memorial made of crosses and Providence Baptist Church in Beauregard, Alabama

The president hugged family members of one of the storm victims as he toured a Beauregard neighborhood with Melania

'I've never seen anything like it,' the president said of the devastation after his storm tour on foot

Marine One carrying President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump takes an aerial tour of the area

The Trumps toured the Beauregard neighborhood after, where they met the family of Sheila Creech and Marshall Lynn Grimes

Family members shared with the president and first lady, showing them Grimes' motorcycle vest and his bible

The Trumps survey the damage with Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (L), Housing and Urban Develoment Secretary Ben Carson, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Alabama lawmakers and FEMA officials in Beauregard

President Donald Trump signs a Bible as he greets people at Providence Baptist Church on Friday

Donald and Melania Trump arrived in Alabama early Friday afternoon via helicopter after landing in Air Force One in nearby Georgia. Their aerial tour lasted approximately 25 minutes, and afterward, the president told victims that federal emergency managers will stay as long as they need to.

'Its hard to believe actually,' he told reporters during a walking tour of the devastation. 'We saw things you wouldnt believe.'

He said that FEMA had done an 'A plus job' managing recovery efforts so far.

Tornadoes blitzed Alabama last weekend, killing 23 people, and ransacking parts of Georgia, where the Trumps first landed.

Greeting them on the tarmac was the state's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, and Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, greeted the president at the Auburn airfield and accompanied them on a walking tour of the community most-heavily affected.

'The governor has done an incredible job,' the president told reporters amid his tour of Beauregard, the Alabama neighborhood hit hardest.

Ivey told the president 'were stronger together' and thanked him for him for taking the time to visit.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump sign autographs and greet volunteers who sorted donated clothing

President Trump arrives in Georgia on his way to Alabama to view tornado wreckage on Friday afternoon

WE'RE HERE: The president and first lady deplane from Air Force Oneat Fort Benning in Georgia

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and his wife Marty greets the Trumps at Lawson Army Airfiel at Fort Benning

He told reporters as he left the White House on Friday, 'I'll be meeting with Governor Ivey. The people of Alabama, they got hit very hard by the tornadoes.

'We're stopping there, then we're going to Florida. And we're going to do a lot of work. We'll be working very hard,' he said.

First lady Melania Trump and the couple's son, Barron, were on the trip with the president. They left the White House just before 10 am from the residential entrance, after the president took questions from the press on the sentencing of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a myriad of other subject.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen joined them for the flight down to Alabama. Sen. Richard Shelby and Rep. Mike Rogers, both of whom were Alabama Republicans, also flew down with the Trumps.

Following the aerial tour of the damage that the group made via helicopter over Georgia and Alabama, the president and first lady met with survivors of the Lee County tornado and received a briefing from Kathy Carson, the county's emergency manager.

The Trumps toured the Beauregard neighborhood, where they met the family of Sheila Creech and Marshall Lynn Grimes.

Creech fled Panama City after Hurricane Michael in October of 2018 and relocated to Beauregard, where the White House says she was living with Grimes.

Grimes's daughter is in the hospital and her friend, Taylor Thornton, 10, died at the home during the tornado. The Trumps were to meet with son Chris Grimes and his wife Denise, as well as the deceased's brother David and his wife Kristen.

Family members shared with the president and first lady, showing them Grimes' motorcycle vest and his bible. The president hugged the grieving family members.

He told reporters that he recognized the wreckage from his flyover in Marine One.

'I saw this. And its hard to believe,' the president said. 'You saw things that you wouldnt believe.'

Also on their list of stops was the home of Susanne and John Polk, who was in the hospital when the tornado hit. The White House said that Mrs. Polk had left her home to visit her husband when she was informed that a tornado had just hit the area.

A member of the Beauregard Volunteer Fire Department, she aided in the search and rescue of the community.

The Trumps were scheduled to visit with another survivor of the tornado, Tamatha 'Tammy' Cardwell, who was at home when the weather event took place, and her husband James 'Jim' Cardwell.

The president said Tuesday that he would review the wreckage himself on Friday.

'It's been a tragic situation,' Trump said at a White House event on Tuesday. 'But a lot of good work is being done. I'm in constant touch with the governor and also the governor of Georgia.'

President Donald Trump is greeted by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey upon his arrival in Alabama

President Donald Trump waves as he boards his motorcade as he leaves Auburn airport

He said Friday, as he thanked volunteers, 'We couldnt get here fast enough.

'I wanted to come the day it happened,' he told them at the makeshift operation at Providence Baptist Church.

President Trump said Monday that he had directed federal emergency managers 'to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes' that injured nearly 100 people.

He told reporters Friday that FEMA had 'done and incredible job' and thanked emergency managers for their efforts.

The first lady made no public comments but shared photos of her family arriving at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington for their flight on Air Force One from the air.

'On our way to visit the great people of Alabama!' she said.

They arrived at Fort Benning's Lawson Army Airfield in Air Force One and traveled to Auburn University Regional Airport across the border in Alabama after that.

The president and first lady leave the White House on Friday morning for their trip down south

President Donald Trump, son Barron and first lady Melania Trump prepare to board Air Force One as they depart from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland

After spending several hours in the area, the Trumps left late Friday afternoon for Palm Beach, where the president has two evening events.

Donald Trump is participating in a joint fundraising committee roundtable and reception for Trump Victory, a Republican National Committee operation working in tandem with his 2020 reelection campaign, on Friday evening.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and RNC Finance Chair Todd Ricketts are co-hosts of the closed-press event.

The fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago is Trump's first major money-raising event of the calendar year. He is running for a second term with the party's backing.

Trump also tweeted about his visit, reposting a local news story adding 'Unimaginable loss - Such great people!'

But just 20 minutes later, he returned to tweeting about Michael Cohen and the damning testimony his former personal lawyer gave to Congress several days ago.

He posted" '.@RepMikeTurner The only time that Michael Cohen told the truth is when he pled that he is guilty. Also when he said no collusion and I did not tell him to lie!"'

Trump retweeted news reports about his visit to Alabama
The executive sedan comes in five variants with two engine and gearbox options.

The Honda Civic petrol is priced starting at Rs 17.70 lakh for the base V variant, Rs 19.20 lakh for the mid-spec VX, while the top-spec ZX trim costs Rs 21.00 lakh at pan Indian showroom.

Pune: Honda, the Japanese car giant on Thursday launched its iconic and the much awaited all-new Honda Civic sedan to boost sales in the highly competitive world's fifth and Asia's third biggest car market.

With a price tag starting from Rs 17.70 lakh at pan India showroom, the 10th generation Honda Civic will compete against established rivals like the Skoda Octavia, the Hyundai Elantra and the Toyota Corolla Altis. Interestingly, the new Civic, Honda brand's bestselling model in the world, makes its return to Indian market after a hiatus of seven years. The executive sedan comes in five variants with two engine and gearbox options.

The Honda Civic petrol is priced starting at Rs 17.70 lakh for the base V variant, Rs 19.20 lakh for the mid-spec VX, while the top-spec ZX trim costs Rs 21.00 lakh at pan Indian showroom.

On the other hand, the two diesel variants on offer are the VX and ZX, priced at Rs 20.50 lakh and Rs 22.30 lakh, respectively.

"With Honda Civic, the global bestseller, we have expanded our product portfolio in India to bridge the gap in our sedan line-up in the country," Gaku Nakanishi, President and CEO at Honda Cars India told Financial Chronicle.

He said this was the third new model introduced in FY19 and the launch of Civic completed its premium sedan line-up to take on rivals such as market leader Maruti Suzuki, Korean brand Hyundai, the second biggest car maker and Mahindra, the third in the pecking order.

"We have already got confirmed bookings for 1,100 new Honda Civic cars which is equivalent to two months sales volume in the executive sedan segment," Nakanishi pointed out.

He said with new launches in place, the brand would sell more than the auto industry this fiscal, without specifying volumes. In the first 11 months this year, sales at Honda grew 6.5 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year. In terms of features, the top-spec Civic ZX variants come with automatic LED headlights with LED DRLs, rain-sensing wipers, an electric sunroof, 17-inch alloys, leather upholstery, powered driver's seat, dual-zone climate control, a 7.0-inch touch screen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, ambient lighting, auto-dimming rear-view mirror and a segment-first lane watch camera system.

The safety equipment includes four airbags, ABS with EBD, vehicle stability assist, agile handling assist, an electronic parking brake with auto brake hold, hill-start assist and reverse camera with parking sensors for all variants of the Honda Civic.
A Ugandan woman who became the first person in Britain to be convicted of FGM after performing 'barbaric' home surgery on her three-year-old daughter has been was jailed for 13 years.

A 37-year-old mother was found guilty of cutting her three-year-old daughter despite deploying witchcraft to 'shut up' her accusers.

Mrs Justice Whipple told the mother she had 'betrayed' her daughter's trust and left her with a 'life long burden'. The judge branded FGM a 'barbaric practice'.

A Ugandan mother who became the first person convicted under FGM laws froze ox tongue (inset) with screws embedded in them aimed at silencing police, social workers, officers and lawyers in the case

The mother wrote people's names inside limes, which she froze, in a bid to use witchcraft to stop them reporting her

The court has heard how the mother had an interest in witchcraft and used 'spells' to target and try to 'silence' social workers, police and even the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders.

Mrs Justice Whipple today jailed the woman for 11 years for the FGM offence, with a two-year consecutive term imposed for unrelated offences concerning indecent images found on her phone when it was seized as part of the investigation.

The judge said: 'FGM has long been against the law and, let's be clear, FGM is a form of child abuse.

'It's a barbaric practice and a serious crime. It's an offence which targets women, particularly inflicted when they are young and vulnerable.'

The judge said it was not known why the woman inflicted FGM on her child, contrary to her culture, although witchcraft was a possibility.

On the psychological effect on the victim, she the told defendant: 'This is a significant and life long burden for her to carry. You betrayed her trust in you as her protector.'

The woman's former partner, a 43-year-old Ghanaian, was cleared of involvement following an Old Bailey trial.

The woman had written messages placed inside frozen limes to try to silence her enemies

The pair, from Walthamstow, east London, had been jointly accused of carrying out FGM on their daughter in August 2017.

Today - on International Women's Day - the mother was sentenced for harming her daughter.

Jurors heard the little girl was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital in Walthamstow, east London, on Bank Holiday Monday, August 28, 2017.

Her mother said the girl was not wearing any underwear when she fell and landed on a metal strip on the edge of the cupboard door.

But the consultant who operated on the toddler that evening phoned the police suspecting that the girl had suffered FGM due to the lack of bruising to the girl's groin area typically seen in impact-type injuries.

The kitchen where the surgery took place was so dirty that the police officer's feet stuck to the floor when they searched the room.

They found that the cupboard door was almost hanging off its hinges and would had come away if the little girl had really fallen on it.

The toddler later confided in a foster carer about what actually happened to her at the hands of her parents and was to eventually tell police that 'a witch' had cut her between the legs. She told the former: 'I promised, I can't tell anybody.'

he mother claimed the girl had slipped onto this cupboard door while trying to get cookies

In a freezer at the woman's home police found two cow's tongues bound in wire with nails with a small blunt knife embedded in them.

There was also a jar containing 40 limes and other fruit which, when opened, contained slips of paper with the names of various targets including the then Director of Public Prosecutions, two social workers and the woman's son.

The spells were designed to make them 'shut up' and 'freeze their mouth.'

The court heard the woman has two fraud convictions dating back to January 2014 concerning a failure to notify and change of circumstances and making a false statement to obtain benefits.

Both parents earlier pleaded guilty to a string of unconnected offences involving the possession and distribution of indecent pornographic images recovered from phones seized during the investigation.

In April 2017, the woman sent two videos to a number of WhatsApp contacts, followed by another clip months later in August.

The woman hoped the spells and the frozen cow's tongue would freeze people's mouths

One portrayed sex between a five-year-old boy and 12 or 13-year-old girl, while the other two depicted a woman performing a sex act with a snake and a man having sex with a dog.

The girl's father was found with videos of two five-year-old children having sex, a grown woman engaging in sex acts with a horse and the same snake sex video.

The male defendant pleaded guilty to two charges of possession of an indecent images of a child and two charges of possessing extreme images showing people having sex with a horse and snake.

Mrs Justice Whipple sentenced him to 11 months in prison, although he had already served his time on remand.

The court heard it would be up to the Home Office to decide whether to allow him to continue living in Britain.

The case came to light after a surgeon at Whipps Cross Hospital (pictured) concluded the child had been cut with a scalpel

Speaking after the sentences, Leethen Bartholomew, Head of the National FGM Centre, which is run by Barnardo's and the Local Government Association, said: 'The first person to be convicted and sentenced for FGM is truly a watershed moment and sends a strong message to society that this crime will not be tolerated and offenders will be held accountable.

'It has caused shockwaves in communities which practise FGM and we hope that this prison term will act as a deterrent, while encouraging other survivors to come forward to seek support.

'The effects of female genital mutilation have a lifelong impact on survivors both physically and psychologically, so it is vital support is in place for the child for as long as she needs it.

'Sadly, there is currently a lack of psychological support available for survivors. This must be reversed and an emphasis placed on recognising that survivors need ongoing support throughout their lifetime.'
Donald Trump said Friday that his former lawyer Michael Cohen personally asked him for a presidential pardon, accusing him of lying to Congress when he testified last week that he 'never' sought one

Cohen will begin a three-year jail sentence in May for bank and tax fraud, campaign finance violations, and lying to Congress in his previous testimony about his decade of service to Trump at his real estate company.

'I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr. Trump,' he told the House Oversight and Reform Committee on February 27.

Trump tweeted as he left Washington for a tour of tornado-ravaged parts of Alabama that 'he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO.'

The president also claimed that despite Cohen's denials to Congress, he 'badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!' Cohen had testified that he didn't turn on his former boss out of jealousy that he was passed over for a top West Wing job as the Trump presidency began.

Speaking to reporters as he left the White House, Trump said Cohen's testimony about his desire for a pardon 'was a stone cold lie.'

Donald Trump said Friday on Twitter that Michael Cohen personally asked him for a presidential pardon

Cohen, the president's personal attorney for a decade before he entered politics, told the House Oversight Committee last week in sworn testimony that 'I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr. Trump'

Trump tweeted as he left Washington for a tour of tornado-ravaged parts of Alabama that 'he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO'

'And he's lied about a lot of things,' he said, 'but when he lied about the pardon, that was really a lie. And he knew all about pardons.'

California Rep. Eric Swalwell, a liberal Democrat who reportedly hsa presidential ambitions, tweeted a jab Friday that Cohen retweeted on his own timeline.

'Michael Cohen gave sworn testimony. Will you? Under oath to Mueller or Congress?' Swalwell asked Trump. 'If not, get out of our Twitter feed and find a less obstructive way to spend your executive time.'

Cohen will go to prison in May for bank and tax fraud, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress in previous testimony

Cohen, too  a convicted perjurer  called Trump's revelation '[j]ust another set of lies by @POTUS @realdonaldtrump.'

'Mr. President...let me remind you that today is #InternationalWomensDay,' he tweeted. 'You may want use today to apologize for your own #lies and #DirtyDeeds to women like Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford.'

Cohen arranged hush-money payoffs during the 2016 campaign to McDougal, a former Playboy playmate, and Clifford, who makes pornographic movies under the stage name Stormy Daniels, to stop them from claiming they had had affairs with the future president. Trump has denied everything.

The president noted Friday that Cohen's lawyer, former longtime Bill Clinton confidant Lanny Davis, told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday about how Cohen 'directed' his then-attorney to seek presidential clemency after FBI agents raided his home, office and hotel room and arrested him.

'His lawyer said that they went to my lawyers and asked for pardons,' Trump said. 'And I can go a step above that but I won't go to it now.' He stopped hedging about an hour later, writing directly on Twitter that Cohen had made a personal appeal to him.

Cohen fired back Friday by claiming Trump is a bigger liar; his ally Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell blasted the president for not making his claims under oath

Disgraced former Trump attorney Michael Cohen (center) claimed last week in sworn testimony that he 'never' asked President Trump for a pardon  but his lawyer Lanny Davis (left) now concedes that Cohen 'directed' his first attorney to ask White House legal counsels about a pardon last year

Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal attorney, was reportedly in the room when Cohen's first lawyer, Stephen Ryan, asked Trump's legal team about a pardon last year.

Davis, who took over for Ryan, said this week that Cohen isn't currently seeking a pardon to erase the eight guilty pleas that led to his impending three-year prison sentence, and insisted that has been the case since Cohen retained him on July 2, 2018.

Giuliani tweeted Thursday that Davis's statement left a gaping hole in Cohen's timeline: the nearly eight weeks after the April 9, 2018 raids.

'The defense now to Cohen saying under oath he NEVER asked for a pardon is a familiar one; Whats The Meaning of Never,' Giuliani tweeted. 'Serial liars often try the same deception too often. Lets hope Congress and DOJ are outraged at Cohens disrespecting them by perjuring himself repeatedly.'

Giuliani's reference to a 'familiar' dodge was a jab at Davis's former longtime client, the 42nd president, who once famously covered up a lie about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky by dissembling about 'the meaning of the word "is".'

President Trump has long dismissed the idea of pardoning Cohen, who turned on him and accused him of committing crimes while in office

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now Trump's personal lawyer, was one person Cohen's first attorney pitched on a pardon last year; he blasted Cohen on Thursday in a demand for a new perjury probe

Clinton's evasive moment, captured in Special Prosecutor Ken Starr's report, came during grand jury testimony when he described telling curious aides that 'Theres nothing going on between us.'

'It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is,' he told the grand jury. 'If the  if he  if "is" means is and never has been, that is not  that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement,' he testified.

'If someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.'

Davis had told The Wall Street Journal that '[a]fter July 2, 2018, Mr. Cohen authorized me as a new lawyer to say publicly Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from President Trump even if offered. That continues to be the case.'

Giuliani vented on Twitter: 'Never means never ever[,] not after July 2,2018 which is the latest deception. Another perjury and more prison.'

Giuliani tweeted a fusillade at Cohen and Davis on Thursday, including a thinly veiled reference to Bill Clinton's famous dodge in grand jury testimony about what the word 'is' meant

Clinton famously said that the question of whether he lied to White House aides about his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky hinged on 'what the meaning of the word "is" is'  and Giuliani seemed to suggest Thursday that Lanny Davis, Clinton's lawyer at the time, picked up the smae thread by parsing the word 'never' for Cohen, now his client

Giuliani said the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives should 'demand' new criminal charges over Cohen's claim he never sought a pardon.

'Im still waiting for the House Dems to demand a perjury prosecution for the man who made fools out of them by lying under oath. Do they care about the truth? Or is it get Trump at any cost, even to their own integrity?' he asked.

Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows have already referred five of Cohen's statements during his open congressional hearing to the Justice Department in a referral that asks for a new perjury probe.

Lanny Davis's acknowledgment that Cohen did seek a presidential pardon could result in a new perjury charge for his client

Cohen worked for President Trump and his real estate company for more than a decade but turned on him last year, cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and a New York federal prosecutor.

The FBI's April 9, 2018 search warrants upended Cohen's charmed life and sent a public signal that the special counsel's Russia probe could be circling close to the White House.

'During that time period, he directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump,' Davis said Wednesday.

He described the discussions as amounting to an 'ongoing "dangling" of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media.'

Facing criminal charges and hostile media, Cohen hired Davis to represent him and changed his public position on pardons.

Now Davis, an established Washington-insider attorney, is claiming Cohen's statement last week 'was true  and consistent with his post-joint defense agreement commitment to tell the truth.'

Stephen Ryan (left) is the attorney who asked White House lawyers about clemency for his client Cohen last year while they were all sifting through Cohen's documents to see what might be subject to attorney-client privilege
Doctors at a hospital in Hong Kong forgot to tell a patient about a brain tumour that they had discovered in a scan, resulting in a 19-month delay in his treatment.

The 54-year-old patient, Lee Shu-leung, had been feeling dizzy constantly and went back for a check-up last September at Kwong Wah Hospital, where doctors finally confirmed the diagnosis and immediately arranged surgery, local media reported today.

The revelations only came to light when a doctor at another hospital let it slip that medical staff at Kwong Wah had known about the tumour from his scan in 2017, but never told him.

Following operations to remove the tumor, which has doubled in size, Lee has to now rely on a walking frame as he is left with numbness down his left side and serious mobility problems

Following two operations to remove the tumor, which has doubled in size over the months, Lee has to now rely on a walking frame as he is left with numbness down his left side and serious mobility problems, according to South China Morning Post.

Lee, formerly a chef a several hotels, first underwent surgery in 2005 to remove an initial brain tumour. Although he lost hearing in his left ear, the operation was successful.

However, in January 2017, he collapsed on the street and was rushed to Kwong Wah hospital in the district of Yau Ma Tei.

About 12 hours later, he was discharged after a doctor told him that his brain was fine, but asked him to come back for a check-up on his heart in six months, according to South China Morning Post.

The 54-year-old patient, Lee Shu-leung, had been feeling dizzy constantly and went back for a check-up last September at Kwong Wah Hospital (pictured), where doctors finally confirmed the diagnosis and immediately arranged surgery

Thinking that the wait was too long, Lee went to a private clinic to see if there was anything wrong with his heart. Doctors found nothing unusual, so he decided not to go back to Kwong Wah.

However, in September 2018, Lee felt dizzy constantly and went back to the hospital, where doctors confirmed a second tumour and immediately arranged surgery.

Shortly after, he discovered during a electrotherapy session that medical staff had failed to call him about the tumour.

In a statement cited by South China Morning Post, a Kwong Wah spokesman admitted the hospital did not follow up on Lee's condition after he did not come back for the follow-up consultation.

Lee discovered during a electrotherapy session that medical staff had failed to call him about the tumour. His wife demands an apology from Kwong Wah Hospital

Lee has to now rely on a walking frame as he is left serious mobility problems

The hospital pledged to help the family and review and improve its mechanism for informing patients about their conditions.

The spokesman added that a special reminder would be placed inside the hospitals clinical management system to make staff aware of any radiology reports for a patient.

Lee's 51-year-old wife Eleanor Leung demanded an apology from the hospital.

The couple have spent more than HK$100,000 (9,800) on treatments, but doctors say he cannot be cured, the report added.

Lee told reporters: 'How difficult was it to give me a call and tell me I had a tumour?'

It is unclear whether the family is taking legal action against the hospital at this time.
The UK's Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham

Britain's information watchdog has drawn up plans to introduce strict age checks on websites  but has not said how it will enforce them or which firms will be affected.

The Information Commissioner's Office is set to unveil a tough new code of conduct to force companies to guarantee they know the age of their users.

It is not known whether websites will have to monitor the age of users themselves, or if the public will be responsible for reporting breaches.

And the proposals don't indicate exactly how the new rules will be policed or which websites will be affected.

The new code will likely come under the remit of the Data Protection Act 2018, which was completed in May last year. It will give the ICO the power to issue huge fines to firms who do not adhere to the new rules.

But the move, likely to come into force by the end of the year, is likely to trigger a backlash from privacy and free speech campaigners.

The ICO said in a statement: 'The code wont have a lot of prescriptive detail about how sites age verify because all of the sites are going to be different.

'So we are going to say there has to be appropriate age verification on the site.

'We will then use our powers to ensure that such verification is effective and in place.'

The proposals suggest web firms that hoover up people's personal information will have to guarantee they know the age of their users before allowing them to set up an account.

What is the ICO and what are its powers? The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) upholds information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. It regulates the GDPR and DPA 2018. It is independent from the government but reports directly to Parliament. It is funded by fees paid by data controllers. The office investigates issues including spam emails, data consent to companies, political campaign practices and individuals' rights to information. They also advise companies on data protection issues and investigate firms not thought to be complying. The ICO has the power to hand out huge fines, of up to four per cent of companies' global turnover. Advertisement

Age checks are expected to be on a sliding scale depending on the webpages or websites a child wants to enter - from a tick-box system to an electronic passport type system where the person must use ID to prove their age.

But the specifics on exactly how that will work have not been made clear.

Companies that don't, face fines of up to four per cent of their global turnover  1.67 billion in the case of Facebook.

The code also aims to stop web firms bombarding children with harmful material, a problem highlighted by the case of Molly Russell, 14, who killed herself after Instagram allowed her to see self-harm images.

Experts claim it will have a 'transformative' effect on social media sites, which have been accused of exposing young people to dangerous material, bullying and predators. It includes rules to help protect children from paedophiles online.

Facebook will be forced to ensure its pages and settings are child-appropriate but in Google's case it is not clear if the age checks will relate to all websites found via the search engine or only ones people have to subscribe to.

Under the new code:

Once the new rules are implemented, children could be asked to prove their age by uploading their passport or birth certificate to an independent verification firm.

Tech firms will be banned from building up a 'profile' of children based on their search history, and then using it to send them suggestions for material such as self-harm;

Children's privacy settings must automatically be set to the highest level;

Geolocation services must be switched off by default, making it harder for paedophiles to target children based on their whereabouts;

Tech firms will not be allowed to include features on children's accounts designed to fuel addictive behaviour, including online videos that automatically start one after the other, notifications that arrive through the night, and prompts nudging children to lower their privacy settings.

This would then give them a digital 'fingerprint' which they could use to demonstrate their age on other websites.

Alternatively, the tech firms could ask children to get their parents' consent, and have the parents prove their identity with a credit card.

If the web giants cannot guarantee the age of their users, they will have to assume they are all children  and dramatically limit the amount of information they collect on them, as set out in the code.

At present, a third of British children aged 11 and nearly half of those aged 12 have an account on Facebook, Twitter or another social network, Ofcom figures show.

Many youngsters are exposed to material or conversations they are too young to cope with as a result.

Websites will be forced to introduce strict age checks on their websites or assume all their users are children under plans being unveiled by the Information Commissioner's Office

ICO deputy commissioner Steve Wood said: 'We are going to be making it quite clear that there is a reasonable expectation that companies stick to their own published terms and policies, including what they say about age restrictions.'

Baroness Beeban Kidron, who tabled a House of Lords amendment which ensured the new code was drawn up and put into law, added: 'I expect the code to say: 'You may not, as a company, help children find things that are detrimental to their health and well-being'. That is transformative. This is so radical because it goes into the engine room, into the mechanics of how businesses work and says you cannot exploit children.'

The rules will come into force by the end of the year, and will be policed by the ICO, which has the power to hand out huge fines.

It will also use its powers to crack down on any web firm that does not have controls in place to enforce its own terms and conditions.

Companies that don't guarantee they know the age of their users face fines of up to 4 per cent of their global turnover  1.67 billion in the case of Facebook (file photo)

Firms that demand children are aged 13 or above  as most web giants do  will also have to demonstrate that they strictly enforce this policy.

At the moment, web giants such as Facebook simply ask children to confirm their age by entering their date of birth without demanding proof.

A spokesman for the ICO, which is headed up by Elizabeth Denham, said: 'We can confirm that websites seeking consent for sign up to online services aimed at children must seek parental consent if the child is under 13.

'Well also be clear in the code that organisations must be held to account for the age limit policies policies on their sites and how they implement them, when it is connected to collection and use of personal data.

'The code will also set out the importance of implementing the design standards for all users it they cannot verify the ages of children likely to use their service.

'These are new steps forward and we will consult on how they will work in practice. Its important to stress the consultation.

Trusted and (at some point in the future, certified) third parties can also provide age verification services to allow people to prove their age and identity without providing information directly to the service.

'One such example of the concept is the Governmnents Verify service.'
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said Friday she is resigning to become president of the University of Texas at El Paso.

A former U.S. House Republican member from New Mexico and graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Wilson has headed the Air Force since May 2017, making her President Donald Trump's first Senate-confirmed service secretary.

President Trump thanked her in a series of tweets Friday afternoon, writing in part, 'Heather has done an absolutely fantastic job... and I know she will be equally great in the very important world of higher education. A strong thank you to Heather for her service.'

She had been an early skeptic of Trump's interest in creating a Space Force as an independent military department, but she publicly embraced the administration's proposal to Congress last month that would establish a Space Force as a separate service within the Department of the Air Force.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson has resigned after less than two years

Wilson also had been mentioned as a potential successor to Jim Mattis as defense secretary. After Mattis announced his resignation in late December, Trump named the former deputy defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, as acting defense secretary. But Trump has not yet nominated anyone for confirmation by the Senate.

In her resignation letter to Trump, Wilson said the University of Texas Board of Regents announced on Friday that she is the sole finalist to become the university's next president, effective Sept. 1.

'Under Texas law, my name will be public for three weeks before the regents take a final vote on my appointment,' she wrote.

Hours after the news became public, the President thanked Wilson in a series of tweets

'Upon a favorable vote by the regents, I will resign my position as secretary of the Air Force effective May 31, 2019,' she wrote. 'This should allow sufficient time for a smooth transition and ensure advocacy during upcoming congressional hearings.'

Wilson said she appreciated the opportunity to serve as the Air Force's top civilian official.

'It has been a privilege to serve alongside our airmen over the past two years, and I am proud of the progress that we have made restoring our nation's defense,' Wilson said in a statement distributed by the Air Force.

'We have improved the readiness of the force; we have cut years out of acquisition schedules and gotten better prices through competition; we have repealed hundreds of superfluous regulations; and we have strengthened our ability to deter and dominate in space.'

Rep. Michael Turner, an Ohio Republican, praised Wilson's work as Air Force secretary.

'It is not surprising to me that Heather would be sought out by other organizations looking for her strong leadership,' he said. 'I wish Heather all the best in her future endeavors. She will be deeply missed. Hopefully, someday we can see Heather Wilson as the first female secretary of defense.'
Chinese scientists are said to be building a new 'artificial sun' in a quest to find cheap, near-limitless and renewable energy.

The cutting-edge device is expected to hit temperatures above 100 million degrees Celsius, or more than six times hotter than the core of our closest star, according to a project leader.

Set to be complete this year, the new equipment is designed to replicate the nuclear fusion processes that naturally occurs in the sun; and the artificial course is expected to turn hydrogen into cost-effective green energy.

China already built an 'artificial sun' last year, called Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (pictured), whose ion temperature reached a milestone 100 million degrees Celsius

EAST (pictured) was built by the China's Hefei Institutes of Physical Science. Now researchers at the Southwestern Institute of Physics are hoping to build an even more powerful device

The machine, called HL-2M Tokamak, is being constructed at the Southwestern Institute of Physics, which is affiliated to the China National Nuclear Corporation.

The news was announced by the institute's deputy dean on Sunday in Beijing during a major political meeting in China.

China already built an 'artificial sun' last year, called Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST).

During an experiment last November, the temperature of the ions in EAST reached a key milestone of 100 million degrees Celsius, more than six times than that of the core of the sun which peaks at around 15 million degrees Celsius.

Both devices can reach temperatures more than six times that of the core of our closest star

The achievement was considered a milestone in the country's search for affordable clean resources.

During the process of nuclear fusion, gas is heated up and separated into its constituent ions and electrons.

According to Mr Duan, for the fusion to generate energy, the temperature of the ions must exceed 100 million degrees Celsius, which is why his team is working on developing a more powerful and advanced device than EAST.

EAST was built by scientists at the China's Hefei Institutes of Physical Science.

Scientists believe that nuclear fusion occurs at 100 million degrees Celsius - causing charged deuterium and tritium particles join together in a huge burst of energy.

These particles normally repel each other, and enormous temperatures are required to overcome their opposing forces.

EAST reached a key milestone when its core hit a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for the first time last November. Pictured left are temperature readings from the experiment at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, while the right image visualises the heat

The goal of the team behind EAST was to better understand the process of fusion ahead of building a full reactor.

EAST currently holds the world record for sustaining a reaction in a Tokamak - a paltry 101.2 seconds back in 2017.

The Tokamak is the world's most developed magnetic confinement system and is the basis for the design of many modern fusion reactors.

It involves light elements, such as hydrogen, smashing together to form heavier elements, such as helium.

For fusion to occur, hydrogen atoms are placed under high heat and pressure until they fuse together.

Tokamak Energy, a nuclear fusion company based in Oxfordshire, claims it will build a fusion reactor for power generation by 2030.
Former Fox News Channel executive Bill Shine suddenly left the White House on Friday and went to work for Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, instead.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced the departure in a statement on Friday morning. She said Shine would serve as a senior adviser to the political operation.

President Trump said he would be 'totally involved' in the campaign - but officials on the campaign were blindsided by the move, suggesting that it was not carefully planned.

Shine was acting as White House communications director. He joined the president's staff in July 2018 as deputy chief of staff for communications.

He had previously been a co-president of Fox News, where he led the network's programming division for a decade  prior to a fall from grace amid the Roger Ailes sexual assault scandal.

But this week a high-profile New Yorker article on the close ties between Fox News and the White House reported that Shine was still picking up millions from his former employer. Whether that was a fatal blow for the 55-year-old was unclear Friday.

Former Fox News executive Bill Shine has left the White House for Donald Trump 's 2020 campaign

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced the departure in a statement on Friday morning. She said he would serve as a senior adviser to the operation

He came to the White House after Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch's sons reportedly forced him out of Fox News over his handling of allegations against Ailes made by women who worked at the network.

Sanders said in a statement on his White House departure that 'Shine offered his resignation to the President yesterday evening, and the President accepted. Bill continues to support President Trump and his agenda and will serve as Senior Advisor to the 2020 re-election campaign.' f

The Trump campaign did not immediately make a corresponding announcement about Shine's future political role.

Two campaign officials told DailyMail.com on Friday that they were unaware of Shine's job transition before the White House announced it.

Campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement a half-hour afterward that Shine 'is an incredible professional and will bring insight and talent as we build a world-class campaign. He is a gifted communicator, strategic thinker and brings a wealth of experience from cable news and the White House.'

'The President's re-election effort just got stronger,' Parscale added.

Shine left Fox News in May 2017 and joined the White House more than a year later. A New Yorker feature article this week chronicled the symbiotic relationship between the network and Trump since his political rebirth.

A source close to the president told The New Yorker that the president felt that Shine hadn't been 'aggressive enough,' as the piece put it, in combating his negative press coverage.

Trump reportedly told the source, 'Shine promised me my press coverage would get better, but its gotten worse.'

'Trump thought he was getting Roger Ailes but instead he got Roger Ailess gofer,' the person said.

The White House communications aide was seen at the president's departure in Marine One on Friday, two hours before Sanders announced his resignation.

Shine never appeared on-camera for the White House and kept a low-profile, despite having an office in an area of the West Wing that is accessible to reporters.

He is the fifth person to hold the title of communications director since Trump took office two years ago. His sudden departure follows a revelation that he was receiving checks from Fox News after he joined the White House payroll.

After Shine delayed his submission of financial disclosure documents for months, a filing in November showed that he still receiving checks from 21st Century Fox as part of a $8.4 million severance package that will extend through May 2019.

Shine also cashed in bonuses and options valued at $3.5 million.

As he departed the White House, the acting West Wing chief of staff, press secretary and the president himself released statements hailing him as a valued member of the team.

The White House distributed a statement from Shine, that said serving in Trump's White House 'has been the most rewarding experience of my entire life.

'To be a small part of all this President has done for the American people has truly been an honor. I'm looking forward to working on President Trump's reelection campaign and spending more time with my family,' Shine added.

President Trump said Shine had done 'an outstanding job working for me and the Administration.'

'We will miss him in the White House, but look forward to working together on the 2020 Presidential Campaign, where he will be totally involved.'

Sanders said that Shine had been a 'great leader on our team and someone we have all loved working with every day' in the press office.

'He has brought a tremendous amount of talent and expertise to the Administration. Bill has become a real friend and his generosity and his passion for our country will be sorely missed,' she said. 'It is a big loss for the White House, but a huge gain for the Presidents reelection campaign.'
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The Nigerian brothers who beat Jussie Smollett in an allegedly staged attack in January have been seen for the first time since they told police about their involvement in the 'hoax'.

In photographs obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, Abel and Ola Osundairo are seen in Chicago with their pet parrot Nick.

They refused to answer questions about Smollett, who they say paid them $3,500 to beat him up on January 29 in an attack he allegedly planned as leverage to get a higher salary.

Smollett denies the claims and will return to court on March 14 to face a felony charge of filing a false police report.

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Abel (left) and Ola (right) Osundairo were seen for the first time on Thursday night since Jussie Smollett's arrest. Abel had their pet parrot perched on his left shoulder. They told police Smollett paid them to attack him

Abel, 27, and Ola, 25, were coy as they dodged questions.

Jussie Smollett will return to court on March 14

Ola refused to answer questions about the case, saying: 'We cant talk about that right now, we appreciate your concern.'

Abel, who had a parrot on his shoulder, later added: 'We said what we said bro.'

Ola then plugged their personal fitness Instagram account which they used again for the first time in weeks on Thursday night to share a photograph of themselves shirtless. The brothers then got into waiting car and were driven away.

They accompanied their Instagram post on Thursday night with the caption: 'I'm ABEL'.

They confessed to police on February 20th that Smollett hired them to beat him up and told them to make it appear as though it was a racist and homophobic attack on January 29.

They then fled to Nigeria and were out of the country while Smollett performed to sold-out shows and arranged interviews with national media.

The brothers were picked up by police on February 20th as they arrived back in Chicago.

They were questioned by police for 47 hours before finally telling them that Smollett was behind the entire attack.

Smollett, who met the pair when they appeared on Empire as extras, denies their version of events but is yet to offer an explanation for much of the evidence police say they have.

The brothers were in high spirits despite the scandal

There was a car waiting for the pair in the parking lot. They refused to answer questions as they made their way towards it but said they 'appreciated' the 'concern'

As they got into the car, the parrot took a perch on the back of the front passenger seat. Ola laughed and plugged their Instagram account before they were driven away

Ola plugged their personal fitness Instagram account which they used again for the first time in weeks on Thursday night to share a photograph of themselves shirtless (pictured)

A check he gave the brothers for $3,500 was labeled as payment for a workout and nutrition program and it was dated January 23, four days before the attack.

Police say the actor deliberately backdated it to make it appear innocent and said he was in fact paying them for the attack.

They claim to have video proof of Smollett in a car with the pair days before the incident when they said he was concocting their story.

Footage has already emerged of the brothers buying ski masks and other props to use in the attack.

The brothers' parrot has its own Instagram account where the brothers sometimes appear along with their other pets.
A bartender at a California hotel was arrested on Sunday for allegedly entering the room of a sleeping guest he had served earlier in the day and raping her.

Alejandro Adan, 30, who worked at the Kimpton Rowan Palm Springs Hotel in Palm Springs, California, was held in the hotel room by a relative of the victim until officers arrived, according to the Palm Springs Police Department.

Adan served drinks to the guest throughout the day and investigators reported that the victim's purse containing her room key went missing at some point.

When the guest retired to her hotel room in the afternoon, she woke to find Adan sexually assaulting her, according to police. She was able to get away and call the authorities for help.

Alejandro Adan, 30, of Desert Hot Springs, California, was charged with burglary, rape, sexual penetration with a foreign object and sexual battery on Sunday

Adan was a bartender at the Kimpton Rowan Palm Springs Hotel in Palm Springs, California, where he served the victim drinks

Adan, a resident of the nearby town of Desert Hot Springs, was arrested on charges of burglary, rape, sexual penetration with a foreign object and sexual battery.

He was held on $110,000 bail in Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, California, before being released, according to The Desert Sun .

Adan is due back in court on April 17.

The Palm Springs police are also looking into the possibility that other victims have been attacked by Adan under similar circumstances.

The Klimpton Rowan is a hotel located in Southern California near the San Jacinto Mountains featuring two separate bars, including one on its rooftop.

'The safety and security of our guests and employees is our top priority,' said spokesman Brandyn Hull for Kimpton Hotels & Restaurant to the Desert Sun .

'We are conducting our own investigation and are in full cooperation with law enforcement on this matter. We cannot comment further as this is an ongoing police investigation.'
Anthony McErlean, 74, above, obtained power of attorney over George Manwill. He was arrested at Mr Manwills BUPA care home in Sidcup after staff became suspicious of the relationship [File photo]

A conman who faked his own death has been jailed for five years after posing as a will writer to swindle a 94-year-old man out of his savings.

Anthony McErlean, 74, obtained power of attorney over George Manwill and moved him into an old peoples residence after helping him sell his 800,000 house during 2016.

He tried to purchase a diamond and sapphire necklace with the pensioners money and an Audi costing 60,000 claiming he needed it to ferry the pensioner to his medical appointments.

But police were monitoring his bank accounts and called the jewellers to block the sale.

A Santander bond, worth 135,000, went straight into McErleans bank account.

McErlean was convicted of fraud in 2011 after he faked his own death to pocket a 520,000 life insurance pay-out.

He filled in documents under his wifes name and claimed that he had been hit and killed by a cabbage truck in Honduras.

McErlean was undone when his fingerprints were traced on his forged death certificate.

McErlean was arrested at Mr Manwills BUPA care home in Sidcup after staff became suspicious of the relationship.

McErlean was convicted of fraud in 2011 after he faked his own death to pocket a 520,000 life insurance pay-out. He claimed he was hit by a cabbage truck in Honduras [File photo]

Jailing him Judge Philip Shorrock, said: Had you not been arrested you would have helped yourself to as much of his assets and money as you could.

He had assets including his own home worth about 800,000 in total. You had begun to help yourself to those assets through that power of lasting attorney.

I find as a fact, if the police had not intervened you would have if you could have, helped yourself to at least 500,000.

After sentence was passed McErlean, who has heart problems, told the judge: Thank you very much your honour.

McErlean appeared on ITVs Pensioners behind bars in December 2012.

Speaking from his cell at HMP Elmley on the Isle of Sheppey, McErlean told the cameras: I was unlucky - I thought it was a bloody good scheme.

He added sarcastically: But one musnt go committing fraud against major insurance companies, because they really are such lovely people.

The bespectacled pensioner has previous convictions including for robbery and possession of a firearm dating back to 1963.

His sentence for faking his own death was reduced from six years to five years while inside due to ill-health.

McErlean now claims he has a brain tumour.

Woolwich Crown Court heard how Mr Manwill received a cold call in September 2015 from a will writing service and McErlean turned up at his front door shortly afterwards.

Over the next eight months McErlean inveigled his way into every aspect of the elderly mans life - helping him with the sale of his house, gaining lasting power of attorney over him, linking his bank accounts to Mr Manwills and moving him out.

He forged the signature of Constance Jessop, an elderly neighbour and friend of Mr Manwills on the documents giving him power of attorney.

In a witness statement Mr Manwill said: At first I didnt trust him, but I received a phone call from a lady stating he was qualified.

He seemed genuine, I came to trust him and consider him a friend.

In July 2016 my house was sold.

He told me it had been put in a Lloyds bank account but I have never seen any evidence of that.

He said that he had paid McErlean several thousand for his services.

Mr Manwill added: My will was split five ways with my family and neighbours.

Woolwich Crown Court (above) heard how Mr Manwill received a cold call in September 2015 from a will writing service and McErlean turned up at his front door shortly afterwards. McErlean, of Kent, was convicted of dishonestly obtaining lasting power of attorney for gain [File photo]

I have not given him any permission to take money from my accounts.

He asked me to go to Spain but I dont want to go.

I feel such a fool that he has taken my money when I trusted him.

I never wished for Anthony or Sonya McErlean to be beneficiaries of my will.

A signed and witnessed will naming them both as sole beneficiaries of Mr Manwills 800,000 was made but has never been found.

McErlean visited Cousins jewellers in Canterbury on August 4 2016 to buy the necklace and claimed he had won 750,000 in the lottery.

He told the court: I have very little recollection of that.

I was very inebriated.

McErlean, of Canterbury, Kent, denied but was convicted of one count of dishonestly obtaining lasting power of attorney for gain.

He was jailed for five years and will face proceeds of crime action in the coming months.
The discussions are at an advanced stage and a deal could be closed in the next few weeks.

Ola did not respond to an e-mailed query on the development.

New Delhi: Ola is in talks with Hyundai Motor Company for investing about USD 300 million in the cab-hailing platform, according to sources.

The discussions are at an advanced stage and a deal could be closed in the next few weeks, sources said. If the deal goes through, it would be Hyundai's second investment in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Previously, it had led a Rs 100-crore funding round in car rental startup Revv. Ola did not respond to an e-mailed query on the development.

A Hyundai Motors India spokesperson said the company is "open to cooperation with various potential partners but it is our policy not to comment on market speculation and rumours".

The fresh funding will give the Bengaluru-based company more ammunition to compete with rival Uber in India and other markets like Australia, New Zealand and the UK. In February, Ola had announced that Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has invested about Rs 650 crore in the company.

The investment was in Sachin's personal capacity and was also the largest financing by an individual in Ola. Bansal's investment was part of Ola's plans to raise about USD 1 billion in funding.

In October last year, the company had announced raising USD 1.1 billion funding from China's Tencent Holdings and SoftBank Group.

At that time, it had also stated that it was in "advanced talks" to close an additional USD 1 billion funding to take total mop-up to more than USD 2 billion.

Ola has been aggressively ramping up its rides business as well as food delivery operations (through Foodpanda).
Police have apologised to women who came forward to say they were victims of a grooming gang after errors in the way evidence was handled led to criminal trials collapsing.

Northumbria Police launched Operation Optic after it received reports that three women had been the victim of child sexual exploitation about 10 years ago.

A series of trials, which started in January at Newcastle crown court, involved men living on Tyneside who faced serious charges including rape, trafficking within the UK and grooming.

The Chief Superintendent of Northumbria Police has apologised to the victims of a grooming gang after 'failings' by the force meant the case their alleged attackers could not be continued

But significant problems regarding the way evidence was secured repeatedly arose in the first trial, leading to its collapse this week, and the Crown Prosecution Service deciding any subsequent trials should not go ahead.

The defendants were cleared of all charges following the end of a four-year police investigation.

Reporting restrictions were in put in place during the first trial, but it has now been revealed the trial was full with issues and had to have five new juries sworn in.

Chief Superintendent Scott Hall, head of the force's Safeguarding Department, praised the women for coming forward.

Newcastle crown court (pictured), where the set of three trials which started in January collapsed after evidence being given to prosecutors was not properly handled

He said: 'We have visited each to apologise for police failings which resulted in the cases not going ahead at court.

'These centred around how some evidence had been secured without meeting strict guidelines governing investigations.

'We will now conduct a review to understand how the failings occurred and it would therefore be inappropriate to comment any further at this stage.'

A CPS spokesman said: 'During the course of this trial, it emerged that some of the evidence in these cases had not been secured in accordance with the strict guidelines governing police investigations.

'Given the significance of the issues that came to light, there was no longer a realistic prospect of securing a conviction in each case and the Crown took the appropriate decision to formally offer no evidence against the defendants.'
The designer of iconic luxury yachts used in four James Bond films has died at the age of 75.

Robert Braithwaite, who even appeared in 007 film Quantum of Solace, founded Sunseeker in 1969, then called Poole Powerboats.

With business partner John Macklin, Mr Braithwaite took the luxury boating world by storm, crafting yachts fit for Britain's greatest spy.

Robert Braithwaite, founder of Sunseeker yachts, has died aged 75

Sunseeker's first James Bond appearance came in 1999, when the Superhawk 34 model was destroyed by Pierce Brosnan's 007 in a thrilling chase down the River Thames in The World Is Not Enough.

The company's iconic sleek designs were also used in Die Another Day, Casino Royale, and Quantum of Solace.

The latter film saw Mr Braithwaite driving Daniel Craig in a Sovereign 17, the first boat he ever built.

Sunseeker, which is based in Poole, Dorset, now employs around 2,500 workers and exports luxury yachts to more than 70 countries.

Sunseeker chief executive Christian Marti today said in tribute: 'Sadly, in the early hours of Thursday, Sunseeker's founder Robert Braithwaite passed away.

'Robert was an inspiration to everyone at Sunseeker and to the wider marine industry, recognised as a boating pioneer, a true visionary and someone who changed the face of boating forever.

The entrepreneur appeared alongside Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace in 2008. Mr Braithwaite drove a vintage Sunseeker Sovereign 17 boat, the first boat launched by the company in 1971. It was restored in 2005 to celebrate the company's history. In the scene, Mr Braithwaite drives James Bond to his ally Rene Mathis's villa in Italy

Mr Braithwaite's boats were very popular with the rich and famous such as Katherine Jenkins and Theo Paphitis here at the launch of a new Sunseeker in 2010

A Sunseeker Superhawk 34 appears in the opening scene to The World Is Not Enough. James Bond, played by Pierce Brosnan, chases the Sunseeker being driven by assassin Giulietta da Vinci on the River Thames. It has a machine gun mounted to the back but is destroyed by Bond's Q-modified speedboat

The businessman started working for Friars Cliff Marine before founding Poole Powerboats. After designing a special boat for Formula One driver Henry Taylor, Sunseeker went from strength to strength

'Robert was not only the company's founder but the father of the Sunseeker family here in Dorset and worldwide through our dealers and clients. He will always live on as the driving force behind our success.

'Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with his immediate family.'

Despite going on to create high-end yachts like the Sunseeker 131, worth almost 18 million, Mr Braithwaite had humble beginnings.

The designer left school at the age of 15 with no qualifications, moving from Yorkshire to the south coast.

Mr Braithwaite started working with Macklin for Friars Cliff Marine in Dorset, a boat company that originally started as a car dealership.

The company, originally called Poole Powerboats, was set up in 1969 in Dorset by Mr Braithwaite and his business partner John Macklin. Sunseeker now employs 2,500 people and exports their boats to more than 70 countries

Sunseeker boats are today worth millions of pounds but the company had humble beginnings. Mr Braithwaite left school with no qualifications and went on to buy an American yachtbuilders' boat designs despite never having built a boat before. This Sunseeker 115 Sport superyacht is on sale on boating websites for around 6million

Sunseeker chief executive Christian Marti said: 'Robert was an inspiration to everyone at Sunseeker and to the wider marine industry, recognised as a boating pioneer, a true visionary and someone who changed the face of boating forever.' Nicole Sherzinger appeared alongside Mr Braithwaite by the Sunseeker Manhattan 65 boat at the London Boat Show in 2015

The interior of the Sunseeker 115 Sport matches the luxury of the exterior. The company's website advertises the boat as the 'perfect blend of power and sophistication'

Then in 1969, the duo moved to Poole and changed the company's name to Poole Powerboats - before Mr Braithwaite took a huge risk.

When American yachtbuilders Owens Cruisers announced they were stopping production in the UK, the trailblazing designer drove down to their offices in Arundel, West Sussex, and bought their boat designs.

Even though he had never built a yacht before, Mr Braithwaite and his team set to work, producing the Sovereign 17 in 1971.

After designing a special model for Formula One driver Henry Taylor, Poole Powerboats moved from strength to strength, becoming Sunseeker in 1985.

The south coast designer was highly respected in the industry, winning UK Entrepeneur of the Year in 2002 before receiving a CBE five years later from the Queen.

Mr Braithwaite was also known for his generosity, donating a 3.5 million surgical robot to Poole Hospital in 2015 after being treated for bowel cancer there.
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Marches, protests and strikes were observed all around the world as people came together to celebrate International Women's Day and push for sexual equality globally.

Activists from feminist group Femen singled out Hamburg's red light district for their protest on Friday, breaking down a gate that seals off a notorious street of brothels.

Wearing body paint with slogans saying 'women are not goods', some bare-breasted members of the organisation took power tools to the metal barrier.

Femen Germany posted on its Facebook page later: 'We destroyed a highly-symbolic gate today of a public street inaccessible to women.

Women riot police officers stand guard during a rally to mark International Women's Day in Santiago, Chile

The officers were seen wearing red lipstick as they stood by on duty in the Chilean city for International Women's Day

Thousands of women shout slogans as Turkish police block the roads during rally marking International Women's Day at Istiklal Street in Istanbul, Turkey

Feminist demonstration organized by women's associations, student and labour unions on international women's day in Barcelona

Several thousand people gather to take part in demonstration on International Women's Day in Oslo today, waving banners and chanting slogans

Women shield themselves from tear gas after police dispersed thousands of people attempting to march down Istanbul's famous Istiklal street during a rally for International Women's Day

Women hold letters on placards reading 'Legal abortion now' as they participate in a march during a strike for the International Women's Day in Buenos Aires, Argentina

'We tore down the wall to denounce sexual exploitation of women, trade in human beings and sexual violence that conceals itself behind the closed doors of the sex industry.'

The barrier blocks access for women and under-18s to Herbertstrasse, not far from the Reeperbahn cluster of nightspots in the north German port city.

Elsewhere in Germany, organisers expected as many as 10,000 people to take part in a march for women's rights through the capital Berlin, which celebrated International Women's Day as a public holiday for the first time this year.

'Our Basic Law calls for equal rights for men and women in article three. Implementing this in social reality is an enduring task,' Chancellor Angela Merkel said via a tweet from her spokesman Steffen Seibert.

In Turkey, thousands of women took to the streets to protest on International Women's Day, chanting slogans and raising banners as police battled to control them.

Across Spain, women downed tools on Friday in a mass movement which drew in female employees from across the spectrum, from nuns to journalists.

Even the mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, got involved with the issue becoming more and more prevalent as Spain gears up for upcoming elections in April.

Women take part in a rally to mark International Women's Day in Santiago, Chile, during a colourful display in the city

A trio of women hold a sign with a message that reads in Spanish: 'See how we end up,' during a demonstration commemorating International Women's Day, in Buenos Aires

Groups of women participate in the march during the strike for the International Women's Day, to claim greater equality and the end of sexist violence, through the center of the streets of Buenos Aires

Women in Argentina were galvanized to take to the streets after a bill that would have legalized abortion was rejected last year

A woman takes part in a demonstration during the International Women's day in Buenos Aires, the demonstration attracted hundreds

Protesters make their voices heard with placards, banners and loud chants on International Women's Day rally in London

Huge crowds could be seen in Istanbul as thousands of protesters came together to demonstrate against sexual inequality and crimes committed against women

These woman in El Salvador also came together to mark International Women's Day, marching and chanting against inequality

A passionate protester joins a crowd of mostly women as they protest for better pay and conditions for women in Brussels

Thousands of women walked off the job in Spain to mark international women's day, with these women marching and holding flares in Madrid

People carry banners and red balloons as they take part in a demonstration to mark the International Women's Day, in Rome

Meanwhile, thousands flocked to the street in Manila to demonstrate against President Rodrigo Duterte.

Around 4,000 people chanted slogans and protested against the president of the Philippines, who has repeatedly made jokes about rape and last year admitted indecently touching the family maid when he was a teenager.

Aides brushed off his comments as jokes, but activists have denounced his 'misogynistic' statements as 'unacceptable', pointing to statistics showing a 153 per cent increase in rape from the decade before he was elected.

With one woman or child is raped in the Philippines every hour, activists aiming to raise awareness about gender-based violence staged an exhibition of clothes worn by victims, called 'Don't tell me how to Dress'.

In Lahore, Pakistan, hundreds of women took to the streets to protest, chanting slogans and waving banners and homemade posters to mark International Women's Day.

Hundreds of members of leftist groups demonstrate on International Women's Day in Sao Paulo, Brazil against sexual inequality

Thousands of people attend a demonstration on International Women's Day at Gran Via street in Madrid as they battle for women's rights

A women holds a banner reading 'free abortion' during a rally to mark the International Women's Day in Madrid

People take part in the 'Disco against Hate' demonstration organized by Warsaw's Women's Strike on International Women's Day in Warsaw

This stunning photo shows several thousand people gather in central Oslo on March 8, 2019 to mark the International Women's Day

A woman holds up a sign saying 'Women are superheroes' as she joins thousands of people protesting in the centre of Brussels

Thousands take part in a feminist demonstration organized by women's associations on International Women's day in Malaga

A women wearing a mask reading 'Stop VOX' attends a rally to mark the International Women's Day in Madrid today

In Pyongyang, Flower Shop No. 5 did a brisk trade in flowers on International Women's Day, which is a full public holiday in North Korea, as a steady stream of customers turned up to buy blooms for their wives, mothers and significant others.

As the North's founder Kim Il Sung once said: 'In our country, women are in charge of one of the wheels of the revolution'.

And his attitude has expression in the dictionary which features sample phrases like 'If women are confined to their homes and remain away from labour and organisational life they cannot be revolutionised.'

Pope Francis meanwhile praised women as the source of peace, hailing their contribution to building a world 'that can be a home for all'.

Women in Paris take to the streets to protest against sexual harassment, workplace inequality, abortion rights and domestic violence

An indigenous woman in a wheelchair takes part in a demonstration for the International Women's Day, in La Paz, Bolivia

Protesters take part in a demonstration during a nationwide feminist strike on International Women's Day in Madrid

People wave Algerian national flags during a demonstration on Trocadero Square in Paris, for equality of rights in the country

A woman protesting in Karachi, Pakistan holds up a sign calling on an end to honour killings against women in the country

Thousands of Pakistani women observed the day, with hundreds participating in a rally to mark the International Women's Day in Karachi

'Women make the world beautiful, they protect it and keep it alive. They bring the grace of renewal, the embrace of inclusion, and the courage to give of oneself,' he said.

'Peace, then, is born of women, it arises and is rekindled by the tenderness of mothers. Thus the dream of peace becomes a reality when we look towards women... If we dream of a future peace, we need to give space to women.'

France awarded the first Simone Veil Prize to Aissa Doumara Ngatansou, a Cameroonian woman who has spent 20 years helping victims of rape and forced marriages.

On receiving the 100,000-euro prize ($112,000) Doumara dedicated it to 'all women victims of violence and forced marriages' and to those who had escaped the clutches of Boko Haram, the jihadist movement which emerged in Nigeria a decade ago and has terrorised the region.

Women holding signs and banners take part in a march staged by feminist, anti-racist and human rights organizations to mark the International Women's Day in Athens

A woman holds a flare as she takes part in a march in Athens against violence and the inequalities faced by women

Police officers were out in force in Istanbul as they tried to contain thousands of women and protesters marking International Women's Day
Daniel Willis Taylor, 40, (pictured) has been sentenced to 60 days in jail after video showed him attacking a female McDonald's employee because he didn't get a straw

A Florida man who grabbed a female McDonald's worker by the collar because he couldn't find a straw was sentenced to 60 days in jail.

A Pinellas County judge also ordered Daniel Willis Taylor, 40, to stay away from the restaurant and the workers he attacked in the December 31 incident, which was caught on video.

Taylor was credited with the 58 days in jail he already served. He also must pay a $1,000 fine.

Taylor, who is listed as 'transient' on court documents, is subject to a mental evaluation and treatment and will have to pay $1,000 in fines or volunteer almost 120 hours of community service.

Authorities say Taylor became irate when he couldn't find a straw on New Years' Eve and lashed out at worker Yasmine James.

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The footage shows Daniel Taylor (left) reaching over and grabbing McDonald's worker Yasmine James (right) because he didn't give her a straw with his meal

The video showed him standing at the counter, and screaming at James, 20, before grabbing and holding onto her shirt collar.

She responded by hitting him several times. At the time, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Taylor kicked another worker while being escorted out.

He had been charged with two counts of simple battery for the shocking altercation that he initiated.

James received an abundance of love and support online from friends and strangers as to how she managed the situation.

Yasmine James, pictured left and right on Facebook, a Florida McDonald's employee and former boxer, was victim Monday to a physical attack by a transient man

In the video that went viral, Taylor grabs James by her shirt collar and nearly drags her across the counter.

But she soon resists - pulls him back, then frantically punches him in retaliation.

People in the background are heard as they ask for the police as the woman pummels the man and demands that he 'stops playing with her.'

A coworker appears to try to pull the woman off the man but her grip is tight.

The video shows Taylor, 40, as he lungs at James then nearly drags her across the counter Monday at the St. Petersburg, Florida McDonald's she works at

He rushes over to Taylor and manages to separate the two. The irate employee also screams obscenities at her assailant.

At that moment, the manager comes over to 'assess' the situation and asks the customer what was wrong with his order.

As the woman calms herself down and looked for her phone, a battered Taylor screams: 'I want her a** fired.' The employee was not fired.

But the woman quickly retorted: 'No, you're going to jail!'

Kinie Biandudi, one of the witnesses who filmed the shocking altercation and shared it on Facebook, posted an update on the matter Wednesday afternoon.

As James calms herself down and looked for her phone, a battered Taylor screams: 'I want her a** fired'

The shocking altercation brought on by the middle-aged man was said to have started over a straw

Biandudi said: 'The employee was not fired! This really did happen last night for all those asking me... it all started because he wanted a straw!!!'

The witness added that the employee, who is seen in the video throwing punches at the man to defend herself in the New Year's Eve attack, used to to be a boxer.

Taylor then asserts that he was simply asking a question before adding 'b***h' as the clip comes to an end.

The transient was detained on New Year's Day and booked at the Pinellas County jail, according to court documents.

Taylor - who is between 5'7" and 5"8 and approximately 160lbs - is being held on a $1,000 bond and was also found to have owed a $11 commissary charge, jail records have indicated.

The West Virginia native was instructed to stay away from the victim and the eatery.

On Facebook Tuesday, a woman believed to be Taylor's mother posted that her son had been 'homeless for sometime' and 'hasn't been able to find a job.'

McDonald's has not commented on the matter. On Facebook, a woman believed to be Taylor's mother posted on Tuesday that her son had been 'homeless for sometime' and 'hasn't been able to find a job.'

The West Virginia native (right) was instructed to stay away from the victim (left) and the eatery
Switzerland has been ranked the best country in the world for women's rights in a new report released on International Women's Day.

The report, published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), ranked 120 nations on how they tackled discrimination against women through their laws and political reforms.

Switzerland, which wrote gender equality and equal pay into their constitution In 1981, was closely followed by Denmark, Sweden, France and Portugal in the index.

Switzerland was ranked first out of 120 nations in a report on how they tackled discrimination against women through their laws and political reforms (Picture: A woman attending an International Women's Day demonstration in Barcelona)

Meanwhile, Guinea, Jordan, Iran, Pakistan and Yemen came out at the bottom of the OECD's Social Institutions and Gender Index, released to mark International Women's Day.

Gender-based discrimination, including female genital mutilation, reproductive rights, pay gaps, and gender violence, were estimated to cost $6 trillion, or 7.5 per cent of the global economy, the report said.

The OECD gave Switzerland a 'very low' gender discrimination score of 8.1 out of 100 for having robust laws and social norms that addressed those issues.

While Yemen had a 'very high' score of 64 for its strict gender norms that restricted liberties, financial access, and justice for female victims of violence and rape.

'Despite a global realisation that women's equality is an urgent priority, we are moving too slowly in closing gender gaps, and in some countries gender gaps have even widened,' said the OECD's chief of staff, Gabriela Ramos, in a statement.

The gender pay gap sat at 13.6 percent across developed countries, it said.

Women occupy less than a quarter of parliamentary seats globally, the index also said.

'We need to do more and to do it better. We need to be smarter in the way we design and execute policies and be held more accountable on the results. Otherwise we may be looking at another 200 years to achieve gender equality,' Ramos said.

Some gains have been made, the report said.

Though one in three women globally still experience domestic violence once in their lifetime, it has become less socially acceptable, it said.

The proportion of women who said domestic violence was acceptable has dropped from 50 percent in 2012 to 27 percent in 2018, the OECD said.

Paid maternity leave is also now guaranteed in every country except Papua New Guinea and the United States, it said.

A report on Tuesday by global accounting firm PwC said increasing the female labour force to match that of Sweden - where 69 percent of women work - would add a further $6 trillion to advanced economies.
Idris Elba has begged 'stupid' thugs to stop stabbing each other over petty arguments in an impassioned Instagram video.

The Luther star, 46, took to the social media app to take aim at knife-wielding youngsters after six people were murdered across the capital in just a week.

In a black-and-white selfie video, the actor and DJ urged teenagers using the weapons to 'stab themselves' instead of others because they are stabbing their futures in doing so.

He went on to say that fellow entertainers should use their own platforms to spread the message in a bid to tackle Britain's knife crime epidemic.

Elba, who was given an OBE in the 2016 New Year's Honours for services to drama, said: 'Knife crime is not new.

Luther star Idris Elba, pictured in November, has begged 'stupid' thugs to stop stabbing each other over petty arguments in an impassioned Instagram video

In a black-and-white selfie video , the actor and DJ urged teenagers using the weapons to 'stab themselves' instead of others because they are stabbing their futures in doing so

'I grew up in the 80s and there was knife crime back then between blacks and whites and now it's definitely between young black men in small tiny communities. And it's affecting everyone.

'We all look stupid. You look even more stupid if you've got a knife or you know someone that's got a knife tell them to stab themselves. Right now. Trust me.

'Because you're just gonna stab your future if you go and stab someone else.

'You become a murderer, you go to prison, you ain't got s***. For what? For some beef that lives within your community. You need to see past that.'

Elba shared the video with a caption detailing the number of knife-related offences in London between 2010 and 2018, to demonstrate that it is not a 'new' problem.

In the clip, he continued: 'We have to say something about this. Entertainers that are out there, there's young people that look up to us, we need to vocalise this. Send a message out there: Put the knives down. It's dumb.

'We don't need to be killing ourselves, we have so much more to offer. And you're gonna kill your future, you're gonna kill someone else's future and it's dumb.

Elba, who was given an OBE in the 2016 New Year's Honours for services to drama, said: 'You become a murderer, you go to prison, you ain't got s***. For what? For some beef that lives within your community. You need to see past that'

'Entertainers do me a favour, put out similar videos let's try and put out something and say that we care for our communities.

'Let's stop the knife crime please.'

He also added that the community needed to make noise about the stabbing epidemic to protect the living.

Elba wrote: 'So many Mothers/Fathers have had to bury their CHILDREN and FAMILY due to stabbings. This is happening to black young kids/men doing it to ourselves.

'We wear the same skin but yet we act like we hate that skin, our identity. Its dumb. Its getting worse. We OURSELVES need to step up for these kids. Waiting for the Police to do something isnt a REAL solution, WE cannot WAIT for that.'

Elba's plea comes after a 17-year-old who dreamed of being a barrister was knifed to death in west London yesterday afternoon.

Ayub Hassan was fatally stabbed near a Waitrose by West Kensington tube station at around 2pm in what is said to have been the fourth attempt on his life.

A local businessman said he was knifed three times in the chest.
A gang of youths filmed a boy as they chased him brutally smashed him in the face with a hammer and stabbed him to death in a sickening attack, a court heard.

Cemeren Yilmaz, 16, bled to death as one of his attackers filmed the shocking incident on their mobile phone and uploaded it to Snapchat during the attack last September.

Four teenagers linked to a gang known as the 'Black Tom' gang are said to have attacked Yilmaz in Bedford, who was linked to another group.

St Albans Crown Court heard that Yilmaz was chased down the streets by two youth and as he lay on the ground was stabbed in the kidney.

Moments later, two other gang members - both just 15 - allegedly arrived at the scene and smashed Yilmaz in the face and head with a hammer.

Cemeren Yilmaz, 16, bled to death as one of his attackers filmed the shocking incident on their mobile phone and uploaded it to Snapchat

Yilmaz died in hospital the following day after he suffered massive internal injuries and undergone surgery to remove a kidney. He also suffered a fractured skull and brain damage, as well as two cardiac arrests.

Aaron Miller, 20, who was 19 at the time of the attack, has pleaded not guilty to the murder.

Three other 15-year-old boys from Bedford, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also deny murder.

Prosecutor Stuart Trimmer QC said there was 'hositility' between the two gangs, something which Yilmaz had spoke to relatives about.

The court heard how Yilmaz was hanging around with friends at a housing estate in Bedford when he and a group of friends saw one of the 15-year-old defendents and chased after him.

Moments later, the court heard, Cemeren was seen again on CCTV running away and clutching a bag.

The prosecutor said it was this that may have motivated the 15 year old boy and his co-defendants 'to exact revenge.'

Shortly after 10pm that night, Aaron Miller arrived along with a number of teenagers.

Yilmaz and Miller started fight, the court heard, and a 15-year-old who had been chased from the scene joined in the attack.

The victim escaped and but fell to the group and CCTV caught the group attacking the deceased.

'One of the defendant's had a hammer which he then used to strike Cemeren. Then the other defendant took it and he too hit Cemeren with it,' said Mr Trimmer.

Yilmaz was brutally attacked in Bedford last September. Pictured: Near to the scene where Yilmaz was attacked

Footage from the recording was played in court to the jury which showed the victim lying on the ground, a foot near his body and a hammer blow being delivered.

Yilmaz is heard saying 'I am going to die' followed by sounds of him groaning.

The prosecutor said on a 999 to the ambulance, the voice of one of the defendants can be heard saying 'Give us the hammer' and 'Oh yo young blood, cut cut, I'll say no comment all the way.'

Mr Miller was arrested at Bedford Hospital where he had gone to get treated for a stab wound to his back.

The 15-year-old who had been with him during the attack and who is alleged to have stabbed Cemeren was arrested in the early hours.

One of the two boys who is said to have used the hammer to strike Cemeren was arrested that night and the other youth with him was arrested three days later.

Mr Trimmer said the knife that had been used to stab Cemeren was later found in a drain near to the scene of the attack.

When examined, it was found to contain the DNA matching one of the 15 year olds on the handle and DNA from Cemeren was on the blade.

The court heard the hammer has never been found.

Mr Trimmer told the jury it was the combination of the two attacks that caused the death of Cemeren.

All four defendants he said were part of a 'joint enterprise' to attack Yilmaz.

The case continues.
He helped to perform the real-life Great Escape and wrote a journal with anecdotes, cartoons and sketches

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An amazing journal full of anecdotes, sketches, cartoons and poems belonging to a war hero who played a crucial part in the real-life Great Escape has been uncovered.

A 'Wartime Log' diary diary written by the late RAF Flight Lieutenant Vivian Phillips is packed with vivid tales, compelling poems and photographs of prisoners in Stalag Luft III, in Nazi-occupied Poland.

The RAF pilot was captured by the Germans after his plane was shot down in 1943 over Amsterdam. His journal records the story of how men came together to build escape tunnels.

Adrian Stevenson, militaria expert at Hansons Auctioneers, pictured above, said the find was 'incredible' and 'absolute gold dust for any militaria collector'. The journal includes anecdotes of how the inmates joined forces to build a tunnel to escape Stalag Luft III, a prisoner of war camp in Nazi-occupied Poland

The diary also tells the story of life in the camp, from how prisoners used Red Cross aid tins for stoves to how the men smuggled sand from the tunnel in their trousers.

The collection is expected to sell for up to 18,000 at auction later this month.

The story was told in the 1963 Hollywood classic The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough. The 75th anniversary of the real-life escape is on March 24.

Out of the 76 that escaped, 73 were recaptured, mostly within several days of the breakout. Fifty of those were executed on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler.

The journal describes navigator Mr Phillips' escape from death after his plane was shot down by Luftwaffe fighters. A newspaper cutting being sold with the journal tells how Flight Lieut Phillips, from Hook, Pembrokeshire, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order after the gallant part he played in the operation

Mr Phillips played a major part in building the tunnel but was not one of the mass escapees, who had their names drawn out of a hat.

He wrote about the hard work involved in building the tunnel and but also the dismay of the prisoners when the Germans discovered one of their tunnels.

But they shared a laugh when German engineers laid an explosive in the tunnel to blow it up but there was a backfire.

Also in the collection is Mr Phillips' war medals, including a Distinguished Service Order.

He goes into great details about life in the camp and the escape in anecdotes shared in the collection, which will be sold at Hansons Auctioneers in Etwall, Derbyshire, later this month.

Mr Phillips wrote: 'It was our job to make the frames which shored up the tunnel. All this work was done underground and after long hours in cramped conditions we really did feel done in. But at the same time, we felt it well worth while doing.

'During the summer we were working on a tunnel but unfortunately it was discovered. Anyway, it provided one laugh  When the German engineers laid an explosive charge in the tunnel to blow it up there was a bit of a backfire  How we cheered. Unfortunately for the Germans, we had two more tunnels going at the same time.

'The code for the tunnels was Tom, Dick and Harry and the whole thing was most efficiently run  From now on we concentrated on the one tunnel  The most number of prisoners ever to escape by tunnel got out through it  73 officers. Everyone has now heard the tragic story of how 50 of those officers were shot by the Gestapo  in fact were murdered by the Gestapo.

'My role in the tunnel was varied. I began as a member of a group of fellows who played for hours and hours with a medicine ball. We formed a circle and threw the darned thing around until I hated the sight of it. At odd times we were joined by fellows who played for a little while and then departed.

The collection also includes several black and white photos of men held in the Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp in Poland. It belonged to RAF Flight Lieutenant Vivian Phillips, a Welshman who was captured by the Germans after his plane was shot down during the Second World War

'These fellows were dispersers and in place of pockets they carried two small bags  one either side inside their trousers  supported by a string around their necks. By putting their hands in their support pockets they were able to pull a string which acted as a quick release  It was our job to 'work in' the light-coloured sand from underground to the drab coloured sand of the surface. All this was done under the very noses of the guards.

'From this I graduated to a kind of foreman. I had charge of a gang of eight fellows whose job it was to pretend to be lolling about lying on great coats. In reality they were digging holes in preparation for their disperser.'

He wrote that unfortunately 'yours truly' had no luck in being drawn out of a hat as one of those to go for the escape.

His 'Wartime Log' is packed with vivid tales and compelling poems handwritten in pencil, 50 sketches and cartoons of Stalag Luft III which have never before been shared publicly

He added: 'It is funny how at first one is obsessed by thoughts of escape  later, when one is more settled and able to reflect in a clearer manner, it became obvious how utterly futile these plans would have been. Also, one developed a mania of saving and hiding bits and pieces.

'A piece of string, a rusty bit of wire, a bent nail  anything that one thinks might come in handy for that great event  escape. Everyone had their one secret little hiding place  and not all of them were found by the Germans on their frequent searches either.'

The journal also describes navigator Mr Phillips' escape from death after his plane was shot down by Luftwaffe fighters.

He set off on May 3, 1943 with 11 RAF Lockheed Ventura light bombers from 487 (New Zealand) Squadron to attack Amsterdam Power Station.

A newspaper cutting being sold with the journal tells how Flight Lieut Phillips, from Hook, Pembrokeshire, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order after the 'gallant part he played in the operation'.

A newspaper report at the time said: 'He had a remarkable escape for, when the plane was hit his parachute release clip was blown off. The last he remembers was when the plane went into a spin and disintegrated about 18,000 feet above Amsterdam.

When he landed, he was pulled across the ground by his damaged parachute over barbed wire until his clothes were in ribbons. He was being cut out of his harness by a Dutch patriot when a German sailor came up brandishing a revolver and he was taken prisoner.'

While he and another colleague escaped the attack two other crew members did not escape and perished in the crash.

He has been described as a 'quiet and unassuming' man and disliked the fuss that his award had caused. He always stressed the vital contribution of his aircrew and later visited the families of those killed in action. He later died in 1997.

Adrian Stevenson, militaria expert at Hansons, said: 'It's an incredible find and absolute gold dust for any militaria collector. This journal, which is being sold by the family to honour Mr Phillips' memory and 'do him proud', beautifully captures camp life and the gritty resilience of the prisoners.

'It's so compelling, I read the journal cover to cover in one night. Everything in it reminds me of the film  the sketches of the camp, the humour and the stories of how the inmates joined forces to build a tunnel to escape Stalag Luft III.

'Mr Phillips, who died in 1997, tells how the POWS used Red Cross tins to make everything from shower roses to jugs, cups and stoves. They even saved Red Cross sugar, raisin and prune rations to make alcohol for the occasional 'hooch night'. Ultimately, the journal underlines a deep camaraderie among men caught up in a terrible situation.

'He was in the camp from 1943 to 1945 and describes how prisoners smuggled sand from the tunnel in their trousers. The inmates had to dispose of tons of sandy soil as they dug out the tunnel. He was in charge of men dispersing the sand and later became a tunnel carpenter.'

Charles Hanson, owner of Hansons Auctioneers, said: 'This is a wonderful journal and a remarkable chance to bid for victory.'
Jeremy Corbyn told delegates in Dundee he was 'utterly determined' to root out anti-Semitism in his party today, after the equalities watchdog reported the party may have 'unlawfully discriminated' against Jews.

In a speech focused mainly on Scotland's working class heritage and attacks on the government's domestic record, he promised the party would 'root-out' abuse and discrimination of all kinds.

On Brexit he said it would be 'the end of the road' for Theresa May's deal if it fails to pass the House next week, but again stopped short of full-throated support for a second referendum.

And he exhorted delegates that rather than fighting within itself, his party should turn its fire on the Tories - who he criticised over their 'desperate' handling of Brexit negotiations and austerity policies.

Mr Corbyn told delegates in Dundee he was 'utterly determined' to tackle anti-Semitism

Mr Corbyn said: 'We will root out anti-Semitism in our party, and in society at large,' departing from his script to add 'and I am utterly determined to achieve that'

With Labour struggling to deal with complaints of anti-Semitism, he said the party 'must lead the fight against all types of racism'.

In a heightening of Labour's anti-Semitism crisis, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) announced on Thursday it was launching an enforcement process which could lead to a formal investigation.

It comes as 185 Labour peers - which include a raft of former cabinet ministers including David Blunkett and Peter Mandelson - said the scandal was an 'embarrassing and hugely damaging mess' and dubbed Mr Corbyn's leadership on the issue a 'failure'.

Mr Corbyn insisted: 'Racism, religious bigotry and misogyny have no place whatsoever in any part of our movement.

'And we will root out anti-Semitism in our party, and in society at large.'

In an addition to his prepared text, he told conference: 'And I am utterly determined to achieve that.'

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will now consider whether to launch a formal probe, which would mean Labour having to hand over email and other correspondence so investigators can see how the party dealt with discrimination claims.

Mr Corbyn insisted: 'Racism, religious bigotry and misogyny have no place whatsoever in any part of our movement'

His speech in Dundee started with praise for the Glasgow women's rent strike of 1915

It would only be the second time the watchdog has taken action against a political party. Nine years ago it forced the BNP to drop its 'whites only' membership rule.

Mr Corbyn spoke out as he addressed the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee, telling delegates their party was now 'the biggest it has been for generations' with 'popular policies which people know will improve their lives'.

He told the audience: 'The only thing that can hold us back is if we were to turn our fire on each other rather than on the Tory government and the wealthy establishment interests they represent.'

Second EU referendum receives more luke-warm support from Labour leader In his speech in Dundee the Labour leader said: 'So having already failed once to get her deal through, I want to make it clear to the Prime Minister if she fails again it will be the end of the road for her deal. 'There is no coming back from it. There can be no more playing for time. 'Incredibly, Theresa May is still refusing to rule out a no deal disaster. With every minute that goes by uncertainty and fear grows. 'We will do everything we can to stop a no deal crash. 'We favour a general election. Well push for our alternative plan. And we will support a public vote to prevent disaster.' He said Labour's proposals - which include a continued customs union with the bloc - were 'credible' and that the party's discussions with the EU had convinced him they could be successfully negotiated. Advertisement

He said it was important to return Labour to power both at Westminster and at Holyrood, so the party could deliver 'real change'.

But he told Labour members: 'To get there, we as a party have to be united.

'That doesn't mean we have no room for debate and disagreement, discussion. They are the lifeblood of our democracy.

'But there is no justification for the abuse of anybody.'

While he insisted Labour, unlike other parties, was 'not obsessed' with constitutional issues, he insisted the party's alternative Brexit proposals were 'credible' and also had the 'potential to win the support of Parliament'.

He added: 'Discussions with Michel Barnier and others in Brussels have convinced me that it could be negotiated with the EU.'

The proposals would provide a 'sensible framework' for the UK's future relationship with the European Union, with a new customs union and a 'close relationship' with Europe's single market.

He hit out at the Prime Minister, saying that if Theresa May 'cannot get her botched Brexit deal through Parliament next week it will represent an unprecedented failure in British political history'.

The Labour leader continued: 'The utter mess the Government has made of the Brexit negotiations and their reckless abandon when it comes to people's jobs and livelihoods is unforgivable.

'The Conservatives' deal will make us all worse off and we could never support it.'

He went on to warn that a no-deal Brexit would 'cause havoc' in the economy, as he said Labour still wanted a general election, adding he would support a second referendum on Brexit in order to 'prevent disaster'.

A key section of his speech was focused on climate change, with Mr Corbyn insisting this was 'fundamentally' a class issue.

'It's working class communities that suffer the worst pollution and the worst air quality, it's working class people who will lose their jobs as resources run dry.

'And it's working class people who will be left behind as the rich escape rising sea levels' he said.

Nine Labour MPs left the party in the last month, eight to defect to the new Independent Group pictured above. Mr Corbyn said that to achieve power: 'We have to be united. That doesnt mean we have no room for disagreement'

Deputy leader Tom Watson (left) has called on Mr Corbyn to take charge of anti-Semitism abuse cases after Luciana Berger (right) was hounded form the party by what he called 'thugs'

While he said big business and the Tories would 'never do anything serious' to tackle the climate change problem, he pledged Labour would 'make it a central objective' of the party's industrial strategy.

Mr Corbyn said: 'We need to reduce our net emissions to zero by 2050 at the latest, it's not just an ecological priority, it's a socialist priority too.

'So we'll put public investment into renewable energy on a massive scale.

'Because given the gravity of the emergency we need nothing less than a green industrial revolution.'
The U.S. State Department has issued a security alert for travel in Mexico ahead spring break.

In the travel advisory issued on Wednesday, consular officials warned of the risks associated with drowning, tainted alcohol and sexual assault while vacationing in Mexico.

'Know your drinking companions and stay in a group of friends who have your safety in mind when you are in clubs and bars, out walking in dimly-lit areas, or in a taxi at night,' the alert warned.

'Drink responsibly and watch your drink at all times. If you begin to feel ill, seek medical attention immediately.'

The U.S. State Department has issued a security alert for Mexico. Pictured: A spring breaker takes a shot of tequila during a pool party at a hotel in Cancun in 2015

There have been a number of cases of death, assaults or injuries associated with suspected tainted alcohol in Mexico.

In January 2017, Wisconsin college student Abbey Conner, 20, drowned in the shallow end of a resort pool while on a family vacation in Playa del Carmen, and her brother was incapacitated and seriously injured.

The family alleged in a lawsuit that she was served tainted alcohol from a swim-up bar. An investigation by the Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal revealed hundreds of cases of tourists being robbed or assaulted in Mexico with no recollection of what happened after drinking suspect alcohol.

Several months later, Mexican authorities raided 31 resorts and seized 10,000 gallons of illicit alcohol from an illegal distillery in Playa del Carmen.

The new alert also warned that hospitals in Mexico can often be more expensive than in the U.S., and frequently require payment before offering treatment.

Officials advised seeking a health insurance plan that provides coverage overseas, or purchasing travel insurance that specifically covers travel in Mexico.

A spring-breaker jumps into a pool during a pool party at a hotel in Cancun in 2015. Officials warned to be wary of tainted alcohol, drowning and sexual assault while in Mexico

Other warnings included advice to only take official taxis, avoid swimming while intoxicated, and keep family back home informed of travel plans.

Despite the risks in Mexico, the State Department says that 'the vast majority of travelers have safe and enjoyable trips.'

State Department statistics show that in 2017, 822 Americans died unnatural deaths abroad, with 250 of the deaths occurring in Mexico.

Looking only at homicides, 58 per cent occurred in Mexico, which was the destination in only 40 per cent of travel, according to a column by statistician Liberty Vittert for Fox News.

'These numbers are more complicated than they seem at first glance,' Vittert wrote.

'Sure, these numbers sound scary on their face, but risk is relative,' she continued.

'You have a higher risk of dying by motorcycle accident or of accidentally drowning in the next year than of being murdered in Mexico as a tourist.'
The victims later told the media that they were satisfied with the police action, which they termed as prompt.

The incident took place at around 5 pm on Wednesday in Daliganj in central Lucknow. (Photo: Screengrab)

Lucknow: Two Kashmiris selling dry fruit were thrashed by a group of saffron-clad men in the Daliganj locality of Lucknow late on Wednesday evening, after which four persons have been arrested, the police said on Thursday.

The incident was the latest in a series of cases in which Kashmiris across the country were targeted after the Pulwama terror attack that killed over 40 CRPF jawans.

The assault on the Kashmiri vendors, which was caught on camera, was strongly condemned by Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Kashmiri youths were selling dry fruit on Daliganj bridge and a group of men beat them up, terming them stone-pelters, Lucknow SSP Kalanidhi Naithani told reporters here. The local people, however, rushed to their rescue and informed the police, he said.

An alert citizen also made a video of the attack, after which police teams swung into action and arrested the main accused, Bajrang Sonkar. Sonkar has more than a dozen criminal cases pending against him, including that of murder, loot, theft and under the Arms Ac, he added.

On a tipoff, three others  Himanshu Garg, Aniruddh and Amar Kumar  were also arrested on Thursday, the SSP said. Sonkar claims to be the president of a little-known outfit called the Vishwa Hindu Dal.

Mr Naithani said the victims, Abdul Salaam and Mohammed Afzal, are from south Kashmirs Kulgam district and come here during winters to sell dry fruit.

The victims later told the media that they were satisfied with the police action, which they termed as prompt. The SSP said the police wanted to give a stern message that such acts would not be tolerated and those involved would be brought to book.

An FIR was lodged at Hasangaj police station under various sections of the IPC, including 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot), 307 (attempt to murder), and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, a police official said.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said the assault in Lucknow hurt the very idea of India. Nothing will do more damage to the idea of India in J&K than videos like these. Keep thrashing Kashmiris like this on the streets at the hands of RSS/Bajrang Dal goons & then try to sell the idea of atoot ang (integral part), it simply wont fly, he said in a series of tweets.

Dear PM @narendramodi Sahib, this is what you had spoken against & yet it continues unabated. This is the state governed by your handpicked chief minister. Can we expect action in this case or do we file your concern & assurances as a jumla, meant to placate but nothing more? he asked.

Mr Abdullah also posed a question to Union home minister Rajnath Singh, who represents Lucknow in the Lok Sabha, asking if he would step in to deliver justice in this case. Jenab @rajnathsingh Sahib. You represent this constituency in the Lok Sabha, this is the constituency where Vajpayee Sb was elected from & went on to be PM. If no one else will step in & deliver justice, can we expect you to punish those guilty of this assault? he added.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti accused the Centre of encouraging such people to polarise society. Kashmiris are being hounded & punished. The culprits here were clad in saffron kurtas & are from VHD. They have no fear & in fact uploaded the video on SM. GoIs conspicuous silence is actually a political tactic to encourage such elements & communalise the atmosphere until polls (sic), she tweeted.

You humiliate & assault Kashmiris. Make them feel like criminals & that they dont belong to this country. Why are you surprised then when young pliable men are taken under the wings of terror groups & indoctrinated? she said.
A day after her comments prompted a House vote condemning anti-Semitism, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar landed herself in a new controversy by claiming a reporter misquoted her bashing former President Barack Obama  and then releasing audio of the interview that appears to back him up.

Omar, 37, told Politico Magazine that while she finds some of President Donald Trump's initiatives objectionable, Obama escaped the consequences of his own 'bad policies' because of his 'pretty face.'

After the news outlet quoted from the interview, Omar tweeted that the result was '[e]xhibit A of how reporters distort words. Im an Obama fan!'

'I was saying how Trump is different from Obama, and why we should focus on policy not politics. This is why I always tape my interviews,' she added, along with a winking, tongue-out emoji and nearly two minutes of audio.

DailyMail.com reviewed and transcribed the recording, which supports what Politico reporter Tim Alberta wrote.

Alberta fired back at Omar in a tweet: 'Exhibit A of how politicians use the media as a straw man to avoid owning what they said. Your tape...supports what I wrote 100%. So does my longer tape. It's beyond dispute. Next time, a phone call from your office before the Twitter ambush would be appreciated.'

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called out former President Barack Obama, comparing him to President Trump and saying 'many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies'

Omar discussed President Obama as she spoke about politicians who are 'polished' but still have 'bad policies'

Omar claimed Friday that the reporter who quoted her on Obama had distorted her words, and released a 2-minute audio clip from the interview  which indicated the journalist got it right

WHAT ILHAN OMAR SAID ABOUT TRUMP AND OBAMA 'I think for many of us, we think of ourselves as Democrats. But many of the ways that our Democratic leaders have conducted themselves within the system is not one that we are all proud of. 'You know, I will talk about the family separation or caging of kids and then people will point out that this was wrong  I mean this was Obama. And you know I'll say something about the droning of countries around the world and people will say that was Obama. And all of that is very true. What is happening now is very different. A lot is happening with secrecy. It's happening with the feel-good polished way of talking about it. 'And when we talk about waking people up from complacency, it's to say that we can't be only upset with Trump because he's not a politician who sells us his policies in the most perfect way. His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies. They just were more polished than he was. 'And that's not what we should be looking for anymore. We don't want anybody to get away with murder because they are polished. We want to recognize the actual policies that are behind the pretty face and the smile, so that we can understand the kind of negative impact, or positive impact, they will have on us for generations.' Advertisement

The first-term Minnesota congresswoman bashed the Obama administration's forceful use of military drone technology to try to take out terror networks, and likened Obama's policy of separating migrant adults and children at the U.S.-Mexico border to Trump's.

Obama's aggressive aerial hunt for al-Qaeda and other terror groups drew criticism from the left, leading him to reel it in after misjudgments came to light.

Omar also implied Obama was a politician with a 'pretty face' that masked his bad policy choices, an attack that is at odds with public approval ratings that historically earn Obama support in the high fifties with even more backing among members of his own party.

'We can't be only upset with Trump  His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies,' Politico quoted Omar saying.

'They just were more polished than he was,' Omar continued. 'And that's not what we should be looking for anymore. We don't want anybody to get away with murder because they are polished. We want to recognize the actual policies that are behind the pretty face and the smile,' she said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (l) had to navigate challenging party dynamics this week and assemble a resolution

Omar criticized the Obama administration drone program, which drew criticism for insufficient oversight and some mishaps. Here local residents watch ongoing demolition of the compound where Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was slain last year in the northwestern town of Abbottabad on February 26, 2012

Her slam on the two-term Democratic president was published after the House passed a resolution condemning hate language on Thursday.

The legislative move was a response to comments from Omar that many of her colleagues deemed anti-Semitic. The charged fight over the resolution consumed lawmakers' attention this week, caused an internecine war among Democrats, and drew the media spotlight away from the sentencing of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort.

The final vote was 407 to 23 with one lawmaker voting present. All the no votes were Republicans.

Omar's comments had infuriated senior congressional Democrats, including some committee chairmen who are Jewish, and who publicly called out the use of anti-Semitic 'tropes.'

In the interview, Omar also drew comparisons between a crop of, new, progressive Democrats who are challenging party leaders and the conservative Tea Party.

'We look at the negative aspects of the Tea Party and not really at the part of them that spoke to the American people, that made them feel like there were people actively fighting for them,' she said. 'There's a resemblance there. A lot of us are not that much different in our eagerness to want to come here and fight for our constituents, fight for the American ideals we believe in.'

Among her comments that drew fire, Omar tweeted 'It's all about the Benjamins baby' to criticize lawmakers who support Israel.

Another remark by Omar raised criticism that she was reviving 'dual loyalty' attacks that have been used on Jews and other groups in the past.

Speaking about the Arab-Israeli conflict, Omar said, 'I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country.'

Angry Jewish Democratic members pushed back their support for Israel was based on their own views, not money or loyalty to a foreign nation.

Said Florida Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch on the House floor: 'We are having this debate because of the language of one of our colleagues, language that suggests that Jews like me, who serve in the United States in Congress and whose father earned a Purple Heart fighting the Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge  that we are not loyal Americans?'

Omar's attacks on the popular former president are just the latest time the first-term lawmakers has found herself in controversy during just her third month in office.

Yemenis walk past a graffiti depicting a US drone, after alleged US drone raids killed dozens of Islamic State (IS) fighters, in Sana'a, Yemen, 17 October 2017. President Trump signed an executive order on 06 March 2019, ending an Obama-era policy requiring US intelligence officials to publish the number of people killed in targeted strikes

She entered Congress as one of several 'fresh face' lawmakers who drew attention for their vows to shake up the system. Having spent part of her youth in a Kenyan refugee camp after fleeing war-torn Somalia before immigrating to the U.S., Omar is one of the first two women Muslim members of Congress.

The House changed a rule that prohibited head-coverings on the House floor, allowing Omar to wear her traditional dress while casting votes.

The fight over the anti-Semitism resolution forced party leaders to contend with various constituent groups, as well as pushback from Omar allies and critics of Israel policy.

First they broadened the text of the resolution to include condemn Islamophobia and white supremacism after Omar's defenders said one form of hate should not be singled out. Omar herself has been the recipient of hateful attacks.

Then, minutes before the scheduled vote Thursday Democrats pulled it again, to add several groups not included in the original measure, including Latinos, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and LGBTQ community.

Intervening from afar was President Trump, who on Friday before leaving town declared the Democrats an 'anti-Jewish' party after the conflagration.
An Oklahoma judge was found last weekend suffering from a stab wound and a fractured ankle in her home, in what police are now calling a suspected domestic attack.

However, in the early stages of the investigation, the incident that hospitalized Tulsa County District Judge Sharon Holmes, 59, was classified as an accidental self-inflicted injury.

Nearly a week after police officers discovered Holmes lying on her kitchen floor in a pool of blood, many questions remain regarding what actually happened on Saturday night.

Tulsa County District Judge Sharon Holmes was found in her home Saturday suffering from a stab wound to the leg and a broken ankle

As Tulsa World first reported, police officers arrived at the judge's residence in response to a 911 call from Holmes relative reporting an injury.

The relative, who has not been named and whose relationship to the judge remains unclear, told an emergency dispatcher that she walked into the kitchen and found Holmes lying on the floor with a knife sticking out of her leg.

The relative said she and Holmes earlier had a verbal argument over another family member, and that she then walked out of the kitchen, leaving the judge alone.

An initial police report classified the incident as an accidental self-inflicted injury, but now police are looking at it as a possible domestic attack targeting the trail-blazing Oklahoma judge

The woman claimed she did not hear Holmes fall, but when she returned to the kitchen a short time later, she found her on the floor covered in blood.

According to the relative, the judge began to lose consciousness, so in order to keep her awake until the arrival of paramedics the woman slapped Holmes several times in the face.

When officers responded to the scene, they saw that Holmes had a deep cut to the back of her leg and a badly broken ankle.

A search of the kitchen turned up a blood-stained knife that was found in the sink.

A police report obtained by the Tulsa paper indicated that the author of the document said he was instructed by a supervisor to classify the incident as 'an accidental injury.'

A separate internal memo composed by a shift supervisor the following morning stated that investigators believed judge Holmes inadvertently stabbed herself with the knife, given that her home showed no signs of forced entry and that the victims relative told them that Holmes fell on the knife while she herself was in the living room.

Holmes was sworn in a judge of the 14th District Court in Tulsa in January 2015, becoming the first black woman to be elected to that post

But on Thursday, as Holmes continued recovering in the hospital from her injuries, a police sergeant told the paper that police are now investigating the incident as a possible act of domestic violence, although no suspects have been named.

Its a domestic violence investigation, and it appears there may be an internal investigation surrounding the issue, as well, Sgt Shane Tuell said.

Holmes, a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans and Oklahoma City University School of Law, was sworn in a judge of the 14th District Court in Tulsa in January 2015, becoming the first black woman to be elected to that post.

She was re-elected to the bench in Tulsa November 2018.
Danial Farooq and a friend. There is no suggestion she is linked to the university probe or to Hizb ut-Tahrir

An Oxford student has been suspended by the university after trying to recruit for an extreme Islamist organisation.

Third-year engineering student Danial Farooq, 21, now faces an investigation after expressing support for jihad.

He says he is a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir which seeks to establish an Islamic state under Sharia law and is banned in more than a dozen countries worldwide  though not in the UK.

He claimed he is close to gaining supporters at Britains oldest university and told an undercover Daily Mail reporter he supported jihad to spread Islam.

Mr Farooq, who is from Brent in north London and studies at Wadham College, said: Theres a few brothers who believe that the problem of our time is political and that the solution is for Islam and a [caliphate].

I believe if there was 50 to 100 hizbis (Hizb ut-Tahrir members)  just students  in all of the UK, if there was even five hizbis in Oxford, if you could influence two or three, that could change the whole Muslim unity. Because thats how it all starts.

Asked about his recruitment success he said: Theres a few Im trying to convince. Theres a lot of potential in Oxford in terms of the influence. A lot of people are from elite backgrounds  and even the ones who arent... end up in elite backgrounds.

The National Union of Students banned Hizb ut-Tahrir from campuses in 2004, saying it sought to threaten, demonise and attack the lives of students.

Tony Blair and David Cameron also tried to ban it but failed because it does not overtly advocate violence.

Emma Fox, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, a counter-extremist think-tank, said: This Daily Mail investigation has exposed a grave threat to the safety of students at Oxford that should never have been allowed to fester.

Mr Farooq, who is from Brent in north London and studies at Wadham College, said: Theres a few brothers who believe that the problem of our time is political and that the solution is for Islam and a [caliphate]

That such an insidious group has found its way into such a prestigious campus shows the depths of Britains extremism problem.

The Mail revealed last year how Hizb ut-Tahrir claimed it had brothers who recruit at Oxford.

Mr Farooq, who claims to be rebuilding the organisation on campus, invited an undercover reporter to several one-to-one meetings at a student hangout near the university.

He also emailed Hizb ut-Tahrir literature which read: Ever since the dawn of Islam, the struggle has been at its fiercest between Islam and kufr [a derogatory term for non-Muslims]... it is a matter for which jihad has been made one of the most important duties.

In the video, Mr Farooq abbreviates the word 'jihad' to 'J' after he said he needed 'to be careful'

Mr Farooq said: That bit is talking about punishment and jihad. I need to be careful. Theres a lot of people here. Well call it J. We dont see it as an aggressive thing.

The 137-page leaflet goes on to say its permissible for Muslims to kill those who leave the faith even if they numbered millions.

An Oxford spokesman said it takes its responsibilities under Prevent [the Governments counter-terrorism strategy] seriously.

A prominent Hizb ut-Tahrir speaker confirmed to an undercover reporter that Mr Farooq is in the group.

But a spokesman said it was not aware of any member of the party named Daniel (sic) who has studied at Oxford. Mr Farooq declined to comment when approached last week.
Ian Simms murdered Helen McCourt in 1988 and for 31 years hasn't revealed what he did with her body. He is pictured here waiting for a bus while on a week's temporary release from prison

This is Helen McCourts murderer, waiting for a bus while enjoying a taste of freedom from prison  despite still refusing to reveal what he did with her body.

Pictured for the first time since he was jailed in 1989, Ian Simms is believed to have been returning to Leyhill open prison in Gloucestershire after a weeks temporary release at a probation hostel.

In February 1988 the pub landlord abducted 22-year-old insurance clerk Miss McCourt in Billinge, Merseyside, as she walked home from work.

Her body was never found, despite months of searches by police and her family.

But overwhelming forensic evidence led a Liverpool Crown Court jury to convict Simms, a married father of two, of her murder after less than six hours of deliberation.

He was handed a life sentence with an order to serve at least 16 years before he could be considered for parole.

His refusal to reveal what he did with Miss McCourts remains meant the Parole Board had refused to release him, extending his time behind bars to almost twice his minimum tariff.

However, he is now being allowed short periods out of prison as he prepares to be released on probation.

Helen McCourt, a 22-year-old insurance clerk, went missing in 1988 and her body was never found despite months of searches by police and her family

When confronted by the Daily Mail in Birmingham, Simms said: If I knew where the body was I would never have done 16 years extra in prison, would I?

Asked if he had a message for the McCourt family, who still live in Billinge, Simms said: Im not allowed to talk to you  its part of the terms of my licence.

The killer  who was still wearing his wedding ring even though wife Nadine remarried four years after his crime  then boarded a bus bound for Birmingham city centre.

Simms being escorted by police during his trial in 1988. Although no body was found, overwhelming forensic evidence led a Liverpool Crown Court jury to convict Simms, a married father of two, of her murder after less than six hours of deliberation

Simms leaving the George And Dragon pub he ran in Billinge. It was revealed he had made uninvited advances towards her at this pub

His refusal to reveal what happened to his victims body has left her family in turmoil ever since she went missing 31 years ago on February 9, 1988.

Miss McCourts mother, Marie, 75, was so traumatised by not knowing what had happened to her daughter that for years she has lobbied the Ministry of Justice to introduce new rules  dubbed Helens Law  to stop killers being freed without saying where they have hidden their victims bodies.

Last night Mrs McCourt told the Mail she was absolutely appalled that Simms had been strolling around unsupervised.

She said: Why should he be allowed his freedom when I still havent been able to bury my daughter after all these years?

He should not be afforded any days out  hes a dangerous, evil killer. It is heaping more misery on our suffering.

Im absolutely appalled. I was only in Birmingham on Monday, I could have walked past him in the street without knowing. He knows exactly what I look like.

She added: I have begged and begged Simms to tell me where Helen is. This evil man is walking around, enjoying the sunshine while my daughter is hidden somewhere, discarded, as the judge said at the trial, with the rats.

Miss McCourts mother, Marie, 75, was so traumatised by not knowing what had happened to her daughter (pictured) that for years she has lobbied the Ministry of Justice to introduce new rules to stop killers being freed without saying where they have hidden their victims bodies

Grieving parents: Mrs McCourt with her husband and Helen's step-father, John

Mrs McCourt on Downing street with a box containing the petition to introduce the new rules she wants, called Helen's Law

Mrs McCourt said: 'This evil man is walking around, enjoying the sunshine while my daughter is hidden somewhere, discarded, as the judge said at the trial, with the rats'

All Ive ever wanted is to give her a decent Christian burial. We urgently need Helens Law to stop Simms and other killers like him, who wont tell us where our loved ones bodies are buried, from ever being released.

Simms was arrested on suspicion of Miss McCourts murder within days of her disappearance. One of her earrings and traces of her blood were then found in his car boot. It was later revealed he had made uninvited advances towards her at the George And Dragon pub he ran in Billinge, despite being married and also keeping a mistress.

A knotted flex, which contained strands of Miss McCourts hair, was found close to some of her possessions which had been dumped in the River Irwell, 20 miles away.

Simms claimed in court that he had been framed. But the case proved to be one of the first murder convictions secured with the help of DNA evidence, which was then in its infancy.

Mrs McCourt has set up a petition calling for the hiding of a body to become a criminal offence with a whole life tariff, and has so far collected 11,600 paper signatures and 578,700 online supporters.

Mrs McCourt, supported by husband John, added: I started my petition at the same time as a similar one in Australia. Now they have the no body, no parole law in five out of six states.

It is working  prisoners are requesting meetings with the police because they know they will spend the rest of their lives in jail otherwise. So why cant we have it here?

For more information on Helens Law or to sign the petition, visit: change.org
A large cat found himself completely stuck in the wall of a Montana daycare and it was all captured on camera.

Loki, a large ginger and white cat, is filmed up at a height and stuck in a hole through the wall, after jumping up from a shelf, according to his owner Jennifer Brooke.

The video begins with a rear view of a wedged looking Loki above the door frame.

Loki, a large ginger and white cat, found himself up at a height and stuck in the wall at Sprouts Montessori in Montana after jumping from a shelf

Brooke who filmed the video is heard saying 'Loki what are you doing?'

A confused Loki looks all around, at the ceiling and floor, assessing his predicament.

Brooke and the children in the daycare all laugh.

'Are you stuck,' Brooke asks.

'Yes, Loki's stuck,' one of the children confirms.

Looking for the way out: Loki had jumped from a shelf to the hole in the wall

The children in Sprouts Montessori shout encouragement and giggle throughout the video

Going going: Loki has been wriggling for some time but he finally starts to make headway

Brooke is heard to blame Loki's situation on his 'fat butt.'

She along with the children repeatedly tell him to 'get down.'

Loki looks confused for a while longer.

He wriggles and at one point looks like he's going to get out, but then remains stuck.

Brooke instructs the little girls watching to move back and tells them they can't catch Loki.

And he's out! Loki pushes himself out backwards before dropping down to the ground

He lands on his feet, much to the delight of students at the daycare who clap and giggle in amazement

With a little more squeezing Loki edges his way out, rear first, before dropping to the floor and landing like a cat should, on his feet.

On Facebook, Brooke revealed that Loki had tried a similar feat before.

'I will say this was not his first attempt he had tried to get up there one other time but failed awhile back,' Brooke said.
Maryland's highest court has denied a new trial for Adnan Syed whose murder conviction was chronicled in the 2014 hit podcast Serial.

In an opinion Friday, the Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that Syed's legal counsel was deficient in failing to investigate an alibi witness, but it disagreed that the deficiency prejudiced the case.

The court says Syed waived his ineffective counsel claim.

Maryland's court reversed the Court of Special Appeals' judgment, sending it back to that court with directions to reverse the Baltimore Circuit Court judgment granting a new trial.

'We will not give up. #FreeAdnan,' his lawyer Justin Brown tweeted Friday afternoon.

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Maryland's highest court has denied a new trial for Adnan Syed Friday. His murder conviction was chronicled in the 2014 hit podcast Serial

Syed (right) was convicted in 2000 of strangling his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee (left) in 1999 - and burying her body in Baltimore's Leakin Park

Sayed's lawyer Justin Brown said Friday: 'We are devastated by the Court of Appeals' decision'

In a statement he said: 'We are devastated by the Court of Appeals' decision but we will not give up on Adnan Syed. Unfortunately we live in a binary criminal justice system in which you either win or you lose. Today we lost by a 4-3 vote.

'Our criminal justice system is desperately in need of reform. The obstacles to getting a new trial are simply too great.'

Brown referenced Asia McClain in the case of Syed  who has served 20 years of a life sentence after he was convicted in 2000 of strangling his 17-year-old ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 1999 - and burying her body in Baltimore's Leakin Park.

The woman was a big factor in the This American Life podcast's first season because she claims she saw Syed in the Woodlawn High School library around the time that prosecutors contend that he killed Lee off-site.

McClain wrote letters to Adnan about seeing him in the library around the time of his arrest and trial but his defense attorney, who has since passed away, did not get in touch with her.

'Mr. Syed did raise and argue that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate or call Asia McClain (Ms. McClain) as an alibi witness. After a two-day hearing on October 11, 2012 and October 25, 2012,' the appeal document states.

McClain, who wrote the book Confessions of a Serial Alibi that was published in June 2016, said when she spoke with Serial Sarah Koenig for Serial, she thought at best that she would write an article and had no idea it would be the most popular podcast to date.

Asia McClain took to social media to post a live video where she cried with disappointment

Explaining why she spoke out in HBO's The Case Against Adnan Syed, which airs Sunday, she said Friday: 'I did it because I care about everybody. I even care about Hae and her family'

Adnan's lawyer called McClain 'a credible alibi witness who was with Adnan at the precise time of the murder'

Brown added: 'There was a credible alibi witness who was with Adnan at the precise time of the murder and now the Court of Appeals has said that witness would not have affected the outcome of the proceeding.

'We think just the opposite is true. From the perspective of the defendant, there is no stronger evidence than an alibi witness.'

McClain appears in a new docuseries that follows what has happened with Syed's case, specifically in early 2016 when there were legal proceedings to determine whether to vacate his conviction, which would have allowed for a new trial. He won, and the state of Maryland appealed that decision twice.

After it was announced the ruling from the state's highest court was no longer pending, McClain took to social media to post a live video where she cried with disappointment.

Explaining why she spoke out and took part in HBO's The Case Against Adnan Syed, which airs this Sunday, she said Friday: 'I did it because I care about everybody. I even care about Hae and her family.'

After Serial, new evidence was uncovered, according to the new docuseries, and Adnan and his lawyer filed for legal proceedings that would vacate his conviction.

Syed is serving a life sentence after he was convicted in 2000. He was hoping to get a new trail based on having an ineffective legal team at the time of his trial

Supporters joined defense attorney Brown in vowing to free Adnan Friday after the decision

In February 2016 when Adnan was seeking a new trial, Lee's family released this statement: 'It remains hard to see so many run to defend someone who committed a horrible crime, who destroyed our family, who refuses to accept responsibility, where so few are willing to speak up for Hae.'

The library alibi didn't come out in the original trial despite McClain agreeing to testify. She later recanted with the prosecution claiming Syed's family pressured the then-teenager.

But in 2015 when the case was in the global spotlight, McClain signed an affidavit claiming she backtracked due to pressure from the prosecution.

On Friday she said in a video posted on Twitter: 'I figured if I helped with making sure all the information was out on the table and that changed the trajectory it was up to god. It's not my fault I ran into him.'
A Native American tribe in Alabama has announced it will donate $184,000 to cover the burial costs of 23 people killed in a tornado in Alabama.

Stephanie A. Bryan, the tribal Chair and CEO of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, announced the donation in a Facebook post on Thursday, four days after the devastating storm.

'It is at times of greatest need that we often see our communities coming together to help one another, this is one of those times. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected,' Bryan said in a statement.

Lee County Coroner Bill Harris confirmed he had been contacted by the tribe regarding their desire to pay for burial costs.

Stephanie A. Bryan (above), the tribal Chair and CEO of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, announced the donation in a Facebook post on Thursday

Six-year-old Armando Hernandez (left) and ten-year-old Taylor Thornton have been identified as two of the 23 people who were killed by the tornadoes that hit Alabama and Georgia on Sunday. Both youngsters were from Beauregard, a small community in Lee County, Alabama, where the worst tornado damage was reported

'The coroner's office received word that they wanted to help and reached out to them and they agreed. Their first commitment was for $50,000. Later they called back and ask me what it would take to cover the costs and I gave them a figure and they graciously made it happen,' Harris told AL.com.

'The monies will be deposited with the East Alabama Medical Center Foundation to be dispersed to the funeral homes to cover the cost of the funerals. I am so thankful for them to step up in this manner and help the families of this tragedy,' Harris said.

On Sunday, Lee County in eastern Alabama was decimated by a twister with winds of more than 170mph.

The 23 victims killed ranged in age from just six to 89.

Debris litters a property after a home was damaged by a tornado a day earlier in Beauregard, Alabama on Monday

Cora Jones, 52, has spoken out about the grief of losing 10 family members - including her parents and her brother - when a devastating tornado ripped through Beauregard, Alabama, on Sunday. 'I ain't getting through it good at all,' she told NBC News on Thursday

Jones' parents, 89-year-old Jimmy Lee Jones (left) and 83-year-old Mary Louise Jones (right) were among the 23 people killed in the F-4 tornado. After the storm passed, Jones rushed to her parents house and found her father's body. She also had to identify her mother's body

Jones later learned that her brother, 53-year-old Emmanuel Jones (left) and her cousin, 57-year-old Maggie Delight Robinson (right) were also killed, along with her relatives Raymond Robinson, Jr., 63; Tresia Robinson, 62; Eric Jamal Stenson, 38; Florel Tate Stenson; 63; Henry Lewis Stenson, 65, and James Tate, 86

One family tragically lost ten relatives in the storm.

Cousins Cordarrly Jones and Demetria Jones say they're still struggling to process the reality of the devastation, as they prepare to organize funerals for two of their grandparents, their uncle, and seven of their cousins.

The family's loss could be even greater as a number of relatives remain in hospital with serious injuries.

'It really hasn't fully hit me yet. I'm still trying to process it,' Cordarrly, 29, said.

'Everybody in this area was just about related,' added Demetria, 28. 'It's devastating.'

The Poarch Band of Creek Indians are descendants of a segment of the original Creek Nation, which once covered almost all of Alabama and Georgia, according to the tribe.

Members of the tribe have lived together for almost 200 years in and around the reservation in Poarch, Alabama. They are the only federally recognized Indian tribe in Alabama.

The tribe operates several casinos and greyhound racetracks under the tribal-owned company Wind Creek Hospitality.

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump survey the damage and are briefed by Lee County Emergency Management Agency director Kathy Carson on the tornados that killed 23 people

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump hug with people Beauregard, Alabama, on Friday as they travel to tour areas where tornadoes killed 23 people

People cheer as the motorcade of President Donald Trump passes during a tour of tornado-affected areas on March 8, 2019 in Beauregard, Alabama

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump pause at a row of crosses for the victims of a tornado in Beauregard, Alabama on Friday

On Friday, President Donald Trump visited the tornado disaster area.

'I've never seen anything like it,' the President said of the devastation.

He and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in Alabama via helicopter after landing in Air Force One in nearby Georgia.

'Its hard to believe actually,' he told reporters during a walking tour of the devastation. 'We saw things you wouldnt believe.'

The full list of victims is seen below:
A Florida woman is accused of shooting her boyfriend in the armpit for snoring too loudly at the mobile home they share together.

Lorie Morin, 47, has been arrested on charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery after her live in partner was rushed to hospital via the air ambulance.

Footage from the scene showed the victim, named by police as Brett Allgood, being airlifted away on a stretcher after police were called to the home in Cocoa around 10.20pm Wednesday.

Initial investigations had suggested the shooting was accidental, the Brevard County Sheriffs office say.

But after speaking to her boyfriend police determined that the row escalated because the man was snoring loudly.

Lorie Morin is accused of shooting her boyfriend in the armpit for snoring too loudly at their mobile home. She was arrested on charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery

Footage from the scene showed the victim, named by police as Brett Allgood and pictured here with Morin, being airlifted away on a stretcher

Morin, left, told officers the couple had been drinking Captain Morgan rum and playing rummy. Allgood, right, is said to be in a stable condition at hospital

The victim is said to be in a stable condition at hospital, Office ClickOrlando reports. He was found lying at the foot of the bed in a pool of blood after being shot in his right armpit.

The arrest affidavit states how Morin told officers the couple had been drinking Captain Morgan rum and playing rummy.

According to Morin the gun accidentally discharged, hitting her boyfriend when she tried to retrieve a heavy box.

But the victim reportedly told deputies a different story when they spoke with him at Holmes Regional Medical Center.

He claimed Morin shot him in a row over his loud snoring. The affidavit states she followed him to the bedroom before pointing the shotgun at his head.

The affidavit goes on: 'He heard a loud boom and woke up lying in a pool of blood with excruciating pain coming from his right armpit area.'

The victim was rushed to hospital after police were called to the home in Cocoa on Wednesday

Initial investigations had suggested the shooting at the mobile home was accidental

Police then re-interviewed Morin and she is said to have changed her story, allegedly saying that her partner tried to remove the gun from her hands when it accidentally went off.

The affidavit adds: 'It should be noted that while Ms. Morin was in the interview room, she attempted to show emotion by covering her face with her hands and crying, but she never shed a tear the entire time during any of the interviews.'

Morin was then arrested and is jailed without bond at the Brevard County Jail.
The image is one that will be familiar to millions by now. Stacey Dooley, with professional blow-dry, beautiful teeth and half a million-plus Instagram followers after a successful turn on Strictly Come Dancing, hoisting a five-year-old Ugandan boy onto her hip for Comic Relief.

She beamed and gushed (Ob.sessssssssed followed by a broken heart emoji). The little boy sucked his finger while, from somewhere, came the sound of a diplomatic and ethical maelstrom  before chaos ensued.

While the picture, taken on Saturday, February 23, was gathering likes (almost 52,000 at the last count) an indignant debate was raging over so-called white saviour syndrome.

Mwesigwa Waiswa, 5, (centre in yellow t-shirt) is looked after by his grandmother Beatrice Kituumira Bugonzi (above), 50, who holds cousin Faheem, 2, at their home in Luuka county. Ms Bugonzi said she

The term refers to white people who travel to poorer, black nations in the belief they are helping without truly understanding the history and causes of the poverty. Crassly barging in with generous offers of help when people are entirely capable, and willing, to help themselves, painting themselves as the educators, the developers, the colonial supremacists still in charge.

Labour MP David Lammy waded into the fracas saying Staceys colonial image did a disservice to poor Africans. Ugandas High Commissioner Julius Peter Moto took to the This Morning sofa, while Staceys choice of caption on her Instagram photo was likened to how social media users described a new handbag or pair of shoes, not a little boy. In short, she was accused of poverty porn.

Stacey, a BBC presenter and successful documentary maker of ten years standing  and no wallflower  quickly sniped back. She said it was ridiculous to suggest she would stroll up to a child she did not know and force him to have a selfie, pointing out she had been working in Africa for nearly 12 years and knew how to behave.

Stacey Dooley posted this photo of her holding 5-year-old Mwesigwa Waiswa on February 23 during the Uganda trip. Mr Lammy criticised the 'white saviour' complex promoted by celebrities such as Miss Dooley

Comic Relief said the photo was a personal shot taken at the request of the childs family, and not part of any appeal film.

Others quickly leapt to defend the work of Comic Relief, which has raised more than 1billion for good causes and funds a number of projects in Uganda, filling a small part of a void left by a lack of state investment and high-level corruption.

There was a short volley of argument and counter argument before the news agenda moved on.

But what hasnt been told  until now  is the story of the little boy himself.

We can reveal that his name is Mwesigwa Waiswa, and he was born in a rural village in Eastern Uganda. Mercifully, he probably still doesnt know how poor he is.

'She asked: Can I hold him? I said OK. She wanted to take a photo. Another person then asked if that was OK, so they brought out papers,' said grandmother We had no idea who she was. For us, we just saw people.

This week, the Mail tracked down Mwesigwa and his family in his village. We found him sitting on the ground outside his home, dressed in a yellow T-shirt on back to front and inside out  every five-year-olds preferred style.

Those deep brown eyes that melted Staceys heart had the same sullen intensity as he surveyed this new set of white strangers trailing to his home.

Not surprisingly, he was completely oblivious to the row his brief cuddle with Dooley caused.

Abandoned by his mother when he was just two years old, Mwesigwa is now raised by his paternal grandmother, Beatrice Kituumira Bugonzi. She is also looking after three other grandchildren including Mwesigwas older brother, another child abandoned by their mother and one orphaned after both parents died.

Dooley, 31, recently film a documentary with Comic Relief about neonatal clinics and malaria in Uganda. She presents a series called Stacey Dooley Investigates on BBC 3 which looks at current affairs issues affecting young people around the world.

They share a single room in a brick shelter with rag mattresses on the floor, while cooking is done on a log fire outside.

Mrs Bugonzi is a subsistence farmer, growing foods such as sweet potatoes, bananas and cassava, which can be used to make flour, to feed herself and her grandchildren.

A widow after her husband died seven years ago, she is 50 but looks much older. She also does manual work for other people in her village to raise a few Ugandan shillings to pay for essentials such as paraffin and soap. Im finding it hard looking after these children. They were literally dumped here with me, said Mrs Bugonzi through an interpreter.

Their parents didnt say anything after dropping them here. Sometimes they visit but they dont bring anything and then they leave again. They dont help at all.

Mention Stacey Dooley and Comic Relief and she simply shrugs: I have no idea of what Comic Relief help does  there is no direct help for me, she says.

Whether they pay for the facilities in the hospital, I have no idea. All I know is I am struggling to look after my children.

I dont have a problem with foreigners coming and filming here if it results in help, but often they come and take pictures which are used to collect money.

Whatever happens with that money raised from pictures of my children, I do not see it. It does not benefit me directly.

The Labour MP for Tottenham (pictured from behind) said today that her comments showed she had 'failed to educate herself', adding on BBC News' Victoria Derbyshire show: 'Her Instagram conveys the age old trope that is her as the heroine and the black child as the victim and we have to stop it'

Talk to Mwesigwas grandfathers brother, 50-year-old Afani Isabirye, however, and another story emerges entirely. This is a complex situation, with no clear rights and wrongs.

Mr Isabirye is part of what is known locally as a Village Health Team  people trained to test children for malaria, administer medication if it is detected and give health advice, particularly to pregnant women.

Much of the training for the crucial volunteers is paid for by Comic Relief and Stacey  at the height of her popularity following her Strictly win  came to the region to hear the tragic story of a woman who had lost two babies because she was unable to get to the nearest hospital.

No doubt it was a harrowing story and an important issue, which will be relayed to viewers this Friday on Red Nose Day.

Mr Lammy did acknowledge Miss Dooley's 'good motives' but bemoaned the British celebrity trope of travelling to poorer parts of Africa to film Comic Relief packages

Mr Isabirye said the BBC team spent two-and-a-half days in their village, after arriving in a couple of 4x4s and a people carrier.

He said the arrival of a team of six white people as well as a number of local guides caused a bit of a stir and many villagers came out to see what was happening. Most of the filming, he said, was done with the woman who had lost her children, both inside and outside her home.

On the last day Mr Isabirye watched as his little great-nephew Mwesigwa wandered over to him, a bit grizzly and in need of attention, and he picked him up.

Documentary maker Stacey Dooley has been criticised for not meeting up with a No White Saviours group while on a charity trip to Uganda

That was when Stacey spotted him and went over. We had no idea who she was. For us, we just saw people. She introduced herself as Stacey Dooley but she did not go into detail about who she was, says Mr Isabirye. She asked: Can I hold him? I said OK. She wanted to take a photo. Another person then asked if that was OK, so they brought out papers (so they could sign their consent).

She did ask briefly about the boy, and we told them he had no parents. Once they took the photo that was the end and they went on to other filming.

Not quite the same explanation given by Comic Relief, then, who insisted the encounter was instigated by Mwesigwas family.

Whatever the truth, Mr Isabirye was quick to praise Comic Relief and the work they did, dismissing concerns over white saviourism as a luxury he could not afford.

He earns just 12,000 shillings a week  2.50  writing reports in his role with the Village Health Team in his village of 2,000 people. Like many East African countries, the divide between rich and poor in Uganda is stark.

While some in the capital Kampala enjoy a good quality of life, those in the rural north and east are hardest hit, with 84 per cent living in poverty, according to the World Banks poverty assessment report, with limited or no access to electricity.

Healthcare is provided by the government, but state-funded facilities are woefully lacking in vital medicines and equipment and are often miles from villages, with people unable to pay to travel when they fall ill.

Faced with impossible financial straits, Mr Isabirye  who is also a subsistence farmer  sees Comic Relief as a life-saver.

It helped train 200 village health teams and he had nothing but gratitude for Stacey.

In his broken English he explained: It is important. I dont know why they are criticising her. When these people come there is a possibility that people in the UK will watch  and when they watch, they will be able to help us. Maybe build a hospital.

If they dont come people probably wont donate. There is no doubt that we need the help, so how that help comes is not the problem. How it comes is not important.

Maybe it is a white saviour thing, but whatever it is we need the help, and if showing what is happening here means we get help, then so be it.

Yet the image of the white woman, in her 265 boots, with a needy black child in her arms, rankles with local activists.

They speak of underlying discrimination and the relationship between white and black people that dates back to the first Europeans who raided Africa for slaves and raw materials.

MP David Lammy responds to critics who say that he should go to Uganda with Comic Relief rather than just criticise film-maker Dooley. He defended his decision to turn down an invitation to avoid becoming a 'cheerleader' instead of a representative

But as well as celebrities roughing it for charity, Uganda is a mecca for evangelistic aid workers, and students on gap years  dubbed voluntourists by critics. While the vast majority are undoubtedly well meaning, there are those who are not.

Later this month, an American woman is due in court in Uganda accused of running a clinic and treating children without being qualified.

She is being sued by the mothers of two children who are alleged to have died in her care.

Meanwhile, police are reportedly hunting a 70-year-old German, who is accused of sexually abusing children in his care at a rehabilitation centre on an island on Lake Victoria.

No White Saviours  a Ugandan campaign group set up in 2013, which first took Stacey to task over her posts  said discussion was required over the complex history of former colonies.

The group was set up by Kelsey Nielsen and Olivia Alaso after they met in Uganda when they were both taking their sick children to a health centre.

Kelsey, who is white and whose parents are evangelical Christians, has admitted she was part of the problem when she left home aged 23 to set up a family centre in Uganda. She now says she had no business setting it up in the first place. Africa should not be a playground for white people, she said.

Olivia said Mwesigwas family would have been unaware of how widely shared the photo would have been when they signed the consent  and pointed out that people would not approach children they did not know to take pictures in other countries.

She said: What is he gaining from this? What did he gain from her likes on Instagram? What has she done for them? Nothing. Grace Deebula, assistant project co-ordinator at The AIDS Support Organisation (Taso) who was also pictured with Stacey during her trip, perhaps summed it up best when she said that while people needed help they were not helpless.

Grace works to raise awareness of malaria and the importance of diagnosing it early, after her own son Paul almost died when he was just a few months old. Comic Relief has funded testing kits and nets.

Speaking during a training programme for health workers in the Amuria district, she said the BBC crew witnessed a little boy die of the disease.

Uganda can prevent malaria but they cant do away with it. The standard of living is really too poor. Families have lots of children and the resources are not enough.

The money donated in the UK really helps and the visit by Comic Relief was really important  according to the information they gave us  in capturing the impact of malaria to show to the British people. I know when it is shown, theyll really see the usefulness of the money they are donating.

Asked about white celebrities fronting the films, she said: Stacey is really a good person.

She interacted with the people, but maybe another time we could have someone from Uganda sharing the importance of Comic Relief and malaria.

Meanwhile, back in the village, Mwesigwa and his great uncle are still to grasp the fuss that this image has caused. Without access to the internet, they probably never will.

But with malaria, disease and malnutrition an ever-present reality in this five-year-olds life, Mr Isabirye says share away.

If it means more help, if people see my boy and how he comes from a poor place, then that is good.

A Comic Relief spokesperson said last night: Stacey was asked to make a film to explore the work were doing in Uganda and were grateful to her for this. She is a professional documentary maker and has a unique ability to connect with people.

Both Comic Relief and Stacey remain in ongoing communication with the project who are in contact with the family locally.

We regret the impact this is having on them, the project workers and community.
During the turbulent history of the House of Windsor, royal sisters-in-law have seldom emerged as intimate friends.

In recent months, Court circles have reverberated with rumours that Britains future Queen, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and her brother-in-laws wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, are not exactly on hugging terms, although both have laughed off suggestions of a rift.

And thousands of startled television viewers have never forgotten the unexpected ferocity with which the present Queens daughter, the Princess Royal, slapped down the BBCs royal reporter Jennie Bond for mentioning Annes divorced sister-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales, during an interview before Dianas death.

A documentary set to air on Channel 5, The Queen Mum: The Reluctant Queen, shows the influence of Elizabeth and how she used that against Wallis Simpson

Court circles have reverberated with rumours that Kate and Meghan are not exactly on hugging terms, although both have laughed off suggestions of a rift

But for sheer virulence and long-lasting antipathy no royal feud in living memory quite measures up to the steely and implacable ostracism practised for 50 years by the late Queen Mother against her despised and twice-divorced American sister-in-law, Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor.

The first of a new two-part documentary, The Queen Mum: The Reluctant Queen, to be screened tonight on Channel 5, asserts that it was Elizabeths personal influence as the new Queen Consort that was instrumental in Wallis being denied the title, Her Royal Highness, on her marriage in 1937 to the Duke of Windsor, after he had abdicated the throne as Edward VIII. His reign lasted less than 11 months. The denial of the HRH has been challenged as contrary to Common Law.

Indeed, a new book by Anna Pasternak, called Untitled: The Real Wallis Simpson, Duchess Of Windsor, is dedicated by the author To Wallis, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Windsor, but that status has never been officially accepted.

When the Duchesss coffin left her palatial Paris mansion in the Bois de Boulogne in 1986 it was not covered by her husbands royal standard, and the HRH does not appear on her gravestone next to the Dukes in the royal burial ground at Frogmore.

Tonights documentary also states that it was at the new Queens insistence that the Windsors were condemned to permanent exile in France. Both of them believed this.

At one of my meetings with the Queen Mother in 1978, she smiled enigmatically at this suggestion and merely commented, almost absently: A country can only have one King at a time.

For sheer virulence and long-lasting antipathy, no royal feud in living memory quite measures up to the ostracism practised for 50 years by the Queen Mother against Wallis Simpson

I became fascinated by this royal vendetta at an early age after reading the Duchess of Windsors memoirs, The Heart Has Its Reasons, published in 1956, in which Wallis described an encounter with the then Duchess of York at Royal Lodge eight months before the Abdication.

Her justly famous charm was highly evident, she observed acidly of Elizabeth. This was far from the first exchange between these two formidable adversaries.

In 1935, before Edward became King, the Duchess of York had walked into the drawing-room of Fort Belvedere, the Prince of Waless country retreat, only to overhear Wallis Simpson performing a particularly cruel and vindictive imitation of her.

Brigadier Oliver Hoggs wife, Ella, present on that occasion, was later to say that from the moment of overhearing, the Duchess of York became her implacable enemy. Wallis said she had no sense of humour.

Ironically this situation was reversed when I visited the Queen Mothers London home, Clarence House.

I had been expecting only to meet her Private Secretary, Lt Colonel Sir Martin Gilliat, an urbane homosexual somewhat given to rolling his eyes at handsome guardsmen.

To my alarm, I found myself a guest at a lavish luncheon party, with liveried footmen standing behind every chair, and our royal hostess repeatedly pressing a Faberge pearl bell to summon service.

This is my Borgia bell, she announced and seemed in sparkling form.

Adopting a remarkably authentic American accent, she gave an hilarious account of Mrs Simpsons sojourn at Balmoral in 1936, and her views on the decor of the castle. This tartans gotta go! H.M. mimicked in unmistakably harsh Baltimorean tones. I just have to do this place over.

No one listening would have thought she lacked a sense of humour.

At an earlier meeting with the Queen Mother at a luncheon given in the Eaton Square penthouse of the American-born musical comedy star Dorothy Dickson, one of Elizabeths lifelong friends, who taught both the present Queen and Princess Margaret to dance, I found myself placed on HMs left.

The Duke of Winsor abdicated from the throne to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson

The Duke of Windsor had by then been dead for six years, and with some trepidation I very gently raised the subject of the Abdication crisis.

Once again she was elusive and lifted her hand to halt me in mid-sentence.

You know, its something I never talk about because it was all so dreadful at the time. It was a tragedy because he [referring to her brother-in-law] used to be such fun before she came along.

There was a moment of silent reflection and then she added: Love does strange things to people. I am afraid the truth is that at that time he was rather more than a little mad.

And then she resolutely changed the subject.

Six years earlier, on a spring afternoon in 1971, I sat in the blue and gold Parisian drawing-room of the Duke and Duchess of Windsors palatial mansion in the Bois de Boulogne and heard what purported to be the other side of the story.

In 1957, Queen Marys official biographer, James Pope-Hennessy, visited the Windsors at their country home, Le Moulin de la Tuilerie, and noted, on the part of the Duchess, one facial contortion, reserved for speaking of the Queen Mother, which is very unpleasant to behold, and seemed to me akin to frenzy.

I also was on the receiving end of this contortion, as soon as Elizabeths name was mentioned.

The Duke, only months away from being diagnosed with inoperable throat cancer, suffered a convulsive spasm of coughing, but managed to deliver this verdict on his sister-in-law: Behind that great abundance of charm is a shrewd, scheming and extremely ruthless woman.

He paused, with one of his most charming smiles and added: But of course you cannot quote that.

The Duke of Windsor said of the Queen Mother, pictured here with King George VI: Behind that great abundance of charm is a shrewd, scheming and extremely ruthless woman'

The Duchess imposed no such embargo. The Duke would have loved to return to live in the land of his birth, she said, but our way was blocked at every turn. We were never allowed to go back, and we never will be allowed.

Not until the day we die. She will never permit it. When we are dead, perhaps she may at last forgive us.

And the reason Maam? I inquired. The Duchesss right arm shot out as if she was taking aim with a gun. Jealousy, she said.

Jealousy of the Duke? I asked. No! cried the Duchess, and for the first time her southern American origins were audible. Jealousy of me for having married him.

The Windsors then embarked on an unconvincing catalogue of all the paranoid rumours they had believed about Elizabeth for decades.

At the Duke of Windsors funeral in 1972, the Queen Mother dealt gently by Wallis Simpson, taking her by the arm and murmuring: I know how you feel. Ive been through it myself

They claimed Elizabeth had really wanted to marry the Duke herself and become the Princess of Wales.

The Duke insisted that he had proof positive that the Queen Mother had personally engineered the Duchesss exclusion from royal rank, and was also responsible for their banishment to the Bahamas, where he was appointed Governor-General in 1940, and where Foreign Office instructions were issued to local ladies not to curtsey to the Duchess.

In this belief, the Windsors were mistaken.

Queen Elizabeth actually opposed the Duke becoming Governor- General and wrote to the Colonial Secretary, Lord Lloyd to say: The Duchess of Windsor is looked upon as the lowest of the low.

The new King and Queen were well aware of the Duchesss close relationship with the German ambassador in London, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and in 1937, after their marriage, the Windsors made a disastrous visit to Germany, where the Duke was observed giving the Nazi salute, and he and Wallis were photographed in animated discussion with Hitler.

After the fall of Germany, secret files on the Dukes conversations with Hitler were retrieved and brought to London, where the contents were seen by both the King and the Queen. When the Duke of Windsor learned of this, he was reported to be extremely worried.

In the meantime, Buckingham Palace was bombed by the Luftwaffe, and Queen Elizabeth rose to the status of a national heroine by saying: Im almost glad we have been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face.

When Hitler learned that Elizabeth was taking target practice in the grounds of Buckingham Palace with a loaded revolver, shooting rats in preparation for a German invasion, he was reported to have described the Queen as The most dangerous woman in Europe.

In 1967, after more than 30 years of estrangement, the sisters-in-law came face to face at the unveiling of a plaque in The Mall to Queen Mary. As banks of cameras flashed and clicked, they maintained a long and uncomfortable handshake, but Wallis pointedly omitted to curtsey to a crowned and annointed Queen.

At the Duke of Windsors funeral in 1972, Elizabeth dealt gently with his widow, taking her by the arm and murmuring: I know how you feel. Ive been through it myself.

On the Duchesss departure, Elizabeth astonished courtiers by kissing Wallis on the cheek.

In 1976, the Queen Mother made an official trip to Paris, and a visit to her ailing sister-in-law was pencilled in for one afternoon.

But it was never to take place.

Walliss doctor advised the Queen Mothers staff that she ought not to go, as the Duchess was suffering from dementia and paranoid hallucinations.

From the British Embassy, Elizabeth dispatched her page with a basket of roses and a card in Elizabeths own hand.

It read: In friendship, Elizabeth.

The Queen Mum: The Reluctant Queen is on Channel 5 on Saturday at 9pm. Michael Thornton is author of Royal Feud: The Queen Mother And The Duchess Of Windsor.
There are now around 1,100 officers posted at the Army Headquarters, of which some 230 will be shifted out.

New Delhi: The Indian Army will undertake a major restructuring of its headquarters, which will lead to the shifting of 20 per cent of young officers posted in New Delhi back to units and field formations. This restructuring is to make the Army more agile, lean and lethal for future warfare.

A new deputy chief of army staff strategy (DCOAS Strategy) post is being created who will deal with all operational and force planning. He will have the Military Operations, Military Intelligence, Strategic Planning and Operational Logistics branches, as well as the newly-created Information Warfare branch under him.

At present the director-general of military operations (DGMO) and the DG (Military Intelligence) report to the Army Chief or the vice-chief. In keeping with the needs of future battlefields, hybrid warfare and social media reality, the new DG (Information Warfare) will have under him the erstwhile ADGs of Public Information (PI) and Information Warfare (IW).

There are now around 1,100 officers posted at the Army Headquarters, of which some 230 will be shifted out.

A study on the Army HQ reorganisation was one of the four Army studies ordered by Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat in June last year in consultation with the defence ministry. While the studies are driven by an inherent operational need, they remain focused on enhancing capability by restructuring for future wars and finding a right balance between revenue spending and modernisation. The defence ministry has accepted all the recommendations by the Army HQ Reorganisation Study submitted on february 27.

The second major reform which has been accepted by the defence ministry is merging of separate verticals of the deputy chief of army staff (planning and system division) and the Master General Ordnance (MGO), looking after the Armys procurements into one office of DCOAS (Capability Development and Sustenance). The office will handle the Armys budget. Towards the Armys capability-based modernisation needs, this will synergise and coalesce all revenue and capital spending under one organisation and effectively prioritise competing needs with an operational focus to get better value for funds allocated by the government, said sources.

Now all acquisitions of the Army will be handled by a new office under the director-general (capability development), which has been formed by merging the office of deputy chief (P&S) and the director-general (weapons and equipment). Moreover, the revenue budget will be handled by DG (sustenance).

The third major reform is that the Armys Training Command based in Shimla will now be sole adviser to the Army Chief on all training matters. The Military Training Directorate (MT Dte) in Delhi is being merged into the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) in Shimla. Two new branches headed by officers of the rank of major general are being created for vigilance and human rights issues.

The new ADG (vigilance) will function directly under the Chief of Army Staff while the new ADG (human rights) will function under the VCOAS. The ADG (vigilance) will also have a new Vigilance Investigation Unit under him.

The study had aligned the Army Headquarters old legacy branches under the functional requirements of the future battlefield.
The 2018 arrest of Stormy Daniels at a Columbus strip club was improper but not planned ahead of time or politically motivated, according to an internal police department review released Friday.

The investigation looked into allegations that police officers - who support Republican President Donald Trump - conspired to retaliate against the porn actress over her claims she had sex with Trump before he became president.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was arrested in July on suspicion of inappropriately touching an undercover officer.

Prosecutors dropped charges hours later, saying the law cited in Daniels' arrest applied only to those who regularly performed at the club.

The 2018 arrest of Daniels at an Ohio strip club was improper but not planned ahead of time or politically motivated, according to an internal police department review released Friday

Daniels was arrested while she performed at the Siren's nightclub in Columbus, Ohio

Stormy Daniels , 39, is pictured in her mugshot from July 12

Officers who went to Sirens strip club that night were targeting the club and not Daniels as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged illegal activity, according to the head of the city vice squad.

Those alleged activities including human trafficking, underage drinking and drug dealing, the report said.

But the investigation that night shifted to a narrower investigation of alleged illegal touching of customers by dancers, according to the report.

Officers chose to obtain evidence for such touching 'by placing themselves, unnecessarily, at risk and potential for physical contact with Ms. Clifford,' the report concluded.

Afterward, Daniels did not 'make a complaint or comment about any officer making a political related remark or statement to her about President Trump,' Lt. Ronald Kemmerling, vice section lieutenant, told investigators.

Porn actress Stormy Daniels is led into jail in Columbus, Ohio., after being taken into custody during her July 2018

Dressed in a baggy shirt, jeans and flip flops, she was calm as she held her arms out for inspection in the police station during her July 2018 arrest in Ohio

Messages were left Friday for attorneys representing Daniels.

The report came the day after a federal judge on tossed out her lawsuit against Trump that sought to tear up a hush-money settlement about their alleged affair.

U.S. District Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles said the suit was irrelevant after Trump and his former personal lawyer agreed not to penalize Daniels for violating a nondisclosure agreement she signed in exchange for a $130,000 payment.

The 10-year-old law used to arrest Daniels states that dancers at 'sexually oriented' businesses are prohibited from touching customers and vice versa.

Stormy Daniels is pictured outside Sirens nightclub in Columbus, Ohio, on July 12 as she was arrested for illegal sexual activity and breaking a law that prevents exotic dancers and patrons from having physical contact

Daniels was left on her own in the back of the police van while the cops arrested two others

Daniels was the first of three strippers to be put in the police van. She sat quietly, with her legs crossed, and listened as officers explained to her why she was being arrested

Last year, City Attorney Zach Klein called the law 'glaringly inequitable' because its applicability depends on how regularly the employee performs and should not be enforced. He also said employees who touch police are not in violation because on-duty public officials are not legally considered patrons.

It's no surprise the arrests were deemed improper, given the city attorney's stance, Keith Ferrell, president of the union representing Columbus officers, said Friday.

He reiterated that officers weren't politically motivated.

'I don't think this is any different than a lot of the other operations they've run in the past,' said Ferrell, president of Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge 9.

The charges against Daniels and the other women were later dropped

Earlier this year, Daniels sued several Columbus police officers for $2 million over her arrest.

Daniels' federal defamation lawsuit alleges that officers conspired to retaliate against her because of her claims regarding Trump.

The officers 'believed that Ms. Clifford was damaging President Trump and they thereafter entered into a conspiracy to arrest her during her performance in Columbus in retaliation for the public statements she had made regarding President Trump,' according to the lawsuit.

Two dancers arrested with Daniels that night have filed a similar lawsuit.
George Conway, the husband of Kellyanne Conway, has taken his fierce attacks on President Trump to academia, saying the presidents slams on the Justice Department would turn the nation into a 'banana republic.'

Conway, whose wife is counselor to the president and a frequent Trump defender on TV, referenced the president's past and ongoing attacks on the Justice Department he oversees.

Conway said Trump ignores normal guarantees to protect independence and the fair dispensation of justice, considering federal law enforcement to be an arm to carry out his own political goals.

'The the president has suggested that members of his own Justice Department should be locked up for investigating the president,' said lawyer George Conway, whose wife is Trump White House counselor Kellyanne Conway

'The the president has suggested that members of his own Justice Department should be locked up for investigating the president,' Conway said. 'Now, if people were to get indicted or not indicted on the basis of whether or not the president likes them, we wouldn't have a republic. We'd have a banana republic.'

He was referencing a tweet by Trump that included Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein among a group of Democrats and others shown being behind bars. Rosenstein for long stretches had oversight of the Mueller probe, and named Robert Mueller as special counsel.

Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to President Trump, holding the hand of her daughter, with her husband behind her at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on April 17, 2017 Annual White House Easter Egg Roll, Washington DC, 17 Apr 2017. Her husband, George, is pictured behind her

Conway has continued to attack President Trump even as his wife Kellyanne Conway remains a trusted advisor to the president

Trump regularly ridiculed Attorney General Jeff Sessions before his resignation

Just minutes after Conway, a prominent lawyer, launched his stark criticism, the president took to Twitter to attack his former attorney general, Jeff Sessions.

Trump referenced a report that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe investigated whether Sessions had perjured himself by denying Russia contacts while advising Trump's presidential campaign.

'Sessions didnt have a clue!' Trump wrote, tweeting a link to the article.

Conway also leveled criticism at a September 2018 tweet that criticized the indictments of two pro-Trump Republican lawmakers, Reps. Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter.

Trump attacked Sessions again not long after Conway's scorching indictment of his own attacks on the 'rule of law'

Trump before the elections tweeted about Sessions jeopardizing two 'easy wins' through indictments of sitting Republican congressmen

GOP Rep. Chris Collins of New York was reelected despite being under indictment

'We've had so many controversies over the years between bleeding heart liberals on one side, and law and order conservatives on the [other]  very contentious,' Conway said in remarks at Georgetown University Law School Friday.

'Now we have a president who has actually criticized his own attorney general on political grounds because the attorney general allowed the indictment of two congressmen who were supporters of the president. The criticism being, these guys supported me why did you allow that to happen?' Conway said.

Trump's election season tweet did in fact blast Sessions for putting two 'easy wins' in doubt, referencing the relatively safe seats.

'Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......' Trump wrote.




Two men have been arrested following an interstate manhunt over a Melbourne shooting that left one man dead and two others injured.

Abdullah El Nasher, 27, and Mikhael Myko, 25, will face murder charges after Tactical Operations Unit stormed an apartment block at Bankstown, in western Sydney at 9.30pm on Friday.

The two men had eluded police since March 1, after a triple shooting outside Melbourne Pavilion on Racecourse Road in Kensington.

Abdullah El Nasher, 27 (pictured), and Mikhael Myko, 25, will face murder charges after Tactical Operations Unit stormed an apartment block at Bankstown, in western Sydney at 9.30pm on Friday

Abdullah El Nasher and Mikhael Myko (pictured) had eluded police since March 1, after a triple shooting outside Melbourne Pavilion on Racecourse Road in Kensington

Following information that three men may have travelled interstate, Abdullah El Nasher and Myko were arrested in the western Sydney apartment complex

The shooting left young father and labourer Ben Togiai, 30, dead and two other men wounded where they continue to be treated in hospital.

An interstate manhunt was launched as police wished to speak to brothers Abdullah El Nasher and Ali El Nasher, 28, and Mickhael Myko over the attack.

Following information that three men may have travelled interstate, Abdullah El Nasher and Myko were arrested in the western Sydney apartment complex.

Myko was taken to Bankstown Police Station and charged with a Victorian arrest warrant for murder.

NSW Ambulance paramedics had to treat Abdullah El Nasher after he jumped from a balcony to a lower floor.

He was taken to Liverpool Hospital in Sydney's west - when he is released he will be charged with a Victorian arrest warrant for murder.

The pair are expected to appear at Parramatta Bail Court later on Saturday where Victoria Police detectives will apply for the group's extradition to Melbourne.

Police are continuing the search for Ali El Nasher.

The shooting at Melbourne Pavilion on March 1 left young father and labourer Ben Togiai, 30, dead and two other men wounded where they continue to be treated in hospital

An interstate manhunt was launched following the shooting outside Melbourne Pavilion on March 1
Town halls are set to pocket a record 1billion profit from parking fees over the next year.

Motorists face increases of up to 230 per cent from next month, an audit reveals today.

As well as charging more for town car parks, many councils are raising the cost of residential permits.

Town halls across the country are set to pocket a record 1billion profit from parking fees over the next year. They are also planning to raise the cost of residential permits (file picture)

Shoppers and churchgoers will be hit by the end of cheaper Sunday parking in some areas.

Hampshire, Nottingham, Reading, Cambridge, Brighton and Exeter are all planning big hikes.

Councillors insist higher fees are necessary because of major budget cuts from Whitehall. They also cite the need to tackle congestion and air pollution.

Families are already facing the second highest rise in council tax in a decade, with typical Band D rises of 76 from next month.

Councils expect to make a record surplus of 885million from parking fees in 2018-2019. And the RAC Foundation predict this will hit 1billion in 2019-2020.

Spokesman Steve Gooding said: With sums this large in play, the question must be whether they are actually helping our town centres and high streets to thrive, or whether it feels more like motorists being targeted to help increasingly cash-strapped councils balance their books.

Edmund King, president of the AA, said: Drivers beware. April sees the start of new tactics for some councils going after more cash from drivers.

Some councils are already budgeting to make millions of pounds more from motorists, on top of the millions they already get, by increasing parking charges, extending restricted parking zones, enforcing new bus lanes and looking for new opportunities to catch drivers.

Analysis by the Daily Mail shows that residential parking charges are set to rise by up to 230 per cent across Hampshire, with annual permits in Romsey and Andover increasing from 15 to 50, and from 22 to 50 in Winchester. The changes will be phased in over two years.

Northampton Borough Council is trebling evening car park charges from 1 an hour to 3. In Camden, council leaders are planning to increase the cost of residential permits by up to 70 per cent.

Councillors insist higher fees are necessary because of budget cuts (file picture)

This will saddle the owner of an older diesel estate with a 577 bill.

Reading hopes to raise almost 1million extra in one year by ratcheting up parking fees, permits, and fines and scrapping free parking in many areas.

Mike Cherry, of the Federation of Small Businesses, warned that low-cost parking was vital for town centres.

Hiking up the cost can drive people away from their local high street, with customers often heading to out-of-town shopping centres with free car parks, he said. Parking shouldnt be used as a cash cow for councils looking to raise revenue.

Sir Greg Knight, Tory MP for East Yorkshire, who has successfully pushed for laws to crack down on private parking firms, said: This is a short-sighted strategy that doesnt make any sense.

Im surprised that on the one hand local authorities are complaining that their high streets are struggling yet on the other hand they are adding to their grief by putting up parking charges.

When you look at the budget of every family if they have to pay more for parking this also leaves them with less money to spend in the shops locally.

Councillor Martin Tett, transport spokesman for the Local Government Association, said: Councils are on the side of motorists and shoppers.

They have to strike a balance when setting parking policy, both on street and off street, to make sure that there are spaces available for residents, high streets are kept vibrant and traffic is kept moving.

Any income raised through on-street parking charges is spent on running parking services and any surplus is only spent on essential transport projects, such as tackling our national 9billion roads repair backlog and other transport projects that benefit high streets and local economies.
A paraglider escaped an unprovoked attack by a kangaroo moments after landing.

A new video shows an Australian man's landing interrupted when he is ambushed by a kangaroo.

The video, which already has over 14,000 views, shows the man gliding peacefully towards an open area at an old space tracking station near Canberra after he had been paragliding for two hours.

Panicking, man scrambles away from the kangaroo and he can only defend himself by holding his arms up (file picture)

When he landed, the kangaroo charged him.

'As it ran towards me I thought it was being friendly so I said "What's Up, Skip?"

''It then attacked me twice before hopping away,' he said.

'I packed up my paraglider and I had to walk several kilometres to get phone reception and call a friend to come and collect me.'
Parents at a private school in Westchester County, New York, are up in arms after a social studies teacher reportedly held a mock slave auction in which white students were asked to 'buy' their black classmates.

The incident, which is now being investigated by officials at the Chapel School in Bronxville, was said to have occurred on Tuesday in the fifth-grade history class of Rebecca Antinozzi.

Vernex Harding told the station WPIX that her son, who is black and attends the school, was left traumatized by the controversial lesson on slavery.

Scroll down for video

The Chapel School in Bronxville, New York, is under fire after a social studies teacher reportedly held a mock slave auction in her fifth-grade history class

Mother Vernex Harding (left) said teacher Rebecca Antinozzi, who is white (right), picked three black students, among them Harding's son, to play slaves

Courtesy of Pix11

Harding said that her child was one of three African-American students who were picked by Antinozzi, who is white, to play the role of slaves.

The mother said her son later told her how he and the other students were led out into the hallway, where the teacher pretended to place imaginary chains on their necks and wrists, and shackles on their ankles.

The blacks fifth-graders were then brought back into the classroom, where their white classmates were urged to bid on them as part of the mock auction.

In an email sent Tuesday night to parents, Chapel School Principal Michael Schultz described Antinozzi's lesson as 'racial insensitive and hurtful.'

The school principal sent this email to parents Tuesday night addressing the lesson on slavery, which he called 'racially insensitive and hurtful'

The Fordham-educated teacher, who has been at the Chapel School for four years, has been removed from the classroom

The teacher has been removed from the classroom pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

Administrators at the school on Thursday held emergency meetings with parents to address the slavery lesson.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said she is monitoring the situation at the Chapel School

New York Attorney General Letitia James also weighed in on the incident, calling reports of the 'racist' lesson 'deeply troubling. James said her office is closely monitoring the situation.

According to her profile on the Chapel School's website, Antinozzi has taught social studies at grades 3-5 for the past four years.

She has a Bahcelor's degree in child studies from Syracuse University and a Master's degree in elementary and special education from Fordham University.

Founded in 1947, the Chapel School serves 320-340 students a year from pre-school through eighth grade. Tuition at the school ranges from $5,000-$13,900 a year.
Right-wing poster boy Milo Yiannopoulos is set to be granted an Australian visa with the Immigration Minister saying there's no reason he should be banned.

Minister David Coleman is understood to not be convinced by the Department of Home Affairs' reasons for denying Yiannopoulos a visa, The Australian reported.

Some fear his controversial views would spark violent protests during his planned speaking tour across five Australian cities.

The Department of Home Affairs warned the 33-year-old it was likely to deny him entry following riots during his 2017 Australian tour and an unpaid $50,000 bill issued by Victoria police.

The claim Yiannopoulos is about to be granted a visa comes after weeks of pressure from conservative MPs such as One Nation's Pauline Hanson.

Right-wing poster boy Milo Yiannopoulos (pictured) is set to be granted an Australian visa

The Department of Home Affairs warned the 33-year-old it was likely to deny him entry, after riots during his 2017 Australian tour

His Melbourne leg of the tour was even more violent, with police forced to use sticks to keep the demonstrators at bay

The conservative provocateur's supporters clashed with protesters who chanted 'f*** off Nazi', which led to seven arrests during his 2017 Sydney tour.

His Melbourne leg of the tour was even more violent, with police forced to use sticks to keep the demonstrators at bay.

The 33-year-old had initially organised a 'Deplorables' speaking tour with convicted criminal Tommy Robinson and self-described 'western chauvinist' Gavin McInnes in December.

The tour was rescheduled to February 2019 but was cancelled for the second time because visa applications were still being considered by government authorities.

Yiannopoulos intends to tour before the expected May federal election, although there isn't a clear date when he will arrive.

Yiannopoulos intends to tour before the expected May federal election, although there isn't a clear date when he will arrive

Victorian MP and former human rights commissioner Tim Wilson said Yiannopoulos was 'self-absorbed' and was an 'attention-seeker'.

'But free speech is for everyone, hence I was surprised by the news and have raised it with the minister,' he said.

Pauline Hanson said she had contacted Mr Coleman through numerous letters, texts and phone calls  urging the government to grant Yiannopoulos a visiting visa in the past few weeks.

Yiannopoulos is known for his commentaries mocking left-wing political correctness and feminists.
Diane Abbott has spoken of her fears that she could be murdered or raped by one of the Right-wing extremists and social media trolls who bombard her with vile threats.

She said she never used to think she was in such danger but the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by a far-Right extremist in 2016 changed her view.

The shadow home secretary said it dawned on her after being told Mrs Coxs killer had a room bedecked with photos of his victim.

It convinced Miss Abbott that someone out there had a room full of images of her  and she could suffer the same fate.

Diane Abbott, left, has spoken about her fears that she could be murdered or raped by Right-wing extremists and social media trolls. She said she never worried about being in danger until after Labour MP Jo Cox, right, was murdered in 2016

Her comments appear in Women of Westminster, a new book by Labour MP Rachel Reeves, which also provides details of similar threats made against moderate female Labour MPs by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn.

Miss Abbotts concern was disclosed on International Womens Day  24 hours after Home Secretary Amber Rudd had to apologise for clumsily referring to her as coloured.

When police raided the home of Batley and Spen MP Mrs Coxs killer, Thomas Mair, 55, they found his bookshelves packed with volumes about the Nazis and Ku Klux Klan.

Days before his frenzied attack, he trawled the internet for information about Mrs Cox.

Miss Reevess book states: Previously, Diane Abbott thought that the chance of abusers following through with rape or death threats was slim. Ive always said itll never happen, she told me. But when Jo Cox was killed, that was really shocking to me because I had to face the fact that it could happen.

Miss Reeves describes Miss Abbotts alarm when she met a policeman involved in the probe into the murder of Mrs Cox who told her a wall in the killers home was covered with photos of his victim.

Miss Abbott said she never used to think she was in such danger until after the murder, crime scene pictured, of the Batley and Spen MP

Diane thought to herself: I have no doubt that theres someone out there with a whole wall papered with pictures of me. 

Miss Abbott, who according to Miss Reeves is the victim of more online abuse than any other female MP, also discussed social media.

When I was a new MP if you wanted to write an abusive letter to an MP you literally had to write it out, put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it, walk to the letterbox, and so maybe we got one racist letter a month, Miss Abbott said. Now you can press a button to send all of this abuse.

She added: You dont get inured to it, its very painful and personally corrosive. But she would not give in to her abusers, saying: If I was to say Im going to step down from Parliament because I cant take it, then they would have won.

Miss Reeves says that while many online trolls who attack female Labour MPs were far-Right extremists, some of the worst abuse came from Corbynistas.

Moderate Labour MPs Liz Kendall and Angela Eagle were both victims of hard-Left hate when they stood against Mr Corbyn in the Labour leadership contest, she says.

Miss Kendall was called Tory scum, a witch and a cow while one email sent to Miss Eagle said: If you become Labour leader you will die bitch this is my one and only warning. Next time you see me Ill be with a real gun or knife cutting your life to an end.

In a separate interview yesterday, Miss Abbott used The House magazine to call for social media trolls to be stripped of their anonymity. Twitter or Facebook should have your real name or address, she said.
A Labour mayoral candidate was suspended last night over claims that he made anti-Semitic posts on his Facebook page.

Former soldier Sean McCallum, who is standing in Mansfield, now faces an investigation by the party.

Defending comments that got Ken Livingstone suspended from the party, Mr McCallum reportedly equated the Nazi regime with the existence of Israel, writing: Nazism and Zionism are equally foul.

Former soldier Sean McCallum, pictured, who is standing for mayor in Mansfield, has been suspended from Labour over claims that he made anti-Semitic posts on his Facebook page

Labour MP John Mann told the Guido Fawkes political news website he had personally referred the case to Labours general secretary Jennie Formby for immediate action, calling it one of the worst examples I have seen.

A spokesman for the party said it takes all complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously.

It came as Labour peers condemned Jeremy Corbyns failure to tackle anti-Semitism in his party as an embarrassing and hugely damaging mess.

They said the announcement by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that it is poised to launch an investigation into Labour was humiliating and a matter of great shame.

Lord Harris, chairman of the Labour group in the House of Lords, said the partys moral authority had been diminished and its anti- racism credentials dented.

The suspension came as Labour peers condemned Jeremy Corbyns failure to tackle anti-Semitism in his party. Pictured is Corbyn at Scottish Labour's Conference in Dundee on Friday

The Mail reported yesterday that Labour faces a possible anti-Semitism probe by the EHRC.

The party has been given a fortnight to respond to the watchdogs concerns that it may have unlawfully discriminated against people because of their ethnicity and religious beliefs.

In a letter to the partys leader, Lord Harris said he wanted to put on record the alarm that Labour peers felt at the ongoing failure to resolve the issue.

Mr Corbyn said yesterday Labour would give the EHRC its fullest possible co-operation if the watchdog investigates, saying we do not believe we have anything to hide.
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Women-owned businesses receive a small fraction of the billions of dollars in venture capital funding that is invested each year in American start-ups  but that's beginning to change as female-led companies attract big money in a handful of U.S. cities, according to a new report.

Venture capital is the coveted financing provided by private firms and funds to invest in early-stage development of new companies, often in the tech field.

A slim 16 percent of venture capital funding went to start-ups with at least one female founder in 2017, the most recent year for which data was available.

Companies with all-female founders fared even worse, with just 2.5 percent receiving venture capital to get their dream businesses off the ground, according to a report by the Brookings Institution.

The map illustrates the five best (in blue) and five worst (in orange) cities for women-founded start-ups to win venture capital investments. Source: Brookings Institution

The report focuses on businesses that are on their first-round venture capital funding  because that provides insight into the pipeline of companies that are at the earliest stage of 'starting up.'

Women make up 47 percent of the workforce, 36 percent of business owners and are 30 percent of the workers in the high tech field, yet venture capital is a glass ceiling that remains tough to shatter, said Ian Hathaway, author of the report and senior fellow at Brookings.

However, things are improving: the share of female-founded start-ups has grown from 7 percent in 2005 to 21 percent in 2017, according to Brookings.

'The number of female-founded venture-backed start-ups has increased dramatically over timefrom 1,036 in 2005 to a peak of 3,490 in 2014, before tailing off to 2,704 in 2017,' Hathaway wrote.

And some cities are becoming unofficial hubs for female entrepreneurs who are just starting out.

The San Jose metropolitan area is not among them - the Silicon Valley city comes in below the national average with just 12 percent of venture capital going to women-led start-ups.

Instead, Ann Arbor, Michigan tops the list, with 34 female-founded businesses receiving first round financing from venture capital firms from 2005-2017. That accounts for 29 percent of all start-ups in that region  more than anywhere else in the U.S.

The greater New York City region came second, with 814 female-led business getting 23 percent of all start-up capital during the same 12-year period.

This graph illustrates the share of female-led and male-led start-ups that received first-round venture capital investments each year from 2005-2017. Source: Brookings Institution

Milwaukee, Wisconsin followed, with 13 female-led business, also accounting for 23 percent of the total in that region.

Portland, Oregon came in fourth, with 53 women-led companies getting 20 percent of the total venture capital awarded in that area.

Las Vegas rounded out the top five, with 22 female-founded companies grabbing 20 percent of all venture financing.

The Brookings report also ranked the five worst cities for women seeking venture capital, with Provo-Orem, Utah winning the dubious distinction of the least number of women-led start-ups (four) and the lowest share (4 percent) of venture capital going to women.

Orlando Florida was second-worst, with eight female founded businesses accounting for 8 percent of all venture financing.

Next was Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota (21 businesses at 9 percent), followed by Nashville, Tennessee (20 businesses at 9 percent) and Atlanta (39 businesses at 9 percent).
Doval has been in constant touch with his counterparts from a number of countries all of whom have extended their support to India.

New Delhi: Following the Pulwama terror attack and the subsequent aerial strikes carried out by the Air Force at the Balakot terror camp inside Pakistan, support continues to pour in for India from the international community with the national security adviser of the United Kingdom Mark Sedwill having a detailed discussion with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on Thursday.

Government sources said UK has offered India all possible assistance in its fight against terror, particularly on the issue of intelligence sharing and other relevant information that may help Indian security agencies in targeting terror outfits operating out of Pakistan.

Afeter Pulwama, India has adopted an aggressive strategy in dealing with the international community to help isolate Pakistan on the issue of terrorism. Mr Doval has been in constant touch with his counterparts from a number of countries all of whom have extended their support to India. Sources said Mr Sedwill during his conversation with Mr Doval expressed solidarity with India in the aftermath of the Pulwama terrorist attack. Interestingly, Thursdays call was initiated by the British NSA.

Mr Sedwill reiterated that Britain was willing to provide all assistance to Indian in dealing with any form of terrorism through counter-terrorism co-operation, intelligence-sharing and by bringing the perpetrators of terrorist attacks to justice, the sources added.

The telephonic conversation between the two NSAs assumes significance amid increased tension between India and Pakistan following the Pulwama attack. The Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility of the strike in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.

Indian Air Force had on February 26, Indian Air Force struck JeMs biggest terrorist training camp in Balakot deep inside Pakistan. A day later, Pakistan retaliated by attempting to target Indian military installations though the move was successfully thwarted by the Indian Air Force.
Jussie Smollett now faces 16 counts of felony disorderly conduct which carry a maximum prison sentence of 48 years

Jussie Smollett has been hit with an additional 15 counts of filing a false police report by a grand jury and is now facing up to 48 years behind bars.

The Empire actor was initially charged with one Class 4 Felony charge of disorderly conduct last month but a grand jury has applied that charge 15 times over in an 36-page indictment that was returned on Thursday.

Now, he is facing a maximum sentence of 48 years behind bars and fines of up to $400,000.

He is expected to cut a plea deal with authorities, according to experts cited by ABC.

Neither Smollett's legal team nor Cook County prosecutors have commented on the new indictment which was first reported by CWB.

DailyMail.com obtained a copy of it this afternoon. It divides the 15 new charges into two sets.

Counts one to seven apply to the comments he made to police officer Muhammed Baig, who first responded to his apartment when his friend called 911 on January 29.

The second set applies to Detective Kim Murray who interviewed him later that day.

Jussie Smollett reported that one of his attackers was a male white, in dark clothing Grand Jury indictment

She is who Smollett told, according to the indictment, that one of his attackers was a 'white male'.

He told Baig that he had been attacked by two 'unknown males' who were dressed in black.

One was wearing a ski mask and they called him 'racial and homophobic slurs', he said.

Smollett told Baig they hit him 'about the face' with their hands and poured an 'unknown chemical substance' onto them.

Later, in his interview with Kim Murray that he 'fought back'. The indictment reads: 'Jussie Smollett reported that one of his attackers was a male white, in dark clothing.'

Nigerian brothers, Ola (right) and Abel Osundairo (left) told police Smollett paid them to attack him

The actor has not been charged for allegedly sending himself a threatening letter days before the attack, as police have alleged.

Smollett is accused of hiring brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo to beat him up outside his apartment on January 29 in what he later described to police as a racist and homophobic attack.

Jussie Smollett is shown in the hospital with the scratches police say he gave himself after the 'attack'

The brothers say he paid them $3500 to do it and that he promised them an additional $500 which they would get when they came home from a trip to Nigeria.

They say Smollett's motive was that he wanted a higher salary on Empire.

The actor went on Good Morning America before he was arrested where he cried and insisted he was telling the truth amid a swelling tide of public cynicism.

Fox has said it is 'considering its options' in light of Smollett's arrest.

He will not appear in the final two episodes of Empire that are to be shown later this year.

On Friday, after the indictment was returned, the network declined to comment.

The actor's lawyers say he has been the victim of police and prosecutorial misconduct.

They say his presumption of innocence was 'trampled' and that the entire investigation into the attack has been flawed.
President Vladimir Putin praised Russian women for being 'beautiful, bright and charming' during his annual International Women's Day address earlier today.

International Women's Day is a public holiday in Russia but instead of promoting equality, it is still largely focused on celebrating traditional gender roles.

The strongman leader said in his video address that women acted as the 'center of gravity for the whole family' and praised their ability to give 'warmth and comfort'.

He said: 'In this day and age, you have attained the heights of practically all professions ... and at the same time you remain beautiful, charismatic, charming, the center of gravity for the whole family, uniting it with your love, with your capacity to inspire and support, to give warmth and comfort.'

Putin added: 'What does a young woman need to maintain her figure? Three things: a workout machine, a masseuse and a suitor.'

President Vladimir Putin praised Russian women for being 'beautiful, bright and charming' during his annual International Women's Day address earlier today

He also told female police officers that they prevented accidents in parks they were patrolling because 'those who wish to commit suicide look at you and want to live again,' reports the Moscow Times.

Last year, Putin focussed on female bosses, saying they have 'typically feminine traits' that help them succeed in business.

Women in Russia may hold prominent positions in the government but efforts to address problems like the gender pay gap, domestic violence and sexual harassment have hardly scratched the surface.

A Russian army recruitment office photoshoot ordered to celebrate IWD 2019 didn't feature any of the 45,000 women currently serving in the country's armed forces.

Instead, the photos showed ballerinas in floaty white dresses posing with active servicemen in combats and machine guns.

'The men's power lies in women's tenderness and love!' read a congratulatory note from the army office, based in Russia's fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg.
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President Donald Trump signed a boy's Bible as he visited a church serving as a make-shift disaster relief center on Friday in storm-scarred Alabama.

The U.S. president also signed hats and a $100 dollar bill that a volunteer passed him at Providence Baptist Church.

Both at the church and along the motorcade route from the airport, the first couple received an ecstatic welcome from residents, some of whom held up Trump signs. The state supported Trump with 62. 1 percent of the vote in his successful election.

He and first lady Melania Trump spent the afternoon consoling families who lost their homes in a deadly tornado that struck Alabama.

They had private talks with storm victims inside a Baptist church doubling as a disaster relief center, where clothes, diapers, toiletries and school supplies are being distributed. They participated in a walking tour earlier, at which time the president hugged grieving family members of a community leveled by the storm.

At Providence Baptist, the president signed hats and bibles for volunteers, who eagerly reached out across a table of clothes to photograph and touch the nation's chief executive.

'I've never seen anything like it,' the president said of the devastation. 'We love you all. We love the state of Alabama.'

Outside the church the first couple honored the dead, holding a moment of silence as they stood hand-in-hand before a memorial made of crosses representing the 23 victims of last weekend's storms.

The Trumps were visiting Alabama on their way to Florida, where they are spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago and raising money for the president's reelection campaign.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump spent the afternoon consoling families who lost their homes in a deadly tornado that struck Alabama

They held a moment of silence at a memorial made of crosses and Providence Baptist Church in Beauregard, Alabama

The president hugged family members of one of the storm victims as he toured a Beauregard neighborhood with Melania

'I've never seen anything like it,' the president said of the devastation after his storm tour on foot

Marine One carrying President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump takes an aerial tour of the area

The Trumps toured the Beauregard neighborhood after, where they met the family of Sheila Creech and Marshall Lynn Grimes

Family members shared with the president and first lady, showing them Grimes' motorcycle vest and his bible

The Trumps survey the damage with Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (L), Housing and Urban Develoment Secretary Ben Carson, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Alabama lawmakers and FEMA officials in Beauregard

Donald and Melania Trump arrived in Alabama early Friday afternoon via helicopter after landing in Air Force One in nearby Georgia. Their aerial tour lasted approximately 25 minutes, and afterward, the president told victims that federal emergency managers will stay as long as they need to.

'Its hard to believe actually,' he told reporters during a walking tour of the devastation. 'We saw things you wouldnt believe.'

He said that FEMA had done an 'A plus job' managing recovery efforts so far.

Tornadoes blitzed Alabama last weekend, killing 23 people, and ransacking parts of Georgia, where the Trumps first landed.

Greeting them on the tarmac was the state's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, and Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, greeted the president at the Auburn airfield and accompanied them on a walking tour of the community most-heavily affected.

'The governor has done an incredible job,' the president told reporters amid his tour of Beauregard, the Alabama neighborhood hit hardest.

Ivey told the president 'were stronger together' and thanked him for him for taking the time to visit.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump sign autographs and greet volunteers who sorted donated clothing

President Trump arrives in Georgia on his way to Alabama to view tornado wreckage on Friday afternoon

WE'RE HERE: The president and first lady deplane from Air Force Oneat Fort Benning in Georgia

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and his wife Marty greets the Trumps at Lawson Army Airfiel at Fort Benning

He told reporters as he left the White House on Friday, 'I'll be meeting with Governor Ivey. The people of Alabama, they got hit very hard by the tornadoes.

'We're stopping there, then we're going to Florida. And we're going to do a lot of work. We'll be working very hard,' he said.

First lady Melania Trump and the couple's son, Barron, were on the trip with the president. They left the White House just before 10 am from the residential entrance, after the president took questions from the press on the sentencing of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a myriad of other subject.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen joined them for the flight down to Alabama. Sen. Richard Shelby and Rep. Mike Rogers, both of whom were Alabama Republicans, also flew down with the Trumps.

Following the aerial tour of the damage that the group made via helicopter over Georgia and Alabama, the president and first lady met with survivors of the Lee County tornado and received a briefing from Kathy Carson, the county's emergency manager.

The Trumps toured the Beauregard neighborhood, where they met the family of Sheila Creech and Marshall Lynn Grimes.

Creech fled Panama City after Hurricane Michael in October of 2018 and relocated to Beauregard, where the White House says she was living with Grimes.

Grimes's daughter is in the hospital and her friend, Taylor Thornton, 10, died at the home during the tornado. The Trumps were to meet with son Chris Grimes and his wife Denise, as well as the deceased's brother David and his wife Kristen.

A woman holds up a sign showing off her support for the nation's president as he tours an Alabama community

Areas residents are seen from the media van in the motorcade of the president on its way to Beauregard

President Donald Trump comforts people among devastation and debris in Beauregard on Friday afternoon

Family members shared with the president and first lady, showing them Grimes' motorcycle vest and his bible. The president hugged the grieving family members.

He told reporters that he recognized the wreckage from his flyover in Marine One.

'I saw this. And its hard to believe,' the president said. 'You saw things that you wouldnt believe.'

Also on their list of stops was the home of Susanne and John Polk, who was in the hospital when the tornado hit. The White House said that Mrs. Polk had left her home to visit her husband when she was informed that a tornado had just hit the area.

A member of the Beauregard Volunteer Fire Department, she aided in the search and rescue of the community.

The Trumps were scheduled to visit with another survivor of the tornado, Tamatha 'Tammy' Cardwell, who was at home when the weather event took place, and her husband James 'Jim' Cardwell.

The president said Tuesday that he would review the wreckage himself on Friday.

'It's been a tragic situation,' Trump said at a White House event on Tuesday. 'But a lot of good work is being done. I'm in constant touch with the governor and also the governor of Georgia.'

President Donald Trump is greeted by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey upon his arrival in Alabama

President Donald Trump waves as he boards his motorcade as he leaves Auburn airport

He said Friday, as he thanked volunteers, 'We couldnt get here fast enough.

'I wanted to come the day it happened,' he told them at the makeshift operation at Providence Baptist Church.

President Trump said Monday that he had directed federal emergency managers 'to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes' that injured nearly 100 people.

He told reporters Friday that FEMA had 'done and incredible job' and thanked emergency managers for their efforts.

The first lady made no public comments but shared photos of her family arriving at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington for their flight on Air Force One from the air.

'On our way to visit the great people of Alabama!' she said.

They arrived at Fort Benning's Lawson Army Airfield in Air Force One and traveled to Auburn University Regional Airport across the border in Alabama after that.

The president and first lady leave the White House on Friday morning for their trip down south

President Donald Trump, son Barron and first lady Melania Trump prepare to board Air Force One as they depart from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland

President Trump and Melania Trump arrive in Palm Beach aboard Air Force One

After spending several hours in the area, the Trumps left late Friday afternoon for Palm Beach, where the president has two evening events.

Donald Trump is participating in a joint fundraising committee roundtable and reception for Trump Victory, a Republican National Committee operation working in tandem with his 2020 reelection campaign, on Friday evening.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and RNC Finance Chair Todd Ricketts are co-hosts of the closed-press event.

The fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago is Trump's first major money-raising event of the calendar year. He is running for a second term with the party's backing.
President Trump is pushing a plan to require close U.S. allies to bear more of the cost for hosting U.S. troops  plus hit them with a premium of an extra 50 per cent.

The plan, which the administration has been pushing with key allies including South Korea, is the latest effort to try to keep pace with Trump's demand that allies pay more and his deep skepticism of the expansive U.S. overseas military presence.

Several U.S. officials said Friday that the White House has asked the Defense Department to gather data on the costs of keeping troops in other countries and how much those nations contribute to the expenses.

Members of the U.S. Marine Corps and the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force attend the opening ceremony of their joint drill at a JGSDF exercise area in Yamato, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Dec. 8, 2017. The Trump administration is developing a plan to require allies to pay full costs of hosting troops, plus 50 per cent

As part of the plan, termed 'Cost Plus 50,' allies such as Japan and Germany would be asked to pay considerably more than they do now, Bloomberg News reports.

The officials weren't authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

President Donald Trump has waged a lengthy, public campaign to get NATO allies to meet the goal of spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense. And in the last two years, a number of allies have increased their spending.

The officials said this latest effort is along those lines. They said the collection of data could be used in subsequent meetings and discussions to pressure allies to help offset the costs of having U.S. troops within their borders.

National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said that getting U.S. allies to 'increase their investment in our collective defense and ensure fairer burden-sharing' has been a long-standing U.S. goal.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump and their son Barron Trump, walk from Marine One to board Air Force One, Friday, March 8, 2019, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to Lee County, Ala., where tornados killed 23 people. Trump has spent years pushing for U.S. allies to pay more for defense

US and British soldiers pose for a photo after an artillery shooting training during the 'Dynamic Front 18' exercise in Grafenwoehr, near Eschenbach, southern Germany, on March 7, 2018. Some policy observers are concerned the push for greater contributions could harm the popularity of a U.S. troop presence in the countries that house them

The Trump administration pushed for a greater South Korean contribution before the failed summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in Hanoi

Photo taken on Jan. 14, 2019, shows an F16 fighter of the U.S. military at Aomori airport in northeastern Japan where the plane made emergency landing earlier in the day.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence addresses U.S. military personnel at Yokota Air Base in Fussa, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan, on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018

'The Administration is committed to getting the best deal for the American people,' Marquis said in a statement issued Friday.

He declined to provide details on any ongoing deliberations.

Most NATO allies have a U.S. presence, but there are larger bases and military populations in countries such as Germany, England, Japan, Italy, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain.

Derek Chollet, former assistant defense secretary for international affairs, said that allies should pay their fair share. But, he said, the bases serve critical U.S. interests and must not be considered charitable contributions.

For example, key U.S. military commands that oversee operations in Europe and Africa are located in Germany as well as the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, where thousands of American troops were treated after injuries in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Additionally, U.S. policymakers have long considered the presence a stabilizing force in Europe  as well as a check on Russia, and the Soviet Union before it.

'The fact is that U.S. bases are an essential part of protecting American interests - in Europe, Asia, Africa or the Middle East,' said Chollet, now with the German Marshall Fund of the United States. 'Moreover, those countries that host our troops want to be our partners, and the message he (Trump) is sending is that we don't care. This is totally self-defeating.'

Just last week, South Korea and the United States signed a deal that would increase Seoul's financial contribution for the deployment of U.S. troops in the Asian country. After rounds of failed negotiations, chief delegates from the two countries last month agreed on Seoul paying about 1.04 trillion won, or $924 million, in 2019 for the U.S. military presence, up from about $830 million last year.

There are about 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea.

Bloomberg reported that those talks almost went off the rails after Trump gave his national security advisor, John Bolton, a note saying 'We want cost plus 50,' overruling his negotiators.
In the span of just two years, Paul Manafort has gone from one of Washington's most sought-after Republican lobbyists to a political pariah with a shattered family.

'My life - personally and professionally - is in shambles,' he told Judge T.S. Ellis III, in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia on March 7.

'The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family. Humiliated and would be a gross understatement.'

He laid it on thicker to the next sentencing judge, Amy Berman Jackson, in Washington D.C. on March 13: 'I will be 70 years old in a few weeks. My wife is 66. She needs me. I need her. Please let me and my wife be together.'

Self-pitying certainly, but hardly wrong. Sitting in a wheelchair and contemplating the real prospect of dying behind bars, Manafort was diminished in every way, the extravagantly-tailored and immaculately connected powerbroker who could ask for millions for his counsel now wearing prison green as he asked not for money but compassion.

Typically though, the whole story was not on display; in recent years, Manafort had betrayed his wife with a mistress 30 years his junior who he put up in a New York apartment and handed an unlimited credit card.

That infidelity was only another staging post on the long and spectacular fall from grace for the 69-year-old former Trump campaign manager, the son of a small-town mayor who went on to work for four U.S. presidents and made his fortune as the Washington mouthpiece for some of the world's most notorious dictators.

Today Manafort has few defenders in the nation's capital, after being convicted of tax fraud and money laundering by special counsel Robert Mueller - who first secured a guilty verdict from a jury then a plea deal on the eve of a second trial.

Even Manafort's former boss, President Trump, claimed he never would have hired the former lobbyist if he had known about the allegations.

'Paul Manafort came into the campaign very late and was with us for a short period of time (he represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole & many others over the years), but we should have been told that Comey and the boys were doing a number on him, and he wouldn't have been hired!' wrote Trump in a Twitter post in June 2018.

The president had faced Manafort co-operating with Robert Mueller 'fully and truthfully.'

But even that was beyond the ability of Manafort, who Mueller's prosecutors charge lied to them after his agreement to cooperate.

The power brokers: Paul Manafort, his future business partners Roger Stone and Lee Atwater, were photographed as young Republican operatives. Stone, a Trump confidante and notorious political dirty trickster is now fighting off the Mueller probe himself; Atwater died in 1991, a former RNC chairman with a reputation for dirty campaigns. All three cashed in on their political work by lobbying those they got elected

Manafort, the grandson of an Italian immigrant, was raised in a staunch Republican home in New Britain, Connecticut.

When he was 16, his father Paul John Manafort Sr. was elected mayor of New Britain and served for three terms.

In 1981, Manafort Sr. was indicted  but later acquitted  on perjury charges in a sweeping city corruption and bribery scandal that also ensnared the police and fire chiefs.

After Catholic parochial schools and graduating from Georgetown University Law School, Manafort went on to work as an advisor for Republican Presidents Gerald Ford. It is unclear why he was not drafted for Vietnam.

He went on to serve as an advisor to Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole's presidential campaign.

But he worked out how to turn political advising into a gusher of cash: by lobbying the very politicians they had helped elect.

He co-founded a prominent lobbying firm with ex-Nixon aide Roger Stone, and Lee Atwater, another notorious figure, which shopped their access to top Republicans to U.S. businesses, state and city governments, and anyone who would pay.

The lobbying would be punctuated by periods of working for campaigns - guaranteeing the access on which they depended if their candidates won (which by and large they did).

That came to embrace the wider world too; the Manafort lobbying roster included brutal regimes willing to pay high fees for his services  including Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos and Zaire military leader Mobutu Sese Seko.

Betrayed: Kathleen Manafort stood by her husband despite his family finding proof of his mistress on Instagram; she attended every minute of his trial and was there when he said he was flipping

Manafort went on to found his own political consulting firm in 2005, bringing on his former intern Rick Gates as his trusted deputy.

He also continued to take on controversial clients. In 2010, Manafort helped elect Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, head of Ukraine's Putin-allied Party of Regions.

The victory paid off  between 2010 and 2014, federal investigators said Manafort's firm earned 'a cash spigot': $60 million in fees from the Party of Regions' political patrons.

According to prosecutors, Manafort stashed the funds away in a series of offshore bank accounts and shell companies, and failed to disclose the income in his tax returns. In total, they claim he dodged taxes on $15 million.

But after Yanukovych was voted out of power by Ukraine's parliament in 2014, Manafort's fortunes suddenly changed. He stopped getting payments from Yanukovych's wealthy oligarch supporters, and started to have trouble paying his bills.

This is when prosecutors claim Manafort started applying for loans using phony financial information. In total, they said he scammed banks out of $20 million.

Manafort's then-alleged crimes were uncovered during the course of a special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller, who has been investigating potential Russian interference in the 2016 election and collusion with the Trump campaign.

Even before the charges were filed against him, Manafort's personal life had been unravelling, according to years of hacked text messages between his daughters Andrea, 32, and Jessica, 36, that were posted online.

According to the messages, Manafort's family had caught him having an affair with a woman who was around the same age as his daughters, renting a pricey house for her in the Hamptons and paying her credit card bill.

They discovered the affair after seeing the woman's posts boasting about her expensive travel and dinners on Instagram.

Manafort, who was undergoing an emotional breakdown according to the messages, committed himself to a psychiatric clinic in Arizona in 2015.

Texts: Manafort's daughters Jessica (left, with now ex-husband Jeff Yohai, who flipped) and Andrea (right with husband Christopher Shand) exchanged text messages which were hacked revealing his affairs and calling him a psychopath. Jessica has changed her name to Bond, her mother's maiden name

Fruits of lobbying: This is the condo overlooking the Potomac where the FBI raided Manafort on orders from Mueller. He bought it for $2.75 million, part of a property empire worth conservatively $15 million

After he was released in 2016 - claiming he had 'new insight' into himself - he linked up with the Trump campaign and became the candidate's campaign manager during the crucial months surrounding the Republican National Convention.

His daughter Andrea took a different view of that. She wrote in a leaked text to a friend, who was not named in the leak: 'Trump probably has more morals than my dad. Which is really just saying something about my dad. My dad is a psycho!!! At least trump let his wives leave him. Plus, Trump has been a good father.'

And she also texted: 'Trump waited a little too long in my opinion, but I can attest to the fact that he has now hired one of the world's greatest manipulators. I hope my dad pulls it off. Then I can sell my memoir with all his dirty secrets for a pretty penny.'

But getting in tow with Trump in June 2016, his neighbor in Trump Tower, was to prove catastrophic.

Trump in fact fired him in August 2017 when questions about Manafort's dealings with Russians in Ukraine started to surface.

Manafort returned to his shadowy lobbying life, but then he was caught up in the Mueller probe.

In July 2017 his home in Alexandria was raided before dawn; in October he and his loyal deputy Gates were indicted, with charges of tax fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, failing to register as foreign agents and conspiracy against the United States.

Manafort's legal strategy was to split the cases in two, meaning two separate trials - one for the monetary charges, the second conspiracy and failing to register as a foreign agent.

But before they began, Gates took a plea bargain, turning on his boss, agreeing to cooperate fully and truthfully with Mueller. From there Manafort's path was consistently downhill.

In Washington D.C. Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, proved tough; she had him locked up before trial when Mueller accused him of witness tampering.

Turned: Rick Gates

That meant he attended his first trial, in Virginia, from jail, walking in every day with federal marshals and walking out in handcuffs.

In Virginia, Ronald Reagan-appointee T.S. Ellis III presided over the first trial in August 2018. Manafort and his supporters might have been cheered by his apparent toughness on the Mueller prosecutors, including berating them in front of the jury, and repeated demands for them to hurry up.

But when the jury returned its guilty verdicts on eight of the 18 counts, other legal observers said Ellis was making sure the case could not be appealed. Ellis declared a mistrial on the remaining 10 counts, which meant that Mueller could keep them in reserve for a second trial.

And if there were any lingering thoughts that the judge had sympathy for the felon, Ellis told Manafort that he would be wearing prison, not regular, clothing for subsequent hearings.

The next month his second trial was due to begin but Manafort then decided, finally, to seek a deal with Mueller, and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and witness tampering.

He also admitted to most of the 10 charges which the jury could not reach a verdict on the previous month, and - crucially - agreed to cooperate fully and truthfully with Mueller.

But he could not even manage that; by November, Mueller filed a court document accusing him of lying in breach of the plea deal.

The next month they revealed Manafort's attorney had briefed the White House on his dealings with Mueller.

Then in January came a moment which showed Manafort still had the power to shock: Mueller revealed in a court filing that he had passed Trump campaign polling data to Konstantin Kilimnik, his one-time aide who has been named as a suspected Russian intelligence asset.

In a February hearing Mueller's prosecutors went further, suggesting Manafort might have lied about passing on the polling data to boost his chances of a presidential pardon.

Judge Berman Jackson ruled he had lied and set his sentencing for March; his sentencing in Virginia will come after that.

If he were to get a pardon, the peril is hardly over; New York state's attorney general is investigating his tax fraud to see if he could be prosecuted for evading state taxes. Presidential pardons do not apply in state courts.

Left in tatters is a reputation, a fortune, and a family.

His elder daughter, Jessica Manafort filed to change her name to Jessica Bond in August 2018, after his conviction, telling the Los Angeles Times: 'I am a passionate liberal and a registered Democrat and this has been difficult for me.'

Despite the clearly unhappy family, Manafort's wife Kathleen stood by him in the face of his infidelity.

She loyally attended each day of his tax fraud trial, always sitting in the row directly behind his defense table.

Tarnished legacy: Paul Manafort Sr. was three-term mayor of New Britain, CT

Since June 2018, Manafort has been incarcerated in a county jail in Alexandria.

Largely held in solitary confinement for his own safety, his health has clearly suffered. He attended some hearings in a wheelchair and his legal team disclosed he had been diagnosed with gout.

Perhaps more stinging to his vanity, in a mug shot, the fashion-conscious Manafort sported a jailhouse jumpsuit and shadowy stubble. His brown hair, which he previously dyed, is now tinged with grey.

The former lobbyist, who once spent $18,000 on a python skin jacket, has also been forced to attend his trial without socks  because he reportedly balked at the white ones he is required to wear as an inmate.

He has depression and anxiety and his lawyers complained he had little contact with his family. In letters submitted ahead of his sentence family members pleaded for leniency.

But there were no letters from the rich, powerful Republicans who Manafort had counted as his friends.

Manafort's conviction even impacted the legacy of his father, the popular three-term mayor in New Britain, Connecticut, from 1965 to 1971.

In August 2018 the city changed a street named after the former mayor from 'Paul Manafort Drive' to 'Paul Manafort Sr. Drive.'
There were two overall runners up and winners from five categories: Community, population and macroecology; behavioural ecology and physiology, conservation ecology and biodiversity, landscape ecology and ecosystems and the editor's Pick.

Guest judge, Professor Zhigang Jiang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: 'This photo does a fantastic job of showcasing the striking beauty of a rather enigmatic species little known to people, whose transparent wings still raise multiple questions regarding its evolution.

'Marianne Elias' entry not only shows the beauty often found in nature, but also highlights some of the research going on in the field of ecology in the biodiversity-rich tropics, making it a worthy winner of this year's competition.'

First runner up was captured by Pilar Oliva Vidal from University of Lleida, Spain, who also submitted the winner of the conservation ecology and biodiversity research category, was an image called 'My Treasure!'

It shows the dominant behaviour of the grifon vulture. The PhD student told Biomed Central, who ran the competition, that it was shielding a carcass of a dead wild boar.

She said: 'The grifon vulture in the photo shows dominance behaviour, shielding a carcass of a dead wild boar, to prevent the approach of others.

'Vultures play a hugely important role in the ecosystems they inhabit, because they clean up carcasses very efficiently.

'They can detect and strip a carcass in a few minuteswhich inhibits the spread of pathogens and reduces the need for the treatment and incineration of domestic animal remains, as well as avoiding the resulting emissions of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide.'

Second runner up is an image by Matteo Santon from the University of Tuebingen, Germany and is called 'Hungry dugongs have no table manners'.

Dr Santon said: 'This image shows a resident dugong foraging in one of the last large sea grass patches near Marsa Alam, Red Sea.

'Dugongs are extremely vulnerable to the loss of seagrass habitats, and are considered to be at risk of extinction.

'The dugong frenetically forages holding its breath at 24 metres (78 feet) depth, while two pilot fish feed on its food scraps. Te relationship between pilot fish and dugong is considered to be mutualistic: while the dugong offers the fish protection and sources of food, the pilot fish clean parasites of its skin.'
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SpaceX's Dragon capsule has completed its ground-breaking mission to the International Space Station (ISS) with a picture-perfect landing in the Atlantic Ocean.

The blackened but otherwise perfectly intact capsule was lowered into the water by four red and white parachutes that deployed from within the nose of the spacecraft.

It descended from the heavens perfectly on schedule, reaching Earth's surface at exactly 13:45 GMT (8:45 ET).

NASA marked the moment with a tweet, reading: 'Successful splashdown of the #CrewDragon right on time at 8:45 a.m. ET.'

The mission marks the first time a private company has ever been to the ISS and the lack of drama during its hyper-sonic re-entry through Earth's atmosphere to a pre-determined point 280 miles (450 km) off the coast of Florida.

Quick response vessels scrambled to the capsule as a recovery boat, dubbed GO searcher, was tasked with stabilising the spacecraft and bringing it to solid land.

Successful splashdown of the #CrewDragon right on time at 8:45 a.m. ET. pic.twitter.com/0qHhHzD4Js  NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) March 8, 2019

It undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) last night and entered the Earth's atmosphere at hyper-sonic speeds before four parachutes deployed to slow its descent (pictured)

SpaceX has successfully completed the first trip to the ISS by a private company. Its Dragon capsule nailed a traditional landing in the Atlantic Ocean, 280 miles (450 km) off the coast of Florida

The capsule was buoyant and landed exactly on time at 13:45 GMT (8:45 GMT). Fast response boats were immediately sent out to the capsule that performed a perfect landing (pictured)

Re-entry and successful landing was the final hurdle of the six-day test flight which has so far gone without a hitch following a perfect launch and docking. All three major stages of the mission - launch, docking, undocking and landing - all went smoothly

It undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) last night and entered the Earth's atmosphere at hyper-sonic speeds before four parachutes deployed to slow its descent.

The Dragon crew capsule pulled away from the orbiting lab early Friday, a test dummy named Ripley its lone occupant, with NASA filming the historic moment.

Re-entry and successful landing was the final hurdle of the six-day test flight which went without a hitch following a perfect launch and docking.

Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, initially expressed concerns about the final stage of the mission and the irregularly shaped pod becoming unstable during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

These fears, it transpired, were unfounded as the textbook landing went exactly to plan.

He told reporters at the weekend launch of the Dragon capsule from Kennedy Space Center it was 'unlikely' but 'possible' the Dragon Capsule became unstable.

Musk elaborated on his concerns about the unusual shape of the Dragon capsule's heat shield.

'I think it's unlikely; we've run simulations a thousand times but this is a possibility,' he said.

'So, re-entry with the asymmetric backshell; the parachutes are new - will the parachutes deploy correctly and then will the system guide Dragon to the right location and splashdown safely? I'd say hypersonic re-entry is my biggest concern.'

After the successful landing, officials at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration will scrutinise the performance of the capsule's parachute deployment and its buoyancy at the moment of splash-down.

It initially identified these two points as design and functionality concerns in a report last month.

Musk, also co-founder of electric car maker Tesla, will be watching closely.

Canadian station astronaut David Saint-Jacques was the first to enter the Dragon when it arrived and the last to leave. He found the capsule 'very slick' and called it business class.

NASA astronauts have been stuck riding Russian rockets since space shuttles retired eight years ago.

NASA is counting on SpaceX and Boeing to start launching astronauts this year, with SpaceX shooting for summer.

The Dragon crew module autonomously detached from the ISS around 2:30am EST (7:30am GMT) after a five-day mission on the orbital outpost.

The blackened but otherwise perfectly intact capsule (pictured) was lowered into the water by four red and white parachutes that deployed from within the nose of the spacecraft

Quick response vessels scrambled to the capsule as a recovery boat, dubbed GO searcher, was tasked with stabilising the spacecraft and bringing it to solid land

It undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) last night and entered the Earth's atmosphere at hyper-sonic speeds before four parachutes deployed to slow its descent

SpaceX's swanky new crew capsule has undocked from the International Space Station and is embarked on an old-fashioned splashdown. This image shows the capsule in the process of undocking

The Dragon crew capsule pulled away from the orbiting lab early Friday, a test dummy named Ripley its lone occupant, with NASA filming the historic moment. This image shows the capsule moments after releasing from the station

SpaceX is aiming for a morning splashdown in the Atlantic off Florida's coast, the final hurdle of the six-day test flight. Saturday's launch and Sunday's docking were spot on. This image shows a view of the capsule floating free from the station

Canadian station astronaut David Saint-Jacques was the first to enter the Dragon when it arrived and the last to leave. He found the capsule 'very slick' and called it business class. This image shows the capsule drifting away from the ISS and back towards Earth

This is the moment the SpaceX Crew Dragon hatch closed between the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the orbital laboratory, by Expedition 58 crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The Crew Dragon docked autonomously to the orbiting laboratory, a historic first for a commercially built and operated US crew spacecraft

The first-of-its-kind mission, ahead of SpaceX's crewed test flight slated for June, brought 400 pounds of test equipment to the space station.

A SpaceX rocket had launched the 16-foot-tall (4.8 metre) capsule from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Saturday morning.

That including a dummy named Ripley, outfitted with sensors around its head, neck, and spine to monitor how a flight would feel for a human.

The space station's three-member crew greeted the capsule Sunday morning, with US astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques entering Crew Dragons cabin to carry out air quality tests and inspections.

The capsule's approach as seen on the Earth's horizon from the station represented 'the dawn of a new era in human spaceflight,' McClain tweeted on Sunday.

Ripley was then left alone in the Dragon capsule as the ISS crew closed the hatch ahead of its departure.

In this image taken from NASA Television, SpaceX's crFriday, March 8, 2019. The capsule undocked and is headed toward an old-fashioned splashdown. The Dragon capsule pulled away from the orbiting lab early Friday, a test dummy named Ripley its lone occupant

The first-of-its-kind mission, ahead of SpaceX's crewed test flight slated for June, brought 400 pounds of test equipment to the space station. This image shows the Crew Dragon capsule with its docking mechanism exposed as it approached the space station

NASA has awarded SpaceX and Boeing Co $6.8 billion (5.2 billion) in all to build competing rocket and capsule systems to launch astronauts into orbit from American soil, something not possible since the US Space Shuttle was retired from service in 2011.

The launch systems are aimed at ending US reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets which cost $80 million-per-seat (61 million) a ride to the $100 billion (76 billion) orbital research laboratory, which flies about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told Reuters the cost per seat on the Boeing or SpaceX systems would be lower than for the shuttle or Soyuz.

SpaceX is planning more tests in the immediate future to ensure it is ready for manned missions.

After the landing later today the capsule will be prepared for another launch where SpaceX will run a worst-case scenario test to see how it copes during an aborted launch at the moment it is under peak aerodynamic stress.

An abort order will be issued a minute after take-off and thrusters contained with the Dragon capsule itself will be activate to take it away from the failing rocket in order to ensure a safe return to Earth.

This is designed to conclusively prove that SpaceX's missions are finally ready for crewed flight and Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the two astronauts selected by NASA for the first Dragon mission, will be safe from all eventualities.

The mission included a dummy named Ripley, outfitted with sensors around its head, neck, and spine to monitor how a flight would feel for a human, seen here inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard after the opening of the hatch during the Demo-1 mission. A plush Earth (left) served as the zero-g indicator for the test
Google's lead security engineer has warned users to update Chrome immediately or risk having their system hijacked.

A security breach was uncovered by hackers on the desktop version of Chrome before the company had chance to spot the flaw.

The exploit relates to a part of Chrome called FileReader, which lets software built into websites access data stored on a user's computer.

Google has not released any further details on the bug, to avoid giving copycats information on how to find a workaround to their fix.

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Google has warned users to update Chrome immediately if they don't want their system hijacked (stock image). A security risk known as 'CVE-2019-5786' was revealed by hackers and left browsers exposed while the company created an updated version Chrome with bug fixes

The fact that Google didn't detect the bug themselves meant that Chrome browsers were 'actively under attack' before a fix could be released.

Delays like this give hackers a head start and leave users' systems vulnerable before an update is installed.

Experts say that the bug may have let hackers hijack computers remotely.

Google's lead security engineer Justin Schuh writing on Twitter, warned users: 'Seriously update your Chrome installs... like right this minute.'

Mr Schuh added that unlike previous bugs found in Chrome which have targeted third-party software linked to the browser, this bug targeted Chrome code directly.

He said it is worth alerting users more publicly as the fix requires them to take the extra step of manually restarting the browser after the update to nullify the exploit had been downloaded.

Users can update their version of Chrome by selecting the Help option from the browser's menu bar and then the About Google Chrome option.

A security breach was uncovered by hackers before Google realised, which means browsers were exposed before the firm managed to create an update with fixes (stock). The update take less than a minute to install and using an old version could allow a malware attack

The search giant has been cagey about the specifics of the way the exploit works

This is to prevent copycat hackers from using similar techniques to try and break into people's accounts.

'Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix', Google said.

'We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven't yet fixed. '

Google frequently releases new versions of its browsers to fix bugs that make the system vulnerable to attacks.

Most of the time, these are regularly made by Google before bugs are able to cause significant damage.

Chrome is the most commonly used web browser in the world, with more than two billion active users.
Facebook users face new privacy concerns as yet another security breach could be giving away the names of people they have been messaging.

Hackers trying to gain access to private accounts need only to get users to click a video link, which would be easily disguised as regular content.

The loophole then lets hackers check which contacts had recently engaged with the user over Facebook Messenger.

The flaw comes a day after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a 'privacy-focused future' for its users.

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Facebook users face new privacy concerns as yet another security breach could be giving away the names they have been messaging. Hackers trying to gain access to private accounts need only to get users to click a video link, which would be easily disguised as regular content

The latest privacy expose was made by Ron Masas from Imperva, an online privacy monitoring website.

Mr Masas called the latest vulnerability a 'side-channel attack, performed on an end users web browser', and has made Facebook aware of the vulnerability.

The attack exploits something called the 'iframe', which is used to to see whether a user has been or is actively engaging with chat boxes in the Facebook messenger site.

The chat box in the messenger site, as well as the contact list, are rendered in iframes.

Mr Masas said: 'When the current user has not been in contact with a specific user, the iframe count would reach three and then always drop suddenly for a few milliseconds.

'This lets an attacker reliably distinguish between the full and empty states. This could let him remotely check if the current user has chatted with a specific person or business, which would violate those users privacy.'

'By recording the frame count data over time, I found two new ways to leak cross-origin information.

'By looking at patterns instead of a static number, I was able to leak the state of a cross-origin window.'

Facebook has since removed all iFrames from the Messenger website.

'The bug is a browser issue related to how they handle content embedded in webpages, and could affect any site, not just Messenger.com,' a Facebook spokesperson told MailOnline.

'We already fixed the issue for Messenger.com last year to safeguard our users and made recommendations to browser makers to prevent this type of issue from happening.'

Mr Masas previously identified a similar browser issue, wherein iframe code on a site would open a URL to another site in a new window, sometimes without the user noticing.

This allowed the iframe to observe their activity on any website, including Messenger.

The flaw did not affect the Messenger app.

However, Mr Masas warned that tech giants should take similar attacks more seriously and many are not even aware of the risks associated with them.

'Browser-based side-channel attacks are still an overlooked subject, while big players like Facebook and Google are catching up, most of the industry is still unaware', he added.

Facebook has announced it is shifting toward a 'privacy-focused' future. CEO Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) has detailed plans to bring end-to-end encryption to Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram in a lengthy blog that assures users old pictures won't come back to 'haunt' them

Facebook has repeatedly announced its commitment to make the app more strictly private for users.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a lengthy blog that the firm is shifting toward a 'privacy-focused' future.

He detailed plans to bring end-to-end encryption to Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram and ensured users that content on Facebook will be cleared after a length of time in the future, by default.

He wrote in the blog: 'People want to know that what they share wont come back to hurt them later, and reducing the length of time their information is stored and accessible will help," he wrote.

"As we build up large collections of messages and photos over time, they can become a liability as well as an asset.

"Many people who have been on Facebook for a long time have photos from when they were younger that could be embarrassing. But people also really love keeping a record of their lives.

I believe the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won't stick around forever.

This is the future I hope we will help bring about.
The incident has created anger among the residents of the area, who warned police to nab the culprits within 48 hours.

The police said that all the five suspects have been booked under charges of criminal conspiracy and gang rape. (Representational image)

Guwahati: The Assam police on Thursday arrested five persons in connection with the gangrape of an specially-abled woman from Kachua village in central Assams Nagaon district.

The victim, a 22-year-old mentally challenged woman, was gangraped by a group of at least seven people on Sunday night. The incident has created anger among the residents of the area, who warned police to nab the culprits within 48 hours.

The police said that all the five suspects have been booked under charges of criminal conspiracy and gang rape. Two of them were nabbed on Wednesday and sent to judicial custody while three others have been taken on police remand.

The arrested trio is likely to be produced before a court on Friday. All of them are from the same village, police said, adding that they are still looking for two more accused.

Admitting that the prime accused of the incident is a street hawker, police said that he was still at large.

Preliminary investigation has revealed that the prime accused had lured the victim and took her to an isolated location about 12 km from her residence. The victim has been shifted to a hospital.
Disney's upcoming streaming service is set to include the media giant's entire collection of films.

CEO Bob Iger revealed that the service, called Disney+, will eventually include 'the entire Disney motion picture library,' according to Polygon.

The move also means the iconic 'Disney Vault' will come to an end as a result of the rise of the digital age.

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Disney's upcoming streaming service, called Disney+, will include the firm's 'entire motion picture library.' This means the iconic Disney Vault (pictured) will also come to an end

The Disney Vault was a marketing trick by the firm wherein it would put some VHS and DVD releases of its animated features on moratorium for a certain amount of time.

Purchases of popular titles would only be available for a certain period of time, after which they'd go back in the 'vault.'

Consumers would then have to wait several years before being able to purchase as many as 34 different Disney titles, which range from The Lion King, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to Fantasia and Aladdin.

These films could then be purchased again at the time of their re-release.

With the advent of streaming services, however, this marketing practice has largely become irrelevant.

Iger said that once Disney+ is available, the Vault will cease to exist, however.

The Disney Vault was a marketing trick by the firm wherein it would put some VHS and DVD releases of its animated features on moratorium for a certain amount of time. Many popular titles were included in the Vault, like The Lion King (pictured), Aladdin and Fantasia

Consumers would sometimes have to wait years before they could purchase films like Aladdin (pictured), depending on when Disney re-released them. The practice dates back to the 1980s

'The service, which I mentioned earlier is going to launch later this year, is going to combine what we call library product, movies, and television, with a lot of original product as well, movies and television,' Iger said at an investor meeting, according to Polygon.

'And at some point fairly soon after launch it will house the entire Disney motion picture library, so the movies that you speak of that traditionally have been kept in a "vault" and brought out basically every few years will be on the service.

'And then, of course, we're producing a number of original movies and original television shows as well that will be Disney-branded,' he added.

Other titles that were once restricted to the Vault included Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Pinocchio, Cinderella and The Jungle Book.

The launch of Disney+ also means that the company will remove all its titles from rival streaming platforms like Netflix, which currently hosts Pixar films.

CEO Bob Iger said Disney+ will 'combine both the old and the new,' including live-action series from Star Wars (pictured), Marvel, High School Musical and Monsters, Inc., among others

It'll make Disney+ more competitive against Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, too, as popular titles like Aladdin and Cinderella, were previously unavailable on any streaming platform.

Disney+, which is slated to launch in 2019, will also feature live-action series from Star Wars, Marvel, High School Musical and Monsters, Inc.

'It's going to combine both the old and the new,' Iger told investors, according to Polygon.

'All of the films that we're releasing this year...will also be on the service.'

It's unclear when Disney+ will launch this year, but Disney is widely expected to share more details at its investor day in April.
The US Air Force has taken the wraps off its new stealth fighter drone.

It was developed in just over 2.5 years, from contract award to first flight  a milestone that took place March 5 at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona.

The Air Force released footage from the unmanned XQ-58A Valkyries inaugural flight this week, and says the demonstrator craft behaved as expected.

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The XQ-58 Valkyrie is a long-range, high subsonic unmanned air vehicle (UAV) developed by the Air Force Research Lab in partnership with Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems. During its inaugural flight, it was in the air for 76 minutes

WHAT IS A 'LOYAL WINGMAN' DRONE? The loyal wingman concept describes aircraft designed to provide unmanned aerial support to other, piloted planes such as the F-35A. They can carry payload including weapons or surveillance tools, and are used for lower cost strike, surveillance, and electronic support in the skies. The Air Force ultimately hopes these can work together with pilots and swarms of other unmanned craft. Currently, the Air Force is developing the long-range XQ-58 Valkyrie in its latest 'loyal wingman' endeavor. Advertisement

While the Air Force is often guarded about the progress of its emerging craft, flight enthusiasts were treated to a brief look at the new Valkyrie as it took its maiden voyage in the Arizona skies thanks to a 15-second clip shared on YouTube this week.

The XQ-58 Valkyrie is a long-range, high subsonic unmanned air vehicle (UAV) developed by the Air Force Research Lab in partnership with Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems.

During its inaugural flight, it was in the air for 76 minutes.

The combat drone will be put through a total of five planned test flights in its two phases of development.

This will help to evaluate and perfect system functionality, aerodynamic performance, and launch and recovery systems, the Air Force says.

XQ-58 was developed under the Air Force Research Labs Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology (LCAAT) portfolio, which is working to create military craft at cheaper prices.

The objectives of the LCAAT initiative include designing and building UAS faster by developing better design tools, and maturing and leveraging commercial manufacturing processes to reduce build time and cost, the Air Force said in a statement this month.

The new stealth craft came to fruition in less than three years.

XQ-58A is the first example of a class of UAV that is defined by low procurement and operating costs while providing game changing combat capability, Doug Szczublewski, AFRLs XQ-58A Program Manager.

Its hoped the craft will eventually be used for lower cost surveillance, strike, and electronic warfare support, according to The Drive.

It would operate as a so-called loyal-wingman, providing support to crewed aircraft.

XQ-58A has a range of more than 2,000 miles and can take off using rocket boosters, The Drive notes.
As Facebook struggles with the backlash from issues ranging from privacy to disinformation, much of the vitriol has been aimed at the social media giant's headman - CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Security threats against Zuckerberg seem to be a major concern for Facebook, as the firm has set aside a whopping $10 million each year for the Facebook boss' executive-protection team, Business Insider reported, citing sources familiar with the situation.

The $10 million budget not only bankrolls a 70-plus person security team, but is also reportedly used for a 'panic chute' and a bulletproof conference room, among other things.

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Security threats against Mark Zuckerberg are a major concern for Facebook, as the firm has set aside a whopping $10 million each year for the Facebook boss' executive-protection team

The security team is led by former US Secret Service agent Jill Leavens Jones and also provides coverage for Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.

Sandberg and Zuckerberg are the only Facebook executives that receive 24/7 security protection.

Facebook has ramped up its security personnel for the two executives, especially as both receive numerous death threats per week.

While it remains an unconfirmed rumor, many Facebook employees claim Zuckerberg has access to a 'panic chute' located in the floor of a bulletproof conference room located next to his office desk.

The chute reportedly leads to the parking garage underneath Facebook's Menlo Park, California headquarters and is designed to get the CEO out of dodge quickly in case of an emergency, according to Business Insider.

Facebook declined to confirm to Business Insider whether or not the panic chute exists.

The panic chute may not be the only protection built into the office itself.

Facebook reportedly prevents anyone from parking in the garage space below Mark Zuckerberg's office for fear of car bombs. Pictured is the firm's Menlo Park, California campus

No one is allowed to park their car in the garage space below Zuckerberg's desk for fear of car bombs and other safety risks, Business Insider said.

And whether he's inside the offices or not, Zuckerberg is tailed by an intimidating group of security guards.

Zuckerberg has armed security outside his gated homes in California's Bay Area, all of his doctors are screened beforehand and he's driven everywhere, according to Business Insider.

Guards help protect Zuckerberg and Sandberg from stalkers, of which they reportedly have many.

The pair also have 'amusing' security names, Business Insider said. The website chose not to publish the names for privacy reasons.

Stalkers are said to be referred to internally as BOLOs, or Be On the Look Outs, who are barred from entering Facebook's headquarters.

Security guards also serve as a buffer between Zuckerberg and any angry employees.

Guards sit at the front of company-wide meetings and there are often plainclothes guards situated in the crowd, Business Insider reported.

They also guard him near his desk, which is designed in the same open plan as the other desks in the office.

'If you've ever been close to his office, you'll see there are big burly people sitting there staring at screens,' a Quora post reads.

'They pretend to be software engineers but everyone knows they are security guards.

'Once I was there at 7 a.m., and tried to take a picture of his office (he was not inside) to send to my family, but immediately, 3 of the men came seemingly out of nowhere and asked me to delete the picture,' the post continues.

Facebook's board approved the $10 million security budget in July, Business Insider noted.

It comes as Zuckerberg and Sandberg have faced repeated calls from privacy advocates and experts to step down from their roles in the wake of various scandals in recent years.
Considered one of the world's last great wildernesses, the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is home to a wealth of wildlife and breathtaking landscapes as these stunning images show.

Award-winning photographer Renato Granieri spends seasons sailing around the ice-cold area on an expedition boat for adventure travel company G Adventures.

The 49-year-old, who is originally from the warmer reaches of Sardinia, told MailOnline Travel that he first visited Svalbard in 2012 and instantly fell in love with the place.

'I've visited almost 70 countries but it's the most inspiring spot I've ever visited,' he explained. 'There's nothing like the excitement of spotting a polar bear - and the peaceful surroundings of Svalbard let you reflect on all your thoughts.'

In February Granieri was crowned National Geographic Traveller photographer of the year thanks to an image he took of two beak-locked King penguins at the other end of the globe, towards the South Pole.

The Italian, who is based in London in between travels, says birds are one of his favourite subjects because they 'never stay still and there's great opportunity for action shots'. Scroll down to catch a glimpse of some of Granieri's mesmerising pictures.
Burning Man is hailed as being one of the most extraordinary human gatherings in the world, with a wacky mix of art, dance and theatre attracting attendees from far and wide.

And showcasing the annual extravaganza in all its glory, is a new book titled Dust to Dawn by British photographer Philip Volkers.

The tome features a breathtaking collection of images which Volkers took over the course of a decade as the event's official cameraman.

With the desolate plains of the Black Rock City desert in Nevada acting as the backdrop, different objects are captured in action.

Many shots show the giant art installations which wheel into Burning Man every year, with everything from an armour-plated rhinoceros to a ferocious-looking dragon on display.

Other images show festival-goers dancing and parading along in a dusty haze, dressed in post-apocalyptic-styled outfits. Scroll down to catch a glimpse of some of Volkers' eye-opening work before Burning Man kicks off for another year on August 26...
Gemma Collins has admitted she's only 'sort of' in love with her other half James 'Arg' Argent, 31.

The TOWIE star, 38, revealed during an interview on this week's The Jonathan Ross Show, which airs on Saturday night, that she is 'sick of blokes' and has 'had enough' of them.

When asked if she was currently in love, Gemma said: 'Sort of and not sort of Im going to get some lessons from Harry and Sandra [Redknapp]. [They] should set up a training school for young love.'

Conflicted: Gemma Collins, 38, has admitted she's only 'sort of' in love with her other half James 'Arg' Argent, 31 (pictured in January 2019)

Jonathan asked the reality star what was the longest period time she had been in love for, to which she replied: 'I dont know, about a year.'

Referencing her recent split and reconciliation with Arg, Gemma admitted her current relationship status is 'complicated'.

She said: 'Im sick of blokes. Im sick of them. Ive just had enough to be honest. My mum and dad have been married 45 years.

'I do love the person I am with very much but sometimes our work life gets in the way.

Honest: The TOWIE star revealed during an interview on this week's The Jonathan Ross Show, which airs on Saturday night that she is 'sick of blokes' and has 'had enough' of them

While Gemma admitted things have been 'hard' for the couple lately, she's feeling optimistic about their future.

'We just went on a romantic trip to Paris and then paps turned up, he didnt arrange it but we really needed some time out and it kind of killed the trip.

'Its just hard sometimes but you never know whats going to happen, things could be alright in the end.'

Relationship: While Gemma admitted things have been 'hard' for the couple lately, she's feeling optimistic about their future (pictured in February 2019)

Gemma's busy working schedule means she has phone calls and emails coming in at all hours.

The TV star told how she has a desire to 'go missing' and switch off from the world.

She said: 'Some days I really want to go missing, Im not going to lie. I have [gone off radar] before for two weeks.

'I loved it, I went to a juicing camp and it was really amazing. No phone and Im very in to my spirituality anyway and I always love that film Eat, Pray, Love where Julia Roberts character goes off, she doesnt speak to anyone, thats what Id love to do one day.'

Comeback: Gemma announced she is returning to Dancing On Ice for the series finale on Sunday

Gemma insisted earlier this week that she wouldn't return for the Dancing On Ice finale on Sunday after being fat-shamed by show judge Jason Gardiner.

But the former Celebrity Big Brother contestant has made a dramatic u-turn, revealing she will skate again as she won't 'back down to anybody' after Jason issued a public apology for comparing Gemma to a refrigerator.

Gemma explained that she did tell ITV bosses that she wouldn't be performing again after Jason's latest comments, only to change her mind.

'I did pull out and then I thought, to everyone that has supported me, for my own self esteem, I am not going to back down to anybody,' she said.

'I am going to walk back in on that show on Sunday night and I am going to skate like it's the last day of my life.'

The GC: Gemma insisted earlier this week that she wouldn't return for the final after being fat-shamed by show judge Jason Gardiner

Judge Jason publicly apologised to the reality star on Wednesday, the day after referring to her as a refrigerator in an interview on This Morning.

Appearing on Heart Breakfast with Jamie and Lucy on Wednesday, the Dancing On Ice judge back-tracked on his comments, insisting the term 'The GC' - which is Gemma's self-given nickname - reminds him of 'a white goods appliance', hence the fridge comparison.

'So youre in no way suggesting a correlation between a refrigerator and Gemmas size?' asked presenter Lucy Horobin. 'Because thats how its being taken.'

Candid chat: Speaking to Ross, Gemma explained that she did tell ITV bosses that she wouldn't be performing again after Jason's latest comments, only to change her mind

'Oh God, no!' protested Jason. 'It was really to do with the GC part of it, because she has this alter ego  you know, self-proclaimed GC and its really interesting. And every time I hear it, it makes me think of a white goods appliance.

'I was trying to make light of it really and just have some levity with it and because what I dont like to do is constantly make this anything that it isnt.

'If people are taking it that way, look Im really sorry  it was just a way of just diffusing any tension and making light of the situation and the GC part of her persona.'

Jamie Theakston then asked: 'Will you make up when you see her at the weekend [at the Dancing On Ice final] if shes there?'

Bully: Judge Jason publicly apologised to the reality star on Wednesday, the day after referring to her as a refrigerator in an interview on This Morning

Back-track: Appearing on Heart Breakfast with Jamie and Lucy on Wednesday, the Dancing On Ice judge went back on his comments, insisting the term 'The GC' - which is Gemma's self-given nickname - reminds him of 'a white goods appliance', hence the fridge comparison

Catty: This explanation comes after Jason took to social media to attempt to explain his remark, after Gemma accused him of 'fat-shaming' her

To which Jason replied: 'Sure. If she needs a hug, Ill give her a hug.'

This explanation comes after Jason took to social media to attempt to explain his typically-catty remark, after Gemma accused him of 'fat-shaming' her and vowed to drop out of Sunday's live final - at which she is set to take to the rink once more with her fellow eliminated contestants.

'I was not calling Gemma a refrigerator it was meant as a light hearted joke when Phillip said the "GC" which sounds like a white goods brand. What has happened to having a SoH?' he posted, on Twitter.

Jason had been mid-interview on This Morning when he made the original comment.

Get over it! Judge Jason made the remark, despite insisting he is 'over' their feud and that he 'doesn't hold a grudge', while on This Morning this week

Hitting back: 'This is NOT ACCEPTABLE on any level comparing any human to an electrical appliance is not acceptable #STANDUPTOBULLIES,' Gemma raged

Something to say: Gemma's professional skating partner, Matt Evers hit back at Jason shortly after the interview on Twitter

Despite insisting he was 'over' their feud and that he 'doesn't hold a grudge', he replied 'who?' when hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield mentioned that 'The GC' would make a return for one last skate at the weekend.

The judge then said of Gemma: 'Oh I thought that was a refrigerator.'

He added: 'I'm over it. I don't hold a grudge, I don't really know the woman. And in one final there are enough things to be worried about.'

Gemma briskly took to Instagram to post: 'Im really tired of being BULLIED by this man .... I wish you would stop ..... its very very upsetting and hurtful let it go Jason stop bullying me ENOUGH is ENOUGH.

Feud: Gemma and Matt were famously eliminated from the show in week six, but she and Jason were at loggerheads weeks before

The last straw: A source then went to The Sun and said - 'Gemma is devastated, there's only so much she can take and Jason has bullied her for months'

'I wont be bullied any more making me feel uncomfortable to come back to the final on Sunday ! I was looking forward to Sunday but wont be anywhere near someone whos BULLYING me.

'This is NOT ACCEPTABLE on any level comparing any human to an electrical appliance is not acceptable #STANDUPTOBULLIES.'

Gemma's professional skating partner, Matt Evers,, then showed his support by tweeting: 'There is no room for bullying in my world. None.'

A source then went to The Sun and said: 'Gemma is devastated, there's only so much she can take and Jason has bullied her for months.

Vicious: He added - 'I don't really know the woman. And in one final there are enough things to be worried about'

Hitting out: Gemma criticised acid-tongued judge Jason for fat-shaming her as she laboured to keep up with consistently better skaters on Dancing On Ice

'She's laughed it off and tried to rise above it but enough is enough, but Dancing On Ice bosses should not be allowing it to carry on.

'Everyone was excited to see her return. She had cancelled everything to throw herself into rehearsals to give her fans one last show but Jason has destroyed all of that. He's a bully.'

Dancing On Ice is said to have lost three million viewers after Gemma, 38, was eliminated from the show in week six.

MailOnline has contacted a spokesperson for Dancing On Ice and Gemma Collins for comment.

A few weeks ago, Gemma also appeared on This Morning, and hit out at acid-tongued judge Jason for 'fat-shaming' her as she laboured to keep up with consistently better skaters on the hit show.

She admitted that the Australian dancer's constant barbs prompted their memorable one-air spat which occurred back in January.

Gemma had accused Jason of 'selling stories' about her following her performance as Marilyn Monroe on the ice, a charge he denies.

Drama: Back in January, Gemma had accused Jason of selling stories about her during an angry outburst

Difficult week: The TOWIE star explained she'd had a 'hell of a week'

She explained she'd had a 'hell of a week', adding: 'It's really knocked my confidence, I haven't been able to get much does as I've been so upset.'

Explaining why he gave her only a three for her Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend routine, Jason said: 'There wasnt any elegance.

'Marilyn Monroe was a woman in control of her femininity. You were all over the place still and there was not enough skating content.

'And as Ashley said, there's not enough skating. This is your second skate now. You need to up the ante. We're not going to see big lifts from you. We're not going to get any impressive moves.'

Looking back: Gemma admitted the Australian dancer's constant barbs prompted their memorable one-air spat

However, before he could continue, Gemma was quick to jump in and shout: 'Maybe if you didn't sell stories on me I wouldn't have been so much upset this week.'

Continuing her scathing onslaught, the GC proceeded to yell over the choreographer, adding: 'Boring! Next! Don't sell stories on me.'

Yet Jason fought back too, telling the television personality: 'This doesn't help your cause. It shows you're just a brat. Listen to what we're saying.'

Ever the professional, Phillip Schofield was quick to jump in and break up the argument, saying: 'Let's jump in here before it gets completely out of hand.'

Outspoken: Jason was Gemma's biggest critic during her time on the talent show

Adopting a conciliatory stance towards him, Gemma said of Jason sometime later: 'He is there to do a job after all. Its just when he body shamed me, the first form of defense is attack.

'He body shamed me so I went on the defensive. I would have loved to have been spun around for a count of eight, but I couldnt.

'When he said I wouldnt be able to be lifted - yeah, we know that Jason, no need to say it.'

The Jonathan Ross Show airs on Saturday, March 9 at 9:30pm on ITV.
Love Island's Wes Nelson and Vanessa Bauer posed up a storm in the final shoot before they gear themselves up for the Dancing On Ice final.

The duo will go head-to-head against Strictly pro James Jordan, 40, and Alexandra Schauman as well as Saara Aalto, 31, and her partner Hamish Gaman, 35.

Bringing all the dazzle to the final shoot, scantily-clad Vanessa, 22, flaunted her abs in a sequin embellished co-ords while the Love Island hunk, 20, wore a studded top.

Decked out in sparkles: Dancing On Ice's Wes Nelson and ab-flashing Vanessa Bauer posed for new snaps before final skating showdown with James Jordan and Alexandra Schauman

James and Alexandra looked wonderful when they matched in white ensembles to show they were stylishly in sync ahead of the final.

Former Strictly professional James displayed his slimmed-down frame in the fitted shirt embellished with golden sequins after he lost two stone training for the show.

The X Factor's Saara looked sensational as she slid her fantastic figure into a tasseled minidress while she cosied up to her dapper partner Hamish.

Raring to go: James and Alexandra looked wonderful when they matched in white ensembles to show they were stylishly in sync ahead of the final

The new photographs come after it was revealed Gemma Collins made a dramatic u-turn as she confirmed she would return to skate in the finale.

GC showed she had risen above her row with Jason Gardiner after he issued a public apology for comparing her to a refrigerator.

Speaking exclusively to The Jonathan Ross Show, Gemma explained that she did tell ITV bosses that she wouldn't be performing again after Jason's latest comments, only to change her mind.

Perfect pair: The X Factor's Saara looked sensational as she slid her fantastic figure into a tasseled minidress while she cosied up to her dapper partner Hamish

'I did pull out and then I thought, to everyone that has supported me, for my own self esteem, I am not going to back down to anybody,' she said.

'I am going to walk back in on that show on Sunday night and I am going to skate like it's the last day of my life.'

Judge Jason publicly apologised to the reality star on Wednesday, the day after referring to her as a refrigerator in an interview on This Morning.

Having fun: The gang threw their arms out in the air as they looked ecstatic to be the final three pairs to make it through to the final

Appearing on Heart Breakfast with Jamie and Lucy on Wednesday, the Dancing On Ice judge back-tracked on his comments.

The judge insisted the term 'The GC'  which is Gemma's self-given nickname  reminds him of 'a white goods appliance', hence the fridge comparison.

'So youre in no way suggesting a correlation between a refrigerator and Gemmas size?' asked presenter Lucy Horobin. 'Because thats how its being taken.'

Three's a party! The celebs contestants showed they had grown close over the last few weeks while skating for their lives on Dancing On Ice

Close knit group: Wes, James and Hamish placed a tender hand on the shoulders of their dazzling female dance partners

'Oh God, no!' protested Jason. 'It was really to do with the GC part of it, because she has this alter ego  you know, self-proclaimed GC and its really interesting. And every time I hear it, it makes me think of a white goods appliance.

'I was trying to make light of it really and just have some levity with it and because what I dont like to do is constantly make this anything that it isnt.

'If people are taking it that way, look Im really sorry  it was just a way of just diffusing any tension and making light of the situation and the GC part of her persona.'
His sensitive and caring personality has led to false rumours about his sexuality.

And Married At First Sight's Billy Vincent hit back at homophobic trolls on Friday, after several viewers made baseless claims he is gay.

The 28-year-old barista told The Daily Telegraph he is 'completely comfortable' with himself, adding that his haters are just insecure.

'People who say that I'm gay are just threatened by me': Married At First Sight's Billy Vincent (right) has slammed rumours about his sexuality. Pictured with his 'wife' Susie Bradley

Addressing the rumours: The 28-year-old barista told The Daily Telegraph he is 'completely comfortable with [his] masculinity', adding that his haters are just insecure

'I'm completely comfortable with my masculinity and these people that say that I'm gay, it's simply because they're threatened of me,' said Billy.

'Why would I even need to set the record straight? My sexuality is my sexuality.'

It comes after Billy's on-screen 'wife' Susie Bradley was caught kissing her new boyfriend, disgraced NRL star Todd Carney, last month.

Guess the 'marriage' doesn't work out! It comes after Billy's on-screen 'wife' Susie Bradley (left) was caught kissing her new boyfriend, disgraced NRL star Todd Carney (right), last month

The couple were caught kissing outside a Brisbane hotel the morning after Valentine's Day.

The photos were splashed across the tabloids, all but confirming that Susie and Billy's relationship on MAFS doesn't work out.

Meanwhile, it seems Susie and Todd are getting serious as they were pictured on holiday in Byron Bay over the weekend.

Trolling: Billy's sensitive and caring personality has led to false rumours about his sexuality

Several onlookers saw them sitting down for lunch at The Beach Hotel on Sunday afternoon, with Billy nowhere to be seen.

Todd's NRL career was derailed in 2014 when a photo surfaced online of him urinating in his own mouth.

But his 'bubbling' habit doesn't seem to have put off Susie, who previously described the sportsman as a 'wonderful person'.

Married At First Sight continues Sunday 7pm on Channel Nine
She became an overnight celebrity when she arrived at the 2016 Brownlow Medal in a plunging Oglia Loro Couture gown.

But on Tuesday, Jessie Murphy (nee Habermann) couldn't have looked more different at the Melbourne Fashion Festival, stepping out on the red carpet in head-to-toe Balenciaga.

The two public appearances highlight just how dramatically Jessie's style has evolved in her two-and-a-half years in the spotlight as Marc Murphy's wife.

From THAT show-stopping Brownlow dress to sophisticated style: Jessie Habermann's fashion transformation revealed as she swaps busty dresses for classy, conservative ensembles. Pictured left: at the 2016 Brownlow Medal, and right: at VAMFF on Wednesday

Daily Mail Australia takes a look back at her fashion transformation, beginning with the dress that made her famous.

Jessie turned heads in September 2016 at the Brownlow Medal ceremony when she wore a daringly low-cut, custom-made skintight dress.

The design, by Oglia Loro Couture, highlighted her eye-popping cleavage and also featured painstakingly intricate beading throughout.

Here comes the WAG! At the 2015 Brownlow Medal, Jessie wore a bridal-inspired design including a feathered train, mesh bodice, lace applique and a halterneck

Risque: And in 2016, Jessie attended the Carlton Gala ball in a thigh skimming frock with semi sheer panelling across the bust, drawing attention to her cleavage

It was a noticeably more daring choice of outfit compared to her 2015 Brownlow dress the previous year, which featured a bridal-inspired design including a feathered train, mesh bodice, lace applique and a halterneck.

Also in 2016, Jessie attended the Carlton Gala ball in a thigh skimming frock with semi sheer panelling across the bust, drawing attention to her cleavage.

By 2017, however, her red carpet style was beginning to evolve.

Changing things up: By 2017, however, Jessie's red carpet style was beginning to evolve. While attending a YSL beauty event in April of that year, she channelled her inner rock chick in skintight black leggings and a feathered, off-the-shoulder jacket

While attending a YSL beauty event in April of that year, Jessie channelled her inner rock chick in skintight black leggings and a feathered, off-the-shoulder jacket.

And at the 2017 Melbourne Fashion Festival, she opted for a risque yet sophisticated look in the form of a mesh bodysuit and fluffy skirt.

While she hasn't always got it right, there's no doubt the mother-of-one has had plenty of fashion highlights in recent times.

Mesh and applique: And at the 2017 Melbourne Fashion Festival, she opted for a risque yet sophisticated look in the form of a mesh bodysuit and fluffy skirt

On Thursday, she stunned at this year's Melbourne Fashion Festival in a pink blazer dress cinched by the waist with a belt by Off-White.

She accessorised her ensemble with a shimmering Alexander McQueen purse.

While on a family holiday in Europe recently, Jessie was the picture of sophistication in a knitted jumper and mid-length green skirt during a stopover in London.

Jessie, who is married to Carlton captain Marc Murphy, is a mother to one-year-old son Max in addition to her career as a model and blogger.

Her latest look: On Thursday, the mother-of-one stunned at this year's Melbourne Fashion Festival in a pink blazer dress cinched by the waist with a belt by Off-White

English rose! While on a family holiday in Europe recently, Jessie was the picture of sophistication in a knitted jumper and mid-length green skirt during a stopover in London
She recently made a triumphant return from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of Comic Relief.

And Dani Dyer was lending her support to a wholly different cause on Thursday, as she arrived at the launch of In The Style's newest campaign for International Women's Day.

The Love Island star, 22, cut a stylish figure in a revealing black leather miniskirt as she arrived for the launch in London's Ballie Ballerson, also donning a black slogan t-shirt with the look.

Flawless: Dani Dyer was putting on a leggy display in a black leather skirt on Thursday as she arrived at the launch of In The Style's newest campaign for International Women's Day

Dani was putting on a leggy display as she arrived for the launch, sporting a chic black slogan t-shirt emblazoned with the words Smile Darlin'.

The daughter of EastEnders star Danny Dyer teamed the top with a Western-inspired leather skirt, which sported a light yellow threading and thick belt around the waist.

Dani finished her ensemble by adding a cheeky pop of colour in the form of a red quilted chainstrap bag, along with gold thin-strapped heels.

Keeping her long brunette tresses loosely curled, Dani finished her look by opting for a dramatic brown smoky eye and light pink lip, as she made her way into the campaign bash.

Lovely: Dani was putting on a leggy display as she arrived for the launch, sporting a chic black slogan t-shirt emblazoned with the words Smile Darlin', along with a Western-inspired skirt

Dressed to impress: Dani finished her ensemble by adding a cheeky pop of colour in the form of a red quilted chain strap bag, along with gold thin-strapped heels

Legs for days: Keeping her long brunette tresses loosely curled, Dani finished her look by opting for a dramatic brown smoky eye and light pink lip

Dani was out for a launch which saw of many of reality TV's finest in attendance, including Charlotte Crosby as she put on a loved-up display with beau Joshua Ritchie.

The ex-Geordie Shore star shared some cheeky kisses with her man as she at the bash, sporting a cropped slogan t-shirt with skintight black leggings.

Making sure that her flawless complexion was on full display, Charlotte kept her brunette tresses loosely curled as she teamed the ensemble with black lace-up boots.

Ab-tastic: Charlotte Crosby was also seen making her way inside the bash, opting for all-black

Dressed up: The ex-Geordie Shore star teamed an empowering slogan t-shirt with skintight black leggings, accessorising with black lace-up boots

Cosy: She was seen putting on a loved-up display with beau Joshua Ritchie, as she cuddled outside the party

Smooching: The pair shared a tender kiss or two as they arrived at the party, with Joshua cutting a casual figure

Charlotte and Josh seemed to be in much better spirits for the evening, after she was seen leaving an event without him the previous night.

The reality star looked upset as she was escorted to her waiting car, where she climbed in and fell into the arms of a male friend, reportedly heard wailing that she had been 'betrayed by everyone'.

While The Sun reported this, Charlotte then reiterated it with an emotional tweet, posting: 'The feeling of being betrayed by every1 you no is honestly one of the worst [sic].'

Good terms: The couple seemed to be in much better spirits, after she was seen leaving an event in tears the previous night

Raging: Charlotte couldn't keep her hands off Josh as they packed on the PDA at the party together

Playful: Regardless Charlotte couldn't stop smiling as she made her way into the star-studded event

Meanwhile in Rascals next door, several stars were celebrating the launch of Flormar, a fashion forward makeup brand to be sold in Primark.

Among them was Love Island alumni Georgia Steel, who flaunted her figure in a skintight white strapless jumpsuit, which boasted an amazing floral design along the body.

Georgia accessorised her look with grey suede pointed-toe heels as she arrived for the bash, and kept her brunette curled tresses in a simple side-swept look.

Out and about: Fellow Love Island alumni and self-confessed 'loyal' star Georgia Steel was seen in Rascals next door, celebrating the launch of makeup brand Flormar

Flawless: The Essex beauty sported heavy false eyelashes over a light pink smoky, as well as a lip covered in heavy gloss

Staggering: Georgia looked amazing in a skintight white jumpsuit covered with floral embroidery, which showed off her peachy derriere

Georgia carried her essentials in a black crocodile-skin handbag as she made her way into the party, though at one point was struggling to contain her assets inside the revealing jumpsuit.

The star has been taking centre stage in the current series of Celebs Go Dating, as she continues her quest to find love after splitting from Sam Bird in November.

Sadly Georgia has been less-than successful in her journey to find a man in the E4 show.

Well-dressed: Georgia accessorised her look with grey suede pointed-toe heels as she arrived for the bash

Sensational: Georgia made a dramatic entrance to the party in the tight one-piece

Girls night out: Georgia accessorised her look with a black crocodile skin handbag, as she headed to the bash in the heart of the capital

On a mission: Georgia has recently been starring on Celebs Go Dating, as she continued her mission to find love after splitting from Sam Bird in November

Ex-TOWIE stars Yazmin Oukhellou and James Lock were also the picture of happiness at the party, both clad in all-black as they arrived at the event.

Yazmin highlighted her physique in skintight black jeans and a thick furry jacket, and along with full lashes kept her raven tresses poker straight.

The beauty finished her look with matching olive green suede boots, as she joined her supportive beau at the party.

Close couple: Ex-TOWIE stars Yazmin Oukhellou and James Lock were also the picture of happiness at the party, both clad in all-black as they arrived at the event

Vixen: Yazmin highlighted her physique in skintight black jeans and a thick furry jacket, and along with full lashes kept her raven tresses poker straight

Cheeky kiss: The beauty finished her look with matching olive green suede boots, as she joined her supportive beau at the party

Busty: Reality star Jodie Weston left little to the imagination at the bash, donning a revealing blue lace bra top and sparkling black skirt

Playful: Jodie finished her look with a faux fur gilet and blue bag as she made her way into the event

Revealing: Model Victoria Clay also left little to the imagination as she donned a peach silk top

Urban girl: Claudia Sowaha made a bold statement in black and white, finishing her look with a matching flat cap as she stepped out in London
Nath said some officers and employees of state government used to flaunt their loyalty to BJP during Shivraj Singh Chouhan regime.

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Thursday declared to launch a crack down on the officers and employees of the state government who flaunted their allegiance to BJP.

Talking to reporters here, Mr Nath said some officers and employees of state government used to flaunt their loyalty to BJP during Shivraj Singh Chouhan regime. It was essential to transfer them.

Some officers and employees of state government were attending their offices keeping BJP badges in their pockets during the previous regime. Such government personnel have to be transferred, he said.

Such activities by the state government employees will no longer be tolerated, he said while justifying the recent mass transfer of officers and employees of the state government.

He also indicated to target the BJP- linked employees of Jan Abhiyan Parishad, a state government-owned organisation working as a coordinator between the state government and NGOs for promotion of its various schemes.

All the political appointees in the organisation will be sacked, he said.

He regretted that government funds were used for political activities by a political party through the NGOs, beneficiaries of the organisation, during the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan regime.

The parishad was established in 1993 with a different purpose, but was turned into a milking cow by a political party during the previous government in the state, he remarked.
Comedian Dave Hughes has revealed he's never been happy with looking in the mirror at his body.

On Sunday's episode of Hughesy, We Have a Problem, the TV host reveals the agony over his 'man boobs'.

During the show, he strips off and is examined by a cosmetic surgeon to assess whether he needs a breast reduction.

Scroll down for video

'I'm not happy looking in the mirror': Dave Hughes will strip down for a cosmetic surgeon to access whether he needs a male breast reduction for his 'man boobs' on Hughesy We Have a Problem on Sunday

'I'm not happy visibly looking in the mirror body-wise, never have been,' Dave candidly says on the Channel Ten program.

Doctor Daniel, who offers a free consultation to Dave, says it is a very serious problem for men, and describes the surgery as a 'life-changing procedure'.

Ready to have his body probed by the surgeon, Dave is seen unbuttoning his dress shirt so he can reveal his bare chest.

'You do have glandular tissue under your nipple, so it's not just fat': Doctor Daniel feels Dave's breasts and chest after the comedian goes shirtless for the consult

'We'd do the liposculpture and a small incision to take the gland out': The surgeon uses a permanent marker to map out the changes he could make if the funnyman wanted to go ahead with the surgery

The doctor proceeds to feel Dave's chest to determine if it is fat, or fat and glands, and if he would be an appropriate candidate for the surgery.

'You do have glandular tissue under your nipple, so it's not just fat. If we were doing you we'd do the liposculpture and a small incision to take the gland out,' he says.

The surgeon uses a permanent marker to map out the changes he could make if the funnyman wanted to go ahead with the surgery.

Will he go under the knife? Dave lets his four guests vote on whether he will go under the knife in the episode, and vows to stick by the panel's consensus

'I would do it on you,' the doctor says, when Dave asks if he would be an ideal client for the procedure.

Dave lets his four guests vote on whether he will go under the knife in the episode, and vows to stick by the panel's consensus.

Hughesy, We Have a Problem will return on Sunday at 9pm on Channel Ten
Max Martin  the uber producer and songwriter behind Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Celine Dion  has written a number that will bypass his superstar collaborators and go into a new musical showcasing his chart successes.

He has penned the song for & Juliet, a Shakespeare-inspired stage show that features two dozen or more of his hit songs.

He and director Luke Sheppard have identified a slot for the composition.

Producer Max Martin (pictured) has penned songs for a new stage musical called '& Juliet'. Martin's career to date has been dominated by working with artists such as Celine Dion and Katy Perry. Most recently he finished working on a new album with band The Weeknd

They wouldnt divulge the title, but told me they will experiment with it in rehearsals and, if it works, it will be heard publicly for the first time when & Juliet starts at the Opera House, Manchester, on September 10. It moves to the Shaftesbury Theatre, London, from November 2.

Martin travelled from New York, where hes been producing The Weeknds new album, to watch & Juliets cast perform a workshop for the productions creative team and producers.

The premise of the show has Juliet (Shakespeares star crossd lover), still alive after Romeos death.

Miriam-Teak Lee and Jordan Luke Gage at the '& Juliet the Musical' workshop rehearsals at The American Church in London in March 2019. The premise of the show has Juliet (Shakespeares star crossd lover), still alive after Romeos death

Miriam-Teak Lee is electrifying in the title role. Its a show about being allowed to make your own choices  Feeling youre in the driving seat of your own life, said Lee.

As Anne Hathaway and William Shakespeare, Cassidy Janson and Oliver Tompsett fantasise over a new ending for Romeo and Juliet. Are you a strong enough man to write a stronger woman? is how Hathaway challenges Will.

Writer David West Read came up with the plot after a meeting with Martin. I gave David a list of songs and said: Try to make sense of these, Martin recalled.

Miriam-Teak Lee belts out a musical number during rehearsals with the ensemble cast of '& Juliet the Musical'.

The stage musical will use highlight hits form Martin's extensive career. He cites Teenage Dream, a multi-million pound single seller for Katy Perry, as just one example audience have to look forward to

'A song you might have heard as one thing is now used in a completely different context, the usually low-profile Martin said, citing Teenage Dream  a multi-million seller for Katy Perry, now sung, wistfully, in & Juliet by a 50-plus-year-old man.

This show is a way to make the songs come alive again, Martin said. Some are 20 years old. These songs are like babies, and its like my babies grew up and got into college.

He was talking after listening to main cast members Lee, Janson, Tompsett, Arun Blair-Mangat, Jordan Luke Gage, Melanie La Barrie, Tim Mahendran, plus Peter Polycarpou and company give new life to Britney Spears chart-toppers Baby One More Time and Oops! . . . I Did It Again.

They also take on Backstreet Boys I Want It That Way; the Justin Timberlake smash Cant Stop The Feeling! and many others.

Martin said it had been on his mind, and his wifes, for ten years to use his songs (he kept stressing that he didnt write them alone and praised his many collaborators).

One goal was to have a strong story that held up the songs as if they were written specifically for it.

They had to seem organic, he told me, agreeing that he didnt want a story that went, then this happened, then we wrote this song.

& Juliet starts at the Opera House, Manchester, on September 10. It moves to the Shaftesbury Theatre, London, from November 2.

The cast includes Miriam-Teak Lee (left) and Tim Mahendran (right) as well as Arun Blair-Mangat, Jordan Luke Gage, Melanie La Barrie, Tim Mahendran. The show will also take on musical number Backstreet Boys I Want It That Way; the Justin Timberlake smash Cant Stop The Feeling! and many others

Im not a musical buff, he added, but what I do love about it is the instant reaction. I spend months in the studio working on these things, and it might come out a year later.

Its like  comparing it to sport  if you score a goal, you get the instant satisfaction. This is music in its purest form.

You get a reaction right away and theres something primal about that. Im realising what a powerful art form the musical is.

Another thing that impressed him about the ace cast was that they could all act, sing and dance.

And they show up on time. Im not used to that! Martin told me, observing that when recording an album, rockers dont always hold punctuality in high esteem.

You dont have to be a devotee of the Max Martin catalogue to enjoy & Juliet. I was au fait with just a handful of songs, so many were a delicious revelation.
A second Downton Abbey film is in the offing, six months before the first opens. The lives of the Crawley family upstairs and their staff downstairs fascinated ITV audiences for six years.

A follow-up movie written by Julian Fellowes was shot last year, with Hugh Bonneville as Lord Grantham, Elizabeth McGovern as his wife Cora, and their daughters Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) gathered again with Maggie Smith as Violet, the Dowager Countess.

Also returning are many of Downtons downstairs contingent played by Joanne Froggatt, Brendan Coyle, Sophie McShera, Rob James-Collier, Phyllis Logan, Jim Carter and Lesley Nicol; plus (upstairs again) Penelope Wilton as Isobel Crawley and a newcomer to the Downton cast, Imelda Staunton.

Maggie Smith (left) shares a laugh with Imelda Staunton (right) during filming for Downton Abbey in September 2018. The final series of the original television run finished in 2015 but could be brought back for two feature films

Bosses from Universal Pictures, Focus Features and Carnival Film & Television were preparing to view the latest cut of the film, shot in and around Highclere Castle in Hampshire and Ealing Studios.

A handful have already watched an unfinished version and I hear there was much delight at how it turned out.

People I spoke to in Los Angeles and London told me theyre exploring the possibility of a second picture.

It would clearly depend on how well the first film does when its released on September 13 and whether the cast can be reassembled.

84-year-old Dame Maggie Smith plays Lady Violet Crawley in the series, for which she has won three Primetime Emmy Awards

But Downton Abbey is a much- loved show with characters who have become part of popular culture around the world.

Lets hope movie-goers are on their best behaviour watching Downton on the big screen.

Better still, I think Universal should get Maggie Smith to record a voiceover telling them not to talk during it.

Though I wonder if Violet (who as a lady of leisure famously asked: What is a weekend?) knows what a cinema is, either?

Hattie gets all amorous in Orpheus

Award-winning Hattie Morahan will join Jemima Rooper, with Seth Numrich as the drifter who brings sexual danger to a Southern back-water in Tennessee Williamss drama Orpheus Descending.

Director Tamara Harvey has cast the trio in her production of the play she describes as about passion, lost hope and rekindled desire.

Morahan, who won trophies for her performance as Nora In A Dolls House at the Young Vic, has been cast as Lady Torrance, the proprietress of a store in fictional Two River County.

Hattie Morahan (left) will join Seth Numrich (right) and Jemima Rooper (right) in an adaptation of Tennessee Williamss drama Orpheus Descending. The trio have built successful careers onstage and will be performing at Theatr Clwyd and the Menier Chocolate Factory

Shes the lonely daughter of an immigrant Sicilian murdered years before by the Ku Klux Klan; shes also unhappily married to a loathsome tyrant.

Everything changes when Val Xavier, a handsome guitar-playing stranger in a snakeskin jacket, descends to rescue Lady Torrance.

Ladys this woman who feels that her life has gone  but life offers up a second chance, said Harvey, who has waited 19 years for the opportunity to direct Williamss 1957 drama.

She was training at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts when a director there gave her a copy of the play. Harvey said Orpheus Descending has stood the test of time and has contemporary relevance.

Theres something really powerful in it, in this moment, about how we treat outsiders and how small communities can turn on anyone whos in the least bit different; anyone from out of town, said Harvey, who worked with writer Laura Wade on the acclaimed play Home, Im Darling.

The latter started at Theatr Clwyd (where Harvey is the artistic chief) before transferring to the National Theatre then the Duke of Yorks, where its running until April 13. It has just received five Olivier Award nominations.

Harvey described Morahan and Rooper (the latter has been cast as Carol Cutrere, who has met Val Xavier before) as that rare combination . . . who can be brilliantly funny but also break our hearts.

Numrich, an American actor who has enjoyed theatrical success in New York and London, takes on a role that was played by Marlon Brando in a film version renamed The Fugitive Kind.

Orpheus runs at Theatr Clwyd from April 15 and at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London, from May 9.

Watch out for...

Geoffrey Streatfeild who will play Charles Condomine, Lisa Dillon (far right) as his second wife Ruth and Emma Naomi (right) as his mischievous  and deceased  first wife Elvira, whose spirit is summoned by Madame Arcati (Jennifer Saunders) in Richard Eyres take on Noel Cowards Blithe Spirit.

The comedy, which is quite dark at its core, begins performances at the Theatre Royal Bath from June 13. Ms Dillon has a knack for comedy and tragedy while Ms Naomi proved she has a passion for Pinter when she participated in the Pinter season at the Pinter Theatre.

Katherine Parkinson who is in advanced negotiations to play Sonya in Rupert Everetts production of Chekhovs Uncle Vanya in which he will play the eponymous uncle. As this column revealed a few weeks ago, the production  running at the Theatre Royal, Bath, from July 18  will also mark Everetts theatrical directing debut. Its a coup to get Ms Parkinson (right) who was nominated for her role in the play Home, Im Darling which is running at the Duke of Yorks Theatre. She also starred in the television show Humans. Everett is casting the other roles while he waits for Ms Parkinsons answer.

Filmmaker Cary Joji Fukunaga and a small crew are heading to Norway to shoot a frozen lake before it thaws. The footage will be incorporated into the pre-credit scenes for Bond 25, starring Daniel Craig.

Its interesting to note that Danny Boyle, who withdrew as director, had wanted to film an iced-over lake in Canada. Principal filming will take place in Jamaica and at studios in the UK. The latest version of the screenplay is still being written.
Love Island star Georgia Steel had her jaw-dropping figure on full display in a tight white floral jumpsuit on Thursday, as she attended the launch of the fashion-forward makeup brand Flormar.

The Essex girl, 20, looked amazing as she arrived at Rascals in London's Shoreditch for the event, accessorising the look with grey suede heels.

Georgia's outing comes as she continues to leave viewers in hysterics with her quest to find love on Celebs Go Dating, following her split from Sam Bird in November last year.

Flawless: Love Island star Georgia Steel had her jaw-dropping figure on full display in a tight white floral jumpsuit on Thursday, as she attended the launch of the makeup brand Flormar

Georgia ensure that all eyes were on her as she arrived for the launch, sporting the tight white jumpsuit covered with an amazing floral embroidery across the length of the body.

The reality TV mainstay accessorised her look with grey suede pointed-toe heels as she arrived for the bash, and kept her brunette curled tresses in a simple side-swept look.

Georgia carried her essentials in a black crocodile-skin handbag as she made her way into the party, though at one point was struggling to contain her assets inside the revealing jumpsuit.

Beautiful: The Essex girl, 20, looked amazing as she arrived at Rascals in London's Shoreditch for the event

Dressed up: Georgia accessorised her look with grey suede pointed-toe heels and carried her essentials with a black crocodile skin handbag

The star has been taking centre stage in the current series of Celebs Go Dating, as she continues her quest to find love after splitting from Sam Bird in November.

And earlier this year The Sun reported that Georgia insinuated she was pressured to stay with her Love Island ex Sam after leaving the villa.

She confessed: 'That is what happens when you come out. I definitely felt like that.

'It wasn't working, we were different people, but I really thought, "Oh my God, people are only going to like me if we're together" because that's what you're renowned for.'

A vision: Georgia ensured that her tanned complexion was on full display as she sported the revealing one-piece

Determined: The star has been taking centre stage in the current series of Celebs Go Dating, as she continues her quest to find love after splitting from Sam Bird in November

And when asked if she had been outright told she had to stay with Sam, Georgia said: 'I was guided.'

So far Georgia has had mixed results in her quest to find love on Celebs Go Dating, and in Thursday night's show was branded 'self-absorbed' and 'fraudulent' by the show's dating experts.

The agents told her she was criticised for her lack of listening skills, after her date complained and suggested it was one thing she needed to improve.

Paul Carrick Brunson said: 'We are consistently getting bad feedback and it rings alarm bells.'

While Anna Williamson added: 'This feedback that we're getting, what it tells us Georgia is that you're self absorbed. It's not all about you.'

Candid: Georgia recently claimed that she may have been 'guided' to maintain her relationship with Sam after they exited the Love Island villa

On a mission: The brunette beauty has been struggling to find a man on Celebs Go Dating so far

Even as Georgia admitted that she 'doesn't like getting told off', Paul continued the tirade as he said she was 'fraudulent' and 'puts up this facade of "I'm Georgia Steel".'

After adding that she creates 'a character' for herself, Georgia said: 'I'm not doing this on purpose, so maybe I need to actually listen to the agents.'

Promising to be more 'vulnerable', and to listen more, the Love Island star set off on a date with 22-year-old electrician Nath.

Feisty: The so-called 'loyal' star seemed to be in high spirits as she headed into the event
Project Runway is back.

So hostess Karlie Kloss and crew were in full fashionista mode while attending the premiere for the 17th season of the beloved reality competition at the swanky Vandal in NYC on Thursday.

The statuesque STEM advocate, 26, was chic as can be wearing a black sleeveless dress which was belted in the center and fell down to mid-calf.

Runway ready! Karlie Kloss was in the epitome of chic as she stepped out for the premiere of the new Project Runway at Vandal in NYC Thursday

Making it clear she meant business, Karlie wore a sharp blazer on top.

She kept things streamlined as pointy ebony heels to finished her ensemble.

For beauty, Karlie went with a tousled blonde, parted deep to the side for a bit of sass.

She honed her high cheekbones with a bit of blush and bronzer, while a crimson lip tied everything together.

Blazer-ing trails: Making it clear she meant business, Karlie wore a sharp blazer on top.

Stepping it up: She kept things streamlined as pointy ebony heels to finished her ensemble

Pretty pout: She honed her high cheekbones with a bit of blush and bronzer, while a crimson lip tied everything together

Sassafras: For beauty, Karlie went with a tousled blonde, parted deep to the side for a bit of sass

Green with envy: Karlie cozied up to her fellow judge Elaine Welteroth, who looked like a vision in lime green silk.

Karlie cozied up to her fellow judge Elaine Welteroth, who looked like a vision in lime green silk.

Earlier in the evening she and the new wife of Josh Kushner made an entrance together, during which former Teen Vogue editor Elaine rocked a fuzzy brown coat.

The IMG model also caught a moment with designer/castmate Brandon Maxwell, who was a vision of understated style in a tee shirt and jacket combo.

His thick square glasses provided a signature touch.

All eyes on them: Earlier in the evening the fashion/culture writer and new wife of Josh Kushner made an entrance together

Warm and fuzzy: Former Teen Vogue editor Elaine rocked a fuzzy brown coat earlier on in SoHo

Back and better than ever! This season of Project Runway marks the show's return to Bravo after an 11 season stint on Lifetime

Then the cast gathered for a group photo, which included designer Christian Siriano, fashion journalist/Elle Editor-in-Chief Nina Garcia and TV producer Frances Berwick of NBCUniversal.

This season of Project Runway marks the show's return to Bravo after an 11 season stint on Lifetime.

Season 17 also features fresh talent, after series regulars Zac Posen, Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum said 'Auf Wiedersehen' at the end of last season.

Project Runway premieres Thursday March 14 at 8pm on Bravo.

Clothes horse: The IMG model also caught a moment with designer/castmate Brandon Maxwell, who was a vision of understated style in a tee shirt and jacket combo

Sign of affection: Maxwell gave Karlie a kiss on the cheek

Fashionistas: Nina Garcia, Elaine Welteroth, Brandon Maxwell, Frances Berwick, Karlie Kloss, Christian Siriano teamed up for a group picture

Simply chic: Christian Siriano and Nina Garcia went for chic black silhouettes

Matchy-matchy: Fashion legend Dapper Dan looked great in a green floral look with matching shoes

Shining star: Model Coco Rocha dazzled in an iridescent suit

Date night: Gotham couple Morena Baccarin and Ben McKenzie teamed up for the event
She enjoyed a short-lived fling with Brooklyn Beckham last year following his split from Chloe Moretz.

And Lexi Wood looked as though she'd well and truly moved on from their romance on Monday, appearing to be in high spirits as she jetted into Melbourne for a fashion shoot.

The Playboy model, 20, ensured she turned heads in a skintight white crop top and leather joggers ahead of her shoot with Australian designers Bianca And Bridgett.

The one that got away? Brooklyn Beckham's Playboy model ex Lexi Wood stunned in a skintight crop top and leather joggers as she jetted into Melbourne for fashion shoot on Monday

The Canadian beauty completed her chic monochrome outfit with a pair of black suede boots and a leather luxury tote.

Styling her glossy dark tresses in a simple middle-parting, the model framed her features with a slick of taupe lipstick and dewy blusher.

Lexi was catapulted into the limelight when she was spotted kissing David and Victoria Beckham's son Brooklyn in Los Angeles in April 2018.

Furry friend: The Playboy model, 20, beamed as she clutched a koala toy in her arms after her long-haul flight

Looking good: The Canadian beauty completed her chic monochrome outfit with a pair of black suede boots and a leather luxury tote

Brooklyn was seen going to Doctor Woo's, a tattoo-artist-to-the-stars, shop to get some touch-ups on his fresh ink, before being photographed kissing the model.

She hails from Toronto, Canada, but began her career when she moved to Paris at the age of 16 and, as she told GQ, she has been 'travelling ever since'.

Wood is perhaps most famous for her Playboy and Vogue Japan shoots, but has also appeared in the likes of Cosmopolitan Russia and Galore.

Natural beauty: Styling her glossy dark tresses in a simple middle-parting, the model framed her features with a slick of taupe lipstick and dewy blusher

Famous ex: Lexi was catapulted into the limelight when she was spotted kissing David and Victoria Beckham's son Brooklyn in Los Angeles in April 2018

Her passionate clinch with Brooklyn came several months after the aspiring photographer's on-off romance with actress Chloe Moretz ended for good.

Chloe and Brooklyn first embarked on romance in 2014, but split the following year.

They then reconciled in April 2016 before the distance proved too much, with the actress based in LA and he in London, and they split once again five months later.

Cheeky: Brooklyn was seen going to Doctor Woo's, a tattoo-artist-to-the-stars, shop to get some touch-ups on his fresh ink, before being photographed kissing the model

In the past: Her passionate clinch with Brooklyn came several months after the aspiring photographer's on-off romance with actress Chloe Moretz ended for good

Brooklyn and Chloe revealed they were giving their romance a third try in September 2017 - following his relocation to New York to study photography at university.

They finally called things off for good in the Spring of 2018.

Brooklyn went public with new girlfriend, model Hana Cross, in January 2019 and they have been inseparable ever since.
Captain Marvel (12A)

Rating:

This is the first Marvel movie since the death last November of Stan Lee, the founding father of Marvel Comics, although the old boy gets a posthumous cameo and, at the very start, a richly deserved show of gratitude.

A caption simply says: Thank you Stan. Which quite possibly is short for: Thank you Stan, for making us more money than Fort Knox has room for, and for giving us the superheroes who have enabled us to churn out Marvel blockbusters with indecent regularity. The next one will be in cinemas in a matter of weeks.

Ah well. At least Captain Marvel has one unique distinction. There have been 20 films in the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe and none of them has had a female lead. Until now.

Brie Larson and Annette Bening attend the Captain Marvel screening at Henry R. Luce Auditorium at Brookfield Place in New York City. Larson plays the title character

The title character is played by Brie Larson, a prominent champion for gender-equality in Hollywood since winning an Academy Award for her performance in the 2015 abduction thriller Room.

Well, now shes given feminists everywhere a spectacular new pin-up, as a jet-heeled superhero with fists that can thump practically any man into the middle of next week.

The key word, however, is practically. It takes the best part of this movies two-hour or so running time (hallelujah, by the way, for a Marvel blockbuster that doesnt make you wish youd brought a pillow and a chamber-pot) for her superpowers to be fully unleashed.

Actress Lashana Lynch attends the Captain Marvel Canadian Premiere held at Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto, Canada

At the start of the film, answering to the name Vers, she is not yet powerful enough in martial arts sessions to overcome her condescending boss, Yon-Rogg (a miscast Jude Law). He wants her to control her emotions, which cant be easy, because she also has to stomach his platitudes. I want you to be the best version of yourself, he says, like a New-Agey schoolteacher.

The pair of them are Kree, inhabitants of the planet Hala, where he runs an elite military unit and she is his bright protege.

At this early stage, they and their fellow soldiers look as though Scotty has beamed them up into an old episode of Star Trek. The crew of the Starship Enterprise would certainly recognise a pointy-eared, green-faced race called the Skrulls, who are presented to Vers as the enemy. Her mission to outflank them soon has her hurtling through the galaxy to the planet she knows as C-53, and we know as Earth.

This is the first Marvel movie since the death last November of Stan Lee, the founding father of Marvel Comics. There have been 20 films in the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe and none of them has had a female lead

It is 1995. She crash-lands on top of a Blockbuster Video store, abiding by that law of the movies which decrees that crash-landings from outer space always have to happen in Californian shopping malls.

Like the Kree but with different motives, the Skrulls, led by a wisecracking cove called Talos (the excellent Ben Mendelsohn), are trying to find an entity known as the Supreme Intelligence. Come to think of it, in this age of supreme idiocy, arent we all?

But anyway, with a woman in a silver space suit having just rocketed through the Blockbuster roof, an operative with the covert U.S. government agency SHIELD is quickly on hand to find out whats going on.

This is Nick Fury, played by Samuel L. Jackson, for whom digital effects wreak the miracle that syringes of Botox never can, making him look 30 years younger than he normally does as SHIELDs eye-patched director, dishing out save-the-world-from-Armageddon jobs to the Avengers.

So this is his origin story as well as Captain Marvels; we even find out how he loses his eye.

In the meantime, he and Vers team up to deal with the Skrulls, which is tricky, because the slippery so-and-sos can metamorphose at any time into anyone or anything. And as if that werent enough to be getting on with, Vers learns how she acquired her name  it derives from Carol Danvers, the U.S. Air Force pilot she used to be before she absorbed other-worldly superpowers in an accident and was adopted by the Kree.

With this realisation comes a barrage of random memories of her previous life, quite a few of which feature Annette Bening, playing her old squadron leader.

These fragmented memories also lead her to a deeply emotional reunion with her former best friend and fellow pilot, Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch).

As BEFITS a woman called Brie, Larson brings a fair bit of cheesiness to these scenes. Indeed, the film generally makes a cheese-heavy meal of female friendship.

Theres no romantic sub-plot; the love story is all about the sisterhood.

Meanwhile, those clever folk in the bells-and-whistles department are not quite at the top of their game. Theres an overdose of special effects, which somehow leeches a climactic battle scene of suspense.

On the other hand, writer-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (whose last collaboration was 2015s wonderful but little-seen road movie Mississippi Grind) keep it all bombing along very watchably, handle a series of narrative twists cleverly and make the most of the Nineties setting with some smart visual gags about CD-roms and all the things we thought back then were the very essence of cutting-edge.

Captain Marvel isnt exactly marvellous. But old Stan, I think, would probably approve.
She just landed in LA, after saying 'au revoir' to Paris Fashion Week.

But Kaia Gerber looked surprised to see she was being picked up by her big brother Presley, who greeted the weary traveler with a scrumptious food from In-N-Out.

The sight of her brother behind the wheel might have thrown Kaia, 17, for a loop, after Presley, 19, was charged with a DUI by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office that same day.

She's home! Kaia Gerber looked surprised to see she was being picked up by her big brother Presley, who greeted the weary traveler with a scrumptious food from In-N-Out

Legal matters aside, Kaia couldn't have looked happier to reunite with her older brother after a long flight across the pond.

The catwalk queen dashed outside of the airport upon seeing her brother waiting for her on the curbside outside of his Tesla.

Overjoyed at the sight of her brother - and no doubt the fast food - Kaia flung her arms around her brother, pulling him in for a warm embrace.

Clasping a hand upon her mouth, Kaia seemed truly surprised to see she was being picked up by her brother.

Making a run for it: Gerber dashed outside of the airport once she saw her brother waiting for her

Reunited! The siblings shared a warm embrace as the model made her return

Aww: Gerber appeared emotional as she placed her hand upon her mouth

It didn't take long for Kaia to begin feasting on the scrumptious fast food.

Almost immediately, the catwalk queen began digging into her food once she jumped inside the car.

Kaia thanked her brother on Instagram by posting a photo of the creamy shake during their ride home.

Welcome home! Gerber was clearly excited to be back in California

Life is good: The siblings were clearly happy to be reunited after Kaia's lavish trip abroad

Stylish: The catwalk queen rocked a cool pair of retro style shades and a chic coat for her flight home

'The best welcome home ever,' she captioned the photo.

It was certainly a warm welcome for Kaia, who had been busy taking the runways by storm during Paris Fashion Week.

On Wednesday, the catwalk queen posted a series of snaps from her trip, which she captioned 'au revoir.'

Model behavior: It was certainly a warm welcome for Kaia, who had been busy taking the runways by storm during Paris Fashion Week

Yum! Gerber almost immediately started enjoying her scrumptious shake

But back in the States, Kaia's brother Presley faced legal trouble after he was charged with a DUI by the Los Angeles District Attorney on Thursday.

According to TMZ, the fashion model was hit with one count of DUI and another of driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 in early January in Beverly Hills. They are both misdemeanors.

The son of Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber could face up to six months in jail, be fined $1,000 and lose his driver's license for one year if convicted.

Behind the wheel: Meanwhile, Presley was charged with a DUI on Thursday

Let's hit the road: The teen relaxed inside the car as she awaited her brother

Judges tend to be more lenient on first time offenders, though.

Presley - who has worked for Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana - was pulled over at around 4am on a Sunday night just after New Year's.

He had been speeding in a Tesla, according to the site, which usually cost around $100,000 for the higher end versions.

Meanwhile: According to TMZ , the fashion model was hit with one count of DUI and another of driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 in early January in Beverly Hills. They are both misdemeanors

Taking a snap: The model appeared to be taking the photo of her shake and brother

The website reports that after noticing the smell of alcohol they had the teen do a field sobriety test, which he failed.

Presley was booked for DUI and released without charge.

Presley's lawyer, Scott Spindel, told DailyMail.com: 'Presley Gerber takes this very seriously and is taking the necessary steps to address the allegations.'

He added that the teen had no criminal record and had never been previously arrested, was released on his own recognizance and no bail was posted.

'The best welcome home ever': The 17-year-old showed off her shake as her brother stuck out his tongue




Alfre Woodard donned a midnight blue outfit Thursday for a special screening of her new Netflix film Juanita in New York City.

The 66-year-old actress wore a pantsuit that featured a ruffled coat.

Alfre completed her ensemble with black footwear and accessorized with golden hoop earrings.

Title character: Alfre Woodard attended a special screening of her new Netflix movie Juanita on Thursday in New York City

She had her short dark hair down in soft curls and accentuated her natural beauty with red lipstick.

Alfre plays the title character in the drama by director Clark 'Slappy' Jackson, 64.

She teamed up with her co-star Blair Underwood, 54, upon arrival for the screening.

The L.A. Law star looked sharp with a grey vest over white T-shirt along with grey coat and blue jeans.

Dark suit: The 66-year-old actress wore a midnight blue pantsuit that featured a ruffled coat

Juanita follows a woman with adult children who takes a Greyhound bus to Montana where she reinvents herself.

The movie was based on the 2009 novel Dancing On The Edge Of The roof by Sheila Williams.

Juanita will be released for streaming by Netflix on Friday.

The stars: Blair Underwood teamed up with his co-star Alfre on the carpet

Alfre also starred and co-produced the drama Clemency that premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival.

Clemency follows prison warden Bernardine Williams as she prepares to execute another inmate.

Alfre also has appeared in the Netflix series A Series Of Unfortunate Events and Luke Cage.

She also will provide the voice of Sarabi, the mother of Simba, in the upcoming remake of The Lion King scheduled for release on July 19.
He's moved into Sydney's top-secret and prestigious multi-million dollar Bachelor mansion as the seventh season begins filming.

But home for scientist Matthew Agnew is in Melbourne, Victoria.

The handsome astrophysicist, 31, owns a $870,000 two bedroom home with his mother in the trendy inner-city suburb of Richmond.

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The Bachelor's pad! Hunky scientist Matthew Agnew owns $870,000 two-bedroom home in Melbourne's trendy Richmond with his mother

PICTURED: Astrophysicist Matt Agnew was announced as the newest Australian Bachelor for the upcoming seventh season in 2019

Matt became a sole proprietor of the property in 2016, but has equal shares in the cosy home with his Western Australia-based mother Karen.

Situated on a street corner, the charming house features a painted white brick wall facade with a vintage red cafe-style awning above the door.

The residence is bright and welcoming indoors, with plenty of natural light flooding the open-plan lounge and dining room.

Cosy: The residence is bright and welcoming indoors, with plenty of natural light flooding the open-plan lounge and dining room

Chic: The small-but-stylish abode has one shared bathroom and two bedrooms without walk-in robes or ensuites

The small-but-stylish abode has one shared bathroom and two bedrooms without walk-in robes or ensuites.

A monochromatic colour palette has been used in both the bathroom and kitchen, with additional light-wood counter tops present in the kitchen.

There is an entertaining courtyard at the rear of the property that can also double as a carport

The property boasts both air-conditioning and a fireplace for Melbourne's varying climate.

Is Matt a keen cook? A monochromatic colour palette has been used in both the bathroom and kitchen, with additional light-wood counter tops present in the kitchen

Cocktail parties in the courtyard? There is an entertaining courtyard at the rear of the property that can also double as a carport

Meanwhile, Matt has admitted that going on The Bachelor is an 'unorthodox way' of meeting his future wife, but says he is nonetheless up for the challenge.

'I'm genuinely interested in meeting someone and this is definitely an exciting way to do that,' Matt told Daily Telegraph on Thursday.

'Being The Bachelor is certainly an unorthodox way to meet someone, but I would never shy away from exploring an opportunity just because it's a little out of left-field,' he said.

The Bachelor is due to return to Channel Ten in July
The alliance has also called for holding of peaceful protests after the Friday congregations in mosques and hospices.

Srinagar: Pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Muhammad Yasin Malik has been detained under the States stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) and shifted to a jail in the peripheries of winter capital Jammu.

The move triggered a strike by traders in his native locality Maisuma here. Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), an alliance of key separatist leaders including Malik, has called for a one-day strike in Kashmir on Friday against the authorities detaining him under the PSA.

The shutdown, a spokesman of the alliance said, would be also to resist the arrest of other political leaders and activists including those of Jamaat-e-Islami and the official ban on the rightwing organisation. The alliance has also called for holding of peaceful protests after the Friday congregations in mosques and hospices.

The police had on February 22 taken Malik in preventive custody here.

The police also detained the entire leadership of the Jamaat and its nearly 250 others members and workers, days before it was declared an unlawful association by the Home Ministry since.

The leaders and activists of some other religious and political outfits too have been detained by the police whereas the offices and other properties of the Jamaat across the state have been or are being sealed.

The sources said that after being formally detained under the PSA, Malik will be lodged in Jammus Kot Balwal jail. Also detained underthe PSA is Jamaats chief spokesman Zahid Ali.

Under the PSA, a person can be detained up to a period of two yearswithout seeking a formal trial. However, such detentions are subjectto periodical reviews by an official screening committee and can bechallenged in open courts as well. The law was introduced during theSheikh Abdullahs government in 1970s initially to discourage timbersmuggling but has often been used by the successive state governmentsagainst their political opponents drawing severe criticism from humanrights groups at home and abroad.

In 2012 the State legislature amended PSA by relaxing some of itsstrict provisions. In the case of first-time offenders or individualswho act against the security of the state for the very first time, thedetention period for such individuals was reduced from two years tosix months. However, the option of extending the term of detention totwo years was kept open, if there is no improvement in the conduct ofthe detainee.
She concerned her fellow Celebrity Big Brother contestants when she revealed she hadn't met her boyfriend of five years.

And Dina Lohan defended the man in her life, when she appeared on the Wendy Williams Show on Thursday.

The 56-year-old mother of Lindsay Lohan explained that the man she met online is 'amazing' and said that she plans to marry him one day.

Not met yet: Dina Lohan defended the man in her life, when she appeared on the Wendy Williams Show on Thursday

'When you know, you just know,' she said of the man - who has identified himself as Jesse Nadler, who is 53 and from Tiburon, California.

Her fellow CBB houseguests were concerned the star was being catfished after she admitted they hadn't met and hadn't even Facetimed, during their five year relationship.

Speaking to Williams of Nadler, Dina said: 'Hes my friend, were like really good friends. Hes an amazing guy and were good friends.'

Good luck! The 56-year-old mother of Lindsay Lohan explained that the man she met online is 'amazing' and said that she plans to marry him one day

Williams asked Lohan to tell the audience the story of how she met her beau through social media.

'Tell the story...,' invited Williams, which prompted an odd-response from Lohan.

'How you doing?' she answered, in the style of Joey Tribbiani.

'When you know, you just know,' she said of the man - who has identified himself as Jesse Nadler, who is 53 and from Tiburon, California

Speaking to Williams of Nadler, Dina said: 'Hes my friend, were like really good friends. Hes an amazing guy and were good friends'

She didn't: Williams asked Lohan to tell the audience the story of how she met her beau through social media

'I talk to his mom,' she said, as fans commented on line about her peculiar behaviour on the show

'Does he know you're Dina Lohan - the Lohan Lohan?' queried Williams

Williams then asked her what he does for a living and she shrugged and appeared to not know.

'Does he know you're Dina Lohan - the Lohan Lohan?' queried Williams.

'I don't know what he knows,' Dina replied.

However, Dina did explain that she has already been meeting the family.

'Dina acts drunk, commented one Twitter user, and another said, 'she's sure not sober'

In the flesh! Celebrity Big Brother contestant Dina Lohan's secret boyfriend of five years she's never met has been revealed to be Jesse Douglas DiGregorio Nadler in Tiburon, CA

'I talk to his mom,' she said, as fans commented on line about her peculiar behaviour on the show.

'Dina acts drunk, commented one Twitter user, and another said, 'she's sure not sober.'

Catfishing is the phenomenon of internet predators that fabricate online identities and entire social circles to trick people into emotional/romantic relationships (over a long period of time), according to Urban Dictionary.

Nev Schulman, host of MTVs Catfish, weighed in on the saga with her on-line lover, tracking down Nadler, who said he works in commercial real estate.

'UPDATE: found @dinalohans boyfriendbut his story is way bigger than I could have ever imagined,' Schulman tweeted last month.

Vest interests: Nadler said that hes coming forward because he doesnt want to be known as a 'catfish'

In a follow-up tweet, Schulman shared a photo of Nadler, writing: 'CONFIRMED: Jesse Nadler is Dina Lohans boyfriend. Much much more coming soon'

Nadler then confirmed his identity on his own social media account.

At the time, Nadler told Page Six that hes coming forward because he doesnt want to be known as a 'catfish' after Dinas housemates expressed their skepticisms about his existence.

'Im a good guy,' he said. 'Im the real deal. Just the thought of people thinking I could be a catfish when everyone knows me and knows how hard I work and how I respect women and mothers, it just kills me.'

'He's real. I swear, it's crazy. I'm going to marry him. It's really, really true,' Dina stressed to her skeptical CBB housemates last month.

'I've been talking to him for five years. Like, every day. A lot. I feel like I know him. You know when you talk to someone on the phone like you feel like you know them...It's real. Some guys don't just use iPhones.'
Luke Perry's second family on The CW show Riverdale were in a state of shock following the death of their beloved onscreen dad and friend.

Now some of his co-stars have broken their silence and taken to Instagram to share heartbreaking messages about the 52-year old actor who died on Monday following a massive stroke days earlier.

'Rest in Love bro,' KJ Apa captioned a picture of Perry flashing a big beaming smile while riding in a boat.

RIP: Luke Perry's castmates on Riverdale shared some heartbreaking tributes; 'Rest in Love bro,' KJ Apa captioned this picture of Perry on a boat

Perry and Apa played father and son duo Archie and Fred Andrews on Riverdale.

Camila Mendes, who plays Apa's love interest on show, also paid tribute to her mentor with a picture of herself standing next to Perry, who was wearing a small celebratory cone of his head.

'He took care of us all. An authentic man who took pleasure in offering us his guidance and wisdom. His presence was healing; he had the ability to make you feel comfortable and at ease within seconds of seeing him. I will never forget the collective shock and distress we experienced when the news broke on set. We lost a dear friend. My heart hurts for his family and anybody who had the pleasure of knowing him.

She concluded with: 'Rest in peace, Luke. Although youre no longer around to wrap me in the warmth of your hug, I can still remember what it felt like. Whenever I think of you, I will remember that feeling.'

Second family: Perry and Apa played father and son duo Archie and Fred Andrews on Riverdale

Camila Mendes paid tribute to her mentor; 'His presence was healing; he had the ability to make you feel comfortable and at ease within seconds of seeing him,' the actress wrote

On Wednesday, co-star Marisol Nichols got emotional when she shared her grief over the loss of her dear friend and colleague.

'Its the suddenness of him leaving. The unexpectedness and loss of this amazing person who made me and so many countless others smile, laugh, and be inspired,' she captioned in a montage of pics from the Riverdale set.

She went on to describe Perry as 'a true professional who epitomized generosity both on and off screen' and 'the heart of our show.'

Nichols added: 'Its still raw and incomprehensible that hes gone... Luke, I hope you know how much you meant to me, to us. You left us way too soon. We miss you terribly. Take care, my friend.'

Grief stricken: Marisol Nichols (second left) seemed to still be in shock: 'Its the suddenness of him leaving. The unexpectedness and loss of this amazing person who made me and so many countless others smile, laugh, and be inspired,' she wore

The day after Perry's death, Madelaine Petsch shared her feelings of loss and grief.

'You were such a light in our lives; the most genuine & kind soul I will ever know. From day one of this show you were the most amazing mentor to me. Thank you for teaching me not only about this industry, but also about kindness and being a family and how to foster and nurture those important relationships...'

The show recently announced that all episodes from now on will be dedicated to Perry.
He denied reports he was seeing model Montana Cox following his break-up from partner, Kate Fowler.

And on Friday, millionaire pub baron Justin Hemmes looked every inch the eligible bachelor when he cut a solo figure at the Silver Party in Sydney.

The Merivale CEO, 45, donned a form-fitting tuxedo for the ritzy event, which was held at the iconic Darling Point mansion Swifts.

Australia's most eligible Bachelor? Millionaire pub baron Justin Hemmes, 45, (pictured) went solo to the Silver Party in Sydney on Thursday

Big spender Justin looked handsome in the navy blue tux, which featured a button down blazer which had a black lapel.

The multi-millionaire businessman kept it traditional, pairing the suit with a crisp white shirt, a textured bow-tie and a patent leather dress shoes.

Justin kept a bit of his signature stubble on his face, while wearing his long blonde hair back in a neat ponytail.

Playboy: Justin certainly looked swanky in the tux as he posed in the grounds of iconic home Swifts, wearing his signature blonde hair back and a neat ponytail for the event

According to a report in the The Daily Telegraph, the Sydney multi-millionaire kick-started pledges with a $100,000 donation.

Funds raised at the event goes to The Sydney Children's Hospital, in particular the hospital's Kids Cancer Centre.

Usually looking like Sydney's ultimate playboy, Justin posed solo following reports he was seeing Next Top Model star, Montana Cox.

Hey, big spender! Justin (pictured) reported started the fund-raising off for Sydney's Children's Hospital with a $100,000 donation, according to The Daily Telegraph

Justin and Montana both denied they were seeing each other, with Montana confirming the pair were just friends in October.

Speaking to Sydney Morning Herald, Montana denied that the pair are in a relationship, adding they were only friends.

'We are just friends, we have always just been friends, I think people just like to talk about things,' Montana told the publication.

Just friends: It was reported that Justin was seeing model Montana Cox (pictured), who later denied the pair were anymore than friends: 'we have always just been friends,' she said

According to the newspaper, Montana joked about being 'a bit devo' that she was still single.

It comes after Justin announced he had split from partner Kate in July, who he shares two children with Alexa, 2, and Saachi, 1.

'Kate and I have the utmost love and respect for each other,' he told The Sydney Morning Herald at the time.

Moving on: 'Kate and I have the utmost love and respect for each other': The couple split at the beginning of last year. Kate here with sister, Victoria's Secret model Georgia Fowler (left)

'At the beginning of 2018, Kate and I decided our friendship and respect for family life would become the focus of our relationship,' he continued.

'We love our children dearly and for now continue to live together happily in our family home.

'Kate is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful woman. As for what the future holds I am not sure.'
They're a solid pair, boasting both a real-life relationship and a steamy on-screen connection.

And Lili Reinhart proud to be at beau Cole Sprouse's side during the premiere of his film Five Feet Apart at the Regency Bruin Theatre in LA on Thursday.

There was no hiding the spark between the Riverdale actors, who couldn't help but fawn over one another while on the red carpet together.

By his side: Cole Sprouse had the support of girlfriend Lili Reinhart during the premiere of his film Five Feet Apart in LA on

PDA-friendly: Lili planted a kiss on Cole's cheek during their time on the carpet

Lili was gorgeous in soft grey Brock Collection number with lace lattices, a mermaid skirt and cupped bodice.

Her feminine look also featured a low neckline for a bit of cleavage.

She continued her romantic appearance by styling her golden curls with full-bodied waves.

For makeup, Lili helped emphasize her eyes with a touch of peachy shadow and added a touch of glossy pink color to her lips.

Elegant: Lili looked like a vision in a soft grey number with lace lattices and a mermaid skirt

Two-of-a-kind: There was no hiding the connection between the Riverdale actors, who couldn't help but fawn over one another while on the red carpet together

Girly: Her feminine look also featured a low neckline for a bit of cleavage

Making waves! She continued her romantic appearance by styling her golden curls with full-bodied waves

Playful: The couple flirted and goofed around together

True beauty: For makeup, Lili helped emphasize her eyes with a touch of peachy shadow and added a touch of glossy pink color to her lips

Black and white and outta sight: Leading man Cole was handsome as can be in a patterned monochrome button-up and dark jacket with white piping and matching buttons as accents

Leading man Cole was handsome as can be in a patterned monochrome button-up and dark jacket with white piping and matching buttons as accents.

His hair, which was still dyed black for her role as Jughead Jones, was pushed back out of his face save for a lone curl that dangled down his forehead.

The former Disney Channel star held his love tight as they posed for the cameras.

It's been a tough week for the duo, who lost Riverdale co-star Luke Perry on Monday after the actor suffered a massive stroke last week.

Best tressed: His hair, which was still dyed black for her role as Jughead Jones, was pushed back out of his face save for a lone curl that dangled down his forehead

Keeping their chins up! It's been a tough week for the duo, who lost Riverdale co-star Luke Perry on Monday after the actor suffered a massive stroke last week

In loving memory: Sprouse paid tribute to the actor on Instagram earlier in the day, sharing a candid black and white of the pair with the caption: 'Love you bud'

Sprouse paid tribute to the actor on Instagram earlier in the day, sharing a candid black and white of the pair with the caption: 'Love you bud.'

Cole was also happy to have his brother Dylan there by his side during the event.

The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody twins were dapper foils for each other.

Dylan, who owns a meadery in Brooklyn, went for for classic appeal in a navy blue suit with a lapel-free design.

Seeing double! Cole was also happy to have his brother Dylan (left) there by his side during the event

In the navy! Dylan, who owns a meadery in Brooklyn, went for for classic appeal in a navy blue suit with a lapel-free design

On screen opposites: Cole also made sure to spend time with his Five Feet Apart castmate Haley Lu Richardson

Cole also made sure to spend time with his Five Feet Apart castmate Haley Lu Richardson.

All eyes were on the 24-year-old Arizona-born actress as she stepped out in a magenta suit-dress which was worn without a shirt for maximum allure.

She continued her leggy look with a pair of cream-colored Mary Jane heels, also accessorizing with hoop earrings that had little green baubles hanging off them.

Haley and Cole's film Five Feet Apart tells the story of a pair of young people who both suffer from cystic fibrosis and end up falling in love.

Tickled pink! All eyes were on the 24-year-old Arizona-born actress as she stepped out in a magenta suit-dress which was worn without a shirt for maximum allure

Plotline: Haley and Cole's film Five Feet Apart tells the story of a pair of young people who both suffer from cystic fibrosis and end up falling in love

According to Wikipedia: 'The film's title refers to the "six foot rule", which stipulates that cystic fibrosis patients should be kept at least six feet (2 m) apart to lower the risk of cross-infection.'

It's slated for a March 15 release.

There were plenty of other stars their to celebrate the project as well.

Gina Rodriguez was stylish in a Keith Haring-inspired leather jacket and sheer turtleneck top as she appeared with fiance Joe LoCicero.

Work of art! Gina Rodriguez was stylish in a Keith Haring-inspired leather jacket and sheer turtleneck top as she appeared with fiance Joe LoCicero

Boy's night: Jaden Smith bundled up in a red jacket while appeared with pal Moises Arias, who is in the film

They've got the blues: Director Justin Baldoni graced the red carpet with dazzling actress wife Emily, who plays the character Julie in the film

Jaden Smith bundled up in a red jacket while appeared with pal Moises Arias, who is in the film.

Actress Emily Baldoni shimmered in a green and blue suit while there with her handsome husband Justin, who directed the project.

Pop princess Carly Rae Jepsen donned a military chic jacket and shorts set with a matching hat.

Up-and-comer Lilia Buckingham was striking in a strapless leather mini-dress with an embellished belt

Red carpet style: Carly Rae Jepsen (left) donned a military chic look while Lilia Buckingham (right) went with a short leather number

Pretty in purple: Andrea Navedo was chic in a one-shouldered plum number

Behind the camera: Cole and Haley shared a photo with their director Justin Baldoni

Kiss off! Haley kissed fiance Brett Dier on the cheek at the event

Betrothed! It was Haley who popped the question to the Jane the Virgin star back in March 2018, not the other way around

It takes a village! Actors Cole Sprouse, Haley Lu Richardson, director Justin Baldoni, producer Cathy Schulman and actor Moises Arias were happy to present their finished product

Buddies: Haley and Moises looked like they'd gotten close of the course of filming

Music maker: Inside the screening Haley shared a photo with composer Brian Tyler, who scored the film
Walking a red carpet can be an undertaking at the best of times.

And Haley Lu Richardson endearingly made no effort to hide the strain at the Five Feet Apart premiere in Los Angeles this Thursday - her 24th birthday.

As various photographers called out to her to look in several different directions, the 24-year-old actress exclaimed with a laugh: 'What the s*** is going on?'

Red carpet blues: Haley Lu Richardson endearingly made no effort to hide the strain at the Five Feet Apart premiere at Los Angeles' Regency Bruin Theatre Thursday, her 24th birthday

The Phoenix native swept her blonde hair back into a high ponytail and buttoned herself into a bright pink blazer dress that evening.

Accentuating her features with makeup, the The Edge Of Seventeen actress lent herself a bit of extra stature with nude ankle-strap stilettos.

She could be spotted posing up a storm on Thursday's red carpet alongside Cole Sprouse, who is her co-star in Five Feet Apart.

Cole, who shot to fame as a child star with his twin brother Dylan on the Disney Channel show The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody, modeled a fitted black suit.

Candid camera: As various photographers called out to her to look in several different directions, the 24-year-old actress exclaimed with a laugh: 'What the s*** is going on?'

Looking fab: The Phoenix native swept her blonde hair back into a high ponytail and buttoned herself into a bright pink blazer dress that evening

Hoofing it: Accentuating her features with makeup, the The Edge Of Seventeen actress lent herself a bit of extra stature with nude ankle-strap stilettos

Side by side: She could be spotted posing up a storm on Thursday's red carpet alongside Cole Sprouse, who is her co-star in Five Feet Apart

Dynamic duo: Cole, who shot to fame as a child star with his twin brother Dylan on the Disney Channel show The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody, modeled a fitted black suit

He clashed his jacket and trousers with a monochrome print dress shirt, going without a tie and rounding off the look with gleaming black dress shoes.

Haley and Cole had a bit of fun on the red carpet, pulling extravagant faces and poses while mugging for the various shutterbugs.

Outside the premiere, Haley could be seen graciously signing autographs for a throng of fans who were gathering on the sidewalk.

Tres elegant: He clashed his jacket and trousers with a monochrome print dress shirt, going without a tie and rounding off the look with gleaming black dress shoes

Having a ball: Haley and Cole had a bit of fun on the red carpet, pulling extravagant faces and poses while mugging for the various shutterbugs

Fan service: Outside the premiere, Haley could be seen graciously signing autographs for a throng of people who were gathering on the sidewalk

The admirers were kept apart from the stars by a stretch of metal fencing, but managed to reach over it with the memorabilia they wanted Haley to sign.

Cole was joined at the premiere by his girlfriend Lili Reinhart, who recently posted a emotional poem to social media in honor of her late Riverdale co-star Luke Perry after his shock death at 52 this Monday following complications from a stroke.

Meanwhile, Haley brought along her Jane The Virgin actor fiance Brett Dier and sweetly planted a kiss on his cheek as the photographers snapped away.

Haley and Cole be spotted on the red carpet standing for photos with their hunky director Justin Baldoni, who opted for a true blue suit.

Making it work: The admirers were kept apart from the stars by a stretch of metal fencing, but managed to reach over it with the memorabilia they wanted Haley to sign

Mingling: Cole was joined at the premiere by his girlfriend Lili Reinhart, who recently posted a emotional poem to social media in honor of her late Riverdale co-star Luke Perry

Date night: Meanwhile, Haley brought along her Jane The Virgin actor fiance Brett Dier and sweetly planted a kiss on his cheek as the photographers snapped away

Heartthrob at the helm: Haley and Cole could also be spotted on the red carpet standing for photos with their hunky director Justin Baldoni, who opted for a true blue suit

Five Feet Apart stars Haley and Cole as teen cystic fibrosis patients who strike up a romance while being treated at the same hospital, as seen in the trailer.

Haley's character explains: 'People with cystic fibrosis aren't supposed to get within six feet because we could end up catching each other's bacteria.'

It is this regulation that inspired the title of the movie, which follows the two characters' attempt to have a relationship despite being kept at this distance.

Based on a young adult novel by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis, Five Feet Apart is slated to bow in theaters next Friday.

Who's who: Five Feet Apart stars Haley and Cole as teen cystic fibrosis patients who strike up a romance while being treated at the same hospital, as seen in the trailer

There it is: Haley's character explains: 'People with cystic fibrosis aren't supposed to get within six feet because we could end up catching each other's bacteria'
The Son star Jess Weixler announced Thursday that she welcomed her first child -daughter Beatrice Danger - with her husband, YouGov Signal founder Hamish Brocklebank.

'Welcome to the world!' the 37-year-old new mother wrote on Instagram, adding: 'I mean...'

The Sundance Special Jury Prize winner and the 32-year-old Englishman - who graduated from the University of Brisol - have been married for three years.

'Welcome to the world!' The Son star Jess Weixler announced Thursday that she welcomed her first child - daughter Beatrice Danger - with her husband, YouGov Signal founder Hamish Brocklebank

'My handsome devil!' The 37-year-old new mother and the 32-year-old Englishman have been married for three years (pictured January 27)

It's the first anyone has seen of Jess since her father shared a sunset snap of her embracing her baby bump while at 'full term' on February 19.

On January 12, Weixler was thrown a safari-themed baby shower by her large group of gal pals, including her BFF since 1996 - Jessica Chastain.

The 41-year-old Oscar nominee attended The Juilliard School in Manhattan with her beloved 'Wexy' and there's numerous pictures of the pair at bachelorette parties, Women's Marches, and wineries.

'Very soon I'll be meeting my grand daughter!' It's the first anyone has seen of the Sundance Special Jury Prize winner since her father shared a sunset snap of her embracing her baby bump while at 'full term' on February 19

'Epic cuteness!' On January 12, Jess was thrown a safari-themed baby shower by her large group of gal pals, including her BFF since 1996 - Jessica Chastain (M)

'You make me laugh like no one else': The 41-year-old Oscar nominee attended The Juilliard School in Manhattan with her beloved 'Wexy' and there's numerous pictures of the pair at bachelorette parties, Women's Marches, and wineries

Thick as thieves: The Kentucky-born beauty and the flame-haired NoCal native have collaborated in four films - including The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby flicks in which they played sisters Katy & Eleanor Rigby

Hitting US/UK theaters on September 6! Jess and Jessica will next co-star together as Audra Phillips and Beverly Marsh in Andy Muschietti's horror sequel It: Chapter Two

The Kentucky-born beauty and the flame-haired NoCal native have collaborated in four films - including The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby flicks in which they played sisters Katy & Eleanor Rigby.

Jess and Jessica will next co-star together as Audra Phillips and Beverly Marsh in Andy Muschietti's highly-anticipated horror sequel It: Chapter Two, which hits US/UK theaters on September 6.

But first, the Good Wife alum will conclude her role as Sally McCullough in the second (and final) season of western drama The Son, which premieres April 27 on AMC.
She posted a sweet throwback of True sitting in a pile of Birkin bags on Wednesday.

But some fans had a bone to pick with the display of wealth pictured in the otherwise precious photo of the tot.

'You could feed a few villages of starving children for a few years with that hermes money,' commented one fan.

Not everyone was a fan: Some fans had a bone to pick with the display of wealth pictured in the otherwise adorable photo of Khloe's daughter True Thompson

'This is just tacky excess - what, $200,000 worth of bags? It's disheartening that people hoard such wealth (come at me, haters, but you know it's true). I'll give it to Kim, she's using her platform to help with criminal justice reform - it's a step in the right direction,' said another.

'Ridiculous.. instead of that many material bag.. help $$$&$$&$& to people who could use money pay whatever struggle is,' remarked someone else.

But not everyone was critical of the photo of a then six-month-old.

'She is sitting next to $100,000 worth in Birkin NICE,' remarked one commenter.

'You could feed a few villages of starving children': Some fans were critical about Khloe's throwback

Another defended, 'Who cares that she's surrounded by expensive bags. Her mama can do it... enough said...'

'This has to be the cutest picture I've seen all day,' complimented a fan.

Indeed, True looked simply precious as she sat in the center of the designer bags, including a personalized 'KhloMoney' purse.

Hello petal: She also posted another sweet snap of True playing with a large arrangement of roses

'About 4 months ago,' she captioned the photo. 'My girl is growing so fast.'

On Thursday, she also posted another sweet snap of True playing with a large arrangement of roses.

Meanwhile, Khloe has been at the center of some more heart break after her boyfriend Tristan Thompson kissed family friend Jordyn Woods.

The revelation led to the end of their relationship.

Now Khloe is determined to move on from the drama, 'for the sake of her mental health, True, and the sake of her family, a source told Us Weekly.
He was at Paris Fashion Week with his younger sister Willow.

But on Thursday, Will Smith's son Jaden Smith arrived back home in Los Angeles.

The 20-year-old celebrity offspring was spotted at LAX after a transatlantic flight from France.

Back in town: Will Smith's son Jaden, 20, was spotted exiting Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday after returning home from Paris

Jaden was photographed riding his motorized suitcase as he exited the airport terminal.

He wore a hoodie and pants from his gender-neutral clothing line MSFTSrep, keeping the hood up over his dyed blond hair.

He added a red padded jacket and sneakers and carried an orange Louis Vuitton backpack.

Casual: The celebrity offspring wore a hoodie and pants from his gender-neutral clothing line MSFTSrep, keeping the hood up over his dyed blond hair

Cool wheels: Jaden rode his motorized suitcase as he exited the airport terminal. He added a red padded jacket and sneakers and carried an orange Louis Vuitton backpack

The ensemble is the same as Jaden was wearing two days ago as he stepped out with his sister in the French capital.

But he changed it up when he arrived for the LV show attired in the designer brand's clothing.

Jaden and Willow are Hollywood star Will's children with wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

They have an older half-brother Trey from their father's first marriage to Sheree Zampino.

Favorite outfit: Jaden was spotted wearing the exact same ensemble in Paris on Tuesday as he hung out with sister Willow, 18
Ryan Phillippe draped his figure in a flowing tee and a pair of knee-length shorts when he was spotted grocery shopping in Los Angeles this Thursday.

The 1990s matinee idol, now 44, warded off the chill with an open hoodie and rounded off the ensemble with a pair of sneakers.

His outing comes on the heels of his film Cruel Intentions' 20th anniversary, which set off a firestorm of chatter on the internet.

On the move: Ryan Phillippe draped his figure in a flowing tee and a pair of knee-length shorts when he was spotted grocery shopping in Los Angeles this Thursday

Ryan was dating his Cruel Intentions co-star Reese Witherspoon when they made the film, and they married in June 1999, four months after its release.

The couple split in 2007 and share two children - Ava, 19, whom Reese was pregnant with at her wedding to Ryan, and Deacon, 15.

Also starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, the movie was based on the 1782 French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos.

This novel inspired the Christopher Hampton play of the same name that opened in London in 1986 and made a sex symbol of Alan Rickman.

Shopping trip: The 1990s matinee idol, now 44, warded off the chill with an open hoodie and rounded off the ensemble with a pair of sneakers

The play was the basis of the 1988 movie Dangerous Liaisons starring John Malkovich and Glenn Close, the latter of whom got one of her seven Oscar nods out of it.

Near the end of last year, Ryan was court ordered to pay $790 to former Playmate Elsie Hewitt, who has accused him of a physical abuse.

Ryan was given the penalty for not submitting all his communications connected with the case to Elsie by the set due date, according The Blast.

Throwback: His outing comes on the heels of his film Cruel Intentions' 20th anniversary; he is pictured in the movie with his co-stars Selma Blair (left) and Christine Baranski (center)

Remember when: Ryan was dating his Cruel Intentions co-star Reese Witherspoon when they made the film, and they married in June 1999, four months after its release

Two months prior, he was court ordered to pay Elsie $1,580 for not giving her all his texts with Reese regarding the alleged incident of abuse, The Blast reported.

Elsie sued Ryan for $1 million in 2017 claiming he had flung her 'down a flight of stairs' on July 4, as well as having 'hit,' 'punched' and 'kicked' her, per The Blast.

Ryan has dismissed the allegations by his ex-girlfriend - who was 21 years old at the time that she filed suit against him - as attempted extortion.
She arrived back in Los Angeles on Wednesday after a trip to Paris Fashion Week.

And on Thursday, Elle Fanning took another trip, this time to a salon in Beverly Hills.

The actress, 20, was dressed down in a sweater and a pair of Adidas tracksuit bottoms with sneakers.

Casual: Elle Fanning was spotted out in Beverly Hills on Thursday dressed down in a sweater and a pair of Adidas tracksuit bottoms with sneakers

The younger sister of actress Dakota Fanning wore her blonde hair tied back from her face and sported a pair of large sunglasses.

She carried a leather purse and her smart phone as she walked.

Elle was accompanied by her mother Heather who had on a long-sleeved top and skirt.

Close: The actress, 20, who arrived back in Los Angeles on Wednesday after a trip to Paris Fashion Week, was accompanied by her mother Heather

Elle wore her blonde hair tied back from her face and sported a pair of large sunglasses. She carried a leather purse and her smart phone as she walked

Elle had traveled to the French capital to perform her role as the celebrity face of Miu Miu.

Elle began her work with Miu Miu in spring 2014, opened and closed their fall show last year and is now the face of their fragrance, Twist.

The Beguiled and Teen Spirit star sat front row at the brand's PFW show and also attended the dinner and after-party hosted by the brand.

Elle arrived at the show wearing a long-sleeved yellow dress with a dandelion print and plunging neckline

She changed it up for the post-show event with a bold black and white striped one-shoulder dress.

Fashionista: Elle was at the Miu Miu PFW show Tuesday, arriving in a yellow dress with plunging neckline before hitting up the after-party in a black and white striped one-shoulder dress
The Congress president said it is the governments job and the courts duty to give justice and his party is just saying give justice to everybody.

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was responsible for delay in the delivery of Rafale fighter jets as he was holding direct negotiations in the deal. He also asked why there was no investigation against the PM when the government was talking of probing others for theft of documents.

Launching a sustained attack on the Prime Minister, Mr Gandhi even called him Pakistans poster boy, pointing, among other things, to the presence of intelligence personnel in a Pakistani team put together to investigate the 2016 attack in Pathankot.

BJP, on its part, asked the Congress president whether he needed a certificate from Pakistan about the fighter aircraft as he neither believed the Indian Air Force (IAF) nor the Supreme Court verdict. It also accused the Congress president of speaking blatant lies on the Rafale issue.

Repeating his allegation of a `30,000 crore scam in the Rafale deal, Mr Gandhi also accused the government of manipulating institutions to save PM Modi and said that justice should be for all.

Referring to the government investigation into the theft of the Rafale documents, Mr Gandhi said that everyone can be investigated but there must be a probe against Mr Modi also as he alleged that the ministry files showed the Prime Minister was holding parallel negotiations in the fighter jet deal.

The Congress president said it is the governments job and the courts duty to give justice and his party is just saying give justice to everybody.

He even dubbed the Prime Minister as the poster boy of Pakistan for publicly hugging former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and inviting the neighbouring countrys spy agency, ISI, to Pathankot after the IAF base was attacked. Mr Gandhis remarks came on Tuesday after Mr Modi called the Opposition as the poster boys of Pakistan for seeking proof of the IAFs action on a terror camp in Balakot in Pakistan.

After Mr Gandhi demanded a probe against the Prime Minister in the Rafale deal, the BJP hit back with Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad alleging that the Congress president believed Pakistan more than the Indian forces.
Billie Faiers and Greg Shepherd's wedding festivities have been hit with controversy after they were accused of ruining fellow holidaymakers' dream getaways.

Yet the newyweds proved they were not fazed by the critics as the former TOWIE star, 28, took to Instagram on Friday to post a smouldering snap in her post-wedding beach ensemble, which was priced at an estimated 1500.

While Billie was showing off her designer gear and stunning physique, her new husband, 33, was poking fun at criticism surrounding their nuptials after fellow holidaymakers claimed they turned 'paradise turned into Southend'.

Posing up a storm: Billie Faiers and Greg Shepherd's wedding festivities have been hit with controversy after they were accused of ruining fellow holidaymakers' dream getaways

Billie and Greg jetted to the Maldives earlier this week to tie the knot in front of a bevy of their nearest and dearest, however things have taken a dramatic turn after they were accused of 'intimidating and raucous' behaviour.

Due to an exclusive magazine deal for the wedding, the couple have kept details shrouded in secrecy however in her latest Instagram snap, Billie finally confirmed the wedding has taken place as she added the caption: '#BillieisaShep'.

While they have been accused of uncouth behaviour, Billie proved her ensemble was certainly chic as she posed in the eye-popping designer garments.

Her saucy white Norma Kamali swimsuit, which was given a racy edge with the addition of nude, mesh panels, rang in at 215 while her Chanel sunglasses cost an incredible 415 to match her earrings, which average around 600.

The whole gang! Billie shared a snap of the entire group with the added caption: 'WHAT A DAY ... we cant thank all of our friends and family enough for making our wedding so amazing memories we will cherish forever we love you all'

Oh dear: While Billie was showing off her designer gear and stunning physique, her new husband, 33, was poking fun at criticism surrounding their nuptials after fellow holidaymakers claimed they turned 'paradise turned into Southend'

Woah! Billie gave a nod to her love of all things designer in her pricey look

She also wore a bespoke hat - popularly seen on various Instagram boutiques - adorned with the word 'Bride', which costs around 250.

Meanwhile, Greg was poking fun at the various controversial claims from fellow holidaymakers surrounding the trip as he posted a host of snaps.

He made a constant reference to one complaint, which said: 'The new arrivals were very loud and needed to be heard - they were swearing loudly...

The whole gang: Billie later shared a snap with their daughter Nelly, five, and son Arthur, as they marked the tot's second birthday on the island

The family: Billie posed happily with her new husband and her beloved tots

Oh dear: Meanwhile, Greg was poking fun at the various controversial claims from fellow holidaymakers surrounding the trip as he posted a host of snaps

Here come the Shepherds! The happy couple looked happier than ever as they cosied up while dancing the night away at the bash

Happy days: Adding to the raucous insight was Ferne McCann, who shared a clip at around midday local time of a group enjoying a glass of wine - proving the party started early on yet another day of wild activity

'Our real gripe is that Paradise had turned into Southend, (nothing wrong with Southend), but we chose an exclusive resort and it soon became clear that we were less important than the Faiers group...

'I think the island should have been exclusive to the wedding party and then other guests would not have been subjected to disappointment!'

Posting a snap of a mass of guests hitting the stage and singing while he added a caption on the shot reading: 'Southend what' before posting another shot in which he penned: 'Southend's finest' over the top.

Adding to the raucous insight was Ferne McCann, who shared a clip at around midday local time of a group enjoying a glass of wine - proving the party started early on yet another day of wild activity.

Hours before Greg's response, Billie's mum has hit back at holidaymakers' complaints over wedding guests 'intimidating and raucous' behaviour in the Maldives.

Chilled out: Greg was poking fun at the claims in a series of snaps

Happy days: They were joined on the trip by a number of pals, including Ferne McCann

Family and friends at the wedding of Billie and long-term love Greg have been accused of causing 'carnage' and ruining a holiday of a lifetime.

But the Mummy Diaries star's mother Sue Wells was having none of this as she defiantly shared a clip of the wedding party dancing in the sea around a set of bongo drums, with the caption 'a little party never hurt nobody.'

In the clip, where a saxophone is also heard playing, newlyweds Billie and Greg are seen dancing, singing and cheering in the crystal waters, as guests surround them.

Oops: Hours before Greg's response, Billie's mum has hit back at holidaymakers' complaints over wedding guests 'intimidating and raucous' behaviour in the Maldives

Billie and Greg also made their trip a double celebration on Thursday when they celebrated their son Arthur's second birthday with a daytime rave.

The toddler was treated to a birthday of epic proportions as guests danced their hearts out serenaded by a saxophonist and bongo drums, before being treated to an lavish sit down dinner in paradise.

This comes as MailOnline spoke to holidaymakers who have lodged an official complaint with KUONI travel about their 7000 trip after claiming it was 'spoiled.'

Happy days: This comes as MailOnline spoke to holidaymakers who have lodged an official complaint with KUONI travel about their 7000 trip after claiming it was 'spoiled'

They said in a letter addressed to KUONI: 'It was virtually impossible to have a drink or meal without an area being re-arranged to accommodate the wedding party.'

In further correspondence to MailOnline, the holidaymaker said: 'There were 90 plus members of the wedding party and it was carnage.

'It was like the Essex circus had rolled into town. They were raucous and our trip was totally spoiled. Our trip of a lifetime ended so poorly.'
Most people know Matthew 'Matty J' Johnson as the handsome suit-wearing ex Bachelor.

But on Thursday, the radio host traded in his straight-laced typically western attire for something a little more traditional - Saudi Arabian, in fact.

Matty, 32, took to Instagram to share a photo of himself clad in a white thawb garment, keffiyeh headdress and agal, during his trip to Abu Dhabi.

'The desert life chose me': 'Matty J' Johnson (pictured) donned a traditional Arabian thawb garment and headdress on Thursday. Matty, 32, is currently in Abu Dhabi

In the picture, tagged in the United Arab Emirates, he is standing in a desert alongside a line of camels.

Matty captioned the picture: 'I didn't choose the desert life, the desert life chose me.'

Fellow ex Bachelor Sam Wood, 38, commented on the post, quipping, 'Im more about the dessert life', with an ice cream emoji.

On your marks! Matty has been in the United Arab Emirates this week, also sharing a photo taken at Yas Marina Circuit, which is the venue for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

The former reality star was moved to try out his Arabic in response to comments on his post, writing 'Merhaba!', meaning 'hello or 'welcome'.

Matty's partner Laura Byrne, 32, cheekily commented: 'Hey babe I can see your camel toe.'

Former Bachelor Tim Robards, 36, wrote: 'Haha epic photo.'

Role play: Most people know Matty (pictured) as the handsome suit-wearing ex Bachelor

New baby: In December last year, Matty and partner Laura Bryne (left) surprised their fans by announcing Laura's pregnancy

Bachelor In Paradise star Tara Pavlovic waded in with, 'Yeah I rode it [a camel]. Ginger was her name. She ate plants.'

Matty has been in the United Arab Emirates this week, also sharing a photo taken at Yas Marina Circuit, which is the venue for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

In December lastyear, Matty and partner Laura surprised their fans by announcing Laura's pregnancy.

Matty and Laura met on the fifth season of The Bachelor in 2017.
Katharine McPhee wowed in every sense of the word at the Waitress press night at London's Adelphi theatre on Thursday night.

The 34-year-old was pictured with her fiance David Foster, 69, after the show at the Cafe At The Crypt, wearing a cream semi-sheer dress which had stars emblazoned all over it by Elizabeth Grace.

Her gown had a plunging neckline and flattered her figure perfectly as she posed and giggled with other cast members after a successful show.

Supporting her: Katharine McPhee, 34, wowed in a plunging semi-sheer dress with fiance David Foster, 69, at the Waitress press night at London's Cafe At The Crypt on Thursday night

Starry night: Her gown had a plunging neckline and flattered her figure perfectly as she posed and giggled with other cast members after a successful show

Waitress is based on Adrienne Shellys 2007 film and tells the story of Jenna, [McPhee] a pie-maker who longs to escape her small town and loveless marriage.

'When a baking contest comes up nearby, she is presented with the perfect opportunity. That is, until she finds out that she is no longer baking for one.'

And it seems that theatregoers who attended the press night were keen to get a second helping.

Story: Waitress is based on Adrienne Shellys 2007 film and tells the story of Jenna, [McPhee] a pie-maker who longs to escape her small town and loveless marriage

News: When a baking contest comes up nearby, she is presented with the perfect opportunity. That is, until she finds out that she is no longer baking for one

MailOnline wrote: 'Katharine McPhee's talent knows no bounds and will no doubt be leaving her fans longing for a second helping of her performance.'

What's On Stage wrote: 'All in all, Waitress is a treat. You can buy the recipe book and sample pies in the foyer, but even without them it leaves a pleasantly sweet taste in the mouth.'

The Guardian wrote: 'But the show is a tribute to female solidarity and McPhee is well supported as fellow-waitresses by Marisha Wallace as the bawdy Becky  who says of her own sexual neglect that its so quiet down there you can hear an echo.'

MailOnline wrote: 'Katharine McPhee's talent knows no bounds and will no doubt be leaving her fans longing for a second helping of her performance'

All stars: Katharine posed with Laura Baldwin (Dawn; left), and Marisha Wallace (Becky; right)

Stunning: Katharine looked incredible in her ethereal dress and jewelled heels

The Independent wrote: 'The stage is flanked by two of those all cabinets from which cakes ogle out at you. That's reasonably funny. I was less sure about the baking aromas that hit the nostrils at the back of the auditorium and in the foyer.

'These don't seem all that authentic to me and put me in mind of being shown round houses, as a prospective buyer, by people who have sprayed their properties in bogus bread-baking deodorant. The show, though, is the real deal.'

The London Theatre wrote: 'This is a small show with a big heart; it may have been better served by a more intimate house than the Adelphi for its London debut, but I loved it.'

Guests: Michael Caine and Madeleine Lloyd-Webber were also in attendance

Looking good: The 85-year-old proved to be in high spirits for the outing
Former Bachelor contestant Megan Marx has just published her first novel, Episode Eight, a psychological thriller based around a reality show.

It's clearly a topic Megan has plenty of experience in, having appeared in both The Bachelor and Bachelor In Paradise.

Regarding her own time on reality television, the 30-year-old tells Daily Mail Australia exclusively that she 'struggled' afterwards.

Candid: Speaking to Daily Mail Australia exclusively on Friday, Megan Marx (pictured) revealed she 'has some regrets' after her appearance The Bachelor and explained how she feels about her racy Maxim shoot with former girlfriend Tiffany Scanlon. Pictured in a social media snap

'I struggled a bit after The Bachelor. I think building a thick skin is really important. I think I struggled. Some of my behaviour after The Bachelor I really regret,' she admitted to Daily Mail Australia.

Megan said nothing could have prepared her for the aftermath of appearing on a reality show.

She added: 'Putting myself out there too much and not being true to who I was. But you're sort of thrown in the deep end, and you need to learn to swim in that environment.'

Tough times: 'I struggled a bit after The Bachelor. I think building a thick skin is really important. I think I struggled. Some of my behaviour after The Bachelor I really regret,' she admitted to Daily Mail Australia. Pictured in a social media snap

The beauty admits if she had her time over, she may have had second thoughts about appearing in a racy 2017 magazine shoot for lads' mag Maxim with her former female lover Tiffany Scanlon.

'I've tried to tone it down a little bit, but going on the Maxim cover, I kind of look back and think, "I don't think my dad likes that very much."

'I don't regret any of my experiences, and I certainly don't regret going on reality TV. I just think that for a little bit of time, I acted like a knob and I had to pull my head in,' Megan revealed candidly.

Risque: Megan says she may have had second thoughts about appearing in a racy magazine shoot (pictured) with her former female lover Tiffany Scanlon (right). 'Going on the Maxim cover, I kind of look back and think, "I don't think my dad likes that very much"' she said

Over: Tiffany and Megan met while competing for Richie Strahan's affections on The Bachelor in 2016 and split the following year after a very public romance. Pictured in 2017

Tiffany and Megan met while competing for Richie Strahan's affections on The Bachelor in 2016 and split the following year after a very public romance.

Megan says she wouldn't consider appearing on another reality show, knowing what's in store.

'I think these days people are pretty savvy with what goes on with reality TV. For me, it wasn't actually being there that was shocking, it was how it was edited,' the buxom brunette explained.

'I was like, "Oh my God! I didn't remember it happening that way, or it didn't happen that way."'

Self-improvement: 'I certainly don't regret going on reality TV. I just think that for a little bit of time, I acted like a knob and I had to pull my head in,' she confessed

Never again: Megan says she wouldn't consider appearing on another show, knowing what's in store. Pictured on The Bachelor

Megan admits that her new book, Episode Eight, does touch on her own experiences on reality TV.

'Some of it is [from my experience], some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. But I'm writing from the perspective of a man,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'I suppose there are a few things that are my own,' she added.

The book, available from March 7, is based around a fictional reality TV dating show called The Eligibles.
I'm a Celebrity's Justin Lacko posed beside Lexi Wood in a racy campaign shoot for label Bianca and Bridgett in Melbourne on Friday.

The 28-year-old reality star looked handsome as he posed beside the 21-year-old brunette stunner for the exclusive fashion label.

The pair turned up the heat as they sat close to one another in the front seat of a vintage Porsche.

Beauties! Brooklyn Beckham's ex Lexi Wood (front) and I'm a Celebrity star Justin Lacko (back) turned up the heat for Bianca and Bridgett campaign in Melbourne on Friday

The Canadian-born brunette sizzled in a form-fitting black dress while she stared out into the distance, clutching a pair of sunglasses.

Lexi showed off her chiseled bone structure wearing a dusting of highlighter to her cheeks and donned a bold pink lipstick on her plump pout.

Her long chocolate tresses were left out in loose waves and cascaded down past her shoulders.

So racy! The pair turned up the heat as they posed in the front of a vintage Porsche

All smiles: Lexi was all smiles as she raised her hands in the air between posing for photos

Justin looked dapper in a crisp white buttoned-up shirt as he pouted toward the camera.

At one stage, enjoying a moment of relaxation between shoots on set, the pair stared down at a phone seemingly finding something amusing.

The model showed off her svelte figure in a tight black dress with sheer sleeves and finished her racy look with a pair of thigh-high boots.

Something to smile about? At one stage, enjoying a moment of relaxation between shoots on set, the pair stared down at a phone seemingly finding something amusing

Racy! Lexi posed topless on the bonnet of the car and showed off her flawless decolletage

Working her various looks on the day, Lexi posed topless on the bonnet of the car and showed off her flawless decolletage.

Sporting a red blazer and matching red trousers, she gave a sultry stare to the camera.

For another pose, Lexi arched her back and leaned against the bonnet of the car in a navy velvet dress, showing off her flawless figure.

Stunning: For another pose, Lexi arched her back and leaned against the bonnet of the car in a navy velvet dress, showing off her flawless figure

Fierce: The beauty also mimicked pushing the back of the car while wearing a sheer dress with see-through panels

The beauty also mimicked pushing the back of the car while wearing a sheer dress with see-through panels.

Wearing a sheer black form-fitting frock, she showcased her perky posterior and lithe physique.

Lexi then posed in the passenger side of the car, lying back and sticking her legs out of the car door.

Trim pins: Lexi then posed in the passenger side of the car, lying back and sticking her legs out of the car door

Sultry: Lexi wore a textured black dress with sheer panels and her brown hair down in waves

White on the mark: Lexi is a model who hails from Toronto, Canada but began her career when she moved to Paris at the age of 16

She wore a textured black dress that she teamed with black ankle boots, showing off her trim pins.

Lexi is a model who hails from Toronto, Canada but began her career when she moved to Paris at the age of 16.

Her reported romance with Brooklyn Beckham came to light last April when the pair were spotted kissing at a West Hollywood tattoo parlor.

Meanwhile, Justin has been romantically linked to Vanderump Rules star Scheana Shay.
She's the jet-setting TV presenter who recently enjoyed jaunts to New York City and Whistler, Canada.

But this week, Rebecca Judd did some domestic travel, taking a trip to Uluru in the Northern Territory.

The 37-year-old flew to the Red Centre to film a segment for travel program, Postcards, and she took to Instagram to capture a sizzling selfie in between takes on the set.

A natural wonder! On Wednesday, Rebecca Judd shared a sizzling selfie from Uluru, where she was filming for her travel program Postcards

Posing inside Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Bec shared the sultry travel snap with her 699,000 Instagram followers.

'First light at Uluru. Just magic,' the brunette captioned, clearly impressed by the area's natural beauty.

While Bec may have had a moment to take in the breathtaking surrounds, she was still very much in work mode.

Less than glamorous! The footy WAG shared a snap of herself relaxing in the back of a crew car surrounded by camera equipment

The previous day, the footy WAG shared a snap of herself relaxing in the back of a crew car surrounded by camera equipment.

In the image, Bec was seen sipping on some water as she tried to keep hydrated in the scorching heat.

'Airing out in the cool air-con of the crew car between shots at beautiful Uluru,' she captioned.

Hot, hot, hot! Bec remarked on the sizzling heat as she worked away with the Postcards crew

'I've just jumped off the back of a Harley, filming in the scorching heat of the Aussie outback. Hot but EPIC,' she added.

Busy Bec has gone from one extreme to the other, having only recently returned from the colder climes of Canada.

The stunner enjoyed a ski holiday in wintry Whistler accompanied by her husband Chris and their four young children.
Mum Roxy Jacenko and her young children got to spend a very special day together in Sydney on Friday.

Roxy, daughter Pixie Curtis, 7, and son Hunter Curtis, 4, were all smiles as they attended the 60th birthday party for the iconic Barbie Doll at the North Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club.

PR queen Roxy and her daughter grinned from ear to ear as they were photographed on a pink, blue and yellow set at the auspicious gathering.

Living dolls! PR queen Roxy Jacenko (right), 39, daughter Pixie (left), 7, and son Hunter Curtis, 4, were all smiles on the pink carpet at Barbie's 60th birthday party in North Bondi in Sydney on Friday. Roxy looked turned up the feminine glamour in a white floor-length stress embellished with a floral print and yellow-pattern panel

Roxy looked turned up the feminine glamour in a white floor-length stress embellished with a floral print and yellow-pattern panel.

Pixie Curtis, meanwhile, looked cute in a Kenzo T-shirt, navy blue pleated skirt, white sneaker and a navy blue hair bow.

Hunter more than matched his sister's outfit in style, wearing a white polo shirt, blue and white striped shorts and sandals for the big event.

Child's play! The PR queen Roxy and her kids Pixie (left) and Hunter (right) grinned from ear to ear as they were photographed on a pink, blue and yellow set at the auspicious gathering

The event was also attended a gaggle of other celebrities including Kate Ritchie, 40, and her daughter Mae, 4, media icon Ita Buttrose, 77, and Fox presenter Abbie Gelmi.

The Barbie Doll, created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, was launched onto the market in 1959 and has seen more than 200 iterations, from zoologist to astronaut.

Handler was believed to have been inspired to by a German doll called Bild Lili.

Roxy has been enjoying something of a fairy tale lifestyle herself of late.

A long history! The Barbie Doll, created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, in 1959. Handler was believed to have been inspired to by German doll Bild Lili

The mum-of-two showed off a stunning new 10-carat diamond ring before she jetted off to Hong Kong for a business trip on Friday.

Taking to Instagram, the blonde businesswoman shared a picture of her prized possession, alongside the caption: 'How amazing is this ring?'

The jewel, a design by Nicholas Haywood Jewellery, features a large seven-carat centre stone set in a three-carat band.

Roxy and her 33-year-old husband Oliver Curtis have been married since 2012.
She admitted she only 'sort of' loves him during an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show.

And James 'Arg' Argent, 31, and Gemma Collins, 38, cut glum figures as they left their hotel in Paris this week.

It was a rainy day in the French capital as the couple began their trip back to the UK, with Arg keeping cosy in a chunky red cardigan paired with a navy shirt with a retro zig-zag print.

Downcast: James 'Arg' Argent, 31, and Gemma Collins, 38, cut glum figures as they left their hotel in Paris this week

The reality star added to his look with navy trousers and tan leather loafers, carrying a Gucci man-bag in his left hand.

Arg completed his Parisian ensemble with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.

Gemma trailed behind her other half as they made their way toward a waiting car.

The TOWIE star donned a black, faux-fur lined parka jacket with a matching gilet and plaid scarf.

Accessorising with a teal handbag, Gemma completed her look with dark tracksuit bottoms and a pair of shades.

Casual: Arg looked cosy in a chunky red cardigan paired with a navy shirt with a retro zig-zag print, a Gucci man-bag and gold-rimmed glasses

Style: Gemma donned a black, faux-fur lined parka jacket with a matching gilet and plaid scarf

Gemma revealed during an interview on this week's Jonathan Ross Show, which airs on Saturday night, that she is 'sick of blokes' and has 'had enough' of them.

When asked if she was currently in love, she said: 'Sort of and not sort of Im going to get some lessons from Harry and Sandra [Redknapp].

'[They] should set up a training school for young love.'

Jonathan asked the reality star what was the longest period time she had been in love for, to which she replied: 'I dont know, about a year.'

Style: Gemma completed her look with dark tracksuit bottoms and a pair of shades

Referencing her recent split and reconciliation with Arg, Gemma admitted her current relationship status is 'complicated'.

She said: 'Im sick of blokes. Im sick of them. Ive just had enough to be honest. My mum and dad have been married 45 years.

'I do love the person I am with very much but sometimes our work life gets in the way.

While Gemma admitted things have been 'hard' for the couple lately, she's feeling optimistic about their future.

'We just went on a romantic trip to Paris and then paps turned up, he didnt arrange it but we really needed some time out and it kind of killed the trip.

Homeward bound: The couple looked downcast as they left their hotel to begin their journey home to Essex after their romantic trip

Chic: The reality star added to his Parisian look with navy trousers and tan leather loafers

'Its just hard sometimes but you never know whats going to happen, things could be alright in the end.'

Gemma's busy working schedule means she has phone calls and emails coming in at all hours.

The TV star told how she has a desire to 'go missing' and switch off from the world.

She said: 'Some days I really want to go missing, Im not going to lie. I have [gone off radar] before for two weeks. I loved it, I went to a juicing camp and it was really amazing.

'No phone and Im very in to my spirituality anyway and I always love that film Eat, Pray, Love where Julia Roberts character goes off, she doesnt speak to anyone, thats what Id love to do one day.'
Married At First Sight star Lauren Huntriss has become embroiled in a nasty spat with her TV 'ex-husband' Matthew Bennett.

But the blonde beauty appeared to be in high spirits as she arrived at a Moonlight Cinema screening held in conjunction with Tia Maria in Sydney, on Friday.

The 30-year-old braved a smile as she posed solo at the event, where feminist film On The Basis of Sex was screened in honour of International Women's Day.

All the single ladies! Married At First Sight bride Lauren Huntriss (pictured) stepped out solo at a Moonlight Cinema event in Sydney on Friday

Paying ode to International Women's Day, Lauren sported a symbolic pink singlet.

Showing Matthew just what he was missing, the stunner added a pair of skin-tight jeans that highlighted her phenomenal figure.

The star - who revealed on MAFS that she 'used to be a lesbian' - posed in front of a tree, a move that was perhaps a swipe at her TV ex, who has been described as 'wooden'.

Things are getting nasty! Earlier this week, Lauren 'liked' Instagram comments falsely suggesting ex-husband Matthew (pictured) was gay

The couple are involved in an ugly spat, with Lauren 'liking' Instagram comments falsely suggesting Matthew was gay.

That prompted Matthew to blast back calling her actions 'abhorrent'.

Meanwhile, several other stars also stepped out to attend the Moonlight Cinema and Tia Maria event.

Mum-to-be: Former Bachelor In Paradise star Lisa Hyde also made an appearance, showing off her baby bump in a navy maxi dress

Former Bachelor In Paradise star Lisa Hyde made an appearance, showing off her baby bump in a navy maxi dress.

Lisa is currently pregnant with her first child with partner Damon Collina, whom she has been dating since mid-2018.

Also in attendance at Friday's event, was former Big Brother contestant Tim Dormer and his beau Ash Toweel.

The handsome coupled beamed as they cosied up together on the media wall.
Wes Nelson has revealed he's 'lost 10kg in muscle' and his body has started to 'break down completely' amid his gruelling training regime for the Dancing On Ice final this weekend.

The Love Island star, 20, revealed the impact his battle for glory has had on his health in an interview with Good Morning Britain on Friday.

He explained: 'This is the first week that my body's starting to break down completely' following months of training for the show.'

Suffering: Wes Nelson has revealed he's 'lost 10kg in muscle' and his body has started to 'break down completely' amid his gruelling training regime for the Dancing On Ice final this weekend

Wes, who was joined by his fellow finalists and their partners on the ice rink for the chat, continued: 'We're all in the changing rooms in the back with rollers, trying every cream under the sun to make our muscles work.

'I've lost 10kg [of muscle], yeah. A lot. I feel like even though I've got smaller in size, I've got stronger.

'I suppose the technique as well, constantly lifting body weights.'

Wes' fiercest competitor James Jordan, who has suffered multiple injuries during the show, has also shed the pounds and has been desperately trying to pile the weight back on.

Tough: The Love Island star, 20, revealed the impact his battle for glory has had on his health in an interview with Good Morning Britain on Friday

Tough: The Love Island hunk explained of his weight loss: 'I've lost 10kg [of muscle], yeah. I feel like even though I've got smaller in size, I've got stronger'

Final countdown: The star, pictured with skate partner Vanessa Bauer, faces stiff competition from James Jordan and Saara Alto as he battles to skate away with the Dancing On Ice crown

He explained to Richard: 'I lost 15kg, but that was from when the moment I knew I was going to do the show.

'Every night at the hotel I was having pepperoni and jalapeno pizzas and I've just kept burning it off. It's hard to keep the weight on.'

During the interview, the stars teased that Sunday's long-awaited finale will feature a big opening number which will feature all of the previous contestants - including Gemma Collins.

Speaking about the TOWIE star's appearance, which was previously thrown into doubt, James, 40, added: 'She's been great fun and a big part of the show. We're looking forward to seeing everyone.'

Battle: James Jordan, 40, said of his weight loss: 'Every night at the hotel I was having pepperoni and jalapeno pizzas and I've just kept burning it off. It's hard to keep the weight on'

Wes' ex-girlfriend Megan Barton Hanson, 25, has revealed she plans to boycott the final in defence of Gemma following claims of 'bullying' by judge Jason Gardiner.

Taking to Instagram this week to stick up for Gemma, Megan wrote: 'Gem his so vile! His desperate for headlines and using you in the process. Terrible his allowed to be part of that show. Your a beautiful soul inside and out. [sic]'

Supporting Gemma's then decision not to return to the show, Megan added: 'Forget going back to that show they are stooping so low to get ratings now you have left was going to support Wes in the final but can't be bothered with there sly digs [sic]'.

Megan's remarks were in response to a post by Gemma, where she flagged the fact that Jason had called her a 'refrigerator'.

On her side: Wes' ex-girlfriend Megan Barton Hanson has slammed Jason Gardiner for labelling Gemma Collins a 'fridge' in a 'fat-shaming row' (pictured last month)

Support: Megan, 25, made her feelings on the matter clear as she supported Gemma by making a public comment on the TOWIE star's Instagram page

The judge has since publicly apologised to Gemma, and appearing on Heart Breakfast on Wednesday, he back-tracked on his comments, insisting the term 'The GC' reminds him of 'a white goods appliance', hence the fridge comparison.

'So you're in no way suggesting a correlation between a refrigerator and Gemma's size?' asked presenter Lucy Horobin. 'Because that's how it's being taken.'

'Oh God, no!' protested Jason. 'It was really to do with the GC part of it, because she has this alter ego  you know, self-proclaimed GC and it's really interesting.

'And every time I hear it, it makes me think of a white goods appliance.'

The Dancing On Ice final airs Sunday from 6pm on ITV.
The electronic and social media will be prohibited from showing political advertisements 48 hours before the voting day.

The ECI made the statement when the court asked why it was hesitant to issue specific directions to prohibit political advertisements on social media 48 hours before election day. (Photo: ANI)

Mumbai: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday informed the Bombay high court that it is considering a blackout for electronic media and social media 48 hours before the election.

This means that the electronic and social media will be prohibited from showing political advertisements 48 hours before the voting day.

The ECI made the statement when the court asked why it was hesitant to issue specific directions to prohibit political advertisements on social media 48 hours before election day.

A division bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice N.M. Jamdar was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a lawyer, Sagar Suryavanshi, seeking directions to the ECI to regulate fake news in the form of paid political ads on social media.

The PIL also urged the court to direct the ECI to prohibit all persons, whether politicians or private individuals, from posting advertisements related to politics or the elections, or paid political content on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, 48 hours before election day.

Twitter and YouTube told the bench Thursday that they only permitted such political ads that had been verified by the ECI. The social media sites, however, told the court that they could not voluntarily impose a 48-hour ban as sought by the petitioner.

The counsels for Facebook, Google, and YouTube said that they could prohibit display of political ads on their websites 48 hours before polling day, if they were directed by the ECI to do so.
She has jetted off to Thailand to film the latest series of TOWIE after huge changes to the star-studded casting.

And Chloe Sims, 36, turned heads when she looked amazing under the bright sunshine in Koh Samui on Thursday.

The TOWIE fan favourite showcased her jaw-dropping cleavage in a deeply low-cut neckline of her white swimming costume.

Incredible in white: TOWIE's Chloe Sims displays her eye-popping cleavage in a revealing swimming costume as she tanned in Thailand while she filmed latest series on Thursday

As she slipped into the ivory costume, the reality star hoisted the one-piece in at the waist to accentuate her hourglass physique.

Highs of 27 degrees, the TV personality soaked up the scorching rays while she frolicked in the deep blue sea.

Three bracelets, two shimmering silver hoop earrings and layered lots of necklaces brought Chloe's stylish TOWIE image to the beach.

Sizzling: Highs of 27 degrees, the TV personality soaked up the scorching rays while she frolicked in the deep blue sea

Amazing: Chloe displayed her rounded posterior when she slid into a high-cut costume

Chloe fussed over her flowing waist-length mermaid curls as she tamed her fringe in a half updo hairstyle to keep cool in the sweltering temperatures.

While she is stationed out in Thailand to film, Chloe enjoyed a break from the rest of the star-studded crowd when she headed to the beach on her own.

Bosses of the ITVBe show have shunned the show's typical clubbing destinations in favour of a yoga retreat.

Quiet time: While she is stationed out in Thailand to film, Chloe enjoyed a break from the rest of the star-studded crowd when she headed to the beach on her own

Starring role: She has jetted off to Thailand to film the latest series of TOWIE after huge changes to the star-studded casting

Insiders revealed to MailOnline: 'The trip is to Thailand furthest they've ever gone - very cool  feel more grown-up more beach bars than clubs'.

In the past, the cast has enjoyed sun-soaked getaways in Vegas, Marbella, Tenerife and Ibiza  yet this time the stars are going for a more unique vibe.

Insiders added to The Sun: 'This time round theyll be enjoying meals out and attending yoga classes. A lot of the cast have grown up since filming in Marbella...

Looking beautiful: Chloe fussed over her flowing waist-length mermaid curls as she tamed her fringe in a half updo hairstyle to keep cool in the sweltering temperatures

Wonderful in white: As she slipped into the ivory costume, the reality star hoisted the one-piece in at the waist to accentuate her hourglass physique

'Though they still love a night out being in Thailand will give them the chance to experience something new.'

The trip to Thailand follows on from the show making massive changes to the cast by culling a number of characters.

In February, Yazmin Oukhellou and James Lock became victims of producers' biggest ever cast cull.

Stunning: She turned heads when she looked amazing under the bright sunshine in Koh Samui

Big holiday: Bosses of the ITVBe show have shunned the show's typical clubbing destinations in favour of a yoga retreat

Insiders confirmed to MailOnline the couple are stepping back from the ITVBe show after a year of personal dramas.

James and Yazmin being downgraded to minor characters as the 24th season of the reality show takes shape.

The drastic difference will see a total of 10 cast members from The Only Way Is Essex won't feature when it returns later this year.

Fashionable style: Three bracelets, two shimmering silver hoop earrings and layered lots of necklaces brought Chloe's stylish TOWIE image to the beach

TOWIE bosses are now on the hunt for new characters to feature in the Essex-based programme alongside the staple fan favourites.

A source told MailOnline: 'Lockie and Yazs turbulent relationship has been well documented and since taking a break at the end of last series they have been working hard on themselves and their relationship...

'They mutually agree with producers that taking an extended break and a back seat is best for them and the show at this time but as two of the shows most popular characters were sure theyll be back onscreen soon.'

Big changes: The drastic difference will see a total of 10 cast members from The Only Way Is Essex won't feature when it returns later this year
Michael Jackson accuser Wade Robson has been accused of splitting up Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake back in 2002 amid allegations they had a fling.

According to The Sun: 'Britney and Wade grew close after he co-directed her 1999-2001 tours.'

'He also choreographed her music video Slave 4 U and Drive Me Crazy - the latter he briefly appears in.'

Rumours: Michael Jackson accuser Wade Robson has been accused of splitting up Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake after they had a brief affair (Pic: Britney and Justin in 2001)

Did they? It has been rumoured that Justin dumped Britney after finding a love note from choreographer Wade (pictured) who appears in the Leaving Neverland documentary

Britney, now 37, and Justin, 38, dated from 1999 until 2002 and were something of an iconic pop couple in their matching double denim outfits.

But it has been rumoured that Justin dumped Britney after finding a love note from her choreographer Wade Robson, 36, before they were about to appear on SNL.

This rumour was also referenced in a Lifetime biopic about pop star Britney in a show called Britney Ever After, in 2017.

Partnership: Britney and Wade grew close after he co-directed her 1999-2001 tours, but neither party have ever commented on the rumours about a fling

Awkward: It's fair to say that Justin hinted that Britney had an affair in the music video for his single, Cry Me A River, released that same, year, which featured a Britney lookalike

Close relationship: Wade and Britney appeared together on Total Britney Live back in 2001

Bond: The two worked together extensively throughout the 90s and 00s

Neither Britney, Wade or Justin, who was also friends with the choreographer commented back then.

It's fair to say that Justin hinted that Britney had an affair in the music video for his single, Cry Me A River, released that same, year, which featured a Britney lookalike.

Justin wrote in his book, Hindsight: & All the Things I Can't See in Front of Me: 'I've been scorned. I've been pissed off. I wrote Cry Me a River in two hours.

'I didn't plan on writing it. The feelings I had were so strong that I had to write it, and I translated my feelings into a form where people could listen and, hopefully, relate to it. People heard me and they understood it because we've all been there.'

Shock claims: Wade, pictured aged 5, won first prize in a dance competition which led to his fateful meeting with Michael Jackson, (pictured) and years of alleged abuse

Justin is now happily married to Jessica Biel, while Britney is dating Sam Asghari. Wade has been married to Amanda Rodriguez since 2005.

MailOnline has contacted a spokesperson for Britney Spears for comment.

Wade appears on the Leaving Neverland documentary, released this week and in which he details the alleged abuse he suffered for many years by Jackson as a child.

Robson, an Australian, was five when he first met Jackson after winning a dance competition in Brisbane.

Jackson's estate wrote to Channel 4 last month claiming the documentary violates the network's programming guidelines.

The family has denounced Leaving Neverland, saying: 'Michael always turned the other cheek, and we have always turned the other cheek when people have gone after members of our family  that is the Jackson way.

'But we can't just stand by while this public lynching goes on. Michael is not here to defend himself, otherwise these allegations would not have been made.'

The family points out that Jackson was subjected to a thorough investigation which included a surprise raid of his home, the Neverland Ranch, but was still acquitted at his criminal trial in 2005, in a case involving another young man.

Mr Robson testified at that trial, saying he had slept in Jackson's room many times, but that Jackson had never molested him.
Amber Heard was seen jetting off from London's Heathrow Airport amid ex husband Johnny Depp's $50m defamation lawsuit against her domestic abuse allegations

Failing to raise a smile, the actress, 32, cut a low-key figure in an all-black ensemble as she sauntered along with her essentials in a slouchy oversized handbag and her gingham coat draped over her arm.

Her sighting comes after numerous reported interviews conducted by Johnny's legal team, which has people under oath claiming they saw no visible injuries on the Danish Girl star when they interacted with her following an alleged altercation.

Low profile: Amber Heard, 32, was seen jetting off from London's Heathrow Airport amid ex husband Johnny Depp's $50m defamation lawsuit against her domestic abuse allegations

In transcripts obtained by The Blast, four employees and one neighbour from the couple's former apartment building were deposed and asked about any sign of abuse they may have seen between the pair and all insisted there were none.

Trinity Esparaza, who owns the building's concierge services company, encountered the actress a number of times following an alleged incident on May 21, including two days afterwards, when she did not see any visible injuries to Amber's face or body.

But he noted on May 27 - the day the Aquaman star filed for a temporary restraining order and accused her then-husband of spousal abuse - that she was sporting a 'red cut underneath her right eye and red marks by her eye.'

After seeing pictures which were released when Amber filed for the order against Johnny, Trinity went back and reviewed security footage from the building because she suspected the allegations were 'false' as the 'time didn't add up' and she had seen the actress 'several times' without marks on her face.

Failing to raise a smile: The actress cut a low-key figure as she sauntered along with her essentials in a slouchy oversized handbag and her gingham coat draped over her arm

Lawsuit: Her sighting comes after reported interviews conducted by Johnny's legal team, which has people under oath claiming they saw no visible injuries on Amber when they interacted with her following an alleged altercation (Pictured in 2016)

Security guard Alex Romero also admitted he had serious doubts about Amber's account because he had seen her a number of times during the week and saw nothing to suggest the actress had been 'punched by anyone' or had anything thrown at her.

He added: 'I saw the pictures and the next day I saw her. I was like come on, really. I couldn't believe. When I saw her in person, I didn't see anything.'

Two other employees, including the building's general manager Brandon Patterson - also testified they had seen the actress multiple times after the alleged assault and was seen 'without bruises, cuts, redness, swelling or any other injuries to her face'.

And the couple's neighbour, Isaac Baruch - who has been friends with the Black Mass actor for 37 years - told how he saw Amber the morning after the alleged fight and claims she shouted: 'He hit me! He threw a phone and hit me!'

Abuse: In May 2016 Heard said that Depp had been 'verbally and physically' abusive towards her. Images emerged at the time (above) showing Heard with a bruised eye and face

While the actress 'stretched her neck' to show him her alleged injuries, he didn't see anything and though he saw her mark-free throughout the week, on May 27, there were visible marks on her.

Johnny's attorney has also provided 87 different pieces of recorded video, taken from different cameras before and after the alleged incident.

Amber's lawyer has branded the lawsuit 'frivolous' and insisted his client won't be silenced.

MailOnline has contacted a spokesperson for both Johnny Depp and Amber Heard for comment.
Ita Buttrose has just been named as the new chair of the ABC .

And the media doyenne certainly looked to be sitting pretty as she stepped out to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Barbie on Friday night.

The 77-year-old beamed for the cameras as she posed against a media wall in a stylish white pantsuit.

Sitting pretty! Ita Buttrose, 77 (pictured) dazzled in a white pantsuit as she stepped out for Barbie's 60th anniversary in Sydney on Friday night after being named new chair of the ABC

Age-defying Ita complemented her white suit with classy drop earrings and a pair of snazzy patterned sandals.

The former Studio 10 star styled her hair into a chic bob and added a bold red lip and matching nail polish.

Like Barbie, Ita is a blonde icon who has spent much of the twentieth century as a household name.

White on the mark! Age-defying Ita complemented her white suit with classy drop earrings and a pair of snazzy patterned sandals

Earlier this week, toy manufacturer Mattel even gifted the media maven with her own customised Ita Buttrose Barbie doll.

Paying tribute to her achievements as groundbreaking feminist, the Ita doll carried a black handbag with a magazine seen peeping out the top.

Ita was the founding editor of Cleo magazine, helping launch the iconic publication back in 1972.

Media doyenne: Ita boasts an illustrious fifty-year career as an editor and television star

She went on to become the youngest ever editor of the Australian Women's Weekly.

Ita has also had an illustrious career in television, appearing on programs including Beauty and The Beast, Studio 10 and Today Extra.

Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison selected the star to head the ABC, saying emphatically: 'Australians trust Ita'.
She underwent an operation in Pakistan last month, taking her total tally of facial reconstruction surgeries to over 200 after being subjected to an acid attack in 2008.

But Katie Piper seemed to be on the mend as she launched her new book, Things I'd Tell My Child at Elan Cafe in London on Thursday.

The TV presenter, 35, cut an elegant figure in a mint green blazer and cigarette pants, cinching in her waist with a matching belt.

Looking mint! Katie Piper seemed to be on the mend as she launched her new book, Things I'd Tell My Child at Elan Cafe in London on Thursday

The philanthropist added to her outfit with a simple white top and accessorised with a gold necklace.

Adding height to her frame with a pair of lilac heels, the reality star styled her brunette locks into a ponytail.

Charity campaigner Katie is recovering after the surgery, which left her covered in bruises.

A spokesperson for the star told MailOnline: 'Katie is feeling much better after travelling home from Pakistan last week. The operation went really well but she has been in a lot of pain.

Glamourous: The TV presenter, 35, cut an elegant figure in a mint green blazer and cigarette pants, cinching in her waist with a matching belt

Chic: The philanthropist added to her outfit with a simple white top and accessorised with a gold necklace

'Katie is very much still in recovery mode and taking it easy. She is bandaged on one side of her neck and has bad bruising but after nearly 300 operations is keeping her spirits up.

'She is so excited to have her new book out for Mothers Day in a few weeks' time.'

Katie's surgeon was Dr Mohammad Jawad, who was also in charge of the star's reconstruction surgery after she was attacked with sulphuric acid in 2008.

The acid, some of which Piper had swallowed, blinded her in her left eye, and caused partial thickness and full thickness burns.

Dr Jawad and his team of surgeons completely removed the skin of Katie's face, and replaced it with a skin substitute, Matriderm, to build the foundations for a skin graft.

Fashion: Adding height to her frame with a pair of lilac heels, the reality star styled her brunette locks into a ponytail

This pioneering procedure was the first of its kind to be done in a single operation.

Katie, who shares Belle, four, and Penelope, 15 months, with husband Richard Sutton, said she 'prides' herself on not confirming to 'unrealistic' beauty standards.

The Instagram sensation strives to be 'relatable' when she shares a string of pictures and posts with her 857,000 Instagram followers.

She said: 'I'm not afraid to show the real me. I pride myself in not conforming to unrealistic beauty standards  it can be so damaging to young girls' and womens' self-esteem.

'Social media is a highlights feed and we should all remember that. I like to be someone my followers feel they can relate to. Social media is a powerful thing that can have a negative effect on users.'

Health: Katie is recovering after having facial surgery in Pakistan last month
Dumped Today show host Karl Stefanovic no doubt happily indulged in delicious food during his lavish Mexican wedding late last year.

And reports have emerged that the veteran journalist has been working furiously to shed the festive kilos, as he attempts to relaunch his TV career.

The Sydney Morning Herald claimed on Saturday that Karl, 44, has gotten in shape in time to shoot the second part of his series, This Time Next Year.

New look? Claims emerged on Saturday that Karl Stefanovic, 44 (pictured) is shedding the kilos he gained during his lavish Mexican wedding as he prepares to relaunch his TV career. Pictured in 2017

The publication also claimed Karl completed a staggering 65 interviews over seven days for the show, which finished shooting a little more than a week ago.

Karl has another two years left on his contract with the Nine Network however it is unclear what his next move will be now that This Time Next Year has wrapped.

There have even been rumours that the journalist would anchor a late-night news show in competition to Channel Seven, however those claims were 'shot down by network bosses' the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Slim down! The veteran journalist has been reportedly working to furiously to shed kilos, as he attempts to relaunch his TV career. Pictured in a recent Instagram snap

Happy days! The reports claim Karl happily indulged in delicious food during his lavish Mexican wedding late last year. Pictured with bride Jasmine Yarbrough (left) in 2018

Gym junkie? The Sydney Morning Herald claimed that Karl, 44, has gotten in shape in time to shoot the second part of his series, This Time Next Year. Pictured with his former Today show co- host Georgie Gardner

Karl's bank balance is also healthy, as he reportedly retained his $2 million pay packet from Channel Nine.

An insider recently told The Sunday Telegraph that Karl will get the massive sum of money for just 'one week's work' fronting This Time Next Year.

'Nine are yet to announce what else they'll do with Karl this year, so as of now, he's getting an eye-watering $2 million for one week's work,' the insider said.

Busy! An insider recently told The Sunday Telegraph that Karl will get a massive sum of money for just 'one week's work' fronting This Time Next Year. Pictured in 2017

Karl's head was the first to roll during Nine's Today show bloodbath late last year.

The former Today host dropped from the breakfast program during his honeymoon with Jasmine Yarbrough in December.

With the show on an unending downward spiral in the ratings since 2016, it was believed that a new line-up of presenters would help resuscitate the program in the eyes of viewers.

However, the ratings nightmare has continued unabated for Nine, despite the appointment of Deborah Knight as co-host of Today alongside Georgie Gardner and new talking heads Brooke Boney and Tom Steinfort.

Here's to the future! There have been rumours that Karl would anchor a late-night news show in competition to Channel Seven but those claims were 'shot down'. Pictured in 2013

Indeed, the long-running breakfast show has now sunk to humiliating new depths, plunging to its lowest ratings in more than a decade.

Thursday's episode of the breakfast program attracted just 167,000 metro viewers, delivering the lowest numbers since 2006.

The ratings were so bad that Today was even defeated by a midday repeat of Married At First Sight, which pulled in 172,000 viewers.

It was also beaten by Channel Seven's Sunrise, which attracted 280,000 viewers in the all-important five capital cities market.
On her official website, Yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins describes herself as 'an advocate of sign language'.

And now, the world-famous entertainer has taken on an ambassadorial role with Huawei StorySign, an app for hearing impaired children.

Speaking with The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, the 29-year-old said she was proud to be partnering with the Chinese tech giant, saying: 'For us as The Wiggles, we're so excited to be raising awareness of sign language.'

'We're so excited to be raising awareness of sign language!' Speaking with The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, Yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins (pictured) revealed she is proudly promoting new app for hearing impaired children

According to Huawei's official website, StorySign is powered by Artificial Intelligence, with an avatar 'translating words into sign language' at the side of the screen.

Emma explained to the paper: 'When the sign language is happening with the avatar on the right, the word is highlighted on the page, so children can understand which sign matches which word which is so good'.

The redheaded star one day hopes to have her own customised avatar to help sign to her fans.

'My dream would be that we'd be able to tell a Wiggles story and have Emma as the avatar and signing to kids': Emma told The Daily Telegraph she hopes to have her own customised avatar in the future

'My dream would be that we'd be able to tell a Wiggles story and have Emma as the avatar and signing to kids  it's almost part of how Emma the Wiggle communicates,' she stated.

Meanwhile, The Wiggles are set to kick off their highly-anticipated Australian tour on Saturday.

Emma will be performing in a series of shows across the country with bandmates Simon Pryce, Anthony Field and Lachlan Gillespie.

'I'm so lucky': Emma leaned on estranged husband Lachlan Gillespie (left) last year during her battle with endometriosis

Emma and Lachlan were married from 2016 until their shock split in August last year.

However, the pair have remained close pals, with the flame-haired beauty even relying on her ex to help her through recent surgery for endometriosis.

Speaking to WHO magazine late last month, Emma said: 'It's so great... having Lachie as my best friend. I'm so lucky.'
Ronn Moss is best known for starring on the popular soap opera The Bold And The Beautiful, playing Ridge Forrester, for 25 years.

And the age-defying 67-year-old revealed that his flawless complexion and chiseled bone structure are all thanks to his genetics, denying he's had plastic surgery.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, the strikingly handsome Ronn said: 'Everyone thinks I've had a massive amount of plastic surgery, I've had none.'

'I've been very blessed that way!' Bold and the Beautiful star Ronn Moss (pictured) denied plastic surgery rumours and revealed his flawless complexion is down to his 'genetics' in an interview on Saturday

'I've been very blessed that way,' the actor added.

After appearing on the soap-drama for decades, Ronn said he believes Hollywood is ageist.

'They are so concerned with how you look and what age you are and if you look 10 years younger and you go, 'I can play younger,' they say 'we're looking for someone a little younger,' he said.

'Everyone thinks I've had a massive amount of plastic surgery, I've had none': The strikingly handsome Ronn told The Daily Telegraph on Saturday. Pictured on the Bold And The Beautiful

Baby come back! Meanwhile, the American-born actor is currently touring Australia on his music tour, An Intimate Evening With Ronn Moss

Back in 2002, the actor denied having plastic surgery when The Sydney Morning Herald asked him if his cheekbones were real.

'I had a credit card cut up once,' he quipped, adding, 'but that's it.'

Meanwhile, the American-born actor is currently touring Australia on his music tour, An Intimate Evening With Ronn Moss.

It's love: The TV veteran is married to former Playboy model and Prince's ex-girlfriend Devin Devasquez (right)

The tour, which kicks off in Sydney next week, will feature his 1997 hit Baby Come Back, along with other songs he wrote, some from when he was just 11-years-old.

The TV veteran is married to former Playboy model and Prince's ex-girlfriend Devin Devasquez.

He was previously married to American- actress Shari Shattuck.

They had two children together, daughters Creason Carbo and Caleb Maudine Moss.
He recently hit out at his older brother Noel for signing with his record label.

But former Oasis star Liam Gallagher, 46, wasn't looking back in anger as he went for a walk with his stylish son Lennon, 19, in north London on Friday.

The musician was dressed casually in workout gear for the day out, donning a black rain coat with his hood up with matching shorts and trainers.

Family: Former Oasis star Liam Gallagher, 46, looked slightly went for a walk with his stylish son Lennon, 19, in London on Friday

Lennon, whose mother is actress Patsy Kensit, 51, sported a knee-length grey coat which he paired with a plaid scarf and a white and blue striped jumper.

Pairing it with dark trousers and black boots, he accessorised for the day with a pair of shades.

Liam and Patsy were married from 1997-2000.

Later in 2000, the rocker went onto mend his heartache with Nicole Appleton, 43, and he welcomed his second son in 2001, Gene.

Liam is also father to two daughters born from affairs during his marriages: Molly Moorish, 19, and Gemma Ghorbani, five, but has not met either of his children.

Casual: The former Oasis frontman was dressed casually for the day out, donning a black rain coat with his hood up with matching shorts and trainers

The rocker fathered Molly, 21, in 1998 with Lisa Moorish during his marriage to actress Patsy Kensit.

Meanwhile, his daughter Gemma was born after a fling with journalist Liza Ghorbani, ending his marriage at the time to Nicole Appleton.

Liam recently hit out at his brother Noel, 51, after it was claimed he's been working with the band's old producer Dave Sardy again.

He also claimed that his brother has joined Warner Music, despite Noel insisting he does 'everything on his own' in the past.

Angry: Liam recently hit out at his brother Noel, 51, after it was claimed he's been working with the band's old producer Dave Sardy again (pictured in August 2018)

Taking to Twitter, Liam wrote: 'So news reaches me all the way across these fine shores that the little mug is working with Dave Sardine again now tell me this would this be the record your putting out on a major label ie Warners ooh thought you were mr independent mr I do everything on my own mr I am the boss (sic)'.

In another tweet, he wrote: 'Hes just signed to Warners my f*****g major record label company ting the 1 he slagged of about a thousand times because hes a real independent artist he does everything on his own he is so real its like realism its so f*****g real its Laer backwards Dya get me bruvs.'

Dave previously worked with Liam and Noel on Oasis' albums Dont Believe The Truth in 2005 and Dig Out Your Soul in 2008.

Reaction: Liam took to Twitter to express his anger at learning his brother Noel had signed a deal with Warner Music

The producer later worked with Noel again on his debut solo album Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds in 2011.

Liam and Noel have been feuding since the break-up of Oasis in 2009.

After trading public jibes for years while in the band, things came to blows at the Rock En Seine festival in Paris where they had a heated argument.

Noel departed the band after the incident and Oasis reformed as a new band called Beady Eye, which ended in 2014.
She's a doting mother to six-month-old baby son, Theodore, with husband Spencer Matthews.

But Vogue Williams enjoyed some much-needed 'me time' as she treated herself to a pampering session at London's Chelsea Green Salon on Thursday.

The reality star, 33, spent three hours in the hairdresser's chair, transforming her blonde locks from golden to platinum.

Doting mother: Vogue Williams enjoyed some much-needed 'me time' as she treated herself to a pampering session at London's Chelsea Green Salon on Thursday

The Irish TV presenter went make-up free to show off her naturally beautiful features as she sat smiling and laughing with foils on her hair.

Vogue wore a simple cream top, black sport leggings and Nike trainers for her pamper session.

Later on, the mother-of-one could be seen sporting an over-sized bright red hoodie as she exited the salon.

Ensuring her freshened up tresses were not dampened by the rain, Vogue kept her hood up as she walked back to the Chelsea apartment she shares with her reality star husband, 30, and son.

Transformation time: The reality star, 33, spent three hours in the hairdresser's chair, transforming her blonde locks from golden to platinum

Blonde bombshell: Vogue gave followers a better look at her glossy hair by sharing a selfie of herself dolled up on her Instagram story

Hot seat: The Irfish TV presenter went make-up free to show off her naturally beautiful features as she sat smiling and laughing with foils on her hair

In tow with the model was her pet pooch, Winston, as well as her hairdresser pal Anthony Usser who had spent the afternoon working on her locks.

Vogue shared on Instagram that she had been friends with Anthony for 14 years and she had never had her hair done by him.

Gushing over her new do, she thanked the colourist for tending to her 'do as she shared a series of snaps with him at the salon.

She gave followers a better look at her glossy hair by sharing a selfie of herself dolled up on her Instagram story.

Plenty to smile about: Vogue wore a simple cream top, black sport leggings and Nike trainers for her pamper session

Thankful: Gushing over her new do she thanked the colourist for tending to her locks as she shared a series of snaps with him at the salon

Happy couple: Vogue has been married to reality star Spencer Matthews, 30, since June 2018, and the couple have baby son Theodore, six months, together (pictured last month)

Vogue recently admitted that she cannot take any credit for 'taming' her former lothario husband as she discussed their marriage.

Speaking to Fabulous Magazine, the model claimed that Spencer's transformation from a woman-loving party boy to doting dad and husband was simply due to him 'growing up'.

She said: 'Taming Spencer wasnt anything to do with me. He had already grown up and was ready for a relationship. Ready for this kind of relationship.'

Despite Spencer having changed of his own accord, Vogue also confessed that she was initially wary of entering a romance with the reality star due to his playboy reputation.

Long wait: The Irish star seemed very happy with her beautiful hair after it was styled into perfect curls

Revived: Vogue seemed to enjoy having her friend take care of her gorgeous hair

She said: 'I was like, "Right, I need to go for somebody whos really nice because I cant be hurt again".

'That was on top of the way I was feeling [mentally]. So I fought it. The whole time in Austria I was saying: Were not going out with each other when we get back to London, were better as friends.

Vogue and Spencer first met in 2017 in Austria, on the set of Channel 4 reality show The Jump.

The reality star proposed on stage during a West End production of The Lion King in February 2018.

The couple married in June 2018 at Spencer's family's estate in the Scottish Highlands, three months before welcoming their son into the world.

Home-time: Later on, the mother-of-one could be seen sporting an over-sized bright red hoodie as she exited the hairdressers
Priyanka is expected to hold detailed discussions with block and district level as well as state level leaders from the state.

New Delhi: With the Congress having announced candidates from 11 out of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats from the politially significant Uttar Pradesh for the forthcoming general elections, party general secretary for eastern Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, will undertake a three-day long visit to the state starting on March 8.

She is expected to hold detailed discussions with block and district level as well as state level leaders from the state, to discuss the strategy as well as candidates for the general elections.

Sources said that after holding day-long parleys with party leaders in Lucknow on March 8, she is expected to visit Rae Bareli and Prayagraj during the weekend.

In what would be her second visit to the state after becoming general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, it is understood that Ms Gandhi is likely to discuss prospective candidates from the state for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, especially from eastern Uttar Pradesh during her meeting with district and block level leaders of the party.

During her previous visit to Uttar Pradesh last month, Ms Gandhi had asked party workers to strengthen the booth level management, after it was discovered that many workers did not even know their respective booth numbers. The newly inducted general secretary has been focussing on boosting the morale of the partys workers in the state, where the Congress has been trying to revive itself since the past almost 30 years now. She has asked party workers and leaders to focus on the 21 seats which the Congress had won in 2009 elections in Uttar Pradesh.

In the list announced by Congress on Thursday, eight out of the 11 seats announced from Uttar Pradesh are those which it had won in 2009. The same winning candidates have been named this time round too from these seats.
Elsa Hosk's Instagram account is the gift that keeps on giving.

And on Thursday, the Victoria's Secret model gave her admirers a very personal look at her toned body as she posed for photographer David Roemer.

The Victoria's Secret Angel covered her chest in a series of shots from a new photo shoot, which revealed the stunner wearing little to no clothing.

Skinny mini: Elsa Hosk, 30, bent over while sitting on the floor in nothing but a thong for a new shoot with photographer David Roemer she posted on Thursday

In the first photo of the trio of nude shots, Elsa is shown sitting on the ground, almost completely in the buff.

The only garment the Swedish model sported was a thin, tan thong.

She hunched over, with one hand covering her chest. And, to add to the sex appeal of the photo, her short blonde hair was soaked wet as it hung in strings around her face.

In a cheeky caption Elsa wrote, 'iPhones make the best pics.'

Sweaty and ready: The model flaunted her ripped middle section in a new series of risque shots on Instagram

The second photo showed only Hosk's torso with her face cut off.

Her followers could see her slim stomach dripping with sweat. And, just a touch of under boob made the shot.

Again, only skin colored underwear was worn for the post.

The third photo gave fans a wider, full body view of the model whose appeared in campaigns and on runways for brands such as Dior, Guess, Dolce & Gabbana and many more.

Spicy: Leaving little to the imagination, Elsa twisted her body into a pretzel as she posed nude for a new photo shoot

Still down low on the floor, Elsa sat with her back to the wall for the last photo.

Elsa stunned with her legs crossed and her hands superbly covering her essentials.

With her lips poised in a perfect pout, Elsa no doubt left anyone viewing the photographs in awe.

The blonde beauty is no stranger to baring it all.

Almost ready: Elsa showed off her glammed up makeup before throwing on her gown for the 2019 Oscars

A good portion of Elsa's Instagram is filled with revealing posts, like the one she shared before the Oscars.

When not modeling Hosk is an activist.

She has worked to support the anti-human-trafficking organization, FAIR Girls. She became interested in the issue after seeing the movie The Whistleblower, which dealt with issues of sex trafficking.
She's been absent from television screens since 2018 after she reported Liv Flaherty to the police after the teenager accidentally spiked her drink.

And Emmerdale fans were left heartbroken on Friday night after they discovered that Lisa Dingle was being killed off as she revealed she had a terminal heart condition.

In the emotional scenes, which marked International Womens Day, Lisa met up secretly with her niece Charity Dingle in Scotland as she shared her devastating diagnosis.

End of an era: Emmerdale fans were left heartbroken on Friday night after they discovered that Lisa Dingle was being killed off as she revealed she had a terminal heart condition

The heartbreaking episode saw Lisa ask Charity to prepare her eulogy as she made her promise that she would keep her terminal heart condition a secret.

Lisa begged Charity to keep the news between them for the next few weeks, with the character's daughter Belle Dingle still unaware about the diagnosis.

Jane Cox has starred as the Dingle veteran on the hit ITV soap for 23 years after joining Emmerdale in 1996.

The new emotional storyline is part of the actress' return to the Yorkshire Dales ahead of her exit.

Heartbreaking: In the emotional scenes, which marked International Womens Day, Lisa met up secretly with her niece Charity Dingle in Scotland as she shared her devastating diagnosis

Lisa will be joined by on-screen husband, Zak Dingle, played by Steve Halliwell - who has taken time off the soap in real life for a serious heart operation, as they integrate their characters back into the village.

Talking about her shock exit and Lisa's final scenes, actress Jane said: 'Lisa is so close to my heart as shes been such a huge part of my life for the past more than 23 years.

'So I know I will shed more than a few tears when it comes to filming her final scenes.

'But Im really looking forward to my return to the show to tell this story and to give the character of Lisa a deserving farewell. I will miss her.'

Emmerdale legend: Jane Cox has starred as the Dingle veteran on the hit ITV soap for 23 years after joining Emmerdale in 1996 (pictured in 1999)

Reunited: Lisa will be joined by on-screen husband, Zak Dingle, played by Steve Halliwell - who has taken time off the soap in real life, as they integrate their characters back into the village (pictured on the soap in 2016)

Lisa's last appearance on Emmerdale was in May 2018, for a special one-off episode, after she fled the village earlier in the year after she reported Liv Flaherty to the police after the teenager accidentally spiked her drink, causing a family feud.

Prior to this, the character had already had a health scare in April when she suffered an angina attack due to stress, leading her to seek a more relaxed lifestyle in Scotland.

In January, it was revealed that Steve Halliwell, who plays Zak, had been rushed hospital for a serious heart operation in September.

The actor, 64, was forced to take five months off work to have the pacemaker fitted and to recover.

Emmerdale continues on weeknights at 7pm on ITV.
She is set to star in Jordan Peele's eagerly anticipated horror, Us.

And thanks to her work in critically acclaimed work, Lupita Nyong'o has touched upon her previous award season experiences, especially the one in 2014 when she was heavily rumoured to be dating actor Jared Leto.

In an candid interview with NET-A-PORTERs weekly digital magazine PorterEdit, the Oscar winner, 36, admitted that he is still very much a part of her life as there was an 'intimacy that grew between them' amongst the dating hear'say.

Candid: Lupita Nyong'o, 36, has touched upon her previous award season experiences, especially the one in 2014 when she was heavily rumoured to be dating actor Jared Leto

Hollywood was awash with dating rumours involving Nyong'o and Leto a few years earlier, and the star fondly admits: 'Hes still on speed dial, because we were on that journey together and hes so embracing of me.

'There was an intimacy that grew from that, that goes beyond the dating rumours, beyond all that,' she revealed.

Meanwhile, stunning in the series of stylish, yet simplistic snaps - styled by Tracy Taylor and photographed by Paola Kudacki, Lupita joyfully detailed being protected by Hollywood's elite upon arrival in the industry.

'Starting with 12 Years a Slave, I was welcomed [in Hollywood] with such warmth. My castmates surrounded me. I dont know if they are aware of this, but I felt so protected.'

'Intimacy that grew': In an candid interview with NET-A-PORTERs weekly digital magazine PorterEdit , the Oscar winner, 36, admitted that he is still very much a part of her life

'Such warmth': Stunning in the series of stylish snaps, Lupita joyfully detailed being protected by Hollywood's elite upon arrival in the industry

Lupita proudly gave details: 'Sarah Paulson: my God, that girl, she was like everything to me. And Alfre Woodard, she was invaluable. Oprah embraced my mom and my brother and invited them to her house for lunch without me.

'I was just like, "Wow, this is an incredibly supportive industry." I didnt feel isolated. Gabrielle Union: wed gone to a fashion show in France together and shed been so open and embracing, exchanging phone numbers with me  there was a you need anything kind of vibe.

'I didnt feel alone within the black community, I didnt feel alone within the Hollywood community. [12 Years A Slave director] Steve McQueen really did look out for me big time. Brad Pitt, same thing,' she delightedly expressed.

Lupita's initial fearlessness in the industry stemmed from her upbringing in Kenya, as she recalled: 'I come from a very sexist society. I did need to be conditioned for that kind of world, but it was always a step removed from my home life.

'I didn't feel isolated': Lupita revealed the likes of Oprah (R) and Brad Pitt (R) ensured to protect her when she first entered the industry

'I come from a very sexist society': Lupita's initial fearlessness in the industry stemmed from her upbringing in Kenya

'My outlook from very young was that women can do whatever they want. I remember a teacher saying, "You cant whistle. Youre a girl," and I was like, "Yes, I can," and I whistled some more.

'I was a feminist before I knew that was a term. When I heard Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies speech, We Should All Be Feminists, I was like, "Oh, Im a feminist. Thats what Ive been talking about all this time."'

Meanwhile, Lupita has been chilling potential viewers in a series of billboards and posters for Peele's new movie, Us.

The directorial debut to satirical horror film, Get Out, in 2017, will hit theatres March 22.

And in her interview with PorterEdit, the beauty revealed Jordan warned her that filming for the movie would leave her 'exhausted'.

Leading lady: Meanwhile, Lupita has been chilling potential viewers in a series of billboards and posters for Jordan Peele's new movie, Us

'I had to brace myself': In her interview with PorterEdit, the beauty revealed Jordan warned her that filming for the movie would leave her 'exhausted'

'I mean, Id read the script, so I knew it was going to be work, but just having the director confirm that he was going to tire me I require a lot from myself, but Jordan was going to demand even more.

'I had to brace myself and just be like, Okay, here we go,' she stated.

As well as the exhaustion, filming for the movie also left her completely terrified: ' I developed new fears I am terrified of my own reflection, which was really tough because I was staying in a house that had mirrors everywhere.

'My days were so long that when Id get home from filming and it was time for me to shower, I was half asleep, and because it wasnt my home, I would come upon my reflection and scream at the top of my lungs,' she confessed.

To see the full interview with Lupita read PorterEdit and/or download the Net-A-Porter app for iPhone, iPad and Android.
Yara Shahidi is proving that it is girls who run the world.

The 19-year-old rising star was honored with her very own Barbie doll while at the Empire State Building in New York on Friday.

A doll was created by Mattel for Yara in celebration of Barbie's 60th anniversary and International Women's Day.

An inspiration to all: Yara Shahidi, 19, empowered women everywhere while receiving her own Barbie doll during Barbie's 60th Anniversary at the Empire State Building in New York on Friday

To ring in the female empowering holiday, Mattel's Shero program unveiled dolls from 20 different countries.

Representing the red, white and blue for the United States is the Blackish actress.

For the special occasion, Yara wore a fuzzy white sweater and polka dot white and green flared silk pants. The fashionable choice was finished off by white pointed heels. And adding to the cute outfit, Shahidi wore a tiny bow in her half up hair.

Mini me: Yara gave a speech next to her new Barbie doll at the esteemed event honoring female role models

Lastly, a pair of silver hooped earrings accented the style.

The Grownish star looked cheerful, smiling the night away. And flaunting how powerful and inspiring she is already at only 19, Yara thanked the guests and Mattel in a beautiful speech.

Yara stood proud in front of the room and talked into the microphone about how important she feels the iconic company's Shero movement is.

She started by saying, 'What today represents, at least for me and for my peers globally, is that quite honestly, not even the sky is the limit.'

Why so serious: Yara showed off her silly side while trying out different poses at the event on top of the Empire State Building

Strike a pose: The actress documented her time at the 60th Anniversary celebration by recording a few videos

Shahidi went on to explain, 'I believe it is crucial for not only myself, but young girls everywhere, to understand they have the support of people an corporations, movement, here to help them achieve their dreams.'

And the drive to chase after their wildest dreams is exactly what the Barbie creators aim to inspire women everywhere to do.

Mattel's Shero dolls are a collection of Barbies that are created in honor of different strong, female role models around the world.

The activist gave fans a sneak peek of the doll created in her likeness on Instagram earlier this week.

It's like looking in a mirror: Yara's Barbie donned the same T-shirt aimed at telling people to joke that Yara wore at the We Vote Next Summit in 2018

Sporting the same Tory Burch 'vote' T-shirt Yara showed off at the We Vote Next Summit in September, her Barbie proved to be an amazing representation of the star.

Captioning the shot of the figurine, Yara said, 'Lets continue to inspire the next generation and each other.'

Also being honored as new dolls are other role models like model and body activist Ashley Graham, 31, snowboarding award winner Chloe Kim, 18, ballerina Misty Copeland, 36, and director Ava Duvernay, 46.
Khloe Kardashian is focusing on her daughter True during turbulent times.

The 34-year-old reality star shared an adorable video via Instagram on Friday where she sweetly kisses her 10-month-old baby girl with the caption: 'Great Morning!!!'

But Khloe's love rat ex and the father of True, Tristan Thompson, 27, was spotted partying poolside in Miami seemingly carefree after the breakup scandal that shook the Kardashian family.

Doting mom: Khloe Kardashian, 34, shared an adorable video via Instagram on Friday where she sweetly kisses her 10-month-old baby girl with the caption: 'Great Morning!!!'

In the quick clip, Khloe can be seen smiling at her adorable daughter as True dances up and down with excitement.

The stunning mother-of-one makes funny faces at True before leaning in for a kiss through what appears to be a wooden crib.

And Khloe posted a cryptic message once again to her Instagram stories about 'hearts being treasured and not broken'.

A simple pale pink background held a note titled 'hearts like ours' with the words: 'Maybe we held on a little too long to the people who didn't deserve us becasue we had more good in our heart than they did.

Carefree: Khloe's ex and the father of True, Tristan Thompson, 27, was spotted partying poolside in Miami after the breakup scandal that shook the Kardashian family

Adorable: In the quick clip, Khloe can be seen smiling at her adorable daughter as True dances up and down with excitement

All smiles: The stunning mother-of-one makes funny faces at True before leaning in for a kiss through what appears to be a wooden crib

'Maybe we saw them for how they could have been if they had a heart like ours.

But they didn't and maybe never will. Hearts like ours are special. They should be treasured, not broken.'

Meanwhile, Tristan was living his best life as he was spotted sipping on iced beverages with friends during an afternoon fete.

Kicking back with his arms over his head, he enjoyed several conversations with a bevy of beautiful women.

From the heart: Khloe posted a cryptic message once again to her Instagram stories about 'hearts being treasured and not broken'

The couple split last week after it emerged Tristan had once more cheated on the mother of his child - this time with her little sister Kylie Jenner's best friend, Jordyn Woods.

He was also spotted taking two other women into a bedroom at a party the same weekend.

A source familiar with the situation spoke out and claimed that Khloe wants to get on with the rest of her life after being humiliated by her cheating boyfriend for the second time.

Laid back: Meanwhile, Tristan was living his best life as he was spotted sipping on iced beverages with friends during an afternoon fete

Kick back: Kicking back with his arms over his head, he enjoyed several conversations with a bevy of beautiful women

The insider said that 'for the sake of her mental health, True and the sake of her family,' Khloe is trying to move on from Tristan, reported Us Weekly.

And Khloe is said to be agonizing over how to include Tristan Thompson in their daughter True's first birthday celebrations next month.

She is busy organizing the bash for her only child, who turns one on April 12.

Cheers! Tristan enjoyed another round of drinks at his mystery gal pal did the same

Trouble: The couple split last week after it emerged Tristan had once more cheated on the mother of his child - this time with her little sister Kylie Jenner's best friend, Jordyn Woods

A source tells People magazine that while Khloe is keen her child's father be present at the celebration, it is going to be very awkward.

'Khloe is figuring out how to get Tristan involved. She can't see how he can be around her family at a party, though. Everyone is just too upset with him.'

Among those furious with their sister's ex, is Kim, who is said to be 'livid'.

A source told People magazine: 'Kim is the one who is really upset about this. She's livid. She's so angry. She's there for Khloe, letting her vent and talk about it. They've been in constant contact, and Kim is totally supportive. Guys may come and go, but the bond between the girls is never going away, and they're committed to supporting each other.'

Family affairs: Khloe is said to be agonizing over how to include Tristan in their daughter True's first birthday celebrations next month

Furious: Among those furious with their sister's ex, is Kim, who is said to be 'livid'

Broken: The scandal is said to have broken Kylie and Jordyn's friendship

Khloe recently took to social media to blame the cheating scandal on Tristan after previously blaming Jordyn.

She wrote: 'This has been an awful week & I know everyone is sick of hearing about it all (as am I). I'm a rollercoaster of emotions & have said things I shouldn't have.

'Honestly, Tristan cheating on me & humiliating me, wasn't such a shock as the first time. What's been harder & more painful is being hurt by someone so close to me. Someone whom I love & treat like a little sister.

'But Jordyn is not to be blamed for the breakup of my family. This was Tristan's fault. I have to move on with my life & count my blessings, my family, my health, & my beautiful baby True. '

For his part, Tristan appeared to be showing no signs of remorse as he was spotted this week heading into a hotel with a woman.
Kim Kardashian is already introducing daughter Chicago to the high life.

On Friday the 38-year-old KKW Beauty mogul shared a clip where she was letting her youngest child walk around in neon green designer heels before presenting her with a mini Hermes Birkin purse worth $15,000.

This comes after her sister Khloe, 34, was slammed for taking a photo of her daughter True while surrounded by Hermes purses as followers complained just one of those bags could help feed hundreds of poor people.

Taking after mommy! Kim Kardashian is already introducing daughter Chicago to the high life. On Friday the 38-year-old KKW Beauty mogul shared a clip where she was letting her youngest child walk around in neon green designer heels before presenting her with a mini Hermes Birkin purse worth $15,000

The look: Chicago had on a white shirt with white leggings and her hair was styled into little ponytails all over her head. The child was walking around on bleached wood floors in a room with a white sofa

Chicago had on a white shirt with white leggings and her hair was styled into little ponytails all over her head.

The child was walking around on bleached wood floors in a room with a white sofa. She tried her best not to fall when in the six inch heels.

Kim was seen entering the clip as she wore all black with her long raven hair down. She then handed her the purse.

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians standout was cuddling her little child then she gave her a kiss.

Here you go: Kim was seen entering the clip as she wore all black with her long raven hair down. She then handed her the purse

Doting on her baby: The Keeping Up With The Kardashians standout was cuddling her little child then she gave her a kiss

Kim is seen handing North a small Birkin bag that appears to be a light tan color.

Chicago is instantly intrigued as she tried to open the little purse.

Hermes makes their Birkin bags in all sizes and even the smallest are still pricey. Most run around $15,000. The large models can cost over $100,000.

Just for me! Chi took the purse by the handle like she was used to carrying a purse. The child seemed like she knew what to do with the little purse that was perfect for her

The glam life already: Hermes makes their Birkin bags in all sizes and even the smallest are still pricey. Most run around $15,000

On Wednesday Khloe shared a sweet throwback of True sitting in a pile of Birkin bags.

But some fans had a bone to pick with the display of wealth pictured in the otherwise precious photo of the tot.

'You could feed a few villages of starving children for a few years with that hermes money,' commented one fan.

Not everyone was a fan: This comes after her sister Khloe, 34, was slammed for taking a photo of her daughter True while surrounded by Hermes purses as followers complained just one of those bags could help feed hundreds of poor people because they can cost over $100,000

'This is just tacky excess - what, $200,000 worth of bags? It's disheartening that people hoard such wealth (come at me, haters, but you know it's true). I'll give it to Kim, she's using her platform to help with criminal justice reform - it's a step in the right direction,' said another.

'Ridiculous.. instead of that many material bag.. help $$$&$$&$& to people who could use money pay whatever struggle is,' remarked someone else.

But not everyone was critical of the photo of a then six-month-old.

'She is sitting next to $100,000 worth in Birkin NICE,' remarked one commenter.

'You could feed a few villages of starving children': Some fans were critical about Khloe's throwback; here the star is seen in February in NYC

Another defended, 'Who cares that she's surrounded by expensive bags. Her mama can do it... enough said...'

'This has to be the cutest picture I've seen all day,' complimented a fan.

Indeed, True looked simply precious as she sat in the center of the designer bags, including a personalized 'KhloMoney' purse.

Hello petal: She also posted another sweet snap of True playing with a large arrangement of roses

No purses here: And Khloe kept it simpler as she shared this photo on Friday

'About 4 months ago,' she captioned the photo. 'My girl is growing so fast.'

On Thursday, she also posted another sweet snap of True playing with a large arrangement of roses.

Meanwhile, Khloe has been at the center of some more heart break after her boyfriend Tristan Thompson kissed family friend Jordyn Woods.

The revelation led to the end of their relationship.

Now Khloe is determined to move on from the drama, 'for the sake of her mental health, True, and the sake of her family, a source told Us Weekly.

Meanwhile, on Friday Tristan was seen by a swimming pool in Miami with a pretty young woman. They shared pink drinks.
Behati Prinsloo is not done having children.

The Victoria's Secret model, 30, - who already has two kids with husband Adam Levine, 39 - said in in an interview People on Thursday in Los Angeles that the more the merrier.

'I grew up an only child, so I always wanted a big family,' the supermodel explained.

Let's get to it: Behati Prinsloo, 30, declared she's open to having more kids with husband, Adam Levine, 39, in a new interview she did with PEOPLE on Thursday in Los Angeles

While at the 7 for All Mankind Spring/Summer 2019 Launch Party, the magazine caught up with Behati, who dished on all things baby making.

When asked if she wanted to give daughters Dusty Rose, two, and Gio Grace, one, a third playmate, Behati gave an exciting answer.

She said, 'I think so. Its not out of the question.'

No more baby fat: Behati showed off her stunning figure at the 7 for All Mankind Event in LA

She can pose anywhere! The star is such a pro she could turn a hallway into a runway with little effort. Here the star looked dressed down in her white crop top and jeans with a leather jacket and matching boots

In 2017, Adam predicted Prinsloo wanted a large family during an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

He joked with the host saying, 'Behati was an only child, so she wants like 100 babies. I dont know if I can do that. Thats a lot of babies.'

She also talked about how amazing of a dad Adam makes.

Family time: Adam and Behati held their daughter Dusty while Adam was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 2017

The angel called the Maroon 5 front man 'an incredible dad' who's 'very hands on.' And she even said it's Adam who's the disciplinarian of the household.

Behati added, 'Hes almost the stricter parent and I thought I'd be the stricter one.'

Which turns out is completely fine with Prinsloo.

'He kinda took it, and Im okay with it. Hes so dedicated, hes so excited. Hes on tour right now and hes so sad to be away from them,' she said.

No wonder the gorgeous woman is open to having more kids.

According to Behati, 'Its so exciting to see your partner  you dont know how theyre going to be as a parent and you two together, and its amazing to see him really taking the role and loving it, especially with two girls.'
The catwalk has come home to Bravo.

Project Runway is back on it's original network for season 17 with some new faces and some familiar stars as Karlie Kloss steps into the role of host after Heidi Klum departed the series.

At the premiere event for television's most fashionable show, the hosts and mentors gushed about the new season with DailyMailTV's senior corespondent Alicia Quarles.

It's back! Project runway is returning to Bravo for season 17 and the cast (left to right Nina Garcia, Elaine Welteroth, Brandon Maxwell, Karlie Kloss and Christian Siriano) gushed about the series to DailyMailTV's Alicia Quarles at the premiere event

Kloss said that she is grateful for the experiences that she's had in her decade long career as one of the industry's top models and she's ready to help lead a new pack of talent.

'I've been able to learn from the most incredible designers and editors and photographer,' the statuesque blonde told Alicia.

Donning a sleek and sophisticated black dress with hooded satin blazer, Karlie looked ready for business.

'I feel like as a model and as someone in the industry I just have so much to share,' she explained.

New gig: Karlie Kloss is stepping into the role of host after Heidi Klum departed the series

'I've been able to learn from the most incredible designers and editors and photographer,' the statuesque blonde told DailyMailTV

'I feel like as a model and as someone in the industry I just have so much to share,' she explained.

Karlie added that she wants to 'help this next generation' of talent learn from her experience.

That was a sentiment shared by one of Hollywood's most coveted designers and a former winner of Project Runway, Christian Siriano.

'I hope that I can give this young new generation a little more real world advice because fashion is hard,' the 33-year-old fashion mogul said.

New crop of talent: Karlie said that her decade long career will help her usher in a new group of designers in fashion

Back on Bravo! Season four winner and an icon in fashion design, Christian Siriano, is returning as mentor and joining the cast as judges are Nina Garcia, Elaine Welteroth and Brandon Maxwell

The designer, beloved by celebrities and fashionistas for his every-body-is-a-beautiful-body approach to style, is returning to the show this season as a mentor.

'I really try to give the designers advice based on what is happening in my life, in the business right now,' he explained.

Christian's spectacular designs are red carpet mainstays and he's built a reputation for being one of the high end labels who will dress celebrities who've been turned down by others based on their body size and shape.

What to expect: Christian promised that the challenges the budding designers will face this season will address cultural issues around body diversity

An original: Project Runway veteran Nina Garcia said she was 'so honored' to be returning to the show this year

'I think it's important to dress people that you love and that you want to support,' Siriano told DailyMailTV. 'It's also important to embrace the culture that we're in which is diverse people.'

This season, the star promised that the challenges the budding designers will face will address some of those cultural issues around body diversity.

Season 17 marks the show's return to Bravo after an 11 season stint on Lifetime.

It also features fresh talent, after series regulars Zac Posen, Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum said 'Auf Wiedersehen' at the end of last season.

New faces: Series newcomer Brandon Maxwell said he is looking forward to being 'able to help someone' as a judge

Showstopper! Maxwell designed the stunning ballgown worn by Lady Gaga to the Oscars

Project Runway veteran Nina Garcia said she was 'so honored' to be returning to the show this year.

She added that the contestants that have a 'clear point of view and a clear brand and perspective' will have a leg up.

'Trends come and go,' the Elle Editor-in-chief said, 'but the point of view sticks around.'

Series newcomer Brandon Maxwell, who will join Garcia and beauty guru Elaine Welteroth as judges said he is looking forward to being 'able to help someone' in the series.

'I think it's important to dress people that you love and that you want to support,' Siriano told DailyMailTV. 'It's also important to embrace the culture that we're in which is diverse people.'

Maxwell's designs are beloved by Lady Gaga and he created the stunning black satin ballgown that she wore during her headline grabbing performance with Bradley Cooper and to accept her big Oscar win.

Brandon said Gaga's stylists 'hid it' from him and when she wore the gown it was a total surprise.

'I cried for 15 minutes,' he quipped.

The new season of Project Runway premiered Thursday March 14 at 8pm on Bravo.
Kris Jenner has admitted there's been 'a lot going on' in the Kardashian clan, amid the explosive fallout of the Jordyn Woods cheating scandal.

While the 63-year-old momager did not directly reference the scandal during an appearance on daughter Kendall Jenner's ZAZA WORLD RADIO on Beats 1 on Apple Music she did confess it's been a frantic time.

During the chat Kris also alluded to daughter Kylie's incredible business success after she was labelled as American's younger self-made billionaire, praising her daughters for their 'amazing work ethic.'

Tough time: Kris Jenner has admitted there's been 'a lot going on' in the Kardashian clan, amid the explosive fallout of the Jordyn Woods cheating scandal

Appearing on the radio show to mark International Women's Day, Kris touched on her own business success and how she passed on that determination to her children.

She said: 'There's just a lot going on with all of us, sometimes it's juggling.

'My one wish is truly for my kids, I will be happy when every single one of my kids has their career path sort of generally figured out, so that I feel like everybody has something to fall back on, have a great business lined up, that feels v important to me.'

Open: The 63-year-old momager was appearing on daughter Kendall's ZAZA World Radio show, in a special episode to mark International Women's Day

Brutal: Jordyn reportedly left the Kardashians furious, after she allegedly broke her non-disclosure agreement to speaking about the scandal on Jada Pinkett-Smith's talk show

Rough: The pal of Kylie Jenner has been extradited from the Kardashian fold, after it was revealed she kissed Khloe's boyfriend Tristan Thompson

The Kardashian-Jenner clan have been rocked in recent weeks, after it was revealed the Kylie Jenner's close friend Jordyn had kissed Khloe's boyfriend Tristan Thompson.

While Khloe has since split from Tristan, Jordyn reportedly infuriated Kris by breaking her non-disclosure agreement to appear on Jada Pinkett Smith's Red Table Talk show.

On the show Jordyn admitted that she and Tristan did kiss at a house party, and while Khloe originally defended Tristan, she later rebuffed that claim.

Horrific: Khloe has since split from Tristan, and although she originally insisted Jordyn was to blame for the kiss, she has since rebuffed the claim

During the radio appearance Kris went onto praise her daughters for their hard work and determination, admitting that their business sense has helped the family to achieve such success.

The star also said she was inspired by her own mother and grandmother, and they sparked her desire to open the children's clothing shop Smooch.



She explained: 'It was probably two years after Smooch opened that I met Ryan Seacrest, and I went to the girls and said we're going to do a reality show, everyone was so on board, but my train of through was this is so great, we're going to have this reality show and we're going to sell a lot more t-shirts.

'I had looked at my grandmother and mothers' example. I was accomplishing that and I was doing something my mother and grandmother both taught me this is the great way to make a living.

Proud: During the candid radio chat, Kris also praised her daughters for their 'amazing work ethic,' as she chatted about her own influences and determination to succeed

'They had the things they wanted in life but they were also going to work every single day that they loved, as that evolved and the show became a thing and we went from shooting Season One to Season Two without a day off I realised we're gonna roll up our sleeves and we were having the time of our lives.

'Kendall started working when she was 10 y/o, when it came to it she did not blink, and she still got such amazing work ethic.'

Kris' praise for her daughters comes just days after it was revealed that Kylie had been crowned the youngest US self-made billionaire in history, beating out Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.

The Instagram favourite has made millions thanks to her Kylie Lip Kit and cosmetics range, as well as numerous promotions on Instagram.
Vanderpump Rules star Scheana Shay has taken a swipe at rival reality show Lohan Beach Club.

The 33-year-old called out the MTV series for trying to recreate the magic of Vanderpump Rules - and also said that it would've been a 'snore' without cast member Kailah Casillas.

'Vanderpump Rules is successful because of how dynamic our ensemble cast is,' she told Daily Mail Australia on Monday.

'You can't just, like Lindsay Lohan, recreate Vanderpump Rules': Vanderpump Rules star Scheana Shay (pictured) took a swipe at MTV's Lohan Beach Club

'You can't just, like Lindsay Lohan, recreate Vanderpump Rules.'

She added: 'I think if my friend Kailah hadn't been on that show, it would've been a snore.'

Lohan Beach Club follows a similar formula to Vanderpump Rules, with Lindsay playing a Lisa Vanderpump-style boss who manages a team of young bartenders working at her club.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Lindsay Lohan's management for comment.

'I think if my friend Kailah hadn't been on that show, it would've been a snore,' the 33-year-old said (pictured: Scheana and Kailah)

Kailah was one of Lindsay's employees, but she was fired from the series after accusing the Mean Girls star of doing drugs and saying that she was 'cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs'.

While Scheana has little love for Lohan Beach Club, the brunette is more than keen to appear on MTV's upcoming reboot of The Hills.

'They're my friends,' she gushed of The Hills cast. 'That show is the epitome of Los Angeles and reality TV. That's where it started, with The Hills.'

Premise: Lohan Beach Club follows a similar formula to Vanderpump Rules, with Lindsay playing a Lisa Vanderpump-style boss who manages a team of young bartenders

Drama: Kailah was one of Lindsay Lohan's employees on Lohan Beach Club, but she was fired from the series after accusing the Mean Girls star of doing drugs

'Even before The Kardashians were popular, The Hills paved the way for shows like Vanderpump Rules.'

'I feel like it would be so natural and real to do those types of crossovers because it's a show about L.A., and we're really friends from L.A.'

However, Scheana insisted that she 'never wants to leave Vanderpump Rules', and clarified that she just wants to see more crossovers between different reality shows.

A new episode of Vanderpump Rules is available each Tuesday on Foxtel and hayu, same day as the U.S.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Wednesday had reserved the order after hearing various contesting parties.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce order on Friday on whether to refer Ayodhyas Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation for amicable settlement.

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Wednesday had reserved the order after hearing various contesting parties.

Hindu bodies except Nirmohi Akhara have opposed the suggestion of the apex court to refer the issue for mediation, while Muslim bodies have supported it.

Earlier on Wednesday, the apex court told all parties in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute case that they know the dispute is not an issue of land alone but one of sentiment and faith. It is not only about the property. It is about mind, heart and healing, if possible, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had said. It reserved its decision on referring the case to a court-appointed mediator. During the hearing, the judges had observed it cannot undo what Mughal emperor Babur did centuries ago and that it is more concerned about the current situation.
Madonna used Instagram on Friday to wish a 'Happy International Womens day to the most inspiring woman I know,' her daughter Lourdes 'Lola' Leon.

The 60-year-old pop icon proudly uploaded a video of her 22-year-old impressively working through some choreography in a dance studio.

Lourdes, who at the age of 15 was a backup dancer on Madonna's world tour, is the Material Girl's daughter by her fitness trainer ex Carlos Leon.

Proud mama: Madonna used Instagram on Friday to wish a 'Happy International Womens day to the most inspiring woman I know' - her daughter Lourdes 'Lola' Leon

When Madonna was first bringing her daughter on tour, an insider told the Mail On Sunday: 'It is the first time Lourdes will have appeared on stage with her mum.'

The insider continued: 'There are risque dancers and some blatantly sexual dance routines  but Madonna is really excited about Lourdes making an appearance.'

On top of being a world-famous pop star, Madonna is a mother of six children, two of whom she gave birth to and the other four of whom she adopted from Malawi.

Lourdes is the Desperately Seeking Susan star's firstborn child, and Rocco, 18, was borne of Madonna's failed marriage to Guy Ritchie.

Hard work: The 60-year-old pop icon proudly uploaded a video of her 22-year-old impressively working through some choreography in a dance studio

Mover and shaker: Lourdes, who at the age of 15 was a backup dancer on Madonna's world tour, is the Material Girl's daughter by her fitness trainer ex Carlos Leon

Madonna's youngest children are six-year-old twins Stella and Estere, whose adoption she received court approval for in February 2017.

Stella and Estere's elder adopted siblings are David Banda and Mercy James, both 13, whom Madonna brought home from Malawi in 2006 and 2009, respectively.

Madonna appeared to respond in January to the public debate about whether she has had cosmetic buttock augmentation.

Spot the resemblance: Madonna and Lourdes are pictured at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in 2011, a year before the young girl joined her mother on tour

'Desperately Seeking No Ones Approval..................,' the Like A Prayer icon wrote on Instagram in a nod to her 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan.

She added: 'And Entitled to Free Agency Over My Body Like Everyone Else!! Thank you 2019! Its Going to Be an amazing Year!! ! #2019 #freedom #respect #nofear #nodiscrimination'.

Fans queried if she had her rear cosmetically enhanced after a video surfaced of her playing New York's famous gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, on New Year's Eve.

'Free Agency': Madonna appeared to respond January to the public debate about whether she has had buttock augmentation after she played the Stonewall Inn on New Year's Eve
For 50-year-old Andy Cohen, fatherhood is an all-new adventure, one he seems to adore.

On Friday the Watch What Happens Live host shared a picture to Instagram with his sleeping newborn son tucked tightly into his chest.

The Bravo executive grinned for the image which he captioned, 'I now run a snuggle factory in the West Village.'

Open for business: Andy Cohen, 50, joked about how he now runs a snuggle factory in New York thanks to his newborn son, Benjamin Allen, which he posted about on Instagram Friday

The little boy, Benjamin Allen Cohen, is only one month old, making Andy a proud new dad.

Bravo's famous talk show host matched his boy as they both wore dark blue clothing.

Benjamin rested his little face against Andy's chest as he peacefully slept with his dad's arms wrapped around him.

Play dates coming: With two kids of his own, Jimmy Fallon peered at friend Andy's son just weeks after his birth

Since his birth via a mystery surrogate on February 4, baby Ben, who Andy calls his 'dream baby,' has been the center of attention.

All of his dad's famous friends have already visited, crooning over the child and his full head of dark hair.

From fellow host Jimmy Fallon, 44, to John Mayer, 41, Benjamin has been graced by the presence of some of Hollywood's most elite.

Other fellow TV personalities like Kelly Ripa, 48, and Anderson Cooper, 51, also stopped by to cuddle.

Not so sure: Benjamin looked a bit confused as Kelly Ripa propped the newborn up in her arms during a visit
The parents have come to play this week on Greys Anatomy.

From Alexs (Justin Chambers) mother wanting grandkids to DeLucas (Giacomo Gianniotti) father creating babies in a sac  dont worry, well explain later  this episode is all about the people who raised our favorite Grey Sloan Memorial doctors. Even Ellis (Kate Burton) comes to Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) in a dream.

DeLucas father, Vincenzo (Lorenzo Caccialanza), and Carina (Stefania Spampinato), shockingly arrived in Seattle during last weeks episode. DeLuca has a contentious relationship with his father to say the least, so his entry isnt exactly met with open arms.

Meredith finds herself having to side with either Alex or DeLuca during a difficult situation, but she doesn't want to betray either of them.

DeLuca's dad Vincenzo wants to research an idea about babies being born outside of the womb, and Alex goes to Meredith with the idea.

Meredith's mom came to her in a dream and apparently gave Meredith a sign. Its not exactly clear what Meredith is working on, but were sure its probably going to change the world.

But, Vincenzo has a brilliant idea and he wants to pitch the idea to Alex. Vincenzo presents his plan to research external gestation aka creating a baby inside a sac. We know, it sounds strange. According to Vincenzo, this idea allows babies to develop outside of the womb.

Alex goes to Meredith with the brilliant baby in a sac idea, but she is working on some research of her own. Ellis came to her daughter the night before in a dream and apparently gave Meredith a sign, because of course she did! Its not exactly clear what Meredith is working on, but were sure its probably going to change the world.

Meredith tells Alex to look deeper into Vincenzos past, because, as fans will remember, Vincenzo has a history of mental illness and accidentally killed four people while operating during a mental break.

However, despite having a complicated relationship with his father, DeLuca wants him to do the research. He realizes it could lead to a huge medical breakthrough and it appears he wants to be closer to his father. Carina, on the other hand, wants to shut the research down.

Maggie records a podcast about her upbringing and accidentally reveals shes the love child of Richard and Ellis.

Richard is of course upset with Maggie and makes her feel bad for sharing her story and publicizing his affair, but he eventually comes around.

Meanwhile Alexs mother, Helen, unknowingly puts pressure on him and Jo (Camilla Luddington) to have children. Though Helen means well, she gives Jo and Alex hand knit baby hats, which sends Jo into a spiral. She wants children with Alex, but shes afraid her genetics will mess up their future kids.

Elsewhere, Maggie (Kelly McCreary) records a podcast about her upbringing and accidentally reveals shes the love child of Richard (James Pickens Jr.) and Ellis.

Richard is of course upset with Maggie and makes her feel bad for sharing her story and publicizing his affair, but he eventually comes around. He realizes shes the best thing to come out of his affair with Ellis and is thankful she has the best parts of both of them.

Following their split last week, Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) and Owen (Kevin McKidd) meet with a lawyer so they can move forward with their adoption of Leo.

Amelia decides to remove her name from the paperwork and not go forward with co-adopting Leo. Looks like these two may really be over for good!

Schmitt finally tells Nico he loves him. Though theyve been going strong for awhile, its nice to see them finally use the L-word.

Following their split last week, Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) and Owen (Kevin McKidd) meet with a lawyer so they can move forward with their adoption of Leo. Though they try to figure out the custody details in a civil manner, things quickly go south.

Owen wants Amelia back in his life for good, but Amelia isnt interested. She knows his relationship with Teddy (Kim Raver) is complicated and she doesnt want to be stuck in the middle. In fact, Amelia decides to remove her name from the paperwork and not go forward with co-adopting Leo. Looks like these two may really be over for good!

The best moment of the night, however, comes when Schmitt (Jake Borelli) aka Glasses finally tells Nico (Alex Landi) he loves him. Though theyve been going strong for awhile, its nice to see them finally use the L-word! Will DeLuca and Meredith be next?! Only time will tell!
Australia is facing greater risks to the income it rakes in from agricultural exports, as trade tensions continue between China and the United States.

But the weak Australian dollar and improving commodity prices are cushioning the nation's export earnings, according to the federal government's commodity forecaster.

In its latest outlook released on Tuesday, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARES) is expecting the volume of farm production to decline by six per cent in 2018/19.

That comes as the drought in Australia is expected to lead to an 11 per cent fall in crop production, with winter crops - those harvested in spring or summer - significantly lower.

Production of livestock and livestock products is expected to dip by two per cent this year, with the drought also affecting milk and wool output.

Fewer live animal exports have also contributed to the fall, largely due to such exports being stopped during the northern hemisphere's summer months.

But production hasn't been down in all parts of the nation, with Western Australia reporting one of the biggest winter crop harvests on record, helping to provide a buffer to the national total.

ABARES is sticking by its prediction Australian farmers will produce $58 billion worth of goods in 2018/19, down by four per cent from 2017/18.

Farms are expected to be less profitable than the two years past, with the average income for all broadacre farms projected to fall by 18 per cent from $201,300 per farm in 2017/18 to $173,000 in 2018/19.

Western Australia's strong crops mean it's again not in line with that trend, with its average income to ride from $368,800 to $490,000.

Broadly, higher commodity prices and the weak Australian dollar have helped income figures prove stronger than they could be by increasing export returns.

Grain prices are tipped to increase by 11 per cent on average in the year, with a small rise in prices of livestock and livestock products.

Nonetheless, ABARES believes export earnings will decline by six per cent in 2018/19 and could cut 0.2 percentage points from national economic growth figures.

The longer-term picture for Australian agricultural export earnings is more uncertain among rising risks to global economic growth, ABARES says.

"Trade tensions could lower income growth in Australia's largest export markets, and competition is increasing in many important markets."

The forecaster has highlighted trade tensions between China and the United States and noted competition among grain and livestock exporters.
Nine members of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang have now been charged over an attack that ended with a man shot in the leg at a Queensland shopping centre.

But police deny the ugly incident a month ago is a sign of "gang war" in the state.

"This is two groups of people who have been involved in a dispute," Detective Inspector Glen Donaldson told reporters on Wednesday.

"And any time you get groups of people together there will be flare-ups, particularly when you have criminals involved."

In the most recent arrest, a 33-year-old man from Upper Coomera was on Tuesday charged with affray and acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm.

Twelve people have now been charged over the shooting at the Logan Hyperdome on February 4.

Police allege a group of people went to the shopping centre for a pre-arranged meeting with two other men.

When the meeting soured, violence broke out.

One of the Rebels bikes is accused of shooting one of the men who had allegedly pulled out a machete.

The nine gang members face a maximum seven-year sentence if convicted.

Last year under bikie laws, police arrested 1179 people on 3665 charges and, since 2015, have seized more than $12.2 million in assets.

The detective said "relentless police pressure" had driven 210 people to leave bikie gangs.
The biggest threat to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton retaining his federal seat in Brisbane's outskirts has held a fundraiser in an inner-city pub 750 kilometres away.

About 100 people paid $40 each to hear Labor's candidate for Dickson Ali France speak in the Sydney suburb of Balmain on Tuesday night.

The disability advocate and former journalist said Mr Dutton had boasted in 2018 of having access to a $650,000 war chest to hold onto his marginal seat in northwest Brisbane.

"I think he will spend a lot more than that and that is why I'm so grateful you could lend your support tonight," she told the crowd in Unity Hall Hotel.

"Obviously, we are finding it a bit difficult to compete with that war chest."

Ms France said she'd been invited to the seat by local MP Anthony Albanese, who told the crowd the truth was "everyone here would support any candidate who was going to replace Peter Dutton".

"But let me tell you another truth - Ali is an outstanding candidate in her own right and absolutely deserving of your support," Mr Albanese said.

"She's the anti-Dutton ... she's progressive, left-wing (and) a feminist."

Dickson's first member - former attorney general Michael Lavarch - was among those in attendance.

Ms France also held a fundraiser in Melbourne in February with support from left-wing commentator Van Badham.

Mr Dutton suffered a five per cent swing against him at the 2016 election but retained Dickson for a fifth time, with a margin of 1.6 per cent.
A defence psychiatrist has told a Jerusalem court that accused child sex offender Malka Leifer is not fit to be extradited to Australia to face charges.

Dr Gregory Katz, who works in Jerusalem's Kfar Shaul Mental Health Centre was cross-examined on Wednesday.

Melbourne sisters Dassi Erlich and Nicole Meyer have been at the forefront of a campaign to have Leifer sent back to Australia to face 74 charges of child sexual abuse and rape.

The charges stem from Leifer's time as principal of the ultra-orthodox Adass Israel School in Melbourne.

Now in the 47th hearing since Leifer was arrested in Israel last February, the court continued to hear statements on her mental health and capacity to be extradited.

Both Erlich and Meyer travelled to Israel specifically for this closed hearing in the Jerusalem District Court.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Erlich stressed how difficult it was to sit in the room with Leifer and her supporters.

"It was hard, it was hard to sit there behind her family who are hoping for a very different outcome than we are," Erlich told AAP.

"It was hard to sit there watching them hold Jewish objects, praying to a God and we're wondering what God they're praying to that protects abusers."

"It was hard to hear them talking about her mental health. What about our mental health? This has gone on for so long, we just want this to end."

Erlich stressed that her and other survivors of Leifer's alleged abuse, had no idea who to trust anymore.

Israeli Deputy Health Minister Ya'acov Litzman was summoned for questioning by police last month on the accusation he tried to source psychiatric evaluations in favour of Leifer.

Manny Waks, the CEO of Kol V'oz, an organisation preventing sexual abuse in the Jewish community, expressed his support to Erlich and her sisters.

"My thoughts are with the courageous sisters - Nicole, Dassi and Elly - who travelled especially for this hearing," Waks told AAP.

"Hopefully this entire saga will soon come to a conclusion with Leifer being put back on a plane to Australia to finally face justice."

Erlich reiterated that she and her sisters were not planning to give up.

We'll continue fighting to make sure Malka Leifer is not able to hurt anybody else," Erlich said.

"We're doing this for every victim that goes through court processes and gives up because of how difficult and triggering it is."

The cross-examination of defence psychiatrists will continue next week.
Victorian police should not have unbridled authority to take DNA from suspected crooks, say two crossbench MPs who've already helped thwart government legislation.

Liberal Democrats David Limbrick and Tim Quilty plan to move changes to the Labor government's wide-ranging Justice Legislation Amendment Bill.

Included in the bill are expanded powers allowing police to collect DNA from anyone, even children as young as 15, suspected of committing a serious offence. And they could do so without the need for a court order.

Mr Limbrick says DNA is a detailed compilation of personal information, more so than fingerprints, and he has concerns about data security, the potential for innocent people to have their DNA on a police database forever, or to be wrongfully convicted.

"The justification for this at the moment is it's an administrative barrier, but there's courts that can deal with this within 24 hours," Mr Limbrick told AAP.

"I require a lot more convincing than that, I think it's dangerous."

The Liberal Democrats amendments would either ditch the DNA collection part of the bill, or at least raise the bar to only collect from people who are charged.

The laws were re-introduced in February after stalling in parliament before the November election.

The Victorian government says the laws are vital for the more than 55,000 unsolved crimes with unmatched DNA.

Samples collected would be subject to the same privacy and security requirements currently required when a court order is issued.

"We're giving police the DNA powers they need to quickly and most effectively identify and prosecute offenders - this is about cracking down on recidivist offenders and ensuring victims can get the justice they deserve," Police Minister Lisa Neville told AAP.

The issue was raised again following the January rape and murder of Palestinian exchange student Aiia Maasarwe in suburban Melbourne.

Her accused attacker, Codey Herrmann, had previously come into contact with police and his DNA may have been on file if such laws were in place. Therefore meaning he could have been identified faster.

The bill is likely to be debated in state parliament on Thursday.

The Liberal Democrats' amendment comes in the same week they joined the opposition and other crossbenchers to reject a government push to hand four Labor MPs a pay rise.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is spending the next few days in Western Australia and the state's political leader has already flagged his funding wishlist ahead of the federal budget in April.

Noting his government had secured a lot of money from Canberra recently, Premier Mark McGowan said he would like more cash for Labor's flagship Metronet rail project.

The federal government has already committed $500 million for the Ellenbrook line but Mr McGowan said he would welcome more money for the outer-metro link to Perth.

"There's some additional level crossings they could support as well and some additional technological enhancements on the rail network," he told reporters on Wednesday.

Mr McGowan also called for more funding for regional roads.

These included the Karratha-Tom Price Road, which is set to be sealed but has been complicated by the discovery of asbestos contamination.

It was historically a transport route for product from Wittenoom, which is now a deadly ghost town.

Mr McGowan also wants cash for the unfinished Albany Ring Road.

"Those sorts of projects are important and the Commonwealth could provide some additional support for those," he said.
After Melbourne's coldest March day in almost four years, more cool conditions in Victoria will be music to firefighters' ears as they battle bushfires across the state.

The temperature in the city dropped to about 10C overnight, while milder temperatures across the state are expected to help firefighters get on top of the two dozen blazes.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Rod Dixon told AAP cooler conditions would grip Victoria on Thursday, after a top of 17.2C in Melbourne a day earlier.

"We are seeing cooler conditions right across the state. Cooler conditions will help the fires, they do not generally spread as much in cooler weather and lighter winds are more favourable," Mr Dixon said.

But fickle weather is still on the cards for the state with west to southwesterly winds turning north to northwesterly near one of the worst bushfires still blazing in Bunyip.

Bunyip is forecast to hit mid- to high-20s in the coming days, the bureau warns.

Milder conditions have already reduced the bushfire threat to towns after many have remained on standby since Friday, burning some 60,000 hectares statewide.

Nine homes have been claimed in the Bunyip fire while another two homes are gone in the Yinnar in central Gippsland, with another 23 buildings damaged or destroyed.
Justice Kalifullah, mediation expert Sriram Panchu and spiritual guru Sri Sri to help settle dispute.

Chennai: The Supreme Court on Friday referred the decades old Ayodhya-Babri Masjid title dispute case for mediation. The apex court constituted a three-member panel headed by Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifullah, a retired judge of the Supreme Court.

The other members of the panel are spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior Chennai advocate Sriram Panchu, coincidentally all are from Tamil Nadu with currently Bengaluru-based Sri Sri having been born in Papanasam, near Thanjavur in the state.

Born on July 23, 1951, Justice Ibrahim Kalifullah (68) is the son of late Justice M. Fakkir Mohamed. Hailing from Karaikudi at Sivagangai district in Tamil Nadu, Justice Ibrahim Kalifullah was enrolled as an advocate on August 20, 1975 and appointed as judge of the Madras high court on March 2, 2000.

During his tenure as a judge of the Madras high court, he rendered many landmark judgments. In one case relating to local body election, namely Chennai City Corporation, sitting in a division bench with Justice S.J. Mukopadhaya, he rendered a dissenting verdict holding that the election in respect of 99 wards was liable to be set aside. The matter was referred to a third judge, who confirmed the view of Justice Ibrahim Kalifullah. He was transferred to the high court of Jammu and Kashmir and assumed charge on February 24, 2011.

He was appointed as acting chief justice of high court of Jammu and Kashmir on April 7, 2011. He took oath as chief justice of high court of Jammu and Kashmir on September 18, 2011. He was elevated as judge of the Supreme Court of India on April 2, 2012 and retired on July 22, 2016. Well make every effort to resolve the issue amicably, he said on learning of his appointment to head the mediation panel.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (62) is a universally revered spiritual and humanitarian leader. In 1981, he established The Art of Living, an educational and humanitarian NGO, which works in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. He has visited Sri Lanka four times since 2005 to resolve the crisis. His peace initiatives in Jammu and Kashmir focused among other things on healing the trauma of decades of militancy, facilitating dialogue between people from different ideological groups and improving the inhumane conditions in migrant camps. His visit to Jammu and Kashmir in 2006 culminated in a dialogue between leaders of several representatives of the Kashmiri Pandits.

Taking to Twitter soon after the mediation panel announcement came from the top court, Sri Sri said, Respecting everyone, turning dreams into reality. Ending long standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society - we must all move together towards these goals.

Senior advocate Sriram Panchu (69) is a leading internationally recognised Indian mediator. After completing his B.L. from Government Law College in Mumbai, Sriram Panchu started practicing in 1976 at the Madras high court. He was designated as a senior advocate in 1996 and specialised in constitutional and commercial laws. For nearly 30 years, he has been in the forefront of mediation movement in India. He has been instrumental in bringing mediation into Indias dispute resolution system.

In 2005, he set up Indias first court-annexed mediation centre at the Madras high court and has gone on to assist the Supreme Court and other High Courts in this regard. He has also trained over 1,000 mediators while having mediated in a large number of complex and high value commercial disputes in India and abroad. He has been appointed by the Supreme Court to mediate significant public disputes including

the one pertaining to 60 year old border dispute between the States of Assam and Nagaland involving 500 sq.kms of land and a dispute within the Parsi community in Mumbai over a ban on priests.

Sriram Panchu is the President of the national association Mediators India. He is a Director of the International Mediation Institute and is on the panel of senior mediators of national and international institutions. It is a very serious responsibility given to me by the Honble Supreme Court. I will do my best, he said.
Facebook has defended its "reporting tools" after ex-NRL player Mark Geyer took aim at the NRL Memes page which falsely suggested his daughter had been caught up in the league's latest sex tapes scandal.

Geyer, a former Penrith player and media identity, has threatened legal action against the Facebook page "NRL Memes" after it suggested his daughter, Montanna, was one of two women featured in the Tyrone May sex tapes.

"It's all bullshit -- it's not my daughter," Geyer told News Corp Australia.

A Facebook spokeswoman on Wednesday said the page was subsequently removed for violating the company's "community standards".

Facebook Australia's public policy director Mia Garlick has labelled the situation "tragic".

"We have reporting tools built in around the site to try to ensure that people can let us know if that type of content is on our service," she told reporters in Sydney.

"We invest in a significant reporting infrastructure to try and ensure we can remove that content as soon as we are aware of it."

Facebook removes content which violates someone's privacy, sexual content such as revenge porn and images that are shared without someone's consent.

"We are increasingly using automation to try to help us better and more quickly and proactively identify harmful content even before it is reported to us," Ms Garlick said when quizzed about the time it took to remove the NRL Memes post.

The social media giant is currently piloting a program to stop non-consensual images from being shared in the first place.

Victims can provide a photo to Facebook which then creates an "image fingerprint" which blocks the intimate image from being shared.

"This is certainly something that we take incredibly seriously and that we are investing significantly in," the policy director said.

May was charged under revenge porn laws and stood down by the NRL on Tuesday after turning himself into police.

The Penrith player was charged with two counts of recording an intimate image without consent and two counts of disseminating an image without consent.

The women in the separate videos were unaware they were being filmed and did not consent to the recording or its distribution, detectives allege.

Under NSW's revenge porn laws offenders face up to three years in jail and an $11,000 fine.

May has been granted bail to face Penrith Local Court on May 1.
Healthcare operations at the Christmas Island detention centre will be expanded to cater for more than 500 asylum seekers, under the federal government's new processing measures.

An extra 60 medical staff, including 35 mental health professionals, will be sent to the island off Western Australia, taking the total to 72, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age reported on Thursday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison toured a newly-reopened high-security facility on Christmas Island on Wednesday. The North West Point detention centre will house detainees seeking medical evacuation from Nauru and Manus and who are deemed too dangerous to go to mainland Australia.
Labor has welcomed the chance to vote on the federal government's proposed "big stick" to break up energy companies, so the laws can be shelved.

A group of six Queensland Nationals MP are calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to put the draft laws back on the parliamentary agenda during April's budget week so they can be rubber stamped.

But shadow treasurer Chris Bowen told ABC radio Labor is "happy for it to come on for a vote because we'll be voting against it".
Two men have been charged over an ice seizure in Adelaide with an estimated street value of $13.5 million.

The pair allegedly imported about 18 kilograms of methamphetamine hidden in modified 4WD recovery winches.

The were arrested after police raided properties in the Adelaide suburbs of Wingfield and Modbury Heights on Tuesday.

Australian Federal Police, South Australia Police and Australian Border Force will address the media on Thursday on their joint investigation into an organised crime syndicate, which led to the arrests and seizure.
Environmentalists are calling on the prime minister and NSW premier to stop plans for a new coal-fired power station in the Hunter Valley.

Hong Kong-based group Kaisun Holdings last week announced it had entered into a memorandum of understanding with state-owned conglomerate China Energy Engineering Corporation and local company Cavcorp Australia for the development of two "ultra super critical" coal-fired power plant in the Hunter, with a 2000-megawatt capacity.

The federal government said it was aware of the MOU but was not involved.

"As there could be potential future approval processes, the government doesn't propose commenting on this matter further," a spokesman for Energy Minister Angus Taylor said on Thursday.

It's understood the NSW Department of Planning and Environment has not yet received an application for the project.

"If one is received, it will be considered and processed in the normal manner," a spokesman for NSW Planning Minister Anthony Roberts told AAP.

Greenpeace says the project "makes no sense" and has called on Scott Morrison and Gladys Berejiklian to to rule out any new coal generation.

"If the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian want to show us that they are no longer besotted by coal, they will rule out building these coal plants right off the bat," campaigner Jonathan Moylan said in a statement on Thursday.

"Australians are ready to embrace the energy transition."

However, federal Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly said the plan was "exactly" what the Australian energy market needs.

"If the government needs to underwrite it, if it needs a little bit of help, then that's what we should be doing," he told the ABC.
Detectives are scouring bushland halfway between Sydney and Canberra after discovering several items they believe may be linked to the suspicious disappearance of a young woman.

Samah Baker was last seen by a friend after being dropped to her Parramatta home in the early hours of January 4.

The 30-year-old was reported missing by relatives later that day after they could not get in contact with her.

Local detectives, with help from the homicide squad, launched an immediate investigation and on Wednesday began a forensic search of bushland at Yarra, southwest of Goulburn.

Officers found "several" items that may be relevant to the investigation and have been seized for forensic examination, NSW Police said in a statement.

The search is expected to continue on Thursday.

"We believe there are people out there who may know where Samah is but are fearful or reluctant to come forward," Superintendent Julie Boon said.

"To them I say, please put yourselves in the shoes of the Baker family. They want to find their beloved daughter and sister and bring her home."

Police are appealing for anyone driving along the Hume Highway between 9pm and midnight on January 4 with dashcam footage to come forward.

"It could just be that small detail ... that could help investigators find Samah," Supt Boom said.

It was revealed on Monday that the woman's social media accounts have been updated since she was last seen, but investigators were still treating her disappearance as suspicious.

Samah's family are devastated the "outgoing, vivacious and kind-hearted" woman remains missing.

"We want to find her and bring her home, back where she belongs. Please, if you know where she is, we are begging you to call police," the family said in a statement earlier in the week.
Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig now works for the International Crisis Group think tank

China suspects detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig of spying and stealing state secrets, state media reported Monday, amid tensions between Ottawa and Beijing over the possible extradition of a top Huawei executive.

Another Canadian in detention -- businessman Michael Spavor -- was one of Kovrig's main sources of intelligence, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing Chinese authorities.

The pair were detained in December just days after Canada arrested Chinese telecom giant Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, at the request of the United States.

Chinese authorities had previously said the two men were under investigation on suspicion of endangering national security. Spying charges could expose them to tough prison sentences.

Kovrig, who now works for the International Crisis Group think tank, had often entered China using a non-diplomatic passport and business visas and has been gathering intelligence since 2017, Xinhua said.

The new allegations come days after Canada launched the extradition process against Meng, who faces a court hearing in Vancouver on Wednesday.

The United States wants to put her on trial on fraud charges for alleged Iran sanctions-busting and lying to US banks about it.

Ottawa has said the two Canadian citizens were "arbitrarily" detained and that interrogations of Kovrig breached the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations -- allegations Beijing flatly rejected.
An emergency medical helicopter crashed in a southwestern Iranian village on Monday en route to treat a pregnant mother, killing all five people on board, state TV reported.

"Following the request to save the life of a 26-year old pregnant mother who needed emergency care ... a helicopter was dispatched which unfortunately had an accident," said Pir Hossein Koolivand, who heads Iran's emergency services.

"Three crew members and two first aid workers were martyred", he added.

Koolivand did not elaborate on the cause of the crash.

The crew was dispatched to a mountainous village 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Shahr-e Kord city in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari province, emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi told semi-official news agency ILNA.

State news agency IRNA said the helicopter collided with a transmission tower, while state TV said it had crashed into the mountains.

The Zagros mountain range which passes through Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari has been the site of several crashes in recent years.

A private plane crashed in the area early last year killing all eleven passengers, including the daughter of a prominent Turkish businessman and her friends who were returning home from a hen party.

In February 2018 a passenger plane operated by Iran's Aseman Airlines crashed in the Zagros range, killing all 66 people on board.
The agreement is in danger less than a month after it was signed by President Faustin-Archange Touadera

Less than a month after it was signed, the Central African Republic's peace agreement was under strain on Monday after a militia group abandoned the deal and a second said it was quitting a new government designed to be the keystone of the accord.

The Democratic Front of the Central African People (FPDC), one of 14 armed groups that inked the so-called Khartoum Agreement, announced it was walking away in protest at a newly formed government.

The FPDC "is resolved purely and simply to withdraw from the peace process," it said in a statement sent to AFP.

The group, whose stronghold is in the northwest, protested that the new government formed on Sunday was "far from being inclusive".

Just hours after the ministerial list was unveiled, the Popular Front for the Renaissance of the Central African Republic (FPRC), said it was leaving the government.

The FPRC did not specify whether it planned to remain part of the peace process, but charged the authorities with "bad faith, amateurism and incompetence."

The peace agreement was forged after negotiations in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum before being signed in Bangui on February 6.

The deal brings together President Faustin-Archange Touadera and the leaders of the 14 armed groups who control most of the CAR.

It is the eighth attempt to bring peace to the CAR, one of the world's poorest and most unstable countries, since mainly Muslim rebels ousted president Francois Bozize, a Christian, in 2013.

France, the former colonial ruler, intervened militarily under a UN mandate as fears grew of a Rwandan-style genocide.

The Seleka were forced from power and in February 2016, Touadera, a former prime minister, was elected president.

- Anger -

Under peace accord's provisions, Touadera agreed to form an "inclusive" government.

But in the team unveiled on Sunday, the ministers in sensitive key posts all kept their jobs, while six of the 14 armed groups obtained no post at all.

One of those left out, the Movement of Central African Freedom Fighters for Justice (MLCJ), a small group in the north of the country, warned the authorities "to look again" at the list.

The armed groups had also demanded that prime minister be chosen from their ranks.

But the job was handed to Firmin Ngrebada, Touadera's former cabinet director.

"By playing at 'Let's take the same people and start over', the president of the republic ... has stifled all hope at birth," the FPRC said.

The deal was prepared in 2017 by the African Union and has the support of Bangui's partners, notably former colonial power France, along with a 12,000-strong UN stabilisation mission, MINUSCA.

But militia groups, often claiming to defend an ethnicity or religious group, still hold sway over four-fifths of the country.

Armed groups and conflict minerals in the Central African Republic

Fighting, typically for control of natural resources, has left thousands dead and forced a quarter of the population of 4.5 million from their homes.

Other provisions in the agreement include the launch of a "Truth, Justice, Reparation and Reconciliation Commission" within 90 days and the start of joint patrols by militia members and the security forces.

The agreement does not spell out any amnesty for militia leaders -- something that had been a stumbling block in past agreements. However, the president may exercise a "discretionary right to issue pardons".
In this file picture, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika votes at a polling station in Algiers on November 23, 2017 in local elections

Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria's longest-serving president and a veteran of its independence war, is a political survivor battling to stay in power despite ailing health after two decades at the helm.

Bouteflika, who turned 82 on Saturday, has changed campaign manager and had his registration submitted at the 11th hour for the country's April 18 presidential poll from a hospital bed in Switzerland where he has been undergoing "routine medical tests".

The president, who uses a wheelchair, vowed in a letter read out on state television Sunday to organise a "national conference" if re-elected that would set a date for further polls which he would not contest.

"I pledge not to be a candidate in that election which will ensure I am succeeded in undeniable conditions of serenity, freedom and transparency," he wrote in the face of massive demonstrations against his candidacy for a fifth term in office.

Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013 that impaired his speech and forced him to use the wheelchair.

But even before his stroke, Bouteflika had repeatedly marked himself out as a wily political survivor.

When he came to power twenty years ago, with the support of an army battling Islamist guerrillas, nobody expected him to stay in office for so long.

But "Boutef", as many Algerians nickname him, was instrumental in fostering peace after a decade-long civil war in the 1990s.

"I am the whole of Algeria. I am the embodiment of the Algerian people," he said in 1999, the year he first became president.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika

He has had a long battle with illness and frequently flown to France or Switzerland for treatment.

Known for wearing a three-piece suit even in the stifling heat, he gained respect from many for his role in ending the civil war, which official figures say killed nearly 200,000 people.

But he has also faced criticism from rights groups and opponents who accuse him of being authoritarian.

After his stroke, Bouteflika consolidated power in a country where the shadowy intelligence service has long been viewed as a "state within a state".

In early 2016, he dissolved the all-powerful DRS intelligence agency after dismissing its leader General Mohamed Mediene, known as "Toufik", who had clung to the post for a quarter of a century.

- Architect of peace -

Bouteflika was born in Morocco on March 2, 1937 to a family from western Algeria.

At the age of 19, he joined the National Liberation Front (FLN) in its struggle against the French colonial rulers.

When independence came in 1962, he was appointed minister of sport and tourism at the age of just 25, under Algeria's first post-independence president, Ahmed Ben Bella.

The following year he became foreign minister, a post he held for more than a decade.

But he was sidelined after the death of president Houari Boumediene in 1978 and went into self-imposed exile.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika casts his ballot on 16 September 1999 in Algiers

While he was abroad, the military-backed government cancelled 1991 elections which an Islamist party had been poised to win.

That sparked a decade of bloodletting.

Bouteflika returned from Switzerland in 1999 to stand for president, with the backing of the army, which saw him as a potential figure of reconciliation.

He proposed an amnesty for rebels who laid down their arms and twice secured public endorsement for "national reconciliation" through referendums.

The first, in September 1999, was a major gamble -- but it paid off, leading to a sharp decrease in violence that helped propel Bouteflika to a second term in 2004.

A constitutional amendment was required to allow him to stand for a third term, which he won in 2009.

When the Arab Spring erupted in January 2011, Bouteflika rode out the storm by lifting a 19-year state of emergency and using oil revenues to grant pay rises.

His supporters argue that under his stewardship, public and private investment has created millions of jobs and dramatically lowered unemployment.

But a lack of opportunities and high youth unemployment keep driving many Algerians to seek a better life abroad.

- Uncertain future -

In April 2013, the president was rushed to hospital in France after his stroke, and spent three months recovering.

He had already been hospitalised in Paris in 2005 because of intestinal problems, and in early 2006 spent a week undergoing post-operative medical tests at the same hospital.

Fidel Castro and Abdelaziz Bouteflika attend a ceremony in Havana, Cuba on April 15, 2000 during an official visit by the Algerian president

Already back in 2014, Bouteflika's decision to seek a fourth mandate after 15 years in power sparked both criticism and derision from opponents, who questioned his ability to rule.

He did not even campaign, casting his vote from a wheelchair, but still officially won 81 percent of the vote.

There has been constant speculation over his health and his fourth mandate has been marred by falling oil prices, exposing the country's heavy dependence on hydrocarbons.

Critics argue that uncertainty over Bouteflika's fitness for a fifth term -- and speculation over possible successors -- has frozen the government.
Chawda has joined the saffron party immediately after resignation, while Mr Sabaria is expected to join very soon.

Ahmedabad: Ahead of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet, which is to be held in Ahmedabad on March 12, the state unit of the party is facing a huge embarrassment as its MLAs are resigning one by one and joining the BJP. The latest to do so are Jawahar Chavda and Purushottam Sabaria from the Manavadar and Halwad constituencies respectively. Both MLAs have put their papers to the speaker of the Assembly. Mr Chawda has joined the saffron party immediately after resignation, while Mr Sabaria is expected to join very soon. With these resignations, Congress tally in the Assembly has been reduced to 72 from 78.

Earlier Dr Asha Patel, who was elected from Unjha seat of North Gujarat, also joined the BJP while state Cabinet minister Kunvarji Bawalia had resigned from Jasdan constituency eight months ago and was re-elected as a BJP candidate in January this year.

In another case, Bhagwan Barad, a Congress MLA, was suspended by speaker of the Gujarat Assembly immediately after a local court convicted him in a land mining case.

Mr Chavda, a four-term MLA, is the son of towering Congress leader Pethalji Chavda. He is believed to have a strong hold over the Ahir community, which dominates the constituency.

He is now likely to contest from the Junagadh Lok Sabha seat. I have decided to join BJP after long thought. Though I didnt have any issue with the Congress leadership, I think we should stand united with Prime Minister Narendra Modi so I am here, he said while joining the saffron party. BJP leaders believe that his joining will increase the partys chance of winning Junagadh.

The party is trying hard to pull strong congress leaders who enjoyfull community support. Apart from cast arithmetic, it is also huntingfor leaders from the opposition where it fears to lose.

Speculations are also on rife of joining few more congress MLAS,including young OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, to BJP. Rumors of hisswitching over have been doing around for some time. All eyes are nowon his next move.

This series of resignations is giving state congress unit a big joltat a time when the party is concentrating fully on big public rally tobe held after CWC meet on 12th. The party has also declared fourcandidates of Gujarat for Lok Sabha including former state partypresident and Union Minister Bharat Solanki. This is a conspiracy byBJP against congress. Voters will give answers to them in electionleader of opposition Paresh Dhanani reacted after this development.

However, convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti-PASS Hardik Patelsannouncement of joining congress has given some relief to the party.Hardik will join in presence of congress president Mr Rahul Gandhi on12th. He has also announced to contest Lok Sabha from Jamnagar seat.
Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani (R) at a news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Doha

Qatar on Monday told rival Saudi Arabia not to meddle in its potential arms purchases from Russia, as the Gulf state weighs the controversial purchase of an air defence system.

"Regarding the arms sales that Qatar has with Russia... we believe that Saudi Arabia, or any other countries, it is none of their business," Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said at a news conference in Doha with his visiting Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

"It's a sovereign decision that should be taken by the state of Qatar," said Sheikh Mohammed when asked about a possible purchase of the S-400, a sophisticated Russian-made anti-aircraft weapon system.

He said talks on the purchase were ongoing, while Lavrov also confirmed that talks on "bilateral" military cooperation with gas-rich Qatar were taking place.

The possible arms deal first surfaced last year, sparking backlash by Gulf powerhouse Saudi Arabia -- which along with the UAE and their allies cut all ties with Doha in 2017 over allegations of support for Islamist extremists and Shiite Iran.

Qatar denies the allegations and says its rivals want regime change in Doha.

Saudi King Salman last year expressed Riyadh's concern over the potential deal to buy S-400s in a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, threatening military action if Qatar went ahead with the purchase.
The six-pointed Star of David is a symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism

From exile to the creation of the state of Israel, here are six defining periods in the history of the Jewish people:

- Diaspora -

Conquered by Rome in 63 BC, the Judaeans of the ancient kingdom centred in Jerusalem attempted two uprisings that were violently repressed.

The first, in 66 AD, led to the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of its Temple; in the second in 132 the city was razed and much of its population massacred.

The Jews were banned from entering Judea and many emigrated.

The Arab conquests began in the 7th century with the birth of Islam. In some cases, the Jews supported the conquests and in turn, were tolerated by the Arabs.

Jerusalem, which was already a holy site for Jews and Christians, also became revered by the emerging Islamic faith: the city was thus sacred for the three monotheist religions.

The Arabs reached the Iberian peninsula in 711. Five percent of the population were Jews and the period marked the start of a golden age for Jewish culture, with Jews generally tolerated in Europe.

- Middle Ages -

In 1095, European Christians organised Crusades to free sacred land from Muslim expansion. In the course of these "holy wars", Jewish communities were also massacred.

In the 12th century, while the papacy defended the Jews, they became an issue for monarchs. In 1182, Philippe II was the first French king to expel Jews.

Jews were accused of a range of ills, including the Black Plague in the 14th century, and sometimes they were subjected to Inquisition tribunals that hunted down heretics and witches.

Charles VI forced all Jews out of France in November 1394, ending 10 centuries of Jewish history in the country.

In Spain, a series of campaigns by Christian states to recapture territory from the Muslims ended in 1492. Catholic kings demanded Jews either convert or leave. A large section settled in the Ottoman Empire.

- Anti-Semitism surge -

After the French Revolution, France in 1791 became the first European country to pass a law granting Jews equal rights.

But the 19th century saw a resurgence of anti-Semitism, notably in Eastern Europe where the world's biggest Jewish community lived.

In the Russian Empire, in particular between 1881 and 1884, Jews were targeted by violent attacks known as pogroms.

Many Jews emigrated to North America and some went to central and western Europe. In 1882 tsarist Russia adopted what would be the most systematically anti-Jewish legislation until Nazi Germany.

In France, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer, was unjustly convicted in 1894 of treason in a case that split the country. He was deported to French Guiana before being pardoned and returning in 1906.

- Birth of Zionism -

Zionism emerged in the 19th century with the aim of bringing together Jews in Palestine. The 1896 publication of "The State of the Jews" by Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl gave Zionism a political character.

Anti-Semitism and the pogroms precipitated the arrival of Jews in Palestine when it was a province of the Ottoman Empire. Some 50,000 Jews were there in 1900, double the number in 1880.

With the Balfour Declaration in 1917, Britain backed the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

At the time, Jews numbered less than 10 percent of the population in Palestine. The declaration sowed the seeds of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

- The Holocaust -

A young man reads the identification number of a Jewish prisoner after the liberation of the Dachau Nazi concentration camp in April 1945

The extermination of the Jews by the Nazis in Europe between 1939 and 1945 killed six million, more than a third of the Jewish population at the time.

Between Adolf Hitler's election as German chancellor in 1933 to the beginning of World War II, the Jews in Germany and Austria were the first to be persecuted. Many Jews were then forced into ghettos and suffered famine and mass shootings.

From 1941 the "Final Solution" to the Jewish question was set in motion, as prepared by Heinrich Himmler: the extermination of Jews in concentration camps through gas chambers.

All countries either occupied by or allied to Nazi Germany deported their Jewish populations, with the exception of Bulgaria and Denmark.

- State of Israel -

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted for the division of Palestine, which was under a British Mandate, into two separate states -- one Jewish and one Arab. Jerusalem would come under international control.

The plan was rejected by Arab states and led to an outbreak of violence between Arabs and Jews in the area.

On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel.

The following day, five Arab countries declared war on the new state. The first Arab-Israeli war ended in 1949 and had enabled Israel to gain some territory.

More than 760,000 Palestinians either fled or were forced out of the new state while some 160,000 remained.
Palestinians have released incendiary devices tied to balloons during protests along the Gaza Strip's border with Israel

Israeli attack helicopters on Monday struck Hamas military positions in Gaza, officials said, after the country's army reported a balloon-borne "explosive device" from the Palestinian enclave targeted its territory.

Monday's raid, which resulted in damage to the Hamas positions but no casualties, was the third tit-for-tat exchange in as many days.

A Palestinian official said three military observation posts were hit in the south and centre of the Hamas-ruled coastal strip.

The Israeli military earlier said its air force struck "two Hamas military posts" in response to the latest launch of a balloon-borne device from Gaza.

"A cluster of balloons carrying an explosive device was launched from the southern Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory," an army statement said. "No injuries or damage were reported."

Palestinians in Gaza have for months flown clusters of balloons with incendiaries or explosives suspended beneath them across the border into Israel as weekly protests and clashes have flared along the frontier.

Air strikes hit Hamas positions over the weekend after Israel said balloons carrying explosives were launched on Saturday and again after it said explosive devices were hurled from Gaza on Sunday.

At least 251 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since March 2018, the majority shot during the weekly border protests and others hit by tank fire or air strikes in response to violence from Gaza.

Two Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same period.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008.
Algerian businessman Rachid Nekkaz said his own candidacy for the presidential election had been rejected

When an Algerian businessman was ruled ineligible to stand in April's presidential election, his cousin and namesake stepped forward to take his place.

In recent weeks Rachid Nekkaz has travelled around Algeria to gather the necessary 60,000 voter signatures to join the race for the presidency, before appearing Sunday at the Constitutional Council to formally register as a candidate.

But despite renouncing his French citizenship, Nekkaz appears to have fallen foul of a law which bans candidates who have ever possessed a nationality other than Algerian.

Two hours after Nekkaz entered the Constitutional Council, another man left the building and introduced himself to the media as: "Rachid Nekkaz, candidate for the presidential (election)".

The well-known businessman was not seen leaving the building, according to an AFP photographer, but an official confirmed the man before the media really was known as Rachid Nekkaz.

"Under that name he presented himself to the Constitutional Council with his application," the official said.

It was not until Monday that the wealthy businessman announced his own candidacy had been rejected, prompting him to put forward his cousin who has the same name.

"(If) my cousin is elected, we will immediately create the post of vice president... which I will assume," following the April 18 election, he wrote on Facebook.

The plan would see Nekkaz the cousin, a mechanic by trade, resign so that the businessman could take over the presidency.

Nekkaz tried to stand in Algeria's last presidential election in 2014, but said the 62,000 signatures gathered were stolen from within the Constitutional Council.

Before renouncing his French citizenship, Nekkaz also tried his luck in France's 2007 presidential elections.

But he was only able to gain the backing of 13 people holding political office, far short of the 500 needed to stand in the race.
A THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) interceptor launched in Kodiak, Alaska during a flight experiment on July 30, 2017

The United States has deployed its advanced THAAD missile defence system temporarily to Israel for a joint military exercise, the first of its kind, officials said Monday.

The two countries confirmed the deployment, with Israel's military stressing it was "not related to any specific current event".

It is the first such exercise in Israel, although the two allies hold regular joint war games. No dates have been announced for the manoeuvres.

Israel has its own missile defence system, but the exercise aims in part to examine how to incorporate THAAD so that "we are ready for any challenges in the future", military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said.

It will also allow the US military to practice the rapid deployment of THAAD across the globe, officials said.

"We see this as an opportunity to practice the integration of advanced American air defence systems into the Israeli air force air defence array," Conricus told journalists.

"The THAAD system is considered to be one of the most advanced of its kind in the world," the Israeli spokesman said.

The exercise with THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defence, involves more than 200 US military personnel and its components include radars and launching systems, Conricus said.

Components and personnel have come from the United States and Italy, Conricus said.

The THAAD will be deployed in southern Israel, but officials declined to say specifically where and for how long.

Israel's enemies in the region include Iran and Lebanon's Tehran-backed Hezbollah, both of which are supporting President Bashar al-Assad in neighbouring Syria.

THAAD is capable of destroying short, medium and intermediate-range missiles.

In 2017, the US government approved its sale to Saudi Arabia, providing Riyadh with state-of-the-art capabilities that could thwart an Iranian rocket attack.

It had already been supplied to Saudi Arabia's neighbours Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Its deployment by the US military in South Korea as defence against North Korean drew protests from Beijing, which feared its sensors would be capable of penetrating Chinese air space and upset the balance of power.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the joint exercise, calling it "additional testimony to the commitment of the US to the security of Israel".
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (2nd R) discussed his country's faltering peace process with Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki (2nd L) and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (C)

The leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea met South Sudan's President Salva Kiir Monday seeking to breathe new life into a flagging peace agreement signed six months ago between his government and rebels.

South Sudan's influential Catholic Church last month warned that the deal agreed in September to quell the country's war was falling apart and all sides were gearing for fresh fighting.

"One of the first issues that they discussed was how to bolster the ongoing peace process," South Sudan's Foreign Minister Nhial Deng Nhial told journalists after Kiir met Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki at State House in the capital.

Among other things, the leaders discussed bringing on board groups who rejected the deal inked in Addis Ababa, Nhial said.

"The government of the republic of South Sudan has been very supportive of this," he added.

The UN has cautioned that tens of thousands face starvation as fighting continues despite the pact.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan in 2011 after a long and bloody independence struggle, but just two years later, war broke out again when Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup.

A conflict erupted that split the country along ethnic lines. Nearly 400,000 people are estimated to have died and millions have fled their homes, many of them pushed to the brink of starvation.

Nhial said ambassador Ismail Wais of the IGAD regional trade block monitoring the peace deal signed by Kiir and Machar, will meet separately with rebel chief Thomas Cirillo and ex-army chief-turned opposition figure Paul Malong in Addis Ababa and Nairobi on March 8 and 10.

Cirillo and Malong both rejected the September deal.

Eritrea and Ethiopia, themselves still working on healing ties damaged by years of conflict over their shared border, are part of IGAD. Both have established business investments in South Sudan's hotel industry.

Ethiopia is a key contributor to a 4,000-regional armed protection force deployed to prevent further outbreak of war in South Sudan.
Director and screenwriter Chiwetel Ejiofor, actress Aissa Maiga and actor Maxwell Simba promote the film "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" in February 2019

A new Malawian film, Netflix's latest offering to raise the profile of African cinema, has caused a stir back home, facing accusations of mangling the language and relying on foreign actors.

"The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind", which launched on Netflix last Friday, is based on the true-life story of Malawian child inventor William Kamkwamba, who built a windmill to save his village from drought.

Swiss-based Malawian critic Onjezani Kenani complained that "Malawians were never the target audience of this movie."

The film, which won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize for promoting science at this year's Sundance Festival, is directed by and stars Oscar-nominated Nigerian-British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor in his directorial debut.

The film, set in 2001 and 2002, shows Kamkwamba as a young teenager aged around 13, scrambling around a dump looking for batteries so he can study at night when his family can no longer afford kerosene.

Inspired by his teacher's bike dynamo and having found a pump at the tip, he sets about building a working windmill to extract water from the ground, using only an outdated book from his school's library.

It is the latest Netflix original filmed on the African continent, and follows the success of "Catching Feelings", a film directed by and starring South African artist Kagiso Lediga.

The platform also announced in December that it had commissioned a series of comedy specials from acclaimed African comics.

But "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" has received mixed reviews in Malawi for hardly using Malawian actors, with critics panning the cast for their poor attempts at speaking Malawi's Chichewa language.

- 'Malawians were never the target' -

Senegalese-born French actress Aissa Maiga, shown here at this year's FESPACO film festival in Burkina Faso, plays the boy's mother

"The Chichewa sounds funny and unrealistic," Kenani said.

"Malawians were never the target audience of this movie, and so the global audience for which the movie is intended does not care whether or not the Chichewa is mangled," he told AFP.

But leading Malawian filmmaker Shemu Joyah, who saw the movie at a press screening in Germany, praised the production.

"It is a beautifully-executed film with powerful performances by both the main and minor cast," he said.

"I was very impressed with Lily Banda, who is the only Malawian with a main role. (She) puts up a resolute performance in the presence of much more vastly experienced actors like Chiwetel Ejiofor and Aissa Maiga."

Ejiofor plays Trywell Kamkwamba, William's father, while Maiga plays his mother Agnes.

"(But) the language was still a problem for a Malawian like me -- but then I was probably the only one who understood Chichewa in the whole cinema and so it did not matter to the rest of the audience," Joyah said.

He pleaded with filmmakers to "next time give local actors a chance -- they might surprise the world."

- 'Maybe the movie can inspire' -

Kamkwamba's struggle to harness the power of the wind and convince those around him of his audacious scheme is set against a backdrop of social unrest as crops fail and taps run dry.

A strongman president character is shown visiting the village before his henchmen beat an elder who dared to raise the issue of drought and soaring grain prices, giving the film a political edge.

"It is a great film that captures a real-life drama and builds tension even when you already know the ending, a sign of a well-made movie," Joyah added.

But filmgoer Gertrude Chimanga said the cod Chichewa was distracting.

Malawi is vulnerable to drought -- harvests of maize, the staple food, were devastated in 2005 and in 2018

"In some phrases, the actors are saying Chichewa words that do not make sense," she complained.

Malawian cinematographer Chipiliro Khonje was more forgiving.

"I give them a thumbs-up for trying. They should have taken more time to study the language," he said.

Kamkwamba, today aged 31, told AFP that he appreciated the use of his language in the film.

"Learning a language is one of the hardest things for people," he said.

"When I was writing the book with my co-author, Bryan Mealer, I wanted to share my story. I hope the movie will be able to reach some people who weren't able to access the book.

"Maybe the movie can inspire some people who hear my story to do something similar in their own lives."

Kamkwamba said that "for the most part I was not involved" with the film's production, but he did answer questions about the windmill he built against the odds.

"I did visit the set while they were filming in Wimbe very close to my home," he said of his home village, 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of the capital Lilongwe.

Kamkwamba is now raising funds to open an innovation centre with his non-profit organisation, the Moving Windmills Project.

"It is hard to watch because it's reliving tough times from my past," said Kamkwamba, who went on to do environmental studies at Dartmouth College in the United States.

"But some parts were joyful moments, so I have mixed feelings re-watching the movie."
Bouchra Baibanou at home with two of her mountaineering trophies in the Sidi Moussa district of Sale near the capital Rabat

The first Moroccan to scale the seven summits of the world's continents, Bouchra Baibanou wants to inspire a new generation of women who "dare to believe in themselves".

"With will power and perseverance, you can get there," said Baibanou, 49, weeks after reaching the summit of Antarctica's Mount Vinson.

Conquering the 4,897 metre (16,066 foot) peak capped an eight-year journey, during which Baibanou travelled the globe to climb each continent's highest mountain.

"I am proud, as a Moroccan and as a woman," she said from her home in Sale, neighbouring the capital Rabat, where trophies adorn her living room.

That pride was evident atop Vinson, where Baibanou clutched her country's flag -- and a banner with a campaign message -- at temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius (Fahrenheit).

"From the summit of Vinson, Baibanou continues to support the fight combatting violence against women and girls," UN Women Maghreb wrote on Twitter on January 1, after her ascent.

Wearing a beige headscarf and black shirt, Baibanou described the mountain as "a great school" as she reeled off the attributes needed to scale a peak.

"Courage, optimism, perseverance, determination and humility."

But her passion has required a financial slog.

Baibanou is a government engineer and climbed the seven peaks with a budget of two million dirhams (185,000 euros, $210,000).

Sponsorship raised 60,000 euros for the Vinson expedition and 80,000 for Everest.

"It's not very rewarding to be a mountaineering adventurer in Morocco," she said.

Baibanou has scaled the seven summits of the world's continents, including Mount Everest

As well as doing community work, Baibanou gives talks in schools and universities around the country.

She is also campaigning to develop mountain tourism in Morocco, especially improving the Toubkal National Park and "reinforcing security".

In December, Morocco was shaken by the murder of two Scandinavian women hiking in the mountains.

"This terrorism act does not represent my country -- one of peace and tolerance," said Baibanou, who was outraged by the killings.

- Overcoming fears -

Baibanou has fought hard to raise funding for her expeditions, and has provided a role model for aspiring Moroccan mountaineers

Despite her mountaineering success, Baibanou only discovered hiking aged 15 during a summer camp.

Her father, a mechanic, and her stay-at-home mother were not very interested in nature or sport.

It was not until she was 26 that Baibanou climbed her first peak in Morocco -- Toubkal.

It was an exhilarating experience, spurring her on to take up mountaineering in France's Chamonix region and climb Mont Blanc.

She still hikes close to home and last year took a group of around 30 teenagers up Toubkal, the country's highest peak at 4,167 metres.

"I hope to be a role model, above all for young women -- for those who dare to believe in themselves," said Baibanou.

While she travelled the world mountaineering, her 14-year-old daughter was looked after by family, including her husband, who supported her ambitions.

For Baibanou, there's nothing better than an extreme sport to "overcome ones' fears" and learn to "not give up at the first hurdle".

She has seen young women who were hesitant at the start of their first climb transformed by the experience.

They face "a lot of discrimination" in Morocco, said Baibanou.

"A lot of girls don't continue their studies but, if we give them the power, they will achieve."
Indonesian rescue workers remove a body from a collapsed mine in North Sulawesi

The death toll from last week's collapsed gold mine in northern Indonesia has risen to 16, as hopes to find survivors fade, an official said Wednesday.

Eighteen people have been pulled alive but injured from the illegal mine on Sulawesi island, but it is unclear how many were inside when the accident happened last Tuesday.

Painstaking rescue efforts have been hampered by steep terrain, unstable soil and dangerously narrow mining shafts.

National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said "the evacuation team has been working 24 hours nonstop since Monday", when the site was deemed safe for search teams.

Two excavators have been clearing debris to find more bodies that could still be trapped inside the mine, he added.

For the first few days the team had to dig by hand to reach survivors because of the precarious conditions.

Rescuers also had to temporarily halt the search on Tuesday after rocks started to fall on them.

"At this point, the chances of finding any survivors are very slim," Abdul Muin Paputungan, from the local disaster mitigation agency, told AFP.

It is unclear how many miners were inside the shafts at the time of the accident as survivors had given varying tallies.

But rescue agencies said some miners reported it could be between 50 and 100.

Paputungan said it was unlikely the team would be able to find all the miners.

The accident happened in the Bolaang Mongondow region of North Sulawesi, where five miners were killed in December after a similar illegal gold mine accident.

Mineral-rich Indonesia has scores of unlicensed mines -- many with complete disregard for even the most basic of safety procedures.

In 2016, 11 miners died after a mudslide engulfed an illegal gold mine in Sumatra's Jambi province.

A year earlier, 12 people were killed when a shaft collapsed after they tunnelled into a disused gold mine on Java island.
Passengers waiting for flights at Nairobi's international airport, some for hours, were asked to leave the terminal, and gathered in parking and waiting areas outside the building

Hundreds of travellers were stranded at Nairobi airport Wednesday, and some were treated for tear gas exposure, as striking workers and police faced off at East Africa's busiest air traffic hub.

After flights began to be grounded from midnight, passengers were advised not to come to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) -- East Africa's busiest according to the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) -- until further notice.

However, hundreds were already there, some waiting for many hours.

Flights began to be grounded after midnight as workers struck over a planned partial takeover of the airport

In the terminals, confusion reigned with little information circulating and police firing tear gas as they moved in to arrest a union official they accused of inciting workers.

Several strikers and would-be travellers were treated on-site for exposure to the blinding, choking spray, and some for small injuries sustained in the chaos that ensued as they tried to escape the fumes.

Stranded passenger Christine voiced the bewilderment of many: "Why are police using unnecessary force with teargas at an airport?"

Travellers were then asked by police to leave the building, and gathered in parking and waiting areas outside the airport.

As the strike passed the 12-hour mark, the situation at the airport calmed somewhat as the first plane -- to Mumbai -- took off around lunchtime.

But hundreds of travellers were still anxiously awaiting news about their flights amid a heavy security deployment.

The workers, who had not given notice of their labour action beforehand, are angry about the planned partial takeover of the airport, operated by state-run KAA, by national carrier Kenya Airways.

-- 'Sabotage' --

Transport Minister James Macharia told journalists that workers need not worry about the possible change of ownership.

Kenya Airways's chief executive Sebastian Mikosz said 24 departing flights, and two arrivals, were affected by the strike, but 'we expect the situation to normalise during the day'

"What they were fearing is that the proposed merger between KQ (the acronym for Kenya Airways) and KAA will result in job losses but we gave assurances that that will not happen," he said.

"So this (strike) is completely uncalled for because the deal has not happened."

The minister added that KAA, with the help of security services and staff from Kenya Airways, were replacing striking staff.

"This strike is illegal. It is sabotage and amounts to a criminal activity that must be punished. That is why the union officials have been arrested for inciting workers to go on strike," said Macharia.

"They should be aware that this is a security installation, you cannot interfere with a security installation."

Kenya Aviation Workers Union (KUWA) chief Moss Ndiema was arrested at the airport.

Check-in desks at Kenya Airways were unmanned

According to the KAA, more than 7.6 million passengers and 313,000 tons of cargo passed through JKIA in more than 111,000 aircraft movements in 2017.

The airport contributes just over five percent to Kenya's gross domestic product.

Kenya Airways chief executive Sebastian Mikosz said 24 departing flights, and two arrivals, had been affected by the strike, but "we expect the situation to normalise during the day."

"We are set to resume operations, although the process is a bit slow," he said.

Operations at Kenya's two other main airports, at Mombasa in the southeast and Kisumu in the west, have also been affected.
BJP MP Subramanian Swamy stressed that the construction of Ram temple is non-negotiable.

New Delhi: The Supreme Courts decision to refer the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation by a panel headed by retired apex court judge F.M.I. Kalifulla on Friday, received a mixed response with the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) suggesting that it would be most befitting while the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas (RJN), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Hindu Mahasabha expressing that it would only delay the process and no concrete result will come out of mediation.

The apex court on Friday referred the case for mediation by a panel headed by retired apex court judge F.M.I. Kalifulla to explore the possibility of an amicable solution and gave the panel eight weeks to complete the process.

While a number of BJP leaders were of the view that construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya is the only way out of the impasse, BSP leader Mayawati called the move appreciable. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that Ravi Shankar should act in an unbiased manner. The Congress said that it respects the courts decision and noted that the courts verdict should be final and binding on all parties.

CPI(M) said that the previous mediation efforts had failed to yield results but this time, the apex court is monitoring it and all the parties who have gone to the court are in agreement with the decision and it is to be seen what will be the result.

The Supreme Court has given this order and it needs to be welcomed.... It would be most befitting that the matter is resolved through dialogue...Lets see what happens now, said AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani.

Union minister Uma Bharti said that one has to respect the apex courts order but asserted that she stands for building the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and a mosque can be built only outside its vicinity. BJP general secretary P. Muralidhar Rao said that keeping the dispute pending for long is not in anyones interest.

It is important to resolve the issue but it is more important and essential to build a grand temple at Sri Ram Janmbhoomi. This cannot be kept pending for a long time, he said.

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy stressed that the construction of Ram temple is non-negotiable. There is no question of not building a temple where we believe Lord Ram was born, he said.

Mahant Ram Das of the Nirmohi Akhara, one of the main litigants in the case, too welcomed the setting up of a panel of mediators, but said it would have been better had a Hindu judge, connected with the case, been included in it.

He added that besides the mediation efforts, the court hearing in the matter should also go on simultaneously so as to see that the case does not get prolonged further if the litigants are not satisfied.

Earlier also, some efforts on this line had been made, but to no avail...Therefore, the hearing should also go on, he stressed. Mahant Ram Das also said the seers of Ayodhya needed to agree to this move.

Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar, who is in the panel of mediators set up by the apex court, said he wanted a happy ending to the long-standing dispute.

.... Respecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society  we must all move together towards these goals, he tweeted.

Welcoming the decision, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik, in a statement, said, We welcome the appointment of the three-member mediation panel. If the dispute is resolved, it will be in national interest. The nation is hopeful that the issue would be resolved through consensus.

Reacting to the apex courts decision and composition of the panel, AIMIMs Assauddin Owaisi said the panel should have had neutral persons, terming Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as a biased and controversial person in the panel.

He (Ravi Shankar) had made controversial statements about Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid issue. He threatened to make a Syria out of the issue if Muslims dont give up their claim on Ayodhya. There is an FIR registered against him here in Hyderabad. He was also fined by the National Green Tribunal which is also in the court, said Mr Owaisi.
Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena wants a probe of alleged war crimes to be stopped as it might "reopen old wounds"

Sri Lanka's president went back Wednesday on pledges to investigate war-time atrocities, saying he did not want to "re-open old wounds" but sparked a rift with his cohabitation government.

Sri Lankan government troops were accused of killing at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians in the final months of the island's 37-year guerrilla war that ended in May 2009.

President Maithripala Sirisena said he will formally ask the United Nations Human Rights Council to reconsider a 2015 resolution which called for credible investigations into alleged atrocities.

"It is a decade since we have established peace in this country," Sirisena told reporters at his official residence in Colombo. "I want to tell them (the UN) not to pressure us."

"What I want to tell them is don't dig the past and re-open old wounds. Let us forget the past and ensure that we all live in peace."

Within hours of his remarks, Sirisena's cohabitation government sought to distance itself from his stance and said the administration of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will remain engaged with the UN on war crimes.

The foreign ministry, which is under the prime minister, said it will back a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council on March 20 seeking a further two-year extension for Sri Lanka to deliver on promises of accountability.

"A further extension of two years through a co-sponsored roll-over resolution accordingly needs to be viewed in this backdrop," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

- Crisis -

Sirisena and his government have been at loggerheads since he sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on October 26 and called a fresh election, sparking a major political crisis.

But the Supreme Court held that the president's action was illegal and restored the status quo.

Exactly two years ago, Sirisena bought two years from the UN rights body after a previous deadline ended without any progress in bringing war criminals to justice.

A UN Human Rights Council resolution in October 2015 granted Sri Lanka 18 months to establish a credible investigation. The two-year extension expires this month with no results.

Sirisena said he will send three of his senior party members to the UNHRC sessions in Geneva this month to plead on his behalf.

"I hope they (the UN) will respond positively," Sirisena said. The Sri Lankan government is set to send its own delegation in addition to the team of Sirisena.

Despite previous pledges to the UN, Sirisena has not set up any investigation.

Top UN diplomats had expressed concern over "worryingly slow" progress by Colombo. Over 100,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka's 37-year-old Tamil separatist war.

Sirisena, a member of the majority Sinhalese community, received the support of the Tamil minority after promising accountability for excesses carried out by the largely Sinhalese military.

The UN has acknowledged that Colombo made some positive advances on constitutional and legal reforms, limited land restitution and symbolic gestures towards reconciliation.

But it has also cautioned that the measures taken under Sirisena were inadequate, lacked coordination and a sense of urgency.
Israel's attorney general says that Michael Ben-Ari, a candidate for an extreme-right party, should be disqualified from April elections for making "racist" remarks

Israel's election committee on Wednesday cleared two candidates for an extreme-right party many view as racist to run in April elections, in a boost for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The committee, comprised of representatives of parties in Israel's parliament, approved the candidacy of Michael Ben-Ari of the Jewish Power party by one vote despite a recommendation from the attorney general to disqualify him.

The second Jewish Power candidate, Itamar Ben-Gvir, was also approved by the same tally as for Ben-Ari, 16 to 15.

The decision was to be appealed to the country's supreme court, which would have the final word ahead of the April 9 election.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said late Tuesday that recent remarks by Ben-Ari amount to "incitement to racism" against Israeli Arabs, who constitute around 17.5 percent of the population.

Ben-Ari has described Israeli Arabs as "treacherous and murderous", Mandelblit said in a statement.

"Ben-Ari is inciting on an ethnic-nationalistic basis against the Arab population" and "calling for a violent renunciation of the Arab population's rights," Mandelblit said.

Mandelblit said Ben-Gvir's statements were however not sufficient to bar him.

Ben-Ari and others have in turn called for the disqualification of lists from Arab parties over their alleged lack of loyalty to Israel and support of "terror" against it.

Jewish Power are followers of late racist rabbi Meir Kahane, whose Kach movement was labelled a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

Hoping to secure as many right-wing seats as possible in the next parliament, Netanyahu brokered a deal that saw Jewish Power join with two far-right parties to create a single electoral list.

Ben-Ari, who was a member of parliament from 2009 to 2013, was given fifth place on the list. Ben-Gvir was given the eighth slot.

Netanyahu has faced harsh criticism over the deal, with many accusing him of easing the path for "racists" to make it into parliament.

Jewish Power lashed out at Mandelblit's recommendation against Ben-Ari, accusing him of "hypocrisy" for not recommending to disqualify the Arab lists and claiming he was attempting to "run Israel".

It said the attorney general had been misled "with partial recordings and distortions of interviews".
Afghan victims receive medical treatment at a hospital following a suicide attack on a private construction company in Jalalabad

At least 16 people were killed in a suicide attack Wednesday on a construction company in eastern Afghanistan, officials said, the latest bloody assault in the war-torn country.

The hours-long attack in Jalalabad began early Wednesday when two suicide bombers detonated explosives at the gate of the compound, allowing three others to enter the area where they went on a killing spree, provincial spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told AFP.

Security forces rushed to the city, which is the capital of Nangarhar province.

"Sixteen employees of the company have been killed and nine more injured," the spokesman said, adding the attack began at 5:00 am local time.

A spokesman with Afghanistan's interior ministry confirmed the account and toll.

"All five attackers have been killed by security forces," Khogyani added.

Nangarhar provincial council member Ajmal Omar put the death toll slightly higher, saying 18 people had been killed with three of the nine injured in a critical condition.

Health workers pored over the injured in a nearby hospital, with bloody bandages covering their wounds.

Spokesman Khogyani added that a clearance operation was ongoing with security defusing two suicide vests, a car bomb, and multiple mines planted by the attackers.

"Armed suicide bombers attacked and managed to enter the building of a private construction company early this morning," said Nangarhar Provincial council member Zabihullah Zmarai.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but both the Islamic State group and the Taliban are active in Nangarhar province.

The Taliban later denied involvement.

"The Jalalabad attack has nothing to do with us," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.

- Talks ongoing -

The attack came as US and Taliban negotiations continue to hold peace talks in Qatar aimed at ending the nearly 18-year conflict.

Despite a two-day break before the weekend, negotiations continue on "a daily basis right now and progress is being made", US State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told journalists Tuesday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which left at least 16 people dead

"These discussions are ongoing and what we're focusing on are the four interconnected issues that are going to compose any future agreement," Palladino said -- listing them as terrorism, troop withdrawal, intra-Afghan dialogue and ceasefire.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during an exchange with high school students in Iowa that he hoped sufficient gains would be made for him to be able to take a trip to help advance the negotiations "in a couple weeks".

The continuation of the talks follows a major attack on a joint US-Afghan base in southwestern Afghanistan's Helmand province last week, with at least 23 security forces killed in the hours-long assault on one of the largest military installations in the country.

Heavy snowfall across large swathes of Afghanistan has led to a sharp reduction in violence this winter, but warmer weather in the country's south will likely spark an increase in bloodshed with the arrival of the spring fighting season.

Analysts have warned that the Taliban are likely to ramp up attacks in the coming months as they seek to maintain momentum on the battlefield and leverage at the negotiating table.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced his eagerness to end America's involvement in Afghanistan, where 14,000 US troops are still deployed.

Afghanistan has been enmeshed in nearly constant conflict since the Soviet invasion of 1979, which was followed by civil war, the Taliban regime, and the US invasion in late 2001.
Women and children queue at a screening point after fleeing the Islamic State group's last Syrian stronghold

Shell-shocked and dishevelled, hundreds of women and children stumbled through eastern Syria's windswept desert carrying what little they could after fleeing the Islamic State group's final speck of territory.

Some of the very last survivors of the jihadists' self-proclaimed "caliphate", they arrived by the lorry-full to a collection point run by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

Suspected Islamic State group fighters are among those who have fled the jihadists' last enclave in Syria

After being searched, the women settled in clusters on the rough desert floor, their long black robes blanketed in dust and hemmed by filthy, malnourished children who tore into aid packages of water and bread.

They were some of the nearly 3,500 people, including 500 presumed jihadists, trucked out Tuesday from IS's near-flattened final bastion, according to the SDF.

The child survivors of the Islamic State group's dying "caliphate" are hungry and thirsty

A woman from Deir Ezzor, dragging an over-stuffed bag and carrying an empty jug, called out for water before stooping to pick up a half-empty bottle off the ground and guzzle it down.

"We were besieged... we've been drinking dirty water."

Nearby, hundreds of men who also chose to quit the redoubt stood wearily in line as troops from the US-led coalition backing the SDF processed them for detention.

Some of the evacuated civilians say the jihadists used them as human shields against air strikes

Bandaged and bedraggled, more than several of them on crutches, the suspected fighters made for a telling image -- the dying days of the jihadists' once-sprawling proto-state.

At its peak more than four years ago, IS ruled over millions of people in a patch of territory the size of the United Kingdom.

But the jihadists have been rolled back to just a scrap of land tucked into a bend along the Euphrates River near Syria's border with Iraq.

- 'Disaster' -

Many of the survivors of the Islamic State group's collapsing "caliphate" are in poor physical health

The SDF and the US-led coalition pounded the holdout jihadists over the weekend, after pausing their offensive for weeks to allow civilians in the bombed-out bastion a chance to leave.

But the Kurdish-led force was forced Sunday to again dial down its push over further fears for civilians still trapped inside the pocket.

The local Kurdish administration is struggling to cope with the humanitarian burden

"It was horrible. There was bombing, the snipers were firing," said 55-year-old Umm Yunis, surrounded by a passel of children.

"We tried to dig ourselves in under the tent so that we weren't hit by the bullets... we were by ourselves," she said.

She and many of the other women pouring out of the holdout say they and their children were cordoned off from the fighters but were still hit by the massive bombardment.

"It was a disaster," said another woman, also from Iraq, who refused to give her name.

This wounded man needed to be carried on a stretcher after leaving the jihadists' last patch of territory

"Cars were flipped and houses crushed. Children and women in the streets were burned black (by the bombing), honest to God."

At the collection point, children wandered wide-eyed through a waste-land of rubbish left behind by previous groups of evacuees.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been trucked out in recent weeks from the jihadists' ever-shrinking territory -- in a seemingly never-ending flow of women and children from across the region and the world.

The evacuees clutched their last few belongings as they fled the dregs of the "caliphate"

Those who filed out in the past few days said there were still thousands of civilians left, but that the remaining jihadists were prepared to go down fighting.

"It's over," said 13-year-old Mahmoud, from the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, as he trudged towards another lorry ready to take him to a camp overflowing with evacuees.

"There's no such thing as IS anymore."
Gabon, 80-percent covered by forest, has banned exploitation of the 'sacred' kevazingo wood

Customs officers have seized a major haul of kevazingo, a precious wood whose exploitation is banned in Gabon where it is considered sacred, a report said Wednesday.

About 1,000 cubic metres of the rare hardwood -- or 30 large container-loads -- were confiscated along with other wood in a warehouse at the Owendo timber port on the Libreville peninsula last week, campaigning group Conservation Justice reported.

The head of the Chinese business that owned the warehouse and two other employees had been arrested and remained in custody, the group said.

Timber from kevazingo trees, which take many years to mature, is highly valued in Asia and fetches very high prices.

Depending on quality kevazingo, also known as bubinga, can fetch up to 1.2 million CFA francs (1,800 euros, $2,000) per cubic metre, say specialists.

It is listed as under threat by CITES, the international convention covering endangered animals and flora.

Gabon banned its exploitation in March last year as illegal felling reached alarming proportions. Forest dwellers in equatorial Africa consider it sacred.

Gabon's, 80-percent covered by forest, is known for its rich biodiversity.
Angolan President Joao Lourenco paid a landmark visit to Lisbon in November meeting Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (C)

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa met his Angolan opposite number in Luanda on Wednesday in a top-level encounter between nations whose relations have previously been strained by anti-corruption issues.

It follows Angolan leader Joao Lourenco's landmark November visit to Lisbon in which he sought to set aside tensions created by Portugal's investigation of graft under his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

"This state visit clearly marks a new chapter in the already strong relations between our two countries," said Lourenco, who added both sides were working towards "developing exemplary relations".

De Sousa said there was a "political will to overcome the problems of the past".

"The current level of political and economic relations between Portugal and Angola is excellent."

During the November trip Lourenco compared the fight against corruption in his country to "touching a wasps nest".

Angola, a Portuguese-speaking oil-rich country, is one of Africa's poorest countries and nearly half of the population lives below the poverty line.

- Fight corruption -

The diplomacy marks an effort to move beyond the legacy of colonial rule over Angola that ended in 1975 when Portugal withdrew without handing over power and Angola sank into civil war until 2002.

Angola also entered a new era in 2017 when Dos Santos, who ruled with an iron fist from 1979, stepped down and was replaced by Lourenco.

A key source of friction between Luanda and Lisbon was removed in May when a Portuguese court decided that Angola's former vice president Manuel Vicente can face a corruption trial in Angola instead of Portugal.

Lourenco had demanded that the trial take place in his country, "so that relations between Angola and Portugal can return to the level of the recent past".

Chatham House analyst Alex Vines said the visit "is a further step in the normalisation of bilateral relations".

"A year ago the relationship was fractious -- mostly due to a Portuguese judicial investigation into allegations of corruption surrounding the former vice president Manuel Vicente," he added.

"When Portugal handed over the investigative process to come under Angolan law, a remarkable thawing resulted in President Joao Lourenco visiting Portugal officially in late 2018 and now this further step in rapprochement."

Lourenco has pledged to fight corruption and rebuild the economy of the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, which has still not recovered from the 2014 plunge in oil prices.
Rallies demanding the resignation of ailing 82-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika have rocked Algeria since February 22 after he announced he would seek re-election for a fifth term in April elections

Police deployed Wednesday in the Algerian capital with water cannon, a day after thousands of students demonstrated against ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's re-election bid.

Although the city remained calm, security forces were bracing for further protests on Friday as demonstrators have vowed to take to the streets until the 82-year-old leader resigns.

Half a dozen police vans and a water cannon were deployed near Algiers' iconic main post office, where on Tuesday thousands of students rallied against the president.

There was a similar deployment at the nearby Place Audin which has also drawn thousands of demonstrators since the protest movement first erupted on February 22.

On Tuesday students in the capital chanted "Hey Bouteflika, there won't be a fifth term" and pledged to hold further protests.

Later army chief General Ahmed Gaid Salah, who is known to be loyal to Bouteflika, delivered a speech slamming unnamed parties who he said want to return to the "painful years" of Algeria's 1992-2002 civil war.

He vowed to guarantee the country's "security and stability".

El Watan newspaper on Wednesday noted that Gaid Salah did not use his usual "bellicose" tone while the Liberte daily said he chose a "peaceful discourse".

The country's medical association meanwhile piled pressure on the Constitutional Court, which validates presidential bids, concerning Bouteflika's health.

And the powerful National Mujahideen Organisation of independence-era fighters, which has long supported Bouteflika, made the surprise move of backing the protest movement.

- Movement gets new backing -

In a statement, it blasted official corruption and state institutions "that do not live up to the aspirations of the people".

But Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel, speaking at an Arab League meeting in Cairo, vowed the presidential poll would take place "in accordance with the constitution, with the required conditions of transparency, calm and quiet".

Bouteflika, who suffered a stroke in 2013 and is rarely been seen in public, has been in Switzerland since February 24 for what the presidency has described as "routine medical tests".

His bid to stand in the April 18 election was submitted on his behalf Sunday to the Constitutional Council by his campaign manager.

The medical association said health certificates submitted by presidential hopefuls -- in line with the electoral law -- must respect "medical ethics" and be drafted by doctors who are members of the association.

The bar association of Tizi Ouzou, east of Algiers, also put pressure on the council in an letter published by local newspapers.

It said that "physical and mental" wellbeing was a necessary condition for candidates who wish to accede to the "supreme office" of a state, in a clear reference to Bouteflika's failing health.

Bouteflika promised Sunday that if he wins the April poll he will organise a "national conference" to set a date for further elections which he would not contest.

But Algerians weary of his two-decade rule angrily dismissed his promise as an insult.
The Dalai Lama seen in India in exile in 1959, after was forced to flee Tibet following a failed uprising

There is no widespread support for the Dalai Lama in Tibet and ordinary people are grateful to the Communist Party for "bringing them a happy life", Chinese officials insisted Wednesday.

This week marks the 60th anniversary of a failed uprising which led to Tibet's Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fleeing into exile in India.

Beijing -- which claims it "peacefully liberated" the Himalayan area -- stands accused of political and religious repression in the region.

But China insists that Tibetans enjoy extensive freedoms and argues it has brought economic growth.

"Since defecting, the Dalai Lama has not done a single good thing for the Tibetan people," Tibet party boss Wu Yingjie said during a meeting at the sidelines of China's annual parliamentary meeting.

"Tibetan people have gratitude in their hearts. They are grateful to the Communist Party for bringing them a happy life."

At least 150 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009 in protest against Beijing's presence in Tibet, most of whom have died from their injuries.

Now aged 83, the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, enjoys rapturous crowds around the world

China had reached out to the Dalai Lama in 2002 to negotiate but after nine rounds of dialogue that lasted through till 2010, many believed that Beijing was intentionally dragging on pointless talks, hoping international pressure over Tibet would end with the passing of the Dalai Lama.

At 83, the Nobel Peace Prize winner enjoys rapturous crowds around the world.

Many Tibetan Buddhists fear Beijing may seek to impose their choice of spiritual leader after the Dalai Lama's death.

It is unclear how, or even whether, his successor will be named -- the centuries-old practice requires senior monks to interview sometimes hundreds of young boys to see whether they recognise items that belonged to the Dalai Lama and pick one as a reincarnation.

But the 14th Dalai Lama announced in 2011 that he may be the last, seeking to preempt any attempt by China to name its own successor.

China's officially atheist Communist Party has repeatedly said it has the right to control the process of reincarnation.
Visitors look at some of Albert Einstein's manuscripts on display in the Jerusalem's Hebrew University of Jerusalem

An Albert Einstein "puzzle" has been solved thanks to a missing page of manuscript emerging in a collection of his writings acquired by Jerusalem's Hebrew University, officials announced Wednesday.

The handwritten page, part of an appendix to a 1930 paper on the Nobel winner's efforts towards a unified field theory, was discovered among the 110-page trove the university's Albert Einstein archives received some two weeks ago.

Most of the documents constitute handwritten mathematical calculations behind Einstein's scientific writings in the late 1940s.

There are also letters that Einstein, born in Germany in 1879, wrote to collaborators which deal with a range of scientific and personal issues, including one to his son, Hans Albert.

The 1935 letter to his son expresses concern about the rise of the Nazi party in Germany.

Nearly all the documents had been known to researchers and available in the form of copies -- "sometimes better copies, sometimes very poor copies", said Hanoch Gutfreund, scientific advisor to the university's Einstein archives.

Gutfreund, a physics professor and former president of the university, said the eight-page appendix of the 1930 unified theory paper had never been published, though researchers had copies of it.

"But in the copies we had, one page was missing, and that was a problem. That was a puzzle," Gutfreund told AFP.

"And to our surprise, to our delight, that page is now here. It came with the new material," he said.

Hebrew University said: "This article was one of many in Einsteins attempts to unify the forces of nature into one, single theory and he devoted the last 30 years of his life to this effort."

The collection, acquired through a donation from the Crown-Goodman foundation in Chicago, was bought from Gary Berger, a North Carolina doctor who had a private collection of Einstein writings.

Gutfreund refused to divulge the sum paid for the 110 papers.

Einstein was one of a founding father of the Hebrew University and served as a non-resident governor of the Jerusalem institution.

When the German-born physicist died in 1955, he bequeathed the university his archives, with curator Roni Grosz saying its 82,000 items make it the world's most extensive collection of Einstein documents.
Kamto was runner-up to incumbent President Paul Biya in an October election, a result he disputes

Cameroon has rejected US criticism of the detention since January of opposition leader Maurice Kamto, insisting that it was not politically motivated.

Kamto and more than 150 supporters are being held for "common law" offences, Communications Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi said in a statement Tuesday, citing "insurrection, hostility to the homeland (and) rebellion".

The detainees are also accused of destroying public property, both within the central African country and at several Cameroon embassies abroad, the statement added.

A military court charged them in mid-February.

Tuesday's statement was in response to comments Monday by Tibor Nagy, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs.

Nagy told Radio France Internationale that Cameroon would be "very wise" to release Kamto because his detention is widely perceived as politically motivated, despite the government's claims to the contrary.

US diplomat Tibor Nagy said Cameroon would be "very wise" to release Kamto because his detention is widely perceived as politically motivated, despite the government's claims to the contrary

Sadi said Nagy's remarks revealed a poor grasp of the facts and amounted to "barely veiled" and "unacceptable" interference in Cameroon's internal affairs.

Nagy is due in Cameroon on March 17 and 18.

Kamto, president of the opposition Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC), came second to President Paul Biya in last October's presidential election.

He says he was cheated out of the presidency when Biya, 86, was elected to a seventh term.

Police arrested him and around 150 of his supporters on January 26 after peaceful demonstrations in several cities across the country.

On the same day, Cameroonians living abroad hostile to the Yaounde government attacked the country's embassies in France and Germany, causing some damage.

The government statement said the demonstrations in Cameroon were illegal and blamed Kamto's supporters for the damage to the embassies. Kamto has denied any responsibility.

On Tuesday, the European Union added its voice to criticism of Cameroon's treatment of the opposition activists.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini criticised the arrests and what she called the military court's "disproportionate" proceedings against them.

"Hostility to the homeland" is punishable by death in theory, though no one has been executed in Cameroon for more than 30 years.

Mogherini also lamented the "deterioration of the political and security situation in Cameroon".
Modi said the UP government immediately acted against some crazed people who had targeted our our Kashmiri brothers.

New Delhi: Two days after two Kashmiri men selling dry fruits were assaulted in Lucknow by a group of men linked to a right-wing fringe outfit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday condemned the incident and said the attack was carried out by some crazed people, while asking state governments to take strict action if there is any attack on residents from the frontier state.

Appreciating the timely action taken by the Uttar Pradesh government in the Lucknow incident, Mr Modi said, It is very important to maintain an atmosphere of unity in the country.

Addressing a gathering in Kanpur, Mr Modi called the Lucknow perpetrators sirphirey log (crazed people), in near identical remarks at the meeting and on Twitter.

The attack was part of a countrywide backlash against Kashmiris after it became known that a 19-year-old from Jammu and Kashmir was the suicide bomber responsible for last months terror attack in Pulwama, in which 40 CRPF personnel died.

Mr Modi said the UP government immediately acted against some crazed people who had targeted our our Kashmiri brothers.

I would also like to request other state governments to take strict action, wherever such acts take place, he said.

The Prime Minister was addressing a gathering after flagging off the commercial run on Lucknow Metros North-South corridor, through video conferencing from Kanpur.

Mr Modi also laid the foundation stone for the Agra Metro Rail project at the same event.

At a separate event in Ghaziabad, the Prime Minister lashed at Opposition leaders who have sought proof of the damage inflicted on the Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp at Balakot in the Indian Air Force strike in retaliation to the Pulwama attack.



Will you (people) do anything that appeases Pakistan or makes Pakistan clap? But some of our Opposition leaders have been doing the same for the past 10 days. Identify these people, they are not worried about the country, but scared of going behind the bars and that is why they want to capture power at the Centre, Mr Modi said.

Pointing about a tweet by a Pakistan Army spokesperson about the airstrike, Mr Modi said, Is Pakistan moorkh (stupid) that it would say that we have been struck? But this is our people asking for proof. Opposition parties can hear it loud and clear... The trust of 130-crore people is my proof. Please stop games that appease Pakistan.

Mr Modi accused the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, among others, of not being ready to trust the armed forces.

They are the same people who raised questions and disrespected the armed forces after the (2016) surgical strike. And, gradually when all the facts emerged, they turned speechless, he said.
Pieter Doorewaard, 28, and Philip Schutte, 35, were found guilty of killing 15-year-old Matlhomola Mosweu, who died after they threw him out of a moving vehicle

A South African court on Wednesday handed jail terms of 23 and 18 years to two white farmers who murdered a black teenager suspected of stealing sunflowers in a remote farming community.

Pieter Doorewaard, 28, and Philip Schutte, 35, were found to have killed 15-year-old Matlhomola Mosweu, also spelt Moshoeu, on April 20, 2017, after claiming they caught him taking a plant from a farm in the area.

Doorewaard was jailed for at least 18 years and Schutte was jailed for at least 23.

The boy died after being thrown out of a moving vehicle driven by the pair and suffering a broken neck, in a case that sparked rioting and looting of white-owned businesses in the town of Coligny.

The men had claimed that the teen jumped off the truck as they drove him to the police but it was Schutte who was found to have thrown the boy to his death.

Murdered: Matlhomola Mosweu's grave outside Coligny

Judge Ronald Hendricks previously also found the pair guilty of kidnapping and intimidation.

"Murder is undoubtedly the most serious offence that can be committed," Hendricks said.

"You picked up the deceased and threw him from the van onto the ground.

"Your actions that day... were indeed disgraceful."

Ahead of the sentencing, Schutte's wife adjusted his collar and kissed him in the dock.

The judge paused as his comments were translated into Afrikaans, the language spoken by many white farmers in South Africa.

"It cannot be ignored that the community revolted as a result of this incident," the judge added.

- 'Inaction of the police' -

"This was largely because of the inaction of the police," Hendricks said. "The community of Coligny was polarised as a result of this incident."

Agnes Mosweu, centre, the mother of the murdered teen, was present in court for the sentencing

Other family members looked on as the judge announced his ruling -- as did members of the radical Economic Freedom Fighters Party, which has vigorously opposed racism against the country's black majority.

Mosweu's father Sakie Dingake said he "was hoping for a sentence of more than 30 years and it did not happen".

"It's so hurtful to me because my child is gone, he is not coming back. These people are going to jail but there is a possibility that if they behave, they can get parole and come out," he said.

A community leader speaking in court said: "It's not all whites in Coligny who are racist -- it's a pocket."

"(Society) has to operate like a piano -- you play black and white keys together you get a melody," he added.

Sunflower protest: African National Congress (ANC) supporters outside the High Court in Mahikeng

Racially charged incidents between white farm owners and managers and poor black farmhands are common in South Africa.

In 2016 two white farmers in eastern Mpumalanga province forced into a coffin a black man they accused of trespassing.

- 'Too young to die' -

The case sparked outrage after a video of the incident emerged on social media and the two were handed jail terms of 19 and 16 years.

Judge Hendricks said in mitigation of Doorewaard and Schutte's sentences that "there was no direct intention to kill the deceased".

"(You are) first-time offenders," he added, as another reason for not imposing life sentences.

"However the aggravating circumstances of this case far outweigh mitigating (factors)."

Local pastor Tewie Pieters said the pair would appeal the sentence with support from the Afrikaans rights group AfriForum.

The government said in a statement that "South Africans should not allow actions like that of the two men to divide our country and communities".

"Government calls on all parties to work together to foster reconciliation," it said.

Beth Sifuba, Mosweu's grandmother, said the sentences were "too little".

"When they come out their kids will be there waiting for them. Where will our child be?" she said. "That child was too young to die."
Despite President Donald Trump's aggressive tariff war aimed at lowering the US trade deficit, the merchandise trade gap last year surge more than 10 percent to $891.3 billion, the highest ever recorded

The skyrocketing US trade deficit last year hit the highest level in a decade, a resounding failure for President Donald Trump's global trade offensive, government data showed Wednesday.

And America's merchandise trade deficit -- the main focus of Trump's ire -- surged to its highest level ever in 2018, as did the imbalance in goods trade with China, Mexico and the European Union -- even after Washington slapped tariffs on hundreds of billions in imports from its largest trading partners.

The bulging deficit numbers come as US and Chinese officials say they are nearing a breakthrough in talks to end their trade war. Beijing is expected to offer to make eye-catching purchases of American agricultural goods to cut the trade deficit and please Trump.

Trump has angrily described trade deficits as a defeat for the United States, and aimed to erase them, but the Commerce Department report was bristling with records as Americans snapped up mobile phones and companies invested in computer equipment in 2018.

The total US goods deficit surged 10.4 percent to $891.3 billion, the highest level ever recorded.

Meanwhile, the overall trade deficit with the world, with services factored in, jumped 12.5 percent to $621 billion as both imports and exports rose to their highest levels ever, according to the report. The deficit in 2017 was $552.3 billion.

In December alone, the total deficit also vaulted past expectations, surging 18.8 percent and likely weighing on an economy which already was slowing at the close of the year.

"We expect the slowdown in global growth to continue to weigh on exports and industrial production," Mickey Levy of Berenberg Capital Markets wrote in a note to clients.

"In particular, economic weakness in China and Europe and trade-related uncertainties are dampening trade volumes."

In 2018, however, solid US growth, low unemployment and consumers' thirst for foreign products drove imports of goods and services up 7.5 percent to a record $3.1 trillion in 2018.

Exports also rose, but not enough to chip away at the imbalance. Sales abroad increased 6.3 percent to $2.5 trillion last year, also the highest level ever.

And with the country is on its way to becoming a net energy exporter, crude sales abroad more than doubled to $47 billion.

But soybean exports, a crucial crop across vast expanses of the country, fell 18 percent for the year to $18.2 billion amid a Chinese boycott sparked by Trump's trade war.

- Record imports -

China-US trade in goods

American purchases of foreign autos, computers and machinery, and consumer goods, as well as foods and animal feeds, also were the highest ever.

Imports of goods ($2.6 trillion) and services ($557.9 billion) reached new all-time highs, the report showed.

And even as Washington and Beijing have exchanged punitive tariffs on more than $360 billion in two-way trade, the US deficit with China expanded to an even larger $419.2 billion, a new record.

Trump rejects conventional economic views of trade, which hold that deficits are not always a negative for the economy as they can allow cheaper goods and services be made available to more people while promoting job creation.

The White House maintains that trade imbalances translate directly into thousands of job losses but while the tariffs protections help some companies, many others have struggled with higher prices and held off on investments amid the trade war. Some have even gone bankrupt or laid off workers as a result of the tariff battles.

While officials have projected optimism in recent weeks, details on a possible deal with China remain scarce.

The deficit with the European Union, also in a trade standoff with Washington, also rose to a record $169.3 billion, while the gap with Mexico hit a high of $81.5 billion.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom is in Washington this week and due to meet later Wednesday with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer as they prepare for formal negotiations.

At the same time, the United States recorded surpluses with Britain and with South and Central America.

The OECD on Wednesday cut its global growth forecast for 2019 by two tenths to 3.3 percent, citing trade tensions and political uncertainty.

Wall Street closed sharply down following the news, with major indices adding to Tuesday's losses on fears of a slowdown in the global economy and questions on the US-China trade negotiations.
Iran is attending a "joint commission" in the Austrian capital with representatives from China, Russia, Britain, Germany and France -- all signatories of the international deal on Iran's nuclear programme

Iran hopes to have its part of a new payments vehicle -- devised to allow it to trade with EU firms despite US sanctions -- -- ready within a fortnight, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday.

"We hope it will be before the end of the Iranian calendar year," Araghchi told reporters in Vienna, referring to March 20.

He said that Iran now had a "clearer picture" of how the new vehicle, known as INSTEX -- short for Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges - -- would work and that its managing director would visit Tehran for discussions "very soon".

But he added that only when the mechanism becomes fully operational would Iran be able to assess whether it "can work properly and can produce results, (and) can do payments between Iran and European countries".

Araghchi was in the Austrian capital for a "joint commission" with representatives from China, Russia, Britain, Germany and France -- all signatories of the international deal on Iran's nuclear programme.

Tehran's deputy foreign miniser Abbas Araghchi (R) and EU External Action Service secretary general Helga Schmid at the joint commission on the Iran nuclear deal

INSTEX was launched at the end of January by Britain, France and Germany.

It is seen as key to European Union efforts to preserve the deal struck in 2015 between world powers and Iran over its nuclear programme, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The US was also a signatory but last May President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal and in November imposed sweeping new sanctions on Iran.

- Remaining members 'united' -

Araghchi said there was "very strong support" for the deal from all participants at the meeting.

He emphasised that Iran expects INSTEX to work "for all goods and commodities, not only humanitarian goods", but that it could start with humanitarian goods "in order to set the patterns for doing business with Iran".

"Once the patterns are set, then other goods, including sanctioned goods -- and oil of course -- would be added to this mechanism," he added.

"It is late but still a move in the right direction," Araghchi said.

INSTEX, to be registered in France with German governance, will allow Iran to trade with EU companies despite Washington reimposing sanctions after President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 accord.

The EU representative, who chairs the joint commission, said in a statement after the meeting that the EU would continue to support the work to make INSTEX operational "as soon as possible in close coordination with an Iranian corresponding entity which is being established".

Russia's ambassador to Vienna's UN organisations, Mikhail Ulyanov, who was also at the meeting, told AFP the remaining signatories to the deal are "united in the need to save the JCPOA".

"There are some problems, particularly in the economic field but we are aimed at overcoming them as soon as possible," Ulyanov said.

He said the speed with which INSTEX became fully operational was up to Germany, France, Britain and Iran.

But Ulyanov added: "I believe it may take a rather long time, at least a few months; most likely even more."

In February the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency watchdog said Iran was adhering to the terms of the JCPOA, under which Tehran drastically scaled back its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Washington has urged European signatories to the JCPOA to follow Trump's example and withdraw, but this has been rejected by the Europeans.
A man surveys the destruction of the building of Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV in Gaza City on November 13, 2018, after it was hit in an Israeli air strike

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu designated Al-Aqsa television channel of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas a "terrorist organisation" on Wednesday.

Netanyahu, who is also defence minister, "signed an order declaring the Hamas Al-Aqsa television channel to be a terrorist organisation", the premier's office said.

It said the decision was made on the advice of Israeli security services, which were said to have discovered Hamas's "use of the Al-Aqsa satellite channel to recruit militants to its ranks".

Israel, along with the United States, European Union and other powers, brands Hamas a terrorist organisation.

Hamas, which does not recognise Israel, took power in 2007 in the Gaza Strip, and the territory has been subjected to a rigorous Israeli blockade for more than a decade.

Israel has fought three wars with Hamas and its allies since 2008, with a tense ceasefire currently in place.

During a flare-up in November, Israel destroyed the offices of Al-Aqsa in Gaza City, though the channel has continued to broadcast.

Ibrahim Daher, general manager of Al-Aqsa TV, condemned what he called a "dangerous decision" that could endanger his staff.

"We will work to bring cases in local and international courts and call on international organisations to highlight this new crime against media freedom," he told AFP.

In mid-February, Israel's Shin Bet security service accused Hamas of using agents inside the channel to recruit militants in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, including using the channel to communicate with potential recruits.

It gave the example of an Al-Aqsa presenter who put a mug on his desk at the start of a show, allegedly confirming to a recruit that he was actually in contact with Hamas agents.
Two demonstrators outside a courthouse in Vancouver on December 10, 2018 call for the release of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou after she was detained for possible extradition to the US for alleged sanctions busting

Meng Wanzhou, the Chinese telecom executive at the center of an escalating row between Ottawa and Beijing, appeared briefly before a Canadian judge on Wednesday who set May 8 for the start of a hearing into a US extradition request.

Meng's arrest in Vancouver in December on a US warrant infuriated China, which arrested two Canadians days later in what was widely seen as retaliation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday he was "very concerned" over reports from Chinese state news agency Xinhua that the Canadians, including a former diplomat, were suspected of espionage.

Meng, the chief financial officer of Huawei, a telecoms giant founded by her father, was changing planes in Vancouver when she was detained at Washington's request for allegedly violating US sanctions on Iran.

Canada's justice department last week gave its nod for the case to proceed, saying evidence against Meng submitted by the United States was sufficient to put before a judge under its treaty obligations.

Meng, 47, has been granted bail until the outcome of the case, which could take months or years.

If the judge rules in favor of extradition, Canada's attorney general will have the final say over whether to hand Meng to US authorities who accuse her and Huawei of circumventing sanctions against Iran.

Huawei is also accused, via two affiliates, of stealing trade secrets from US telecommunications group T-Mobile.

Sporting a hoodie, Meng was ushered into the downtown Vancouver courtroom past a gaggle of journalists for the a hearing that lasted just 15 minutes.

Her lawyers said they needed more time to prepare a defense, which would include alleged abuse of process.

Outside, a small group of protesters burned a China flag, and waved placards calling for Meng to be extradited and demanding Beijing release the two Canadians.

- 'False imprisonment' claim -

Beijing denounced the accusations as the product of "strong political motivations" and an attempt to undermine its flagship telecoms company. Meng and Huawei have also denied wrongdoing.

Meng is suing Canadian authorities, alleging her rights were violated when she was arrested.

She is seeking damages for "misfeasance in public office and false imprisonment," her attorneys Howard Mickelson and Allan Doolittle said in a statement.

They charge that Meng was improperly interrogated for three hours by customs officers, officially as part of a routine inspection, before being served with her official arrest.

Customs officers searched her phones and computers as well as her luggage, in violation of her rights, the lawyers said.

Nine days after Meng's arrest, Chinese authorities detained two Canadians -- former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor.

A third Canadian, meanwhile, had his sentence for drug trafficking upped from 15 years in prison to death row.

Trudeau has decried the arrests as arbitrary while insisting on a strict hands-off approach to the Meng case.

His former ambassador to China was sacked after he undermined that position by saying Meng had a "strong" case against extradition, citing comments by US President Donald Trump, and later adding that it would be "great for Canada" if the US dropped the case.
The lidar sensors developed for Waymo's autonomous vehicles will be sold to companies in robotics, agriculture and other sectors in a move that could help bring down the cost of the technology

Waymo, the former Google car division developing self-driving technology, said Wednesday it would sell a key innovation to companies that don't compete with its autonomous cars.

The California-based unit of Google parent Alphabet will offer its lidar sensors, which measure distance with pulses of laser light, to companies in robotics, security, agricultural technology and other sectors.

"Our custom lidars have been instrumental in making Waymo the first company in the world to put fully self-driving cars on public roads," Waymo said in a statement.

"Now, we are making these sensors available to companies outside of self-driving ... so they can achieve their own technological breakthroughs."

The move could offer a new revenue stream for Waymo as it invests in bringing "robo taxis" to market, broadening the availability of the 3D lidar sensors it has been developing since 2011.

"Offering this lidar to partners helps spur the growth of applications outside of self-driving cars and also propels our business forward," the statement said.

"We can scale our autonomous technology faster, making each sensor more affordable through economies of scale."

The company is offering its "Laser Bear Honeycomb" sensor, which is used on the bumpers of self-driving cars and has a wider field of view than many competing sensors, according to Waymo.

"When the Honeycomb sends out a pulse of light, it doesn't just see the first object the laser beam touches," Waymo said.

"Instead, it can see up to four different objects in that laser beams' line of sight... This gives a rich and more detailed view of the environment, and uncovers objects that might otherwise be missed."
US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun is to meet with Japanese and South Korean officials over the deadlocked Hanoi summit between US President Donald Trump and the North's leader, Kim Jong Un

Washington's North Korea envoy Stephen Biegun was to meet Wednesday with officials from Japan and South Korea to discuss the outcome of the Hanoi summit last week, amid new evidence that Pyongyang is rebuilding a rocket launch site.

Biegun was to meet separately in Washington with Lee Do-hoon, Seoul's chief nuclear envoy, and Japan's Kenji Kanasugi, with a three-way meeting also expected, according to the US State Department.

Their talks take place after US President Donald Trump abruptly cut short the February 27-28 summit in Vietnam with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid fundamental differences between the two sides over dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

The summit, their second in under a year, broke up without even a joint statement, and each sought to blame the other's intransigence for the deadlock.

Both sides pledged to continue talking, but no new meetings have been scheduled.

State Department Spokesman Robert Palladino declined Tuesday to say whether contacts between Washington and Pyongyang have resumed since the summit.

On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hopes to be able to send a team to Pyongyang in "the next couple weeks," while acknowledging there had been no commitment from Pyongyang on resuming talks.

The US, Japan and South Korea were confronted with a fresh challenge when new photographs released Tuesday appeared to show that Pyongyang may be pursuing the "rapid rebuilding" of a long-range rocket site at Sohae, after having pulled back nuclear-related activity.

The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said the renewed activity, recorded two days after the summit, may "demonstrate resolve in the face of US rejection" of the North's request for an easing of sanctions.

The site, dormant since August 2018, "has been used in the past for satellite launches, which use ICBM technology banned under UN Security Council resolutions," CSIS said.

The State Department declined to address the reports Wednesday.
Blue and White political alliance (Kahol Lavan) leaders Gabi Ashkenazi, Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz, and Moshe Yaalon speak to the press during a tour near the Syrian border in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, on March 4, 2019

The main rivals to Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu in April elections said Wednesday they want to separate from the Palestinians but refrained from using the term two-state solution as they released their platform.

The centrist Blue and White alliance spoke of working with Arab states to "intensify the process of separation from the Palestinians while ensuring without compromise Israel's security interests," its platform said.

Blue and White -- named for the colours of Israel's flag -- is headed by former military chief of staff Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, an ex-finance minister.

The alliance is expected to win the most seats ahead of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud, but not nearly enough for an outright victory, based on opinion polls. It is unclear if it would be able to assemble a coalition.

Many analysts believe the April 9 election will be close as Netanyahu faces the threat of indictment for corruption.

Israeli politics have moved firmly to the right in recent years, with much of the population having grown weary of calls for a two-state solution and unwilling to make signficant compromises in favour of the Palestinians.

Netanyahu says he wants the Palestinians to govern themselves, but has declined to specify whether that would mean an independent Palestinian state or some lesser form of autonomy.

Prominent members of his current coalition however openly rule out a Palestinian state and call for Israel to annex much of the West Bank, which it occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War.

There have been growing warnings of diminishing chances for a two-state solution, long the focus of international diplomacy.

US President Donald Trump is expected to release his long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan after the elections.

Blue and White says it sees "united" Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a reference to the entire city, including the eastern sector that the Palestinians want as the capital as their future state.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

It lists the Jordan Valley as Israel's "eastern security border" -- including the portion in the West Bank.

The alliance also envisions strengthening the major settlement blocs in the West Bank.

It says the annexed Golan Heights would remain part of Israel.

The 45-page document also delves into issues such as the economy, public services and Iran, Israel's main enemy.
"I urge you to troop out massively on Saturday," said Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday urged Nigerians to avoid violence in the upcoming governorship and state parliamentary elections.

Nigerian voters go to the polls on Saturday to elect governors and lawmakers in 29 of the nation's 36 states.

The vote comes two weeks after presidential and national assembly elections in which Buhari was elected for a second term after defeating Atiku Abubakar, the main opposition candidate.

The vote was marred by violence with at least 53 people killed across Nigeria.

In a statement in Abuja, the nation's capital, Buhari urged Nigerians "to turn out in large numbers to exercise their civic rights."

He said: "With the presidential poll behind us, let us not become complacent and fail to vote in the gubernatorial poll."

He said the polls were as important for good governance as the presidential and the national assembly elections.

"Indeed, governance at the state level is closer to us, and should touch our lives more directly. That is why it is vital for us to participate in the choice of who governs us at the state levels," he said.

"I, therefore, urge you to troop out massively on Saturday."

The Nigerian leader also urged voters to "avoid all deviant behaviours like ballot stuffing, ballot snatching, and any other action that does not conform with best electoral practices."

And he appealed to Nigerians not to allow themselves "to be used to cause violence or to break the law or otherwise disturb the peace."
US President Donald Trump appeals to Republicans not to support Democrats voting against his invocation of emergency powers to fund wall construction on the US-Mexico border

President Donald Trump urged Republican party rebels on Wednesday not to support Democrats voting to scrap his invocation of emergency powers for funding US-Mexico border wall construction.

"STAY UNITED!" Trump tweeted ahead of a Senate vote in which four Republicans are expected to break ranks and join Democrats in blocking Trump's controversial measure.

Democrats are in the Senate minority but their measure would pass with the four Republicans' support.

According to Democratic lawmakers, Trump exceeded his authority when he invoked special powers to override congressional opposition to funding extra border wall construction.

Their rebuke of Trump, which has already passed in the lower house of Congress, would be an embarrassment for the president if it clears the Senate with his own party's support.

However, the vote will only have symbolic importance since Trump can respond with a veto, then continue to obtain his wall funding.

In his tweet, Trump denied that the issue was about constitutional concerns of presidential overreach, as Democrats claim.

Senators are "voting on desperately needed Border Security & the Wall. Our Country is being invaded with Drugs, Human Traffickers, & Criminals of all shapes and sizes," he wrote. "That's what this vote is all about."

- 'National security threat': Nielsen' -

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen warns that illegal immigration is rising despite efforts by the Trump administration to contain it

Earlier Wednesday Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended the emergency declaration, warning that illegal immigration hit multi-year highs in February and will worsen in the coming months.

She cited the Customs and Border Protection agency's figures showing a 30 percent month-to-month jump in apprehensions and prevented entries of illegal immigrations at the southern border in February, with the total number topping 76,000.

Illegal immigration "is spiraling out of control and threatening public safety and national security," she told a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee.

"Make no mistake: this chain of human misery is getting worse."

She noted the record levels of families and unaccompanied children arriving at the border, nearly all of them from Central America and seeking asylum to escape poverty and violence back home.

Nielsen said in many cases children were being used as "pawns" to get into our country, and even "recycled" by smuggling rings to help multiple groups cross the border and get a foothold on US soil.

She said she sympathized with the migrants but insisted that, as Trump formally declared last month, "It is an emergency."

"As the Secretary of Homeland Security, I can no longer assure you about who is coming into this country. That is a direct national security threat."
The Congress president also said his party will adopt zero tolerance with regard to atrocities on women.

Koraput: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday utilised the occasion of International Womens Day to strike an emotional chord with the women voters of the country.

He promised passage of the Women Reservation Bill in the Parliament if the Congress comes to power in the 2019 general elections.

We will pass the Women Reservation Bill if our party comes to power at the Centre in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, Mr Gandhi said while interacting with tribal women at Jeypore in Odishas Koraput district.

The Congress president also said his party will adopt zero tolerance with regard to atrocities on women.

We will adopt a zero tolerance with regard to atrocities against women. Perpetrators would be dealt with exemplary punishments, Mr Gandhi said.

He promised free higher education for women belonging to tribal and weaker sections.

We promise free higher and professional education, including medical science and law, for women of tribal communities and weaker sections if our party forms the governments at the Centre and Odisha, said Mr Gandhi.

Later in the day, while addressing a public meeting, the Congress supremo also announced to provide marriage kit for the poor women for marriage.

Financial assistance will be provided to every poor girl for marriage. We will hike widow allowance to Rs 2,000, he said.

Mr Gandhi continued targeting Narendra Modi government over several issues, including Rafale deal and unemployment.

The Nehru-Gandhi scion also promised to waive off farm loans and to hike paddy MSP in Odisha if the party comes to power in 2019 elections.

Hitting out at the BJD government over the rising number of rape cases in the Odisha, he said that a special officer will be appointed in every panchayat for women.

A financial corporation will be set up for women entrepreneurs who run small business units in the State, said the Congress supremo at the public meeting.

He slammed Naveen Patnaik-led government for allegedly suppressing the voice of people including dalits and tribals in the State.

We want to form the government of dalits, oppressed, tribals, women and labourers here. We want the peoples voice to be heard in Assembly. We do not want to tell you Mann Ki Baat, rather we want to run the government hearing your Mann Ki Baat, said Gandhi said.
US President Donald Trump has prolonged sanctions on more than 100 individuals and entities from Zimbabwe including President Emmerson Mnangagwa, pictured, over rights abuses

Zimbabwe on Wednesday slammed as a travesty of justice the "regrettable" year-long extension of sanctions targeted against selected government officials and institutions by the United States.

US President Donald Trump this week prolonged the sanctions, first imposed in 2003, on more than 100 individuals and entities -- including President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his predecessor Robert Mugabe -- over human rights abuses.

Trump also said the individuals posed "an unusual and extraordinary threat" to US foreign policy.

"Zimbabwe has no history of aggression against any nation, so the statement that 'Zimbabwe poses an extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States' is absurd," said Information Ministry Secretary Nick Mangwana in a statement cited by the state-media daily The Herald.

"The continued unilateral imposition of sanctions against Zimbabwe by the United States is a travesty of justice against the Zimbabwean people," said Mangwana.

Since the removal of longtime ruler Mugabe with the help of the military in November 2017, the new government has been on campaign to re-engage internationally, especially with the West.

"We... expect our warm gestures to be reciprocated and to witness a shift in US foreign policy on Zimbabwe as the logical dividend," added Mangwana.

Foreign Affairs secretary James Manzou told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that while the US sanctions "regrettably remains in place, the ministry believes that the new dispensation (government) has laid firm a foundation for future relations with the United States".

The extension of US sanctions comes days ahead of a visit to Zimbabwe next week by South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa has led calls by African leader for the lifting of sanctions imposed by Western powers over rights abuse under Mugabe's regime.
Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, has experienced a spike in violent attacks on people with albinism. In many cases those with albinism are targeted for their body parts to be used in witchcraft

Malawi police on Wednesday blocked a protest by around 200 albinos who marched to the presidential palace to protest the killing and abduction of people living with albinism.

The group, joined by 500 sympathisers, was stopped outside the parliament building, about a kilometre from Kamuzu Palace, where police formed a cordon to stop them.

Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, has experienced a spike in violent attacks on people with albinism over the past four years. In many cases those with albinism are targeted for their body parts to be used in witchcraft.

The Association of People with Albinism in Malawi said they are frustrated by government inertia. The vigil was aimed at forcing President Peter Mutharika into action.

Mutharika had been travelling to the northern region of the country. Police later allowed the rally to move closer. But the protesters vowed to camp at the palace until he returns.

"We will not leave the state house until the issues that President Mutharika promised have been fulfilled, including ... giving each one of us security alarms," said the association's leader Overstone Kondowe.

The alarm gadgets will be linked to police stations and can be activated if an albino is in danger.

The genetic hereditary disorder causes a partial or total absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes -- as a result albinos often experience eye problems and have a heightened risk of skin cancer.

In a June 2018 report, rights group Amnesty International said since November 2014 there have been 148 crimes reported against people with albinism that have claimed at least 21 lives.

Only 30 percent of those attacks have been properly investigated, according to official statistics, with only one murder and one attempted murder case successfully prosecuted.

strs-sn/pma
A campaign billboard bearing images of Peoples Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar and his running mate Peter Obi stands on a road in Abuja on February 19, 2019, ahead of the rescheduled elections whose result Abubakar disputes

A Nigerian court on Wednesday granted a request by the main opposition leader to inspect voting materials in a bid to challenge his defeat at the presidential polls.

Atiku Abubakar, of the Peoples Democratic Party, went to the presidential election tribunal following his loss to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari who was re-elected for a second term late last month.

Abubakar rejected election results, alleging irregularities during the vote, which was also marred by violence.

The PDP and its candidate on Tuesday sought a court order to compel the electoral body INEC to grant them access to polling documents. That would enable them launch a legal challenge against the election results.

In a unanimous ruling by a panel of three judges, the tribunal ordered INEC to "allow the applicants or their representatives to inspect the polling documents and obtain certified true copies of all polling documents".

However, a request to scan and conduct a forensic audit of the election documents was rejected by the tribunal.

Buhari, a 76-year-old former military ruler, has rejected doubts over the election result saying voting was free and fair.

Under Nigeria's electoral law, Abubakar has up to 21 days after the announcement of the results to launch a legal challenge which must be determined by the election petition tribunal within 180 days.

In the event that the election court decision is challenged, the Supreme court would make its final verdict within 90 days.
Human Rights Watch said "the screening, investigation and prosecution of children as IS supsects by Iraqi and KRG authorities is deeply flawed," using flimsy accusations or confessions obtained through torture

Iraqi authorities are prosecuting children suspected of ties to the Islamic State group in a "deeply flawed" process, using flimsy accusations or confessions obtained through torture, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

The rights group's extensive report was based on interviews with 29 Iraqi children who are current or former detainees in the Kurdish Regional Government, as well as relatives, prison guards, and judicial sources.

Iraq announced it defeated IS in late 2017, but has continued to try men, women, and children, including foreigners, accused of belonging to the group.

"The screening, investigation, and prosecution of children as IS suspects by Iraqi and KRG authorities is deeply flawed, often leading to arbitrary detention and unfair trials," HRW wrote.

It found many boys were arrested from camps or checkpoints based on weak evidence.

They were beaten, subject to electric shocks, denied access to relatives or legal representation, and coerced into admitting IS membership even if they had never joined the jihadists, it said.

"They were beating me all over my body with plastic pipes. First they said I should say I was with IS, so I agreed," said a 14-year-old held by the KRG's Asayish police.

While IS did widely recruit and indoctrinate children, having some carry out executions, most of those interviewed by HRW said they never fought with the group.

They were tried without lawyers, in hearings that lasted no more than ten minutes and were conducted in Kurdish, a language the Arabic-speaking boys could not understand.

Sentences in the KRG were between six and nine months.

- 'Blind vengeance' -

Federal courts, meanwhile, sentenced children to up to 15 years in jail, often in overcrowded prisons alongside adults, in violation of international standards.

"Every day was torture. We were beaten every day, all of us," said a 17-year-old who served nine months in a federal prison.

Even after their release, the boys do not return home out of fear of re-arrest or retribution by their communities.

"Other tribes in the village suffered from IS and see my family as IS," said Fawaz, 16, who opted to live in a camp instead of return home after his release.

"Once they know I'm in the village, they will come and take me."

HRW estimated that at the end of 2018, Iraqi and KRG authorities were detaining approximately 1,500 children for alleged IS affiliation.

Hundreds of children, including at least 185 foreigners, have already been convicted on terrorism charges.

HRW said Iraq's federal and KRG governments should stop arresting children for IS membership and release all minors, unless they are accused of violent crimes.

"Iraq and the KRG's harsh treatment of children looks more like blind vengeance than justice for IS crimes," said HRW's children's rights director Jo Becker.

"Children involved in armed conflicts are entitled to rehabilitation and reintegration, not torture and prison."
Chef Mario Batali, pictured in 2013, has negotiated the sale of his part in the Eataly food store chain following accusations of sexual assault

US celebrity chef Mario Batali has sold his stake in all of his restaurants after being accused of sexual assault by several women, the businesses announced Wednesday.

"We wanted to let you all know that Mario is now fully divested from our businesses. This week, we acquired all of his interests in our restaurants," decades-long Batali partners Tanya and Joe Bastianich wrote in a letter to employees seen by AFP.

The siblings confirmed the dissolution of the Batali and Bastianich Hospitality Group, estimated to be worth $250 million, and the subsequent creation of a new company.

Batali, who often refers to his Italian heritage for culinary inspiration, also negotiated the sale of his part in the chain of gargantuan Eataly food stores, which no longer sell his line of sauces or his 11 cookbooks.

New York police closed an investigation into 58-year-old Batali in January without filing charges.

An employee accused him last year of having assaulted her in 2005 at one of his 26 restaurants, The Spotted Pig, a fashionable New York spot favorited by celebrities.

The woman, who chose to remain anonymous, claimed the chef drugged her and assaulted her, adding that when she came to there was semen on her clothing.

She went to hospital and called the police, but ultimately decided against filing a complaint and the physical evidence produced at the hospital wasn't kept.

Batali denies the allegations.

An employee at The Spotted Pig claimed to have witnessed a similar incident in 2008 through the restaurant's security cameras in which employees had to intervene to stop an assault against a woman who was unconscious.

The once-prestigious chef, known for his red ponytail and orange Croc shoes, had already been accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate touching.

Those allegations led him to apologize publicly for making "many mistakes" and to take a sidelined role at his businesses and leave "The Chew" television program, but he initially hung on to the restaurants.
Arizona Senator Martha McSally revealed that she had been raped by a superior office while serving in the US Air Force

Arizona Senator Martha McSally, the first woman to fly in combat for the US Air Force, said Wednesday that she had been raped by a superior officer while in the service.

McSally, 52, who spent 26 years in the Air Force and commanded a fighter squadron, revealed the attack in emotional remarks during a Senate subcommittee hearing on sexual assault in the military.

"I am also a military sexual assault survivor but unlike so many brave survivors I didn't report being sexually assaulted," McSally said.

"Like so many women and men I didn't trust the system at the time," she said. "I blame myself. I was ashamed and confused. And I thought I was strong but felt powerless.

"The perpetrators abused their position of power in profound ways," the first-term Republican senator said. "And in one case I was preyed upon and then raped by a superior officer."

McSally said she kept quiet about the assault for many years.

"But later in my career, as the military grappled with scandals and their wholly inadequate responses, I felt the need to let some people know -- I too was a survivor," she said.

McSally said she considered leaving the military after the assault.

"I almost separated from the Air Force at 18 years over my despair," she said. "Like many victims I felt the system was raping me all over again.

"But I didn't quit," she said. "I decided to stay and continue to serve and fight and lead, to be a voice from within the ranks for women and then in the House and then in the Senate."

McSally lost a close race in November to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema but was later appointed by the Arizona governor to fill the seat once held by John McCain, who died in August.

She is expected to contend for the Senate again in 2020 and may face a potentially tough race against former astronaut and US Navy veteran Mark Kelly, who is seeking the Democratic nomination.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, who is also a military veteran, revealed earlier this year that she had been raped while in college.
R. Kelly pleaded not guilty on February 25 to 10 counts of aggravated criminal sex abuse against four victims, three of them minors

R&B superstar R. Kelly was taken into custody Wednesday for failing to pay child support, just weeks after he was briefly detained on sex abuse charges.

"He was taken into custody and he will be transported to Cook County jail later today," Sophia Ansari of the local sheriff's office said following a court hearing in Chicago.

Ansari said Kelly owes $161,000, and is required to pay the full amount, with the next court date in the case set for March 13.

Kelly pleaded not guilty on February 25 to 10 counts of aggravated criminal sex abuse against four victims, three of them minors. He was freed on $100,000 bail the same day, after spending three nights in jail.

Hours before the Wednesday's hearing, CBS aired an interview with the musician in which he denied those charges -- his first public comments since being indicted last month.

"I didn't do this stuff. This not me," Kelly told "CBS This Morning," saying he was "fighting" for his life.

"Whether they're old rumors, new rumors, future rumors, not true," said Kelly, who became extremely upset and emotional during the interview.

The sex acts are alleged to have occurred between May 1998 and January 2010, according to prosecutors.

Kelly has been repeatedly accused of sexual misconduct before.

In 2002 he was charged after allegedly filming himself having sex with a 14-year-old girl. He was tried and acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008.

A 2017 BuzzFeed report later alleged he had kept women as virtual sex slaves at homes he owns in Chicago and Atlanta.

And in January, a six-part documentary called "Surviving R. Kelly" was released. It said he had engaged in sexual, mental and physical abuse of girls and women.
The criticism comes as Democrats grapple with how to reprimand one of their own, first-term Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, for her repeated criticisms of Israel and a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday it was "shameful" that Democrats have not taken a tougher stance on anti-Semitism, following controversial remarks about Israel by one of the first Muslim women in Congress.

With a single tweet the president weighed into a debate that has caused the latest awkward rift in the Democratic Party, as young progressives clash with the establishment old guard.

"It is shameful that House Democrats won't take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference," Trump said.

"Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and it's inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!"

The criticism comes as Democrats grapple with how to reprimand one of their own, first-term Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, for her repeated criticisms of Israel and a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington that prides itself on its influence in US politics.

Omar, a former Somali refugee, was assailed by Democrats and Republicans alike for suggesting last Friday that supporters of the Jewish state are urging lawmakers to have "allegiance to a foreign country."

Activists speak during a press conference to support US Representative Ilhan Omar

Several lawmakers expressed outrage, warning that Omar was peddling in age-old anti-Semitic tropes about Jews having dual allegiances.

The Democratic-led US House had been expected to vote as early as Wednesday on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

But on Wednesday in a closed-door meeting of Democrats, the debate appeared to morph into a discussion over broader efforts to address hateful rhetoric, with some lawmakers pushing to include resolution language that decries anti-Muslim bias.

Some Democrats also have expressed anger that Omar could be facing an implicit rebuke while racist statements by Trump and other Republicans go largely unchallenged.

Number two House Democrat Steny Hoyer said the language of the resolution was still being worked out, and that a vote date had yet to be set.

Hoyer also offered a defense of sorts of Omar, saying he did not believe she is anti-Semitic.

A small group of activists gathered outside the Capitol Wednesday in support of Omar, including Council on American-Islamic Relations head Nihad Awad who warned that House leaders were seeking to "intimidate" the embattled congresswoman.

"The fact that the Democratic leadership was forced to change the resolution" showed it was "unbalanced and it ignored Islamophobia and the suffering of Muslims here and abroad," Awad said.
Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief, was sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax crimes and bank fraud

US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison Thursday for tax crimes and bank fraud.

It was the stiffest sentence yet given to an associate of the president in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling -- but significantly lighter than many expected for the 69-year-old political consultant.

In a rebuff to Mueller's call for stiff punishment, the judge called the official guidelines for a prison sentence of 19 to 24 years "excessive."

But Manafort still faces sentencing in a second case in Washington next week, where the maximum penalty is 10 years and the judge has appeared more sympathetic to prosecutors.

The charges involved Manafort's work for 10 years on behalf of Moscow-allied politicians in Ukraine, and nothing related to the 2016 election -- an issue he argued in asking the court for lenience.

Prosecutors alleged that Manafort used offshore bank accounts in Cyprus to hide more than $55 million from Ukrainian politicians from the tax authorities.

He is one of six top advisors and associates of Trump's 2016 presidential election campaign to be charged in the Mueller investigation.

During Manafort's trial, much of the damaging testimony against him was provided by his former deputy Rick Gates, who is awaiting sentencing after reaching a plea agreement with the Special Counsel's office.

Besides Manafort and Gates, four other former Trump associates face charges or have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Mueller investigation.

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials and is awaiting sentencing.

Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen is to begin serving a three-year prison sentence on May 6 for fraud, tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and lying to Congress.

George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was sentenced to two weeks in prison.

Another Trump advisor, Roger Stone, awaits trial.
Oil is seen leaking from the MV Solomon Trader off the coast of Rennell Island, after the cargo vessel ran aground more than a month ago

Australia expressed alarm Friday at the slow response from firms linked to a grounded cargo ship that has for weeks been leaking oil into a World Heritage-listed coral atoll in the Solomon Islands.

MV Solomon Trader ran aground during high winds on February 5 while loading bauxite at remote Rennell Island.

More than a month later, the 225-metre (740-foot) ship is still stuck on the reef and has leaked more than 70 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the sea, with another 600 tonnes still on the stricken vessel.

"We needed much speedier action in response to what is potentially a very significant natural disaster," Australia's minister for international development and the Pacific, Anne Ruston, told AFP Friday.

"We would have liked to have seen that the operator and their necessary insurers were a little bit quicker to respond to what was happening, instead of leaving it up to Australia and the Solomon Islands to respond."

The ship's insurer, Korean Protection and Indemnity Club (KP&I), issued an apology late Wednesday on behalf of itself and the vessel's Hong Kong-based owner, King Trader Ltd.

Addressing delays in responding to the disaster, KP&I said a tug initially tried to manoeuvre the ship off the reef but poor weather intervened and pushed it further onshore.

Rennell Island is the largest raised coral atoll in the world and includes a UNESCO World Heritage site which extends kilometres out to sea.

The islanders rely on waters in the ecologically delicate region for their livelihoods.

Experts and specialised equipment are now on site from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu, the United States, Singapore and Europe.

They are cleaning up the shore and removing the remaining oil from the ship, while divers were to inspect the hull and seal any leaks.

The Australian government has sent salvage experts to assist the response and vowed to help the Solomons make sure those responsible for the spill are held to account.
Party sources said that Mr Shindes candidature has been cleared for Solapur seat, from where the veteran Congress leader has won on many occasions.

Priya Dutt, daughter of late film actor and Congress MP Sunil Dutt, too has been shortlisted. However, it is yet to be decided as to from where she will contest, sources said.

New Delhi: Candidature of former home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Sanjay Nirupam and Priya Dutt were among the 12 names which were cleared by the Congress screening committee for Maharashtra on Friday for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Party sources said that the names of candidates shortlisted for 12 seats in the state will be formally announced after the meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC), which is scheduled for March 11.

Out of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharas-htra, the Congress will contest 26 while its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will fight on 22 seats.

Party sources said that Mr Shindes candidature has been cleared for Solapur seat, from where the veteran Congress leader has won on many occasions.

Mr Nirupams name has been shortlisted for the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha seat which was won by the late Congress leader Gurudas Kamat in 2009, they added.

Priya Dutt, daughter of late film actor and Congress MP Sunil Dutt, too has been shortlisted. However, it is yet to be decided as to from where she will contest, sources said.

Interestingly, she had won the Mumbai North-West seat in the 2005 by-election which was necessitated after the demise of her father. The late actor had won from this seat on five occasions, the last being in 2004.

The Congress will also be contesting the Pune seat and has cleared the name of Sanjay Kakade, who is currently an independent Rajya Sabha member backed by the BJP. Mr Kakade has not formally joined the Congress but sources did not rule out his doing so in the coming days.

Former junior minister for coal in UPA-II Pratik Patils name was also cleared for Sangli Lok Sabh seat during the meeting, sources said. Discussions on clearing candidates for the remaining 14 seats in the state were still going on.

The screening committees meeting was attended by All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of the organisation K.C. Venugopal, Maharashtra state in-charge Mallikarjun Kharge, state Congress head Ashok Chavan, and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, among others.
Suharto's three-decade military dictatorship -- infamous for its eye-watering levels of corruption -- crumbled in 1998 amid massive street protests as the collapsing economy was hit hard by the Asian Financial Crisis

Indonesia has charged a rights activist with allegedly insulting the country's military, sparking a protest from campaigners who derided it as "ludicrous" and an attack on free speech.

Robertus Robet was briefly detained early Thursday after video emerged online of him singing a protest song criticising a plan to put senior military officials in civilian government positions, comparing it to the days of Indonesia's late dictator Suharto.

The university lecturer, who is also a well-known rights campaigner, was released and subsequently charged under a law that makes it illegal to insult public institutions. The maximum penalty is 18 months' jail.

"What he said was not in line with the facts and discrediting an institution without facts and evidence is dangerous," national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said Friday in response to the charges.

However, campaigners derided the move.

"This is a blatant and ludicrous attempt to intimidate and silence Robertus for his peaceful criticism of the military," Amnesty International Indonesia's Executive Director Usman Hamid said in a statement.

"He is an academic who is guilty of nothing more than voicing his views over proposals to place senior military officers in positions of power within the government. The police must drop their baseless charges."

The case centres on Robet singing a popular song at a weekly human rights protest in Jakarta last week with the lyrics altered in a way that allegedly made fun of the military. He has since apologised.

"It was a popular song during the 1998 student movement which was meant to criticise the military then not now," Robet said in a separate video released on social media before his arrest.

"I did not mean to insult the military as a profession or institution. For any misunderstanding, I do apologise," he added.

Suharto's three-decade military dictatorship -- infamous for its eye-watering levels of corruption -- crumbled in 1998 amid massive street protests as the collapsing economy was hit hard by the Asian Financial Crisis.

Indonesia has transformed into the world's third-largest democracy since, but critics said Robet's arrest highlighted the fragile state of freedom of speech in a sprawling archipelago of 260 million people.

"This action is clearly aimed at creating fear to express freedom of speech," Indonesian think-tank Institute for Criminal Justice Reform and Press Legal Aid Foundation said in a joint statement.

Several people have been charged under the legislation in recent years, including a woman accused of insulting the government over its apparent inability to control food prices.
Customers buy flowers at a flower stall in Pyongyang, which has established a reputation in the capital for the variety and freshness of its blooms

International Women's Day is a full public holiday in North Korea -- and a busy time for florists.

A steady stream of customers arrived at Flower Shop No. 5 in a central Pyongyang square, paying 10,000 won (around $1.25 at market exchange rates) for bouquets of roses or carnations -- a traditional gift for mothers in the North.

Although the small orange shop looks indistinguishable from others of its kind, it has established a reputation in the capital for the variety and freshness of its blooms.

North Korean society remains conservative and patriarchal in many respects, campaigners say, with traditional attitudes to gender roles holding sway

Most of the clientele were buying for their wives or mothers, but port official Nam Song Hak's carnations were destined for his university engineering tutor.

"She did her best to teach us to be excellent men," said the 37-year-old -- who had already bought flowers for his wife and mother the previous day.

"Thanks to her efforts and under the warm love of the respected marshal comrade Kim Jong Un, now I have grown up to make a big contribution to our society," he added. "We cannot forget our teachers."

Ordinary North Koreans consistently express complete loyalty to the authorities when speaking to foreign media.

North Korea has one of the biggest armies in the world and both men and women must serve

Another customer was Russian ambassador Alexander Matsegora, who bought a bouquet of orchids for his wife.

Women's role in North Korea "does not differ greatly from other societies", he told AFP.

Many household jobs fell on their shoulders, he said, and they played crucial roles "strengthening the links within the family".

- 'Indomitable revolutionary woman fighter' -

The North's founder Kim Il Sung once said: "In our country women are in charge of one of the wheels of the revolution."

In North Korean dictionaries, sample phrases include "an indomitable revolutionary woman fighter" and "If women are confined to their homes and remain away from labour and organisational life they cannot be revolutionised."

However, in practice North Korean women often have much greater freedom of movement than men, as males will have formal jobs from which their absence would be noticed

Even so North Korean society remains conservative and patriarchal in many respects, campaigners say, with traditional attitudes to gender roles holding sway, along with deference to authority.

At the same time, in practice North Korean women often have much greater freedom of movement than men, as males will have formal jobs from which their absence would be noticed.

As a result, most of the traders at the informal 'jangmadang' markets that have sprung up in recent years are female -- and they make crucial contributions to their families' livelihoods.

Women also make up the vast majority of defectors to the South.

US-based Human Rights Watch issued a report last year saying that police and other officials prey on women with near-total impunity, highlighting captured or returned defectors and smugglers and traders as at particular risk of rape or other abuse.

In North Korean dictionaries, sample phrases include "an indomitable revolutionary woman fighter" and "If women are confined to their homes and remain away from labour and organisational life they cannot be revolutionised"

Pyongyang was infuriated, with the official KCNA news agency carrying a statement calling it "the most despicable false document on earth, a patchwork of pointless words made by a handful of human scums" and saying it "insults the sacred dignity of the Korean women".

In Kim Il Sung Square on Friday, Han Hye Sun -- who had already been given flowers by her husband -- sat waiting to take pictures of visitors with her Canon camera.

"In our country women are respected by the people," she said, "but even on holidays we are working to serve the people".
India will be the biggest misinformation challenge among a host of closely-watched elections around the world this year, experts say

A deluge of online hoaxes that hit Indian social media as the country fought aerial battles with neighbouring Pakistan has heightened fears over the "fake news" war looming in India's national election.

AFP has published more than 30 fact-check blogs debunking false claims made on Facebook and other social networks about the stand-off over Kashmir between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Experts said it was just the tip of the iceberg and that India will be the biggest misinformation challenge among a host of closely-watched elections around the world this year.

The government is expected to imminently announce dates for the six-week-long vote across the nation of 1.3 billion people.

More than 460 million people are online in India but digital literacy is often poor which only helps the spread of fake videos, photos and messages that incite lynch mobs, communal violence and hardcore support for the main political parties.

"Ahead of the elections, I believe our workload is going to increase, we have seen a lot of disinformation after Kashmir and the air strikes and we are expecting much more," Pratik Sinha, head of the Indian fact-checking site Alt News, told AFP.

"Disinformation in elections could be anything from fake quotes attributed to politicians... (to) false propaganda," he added, predicting even more anti-Pakistan rhetoric.

A February 14 suicide bombing in Kashmir that left 40 Indian paramilitaries dead set off the hostilities. India blamed Pakistan and launched an air strike, while social media misinformation tried to whip up jingoistic fervour.

Multiple viral posts wrongly labelled videos of Russian army drills as a display of Indian military might, while the footage in a "breaking" news report of Pakistani tanks moving towards the border with India was in fact two years old.

Posts like these are frequently spread by nationalistic pages with names like "I love Pakistan", "Pak Army" and "Proud to be an Indian", which has more than two million followers.

One video, of a 2014 military air show in Islamabad, was used to push separate false claims in both India and Pakistan.

Indian social media accounts and TV channels said the footage was of Indian air strikes carried out in Pakistan, but Pakistani Facebook users and newspapers said it showed Pakistani jets chasing Indian planes out of their airspace.

- Political targets -

Political campaigners took advantage of the showdown to "grind their own axes", said Rajesh Upadhyay, editor-in-chief at Hindi-language news group Jagran New Media.

International tech companies like Facebook and Google are preparing major campaigns against misinformation ahead of the Indian elections

"Some of this content was indeed aimed at stoking extreme nationalistic sentiment, but a bigger percentage of it was politically motivated and click-bait driven," he told AFP.

A 2013 video of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi telephoning the wife of a man who died at one of his rallies was re-published online two days after the bombing.

Its caption said he was speaking to the widow of a "martyr", a word routinely used in India after soldiers are killed in action.

Simultaneously, another post set out to disparage Modi: it contained a photo purportedly showing the prime minister shaking hands with the head of a Pakistan-based Islamist group listed by the UN and United States as a terrorist organisation.

"See for yourself who is a traitor," that post's caption said. But the photo had been doctored, with the militant group chief's head pasted onto the body of former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, when he met Modi in 2015.

India is fertile ground for misinformation proliferation. Cheap smartphones and data plans bring more people online, but many are first-time internet users unskilled in discerning fact from fiction.

Indian cybersecurity consultant Rakshit Tandon said the amount of online fake news was "likely to grow" during the tussle for votes in the election campaign.

- 'Trolls and provocateurs' -

International tech companies are preparing major campaigns for the polls.

Many first-time internet users in India are unskilled in discerning fact from fiction, making the South Asian nation fertile ground for misinformation proliferation

YouTube said Thursday it would start flagging dubious content in news-related videos in India, while its parent company Google is training Indian journalists in verification techniques and boosting stringency over election advertising.

WhatsApp, which has 200 million users in India, restricted message forwarding and ran newspaper adverts to counter fake news after a spate of mob killings sparked by a hoax spread on the messaging service.

Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, is running its biggest ever election monitoring campaign. It is running adverts and announcements to help people spot misinformation and is working with Indian newsrooms to make false posts less visible.

Facebook has a fact-checking partnership with AFP in multiple countries, including India.

However, some experts are not convinced.

Shakuntala Banaji, associate professor in media and communications at the London School of Economics, said these measures had not been effective.

"The elections had already spawned hundreds of thousands of fake messages, misinformation and lies stemming from government-sympathetic sources -- this has only come to the attention of the international community" due to the Kashmir crisis, she told AFP.

"The limiting of WhatsApp forwards has simply been bypassed by paid and unpaid trolls and provocateurs."
The Thai graffiti artist known as Headache Stencil poses with his political artworks

A billionaire ex-premier plays poker against the junta chief, who has extra cards tucked up his sleeve -- satirical swipes at the countrys chaotic politics are peppering Thai art galleries and social media with elections just weeks away.

Headache Stencil -- dubbed "Thailand's Banksy" -- has led the artistic charge against the powers that be.

His latest exhibition "Thailand Casino" which runs through the March 24 election, takes a hatchet to the junta and the power plays of its nemesis -- self-exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

"This election is important... we're gambling as a nation," says Headache, whose jabs at the junta using Bangkok's walls as a canvas have made him a hero of the counter-culture.

The army took power in 2014, its 12th successful coup in under 100 years, stifling dissent with a series of arrests, threats and special laws.

But the lid on dissent has been lifted in the run-up to the election.

Acerbic memes, blogs and tweets are ricocheting across social media, while chat shows, exhibitions -- and even t-shirts -- are shaping the conversation, caricaturing the main players in Thailand's political drama.

The artist Headache Stencil - dubbed 'Thailand's Banksy' - stages an exhibition that takes aim at the nation's political players

"You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. You don't know what's going to happen in the next two months," Headache, who keeps his identity hidden, told AFP at the WTF cafe and gallery.

Junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha wants to return to government as a civilian leader.

But his foe -- the self-exiled Thaksin -- stands in his way, buttressed by the enduring electoral pull of his parties.

One of those, Thai Raksa Chart, was dissolved by a court on Thursday for proposing Princess Ubolratana as a candidate -- a bombshell move that was swiftly shot down by her younger brother King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Headache addresses the unprecedented power play with a Chinese calendar marked February 8 -- the date the princess made her political cameo -- positioned behind Thaksin's brass head, riven by a lightening strike from above.

A golden piggy bank with the face of the junta number-two sits in the gallery and cash, casino chips, guns and the word "military fund" are stencilled across the walls.

It's a dystopian vision of a country where army spending is vast and beyond scrutiny.

Thai artist Headache Stencil's exhibition takes aim at both sides on Thailand's political divided

Headache, who keeps his face hidden behind a mask, says his motivation is to have fun at the expense of "the dictatorship".

Yet he is pessimistic democracy will ultimately triumph in a kingdom where the army and its allies bristle at political and economic challenges from below.

The former TV producer does however see the flurry of political engagement taking place over social media as a glimmer of hope in a kingdom where over seven million millennials are eligible to vote for the first time.

"It's powerful," Headache said, adding there is only one way to "know what people want... just go to elections."
Activists push a carriage with an effigy of Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte as they march toward Malacanang palace to commemorate International Women's Day in Manila

Thousands of women took to the streets of Manila Friday in protest against President Rodrigo Duterte's alleged misogyny as an exhibition marking International Women's Day exhibited the clothes of Philippine rape victims.

Protesters marched on Malacanang presidential palace chanting against Duterte, who has repeatedly made jokes about rape and said last year that when he was a teenager he indecently "touched" the family maid.

Presidential aides have stressed that the comments were mere jokes, not policies, and should not be taken seriously.

But protest leader Joms Salvador of women's group Gabriela told AFP that Duterte's "misogynistic" statements were "unacceptable, be they jokes or not."

"Law enforcers construe them as policy pronouncements and they embolden criminals," she added.

One woman or child is now raped in the Philippines per hour, a 153 percent increase from the decade before Duterte was elected president, according to Salvador.

A small group of policemen monitored the protesters at the palace, numbering around 4,000 according to journalists on the scene, before the group marched to a public square in another section of Manila in the afternoon.

Elsewhere in the city a shopping mall exhibition displayed clothes worn by women and girls when they suffered "gender-based violence" including rape at home, in school, at work or elsewhere.

The sponsors said the show, backed by the United Nations Population Fund local office and which has run since last month, challenges "the idea that women's appearance and behaviour are to blame when they are assaulted".

"The Gateway (shopping mall) exhibit 'don't tell me how to dress' is heart-rending. Seeing it personally make(s) me feel uncomfortable," Twitter user @HAUTEANGELUS posted.

"Terrible, I cried while reading all their stories," @anabemish tweeted with a picture of herself at the exhibit.

"It's a good exhibit. It raises awareness about rape. Women of all ages and backgrounds can become victims and it is infuriating that some people trivialise it," said Salvador, the protest leader.
Prosecutors assured Chelsea Manning that the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia where she will be held is experienced in holding transgender inmates and fully capable of addressing any special personal and medical needs she has

Chelsea Manning, who spent more than three years in prison for leaking US military secrets to WikiLeaks, was jailed again Friday for refusing to testify in a grand jury investigation targeting the anti-secrecy group.

Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning to be held not as punishment but to force her testimony in the secret case, according to a spokesman for the US attorney in the Alexandria, Virginia federal court.

"Chelsea Manning has been remanded into federal custody for her refusal to provide testimony" to a grand jury, said a statement from The Sparrow Project, a support group for Manning.

They cited Hilton as saying Manning would be held indefinitely "until she purges or the end of the life of the grand jury."

Manning was ruled in contempt of court after refusing earlier this week to testify before a secret grand jury that is investigating actions by WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange in 2010, according to her own description, inadvertent court revelations and media reports.

In that year Manning, a transgender woman then known as Bradley Manning, was a military intelligence analyst who delivered more than 700,000 classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into WikiLeaks' hands.

She became a hero to anti-war and anti-secrecy activists and her actions helped make WikiLeaks a force in the global anti-secrecy movement.

In 2013 she was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Then-president Barack Obama later commuted her sentence, leading to her release in May 2017.

Manning's lawyer requested home confinement after the judge found her in contempt, the US attorney's spokesman said.

But prosecutors assured Manning that the Alexandria Detention Center where she will be held is experienced in holding transgender inmates and fully capable of addressing any special personal and medical needs she has.
Contestant Jazell Barbie Royale, a community leader and HIV activist, edged out 19 other candidates from around the world

American contestant Jazell Barbie Royale was crowned "Miss International Queen" in Thailand on Friday at a beauty pageant for transgender women, becoming the first person of colour to win the competition since it started in 2004.

Royale buried her face in her hands, spread her arms in victory and welled up with tears when news of the victory was announced in the seaside city of Pattaya.

The community leader and HIV activist edged out 19 other candidates from around the world including Brazil, Peru and several Asian countries.

She said she hoped her triumph inspired other people of colour around the world who might say "if she can do it, I'm coming to Miss International Queen next year and I'm going to compete".

The theme for the 2019 contest -- hosted at the Thai seaside city of Pattaya -- was world equality

Hailing from Florida, Royale said she wanted to use her newfound platform to educate others about the importance of HIV testing, safe sex and medical care.

"There are a lot of living with HIV but don't go to get treatment," she said.

The theme for this year's contest was world equality.

Royale's victory in Thailand came as the Trump administration back home tries to stop transgender recruitment in the military, a battle being waged in the courts.

She said that if she had to send a message to Trump she would tell him "please don't run for next term".

The 31-year-old also took home the Best Talent award.

Before the show, aspiring Miss Queens took selfies, glanced in the mirror for a final look or sat still as stylists put the finishing touches on their makeup and hair.

Contestant Kanwara Kaewjin comes from Thailand, which has a more visible and empowered transgender community compared to its neighbours

Host country Thailand has a more visible and empowered transgender community compared to its neighbours.

The first transgender candidate for prime minister made headlines this month ahead of March 24 elections.

When Thailand hosted the Miss Universe contest last year Miss Spain was the first-ever transgender contestant.

But same-sex marriage is still not legally recognised in the country and discrimination persists.

The Miss International Queen pageant has been hailed for offering contestants a chance to bond with others from around the world.

The Miss International Queen pageant has been hailed for offering contestants a chance to bond with others from around the world

Thailand's relatively open-minded attitude on LGBT issues is a welcome break for contestants who hail from less tolerant countries, including Malaysia, where anti-LGBT rhetoric has picked up in recent months.

An opposition leader said last year that a quake-tsunami that killed thousands in neighbouring Indonesia was "punishment from Allah" for the activities of gay people.

Malaysia's Larra Jassinta, 24, highlighted the discrimination problem.

"Some of the LGBT community in Malaysia, they dont have work, home nor family because the family cannot accept them," Jassinta said.
TOKYO (AP) - The new lawyer of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn says he believes the auto executive's latest request for release from a Japanese detention center on bail, his third, might succeed.

Junichiro Hironaka said Monday that Ghosn promised to accept camera surveillance as a way to monitor his activities if he is released. He has been held since his arrest on Nov. 19.

Ghosn, who says he is innocent, faces charges of falsifying financial reports and breach of trust. His latest request for bail is still pending. Two previous requests were denied.

"We have put in a request that we believe is convincing," Hironaka told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo. "We must win Mr. Ghosn's acquittal and restore trust in Japan from the international community."

Hironaka is a star lawyer with a strong track record for winning acquittals in Japan, a country where the conviction rate is 99 percent. He has questioned the grounds for Ghosn's arrest, calling the case "very peculiar."

Prosecutors allege that Ghosn falsified financial reports by allegedly under-reporting his compensation by about 5 billion yen ($45 million). He is also charged with breach of trust for allegedly having had Nissan shoulder investment losses and by making payments to a Saudi businessman.

Junichiro Hironaka, Chief defense lawyer of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Monday, March 4, 2019. Hironaka said Monday that Ghosn promised to accept camera surveillance as a way to monitor his activities if he is released from the detention center where he has been held since his Nov. 19 arrest. Ghosn has been charged with falsifying financial reports and breach of trust. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Ghosn says the compensation in question was never decided or paid, that Nissan never suffered from the investment losses and that the payments were for legitimate services.

Hironaka, whose nickname is "the razor," contends Ghosn's case is largely an internal Nissan company matter that was known to other executives for a decade. He says the long detentions in Japan of suspects before trial are unfair, because they mainly affect those who insist they are innocent.

Japanese prosecutors argue that suspects may tamper with evidence or flee. Ghosn earlier offered to wear an electronic tether and hire security guards, but such methods are not used in Japan for bail.

Hironaka joked that, at 73, he looked forward to testing how sharp his defense might be in this high-profile case.

"This is important for history and for society," he said.

In Paris, lawyers for Ghosn's wife and children -Carole, Caroline, Maya, Nadine and Anthony Ghosn- said in a news conference Monday they have submitted the case to the group in charge of investigating arbitrary detentions at the United Nations' human rights office, based in Geneva.

Criticizing the length of the detention and the conditions of the detention, lawyer Jessica Finelle said "we consider that his detention, these conditions aim at forcing him to make coerced confessions."

Finelle added she considers the right to the presumption of innocence has not been respected since the beginning of the case.

Separately, Ghosn's children defended their father's love for Japan and denounced reported comments by the Japanese automaker's chief executive, Hiroto Saikawa.

A statement from Caroline, Nadine, Maya and Anthony Ghosn, seen Monday by The Associated Press, said Ghosn's contribution to Japan was well-known.

"We grew up in Japan and have countless precious memories there as a family, so it is extremely disappointing that a long-trusted co-worker of my father's would slander him by claiming falsely that my father does not love and respect Japan. Anyone who knows my father knows that is not true," it said, without mentioning Saikawa by name.

In an interview in the Japanese weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun, Saikawa is quoted as saying the allegations against show he lacked respect for Japan and the Japanese people.

Nissan declined to comment, reiterating that it is strengthening its corporate governance to prevent further misconduct.

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Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/yurikageyama/?hl=en

In this May 12, 2016, photo, then Nissan Motor Co. President and CEO Carlos Ghosn speaks during the press conference in Yokohama, near Tokyo. The children of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who is under arrest in Tokyo, have defended their father's love for Japan and denounced comments by the Japanese automaker's chief executive. The statement from Caroline, Nadine, Maya and Anthony Ghosn, seen Monday, March 4, 2019 by The Associated Press, says Ghosn had affection and respect for Japan and Nissan Motor Co. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Junichiro Hironaka, Chief defense lawyer of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Monday, March 4, 2019. Hironaka said Monday that Ghosn promised to accept camera surveillance as a way to monitor his activities if he is released from the detention center where he has been held since his Nov. 19 arrest. Ghosn has been charged with falsifying financial reports and breach of trust. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Junichiro Hironaka, Chief defense lawyer of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Monday, March 4, 2019. Hironaka said Monday that Ghosn promised to accept camera surveillance as a way to monitor his activities if he is released from the detention center where he has been held since his Nov. 19 arrest. Ghosn has been charged with falsifying financial reports and breach of trust. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - A small village of the forgotten has popped up in Diahnn "Shelly" Summers' backyard outside Panama City. Where there once was empty grass abutting woods, 10 tents now encircle a fir tree with Christmas lights.

The tents shelter those still homeless more than four months after Hurricane Michael screamed ashore with 155-mph (250-kph) winds, flattening, blowing away or rendering uninhabitable thousands of houses.

"There is nowhere for them to go," Summers said. "When you don't have a home, you have no sense of safety, no sense of belonging, no security. You don't even know where you're going to sleep without getting into trouble. It's the worst feeling."

Of all the Florida Panhandle areas affected by Michael, Bay County was hardest hit: Officials said almost three-quarters of its 68,000 households were affected. Former Florida House Speaker Allan Bense, who is leading a hurricane recovery initiative, estimated about 20,000 people were homeless in the weeks after the October storm.

Some have been able to make their homes livable again with cosmetic repairs. Others left town: The county's student population is down 14 percent. And 7,800 residents are still considered homeless, county officials said.

Many unable to move in with relatives or find a coveted hotel room with the help of federal vouchers have turned to living in tents.

Diahnn "Shelly" Summers, right, embraces Lori Hogan, who is currently living in a tent in Summers' backyard months after Hurricane Michael hit in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. "This is the first time I've felt comfortable since the hurricane," said Hogan. "This is home for me and I love it." A small village has popped up in Summers' backyard outside Panama City: Where there once was an empty grassy space, tents now form a circle around a fir tree with Christmas lights. The tents are currently home for local residents who are still homeless months after Hurricane Michael screamed ashore with 155-mph winds, flattening, blowing away or rendering uninhabitable thousands of houses. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Several obstacles prevent their return to normalcy. Trailers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been slow to arrive, and it's hard to find an apartment where the rent hasn't been jacked up in a suddenly tight market. Almost three-quarters of the damaged properties were rental units, which are difficult to replace with temporary shelter, Bay County Manager Robert Majka said.

"If you have 100 units in an apartment complex, you can't put 100 FEMA trailers into that apartment complex and accommodate these folks," he said.

Sue Laurel Shaw was able to stay in her apartment after the storm and said her landlord even agreed to deduct the cost of repairs she made from the rent. But now she faces eviction for back rent after she says the landlord reneged on their agreement.

She is looking for another place to live, but "everything is tripling," said Shaw, who was fighting to stay in her Panama City apartment.

Mystie Gregory said she, her fiance and 2-year-old daughter left their apartment for several days to take a break from living without electricity. When they returned, she said, it had been rented to another family.

Gregory found refuge with more than a dozen others living in tents behind Summers' ranch-style house.

Gregory said she is trying to "make the most" of living in a tent, but "it makes you feel like a failure as a parent, even though it's out of your control."

Among the county's homeless are 4,700 students, said Bay District Schools Superintendent Bill Husfelt. Some schools lost more than 40 percent of their students and the school board is closing at least three schools for now.

"It's all about housing," Husfelt said. "Everything we're dealing with, it's about housing."

In December, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio wrote a letter chastising FEMA for not finding enough sites for trailers or mobile homes. Rubio said families "have not seen an appropriate response to their housing needs and FEMA must immediately act to address this concern."

At the time, more than 1,200 Bay County families were waiting for trailers or mobile homes. By the end of February, that number had fallen to more than 200, partially because more than 500 families had found other options on their own, county officials said.

"The velocity of FEMA's temporary housing improved after the first of the year, although trailers ... never came in consistently at stated goals," said Joel Schubert, Bay County's assistant manager.

FEMA officials said the large numbers of renters and the enormous amount of debris that needed to be cleared before trailers could be installed slowed the process.

In addition, 26,000 Florida households received grants for home repairs, 21,000 residents received temporary rental assistance and 2,000 households were approved for hotel rooms or short-term condo rentals, FEMA spokesman Samuel "Carr" McKay said in a statement.

Even that help took a while to reach some residents. Dennis Myrick, who has no home insurance, said he lived in a tent in the front yard of his decimated Panama City home until mid-January, when he was finally able to get a FEMA hotel voucher.

"It's pure hell, man," Myrick said. "The wind blows, and you get wet. I had to hold the tent down with my hands. It was about to blow away."

Before she landed in Summers' backyard, Jacinta Wheeler, whose apartment was damaged by the hurricane, joined other residents in an encampment dubbed "Tent City" in a different part of town. Officials forced them to leave over safety and hygiene concerns. Lori and Gene Hogan had settled in a tent on the beach after Michael destroyed their home, but police officers threatened to arrest them if they didn't move, so they came here as well.

Wheeler has been working construction jobs and helping repair neighbors' properties while she stays in her tent.

"Everybody wants the American dream," the Trinidad native said. "If this is the dream, I don't want it."

Summers and her husband, Sam, want to build more permanent housing on the property for their guests but said they have run into regulatory roadblocks. In the meantime, they try to make them feel at home, inviting them to their dinner table and leaving the Christmas lights on the backyard tree to retain some cheer.

Summers said she has always welcomed people in need to her home.

"They need help and we were blessed enough that our house was untouched," she said. "We seem to be the outcasts by trying to help people and it shouldn't be that way. This should be a normal thing."

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Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

Jeff Dunn, left, and Lance Gomez help construct a dome shelter in Diahnn "Shelly" Summers' backyard for local residents left homeless from Hurricane Michael in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. Summers and her husband, Sam, want to build some more permanent housing on the property for their "guests" but said they have run into regulatory roadblocks. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Mystie Gregory, right, kisses her twenty-month-old daughter Neala as her fiance Gary LaPlant looks on while playing on a trampoline in the backyard where several local residents are living in tents after becoming homeless from Hurricane Michael in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. Gregory said they left their apartment for several days to take a break from living without electricity. When they got back, she says, it had been rented to another family. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

James Huebner sits in his tent in the backyard of a home where he's living with his son and brother after becoming homeless from Hurricane Michael in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. Huebner has never been homeless before and says they can't find any affordable available housing in the area where they need to remain because of his brother's job at a nearby Walmart store. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Jacinta Wheeler, left, helps Gabby, 7, with her homework before dinner at the home of Gaby's mother, Diahnn "Shelly" Summers, where Wheeler lives in a tent in the backyard after becoming homeless from Hurricane Michael in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Mystie Gregory, rear right, serves herself dinner with fellow local residents left homeless by Hurricane Michael who are living in tents in the backyard of Diahnn "Shelly" Summers, right, in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. Summers tries to make them feel at home, inviting them to dine at their table each evening and leaving the Christmas lights on the fir tree in the backyard to retain a sense of cheer. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Stuffed animals sit outside a boarded up housing development damaged from Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Of all areas on the Florida Panhandle affected by Michael, Bay County with 183,000 residents was the hardest hit: Officials said almost three-quarters of its 68,000 households were impacted in some way. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A worker sprays straw around newly setup Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers for residents left homeless by Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Several obstacles stand in the way of things returning to normalcy: For some, trailers from FEMA have been slow to arrive. For others, it has been hard to find an apartment where the rent hasn't been jacked up in a suddenly very tight market. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Mattresses are discarded from a damaged hotel from Hurricane Michael which is closed during renovation in Panama City, Fla, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019. Officials in Bay County, Florida, estimate 7,800 residents were still considered homeless in January and about three-quarters of the properties damaged in the storm were rental units. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Jacinta Wheeler checks her phone in the entryway of her tent in the backyard of a home where she's living after becoming homeless from Hurricane Michael in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. Wheeler, whose apartment was damaged by the hurricane, has been working construction jobs and helping make repairs to neighbors' properties while she stays in her tent. "Everybody wants the American dream," the Trinidad native said. "If this is the dream, I don't want it." (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Gene Hogan laughs around a campfire in the backyard of Sam, right, and Diahnn "Shelly" Summers where he's living in a tent with his wife since becoming homeless from Hurricane Michael in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. Hogan and his wife had settled in a tent on the beach after the hurricane destroyed their home but police officers told them they had to move somewhere else or they would be arrested. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Workers repair a roof at night under trees left bare by Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Some residents have been able to make their homes livable again with cosmetic repairs. Others simply left town: The county's student population is down 14 percent. For those still considered homeless their options are: move in with relatives, turn hotel rooms into temporary apartments, or get a tent. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Sam Summers, right, stands on his back porch taking shelter during a rain storm with homeless Hurricane Michael evacuees that are living in tents in his backyard in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. A small village has popped up in the Summers' backyard outside Panama City: Where there once was an empty grassy space abutting almost 5 acres (2 hectares) of woods, 10 tents now form a circle around a fir tree with Christmas lights. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Lori Hogan, hugs her dog, Boo Boo, after losing him during a rain storm which brought on a panic attack for Hogan who is currently living in a tent in a backyard months after Hurricane Michael hit in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. Hogan and her husband were living in a tent on the beach after Michael destroyed their home when police officers told them they had to move somewhere else or they would be arrested. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Twenty-month-old Neala Clark cries as her mother's fiance, Gary LaPlant, loads their personal belongings from the tent they're living in into a car taking them to a halfway home LaPlant found for them in the middle of a rain storm in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. After the family spent the night at the halfway home, they planned to return the next day to live in their tent in the Summer's backyard where they feel more comfortable. "It's such a positive environment out there despite the mess everyone had gone through," said LaPlant's fiancee, Mystie Gregory. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Sam Summers secures tents that have been blown loose in the middle of a rain storm in his backyard where Hurricane Michael evacuees are living since becoming homeless in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. Summers and his wife want to build some more permanent housing on the property for their "guests" but said they have run into regulatory roadblocks. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Twenty-month-old Neala Clark sits on the floor of the tent she has been living in with her mother, Mystie Gregory, left, and fiance, Gary LaPlant, as he loads their personal belongings into a car taking them to a hallway home he found for them in the middle of a rain storm in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. "You make the most of it, but it makes you feel like a failure as a parent, even though it's out of your control," Gregory said. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) - Germany's main Carnival parades got underway Monday in the face of some windy weather, with floats poking fun at U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Organizers trimmed some frills from the annual parades because of the weather front across western Germany. Parades in the traditional Carnival strongholds of Mainz, Cologne and Duesseldorf cut horses from Monday's events. Cologne also decided to do without flags and signs, while the parades in Duesseldorf and Muenster were delayed for around two hours.

Some smaller parades, such as those in Bottrop and Fulda, were canceled altogether.

Revelers weren't letting the poor weather dampen the traditional Carnival irreverence.

In Duesseldorf, one float portrayed a naked Trump as the guardian angel of a Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman clutching a bloody chainsaw. That was a reference to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The kingdom denies that the crown prince knew of a plot to kill Khashoggi.

Another float showed Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin ripping up a nuclear arms treaty. And a few weeks before Britain is due to leave the European Union, May was depicted with a long nose impaling a man wearing a Union Jack hat and carrying briefcases marked "economy."

A carnival float depicts President Donald Trump as an angel of peace behind Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a bloody chain saw prior to the traditional carnival parade in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Monday, March 4, 2019. The foolish street spectacles in the carnival centers of Duesseldorf, Mainz and Cologne, watched by hundreds of thousands of people, are the highlights in Germany's carnival season on Rosemonday. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

A carnival float depicts Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin cutting the INF Treaty prior to the traditional carnival parade in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Monday, March 4, 2019. The foolish street spectacles in the carnival centers of Duesseldorf, Mainz and Cologne, watched by hundreds of thousands of people, are the highlights in Germany's carnival season on Rosemonday. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

A carnival float depicts British Prime Minister Theresa May and the Brexit prior to the traditional carnival parade in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Monday, March 4, 2019. The foolish street spectacles in the carnival centers of Duesseldorf, Mainz and Cologne, watched by hundreds of thousands of people, are the highlights in Germany's carnival season on Rosemonday. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

A carnival float depicts British Prime Minister Theresa May and the Brexit prior to the traditional carnival parade in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Monday, March 4, 2019. The foolish street spectacles in the carnival centers of Duesseldorf, Mainz and Cologne, watched by hundreds of thousands of people, are the highlights in Germany's carnival season on Rosemonday. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

A carnival float depicts President Donald Trump as an angel of peace behind Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a bloody chain saw prior to the traditional carnival parade in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Monday, March 4, 2019. The foolish street spectacles in the carnival centers of Duesseldorf, Mainz and Cologne, watched by hundreds of thousands of people, are the highlights in Germany's carnival season on Rosemonday. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

People jumps on the street during a carnival parade in Herbstein, Germany, Monday, March 4, 2019. (Uwe Zucchi/dpa via AP)

A carnival float depicts the Diesel Crisis for German car drivers prior to the traditional carnival parade in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Monday, March 4, 2019. The foolish street spectacles in the carnival centers of Duesseldorf, Mainz and Cologne, watched by hundreds of thousands of people, are the highlights in Germany's carnival season on Rosemonday. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

A dog in a costume is seen prior the traditional carnival parade in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Monday, March 4, 2019. The foolish street spectacles in the carnival centers of Duesseldorf, Mainz and Cologne, watched by hundreds of thousands of people, are the highlights in Germany's carnival season on Rosemonday. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Spectators celebrate in a window of a building during the carnival parade in Cologne, Germany, Monday, March 4, 2019. ( Federico Gambarini/dpa via AP)

A satiric carnival float with a figure depicting Queen Elizabeth holding a bag with an application for asylum, is on display at the carnival parade in Mainz, Germany, March 4, 2019. (Andreas Arnold/dpa via AP)

A satiric carnival float depicting the pollution of the ocean with plastic, presents during the carnival parade in Cologne, Monday, march 4, 2019. (Oliver Berg/dpa via AP)

People celebrate during a carnival parade in Cologne. Germany, Monday, March 4, 2019. ( Federico Gambarini/dpa via AP)

A Federahannes, a Rottweiler fool figure, leans on his stick while jumping during the traditional 'Rottweiler Narrensprung', (Rottweil Fools Jump), carnival celebrations in Rottweil, Germany, Monday March 4, 2019. (Patrick Seeger/dpa via AP)

A Federahannes, a Rottweiler fool figure, attends the traditional 'Rottweiler Narrensprung', (Rottweil Fools Jump), carnival celebrations in Rottweil, Germany, Monday March 4, 2019. (Patrick Seeger/dpa via AP)
Shatrughan Sinha has been the Patna Sahib MP since 2009.

Patna: Film star turned politician Shatrughan Sinha meeting with former Chief Minister Rabri Devi, RJD leaders Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti has triggered a political storm in Bihar.

Mr. Sinha after his meeting with Lalu Yadavs family on Thursday dropped hints that he may take decisions regarding quitting BJP and joining hands with either Congress or RJD.

Time has come to take decisions now. I will soon let you know about my next political move, Mr Sinha said.

Adding further he said that, Till now I am still a member of BJP. He, however, clarified that his meeting with Rabri Devi was personal and not political.

I met Rabri Devi Ji and her kids because they are like my own family members. A few days earlier I had also met Mr. Lalu Yadav at RIIMS hospital in Ranchi.

Shatrughan Sinha has been the Patna Sahib MP since 2009. Speculation is rife that the BJP may not give him Lok Sabha ticket this time and may find a suitable candidate to contest from the constituency.

On several occasions earlier, Mr. Sinha had said that whatever the situation is location will be the same (Patna Sahib).

Shatrughan Sinha has been critical of Modi government and the BJP leadership since 2015 Bihar assembly elections. He opposed demonetization and GST rollout  two major decisions of Modi government in 2016 and 2017.

He has also been vocal about his support to RJD chief Lalu Yadav despite corruption cases and conviction in fodder scam.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Two locks of hair belonging to widely revered Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros will be repatriated after a request from Addis Ababa, the National Army Museum in Britain announced Monday, as more African countries seek to reclaim heritage they say was taken decades, even centuries, ago.

An outcry erupted last year among some Ethiopians over an exhibit by another institution, the Victoria and Albert Museum, on the 1868 British expedition to what was then called Abyssinia. During that campaign, in which 13,000 troops were deployed to free several British hostages, the emperor killed himself and his fortress was captured and looted.

Ethiopia's government at the time said it would use "whatever legal and diplomatic instruments" to secure the return of related items including an intricate golden crown.

That another British museum, the National Army Museum, held locks of the emperor's hair was seen as particularly sensitive. "Displaying human parts in websites and museums is inhumane," Ethiopia's minister for culture and tourism, Hirut Woldemariam, told The Associated Press last year.

That museum has said the hair was donated in 1959 by relatives of an artist who painted the emperor on his deathbed.

"Our decision to repatriate is very much based on the desire to inter the hair within the tomb alongside the emperor" at a monastery in northern Ethiopia, Terri Dendy, the National Army Museum's head of collections standards and care, said in a statement.

It was not clear when the formal handover would occur. The Ethiopian Embassy in London said it would hold talks with the museum on Thursday about the repatriation, which comes at the end of a yearlong commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the confrontation known as the Battle of Maqdala.

The embassy in a statement commended the museum's decision as an "exemplary gesture of goodwill," adding that "a display of jubilant euphoria is to be expected when (the hair) is returned to its rightful home."

Now Ethiopians say they seek the return of the bones of the emperor's son, Prince Alemayehu, who was taken to Britain and died there at age 18. He was buried at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

The decision to return the emperor's hair is "a great start, both in encouraging the British toward looking into the possibilities of returning our looted antiquities and also the Ethiopian stakeholders whose decades-long, painstaking efforts actually can bear fruit," Yonas Desta, director-general of Ethiopia's Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, told the AP.

The bulk of what was taken, however, remains in the hands of the descendants of the British soldiers, according to Alula Pankhurst, a former professor at Addis Ababa University and an expert on Ethiopian studies.

"Some items in private collections have already been returned but the bulk of the items are in public collections within the UK and those cannot be restituted without an act of Parliament, and that is something that requires a big change in popular opinion and a bill has to be presented by members of Parliament," he said last year. "This is something that cannot be done overnight."

Some in Africa expect the momentum to grow in repatriating heritage from institutions overseas.

Late last year, a study by French art historian Benedicte Savoy and Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr, commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron, recommended that French museums give back works that were taken without consent, if African countries request them.

That could increase pressure on museums elsewhere in Europe to follow suit. The experts estimated that up to 90 percent of African art is outside the continent, including statues, thrones and manuscripts.

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This version corrects by removing reference to the hair being displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

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Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen warned opposition politicians Monday that they should act quickly if they want bans on their political activity lifted because he will soon rescind the opportunity.

Hun Sen said at a groundbreaking project for a flood control project in Phnom Penh that he will not negotiate with the dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party to lift the ban on all 118 of its former lawmakers, and that each banned member will have to apply individually.

"I wish to send you a final message that if you are still indifferent, the door will be shutting down before or after the Cambodian Lunar New Year," Hun Sen said, referring to the country's traditional New Year that falls in mid-April. "And after that the door will be closed - if you are making a request, I will ignore it."

The five-year ban was imposed when the opposition party was dissolved by court order in November 2017 on a weakly supported charge of conspiring with the United States to overthrow the government.

A new law in December last year allowed the politicians to apply to have the bans lifted. The move was an effort to mollify Western nations that accuse Hun Sen of suppressing human and democratic rights. They are especially distressed by last year's general election, which they consider neither free nor fair because of the inability of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, the only credible opposition, to contest the polls. Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party swept all 125 National Assembly seats.

The offer to lift the bans comes with conditions, and there are no guarantees that new legal action would not be taken against the opposition politicians, many of whom fled Cambodia for fear of arrest.

"The door is now open, whether you enter or not is up to you, but don't expect that there will be political negotiations or a political compromise. This is not a political issue but a matter of law only," Hun Sen said. He pointed out that the bans are valid until November 2022, which would mean that the banned politicians would be unable to take part in local elections set for May 2022.

Only three politicians are known to have applied and had their bans lifted, even though members of the dissolved party are split over whether to apply, with many against playing by Hun Sen's rules and hoping the international community will step up pressure on him.

The split in the opposition is also fueled by rivalries between factions loyal to the party's two former leaders, and there is widespread belief that Hun Sen - one of the region's wiliest political operators - has been encouraging the factionalism.

Hun Sen, who has been in power for 34 years, is under unusual pressure because of last month's European Union announcement that it is beginning the process to withdraw preferential duty-free and quota-free status for imports from the Southeast Asian nation due to concerns over human rights and labor rights. Cambodian officials have declared they can survive such an action, but exports to Europe are a major foreign exchange earner and a loss of trade privileges would hurt Cambodian industry.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - The deputy to slain Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz has won a by-election to become his successor and the first woman to hold the post, officials in Gdansk said Monday.

The city's electoral commission said that 39-year-old lawyer Aleksandra Dulkiewicz was backed by more than 82 percent of voters in Sunday's vote. She had been acting mayor since Adamowicz's Jan. 14 death from stab wounds he suffered the day before while onstage during a charity event.

The attacker then grabbed a microphone and said it was revenge against an opposition political party that Adamowicz had once belonged to. The attacker is awaiting trial.

Adamowicz's slaying became a platform for calls for political reconciliation but also criticism of Poland's conservative ruling party.

In her first comments as mayor, Dulkiewicz thanked voters and asked them to help cultivate a sense of community that grew out of their collective sorrow in the weeks since Adamowicz's death.

She asked the residents to be "better to each other and smile to each other more often."

Opposition candidate for the role of Gdansk Mayor Aleksandra Dulkiewicz,second left, poses, with her daughter who casts Dulkiewicz's ballot, in a by-election, in Gdansk, Poland, Sunday, March 3, 2019. Residents in Poland's northern city of Gdansk voted Sunday in a by-election to choose the successor to late Mayor Pawel Adamowicz, who was fatally stabbed during a charity event. (AP Photo/Wojciech Strozyk)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Authorities in Saudi Arabia have suspended a new television talk show that tackled sensitive issues and aired critical views after just two weeks, according to a report in state-linked media.

The suspension comes amid a wide-ranging crackdown on government critics.

The state-linked Sabq news website reported Sunday that the show "With Dawood" was halted for unknown reasons. The evening talk show had been airing on the new state-run SBC channel.

Sabq says the surprise decision to stop airing the program came after just six episodes, which focused on topics including runaway Saudi women and domestic violence, slums, foreigners married to Saudis and other issues.

The show was rare in that it gave Saudis a platform to express their grievances, to press officials like the crown prince for action and to recommend policy changes. This also made it a target of nationalists and pro-Saudi Twitter accounts, who hailed the decision to suspend the show in mocking Twitter posts Monday.

The show's host, Dawood al-Shiryan, is a household name in Saudi Arabia and an experienced broadcaster who's also overseen elements of the kingdom's tightly monitored and censored media landscape.

There was no immediate announcement on whether al-Shiryan retains his post as head of the Saudi Broadcasting Authority. Representatives of the Saudi Broadcasting Authority could not be immediately reached for comment.

Al-Shiryan previously hosted a long-running evening talk show until November 2017, around the time that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was solidifying his position as heir to the throne and clamping down on potential rivals and perceived critics by detaining moderate clerics, poets, businessmen and even top princes.

He interviewed Prince Mohammed for the royal's second-ever TV interview, which aired in mid-2017 on state TV and the Saudi-owned MBC channel.

Al-Shiryan's new show followed a similar format to his previous program, with guests discussing sensitive societal issues and people calling in.

His first episode focused on Saudi women runaways. It aired not long after an 18-year-old Saudi woman's plea for help from an airport hotel room in Thailand grabbed international headlines and she was granted asylum in Canada.

Al-Shiryan interviewed a Saudi woman living in exile in London who said she was raped by her brother at the age of eight or nine years old. She discussed the lack of protection abused women have in Saudi Arabia and the need to change male guardianship laws.

The episode also included an interview with a Saudi male who said he'd fled the kingdom because he had gender dysphoria.

In another episode, al-Shiryan presses a guest about why foreign women married to Saudi men are categorized as "house workers" by immigration officials. When the guest denies this, al-Shiryan plays video clips of several women thanking immigration officials for changing their status on a government portal - an example of how the show attempted to balance criticism with praise for responsive government agencies.

One female guest in a segment discussing unemployment among women graduates of education directly called on the crown prince to find a solution.

"We want our issues resolved. We want a royal decree from the crown prince like (the late) King Abdullah did," she said.

While Prince Mohammed has been lauded for ushering in reforms, such as allowing women the right to drive, opening movie theaters and permitting concerts, he's also been widely criticized for human rights abuses, including the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year. The kingdom insists the prince had no knowledge of the killing.

Most recently, state prosecutors announced that charges would be brought in court against nearly a dozen imprisoned women's rights activists, several of whom have been detained for 10 months and allegedly tortured in detention. The government has not announced the charges and denies the women were mistreated.
BERLIN (AP) - The German government plans to introduce legislation that will enable authorities to strip Germans with dual nationality of their German citizenship if they fight for a terror group abroad, officials said Monday.

The new rule will apply to people over 18 and, for reasons of constitutional law, only to future cases, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Eleonore Petermann said.

The move comes as Germany and other European countries consider what to do about citizens who fought for the Islamic State group and were captured in Syria. But the fact that the legislation can't be applied retroactively means the proposal is unlikely to ease the German government's dilemma on how to handle former jihadi fighters, amid worries about whether they pose a security risk and whether prosecutors can build cases against them.

The government hopes the legislation will have a "preventive effect" and discourage citizens from joining terror groups. Officials said the legislation will be drawn up soon but didn't offer a precise timetable.

German law already allows for people with dual citizenship to be stripped of their German nationality if they volunteer for their other country's armed forces without the consent of German authorities.

Other countries have made similar moves. Neighboring France has had a process since the 1990s for stripping French citizenship from dual nationals who carry out acts of terrorism, though it has rarely been used.

Germany's governing coalition pledged when it took office a year ago to come up with tougher citizenship rules for extremist group fighters, but took until now to agree on details.

Bernd Baumann, a top lawmaker with the opposition far-right Alternative for Germany party, said the proposed legislation came "much too late" and wouldn't help with IS fighters returning from Syria and Iraq.

Stephan Thomae, a lawmaker with the opposition Free Democrats, described the plan as "pure display window politics" and said the government should concentrate on taking a clear position on how to deal with captured IS fighters.
BEIJING (AP) - Chinese official media on Monday accused two Canadians detained in China of acting together to steal state secrets, just days after Canada announced it will proceed with a U.S. extradition request for a senior Chinese tech executive.

The Xinhua News Agency cited unidentified Chinese authorities as saying former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig violated Chinese laws by acting as a spy and stealing Chinese state secrets and intelligence with the help of Canadian businessman Michael Spavor.

Both Canadians were arrested on Dec. 10 in what was widely seen as an attempt to pressure Canada to release Chinese executive Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Vancouver on Dec. 1 at the request of U.S. authorities.

Canada said last Friday that it will allow a U.S. extradition request for Meng to proceed. Meng is chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei and the daughter of its founder. The U.S. is seeking Meng's extradition to face charges she misled banks about the company's business with Iran.

Xinhua accused Kovrig of often entering China using an ordinary passport and business visas, and acquiring information from his "main contact," Spavor.

"Authorities stressed that China is a country ruled by law and will firmly crack down on criminal acts that severely undermine national security," Xinhua said.

The same information was posted on the official news blog of the ruling Communist Party's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

Kovrig is a former diplomat who was working as an expert on Asia for the International Crisis Group think tank. Spavor is an entrepreneur known for contacts with high-ranking North Korean officials, including leader Kim Jong Un, with whom he has been photographed shaking hands and laughing.
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - The chief executive of Cyprus' largest bank said Monday that he will quit his position in September after nearly six years to take up a "commercial opportunity" in the U.K.

John Patrick Hourican, the CEO of Bank of Cyprus, said he leaves the bank in "its strongest capital position in living memory." He led its recovery from near-bankruptcy in 2013 when a banking crisis forced Cyprus to seek a rescue deal from international creditors.

Hourican said an indication of the bank's overall health is its high level of capital buffers and its 4.4 billion euros in excess liquidity. The bank's bad loans have been whittled down from 15 billion euros to 4.8 billion euros over six years.

He cited family matters as a key reason for his departure and said the bank's strong balance sheet is "a good moment" to consider his succession.

"Having spent six years of my life in Cyprus by the time September comes, I'm not sure I can commit much longer than that," said Hourican.

Hourican also oversaw the bank's crackdown on dubious accounts and depositors in a bid to clean up the country's image as a money-laundering haven, especially for Russian clients.

According to the bank's figures, between 2015 and 2017 it closed more than 5,300 suspicious accounts and turned away nearly 3,000 potential new customers who didn't stand up to new anti-money laundering rules. As of the end of 2017, Russian and Ukrainian deposits accounted for 8.34 percent of the bank's total deposits.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The Netherlands' foreign minister said Monday that he has recalled his country's ambassador to Iran after Tehran expelled two diplomats from the Dutch embassy amid escalating tensions between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Stef Blok said in a letter to lawmakers that he told Iran's ambassador in The Hague last month that the expulsions were "unacceptable" and "negative for the bilateral relationship" between the two countries.

The Dutch government last year expelled two Iranians due to suspicions that Tehran was involved in the assassinations in the Netherlands of two Dutch-Iranian citizens.

At the time, no reason was given for those expulsions, but the Dutch government explained them early this year amid a coordinated European Union response to alleged covert Iranian activities in Europe.

In January, the E.U. put an Iranian intelligence service and two senior officials on its terror list over suspicions they were involved in assassinations and plots to kill opposition activists in Denmark, France and the Netherlands.

As part of that announcement, the Dutch government said it considered it likely that "Iran had a hand in the preparation or commission of assassinations and attacks on EU territory," including the killing of two Dutch nationals of Iranian origin in the cities of Almere in 2015 and in The Hague in 2017. Iran has denied involvement.
DENVER (AP) - Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said on Monday he's running for president, casting himself as a can-do uniter who's used to overcoming adversity and accomplishing liberal goals in a politically divided state.

"I'm running for president because we need dreamers in Washington, but we also need to get things done," Hickenlooper, 67, said in a video announcing his campaign . "I've proven again and again I can bring people together to produce the progressive change Washington has failed to deliver."

He becomes the second governor to enter the sprawling field, after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced last week, and is trying to cast himself as a pragmatist who can also take on President Donald Trump. Though as governor Hickenlooper prided himself for staying above partisan fights, he has argued his record as a former governor and big-city mayor distinguishes him from a broad field of Democratic presidential aspirants who are backing ambitious liberal plans on health care, taxes and the climate.

Hickenlooper has hedged on supporting Democratic rallying cries like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal to combat climate change. He once worked as a geologist for a petroleum company and was roundly criticized for telling a congressional panel he drank fracking fluid while arguing for the safety of the energy extraction technique.

It was after Hickenlooper was laid off from his geologist position during the energy bust of the 1980s that he inadvertently started on his road to politics. He opened a brewpub in a then-desolate stretch of downtown Denver that unexpectedly took off. That enabled Hickenlooper to become wealthy by building a mini-empire of restaurants and bars. It also led to him making a quixotic run for Denver mayor in 1993. Campaign ads featured Hickenlooper feeding quarters into parking meters to protest the city's charging for Sunday parking downtown. He won handily.

As mayor, Hickenlooper helped persuade dozens of suburban cities, sometimes led by Republicans, to back a tax hike to fund a light-rail network. He was filmed diving out of an airplane to advocate for a statewide ballot measure to suspend an anti-tax measure passed in the 1990s and allow the state budget to grow. When he ran for governor in 2010, he featured an ad of himself fully dressed, walking into a shower to scrub off negative attacks.

FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2019, file photo, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, left, applauds at a campaign house party, in Manchester, N.H. Hickenlooper is running for president, becoming the second governor to jump into the sprawling Democratic 2020 contest. Hickenlooper is a former brewpub owner and Denver mayor who hopes his two terms governing a swing state shows that he can unite the country. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

It's all part of Hickenlooper's quirky political image - he vows not to run attack ads and has frequently made fun of his tendency to misspeak and wander off political message.

Hickenlooper was supported by some Republicans as governor. His first term was marked by a series of disasters and tragedies, some of which he alluded to in his launch video - record wildfires and floods, the assassination of his own prison chief by a member of a white supremacist prison gang and the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, which killed 12. After that attack and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre in Connecticut months later, Hickenlooper called for gun control legislation and signed bills requiring universal background checks and limiting magazine capacity to 15 rounds.

"We're a purple state that got universal background checks passed," he told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday, stressing how he can "bring people together on the other side and actually get stuff done."

Hickenlooper backed civil unions for gay couples and signed a law providing them in Colorado in 2013, before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage. He announced in 2013 that he opposed the death penalty and refused to execute a quadruple-murderer who was on death row. And, as he prepared to leave office and was openly mulling a presidential bid, he ordered the state to adopt California's low-emission vehicle standards to fight climate change.

The last move was widely seen as shoring up an area that has long created tension for Hickenlooper - his relationship with the energy industry. Groups opposed to the expansion of energy exploration into Denver's suburbs often complained that Hickenlooper was too close to the oil and gas business, which remains a powerful force in Colorado politics.

As governor, Hickenlooper opposed ballot measures to limit drilling in populated areas. Hickenlooper's successor, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, has been more critical of the industry. Last week, Polis announced he'd pursue a wide range of new policies that would limit energy exploration.

Another potential vulnerability for Hickenlooper is money. As a former governor, he can't recycle donations from prior campaigns into a presidential account, as can the many U.S. Senators in the field. Hickenlooper's political committee raised $1 million during the first two months of the year, in contrast to senators such as Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who raised more than that amount in the 24 hours after they announced their campaigns.

Still, Hillary Clinton vetted Hickenlooper as a possible running mate in 2016, and Democrats have spoken about his potential national appeal for years. In his launch video, Hickenlooper says, following images of Trump: "As a skinny kid with Coke bottle glasses and a funny last name, I've stood up to my fair share of bullies."

Hickenlooper is expected to focus heavily on Iowa, where many Coloradans come from and a state where his low-key, genial approach could be potent. In previous trips he's emphasized his record and how he can bring warring parties together. During a January swing he stopped by a Des Moines brewpub where a customer asked him how he'd win the primary of "who hates Trump the most?"

Hickenlooper responded by rattling off his governing accomplishments.

"Everyone yells at Trump, he will win," Hickenlooper said. "You have to laugh at him and joke along and say: 'Hey, this is what I did.'"

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Hickenlooper announcement video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwIk0hUmzk8&feature=youtu.be

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This story has been corrected to show Hickenlooper is 67, not 66.

FILE - In this Feb. 23, 2019, file photo, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, left, waits to speak at the Story County Democrats' annual soup supper fundraiser in Ames, Iowa. Hickenlooper is running for president, becoming the second governor to jump into the sprawling Democratic 2020 contest. Hickenlooper is a former brewpub owner and Denver mayor who hopes his two terms governing a swing state shows that he can unite the country. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
SANNA, Yemen (AP) - Yemen's Shiite rebels criticized Britain's foreign secretary on Monday over comments about the flashpoint port city of Hodeida, saying Jeremy Hunt had misrepresented what the warring sides agreed on at U.N. peace talks in Sweden.

Hunt said during a visit Sunday to Yemen, the first by a Western foreign minister since the start of the conflict in 2015, that Hodeida "was supposed to be cleared of militia and left under neutral control by the beginning of January." Hodeida is a key entry point for humanitarian aid to the war-torn country.

Mohammed Abdul-Salam, spokesman for the rebel Houthis, said that the December U.N.-brokered deal in Sweden never mentioned handing Hodeida to a neutral party. He said it stipulated that after warring sides withdraw, Hodeida would be patrolled by an unspecified "local force" with U.N. observers.

Abdul-Salam accused Hunt and Britain of siding with the Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen's internationally recognized government in its four-year war against the Iran-backed Houthis.

Yemen's internationally recognized government and Houthi rebels agreed to a cease-fire in Hodeida in December to be followed by a redeployment of forces out of the port city which is currently controlled by the Houthis. Local authorities and police would run the city and its three ports under U.N. supervision. They also agreed on a prisoner exchange. But both deals have yet to take place.

Hunt warned of a collapse of peace deals, saying that "we are now in the last chance saloon ... The process could be dead within weeks if we do not see both sides sticking to their commitments in Stockholm."

The U.N. said last month that both parties had agreed on the first stage of a mutual pullout of forces from Hodeida. But no progress has been made on the ground with both sides trading accusations of hindering the deals.

Yemen's government has been battling the rebels since 2014, when the Houthis swept down from the north and seized the capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war on the side of the government in March 2015. The stalemated conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and raised fears of famine.
Inspired by #MeToo, Serbian woman speaks out and fights back.

Brus (Serbia): It started at the job interview, when Marija Lukic's boss locked the office door and tried to kiss her. He later promised it won't happen again. But it did, over and over, until she decided it has to stop.

In the two years she worked as a secretary of the top municipal official in this small town in central Serbia, Lukic says she has had as many as 15,000 phone messages to prove the harassment. For daring to speak out about her experiences, the 30-year-old mother of two has become a hero for many women in Serbia, a conservative male-dominated Balkan nation with a strong macho culture.

When last year she mustered the courage to go to court against the most powerful man in the town, Lukic faced threats and pressure but she also received scores of support messages flooding in on social media with the hashtag #JusticeForMarija. Fighting back was no easy thing to do in a country where small-town power-mongers routinely control local institutions and where sexual harassment was only acknowledged as a criminal act in 2017.

"All the time, I complained to his closest friends ... his sister, nobody reacted," she told The Associated Press in an interview. "I expected someone at least to tell him to leave me alone because I told everyone, but it had no effect." She says the global #MeToo movement has emboldened her to speak out: she wrote open letters to President Aleksandar Vucic and other officials, and told her story in numerous media interviews.

In an important victory, Lukic's former employer, Milutin Jelicic, announced his resignation this month in the face of mounting public pressure and outrage. A trial is ongoing, and Lukic said she won't back down until he is held legally responsible as well. The problem was "that there is a system that protects such people, that women are endangered. Many women have approached me, even those who were raped and were afraid to report it," Lukic said.

Initially, six other women joined Lukic in charging Jelicic with sexual harassment and abuse of power. But only her case stood up in court. Experts warn that while some steps have been made to boost women's rights, much more needs to be done in a society where domestic violence is rife, womens rights groups say at least 30 women were killed by partners or within their families in 2018 and sexual harassment is often seen as harmless.

The government has pledged to address the problems as the country advances toward European Union membership. Lukic's case, however, shows it will be an uphill battle.

Lukic said her own family initially advised her against suing Jelicic, fearing she stood no chance against the local populist chief, who boasted that the president protected him.

She almost gave up when unknown men approached her and warned her to forget the lawsuit and delete Jelicic's messages from her Facebook profile to avoid "trouble." Local authorities threatened to close the hairdressing salon owned by Lukic's husband, and she received dozens of hate messages on social networks.

Lukic told the AP that after the job interview, she didn't see Jelicic for a few months. She took the job after he apologised and promised to behave. But, she said, "the first time we were alone, he did the same, only worse." In court, Jelicic argued that his accusers had tried to seduce him and had sent the harassing messages from his phone, Lukic said. In announcing his resignation, he complained a campaign against him is part of a political ploy to discredit President Vucic.

The evening Lukic was due to appear on a popular television station, a mysterious power outage prevented much of the town from watching. Lukic says she will go to the European courts if she doesn't find justice in Serbia. This is a struggle for dignity, she told thousands of people at last week's anti-government protest in Belgrade. "I don't know if I am brave, but now I know I am not alone," she told the crowd.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - It's been 1  years since the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, but two men seen on camera assaulting a black man in a parking garage remain unidentified.

Charlottesville police detective Declan Hickey is quoted by The Washington Post as saying the investigation into the Aug. 12, 2017, beating of Deandre Harris, has hit a dead end.

Three people linked to white nationalist, pro-Confederacy or anti-government beliefs are serving time in jail or prison, and a fourth awaits sentencing. None of them knew each other before the attack.

The two men at large have come to be known as "Red Beard" and "Sunglasses." Hickey says the best hopes for identifying the men are if they "pop back on the radar" at another rally or "piss off their wife or girlfriend."

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - The mother of a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting victim who is now on the county school board is pushing to have the superintendent fired, saying he "has a history of leadership failures."

Lori Alhadeff placed a measure on Tuesday's Broward County school board agenda calling for Superintendent Robert Runcie's dismissal. Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter Alyssa died in the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre, has the support of other families of the 14 students and three staff members killed.

It doesn't appear her measure has enough votes on the nine-member school board, however. A majority says he has improved the district's academic standing since his hiring in 2011 and the shooting wasn't caused by his policies. The district is the nation's sixth-largest with 327 schools and 270,000 students.

The state gave Broward a "B'' in its latest district grades, noting that it has a graduation rate of 84 percent, a 10 percentage point increase over five years. The district says it has increased the number of security officers and cameras and taken other security measures districtwide since the shooting.

Before the shooting, however, crimes, bullying and other school problems were routinely under-reported by Stoneman Douglas and other district schools and few did voluntary security assessments. Stoneman Douglas reported zero incidents of bullying among its 3,200 students between 2014 and 2017 and three incidents of vandalism, for example.

At a recent community meeting, Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime died in the shooting, told Runcie, "I can't help but blame you. My daughter is dead and this community is coming apart."

FILE - In this Nov. 15, 2018 file photo, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie appears before the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission in Sunrise, Fla. The mother of a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting victim who is now on the county school board is pushing to have the Runcie fired, saying he "has a history of leadership failures." Lori Alhadeff placed a measure on the Broward County school board agenda for Tuesday, March 5, 2019, calling for Runcie to be fired. Alhadeff's 14-year-old daughter Alyssa died in the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre. Alhadeff has the support of other families of the 14 students and three staff members killed. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

Runcie responded, "I know that no matter what we keep doing, I'll keep hearing, 'It's not enough,' and I know why I hear that, because I can't bring your daughter back." Runcie's base annual salary is $342,000. His contract runs through June 2023.

Alhadeff has clashed with Runcie since her election last year. She wanted to hire a college instructor and accountant who is a Runcie critic to be her secretary - each board member is given one - but the superintendent rejected her pick. He said the woman didn't have the required secretarial experience, although other board secretaries don't either. The board attorney blocked Alhadeff's "no" vote on Runcie's appointment of a new district security chief, saying Alhadeff's stated reasons, including that she didn't believe he had been fully vetted or other qualified candidates considered, were insufficient.

"Mr. Runcie is trying to control the conversation," said Alhadeff, who represents the Parkland-area district that includes the school.

According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, at least five board members support Runcie. He declined to be interviewed and none of the members supporting him returned calls and emails seeking comment.

Runcie told the recent community meeting, "Leadership is not, in my view, about cutting and running when it gets really tough. It's my responsibility given the fact that (the shooting) occurred under my watch as superintendent. I need to fix it." Runcie, who is black, has strong support among African-Americans, who are 40 percent of the district's enrollment.

Board member Rosalind Osgood told WFOR-TV, "When I got elected I had 12 'F' schools in my district. Now, I don't have any."

There was a recent push among victims' families for Gov. Ron DeSantis to remove Runcie as he did Broward Sheriff Scott Israel in January, but the new Republican governor can't suspend appointed officials.

Instead, DeSantis persuaded the state Supreme Court to approve a grand jury investigation into school districts' security spending and policies statewide. The panel will be based in Broward.

Runcie's critics hope it will examine Broward's Promise Program, a student disciplinary system he instituted. Under Promise, students who commit petty vandalism, theft, harassment or other minor crimes or who fight are referred to an off-campus site for up to 10 days instead of the courts. They are assessed, given a course of treatment, attend classes and receive counseling.

Critics say Promise created a lenient atmosphere that allowed shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz to briefly attend Stoneman Douglas a year before the massacre despite a history of fights, threats and behavioral problems. He was placed in the program in middle school after breaking a bathroom faucet, but records are unclear if he completed the requirements.

The district says while the program might require some changes, it is a success. Out of 2,000 students referred in an average year, 90 percent never reoffend and less than 1 percent reoffends three times, it says.
BERLIN (AP) - German-based bus company FlixBus is in talks to buy international bus operator Eurolines from France's Transdev Group in a deal that would expand its European reach.

FlixBus and Transdev said Monday that they are entering exclusive negotiations on Eurolines, whose network spans 25 countries. Eurolines also operates French domestic routes under the Isilines brand, which would be part of the possible deal.

The companies did not disclose financial details.

FlixBus has become Germany's dominant bus operator since the country relaxed strict restrictions on long-distance buses in 2013. French rival Blablabus plans to expand into Germany this year.

FlixBus founder and CEO Jochen Engert said the Eurolines purchase "would strengthen our European network and complement organic growth in key European markets."
WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Attorney General Eric Holder says he's not running for president in 2020.

Holder, a Democrat, said in a Monday opinion piece in The Washington Post that he'll focus on redistricting, the process of reconfiguring electoral districts.

Holder served under President Barack Obama and is chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which has sued states over voting rights issues and legislative redistricting.

Holder did not say which of the Democratic presidential candidates he might endorse but said there are many "good options." He said candidates must focus on addressing climate change, immigration and ensuring that a Democrat is elected president in 2020.

Holder said it's important to make sure the election is "free from foreign interference," a reference to Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
JERUSALEM (AP) - The United States has officially shuttered its consulate in Jerusalem, downgrading the status of its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians by folding it into the U.S. Embassy to Israel.

For decades, the consulate functioned as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians. Now, that outreach will be handled by a Palestinian affairs unit, under the command of the embassy.

The symbolic shift hands authority over U.S. diplomatic channels with the West Bank and Gaza to ambassador David Friedman, a longtime supporter and fundraiser for the West Bank settler movement and fierce critic of the Palestinian leadership.

The announcement from the State Department came early Monday in Jerusalem, the merger effective that day.

"This decision was driven by our global efforts to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our diplomatic engagements and operations," State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said in a statement. "It does not signal a change of U.S. policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip."

In a farewell video addressed to the consulate's Palestinian partners, Consul General Karen Sasahara, who is leaving her post as the unofficial U.S. ambassador to the Palestinians and will not be replaced, maintains that new Palestinian unit at the embassy will carry forward the mission of the consulate, "in support of the strengthening of American-Palestinian ties, to boost economic opportunities for the Palestinians and facilitate cultural and educational exchanges."

FILE - In this June 30, 201, file photo, then U.S. Consul General of Jerusalem Daniel Rubinstein gives a speech during a reception for the upcoming July 4 U.S. Independence Day celebrations at the American Consulate in Jerusalem. The United States has officially shuttered its consulate in Jerusalem, downgrading the status of its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians by folding it into the U.S. Embassy to Israel. The announcement from the State Department came early Monday, March 4, 2019 in Jerusalem, the merger effective that day. (Gali Tibbon/Pool Photo via AP, FIle)

When first announced by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in October, the move infuriated Palestinians, fueling their suspicions that the U.S. was recognizing Israeli control over east Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories that Palestinians seek for a future state.

Palestinian official Saeb Erekat called the move "the final nail in the coffin" for the U.S. role in peacemaking.

The downgrade is just the latest in a string of divisive decisions by the Trump administration that have backed Israel and alienated the Palestinians, who say they have lost faith in the U.S. administration's role as a neutral arbiter in peace process.

Last year the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocated its embassy there, upending U.S. policy toward one of the most explosive issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians in turn cut off most ties with the administration.

The administration also has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, including assistance to hospitals and peace-building programs. It has cut funding to the U.N. agency that provides aid to Palestinians classified as refugees. Last fall, it shut down the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington.

The Trump administration has cited the reluctance of Palestinian leaders to enter peace negotiations with Israel as the reason for such punitive measures, although the U.S. has yet to present its much-anticipated but still mysterious "Deal of the Century" to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, announced last month that the U.S. would unveil the deal after Israeli elections in April. The Palestinian Authority has preemptively rejected the plan, accusing the U.S. of bias toward Israel.

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AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (AP) - Pharrell is heading home to Virginia Beach to launch a new music and culture festival.

The Grammy-winning superstar announced Monday SOMETHING IN THE WATER, a multi-day event he's calling a "cultural experience" that will debut April 26-28. He will perform on a stage set on the beach; other performers include Missy Elliott, Travis Scott, Migos, Dave Matthews Band, Janelle Monae, Diplo, SZA, Lil Uzi Vert and Pusha T.

Tickets go on sale Friday.

Pharrell said in an interview with The Associated Press that he created the festival to give back to the community that raised him and helped him achieve his goals and dreams.

"Virginians are taste-makers," he said, naming famous folks from the state, from Ella Fitzgerald to Allen Iverson to Missy Elliott.

"Virginia has been home to some of the most gifted artists, athletes, and scientists to ever live. And it makes sense - the people of Virginia are one-of-a-kind: uniquely gritty, bold, and brilliant," Pharrell said. "Virginia needs this right now and the world will see what we Virginians have known all along: there really is Something in the Water."

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2018 file photo, Pharrell Williams arrives at the City of Hope Gala at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. Pharrell is heading home to Virginia Beach to launch a new music and culture festival. The Grammy-winning superstar announced Monday, March 4, 2019, SOMETHING IN THE WATER, a multi-day event he's calling a "cultural experience" that will debut April 26-28. He will perform on a stage set on the beach; other performers include Missy Elliott, Travis Scott, Migos, Dave Matthews Band, Janelle Monae, SZA and Diplo. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

The festival won't just focus on music: The film "The Burial of Kojo" - acquired by Ava DuVernay's ARRAY company - will be screened, followed by a discussion. The film will premiere on Netflix on March 31.

SOMETHING IN THE WATER will also include a pop-up church service, karaoke featuring trap music as well as moments with wellness expert Deepak Chopra and Geoffrey Canada, the president of the Harlem Children's Zone whose work has transformed the lives of thousands of inner-city youth.

Other musicians set to perform include Jaden Smith, Anderson .Paak, Kaytranada, Ferg, Jhene Aiko, Rosalia, Leikeli47, Maggie Rogers, Mac DeMarco, Masego, Virgil Abloh and John-Robert.

"It's been fun curating the artist-performers," said the Oscar-nominated Pharrell, who has produced hits for everyone from Jay-Z to Britney Spears.

Virginia Beach Mayor Robert "Bobby" Dyer said the festival "is going to be a transformative event for our city."

"We are absolutely thrilled with the plans Pharrell and his team have for this year. There will be no doubt that what is 'in the water' around Virginia Beach is 'something' very special," he said.

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Online:

https://www.somethinginthewater.com
LONDON (AP) - Britain's royal family warned Monday that it will block internet trolls posting offensive messages on its social media channels - and may report offenders to police.

Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace spelled out the policy banning offensive, hateful and racist language. The royal households say they reserve the right to determine who is violating their guidelines, and whether or not comments could be blocked.

"The aim of our social media channels is to create an environment where our community can engage safely in debate and is free to make comments, questions and suggestions," the guidelines said. "We ask that anyone engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities."

The guidelines come amid concern about the online abuse aimed at the wives of Prince William and Prince Harry. Much of the social media abuse has centered around rival fans of the Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton and the Duchess of Sussex, the former Meghan Markle.

The guidelines insist posts shouldn't "contain spam, be defamatory of any person, deceive others, be obscene, offensive, threatening, abusive, hateful, inflammatory or promote sexually explicit material or violence" or "promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age."

The royals say guidelines were introduced to try to maintain a safe environment on their social media channels and calls for users to show "courtesy, kindness and respect."

FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2018 file photo, Britain's Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, left, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive to attend the Christmas day service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham in Norfolk, England. Britain's royal family is warning that it will block trolls posting offensive messages on its social media channels _ and may report offenders to the police. Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace issued new guidelines on Monday, March 4, 2019 spelling out the policy banning offensive, hateful and racist language.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

The Royal Family site on Twitter has some 3.87 million followers.
PARIS, Tenn. (AP) - A Tennessee sheriff says two children have been injured in a school bus crash.

Henry County Sheriff Monte Belew told WKRN-TV that it appears the bus driver was temporarily blinded by the sun on Monday morning and drove the bus off the side of the road and into a ditch, which caused the vehicle to roll on its side.

Belew says there were more than a dozen children onboard when the crash occurred, but only two were taken to the hospital for minor injuries. He said most of the students were heading to Henry Elementary School.

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Information from: WKRN-TV, http://www.wkrn.com/
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in has proposed a joint project with China to use artificial rain to clean the air in his country, where an acute increase in pollution has caused alarm.

Moon also instructed government officials on Wednesday to quicken the retirement of old coal-burning power plants, according to his spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom.

Seoul has been struggling to tackle the rise in air pollution that experts have linked to China's massive industrial activity and emissions from South Korean cars. Fine dust levels in South Korea have hit new highs over the past week, prompting people to wear masks while commuting under thick-gray skies that online users have compared to scenes from the movie "Wall-E."

When asked about Moon's proposal, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said cooperation would be good but downplayed Seoul's claim that China is a major source of its pollution.

"I wonder if the South Korean side has any basis that its smog is from China," Lu said, noting that fine dust readings have been higher in Seoul than in Beijing recently. "All countries realize that the cause is very complicated."

As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, the fine dust concentration level was 136 micrograms per cubic meter in Seoul, according to the National Institute of Environmental Research, which defines levels above 75 micrograms per cubic meter as "very bad."

A man wearing a mask rides a bicycle along the Han river in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has proposed a joint project with China to use artificial rain to clean the air in Seoul, where an acute increase in pollution has caused alarm. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Na Kyung-won, the floor leader of the conservative Liberty Korea Party, called for Moon to designate the air pollution as a national disaster. Ruling and opposition parties held an emergency meeting at which they agreed to swiftly pass bills to cope with the problem.

In a meeting with government officials, Moon noted that China was "much more advanced" than South Korea in rain-making technologies and expressed hope that creating rain over waters between the countries would help mitigate the air pollution, Kim said.

In January, South Korea's weather agency failed in an experiment to create artificial rain which involved an aircraft releasing chemicals into clouds over the sea.

"China has claimed that South Korea's dust flies toward Shanghai, so creating artificial rain over the Yellow Sea would help the Chinese side too," Kim quoted Moon as saying during the meeting. Moon also proposed that South Korea and China develop a joint system for issuing air pollution alerts, Kim said.

Moon instructed government officials to take steps to quickly close coal-burning power plants that have operated for more than 30 years and draw up an extra budget if necessary to install more air purifiers in schools and support possible joint activities with China, Kim said.

In a meeting with top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi last year, Moon said China was partially responsible for South Korea's pollution problem and called for Beijing's cooperation in efforts to improve air quality.

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AP researcher Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report.

Visitors tour at the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has proposed a joint project with China to use artificial rain to clean the air in Seoul, where an acute increase in pollution has caused alarm. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

People wear masks to protect from air pollution at a bus station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has proposed a joint project with China to use artificial rain to clean the air in Seoul, where an acute increase in pollution has caused alarm. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Women wearing masks to protect from air pollution walk in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has proposed a joint project with China to use artificial rain to clean the air in Seoul, where an acute increase in pollution has caused alarm. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Women wearing masks to protect from air pollution walk in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has proposed a joint project with China to use artificial rain to clean the air in Seoul, where an acute increase in pollution has caused alarm. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A man wearing a mask to protect from air pollution walks at a park in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has proposed a joint project with China to use artificial rain to clean the air in Seoul, where an acute increase in pollution has caused alarm. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Police in Rhode Island say an 18-year-old man and a toddler were shot while riding inside a car in Providence.

Providence Police Maj. David Lapatin says they were shot at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday while inside a car driving on Pleasant Valley Parkway. The teenager, identified Wednesday as Christian Michaud, was in the passenger seat and was treated at Rhode Island Hospital.

The 2-year-old boy, who was in the back, was taken to Hasbro Children's Hospital.

Police say the teenager suffered serious injuries and was rushed into surgery but is listed in stable condition . Authorities say the toddler was shot in the foot and is expected to be OK.

The driver of the car, a 21-year-old man who is the toddler's father, was not injured. Michaud is a friend of the driver.

Police are still looking for the shooter.
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Women influencers use social media as a powerful means of self-expression.

Mumbai: The domain of social media has witnessed paradigm shift over the years and various people are using it as a platform to showcase their talent to the world. On International Womens Day, bloggers Aishwarya Sharma and Indu Srimal exclusively share with Deccan Chronicle how they are using social media as a platform to express themselves and bring about a positive change in the society for others to follow.

Aishwarya Sharma - Fashionist from Delhi embarked on this journey in 2016, when she realised that fashion blogging is still a cliche in our society and constrained to presentation of dresses, brands and monopolies of e-commerce brands.

Realising the reach and impact of fashion, being an activist and a blogger at the same time she started to feel that it is high time women break through the stereotypes of bloggers being a mannequin.

She finally initiated to take fashion and it's impact on a whole new level and 'Figuramoda' took birth. She was fascinated by everything fashionable around her and soon understood that fashion as a medium had a greater purpose to serve.

On the other hand, for Indu Srimal (Kolkata) she loves to express herself and was always in search of trying out new things and that is how she started blogging. The best part is it opens up vast networking options as it is a great way of meeting new people locally and globally. It also helps her show her creative side to the world.

Aishwarya through her blog, would like to create awareness among the masses that fashion and fashion bloggers are not just limited to showcasing brands, but are a part of the change that we care to look over. And she would like all of them to be the part of a change that she has initiated at her level.

She wants them to share the stories of their strength and freedom and pass on the baton. She wants them to carry on with the chain that she holds an end to and want them to believe that the change is inevitable.

Her first tryst with fashion for purpose was when she learnt that there exists a whole set of rules for every girl on how they should look and what they should eat to look more beautiful.

However, Aishwarya always believed that there is always more to a person than their outer appearances and that fashion industry on the whole is meant to do the right thing as they are the future forwards.

Indu feels that women are judged very often in India regardless of there attributes, be it a social movement or fashion sense. There is always a sense of prevailing insecurities and those affect their freedom to express them.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The world's two largest economies are locked in negotiations that may soon produce a deal to suspend their trade war.

Yet despite signals from Chinese and U.S. officials that some truce could be forthcoming, there are few signs of any truly transformed trade relationship. Beijing's longstanding policy of subsidizing its own businesses and charges that it illicitly obtains U.S. technology remain key obstacles to any meaningful U.S.-China trade deal.

In the meantime, the government said Wednesday that the trade deficit in goods with China - the gap between the value of the U.S. products China buys and the higher value of what it sells to the U.S. - hit a record $419.2 billion last year.

A senior Trump administration official asserted this week that progress had been made during trade talks over the past two weeks, only to acknowledge that the eventual outcome remains a mystery and that China faced no timetable for responding to the U.S. priorities. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

U.S. and Chinese officials have hinted that some kind of agreement could be finalized by the end of March, with Trump and President Xi Jinping possibly meeting to formalize the deal at Trump's private club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

For its part, Beijing is publicly expressing its intent to crack down on policies that have long enabled Chinese companies and local government officials to force American and other foreign businesses to share their technology as the price of admission to the vast Chinese market. But such public pledges represent far less than the enforceable commitments to reform such policies that U.S. negotiators are seeking.

In this Tuesday, March 5, 2019 photo, a security official tries to keep journalists back from the steps of the Great Hall of the People as delegates arrive for the opening session of China's National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing. The annual meeting of China's legislature is a highly scripted affair, but quirky moments and offbeat details lurk around the edges and behind the scenes. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Last year, Trump imposed a series of tariffs on Chinese goods in hopes of pressuring Beijing to support more favorable terms for the United States. In June, the White House levied import taxes of 25 percent on $50 billion of Chinese imports. It followed in September with 10 percent duties on an additional $200 billion. All told, the U.S. tariffs covered roughly half of what the U.S. buys from China.

But the blowback from the Trump tariffs - and China's retaliatory import taxes on U.S. goods - has been steady, at home and abroad. Many businesses are now paying higher costs to import electrical components and other goods from China that aren't made in the United States. The duties cost consumers $1.4 billion a month and businesses $3 billion a month by the end of last year, according to research released last week by Mary Amiti, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and economists from Princeton and Columbia universities.

And a survey led by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found that the tariffs had caused U.S. companies to cut their spending on large equipment by 1.2 percent, or $32.5 billion, last year.

Both figures are relatively modest, given that the U.S. economy produces $20 trillion of goods and services a year. But there are also secondary effects. The stock market plummeted 19 percent last fall, partly on fears that the trade war would inflict severe damage.

Nor have the tariffs provided the negotiating leverage that Trump sought. Many of China's concessions appear designed to appease some U.S. concerns, rather than establish guidelines for trade that each country would be bound to follow.

Beijing has offered to buy more American farm goods and energy - a pitch that Xi made to Trump when they met during a December dinner at a global conference in Buenos Aires with the idea of narrowing the U.S. trade gap with China.

China's ceremonial legislature was poised this week to back a law that would discourage officials in the country from pressuring U.S. companies to hand over technology. It was a response to concerns about Chinese disrespect for intellectual property that Trump had raised when he first imposed import taxes on Chinese goods.

But it's unclear whether China would actually enforce this commitment - a concern that could potentially prevent a meaningful trade agreement. Speaking to a House panel last week, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said, "I can point to many examples" of Beijing signing onto an agreement "and in very few cases have they actually kept their obligations."

Lighthizer also stressed that it wouldn't be enough for Beijing to agree to additional purchases of American soybeans, natural gas another goods. Any far-reaching agreement, he said, would need to include changes in China's policies toward intellectual property protection, forced technology transfer and the subsidization of Chinese companies.

Erin Ennis, vice president at the U.S.-China Business Council, said that agreeing on an enforcement mechanism is a huge challenge. The Trump administration wants to be able to impose tariffs on China if it violated its promises in any future pact - without retaliation. Yet Beijing would likely regard such a mechanism as infringing on its sovereignty.

But without enforcement, "it's difficult to see how they will conclude a deal," Ennis said.

Beijing is also resisting U.S. demands to change industrial policies, said Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. And instead of pulling back on support for technology development, Premier Li Keqiang, in his report to the national legislature on 2019 government goals, promised even more such support.

"The Chinese will never agree to compromise on this, because it is key to the country's future," Lam said. "The whole socialist approach to high-tech innovation involves the state playing a big role. The Chinese will never give this up."

That said, China does appear at least open to prying open more of its financial sector, which has largely been closed off to U.S. and European banks.

"What is certain is that in opening up the financial sector, China and the United States can fully agree on each other," Guo Shuqing, the chairman of China's banking regulator, told reporters Tuesday.

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AP Business Writer Joe McDonald in Beijing and AP Writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
BEIRUT (AP) - Iraq and the Kurdish regional government have charged hundreds of children with terrorism for alleged affiliation with the Islamic State group, often using torture to coerce confessions, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

In a report, the New York-based group estimated that Iraqi and Kurdish authorities were holding approximately 1,500 children for alleged IS affiliation in detention at the end of 2018. It said the prosecutions are often based on dubious accusations and forced confessions obtained through torture.

The children are then sentenced to prison in hasty and unfair trials, HRW said.

"The approach that Iraq has adopted is one that completely fails to acknowledge what is commonly understood and reflected in international law, which is that children who were forcibly recruited are indeed victims, they should be treated as victims not as criminals," said Belkis Wille, senior Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Iraq declared victory against IS in December 2017 after three years of bloody battles that killed tens of thousands and left Iraqi cities in ruins. The country is grappling with a massive legacy from the fight, which includes thousands of detainees, including children, who are being sentenced in rushed trials

The Associated Press interviewed two parents in northern Syria, near Iraq's second largest city of Mosul, whose children, aged 16 and 17, had been taken away from them by Iraqi security services in 2017. In both cases it took the parents months to locate their children and both boys said that they had been tortured during their detention.

FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2017 file photo, a Kurdish security officer orders a displaced man from Hawija to sit down as they try to determine if the men being held were associated with the Islamic State group, at a Kurdish screening center in Dibis, Iraq. In a report released Wednesday, March 6, 2019, Human Rights Watch said Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional Government authorities have charged hundreds of children with terrorism for alleged affiliation with IS, often using torture to coerce confessions. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen, File)

One of the women said after her husband and son were arrested she didn't see them for a year and a half. Then she received a phone call from a hospital telling her that her son was there being treated.

"My son told me: 'mum, they took me to a room.' And I said, 'why? What did they do to you, my son?' He said 'mum, they took me inside and started beating me with hoses. I reached behind but couldn't tell where the next blow was coming from, they were beating my head, my back, both of my feet,'" said the woman, who wished to remain identified for security concerns.

"Children accused of affiliation with IS are being detained, and often tortured and prosecuted, regardless of their actual level of involvement with the group," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocacy director for HRW. "This sweeping punitive approach is not justice, and will create lifelong negative consequences for many of these children."

Maj. Gen. Saad Maan, a spokesman for Iraq's Ministry of Interior, denied the HRW accusations, saying authorities in Baghdad are holding around 500 IS women, and some of those have their children with them. He said the children are not being investigated and are being provided with medicine, food and clothes. "None of the children are under investigation," he told AP in Baghdad.

The 52-page report, entitled "Everyone Must Confess': Abuses against Children Suspected of ISIS Affiliation in Iraq," criticized what it described as a deeply flawed screening process that often leads to detention and prosecution of children regardless of whether they have any involvement with IS, or the extent of that involvement.

It cites the case of a 17-year-old detainee, who said he worked at a restaurant in Mosul that served IS members, and believed that his name appeared on a "wanted" list because IS took his identification so he could be paid.

"What we see are extremely brief trials in the cases of these boys. Every single one of these trials proceeded solely on the basis of the confession that was produced by their interrogation, often with the use of torture," Wille told the AP from New York.

"After the trial is done, usually in ... five-minute or a 10-minute period, they receive their sentence and they return to prison."

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Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed reporting from Baghdad.

FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2016 file photo, displaced people leave their homes during fighting in Hamam al-Alil, south of Mosul, Iraq. In a report released Wednesday, March 6, 2019, Human Rights Watch said Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional Government authorities have charged hundreds of children with terrorism for alleged affiliation with the Islamic State group, often using torture to coerce confessions. The report said children recruited by armed groups should be recognized primarily as victims who should be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017 file photo, women and children from Hawija sit outside a Kurdish screening center to determine if they were associated with the Islamic State group, in Dibis, Iraq. In a report released Wednesday, March 6, 2019, Human Rights Watch said Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional Government authorities have charged hundreds of children with terrorism for alleged affiliation with IS, often using torture to coerce confessions. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen, File)
CAIRO (AP) - Dozens of Egyptian activists, rights defenders and journalists have been targeted by digital phishing attacks in the last two months, likely by their own government, an international rights group said Wednesday.

Amnesty International said it analyzed dozens of suspicious emails and the attacks appear "to be part of a sustained campaign to intimidate and silence critics" of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's government.

The London-based group said the phishing attacks spiked during key political moments, such as the run-up to the January anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising against autocratic President Hosni Mubarak, and a visit later that month by French President Emmanuel Macron.

"These chilling attempts to target them online pose yet another threat to their vital work," Ramy Raoof, a technology specialist at Amnesty, said about the scams on activists, journalists and non-governmental organizations. "There are strong indications that the Egyptian authorities are behind these attacks."

Phishing attacks attempt to trick people into sharing sensitive information such as passwords and usernames, often by inducing them to click on a bogus link or by pretending to be a trusted entity.

Egypt under el-Sissi has waged a massive crackdown on dissent in recent years, rolling back freedoms won by the 2011 uprising and placing draconian restrictions on demonstrations and the work of rights groups.

FILE - In this Oct. 17, 2018 file photo, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi attends a signing ceremony for a strategic cooperation treaty following his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia. Amnesty International said on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, that dozens of Egyptian activists, rights defenders and journalists have been targeted by digital phishing attacks in the last two months, likely by their own government. The international rights group said the attacks appear "to be part of a sustained campaign to intimidate and silence critics" of el-Sissi's government. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, Pool)

A government spokesman was not immediately available to comment, and no one answered phone calls to the Interior Ministry.

Amnesty said the emails were sent between Jan. 18 and Feb. 13 using a technique known as OAuth Phishing to gain access to private accounts.

The group recorded 11 phishing attacks against NGOs and media outlets ahead of the Jan. 25 uprising anniversary. Another burst of attacks came during Macron's visit, peaking on Jan. 29, the day he met with several Egyptian human rights defenders, Amnesty said.

Ahead of the January meeting, Macron said the latest crackdown is widely seen as more severe than any launched under Mubarak, who was toppled in the 2011 uprising, and that people "who do not threaten the regime's stability" have been jailed.

The French president said he encouraged respect for human rights, saying that Egypt's success was important for the world given its size, location and military capabilities, but that free expression was one of the best safeguards against extremism.

Rights lawyer Gamal Eid met with the French president on his visit. He said he raised the phishing issue in their meeting, claiming the Egyptian government uses technologies provided by France.

"The attacks have been persistent. They target our emails and social media accounts in order to get material they think they will use against us," he said.

The group said several media organizations were targeted in the first week of February. Many of them were reporting on the recent process to amend the country's constitution and extend presidential terms in office, allowing el-Sissi to stay in power possibly until 2034.

Egypt's Parliament, packed by el-Sissi supporters, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the package of constitutional amendments on Feb. 14. The changes must be finalized by a special legislative committee for a decision within two months, followed by a nationwide referendum, likely before early May.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Militants in Afghanistan set off a suicide blast on Wednesday morning and stormed a construction company near the airport in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, killing at least 17 people, officials said.

The dawn assault triggered an hours-long gunbattle with local guards, drawing in U.S. forces to assist the Afghan troops in the shootout.

Among those killed were 16 employees of the Afghan construction company EBE and a military intelligence officer, said Attahullah Khogyani, the provincial governor's spokesman. He added that nine other people were wounded in the attack, which lasted more than five hours.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but both the Taliban and the Islamic State group are active in eastern Afghanistan, especially in Nangarhar.

The two groups have been carrying out near-daily attacks across Afghanistan in recent years, mainly targeting the government and Afghan security forces and causing staggering casualties, including among civilians. The attacks have continued despite stepped-up U.S. efforts to find a negotiated resolution of the 17-year war, America's longest.

Wednesday's attack began around 5 a.m. and five attackers were involved, Khogyani said. Two of them detonated their explosives, blowing themselves up, while the remaining three were killed in the shooting.

Afghans carry the body of a man who was killed in a suicide attack, at a hospital in Jalalabad province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. An Afghan official said Wednesday that militants set off a suicide blast and stormed a construction company near the airport in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, killing at least 16 people. (AP Photo/Mohammad Anwar Danishyar)

The attackers were on foot and after setting off a suicide blast at the company gates, the others stormed in, triggering a gunbattle that drew U.S. forces to the scene, according to Gen. Ghulam Sanayee Stanikzai, the provincial police chief.

"U.S. forces are supporting Afghan forces in securing the area now," Stanikzai later said.

As the attack unfolded, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrived for a visit to neighboring Kunar province to inaugurate an administrative health complex and to lay the cornerstone of a 200-bed hospital.

By 10:30 a.m., when the last of the attackers was killed, all was over and the Afghan forces proceeded with a clean-up operation, Khogyani said.

The attack was the second high-profile assault in the past six days. Over the weekend, the Taliban targeted an Afghan army unit at its camp in southern Helmand province, killing at least 23 troops and wounding more than 20 others. That attack began on Friday and ended on Saturday evening, 40 hours later.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Helmand attack, which came even as insurgents were meeting with a U.S. peace envoy in Qatar, a Gulf Arab country, for peace talks.

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Associated Press writer Amir Shah in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

Afghans carry the body of a man who was killed in a suicide attack, at a hospital in Jalalabad province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. An Afghan official said Wednesday that militants set off a suicide blast and stormed a construction company near the airport in Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, killing at least 16 people. (AP Photo/Mohammad Anwar Danishyar)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - A prominent human rights lawyer in Iran who defended protesters against the Islamic Republic's mandatory headscarves for women has been convicted and faces years in prison, an activist group said Wednesday.

The conviction of Nasrin Sotoudeh, who previously served three years in prison for her work, underlines the limits of challenging Iran's theocracy as it faces economic pressure exacerbated by the U.S. pulling out of Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.

It also highlights the limits of Iran's civilian government as well, as the administration of President Hassan Rouhani and others have signaled an easing of their concern over the mandatory hijab.

It shows "the insecurity the regime has to any peaceful challenge," said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, which reported Sotoudeh's conviction. "It knows a large segment of the country . are fed up with the hijab laws."

Sotoudeh, 55, was convicted in absentia after she refused to attend the trial before Tehran's Revolutionary Court as she was unable to select her own counsel, Ghaemi said. The Revolutionary Court conducts closed-door hearings over alleged threats to Iran's government.

The charges range from her membership in a human rights group to "encouraging corruption and prostitution." That suggests her detention in part relates to her defense of women who protested the mandatory hijab.

In this Nov. 1, 2008 photo, Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, poses for a photograph in her office in Tehran, Iran. On Wednesday, March 6, 2019, the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, said Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights lawyer in Iran who defended women protesting against the Islamic Republic's mandatory headscarf, has been convicted and faces years in prison. Sotoudeh, who previously served three years in prison for her work, was convicted in absentia by a Revolutionary Court. She is currently held at Tehran's Evin prison. (AP Photo/Arash Ashourinia)

Sotoudeh's conviction was not immediately reported by Iranian state-run media. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran relied on information about Sotoudeh's case provided by her husband Reza Khandan, who separately faces a six-year prison sentence over providing updates on her case on Facebook, Ghaemi said.

Other activists also decried Sotoudeh's conviction.

"Sotoudeh's pathbreaking work defending women in Iran, as well as her consistent attempts to uphold the rule of law, should not be penalized with such a blatant miscarriage of justice," said Karin Deutsch Karlekar of PEN America.

Sotoudeh received the awarded the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Union in 2012. Her previous clients also include Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi.

One of Sotoudeh's clients in the hijab protests received a 20-year prison sentence, showing the sensitivity authorities felt about the case. Ghaemi said he believes Iran's theocracy connects the hijab protests to the nationwide economic protests that happened around the same time at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018.

"It is part of the same pattern of wanting to put an end to any peaceful protest on the street," he said.

The hijab and chador - the flowing, all-encompassing robe for women - have long been parts of Persian culture. They became political symbols in 1936, when Iran's pro-Western ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi banned the garments amid his efforts to rapidly modernize Iran. The ban became a source of humiliation for some pious Muslim women in the country.

As the 1979 Islamic Revolution took hold, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered female civil servants to wear the chador. At first, thousands of women protested the decision in Tehran and Khomeini later said officials should not insult women who chose not to wear it - though he also called the chador "the flag of the revolution."

The hijab and loose-fitting clothing later became mandatory for all women in Iran.

In Tehran today, some fashionable young women wear tighter clothes with a scarf loosely covering their head, technically meeting the requirements of the law while drawing the ire of conservatives.

In December 2017, Tehran's police said they would no longer arrest women for not observing the Islamic dress code as video clips of women choosing not to wear hijabs and walking the streets with their heads uncovered spread across social media.

Protests followed, including a much-circulated image of a woman atop a junction box at an intersection of Tehran's famed Enghelab, or "Revolution," Street, waving her white hijab as if it was a flag.
BAGHOUZ, Syria (AP) - As defeat looms, militants of the Islamic State group have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath. Keeping institutions functioning in their last shred of territory in Syria, they have continued benefits like food and money to supporters while their religious police and fighters still impose their rule of fear and brutality.

Refusing to surrender, the militants have tried to squeeze out any last possible gain. Over the past weeks, they secured the evacuation of more than 10,000 of their exhausted and wounded followers, looking to ensure long-term survival and continued conflict.

The militants - many of them foreigners, including Iraqis and Central Asians, along with some Syrian fighters - are now fighting their final battle, holed up in tunnels and caves inside Baghouz, the last village they control. Since Friday, they have put up desperate resistance to renewed pounding by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces aiming to take the tiny pocket on the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border.

Around two dozen evacuees described the group's final days to The Associated Press. They spoke of how IS's once powerful institutions that administered the provinces of the so-called "caliphate" withstood the pressure as fighters focused on maintaining control. All those who spoke with the AP asked to keep their identity concealed, fearing reprisals from IS or punishment for their connections to the group.

The evacuees, most of them relatives of IS members, include shattered families that lost loved ones and wounded, exhausted and hungry men, women and children - but some remain die-hard believers, angry and broken, and potential seeds for an already burgeoning insurgency in a country whose social fabric is in shreds.

Widows said monthly stipends from the group were replaced by food handouts, though distribution became less and less regular as food became scarce. They continued to live together in IS-administered guest houses even when the militants moved into tents. Money transfer offices worked until the last days. Bayan a 24-year-old Syrian, said her mother wired money from Aleppo a month ago to help her after her husband was killed.

FILE - In this Friday, Feb. 22, 2019 file photo, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters stand guard next to men waiting to be screened after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State group militants, near Baghouz, eastern Syria. Even as they face imminent defeat, militants of the IS have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath, keeping their institutions functioning as best they can. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

The militants kept up their physical punishments. They killed a senior Iraqi leader for helping people escape their pocket. The IS religious police, known as the "Hisba," drove around the tent encampment inside Baghouz, urging its residents to perform prayers five times a day. When it was time for evacuations, the Hisba oversaw the operation, calling on the wounded and families to register.

A driver named Khodr in one of the convoys of trucks waiting at Baghouz to ferry out a batch of evacuees last week got a first-hand look at IS's organization and brutality. During the operation, masked IS gunmen stood at alert, two at each truck, while another militant walked among the evacuees, checking names against a list, he told the AP.

Suddenly the orderly scene was disrupted. A gunman lashed out at a woman, striking her with what appeared to be a Taser. Khodr couldn't see why - perhaps she had been confused and hesitated to board, perhaps she argued. Crying and panicking, she fell to the ground and plunged her hands in the sand, trying to ease the pain. When she didn't get up, the gunman fired his automatic weapon into the ground near her, until she stood and boarding resumed.

"It was a terrifying scene," he said. "He hit the woman from a distance, maybe two meters away, pssht, just like that. She fell, and I started to cry."

In a leaked audio recording from inside Baghouz, an IS leader who describes himself as responsible for logistics explains to a gathering of supporters how the evacuation would look, organized from one side by IS and from the other by SDF. He stressed the evacuation would protect their dignity and freedom of movement, a sign of the group's continued outreach to its supporters, keeping up a veneer of consultation with them. The veracity of the recording could not be independently confirmed.

SDF officials have denied they negotiated with IS, but a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, Sean Ryan, on Wednesday confirmed negotiations were taking place, through which the SDF is "diligently" trying to find out information regarding any hostages held by IS.

The evacuation scenes have been apocalyptic.

Nearly every day, hundreds of men and women have straggled out of Baghouz, many visibly traumatized. Some were on crutches, in ambulances or on wheelchairs. Babies and children cried for food. Women, juggling babies on each arm, pulled duffel bags or plastic sacks with a few belongings. Some had lost children or husbands. Some brought out bags of IS-created copper and silver coins, clearly hoping to be able to use the caliphate currency one day.

They had been on the move for months, running to stay in IS's crumbling territory as the SDF chased the group from its de facto capital of Raqqa down the Euphrates to Baghouz.

Now outside Baghouz, they lined up for screening by IS's enemy, the SDF, in a reception area in the desert, stirring up dust that coated their clothes. Men lined up separately to be searched and screened by SDF fighters who collected their biometric data.

Um Abdulrahman, a 27-year old mother, said she tried for four days to be evacuated before finally getting a spot on a truck. Her toddler son was killed and she was badly wounded by a mortar strike weeks ago. Her husband, a mosque cleaner, had been afraid to leave. "He was so scared they would kill him," she said, drying tears in her eyes with a cloth. Finally, they both came out and her husband was undergoing questioning by the SDF.

Um Rayyan, 25, said she remains a supporter but said she was disheartened by the group's increasing corruption.

"When we first got to the State, everything was orderly. There was no differentiation between Iraqi or Syrian or foreigner," she said. But in the final year, she said, the IS administration was monopolized by Iraqis who favored their own and kept all the jobs.

"I think this is the reason for the failure of the Islamic State ... God protected us (from the international coalition.) But when there was corruption inside us, God stopped making us victorious," she said, speaking while lying on a gurney at a makeshift open-air triage station, being treated by a U.S aid group. She had lost half her arm, and her leg was wounded from an explosion.

A French-Moroccan woman mourned that because of Iraqi domination, other foreigners lost their once privileged status. "We became the rejects," she said. She insisted that it was because of such corruption that she left Baghouz not because of bombings - "We lived with bombings for four years."

Aliya, another 27-year old Syrian from Aleppo, said her husband earned a salary of less than $100 a month teaching in mosques, but as conditions worsened, the militants wanted him to work for free "because they had little to offer." When her husband was killed last month, she couldn't join the welfare system that guaranteed widows a stipend. Instead she relied on food handouts and reached out to "sisters" for assistance.

"At the end, they only distributed dates to those nursing. I didn't get any," she said.

Rana, a 27-year old mother of two, migrated with husband from Egypt to Syria soon after the "caliphate" was declared in 2014. She said their life in Raqqa was the "best of times" - she was able to buy gold for her daughters and the IS administration had plentiful resources. After Raqqa's fall, she and her family retreated with the militants.

She got out of Baghouz with her daughters, 5 and 8 years old, in the last batch of evacuees before the SDF assault began Friday. Her husband, 27, stayed behind and was likely to be forced to fight, she said. Standing in line at the SDF screening, she carried their last pieces of gold hidden under her clothes, a backpack stuffed with a few belongings and a bag of dates given to her by the militants just before she left.

She said she left Egypt and fell out with her family to follow her husband and the dream of Islamic rule - then she pointed to her backpack: "This is all I have left."

FILE - In this Friday, March 1, 2019 file photo, women and children exit the back of a truck as they arrive at a U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) screening area after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State group militants, in the desert outside Baghouz, Syria. Even as they face imminent defeat, militants of the IS have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath, keeping their institutions functioning as best they can. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

FILE - In this Friday, March 1, 2019 file photo, a woman is frisked by a U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter at a screening area after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State group militants, in the desert outside Baghouz, Syria. Even as they face imminent defeat, militants of the IS have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath, keeping their institutions functioning as best they can. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 19, 2019 file photo, a U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter looks as smoke billows after an airstrike hit territory still held by Islamic State militants in the desert outside Baghouz, Syria. Even as they face imminent defeat, militants of the IS have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath, keeping their institutions functioning as best they can. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

FILE - In this Monday, March 4, 2019 file photo, people climb off of a truck after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants, outside Baghouz, Syria. Even as they face imminent defeat, militants of the Islamic State group have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath, keeping their institutions functioning as best they can. (AP Photo/Andrea Rosa, File)

FILE - In this Saturday, March 2, 2019 file photo, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) monitor fighting from a rooftop position in Baghouz, Syria. Even as they face imminent defeat, militants of the Islamic State group have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath, keeping their institutions functioning as best they can. (AP Photo/Andrea Rosa, File)

FILE - In this Friday, Feb. 22, 2019 file photo, a man is frisked by a U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants, near Baghouz, eastern Syria. Even as they face imminent defeat, militants of the IS have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath, keeping their institutions functioning as best they can. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 25, 2019 file photo, a girl evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants waits after being screened by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the desert outside Baghouz, Syria. Even as they face imminent defeat, militants of the IS have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath, keeping their institutions functioning as best they can. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

FILE - In this Friday, March 1, 2019 file photo, two injured boys suspected of being Islamic State group supporters lay on the back of a truck at a U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) screening area after being evacuated out of the last territory held by IS militants, in the desert outside Baghouz, Syria. Even as they face imminent defeat, militants of the IS have remained organized and ruthless to their last breath, keeping their institutions functioning as best they can. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)
MIAMI (AP) - An Argentine immigrant said his most recent detention feels like retaliation for starring in a new award-winning documentary about a group that infiltrated a for-profit detention center to expose injustices.

Claudio Rojas called The Associated Press on Tuesday from an immigrant detention facility. He said he has been thinking about what could have prompted the detention, but he hasn't been given a specific reason.

"I just shared my story. I don't feel like I said anything attacking them," Rojas said, referring to immigration enforcement agents. "But I have reasons to believe that this was reprisal."

Rojas, 53, said he sleeps on a cot in a place that looks like a military barrack with 160 other detainees. He was crushed because he wasn't going to be able to attend this week's premiere in Miami of "The Infiltrators," which won two awards at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. He hadn't been able to travel to Utah for the film festival because of conditions set by the prior detention for overstaying his visa, which inspired the making of the film back in 2012.

"I am hanging in there, but I never thought I would end up in detention again," he said. "We know this is all a process. We are hoping for the best and trust God more than anything."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Nestor Yglesias said he could not comment on the case.

In this undated photo made available by Pueblo Sight & Sound, shows immigrant activist Claudio Rojas. Rojas was the protagonist of an award -winning documentary that chronicles the plight of immigrants detained at a for-profit facility. Rojas has been taken into custody again, years after his release. Attorney Sandy Pineda said on Monday, March 4, 2019, that Rojas was complying with a required visit when he was detained last week. Pineda says 53-year-old Rojas faces deportation after being denied a request that allows certain immigrants in the country illegally to stay. Rojas is in detention in Miami. ( Ray Santisteban/Pueblo Sight & Sound via AP)

The Miami screening of the documentary on Tuesday night did not escape controversy. Two producers said Miami Film Festival employees told them they would not introduce the film and moderate a Q&A panel afterward because they did not want to appear to be taking a political stance.

"Silence is a political act - perhaps the most dangerous one," Darren Dean, who has produced movies including 2017's "The Florida Project" and 2015's "Tangerine," wrote on Facebook.

The Miami Festival posted an apology on Facebook on Wednesday saying the incident "was an unfortunate misunderstanding and miscommunication" among personnel.

For the film, three activists got detained on purpose in 2012 to infiltrate the facility in Pompano Beach, Florida, find Rojas and document cases of others inside there. The purpose of the mission was to fight the claim by then-President Barack Obama that immigration enforcement focused on criminals. Many detained there had no criminal records.

Rojas' lawyer, Sandy Pineda, said the immigration agency asked her to file newspaper clippings of Rojas' activism in 2012.

The Argentine was complying with a required periodic visit with government officials when he was detained last Wednesday .

Even though he has a pending visa application, Rojas was denied a request that allows certain immigrants who are in the country illegally to stay, and now faces deportation.

Pineda said Rojas had applied for a T visa, which allows victims of human trafficking to live and work temporarily in the United States. The attorney would not comment on the visa application, saying it was part of an ongoing investigation.

The nonprofit organization Dream Activist began collecting signatures Monday urging federal lawmakers to stop Rojas' deportation. His family and friends set up a GoFundMe page to raise $10,000 for legal bills.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Asylum seekers who are allowed to leave Australian-run migrant camps in Pacific nations to get medical treatment will be sent to a prison-like facility on a remote Australian island, the prime minister said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison flew to tiny Christmas Island on an overnight flight to announce his government's strategy aimed at preventing asylum seekers from reaching the Australian mainland. The island is 5,170 kilometers (3,210 miles) northwest of the Australian capital, Canberra, and is closer to Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

Australia pays Nauru and Papua New Guinea to accommodate almost 1,000 asylum seekers who have attempted to reach the Australian coastline by boat since 2013. Boats carrying asylum seekers from Africa, the Middle East and Asia had been arriving daily from Indonesian ports, but the smuggling attempts have all but stopped since the government announced that no refugees who arrive by boat will ever be allowed to settle in Australia.

Medical evacuations have proven to be a crack in the policy. Sick asylum seekers often have to fight the government in court for permission to be transferred to an Australian hospital, but hundreds granted that permission have received court injunctions that prevent their return to the islands.

The government began reopening a Christmas Island camp in December after a new law was passed allowing doctors rather than bureaucrats to decide which asylum seekers could come to Australia for hospital treatment. The law passed through the support of political parties outside the government and against the government's wishes.

A new doctors' panel to decide the medical transfers to Australia has not yet been appointed.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is seen inside a high care accommodation room as he tours North West Point Detention Centre on Christmas Island, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Morrison says asylum seekers who are allowed to leave Pacific island migrant camps to get medical treatment in Australia will be sent to a prison-like facility on a remote island. (Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP)

The government had warned last year that the medical-treatment law could allow all the asylum seekers on the islands to come to Australia and encourage more of the risky people-smuggling journeys.

Critics argue that Christmas Island doesn't have the necessary medical facilities to cope with asylum seekers' medical needs.

Morrison said the island's high-security Northwest Point Immigration Detention Center was ready to accept up to 250 men transferred for medical treatment and can be quickly ramped up to accommodate 600.

"My attention here is to ensure that vexatious acts ... by those who would seek to game the system to come to Australia using these loopholes will think twice about it," Morrison told reporters.

Women will be transferred to a less secure facility on the island. Only 4 percent of asylum seekers on Nauru and Papua New Guinea are women, Immigration Minister David Coleman said.

Amnesty International's Australian refugee coordinator, Graham Thom, accused Morrison of attempting to mislead the public and demonizing refugees.

"It is clear there has been a shift in public attitude in supporting humane solutions for unwell refugees and it is extremely disappointing that instead of looking for genuine solutions Mr. Morrison continues to fear monger and use these individuals as political pawns," Thom said in a statement.

Jon Stanhope, who as Christmas Island's administrator from 2012 to 2014 was its most senior Australia-appointed bureaucrat, also disagreed with sending sick asylum seekers there. Stanhope is also a former lawmaker who opposes both the government and opposition's policy of refusing asylum seekers' entry to Australia which has been condemned by the United Nations.

"It's a very strange decision. I think it's a decision that was driven by politics and not practicalities," Stanhope told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Papua New Guinea only houses men. The last children on Nauru left with their families in December to make new homes in the United States. President Donald Trump agreed early in his presidency to accept up to 1,250 refugees from Papua New Guinea and Nauru after "extreme vetting." As of Wednesday, only 493 had been resettled in the United States, the Home Affairs Department said in an email.

The department also said it has identified 57 men on the islands as having "adverse character findings," and therefore are unwelcome in Australia.

The department confirmed media reports that they included an Iranian man allegedly charged with murder before reaching the camps, a Pakistani man accused of raping a child and a suspected Islamic extremist from Myanmar who transferred more than $700,000 from Nauru to Australia.
PARIS (AP) - The French government on Wednesday unveiled plans to slap a 3 percent tax on the French revenues of internet giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook.

The bill is an attempt to get around tax avoidance measures by multinationals, which pay most of their taxes in the EU country they are based in - often at very low rates. That effectively means the companies pay next to no tax in countries where they have large operations.

The tax will apply to digital companies that have global revenues of over 750 million euros ($848 million), and French revenue over 25 million euros. That will help protect startups, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in a news conference.

About 30 companies, mostly based from the U.S, but also from China and Europe, will be affected.

France is set to be the first European country to implement such a tax as the bill presented Wednesday in a cabinet meeting is likely to pass in the coming months in parliament, where French President Emmanuel Macron's party has a majority.

Le Maire estimated the tax will raise about 500 million euros ($566 million) a year this year but that should increase "quickly."

FILE - In this Jan.31, 2019 file photo, a trunk full of fake bank notes is displayed as activists from anti-globalization organisation Attac stage a protest at Google's Paris headquarters to criticize the company's tax evasion policies, in Paris. The French government is unveiling plans to slap a 3 percent tax on the French revenues of internet giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

He said the tax will not affect companies directly selling their own products online. It will mostly affect companies that use consumers' data to sell online advertising. It will also apply to online services companies like Airbnb and Uber.

"This is about justice," Le Maire said. "These digital giants use our personal data, make huge profits out of these data ... then transfer the money somewhere else without paying their fair amount of taxes."

Le Maire quoted figures from the European Commission, the EU executive body, showing that the major digital tech companies pay on average 14 percentage points less tax than other European companies.

France decided to implement the digital tax after a similar proposal at the European Union level failed to get unanimous support from member states.

Le Maire said he would now push for an international deal by the end of the year among the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based forum made up mostly of developed nations.

The Computer and Communications Industry Association criticized the French measure, saying it would ultimately lead to higher costs for French firms and consumers.

"So-called digital companies are, contrary to claims, not under-taxed and they should not be arbitrarily targeted," said CCIA Europe's vice president, Christian Borggreen.

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For all of AP's tech coverage, visit: https://apnews.com/apf-technology
TOKYO (AP) - The Latest on the release of former Nissan Motor Co. chairman Carlos Ghosn from the Tokyo Detention Center after he posted 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) bail (all times local):

6:30 a.m.

A French lawyer for former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has blamed his client's troubles on a "plot against him" within Nissan for trying to draw the Japanese automaker closer to French vehicle maker Renault.

Jean-Yves Le Borgne said in an interview on Wednesday that Ghosn, the former head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors alliance, fell into "a kind of trap."

Ghosn is out on bail from the Tokyo Detention Center. Le Borgne says he now is concerned with whether the defense will get access to all relevant documents, saying they could be key to proving Ghosn's innocence.

Ghosn was arrested on Nov. 19 and is charged with falsifying financial reports and breach of trust.

A car carrying a masked man, center, believed to be former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, leaves Tokyo's Detention Center in Tokyo, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Ghosn was released Wednesday after putting up 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) in bail.(Suo Takekuma/Kyodo News via AP)

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6:30 p.m.

France's finance minister says they decision to free Carlos Ghosn on bail will allow him to defend himself "freely and serenely."

At a news conference Wednesday, Bruno Le Maire said the former head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors alliance was entitled to the presumption of innocence. The auto executive is fighting breach of trust and other charges in Japan.

The French government owns about 15 percent of Renault SA, making it an influential voice in the future of the alliance. Le Maire said the "solidity" of that future was of tremendous importance.

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6:20 p.m.

Japan's Nippon Television Network has shown brief footage of Nissan Motor's former chairman Carlos Ghosn after his release on bail from the Tokyo Detention Center.

Ghosn could be clearly seen smiling after he got out of a van that carried him through the city and took off a surgical mask and cap he wore, apparently as a disguise, while leaving the facility Wednesday.

It was unclear where Ghosn left the van or where he would be staying after his release. He faces strict conditions for gaining release on bail, including camera surveillance and a promise not to use the internet.

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5:40 p.m.

A small van believed to be carrying Carlos Ghosn is making its way through the streets of Tokyo following the Nissan Motor chairman's release on bail.

A man who strongly resembled Ghosn was seen leaving in the silver van from the Tokyo Detention Center after he posted 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) bail. He was surrounded by security guards and was wearing a surgical mask, glasses, a hat and a construction worker's outfit.

The van had a ladder on top and was followed by ten motorcycles riding in formation. While the van, motorcycles and possibly other vehicles appeared to be traveling in a convoy, there was no obvious police presence and the vehicles stopped for traffic lights.

Aerial footage of the convoy was aired live by Japanese broadcasters.

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5 p.m.

Associated Press journalists have seen a man believed to be former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn leave the Tokyo Detention Center.

Ghosn was released Wednesday after putting up 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) in bail.

Surrounded by uniformed guards and wearing a face mask, hat, glasses and the clothing of a construction worker, he climbed into a white van and left the facility without making any comments.

He was arrested in November and is charged with falsifying financial reports and breach of trust.

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10:35 a.m.

Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn may leave detention as early as Wednesday, after a Tokyo court approved his release on 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) bail, rejecting an appeal by prosecutors.

He said in a statement, "I am innocent and totally committed to vigorously defending myself in a fair trial against these meritless and unsubstantiated accusations."

Ghosn's lawyer in Japan, Junichiro Hironaka, said the legal team offered conditions for his release, such as a surveillance camera at the doorway and a promise not to use the internet.

The former head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors alliance has been detained since November and is charged with falsifying financial reports and breach of trust.

Jean-Yves Le Borgne, Ghosn's French lawyer, cautioned that prosecutors still had leeway to file new charges.

A masked man, center, believed to be former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, center with blue cap, leaves Tokyo's Detention Center in Tokyo, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Ghosn was released Wednesday after putting up 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) in bail. (Yu Nakajima/Kyodo News via AP)

A masked man, center with blue cap, believed to be former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, walks out with security guards from Tokyo Detention Center in Tokyo Wednesday, March 6, 2019, after posting 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) in bail once an appeal by prosecutors against his release was rejected. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Stop coping with the energy vampire. The narcissist is a person who saps your energy and this is what you have to beware of.

It is often that we dont even know that we are in a narcissist empath relationship, and last week we spoke about waking up to the reality if you have a narcissist in your life. Thats the first step to getting out of the narcissist empath vicious cycle. Stop coping with the energy vampire in your life dear empath and get a life by recognising the signs that you are unknowingly accepting tantrums and constant demands from the narcissist. A child is made to believe they are wrong and made to suffer guilt by the manipulative behaviour of a narcissist. The narcissist spouse is manipulative by nature and behaves in a way where the empath feels that he/ she is responsible for all that is going wrong with the narcissist and in general. The know-it-all narcissist boss puts all the blame on the empath and feeds on the guilt and fear created as a result in the empath employee.

Narcissists are sensitive only for themselves and selfish by nature whereas empaths are sensitive to other people and very giving by nature. Id say the empath has to consciously work on themselves to train themselves to even give judiciously and in a premeditated manner. Quell the urge to be the giver at all times, learn to receive and be gracious about it. It is a drain to be the contributor to the relationship at all times, as you begin to feel used and exhausted.

An interesting technique I use, being a giving and sensitive person myself, is creating a protective light shield around me, from negative people and thoughts. Narcissists tend to suck energy and time. Once again Id say give and share carefully. Of your time and energy too, not only of material things. There are people you feel exuberant and vigorous around, while some deplete you. The narcissist especially is a person who saps your energy and this is what you have to beware of. If it is a close relative, spouse or boss whom you cannot quit, then spend minimum time with the energy vampire. Train yourself to be less vulnerable to such a person and work on other nurturing relationships.

Have you noticed that you sometimes get angry with people and things after an interaction with a narcissist? It is because you have absorbed negative energy and anger from them. Train yourself to identify the discomfiting anxiety and angst and purge these feelings before your next interaction. It is unfair to you, and other relationships in your life to carry forward the frustration and negative energy of the selfish narcissist to other avenues and relationships of your life.

A magic cure is when you spend time alone to recharge yourself or with nature. Silence and meditation is a sure shot way to heal and let go of a rancid relationships that sucks your soul. Start detaching, because that is an important part of growing out of the draining narcissist empath cycle, at least mentally and emotionally even if to do so physically may not be possible. Rumination, introspection and reconnecting with yourself is more important than connecting with the narcissist. When you find youve spent a large part of your life with a narcissist it is important to find you- youve lost yourself with the selfish demanding narcissist. Begin by knowing your own requirements, resist pandering to every plea of the person you have become used to pampering- whether it is the ego of that person or the wants.

For me what works is the ability to converse with oneself and hear oneself. Develop that dialogue with you to attune you to some of your own needs. Listen to yourself and use the energy shield method to hold off the flow of the negative denunciation by the Narcissist.

Growing out of a Narcissist Empath relationship is not easy and takes much self-control, training of the mind and is an exercise in personal growth and strengthening oneself. Being the giver is all very wonderful, but even giving and sharing must be for and with the right people.

The writer is columnist, designer & brand consultant.

Mail her at nishajamvwal@gmail.com
TOKYO (AP) - Wearing a mask, cap and what looked like a construction worker's outfit, the former chairman of Nissan Motor Co., Carlos Ghosn, left a Tokyo detention center Wednesday after posting 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) bail.

Although his face was obscured as he left the facility, Ghosn's identity was apparent as he smiled after arriving at a building in downtown Tokyo, having removed his jacket, mask and hat.

There was a scramble by media to follow Ghosn after he boarded a small Suzuki van, topped with a ladder, and traveled from the Tokyo Detention Center toward downtown. Motorcycles trailed the van in formation as it passed through city streets to one of the defense lawyer's offices. Ghosn later left in another car, which was mobbed by media.

Ghosn, the former head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors alliance was arrested on Nov. 19. He is charged with falsifying financial reports and with breach of trust.

The Tokyo District Court confirmed the 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) bail was posted earlier in the day, after a judge rejected an appeal from prosecutors requesting his continued detention. That cleared the way for Ghosn to leave the facility after spending nearly four months since his arrest.

Before his release, Ghosn, who turns 65 on Saturday, issued a statement reasserting his innocence.

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, front, travels in a car Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Tokyo, after posting 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) in bail once an appeal by prosecutors against his release was rejected. Ghosn was arrested in November and is charged with falsifying financial reports and breach of trust. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

"I am innocent and totally committed to vigorously defending myself in a fair trial against these meritless and unsubstantiated accusations," he said.

A date for his trial has not yet been set.

Suspects in Japan often are detained for months, especially those who insist on their innocence, like Ghosn. Some legal experts, including Junichiro Hironaka, one of his lawyers, have criticized the system as "hostage justice," saying the long detentions tend to encourage false confessions.

Ghosn's lawyer in France, Jean-Yves Le Borgne, said the lawyers in Japan will be leading the defense but he was in touch with them.

"He is catching his breath and settling in," Le Borgne said of Ghosn.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said a presumption of innocence for Ghosn was crucial, while noting the importance to France of the alliance between Nissan and French automaker Renault SA.

"It is a good thing that Carlos Ghosn can defend himself freely and serenely, and his release will permit Carlos Ghosn to defend himself freely and serenely," he said.

The French government owns about 15 percent of Renault SA, making it an influential voice in the future of the alliance. Le Maire said the "solidity" of that future was of tremendous importance.

Hironaka said his legal team had offered new conditions for his release, such as installing a surveillance camera at his doorway and promising not to use the internet. He is allowed to make voice calls, but not to travel abroad.

Prosecutors contend that suspects may tamper with evidence and shouldn't be released. Two of Ghosn's earlier requests to be released on bail were rejected.

Some critics of Japan's legal system hope that Ghosn's release, so many weeks before preparations for his trial are ready, may set a precedent and help bring about change.

Ghosn says he did not falsify financial reports because the compensation he is alleged to have under-reported was never paid or decided upon. The breach of trust allegations center on a temporary transfer of Ghosn's investment losses to Nissan's books that he says caused no losses to the automaker. The charge also points to payments to a Saudi businessman that he says were for legitimate services.

Nissan declined comment on the criminal case against Ghosn but said an internal investigation had found unethical conduct. Nissan has dismissed Ghosn as chairman, although he remains on the board pending a decision at a shareholders' meeting.

Ghosn's family has said that he has lost weight while in detention, and he looked thinner in his court appearance. Hironaka has said he is in good spirits. Ghosn thanked his family and friends, who, he said, "stood by me throughout this terrible ordeal."

___

Associated Press Correspondent in Paris Sylvie Corbet contributed to this report.

She is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sylviecorbet?lang=en

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/yurikageyama/?hl=en

A masked man, center, believed to be former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, center with blue cap, leaves Tokyo's Detention Center in Tokyo, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Ghosn was released Wednesday after putting up 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) in bail. (Yu Nakajima/Kyodo News via AP)

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn rides in a car from a building Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Tokyo, after posting 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) in bail once an appeal by prosecutors against his release was rejected. Ghosn was arrested in November and is charged with falsifying financial reports and breach of trust. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, front, travels in a car Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Tokyo, after posting 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) in bail once an appeal by prosecutors against his release was rejected. Ghosn was arrested in November and is charged with falsifying financial reports and breach of trust. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
VICTORIA, Seychelles (AP) - Bad weather and high seas brought scientists on Wednesday to change the first stop of a unique mission to explore the depths of the Indian Ocean, one of the planet's last great unexplored frontiers. While the initial path of the exploration has changed, the scientists intend to fully explore the deep seas around the Seychelles. Here's a look at what the Nekton Mission hopes to achieve and why the people of the Seychelles, the first stop on this three-year expedition, are excited about its launch.

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WHO'S ON BOARD?

The expedition is led by the Britain-based Nekton, an independent, non-profit research institute that works with the University of Oxford to increase scientific understanding of the oceans. It has chartered the Ocean Zephyr, a Danish-flagged supply ship, to explore the waters around the Seychelles, a collection of islands about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) east of the African coast, over a seven-week period.

This is the first of a half-dozen regions the Nekton Mission plans to explore before the end of 2022, when scientists will present their research at a summit on the state of the Indian Ocean.

Along with 18 crew members there are 33 scientists, technicians and reporters on board.

Principal scientist, Lucy Woodall, carefully analyses the weather forecast for the planned dive site in the low-lying Farquhar Islands, in the Seychelles, Wednesday March 6, 2019. Brewing bad weather in that area forced the British-based Nekton mission to change course, fearing weather conditions would be too poor to carry out their research, and head instead towards the tiny atoll of Alphonse that offers better protection. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

The Associated Press is accompanying the expedition and will provide live underwater video from the dives, using new optical transmission technology to send footage from the submarines to the ship and from there, by satellite, to the world.

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WHERE ARE THEY GOING?

Researchers started by heading to the Farquhar Atoll, a group of islands about 770 kilometers (480 miles) southwest of the Seychelles capital, Victoria.

But brewing bad weather the mission to change course on Wednesday because it feared conditions would be too difficult to carry out its work.

The leaders of the mission, which is British-led and includes Seychellois scientists on board, spent hours studying weather reports which were slow to come in to their ship, the Ocean Zephyr, due to difficulties accessing the internet.

A strong swell and high winds made it impossible for the team to safely launch and recover the crewed submersibles that will carry out the explorations.

With building storm activity close to their first chosen location, the low-lying Farquhar Islands, the team decided to head instead to the tiny atoll of Alphonse, the above-water tip of an underwater mountain, or sea mount, surrounded by seas thousands of meters (feet) deep.

"It's no good sticking to a rigid plan if we have a storm coming through and we are going to sit around and do nothing for a few days," Nekton's principal scientist, Lucy Woodall, told The Associated Press.

Further stops include Aldabra, a coral atoll that's home to a large population of giant tortoises and other vulnerable species.

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WHAT DO THEY HOPE TO FIND?

Scientists will survey underwater life by diving into the "twilight zone" below depths of 30 meters (98 feet) that the tropical sun barely reaches. Using two crewed submarines and a remotely operated submersible they'll be able to document organisms and habitats up to 500 meters (1,640 feet) deep, while sensors will offer a glimpse of depths of up to 2,000 meters (6,560 feet).

Little is known about this watery world. Yet what happens beneath the waves could affect the lives of billions of people who live along the Indian Ocean's shores in Africa and Asia.

Already, rising water temperatures are bleaching coral reefs, with potentially serious consequences for other organisms.

By conducting at least 50 "first descents" to map the depths around the Seychelles, scientists hope to better understand the marine ecosystem and the way this vast body of water is changing due to global warming.

"If you save the islands, you save everybody," Ronny Jumeau, Seychelles' ambassador to the United Nations, told the AP in explaining the importance of countering climate change. "If the islands go, every port city, major port city, will go. Every beach in the world will go, every river estuary will go. Every delta, the Nile Delta, the Mekong Delta, you name it."

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WHY THE EXCITEMENT?

The Nekton Mission has become the talk of the Seychelles, a nation of fewer than 100,000 people, since the Ocean Zephyr's arrival last week.

President Danny Faure visited the ship last week, calling the expedition "a historical moment" for the nation. "The scientific community, the academia, the children around the world in schools, they see what's happening" to the climate, he said. "Why can't other governments see this? Are they blind?"

The Seychelles government is developing what it calls a "Blue Economy" centered on the sustainable exploitation of ocean resources. So far the country has protected 15 percent of its ocean territory and has pledged to increase that to 30 percent by 2020.

Michelle Murray, chief executive of the Seychelles-based Island Conservation Society, called the expedition a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"We're the first to feel the true impact of sea level rise," she said. "Climate change poses the biggest threat to our survival, to our existence as a nation."

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Link: https://nektonmission.org/mission-ii

A navigation chart shows the low-lying islands of Farquhar where the British-based Nekton mission had planned to begin its seven-week long science expedition. Brewing bad weather in that area forced the British-based Nekton mission to change course, fearing weather conditions would be too poor to carry out their research, and head instead towards the tiny atoll of Alphonse that offers better protection. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

Technicians conduct maintenance on the Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) as the British-based Nekton Mission sails to a dive site in the Seychelles on Wednesday March 6, 2019. The science expedition will explore the Indian Ocean, during which researchers hope to document changes taking place beneath the waves that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

A submarine launched from the Ocean Zephyr is tested off the coast of Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles on Tuesday March 5, 2019. The British-based Nekton mission will explore the Indian Ocean, during which scientists hope to document changes taking place beneath the waves that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

The research vessel Ocean Zephyr lays off Victoria, the Seychelles, on Friday March 1, 2019, where it will spend several days loading and testing equipment ahead of a weeks-long expedition to explore the depths of the Indian Ocean. The Ocean Zephyr is the mothership of the British-based Nekton Mission for scientists to document the impact of global warming in the unexplored frontier of the Indian Ocean that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades. (AP Photo/Steve Barker)

Researchers conducted the first sea tests of a submersible crucial to the British-based Nekton Mission which will explore the Indian Ocean during a seven-week long science expedition. The submarine was launched from the Ocean Zephyr off the coast of Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles on Tuesday March 5, 2019. The mission will explore the Indian Ocean, during which scientists hope to document changes taking place beneath the waves that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

Oliver Steeds, Nekton Mission Director, left, and Seychelles President Danny Faure, listen to speeches at the official launch ceremony of the Nekton mission onboard the Ocean Zephyr docked at Victoria, Seychelles, Friday March 1, 2019. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

A submarine is launched from the Ocean Zephyr off the coast of Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles on Tuesday March 5, 2019. Scientists are about to set off on a mission to explore the depths of the Indian Ocean, one of the planet's last great unexplored frontiers. The mission will explore the Indian Ocean, during which scientists hope to document changes taking place beneath the waves that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

The research vessel Ocean Zephyr docked in Victoria, the Seychelles, on Friday March 1, 2019, where it will spend several days loading and testing equipment ahead of a weeks-long expedition to explore the depths of the Indian Ocean. The Ocean Zephyr is the mothership of the British-based Nekton Mission for scientists to document the impact of global warming in the unexplored frontier of the Indian Ocean that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades. (AP Photo/Steve Barker)

The sun sets over a small bay with fishing and pleasure crafts at anchor, taken on Mahe island, Seychelles, Friday March 1, 2019. After months of preparation, scientists are about to set off on a mission to explore the depths of the Indian Ocean, one of the planet's last great unexplored frontiers. Here's a look at what the Nekton Mission hopes to achieve and why the people of the Seychelles, the first stop on this three-year expedition, are excited about its launch. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

Submarine and video experts onboard the Ocean Zephyr test the video link transmissions that will enable untethered live video news broadcasts with a submarine, Monday March 4, 2019. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

Researchers conducted the first sea tests of a submersible crucial to the British-based Nekton Mission which will explore the Indian Ocean during a seven-week long science expedition. The submarine was launched from the Ocean Zephyr off the coast of Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles on Tuesday March 5, 2019. The mission will explore the Indian Ocean, during which scientists hope to document changes taking place beneath the waves that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

Footprints in the sand, taken on a beach on Mahe island, Seychelles, Friday March 1, 2019. After months of preparation, scientists are about to set off on a mission to explore the depths of the Indian Ocean, one of the planet's last great unexplored frontiers. Here's a look at what the Nekton Mission hopes to achieve and why the people of the Seychelles, the first stop on this three-year expedition, are excited about its launch. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

Nekton Mission Director, Oliver Steeds, runs across the deck of the Ocean Zephyr, Monday March 4, 2019, during a rainstorm that momentarily paused preparations for the 7-week long expedition. After months of preparation, scientists are about to set off on a mission to explore the depths of the Indian Ocean, one of the planet's last great unexplored frontiers. Here's a look at what the Nekton Mission hopes to achieve and why the people of the Seychelles, the first stop on this three-year expedition, are excited about its launch. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

Technicians prepare small two-man submarines onboard the Ocean Zephyr for the first sea tests, Monday March 4, 2019. The two submarines will assist British-based Nekton Mission to explore the Indian Ocean, during which scientists hope to document changes taking place beneath the waves that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

Oliver Steeds, Nekton Mission Director introduces to Seychelles President Danny Faure the submersible technology that will be used during the Nekton mission, Seychelles, Friday March 1, 2019. After months of preparation, scientists are about to set off on a mission to explore the depths of the Indian Ocean, one of the planet's last great unexplored frontiers. Here's a look at what the Nekton Mission hopes to achieve and why the people of the Seychelles, the first stop on this three-year expedition, are excited about its launch. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

Oxford University researcher, Denise Swanborn, tests a microscope in a laboratory onboard the Ocean Zephyr, the mothership of the British-based Nekton Mission on Tuesday March 5, 2019. Scientists are about to set off on a mission to explore the depths of the Indian Ocean, one of the planet's last great unexplored frontiers. The mission will explore the Indian Ocean, during which scientists hope to document changes taking place beneath the waves that could affect billions of people in the surrounding region over the coming decades. (AP Photo/David Keyton)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Hundreds of air passengers were stranded Wednesday in Kenya because of a strike at Nairobi's international airport by the Kenya Aviation Workers Union.

Police violently dispersed striking workers who attempted to protest at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

The labor court suspended the strike until a petition by a local airline opposing the strike is heard Thursday.

James Kariuki, the transport minister, said the strike was illegal because the government got court orders Tuesday barring the union from proceeding with it.

Kenya's military took over screening and security services at the airport following the strike.

The union said in a statement that the strike was over the proposed takeover of the Kenya Airport Authority, that runs airports, by the country's loss-making airline, Kenya Airways. It demanded the removal of the top management of Kenya Airways and the Kenya Airport Authority.

Stranded passengers wait for their delayed flights out of JKIA airport in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Some hundreds of air passengers were stranded Wednesday in Kenya because of a strike at Nairobi's international airport by the Kenya Aviation Workers Union.(AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

Kenya Airports Authority said flight operations at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport are steadily normalizing.

"All scheduled arrivals have been processed and the backlog of departures arising from this morning's disruptions has been substantively cleared," said a statement from the authority.

Kenya Airways Managing Director Sebastian Mikosz said 24 flights had been delayed and two flights had been diverted elsewhere because of the strike.

"The so called morning wave (of flights) was disrupted," he said. He said international flights will be delayed but would take off. He said the logistical challenge had been to check in passengers and screen them properly.

"The process is slow but improving every minute," he said.

Wyne Winters an American national stranded at the airport said it was " a little bit frustrating".

" I wish the airport officials would come out and give us more information about how long we are going to wait or where we should wait. Because right now it is everybody pushing past everybody else,"

Kenya's parliamentary Public Investment Committee is investigating the deal which the government claims is necessary to reduce the loss of market share to competitors such as Ethiopian Airlines.

Passengers stranded after their flights are delayed out of JKIA airport in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Some hundreds of air passengers were stranded Wednesday in Kenya because of a strike at Nairobi's international airport by the Kenya Aviation Workers Union.(AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

Stranded passengers wait for their flights out of JKIA airport in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Some hundreds of air passengers were stranded Wednesday in Kenya because of a strike at Nairobi's international airport by the Kenya Aviation Workers Union.(AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

Stranded passengers wait for flights out of JKIA airport in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Some hundreds of air passengers were stranded Wednesday in Kenya because of a strike at Nairobi's international airport by the Kenya Aviation Workers Union.(AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

Stranded passengers waiting for their flights out of JKIA airport in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Some hundreds of air passengers were stranded Wednesday in Kenya because of a strike at Nairobi's international airport by the Kenya Aviation Workers Union.(AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

passengers rest after their flights were delayed out of JKIA airport in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Some hundreds of air passengers were stranded Wednesday in Kenya because of a strike at Nairobi's international airport by the Kenya Aviation Workers Union.(AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

Passengers wait for their flights out of JKIA airport in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Some hundreds of air passengers were stranded Wednesday in Kenya because of a strike at Nairobi's international airport by the Kenya Aviation Workers Union.(AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)
ISLAMABAD (AP) - The intense search for two European climbers who went missing over a week ago in bad weather on the world's ninth-highest mountain in Pakistan was called off on Wednesday, after a Spanish-Pakistani search team lost hope of finding any trace of the pair.

Karrar Haidri, the secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, told The Associated Press that it was not an easy but "a very painful decision" to take after the rescuers tried everything they could - including flying out drones - to find the two.

Earlier in the day, hopes had started fading for finding Italian Daniele Nardi and Briton Tom Ballard, missing for over a week on Nanga Parbat, known as "Killer Mountain" because of its dangerous conditions.

Nardi, 42, from near Rome, had attempted the Nanga Parbat summit in winter several times in the past. Ballard, 30, also a skilled climber, in 2015 became the first person to solo climb all six major north faces of the Alps in one winter.

The two set out on Feb. 22, making it to the fourth base camp the following day. The pair last made contact on Feb. 24 from an elevation of some 6,300 meters (nearly 20,700 feet) on Nanga Parbat.

Haidri said the search team, headed by Spaniard Alex Txikon and experienced Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara familiar with the peak, went on foot and used drones to search for the climbers.

FILE - In this undated file photo, the snow-capped mountain of Nanga Parbat is seen in northern Pakistan. A Pakistani mountaineering official says military helicopters could not drop off four Spanish rescuers to search for a missing pair of European climbers because of heavy snowing. (AP Photo/Musaf Zaman Kazmi, File)

After the search was called off, the rescuers were awaiting for a Pakistani military helicopter to take them back to the northern town of Skardu, where the search mission had set out from.

Ballard's disappearance on the peak of 8,126 meters (26,660 feet) has hit Scotland particularly hard because he is the son of Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to scale Mount Everest alone. Ballard was born in England and grew up in the Scottish Highlands.

Hargreaves died at age 33 while descending the summit of K2, which is part of the Karakoram range on the border of Pakistan, India and China. The Karakoram range is among a complex of ranges including the Himalayas.

Before the search ended, Italian Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo had tweeted about it and shared photos of the snow-covered mountain. Heavy snowfall over recent days had raised fears that the climbers might have perished.

Bad weather last week twice forced the search teams to halt the operation but Pakistani military helicopters flew even after Pakistan shut its airspace over an escalation with neighboring India over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Haidri had earlier said that "prayers are needed for the climbers".

Karrar Haidri, secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan shows pictures of two missing climbers, Briton Tom Ballard, right, and Italian Daniele Nardi in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, March 4, 2019. Pakistani military helicopters took off Monday with four Spanish rescuers to search for a missing pair of European climbers on Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth highest mountain. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

Italian ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo talks to The Associated Press in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, March 4, 2019, the climbers are "two tough guys" and he hopes they can be found alive. "It's been a week," he said. "There are known cases of mountaineers who had survived for longer than that." But he acknowledged that the summit is a "very difficult" one. Pakistani army helicopters that had earlier been grounded by foul weather scoured the peaks of Nanga Parbat for signs of Italian Daniele Nardi and Scotsman Tom Ballard, who have been missing for a week on the summit known as "Killer Mountain." (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's president said on Wednesday that there was no chance of negotiations or compromise with the United States, allegedly because Washington is seeking to topple the government in Tehran.

In a televised speech, Hassan Rouhani said "the United States says Iran should change" back to the way the country was before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when it was ruled by a U.S.-supported monarchy.

"We say we won't go back," Rouhani said at a gathering in the northern city of Lahijan.

He said the differences between Iran and the U.S. are so wide, they are "neither negotiable nor can there be a compromise."

The Trump administration has taken a hard line on Iran but insists the U.S. is not trying to overthrow the government.

However, tensions between the two countries have been heightened after Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal last year and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, which have particularly hurt Iran's vital oil industry.

In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani gestures to the crowd of supporters during a public meeting in northern city of Lahijan, Iran, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Rouhani says there's no chance of negotiations or compromise with the United States, because Washington allegedly is seeking to topple the government in Tehran. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

Rouhani said his country is in an economic war because of these U.S. sanctions, and that giving in to U.S. demands means "losing all historical achievements" including freedom, independence and democracy.

"We should push the enemy back," he said.

The U.S. says it wants Iran to radically change its policy and stop supporting regional militant groups, such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas, as well as halt its development of long-range ballistic missiles.
BERLIN (AP) - In less than a month the United Kingdom could leave the European Union, but more than a million British nationals will remain there - unwilling to let Brexit force them from the lives they've built on the continent.

The U.K. Parliament's refusal so far to sign off on the withdrawal agreement negotiated with the bloc is raising the prospect of a disorderly divorce that could hit Britons abroad particularly hard, abruptly nixing the benefits they've enjoyed as EU citizens over the past 46 years.

"Many people could be left in limbo," said Jane Golding, chair of the group British in Europe that's been campaigning for U.K. citizens' rights in the EU after Brexit.

Just how stranded they are depends upon their personal circumstances and which of the 27 remaining EU countries they live in, Golding said.

Several governments, including France, Spain, Poland and Germany, are preparing legal safety nets for British migrants in the event of a 'no deal' Brexit.

But British retirees still have no certainty that their pensions will be safe; professional qualifications for doctors, teachers and architects may not be recognized; mutual health insurance agreements could be frozen; and Britons applying for jobs in the EU are being told their applications stand little chance until post-Brexit arrangements are sorted out.

FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019, file photo, the British flag, hanging at the British embassy, is reflected in a puddle in Berlin, Germany. The embassy will be the first point of contact for the about 18.000 Brits living in Berlin if Britain leaves the European Union. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, file)

For some of the estimated 1.3 million British citizens on the continent, the realization is slowly dawning that it's time to act.

"You have people who are already really, really anxious and depressed over all of this," Golding told The Associated Press. "But you also have a group of people who have been hoping it would all be all right in the end. As 'no deal' becomes more of a possibility there'll be fewer people with their heads in the sand."

On a wet and windy Monday night this week, hundreds of Britons - some clutching their burgundy-colored EU passports - streamed into Berlin's city hall hoping for certainty from German and British officials about the bureaucratic requirements for staying after Brexit.

Joshua Spriggs, an actor and voiceover artist who attended with two friends, said many people have been left confused by what they've been told on social media sites such as Reddit and Facebook - or by their own embassy.

"It's really hard to get clear information," Spriggs said after the event. "I've got more questions answered here than I have from the U.K."

Authorities in the German capital have been urging Brits to register by March 29, the day Britain is due to leave the EU.

"That's the only way they can be sure not to suffer any legal disadvantages when Brexit happens, whether it's a deal or a no-deal scenario," said Engelhard Mazanke, who heads the office that processes residency permits for foreigners in Berlin.

So far, only about 7,000 of the 18,000 U.K. nationals in Berlin have signed up, he said. Those who don't register could end up having to leave the country after a three-month grace period in July. Even those who apply may have to wait until November for a residency permit, leaving them potentially unable to travel outside Germany for several months.

Mazanke said authorities are hoping to avoid this, but much depends on whether London approves the withdrawal agreement it negotiated with Brussels last year. The lack of legal certainty for an estimated 3 million EU citizens living in Britain in case of a 'no deal' Brexit has many EU governments wary of making formal commitments.

Despite EU frustration over the U.K. government's stance, there's sympathy toward British migrants on the continent.

Lynn Nothegger, a freelance copywriter who lives in the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg, had the automatic right to live and work anywhere in the European Union when she moved to Germany from Scotland more than 20 years ago.

The narrow decision, in a 2016 referendum, for Britain to leave the 28-nation bloc meant she faced the prospect of being treated like a third-country national after Brexit.

In a move uncharacteristic of German bureaucracy, city officials gave Nothegger their direct number and offered to help wherever possible when she recently applied for German citizenship - a process complicated by the fact that her time in the country was interrupted by lengthy stays abroad.

"They're following the letter of the law, but they're really doing what they can to help," she told the AP in a telephone interview.

Nothegger said her positive experience may be partly due to the fact that she's a fellow European, speaks fluent German with a local Bavarian dialect and is as perplexed by Brexit as her case workers.

"There's no feeling of schadenfreude or anything," she said. "It's really just great sympathy for the British people who have been led down this path."

Mazanke, the immigration official, said Berlin is glad to help anyone who's made their home in the city and contributes to its prosperity and growth. "That includes a lot of British people," he said. "We want to help them as best as possible and we're happy about every Briton who stays."

FILE - In this Friday, June 24, 2016, file photo a cyclist waves as people pass the British embassy in Berlin. The embassy will be the first point of contact for the about 18.000 Brits living in Berlin if Britain leaves the European Union. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)
SRINAGAR, India (AP) - Indian and Pakistani soldiers shelled military outposts and villages along their highly militarized frontier in disputed Kashmir on Wednesday, in an outbreak of new violence despite stepped-up diplomatic efforts by the rival countries to ease tensions.

The two armies accused each other of initiating the artillery and mortar fire and small-arms gunfire. No casualties were immediately reported.

Tensions have been high since Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan last week, carrying out what India called a pre-emptive strike against militants blamed for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops.

Pakistan retaliated, shooting down two Indian planes and capturing a pilot, who was later returned to India in a peace gesture. The two countries have also resumed bus and train services that were stopped following the escalation of tensions, the most serious in the long-simmering conflict since 1999, when Pakistan's military sent a ground force into Indian-controlled Kashmir.

In another effort aimed at easing tension with India, Pakistan on Tuesday arrested dozens of people including the brother of the leader of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group, which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Kashmir.

Among the detainees were Mufti Abdul Rauf and Hammad Azhar, two prominent members of the group who were on a list of suspects given by India to Pakistan over the weekend.

A Pakistani police officer stands guard outside a mosque belonging to a banned religious group in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Pakistan on Wednesday continued a crackdown on seminaries, mosques and hospitals belonging to outlawed groups, saying the actions were part of the government efforts aimed at fighting terrorism, extremism and militancy. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Pakistan on Wednesday continued a crackdown on seminaries, mosques and hospitals belonging to outlawed groups, saying the actions were part of its efforts to fight terrorism, extremism and militancy. In Islamabad, authorities also took control of a mosque and dispensary run by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity run by an anti-India cleric, Hafiz Saeed, that is widely believed to serve as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group blamed for attacks in Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people.

In Pakistan, foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said its ambassador to India was returning to New Delhi and a Pakistani delegation will also travel to India on March 14 for talks on opening the first visa-free border crossing between the nations, a corridor that will allow Sikh pilgrims to easily visit their shrines on each side of the border.

India's foreign ministry also confirmed the talks.

"Tension has eased because of our successful diplomacy," said Qureshi, who led diplomatic efforts in recent weeks to muster the support of the international community to prevent a possible war with India. He said Washington, Beijing, Moscow and several Muslim countries played a significant role in easing tensions.

"We appreciate the role of the United States in de-escalating the situation," he told reporters in the capital, Islamabad.

However, border tensions continued.

The new violence flared up at several places along the Line of Control that divides the Himalayan territory of Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Both of the nuclear-armed rivals claim the entire territory.

Both sides accused the other of violating a 2003-cease-fire accord and said their soldiers retaliated "befittingly and effectively."

Tens of thousands of people live in rugged, mountainous and lush green-forested areas along the frontier on both sides of divided Kashmir despite a climate of constant fear. Each year cycles of border violence break out between the two countries. Hundreds of civilians have died in the skirmishes, which have also killed livestock and damaged property.

The high tensions last week displaced hundreds of villagers on both sides. Many are still living in government-run shelters or with relatives and friends in safer places.

Sitting outside one shelter in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, Mohammad Lateef, 42, said he had to leave his village near the Line of Control when Indian mortar shells began landing. "Our homes were destroyed in a 2005 earthquake and since then we have been living in tin-roof sheds," he said. "We are poor people. We don't have enough money to run our kitchen. How can we build bunkers to protect ourselves from Indian firing?"

Another resident, Rubina Bibi, 32, said she wants peace "so that we can live without leaving our own villages" in Kashmir. "Give us peace and we will want nothing else," she said.

In Indian-administered Kashmir, the situation was no different.

"We have seen these cycles of violence. They grab each other to kill and then they grab each other to hug," said Shafaat Ali, a resident of the Poonch frontier area. "Even if tensions between the two countries ease and they resume all relations as normal, our lives still remain under stress."

Nusrat Bano, a resident of the Mendhar area who has taken shelter with her relatives for about two weeks, said border residents know the real meaning of peace. "Peace is good, very good. Who would say it's not. But let there be peace in our lives too, in our homes too."

India accuses Pakistan of training, arming and sheltering rebels who began fighting Indian forces in 1989. Pakistan denies the allegation, saying it only offers moral support to Kashmiris seeking the right to self-determination for the entire territory.

Most Kashmiris support the rebels' goal of uniting Kashmir either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control. About 70,000 people have died in the conflict since 1989.

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Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Roshan Mughal in Muzafarabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

A Pakistani cameraman films a school and dispensary sealed by authorities beside a mosque belong to a banned religious group, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Pakistan on Wednesday continued a crackdown on seminaries, mosques and hospitals belonging to outlawed groups, saying the actions were part of the government efforts aimed at fighting terrorism, extremism and militancy. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
LONDON (AP) - The European Union said Wednesday that "difficult" talks with Britain have failed to break the Brexit deadlock, less than a week before U.K. lawmakers are due to approve or reject the government's divorce deal with the bloc.

Britain's chief law officer claimed the two sides were holding "robust" discussions on new British proposals.

As Britain lurches toward an EU exit due in just over three weeks, EU Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said that "while the talks take place in a constructive atmosphere, discussions have been difficult."

"No solution has been identified at this point," he said.

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said a meeting Tuesday with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier had been "robust" - often a code-word for fraught with disagreement.

"These are very sensitive discussions. We're into the meat of the matter now," Cox told Sky News. "We have put forward some proposals - very reasonable proposals - and we're now really into the detail of the discussions."

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers' Questions session, in parliament in London, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Britain's chief law officer said Wednesday that Brexit negotiations with the European Union had got to "the meat of the matter," after Northern Ireland's top civil servant warned that a disorderly U.K. exit could destabilize both the economy and the peace process. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

As he arrived back in London, Cox said the two sides would be "resuming talks soon."

Britain is due to leave the bloc on March 29. But the U.K. Parliament has so far rejected a divorce deal laying out the terms of an orderly departure and a transition period for businesses to adjust to new trade rules.

British concerns center on a provision designed to keep an open border between the U.K.'s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. The mechanism, known as the backstop, is a safeguard that would keep the U.K. in a customs union with the other 27 EU countries in order to remove the need for checks until a permanent new trading relationship is in place.

Brexit-supporting lawmakers in the U.K. fear the backstop could be used to bind Britain to EU regulations indefinitely, and Prime Minister Theresa May wants to revise the deal to reassure opponents that it would only apply temporarily.

EU leaders insist that the legally binding Brexit withdrawal agreement can't be reopened, and talks are focusing on drafting an addendum or other additional words.

May has said she will bring the deal back to Parliament - with any changes she has secured - by Tuesday. If it is rejected again, lawmakers will vote on whether to leave the EU without an agreement or seek to delay Brexit.

May opposes the idea of postponing Britain's EU exit, but has not said whether she and her government would vote instead to crash out of the bloc without a deal.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said Wednesday that leaving without a deal was "hugely sub-optimal, compared to getting a deal." But he said "potentially all things are possible" in next week's votes.

U.K. businesses overwhelmingly oppose a "no-deal" exit, which would impose tariffs and other barriers between Britain and the EU, its biggest trading partner. It could also destabilize Northern Ireland's peace process, which has come to rely on free movement of people and goods across an open border.

Northern Ireland civil service chief David Sterling warned that "there is currently no mitigation available for the severe consequences of a no-deal outcome," including a sharp increase in unemployment and an exodus of businesses to the Republic of Ireland.

"The consequences of material business failure as a result of a 'no-deal' exit, combined with changes to everyday life and potential border frictions could well have a profound and long-lasting impact on society," Sterling said in a letter to Northern Ireland political leaders.

Sammy Wilson, a lawmaker for Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, accused Sterling of having "a political motive" and called his letter "a scare tactic."

The Protestant Unionist DUP is strongly opposed to the backstop, saying it will force checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. The party's 10 lawmakers prop up May's minority government in the House of Commons.

"I don't care if he's head of the civil service or Santa Claus, it really doesn't matter, the fact of the matter is, he's got it wrong," Wilson said.

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Casert reported from Brussels.

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Follow AP's full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers' Questions session, in parliament in London, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Britain's chief law officer said Wednesday that Brexit negotiations with the European Union had got to "the meat of the matter," after Northern Ireland's top civil servant warned that a disorderly U.K. exit could destabilize both the economy and the peace process. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Steve Bray, a protestor who supports Britain remaining in the European Union and has been demonstrating across the street from the Houses of Parliament in London for more than 18 months, holds up a new placard he and other protestors made this morning, Tuesday, March 5, 2019. The U.K. government agreed Friday to pay 33 million pounds ($43 million) to settle a lawsuit that claimed it improperly awarded contracts to run extra ferry services in the event that Britain leaves the European Union without an agreement on future relations. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

A Scottish flag, center bottom, is held up alongside European flags by protestors who support Britain remaining in the European Union across the street from the Houses of Parliament in London, Tuesday, March 5, 2019. The Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales are both due to vote later Tuesday on motions declaring opposition to British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal and declare their opposition a no-deal Brexit. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Protestors demonstrate in front of the Houses of Parliament in London, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Britain's chief law officer said Wednesday that Brexit negotiations with the European Union had got to "the meat of the matter," after Northern Ireland's top civil servant warned that a disorderly U.K. exit could destabilize both the economy and the peace process. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Protestors react as they demonstrate in front of the Houses of Parliament in London, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Britain's chief law officer said Wednesday that Brexit negotiations with the European Union had got to "the meat of the matter," after Northern Ireland's top civil servant warned that a disorderly U.K. exit could destabilize both the economy and the peace process. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
PARIS (AP) - Guards blocked entrances at as many as 18 French prisons after two colleagues were stabbed by a radicalized inmate.

In a statement, the main CGT union said attacks against guards are becoming more common and intolerable, and that the penal population was becoming "increasingly vindictive, aggressive and violent."

Early Wednesday, a total of 18 prisons had been blocked. That had reduced to 10 by mid-morning.

The protest comes a day the guards were stabbed with a ceramic knife by a prisoner, whose wife was visiting. He locked himself in the room afterwards but no hostages were taken.

The inmate and his wife were subdued in a police raid. The Le Monde newspaper reported that the wife died of her wounds.

French officials described the stabbing as a "terrorist attack."

Prison guards strike with a banner reading "Do we need a death to get indignant" at the Baumettes prison in Marseille, southern France, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Guards at as many as 18 French prisons blocked the entries in protest after a radicalized inmate stabbed two of their colleagues. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)

Prison guards strike with unions flags at the Baumettes prison in Marseille, southern France, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Guards at as many as 18 French prisons blocked the entries in protest after a radicalized inmate stabbed two of their colleagues. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)

Prison guards strike with unions flags at the Baumettes prison in Marseille, southern France, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Guards at as many as 18 French prisons blocked the entries in protest after a radicalized inmate stabbed two of their colleagues. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)
GENEVA (AP) - The U.N. human rights chief is expressing disappointment with Israel over its "immediate dismissal" of a report about deadly violence by Israel security forces against protesters in Gaza last year.

Wednesday's comments from Michelle Bachelet, a former Chilean president, came during her first annual address to the Human Rights Council since becoming the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in September.

She lamented that Israel responded to a report published Monday on the Gaza violence "without addressing any of the serious issues raised."

The report commissioned by the council found Israeli soldiers intentionally fired on civilians and could have committed crimes against humanity in crackdowns that killed 189 people and left 6,000 hurt by sniper fire.

Bachelet made "gross inequalities" in the world a major theme in her speech.
It will be a unique mobility card in the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted.

Nagpur: The metro railway network in the country, which was just 250 km long in 2014, has now grown to 650 km in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed on Thursday. Inaugurating the first phase of the Nagpur metro railway, Prime Minister Modi flagged off the inaugural run of the 13.5 km from Khapri to Sitabuldi route via video link in the presence of Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister for transport, shipping and Ganga rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari.

Prime Minister Modi said that under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, the work of laying about 800 km of metro rail lines was in progress in various parts of the country. He said that as part of the governments innovative concept, a common mobility card was being introduced which could be used in multiple transport system.

The card would also work as a debit and credit card and would also be merged with the Rupay bank card. It will be a unique mobility card in the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted.

The holder of the mobility card can travel by Delhi metro or any metro rail across the entire country. The concept is one nation one card for travel and other facilities.
CAIRO (AP) - Five more people were arrested in relation to a deadly locomotive crash last week at the Egyptian capital's main railway station that killed at least 25 people and led to the transportation minister's resignation, authorities said.

In all, 11 people have been detained in relation to the Feb. 27 crash, which injured at least 47 others when an unmanned locomotive slammed into a barrier inside Cairo's busy Ramses station, triggering a huge explosion and fire. Authorities had previously ruled out terrorism.

The detainees face charges of manslaughter and damaging public property, Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek said in a statement late Tuesday. Thirty-eight railway officials have been questioned.

An investigation determined the locomotive was left unattended after its engineer got into an argument with another driver and left the controls without applying the brakes. The engine began moving down the track, picking up a speed of 120 kph (75 mph) before slamming into a barrier and exploding.

Many Egyptians expressed their outrage on social media following the crash. Some blamed President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's government for not improving railway services in Egypt, even after a series of deadly accidents.

The government says it is working on a costly plan to overhaul the antiquated network, buying train cars from European and U.S. manufacturers and striking partnerships to automate the system and develop a domestic railcar industry.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019 file photo, policemen stand guard in front of a damaged train inside Ramsis train station in Cairo, Egypt. Egyptian authorities have arrested another five people over the deadly train crash and explosion last week at Cairo's main railway station. At least 25 people were killed when an unmanned locomotive slammed into a barrier inside the busy station, triggering a huge blast that also injured at least 47 people. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)

Emad Nabil, a railway expert, said the whole system needs to be modernized after decades of poor maintenance. "The network is mostly operated manually, causing lots of accidents which could be avoided," he said.

Following a deadly train accident in March last year that killed at least 12, el-Sissi said the government lacks about 250 billion Egyptian pounds ($14.1 billion) to overhaul the rail system. Fares have been heavily subsidized for decades.

Egypt's deadliest train accident took place in 2002 when over 370 people were killed after fire engulfed a crowded train leaving the capital for a religious holiday.
MADRID (AP) - Spanish authorities are inviting people to send by email any details they have about officially unrecorded victims of the country's 1936-39 Civil War and the four decades of dictatorship that followed under Gen. Francisco Franco.

The Justice Ministry announced Wednesday that the move aims to help create a reliable census of anonymous burials in unmarked ditches across the country.

The socialist government, which faces a general election next month, wants to unearth and identify the estimated 114,000 victims of the civil war and the rule of Franco, who died in 1975.

Three U.N-sponsored missions to Spain since 2013 have criticized authorities for lacking a plan to search for missing people.

A recent expert report said that, realistically, only around a quarter of the estimated victims could be identified and recovered.

FILE - In this file photo dated Tuesday May 22, 2018, an archeologists inspects a grave with the remains of what is believed to be two republican prisoners killed during the Spanish Civil War, in the small Pyrenees village of Leranoz, around 30 km (21,78 miles) from Pamplona, northern Spain. Spain's Justice Ministry on Wednesday March 5, 2019, invited people to send by email any details they have about officially unrecorded victims of the country's 1936-39 Civil War and the four decades of dictatorship that followed under Gen. Francisco Franco, aiming to create a reliable census and helping to identify the estimated 114,000 victims.(AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos, FILE)
EAST HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - A retired professional wrestler who once faced off against Hulk Hogan has announced a run for mayor in his Connecticut town.

East Haven Republican Town Council member Steven "Big Steve" Tracey says he is calling for new ideas and positive leadership. The New Haven Register reports Tracey is the first announced candidate in the race for the seat of Republican Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr., who has not announced if he is running for re-election.

Tracey says he is focused on the concerns of senior citizens in East Haven, saying he wants to make sure the town is affordable.

Tracey previously worked as a professional wrestler for the then-World Wrestling Federation for five years - squaring off against wrestlers like Hogan under the name "Dave Paradise."

He now owns three businesses.

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Information from: New Haven Register, http://www.nhregister.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Vice President Mike Pence is headed to Ohio to headline a fundraiser for the oil-and-gas industry.

The Republican vice president is to appear Friday at the annual meeting of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, a trade association for companies that explore, produce and develop crude oil and natural gas resources within the state. The event is being held at a hotel in north Columbus.

The appearance comes as President Donald Trump's administration works to promote rollbacks of environmental and safety rules for the energy sector, which government projections show would deliver billions of dollars in savings to regulated companies.

An AP analysis found relaxing those regulations also would increase premature deaths and illnesses from air pollution and increase climate-warming emissions, among other impacts.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Property developer Nakheel, behind eye-popping projects like Dubai's palm-shaped islands, said Wednesday that profits reached $1.2 billion in 2018, down from $1.5 billion recorded in 2017.

The state-owned company did not disclose revenue figures.

There are concerns of oversupply in Dubai's real estate market with thousands of new units, sprawling neighborhoods and more malls being built in the lead-up to the 2020 World Expo.

Nakheel's current projects in Dubai include a new mall and tower on the Palm Jumeirah, hotels, resorts and a 1,500-villa community. The company said 3 million square feet (279,000 square meters) of retail space is expected to come on line this year.

In a statement released with the earnings report, Nakheel Chairman Ali Rashid Lootah said the company's plans are "in line with our own goals and Dubai's vision."

"Construction of more hotels and resorts is in full swing under Nakheel's strategy of bringing new and diverse tourist offerings to Dubai as a part of the government's tourism vision," the company said.

FILE - In this May 3, 2007 file photo, the Nakheel-built Palm Jumeirah archipelago is seen from a helicopter, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. On Wednesday, March 6, 2019, property developer Nakheel, behind eye-popping projects like Dubai's palm-shaped islands, announced recorded profits of $1.2 billion for 2018. That's down from profits of $1.5 billion in 2017. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the developer dismissed about 300 employees in past weeks, while privately held Majid Al Futtaim cut more than 100 jobs.

A leading Dubai bank warned Tuesday that non-oil companies across the UAE cut staff at their sharpest rate in nearly a decade to reduce costs. The report by Emirates NBD, which is majority owned by Dubai's government, said it relied on data from some 400 private sector companies outside of the UAE's oil economy, including the nation's manufacturing, services, construction and retail sectors.

The report's findings point to an economic slowdown that many UAE residents have already felt, with the rising cost of living outpacing salary increases and foreign workers quietly complaining about salaries that are weeks and sometimes even months late.
BERLIN (AP) - Germany's foreign minister says the country is extending its ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and will continue to evaluate the situation.

Germany rescinded existing arms export permits to Saudi Arabia last year in response to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The ban was due to expire soon but Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Wednesday it was being extended until the end of March to give the government time to evaluate Saudi Arabia's military involvement in Yemen.

Maas says "we believe that the Yemen war needs to be ended as quickly as possible."

Britain and France have criticized Germany's stance, saying the ban prevents them from selling jointly-developed equipment with German components to the Gulf nation.
LONDON (AP) - The Latest on Britain's exit from the European Union (all times local):

With Brexit still set for March 29, the European Banking Authority has moved from London to Paris, at least on paper.

French European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau and the banking authority's interim chairman, Jo Swyngedouw, signed paperwork on Wednesday to make the transfer official.

Loiseau called it "one of the first concrete consequences of Brexit."

The EBA expects to have its new office in the La Defense business district of Paris fully operating at the beginning of June.

The agency, which has about 180 staff members, monitors the regulation and supervision of Europe's banking sector.

Protestors demonstrate in front of the Houses of Parliament in London, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Britain's chief law officer said Wednesday that Brexit negotiations with the European Union had got to "the meat of the matter," after Northern Ireland's top civil servant warned that a disorderly U.K. exit could destabilize both the economy and the peace process. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

In November 2017, the European Union picked France and the Netherlands to host the two EU agencies that were based in Britain.

The European Medicines Agency closed its London office at the beginning of the March and is moving to Amsterdam.

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11:45 a.m.

The European Union says Brexit discussions with British officials "have been difficult" and that there has been no breakthrough ahead of a key vote in the UK parliament next week.

The latest set of talks between EU negotiator Michel Barnier and his U.K. counterparts started Tuesday are aimed at finding new legal phrasing on how to deal with a border provision between the EU's Ireland and the U.K.'s Northern Ireland.

Prime Minister Theresa May overwhelmingly lost a vote in Parliament on the withdrawal agreement in January largely because many in her own Conservative Party opposed the so-called backstop arrangement that is aimed at ensuring there is no hard border on the island of Ireland.

EU Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said "no solution has been identified at this point" and that "while the talks take place in a constructive atmosphere, discussions have been difficult."

Britain is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29. May is hoping to get enough concessions so lawmakers back a revised deal next Tuesday.

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10:20 a.m.

Northern Ireland's top civil servant is warning that a disorderly U.K. exit from the European Union will lead to a sharp increase in unemployment and an exodus of businesses from the region.

David Sterling says "there is currently no mitigation available for the severe consequences of a no-deal outcome."

Britain and the EU have struck a divorce deal, but the U.K. Parliament has rejected it, largely over concerns about the Ireland-Northern Ireland border.

Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, and businesses fear a "no-deal" exit would severely disrupt trade. It could also destabilize Northern Ireland's peace process, which relies on an open border.

In a letter to Northern Ireland political leaders, Sterling says a "no-deal" Brexit "could well have a profound and long-lasting impact on society."

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Follow AP's full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit

A protestor demonstrates in front of the Houses of Parliament in London, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Britain's chief law officer said Wednesday that Brexit negotiations with the European Union had got to "the meat of the matter," after Northern Ireland's top civil servant warned that a disorderly U.K. exit could destabilize both the economy and the peace process. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

From left, Interim Chairperson of the European Banking Authority, Jo Swyngedouw, French Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau and French Minister attached to the Economy and Finance, Agnes Pannier Runacher during a signature ceremony officializing the transfer of the European Banking Authority, in Paris, Wednesday, March 6, 2018. Paris has been picked to succeed to London as the host city for the European Banking Authority as Britain is preparing to leave the European Union. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

From left, French Government's Spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux, Interim Chairperson of the European Banking Authority, Jo Swyngedouw, Head of the Ile de France regional council Valerie Pecresse, French Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau and French Minister attached to the Economy and Finance, Agnes Pannier Runacher during a signature ceremony officializing the transfer of the European Banking Authority, in Paris, Wednesday, March 6, 2018. Paris has been picked to succeed to London as the host city for the European Banking Authority as Britain is preparing to leave the European Union. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

From left, French Minister attached to the Economy and Finance, Agnes Pannier Runacher, French Government's Spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux, French Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau, Interim Chairperson of the European Banking Authority, Jo Swyngedouw and Head of the Ile de France regional council Valerie Pecresse during a signature ceremony officializing the transfer of the European Banking Authority, in Paris, Wednesday, March 6, 2018. Paris has been picked to succeed to London as the host city for the European Banking Authority as Britain is preparing to leave the European Union. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

Interim Chairperson of the European Banking Authority, Jo Swyngedouw, attends a signature ceremony officializing the transfer of the European Banking Authority, in Paris, Wednesday, March 6, 2018. Paris has been picked to succeed to London as the host city for the European Banking Authority as Britain is preparing to leave the European Union. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

French Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau looks on during a signature ceremony officializing the transfer of the European Banking Authority, in Paris, Wednesday, March 6, 2018. Paris has been picked to succeed to London as the host city for the European Banking Authority as Britain is preparing to leave the European Union. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

Protestors demonstrate in front of the Houses of Parliament in London, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Britain's chief law officer said Wednesday that Brexit negotiations with the European Union had got to "the meat of the matter," after Northern Ireland's top civil servant warned that a disorderly U.K. exit could destabilize both the economy and the peace process. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
BAGHOUZ, Syria (AP) - Angry crowds evacuating from the last shred of territory held by Islamic State militants in Syria praised the extremist group Wednesday and chanted "Islamic State will remain," in a menacing show of support, even as defeat loomed.

There were no signs of combat as calm prevailed for a third day to allow for evacuations from the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz. Associated Press journalists positioned across from the IS's riverside pocket of land saw lines of pickup trucks, motorcycles and people walking on foot, apparently a group of evacuees.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is spearheading the fight against IS in Syria, has been surprised by the large number of civilians - family members of IS fighters in the thousands - who have been streaming out of the tiny enclave. In recent weeks, the Kurdish-led SDF has been alternately applying military force to put pressure on militants who refuse to surrender and holding fire long enough to allow for evacuations and surrender.

Thousands of people have trickled out of Baghouz in the last few days. The latest wave of evacuations brings the IS a step closer to defeat by the Kurdish-led SDF. That would be a milestone in the devastating four-year campaign to defeat the group's so-called "caliphate" that once covered a vast territory straddling both Syria and Iraq. The fight against IS has taken place amid Syria's nearly 8-year-old civil war.

On Wednesday, hundreds of evacuees walked through the dusty desert plateau to get on trucks to carry them to displaced persons camps miles away. Meanwhile, lines of men walked guided by their enemy, the SDF, to another corner of the plateau to be screened and searched by members of the U.S-led coalition.

As defeat neared, the anger of defiant supporters among the evacuees was palpable.

Men wait to be screened after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants outside Baghouz, Syria, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Since Friday, IS has put up desperate resistance to renewed pounding by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces aiming to take the tiny pocket on the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border.(AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)

Women seen at a reception area set up in the desert, where they were screened by SDF officials, were rowdy and aggressive. They angrily denounced journalists, and praised IS. Engulfed in conservative black robes with a black face covers, they pointed their fingers at the sky and screamed: "Islamic State will stay, God is great, God is great, Islamic State will stay!" Two women took off their shoes and raised them in the direction of journalists. "Take a picture of the shoe, the shoes are better than you," one said. Children joined, raising their fingers in the air.

A man who refused to give his name screamed at journalists filming the evacuees praying, and decried their being depicted as terrorists. "We only implemented God's laws," he shouted, covering half his face.

Abu Sham, a member of the IS religious police who exited Baghouz on Tuesday, said fighters who remained inside are willing to die for the group.

"The Islamic State is not finished," the 39-year old said, using a moniker that means the father of Syria. "I didn't lose hope."

A 30-year-old Iraqi woman said her 1-month-old baby, who was sick, died overnight in the reception area from the cold.

"I didn't want to leave except to treat her," said the woman who identified herself as Um Fatima. She cursed the SDF and said: "The Islamic state will remain and expand, God willing," and walked away. A group of men were seated on the ground, under the watchful eye of SDF fighters, many of them covering their faces with checkered scarves.

Many among those leaving Wednesday appeared to be wives and children of IS militants. But among those who emerged were 13 Yazidi children from Iraq, looking dusty and dirty and in a state of shock. At least 75 men also came out, going straight to the interrogation area.

After sundown, new trucks carrying more evacuees arrived.

The scenes of surrender, humiliation and anger highlighted the desperation of the group as their last bastion teeters on the edge of collapse.

The SDF announced a military operation to liberate Baghouz in September, but has held off on a full blown assault after it became apparent that a huge number of civilians were still inside. Over the last three weeks, more than 10,000 people, many of them exhausted and wounded IS followers, have evacuated.

The militants - many of them foreigners, including Iraqis and Central Asians along with some Syrian fighters - are now fighting their final battle, holed up in tunnels and caves inside Baghouz. An SDF commander said Wednesday when the last batch of civilians and evacuees leave, the group will bomb the remaining hardcore militants who have vowed to die in Baghouz.

The commander said those fighters are ready to blow themselves up. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Another SDF military commander said at least 400 IS fighters were caught trying to leave Tuesday. He said the men were working with a smuggling ring to get away from SDF areas. He also spoke on condition of anonymity.

After days without fighting, the SDF and the coalition launched an intense assault Friday that targeted an ammunition warehouse in the IS-held area and advanced forces inside, tightening the noose on the militants.

Evacuees said the strikes ignited a fire that burned part of the tent encampment where thousands of family members and civilians had been placed. The fire forced many people to run toward the nearby Euphrates River, where some dug holes on the waterfront to seek refuge, said Abu Mariam, an evacuee who lost his wife and two children in the fire.

Loubna, a 30-year-old woman from the Syrian town of al-Bab, said there were many bodies on the streets in the IS-held area, burned by the fire. The fire was still smoldering days later.

Loubna said she opted to leave but her husband, a Syrian, decided to stay. He will fight till the end, she said, adding he is prepared to blow himself up. "They have their planes. We have God's help," she said. Loubna said didn't think she would see her husband again, and will raise her five kids to become jihadists.

Men, women and children ride in a truck after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants outside Baghouz, Syria, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Since Friday, IS has put up desperate resistance to renewed pounding by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces aiming to take the tiny pocket on the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border.(AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)

Men wait to be screened after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants outside Baghouz, Syria, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Since Friday, IS has put up desperate resistance to renewed pounding by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces aiming to take the tiny pocket on the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border.(AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)

Women and and children gather near trucks after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants outside Baghouz, Syria, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Since Friday, IS has put up desperate resistance to renewed pounding by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces aiming to take the tiny pocket on the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border.(AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)

Women gather near trucks after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants outside Baghouz, Syria, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Since Friday, IS has put up desperate resistance to renewed pounding by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces aiming to take the tiny pocket on the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border.(AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)

People ride in a truck after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants outside Baghouz, Syria, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Since Friday, IS has put up desperate resistance to renewed pounding by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces aiming to take the tiny pocket on the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border.(AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)
LORDSTOWN, Ohio (AP) - The last compact car rolled off the line Wednesday at General Motors' massive assembly plant in Ohio as the automaker began moving toward its future while workers wondered about theirs.

GM is eliminating all 1,700 hourly positions, perhaps for good, at the factory near Youngstown, the first of five North American auto plants that it intends to shut down by early next year.

The plant closings are part of a major restructuring for GM, which plans to shed as many as 14,000 workers and shift its focus to making trucks, SUVs and electric and autonomous vehicles.

Most of the jobs being slashed companywide are white-collar positions. But there's still uncertainty about the fate of the plants because the closings still must be negotiated with the United Auto Workers later this summer.

There was a somber mood inside the plant, where more than 50 years of car manufacturing came to an end.

Workers took photos of the last Chevrolet Cruze, a car made in Lordstown since 2011 that has become a victim of consumer tastes in an era of inexpensive gasoline. It still will be made in Mexico for markets outside the U.S. The Cruze was the only vehicle made at the plant and will no longer be sold in the U.S. for now.

Chuck Rodriguez, a 19-year employee, protests outside the plant, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is ending production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Signs with sayings such as "Save this Plant" were scattered outside the plant where about 100 workers gathered to say goodbye in the cold.

"It's frustrating," said Jeff Nance, who has worked at Lordstown for 17 years. "I'm angry and bitter. Watching that last car go by was a kick in the gut."

Like many workers, Shaun Winkler said he's still considering whether to transfer to another GM plant where there are openings.

"It started out as a normal day, but when that last car came into our area, and there was nothing but empty racks behind it, then it got sad," he said.

UAW 1112 President Dave Green said he took an emotional walk around the factory floor during the final shift.

"It's gut-wrenching. People were crying, they're frustrated and they feel like they've done everything right," Green said.

The UAW claimed in a recent federal lawsuit that its existing contract prohibits GM from idling plants.

Green has urged workers to remain hopeful, saying their fate will ultimately be decided at the bargaining table. The UAW's national contract with GM expires in mid-September.

President Donald Trump and a coalition of Ohio lawmakers have been pressuring the automaker to find a way to bring new work to the plant, which employed 4,500 people just two years ago but has been down to one shift since last summer.

Trump has shown a particular interest in the Lordstown plant, singling it out as one he wants to stay open. It's in area of the state that will be important to him in the 2020 election, and it's where he told supporters at a rally last year that manufacturing jobs are coming back.

Company President Mark Reuss said in January that GM is looking at a lot of different options for the plant, but it hasn't decided whether Lordstown could get a new vehicle.

GM can't operate a plant with a slow-selling vehicle like the Cruze, and have enough money to invest in the future, he said. It also doesn't want to get caught like it did in 2008 with too many factories and workers, a problem that helped push the company into bankruptcy protection.

"We've got some history of that, to be honest," Reuss said. "We don't want that history to repeat."

Lordstown's history dates back to 1966. More than 16 million vehicles have come off its assembly line since then, including nearly 1.9 million Cruzes.

The automaker has said most of its blue-collar workers whose jobs are eliminated in the U.S. will be able to transfer to plants in the Midwest and South.

The other plants slated to close this year are assembly plants in Detroit and Oshawa, Ontario, and transmission plants in Warren, Michigan, and near Baltimore.

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Tom Krisher reported from Detroit. Associated Press writer John Seewer in Toledo contributed.

General Motors employees gather outside the plant for a protest, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is ending production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

General Motors employees protest outside the plant, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is ending production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

General Motors workers cheer for support outside the plant, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is ending production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Craig Lynn, left, Iysha Fanc, and Jim Berry protest outside the plant, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is ending production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. All three employees have 19-years each with General Motors. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Barry Brown, a 25-year employee, protests outside the plant, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is ending production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

FILE - This Nov. 27, 2018 file photo, shows the General Motors Lordstown West plant in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is about to end production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. The jobs of over 1,000 hourly workers will be eliminated when production ends Wednesday afternoon, March 6, 2019, and a contingent of workers finish making replacement parts like hoods and fenders sometime later this month. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

FILE- This June 24, 2009 file photo shows the underbody of the Chevrolet Cruze at the GM Lordstown plant, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is about to end production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. The jobs of over 1,000 hourly workers will be eliminated when production ends Wednesday afternoon, March 6, 2019, and a contingent of workers finish making replacement parts like hoods and fenders sometime later this month. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

UAW 1112 President Dave Green talks about the mood of the workers in the plant, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is about to end production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

UAW 1112 President Dave Green talks about the mood of the workers in the plant, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is about to end production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

UAW 1112 President Dave Green talks about the mood of the workers in the plant, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is about to end production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

FILE - In this June 24, 2009 file photo workers stand near the underbodies of a Chevrolet Cobalt, bottom, and the Chevrolet Cruze resting at the GM Lordstown plant, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is about to end production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. The jobs of over 1,000 hourly workers will be eliminated when production ends Wednesday afternoon, March 6, 2019, and a contingent of workers finish making replacement parts like hoods and fenders sometime later this month. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

FILE- This June 24, 2009 file photo shows the underbody of the Chevrolet Cruze as John Donahoe, plant manager for the GM Lordstown plant, talks about the new vehicle in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is about to end production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. The jobs of over 1,000 hourly workers will be eliminated when production ends Wednesday afternoon, March 6, 2019, and a contingent of workers finish making replacement parts like hoods and fenders sometime later this month. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)
NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) - A French man sentenced to one month in prison with hard labor for flying a drone in Myanmar completed his term Wednesday, but remained in detention because his deportation order was delayed.

Arthur Desclaux, 27, was arrested on Feb. 7 for flying the drone near the parliament building in the capital, Naypyitaw. He was convicted of violating the Illegal Export-Import Act by bringing the device into Myanmar without a license. He also was fined about $100 for violating two other laws covering aviation and immigration.

Myint Zaw, the chief immigration officer of Ottarathiri township, said Desclaux would be kept in a police jail Wednesday night because the deportation order from the Immigration Department had not arrived by late afternoon and no one was available to take responsibility for guaranteeing his whereabouts.

He said Desclaux could expect to be free on Thursday.

"We will do this process quickly," he said. "Unless we do so, it will not be good for both countries, the law will come under criticism. So, we will do it quickly."

Frederic Inza, a counselor at the French Embassy in Myanmar who has attended the legal proceedings, said: "Now that all the procedures at the court have finished, we're satisfied. We only have immigration procedures left."

French national Arthur Desclaux is seen at the immigration office Wednesday, March. 6, 2019, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Desclaux, sentenced to one month in prison with hard labor for flying a drone in Myanmar, has completed his penalty but remains in detention because his deportation order was delayed. Desclaux was arrested on Feb. 7 for flying the drone near the parliament building in the capital, Naypyitaw. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)

He added his appreciation for the Immigration Department's work, but said it was unfortunate that no one in Myanmar could post a guarantee for Desclaux.

Desclaux's family had been trying to contact someone to take care of the guarantee but with no result so far, so he would have to remain in police custody, Inza said.

In 2017, a film crew working for Turkish state television was jailed for two months for trying to fly a drone over the parliament in Naypyitaw. A Singaporean and a Malaysian working for broadcaster TRT, along with two Myanmar assistants, were convicted under a 1934 law covering aircraft. The two foreigners were deported immediately after their release from prison.

French national Arthur Desclaux is seen at the immigration office Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Desclaux, sentenced to one month in prison with hard labor for flying a drone in Myanmar, has completed his penalty but remains in detention because his deportation order was delayed. Desclaux was arrested on Feb. 7 for flying the drone near the parliament building in the capital, Naypyitaw. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
BJP fulfills promise made by Sena in manifesto.

The state Cabinet meeting, which was chaired by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at Sahadyri Guest House on Friday, approved the proposal.

Mumbai: Just ahead of the announcement of general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Maharashtra government, in an attempt to woo Mumbaikars, announced property tax exemption for flats admeasuring up to 500 square feet in the city and suburbs.

The state Cabinet meeting, which was chaired by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at Sahadyri Guest House on Friday, approved the proposal. This is one of the two conditions made by Shiv Senas chief Uddhav Thackeray from the BJP to ink the poll pact between the saffron parties.

The government had recently scrapped the Nanar oil refinery project in Ratnagiri district, which was the first demand of the Sena. In a weeks time this is the second Cabinet meeting held just to clear various proposals.

The state Cabinet has given an approval to amend the Act in order to waive off property tax for up to 500 square feet in the jurisdiction of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The decision was made to be applicable from January 1, 2019.

The BMC had approved the proposal to exempt up to 500 square feet from property tax and 60 per cent discount for those sized between 501 sq ft and 700 square feet on July 6, 2017.

After approving the proposal, the BMC had sent it to the state government so that an amendment could be carried out in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888. This proposal was pending with the state government since then and the cabinet cleared it on Friday.

Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray stated in Marathi that the Shiv Sena had fulfilled its promise and expressed gratitude to party chief and Mr Fadnavis.

Parliamentary affairs minister Girish Bapat said the proposal for exe-mption of property tax arrived from the civic body and state Cabinet accepted it.
LONDON (AP) - British police said a suspicious package destroyed by bomb-disposal experts at the University of Glasgow on Wednesday contained an explosive device and was linked to three letter bombs sent to two London airports and a railway station.

The Metropolitan Police force's Counter Terrorism Command said the item sent to the Scottish university had "similarities in the package, its markings and the type of device" to the three small improvised bombs received by the London transportation hubs on Tuesday.

The mailing envelope sent to London's Heathrow Airport with one of the bombs inside partly caught fire when someone opened it, but no one was injured.

The force said it had not identified the sender and urged transportation operators, mail sorting companies and schools "to be vigilant" about watching for suspicious packages.

The University of Glasgow said several buildings on its campus, including the mailroom, were evacuated "as a precautionary measure" after the package was found in the mailroom on Wednesday morning.

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Johnson of Police Scotland said "the package was not opened and no one was injured."

A forensic worker outside the University of Glasgow after the building was evacuated when a suspect package was found in the mailroom, in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday March 6, 2019. Buildings at the University of Glasgow were evacuated Wednesday as police examined a suspicious package found in the mailroom, a day after three London transport hubs received letter bombs. (Andrew Milligan/PA via AP)

He said bomb-disposal experts later performed a controlled explosion on the item.

Another package sparked an evacuation Wednesday at the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh. It was found to contain "promotional goods" and deemed no threat to the public, police said.

The envelopes received in London appeared to carry Irish stamps, and Jarrett said one line of inquiry "is the possibility that the packages have come from Ireland."

There has been speculation the devices could be connected to Irish Republican Army dissidents. But Dean Haydon, Britain's senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, said no sender had been identified and no group had claimed responsibility.

"We are talking to our Irish counterparts but at the moment there's nothing to indicate motivation of the sender or ideology, so I cannot confirm at the moment if it's connected to any Ireland-related terrorist groups," he said.

Police and fire services outside the University of Glasgow after the building was evacuated when a suspect package was found in the mailroom, in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday March 6, 2019. Buildings at the University of Glasgow were evacuated Wednesday as police examined a suspicious package found in the mailroom, a day after three London transport hubs received letter bombs. (Andrew Milligan/PA via AP)

The scene as police secure the area outside the University of Glasgow, Scotland, after a suspicious package was found the university, Wednesday March 6, 2019. Police Scotland says officers are examining items found Wednesday morning at the University of Glasgow and the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh. (AP Photo/Lilli Schlossbach)

Police and fire services outside the University of Glasgow after the building was evacuated when a suspect package was found in the mailroom, in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday March 6, 2019. Buildings at the University of Glasgow were evacuated Wednesday as police examined a suspicious package found in the mailroom, a day after three London transport hubs received letter bombs. (Andrew Milligan/PA via AP)

In this photo dated Tuesday March 5, 2019, issued by Britain's Metropolitan Police showing a suspect package after it ignited, sent to Heathrow airport, one of three packages being treated as a linked series by Britain's counter-terrorism police. On Wednesday March 6, 2019, Police Scotland said officers are examining items found at the University of Glasgow and the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is not known at this time, if the incidents are linked. (Britain's Metropolitan Police via AP)
GREENSBORO, Md. (AP) - Inside the home Anton Black shared with his mother, a collage of photographs pays homage to a gifted athlete and aspiring model on the verge of becoming a father. The makeshift shrine is adorned with track-and-field medals Black proudly wore in one photo.

This is how Black's mother wants to remember her son. She can't bear to watch body-camera video that captured the final minutes of the 19-year-old's life, which ended during a struggle with police officers outside the same mobile home. That evening, Jennell Black watched as her handcuffed son shouted, "I love you!" before his last breath.

"I knew he was dead," she recalls.

The African-American man's death in police custody has roiled a rural town on Maryland's Eastern Shore and left his family yearning for answers. They aren't satisfied by the conclusions of a county prosecutor, who isn't pursuing charges, or the medical examiner who ruled Black's death accidental. They want a federal investigation and help from Gov. Larry Hogan, who's expressed a personal interest in the case.

The family waited months for autopsy results after Black's September 2018 death in Greensboro. An autopsy report, dated Jan. 23, was released two days after the Republican governor expressed frustration at the pace of the investigation.

"If it wasn't for Gov. Hogan, we wouldn't have any type of answers," said 37-year-old LaToya Holley, Anton's sister. "Even though we don't like the answers that they are trying to give us, at least we have something now to start actually proceeding with this fight for clearing Anton's name and making sure we get justice."

In this Jan. 28, 2019, photo, a motorist drives past a welcome sign in Greensboro, Md. A black teenager's death in police custody has roiled this rural town on Maryland's Eastern Shore and left a grief-stricken family yearning for answers to their lingering questions. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

On the evening of Sept. 15, 2018, Greensboro officer Thomas Webster IV confronted Black in response to a 911 call from a woman who drove by and said she saw Black dragging a 12-year-old boy down a street. While police treated the call as a suspected kidnapping, Black's family say the 12-year-old was a friend and wasn't in danger.

Webster's body camera shows Black running away when the officer told him to put his hands behind his back. Officers chased Black before he locked himself inside a car parked outside his family's home. An officer shattered the driver-side window with a baton and shocked Black with a Taser before Black got out and struggled with three officers and a civilian.

Stepping outside their home, Black's mother screamed her son's name after officers wrestled him down on a wooden ramp.

"Anton, stop, baby!" she said as he struggled.

The officers kept him pinned down for more than five minutes as they handcuffed him and shackled his legs. The officers appear calm; one jokes, "I'm getting old - I couldn't keep up with him!"

They reassure his mother that Black will be fine.

"This is a mental health emergency. We're not treating this like a crime," an officer says. "He's going to be OK. We're going to get him some help."

About 30 seconds later, the officers turn the handcuffed Black onto his back and check for a pulse.

"He's breathing," a voice says as the officers then lean Black, unresponsive, against the home.

Nearly three minutes later, his mother notes her son is "turning dark." Officers remove his handcuffs and perform CPR.

Black later was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The medical examiner's autopsy report says Black's congenital heart condition, mental illness and stress from the struggle likely contributed to his death. The report says Black's medical record showed he recently was involuntarily hospitalized and diagnosed with bipolar disorder. His relatives say they aren't aware of any such diagnosis or heart problem.

The autopsy lists more than three dozen scrapes and bruises on Black's body. His family says that's evidence of excessive force on somebody who wasn't a threat.

"They were all chasing him like he done killed somebody. This boy didn't have no weapons, no guns, no knife, no nothing. He was just walking down the road with his friend," said his father, Antone Black.

Caroline County State's Attorney Joseph Riley last month announced he isn't asking a grand jury to consider charges, saying his office can't prosecute "tragic acts." In a statement, Riley said the autopsy report shows there's no evidence Black was choked, struck by officers or had force applied to his neck.

Webster was placed on administrative leave, months after Black's death, but returned to active duty following Riley's decision. The state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services plans to review Greensboro's hiring of Webster, who was acquitted in 2015 of assaulting a man while an officer in Dover, Delaware.

His acquittal was disclosed on his application for state certification, which granted him police powers in Maryland last year. The state agency only recently learned of other "use of force" reports involving Webster's time in Dover, said department spokesman Gerard Shields.

Webster is white; so is about three-quarters of Greensboro's roughly 2,000 residents. Jennell Black says her son's death divided the town, but she's received support from neighbors, even strangers. In January, she recalls, a white woman whose daughter knew Anton approached her and said, "I am so sorry what they did to him," before crying.

Monique Sorrell, Anton's 41-year-old sister, said some in Greensboro seem to want to "keep things quiet."

"They just want us to be quiet and go away and act like Anton's life didn't matter, but Anton's life mattered," she said.

Town Manager Jeannette DeLude said officials' muted response "kind of hurt things, honestly."

"We were told from the get-go, 'Don't make any comments,'" she said. "When I look back, I think that it was hurtful for us because it made the family feel that we didn't care or that we were just doing business as usual."

Black's family rejoiced at the birth of his daughter, Winter, in November. But the family's grieving again after Anton's older brother, Brandon Jackson, died Feb. 2 of an apparent drug overdose, according to police. The family buried Jackson at the same cemetery where Black was laid to rest.

In this Jan. 28, 2019, photo, Antone Black, left, and his wife, Jennell, pose for a photograph after an interview with The Associated Press in their home in Greensboro, Md. Their son Anton Black, 19, died after a struggle with three officers and a civilian outside the home in September 2018. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this Jan. 28, 2019, photo, pictures of Anton Black decorate a collage in his family's home in Greensboro, Md. Black, 19, died after a struggle with three officers and a civilian outside the home in September 2018. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
LONDON (AP) - A jury in central England on Wednesday convicted a father of enlisting men to attack his 3-year-old son with a corrosive acid amid a custody battle with the child's mother.

The jury found the 40-year-old man and five others guilty of conspiracy with intent to "burn, maim or disfigure." The boy suffered serious injuries on his face and arm when sulfuric acid was thrown on him inside a store in July.

Prosecutors alleged the father wanted more contact with his son and organized the plot to manufacture evidence the child's mother was unfit to care for him.

The father was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The five co-defendants received prison terms of 12 to 14 years. A seventh defendant was acquitted.

Judge Robert Juckes told the men they committed a "monstrous" crime that had been carefully planned and executed.

"It is an extraordinary thing, in this case, that not one of you, most of whom have no previous convictions, most of whom with families of your own, at any stage stood back and asked the question of yourself and others, 'What are we doing?'" Juckes said.

A statement from the mother was read out loud in court. She said she would be in serious danger when the father is released from prison.
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - A Swiss company says it will assemble helicopters in Louisiana, bringing 120 jobs.

Gov. John Bel Edwards and the CEO of Kopter Group AG made the announcement Tuesday in Lafayette.

Kopter will lease a facility from the Lafayette Regional Airport that was previously the home of a Bell Helicopter operation that closed in August.

The Kopter Production and Product Support Center will deliver SH09 models throughout the Western Hemisphere. At least 50 percent of the company's supplier will be United States-based businesses.

Kopter Group will invest more than $4 million in new equipment for the building.

A welcoming ceremony is set for 1 p.m. Saturday at the former Bell Helicopter facility at the Lafayette Regional Airport.

Economic development officials in Louisiana estimate the plant will create another 150 jobs.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Back in January, the Democrats welcomed their brash young newcomers to Congress with smiles and hugs. That was before the new colleagues dragged the party's simmering divisions over Israel out in the open.

Provocative comments from Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota have thrust the Democrats into an uncomfortable debate over Israel policy a few weeks before a high-profile conference at which senior Democrats typically make a show of support for the Jewish state. Increasingly, the rift appears as much generational as ideological, with newly elected Democrats showing less deference to the party line.

Omar became the flash point after she suggested last week that Israel's supporters are pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance to a foreign country." It's at least the third time she has forced older, pro-Israel Democrats who run the House into awkward territory over U.S.-Israeli policy.

This time Omar is not apologizing. And this time pro-Israel Democrats led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi are not just warning her about the dangers of Jewish tropes. They are expected to offer a resolution condemning anti-Semitism on the House floor. Although no vote on the resolution is yet scheduled, Democrats said it could come as soon as Thursday.

Republicans have been happy to stoke the furor, with President Donald Trump tweeting it's "shameful that House Democrats won't take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference." Trump himself faced such criticism in 2016 for circulating a six-pointed star alongside a photo of Hillary Clinton, a pile of money and the words "most corrupt candidate ever."

Democratic leaders are in a bind, torn between a need to admonish Omar and their desire to defend one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sits with fellow Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee during a bill markup, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Omar stirred controversy last week saying that Israel's supporters are pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance to a foreign country." Omar is not apologizing for that remark, and progressives are supporting her. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

"Accusations of dual loyalty generally have an insidious, bigoted history," an early draft of the resolution reads in part. "The House of Representatives acknowledges the dangerous consequences of perpetuating anti-Semitic stereotypes and rejects anti-Semitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of the United States."

Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced in a meeting of leading Democrats late Tuesday that the text will be updated to include anti-Muslim bias, according to a senior Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting. Other Democrats said an outpouring of support for Omar prompted leaders to consider broadening the measure to avoid dissension. Omar did not speak to reporters outside her office on Tuesday evening.

"There is a lot emotional disquiet about the situation, and it's a good time to restate our values," said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who is Jewish and a member of leadership, as he exited a meeting in Pelosi's office. "That's what I hope our resolution can do."

The text, which includes a history of bigotry against Muslims and blacks as well as Jews, sounds unobjectionable by itself. But the fact that senior Democrats felt obliged to put the House on-record on the topic points to a transformation in the country - mostly among Democrats - about supporting the Jewish state.

In a poll by the Pew Research Center in January of last year, 46 percent of Americans said they sympathized more with Israel and 16 percent with the Palestinians in their Middle East discord.

But Democrats are about evenly divided, with about a quarter sympathizing with each side and the rest saying they side with neither or don't know - and in recent years they have become less likely to sympathize with Israel. Liberal Democrats were nearly twice as likely to say they sympathize more with the Palestinians (35 percent) than with Israel (19 percent). Older Americans were much more likely to say they sympathize with Israel than with the Palestinians, with more division among younger Americans.

Omar, a Somali-American, says that what she's questioning is the influence game in Washington and she worries that anything she says about Israel and its treatment of Palestinians will be construed as anti-Semitic.

"Being opposed to (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and the occupation is not the same as being anti-Semitic," she tweeted on Sunday. "I am grateful to the many Jewish allies who have spoken out and said the same."

Democrats in Congress remain largely supportive of Israel. Pelosi, for example, often attends the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington, which is coming up this month.

Omar on Tuesday got a boost from allies who point out that she, too, has been the target of threats and bigotry.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested in a tweet that her fellow freshman was being treated unfairly.

"No one seeks this level of reprimand when members make statements about Latinx + other communities," the New York Democrat wrote.

Jewish groups generally said they support the resolution, but expressed concern.

"We are concerned that the timing of this resolution will be seen as singling out and focusing special condemnation on a Muslim woman of color as if her views and insensitive comments pose a greater threat than the torrent of hatred that the white nationalist right continues to level against Jews, Muslims, people of color and other vulnerable minority groups," said J Street, a nonprofit that says it's a home for "pro-Israel, pro-Peace Americans."

Back home in Minnesota, a collection of elected officials started a #StandWithIlhan hashtag with a statement that reads in part: "We call on Democrats to stand with Ilhan against Republican efforts to pit Jews and Muslims against each other."

But there also was talk of finding a candidate to challenge her in 2020.

"She is rapidly making herself a pariah in Congress, rather than an effective representative for her constituents," said state Sen. Ron Latz, who is Jewish, lives in her district and has been critical of her recent statements on Israel.

Earlier this year, Omar apologized for a 2012 tweet in which she said Israel had "hypnotized" America. And last month, she apologized for suggesting that members of Congress support Israel because they are paid to do so.

That earned her stern rebukes from Pelosi and House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, among others. This time, Engel declared that Omar's suggestion about divided loyalties was a "vile" stereotype that had no place on his committee.

Republicans demanded that Democrats throw Omar off Engel's panel. There was no sign of that happening.

"I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee," Omar tweeted.

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Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor, Emily Swanson, and Hannah Fingerhut in Washington, and Doug Glass in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

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Follow Kellman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com//APLaurieKellman

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sits with fellow Democrats, Rep. David Trone, D-Md., left, and Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., right, on the House Education and Labor Committee during a bill markup, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Omar stirred controversy last week saying that Israel's supporters are pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance to a foreign country." Omar is not apologizing for that remark, and progressives are supporting her. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut man has pleaded guilty to killing his best friend accidentally during a drive-by shooting.

The Connecticut Post reports that 23-year-old Terrell Evans will be sentenced to 15 years in prison in exchange for his plea Tuesday to first-degree manslaughter and other charges.

Evans was to go on trial in the May 2017 death of Kyree Kennedy, and his plea deal did not sit well with the victim's family.

Prosecutors say Evans shot the 22-year-old Kennedy in the head while the two were targeting another vehicle.

Police say Evans fired from the front passenger seat across Kennedy and out of the driver's side window and when Kennedy turned his head, he was struck.

Kennedy's father told the judge he thought Evans should get a life sentence. Sentencing is May 3.

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Information from: Connecticut Post, http://www.connpost.com
LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) - A state appellate court has upheld the lengthy prison term imposed on a Pennsylvania man convicted of kidnapping his newborn daughter, slashing her neck and cramming her into a trash bag inside a backpack.

David Sleets was found guilty last year of attempted murder and sentenced to 26 to 52 years in prison.

The 38-year-old Lancaster man claimed a jury should not have seen "inflammatory" photos of his month-old daughter lying in a hospital bed with a slashed neck. But the appellate panel found they were legitimately entered as evidence to show the extent of the girl's wounds.

Prosecutors say Sleets snatched the baby from the mother's house and took off, tossing the backpack underneath a car.

The mother followed him and rescued her baby, taking her to the hospital.

Lawyers say Sleets has schizophrenia and had stopped taking medication.
SEARCY, Ark. (AP) - An Arkansas university has announced plans for a new scholarship honoring graduate Botham Jean, an unarmed black man who was fatally shot by a white Dallas police officer who'd entered his apartment last year.

Jean was a native of St. Lucia who graduated from Harding University in 2016. He was shot in September by officer Amber Guyger, who told police that she entered Jean's apartment believing it was her own. Guyger was indicted on a murder charge in November.

On Tuesday, Harding announced plans for the new scholarship in memory of Jean. University President Bruce McLarty says the memorial scholarship "is a perfect example of good coming from something evil and hope emerging from deep loss."

Officials say students from the Caribbean will be given preference for the scholarship.
BEIRUT (AP) - The Latest on development in, and related to, Syria (all times local):

4 p.m.

Russia and Syria have urged the U.S. to allow tens of thousands of people to leave a refugee camp in southern Syria.

In a joint statement Wednesday, the Russian and Syrian refugee coordination centers accused the U.S. of keeping 40,000 people in the Rukban camp against their will.

They pointed to poor conditions in the camp near the border with Jordan and said that U.S.-affiliated rebels have effectively kept people there hostage.

The statement rejected the U.S. argument that Syria can't provide safe accommodation to residents of the camp, arguing that the Syrian government has built facilities in several provinces to accommodate people from Rukban. It emphasized that Damascus has guaranteed their full security.

A woman and her children, who were evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State sit outside Baghouz, Syria, Tuesday, March 5, 2019. The latest wave of evacuations brings the final defeat of IS by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces one step closer - a milestone in the devastating four-year campaign to defeat the group's so-called "caliphate" that once covered a vast territory straddling both Syria and Iraq.(AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)

Russian and Syrian officials urged the U.N. to intervene and help evacuate the camp.

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2:15 p.m.

Civilians are continuing to emerge from the last shred of territory held by the Islamic State group in Syria, including some defiant wives and children of militants from the extremist group.

There were no signs of combat on Wednesday to allow for evacuations out of the IS-held pocket in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, the group spearheading the fight against IS in Syria, has been applying a mix of military operations to put pressure on the militants who refuse to surrender, followed by pauses that allow for the evacuation of civilians.

A group of women seen at a receiving area set up in the desert, where they were screened by SDF officials, remained defiant, praising the Islamic State group and screaming angrily at journalists.

Women and children who were evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants wait to be screened outside Baghouz, Syria, Tuesday, March 5, 2019. The latest wave of evacuations brings the final defeat of IS by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces one step closer - a milestone in the devastating four-year campaign to defeat the group's so-called "caliphate" that once covered a vast territory straddling both Syria and Iraq.(AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)

A woman and child who was evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants carries her child outside Baghouz, Syria, Tuesday, March 5, 2019. The latest wave of evacuations brings the final defeat of IS by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces one step closer - a milestone in the devastating four-year campaign to defeat the group's so-called "caliphate" that once covered a vast territory straddling both Syria and Iraq.(AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)

Women who were evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants carry their children outside Baghouz, Syria, Tuesday, March 5, 2019. The latest wave of evacuations brings the final defeat of IS by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces one step closer - a milestone in the devastating four-year campaign to defeat the group's so-called "caliphate" that once covered a vast territory straddling both Syria and Iraq.(AP Photo/Andrea Rosa)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - The Polish government is reconsidering whether to exhume human remains at a World War II-era site where Jews were burned alive by Polish neighbors, though the country's chief rabbi says the work would violate Judaism's prohibition on disinterment under most circumstances.

Authorities will weigh "various circumstances" in deciding if exhumations should go forward in the town of Jedwabne, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told private broadcaster Polsat News.

During the German Nazi occupation of Poland, Poles killed at least 340 Jews on July 10, 1941. Most of the victims were locked inside a barn that was set on fire.

Some Poles want the massacre site excavated to uncover possible evidence that Germans ordered Polish villagers to do the killings. The work was started in 2001 and stopped by the justice minister after several days due to Jewish objections.

Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich said exhuming the place where the barn stood "would desecrate the memory of those who were buried there."

"It makes moral sense that we should follow the religious traditions of those who were buried there," Schudrich told The Associated Press. "Jewish law hasn't changed in 2,000 years, and what we said in 2001 remains the same now."

FILE - In this Sunday, July 10, 2011 file photo, in a sign of mourning, participants place pebbles on a monument to honour the hundreds of Jews murdered by their Polish neighbours during state and religious ceremony marking 70 years since the World War II massacre in Jedwabne, Poland. The Polish government says it is considering carrying out exhumations at a World War II-era site where Jews were burned alive in a barn by their Polish neighbors, something which would violate Jewish religious law. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)

The Jedwabne pogrom was one of several massacres carried out by Poles during the German occupation. Many historians see it as evidence that anti-Semitism existed in a significant part of the Polish population.

Many Polish nationalists think it is unfair to blame Poles and that Germany bears the ultimate responsibility given the methods of terror and violence Nazis used in occupied Poland.

Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany for more than five years during World War II. Nearly 6 million Polish citizens died, some 3 million Jews and almost as many non-Jews.

That the question of exhuming remains has resurfaced reflects the pressure on Poland's ruling party from far-right groups that call historical evidence of Poles doing the killings to be a "Jewish lie."

A right-wing TV broadcaster sparked the discussion anew by asking an official about it recently.

The ruling Law and Justice party is led by the twin brother of the justice minister who stopped the earlier exhumation, Lech Kaczynski. He was killed along with 95 others in 2010 when the Polish air force plane they were on crashed in Russia.

The surviving brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has taken the party on a more nationalistic course in recent years.

Once the government decides whether to proceed with an excavation, prosecutors will have the final say, Morawiecki told Polsat News in an interview on Tuesday.

"For us, the most important thing is for historical truth to be emphasized, and the historical truth about the fate of Poles during the time of World War II is extremely sad for us," the prime minister said. "But it also testifies to what a splendid, great nation we are and who bears the sole guilt for the Holocaust."
Khalsa Aid attracts a large number of volunteers and presently there are around 18,000 volunteers working for it.

Who can be considered a true Sikh of the Guru? Who can be regarded a Sardar? A Sardar means a leader and one who leads others on to the path of humanity. A true Sikh must always be a defender, not an aggressor. And during the recent events after the Pulwama attack, a large number of Sikhs came forward to extend a helping hand to Kashmiris who had become soft targets of hatred. The Sikhs did not fail their Gurus and their message of love, devotion and universal brotherhood. As says Guru Nanak, Listen O mind, that person who fears nothing nor gives anyone cause to fear has alone obtained true knowledge.

A Sardar, a unique combination of saint-soldier, does not always need to use weapons to defend and help others. There can be no love of God without seva or service, which is presented as the highest ideal of life. All over India, Sikhs offered food and shelter to Kashmiri boys and girls and even arranged for their tickets back towards home.

One such Sikh organisation, Khalsa Aid, stands out for its humanitarian efforts. It not only made arrangements for their safe stay by guarding the students at night when they were asked to vacate the hostels and rented places but also sent more than 300 Kashmiri students from various places back to their homes. In the true spirit of the Sikh faith, Khalsa Aid pursues the model of equality, compassion and selfless service. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, preached a non-sectarian philosophy and strongly advocated that it did not matter to which religion one belonged, but what really mattered was truthful living. As says Guru Nanak, Truth is higher than everything, but higher still is truthful living.

Khalsa Aid, an international non-profit aid and relief organisation, was formed in 1999. Based on the Sikh principles of love, selfless seva (service), vaand chchakna (to share with others) and compassion, Khalsa Aid has not restricted its good deeds to the Sikh community but following in the footsteps of the Sikh Gurus, it has spread the value of universal brotherhood. Khalsa Aid has provided relief assistance to victims of disasters, war-victims, immigrants and for other untoward incidents. It arrives on the scene and provides all kinds of help, ranging from distributing food, water, clothing and medical-aid to providing safe shelter to the victims.

Khalsa Aid was founded by Ravinder Singh, who, following the core teaching of Sikhism, Sarbat-da-Bhalla (well being for all), decided to join a group of volunteers to provide food and shelter to the refugees on the Albania-Yugoslavia border where thousands of war-victims had taken shelter. Since 1999, Khalsa Aid has been providing aid to people around the world, from victims of the Yemen civil war to Rohingya Muslims fleeing Burma.

Focus Punjab, launched in 2010, is one of the long-term projects of Khalsa Aid to help the victims of the 1984 riots. The main focus of another project, Langar Aid, is to end hunger worldwide. It is based on the Sikh philosophy of distributing free food to all. Langar Aid provides food to people all around the world.

Khalsa Aid attracts a large number of volunteers and presently there are around 18,000 volunteers working for it. Based on the Sikh philosophy of universal brotherhood, Khalsa Aid considers the whole human race as one and helps others without any distinctions. Khalsa Aid truly deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Trucks laden with food, water and gasoline began arriving Wednesday on the tiny Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra after the governor activated the National Guard due to a breakdown of two ferries that carry supplies.

Lt. Col. Paul Dahlen told The Associated Press that the National Guard is using two landing craft to bring trucks carrying supplies to the islands, which are located roughly 20 miles east of Puerto Rico. A total of roughly 11,000 people live on the two islands, which attract tens of thousands of tourists every year.

"We'll be working as long as needed to help our fellow Puerto Rican citizens in this time of need," he said.

Residents and tourists complained about empty shelves at supermarkets and long lines at gas stations after two cargo ferries operated by Puerto Rico's government broke down over the weekend. Victor Emeric, Vieques' mayor, told the AP that one of the ferries has been repaired and already has transported 11 delivery trucks to the island, where one supermarket was devoid of bread, water and eggs. However, he worries the ferry will break down again.

"These boats are kind of fragile," he said. "Everybody feels sorry for us, but the government does not want to invest in what needs to be invested."

Dahlen said the National Guard also provided transportation to Vieques and Culebra in 2012 when several ferries were out of service.

The administration of Gov. Ricardo Rossello is pushing to privatize a public transportation system that has long been plagued by breakdowns and delays, and he told WAPA TV on Wednesday that he expects to have a deal by summer.
CHICAGO (AP) - Police say a 21-year-old Chicago man who sped away from a traffic stop and then crashed, killing a 2-year-old girl who was thrown from the vehicle, has been charged with reckless homicide and several other counts.

Police said Wednesday that Donell Davis fled from South Side a traffic stop on Sunday and collided with another vehicle before striking a tree. Toddler Danyla Owens was ejected from the vehicle and killed. Police say she wasn't in a car seat.

Davis was arrested at the scene. Police say officers found a weapon in the vehicle. In addition to the homicide charge, Davis is charged with aggravated reckless driving, the unlawful use of a weapon by a convicted felon and several lesser counts.

He has a bond hearing on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen insisted Wednesday the crisis at the southern border is not manufactured, as she faced questions from Democrats for the first time since they took control of the House.

"We face a crisis - a real, serious and sustained crisis at our borders," she said at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing. "Make no mistake: This chain of human misery is getting worse."

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said he wanted to use the hearing in part to give Nielsen the opportunity to start a "serious discussion," rather than echoing President Donald Trump's claims of a security crisis at the border, and to say what she knew about the family separations last year. He said real oversight over the border was long overdue.

"No amount of verbal gymnastics will change that she knew the Trump administration was implementing a policy to separate families at the border," Thompson said. "To make matters worse, the administration bungled implementation of its cruel plan, losing track of children and even deporting parents to Central America without their children."

Nielsen was grilled on whether she was aware of the psychological effects of separating children from their parents, and when she knew ahead of time about the "zero tolerance" policy that led to the separation of more than 2,700 children from their parents last year. And she was asked about conversations with Trump as he declared a national emergency at the border to try to gain funding for his proposed wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

"There is an emergency," Nielsen said. "I have seen the vulnerable populations. This is a true humanitarian crisis that the system is enabling. We have to change the laws."

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, before the House Homeland Security Committee. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders weighed in on the hearing via Twitter:

"The crisis at our border is no secret," she wrote. Democrats were "just choosing to ignore it."

The hearing is one of three at the Capitol on immigration Wednesday. Since Democrats took control of the House, they have prioritized investigating last year's family separations and have subpoenaed documents related to the policy.

As Nielsen spoke to the House, Customs and Border Commissioner Kevin McAleenan presented a slide show to the Senate Judiciary Committee that highlighted the growing number of groups with at least 100 people in remote areas like the New Mexico Bootheel and Ajo, Arizona, and the unprecedented challenges of attending to medical needs at its short-term holding facilities.

Tens of thousands of families are crossing the border illegally every month, straining resources. Last month, there were more than 76,000 migrants apprehended - it was more than double the same period last year. And she said the forecast is that the problem will grow worse as weather gets better; traditionally the early spring months see higher illegal crossings.

The new figures reflect the difficulties Trump has faced as he tries to cut down on illegal immigration, his signature issue. But it could also help him make the case that there truly is a national emergency at the border - albeit one built around humanitarian crises and not necessarily border security.

The Senate is expected to vote next week and join the House in rejecting Trump's national emergency declaration aimed at building border walls, but Trump would almost certainly veto the measure and the issue is likely to be settled in the courts.

Lawmakers also asked Nielsen about the conditions of children held at Border Patrol facilities, and whether asylum seekers were being wrongly turned away at the border.

Homeland Security's top internal watchdog official, John Roth, was also testifying Wednesday, and James McHenry, a Justice Department who oversees clogged immigration courts. Also Thursday, Customs and Border Protection officials will testify about challenges of hiring and recruiting Border Patrol agents, including a contract worth up to $297 million for consulting firm Accenture. The firm successfully recruited only two agents during its first 10 months of the contract.

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Associated Press Writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, before the House Homeland Security Committee. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

House Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., waits for the start of a hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
BEAUREGARD, Ala. (AP) - The Latest on the tornado that killed 23 people in rural Alabama (all times local):

2:10 p.m.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey toured tornado damage in rural Lee County, where 23 people perished over the weekend.

"It's awful," the governor told reporters Wednesday as she took a walking tour past shattered mobile homes as residents hunted amid piles of debris for belongings they could salvage.

Ivey first toured the area by helicopter, then set out on foot along a county road where many fatalities occurred.

Ivey said she was surprised there weren't more deaths from the Sunday twister. She said she hoped the devastation would bring "awareness that when you hear the first alert, you need to take shelter."

Tornado survivor James Johnson visits a makeshift memorial of a cross for each victim in Opelika, Ala., Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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1:30 p.m.

Forecasters say the tornado that slammed into Beauregard, Alabama, scraped the ground for one hour and 16 minutes as it tracked nearly 69 miles (111 kilometers) across Alabama and Georgia.

That means the Sunday tornado traveled at an average speed of nearly 55 mph (89 kph) - a common speed for cars and trucks on many of the highways it crossed.

Details of the storm track come from a newly compiled National Weather Service report.

Twenty-three people were killed and dozens more were injured when the EF4 twister ripped through Beauregard. The youngest of those killed was 6, the oldest 89.

Although the tornado lost some intensity in Georgia, forecasters say it still destroyed several homes in the state and injured 7 people in the area of Talbotton, Georgia. No deaths were reported in Georgia.

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10:15 a.m.

Officials overseeing the disaster response to a tornado-stricken community in Alabama say all people reported missing have been accounted for with no increase in the death toll.

Lee County Coroner Bill Harris told a news conference Wednesday that the death toll stands at 23, but his office is "in standby mode on the outside chance they find somebody else, which is not likely."

Sheriff Jay Jones said the disaster response will now shift to recovery following two full days of searching.

Officials say a powerful EF4 tornado, cutting a path of destruction nearly a mile wide, caused the devastation Sunday in rural Beauregard, Alabama.

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9:55 a.m.

Government survey teams have confirmed at least 34 tornadoes struck the Southeast in the deadly weekend outbreak that devastated a rural community in Alabama.

The National Weather Service says a violent storm system Sunday spawned at least 11 twisters in Alabama and 14 more across Georgia. Five tornadoes have been confirmed in Florida, and four more in South Carolina.

The most powerful was an EF4 tornado blamed for killing 23 people in Beauregard, Alabama, as it traveled roughly 70 miles (112 kilometers) on a path that also left a trail of destruction in western Georgia.

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9:40 a.m.

Forecasters say tornado-ravaged Alabama and several other southern states will soon be under threat of more severe storms.

The national Storm Prediction Center says there's a risk of some tornadoes with the system that's arriving in the South this weekend. The Storm Prediction Center says a vast part of the region from Texas to Georgia will be under threat of severe weather Saturday.

The area at risk of storms is home to 41 million people and includes major cities such as Dallas, New Orleans and Atlanta. Also included in the region is most of Alabama, including the small community of Beauregard where crews have been searching through rubble after 23 people were killed by a tornado on Sunday.

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8:40 a.m.

Pope Francis is sending condolences to tornado victims in Alabama, where searchers have been scouring a dismal landscape of shattered homes, splintered pines and broken lives.

President Donald Trump said he'll visit Alabama on Friday to see the damage.

Twenty-three people were killed and dozens more were injured when the powerful tornado ripped through Lee County on Sunday. The youngest of those killed was 6, the oldest 89.

It was the deadliest tornado to hit the U.S. since May 2013, when an EF5 twister killed 24 people in Moore, Oklahoma.

Rand Bowman, left, prays with fellow volunteers, Paul Kelley, center, and Bruce Button outside a donation distribution site in Opelika, Ala., Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Debris is scattered after a tornado blew a home off its foundation in Beauregard, Ala., Tuesday, March 5, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Trees stripped of their branches from a tornado stand against the setting sun in Beauregard, Ala., Tuesday, March 5, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Kayla Causey sifts through the debris while helping her mother retrieve personal items after a tornado destroyed her home in Beauregard, Ala., Tuesday, March 5, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Carol Dean, right, cries while embraced by Megan Anderson and her 18-month-old daughter Madilyn, as Dean sifts through the debris of the home she shared with her husband, David Wayne Dean, who died when a tornado destroyed the house in Beauregard, Ala., Monday, March 4, 2019. "He was my wedding gift," said Dean of her husband whom she married three years ago. "He was one in a million. He'd send me flowers to work just to let me know he loved me. He'd send me some of the biggest strawberries in the world. I'm not going to be the same." (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Debris sits on the side of a road in a neighborhood devastated by a tornado in Beauregard, Ala., Tuesday, March 5, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

ADDED SHARED WITH-Carol Dean, right, is embraced by David Theo Dean as they sift through the debris of the home Carol shared with her husband and David's father, David Wayne Dean, who died when a tornado destroyed the house in Beauregard, Ala., Monday, March 4, 2019. "He was my wedding gift," said Dean of her husband whom she married three years ago. "He was one in a million. He'd send me flowers to work just to let me know he loved me. He'd send me some of the biggest strawberries in the world. I'm not going to be the same." (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Danny Allen helps recover belongings while sifting through the debris of a friend's home destroyed by a tornado in Beauregard, Ala., Monday, March 4, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Debris from a home litters a yard the day after a tornado blew it off its foundation, lower right, in Beauregard, Ala., Monday, March 4, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Ashley Griggs, right, helps Joey Roush, left sift through what's left of his mother's home after it was destroyed by a tornado in Beauregard, Ala., Monday, March 4, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Danny Allen recovers a family photo while sifting through the debris of a friend's home destroyed by a tornado in Beauregard, Ala., Monday, March 4, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Danny Allen helps recover belongings while sifting through the debris of a friend's home destroyed by a tornado in Beauregard, Ala., Monday, March 4, 2019. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
LONDON (AP) - A British Muslim convert was sentenced Wednesday to at least 15 years in prison for plotting a van attack on crowds in London's busy Oxford Street shopping district.

Lewis Ludlow had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to preparing acts of terrorism and fundraising for the Islamic State group.

Police found planning notes for an attack ripped up in a garbage bin. Prosecutors say the 27-year-old wrote that Oxford Street was an "ideal" target because "nearly 100 could be killed." Ludlow also had a list of "potential attack sites" including the Madame Tussauds wax museum, St. Paul's Cathedral and a Shia temple in Romford, east London.

Prosecutors say Ludlow, from Rochester in southern England, tried to travel to the Philippines in February 2018 to join IS militants, but was stopped by police at Heathrow Airport. They say he later plotted to attack London, and allegedly set up a Facebook account called Antique Collections as a front to send money to militants in the Philippines.

He was arrested in April 2018 and charged with the attack plot. Ludlow claimed in court that he had been coerced by a militant in the Philippines to mount an attack.

But judge Nicholas Hilliard said Ludlow's commitment "to violent extremism ran very deep."

This undated handout photo provided by Counter Terrorism Policing South East shows a custody image of Lewis Ludlow. A Muslim convert has been sentenced on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 to at least 15 years in prison for plotting a van attack on crowds in London's busy Oxford Street shopping district. Lewis Ludlow had earlier pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism and fundraising for the Islamic State group. (Counter Terrorism Policing South East via AP)

He sentenced Ludlow at London's Central Criminal Court to life with no chance of parole for 15 years.

He said Ludlow had prepared for a "spectacular" attack "with the intention of causing death or terror."

"There could be no other explanation for your preparing to kill innocent people in a vehicle attack for ideological reasons," the judge said.

This undated handout photo provided by Counter Terrorism Policing South East shows a handwritten letter found in bin detailing potential targets in London that was shown at the Old Bailey during the sentencing hearing for Lewis Ludlow. A Muslim convert has been sentenced on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 to at least 15 years in prison for plotting a van attack on crowds in London's busy Oxford Street shopping district. Lewis Ludlow had earlier pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism and fundraising for the Islamic State group. (Counter Terrorism Policing South East via AP)
MADRID (AP) - An investigating magistrate in Spain is accusing senior officials at a state-owned export agency of corruption, money-laundering and other crimes in connection with Spanish arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

A National Court statement issued Wednesday said magistrate Jose de la Mata wants to put on trial nine people, including the former president and some board members of Defex, which markets goods manufactured in Spain.

The court says they are accused of illegal conduct surrounding 11 contracts worth more than 48 million euros ($54 million).

The magistrate says he found "solid" evidence Defex paid illegal commissions to Saudi Arabian officials for tank and artillery shells and automatic weapon ammunition.

A judge will decide whether to proceed with a trial.

The court is also weighing a possible trial for Defex officials over arms sales to Angola and Cameroon.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut lawmaker wants to strike climate change from state science standards. A Virginia legislator worries teachers are indoctrinating students with their personal views on global warming. And an Oklahoma state senator wants educators to be able to introduce alternative viewpoints without fear of losing their jobs.

As climate change becomes a hotter topic in American classrooms, politicians around the country are pushing back against the near-universal scientific consensus that global warming is real, dire and man-made.

Of the more than a dozen such measures proposed so far this year, some already have failed. But they have emerged this year in growing numbers, many of them inspired or directly encouraged by a pair of advocacy groups, the Discovery Institute and the Heartland Institute.

"You have to present two sides of the argument and allow the kids to deliberate," said Republican state Sen. David Bullard of Oklahoma, a former high school geography teacher whose bill, based on model legislation from the Discovery Institute, ran into opposition from science teachers and went nowhere.

Scientists and science education organizations have blasted such proposals for sowing confusion and doubt on a topic of global urgency. They reject the notion that there are "two sides" to the issue.

"You can't talk about two sides when the other side doesn't have a foot in reality," said University of Illinois climate scientist Donald Wuebbles.

FILE - In this June, 3, 2017, file photo, the sun sets behind Georgia Power's coal-fired Plant Scherer, one of the nation's top carbon dioxide emitters, in Juliette, Ga. As climate change becomes a hotter topic in American classrooms in 2019, some politicians are pushing back against the scientific consensus that global warming is real and man-made. (AP Photo/Branden Camp, File)

Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, said these legislative proposals are dangerous, bad-faith efforts to undermine scientific findings that the fossil-fuel industry or fundamentalist religious groups don't want to hear.

In the mainstream scientific community, there is little disagreement about the basics that greenhouse gases from the burning of coal, oil and gas are causing the world to warm in a dangerous manner. More than 90 percent of the peer-reviewed studies and scientists who write them say climate change is a human-caused problem.

A Nobel Prize-winning international panel of scientists has repeatedly published reports detailing the science behind climate change and how the world is likely to pass a level of warming that an international agreement calls dangerous. The U.S. government last year issued a detailed report saying that "climate-related threats to Americans' physical, social and economic well-being are rising."

The battle over global warming resembles the fight that began decades ago over the teaching of evolution, in which opponents led by conservative Christians have long called for schools to present what they consider both sides of the issue.

Some of those who reject mainstream climate science have cast the debate as a matter of academic freedom.

James Taylor, a senior fellow at Heartland, an Illinois-based group that dismisses climate change, said it is encouraging well-rounded classroom discussions on the topic. The group, which in 2017 sent thousands of science teachers copies of a book titled "Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming," is now taking its message directly to students. A reference book it is planning for publication this year will rebut arguments linking climate change to hurricanes, tornadoes and other extreme weather.

"We're very concerned the global warming propaganda efforts have encouraged students to not engage in research and critical thinking," Taylor said, referring to news reports and scientific warnings.

Neither Discovery nor Heartland discloses the identities of its donors.

Instruction on the topic varies widely from place to place, but climate change and how humans are altering the planet are core topics emphasized in the Next Generation Science Standards, developed by a group of states. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have adopted the standards, and 21 others have embraced some of the material with modifications.

Still, a survey released in 2016 found that of public middle- and high-school science teachers who taught something about climate change, about a quarter gave equal time to perspectives that "raise doubt about the scientific consensus."

By early February, the Oakland, California-based nonprofit National Center for Science Education flagged over a dozen bills this year as threats to the integrity of science education, more than the organization typically sees in an entire year.

Several of them - including proposals in Oklahoma, North Dakota and South Dakota - had language echoing model legislation of the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which says teachers should not be prohibited from addressing strengths and weaknesses of concepts such as evolution and global warming.

Similar measures became law in Louisiana in 2008 and Tennessee in 2012. In states where they may not be feasible politically, Discovery has urged legislators to consider nonbinding resolutions in support of giving teachers latitude to "show support for critical thinking" on controversial topics. Lawmakers in Alabama and Indiana passed such resolutions in 2017.

Discovery officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Florida state Sen. Dennis Baxley is pressing legislation that would allow schools to teach alternatives to controversial theories.

"There is really no established science on most things, you'll find," the GOP legislator said.

Elsewhere, lawmakers in Connecticut and Iowa, which both adopted the Next Generation Science Standards, have proposed rolling them back. Connecticut state Rep. John Piscopo, a Republican who is a Heartland Institute member, said he wants to eliminate the section on climate change, calling it "totally one-sided."

Other bills introduced this year in such states as Virginia, Arizona and Maine call for teachers to avoid political or ideological indoctrination of their students.

"If they're teaching about a subject, such as climate change, and they present both sides, that's fine. That's as it should be. A teacher who presents a skewed extension of their political beliefs, that's closer to indoctrinating. That's not good to kids," said Virginia state Rep. Dave LaRock, a Republican.

While there are many details about climate science hotly debated among scientists, it is well-established that global warming is real, human-caused and a problem, said scientist Chris Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

"When people say we ought to present two sides, they're saying we ought to present a side that's totally been disproven along with a side that has been fundamentally supported by the evidence," Field said.

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Associated Press science writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this story from Washington.

In this Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019 photo, Oklahoma state Sen. David Bullard poses for a photo in his office in Oklahoma City. As climate change becomes a more common topic in American classrooms, lawmakers in statehouses around the country are pushing to encourage seeds of doubt over the scientific consensus on global warming. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

In this Feb. 20, 2019 photo, Connecticut State Rep. John Piscopo, R-Burlington, sits at his desk at the State Capitol in Hartford, Conn. Piscopo has proposed legislation that would eliminate any reference to climate change from the science standards adopted in Connecticut. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

FILE - In this June 12, 2018, file photo, a blue-green algae bloom in Provo Bay in Provo, Utah. Researchers and officials across the country have said increasingly frequent toxic algae blooms are another bi-product of global warming. As climate change becomes a hotter topic in American classrooms in 2019, some politicians are pushing back against the scientific consensus that global warming is real and man-made. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, File)
CHICAGO (AP) - Federal prosecutors agreed Wednesday to drop all felony corruption charges against former Rep. Aaron Schock if he pays tens of thousands to the IRS and campaign committees, a dramatic reversal the Illinois Republican said proved he was targeted by a prosecutor looking for "stardom."

Schock, a one-time rising GOP star, resigned from Congress in 2015 amid scrutiny of his spending, including decorating his office in the style of the "Downton Abbey" TV series. He faced up to 20 years in prison when he was indicted a year later on two dozen counts, including wire fraud and falsification of election commission filings. He was set to go to trial in June.

But during a court hearing in Chicago, prosecutors said they will drop the charges within six months if Schock holds up his part of the agreement.

The 37-year-old said he will repay his three campaign committees nearly $68,000 and work with the Internal Revenue Service to determine how much he owes in taxes for income he didn't report between 2010 and 2015.

Schock acknowledged he made about $42,000 by reselling for a profit Super Bowl and World Series tickets he obtained at face value, and that he didn't report it as income. He also said he submitted mileage reimbursements without documentation, and for more mileage than he likely drove.

"There's a difference between mistakes and crimes, and I've said from the beginning that there was never intent by me or my staff to commit crimes," Schock told reporters after the hearing. He said poor record-keeping occurred, in part, "because I was working my tail off" representing a large congressional district that includes more than 200 communities.

Former U.S. Rep. speaks to reporters at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Schock has agreed to repay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes and to campaign committees in exchange for prosecutors dismissing his felony corruption case. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

The case originally was filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois in Springfield, but the Justice Department transferred it to northern Illinois last year. Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the northern district in Chicago, said the office "conducted a thorough review of the case before proceeding" with the agreement.

Schock and his attorney praised the Chicago office for conducting an objective review.

"We felt all along that if some reasonable prosecutor would sit down and objectively review the facts here they could come to the same conclusions or almost the same conclusions that we have about the case," defense attorney George Terwilliger said.

"This was a case that was the wrong case brought for the wrong reasons from the get-go," he said. "It began as a bang. That bang turned out to be a blank. Now it's ending with a whimper."

Schock said he has "no doubt" he was targeted by the Springfield office. He said the lead prosecutor was actively seeking the position of U.S. attorney at the time.

"It became very obvious to all of us that he saw me as his ticket to stardom," Schock said.

Sharon Paul, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Springfield, declined to comment Wednesday.

Prosecutors filed one misdemeanor count against one of Schock's campaign committees, alleging improper record keeping. The committee, Schock for Congress, pleaded guilty Wednesday through an official and was fined about $26,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Hogstrom, who represented the government in Chicago Wednesday, called the agreement "a fair and sensible resolution."

The case was transferred to prosecutors in Chicago shortly after a Chicago-based judge replaced Urbana-based Colin Bruce as trial judge. Bruce was removed from all criminal cases after exchanging emails with a U.S. attorney's office worker about another case.

Schock's attorneys sought to have the case dismissed before Wednesday's hearing, but a federal judge and federal appeals court declined. The U.S. Supreme Court declined last month to get involved in the case.

Asked Wednesday about what his future holds and whether he will run for public office again, Schock didn't say yes or no. He said he's looking forward to having the weight of this case off his chest and having some kind of private life.

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Check out the AP's complete coverage of former Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock.

Former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, left, listens as his attorney George Terwilliger speaks to reporters at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Schock has agreed to repay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes and to campaign committees in exchange for prosecutors dismissing his felony corruption case. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

Former U.S. Rep. speaks to reporters at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Schock has agreed to repay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes and to campaign committees in exchange for prosecutors dismissing his felony corruption case. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

Former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock walks with his lawyers into the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago, Wednesday morning, March 6, 2019. Schock has agreed to repay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes and to campaign committees in exchange for prosecutors dismissing his felony corruption case. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune via AP)

Former U.S. Rep. speaks to reporters at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Schock has agreed to repay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes and to campaign committees in exchange for prosecutors dismissing his felony corruption case. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - The party of Hungary's prime minister says it "cannot yield" to conditions set for it to remain in the main center-right group in the European Parliament.

Balazs Hidveghi, communications director of Viktor Orban's Fidesz party, said Wednesday that "the defense of European Christian values and stopping migration is more important than party discipline."

The European People's Party is set to discuss Fidesz's membership at a meeting on March 20 amid the Orban government's campaign against EU leaders.

Several smaller parties within the EPP are calling for Fidesz's ouster after years of conflict over the rule of law, democratic EU values and mass immigration.

Manfred Weber, the EPP candidate to succeed European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said that, among other conditions, Orban should stop the anti-Brussels campaign and apologize.
VIENNA (AP) - Iran's deputy foreign minister says Tehran has received "strong support" from all remaining parties to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with his country since the U.S. pulled out unilaterally last year.

Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Vienna on Wednesday that Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China have "acknowledged that the deal can only survive if Iran can receive the benefits of the deal," and remain committed to making it work.

Araghchi spoke after meeting with the remaining signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, which provides Iran with sanctions relief in exchange for limiting its nuclear program.

He praised the Europeans' establishment in January of INSTEX, a barter-type system designed to allow their businesses to skirt direct financial transactions with Iran and thereby evade possible U.S. sanctions.
Various estimates show cryptocurrency crime is on the rise globally, keeping pace with the markets rapid growth.

A recent study revealed the value of cryptocurrencies stolen from exchanges and scammed from investors surged more than 400 percent in 2018 to about USD 1.7 billion.

Australias anti-money laundering watchdog said on Friday it had suspended license of two cryptocurrency exchanges after a police investigation found the businesses were being exploited for drug trafficking.

It was the first such suspension by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, or AUSTRAC since new legislation in April 2018 brought digital currency exchanges under its umbrella to ensure cryptocurrencies were monitored the same way as cash exchanges and transfers.

Various estimates show cryptocurrency crime is on the rise globally, keeping pace with the markets rapid growth.

A recent study revealed the value of cryptocurrencies stolen from exchanges and scammed from investors surged more than 400 percent in 2018 to about USD 1.7 billion.

In a joint statement with AUSTRAC, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said they arrested a 27-year old man, a key member of the suspended cryptocurrency businesses, and charged him with importing, trafficking and possessing about 30 kg of drugs including cocaine.

The man is suspected of playing a major role in directing the operations of the criminal syndicate which used various darknet sites, bitcoin accounts and legitimate business for the sourcing, payment, and distribution of the illicit drugs, police said.

While cash is still king, digital currencies are fast becoming the preferred choice for organized criminal networks involved in money laundering, funding terrorism, and cybercrimes, Cybercrime Squad commander, Detective Superintendent Matt Craft said in a press release.

Let this be a warning to digital currency exchange providers: if you fail to comply with your obligations, your actions will not go unnoticed.
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's central elections committee on Wednesday paved the way for a Jewish ultranationalist party to participate in April's parliamentary vote, narrowly rejecting an attempt to disqualify its leaders on the grounds that they incite racism against Arabs.

The committee, made up of representatives from parties in the current Parliament, voted 16-15 against motions to disqualify Jewish Power party leaders Michael Ben Ari and Itamar Ben Gvir.

Jewish Power's leaders are successors of the late rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated the forced removal of Palestinians and a Jewish theocracy.

Kahane's Kach party was banned from the Israeli Parliament in the 1980s, and the U.S. has classified Kahane's Jewish Defense League a terrorist group. In 2012, the U.S. refused to give Ben Ari an entrance visa, saying he was involved in a terror organization.

The opposition Meretz party and the Reform Movement in Israel submitted an appeal to the elections committee to bar the Jewish Power leaders from running in the April 9 vote, citing racist remarks against Israel's Arab minority.

Speaking to The Associated Press before Wednesday's committee vote, Jewish Power candidate Baruch Marzel dismissed accusations of racism, saying "we don't have anything against Arabs."

FILE - In this May 27, 2010 file photo, Israeli right wing activist Itamar Ben-Gvir is detained by police after shouting slogans at White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, during his visit to Jerusalem's Old City. Israel's central elections committee has rejected a motion to bar two members of an extreme Jewish nationalist party from running in April's parliamentary vote. The committee on Wednesday upheld the candidacy of Michael Ben Ari and Itamar Ben Gvir, leaders in the Jewish Power party. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File)

"We have a battle with our enemy, and it's some of the Arabs. There are some Jews," he said.

Earlier this week, Israel's attorney general called for Ben Ari's disqualification, saying he has incited against Arabs. He cited comments by Ben Ari in social media videos describing Arabs as a "murderous people" who understand "only force."

The decision to disqualify, however, fell to the central elections committee.

After the committee's decision to let him run, Ben Ari dismissed the attorney general's statement as "false."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck an election deal last month that would ensure members of Jewish Power a parliamentary seat in an effort to unite Israel's hard-line nationalist and religious bloc ahead of the elections.

Netanyahu's move has been widely criticized in Israel, and has even drawn scorn from pro-Israel American Jewish organizations, such as AIPAC and the American Jewish Committee. Both groups have called the Jewish Power party "reprehensible."

Ben Gvir, an attorney, has made a career defending radical Israeli settlers implicated in West Bank violence, and Ben Ari has previously served in the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, for an ultranationalist religious party from 2009 to 2013.

Tamar Zandberg, head of the opposition Meretz party, which helped spearhead the petition to disqualify Ben Ari, said Meretz would appeal to the Supreme Court.
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's minister for economic development has been rebuked in parliament, an unusual show of tension in the circles loyal to President Vladimir Putin.

Maxim Oreshkin was speaking to the Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday when speaker Vyacheslav Volodin halted his remarks and criticized Oreshkin for being unprepared and short on specifics.

Volodin, who was Putin's deputy chief of staff before becoming parliament speaker, said he wanted to know more about what Oreshkin was doing to fulfill the economic initiatives that Putin announced last month in his state-of-the-nation speech.

Oreshkin is seen as a rising star in Russian politics and some of his recent remarks have suggested he may hold ambitions to succeed Putin.
SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) - Newly renamed North Macedonia's government says 136 state-funded institutions will adjust their names in the next four months under a historic deal the country formerly known as Macedonia struck with neighboring Greece last year.

But the national anthem will remain unchanged, retaining all references to Macedonia, government spokesman Mile Boshnjakovski said Wednesday. He told the Associated Press that it is part of the country's national heritage and culture, and is thus exempt from the deal.

He said the country's state orchestra, TV and news agency will have the word "Macedonian" replaced by "National" in their names. But the Macedonian National Theater won't change, being a cultural institution.

Among the institutions to be renamed is the central bank, which will become the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia.
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats on Wednesday postponed indefinitely a vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism after a contentious meeting in which some new members confronted leaders over their push to rebuke Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

In the party's weekly closed meeting, Democrats protested the way Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders tried to rush out a resolution this week responding to Omar's latest remark about Israel. Omar last week suggested the Jewish state's supporters are pushing lawmakers to pledge "allegiance" to a foreign country.

That forced Democratic leaders to respond, but their draft of the resolution condemning anti-Semitism angered Omar's fellow freshmen and their liberal supporters. Pelosi had already said the measure would be broadened to decry anti-Muslim bias. But that didn't quiet the ranks, and the party's first major dissension broke out in an uncomfortable confrontation, according to three officials familiar with the episode, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters.

The upheaval prompted Democrats, who regularly celebrate their diversity, to push off a decision about the resolution.

"It is shameful that House Democrats won't take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference," President Donald Trump tweeted. "Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and it's inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!"

Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut complained that Pelosi left Democrats out of the loop on the resolution's details.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., walks through an underground tunnel at the Capitol as top House Democrats plan to offer a measure that condemns anti-Semitism in the wake of controversial remarks by the freshman congresswoman, in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Omar said last week that Israel's supporters are pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance to a foreign country." Despite criticism from Democrats and Republicans, Omar has refused to apologize. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

"My comments were about the process we are using when concerns arise," Hayes said in a statement. "As a member of Congress I should not get important information from cable news."

Two people with knowledge of the situation said Hayes was engaged in conversation with a colleague when Pelosi asked her a question. The congresswoman did not respond because she did not hear the speaker address her, these people say. Most lawmakers had left the room at the time.

Then Pelosi said, "If you're not going to listen to me, I'm done talking," according to a person in the room.

A senior Democratic aide said Pelosi had earlier acknowledged the issues and said the resolution was not final. One person in the room quoted the speaker as saying the leaders had tried to increase communication so that members stay united and have "a clearer understanding of what our purpose is as a caucus, how we proceed."

Some Democrats hugged Omar, one of two Muslim women in Congress, during the meeting, according to other officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. She's also received powerful boosts from fellow Democratic freshmen Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

Opposition to the resolution came from the most junior ranks of Democrats to the most senior and spanned some of the party's caucuses.

Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., said she spoke up in a leadership meeting earlier this week about the original draft being "reactionary" to Omar's most recent comment. The dissention over the issue, Hill said, "has been building for a while."

House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., suggested Omar and her comments about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group, will loom over any such measure, however it's worded.

"Whatever we do it's going to look like we're responding specifically to her and to AIPAC and so I'm leaning against," he said.

Many have pointed to the fact that Omar was the target of an anti-Muslim poster that appeared last week at the West Virginia Capitol in Charleston, with her picture over an image of the World Trade Center's burning towers.

"We're very concerned about that and we want that paid attention to," said Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif. "Many members of the D caucus are concerned and concerned over the general rise in hatred that we have seen. And so we want to make clear that we make a stand against all forms of bigotry and hatred."

There was also dissention among the Democrats on whether a resolution condemning anti-Semitism was even necessary, given that the House voted on a similar measure already.

"I'm not sure we need to continue to do this every single time," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

The upheaval was a striking change from the heady first days of Democratic control, which installed Pelosi as speaker for the second time. Omar is among the most prominent freshman, as evidenced by her appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone's March issue with Pelosi, Hayes and Ocasio-Cortez. The resolution has created friction among Pelosi and all three of the women in the photo.

Omar, one of two Muslim women in Congress, has declined to comment, but a series of remarks about U.S.-Israel policy have forced the Democrats to respond. Pelosi, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and other Democrats condemned Omar's remarks about divided loyalties. She did not apologize.

The Democratic dissension was noted by Republicans with not just a little glee.

"It looks like the Democrats are doing a nice job of chewing themselves up," said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.

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Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Padmananda Rama and Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

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Follow Kellman and Mascaro on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman and http://www.twitter.com/LisaMascaro

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This story has been corrected to show that Rep. Jayapal's first name is Pramila, not Primayla.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., walks through an underground tunnel at the Capitol as top House Democrats plan to offer a measure that condemns anti-Semitism in the wake of controversial remarks by the freshman congresswoman, in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Omar said last week that Israel's supporters are pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance to a foreign country." Despite criticism from Democrats and Republicans, Omar has refused to apologize. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., walks through an underground tunnel at the Capitol as top House Democrats plan to offer a measure that condemns anti-Semitism in the wake of controversial remarks by the freshman congresswoman, in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Omar said last week that Israel's supporters are pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance to a foreign country." Despite criticism from Democrats and Republicans, Omar has refused to apologize. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The U.S. Senate has confirmed a 37-year-old lawyer as a judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals despite opposition from civil rights and LGBTQ groups.

Allison Jones Rushing was nominated by President Donald Trump in August for the lifetime appointment. She was confirmed Tuesday by a vote along party lines.

The 4th Circuit hears federal appeals from Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia.

Rushing is a partner at Williams & Connolly, a Washington law firm, and interned at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group. The group is known for the cases it has supported before the Supreme Court, including the case of a Colorado baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding and the Hobby Lobby ruling that allowed companies to opt out of covering contraceptives for their employees because of their religious beliefs.

Republicans praised Rushing's confirmation.

Democrats and a coalition of more than 200 civil rights groups were strongly opposed.

The Washington Post reported that in a letter to senators, the coalition described Rushing as an unqualified "ideological extremist."

She defended the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. She said she supported the four conservative justices who dissented when the Supreme Court struck down the ruling in 2015.
LINCOLNTON, N.C. (AP) - Two caregivers are accused of beating a disabled man with a metal broom handle.

News outlets report the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office says an investigation found that the RHA Health Services group home workers struck the victim when they had difficulty getting him off a van Feb. 28. The van was returning from an activity.

Authorities say the victim was hospitalized with several welts, bruises and a large scrape to his knee from falling.

RHA Health Services said the company has suspended 20-year-old Amaya Martin and 28-year-old Casandra Marie Miller. Each is charged with one felony count of assault of an individual with a disability and one misdemeanor account of assault with a deadly weapon.

Reports didn't include comment from them.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The nation's oldest historically black college, which has struggled with plummeting enrollment and financial woes in recent years, announced a plan Tuesday to balance the school's budget and lure new, top-tier students.

An ambitious fundraising campaign and sweeping changes to the school's business model were outlined by Cheyney University president Aaron Walton at a news conference.

"We will have a balanced budget," he said, vowing to make it happen by June 30.

Among the revenue-generating plans is a local environmental company's commitment to set up a new headquarters at Cheyney, he said, and Thomas Jefferson University's construction of a medical facility on the campus about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Philadelphia.

Epcot Crenshaw Corp., a West Chester, Pennsylvania-based company that develops technology to solve environmental problems, will establish research labs, greenhouses and an aquaponics facility, were Cheyney students can get real-world experience in emerging environmental technology, he said.

A joint research project has already begun between Thomas Jefferson University and Cheyney that focuses on health disparities in the Philadelphia region. The collaboration also is designed to help Cheyney graduates enter postgraduate studies at Jefferson. Jefferson will also place a medical facility on campus to give practical experience to Cheyney students interested in health sciences.

Aaron A. Walton, Cheyney's president, announces fundraising campaign and continued partnerships to ensure the school's financial future, during a news conference at the school Tuesday, March 5, 2019 in Philadelphia. The nation's oldest historically black college, which has struggled with plummeting enrollment and financial woes in recent years, has announced a plan intended to balance the school's budget and lure new, top-tier students. (Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

The announcements come weeks after Daniel Greenstein, chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, told state senators that Cheyney was likely to lose accreditation and looked as if it would be short on cash by as much as $10 million. The university may have to operate as an unaccredited institution, he said, possibly offering career training.

After Greenstein and Walton met with Gov. Tom Wolf last week, Walton said all were committed to Cheyney's future, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer .

Kenn Marshall, a spokesman for the state system, told the Inquirer on Tuesday that the chancellor stands by his remarks at the Senate hearing.

"We're going to continue to work with Cheyney and support them," Marshall said. "Obviously, President Walton has a plan, and we hope it's successful."

During the news conference, Walton said he expected the university to retain its accreditation and asserted that much of the $10 million funding hole Greenstein referenced is a cash-flow problem he expects to be resolved, the Inquirer reported.

The university hopes to raise about $4 million over the next few months under a new campaign to make sure the budget is balanced.

Without accreditation, the school is ineligible for federal and state financial aid - which most of its just over 400 students depend on.

Founded in 1837, Cheyney gave African Americans a chance at education when other schools would not.

Alumni include civil rights activist Octavius V. Catto; Bayard Rustin, a chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington; and "60 Minutes" broadcast journalist Ed Bradley.
DETROIT (AP) - New vehicles in the U.S. from the 2017 model year averaged slightly better gas mileage than the previous year, rising to a record 24.9 mpg, according to an annual report from the Environmental Protection Agency.

But the mileage rose only 0.2 mpg, and environmental groups say it fell short of a 1 mpg increase required under standards enacted during the Obama administration.

To make up the difference, automakers used credits for zero emissions vehicles and other fuel-saving measures that aren't included in EPA test cycles. The agency and the Department of Transportation say that's evidence the industry will have trouble meeting standards as they rise through 2025.

The Trump administration has proposed freezing the standards at 2021 levels.

But environmental groups and the state of California say the standards should remain in place and that automakers have the technology to meet them. The administration's move to freeze them , while not finalized, already has brought a court challenge from California and other states that follow its standards.

The administration last month broke off negotiations with California on fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions, and the matter probably will be tied up in the courts for years.

After ending the talks with California, administration officials held a conference call with automakers and began pressuring them to take its side in the dispute, according to four people who were either on the call or briefed on it. They spoke on condition about the Feb. 21 private call because of fear of retaliation from the administration.

On that call, a White House official told industry representatives that they had to decide whether they were in favor of "regulatory relief" or whether they wanted to side with California, according to two of the four people. One described the call as "testy" and the other said the industry was told it needed to take a side.

No one said any threats were made, but the industry fears tariffs on imported vehicles and parts, and one person pointed out that the Obama administration also pressured the industry to agree to fuel economy requirements.

The White House declined to comment on the specifics of conversations the administration is having with groups with stakes in the matter.

In the meantime, the standoff over fuel economy leaves the auto industry uncertain over what vehicles it must build. For now, the Obama-era regulations remain in effect, and auto companies are not sure what standards they have to meet for 2022 and beyond. A decision by the current administration is expected this spring.

Automakers have said they want the federal government to reach agreement on one national standard with California, which has authority to set its own mileage and emissions standards under the Clean Air Act. The administration is likely to challenge that.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement Wednesday that the agency's proposed changes "will allow the industry to meet aggressive yet attainable standards, reduce the price of new vehicles and help more Americans purchase cleaner, safer and more efficient vehicles."

But environment groups said that even with use of the credits, the industry is meeting the standards and can continue to do so.

"While the Trump administration is moving to gut the clean car standards, its own data shows the current standards are working. Automakers are innovating and improving the performance of their fleets, and tailpipe emissions continue to plummet," said Luke Tonachel, director for clean vehicles and fuels at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The EPA and the auto industry both say that as Americans shift from more efficient cars to trucks and SUVs, the industry is having trouble meeting the standards. The EPA report said that SUV sales reached a record 43 percent in 2017, with cars and wagons falling to 41 percent, about half their market share in 1975. The rest were trucks.

But Tonachel said the Obama-era standards are flexible, reducing requirements for automakers if they sell more trucks and SUVs.

"They are selling more trucks yet still meeting the standards because the standards automatically adjust to the mix of vehicles they sell," he said.

The EPA report said that car mileage increased by 1 mpg in 2017, while SUV mileage increased only 0.1 mpg.

Only Honda, Subaru and BMW met the mileage and pollution standards without using credits, according to the report.

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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (AP) - When small business owners want to divine what consumer spending trends will be months from now, their methods can be as sophisticated as internet analytics or as basic as plain old intuition.

At Moriarty's Gem Art, co-owner Jeff Moriarty tracks searches on the jewelry company's website and on Google Trends, a site that analyzes what people are looking for online.

"If we see a gemstone or a style of ring or certain metal type gaining popularity in a Google Trends report, we'll create pieces and see how they sell," says Moriarty, whose company is located in the Chicago suburb of Crown Point, Indiana.

While current sales trends are important for small retailers and manufacturers, it can be more critical to get a sense of what the next big seller will be, whether it's the hot toy during the holiday season, a fashion silhouette or a smartphone. Owners can get clues from internet searches, and deeper insights by looking at the data creatively and discerning how consumer tastes are changing. Knowing what's in the style and manufacturing pipeline can also help in anticipating trends.

Social media is another resource. Andrew Thornton and William Jones stay on top of trends by connecting with the customers of their jewelry and bead store.

"Social media helps inform your understanding of consumer psychology and allows you to plan accordingly and make changes," says Thornton, co-owner of Allegory Gallery in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. "It can be useful to learn who your customer is and figure out how to better serve them."

In this Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, photo a customer at Allegory Gallery, Denise Glover, right, hands her selections to William Jones, one of the co-owners of the jewelry and art store, as fellow owner Andrew Thornton, left, talks with instructor Laurel Ross, center right, and client Cindy Kuhns, center left, in the small town of Ligonier, Pa. Social media is a resource Thornton and Jones use to stay on top of trends by connecting with customers. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

Apparel retailers should follow blogs and social media accounts of people in the fashion industry, including stylists who select clothes for celebrities, says Bob Phibbs, owner of The Retail Doctor, a consulting business. Phibbs noted that Walmart commercials during the telecast of last month's Academy Awards featured well-known Hollywood stylists.

"Follow them on Instagram and see what they're dressing people in," Phibbs says.

Taylor Mack stays on top of book trends on Instagram, where book lovers connect at #bookstagram. Mack, who owns SilverFire Books, an online used book store, says she's able to engage with customers on social media, and also see what they want.

"I do market research by taking social cues from what users post on Instagram - the products they're buying, the buzzworthy books they're reading, and their lifestyles," says Mack, who lives in Issaquah, Washington.

Owners need to look creatively at sales or search data, no matter where they get it, to try to predict what's next, says Marshal Cohen, a senior analyst at NPD Group, a company that tracks consumer trends. Two years ago, Cohen saw signs that loungewear sales were going to increase. He forecast that sales of products people use when they're staying close to home - such as board games and cookware - would also increase, and they did.

"The art is being able to interpret the trend that helps you begin to gain insight into tomorrow," Cohen says.

Savvy owners will try to anticipate the end of a current trend. For example, if a color or style has been popular for a while, it may be about to wane as consumers want something new and different.

"You use the trends to try and pick the next style. That's where your intuition comes in," says Joanna Duda, owner of Pirillo Swimwear, a Chicago-based online retailer of women's swimsuits. Duda has seen a lot of yellow clothes in recent seasons, so she's turning to other hues for her upcoming collection.

While some owners go to trade shows or expos to spot likely trends, or ask their manufacturer vendors, Phibbs warns that may not be the best approach. For one thing, the merchandise at trade shows may not be as new as it looks. Phibbs says there's a lot of repetition as manufacturers have copied one another, and their merchandise has likely been shown on the internet already.

Moreover, Phibbs says, manufacturers want to sell you what's in their inventory - they want to clear it out so they can move on to their next line. A better strategy is for a small business to make itself a big, and therefore more important, customer for a manufacturer, he says

"When you're a bigger fish, they come to you and say, 'we're thinking of this for next year,'" Phibbs says. That way, a small business can get the jump on competitors.

But some trade shows do help owners forecast what trends will be. Thornton and Jones head to Tucson, Arizona, every January and February for a series of jewelry, gem and bead shows. They see the raw materials that go into jewelry, and learn what new stones, beads and other jewelry components are headed to market.

"We're seeing what is available before it's available," Thornton says.

While analyzing search data from Google and also Amazon.com is important for Kelly Hsiao and Will von Bernuth as they run their skin care products business, so are news reports. The owners of Block Island Organics get alerts on their phones so they'll know when a law is passed or study issued about skin care and sunscreen products or their ingredients. Consumers can react to the news, and the couple may have to pivot, especially if there's a new law.

Last month, the Food and Drug Administration proposed new regulations governing sunscreens.

"It could change our entire business," Hsiao says.

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For more small business news, insights and inspiration, sign up for our free weekly newsletter here: http://discover.ap.org/ssb

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Follow Joyce Rosenberg at www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg . Her work can be found here: https://apnews.com

In this Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, photo co-owner Andrew Thornton touches one of his rings as he talks about his jewelry and art store, Allegory Gallery, in the small town of Ligonier, Pa. Thornton says social media is a resource they use to stay on top of trends by connecting with their customers. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

In this Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, photo co-owner of Allegory Gallery Andrew Thornton talks about how he and William Jones are using social media to help keep their jewelry and art store in operation in the small town of Ligonier, Pa. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

In this Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, photo a selection of bracelets are displayed for sale at the Allegory Gallery shop in the small town of Ligonier, Pa. Social media is a resource owners Andrew Thornton and William Jones use to stay on top of trends by connecting with customers. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - For every 100,000 people in Kentucky, 23 are killed by opioid overdoses - nearly double the national rate. But a political feud is complicating the state's effort to hold drug companies accountable for their part in the epidemic.

Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear and Republican Gov. Matt Bevin are fighting over Beshear's attempt to hire private attorneys to battle the drug companies. Beshear is running for governor, and Bevin is the man he could face in the general election.

The resulting political and legal mess will end up before the state Supreme Court this week - one of many disputes between Bevin and Beshear to do so. And this time it's unfolding less than three months before both men face primary elections.

States and local governments across the country have been suing opioid companies for their role in the drug epidemic. In a few states, the top two elected officials have been fighting about how to carry out those lawsuits. In Louisiana, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry went to court over who would manage that state's opioid-related lawsuits. The two men eventually put aside their differences and released a joint statement saying the attorney general would take the lead.

But no compromise is looming in Kentucky, where feuds have historic connotations.

While Beshear says he needs some high-powered private law firms to take nine drug companies to court, Bevin has tried to block him, saying the contract doesn't do enough to protect taxpayers.

FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2017, file photo, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, left, shakes hands with Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear before the governor's State of the Commonwealth address in Frankfort, Ky. The Kentucky Supreme Court will settle a dispute between Kentucky's top elected officials about how to handle a series of lawsuits against companies that make and distribute opioid-based painkillers. In a case fraught with political overtones, Democrat Beshear has hired a group of high-powered law firms to take nine drug companies to court. But Republican Bevin's administration has tried to cancel that contract, arguing it doesn't do enough to protect taxpayers. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)

Beshear says Bevin's stance would rob the state of resources to combat the army of corporate attorneys arrayed against him.

But Bevin notes some of the lawyers Beshear hired have donated at least $67,000 to Beshear's campaign for governor. And they could get a big payday if they win against the drug companies.

Bevin himself received $6,000 from them when he ran in 2015 - a detail he rarely mentions. Instead, he's more likely to note that a veteran Democratic lobbyist was recently convicted of bribing Beshear's former chief deputy to steer these types of contracts to certain law firms.

Now, the Supreme Court must decide. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday.

All government contracts in Kentucky must be approved by the Finance and Administration Cabinet, which the governor controls. The Bevin administration says the case "is about procurement laws and ensuring that no one is above those laws." But Beshear says the administration is interfering with the state's top lawyer's "efforts to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for their role in fueling the opioid epidemic."

"If there is one thing that I've been really saddened to see in Frankfort it's that on this issue people will still fight me because of partisanship," Beshear said. "Gov. Bevin is being more obstructionist in these cases than we see any governor around the country and that should be really concerning."

Bevin spokesman Woody Maglinger said the governor's "commitment to fighting the opioid epidemic is irrefutable," pointing to the $129 million in state spending he oversees for battling opioid addiction coupled with a public outreach campaign to steer people into treatment.

"While this administration takes meaningful action, Andy Beshear files lawsuits," Maglinger said. "One would think that Andy Beshear would have learned by now that pay-to-play politics is no longer acceptable in Frankfort."

The companies that Beshear has sued include drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corp., which Beshear says are responsible for supplying 85 percent of the opioids in Kentucky. The lawsuits also target retail giant Walgreens and pharmaceutical manufacturer Johnson & Johnson.

Beshear's legal team includes Mark Lanier, a Houston-based lawyer who last year won a $4.7 billion verdict against Johnson & Johnson for 22 women who blamed the company's products for their ovarian cancers. That verdict has been appealed. The team also includes Joe Rice, a South Carolina-based lawyer who was lead negotiator for the $20 billion settlement with BP over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The team is led by Morgan & Morgan, a Florida-based law firm whose attorneys include former Democratic Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo. He's running for Kentucky attorney general this year.

Kentucky Registry of Election Finance records show Morgan & Morgan attorneys have donated at least $67,000 to Beshear's campaign.

Beshear said he wasn't involved in awarding the legal contracts for the opioid lawsuits. A committee of four people, including one person Beshear had hired, scored each bid and all of their work is available as public records. As for why Morgan & Morgan attorneys would donate to his campaign, Beshear said: "If you want to know their motivations, you can talk to them. Maybe they want good government. It may be they think it is really unfair the governor is trying to tear away a contract that they won fair and square."

Campaign records also show Morgan & Morgan attorneys donated $6,000 to Bevin's 2015 campaign fund. John Morgan, a Kentucky native who founded Morgan & Morgan and has donated to Bevin and Beshear, said the notion that his firm was selected because of politics is "unequivocally false."

"This is not an issue of political parties; it is about the death of our young people and the needless and preventable destruction of Kentucky families," Morgan said. "Governor Bevin's efforts to cancel our contract would be to the detriment of his constituents."
Huawei denies that it works with the Chinese government and that its products are designed to facilitate spying.

Washington has also accused Huawei of stealing trade secrets and violating US sanctions on Iran. (Photo: AP)

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has opened up a new front in its battle with the US government by filing a lawsuit challenging a congressional ban on federal agencies use of the Chinese technology companys products.

Legal experts said the firm is likely to lose its case because US courts tend to avoid second-guessing Congress actions relating to national security, including the ban enacted in August as part of a defense spending bill.

But some lawyers said that Huawei might be hoping to score public relations points against the US government even if it knows its chances of winning are slim.

The following explains the measures against Huawei, the nature of the lawsuit, and why it will likely be dismissed.

What is Huawei and why is it at odds with the US government?

Shenzhen-based Huawei is the worlds biggest producer of telecommunications network equipment and it also competes with Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co as a smartphone maker.

The company and its founder Ren Zhengfei have long been suspected of having close ties with Chinas military and intelligence agencies.

Huawei denies that it works with the Chinese government and that its products are designed to facilitate spying.

Separately from the legislation at issue in the lawsuit, the United States is also considering a ban on the use of Huawei telecom equipment by US companies in the construction of 5G wireless networks, and is urging its allies to do the same.

Washington has also accused Huawei of stealing trade secrets and violating US sanctions on Iran. Chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who is also Rens daughter, was arrested in December in Canada at the request of the US Justice Department, which claims she orchestrated the violations.

Huawei says the US actions are politically motivated, coming at the same time as the Trump administration is holding high-stakes trade negotiations with Beijing. US demands include that China change its laws and practices to protect intellectual property and end forced transfers of technology to Chinese firms.

What is Huaweis complaint?

Huaweis primary argument is that the ban on its products is a bill of attainder - a legislative act condemning a particular person or group of people and punishing them without a trial.

Bills of attainders are specifically banned in the US Constitution.

In one of the most well-known cases involving a bill of attainder, a unanimous US Supreme Court in 1946 struck down as unconstitutional an act of Congress that stripped three government employees of their salaries for allegedly supporting subversive activities.

More recently, a federal judge ruled a North Carolina bill limiting funding to the womens health organization Planned Parenthood was an unconstitutional bill of attainder because it was adopted specifically to penalize the group.

Huawei is also alleging a violation of its due process rights, and argues that Congress violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers by exercising authority reserved for the judicial system.

Does Huawei have a case?

Most US legal experts say no, since ruling for Huawei would likely require the courts to decide there was no legitimate basis for Congress inclusion of the ban in its bill.

In general, US courts are reluctant to second-guess national security determinations by Congress and the executive branch, who are viewed as being in a better position to make such decisions.

Several legal experts pointed to a November 2018 decision by a federal appeals court rejecting a similar bill of attainder claim by Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, whose anti-virus software was banned from US government networks by legislation in 2017.

The court in that case said national security concerns about Kaspersky were supported by ample evidence and that it needed to give Congress latitude to craft measures to protect national security.

The Texas court hearing Huaweis case will not be bound by that decision, but will certainly consider its reasoning closely because of the similarities in the two disputes.

Why would Huawei bring a lawsuit it is unlikely to win?

Huawei may figure the potential benefits in terms of public opinion are worth a legal fight, no matter what the outcome. The firm has launched a massive public relations offensive over the past two months.

If Huaweis case survives a motion to dismiss, the Chinese company would be allowed to demand discovery from the US government, including documents and possibly the testimony of officials.

Those documents could provide evidence for its position that Washington is motivated more by politics than any real national security concerns.

But legal experts said Huawei faces long odds getting past a motion to dismiss, noting the Kaspersky case was thrown out before discovery. The centralized nature of the Chinese government, with its close ties to industry, and the many well-documented cases of Chinese hacking would all support the position that the US law has a reasonable basis.

Some legal experts said a case involving a wind energy company owned by Chinese nationals might offer Huawei a slender hope for precedent.

Ralls Corp sued after the Obama administration moved in 2012 to block it from building wind turbines close to a military site in Oregon on natural security grounds. A federal court ruled the government violated Ralls due process rights by not giving it an opportunity to rebut the unclassified evidence the government relied upon to reach its decision.

The case was resolved in 2015 in a confidential settlement, after which Ralls sold the wind farms.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - The Latest on plans to lift endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Lower 48 states (all times local):

1:20 p.m.

A group representing farmers and ranchers is praising a federal agency's proposal to drop protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states.

The American Farm Bureau Federation says wolves have recovered from the brink of extinction and management of the species should return to state wildlife agencies.

Director of Congressional Relations Ryan Yates tells The Associated Press that many of the group's members have lost livestock to wolf kills since the population began to recover.

He says farmers and ranchers obey the law and would respect whatever policies the states establish to protect wolves.

In this April 11, 2018 file photo, a gray wolf stands at the Osborne Nature Wildlife Center south of Elkader, Iowa. U.S. wildlife officials plan to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, re-igniting the legal battle over a predator that's run into conflicts with farmers and ranchers after rebounding in some regions, an official told The Associated Press. (Dave Kettering/Telegraph Herald via AP, File)

Acting U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced the plan to remove gray wolf protections during a speech on Wednesday.

11 a.m.

Acting U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt says the nation's population of gray wolves has fully recovered across the Lower 48 states and no longer needs federal protection.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Gavin Shire says Bernhardt made the announcement during a speech Wednesday at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Denver. The weeklong event focuses on wildlife conservation policy and includes researchers, government officials and others.

Gray wolves received endangered species protections in 1975 when there were about 1,000 of them in Minnesota. There are now more than 5,000 living across the contiguous U.S.

Most are in the Western Great Lakes and Northern Rockies regions.

Protections for Northern Rockies states' wolves were lifted in 2011 and hundreds are now killed annually by hunters.

Wildlife advocates say lifting the protections could halt wolves from returning to areas where they have been absent for decades.

10:15 a.m.

Wildlife advocates say plans to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states could halt the predators' recovery in many areas where they've been exterminated.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Spokesman Gavin Shire told the Associated Press Wednesday the government will propose lifting protections for wolves in coming days based on their successful recovery.

But environmental groups say the gray wolf remains absent across a majority of its former range, including portions of the Adirondack Mountains in New York State and southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico.

Lifting protections would allow hunters to kill wolves and likely slow their expansion. Hunting already is allowed in the Northern Rockies states of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

Collette Adkins with the Center for Biological Diversity says her group will go to court to attempt to stop the government from lifting protections.

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8:45 a.m.

U.S. wildlife officials plan to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, a move certain to re-ignite the legal battle over a predator that's rebounding in some regions but absent in others.

Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt was expected to announce the proposal during a Wednesday speech before a wildlife conference in Denver.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Spokesman Gavin Shire tells the Associated Press the proposal is based on wolves successfully recovering from widespread extermination over the last century.

The wolves received endangered species protections in 1975 and there are now more than 5,000 in the contiguous U.S.

Most are in the Western Great Lakes and Northern Rockies regions.

Protections for Northern Rockies states' wolves were lifted in 2011 and hundreds are now killed annually by hunters.

FILE - This June 30, 2017 remote camera image released by the U.S. Forest Service shows a female gray wolf and her mate with a pup born in 2017 in the wilds of Lassen National Forest in Northern California. U.S. wildlife officials plan to lift protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48 states, re-igniting the legal battle over a predator that's run into conflicts with farmers and ranchers after rebounding in some regions, an official told The Associated Press, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (U.S. Forest Service via AP, File)
CHICAGO (AP) - The Latest on the case against ex-Rep. Aaron Schock (all times local):

12:40 p.m.

Former Rep. Aaron Schock says there's "no doubt" he was targeted by federal prosecutors in central Illinois when he was originally charged in a 22-count indictment.

Schock spoke to reporters Wednesday after he promised to repay taxes and his campaign committees in exchange for federal prosecutors in northern Illinois dismissing the case against him. Schock said he thinks prosecutors in central Illinois saw him as a "ticket to stardom."

His defense attorney, George Terwilliger, called prosecutors in central Illinois "overzealous."

The case was originally filed in central Illinois. The Justice Department transferred it to prosecutors in Chicago last year.

Former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock walks with his lawyers into the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago, Wednesday morning, March 6, 2019. Schock was scheduled to appear in court for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court declined to get involved in his corruption case. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of Illinois said Wednesday that it had no comment on Schock's allegations.

Schock said the outcome of the case validates that it "should never have been started in the first place."

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11:55 a.m.

Former Rep. Aaron Schock of Illinois admitted in federal court as a part of a deal with prosecutors in his corruption case that he purchased World Series and Super Bowl tickets at face value and sold them for a profit of more than $42,000.

Schock appeared Wednesday morning in Chicago federal court during a hearing. Prosecutors said they would drop his felony corruption case if he agreed to repay taxes and his campaign committees. He also admitted during the hearing that he submitted mileage reimbursements without documentation.

After the hearing, Schock said he made mistakes, such as record keeping, but said they weren't crimes. He said "part of that was because I was working my tail off" representing a large congressional district that includes more than 200 communities.

Schock represented parts of central Illinois. He resigned from Congress in 2015 amid scrutiny of his spending.

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10:30 a.m.

Former Rep. Aaron Schock of Illinois has agreed to repay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes and to campaign committees in exchange for prosecutors dismissing his felony corruption case.

Schock appeared Wednesday morning in Chicago federal court where he agreed to repay his three campaign committees nearly $68,000. He must work with the Internal Revenue Service to determine how much he owes in taxes. If he holds up his part of the deal, prosecutors will drop the original felony counts that were filed against him within six months.

Schock resigned from Congress in 2015 amid scrutiny of his spending. He was indicted in 2016 on 22 counts, including wire fraud and falsification of election commission filings.

Schock told reporters after Wednesday's court hearing that "there was never an attempt by me or my staff to commit crimes."

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10:30 a.m.

Former Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock is scheduled to appear in court for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court declined to get involved in his corruption case.

A federal judge in Chicago set a Wednesday hearing for the 37-year-old, who once was a rising star of the Republican Party.

Schock resigned from Congress in 2015 amid scrutiny of his spending, including redecorating his office in the style of the "Downton Abbey" TV series. He was indicted in 2016 on 22 counts, i ncluding wire fraud and falsification of election commission filings.

Schock has pleaded not guilty.

His attorneys argued the case should be dismissed, saying his prosecution violated separation-of-powers clauses. The Supreme Court declined last month to consider it.

The case was originally filed in central Illinois. The Justice Department transferred it to prosecutors in Chicago last year.

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Check out the AP's complete coverage of former Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock.

CORRECTS DATE OF COURT APPEARANCE TO WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2019 FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2015 file photo, former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock speaks to reporters in Peoria, Ill. Schock is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday, March 6, 2019, for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court declined to get involved in his corruption case. Schock resigned from Congress in 2015 amid scrutiny of his spending. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (AP) - A man serving time for sexually assaulting a woman in a suburban Detroit park has been arraigned in the disappearance and presumed death of another woman whose body hasn't been found.

Floyd Galloway Jr. appeared via a video feed at the hearing Wednesday in Farmington Hills District Court, where the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

The 32-year-old Galloway is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 28-year-old Danielle Stislicki, a Farmington Hills woman who was last seen leaving work in December 2016. Authorities say Galloway was a security guard at the Southfield office building where she worked.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Monday there was enough "compelling" evidence to charge Galloway with murder.

Galloway was convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Livonia woman and was sentenced in 2017 to 16-35 years in prison.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel speaks during a news conference in Lansing, Mich., Tuesday, March 5, 2019, to announce she has filed a charge of first-degree murder against Floyd Galloway Jr. for the murder of 28-year-old Danielle Stislicki, who went missing December 2016 and has never been found. (Todd McInturf/Detroit News via AP)

Farmington Hills Police Chief Chuck Nebus addresses the media about the charge of first-degree, pre-meditated murder against Floyd Galloway, Jr. for the murder of 28-year-old Danielle Stislicki, who went missing December 2, 2016 and has never been found, during a press conference in Lansing, Michigan on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. (Todd McInturf/Detroit News via AP)
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart is scheduled to speak in northwestern Wisconsin next week to help the region cope with a high-profile double homicide-kidnapping.

Prosecutors have accused 21-year-old Jake Patterson of breaking into 13-year-old Jayme Closs' home just outside Barron in October, killing her parents with a shotgun and abducting her. They say he held her in a cabin for three months before she escaped in January.

Smart was 14 when she was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home in 2002. The Barron County Sheriff's Department posted on Facebook on Wednesday saying Smart will speak at the Barron Area Community Center on March 15.

Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said in a telephone interview Wednesday that the appearance is free and open to the public. He said no one is paying Smart to appear. He said he and Smart have been communicating and she's been following Jayme's case. They both agreed she should visit Barron, he said.

The sheriff declined to say whether Jayme would attend or whether Smart will meet with her, saying he will never comment on Jayme's movements.

Smart will focus on her own experiences and how her community moved past her kidnapping but won't discuss Jayme's abduction, Fitzgerald said.

FILE - In this Sept. 13, 2018, file photo, Elizabeth Smart arrives for a news conference in Salt Lake City. The kidnapping victim is scheduled to speak in northwestern Wisconsin next week to help the region cope with a high-profile double homicide-kidnapping. Prosecutors have accused 21-year-old Jake Patterson of breaking into 13-year-old Jayme Closs' home just outside Barron in October, killing her parents with a shotgun and abducting her. She escaped in January 2019. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Patterson's court case is still pending and any comments Smart makes about Jayme could be used in the proceedings.

Smart told The Associated Press in January that Jayme will struggle to regain a sense of normalcy.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testifying in the House (all times local):

12:45 p.m.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says the crisis at the southern border is not manufactured.

Nielsen is speaking before the House Homeland Security Committee on border security. She says border agencies are on track to apprehend nearly 1 million people crossing illegally this year at the southern border. Those are levels not seen since the early 2000s.

Last month, there were 76,000 migrants apprehended; most were families from Central America. Many seek asylum and are released into the country to wait out their immigration cases, which can take years.

Nielsen says "no rational person" would design an immigration system like the U.S. has today.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, before the House Homeland Security Committee. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

She is expected to face tough questioning from Democrats who have recently taken control of the House.

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10:35 a.m.

A House panel is grilling Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for the first time since Democrats took control of the chamber. The panel's chairman says oversight of Trump administration's border policies is long overdue.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson says he wants to use Wednesday's hearing to give Nielsen the opportunity to start a "serious discussion," rather than echoing Trump's claims of a security crisis at the border.

The hearing is one of three at the Capitol on border issues Wednesday. Since Democrats took control of the House, they have prioritized investigating last year's family separations and have subpoenaed documents related to the policy.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, before the House Homeland Security Committee. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

House Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., waits for the start of a hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Authorities acknowledged Wednesday that Mexico has failed to do enough to protect women and girls, and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government presented a plan to combat gender violence.

It includes efforts to identify and fix holes in active murder investigations; to strengthen cooperation between prosecutors, health services and other authorities; to standardize femicide, or killings of women that are directly gender-related, as a crime nationwide; and to search for women as soon as they are reported missing.

Currently disappearances are often not investigated immediately, and experts say that means critical hours or days are wasted. Femicide is not typified as a crime in 13 states, and women's advocacy groups have regularly called for that to be remedied.

Nadine Gasman, president of the National Women's Institute, said during a news conference with Lopez Obrador that the goal is to attend to women "with sensitivity and quality." She called violence against women "a government problem."

Last year 3,580 women and girls were killed in Mexico.

"All of them have a common factor: the lack of timely and diligent intervention by the Mexican state to preserve their integrity and to ensure their lives," Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero said, adding that women are under threat from both domestic violence and organized crime.

FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2019 file photo, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gives a press conference in Mexico City. Lopez Obrador said Thursday, Feb. 28, that wages should rise "but we shouldn't create an atmosphere of labor instability." He is now trying to close the Pandora's box of wage demands he helped unleash when he doubled the minimum wage in border areas. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

According to the National Citizens' Observatory on Femicide, less than a third of killings of women were investigated as femicides. The government has not said how many of the 3,580 killed last year were considered to be femicides.

Gasman also announced the creation of a national registry of public transportation - from where many women and girls have disappeared - an initiative to identify child abuse through the schools and mobile apps or other instruments to prevent attacks, especially in areas of high incidence.

She said 17 of Mexico's 31 states plus the capital district in Mexico City already have a gender alert system, but acknowledged that it needs improvement.

That point is considered key by advocates. Maria de la Luz Estrada, president of the Observatory, said that in none of those states have authorities evaluated whether recommendations are being followed.

"Results are not being delivered, and impunity continues to grow," she said.
CUCUTA, Colombia (AP) - The sun had just begun to rise when Yurladis Rojas and her young daughter began trekking along one of the illegal dirt pathways that have become a perilous lifeline for Venezuelans no longer able to cross blocked border bridges.

As they reached the muddy Tachira River, they joined dozens of other Venezuelan students boarding makeshift wooden rafts intent on getting into Colombia to accomplish a simple childhood goal - going to school.

"We don't deserve this and the children don't either," Rojas, a housewife, said after men pushed her daughter in a gray school uniform across the knee-deep river. "They shouldn't be paying the consequences for what is happening."

The closure of Venezuela's border with Colombia is exacting a heavy toll on the thousands who have grown to rely on the neighboring Andean nation for everything from chemotherapy to food as their homeland's humanitarian crisis worsens.

On a typical day, over 30,000 Venezuelans used to cross the two bridges into the bustling Colombian border city of Cucuta, but both have been closed since the opposition's failed bid to drive through trucks filled with U.S.-donated aid over a week ago.

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro dismissed the aid push as a U.S.-backed attempt to remove him from power and responded by severing ties with Colombia, where tons of undelivered aid is being stored. What has followed is a tense extension of Venezuela's political standoff, with thousands of Venezuelans ranging from patients to schoolchildren seeking risky alternative routes to Colombia.

A Venezuelan student rides on a wooden raft to cross the Tachira River into Colombia from Venezuela, near the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. The rift between Venezuela and Colombia means many of the 3,000 children who cross each day are being forced to seek alternative routes. Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro cut ties with Colombia after opposition leaders used the neighboring Andean nation as a launching point to bring in humanitarian aid he refused to accept. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Complicating the ordeal is the lack of communication between Venezuelan and Colombian authorities amid the diplomatic strife.

Colombian President Ivan Duque has joined 50 other nations in recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's rightful president, but the military is standing with Maduro and the bridges remain closed. Felipe Munoz, Colombia's director for Venezuela border issues, said officials have had no contact with Maduro's administration over the closure.

Venezuela opposition leaders, meanwhile, are looking to go through outside organizations like the Red Cross in appealing for their assistance in securing the safe passage of children and vulnerable adults and reopening the border.

"Lives are being put at risk," exiled lawmaker Gaby Arellano said.

Colombia and Venezuela have a porous 1,370-mile (2,200-kilometer) border where illegal armed groups charge for passage. Numerous rights groups have documented cases in which Venezuelans have been robbed or assaulted while trying to pass. Occasionally, the Tachira River swells to the point where those carrying heavy loads of contraband goods like raw meat are pushed under by the current.

An estimated 3,200 Venezuelan schoolchildren cross the border to attend school in Colombia, where many parents believe they will get a better quality education, not to mention at least one meal, sometimes the only one they'll get in a day.

Crossing hand-in-hand, the students stand out in their plaid uniforms and knee-high socks amid the swell of people carrying bundles of goods like rice and toilet paper and suitcases with their life's belongings.

"This is having a humanitarian impact against children, against those who are ill, against the people of Venezuela," Munoz said.

It's not the first time the border has been closed. Maduro ordered major crossings shuttered in 2015 in what he said was an effort to crack down on rampant smuggling and has periodically opened and closed it in the years since.

Victor Bautista, a Colombian official handling response to emergency border issues, said the current shutdown is considerably graver because authorities have not been able to negotiate the entry of students and ill patients as they did in 2015.

A small delegation that included an official from Colombia's civil defense service approached a line of Venezuelan national guardsmen stationed at one of the bridges last week when the bridges were due to reopen after the scuttled humanitarian aid push.

Bautista said the delegation asked them about reopening the border or allowing neutral human rights groups to facilitate communication but were told all orders had to come from Caracas.

"Their position is not to let people through," Bautista said.

Humanitarian advocates like the International Rescue Committee say they have already seen a dip in the number of Venezuelans participating in services like psychological counseling and medical screenings for pregnant women.

Marianne Menjivar, the group's Venezuela and Colombia director, said reports of sexual violence against those passing through the illegal pathways known as "trochas" is also worrying, even more so considering that many children are now crossing.

"This isn't really a choice that a child should have to make," she said.

Absent a resolution, parents like Yorley Carrillo say they are willing to take chances to ensure their children get an education.

"Every day more and more children are coming," she said.

Venezuelan students walk into Colombia from Venezuela along the Tachira River, near the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Thousands of Venezuelan children who rely on border bridges to attend school in Colombia are instead trekking across illegal pathways due to the rift between Venezuela and Colombia. Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro cut ties with Colombia after opposition leaders used the neighboring Andean nation as a launching point to bring in humanitarian aid he refused to accept. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

A volunteer gives a Venezuelan student a piggyback ride across the Tachira River into Colombia from Venezuela, near the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Many Venezuelan parents send children across the busy border, believing they will get a better education there. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Venezuelan students ride on a wooden raft to cross the Tachira River into Colombia from Venezuela, near the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. The rift between Venezuela and Colombia means many of the 3,000 children who cross each day are being forced to seek alternative routes. Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro cut ties with Colombia after opposition leaders used the neighboring Andean nation as a launching point to bring in humanitarian aid he refused to accept. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Venezuelans students stand on the banks of the Tachira River as they wait for fellow students to cross into Colombia from Venezuela, near the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. The rift between Venezuela and Colombia means many of the 3,000 children who cross each day are being forced to seek alternative routes. Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro cut ties with Colombia after opposition leaders used the neighboring Andean nation as a launching point to bring in humanitarian aid he refused to accept. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Venezuelan students ride on a wooden raft to cross the Tachira River into Colombia from Venezuela, near the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Many Venezuelan parents send children across the busy border, believing they will get a better education there. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Venezuelan students ride on a wooden raft to cross the Tachira River into Colombia from Venezuela, near the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Many Venezuelan parents send children across the busy border, believing they will get a better education there. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
NEW YORK (AP) - Small business owners who want to predict what consumers will buy next month, next season or next year can get some answers by mining the internet for data, and thinking about what that data means.

First, retailers and manufacturers should expect that a current trend will run its course, and they should anticipate that something that's been hot for several seasons or years will run out of steam. Joanna Duda, owner of Pirillo Swimwear, a Chicago-based online retailer of women's swimsuits, is changing her color mix now that yellow has been popular the past few years.

"I think we're getting sick of it," she says.

Some tips for forecasting consumer spending trends:

- Look for consumers' search and buying patterns on your own website, Google Trends and Amazon.com. Search trends tell you what they want and what they'd like to find.

- Social media sites can show you what consumers are interested in. Finding hashtags related to your type of business on Instagram and Twitter, and searching for Facebook groups with potential customers can help you learn what consumers want. Engaging with your own customers on social media will help you understand their interests and how their tastes and buying habits may be changing.

- Get creative with what you learn. If you can glean that customers are moving in a new direction - for example, staying home more - think about the purchases they're likely to make, says Marshal Cohen, a senior analyst at NPD Group, a company that tracks consumer trends.

- Look beyond your current core group of customers. Most of the people who sign up with Africa Travel for safaris tend to be age 45 or older, says Steve Pritchard, digital marketing consultant for the Leeds, England-based company. Pritchard, who tracks consumer trends on social media and Google, looks at younger consumers' searching and buying habits, expecting that they would be the next wave of travelers to Africa. "We want to stay ahead of the curve," he says.

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For more small business news, insights and inspiration, sign up for our free weekly newsletter here: http://discover.ap.org/ssb

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Follow Joyce Rosenberg at www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg . Her work can be found here: https://apnews.com
LORDSTOWN, Ohio (AP) - The Latest on the idling of a GM plant in Ohio (all times local):

3:40 p.m.

The last Chevrolet Cruze has rolled off the assembly line at a General Motors plant in Ohio where 1,700 hourly positions are being eliminated, perhaps for good.

The factory near Youngstown is the first of five North American auto plants that GM plans to shut down by early next year.

Workers have been gathering outside GM's Lordstown plant Wednesday after their last shift making the Chevrolet Cruze. Some say they don't know what the future holds.

The closings are part of a major restructuring for GM, but they still must be negotiated with the union.

A "Save Me" sign rests against the Lordstown Complex sign, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is about to end production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

President Donald Trump has said he wants the plant to stay open.

Workers at the Lordstown plant that employed 4,500 people just two years ago are asking GM to give them another vehicle to build.

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1:45 p.m.

Ohio's two U.S. senators say they'll continue to push General Motors to keep open its assembly plant where production is being stopped, at least temporarily.

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown says he thinks the plant near Youngstown can be retooled to make electric cars.

Production is ending Wednesday at the plant in Lordstown as the last Chevrolet Cruze is expected to come off the assembly line.

GM says it's looking at other options for the plant that employed 4,500 people just two years ago, but the automaker isn't making any promises that it will reopen.

Ohio Republican Rob Portman says he'll press GM to bring one of its new electric vehicles to the plant. He says the workers who've given so much to the company deserve it.

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1 p.m.

A union leader in Ohio says it's a gut-wrenching day for auto workers at a General Motors plant where production is being stopped after more than 50 years.

The last Chevrolet Cruze built at GM's plant near Youngstown is expected to come off the assembly line Wednesday.

GM plans to shut down the plant as well as four others in North America by early next year.

What's not known is whether the plant in Ohio will ever reopen.

The closings still need to be negotiated with the union, and the 1,700 hourly workers still at the Ohio plant are hoping they'll get a new vehicle to build.

Union leader Dave Green says he walked through the plant Wednesday and saw workers crying and emotional over their last day.

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7:30 a.m.

General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is about to end production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site.

The jobs of nearly 1,700 hourly workers will be eliminated when production ends Wednesday afternoon and a contingent of workers finish making replacement parts like hoods and fenders sometime this month.

United Auto Workers officials remain optimistic that contract negotiations with GM starting this summer will breathe new life into the plant.

GM has said car buyers' appetite for trucks and SUVs has significantly cut into demand for compact cars like the Cruze, which will continue to be made in Mexico.

Recently promoted company President Mark Reuss said in January that GM is "looking at a lot of different options for the plant," without giving specifics.

A "Save this Plant" sign rests against a sign honoring General Motors workers, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. General Motors' sprawling Lordstown assembly plant near Youngstown is about to end production of the Chevrolet Cruze sedan, ending for now more than 50 years of auto manufacturing at the site. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Reigning entertainer of the year Jason Aldean will receive the artist of the decade award at this year's Academy of Country Music Awards in April.

The ACM announced Wednesday that Aldean will join only five other honorees that have received the award since 1969, including Marty Robbins, Loretta Lynn, Alabama, Garth Brooks and George Strait.

The award is given to a country artist or group who has dominated the genre over the decade through radio, digital media, sales and streaming, events, touring, television and artistic merit. With 13 ACM awards, Aldean has had four consecutive albums reach No. 1 on Billboard's 200 albums chart and 16 No. 1 singles on Billboard's country airplay chart, which tracks radio airplay.

The ACMs will air live from Las Vegas on April 7 on CBS.
The year ended with the arrest of Huaweis chief financial officer in Canada at US request, to the consternation of China.

Long before Trump initiated the trade war, Huaweis activities were under scrutiny by US authorities (Photo: ANI)

Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies sued the US government on Thursday, saying a law limiting its American business was unconstitutional, ratcheting up its fight back against a government bent on closing it out of global markets.

Huawei said it had filed a complaint in a federal court in Texas challenging Section 889 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), signed into law by US President Donald Trump in August, which bars federal agencies and their contractors from procuring its equipment and services.

The lawsuit marks the latest confrontation between China and the United States, which spent most of 2018 slapping import tariffs on billions of dollars worth of each others goods. The year ended with the arrest of Huaweis chief financial officer in Canada at US request, to the consternation of China.

Long before Trump initiated the trade war, Huaweis activities were under scrutiny by US authorities, according to interviews with 10 people familiar with the Huawei probes and documents related to the investigations seen by Reuters.

The US Congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence to support its restrictions on Huawei products. We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort, Huawei Rotating Chairman Guo Ping said in a statement.

This ban not only is unlawful but also restricts Huawei from engaging in fair competition, ultimately harming US consumers, he said. We look forward to the courts verdict.

While Huawei had a very little share of the US market before the bill, it is the worlds biggest telecoms gear maker and is seeking to be at the forefront of a global rollout of fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks and services.

In its lawsuit, Huawei said its equipment and services are subject to advanced security procedures, and no backdoors, implants, or other intentional security vulnerabilities have been documented in any of the more than 170 countries in the world where Huawei equipment and services are used.

The privately owned firm has embarked on a public relations and legal offensive as Washington lobbies allies to abandon Huawei when building 5G networks, focusing on a 2017 Chinese law requiring companies to cooperate with national intelligence work.

The US Government is sparing no effort to smear the company and mislead the public, Guo said in a news briefing at Huaweis headquarters in southern China.

The US State Department declined to comment on the lawsuit on Thursday.

More generally, State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters, the United States advocates for secure telecom networks and supply chains that are free from suppliers subject to foreign government control or undue influence which would pose risks of unauthorized access and malicious cyber activity.

US Representative Mike Conaway, a Texas Republican who has sponsored anti-Huawei legislation, called the Huawei lawsuit bogus.

The NDAA bans the US government from doing business with Huawei or compatriot peer ZTE Corp or from doing business with any company that has equipment from the two companies as a substantial or essential component of their system.

In its lawsuit, filed in US District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, Huawei argues that the section in question is illegal because it could sharply limit the companys ability to do business in the United States despite no proof of wrongdoing.

The lawsuit also alleges that Huawei has been denied due process and that Congress, by stripping Huawei of commercial opportunities, has violated the separation of powers portion of the US Constitution by doing the work of the courts.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he had no information on whether Chinas government may also seek legal action against the US law, but added Huaweis move is totally reasonable and totally understandable.

Some legal experts said Huaweis lawsuit is likely to be dismissed because US courts are reluctant to second-guess national security determinations by other branches of government.

The lawsuit will be an uphill battle because Congress has broad authority to protect us from perceived national security threats, said Franklin Turner, a government contracts lawyer at McCarter & English.

In November, a federal appeals court rejected a similar lawsuit filed by Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, which was challenging a ban on the use of its software in US government networks.

The Texas court hearing Huaweis case will not be bound by that decision, but will likely adopt its reasoning because of similarities in the two disputes, said Steven Schwinn, a professor at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

I dont see how (Huawei) can really escape that result, said Schwinn.

Huaweis chief legal officer, Song Liuping, said the two cases were different in terms of evidence and scope, and that the Chinese companys case had full merits.

If a judge decides Huawei has a plausible claim, the case will proceed to the discovery phase, in which internal documents are shared and US government officials could be forced to provide testimony and lay out their security concerns.

The legal action compares with a more restrained response in December emphasizing trust injustice after the arrest of Chief Financial Officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou.

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei later said Mengs arrest was politically motivated and not acceptable.

Meng - Rens daughter - is accused by the United States of bank and wire fraud related to breaches of trade sanctions against Iran. Canada approved extradition proceedings on March 1, but Meng has since sued Canadas government for procedural wrongs in her arrest. The next court hearing is set for May 8.

The case strained Canadas relations with China, which this week accused two arrested Canadians of stealing state secrets and blocked Canadian canola imports.

Meng is under house arrest in Vancouver. It is unclear where the two Canadians are being detained in China, and at least one does not have access to legal representation, sources previously told Reuters.
BERLIN (AP) - The leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party on Wednesday rejected criticism over a Carnival speech in which she was perceived as poking fun at intersex people.

Political opponents have called on Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who leads Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, to apologize for a speech during a Carnival event in southwestern Germany last week.

During that event, Kramp-Karrenbauer - dressed in Carnival costume - asked the audience to "look at the men of today" and made fun of people in Berlin who she said were introducing "toilets for the third sex."

"That is for men who don't know whether they can still stand to pee or have to sit," she added.

At a party rally Wednesday in the northeastern town of Demmin, Kramp-Karrenbauer said critics should have considered the Carnival context of her comments, which were about the "emasculation of the CDU." She is the second consecutive female leader of a previously male-dominated center-right party.

"That some of our political opponents, unfortunately including our coalition partner, are making an issue of it shows how bad their situation must be," Kramp-Karrenbauer said.

"I can only say that if we carry on like this, we will run the risk of ruining something really wonderful in our country - the tradition of Carnival ... where you don't have to weigh every word," she added.

Kramp-Karrenbauer took over as CDU leader in December and is considered the front-runner to succeed Merkel as chancellor after she steps down, which is expected by 2021. She is a touch more socially conservative than Merkel and was an opponent of legalizing same-sex marriage, which Germany did in 2017.

Critics in recent days have included the center-left Social Democrats, the CDU's partners in a fractious governing coalition. The party's general secretary, Lars Klingbeil, said the comments showed that an "archconservative wind is blowing" in the CDU and that "such comments, even during Carnival, are absolutely lacking in respect."

Germany recently introduced rules allowing intersex people to officially register as "diverse." That came after the country's highest court ruled that people must be allowed to register as neither male nor female, ordering authorities to create a third identity or scrap gender entries altogether.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Cleaning up and protecting U.S. drinking water from a class of toxic chemicals used in many household items could cost in the tens of billions of dollars nationally, including $2 billion for the Department of Defense alone, witnesses testified Wednesday before a House panel urging the federal government to move more quickly on the cleanup.

Rep. Harley Rouda, the California Democrat chairing the House Oversight and Reform environment subcommittee, told reporters after the hearing "it's clear" the high costs were slowing any federal efforts to regulate and clean up the toxic chemicals, which are found in a range of goods, including nonstick pans, stain-resistant clothing, dental floss and food containers. They also are in firefighting foam used by the military to battle jet-fuel fires.

The compounds, called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have been used for decades. Water sampling shows the contaminant - also called the "forever chemicals" because they will take thousands of years to break down -has seeped into many public water systems in the United States and globally, including around military bases and industries.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler told reporters Tuesday that the agency was moving toward establishing federal limits for some kinds of the contaminant in drinking water. States and local communities say they need a mandatory EPA limit to start full-scale cleanup and protections against the compounds.

"There's no indication of when the process might actually be complete," Rouda told EPA and Defense Department officials testifying before the panel. In the meantime, military officials "are passing the buck to the EPA" rather than conducting a national cleanup of bases that have high levels of PFAS contamination, he said.

Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan said veterans and families are increasingly fearful of PFAS contamination around bases. "The Defense Department in particular has so far failed to act with the required urgency to address this growing problem," he said.

Rep. Harley Rouda, D-Calif., speaks during a House Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing on PFAS chemicals and their risks on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz)

The Trump administration has been under increasing pressure to start regulating the toxic class of compounds since last year, when a draft federal toxicology report found some kinds of the widely used chemicals were harmful at levels much lower than the federal government's current advisory level. The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry cited studies linking PFAS contamination to liver problems, low birth weight, some cancers and other health issues.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican and co-chairman of a congressional PFAS task force, called the forever compound "one of the most widespread public health crises" that the U.S. faces.

But Fitzpatrick cautioned against setting any PFAS limits too low, saying it would cost tens of billions of dollars to bring water systems into compliance.

David Ross, assistant administrator of the EPA's water office, defended the agency's decision to continue researching the compounds ahead of any formal regulatory moves.

"The science to fully understand these chemicals ... is not yet as robust as it needs to be," Ross said. He said resolving PFAS contamination was a national priority for the agency.

Communities and states say the EPA has done little concrete to start tackling the problem. In a tweet Wednesday, Mayor Rob Allen of Hoosick Falls, New York, where industrial releases are blamed for dangerously high PFAS levels in water, evoked the compound's nickname in saying "it will take 'forever' for EPA to act on its responsibility to regulate them."

The Defense Department has identified 401 military sites where PFAS was used, and found 24 U.S. military drinking-water systems around the world with PFAS levels above the current U.S. advisory level, Maureen Sullivan, the deputy assistant secretary of defense, told lawmakers.

U.S. military officials at those bases were providing bottled water or other alternate water supplies, Sullivan said.

Cleaning up bases contaminated by two of the best-studied versions of PFAS would cost about $2 billion, she said.

Kildee, whose state of Michigan has been one of the most active in testing for PFAS and tackling contamination, said the Pentagon had yet to request the money for that cleanup.

Some states and local communities hosting military bases accuse the military of using the lack of any mandatory federal limit for PFAS in drinking water as a reason to deny Pentagon responsibility for cleanup.

New Mexico sued the Air Force on Tuesday over PFAS contamination around two bases in that state.

Sullivan said the Pentagon currently is discouraging the use of firefighting foam containing PFAS in training exercises on military bases. The Defense Department has yet to find a commercially available foam without PFAS that's effective enough in fighting aircraft fires, however, Sullivan said.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment Maureen Sullivan at a House Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing on PFAS chemicals and their risks on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Pentagon defends its handling and continued use of a toxic firefighting foam that it acknowledges has contaminated water around more than 400 military bases, as military families and officials from states testify on the health and financial tolls. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz)

Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator for Water Dave Ross testifies at a House Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing on PFAS chemicals and their risks on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks at a House Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing on PFAS chemicals and their risks on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Pentagon defends its handling and continued use of a toxic firefighting foam that it acknowledges has contaminated water around more than 400 military bases, as military families and officials from states testify on the health and financial tolls. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz)
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Nevada's latest bid to block incoming shipments of weapons-grade plutonium points to the U.S. Energy Department's own scientific warnings about the dangers of prematurely moving the highly radioactive material out of South Carolina.

State lawyers say in briefs filed this week with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Trump administration is engaged in a clandestine "charade" intended to turn Nevada "into the nation's radioactive dump."

They want the San Francisco-based court to overturn a Reno judge's refusal to temporarily halt all plutonium shipments to a site near Las Vegas.

U.S. District Judge Miranda Du denied the request Jan. 30, saying any potential harm was speculative. That was the same day the government revealed it secretly shipped a half metric ton (1,102 pounds) of plutonium from South Carolina to Nevada sometime before Nov. 30.

Nevada lawyers said in Monday's filing that the "stealth" truck shipment increased residents' radiation exposure equivalent to getting 100 to 200 chest X-rays annually for three years.

State Attorney General Aaron Ford and his deputies cite numerous legal briefs that the U.S. government filed when it argued unsuccessfully in court in 2017 and again in a failed appeal to keep the plutonium at South Carolina's Savannah River Site because of the risks of moving it elsewhere.

In this Nov. 20, 2013 photo, seen through thick protective glass, shows the area where workers sand-blast the large stainless steel tanks used in the vitrification process to rid them of contaminates at the Defense Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. Nevada's latest bid to block incoming shipments of weapons-grade plutonium points to the U.S. Energy Department's own scientific warnings about the dangers of prematurely moving the highly radioactive material out of South Carolina. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)

Nevada's lawyers noted the Energy Department had claimed repeatedly that "it would be impossible to safely transport and store that much plutonium before the year 2025."

The agency argued at the time that Savannah River was the only place with the "required capacity, security, safety analysis and surveillance program to receive and store any significant amount of plutonium in the form and packaging configuration as it exists today."

Nevertheless, a judge ordered the government in December 2017 to remove at least a metric ton (2,204 pounds) of plutonium from South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2020.

The Department of Energy appealed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing removal "within two years is simply impossible if DOE also complies with (the National Environmental Policy Act) and the applicable regulations."

Eight months after the appeal was denied, "the impossible happened," Nevada's lawyers wrote.

The federal agency completed an analysis declaring the Nevada National Security Site a prime candidate for indefinitely housing the material, they said.

"DOE's previous capacity, safety, security and surveillance concerns magically disappeared," Nevada said.

State attorneys argue that the government failed to adequately examine potential harm to Nevada's residents, environment and economy. They attached 699 pages of excerpts from the Energy Department's past filings to a 49-page brief underscoring the contradictions.

The agency released the analysis in August outlining its intention to move the plutonium to Nevada by 2020. Then-Gov. Brian Sandoval called Energy Secretary Rick Perry in early September to express his concerns, and additional correspondence led to an Oct. 30 meeting in Washington before Nevada sued a month later.

"In the middle of the talks, DOE trucked a half ton of weapons grade plutonium to Nevada without warning state officials or emergency responders," Nevada's new brief says. "DOE continued the charade through the district court's preliminary injunction hearing by pretending the shipments had not yet occurred."

Nevada says the move follows decades of Energy Department efforts to build a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain and make Nevada "the nation's radioactive dump."

The department declined comment Tuesday. It has until April 1 to reply to Nevada's opening brief.

The Energy Department previously said the shipment was kept secret for national security reasons but state officials knew it was coming based on the August analysis. It's also said it doesn't intend to ship additional plutonium to Nevada from South Carolina.

Nevada's lawyers say the department can't be trusted.

"Whenever another state has inconvenient nuclear material lying around, DOE's apparent solution is to sneak it hurriedly into the Silver State before anyone notices," they wrote, adding that one state's "irradiated garbage should not become Nevada's environmental hazard."
WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that the U.S. will revoke more visas from prominent Venezuelans as it seeks to increase pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to give up power.

Pence told the Latino Coalition that the U.S. will revoke 77 visas held by officials in the Maduro government or their relatives.

The U.S. revoked 49 visas last week and has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions as part of a campaign to force Maduro to turn over power to opposition leader Juan Guaido.

The U.S. and more than 50 governments recognize Guaido as interim president. They say Maduro wasn't legitimately re-elected last year because opposition candidates weren't permitted to run.

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton warned Wednesday that financial institutions "will face sanctions for being involved in facilitating illegitimate transactions that benefit Nicolas Maduro and his corrupt network."

Pence referred to the Venezuelan crisis while making the case for the re-election of President Donald Trump in 2020 as a way to counteract policies -which he described as socialist- supported by Democrats.

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at Legislative Summit, co-hosted by The Latino Coalition and Job Creators Network, in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

"All of us need to say with one voice: America will never be a socialist country," Pence told the conservative Latino business owners gathered in Washington for the Latino Coalition annual event.

Pence said when Democrats support policy proposals such as "Medicare-for-all" and the Green New Deal -an ambitious plan to address global climate change- they "are embracing the same economic theories that have impoverished nations."

Pence also defended the decision for Trump to declare a national emergency to fund a wall at the southern border.

"Every day we don't secure our border we are allowing the crisis to worsen and more lives to be in danger," he said.

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Luis Alonso Lugo on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/luisalonsolugo

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at Legislative Summit, co-hosted by The Latino Coalition and Job Creators Network, in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at Legislative Summit, co-hosted by The Latino Coalition and Job Creators Network, in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Weeks after a Kentucky high school student says he was wrongly vilified for his interaction with a Native American protester, state lawmakers on Wednesday advanced a bill that would make it a crime to publish personal information of a child online with the intent to harass, abuse or frighten.

A Kentucky state Senate committee approved a bill to make "doxing" anyone under 18 a crime. If the bill becomes law, it would make it a misdemeanor to publish minors' personal information - such as a home address or the school they attend - to threaten them.

The proposal comes as social media companies are struggling to combat harmful content posted on their digital platforms that have real-world consequences.

"There are no brakes on Twitter," said Todd McMurtry, an attorney for 16-year-old Nick Sandmann, whose interaction with Native American protester Nathan Phillips went viral in January. "Twitter itself barely has the capacity to monitor its own activity. To put some weight back on the citizens so that they can help fight back when they are doxed would be great to make up for the fact that Twitter barely does anything."

But free speech advocates worry the proposal goes too far. Three Democrats voted against the bill, citing free speech concerns. Rebecca Ballard DiLoreto, a lobbyist for the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the bill was too broad and would have unintended consequences. She noted the state already has laws to prosecute "terroristic threatening" and other harassing behavior.

"When I first read (the bill), what I thought about was when I visited Soviet Russia and when I visited China and how careful I was when I ever got on the internet in those countries," DiLoreto said. "What you pass matters, and the language you use should matter. And you should want to pass laws that are constitutional and specific."

CORRECTS TO MCMURTRY, NOT MCMURTY - Ted Sandmann, left, and his attorney Todd McMurtry speak with reporters on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Frankfort, Ky., about a bill moving through the state legislature that would make it a crime to share personally identifying information about a minor online with the intent of harassment or intimidation. Sandmann is the father of Nick Sandmann, a student at Covington Catholic High School who was vilified online for his interaction with a Native American protester in Washington. (AP Photo/Adam Beam)

Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough said publishing or posting private someone's private information without their consent violates the company's rules, adding "we're working to make it easier for users to report this type of behavior."

The bill still has to pass the state Senate and the House of Representatives and it's unclear if it has the necessary support. After Wednesday, lawmakers will have just five legislative days left to pass bills before they adjourn for the year.

The bill is responding to an incident in January when Sandmann, a student at Covington Catholic High School in northern Kentucky, was the target of countless social media comments after his interaction with Phillips near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington was posted online.

The first videos to emerge showed a smiling Sandmann wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat standing very close to Phillips, who was beating a drum. At first, many online commenters declared Sandmann was harassing Phillips and used it to comment on the state of political discourse in this country. But interpretations later shifted as witnesses released more cellphone footage and Sandmann and others said it was Phillips who confronted them while they were waiting for a bus.

Various videos of the incident were viewed millions of times online, and soon photos of Sandmann, along with information about what school he attended, was circulating online. Wednesday, Sandmann's father, Ted, told lawmakers his son was the "victim of the most sensational twitter attack on a minor child in the history of the internet."

"My family and I are living in a nightmare," Ted Sandmann told reporters following his testimony. "To think that people are taking the freedom of speech and turning it into hate speech is not right."

As an example, Sandmann pointed to a tweet by former CNN host Reza Aslan, who tweeted a photo of Sandmann with the comment: "Honest question. Have you ever seen a more punchable face than this kid's?"

The Sandmann family has already sued The Washington Post for $250 million, accusing the newspaper of falsely labeling Nick Sandman as a racist. Sandmann's attorneys are threatening legal action against several other media outlets, including The Associated Press. Sandmann told lawmakers on Wednesday the family is still far away from "restoring my son's reputation."

"My son is going to go through the rest of his life with a target on his back," Ted Sandmann said. "He's always going to be looking over his shoulder. Because what harm has been done can't be erased."
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senators from both parties on Wednesday challenged President Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia to take a tough line with the kingdom on human rights and other abuses.

During a nomination hearing with retired four-star general John Abizaid, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ticked through their grievances with the Saudi government: the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, allegations of torture, detentions of activists and the mounting humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where the kingdom is waging a protracted war against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the panel, asked Abizaid if he would seek to challenge Saudi Arabia or if he would "accept what they have done in order to pursue our greater national security goals."

Abizaid said the U.S. "should not accept" actions like the killing of Khashoggi and said he would press Riyadh for more information.

"It requires forceful discussions on the behalf of the United States with the government of Saudi Arabia and I am prepared to have those discussions if you confirm me," Abizaid said.

Sen. Jim Risch, the Republican chairman, warned the U.S. "cannot look the other way" for the sake of strategic interests.

"When we have an ally, we try to support those allies as best we can, but the kinds of things that have been happening lately make it very, very difficult," Risch said.

Khashoggi, a writer for The Washington Post, was killed in a Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul last year by Saudi agents. The Saudi government said the slaying was carried out by rogue operatives and denied Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had any involvement.

Lawmakers have said they believe the Saudi crown prince ordered the killing, but Trump has been reluctant to place blame.

On Monday, senators received a closed-door briefing from Trump administration officials on the investigation into Khashoggi's killing. Afterward, they told reporters they were frustrated by the lack of new information, and both Republican and Democratic lawmakers said the Senate may consider imposing its own penalties on Saudi Arabia if the White House doesn't act.

If confirmed, Abizaid would be the first U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia in over two years. The last ambassador, Joseph Westphal, left in January 2017.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - The lawyer for a senior executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei arrested in Canada on a U.S. extradition warrant said Wednesday that comments by President Donald Trump suggest the case against her is politically motivated.

Attorney Richard Peck referred to Trump's comments during a brief court appearance by Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. Canada arrested Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder, on Dec. 1. She is wanted in the U.S. on fraud charges.

The U.S. and China have tried to keep Meng's case separate from their trade dispute, although Trump has said that he would consider intervening in the case if it would help forge a trade deal with Beijing.

Peck called the case unique, saying there are "concerns about political characters, motivation, comments by the U.S. president."

The lawyer said the case is complex and will take time, and as a result the defense and prosecution have agreed to wait until May 8 to fix a date for an extradition hearing.

Peck said abuse of process motions will likely be brought. Meng is suing the Canadian government, its border agency and the national police force, claiming they detained, searched and interrogated her before telling her she was under arrest. She is free on bail in Vancouver and living in one of her two multimillion-dollar homes in the city.

Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, left, leaves her home to attend a court appearance in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. The executive was arrested in December at Vancouver's airport at the request of U.S. authorities and Canada announced last week it intends to proceed with the extradition case. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

Meng's lawyers noted in a statement last week after Canada agreed to let the extradition hearings proceed that Trump "has repeatedly stated that he would interfere in Ms. Meng's case if he thought it would assist the U.S negotiations with China over a trade deal."

Her arrest at the Vancouver airport set off a diplomatic furor that has severely strained Canadian relations with China.

China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor on Dec. 10 in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release Meng. Kovrig and Spavor haven't had access to a lawyer since being arrested.

A Chinese court also sentenced a Canadian to death in a sudden retrial on allegations of drug trafficking, overturning a 15-year prison term handed down earlier. China is also blocking some imports of the agricultural product canola from Canada in a development that could be related to Meng's case.

Huawei is a focus of U.S. security concerns. Washington has pressured other countries to limit use of its technology, warning they could be opening themselves up to surveillance and theft of information.

Outside the court, protesters gathered to support Meng while others criticized the Chinese government and called for the release of the two detained Canadians.

Kuang Yang burned a small Chinese flag and said through a translator that he opposes the Communist government using the two detained Canadians as "political pawns."

"The Chinese government is prosecuting ... the two Canadians as retaliation to Canada, but Canada is just doing its due process to extradite Meng to the U.S. to get a fair trial," he said.

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Associated Press writer Jim Morris reported this story in Vancouver and AP writer Rob Gillies reported from Toronto.

Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou arrives back at her home after a court appearance in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. The executive was arrested in December at Vancouver's airport at the request of U.S. authorities and Canada announced last week it intends to proceed with the extradition case. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou leaves her home to attend a court appearance in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. The executive was arrested in December at Vancouver's airport at the request of U.S. authorities and Canada announced last week it intends to proceed with the extradition case. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)
SALISBURY, N.C. (AP) - Police say a 6-month-old boy has been killed by his babysitter's dog at her home in North Carolina.

News outlets cite a statement from Salisbury police as saying Jacari Long died after the boxer-pit bull mix bit him Tuesday afternoon. He died from his injuries after a helicopter took him to a hospital in Winston-Salem.

Police say the sitter had sat Jacari down in her living room and walked outside to clean her car so they could go for a ride. She ran back inside after hearing her mother scream and found her dog mauling the child. He was taken to a local hospital before being flown to the other.

Rowan County Animal Control has taken custody of the dog. Police are still investigating.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - A former campaign worker for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan whose federal lawsuit claims her career was hindered when she complained about sexual harassment has alleged in court filings that "nothing was done in response" to other complaints against a Madigan staffer in 2015 and 2016.

The powerful Democratic speaker's office responded that the staff member, Travis Shea, was reprimanded. But it said that the speaker, who has faced criticism for more than a year over his handling of sexual harassment complaints among legislative office and campaign staffs, was not made aware of the incidents at the time.

The Illinois Republican Party demanded Wednesday that Madigan release a full accounting of complaints against his staff members and how they were resolved.

Alaina Hampton's lawsuit against Madigan's campaign committees and the state Democratic Party contends that Travis Shea faced no repercussions for complaints against him by two women and that he continued to work on Madigan's staff for two years.

"Both females reported Travis Shea's sexual harassment and/or assault directly to attorney Heather Weir Vaught but nothing was done in response," the lawsuit filing states. "In fact, Mr. Shea remained on the speaker's staff for an additional two years thereafter."

Madigan's office issued a statement late Tuesday defending his staff's action against Shea. It said that two women complained that Shea intimidated them and threatened to "make or break" their careers to Vaught, the House Democrats' ethics officer. It says then-chief of staff Timothy Mapes reprimanded Shea and told him the alleged behavior must cease. Shea's supervisor, Jessica Basham, then met with other women in Shea's unit to elicit other possible complaints, but there were none.

FILE - In this July 26, 2017, file photo, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, speaks at a news conference at the Capitol in Springfield, Ill. A former campaign worker for Illinois House Speaker whose federal lawsuit claims her career was hindered when she complained about sexual harassment has alleged in court filings that "nothing was done in response" to other complaints against a Madigan staffer in 2015 and 2016. The powerful Democratic speaker's office responded that the staff member, Travis Shea, was reprimanded. (Justin Fowler/The State Journal-Register via AP, File)

"Speaker Madigan was not made aware of the allegations," the statement said. "Had the allegations been brought to the speaker at the time, he would have terminated any employment relationship with Mr. Shea, as he has done on other occasions upon learning of such incidents."

However, the alleged incidents occurred years before Madigan sent a letter to lawmakers in early 2018 in which he acknowledged that he had not done enough to eradicate unsavory behavior, and that his previously employed "'knock it off' mentality is not enough."

After leaving Madigan's office in 2018, Shea became a lobbyist with Michael Best Strategies. A call to Shea at the firm Wednesday was directed to marketing officer Susan Hollender, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Links to Shea's online profiles for Michael Best were no longer accessible Wednesday.

Madigan, 76, is the longest serving state House speaker in U.S. history, having held the gavel in Illinois for all but two years since 1983. He also is chairman of the state Democratic Party and is often mentioned as the most powerful politician in the state.

"The people of Illinois deserve to know that the most powerful political figure in the state is fully addressing sexual harassment allegations in his own office," state Republican party spokesman Aaron DeGroot said.

Hampton had been a campaign worker since 2012 when she complained last year that her supervisor, Kevin Quinn, brother of Chicago Alderman Marty Quinn, had sent her a bevy of unwanted text messages seeking a date and pressing her for an explanation for her refusal. Madigan severed ties with Kevin Quinn but Hampton said he did so only after she went public.

Madigan said the Shea incidents were included on a list he released in February 2018 of nine incidents of alleged harassment in his office in recent years and how they were dealt with. There were no names associated with the incidents because the women involved requested confidentiality. The list was released in the wake of the dismissals of Quinn and another Madigan operative for harassment and calls for Madigan to step down as Democratic Party chairman.

Mapes resigned in June as chief of staff , House clerk and executive director of the Illinois Democratic Party after a longtime employee noted instances where Mapes was dismissive of harassment complaints and made inappropriate comments himself. Basham is now Madigan's chief of staff.

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Follow Political Writer John O'Connor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor .
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A jury has decided that a now-closed Philadelphia bar should pay $525,000 to the family of a university student who drowned in 2014 after a night of drinking, but the panel also found that the man's own negligence played a role in his death.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that jurors decided that the Schuylkill (SKOOL'-kull) River death of 21-year-old Shane Montgomery, which was ruled accidental, partly stemmed from Kildare's continuing to serve him while he was visibly intoxicated.

But jurors found Monday that the West Chester University student bore the largest share of responsibility and found no negligence by individual employees of the bar in the Manayunk neighborhood.

Family attorney Slade McLaughlin calls the outcome "disappointing."

An attorney for Kildare's, which closed in 2016, said he respected the verdict and offered the family condolences.

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Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.inquirer.com
Huawei CFO Meng is accused by the United States of bank and wire fraud related to breaches of trade sanctions against Iran.

Huawei has sued the US government, saying a law limiting its US business is unconstitutional. (Photo: AP)

The Republican and Democratic leaders of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee introduced legislation on Thursday backing Canadas handling of Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, as the United States seeks her extradition.

Senators Jim Risch, the committees Republican chairman, and Bob Menendez, its ranking Democrat, introduced the resolution backing Canada for upholding the rule of law.

Canada has provided consular access and due process for Ms. Meng, Risch said in a statement. It is only right for the Senate to join Canada in expressing concern over arbitrary detention and mistreatment of Canadian nationals by the Chinese government.

China on Monday accused detained Canadian citizen Michael Kovrig of stealing state secrets passed on to him from another detained Canadian, businessman Michael Spavor, in a move likely to increase tension between Ottawa and Beijing.

Huawei has sued the US government, saying a law limiting its US business is unconstitutional, ratcheting up its fight against a government bent on closing it out of global markets.

Huawei CFO Meng is accused by the United States of bank and wire fraud related to breaches of trade sanctions against Iran. Canada approved extradition proceedings on March 1, but Meng has since sued Canadas government for procedural wrongs in her arrest. The next court hearing is set for May 8.
In statehouses around the country, lawmakers this year have introduced bills seen as threatening instruction on science, including on climate change.

Here is a look at pieces of legislation flagged by the nonprofit National Center for Science Education, and the inspiration behind some of them.

ARIZONA

A proposal from Rep. Mark Finchem, a Republican, seeks to prohibit teachers from advocating for "any side of a controversial issue" and require them to provide students with materials supporting both sides of any controversy presented in class. The bill does not single out any specific issues. Finchem did not respond to requests for comment.

CONNECTICUT

A bill in the state House would eliminate climate change from the Next Generation Science Standards that were adopted in Connecticut in 2015. The author, Rep. John Piscopo, a Republican, is a member of the Heartland Institute who said he has found the advocacy group's materials questioning the scientific consensus on climate change to be persuasive. He also introduced a separate bill that would prohibit the use of the standards altogether.

FLORIDA

A bill in the state Senate would allow school districts to teach alternatives to controversial theories. The bill was suggested by the Florida Citizens Alliance, a grassroots group that says it opposes indoctrination in public schools, and introduced by Sen. Dennis Baxley, a Republican. A separate bill proposed by Republican Rep. Walter Bryan "Mike" Hill in the state House would require instructional materials to provide "objective, balanced, and noninflammatory viewpoints on controversial issues."

IOWA

Two separate bills in the Iowa House seek to reverse the state's adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards. The sponsors, Rep. Sandy Salmon and Rep. Skyler Wheeler, each have objected to the inclusion of climate change in the standards.

MAINE

A bill in the state House proposed to prohibit teachers from advocating for any side of a controversial issue that has appeared in a political platform on the local, state, or federal level. The bill sponsored by Rep. Lawrence Lockman, a Republican, did not mention any issues specifically and was defeated. Lockman did not respond to messages seeking comment. He has said he believes it's an open question whether human activity is the primary cause of climate change.

MONTANA

A bill defeated in the Montana House would have required any instruction on climate change to include a list of claims questioning whether it is actually happening. It was proposed by Rep. Joe Read, a Republican.

OKLAHOMA

Sen. David Bullard, a Republican, took inspiration from the Discovery Institute's model legislation for a bill calling for teachers to address "strengths and weaknesses" of scientific theories. The bill was defeated in committee.

NORTH DAKOTA

A bill proposed by Sen. Jeff Hoverson called for giving teachers freedom to teach strengths and weaknesses of theories and controversies. Hoverson, a Republican, withdrew the bill and said he wanted to assess the strength of local support for it before proceeding further.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Three bills have been proposed so far in South Dakota to give teachers freedom regarding controversial issues or to prohibit political indoctrination.

VIRGINIA

A bill calling for teachers to avoid political or ideological indoctrination of their students was proposed by state Rep. Dave LaRock, a Republican who said his bill was inspired by the work of David Horowitz, a conservative activist.
ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) - A 65-year-old Missouri man is jailed after being charged in the shooting of an Amazon delivery driver in a dispute over a handicapped parking spot.

KTVI-TV reports that Larry Thomlison of St. Charles is charged with assault and armed criminal action. Thomlison does not yet have an attorney.

The shooting happened Tuesday at the parking lot of a Target store in St. Charles. Authorities believe Thomlison was upset that the 21-year-old Amazon driver pulled into a handicapped-accessible parking space.

Police say Thomlison, who had a placard allowing him to park in handicapped-accessible spots, pulled out a cellphone to document the truck, leading to a struggle in which Thomlison was knocked to the ground. Police say he then pulled out a gun and shot the Amazon driver in the back.

The Amazon driver remains hospitalized.

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Information from: KTVI-TV, http://www.fox2now.com/
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - Human rights defenders are warning that legislation being debated in El Salvador's Legislative Assembly would establish an absolute amnesty for those who committed serious crimes during the country's armed conflict in the 1980s and early 1990s.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Wednesday that if approved the legislation would give amnesty to people who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. She said it would be a serious step back for El Salvador.

In July 2016, the constitutional arm of the Supreme Court declared a previous amnesty law unconstitutional. The court said nothing could interfere with arriving at the truth of what happened in crimes against humanity.

Miguel Montenegro, director of El Salvador's Human Rights Commission, said they could never support law that doesn't benefit victims.
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) - With presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for the fall, public officials in Tunisia plan to send mobile teams to villages, universities and companies to encourage people to vote.

Nabil Baffoun, the head of the country's election authority, said the presidential election will be held on Nov. 10, with a possible second round of voting two weeks later. It's not yet known whether 92-year-old President Beji Caid Essebsi plans to run again.

Baffoun says the vote to elect legislators is set for Oct. 6 and the voter participation teams plan to hit the road in April.

Baffoun lamented past low voter turnout, especially among young adults. Demonstrations in Tunisia turned into a revolution that caused the president to flee and triggered the pro-democracy "Arab Spring" in North Africa and the Middle East eight years ago.
DENVER (AP) - Lawyers for the parents of a Colorado woman killed by her husband say he did so after she threatened to keep him from seeing their children because he wanted a divorce.

Lawyer Thomas Grant, who represents Shannan Watts' parents, Frank and Sandy Rzucek, said on the "Dr. Phil" show Tuesday that Chris Watts spoke to investigators about why he killed his wife and two daughters after finding God.

Attorney Steven Lambert said Watts' 4-year-old daughter walked in as Watts was wrapping up his wife's body in a blanket.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation announced last week that investigators had interviewed Watts and would release a recording Thursday.

Grant said Sandy Rzucek was briefed on the interview but hasn't heard the recording.

The lawyers declined to comment to The Associated Press.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. envoy for Venezuela dismissed the possibility of American military action in the South American country in a recording made by two Russian pranksters and released Wednesday.

Special Representative Elliott Abrams said in the recording that the U.S. wouldn't use force in Venezuela unless the government did something "completely crazy" like attack the American Embassy.

But Abrams, who apparently believed he was speaking with a Swiss official, said the U.S. seeks to "make the Venezuelan military nervous" by not publicly ruling out military action to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

"We think it is a mistake tactically to give them endless reassurances that there will never be American military action," he said. "But I can tell you this is not what we are doing. What we are doing is exactly what you see, financial pressure, economic pressure, diplomatic pressure."

The recording was made by two Russian comedians, Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stoyarov, as one of the men posed as a Swiss official speaking with Abrams about efforts to seize Venezuelan bank accounts as part of an effort to compel Maduro to cede power to opposition leader Juan Guaido.

The comedians are known for prank calls with public officials and celebrities, including one with the former British foreign secretary last year. The Abrams recording was released online and published by Russian media Wednesday.

Asked for comment, the State Department said in an email that "we are well aware in general, and were aware in this case, of Russia's propaganda playbook and the lengths they will go to prop up the Maduro regime."

U.S. policy, it said, is "to support democracy in Venezuela, to support the National Assembly, which is the only democratically-elected part of the government."

The U.S. and more than 50 governments have recognized Guaido, the leader of the National Assembly, as interim president, insisting that Maduro was not legitimately re-elected last year to lead the once-prosperous nation.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Witnesses and colleagues say a U.S. journalist working in Venezuela has gone missing after security forces escorted him from his apartment.

A doorman at Cody Weddle's residence said a squad of five men wearing black uniforms demanded entry early Wednesday and left with the journalist.

The U.S. State Department said it's aware of a missing journalist and warned President Nicolas Maduro's government that the world is watching.

Tensions are escalating by the day in Venezuela, where U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido seeks to oust Maduro.

Weddle has reported from Venezuela for more than four years, most recently working as a freelance journalist for the ABC affiliate in Miami, Florida.

The station's president said in a statement it can't reach Weddle and is concerned.

Venezuelan officials have not commented.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey gambling regulators have ordered a California man to hand over more than $90,000 from online accounts he had funded and gambled with from outside the state in what appears to be the largest such case in the more than five years internet betting has been legal in New Jersey.

The state Division of Gaming Enforcement said this week that Vinh Dao, whose hometown was not made public, violated New Jersey law requiring that internet betting be done only by those physically within the state's borders.

Due to his cooperation and to negotiate an end to the case, which began more than five years ago, the state agreed to let Dao keep $2,500 of the nearly $93,000 that was in his online accounts with sites affiliated with the Borgata and Caesars Interactive-NJ.

The case dates to February 2014, just three months after internet gambling began in New Jersey, a time when geolocation technology was still developing and being adjusted in the state.

New Jersey has long touted the strict geolocation technology it uses to make sure internet gambling is only happening within its borders, and considers itself a national role model in the field. It has said most of the many attempts each day to gamble from outside the state are detected and turned away.

A message seeking comment was left Wednesday with Dao's attorney. It was not immediately clear how Dao was able to get around geolocation technology designed to ensure a person is within New Jersey's borders.

This Jan. 20, 2014 photo shows a game of internet blackjack underway in Atlantic City, N.J. New Jersey gambling regulators have ordered a California man to forfeit more than $90,000 from internet gambling accounts because he funded and placed bets from outside the state of New Jersey, in violation of state law. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

The technology erects a sort of digital fencing around New Jersey. A key component - but only one of several used to verify physical locations - is data from wireless carriers. They rely on connections that phones make to the nearest cell tower. While people can easily download applications to their phone that will let it mask its GPS coordinates, users cannot thwart or trick cellphone tower data, tech execs say.

Multiple layers of high technology should also work to ensure that minors or people on casino exclusion lists don't get online to gamble. Companies will cross-check the information provided by a customer at sign-up against several public and private databases and other sources. That could lead to software asking a personal identifying question that only a legitimate user would be able to answer.

The casino companies that allowed Dao to gamble online from outside New Jersey could be subject to fines. The Borgata declined comment; Caesars Interactive said it would look into the details of the case, but did not address potential penalties, and regulators did not respond to questions about the case Wednesday.

The forfeited money will be split between a fund for senior citizens and the disabled, and programs to prevent or treat compulsive gambling.

The Dao case was the largest of six forfeiture cases made public this week involving casino companies accepting bets from people ineligible to gamble, because the patrons were under 21 years of age, had placed themselves on a self-exclusion list, or in Dao's case, were acting from outside the state's borders.

In addition to the Borgata and Caesars Interactive, smaller forfeitures were ordered in cases involving Bally's and the Golden Nugget.

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Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) - A homeless man and a woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges in a GoFundMe scheme that prosecutors say netted $400,000 with a phony story about him coming to her aid.

Johnny Bobbitt, 36, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, and Katelyn McClure, 28, of Bordentown, New Jersey, pleaded to a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Bobbitt conspired with McClure and her then-boyfriend Mark D'Amico to make up a story in 2017 about Bobbitt giving McClure cash for gas when she was stranded along a Philadelphia highway, according to prosecutors.

The scheme raised $400,000, which the couple claimed would be donated to Bobbitt. Instead, New Jersey authorities said, the three split the money and spent lavishly, including on a car, designer bags, and trips to Las Vegas, Disneyland, Disney World, the Grand Canyon and New York City. GoFundMe says it has refunded all the donations.

The tale of a homeless good Samaritan made international headlines, with the trio appearing on TV. Their relationship soured, though, when Bobbitt sued the couple over what he said was their failure to turn money over to him.

New Jersey prosecutors said the suit led them to start an investigation, including hauling away a BMW they determined was purchased with the funds at the New Jersey home where McClure and D'Amico were living at the time.

FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2018 file pool photo, Johnny Bobbitt stands during a hearing at Burlington County Courthouse in Mount Holly, N.J. Bobbitt, a homeless man charged with engaging in a GoFundMe scheme, pleaded guilty in federal court in in Camden, N.J., Wednesday, March 6, 2019, to conspiracy to commit money laundering. (David Swanson/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, Pool, File)

All three still face charges in state court. D'Amico's attorney, Mark Davis, says his client denies any wrongdoing and has not been charged by federal authorities.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The Latest on the debate in Kansas over increasing funding for public schools (all times local):

3:30 p.m.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly's plan for increasing public education funding has cleared its first hurdle in the Legislature despite unexpected resistance from some local school districts.

A Senate committee on school funding approved Kelly's proposed increase of roughly $90 million a year on a voice vote Wednesday. The support for the Democratic governor's bill came from the committee's Republican majority and sent it to the full Senate for debate.

Kelly views her proposal as a simple way to comply with a Kansas Supreme Court mandate to boost education funding.

But fellow Democrats on the committee didn't support her plan after a coalition of 48 school districts withdrew its support. Those districts said a second look convinced them that the plan would not provide enough money to satisfy the court.

FILE - In this Feb 14, 2019 file photo, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly ponders a question during a news conference at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Kansas lawmakers have hit the halfway point of their annual session and the GOP-dominated Legislature doesn't just appear to be slow-walking new Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's big initiatives. Despite Republican supermajorities, an income tax relief bill that GOP leaders consider an urgent priority hasn't cleared both chambers. (AP Photo/John Hanna, File)

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11:30 a.m.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is meeting unexpected resistance to her plan for boosting public education funding.

It's coming from local school districts that dropped their support for her proposal after a second look convinced them it wouldn't supply enough new money.

The Democratic governor touts her proposed increase of roughly $90 million a year as the simple answer to comply with a Kansas Supreme Court mandate on education funding.

She initially won over Schools for Fair Funding. It's a coalition of 48 school districts backing an ongoing lawsuit against the state that includes the four districts that sued in 2010.

But the group withdrew its support ahead of a Senate committee hearing Wednesday.

The group contends a further review showed Kelly's proposal would fall short of satisfying the court.
The Balakot airstrike conducted by India was a counter-terrorism operation, which was well within the international laws.

As many as 22 terrorist training camps, including nine of JeM, are still being run in Pakistan and there has been no action against them, the official said. (Photo: AP)

Washington: As many as 22 terrorist training camps, including nine of Jaish-e-Mohammed, are active in Pakistan, but no action is being taken against them, a senior Indian official said in Washington on Thursday, warning that New Delhi will carry out operation similar to that of the Balakot airstrike if there is an act of terrorism coming from across the border.

In a pinpointed and swift air strike that lasted less than two minutes, India pounded JeMs biggest training camp in Pakistan on February 26, killing up to 350 terrorists and trainers who were moved there for their protection after the February 14 attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama in which 40 soldiers were killed. The JeM claimed responsibility for the Pulwama strike.

Pakistan is a global epicenter of terrorism and it needs to take verifiable and credible steps against terrorist organizations and terrorists, said the official on condition of anonymity. The official also accused Pakistan and its leadership of being in denial mode and trying to create a war hysteria kind of situation between the two nuclear-weapon states. As many as 22 terrorist training camps, including nine of JeM, are still being run in Pakistan and there has been no action against them, the official said.

The Balakot airstrike conducted by India was a counter-terrorism operation, which was well within the international laws. However, a day after on February 27, Pakistan attacked Indian military installation with as many as 20 fighter jets, the official claimed. Instead of taking action against terrorist groups, Pakistan escalated the situation and indulged in war hysteria by doing things like declaring the emergency in Karachi, blocking air traffic and creating rumors, which is part of its familiar pattern, the official said, adding, India, on the other hand, exercised restraint. Islamabad now bears the responsibility to end terrorism, the official said and warned that India will carry out retaliatory counter-terrorism operation like the one on February 26, deep inside Pakistan, anytime there is an act of terrorism coming from across the border.

Referring to the recent actions taken by Pakistan against several terrorist groups, the official said that these actions are nothing unusual as the country takes such steps after every terrorist strike in India. These actions, the official described, are a revolving door policy, under which house arrest of terrorist leaders simply means keeping them in luxurious accommodation.

They are released once the situation becomes normal, the official said.

But after the Pulwama attack, India has set a new normal. For every terrorist attack coming from across the border, India will retaliate and there will be a price that the neighboring country would have to pay. Accusing Pakistan of being a state sponsor of terrorism, the official said there is a feeling in India that Islamabad is unlikely to stop funding terror activities unless the cost of it is too heavy for it to pay.

Asserting that India has the right to self-defense, the official told reporters that New Delhi by successfully carrying out strikes inside Pakistan has been able to call the Pakistani bluff on the nuclear front. This will not work in the future, the official said and warned Pakistan that there will be reprisal for every act of terrorism.

Responding to a question, the official said India has given to the US details of the violation of the end user agreement by Pakistan when it used F-16 fighter jets and advanced missiles against India on February 27.

India, the official said, is very closely engaged with the US and has the support of the Trump administration. The official also said India is opposed to any IMF bailout packages to Pakistan. Pakistan has received as many as 21 bailout packages, including seven in the recent past, from the IMF. However, none of them have been able to address the economic woes of Pakistan because the money intended to improve the economy and developmental purposes have been diverted for non-civilian means.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - The Brazilian samba school that paid tribute to a slain city councilwoman has won this year's Carnival parade contest in Rio de Janeiro.

The title announced Wednesday went to Mangueira, which is one of the oldest and most traditional samba schools.

The group's theme was Brazil's unsung heroes, including councilwoman Marielle Franco, who was shot to death a year ago. Her killing set off a wave of demonstrations, but police are yet to name suspects.

Several flags with Franco's face in Mangueira's colors of green and pink appeared in its parade early Tuesday and also on Wednesday as the Carnival jury announced the winner.

Progressives hail the black, shantytown-born politician for activism for the LGBT community, while supporters of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro often reject her as a symbol.

A flag waves an image of the slain councilwoman Marielle Franco during the perform of the Mangueira samba school during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, March 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) - A man from the Dominican Republic has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in a case that authorities say involved a 10-hour boat chase through the Caribbean.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Wednesday that Dany Perez Brito was accused of trafficking more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine. Officials said the U.S. Coast Guard detected the boat north of Puerto Rico and chased it through international waters until the engine died north of St. Thomas.

Authorities said they found 1,132 kilograms of cocaine aboard the boat. Perez said in court that he conspired to transport the drugs from Venezuela to Puerto Rico and expected to be paid $200,000.

Perez faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10 million.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The Latest on the discovery of three bodies around an Oklahoma City-area lake. (all times local):

4 p.m.

Authorities have identified the second of three bodies that have been discovered around an Oklahoma City-area lake in less than two weeks.

Bethany Police Department Lt. Angelo Orefice said Wednesday a body that was pulled from Lake Overholser on March 2 has been identified as that of 19-year-old Jordan Vladimir Chaj Gonzales.

Authorities have previously identified a body that was pulled from the lake on Feb. 23 as that of 18-year-old Kelvin Perez-Lopez. Orefice says Gonzales and Perez-Lopez knew each other and that they were reported missing at the same time.

The third body was discovered Tuesday in a wooded area near the lake, which lies on the border of Oklahoma City and Bethany. Police say they are working to identify the man, who was in his 50s or 60s.

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11:36 a.m.

Authorities are searching for connections between three people whose bodies have been discovered in or near an Oklahoma City-area lake in less than two weeks.

The body of 18-year-old Kelvin Perez-Lopez was pulled from Lake Overholser on Feb. 23. On March 2, the unidentified body of a teen or young adult was discovered in water along the lake's southern edge

The third body was discovered Tuesday in a wooded area near the lake, which lies on the border of Oklahoma City and Bethany. Bethany police say they are working to identify the man, who they say appeared to be in his 50s or 60s.

Bethany Deputy Chief of Police John Reid said Wednesday that there is no evidence the body is related to the other two discoveries.
PHOENIX (AP) - In a story March 6 about a Phoenix race track doing pre-race veterinary exams, The Associated Press reported erroneously that 50 horses euthanized during the 2017-18 season all occurred at Turf Paradise track in Phoenix. The horse deaths were for all racing tracks in Arizona.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Turf Paradise to soon give pre-race vet exams to all horses

Turf Paradise plans to start giving pre-race veterinary examinations to all horses on a given day in an attempt to curb a recent rise in fatalities.

PHOENIX (AP) - Turf Paradise plans to start giving pre-race veterinary examinations to all horses on a given day in an attempt to curb a recent rise in fatalities.

According to a recent study by the Arizona Department of Gaming, 50 horses were euthanized during the 2017-18 season at Arizona racing tracks, mostly after they suffered leg or ankle injuries during a race.

That number is twice the national equine death rate at tracks.

Forty-five of those deaths were at Turf Paradise, and 27 of those were racing-related. The other 18 were due to training, illness or disease.

Turf Paradise officials announced Wednesday that starting March 18, about 65 horses will be examined on race days.

Previously, about 15 horses received pre-race exams per day based on selections by the stewards.

Turf Paradise has 131 live racing days per year from mid-October to early May.

The thoroughbred and quarter horse racetrack opened in January 1956.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana State University's Agricultural Center and its medical marijuana growing partner illegally moved their cannabis crop into the school's primary growing facility, a state official said.

The center and its private partner GB Sciences violated state law when they moved the crop, news outlets quoted state Agriculture and Forestry Department Commissioner Mike Strain as saying.

Strain's agency sent an inspector to the site on Monday to verify that the college and its private partner had begun moving the plants, the outlets reported.

LSU AgCenter Coordinator Ashley Mullens responded to the charges in a letter, saying the state medical marijuana program director had granted permission to move the plants. AgCenter officials have said the plants would die if not moved into the main facility from a temporary growing pod.

Strain said he wouldn't seek to seize the plants before the situation could be addressed in a court hearing.

Ongoing disputes over regulating medical marijuana have delayed it from being available to patients, although it's been legal in Louisiana for years. LSU's AgCenter and a center at Southern University are the only two licensed growers in the state.
LEWISTON, Maine (AP) - An anonymous website created by the Maine Republican Party's executive director obtained emails from a Democratic mayoral candidate and used them against him just days before a tight runoff election. The Democrat ultimately lost.

Now a former campaign recruiter for the Democrat has stunned the city council by announcing that she was the source of the emails - and that she turned them over to the Republican while she was having an affair with him.

Heather Berube Everly called on councilors in Lewiston, Maine's second-largest city, to oust her former lover as mayor Tuesday night. The mayor, Republican Shane Bouchard, was out of town because of the death of a relative and was not at the meeting.

"I'm not completely innocent in this," Everly told councilors, "and it's taken a lot of time and finding people to support me through this."

Bouchard dismissed the emails from Democrat Ben Chin's campaign and from the Maine People's Alliance as "old news" on Wednesday and described the affair as an "older" rumor that was "dealt with with family and colleagues months ago."

Everly didn't respond to emails Wednesday seeking to clarify her comments.

The Maine Republican Party's executive director published leaked emails through an anonymous website with a goal of hurting Chin's campaign. In one of the emails, Chin described a day of canvassing when he had positive interactions but also ran into "a bunch of racists."

It's unclear whether stealing someone's emails violates any crime. The state ethics commission already decided against investigating whether the anonymous website that was created by GOP Executive Director Jason Savage violated campaign financial disclosure laws.

Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the ethics commission, said Wednesday that he didn't see anything in Everly's accusations to warrant reopening the investigation.

"The issue of whether a candidate improperly someone's email is not in the jurisdiction of my commission," he said.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism (all times local):

5:15 p.m.

House Democrats have postponed indefinitely a vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism after a contentious meeting in which some new members confronted leaders over their push to rebuke Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

In the party's weekly closed meeting Wednesday, Democrats protested the way Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders tried to rush out a resolution this week responding to Omar's latest remark about Israel. Omar last week suggested the Jewish state's supporters are pushing lawmakers to pledge "allegiance" to a foreign country.

That forced Democratic leaders to respond, but their draft of the resolution condemning anti-Semitism angered Omar's fellow freshmen and their liberal supporters.

The upheaval prompted Democrats to push off a decision about the resolution.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sits with fellow Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee during a bill markup, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Omar stirred controversy last week saying that Israel's supporters are pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance to a foreign country." Omar is not apologizing for that remark, and progressives are supporting her. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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11:45 a.m.

House Democrats are struggling with how to declare they are against bigotry, bias and racism after progressives challenged an effort to rebuke freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar for her remarks on Israel.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged during a closed meeting on Wednesday that her caucus faces "internal issues" that require "a clearer understanding of what our purpose is as a caucus," a knowledgeable Democratic aide told The Associated Press. Pelosi cautioned Democrats not to question each other's motivation or patriotism.

Pelosi's remarks come as Democrats pull back from their original plan to vote on a resolution implicitly rebuking Omar for saying lawmakers are under pressure to pledge "allegiance" to Israel. Unlike her previous comments about the Jewish state, Omar is not apologizing for that remark, and progressives are supporting her.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sits with fellow Democrats, Rep. David Trone, D-Md., left, and Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., right, on the House Education and Labor Committee during a bill markup, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Omar stirred controversy last week saying that Israel's supporters are pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance to a foreign country." Omar is not apologizing for that remark, and progressives are supporting her. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sits with fellow Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee during a bill markup, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Omar stirred controversy last week saying that Israel's supporters are pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance to a foreign country." Omar is not apologizing for that remark, and progressives are supporting her. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is talking about border security as he meets with CEOs and elected officials to kick off a new workforce advisory board.

Trump - who recently declared a national emergency in an effort to secure funding for a border wall - called illegal border crossings "somewhat of an invasion." He added: "We want people to come in, but they have to come in through a process."

The board is co-chaired by White House adviser Ivanka Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and includes top business executives, academics and elected officials.

Ivanka Trump said the goal of the group was to increase the number of people in the U.S. workforce.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - An Arkansas House panel on Wednesday tabled a bill removing the Confederate designation from a star on the state's flag, creating a new obstacle for the proposal days after the Republican governor endorsed the measure.

The move by the majority-Republican House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee means the flag bill must clear an additional vote before it can be taken up by the panel. The committee rejected the proposal last week.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson earlier this week backed the proposal . It wouldn't change the state flag design but would remove language that a blue star above Arkansas' name on the state flag commemorates the Confederate States of America. Instead, the star would recognize the Native American tribes that inhabited the state, including the Quapaw, Osage and Caddo.

Republican Rep. Richard Womack, who called for tabling the bill, said afterward the panel should hold off on considering the bill until it's clear there are enough votes to pass the measure. The panel rejected the bill 8-5 last week.

"The reality is, I don't know that there are any votes that have changed," said Womack, who opposes the bill. "I just think it's unfair to the people to not know when these bills are coming up, especially when they can be emotionally charged like that."

Arkansas has four blue stars on its state flag, and the one commemorating the Confederacy was added in 1923. The other three blue stars represent the three countries that have had dominion over what is now the state of Arkansas: France, Spain and the United States.

Democratic Rep. Charles Blake, the flag bill's sponsor, said disappointed by the bill being tabled, but said he was looking at options including filing a separate bill or having another legislator introduce identical legislation. Blake also said he planned to speak the governor in the next few days about the bill.

"Them not wanting to hear the bill doesn't mean it's going away," Blake said.

Hutchinson on Wednesday repeated his support for the bill and said it's not about denying history, rebutting a criticism from opponents who have compared the idea to removing Confederate monuments. Hutchinson said the proposal is about how the state represents itself.

"It's something that's an affront to a portion of our population, and it's understandably so," he told reporters.

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Follow Andrew DeMillo on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ademillo
BAHAWALPUR, Pakistan (AP) - On the congested streets of Bahawalpur, a city in southern Pakistan's jihadi heartland, emotions run high in favor of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a U.N.-designated terror group that recently pushed nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

Such support complicates Prime Minister Imran Khan's latest crackdown on militant groups, including Jaish-e-Mohammed. In recent days, Khan has ordered the takeover of assets and property of dozens of banned militant organizations that operate in Pakistan.

Many of the groups are popular among the poor because they operate networks of charities. Some have also enjoyed the support of the military and intelligence services.

"Jaish-e-Mohammad is not a terrorist group, they just want to spread Islam," said Tahir Zia, a gray-bearded shopkeeper in Bahawalpur, a city whose 18th-century founders claim to be direct descendants of Islam's Prophet Mohammad.

According to Pakistan's counter-terrorism agency, the government has outlawed 68 militant groups. This includes Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lahskar-e-Taiba and Harakat-ul Mujahedeen - Pakistan-based groups that seek to wrest control of Indian-administered territory in the disputed Kashmir region.

Kashmir is split between Pakistan and India and claimed by both in its entirety. The region has been the flashpoint of two wars between the South Asian neighbors as well as several lower-level face-offs.

In this Thursday, March 7, 2019 photo, a man posts a notice at the entrance of a mosque belonging to a banned religious group that reads, "only members of administration are allowed, mosque is open during prayers timings only," in Islamabad, Pakistan. Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered the takeover of assets and property of dozens of militant organizations who continue operating in Pakistan under different names. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

The latest confrontation began Feb. 14, when a suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed 40 Indian soldiers. Jaish-e-Mohammad, which is based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility, even though the attacker was identified as an Indian Kashmiri militant. The bombing escalated tensions between India and Pakistan, with India launching an airstrike against suspected militant training camps inside Pakistan. Journalists, who visited the site hours after the bombing, said the area was a deserted forested hilltop.

Under pressure to rein in the militants, Pakistan took over mosques and religious schools belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad. Their students and teachers have been barred from talking to the media. Police and paramilitary rangers armed with AK-47s, now guard the group's buildings.

The group's headquarters on the northern outskirts of Bahawalpur, a city of 2 million people, are ringed by a 6-meter-high (20-foot) brick wall.

On a recent morning, several bearded men and two Pakistani police officers armed with automatic rifles turned away visitors approaching the compound's large steel gates.

Bahawalpur is located on the edge of Pakistan's Cholistan desert in the southern part of Punjab province. In recent decades, the area has become a jihadi heartland encouraged by state sponsorship and financial support from abroad, particularly Saudi Arabia, and several Gulf States.

The donors have financed a vast network of religious schools that cater to the poorest residents, teaching a brand of Islam that promotes sectarianism, brands Shiite Muslims as heretics and espouses jihad, or holy war, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Khan, who adopted the role of peacemaker in the latest outbreak of hostilities between Pakistan and India, returned a captured Indian pilot, offered peace talks with his Indian counterpart, and launched a crackdown on militant groups from which previous administrations shied away.

On Tuesday, in a gesture aimed at mending relations on the subcontinent, Pakistan announced it had arrested 44 suspected members of several militant organizations, including Jaish-e-Mohammed. Among those arrested was Mufti Abdul Rauf, the brother of Masood Azhar, the founder of the organization. Azhar's whereabouts are unknown.

Rauf was also among those named by India in a dossier it gave to Pakistan after Khan promised to investigate suspected links between Pakistani-based militants and the February bombing in Kashmir.

On Wednesday, more schools, hospitals and charities run by banned groups were taken over by the government. Padlocks were put on some facilities.

In a tweet Wednesday, Pakistani Interior Minister Shahryar Afridi promised his government would implement a widely cheered 2015 National Action Plan that calls for zero tolerance of militant groups. The previous government devised the 20-point plan to combat terrorism and extremism in Pakistan, only to ignore it.

Still the move by Khan's government is fraught with dangers in a country where militant groups provide social services to poor residents ignored by the government. The 2016 Crisis Group report called south Punjab "the poorest region of the country's richest and most populous province."

In Bahawalpur, Jaish-e-Mohammad and its leader enjoy considerable support.

Anotehr storekeeper, Sajjad Ali, called Azhar a "man of peace" and dismissed accusations that he is a terrorist as Indian propaganda.

Hafiz Muzamil, a fiery young man, railed against India's violent suppression of a 30-year insurgency in Kashmir __ India's only Muslim dominated state __ and championed Jaish-e-Mohammad and Azhar as warriors for Islam. Crowds gathered as he spoke, most nodding vigorously.

Adnan Naseemullah, an expert in international affairs at King's College in London, warned of a short-term backlash against the crackdown.

"Pakistan, if it takes an aggressive, no-tolerance stand against Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harakat ul-Mujahidin, will suffer a violent backlash domestically," he said.

"But a zero-tolerance policy from the Pakistani state will over time shift the focus back on Kashmir and the treatment of the Kashmiri people, which is in Pakistan's long-term interest," he added.

International human rights groups have accused India of widespread abuses as it seeks to crush dissent in its part of Kashmir. "India's policy on Kashmir under (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi is straightforwardly and violently repressive," said Naseemullah.

For Pakistan, the deadly mix of militant groups on its soil is a decades-old problem with roots in the 1980s war in neighboring Afghanistan, when the United States and Pakistan were allies against the former Soviet Union. Together they nurtured an army of mujahedeen, or holy warriors, to oust the former Soviet Union from Afghanistan. When the war ended with a Soviet withdrawal in 1989, young Pakistani recruits to jihad were sent to the Indian half of disputed Kashmir to fight for a united Kashmir under the Pakistani flag.

It's a history that analysts like Zahid Hussain, author of two books on militancy, say haunts Pakistan.

"Various Pakistani governments have promised to take action against the many groups but have not done so," said Hussain. "Not only does it pose a danger to Pakistan's own national internal security, there is always the danger they will use Pakistani soil to launch an attack across the border."

In this March 3, 2019 photo, Hafiz Muzamil, speaks to The Associated Press in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Pakistan has taken over the headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a militant group that claimed to have carried out a suicide bombing in Indian Kashmir that killed more than 40 Indian soldiers in February 2019, and brought nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to the brink of war. Muzamil railed against India's violent suppression of a 30-year insurgency in Kashmir -- India's only Muslim dominated state -- and championed Jaish-e-Mohammad. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

In this March 3, 2019 photo, shopkeeper Tahir Zia speaks to The Associated Press in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Zia said that Jaish-e-Mohammad, a U.N.-declared terror group that claimed to have carried out a bombing that brought nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to the brink of war, "is not a terrorist group, they just want to spread Islam." Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered the takeover of assets and property of dozens of militant organizations including Jaish-e-Mohammad. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

In this Thursday, March 7, 2019 photo, a police vehicle is parked outside a mosque belonging to a banned religious group in Islamabad, Pakistan. Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered the takeover of assets and property of dozens of militant organizations who continue operating in Pakistan under different names. The task is no easy one in a country where many militant groups are extremely popular among residents and sometimes even enjoy the support of the military and intelligence services. Poster reads "Muslims' rights." (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
Hong Kong: 4 arrested in drug bust

Customs officers arrested four people and seized 4.2kg of heroin worth $3.9 million at the airport, the Government announced today.

Officers found the drug concealed in false compartments of shoes worn by the four male passengers, aged 23 to 38, who arrived from Bangkok on March 6.

They will appear at Kowloon City Magistrates Courts on March 9.

Trafficking in a dangerous drug is a serious offence. It carries a maximum penalty of a $5 million fine and life imprisonment.

This story has been published on: 2019-03-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.


Elizabeth Warren penned her detailed opinion today, telling us it is time to break up Amazon, Google and Facebook, implying they are defacto monopolies. She is correct, they are. Whether they meet the classical definition today or not is secondary, they all have enough market power to effectively block competition and continue to wipe out current foes.

We agree in principle but not with many of the specifics. Here is the objective analysis of the salient points of her writings:

In the 1990s, Microsoft  the tech giant of its time  was trying to parlay its dominance in computer operating systems into dominance in the new area of web browsing. The federal government sued Microsoft for violating anti-monopoly laws and eventually reached a settlement. The governments antitrust case against Microsoft helped clear a path for Internet companies like Google and Facebook to emerge.

Not only was there no relation between Microsofts settlement and the launch of Facebook and Google but Microsoft invested in Facebook to help spur their growth. In addition, they spent and lost billions on Bing to compete with Google but could not ever gain significant share.

Todays big tech companies have too much power  too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy. Theyve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation.

Power over the economy, society and democracy is subjective. Does Hollywood have too much power over society? How can a company have too much power over our economy? By being too successful? Do newspapers and news stations have too much power over our democracy?

Is using private information for profit now illegal? Is providing free service illegal? Not yet.

Have these companies stifled innovation? Absolutely.

I want a government that makes sure everybody  even the biggest and most powerful companies in America  plays by the rules. And I want to make sure that the next generation of great American tech companies can flourish. To do that, we need to stop this generation of big tech companies from throwing around their political power to shape the rules in their favor and throwing around their economic power to snuff out or buy up every potential competitor.

With all due respect to Senator Warren, she and her colleagues write the rules. Where was she when presidential candidate Senator Obama and Eric Schmidt were tied at the hip? In 2009 we pointed out the relationship from Googles standpoint was to protect their monopoly power.

Throwing around political power? In English, this means paying politicians to get what you want. Last I checked, she and her colleagues were politicians, taking the money.

All companies are able to lobby. Is it somehow worse when tech companies do it?

Finally, a well-known statement in Washington is, if you dont have a seat at the table, you are on the menu. As long as politicians are enriching themselves via lobbyists and corporate favors, tech or other companies cant be blamed.

Thats why my Administration will make big, structural changes to the tech sector to promote more competition  including breaking up Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

Tell us more.

Americas big tech companies provide valuable products but also wield enormous power over our digital lives. Nearly half of all e-commerce goes through Amazon. More than 70% of all Internet traffic goes through sites owned or operated by Google or Facebook.

This seems like too much power  we have to agree.

As these companies have grown larger and more powerful, they have used their resources and control over the way we use the Internet to squash small businesses and innovation, and substitute their own financial interests for the broader interests of the American people. To restore the balance of power in our democracy, to promote competition, and to ensure that the next generation of technology innovation is as vibrant as the last, its time to break up our biggest tech companies.

Americas big tech companies have achieved their level of dominance in part based on two strategies:

Using Mergers to Limit Competition . Facebook has purchased potential competitors Instagram and WhatsApp. Amazon has used its immense market power to force smaller competitors like . Facebook has purchased potential competitors Instagram and WhatsApp. Amazon has used its immense market power to force smaller competitors like Diapers.com to sell at a discounted rate. Google has snapped up the mapping company Waze and the ad company DoubleClick. Rather than blocking these transactions for their negative long-term effects on competition and innovation, government regulators have waved them through.

Using Proprietary Marketplaces to Limit Competition . Many big tech companies own a marketplace  where buyers and sellers transact  while also participating on the marketplace. This can create a conflict of interest that undermines competition. . Many big tech companies own a marketplace  where buyers and sellers transact  while also participating on the marketplace. This can create a conflict of interest that undermines competition. Amazon crushes small companies by copying the goods they sell on the Amazon Marketplace and then selling its own branded version. Google allegedly snuffed out a competing small search engine by demoting its content on its search algorithm, and it has favored its own restaurant ratings over those of Yelp

Facebooks Instagram purchase was done so early on that it was not a guarantee that their market dominance would be secured by the purchase. WhatsApp was really in an adjacent or even different space. If this purchase should not have been allowed then one wonders what purchases if any, large companies should be allowed to make.

What Amazon did to Diapers was the equivalent of a mafia threat  extremely unethical but not illegal. Amazons massive market power does allow it to turn the screws unfairly on competition.

Amazon sells generic brands that compete with their sellers and if this is unfair then does Costco have to stop selling Kirkland products? Are consumers not savvy enough to pass on generic products if they provide insufficient value?

Google has hid behind algorithms to destroy countless competitors over time. Ask any media company behind closed doors and they will agree.

The problem with Warrens argument though is consumers choose to use Google, not because they are forced but because their product is either better or not so bad that consumers make the effort to switch.

Weak antitrust enforcement has led to a dramatic reduction in competition and innovation in the tech sector. Venture capitalists are now hesitant to fund new startups to compete with these big tech companies because its so easy for the big companies to either snap up growing competitors or drive them out of business. The number of tech startups has slumped, there are fewer high-growth young firms typical of the tech industry, and first financing rounds for tech startups have declined 22% since 2012.

If there is an argument to be made about the current state of tech monopolies it is that in the digital world  the ability to leverage entrenched relationships makes it very easy to take competitors ideas and wipe them out overnight.

This however is common in tech as IBM and Microsoft took the ideas of standalone software companies and baked them into their operating system upgrades for many decades.

The internet however makes it far easier to wipe away startups by stealing their business models.

Finally, antitrust rules are typically looked at from the standpoint of customer benefit. It is tough to make the case that these acquisitions specifially hurt consumers.

With fewer competitors entering the market, the big tech companies do not have to compete as aggressively in key areas like protecting our privacy. And some of these companies have grown so powerful that they can bully cities and states into showering them with massive taxpayer handouts in exchange for doing business, and can act  in the words of Mark Zuckerberg  more like a government than a traditional company.

At no point did Amazon bully any city  this is an inaccurate description of Amazon shopping for a location for their HQ2. Cities and states were able to compete with tax incentives as they do for thousands or tens of thousands of companies each year.

The only thing about Amazon which was different was the scale of the negotiations.

We must ensure that todays tech giants do not crowd out potential competitors, smother the next generation of great tech companies, and wield so much power that they can undermine our democracy.

A noble goal.

But where the value of the company came from its network, reformers recognized that ownership of a network and participating on the network caused a conflict of interest. Instead of nationalizing these industries  as other countries did  Americans in the Progressive Era decided to ensure that these networks would not abuse their power by charging higher prices, offering worse quality, reducing innovation, and favoring some over others. We required a structural separation between the network and other businesses, and also demanded that the network offer fair and non-discriminatory service.

In this tradition, my administration would restore competition to the tech sector by taking two major steps:

First, by passing legislation that requires large tech platforms to be designated as Platform Utilities and broken apart from any participant on that platform.

Companies with an annual global revenue of $25 billion or more and that offer to the public an online marketplace, an exchange, or a platform for connecting third parties would be designated as platform utilities.

These companies would be prohibited from owning both the platform utility and any participants on that platform. Platform utilities would be required to meet a standard of fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory dealing with users. Platform utilities would not be allowed to transfer or share data with third parties.

This is again  good in concept but lets think through the reality. Warren is concerned that a company like Amazon would abuse its power by charging higher prices for worse quality.

She also cites the brand Amazon Basics  their generic brand as a problem. Typically though, this line of products gets solid reviews and is cheaper than alternatives.

Wouldnt elimination of Amazon Basics sold by Amazon be bad for consumers?

Google also uses its search results pages to tout its own products and services.

Quite often these services are useful.

Other times however, Google alters its searches in a way which penalizes content creators who rely on advertising/sponsorships as a revenue source. In this way, they gain a larger share of the advertising market. This is done from a position of monopoly power and hidden in the guise of algorithm updates. We wish Senator Warren addressed this practice.

For smaller companies (those with annual global revenue of between $90 million and $25 billion), their platform utilities would be required to meet the same standard of fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory dealing with users, but would not be required to structurally separate from any participant on the platform.

To enforce these new requirements, federal regulators, State Attorneys General, or injured private parties would have the right to sue a platform utility to enjoin any conduct that violates these requirements, to disgorge any ill-gotten gains, and to be paid for losses and damages. A company found to violate these requirements would also have to pay a fine of 5 percent of annual revenue.

Amazon Marketplace, Googles ad exchange, and Google Search would be platform utilities under this law. Therefore, Amazon Marketplace and Basics, and Googles ad exchange and businesses on the exchange would be split apart. Google Search would have to be spun off as well.

There are just so many challenges here  will companies move overseas to avoid these restrictions? Can we stop that from happening? Does the U.S. intend to break up multinational companies which have a headquarters in Russia and China? Europe? Will investment in the U.S. decrease because of these punitive measures tied to success?

It is worth noting that Googles move to have a new parent company, Alphabet shows they know eventually they will be split up. Amazon opening new grocery stores which could compete with Whole Foods is likely done for similar reasons.

Second, my administration would appoint regulators committed to reversing illegal and anti-competitive tech mergers.

Current antitrust laws empower federal regulators to break up mergers that reduce competition. I will appoint regulators who are committed to using existing tools to unwind anti-competitive mergers, including:

Amazon: Whole Foods; Zappos

Facebook: WhatsApp; Instagram

Google: Waze; Nest; DoubleClick

Unwinding these mergers will promote healthy competition in the market  which will put pressure on big tech companies to be more responsive to user concerns, including about privacy.

Lets go through this one by one.

Zappos is in the same business at Amazon  and spinning it off would make some sense. But it is really tough to see this move affecting Amazon sales by much if anything. In fact, Amazon undercuts Zappos pricing today  imagine if they were real competitors.

Whole Foods is bricks and mortar  in a way it pulls Amazons valuation down  which should be good for its competitors. If Amazon had to build a Whole Foods competitor on their own  they could and it is tough to see how Whole Foods could weather such a storm.

Facebook divesting Instagram makes sense but WhatsApp is a different business. There are many messaging alternatives. Although having access to WhatsApp users is a positive for Facebook  it doesnt seem like WhatsApp helps Facebooks monopoly position. An independent WhatsApp would however likely become a social networking company over time which would be good for competition.

Google giving up Waze makes sense from the perspective that Google owns the advertising space and their own mapping product is quite strong. But Waze is not really in Googles core space so forcing a split seems wrong.

Nest is in the smarthome space  Google is just starting to play here so it is tough to see how Nest being split would help much. Also, Amazon has the lions share of the smart speaker space  Nest helps Google compete in the smart home.

Without a doubt, Google owning DoubleClick helped solidify the companys monopoly position in advertising. But we need to give the company tremendous credit for integrating and executing very well. The sooner DoubleClick is separated, the better.

Unwinding these mergers will promote healthy competition in the market  which will put pressure on big tech companies to be more responsive to user concerns, including about privacy.

Promote healthy competition is overly optimistic. No company will improve their responsiveness as a result of these changes.

So what would the Internet look like after all these reforms?

Heres what wont change: Youll still be able to go on Google and search like you do today. Youll still be able to go on Amazon and find 30 different coffee machines that you can get delivered to your house in two days. Youll still be able to go on Facebook and see how your old friend from school is doing.

With all due respect Senator, how do you know what these changes will do? At best you can say you hope things will stay the same.

A better argument may be the current system is unsustainable and these changes need to be made  if there is unforeseen collateral damage, it will be worth it and we feel new entrants or adjacent companies will step in to pick up the slack.

Heres what will change: Small businesses would have a fair shot to sell their products on Amazon without the fear of Amazon pushing them out of business. Google couldnt smother competitors by demoting their products on Google Search. Facebook would face real pressure from Instagram and WhatsApp to improve the user experience and protect our privacy. Tech entrepreneurs would have a fighting chance to compete against the tech giants.

This is once again way overstated. Amazon could still sidestep distributors and go straight to the manufacturer like they do today.

As mentioned in the media example above, as long as Google is selling ads on search it will have the incentive to demote news and other organizations with successful sponsored story models which give advertisers an alternative.

This could be the biggest problem Google presents to the Internet and it is almost never discussed.

Healthy competition can solve a lot of problems. The steps Im proposing today will allow existing big tech companies to keep offering customer-friendly services, while promoting competition, stimulating innovation in the tech sector, and ensuring that America continues to lead the world in producing cutting-edge tech companies. Its how we protect the future of the Internet.

Senator Warren, we are in violent agreement with the goals of your proposal but feel there is a great deal missing and a number of overlooked points which are extremely important to work out.

We are happy to discuss the details with you.
Saeed was listed under UNSC Resolution 1267 in Dec 2008 after Mumbai terror attack in which 10 LeT terrorists killed 166 people.

Hafiz Saeed had filed an appeal with the UN through Lahore-based law firm Mirza and Mirza in 2017, while he was still under house arrest in Pakistan, for removal of the ban. (Photo:File)

New York: Pakistan turned down the visa request of a UN team which wanted to interview Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed on his application for removing his name from the UNSC sanctions list, according to UN sources.

Hafiz Saeed was listed under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008 after the Mumbai terror attack in which 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists killed 166 people. He was released from house arrest in Pakistan in November 2017.

A representative from the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN informed the UN Ombudsperson in October last year that no visa would be issued for their travel to Pakistan, UN sources told PTI.

The UN Ombudsperson reviews requests from UN designated individuals and entities to be removed from the UN Sanctions Committee listing.

Sources said the Pakistani representative had sought that the visit be postponed till the beginning of 2019 but the Ombudsperson had made it clear that such an extension for the travel could not be given due relevant UNSC provisions and an extension could be made only till late December 2018.

According to the relevant provisions, the UN Security Council had directed the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee to keep "under active review" its guidelines for placing, removing or granting exemptions to individuals and entities on its Al-Qaeda Sanctions List.

Pakistani officials failed to convey in time to the Ombudsperson regarding the travel to Pakistan after which the UN team sought a video conference with Saeed.

UN sources said that following the video interview, the UN Ombudsperson determined Saeed's name will not be removed from the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee listing.

They said that the Ombudsperson "analysed" all the information that had been gathered on the case and "provided observations", setting out for the Committee "the principal arguments" on Saeed's request for de-listing.

The sources added that the Ombudsperson determined that there is "sufficient information" available for the "current listing."

After analyzing and taking into consideration all the information on Saeed's case and his request for de-listing "in totality", the Ombudsperson recommended to the Sanctions Committee that Saeed's name should be retained in the Al-Qaeda Sanctions List.

The UN decision to reject appeal of Saeed, also the creator of LeT, came after India provided detailed evidence including "highly confidential information" about his activities, sources said.

Hafiz Saeed had filed an appeal with the UN through Lahore-based law firm Mirza and Mirza in 2017, while he was still under house arrest in Pakistan, for removal of the ban.

Independent Ombudsperson Daniel Kipfer Fasciati, appointed by the UN to examine all such requests, informed Hafiz Saeed's lawyer that it has been decided following examination of his request that that he will "continue as a listed individual", sources said.

The Ombudsperson recommended that after gathering all information, it has been decided to continue with the ban as "there was sufficient information to provide a reasonable and credible basis for continuing the listing," sources said, adding the recommendation was endorsed by the UN's Sanctions Committee.

Saeed's request was opposed by India as well as other countries that had originally listed him - US, UK and France, sources said.

Significantly, Pakistan did not oppose the appeal despite claims by the new Imran Khan-led government there that it was taking action against the banned terrorists and their organisations in what they call a ''Naya Pakistan''.

Notably, the decision comes at a time when UN's 1267 Sanctions Committee has received a new request to designate Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist after the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. Pakistan-based JeM has claimed responsibility for the strike.
BEIJING (AP) - Around 40 people gathered outside China's foreign ministry Friday to seek answers on the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which took away their loved ones exactly five years ago.

The plane disappeared on March 8, 2014, on a journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The majority of the 239 people on board were Chinese.

While the mystery initially captured the world's attention and prompted a joint search effort by China, Malaysia and Australia, the whereabouts of the plane remain unknown. Debris that washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean indicated the plane crashed in the remote southern Indian Ocean.

The passengers' families, however, have not given up hope.

"Why does the world stop talking?" asked Guan Zhongping, whose daughter was on the flight.

"Why is it totally covered up?" he said. "We, the relatives, want to put a question mark on this."

A relative of passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) weeps after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Ministry officials in Beijing, Friday, March 8, 2019. Friday marked the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of MH370, which vanished March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Zhang Niuli, who lost her daughter on the flight, said the families met with a foreign ministry director surnamed Chen for about 15 minutes. Zhang said they were disappointed Chen didn't have any direct responses to their questions.

After the two years-long joint underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean was called off in January 2017, a U.S. company attempted an exploration last May that also yielded no results.

But there have been rumblings that Malaysia may resume its search, said Jiang Hui, whose mother was among the passengers.

A Malaysian-led independent investigation report released last July raised the possibility of "intervention by a third party," reiterating Malaysia's assertion that the plan was deliberately diverted and flown for over seven hours after severing communications.

Yet the report said there was no indication of abnormal behavior or stress in the two pilots that could lead them to hijack the plane. All the passengers were also cleared by police and had no pilot training.

Relatives of passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) gather outside the Chinese Foreign Ministry demanding answers in Beijing, Friday, March 8, 2019. Friday marked the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of MH370, which vanished March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A Chinese security officer barks orders near relatives of passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) who have gathered outside the Chinese Foreign Ministry demanding answers in Beijing, Friday, March 8, 2019. Friday marked the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of MH370, which vanished March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Chinese police officers push back journalists from relatives of passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) who have gathered outside the Chinese Foreign Ministry demanding answers in Beijing, Friday, March 8, 2019. Friday marked the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of MH370, which vanished March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
An executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei is suing the Canadian government, its border agency and the national police force, saying they detained, searched and interrogated her before telling her she was under arrest.

Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou said on Sunday that they had filed a notice of civil claim in the British Columbia Supreme Court.

Canada arrested Meng, the daughter of Huaweis founder, at the request of the US on December 1 at Vancouvers airport.

She is wanted on fraud charges that she misled banks about the companys business dealings in Iran.

Meng is the chief financial officer of Huawei (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

The suit alleges that instead of immediately arresting her, authorities interrogated Meng under the guise of a routine customs examination and used the opportunity to compel her to provide evidence and information.

The suit alleges Canada Border Service Agency agents seized her electronic devices, obtained passwords and unlawfully viewed the contents and intentionally failed to advise her of the true reasons for her detention.

The suit said only after three hours was she told she was under arrest and had the right to counsel.

This case concerns a deliberate and pre-meditated effort on the part of the defendant officers to obtain evidence and information from the plaintiff in a manner which they knew constituted serious violations of the plaintiffs rights, the claim says.

Meng is out on bail and living in Vancouver awaiting extradition proceedings.

Fact: the Authority to Proceed is the first step in the extradition process. The decision was made by Department of Justice Canada officials, who are part of a non-partisan public service. #MengWanzhou https://t.co/DekpRoG9rp pic.twitter.com/3hSO8DtUIR  Justice Canada (@JusticeCanadaEN) March 1, 2019

On Friday, Canadian Justice Department officials gave the go-ahead for her extradition proceedings to begin.

Meng is due in court on Wednesday to set a date for the proceedings to start. It could be several months or even years before her case is resolved.

Mengs arrest set off a diplomatic furore and severely strained Canadian relations with China. Beijing has accused Washington of a politically motivated attempt to hurt the company.

China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor on December 10 in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release Meng.

The state news agency said on Monday that the pair had acted together to steal state secrets.

A Chinese court also sentenced a Canadian to death in a sudden retrial, overturning a 15-year prison term handed down earlier.

Nicolas Dorion, a spokesman for the Canada Border Services Agency, said it was not the agencys practice to comment on legal matters that are before the courts.

A justice department spokesman referred comment to the border agency, and a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they were unlikely to comment on Sunday.
Sajid Javid will meet police chiefs to discuss violent crime amid a series of brutal stabbings around the country.

The Home Secretary will chair the Chief Constables roundtable following the high-profile deaths of two 17-year-olds.

The event on Wednesday will include police chiefs from the areas most affected by knife crime.

It comes after the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Jodie Chesney in an east London park on Friday night in what her family branded a totally random and unprovoked attack.

Detectives make fresh appeal for information following fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Jodie Chesney in #Romford - details of a suspect have been released and police have revealed more information about what unfolded before the fatal attack https://t.co/zVu7NAHEyD pic.twitter.com/P7zpASedTv  Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) March 3, 2019

It was the 18th homicide in the capital in 2019, a total that stood at 20 by the end of the weekend.

A 17-year-old boy who was stabbed to death in the village of Hale Barns, near Altrincham, in Greater Manchester, on Saturday night was named by police as Yousef Ghaleb Makki.

Also over the weekend, a man was charged with murder over the fatal stabbing of Che Morrison, 20, outside an east London railway station on Tuesday.

A man was arrested in connection with two stabbings in central London late on Saturday night and early on Sunday that left two people with life-threatening injuries.

And police named a man who is fighting for his life after a horrific attack when he was stabbed in Enfield, north London, on Tuesday.

(PA Graphics)

The incidents follow three teenagers dying in knife attacks in two weeks in Birmingham, leading to West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson branding it a national emergency.

Hazrat Umar, 17, was killed in Bordesley Green on Monday; Abdullah Muhammad, 16, died in Small Heath the previous week, and seven days earlier Sidali Mohamed, 16, was stabbed outside a college in Highgate.

Mr Javid said: Young people are being murdered across the country and it cant go on.

Were taking action on many fronts and Ill be meeting police chiefs this week to hear what more can be done.

It is vital that we unite to stop this senseless violence.

Knife crime devastates lives and communities, which is why we launched the Serious Violence Strategy.



This brings together new police powers with an increased focus on early intervention to end the cycle of violence. pic.twitter.com/o9slVFeysI  Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) March 3, 2019

Prime Minister Theresa Mays official spokesman said: These are shocking and upsetting crimes and our sympathies are with the families and friends of the victims.

The crimes are a stark reminder that there is more to do to tackle the violence on our streets.

The spokesman pointed to the Governments serious violence strategy and the Offensive Weapons Bill currently going through Parliament.

Clearly there is more work still to do and if there are ideas which Chief Constables raise with the Home Secretary when he speaks with them on Wednesday, then of course we will look at potentially taking them forward, said the PMs spokesman.

The Home Office said it set out a range of actions to tackle violent crime in October including a 200 million youth endowment fund.

It also consulted on a new legal duty to underpin a public health approach to tackling serious violence, and an independent review of drug misuse.

An extra 970 million in police funding is proposed in the funding settlement for 2019-20, the Home Office said.

It added that the Offensive Weapons Bill currently before Parliament will introduce new offences to tackle knife crime and acid attacks.

Police officers search near the scene on St Neots Road in Harold Hill, east London following the fatal stabbing of Jodie Chesney (PA)

The Home Office also said the serious violence taskforce, chaired by the Home Secretary and including other ministers, MPs, police leaders and the London Mayor, meets regularly to oversee and drive delivery of the serious violence strategy.

The strategy, published last year, focuses on steering young people away from a life of crime, while continuing to promote a strong law enforcement response, it added.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock disputed a previous suggestion by London Mayor Sadiq Khan that knife crime was a public health issue.

The causes of violent crime are complex. City Hall's new Violence Reduction Unit takes a fundamentally different approach  bringing experts from police, health, councils, charities and communities together to help stop serious violence. https://t.co/xrqQIFb0uB  Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) March 4, 2019

Its a crime issue. People stabbing people, first and foremost, is a crime and youve got to hold the perpetrators to justice and accountable, he told LBC.

If you try to say that its a public health issue that implies that its nobodys fault. The criminals who are murderers, its their fault and thats got to be the starting point.

Now we should take a broad approach to how we tackle it, looking at all of the different causes and all the actions that we can take and Sadiq Khan himself could do with taking some actions here in London.

Mr Hancock said he was pretty surprised to read newspaper reports that Mr Khan is out of the country on holiday.

Politicians need to have holidays, that is true, he said.

But there are also moments of crisis when if you are in a big job with heavy responsibilities then there are times when you need to be there and acting.
A group of residents have called for mass demonstrations along the Irish border the day after Brexit.

Border Communities Against Brexit, supported by pro-Remain political parties, unveiled a new billboard at Stormont announcing the planned day of protest with just 25 days to go until the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union.

Politicians from Northern Irelands main pro-Remain parties also turned out for the event, including representatives from Sinn Fein, the SDLP and the Alliance Party.

Border Communities Against Brexit group spokesman Declan Fearon announced several locations for the border demonstrations on March 30, including at border crossing points in Co Down, Co Fermanagh, Co Tyrone and in Londonderry.

He said their purpose in coming together is to press to ensure there is no return to a hard border in Ireland.

The DUP and Brexiteers are trying to tear up the backstop which will damage the Good Friday Agreement. We call on people to support BCAB on 30 March. Stand up for your rights.  @M_AndersonSF pic.twitter.com/yseE7ykjeC  Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) March 4, 2019

From 2016, when a clear majority in the north (of Ireland) voted to remain within the European Union, border communities have lobbied extensively in Dublin, London and Brussels and indeed here at home, he said.

A billboard at Stormont launched by Border Communities Against Brexit (Rebecca Black/PA)

We have organised large-scale protests on the border itself which has helped give a voice to local people who are very frustrated and feel disenfranchised by the Brexit process.

March 29 is the date by which the Tory Government is due to take Britain and indeed ourselves here in the north out of the European Union.

While there has been much talk about delays and extensions of the withdrawal date, the political machinations at Westminster have completely ignored the views, needs, fears and desires of the people here in Ireland, in particular those living in the border region who will be so adversely affected by Brexit.

Brexit and a hard border have the potential to cause devastation to our economy, our industries, jobs and especially to the farming sector, to the free movement of people crossing the border every day in our communities to work, study or to trade.

Border Communities Against Brexit remain focused on ensuring that Irish voices from the border area continue to be heard in the crucial days and weeks ahead.

To that end we have organised a significant peoples demonstration against Brexit at various points along the border for Saturday March 30.

These mobilisations will take place at the Old Dublin Road in Kilcarn, on the old Newry to Dundalk road, at Belcoo/Blacklion, Moybridge and Aughnacloy, Lifford and Strabane and Coshquin in Derry.

We are asking everyone living along the border on either side to make an effort to attend your nearest demonstration. We are calling all trade unions, all representative groups, civic leaders and citizens to join with us and demonstrate our anger at being taken out of the European Union.

Sinn Fein MEP Martina Anderson backed the call to protest, and also called for a united Ireland.

The least damaging option for the people in the north of Ireland is the backstop, and as we stand here today we have the DUP and the Brexiteers trying to tear up that backstop, she said.

We call on the people not to allow those who are playing fast and loose with the Good Friday Agreement to continue on with the reckless behaviour of the Brexiteers in the House of Commons and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of the Border Communities Against Brexit on March 30. Regardless of what you are doing, it is crucially important that you stand up for your rights.

There is a solution to the problem, that is the conversation that has already been mainstreamed about the kind of constitutional change that will take place I believe on the island of Ireland and that is the reunification of our country.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said there is no such thing as a good Brexit, but he said the backstop is the best form of protection.

People have struggled for far too long to have peace and democracy in Ireland and we are not about to give it up because a few people on the hard right of the Conservative Party or the DUP arent prepared to protect what we have achieved, he said.

Its very simple, we wont have border infrastructure across our island, those of us who live near the border know that it will not be allowed to happen. I think that message needs to get through to the people who have a vote in a couple of weeks time.

Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry said Brexit is not an orange versus green issue, but affects people from all backgrounds and walks of life across Ireland.

If we have the opportunity to stop Brexit entirely we should take that through a peoples vote, but the absolute bottom line is that we have to bank the backstop. It is not something that can be renegotiated, it is the bare minimum to protect both the rights and the economy and peoples way of life. Equally, we must avoid a no deal at all costs as well, he said.
A man has died nine days after a fire which left a woman and a 13-month-old girl in a serious condition.

Firefighters were called to a report of the blaze at MacDonald Drive in Lossiemouth, Moray, at around 3.45am on Thursday February 21.

A 35-year-old man was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and later transferred to Glasgow Royal Infirmary where he died on Saturday.

A 31-year-old woman was also taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary while the girl was airlifted to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.

We can confirm that a 35-year-old man has sadly died following a house fire in #Lossiemouth on Feb 21 - three occupants who were within the building inc. a 13-month-old baby girl were taken to hospital in serious conditions. Sadly the man died on Sat at Glasgow Royal Infirmary  North East Police (@NorthEPolice) March 4, 2019

They are both believed to have been released from hospital.

Police said there are no apparent suspicious circumstances surrounding the incident.

Emergency services were called to the scene in Lossiemouth (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Detective Inspector Norman Stevenson said: My thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragic incident.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said six fire engines and other support appliances attended the incident.

A neighbouring property was also evacuated as a precaution.
Prince Harry has officially dedicated a memorial to the British victims of the 2015 Tunisia terrorist attacks.

The Duke of Sussex attended the ceremony at Birminghams Cannon Hill Park, alongside the families of the victims, on Monday.

The memorial will be a focus of remembrance for those killed in two separate attacks on the Bardo Museum in Tunis on March 18, and a hotel beach resort in Sousse on June 26.

"In memory of all those who lost their lives, and to the families whose lives were changed forever."



The Duke of Sussex at the Sousse and Bardo Memorial, dedicated to those who lost their lives on the attacks in Tunisia on the Bardo Museum in March 2015 and Sousse in June 2015. pic.twitter.com/Ofpo8FJLxJ  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 4, 2019

Addressing an audience of about 200 family and friends of those who died, Prince Harry said: In memory of all those who lost their lives.

And to the families whose lives were changed forever by these events.

I would like to pay my deepest respects to you and officially dedicated this memorial to your loved ones.

Holding a single white rose, he then turned and walked to the memorials centre-piece, where he laid the flower.

At Sousse, 30 British tourists staying at the Hotel Rui Imperial Marhaba complex in Port el Kantaoui were among 38 killed, with dozens more injured.

The Duke of Sussex arrives at Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham (PA)

Sally Adey, a 57-year-old solicitor from Caynton near Shifnal, Shropshire, was the sole British victim of the deadly museum attack, which left 22 dead.

The Sousse terrorist attack was the deadliest on British citizens since the July 7/7 London bombings in 2005.

Islamic State claimed at the time that it was behind the attack by Tunisian student Seifeddine Rezgui.

Among those killed were three members of the same family; Charles Patrick Evans, 78; his son Adrian Evans, 49, and grandson Joel Richards, 19.

Joels brother Owen Richards, then 16, survived and was later praised for his bravery at the scene by a coroner at inquests into the deaths.

The Sousse and Bardo Memorial, made up of 31 individual streams, each one representing the British nationals who lost their lives  will be a place of remembrance, commemoration and reflection for families of those injured and killed in the terrorist attacks in Tunisia in 2015. pic.twitter.com/prRzupp16j  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 4, 2019

After the attacks, he and his mother Suzanne Richards set up the Smile for Joel Charity, providing support for other victims of terrorism.

Speaking after the ceremony, Mrs Richards said: Were looking forward to seeing the memorial being officially unveiled. We had a sneaky peak yesterday and it was beautiful.

Its lovely to think people can actually come and see all the names of those killed and reflect on what happened.

It is very difficult and also today is my Dads (Charles) birthday.

Owen Richards, now 19 and studying at university, said: Its really important not just for the families but also generally for the wider public to take an interest and be able to remember what happened, and not forget it.

Because there were things that should have been learned from that day and by remembering it hopefully those lessons (will be learned) and it will stop it happening again.

He added: Its a bit of a hectic, intense day.

Its Grandads birthday today which is kind of nice but obviously makes it a little bit harder.

Owen Richards and his mother arrive at Cannon Hill Park (Joe Giddens/PA)

Mrs Richards added that the charity, Smile for Joel, set up 18 months ago was also now reaching out to families affected by murder in the UK as well as terrorism, particularly given the recent spate of gun and knife attacks.

Its lovely because every week, we get requests for help and its lovely to be able to give help in their names, she added.

The mother and son also performed a reading at the dedication, called We Remember Them.

Mrs Richards said: We chose a reading about remembering them, because that is what this is all about.

We want to make sure that people never forget that people went on holiday and never came home.

The work Im doing with the travel industry Im hoping to make changes so that never happens again.

Seven people were sentenced to life in prison in Tunisia, in February, in connection with both attacks.

The park site was selected in consultation with the families due to its central location, its seclusion and tranquillity and as being a place of public prominence, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said previously.

The memorial has been designed by George King Architects and overlooks the parks boating lake.

The centre piece of the memorial is a sculpture titled Infinite Wave made up of 31 individual stainless steel rods, each representing the Britons who lost their lives.

From the side, the memorial also takes the shape of a dove of peace taking flight, while concentric rings of stone and turf ripple outwards.

The FCO developed the memorial, consulting with families on the design and location.

In 2016, Prince Harry attended a service at Westminster Abbey for the victims, and gave a reading.
Downing Street has blamed human error for a social media post about Theresa Mays visit to Salisbury being illustrated by a picture of Bath.

A message on the Prime Ministers official Twitter feed paid tribute to the beautiful, welcoming Wiltshire city on the anniversary of the poison attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal on its streets.

But rather than a picture of the famous 123-metre spire of Salisbury Cathedral, the message was accompanied by a shot of St John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church 40 miles away in Bath.

I hope that moving forward Salisbury will once again be known for being a beautiful, welcoming English city and not for the events of 4 March 2018, said the PM in her message.

The picture was hastily removed and replaced with a picture of the door of 10 Downing Street, but not before it was noticed by eagle-eyed Times journalist Matt Chorley, a native of Somerset and former reporter on the Western Morning News.

Whilst it's always lovely to see a beautiful shot of Bath, I think No. 10 may have got carried away with this time...plenty of nice shots of Salisbury to use! https://t.co/8Z6LWTyxvQ  Wera Hobhouse MP  (@Wera_Hobhouse) March 4, 2019

Thats the trouble with these Westcountry cathedral cities, they all look the same, joked Mr Chorley.

Salisbury Cathedral (Ben Birchall/PA)

Baths Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse said: Whilst its always lovely to see a beautiful shot of Bath, I think No 10 may have got carried away with this time  plenty of nice shots of Salisbury to use!

Asked about the blunder during a visit to Salisbury, the Prime Minister said: This was an error which has now been rectified.

It is understood the error was due to the stock picture used being mislabelled.

Mrs Mays official spokesman said: This was human error. It was corrected as soon as anyone was made aware of it.

The Prime Minister is in Salisbury today and will be expressing her great admiration for the resilience which the community has shown in response to the attack a year ago.
Rescuers are scouring the rubble of mobile homes and houses in search of survivors of a powerful tornado that rampaged through south-east Alabama and killed at least 23 people.

The trail of destruction was at least half a mile wide and overwhelmed rural Lee Countys coroners office, forcing it to call in help from the state.

The devastation is incredible, Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said.

Drones flying overheard equipped with heat-seeking devices had scanned the area for survivors, but dangerous conditions halted the search late on Sunday, Mr Jones said.

The tornado was part of a powerful storm system that also slashed its way across parts of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.

Emergency responders in Lee County (WKRG-TV/AP)

Mr Jones said the twister travelled straight down a county road in the rural community of Beauregard, reducing homes to slabs.

The National Weather Service confirmed late on Sunday that a tornado with at least an F3 rating caused the destruction in Alabama.

Although the statement did not give exact wind estimates, F3 storms typically are gauged at wind speeds of 158mph to 206mph.

After nightfall on Sunday, the rain had stopped and pieces of metal debris and tree branches littered roadways in Beauregard. Two sheriffs vehicles blocked reporters and others from reaching the worst-hit area. Power appeared to be out in many places.

President Donald Trump tweeted: To the great people of Alabama and surrounding areas: Please be careful and safe. Tornadoes and storms were truly violent and more could be coming. To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all!

Rita Smith, spokeswoman for the Lee County Emergency Management Agency, said about 150 first responders had quickly jumped in to help search the debris after the storm struck in Beauregard.

Pastor Steve Blaylock in the wrecked First Pentecostal Church in Columbus, Mississippi (Rogelio V Solis/AP)

At least one trained dog could be seen with search crews as numerous ambulances and emergency vehicles, lights flashing, converged on the area.

No deaths had been reported by Sunday evening from storm-damaged Alabama counties other than Lee County, said Gregory Robinson, spokesman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, but he said crews were still surveying damage in several counties in the south-west of the state.

Numerous tornado warnings were posted across parts of Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina on Sunday afternoon as the storm system raced across the region.

Weather officials said they confirmed other tornadoes around the region by radar and would send teams out to assess those and other storms.

In rural Talbotton, Georgia, about 80 miles south of Atlanta, a handful of people were injured by either powerful straight-line winds or a tornado that destroyed several mobile homes and damaged other buildings, said Leigh Ann Erenheim, director of the Talbot County Emergency Management Agency.

News footage showed smashed buildings with rooftops blown away, cars overturned and debris everywhere. Trees all around had been snapped bare of branches.
The son of an ex-government minister faces a retrial over the death of three-year-old Alfie Lamb, who was allegedly crushed by a car seat.

Stephen Waterson, 25, from Croydon, twice reversed his chair into his girlfriends young son on February 1 last year, it is claimed.

Alfie had been placed in the rear footwell of Watersons Audi convertible on the way back from a shopping trip to Sutton, south London, the Old Bailey had heard.

He collapsed by the time the car reached Croydon and he died in hospital three days later.

Last month, a jury failed to reach a verdict on whether Waterson, adopted son of Nigel Waterson, was guilty of Alfies manslaughter.

Stephen Waterson (Metropolitan Police/PA)

He was found guilty of intimidating a witness, having earlier admitted conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by telling lies to police about what happened.

Alfies mother Adrian Hoare, 23, was cleared of manslaughter but found guilty of child cruelty and assaulting another witness, Emilie Williams, 19.

Both Hoare, from Gravesend, Kent, and Williams, of Croydon, had also admitted plotting to pervert the course of justice.

Hoare returned to the Old Bailey for a sentencing hearing before Mr Justice Kerr on Monday.

Waterson attended via video link from Belmarsh jail while his lawyer Tana Adkin QC listened in by mobile phone on loud speaker in court due to an administrative oversight.

The judge set a retrial to start on April 23 to be heard before him.

He adjourned sentencing of all the defendants until the conclusion of Watersons retrial.
Apprentices will visit high schools across Scotland to encourage pupils to consider an apprenticeship, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.

The First Minister has launched a new national network for every Scottish high school to be linked with current or former apprentices who can share their experiences.

Announcing the unpaid ambassador scheme at Forth Valley College as part of as part of Scottish Apprenticeship Week, Ms Sturgeon said she wanted apprentices to inspire other young people to follow in their footsteps.

Ms Sturgeon said: Creating this network of apprentices, who can share their experiences with others, will help inspire the next generation.

We know that work-based learning delivers for individuals, employers, and the Scottish economy.

Through the network, apprentices are going to have the chance to inspire young people to follow their example and become the apprentices of tomorrow.

Their success stories are the best way to show pupils that work-based learning offers fantastic career opportunities.

Apprentices who join the network would not be paid for any work they did with schools or pupils. They would require approval from their employer if activities were to be carried out during working hours.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS), who are running the scheme, said that approximately 40 apprentices have signed up and that they hope to have at least one apprentice linked to every high school by 2020.

Katie Hutton from SDS added: We know that the best people to showcase the benefits of apprenticeships are successful apprentices.

Through the network, apprentices will have a unique opportunity to talk directly to school pupils who are making their career choices and encourage others to follow in their footsteps.
Thirty-six nations condemned Saudi Arabia over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a rare censure of the oil-rich kingdom.

The statement was backed by EU states along with Australia, Canada and New Zealand. (File Photo)

Geneva, Switzerland: Thirty-six nations condemned Saudi Arabia on Thursday over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a rare censure of the oil-rich kingdom at the UN Human Rights Council.

A statement read by Iceland on behalf of a group of states expressed "significant concerns" about reported abuses in Saudi Arabia and demanded justice following Khashoggi's killing.

"Investigations into the killing must be prompt, effective and thorough, independent and impartial, and transparent. Those responsible must be held to account," added the statement read by Iceland's UN ambassador Harald Aspelund.

It called on Saudi authorities "to disclose all information available" about its own investigation while cooperating with separate UN inquiries into Khashoggi's death.

The statement was backed by EU states along with Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Human Rights Watch said the statement was "the first-ever collective action" at the council on rights in Saudi Arabia, which had successfully evaded criticism at the UN body.

HRW's Geneva director John Fisher called it "a landmark step toward justice" and urged "more scrutiny" of the country.

Responding to the statement, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the UN in Geneva condemned the use of "joint statements for political causes."

"Interference in domestic affairs under the guise of defending human rights is in fact an attack on our sovereignty," ambassador Abdulaziz Alwasil said.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor and critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Saudi Arabia initially said it had no knowledge of his fate.

It has since blamed rogue agents for Khashoggi's death and the kingdom's public prosecutor has charged 11 people over his murder.

The UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard, is conducting an inquiry into the killing.

But Callamard is an independent human rights expert who does not speak for the UN and calls have mounted for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to push for a full UN-backed probe.
The father and uncle of murdered toddler James Bulger have lost a High Court bid to have information about killer Jon Venables made public.

An order made in 2001 has allowed Venables to live under a cloak of anonymity since his release from a life sentence for the kidnap, torture and murder of the two-year-old in February 1993.

Lawyers for Ralph and Jimmy Bulger argued that certain details about the killer and his life are common knowledge and easily accessible online.

They asked the President of the Family Division Sir Andrew McFarlane to vary the order so that it does not cover this information.

James Bulger (PA)

But, in a ruling on Monday, the judge refused to change the terms of the order in the way requested by the Bulgers.

The court previously heard the information includes details of Venabless identities and former addresses up to 2017 and the prisons where he has been detained.

Anyone sharing such information under the order could face prosecution for contempt of court.

The toddler was killed by Venables and Robert Thompson, who were both aged 10, after they snatched him from a shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside.

They were both granted lifelong anonymity by a High Court judge and have lived under new identities since their release from custody.

The court order was amended in relation to Venables after he was convicted of further offences in 2010 and February last year.
Police are investigating after a woman was sexually assaulted in Kirkwall, Orkney.

The attack is said to have happened just after midnight in the towns Bridge Street area.

Police Scotland said officers would remain at the scene as inquiries continued.

A spokesman said: Police Scotland is carrying out inquiries following a report of a sexual assault of a woman in the Bridge Street area of Kirkwall in the early hours of Monday March 4.

Inquiries into the incident are ongoing and at an early stage.

A police presence will be maintained in the area as these continue and the local public are thanked for their understanding.
Ukip Wales leader Neil Hamilton will contest the seat previously held by Paul Flynn following the death of the veteran Labour MP.

The Newport West by-election will be held on April 4 and will be the first electoral test following the UKs exit from the EU on March 29.

Ukip announced Mr Hamiltons candidacy on Monday afternoon, nearly 22 years after he was defeated at the 1997 general election.

UKIP selects @NeilUKIP to fight the Newport West by-election



None of the other parties back Brexit. This election will show that UKIP is back and firing on all cylinders."



- UKIP Wales Leader Neil Hamilton



IN FULL: https://t.co/ip1HWFDdIS pic.twitter.com/IbEKI39oMO  UKIP (@UKIP) March 4, 2019

Mr Hamilton, who was the Conservative MP for Tatton between 1983 and 1997, said his election would send a lightning bolt to Westminster, and accused the Tories and Labour of betraying Brexit, which Newport voted for by 56% to 44%.

He said: My parents were married in Rogerstone. My mothers family lived in Castleton 200 years ago and moved to Risca when the coal industry developed. I was born in the old county of Monmouthshire and lived in Blackwood as a boy.

The Conservatives and Labour are jointly betraying Brexit. May and Corbyn are determined to stop us leaving the EU on March 29. Labour now wants a second referendum, to try and reverse the last Peoples Vote.

Neil Hamilton will contest the Newport by-election for Ukip (Aaron Chown/PA)

The Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru are total Eurofanatics. They think they know best. This by-election is a chance to poke them all in the eye.

Newport voted Leave by a large majority, but the political establishment refuses to listen. Ukip is the only party committed to an immediate, clean Brexit.

On April 4, Newport West can deliver a lightning bolt to Westminster and Cardiff Bay and make the political elite listen to the People. Newport can make Brexit happen.

Mr Hamilton said Wales was the poorest part of the UK following devolution, and promised to put more money into the pockets of ordinary people  strict immigration control to combat wage-depression, cheap food by scrapping EU import taxes, cheaper electricity and gas by scrapping green taxes, ending the BBC TV licence fee, slashing non-humanitarian foreign aid and abolishing VAT on basic necessities.

Ukip leader Gerard Batten said: Neil Hamilton is an enormously experienced campaigner who has been fighting to keep Britain out of the EU since 1967. Ukip is taking this by-election very seriously, and we are committing significant resources to it.

If the United Kingdom does not leave the European Union at 11pm on March 29, Remainer MPs in Leave majority seats will be fearful for their political futures and Ukip is ready to challenge the political establishment in every corner of the country starting with Newport.

Hamilton currently represents the Mid and West Wales region in the Welsh Assembly.

Long-serving Mr Flynn died aged 84 earlier this month after representing the South Wales constituency for 32 years.

He retained the seat at the 2017 general election with a 5,658 majority over the Conservative candidate.
A London hospital patient is the second person in the world to be cleared of HIV, doctors have said.

The male patient has achieved sustained remission from HIV after being treated at Hammersmith Hospital in west London, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said.

The case report, led by researchers at UCL and Imperial College London, comes around a decade after the first known case in Berlin.

In 2003, the male patient was diagnosed with HIV infection and developed an Aids defining cancer, advanced Hodgkins Lymphoma, in 2012.

In 2016, he received a transplant of haematopoietic stem cells from a donor carrying a genetic mutation in the HIV receptor CCR5, which hinders the HIV virus from entering human cells.

He has now been in remission for 18 months after his antiretroviral drugs were discontinued, researchers said.

Professor Eduardo Olavarria, from Imperial College London, said: While it is too premature to say with certainty that our patient is now cured of HIV, he is clearly in a long-term remission.

We continue to monitor his condition; however, the apparent success of this treatment injects new hope in the search for a long-awaited cure for HIV/Aids.

Similar therapy has been successful once before with Berlin Patient, a US man treated in Germany 12 years ago who is still free of HIV.

Mr Brown said he would like to meet the London patient and would encourage him to go public because its been very useful for science and for giving hope to HIV-positive people, to people living with HIV.

The case was published online by the journal Nature and will be presented at an HIV conference in Seattle.

The studys lead author, Professor Ravindra Gupta, said: Finding a way to eliminate the virus entirely is an urgent global priority, but is particularly difficult because the virus integrates into the white blood cells of its host.

He added: By achieving remission in a second patient using a similar approach, we have shown that the Berlin Patient was not an anomaly, and that it really was the treatment approaches that eliminated HIV in these two people.

The approach is not appropriate as a standard HIV treatment due to the toxicity of chemotherapy, he warned, but said he is hopeful it will help them develop strategies that might eliminate HIV altogether.

Timothy Ray Brown, known as the `Berlin Patient;, was the first person to be cured of HIV infection (Manuel Valdes/AP)

Dr Michael Brady, medical director at HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust, praised the breakthrough but said researchers were still some way off from establishing a cure.

He said: But what we are able to say with certainty is that, through early diagnosis and access to treatment, you can live a long, healthy life with HIV and be confident you wont pass the virus to your sexual partners.

With regular testing, condoms, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and the fact that people on effective HIV treatment cannot pass on the virus, we have the ability to completely prevent new HIV transmissions.

Todays news is a welcome development for many people living with HIV, but we must not take our eye off the ball in ensuring we use the tools we already have that can help us towards zero new transmissions.
Theresa May will face questions from MPs after two members of her Cabinet held fresh talks in Brussels in a renewed effort to secure changes to the controversial Irish backstop.

The Prime Minister is likely to be pressed on the negotiations, after the trip by Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay and Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, when she appears before the Commons for PMQs.

Mr Cox and Mr Barclay were seeking to allay fears that the backstop could leave the UK trapped in a customs union with the EU, in a bid to win over Tory MPs ahead of further votes next week.

Mrs May is set to bring her deal back to the Commons for a vote by March 12.

If it is rejected, MPs will get the chance to either back a no-deal Brexit or call for the UKs departure from the EU to be delayed beyond the current March 29 deadline.

On Tuesday evening, the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales joined together to tell the Prime Minister her reckless behaviour over Brexit must stop now.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford spoke out after politicians in Edinburgh and Cardiff took a united and historic step to vote against both Mrs Mays withdrawal deal and the prospect of a no-deal Brexit.

Meanwhile, a senior medic warned that delays to cancer testing and treatment were inevitable as a result of Brexit.

Dr Richard Graham, of the Royal College of Radiologists, told BBC Twos Newsnight: Of course now there will inevitably be delays to treatment as a result of the Brexit process because we need to start booking our lists for the post-Brexit date.

We will need to book clinics less heavily so that weve got more wriggle room if we dont have the radioisotopes in order to diagnose and treat the patients.

Mrs Mays hopes of winning over Tory Eurosceptics hinge on Mr Cox being able to change his legal advice about the indefinite nature of the backstop, which is intended to ensure there is no hard border on the island of Ireland in the absence of a future free trade agreement.

However, French President Emmanuel Macron signalled that he would firmly resist any measure that might diminish the security and integrity of the EUs external border and internal market.

(PA Graphics)

He also accused Brexiteers of lying about the consequences of leaving the EU and suggested Britain would end up being part of a reformed Europe in the future.

And European Council president Donald Tusk suggested that external anti-European forces had tried to subvert the Brexit referendum in 2016.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels with the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, Mr Tusk said he backed Mr Macrons initiative, adding: There are external anti-European forces, which are seeking  openly or secretly  to influence the democratic choices of Europeans, as was the case with Brexit and a number of election campaigns across Europe.

And it may again be the case with the European elections in May.
Students from underrepresented backgrounds who narrowly missed out on a University of Cambridge place are to be given a second chance.

For the first time since Ucas introduced the adjustment scheme in 2009, Cambridge will participate in the initiative from this August.

Adjustment allows students who exceed the terms of their conditional offer to refer themselves to another institution for consideration.

Once their A-level results are known, those from wider participation backgrounds will be able to get in touch with Cambridge for reconsideration.

The university estimates up to 100 places may be offered under the scheme.

Applications will only be considered for the subject a student originally applied for and are available to those who are resident in the UK and currently studying at a UK school.

Students from underrepresented backgrounds will be given a second chance to apply for Cambridge (Chris Radburn/PA)

Dr Sam Lucy, director of admissions for the Cambridge Colleges, said: Each year more than 14,000 students who apply to Cambridge are not made an offer.

Students have to apply almost a year before they start their course, and some may be on an upward academic trajectory and not demonstrating their full academic potential at the point of interview.

Adjustment provides those students who go on to achieve highly with an opportunity to be reconsidered as soon as they have their final results, rather than having to make a reapplication the following year.

We hope this will have a positive impact, in enabling us to admit talented students from underrepresented groups who narrowly miss out in the first round.

Those applying for an undergraduate course under the adjustment scheme must also have applied and been interviewed during the 2018/19 cycle.

They must meet the relevant widening participation criteria and have achieved at least the typical offer for the Cambridge course applied for.

To meet the criteria applicants must fulfil at least three of five contextual flags, having spent time in local authority care or being a mature applicant from an underrepresented background.

Sarah Stevens, head of policy at the Russell Group, said: The decision to focus this opportunity on applicants from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds is welcome and is further proof that Cambridge is looking for different ways to promote greater diversity among its students.

Adjustment is for students who meet and exceed the conditions of their conditional firm offer, and allows them to potentially swap their place for one on another course they prefer.

It is not the same as applying for a place through Clearing which offers candidates who did not receive an offer, or did not meet the requirements of one, the chance to apply for courses still available.

Last April a report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) found Cambridge to be the most unequal university.

It calculated the ratings based on universities share of students coming from different POLAR quintiles, which are used to measure how advantaged an area is.

Nick Hillman, director of HEPI, said: Finally  great news. I saw during my own years as a secondary school teacher how there is an element of lottery in getting into places like Cambridge  and it has got worse since I left teaching 20 years ago.

So if this reduces the element of chance for a few students, it is wholly welcome.

I would like to know more about whether it is a temporary or a permanent change though and it does need to be supplemented by other initiatives.

Last month a report from the National Education Opportunities Network (Neon) showed just 2% of those admitted to the University of Cambridge in 2016/17 were white students from deprived backgrounds.
An alarming fall in rape charges will be examined in a major review announced as part of a new Government crackdown on violence against women and girls.

The probe will assess the handling of alleged sexual offences to establish why there have been reductions in the numbers of cases referred, prosecuted and convicted.

Ministers have also ordered new studies to be carried out into potential links between online pornography and attitudes to women, and the causes, impacts and influencers of body dissatisfaction.

They are among a raft of measures contained in a refreshed Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy to be published by the Home Office on Wednesday.

But the chairwoman of Parliaments all-party group on sexual violence, Sarah Champion, said that without increased funding, the strategy will not even scratch the surface of the problem.

The refreshed strategy commits no new money to address violence against women and girls, said the Labour MP, who has campaigned on behalf of abuse victims in her constituency of Rotherham.

Ministers have also ordered new studies to be carried out into potential links between online pornography and attitudes to women (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

The Government celebrates the 100 million spent since 2016, however the Home Offices own analysis found that domestic abuse cost 66 billion in 2017 alone.

It is ridiculous to think such paltry commitments can scratch the surface of the problem. We need a cross-government strategic fund that spends money on services to save it further down the line.

Unveiling the refreshed action plan, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: It is not acceptable that in todays society, one in four women in the UK will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime, and one in five will experience sexual violence.

As a father, I want to see my children grow up in a world where VAWG is a thing of the past, and where they have no reason to fear those closest to them.

The review into how the criminal justice system responds to rape and serious sexual offences will examine agencies handling of cases from police report to conviction or acquittal in court, reporting back to the Criminal Justice Board, which includes senior figures from government, the judiciary and policing.

The strategy also sets out plans for research to consider whether, as has been suggested by some academics, rape myths may be negatively impacting the ability of juries to analyse the evidence and make informed, objective judgments on the merits of each case.

Figures published in September showed a decrease in the number of cases across the VAWG category in England and Wales.

The volume of rape-flagged referrals from police fell by nearly a tenth in 2017-18, while the number of suspects charged by the CPS dropped by nearly a quarter (23%).

Convictions were down by just under 12%, although the conviction rate went up slightly.

This data includes cases initially reported as rape allegations, but where charges for other offences were subsequently brought.

Rachel Krys, co-director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, welcomed the review.

She said: Despite a huge increase in the numbers of women reporting rape to the police over the last five years, there has been an alarming recent collapse in the rate of cases being charged.

Women who report rape can be made to feel it is they who are under investigation and on trial and we need to turn this around.

Ministers also announced that research will be commissioned into what links exist between consumption of online pornography and harmful attitudes towards women and girls.

Previous studies have examined connections between porn and sexual violence, but the new analysis will investigate whether there is any broader link to harmful attitudes towards women.

Separate research will look at the causes, impacts and influencers of body dissatisfaction, and what works to tackle the cause and effects of low body image.

In total, the strategy details 54 commitments designed to build on steps outlined in the first version, which was launched in 2016.

The blueprint also commits to:

 Introduce a statutory code of practice for employers on sexual harassment;

 Work with online dating apps to raise awareness among users;

 Consider the impact of alcohol on violence against women and girls;

 Explore the issue of online flashing, where sexual images are sent without the consent of the recipient;

 Develop further measures to support lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender victims.

Minister for Women Victoria Atkins said: Violence against women and girls strikes at the heart of our families, friendships and communities and it is our responsibility to bring light, justice and support to victims and survivors.

A CPS spokesman said: We want to reassure anybody affected by rape that where there is sufficient evidence for us to prosecute, we will not hesitate to do so.

The increase in digital evidence means charging decisions are taking longer to complete.

We now advise police at an earlier stage to build the strongest possible cases for prosecution. We can pass files back for further work but this does not necessarily mean the case is at an end.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid will meet police chiefs amid claims of a national knife crime emergency.

A string of fatal teen stabbings have sparked a heated debate over police officer numbers in England and Wales, which have dropped by more than 20,000 since 2009.

Senior officers from seven of the forces most affected by violent crime  the Metropolitan Police, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, West Midlands, South Wales, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire  will attend Wednesdays meeting.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph ahead of the summit, Mr Javid said he would be open to suggestions for improving the official response to what he described as a disease, spreading through our communities, infecting our young people, taking and blighting lives.

The Home Secretary indicated he was ready to see increased use of stop-and-search, saying: Officers should be confident using existing powers such as stop-and-search. When used effectively, stop-and-search is a vital tool and I am working with the police to reduce bureaucracy and ensure they can use it in the most efficient way.

And he said he will very shortly launch a consultation on making it a legal duty for every public body to prioritise tackling serious violence.

Meanwhile, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson launched a barely-veiled attack on Theresa Mays decision as Home Secretary to restrict the use of stop-and-search.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Mr Johnson said that as Mayor of London, he drove the knife crime figures down with a massive stop-and-search programme which took 10,000 blades out of circulation.

And he said: It turned out to be a very grave mistake to tell the police to reduce stop-and-search in 2014. These searches are an essential tool of big-city crime-fighting.

The most recent deaths have seen 17-year-olds Jodie Chesney, who was a scout, and Yousef Ghaleb Makki die at the hands of knife attackers.

Jodie Chesney, 17, was murdered on Friday night in Harold Hill, east London (Metropolitan Police/PA)

In Birmingham three teenagers  two aged 16 and one 18  died in the space of 12 days last month.

Theresa May has ordered an urgent set of ministerial meetings to address action against knife crime, amid controversy over her claim that there was no direct link with cuts in police numbers.

Britains most senior police officer, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, clashed with the Prime Minister on the issue on Tuesday, insisting there is obviously a connection between reductions in officer numbers and street violence.

And on Wednesday Sara Thornton, chair of the National Police Chiefs Council, said: Look at the facts, there are fewer police officers doing less policing and theres more crime..

She told the BBC: We just havent got the capacity, we just havent got the officers at the moment so we need some money now to pay for overtime to pay for mutual aid between forces.

(PA Graphics)

Ms Thornton said tackling knife crime should also involve local authorities, health, education, parents and families.

We think it needs to be treated as if it was an emergency, she said. When you have an emergency you get all the key people around the table to solve the problem.

On Tuesday Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said the military would be ready to help play a part in tackling knife crime.

Yousef Makki, 17, was stabbed to death in Hale Barns, near Altrincham on Saturday (Family/PA)

Mr Williamson told the Press Association the armed forces and Ministry of Defence always stands ready to help any government department.

(PA Graphics)

He said they have had no requests for assistance but would always be ready to respond.

At a Cabinet meeting on the issue of knife crime on Tuesday, Mrs May said the killings of Jodie and Yousef last week were absolutely appalling and told ministers her thoughts and sympathies were with the teenagers families.

(PA Graphics)

Her official spokesman said she had tasked the Home Office with co-ordinating an urgent series of Cabinet-level ministerial meetings and engagements to accelerate the work Government is doing to support local councils and police.

Mrs May said the problem would require a whole-of-Government effort, in conjunction with the police, the wider public sector and local communities.

Meetings will take place as soon as possible and were being treated as a priority by the PM, said her spokesman.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Tuesday evening: Since 2010, weve seen 21,000 police officers taken off our streets and 760 youth centres closed.

Young people shouldnt pay the price for austerity with their lives. pic.twitter.com/uH4YUg0sM0  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) March 5, 2019

Weve experienced the tearing of the social fabric of our communities.

The Prime Minister says there is no link between cuts to our police and soaring levels of violent crime.

She needs to listen to grieving families, police chiefs across the country and her own Home Secretary, and the communities decimated by cuts.

Young people shouldnt pay the price for austerity with their lives.

Police figures show violent crime rose by nearly a fifth in the year to September 2018, intensifying the debate over whether the increase is linked to falling officer numbers.
North Korea is reportedly restoring facilities at its long-range rocket launch site that it had dismantled as part of disarmament steps last year.

The development came after a high-stakes nuclear summit last week between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US president Donald Trump ended without any agreement.

President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi last week (Evan Vucci/AP)

South Koreas JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported on Wednesday that the countrys spy service gave such an assessment on the Norths Tongchang-ri launch site to politicians in a private briefing on Tuesday.

An article from 38 North, a website specialising in North Korea studies, cited commercial satellite imagery as indicating that efforts to rebuild some structures at the site started sometime between February 16 and March 2.

The launch pad as seen on March 2, 2019 showing the partially rebuilt rail-mounted rocket transfer structure (CSIS/Beyond Parallel)

Dismantling parts of its long-range rocket launch facility in the north-west was among several steps the North took last year when it entered talks with the United States and South Korea.

The site is where North Korea carried out satellite launches in recent years, inviting rounds of sanctions from the UN that saw it as a disguised test of missile technology.

JoongAng Ilbo cited unidentified politicians who attended the briefing as saying that National Intelligence Service director Suh Hoon told them that the structures being restored at the launch site include roofs and doors of buildings.

Mr Suh was quoted as saying that the move is seen as a preparation to restart long-range missile test-launches in the event that nuclear diplomacy completely collapses or to add some structures to blow up the launch site more dramatically in a show of denuclearisation commitment when US inspectors visit if negotiations with Washington go well.

The offices of South Korean politicians who took part in Tuesdays briefing could not immediately confirm the newspaper report.

The 38 North report said the rail-mounted transfer building is being reassembled at the launch site.

It said two support cranes can be seen at the building, and walls have been erected and a new roof added.

At the engine test stand, the website said it appears that the engine support structure is being reassembled.

It said new roofs have been installed on the fuel and oxidiser buildings.
As the Government mulls slashing tariffs on goods imported to the UK in the event of a no-deal Brexit, we look at the implications.

How do tariffs work?

A tariff is essentially a border tax charged on foreign imports for any given product. Companies importing the products pay the charges, or tariffs, at the point of entry to the customs agency of the country implementing them.

While still part of the EUs customs union, British companies can buy and sell their goods freely across the bloc tariff-free.

The EU also has agreements allowing free trade with the likes of Norway, Switzerland and South Korea.

Prime Minister Theresa Mays pledge to quit the EU customs union raises the prospect of tariff barriers being erected (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

What about Brexit?

Brexit, in particular a no-deal exit, will change all that, ushering in an era of higher tariffs and an avalanche of red tape.

This is because Prime Minister Theresa Mays pledge to quit the EU customs union raises the very real prospect of tariff barriers being erected, which would see UK businesses forced to pass the additional costs of imports on to consumers.

Added to the likely further devaluation in the pound, shop prices would rocket, hitting households hard.

British exporters would also take a big knock. For example, if Britain was to crash out on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, the duty on Scotch whisky exports to South Korea would be 20%.

That compares with the zero rate enjoyed today as part of the UKs EU membership.

If Britain was to crash out of the EU on WTO rules, the duty on Scotch whisky exports to South Korea would be 20% (Andrew Milligan/PA)

What is the Government doing?

Mrs Mays Government is exploring plans to cut a large majority of tariffs of goods imported into the UK.

The sweeping reduction would see tariffs slashed on between 80% and 90% of imports in an effort to prevent prices rocketing for consumers.

Items including component parts used to make cars, many finished food products and some farm produce including cereals, could be exempt from tariffs under the plans.

Is this good news?

Not for UK manufacturers, farmers and producers.

Critics warn it could trigger floods of imports from steel to ceramics which would put domestic producers such as manufacturers and farmers under huge pressure.

Some even argue that Britains farming sector would be wiped out by cheap imports, although it is thought that sensitive industries would remain subject to levies in order to protect them.

In addition, abolishing tariffs without reciprocation from other countries could undermine the UKs ability to negotiate trade deals.

Britains farming sector could be wiped out (PA)

Chlorinated conundrum

In addition to all of the above, the UK has to consider non-tariff barriers  product standards, safety regulations and sanitary checks on food and animals.

It is all well and good opening the door to cheap imports, but not if they are going to cause a public health hazard.

This issue is best illustrated by the chlorinated chicken debate. A post-Brexit trade deal with the US could see chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-pumped beef arrive on Britains supermarket shelves for the first time.

Under EU laws, chlorine-washed chicken is currently barred from entry to the EU, and, by extension, the UK.

A post-Brexit trade deal with the US could see chlorine-washed chicken on UK supermarket shelves (PA)

What happens next?

Details of the planned tariff cuts will be made public if MPs reject Mrs Mays revised Brexit deal next week.

If MPs back her deal, the plans may remain unpublished.
On Wednesday, the archbishop of Manila and president of Caritas Internationalis visited eastern Ghouta, not far from Damascus. For years it was a symbol of Jihadi violence. Caritas and its volunteers are committed to helping the suffering population. The cardinal saw people living amid the rubbles and destruction.

Damascus (AsiaNews)  Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, archbishop of Manila and president of Caritas Internationalis, recently visited Douma, in eastern Ghouta, just outside Damascus, a place that has come to symbolise Syrias civil war.

When he entered the town and saw the ash, the dust, the destruction before me, I was very moved. Seeing people still living amid the rubbles and devastation was a moment of great sorrow," said the head of communications for Caritas Syria as she remembered the prelates words.

The visit took place two days ago, Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent during, during the annual meeting of the Council of Heads of Catholic Churches in Syria. On this occasion, the Filipino cardinal was accompanied by the Apostolic Nuncio to Syria Card Mario Zenari, the Greek-Melkite Patriarch Joseph Absi and some local Catholic bishops.

At the end of the visit, the Archbishop of Manila remembered something. By a strange coincidence, the cardinal said, the visit fell on the very day [of Ash Wednesday] and I saw dust and destruction with my own eyes. We, as Christians, live and celebrate 'ash' once a year, but there are people who live in dust every day."

The first impression for the prelate is that "People are in need of everything: food, medicine, humanitarian aid. This is why we should not forget Syria. Its needs and suffering are still great."

Still, it is good to see how Caritas staff, "also touched by the war since they are part of Syrian society, work with a smile on their faces and with generosity helping the poor. They themselves are in need, yet work for others."

Eastern Ghouta has been a major battleground between Jihadi rebel groups and Syrian troops. From here many attacks were launched, hitting Christian neighborhoods, with score of victims and lots of injuries.

Reacting to the great human tragedy that unfolded in the area, Caritas workers established bridges of solidarity and undertook initiatives to promote peace and coexistence.

The faces of the children in Ghouta showed the signs of "unspeakable suffering". The general reaction, as Syro-Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan noted, is one of "deep sadness and repulsion" in seeing the "horrible destruction of that region, held hostage for such a long time by radical Muslims."

The visit had a profound impact on Card Tagle, who expressed great sorrow at a kind of suffering that is "comparable only to that caused by a typhoon or an earthquake".

In addition to food, medicine and work, education is an issue. At least 50 schools existed in the area before the war; now the authorities have been able to re-open less than half, about 20, and the situation is still dangerous.

The primary school Card Tagle visited was packed with 1,800 pupils even though its capacity is far lower. It will take a long time before it is back to normal and children allowed to confront and overcome the traumas of war that still haunt them.

Before the visit, Card Tagle thought of Syria as the cradle of Christianity, a land where faith in Jesus is rooted in thousands of years, through the testimony of St Paul the Apostle.

The prelate cited the Grand Umayyad Mosque, which contains the tomb of Saint John the Baptist, a place where Christians and Muslims prayed together in the past.

The cardinal hopes that one day it will become again a place of peace and coexistence between religions "overcoming death, war and devastation".

(Sandra Awad, head of Communication at Caritas Syria contributed to the article)
Britain could be tipped into a recession that could spill out across the global economy under a severely disruptive no-deal Brexit, a major international organisation has warned.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said a no-deal withdrawal would knock around 2% off UK growth over the next two years, but cautioned the effects would be stronger still in a disorderly exit from the EU.

It would likely spark a UK recession  two or more quarters of negative growth in a row  which could cause a major adverse shock in the EU and beyond, it said.

In its latest economic outlook, the think tank forecast a near-term recession would be likely if Britain crashed out of the EU on March 29 with a lack of adequate border infrastructure and a loss of access to EU trade arrangements with third countries.

It said if this caused serious bottlenecks in integrated cross-border supply chains it could lead to the twin threat of financial market disruption and plummeting confidence, which would heighten the global impact.

The OECD said: In such a scenario, the likely near-term recession in the United Kingdom would generate sizeable negative spillovers on growth in other countries.

Although contingency measures to soften the impact of a no-deal outcome are being taken by both sides, UK-EU separation without an agreement would still be a major adverse shock for Europe and possibly elsewhere in the world, given that the United Kingdom is an important trading partner for many countries.

The warning came as the OECD also slashed its growth forecast for the UK to 0.8% for 2019 and 0.9% for 2020, down from the 1.4% and 1.1% projected respectively in November.

But this is assuming a smooth Brexit transition.

It urged the Bank of England and the European Central Bank to be ready to intervene in event of a disruptive exit.

The OECD forecasts showed Brexit is coming at a bad time for the global economy, which is also losing steam at a rapid rate amid the US-China trade war and slowing Chinese growth.

It made growth downgrades in nearly all G20 economies and called for coordinated policy action across the globe if the slowdown is sharper than expected.

(PA Graphics)

Preparing for such an eventuality now by planning growth-enhancing measures, including additional structural reforms, that can be rolled out rapidly would increase the effectiveness of any coordinated policy response, it added.

Its sober outlook showed Italy in recession this year, contracting by 0.2%, while it more than halved the forecast for Germanys growth to 0.7%.

Overall, it is pencilling in growth of 1% across the euro area, down from the 1.8% predicted in November.

World growth is expected at 3.3% and G20 expansion at 3.5%, down from 3.2% and 3.7% previously forecast.

Chinas expansion is expected to slow to 6.6% in 2019, while growth in the US is set to ease back to 2.6%.

It comes after the Bank of England warned on Tuesday that EU authorities still needed to do more to help prevent disruption from a disorderly divorce, which could impact families and firms across Europe and potentially cause knock-on effects in Britain.
A man who murdered a mechanic in a brutal and senseless attack in his own home has been jailed for at least 21 years.

Brian McKandie, 67, was found dead at the cottage in Rothienorman, Aberdeenshire, on Saturday March 12, 2016.

Steven Sidebottom was convicted by a jury at the High Court in Aberdeen last month of battering the quiet and unassuming handyman to death in a bid to steal his cash.

Police said Sidebottom, 25, was desperate to fund a lifestyle he could not afford and squandered thousands of pounds in the days following the murder.

Remorseless Sidebottom, who had denied the charges against him, then spun a web of lies to deceive those around him.

Steven Sidebottom was given a mandatory life sentence (Police Scotland/PA)

The killing stunned the local community and left Mr McKandies family struggling to comprehend why he was taken from them.

Sidebottom was jailed for life when he appeared for sentencing at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

Judge Lord Uist ordered him to spend a minimum of 21 years behind bars before he can be considered for parole.

The judge said: The degree of violence used was severe and extreme. This was, in any view, a very brutal murder.

Mr McKandie had lived at Fairview Cottages in the Badenscoth area since the age of two.

He was known as a private individual with a limited circle of friends. He had no children and never married.

He was, however, well-known in the north east of Scotland as a reliable handyman and mechanic, with a steady customer base throughout the region.

Police initially thought Mr McKandies death may not have been caused by a criminal act and an inquiry into the unexplained death began.

An internal review into the initial police response has since been carried out.

A murder inquiry, led by Police Scotlands Major Investigation Team, was subsequently launched and it was for a while the only unsolved murder since the single police force was established.

Detectives have described the murder investigation  one of the largest in Police Scotlands history  as extremely challenging and complex, partly due to the lack of CCTV in the rural location and the large number of customers and acquaintances the victim had.

The case featured on BBC Ones Crimewatch before the arrest of Sidebottom almost a year later.

The judge said it had been a `very brutal murder (Police Scotland/PA)

Mr McKandies family have previously spoken of their grief, saying: The fact remains that Brian is no longer with us. He was a much-loved and respected member of the community  a hard-working and quiet man who wouldnt have done anyone a bad turn.

Every day we think about what happened to Brian in the home he lived his whole life, and every day we struggle to understand why this happened to him.

The reality is we will never understand why Brian  a complete gentleman  died in such a brutal and senseless way, and it is something we will never come to terms with.

Speaking after the verdict, Detective Superintendent Iain Smith described the murder as cold and calculated.

He said: This type of crime is extremely rare in Scotland let alone a rural place like Rothienorman, and Brians death rightly shocked the local community.

I can imagine his murder will be even harder to understand given that the man responsible lived so close by and continued to live in the midst of those affected by it, knowing what he had done.

It has now been three years since Brian died. To date Sidebottom has shown no remorse for his actions nor offered any explanation as to why an innocent man had to die, but he must now face the consequences of robbing another person of their life.
All passengers and crew on a Virgin Atlantic flight were put into quarantine after landing at London Gatwick due to widespread sickness on board.

They were taken to a reception centre at the West Sussex airport for medical assessments.

Around 30 people received medical treatment at the scene and three were taken to hospital for further checks.

The Airbus A330 aircraft was met by the emergency services following an eight-hour flight from Barbados, which landed at 5.25am on Wednesday.

It was a charter flight carrying 448 holidaymakers who were returning home after travelling on the cruise ship MSC Preziosa in the Caribbean.

Passenger Trevor Wilson wrote on Twitter: The illness seems to have originated on board ship not the plane. Five members of cabin crew became sick on flight.

The Virgin Atlantic flight was met by ambulance services and the police at London Gatwick (@trevwilson19/PA)

He added that the sickness was mainly a bad chesty cough, possibly chest infection.

A Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman said: A number of customers on board a charter flight from Barbados to London Gatwick this morning reported feeling unwell on board.

The safety and well-being of our customers and crew is always our absolute priority, and local ambulance services attended the aircraft upon landing to provide medical assistance.

We are working closely with London Gatwick Airport and medical teams to offer assistance to customers, and will conduct a full investigation into the circumstances.

A South East Coast Ambulance Service spokesman said: South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust was called to attend an inbound flight at Gatwick shortly before 5am today following reports of a number of passengers and crew feeling unwell and nauseous.

We sent ambulance crews including our Hazardous Area Response Team and a number of other specialist paramedics to the scene.

The crews have worked together on scene to assess and treat patients, approximately 30 people, most of whom have been able to be discharged from (the) scene with advice.

Three patients are being taken to hospital for further checks.

A spokesman for Swiss-based cruise line MSC Cruises, which operates MSC Preziosa, said: We are still investigating what may have caused the illness and we are currently waiting for further updates from Gatwick Airport medical services.

What we do know is that, on MSC Preziosa, no cases of acute gastroenteritis have been reported in the past 14 days.

A London Gatwick spokesman said: A small number of passengers and crew on board a Virgin Atlantic flight which landed from Bridgetown, Barbados, this morning reported feeling unwell.

In keeping with health and safety procedures, the relevant authorities were informed and an assessment was taken on board.

Passengers have now been able to leave the aircraft and continue their onward journeys.
The home of former Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has been broken into a week after he left the Glasgow club.

Police Scotland were called to the luxury property in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, at around 1.55am on Wednesday.

A number of items were stolen but no-one was injured.

The 46-year-old left Parkhead last week to take over the helm at Leicester City, sparking fury among some Celtic fans.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: At around 1.55am on Wednesday police received a report of a break-in at a property in Bearsden.

No-one was injured in the incident but a number of items were stolen from the property.

A number of items were stolen in a raid on Brendan Rodgers home near Glasgow (Graham Stuart/PA)

An investigation is under way and inquiries are ongoing.
DUP MP Sammy Wilson has accused Northern Irelands top civil servant of having a political motive for warning against a no-deal Brexit.

During Westminsters Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Lady Sylvia Hermon quoted head of the Northern Ireland civil service David Sterling, who warned of grave, profound and long-lasting consequences of a no deal on Northern Ireland in a letter on Tuesday.

Inability to prepare, EU tariffs and significant changes to exports could cause business distress, failure or the relocation of some companies to the Republic, a report from Mr Sterling said.

Mr Wilson replied: I have no doubt this was written for a political motive.

When the letter arose in conversation again, Mr Wilson said the letter was a scare tactic.

When Lady Hermon interrupted, an animated Mr Wilson replied: I dont care if hes head of civil service or Santa Claus, it really doesnt matter, the fact of the matter is hes got it wrong.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson made the comments during a parliamentary committee (Brian Lawless/PA)

A spokesman for Stormonts Executive Office said: While it remains the UK Governments intention to leave Europe with a deal, the Northern Ireland departments, given their current responsibilities, have been planning against a range of potential scenarios, including a no-deal exit.

This approach is entirely consistent with the no-deal preparations which are ongoing across the UK.

The correspondence from the head of the civil service is a factual, objective update on the work which the Northern Ireland departments have been doing.

In a number of places, it repeats and/or amplifies the UK Government assessment.

Mr Wilson, East Antrim MP, added he found it difficult to believe that business, retailer and farming union members in Northern Ireland, including the NI Chamber of Commerce, support the Withdrawal Agreement.

I find that rather odd, he said.

Lets just take the Ulster Farmers Union  if they had read the agreement, they would actually find that state aid rules applying to Northern Ireland would mean that the EU could cap that support, in accordance with what they saw as the appropriate policy.

As far as businesses, I do find it very difficult to understand why Northern Ireland businesses who export around the world would wish to be excluded from UK trade deals in the future.

Kate Hoey asked Mr Wilson if there is any truth that the Northern Ireland business leaders saw the Withdrawal Agreement before those in the House of Commons.

I think that maybe they were given a precis of what was in the agreement, designed to play down bad parts of it, and emphasise the parts that would be attractive to them.

One thing I do know is that they made their pronouncements before the 587-page document was available, they must have made it on a basis of a briefing they were given. No-one should do that, especially when one party has an interest that its skewed in a certain way.

When asked if the DUP was willing to face the consequences of a no-deal Brexit, Mr Wilson replied: If we finish up with a no deal, it will be a result of the intransigence of the EU.

We have made it quite clear all along that we wish to have a deal, but they have to have a deal which has the support of people within the House of Commons.

You cant expect the Government to cave in because the alternative is no deal.

Last week in a BBC interview, Mr Wilson said a backstop could be agreeable if it had a time limit.

Clarifying his comments at the committee, he said if a time limit were introduced it may save the Withdrawal Agreement.

The question that was asked was, would the DUP accept current withdrawal agreements, I made it clear: no we wouldnt, Mr Wilson said.

The issue was the separate backstop arrangement for Northern Ireland, and the fact that the UK couldnt get out of those arrangements without the assent of the EU.

The point I was making was, the backstop could be removed if they didnt want to have the Withdrawal Agreement totally destroyed, you could impose a time limit on the backstop.

The UK will leave the EU without a deal later this month unless MPs support the Prime Ministers deal or Britain secures an extension from the EU.
The Duchess of Sussex has made a surprise appearance at WE Day UK, after being led on to the stage by her husband.

Harry collected his heavily pregnant wife from her seat after he had delivered a rousing speech as president of The Queens Commonwealth Trust.

To screams of delight from the audience, the duke, who had been expected solo at the event, said Im now going to drag my wife on stage, before taking the duchess by the hand.

Affectionate Harry and Meghan on stage (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Former actress Meghan, dressed in a blue blazer, black top showing off her large bump, and black trousers, held Harrys hand as they moved centre stage at the SSE Arena in Wembley, London.

Parents-to-be Harry and Meghan (Jonathan Brady/PA)

The pair hugged and stood with their arms around one another as the duke told the crowd: I am with you and we are with you. Get to work.

Harry gave the 12,000 schoolchildren and students at the event a to-do list, including Have less screen time, and more face-to-face time, as well as Dare to be the greatest generation of all time.

Warning against the perils of advertising and social media and urging them not to hide behind their devices, he told them: If we look at the world were living in, I know it can feel challenging sometimes, but your role is to shine the light.

Every day you are inundated with an over-exposure of advertising and mainstream media, social media and endless comparisons, distorting the truth, and trying to manipulate the power of positive thinking.

But you dont let them sway you.

Because you dont need to hide behind your device to share your voice.

You confidently voice your opinions because you can embrace them proudly.

Taking inspiration from Meghan, Harry said: As my wife often reminds me with one of her favourite quotes by Martin Luther King Jr  Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Change your thoughts and change the world



Dare to be the greatest generation of all time



I am with you, we are with you!



Read The Duke of Sussexs speech in full: https://t.co/45PrvDvMR7 pic.twitter.com/xT6eVsSHMw  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 6, 2019

The duke told the young audience: Your optimism is inspiring  you see opportunities where other people see challenges; you seek solutions when others just focus on problems.

You are the most engaged generation in history. You care about values, doing the right thing, and championing the causes that will shape your future.

You dont judge someone based on how they look, where theyre from, or how they identify.

In this room, you see the world for what it is  vibrant, colourful, mixed and full of promise.

That is who you are, and that is what makes me feel proud to stand in your presence as you tackle the worlds greatest issues. And you guys know as well as I do, weve still got so much to do.

Harry leads Meghan on to the stage (Jonathan Brady/PA)

He cited what he saw as the two crucial issues to focus on  mental health and climate change.

Harry said: First, lets take our mental health; which youve embraced wholeheartedly, breaking the generational stigma and helping to normalise the conversation.

After all, mental illness is about recovery, mental health is about consciousness, mental fitness is about well-being.

He finished with a 15-point to-do list for young people, saying: So whats next? Whats on your to-do list starting now?

Be braver; Be stronger; Be kind to each other; Be kind to yourselves; Have less screen time, and more face-to-face time; Exceed expectations; Eliminate plastics; Conserve water; Protect wildlife and their unique habitat; Keep empathy alive; Ask your friends how they are doing and listen to the answer; Be honest; Take risks; Change your thoughts and change the world; Dare to be the greatest generation of all time.

WE Day UK is a global initiative to encourage young people to take part in positive social change.
A major study into the lives of beggars in Edinburgh, described as the first such research conducted in any UK city for 20 years, has been published by Shelter Scotland.

The work, commissioned by City of Edinburgh Councils Community Safety Partnership, sought to improve understanding of the complex issue of begging.

The study was compiled from a range of data from homelessness services in the city and it found at least 420 people engaged in begging on the streets of Edinburgh between November 2016 and October 2018  but the actual number is expected to have been much higher.

The majority of people found to be begging were men (78.3%), and most were aged between 30 and 49.

Poor health was cited as a major factor in the lives of beggars, with 80.6% indicating they have suffered from mental health issues and 62.4% were recorded as having experienced physical health problems.

Almost half of those identified (54%) were reported to have experienced both mental and physical health issues, with only 10.5% not having experienced either.

The study found more than 80% of beggars have experienced mental health issues (Yui Mok/PA)

Substance misuse was also found to be endemic amongst people who beg, with analysis suggesting between 50% and 70% of them are affected.

Fiona King, Shelter Scotland, said: Behind these statistics are real people who have often survived significant trauma and hardship and they need a compassionate response.

Most of them are suffering from ill-health, often including addictions.

What gives us room for optimism is the evidence that support services, especially those with kind, empathetic staff and volunteers, offer people the best chance to move on from begging.

We've produced the most detailed piece of research into begging in any UK city for 20 years. #homelessness #edinburgh https://t.co/zcvK2dmXki  Shelter Scotland (@shelterscotland) March 6, 2019

Councillor Amy McNeese-Mechan, chair of Edinburghs Community Safety Partnership, said: Street begging is a hugely complex issue and if were going to address it effectively we have to improve our understanding of it.

Thats why we commissioned this important and long overdue research in partnership with Shelter Scotland  the most detailed research done on this issue in the UK for two decades.

This is the first step in producing a long-term strategy to fully understand and respond to the complexities of street begging. Weve set up a working group to analyse the findings and develop an action plan.

All of us in the Edinburgh Community Safety Partnership are 100% committed to finding ways to support all of Edinburghs residents, especially the most marginalised in our communities.

I look forward to seeing this vital research put to good use to help people to move on from begging.
Independent Group MP Luciana Berger has announced the birth of her second child.

In a message on Twitter, the 37-year-old Liverpool Wavertree MP said her son was born at the NHS Liverpool Womens Hospital on Tuesday.

She said that she, husband Alistair and daughter Amelie  whose second birthday comes later this month  were brimming with happiness at the arrival of the baby boy, whose name she did not reveal.

Our baby boy arrived yesterday  Alistair, Amelie & I are brimming with happiness, wrote Ms Berger. A massive thank you to the fantastic team @LiverpoolWomens for looking after us both with so much care.

Our baby boy arrived yesterday - Alistair, Amelie & I are brimming with happiness.  



A massive thank you to the fantastic team @LiverpoolWomens for looking after us both with so much care.  Luciana Berger (@lucianaberger) March 6, 2019

Ms Berger was one of the seven Labour MPs who quit the party on February 18 to found the Independent Group.

The Jewish MP had been facing threats of a vote of no-confidence from members of her constituency party.

Independent Group MP Luciana Berger (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

On quitting Labour, she said that she believed Jeremy Corbyns party had become institutionally anti-Semitic.

Labours deputy leader Tom Watson later said it was on the worst day of shame in the partys 120-year history that a bright, young, female, pregnant MP was bullied out of her own constituency by racist thugs.

Mr Corbyn and Theresa May both congratulated Ms Berger on the birth of her son during their exchanges at Prime Ministers Questions in the House of Commons.
The search for two climbers on the worlds ninth-highest mountain has stalled as the risk of avalanches makes the mission increasingly dangerous.

Briton Tom Ballard and Italian Daniele Nardi have been missing for more than a week on Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, known as Killer Mountain.

They set out on February 22 and last made contact on February 24 while at about 6,300 metres (20,700ft).

Two Pakistani mountaineers were with the pair but had decided to turn back because they thought it was too dangerous.

This morning search team for  @NardiDaniele and  Tom Ballard is operating on the Kinshofer route. Plan is to search on foot with the drones. Team is lead by @AlexTxikon. pic.twitter.com/j18WVxqsZi  Stefano Pontecorvo (@pontecorvoste) March 6, 2019

Mr Ballard is the son of Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to scale Mount Everest alone.

He was born in England and grew up in the Scottish Highlands.

Nanga Parbat is the worlds ninth-highest mountain (Sandy Allen/PA)

Karrar Haidri, secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said on Wednesday search teams had used a drone but no sign of the climbers was found.

He said search efforts will continue on Thursday and that prayers are needed for the climbers.
The latest talks aimed at breaking the Brexit deadlock over the Northern Ireland backstop have failed to achieve a breakthrough, the European Commission has said.

The commission said there was still no solution to the impasse after the meeting on Tuesday in Brussels between the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Attorney General Geoffrey Cox and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay.

The meeting took place as Theresa May prepared for next weeks crunch meaningful vote in the Commons on her Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

The Prime Minister has said she wants legally binding changes to the backstop  intended to prevent the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland  to ensure the UK is not tied to EU rules indefinitely, in order to convince MPs to back her deal.

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox held talks with Michel Barnier on Tuesday (Jonathan Brady/PA)

However, Mr Barnier told the weekly meeting of the College of Commissioners in Brussels that the negotiations were proving difficult and a way forward had not been found.

The commissions chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters: Michel Barnier was present and informed the commissioners that while the talks take place in a constructive atmosphere, discussions have been difficult.

No solution has been identified at this point that is consistent with the Withdrawal Agreement, including the protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland which, as you all know, will not be reopened.

Meanwhile, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has refused to rule out backing a no-deal Brexit if the Withdrawal Agreement is voted down by MPs next week.

Dr Fox, who campaigned for Leave in the 2016 referendum, told the Commons International Trade Committee that no-deal was hugely sub-optimal, compared to getting a deal.

(PA Graphics)

But asked whether the Government would back no-deal in the vote scheduled for the following day if the agreement fails, he said: Potentially all things are possible.

With Tory Brexiteers still refusing to commit to voting for the agreement, ministers have acknowledged they may need the support of opposition MPs if the deal is to get through Parliament on Tuesday.

However the latest attempt to win over wavering Labour MPs with new measures to protect workers rights outside the EU has met with a dismissive response from trade unions.

Under the proposals, MPs will be allowed to vote on whether to take new EU workplace rules, rather than them being automatically written into UK law.

However union leaders warned the measures will risk UK employees rights falling behind those in neighbouring countries.

Trades Union Congress general secretary Frances OGrady said the announcement was blatant window dressing that left protections under threat.

Working people need a cast-iron, legal guarantee that rights like these will be safe after Brexit, and that guarantee should be written into the deal, she said.
by Thomas Han

The archbishop of Seoul and apostolic administrator of Pyongyang celebrated the 1,201st reconciliation Mass in the cathedral, a practice inaugurated by the late Card Stephen Kim Sou-hwan. He appealed to political leaders and called on the faithful to pray. A choir of refugee children from the North sang.

Seoul (AsiaNews)  Card Andrew Yeom Soo-Jung, archbishop of Seoul and apostolic administrator of Pyongyang, celebrated the 1,201st Mass for reconciliation and unity of the Korean people.

In his address, he called for prayers in favour of reconciliation and peace on the Korean Peninsula. Above all, he called for prayers for "our northern brothers and sisters" afflicted by "extreme poverty" and without any "freedom to serve God".

The solemn liturgy was held last Tuesday, on the eve of Lent, in the cathedral of Myeong-dong in Seoul.

The Mass was also celebrated to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Card Stephen Kim Sou-hwan (1922-2009), who set up the Committee for National Reconciliation and started the services for reconciliation and unity of the Korean people in 1995. Since then, a Mass has been celebrated in the cathedral uninterruptedly every Tuesday at 7 pm.

The Apostolic Nuncio Mgr Alfred Xuereb, some bishops emeriti and auxiliary bishops, Fr Gerard Hammond, superior Maryknoll in Korea, Fr Achilles Chung Se-Teok, head of the Reconciliation Committee, took part in the ceremony.

Some ambassadors were also in attendance: Raul S. Hernandez and his wife (Philippines), Luis Henrique Sobreira Lopes (Brazil), Piotr Ostaszewski (Poland), Milton Alcides Magana Herrera (Salvador), and Vladimir Vazquez Hernandez (deputy chief of mission of Mexico).

Card Yeom told the faithful who filled the cathedral that, at the beginning, the establishment of the Committee for National Reconciliation went against the trend because a climate of hostility existed at the time towards national reconciliation in Korean society.

However, the Church did it anyway because the right path to unification and peace is through reconciliation and unity of our people and reconciliation and union with God. For the prelate, without forgiveness and reconciliation, there is neither unification nor peace.

The Mass comes at a time of seeming failure in attempts to reduce tensions between North and South, especially between Washington and Pyongyang after the meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Vietnam.

The cardinal urged the political leaders of the North and the South, and of neighbouring countries to achieve denuclearisation and peace "with a firm determination to promote the common good of all the peoples of the Korean Peninsula, overcoming the personal desire for power and political, party and national interests."

He especially emphasised prayer, "the most effective means available to us" and mentioned the "actions" of the Reconciliation Committee, such as aid to northern refugees and "humanitarian aid for North Korea", which have never stopped.

"My thoughts, said the cardinal, go to our northern countrymen who are denied justice and peace, under the yoke of nuclear weapons, afflicted by extreme poverty, and therefore unable to live a truly human life, in a way worthy of a human being. My thoughts go above all to the People of God in the North who have no freedom to serve God."

"Surely our Lord will reward our prayer and our sacrifice for the reconciliation and unity of our people "a hundred times more now in this present age [and] eternal life in the age to come (Mk 10:30).

One of the most moving moments came after communion, when the Unitas Angels, the children's refugee choir created by the Committee for National Reconciliation, sang.
Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has launched a stinging attack on her successor Richard Leonard, just days before the partys conference.

In a leaked email sent by Ms Dugdale to Mr Leonard, the Lothian MSP accused him of censoring the partys two MEPs, Catherine Stihler and David Martin, by not giving them a formal opportunity to speak at conference.

Ms Dugdale also criticised a failure to recognise the combined 55-year service of Ms Stihler and Mr Martin to the party, and claimed Mr Leonard had altered text written by Ms Stihler for the conference agenda without her consent.

The partys conference in Dundee will begin on Friday morning and lasts until Sunday.

In her email, Ms Dugdale wrote: I wish to formally complain about the way in which Catherine Stihler and David Martin have been treated ahead of conference.

From what I can see from the agenda, there is no formal opportunity for them to speak or indeed a formal item to thank them for their combined 55 years of electoral service to the party.

If that wasnt bad enough, I was shocked to discover from Catherine that her statement in the conference guide had been amended without her consent.

When that was challenged, she was told it was on your direction and that you had the final say on what was printed.

Ms Dugdale also claimed Ms Stihlers section in the conference guide had originally included a statement in support of a Peoples Vote on Brexit.

The section had stated: Brexit is a tragedy for our country and for the workers and communities that Labour represents. Thats why David and Catherine fully support a Peoples Vote with the option to remain in the EU.

Richard Leonard was elected as the Scottish Labour leader in November 2017, succeeding Kezia Dugdale (Jane Barlow/PA)

However, according to Ms Dugdale, the section was replaced with: The complete mess the Tories have made of Brexit means they are putting Scottish peoples jobs and our industries at risk. Labour will always put them first.

Ms Dugdale continued: I find that wholly inappropriate and I cant possibly understand why you would seek to censor her final words to party members, especially since what she states is party policy and has been since last September.

Can I encourage you to please take urgent steps to rectify what I consider to be a considerable insult and ensure that we thank these two outstanding MEPs properly at conference.

Mr Leonard was also criticised in the email for his stance on Brexit, with Ms Dugdale expressing her disappointment that his support for holding a Peoples Vote had not come sooner.

She wrote: You know that Ive found the partys position on Brexit and a second EU referendum disappointing for some time.

As I said at group last week and repeatedly over the past few months, I dont believe there is such a thing as a good Brexit or indeed a jobs first Brexit.

Ms Dugdale said Labours response to the Brexit vote had been disappointing (PA)

I remain utterly convinced, rooted in all the evidence I have seen, that it will be immensely damaging for the Scottish and UK economy.

A price which will once again be paid by those in low-paid and insecure work, the very people we seek to represent.

The move towards supporting a Peoples Vote is a welcome one, but it should have happened much, much earlier. I note from your roundtable with journalists last week that youd sooner we left the EU than give people a final say.

Thats disappointing for the many party members who fervently back a final say and indeed all of our voters who are now a bit lost for a home.

A spokesman for Catherine Stihler said: Catherine is a long-standing supporter of a Peoples Vote and will be making her views clear as a Labour Party member at this weekends conference.

SNP MSP George Adam said: This is an eye-opening revelation from Scottish Labour.

In a considerable insult to Scottish workers, Richard Leonard is trying to airbrush out the reality of a damaging Tory Brexit with only 23 days remaining until we leave the EU.

Labour will never be forgiven if they lend their fulsome support to the Tories Brexit plans  casting tens of thousands of Scottish jobs on the scrapheap and hammering our NHS.

We know that Labours leadership would rather see Scotland dragged out of the EU against our will than give people a choice over the Tories bad deal. And now it seems theyre willing to gag their own elected members in the process.

Scottish Labour has been contacted for comment.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were enjoying a rainy day beside the seaside as they visited the famous Blackpool Tower.

William and Kate travelled to the Lancashire resort on Wednesday to visit tourist hotspots, and see some of the health and social problems facing the town.

The pair, sheltering under large black umbrellas, were greeted at the landmark amid the downpours with cheers from a crowd of several hundred well-wishers gathered outside on the promenade.

William and Kate were met by local dignitaries including the Mayor and Mayoress of Blackpool, Gary and Debbie Coleman, as they stepped inside for a briefing about the towns investment and regeneration projects.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arriving at Blackpool Tower (Danny Lawson/PA)

Kate was dressed in an olive green coat by Sportsmax and a Michael Kors dress for the away day.

Once inside the historic tower, Kate and William briefly stopped at a giant mirror unveiled by the Princess of Wales in July 1992 to mark the opening of Tower World, with the duke describing it as fantastic and amazing.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are in Blackpool to visit innovative projects focused on investment and regeneration  and to learn how the resort is leading the way in tackling some of the social and mental health problems faced by people in Britain today. #RoyalVisitBlackpool pic.twitter.com/oLYjdZaZ0f  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 6, 2019

The couple were then treated to a brief glimpse of the world-famous Tower Ballroom, which is open to the public daily.

From their balcony view, they watched dancers go through their strides in a waltz to I Shall See You Later, played on the Wurlitzer by Chris Hopkins.

Kate waving to the crowds (Danny Lawson/PA)

On a walkabout outside the Tower as they visited the Comedy Carpet on the promenade, Kate told well-wishers she hoped to bring her children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis to visit Blackpool next time.

She joked: Is the weather always like this?

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (centre top) watch the dancing in the ballroom of the Blackpool Tower (Charlotte Graham/The Daily Telegraph/PA)

The duchess expressed her disappointment at not going up the Tower.

No we didnt. Next time I think. Theres so much here the children would love as well. Hopefully next time well bring them back.

As one little girl shouted Hello princess, Kate waved and smiled.

Kate greeting well-wishers (Danny Lawson/PA)

Children from Happy Tots nursery in North Shore, Blackpool, welcomed them with gifts of Blackpool rock and posies of flowers.

William said his children would appreciate the rock.

When he asked them what flavour the rock was, the youngsters replied: Blackpool.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge leave Blackpool Tower (Danny Lawson/PA)

Nursery manager and owner Julie Bryan said: The children have been busy all week making flags and crowns.

We also made a poster of photographs of William and Kate, together with pictures of the children, which we presented to them.

It was an amazing experience for everyone here and it is such a privilege to be part of it.

They also presented a paper crown and garland to William.

William and Kate during a visit to Blackpool Tower (Charlotte Graham/The Daily Telegraph/PA)

During a round table meeting on the investment and regeneration efforts that are currently under way, William addressed the challenges facing the town.

Speaking about its history, he described how it was once a jewel in the crown of the British tourism industry before people began to travel further afield for their holidays and it faced economic decline and unemployment.

Dispiritingly, those challenges are felt very strongly today and they are more pressing than ever.

He spoke of high unemployment rates and social problems, but also highlighted the positive moves, regeneration, and brilliant schemes including a new enterprise zone and exciting new investment in Blackpools iconic tourist attractions and innovative housing projects.

William added: The story of Blackpool is a complex one of a proud history of testing times and new found optimism for the future.
A Royal Navy warship has been scrambled to follow a Russian naval task group as it sails close to UK territorial waters.

HMS Defender was deployed during the weekend to keep watch on the frigate Admiral Gorshkov and three auxiliary ships.

A Navy spokesman said: Portsmouth-based Defender is monitoring the Russian task group and keeping track of their activity in areas of national interest.

Armed forces minister Mark Lancaster said: The Royal Navy is always standing ready to defend the UK.

We will continue to work with our allies to shadow Russian ships passing through international waters close to our shores, to ensure the Russian navy follows the correct protocol on its journey.

HMS Defender left Newcastle on Saturday to head north east of Scotland to meet the Russian task group in time for the ships to pass the UK coastline on Tuesday, and will continue to shadow the ships as they pass through the English Channel.

HMS Defender (Ministry of Defence/PA)

The group comprises the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, tug Nicolay Chiker, supply ship Elbrus and tanker Kama.

Commander Richard Hewitt, the commanding officer of HMS Defender, said: The security of the seas around our coastline remains crucial to our national interests.

Escorting the Admiral Gorshkov has demonstrated the Royal Navys enduring commitment to protecting our home waters and readiness to undertake such tasking whenever its required.
Sajid Javid has pledged to do everything I can to provide police with the resources they need to tackle Britains knife crime epidemic.

The Home Secretary held emergency talks with chief constables on Wednesday after a spate of fatal stabbings.

Speaking after the meeting, he said: I think police resources are very important to deal with this. Weve got to do everything we can.

Im absolutely committed to working with the police in doing this. We have to listen to them when they talk about resources.

The remarks appeared to put him at odds with Theresa May, who sparked controversy earlier this week by insisting there was no direct link between certain crimes and police numbers.

Mr Javid also said it was important for the Government to give police more confidence over the use of stop-and-search powers.

He said: I think that stop-and-search is a very valuable tool and some police forces have started in recent years making even more use of that, and they have my full support.

(PA Graphics)

Mrs May introduced reforms in 2014 to ensure stop and search was used in a more targeted way following criticism that the tactics unfairly focused on black and minority ethnic individuals.

The Prime Minister announced she would be holding a summit in coming days to explore what more we can do as a whole society to tackle this problem.

Speaking at Prime Ministers Questions, Mrs May said: A growing number of young people have lost their lives in a growing cycle of violence that has shocked us all.

Later this week, police chiefs will present ministers with details of the resources they need for a surge in capacity to combat the rise in violent crime.

Mrs Mays official spokesman later said that the PM would meet representatives of police and other public sector bodies as soon as possible.

She aims to hold a separate meeting with knife crime victims and their families to discuss their experiences.

Asked whether the PM still believed there was no direct link between police numbers and violent crime, he spokesman said: Clearly resources and powers are important.

We have just given the police more resources and more powers and we always listen to what the police are saying.

But its hugely important that we dont just treat this as a policing issue, that we do look across society at things such as changes in the drugs market and address issues like gang culture with children being groomed into this lifestyle and carrying knives, and we look at public health.

The spokesman said the Government had already announced an increase of 970 million in police budgets for 2019/20.
A cruel and calculated killer who murdered and robbed a mechanic in a brutal attack in his own home has been jailed for life.

Brian McKandie, 67, was found dead at his cottage in Badenscoth, near Rothienorman in Aberdeenshire, on Saturday March 12, 2016.

Steven Sidebottom  a man with no previous history of violent offending  was convicted by a jury in Aberdeen last month of beating the popular handyman to death and robbing him of a sum of money.

A court heard Sidebottom, 25, had inflicted at least 15 separate blows to the victims head on Friday March 11 that year.

Police said remorseless Sidebottom, who continues to deny his guilt, then spun a web of lies to deceive those around him.

Sidebottom was handed a life sentence when he appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

Judge Lord Uist ordered him to spend at least 21 years behind bars before he can be considered for release.

The degree of violence used was severe and extreme, he said.

This was, on any view, a very brutal murder.

Mr McKandie was first attacked outside his house, then dragged inside and further assaulted.

The victim, described by the judge as an inoffensive and popular man, was found to have injuries on his skull, scalp, face, shoulders and arms.

Steven Sidebottom was given a mandatory life sentence (Police Scotland/PA)

This murder was committed in the course of a planned robbery which you carried out in order to obtain money, Lord Uist said.

This murder was an attack on a man at his own home, where he was entitled to feel safe.

Defence counsel Ian Duguid QC pointed to the accuseds lack of previous convictions and said the crimes were out of character for him.

He said: How it came to the perpetration of these events is, in my submission, still something of a mystery.

Mr McKandie had lived at his cottage since he was two.

A private man with a limited circle of friends, he had no children and never married.

He was well known in the north east of Scotland as a reliable handyman and mechanic.

Brian McKandie, 67, was said to have been a private man and a real gentleman (Police Scotland/PA)

Police initially thought Mr McKandies death may not have been caused by a criminal act and an inquiry into the unexplained circumstances began.

A murder inquiry, led by Police Scotlands Major Investigation Team, was subsequently launched and an internal review into the initial police response has since been carried out.

Detectives have described the murder investigation  one of the largest in Police Scotlands history  as challenging and complex, partly due to a lack of CCTV and the large number of customers the victim had.

Mr McKandies family have previously spoken of their grief, saying: He was a much-loved and respected member of the community  a hard-working and quiet man who wouldnt have done anyone a bad turn.

Every day we think about what happened to Brian in the home he lived his whole life, and every day we struggle to understand why this happened to him.

The judge said it had been a `very brutal murder (family handout/PA)

The reality is we will never understand why Brian  a complete gentleman  died in such a brutal and senseless way, and it is something we will never come to terms with.

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Superintendent Iain Smith said: Sidebottom is a cruel and calculated murderer who has yet to show any remorse for his actions.

He killed Brian within the pensioners own home in the most brutal of ways and a painstaking and thorough investigation was launched by Police Scotlands Major Investigation Team to bring this complex circumstantial case to court.

The most important thing is that Brians family now has the justice they deserve.
Police cameras used to detect speeding drivers will continue to be set at 30mph even if Holyrood passes legislation to cut the limit in built-up areas to a default 20mph, MSPs have been told.

Police Scotland Chief Superintendent Stewart Carle said if a Bill to reduce the speed limit in residential roads is approved, officers would enforce it.

But he also told MSPs considering the proposal that 20mph zones will not be a priority because the majority of casualties are on faster speed roads.

Mr Carle, divisional commander in the forces road policing unit, said officers will continue to focus finite resources on those areas.

He went on to tell the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee: Our safety camera units, meantime, their equipment is not calibrated for 20mph so they will continue to be deployed on 30 and above, so you wont expect to see them suddenly switching into urban areas.

Green MSP Mark Ruskell wants to change the law to reduce the speed limit in residential streets and built-up areas, and has introduced a Members Bill at Holyrood.

Transport Secretary Michael Matheson changing the limit to 20mph would pose `challenges (PA)

But Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said there are a number of challenges with the Restricted Roads (20mph Speed Limit) (Scotland) Bill.

The Scottish Government supports 20mph zones where there is a good evidence base for them to be introduced.

The Bill would cut the limit on restricted roads  those with street lighting which are not classed as either A or B roads.

Mr Matheson said: We dont know the numbers of restricted roads in Scotland, there are some restricted roads actually you wouldnt want to have as 20mph zones, there are roads which are not restricted you would possibly want to have as 20mph roads as well.

This is a Bill that is intended to apply not to a town or a city, but to a country. And we are in a situation where our local authorities dont have the information around restricted roads.

There are thousands of restricted roads in Scotland, but because most of it was done on paperwork over many, many decades, it would be a massive undertaking for local authorities to go through in order to collate all that information and identify that information.

He also insisted it is not known how much it would cost to introduce the legislation  suggesting the indicated financial impact on councils of 21 million to 22 million could be an underestimate of the true figure.

The Transport Secretary was also clear there is no funding in his budget to meet the cost of the change.

He told the committee: Any financial support we would have to give to local authorities  and I recognise we would have to give them financial support to assist them with this matter  would have to come out of existing budget allocations.

Speaking after the committee meeting, Mr Ruskell said: The evidence is clear: introducing a 20mph limit in residential areas across Scotland would save lives.

The Scottish Government must now back my Bill if its serious about saving childrens lives.
Detectives have made a fresh appeal over the brutal stabbing of teenager Jodie Chesney in an east London park.

A 20-year-old man arrested in Leicester on Tuesday evening in connection with the murder of the 17-year-old is now in custody at a London police station.

Jodie was with friends near a childrens playground in Harold Hill when she was approached by two males and knifed in the back in a seemingly motiveless attack.

She was pronounced dead just over an hour after officers were called to the park at 9.25pm on Friday.

The detective leading the investigation, DCI Dave Whellams, said on Wednesday: I am appealing for any witnesses who have yet to speak with police to call me.

There has been excellent support from the local community and a number of people have shared information with police, but there will be other witnesses and people with information that may prove crucial.

Flowers near the scene in St Neots Road in Harold Hill, east London (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Although the description of the suspect is limited, I am certain that people will have seen the two males hanging around the park or running away from the scene  or will otherwise have noticed something suspicious. I need those people to call me.

Police say Jodie and five other teenagers who were playing music in the park were aware of two males in the park who left at around 9pm without interacting with them.

Around 30 minutes later the pair returned to the park and walked straight towards the group, where one of the males stabbed Jodie once in the back, Scotland Yard said.

Nothing was said by the two suspects, who ran off in the direction of Retford Road.

The suspect who attacked Jodie is described as a black male aged in his late teens. There is no further description of him at this stage, nor is there any description of the other male.

In the wake of Jodies death, her family have backed calls for tougher sentences on knife crime.

Relative Karen Chesney appealed on Facebook for support for a petition calling for a 10-year jail term for knife possession and 25 years for using a knife.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Parliament petition had been signed more than 33,000 times. A total of 100,000 signatures are required before a petition can be considered for debate by MPs.

Flowers near the scene in Harold Hill Jodie Chesney, was stabbed to death (Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)

A post-mortem examination carried out on Sunday established that the cause of Jodies death was trauma and haemorrhage.

Jodie was a Girl Scout and school friends said students at Havering College would be wearing purple on Friday in honour of Jodie and her Barking & Dagenham scout troop colours.

She posted a photograph on Instagram with fellow scouts at 10 Downing Street on Remembrance Day last year, with the caption: Im basically famous now  this was such a good opportunity and so much fun.
Sajid Javid has acknowledged that police resources are important in tackling knife violence, as Theresa May faced a mounting backlash for denying a link between officer numbers and bloodshed on Britains streets.

The Home Secretary emphasised that ministers must listen to forces following emergency talks with chief constables after a string of fatal stabbings prompted warnings of a national emergency.

The killings have sparked intense scrutiny of reductions in the size of the police workforce.

The number of officers in the 43 territorial forces in England and Wales has fallen by more than 20,000 since 2009.

Productive meeting with senior police leaders today to discuss knife crime & what more we can do to stop this senseless violence. Resources & powers important & Ill continue to listen to law enforcement about their needs. Vital we take action on many fronts pic.twitter.com/4vzRbojAJN  Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) March 6, 2019

Mrs May, who was home secretary from 2010 to 2016, argued earlier this week that there was no direct correlation between certain crimes and police numbers.

But a string of senior figures in policing have lined up to dispute her assertion.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Javid said: I think police resources are very important to deal with this. Weve got to do everything we can.

Im absolutely committed to working with the police in doing this. We have to listen to them when they talk about resources.

(PA Graphics)

The Home Secretary also said it was important for the Government to give police more confidence over the use of stop-and-search powers.

Mrs May introduced reforms in 2014 to ensure stop and search was used in a more targeted way, following criticism that the tactics unfairly focused on black and minority ethnic individuals.

At Prime Ministers Questions, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn claimed the Prime Minister was trying to keep communities safe on the cheap.

He said: Does the Prime Minister now regret cuts in police numbers and will she undertake that under this review they will be restored to the level they were formerly at?

Mrs May, who is to host a summit on knife crime, said the Government is putting more resources into policing.

A proposed cash boost could see total police funding rise by nearly 1 billion in 2019/20, including money raised through council tax.

Asked whether the PM still believed there was no direct link between police numbers and violent crime, her official spokesman said: Clearly resources and powers are important.

We have just given the police more resources and more powers and we always listen to what the police are saying.

But its hugely important that we dont just treat this as a policing issue, that we do look across society at things such as changes in the drugs market and address issues like gang culture with children being groomed into this lifestyle and carrying knives, and we look at public health.

Later this week, police chiefs will present ministers with details of the resources they need for a surge in capacity to combat the rise in violent crime.

Ahead of the meeting with Mr Javid, National Police Chiefs Council chairwoman Sara Thornton called for emergency funding.

She told the BBC: Look at the facts, there are fewer police officers doing less policing and theres more crime.

At the weekend two 17-year-olds, Jodie Chesney and Yousef Makki, were killed in separate stabbings in London and Greater Manchester.

In Birmingham three teenagers died in the space of 12 days last month.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has said the military would be ready to respond if asked to help play a part in tackling knife crime.

But Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House said he did not believe the Army should be called in.

I think it would cause more alarm and concern than anything else, he told the London Assembly police and crime committee.
Pope Francis has sent condolences to tornado victims in Alabama and US President Donald Trump will visit on Friday.

Twenty-three people were killed and dozens more were injured when the powerful tornado ripped through Lee County. The youngest of those killed was six and the oldest was 89.

Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said the list of the missing had shrunk from dozens to just seven or eight.

Weve got piles of rubble that we are searching just to make sure, said Opelika Fire Chief Byron Prather Jr. We dont think well find nobody there, but we dont want to leave any stone unturned.

At the Vatican, Pope Francis said he was praying for the dead and injured of the Alabama tornado, saying he is spiritually close to all those who are suffering and grieving.

A man searches through the debris that was his home near Beauregard (Mickey Welsh/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP)

Francis sent a telegram of condolences to the bishop of Mobile, Alabama, the Most Reverend Thomas Rodi, saying he was saddened to learn of the tragic loss of life and injuries caused by the twister.

Francis prayed for peace and strength for the survivors, and that God may grant eternal rest to the dead, especially the children, and healing and consolation to the injured and those who grieve.

The tornado was an EF4 with winds estimated at 170mph and carved a path of destruction up to nine-tenths of a mile wide in Alabama, scraping up the earth in a phenomenon known as ground rowing, the National Weather Service said.

Carol Dean with Megan Anderson and her 18-month-old daughter Madilyn (David Goldman/AP)

It travelled around 70 miles through Alabama and Georgia, where it caused more damage.

It was the deadliest tornado to hit the US since May 2013, when an EF5 twister killed 24 people in Moore, Oklahoma.
John Downey has been granted leave to appeal against the decision to extradite him to Northern Ireland.

The 67-year-old, whose trial for the IRAs Hyde Park bombing collapsed in controversy five years ago, is wanted by prosecutors in Northern Ireland over the murders of two Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers in 1972.

Downey was arrested at his home in Creeslough, Co Donegal, last October under a European arrest warrant after authorities in Northern Ireland determined they had sufficient evidence to charge him with the murders of Lance Corporal Alfred Johnston, 32, and Private James Eames, 33.

John Downey is wanted over the murder of two Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, in 1972 (PA)

The soldiers died in a car bomb attack in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, in August 1972.

Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly said on Wednesday that she granted the appeal to test whether it is an abuse of process to return him to Northern Ireland.

In 2013, Downey was charged with murdering four Royal Household Cavalrymen in a bomb in Londons Hyde Park in 1982.

He was tried at the Old Bailey in 2014 but the case dramatically collapsed after it was revealed he had received a written assurance from former prime minister Tony Blairs government that he was not actively wanted by the authorities.

The letter was allegedly issued under the terms of the controversial On The Runs (OTRs) scheme.

The High Court previously heard claims Mr Downeys fingerprints were found on adhesive tape on a battery pack used in the Enniskillen attack.

The court was told the tape was lost for some two years.

It was also alleged police in the UK attempted to fabricate photo-fit evidence using a picture taken from Downeys house.

Garnet Orange SC, for Downey, previously told the court there were credible attempts to fabricate visual identification evidence in relation to the 1982 offences.

The court was told members of An Garda Siochana unlawfully removed pictures of Downey from his home and passed them to the authorities in the UK.

These pictures, Mr Orange said, were used to create an image of Downey as a suspect in the Hyde Park bombing.

Mr Orange told the court on Wednesday: There are questions raised regarding the role of members of An Garda Siochana and also the strange reality that the evidence obtained against the respondent was obtained by catastrophic failures on part of various Northern Ireland authorities who are seeking the extradition of Mr Downey in order to prosecute him.

There is a larger picture that simply cannot be ignored and this is one that must be dealt with in the context of whether public interest is best served in the surrender of Mr Downey.

For instance, the trial in the UK in 2014 was stopped on the grounds it would be contrary to public interest if it was allowed to proceed.

Its hard to see how the public interest could really be any different to the public interest that the applicant raises.

He told the court if a member of the public were made aware of the current court matters they would have grave concerns as to whether public interest has been served.

The public interest is probably best served by the public having confidence in the integrity of the extradition process, particularly where the person is an Irish citizen, a man in his late 60s, being prosecuted for matters which are historic.

The only bodies who stand to benefit from the catastrophic failures are the very bodies who caused the catastrophic failures.

The reality is, even if he were convicted of these offences, the maximum period of time he would serve would be two years.

That is something that cannot be ignored.

Mr Orange argued there was a potential abuse of process by Northern Ireland authorities, who he claimed were using the process of the High Court to extradite Downey to face charges where authorities created errors.

Downey remains on continuing bail.
by Sumon Corraya

Ms Halder was the first Catholic woman to be named personal secretary to a prime minister. After a terror attack in Dhaka, she prevented the freezing of Church funds. She calls on Christians to engage more in politics.

Dhaka (AsiaNews)  To "succeed, a woman needs the support of her family, community and the Church", this according to Nomita Halder who spoke to AsiaNews on International Women's Day.

Ms Halder, who is now retired, was the first Catholic woman to be appointed as personal secretary to a Bangladeshi prime minister.

She views herself as "the product of the Catholic Church. I have done all my studies at Church-run schools. My role models in life were priests and nuns. [From them] I learnt discipline, to wake up early, not to gossip, and get to school and work on time. I have followed these teachings in my professional career as well."

Nomita Halder is a parishioner at St Pauls Catholic church in Shelabunia, Diocese of Khulna. She studied at the Bangladesh Agricultural University in Mymensingh with Church support.

She remembers that then Dhaka Archbishop Michael Rozario and Fr Marino Rigon (a Xaverian missionary who spent 60 years in Bangladesh) came to visit me often.

In 2014 She was appointed personal secretary to current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. At that time, she was also secretary at the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment.

"We will be finally able to say that it is really Women's Day when women can make decisions in the family, at work and in society. The reason why a day is dedicated to women, and not to men, is that women are not yet emancipated. If we really want to improve womens condition, we need to empower them.

With respect to Christians, she explained that "Young Christians are unaware of jobs in the public administration. By and large, If they want to succeed, they prefer to look for work with Catholic NGOs. But there are many public sector jobs compared to the private sector. I urge them to study and try this venue as well.

During her term in office, she helped the poor and Christians. Her work led her to realise that Some communities are unaware that they are entitled to government housing subsidies as well as medical funding for serious cases.

After the attack against a coffee shop that catered to foreigners in Dhaka on 1st July 2016, the government cracked down on foreign funding for NGOs, but she was able to prevent it from applying to the Church's works. The Church is not an NGO," she said.

Nomita retired last September and now would like to teach at a university, so as to remain involved in society.

In the meantime, she suggests Christians should "engage in political activities since they have the qualities that make a good politician and can serve the nation."
A Government minister has insisted the Conservative Party is working properly to deal with cases of Islamophobia, despite calls for an independent inquiry into the issue.

Nadhim Zahawi disagreed with the suggestion made by senior Tory peer Baroness Warsi and said the party stamps on Islamophobia wherever and whenever we find it.

Lady Warsi, who was the first Muslim woman to have a seat at the Cabinet table, said there was a deep-rooted problem in the party and claimed Theresa May had failed to act.

She called for an independent inquiry into institutional Islamophobia in the party.

Mr Zahawi, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, told BBC Radio 5 Lives Emma Barnett Show: I think we are doing right thing  we stamp on this wherever and whenever we find it.

What you need to do is deal with the problem and the way to do it is act upon it rather than waste time and money on independent inquiries.

Nadhim Zahawi (David Jones/PA)

This is where I disagree with Sayeeda  I think the organisation is working properly to deal with these things.

He also told the programme he was subjected to racist comments at a Tory Party function from a Conservative activist.

He said were not equal and that hurt



Government Minister @NadhimZahawi reveals to @EmmaBarnett that hes experienced face-to-face racism from a Conservative Party activist over his pro-immigration views. #EmmaBarnettShow pic.twitter.com/p1IcyC7KvS  BBC Radio 5 Live (@bbc5live) March 6, 2019

We were talking about issues to do with immigration and I was making the argument that the Conservative Party was very positive about having healthy migration to this country and its the right thing to do, and people who work here and become naturalised are as British an anyone else, and this individual disagreed with me and said no youre not, were not equal, and that hurt, he explained.

Asked what happened as a result, Mr Zahawi said: It was dealt with  those people are no longer involved in the party.

That individual for other reasons decided they didnt want to be involved in the party and the Conservative Party didnt want them either.

He added the individual was a party activist rather than a party member and could not be disciplined.

Lady Warsis intervention on Tuesday came after Tory council candidate Peter Lamb quit after coming under fire for social media comments about Islam.

A total of 14 Conservative members were suspended from the party over allegedly Islamophobic comments on the homepage of a Facebook group.

The Buzzfeed website carried details from the page  established by the self-styled Jacob Rees-Mogg Supporters Group  showing posts calling for the closure of all mosques and branding Muslim Home Secretary Sajid Javid a Trojan horse.

A party spokesman said: This Facebook group is in no way affiliated with the Conservative Party and many of the people identified on it are not party members.

However, we have identified some people who are party members and they have been immediately suspended, pending further investigation.

When we find evidence of members making offensive or inappropriate comments, we consistently take decisive action.

Discrimination or abuse of any kind is wrong and will not be tolerated.

A senior Conservative source said: You saw some action taken yesterday with the suspension of the membership of 14 individuals.

The record will show that we have acted quickly and it is the Prime Ministers view that we should continue to do that.
A Muslim convert nicknamed The Eagle has been jailed for at least 15 years for planning a spectacular terror attack on Oxford Street in London.

Lewis Ludlow, 27, swore allegiance to Islamic State as he prepared to drive a van through Londons shopping district or Madame Tussauds.

The former Royal Mail worker, who called himself The Eagle and The Ghost, bought a phone under a false name and wrote down his attack plans, which were later found ripped up in a bin.

He identified Oxford Street as an ideal spot, writing: It is expected nearly 100 could be killed in the attack.

Last year, he pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to plotting an attack in the UK and funding IS abroad.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC jailed Ludlow for life with a minimum term of 15 years.

Ludlow was also sentenced to a further seven years in prison to run concurrently for the funding offence.

The judge said Ludlow had been engaged in preparations for a spectacular multi-casualty attack with the intention of causing death or terror.

He told the defendant: Your commitment at the time we are concerned with to violent extremism ran very deep and for some time.

There could be no other explanation for your preparing to kill innocent people in a vehicle attack for ideological reasons.

Ludlow in a sword shop (Counter Terrorism Policing South East/PA)

Judge Hilliard rejected the suggestion Ludlow had been coerced by an Islamic State supporter in the Philippines, saying the defendant was nobodys fool.

He added: I do not regard you as suggestible or easily taken advantage of. You were well able to resist the Prevent programme.

The court heard how Ludlow, from Rochester in Kent, first came to the attention of police in 2010 when he attended a demonstration led by radical preacher Anjem Choudary and his banned Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) group.

When he was arrested in 2015, IS material was found on Ludlows electronic devices but no further action was taken.

A document containing an oath of allegiance to the Islamic State, printed off by Ludlow (CPS/PA)

In January 2018, he bought a ticket to fly to the Philippines on February 3 but was stopped at the airport and had his passport seized.

Having set up a PayPal account and a fake Facebook site called Antique Collections, he sent money to an IS supporter, Abu Yaqeen, in the Philippines.

Ludlow also turned his attention to launching an attack in Britain, with encouragement from Yaqeen, the court heard.

He visited an internet cafe in Vauxhall Bridge Road in central London where he searched online for shopping centres, Oxford Street and the Isis flag.

Police later recovered torn-up scraps of paper from Ludlows bin detailing potential attack sites, including Madame Tussauds, Oxford Street, St Pauls Cathedral and a Shia temple in Romford.

A handwritten letter found in bin detailing potential targets in London (Counter Terrorism Policing South East/PA)

He detailed a potential attack on Oxford Street using a van mounting the pavement, noting the lack of safety barriers.

He wrote: Wolf should either use a ram attack or use  on the truck to maximise death  it is a busy street it is ideal for an attack. It is expected nearly 100 could be killed in the attack.

On April 13 Ludlows mobile phone was retrieved from a storm drain and found to have videos of the defendant swearing allegiance to IS and evidence of hostile reconnaissance.

When Ludlow was arrested by counter-terrorism police he refused to explain himself in interview.

Following his guilty plea, autistic Ludlow told how he rejected an MI5 advance in March 2017 but agreed to engage with the Prevent programme.

Ludlows mobile phone, which he broke and disposed of (Counter Terrorism Policing South East/PA)

He became bitter and heartbroken when he was barred from going to the Philippines, he said: I felt that I was trapped like an animal unable to escape its cage.

At first, Abu Yaqeen asked for money then talked him into plotting an attack in Britain, saying you have to kill them, he claimed.

Ludlow told the court: I said no at first, I did not want to because I felt this was a bit scary and then he said: You have to do it. You have to kill them, make them pay in blood, you must get revenge. They are not innocent. They deserve to die.

He said the best way to do so was using a ram attack. He said in order to achieve such a spectacular attack we should use a truck bomb attack to achieve the necessary effect.

A surveillance image of Lewis Ludlow taking pictures in Oxford Street (Counter Terrorism Policing South East/PA)

He said to me: Dont you want to die a martyr? They deserve it.

Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East, said: Ludlow was planning an attack in the UK after swearing an oath of allegiance to Daesh, and he had gone as far as writing out attack plans and conducting reconnaissance of potential targets.

We have dedicated units across the country who accept the extraordinary challenge of keeping the public safe from terrorist attacks. I have no doubt that Ludlow was fully intent on committing a serious violent act in the name of Daeshs twisted ideology, and it is testament to the hard work of all involved that he has been jailed.

Although this attack was foiled, we continue to work tirelessly to ensure that offenders such as Ludlow are brought to justice before they can commit their violent intentions.
The Scottish Government has been accused of secretly ditching plans to take over the running of a benefit paid out to severely disabled people.

Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville confirmed to MSPs the Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA) will be delivered through an agency agreement with the UK Governments Department for Work and Pensions.

It is one of 11 benefits Holyrood is due to take charge of under devolution reforms introduced in the wake of the 2014 independence referendum.

But opposition MSPs said Ms Somerville had failed to make clear to them that it would continue to be administered from Westminster when she gave a statement in the Scottish Parliament last week.

Conservative social security spokeswoman Michelle Ballantyne said: This is smoke and mirrors. Youre actually saying you want everything devolved but actually you are increasingly pushing things back to be administered under agreement by the DWP.

This was barely a week ago and already untrue. We learnt today that SDA will no longer be devolved and last week we saw @theSNP can't even stick to their own timetable with PIP.



It's clear they have no idea what they're doing. https://t.co/g2DBBrLU4V  Michelle Ballantyne (@MBallantyneRUK) March 6, 2019

The SNP has repeatedly denigrated the DWP but they are quick to rely on DWP help when they need it.

The DWP will administer the benefit under an `agency agreement with the Scottish Government (PA)

The fact that this has been done in secret is further evidence that the SNP are far more concerned with spin over delivery.

This seriously undermines the SNPs credibility to administer a social security system that thousands of Scots depend on.

About 2,000 people in Scotland receive SDA payments, and Labour social security spokesman Mark Griffiths said it is outrageous the SNP Government is leaving them at the hands of the Tories.

He added: Carers, disabled people and pensioners are being forced to wait for change while the SNP leave new powers on the shelf gathering dust. That is a disgusting dereliction of duty. 

Ms Somerville stressed the benefit had been closed to new applicants since 2001, and Scottish Government consultations had not revealed any desire for the existing arrangements to be changed.

No-one suggested any changes and no-one suggested any particular issues we needed to address, she told Holyrood.

With the payments also being made in the form of a top-up to pensions, she added it was a prime example of why it would be easier to have full responsibility of social security in Scotland.

While the SDA will be delivered under agreement with the DWP, Ms Somerville said: None of the 11 benefits included in the Scotland Act will remain reserved to the DWP.

The Scottish Government will take responsibility for all 11 devolved benefits from April 1, 2020. That remains the case and it includes Severe Disablement Allowance.

That means all funding decisions, delivery decisions and policy decisions are taken by the Scottish Government.
College lecturers across Scotland have gone on strike again in an ongoing dispute over pay.

Members of the Educational Institute of Scotland  Further Education Lecturers Association (EIS-FELA) are demanding what they say is a fair cost of living increase, in line with public sector pay policy.

EIS-FELA said it has rejected a 2% increase offer over three years, and accused employers association Colleges Scotland of seeking to tear-up existing commitments on lecturers working conditions.

On Wednesday members walked out over the issue which, according to EIS-FELA president Pam Currie, left management labelling lecturers as greedy.

She said: Scotlands college lecturers have, once again, shown their determination to make a stand in pursuit of a fair pay settlement.

Our pay claim is entirely reasonable and wholly in line with public sector pay policy.

It is the third time EIS-FELA members have gone on strike this year (Tom Eden/PA)

Lecturers are asking only for a fair pay settlement that reflects the rising cost of living.

Yet the response of management has been to label us greedy and unrealistic, as they have repeatedly rejected all our attempts to reach a fair negotiated agreement.

It is the third time EIS-FELA members have gone on strike this year after 24-hour walkouts in January and February.

FE Lecturers congregated on the steps of the concert hall in Glasgow at today to say #NegotiateNow pic.twitter.com/3B5l6YCJXO  EISFela (@EISFela) March 6, 2019

They have also warned of possible further action, including a boycott of college results systems.

EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: It is disappointing that Colleges Scotland failed to accept the EIS offer to suspend strike action earlier this week.

EIS-FELA put a straightforward proposition to them which didnt include additional money but which would have allowed negotiations to continue.

Colleges Scotland rejected this and this has led to todays action going ahead, with a new ballot now also under way which may lead to an escalation in this dispute.

Colleges Scotland said lecturers north of the border are by far the best paid across the UK, and John Gribben, director of employment, said most people would jump at the chance to gain a 5,000 pay rise.

He added: Not only is the EIS-FELA damaging the college sector with their constant striking and stating they will prevent students from progressing to other college or university courses by withholding assessment results from colleges, they havent even provided accurate details of what colleges are offering.

They consistently misrepresent the offer and balloted their members for strike action on a pay offer which was never even put to them. The EIS-FELA should share colleges actual offer with their members and ask them whether they want to accept it or not.

We will continue to engage in meaningful dialogue and urge the EIS-FELA to end this unnecessary strike, but it appears as though they have no interest in compromising, making any concessions or ending the strikes.
An arrogant and selfish father has been found guilty of plotting an acid attack on his three-year-old son during a bitter custody battle with his wife.

The parent and five others defendants were all convicted by a jury of conspiring to throw sulphuric acid with intent to burn, maim or disfigure the boy in July last year.

A seventh defendant, 23-year-old Martina Badiova, of Handsworth, Birmingham, was cleared of the same charge.

On hearing the verdict against him, the father rubbed his face with his hand.

A six-week trial at Worcester Crown Court was told the youngster, who cannot be identified due to his age, suffered serious injuries to his face and arm at a Home Bargains store in the city.

Adam Cech, 27, who claimed he was threatened at "gunpoint" to carry out the attack, was convicted after telling jurors he sprayed the child with acid. (West Mercia Police/PA)

The Crown alleged the 40-year-old father, stung by his wife walking out on him in 2016, enlisted others to attack his son, in a bid to win more contact with the child by showing his mother was unfit to care for him.

Giving evidence earlier in the trial, the mother, who cannot be identified, said of her estranged husband: Whenever he became angry, he couldnt control himself.

She also said he threatened to kill her and the children if she ever left again, and had asked an imam about the subject, after she previously left the father in 2012.

Jurors unanimously convicted the father  who cannot be named to protect his sons identity  on Wednesday, after nine hours, alongside the five other men.

Among those also found guilty of the conspiracy were Adam Cech, 27, of Farnham Road, Birmingham, Jan Dudi, 25, of Cranbrook Road, Birmingham, and Norbert Pulko, 22, of Sutherland Road, London.

Dudi, 25, who accompanied Cech and Pulko into Home Bargains, for the attack. (West Mercia Police/PA)

All three men were captured on CCTV at the scene of the attack, after following the boy and his mother to the store from their home in a Vauxhall Vectra.

The attack happened at 2.16pm on Saturday July 21, when Cech approached the child and squirted acid at him from a small plastic medicine-type bottle.

Jurors heard the injured boy repeatedly screamed I hurt, I hurt, after he was sprayed.

Footage then showed the three men calmly making their escape  Pulko even stopping at the tills to purchase two items.

Pulko, 22, who was handed the acid by the father hours before the attack, before heading to Home Bargains. (West Mercia Police/PA)

The attack followed what prosecutors claimed had been an aborted attack at a school eight days earlier.

During that incident, Pulko, and 43-year-old Saied Hussini, of Wrottesley Road, London, were seen by neighbours loitering in the area.

CCTV footage later showed Pulko, with an object held in his hand, approaching the child, who was walking with his mother, before he veered away without incident.

Pulko and middle-man Jabar Paktia, 42, of New Hampton Road, Wolverhampton, who introduced the father to Hussini, were also convicted of the same charge.

Middle-man Hussini, who claimed the father was offering 3,000, to stage the attack. (West Mercia Police/PA)

Hussini, who is believed to have tested the strength of the acid on his arm before the attack, was also found guilty of the same charge.

He had claimed the father had been willing to pay 3,000 to carry out the job.

Hussini also alleged the father, Paktia and and Hussini all went to meet Pulko, and it was Pulko who first suggested using acid.

Paktia, who introduced the father to Hussini, and was at a meeting where Pulko allegedly suggested using acid. (West Mercia Police/PA)

A feature of the trial was the markedly cut-throat defences, Judge Robert Juckes QC, said.

Cech claimed in court that he had been threatened with a BB gun by Pulko to squirt the victim and did not know acid was inside the bottle.

When he was convicted, Cech  who had attacked the boy  put his head in his hands, and looked at the floor.

The father, from Wolverhampton but originally from Afghanistan, had denied even knowing Pulko, despite being caught on CCTV meeting and handing over acid in a pub car park the day of the attack.

Hussini and Pulko spotted by an eagle-eyed neighbour, before the "aborted attack" earlier in July 2018. (West Mercia Police/PA)

He also claimed to have only hired Hussini and Paktia as private investigators, while Dudi alleged he was just there to watch the mother  and no more.

Hussini claimed he only went along with the scheme in a bid to divert the father from the attack  implicating the boys parent  but the jury also rejected his account.

Patkia and Pulko did not give evidence, while Badiova alleged she took part in the aborted incident believing she was only there to make another mans boyfriend jealous.

Hussini showing what prosecutors claimed was an acid-type injury on his hand, after his arrest, where he had tested the substance. (West Mercia Police/PA)

At the start of the trial, prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC, told the court: The evidence suggests that in an effort to ensure his (family contact) application was successful (the father) was willing to manufacture evidence of injuries to his children.

Mr Rees said: His mother was a short distance away as the attack is carried out. He was shouting and crying and ran towards his mother holding his left arm.

The child suffered a 10cm burn injury to his left forearm, and a 3cm burn on his forehead, which needed specialist hospital treatment, but has since made a good recovery.

CCTV footage of the acid attack on a three-year-old boy at the Home Bargains store in Worcester in July 2018 (West Mercia Police/PA)

A jury of seven women and five men was told that an observant neighbour spotted activity near a school during the aborted attack on July 13, taking photos of Hussini, and Pulko.
Irelands foreign minister has warned against optimism over difficult Brexit negotiations between Brussels and London.

Speaking on the Independent.ies Floating Voter podcast, Simon Coveney said three areas are currently being examined by the EU and UK.

They are a commitment from both sides on how to explore alternative arrangements, potential changes to the future relationship declaration, and assurances that the intention of the backstop is temporary.

The most sensitive and most difficult area to get right is to try to facilitate Geoffrey Cox, the British Attorney General, to give legal advice to the effect that in his view, Britain is not likely to be trapped in a position that they are uncomfortable with, and cant get out of it because of the triggering of a backstop indefinitely, Mr Coveney said.

I think the Withdrawal Agreement will remain intact but I think there will be an effort to try to introduce some form of declaration that creates a persuasive legal argument that reassures people that the backstop, if its ever used in the first place, would be temporary.

I think some people are overly optimistic at this stage about those negotiations and their outcome. My understanding is that they are difficult.

Simon Coveney (Niall Carson/PA)

On the subject of a hard border, Mr Coveney said he believes any potential conflict will be more likely to happen in Northern Ireland.

If it all fails politically, collapses and Britain crashes out in 23 days time, then I think there is a recognition that the British and Irish governments and EU Commission will have to work together to try to put some complex arrangement in place to prevent physical barriers on the border.

We have made it very clear that were not negotiating any solutions that will result in physical border infrastructure re-emerging.

The truth is that if there is going to be unrest, its more likely to happen in Northern Ireland than in the Republic of Ireland  thats the truth of it.

Theres no point pretending otherwise, politics in Northern Ireland has been polarised by Brexit, both communities feel threatened by it.

Unionists feel that solutions like the backstop may create unintended barriers between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, I dont believe it does, but thats the perception.

On the nationalist side, they feel Brexit may create barriers between them and their own country.

On alternatives to the backstop as talks remain deadlocked on the issue, Mr Coveney said all alternatives have been studied.

We did look at all the alternatives that were on the table and available to the backstop and they havent stood up to scrutiny here, he said.

Thats the problem here, which is why even in a no-deal scenario the way to avoid border infrastructure and the corrosive impact of that on a peace process and relations on the island of Ireland will still need to look like something very similar to the backstop. Thats the truth of it.
CCTV video shows the moment a gas machine prevented a burglary by filling the site of the incident with thick smoke.

Two men broke into a business in Corby, Northamptonshire, by smashing the glass doors of the property.

But their plans were foiled as the security system rapidly emitted the smoke, impairing their vision.

The pair broke a machine in the commercial property but had to leave before they could take anything, and are seen in the footage fleeing the scene as visibility decreases.

The security system was installed by Northamptonshire Police, who released the footage and commended the extremely effective crime prevention method.

If offenders cant see it, they cant steal it, said crime prevention team leader Paul Golley.

In light of recent commercial burglaries, we have been working with businesses across Northamptonshire to talk about the range of crime prevention equipment they can utilise to prevent burglars from destroying their livelihoods.

(Northamptonshire Police)

Many of these businesses have taken up our offer of help and their premises are now equipped with a range of bespoke kit that will thwart any people who try to steal from them.

Make sure to remove anything valuable from view and lock it away in a secure place overnight.
Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley has faced calls to resign after she said deaths caused by soldiers and police during the Troubles were not crimes.

Her comments sparked trenchant criticism from outraged victims of the security forces and nationalist political leaders, while the Irish Government sought an explanation.

Later, she returned to the House of Commons to clarify to MPs that alleged wrongdoing should always be investigated.

Next week, prosecutors will announce whether soldiers will face trial for the Bloody Sunday killings of 14 innocent civilians in Londonderry.

Karen Bradley is publically interfering with the rule of law. No-one has the right to deliberately pressure or intervene with due process. She should resign.  Colum Eastwood (@columeastwood) March 6, 2019

Mickey McKinney, whose brother William was shot by a Parachute Regiment soldier, said: Its very hurtful.

She should resign right away, is she not aware that there was an inquiry that found our people completely innocent, was she not aware of David Camerons apology to the people for the behaviour of the army?

For her to come out with ridiculous comments, that is completely outrageous.

More than 90% of deaths caused during 30 years of violence involved republican or loyalist paramilitaries.

Ms Bradley initially told MPs on Wednesday: The fewer than 10% that were at the hands of the military and police were not crimes.

They were people acting under orders and under instruction and fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way.

She later returned to the House of Commons to make clear her position, saying: The point I was seeking to convey was that the overwhelming majority of those who served carried out their duties with courage, professionalism and integrity and within the law.

I was not referring to any specific cases but expressing a general view.

Of course where there is evidence of wrongdoing, it should always be investigated  whoever is responsible.

These are of course matters for the police and prosecuting authorities, who are independent of Government.

John Kellys brother Michael was aged 17 when he was shot dead during the January 1972 Bloody Sunday civil rights march.

Mr Kelly said: She has to resign, she has no option, she has to go because she cannot be representative now of anybody now in the North.

The Secretary of State is supposed to be impartial but she showed her true colours today.

Simon Coveney (Niall Carson/PA)

Asked if she would like to apologise for her comments, Ms Bradley told the Press Association: Coming back to the House of Commons and correcting the record is the biggest statement I can make in terms of the inadvertent comments that I made during oral questions.

I was absolutely determined to be clear to everybody that what I had said needed correcting and to do so on the floor of the House of Commons is the biggest statement I can make.

She said she did not intend to cause any offence or upset to anybody, adding: I am determined that we will find a way to deal with the issue of the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland as soon as possible and in a way that is right and fair for victims and everyone.

Pressed on whether she would say sorry to people she upset, Ms Bradley, who was at a Saint Patricks Day event at the Embassy of Ireland in London, said: As I say, I never intend to cause any offence. I want to ensure that we have a system that works for everyone.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney, who was also at the event at the Embassy of Ireland, was due to meet Ms Bradley seeking clarification on Wednesday evening.

A spokesman said: Secretary of State Bradleys reaffirmation this afternoon that where there is evidence of wrongdoing it should always be investigated whoever is responsible is important.

There are no amnesties from prosecution provided for in the Good Friday Agreement or any subsequent agreements including the Stormont House Agreement.

The Irish Government has been clear that it would not support any proposal to introduce such a measure, for state or non-state actors.

Nationalist SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said Mrs Bradley was publicly interfering with the rule of law.

He said: No-one has the right to deliberately pressure or intervene with due process. She should resign.

Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle ONeill said Ms Bradley had made outrageous and offensive comments during her initial appearance in Parliament and later told her it was a resignation matter.

These comments are an insult to families who have lost loved ones at the hands of the British army, state agencies and their proxies in the loyalist death squads which were directed by the British state.

These offensive and hurtful comments should be withdrawn immediately. https://t.co/Ow1uNZoykg  Michelle ONeill (@moneillsf) March 6, 2019

Mrs ONeill said: British politicians cannot be allowed to ride roughshod over the legal system.

No-one can be above the law and bereaved families, some of whom have been campaigning for almost five decades, are entitled to access to truth and justice.

These offensive and hurtful comments should be withdrawn immediately.

The Northern Ireland Secretarys words came during oral Northern Ireland-related questions in the House of Commons.

Mrs ONeill added: The British Government must immediately clarify their position on legacy.

They must also honour their obligations agreed at Stormont House in 2014.

She said the Northern Ireland Secretary had displayed contempt for the legal system, including ongoing court proceedings into legacy cases involving the British state and its forces.

These comments are an insult to families who have lost loved ones at the hands of the British Army, state agencies and their proxies in the loyalist death squads which were directed by the British state, she added.

Labours Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Tony Lloyd said: Labour stands on the side of truth and justice, its time the Government decided which side they are on.

Ciaran MacAirt, grandson of a woman killed in Belfasts McGurks Bar by loyalists during the Troubles, said her comments were disgusting.

She has not accounted for the hundreds of killings perpetrated by and at the behest of state agents.

Furthermore, she will never be able to whitewash such indefensible killings as the deliberate shooting dead of civilians including children, never mind all of the other unlawful killings by the British armed forces.
The Irish Foreign Minister says he is embarrassed that explosive packages sent to major transport hubs may have come from Dublin.

The packages that arrived at Waterloo railway station and offices at Heathrow and London City Airports on Tuesday were posted with Irish stamps and had Dublin as the return address, prompting Irish police to join the investigation.

I read reports about that as it was breaking yesterday with dismay really, a combination of anger and embarrassment, Simon Coveney said on Wednesday appearing on the Independent.ie Floating Voter podcast.

I think the perception in the UK of this will be one of bemusement, as to why anyone would want to send any small explosive devices into London from Dublin, the fact that that could happen and come from Dublin is something I and many other people will be uncomfortable with.

Everyone needs to isolate and criticise that kind of warped thinking for what it is, which is unhelpful on every level.

I think any decent thinking person needs to reject utterly, the kind of warped thinking that results in someone sending an explosive device or something that can catch fire in the post into anywhere including transport hubs.

An improvised explosive device sent to an address at Heathrow (Met Police/Handout)

Security sources suggested there may have been a concerted attempt to make the parcels appear as though they were posted from Ireland.

It was put to Mr Coveney that strained relations between the UK and Ireland over Brexit negotiations may influenced the sender.

Its important not to confuse warnings that the fallout from Brexit can create a corrosive atmosphere and create potential security concerns, that is in any way condoning that kind of behaviour, Mr Coveney said.

Whoever did this has not assisted the political process that is underway here, in fact theyve done the opposite.

Those of us working in politics need to find a way of resolving the outstanding Brexit issues through negotiation and protecting the relationship between Ireland and the UK that have become so positive over the last twenty years since the Good Friday Agreement.
It is not fair to accuse local authorities of failing to deliver on a pledge to double free childcare provision ahead of schedule, a Government minister has said.

The Scottish Government has promised to increase free early years care from 600 to 1,140 hours for eligible youngsters by 2020.

The Scottish Conservatives have claimed that so far, more than four-fifths of public sector nurseries have been unable to provide this.

Data released under freedom of information laws shows 83% of public sector nurseries are currently unable to meet the target.

Speaking at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday, Minister for Children and Young People Maree Todd said she is confident that with multi-year funding agreed with local authorities, the policy will be sustainable and deliverable.

The Scottish Conservatives will lead a debate today calling for the Scottish Government to take urgent action to fix the flaws in implementation of the 1140 hours of funded childcare policy. https://t.co/vGrKEi3mUz  AAH (@AlisonAharris) March 6, 2019

Ms Todd said: We can achieve this policy by 2020. The transition period is hugely important in allowing time for local authorities and partners to work together to refine plans for 1,140 hours.

The Scottish Government plans to increase free early learning and childcare to 1,140 hours a year (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Its unfair to accuse local authorities of failing to achieve the ambition of 1,140 hours already  with 18 months until the full national roll-out.

We have ambitious aspirations to help ensure that our children can realise their full potential.

Neither Cosla (the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities), nor the Scottish Government underestimates the scale of the challenge involved in achieving our ambition.

But we are committed to working in meaningful and genuine partnership to achieve that ambition for 2020.

Scottish Conservative childrens spokeswoman Alison Harris said the success of the policy would be dependent on sufficient funding being provided.

She said: The minister said everything is on target and that the policy will be delivered on time.

But this is the opposite to what the PVI (private, voluntary and independent) sector are telling us.

In many ways, the implementation of this policy is frustrating.

We keep hearing from the SNP that everything is on track, that everything is working and that everyone is happy  its just not the case.

Scottish Labour MSP Mary Fee said her party supports the Scottish Governments proposals, but she added it is vital current problems with providers are addressed.

Ms Fee said: This debate is not about opposing the ambitions of delivering the 1,140 funded hours.

Its about expressing the confidence that we have in the Scottish Government to meet the 2020 deadline that delivers for children and families, with the backing of all early-years providers.

And our confidence in the delivery is not because we have a dislike for any one party or any one organisation. It is based on the feedback that we receive from providers, from parents and from bodies like the National Day Nurseries Association and from Audit Scotland.

Scottish Labour believes that childcare should be flexible, affordable and of high quality for all ages, all year round.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

A work by the writer Mikhail Shkarovsky claims the Third Reich had the Phanar in its sights. The pro-Soviet positions and the support of the "innovators". Ilarion: So far we had kept silent. A "technical" answer to the crisis in Ukraine.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The editorial council of the Patriarchate of Moscow, headed by Metropolitan Kliment (Kapalin), has sponsored a book that is an attack on Constantinople, the work of the historian Mikhail Skarovskij, a specialist in the history of the Church in the twentieth century.

The volume is entitled "The Church of Constantinople and the Russian Church in the period of great upheavals. The years 1910-1950 ", and was presented last February 27 at the Department for External Affairs of the Patriarchate of Moscow, chaired by Metropolitan Ilarion (Alfeev).

Shkarovskys book reveals that between 1936 and 1944 the Nazi regime attempted to assimilate the patriarchate of Constantinople within the sphere of influence of the Third Reich, without however succeeding. The author claims the Hitler regime believed that the Phanar (residence of the ecumenical patriarchate in Istanbul) would have been useful in the promotion of Nazi propaganda.

According to Shkarovsky, "in the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second, the patriarchate of Constantinople insisted on an anti-canonical policy of enslavement of the dioceses and of the autonomous Orthodox Churches, which continued after 1917 beyond the boundaries proper to the mother Church, above all of the Russian one". Within Soviet Russia, the book claims Constantinople also supported the so-called "Novice Church", the reformers loyal to the Soviet regime.

The author points to the fact that the Phanar did not condemn the moves of the "innovators", who in 1922 had attacked the patriarch Tichon unilaterally reducing him to the lay state. In this way, the Phanar indirectly supported the choices of OGPU (predecessor of the KGB) that supported the "living Church" of the innovators in order to destroy the official Church, contemptuously referred to as "tichonovscina". The ecumenical patriarch Melezio IV even proposed to allow the second marriage of priests and a married episcopate, which were precisely the main proposals of the Russian innovators, taken from the discussions of the Moscow Council of 1917-18.

The successor of Meletius IV was Gregory VII, expelled by the Turks to Egypt. In 1924 he sent a letter to Moscow to announce the passage of the Constantinople Church to the Gregorian calendar, another of the ideas of the Russian innovators, who considered this choice to be a recognition. From that moment on, the innovators supported the primacy of Constantinople not only as an "honorary", but also as an administrative one for all Orthodoxy, which the Moscow Patriarchate has always refused to admit. Indeed, the Soviet leadership proposed in those years to move the residence of the ecumenical patriarchate, then in exile, from Istanbul to Moscow, or Petrograd or Kiev, but Gregory VII refused the offer, demanding first the resignation of the patriarch Tichon of Moscow.

According to Shkarovsky, the patriarchate of Constantinople subsequently operated, in a constant manner, against Soviet politics, during the years of the civil war between white and red and then during the period of the cold war. The Phanar opened its own dioceses in the US, in the Baltic countries, in Finland, Czechoslovakia, Poland, all areas sensitive to the patriarchate of Moscow, fueling a conflict very similar to that currently underway in Ukraine.

The Sokovsky book seems in effect a "technical" response from Moscow to the "non-canonical" politics of Constantinople in Ukraine, projecting ghosts of the past on the events of today. According to Metropolitan Ilarion, "in the past we have preferred to avoid talking about these past events, hoping to overcome the violations of the canonical rules with the sincere repentance of Constantinople and our fraternal love". Today perhaps only a pale remembrance of fraternal love has remained, while the past returns to assert itself with all its contradictions.
Business Secretary Greg Clark has defended plans to give Parliament a vote on whether new EU workplace rules should become UK law.

New measures to protect workers rights after Brexit were roundly rejected by unions and Labour as flimsy and deeply disappointing after they were unveiled by the Prime Minister.

But in a Commons statement on the protection of workers rights after the UKs withdrawal from the EU, Mr Clark said it was not right for them to automatically move onto the UK statute book.

He outlined the mechanism, which will see Parliament given the opportunity at least every six months to consider any changes to EU workers rights and health and safety standards in the workplace.

The Cabinet minister said this will combine well our determination to honour the commitment the Prime Minister has made not to see workers rights eroded, along with with respecting the sovereignty of this Parliament.

Rebecca Long-Bailey speaking in the Commons. (Parliament TV)

But Labour said that puts any extension to workers rights at the mercy of a Parliamentary majority, with shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey saying sadly the proposals as yet drafted do not yet provide full guarantee nor assurance for UK workers.

Labour MP Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) called the plans worthless.

He said: Unless the Government goes significantly further in terms of legally enforceable rights and not just depending upon the whims of future governments these guarantees are worthless.

The SNPs Chris Stephens (Glasgow South West) poured scorn on the Tory record on workers rights, referring to the Master and Servant Act of 1823, codifying corporal punishment for workers, and the 2016 Trade Union Act, making ballots more difficult.

He added: Rather than guaranteeing or protecting workers rights, this statement does no such thing, in fact its a misrepresentation to suggest otherwise.

Lib Dem deputy leader Jo Swinson (East Dunbartonshire) labelled the plans a lemon.

She said: The Business Secretary knows as I do that he has Conservative colleagues who would like to see workers rights diluted or swept away in the name of deregulation and, who knows, one of them could be prime minister before long.

Isnt it true that exchanging enduring EU protections on the environment and workers rights for these flimsy mechanisms is like trading in a car that has a lifetime guarantee for a lemon without a logbook just because the floor mats are thrown in.

Lib Dem deputy leader Jo Swinson said many Conservative MPs wanted workers rights `swept away (PA/Gareth Fuller)

Mr Clark said she should have a little more faith in the UK being associated with high standards rather than a race to the bottom.

Tory John Redwood (Wokingham) asked Mr Clark to explain why he had proceeded with the statement, given it had been roundly rejected by the opposition.

He said: I thought the sole aim was to win over the Labour party and it seems they are in complete disagreement with it.

Mr Clark replied: I think this is an opportunity to work together and see if we can establish something that is rooted in the sovereignty of this House.

Earlier, union leaders warned that the measures will risk UK employees rights falling behind those in neighbouring countries.

Head of the Trades Union Congress Frances OGrady said the PMs announcement was blatant window dressing that left protections under threat, while Labour said the proposals were utterly unacceptable and workers will not be fooled.

Ms OGrady said she had told Mrs May that warm words wouldnt cut it when they met following the PMs historic deal defeat in January.

The flimsy proposals shes unveiled today wont even guarantee your existing rights after Brexit, she wrote in the Daily Mirror.

Were talking about hard-won protections that really matter to working people. Paid holidays, time off for mums and dads, equal pay for women, limits on working hours.

Working people need a cast-iron guarantee their rights will be safe after Brexit, Frances OGrady said (PA)

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey warned the mistreatment of workers at the hands of greedy bosses is set to continue.

Tim Roache, GMB general secretary, said that accepting the PMs Brexit deal would mean swapping strong legal protections on workers rights for legally unenforceable tweaks that are not worth the paper they are written on.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said Brexit must not mean UK employees become the cheapest to hire and the easiest to fire.

No-one should be hoodwinked into thinking that this is a good deal for workers. It isnt, he said.

TUC dismisses government's "flimsy" workers' rights proposals pic.twitter.com/zQcVeJNiqN  TUC Press Office (@TUCnews) March 5, 2019

The Government said it had made a commitment not to reduce the standards of workers rights from EU laws that remain in UK law and there will also be an extra package of measures to strengthen enforcement of workers rights.
Policing 20mph zones will not be a priority for Police Scotland if Holyrood passes new legislation to curb the speed limit in built-up areas, a senior officer has told MSPs.

Chief Superintendent Stewart Carle said if a Bill to reduce the speed limit on residential roads is approved, officers would enforce it.

But he also told MSPs considering the proposal that 20mph zones will not be a priority because the majority of casualties are on faster speed roads.

Mr Carle, divisional commander in the forces road policing unit, said officers will continue to focus finite resources on those areas.

Green MSP Mark Ruskell wants to change the law to reduce the speed limit in residential streets and built-up areas, and has introduced a Members Bill at Holyrood.

However Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said there are a number of challenges with the Restricted Roads (20mph Speed Limit) (Scotland) Bill.

Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said cutting the default speed limit in built up areas from 30mph to 20mph would pose `challenges (Ben Birchall/PA)

The Scottish Government supports 20mph zones where there is a good evidence base for them to be introduced, Mr Matheson said.

The Bill would cut the limit on restricted routes  those with street lighting which are not classed as either A or B roads.

Mr Matheson said: We dont know the numbers of restricted roads in Scotland, there are some restricted roads actually you wouldnt want to have as 20mph zones, there are roads which are not restricted you would possibly want to have as 20mph roads as well.

This is a Bill that is intended to apply not to a town or a city, but to a country. And we are in a situation where our local authorities dont have the information around restricted roads.

There are thousands of restricted roads in Scotland, but because most of it was done on paperwork over many, many decades, it would be a massive undertaking for local authorities to go through in order to collate all that information and identify that information.

He also insisted it is not known how much it would cost to introduce the legislation  suggesting the indicated financial impact on councils of 21 million to 22 million could be an underestimate of the true figure.

The Transport Secretary want on to stress that there there is no funding in his budget to meet the costs associated with cutting the speed limit  such as replacing existing signs.

He told the committee: Any financial support we would have to give to local authorities  and I recognise we would have to give them financial support to assist them with this matter  would have to come out of existing budget allocations.

Speaking after the committee meeting, Mr Ruskell said: The evidence is clear: introducing a 20mph limit in residential areas across Scotland would save lives.

The Scottish Government must now back my Bill if its serious about saving childrens lives.
Ministers are facing demands to spell out which tariffs the Government will cut in the event of a no-deal Brexit ahead of next weeks crunch Commons vote.

MPs reacted angrily after ministers made clear they only intended to release the new tariff schedules if they actually get to the point of a no-deal break.

It followed a report that tariffs across a large majority of imported goods could be slashed by between 80% and 90% in an attempt to prevent prices in the shops soaring, while signalling the UK is an open economy.

But the claim prompted renewed warnings that removing tariffs could leave domestic producers exposed to a flood of cheap imports, threatening profitability and jobs.

Chair @NickyMorgan01 has written to Chancellor of the Exchequer @PhilipHammondUK requesting the Government's tariff plans for a no-deal Brexit.



Read the letter here. The full story will be on our website shortly. pic.twitter.com/cicdUnhzfi  Treasury Committee (@CommonsTreasury) March 6, 2019

The chair of the Commons Treasury Committee Nicky Morgan said MPs would be voting blindly if they did not have the details ahead of the meaningful vote on Tuesday on Mrs Mays Brexit deal.

In a letter to Chancellor Philip Hammond she urged him to honour a commitment to put the maximum amount of analysis to MPs before they make their decision.

It was reported that tariffs across a large majority of imported goods could be slashed by between 80% and 90% (Andrew Matthews/PA)

MPs should not have to read reports in the press that the Government is planning to slash tariffs on almost all imported goods, she said.

This is likely to have a significant impact on different business sectors and regions in the UK economy.

At present, MPs are expected to vote blindly next week without this information.

The Chancellor should stick to his word and provide this information to the committee, which we will publish, prior to next weeks vote.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox indicated that if the Government was defeated on Tuesday it could publish the new schedules ahead of a further vote the next day on whether MPs want a no-deal break.

It would be helpful for MPs when they are making a decision about what they thought about no-deal to have as much information in front of them as possible, he told the Commons International Trade Committee.

But he stressed that it was the responsibility of the Treasury to decide the timing of any announcement.

The Government will set out what it believes to be the correct tariffs, if indeed we get to a no-deal scenario, he said.

Sky News reported that some imports including cars, beef, lamb, dairy and some lines of textiles would remain subject to levies in order to protect sensitive industries.

But items including component parts used to make cars, many finished food products and some farm produce including cereals, could be exempt from tariffs.

Business Secretary Greg Clark acknowledged the changes would have big implications for some sectors, such as ceramics, and said the ministers were aware of industry concerns.

We have been consulting with different industry sectors on this. It has big implications for different sectors, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

Ceramics is an industry that I know very well. It has been subject to very unfair competition, to dumping of very cheap ceramic exports from the Far East, from China.

Labour MP Anna Turley, a member of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, said the reported cuts were unbelievable.

Is the Government giving up all pretence of Britain being able to make anything any more? This will open the door to floods of imports from steel to ceramics, she said.

A Government spokesman said: If we leave the European Union without an agreement, our tariffs will need to strike a balance between protecting consumers and businesses from possible price rises and avoiding the exposure of sensitive industries to competition.

We will communicate a decision on what is market sensitive information to stakeholders and the public as soon as possible.
A controlled explosion has been carried out on a suspicious package which was found in the mailroom at the University of Glasgow.

Several university buildings were evacuated and nearby roads closed after the discovery on Wednesday morning.

Police Scotland also said they have been liaising with the Metropolitan Police in relation to their investigation into explosive packages received in London on Tuesday.

However, it is too early to say whether there is a link.



"Inquiries have established that a package received at the Royal Bank of Scotland building on Glasgow Road Edinburgh today posed no risk to the public and contained promotional goods."  Police Scotland (@PoliceScotland) March 6, 2019

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Johnson said: Police Scotland officers are continuing inquiries after a suspicious package was received at the University of Glasgow.

The package was not opened and no-one was injured. The emergency services were alerted and several buildings within the estate were evacuated as a precaution.

A controlled explosion of the device was carried out by EOD (explosives ordnance disposal).

A number of police cordons in and around University Avenue will be in place until further notice, he added.

Thanks to @policescotland and @UofGlasgow for responding so well to this incident today. Important to have calm vigilance from the public while police enquiries continue. https://t.co/MUfDerXdDv  Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) March 6, 2019

Mr Johnson said: There is no ongoing risk to the public. Police Scotland is liaising with the Metropolitan Police in relation to their investigation into packages received in London.

However, it is too early to say whether there is a link.

Emergency services near the university amid the alert (Andrew Milligan/PA)

A statement from Glasgow University said: Minor restrictions will remain in place around the Isabella Elder building and Botany Gate while the mailroom will remain closed for now. All other buildings are being reopened.

Colleagues and students who are concerned about having left property in any of the evacuated buildings and have subsequent issues are advised that a temporary lost property room is being set up in the Boyd Orr building.

We apologise to all staff and students who have suffered disruption and thank everyone for their patience and understanding as police dealt with this incident.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon thanked the police and university for their response.

She said on Twitter: Important to have calm vigilance from the public while police enquiries continue.

Counter-terror police are still working to identify a motive or suspect over the explosive packages sent to major transport hubs in London.

Several university buildings were evacuated (Andrew Milligan/PA)

The packages that arrived at Waterloo railway station and offices at Heathrow and London City airports on Tuesday were posted with Irish stamps and had Dublin as the return address.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh were evacuated after what was thought to have been a suspicious package was received.

However, police confirmed the package posed no risk to the public and contained promotional goods.
Snapchat has been slammed by the Prime Minister for refusing to cooperate with police investigating a paedophile.

The social media company was flagged up by Tory MP Chris Philp (Croydon South) for failing to co-operate with police in a fresh investigation following the online grooming, rape and murder of 14-year-old Breck Bednar.

Breck was stabbed to death by computer engineer Lewis Daynes in Grays, Essex, in February 2014 in what a judge described as a sexual and sadistic killing.

Breck Bednar was murdered after being groomed through an online gaming community (Essex Police/PA)

Mr Philp outlined how the paedophile victims teenage sister Chloe was now receiving very distressing and disturbing online messages purporting to be from Brecks killer, graphically recounting her brothers murder.

Speaking during PMQs, he said: The police have asked Snapchat to provide the data that would help them definitively identify who has been sending these messages, for example data about the device from which the messages were sent.

To shouts of shame from backbenchers, Mr Philp said Snapchat was claiming police would need to appeal to the United States and go through a one-year process to get this vital information as he urged Mrs May to intervene.

Does the Prime Minister agree this is completely unacceptable? he asked.

Does she join me in calling on Snapchat and other social media companies to promptly cooperate with police inquiries and if they do not do so does she agree that legislation is required?

Mrs May paid tribute to Bretts mother for her brave and powerful campaigning on the issue of internet grooming and told the Commons the Ministry of Justice was urgently looking into the case.

Daynes, aged 18 at the time of the offence, admitted the murder at Chelmsford Crown Court and was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years in 2015 (Essex Police/PA)

I agree with him, she said. We want social media companies to recognise the responsibilities they have and to work with law enforcement agencies.

It has become increasingly difficult for UK law enforcement to access data containing threats to public safety if data is held or controlled in other countries.

Thats why Government did recently legislate and pass the Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Act, which will give law enforcement agencies the power to obtain electronic data controlled by providers outside the UK, where an international agreement is in place.

He raises the United States  we expect to establish the first such agreement with the United States.

Conservative MP Chris Philp raised the issue with Mrs May during Prime Ministers Questions (Jessica Taylor/PA)

Security Minister Ben Wallace brought in the Act last month as he sought to tackle a 700% rise in child abuse being reported by tech companies in the last five years.

The Bill allows law enforcement agencies to apply for a UK court order to get stored electronic data from overseas in a bid to counter serious crime and terrorism.

Speaking to the Press Association as the Bill went through Parliament, Mr Wallace said the new law would mean child rapists and terrorists could be caught within days, not years.

Treaty plans begun under US President Barack Obama will allow British prosecutors to bypass foreign courts and apply directly to the 99% of tech companies based outside the UK for data relating to child abuse.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates there are up to 80,000 predators who pose a threat to children, Mr Wallace said, with 1,600 police referrals in 2014 rising to 10,000 referrals in 2017.
The Duke of Cambridge told two recovering drug addicts he was so proud of you guys after they explained how an initiative in Blackpool helped get their lives back on track.

Best friends Louise West, 34, and Steven Brown, 40, who described themselves jokingly as the other Wills and Kate, met the royal couple during a visit to Blackpool Central Library, where they heard about a number of mental health projects in the town.

One scheme was Jobs, Friends and Houses, which helps ex-offenders to transform and better their lives with around-the-clock support to help them find employment and provide accommodation.

The Duchess of Cambridge arrives for the visit (Danny Lawson/PA)

Ms West told William and Kate how she became addicted to drugs from the age of 13 but had not used for two years.

She said she left Oldham where she was a victim of domestic violence to go to Blackpool near her mother.

She said she was working on her recovery every day but she had started to enjoy life and had even sat her GCSEs at the same time as her daughter.

With her 17-year-old daughter at sixth form college, Ms West said she would like to study psychology in the future.

Ms West told the couple: Somebody said to me that meeting the royals would be one the highlights of your life but the highlight for me was recently when I dropped my daughter off at her friends house and she asked me to come in and meet her friends parents.

That had never happened before she was embarrassed to walk past me in the street in Oldham when I was six-and-half stone.

Kate asked her: Whats your main message to people?

Ms West replied: Any addict can get clean and stay clean.

Mr Brown told the duke and duchess he used drugs from the age of 12, was in prison for the first time at 17 and had been in and out of prisons for 20 years.

He said: I was being a nightmare for the police if Im honest because I was a prolific offender in Blackpool.

When I came out of prison I was put in hostels. Some of them are really rough and people are using in there.

In 2009, my brother bought a bag of heroin. It was laced with anthrax and he died. I tried to commit suicide.

I would commit crime when I got out of prison and would hurt my family. I didnt know people could get clean in Blackpool.

William said: It is a vicious circle and it is how do you break that circle. Was reaching rock bottom after your brother, what was the realisation?

Mr Brown said: I have had loads of rock bottoms. Most of my friends had died.

I had had enough one day in prison and made the decision for the first time in my life to stop taking drugs.

William told the pair: I am so proud of you guys, We will never truly understand what you have been through but you should take great strength from where you are now.

The royal couple also learned more about Blackpools A Better Start programme, one of five such 10-year projects in the UK funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.

Merle Davies, the director of Blackpools Centre for Early Child Development discussed the impact of long-term investment in mothers, fathers and children in their early years.
Israels Hebrew University has announced it obtained a magnificent collection of Albert Einsteins manuscripts.

The bulk of the 110-page collection consists of yellowed pages of handwritten equations, as well as several personal letters written in German.

In one correspondence with his lifelong friend Michele Besso, Einstein said he felt ashamed for never bothering to learn Hebrew.

Professor Hanoch Gutfreund, the Einstein archives academic director, said: For historians of science, it is very important to have manuscripts, because then one sees that he crossed out something, that he changed something, and it is interesting to see how he actually worked.

Each of the four personal letters from Einstein is a gem, Mr Gutfreund added.

In every letter exchanged between them, they refer to something scientific. But they always share something personal about their families, said Mr Gutfreund. And they also very often exchange remarks about their Jewish identity.

An appendix to Albert Einsteins 1930 unified theory, which is part of the collection (Ardon Bar-Hama/Hebrew University via AP)

Besso, a Swiss-Italian engineer of Jewish descent, was baptised a Christian but also learned the Hebrew language. In one of their letters, Einstein wrote with a touch of sarcasm that he as a Jewish saint must feel ashamed at the fact that I know next to nothing of it. But I prefer to feel ashamed rather than to learn it.

You will certainly not go to hell, even if you have had yourself baptised, Einstein wrote.

In the same letter from 1951, Einstein tells Besso that he has still not come closer to fully comprehending the nature of light particles after nearly 50 years of research.

The esteemed physicist had left Germany years earlier amid the rise of fascism. In a 1935 letter to his son Hans Albert, he expressed dismay that other European powers had not done more to curb the Nazis military buildup.

The German armament must be extremely dangerous; but the rest of Europe is now starting to finally take the thing serious, especially the English, Einstein wrote. If they would have come down hard a year-and-a-half ago, it would have been better and easier.

The Chicago-based Crown-Goodman Family Foundation purchased the 110 pages, most of which have never been publicly displayed, from a private collector in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and donated them to Hebrew University.

The university did not say the purchase price, citing the donors wishes.

A different signed Einstein letter to Besso sold at auction in 2017 for 68,000 US dollars (51,000).

These newly-acquired documents had belonged to Ernst Straus, Einsteins one-time assistant and fellow mathematician. They were sold by Strauss family after his death in 1983 to a New York antique dealer. Eventually the documents made their way to the collection of Gary Berger, a Chapel Hill doctor.
A Scottish Government minister who is married to a French man has launched a scathing attack on the abhorrent immigration policies of the UK Government.

Environment minister Mairi Gougeon has previously spoken of her fears that her husband Baptiste may be unable to remain in Scotland after Brexit.

During a Conservative debate on agriculture, she spoke of the impact Brexit could have not just on the farming sector, but on the people it relies on.

She said: This isnt just about the economic imperative of the free movement of people, were actually talking about peoples lives.

I would love to hear what the Tories have to say to my family, to my friends and to the hundreds of thousands of other families who are affected by the hostile environment that their Government has created.

People who now have to apply for the right to stay in Scotland, many of whom have known Scotland as their only home.

Mairi Gougeon hit out during a debate in the Scottish Parliament (David Cheskin/PA)

The Angus North and Mearns MSP said 70% of people working in fish processing in the north east of Scotland are European citizens.

She asked: How will our rural economy continue to function without the people who sit at its very heart?

Above all that lies at the heart of this are people, the people who work on our farms, on our crofts, in the abattoirs, in processing and in those jobs that keep our rural economy going, the nurses, the social care workers, those in hospitality  and a large number of those are EU citizens.

She told the Conservatives: Your policies are abhorrent and I have nothing to do with them.

And as I say it is affecting my family and it is affecting hundreds of other families right across the country right now.
A special representative on UK victims of Libya-sponsored IRA terrorism has been appointed by the Government.

Former journalist and Charity Commission chair William Shawcross is intended to bring greater Government focus on how to support the victims of republican bombings.

He will advise the Foreign Office on the amount of compensation to be sought from the authorities in the north African country.

Middle East Minister Alistair Burt said: It is excellent that William Shawcross has agreed to take on this important new role, which will help move us closer to resolving this pressing issue.

I am confident that Williams appointment will bring greater focus to our efforts to support the victims of these terrible acts of terrorism.

A campaign by victims of IRA blasts using Libyan Semtex plastic explosives, including at Harrods, has been running for years.

The bereaved and injured are pressing for UK Government support for their bid for financial redress paid out of the large number of frozen assets seized from the toppled Gaddafi administration.

Dictator Muammar Gaddafi armed the Provisionals with massive amounts of weaponry, extending the Northern Ireland conflict and causing enormous human suffering, MPs have said.

These also included bombings at a Remembrance Day ceremony in Enniskillen in 1987, Warrington in 1993 and Londons Docklands in 1996.

Mr Shawcrosss role will be to help inform the governments approach.

The precise terms of reference are being finalised but among the issues Mr Shawcross will advise ministers on is the amount of compensation that should be sought.

Mr Shawcross said: I am honoured to be asked to undertake this hugely important challenge.

The victims of the IRA terrorism sponsored by Gaddafi deserve all support for their efforts to obtain redress from the Libyan government.

In 1996 the IRA bombed Londons Docklands, causing two deaths and multiple injuries.

Jonathan Ganesh, president of the Docklands Victims Association, said it was a welcome step forward (PA)

Jonathan Ganesh, president of the Docklands Victims Association, said: I think it is a step forward and I welcome this step. However, I cannot express enough how important it is that this matter is resolved.

Many victims have committed suicide, have post-traumatic stress disorder waiting for compensation, victims are in care homes.

There is an urgency here to resolve this matter and I hope the Government is not disingenuous and William Shawcross will understand this matter has to be resolved  because the victims are suffering.
A rail depot in Glasgow has been marked for closure, threatening almost 200 jobs.

Gemini Rail Services took over the Springburn depot in August last year after a sale was agreed with Knorr-Bremse Rail Services.

In December, proposals were announced for the depots closure and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon expressed disappointment the Scottish Government only found out through media reports.

Despite a consultation being launched in January and several meetings taking place to find an alternative use for the site, Gemini has now confirmed it will close down operations.

A gradual closure will see the site shut by March 2020.

A Gemini spokesman said: It is with sincere regret that Gemini Rail Services announces today that severely adverse market conditions affecting its core business means it will be closing down operations at its Springburn site.

Following this difficult decision, the company will proceed with a gradual closure programme completing existing projects before our final exit in March 2020.

Gemini will continue to work with the Scottish Government and stakeholders over the sites future use, including the possibility of a transport hub.

The introduction of more modern trains, leading to a drop in the number of pre-privatisation stock in operation, is one of the reasons Gemini gave for its decision.

It said it will see 6,648 vehicles last year drop to just 1,407 in 2024  with only around 10% in Scotland and the north of England where Springburn serves.

The spokesman added: We, of course, know and accept this decision will have an impact on our workers, their families, and the wider community. Our priority now is to fully support our employees, who have been informed of the decision.

The company has raised the opportunity of enhanced redundancy packages. We hope to be able to agree terms with union and staff representatives shortly.

Detailed consultations with employees and their representatives over some outstanding matters will also continue.

Following our initial announcement in December, the company held many meetings with key stakeholders to discuss ideas over the future of the Springburn site.

Unfortunately, despite this proactive and detailed programme of discussions, no solution was found and the board do not consider that there is any viable option to sustain the operation at Springburn.

Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT, has criticised Geminis decision (Jonathan Brady/PA)

RMT general secretary Mick Cash slammed the decision, criticising the fact staff also found out about the decision through media reports  although Gemini denied this was the case.

He said: Tonights news on Springburn is a disgraceful betrayal of the rail industry in Scotland and those politicians who have sat on their hands while this carve up has been allowed to let rip will have a heavy price to pay.

It is frankly disgusting that Gemini havent even had the guts to tell the Springburn staff face to face that they are pulling the plug and have chosen instead to notify them through the media. That is pure cowardice by the company.

Gemini might think they can walk away from 160 years of history and 200 engineering jobs but RMT wont. The case for ScotRail and its engineering and fleet support to be taken into public ownership is now overwhelming.

The campaign to save Springburn and rail engineering jobs in Scotland is far from over.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: This is extremely disappointing news for all concerned, particularly as ministers have ensured Transport Scotland and Scottish Enterprise ongoing engagement with industry partners, Gemini Rail and the unions to explore all options to keep the site open.

However, while it would appear that Gemini Rail Services Ltd and Mutares wish to press ahead with this unwelcome closure, we will continue to do all we can to look at the potential of repurposing the site.

Scottish Enterprise is focusing on creating a sustainable future for the site as a rail transport engineering hub and discussions with interested parties are being assessed.

It will clearly take time to develop a proposal that the industry feels is viable, something that is made very difficult by the timescale Gemini have set for the closure, despite our repeated requests to them to postpone or extend the timeline.
by Mathias Hariyadi

The soldiers were ambushed and attacked by rebels with poisonous arrows, spears and rifles. The helicopters that intervened to recover the bodies also attacked. The insurrection for the independence of the region has been underway since 1969.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - Three soldiers of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) and a number between seven and 10 separatist rebels lost their lives in a gun battle in the turbulent province of Papua. Muhammad Aidi, military spokesman for the region, reports that the gun battle took place around eight o'clock yesterday morning in Mugi, district in the regency of Nduga - where last December the main suspects, the militiamen of the National Liberation Army of West Papua (Tpnpb), claimed the massacre of 31 workers and a soldier.

A unit of 25 soldiers from Jakarta had just arrived in the village of Yigi to escort workers at the construction site of a Trans Papua Road bridge, when it fell victim to the rebel attack.

"They were between 50 and 70 people," says Aidi. TNI states that Egianus Kogoya was the head of the group. According to rumors, his guerrillas were equipped with modern rifles and traditional weapons, such as poisonous arrows and spears.

The three dead soldiers are Mirwariyadin, Yusdin and Siswanto Bayu Aji. Their remains will soon be transported to their respective hometowns, located in the provinces of West Nusa Tenggara (Ntb), South Sulawesi and Central Java.

After several minutes of crossfire, the Armed Forces declare, the separatist group left the crime scene and escaped into the forest, bringing their dead comrades with them.

The helicopters used by TNI to evacuate the soldiers' bodies were attacked by the separatist group in the late afternoon, but the pilots successfully completed the mission and returned to base.

Since the region's annexation to Indonesia in 1969, a low-profile insurgency for independence has been underway in the Papua region, led by armed groups such as the Tpnpb and the Free Papua Movement (OPM).

Last April, Widodo was the first Indonesian president to visit the remote territory. Local tribes and their leaders have repeatedly filed complaints against Jakarta for over-exploitation of natural resources.
Sinn Fein Assembly member Linda Dillon will sit on a panel to select Northern Irelands next chief constable, the Policing Board said.

The PSNIs oversight body said the process would be based on principles of merit, fairness, openness and transparency.

Sinn Fein President Mary-Lou McDonald previously said she would not have confidence in any current member of the forces senior command team replacing George Hamilton when he retires in the summer.

Mr Hamilton branded her remarks ill-judged, wrong and inaccurate, and directly contrary to Sinn Feins professed advocacy of integrity, fairness and equality.

@NIPolicingBoard moves forward on the Chief Constable process with the selection of the appointment panel. pic.twitter.com/QGfqTHszfM  NI Policing Board (@NIPolicingBoard) March 6, 2019

Board chair Anne Connolly said: This is a significant appointment for policing and following discussions today, the board is fully confident that the process can move ahead with integrity and on the basis of equality of opportunity for all.

Members appointed to the panel are Ms Connolly, John Blair from Alliance, Alan Chambers of the UUP, Ms Dillon, Dolores Kelly of the SDLP, Colm McKenna, Wendy Osborne and Mervyn Storey of the DUP.

To provide further assurance and confidence, the board agreed to incorporate additional independent scrutiny throughout the process to bring an extra level of scrutiny, probity and transparency.

Ms Connolly added: In moving forward, it is the boards priority to ensure the appointment process as a whole is based on principles of equality of opportunity for all potential candidates with the competition completed by the end of June 2019.

Police Ombudsman Michael Maguire said "significant, sensitive information" around the incident in south Belfast was not made available to his investigators of police conduct (Paul Faith/PA)

Ms McDonalds intervention followed serious criticism of the PSNI over its handling of a notorious shooting investigation.

Five people were killed on February 5 1992 when members of the loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) opened fire on the Sean Graham bookmakers shop on the lower Ormeau Road.

Police Ombudsman Michael Maguire said significant, sensitive information around the incident in south Belfast was not made available to his investigators of police conduct.

The Police Federation representative body has demanded an apology from Mrs McDonald while her comments have also sparked a wave of condemnation from political rivals, who claim she has compromised the recruitment process.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have visited a housing project where the grisly murder of a 16-year-old girl took place more than six years ago.

During a tour of Blackpool, William and Kate visited Kirby Road, where a local authority-owned housing company has bought several dilapidated properties and transformed them into modern homes and apartments to rent.

One of the properties visited used to be known as the Grafton House Hotel, where barman David Minto, then 23, lured 16-year-old Sasha Marsden to her death in January 2013 on the false promise of a job.

After seeing an example of poorly maintained ex-boarding house at Kirby Road in Blackpool, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit Christina Jackson in a similar house across the road which has been purchased and upgraded by @MyBlackpoolHome. #RoyalVisitBlackpool pic.twitter.com/SJbYfImCdd  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) March 6, 2019

Instead, he stabbed her 58 times inside the hotel in an attack described in court as sexually motivated.

Minto, who was jailed for life, dumped Sashas body, wrapped in a bin liner and carpet underlay, in an alleyway near the hotel.

The injuries of the childcare student, from Staining, near Blackpool, were so severe she had to be identified by DNA from her toothbrush.

William and Kate came to the Lancashire resort to see some of the health and social problems facing the town.

They started their day at Blackpool Tower, where they were greeted at the landmark amid downpours with cheers from a crowd of several hundred well-wishers gathered outside on the promenade.

The pair visited Blackpool Tower (Danny Lawson/PA)

Kate was dressed in an olive green coat by Sportsmax and a Michael Kors dress for the away day.

Once inside the historic tower, Kate and William briefly stopped at a giant mirror unveiled by the Princess of Wales in July 1992 to mark the opening of Tower World, with the duke describing it as fantastic and amazing.

The couple were then treated to a brief glimpse of the world-famous Tower Ballroom, which is open to the public daily.

From their balcony view, they watched dancers go through their strides in a waltz to I Shall See You Later, played on the Wurlitzer by Chris Hopkins.

During a round table meeting on the investment and regeneration efforts that are currently under way, William addressed the challenges facing the town.

Speaking about its history, he described how it was once a jewel in the crown of the British tourism industry before people began to travel further afield for their holidays and it faced economic decline and unemployment.

Dispiritingly, those challenges are felt very strongly today and they are more pressing than ever.

Kate wore an olive green coat by Sportsmax and a Michael Kors dress (Peter Byrne/PA)

He spoke of high unemployment rates and social problems, but also highlighted the positive moves, regeneration and brilliant schemes, including a new enterprise zone and exciting new investment in Blackpools iconic tourist attractions and innovative housing projects.

William added: The story of Blackpool is a complex one of a proud history, of testing times and newfound optimism for the future.

On a walkabout outside the Tower as they visited the Comedy Carpet on the promenade, Kate told well-wishers she hoped to bring her children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis to visit Blackpool next time.

The royal couple on the Comedy Carpet (Charlotte Graham/The Daily Telegraph/PA)

She joked: Is the weather always like this?

The duchess expressed her disappointment at not going up the Tower.

No we didnt. Next time I think. Theres so much here the children would love as well. Hopefully next time well bring them back.

As one little girl shouted Hello princess, Kate waved and smiled.

Children from Happy Tots nursery in North Shore, Blackpool, welcomed them with gifts of Blackpool rock and posies of flowers.

William said his children would appreciate the rock.

When he asked them what flavour the rock was, the youngsters replied: Blackpool.
A third of court-ordered work placements handed down to offenders failed to get under way within a one-week target, the Scottish Conservatives have claimed.

More than 800 convicted criminals waited in excess of two months before they could start community payback orders (CPO), according to a freedom of information request for 2017/18.

Scottish Government guidelines require offenders to begin their community service within seven working days of getting a CPO from a judge.

However, official figures show that one in three work placements missed this target while one person waited 469 days between being handed the order and starting work.

The Scottish Conservatives, who submitted the request, warned that SNP plans to scrap prison sentences of less than a year would increase problems with the CPO system.

Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: These are deeply worrying statistics and show that hundreds of criminals are waiting months before starting their CPO.

More than 800 criminals waited at least two months before starting court-ordered owrk according to a Conservative FOI (Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament)

It is ludicrous that a criminal could wait over fifteen months before starting to serve the sentence that was handed down to them, and something needs to change.

These figures make a mockery of the seven-day target and with this SNP government recklessly pushing ahead with scrapping prison sentences of under a year they could add nearly 10,000 more criminals into the CPO system.

Its further proof of the problems that are being caused by the SNPs soft-touch approach to justice.

Its time that Nicola Sturgeon and her party put victims first and finally abandoned their plans to stop dangerous criminals from serving jail sentences.

A spokesman for Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said it was another example of rank hypocrisy from the Scottish Tories, pointing out that the UK Justice Secretary David Gauke backed the proposals.

He added: Even the UK Prisons Minister Rory Stewart admitted last year that they have a lot to learn from Scotland specifically on alternatives to ineffective short-sentences.

Effective use of CPOs has contributed to a 19-year low in reconviction rates and funding of over 100 million for criminal justice social work has been protected in the draft budget for 2019-20.

Around seven million hours of unpaid work have been carried out since community payback orders were introduced, delivering real benefits to communities.
An alpaca farmer is fighting a High Court battle in a last-ditch bid to stop one of her prized animals from being killed.

Helen MacDonald is bringing legal action against the Government over the fate of her stud alpaca Geronimo, who was earmarked for slaughter after testing positive for bovine tuberculosis (BTB).

Ms MacDonald, who runs Alpaca Power based in Wickwar, south Gloucestershire, claims the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is relying doggedly on flawed science.

She maintains Geronimo is not infected with the disease and says the tests carried out on him produced false positive results because he had been primed before them by being injected with bovine tuberculin.

Ms MacDonald, an experienced alpaca breeder and veterinary nurse, is challenging Environment Secretary Michael Goves refusal, in July last year, to allow Geronimo to be re-tested for BTB.

Her lawyers told the court on Wednesday that there is overwhelming evidence which demonstrates the alpaca is not infected and said the original test results are not reliable.

Cathryn McGahey QC, for Ms MacDonald, said: The claimant urges the defendant, even at this late stage, to consider the evidence in its entirety and to order further testing of Geronimo.

She added: The claimant submits that the evidence demonstrates to a high degree of probability that Geronimo is not infected with BTB.

There is no proper basis on which the defendant can reasonably suspect that Geronimo is infected with BTB.

In concluding that Geronimo is infected, and in refusing to change his mind when faced with increasing evidence to the opposite effect, the defendant has acted irrationally and unlawfully.

Ms McGahey said there have been three negative tests conducted on Geronimo and a vet has twice confirmed he is showing no clinical signs of the disease.

She also said Ms MacDonald has no other suspected cases on her farm, which has excellent bio-security measures and Geronimo comes from a New Zealand farm where the herds have been free of BTB for more than 20 years.

Government lawyers argued that Geronimo is highly suspected of being infected with BTB, which can take years to manifest in physical symptoms, and should be slaughtered.

They also said there is a solid scientific basis for the use of priming animals with bovine tuberculin before tests are carried out.

Ned Westaway, representing Mr Gove, said: One can of course express sympathy for the claimant, who clearly does not wish to lose a potentially valuable animal.

However the legal position is clear. The defendant is charged with controlling BTB and is the expert decision maker for these purposes.

The defendant in this case has given careful consideration to all relevant factors relied upon by the claimant but maintains his suspicion that Geronimo is affected with BTB.

Mr Westaway said the court should only intervene if the decision is irrational or otherwise unlawful.

Geronimo was brought to the UK from New Zealand in August 2017 and has been kept in isolation since his arrival.

He tested positive for BTB in August and December 2017.

Government lawyers argued that Geronimo is "highly suspected" of being infected with BTB (Helen MacDonald/PA)

Defra is responsible for controlling BTB, which can have devastating consequences for cattle farmers.

A number of controversial badger-culling programmes have been carried out in recent years in a bid to stop the spread of the disease.

Ms MacDonald is crowd funding her legal battle and has raised more than 10,000 through the Crowdjustice website.

Mr Justice Murray said he will give his ruling on the case at a later date.

A Defra spokeswoman said: We are sympathetic to the situation of Geronimos owner, just as we are with everyone with animals affected by BTB.

However, this is a serious disease that causes devastation for farmers and rural communities.

That is why we must have measures in place to reduce the risk of the disease spreading.
Members of a Jewish group are weighing up a very difficult decision over whether to end an association with the Labour Party stretching back almost 100 years.

Members of the Jewish Labour Movement were debating whether to break away from Labour over the partys handling of anti-Semitism claims.

Labour veteran Dame Margaret Hodge was among hundreds of JLM members at the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London on Wednesday evening.

The meeting came as further leaks indicated staff in Jeremy Corbyns inner circle influenced the handling of anti-Semitism claims last year.

Our London EGM has begun. Kicking off with opening speeches from Rabbi Sam Taylor, @ivorcaplin @_petermason and @LouiseEllman pic.twitter.com/kawlN1bcPR  Jewish Labour Movement (@JewishLabour) March 6, 2019

The JLM members were expected to hold an indicative vote on whether the JLM should disaffiliate from Labour, with a formal vote anticipated next month.

The group has been affiliated with Labour since 1920 and JLM vice-chairman Mike Katz said it feels like an existential moment for the Jewish Labour Movement, with members weighing up if they should fight anti-Semitism from inside the party or whether the battle is over.

We live in such difficult times. Nobody ever thought we would be taking this disaffiliation vote. But its very unclear whether the party can heal itself out of this position, he said.

Asked whether the issue can be saved under Mr Corbyns leadership, he said: It is about leadership and control.

Jean Jaffin said the decision is weighing heavily on her as a member of the Labour Party for more than 60 years.

My view is to stay and fight to stop the growth of anti-Semitism, which is scary and distressing, the 82-year-old said.

Colin Appleby, a 52-year-old who has quit the party, said it remains a really difficult decision on whether to vote for JLM disaffiliation but he was leaning towards voting in favour.

Dan Jacobs, 42, said: I would vote to stay but I totally respect and stand with solidarity if we go with the other decision.

Its very, very difficult. Its a very painful place to be a Jew, in the Labour Party.

Earlier, Mr Corbyn accused veteran MP Dame Margaret of a total breach of trust by recording a private meeting between them without his permission.

Dame Margaret Hodge has been accused of a breach of trust by Jeremy Corbyn (Yui Mok/PA)

The Labour leader also defended the partys handling of anti-Semitism cases following accusations by Dame Margaret that members of his inner circle interfered to reduce the sanctions that were imposed.

On Tuesday, Dame Margaret claimed that Mr Corbyn had either misled her or been misled himself about the extent of his teams involvement in such cases.

In a letter to the MP, Mr Corbyn acknowledged that a very small group of staff in his office were asked by the partys governance and legal unit (GLU) to help clear the backlog of cases that had built up.

He said that in an act of good faith, his staff had complied but that decisions remained with the GLU and that there had never been any attempt to overrule them.

Mr Corbyn said the help provided by staff from the Leader of the Oppositions Office (Loto) had been during the transition from former general secretary Iain McNicol to his successor Jennie Formby.

It would appear that during the transition period between Iain McNicols departure and Jennie Formby taking over, a very small group of staff in the leaders office were approached by now former GLU staff members at head office, and were asked for help in clearing a backlog of cases, he said.

This help included a clear request for advice on a small number of cases. In an act of good faith, staff in my office complied with this request in order to assist the party.

The decision-making remained with staff members from GLU, and there was never any attempt to overrule them.

As soon as Jennie Formby started as general secretary, this process was overhauled, and advice from Loto was no longer sought on individual cases.

But further leaks of emails showed that key members of Mr Corbyns staff asked to be copied in on anti-Semitism complaints last year to give them an overview of sensitive cases, according to The Guardian.

Ms Formby took over at the start of April 2018, but in a message sent on April 8, Mr Corbyns chief of staff, Karie Murphy, asks for his political secretary to continue to be given an overview.
A senior diplomat has said the search for two climbers missing on the worlds ninth-highest mountain will continue on Thursday despite reports it had been called off.

Briton Tom Ballard and Italian Daniele Nardi have been missing for more than a week on Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, known as Killer Mountain.

They set out on February 22 and last made contact on February 24 while at about 6,300 metres (20,700ft).

Karrar Haidri, secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said rescue efforts had ended after another unsuccessful day on Wednesday.

He said it had been a very painful decision to take.

Stefano Pontecorvo, the Italian ambassador to Pakistan, who has kept abreast of the situation by liaising with Mr Nardis family, told the Press Association they are not at the point of calling off the search yet.

Search for  @NardiDaniele and  Tom Ballard continues tomorrow. @AlexTxikon and his team will concentrate once again on the Mummery trail on foot and with . pic.twitter.com/yjc7MMy4Q2  Stefano Pontecorvo (@pontecorvoste) March 6, 2019

He said: The search is still on tomorrow. People who had second hand information then tweeted and it becomes truth. Its never been called off.

I am no expert in this and I must trust the experts advice. I think weve got among the best on the ground that there is now and also pretty technologically advanced equipment.

Until they tell me that there is no scope to continue Id say that together with the family Id encourage them to go forward.

If we come to a point in which everything possible has been done and nothing has been found, at that point it will be up to the families  although advised by us  to call it off. Were not there yet.

Mr Pontecorvo also gave an update about Wednesdays search, which marks 10 days since the pair last made contact.

Another decision is likely to be made on Thursday.

He added: Today they went to look at an alternative route, one of the reasons was they had gotten up high enough so they might have come back down  if they were facing some kind of danger or avalanche  through the Kinshofer route, which is an easier route and there are ropes already and camps and so on.

Alex (Txikon, who is leading the search) decided to go and take a look at that route  he didnt find anything and so tomorrow there are still a few pieces of the Mummery which he has not further explored and thats what hes going to do.

Then tomorrow, together with the family (of Daniele Nardi) and the other coordinator of research we will have a conference call and see what to do.

Alison Hargreaves with her two children Kate and Tom Ballard (Chris Bacon/PA)

Two Pakistani mountaineers were with the pair initially but decided to turn back because they thought it was too dangerous.

Mr Ballard, 30, was born in Derbyshire but moved to the Scottish Highlands in 1995.

That same year his mother, Alison Hargreaves, died on K2 when she was 33  months after becoming the first woman to conquer Everest unaided.
A cyber attack on a charity that received Government funding for an initiative to tackle Russian disinformation is being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The UK-based Institute For Statecraft, which received 2 million this financial year, said there was an investigation into the theft of data from its Integrity initiative and it had removed all content from its website.

A statement on the organisations website said it believed the attack was an attempt to undermine its attempts to counter the threat to European democracies.

Sky News reported Whitehall sources had suggested the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU, was suspected of being behind the hack.

The home page of The Institute for Statecraft, showing a message following a suspected cyber attack on the website (Institute for Statecraft/PA)

An NCA spokeswoman said: We can confirm we are conducting a criminal investigation into a suspected cyber attack against the Institute for Statecraft (IFS) and the subsequent release of information.

As our investigation is ongoing, we cannot comment further at this time.

The spokeswoman refused to confirm the GRU was a suspect.

A message on the institutes website appealed for information.

NCA statement on the Institute of Statecraft cyber attack: pic.twitter.com/3N1L3vhN3l  National Crime Agency (NCA) (@NCA_UK) March 6, 2019

It said: All content has been temporarily removed from this site, pending an investigation into the theft of data from the Institute for Statecraft and its programme, the Integrity Initiative.

Initial findings indicate that the theft was part of a campaign to undermine the work of the integrity initiative in researching, publicising and countering the threat to European democracies from disinformation and other forms of hybrid warfare.

The website will be relaunched shortly. In the meantime, we expect to be able to publish an analysis of the hack and its significance in the near future.

We are keen to trace both the source of the hack and the use to which our data  some genuine, some falsified  has been put.

Questions were raised about the organisation after reports Foreign Office money was used in a smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn, which were categorically denied by a minister.

Sir Alan Duncan revealed in December that the Institute for Statecraft was hacked (PA)

Amid calls for an independent inquiry into the integrity initiative, Europe minister Sir Alan Duncan said the claims were wholly untrue.

Responding to an urgent question in the House of Commons in December last year, he said: The Institute for Statecraft is an independent UK-based charity whose work seeks to improve governance and enhance national security.

It runs a project called the integrity initiative, which is working to counter disinformation overseas by bringing together groups of experts to analyse and discuss the problem posed by Russian disinformation.

The Government are funding this initiative with nearly 2 million this financial year.

That funding covers its activity outside the UK and it does not fund any activity within the UK, nor does it fund the management of the integrity initiatives social media account.

Recent reports that Foreign Office funding has been used to support party political activity in the UK are therefore wholly untrue.

There was anger from Labour MPs that a Twitter account associated with the initiative had retweeted negative articles about their party and its leader.

When accused of a misuse of public funds by shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, Sir Alan replied: The Institute for Statecraft was hacked several weeks ago and numerous documents were published and amplified by Kremlin news channels.

On the social media activity, he said the initiatives UK arm has some automatic retweeting of stories that relate to Russia and they have been judged to be no more than non-partisan repetition.
Foreign leaders showered US President Donald Trump and his family with more than 140,000 dollars (106,000) worth of gifts during their first year in the White House.

China and Saudi Arabia were among the most lavish givers, according to the State Departments annual accounting of such gifts.

Chinese President Xi Jinping gave Mr Trump and first lady Melania Trump the two most expensive presents in 2017: an ornate calligraphy display and presentation box worth 14,400 dollars (10,931) and a porcelain dinnerware set that includes plates imprinted with the pink house at Mr Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort worth 16,250 dollars (12,336).

Like all of the other gifts to Mr Trump, his wife, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, those were turned over to the National Archives.

The Saudis and Gulf Arab states gave at least 24,120 dollars (18,310) in gifts to the Trumps.

Melania Trump (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Those included a 6,400 dollar (4,858) ruby and emerald pendant necklace from Saudi Arabias King Salman, a gold-plated fighter jet model worth 4,850 dollars (3,681) from Bahrains crown prince, a 3,700 dollar (2,808) bronze statue of three oryx from the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, a set of gold-plated Kuwaiti coins worth 1,610 dollars (1,222) from Kuwaits emir and royal perfume in a reptile skin carrying case worth 1,260 dollars (956) from the deputy prime minister of Oman.

Others in the Middle East did not stint when it came to presents for the first family, according to the 64-page list compiled by the State Departments Office of Protocol, which is to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday.

The Trumps received a personalised hardcover book of Psalms worth 4,500 dollars (3,415) from the rabbi in charge of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a gold and diamond necklace and similar pendant from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre valued at 5,800 dollars (4,402) and a mother-of-pearl Nativity scene worth 4,200 dollars (3,188) from the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem.

Even Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, before the Trump administration started a series of moves to downgrade US relations with the Palestinians, was generous.

He gave Mr Trump and the first lady a copy of a neo-Byzantine Nativity scene, a half-length portrait of Mrs Trump and photograph with a total estimated value of 6,770 dollars (5,139), according to the list.

Other world leaders who have fallen from Mr Trumps favour were among the 2017 gift-givers, including Germanys Angela Merkel, Frances Emmanuel Macron and Canadas Justin Trudeau.

Donald Trump with Emmanuel Macron (Matt Cardy/PA)

Mrs Merkel gave the Trumps Mont Blanc pens and paper worth 5,264 dollars (3,995); Mr Macron a map from 1783 of the United States worth 1,100 dollars (835) and Mr Trudeau a sandstone statue of a male lion wearing a crown valued at 450 dollars (341).

Some gifts seemed designed to appeal to the presidents ego.

Those included an 1,880 dollar (1,427) gemstone portrait of Mr Trump in front of an American flag from Vietnams prime minister, and a photo album titled President Donald J Trump in New York from Polands president that contains black and white photographs of the president and polychrome photos of Trump Tower and was valued at 850 dollars (645).

Clothing, art, jewellery and accessories were favourite gifts to the first lady from foreign leaders.

The wife of Japans prime minister gave her a 2,200 dollar (1,670) pair of Mikimoto diamond and pearl earrings and a 3,000 dollar (2,277) gold and acrylic painting, while Italys prime minister gave her a 3,400 dollar (2,580) Ferragamo handbag.

Belgiums prime minister and his partner gave Mrs Trump two handbags from the designer Delvaux worth 1,020 dollars (774) and 2,273 dollars (1,725).

Ivanka Trump (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Ivanka Trump also got a Delvaux handbag from the Belgian leader that was worth 1,023 dollars (776).

Meanwhile, the Saudi government gave Melania and Ivanka Trump embroidered garments, including at least one abaya, worth 1,500 dollars (1,138).

Mr Kushner, Ivanka Trumps husband, reported receiving only six gifts from foreign officials in 2017, the most valuable of which was a 3,630 dollar (2,755) fountain pen given to him by Jordans king.
Shoreham Airshow crash pilot Andrew Grenville Hill was a Cambridge graduate who was top of the class in the RAF, winning competitions for his flying.

A captain with British Airways until the tragedy, he grew up in Kent and went to Tonbridge School, a private boarding school that counts Norman Heatley  who turned penicillin into usable medicine  among its alumni.

Telling the court he was reasonably academic and an A-grade pupil at school, Hill was allowed to enrol at Cambridge University without taking the entrance exam, attending Christs College.

He began studying engineering and then transferred to computer science, graduating with an honours degree in 1985.

Going straight into the RAF afterwards, he won a competition when flying a Jet Provost and was a top performing student.

(PA Graphics)

He was selected  or as he put it creamed off the top  to become an instructor.

Training in combat, he took part in active service for a month in the 1990s, monitoring no-fly zones in northern Iraq.

He also started to fly a Harrier  capable of vertical take-off and landing  and won an award for his work and ideas on improving aircraft safety procedures.

Turning to civil aviation, he became a commercial pilot, starting with Virgin Atlantic before moving to British Airways and progressing to the most senior position of captain.

He gained a reputation as an experienced pilot but nearly died at the side of the road after the Hawker Hunter he was flying in 2015 crashed in a fireball on to the A27 in West Sussex.

Hill, who now lives in Sandon, Buntingford, in Hertfordshire, suffered serious injuries and was placed into an induced coma before being discharged from hospital a month later.

He had fractured his nose, ribs and part of his lower spine and suffered a collapsed lung and serious bruising among other injuries.

Speaking for the first time in public since the incident when he gave evidence at the trial, he denied having a cavalier attitude, insisting he was known for his safety record.

(PA Graphics)

He has never watched footage that captured the moment of the crash and lowered his head when is was played to jurors.

The court heard this was on medical advice from his doctor over fears of how it would affect him.

He is now in good health, with medical checks before and after the crash showing no signs of a condition that would have affected him at the time, the court heard.

The 54-year-old spent much of the proceedings taking notes while sitting in the dock or leaning down to follow documents of evidence.

Wearing a dark suit for the proceedings, his manner appeared jovial as he made a few jokes while standing in the witness box giving his testimony.

Described as a competent, safety conscious pilot and an absolute gentleman, he dismissed prosecutors claims he took risks, saying he was not cavalier and took a very structured, disciplined approach to display flying.

He told jurors he held back from flights he was not comfortable with and said the primary aim of displays was to avoid risk.

But Hill conceded he had only limited experience in the Hunter.

He told the court there may have been gaps in his training on what were termed basic details of how to fly the plane.

Hill also said he had not read some of the guidance notes on how to safely and properly operate the aircraft.
Iran has claimed the UKs move to grant diplomatic protection to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe flouts international law.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt invoked the rarely-used diplomatic device in response to Irans treatment of the dual national, who has been held since 2016 on spying charges.

But Tehran refuses to acknowledge the British-Iranian mothers dual nationality and said the UKs actions were illegal.

UK Govt's extension of diplomatic protection to Ms Zaghari contravenes int'l law. Govts may only exercise such protection for own nationals. As UK Govt is acutely aware, Iran does not recognize dual nationality. Irrespective of UK residency, Ms Zaghari thus remains Iranian.  Hamid Baeidinejad (@baeidinejad) March 7, 2019

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffes husband Richard said he hoped Mr Hunts move would lead to a resolution to her case within months.

It changes the status for Nazanins case, Mr Ratcliffe told BBC Radio 4s Today.

Now its also the British Governments case and all the injustices that happen to Nazanin are effectively injustices against the British Government.

Suggesting the move might provide a route to solving this case, Mr Ratcliffe said: Probably the first things are to get a doctor in, then weve talked about doing stuff at the UN, then maybe summoning the ambassador.

You cant jump straight into legal action, there are a whole series of things that legally you need to do first before you are entitled to, and thats months away. Hopefully we are not months away from a solution.

Mr Ratcliffe said it would now be more difficult for Iran to turn down UK requests for visits to Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe in prison to check her condition.

He said his wifes health was obviously not in a great position, but Im not sure how bad.

But hopes of a breakthrough were dealt a blow by Irans ambassador to the UK Hamid Baeidinejad who rejected the Foreign Office announcement.

He said governments could only offer diplomatic protection for their own nationals and the UK was acutely aware that Iran does not recognise dual nationality.

Irrespective of UK residency, Ms Zaghari thus remains Iranian, he said.

Mr Hunt responded: Well, I would expect some kind of negative reaction from Iran.

All I would say to them is that we have really done everything possible.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today that there had been three specific tests before he acted First of all, the commission of an internationally wrongful act, secondly, the exhaustion of what are called local remedies, and thirdly, whats called proof of nationality for which we had to conclude that she is predominantly British, which addresses, I think, the dual nationality issue.

While Mr Hunt acknowledged the move was unlikely to be a magic wand that secures her immediate release, he said it escalated the UKs response to the situation.

Mr Hunt said he had taken into account Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffes unacceptable treatment by Iran since she was detained, including the denial of medical treatment and the lack of due process in the proceedings against her.

The Foreign Secretary said Tehrans actions had been totally wrong and that no state was entitled to use innocent individuals as pawns for diplomatic leverage.

This represents formal recognition by the British Government that her treatment fails to meet Irans obligations under international law and elevates it to a formal state-to-state issue, he said.

Richard Ratcliffe has welcomed the decision to grant his wife diplomatic protection (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Diplomatic protection is a mechanism in international law through which a state may seek reparation for injury to one of its nationals from an internationally wrongful act by another state.

Effectively it represents the right of states to raise the treatment of their nationals by other states and to call on them to account for their actions on the international stage.

It is distinct from diplomatic immunity, which covers the status of accredited diplomats.

While it does not automatically dictate any particular course of action, the Foreign Office has indicated it will take the steps it believes are most likely to secure the goal of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffes release.

"Nazanin is innocent and the UK will not stand by when one of its citizens is treated so unjustly."@Jeremy_Hunt exercises diplomatic protection for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.#FreeNazanin  Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) March 7, 2019

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 at Tehran airport as she was returning home to London with her then 22-month-old daughter, Gabriella, following a family visit.

She was subsequently sentenced to five years imprisonment, despite strenuously denying the charges against her, while Gabriella remains in the country cared for by family.

Repeated calls for her release by the British Government  including a direct appeal by Theresa May to Iranian president Hassan Rouhani during last years UN general assembly in New York  have failed to produce results.

Mr Ratcliffe has previously said his wife was told by judges in court that her case related to an unpaid 400 million debt the UK owes to Iran in relation to the purchase of Chieftain tanks in the 1970s.

In January, she went on hunger strike for three days saying the Iranian prison authorities had refused her treatment for a series of medical conditions, including lumps in her breasts, severe neck pain, and numbness in her arms and legs.
In this time of Lent, Francis invites everyone to rediscover the beauty of simplicity, of reality that "must be united to appearance". "Ask the Lord for strength and go humbly forward, with what you can. But do not disguise your soul, because if disguise your soul, the Lord will not recognize you ".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - To be coherent, not to be vain, to no longer be worthy of what we are, Pope Francis returned to condemn hypocrisy, life "without truth", at Mass celebrated this morning at Casa Santa Marta.

Francis was inspired by the first reading, taken from the book of the prophet Isaiah (Is 58.1-9a), to explain "the difference that exists in our life between reality and formality". "Formality  he said - is an expression of reality", but they must proceed "together", otherwise we end up living an existence of "appearances", a life "without truth" in our "heart".

The simplicity of appearances should be rediscovered especially in this period of Lent, through the exercise of fasting, almsgiving and prayer. In fact, Christians should do penance by showing themselves happy; be generous with those in need without blowing their own trumpet"; address the Father almost "in secret", without seeking the admiration of others.

At the time of Jesus, he recalled, the example was clear in the conduct of the Pharisee and the tax collector, today Catholics feel "just" because they belong to such an "association", they go to "Mass every Sunday" and they are not " like those poor people who do not understand anything ".

"Those who seek appearances, never recognize themselves as sinners and if you say to them: 'But you are also a sinner!' - 'But, yes, we all have sins!', And they relativize everything and return to becoming righteous. They also try to look humble, put on a saintly face: its all for appearance. And when there is this difference between reality and appearance, the Lord uses an adjective: 'Hypocrite' ".

Every individual is tempted by hypocrisy and the time that leads us to Easter can be an opportunity to recognize their inconsistencies, to identify the layers of makeup applied to "hide reality".

Francis then recalled that hypocrisy was a topic that emerged strongly during the XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Youth. The young people, he said, are not affected by those who try to appear, but then do not behave accordingly, especially when this hypocrisy is worn by "religious professionals".

Instead, the Lord asks for consistency. "Many Christians, even Catholics, who call themselves practicing Catholics, how they exploit people! How they exploit the workers! As they send them home at the beginning of the summer to employ them at the end, so they have no right to retirement, they have no right to go on. And many of these are called Catholics: they go to Mass on Sundays ... but they do this. And this is a mortal sin! How many humiliates for their workers ".

In this time of Lent, Francis invites everyone to rediscover the beauty of simplicity, of reality that "must be united with appearance". "Ask the Lord for strength and go humbly forward, with what you can. But do not put on your soul, because if you tricks your soul, the Lord will not recognize you. We ask the Lord for the grace of being coherent, of not being vain, of not appearing more worthy of what we are. We ask this grace, in this Lent: the coherence between the formal and the real, between reality and appearances ".
Joe Schmidt has conceded Ireland have struggled to cope with the pressure of their stellar 2018.

Ireland swept the board with a Six Nations Grand Slam last term and stunning victory over back-to-back world champions New Zealand in November.

All Blacks boss Steve Hansen installed Ireland as the worlds best team after Schmidts men saw off New Zealand 16-9 in Dublin  then insisted the men in green could struggle under the weight of that tag.

Joe Schmidt, left, and Steve Hansen, right, now see eye to eye on Irelands progress (Niall Carson/PA)

Hansen has this week claimed Ireland have indeed failed to cope with that burden, and now Schmidt has accepted the sentiment, with his men losing to England and labouring to wins in Scotland and Italy in this years Six Nations so far.

Probably, the All Blacks are the only team who consistently stay at the top, said Schmidt, ahead of Ireland hosting France in Dublin on Sunday.

You consider England, Six Nations Grand Slam, they get the Six Nations the following year, and the year after that they are fifth.

How does that happen with most of the same personnel?

It is one of those things that it is a little bit difficult. I know even talking to Franck Azema in Clermont, champions one year and 10th the next. How does that happen?

Its not apathy, its not overconfidence, Im not sure how you might explain it. But theres a real forward-thinking about the group.

PA Graphic

So whats happened last year is certainly last year.

Because last years results dont help you win anything this year.

In fact, if anything, I think Steve is suggesting it hinders you winning things this year. It certainly puts a target on you.

.@IrishRugby make seven changes to their side to face @FFRugby, including a return for their captain https://t.co/uod4Q1iN1x pic.twitter.com/kxPFI21P12  Guinness Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 8, 2019

Theres no way that people come here and dont want to beat a team thats ranked where we are or a team that achieved what we did last year.

But for us, its all about what we can achieve. And not even this year, its what we can achieve in just over 48 hours time.

British and Irish Lions flanker Sean OBrien has been omitted from Irelands squad for Sundays battle with Les Bleus.

The 32-year-old Leinster star has paid a hefty price for a below-par showing in Irelands patchy 26-16 victory over Italy in Rome, with Josh Van Der Flier starting in his stead at openside.

Fit-again Garry Ringrose starts at outside centre, with Robbie Henshaw still battling a dead leg, while Iain Henderson returns after finger trouble at lock and CJ Stander at number eight.

Munster star Stander suffered a nasty broken cheekbone in Irelands opening-weekend 32-20 loss to England in Dublin but has recovered quickly to step back into Schmidts team.

Sean OBrien, pictured, has missed out on Ireland selection (David Davies/PA)

Schmidt confirmed OBriens omission was on form, with the Ireland boss excited by Van Der Flier starting in the back-row.

With Sean, Jack Conan was going to be given the opportunity against Scotland and he didnt get that, so we wanted to give him the chance, said Schmidt.

Josh Van Der Flier hasnt let us down at all. So its a perfect opportunity to put him back in there, hes very much keen and ready to go.

Garry Ringrose, left, is back in the Ireland line-up (Brian Lawless/PA)

As tempted as we were with (lock) Tadhg Beirne, hes just been a little bit sore this week coming back from injury. He was in the mix but hes going to get the weekend off, to come back in refreshed and train next week.

Ultan Dillane has played very well for us, so we wanted to reward his performance in Italy.

IRELAND TEAM TO FACE FRANCE IN DUBLIN ON SUNDAY: R Kearney (Leinster), K Earls (Munster), G Ringrose (Leinster), B Aki (Connacht), J Stockdale (Ulster), J Sexton (Leinster), C Murray (Munster), C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster, capt), T Furlong (Leinster), I Henderson (Ulster), James Ryan (Leinster), P OMahony (Munster), J Van Der Flier (Leinster), CJ Stander (Munster). Replacements: N Scannell, D Kilcoyne, John Ryan (all Munster), U Dillane (Connacht), J Conan (Leinster), J Cooney, J Carty (both Connacht), J Larmour (Leinster).
Till a few days ago, not many people knew about Polan Sarkar. Theres nothing wrong in that either. He was a Bangladeshi book-lover. Thanks to the Internet, we have come to know about him  the father of all Internet book challenges  after he passed away on March 1.

In an age of stress and anxiety, many people are talking about self-care, the need to go off the Internet as well as social media  and to pick up a book instead. Indeed, reading has come across as the most soothing  and liberating  form of self-care.

Bangladeshs Polan Sarkar realised this long ago.

The walking library has stopped walking. But the journey never stops. (Photo: Twitter)

From his childhood, Polan Sarkar, born in 1921, was a voracious reader. Though he had to drop out of formal education, he never left reading. As he was fighting the vagaries of life, he found himself immersed in love for books and regional literature.

Meanwhile, he got a job as committee chowkidar, for which he had to walk across villages to collect taxes. Often, peoples profession consumes their passion. But in his case, it never became so. He started distributing free books to children in all the villages he used to visit, so that they never stop reading  even if they have to stop formal education for economic constraints.

In 1965, he set up Harun-ar-Rashid High School with the little fortune he inherited from his grandfather. The annual prizes were books. Words spread. Local people started borrowing from him. There was only one condition  the books would have to be returned.

In 1992, he was diagnosed with diabetes and was recommended walking. What better opportunity to walk from door to door with a heap of books? He did just that. He visited village families and asked them to pick any book and return it within a few weeks. Then, he used to visit them, like a doctor, to enquire how they are liking the books, etc.

This is his story.

At a time when we are sharing the covers of the books we are apparently reading  on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram  to influence others, Polan Sarkar did the same silently; far from any limelight. And his service was to those who actually needed it; those who could not afford to buy books.

It was not for nothing that he was popularly called 'Alor ferry-wala'  the torchbearer. One who brought others light. Between the covers of a book.

Also Read: The Bullies of Partition: How the Muslim League silenced the majority of Indian Muslims strongly opposed to the creation of Pakistan
In December 2008, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) imposed sanctions on Pakistan-based terrorist Hafiz Saeed, who, along with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), allegedly masterminded the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

A decade has passed.

The most wanted terrorist has been continuing his operations in Pakistan  from one house arrest to another  and has even addressed public rallies ahead of the General Election in Pakistan.

At a time when India and Pakistan have locked horns over Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar enjoying a free run in Pakistan, Hafiz Saeeds name has resurfaced. The context carries much significance. It also gives us a clear understanding of Pakistan-based terror operations and how the state machinery oils them.

In 2017  11 years after he was sanctioned  Hafiz Saeed appealed against the UN decision through the Lahore-based law firm Mirza and Mirza. He was still under house arrest when he filed his appeal. Soon after, he was released as a Pakistani court rejected the governments (yes, the Pakistan government) plea to extend his house arrest period  the court trashed the governments claim that Hafiz Saeed is a threat to the public.

The Pakistan Pattern: Heavy crackdown; followed by a lull; then, Hafiz Saeed is invited to inaugurate offices and functions. (Photo: Reuters)

Well, did the government actually believe in that? There was mounting international pressure (the US) on Pakistan. It had to pretend something, at least.

What Hafiz Saeed did after being released is not a secret. He never ran out of fig leaves to cover his terror operations. He set up Milli Muslim League to take part in Pakistans General Election. MML was refused to be given registration. He switched to the name Allaha-u-Akbar Tehreek (AAT), which was already registered with the EC.

That his people didnt win seats  though he claims to be the peoples favourite for his charity works  is another issue. But the effort to camouflage his activities under a political party, which would eventually free him from the UNs terrorist tag, is still on.

Terrorism and its believers are like chameleons.

Apparently Pakistan never has enough evidence to put Hafiz Saeed on trial. (Photo: PTI)

The Hafiz Saeed-founded Lashkar-e-Taiba in the 1990s was behind the 2001 Parliament attack. When LeT got banned in Pakistan, Saeed revived Jamaat-ud-Dawa in 2002. He was arrested after the 2001 Parliament attack, and then again in 2006 after Mumbai train bombings, and in 2008 after 26/11. When JuD got banned, he rebranded JuD as Tehreek Azadi Jammu and Kashmir.

So, what's Pakistan doing  apart from allowing Hafiz Saeed to open a journalism school in Lahore?

It is following its old pattern of being on its toes when prodded globally. It's put up a face of 'strong action'. That usually leads in all directions. Yet, goes nowhere.

A number of news reports of the Pakistani government's crackdown on JuD properties and seminaries are being reported. Hafiz Saeed has reportedly been barred from addressing his weekly prayer gatherings. And it has also apparently blocked the visa appeal of the UN team which wanted to interview Hafiz Saeed regarding Saeed's appeal to delist himself from the list of terrorists. Reportedly, it's scared of the skeletons that may come tumbling out of the cupboard if Hafiz Saeed is interviewed.

A few days more.

Everything will be business-as-usual in Pakistan and its terror factories when the international pressure subsides.

Also Read: 3 questions we want to ask Pakistan now
Punjab National Bank celebrated the International Womens Day. Senior representatives of PNB Prerna, an association of wives of the Senior Officials and senior lady Officials of the Bank, felicitated women achievers from different walks of life. Jayanti Mehta, President, PNB Prerna, along with other senior members of the association, including Vice-Presidents L Vijitha, Meera Devi and Madhu Nagpal, encouraged a packed house of female employees at the Banks Head Office in Dwarka

A civil enclave at Hindon Airport in Ghaziabad of Uttar Pradesh was inaugurated on Friday by the Prime Minister of India. The inauguration took place in the august presence of Ram Naik, Governor of Uttar Pradesh; Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh; Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation; General VK Singh (Retd), Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi, Minister of Civil Aviation, Government of Uttar Pradesh

Minister of Railways & Coal Piyush unveiled WAP-7HS Electric Locomotive through a video link from Rail Bhawan, New Delhi

Womens Day was celebrated on 8th March, 2019 in the conference hall of administrative building by the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW). Praveen Kumar Mishra, General Manager/CLW presided over function and Sunita Mishra, President, CLW-WWO also graced the occasion

Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), under the guidance of Ministry of Steel has associated with district administration of Nuh in Haryana in a unique initiative under SAIL  Corporate Social Responsibility for supporting the Menstrual Hygiene Management Programme
While the nation is very proud of our servicemen, it is disgraceful that the political leadership has been found wanting in tackling questions about the strike.

Last Friday, India welcomed its hero, Abhinandan Varthaman, back from Pakistan. He spent close to three days in Pakistani captivity as a result of a brief skirmish with Islamabads Air Force, during which, his MiG-21 Bison went down. Officer Abhinandans return is the latest course of events in an episode that has not yet seen its last act but India can at least momentarily heave a sigh of relief. His return also provides us with enough pause to examine the events that unfolded over the past few weeks, to praise the bravery of our armed forces and to ask questions to the Prime Minister, who is the man entrusted with providing leadership to the armed forces.

Primarily, in this article, I aim to examine the concept of leadership and whether the Prime Minister demonstrated it this time around. While the entire nation is extremely proud of our armed forces and the huge sacrifices they are regularly asked to make, it does make it all the more important to ensure that they are led by a political leader who exhibits similar qualities. The events of the past few weeks make it apparent that while the country is proud of the armed forces, the political leadership leading them has been found wanting.

So what is leadership? Norman Schwarzkopf defined its as, Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without strategy. Over the past few weeks, the ruling Government has displayed a lack of both.

Lack of strategy: Pakistan is a hub of terror. There are not many people in the world who would disagree with this statement. Even recently, while Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan did earn some goodwill on the world stage by allowing Abhinandan to return and by ensuring that he was not mistreated while in Pakistans captivity, much of that goodwill was wasted by the clear propaganda videos that were released by the Government over there. During the entire ordeal, Imran Khan alleged that the attack by India on the terrorist camps did not really cause any harm to Pakistan. He also garnered sympathy and goodwill from world leaders by taking the initiative to return Abhinandan to India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi allowed Pakistan to take the initiative by not speaking to the nation in its hour of need and failing to rebut Pakistans claims that there were no casualties due to Indias strikes. This was especially shocking since members of the BJP like Sambit Patra have said that close to 400 terrorists were killed while BJP chief Amit Shah said that 250 of them were killed. Instead of giving a fitting reply to Pakistan and reclaiming the initiative, Modi, as someone who rarely gives up an opportunity to speak, remained silent on this crucial issue and, therefore, let slip an opportunity to prove Pakistan and the world media wrong. By doing so, it was the Pakistani Prime Minister who appeared to garner greater admiration from the world rather than our Prime Minister.

Character: In terms of character, the BJP Government has an unenviable lack of it. There have been repeated reminders over the past few years of this character flaw. Whether it is the words used by the Prime Minister to describe women or the language used by the BJP when dealing with any member of the Opposition, the Government rarely covers itself in glory. However, in light of the recent events, there was some hope that maybe the Prime Minister may actually conduct himself in a manner befitting his role and get the entire country together. How naive of us! Despite the Opposition issuing a statement reiterating their stance that they stand behind the armed forces, Modi repeatedly took political potshots without once addressing the nation in a dignified manner.

While the Prime Minister is often found near a microphone when the wind is in his favour, he is conspicuously missing when the nation actually needs answers. This time, too, he addressed a number of rallies when Indias brave Air Force attacked the terrorist bases in Pakistan, taking credit for the bravery of our armed forces but the minute one of our pilots was captured and there was a need for calm, clarity and composure, there was not a whiff from the Government or the Prime Minister. Instead, in the aftermath of Abhinandans capture, just a quick glance of the Prime Ministers twitter feed shows that he addressed BJP workers in their booths before addressing the nation and even then, it was only through rallies or other political events that he talked about strikes rather than having a conversation with Indian citizens, which is only apropos in case of events of national significance, such as this one.

What was all the more disheartening was the fact that while media speculation about the precarious state of affairs was rife, there was no one from the Government to answer the lingering questions. Instead, the Government chose to send the armed forces in the line of fire again and forced it to field questions that could obviously only be answered by its representatives.

As stated above, one such question was about the claims made by international media channels about the number of dead terrorists after the attack. While there is no denying that it is difficult to quantify the number of terrorists killed in the mission, it was the BJP itself that came out with wild, varying figures. The armed forces have categorically come out and said that they have no idea about the exact figure and that this was a question for the Government to answer.

If the armed forces have no clear figure in mind and the BJP has been saying its 400 or 250 or whatever the last person from the party has said, is it not logical to question whether the Government actually had any such estimate or was it just making up numbers as it went along?

But when one of us, mere mortals, actually asks the BJP why they are saying 400 when the armed forces are saying they have no idea about any exact figure, the party hides behind the armed forces and says that the people of India cannot question the armed forces. Waah Modiji, Waah!

My views on how a leader is supposed to be is a product of my time as an officer in the Indian Police Service. As someone who has had the opportunity to serve with other brave police officers, I was always told that you need to be the first one to take criticism to protect your officers and the last to take credit for their bravery. This is slightly different from Prime Minister Modis policy of hiding behind the armed forces when tough questions are asked and basking in the glory, taking selfies when the sun is shining. India, in my opinion, has had enough of Modis unique brand of leadership.

(The writer is Jharkhand PCC president, former MP and IPS officer. Views are personal)
Economic, scientific and political modernity saw Muslim reformers relegate rituals to the private sphere but transform Islam as an identity marker

In his 2007 book, A Secular Age, Canadian philosopher Charles Tylor wrote that three categories of secularism have evolved since the proper emergence of the idea  mainly from the 18th century onwards. He described Secularity 1 as the total expulsion of religion from all spheres of public life. This strand can be traced back to the turbulent days of the 18th century French Revolution and also in the policies of Mao Tse Tungs China (1949-76), Joseph Stalins Soviet Union (1922-52), the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia (1975-79) and currently in North Korea.

This form of secularism is also known as laicite which originated during the French Revolution. Many aspects of it still inform French secularism today. A form of laicite was also practised by the Turkish state during the rise and coming to power of Turkish nationalist Kemal Ataturk (1923-38). However, some advocates of laicite like to differentiate this strand of secularism with the one that was imposed in communist countries such as China, the Soviet Union, Cambodia and North Korea.

However, Tylor is hesitant in defining Secularity 1 as secularism proper. According to him, a polity needs to fulfill three criteria to qualify as secular: There should be equality of people of all faiths; all spiritual groups must be heard; and there should be respect for the free exercise of religion (as long as it is not political in nature).

Secularity 2 is largely a social occurrence triggered by powerful intellectual currents and a shift from traditional modes of economics to modern ones. The most prominent example in this respect is the erosion of the power of the church in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment from 18th century onwards. The period saw the advent of Constitutional democracy, modern science, industrialisation and the separation of the church and the state. It saw reason as being the primary source of authority. Unlike Secularity 1, Secularity 2 is not anti-religion but advocates the relegation of faith to the private sphere.

But much of Tylors magnum opus is dedicated to Secularity 3. To Tylor, this is the category which best defines the secular age that has continued to develop well into the 21st century. But Tylor posits that Secularity 1 and 2 cannot be explained away as being outcomes of the rise of the modern sciences and modern models of politics and economics.

Instead, he wrote that secularism was actually a continuation of a reformation process within the Christian faith. His thesis proposes that for over a 1,000 years, there has been constant pressure within Christianity to continue to reform itself. Fearful of crumbling in the face of modernity, Christianity tried to keep pace with change by modernising itself. This gave the believers the space to let go of the idea of the state being a political and moral expression of faith, without renouncing faith itself or without one first coming to a self-attained understanding of it. Tylor wrote that, had this not happened, secularism could never have managed to attract the consent of so many populations in Europe.

Tylors Secularity 3 is about reaching a secular state of existence by actually reflecting on spiritual and theological ideas that have opened up for intellectual scrutiny. For him, secularism is part of the tradition of reform that has continued within Christianity. He wrote that this is also why secularism has managed to survive in countries such as the US where most citizens call themselves religious.

Intrigued by Tylors theory, the French political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot, in a 2014 essay for Frances Hyper Articles en Ligne, went on to identify a Secularity 4. Jaffrelot wrote that Tylors secularity types were largely associated with the secularism that developed in the West. Being an expert on South Asia, Jaffrelot took the example of Muslims in India, and then in Pakistan, to define a Secularity 4.

According to Jaffrelot, economic, scientific and political modernity introduced by the British in South Asia saw modern Muslim reformers push to relegate Islams rituals to the private sphere but transform Islam as an identity marker. In other words, the process advocated making Islamic rituals private and Islam public as a cultural-political identity marker.

Jaffrelot wrote that when modern Muslim reformers such as Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Muhammad Iqbal tried to demonstrate that Western modernity and Islam were compatible, and that this was what made Muslims a unique cultural entity, they opened the way for politicians such as Jinnah to claim that the Muslims of India were a separate cultural entity but one which was as modern as any Western national community.

According to Jaffrelot, Sir Syed, Iqbal and Jinnah formulated a unique way to form a non-theological Muslim polity without compromising its Muslim identity, because, after all, this was what was to gain a separate Muslim country.

Jaffrelot wrote that this is why, right from the onset, the Pakistani state tried to undermine and isolate those demanding a theocracy. The state did this by nationalising Islam. Jaffrelot wrote that the state invested in highlighting Islam as a modern political ideology of Pakistan but not the basis of formulating laws. He defines this as secularisation without secularism. The state continued to usurp social and physical spaces once dominated by the clerics, pirs and ulema. This way the state gave itself the sole right to define what an Islamic state was and at the same time deride the non-state explanations of faith as being anti-progress and backward.

According to Jaffrelot, this process peaked during the Ayub regime (1958-69). He wrote that it continued across the ZA Bhutto regime (1971-77) and even during the conservative Gen Zia dictatorship in the 1980s. But beginning in the mid-1970s, Jaffrelot wrote, due to purely political reasons, a point came when the state found it necessary to engage with non-state elements. This gave those who were once blocked from the states religious narrative the chance to become stakeholders of the process.

They managed to change its course, which resulted in constitutional clauses based on certain strands of the faith, a clear departure from the states ways till the mid-1970s. Eventually, from the mid-1980s onwards, the state opted out from framing Islam in the context of how it was framed by the likes of Sir Syed, Iqbal, Jinnah and Ayub. Unchecked by the state (and even encouraged), the process spiralled out of control, causing religious violence and insurgencies in a highly polarised polity.

Recently, when Prime Minister Imran Khan insisted that the monopoly of violence remains with the state, he was reiterating the states urgency to reclaim the space to define what religion was in the context of Pakistan. And to, therefore, once again, neutralise the states competitors in this respect and return to what Jaffrelot calls Secularity 4: Secularisation without secularism.

(Courtesy: The Dawn)
The inaugural India-Japan Space Dialogue was held here on Friday, with both the countries exploring ways to step up cooperation between their space agencies.

The Indian delegation was led by Indra Mani Pandey, Additional Secretary for Disarmament and International Security Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, while the Japanese delegation was co-led by Kansuke Nagaoka, Deputy Assistant Minister, Foreign Policy Bureau, and Shuzo Takada, Director General, National Space Policy Secretariat.

The dialogue brought together ministries and agencies related to outer space in the two countries and provided an opportunity for information exchange on the respective space policies, the MEA said in a statement.

Discussions were also held on bilateral cooperation between JAXA-ISRO, their space industries, global navigation satellite system, space situational awareness (SSA), space security and space-related norms, it said.
Despite its avowed assertion to de-escalate tension, Pakistan is yet to open its airspace on its border with India even though New Delhi has placed no such restrictions. There are 11 entry and exit points along the India-Pakistan airspace boundary.

The Pakistani airspace was closed after the Indian air strikes against terror camps there on February 26 and the retaliatory action by the Pakistani fighter jets the next day when they intruded into India in Rajouri sector and tried to target military installations.

In this backdrop, the IAF is in a high state preparedness to proactively engage any perceived threat in the present security situation.

Moreover, the IAF has kept all its bases in Western sector on high alert and a SU-30 fighter jet shot down a Pakistani military drone in Bikaner sector earlier this week when it tried to gather intelligence about Indias military preparedness. The drone fell in Pakistani territory.

Moreover, Army chief General Bipin Rawat also visited forward locations along the Line Of Control(LOC) in Jammu & Kashmir and the international border in Rajasthan on Thursday to take stock of operational preparedness. He instructed troops to remain prepared for all eventualities in close coordination with the Air Force.

The Army had warned Pakistan on Wednesday that any provocation or misadventure will be responded to in a befitting manner with dire consequences after it started targeting civil areas and Indian posts in Rajouri and Poonch with heavy artillery weapons in the last few days. At least three civilians were killed and several others injured in shelling in the last one week since the air strikes. Also, more than 60 ceasefire violations by Pakistan took place in the same period.

As regards preparedness to thwart any threat from air, the IAF in a statement said here on Thursday it is in a high state of preparedness, to proactively engage any perceived threat in the present security scenario.
UP chief Raj Babbar, Sriprakash Jaiswal among probables; shortlisting on for Varanasi candidate

A day after the Congress announced its list of 11 candidates, the party is set to come out with a second list and hopes that its resolution to play on front foot will force the Samajwadi Party and the BSP to reopen negotiation with the grand old party.

The SP and the Congress performed equally bad in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and the 2017 Assembly polls. But Mayawati drew a big zero in last LS polls and still she is creating roadblock in the formation of a formidable grand alliance. If we all have the common intentions to take on the BJP, then the SP and the BSP are commiting a hara-kiri by excluding the Congress from the alliance, said a top Congress leader looking into the affairs of UP and helping newly-appointed general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia.

The second list might include names like UP State Congress chief Raj Babbar from Muradabad and former Union Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal from Kanpur.

A senior party leader said the Congress is still hopeful that sanity would prevail and the Akhilesh Yadav-Mayawati combine may include the Congress as part of the Mahagathbandhan.

Party sources said senior leader Sanjay Singh may be fielded from Sultanpur, Akhilesh Pratap Singh from Deoria and Ashok Singh from Etawah, considered a stronghold of the SP.

While the search of a formidable candidate for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, now represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, continues, the screening committee of the AICC has shortlisted candidates like Begum Nur Bano and Sanjay Kapur), rebel BJP MP Savitri Bai Phule who joined Congress last week, and Zafar Alo Naqvi and Naeem Sidiqqi.

The party intends to field a large number of Muslim candidates and those belonging to the SC keeping in mind the caste and religion equation in the crucial Hindi heartland, explained the leader.

Another senior leader in the party said announcement of Sonia Gandhi candidature showed that she play a vital role before and after elections. Her equation with senior leaders of several parties cannot be underestimated as she also played key role in creating counter narrative to defeat the Shining India campaign of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2014 polls, said the leader.

Ending all speculation, Congress on Thursday announced UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to contest from Rae Bareilly and party chief Rahul Gandhi from his home turf Amethi.

Sonias re-nomination from Rae Bareli has also scotched rumours about she is making way for daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at this family bastion.

The leaders say it would also ensure that the familys youngest entrant into the political scene can dedicate her energy on poll campaign across the state and in other places rather than limiting it to just one seat.
Centre informs SC it mulls to prosecute The Hindu under Official Secrets Act

In a big twist during the hearing of the Rafale review petition in the Supreme Court, the Government on Wednesday alleged that documents related to the fighter jet deal was stolen from the Defence Ministry and threatened to prosecute The Hindu newspaper under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for publishing articles based on them. However, the court said if an act of corruption has been committed in the Rafale deal, then Government cannot take shelter behind the OSA.

Those who put documents on the Rafale deal in the public domain are guilty under the Act as also contempt of court, Attorney General KK Venugopal said before a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. However, the AG did not answer to the questions of the judges, why no action was initiated and he said that he will get back to Government and inform the status to the court on the next date of hearing on March 14.

Unruffled by the Centre's stand, the writer and Hindu publishing group chairman N Ram said nobody would get any information from the newspaper on the confidential sources who provided the documents.

You may call it stolen documents...We are not concerned. We got it from confidential sources and we are committed to protecting these sources. Nobody is going to get any information from us on these sources. But the documents speak for themselves and the stories speak for themselves, Ram told PTI.

While publishing articles based on stolen documents amounts to violation of the Official Secrets Act, entailing maximum punishment of up to 14 years, the contempt law attracts six months jail as also a fine of `2,000. An investigation into the theft is on, the AG said on a day the newspaper published another article on the fighter jet deal.

The Bench, also including Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph, was hearing a batch of petitions seeking a review of its December 14 verdict dismissing all the pleas against the deal.

Former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, and advocate Prashant Bhushan, who had jointly filed the petition, alleged the Centre suppressed crucial facts when the SC decided to dismiss the batch of PILs. When Bhushan referred to articles written by Ram, Venugopal said the write-ups were based on stolen documents. An FIR has not been registered so far into the theft of documents, he said.

The first write-up appeared on February 8 and Wednesday's edition had another article aimed at influencing the court's proceedings which amounted to contempt of court, he said. The newspaper published the documents by omitting the word secret on top, he said, seeking a dismissal of the review petitions and raising objections to Bhushan's arguments based on the articles.

On behalf of Sinha, Shourie and himself, Bhushan said the top court would not have dismissed the plea for an FIR and the probe, had critical facts not been suppressed. Venugopal said the documents relied upon by Bhushan were stolen from the Defence Ministry and an investigation into the matter was underway.

The CJI said hearing Bhushan did not mean the top court was taking on record the documents on the Rafale deal. Justice Gogoi asked Venugopal to tell the court what action had been taken on theft of documents on the aircraft deal. The AG submitted that the documents were marked secret and classified. He also told the SC that the Rafale case pertains to defence procurement which cannot be reviewed judicially.

Referring to the aerial combat with Pakistan last week, he said the country needs the Rafale jet to defend itself "from F-16 fighter planes that recently bombed us". "Without Rafale how can we resist them," he said, adding that two squadrons of Rafale fighter jets are coming to India in flyaway condition and the first one will be in by September. He also said that although MIG 21 of 1960s performed beautifully against F16, Rafale fighter jets were needed.

The Bench, which will hear the review petitions further on March 14, was told by Venugopal that every statement of the apex court made in the Rafale case may be used to destabilise either the Government or the Opposition and therefore court should refrain from making it. The high voltage hearing saw the Bench showering several tricky questions to the AG who was buttressing that the stolen materials cannot be relied to revisit the judgment dismissing the pleas and it was necessary to determine the sources who provided the sensitive documents.

The Bench asked Venugopal "if an act of corruption is committed in Rafale deal, will Government take shelter behind Official Secrets Act? I (CJI) am not saying it is committed, but if it is then Government cannot take shelter behind OSA." It further said it has been settled in a catena of judgments that even if stolen documents are cited, and if they are found relevant, the court can look into them. At one point, Justice Joseph reminded the AG that there were many reports appeared in Bofors case also and those were not treated under OSA.

Opposing the plea for CBI enquiry into the Rafale deal, Venugopal said any order to the effect would be damaging to the country as the recent incidents have shown how vulnerable is the scenario in which the country was trying to meet its defence requirements. However, the Bench said the issue of national security did not arise in the case as allegations were of grave crime of corruption.

The Attorney General went ahead with his submissions and said, "certain issues are outside the purview of judicial review." Do we have to come to the court to justify when we declare war, when we declare peace? Do we have to come and seek permission of the court every time?" he asserted.
For the first time, a joint document to the UN Human Rights Council criticizes Saudi Arabia. Among the signatories are the 28 EU countries, Canada and Australia. For the Saudi representative it is an attack of "political nature". Anti-terrorism laws used to repress freedom and rights are targeted.

Geneva (AsiaNews / Agencies) - At the UN Human Rights Council, a group of 36 nations strongly criticized Saudi Arabia for repeated cases of arbitrary detentions, abuses and violations against activists and dissidents.

The joint statement issued at the end of the meeting is the first "collective" document to condemn Riyadh since the Council's inception in 2006. It calls for the release of a dozen activists still in prison and more cooperation with the investigation team called to shed light on the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Saudi Arabias response was Immediate (and angry) speaking of an attack of a "political nature". Abdul Aziz Alwasil, permanent representative of the UN said interference in domestic affairs under the guise of defending human rights is in fact an attack on our sovereignty".

Among the 36 signatory countries are Canada, Australia and all 28 nations that make up the European Union, but not the United States. A common front that bears witness to the growing international concerns regarding violations of human rights and freedom of expression perpetrated within the Sunni monarchy.

We call upon Saudi Arabia to disclose all information available and to fully co-operate with all investigations into the killing, including the human rights inquiry by the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions" reads the joint final communique read by Icelandic Ambassador Harald Aspelun . "Human rights defenders and civil society groups can and should play a vital role in the process of reform which the kingdom is pursuing".

The signatory nations conclude by launching an appeal to the Saudi authorities for the release of all activists. Among these, in conjunction with the Women's Day that is celebrated today March 8, they remember nine women who fought, among others, for the right to drive and who would have suffered violence and abuse in the cell.

Many nations regard Riyadh as a key anti-Iranian ally in the Middle Eastern region. In the past, criticism of human rights violations occurred only in the context of private, unofficial meetings. Yesterday's document breaks these patterns for the first time.

The denunciation of arbitrary detentions and violations of human rights at the United Nations is just the latest in a long series of attacks on the spurious "reforms" promoted by 33-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in the context of the Vision 2030 program.

The arrests of senior officials and business people last year, the crackdown on activists and critical voices, the war in Yemen with its civilian victims, children included, and the assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi cast a dark shadow on Saudi Arabia.
Setting three-year completion deadline, the construction of crucial Shahpur Kandi Dam project is all set to begin at a cost of Rs 2,073 crore with the Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday rededicated the same to the people of the state.

The project has been revived with the Chief Ministers personal efforts to resolve all pending issues with the Jammu and Kashmir Government. Of the estimated cost, which is in addition to Rs 640 crore already spent till 2014, Rs 1,408 crore would be spent on the power component, with 100 percent share of Punjab Government, and Rs 685 crore on the irrigation component, with a share of Rs 485 crore to be contributed by the Central Government and Rs 179.28 crore by the State Government.

The project would result in increased irrigation of 5000 hectares across the state. Apart from generating clean power, the project would also improve irrigation potential of 1.18 lakh hectares of Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC), said the Chief Minister.

Capt Amarinder said that it would reduce water flowing into Pakistan drastically and would help save the states critical water resources.

As many as 230 families, ousted as a result of the project, had been offered jobs and another 34 would be given jobs shortly, said the Chief Minister, who was accompanied by Gurdaspur MP Sunil Jakhar and Bhoa MLA Joginder Pal, while personally handing over the appointment letters to five wards of the oustees for the Shahpur Kandi Dam.

Asserting that the border belt up to Shahpur Kandi would be one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the world, the Chief Minister said that the project would also give impetus to tourism besides supplementing the income of residents in the region. With the construction of the Shahpur Kandi Dam, the historic Mukteshwar Temple would also be saved from submergence by creating a retaining wall, he added.
All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has welcomed the mediation process on Ayodhya issue initiated by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has referred the vexed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation, saying it would be most befitting that the matter is resolved through negotiations.

The Muslim side is not against mediation process, said AIMPLB member and counsel in the Ayodhya case, Zafaryab Jilani, here on Friday.

He also said that it would be wrong to say that the litigants would be influenced by political opinions. None of the litigants will be influenced by any chance, Jilani said.

He, however, said that all three previous mediation efforts had failed but the court had considered it again, which was appreciated.

Mediation order is a fresh initiative and we are not opposed to it, he said.

AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani said the Supreme Court had given this order and it needs to be welcomed. It would be most befitting that the matter is resolved through dialogue... lets see what happens now, he said.

Welcoming the apex court asking for utmost confidentiality to ensure the success of the mediation process and barring the media from reporting about the proceedings, Rehmani said this would not only prevent distortion of the deliberations but also act as a deterrent against taking the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh agenda forward.

Mahant Ram Das of the Nirmohi Akhara, one of the main litigants in the case, also welcomed the setting up of a panel of mediators, but said it would have been better had a Hindu judge, connected with the case, been included in it.

He added that besides the mediation efforts, the court hearing in the matter should also go on simultaneously so as to see that the case does not get prolonged further if the litigants are not satisfied.

Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar, who is in the panel of mediators set up by the apex court, said he wanted a happy ending to the long-standing dispute.

In a tweet, he said, .... Respecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society  we must all move together towards these goals.

The Supreme Court on Friday appointed one of its former judges, Justice (retd) FMI Kallifulla, as the chairperson of the panel of mediators.

A five-judge constitution bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, directed that the mediation would be held at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh and the process should start within a week from Friday.

The panel will file a progress report on its proceedings within four weeks and the entire process is to be completed within eight weeks.
The Uttar Pradesh unit of Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to file a police complaint against a list, purported to be of party candidates, doing the round in some social media groups.

The list, purported to be signed by BJP in-charge of UP elections, JP Nadda, contains the names of 24 candidates, including that of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The list sent shock waves in the BJP circles as the names of Menaka Gandhi and her son Varun are missing from the list.

This is a fake list, said BJP state general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak.

The central election committee of the BJP will meet this (Friday) evening in New Delhi. How can a candidates list be announced before the meeting, he said.

Earlier, Bahujan Samaj Party lodged an FIR after a fake list of 38 candidates of the party was circulated in the social media on January 13 this year. But no one has been found to be involved in it so far.
The annual remuneration of Asha workers will be increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 17,000 while the monthly remuneration of midwives will be increased from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat announced this on the occasion of international womens day here on Friday. The CM also distributed smart phones and weighing scales to Anganwadi workers. The smart phones are being provided to facilitate swift work by the Anganwadi workers. Uttarakhand is the first state in north India to have all its Anganwadi workers connected through smart phones. On the occasion, the CM also inaugurated the nutrition fortnight.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Rawat said that the empowerment of women is essential for all-round development of society. On the occasion, the CM also felicitated lady officers including Tehri district magistrate Sonika and Dehradun senior superintendent of police Nivedita Kukreti for commendable work. State minister for women and child development, Rekha Arya also expressed her views on the occasion.
The Delhi Government has approved the proposal for construction of integrated campus of GB Pant Engineering College and Polytechnic at Okhla Industrial Estate at an estimated cost of Rs 526.66 crore.

The decision was taken in a meeting of Delhi Cabinet chaired by the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The Cabinet accorded its administrative approval and expenditure sanction to the Department of Training and Technical Education to go-ahead with the project.

Presently, GB Pant Polytechnic is functioning in an old building since 1961 and G B Pant Engineering College is functioning in old hostel buildings of G B Pant Polytechnic at Okhla Industrial Estate Phase- III with poor infrastructure facilities, which is not sufficient for any educational institution, a government statement stated.

The preliminary estimate which has been framed by the Public Works Department (PWD) in consultation with the college authorities and officers of Department of Training and Technical Education, was also considered positively by Finance and Planning Departments for placing the same before the Cabinet for approval, it said.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday chaired a meeting of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC), which was attended by the PWD & Health Minister Satyendar Jain and other senior officials of the government.

In the meeting, the proposal was decided to construct a smart class rooms in NSUT (Netaji Subhas University of Technology) Campus, Sector-3 Dwarka at an estimated cost of Rs 26.79 crore.

The Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology became Netaji Subhas University of Technology on September 26, 2018 to cater to the increased demand of students.
IT Dept conducts survey in Indiresh Hospital

Dehradun: The Income Tax departments exemptions wing conducted a survey in Mahant Indiresh Hospital and commercial offices related to it on Friday. The checking of records and documents was continuing till late in the night, according to department officials. The official sources said that they suspect large scale irregularities due to which the documentation was being examined till late in the night. The statements of various employees were also recorded by the officials. The documents will be matched with the records available with the department after after examination of the available data the department will ascertain whether there are irregularities.

Vidhiotsav 2019 at UPES

Dehradun: The first edition of the Law Fest Vidhiotsav 2019 - Spring Edition has started at the Kandoli campus of UPES. The four-day fest organised under the aegis of the School of Law (SOL), UPES is being held from March 7 to 10. The fest aims to provide a platform for exchange of ideas and experiences to students of all the law schools across India, the university officers said. The event was inaugurated by S Farooq, chairman, Himalaya Drug Company, the internationally renowned pharmaceutical and herbal wellness company. Briefing on the event, Arun Dhand, senior director, Public Affairs UPES shared that the event has received good response from 28 prestigious national law universities, private universities, central universities and law schools across the country.

After investment, worry of falling market over

Dehradun: Achin Jain and Nitin Awasthi, director of ESGL Client Alley Pvt Ltd said that the biggest concern to all investors is that it should not happen that the market falls after the investment. They further said that if a long period is taken for investment the market might become volatile. According to them, the creation of a successful portfolio by classifying assets into various types of investments is one of the most important steps being taken in the direction of investment. In the same way, if you invest in a special property category you get protection from fluctuation, Achin Jain said.
SBI takes step to help women

Bhopal: State Bank of India has always been active for social welfare and social awareness. Being India's largest commercial institution, State Bank of India has always been providing its active support for social issues such as cleanliness, education, health and empowerment of women. SBI also introduces its innovative way to address important issues like sustainability. In this connection, on the occasion of International womens day, under the Sustainability initiative, Chief General Manager Rajesh Kumar has introduced Sanitary Napkin Incinerators at the Local Head Office, Bhopal, for the use of all female staff members.

Overseas docs perform 55 surgeries

Bhopal: American Cosmetic surgeon Dr Nicholas Chris Retson and his team have performed 55 surgeries on 38 patients up to Friday.Ashley Nichole Knezevich, Patricia Anne Armstrong, Nancy Marguerite Lijewski, Marianne Christine Karczewski, Martha Schweitzer, Dr Vikram Dev Appannagari and American doctor of Indian origin Dr Pratibha Khare are also accompanying with cosmetic surgeon Dr Retson. As many as 218 patients have registered their names in the camp. These include 83 male, 93 female and 42 children. This camp is organised in the joint collaboration of Bhopal Utsav Mela Samiti, Bhopal and Jeev Sewa Sansthan.
The silver city of Cuttack and the pilgrim city of Puri are going to be sister cities of the Bali Islands. A team from Bali arrived in Puri on Thursday which would attend a meeting with the district Collector of Cuttack over the issue on Friday.

I see symmetry between famous Bali Yatra of Cuttack and Bali of Indonesia. There is much similarity between the two places. I feel a home in Odisha, said Gusti Ayu Mas Sumatri, regent of Karangasem of the Republic Indonesia. The eight-member team of Bali visited the Konark Sun Temple earlier.

The team is scheduled to visit various places for strengthening mutual cooperation. On Friday, apart from attending a meeting, the team members would visit the Mahanadi river and the Maritime State Museum there. The team would hold talks with the Collector for adoption of Cuttack as sister city due to its trade relations for over 70 years. Puri is also in list to be adopted, said the regent. Before departure to Indonesia, they would visit Hardwar to attain cultural festivals.
Addressing the Kisan Sammelan at Singrauli Chief Minister Kamal Nath said that the overall development of the entire State including Singrauli will be ensured with the support of the common man. He called upon the youth, farmers and women to participate in development.

The Chief Minister said that 70 per cent of the local youth will be employed in industrial establishments in Singrauli district.

He instructed the district administration to immediately take necessary action in this regard. Nath distributed crop loan waiver certificates of around Rs 87 crores to more than 19,000 farmers. He distributed loan approval certificates to youths selected under Yuva Udyami Yojana and distributed forest rights letters to eligible families under Forest Rights Act.

Chief Minister Kamal Nath laid the foundation for the Gond Major Irrigation Project proposed on Gopad river at a cost of Rs 1072.20 crore. The construction of the project will be completed in 4 years. On completion of the project, 23,800 hectares land of 111 villages of Sarai and Devsar tehsil of Singrauli district and 9,200 hectare area of 54 villages in Majhauli tehsil of Sidhi district will be provided irrigation facility.

Announcing the opening of a mining college in Singrauli, the Chief Minister said that all major works will be done for development in this area.

He also performed bhoomi-pujan of upgradation works of Rs 17 crores in 200-bed hospital of district hospital and for construction of 5 gaushalas at a cost of Rs 2.75 crore.

Congratulating women on International Womens Day, Chief Minister Kamal Nath appreciated the work being done by self-employed women in Singrauli district.

He said that development cannot be imagined in any field without the support of women.

Nath gave citations to Anganwadi workers Pooja Soni, Social Worker Rehana Siddiqui, Vijayalakshmi Shukla and Sharmila Singh for outstanding work.

Mineral Resources Minister Pradeep Jaiswal and Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Kamleshwar Patel also addressed the Kisan Sammelan. Farmers, women, youth and other public representatives were present.
Irked over the prevailing mismanagement and apathetic attitude of the hospital staffers towards the patients and their relatives, the activists of the Uttarakhand Nav Nirman Sena gheraoed the medical superintendent (MS) of the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) Hospital, Dr K K Tamta on Friday. The activists led by its president Sushil Kumar arrived at the hospital, met Dr Tamta and submitted a memorandum addressed to the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.

Sushil Kumar is learnt to have told Dr Tamta that gross mismanagement prevailed in the biggest hospital of the state with patients and their attendants not being treated well by the hospital staffers. Expressing strong resentment on the recent incident in the hospital of a four- year- old rape victim being denied treatment by the hospital staff, Kumar said that the staffers had insisted on an FIR being lodged first with police prior to the start of the treatment. He vented his anger over the lack of professionalism and humanitarian approach being seen among the doctors and other staff members of the hospital. He further said that getting proper health facility is the basic right of every individual and the state government should do everything to ensure that the health facilities are provided to everyone.

In the memorandum, the organisation cited the incidents of a woman giving birth on the floor of the hospital toilet and a person being forced to carry the body of his brother on his shoulders among others which, they said, have dented the image of the hospital.
Telus Health and Babylon launched a new smartphone app that gives Canadians access to doctors and healthcare information. The app improves communication with doctors.

British Columbians can get video consultation with their doctors directly in a private session. BC provincial MSP will cover the cost of the video consultations. Patients can also access doctor consultation notes, video consults and also share them; manage prescription pickups; and get referrals for diagnostic tests or specialists when needed.

Canadians can download the Babylon by Telus Health App on iTunes or Google Play. The app uses the Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered Symptom Checker.

TELUS Health is leveraging the power of technology to improve health outcomes for all Canadians because we believe that by giving people the right tools, information and support we can empower them to manage their own health leading to healthier, happier lives, said Juggy Sihota, vice president, TELUS Health.

Plans are also underway to integrate Babylons virtual care platform into TELUS Health electronic medical records systems (EMRs) to enable physicians across the country to also easily conduct virtual sessions with their own patients.
The Lok Sabha polls to 10 seats in Haryana is heading for a high-pitched multi-cornered electoral battle with major political parties, either opting or being compelled to go it alone in the ensuing elections.

The political parties in the fray are ruling Bharatiya Janta Party, Congress, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)- Loktantra Suraksha Party (LSP) combine.

Among the 10 Lok Sabha MPs in Haryana, the ruling BJP has seven members, INLD has two and Congress has one member.

Buoyed by its big victory in Jind bypoll and civic body polls in five cities, the BJP has already kicked off its election campaign for the general polls 2019 and eyeing to win all 10 seats this time.

On the other hand, the Congress and INLDs moral-shattering defeat in the bypoll and civic body polls in Haryana has already pushed these opposition parties on the back foot. The saffron party is way ahead of its rivals in terms of chalking out the election strategy, campaigning and has even, finalized a list of its probable candidates for the forthcoming elections.

The BJP, which had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in alliance with Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) of former CM Bhajan Lals son Kuldeep Bishnoi, has already made it clear that it will go it alone in the 2019 polls. HJC has now merged with the Congress.

The Congress will also contest on its own in the polls while the main opposition party, INLD is desperately searching for an alliance partner after the Bahujan Samaj Party had snapped ties with it to form an alliance with Loktantra Suraksha Party (LSP) of BJP rebel MP Raj Kumar Saini.

Shiromani Akali Dal headed by Badals in Punjab has also announced to contest the Lok Sabha polls in Haryana. Both INLD and SAD had broken ties in 2016 over the issue of Sutlej Yamuna Link canal.

With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) failing to reach an agreement on seat-sharing pact for the ensuing parliamentary polls, both parties have also hinted at contesting on its own in the elections.

The BJP, which won seven of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana in 2014, had managed to get a vote share of around 35per cent as compared to 17.21 per cent in 2009 when it failed to win any seat.

As far as key poll issues are concerned, the BJP has geared up to contest on its achievements at the Central and State level highlighting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Manohar Lals governance record in Lok Sabha polls.

On the other hand, the opposition parties will be relying on issues including farm distress, amendment in Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill 2019, non-completion of Sutlej Yamuna Link canal, violent Jat reservation agitation 2016 and dera violence 2017. National issues including Rafeal deal and Indias air strike on a Jaish-e Mohammad terror camp in Pakistan following the February 14 Pulwama terror attack is also likely to upstage the state issues during the polls.

Political experts also feel that the caste politics is likely to play a major role during polls, with the state of Haryana, bitterly divided on caste lines following the violent Jat reservation agitation 2016

Jat vs non-Jat divide is seen as a key factor that can impact the outcome of ensuing general elections. While around 25 percent of total electorate in Haryana are Jats, the remaining 75 percent are non-Jats, which include Dalits, Brahmins, Yadavs, Baniyas among others.

Ahead of 2019 polls, the Jat community is again gearing up for a fresh agitation over their unfulfilled demands of reservation in educational institutions and government jobs, release of youths arrested during quota stir 2016 and withdrawal of cases registered against them.

Notably, 31 people had died while more than 200 were injured during the violent Jat quota agitation in 2016 in the state.

BJP convenes meeting on March 9 in Rohtak

To gear up for upcoming polls, the BJP has convened a party executive committee meeting in Rohtak on March 9.

At the meeting which will begin in the morning and continue till late evening, the party will chalk out an election strategy and also take feedback from the party workers about the probable candidates on 10 Lok Sabha seats.

The agenda of the party executive committee meeting will be focused on drawing up election strategies focusing on various sections of voters in the state, said a senior party leader.

He said that the discussion will also be held on election rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Central leaders in Haryana during the campaigning.

Notably, the Chief Minister Manohar Lal and state party leaders had this week met Kalraj Mishta, BJPs incharge for the Lok Sabha elections in Haryana, Anil Jain, BJPs incharge for Haryana party affairs and other central leaders to discuss the probable candidates for Lok Sabha polls.

Divided Congress yet to constitute poll committees

The factionalism in the Congress state unit continues even after its drubbing in Jind bypolls and civic body polls in Haryana.

While the Lok Sabha polls are round the corner, suspense is continuing over the replacement of state party chief Ashok Tanwar. While initial discussion on probable party candidates for Haryana has been held, the party is yet to announce election committees for the state.

Sources said that sitting Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda, son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and former MP Shruti Choudhry, daughter of CLP leader Kiran Choudhry, are likely to bag Congress nominations from Rohtak and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh respectively. Among other contenders, Ashok Tanwar is frontrunner for Sirsa seat, Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja for Ambala, MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi for Hisar sear, Capt. Ajay Yadav for Gurugram, former MP Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra.

Palwal MLA (Haryana) Karan Dalal and Meerapur MLA (Uttar Pradesh) Avtar Singh Bhadana are eyeing Faridabad seat while MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi and former Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma are keen to launch their sons from Hisar and Karnal respectively in Lok Sabha polls.

Ashok Tanwar while talking to The Pioneer said that the party has began process to shortlist probable candidates for the elections. Once the election committees are constituted, we will finalize the lists of candidates and forward it to the party high command, he said.

AAP, JJP, INLD to go it alone

Hisar MP Dushyant Chautalas Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) will contest on all 10 seats on its own in Haryana. Dushyant has said that the party is ready to contest on all Lok Sabha seats on its own.

JJP, a splinter group of INLD was formed in December and had performed well in Jind bypolls with its candidate managing to get second spot leaving behind other mainstream parties in Haryana.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party has also begun scouting candidates for the polls. With JJP and AAP failing to reach a consensus on seat-sharing pact, the AAP had a day before started process to invite applications from candidates on all 10 seats.

Following AAPs support to JJP in Jind bypoll held in January, it was widely believed that the two parties would enter into an alliance for the Lok Sabha poll and State Assembly polls.

However, JJP was offering only 2 seats out of 10 in Lok Sabha and 20 out of 90 in Haryana Assembly to the AAP, which was demanding equal representation.

On the other hand, INLD is also compelled to go it alone in the polls after the BSP had broken its alliance with it. While INLD chief OP Chautala has expressed willingness to form an alliance with the BJP, the ruling party has rejected the offer.

LSP-BSP alliance and SAD eyeing reserved seats

Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which has forged ties with LSP, an outfit floated by rebel BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini is eyeing reserved seats of Sirsa and Ambala in Haryana.

The alliance can play a spoiler for the other political parties as they are eyeing to woo the dalit vote bank in the state.

The BSP will contest on eight seats and the LSP on two Lok Sabha seats. Soon, candidates will be announced for the polls, said Raj Kumar Saini, LSP chief.

The LSP had also approached Shiromani Akali Dal to discuss a possibility of an alliance but the SAD is reluctant to join hands with Saini, due to his image of an anti-Jat leader.

The SAD is looking to form an alliance with the BJP, which is already its alliance partner in neighboring Punjab.

SAD leader and Haryana in-charge Balwinder Singh Bhunder said that the party has a voter base in Ambala, Sirsa, Kurukshetra, Karnal seats.

As far as an alliance in Haryana is concerned, we prefer to form an alliance with the BJP, he said.

The SAD will be holding a rally in Pehowa, Kurukshetra on March 10 and had in the past held rallies in Sirsa and Ambala to woo the voters.
Amid talks of possible inclusion of Congress in the mahagathbandhan of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh, MP from Bahraich, Savitribai Phule, said the grand old party should go it alone as people had made up their mind to support Rahul Gandhi in this election.

Phule, who was elected to Lok Sabha on Bharatiya Janata Party, recently joined the Congress.

Why should Congress enter into an alliance with SP and BSP. There is massive support in favour of Congress. People have made up their mind to defeat the BJP and elect Rahul Gandhi as the next prime minister of the country. In this scenario, it is not prudent for Congress to enter into alliance with other parties, Phule told this reporter on Friday.

Political grapevine is agog with speculations that the Congress may join the SP-BSP-RLD mahagathbandhan and that Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati have agreed to give 15 seats to it. There is no official confirmation though.

Congress has declared a list of 11 candidates including that of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

The name of Savitribai Phule, who joined Congress on the assurance that she will get a ticket, is missing from the list.

I am contesting the Lok sabha election on Congress ticket. Rahul Gandhi and Priyankaji have given me an assurance. I have even started working in my constituency, she said, adding how could her name be excluded because she is a sitting MP.
The auction for allocating shops to the street vendors at States first vendors market has raised the eyebrows of several hawkers including different committees. According to the protesting vendors, the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has restricted the entry of those vendors who sell street food items or any such perishable products

The Municipal Corporation started the auction process on March 7. As many as 417 street vendors got the shops there. In order to keep the premises clean, sale of edible items sold along side streets has been restricted. The marketing complex started with an aim to provide a dedicated place will be started in a full-fledged way in a while. At present, with a few shops, the vendors market has been made operational, said Mayor Asha Lakra.

During the first survey as many as 660 vendors were registered in the list while when some objection were entertained, it was found that the actual strength of street vendors are 541, those who have all valid documents. The resurvey was completed on November 1. After several rounds of facts verification of the claims and objections, some 470 vendors are found to be eligible to get shop at the vendors market.

The State Capitals busiest route between Kutchery Road to Albert Ekka Chowk that remains under the domination of street sellers will be declared No Vending Zone soon. After completing the process of shifting the vendors market at the designated place, the route will be declared No vending zone, Lakra added.

The building (G+5) that cover a carpet area of 2,94,240 sq. feet with basements, a banquet hall, a cafeteria, 23 offices, 472 kiosks, 108 shops is the first and the biggest Vendors Market of the State with all State-of-the- Art facilities. Constructed at a cost of Rs 54 crore granted by the Government of Jharkhand (GoJ), the Vendors Market has amenities ranging from CCTV cameras, fire extinguishers, public announcement systems, advance parking service have been equipped inside the building for better crowd management and maintenance.
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Schlumberger NV engages in the provision of technology for reservoir characterization, drilling, production and processing to the oil and gas industry. It operates through the following business segments: Digital and Integration; Reservoir Performance; Well Construction; and Production Systems. The Digital and Integration segment combines the company's software and seismic businesses with its integrated offering of asset performance solutions. The Reservoir Performance segment consists of reservoir-centric technologies and services that are critical to optimizing reservoir productivity and performance. The Well Construction segment includes the full portfolio of products and services to optimize well placement and performance, maximize drilling efficiency, and improve wellbore assurance. The Production Systems segment develops technologies and provides expertise that enhances production and recovery from subsurface reservoirs to the surface, into pipelines, and to refineries. The company was founded by Conrad Schlumberger and Marcel Schlumberger in 1926 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

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The following companies are subsidiares of CIT Group: 1143986 Ontario Limited, 1244771 Ontario Limited, 3918041 Canada Inc., 544211 Alberta Ltd., 555565 Alberta Ltd., 555566 Alberta Ltd., Baliardo Limited, C.I.T. Leasing Corporation, C2 Aviation Capital LLC, CBG LJB 21 LLC, CCERU Finance LP, CFHE Funding Company LLC, CIT Aerospace (Australia) Pty Ltd, CIT Aerospace Asia Pte Ltd., CIT Aerospace Belgium Sprl, CIT Aerospace Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, CIT Aerospace Holdings (France) SAS, CIT Aerospace International, CIT Aerospace International (Aruba) A.V.V., CIT Aerospace International (Australia) Pty Ltd., CIT Aerospace International (Bermuda) Limited, CIT Aerospace International (France) Sarl, CIT Aerospace International Leasing II, CIT Aerospace LLC, CIT Aerospace Sweden AB, CIT Asset Management LLC, CIT Aviation Finance I (France) Sarl, CIT Aviation Finance I (Ireland) Limited, CIT Aviation Finance I (UK) Limited, CIT Aviation Finance I Ltd., CIT Aviation Finance II (France) Sarl, CIT Aviation Finance II (Ireland) Limited, CIT Aviation Finance II (UK) Limited, CIT Aviation Finance II Ltd., CIT Aviation Finance III Ltd., CIT Bank N.A., CIT CBK Funding Company LLC, CIT CBK Funding Inc., CIT CLO Holding Corporation, CIT CLO I Blocker Inc., CIT CLO I LLC, CIT CLO I Ltd., CIT Canada Finance LP, CIT Canada Finance ULC, CIT Capital Aviation (UK) Limited, CIT Capital Finance (UK) Limited (in liquidation), CIT Capital Securities LLC, CIT Capital USA Inc., CIT Cayman Coconut Palm Leasing Ltd., CIT Cayman Sandy Keys Leasing Ltd., CIT Communications Finance Corporation, CIT Credit Group USA Inc., CIT Equipment Finance (UK) Limited (in liquidation), CIT FSC Eighteen Ltd., CIT FSC Nineteen Ltd., CIT Finance & Leasing (Tianjin) Corporation, CIT Finance & Leasing Corporation, CIT Finance LLC, CIT Financial (Alberta) ULC / Services Financiers CIT (Alberta) ULC, CIT Financial (Barbados) SRL, CIT Financial (Hong Kong) Limited, CIT Financial II (Barbados) Srl, CIT Financial Ltd./Services Financiers CIT Ltee., CIT Financial USA Inc., CIT Funding (UK) Limited (in liquidation), CIT Funding Company LLC, CIT Funding LLC, CIT Funds LLC, CIT Group (Hungary) Financial Servicing Limited Liability Company "under voluntary dissolution", CIT Group (NFL) Limited (in liquidation), CIT Group (NJ) LLC, CIT Group (Singapore) Pte Ltd (In Members' Voluntary Liquidation), CIT Group (UK) Limited (in liquidation), CIT Group Finance (Ireland), CIT Group Holding (Germany) GmbH i.L., CIT Group Holdings (UK) Limited (in liquidation), CIT Group Holdings B.V., CIT Group Inc., CIT Group Italy Srl in liquidazione, CIT Group SF Holding Co. Inc., CIT Healthcare LLC, CIT Holdings (Barbados) SRL, CIT Holdings B.V., CIT Holdings Canada ULC, CIT Home Lending Securitization Company LLC, CIT Insurance Agency Inc., CIT Leasing (Bermuda) Ltd., CIT Leasing (Germany) GmbH i.L., CIT Lending Services Corporation, CIT Lending Services Corporation (Illinois), CIT Loan Corporation, CIT Malaysia One Inc., CIT Maritime Leasing LLC, CIT Mezzanine Partners of Canada Limited, CIT Millbury Inc., CIT Rail Holdings (Europe) SAS, CIT Rail LLC, CIT Railcar Funding Company LLC, CIT Small Business Lending Corporation, CIT Strategic Finance Inc., CIT TRS Funding B.V., CIT TRS Holdings B.V., CIT TRS Subsidiary B.V., CIT Technology Financing Services Inc., CIT Trade Finance Funding Company LLC, CIT Transportation Holdings B.V., CRE CT 21 OTHER LLC, CRE CT 27 OTHER LLC, CRE FFBC LLC, CRE LJ 21 OTHER LLC, CRE LJ 27 OTHER LLC, CRE LJ 4800 Riverside LLC, CRE LJ CA 2 LLC, CRE LJ CA LLC, CRE LJ CP ESCONDIDO LLC, CRE LJ TX LLC, Canadian Income Partners I Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners II Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners III Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners IV Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners V Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners VI Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners VII Limited Partnership, Canadian Income Partners VIII Limited Partnership, Capita Corporation, Capital Direct Group Inc., Centennial Aviation (Bermuda) 1 Ltd., Centennial Aviation (France) 1 SARL, Centennial Aviation (France) 2 SARL, Centennial Aviation (Ireland) 7 Limited, Direct Capital Corporation, Direct Capital Funding III Company LLC, Direct Capital Funding V LLC, Education Loan Servicing Corporation, Emerald Funding (Netherlands) C.V., Emerald Holdings C.V., Financial Freedom Acquisition LLC, IMV 11 PALM LLC, INDYMAC VENTURE LLC, Jessica Leasing Designated Activity Company, MEX CIT SERVICIOS S. de R.L. de C.V., Madeleine Leasing Designation Activity Company, Memphis Peaking Power LLC, Millennium Leasing Company I LLC, Millennium Leasing Company II LLC, NACCO (U.K.) Limited, NACCO GmbH, NACCO Rail Ireland Limited, NACCO S.A.S, Nacco Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Newcourt Financial Espana S.A., North Romeo Storage Corporation, ONEWEST VENTURES HOLDINGS LLC, OWB REO LLC, OneWest Bank N.A, OneWest Investments II LLC, OneWest Investments LLC, OneWest Resources LLC, PL Servicing LLC, Rita Leasing Designated Activity Company, The CIT GP Corporation III, The CIT Group Securitization Corporation II, The CIT Group/Business Credit Inc., The CIT Group/Commercial Services Inc., The CIT Group/Corporate Aviation Inc., The CIT Group/Equipment Financing Inc., The CIT Group/Equity Investments Inc., The Capita Corporation do Brasil Ltda, The Equipment Insurance Company, and Worrell Capital Limited.
iShares National Muni Bond ETF's stock was trading at $114.45 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, MUB stock has increased by 1.5% and is now trading at $116.19.

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11 Wall Street analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Klepierre in the last twelve months. There are currently 4 sell ratings, 6 hold ratings and 1 buy rating for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street analysts is that investors should "hold" Klepierre stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in KLPEF, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. 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Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.
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 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research.
The following companies are subsidiares of Anthem: 1-800 Contacts, AIM Specialty Health, AMERIGROUP Community Care of New Mexico Inc., AMERIGROUP Corporation, AMERIGROUP Maryland Inc., AMERIGROUP New Jersey Inc., AMERIGROUP Ohio Inc., AMERIGROUP Tennessee Inc., AMERIGROUP Texas Inc., AMERIGROUP Washington Inc., AMGP Georgia Managed Care Company Inc., ATH Holding Company LLC, America's 1st Choice of South Carolina Inc., America's Health Management Services Inc., American Imaging Management Inc., Americas 1st Choice, Amerigroup, Amerigroup Delaware Inc., Amerigroup District of Columbia Inc., Amerigroup Health Plan of Louisiana Inc., Amerigroup IPA of New York LLC, Amerigroup Insurance Company, Amerigroup Iowa Inc., Amerigroup Kansas Inc., Amerigroup Mississippi Inc., Amerigroup Oklahoma Inc., Amerigroup Partnership Plan LLC, Amerigroup Pennsylvania Inc., Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company, Anthem Financial Inc., Anthem Health Plans Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Kentucky Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Maine Inc., Anthem Health Plans of New Hampshire Inc., Anthem Health Plans of Virginia Inc., Anthem Holding Corp., Anthem Innovation Israel Ltd., Anthem Insurance Companies Inc., Anthem Kentucky Managed Care Plan Inc., Anthem Life & Disability Insurance Company, Anthem Life Insurance Company, Anthem Partnership Holding Company LLC, Anthem Services Company LLC, Anthem Southeast Inc., Anthem UM Services Inc., Anthem Workers' Compensation LLC, Applied Pathways LLC, Arcus Enterprises Inc., Aspire Health Inc., Aspire Healthcare Corp, Associated Group Inc., Beacon Health Options, Blue Cross Blue Shield Healthcare Plan of Georgia Inc., Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, Blue Cross of California, Blue Cross of California Partnership Plan Inc., CareMarket Inc., CareMore Health Plan, CareMore Health Plan of Arizona Inc., CareMore Health Plan of Nevada, CareMore Health Plan of Texas Inc., CareMore Health System, CareMore LLC, Cerulean Companies Inc., Claim Management Services Inc., Community Care Health Plan of Louisiana Inc., Community Care Health Plan of Nevada Inc., Community Insurance Company, Compcare Health Services Insurance Corporation, Crossroads Acquisition Corp., DBG Holdings Inc., DeCare Analytics LLC, DeCare Dental Health International LLC, DeCare Dental Insurance Ireland Ltd., DeCare Dental LLC, DeCare Dental Networks LLC, DeCare Operations Ireland Limited, Delivery Network LLC, Designated Agent Company Inc., EHC Benefits Agency Inc., EasyScripts Cutler Bay LLC, EasyScripts Hialeah LLC, EasyScripts LLC, EasyScripts Westchester LLC, Empire HealthChoice Assurance Inc., Empire HealthChoice HMO Inc., Federal Government Solutions LLC, Freedom Health Inc., Global TPA LLC, Golden West Health Plan Inc., Greater Georgia Life Insurance Company, HEP AP Holdings Inc., HMO Colorado Inc., HMO Missouri Inc., Health Core Inc., Health Management Corporation, Health Ventures Partner L.L.C., HealthKeepers Inc., HealthLink HMO Inc., HealthLink Inc., HealthLink Insurance Company, HealthPlus HP LLC, HealthSun Health Plans, HealthSun Health Plans Inc., HealthSun Holdings LLC, HealthSun Management LLC, HealthSun Physicians Network I LLC, HealthSun Physicians Network LLC, Healthy Alliance Life Insurance Company, Highland Acquisition Holdings LLC, Highland Holdco Inc., Highland Intermediate Holdings LLC, Highland Investor Holdings LLC, Imaging Management Holdings LLC, IngenioRx Inc., Legato Health Technologies LLP, Legato Health Technologies Philippines Inc., Legato Holdings I Inc., Legato Holdings II LLC, Living Complete Technologies Inc., Matthew Thornton Health Plan Inc., Memphis Supportive Care Partnership LLC, Meridian Resource Company LLC, Missouri Care Incorporated, NGS Federal LLC, Nash Holding Company LLC, National Government Services Inc., New England Research Institutes Inc., Optimum Healthcare Inc., Park Square Holdings Inc., Park Square I Inc., Park Square II Inc., Pasteur Medical Bird Road LLC, Pasteur Medical Center LLC, Pasteur Medical Cutler Bay LLC, Pasteur Medical Group LLC, Pasteur Medical Hialeah Gardens LLC, Pasteur Medical Holdings LLC, Pasteur Medical Kendall LLC, Pasteur Medical Management LLC, Pasteur Medical Miami Gardens LLC, Pasteur Medical North Miami Beach LLC, Pasteur Medical Partners LLC, Resolution Health Inc, Resolution Health Inc., RightCHOICE Managed Care Inc., Rocky Mountain Hospital and Medical Service Inc., SellCore Inc., Simply Healthcare Holdings, Simply Healthcare Plans Inc., Southeast Services Inc., State Sponsored DM Services Inc., The Anthem Companies Inc., The Anthem Companies of California Inc., TrustSolutions LLC, UNICARE Health Plan of West Virginia Inc., UNICARE Illinois Services Inc., UNICARE National Services Inc., UniCare Life & Health Insurance Company, UniCare Specialty Services Inc., Valus Inc., WPMI LLC, WellCare of Nebraska Inc., WellPoint Acquisition LLC, WellPoint California Services Inc., WellPoint Dental Services Inc., WellPoint Health Solutions Inc., WellPoint Holding Corp., WellPoint Information Technology Services Inc., WellPoint Insurance Services Inc., WellPoint Military Care Corporation, Wellmax Health Medical Centers LLC, Wellmax Health Physicians Network LLC, and Wisconsin Collaborative Insurance Company.
Gildan Activewear Inc. manufactures and sells various apparel products in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It provides various activewear products, including T-shirts, fleece tops and bottoms, and sport shirts under the Gildan, Gildan Performance, Gildan Hammer, Comfort Colors, American Apparel, Anvil by Gildan, Alstyle, Prim + Preux, and GoldToe brands. The company also offers hosiery products comprising athletic; dress; and casual, liner, therapeutic, and workwear socks, as well as sheer panty hoses, tights, and leggings under the brands of Gildan, Under Armour, GoldToe, PowerSox, GT a GoldToe Brand, Silver Toe, Signature Gold by Goldtoe, Peds, MediPeds, Kushyfoot, Therapy Plus, All Pro, Secret, Silks, Secret Silky, and American Apparel. In addition, it provides men's and boys' underwear products, and ladies panties under the Gildan and Gildan Platinum brand names; and ladies' shapewear, intimates, and accessories under the Secret and Secret Silky brands. The company sells its products to wholesale distributors, screen printers, or embellishers, as well as to retailers and consumer brand companies. The company was formerly known as Textiles Gildan Inc. and changed its name to Gildan Activewear Inc. in March 1995. Gildan Activewear Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company. It provides financial and investment banking services. The firm offers a range of investment banking products and services in all capital markets, including advising on corporate strategy and structure, capital raising in equity and debt markets, risk management, market making in cash securities and derivative instruments, and brokerage and research. It operates through the following segments: Consumer and Community Banking, Corporate and Investment Bank, Commercial Banking, and Asset and Wealth Management. The Consumer and Community Banking segment serves consumers and businesses through personal service at bank branches and through automated teller machine, online, mobile, and telephone banking. The Corporate and Investment Bank segment offers a suite of investment banking, market-making, prime brokerage, and treasury and securities products and services to a global client base of corporations, investors, financial institutions, government and municipal entities. The Commercial Banking segment delivers services to U.S. and its multinational clients, including corporations, municipalities, financial institutions, and non profit

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iShares MSCI Hong Kong ETF's stock was trading at $21.67 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWH shares have increased by 10.3% and is now trading at $23.90.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.
The following companies are subsidiares of Banco Santander: 2 & 3 Triton Limited, A & L CF (Guernsey) Limited (f), A & L CF June (2) Limited, A & L CF June (3) Limited, A & L CF March (5) Limited, A & L CF September (4) Limited, AFB SAM Holdings S.L., ALIL Services Limited (b), AN (123) Limited, ANITCO Limited, Abbey Business Services (India) Private Limited, Abbey Covered Bonds (LM) Limited, Abbey National, Abbey National Beta Investments Limited, Abbey National Business Office Equipment Leasing Limited, Abbey National International Limited, Abbey National Nominees Limited, Abbey National PLP (UK) Limited, Abbey National Property Investments, Abbey National Treasury Services Investments Limited, Abbey National Treasury Services Overseas Holdings, Abbey National UK Investments, Abbey Stockbrokers (Nominees) Limited, Abbey Stockbrokers Limited, Ablasa Participaciones S.L., Administracion de Bancos Latinoamericanos Santander S.L., Aduro S.A., Aevis Europa S.L., Afisa S.A., Albert., Aljardi SGPS Lda., Alliance & Leicester, Alliance & Leicester Cash Solutions Limited, Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank Limited, Alliance & Leicester Investments (Derivatives) Limited, Alliance & Leicester Investments (No.2) Limited, Alliance & Leicester Investments Limited, Alliance & Leicester Limited, Alliance & Leicester Personal Finance Limited, Altamira Santander Real Estate S.A., Alternative Leasing FIL, Amazonia Trade Limited, Amherst Pierpont, Andaluza de Inversiones S.A., Aquanima Brasil Ltda., Aquanima Chile S.A., Aquanima Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Aquanima S.A., Arcaz - Sociedade Imobiliaria Portuguesa Lda., Argenline S.A. (b), Asto Digital Limited, Athena Corporation Limited, Atual - Fundo de Invest Multimercado Credito Privado Investimento no Exterior, Atual Servicos de Recuperacao de Creditos e Meios Digitais S.A., Autodescuento S.L., Autohaus24 GmbH, Auttar HUT Processamento de Dados Ltda., Aviacion Antares A.I.E., Aviacion Britanica A.I.E., Aviacion Centaurus A.I.E., Aviacion Comillas S.L. Unipersonal, Aviacion Intercontinental A.I.E., Aviacion Laredo S.L., Aviacion Oyambre S.L. Unipersonal, Aviacion Real A.I.E., Aviacion Santillana S.L., Aviacion Suances S.L., Aviacion Triton A.I.E., Aymore Credito Financiamento e Investimento S.A., BEN Beneficios e Servicos S.A., BRS Investments S.A., BZW Bank, Banca PSA Italia S.p.A., Banco Bandepe S.A., Banco Madesant - Sociedade Unipessoal S.A., Banco PSA Finance Brasil S.A., Banco Popular, Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A., Banco Santander (Mexico) S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico como Fiduciaria del Fideicomiso 100740, Banco Santander (Mexico) S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico como Fiduciaria del Fideicomiso 2002114, Banco Santander (Mexico) S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico como Fiduciaria del Fideicomiso GFSSLPT, Banco Santander - Chile, Banco Santander Consumer Portugal S.A., Banco Santander International, Banco Santander International SA, Banco Santander Mexico S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Banco Santander Peru S.A., Banco Santander Rio S.A., Banco Santander S.A., Banco Santander Totta S.A., Banco Santander de Negocios Colombia S.A., Banco de Albacete S.A., Bansa Santander S.A., CCAP Auto Lease Ltd., Canyon Multifamily Impact Fund IV LLC, Capital Street Delaware LP, Capital Street Holdings LLC, Capital Street REIT Holdings LLC, Capital Street S.A., Carfax (Guernsey) Limited (f), Carfinco Financial Group, Carfinco Financial Group Inc., Carfinco Inc., Casa de Bolsa Santander S.A. de C.V. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Cater Allen Holdings Limited, Cater Allen International Limited, Cater Allen Limited, Cater Allen Lloyd's Holdings Limited, Cater Allen Syndicate Management Limited, Centro de Capacitacion Santander A.C., Certidesa S.L., Chrysler Capital Auto Funding I LLC, Chrysler Capital Auto Funding II LLC, Chrysler Capital Auto Receivables LLC, Chrysler Capital Master Auto Receivables Funding 2 LLC, Chrysler Capital Master Auto Receivables Funding 4 LLC, Chrysler Capital Master Auto Receivables Funding LLC, Cobranza Amigable S.A.P.I. de C.V., Community Development and Affordable Housing Fund LLC (g), Compagnie Generale de Credit Aux Particuliers - Credipar S.A., Compagnie Pour la Location de Vehicules - CLV, Comunidad Laboral Trabajando Argentina S.A., Comunidad Laboral Trabajando Iberica S.L. Unipersonal en liquidacion (b), Consulteam Consultores de Gestao Lda., Consumer Lending Receivables LLC, Crawfall S.A. (b), Cantabra de Inversiones S.A., Cantabro Catalana de Inversiones S.A., Darep Designated Activity Company, Decarome S.A.P.I. de C.V., Deva Capital Advisory Company S.L., Deva Capital Holding Company S.L., Deva Capital Investment Company S.L., Deva Capital Management Company S.L., Deva Capital Servicer Company S.L., Digital Procurement Holdings N.V., Diners Club Spain S.A., Direccion Estratega S.C., Dirgenfin S.L. en liquidacion (b), Ebury, El Corte Ingles, Elavon Mexico, Electrolyser S.A. de C.V., Entidad de Desarrollo a la Pequena y Micro Empresa Santander Consumo Peru S.A., Erestone S.A.S., Esfera Fidelidade S.A., Evidence Previdencia S.A., Financeira El Corte Ingles Portugal S.F.C. S.A., Financiera El Corte Ingles E.F.C. S.A., Finsantusa S.L. Unipersonal, First National Motor Business Limited, First National Motor Contracts Limited, First National Motor Facilities Limited, First National Motor Finance Limited, First National Motor Leasing Limited, First National Motor plc, First National Tricity Finance Limited, Fondos Santander S.A. Administradora de Fondos de Inversion (en liquidacion) (b), Fortensky Trading Ltd., Fosse Funding (No.1) Limited, Fosse Master Issuer plc, Fosse Trustee (UK) Limited, GTS El Centro Equity Holdings LLC, GTS El Centro Project Holdings LLC, Gamma Sociedade Financeira de Titularizacao de Creditos S.A., Gesban Mexico Servicios Administrativos Globales S.A. de C.V., Gesban Santander Servicios Profesionales Contables Limitada, Gesban Servicios Administrativos Globales S.L., Gesban UK Limited, Gestion de Instalaciones Fotovoltaicas S.L. Unipersonal, Gestion de Inversiones JILT S.A., Gestora de Procesos S.A. en liquidacion (b), Getnet Adquirencia e Servicos para Meios de Pagamento S.A., Global Vosgos S.L. Unipersonal, Grupo Empresarial Santander S.L., Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. de C.V., Grupo Financiero Santander SAB de CV, Guaranty Car S.A. Unipersonal, HQ Mobile Limited, Hispamer Renting S.A. Unipersonal, Holbah II Limited, Holbah Santander S.L. Unipersonal, Holmes Funding Limited, Holmes Master Issuer plc, Holmes Trustees Limited, Hyundai Capital Bank Europe GmbH, Iberica de Compras Corporativas S.L., Independence Community Bank Corp., Insurance Funding Solutions Limited, Interfinance Holanda B.V., Inversiones Capital Global S.A. Unipersonal, Inversiones Maritimas del Mediterraneo S.A., Isla de los Buques S.A., Klare Corredora de Seguros S.A., Landcompany 2020 S.L., Langton Funding (No.1) Limited, Langton Mortgages Trustee (UK) Limited, Langton Securities (2008-1) plc, Langton Securities (2010-1) PLC, Langton Securities (2010-2) PLC, Laparanza S.A., Liquidity Limited, Luri 1 S.A. en liquidacion (b) (e), Luri 6 S.A. Unipersonal, Master Red Europa S.L., Mata Alta S.L., Merciver S.L., Mercury TFS, Mercury Trade Finance Solutions S.A. de C.V., Mercury Trade Finance Solutions S.L., Mercury Trade Finance Solutions S.p.A., Moneybit S.L., Mortgage Engine Limited, Motor 2016-1 PLC, Motor 2017-1 PLC, Mouro Capital I LP, Multiplica SpA, NW Services CO., Naviera Mirambel S.L., Naviera Trans Gas A.I.E., Naviera Trans Iron S.L., Naviera Trans Ore A.I.E., Naviera Trans Wind S.L. (b), Naviera Transcantabrica S.L., Naviera Transchem S.L. Unipersonal, NeoAuto S.A.C., Norbest AS, Novimovest  Fundo de Investimento Imobiliario, Open Bank Argentina S.A., Open Bank S.A., Open Digital Market S.L., Open Digital Services S.L., Operadora de Carteras Gamma S.A.P.I. de C.V., Optimal Investment Services SA, Optimal Multiadvisors Ireland Plc / Optimal Strategic US Equity Ireland Euro Fund, Optimal Multiadvisors Ireland Plc / Optimal Strategic US Equity Ireland US Dollar Fund, PBE Companies LLC, PECOH Limited, PI Distribuidora de Titulos e Valores Mobiliarios S.A., PSA Bank Deutschland GmbH, PSA Banque France, PSA Finance UK Limited, PSA Financial Services Nederland B.V., PSA Financial Services Spain E.F.C. S.A., PSA Renting Italia S.p.A., PagoFX Europe S.A., PagoFX HoldCo S.L., PagoFX UK Ltd, PagoNxt Merchant Solutions S.L., PagoNxt S.L., Parasant SA, Patagon.com, Pereda Gestion S.A., Pingham International S.A., Popular Spain Holding de Inversiones S.L.U., Portal Universia Argentina S.A., Portal Universia Portugal Prestacao de Servicos de Informatica S.A., Prime 16  Fundo de Investimentos Imobiliario, Punta Lima LLC, Punta Lima Wind Farm LLC, Retop S.A., Return Capital Servicos de Recuperacao de Creditos S.A., Return Gestao de Recursos S.A., Riobank International (Uruguay) SAIFE (b), Rojo Entretenimento S.A., SAM Asset Management S.A. de C.V. Sociedad Operadora de Fondos de Inversion, SAM Investment Holdings S.L., SAM UK Investment Holdings Limited (b), SANB Promotora de Vendas e Cobranca Ltda., SCF Eastside Locks GP Limited, SDMX Superdigital S.A. de C.V., SMPS Merchant Platform Solutions Mexico S.A de C.V, Sancap Investimentos e Participacoes S.A., Santander (CF Trustee Property Nominee) Limited, Santander (UK) Group Pension Schemes Trustees Limited, Santander Ahorro Inmobiliario 1 S.A., Santander Ahorro Inmobiliario 2 S.A., Santander Alternatives SICAV RAIF, Santander Asesorias Financieras Limitada, Santander Asset Finance (December) Limited, Santander Asset Finance plc, Santander Asset Management - S.G.O.I.C. S.A., Santander Asset Management Chile S.A., Santander Asset Management LLC, Santander Asset Management Luxembourg S.A., Santander Asset Management S.A. Administradora General de Fondos, Santander Asset Management S.A. S.G.I.I.C., Santander Asset Management UK Holdings Limited, Santander Asset Management UK Limited, Santander Back-Offices Globales Mayoristas S.A., Santander Banca de Inversion Colombia S.A.S., Santander Bank & Trust Ltd., Santander Bank National Association, Santander Bank Polska S.A., Santander Brasil Administradora de Consorcio Ltda., Santander Brasil Gestao de Recursos Ltda., Santander Brasil Tecnologia S.A., Santander Capital Desarrollo SGEIC S.A. Unipersonal, Santander Capital Structuring S.A. de C.V., Santander Capitalizacao S.A., Santander Cards Ireland Limited, Santander Cards Limited, Santander Cards UK Limited, Santander Chile Holding S.A., Santander Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Santander Consumer (UK) plc, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2013-B2 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2013-B3 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L3 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L4 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L5 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2019-B1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2019-L2 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2019-L3 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2020-B1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2020-L1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2020-L2 LLC, Santander Consumer Bank, Santander Consumer Bank AG, Santander Consumer Bank GmbH, Santander Consumer Bank S.A., Santander Consumer Bank S.p.A., Santander Consumer Banque S.A., Santander Consumer Credit Services Limited, Santander Consumer Finance Benelux B.V., Santander Consumer Finance Global Services S.L., Santander Consumer Finance Oy, Santander Consumer Finance S.A., Santander Consumer Finance Schweiz AG, Santander Consumer Financial Solutions Sp. z o.o., Santander Consumer Finanse Sp. z o.o. (b), Santander Consumer Holding Austria GmbH, Santander Consumer Holding GmbH, Santander Consumer International Puerto Rico LLC, Santander Consumer Leasing GmbH, Santander Consumer Mediacion Operador de Banca-Seguros Vinculado S.L., Santander Consumer Multirent Sp. z o.o., Santander Consumer Operations Services GmbH, Santander Consumer Receivables 10 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables 11 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables 3 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables 7 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables Funding LLC, Santander Consumer Renting S.L., Santander Consumer S.A., Santander Consumer S.A.S., Santander Consumer Services GmbH, Santander Consumer Services S.A., Santander Consumer Technology Services GmbH, Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc., Santander Consumer USA Inc., Santander Consumo S.A. de C.V. S.O.F.O.M. E.R. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Santander Corredora de Seguros Limitada, Santander Corredores de Bolsa Limitada, Santander Corretora de Cambio e Valores Mobiliarios S.A., Santander Corretora de Seguros Investimentos e Servicos S.A., Santander Customer Voice S.A., Santander Digital Assets S.L., Santander Drive Auto Receivables LLC, Santander Equity Investments Limited, Santander Espana Merchant Services Entidad de Pago S.L. Unipersonal, Santander Espana Servicios Legales y de Cumplimiento S.L., Santander Estates Limited, Santander F24 S.A., Santander Facility Management Espana S.L., Santander Factoring S.A., Santander Factoring Sp. z o.o., Santander Factoring y Confirming S.A. E.F.C., Santander Finance 2012-1 LLC, Santander Financial Exchanges Limited, Santander Financial Services Inc., Santander Financial Services plc, Santander Finanse Sp. z o.o., Santander Fintech Holdings S.L., Santander Fintech Limited, Santander Fundo de Investimento SBAC Referenciado di Credito Privado, Santander Gestion de Recaudacion y Cobranzas Ltda., Santander Global Consumer Finance Limited, Santander Global Facilities S.A. de C.V., Santander Global Facilities S.L., Santander Global Operations S.A., Santander Global Services S.A. (b), Santander Global Sport S.A., Santander Global Technology Brasil Ltda., Santander Global Technology Chile Limitada, Santander Global Technology S.L., Santander Global Trade Platform Solutions S.L., Santander Guarantee Company, Santander Holding Imobiliaria S.A., Santander Holding Internacional S.A., Santander Holdings USA Inc., Santander ISA Managers Limited, Santander Inclusion Financiera S.A. de C.V. S.O.F.O.M. E.R. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Santander Insurance Agency U.S. LLC, Santander Insurance Services UK Limited, Santander Intermediacion Correduria de Seguros S.A., Santander International Products Plc. (d), Santander Inversiones S.A., Santander Investment Bank Limited, Santander Investment Chile Limitada, Santander Investment I S.A., Santander Investment S.A., Santander Investment Securities Inc., Santander Investments GP 1 S.a.r.l., Santander Inwestycje Sp. z o.o., Santander Lease S.A. E.F.C., Santander Leasing LLC, Santander Leasing S.A., Santander Leasing S.A. Arrendamento Mercantil, Santander Lending Limited, Santander Mediacion Operador de Banca-Seguros Vinculado S.A., Santander Merchant Platform Operations S.A. de C.V., Santander Merchant Platform Services S.A. de C.V., Santander Merchant Platform Solutions Mexico S.A. de C.V., Santander Merchant Platform Solutions S.A., Santander Merchant Platform Solutions Uruguay S.A., Santander Merchant Platform SolucoesTecnologicas Brasil Ltda., Santander Merchant S.A., Santander Mortgage Holdings Limited, Santander Paraty Qif PLC, Santander Pensiones S.A. E.G.F.P., Santander Pensoes - Sociedade Gestora de Fundos de Pensoes S.A., Santander Private Banking Gestion S.A. S.G.I.I.C., Santander Private Banking UK Limited, Santander Private Banking s.p.a. in Liquidazione (b), Santander Private Real Estate Advisory & Management S.A., Santander Private Real Estate Advisory S.A., Santander Real Estate S.A., Santander Retail Auto Lease Funding LLC, Santander Rio Asset Management Gerente de Fondos Comunes de Inversion S.A., Santander Rio Trust S.A., Santander Rio Valores S.A., Santander S.A. Sociedad Securitizadora, Santander Secretariat Services Limited, Santander Securities LLC, Santander Seguros y Reaseguros Compania Aseguradora S.A., Santander Servicios Corporativos S.A. de C.V., Santander Servicios Especializados S.A. de C.V., Santander Technology USA LLC, Santander Tecnologia e Inovacao Ltda., Santander Tecnologia Argentina S.A., Santander Tecnologia Espana S.L.U., Santander Tecnologia Mexico S.A. de C.V., Santander Totta SGPS S.A., Santander Totta Seguros Companhia de Seguros de Vida S.A., Santander Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych S.A., Santander Trade Services Limited, Santander UK Group Holdings plc, Santander UK Investments, Santander UK Operations Limited, Santander UK Plc, Santander UK Technology Limited, Santander Wealth Management International SA, Santander de Titulizacion S.G.F.T. S.A., Santusa Holding S.L., Services and Promotions Delaware Corp., Services and Promotions Miami LLC, Servicio de Alarmas Controladas por Ordenador S.A., Servicios de Cobranza Recuperacion y Seguimiento S.A. De C.V., Sheppards Moneybrokers Limited, Shiloh III Wind Project LLC, Sociedad Integral de Valoraciones Automatizadas S.A., Sociedad Operadora de Tarjetas de Pago Santander Getnet Chile S.A., Socur S.A., Sol Orchard Imperial 1 LLC, Solarlaser Limited, Sovereign Community Development Company, Sovereign Delaware Investment Corporation, Sovereign Lease Holdings LLC, Sovereign REIT Holdings Inc., Sovereign Spirit Limited (f), Sterrebeeck B.V., Suleyado 2003 S.L. Unipersonal, Summer Empreendimentos Ltda., Super Pagamentos e Administracao de Meios Eletronicos S.A., Superdigital Argentina S.A.U., Superdigital Colombia S.A.S., Superdigital Holding Company S.L., Superdigital Peru S.A.C., Suzuki Servicios Financieros S.L., Swesant SA, TIMFin S.p.A., TOPSAM S.A de C.V., Taxagest Sociedade Gestora de Participacoes Sociais S.A., Teatinos Siglo XXI Inversiones S.A., The Alliance & Leicester Corporation Limited, The Best Specialty Coffee S.L. Unipersonal, Time Retail Finance Limited (b), Tonopah Solar I LLC, Toque Fale Servicos de Telemarketing Ltda., Tornquist Asesores de Seguros S.A. (b), Totta (Ireland) PLC, Totta Urbe - Empresa de Administracao e Construcoes S.A., Trabajando.com Mexico S.A. de C.V. en liquidacion (b), Trabajando.com Peru S.A.C., Trans Rotor Limited (b), Transolver Finance EFC S.A., Tresmares Growth Fund Santander SCR S.A., Tresmares Santander Direct Lending SICC S.A., Tuttle and Son Limited, Universia Brasil S.A., Universia Chile S.A., Universia Colombia S.A.S., Universia Espana Red de Universidades S.A., Universia Holding S.L., Universia Mexico S.A. de C.V., Universia Peru S.A., Universia Uruguay S.A., Uro Property Holdings SOCIMI S.A., WIM Servicios Corporativos S.A. de C.V., WTW Shipping Designated Activity Company, Wallcesa S.A., Wave Holdco S.L., Waypoint Insurance Group Inc., and Wirecard (Technological Assets).
China Mobile Limited provides mobile telecommunications and related services in Mainland China and Hong Kong. The company offers local calls; domestic and international long distance calls and roaming services; and value-added services, such as caller identity display, call waiting, conference calls, and others. It also provides wireless Internet service, as well as digital applications comprising music, video, reading, gaming, and animation; wireline broadband services; and wireline voice services. In addition, it offers dedicated line and IDC services to corporate customers in a range of industry sectors; and basic corporate communication products comprising corporate VPMN and SMS, and tailor made solutions. Further, the company provides international telecommunications services, which includes IDD, roaming, Internet, MNC, and value added business services. Additionally, it offers telecommunications network planning, design, and consulting services; roaming clearance, IT system operation, and technology support services; value-added platform development and maintenance services; mobile data, and system integration and development services; network construction and maintenance, network planning and optimizing, and training services; electronic communication products design and sale of related products; and non-banking financial services. It also provides mobile cloud research and development services; call center services; e-payment, e-commerce, and Internet finance services; and mobile Internet digital content services, as well as operates a network and business coordination center. The company serves 950 million mobile customers and 187 million wireline broadband customers. The company was formerly known as China Mobile (Hong Kong) Limited and changed its name to China Mobile Limited in May 2006. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is based in Central, Hong Kong. China Mobile Limited is a subsidiary of China Mobile Hong Kong (BVI) Limited.

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Brookfield Asset Management, Inc. engages in the management of public and private investment products and services for institutional and retail clients. It operates through the following segments: Asset Management, Real Estate, Renewable Power, Infrastructure, Private Equity, Residential Development, and Corporate Activities. The Asset Management segment includes the management of its listed partnerships, private funds and public securities. The Real Estate segment is comprised of the ownership, operation and development of core office, core retail, LP investments and other properties. The Renewable Power segment encompasses the ownership, operation and development of hydroelectric, wind, solar, storage and other power generating facilities. The Infrastructure segment consists of the ownership, operation and development of utilities, transport, energy, data infrastructure and sustainable resource assets. The Private Equity segment refers to the broad range of industries, and is mostly focused on business services, infrastructure services and industrials. The Residential Development segment represents homebuilding, condominium development and land development. The Corporate Activiti

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There is not enough analysis data for Just Eat.

4.1 Community Rank

Outperform Votes Just Eat has received 91 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.)

Underperform Votes Just Eat has received 54 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.)

Community Sentiment Just Eat has received 62.76% outperform votes from our community.

MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Just Eat and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe JSTLF will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe JSTLF will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Exxon Mobil: AKG Marketing Company Limited, Aera Energy LLC, Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company, Ampolex (Cepu) Pte Ltd, Ancon Insurance Company Inc., Barnett Gathering LLC, Barzan Gas Company Limited, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Celtic Exploration Ltd., Coral FLNG S.A., Cross Timbers Energy LLC, Ellora Energy Inc., Esmeroon Oil Transporta Imperial Oil Limited, Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Esso Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, Esso Global Investments Ltd., Esso Italiana S.r.l., Esso Nederland B.V., Esso Norge AS, Esso Petroleum Company Limited, Esso Raffinage, Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, Exxo Holdings Inc., Exxon Azerbaijan Limited, Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc., Exxon International Finance Company, Exxon Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Exxon Mobile Bay Limited Partnership, Exxon Neftegas Limited, Exxon Overseas Corporation, Exxon Overseas Investment Corporation, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil (Taicang) Petroleum Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil Abu Dhabi Offshore Petroleum Company Limited, ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc., ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd, ExxonMobil B Resources Company, ExxonMobil Capital Finance Company, ExxonMobil Capital Netherlands B.V., ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited, ExxonMobil Chemical France, ExxonMobil Chemical Gulf Coast Investments LLC, ExxonMobil Chemical Holland B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil China Petroleum & Petrochemical Company Limited, ExxonMobil Development Africa B.V., ExxonMobil Development Company, ExxonMobil Egypt (S.A.E.), ExxonMobil Exploracao Brasil Ltda., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway AS, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Tanzania Limited, ExxonMobil Finance Company Limited, ExxonMobil Financial Investment Company Limited, ExxonMobil France Holding SAS, ExxonMobil Gas Marketing Europe Limited, ExxonMobil General Finance Company, ExxonMobil Global Services Company, ExxonMobil Golden Pass Surety LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Company Holland LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Norway AS, ExxonMobil Hong Kong Limited, ExxonMobil International Services SARL, ExxonMobil Iraq Limited, ExxonMobil Italiana Gas S.r.l., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc., ExxonMobil LNG Services B.V., ExxonMobil Lubricants Trading Company, ExxonMobil Oil Corporation, ExxonMobil PNG Limited, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical BVBA, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical Holdings Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH, ExxonMobil Production Norway Inc., ExxonMobil Qatargas (II) Limited, ExxonMobil Qatargas Inc., ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited, ExxonMobil Rasgas Inc., ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, ExxonMobil Russia Kara Sea Holdings B.V., ExxonMobil Sales and Supply LLC, ExxonMobil Technology Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Funding Ltd., Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co. Ltd., Golden Pass LNG Terminal Investments LLC, Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures LLC, Imperial Oil Limited, Imperial Oil Resources Limited, Imperial Oil Resources N.W.T. Limited, Imperial Oil/Petroliere Imperiale, Infineum Italia s.r.I., Infineum Singapore Pte. Ltd., InterOil Corporation, Jurong Aromatics Corporation Pte Ltd, MPM Lubricants, Marine Well Containment Company LLC, Mobil Australia Resources Company Pty Limited, Mobil California Exploration & Producing Asset Company, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company, Mobil Chemical Products International Inc., Mobil Corporation, Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc., Mobil Erdgas Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Mobil Exploration & Producing Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil International Petroleum Corporation, Mobil Oil Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast Inc., Mobil Oil New Zealand Limited, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mobil Producing Texas & New Mexico Inc., Mobil SerLimited, Mobil Venezolana De Petroleos Inc., Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Company Inc., Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc., Mountain Gathering LLC, Mozambique Rovuma Venture S.p.A., Palmetto Transoceanic LLC, Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas Global Company LDC, Permian Express Partners LLC, Phillips Exploration LLC, Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II), SPI Limited, Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company Ltd., Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co., SeaRiver Maritime Inc., South Hook LNG Terminal Company Limited, Tengizchevroil LLP, Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l, Trend Gathering & Treating LLC, Wolverine Pipe Line Company, XH LLC, XTO Delaware Basin LLC, XTO ENERGY, XTO Energy Canada, and XTO Holdings LLC.
10 hours ago

The Short-Squeeze In Dave & Busters Is On

Dave & Busters Returns To Growth Weve had our eye on Dave & Busters (NASDAQ: PLAY) as a recovery play for some time and that thesis is playing out nicely. While the price action has been volatile short-selling and tax-loss selling are mostly to blame because the results have been fantastic.

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Horizonte Minerals Plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the identification, acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral projects in Brazil. The company primarily explores for nickel deposits, as well as cobalt deposits. It holds 100% interest in the Araguaia ferronickel project and the Vermelho Nickel-Cobalt project located in the south of the CarajAs mineral district in northern Brazil. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

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Xcel Energy, Inc. operates as a holding company, which engages in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity. It operates through the following three segments: Regulated Electric Utility, Regulated Natural Gas Utility and All Others. The Regulated Electric Utility segment generates, transmits and distributes electricity primarily in portions of generates, transmits and distributes electricity in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico. In addition, this segment includes sales for resale and provides wholesale transmission service to various entities in the United States. It also includes commodity trading operations. The Regulated Natural Gas Utility segment transports, stores, and distributes natural gas primarily in portions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Michigan and Colorado. The All Others segment engages in steam, appliance repair services, nonutility real estate activities, processing solid waste into refuse-derived fuel and investments in rental housing projects that qualify for low-income housing tax credits. The company was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Ecolab: AO Ecolab, Abednego Environmental Services, Abednego Environmental Services LLC, Abednego Mexico Holdings LLC, Abednego de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Alcide Corp., Anios America S.A., Anios Diffusion SAS, Anios Manufacturing SAS, Bioquell, Bioquell Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Bioquell Global Logistics (Ireland) Ltd., Bioquell Holding SAS, Bioquell Inc., Bioquell Limited, Bioquell SAS, Bioquell Technology (Shenzhen) Ltd., Bioquell Technology Canada Ltd., Bioquell UK Limited, Bioxyquell Limited, CALGON EUROPE LIMITED, CALGON LLC, CID LINES HOLDING NV, CID LINES INVEST NV, CID LINES NV, CID Lines, CID Lines Beijing Animal Hygiene Co Ltd., CID Lines France Sarl, CID Lines Iberica SL, CID Lines LLC, CID Lines Mexico S.A. DE C.V., CID Lines R&D NV, CID Lines Sp. z o. o., CORPAK MedSystems, Cascade Water Services, Champion Technologies, Chamtech L.L.C., Chemlawn, Chemstaff Inc., Chemstar Corporation, Cirlam BVBA, Copal Holding NV, Copal Invest NV, DERYPOL SA, DMD, E&M Bio-Chemicals LLC, ECOLAB NL 10 B.V., ECOLAB PEST FRANCE SAS, Ecolab (Antigua) Ltd., Ecolab (Aruba) N.V., Ecolab (Barbados) Limited, Ecolab (China) Investment Co. Ltd, Ecolab (Fiji) Pty Limited, Ecolab (GZ) Chemicals Limited, Ecolab (Guam) LLC, Ecolab (Proprietary) Limited, Ecolab (Schweiz) GmbH, Ecolab (St. Lucia) Limited, Ecolab (Taicang) Technology Co. Ltd., Ecolab (Trinidad and Tobago) Unlimited, Ecolab (U.K.) Holdings Limited, Ecolab A.E.B.E., Ecolab AB, Ecolab AP Holdings LLC, Ecolab AT 2 GmbH, Ecolab AU2 Pty Ltd, Ecolab Acquisition LLC, Ecolab ApS, Ecolab Argentina S.R.L., Ecolab Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Ecolab B.V., Ecolab B.V.B.A./S.P.R.L., Ecolab Bahrain S.P.C., Ecolab CDN 2 Co., Ecolab CDN 4 ULC, Ecolab CH 1 GmbH, Ecolab CH 2 GmbH, Ecolab CH 3 GmbH, Ecolab CH 5 GmbH, Ecolab CH 6 GmbH, Ecolab Chemicals Limited, Ecolab Co., Ecolab Colombia S. A., Ecolab DE 1 GmbH, Ecolab Deutschland GmbH, Ecolab EOOD, Ecolab East Africa (Kenya) Limited, Ecolab East Africa (Tanzania) Limited, Ecolab East Africa (Uganda) Limited, Ecolab Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Ecolab Engineering GmbH, Ecolab Europe GmbH, Ecolab Export GmbH, Ecolab FR 1 SAS, Ecolab FR 4 SAS, Ecolab Finance Company Designated Activity Company, Ecolab Food Safety & Hygiene Solutions Private Limited, Ecolab G.K., Ecolab Global Business Services LLC, Ecolab GmbH, Ecolab Gulf FZE, Ecolab HK 1 Limited, Ecolab HK 2 Limited, Ecolab Hispano-Portuguesa S.L., Ecolab Holding Italy S.r.l., Ecolab Holdings (Europe) LLC, Ecolab Holdings Inc., Ecolab Holdings Mexico S. de R. L. de C. V., Ecolab Hygiene Kft., Ecolab Hygiene d.o.o., Ecolab Israel Holdings LLC, Ecolab JVZ Limited, Ecolab Korea Ltd., Ecolab LLC, Ecolab LUX & Co Holdings S.C.A., Ecolab LUX 1 Sarl, Ecolab LUX 2 Sarl, Ecolab LUX 4 Sarl, Ecolab LUX 7 Sarl, Ecolab LUX Sarl, Ecolab Limited, Ecolab Ltd., Ecolab Lux 10 Sarl, Ecolab Lux 12 Sarl, Ecolab Lux 13 Sarl, Ecolab Lux 14 Sarl, Ecolab Lux 15 Sarl, Ecolab Lux 9 S.a.r.l., Ecolab Lux Partner LLC, Ecolab MT Holdings LLC, Ecolab MT Limited, Ecolab Malta 1 Limited, Ecolab Malta 2 Limited, Ecolab Malta GPS, Ecolab Manufacturing IE Limited, Ecolab Manufacturing Inc., Ecolab Manufacturing UK Limited, Ecolab Maroc Societe a Responsabilite Limitee, Ecolab NL 11 B.V., Ecolab NL 15 BV, Ecolab NL 16 B.V., Ecolab NL 23 B.V., Ecolab NL 3 BV, Ecolab NL 4 BV, Ecolab Name Holding Limited, Ecolab New Zealand, Ecolab Peru Holdings S.R.L., Ecolab Pest Deutschland GmbH, Ecolab Philippines Inc., Ecolab Production Belgium B.V.B.A., Ecolab Production France SAS, Ecolab Production Italy Srl, Ecolab Production LLC, Ecolab Production Netherlands B.V., Ecolab Production Poland sp. z o.o., Ecolab Pte. Ltd., Ecolab Pty Ltd., Ecolab Quimica Ltda., Ecolab S. de R.L. de C.V., Ecolab S.A., Ecolab S.A. de C.V., Ecolab SAS, Ecolab SIA, Ecolab SNC, Ecolab SRL, Ecolab Sdn Bhd, Ecolab Services Argentina S.R.L., Ecolab Services Poland Sp. z o o, Ecolab Sociedad Anonima, Ecolab Sp. z o o, Ecolab Spain Services S.L.U., Ecolab Temizleme Sistemleri Limited Sirketi, Ecolab U.S. 2 Inc., Ecolab U.S. 6 LLC, Ecolab U.S. 7 LLC, Ecolab US 1 GP, Ecolab USA Inc., Ecolab Viet Nam Company Limited, Ecolab Water Holding LImited, Ecolab a.s., Ecolab d.o.o., Ecolab s.r.l., Ecolab s.r.o., Ecolab y Compania Colectiva de Responsabilidad Limitada, Ecolab-Importacao E. Exportacao Limitada, Ecolabone B.V., Ecolabtwo B.V., Endoclear Equipamentos Medicos Hospitalares Ltda., Enviroflo Engineering Limited, Food Protection Services, GCS Service, Gallay Medical & Scientific Pty Ltd, Gallay Medical & Scientific Pty Ltd., GallayTrac Pty. Ltd., Georgia-Pacific - Paper Chemicals Business, Gibson Chemical Industries, Green Harbour Mainland Holdings Ltd, Guangzhou Green Harbour Environmental Operation Ltd., HYDROSAN LIMITED, Henkel-Ecolab, Hicopla SL, Holchem Laboratories, Huntington Laboratories, Hydenet SAS, INDUSTRIAL) UNIPESSOAL LDA, INTERNATIONAL WATER CONSULTANT B.V., Immobiliare R.E.O.P.A. SRL, Instrunet Hospital SLU, Jianghai Environmental Protection Co., Jianghai Environmental Protection Co. Ltd., KATAYAMA NALCO INC., Kay BVBA, Kay Chemical Company, LHS (UK) Limited, Laboratoires Anios, Laboratoires Anios-Distribution SAS, Les Produits Chimiques ERPAC Inc., Lobster Ink, Lobster Ink Africa (Pty.) Ltd., Lobster International S.A., London & General Packaging Ltd, MALAYSIA SDN. BHD, MANUFACTURING S.R.L., MOBOTEC AB LLC, Master Chemicals OOO, Meratech Rus Group LLC, Microtek Dominicana S.A., Microtek Italy S.R.L., Microtek Medical B.V., Microtek Medical Europe Limited, Microtek Medical Holdings, Microtek Medical Holdings Inc., Microtek Medical Inc., Microtek Medical Malta Holding Limited, Microtek Medical Malta Limited, Midland Research Laboratories, Midland Research Laboratories UK Limited, NALCO (SHANGHAI) TRADING CO. LTD., NALCO AB, NALCO ACQUISITION ONE, NALCO ACQUISITION TWO LIMITED, NALCO AFRICA (PTY.) LTD., NALCO ASIA HOLDING COMPANY PTE. LTD., NALCO BELGIUM BVBA, NALCO CHINA HOLDINGS LLC, NALCO COMPANY OOO, NALCO DANMARK APS, NALCO DE MEXICO S. de R. L. de C.V., NALCO DELAWARE COMPANY, NALCO DEUTSCHLAND GMBH, NALCO DEUTSCHLAND MANUFACTURING GMBH UND CO. KG, NALCO DUTCH HOLDINGS B.V., NALCO EGYPT LTD., NALCO EGYPT TRADING, NALCO ESPANOLA MANUFACTURING S.L.U., NALCO ESPANOLA S.L., NALCO EUROPE B.V., NALCO FINLAND MANUFACTURING OY, NALCO FINLAND OY, NALCO FRANCE, NALCO FRANCE SNC, NALCO GLOBAL HOLDINGS B.V., NALCO GLOBAL HOLDINGS LLC, NALCO HOLDING B.V., NALCO HOLDING COMPANY, NALCO HOLDINGS G.m.b.H., NALCO HOLDINGS UK LIMITED, NALCO HONG KONG LIMITED, NALCO INDUSTRIAL OUTSOURCING COMPANY, NALCO INDUSTRIAL SERVICES, NALCO INDUSTRIAL SERVICES (NANJING) CO. LTD., NALCO INDUSTRIAL SERVICES (SUZHOU) CO. LTD., NALCO INDUSTRIAL SERVICES (THAILAND) CO. LTD., NALCO INDUSTRIAL SERVICES CHILE LIMITADA, NALCO INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS B.V., NALCO INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS LLC, NALCO INVESTMENTS U.K. LIMITED, NALCO ISRAEL INDUSTRIAL SERVICES LTD, NALCO ITALIANA, NALCO ITALIANA HOLDINGS S.R.L., NALCO ITALIANA SrL, NALCO KOREA LIMITED, NALCO LIMITED, NALCO LUXEMBOURG HOLDINGS SARL, NALCO MANUFACTURING BETEILIGUNGS GMBH, NALCO MANUFACTURING LTD., NALCO NETHERLANDS B.V., NALCO NORTH AFRICA LIMITED, NALCO OSTERREICH Ges m.b.H., NALCO OVERSEAS HOLDING B.V., NALCO PAKISTAN (PRIVATE) LIMITED, NALCO PHILIPPINES INC., NALCO PORTUGUESA (QUIMICA, NALCO PWS INC., NALCO SAUDI CO. LTD., NALCO TAIWAN CO. LTD., NALCO TWO INC., NALCO U.S. HOLDINGS LLC, NALCO UNIVERSAL HOLDINGS BV, NALCO WORLDWIDE HOLDINGS LLC, NALCO ZAO, NALFLOC LIMITED, NALTECH INC., NANOSPECIALTIES LLC, NLC PROCESS AND WATER SERVICES SARL, Nalco (BN) SDN BHD, Nalco (China) Environmental Solution Co. Ltd., Nalco Anadolu Kimya Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Nalco Canada ULC, Nalco Company LLC, Nalco Contract Operations LLC, Nalco Grundbesitz GmbH & Co. KG, Nalco Gulf Response Corp., Nalco Japan G.K., Nalco Libya, Nalco Middle East FZE, Nalco Polska Sp. z o. o., Nalco Production LLC, Nalco Real Estate GmbH, Nalco Schweiz GmbH, Nalco US 1 LLC, Nalco Wastewater Contract Operations Inc., Nalco Water India Limited, Nalco Water Pretreatment Solutions LLC, Nalco Worldwide Holdings S.a.r.l./B.V., Nigiko, Nuova Farmec S.r.l., Oksa Kimya Sanayi A.S., Oy Ecolab AB, PT Ecolab International Indonesia, PT Ecolab Technologies and Services, Purate business - AkzoNobel, Quantum Technical Services LLC, Quimicas Ecolab S.A. de C.V., Quimiproductos S.A. de C.V, RP Adam Ltd, Research Fumigation Co., Royal Pest Solutions, Shield Holdings Limited, Shield Medicare Limited, Shield Salvage Associates Limited, Soluscope International Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Soluscope SAS, Swisher Hygiene, Technical Textile Services Limited, Techtex Holdings Limited, Terminix, Ultrafab, Wabasha Leasing LLC, and vanBaerle Hygiene AG.
United Internet AG, through its subsidiaries, operates as an Internet service provider (ISP). It operates through Consumer Access, Business Access, Consumer Applications, and Business Applications segments. The company offers landline-based broadband and mobile internet products, including home networks, online storage, telephony, and IPTV; and telecommunication products ranging from fiber-optic direct connections to tailored ICT solutions, which include voice, data, and network solutions, as well as infrastructure services to national and international carriers and ISPs. It also provides ad-financed and fee-based application products for consumer and business customers, including domains, Websites, Web hosting, servers, cloud solutions, and e-shops; personal information management applications, such as email, to-do lists, appointments, and addresses; and group works, online storage, and office software. The company offers its access products through the yourfone, smartmobile.de, 1&1, winSIM, maxim, simplytel, DeutschlandSIM, PremiumSIM, and 1&1 versatel brands; and applications through GMX, mail.com, WEB.DE, home.pl, Arsys, Strato, 1&1 IONOS, Fasthosts, InterNetX, united-domains, and World4You brand names. In addition, it offers customers professional services in the fields of active domain management under the Sedo brand; and online advertising services under the United Internet Media brand name. The company has operations in Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Poland, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, and Mexico. United Internet AG was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Montabaur, Germany.

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ONEOK, Inc. engages in gathering, processing, fractionating, transporting, storing and marketing of natural gas. It operates through the following segments: Natural Gas Gathering and Processing, Natural Gas Liquids and Natural Gas Pipelines. The Natural Gas Gathering and Processing segment offers midstream services to producers in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma. The Natural Gas Liquids segment owns and operates facilities that gather, fractionate, treat and distribute NGLs and store NGL products, in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico and the Rocky Mountain region, which includes the Williston, Powder River and DJ Basins, where it provides midstream services to producers of NGLs and deliver those products to the two market centers, one in the Mid-Continent in Conway, Kansas and the other in the Gulf Coast in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment provides transportation and storage services to end users. The company was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Tulsa, OK.

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Rayonier Advanced Materials, Inc. engages in the production and sale of cellulose products, which is a natural polymer commonly used in the production of cell phone and computer screens, filters, and pharmaceuticals. It operates through the following segments: High Purity Cellulose, Forest Products, Paperboard, Pulp and Newsprint, and Corporate. The High Purity Cellulose segment manufacture and market high purity cellulose, which is sold as either cellulose specialties or commodity products in U.S., Canda, and France. The Forest Products segment manufacture and market construction-grade lumber in North America through seven sawmills located in Canada. The Paperboard segment comprises paperboard products. The Pulp and Newsprint segment involves in the production of pulp and newsprint in Canada. The Corporate segment consists senior management, accounting, information systems, human resources, treasury, tax, and legal administrative functions that provide support services to the operating business units. The company was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, FL.

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Street Capital Group Inc., through its subsidiary, Street Capital Bank of Canada, provides a range of deposit and residential mortgage solutions in Canada. The company originates and sells high ratio and conventional prime insurable single-family residential mortgages; and accepts cashable guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) or term deposits and non-redeemable GICs. It offers residential mortgage loans primarily through its network of independent mortgage brokers. The company was formerly known as Counsel Corporation and changed its name to Street Capital Group Inc. in June 2015. Street Capital Group Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

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Direct Line Insurance Group plc provides general insurance products and services in the United Kingdom. It operates through Motor, Home, Rescue and Other Personal Lines, and Commercial segments. The company offers motor, home, rescue, travel, creditor, and pet insurance products, as well as insurance for mid-to-high-net worth customers; and commercial insurance for small and medium-sized enterprises. It also provides management, motor vehicle repair, insurance intermediary, support and operational, legal, and breakdown recovery services. The company sells its insurance products directly through price comparison Websites and phone, as well as through partners and brokers under the Direct Line, Churchill, Green Flag, Direct Line for Business, DLG Partnerships, NIG, Privilege, Shotgun, DLG Legal Services, Darwin, and DLG Auto Services brands. The company was formerly known as RBS Insurance Group Limited and changed its name to Direct Line Insurance Group plc in February 2012. Direct Line Insurance Group plc was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Bromley, the United Kingdom.

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Tata car owners can now get their cars serviced at their doorstep.

Service can be booked online through Tata Motors website.

Rival automakers like Maruti and Hyundai also offer doorstep services.

Your car needs routine maintenance to keep it in shape. However, for some, finding the time to take their car to the service centre might be a bit difficult. So, Tata Motors has rolled a new initiative called Tata Care Mobile Service Van with which trained mechanics can undertake routine services and minor repairs right at your doorstep. Currently, it can be availed at 42 locations in 38 cities across India.

Tata car owners can avail this service by visiting Tata Motors website and booking a time slot of their choosing. Tatas rivals such as Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai too offer similar doorstep car servicing options. For more details, check out the press release from Tata Motors below.

Press Release:

Tata Motors Mobile Service Van brings convenient service solutions at your doorstep

Mumbai, March, 07, 2019  Committed to providing quality after sales service and increasing customer satisfaction, Tata Motors has bolstered its program of Mobile Service Vans (MSV). Known as Tata Care Mobile Service Van (Car Assist and Repair Expert) - a service for customers on the go, the Company is offering convenient service solutions across 42 locations in multiple cities.

Tata Care is designed to provide periodical services (schedule free and paid services) to Tata Motors passenger vehicles. Through Tata Care, multiple service vans are deployed to fulfill the requirements of customers on the go or for customers who are not able to travel to the nearest service station. All periodical services can be availed at a customers doorstep through a team of specially trained mechanics.

Commenting on Tata Care, Mr. Subhajit Roy, Senior General Manager & Head Customer Care, Tata Motors said "Tata Care is an initiative that is aimed at providing convenience and ease to customers for their basic servicing needs across India. It aims to provide the convenience to those customers, who are unable to get their vehicles serviced regularly due to paucity of time or their inability to visit the service centers. Keeping our customers at the centre of our business and encouraging them to keep their vehicles healthy, we have curated customized offerings that will work towards strengthening and improving our customer service initiatives. With and aim to better our services, Tata Motors will continue to innovate and build solutions which are aimed at increasing convenience and offering world-class after sales services.

Features of the mobile service vans:

Tool Crib comprises set of hand tools, drivers & spanners, sockets & bits Electrical Test Equips  Multimeter, Clampmeter, Hydrmeter & Thermometer Service Equips  Creeper, Jack Stand, Jack & Stoppers Oil Dispensers & Waste oil collectors Pneumatic Tooling Power Generator/Invertor Air Compressor Car Washer with water storage tank also Eco wash kit Heavy duty Wet & Dry Vacuum Cleaner Camp Table & Chairs Equipped with Telematics system

To enable this service customers can visit the online booking section on the Tata Motors Service website. These service vehicles are easy to locate as they are fitted with trackers to provide real time data to dealerships. The dealerships are then able to provide the location of the nearest service van to its customers thus providing a seamless and convenient experience. In addition to MSVs, the online booking also offers pick up and drop facility of the vehicle from the residence of the customer.

Disclaimer: This article has not been edited by Deccan Chronicle and is taken from a syndicated feed. Photos: CarDekho.
One of the key areas that Paisabazaar.com will be focussing on under this initiative would be to hire women who have taken long conscious breaks in their professional lives. (Photo: Youtube)

Gurgaon: Paisabazaar.com, Indias largest online marketplace for financial products, announced today that it would increase its representation of women employees to 33 per cent by end of the financial year 2019-20. Currently, 23 per cent of Paisabazaar.coms 3083 employees are women.

Financial services, as an industry, generally has low representation of women. But, we have often found women employees to be more productive, efficient and organized. Over the next few months, we would be hiring aggressively to attract best women talent across the country, for technology, product, sales, analytics and marketing, said Naveen Kukreja, CEO & Co-founder, Paisabazaar.com.

One of Paisabazaar.com's goals, as an organisation, is to employ diverse and empowered workforce, which is completely aligned to the organizations culture and values. Hiring more women, Paisabazaar.com says, will also be key in meeting its business objectives.

Women employees have a natural knack of strategizing and bringing on board a more balanced and diverse viewpoint. They also come with inherent commitment, integrity and empathy  qualities which we look for as a customer-facing business. As we look to strengthen our market leadership next year, we are confident our women employees will be one of our biggest assets in this journey, said Radhika Binani, Chief Product Officer, Paisabazaar.com.

One of the key areas that Paisabazaar.com will be focussing on under this initiative would be to hire women who have taken long conscious breaks in their professional lives, due to family or other personal reasons.

Usually, women perform exceeding well in academics and in the initial phases of their professional lives. But due to family and personal reasons, many of them drop off. Paisabazaar.com is welcoming these talented women and giving them an equal opportunity to once again excel in their careers, added Radhika Binani.

To attract and retain women employees, Paisabazaar.com has introduced several women-friendly initiatives aimed at their personal and professional development, along with enhancing their work-life balance.

From supporting young mothers, through industry-best maternity and super-normal leave policy, heavily discounted facilities at 200+ creches and playschools, creating special L&D initiative, building an internal womens leadership system, providing safe and harassment-free workplace through strong anti-discrimination policy and grievance redressal system, Paisabazaar.com is committed to create a friendly support system for all its women employees. We have found these initiatives have genuinely helped control attrition and retain our best talent, said Shambhavi Solanki, Head, Human Resources, Paisabazaar.com.

Paisabazaar.com is planning large scale recruitment drives for women in the next financial year. While its hiring policy will continue to be based on equal opportunity and merit, Paisabazaar.com would be conducting campus recruitment camps in womens colleges to reach out to prospective women employees and groom them over the next few years.
The clarification would help in reducing avoidable litigation and is line with global practice.

New Delhi: The CBIC on Thursday clarified on the vexed issue of levy of GST on sales promotion schemes like 'buy one get one free' offered by FMCG firms, saying taxes would be paid on the price recovered from the customer.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), under the Finance Ministry, said that in case of offers like Buy one, Get one free' it may appear at first glance that one item is being supplied free of cost' without any consideration.

"In fact it is not an individual supply of free goods but a case of two or more individual supplies where a single price is being charged for the entire supply. It can at best be treated as supplying two goods for the price of one'," the CBIC said.

PwC Partner and Leader Indirect Tax Pratik Jain said it has been clarified that 'under buy one get one' scheme, GST would be paid on the price recovered from the customer without reversing the input credit.

With regard to free samples and gifts', like in the pharmaceutical industry to provide drug samples to their stockists, dealers and medical practitioners without any consideration, the CBIC said this shall not be treated as supply under GST and hence will not be liable to tax.

"Samples which are supplied free of cost, without any consideration, not qualify as supply under GST," the CBIC said.

Under Goods and Services Tax law supply includes all forms of supply of goods or services such as sale, transfer, barter, rental, lease or disposal made or agreed to be made for a consideration by a person in the course of furtherance of business.

Jain said the clarification on tax treatment of sales promotion schemes under GST is a welcome relief particularly for FMCG and Pharma, where these promotional schemes are very common.

"The clarification would help in reducing avoidable litigation and is line with global practice," he added.

EY Tax Partner Abhishek Jain said, "The explicit clarification on availability of credit on goods supplied under 'Buy One Get One Scheme' would be quite welcome by most industry players.
The 5 million tonne per annum (MTPA) liquefied natural gas (LNG) import and regasification terminal, built by IOC at a cost of Rs 5,150 crore, was commissioned earlier this week.

New Delhi: India's first east coast LNG import terminal at Ennore in Tamil Nadu will help state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) fast-track its city gas distribution plans, said energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

The 5 million tonne per annum (MTPA) liquefied natural gas (LNG) import and regasification terminal, built by IOC at a cost of Rs 5,150 crore, was commissioned earlier this week. "IOC has already secured captive customers for 2 MTPA of capacity. The Ennore terminal will also help fast-track IOC's city gas distribution plan, as gas from the terminal will be supplied to consumers around Chennai and Madurai," Wood Mackenzie's senior analyst Kaushik Chatterjee said in a report.

India plans to double its LNG import and regasification capacity to 56.5 MTPA by 2025 to meet the energy needs of a fast-growing economy. In order to supply natural gas to various consumers, IOC is laying a 1244-km pipeline for evacuation of gas from Ennore terminal. The pipeline from the terminal will go up to Madurai, Trichy and Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu and branch out to Bengaluru via Hosur in Tamil Nadu.

Imported gas at the terminal will meet fuel requirement of Chennai Petroleum Corp, Madras Fertilisers, Tamil Nadu Petroproducts and Manali Petrochemicals. Ennore LNG terminal is part of India's plan to raise the share of natural gas in the country's energy basket to 15 per cent by 2030 from current 6.2 per cent.

"In the longer term, Ennore could become integrated with India's national gas network via a pipeline to Vijayawada or Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. "Historically, delays in intra-state pipeline construction have impeded gas and LNG usage in India. The pipeline connecting the Kochi regasification terminal in Kerala to Mangalore in Karnataka is a glaring example," Chatterjee said.

IOC, he said, has additional plans to connect remaining refineries to gas pipelines, which will likely at least double its gas demand. IOC has signed a 0.7 MTPA contract with Mitsubishi for 20 years, with supply coming from Cameron LNG in the US. "We believe the commissioning of Ennore may also lead IOC to source more LNG directly rather than via Petronet LNG Ltd," he said.

India has four LNG import and regasification terminals on the west coast -- 15 MTPA Dahej plant in Gujarat operated by Petronet LNG , Shell's 5 MTPA Hazira terminal in the same state, GAIL's 1.2 MTPA plant at Dabhol in Maharashtra and Petronet's 5 MTPA terminal at Kochi in Kerala.

"Indian regas capacity had constrained imports in recent years. Both Dahej and Hazira operated at maximum levels through much of 2018. The commissioning of Ennore will be the first in a series of regas projects coming online in 2019; Mundra (in Gujarat) and Jaigarh FSRU are next," the consultancy said.

Another terminal is under construction at Dhamra in Odisha and is expected to be completed in 2022. Furthermore, Dahej's capacity is being increased by 2.5 MTPA to 17.5 MTPA , while the completion of the Kochi pipeline and Dabhol breakwater is also likely by 2020.

"Once all these terminals and enhancements are completed, India's regas capacity will reach 56.5 MTPA by 2025 from the existing 25.5 MTPA. Beyond this, India's ability to import significant volumes of LNG could be enhanced further if several other proposed regas terminals proceed," it said.
Mumbai: Both the films coming this Friday  Badla and Captain Marvel  are out to get blood. But, it seems, Marvel will take centre stage as it gets a much wider release than Badla in India and that too in four languages namely English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. The producers Disney expect the film to crack open the box-office. Says a source from Disney, Captain Marvel is Marvels first woman superhero film. And, we expect it to be every bit as successful all across the world as DCs Wonder Woman.

In India, Captain Marvel gets optimum screens and theatres. Badla, in spite of Shah Rukh Khan as the producer, is lagging behind in terms of release outlets. Apparently, it is getting only 700-750 screens across India which is a shockingly low number considering Amitabh and Taapsee are starring in it. Trade pundit Amod Mehra is optimistic. Badla being a suspense thriller from Sujoy Ghosh is a much-awaited film. Though the producers are planning a limited release with 750 screens, the film should do well at the box-office.

Adds trade analyst Atul Mohan, This week should be exciting. First big release from Hollywood of 2019 and a whodunit thriller from Red Chillies. Badla may not be looking for as wide a release but the budget of this one is controlled one and should reap good profits for the makers. Captain Marvel is looking to score good, and as I said, this is the first big title from Hollywood this year. And, Hollywood made around `900 crores from the Indian box-office last year.

Says trade analyst Girish Johar, Badla has big names attached to it. Big B sir (Amitabh Bachchan), Taapsee Panny, Sujoy and Shah Rukh Khan are backing it. It has surely raised the curiosity level. The trailer has been liked by the audiences and has got a decent intrigue value to it as well. The bandwidth of the Badlaa audience is limited, though, ranging from niche and high-end in top cities of the country and will be strongly dependent on its WOM (word of mouth) to carry it through the day and over the weekend.

Girish Johar admits Captain Marvel gives formidable competition for Badla. Captain Marvel is a proud film from the Marvel Enterprise. It has fantastic production values, superb trailer, great international buzz and hype backing it. The film is being released in regional languages as well and has got good traction from its youth and metro audiences alike. Combined all languages, it has all the chances to lead at the box-office on Friday and over the weekend by a good margin, keeping behind all the competition.

But, Taapsee Pannu who plays the lead in Badlaa is unfazed by the competition. I am a huge fan of Avengers and Marvel films. But, I have no impression of Captain Marvel as an audience so thats why its not as bothersome as Avengers or any other established super-hero will be.

Besides, hasnt Taapsee played the superhero in Naam Shabana, Baby and Pink?
UN: Women's rights activists from 128 nations launched a public campaign recently for an international treaty to end violence against women and girls, a global scourge estimated by the United Nations to affect 35 per cent of females worldwide.

The campaign led by the Seattle-based nonprofit organisation, Every Woman Treaty, aims to have the UN World Health Organization adopt the treaty with the goal of getting all 193 UN member states to ratify it. "Violence against women and girls is the most widespread human rights violation on Earth," the organisation's co-founder and chief executive, Lisa Shannon, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday ahead of the official launch.

"All the efforts that people put into development, education, women's empowerment, economic opportunity are being squashed when women are not physically safe. It's a global pandemic. ... We cannot make progress as a species without addressing violence against women and girls," she said.

The activists want the treaty to require countries to take four actions that have proven to lower rates of violence against women:

 Adopt laws punishing domestic violence, which lower mortality rates for women.

 Train police, judges, nurses, doctors and other professionals about such violence, which leads to increased prosecution of perpetrators and better treatment for survivors.

 Provide education on preventing violence against women and girls, which research shows has an influence on boys' and men's attitudes and actions, and encourages women and girls to demand their rights.

 Provide hotlines, shelters, legal advice, treatment and other services for survivors.

Eleanor Eleanor Nwadinobi of Nigeria, a member of Every Woman Treaty's steering committee, said the other critical issue is funding, which "is absolutely essential" to enable governments, especially in developing countries, to carry out this essential work to combat violence against women and girls.

Shannon said the activists are modelling their campaign after the efforts that led to the successful treaty on eliminating land mines, which took force in 1999 and the treaty aimed at limiting the use of tobacco, which was the first pact negotiated under WHO auspices and entered into force in 2005.

She expressed hope that a treaty tackling violence against women and girls would lead to a USD 4 billion-a-year fund for financing global action, "which would be about a dollar per female on Earth."

More than 4,000 individuals and organisations have signed what she called "a one-page people's treaty" that condemns all forms of violence against women and girls, outlines the actions sought in a treaty, and urges nations to adopt it. Among the signatories are Nobel Peace Prize winners Shirin Ebadi of Iran, Tawakol Karman of Yemen and Jody Williams of the United States.

Shannon said the activists are seeking 20 countries to lead the campaign for the new treaty. First, she said, they need the World Health Organization to approve a resolution seeking a report on the role a treaty would play. "Our goal is to have the resolution introduced at the 2020 World Health Assembly," which she called very ambitious.

Once a report is written, Shannon said, the World Health Assembly would have to approve the process for drafting a treaty. "The largest obstacle I see is to fight the apathy," she said. "When you're asking for global systems change and genuine commitments, even people who are pro-women's rights will question whether or not it's needed, will say it's unnecessary  and this is something the tobacco and land mines and disabilities treaties faced."

Shannon said the biggest immediate challenge is finding countries willing to take on a leadership role and getting people to understand this is "an opportunity that we have to take right now" because "we are not going to advance" unless violence against women and girls is addressed.
Brus (Serbia): It started at the job interview, when Marija Lukic's boss locked the office door and tried to kiss her. He later promised it won't happen again. But it did, over and over, until she decided it has to stop.

In the two years she worked as a secretary of the top municipal official in this small town in central Serbia, Lukic says she has had as many as 15,000 phone messages to prove the harassment. For daring to speak out about her experiences, the 30-year-old mother of two has become a hero for many women in Serbia, a conservative male-dominated Balkan nation with a strong macho culture.

When last year she mustered the courage to go to court against the most powerful man in the town, Lukic faced threats and pressure but she also received scores of support messages flooding in on social media with the hashtag #JusticeForMarija. Fighting back was no easy thing to do in a country where small-town power-mongers routinely control local institutions and where sexual harassment was only acknowledged as a criminal act in 2017.

"All the time, I complained to his closest friends ... his sister, nobody reacted," she told The Associated Press in an interview. "I expected someone at least to tell him to leave me alone because I told everyone, but it had no effect." She says the global #MeToo movement has emboldened her to speak out: she wrote open letters to President Aleksandar Vucic and other officials, and told her story in numerous media interviews.

In an important victory, Lukic's former employer, Milutin Jelicic, announced his resignation this month in the face of mounting public pressure and outrage. A trial is ongoing, and Lukic said she won't back down until he is held legally responsible as well. The problem was "that there is a system that protects such people, that women are endangered. Many women have approached me, even those who were raped and were afraid to report it," Lukic said.

Initially, six other women joined Lukic in charging Jelicic with sexual harassment and abuse of power. But only her case stood up in court. Experts warn that while some steps have been made to boost women's rights, much more needs to be done in a society where domestic violence is rife, womens rights groups say at least 30 women were killed by partners or within their families in 2018 and sexual harassment is often seen as harmless.

The government has pledged to address the problems as the country advances toward European Union membership. Lukic's case, however, shows it will be an uphill battle.

Lukic said her own family initially advised her against suing Jelicic, fearing she stood no chance against the local populist chief, who boasted that the president protected him.

She almost gave up when unknown men approached her and warned her to forget the lawsuit and delete Jelicic's messages from her Facebook profile to avoid "trouble." Local authorities threatened to close the hairdressing salon owned by Lukic's husband, and she received dozens of hate messages on social networks.

Lukic told the AP that after the job interview, she didn't see Jelicic for a few months. She took the job after he apologised and promised to behave. But, she said, "the first time we were alone, he did the same, only worse." In court, Jelicic argued that his accusers had tried to seduce him and had sent the harassing messages from his phone, Lukic said. In announcing his resignation, he complained a campaign against him is part of a political ploy to discredit President Vucic.

The evening Lukic was due to appear on a popular television station, a mysterious power outage prevented much of the town from watching. Lukic says she will go to the European courts if she doesn't find justice in Serbia. This is a struggle for dignity, she told thousands of people at last week's anti-government protest in Belgrade. "I don't know if I am brave, but now I know I am not alone," she told the crowd.
As many as 22 terrorist training camps, including nine of JeM, are still being run in Pakistan and there has been no action against them, the official said. (Photo: PTI)

Washington: As many as 22 terrorist training camps, including nine of Jaish-e-Mohammed, are active in Pakistan, but no action is being taken against them, a senior Indian official said in Washington on Thursday, warning that New Delhi will carry out operation similar to that of the Balakot airstrike if there is an act of terrorism coming from across the border.

In a pinpointed and swift air strike that lasted less than two minutes, India pounded JeMs biggest training camp in Pakistan on February 26, killing up to 350 terrorists and trainers who were moved there for their protection after the February 14 attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama in which 40 soldiers were killed. The JeM claimed responsibility for the Pulwama strike.

Pakistan is a global epicenter of terrorism and it needs to take verifiable and credible steps against terrorist organizations and terrorists, said the official on condition of anonymity. The official also accused Pakistan and its leadership of being in denial mode and trying to create a war hysteria kind of situation between the two nuclear-weapon states. As many as 22 terrorist training camps, including nine of JeM, are still being run in Pakistan and there has been no action against them, the official said.

The Balakot airstrike conducted by India was a counter-terrorism operation, which was well within the international laws. However, a day after on February 27, Pakistan attacked Indian military installation with as many as 20 fighter jets, the official claimed. Instead of taking action against terrorist groups, Pakistan escalated the situation and indulged in war hysteria by doing things like declaring the emergency in Karachi, blocking air traffic and creating rumors, which is part of its familiar pattern, the official said, adding, India, on the other hand, exercised restraint. Islamabad now bears the responsibility to end terrorism, the official said and warned that India will carry out retaliatory counter-terrorism operation like the one on February 26, deep inside Pakistan, anytime there is an act of terrorism coming from across the border.

Referring to the recent actions taken by Pakistan against several terrorist groups, the official said that these actions are nothing unusual as the country takes such steps after every terrorist strike in India. These actions, the official described, are a revolving door policy, under which house arrest of terrorist leaders simply means keeping them in luxurious accommodation.

They are released once the situation becomes normal, the official said.

But after the Pulwama attack, India has set a new normal. For every terrorist attack coming from across the border, India will retaliate and there will be a price that the neighboring country would have to pay. Accusing Pakistan of being a state sponsor of terrorism, the official said there is a feeling in India that Islamabad is unlikely to stop funding terror activities unless the cost of it is too heavy for it to pay.

Asserting that India has the right to self-defense, the official told reporters that New Delhi by successfully carrying out strikes inside Pakistan has been able to call the Pakistani bluff on the nuclear front. This will not work in the future, the official said and warned Pakistan that there will be reprisal for every act of terrorism.

Responding to a question, the official said India has given to the US details of the violation of the end user agreement by Pakistan when it used F-16 fighter jets and advanced missiles against India on February 27.

India, the official said, is very closely engaged with the US and has the support of the Trump administration. The official also said India is opposed to any IMF bailout packages to Pakistan. Pakistan has received as many as 21 bailout packages, including seven in the recent past, from the IMF. However, none of them have been able to address the economic woes of Pakistan because the money intended to improve the economy and developmental purposes have been diverted for non-civilian means.
Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress Delhi unit was against an alliance with AAP . (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Amid a flip-flop over alliance with the Congress to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls, the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday said Rahul Gandhi should take a decision about the seat-sharing with it considering the national situation, instead of "batting from behind" his party's Delhi unit.

"The AAP took an ideological decision for alliance, keeping in view the need to save the democracy and to strengthen the voice of Delhi people in the Lok Sabha, although objections were raised within the party," AAP's Delhi convener Gopal Rai said.

The comments come after Rahul Gandhi last morning said that the Congress state unit does not want an alliance with the AAP.

"I feel Rahul Gandhi is either not comprehending the national situation or he is unable to make his party organisation understand it. Instead of batting from behind his state unit, Rahul should take a decision (on alliance)," Rai said.

"Our workers do not want alliance. Many leaders are personally against it. But, the decision for alliance was taken in favour of the national interest," he added.

On Tuesday, Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit after a meeting with the Congress president had declared that there was unanimity against having an alliance with the AAP.

Following the announcement, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal said there are "rumours" that the Congress has a secret understanding with the BJP and asserted that his party is ready to fight the "unholy alliance".

Talking to reporters, Rai said it is a different matter what Delhi Congress says about the alliance but Rahul Gandhi should "responsibly" take a decision in this regard considering challenges faced by the country like the "dictatorship" of the BJP government at the centre.

Lok Sabha election is not for Delhi alone, it will decide the future of the country. Its duty of national president of a party to think over and take decision according to the situations faced by the country, he said.

"It is Rahul Gandhi's responsibility to make his state unit understand it."

Meanwhile, on Wednesday the grand old party had claimed that nine MLAs of the AAP were in touch with it and wanted to change sides.

The remarks came after suspended AAP MLA and former minister in the Kejriwal government, Sandip Kumar visited the Delhi Congress office on Tuesday and met Sheila Dikshit.
The meeting of two top Generals had come days after India launched a 'pre-emptive' and 'non-military' strike against JeM in Pakistans Balakot. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: Indian Army on Friday said that to be fully prepared to deal with the "emerging challenges" out of the current scenario of "disinformation campaign" being orchestrated by the "terror sponsors."

In the current scenario, the Indian Army remains fully prepared for emerging challenges. In the last three weeks, disinformation campaign by the adversary on digital media has increased, said a spokesperson of the Indian Army in a statement.

All ranks have been well sensitised of these disinformation campaigns and all ranks can see through the lie, deceit, and deception of the terror sponsors, he said.

On his official visit to India, General Raymond Thomas, Commander, US Special Operations Command, US Army, on Thursday called on the Army chief General Bipin Rawat.

Both the Generals deliberated on the developing regional security environment, the issue of global terrorism and Pakistans continued support to terrorism was also discussed, said the statement.

Acknowledging Indias role in peace and stability in the region, General Raymond emphasised on the need for further military cooperation in the field of technology and military to military exchanges between the two countries, said the statement further.

The meeting of two top Generals had come days after India launched a pre-emptive and non-military strike against JeM in Pakistans Balakot. The fighter jets of the two countries engaged in a dogfight in the skies of Jammu and Kashmir after Pakistani F-16 planes transgressed into the Indian air space.

The United States has reiterated its support to Indias decision to take action against Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror camp on the soil of Pakistan. Indias air strike on JeMs largest training centre at Balakot was in retaliation of Pulwama terror attack on February 14 in which 40 jawans were killed.

After the IAFs air strikes, US Secretary of State Michael Richard Pompeo had said: I spoke to Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi to underscore the priority of de-escalating current tensions by avoiding military action, and the urgency of Pakistan taking meaningful action against terrorist groups operating on its soil.

Acknowledging Indian actions as counter-terrorism action, Pompeo had said: Following Indian counter-terrorism actions on February 26, I spoke with Indian Minister of External Affairs Swaraj to emphasise our close security partnership and shared the goal of maintaining peace and security in the region.
The Supreme Court stated that mediation proceedings should be held on-camera. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Supreme Courts Constitution Bench referred Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for court appointed and monitored mediation for a permanent solution.

The Supreme Court stated that mediation proceedings should be held on-camera.

The court also ordered that the reporting of the mediation proceedings in media will be banned and proceedings will be confidential.

Mediation process will be held in Faizabad. It will be headed by Justice FM Kaliifullah and also comprise Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, CJI Ranjan Gogoi said.

The top court said Justice Khaliifulah (Retd) will be the chairman, for court appointed and monitored mediation.

Supreme Court ordered that mediation proceedings has to start within 4 weeks and should be completed within 8 weeks.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi pronounced the verdict. The other judges on the bench were justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order after hearing both sides on the proposal to try out mediation as an alternative to litigation to settle the decades-old dispute.
A list of top police officers who had conversations with Opposition leaders was handed over to the TRS top brass, said a source. (Representional Image)

Hyderabad: During the Telangana state Assembly elections held in 2018, the Intelligence wing tapped nearly 10,000 phone numbers. A majority of the numbers reportedly belonged to police officials.

A list of top police officers who had conversations with Opposition leaders was handed over to the TRS top brass, said a source. The phones were tapped from the time the election code was imposed till the date of voting.

It is learnt that a number of bureaucrats who were not in favour of the TRS retaining power in the state were extending support to the Opposition. So confident were they that the Opposition would come to power, that a certain circle of bureaucrats had already discussed what posts and positions they would occupy in the new regime.

Following a drift towards the Opposition, the TRS leadership, which sensed a tilt ahead of the elections, at least in IPS circles, decided to keep tabs on their conversations.

A source told this newspaper that TRS leaders suspected that some IPS officers who were in contact with Opposition leaders would help them to mobilise cadre and funds.

But no such grave incident was reported during the conversation when it was intercepted, the source added.

A senior bureaucrat, who did not want to be named, said that there were inputs of a possible connection between a few police officers with the Congress, but no incriminating evidence was found during conversations to take punitive action against them. But the fact remains that a few officers were in touch with senior Congress leaders. This has put them on edge as the list of names has been sent to the TRS top brass.

Tapping conversations during elections is a routine job, the senior bureaucrat said. If sources are to be believed, even party functionaries have tapped phone numbers of their respective opposition leaders.
Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Friday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer the Param Vir Chakra, the countrys highest military honour, on Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

In a letter that he wrote to Mr Modi, Mr Palaniswami recalled the incidents from the Pulwama terror attack on a CRPF that led to the counter-terrorism strike on the Jaish-e-Mohammed camp in Pakistan.

He said a Pakistan Air Force fighter was shot down by an MiG-21 Bison of the Indian Air Force when it tried to violate Indian air space. Wg Cdr Abhinandan, who piloted the MiG-21, was taken into custody by the Pakistan armed forces.

Recalling the efforts undertaken by Mr Modi to secure the release of Wg Cdr Abhinandan, Mr Palaniswami said that due to the diplomatic initiatives of the PM and intense international pressure, the IAF officer was released by Pakistan on March 1.

It is appropriate that Wg Cdr Abhinandan be awarded Indias highest military honour Param Vir Chakra (PVC) for displaying most inimitable gallantry and valour, the Chief Minister wrote.
Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha member Pt. Nand Kishore Mishra and Nirmohi Akharas Sitaram Das at the SC in New Delhi on Friday. (PTI)

New Delhi: Political leaders welcomed the Supreme Courts decision to appoint a panel headed by retired apex court judge F.M.I. Kalifulla to explore the possibility of an amicable settlement of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case. BSP leader Mayawati called the move appreciable.

Honble Supreme Court's order to constitute in-camera mediation (in Faizabad) in order to resolve the Ayodhya matter seems an honest effort. Honble Court looking for a possibility of healing relationships is an appreciable move. BSP welcomes it, she said on Twitter.

CPM leader Brinda Karat said the previous mediation efforts had failed to yield results but this time, the Supreme Court is monitoring it and all the parties who have gone to the court are in agreement with the decision and it is to be seen what will be the result.

The Congress said it respects the decision of the Supreme Court to refer the politically-sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation, and added that it should be final and binding on all parties.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused the BJP of politicising the faith-based issue for political gains for the past 27 years.

Since 1992, BJP has kept the issue alive so as to be used in every election for political vote garnering and relegate the Ram Mandir issue to the annals of history post-election  to be revived again in the next election. We sincerely hope that people of India will see through the duplicity and doublespeak of BJP, he said.

The NCP also welcomed the mediation panel. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik, in a statement, said, We welcome the appointment of the three-member mediation panel. If the dispute is resolved, it will be in national interest. The nation is hopeful that the issue would be resolved through consensus.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) too welcomed the Supreme Court decision.

The Supreme Court has given this order and it needs to be welcomed. It would be most befitting that the matter is resolved through dialogue. Lets see what happens now, AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani said.

A number of senior BJP leaders made it clear Friday that building Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya is the only way out of the impasse, soon after the Supreme Court ordered a time-bound mediation to resolve the long-pending issue.

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy also stressed that the construction of Ram temple is non-negotiable.
Hyderabad: Back in October 2018, when investigators arrived at her doorstep to arrest her in New Delhi, the 44-year-old soft spoken Nowhera Shaik, had a request: Please arrest me after two days as I have got an appointment with a top Congress leader.

The sleuths however, took her into custody and brought her to Hyderabad. Thereafter, during several rounds of questioning, Ms Shaik, managing director of the Heera Group, has not uttered a word about her deals. Now, almost five months later the TS police is mulling handing over the case to the CBI.

But the glitch seems to be a political party that is reportedly coming in the way of the CBI taking over, for reasons that also remain a mystery to many, just like Nowhera Shaik.

Ms Shaik will be questioned yet again by investigators next week, once they obtain her custody. She will be confronted with her most trusted aides, Molly Thomas and Biju Thomas, in the hope that some contradictions may surface in their testimonies.

Sources disclosed to Deccan Chronicle that ever since Nowhera Shaiks arrest, all that the police have learnt so far is this: 1) That she was running a Ponzi like scam by attracting huge deposits 2) The scam is to the tune of Rs 5,700 crore with deposits made by nearly two lakh people 3) She has about 200 bank accounts through which she was reportedly carrying out her shady deals. Her turnover in 2017-18 alone stood at Rs 900 crore, and in all her business ventures, she was making a profit of about 90 per cent 4) there were foreign currency deposits to the tune of Rs 250 crore in her accounts and 5) most importantly, she is also believed to have links with, and involved in, financing some banned outfits linked to terrorism, information of which was passed on to the National Investigating Agency.

While all her properties across the country have been attached, investigators are struggling to get more information on her properties abroad, particularly in the UAE, and her bank accounts there.

Each time she was questioned, she did not utter a word and so far she has not shared anything with regard to her deals. There are 40 cases against her nationwide and agencies like SFIO, Enforcement Directorate, NIA and police of various states are working on the case. But the case is too big and she continues to be a mystery. Only the CBI can probe a case of this magnitude and discussions are going on (to hand over the case to the central agency), a senior official told this newspaper, adding that this is a case as complex in nature as the Nirav Modi case.

While the Telangana state police appears determined to hand over the case to the CBI, a particular political party, which is considered close to the ruling TRS, is reportedly coming in the way of the proposal.

They want the case to remain with the Hyderabad police, the reasons for which are not known. The reasons appear to be much more than merely political in nature, sources said.

Investigators are now arming themselves with more questions to be posed to Nowhera Shaik, who is presently in Cherlapally central prison.

Among her two aides, Molly Thomas has proved to be a tough nut to crack. Biju Thomas has also not revealed anything significant so far except pointing at a hard disk containing the number of depositors (close to 2 lakh).
The party is trying hard to attract strong Congress leaders who enjoy full community support.

Ahmedabad: Ahead of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet to be held in Ahmedabad on March 12, the state unit of the party is in the embarrassing position of seeing several of its MLAs resigning and joining the BJP.

The latest to jump ship are Jawahar Chawda and Purushottam Sabaria from Manavadar and Halwad constituencies respectively.

Both MLAs have put in their papers to the Speaker of the Assembly. Mr Chawda joined the saffron party immediately after he resigned, while Mr Sabaria is expected to join very soon. With these resignations, the Congress tally in the Assembly is reduced to 72 from 78.

Dr Asha Patel, elected from Unjha in North Gujarat, had joined the BJP earlier. State cabinet minister Kunvarji Bawalia resigned from Jasdan constituency eight month ago and was re-elected as a BJP candidate in January.

Bhagwan Barad, Congress MLA, was suspended by the Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly immediately after a local court convicted him in a land mining case. The party seems to be in big trouble with these developments.

Mr Chawda, a four-time MLA, is the son of the towering Congress leader Pethalji Chawda. He is believed to have a strong hold over the Ahir community which dominates in his constituency. He may contest from Junagadh in the Lok Sabha elections.

I have decided to join the BJP after long thought. Though I didnt have any issue with the Congress leadership, I think we should stand united with Prime Minister Narendra Modi so I am here, he said while joining the party. The BJP believes his joining will increase the partys chance to win Junagadh.

The party is trying hard to attract strong Congress leaders who enjoy full community support.

Speculation is rife that more Congress MLAs, including young OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, will also defect to the BJP.
Talking to reporters here, AAP's Delhi convener Gopal Rai said he on February 25 had written to Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and state Congress president Sheila Dikshit, seeking clarity on their stand on the issue. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Taking its demand for full statehood to Delhi to the next level in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the ruling AAP will stage a two-day gherao at the offices of the BJP and the Congress from March 10 to press them to make their stand clear on the issue.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will also deploy 20 'mini prachar rath' (campaign vehicles) each in all seven Lok Sabha constituencies in the national capital, a move aimed at informing voters how the BJP and the Congress "misled" them on this issue.

Talking to reporters here, AAP's Delhi convener Gopal Rai said he on February 25 had written to Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and state Congress president Sheila Dikshit, seeking clarity on their stand on the issue.

"We have not got any reply to our letters from the Congress and the BJP so far. If the AAP does not get an answer till tomorrow, we will gherao the Delhi BJP office on March 10 and the state Congress office on March 11," Rai said.

In the past, leaders of the BJP and the Congress have supported the demand for full statehood to the national capital, but the parties are now silent on it, the AAP leader said.

Giving details about the party's 'mini prachar rath', he said that e-rickshaws will be used for this purpose, which will play recorded audio and video speeches of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on how both the parties have "deceived" the people of Delhi on the issue.

Rai, a cabinet minister in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government, accused the BJP-led central government of "misleading" the people of Delhi on the issue of unauthorised colonies for five years.

"Formation of the committee is just an eyewash. BJP leaders and Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri should apologise to Delhiites," he said.

On Thursday, the Centre approved a proposal to constitute a committee, under the chairmanship of Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal, to recommend a process to confer ownership or transfer rights to residents of unauthorised colonies here.

The move, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, is likely to provide major relief to 30 per cent of Delhi's population who live in unauthorised colonies amid a constant fear of action by authorities.

About the Centre's decision to approve three out of six corridors of Metro Phase-IV, Rai sought to know why the BJP-led central government did not give its nod to the rest of the corridors.

The Union Cabinet approved three  Mukundpur-Maujpur, R K Ashram-Janakpuri West and Aero City-Tughlakabad  of the six corridors proposed under Metro Phase-IV.
Hyderabad: The ground has been cleared for one more Congress MLA to join the Telangana Rashtra Samiti. Chirumurthy Lingaiah, Congress MLA from Nakrekal constituency, is likely to quit the party and will join the TRS in a day or two.

After meeting Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday, Mr Lingaiah switched off his mobile phone to avoid calls from the state Congress leadership.

Mr Lingaiah is the third Congress MLA to defect in the three months after the Assembly elections results were declared, and the fourth overall.

The Congresss strength will fall to 16 with Mr Lingaiahs defection, and the chances of a Congress nominee winning an MLC post have weakened further as it is now short of five MLA voters required for winning an MLC seat.
Security is a feeling. You cant feel secure if you are simultaneously afraid. How can there be security if we otherise groups of people and stigmatise viewpoints that are different from that of the majority?

In a country that has suffered numerous terrorist attacks which prematurely snuffed out the lives of soldiers, policemen as well as countless civilians, it comes as no surprise that national security is a highly emotive issue. You dont have to be a national security expert to know that the ruling BJP is likely to go all guns blazing on national security as the 2019 general election draws closer. By now, anyone who has not been hiding under a rock has heard of the BJPs Pulwama edge. The reference is to the terrorist attack in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir last month that killed over 40 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force and left dozens wounded.

That triggered a retaliatory strike by the Indian Air Force in Balakot in Pakistani territory. The target was a training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, the terrorist group which claimed responsibility for the Pulwama suicide bomber attack. Whatever be the claims and counter-claims swirling around that strike, there is no doubt at all in anyones mind that national security will be a key issue in the coming polls.

But there is something missing in the all-pervasive security talk. And it comes down to how one frames the idea of national security. Conventionally, national security has been sold as the capacity of a nation to mobilise military forces to guarantee its borders and to deter or successfully defend against physical threats, including military aggression and attacks by non-state actors such as terrorist groups. Like the Jaishe-e-Mohammed, which claimed responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack.

But should the security debate be only about territorial integrity and protection of borders? Or is national security about all of these things, plus another critical element  social cohesion? Talk about the latter is missing in most mainstream conversations on security.

Ordinary citizens are neither hawks or doves. They are concerned about territorial integrity. They abhor violence and fear terrorist attacks. Typically, in India, they have stood by the armed forces in the hour of a national crisis. But to most people, a sense of security is as much about borders being protected and extremists kept at bay as protection of their own everyday lives and

livelihood.

If security is the big issue, it is equally important to make every Indian, cutting across class, religion and caste, feel safe and secure in their workplaces

and homes.

A series of recent incidents in parts of the country show that high-decibel talk about national security, national unity, national solidarity are coinciding with a sense of fear and insecurity among specific groups of people.

Here are just a few randomly selected examples.

In the wake of the escalating India-Pakistan tensions, there have been reports of a spike in Muslim children being subjected to religious slurs, which have left their parents deeply shaken. Nazia Erum, an Indian, who wrote the book, Mothering a Muslim, has publicly said in a social media post: Getting information from various cities that there has been a sharp spike in children being singled out, bullied and being told to go to Pakistan. From my maid, cousins, friends to Twitter acquaintances  everyone reporting this in. Nazia advised parents to take time out and have a word with their children on the current situation in the country to allay their fears.

You could deal with Nazias concerns in two ways  label them anecdotal, or take them on board and recognise that many people, including some from the minority communities, are feeling genuinely insecure, and it is vital to listen to what they have to say. Individual citizens matter. Numbers matter. India has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world. Making specific groups in our society feel as though they are being unfairly targeted or being made the subjects of undue suspicion, putting them through arbitrary patriotism tests, benefits no one.

It certainly does not help strengthen national security.

A second example  the case of Sandeep Wathar, a professor at Dr PG Halakatti College of Engineering and Technology in Karnatakas Vijaypura district, who was reportedly forced to kneel and apologise to activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad for a Facebook post. Wathars crime? According to news reports, he had criticised the Central government for creating a public mood which bordered on war hysteria following the Indian Air Force retaliatory strikes in Balakot in Pakistani territory and allegedly praised Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. A BJP spokesperson claimed that the posts were an attempt to break the countrys unity and praise an enemy country. The professor has since deleted the Facebook posts.

One may or may not agree with Wathar. But surely, engaging with an alternative viewpoint does not weaken the basic fabric of a robust democracy of 1.3 billion which prides itself on its diversity.

A third example  the social boycott and reported attacks on Kashmiri students and civilians working and studying in other states in India in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack.

Reports of such harassment and attacks led to a petition by advocate Tariq Adeeb in the Supreme Court seeking protection for Kashmiris. The Supreme Court stepped in, and asked 10 states (Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Punjab and Maharashtra) as well as Delhi to take prompt action to ensure that Kashmiris living across the country do not face social boycott or attacks.

Security is a feeling. You cant feel secure if you are simultaneously afraid. How can there be security if we otherise groups of people and stigmatise viewpoints that are different from that of the majority? What happens to social cohesion, integral to national unity and security, if we dont take immediate corrective steps? Long-term measures for counter-terrorism are critical. There are no two views on that. But for that to succeed and be sustainable, to have every Indian feeling secure, you also need serious efforts to bring about social cohesion, so that even dissenting voices and the home-born disaffected, feel a sense of stake in the country and its future.

A country cant be truly secure if there are citizens who feel disenfranchised, that they dont belong here. Extremists thrive in milieus where social cohesion has been shredded.
Shortly after 9 pm on Thursday, the Congress Party released its first list of candidates for the impending Lok Sabha elections. By unexpectedly announcing 15 of its candidates even before the Election Commission has announced the dates of the polls, the Congress wished to be the first to get off the block. Significantly, 11 of the names in the list were from Uttar Pradesh and their declaration has virtually ensured that the contest in the state would be triangular.

Hereafter, it would require an exceptional spirit of accommodativeness on the part of the Congress on one hand and the troika of Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav and Ajit Singh on the other, to forge a Mahagathbandhan on the lines cobbled up in Bihar for the 2015 Assembly polls. This development has taken place close on the heels of the Congress Partys questionable behaviour in Delhi. In the nations capital, the party peculiarly handed its reins back to the ageing warhorse, Sheila Dikshit, and in the popular perception the one who pressed for the partys move to not align with the Aam Aadmi Party.

Yet, the decision would be as much Congress president Rahul Gandhis and such a ploy does not cut ice with the other parties  it is clear that the party consciously decided it would not enter into alliances in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Some months ago, Mamata Banerjee had proposed the one-is-to-one formula under which the Opposition parties were to strive towards the ideal of putting up one candidate per constituency to prevent the division of the anti-BJP vote. This proposal now lies in tatters and there is no knowing, even in West Bengal, if the contest will be quadrangular, triangular, or tactically bipolar. Although the Congress has in recent days sewn up alliances in some states  the ones in Karnataka and Maharashtra being the most important  it is certain that the BJPs voteshare-to-seat-conversion ratio shall remain high because of the division of anti-BJP votes in several states, most significantly in UP and small sub-regions in the other Hindi heartland states.

This is due to the fact that while all Opposition parties have publicly declared the defeat of the Narendra Modi government as their primary objective, they behaved quite differently in practice. In some cases, they even betrayed their real purpose  for instance when Rahul Gandhi announced the appointment of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as the general secretary for eastern UP, he affirmed that the partys real target was the Assembly election in 2022. The Congress is well within its rights to assess that its political dominance of yore shall remain a pipedream unless the party became a serious political player in UP, and if it was not relegated as the third player in a battle between the three players in Delhi.

The question, however, is when should a party prioritise this target. Was this the right time to strategise for the medium-term or the long-term when the immediate survival of the Opposition parties as legitimate political forces would be questioned by the BJP in the event of its returning to power? Events over the past five years should have warned the Opposition that the right to disagree with the government  or even the ruling party  has been delegitimised in social discourse, resulting in a unitary viewpoint.

The Opposition parties seem to have forgotten a lesson from history  in 1989, the Congress Party under Rajiv Gandhi was defeated mainly as a result of his divergent opponents tactically refraining from contesting against each other despite their fundamental ideological differences. In large parts of North India, there were several instances of the V.P. Singh-led Janata Dal making seat adjustments with the BJP on the one hand and with the Left parties or those inimical towards the saffron party on the other hand. In the present situation, nothing prevents the Congress from being the bridge between the Trinamul Congress and the Communists in West Bengal. What prevents the Congress from making adjustments in some seats with the Trinamul Congress on the one hand and with the Left on the other, and for each of them to accept the arrangement? It is no different in some of the other states.

The absence of a federal pre-poll alliance will also have major implications in case of a hung Parliament, and the President using his discretion to decide who should be invited first to form a government and prove its majority within a stipulated period. Besides their failure to forge alliances, the Opposition parties have lost the political momentum after the Pulwama terrorist attack and the subsequent airstrike in Balakot and the dogfight in the skies the next day. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has somewhat regained media and mind space with ceaseless utterances using a vocabulary of retribution where emphasis has been on pledges and not on providing answers to questions being raised in the wake of these incidents.

As seen during the 2014 campaign, Mr Modi revels in playing the victim card. This time he has chiselled past reasoning to claim that anti-Modiism was effectively anti-nationalism. It has not helped that some so-called experts on Pakistans television channels have credited the Opposition parties for their joint statement accusing Mr. Modi of politicising the airstrikes. No Opposition leader has countered that by using the political discourse across the border for his benefit, Mr Modi is embarking on the same path of becoming a failed democracy where words are used not for their true meaning but for their resonance.

For the coming election to be politically legitimate, it is important for the Opposition to rediscover the confidence in the discourse that they were building prior to the Pulwama terrorist attack. The challenge is to argue that while countering terrorism should be prioritised in this moment of challenge for the Indian State, livelihood concerns and social security matters cannot be taken off the shelf. The test before the Opposition parties is to at least get the narrative right even though they appear to have failed in getting their arithmetic right.
Attorney-general K.K. Venugopals statement in the Supreme Court in the Rafale case on Wednesday  urging the court to pay no heed to sensitive documents in the media picking holes in the governments case of going strictly by the playbook  is astounding. The A-G said the documents which appeared in the media were stolen. As such, he held that the court should not allow the review petition against the courts ruling in the governments favour in December 2018 as the petition relies on documents illegally obtained by two media companies. In the earlier judgment, the Supreme Court had held that broadly speaking the government had gone by laid-down procedures in the Rafale purchase. The courts understanding derived from documentation it got from the government in a sealed cover. It is evident that particular aspect had rendered the exercise non-transparent.

In January, articles  based on defence ministry papers  appeared in the press indicating that the government had violated procedures in the Rafale purchase. The petitioners seeking review of the December 2018 ruling  former BJP ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, and prominent social activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan  used these documents to show that the government had denied the relevant documents to the Supreme Court, and the court had been misled into thinking due procedures were followed. Members of the Indian Negotiating Team (INT) officially complained, the leaked documents suggest, that the Prime Ministers Office flagrantly interfered (without jurisdiction) to the detriment of the Indian teams negotiating stance. Even the benchmark price suggested by the INT was scuppered through the PMOs intervention, in which NSA Ajit Doval appeared to be playing a significant role, and this hurt the national exchequer. Other violations were pointed out too, including the doing away of the standard anti-corruption clause after the Cabinet Committee on Security had cleared the aircraft deal. It is surprising that the A-G did not stop at urging the court not to heed illegally acquired or stolen documents. He proceeded to say that the government could invoke the Official Secrets Act to prosecute the media platforms in question, and the lawyer presenting the petitioners case, namely Mr Bhushan. These are plain bullying tactics. The governments case on Rafale has come under serious questioning step-by-step.

The threat to gag the media can only make things worse. Initially, the business house which the government appeared to promote as Indias principal offset partner in the Rafale deal had issued threats to the press and to the Opposition parties to stop the public questioning. When that proved ineffective, the government has stepped in. The A-G must clarify if only the published Rafale papers were stolen, or others too. Let us hope the government isnt suppressing the Rafale papers and passing the matter off as theft.
The Balakot air attack by the Indian Air Force was an inflexion point in India-Pakistan relations and had three possible aims. One was of avenging the deaths of over 40 bravehearts of the CRPF in the Pulwama suicide car-bomb atrocity. Another was to establish a new doctrine of deterrence that India would not, like after the 26/11 ravaging of Mumbai in 2008, merely sabre-rattle or complain to the international community. It could if it assessed cross-border abetment retaliate against the masterminds of terror sheltering behind the Pakistani state and military. Finally, India could use it as an instrument of compellence, that in international relations is the ability to coerce another state into action by threatening or inflicting punishment.

The revenge component was driven by the BJPs desire to show an image of being more muscular in defending India than its main opponent, the Congress. Tied to this was Prime Minister Narendra Modis own persona as a reborn Sardar Patel, the original Strong Man of India. The BJPs need for this electorally had mounted, as the Lok Sabha polls neared and there was no respite from bad economic and unemployment data. Jingoism was already in the air prior to Pulwama. Thereafter, it burst into the open when even innocent Kashmiri students were targeted and driven back home. Sushma Swarajs old chant returned to haunt the BJP when she in Opposition claimed, after the beheading of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani Army teams, that in power the BJP would bring back multiple Pakistani heads. Some blood and gore was necessary to market an image of Modi the Avenger. The sheer decapitation of half-a-dozen high value Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) trainers or top party operatives could not suffice. Thus began the BJPs folly in claiming without supportive satellite data, or on-ground intelligence or real-time footage beamed by a hovering drone, that over 300 individuals had perished in the attack. BJP president Amit Shah broadcast it loudly, while Prime Minister Modi hinted darkly at it. At the official level, however, circumspection ruled. Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale, in his briefing, restricted himself to asserting it as a pre-emptive attack on a non-military target to eliminate those training to attack India. The Indian Air Force was seen but not heard from till many days later, when the Chief of Air Staff addressed a press conference.

The BJPs two-strand approach has persisted. It continues to sabre-rattle to milk the national security narrative. Daily reports appear about the heavy exchange of fire at the Line of Control, including artillery fire, that deepens the zone of attack. Solitary Kashmiris are fair game for harassment as the lynch mob has a new target. But the government has de-escalated the overall alert status of forces and may even move ahead with the Kartarpur Corridor talks, which it hopes would help the Akali-BJP alliance in Punjabs 13 Lok Sabha seats. Pakistans high commissioner Sohail Mahmood is back in New Delhi after extended consultations in Islamabad. India has moved its attention to the multilateral level for keeping up the pressure on Pakistan as the Permanent Five at the UN Security Council discuss informally the French-British resolution to list JeMs Masood Azhar as an international terrorist. Pakistan in turn has begun aligning its conduct with UNSC resolutions by apprehending listed individuals and disrupting their fund-gathering fronts.

Indias deterrence and compellence imperatives have therefore been fulfilled in part. However, the revenge element needed for domestic electoral mileage flounders. The BJPs numbers game was both to bait the Opposition parties and to shift public attention away from bread and butter issues, on which the BJPs record is dismal. The Opposition, realising this gambit, initially remained mum. However, the sceptical narrative emerging from the international media reports out of Pakistan, by correspondents visiting the madrasa site at Jaba Top, began to surface in India. The NDA government countered this by debunking pictures and reports and correctly pointing out that reporters were not given access to the actual compound. But the weakness in the Indian response persisted as, unlike the American or Western reports on counter-terror operations when actual pre-and-post attack pictures or even real-time footage is shared, the claims of damage in the wrecked structures and fatalities inflicted were not substantiated.

On the contrary, anyone asking such questions was pilloried as anti-national, including the live haranguing of a popular television anchor by a Cabinet minister.

On March 6, Reuters issued a fresh sceptical report based on high-resolution data made available a week after the attack by a private US firm called Planet Lab, which has 15 satellites for gathering round-the-clock geo-spatial data. The analysts that Reuters consulted discounted a major hit on the JeM terror camp as the buildings at the madrasa were still standing and there was no significant foliage displacement around the site. The Indian government responded by saying the Indian Air Force had given classified data to them confirming, as the Air Chief had earlier claimed, that all targets were in fact acquired and destroyed.

But this was not made public. There is no reason why it cannot be shared with the principal Opposition leaders. However, television channels were soon debating the privately-acquired satellite pictures with possible explanations why the building still stood although their occupants could have been eliminated. The BJP was now not quarrelling with the Opposition but respected international media outlets. It is possible that somewhere behind this fracas lies the rivalry between Israeli and American arms companies. But the BJP was now losing control over the script as even a couple of widows of the 40-plus martyred CRPF personnel began asking to see the bodies of terrorist-trainees.

The BJP clearly erred in its political haste to take credit for the kills without supportive visual evidence and the Prime Minister, instead of taking the Opposition into confidence, began taunting them. The focus should have been kept on the new doctrine of deterrence and the effect this, along with Indian diplomacy, was beginning to have on Pakistani conduct. Over 40 jihadi leaders have been detained, the Jaish headquarters taken over by Pakistani security forces, and money-gathering front organisations of JeM shut down. Its possible these are tactical Pakistani moves to stave off pressure. Its also possible the new doctrine may have handed decisions of war and peace to jihadis as by another major attack, without ISI assistance, they can trigger war. That is why doctrinal change on deterrence also needs mature political leadership that does not play war games for electoral gains. The people of India will hopefully decipher that when they vote in a few weeks from now.
March 8 is a day of celebration, of acclaiming the achievements that women have made through their struggles for emancipation from various bondages holding them back for long and towards equality in many spheres. But many more significant changes are still needed, and further progress required in bringing about an attitudinal change in society for women to truly observe their special day. We need more women heading social, economic and political bodies, equality in realising their rights  be it in the fields of education, health, employment, social security and freedom from violence and abuse against them. This is of course not to undermine the significance of key women role models, of whom there are plenty across countries and in different fields whom we must salute on the International Day of Women (IDW) as they continue to balance for a better life as well as get admired by both men and women for their contributions.

Building a gender-balanced world is not easy, but it is doable if we work continuously around it, have a direction and galvanise societal action towards it. Be it in schools, colleges, workplaces, at home, in policies, programmes, social protection benefits and access to facilities and provisions  in all areas, gender balance is needed for women to be able to enjoy human rights and live a better life, of dignity and respect. While in many countries the empowerment of girls and women is taking place, there are still roadblocks. The Commission on the Status of Women quite rightly presses upon individuals and communities to examine the ways in which barriers can be removed and progress accelerated for gender equality, gender-responsive social systems which build services and infrastructure that meet the needs of women and girls.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 Agenda, towards which all governments are striving is an opportunity to end all forms of discrimination, exploitation and violence across the lifespan against all women and girls everywhere. The fulfilment of SDGs is resulting in advancing the status of women worldwide. No doubt womens participation as equal partners with men in the social, economic, and political fields across the globe is an outcome of internationally agreed strategies, especially over the past few decades, but we still need to focus on innovative ways to remove structural barriers and ensure that every girl and woman is able to access education, health, avail opportunities for a better life and not be left behind.

Societies are rapidly changing due to developments in science, technology, information systems, and many socio-economic and cultural transformations. It is imperative that women are empowered irrespective of where they live  in rural or urban areas  to be able to cope with these changes and not be under-represented as new opportunities emerge. Governments must work towards building more inclusive systems, especially in meeting the daily needs of women and girls, whether it is in terms of providing basic or special services, infrastructure, transport, safe and secure public and private spaces. Women need balance for a better life, not just for existence, for their growth, for their aspirations, for their relationships at home and at the workplace.

Attaining gender balance will require encouraging womens leadership, political participation, holding leading positions in business, the private sector and government offices. Investing in giving women economic empowerment through paid or unpaid work, providing them peaceful, safe and secure environments free from abuse, violence and exploitation, and making them part of the decision-making process, especially when it affects them, allowing them real choices which are necessary to maintain a better balance in society. All this may not be easy to attain as many hurdles and pitfalls come in the way of achieving gender equality and granting women their rights, but all governments and members of civil society must keep making efforts towards national plans, policies and attitudinal changes which allow for the empowerment of women and translate in practical terms in bringing about gender equality.

An important task in empowering women is to elevate their voices at home, at the workplace and beyond. An increase in their representation and participation in decision-making can go a long way in achieving gender balance, equality and parity. Activists must examine ways in which barriers for womens empowerment and realisation of their rights are removed. The celebration of the International Womens Day calls for giving strength to women, support their specific agenda or cause and reflect on their achievements, as well as consider further advocacy and action for hope of a balanced better life. Since the early 1900s, womens oppression and inequality has slowly but definitely undergone a change and we need to applaud all those forces which have made this happen, be it in the United States, Britain, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and many countries in Europe and elsewhere in Africa, Oceania and Asia, including India. The role of men in womens campaigns has been noteworthy, especially for womens rights to work, vote, be trained for their vocation, hold public office and end discrimination at all levels. Labour legislation, improvement in working conditions, in maternal health, reduction in female mortality, higher life expectancy, and wage parity  all these have been energised and accomplished through movements in different parts of the world.

Let us keep up the momentum and provide further direction and support to women in achieving much more in all aspects through this years IWD campaign for balance for better worldwide with active participation of all stakeholders; and yes of course, with you and me too.
Huawei faces growing scrutiny around the globe over its ties with the Chinese government and allegations that Beijing could use its technology for spying. It denies those allegations.

Czech telecom regulator CTU said on Thursday there was no threat to a planned auction of new-generation 5G frequencies from the countrys cyber watchdogs December warning over possible dangers from technology of Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE.

It said in a statement it agreed with the cyber watchdog NUKIB and the industry and interior ministries the warning did not prevent the auction from taking place.

CTU is aiming to start bidding in the auction in November and told Reuters last month that no special conditions were needed in the auction.

Huawei faces growing scrutiny around the globe over its ties with the Chinese government and allegations that Beijing could use its technology for spying. It denies those allegations.

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Currently, the bot supports only English language. The government is planning to add support for Marathi and Hindi as well.

The Government of Maharashtra and AI platform Haptik have announced a new chatbot that allows access to information regarding services managed by the state government.

The AI chatbot, called Aaple Sarkar Bot, is available on the Aaple Sarkar RTS (Right to Services) websites. It provides conversational access to information on 1,400 public services in the state.

For instance, one could search for services such as permanent water connection or driving license, and access related information including prerequisites for the application, tracking the status of the application, monitoring progress, and so on.

Currently, the bot supports only English language. The government is planning to add support for Marathi and Hindi as well.

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Huawei has sued the US government, saying a law limiting its US business is unconstitutional. (Photo: AP)

The Republican and Democratic leaders of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee introduced legislation on Thursday backing Canadas handling of Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, as the United States seeks her extradition.

Senators Jim Risch, the committees Republican chairman, and Bob Menendez, its ranking Democrat, introduced the resolution backing Canada for upholding the rule of law.

Canada has provided consular access and due process for Ms. Meng, Risch said in a statement. It is only right for the Senate to join Canada in expressing concern over arbitrary detention and mistreatment of Canadian nationals by the Chinese government.

China on Monday accused detained Canadian citizen Michael Kovrig of stealing state secrets passed on to him from another detained Canadian, businessman Michael Spavor, in a move likely to increase tension between Ottawa and Beijing.

Huawei has sued the US government, saying a law limiting its US business is unconstitutional, ratcheting up its fight against a government bent on closing it out of global markets.

Huawei CFO Meng is accused by the United States of bank and wire fraud related to breaches of trade sanctions against Iran. Canada approved extradition proceedings on March 1, but Meng has since sued Canadas government for procedural wrongs in her arrest. The next court hearing is set for May 8.

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The reports of North Korean activity raise more questions about the future of the dialogue Trump has pursued with Kim. (Photo:AP)

Washington/Seoul: U.S. President Donald Trump is open to additional talks with Pyongyang over denuclearisation, his national security adviser said on Thursday, despite reports that North Korea is reactivating parts of its missile programme.

New activity has been detected at a factory that produced North Korea's first intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the United States, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo and Donga Ilbo newspapers reported, citing lawmakers briefed by the National Intelligence Service.

This week, two U.S. think tanks and Seoul's spy agency said North Korea was rebuilding its Sohae rocket launch site, prompting Trump to say he would be "very, very disappointed" in North Korean leader Kim Jong Un if it were true. The think tanks said on Thursday that they believed the launch site was operational again.

Asked on Thursday if he was disappointed about recent North Korean activity, Trump told reporters: "It's disappointing," while adding without elaborating: "We'll see. We'll let you know in about a year."

The reports of North Korean activity raise more questions about the future of the dialogue Trump has pursued with Kim after a second summit between them broke down in Vietnam last week.

White House National Security Adviser John Bolton, who has argued for a tough approach to North Korea, said Trump was still open to more talks with the country.

"The president's obviously open to talking again. We'll see when that might be scheduled or how it might work out," he told Fox News, adding it was too soon to make a determination on the reports of the North Korean activities.

"We're going to study the situation carefully. As the president said, it would be very, very disappointing if they were taking this direction."

The Vietnam summit on Feb. 27-28 collapsed over differences about how far North Korea was willing to limit its nuclear programme and the degree of U.S. willingness to ease economic sanctions.

Trump, eager for a big foreign policy win on North Korea, which has eluded his predecessors for decades, has repeatedly stressed his good relationship with Kim. He went as far late last year as saying they "fell in love," but the bonhomie has failed so far to bridge the wide gap between the two sides.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he was hopeful he would send a delegation to North Korea for more talks in the next couple of weeks, but that he had received "no commitment yet."

A senior State Department official told reporters on Thursday that Washington was keen to resume talks as soon as possible, but North Korea's negotiators needed to be given more latitude than they were ahead of the summit.

He said no one in the U.S. administration advocated the incremental approach that North Korea has been seeking and the condition for its integration into the global economy, a transformed relationship with the United States and a permanent peace regime, was complete denuclearisation.

"Fundamentally, where we really need to see the progress, and we need to see it soon, is on meaningful and verifiable steps on denuclearisation. That's our goal and that's how we see these negotiations picking up momentum."

The official, who did not want to be identified, said the U.S. side still saw North Korea's complete denuclearisation as achievable within Trump's current term, which ends in January 2021.

While the official said he would "not necessarily share the conclusion" that the Sohae site was operational again, any use of it would be seen as "backsliding" on commitments to Trump.

"We are watching in real-time developments at Sohae and we will definitely be seeking clarification on the purposes of that," he said.

South Korean spy chief Suh Hoon told lawmakers in Seoul this week that cargo vehicles were spotted moving around a North Korean ICBM factory at Sanumdong recently, the JoongAng Ilbo reported.

The paper also quoted Suh as saying North Korea had continued to run its uranium enrichment facility at the main Yongbyon nuclear complex after Trump and Kim's first summit in Singapore last June.

The Sanumdong factory produced the Hwasong-15 ICBM, which can fly more than 13,000 km (8,080 miles). After a test flight in 2017, North Korea declared the completion of its "state nuclear force" before pursuing talks with South Korea and the United States last year.

South Korea's presidential office and defense ministry declined to confirm the Sanumdong reports and the U.S. State Department said it could not comment on intelligence matters.

Separately, Washington's 38 North and Center for Strategic and International Studies think tanks reported on Thursday that North Korea's Sohae Satellite Launching Station, which Kim pledged in Singapore to dismantle, appeared to be operational again after rebuilding work that began days before the Hanoi summit.

"The rebuilding activities at Sohae demonstrate how quickly North Korea can easily render reversible any steps taken towards scrapping its Weapons of Mass Destruction programme with little hesitation," CSIS said.

It called the action "an affront" to Trump's diplomatic strategy that showed North Korean pique at his refusal to lift sanctions.

Some analysts see the work as aimed at pressing Washington to agree to a deal, rather than as a definite move to resume tests.

A U.S. government source, who did not want to be identified, said North Korea's plan in rebuilding the site could have been to offer a demonstration of good faith by conspicuously stopping again if a summit pact was struck, while furnishing a sign of defiance or resolve if the meeting failed.

38 North said photos from Wednesday showed a rail-mounted transfer building used to move rockets at the site was complete, cranes had been removed from the launch pad and the transfer building moved to the end of the pad.

"But we don't draw any conclusions from that besides they are restoring the facility," Joel Wit of 38 North told Reuters. "There is no evidence to suggest anything more than that."

On Wednesday, Bolton warned of new sanctions if North Korea did not scrap its weapons programme.

Despite his sanctions talk, there have been signs across Asia that the U.S. "maximum pressure" sanctions campaign against North Korea has sprung leaks.

In a new breach, three South Korean companies were found to have brought in more than 13,000 tons of North Korean coal, worth 2.1 billion won ($2 million) since 2017, South Korea said.

North Korean media have given conflicting signals on U.S. relations, while appearing to target Bolton as a spoiler.

Its state television aired a 78-minute documentary late on Wednesday showing a cordial mood between Trump and Kim as the Hanoi summit ended, indicating Pyongyang was not about to walk away from negotiations, experts say.

It also showed a stone-faced Bolton during a meeting in Hanoi, while Trump and other U.S. participants were all smiles.

The Chinese government's top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said on Friday that a "resolution could not be reached overnight".

"All parties should have reasonable expectations on this," Wang told a news briefing.

China is North Korea's most important economic and diplomatic backer, and has suggested easing U.N. sanctions on North Korea as a way to reward it for its improved behavior.

In a return to a more usual strident tone, North Korea's KCNA news agency criticised new small-scale military exercises that the United States and South Korea plan to hold instead of a large-scale spring exercise they have called off.

It said the drills would be a "violent violation" of agreements with the United States and South Korea, although Seoul's defence ministry said the drills are defensive in nature.
Hafiz Saeed had filed an appeal with the UN through Lahore-based law firm Mirza and Mirza in 2017, while he was still under house arrest in Pakistan, for removal of the ban. (Photo:File)

New York: Pakistan turned down the visa request of a UN team which wanted to interview Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed on his application for removing his name from the UNSC sanctions list, according to UN sources.

Hafiz Saeed was listed under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008 after the Mumbai terror attack in which 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists killed 166 people. He was released from house arrest in Pakistan in November 2017.

A representative from the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN informed the UN Ombudsperson in October last year that no visa would be issued for their travel to Pakistan, UN sources told PTI.

The UN Ombudsperson reviews requests from UN designated individuals and entities to be removed from the UN Sanctions Committee listing.

Sources said the Pakistani representative had sought that the visit be postponed till the beginning of 2019 but the Ombudsperson had made it clear that such an extension for the travel could not be given due relevant UNSC provisions and an extension could be made only till late December 2018.

According to the relevant provisions, the UN Security Council had directed the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee to keep "under active review" its guidelines for placing, removing or granting exemptions to individuals and entities on its Al-Qaeda Sanctions List.

Pakistani officials failed to convey in time to the Ombudsperson regarding the travel to Pakistan after which the UN team sought a video conference with Saeed.

UN sources said that following the video interview, the UN Ombudsperson determined Saeed's name will not be removed from the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee listing.

They said that the Ombudsperson "analysed" all the information that had been gathered on the case and "provided observations", setting out for the Committee "the principal arguments" on Saeed's request for de-listing.

The sources added that the Ombudsperson determined that there is "sufficient information" available for the "current listing."

After analyzing and taking into consideration all the information on Saeed's case and his request for de-listing "in totality", the Ombudsperson recommended to the Sanctions Committee that Saeed's name should be retained in the Al-Qaeda Sanctions List.

The UN decision to reject appeal of Saeed, also the creator of LeT, came after India provided detailed evidence including "highly confidential information" about his activities, sources said.

Hafiz Saeed had filed an appeal with the UN through Lahore-based law firm Mirza and Mirza in 2017, while he was still under house arrest in Pakistan, for removal of the ban.

Independent Ombudsperson Daniel Kipfer Fasciati, appointed by the UN to examine all such requests, informed Hafiz Saeed's lawyer that it has been decided following examination of his request that that he will "continue as a listed individual", sources said.

The Ombudsperson recommended that after gathering all information, it has been decided to continue with the ban as "there was sufficient information to provide a reasonable and credible basis for continuing the listing," sources said, adding the recommendation was endorsed by the UN's Sanctions Committee.

Saeed's request was opposed by India as well as other countries that had originally listed him - US, UK and France, sources said.

Significantly, Pakistan did not oppose the appeal despite claims by the new Imran Khan-led government there that it was taking action against the banned terrorists and their organisations in what they call a ''Naya Pakistan''.

Notably, the decision comes at a time when UN's 1267 Sanctions Committee has received a new request to designate Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist after the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. Pakistan-based JeM has claimed responsibility for the strike.
ensions between India and Pakistan flared up after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed or JeM exploded over 60 kg of RDX near a CRPF bus, killing more than 40 soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14. (Photo: File)

Washington: The US has asked Pakistan to take "sustained and irreversible" actions against terrorist groups operating from its territory and areas under its occupation, according to a top State Department official.

The US State Department statement came as Pakistan, under global pressure after the Pulwama terror attack and India's subsequent air strikes against a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist camp in Balakot on February 26, has reportedly started taking actions against some of the terrorist outfits and their heads over the past few days.

In Islamabad, the Interior Ministry announced that a total of 121 members of the proscribed terror groups have so far been taken into "preventive detention" across Pakistan.

US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino told reporters at his bi-weekly news conference on Thursday, "I would say that we, the United States notes these steps and we continue to urge Pakistan to take sustained, irreversible actions against terrorist groups that will prevent future attacks and promote regional stability".

"We reiterate our call for Pakistan to abide by its United Nations Security Council obligations to deny terrorists safe haven and block their entry to funds," he said.

Responding to questions, Palladino refrained from giving a direct answer on the move in New York to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed or JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, but said that the US and its allies in the UN Security Council want to update the UN list of terrorist organisations and leaders.

"Our views on Masood Azhar and Jaish-e-Mohammed are well-known. Jaish-e-Mohammed is a United Nations-designated terrorist group that has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks and is a threat to regional stability. Masood Azhar is the founder and leader of JEM," he said.

Questions on United Nations sanctions committee deliberations are confidential and as such it is not something that the State Department is going to be able to comment on specific matters in that regard, he said.

"But we will continue to work with the sanctions committee to ensure that the list is updated and that it is accurate," Palladino said.

At the US Capitol, India's ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla met Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives.

"We must stand strong against acts of terrorism and work together to improve trade between our nations," the top Republican leader said after the meeting.

Tensions between India and Pakistan flared up after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed or JeM exploded over 60 kg of RDX near a CRPF bus, killing more than 40 soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14.

India launched a "non-military, pre-emptive" counter-terror operation in Pakistan's Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 fighter jet of the Indian Air Force, while losing an F-16 jet of their own.

Pakistan also detained the MiG-21 pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was handed over to India on Friday.
This is perhaps for the first time in years that Saeed despite being present in Lahore will not be able to deliver Friday sermon at Jamia Masjid Qadsia, the JuD headquarters here. (Photo: File)

Lahore: Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has been barred by the government from delivering weekly Friday sermon at Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) headquarters in Lahore in Pakistans Punjab province.

This is perhaps for the first time in years that Saeed despite being present in Lahore will not be able to deliver Friday sermon at Jamia Masjid Qadsia, the JuD headquarters here.

Saeed was never stopped from delivering Friday sermons even during the years when Masjid Qadsias control was under the Punjab government.

As the Punjab police have sealed the Jamia Masjid Qadsia, Saeed will not be allowed to enter the premises to give his weekly sermon on Friday, a senior official of the Punjab government told PTI.

Saeed requested the Punjab government to allow him give sermon on Friday at Qadsia Masjid but it was turned down. This is significant with regard to the clout of Saeed as for the first time he is not being allowed by the government to give sermon on Friday, he added.

Pakistan authorities on Thursday sealed the Lahore headquarters of JuD and FIF and detained over 120 suspected militants as part of an ongoing crackdown on banned groups.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. It had been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.

The US Department of the Treasury has designated its chief Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.
At the behest of Pakistan, China has previously blocked Indias attempts at listing JeM chief Masood Azhar at the UN Security Council. (Photo:ANI)

Beijing: Taking no stand against Pakistans support of terrorism, China on Friday said it had played a "constructive role" in mediation efforts and "defusing" tensions between India and Pakistan, in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack, the responsibility for which has been claimed by Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed.

At a press conference on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Conference here, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China wants to see an improvement of relations and "encouraged" New Delhi and Islamabad to "return to negotiations", hoping that "both sides can transform crisis into opportunity", Chinese state media reported.

Significantly, he made no mention of China's position on asking Pakistan to stop supporting terrorism, even as India lost over 40 CRPF personnel after a JeM terrorist targeted their convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama on February 14. There was again, no mention of China telling Pakistan to cease its backing to terrorists and terror outfits, when Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou visited Pakistan on March 6.

At the behest of Pakistan, China has previously blocked Indias attempts at listing JeM chief Masood Azhar at the UN Security Council. The Foreign Minister did not comment on China's support towards listing Azhar as a global terrorist in the wake of Pulwama terror attack, even as countries like France have shown their outright support for the same.

Speaking on the prevailing heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, Wang said that China "played a constructive role" in the "mediation efforts" between the two countries, even as the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong recently visited Pakistan and held meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa.

"The Chinese side maintains that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be earnestly respected and is unwilling to see acts that violate the norms governing international relations," China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs outlined.

"The Chinese side calls on Pakistan and India to refrain from taking actions that aggravate the situation, show goodwill and flexibility, launch dialogue as soon as possible, and work together to maintain regional peace and stability. The Chinese side is ready to continue to play a constructive role in this regard," the ministry noted, while talking about Kong's visit to Pakistan.

The Pakistani side, on the other hand, called China, Pakistan's "most reliable friend," appreciating "Chinese side's efforts to cool down the situation" according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Notably, China has refrained from making its stand clear regarding Pakistan's support for terrorism, even as the global community has thrown its weight behind India following the Pulwama terror attack.

The United States had told Pakistan to stop providing support and a safe haven to terror outfits and terrorists in the immediate aftermath of the ghastly attack. JeM's chief, Masood Azhar, continues to roam about freely in Pakistan, even after the February 14 attack. Even though Pakistan added Hafiz Saeed's JuD and FIF in its proscribed list on March 5, there has been no new action against JeM or its kingpin.

Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, on March 5, admitted that JeM is a terror organisation and claimed that Pakistani intelligence had used the outfit to carry out suicide attacks in India during his tenure.

India has repeatedly underlined that necessary conditions have to be created for the resumption of India-Pakistan talks. During the recent visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to India, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Crown Prince called on all countries to reject the use of terrorism against other countries, dismantle terror infrastructure and cut off all support to terrorism besides punishing the terrorists.
Islamabad: Krishna Kumari Kohli, Pakistan's first female senator from the Hindu Dalit community, on Friday chaired the session of the upper house of parliament on occasion of International Women's Day.

"Chairman Senate of Pakistan decided to make our colleague Krishna Kumari Kohli aka Kishoo Bai to Chair the Senate for today on Women's Day," Senator Faisal Javed tweeted.

Krishna, 40, was elected as senator in March 2018 after spending many years working for the rights of bonded labourers in Muslim-majority Pakistan. She is the first Thari Hindu woman to be elected to the Pakistan senate.

She belongs to the Kohli community from the remote village of Dhana Gam in Nagarparkar area of Sindh province where a sizeable number of Hindus live.

"I consider myself very fortunate today to be sitting on this seat...," she said before starting the session.

International Women's Day is observed across the world on March 8.

Born to a poor peasant, Jugno Kolhi, in February 1979, Krishna and her family members spent nearly three years in a private jail owned by the landlord of Kunri of Umerkot district.

She was a grade 3 student at the time when held captive. She was married to Lalchand at the age of 16, when she was studying in 9th grade.

She pursued her studies and in 2013 she did masters in sociology from the Sindh University. She had joined the Pakistan Peoples Party as a social activist along with her brother, who was later elected as Chairman of Union Council Berano.

Krishna's election to Senate represented a major milestone for women and minority rights in Pakistan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused Opposition parties of "deliberately" questioning the recent air strikes on terror camps across the border and said that Pakistan would take advantage of the remarks to "mislead" the world.

"Some people are trying to question the valour of our armed forces...they should be ashamed of their conduct...it is being done deliberately," Modi said while addressing a public meeting at Kanpur, about 90 km from here.

The prime minister said that the remarks by the Opposition would help the "enemy". "The kind of language being used on strikes and the allegations against the government will only help the enemies of the country," he said.

He said that Pakistan, which was under tremendous pressure from the world community over its patronage to terrorists, would take advantage of the remarks to mislead the world.

Modi said that the terrorists were frustrated by the government's action and therefore were trying to create disturbances.

Opposition parties have sought proof of air strikes and have also slammed the BJP for what they allege trying to gain mileage out of the same.

The prime minister also condemned the recent attack on Kashmiri fruit vendors in the state capital by members of a saffron outfit and heaped praise on the Yogi Adityanath government for arresting the culprits quickly. "Our fight is against terrorism not against Kashmiri people," he added.

Earlier Modi dedicated the second phase of Metro in the state capital through video conferencing and also launched Metro rail projects in Kanpur and Agra.

He also listed the achievements of his government during its tenure and sought the support of the people for another term.
Public Works Minister H D Revannas disparaging remarks against Sumalatha Ambareesh, wife of the late actor-politician Ambareesh, questioning what he termed her haste in entering the political fray within months of losing her husband, drew widespread flak on Friday.

According to Hindu customs and rituals, after the husbands death, the widow should avoid going out of the house for some time. She lost her husband recently. Why is she in such a hurry to enter politics? he told reporters in New Delhi, a remark that caused outrage. Friday happened to be International Womens Day.

Sumalatha has expressed her inclination to contest from Mandya in the Lok Sabha election where JD(S) is planning to field Nikhil, son of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.

Criticising Sumalathas political ambitions, the minister said, When Ambareesh died, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy attended the last rites considering him a member of his own family. Now, Sumalatha has posed a challenge to the JD(S) by announcing her inclination to contest from Mandya. Revanna, who was here to attend the foundation laying function of Karnataka Bhavan, had more to say.

All these years, Sumalatha acted in movies. Now, she wants to come to act in politics. Let her contest elections. We will take up the challenge, Revanna said.

However, the chief minister disapproved of his brothers statement. I appeal to all not to make any comments against opponents. All eligible candidates are free to contest any election, he said.

Refusing to be drawn into a controversy, Sumalatha said, I dont want to give credence to these cheap comments with my reply  I dont want to stoop to their level. She said that by targeting her in this manner, JD(S) leaders were exposing their own mentality, culture and their upbringing.

It reflects on them, not on me. The people of Mandya, including hardcore JD(S) followers, are furious. When you are in a position of power, its not okay for you to talk like this. You are sending out a signal on the way women should be treated. Targeting a candidate based on gender is not acceptable. I dont want to resort to their style. This is not my cup of tea, she said.

Later in the day, Revanna said he did not say anything derogatory and refused to apologise.

BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa said: Such statements are uncalled for. It is unbecoming of a minister.
WASHINGTON  The world's two largest economies are locked in negotiations that may soon produce a deal to suspend their trade war.

Yet despite signals from Chinese and U.S. officials that some truce could be forthcoming, there are few signs of any truly transformed trade relationship. Beijing's longstanding policy of subsidizing its own businesses and charges that it illicitly obtains U.S. technology remain key obstacles to any meaningful U.S.-China trade deal.

In the meantime, the government said Wednesday that the trade deficit in goods with China  the gap between the value of the U.S. products China buys and the higher value of what it sells to the U.S.  hit a record $419.2 billion last year.

A senior Trump administration official asserted this week that progress had been made during trade talks over the past two weeks, only to acknowledge that the eventual outcome remains a mystery and that China faced no timetable for responding to the U.S. priorities. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

U.S. and Chinese officials have hinted that some kind of agreement could be finalized by the end of March, with Trump and President Xi Jinping possibly meeting to formalize the deal at Trump's private club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

For its part, Beijing is publicly expressing its intent to crack down on policies that have long enabled Chinese companies and local government officials to force American and other foreign businesses to share their technology as the price of admission to the vast Chinese market. But such public pledges represent far less than the enforceable commitments to reform such policies that U.S. negotiators are seeking.

Last year, Trump imposed a series of tariffs on Chinese goods in hopes of pressuring Beijing to support more favorable terms for the United States. In June, the White House levied import taxes of 25 percent on $50 billion of Chinese imports. It followed in September with 10 percent duties on an additional $200 billion. All told, the U.S. tariffs covered roughly half of what the U.S. buys from China.

But the blowback from the Trump tariffs  and China's retaliatory import taxes on U.S. goods  has been steady, at home and abroad. Many businesses are now paying higher costs to import electrical components and other goods from China that aren't made in the United States. The duties cost consumers $1.4 billion a month and businesses $3 billion a month by the end of last year, according to research released last week by Mary Amiti, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and economists from Princeton and Columbia universities.

And a survey led by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found that the tariffs had caused U.S. companies to cut their spending on large equipment by 1.2 percent, or $32.5 billion, last year.

Both figures are relatively modest, given that the U.S. economy produces $20 trillion of goods and services a year. But there are also secondary effects. The stock market plummeted 19 percent last fall, partly on fears that the trade war would inflict severe damage.

Nor have the tariffs provided the negotiating leverage that Trump sought. Many of China's concessions appear designed to appease some U.S. concerns, rather than establish guidelines for trade that each country would be bound to follow.

Beijing has offered to buy more American farm goods and energy  a pitch that Xi made to Trump when they met during a December dinner at a global conference in Buenos Aires with the idea of narrowing the U.S. trade gap with China.

China's ceremonial legislature was poised this week to back a law that would discourage officials in the country from pressuring U.S. companies to hand over technology. It was a response to concerns about Chinese disrespect for intellectual property that Trump had raised when he first imposed import taxes on Chinese goods.

But it's unclear whether China would actually enforce this commitment  a concern that could potentially prevent a meaningful trade agreement. Speaking to a House panel last week, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said, "I can point to many examples" of Beijing signing onto an agreement "and in very few cases have they actually kept their obligations."

Lighthizer also stressed that it wouldn't be enough for Beijing to agree to additional purchases of American soybeans, natural gas another goods. Any far-reaching agreement, he said, would need to include changes in China's policies toward intellectual property protection, forced technology transfer and the subsidization of Chinese companies.

Erin Ennis, vice president at the U.S.-China Business Council, said that agreeing on an enforcement mechanism is a huge challenge. The Trump administration wants to be able to impose tariffs on China if it violated its promises in any future pact  without retaliation. Yet Beijing would likely regard such a mechanism as infringing on its sovereignty.

But without enforcement, "it's difficult to see how they will conclude a deal," Ennis said.

Beijing is also resisting U.S. demands to change industrial policies, said Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. And instead of pulling back on support for technology development, Premier Li Keqiang, in his report to the national legislature on 2019 government goals, promised even more such support.

"The Chinese will never agree to compromise on this, because it is key to the country's future," Lam said. "The whole socialist approach to high-tech innovation involves the state playing a big role. The Chinese will never give this up."

That said, China does appear at least open to prying open more of its financial sector, which has largely been closed off to U.S. and European banks.

"What is certain is that in opening up the financial sector, China and the United States can fully agree on each other," Guo Shuqing, the chairman of China's banking regulator, told reporters Tuesday.

___

AP Business Writer Joe McDonald in Beijing and AP Writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
Recent measles outbreaks across the United States are as disappointing as they are worrisome, and now they renew an old challenge for state lawmakers: Should government be responsible for ensuring children get their vaccines?

Its a conflict of personal freedom and societal good. Roughly 95 percent of a community needs the treatment in order for vaccines to protect others. Given human natures proclivity for self-interest rather than altruism, the easiest way to reach herd immunity is by government mandate.

But some make a viable argument against allowing government to force what they claim is an individual decision. Thats why every state has over the years allowed exemptions to parents who choose not to vaccinate their children. Some exemptions are medical  weak immune systems or certain allergies pose a higher risk of negative effects. Other exemptions, however, are for personal reasons, and it seems a tide of misinformation across the past two decades has nursed the rise of those citing personal or philosophical objections for forgoing the treatments.

Utah is among 17 states that honor personal reasons for objecting to vaccines. Utah also ranks 41st in the nation for the number of 2-year-olds who are fully immunized, according to the 2017 National Immunization Survey.

That trend worries medical experts who say the risks of not immunizing far outweigh any risk associated with receiving a vaccine. Commenting on the confirmation of 206 measles cases this year alone, Rich Lakin, immunization program manager at the Utah Department of Health, told the Deseret News, "I think that's probably a pretty good indicator that if you're not going to vaccinate, then we're going to see these diseases come back again.

Vaccines have long been proven effective. Those whose lives bridge the pre- and post-vaccine worlds might well describe their effects as miraculous. And while medical professionals confirm vaccination carries an extremely small risk of negative effects  as does any drug  they also affirm the measles vaccine is responsible for reducing the measles-related death toll in the United States from 500 annually to basically zero. The last measles-related death in the U.S. occurred in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We are asking for a robust debate, based on scientific evidence and respecting religious and cultural considerations, to determine how personal freedom and societal protection should look in 2019.

That work has largely been accomplished by mandates to immunize children before they enter school. There is no evidence-based reason for this to end.

What Utah and other state legislatures must grapple with is where to draw the line between individual choice and a responsibility to protect their residents.

Viewing the problem through the lens of public safety is the best method. Consider seat belt laws, smoke-free zones and speed limits. In each of these intersections, the state has a compelling interest to not only keep the individual safe, but to protect others around them.

Through that scope, medical exemptions to vaccines have merit and ought to continue so as not to harm persons unable to process the immunization. Personal objections, however, deserve greater scrutiny from lawmakers. We are asking for a robust debate, based on scientific evidence and respecting religious and cultural considerations, to determine how personal freedom and societal protection should look in 2019.

Its up to states to determine how best to keep their residents safe, but we hope that discussion adequately weighs the harm of allowing too many to walk vaccine-free.
EVERYBODY KNOWS  3 stars  Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Ricardo Darin, Eduard Fernandez, Barbara Lennie, Inma Cuesta; R (for some language); In general release; running time: 132 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY  Asghar Farhadis Everybody Knows is an insightful, if flawed, examination of how a stressful situation can threaten to tear apart the strongest of bonds.

The story follows a family in Spain who is thrown into a terrible predicament in the middle of a routine wedding celebration. Two principal characters drive the action: Laura (Penelope Cruz) has come home from Argentina to attend her sisters Ana (Inma Cuesta)s wedding, along with her two children, teenage Irene (Carla Campra) and younger brother Diego (Ivan Chavero). Lauras husband Alejandro (Ricardo Darin) has opted out of the trip due to work conflicts.

Paco (Javier Bardem) is a partner in the local vineyard that used to be owned by Lauras father. He too, is married, and has stayed close with Lauras family, though Paco and his wife Bea (Barbara Lennie) do not have children.

In the midst of the celebratory turmoil, Irene meets Pacos nephew Felipe (Sergio Castellanos), and soon they are off riding around town on his motorcycle, exploring the clock tower in the local church and grabbing a smoke when no one is looking. Felipe also happens to reveal that everybody knows Laura and Paco have a history together, though they appear to be on good terms.

Around this time you might assume Everybody Knows will see Laura and Paco fight their long-suppressed feelings for each other before finally succumbing to an illicit affair. Instead, shortly after a brief power outage during the wedding reception, Laura discovers that Irene is missing and then a text message delivers the terrible news: her daughter has been kidnapped.

Instead of a romance, Everybody Knows quickly shifts into a different kind of drama, as the family scrambles to deal with the situation. The kidnappers have threatened to kill Irene if anyone contacts the police, so Laura is forced to deal with the situation internally. Suspects include everyone from the weddings video crew to the grape pickers at Pacos vineyard. It doesnt take long, though, before a series of suspicious discoveries reveal the impossible: the kidnapping was an inside job, by a party with intimate knowledge of the familys dark secrets.

The rest of Everybody Knows slowly reveals the extent of those dark secrets, involving Pacos complicated past with Lauras family, and we watch as those involved wrestle with suspicions that run rampant across family lines. In the meantime, the clock ticks on Irene, whose ransom is priced at a staggering 300,000 euros.

Rather than turn Everybody Knows into an action thriller, like Liam Neesons Taken films, Farhadi concentrates on the familys internal drama, making the film more of a psychological portrait of how bonds of family and friendship can be warped and frayed under extreme stress. The drama is effective and, to its credit, the performances are convincing enough to keep the resolution from feeling too obvious.

At the same time, there is a fairly major plot twist about two-thirds of the way through that couldnt have been more obvious if Farhadi had marked it with signal flags, and the 133-minute run time feels a bit labored. But for many audiences, the strong performances from Cruz and Bardem and the thoughtful subject matter will compensate for a few stumbles.

Everybody Knows may not be the best crime thriller out there, but it has enough going for it to merit some strong consideration.

Rating explained: Everybody Knows draws a very mild R rating for scattered profanity and adult themes, including about a half-dozen uses of the F-word. It is presented in Spanish with English subtitles.
SOUTH JORDAN  March 4 was one of the more holy days on the Hindu calendar.

That night, hundreds of worshippers, dressed in colorful, traditional and ceremonial Indian clothing, came fasting to the Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple of Utah in South Jordan to chant religious prayers and partake of Indian food sacredly prepared in honor of Lord Shiva.

The Maha Shivaratri celebration went all night, said Venkatesh Subramanyan, a trustee with the temple and India Cultural Center.

"It's a pretty big festival," Subramanyan said. "In Christianity we have Easter and Christmas and other holy days. Hinduism has a lot of holy days. Through the year we'll be celebrating many events."

And the public is always warmly invited to come and learn more.

As part of the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable's season of activities, designed for people to learn more about different faiths in the community, the Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple of Utah and India Cultural Center is hosting an open house on Monday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. (Its website is at utahganeshatemple.org.)

Narayanan Jayaraman, vice president of the temple board and chair of the religious committee, is one of the busiest people when the temple hosts such events.

"The best part is basically that we can explain about our Hindu mythology and all about our culture," he said. "Everything."

The Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple of Utah, located just east of 1300 West and north of South Jordan Parkway, offers an informative glance into the world of Hinduism and Indian culture.

Here are nine interesting things you should know before you attend the temple open house.

Why an open house?

The Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple of Utah plans open houses every year, according to Satish Nachaegari, president of Ganesha Hindu Temple of Utah.

"The main thing is to have people come and experience what the temple is. There are so many things that people do not understand," Nachaegari said. "So it's a good opportunity for them to come actually visit, see it, experience it, ask questions, so that we could we could help them understand better."

Washing hands and feet

The top question Nachaegari gets from visitors is why it's necessary to leave shoes outside and wash hands and feet before entering the temple sanctum hall?

The answer: Shoes are left outside to help keep the temple clean, but the washing is symbolic, Nachaegari said.

"The saying goes that you wash your feet so that you leave your ego, wash it off completely," Nachaegari said. "The significance of the temple, in the temple especially, is once you walk in, you touch the ground here, you sit down here for a couple of minutes in peace and just pray in your heart. That's the most important part of being in the temple. The ceremonies come later. But coming physically into the temple and sitting here is considered one of the key things."

The bell

Why does each Hindu temple have a bell?

Sri Satish Nenmali, one of the priests at the Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple of Utah, said the bell's purpose is to help a devotee focus their mind on spiritual matters.

"When you are coming from the outside world, your mind may have a lot of thoughts, so many thoughts, unwanted thoughts," Nenmali said as he rang the bell. "It's a divine sound, the sound of the universe that has the power to purify our mind."

There's another purpose for the bell. During rituals, when offering something to the God, bad spirits may be present. Priests ring the bell continuously for 10-15 minutes to keep the bad spirits away, Nenmali said.

A third purpose is to maintain good vibrations, Nenmali said.

Sri Ganesha

The reason it's called the Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple of Utah is for the main deity  Lord Ganesha  you see in the center of the room when you walk in, Nachaegari said.

Depicted as an elephant, Lord Ganesha is regarded as a god of wisdom and knowledge. Hindus also believe he helps to remove all obstacles from one's path, Nachaegari said.

A short history

The main Ganesha idol was commissioned by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami of the Kauai Hindu Monastery. It was sculpted in India and shipped to Utah and installed in the basement of the Nealameggham family, and regular worship services were initially held there, Subramanyan said.

The temple property was acquired in 1997. Construction on the temple commenced in 2002 and the first consecration happened in 2003. Many other faith groups, including members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, volunteered to help in the temple's construction, Subramanyan said.

"When we first constructed this building, we did not have enough funds and a lot of volunteers would spend their weekends and evening hours helping within the construction. The LDS Church had a lot of volunteers come here. They helped us with the landscaping. They help with some of the interior work."

After adding more idols in later years, the temple was significantly expanded and rededicated in 2015.

"Every 12 years we have a Kumbhabhishekam, a rededication of the temple," Subramanyan said. "It's a ritualistic purification and bringing religious strength back into the temple. That is also a time when we would do additional construction, expansions or any kind of repairs that are needed, either to the shrine or temple."

Priestly duties

Nenmali went to school for 13 years to become a priest.

A priest's main responsibility is to conduct "the puja," or daily prayers, at the temple. When the devotees come, priests act as a kind of mediator between the worshipper and the deity.

"Basically we do rituals every day to the God on behalf of the people," Nenmali said.

Open services

Unlike other faiths or religions that meet on certain days of the week, Hinduism does not have set dates for service, Subramanyan said.

"We have worship that's almost continuous. People will come in every day," Subramanyan said. "For some people, Monday might be an auspicious day. Friday might be an auspicious day, Saturday, Sunday. So you will find people coming here at all times of the day to pray."

Tejaswini Kanakadandinaga, wife of Sri Sathish Shastri Nivarti, a priest at the temple, worships at the temple each morning.

"When you have trouble, anything good or happy, whatever it is, you can express it to Ganesha," said the wife and mother of two children. "He listens to our words. That's why I really like to come here daily."

Everyone is welcome at the temple, Nachaegari said.

"There are people who don't do anything, just come in and sit," he said. "You don't have to recite anything. Basically everyone is welcome to come experience it. That's one of the things that everyone likes."

An 'amalgamation'

One unique aspect of the Sri Ganesha Temple of Utah is that it's an "amalgamation of different subsets of Hinduism," Subramanyan said.

For example, Catholics, Protestants and Lutherans are denominations within Christianity. Within Hinduism, people worship different deities, such as Sri Vishnu and Sri Shiva.

"They represent two of India's biggest denominations. So if you think about it, it's like Protestants and Catholics praying in the same church," Subramanyan said. "The reason why we do it is because the number of Hindus in North America is so little that we choose to worship in the same building. Some of the tradition might be different but our priests will perform both traditions."

India Cultural Center

Adjoining the temple is the India Cultural Center, a place where community members can come together for cultural programs and activities, including birthdays and weddings.

During such special events, vegetarian food is prepared by temple cook or "pachaka" Balgji Krishnaswamy in the kitchen. Preparing the food involves a number of volunteers.

The food is first offered to the Gods, then it's blessed and shared with the guests, Nachaegari said.

For more information about the Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple of Utah, visit utahganeshatemple.org.

If you go ...

What: Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple open house

When: Monday March 11, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Where: 1142 W. South Jordan Parkway, South Jordan

Web: interfaithroundtable.org and utahganeshatemple.org
SALT LAKE CITY  Four Canadian wolves were recently transported by helicopter to Isle Royale National Park, according to Pacific Standard magazine.

A helicopter dropped the wolves off from their home in Ontario to the national park, which covers an 894-square-mile island in the Great Lakes regions.

Scientists with the Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale project have dropped the wolves there for two reasons: to hunt a growing moose population and raise the dwindling wolf population in the region.

Ice bridges between the Isle Royale and the mainland have existed for years. However, the ice bridges have become less common, which has stalled wolves from migrating to the national park.

The National Park Service now wants to bring 20 to 30 wolves into the park within the next five years, The Guardian reports.

John Vucetich, an ecologist from Michigan Technological University who leads the Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale project, told Pacific Standard that the new environment will be weird for wolves.

"They live in families, so imagine what happens to a dog when they're plunked into a foreign place," he says, adding that for the most part, the new wolves didnt know each other prior to their release in Isle Royale. "They are being introduced to each other. It's tense and nervous  and it's tough to find food in a new place. It's stressful."

Fox News reportsthat helicopter crews fired used net guns to capture the wolves. The wolves were given sedation and examined by veterinarians.

"I am  blown away by the resilience of these wolves, who within hours after undergoing capture and handling and arriving on Isle Royale, immediately got on the trail of their pack mates," Mark Romanski, the park's natural resources division chief, told Fox News.

However: A gray wolf was moved from Minnesota to the national park last month, according to The Star Tribune. It wandered back to the mainland, though.
WASHINGTON  For the first time since taking office, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office this week to discuss trade, China and national security.

Wednesday's lunch meeting was arranged by Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., a staunch ally of the president, "to discuss issues important to our nation," his spokesman said.

In an interview, Romney offered more detail on the 90-minute discussion that focused on international trade, primarily China.

"I'm probably more of a hawk on China than the president," Romney said. "I think we have to hold China's feet to the fire."

Their meeting took place the same day the Commerce Department announced the U.S. trade deficit surged nearly 19 percent in December, pushing last year's trade imbalance to a decadelong-high $621 billion. The gap with China on goods widened to an all-time record of $419.2 billion.

You really can't say how you're going to vote on something until you know precisely what will come.  Utah Sen. Mitt Romney

Border security also came up between the three leaders, including the president's emergency declaration that is expected to be rejected by the Republican-controlled Senate when they vote on it before March 15. Romney is among a few GOP senators who have not disclosed how they will vote on a joint resolution that rejects Trump's national emergency declaration as a way to secure funding for a promised wall along the Mexico border.

Trump is expected to veto the resolution if it passes.

"You really can't say how you're going to vote on something until you know precisely what will come," Romney said. "But, I have studied this at some length and spoken with a number of people about it and I've made my decision, pending what the final bill looks like that comes to the Senate floor."

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said senators were still looking into whether the joint disapproval resolution can be amended.

Among the amendments being discussed is a proposal by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, that would put a time limit on future national emergencies and require a simple majority vote by Congress to extend them beyond a 30-day or a 60-day period, the Hill reported.

A spokesman for Lee said, He is in talks with colleagues on how to best secure a vote to make real substantive changes to the (National Emergencies Act).

While Romney isn't announcing his decision, he has expressed concerns about setting a precedent for future presidents to set aside what Congress has approved and get funding by declaring a national emergency.

"And that's the question. Do you want the president of the United States not to be a balancing power equal with Congress, but a superior power?" he said at a town hall meeting in Price, Utah, on Feb. 23.

Romney said he agrees with Trump on the need to beef up border security, but he said there are other sources of funding the administration can tap into that exceed the $5.7 billion the president wants for a border wall without declaring a national emergency.

On trade, Romney said he agrees with Trump's trade policy toward China. "They've moved from currency manipulation to intellectual property theft as their vehicle to combat us economically," he said. "I think the president's absolutely right to want to apply tariffs to them and to threaten higher tariffs if they walk away from a reasonable deal."

But he said he told the president that he disagrees with placing tariffs on steel and aluminum. "I said I think they're counterproductive for American industry  that you got that one wrong. But I think you got China right," Romney said.

The former GOP presidential candidate said the meeting was cordial and productive. "He said, 'Look, give me a call anytime with praise or with criticism,' and it's like, fine, I'll take you up on that, Mr. President," Romney said.

The meeting included a visit by Danny Burch, an American hostage who was rescued in an armed raid after being held captive for 18 months in Yemen, The New York Times reported. A photo of the visit by Burch showed Vice President Mike Pence and other White House aides in the Oval Office.

Graham invited Romney to the meeting so the junior senator from Utah could share his views on China and national security. It came more than two months after Graham blasted Romney for an op-ed published in The Washington Post two days before being sworn in that said the president had not "risen to the mantle of the office."

Graham, once a vocal critic and now a staunch ally of the president, told Fox News Radio that Trump doesn't need more critics, but more people who "will help him make good decisions."

"So Im hoping that Mitt will sit down with the president privately, share his concerns with the president about whatever drives his thinking but also commit to the president that I want you to be successful and Im here to help you," Graham said. "If he will do that he can be a very effective senator."

Contributing: Associated Press
Global leaders, elected officials and diplomats must ponder more seriously how international society is progressing in protecting and promoting rights, opportunities, empowerment and freedom for women and girls. Significant progress has been made, but the stark reality is that the global community is falling well short, and must be investing concentrated energy and pooling deeper resources into advancing genuine solutions that foster healthier, more equal and safer conditions for women and girls. We can and must do better. One solution to these vexing problems for vulnerable women is to train, develop and harness the power of women to go forward and serve.

On a recent visit to Utah County from Washington, D.C., I stopped at Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University. These institutions and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are remarkable in relation to womens empowerment, honoring women, mitigating violence, providing shelter, advancing peace and cultivating the skills of women and girls as leaders and change agents around the world.

Women at BYU are one of the most well-traveled and internationally minded student bodies of any university around the world. It is not hyperbole to say that on this score the university rivals, if not exceeds, the worlds great academic institutions. As you walk around the campus and engage with women students, you will quietly hear their stories about profound service in countries and communities across the globe.

Neighboring UVU, led ably by Astrid Tuminez, is similar to BYU in that large proportions of women students have served or will serve domestically and internationally. The number of women currently enrolled at BYU and UVU who have lived and been peacemakers and ambassadors of goodwill around the world measures in the thousands. If one adds in alumni, it is in the tens of thousands. Think of the impact. These are skilled, capable and emerging women leaders who in their service have faced poverty up close, embedded themselves into modest communities and villages, been role models to younger girls, resolved family conflicts, aided older women who struggle with health, cleaned up after disasters, learned difficult languages and faced their own physical and mental obstacles. They are receiving no academic credit as they put their formal schooling on hold. And they are volunteers; in fact, they are paying their own expenses or have church support. Without taking anything away from so many fabulous universities, what school can say that a significant swath of its student population of women has those attributes, have made those sacrifices, and had those experiences on such a large scale?

Next to BYU and near UVU is a facility called the Missionary Training Center, or MTC, which is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The MTC is full of curious and eager minds ready to serve their fellow humankind with charity and no political agenda. Thousands of university-aged women are in intense language training, personal management and spiritual study for long hours. These women are some of the finest, courageous, most giving and valiant individuals I have ever met. They genuinely learn to care not simply for the places they go, but more importantly the people they serve.

The status of women and girls around the world must urgently receive greater focus and attention. Humanity and the environment need women of conviction and knowledge leading the way. If you visit BYU and UVU watch, listen and learn from these extraordinary women. If you pass by the MTC, ponder the thousands of women who are sacrificing to serve other women, families and communities in need. Their willingness to serve is an important response to the hardships that women, girls and men face each day. They deserve our support and certainly have earned our admiration. They are lights shining bright in a world so desperately in need.
SALT LAKE CITY  Immigration issues will have to be addressed in a large-scale fashion for business and economic development to prosper in the short and long term, a Washington, D.C., insider told an audience of Utah business owners on Thursday.

Speaking at the Salt Lake Chamber, Jeff Lungren  chief health care and immigration lobbyist with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce  told the group that if Congress can come up with a measure to address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and the Temporary Protected Status program, along with a border security package, then the country could reap significant benefits economically today and into the future.

"That seems like something that is in the realm of the possible given the political environment," he said. The U.S. Chamber has endorsed such a package and believes the programs for those who were brought illegally to the country as children are critical to stabilizing the nation's immigration quandary, a source of angst for decades, he said.

Immigration reform is a matter of grave concern for businesses nationwide across a wide spectrum of industries, he noted.

"Whether it's here in Utah or anywhere across the country, workforce shortages (exist)," Lungren said. "Folks cannot find workers. We've got record low unemployment and it really doesn't matter what industry you're in, they cannot get enough workers."

He said in order to foster continued job growth and fill temporary or full-time positions, the immigration system has to be reformed dramatically or the nation risks losing scores of qualified, talented workers.

"Right now our immigration system is a hindrance toward the growth continuum," he said. "There are some industries that if they have trouble with our immigration system, you'll see them go to Canada. It doesn't benefit us to have an out-of-date immigration system where jobs are being shipped over the border."

He noted that Utah has a shortage of skilled workers in various sectors, including construction and technology, as well as "lesser-skilled" workers.

"They all play a vital role in promoting economic growth and vitality," he said. "If you're going to continue to have workforce shortages, that's jobs that aren't being created here, lost productivity and lost revenue that's being left on the table."

Lungren said immigration reform is a way to promote economic growth at state and national levels.

"It helps our economic competitiveness," he said. "You've got a global marketplace out there."

He said Utah and the U.S. are in competition with Canada and other countries due to the nature of talent mobility. "Those entities that don't recognize that do so to their detriment," he said.

He noted that Canada has launched a marketing campaign to lure immigrants from the United States to the Great White North, employing billboards along California's famed Highway 101 that read, "Having (work visa) problems? Come to Canada."

"The smart policies are ones that produce net benefits," Lungren said. "It helps create jobs. It helps (increase) your economic vitality. It helps you grow and prosper and have healthier communities."

Meanwhile, one local immigration supporter said finding solutions to the ongoing immigration dilemma will help Utah and all other states grow their economies and fill thousands of open employment positions. But the current political climate is an impediment to progress on large-scale reform.

"The politics is definitely preventing (reform) and it's unfortunate," said Luis Garza, executive director at Comunidades Unidas  a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit Latino advocacy organization. "It is very clear the benefits of immigration to the economy, but also to families, to culture, to everything."

He said that the lack of political will to permanently address the immigration issue has plagued the nation for more than 20 years, and it has come at a significant cost. To combat that apathy, advocates must forge ahead to implore Congress and local legislators to develop long-term solutions as soon as possible.

"We need to bring this issue to the forefront because it is very important for the state of Utah and for the country," he said. "The more we talk about it, the more likely we are going to be able to make progress."

He added that he was heartened to find local business leaders in attendance voicing their support for immigration reform, and recognizing the value immigrants bring to their companies and their communities.

"It is encouraging that we hear more business leaders coming forward and saying, 'This is important,'" Garza said. "Not only to their bottom line but to their employees' well-being."
SALT LAKE CITY  Perry Knuth isnt happy about having to add sales tax to the price of haircuts at his State Street barbershop, but he says hell deal with it if thats what Utah lawmakers decide to do.

Theyre doing it like were selling bubble gum, for crap sakes, he said. I think its wrong."

Knuth, who has owned Perrys Barber Shop for nearly 33 years, said he hopes his industrys awesome lobbyist can head off the legislative proposal to start taxing dozens of services in the state.

But if not, Ill adapt. I cant stop it.

Adapting likely means rounding up his prices to the nearest dollar to include the tax so he doesnt have to handle change. He figures hell need an accountant to help him remit the tax to the state.

Im just going to have the raise the price and Ill lose tip money, he said.

Knuth is among a chorus of businesses that oppose HB441, a controversial Republican tax reform proposal that until Thursday was winding its way through the Utah Legislature.

GOP lawmakers and Gov. Gary Herbert pulled the plug on the bill this legislative session, but are still determined to impose sales taxes on a wide range of services including everything from haircuts to legal work. Herbert wants to convene a special session in the summer.

Pressure on lawmakers to vote against the legislation had built up the past few days, much of it coming from business owners and professionals who would have to charge sales taxes on their services.

Blake Moore, owner of Moore Green in North Salt Lake, read most of the original 8,030-line bill and expressed his opposition to his elected representatives. He worries how a tax on services would impact the lawn care and fertilization business he has owned the past 15 years.

"I'm concerned about it because that will obviously increase prices that my customers will have to pay for my service," he said. "My concern is people will stop buying our services."

With increased costs for wages, rent and insurance, Moore said he already had to raise his prices this year.

Imposing the tax, he said, would be one more way to widen the gap between legitimate lawn care companies and those that skirt the law.

"The landscaping industry is an industry that's very easy to get into. There are companies or guys that go out and do this type of work off the books. We compete against these companies and they don't pay employee taxes. They won't collect sales tax," Moore said.

Brian Hollien, president of Morris Murdock Travel, said it's "horribly misleading" for legislators to refer to the proposal as a tax cut. At best, he said, it would be tax neutral.

"The reality is there's going to be so many taxes on services that are totally unforseen and not thought out very well at all," he said.

To make the tax fair, Hollien said, the state would have to collect from every hotel, resort, cruise line and tour company in the world. He said there's no way a hotel in Tahiti is going to tax a Utah resident's booking  including determining in which county the person lives, because the rates vary  and remit that money to the state.

"It's simple not going to happen," he said.

Hollien said just collecting the tax presents a logistical nightmare for travel agencies.

"Somehow the legislators think that there's some magical solution or software or something to apply this. There's nothing out there for our industry that's going to do this," he said, adding that if there were, it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"It's not just the tax itself. It's all of the challenges of how do you even comply with it and then the cost of compliance," Hollien said. "And how would the state ever even see that this is fairly and equitably applied to everyone that should be paying these taxes?"

Interior designer Martha Hatfield said she wouldn't know where to begin to collect taxes on her consulting work.

"I'm good at making things beautiful. Don't talk to me about numbers," she said.

Hatfield, who ventured out on her own with Martha Hatfield Design about a year ago, said she fears a tax on services would "kill my business" as well as others.

"Many of us would close up shop," she said. "People would no longer start small businesses. I think it would seem too daunting."

Hatfield said she thought lawmakers were rushing the bill through, and that it felt "very underhanded."

"You know why they did it? It's because they didn't want the people of Utah to get in their face about it because they know we are opposed to it," said Hatfield, who made her feelings known to legislators all over social media.

David Bean owns three Dave's Barber Shop locations in the Salt Lake Valley. He figures that, like others in the cosmetology and barber industries, he'll need an accountant to help him sort out how to collect and remit sales tax to the state.

"I'm much better with hair than I am with math," he said.

Most barbers, he said, are independent contractors who make $30,000 to $60,000 a year, adding he lives in a small apartment and drives a truck with 200,000 miles on it. Taxing haircuts will drive up prices, and customers won't like it, he said.

"It's just going to make it a lot more expensive and a lot more difficult for an already struggling industry," Bean said, adding there are only 700 licensed barbers in the state.

Bean noted that lawyers whose services also would be taxed oppose the proposal.

"They'll find a way out of it," he said."But I don't have that kind of power."
SALT LAKE CITY  With a lot of support for raising the age for tobacco products to 21, HB324 passed out of Senate Business and Labor Committee unanimously and will now go to the Senate floor.

"Ive run this bill for three years now and its the first year that Ive made it out of the House, and I think its the first time that Ive had more co-sponsors than votes needed to move out of the House," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy.

Eliason said the bill has received support from many groups, including tobacco and vaping companies. One thing both sides agreed on was raising the age to 21, he said, which is the main purpose of the bill. The bill also addresses e-cigarettes and raises the age to use those devices as well.

Most of the concerns voiced were around pre-emption of local laws trying to further restrict tobacco sales.

Dave Davis, president of the Utah Retail Merchants Association, said they agree with the change in age to 21, but they do not support the current bill and asked to have stronger language put back in so the law would be consistent across the state.

"We did a deal, we felt like the deal was pre-emptive language so that we have this consistent rule (then) well support 'tobacco 21' across the state," Davis said.

Lehi, along with Cedar Hills, passed ordinances earlier this year raising the age to purchase tobacco products to 21. Eliason said some pre-emption is important to bring consistency throughout the state. He said the bill as it is currently written would superseded their laws. This means cities would have the gradual increase to 21, which is in HB324, rather than the immediate increase found in Lehi and Cedar Hills ordinances.

Lehi Mayor Mark Johnson said at the committee meeting Thursday he believes the ordinance in Lehi doesn't contradict the state law or this version of the bill. He said he supports the bill and that the focus should be on the core problem, keeping tobacco or tobacco-related products away from minors.

"We know some of the minors right now do not understand the dangers in (e-cigarettes), they simply think this is a healthy alternative to tobacco, and thats just simply not true," Johnson said.

He said other cities have reached out to him about changing the age to 21, but he said they don't have interest in creating their own laws if HB324 passes.

Provo City Council passed a resolution Tuesday in support of the bill, saying if it does not pass, it will consider adopting its own ordinance.

In a statement, the council said it "believes strongly that this proposal will be a benefit to our state and to our youth and will be a proposal that may have a beneficial ripple effect for future generations."

DeAnn Kettenring, representing the Utah PTA, said she helped with the efforts in Lehi to make the change and pre-emption would have stopped grassroots efforts that can help state laws change.

"Im grateful that Lehi had the opportunity to do this, because this is the first time this bill has gotten out of the House, out of committee," Kettenring said.

She would support laws in any city banning tobacco products, saying any smoker she knows over the age of 25 or 30 wants to quit but can't.

"I have a child thats addicted to tobacco, I have personal experience, I hate this stuff," Kettenring said.

Sen. Jake Anderegg, R-Lehi, said he supports what was done in Lehi but he also needs to consider the entire state and a "patchwork quilt" from different laws in every city is a problem for businesses and regulation.
SALT LAKE CITY  The debate over hate crimes legislation, which for years failed to gain traction among lawmakers, moved through a House committee Friday after passing the Senate earlier this week.

The House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee voted 8-2 to send SB103 to the House floor. The bill would provide an enhanced penalty for a criminal offense committed against a victim who is targeted because of specific personal attributes.

READ MORE: Utah hate crimes bill headed to House floor

On SB103, Sen @danielthatcher says 'biggest challenge that we have when discussion hate crimes is the term itself' #utpol #utleg  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) March 8, 2019

Thatcher says hate crimes bill 'isn't about hurting feelings. This isn't about saying mean things....This is about the action'#utpol #utleg  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) March 8, 2019

.@UtahEagleForum against hate crimes bill. Dani Palmer says if creating 'special protection' should be for everybody, not 'special class' of people #utpol #utleg  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) March 8, 2019

'Hate crimes send a chill of terror when theyre committed,' says @SimGillDA. Says he does not have workable statue to deal with #utpol #utleg  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) March 8, 2019

Both Reps. Romero and Hollins speak of their own experiences with hate crimes and targeting of minority communities #utpol #utleg  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) March 8, 2019

House committee passes hate crimes bill to floor, 8-2. Reps. Strong and Coleman opposed #utpol #utleg  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) March 8, 2019

Other issues discussed at the Statehouse during the day include:

The House of Representatives voted 61-11 to approve HB433, a bill that would allow the port authority to expand outside its already 16,000-acre jurisdiction and partner with willing communities.

READ MORE: Bill to expand Utah Inland Port Authority to other areas clears Utah House

A bill that calls for revision of the state's required semesterlong financial and economic literacy course for high schoolers to include units on socialism, communism won final passage in the Utah Senate Friday by a vote 21-6.

READ MORE: Utah Senate OKs push to teach about 'failed' economic systems of socialism, communism

HB93, born from an undercurrent of frustrations from some elected officials on Salt Lake County's west side, failed on a 29-40 vote in the Utah House of Representatives on Friday.

READ MORE: Bill to allow a pathway for a west-side split from Salt Lake County fails in Utah House

Despite representatives expressing love for the current Utah state flag, a bill to create a commission to determine whether Utah needs a new state flag flew through the House with a vote of 46-26. It will now go to the Senate.

READ MORE: Bill to consider a new Utah flag flies through the House

The Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee has two House-approved bills changing the initiative process in Utah. HB195 modifies signature thresholds for statvewide initiatives and referenda and clarifies that an initiative that is identical or substantially similar to a previous initiative is barred if signatures for the preceding initiative were submitted within the preceding two years. HB133 modifies the effective date of laws enacted by statewide initiative.

The House Judiciary Committee is looking at HB43, which establishes veterans treatment courts as long as there is a collaborative strategy between the court, prosecutors, defense counsel, corrections, substance abuse treatment services and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Justice Outreach Program to divert veteran offenders.

The Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee is scheduled to hear HB342, which requires the Homeless Coordinating Committee to prepare and implement a statewide strategy for minimizing homelessness that outlines specific goals and measurable benchmarks for progress.

Here's what happened on March 7, the 38th day of the 2019 session:
SALT LAKE CITY  Kristie Nielsen, a volunteer for Pro-Life Utah, brought 5-month-old Piper with her to testify in front of a House committee Tuesday  telling lawmakers Piper was 17 weeks along in the womb when her mother walked into an abortion clinic.

Ultimately, Piper's mother didn't have an abortion that day, Nielsen said, because she didn't have enough money. But she was desperate. With a 3-year-old daughter already, Nielsen said Piper's mom didn't believe she could care for another child.

"I don't blame Piper's mom for walking into that abortion clinic that day," Nielsen said. "She didn't understand the humanity of her baby."

But had her mother had an abortion  rather than seeking help to continue her pregnancy  Piper wouldn't be alive today, Nielsen said. She testified that after Piper was born, her mother said tearfully "I love her so much. I can't believe I almost killed her."

Nielsen was one of several pro-life advocates who gave emotional testimony in front of a packed Senate committee Thursday urging support of HB136, which would restrict Utah's window for legal abortions from 22 weeks to 18 weeks.

But the bill was also met with emotional resistance  from doctors, mothers, and legal advocates urging lawmakers not to pass a bill they said would not only restrict women's rights but also inevitably face an expensive legal challenge.

Among them was Sean Esplin, a maternal-fetal medicine doctor at Intermountain Healthcare representing a group of more than 30 maternal specialists speaking out against the bill, saying it does not "adequately exclude" certain pregnancy complications. He said it will have "unintended consequences" on mothers who could have long-term health and fertility impacts if their time window to choose an abortion is shortened.

"We are the experts who understand these issues, and you need to take some time to see how this is going to impact women and their future fertility and their lives before you pass a bill like this," Esplin said.

Members of the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee voted 5-2, along party lines, to advance the bill to the Senate floor  clearing a path for the bill to head toward its final legislative hurdle.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Cheryl Acton, R-West Jordan, urged lawmakers to support the bill, saying Utah cultivates a "culture of life," and as a state that values families, "Utah should be allowed to enact reasonable abortion law that reflects the will of the people."

"Utah should be the safest place in the nation for women and children, and all people, really, born and unborn," Acton said.

Acton said while the bill shortens the legal abortion window, it still preserves a woman's right to have an elective abortion. The bill would also allow exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother and fatal fetal defects.

But Utahn Cori Ward, whose voice shook nervously as she testified, urged lawmakers against passing the bill. She said "being a mother is one of the best things that's happened to me," and yet she didn't think lawmakers should shorten the legal window.

"The free agency to decide belongs to all of us," Ward said. "Unless a woman is in control of her own reproduction, she is not free."

Representatives from conservative groups including Gayle Ruzicka, president of Utah Eagle Forum, voiced support for the bill, even though the bill's sponsor acknowledged a court challenge would likely arise on the basis it likely violates constitutional rights established by the landmark federal court case Roe v. Wade.

"It interferes with a woman's most personal medical decisions and violates constitutional provisions," argued Marina Lowe, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah.

But the bill comes at a time when new efforts are brewing across the U.S. to challenge the Supreme Court decision.

"It's a different court," Ruzicka said. "It's time to try."

The bill now goes to the Senate floor for consideration.
SALT LAKE CITY  SB149, the Teacher and Student Success Act, won final passage in the Utah House of Representatives Thursday, creating a mechanism to send millions of dollars directly to Utah schools to create and execute local plans intended to improve student achievement.

The bill creates a mechanism to disburse some $100 million in funding that will go to local school boards or charter boards for distribution to schools. Local boards must approve and monitor school-level plans.

SB149, sponsored by Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, helps facilitate the 2018 compromise struck with supporters of Our Schools Now, a citizen group that backed a ballot initiative to raise $700 million-plus for education through increases in income tax and sales taxes. The group agreed not to place the initiative on the statewide ballot.

The 2018 legislation appropriated $65.1 million into the restricted Teacher and Student Success Account as part of compromise.

Recently, the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee recommended $35 million in ongoing funding for the program in the fiscal year 2020 budget. The Executive Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take final budget actions Friday. The budget will be voted on by both bodies next week.

Rep. Jefferson Moss, R-Saratoga Springs, the bill's floor sponsor in the House, said school administrators, local school board and educators look forward to developing programs that are unique to their schools and target their particular goals and needs.

"When asked if they'd be willing to take on the challenge  the feedback was 'Bring it on. We're excited for the challenge,'" Moss said.

While the bill passed by a vote of 61-11, some representatives expressed concern whether the funding is sustainable.

Rep. Joel Briscoe, D-Salt Lake, said moving forward, the Teacher and Student Success Act would compete for the weighted pupil unit funding, the basic building block of public education funding.

"I don't believe it's the intent of Our Schools Now to have something that competes with the WPU but they've set something up that will," he said.

Rep. Marie Poulson, D-Cottonwood Heights, said using year-end testing as an accountability measure is troubling. Schools are expected to improve 1 percent each year.

"I do have some concerns that basing this money on our standardized tests may be detrimental to some of our schools that need it the most," she said.

Moss said no school will lose funding if it does not improve. However, local school leaders will work with schools that don't make progress to alter how they use their funds.

Rep. Dan Johnson, R-Logan, said the state's accountability system has improved beyond end of year tests.

The new high school report cards, for instance, include indicators of students' readiness for college or other postsecondary education, school graduation rates, ACT test scores and numbers of students who take advanced courses.

"It's a pretty remarkable thing. We're getting better at it," Johnson said.

He described the Teacher and Student Success Act as a "pretty neat experiment. I really encourage the body to vote in favor of this."

Schools can use at least 25 percent of the funding for personnel. It allows smaller school districts and those with teacher salaries below the statewide averages to spend up to 40 percent of the funding for personnel.

The bill also allows a school to use up to 5 percent of its allocation to help retain school personnel at the principal's discretion.

The funding cannot be used for school buildings or school administration.

Austin Cox of Our School Now said passage of SB149 will give teachers an opportunity to improve student achievement.

"Whether it's teacher mentoring or professional development or technology or teacher aides, schools will now be able to choose how they want invest additional funding and we'll be able to see what works and what's leading to better outcomes," Cox said.
LOGAN  An employee at an assisting living center in Logan has been charged with stealing hundreds of pain pills from patients for her own use, according to prosecutors.

Tasha Marie Alvarado, 32, of Logan, was charged Thursday in Cache County's 1st District Court with burglary, a second-degree felony, three counts of theft, a class B misdemeanor, and five counts of drug possession, a class A misdemeanor. Her initial court appearance is scheduled for Monday.

The inquiry began when an investigator with the Cache-Rich County Drug Task Force received a report that a resident at the Legacy House Assisted Living of Logan had had nearly 200 hydrocodone pills stolen since Jan. 22, according to a Cache County Jail booking report.

"The victim stated she doesnt know who is doing it, but the pills seem to go missing whenever she leaves her room for an extended period of time," the report states.

Investigators decided to install a hidden camera in the woman's room, the report states.

On Tuesday, the woman reported that six more pills were missing. The investigator reviewed the video recording and watched a nurse enter the room and go "straight to where the victim stores her medications and proceeds to open the prescription bottle and put the pills in her left hand. The female nurse then meticulously places the clothing back on top of the prescription bottle as to make it appear nothing has been moved, then quickly exits the victims room," according to the report.

When the video was presented to the nursing director, she immediately identified the nurse in the room as Alvarado, "a Med-Tech CNA (who) has been employed with the Legacy House for about 10 years," the report states.

On Wednesday, Alvarado was questioned at the Logan City Police Department.

"Tasha was asked what she would do with the pills and she stated she would use some of them and sell others," the report states.

In her purse, police found pills that two other patients were supposed to get and that she was responsible for administering.

Alexandra Cepedes says the woman who helped raised her, who she considers an aunt, was one of the residents whose pills were allegedly stolen by Alvarado.

She said her aunt was well taken care of at the clinic, but then family members noticed something was off and realized someone was taking her pills.

They went to the Cache and Rich County Drug Task Force for help.

"We wanted to catch her in the act, and we wanted to expose this.  We knew if she was abusing my aunt, that she was going to be abusing other patients too," Cepedes said.

When she learned Alvarado is believed to be the person who stole the pills, Cepedes said, "It's so sad."

Her aunt considers Alvarado a friend. But Cepedes said, "No friend of mine would do that."
SALT LAKE CITY  Around the world, celebrations of International Women's Day every March 8 range from a national day off with flowers, gifts and gatherings for women in Russia to a technology fest for youths in Amsterdam. Other countries give women a half-day off or employers offer small gifts.

In America Friday, multiple cities are holding conferences highlighting the role of women in national and world history. Some events are about networking and skill-building, while others teach teen and young adult women to code.

In Salt Lake, a panel discussion hosted by Utahpolicy.com and the Women's Business Center of Utah will feature globally successful female entrepreneurs. In Atlanta, Georgia, celebrants can attend a tea party, while Washington, D.C., activities include a pop-up art festival featuring works by women. When deejays spin records for some dance parties in New York City and Los Angeles, the songs will exclusively feature female vocals. Los Angeles is among cities with a march and rally planned.

Despite some focus on fun, International Women's Day also has a serious message. Gender equity is at the heart of the United Nations-designated day, which this year has chosen the theme #Balanceforbetter. The U.N. is calling on nations to look at the ways in which women are treated inequitably.

There's a political cast to some celebrations, too, including in America, where the day has activist roots stretching back to Socialist Party protests in the early 1900s. The first gathering formally called International Women's Day took place in 1911, with more than a million people participating from Austria, Denmark, Germany and Sweden, among others. The United Nations declared the day a worldwide event in 1975.

The day has been gaining momentum in America, with more cities planning events each year. The White House marks the day each year, with both former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump tweeting their commitment to enhancing opportunities for women. But at a moment in American history that includes deep ideological divisions, some wonder if people of different backgrounds and ideas, or on opposite sides of a political gulf  say, Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and conservative television and radio talk show host Laura Ingraham, for example  could both embrace the International Women's Day or whether it's simply too political.

Politics should not drown out the meaning of the day, say historians and other experts who tout International Women's Day as a chance for people who have different worldviews to talk to each other  and to listen.

"International Women's Day is the kind of holiday that everyone can project their own meaning onto," said Jessica Preece, associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University.

"There are no real traditions or commonly agreed-upon ways to celebrate it in the United States, so people can celebrate it however they want to," she said. "Liberals and conservatives often have somewhat different views of what it means to celebrate womanhood and what kind of womanhood should be celebrated, so the blank-slate aspect of the holiday makes it fairly palatable for a wide range of people to get behind."

Want to celebrate motherhood? "There's nothing stopping that," Preece said.

Want to focus on women's professional accomplishments instead? "There's nothing stopping that," she said.

"Of course, as liberals and conservatives see the ways in which the other camp celebrates it, it may give them fuel for their respective fires in the culture wars and further entrench stereotypes," Preece said. "But I do think it has the potential to play a fairly narrow but important role in bringing a wide variety of people together to celebrate the wide variety of roles that women play in society."

Assigning meaning

The International Women's Day website describes "a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call for action for accelerated gender parity."

In a press release about International Women's Day 2019, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres focuses on putting "innovation by women and girls" at the forefront. He notes that in 2018 the UN's senior management group achieved gender parity for the first time.

Each country is different in some ways, "but what we've reached is an agreement that women ought not to be kept down in the way that they historically were," said Stephanie Coontz, author of "A Strange Stirring: 'The Feminine Mystique' and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s" and director of research for the Council on Contemporary Families.

The days are gone, she noted, when women and girls couldn't own property because they were property  of their fathers and husbands. "We have pretty much international agreement now that's wrong, even if there are outliers.

"I think that International Women's Day is an important thing because it does point out that even in the countries that have come closest to gender equality, lots more needs to be done," added Coontz, a historian specializing in women and family. "And it still reminds the world that in many different ways women remain second-class citizens."

International Women's Day is the kind of holiday that everyone can project their own meaning onto.  Jessica Preece, associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University.

"I am tempted to give the answer that my mother gave me when I would ask why there was a Mother's Day and a Father's Day, but not a Children's Day," said political scientist Anne-Marie Slaughter, whose credentials include foreign policy analyst, author and Princeton professor, besides leading the New America think tank in New York City and Washington, D.C.

"She would say, 'Every day is Children's Day!' I would like to be able to say that 'every day is Women's Day,' in the sense that every day is a day that we recognize and value the enormous contribution women are making to the world and focus on the many places where they are not yet equally at the table. But that is manifestly not the case, so something like International Women's Day at least focuses public attention for a week or so every year on how much the world is missing by not fully deploying half of its talent," Slaughter told the Deseret News.

Challenges in America are not all unique to America, said Audrey J. Murrell, associate dean and director of the David Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership at the University of Pittsburgh College of Business Administration. She calls an international celebration of women "vital."

"Issues of gender equity, violence against women, the need for education and health care are not just U.S. issues, they are global issues. So the fact that this is celebrated not just in the U.S., but globally, is critical."

A holiday that provides resources for people to think about issues, become educated and get involved is a good thing, said Murrell.

At least equally important, though, "it opens up a dialog about these issues: about gender rights, about gender equity. I like the theme for this year, '#BalanceforBetter,' because it puts a marker on a key point: That our society, our country and our world will not be better if we don't have balance." Murrell said that while women feel the impact of being treated unequally, gender inequity also hurts the economy and families.

Polarity and common ground

So could Ingraham and Pelosi celebrate together?

"As far as I am concerned, they could," said Coontz.

"We might disagree  we definitely disagree about how to protect women and further their equality with men. We may disagree over what that equality means, but we all have an interest in getting rid of sexual harassment, rape, sex trafficking.

"I think almost everybody in America today agrees, including strong conservatives, that women if they choose to work  (Ingraham) might argue that we shouldn't propagandize them into working  but if they choose to work or need to work, they ought to be paid the same and ought to have the same opportunities," said Coontz. "I do think there are lots of ways we can come together without overlooking the fact that there are racial, class and ideological differences over where we hope women will end up in that struggle for equality."

Murrell doesn't believe disagreeing over politics or other aspects of life should keep people from talking, either.

"My expectation is dialog and awareness, not agreement, because there are things in which we're going to continue to have a difference of opinion because of background and experience and culture and our needs and interests," she said, adding that moving forward requires talking to each other.

Americans "have the liberty to have our own views and perspective, but what divides us is silence," she says.

In a land where there are plenty of disagreements, Coontz has some advice for those on opposite sides of an issue: "Occasionally take days off to recognize there are common unfairnesses we all face."
BOUNTIFUL  A Bountiful elementary school teacher has been placed on administrative leave after telling a student to remove the ash cross from his forehead on Ash Wednesday.

"When the teacher saw it, she's like, 'It's inappropriate in our school,'" said William McLeod, a fourth-grader at Valley View Elementary School.

The ash placed on the forehead represents the passage, "For dust you are and to dust you shall return," from the book of Genesis in the Bible.

For William's grandmother, Karen Fisher, Ash Wednesday is "the start of a very holy season for us.  We grow deeper into prayer to try to come closer to God."

When she learned what had happened to William at school, "I was almost speechless because I didn't know what to say," she said.

The incident also caused distress for the boy.

"When I went to the office, I was crying because I felt like I was in trouble," William recalled.

But he says his teacher has now sent him an apology message.

"William, I am so sorry about what happened today. I hope we can move forward from this," the teacher's message said.

"I accept her apology because she's actually a really nice teacher," William said.

Fisher said she hopes the incident sparks more understanding for others' religious beliefs and the family hopes William's teacher doesn't lose her job.

Davis School District officials also issued a statement apologizing to the family.

"The actions were unacceptable. No student should ever be asked or required to remove an ash cross from his or her forehead," according to the statement.

"The district knows and recognizes Ash Wednesday as one of the holiest days of the year in the Catholic faith and that it marks the beginning of Lent. Again, Davis School District takes the matter very seriously and is investigating the matter."

The approximately 330,000 Catholics in Utah account for about 10 percent of the population, according to Jean Hill at the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City.

"We understand that mistakes happen," Hill said in a statement. "The diocese is also very grateful to the young student who used the situation to educate his teacher about a part of his faith and its importance to him."

A Catholic deacon who happens to be a member of the school board came to the school to reapply the ashes, according to Williams.

"Learning about one another is one way we build community across religious, political, racial, ethnic and other borders," Hill said.

Contributing: Associated Press
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina  Marches and protests were held Friday across the globe to mark International Women's Day under the slogan #BalanceforBetter, with calls for a more gender-balanced world.

The day, sponsored by the United Nations since 1975, celebrates women's achievements and aims to further their rights.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a commemoration at U.N. headquarters in New York that "remarkable progress on women's rights and leadership" in recent decades has sparked a backlash from "an entrenched patriarchy."

And he warned that "nationalist, populist and austerity agendas add to inequality with policies that curtail women's rights and cut social services."

"I do not accept a world that tells my granddaughters that economic equality can wait for their granddaughter's granddaughters," Guterres said. "I call for a new vision of equality and opportunity so that half the world's population can contribute to all the world's success."

Millions of others around the world demanded equality amid a persistent salary gap, violence and widespread inequality.

____

EUROPE

Police in the Ukrainian capital Kiev detained three people as far-right demonstrators tried to provoke activists protesting domestic and sexual violence.

About 300 people gathered on Mykhailivska Square in central Kiev on Friday for the women's rights demonstration. Several dozen far-right demonstrators stood nearby, holding placards reading "God! Homeland! Patriarchy!" and "Feminism is destroying Ukrainian families."

In Spain, where women's rights have become one of the hot topics in the run-up to a general election next month, many female employees didn't show up to work Friday. Others also halted domestic work or left to men the care of children and ill or elderly people.

In the evening, cities across the country lit landmark buildings with purple lights as hundreds of thousands poured into the streets.

"We are getting killed and we are getting lower salaries for being women, but that's just the tip of the iceberg," said Sara Baladron, a 27-year-old pharmacist joining the protest in central Madrid.

In neighboring Portugal, the Cabinet observed a minute of silence Thursday as part of a day of national mourning it decreed for victims of domestic violence. Portuguese police say 12 women have died this year in domestic violence incidents  the highest number over the same period in 10 years.

Pope Francis hailed the "irreplaceable contribution of women" to fostering peace.

"Women make the world beautiful, they protect it and keep it alive," the Argentine Jesuit said.

Francis has vowed to give more decision-making roles to women in the Catholic Church, where the priesthood and therefore the highest ranks of authority is reserved for men. Some feminists bristle at Francis' frequent use of the term "feminine genius" and his focus on women as mothers.

In Germany, topless feminist protesters went to one of the country's most famous red-light districts in Hamburg and pulled down a metal barrier wall intended to keep out women  other than prostitutes.

A half-dozen women belonging to the Femen activist group had the slogan "No brothels for women" written on their bare back in black lettering.

Legally, all women are allowed to enter the street, but in reality most women obey the signs saying, "Entry only for men 18+."

In France, the first Simone Veil prize went Friday to a Cameroonian activist who has worked against forced marriages and other violence against girls and women. Aissa Doumara Ngatansou was married against her will at age 15 but insisted upon continuing her studies as a young wife. She has since turned her attention to victims of Boko Haram extremists.

The French award is named for the trailblazing French politician and Holocaust survivor Veil, who spearheaded the fight to legalize abortion.

Meanwhile in Russia, International Women's Day is a public holiday but it mostly lauds gender roles that are now outdated. As is his custom every year, President Vladimir Putin gave a speech thanking women for their patience, good grace and support.

"You manage to do everything: both at work and at home and at the same time you remain beautiful, charismatic, charming, the center of gravity for the whole family, uniting it with your love," Putin said.

___

LATIN AMERICA

Women in Argentina were galvanized to take to the streets after a bill that would have legalized abortion was rejected by lawmakers last year. They prepared for a large march from Congress to the country's historic Plaza de Mayo square later Friday, during which they were set to protest against violence.

Rallies against violence against women in Argentina, held under the slogan "Not One Less," have drawn multitudes in the past.

"We have achieved a change of era. Sexist violence is no longer accepted, abuses are not accepted, neither is street harassment ... there are many things that have changed," said Marta Dillon, an activist and one of the founders of the "Not One Less" movement.

In Puerto Rico, hundreds clad in purple T-shirts protested to demand safer housing as the U.S. territory struggles to recover from Hurricane Maria, while others held up signs with the names of more than 20 women reportedly killed by their partners on the island last year.

Amid the protests, Gov. Ricardo Rossello signed an executive order that would in part create a special agency to intervene in domestic violence cases and establish preventive police patrols around the homes and workplaces of women awarded protection orders.

Meanwhile, similar scenes played out in other South American countries.

Hundreds of women in Bolivia rallied in main cities, carrying giant undergarments bearing messages such as, "underwear of an irresponsible and abusive father" and "underwear of a child molester," as Chilean women also demanded access to free and safe abortions.

And in nearby Ecuador, President Lenin Moreno took the day to announce the creation of a bonus of about $300 per month for the children of victims of femicides.

The bonus will help an estimated 88 orphans.

____

ASIA

In India, hundreds of women marched on the streets of New Delhi demanding an end to domestic violence, sexual attacks and discrimination in jobs.

Boys are prized more than girls in India. Thousands of Indian women are killed  often doused in gasoline and burned to death  every year because the groom or his family feel the dowry of the bride is inadequate.

Political parties in India have for years been promising 33 percent of seats for women in the country's Parliament, but they have yet to enact legislation to that effect.

In Indonesia's capital Jakarta, several hundred men and women carried colorful placards calling for an end to discriminative practices such as the termination of employment for pregnancy and exploitative work contracts.

"Our action today is to urge (the government) for our right to a society that's democratic, prosperous, equal and free from violence," said Dian Trisnanti, a labor activist. Girls and women in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, have equal access to education but face higher unemployment, lower wages and poorer working conditions than men.

Both Koreas marked the day. In the South, women wearing black cloaks and pointed hats marched against what they describe as a "witch hunt" of feminists in a deeply conservative society.

College student Noh Seo-young said that South Korea struggles to accept that women are "also humans" and that women have to fight until they can "walk around safely."

In the North, where Women's Day is one of the few national holidays that is not explicitly political in nature, people dressed up for family photo shoots or bought roses for their mothers or wives at the many small, bright orange street stalls in central Pyongyang that sell flowers.

____

NORTH AMERICA

U.S. President Donald Trump honored International Women's Day with a presidential message, saying that the U.S. celebrates women's "vision, leadership, and courage," and reaffirms its "commitment to promoting equal opportunity for women everywhere."

On the eve prior, U.S. first lady Melania Trump saluted women from 10 countries for their courage. The recipients of the International Women of Courage Award included human rights activists, police officers and an investigative journalist.

"Courage is what divides those who only talk about change from those who actually act to change," Mrs. Trump said at a ceremony Thursday that was also attended by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pompeo separately recognized women in Iran for protesting the requirement that they wear a head covering known as a hijab in public and a Ukrainian activist who died in 2018 after she was attacked with sulfuric acid.

___

AFRICA

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who named one of the world's few "gender-balanced" Cabinets last year, told a gathering that "women are the pillars of the nation and the least recognized for their sacrifices."

In Nigeria, the U.S. Embassy hosted talks on sexual harassment that included a founder of the recent #ArewaMeToo campaign among women in the country's conservative, largely Muslim north. And in Niger, first lady Aissata Issoufou Mahamadou oversaw the awards in the Miss Intellect Niger contest.

Women protested against gender-based violence in Kenya's capital.

"We haven't gotten to a stage where women are comfortable to come out and say, 'I was sexually abused,'" said protester Esther Passaris. "So what we need to do is slowly, slowly grow."

___

AP reporters across the globe contributed to this report. Barry Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.
WAIMIRI-ATROARI RESERVE, Brazil  First the helicopters arrived, dropping chemical bombs. Then came armed men in green uniforms who proceeded to slaughter members of an Amazon tribe to make way for a major road.

Bare Bornaldo Waimiri, at the time a teenage member of the Waimiri-Atroari tribe deep in Brazil's Amazon, said the day of that attack, many years ago, was the last he saw his family alive.

Now elderly, Bornaldo described the horrific scene last week during a historic hearing that put a spotlight on Brazil's military, which denies attacking the tribe. His testimony underscored the constant tension between development and conservation in Latin America's largest nation and comes as far-right President Jair Bolsonaro gives a prominent role to the military in his government and ends new indigenous land demarcations in the Amazon.

"I lost my father, my mother, my sister and my brother," Bornaldo said in a very low voice, wearing shorts and tapping his flip-flops on the ground as two translators put his words into Portuguese.

The hearing took place in a thatched, cone-shaped hut where the Waimiri-Atroari normally hold colorful festivities and long storytelling sessions. For one day last week, it transformed into a gloomy courthouse where six elders told a judge how over many years the 1964-1985 military dictatorship tried to eradicate them with arms, bombs and chemicals.

The Associated Press and one local newspaper were the only media allowed to attend the hearing. Non-tribal members in general are usually forbidden to enter the sprawling reserve that is the size of Israel and straddles the states of Amazonas and Roraima.

Tribe members and prosecutors said it marked the first time a judge was allowed on Waimiri-Atroari lands to hear witnesses tell of several alleged attacks over the years. Leaders said their aim was to deal with the past and avoid future incursions.

"To turn this page, we all have to read the book," tribal leader Mario Parwe Atroari said.

Most indigenous tribes that allege atrocities during the dictatorship are reluctant to give a full accounting of incidents in urban courthouses because they don't trust non-indigenous peoples. Some also fear being prosecuted for their own attacks against state agents and missionaries.

While tribesmen nodded during Bornaldo's testimony, a half-dozen military personnel in uniform stood in silence. Retired Col. Hiram Reis e Silva, dressed in a white-collared shirt and jeans, shook his head as the witnesses spoke. Reis e Silva, who said he worked near the reserve after 1982, was at the hearing to represent the military.

"My version of the story is very different," Reis e Silva told the AP. "There are some exaggerations. We hope truth is re-established."

"I also have several witnesses who are the pioneers of the highway and counter everything (the tribe members say)," Reis e Silva added, though when asked to share contacts with any such person he declined to.

Before ruling, federal judge Raffaela Cassia de Sousa was expected to wait for forensics, which could include a determination of what chemical may have been used in the bombings witnesses described, and possibly more testimony and pieces of evidence.

There is no final date for a decision.

Federal prosecutors, who accuse the Brazilian state of genocide in their civil suit, said hundreds, if not thousands, of tribe members died between 1968 and 1977, when highway BR-174 was built. The deaths either happened by military strikes or because of diseases that came after the forceful construction of the road through the reserve, prosecutors said.

The witnesses said they don't know the dates of the alleged attacks. The Waimiri-Atroari do not measure time in months and years, and instead talk of events in relation to their phase in life.

Prosecutors said they believe that the attack Bornaldo witnessed took place after 1974, the year the aggressions intensified. The massacre he saw was one of numerous attacks during the construction of a portion of the road that connects the cities of Manaus and Boa Vista, according to prosecutors and tribesmen testifying.

All six tribe members testifying said the aggressions came from the Brazilian army while it oversaw the construction of 75 miles (120 kilometers) across the Waimiri-Atroari reserve.

At the time, military leaders said the tribe was impeding government employees from building the road. However, the military has never acknowledged a role in attacking the tribe.

"Documents of that time show the military dictatorship considered the indigenous a hurdle to development and that their presence in areas of government interest could not stop construction works," said journalist Rubens Valente, who attended the hearing and is the author of a book on the relationship between Brazil's authoritarian regime and indigenous tribes.

During last week's hearing, the government's lawyers suggested in their questions that miners or local criminals were behind the attacks, assertions that tribal members rejected.

In explaining their own use of violence, Waimiri-Atroari said they were just defending their territory. According to Valente's book, which prosecutors cite, at least 26 people, including construction workers, government liaisons with indigenous groups and members of religious missions, were killed during the construction of the road.

Compared to South American countries like Chile and Argentina, Brazil has done little to uncover atrocities at the hands of the military, particularly against indigenous peoples.

The allegations of the Waimiri-Atroari pose a challenge to Brazil's armed forces, who say their regime only cracked down on adversaries that pushed for a socialist revolution.

Slender and low-voiced Dawuna Elzo Atroari said he witnessed a blitzkrieg style attack against the tribe in a different incident than the one Bornaldo described.

"Before this road we lived well and in peace, we were healthy," he said, his hands shaking. "After the road, people died and we were threatened."

"I had a gun pointed to my ear," he recounted.

Wildlife is abundant in the region, with sloths, monkeys and jaguars frequently appearing. Bayous filled with fly-attracting pink flowers can be seen from the road. Not far from it, the trees become leafier and taller.

The Waimiri-Atroari close off the road with a massive chain each day at 6 p.m. so as to protect wildlife and the tribe itself. It only reopens at 6 a.m.

The testimony of the elders, all youngsters during the construction of the road, are key in the suit demanding the state pay the tribe $13 million in damages, issue an official apology in a ceremony on Waimiri-Atroari land, build a museum to remember the atrocities and mention human rights violations against them in public school books.

In 2014, a Brazilian truth commission said more than 8,000 members of indigenous tribes could have been killed at the hands of authoritarian regimes between 1946 and 1988, the vast majority during the 1964-1985 dictatorship.

Prosecutors estimate the number of Waimiri-Atroari victims between 600 and 3,000.

As the hearing went on and tribe members repeatedly accused the Brazilian military of slaughter, news emerged that had eerie parallels with the past: Brazil's federal government announced plans to build an energy line through the Waimiri-Atroari reserve, a move that politicians and military leaders have been pushing for since the construction of the BR-174.

Bolsonaro, who frequently praises the dictatorship and promises to open the Amazon to more development, deemed the energy line connecting the grid of the state of Roraima to the rest of Brazil's a matter of national security. The decision would allow him to avoid consulting the Waimiri-Atroari, as the law demands. Brazil now buys energy from crisis-ridden Venezuela to supply the isolated Northern state.

If the $600 million energy project goes forward in June as Bolsonaro pledged, there will be more deforestation in the Waimiri-Atroari lands with the installation of dozens of towers. A legal battle is expected.

Regardless of what happens, Parwe, one of the tribe leaders, said he was happy future generations would learn more about the Waimiri-Atroari.

"Everyone should know what happened here so it never happens again," Parwe said in a firm voice, standing next to the judge and looking at the military personnel in attendance.

____

Video journalist Victor Caivano contributed to this report.
ROME  A history-making new temple in Rome has senior Latter-day Saint leaders making some extraordinary history of their own.

For the first time, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has placed one of its most sacred buildings in a land of the Bible, and to dedicate it this weekend, the entire First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are assembling outside the United States for what is believed to be the first time in the faiths 188-year history.

The church announced the noteworthy gathering in a news release on Friday. President Russell M. Nelson and other leaders will dedicate the Rome Italy Temple in seven sessions on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Full meetings anywhere outside Utah are rare for the 15 senior leaders considered prophets and seers by 16 million church members.

The First Presidency, comprising three apostles, and the Quorum of the Twelve meet together every Thursday in the 125-year-old Salt Lake Temple, but the last time every member of both bodies gathered away from church headquarters was in 2002, when they all attended a temple dedication in Nauvoo, Illinois, according to church historians.

That marked the first time the entire leadership had traveled to one place outside Salt Lake City since 1956, when church historians say they dedicated the Los Angeles Temple, the 10th temple dedicated in the churchs history.

The closest equivalent outside the United States happened 178 years ago, when nine apostles led meetings in Manchester, England, said Ron Esplin, general editor of the Joseph Smith Papers.

For Latter-day Saints, an apostolic trip to Rome raises comparisons to the ancient apostles Peter and Paul, who reportedly preached in Rome and, according to legend, were imprisoned and executed in the Eternal City by the Roman Empire in about 64 A.D.

In January, two Latter-day Saint apostles traveled to Rome and visited Mamertine Prison, the dungeon prison that reportedly held Peter and Paul before their martyrdoms.

"Now more than 2,000 years later, Elder (Ronald A.) Rasband and I are privileged to stand here as modern-day apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," Elder David A. Bednar said in a short video recorded outside the prison, which abuts the Roman Forum and is about 1,000 yards from the Colosseum.

President Nelson recently filmed an introduction to a newly released virtual tour of the Rome Temple  another first for the church.

"A temple is literally a house of the Lord," he said. "Each temple is a holy sanctuary in which sacred ceremonies and ordinances of the gospel are performed by and for the living and also in behalf of the dead. We build temples so our faithful members can visit often and receive the most sacred ordinances of our faith. Before our temples are dedicated for their sacred purpose, the public is invited to see the beauty of the temple and learn about the commitments we make there with God."

Joseph Smith declared that the church he organized in 1830 was the Restored Church of Jesus Christ and included the restoration of prophets and apostles. The new Rome Temple Visitors Center includes a replica of Thorvaldsons famous Christus statue  rendered in marble through digital 3-D technology  and, for the first time, replicas of his statues of the 12 ancient apostles, with Paul in place of Judas Iscariot. The originals are in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Paul was an indomitable traveler, covering thousands of miles in 35 years of missions, said Bible scholar D. Kelly Ogden, a retired BYU professor of ancient scripture. Today you would need a passport and in some cases a visa to travel into Lebanon, Turkey, Greece and Italy, and you would need to know Hebrew, Greek, Italian and Arabic. But then it was just one Roman world, set up for Paul to travel with open borders.

While the modern Latter-day Saint apostles rarely travel en masse, they travel the world exhaustively in ones and twos, fulfilling their roles in the Quorum of the Twelve defined by the faiths scriptures in 1835, when they were charged to preach as ancient apostles did and were described as twelve traveling councilors and special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world.

Research by the Church History Department found that at area conferences in many nations around the world between 1971 and 1980 were attended by two members of the First Presidency and between two and seven members of the Quorum of the Twelve, said Justin Bray, a church historian.

Prior to that, the only previously known time in history that a supermajority of Latter-day Saint apostles were together outside the United States was a formative experience for the Quorum of the Twelve, strengthening its place in the church and solidifying its responsibilities within church leadership, Esplin said.

Nine apostles met together in Manchester, England, during five days of meetings in April 1841. The meetings came at the end of a joint quorum mission to the British Isles. The First Presidency and two apostles had remained in the United States, and the quorum had one vacancy at the time.

The nine apostles returned as a proven, united group to whom Smith assigned the business of the church, Esplin said. Their mission brought nearly 4,000 new members into the fledgling church, and those apostles formed the foundation of church leadership for the next half century, including future church presidents Brigham Young, John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff.

Over the next four days in Rome, the churchs leaders will not meet as a Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as they do every Thursday in the Salt Lake Temple to pray and counsel together and consider the direction of the church. They will return to Salt Lake City by midweek and resume their regular Thursday schedule.

As in Rome, the 2002 Nauvoo Temple dedication had unique meaning for Latter-day Saints. The church broadcast the dedication to meetinghouses worldwide on June 27, 2002  the 158th anniversary of Joseph Smiths murder. The temple was built on the site of the original Nauvoo Temple, the faiths second, which the church abandoned and sold in the 1840s as it fled persecution. The original temple was damaged by arson and a major tornado and demolished in 1865. The church reacquired the land in 1937.
SALT LAKE CITY  Heres a look at the news for March 8.

A look at the top news this morning:

Its International Womens Day. But is it really a day for all women? Read more.

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney says hes made up his mind about President Donald Trumps national emergency vote. Read more.

The University of Utah cruised by USC and into third place in the Pac-12 with one game to go. Read more.

Captain Marvel is out. Here are the plot twists, end-credits scenes, reviews and history you should know. Read more.

Oprah Winfrey spoke at the Qualtrics X4 Summit on Thursday. Heres what she said.

A look ahead to your weekend:

Your Weekend: These young African singers are serenading Utahns for a good cause

The African Children's Choir brings to Utah song, dance, 'joy and resiliency'

Meet the Utah mom who doesn't mind being a terrible mother in Utah Opera's 'The Magic Flute'

Movie review: Brie Larson shines in stylish, inspiring 'Captain Marvel' origin story

For this former Utah skater, Cirque du Soleils first on-ice show is a homecoming

A look at our most-read stories:

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney says 'I've made my decision' about President Trump's national emergency vote

Q&A: 'The Masked Singer' runner-up Donny Osmond reveals all about the Peacock

Russia to deport 2 Latter-day Saint volunteers detained since last week

Wendy's is giving out free bacon cheeseburgers and Frosty shakes. Here's how to get them

Morning links: Preseason rankings for BYU, Utah and Utah State football; Pac-12 nonconference schedules lacking

News from the U.S. and world:

As the caliphate crumbles, the Islamic State is seeding a new insurgency | The Washington Post

Court rules asylum-seekers have right to appeal rejection in U.S. | The Hill

Venezuela blackout plunges most of country into darkness | NBC News

Paul Manafort gets 47 months. Legal experts share examples of people who got more time for less | CNN

Leaving Neverland and the burden of the postmortem expose | The Atlantic
SALT LAKE CITY  The state's only Democrat in Congress voted for a campaign finance and ethics reform package Friday that one of his Utah colleagues calls the worst bill he has seen since his time in office.

Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, joined House Democrats in passing the "For the People Act," which addresses campaign finance, ethics, accountability and voter rights. Utah's three congressional Republicans voted against the measure.

The House passed the bill 234-193, but it is dead on arrival in the Senate where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., does not plan to allow a vote.

The measure calls for states to provide automatic voter registration, makes Election Day a federal holiday and creates independent redistricting commissions to draw congressional boundaries as a way to end partisan gerrymandering.

In a tweet earlier this week, Rep. Chris Stewart said "H.R. 1 is the single worst bill we have considered since Ive been in Congress. It is authoritarian and anti-free speech."

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, mockingly calls it the "Democrat Politician Protection Act."

"This bill ensures corrupt elections. Period," he said in a terse statement.

The bill, which includes an amendment McAdams advanced to shine more light on lobbying activities, curbs the power of special interest groups and puts the public back in the drivers seat of government, he said.

"Megadonors and special interest groups have too much influence in our system and everyday families get left behind, McAdams said. We are public servants and should always uphold the public trust in everything we do and perform to the highest ethical standards."

McAdams said the measure exposes so-called dark money in politics by upgrading online political ad disclosure and requiring all organizations involved in political activity to disclose their large donors. It also increases accountability by expanding conflict-of-interest law.

McAdams' amendment lowers the threshold for when lobbyists must register and report their activities. Individuals don't have to register if they spend less than 20 percent of their time lobbying. The amendment changes that to 10 percent.

By avoiding registering as a lobbyist, people are either seeking to avoid basic transparency requirements or they wish to hide what legislation they are trying to influence, he said. My amendment is a common-sense step to let the public know who is working to draft bills and in whose interest.

The measure also puts teeth into ethics oversight by overhauling the Office of Government Ethics, closing loopholes for lobbyists and ensuring watchdogs have enough resources to enforce the law, McAdams said.

Stewart said the bill is intended to expand access to the ballot box and take big money out of politics. But one of the ways it attempts to do that is by using federal tax dollars to fund elections. Small campaign donations, for example, are given a 6:1 match from the federal government, he said.

McAdams said recent changes to the bill ensure that no taxpayer dollars are used for campaign purposes. Money used for a matching fund to support small dollar donations will come from a segregated account funded by so-called bad actor penalties and fines, and not from taxpayer dollars, he said.

The bill also forces states to adopt same-day voter registration and disregards states' voter identification laws, allowing sworn statements to take the place of other forms of ID at the voting booth, Stewart said.

Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, said the bill is a solution in search of a problem.

"Election integrity and access is critical, but cannot and should not be managed in a one-size-fits-all, centralized federal government program, he said. "Not only is it likely unconstitutional, but I believe it is undemocratic and fundamentally un-American in the way it attempts to control free speech, the political process and the way we engage in civic participation."

The National Republican Congressional Committee blasted McAdams' support of the measure, saying it shows he's only working for himself.

"By voting to funnel public funds to his campaign, McAdams' proven hes right at home in the swamp," said NRCC spokeswoman Torunn Sinclair.

According to the Democratic National Committee, the Democrats are making good on a campaign promise to hold President Donald Trump accountable and make government work for the people.

No president in modern history has done more to undermine the rule of law and destroy public trust in our institutions than Donald Trump," said Tom Perez, DNC chairman. "No political party has done more to disenfranchise voters and reward wealthy special interests at the expense of the middle class than the Republican Party."
SALT LAKE CITY  A House committee advanced a hate crimes bill Friday despite some friction between committee members and the bill's sponsor.

Members of the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee voted 8-2 to send SB103 to the House floor. The bill has already passed the Senate for the first time after years of attempts by senators to enact hate crimes legislation.

Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, apologized for making what he later called a "flippant" comment during his presentation after being rebuked by Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, for being "insulting" and out of order.

Thatcher, the sponsor, had said if committee members couldn't see the difference between graffiti that defaces property and that which threatens a community, they should vote no and "also probably shouldn't be in charge of criminal justice policy."

Ray voted in favor of the bill, but another committee member who took issue with the statement, Rep. Mark Strong, R-Bluffdale, did not. The committee's vice chairwoman, Rep. Kim Coleman, R-West Jordan, also voted against the bill.

"The biggest challenge that we have when discussing hate crimes is the term itself," Thatcher told the committee, because it evokes "very, very strong, emotional reactions."

He said the enhanced penalties for targeting someone based on their race, religion, sexual orientation or other characteristics identified in the bill do not apply until someone is being sentenced for a crime.

"We're not punishing thoughts or feelings. We are not criminalizing anything that is not currently a crime," Thatcher said. "This isn't about hurting feelings. This isn't about saying mean things. This is about the action."

Dani Palmer, of the Utah Eagle Forum, spoke against the bill, saying that if the state wants to create what she termed "special protections," everyone should be protected, including those targeted for their political beliefs.

"If were going to do it, then I support doing it for everybody," Palmer said.

But Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise, said the bill already includes "basically, the bulk of humanity" and questioned the need for any additions. Others, including Coleman, asked why there couldn't be protections for political and other associations.

Thatcher said free speech and association is already protected under the First Amendment, but promised that adding new categories would be studied over the legislative interim.

He said he already included marital status, where someone attended college and other categories to get the bill through the Senate and wanted to avoid having another vote there as a result of changes made in the House.

Two committee members talked about being part of communities that are targeted.

"Many of us experience this all the time," House Minority Leader Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said. "I have to remind people, yes, we've been here way before many of you. We didn't cross the border. There are stereotypes there."

Rep. Sandra Hollins, D-Salt Lake City, recalled the "sad day I pulled in front of my church and there was a police officer there" to protect the congregation while they worshiped because of attacks on black churches and Jewish synagogues.

"I've been a victim of hate crime before. I've been targeted. I have to manuever and move differently in this community because I am a black woman," Hollins said. She said she is fine with people disagreeing with her politics.

"We can agree to disagree. But when you start attacking me because of no other reason than I am, that God made me, a black woman, then I think it's wrong," she said, calling for protections for those who are "purposefully being targeted."

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said he was testifying in favor of the bill "as the son of immigrants, a person of color, as a man of Sikh faith," adding that "hate crimes send a chill of terror when theyre committed."

Gill cited as an example of a hate crime the 1838 massacre of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Missouri. Strong asked how the penalty for what he saw as first-degree felony murder could be enhanced.

He told Gill that "the fact you are  not even of a different faith, of a different race, I don't care. I really don't care. I see all of us as individuals under the law. Because of that, I cannot support this legislation."

Strong referenced Thatcher's earlier remarks about those on the committee who might oppose the hate crimes bills, describing himself as among the "ignorant committee members."

Thatcher told reporters after the hearing, "Honestly, I feel good. I think at the end of the day, people are starting to get it. There's a couple of people that, let's be honest, probably don't want to get it."

He said he apologized personally to Strong after the hearing for what he called "the kind of flippant thing you say to a friend in a private conversation. It was not something you say out loud."
SALT LAKE CITY  Gov. Gary Herbert issued an apology letter Thursday to a group of young protesters who staged a sit-in outside his office earlier that day, following the collapse of a bill that would have banned conversion therapy for gay minors in Utah.

Protesters were upset the governor chose to support a substitute version of HB399 they felt was too weak and protected conversion therapists rather than banning the practice of using therapy to try and change the sexual orientation or gender identity of children.

Amelia Damarjian, 19, from Orem, said she spearheaded the demonstration along with 19-year-old Isaac Reese, who lives in Salt Lake City. The pair arrived at the Capitol around 2 p.m. Eventually, a group of about 30 young people gathered outside the governor's office door.

Around 6 p.m., Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox delivered an apology letter from the governor to the group, Damarjian said.

"I realize there is much I do not understand about the issues that LGBTQ youth face every day," Herbert wrote in the letter. "We have had an enormous misunderstanding, and I am sorry."

Herbert also said that he and the bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Craig Hall, R-West Valley City, agreed to continue working on a conversion therapy ban and invited the recipients of the letter to work together with them on the legislation.

On Twitter, Cox explained what went on behind the scenes that led the governor to support the substitute version of the bill, proposed by Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Syracuse, rather than the version of the bill supported by advocates, including representatives from Equality Utah.

Amelia, I am so sorry that you are hurting. Please know that I am hurting too. I worked on this bill since November and thought we had a chance. What you have read isnt the whole story. The Governor does support banning conversion therapy and has said so multiple times...  Spencer Cox (@SpencerJCox) March 7, 2019

"I worked on this bill since November and thought we had a chance," wrote Cox. "Unfortunately, as we started calling to lobby committee for support, it became clear that we didnt have the votes for the bill to pass. We felt it was better to get something that could pass  and then continue to work on this issue."

"I know its important to have a foil, but Im sad that Troy (Williams) chose the governor when it was clear to us that the bill was DOA."

Damarjian, one of the leaders of the protest, tweeted back, "Please dont blame the gay rights activist for leaving the table."

"You cant support that zombie bill, which basically codifies the acceptance of conversion therapy in many situations, then call us out for wanting better," she continued.

Damarjian said she was "devastated" when the original bill would not pass.

"The larger LGBTQ community is expected to wait for everything and be overly polite, to beg on our knees for just the basics," she told the Deseret News.

Damarjian said she was happy to receive the governor's letter but felt it was vague and that Herbert did not take ownership for his actions.

"There's a difference between saying 'I'm sorry you're hurt,' and 'I'm sorry for what I've done,'" Damarjian said. However, she said she was touched by the personal apology she received from Cox.

The original version of the bill defined conversion therapy as "any practice or treatment that seeks to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of a patient or client," including efforts to reduce attractions and behaviors.

Legislators on the House Judiciary Committee felt the bill's original language was too vague and restrictive, and proposed a series of substitutes. On Tuesday, the committee voted to favorably recommend an edited version of the bill that defines conversion therapy as therapy that claims to "result in a complete and permanent reversal" of a client's sexual orientation. The edited version focuses on physically abusive techniques like electric shock therapy and removes "gender identity" from the definition because legislators felt the issues surrounding transgenderism, including sex change procedures, were too different to be lumped in with efforts to change a child's sexual orientation.

By working together in good faith, we can develop good policy for Utah.  Gov. Gary Herbert

Following the governor's decision to support the substitute bill, Troy Williams, executive director of Equality Utah, and Taryn Hiatt, area director for the America Foundation for Suicide Prevention, announced their resignations from the governor's suicide prevention task force.

"Governor, you turned your back on LGBTQ youth and the medical and mental health establishment," Williams wrote in his resignation letter. "By endorsing Rep. Lisonbee's hostile substitute, you effectively cast your lot with a band of discredited and dangerous conversion therapists."

Herbert responded with a personal letter to Troy, saying, "I know these are difficult and emotional issues, but I am, and have been, striving to learn and better understand these issues in order to help achieve the best policy to protect and support Utah's children."

On Friday, Herbert's deputy chief of staff over communications and policy sent a statement to the Deseret News that said, "One thing we have learned is that trying to crystalize discrete policy positions on consequential issues during the fluidity of legislative debate can lead to misunderstanding and raw feelings. Consequently, we are not offering 'a position' until we have taken the time to deliberate carefully with experts, with those directly affected, and with lawmakers to craft good policy that ends abusive therapeutic practice in Utah."
SALT LAKE CITY  A bill that would allow the Utah Inland Port Authority to branch out to areas outside of Salt Lake County steamrolled through a major legislative hurdle Friday.

Despite pushback from some environmental groups and concerned residents, the Utah House of Representatives voted 61-11 to approve HB433, a bill that would allow the port authority to expand outside its already 16,000-acre jurisdiction and partner with willing communities  including rural areas eager to maximize export opportunities for coal, oil, gas, hay or other products.

"This bill has always been intended to benefit the whole state of Utah," said its sponsor, House Majority Leader Rep. Francis Gibson, R-Mapleton, who is also an Inland Port Authority board member.

The aim, Gibson said, is to create a "hub-and-spoke model" to allow "satellite offices" to be created when rural communities outside of the port's Salt Lake jurisdiction want to partner with it.

Gibson said it would help rural areas, such as Carbon County or Duchesne County, save shipping costs by clearing international customs without having to send products first to Salt Lake City. And, Gibson argued, the bill would help reduce air pollution by "limiting" trucks and trains commuting through Utah's capital.

"We have many good businesses out in these areas that  need to get their product (out)," Gibson said, and the port authority would help with that.

The bill faced pushback from some Democrats, but not all. The issue split the House Democrats much as it has Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski and the Salt Lake City Council.

The council, after negotiating with Gibson to make changes to the bill to allow a city to bring a lawsuit against the port authority  but only if a city's legislative body gives approval  supported the bill. Previously, the bill blocked any lawsuit brought by a city.

Biskupski, however, has refused to engage, standing firm on her position not to negotiate on a bill that she says has been "designed to incrementally force Salt Lake City to bend to the Legislature's will." Biskupski has said the inland port will inevitably "have its day in court," though she has not explicitly stated the city itself intends to sue.

In a caucus meeting the day before, House Democrats discussed the port authority bill and the "really awkward position," as House Minority Assistant Whip Angela Romero described it, Salt Lake Democrats were in when the mayor and City Council are split on the issue.

"I want everyone to make up their own independent decision on this," Romero told House Democrats in the caucus. She did say she would vote against the bill because her constituents have expressed deep concerns about the port authority's overall impact on the environment and air quality.

Rep. Suzanne Harrison, D-Draper, also said she planned to vote against the bill, expressing concerns about "government overreach" and "not enough accountability" on the port authority's 11-member board.

But Rep. Karen Kwan, D-Murray, said she supported the bill, noting that she saw the hub-and-spoke model as one that would spread the port's impacts on not just Salt Lake City.

"I think this is better than what is in the original bill," Kwan said.

One of the port's loudest critics, Deeda Seed, a former Salt Lake City councilwoman and a campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity, issued a statement after Friday's House vote, saying the legislation will "harm" the entire state.

"The public needs to know that  contrary to statements by Rep. Gibson  this bill creates the financial tools to provide tax breaks to private industry, particularly the fossil fuel industry," Seed said. "This legislation will supersize the negative impacts of the proposed port in Salt Lake City and will spread the harm throughout the state."

On the House floor, Gibson said any new tax revenue generated by the port would stay within the area it was created and wouldn't be used to expand into other areas. Still, the port authority has the power to capture future tax revenue, which can be used as a tool to incentivize development or fund infrastructure.

Rep. Christine Watkins, R-Price, threw her support behind the bill, saying Carbon County will benefit greatly from partnering with the inland port.

"We are ready, we are able, and we are excited for this," Watkins said.

The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
SALT LAKE CITY  There's an argument that anything can be made into a sales opportunity, and that includes International Women's Day, celebrated every year on March 8.

A slew of companies as diverse as Christian Dior, DC Comics, Coca-Cola, Google and Lamborghini took to Twitter on International Women's Day to highlight the work women have contributed to their companies or to celebrate women in general. While some see their efforts as well-intentioned, others have argued that these brands are pandering to women in an attempt to boost sales.

Ashley Alese Edwards, a senior editor at Refinery29, a publication geared toward women, tweeted Friday: "For #InternationalWomensDay I kindly ask for brands to stop sending me pitches about International Women's Day. Making your product pink and slapping an 'EMPOWER' sticker on it means nothing to me. Thank u, next."

For #InternationalWomensDay I kindly ask for brands to stop sending me pitches about International Women's Day. Making your product pink and slapping an "EMPOWER" sticker on it means nothing to me. Thank u, next.  Ashley Alese Edwards (@AshleyAlese) March 8, 2019

The conversation is reminiscent of the question of whether brands should attempt to support social movements or incorporate the messaging, ideas or imagery of those movements into their promotional campaigns  a phenomenon known as "brand activism."

The overall consensus is that companies need to engage in brand activism in order to stay relevant to consumers.

"The days of companies being able to safely sit out the big social and political issues of the day are no more," Peter Horst, the founder of CMO Inc., a marketing strategy consultancy, wrote in Forbes. "Silence can be viewed as complicity, and it can allow others to seize control of the narrative and use your brand as leverage in whatever their agenda might be."

According to a 2017 study from Cone Communications, 78 percent of Americans want companies to address important social justice issues. In addition, 87 percent are more likely to buy a product from a company if it's vocal about an issue they care about, while 76 percent said they wouldn't give a company their business if it took a stance opposed to theirs. A company's commitment to social justice issues is also particularly attractive to millennial customers and employees  70 percent of millennials are willing to pay more for a product if it has an effect on issues that matter to them.

However, brand activism is most successful when companies sincerely believe in the issues they are advocating for  and when the issue that is being highlighted fits in with the brand's overall message, experts say.

"You don't want your business to end up in the news like KFC did with its breast cancer campaign, a cause at odds with the company's product," Sara Davis, executive director of strategy at Osmond Marketing, wrote in Forbes.

For Joe Berkowitz of FastCompany, companies have the right to sincerely tweet about International Women's Day if they fall into one of the following categories:

"If your brand identity is geared toward women in an empowering way already, like ESPNs womens vertical, ESPNW, then by all means: Just do it. If youve got a cool message thats consistent with your online presence, like Haymarket Books, clearly youve read the room. And if youre 'Peanuts' or 'Sesame Street,' and have woven your way into womens hearts from a young age for many, many decades, you have a lifetime pass for this sort of thing," Berkowitz writes.

Berkowitz pointed out that other companies' tweets about International Women's Day fall flat because they don't have an immediate connection to the company's mission or product.

DIOR CELEBRATES WOMEN

All monsieur Christian Dior ever wanted was to ensure that every woman had the opportunity to feel beautiful and strong. Today his desire is truer than ever. After all, theres never been a better time to be a woman.#diorjadore #internationalwomensday pic.twitter.com/DtBRzuscfz  Dior (@Dior) March 8, 2019

Berkowitz also criticized the video game industry, which has traditionally been less inclusive of women and has often sexualized women's bodies, for tweeting about International Women's Day.

Happy #InternationalWomensDay from everyone at Riot Games UK! pic.twitter.com/ZVlHJeJkXq  League of Legends UK (@uk_lol) March 8, 2019

Other companies got on board with International Women's Day messaging, despite lacking a clear connection to women's empowerment.

We can do it and we will do it!



Happy #InternationalWomensDay! pic.twitter.com/Fi8xwa3yDE  Bob's Burgers (@BobsBurgersFOX) March 8, 2019

Join Hanna this #InternationalWomensDay and discover who you were born to be. #HannaTV pic.twitter.com/FDQZ8zXPwA  Amazon Prime Video US (@PrimeVideo) March 8, 2019

On this #InternationalWomensDay, we celebrate all our female employees who make us better and stronger. #BalanceForBetter pic.twitter.com/CpfgezXoaE  The Boeing Company (@Boeing) March 7, 2019

Other companies, like McDonald's, have taken a creative approach to International Women's Day, flipping the "M" sign upside-down into a "W" to celebrate women.

Jessica Powell, the former head of communications for Google, challenged the meaning of actions or campaigns like McDonald's that only last for a day and don't necessarily indicate a commitment to lasting change or gender equality.

"Of course, as fun as all this Women's Day stuff is, we'll be flipping our logo back to normal tomorrow," Powell wrote in a New York Times opinion column. "We love women, but the M is just a bit more powerful and dynamic, don't you think?"
MILLCREEK  A Millcreek man accused of stabbing another man in the back and then chasing his neighbor with a butcher knife has been charged.

Fahim Abaid Al Bakawi, 46, was charged Friday in 3rd District Court with two counts of aggravated assault, a second-degree felony and a third-degree felony.

On Feb. 28, as a man was getting into his vehicle near 3365 S. 900 East, Al Bakawi "ran up behind him and stabbed him in the lower back," according to charging documents. The victim initially thought he was just punched until he felt a hole in his shirt and blood on his back, the charges state. He was taken to a local hospital in serious condition.

A neighbor of Al Bakawi witnessed the stabbing and saw that Al Bakawi "had a large butcher knife in his hand," according to charging documents. When the neighbor and Al Bakawi made eye contact, Al Bakawi "charged" at the man, "holding the butcher knife over his head," the charges state.

The man ran back into his residence and locked the door.

Officers responded to the area and arrested Al Bakawi.

In January, Al Bakawi was charged with being a restricted person in possession of a weapon and shoplifting for an incident in December, according to court records. However, the case was dismissed this week because the case was filed incorrectly, according to court documents.
SALT LAKE CITY  Visitors to temple grounds of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will often find a statue of the recently resurrected Christ, called the Christus, in the visitors' centers. A similar one stands in the visitors' center to the newly finished Rome Italy Temple, along with statues of the original Twelve Apostles.

The Deseret News released a video Friday explaining where the original statues come from, including where the marble was quarried.

The original Christus and Twelve Apostles statues are located in an 18th-century evangelical cathedral in Copenhagen, Denmark, the video states.

Although the statues don't come from Italy, the marble does. The video explains that the marble for the original statues came from Carrara, Italy, the same place that produced famous statues like Michelangelo's David and the Roman Pantheon.

The Christus began appearing on Latter-day Saint temple grounds after Elder Stephen L Richards commissioned a replica to be made for the church, a replica that still stands on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

The church announced Friday that the entire First Presidency and members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will be gathered together outside the United States for the Rome Italy Temple dedication sessions Sunday.
Smart Compose was already present on the Pixel 3 devices and Google had rolled out the feature to the web version of Gmail.

Highlights:

Google has rolled out Gmails Smart Compose feature to all Android devices.

The feature was previously exclusive to Pixel 3 devices.



Google has started to roll out the Gmails Smart Compose feature to all the Android-powered devices. The feature was previously exclusive to the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL smartphones. Google had already released the feature for the web version of Gmail and now, it seems to have rolled out a server-side change because the last update to Gmail was released on February 22 which painted the UI white in harmony with its Material Design.

We verified the update with a couple of Android-powered devices including the Pixel 2 XL and the OnePlus 6T. The screenshots of the feature in Gmail can be seen below. Reportedly, Essential Phone, and Samsung Galaxy S9+ also got the update. The reports in the US-based media houses are confirming the roll out, and since we checked it here in India, this suggests that this is a global roll out. The feature is not available on iOS yet.

(From Left) Smart Compose feature in Pixel 2 XL, OnePlus 6T and iPhone XS

On Gmail for web, you need to hit the Tab or the right arrow key to write the suggested sentence. On phones, you just need to swipe right to complete the sentence. If you dont want to use it, you have an option to opt out. Just need to go to the Settings and disable the Smart Compose from the account. The feature leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyse what the user is writing and suggests auto-completion of sentences depending on what the context is.

The feature was demoed at last years Google I/O annual event and even at that time, it was seen capable of understanding what the user is trying to state and then auto-suggesting sentences to make it easier and faster for the user to draft the email. Google had also warned that the Smart Compose is not designed to provide answers and may not always predict factually correct information.

Recently, Google brought some changes to the Smart Compose feature and blocked gender-based pronouns. Google said that the technology will not suggest gender-based pronouns because the risk is too high that it might predict someones sex or gender identity incorrectly and offend users. Gmail product manager Paul Lambert said that a company research scientist discovered the problem in January when he typed I am meeting an investor next week, and Smart Compose suggested a possible follow-up question: Do you want to meet him? instead of her.

Related Read:

Gmail Material Design is now available to all Android users
Google has disclosed a zero-day high threat vulnerability in Chrome and has released an update patch that mitigates it. We recommend immediately updating your Chrome browser on all devices.

Highlights:

Google discloses zero-day vulnerability in Google Chrome.

The flaw could be used by attackers to gain control of a victims system.

The vulnerability is said to be due to the involvement of a memory mismanagement bug in the FileReader web API.

Google recently seeded the new version 72.0.3626.121 of Chrome and stated that the new version patches a security flaw. It did not detail the vulnerability (vuln) at the time, but did say that its aware of the exploit for the flaw, called CVE-2019-5786, which exists in the wild. The company has now published a blog post that reveals that the flaw was a 0-day (zero-day) vulnerability, meaning it was possibly being exploited since there was no patch available for it at the time. Some additional information is now available on the flaw, thanks to a Google Security Blog post by Clement Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group.

Before we delve into the details, we suggest that you immediately check and update the Chrome browser on your devices to version 72.0.3626.121. As per the blog post detailing the vuln, Google reported two zero-day vulns that were not disclosed publicly. One of them affected Google Chrome while the other one affects Microsoft Windows OS. There is no precise information on what the CVE-2019-5786 vulnerability does but Google says that it is present in Use-after-free in FileReader.

As per the Center for Internet Security (CIS), Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the browser. Depending on the privileges associated with this application, an attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. The new vuln involves a memory mismanagement bug that is present in the FileReader web API. The flaw could not only be used to read unauthorised files but is also said to be much more harmful as it could be used for Remote Code Execution (RCE). RCE could allow an attacker to gain control, install malware and do many other things on a users device.

To be safe from this threat, the first thing one should do is update their Google Chrome browser on all of their devices. In case there is no option to update, for some reason, one should refrain from visiting malicious websites and run software without admin rights. Switching to another browser is always an option in case none of the recommendations work for you.

Related Reads:

Google receives flak for not patching PNG vulnerability, researchers say millions of Android users still at risk
Giztop, an official partner of Gizmochina, claims that the Out of Stock phone is priced at $569, which translates to approx Rs 40,000.

Highlights:

OnePlus 7 has been spotted on Chinese retailer website Giztop.

The platform has listed the specs of the phone.

It claims that the phone will be priced $569, that is, Rs 40,000

Now that Samsung has launched its Galaxy S10 Series line-up, the focus now shifts to another significant brand OnePlus. We have already seen major leaks about the OnePlus 7 but the latest development essentially pours out all the information that one needs to know about the phone. The device has been spotted on Chinese retailer Giztops website. Giztop is an official partner of tech news outlet Gizmochina.

Firstly, the e-tailer claims that the currently Out of Stock OnePlus 7 will be available for $569, which translates to approx Rs 40,000. Not only the price, the retailer also tried to cement the development by replying to questions in the comments section. When asked about the availability of the phone, the retailer advises to keep an eye on this page, suggesting that it will not take down the page like other e-tailers have done in the past (with different phones).

The image posted on the website shows the front of the phone showing no notch on the display. This resonates with the previous leaks which claimed that the next OnePlus device will have a near edge-to-edge display with pop-up selfie camera. Just like the photo leaked by OnLeaks, the volume buttons can be spotted on the left edge of the OnePlus 7, while the power button is placed on the right edge. However, the latest image does not show the alert slider.

The retailer has also listed specifications of the OnePlus 7. It says that the phone is powered by the Snapdragon 855 SoC, and has up to 12GB of RAM. It is said to have Android Pie-based OxygenOS 9. The smartphone is said to have a 6.5-inch AMOLED display and has a rear triple camera setup consisting of a 48MP sensor, a 20MP sensor and , and a 16MP one. The selfie shooter is said to have a 16MP sensor.

In terms of storage, the listed specs suggest that the OnePlus 7 will come with up to 256 GB of local storage. The battery capacity is claimed to be of 4,000 mAh and supports 44W Dash Charging. Recently, a hands-on image of the phone was leaked showing the pop-up selfie camera. The OnePlus 7 is slated to launch sometime in Q2 2019 while some claim that it could get an official launch in May.

Related Read:

OnePlus March Madness offers for OnePlus 6T include special giveaways, additional Rs 2000 off on exchange and more
The analyst increased his Samsung Galaxy S10 shipment estimate by 30 percent citing spec differentiation from current iPhones as the primary factor.

Highlights:

Ming-Chi Kuo has increased his Samsung Galaxy S10 shipment estimate by 30%.

The analyst increased the shipment estimate from 30-35 million to 40-45 million units.

He attributed the increase to the spec differentiation from current iPhones.

Ming-Chi Kuo has said that he is increasing his Galaxy S10 shipment estimate by 30 percent citing spec differentiation from current iPhones, including an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. The analyst said that as compared to his previous shipping estimates of the Galaxy S10 series from between 30 and 35 million, the South Korean company is expected to ship between 40 and 45 million units of the newly-launched flagship.

Kuo outlined a few reasons for his change in estimates. The first is due to the markets view on high-end smartphone sales. The second is the trade-in programmes and a strong demand in China, and the third is the spec differentiation from iPhones. In terms of feature differentiation, Kuo says that the Galaxy S10 packs several features that currently arent available on the iPhone. This includes an in-display ultrasonic fingerprint reader, a rear triple-camera setup, and bilateral wireless charging, popularly known as reverse wireless charging.

Kuo thinks that the Galaxy S10 is benefiting from the iPhones lack of some features for the time being, a media report said. Last year, Apple removed the fingerprint sensor from the iPhone X and this year, all the iPhones ship sans Touch ID (in favor of Face ID). The Galaxy S10, however, features both face recognition and an in-display fingerprint reader. Kuo seems to think that the addition of an in-display fingerprint reader is helping Galaxy S10 sales compared to the iPhone, the report said.

Kuo also explains that O-film, a camera part supplier, will benefit if Apple upgrades the 2019 iPhones with three cameras. This further adds to speculation that the Cupertino-based company is planning a three-camera setup on this years iPhones. Kuo also says that the Galaxy S10 is performing much better-than-expected in China and that the company is growing despite increased competition from domestic players like Huawei.

Related Read:

Samsung Galaxy Fold India launch
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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)  A federal agency fined two construction companies $157,792 for violations related to the deaths of two workers who fell to their deaths from scaffolding at a hotel being built near Disney World.

The Orlando Sentinel reports Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Wednesday fined PCL Construction Services Inc. $144,532 and Universal Engineering Services $13,260 for the workers deaths.





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By KIM CURTIS

Associated Press

iStockPhoto [enlarge] Numerous butterflies can be seen at one of their annual wintering spots in Cerro Pelon Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary near Macheros, Mexico.





CERRO PELON MONARCH BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY, Mexico  As the group made its way up the rugged mountain path toward the clearing, their heavy, crunching bootsteps turned to near-silent tiptoeing, their friendly chitchat dropped to whispers, giddy smiles appeared on faces and eyes brimmed with tears. The first-time visitors to this mountain monarch butterfly reserve were, in a word, gobsmacked.





. . .
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Image provided by Makers Architecture & Urban Design [enlarge] The armory, at 1601 W. Armory Way, is in the Interbay neighborhood.





The Washington Department of Commerce will hold an open house from 6 to 8:30 p.m. March 19 at Ballard VFW Hall at 2812 N.W. Market St. on possible redevelopment of the Washington National Guard Armory site in Seattle's Interbay neighborhood.





. . .
The High Court has finalised the basis on which John Downey can appeal his extradition to Northern Ireland, where he is wanted in relation to the murder of two soldiers in an Enniskillen car bomb 47 years ago.

Last week, Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly ordered Mr Downeys surrender after rejecting several objections raised by his lawyers.

Ms Justice Donnelly then granted Mr Downey, who lives in Donegal, leave to appeal the order on Wednesday, after finding that assurances given to so-called on-the-run republican paramilitaries by the UK Government may have been used to gather evidence against them, giving rise to questions of exceptional public importance that require consideration by Irelands superior courts.

Today Ms Justice Donnelly granted permission for Mr Downeys appeal to be lodged, after the case had been put back to allow counsel on both sides to agree on the form of the question that is to go before the Court of Appeal.

She remanded Mr Downey on continuing bail pending the hearing of his appeal.

Mr Downey (67) was arrested in November 2018 at his home address in Ards, Creeslough Donegal on foot of a European Arrest Warrant issued in October 2018 by UK authorities in relation to the 1972 Enniskillen bombing.

He is wanted for the murder of two British Army Infantrymen, Lance Corporal Alfred Johnston and Private James Eames, who were killed when a device exploded in a vehicle they were checking on the Irvinestown Road, Cherrymount, in Enniskillen on August 25, 1972.

Mr Downey had argued against his extradition on several grounds including that it would be an abuse of process to surrender him due to a so-called 'comfort letter' he received from the Northern Irish authorities in July 2007 which he claimed amounted to an amnesty.

These comfort letters told alleged republican paramilitaries they were not wanted for prosecution of crimes committed during the Troubles.

In her written judgement last week, Ms Justice Donnelly said Mr Downey had also submitted that the issuance of the 'comfort letter' in 2007 led him to travel through Gatwick Airport in May 2013 - when he was arrested for a separate matter - and that this amounted to "an entrapment (either consciously or unconsciously) by analogy".

However, Ms Justice Donnelly said the "issue of entrapment" was a matter for a trial in Northern Ireland and that there was "no evidence" before her that such an issue couldn't be raised in Northern Ireland.

She rejected all of Mr Downey's objections last week and also said Mr Downey did not provide cogent evidence that his comfort letter constituted an amnesty.

In her written judgement last week, Ms Justice Donnelly recorded that the letter Mr Downey received in 2007 stated: "The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has been informed by the Attorney General that on the basis of the information currently available, there is no outstanding direction for prosecution in Northern Ireland, there are no warrants in existence, nor are you wanted in Northern Ireland for arrest, questioning or charge by the police.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland are not aware of any interest in you from any other police force in the United Kingdom. If any other outstanding offence or offences come to light, or if any request for extradition were to be received, these would have to be dealt with in the usual way."

Mr Downey previously stood trial in relation to the 1982 London Hyde Park bombing, in which four soldiers and seven horses were killed, after he was arrested at Gatwick Airport in May 2013.

The trial collapsed in February 2014 after it emerged that Mr Downey had received a so-called comfort letter.

The on-the-run scheme and letters, which only fully emerged following the collapse of Mr Downeys trial, triggered a major political controversy and lead to an inquiry.

In her written judgement ordering Mr Downey's extradition last week, Ms Justice Donnelly also outlined matters contained in Mr Downeys European Arrest Warrant.

She said the EAW states the Enniskillen car bomb was caused by between 100lb and 200lb of an "unknown explosive" attached to a battery pack held together by black adhesive tape.

Ms Justice Donnelly also said the warrant states the battery pack was delivered to a Sgt Gamble, now deceased, at the fingerprint department of the RUC on August 31, 1972.

It also said Mr Downey's fingerprints were separately obtained by a Det Sgt Aidan Murray, of An Garda Siochana, in Cavan, on December 10, 1979, and that these fingerprints were subsequently sent to the RUC in 1980 "for intelligence purposes.

According to the warrant, Ms Justice Donnelly stated, Sgt Gamble subsequently "confirmed a positive comparison of a finger imprint found on the black insulating tape" with the fingerprint taken by Det Sgt Murray.

The judge said the warrant states that the fingerprint has since "degraded" but photographs of the imprint at the time "have been confirmed by a fingerprint expert as authentic and of good quality".

Ms Justice Donnelly said the warrant states that this expert "confirmed a positive comparison of these photographs with a fingerprint" taken by the Metropolitan Police after Mr Downey was arrested on May 19, 2013, at Gatwick Airport, in connection with the 1982 Hyde Park bombing.

The judge said that the 2018 EAW states that the Northern Irish authorities intend to adduce the Metropolitan Police's fingerprints and adduce evidence of bad character.
Activist, author, Hollywood whistleblower and star of Scream and Charmed, Rose McGowan, talks exclusively to Ray about Harvey Weinstein, her book Brave, and the #MeToo movement on this Saturday's Ray D'Arcy Show.

Musician David Gray, the man behind Irelands biggest selling album White Ladder, will join Ray in studio for a very special live set - performing some old favourites as well as songs from his new album Gold In A Brass Age. Hell also reflect on being in the music business for more than 25 years and why Ireland will always have a special place in his heart.

Funny woman and Grand Marshal of this year's St Patrick's Day Parade, Deirdre O'Kane, will join Ray on the couch for a laugh.

Rugby legend Tommy Bowe will be on the couch to talk about his Six Nations predictions, family life with his wife Lucy and daughter Emma, and what's been keeping him busy since retirement.

The small Gaeltacht community of Baile an Sceilg in Co Kerry celebrated the opening of a new post office this week. Several people from the community will speak to Ray about their campaign that helped keep the post office open

The Ray D'Arcy Show, Saturday (March 9) at 9.55pm on RTE One.
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Louth TD Declan Breathnach has said that despite receiving assurances last month from the Minister that six additional staff had been approved to be deployed to the Monaghan and Castleblayney ambulance stations, according to the Fianna Fail deputy, "the situation is no better and staff are working in chaotic conditions."

I raised the matter at the end of last month", said Deputy Breathnach, "when I was made aware of a situation whereby staff were unable to respond to calls due to a lack of staff and a lack of vehicles being available. Stations affected include those in Drogheda, Ardee, Virginia, Monaghan, Castleblayney and Dundalk.

He continued, the situation is still no better despite the assurances given that extra staff had been approved. Yesterday five ambulances in the fleet serving the region were not operational, and two ambulances had to be deployed from Dublin to service both Drogheda and Dundalk last night.

This is a gravely serious situation and I will be calling on the Minister to immediately resolve this issue.

"It is unfair both to the staff trying to cope with a lack of resources and unfair to the public who need to feel assured that there is a speedy and efficient emergency ambulance service in the region", Deputy Breathnach concluded.
Each year on 8 March, International Womens Day, I get invited to attend events that celebrate and discuss gender diversity in the workplace. Theyre often rich with intelligent discussions about women and work, a topic I am immensely passionate about.

But all too often, I sit up on stage, look out to the crowd and I think, where on earth are all the men? There are many supportive men on gender diversity (I know quite a few) but there is still work to be done as I often find myself singing to a choir of women who already know that gender diversity is a business priority.

Its irrefutable that having a gender balance leads to better business outcomes, greater profitability and value creation. Better balance between women and men means broader insight, more empathy, and fresh ideas.

Gender diversity is not only a womens issue. Its a human issue. And the majority of our business leaders today, in particular in technology, are men. The only way we are truly going to make headway is to have the men standing with us to create a business environment where women can thrive.

I believe collaboration is vital to have as part of any gender diversity discussion and would even go so far as to say its negligent if this isnt on a male or female business leaders agenda.

However, I think its easy to point fingers and we all need to look at how we can create more inclusive environments. Its critical we have discussions in an open forum, and that organisers of events and support groups create positive opportunities for discussion that encourage men and women to attend and work together.

It worries me that the 2018 McKinsey and Company report on Women in the Workplace shows that progress hasnt just slowed, its stalled. All the while, companies are reporting that they are highly committed to gender diversity. Its a frustrating paradox. We didnt open the door to diversity, only to turn around and shut it behind us.

Recently, I was introduced to the term moral-licensing through Canadian author Malcolm Gladwells podcast Revisionist History. I cant help but think that the phenomenon might be at play here. It describes the subconscious decisions we make to engage in prejudice behaviour, because in the past we did something virtuous.

Moral-licensing became a popular theory in 2009, describing those who voted in US President Barack Obama, and subsequently reverted to racist behaviours.

When I think about it in this context, I think about the companies who have hit a quota of females and assume the job is done. But token acts of egalitarianism do not mean you have an egalitarian workplace. Its box-ticking and its bad for business.

I encourage every business leader to introduce a diversity plan and to really think about fostering an inclusive and respectful environment for diversity to thrive. Heres where I think is a good place to start:

women need to feel supported in the workplace, they need allies to feel confident enough that they can share their beliefs, their values and their Our leaders need to reengineer working environments to make them a safe, supportive place. we need to be aware of our unconscious biases and flagging behaviour in the workplace that isnt inclusive. Its little things like calling grown women girls. Theyre small but reinforcing behaviours, and added up and they have impact. support groups and events around International Womens Day are great, but how can we make sure we have a diverse spread in the room and its an inclusive and encouraging environment for everyone.

I do believe the majority of businesses have the very best of intentions in this space, but leaders need to turn those intentions into actionable plans. So, this International Womens Day, I challenge you to speak out publicly about your businesss progress and goals for diversity. How is your organisation tracking and what is your vision and plan for the future? What youre doing to ensure youre not giving in tomoral-licensing?

Communicating this business case, setting goals and reporting on progress are key to driving change. The door to diversity will not open itself.

About this author

Anna Curzon, Xero Chief Product and Partner Officer
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This is one of a series of articles published in the run up to International Womens Day 2019 and celebrating our partners who are also leading women in business.

Rafaela Rica, CEO of Albanias Iceberg Communication, founded the business in 1999 at the age of 23.

The company has now grown to permanently employ 21 people and provides advertising, media and public relations support to a growing portfolio of well-known brands, including international names such as Deloitte Albania, Statkraft and Samsung.

The EBRD helped the company with an advisory project to define an ambitious business and investment plan and to develop internally its professional marketing function.

This was complemented by access to finance under the EBRDs Women in Business programme from Intesa Sanpaolo Bank. Within a year, Icebergs turnover had increased 87 percent and productivity by 70 percent

For me, it has always been important to share my experiences to encourage other young women in business in Albania. This is particularly true for the tech sector and for start-ups, where the gender gap can feel even stronger.

Rafaela volunteers as a mentor for several start-ups as well as for women-led businesses in her country and internationally. She was nominated for an award as Mentor of the Year 2018 as part of the Yunus Social Business Balkans programme. She is currently doing her PhD with a research focus is on technology-driven women entrepreneurship and gender gap in the Western Balkans.

Knowing that hands-on exposure is often the best teacher, Iceberg provides a range of opportunities for students to join the company as interns, getting direct experience in the range of advertising, marketing, PR and the other functions that Iceberg provides.

She takes being a role model very seriously in terms of the companys position in the local community, sponsoring a wide range of non-governmental organisations supporting childrens health and well-being and fighting homelessness and homophobia.

Iceberg Communication is one of the women-led businesses supported by the EBRDs Women in Business Programme in the Western Balkans. The Programme had provided finance and know-how to women-led businesses to over 5,000 women entrepreneurs in the region to date. The Programme is funded by Italy, Luxembourg, Sweden and the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund.

Leading women in business: Georgia

Leading women in business: Morocco

Leading women in business: Turkey

Leading women in business: Kazakhstan


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The FIDO Alliance hammered another nail into the passwords coffin on Monday with the announcement that devices running Android 7.0 or higher will be compatible with FIDO2, the latest version of its authentication solution.

Certification of Android 7.0+ means devices running those versions of Google's mobile operating system will support FIDO2 out of the box or through a software update.

FIDO2, introduced last year, provides a FIDO Web authentication standard that combines the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Authentication specification with FIDO's Client-to-Authenticator protocol. With it, devices gain secure access to online services in both mobile and desktop environments.

Expanding FIDO2 to the Android world allows Web and application developers to add strong authentication to their apps and websites through a simple API call, delivering passwordless, phishing-resistant security to their users.

"Google has long worked with the FIDO Alliance and W3C to standardize FIDO2 protocols, which give any application the ability to move beyond password authentication while offering protection against phishing attacks," said Google Product Manager Christiaan Brand.

"Today's announcement of FIDO2 certification for Android helps move this initiative forward, giving our partners and developers a standardized way to access secure keystores across devices, both in market already as well as forthcoming models, in order to build convenient biometric controls for users," he added.

Stage Set for Providers

Since FIDO2 was introduced, it has gained support from all the major Web browsers, as well Microsoft, which has integrated it into Windows 10, noted Andrew Shikiar, chief marketing officer of the Mountain View, California-based FIDO Alliance.

Now the massive Android ecosystem is in play, he added, with more than 1 billion Android 7.0+ handsets that can be addressed by websites supporting FIDO authentication.

"Simply put, the stage is now set for developers and service providers to add standards-based FIDO2 authentication into their websites and apps," he told TechNewsWorld, "knowing in full confidence that a large swath of their consumers will be able to take advantage of FIDO's approach towards simpler, stronger authentication."

FIDO is trying the solve the world's password problem, said Brian Jenkins, vice president for product at StrongKey, a cryptographic key management company in Sunnyvale, California.

"Passwords are the root cause of over 80 percent of data breaches," he told TechNewsWorld. "They're reused often for multiple online accounts, and they're costly to maintain. FIDO is a significant step toward a future that is passwordless."

Key Is Cryptography

A significant benefit of FIDO is that it helps companies move beyond their dependency on shared secrets, which results in centralized repositories of authentication credentials, and toward a public key cryptography approach, FIDO's Shikiar observed.

"When passwords are stored on central servers, those servers become a nice attack target," said Rolf Lindemann, senior director for products and technology at Nok Nok Labs, an authentication solutions company in Palo Alto, California.

"Billions of passwords have been stolen from servers already," he told TechNewsWorld.

With the public key cryptography approach, the user's authentication credentials remain with the user's device, and the server retains only the corresponding public key, Shikiar explained.

"This not only helps protect the user's privacy, but also begins to de-risk the authentication process for the service provider," he noted. "In the unfortunate occurrence of a data breach, they no longer need to worry about credential theft, which protects their customers and also helps stop the scourge of credential stuffing."

Credential stuffing occurs when credentials stolen from one site are used to compromise accounts on other sites because the credentials have been used by their owner on multiple sites.

"One of the keys to FIDO is not just the end user not having to remember passwords, but removing the onus on an app creator or service provider to store them," said StrongKey's Jenkins.

Education Challenging

Android certification by FIDO will be good news for many businesses, noted Terence Jackson, CISO of Thycotic, a maker of privileged password management software in Washington, D.C.

"With the proliferation of BYOD, this is also a win for businesses that want to ensure employees are using strong passwords on their personal devices as well," he told TechNewsWorld.

"Consumers with compatible devices can now use stronger passwords as a whole without the obstacle of having to enter long strings on their mobile devices, which has historically been a barrier to stronger password use," Jackson explained.

A major challenge to FIDO has been consumer education, he added.

"FIDO is an effective way for consumers and businesses to protect access to their devices and services in a more frictionless manner than the traditional password, but consumers are not ready to say goodbye to the password just yet," Jackson said.

Education will be a major part of FIDO's efforts this year, Shikiar noted.

"In 2019, FIDO will be taking added steps to help facilitate adoption by providing pertinent resources to developers, and by working with our extensive vendor community to educate the market at large on the benefits of FIDO authentication," he said.

Passwords Passing On

Last year was a seminal year for FIDO adoption, Shikiar noted, with not only the release of FIDO2 but also its incorporation into leading browsers and platforms -- all within an eight-month period.

"With the addition of Android support, the stage is set for widespread adoption," he said. "Our challenge now is on the other half of the supply/demand equation: getting service providers to deploy FIDO Authentication at scale."

Will passwords ever disappear?

"There is a significant desire to phase out passwords, as everyone is now realizing that all passwords have been stolen -- even those yet to be created," said Shahrokh Shahidzadeh, CEO of Acceptto, a Portland, Oregon, cybersecurity startup focused on cognitive authentication.

"However, the move to eliminate them or even reduce dependency is still just in its infancy," he told TechNewsWorld.

"I think the real question here is when can businesses stop relying on the shared secret approach for user authentication," Shikiar added. "Not just passwords, but also things like one-time-passwords, which are still shared secrets, albeit with a much shorter shelf-life and susceptible to replay attack and other mechanisms for account takeover."

That question will be answered soon, he suggested, because the platforms and tools are now being put into place to make it easier for businesses to provide cryptographically-backed, decentralized authentication, instead of maintaining the traditional approach of centralized password-based authentication.

John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.


Greenland is getting rainier, even in winter, a new study has found, and that has major implications for sea level rise.

The Greenland ice sheet loses about 270 billion tons of ice each year to climate change, raising global sea levels by 7.5 millimeters (approximately 0.3 inches) between 1992 and 2011, Science Magazine explained. About half of that was due to the calving of icebergs, but recent satellite observations have revealed that 70 percent of Greenland's contribution to global sea level rise in recent years has come from meltwater running off into the ocean. Scientists wanted to understand what was driving the meltwater.

The results of one investigation, published in The Cryosphere Wednesday, show that a third of the runoff observed by the research team between 1979 and 2012 was caused by rainfall, Columbia University's Earth Institute reported. Over that same period, rain-caused melt doubled during summer and tripled during winter. Total precipitation over Greenland did not change, but the balance of snow to rain shifted.

"We were surprised that there was rain in the winter," lead study author Dr. Marilena Oltmanns of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany told BBC News. "It does make sense because we're seeing flows of warm air coming up from the South, but it's still surprising to see that associated with rainfall."



In order to reach their conclusions, the researchers used satellite data to determine when melting was taking place as well as automated readings from 20 weather stations to determine when rainfall occurred. They pinpointed 313 incidents over the study period when rainfall triggered melting, according to Science.

Rain can lead to more melting even if it falls in winter and refreezes right away, study author Marco Tedesco explained to BBC News. That's because it leaves the ice both darker and smoother. Darker ice absorbs more heat from the sun, leading to more melt, and smooth ice enables that melt to flow faster over its surface.

"The potential impact of changes taking place in the winter and spring on what happens in summer needs to be understood," Tedesco said.

Professor Jason Box, a Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland glaciologist not involved with this study, told BBC News he had observed first-hand during a research trip how rain could transform the ice sheet:

"After weeks of sunshine, it started raining on us and it completely transformed the surfaceit got darker.



"And I became convincedonly by being there and seeing it with my own eyesthat rain is just as important as strong sunny days in melting the Greenland ice sheet."

The winter rain usually falls in lower elevations in Greenland's south and southwest, where it is carried on warm, wet winds from the south that may be getting more common as climate change shifts the jet stream, The Earth Institute explained.

"This is what climate change looks like, it's the 'Atlantification' of the Arctic," climate scientist Ruth Mottram of the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen, who did not participate in the study, told Science Magazine. "This paper identifies a really important mechanism and we need to figure out how it plays into our predictions of sea level rise."

If all the ice in Greenland melted, it would raise global sea levels by 7 meters (approximately 23 feet). Most projections say that sea levels will rise two to four feet by 2100, The Earth Institute said, but more research is needed to determine how much Greenland and Antarctica will contribute.
Millions of children across the U.S. have been exposed to high concentrations of lead through their school drinking water due to inconsistent testing standards, a recent study found.



Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health reviewed 25 state programs for testing for lead in schools' drinking water supply and found that there is no uniformity in states' approaches to develop initiatives to test for lead in school drinking water, action levels or maintaining water quality data  public schools in some states are not even required to perform testing on all drinking water taps.

Moreover, the study revealed that 44 percent of nearly 11,000 schools had at least one sample test positive for lead levels at or above state action levels.

The World Health Organization warns that "there is no known level of lead exposure that is considered safe" and research in the U.S. has linked even low levels of lead exposure with health and learning problems in children because of how it affects brain and nervous system development.

"Lead is a neurotoxin, it drops IQ scores, it's linked to aberrant behavior and violence," Howard Kessler, a retired doctor and part of Physicians for Social Responsibility, told The Guardian. "The concern is that while we are not taking much action, children are being damaged on a generational level. We are supposed to provide them with a safe environment, not poison them."

High levels of lead have been found in school tap water since the toxic water crisis in Flint, Michigan became a national story in 2014, yet there is currently no federal requirement for schools to test water for lead, The Guardian reported, leaving the issue to the states.

Of the 25 states in the Harvard report, researchers found that only 15 have laws or funding allocations for testing water in schools, while 10 have programs that are run through state environmental protection or health agencies. Few states provide funding for lead testing and remediation through school drinking water programs, the study found.

Without federal oversight, there's a wide range of lead contamination action levels at the state level, from 5 parts per billion  the Food and Drug Administration action level for bottled water  to 20 parts per billion, the study found. In Atlanta, for instance, more than half of its public schools had high levels of lead, with some exceeding 15 times the federal limit for drinking systems.



Lead contamination in school drinking water spans the entire country, from urban areas like Detroit, Newark and Chicago, to suburban and rural communities in Maine and Vermont, The Guardian reported. In other words, it's a national public health crisis.

Campaigns to eliminate lead exposure in daily life have been mostly successful, The Guardian reported, as it had all but eliminated led from tin cans, gasoline and paint by the mid-1980s. But lead in drinking water  often from old pipes  went largely unnoticed as subsequent court rulings weakened public health laws requiring lead testing of school water.

"Ensuring that all children have easy and appealing access to lead-safe school drinking water should be a health policy priority for relevant federal and state agencies and will support the promotion of drinking water as a healthy beverage of choice," the authors of the Harvard study wrote.
Sea Services Agreement: Promise of cheaper fares and additional sailing

The Manx government has promised cheaper ferry fares and one additional sailing a week to Liverpool.

If approved, the new 25-year agreement will replace the current User Agreement, and includes a provision for review every five years. It will be signed in May before coming into force in January 2020, providing passengers and freight customers with investment, a more resilient service and a range of benefits.

The terms of the deal will include foot passenger fares being frozen until a new vessel replaces the Ben-my-Chree and 450,000 special offer fares being made available each year, compared to 275,000 under the current deal.

Children under 16 and students in full-time education will be able to travel at half-price adult fare, while higher weekend prices will not apply between October 1 and March 31, saving up to 50 on a car-plus-two booking.

One additional Liverpool sailing a week during winter and summer seasons and sailings to Ireland during the summer months will take place at more convenient times according to the document.

The Steam Packet Company became state owned in May last year but is being run at "arm's length" from the government.

Tynwald will debate the Sea Services Agreement later this month.
Island mansion goes on sale for 30Million

A home on the Isle of Man has become the most expensive property for sale on the Island.

The 280-acre property in Santon comes with a price tag rarely seen on properties outside of London with an asking price for offers over 30 million.

Arragon Mooar spans 23,000-square-feet and is built in red sandstone.
4 PKK terrorists surrender to Turkish forces

Terrorists, including 2 women, surrender in southeastern Sirnak province.

At least four PKK terrorists surrendered to Turkish security forces in southeastern Srnak province on Friday, according to a security source.

The terrorists, including two women, surrendered at the Habur border gate in Silopi district, said the source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU, waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years and has been responsible for the death of nearly 40,000 people, including women and children.
Canada's Trudeau denies impropriety, offers no apology

Trudeau denied interfering in Canadas judicial system as he sought to defuse a crisis threatening his political future, and offered no apology, asserting only that lessons had been learned.

Trudeau called a news conference to address allegations that improper pressure was put on former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to help construction firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc avoid a criminal trial.

REJECTED ALL CLAIMS

There was no breakdown of our systems, of our rule of law, of the integrity of our institutions, Trudeau, the Liberal Party leader, told reporters. There was never any inappropriate pressure.

Trudeau, 47, came to power in November 2015 promising sunny ways, more accountability and a greater number of women in the Cabinet. Yet two-high powered female ministers have quit over the case and he now finds himself accused of trying to arrange a backroom deal with a major company.

Trudeau and other officials deny doing anything improper by asking Wilson-Raybould to consider offering SNC-Lavalin a deal to avoid a trial on charges of bribing Libyan officials. Wilson-Raybould had the power to scrap the decision to go to trial and impose a fine but decided against it. Trudeau, who discussed the matter with Wilson-Raybould on Sept. 17, said: I stressed the importance of protecting Canadian jobs and reiterated that this issue was one of significant national importance.

CRISIS CAUSED RESIGNATION

The crisis has prompted the resignations of Wilson-Raybould, Treasury Board President Jane Philpott and Trudeaus closest political aide, Gerald Butts. There are many lessons to be learned and many things we would have liked to have done differently, Trudeau said, adding he should have been aware Wilson-Raybould was unhappy.

A weekly tracking poll released by Nanos Research on Tuesday put the Conservatives at 35 percent public support, with the Liberals at 34 percent. A Jan. 8 Nanos poll put the Liberals at 39 percent and the Conservatives at 33 percent.
Israeli police use excessive force over ultra-Orthodox Jews

30 are arrested in West Jerusalem for demonstrating against compulsory army service.

Israeli police on Thursday detained 30 religious Jews after they staged demonstrations in West Jerusalem against compulsory military service.

According to a police statement, the arrests were carried out after scores of protesters blocked roads and traffic, undermining security.





Authorities deployed water cannon and horse-mounted officers to control the protesters.

Footage of the protest showed police using quite brutal tactics to get control of the situation.

At least 30 men were detained, following scuffles.

All Israelis must perform compulsory military service at the age of 18.

Under current Israeli law, however, religious Jews -- who ostensibly engage in full-time religious studies -- are exempted from serving.
Trumps ex-aide Manafort sentenced 4 years in prison

US President Donald Trump's ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort has been given a 47-month jail sentence for fraud.

President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced on Thursday by a US judge to less than four years in prison - far shy of federal sentencing guidelines - for financial crimes uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russias role in the 2016 election.

HE WAS ACCUSED HIDING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM US GOVERNMENT

US District Judge T.S. Ellis imposed the surprisingly lenient 47-month sentence on Manafort, 69, during a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, in which the veteran Republican political consultant asked for mercy but expressed no remorse for his actions.

Manafort was convicted by a jury last August of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. The judge ordered Manafort to pay a fine of $50,000 and restitution of just over $24 million.

SENTENCE IS EVEN LESS THAN RECOMMENDED

Manafort was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the US government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraines former pro-Russia government. After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovychs ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

The judge also said Manafort is not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, collided with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.

The sentence was even less than the sentence recommended by Manaforts lawyers of 4-1/4 to 5-1/4 years in prison.
Turkey, Russia starting patrols around Idlib, Syria

Maintaining cease-fire in Idlib is key step for securing stability in Syria, says National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

Under a deal reached last fall, on Friday Turkey and Russia will begin patrols in and around the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib, according to Turkeys national defense minister.

Today, Russia will begin patrols in the border area outside of Idlib while Turkish Armed Forces patrols will start in the demilitarized zone," Hulusi Akar told Anadolu Agencys Editors Desk.

PROTECTING THE CEASEFIRE IS AN IMPORTANT STEP

The deal last September set up a demilitarized zone in Idlib and other areas, but the Syrian regime has repeatedly violated the cease-fire in Idlib, Akar added. Maintaining the cease-fire in Idlib is a significant step for securing stability in Syria, he said. Akar said Turkish policy towards neighboring countries, especially Iraq and Syria, is based on their territorial and political sovereignty. He called Turkey holding contacts with the Syrian regime "out of the question," but pointed out that Ankara has been holding talks with Moscow and occasionally Tehran on the situation in Syria.

Turkey has never had any problems with the Kurdish population or other ethnicities in Syria, as its army only strikes at terrorist nests, he explained. Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to officials.
Turkish female ambulance driver strives in male industry

Busra Teke, who works as an ambulance driver in Ankara Provincial Health Directorate, saves lives by competing against time in the streets of the capital.

Busra Teke always liked the idea of saving lives as a way of earning a living. But she also enjoys driving cars. So, she did what anyone would do and combined both paths into one.

"IT'S MY DREAM JOB"

"What could possibly be better than being an ambulance driver?" the 29-year-old married mother of a toddler joked while being interviewed by Anadolu Agency at Ankara's General Health Directorate.

'BALANCE FOR BETTER'

Friday is International Women's Day. This years theme is Balance for Better. But instead of recognizing the work of women, some will have little chance to take notice because their occupations demand their full attention. In the male-dominated profession of ambulance driving, Teke is a bit of a unicorn. Well, one of 100 unicorns to be exact in the Turkish capital. But that number is rising. The number of female drivers has gone up in the past couple of years, according to a ministry official who did not give exact figures.

SOME PATENTS' RELATIVES HESITATE

In the four years she has been on the job, Teke has faced her fair share of discrimination and skepticism due to her gender. Some patients relatives hesitate to get in the ambulance after seeing that she is the driver. "But they apologize soon after they safely arrive at their destination," she said. The most challenging part of her job is traffic accidents, where the difference between life and death can be minutes, if not seconds. "We're pleased when we see that the patient we carried is back in good health," she added.

FEMALE DRIVERS ALWAYS GIVE HER A POSITIVE RESPONSE

Hande Ar, 29, a female teacher, offered support. "I do believe women ambulance drivers are doing a decent job, she said. This job shouldn't belong to men only. I wouldn't mind my daughter doing this job in the future. Enough with patriarchy!" she exclaimed.

And the two paramedics Teke works closely with in trying to save a patients life had nothing but praise for her driving abilities. But it is from another group where she feels most appreciated. "It is especially the elderly who appreciate our job. They congratulate us and sometimes they wave at us when they see us on duty," she said. "What I love about my job is simply saving human lives. There are some harsh things we encounter, but we prefer to focus on the bright side of the coin," she explained. Those hard things come from the other half of the human species. Saving lives is always pleasing, especially when you save a baby, but there are some serious challenges.

"When male drivers see me driving, they don't usually give way, and I have trouble in traffic while struggling to get the patient to the hospital on time. They pressure us," she complained.

MIND AND MUSCLE FORCE

She argued women drivers are more detailed thinkers and so more active and aware behind the wheel. "On the other hand, male ambulance drivers are more muscular, so it's easier for them to do driving maneuvers," she said. That muscle is the one area where Teke believes she concedes to her male counterparts. "Due to muscular differences, men and women don't possess the same physical power. Carrying patients might sometimes be difficult. Physical strength aside, some on the streets of Ankara still have complaints.

MALE DRIVERS ARE COMPLAINING 'THEY DRIVE TOO SLOW'

Taxi driver Veli Kopalak, 49, was happy to see women ambulance drivers but thought they drive too slow. That is the only complaint I could make about them. Another male driver, who asked not to be named, agreed and said his experience with female drivers in general was the same. They could "put others in danger by driving slowly.

So, on this International Women's Day, Teke and the 99 other female ambulance drivers have a long way to go, but the balance in the industry is slowly getting more even.
US Congress passes expanded anti-hate resolution

Resolution condemns anti-Semitism, Islamophobia following outrage over Rep. Ilhan Omars comments criticizing Israel.

The US House of Representatives passed a resolution Thursday in a bid by House Democrats to quell an uproar over a congresswomans comments criticizing Israel. The resolution, which passed with a vote of 407-23, condemns anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values and aspirations that define the people of the United States".

The legislation is largely supposed to resolve a controversy over comments made by freshman congresswoman Ilhan Omar last week. I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country, Omar said, referring to Israel, at a progressive town hall.

OMAR'S WORDS DREW REPUFF

The remarks received widespread and bipartisan backlash, with others in Congress labeling them as anti-Semitic. It also led to the introduction of the resolution by Democrats in the House, which is seen as implicitly condemning the comments. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel called the remarks "unacceptable and deeply offensive".

Omar has apologized for similar comments made last month. This time, however, she doubled down on her comments, saying she has "not mischaracterized our relationship with Israel. I have questioned it, and that has been clear from my end".

ASSASSINATION TREAT

Since her latest comments, an Islamophobic poster linking Omar to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US was placed in the West Virginia House of Delegates chamber and an assassination threat was written on the wall of a men's bathroom at a gas station in Minnesota.

This prompted a delay in the vote, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday, and allowed for the bill to be changed from solely condemning anti-Semitism to including the condemnation of Islamophobia and other types of bigotry.

All three congressional Muslims hailed the passage of the resolution, calling it "historic on many fronts"."Its the first time we have voted on a resolution condemning anti-Muslim bigotry in our nations history," Reps. Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Andre Carson said in a statement. We are tremendously proud to be part of a body that has put forth a condemnation of all forms of bigotry including anti-Semitism, racism, and white supremacy. "Our nation is having a difficult conversation, and we believe this is great progress, they added.
Aiming to bring critical attention to men's involvement in feminist social research in India, an introduction to a collection of essays on what it means to be a "man" and do "feminism."

In what ways can men ally with feminist initiatives such that the critical edge of feminism is enhanced and not blunted?

The current climate in which mens role in feminist social movements seems to have garnered much public attention and the, as yet, unwritten history of mens varied engagements with feminisms in Indian academia provide the political and theoretical provocation for this collection of articles. The intellectual field of research on women and gender in India has largely been a womens domain; historically the corpus of feminist literature in the region has had few male contributors. And yet, there have been some men in Indian higher education who have engaged with feminist thought and continue to employ feminist modes of inquiry in their academic and activist work.
Proponents of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Khasi Social Custom of Lineage) Second Amendment Bill, 2018 see it as a mechanism to protect the indigenous culture of the Khasi tribal community. However, critics from within and outside the community are describing it as a regressive legislation which will distort the matrilineal values of the Khasi society.

The passing of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Khasi Social Custom of Lineage) Second Amendment Bill, 2018 by the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) on 25 July 2018 generated a lot of debate within Meghalaya in particular and the North East in general. The amendment of Section 2 of the principal act inserted a new subsection (r) after the subsection (q). The new subsection (r) defines Non-Khasi as a person not belonging to indigenous Khasi Tribe classified as Schedule Tribe under the Constitution (Scheduled Tribe) Order, 1950. After the existing Section 3(c), a new section 3(d) was inserted which states that
Empirical evidence from a survey experiment administered in Bihar, Punjab, Kerala, and Delhi reveals discriminatory attitudes towards the freedom of movement of females. The findings reveal the main effectan indication of discrimination against females in the context of mobilityto be significant and the magnitude of the main effect to vary significantly by region, though the treatment condition is still significant in each.

The empirical study of discrimination against women within India has increased substantially in recent decades, with notable contributions from Amartya Sen (1987, 1990), Jean Dreze and Geeta Kingdon (2001), Murthi et al (1995), Shankar Subramanian and Angus Deaton (1991), and Jagdish Bhagwati (1973), among others. Anand and Sen (1995) noted the many forms of gender disparities, providing a conceptual overview of various categories of inequality, including household inequality. Deaton (1997) noted the numerous challenges associated with the empirical study of intra-household phenomena, including discrimination against females. In this article, I present empirical evidence of discriminatory attitudes towards the freedom of movement of females from a survey experiment administered in Bihar, Punjab, Kerala, and Delhi (N=5,315). My findings indicate the main effectan indication of discrimination against females in the context of mobilityto be significant, and the magnitude of the main effect to vary significantly by

region, though the treatment condition is still significant in each. Moreover, I find evidence of treatment effect heterogeneity associated with both gender and level of education of subject, but not religion.
From bridges built by spiders, to marine mammals without table manners, and the unpredictability of volcanoes, the 2018 BMC Ecology Image Competition produced a terrific array of images that reflect the variety of research in progress in the field. All images are open access and available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

The overall winning image by Marianne Elias, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, France is a photo of the clearwing butterfly Hypomenitis enigma. The picture was taken in the southern Andes of Ecuador, the butterfly's natural habitat. The species' unique wing transparency is caused by the particular shape of its wing scales (which look like hair), and the presence of tiny structures on the wing surface that act as anti-reflectors, increasing the amount of light transmitted through the wing.

Guest judge, Professor Zhigang Jiang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "This photo does a fantastic job of showcasing the striking beauty of a rather enigmatic species little known to people, whose transparent wings still raise multiple questions regarding its evolution. Marianne Elias' entry not only shows the beauty often found in nature, but also highlights some of the research going on in the field of ecology in the biodiversity-rich tropics, making it a worthy winner of this year's competition".

The winner was chosen from more than 140 entries. There were two overall runners up and winners from five categories: Community, Population and Macroecology; Behavioral Ecology and Physiology; Conservation Ecology and Biodiversity; Landscape Ecology and Ecosystems; and the Editor's Pick.

The winning images and an additional six highly commended images highlight pressing issues in ecology, from the important roles that species play in their environment, to the mutually beneficial relationships they form, and the need for conservation and recovery of threatened habitats. All images are released free to use under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).

The Conservation Ecology and Biodiversity Research category winner called 'Little Treasure of the steppes', was captured by Pilar Oliva Vidal from University of Lleida, Spain, who also submitted one of the overall runners up. It depicts a steppe bird in its natural habitat, surrounded by bright red flowers.

Section editor Josef Settele, one of the judges, said: "We chose this picture because of the composition of colours, and because it highlights the importance of guaranteeing the conservation and recovery of habitats like steppes, and their species, through the appropriate management of human activities."

'Small Bridges', by Darko Davor Cotoras Viedma of the California Academy of Sciences, USA, was this year's Editor's Pick. The image shows the highly specific web created by a Wendilgarda galapagensis spider. Unlike the familiar orb webs produced by other spiders, W. galapagensis, which is endemic to the remote Isla del Coco in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, spins webs that resemble hanging bridges.

Now in its sixth year, the BMC Ecology Image competition was created to give ecologists the chance to share their research and photographic skills, and celebrate the intersection of art and science.

Senior editor Alison Cuff said: "We were delighted at the variety and quality of the images submitted to the 2018 competition. Having the input of respected scientists as our judges ensures our winning images were picked as much for the scientific story behind them as for the technical quality and beauty of the images themselves. As such, the competition very much reflects BMC's ethos of innovation, curiosity and integrity. We thank all those who took part in this year's competition, and congratulate our winning photographers; we hope our readers and the public enjoy their work as much as we have."

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Media Contact

Lucy Eccles

Communications Officer

BMC

T: +44 20 7418 5730

E: lucy.eccles@biomedcentral.com

Notes to editor:
The tsetse fly has wreaked devastation across large swaths of sub-Saharan Africa. About the size of a housefly, the insect transmits a parasite that can be lethal to both humans (sleeping sickness) and animals (nagana) - especially cattle. In many countries of the sub-Sahara, there are large regions where farmers cannot raise cattle; most eventually die as a result of infection caused by the trypanosomiasis parasite. And if farmers take the risk of raising cattle, they must live with the constant fear that their livestock will be infected by the parasite. The tsetse has caused many farmers to lose their livelihoods as well as an essential source of nutrition for their villages. Across the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, cattle deaths from trypanosomiasis can cause billions of dollars of production and economic losses.

This Columbia team is therefore pioneering a machine-learning based imaging and sorting solution that aims to drastically reduce Africa's tsetse population. The research is supported by a $100,000 Seeds Fund Grant from Columbia's Data Science Institute. The solution, which allows for the sorting of male and female tsetse flies, was discovered by Zelda Moran, now a researcher at the Earth Institute. While working as an intern at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Moran first used near infrared light to peer inside the pupae of tsetse flies. She placed the pupae under a microscope and used the near infrared light to photograph them, allowing her to discern if the developing flies were male or female. She designed this novel sorting technique to support the Sterile Insect Technique, which the IAEA has used to eradicate tsetse populations in Zanzibar and other countries. The sterilizing technique uses irradiation to render large numbers of male flies infertile. The flies are then released into breeding grounds, where they mate with female flies. Since the females usually mate only once in a lifetime, the unfertilized mating will drastically reduce the tsetse population and help eliminate the spread of the disease, enabling farmers to more safely raise livestock.

As it is, though, fly-production labs use a manual and time-consuming technique to sort the flies by sex. The sorting solution pioneered by the Columbia team, once refined, will enable the labs to sort the flies faster and more efficiently and on a larger scale. This enhancement will allow the labs to ship a higher number of sterile flies, in earlier stages of their life cycles, out to the sub-Saharan breeding grounds.

This innovative research project was born out of a chance encounter. Four years ago, Moran and Szabolcs Marka met at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. They were both interested in finding high-tech solutions to public-health problems, and soon found themselves discussing how to use machine-vision methods to combat the tsetse fly infestation.

After Moran finished her internship at IAEA and later moved to New York, she teamed up with the Marka lab at Columbia. In that lab, Szabolcs Marka, an astrophysicist with an expertise in biophysics, and Zsuzsa Marka, an experimental physicist, had previously collaborated on insect behavior research, including how to mitigate malaria mosquitoes and fruit flies. The Markas' expertise in optics, hardware instrumentation and electronics has also been used successfully in biophysics and astrophysics applications. Most prominently, they are members of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, a consortium of scientists who worked on the instrument that in 2015 detected gravitational waves - a discovery that resulted in scientists at LIGO winning the Nobel Prize. John Wright, the fourth member of this research team, is an electrical engineer who does high-dimensional data analysis and develops algorithms to solve imaging problems-in this case, the pupae images. Wright and the Markas are also affiliates of the Data Science Institute. Together, the team aims to work in the lab to develop a sorting-machine prototype that can process tens of thousands of pupae images a day.

Right now, the four are focused on amassing large numbers of pupae images that will be used to train a machine-learning algorithm. At the same time, they are also designing a robot that can sort the pupae based on the result of the algorithm. Once the robot can process a large number of images with high accuracy, they will send it to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will use it to sort the male flies, irradiate them and release them in Africa.

"We'll use data science to create a machine-learning-based automated system that can quickly determine from a tsetse pupae if it's male or female," says Zsuzsa Marka. "And that system will be the basis for a robotic sorting machine that we hope will eventually be used in sub-Saharan Africa to mitigate the scourge of the tsetse fly."

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A thriving marketplace for SSL and TLS certificates--small data files used to facilitate confidential communication between organizations' servers and their clients' computers--exists on a hidden part of the Internet, according to new research by Georgia State University's Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research Group (EBCS) and the University of Surrey.

Networked machines use keys and SSL/TLS certificates to identify and authenticate themselves when connecting to each other, much like humans employ user names and passwords to go online, according to Venafi, a privately held provider of machine identity protection and sponsor of the research.

When these certificates are sold on the darknet, they are packaged with a wide range of crimeware that delivers machine identities to cybercriminals who use them to spoof websites, eavesdrop on encrypted traffic, perform attacks and steal sensitive data, among other activities.

Uncovering the widespread availability of these certificates on the darknet was a surprise, according to lead author David Maimon, an associate professor in Georgia State's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and director of the EBCS. A search of five marketplaces in the darknet for this research uncovered 2,943 mentions for "SSL" and 75 for "TLS." In comparison, there were just 531 mentions for "ransomware."

"One very interesting aspect of this research was seeing TLS certificates packaged with wrap-around services--such as Web design services--to give attackers immediate access to high levels of online credibility and trust," he said. "It was surprising to discover how easy and inexpensive it is to acquire extended validation certificates, along with all the documentation needed to create very credible shell companies without any verification information."

"This study found clear evidence of the rampant sale of TLS certificates on the darknet," said Kevin Bocek, vice president of security and threat intelligence for Venafi. "TLS certificates that act as trusted machine identities are clearly a key part of cybercriminal toolkits, just like bots, ransomware and spyware. Every organization should be concerned that the certificates used to establish and maintain trust and privacy on the Internet are being weaponized and sold as commodities to cybercriminals."

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For more information about Georgia State's Evidence-based Cybersecurity Research Group, go to https://ebcs.gsu.edu.

Download a free copy of the report at https://ebcs.gsu.edu/download/ssl-tls-certificates-and-their-prevalence-on-the-dark-web/.
Bottom Line: An analysis of census tract data for neighborhoods in America's three largest cities suggests black-majority neighborhoods are associated with disparities in access to trauma centers. The study paired census tract data for New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago with coordinates for trauma centers within a five-mile buffer. Black-majority neighborhoods were more likely than white-majority neighborhoods to be located in so-called trauma deserts in Chicago and Los Angeles, although racial/ethnic disparities were only significant in New York after accounting for poverty and its interaction with race. This suggests that New York's extensive trauma network may limit racial/ethnic disparities by ensuring access to low-income neighborhoods. New York is more densely populated than Los Angeles and Chicago. Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods were less likely to be in trauma deserts in New York and Los Angeles but slightly more likely in Chicago. A limitation of the study is that it only shows associations and causal inferences can't be drawn. This study suggests trauma planning should address racial equity.

Authors: Elizabeth L. Tung, M.D., M.S., University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, and coauthors

(doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.0138)

Editor's Note: The article contains funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

# # #

This full-text link will be live at the embargo time http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.0138?utm_source=JAMA_Network&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=030819

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is the new online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. Every Friday, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.

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The CRISPR/Cas9 system has been making ripples in the scientific community ever since its mechanisms were proposed in 2012. Commonly referred to as a genome editing tool, many scientists have found different applications for the scissor-like properties of the Cas9-protein. Researchers from the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK Gatersleben) have now found a way to utilise the RNA/protein complex in a slightly different way - as a cytogenetic torch. Other than in conventional in situ hybridisation, the new RNA-guided endonuclease - in situ labelling-tool (RGEN-ISL) no longer requires denaturation of the DNA. The new method therefore leaves the chromatin intact, enabling investigation of the structure of the sample. Moreover, RGEN-ISL can be combined with protein-detection methods and allows real-time visualisation of the labelling-process. Whilst initially developed for plant genomes, RGEN-ISL can be used in all organisms and shows to be a promising new tool in the field of chromosome biology.

The discovery of the type II clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated caspase 9 (Cas9) system has been a milestone in the field of targeted genome editing. Initially derived from the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes, the RNA/protein-complex now is an established tool for targeted genome-editing in eukaryotes.

Whilst its scissor-like properties have yielded a broad range of applications, scientists from the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK Gatersleben) are now using CRISPR/Cas9 in a new cytogenetic method for shining a light into eukaryote genomes - RNA-guided endonuclease - in situ labelling (RGEN-ISL).

For the last 30 years, Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has been the established and commonly used method for visualising in-situ DNA-sequences at chromosomal level. However, this method requires denaturation of the investigated DNA, thus often damaging the structure of the sample. By basing the RGEN-ISL method on CRISPR-Cas9, IPK researchers managed to bypass the denaturation-step of FISH whilst simultaneously integrating the desired fluorescent labelling properties of the conventional FISH-method. As the new cytogenetic tool preserves the structure of the sample, it opens up the option of investigating the spatio-temporal structure of the genome.

Further experimentation showed that RGEN-ISL outperforms conventional method combinations, such as FISH and immunohistochemistry, requiring less preparation and being comparatively quicker and cheaper. Additionally, the new method functions over a broad temperature-range of 4C to 37C and can also be combined with additional protein-detection and imaging methods. A further merit is that RGEN-ISL allows for real-time visualisation of the CRISPR/Cas9-mediated DNA-labelling, therefore revealing the kinetics of the reaction.

So far, the researchers have tested RGEN-ISL in plant samples, but also in human chromosomes, illustrating that their new method can likely be applied within all organisms. Currently, the use of method is limited to repetitive DNA-sequences, as often found in plant genomes. However, Dr Takayoshi Ishii, now working at Tottori University (Japan), who conceived the initial idea behind RGEN-ISL, assumes that this method could be adapted to visualise even single-copy sequences in the future.

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The project around the new method, which was developed under research group leader Dr Andreas Houben, was made possible through a grant to CSIRO (Australia) by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (USA) as well as thanks too additional funding by the German Research Foundation - DFG (Germany).

Given its properties and broad applicability, RGEN-ISL is a promising new cytogenetic tool for furthering the understanding of the spatial organisation of the genome and the connection between chromatin structure and function, as well as for advancing the knowledge within the wide field of chromosome biology.
Eighty-six percent of individuals who entered HIV care soon after diagnosis maintained viral suppression after 48 weeks during a clinical trial conducted at four National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Centers for AIDS Research (CFARs) across the United States. Participants in the clinical trial, called iENGAGE, achieved viral suppression in an average of just 63 days. The findings were presented in a poster at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2019) in Seattle.

The findings from iENGAGE, which was funded by NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), underscore the benefits of linking people with HIV to treatment services soon after diagnosis and highlight the importance of efforts to engage all people with HIV in care. Provision of effective HIV treatment resulting in sustained viral suppression is a critical component of efforts to end the HIV epidemic in the United States.

Notably, many iENGAGE participants had other medical conditions and unmet basic needs that can make adherence to medical visits and daily antiretroviral therapy (ART) difficult. About half of the study participants reported needing supportive services, including assistance with housing, employment, food and transportation. Mental health issues were also prevalent, with 31 percent of participants having depression and 30 percent having anxiety. Roughly one-third of participants reported high-risk alcohol use, and 18 percent reported substance use.

"Even when facing many other challenges in their lives, the majority of people engaged in HIV care can achieve viral suppression, benefiting their health and preventing transmission of the virus to others," said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "To end the HIV epidemic in the United States, we must ensure that effective HIV prevention and treatment strategies are accessible to all who need them, especially in the areas of the country with the highest HIV burden."

The iENGAGE trial was conducted at clinical trial sites in Baltimore; Seattle; Birmingham, Alabama; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, participating in the CFAR Network of Integrated Clinical Systems (CNICS). Ten years ago, these sites recorded an approximately 60 percent rate of viral suppression among people new to HIV care.

The iENGAGE trial was designed to evaluate a behavioral intervention aimed at educating people newly diagnosed with HIV and reinforcing the importance of adherence to care. The 371 participants were enrolled within 14 days of initiating HIV medical care and randomly assigned to receive either the behavioral intervention plus standard care or standard care alone. The intervention, which combined two established approaches to enhance HIV medical visit adherence and ART adherence, comprised four in-person counseling sessions tailored to participants' individual needs, as well as phone support, during the first 48 weeks of treatment.

The intervention did not appear to affect viral suppression after 48 weeks. The high overall rate of viral suppression and the short average time to achieving suppression did not differ between the two study arms.

The iENGAGE investigators suggest that recent improvements in standard HIV care contributed to this overall high rate of viral suppression. These improvements include changes in HIV treatment guidelines to encourage early treatment for everyone diagnosed with HIV, an increased focus in clinical practice guidelines on retaining people in the HIV care continuum from diagnosis to viral suppression, and the inclusion of integrase inhibitors--a new potent and well-tolerated class of antiretroviral drugs--in first-line ART regimens. The researchers plan to assess viral suppression rates among iENGAGE participants at 96 weeks to evaluate whether the intervention improves long-term adherence to care.

The findings underscore the effectiveness of HIV care but also highlight the remaining challenges of closing treatment gaps by identifying strategies to engage and retain people with HIV in HIV treatment services. One potential approach could involve incorporating behavioral interventions into communities as part of rapid ART initiation programs, the iENGAGE investigators suggest.

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The iENGAGE trial was led by principal investigator Michael Mugavero, M.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the results were presented at CROI 2019 by K. Rivet Amico, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan. More information about the trial is available on ClinicalTrials.gov using identifier NCT01900236.

Reference: KR Amico et al. Viral suppression among people initiating HIV care: outcomes from iENGAGE trial. Poster presented at the 2019 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Seattle.

Watch a video of Michael Mugavero, M.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, explaining how the high rate of HIV viral suppression observed in the iENGAGE clinical trial reflects recent advances in HIV care in the United States.

NIAID conducts and supports research--at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide--to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.
Scientists, using an instrument aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), have observed water molecules moving around the dayside of the Moon.

A paper published in Geophysical Research Letters describes how Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) measurements of the sparse layer of molecules temporarily stuck to the surface helped characterize lunar hydration changes over the course of a day.

Up until the last decade or so, scientists thought the Moon was arid, with any water existing mainly as pockets of ice in permanently shaded craters near the poles. More recently, scientists have identified surface water in sparse populations of molecules bound to the lunar soil, or regolith. The amount and locations vary based on the time of day. This water is more common at higher latitudes and tends to hop around as the surface heats up.

"This is an important new result about lunar water, a hot topic as our nation's space program returns to a focus on lunar exploration," said Dr. Kurt Retherford, the principal investigator of the LAMP instrument from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "We recently converted the LAMP's light collection mode to measure reflected signals on the lunar dayside with more precision, allowing us to track more accurately where the water is and how much is present."

Water molecules remain tightly bound to the regolith until surface temperatures peak near lunar noon. Then, molecules thermally desorb and can bounce to a nearby location that is cold enough for the molecule to stick or populate the Moon's extremely tenuous atmosphere or exosphere, until temperatures drop and the molecules return to the surface. SwRI's Dr. Michael Poston, now a research scientist on the LAMP team, had previously conducted extensive experiments with water and lunar samples collected by the Apollo missions. This research revealed the amount of energy needed to remove water molecules from lunar materials, helping scientists understand how water is bound to surface materials.

"Lunar hydration is tricky to measure from orbit, due to the complex way that light reflects off of the lunar surface," Poston said. "Previous research reported quantities of hopping water molecules that were too large to explain with known physical processes. I'm excited about these latest results because the amount of water interpreted here is consistent with what lab measurements indicate is possible.

Scientists have hypothesized that hydrogen ions in the solar wind may be the source of most of the Moon's surface water. With that in mind, when the Moon passes behind the Earth and is shielded from the solar wind, the "water spigot" should essentially turn off. However, the water observed by LAMP does not decrease when the Moon is shielded by the Earth and the region influenced by its magnetic field, suggesting water builds up over time, rather than "raining" down directly from the solar wind.

"These results aid in understanding the lunar water cycle and will ultimately help us learn about accessibility of water that can be used by humans in future missions to the Moon," said Amanda Hendrix, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and lead author of the paper. "Lunar water can potentially be used by humans to make fuel or to use for radiation shielding or thermal management; if these materials do not need to be launched from Earth, that makes these future missions more affordable."

"This result is an important step in advancing the water story on the Moon and is a result of years of accumulated data from the LRO mission," said John Keller, LRO deputy project scientist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Goddard manages the LRO mission for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Funding for the research came from LRO, and the team received additional support from a NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) cooperative agreement.

NASA is leading a sustainable return to the Moon with commercial and international partners to expand human presence in space and bring back new knowledge and opportunities.

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For more information on LRO, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/lro

For more information on NASA's Moon to Mars theme, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/moontomars
Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology have fabricated a multiplexer/demultiplexer module based on a property of light that was not being exploited in communications systems: the optical vortex. Such devices will be crucial for improving optical networks, which are the backbone of today's Internet, so that they can meet the traffic demands of tomorrow.

In our communication-centered era, Internet traffic has been increasing rapidly. The massive amounts of data that travel through the Internet are enabled by huge backbone networks, usually involving millions of connections deployed using optical communication technology. Foreseeing that this increase in data flow will not stop anytime soon, researchers worldwide are searching for ways to further develop and improve optical communications.

One ubiquitous technique in modern electronic communications is multiplexing, which is a way to maximize the use of the available bandwidth. Multiplexing consists in packing multiple signals into a single signal that can be sent through a shared medium, such as an optical fiber. The received complex signal is then demultiplexed at the receiver and each simple signal is routed to its intended destination. Multiple multiplexing approaches are used nowadays to achieve speeds of over 100 gbits/s through optical networks.

However, we need to find a way to cram more data into optical signals without requiring more energy and at a low cost; that is, new multiplexing technologies are needed. Recent promising methods involve taking advantage of properties of light not conventionally used for communication to encode independent signals. For example, the polarization of light has already been employed and practical applications have been proposed.

On the other hand, there is another characteristic of light, called the "optical vortex", that can be exploited. This was the focus of a research carried out at Tokyo Institute of Technology, led by Assistant Professor Tomohiro Amemiya. "The optical vortex carries the orbital angular momentum of light and can be used to multiplex signals by assigning each signal to a light wave of different momentum," explains Amemiya. The application of the optical vortex for signal multiplexing represents untapped territory with great potential.

Of course, to even think of encoding signals into light waves with different optical vortexes and transmit them, it is first necessary to design and implement the necessary circuitry for both the multiplexing and demultiplexing operations. The research team therefore designed and fabricated an orbital angular momentum multiplexing/demultiplexing module.

Their device was fabricated so as to take five independent signals as input. Using a combination of two tiny circuit structures, called a star coupler and an optical-vortex generator, each of the five signals is "encoded" with a unique optical angular momentum. The output signal consists of a combination of the five signals, and the receiver circuit only has to carry out the multiplexing operation in reverse (demultiplexing) to end up again with the five independent signals.

The fabricated module is shown in Figure 1. The curved tips of the waveguides of the optical-vortex generator were made of silicon and measured a few micrometers. The fabrication process for the optical-vortex generator had been reported in previous research, and the work now done by the team demonstrates one concrete application of this technology.

Devices and multiplexing techniques such as the ones demonstrated by the team will be crucial in the very near future. "It is certain that the demand for high capacity systems with low cost and less energy losses will further increase in the future," states Amemiya. Fortunately, more ways to improve current communications systems by exploiting the untapped properties of light will surely become available to bring us one step forward in our communication era.

###

Related Links

Asymmetric optical-invisibility camouflage

https://www.titech.ac.jp/english/news/2015/031895.html

ARAI & NISHIYAMA Lab.

http://www.pe.titech.ac.jp/AraiLab/index-e.html

Reference

Authors: Tomohiro Amemiya, Tomoya Yoshida, Yuki Atsumi, Nobuhiko Nishiyama, Yasuyuki Miyamoto, Youichi Sakakibara, Shigehisa Arai

Title of original paper: Orbital Angular Momentum Mux/Demux Module Using Vertically Curved Si Waveguides

Conference: The Optical Networking and Communication Conference & Exhibition 2019

Affiliations: Institute of Innovative Research (IIR), Tokyo Institute of Technology

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology

Electronics and Photonics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

About Tokyo Institute of Technology

Tokyo Tech stands at the forefront of research and higher education as the leading university for science and technology in Japan. Tokyo Tech researchers excel in fields ranging from materials science to biology, computer science, and physics. Founded in 1881, Tokyo Tech hosts over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students per year, who develop into scientific leaders and some of the most sought-after engineers in industry. Embodying the Japanese philosophy of "monotsukuri," meaning "technical ingenuity and innovation," the Tokyo Tech community strives to contribute to society through high-impact research. https://www.titech.ac.jp/english/

About Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)

JST is an organization that leads Japan's science and technology (S&T) development as an innovation navigator. We aim to contribute to the lives of people and the achievement of a sustainable society by promoting S&T for the purpose of opening up opportunities in innovation. Since its foundation, JST's many outstanding achievements accomplished in collaboration with the government, universities, the industrial sector and public have been earned global recognition.

https://www.jst.go.jp/EN/index.html
Sucking a clot directly out of the artery in patients experiencing a stroke is just as effective as, and significantly cheaper than, removing it by use of a stent, according to a study co-led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in print March 9 in The Lancet.

The study, known as COMPASS, concerned large vessel occlusion stroke, the most devastating kind of ischemic stroke. It compared the direct aspiration first pass (ADAPT) approach to the current standard of care, stent retriever first-line (SRFL), for mechanical clot removal (thrombectomy) in patients suffering acute ischemic strokes.

"Our data strongly demonstrates that the two approaches have comparable clinical results, meaning that patients do just as well when you start with aspiration, or clot suction, as when you start with a stent retriever to trap and pull out the clot," says J Mocco, MD, MS, Vice Chair of Neurosurgery and Director of the Cerebrovascular Center for the Mount Sinai Health System and senior author of the study. "COMPASS is the first prospective randomized trial designed to compare both patient outcome and cost between these treatment approaches, and we found that patients do equally well with the aspiration approach, which is significantly cheaper."

Both techniques are initiated by inserting a guide catheter into the femoral artery in the groin and guiding it up into the brain under image guidance. The aspiration-first approach involves passing a specialized aspiration microcatheter through the guide catheter, moving it directly to the lesion, and then attaching it to an aspiration pump. Once attached to the suction system, the catheter is advanced into the end of the clot, suction is initiated, and the clot is either aspirated through the catheter or it becomes stuck at the catheter tip and is withdrawn back into the guide catheter.

The SRFL approach involves introducing a stent retriever, which resembles a tiny wire cage, through the guide catheter and moving it to the clot. The stent then opens up and traps the clot, and then both are removed through the guide catheter.

The COMPASS trial enrolled 270 patients into a prospective, randomized, open-label, blinded outcome assessment and core lab adjudicated trial to assess the clinical outcome of the patient, meaning how functional they were after treatment with either ADAPT using a large-diameter aspiration catheter (ACE68 ) system, made by Penumbra Inc., or an SRFL approach. To compare clinical outcomes, researchers used the modified Rankin scale for neurologic activity (mRS), a standard measurement of the degree of disability or dependence in the daily activities of people who have suffered a stroke, which runs from 0 (no symptoms at all) to 6 (dead). The data showed that the ADAPT technique was non-inferior to stent retrievers for treatment of large vessel occlusions: 51.5 percent of patients treated with Penumbra's aspiration system achieved the primary endpoint of independence (mRS 0-2) at 90 days compared with 49.3 percent of patients treated with stent retrievers. Final revascularization rates were also similar for the two study groups: 91.7 percent of patients treated with aspiration achieved TICI compared to 90.4 percent with stent retrievers (p=0.83). Moreover, the percentage of patients achieving TICI 3 was 37.6 percent for the ADAPT arm and 27.2 percent for the stent retriever arm (p=0.09).

Secondary safety endpoints presented, including embolization in new territory (ENT) and symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH), were not statistically different between the two groups.

Using prespecified device-related procedural cost analyses, the COMPASS trial showed that the aspiration-first cohort had significantly lower device costs across all analysis methods. When using aggregate supply chain data as the primary source and list price as the secondary source, the aspiration-first group had a mean $4,541 reduction in the cost of devices used compared with the stent retriever first line group. When using list price as the primary source and aggregate supply chain data as the secondary source, the aspiration-first group had a mean $5,074 reduction in the cost of devices used. Furthermore, the reduction in median device costs was even greater ($6157.40 and $6,838, respectively) (p<0.0001 for all price comparisons).

A number of clinical trials published in 2015 demonstrated the superiority of endovascular thrombectomy (restoring blood flow to the brain by surgically removing the clot) over medical management (administration of clot-busting drugs) for treatment of ischemic strokes. However, the majority of stroke thrombectomy data to date has been based on the stent retriever approach, leading many to believe that stent retrievers represented the gold standard of thrombectomy devices, as reflected by recent American Heart Association/American Stroke Association guidelines.

"This study is very exciting because it shows that there are other ways to open the arteries that are just as effective and importantly, less expensive. Whether you approach the brain clot with suction or whether you approach it with trapping and pulling it out, patients do equally well," says Dr. Mocco. "Stroke is a horrible disease that is prevalent across the globe, so finding ways to provide these therapies to patients who need it in a cost-effective manner is a great step forward in medicine."

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Dr. Mocco designed the COMPASS trial in collaboration with leading doctors Aquilla Turk, DO, from the Medical University of South Carolina and Adnan Siddiqui, MD, PhD, from the University at Buffalo. The COMPASS trial was paid for by Penumbra but the trial was conducted independently by Dr. Mocco and his collaborators, who also handled all data analysis. The Mount Sinai Health System served as the international data coordinating center for the study.

Post embargo, the study can be accessed at:

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)30297-1/fulltext

About the Mount Sinai Health System

The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest integrated delivery system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai's vision is to produce the safest care, the highest quality, the highest satisfaction, the best access and the best value of any health system in the nation. The Health System includes approximately 7,480 primary and specialty care physicians; 11 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 410 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. The Icahn School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools", aligned with a U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" Hospital, No. 12 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding, and among the top 10 most innovative research institutions as ranked by the journal Nature in its Nature Innovation Index. This reflects a special level of excellence in education, clinical practice, and research. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 18 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of top U.S. hospitals; it is one of the nation's top 20 hospitals in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Nephrology, and Neurology/Neurosurgery, and in the top 50 in six other specialties in the 2018-2019 "Best Hospitals" issue. Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's Hospital also is ranked nationally in five out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 11th nationally for Ophthalmology and 44th for Ear, Nose, and Throat. Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke's, Mount Sinai West, and South Nassau Communities Hospital are ranked regionally.

For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org/, or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
As if being picked on wasn't bad enough, victims of workplace mistreatment may also be seen as bullies themselves, even if they've never engaged in such behavior.

Adding insult to injury, victims may even be seen by supervisors as worse employees, despite exemplary performance. Bullies, on the other hand, may be given a pass if they are liked by their supervisor.

A study about this bias toward victim blaming was recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The peer-reviewed article was co-authored by Shannon Taylor, an associate professor of management in the University of Central Florida's College of Business.

"The results are eye-opening," Taylor says. "I think they are useful because, given all of these accounts in the media of bad behavior happening, people are often left wondering how can we blame victims, and why do we let these perpetrators off the hook, why do they go unpunished?"

Taylor attributes the flawed decision making to cognitive biases, such as the halo effect, in which positive attributes mask negative traits, or the horns effect, in which one negative attribute casts a person in a completely negative light.

He recommends that supervisors receive bias training.

"The first step is really awareness of these biases," Taylor says. "We hope this study will at least bring awareness to people's potential for bias."

The researchers performed their work over the course of four studies. The first two studies showed through surveys of employees and supervisors that supervisors tend to view victims of bullying as being bullies themselves.

Studies three and four were experiments where participants evaluated employees based on descriptions of their work performance, as well as how they treated others and how they were treated.

They found that even when evaluators were clearly informed that a victim did not mistreat others, victims were still seen as bullies. In the fourth study, they found that not only are victims seen as bullies despite evidence to the contrary, but also that they receive lower job performance evaluations as a result of being victimized.

The researchers found support in all four studies that bullies were less likely to be seen as deviant when their supervisor considered them to be good performers.

"What I think is really interesting about this is, when you hear stories of high-profile people engaging in bad behavior at work, a lot of these people have gone unpunished for long periods of time," Taylor says. "And we have examples of victims of this bad behavior being called out and attacked on social media and by the media. Our studies show this is actually pretty common. We're all susceptible to these biases."

An example - the victim blaming that occurred during Christine Blasey Ford's testimony during and after Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Taylor says.

###

Study co-authors included Donald H. Kluemper, an associate professor in the University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Managerial Studies; W. Matthew Bowler, an associate professor in Oklahoma State University's Department of Management; and Jonathon R. B. Halbesleben, interim dean at the University of Alabama's College of Continuing Studies. Mark N. Bing, formerly an associate professor in the University of Mississippi's Department of Management, was also a co-author but passed away before the study was published.

Founded in 1963 with a commitment to expanding opportunity and demanding excellence, the University of Central Florida develops the talent needed to advance the prosperity and welfare of our society. With more than 68,000 students, UCF is one of the nation's largest universities, offering more than 220 degree programs at its main campus in Orlando and more than a dozen other locations in Central Florida and online. For more information, visit ucf.edu.
MADISON, Wis. -- Blue-blooded and armored with 10 spindly legs, horseshoe crabs have perhaps always seemed a bit out of place.

First thought to be closely related to crabs, lobsters and other crustaceans, in 1881 evolutionary biologist E. Ray Lankester placed them solidly in a group more similar to spiders and scorpions. Horseshoe crabs have since been thought to be ancestors of the arachnids, but molecular sequence data have always been sparse enough to cast doubt.

University of Wisconsin-Madison evolutionary biologists Jesus Ballesteros and Prashant Sharma hope, then, that their recent study published in the journal Systematic Biology helps firmly plant ancient horseshoe crabs within the arachnid family tree.

By analyzing troves of genetic data and considering a vast number of possible ways to examine it, the scientists now have a high degree of confidence that horseshoe crabs do indeed belong within the arachnids.

"By showing that horseshoe crabs are part of the arachnid radiation, instead of a lineage closely related to but independent of arachnids, all previous hypotheses on the evolution of arachnids need to be revised," says Ballesteros, a postdoctoral researcher in Sharma's lab. "It's a major shift in our understanding of arthropod evolution."

Arthropods are often considered the most successful animals on the planet since they occupy land, water and sky and include more than a million species. This grouping includes insects, crustaceans and arachnids.

Horseshoe crabs have been challenging to classify within the arthropods because analysis of the animals' genome has repeatedly shown them to be related to arachnids like spiders, scorpions, mites, ticks and lesser-known creatures such as vinegaroons. Yet, "scientists assumed it was an error, that there was a problem with the data," says Ballesteros.

Moreover, horseshoe crabs possess a mix of physical characteristics observed among a variety of arthropods. They are hard-shelled like crabs but are the only marine animals known to breathe with book gills, which resemble the book lungs spiders and scorpions use to survive on land.

Only four species of horseshoe crabs are alive today, but the group first appeared in the fossil record about 450 million years ago, together with mysterious, extinct lineages like sea scorpions. These living fossils have survived major mass extinction events and today their blood is used by the biomedical industry to test for bacterial contamination.

Age is just one of the problems inherent in tracing their evolution, say Ballesteros and Sharma, since searching back through time to find a common ancestor is not easy to accomplish. And evidence from the fossil record and genetics indicates evolution happened quickly among these groups of animals, convoluting their relationships to one another.

"One of the most challenging aspects of building the tree of life is differentiating old radiations, these ancient bursts of speciation," says Sharma, a professor of integrative biology. "It is difficult to resolve without large amounts of genetic data."

Even then, genetic comparisons become tricky when looking at the histories of genes that can either unite or separate species. Some genetic changes can be misleading, suggesting relationships where none exist or dismissing connections that do. This is owed to phenomena such as incomplete lineage sorting or lateral gene transfer, by which assortments of genes aren't cleanly made across the evolution of species.

Ballesteros tested the complicated relationships between the trickiest genes by comparing the complete genomes of three out of the four living horseshoe crab species against the genome sequences of 50 other arthropod species, including water fleas, centipedes and harvestmen.

Using a complex set of matrices, taking care not to introduce biases in his analysis, he painstakingly teased the data apart. Still, no matter which way Ballesteros conducted his analysis, he found horseshoe crabs nested within the arachnid family tree.

He says his approach serves as a cautionary tale to other evolutionary biologists who may be inclined to cherry-pick the data that seem most reliable, or to toss out data that don't seem to fit. Researchers could, for example, "force" their data to place horseshoe crabs among crustaceans, says Sharma, but it wouldn't be accurate. The research team tried this and found hundreds of genes supporting incorrect trees.

Ballesteros encourages others to subject their evolutionary data to this kind of rigorous methodology, because "evolution is complicated."

Why horseshoe crabs are water dwellers while other arachnids colonized land remains an open question. These animals belong to a group called Chelicerata, which also includes sea spiders. Sea spiders are marine arthropods like horseshoe crabs, but they are not arachnids.

"What the study concludes is that the conquest of the land by arachnids is more complex than a single tradition event," says Ballesteros.

It's possible the common ancestor of arachnids evolved in water and only groups like spiders and scorpions made it to land. Or, a common ancestor may have evolved on land and then horseshoe crabs recolonized the sea.

"The big question we are after is the history of terrestrialization," says Sharma.

For Ballesteros, who is now studying the evolution of blindness in spiders living deep within caves in Israel, his motivations get to the heart of human nature itself.

"I get to look with childish curiosity and ask: 'How did all this diversity come to be?'" he says. "It's incredible what exists, and I never thought I would have the privilege to be able to do this."

###

The study was funded by the M. Guyer postdoctoral fellowship and supported by National Science Foundation grant IOS-1552610.

DOWNLOAD PHOTOS: https://uwmadison.box.com/v/horseshoe

Kelly April Tyrrell, kelly.tyrrell@wisc.edu, 608-262-9772
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Voce Capital Managements J. Daniel Plants has waged numerous proxy fights over the last eight years, but likely none bigger than the one he recently launched against Argo Group International Holdings  a specialty insurer with its U.S headquarters in San Antonio.

Plants has come out guns blazing directly at Argo and Mark E. Watson III, its longtime CEO and president. He attacked them in a letter to the insurers shareholders for what he called anemic results by one measure of profitability and for excessive and shockingly inappropriate corporate expenses and perks.

On ExpressNews.com: Proxy fight shaping up at Argo

Voce has nominated five candidates to serve on the board of the publicly traded Argo, agitating for change to rein in management and eradicate (a) wasteful, spendthrift culture.

Bermuda-based Argo marks at least the 11th proxy fight for Voce, a small San Francisco-based hedge fund manager founded by Plants. He also is Voces chief investment officer.

Voce has about $250 million in assets under management, with Argo accounting for more than half. As Argos fourth-largest shareholder, Voce holds 1.9 million shares, or a 5.8 percent stake, valued at about $131.5 million based on Fridays closing price of $69.07 a share.

Argo is a midsize player in a niche field of insuring complex or hard-to-price risks other insurers wont touch. For example, Argo paid Disney on a life insurance claim following actress Carrie Fishers 2016 death. She was slated to reprise her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars: Episode IX. Argo employs about 200 in San Antonio.

On ExpressNews.com: Who insured Princess Leia? Argo insures weird stuff

Other than advocating for the election of five candidates to Argos board, Voce hasnt detailed any specific actions or plans. Plants, through a spokesman, declined an interview request for this article.

The Deal Pipeline, a transaction information service, last month speculated that its possible the activist fund wants the $2.3 billion insurer to sell itself  in light of a recent wave of mergers and acquisitions, and activism that have swept the industry.

David Snowden, an Argo spokesman, declined to comment. On Wednesday, the Insurance Insider, citing sources, reported Argo has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to help fend off Voce.

Voce started in 2011 with about $10 million in assets under management but has steadily increased in size generally with a hands-on approach to the companies it invests in. Sometimes it even bets that stocks will decline in value, a strategy known as short selling.

The firm takes a value-oriented tack that focuses on small public companies, generally ranging in size from $100 million to $6 billion in market capitalization, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in May.

Voce believes companies of this size often display common inefficiencies in their trading, capital allocation, strategies, management and corporate governance, the filing says. The catalyst to address such issues is identified and actionable.

A seemingly odd target

Argo may seem like an odd target for Voce to engage in a boardroom battle.

The insurer produced a 136 percent total shareholder return over the five years preceding Voces Feb. 25 letter to Argo shareholders announcing the proxy fight. Thats more than double the roughly 62 percent return of the Russell 2000 Financial Services Index, which includes Argo.

Argos total shareholder return in the year leading up to Voces letter was 39 percent, nearly six times higher than the indexs return.

Its just going to be difficult for a new activist shareholder to be successful in making major change considering the stock performance on a one-, three- and five-year basis, said C. Gregory Peters, a Raymond James analyst who follows Argo. Its not saying it cant be done.

Argos board fired back at Voces missive.

Voce has sent a letter to shareholders that contains a number of misleading and inaccurate statements and personally attacks the CEO, ignoring Argos track record of strong value creation for all shareholders, Argos board said in a statement.

Argos success is the result of a business that is growing at a favorable pace with a strong underwriting business and improving underwriting margins, the board added.

At an investor conference held by Raymond James on Tuesday, Argo CFO Jay Bullock touted the insurers shareholder returns, loss ratios versus peers and an average annual top-line growth rate of 10 percent over a long period of time.

Long enough so that you can say, Hey, thats not just an accident. Thats not just good luck. That is execution, Bullock said.

Yet Voce counters that the ultimate measure of any companys financial success is the return it generates on the capital that shareholders have entrusted to (it). And in that regard, Voce said, Argo hasnt delivered.

Argo has returned an average return on equity of less than 6 percent over the last decade, compared with the almost 11 percent for its peers, Voce said.

The only pathway for Argo to create sustainable, long-term shareholder value is through a dramatic improvement in its return on equity (ROE), Voce said in its letter. Argo will never be able to meaningfully enhance its ROE with its current strategy and expense structure.

ROE, along with stockholder returns and the growth in a companys net asset value, are the three most important measures in evaluating an insurer, Raymond James Peters said.

And two of the three, theyve knocked the cover off the ball, Peters said of Argo. He has the stock rated a strong buy and expects the stock will continue to outperform.

Argos core property and casualty business, particularly in the U.S. is an attractive asset, Voce said. Argo has demonstrated solid risk selection, pricing and reserve development. Argo, though, falls significantly short in the Other Underwriting Expense category, where all other operating and corporate expenses reside.

Voce charged that Argos corporate assets are being grossly misspent and misdirected to further Watsons personal endeavors, including art collecting, architecture, auto racing, sailing competitions and travel.

We in no way begrudge Mr. Watson, or any executive, the right to allocate his personal time or money in pursuit of private passions, Voce said. But were deeply concerned that Mr. Watsons hobbies, pet projects and the cult of personality he apparently wishes to create for himself have commandeered and corrupted Argos priorities.

Voce also questions Argo directing corporate sponsorship dollars at racing and sailings events, its extensive art collection, and providing housing allowance and tax gross up payments on Watsons Bermuda abode, as well as his personal use of corporate aircraft. Argo did not address any of these in its response.

Bullock didnt mention Voce in his presentation, but he said Argo is very focused on improving its expense ratios and profit margins.

Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy advisory firm, has awarded Argo solid corporate governance scores. ISS, which declined an interview request, has supported some of Voces other activist campaigns.

Argo is the first insurer Voce has targeted. The hedge fund previously has taken aim at firms in a range of businesses  including medical equipment, air-medical transport, investment banking and laser systems.

Today, Voce oversees at least four funds, each with a $1 million minimum investment. It collects a management fee of 1.5 to 2 percent of assets, in addition to an incentive allocation that is generally 20 percent of profits. Those figures are typical for hedge funds.

Debate champion

Voces Plants, 52, is a self-described expert on corporate governance who started his career as a securities attorney. He received a bachelors in economics from Baylor University, where he was a National Debate Tournament champion, before earning his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

Plants spent almost 20 years on Wall Street, mostly as an investment banker. Hes even been on the other side of the table from shareholder activists, having led the corporate defense advisory business at JPMorgan, according to a biography posted on his firms website.

In a 2017 Q&A with the website ValueWalk, Plants lamented seeing companies make poor choices because the board or management were not considering the impact of their decisions on shareholders.

With many of his clients failing to heed his advice, Plants decided to start his own investment advisory firm, naming it Voce  Italian for voice.

We  really dont do anything that is strictly passive, Plants told ValueWalk. Even when we are not involved in public activism, we are extremely engaged and hands-on with our companies, and that is a critical element of our approach.

Voce started scooping up Argos shares in December.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor of management and senior associate dean of leadership studies at Yale School of Management, likened many activist investor hedge funds to the leveraged buyout artists of the 1970s and 80s. He accused them of running corporate shakedown schemes that have nothing to do with improving corporate governance at the companies they target.

Theyre just taking a slender slice of ownership and then trying to have a disproportionate stake in the business, to then try to break it up at wholesale, fire sale, auction prices for a brief blip, and then sell everything, Sonnenfeld said. That looks like what we have on hand in this case.

I dont know Voce, but given that they have owned the stock for almost as long as this phone call, it doesnt seem like they are in-depth, long-term, committed shareholders, but, in fact, people trying to do a quick flip, he added.

In a 2015 interview on Bloomberg TV, Plants disputed that all shareholder activists are looking for a quick hit or quick exit.

The idea that an activist investor would want to create something that was a short-term pop that was not as valuable as a long-term strategy, it just doesnt bear scrutiny, he said. Investors want to create the most net-present value that they can. And if investing in a project that will be worth significantly more in the future doesnt result in a near-term stock price appreciation, why wouldnt the investor support that?

About 80 percent of Voces returns in any given year are from companies it has owned at least a year, he said at the time.

Voce produced a 6 percent return last year, which followed a 19 percent gain in 2017, a person familiar with the firm said. Those results could not be independently verified. A Voce representative didnt respond to a request for a copy of its latest letter to shareholders.

They should make (their returns) public, since they want everybody to be accountable, Sonnenfeld said.

The playbook

Voces corporate overtures often follow the same playbook. It issues inflammatory press releases or letters to shareholders, sometimes tipping off news organizations ahead of them becoming public.

Voces most recent proxy fight was with Natus Medical Inc., a California medical-device company with a market cap of more than $900 million.

Plants assailed Natus management and board, citing a lack of leadership and directors compromised independence and hostility towards shareholders in a letter last April. Voce had been an investor in Natus for about five years.

In a subsequent proxy statement, Plants accused Natus chairman of having an iron-fisted grip on the Board as evidenced by his seemingly complete self-serving control of its decision-making.

That line earned Plants a rap from the SEC. You must avoid issuing statements that directly or indirectly impugn the character, integrity or personal reputation or make charges of illegal, improper or immoral conduct without factual foundation, the SEC scolded in a May 22 letter.

Voce won two seats on Natus board but failed to boot the chairman in June. Less than three weeks later, though, the reconstituted board ousted Natus chief executive.

Voces activist campaigns have largely been successful. It has won boards seats and pushed companies for governance improvements. In at least one case, a company sold itself after Voces involvement.

Yet Voce hasnt always prevailed. It unsuccessfully tried to win three board seats at the investment banking firm FBR & Co. in 2016.

That prompted lawyers for FBR to rebuke Voce, saying the hedge fund demonstrated how not to run a proxy contest.

Voces campaign was noteworthy for its repeated unsupported attacks which demonstrated a fundamental lack of knowledge of, and sensitivity to, the people-intensive nature of a financial institution, the lawyers from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz wrote in a memo. One of the authors, David Shapiro, didnt respond to a request for comment.

The memo, posted on the website DealLawyers.com, also criticized Plants and Voces director nominees for not attending FBRs shareholders meeting. Voce sold its shares the day after the meeting, the memo said.

It is unfortunate that the conduct of one individual has caused the irretrievable loss of time, direct expense, and needless distraction for employees and clients, FBRs chairman and CEO Richard Hendrix said in a statement at the time.

Less than a year later, though, FBR was acquired by B. Riley Financial Inc.

Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD
Chanting rhythmically as she drummed a stick called a thattukazhi against a wooden block, Kausi Subramaniam led 11 young girls through adavus, the basic steps of the classic form of Indian dance bharatanatyam at her Kalalaya Indian Performing Arts studio.

If she saw something she didnt like, she corrected them. Keep your arms up. Or, Dont cover your face. Or, Thumbs bent. Subramanims studio, , is located in a nondescript office building near the airport.

The girls, most dressed in kurtis, the long, colorful upper garments that allow freedom of movement, were warming up for their weekly lesson in an ancient art form that, for many of their parents, represents an unbreakable connection to their culture and history.

Often lost in San Antonios minority-majority designation is the growing Indian population here, a group deeply invested in preserving and passing along to a new generation of American-born children aspects of Indian culture  and traditional dance for girls is a big part of that.

There are at least five studios in the city that teach it and students can choose to learn bharathanatyam, which comes from southern India, kathak from the north and even Bollywood dance, which has been described as the hip-hop of India. Subramaniam alone teaches 150 students at her studio.

Dancing is a way people from the Indian diaspora keep their traditions alive, their heritage alive, said Suhail Arastu, director of advancement for Musical Bridges Around the World and manager of San Antonios Sister City Relations with Chennai, India. This is important, especially for parents born in India whose children were born here.

As San Antonios tech and medical industries continue to grow, the city has attracted a growing number of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. Between 2000 and 2010, for example, the Indian population grew an average of 15.9 percent annually, to 8,733 residents, according to the U.S. Census. Indians have the highest rate of growth increase of any ethnic group in the city, besides Hispanics. If that growth continues through the current decade, the projected population in 2020 would be more than 33,000.

And with this growing population comes a growing interest in the Indian culture. San Antonio, for example, is said to hold the largest city-sanctioned Diwali celebration in the nation, drawing more than 15,000 people to Hemisfair each November for the annual Festival of Lights that symbolizes the victory of good over evil.

In most Indian families, Subramaniam said, young girls (boy dancers are rare) are expected to take dance lessons for at least a few years.

We get calls from parents of children who are 1, 1  years old, she said with a smile. I tell them to wait a few more years, until the child is at least 4.

As Subramaniam led the pre-teen girls through several dances theyd recently performed in a recital, their mothers sat against one wall, watching closely. Many of them likely took dance lessons when they were this age.

One mom, Dr. Poornima Mensinkai, said she wants her daughter Anvi, 10, to learn to dance to connect her to her roots.

I feel its the easiest way of teaching our core values and culture to our kids who are raised away from their homeland, said Mensinkai, 41, assistant professor at UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry. It helps us grow more disciplined physically and spiritually strong.

Ten-year-old Durga Anjali Mondi, one of the students in Subramaniams class, said she enjoys taking lessons.

Its really fun because you get to express the stories from India and show them to other people, she said. Its also fun to dance all together with everyone else.

As a girl growing up in India, money and other issues prevented Revathi Nethi from taking dance lessons. So the software engineer was adamant that her two daughters, Nithya, 10, and Tanvi, 6, learn the art form.

I moved to the U.S. when I was about 25, so the cultural change was dramatic, she said. But I want my daughters to have the best of both cultural worlds, so it was important that they take dance lessons so they can learn about the gods and warriors and other legends of India. It makes me so happy that when I see them dancing. I feel like Im dancing.

Indian dance has gone through something of a revolution over the past two decades, according to Rajam Ramamurthy, a pediatrician and co-founder of the Arathi School of Indian Dance, with new innovations shaking things up.

Its a much more vibrant art form, with the coming of so-called Bollywood dancing, based on the folk or street dances and made popular by the nations thriving film industry, she said.

Some studios, such as Subramaniams Kalalaya school, teach dances that tell non-Hindu stories to attract a more diverse student body.

Well tell Christian stories through Indian dance, she said.

Indian dance is also popular because it can be a lifetime activity. While ballet, tap, even hip-hop dancer often drop the activity once they reach commitment-heavy high school age or go away to college, Indian dancers often continue into adulthood.

As they get older, they rely more on the storytelling aspect of the dance and pull back on the physical force, Subramaniam said. That way many women can dance into their 60s and 70s. Mensinkai, for example, continues taking lessons at Kaveri Natya Yoga, even at 41.

Sophie Salingaros is perhaps the biggest recent success story to come out of San Antonio. Now 22, she is studying chemistry and is a pre-med student at Columbia University in New York. Yet she also dances professionally and will soon depart on a 10-performance spring tour called Vivartana.

Salingaros, who studied ballet before switching to Indian dance at age 8, said she was attracted to the physicality and creativity of it.

Its so tied to storytelling, she said. You can portray intense emotions and such complex feelings with your facial expressions and your hand and arm movements. Its like acting.

As these first-generation dancers grow up, the question arises whether it will be as important to them that their children learn the art as it has been for their parents.

I think they will still want that, Ramamurthy said. Theyre being exposed to this culture and I hope theyll see it as something they want to continue when they become parents.

Richard A. Marini is a features writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | rmarini@express-news.net | Twitter: @RichardMarini
When moviegoers watch Oscar-winning actress Brie Larson play Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel, most wont know her comic book character was based to some degree on a real-life role model.

Brig. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt has been a pathfinder, becoming the Air Forces first female fighter pilot in 1993 and the first woman to command a combat fighter wing in the service. Part of her success was timing, part of it, sheer talent.

But something else was in her favor  patience, and a willingness to work within a male-dominated military rather than play the role of rebel with a righteous cause.

When I graduated from pilot training in 1993, I thought I had the worst possible timing because the law had changed that allowed women to go into combat, said Leavitt, 52. However, Department of Defense policy did not allow women in combat, so I was kind of in a gray zone.

I graduated No. 1 in my class and I asked for an F-15E Strike Eagle and I was told no, based on DoD policy, she continued. I was not angry. I understood the policy. I appreciated my leadership being OK with letting me ask for it because it was what I really wanted.

Then she agreed to select another aircraft to fly, the KC-10 tanker, and waited.

Fresh out of Stanford University, where she had earned a masters in aeronautics and astronautics in 1991, Leavitt played for time. Flying fighters was her goal since she studied aerospace engineering at the University of Texas in Austin. She figured it was a matter of time before the Pentagon dropped the policy that had kept women from doing it.

A St. Louis native, Leavitt today leads the Air Force Recruiting Service at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph. A command pilot, she has more than 3,000 hours in jets  300 of them in combat  including the F-15E.

She came to San Antonio after commanding the 57th Wing at Nellis AFB in Nevada  where parts of the movie were filmed. It was there that Leavitt and Larson first met.

The actress spent time with Leavitt and other pilots, soaked up the surroundings and flew in an F-16, including in a simulated dogfight.

Larson, who was given the call sign Sparrow, pulled 8 to 9 Gs and puked the entire time, she told Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday.

We covered a variety of topics, recalled Leavitt, whose own call sign is Tally, though she wouldnt say how she got it. So some of them were the specifics in terms of how to look like a fighter pilot.  How do you go up the ladder? How do you sit in the cockpit? What you do with the stick and throttles?

But part of it was also discussions of what it was like to be a female in a male-dominated community such as the fighter community. I talked a lot about my experiences, I talked about other female airmen and some of the things theyve done, some of their experiences.

Leavitt said Larson met with other female pilots and weapons systems officers as well.

The first time I met her, I had a helmet bag thrown over my shoulder with a jacket or something in it, and she asked me, Is that how you always carry it? and I said, Well, actually, yes, I do always carry it over the left shoulder so I can salute with the right hand and shake hands with the crew chief, Leavitt said.

The movie character Danvers, an Air Force fighter pilot, is revealed in flashbacks to have entered another dimension and, as Captain Marvel, becomes caught up in a galactic war between two alien races. Its complicated.

The Air Force supported the movie, which opened nationwide Friday. It even sent a fighter jet flyover to its premiere in Los Angeles.

Thats not a surprise. All the armed services leverage Hollywood to attract potential recruits. Getting people to serve is a challenge. The Air Force reached its recruiting goal last year, signing up 28,831 people, but the Army fell short.

Recruits are needed for an Air Force growing from 681,299 airmen last year to 690,457. This year, the Recruiting Service that Leavitt leads will try to bring on 32,000 enlistees, as well as nearly 2,100 officers, including 218 pilots from outside traditional aviator pipelines such as the Air Force Academy and ROTC programs.

Leavitt came to the Air Force from a UT ROTC program after meeting a student who was awaiting pilot training.

In her academic fields, she was used to being in male-dominated worlds. The Air Force was no different. As a fledgling aviator at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, Leavitt was one of only three women.

On ExpressNews.com: Southwest pilot Tammie Jo Shults guided by faith and Navy training

Graduating at the top of her class, she had the right to pick her next plane. Her commander asked for the courtesy of letting him know if she intended to select an aircraft that she was not allowed to fly. Betting that the combat exclusion policy keeping her out of the F-15E would fall by the wayside, she did.

What I didnt want to have happen is women were allowed to fly fighters and I said I always wanted to fly one and then people ask, Did you even ask for one? So I had to do it for me, Leavitt said. I knew theyd say no, but I had to ask so that it was on the record.

Her assignment to train in the KC-10 tanker was changed.

Leavitt wound up at Vance AFB in Oklahoma, where she learned to be a T-38 instructor pilot. Later, while continuing her training at Randolph, the Pentagon dropped its combat exclusion policy.

Leavitt went to Washington, where the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Merrill McPeak, soon introduced the first three women who would become fighter pilots  Leavitt, Capt. Martha McSally and Capt. Sharon Pressler.

McSally, now a U.S. senator, flew the A-10. Pressler piloted the F-16.

On ExpressNews.com: As careers take off, Air Force women try to balance work and family

Nothing came easy. Leavitt faced headwinds from aviators who didnt support the change in policy and were opposed to women flying fighters. Changing their minds became a matter of proving she could fly.

There were so many people that didnt want this to happen that I grew to ignore the opposition because the fact was I was going to fly fighters and I was going to be the absolute best fighter pilot I could possibly be, Leavitt said.

Most fellow aviators realized she was a good pilot and hard worker she said.

She was imaginative. Unlike others in undergraduate pilot training, Leavitt didnt use a cardboard cutout of cockpit instruments and a toilet bowl plunger to rehearse flight procedures. Instead, she strung out multicolored tape to simulate traffic patterns for takeoffs, landings and approaches.

In the dorm room where we stayed, I had tape all over my floor so I would walk through the different parts of the pattern and have the appropriate radio calls and know what altitude I was supposed to be at and what actions I was supposed to be taking in the airplane, just to practice, she recalled.

Once training was over, Leavitt was the only woman in her fighter squadrons. A funny thing happened as her career progressed: Over time, resistance softened. That especially was the case as pilots asked other aviators for references.

I think after a while I stopped noticing, she said.

Whether the Air Force gets a bump in recruiting from Captain Marvel is anyones guess, but Leavitt said her recruiters are looking for candidates with grit and determination, who are of strong physical, mental and moral character.

People, perhaps, like those in the movies.

We are always looking for the next Capt. Carol Danvers, she said.

Sig Christenson covers the military and its impact on San Antonio, Bexar County and across the nation. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | sigc@express-news.net | Twitter: @saddamscribe
A civil rights group delivered thousands of signatures on petitions Thursday, seeking to end the practice of cash bail for nonviolent misdemeanors, while District Attorney Joe Gonzales announced a new plan to resolve concerns that the system is unfair to those who dont have enough money for bail.

No one should languish in jail awaiting trial simply because they are too poor to afford a bond, Gonzales said Thursday.

That was the point members of the Texas Organizing Projects Right2Justice and Color of Change were making earlier in the day when they marched in front of and around the historic Bexar County Courthouse. They held white crosses with the names of nearly a dozen people they say have died pretrial in Bexar County Jail over the past three years.

OnExpressNews.com: State Bar raps ex-DA LaHood for 'professional misconduct'

Laquita Garcia, campaign coordinator for Right2Justice, delivered 25,000 signatures to Bexar officials. Of those, 2,573 were from Bexar residents, 14,328 from around Texas and the rest from cities across the nation.

Organizers said people of color are disproportionately impacted by cash bail because they cannot afford or do not have the means to pay bail. They said many people end up staying incarcerated or deciding to plead guilty, which means they now have criminal records, simply because they dont have the money to pay their bail.

Why are these people with misdemeanors sitting in court or in jail when they can be working? questioned Robert Phillips, an organizer. Lets not hold them, lets put them to work.

The advocates said ending cash bail would put everyone  those with means to pay and those without  on a more equal footing.

On ExpressNews.com: In Puro Politics podcast, DA seeks equality in justice system

With an eye toward achieving that goal, Gonzales said prosecutors have been told to recommend personal recognizance bonds  where a person is released on his or her own identity, sometimes with conditions, rather than cash  in appropriate cases.

This has never been done before in Bexar County, Gonzales said.

The district attorney also said that in other cases, if a person is still in jail after 48 hours, a prosecutor will review the case to determine whether a personal recognizance bond should be recommended.

And those are just the first steps, he said.

My staff and I are currently in the process of developing a comprehensive bond policy that will ensure that every arrested person is treated fairly, regardless of their economic status, while maintaining community safety, he said. This new policy should take effect within the coming weeks.

The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure dictates rules on setting bail amounts.

Under cash bail, a person needs to pay the bail amount before they can be released to ensure that they show up for a court hearing. For larger amounts, a person can use a bail bond company to post a bond, usually 10 percent of the bail amount, to be released from jail.

Bexar County judges recently rejected  and questioned the legality of  a reform plan that was enacted in Houston, the seat of Harris County, after that county was sued.

On ExpressNews.com: Cash bail reform meets resistance from Bexar judges

That plan calls for the vast majority of people charged with nonviolent misdemeanors to qualify for no-cash bonds, which means they are released on personal recognizance, sometimes with conditions, instead of money. The previous Harris County system was declared unconstitutional for creating what was described as wealth-based detention.

Bexar Countys misdemeanor judges argue that the Harris County plan may defy state law and that local judges dont have the authority to make that call. Some county officials have said bail reform is a legislative issue.

Bail reforms are underway across the U.S. The December death of Janice Dotson-Stephens at Bexar County Jail drew national attention to the issue.

A grandmother with mental illness, Dotson-Stephens died in jail after being incarcerated for five months on a criminal trespass charge.

Her bail was $300.
Friday is the last day of early voting in the San Antonio runoff that will decide the citys newest state representative in the Texas House.

Republican Fred Rangel, a businessman, and Democrat Ray Lopez, a former city councilman, are seeking the District 125 seat that covers a swath of the West and Northwest sides. Justin Rodriguez vacated the seat in January when he accepted a post on the Bexar County Commissioners Court.

Rangel and Lopez emerged from a crowded field of five candidates in the Feb. 12 special election. While Rangel used consolidated GOP support for a strong first-place finish, no candidate received 50 percent of the vote, triggering the runoff.

On ExpressNews.com: Lopez and Rangel head to runoff in race for HD-125

Like most off-cycle elections, the race will likely be decided by extremely low turnout, although it could be higher than the first election. The special election last month garnered 6,140 votes for a turnout of 6.07 percent. The turnout was 49.96 percent in the November general elections.

As of Thursday night, 3,814 people had cast early votes in the runoff, higher than the 3,749 cast for the entire 12 days of early voting for the first election.

Unlike election day on March 12, early voters can cast their ballots at any of the seven early voting sites: the Bexar County Elections Department, Great Northwest Library, Las Palmas Library, Leon Valley Convention Center, Maury Maverick Jr. Library, Memorial Library and the Northside Activity Centers conference room.

The polls will open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday. Voters can check their registration on the countys website.

On ExpressNews.com: Everything you need to know about early voting

The runoff will offer a more traditional, Democrat-or-Republican choice for voters after the first round featured four Democrats and Rangel as the lone Republican.

The GOP hasnt won this seat since it was redrawn in 1992 to include more West Side voters.

Rangel, 64, a small business owner, is trying to continue a recent trend of Republican upsets in typically Democratic San Antonio districts. He has previously run for City Council and says he wants to bring a business perspective to the Legislature to rein in costs. He supports increasing money for public schools, and he has also said he supports the governors plan to cap local property taxes.

On ExpressNews.com: HD-125 candidates offer opposite views on just about everything in candidate forum

Lopez, 69, represented part of the West Side on the City Council for eight years, the maximum allowed by San Antonios term limits. He has served on and chaired the boards of the Northside Independent School District, Metropolitan Planning Organization and the San Antonio Mobility Coalition. He has called for the state to increase its investment in public schools, and he said it must do that before addressing any kind of property tax cap.

Whoever wins will join a legislative session already in full swing. The deadline to file legislation is today, which means the winner of this race wont be able to advance his own legislation.

The Bexar County delegation is down a member in the meantime.

Dylan McGuiness covers City Hall and local politics in San Antonio. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | dylan.mcguinness@express-news.net | Twitter: @DylMcGuinness
If you call Travis Park United Methodist Church and get sent to voicemail, youll be greeted by a message assuring you that the historic downtown church is a place where all are welcome.

Its a simple, positive declaration. The kind of statement that should be a given for any place of worship, much less one thats part of the denomination founded by John Wesley, the 18th century Englishman who urged fellow Methodists to do good unto all men; unto neighbours and strangers, friends and enemies.

But the Travis Park voicemail message is tinged with political acrimony.

Last week, delegates at a special session of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, meeting in St. Louis, reaffirmed the denominations ban on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings.

That vote was a crushing blow for the many liberal Methodist congregations around the country that have advocated for greater inclusiveness from the church hierarchy.

Travis Park United Methodist Church is one of those liberal congregations.

A downtown institution, with its circular design and spired tower, the church has occupied the same spot, at the corner of Travis and Navarro streets, for 133 years.

At one time, it was the flagship congregation for south and central Texas. Now, its a progressive alternative: the only local church affiliated with the Reconciling Ministries Network, a dissident movement that claims more than 900 Methodist communities across the country.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio pastor is walking with the caravan

Since 1999, the Travis Park United Methodist Church has hosted Cafe Corazon, a Sunday ritual in which hot meals and clothes are provided to the homeless.

In 2013, the church congregation mobilized to support the passage of the citys nondiscrimination ordinance, which extended civil-rights protections to members of the LGBTQ community.

Two years later, the church hosted the Gather at the River conference to tackle the issues of mass incarceration, LGBTQ inclusion and womens reproductive rights.

On Monday, with last weeks St. Louis vote still reverberating in the faith community, the Travis Park Church Council made it clear that the congregation is in deep conflict with national Methodist leadership.

The Church Council of Travis Park Church finds the decision by General Conference 2019 to be incompatible with Christian teaching and denounces the discriminatory policies of the United Methodist Church, the council said in a prepared statement.

The bombshell, however, came in the next sentence.

Therefore, the council stated, we will be in discussions with our congregation regarding our affiliation with the denomination.

This means there is a real chance that Travis Park will break away from the United Methodist Church. Its a move that would carry serious legal, financial and theological consequences.

A year ago, Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, a liberal house of worship in San Francisco, began the process of disaffiliating itself from the parent organization of the United Methodist Church.

In December, the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church responded by filing suit against Glide. The complaint noted that Glides property is held in a trust for UMC  a common arrangement between parish and parent organization  and contended that Glides disaffiliation effort violated this trust agreement.

A disaffiliation move by the Travis Park church could get similarly messy.

The drama is emblematic of a split that has been growing within the Methodist faith for more than two decades.

The churchs Book of Discipline, which is essentially the constitution for the Methodist denomination, states that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, and adds that self-avowed practicing homosexuals should not be ordained as pastors or serve in the church organization.

The Methodist denomination, however, always has been characterized by a strain of independent thought; people who value their personal relationship with God (what Wesley called the effort to attend to the light shining in their hearts) over official doctrine.

In 1999, a Nebraska pastor named Jimmy Creech was tried for a second time by the church for performing a same-sex marriage.

Its not about me, he said. Its about institutionalized bigotry and the church using its institutional power to enforce discrimination and persecution of gay and lesbian people.

In July 2016, the Western Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church, in clear defiance of the Book of Discipline, elected the churchs first openly lesbian bishop: San Francisco Rev. Karen Oliveto.

For years, liberal reformers in the Methodist denomination  such as those at Travis Park  have hoped that they could change the church.

After last week, some of them may conclude that they have to leave it.

@gilgamesh470

Gilbert Garcia is a columnist covering the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470
The Brits and Canadians I know certainly love their single-payer health care systems. If one of their politicians suggested they should switch to the American health care model, theyd throw him out the window.

So single-payer health care, or in our case Medicare-for-all, is worth taking seriously. I have just never understood how we get from here to there, how we transition from our current system to the one Bernie Sanders has proposed and Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and others have endorsed.

Despite differences between individual proposals, the broad outlines of Medicare-for-all are easy to grasp. We would take the money were spending on private health insurance and private health care, and we would shift it over to the federal government through higher taxes in some form.

Then the government could set prices and force health care providers to accept current Medicare payment rates. Medicare reimburses hospitals at 87 percent of costs while private insurance reimburses at 145 percent of costs. Charles Blahous, a former Social Security and Medicare public trustee, estimates that under the Sanders plan, the government could pay about 40 percent less than what private insurers now pay for treatments.

If this version of Medicare-for-all worked as planned, everybody would be insured, health care usage would rise sharply because it would be free, without even a co-payment, and America would spend less overall on health care.

It sounds good. But the trick is in the transition.

First, patients would have to transition. Right now, roughly 181 million Americans receive health insurance through employers. About 70 percent of these people say they are happy with their coverage. Proponents of Medicare-for-all are saying: Were going to take away the insurance you have and are happy with, and were going to replace it with a new system you havent experienced yet because, trust us, were the federal government!

The insurance companies would have to transition. Lots of people work for and serve this industry. All-inclusive public health care would destroy this industry, and those people would have to find other work.

Hospitals would have to transition. In many small cities the local health care system is the biggest employer. As Reihan Salam points out in The Atlantic, the United States has far more fully stocked hospitals relative to its population and much lower bed occupancy than comparable European nations have.

If you live in a place where the health system is a big employer, think what happens when that sector takes a sudden, huge pay cut. The ripple effects would be immediate  like a small deindustrialization.

Doctors would have to transition. Salary losses would differ by specialty, but imagine you came out of medical school saddled with debt and learn your payments are going to be down by, say 30 percent. Similar shocks would ripple to other health care workers.

The American people would have to transition. They are more suspicious of centralized government and tend to dislike higher taxes.

The Sanders plan would increase federal spending by about $32.6 trillion over its first 10 years, according to a Mercatus Center study that Blahous led. Compare that with the Congressional Budget Offices projection for the entire 2019 fiscal year budget, $4.4 trillion. That kind of sticker shock is why a plan for single-payer in Vermont collapsed in 2014 and why Colorado voters overwhelmingly rejected one in 2016. Its why legislators in California killed one. In this plan, the taxes are upfront, the purported savings are down the line.

Once they learn Medicare-for-all would eliminate private insurance and raise taxes, only 37 percent of Americans support it, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey. In 2010, Republicans scored an enormous electoral victory because voters feared that the government was taking over their health care, even though Obamacare really didnt. Now, under Medicare-for-all, it really would. This seems like an excellent way to re-elect Donald Trump.

The government would also have to transition. Medicare-for-all works only if politicians ruthlessly enforce spending cuts.

Finally, patient expectations would have to transition. In Canada, the median wait time between seeing a general practitioner and a specialist is 8.7 weeks; between a GP referral and an orthopedic surgeon, its nine months. That would take some adjusting.

If America were a blank slate, Medicare-for-all would be a plausible policy, but we are not a blank slate. At this point, the easiest way to get to a single-payer system would probably be to go back to 1776 and undo that whole American Revolution thing.
No, not a border wall but the resources to deal with refugees fleeing violence in their own countries.

No, not inflammatory rhetoric about how those fleeing crime are themselves criminals intent on doing Americans harm. Instead, acknowledgment that dealing with the root causes of this exodus might be more fruitful in stanching it.

This is what is desperately needed. There is a genuine humanitarian crisis occurring at the border, but it has nothing to do with whatever utility the president says a border wall will provide. The president seems to be caught in a time warp  stuck back in a time when the crossers were, by and large, Mexican men looking for work in the United States.

This was a threat mostly in the imaginings of nativists who will not do the work that the immigrants do, and an issue more complex than those who chant the mantra what part of illegal dont you understand? can comprehend. The numbers of these types of crossers have diminished, as have crossings by undocumented immigrants generally.

In the cross hairs now are Central Americans. They are the father and/or mother arriving with children. They are fleeing the ever-present threat that their boys will be forced to join gangs in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala or die  or join and then die  or that their girls will be forced to submit to sexual degradation as the price of simply existing.

And mostly they are showing up at the border and giving themselves up to authorities so that they may pursue asylum claims. A wall would do nothing to stop them. As a sign of how desperate their existences are in their own countries, they are coming despite the presidents get-tough strategies. If keeping them away is the goal  even by taking away their children  zero tolerance is simply not working.

But we nonetheless would not characterize this as a national emergency. This is the presidents characterization  one that fails to understand that these migrants pose no threat, hence pose no emergency as the president frames the issue.

The resources needed to address this are not necessarily more detention centers  though more resources to make sure that the sexual abuse and poor health environments reportedly inflicted on detainees no longer happen. Release into the community after initial screenings is the better bet and, despite the presidents rhetoric, the vast majority will appear for follow-up proceedings. The resources needed are more judges and other staff to deal with the claims.

Not everyone will be granted asylum  only a fraction were even before the Trump administration. But we are obligated, legally and morally, to consider these claims when credible threats exist should they return home.

But also needed is acknowledgment that erecting barriers  whether physical or bureaucratic  does not even begin to address the real problem. That problem is the poverty that pervades their lives in their own countries. This comes in two forms  lack of the means to sustain themselves economically and the dearth of the rule of law.

Yes, we already provide aid  roughly $556 million annually to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador combined, according to USAID. But it is not likely enough nor as strategically targeted as is necessary.

The Trump administrations focus in Latin America at the moment is legitimately on Venezuela, once the wealthiest nation in the region and whose implosion is occurring in fast motion. The implosion in these Central Americans has been occurring over decades in relative slow motion, but the fallout for the U.S. is happening now.

After Congress dispenses with the presidents faux declaration of national emergency to build his border wall, it must turn its sights on the real humanitarian crisis, the one happening in real time at our border.

National emergency? The only threat exists to our own values. How we treat these immigrants will say volumes about our character and whether the ideals we claim are more than just words.
It is disappointing that a high-profile lawyer like former District Attorney Nico LaHood could emerge from a professional misconduct investigation with merely a probated suspension and an order to pay legal fees.

It amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist for highly offensive behavior  his actions all the more egregious because they came from an elected official.

LaHood was the top law enforcement officer in Bexar County when the incident that prompted the charges occurred. As such, he should have been held to a higher standard. A probated suspension is a light penalty for an elected official who misused his position to threaten to shut down the law practices of opposing counsel during a trial and to take steps to ensure they never got hired on another case.

A Bexar County-based Evidentiary Panel of the State Bar of Texas on Monday found LaHood made an extrajudicial statement he knew would prejudice an adjudicatory proceeding and in representing a client  the state  used means that were solely intended to embarrass, delay, or burden a third person.

The panel, which heard testimony behind closed doors, was composed of lawyers and nonlawyers.

Such hearings can be open to the public, but LaHood chose to waive his right to a public trial and opted instead to have the proceedings conducted in private. In addition to the probated suspension, the panel ordered the former district attorney to pay close to $10,000 in legal fees to the State Bar for its work in the case brought against him.

The punishment when there is an affirmative finding of misconduct by a State Bar Evidentiary Panel ranges from a private reprimand to disbarment. Lawyers serving a probated suspension can carry on with their law practices, and must make sure they abide by the rules and regulations imposed on the legal profession or face further sanctions.

LaHood, a one-term district attorney who lost his political partys nomination to one of the lawyers he threatened, returned to private practice in January.

Misconduct charges against LaHood arose from incident during a murder trial before 437th District Judge Lori Valenzuela in 2017. Threats he made in the judges chambers to close down the law practices of opposing counsel prompted the filing of a formal complaint with the State Bar of Texas by local attorney Mark Stevens.

LaHood has publicly denied making any such threats despite testimony to the contrary from Valenzuela during a hearing before a visiting judge on a dismissal motion in the murder trial. During that hearing, Valenzuela, a long-tenured member of the Bexar County judiciary, testified she heard LaHood threaten to destroy the legal practices of Joe Gonzales and Christian Henricksen. LaHood maintained the same posture this week before the State Bar panel.

At that time, Valenzuela said she considered the threats official  a Class A misdemeanor under Texas law  but no charges were ever filed in the case.

This is puzzling. The case merited criminal investigation. It was no trivial matter. LaHoods behavior was unprofessional under any circumstance but especially unacceptable coming from an elected official. But since no criminal investigation ensued, the affirmative finding of misconduct was the proper call. And having LaHood reimburse the State Bar for the cost of the proceedings is only fair.

And, still, simply ordering the former district attorney to adhere to the rules he should be abiding by to begin with is not exactly holding him accountable for abuse of public office.
Re: The framers intent, Your Turn, Tuesday:

The letter writer tries to support the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by suggesting that its important for citizens to have access to modern weapons so we can fight back against the government if necessary.

He said, Our government has rapid-fire weapons and could easily overrun the common good behind terrible leaders if we the people had no way to fight back.

What he fails to recognize is that our government has weapons much more powerful than rapid-fire rifles.

This tired trope that somehow a bunch of hillbillies with a couple of AR-15s is going to fight the U.S. government, which is armed with Abrams tanks, high-tech fighter jets and drones, guided missiles and other advanced weaponry is ridiculous. There is no way that citizens armed with long rifles would be able to fight and win against the U.S. government, so please refrain from using this terrible argument in support of citizens having access to military-grade arms designed for the sole purpose of killing as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

Eric Walls, Helotes

Its a problem now?

Re: Cafeteria Catholic, Your Turn, Tuesday:

Its interesting to note how all of a sudden abortion has become a topic used against political candidates. Where was the outcry when abortions were being treated as a typical health issue by ordering drugs, or by going to the pharmacy and getting drugs to have an abortion?

Christian men all of a sudden are outraged over abortions, blaming the Democratic Party. It appears to be more of a political move than a Christian move. Letter writer Mike Gonzales from Houston is showing his own hypocrisy for accusing Julian Castro of being a cafeteria Catholic when, in reality, all of us should follow our own conscience.

Dora Ortiz

Drain Texas swamp

Re: Fund for Texas schools falling short, front page, Tuesday:

Kudos and bravo to Staff Writers Susan Carroll and David Hunn.

I am shocked and dumfounded at the chart on Page A6. Furthermore, how can secretive bodies be allowed to oversee such enormous public funds? It appears Texas has its own swamp that needs to be drained.

I have written my representative and I would hope others will do the same to end these star chambers in our public arena.

Dave Driskell

Pick a Dem leader

The problem facing the Democrats right now is that they do not have a leader. The candidates are all jumping up and down waving their arms and shouting, Pick me, pick me! They must choose a leader and unite behind that person.

The Republican candidate, be it Donald Trump or Mike Pence, can take advantage of this disunity and steal the election.

Richard Wallish

You do trust them

Its easy to fall into the trap of hating a family member, friend, work associate or neighbor because of divergent political views. Just remember this: Even though you do not trust him as far as you could throw him (or her), you trust them enough with the single most precious gift you have to offer: your life!

We have been engaged in war in Afghanistan and Iraq for nearly 18 years, and each year, the death toll on Americas highways has exceeded the number of dead and grievously wounded in war overseas. Every time you get on the highway, you trust your neighbor not to drive when he is not in full possession of his faculties and to stay in his lane unless he signals otherwise.

You trust him not to text while driving or listen to his car radio so intently that he loses sight of the road before him. You trust him not to fall asleep at the wheel and not to have a heart attack or a stroke while driving.

When your vision of the intersection is obstructed by a car or truck on either side of you, dont you trust his judgment as to whether a car is approaching the intersection at a high rate of speed? Dont you move forward with him into the intersection, although you probably shouldnt? In other words, you trust him or her not to do anything that would interfere with his or her perception of the road or what to do about it. You trust him or her with your life.

Michel Laham, M.D.

ZIP code fallacy

Re: Where you live may affect how long you live, Metro, Feb. 28:

There are no real inaccuracies in Todd Ackermans article, but he is not clear about the cause and effect relationship involved. ZIP codes generally do not affect ones longevity. Rather, good health and prosperity affect ones ability and inclination to live in ZIP codes like 78254.

The University of Texas studies are for the purpose of identifying ZIP codes where people needing services are located. Unfortunately, these people would probably need just as many services or more if they were moved from Government Hill to Stone Oak, and it is doubtful their life span would increase because of such a move.

Reagin McAllister

Its run its course

Re: Gov. Abbott, help protect our planet, Editorial, Monday:

I agree 100 percent. To add another possible mindset for political inaction, lets pose this idea. When we hear humans are at fault for climate change, it could imply that the old battle of good vs. evil is at play. So blaming is the end game. Many react defensively, of course  thats human nature!

But if you were to dig a little deeper into environmental logic, youll see that most environmentalists are not accusing anyone of evil. Granted, our media often show some pitchforkers who do, but, believe it or not, thats not the norm.

As an environmentalist of long standing, I can proclaim that the Industrial Revolution was overall of vast benefit to humanity. It increased our life span and improved lifestyles. We should be grateful, even hold parades. But it has run its course.

The effects of using fossil fuels (when accompanied by the growing population) have proven to be dangerous. Thats the bottom line.

Hopefully, people like the governor see this distinction.

Bill Hurley
San Antonio has more high-income households than ever but more residents are renting homes rather than owning them, U.S. Census Bureau data shows.

The number of San Antonio households making $100,000 or more surged nearly 60 percent within a 10-year period  from 60,719 in 2007 to 96,194 in 2017, according to census data.

In that time, the number of the citys high-income households who rent nearly tripled, from about 6,700 in 2007 to more than 18,000 in 2017.

Thats in line with a nationwide trend that saw the percentage of renters earning more than $100,000 grow from 6.1 percent to 11.6 percent in the same time period.

Even though these households should be able to afford to buy a home, a series of economic and lifestyle factors have likely made renting a more attractive option, analysts say.

Wages havent kept up with rising home prices.

Households are living with large sums of student debt  in some cases, the equivalent of a mortgage.

Entry-level homes are in short supply.

Millennials across the United States increasingly want to live in and around downtown, where for-sale, single-family homes are typically scarce.

Homeownership perhaps is not as attractive as it used to be, and not because people dont want to buy their own homes, but because there are other factors that are restraining their ability to buy that home, said Laila Assanie, senior business economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio apartment market showed signs of slowdown last year but downtown developments bring bright spots

For T.J. Mayes, the idea of home ownership took a substantial hit in September 2008 when, in his third week at Southern Methodist Universitys law school, investment banking giant Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.

For 50, 60 years, you have this idea that homeownership was a substantial tenet of the American dream, thats going to ensure your financial future, said Mayes, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolffs former chief of staff. Then when youre 22, 25 years old, you see that that may not always be the case.

Mayes, now a junior partner at the law firm Phipps Deacon Purnell, and city spokeswoman Laura Elizabeth Mayes, his wife, rent a center-city condominium.

He had a substantial student loan burden when he graduated in 2011. Mayes student debt took up about half of his income each month, he said, noting he was well-compensated while employed at the county.

When youre making those payments, its very difficult to save for a down payment on a house, Mayes said.

On ExpressNews.com: Homebuilders in San Antonio were busy in 2018, just not constructing affordable homes

San Antonio home prices have trounced wage growth in the past decade. The median home value spiked 33 percent from $96,100 in 2007 to $127,700 in 2017, according to the latest available census data. Meanwhile, the citys median household income rose only 18 percent to $49,711 in 2017 from $42,217 in 2007.

Homebuilders are also constructing more homes in the San Antonio-New Braunfels region that cost more than $200,000. Construction on nearly 12,000 homes  88 percent of which will sell for more than $200,000  began in the area last year, according to a recent report from Metrostudy, an analytics firm that studies the local market. A home below $200,000 is considered entry-level or affordable.

But San Antonios housing market is tight. The supply of available homes in 2018 hovered between 3.2 months and 3.6 months worth of inventory, which measures how long it would take homebuyers to purchase every house currently on the market. Historically, six months worth of inventory is considered a good balance between buyers and sellers.

That low supply is likely forcing prospective buyers to wait until the right house, one that fits their taste, hits the market, said Kathy Ripps, a local Realtor who handles luxury properties for Kuper Sotheby's International Realty.

Because our inventory is low, its just not much to choose from, Ripps said. If youre going to invest in something thats important, then you want it to be the right thing.

On ExpressNews.com: As San Antonio mayor, Julian Castro started program that gave millions to developers for luxury downtown condos

The Broadway corridor near The Pearl and along River North, as well as other ZIP codes in and around downtown, account for a large concentration of the citys high-income renters, census data shows. A number of multifamily developments that have opened or are under construction in and around downtown  including the upscale Cellars at Pearl apartment complex, which opened in 2017  aim to cater to luxury renters.

But high-income households are increasingly renting across the city, census data shows, though theyre most densely clustered in ZIP codes along U.S. 281 on the citys North Side, in and around the Interstate 10 corridor near the Dominion, and the far West Side.

More than half of the citys wealthier renters are living in single-family homes, but about 42 percent are opting for apartments, according to data provided by Apartment List.

People who make good money can choose whatever lifestyle they want and can rent it, said Rob Warnock, a research associate at Apartment List. I dont think weve been in a situation in the American housing market where that has existed before.

T.J. and Laura Mayes  together, they earn well over $100,000  are in their second year of a three-year lease at the Andalusia Condos on Lexington Avenue in downtown San Antonio.

The couple picked the residence because both worked downtown and it was close to their 17-month-old daughters day care, Mayes said. But having paid off his student debt last year, Mayes said his family could buy a house when their lease is up.

You buy a house and youre sort of marrying a part of town and a certain neighborhood and school, Mayes said. We have a young child. Its pretty a substantial decision. I just want to make sure we think it through.

Joshua Fechter is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering real estate, economic development and philanthropy. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports
Croatia Airlines will make minor tweaks to its 2019 summer operations, which begin on Sunday, March 31. Notably, the carrier will resume all of its seasonal flights from Zagreb two weeks in advance of last year, with exception to Bucharest, which will commence a full month ahead. The Croatian airline will add an additional weekly flight between Zagreb and Dublin, which also becomes a year-round service. However, the extra frequency will come at the expense of its St Petersbrug route, which will be reduced by one weekly flight for a total of two. The airline is considering prolonging flights to a select number of seasonal destinations in the lead-up to Croatia's presidency of the Council of the European Union, which will take place during the first half of next year.





The carrier will reduce its operations out of Split to Belgrade and Dusseldorf by one weekly service, with flights to be maintained twice and once per week respectively. The airline will push back the resumption of its operations from Croatia's second largest city to Athens by a week but will bring forward the return of its Lyon and Vienna service by two weeks. Flights from Dubrovnik, as well as all other destinations, will be served by the same number of frequencies as last summer season. Similar to last year, the carrier will add two wet-leased Iberia Regional Bombardier CRJ1000 aircraft to its fleet from April.





Please note that the changes listed below are preliminary and based on current availability in the Global Distribution System (GDS). Furthermore, the tables below display the peak weekly frequency on each route during the course of the summer season. Increases in frequencies, particularly on domestic flights between Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar and Pula, may not come into effect until later on in the summer and can vary depending on the time of the year. EX-YU Aviation News will also bring you summer season changes for Adria Airways and Montenegro Airlines during the course of the month. Meanwhile, you can review modifications Air Serbia will be making to its network this summer here . The 2019 summer season runs until October 26.

Destination Frequency S2018 Frequency S2019 Change Notes Amsterdam 7 7 - - Athens 6 6 - via Dubrovnik

resumes APR11 Barcelona 4 4 - - Brussels 11 11 - - Brac 2 2 - - Bucharest 3 3 - resumes APR08 Copenhagen 7 7 - - Dublin 2 3  1 resumes APR11 Dubrovnik 34 34 - - Frankfurt 21 21 - - Helsinki 3 3 - resumes APR18 Lisbon 4 4 - resumes APR15 London Heathrow 3 3 - - Milan 3 3 - resumes APR12 Mostar 2 2 - - Munich 14 14 - - Oslo 3 3 - resumes APR18 Paris 7 7 - - Prague 4 4 - resumes APR13 Pula 13 13 - via Zadar Rome 9 9 - 6 flights via Split

3 flights via Dubrovnik Sarajevo 13 13 - - Skopje 12 12 - - Split 33 33 - - St. Petersburg 3 2  1 resumes APR21 Stockholm 3 3 - resumes APR15 Tel Aviv 3 3 - resumes MAY14 Vienna 12 12 - - Zadar 13 13 - - Zurich 14 14 - -

Destination Frequency S2018 Frequency S2019 Change Notes Athens 1 1 - resumes JUN08

ends SEP28 Berlin 1 1 - resumes APR27 Belgrade 3 2  1 resumes MAY13

ends SEP23 Copenhagen 1 1 - starts MAY04 Dubrovnik 2 2 - resumes MAY04

ends OCT05 Dusseldorf 2 1  1 resumes APR27 Frankfurt 7 7 - - London Gatwick 2 2 - resumes APR19 London Heathrow 1 1 - - Lyon 1 1 - resumes APR13

ends OCT05 Paris 3 3 - - Munich 8 8 - - Rome 7 7 - - Vienna 4 4 - resumes APR15

ends OCT19 Osijek 1 1 - - Zurich 5 5 - resumes APR15 Zagreb 33 33 - -

Destination Frequency S2018 Frequency S2019 Change Notes Amsterdam 1 1 - via Pula

APR30-OCT01 Athens 6 6 - resumes APR11 Frankfurt 7 7 - - Osijek 1 1 - - Dusseldorf 1 1 - resumes MAY05

ends OCT20 Munich 5 5 - starts APR15 Paris 5 5 - - Pula 1 1 - resumes MAY29

ends SEP25 Rome 3 3 - - Split 2 2 - - Venice 2 2 - resumes MAY03

ends OCT14 Zurich 5 5 - resumes APR29 Zagreb 34 34 - -

From Pula, Croatia Airlines will operate to Amsterdam (1x per week), Dubrovnik (1x per week), Frankfurt (2x per week), Zadar (7x per week), Zagreb (13x per week). All frequencies remain unchanged compared to last year, with exception to the one weekly service to Zurich which is suspended. From Osijek, the airline will fly to both Split and Dubrovnik (1x per week).





From Zadar, the airline will operate to Pula (7x per week), Zagreb (13x per week) and Frankfurt (2x per week), maintaining last year's frequencies. Rijeka will see the Croatian national airline operate flights to Munich (3x per week) as was the case during the summer of 2017, however, it will suspend its one weekly flight to London Heathrow.

DepartingDepartingDeparting
ANSONIA  A heated dispute over who will pay for the massive sewer pipe collapse on Pershing Drive ended Wednesday night with the chairman of the WPCA apparently resigning after his commissioners authorized paying the bill.

Municipalities do not want people who do a good job, said Nunzio Parente, who announced Im done before he stormed out of the meeting. They want people who say Yes. 

Mayor David Cassetti said the WPCA has the money in its accounts to pay the bill. If the agency didnt pay, the city would have to.

If the WPCA had not voted to pay this bill, the residents would be looking at least a half-mill tax increase, Cassetti said. With this vote, well be able to keep taxes stable or lower them a little.

On Feb. 21, a nearly century-old underground pipe collapsed, sending raw sewage into the nearby Lemko Social Clubs basement.

The city set up a portable pump with a backup to bypass the break and send sewage from Clifton and Howard avenues to the treatment plant.

The damaged pipe is not far from the entrance to the Riverwalk; another backup could threaten several businesses and restaurants along Pershing Drive.

On Wednesday, a crew from Brennan Construction began building a retaining wall to allow a crew to go underground and repair the pipe.

City officials have been debating who will pay the bill, estimated at $760,000. Additional work, including a recommendation to reline the trunk line, could up the cost to $1 million or more.

For nearly two hours Wednesday night, Charles Stowe, a Water Pollution Control Authority member and a first ward alderman, held the floor. He urged his fellow members to pass several motions, including requiring a WPCA employee to review a daily log of the construction work kept by Public Works and the city engineer.

Im going to ask for a copy, said Stowe. Im going to review it and Ill put my name on anything. We got stores and stuff up there that can get flooded out this weekend.

WPCA does not have an on-call contractor, although Public Works does  Frank Pepe Construction. When the pipe collapsed, Pepe was called out.

Stowe also recommended that a list of contractors who can do sewer work be kept by WPCA.

So that the next time something like that happens, all the contractors are brought to the crisis site and theyre all competing against each other instead of somebody thinking they got us by the, he said.

Earlier Parente indicated WPCA would pay a portion of the final bill.

Were not gonna pay the whole bill  I can tell you that right now, he said. We intend to work with the city.

But the discussion grew heated when Stowe suggested and eventually moved  that WPCA be responsible for the entire bill.

Where do you get the idea were paying the bill? Parente asked.

Well, its never been cleared up who is responsible for paying these things, Stowe said.

Thats your interpretation, Parente said. It has been cleared up.

While many municipalities require the sewer authority to be responsible for maintaining the underground pipes, Parente said the WPCAs lawyer advised the group that the underground pipes are the citys responsibility. He said WPCA is only responsible for the plant.

If we were to maintain the lines under the city, our budget would be as big as Public Works... (and) wed have more than four employees, Parente said.

Stowe then moved that when this job is finished and we go over the bill, that the WPCA is going to pay for this break because its so big.

Not a chance in hell, Parente said.

However by a 3-2 vote with one abstention, the Authority voted to pay the whole bill.

Thats when Parente apparently had enough.

Charley, heres your seat. Come over and sit down  take over (the chairmanship). Im done, Parente said, as he grabbed his coat and walked out. Next January, youll have seven aldermen on this board and you can do whatever you want.

Afterward, Stowe complimented Parente on the job he has done as chairman, saying, Hes done wonders with the WPCA.

Cassetti said if Parente is serious and submits his resignation, he will accept it, thank him for his service and replace him.

But Sheila OMalley, the citys economic development director, said she will reach out to Parente, who she said has a lot of institutional knowledge.
STAMFORD  John Mallozzi, the citys former Democratic Party chief, pleaded not guilty at the Stamford courthouse Thursday to charges of forging ballots for relatives, Spanish-speaking residents and Albanian Americans new to voting.

On Jan. 30, Mallozzi was charged with 14 counts each of filing false statements and second-degree forgery. He was released after posting a $5,000 court-appearance bond.

After Mallozzis brief appearance before Judge Gary White, his criminal defense attorney Stephan Seeger said he had doubts about the states case against his client.

We are continuing to do our own investigation because we see some inconsistencies in the evidence given to us and in the arrest affidavit, Seeger said.

The case may lead to revisions in the procedures followed by Connecticut residents when casting absentee ballots, Seeger said.

We continue to work toward resolving this case with an eye toward the balloting system improving one day, he said.

Mallozzi chaired the Democratic City Committee from 2012 to 20016 and was a member of the Democratic State Central Committee. He played a key role in Mayor David Martins 2013 election victory.

According to Mallozzis arrest affidavit, the alleged fraud was uncovered when Stamford Republican Registrar of Voters Lucy Corelli contacted the State Elections Enforcement Commission to report that a Stamford man, Shkadran Hoti, had voted twice in the 2015 election  once by absentee ballot and once at the polls.

Hoti told investigators that on Election Day 2015, he was rejected at his District 8 polling place in the Cove by a monitor who told him the record showed he had already voted by absentee ballot. Hoti said he had not. The monitor allowed Hoti to vote after he filled out a form attesting that he did not vote by absentee.

Donna Loglisci, the town clerk at the time, found an absentee ballot application and a ballot in Hotis name, but the signatures on those did not match the signature on Hotis voter registration card.

State Elections Enforcement Commission officials investigated, and in May 2017 contacted the states attorneys office in Stamford to report that Mallozzi orchestrated the submission of possibly 29 fraudulent absentee ballot applications and 26 fraudulent absentee ballots to the town clerks office, the arrest affidavit states.

Inspectors with the states attorneys office sent the documents with Hotis signature to the states Division of Scientific Services Laboratory, where an analyst determined the signatures on the ballot package were not Hotis.

Using state voter registration records, inspectors found another Stamford man, Isen Hoti, who was reported to have voted by absentee ballot but claimed he had not. Isen Hotis signature also did not match the signatures on his absentee ballot package.

Inspectors found that the town clerks office had written initials on the ballot applications and on the ballots for the two men indicating they were given to Mallozzi, according to the affidavit.

Inspectors requested all ballot sets with Mallozzis initials on them. Loglisci found 34 applications and 27 ballots.

Loglisci then gave a sworn statement saying Mallozzi told her sometime before the 2015 election that several Stamford voters had asked him to deliver their absentee ballot applications to her office, then bring them ballots. Once the applications were processed and the ballots were prepared, Mallozzi told Loglisci either he or his representative would pick up the ballots and deliver them to the voters, according to the affidavit.

Loglisci, a Republican, agreed. In 2017 sources close to the investigation told Hearst Connecticut Media that Loglisci routinely provided blank absentee ballots to political-party workers. State law requires that the ballots go directly to voters. Loglisci, who failed in her 2017 re-election bid for town clerk, has not been charged.

Includes prior reporting by staff writer Angela Carella.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com.
Invesco CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust's stock was trading at $90.68 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, FXY shares have decreased by 8.9% and is now trading at $82.61.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.
Mexico & Banderas Bay Area News



March 8 Puerto Vallarta News Brief & Weekend Events



From live music and theater to cultural festivals, sporting events, charitable efforts and special interest group meetings, there's always something fun happening in Puerto Vallarta and around Banderas Bay. Share Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - There's always so much going on in Puerto Vallarta and around Banderas Bay it can be difficult to keep up with it all. Here's a look at some of this week's Puerto Vallarta news, community announcements, and a couple of this weekend's events that you won't want to miss. The Harkness Institute Founder's Day Fundraiser

The Harkness Dinner is one of Nuevo Vallarta's most exciting, upscale events every season, and you're invited! Set to be held at Restaurant ETXEA (Wineburger/Casa Mar) in Nuevo Vallarta on Saturday, March 9th from 7 pm to 11 pm, this charitable event includes a three-course dinner with wine, live music by Oasis de Cuba, and an outstanding raffle with prizes that range from Smart Watches and handcrafted jewelry to framed Andy Warhol prints worth $800 USD each. The Harkness Institute Founder's Day Fundraiser provides scholarship funding for this outstanding bilingual high school, whose students you'll get to meet and talk to as they serve you dinner. Tickets are $800 pesos per attendee. For more information, or to get your tickets, call (322) 297-0603, or stop by the school, located across from the Hard Rock Hotel in Nuevo Vallarta, today, Friday, March 8 from 8 am until 4 pm. The Harkness Dinner is one of Nuevo Vallarta's most exciting, upscale events every season, and you're invited! Set to be held at Restaurant ETXEA (Wineburger/Casa Mar) in Nuevo Vallarta on Saturday, March 9th from 7 pm to 11 pm, this charitable event includes a three-course dinner with wine, live music by Oasis de Cuba, and an outstanding raffle with prizes that range from Smart Watches and handcrafted jewelry to framed Andy Warhol prints worth $800 USD each. The Harkness Institute Founder's Day Fundraiser provides scholarship funding for this outstanding bilingual high school, whose students you'll get to meet and talk to as they serve you dinner. Tickets are $800 pesos per attendee. For more information, or to get your tickets, call (322) 297-0603, or stop by the school, located across from the Hard Rock Hotel in Nuevo Vallarta, today, Friday, March 8 from 8 am until 4 pm. Holocaust Survivor to Speak at Javadpour Arts Center

Sami Steigmann, a Holocaust Survivor and motivational speaker, will be visiting The American School of Puerto Vallarta, where he will speak about peace and forgiveness, on Wednesday, March 13 from 7:30-9:30 pm, in the school's Javadpour Arts Center. Sami will share the messages to "NEVER GIVE UP. Regardless of circumstances remember that tomorrow is a new day! A fresh day  a new beginning!" and "I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to be." The conference will be delivered in English with simultaneous Spanish translation, for a donation of $100 pesos. We invite the greater Vallarta community to experience the positive impact and enthusiastic response he generates among everyone who gets to attend his conference. To learn more about him, visit Sami Steigmann, a Holocaust Survivor and motivational speaker, will be visiting The American School of Puerto Vallarta, where he will speak about peace and forgiveness, on Wednesday, March 13 from 7:30-9:30 pm, in the school's Javadpour Arts Center. Sami will share the messages to "NEVER GIVE UP. Regardless of circumstances remember that tomorrow is a new day! A fresh day  a new beginning!" and "I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to be." The conference will be delivered in English with simultaneous Spanish translation, for a donation of $100 pesos. We invite the greater Vallarta community to experience the positive impact and enthusiastic response he generates among everyone who gets to attend his conference. To learn more about him, visit mvtimes.com. Marta Gilbert Sculpture Unveiling at River Cafe

Marta Gilbert is perhaps Puerto Vallarta's best known visual artist, an internationally celebrated painter known for her piercing portraits of indigenous people, soulful portrayals of the native people who live closest to the land both in reality and her dreams. Since 1971, she has witnessed the metamorphosis of Puerto Vallarta from a quiet seaside village to traffic congested city, but one thing that has not changed is her love for the people of Vallarta and her generosity to local charities. As further testament to her love of Vallarta and her selfless giving, Marta has created "Identidad," a sculpture that she is donating to the city. Everyone is invited to join Marta and friends at the unveiling ceremony of the sculpture, donated in gratitude to Puerto Vallarta, on Friday, March 15 at 6:00 pm at The River Cafe. Marta Gilbert is perhaps Puerto Vallarta's best known visual artist, an internationally celebrated painter known for her piercing portraits of indigenous people, soulful portrayals of the native people who live closest to the land both in reality and her dreams. Since 1971, she has witnessed the metamorphosis of Puerto Vallarta from a quiet seaside village to traffic congested city, but one thing that has not changed is her love for the people of Vallarta and her generosity to local charities. As further testament to her love of Vallarta and her selfless giving, Marta has created "Identidad," a sculpture that she is donating to the city. Everyone is invited to join Marta and friends at the unveiling ceremony of the sculpture, donated in gratitude to Puerto Vallarta, on Friday, March 15 at 6:00 pm at The River Cafe.

Weekend Events in Puerto Vallarta and Around Banderas Bay

Click on titles for more information  South Side Shuffle: Two Artist Open at Galleria Dante  Straight Men 'Come Out' Against Domestic Violence  Vallarta Bird Festival at Vallarta Botanical Garden  'Vallarta Celtfest' at Lazaro Cardenas Park, March 10





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Cambrex Corporation, a life sciences company, provides various products and services for the development and commercialization of new and generic therapeutics worldwide. Its products comprise active pharmaceutical ingredients and pharmaceutical intermediates that are used in the production of prescription and over-the-counter drug products, as well as finished dosage forms. The company serves generic drug companies; and companies that discover and commercialize small molecule human therapeutics. The company sells its products directly, as well as through independent agents. Cambrex Corporation was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

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Varian Medical Systems, Inc. designs, manufactures, sells, and services medical devices and software products for treating cancer and other medical conditions worldwide. It operates through Oncology Systems and Proton Solutions segments. The Oncology Systems segment offers hardware and software products for treating cancer with radiotherapy, fixed field intensity-modulated radiation therapy, image-guided radiation therapy, volumetric modulated arc therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, stereotactic body radiotherapy, artificial intelligence based adaptive radiotherapy, and brachytherapy, as well as quality assurance equipment. Its products include linear accelerators, brachytherapy afterloaders, treatment accessories, and quality assurance software; and information management, treatment planning, image processing, clinical knowledge exchange, patient care management, decision-making support, and practice management software. This segment serves university research and community hospitals, private and governmental institutions, healthcare agencies, physicians' offices, medical oncology practices, radiotherapy centers, and cancer care clinics. The Proton Solutions segment designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and services products and systems for delivering proton therapy for the treatment of cancer. The company has a strategic agreement with McKesson Corp. to supply treatment delivery systems and planning, services, and radiotherapy information system solutions to its U.S. Oncology Network and Vantage Oncology affiliated sites of care; and a strategic partnership with Siemens AG to represent Siemens diagnostic imaging products to radiation oncology clinics in the United States and other select markets. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. was formerly known as Varian Associates, Inc. and changed its name to Varian Medical Systems, Inc. in April 1999. The company was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

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Mexico Says at Most Only 22 Vaquita Porpoises Remain

Mexico City - Experts said Wednesday that, at most, only 22 vaquitas remain in the Gulf of California, where an increasingly violent battle is playing out between emboldened fishermen and the last line of defense for the world's smallest & most endangered porpoise.

Jorge Urban, a biology professor at the Baja California Sur University, said the 22 vaquitas were heard over a network of acoustic monitors at the end of summer. That was in fact higher than many had expected; some had estimated as little as 15 would remain in the Gulf, also known as the Sea of Cortez, the only place in the world where the vaquita marina is found.





It may be a sign the vaquita is holding on, and what is keeping it alive is a thin line of defenders: Every night 22 volunteer crew members from ships operated by the environmentalist group Sea Shepherd go out to search the upper Gulf for hidden gill nets that catch prized - but protected - totoaba fish and drown vaquitas.

The activists are not alone. Mexican marines and federal police aboard the Farley Mowat fired rubber bullets during the most recent attacks. But officials are not capable of handling the attacks, or preventing fishermen from submerging the hidden nets, which are banned by law from the area.

The Sea of Cortez, which Jacques Cousteau once called "the aquarium of the world," is suffering long-term damage from the nets, which are carefully weighted to float below the surface to avoid detection.

"The fact that they hide their nets does mean that we find active nets months later that have not been checked or forgotten about or lost by the poachers," said said Sea Shepherd first mate Jack Hutton. "If we stop operations, the vaquita will go extinct," he added.
Royal Dutch Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company worldwide. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, Oil Products, Chemicals segments. It explores for and extracts crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; markets and transports oil and gas; produces gas-to-liquids fuels and other products; and operates upstream and midstream infrastructure necessary to deliver gas to market. The company also markets and trades natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), crude oil, electricity, carbon-emission rights; and markets and sells LNG as a fuel for heavy-duty vehicles and marine vessels. In addition, it trades in and refines crude oil and other feed stocks, such as gasoline, diesel, heating oil, aviation fuel, marine fuel, biofuel, lubricants, bitumen, and sulphur; produces and sells petrochemicals for industrial use; and manages oil sands activities. Further, the company produces base chemicals comprising ethylene, propylene, and aromatics, as well as intermediate chemicals, such as styrene monomer, propylene oxide, solvents, detergent alcohols, ethylene oxide, and ethylene glycol. Royal Dutch Shell plc was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands.

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by Sean Fitzpatrick | 76ers Correspondent | Thu, Mar 7th 11:55pm EST

Joel Embiid has been ruled out for Friday's game versus the Houston Rockets due to a knee injury which has caused him to not play since the break. With Embiid out again, Amir Johnson and Jonah Bolden are in line for more run. (NBA.com)
To most farmers and ranchers, sustainable is a word that, like exercise or vacation, has a dictionary definition and a personal definition. The difference between the two, however, often is the difference between the county fair and the Worlds Fair.

These folks arent alone. Almost everyone and everything from commodity groups to coal companies make some claim that their business incorporates sustainable practices or production. Rarely, if ever, is anyone asked to prove it.

More to the point, even if someone did ask, how would they (or you or I) know if their answer actually supports their claim?

Well, surprise, there is a legal definition for sustainability.

According to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, under U.S. Code Title 7, Section 3103 means [sustainability is] an integrated system of plant and animal production practices that will over time:

Satisfy human food and fiber needs;

Enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends;

Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls;

Sustain the economic viability of farm operations and

Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.

Given that thoroughly squeaky-green definition, its easy to see why almost everyone wants to present themselves as sustainable. But that squeaky greenness is also why very few farms and ranches (and no coal companies) are truly sustainable despite claims that they are.

Recently, National Geographic used plainer, almost fighting-words language to shorten that legal description. The concept of sustainable agriculture embraces a wide range of techniques, including organic, free-range, holistic, and biodynamic farming, noted the magazine, that mimic natural ecological processes.

At its core, however, the magazine went on, sustainable agriculture is a rejection of the industrial approach to food production developed during the 20th century.

And, Im guessing, most of the farmers and ranchers born during the 20th century just turned the page.

Everyone still reading, as well as those who did turn the page knows that rejection is a staple in American agriculture. We like to call it change, but most of that change arrived on the heels of rejection.

For example, in the last 30 years, U.S. farm policy rejected set-asides, target prices, federal grain storage programs, and federal milk market orders as it slowly evolved into a subsidized, insurance-centered program.

None of that history means that either Congress, farmers, or American eaters are prepared to reject industrial food production whole-loaf and switch to sustainable food production, especially when few agree on the exact meaning of sustainable.

But all  especially farmers  are keenly aware that the non-farming public has gained considerable market and political power over what they say is sustainable food and what they see as unsustainable food production practices that threaten shared resources like land, water, and air. And they will be heard.

For proof, dont just ask them; look to the marketplace.

According to a March 2018 report on just-food.com, the website of a United Kingdom-based food market research firm, U.S. sales of food and beverages bearing labels relating to environmental sustainability stood at $198.6 billion in 2017

That was after the market has grown by around 5% between 2016 and 2017 and before it will grow another 5% in 2018.

By comparison, U.S. ag exports, the looked-to rocket fuel for farm and ranch profits by American producers and politicians alike, were (all fiscal years) $140.5 billion in 2017, $143.4 billion in 2018, and will sag to an estimated $141.5 billion in 2019.

No one needs to chart those trends to see that one market is quickly heading north while the other is flat-to-stuttering south.

Does that divergence mean that the trend toward sustainable food means sustainable agriculture is, well, becoming sustainable?

Yes. Wait, probably. Well, maybe.

An easier answer is to state the more obvious: Most profit-pinched American farmers and ranchers just spent the winter searching for ways to squeeze more bushels and pounds out of an increasingly unsustainable system. As such, its hard to see a lasting future for a production system still focused on the past.
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Clare Moriarty has stepped down from her senior Whitehall role as Defra's Permanent Secretary with just three weeks to go until the UK leaves the EU.

She fills Philip Rycroft's role of Permanent Secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU).

Mr Rycroft, who is in charge of 'no deal' Brexit plans, will leave on Brexit day - March 29 - just three weeks today.

Ms Moriarty's move from Defra comes as former farming minister George Eustice resigned last week.

He resigned with 'tremendous sadness' after the Prime Minister promised to allow MPs a vote on extending the Brexit date if her deal is voted down on March 12.

Robert Goodwill, MP for Scarborough and Whitby, has since been appointed the new farming minister.

Ms Moriarty said: Its an honour to be asked to lead the Department for Exiting the European Union at such an important time for the UK.

In April I will be moving to be Permanent Secretary of @dexeugovuk. Really looking forward to working with my new team but I will miss @defragovuk more than I can say. I have huge respect, admiration and affection for everyone working in #Defragroup  Clare Moriarty (@ClareMoriarty) March 7, 2019

We have a massive agenda ahead of us and I look forward to working with Stephen Barclay and the excellent team in DExEU to chart the way forward.

The loss of a key member of staff within Defra comes as the department recruited 1,200 people last year to help get through the Brexit workload.

A parliamentary committee's concluded that Defra faces an 'unprecedented challenge' in preparing for Brexit.

It is one of the departments most affected by the UK leaving the EU. With 80% of its work affected by Brexit, it needs to support negotiations, repatriate regulatory functions, help with border preparations and design, legislate and implement new systems for agricultural support, fisheries management and environmental protection.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) said Ms Moriarty was a 'good friend' to the farming sector.

However, CLA President Tim Breitmeyer said: Given the size, scope and number of current projects of crucial importance to the future of farming and the rural economy at Defra, it is imperative that a replacement is announced as soon as possible.
British farmers have warned that standards 'must not be sacrificed' in a future US trade deal as the Trump administration demands 'unwarranted barriers' are pulled down.

The United States government published its negotiating objectives for a future trade deal with the UK, including comprehensive access for agri goods and a demand to pull down unwarranted barriers, such as rules which regulate the UK food and farming industry.

The demands, which runs to 18 pages, is likely to fuel concern within the industry which fears a lowering of food and farming standards once the UK leaves the EU.

David Henig, the director of the UK Trade Policy Project and a former UK trade official, said the list is an 'uncompromising document with no mention of mutual benefit'.

NFU President Minette Batters said the demands 'comes as no surprise'. She said it is 'imperative' that any future trade deals do not allow the imports of food produced to lower standards than those required of British farmers.

But a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said that the government has always been 'very clear' that there will not lowering of food standards as part of a future trading agreement.

A free trade agreement with the US has always been our priority. I note that theyve published their objectives in those talks and we will publish ours shortly.

We welcome the fact that they have set those out. We will be in talks with them and we will publish our own shortly.

US food exporters have long complained that EU regulations limit American food products like chlorine-washed chicken, hormone-boosted beef and GM crops.

It follows news of the International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox explaining how it is 'categorically untrue' that UK food and farming standards will be lowered as it leaves the EU.

In the US, the government permits such practices as chlorinated chicken, which consists of dipping meat into chlorinated water to prevent microbial contamination.

But this practice is banned in the EU, which fears the practice could actually worsen safety standards.

Indeed, a report has warned of the potential increase in cheaper, lower standard food imports to the UK which could put British farmers at a competitive disadvantage.

While UK government ministers have insisted that they will protect British agricultural standards in trade negotiations, US president Donald Trump's commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, has also said that any post-Brexit deal with Washington would hinge on the UK scrapping the kind of standards operated under membership of the EU.

A senior US meat lobbyist from the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), a group which represents American pig farmers, told the Trump administration earlier this month that the UK must adopt US food producing standards if it wants to secure a trade deal post-Brexit.
Farmers have called for further government assurances that vulnerable sectors in Wales, such as the sheep industry, will be protected in a no-deal Brexit scenario.

The call comes following reports that government intends to cut 80-90% of all tariffs imposed on goods imported into Britain.

Over the last couple of weeks representatives from the Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) have met with the government to stress that the livestock, and in particular the sheep industry, is among the most vulnerable under almost all possible Brexit scenarios.

Given the dominance of the livestock sector in Wales and the fact that around 30% of the UK sheep population is in Wales, it is particularly exposed to Brexit dangers.

Because of this, the union says the government needs to ensure tariffs and Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs) are set at levels which protect the industry.

FUW President Glyn Roberts said he is 'encouraged' by a number of commitments to protect agriculture in recent weeks by Defra Secretary Michael Gove and recently resigned farming minister George Eustice.

However, other members of the Cabinet have been vocal in advocating low or zero tariffs which would be 'devastating' for a number of industries.

It follows a report on Tuesday (March 6) by Sky News that said the Department for International Trade (DIT) intends to cut 80-90% of all tariffs imposed on goods imported into Britain, including many agricultural products.

Implementing such cuts would be devastating and short-sighted, representing a race to the bottom and a betrayal by government. We are therefore seeking assurances that the tariff documents due to be published in coming days will not propose such cuts, said Mr Roberts.

The union president added that the FUW would also encourage MPs to block any such proposals should they be announced.

We need tariffs and quotas on imports that give the required protection to all our industries, and in the worst case scenario of a no-deal Brexit we expect the UK government and Parliament to provide the protection our farming and food industry needs, he said.
U.S. Issues Spring Break Security Alert for Mexico Travel

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Although many college students are either already sipping margaritas on a Mexican beach, or have had their spring break destinations booked for weeks, on Wednesday, the U.S. State Department issued a countrywide Security Alert warning Spring Breakers heading to Mexico to use extra caution.

And, though the State Department has not issued (or updated) a Mexico travel advisory since November 15, 2018, the U.S. media has been going out of its way to keep "the dangers of traveling to Mexico" in the public eye, in an effort to keep college students (and their dollars) close to home.

And while it's true that parts of Mexico are in turmoil, what's lost in the uproar over the headlines is that many spring break resort areas haven't been affected. In fact, the State Department says there is "no evidence that criminal organizations have targeted U.S. citizens based on their nationality," and that the Mexican government devotes "substantial resources to keep tourists safe."

A record-breaking 41.4 million international visitors traveled to Mexico in 2018, and the Mexico Tourism Board's internal consumer tracking studies showed that more than 94% of visitors reported an experience that "exceeded their expectations," with 86% saying they would "like to come back again."

It is estimated that over 2 million college students will be on spring break over the next few weeks and the majority of them will spend their break away from home. But for a destination to be spring break-worthy, it's got to be affordable, accessible and popular among the college cohort.

That's why, year after year, Mexico tops the charts for hot spring break destinations. This year is no exception, with students from all around the United States booking their vacations in places like Puerto Vallarta, which was ranked at #6 on US & World News Report's list of the 'Top 10 Best Spring Break Destinations for 2019.'

"Millions of Americans visit Mexico each year  including the more than 150,000 who cross the border every day," the November 15, 2018 travel advisory says. "However, as always, travelers are urged to be cautious and use common sense, irrespective of their destination."

What is more, the March 6, 2019 security alert says that most of the thousands of U.S. college students visiting Mexico for Spring Break each year stay safe, but adds, "Spring Break travel can sometimes include unforeseen problems." Among them, it notes, are sexual assault, unregulated alcohol and arrests.

To read the November 15, 2018 Mexico Travel Advisory, and the March 6, 2019 Security Alert, go to travel.state.gov.
The Soil Association has highlighted the top 10 risks posed by a US-UK trade deal post-Brexit following comments from the US ambassador that the EU is a museum of agriculture.

The UKs environmental and animal welfare standards could be undermined by a US trade deal, posing a number of threats to public health and food and farming standards post-Brexit, according to the sustainable food and farming charity.

Britain has been urged by the United States to leave the EU's 'Museum of Agriculture' and dismiss 'misleading scare-stories' about American agriculture, the US ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson said.

It comes as the United States government published its negotiating objectives for a future trade deal with the UK, including comprehensive access for agri goods and a demand to pull down unwarranted barriers, such as rules which regulate the UK food and farming industry.

The demands, which runs to 18 pages, has fuelled concern within the farming industry over potential lowering of food and farming standards once the UK leaves the EU.

In response, the Soil Association has listed the top ten risks a potential trade deal with the United States will have on food and farming.

Antimicrobial resistance

Experts warn that by 2050, as many as 10 million people could die annually from antimicrobial resistance.

In the US, the use of antibiotics per animal in farming is on average 5 times higher than in the UK.

Investigations have shown that antibiotics crucial to human medicine are still being used in unacceptable quantities on US livestock farms, despite rules brought in last year to curb their use and combat the spread of deadly superbugs.

According to the Soil Association, a US trade deal risks undermining the efforts UK farmers have been making to reduce antibiotic use, fuelling further antimicrobial resistance with potentially grave consequences for public health.

A race to the bottom

A number of farmers representatives and unions have warned of the threat to the UK farming industry if British farmers are forced to compete against cheap, low-quality food imports.

If UK farming is forced to compete on price with countries like the US that operate to different or lower standards, UK farming may become unprofitable, the charity warned.

This could create a race to the bottom and the lowering of standards, including standards of food quality, environmental protection, and animal welfare.

Loss of EU market access

The UK currently holds significant agri-food trade relationships with the EU-27.

A weakening of UK food standards, or a future lack of alignment with EU standards, resulting from a US trade deal could result in barriers to UK farmers and food companies wishing to export their products to the EUs single market.

These barriers would pose significant risks for food businesses and for farmer livelihoods.

Chlorine-washed chicken

The American poultry industry is more intensive with lower animal welfare standards than in the UK.

Subsequently, chicken produced has high levels of bacteria, so the industry has resorted to acid and chlorine washes at the end of the meat production chain, producing chicken that may not be safe for consumers to eat.

Recent comments from a senior representative of the US government have suggested that the US are sick and tired of UK concerns over chlorine washed chicken, but this remains an important issue for UK citizens who have no desire to see welfare standards lowered after the UK leaves the EU.

Hormone-treated beef

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows steroid hormone drugs for use in beef production, which has been banned in the EU since 1989.

Cattle producers use hormones to induce faster, bigger animal growth but this comes at a cost, the Soil Association says.

In 2003 an EU scientific review concluded that one of the commonly used hormones is carcinogenic.

In the event of a US trade deal, hormone-treated beef could be sold in the UK, posing potential public health risks.

Public health and nutrition labelling

Nutritional labelling, such as traffic light labelling, has been an important requirement in supporting UK public health.

The US is clear that it considers nutrition labelling a barrier to trade, it has an on-going dispute with the European Union over this.

Imported US food already enjoys a voluntary concession to the UK labelling requirements, any trade deal is likely to weaken these consumer labelling efforts further.

According to the Soil Association, a US trade deal could also result in low-cost, processed foods entering the UK market, placing a potential double health burden on UK citizens.

Genetically modified foods

In the US, 88% of corn and 93% of soy are genetically modified (GM) and products containing GM ingredients are commonly sold.

In the EU, GM is widely rejected due to concerns over its safety and purported benefits. Public opinion in the UK remains firmly against GM crops, with the publics appetite for a GM-free supply chain rising over the seven years of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) Biannual Public Attitudes Tracker.

A US trade deal could increase the likelihood that GM products are sold in the UK, contrary to the publics wishes.

Pesticide regulation

On pesticide regulation, the Soil Association warns that outside of the EU, the UK could be left without robust environmental governance, and the scientific capacity and infrastructure needed to regulate pesticide use.

During the negotiations on the proposed EU-US trade deal in 2015, the Trans-Atlantic Trade Partnership, pesticide industry and lobbyists in the US pushed to lower environmental and health standards, undermining democratic processes to promote the use of toxic substances prohibited in the EU.

Pesticide use has been linked with a decline in insect populations and biodiversity. A US trade deal that results in more pesticide use risks damaging UK wildlife.

Food poisoning

Incidences of food poisoning in the US effect 14% of the population annually. This is 10 times greater than in the UK, where 1% is affected.

In a recent IPPR poll, when asked whether the UK should lower food safety standards to secure a trade deal with the US, 82% of UK citizens said they would prefer to retain food standards as they are.

Food colourings

In the United States, products that include food colourings such as Yellow 5 and 6, Red 3 and 40, Blue 1 and 2, Green 3 and Orange B are available for purchase and do not require labelling.

The UK banned these food dyes following a 2007 double-blind study, which found that eating artificially coloured food appeared to increase childrens hyperactivity.

According to the Soil Association, a US trade deal could see these banned substances consumed by children, with inadequate labelling leaving parents unsure which products are safe.
Cheffins to host major auction on behalf of agri contracting firm

The sale will consist of over 150 lots
The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike.

We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve.
Early last year we brought you an article about the growing popularity of trips to the East of Turkey on the Kurtalan Express.

The Kurtalan Express: A daylong journey to southeastern Anatolia

The Eastern Express (Dogu Ekspresi) also runs from Ankara to eastern Kars province and its popularity grew when people started sharing photos of the scenery on social media.

The Eastern Express is now so popular that a new train will be put into service solely for the purpose of tourism as people trying to reach eastern Turkey by train can no longer find tickets.

According to State Railways, 271,120 passengers rode on the Eastern Express from January 1 to December 18, 2018. The seats are booked as soon as tickets go on sale and the extra wagons that are added to the express cannot cover demand.

Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said The new train service will aim to meet the demands and expectations of international visitors and could easily make the region an international tourism destination. The existing Eastern Express can continue running and the new train can be used by tourists

He went on to say that talks are being held with the Minister of Transport, Cahit Turhan, to organize an alternative train service on the same route.

Drone photos: The Eastern Express

A drone recently snapped photos during the Eastern Express 24-hour trip from the capital Ankara to eastern Kars, capturing its route on winding mountain paths, through narrow tunnels and over lonely bridges.

After leaving Ankara, the train makes brief stops in the eastern cities of Krkkale, Kayseri, Sivas, Erzincan, Erzurum before reaching Kars.

At the end of the trip, passengers stretch their legs  or take a troika ride  at the frozen Lake Cldr in Kars.

Its worth taking a trip at other times of year too and enjoy the stunning view of the countryside when it isnt covered in snow.

For prices or to book a ticket on the current Eastern Express please visit www.ambertravel.com

Sources: Daily Sabah/Culture Trip
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Rating: 3.5 /5 Star Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Tony Luke, Amrita singh Director: Sujoy Ghosh

Badla Movie Review: Amitabh Bachchan| Taapsee Pannu| Sujoy Ghosh |FilmiBeat

'Main bahut pachhta rahi hoon...', as Naina Sethi (Taapsee Pannu) quips this phrase for the umpteen time while narrating a sequence of events to her lawyer Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan), the latter mockingly says that he along with the inanimate objects in the room know it and that she should instead come straight to the truth without wasting any time. It's commendable how director Sujoy Ghosh diffuses the tension with such streaks of humour in this latest crime-thriller, 'Badla'.

Naina Sethi (Taapsee Pannu), a svelte businesswoman is accused of murdering her lover Arjun (Tony Luke) with whom she was allegedly having an extramarital affair. As the fear of her family life and successful business empire crumbling down seeps in, she gets her lawyer Jimmy (Manav Kaul) to hire a senior attorney Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan) to defend her case.

Badal soon lands up at Naina's house to interrogate her. With just three hours in hand before an 'unidentified' witness testifies against Naina, the two race against the time with Naina narrating the events that led up to the crime and Badal looking beyond facts to devise a theory which proves her innocence.

Sujoy Ghosh's Badla is an official remake of the Spanish thriller 'The Invisible Guest', but with a gender reversal. The good part is that the director churns out a faithful adapation with minor tweaks to make it more palatable for the Indian audience.

The 'twists' and 'turns' largely succeed in keeping you on the edge of your seats. Sujoy Ghosh retains the soul of the Spanish film and gives you plenty of 'thrills'. On the flip-side, the film does have a couple of loose ends here and there but that doesn't spoil the show.

Speaking about the performance, Amitabh Bachchan delivers a nimble act and packs a punch with solid dialogues in his signature baritone. He plays the sharp legal figure with an amazing mastery. Despite the towering presence of an acting legend like Sr. Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu takes you by surprise as the layers of her role peel off with every revelation. Badla is easily one of her most impactful performances in her reportaire of films.

Amrita Singh's compelling act makes you wish the actress takes up more films and continue to charm us. Manav Kaul is effective in his brief role. Malayalam actor Tony Luke makes a top-notch Bollywood debut.

Avik Mukhopadhyay's tight cinematography creates the perfect ambience while Monisha R Baldawa keeps the narrative taut. Clinton Cerejo's background score adds many shades to the mood of the film.

With its fine detailing and superlative performances, Sujoy Ghosh's cleverly-crafted Badla makes you realize that sometimes you can't see what's right in front of you. I am going with 3.5 stars.
Piracy Hits Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel, the film that is on its way to rule the theatres across the globe in the month of March, has been affected by piracy much like many of the recent movies from Hollywood.

Full Movie Leaked Online In Tamilrockers

Shockingly, Captain Marvel full movie has been leaked online for free download by Tamilrockers. This has happened on the release day of the film, which is March 08, 2019.

Not The First Instance

It is not for the first time that a Hollywood movie is getting hit by piracy. Many of the recent popular English movies like Alyta, Bumblebee etc., were also leaked online. The dubbed versions of the film were leaked online as well.

Will The Collections Be Affected?

The craze surrounding Captain Marvel is huge. A film like Captain Marvel deserves a theatrical experience as it takes you to a whole new universe. Let us hope that the piracy wouldn't affect the film much and it would go on to enjoy a fascinating journey in the theatres.
Xem them

...

Tin bai cuoi cung

Khong con du lieu e load
The Second Outing Of Raja

Raja's first outing was in the movie Pokkiri Raja and this time the character is coming as Madura Raja. Along with Mammootty, popular Tamil actor Jai will also be seen in an important role in this movie.

From Pokkiri Raja

Interestingly, the characters from Pokkiri Raja will also be seen playing important roles in Madura Raja. In this picture, you could see Nedumudi Venu along with Mammootty. Nedumudi Venu had played the role of Raja's father in Pokkiri Raja.

A Grand Entertainer

The stills of Madura Raja have further increased the excitement of the audiences. Going by the stills, the audiences can definitely expect a very fine entertainer. Let us wait for the grand arrival of the movie.

A Vishu Release

Madura Raja has been slated to release during the upcoming Vishu season. According to the reports, the movie will be hitting the theatres on April 12, 2019.

The Teaser Or Trailer

Meanwhile, the audiences are also keeping their fingers crossed for the arrival of the teaser/trailer. The makers are yet to make an announcement regarding the same and the teaser/trailer is sure to take over the online circuits by storm upon its arrival.
Telugu Megastar Chiranjeevi is currently shooting for the magnum opus Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy which is likely to hit screens later this year. The period-drama, being directed by ace filmmaker Surender Reddy, revolves around the freedom struggle and features the veteran actor in the role of a freedom fighter. Once Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy hits screens, Chiru will most probably team up with Koratala Siva for a commercial entertainer. Some time ago, it was reported that the Bharat Ane Nenu director was planning to rope in either Tamannaah or Nayanthara for the movie.

Now, the buzz is that he is toying with the idea of roping in Shruti Haasan for the film. If this indeed happens, it might add a new dimension to the curiosity surrounding the movie. The Yevadu lady is quite a popular name in Tollywood and was last seen in Katamarayudu.

Interestingly, Chiranjeevi shares a good rapport with veteran actor Kamal Haasan and acted with him in the 1979 release Idi Katha Kaadu which was a remake of Avargal. Seeing Chiranjeevi opposite Kamal's daughter might be a good experience for movie buffs.

One is likely to get more clarity about the female lead of the Chiranjeevi-Koratala Siva film in the coming days.

Do you think Shruti and Chiranjeevi will look good together on the big screen? Tell us in the space below.
Jersey, England--(Newsfile Corp. - March 7, 2019) - Tethyan Resources plc (TSXV: TETH) ("Tethyan" or the "Company") today announced the appointment of Mr. Edward Boney as Chief Financial Officer and Ms. Jacqueline Allison as Vice President, Investor Relations and Strategic Analysis.

Mr. Boney has more than 15 years of experience in the resource sector, and has held senior positions at exploration, development and producing mining companies with both Canadian and international operations. He previously worked for Deloitte & Touche LLP, where he was involved with the audits of some of the world's largest mining companies, asset valuations in the Canadian oil and gas sector, and a major international forensic accounting engagement in Europe. Mr. Boney is a member of the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia, and has a Bachelor of Commerce degree (with Distinction) from the University of Victoria as well as a Diploma in Accounting from the University of British Columbia.

Ms. Allison has 20 years of capital markets and investor relations experience. Prior to joining the Augusta Group of Companies in 2018, she was Vice President, Investor Relations for Dominion Diamond Corp., and Director, Investor Relations for Hudbay Minerals Inc. She has previously served as Vice President and Research Director, Fundamental Equities for BMO Asset Management, and Vice President, Canadian Equities for Natcan Investment Management.

Jerrold Annett, Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Ed has extensive experience in finance and a great understanding of the mining sector, and Jackie's broad experience in capital markets and investor relations is combined with a technical background in geology. They are a valuable addition to our team as we execute on our exploration strategy."

The Company also announced today that it has granted incentive stock options to certain of its directors, officers, employees and service providers to purchase up to an aggregate of 3,550,000 common shares of the Company (the "Options"). The Options are exercisable for a period of five years, at a price of C$0.51 per share, which is the closing price of the Company's common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange on February 27, 2019, the last trading day prior to the date of grant. All Options were granted in accordance with the Company's stock option plan.

About Tethyan Resources

Tethyan Resources plc, a member of the Augusta Group of Companies, is a precious and base metals mineral exploration company incorporated in England & Wales and listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. Tethyan is focused on the Tethyan Metallogenic Belt in Eastern Europe, mainly Serbia, where it is acquiring and exploring a portfolio of quality precious and base metals projects with known mineralization and compelling drill targets. Tethyan emphasizes responsible engagement with local communities and stakeholders, and is committed to the proactive implementation of Good International Industry Practice (GIIP) and sustainable health, safety and environmental management. More information can be found on Tethyan's website: www.tethyan-resources.com.

Contact

Tethyan Resources plc

+44 1534 881 885



Jerrold Annett, Chief Executive Officer

+1 416 366 5678 Ext. 207 | jerrold@tethyan-resources.com

TSX Venture Exchange Disclaimer

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the private placement, the use of proceeds and investor rights. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expected", "intends", "will be", "look forward", "looks" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Tethyan to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including, but not limited to, the Company's exploration program and the factors described in greater detail in the "Risks and Uncertainties" section and other sections of the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the nine months ended September 30, 2018, available at www.sedar.com. Although management of Tethyan has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward looking information. Tethyan will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/43304
'Oversubscribed placing with institutional investment from across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia'

EMMAC Life Sciences Limited, ('EMMAC' or the 'Company') the European independent medical cannabis company, is pleased to announce that the Company has raised 11 million via a successful private placing (the 'Placing') providing the Company with a post money valuation of 77 million. The Placing was over-subscribed with funds coming from private and institutional investors in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. The proceeds from the Placing will be used by EMMAC to complete a number of strategic acquisitions as well as to further research collaboration designed to shape the future of medical cannabis therapeutics. The Company raised 6 million in January 2019 giving a combined total of 17 million of funds raised to date in 2019.

Antonio Costanzo, CEO of EMMAC, said: "We are pleased to have seen such significant demand for our private placing round, particularly with the number of institutional investors. We are committed to establishing ourselves as the leading European medical cannabis company. With this funding round now successfully completed, we are not only well capitalised to complete the next stage of our corporate development but also well placed to meet the rapidly growing demands of the market, led by regulatory change and the increasing pressure for access to premium medical cannabis product."

- Ends -

About EMMAC

EMMAC Life Sciences Limited is the European medical cannabis company, working to join together the latest science and research with cutting-edge cultivation, extraction and production. With supply and distribution partnerships throughout Europe, EMMAC is working to establish itself as both a thought leader in the industry, as well as the European leader in the production and supply of medical cannabis, hemp and other derivative products.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

All statements, other than statements of historical fact, in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential values, the future plans and objectives of EMMAC Life Sciences Limited. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, achievable or recognisable in the near term.

Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. EMMAC Life Sciences Limited assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190307005580/en/

Contacts:

For scientific enquiries:

research@emmac.com



For general enquiries:

info@emmac.com

www.emmac.com



Media enquiries:

Buchanan

Henry Harrison-Topham Jamie Hooper Catriona Flint

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7466 5000

emmac@buchanan.uk.com

www.buchanan.uk.com
8 March 2019

Andalas Energy and Power Plc

('Andalas' or the 'Company')

Update on Eagle Gas Limited

Andalas Energy and Power Plc, the AIM listed oil and gas company (AIM: ADL), has been advised by Eagle Gas Limited ("Eagle") that Holywell Resources Limited ("Holywell"), the operator of Southern North Sea Licence P2112 ("Licence"), and Atlantic Petroleum UK Ltd ("Atlantic") have elected to relinquish the Licence.

Simon Gorringe, CEO of Andalas Energy and Power PLC said: "We are disappointed that the Licence will be relinquished. However, whilst Holywell has undertaken discussion with a number of interested parties regarding participation in drilling the proposed well, it has been unable to secure a partner within the time permitted under the Licence and therefore it has no other practical course of action. We remain interested in the Badger prospect and we will consider options to apply for a new licence. In parallel Eagle will continue to pursue various other opportunities it is developing.

"We are continuing to assess new business opportunities and will make a further announcement as and when appropriate."

Andalas holds 25% of the equity of Eagle which wholly owns Holywell. Holywell owns 66.67% interest in the Licence and the remainder is held by Atlantic.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ('MAR). Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service ('RIS'), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

For further information, please contact:
GOTHENBURG, Sweden, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hasselblad Foundation is pleased to announce that Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama is the recipient of the 2019 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography for the sum of SEK 1,000,000 (approx. USD 110,000). The award ceremony will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden on October 13, 2019. A symposium will be held on October 14, followed by the opening of an exhibition of Moriyama's work at the Hasselblad Center, and the release of a new book about the artist, published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8507051-hasselblad-award-winner-daido-moriyama/

The Foundation's citation regarding the Hasselblad Award Laureate 2019, Daido Moriyama:

"Daido Moriyama is one of Japan's most renowned photographers, celebrated for his radical approach to both medium and subject. Moriyama's images embrace a highly subjective but authentic approach. Reflecting a harsh vision of city life and its chaos of everyday existence and unusual characters, his work occupies a unique space between the illusory and the real. Moriyama became the most prominent artist to emerge from the short-lived yet profoundly influential Provoke movement, which played an important role in liberating photography from tradition and interrogating the very nature of the medium. His bold, uncompromising style has helped engender widespread recognition of Japanese photography within an international context. Influenced by photographer William Klein, the writings of Jack Kerouac and James Baldwin, and the experimental theatre of Shuji Terayama, Moriyama in turn has inspired subsequent generations of photographers, not only in Japan, but also around the world."

The Hasselblad Award Jury, which submitted its proposal to the Hasselblad Foundation's Board of Directors, consisted of:

Paul Roth, Chair

Curator and Director, Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto

Ann-Christin Bertrand

Curator, C/O Berlin Foundation, Berlin

Susanna Brown

Curator, Photographs, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Kristen Lubben

Executive Director, Magnum Foundation, New York

Thyago Noguiera

Curator, Instituto Moreira Salles, Sao Paulo

"Daido Moriyama's depiction of life is uncensored and he is not afraid of neither the ugly or the beautiful. He is truly a groundbreaking photographer and an inspiration to people from many creative fields, not just within the art and photography community. We are thrilled to be working with Daido Moriyama and his vast catalogue of images and publications and we hope to convey the richness of his continuous, obsessive scrutiny of the world in both our upcoming exhibition and catalogue," say curators at the Hasselblad Foundation, Sara Walker and Louise Wolthers

About the Hasselblad Foundation

The Hasselblad Foundation was established in 1979 under the terms of the last will and testament of Erna and Victor Hasselblad. The purpose of the Foundation is to promote education and research in photography and the natural sciences. The Foundation's annual international award for outstanding achievements in photography is considered one of the most prestigious photography awards worldwide.

Jenny Blixt

+46(0)317782154

jenny.blixt@hasselbladfoundation.org

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/832562/Hasselblad_Foundation.jpg




LONDON, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- CRU successfully completes independent assurance review for its leading, transaction-only based, CRU-API (Alumina) price.

CRU has successfully completed an external assurance review of its CRU Alumina Price Index (CRU-API), carried out by independent professional services company PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). CRU has prepared this report to underline its adherence to the International Organization of Securities Commissions' (IOSCO) Principles for Oil Price Reporting Agencies.

Independent research has demonstrated that the CRU-API is used widely in the settlement of physical contracts, and it will be used in the settlement of the London Metal Exchange's new cash-settled Alumina futures contract, due to launch on 11 March 2019.

"CRU's report demonstrates its ongoing commitment to providing the most robust price benchmarks for physical and derivative markets through a range of strong and appropriately designed policies and procedures in accordance with the requirements of the IOSCO Principles. Together with our company's values of quality and integrity, and our market-leading research and analysis capability, our IOSCO adherence is a crucial pillar that engenders the market's trust in our prices." CRU Group CEO David Trafford said.

"The correct structures, operation of processes and application of the best and most appropriate methodologies are essential in upholding the proper governance of CRU's prices. We have and we will continue to invest in our compliance function, analysts, systems and independent external review and assurance. This will ensure our price assessments endure as the most reliable indicators of commodity market values in the service of our stakeholders." CRU's Compliance Lead Claire Ballak added.

To request CRU's report, including the independent assurance report, or if you have further queries please contact compliance@crugroup.com. Full details of CRU's CRU-API methodology and our are overall compliance framework and methodologies are detailed online.

For more information on the use of the CRU-API in financial derivatives market, please read more via the online statement here:

https://www.crugroup.com/about-cru/news/2019/cru-completes-benchmark-assurance-review-for-its-leading-transaction-only-based-cru-api-alumina-price/

Read more about CRU: http://bit.ly/About_CRU

About CRU

CRU offers unrivalled business intelligence on the global metals, mining and fertilizer industries through market analysis, price assessments, consultancy and events.

Since our foundation by Robert Perlman in 1969, we have consistently invested in primary research and robust methodologies, and developed expert teams in key locations worldwide, including in hard-to-reach markets such as China.

CRU employs over 280 experts and has more than 11 offices around the world, in Europe, the Americas, China, Asia and Australia - our office in Beijing opened in 2004 and Singapore in 2018.

When facing critical business decisions, you can rely on our first-hand knowledge to give you a complete view of a commodity market. And you can engage with our experts directly, for the full picture and a personalised response.

CRU - big enough to deliver a high-quality service, small enough to care about all of our customers.
LONDON, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- At the start of 2019, creative technology company Splash Worldwide and project partner CoLab Media Consulting launched an in-depth study with senior brand marketers on the subject of Dynamic Content Optimisation, or DCO. Last week, executives from Splash, CoLab and several other prominent brands convened their first event sharing insights from this study.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/832494/Splash_Worldwide_Logo.jpg

Splash commissioned CoLab to conduct an independent study of senior brand marketer and media agency attitudes to Dynamic Content in their marketing efforts. Brands interviewed in wave one included Betfair, Diageo, The Economist, Expedia, Facebook, Microsoft, Nomad Foods and Telefonica. These comments from one surveyed executive provide a good overview of marketer sentiments: "Digital content optimization is a grey area where creative, data and media delivery blend together. You need someone who understands the greyness and blend. It's partly about bureaucracy and partly about education. A good DCO partner should just fit on top."

Additional findings highlight the risks of poor DCO planning and execution, while offering wide praise and encouragement for the many upsides to be gained through systematic and methodical adoption of best practices from proven partners.

"We are the first to conduct original research into Digital Content Optimisation - an area that is increasingly important to brands," said Alastair Duncan, Splash Worldwide's Chief Strategy Officer. "With our moderator Dominic Mills and panelists from Snapchat, Nomad Foods, Splash Worldwide and Flashtalking, we were able to share our initial takeaways from the research and our analysis.

"Among those," Duncan continued, "DCO is viewed as being an extremely important practice that is highly relevant to most major advertising initiatives. By planning well, communicating clearly and choosing the right partners, brands have immense opportunities to produce results that are widespread and highly effective."

According to Duncan, the study is ongoing, and Splash and its partners will continue to share findings in upcoming Thinkfasts and other industry events in days to come. To learn more, visit http://www.splashworldwide.com.

About Splash Worldwide

Splash Worldwide (https://www.splashworldwide.com) is a creative technology company that unleashes creativity for everyone, everywhere. With multi-disciplinary insight, creative, production, technology, consulting and innovation teams, we collaborate with clients to create impactful content and distribute it within the right ecosystems. Our offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Amsterdam, Dubai, and Singapore serve the world's largest brands and bridge the gap from concept to delivery.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Video and images to accompany this story available here: http://www.darnellworks.com/splashww/dco191.html
The European Investment Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

The European Investment Trust plc ("the Company")

The Company announces that on 7 March 2019 it purchased the following number of its ordinary shares of 25 pence each on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.

Ordinary Shares:

Date of purchase: 7 March 2019 Number of ordinary shares purchased: 40,000 Lowest price per share 804p Highest price per share 804p

The Company intends to cancel the purchased shares.

Following the above transaction, the Company has 40,696,769 ordinary shares in issue. Each of the Company's shares carries one vote. Accordingly, the total number of voting rights of the Company is 40,696,769.

8 March 2019

LEI: 213800QNN9EHZ4SC1R12

Enquiries:

Kenneth J Greig

Edinburgh Partners AIFM Limited

Tel: 0131 270 3800

The Company's registered office address is:

Beaufort House

51 New North Road

Exeter

EX4 4EP
LONDON, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- This meeting marks the start of the most important policy meetings in China. They set the direction for the economy in 2019. The news today was broadly in line with our expectations, with the growth target for 2019 revised down supported by modest additional policy stimulus, in the form of corporate value added tax cuts. The policy stimulus is skewed towards small companies; and the manufacturing, construction and transport industries - making it mildly positive news for commodity producers.

The 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's Parliament, began its annual two-week meeting on 5th of March. The NPC is arguably the most important policy meeting in China because it is when key macroeconomic targets are announced together with the policies required to support them. Here we set out our initial view and a full response will be available later this month.

This year's NPC has drawn attention given the US-China trade war, which has raised concerns about the pace of slowing growth in China, and the global economy more generally. The latter arising because China is the world's second largest economy, which has close trade and confidence links to many other economies in the world.

The important questions facing our clients are:

Will economic growth in China slow below the growth rates we have seen recently?

slow below the growth rates we have seen recently? Will China de -emphasise its environmental and credit deleveraging policies?

-emphasise its environmental and credit deleveraging policies? How much additional policy stimulus might we see in 2019 (as in 2008 and 2015)?

Will the stimulus be positive for commodity markets?

Is China "opening up" its market to foreign companies at a faster pace?

Growth target revised down to 6 - 6.5% in 2019

The Chinese economy grew by 6.6% in 2018, the lowest annual rate since 1990.

The growth target for 2018 was "about 6.5%". The growth target for 2019 has been revised down to the range "6-6.5%". This downgrade to the growth target was widely expected by the market, and it is in line with CRUs expectation and our global economic and industrial forecast.

Read the full story: https://www.crugroup.com/knowledge-and-insights/insights/2019/national-people-s-congress-2019-the-year-of-lower-growth-and-modest-stimulus/

Read more about CRU: http://bit.ly/About_CRU

About CRU

CRU offers unrivalled business intelligence on the global metals, mining and fertilizer industries through market analysis, price assessments, consultancy and events.

Since our foundation by Robert Perlman in 1969, we have consistently invested in primary research and robust methodologies, and developed expert teams in key locations worldwide, including in hard-to-reach markets such as China.

CRU employs over 280 experts and has more than 11 offices around the world, in Europe, the Americas, China, Asia and Australia - our office in Beijing opened in 2004 and Singapore in 2018.

When facing critical business decisions, you can rely on our first-hand knowledge to give you a complete view of a commodity market. And you can engage with our experts directly, for the full picture and a personalised response.

CRU - big enough to deliver a high-quality service, small enough to care about all of our customers.
Annual event to take place at Clontarf Castle Hotel, Dublin, on 4-6, June 2019

LONDON, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Matt Buttery, Head of Digital, Sky Ireland, and Mervyn Neary, Head of Change and Improvement, Sky Ireland, will lead a capstone keynote discussion, Transformational Visions for the Future, at the 13th Annual Customer Contact Europe: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange.

To register for the 13th Annual Customer Contact Europe: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange or to view the event agenda, please visit: https://www.customercontacteu.com/

Co-presenters Buttery and Neary will close the event with this unique, interactive Q&A keynote in which participants will be encouraged to boldly imagine the digital capabilities that could help transform their organizations in the (near) future. Key questions posed will include:

How might you use conversational user interface and bots to improve the digital experience?

How might you build a dynamic support model which flexes to demand?

How might you remove friction from sign-in without compromising security?

Participants will leave with valuable digital ideas and scenarios for future planning.

Jan Smets, Director Retail and Customer Care, bpost, will lead an Executive Insights session, Contact Centre Measurements: Driving Operations, Following Hypes or Indicators of Value Generation? Drawing from his recent 2018 book, "Contact Center Management: From Complaint Department to Value Center," he will examine how contact centre executives typically report their activities to the C-level: Do they systematically reinforce the value-contributing force of the contact centre? Do customers really dislike contact centre or is that a cliche that doesn't stand up to reality? Key takeaways from his session will include:

The evolution in the role and positioning of the contact centre

Insights on how contact centres typically report their activities

A fresh perspective on the "big picture" attempting to settle the eternal debates on whether NPS, CSAT, ESAT or CES is the more appropriate measurement

The 13th Annual Customer Contact Europe: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange will offer contact centre and customer experience executives the opportunity to benefit from dynamic collaboration zones fostering disruptive and transformational thinking and numerous networking opportunities with customer contact industry peers.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to leverage the latest customer service thinking for competitive advantage. For additional information, please email events.us@frost.com or contact Alan Bowman at +44 1865 398 644.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion

Contact:

Kristina Menzefricke

Corporate Communications - Europe

P: +44 (0) 208 996 8589

E: kristina.menzefricke@frost.com

www.frost.com
CHANGES TO DIRECTORS OF COCA-COLA EUROPEAN PARTNERS PLC

Coca-Cola European Partners plc (CCEP), announces that L. Phillip Humann and Curtis R. Welling have indicated that they do not intend to seek election to the Board at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May 2019. The Board has therefore appointed Dagmar Kollmann and Lord Mark Price to succeed them as Non-executive Directors with effect from the end of the AGM, subject to (i) receipt of the resignations of L. Phillip Humann and Curtis R. Welling and (ii) their election at the AGM.

L. Phillip Humann was appointed as a Non-executive Director of Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. in 1992 and as a Director of CCEP in May 2016, when CCEP was created following the merger. He is Chairman of the Nomination Committee of CCEP and has been instrumental in planning the orderly succession of independent Non-executive Directors, ensuring the effective representation of public shareholders. His experience of major companies and his expertise in banking and finance, coupled with his leadership and consensus building skills, have been particularly important to the Board in the years since the merger.

Curtis R. Welling was appointed as a Non-executive Director of Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. in 2007 and as a Director of CCEP in May 2016. He has been a member of the Affiliated Transaction and Corporate Social Responsibility Committees of the Board since his appointment as a Director of CCEP. His finance and business leadership skills, coupled with a strong understanding of the impact of business on communities, have been particularly helpful to the Board during his tenure.

Now that CCEP has largely completed its post-merger integration and synergy programme and is moving into the next stage of its evolution, both L. Phillip Humann and Curtis R. Welling have decided the time is right to step down from the Board.

Dagmar Kollmann brings a wealth of experience in finance and international listed groups to the Board. She is Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Pfandbriefbank and a Non-executive Director of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Deutsche Telekom and KfW IPEX Bank. She is also a Commissioner in the German Monopolies Commission. Previously, she spent 14 years with Morgan Stanley, the last two of which she served as Country Head and CEO for Germany and Austria as well as a Member of the Board of Morgan Stanley International Ltd in London. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, she was an Associate Director with UBS in London and began her career with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, based in New York.

Lord Mark Price brings to the Board his substantial experience in retail, gained working for the John Lewis Partnership (the Partnership). He was Managing Director of Waitrose from 2007 to 2016 and Deputy Chairman of the Partnership from 2013 to 2016. Prior to this he held a number of roles within the Partnership, including Managing Director of Partnerships and Development, where he was responsible for developing the Partnership's strategy, IT and development. He was a Non-executive Director and then Deputy Chairman of Channel 4, is a member of the Development Board of Lancaster University and is Chair of Trustees of Fairtrade. He is a member of the House of Lords and was Minister of State for Trade Policy from 2016 to 2018.

Sol Daurella, Chairman said, "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Phil and Curt for the significant contribution they have made to our business. They have supported us with diligence through the initial post-merger years and we wish them every success for the future. I would also like to welcome Dagmar and Mark. I look forward to working with them and the rest of the Board as we start the next chapter of CCEP's story."

CONTACTS

Company Secretariat

Clare Wardle

T +44 20 7355 8406 Investor Relations

Sarah Willett

+44 7970 145 218 Media Relations

Shanna Wendt

T +44 7976 595 168

ABOUT CCEP

Coca-Cola European Partners plc is a leading consumer goods company in Western Europe, selling, making and distributing an extensive range of nonalcoholic ready-to-drink beverages and is the world's largest independent Coca-Cola bottler based on revenue. Coca-Cola European Partners serves a consumer population of over 300 million across Western Europe, including Andorra, Belgium, continental France, Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. The Company is listed on Euronext Amsterdam, the New York Stock Exchange, Euronext London and on the Spanish stock exchanges, trading under the symbol CCEP. For more information about CCEP, please visit our website at www.ccep.com and follow CCEP on Twitter at @CocaColaEP.

------------------------



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8 March 2019

Acacia Mining plc

LSE:ACA

("Acacia" or the "Company")

Statement on North Mara

Acacia notes media reports that the Government of Tanzania ("GoT") has directed the North Mara mine ("the Mine") to resolve an incident that resulted in the spillage of water into the local environment. The spillage resulted from a security incident in which sections of the pipe used to transport water from the polishing pond to the Tailing Storage Facility ("TSF") were either vandalised or stolen. The incident led to the switching off of the pump used to transport water to the TSF, and the water level in the polishing pond subsequently overflowed. Following the Mine's remedial actions, the temporary overspill from the pond has been stopped.

The Mine has welcomed the support of the Government on resolving this issue, and is working closely with the authorities to implement improvements to security measures around the polishing pond in order to help prevent any reoccurrence.

Acacia further notes that the Mine's technical team is currently working with the GoT within an agreed timeframe to address their concerns regarding seepage from the TSF, as previously disclosed on 10 January 2019. The Mine has undertaken to manage all seepage through the use of additional pumps and construction of other containment facilities to return any seepage to the TSF and ensure it is confined to the mine site. All seepage will be contained on the site, not flow into the surrounding environment or present a risk of contamination to any public water source.

In January 2019, the Government issued a directive to the Mine to construct a new TSF. The Mine has commenced planning and design for a new TSF, and is working with the Government to progress the construction of a new TSF to support its future mine production plans.

Operations at the Mine remain unaffected. Acacia will provide further updates as required.

ENQUIRIES

For further information, please visit our website: http://www.acaciamining.com/ or contact:

Acacia Mining plc +44 (0) 20 7129 7150

Sally Marshak, Head of Investor Relations and Communications

Camarco +44 (0) 20 3757 4980

Gordon Poole / Nick Hennis

About ACACIA

Acacia Mining plc (LSE:ACA) is the UK holding company of the Acacia Group, Tanzania's largest gold miner and one of the largest producers of gold in Africa. The Acacia Group has three mines, all located in north-west Tanzania: Bulyanhulu, which is owned and operated by Bulyanhulu Gold Mine Limited, Buzwagi, which is owned and operated by Pangea Minerals Limited and North Mara, which is owned and operated by North Mara Gold Mine Limited. The Acacia Group also has a portfolio of exploration projects in Kenya, Burkina Faso and Mali. Acacia Mining plc is a UK public company headquartered in London. It is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange with a secondary listing on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange. Barrick Gold Corporation is the majority shareholder of Acacia Mining plc.

Disclaimer and forward-looking statements

This announcement is for information purposes only and does not constitute an invitation or offer to underwrite, subscribe for or otherwise acquire or dispose of any securities of Acacia in any jurisdiction. This announcement includes "forward-looking statements" that express or imply expectations of future events or results as opposed to historical facts. These statements include, financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future production, operations, costs, projects, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "plans," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates" and other similar expressions. All forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Acacia, which could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements contained herein. Factors that could cause or contribute to differences between the actual results, performance and achievements of Acacia include, but are not limited to, changes or developments in political, economic or business conditions or national or local legislation or regulation in countries in which Acacia conducts - or may in the future conduct - business, industry trends, competition, fluctuations in the spot and forward price of gold or certain other commodity prices (such as copper and diesel), currency fluctuations (including the US dollar, South African rand, Kenyan shilling and Tanzanian shilling exchange rates), Acacia's ability to successfully integrate acquisitions, Acacia's ability to recover its reserves or develop new reserves, including its ability to convert its resources into reserves and its mineral potential into resources or reserves, and to process its mineral reserves successfully and in a timely manner, Acacia's ability to complete land acquisitions required to support its mining activities, operational or technical difficulties which may occur in the context of mining activities, delays and technical challenges associated with the completion of projects, risk of trespass, theft and vandalism, changes in Acacia's business strategy and ongoing implementation of operational reviews, as well as risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development, mining and production and risks and factors affecting the gold mining industry in general. Although Acacia's management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, Acacia cannot give assurances that such statements will prove to be correct. Accordingly, investors should not place reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this announcement. Any forward-looking statements in this announcement only reflect information available at the time of preparation. Save as required under the Market Abuse Regulation or otherwise as may be required under applicable law, Acacia explicitly disclaims any obligation or undertaking publicly to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this announcement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Nothing in this announcement should be construed as a profit forecast or estimate and no statement made should be interpreted to mean that Acacia's profits or earnings per share for any future period will necessarily match or exceed its historical published profits or earnings per share.
WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESSWIRE / March 8, 2019 / Today, International Women's Day 2019, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is highlighting its focus on women's issues in the Arab and Muslim world. The MEMRI Women's Studies Initiative researches, examines, translates, and analyzes Arab and Muslim primary media sources in order to report on women's status, struggles, and triumphs across the region, and aims to help advance women's rights in the region. All research of the Women's Studies Initiative is available at its dedicated Tumblr page.

The Women's Studies Initiative is a major component of the MEMRI Reform Project. Established in 2002, the Reform Project identifies and supports advocates of reform and human rights in the Arab and Muslim world who speak out against violent extremism and anti-Semitism.

MEMRI research and translation efforts highlighting voices of reform in the Arab and Muslim world are crucial resources for informing policymakers, media organizations, and the public at large. The aim of the MEMRI Reform Project is to provide Arab and Muslim reformists with platforms from which they can reach out to their societies and to religious, political, and educational leaders, and to provide Western policymakers with a solid basis for long-term strategic plans for supporting their efforts. The project includes MEMRI translations of articles by reformists and videos featuring them discussing reform, as well as analysis pieces on relevant topics.

Today, MEMRI is asking for your help to allow us to continue this important work - please consider supporting the Reform Project with a tax-deductible donation. You can also subscribe to the Reform Project to receive all the latest updates.

It is only because of its supporters that MEMRI can continue this important work. Please support MEMRI's work TODAY with a tax-deductible donation. MEMRI is a 501(c)(3) organization. Every dollar of every donation is tax-deductible.

MEMRI's current patrons understand the value and uniqueness of its work. Please consider helping sustain MEMRI for the long term with a recurring monthly donation. Also, donating online minimizes our administrative costs. Gifts may also be mailed to MEMRI at P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837.

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SOURCE: MEMRI

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/538418/International-Womens-Day-2019-Please-Support-The-MEMRI-Womens-Studies-Initiative
Further to the announcement on 7 February 2019, and following an update this week from the Company's auditors, KPMG, the Board now expects to be in a position to approve and publish the 2018 Financial Report on or before the 29 th March 2019 and will be applying to the FCA to lift the suspension of listing of the Shares at the same time. The Board will continue to work with the Company's auditor to reduce the timetable.

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.
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / March 8, 2019 / Xebec Adsorption Inc. (TSXV: XBC) (OTC PINK: XEBEF) (FRANKFURT: XB6) ("Xebec"), a global provider of renewable gas solutions today announced that it will be presenting at the second annual LD Micro Virtual Conference on Tuesday, March 12th at 1:40PM EST. Kurt Sorschak, President and CEO of Xebec, will be giving the presentation and answering questions from investors.

You can access the presentation at the following link: https://www.webcaster4.com/Player/Index?webcastId=29664&g=54442321-33b7-4ee2-b287-d73826ecac1a&uid=5140788&sid=

"Xebec provides gas upgrading equipment to produce renewable gases (namely renewable natural gas or RNG) from waste. Our world-leading technology platform allows projects to achieve the lowest operating costs and highest reliability. In a world fast transitioning to renewable energy, there is mounting pressure to achieve carbon reduction targets. Renewable gases are the most effective way of doing so. Organizations worldwide are starting to recognize its economical viability - resulting in orders of magnitude for renewable gas production way beyond current levels."

Kurt Sorschak, President and CEO, Xebec

"We are delighted to be hosting our second virtual event in order to showcase some of the truly unique names in micro-cap" stated Chris Lahiji, President of LD Micro. "There are a great number of people and companies who are unable to attend our live events, due to any number of reasons, so we are happy to offer an additional way for companies to present to investors without taking a lot of time out of their day-to-day operations. While virtual events will never replace the experience of sitting in the same room as other humans, it is a great format for updating the investor community and getting increased exposure."

The conference will be held via webcast and will feature over 40 companies in the small / micro-cap space. For those interested in attending, please contact David Scher at david@ldmicro.com or visit www.ldmicro.com for more information.

For more information on Xebec:

Xebec Adsorption Inc.

Sandi Murphy, Director, Marketing and Investor Relations

+1 450.979.8718 smurphy@xebecinc.com

View Xebec's profile here: http://www.ldmicro.com/profile/XBC.V

________________________________________

Profiles powered by LD Micro - News Compliments of Accesswire

About Xebec Adsorption Inc.

Xebec Adsorption Inc. is a global provider of gas generation, purification and filtration solutions for the industrial, energy and renewables marketplace. Its customers range from small to multi-national corporations and governments looking to reduce their carbon footprints. Headquartered in Montreal (QC), Xebec designs, engineers and manufactures innovative and transformative products, and has more than 1,500 customers worldwide. With two manufacturing facilities in Montreal and Shanghai, as well as a sales and distribution network in North America, Europe, and Asia, Xebec trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol XBC. For additional information on the company, its products and services, visit Xebec at xebecinc.com.

About LD Micro

LD Micro was founded in 2006 with the sole purpose of being an independent resource in the microcap space. What started out as a newsletter highlighting unique companies has transformed into an event platform hosting several influential conferences annually (Invitational, Summit, and Main Event).

In 2015, LDM launched the first pure microcap index (the LDMi) to exclusively provide intraday information on the entire sector. LD will continue to provide valuable tools for the benefit of everyone in the small and microcap universe.

SOURCE: Xebec Adsorption Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/538383/Xebec-to-Present-at-the-2019-LD-Micro-Virtual-Conference
NEW YORK, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --In its latest report, titled 'Pineapple Powder Market: Global Industry Analysis (2013-2017) and Forecast (2018-2027)', PMR gives some important information on the global scenario of the pineapple powder market in terms of volume and value. The global pineapple powder market is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR of 7.1% in terms of value during the forecast period. PMR gives some vital insights along with forecasting factors of the global pineapple powder market .

Pineapple is a popular tropical fruit with high concentrations of antioxidants and vitamin C. Pineapple powder is a yellowish free-flowing powder obtained after the further processing of pineapple juice. Pineapple powder has a typical flavor, taste, and nutritive value. Pineapple powder contains a fruit enzyme called 'bromelain', which offers various health benefits to humans. Pineapple powder is used in the manufacturing and processing of food products such as supplements, infant food, bakery & confectionery products, convenience food, dairy products, pet food, etc., due to its flavor and nutritional offerings.

Get PDF Brochure for Research Insights at: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/27466

The increasing demand for food additives that add to the nutritional value as well as provide a tangy flavor is one of the major factors driving the growth of the pineapple powder market. Moreover, longer shelf life, and ease of transport and use are some other important drivers of the global pineapple powder market. However, high cost and erratic supply and quality of raw materials are some of the factors that are hindering the pineapple powder market from reaching its full potential.

Global Pineapple Powder Market: Outlook

By nature, the conventional segment is expected have the largest share of around 92.5% in 2018, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.8% over the forecast period, due to ease in availability and lower prices as compared to organic pineapple powder. By technique used for the preparation of pineapple powder the market is segmented in to spray drying, freeze drying, and other techniques, the spray drying technique segment is estimated to be a prominent segment, and is projected to grow at a significant CAGR of 7.5%. By end use, the convenience food segment is estimated to have the largest share of 28.8% in 2018, and is projected to remain dominant during the forecast period, owing to the growing popularity of pineapple flavored smoothies and ready-to-drink juice mixes, as well as the increasing demand for convenience food. In the pineapple powder market, by distribution channel, the business to business segment is expected to remain dominant over the forecast period, due to the growing demand of pineapple powder as food ingredients in varied food applications.

Request a TOC of Report: https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/27466

North America Expected to be a Dominant Region in the Global Pineapple Powder Market

The global pineapple powder market can be segmented at regional level into Asia Pacific, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, and the Middle East & Africa. North America dominates the global pineapple powder market. This region is expected to hold the largest share in 2018, and is expected to be the largest market over the forecast period too, owing to the high consumption of processed and convenience food, as well as the presence of some key players in the pineapple powder market. However, the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the global pineapple powder market over the forecast period, owing to the increasing number of emerging players in the pineapple powder space, as well as the growing demand for processed food products and ingredients. The markets in Latin America and Eastern Europe are expected to grow at healthy CAGRs in the global pineapple powder market during the forecast period.

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Key Players in the Pineapple Powder Market

This report throws light on the trends and opportunities in various segments to give vital and detailed insights, as well as analysis on the growth of the global pineapple powder market. Pineapple powder market report provides a detail competitive landscape of key players in the pineapple powder market space. Key product offerings, long- and short-term strategies, as well as the global presence of key players have been provided in company profile section of pineapple powder report. The report also highlights recent developments in the global pineapple powder market.

Some of the key players in the global pineapple powder market that are profiled in the current report include Harmony House Foods, Inc., Modernist Pantry LLC, Aarkay Food Products Ltd., Hainan Nicepal Industry Co. Ltd, Shaanxi Dongyu Bio-Tech Co. Ltd, Morriko Pure Foods Pvt. Ltd, DAMCO Phytochem & Research LLP, Foods & Inns, Paradiesfrucht GmbH, FutureCeuticals, NutraDry, and others.

Browse Research Release at @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/mediarelease/pineapple-powder-market.asp

The Global Pineapple Powder Market has been segmented as presented below:

Global Pineapple Powder Market, By Geography:

North America

Latin America

Europe

China

Japan

South East Asia & Other APAC

& Other APAC Middle East & Africa

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Company plans to use its technology to disrupt traditional customer service models

PolyAI, a platform for conversational artificial intelligence, today announced $12 million in Series A funding. The investment round was led by Point72 Ventures and included investments from Sands Capital Ventures, Amadeus Capital Partners, Passion Capital, and Entrepreneur First. This follows an earlier $2.4 million seed round, led by Amadeus Capital Partners and Passion Capital.

PolyAI's platform powers conversational AI agents that guide users through complex customer support scenarios. The agents are based on PolyAI's proprietary machine learning and natural language processing technology, which allows them to scale seamlessly across different use cases and world languages.

"Developing sophisticated AI technology while formulating a compelling SaaS proposition is a significant challenge, and it has delayed the real-world deployment of conversational AI for far too long," said Nikola Mrksic, PolyAI co-founder and CEO. "Attempts to bring modern AI to customer support have been largely unsuccessful due to a lack of data and insufficient understanding of contact center operations. To make rapid progress, we plan to pursue very close integration with existing contact centres."

"Our machine learning platform works to empower human agents, not replace them," Shawn Wen, PolyAI co-founder and CTO said. "Our AI agents learn by listening to humans then, they provide suggestions and improve through feedback. They can do many things that we as humans struggle with. They have instant access to all relevant information and can speak any world language. At peak times, they can handle calls autonomously if human agents are not available." Mrksic added: "Ultimately, AI agents are not a replacement for the human touch, which is essential for great customer experience. However, automation is key for changing the economics of a contact centre if the AI agents can deal with the most routine use cases, this leaves the more complex cases to humans, where they can bring the most value."

The London startup was founded in 2017 with a core team of scientists and engineers from Cambridge's Dialog Systems Group. The CEO and co-founder, Nikola Mrksic, was the first engineer at VocalIQ, a start-up that developed proprietary software to improve dialogue interactions in voice-activated systems, sold to Apple in 2015 to be integrated with Siri.

"We believe strongly in the potential for AI to transform existing industries by improving both customer satisfaction and workforce efficiency, and we're thrilled to support PolyAI's mission to build the world's most advanced call centres," said Sri Chandrasekar, Partner at Point72 Ventures. "Nikola, Shawn, and Eddy have put together an impressive team of builders and engineers at PolyAI who are poised to modernize this important aspect of customer service."

Hermann Hauser, Co-Founder and Venture Partner, Amadeus Capital Partners, said: "PolyAI has identified, in customer experience, a major market in need of intelligent automation. They have a deep knowledge of how conversational AI can enhance human interaction and communication in order to transform the customer service experience. Amadeus is pleased to support this exceptionally smart and proven team as they build out the business."

About PolyAI

PolyAI is a London-based technology company with a state-of-the-art machine learning platform for creating conversational agents. The PolyAI platform empowers contact centres, allowing them to deliver the next-generation of customer experience at a fraction of the cost paid by their competitors. PolyAI's conversational AI agents understand users and can hold conversations without getting confused. They are available 24/7 and can easily scale to support new use cases or to speak almost any world language.

About Point72 Ventures

Point72 Ventures is a global venture capital firm led by a diverse set of domain experts with the capital to lead rounds through all stages of company growth. The firm invests primarily in Fintech, AI/ML, and Enterprise technologies. As an independent arm of Point72, the global asset management firm led by Steven A. Cohen, Point72 Ventures offers well-informed insights into the global economy. Point72 Ventures has offices in New York City, Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Stamford, Connecticut.

About Amadeus Capital Partners

Amadeus Capital Partners is a global technology investor. Since 1997, the firm has raised over $1bn for investment and used it to back more than 130 companies. With vast experience and a great network, Amadeus' team of investors and entrepreneurs share a passion for the transformative power of technology. We invest in consumer services, financial technology, artificial intelligence, cyber security, medical technology, digital healthcare and digital media.

Early stage investments we've made include genomic research data collaboration platform Repositive, massively parallel simulation platform Improbable; Graphcore, innovators in intelligent microprocessors, and speech recognition company VocalIQ (acquired by Apple). To learn more visit https://amadeuscapital.com and follow us on Twitter @AmadeusCapital.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005036/en/

Contacts:

Press:

Nikola Mrksic

+447869767467

nikola@poly-ai.com

Tiffany Galvin-Cohen

(203) 890-2052

Tiffany.galvin-cohen@point72.com
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - March 8, 2019) - NetworkNewsAudio announces the Audio Press Release (APR) titled "Growing Demand for Nickel for Batteries Drives Increased Investments in Indonesian Nickel Sector," featuring Pacific Rim Cobalt Corporation (OTCQB: PCRCF) (CSE: BOLT).

To hear the NetworkNewsAudio version, visit: http://nnw.fm/Io88C

To read the full editorial, visit: http://nnw.fm/W474y

Located on the western rim of the Pacific, Indonesia is well positioned for exporting to China, the world's largest consumer of battery metals. China has seen massive economic development in recent decades, thanks to the modernizing efforts of the country's leaders. While modernization can be hard to balance with environmental protection, the Chinese leadership are well aware of the problems caused by environmental degradation, not the least of which is due to the heavy pollution in major Chinese cities. Those leaders are therefore encouraging clean alternatives, leading to a boom in electric car research and development.

Investing in exports to China is a sound strategy for any company specializing in battery metals. The country not only produces batteries for its own use but also makes them for export, thus creating a fresh wave of demand for nickel in a country that drove a previous nickel boom just after the millennium. This boom is drawing more companies to Indonesia. By setting up a fresh nickel and cobalt mining operation within easy reach of China, Pacific Rim is tapping into both supply and demand, ensuring an accessible market for its products.

About Pacific Rim Cobalt Corp.

Pacific Rim Cobalt Corp. is a Canadian publicly listed company currently focused on the development of cobalt projects within Indonesia. The company believes cobalt will be the next dominant investment trend related to the critical components of lithium-ion batteries. Cobalt is currently in a global supply deficit, has a vulnerable supply chain, and is part of an emerging sector with extraordinary potential. For more information, visit the company's website at www.PacificRimCobalt.com.

About NetworkNewsAudio

NetworkNewsAudio (NNA) , a NetworkNewsWire (NNW) Solution, allows you to sit back and listen to market updates, CEO interviews and a Company AudioPressRelease (APR). These audio clips provide snapshots of position, opportunity and momentum. NetworkNewsAudio (NNA) can assist your company by cutting through the overload of information in today's market, NNA brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. NetworkNewsWire (NNW) is where news, content and information converge. NetworkNewsWire (NNW) is a comprehensive provider of news aggregation and syndication, enhanced press release services and a full array of social communication solutions. As a multifaceted financial news and distribution company with an extensive team of journalists and writers, NNW has the unparalleled ability to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public with an ever-growing distribution network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets across the nation.

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Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the NetworkNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by NNW, wherever published or re-published: http://NNW.fm/Disclaimer.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the company's SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

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www.NetworkNewsWire.com

212.418.1217 Office

Editor@NetworkWire.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/43306
CHICAGO, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --According to the new market research report "Autonomous Aircraft Market by Technology (Increasingly Autonomous, and Fully Autonomous), End Use (Commercial, Combat & ISR, Cargo, Passenger Air Vehicle, Personal Air Vehicle, Air Medical Services), Component, and Region - Global Forecast 2030", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Autonomous Aircraft Market is projected to grow from an estimated USD 3.6 billion in 2018 to 23.7 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 17.06% from 2018 to 2030. Increased cost savings, reduction in human error due to increased autonomy, and advancements in artificial intelligence are some of the key factors driving the autonomous aircraft market.

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https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=79798352

Based on technology, the fully autonomous segment of the autonomous aircraft market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2018 to 2030

Based on technology, the fully autonomous segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Growth of this segment can be attributed to increasing autonomy in aircraft and the move towards the development of fully autonomous aircraft in future. Currently, few military UAVs operate with fully autonomous capabilities. While the current commercial aircraft are becoming increasingly autonomous due to the installation of autonomous components which have eased the workload of pilots. The goal of the industry is to make these commercial aircraft fully autonomous as well as introduce new passenger and personal air vehicles along with commercial delivery drones that will be fully autonomous. Thus, the fully autonomous segment is expected to see high growth in this market.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Autonomous Aircraft Market"

75 - Tables

45 - Figures

143 - Pages

Based on component, the propulsion system segment of the autonomous aircraft market is projected to be the fastest-growing market during the forecast period

The propulsion system segment of the autonomous aircraft market is projected to be the fastest-growing segment during the forecast period. Growth of this segment can be attributed to the advancements in propulsion technology to result in minimum or zero emission, and its capability to work autonomously.

Rest of the World is expected to be the fastest-growing autonomous aircraft market during the forecast period

Rest of the World is expected to be the fastest-growing market during the forecast period. Rest of the World consists of region including Middle East, Africa and Latin America, Growth is largely due to an increase in autonomous aircraft for air medical services in Africa. Along with this, the rise in urban air mobility in countries such as Dubai, where regulatory bodies are working in favor of commercialization of these technologies, is resulting in high growth of Rest of the World.

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Key players in the autonomous aircraft market include Boeing (US), Airbus (France), Lockheed Martin (US), Northrop Grumman (US), and Elbit Systems (Israel), among others. These market players have been focusing on securing contracts from airlines and governments, as well as developing partnerships and adopting the mergers & acquisitions strategy to grow within the market. The core competencies of these market players include their widespread geographical presence and increased investments in R&D activities.

Along with the key established players, various start-ups have entered the space of autonomous aircraft to develop their concepts of air taxi, personal air vehicles, and cargo drones. These concepts are being actively developed with the future technology of fully autonomous air travel. These start-ups are, Kitty Hawk, Volocopter GmbH, WING, LIFT, and Joby Aviation, among others.

Please Explore Relevant Reports:

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Market by Application (ISR, Precision Agriculture, Product Delivery), Class (Tactical, MALE, HALE, UCAV), System (Avionics, Sensors, Payload), MTOW (<25Kg, 25-150Kg, >150kg), Range, Type, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025

Flight Management Systems (FMS) Market by Hardware (Control Display Unit, Visual Display Unit, Flight Management Computer), Aircraft Type (NBA, WBA, VLA, RTA), Fit (Line Fit, Retrofit) and Region - Global Forecast to 2021

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 7500 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, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 8, 2019 / The young Chinese Paris - Based designer, Liu Chao, will unveil through a fashion-show his new Fall-Winter 2019/2020 collection Sunday 3rd March at 7pm at the Hotel Salomon Rothschild: 11 rue Berryer, 75008 Paris.

Chao has studied art history at La Sorbonne, fashion design at Studio Bercot, where he graduated in 2011, meanwhile he also mastered a training at the Maison Lesage in Haute Couture embroideries. In 2013, he worked for Hermes and Celine for four years. Liu Chao was eager to offer a ready-to- wear range of clothes to an international clientele, marring his passion for high-end fabrics and his sensitiveness to the French know-how, he created his eponymous brand.

In 2016 he was willing to go relatively further, displaying his admiration for the Metiers d'Art, his fashion's vision and the technicality of his skills.

Chao proposes a "ready to wear with the haute couture spirit" wardrobe collection, a daily wear couture, contemporary and uninhibited. His new collection will disclose "Esprit Couture" with 35 revisited creations.

This collection Liu Chao was searching the "neutrality" culture since the beginning of the time, trying to combine the business women from the 80s, Peter Burns's neutrality dress code and the French haute couture spirit together. In this collection, the designer has used a lot of velvet as material. The woman to whom he speaks is an independent woman, strong, with character, who has self-confidence and who is interested in fashion. She wants a wardrobe that allows her to go to work as well as to go out in the evening. All the accessories she wears on this runway are pieces found on the Paris flea markets.

For this collection's art direction, Liu Chao worked with the Bamboo Art, the brand is originated from a traditional publishing house with over a four-hundred-year history called "The Ten Bamboo Hall" Rooted in unique traditional art appreciation under contemporary circumstances in China, the brand dedicated to promote the integration between art and other industries. The Bamboo Art contributes to building a humanistic and responsible organisation by launching diverse projects such as supporting academic research, recovering traditional artwork, promoting communication with international scholars, exploring the modernization process of intangible cultural heritage and so on.

" It is a real honour for me to collaborate with Bamboo Art who contains the most amazing Chinese heritage art work, which is a huge inspiration for my work". - Liu Chao

contact@liuchaoparis.com

SOURCE: liuchaoparis

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/538490/Paris-Fashion-Week--LIU-CHAO-2019FW-Esprit-Couture
MONTREAL, CA / ACCESSWIRE / March 8, 2019 / Medexus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (the "Company" or "Medexus") (TSXV: MDP, OTCQB: PDDPF) today announced that it will be presenting at the second annual LD Micro Virtual Conference on Tuesday, March 12th at 10:20 AM EST / 7:20 AM PST. Ken d'Entremont, Chief Executive Officer and Roland Boivin, Chief Financial Officer, of Medexus, will be giving the presentation and answering questions from investors.

You can access the presentation at the following link: https://www.webcaster4.com/Player/Index?webcastId=29684&g=0b7c79ec-bd01-4073-9593-82f888cd13ff&uid=5145231&sid

"We are delighted to be hosting our second virtual event in order to showcase some of the truly unique names in micro-cap," stated Chris Lahiji, President of LD Micro. "There are a great number of people and companies who are unable to attend our live events, due to any number of reasons, so we are happy to offer an additional way for companies to present to investors without taking a lot of time out of their day-to-day operations. While virtual events will never replace the experience of sitting in the same room as other humans, it is a great format for updating the investor community and getting increased exposure."

The conference will be held via webcast and will feature over 40 companies in the small / micro-cap space.

View Medexus Pharmaceuticals' profile here: https://www.ldmicro.com/profile/MDP.V

Profiles powered by LD Micro - News Compliments of Accesswire

About LD Micro

LD Micro was founded in 2006 with the sole purpose of being an independent resource in the microcap space. What started out as a newsletter highlighting unique companies has transformed into an event platform hosting several influential conferences annually (Invitational, Summit, and Main Event).

In 2015, LDM launched the first pure microcap index (the LDMi) to exclusively provide intraday information on the entire sector. LD will continue to provide valuable tools for the benefit of everyone in the small and microcap universe.

For those interested in attending, please contact David Scher at david@ldmicro.com or visit www.ldmicro.com for more information.

About Medexus

Medexus is a leading specialty pharmaceutical company with a strong North American commercial platform. The Company's vision is to provide the best healthcare products to healthcare professionals and patients, through our highly trained U.S. and Canadian sales force. Medexus has a diversified and growing product portfolio, including products within the therapeutic areas of auto-immune, pediatric, allergy, oncology, and non-prescription products. Several of Company's lead products include Rasuvo and Metoject, a unique formulation of methotrexate (auto-pen and pre-filled syringe) designed to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other auto-immune diseases; and Rupall, an innovative prescription allergy medication with a unique mode of action. Additional information is available on the Company's website: www.medexus.com.

For more information, please contact:

Ken d'Entremont, Chief Executive Officer

Medexus Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Tel.: 905-676-0003

E-mail: ken.dentremont@medexusinc.com

Roland Boivin, Chief Financial Officer

Medexus Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Tel.: 514-762-2626 ext. 202

E-mail: roland.boivin@medexusinc.com

Investor Relations (U.S.):

Crescendo Communications, LLC

Tel: +1-212-671-1020

Email: mdp@crescendo-ir.com

Investor Relations (Canada):

Frank Candido

Direct Financial Strategies and Communication Inc.

Tel: 514-969-5530

E-mail: frank.candido@medexusinc.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.

READER ADVISORIES

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to future business operation, the timing of regulatory approvals, the success of certain drug therapies and results. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, the risk that the Company will not receive regulatory approvals in a timely manner or at all, the results of certain drug therapies and their impact on the Company's profitability, the Company's business plans, and other risks disclosed in the Company's public disclosure record on file with the relevant securities regulatory authorities. Although Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking information addresses future events and conditions, by its very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking information and, accordingly, no assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking information will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that Company will derive therefrom. Management has included the above summary of assumptions and risks related to forward-looking information provided in this press release in order to provide securityholders with a more complete perspective on the Company's future operations and such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing lists of factors are not exhaustive. Additional information on these and other factors that could affect the Company's operations or financial results are included in reports on file with applicable securities regulatory authorities and may be accessed through the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com). The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities legislation.

SOURCE: Medexus Pharmaceuticals Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/538454/Medexus-to-Present-at-the-2019-LD-Micro-Virtual-Conference
Private Equity Holding AG / Net Asset Value as of February 28, 2019 . Processed and transmitted by West Corporation. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

NEWS RELEASE

Zug, March 8, 2019

Net Asset Value as of February 28, 2019

The Net Asset Value of one registered share of Private Equity Holding AG stood at EUR 83.91 (CHF 95.28) as of February 28, 2019. This represents an increase of 1.4% in EUR and 1.1% in CHF, respectively, since January 31, 2019.

The increase results from positive valuation adjustments for venture capital funds Evolution Technology and Highland Europe I and II, listed position Enanta Pharmaceuticals and supportive FX movements.

Noteworthy distributions came from Institutional Venture Partners XIII from the sale of Mindbody, Inc., a cloud-based business management software for the wellness services industry, and Warburg Pincus X from the IPO of Antero Resources, an independent oil and natural gas company.

PEH committed USD 8.6 million to ABRY Partners IX, a fund focusing on mid-market buyouts in North American media companies. PEH has been an investor in the ABRY family of funds for many years and this commitment marks a further continuation of this successful relationship.

Private Equity Holding is intensifying its investor relations activities with group and individual presentations in several Swiss cities over the next few months. Interested parties may contact info@peh.ch.

The enclosed monthly newsletter shows the development of the NAV, the share price as well as certain balance sheet data and portfolio key figures.

***

Private Equity Holding AG (SIX: PEHN) offers investors the opportunity to invest, within a simple legal and tax optimized structure, in a broadly diversified and professionally managed private equity portfolio.





For further information, please contact:

Anna Knaub, Investor Relations, anna.knaub@peh.ch (mailto:anna.knaub@peh.ch), phone +41 41 726 79 80, http://www.peh.ch (http://www.peh.ch)

The basis of the Net Asset Value Calculation and Disclaimer

The number of outstanding shares used for calculation of the Net Asset Value per share amounted to 2,606,071 as of February 28, 2019 (January 31, 2019: 2,606,071). The calculations are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and pursuant to the guidelines of Invest Europe (formerly known as the European Venture Capital Association). The valuations of the fund investments are based on the most recent reported net asset values (NAVs) of the funds. In estimating the fair value of unquoted direct investments, Private Equity Holding AG considers the most appropriate market valuation techniques. The fair value of listed direct investments is the market value. The NAV of Private Equity Holding AG is calculated at the end of each month under a going concern assumption and usually published within six trading days after the cut-off date. The different reporting cut-off dates of the individual companies and funds in which participations are held can lead to short-term distortions and cause discrepancies between the published NAV and the actual total value of Private Equity Holding AG's net assets.

NAV February 2019 (http://hugin.info/130308/R/2238028/881809.pdf)


TORONTO, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --

BMO Financial Group (TSX: BMO) (NYSE: BMO) today announced that it has filed its 2019 Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders and Management Proxy Circular with applicable securities regulators and has mailed it to common shareholders of Bank of Montreal. The document is available on the bank's website at https://www.bmo.com/home/about/banking/investor-relations/annual-general-meeting, as well as on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at http://www.sec.gov.

BMO's Annual Meeting of Shareholders will be held at the BMO Institute for Learning, in Toronto, on Tuesday, April 2, 2019, at 9:30 a.m. EDT. The Management Proxy Circular contains key information for shareholders regarding the meeting and the items to be voted on, which are the election of directors, the appointment of auditors, the advisory vote on the bank's approach to executive compensation, as well as two shareholders proposals. A detailed description of these items is contained in the circular.

Fiscal 2018 was a good year for the bank, with Adjusted Net Income of $6 billion, an increase of 9% from the previous year. The dividends declared grew by 6.2%. At the end of fiscal 2018, Total Shareholder Return exceeded both the three- and five-year peer-group average, as well as the S&P/TSX composite index.

Underscoring BMO's commitment to values-based leadership and ethical business practices, the bank has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, as one of the 2019 World's Most Ethical Companies. BMO has been named to the index for two years in a row.

Earlier this year, BMO was named to the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI). The index measures gender equality across internal company statistics, employee policies, external community support and engagement, and gender-conscious product offerings.

About BMO Financial Group

Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial services provider - the 8th largest bank, by assets, in North America. With total assets of $807 billion as of January 31, 2019, and a team of diverse and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.

For News Media Enquiries: Paul Gammal, Toronto, paul.gammal@bmo.com, +1-(416)-867-3996; For Investor Relations Enquiries: Jill Homenuk, Toronto, jill.homenuk@bmo.com, +1-(416)-867-4770; Christine Viau, Toronto, christine.viau@bmo.com , +1-(416)-867-6956.
Gender pay gap is still high in India, as women in the country earn 19 percent less than men, and wage inequalities in favour of men are present in all the relevant sectors, a survey said

International Women's Day is an occasion celebrating women and their achievements. The theme for 2019 International Womens Day 2019 is Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for a Change. But how much has the talk and discussion regarding women in the workplace really changed the on-ground?

At Firstpost, we spoke to a few organisations to find out what do they consider balanced workplaces, how much of their policies are crafted with women employees voicing their opinions, and what do they think needs to be done to retain and increase women employees in the organisation.

With the world becoming more complex, workplaces too are affected by this complexity. The key then is to balance many competing demands and responsibility through culture, said Kanchana TK, Director General, Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI). It is through culture that organisations get things done she said.

An organisation should work towards creating and nurturing a culture of development, while also encouraging employees to be good parents, partners, and community members, said Aadesh Goyal, Chief Human Resources Officer at Tata Communications Ltd.

Gender disparity is a major issue. India has been ranked 108th in World Economic Forum (WEF) gender gap index, same as 2017 while recording improvement in wage equality for similar work and fully closing its tertiary education gender gap for the first time.

As per the WEF's Global Gender Gap Report 2018, while India has many challenges as it ranks 142nd out of 149 countries in the economic opportunity and participation subindex, it also has a few achievements. The gender gap was measured across four key pillars -- economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, and health and survival.

"It (India) needs to make improvements across the board, from women's participation to getting more women into senior and professional roles," WEF said.

Though several companies strive to achieve a healthy gender ratio at entry-level positions, the numbers start dwindling significantly as they go up the senior levels, said Pallavi Dhawan, Director Human Resources at Dun and Bradstreet.

This impacts not only business outcomes but also the overall culture of the organisation, with female workforce particularly feeling disconnected from decision-making. At Dun and Bradstreet India, we realised this early on and have endeavoured to maintain a healthy 70:30 ratio of males to females across levels, right from the entry to the leadership level and we intend to accelerate this further, she said.

There are challenges which are sector-specific too. A unique challenge in the pharma industry is that women are perceived as missing from the sales force, said Kanchana TK.

Our member companies are leading the way in bringing more women into this realm by focusing on their safety or assigning them a territory closer home. Sanofi, for instance, through EMPOWER bridges the huge gap of women in sales to overcome self-limiting beliefs and take charge of their careers, she said.

Equality at work goes beyond the usual parameters of equal pay and smashing the glass ceiling, said Kanchana. We are continually evolving as organisations; it reflects in the way we have seen women reach their fullest potential, she added.

At Tata Communications, an ongoing gender diversity and inclusion initiative is on to raise the current figure of 2,500 women in the workforce to at least 30 percent across the business, said Goyal.

The gender pay gap is still high in India, as women in the country earn 19 percent less than men, and wage inequalities in favour of men are present in all the relevant sectors, a survey said revealed on Thursday. According to the latest Monster Salary Index (MSI), the current gender pay gap in India stood at 19 percent where men earned Rs 46.19 more in comparison to women.

The median gross hourly salary for men in India in 2018 stood at Rs 242.49, while for women it stood at around Rs 196.3. According to the survey, the gender pay gap spans across key industries. IT/ITES services showed a sharp pay gap of 26 percent in favour of men, while in the manufacturing sector, men earn 24 percent more than women.

Women in the tech sector certainly feel that assurances of pay equity between men and women are among essential corporate actions to propel their growth in the industry with 42 percent of women sharing this sentiment, said Ritu Mehrotra, Country Manager, India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives at Booking.com, a travel e-commerce firm that carried out a global study undertaken across 10 countries on Women in Tech.

When it comes to the other corporate actions that Indian women expect to see more of in the tech industry in the next five years, 51 percent say they expect to see hiring practices that attract a more diverse workforce. Over two in five (42 percent) expect to see greater female representation on company leadership boards, she said.

When talent is rewarded, without making gender a barrier, it works, said Nina Lekhi, MD and chief design curator, Baggit. "Talents should be nurtured. So, it doesnt really matter if they are men or women, policies should not discriminate on the basis of gender. At Baggit, there are a majority of women employees working in departments like the design, marketing etc.," she said.

Women themselves should be kind to each other. Women are harder on themselves. "Women in general tend to live with a guilty conscience or not doing enough at home or at work.. I also see many women holding back from participating in financial planning decisions at a personal level. I think we need to be active participants in determining our financial futures," said Roshni Wadhwa, Director, Human Resources, LOreal India.

Organizations today are making conscious efforts to engage women employees and address the issue of gender inclusivity, said Shirin Salis, Vice President (Human Resources), Ingersoll Rand India. "Our aim is to build and sustain a corporate culture that fosters values of mutual respect, cross-collaboration and inclusion, all of which is perceived as a shared responsibility that drives growth and innovation and enhances operational excellence while making a positive impact in the lives of our customers and the communities we serve."

One of the ways of doing it is get men at the workplace to be sensitive to women employees. The task in terms of reinforcing gender equality in male employees isnt easy and overcoming gender biases and stereotypes is always a challenge, said Jyotsna Uttamchandani, executive director, Syska group. "Acknowledging differences is the first step followed by offering diversity training and organising mentorship programs to bridge these gaps. Given that changing the mindset of someone else is a challenge, we must first begin by changing our own mindset. The problem here is that believing that women need empowerment is in itself victimizing women. Lets not diminish anyones contribution. Fair visibility is always greater than equal visibility," she said.

Men can be sensitised to women employees during the recruitment stage itself. "Qualities of open mindedness and fairness are key in all candidates that we recruit. Men are also more aware that traditional gender roles and definitions do not exist anymore. Another key aspect is leadership walking the talk on gender equality, which sets the tone right from the top," said Wadhwa of LOreal India.
The cotton price is ruling at Rs 42,000 per candy (1 candy is 356 kgs), which is over the minimum support price of Rs 41,000.

Mumbai: The total cotton production is likely to decline by over 11 percent to 328 lakh bales (of 170 kgs each) for the 2018-19 season, mainly low rainfall in many key cotton growing areas, the Cotton Association of India (CAI) Thursday said.

In the last season (2017-18) the total cotton output stood at 365 lakh bales, CAI president Atul Ganatra told reporters here at 'Cotton India 2019'.

The main reason for the decline in the estimates of the crop is mainly low rainfall in many key cotton growing areas, he said.

"Cotton sowing has taken place in around 123 lakh hectares this year. Particularly, states like Gujarat has rain deficit of 28 percent and same time there was rain deficit in Karnataka, Telangana and Maharashtra. Due to shortage of rain there will be no third and fourth picking in most of these cotton growing states. In regular course in India farmers take 4 to 5 pickings," he said.

Further, Maharashtra and Telangana governments had instructed farmers to remove cotton plants by 31 December, 2018, to avoid Pink Ball worm problems, he added.

This is likely to give rise to imports by 70-80 percent to about 27 lakh bales during this season as compared to 15 lakh bales last year, he said.

"In case cotton rates shot up after June in the domestic markets, the import targets are close to achievable. Looking at the shortage in India is going to face after June 2019 cotton rates may further go up," he added.

The cotton price is ruling at Rs 42,000 per candy (1 candy is 356 kgs), which is over the minimum support price of Rs 41,000.

The imports will mainly be from the US and African countries as the Australian and Brazilian stocks are sold out, Ganatra said.

Meanwhile, the exports is likely to decline by 27 percent to 50 lakh bales compared to 69 lakh bales last year.

"We are planning to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh Trade Association and Spinner Association in two weeks to ease issues. This is likely to increase exports to Bangladesh by 30 percent, who is our biggest importer. Last year we exported 20 lakh bales to the neighbouring country," he added.

Similarly, the exports to China is also increased to 15-20 lakh bales from 8 lakh bales last year, he said.

"China produces 335 lakh bales but its consumption is 570 lakh bales. So the country imports to fill the demand and consumption gap. The trade war between the US and China is has not benefited India as every one is confused. But in the long run this scenario is likely to benefit India," he added.

Talking about exports to Pakistan, Ganatra said, the current border situation is not going to affect exports much. India had exported 8 lakh bales to the neighbouring country last year, he said.

This year 6.5 lakh bales has already been exported and due to the current border situation the rest will be shipped once this situation is resolved, he added.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating Philip Morris International Inc and its Indian partner Godfrey Phillips for alleged violation of laws in India, a senior directorate source told Reuters on Thursday

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating Philip Morris International Inc and its Indian partner Godfrey Phillips for alleged violation of laws in India, a senior directorate source told Reuters on Thursday.

The Enforcement Directorate has been looking into both the companies and the scope of the investigation is much broader than the alleged foreign investment law violations highlighted in a Reuters story published on Wednesday, the source said.

Philip Morris has for years paid manufacturing costs to Godfrey Phillips to make its Marlboro cigarettes, circumventing a nine-year-old government ban on foreign direct investment in the industry, Reuters reported based on a review of dozens of internal company documents, which were dated between May 2009 and January 2018.

Three former officials and one former head of the Enforcement Directorate had reviewed the Philip Morris documents for Reuters and said the dealings should be investigated for circumventing Indias foreign investment rules.

On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate source declined to comment on whether the ongoing investigation included Reuters reporting findings, but said this is already under investigation.

Both companies are being looked into, said the source, who declined to be named citing sensitivity of the investigation.

The source declined to share further details of the probe.
The company will offer the doorstep gold loan facility across 50 branches each in Mumbai and in Delhi, it said in a release.

New Delhi: Manappuram Finance on Friday said it would offer doorstep delivery of gold loan to customers in Delhi and Mumbai.

The company will offer the doorstep facility across 50 branches each in Mumbai and in Delhi, it said in a release.

The service was piloted and launched successfully last year in Chennai and Bengaluru where it is available across 107 and 183 branches, respectively.

"Customer centricity has been one of the foundational pillars...With this launch, we address the convenience and security factors in one go, as customers don't have to commute with gold or cash, and the money gets transferred directly to their accounts," said Joshy VK, head of sales, online gold loan, Manappuram Finance.

The company said it has also introduced a helpline for customers who wish to avail this service in Delhi and Mumbai.

The service is available during office hours on 09072606215 for Mumbai and 09072606202 for Delhi.

Two employees of the company carrying proper identification will visit the customer's residence to appraise the gold and then make immediate disbursement through NEFT or IMPS to the customer's bank account.

The company has set up a dedicated team of employees in Mumbai and Delhi for this purpose, it said.
In early February this year, Max Group had announced that Analjit would take over as the chairman of Max India and Max Life.

Analjit Singh, the founder of Max Group, may sell a stake in his financial services subsidiary and realty assets for repaying loans, said a media report.

Analjit plans to sell a minority stake in Max Financial Services (MFSL), the holding company of Max Life, and some other realty properties to repay loans it had raised through pledging of promoter shares in two listed companies, said a report in Business Standard.

The promoters will retain the life insurance business, which they had planned to sell or merge with HDFC Standard Life Insurance a few years ago and withdrew from the decision in July 2017, said the report.

In August last year, Analjit was planning to refinance debt worth $500-600 million at the holding company level, according to a report in Mint.

In February, Max India sold its entire 51 percent stake in Max Bupa Health Insurance Co (Max Bupa) to private equity firm True North Fund VI LLP for over Rs 510 crore.

The board of directors of the company at its meeting held on 26 February, 2019, considered and approved a proposal relating to divestment of entire shareholding of the company in its material subsidiary  Max Bupa Health Insurance Company Limited (Max Bupa) (equivalent to 51 percent of Max Bupa's total issued and paid-up share capital) to True North Fund VI LLP, it said.

The proposed transaction is an all-cash deal and it values Max Bupa at an enterprise value of Rs 1,001 crore.

Max India said the deal has been at a consideration of Rs 510.51 crore, which the company will receive at the time of completion of the proposed transaction.

In early February this year, Max Group had announced that Analjit would take over as the chairman of Max India and Max Life.

In December last year, KKR-backed hospital management firm Radiant Life Care had said that it would acquire a majority stake in Max Healthcare through a merger to create a combined entity valued at Rs 7,242 crore.

As part of the deal, Max India will demerge its non-healthcare businesses comprising of Max Bupa and Antara Senior Living into a new wholly-owned subsidiary of Max India whose shares will be listed separately on both BSE and NSE.

 With PTI inputs
Terming the Cabinet's approval to the plan a 'good move,' the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) also said that it would help in significantly reducing the cost of EVs.

Mumbai: The setting up of the National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage will encourage local manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), an industry body said Thursday.

Terming the Cabinet's approval to the plan a "good move," the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) also said that it would help in significantly reducing the cost of EVs.

Earlier in the day, the Union Cabinet at its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the setting up of the Mission to drive clean, connected, shared and sustainable mobility initiatives in the country.

"If introduced and implemented successfully, it should make India self-reliant on the most important element of EVs and also help significantly bring down the cost of the vehicles," said Sohinder Gill, director general, SMEV.

According to Gill, given government thrust on e-mobility, it can become a lucrative business proposition in near future.

"All it needs is a leap of faith by some business houses to quickly invest in an integrated plant to produce global quality batteries, without waiting for the threshold volumes of EVs to kick-in," he added.

The FAME 2 policy lays very stringent criteria of indigenisation for subsidies and lithium-batteries made in India could be a significant step to reach those levels quickly, Gill said.

SMEV fully supports the government's decision and look forward to the final scheme, he said.

The Cabinet last month approved a Rs 10,000 crore initiative under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles II (FAME II) scheme, marking a significant push for hybrid and electric vehicles in the country.

The FAME 2 scheme will be executed over three years starting from 1 April. FAME 2 is the enhanced version of the existing FAME India I scheme, which was introduced in April, 2015 and included a total of investment of Rs 895 crore.
Besides, women-based activities have been started to reach the benefits of different beneficiary-oriented programmes and missions to women, he said in a statement.

New Delhi: The government has allocated more than 30 percent funds under various schemes in order to bring women in the agriculture mainstream, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Thursday.

A special emphasis has been given on the role and contribution of women in doubling the income of farmers by 2022, he said on the eve of the International Women's Day.

Besides, women-based activities have been started to reach the benefits of different beneficiary-oriented programmes and missions to women, he said in a statement.

Singh said the participation of women in the decision-making bodies at the state, district and block levels under the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) scheme has ensured their involvement in the planning process.

Along with this, changes in reporting proformas have been made to maintain the statistics of benefits reaching women, he said adding that a book showing the norm of fixed aid for woman farmers is also being published.

That apart, a National Gender Resource Centre in Agriculture has developed a women sensitisation module to bring about change in the mindset and behaviour of male programme operators, he added.

The minister further said in the team of committed extension personnel under the revised ATMA scheme in 2014, the position of a women coordinator in every state was also created.

In addition, a special emphasis is being given to women development activities to ensure their participation in the economic and social upliftment in the field of cooperatives.

Regular cooperative education programmes of women are being organised by the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) through the state cooperative societies.

As a result of these efforts, during 2017-18, 31.47 lakh women have been benefitted by training from the NCUI in the field of cooperatives.

Similarly, 6.07 lakh and 7,000 women have benefited through Krishi Vigyhan Kendras (KVKs) and skill training respectively. A total of 8.62 lakh women have benefitted in 2017-18.

Highlighting other measures taken to promote women farmers, the minister said women farmer empowerment projects under the National Rural Livelihood Mission have benefitted more than 34 lakh women through 82 projects across 22 states and one Union Territory.

In addition, appointment of one woman scientist has been made mandatory in 668 KVKs established across the country.

Apart from this, October 15 is being celebrated as Rashtriya Mahila Kisan Diwas since 2016, he added.
An official report by the NSSO, which is yet to be accepted by the government, has said umemployment rate had touched a 46-year high in 2018

Mumbai: With unemployment rates hitting an all-time high amidst falling economic growth in the country, a report has revealed that as many as 83 percent women and 87 percent of men are worried about their financial future.

Moreover, 84 percent of women and 88 percent of men are "somewhat" worried about their financial future, and 35 percent of women are 'extremely' worried, the highest rate of any country, according to a report by S&P released ahead of the International Women's' Day on Friday. The report does not elaborate on the reasons for their worries, though.

It can be noted that an official report by the NSSO, which is yet to be accepted by the government, the umemployment rate had touched a 46-year high in 2018. After the report was leaked, the chairman of the organisation had quit. Similarly, private sector economic think-tank CMIE had also reported that in 2018 alone as many as 1.3 crore jobs were lost due to the continuing impact of the note-ban and the hasty implementation of the new tax regime GST.

The S&P report also notes that this rising worries come as aggregate wealth among Indian women falls shy of the other countries surveyed, with women here controlling only between 20 and 30 percent of total wealth. This is reflected in policy priorities of both men and women, who rank 'jobs and the economy' as their most pressing issues of concern (25 percent), closely followed by education (24 percent) and healthcare (21 percent), says the report.

However, optimism and investment confidence are high, but their continuation is contingent on income security, which, in turn, is far from assured. Thus, 32 percent of the respondents believe that their financial well-being depends on events mostly outside their control, such as economic development, the stock markets, or an unexpected illness.

Meanwhile, a BofA-Merrill Lynch report said women comprise 49 percent of Asia's population, including in India, and 36 percent of GDP, but just 12 percent of board seats and 3 percent of CEO positions.

However, the report reveals that Asia Pacific stocks with at least two female board members have a price-to- earnings premium, and higher net profit margin (over 3 percent) and dividend yields.

Much needs to be done to close the gender gap but progress is being made in tertiary education and laws to support equal pay and government-assisted childcare. Industry estimates value the potential uplift (arising from higher number of women in workforce) at $3.2-4.5 trillion in incremental GDP, it added.
While the IAF initially cited 'technical snag' as cause of the crash, they later told families of the personnel that more information will emerge once the investigation into the case is completed. However, no one has given any answers to the mother of 22-year-old Kifayat, a brick kiln worker who lost his life after as he rushed towards the blazing chopper to rescue the pilots after it had crashed.

Budgam (Jammu and Kashmir): As Indian fighter planes scrambled to chase intruding Pakistani fighter jets on 27 February, news of an Mi-17V5 helicopter of the Indian Air Force crashing in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir flashed on TV channels. The Mi-17 had taken off 10 minutes before it crashed at 10.10 am killing all six onboard, including an IAF personnel and a civilian, Kifayat Hussain Ganaie.

While the IAF initially cited 'technical snag' as cause of the crash, they later told families of the personnel that more information will emerge once the investigation into the case is completed in "10 to 15" days.

However, no one has given any answers to Zamrooda Begum, mother of the 22-year-old Kifayat, a brick kiln worker who lost his life after as he rushed towards the blazing chopper to rescue the pilots after it had crashed. A resident of Garaendh Kalaan village, Kifayat was hanging out with his friends around 10 am on 27 February when the group saw the helicopter crash near them. One of those young men, Abid Hussain, said that while all of them ran away from the burning helicopter which had split into two, Kifayat didn't. He said Kifayat ran towards it and implored his friends to help evacuate the pilots.

"Wait! We can save the pilots," Abid recalled his last words. "There was an explosion that left everyone numb. After some time when we went closer, nothing was visible. The spot was enveloped in smoke and dust, and the debris of the aircraft was scattered all over. As soon as the dust settled, we moved towards the aircraft and saw a charred body. At first, we thought it was the pilot but we soon recognised it was Kifayat, with one of his legs missing."

Zamrooda recalled the last time she saw her son alive  he left telling his mom that he will be back soon after meeting his friends. About half an hour later, she said a loud blast was heard in the village and it shook everything up. She said someone shouted that an army chopper had crashed and soon after, a boy came and broke the news that "my son had died in the accident while trying to rescue the pilots."

She was unconsolable as she kept wailing, "Myaani Gobro, mouj lejyo." (Oh my dear son, come back. Mother loves you."

Kifayat's sister Dilshada Bano said she was urgently called to her parents' house but she did not know for what. "When I reached here, they told me my brother was dead."

Kifayat was only three when his father died. Apart from Dilshada, Kifayat has another sister, Afroza Jan and a young brother Bashir Ahmad Ganaie. Afroza is differently-abled. Kifayat was the lone breadwinner for the family. His uncle Mohammed Ashraf lauded Kifayat's fortitude and the way he took responsibility of his family at a young age.

Kifayat's friend Bilal Ahmad described him as a kind and simple person. He said even though there's a lot of anger among the youth (in Kashmir) against the government, Kifayat would never partake in it as he knew that if he got sucked into it his family would suffer. He said Kifayat cared deeply for his family.

Budgam station house officer Mohammad Rafique said police have spoken to multiple eyewitnesses, all of whom said Kifayat died while trying to rescue the pilots. He said police are investigating the matter.

Though more than a week has passed since the mishap, theres no word on if the administration acknowledges Kifayats bravery or plans to pay a compensation to his family.

Author is a Budgam-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com
The Supreme Court has ordered the mediation in Ayodhya case to be completed within 8 months and the first report to be submitted within four weeks. Former Supreme Court judge FM Kalifulla, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate and mediator Sriram Panchu will constitute the three-team mediation panel.

General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a convention on 'mediation' in December last year, highlighting the benefits of this route of "amicable resolution of disputes".

Now, as the Supreme Court has ordered the 60-year-old Ayodhya case to be decided by a court-monitored mediation team, it will be interesting to see if one of the most controversial cases in India's history gets resolved through mediation.

The court has ordered the mediation to be completed within 8 months and the first report to be submitted within four weeks. Former Supreme Court judge FM Kalifulla, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate and mediator Sriram Panchu will constitute the three-team mediation panel. The apex court also allowed the panel of mediators to co-opt more members to the panel.

As India's one of the oldest and most-aggressively fought case goes for mediation, working of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and how effective it has been can throw some light on the future of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case.

Earlier the Constitution bench, which was hearing the case, had observed that if there is even one percent chance of settling the dispute amicably, the parties should go for mediation  a clear message about Supreme Court's seriousness in referring the case for mediation.

Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 embodies the legislative mandate to the court to refer sub judice disputes to various ADR mechanisms enunciated therein where it finds it appropriate to do so, in order to enable the parties to finally resolve their pending cases through well-established dispute resolution methods other than litigation.

Section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure states: "Where it appears to the Court that there exist elements of a settlement which may be acceptable to the parties, the Court shall formulate the terms of settlement and give them to the parties for their observations and after receiving the observations of the parties, the Court may re-formulate the terms of a possible settlement and refer the same for:

a) arbitration;

b) conciliation;

c) judicial settlement including settlement through Lok Adalat; or

d) mediation.

Even the Law Commission of India in its 129th report had "recommended the introduction of the conciliation court system and had underlined the importance of conciliation/ mediation as a mode of ADR".

Following the Law Commission's recommendations certain amendments were made in Section 89 and with that it was made obligatory for the civil courts to make attempts for settlement of disputes by relegating the parties to an ADR process.

While it has been made obligatory for the courts to take initiatives for ensuring the settlement through ADR an essential prerequisite is that the court should be satisfied that elements of settlement exist and can guide the mediation.

Eminent jurist Fali Nariman in an interview to CNN-NEWS 18 had said that mediation as a process of settlement of disputes is highly recommended. According to the figures available with the National Legal Service Authority (NLSA) between April, 2017 to March 2018, 10,7587 cases have been settled through mediation.

At least 2,297 judicial officers acted as mediators, 4,875 lawyers were deployed as mediators and 815 others helped in mediation process.

It is a fact that mediation and ADR has helped greatly in reducing the burden on judiciary but at the same time it is also true that it will be for first time that a case, which is more than six decades old and with far reaching social and political ramifications will be decided through mediation.

In 2010, the Supreme Court had declined to refer the case for mediation and the Allahabad High Court which was hearing the case had penalised a retired bureaucrat who had filed moved a plea seeking mediation.

Nine years after the Supreme Court order that this politically and socially significant case be decided through mediation, not only it creates hope for its resolution but will also expand the scope of mediation as route of settling long running disputes.
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Shortly after the Supreme Court ordered that a court-appointed panel undertake mediation to resolve Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case, the former judge leading the panel, as well as a Muslim body's leader, responded to the development.

Shortly after the Supreme Court ordered that a court-appointed panel undertake mediation to resolve Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case, the former judge leading the panel, FM Khalifullah, Sri Sri Ravishankar (another member of the panel) along with AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik and BSP chief Mayawati reacted to the development.

The apex court in its order on Friday appointed a panel, headed by former Supreme Court judge FM Khalifullah, and also comprising spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and lawyer Sriram Panchu.

Reacting to the development, Ravishankar, said that all parties must move together to end long-standing conflicts. "We must all move together towards ending long-standing conflicts happily by maintaining harmony in society," Ravishankar said. "Respecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society - we must all move together towards these goals," he tweeted.

However, the president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Owaisi objected to the spiritual guru's appointment to the panel.

He said that Ravishankar's appointment to the panel goes against High Court rule 6, subsection C for the civil procedure for mediation. It says, "any person who is interested or connected with the subject matter of the dispute, or is related to any of the parties or to those who represent them, unless such an objection is waived by all parties in writing."

Saying that the Supreme Court should have brought in a more "neutral" person in place of him, he said: "Sri Sri Ravishankar had on 4 November, 2018 made a statement saying 'if Muslims don't give up their claim on Ayodhya, India will become like Syria.'"

He also expressed hope that Ravishankar "keeps in mind that he is now a mediator, and removes his 4 November, 2018 comment from his mind".

Speaking to media after the announcement, the retired judge said: "I understand that the Supreme Court has appointed a mediation committee headed by me, but I am yet to receive the order call. So for the present, I can only say that we will take every effort to resolve the issue amicably," CNN-News18 quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati also took to Twitter to respond to the news. She said that her party "welcomes" the Supreme Court's decision. She wrote:

Hon'ble Supreme Court's order to constitute in-camera mediation (in Faizabad) in order to resolve the Ayodhya matter seems an honest effort. Hon'ble Court looking for "a possibility of healing relationships" is an appreciable move. BSP welcomes it.  Mayawati (@Mayawati) March 8, 2019

In addition to Mayawati, the Nationalist Congress Party has also welcomed the decision. "We welcome the appointment of the three-member mediation panel. If the dispute is resolved, it will be in national interest. The nation is hopeful that the issue would be resolved through consensus," NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said in a statement.

CPM leader Brinda Karat also responded, saying that the previous mediation efforts had failed to yield results. But this time, the Supreme Court is monitoring it and all the parties who have gone to the court are in agreement with the decision. The results remain to be seen, she said.

With inputs from PTI
Days after India said its air force hit a militant Islamist group's training camp on the site of a religious school in northeastern Pakistan, killing a large number of militants, the site appeared undamaged and deserted.

Jaba, Pakistan: Days after India said its air force hit a militant Islamist group's training camp on the site of a religious school in northeastern Pakistan, killing a large number of militants, the site appeared undamaged and deserted.

A Reuters team saw the madrasa, or religious school, on Thursday from 100 metres away at the site of a crater where two Indian missiles struck. The building itself, located on top of a hill and surrounded by pine trees, did not show any signs of damage or activity.

High-resolution satellite images reviewed by Reuters on Wednesday also showed that the madrasa, said to be run by militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, appears to be still standing and virtually unchanged from an April 2018 satellite photo of the facility.

Local residents told Reuters the school, near Jaba village and the town of Balakot in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was no longer operational. "It was shut down in June last year," said one resident, who asked not to be identified.

Pointing to a white building on top of one of the hills around Jaba, one villager said that used to be the madrasa but it is no longer active.

The site matched the coordinates of the satellite images.

Another man, Mohammad Naseem, said there were madrasas in the area that opened during the 1978-88 rule of General Zia-ul-Haq but there is no madrasa or anything like that here anymore. Zias Islamisation policies are widely seen as having radicalized Pakistani society.

Reuters was not allowed to access the madrasa site from a different road as Pakistani security officials cited security concerns for keeping the area clear.

Military officials stationed near the site did not want to talk about the JeM facility but said no damage was caused to any buildings and there was no loss of life in the Indian attack, echoing what local villagers said.

"They say they killed 300 people but they didnt even get 300 trees," said one soldier posted at the site of the Indian attack said. "Thank God they didn't destroy the four or five homes that are here."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has said its missiles on 26 February hit all the intended targets at the madrasa site. The external affairs and the defence ministries did not reply to emailed questions sent in the past few days seeking comment on what is shown in the satellite images and whether they undermine its official statements on the air strikes.

India launched the strikes in response to a 14 February attack, claimed by JeM, in Kashmir's Pulwama that killed 40 paramilitary police and sharply increased tensions between India and Pakistan.
Today, with its purported crackdown on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa  an organisation founded and maintained by Lashkar-founder and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed  Pakistan is once again presented with an opportunity to make good of its anti-terrorist agency.

The end of the last millennium saw a flicker of rare peace between India and Pakistan. It was singular not just because it was brokered between a rightwing government in India and the Pakistani army but also because it came as a direct result of General Pervez Musharraf announcing that he would ban the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The two extremist terrorist outfits had given India great grief and in the January of 2002, the Pakistani general was a man on a global public relations mission, shaking hands with then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and delivering fiery speeches proclaiming zero tolerance to terror. Until 2008, when the 26/11 attack took place, the India-Pakistan problem seemed to ebb away from collective consciousness, paving way for mutually beneficial trade agreements and even a nuclear meeting or two.

A whip cracked on terrorism then had reaped benefits the world over. Today, with its purported crackdown on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa  an organisation founded and maintained by Lashkar-founder and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed  Pakistan is once again presented with an opportunity to make good of its anti-terrorist agency. This is an opportunity it would do well not to squander.

Universally rebuked

Few governments have had to face global rebuke as sustained and as stern as the Pakistani government, especially in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack by a Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber, which killed 42 Central Reserve Police Force personnel. While avowed allies like the United States of America found little recourse but to condemn any role Pakistan might have played in harbouring terror elements, global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force issued it a warning of blacklisting if immediate steps were not taken soon. The United Nations Security Council, a key member of which is China (Pakistan's most loyal friend) has also condemned Pakistan.

With a constantly failing economy and having been directly dependent upon global aide for so long, Pakistan often finds itself pushed to the proverbial corner in the face of uninhibited criticism. Its every move is questioned, its most stirring rhetoric on terrorism draws skepticism.

There is reason for this. In few countries would a declared terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head find it within himself to walk in and out of evening sermons, give interviews during house arrest, have terrorism charges withdrawn by his government, float his own political party and eventually contest for the prime ministerial elections in Pakistan in July 2018.

Declared a terrorist by the UN, US and India for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, not only has Hafiz Saeed enjoyed shelter in Pakistan, but citing a lack of evidence, the Pakistani courts also freed him after having detained him in 2017.

India had then sent dossiers of evidence against Saeed's involvement in the attack that killed 174 people and injured more than 300, asking specifically why evidence gathered against him by the Federal Bureau of Investigation was also not included in Pakistan's chargesheet, reported Moneycontrol.

On the day, the country's home department also announced that it would not to file any subsequent cases against him. Police guards stationed outside his house were removed and a large number of his supporters had gathered to celebrate the end of his house arrest. In his address to supporters from his Lahore house, Saeed vowed to mobilise people to take control of Jammu and Kashmir.

Ambiguous no more?

Pakistan's line on Saeed has mirrored its current ambivalence on Jaish chief Masood Azhar, who is proclaimed as innocent one day, unwell on another and whose career carries no solid evidence to conclusively nab him.

It is at this point that the attention being paid to Hafiz Saeed by the Pakistani government aims to break new ground in securing for itself its lost global repute. On 21 February, days after the Pulwama attack, the Pakistan government announced that it had banned the JuD and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.

The move of sealing the Lahore headquarters of the JuD and FIF and detaining more than 120 suspected militants marked what many held as yet another one of Pakistan's selfsame eyewashes.

However, Pakistan soon followed up this decision with the even more significant step of barring him from delivering the weekly Friday sermon at the JuD headquarters. This would be the very first time in years that Saeed was present in the city but absent from the Jamia Masjid Qadsia. This is also keeping in mind that the popularity enjoyed by Saeed among sections in Pakistan is enormous.

He is the vice-president of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council, an group of more than 40 political and religious parties. Thousands of JuD volunteers helping with rescue work in the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, the 2010 and 2014 floods, and the 2015 earthquake in Pakistan, have taken Saeed to cult status, making the current government's move to corner him an ostensibly unpopular one on its own soil.

Saeed then moved a proposal to be removed from the UNSC 1267 sanctions list of UN recognised terrorists. Significantly, Pakistan played the right cards here too, denying the visa requests of the team of UN officials who were to interview him in Islamabad.

On 7 March, while addressing a press conference, Pakistan's information minister Fawad Choudhury said a consensus had been built in the country over its attitude towards handling terror in recent days, reported Dawn.

He noted that one of the fundamental bases for the plan was to take steps to ensure that Pakistan's soil was not used against any other country. No small step for the Pakistani government, yet a giant leap for the country nonetheless.
The Cachar Paper Mills closure has rendered not just the employees destitute but also a large number of people whose livelihood indirectly depended on it.

Editor's Note: A network of 60 reporters set off across India to test the idea of development as it is experienced on the ground. Their brief: Use your mobile phone to record the impact of 120 key policy decisions on everyday life; what works, what doesn't and why; what can be done better and what should be done differently. Their findings  straight and raw from the ground  will be combined in this series, Elections on the Go, over a course of 100 days.

Read more articles from the series here

***

Silchar: Arup Chakraborty has not been paid his salary for the past 25 months. Arup is an employee of Cachar Paper Mill, the only major industrial undertaking in south Assams Barak Valley which suspended production in 2015. He lives with his wife Mousumi Chakraborty and father Ananda Charan Chakraborty in Silchar, and is one of 525 mill workers who, though jobless, go to the mill every day to mark attendance.

Arup, an instrumentation technician since 1990, was earning Rs 45,000 a month and is owed Rs 11,25,000 in back pay. It seems like the revival of the mill is next to impossible, Arup said. Its machines would be in a ruined state. It will require a massive amount to make the mill functional again. Let the government do whatever it wants, but it should at first clear our dues. Imagine how us mill workers have been living for the past several months without salaries, he said. A number of them had to sell their property and other household valuables or take loans to survive. The mills closure has rendered not just the employees destitute but also a large number of people whose livelihood indirectly depended on the mill, like coal, bamboo and lime suppliers, workers in the bamboo fitting works and loading and unloading of goods at the factory and other odd jobs generated by the mill.

The employees, however, are in a peculiar situation as they cant look for other jobs as none of them have been officially relieved. The paper mill, set up in 1988 at Panchgram around 24 kilometres from Silchar, is in a decrepit state with ramshackle buildings and dilapidated roads surrounded by wild foliage. A unit of Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited, it had a staff of 637 (70 executives, 42 supervisors and 525 workers). Around 550 casual workers had been suspended in April 2018. Reviving the mill was one of the BJPs major poll promises.

Manobendra Chakraborty, chief convener of the HPC Paper Mills Revival Action Committee and president of Cachar Paper Project Workers Union, said that as the government has not officially notified closure of the mill, workers have to mark their attendance daily. Also, staffing is needed, he said, as the mill provides essential services like water supply and fire service to the area. The HPC Paper Mills Revival Action Committee is a conglomerate of workers unions of Cachar Paper Mill and Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad in central Assam, which too has been non-functional since 31 March, 2017. Their employees too have not got their salaries for the past 23 months.

Over 20 workers have died from trauma and stress-related complications and lack of funds to get proper medical treatment, added Manobendra. Many more will die if the government does not take prompt steps to pay the salaries and revive the mill. Taking a dig at the Sarbananda Sonowal government, Manobendra said though Sonowal had announced during the Namami Barak fest held in Silchar in 2017 that the mill would be revived and pending salaries would be paid within two to three months, nothing has happened. He threatened large-scale protests if the government did not take some measures soon.

Cachar Paper Mill was the main source of income also to people in neighbouring areas of Mizoram, Meghalaya and Dima Hasao. Barak Valley has remained industrially backward mainly because of poor connectivity. The condition of roads to reach the valley from anywhere was abysmal for several years and it got its first broad-gauge rail only in November 2015.

There have been attempts to sell off the mill and its land. But the mill owed large amounts to its creditors and suppliers, like M/S Alloys and Metals, which filed a case against HPC with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) demanding payment of dues of Rs 98 lakh. Eventually, the NCLT, in June 2018, ordered the commencement of a corporate insolvency resolution process against the parent company. This is likely to delay even further the chances of the workers being paid their long-pending dues.

Even the proposal for an Expression of Interest (EOI) for the purchase of the property and completion of formalities by 16 February, got a very tepid response. "Three parties  Dalmia Cements, BR Shetty (an industrialist from Gujarat) and a company named Ecotech were initially in the fray, said a senior HR official. However, Ecotech had to pull out for not fulfilling the pre-qualifying condition. But neither Dalmia Cements nor BR Shetty has submitted any document so far. However, HPC sources said the valuation of land and other assets of the two mills had been completed and the matter is likely to reach a conclusion by the end of March.

On being asked about the repeated promises made by the BJP government (both at the Centre and in the state) about reviving the mills and paying the dues and whether the company had received any communication from the government on this, a senior HPC official said, Whenever we got in touch with the government, they reply that the matter is under active consideration. Just the salary due to the employees of the two mills will be around Rs 500 crore including provident fund, gratuity and other allowances.

But what exactly led to the mills closure? Experts say the mill suffered huge losses due to the shortage of bamboo and non-availability of coal because of the NGT ban on mining and transportation of coal from Meghalaya. The mill could not procure coal from elsewhere as there was no broad-gauge rail link to the mill.

Unavailability of bamboo, a key raw material in paper production, was a regular problem leading to closure a number of times in the past. The mill got its bamboo mainly from Mizoram, Dima Hasao and Tripura. In Mizoram, alleged illegal tax collection by police and interference by forest department officials made free movement of bamboo-laden trucks difficult. Bamboo supply from Dima Hasao was affected without a proper rail link to the area. Supply from Tripura stopped due to a devastating bamboo flowering during 2007-08.

There seems to be no option apart from selling the mill and its land, though Sanjeev Roy, convener of the HPC Paper Mills Revival Action Committee, said they are likely to move the court against this move. We are not going to accept selling of the mills, he said. The CPM too is against any sell-off. Dulal Mitra, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said the mill must be made functional under the supervision of the government and the salaries paid at the earliest.

Silchar MLA and former deputy speaker of Assam Legislative Assembly Dilip Kumar Paul, however, said the government is aware and concerned about the workers plight and hoped the issues will be resolved soon. He blamed the previous Congress government for the pitiable condition of the mills.

That, however, is of little consolation to the suffering workers and their families. They are sure to vent their anger at the BJP when it returns to the Barak valley in a few weeks to ask for votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

(The author is a Silchar-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters)
So long as parties continue dialogue and stay the course, the goal of denuclearization on the Korean peninsula will become a reality, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday.

This picture from DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) taken on February 28, 2019 and released on March 1, 2019 shows DPRKs leader Kim Jong Un (2nd R) meeting with US President Donald Trump (3rd L) at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in Hanoi. [Photo: AFP/KCNA]

The summit in Hanoi, Vietnam between the leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States is an important step toward a political settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, Wang made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress.

That both sides could overcome obstacles to meet again for a candid face-to-face discussion represents a positive development that must be applauded. The international community should encourage both sides to have patience and keep moving toward the goal of denuclearization and establishing a peace mechanism on the Peninsula, Wang said.
In a major move, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has approved the first batch of reforms in the Army which include relocation of 229 officers from the Army headquarters, among others.

New Delhi: In a major move, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has approved the first batch of reforms in the Army which include relocation of 229 officers from the Army headquarters, creation of a new post of deputy chief for military operations and strategic planning, and setting up new wings for vigilance and human rights issues, official sources said on Thursday.

Finalised after 12 independent studies, the transformative reforms in the Army are being implemented to make the 1.3 million-strong force leaner and meaner, as well as to enhance its combat capabilities. The defence minister has approved the first batch of long-pending reform measures in the Army, the sources said.

They said the number of officers being moved out is 20 percent of the total officers in the Army headquarters in the national capital, and that they will be deployed in forward locations along the borders with China and Pakistan.

They said the post of Deputy Chief of the Army Staff Strategy DCOAS (Strategy) is being created to deal with military operations, military intelligence, strategic planning and operational logistics. At present, the DG (Military Operations) and the DG (Military Intelligence) report to the Army Chief.

The defence minister also approved creation of a new information warfare wing in keeping the needs of the future battlefield, hybrid warfare and social media reality, the sources said.

They said the government has approved merging of the separate verticals of the DCOAS (planning and strategy) and the Master General Ordnance (MGO) into one office of the DCOAS (Capability Development and Sustenance).

"Towards the Army's capability based modernisation needs, this would synergise and coalesce all revenue and capital spending under one organisation and effectively prioritise competing requirements with an operational focus to get better value for funds allocated by the government," said a senior Army official.

Sources said the government has also approved creation of two new branches to deal with vigilance and human rights issues, reflecting the Army's commitment to probity and transparency. Both the branches will be headed by Major General rank officers.

The new ADG, Vigilance will function directly under the Chief of Army Staff and the new ADG Human Rights will function under the VCOAS. The ADG (Vigilance) will also have a new Vigilance Investigation Unit under him, the sources said. The reform initiatives were finalised by top commanders of the Army in October last year to usher in transformative reforms in the force.

The reforms will also include restructuring the Army's officer cadre, bringing down age of key commands, arresting rising revenue expenditure and "right-sizing" the force. Sources said the reform measures will be implemented with a sense of urgency.

The Army headquarters had instituted four studies with an overall aim to enhance the operational and functional efficiency of the force, optimise budget expenditure, facilitate modernisation and address aspirations.

The first study on 're-organisation and right-sizing of the Indian Army' was focused on the operational structures to make the force efficient and future-ready by taking into account the operational situation on western and northern borders, the spokesperson said.

The second study was on 're-organisation of the Army headquarters with an aim to bring in "integration and preclude the redundancies". The third study was on 'cadre review of officers' and its focus was to recommend how to carry out reorganisation and restructuring to meet the aspirations of the officers' cadre.

The fourth study on 'review of terms of engagement of rank and file' was aimed at harnessing the higher life expectancy and ensuring younger profile of key commands and motivation of the personnel.
The officials said the restrictions were imposed as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order and to avoid any untoward incident in view of the strike called by separatists

Srinagar: The authorities on Friday imposed restrictions in parts of the city here as a precautionary measure in view of a strike called by separatists against slapping of the Public Safety Act (PSA) on JKLF chairman Yasin Malik and ban on Jaamat-e-Islami (JeI).

Restrictions have been imposed in six police station areas of Srinagar the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

They said the curbs under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) were imposed in Nowhatta, Khanyar, Rainawari, MR Gunj, Safakadal and Maisuma police station areas of the city. The officials said the restrictions were imposed as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order and to avoid any untoward incident in view of the strike called by separatists.

The separatists  under the banner of the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL)  called for a strike on Friday against booking of the JKLF chairman and others under the PSA, the crackdown on separatists, ban on JeI and "attempts to tinker with hereditary state subject law under the pretext of 35-A and intimidating raids of the NIA against Kashmiris".

"Arbitrary arrest and detention of senior resistance leader and chairman JKLF and many others under the draconian PSA and shifting of Malik to Kot Balwal jail in Jammu is the most condemnable act.

"This spree of arrests, ban on JeI and attempts to tinker with hereditary state subject law under the pretext of 35-A and intimidating NIA raids on Kashmiris deserves our stiff protest and resistance and people of Kashmir, besides holding peaceful protests after Friday prayers, will also observe a complete shutdown tomorrow on 8th March 2019," the JRL said in a statement.

The JRL comprises of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Malik.

Shops, fuel stations and other business establishments remained shut in the city, the officials said. They said public transport was off the roads while a few private cars, cabs and auto-rickshaws were seen plying in some areas of the city.

Similar reports of shutdown were received from other district headquarters of the Valley, the officials said. The authorities have put Mirwaiz -- who is the chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference  under house arrest, while Geelani  who heads the hardline faction of the Hurriyat  continued to remain under house detention for some time now.
Dalit women have been fighters throughout our lives, we contribute to our economy, we are the major shareholders and this country owes us.

If we look at our country's politics, there has been no one from the scheduled castes who has become the Prime Minister of India till date, let alone a scheduled caste woman. Political engagement of Dalits is necessary, but more importantly, it has to include Dalit women leadership in political spaces. The panel on "Dalit Women in Politics: Past, Present and Future" organised by The Blue Club, a collective for providing mentorship and support to women filmmakers, and All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM)  was put together with the above vision in mind. More than 60 Dalit women leaders from across India participated in the conference. Firstpost will be publishing some of the important speeches from this panel.

This is the third of the series of speeches.

***

I am here to share my experience as a political candidate and also as a Dalit woman. About how our own people and own organisations see you when you are in politics.

My journey into activism began two decades ago. I have been a part of several movements and have worked on caste, gender, land rights, rights of Adivasis, education and environment. After the formation of Telangana, I started to focus only on caste issues. Honor killings, which we refer to as caste killings, increased in Telangana.

As the convenor of Bahujan Pratighatana Vedika, we work to document and upload videos on Desi Disa, a YouTube channel to sensitise people. This is done so that oppressed sections will come up and have some say. But when it comes to Telanganas women activists, things are going in the opposite direction. Cases are being filed against us and we are being put in jail.

Surprisingly, when I started working specifically on caste, I was targeted by the police and several cases were filed against me. This made me think about my role in these movements and in activism.

Most of my friends and well-wishers told me to stop  I was told that even though I have been writing on various issues for decades, as an outsider to the political system there isnt much that I can do. My friends from left-leaning organisations put me down by saying that this woman always talks only about caste and discrimination. On the flip side, my Dalit friends distanced themselves from me because of my association with the left. Finally, when I did start talking about caste and working on it, I became the target for the state as well.

We were told by our own organisations, family and society that politics is not for us  You cant win, its corrupt, money, mafia, media, (now I will also add) Manuvada, all this cant be handled by you. My experience involved a lot of struggle after which we still had to go to the government and ministries with a begging bowl to seek justice.

Who will be there to listen to you when it comes to caste and gender? Even if we decide to enter into politics, the question arises of which political party to choose.

My friends said that there were many options (of course, not the BJP). Some parties want women like Smriti Irani and we saw what she was like at the time of Rohith Vemula. These parties only want women for the sake of token representation, as rubber stamps.

On the other hand, we saw Mayawati talk about the Rohith Vemula issue too. She was the only woman who spoke up and took a stand. Except for the BSP, all parties put Dalits in their cells. There was no sign of Dalit Morchas, SC Cell, Dalit women. This is because in these parties Dalit only means Dalit men who can dance according to their wishes.

It doesnt matter if you have completed your education, have had a long career, participated in activism  you are never a part of the General category. When it came to the Congress and other parties, I was not seen fit to contest in the General category. This put me in a very uncomfortable position.

Since the BSP had approached me from the very beginning I felt comfortable to join them. Especially when I saw that other parties hardly have an ideology to speak of. They treat people like beggars by throwing some or the other programme their way. In the case of BSP, there is a strong ideology that is based on Phule, Ambedkar and Kanshi Rams ideas  this is the only way in which Indian society can be reformed.

Once we decided to join the party, all of my fellow comrades distanced themselves saying elections are not for us. When I joined BSP I was very comfortable on a particular level, especially compared to other parties. But no matter what, peoples mindset of caste and patriarchy is constantly there. Although here there was space to put across our points, to negotiate, debate and discuss.

The people within the party gave me a lot of respect. But on the ground level, the question of whether a woman can be a politician and do what men can do was something I first faced in the constituency of Chennur. This remote town of the erstwhile Adilabad district was seeing women contest in it for the first time.

Many men were uncomfortable about asking for liquor or money  when we are saying no money in exchange for votes. As an academician and activist, I had conducted some amount of research to prepare the manifesto before I went into the field. This area had the highest number of widows, faced mining and displacement issues, suffered low literacy rates, did not have even a single public toilet for women, no hospitals for women, no schools or colleges nearby and very high unemployment rates. I was happy to see that after I prepared the manifesto, other parties changed their manifestos.

The opposition parties were keen that I mustnt get a ticket to run. They went to the extent of trying to stall my form on the Central level. Getting my ticket was the first struggle I faced, after which there was the first press conference where media members approached me with the question of package.

I wasnt familiar with the terminology of package  every political party gives money to members of the media. If you dont do this, they will not cover your election news. I said that I am here to show people that it is possible to run for elections without money and that I am not going to give anything. No media member covered any information relating to us, except for a few online magazines. All the major newspapers carried my interview on a large scale. But there was nothing on the constituency level.

I always say that when you are a government organisation (GO) or an NGO then you are seen as a Maoist. You receive comments like, She is always working on the left, she is a rebel, she is a radical on the one hand and on the other, She is casteist, talks about only Dalits. For women who are in politics with the baggage of caste, without the right family background it is difficult to accept that money is involved to such a large extent. On top of this, if you are an independent candidate who has a strong ideology of Marx, Phule and Ambedkar, its even more difficult to accept this fact about the system.

Anyway, it was a wonderful experience for me to get to know so much about people, about corruption, to fight gender, caste, patriarchy and of course the media mafia.

At one point the opposition parties (the RSS especially) started trolling me on social media during the elections. The current ruling party played every trick in the book to pull me down. They saw to it that my name did not appear anywhere, they spread the rumour that I had been given crores of rupees by prominent political leaders. They replaced my name with that of another man who was contesting from a different party  my photograph was replaced everywhere, a voice message to the effect was shared in multiple spaces. People who were working for you would suddenly disappear, they would stop working for you if you didnt offer liquor or money  which is why they say it is very difficult to get votes.

The other thing is that for us competing in elections is both challenging and strange. Because this is not the experience that Priyanka Gandhi, KCRs daughter, Smriti Irani, Mamata Banerjee or Jayalalithaa face. I now understand why Mayawati is so stubborn and strong. People call her corrupt or characterless  its an easy way to blame women on those grounds.

In a scenario where every party is offering money and liquor, all caste organisations and womens groups also started bargaining, being a part of this and this is the really sad part. The reason behind this is the lack of political understanding  people are aware that during election time politicians will come, so they make these demands. But what about our educated circles? They are happy staying on social media debating in the comments section. They do nothing to help candidates like us who face all possible challenges from every corner, we who are putting in all our work into this.

My routine dialogue with people was, I am here to win elections without money or bribe, those who give money never work. If people want a true, honest and committed politician they should only send their money (if needed) to the assembly or parliament. My male colleagues would say, Who will come to us with such a dialogue?.

It isnt just money and media, they also used police, hired goondas, stole votes and managed EVMs. In these circumstances how can we talk about a corruption-less election system?

When it comes to Dalits, its only Dalit men who figure  our men dont even talk about Dalit boys, about the Rohith Vemula issue. How will they talk about Dalit womens issues?

Why is the bill for 1/3rd reservation for women pending for so long? It is perhaps the only bill that has been delayed for this long. Why are they afraid of women being in politics? We make up half of the society, so it should go according to the population and in a proportionate way.

Until and unless Dalit women come into politics, no strong voice is going to come out, no strong support is going to be offered to marginalised sections. We have been fighters throughout our lives, we contribute to our economy, we are the major shareholders and this country owes us.

Mayawati for us is a symbol of empowerment, she is a symbol for Dalit women. After having stood for elections, I understand how hard it is to be as a party head in this Brahmin, Hindu, patriarchal, casteist society. Is she the only corrupt politician? Dont others also subscribe to corruption? Why are only these aspects of her covered by media? Why arent the programmes, reforms highlighted?

Nobody talks about Jayalalithaa and corruption, nobody talks about Mamata Banerjee and corruption, but how come when it comes to Mayawati, thats all they talk about?

As per the logic of the Good Women character syndrome, Mayawati cant be a politician. She should take care of her home, perform karva chauth, and praise Modi. If you dont do all this, you are bad. In most of my interviews and talks, I say, Let us be bad, more bad so that people start looking at us, discussing us. So that it creates some awareness. Only then can we compete and be empowered. I wish that more women come from downtrodden sections, from oppressed sections. Only then can more cleansing of the system happen, only then can new blood come. Only then can new thoughts and ideology change society. We need to create such an environment.

All this is not possible without 1/3rd reservation for women, it is not possible for any party. Political parties keep talking about womens agenda. But what really is womens agenda? There is no clarity on this. This is why we the working women must demand political empowerment.

(Speech transcribed by Shruti Ravi)

Professor Sujatha Surepally teaches Sociology at Satavahana University in Karimnagar. She was the BSP candidate from Chennur Constituency in the 2018 Telangana Legislative Assembly Elections.
With six big dams and power projects on it, the river has been facing environmental threats from illegal mining, deforestation, and now the river linking project.

Editor's Note: Non-stop sand mining, development projects near rivers, deforestation in the catchment areas and unplanned dams are killing the major rivers of Madhya Pradesh. The state is now facing an acute deficit of water. Tapti and Shipra have almost died while the Narmada river is also facing dry spells. In this three-part series, Firstpost explores factors responsible for the condition of these rivers which are the lifeline of Madhya Pradesh. This is the third part of the series.

***

Bhopal: Shrinking every year, the water level in the Narmada is now so low that during a bad season you can even cross the river bed on foot and that too near its origin.

I crossed the river last year by walking with small kids. The river has dried at many places just near its source. The Narmada is dying day by day and the river linking projects will destroy the river completely," laments renowned activist Medha Patkar.

In 2018, Narmada had dried up at many places for the first time in hundreds of years.

One of the largest rivers of the peninsula, Narmada rises near the Amarkantak range of mountains in Madhya Pradesh. The biggest water source for Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, it is the fifth largest river in India and the largest one in Madhya Pradesh.

With six big dams and power projects on it, the river has been facing environmental threats from illegal mining, deforestation, and now the river linking project.

Earlier, people displaced after dam projects used to face floods but now they are facing the problem of drought, Patkar adds.

Existential crisis

A report by the World Resources Institute (WRI) has categorised the Narmada as one of six major river basins in the world facing an existential crisis. The report says that in 2017 the river faced water crisis and as a result, the Gujarat government had to stop using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam for irrigation.

Vinayak Parihar, another activist working to save the Narmada, explains, "The tributaries of Narmada are drying almost every year. Sand mining is the biggest threat."

The International Water Management Institute points out that the scarcity of water is due to the increasing dependency on the Narmada basin.

In February, a report released by the Madhya Pradesh Water Resources Department said over 28 percent of dams built on the Narmada Tapti river have almost dried up with less than 10 percent of water against its holding capacity.

Only 14 reservoirs out of 53 have over 90 percent of water. However, the two important dams on the Narmada  Bargi in Jabalpur and Indira Sagar Dam in Khandwa  are filled with 97 percent of its full tank level capacity.

The overall situation of water is also not good in the state as 71 reservoirs out of 241 have less than 10 percent of water as on 28 February, says a report released by the state water resources department. Only 42 reservoirs have over 90 percent of water against its full capacity.

Water expert Vinod Sharma, who works on the conservation of Narmada river, raises his concern over the scarcity of water. "Narmada has never faced this kind of situation. Around 29 cities get water supply from the Narmada and almost every part of Madhya Pradesh gets irrigated from the river. I saw the condition of the river near its source Dindori which is just 85 km away from Amarkantak. Dindori is facing a water crisis and the city does not get water every day. The situation will worsen in May-June this year. The river contains only 2 percent of water flow during summer which is an indication of the alarming situation.

He is disappointed with the unscientific approach of sand miners and governments. "Dams are not good for rivers but we are still not demanding demolition the dams. It is important for development but what about river conservation? Sand mining is affecting the Narmada the most but the government is still allowing miners to use machines to dig near river banks, argues the activist.

Vinod is disappointed over illegal deforestation. "The Narmada is not a glacier river, but the source of the river is a forest. A large chunk of the green area store rainwater and release it in the Narmada. Deforestation ruins its source and as a result, the crisis is here in front of everyone, he adds.

The forest cover of Madhya Pradesh has been decreasing year by year. As per the latest report released by the Forest Survey of India, in 2017 the total forest cover of Madhya Pradesh was 77,414 sq km against 77,462 sq km in 2015, 77,700 sq km in 2011, and 1,35,785 sq km in 1991.

Pollution another headache

Another big challenge for the Narmada is the dumping of untreated industrial waste and civic sewage. A study conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) says that the 160-km-long flow of the river from Mandla to Bhedaghat and 80-km-long flow from Sethani Ghat to Nemawar are highly polluted. The CPCB has declared the entire stretch of the river flowing in Madhya Pradeshs Jabalpur district as polluted in its latest report.

"I found some pollutants, which can even cause cancer, in the Narmada during my research work. Although the number of pollutants is still not big it is an indication to save the river now, points out IIT Delhi doctorate student Kartik Sapre.

All 41 tributaries of Narmada under threat

According to his study, all the 41 tributaries of Narmada are facing difficulties in survival. The water level of the river is at an all-time low, said Sapre, who is also associated with Narmada Samagra.

A white paper on Narmada river prepared by Vichar Madhya Pradesh has highlighted that there are 24 cities that discharge their polluted water without any treatment in the Narmada. A total of 102 nullahs have been discharging polluted water since years. The report also pointed out the use of chemical fertilisers in farmlands near the Narmada.

Sand mining is also one of the major factors responsible for the plight of the Narmada.

"Illegal sand minors are active in 28 districts of Madhya Pradesh. They use boats and pipeline to excavate sands from water, which is highly objectionable and an unscientific practice. The sand absorbs water and then recharges groundwater too. This practice is destroying the natural process of the river, explains activist Vinayak Parihar.

The author is a Bhopal-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com.
The mediation will take place in Uttar Pradesh's Faizabad and the three mediators or the members of the panel include: Former Supreme Court judge FM Kalifulla, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Shriram Panchu.

Editor's Note: This piece was originally published on 8 March, 2019, when the Supreme Court appointed the three-member mediation panel in a bid to resolve the long-standing Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya. It is being republished today ahead of a hearing in the apex court on whether to grant an early hearing in the case, as a plea has claimed that the mediation process has been "ineffective".

The Supreme Court on 8 March ordered mediation in the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute and asked the court-appointed mediation panel to file the final status report in eight weeks. The mediation will take place in Uttar Pradesh's Faizabad and the three mediators or the members of the panel include: Former Supreme Court judge FM Kalifulla, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Shriram Panchu.

FM Kalifulla

Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla, FM Kalifulla, is a former judge of the Supreme Court. He was born on 23 July 1951, in Karaikudi, Sivagangai district of Tamil Nadu.

Kalifulla enrolled as an advocate on 20 August 1975, after which he began practising labour law in the law firm of TS Gopalan and Co and was an active labour law practitioner who also appeared for various public and private sector undertakings. On 2 March, 2000, he was appointed as a permanent judge of the Madras High Court.

Thereafter, in February 2011, he became a member of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and was appointed to serve as the acting chief justice two months later. On 18 September, 2011, he was named as the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court. And on 2 April, 2012, he was elevated to the Supreme Court of India, sworn in by Chief Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia.

Justice Kalifulla retired from the Supreme Court of India on 22 July, 2016.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a globally revered spiritual and humanitarian leader. He has spearheaded an unprecedented worldwide movement for a stress-free, violence-free society.

Founder of The Art of Living organisation, Sri Sri  through a myriad of programs and teachings  has reached an estimated 370 million people. He has developed unique, impactful programs that empower, equip and transform individuals to tackle challenges at global, national, community and individual levels.

Born in 1956 in Southern India, Sri Sri holds degrees in, both, Vedic literature and physics. In 1982, he entered a ten-day period of silence in Shimoga located in the Indian state of Karnataka.

In 1997, he also founded the International Association for Human Values (IAHV) to coordinate sustainable development projects, nurture human values and coordinate conflict resolution in association with The Art of Living. Sri Sri has played vital roles in peace negotiations globally.

He has been conferred with numerous awards around the globe, including the highest civilian award of Colombia, Mongolia, and Paraguay and also Padma Vibhushan  India's highest annual award  for exceptional and distinguished service, along with 16 honorary doctorates globally.

Sriram Panchu

Sriram Panchu is a senior advocate and mediator. He is the founder of The Mediation Chambers, which offers services in mediation and med-arb and the president of the Association of Indian Mediators, along with being a director on the board of the International Mediation Institute (IMI). He set up Indias first court-annexed mediation centre in 2005, and has been instrumental in making mediation a part of India's legal system.

Panchu has mediated a large number of complex and high-value disputes across the range of commercial, corporate and contractual disputes in different parts of India. These include construction and property development, insolvency and winding up, property disputes, family business conflict, intellectual property and information technology disputes. He has also mediated international commercial disputes.

He is a certified mediator on the panel of the Singapore International Mediation Centre. He was appointed by India's Supreme Court to mediate a 500 square kilometre dispute between the states of Assam and Nagaland, and another public dispute involving the Parsi community in Bombay.

He combines mediation and arbitration and has developed innovative methods that are user-friendly and ensure finality of result with the best possible solution. He has also authored two books on mediation. The Supreme Court of India referred to him as a distinguished mediator, eminent trainer and one of the foremost mediators in the country.

Globally, Panchu has broad experience in mediating disputes between parties of different cultures and nationalities. He mediated the Standard Motors case which recorded one of the highest settlements in court-annexed mediations. In the private mediation field, he has handled disputes involving major enterprises.

Apart from his conventional law practice and mediation, he has done a number of public interest cases in the fields of good governance, curbing corruption, environmental protection and consumer rights.
The Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya saw a new development on Friday after the Supreme Court appointed a mediation panel in an effort to resolve the decades-old conflict 'outside the court'.

The Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya saw a new development on Friday after the Supreme Court appointed a mediation panel in an effort to resolve the decades-old conflict 'outside the court'. The five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, announced the verdict as it observed that there was "no impediment" in opting for mediation as a way to settle the politically sensitive case.

The option of mediation has been a constant in the decades-old case as various courts tried to settle the dispute ever since the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. However, in past instances, the parties failed to reach a consensus. The Allahabad High Court and Supreme Court in 2010 and 2017 respectively, had appealed for the parties to try to resolve the conflict "amicably" without the involvement of the court to no avail.

According to reports, if a consensus is reached in the upcoming round of mediation in the Ayodhya issue, the Supreme Court might consider passing the mediators formula as a formal court decree. In such a scenario, the panel will submit a consensus report at the end of the prescribed eight weeks.

Alternately, in the case the panel fails to reach consensus, the three-member team will submit a concluding report to the referral court, in this case the Supreme Court. The apex court is expected to continue hearings in the case until it reaches a verdict, CNN-News18 reported, with no specification of a deadline.

What is a mediation?

Mediation refers to a method of resolving disputes without involving the court. It is a monitored, "voluntary and interactive" negotiation process during which a supposedly objective third-party guides the conflicting parties to reach a conclusion to the dispute amicably, using "specialised communications and negotiation techniques".

The option of mediation can be used by courts under the Code of Civil Procedure which makes provisions for various scenarios in which mediation may be required. According to reports, the Supreme Court could have chosen to order mediation in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue under Section 89 of the code, which mandates the consent of all the parties.

However, because a faction of the Hindu Mahasabha was opposed to the mediation process, the Supreme Court relied on the mediation rules under a 2003 provision of the code, which allows the court to refer the case for mediation even though the parties don't agree with referrence to the process.

The three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court, too, had tried mediation, The Indian Express reported. "After arguments concluded on 3 August, 2010, the Bench had called all lawyers into the chamber and asked whether they wanted to reconcile. The process had collapsed apparently after the Hindu side said it was not acceptable," the report said.

An agreement reached by the mediation panel is enforceable as a judgment of the court, News18 reported. A "court-annexed mediation" refers to mediators and guidance provided to the parties from the court as part of the judicial system. The same lawyers who appeared in the case represent the parties in the process of mediation.

How will mediation process work in Ayodhya case?

The mediation process is scheduled to begin a week from Friday, for which the panel of mediators have to ensure the participation of the parties and their lawyers. The panel members will introduce themselves and present their qualifications, after which the parties will be allowed to make their cases. The petitioners can lay out their conditions regarding the case themselves, after which the counsels will explain the legal arguments from the respective sides.

With a view to create an atmosphere conducive to settling the dispute, the News18 report says that the "mediator also holds separate sessions", which "provides the parties with a forum to further vent their feelings and disclose confidential information they do not wish to share with the other parties."

Case so far

The Supreme Court reserved its verdict on the question of mediation on Wednesday, however, on Friday the Constitution bench appointed a three-member mediation panel and gave it eight weeks to come to a conclusion on the issue. The panel is to be headed by former Supreme Court judge FM Khalifullah, and have spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and lawyer Sriram Panchu as the other two members.

The bench, also comprising justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer, said the mediation proceedings will start within a week from Friday and they will be held in-camera. No media, neither print nor electronic, will report its proceedings. The bench also said that mediation proceedings will be held at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh and directed the state government to make necessary arrangements for it.

On Wednesday, the bench had reserved the order after hearing various contesting parties. Hindu bodies, except Nirmohi Akhara, had opposed the apex court's suggestion to refer the issue for mediation, while Muslim bodies had supported it. The bench had concluded the hearing by asking stakeholders to give the names of possible mediators.

With inputs from agencies
On International Women's day, a look at women in politics in India and their low representation in parliaments and decision-making roles.

It's International Women's day today. Which means countries and their political leaders around the world are going to sing praises of women, their empowerment, achievements and how far they have come. While it amuses the most that the world needs this one specific day to appreciate women, let's take what we can get in this patriarchy-entrenched society.

For centuries, women have had to fight for the basics, from tasks as simple as making household decisions to the suffragette movement to be able to vote like their "superior" male counterparts. Even today, such is the sorry state of affairs that an advocate of the stature of Indira Jaising is referred to, by the Attorney General of India, nonetheless, as the wife of senior counsel Anand Grover. Her standing and her achievements are of no value.

Speaking of decision-making, women are making their way to top government posts and parliaments, but their representation still remains abysmally low in the political scene.

India's 16th Lok Sabha may have the highest number of women the Lower House has ever had, but a report, prepared by Inter-Parliamentary Union and United Nations Women in 2017, ranked the country in the 148th spot among 193 countries in terms of the number of women in Parliament. Rwanda topped the list with women making up more than 61 percent of its parliamentarians.

Women constitute around 11.8 percent of the Lok Sabha and 11 percent in the Rajya Sabha. There are 64 women in the 542-member Lower House and 27 women in the 254-member Upper House. The global average of women in parliaments stands at 22 percent.

"What is democracy? Is it for the people, or men for the people?" Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka had asked, also highlighting that countries with reservation for women in Parliament ranked better on the list.

The same year, Oxfam noted that between the first (1952) and 16th Lok Sabha, women's representation rose a meagre 4.4 percent. It observed a similar trend of low women's representation in the Rajya Sabha post-Independence  a minor rise of 6.9 percent in 1952 to 11.4 percent in 2014. Again, we must note that these figures are significantly lower than the global average of 22.9 percent and Asian average of 16.3 percent  even more so when the proportion of women (49.5 percent) in India's population is considered.

Women's reservation bill

Prime Minister Narendra Modi loves to boast about the myriad of schemes his government has implemented to empower women. He most often brings up the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao initiative, though ironically, it is this tagline that the public and Opposition alike use against him whenever we hear.

Modi accuses past governments of ignoring women's welfare and not working towards empowering the fairer sex. He lays it down on the Congress when the party opposes certain provisions of the proposed triple talaq bill. But here, the grand old party has a notable retort  whatever happened to the women's reservation bill, one of the BJP's key poll promises in 2014?

The women's reservation bill seeks to reserve one-third (or 33 percent) of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies and a third of these seats for women from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The demand for this bill has been a long-standing one, with little progress. It was introduced by the UPA 1 government in 2008, and similar bills were introduced three times in Parliament in the late 1990s, but all lapsed with the dissolution of the Lok Sabhas.

The current government has been largely silent about proposed legislation, instead focused on granting various caste-based reservations to suit its political needs and reserve its own vote bank.

What makes the government's true intentions with regard to one of its most appreciated poll promises even more suspicious is that it would have been easy to pass the women's reservation bill as the Rajya Sabha had approved it in 2010, and Opposition parties, including the Congress, AIADMK, DMK, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Nationalist Congress Party, all pledged support to it.

This makes us wonder whether the country is even prepared to have women take on leading roles. What other reason could there possibly be for a ready-t0-pass bill to be kept locked in the closet of pending legislation?

One must note that in 2017, TR Zeliang had to step down as the chief minister of Nagaland after he faced protests from tribal groups for reserving 33 percent seats for women in the civic polls.

Furthermore, while we could mention that women have 33 percent reservation in local bodies  a move in 1993 that made politics accessible to women  the primary inference here is that the husbands and other male relatives are really the de-facto leaders in these cases, projecting the women as the faces of the seats but taking on the responsibilities and making the decisions themselves.

Male shadow behind women in power

Whenever the subject of women's representation in Indian politics comes up, there's always the mention of Indira Gandhi becoming the Prime Minister of India at a time when world democracies had few female leaders. There's also the mention of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati. While they are all examples of women in power, any praise of them always comes with a caveat  could Indira Gandhi have become the prime minister had she not been Jawaharlal Nehru's daughter? Would Jayalalithaa and Mayawati have come into their own without the support of MGR and Kanshi Ram?

Of course, their political acumen and leadership skills are moot here.

When we look at things in this perspective, it becomes clear that it's a mammoth task for women in politics to work their way up and break that proverbial glass ceiling, sidestepping jibes against their success "despite being a woman".

Womens leadership and political participation are restricted even though it's acknowledged globally that gender equality and womens empowerment are the key to achieving development objectives. There is an underrepresentation of women, be it as voters, or in leading positions in an elected office, academia, the civil service or the private sector. This is the reality despite their proven abilities and the right to participate equally in a democracy.

"Women in every part of the world continue to be largely marginalised from the political sphere, often as a result of discriminatory laws, practices, attitudes and gender stereotypes, low levels of education, lack of access to health care, and the disproportionate effect of poverty on women," the 2011 UN General Assembly resolution on women's political participation had said.

No qualms to conclude that India just isn't ready. Happy Women's Day, all!
Women in the military are now no longer an object of awe, they form an integral part of regiments and could well lead men into the lines. While one can argue that the time for women to disguise themselves as men in order to fight on the front lines is gone, it also remains to be seen whether the time has come yet for decisive, battlefront roles to be given to women at last.

Women have always been effective in battle. When society dictated that they are too frail to take up arms. women fought and won wars. Now that waves of feminism have secured a better space for their recognition, women still continue to fight and win.

The biggest wars in the world are those where women have not only taken to the battle lines with derring-do usually never ascribed to them, but also where they have performed the founding functions of cooking and nursing. From the World Wars to the American Civil War and the Indian struggle for freedom, there is no history that could have afforded to forget the contribution of women in armed fights.

Women in the military are now no longer an object of awe, they form an integral part of regiments and could well lead men into the lines. While one can argue that the time for women to disguise themselves as men in order to fight on the front lines is gone, it also remains to be seen whether the time has come yet for decisive, battlefront roles to be given to women at last.

The idealisation of women as leaders, fully armed, has not yet translated into their presence in the most dangerous of stand offs or clashes, even now.

Absent in combat

When it comes to combat, women are left out the fray entirely. In an opinions editorial for NDTV, Communist Party of India politburo member Brinda Karat wrote, "The reason put forth by the service chiefs before the Parliamentary Committee on Women's Empowerment was that in the case of women being captured by the enemy, the troops would be demoralized. So it is not women's safety which is the concern here but that male morale would be affected if "their" women were captured. Women as trophies for the enemy or women as symbols of the nation; nothing about the sovereign rights of women themselves."

This year, the all-women Assam Rifles contingent made history on the Rajpath on Republic Day. The feat was widely publicised and remains an emblem of what is possible for women even in the remotest parts of the country. Yet although the sight of woman officer Captain Shikha Surabhi standing on a moving motorcycle, riding in front of a team of 33 men on nine bikes through the Rajpath, can instil inspiration, the truth remains that few women come forward to choose careers in the military?

In December 2018, 13.09 percent of the Indian Air Force comprised women. The percentages were 6 for the Indian Navy and 3.80 for the Indian Army.

Induction of women into military roles has been rather slowly in the country with most of the major developments concentrated in the last 30 years. For a country which had women in the military since the late 19th century, it was only in 1992 that India started hiring women in non-medical roles. In the path set by the likes of Noor Inayat Khan (a special operations executive in the World War I) and Kalyani Sen (one of the first to serve in the Womens Royal Indian Navy service in the World War II), on 19 January, 2007, the United Nations' first all-female peacekeeping force made up of 105 Indian policewomen was deployed to Liberia.

The decision to induct women in the military police with an aim to enhance their representation in the armed forces was announced by Army Chief General Bipin Rawat last year. The Army Chief also said last year that the Indian Army was not ready to have women in combat roles. "Let us not compare ourselves with Western nations, which are more open," he had said.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, considered by many as the first woman to have the position in the country, has said that women will be inducted in the military police in a graded manner, and will eventually comprise 20 percent of its total strength.

A victory at last

However, the biggest victory for women in the military came on 5 March when the defence ministry announced that women officers will now be granted permanent commission in all 10 branches of the Indian Army.

Women were earlier inducted for short service commission in the Armed forces. This decision puts them at par with their male counterparts. They can now serve for a longer duration across all 10 branches.

The ministry made a few other announcements that should come across as good news for women. In so far the Indian Air Force is concerned, "all branches, including that of fighter pilots, are now open for women officers," it said.

In 2018, Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh had made history by becoming the first-ever women to undergo fighter pilot training at the IAF. Their stories, like the one reported by Times of India, including details of how they gradually escalated from solo sorties on Pilatus PC-7 turboprops and Hawk jet trainers into MiG-21 Bisons, scripted the intricacies of a path that offered them new challenges every day.

The 5 March statement by the Ministry of Defence also had good news for women looking for a career in the Navy. "In Indian Navy, all non-sea going branches/cadre/specialisation have been opened for induction of women officers through Short Service Commission," the statement said.

The proposal for induction of "three new training ships" that will have training facilities that are required to house both men and women is underway, the ministry also said in the statement. Once the ships are acquired, women will be hired in all branches (and not just non-sea going ones) of the Navy.

In the Central Armed Police Forces, the Union Public Service Commission had made it possible for women to enter the forces. However, the home ministry, in March of 2016, had announced that women will be allowed direct-entry in all five of the Forces wings, at par with the men.
The IAF on Thursday said it was in a high state of preparedness to pro-actively engage any perceived threat from Pakistan, in clear indication that underlying tension between the two countries had remained.

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force on Thursday said it was in a high state of preparedness to pro-actively engage any perceived threat from Pakistan, in clear indication that underlying tension between the two countries had remained.

Citing a document of Pakistan's civil aviation authority, the IAF said the neighbouring country has opened its airspace with Oman, Iran, Afghanistan and China only and the 11 entry and exit points located along India-Pakistan airspace were still closed.

"The Indian Air Force is in a high state of preparedness, to pro-actively engage any perceived threat in the present security scenario," the IAF said in a statement. It said a strict vigil in the skies to detect and thwart any act of aggression from Pakistan Air Force is being maintained.

Officials said all the frontline IAF bases along India's western border have been kept on maximum alert. Tensions between the two countries escalated after Indian fighters bombed terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp near Balakot deep inside Pakistan on February 26.

Pakistan retaliated by attempting to target Indian military installations on February 27. However, the IAF thwarted their plans. The Indian strike on the JeM camp came 12 days after the terror outfit claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in Kashmir, killing 40 soldiers.
The 2013 confidential quality audit report of the IAF clearly indicts the decision makers in the UPA and previous governments including NDA 1 headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

New Delhi: The springs installed in fuel pump aggregates of R-25 aeroengines are failing frequently. MiG 21 Bison aircraft accident, which occurred in November 2012 has been attributed to failure of springs due to surface corrosion. Out of the five Main Fuel Pumps fitted with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited manufactured springs, spring failures were found on three Main Fuel Pumps, which is a cause for serious concern. These spring failures would have resulted in aircraft accidents, which besides resulting in loss of costly aircraft would have also resulted in irreplaceable loss of human life, reveals a UPA era report lying with defence ministry and exclusively reviewed by Firstpost.

This and some other shocking findings in the report has been buried by the bureaucrats despite the clamour for modernisation of the Indian Air Force when AK Antony was at the helm of affairs in the defence ministry. In the recent aerial dogfight with Pakistan, IAF pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman scored a kill which was followed by intense debate among defence experts applauding the performance of an old Soviet fighter jet shooting down the modern US-made F-16 jet. However, some veterans blamed politicians and babus for degrading firepower of the air force over the years and cautioned that modern-day wars require advanced technology and it was the right time to replace the vintage fighter jets.

This 2013 confidential quality audit report of the IAF clearly indicts the decision makers in the UPA and previous governments including NDA 1 headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It further shows how the air warriors capabilities were grossly undermined. Why UPA in its 10 years of rule did nothing for outdated jets?

The report further said: There have been high failures of Main Fuel Pumps since 1990s, due to fuel leak from pump drive end. Throttle lever and centrifugal governor end of Main Fuel Pump of R-25/R-25 U aeroengines. To combat the fuel leak, various studies were undertaken in 1997, 2005 and 2007 and their recommendations were implemented. In spite of incorporating changes, fuel leak from Main Fuel Pumps continued unabated from throttle end.

The MiG 21 has often been termed as "flying coffin" and the confidential report clearly answers the why lingering on the mind. The successive regime has been careful in their statement regarding MiG accidents to justify the status quo. On 27 December 2017, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre told Parliament that 10 MiG aircraft crashed between 2014-17 and 10 squadrons of IAF equipped with MiG-21 and MIG-27 aircraft are scheduled to retire by 2024 on completion of their total technical life. On 26 December 2018, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said two MiG aircraft in the last six months (July-December 2018) and there was one casualty of service personnel in these accidents. She further said: A continuous and multi-faceted effort is always underway in the IAF to enhance and upgrade flight safety. Measures to enhance the quality of training to improve the skill levels, ability to exercise sound judgment and situational awareness of pilots are being pursued. Constant interaction with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) is also maintained for enhancement of aerospace safety.

According to March 2018 report of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence 12 February 2013 MiG 27, 19 February Sukhoi and 7 June 2013 accident of MiG 21 Bison was due to technical defect. On 27 May 2014 another MiG 21 went down due to technical defects. The representatives of the IAF told the committee that "there are possibilities of people making a mistake in maintenance.

The panel had slammed the government for the reduction in the IAF budget. The Parliamentary Committee said: With the skinning of the budget under the capital segment, the Committee is compelled to point out that there appears to be a lack of sufficient sincerity towards capacity enhancement and modernization of the Air Force. Flight safety also becomes a matter of concern due to issues of obsolescence. In this context, the Committee further believes that inadequacy of budget allocation would result in deferment of certain procurements, thereby, deepening the capability deficit further.
The incident occurred before a bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha when Grover told the court that he was appearing for Jaising, who has filed an application seeking to intervene in the contempt petition filed by the Attorney General against activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

New Delhi: "I am a person in my own right", retorted senior advocate Indira Jaising while taking strong exception to Attorney General KK Venugopal's comment in the Supreme Court on Thursday that she be referred to as the wife of senior counsel Anand Grover.

The incident occurred before a bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha when Grover told the court that he was appearing for Jaising, who has filed an application seeking to intervene in the contempt petition filed by the Attorney General against activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

Justice Mishra asked Grover as to whom he was representing in the matter. When Grover said, "Ms Jaising", Justice Mishra asked, "Not Indira Jaising?" Grover then clarified that he was appearing for her. At this juncture, Venugopal who was present in the court, said: "He (Grover) should say (he is appearing) for his wife."

To this, Jaising took umbrage at the comment and said, "Mr Attorney General you should withdraw his remark. I am a person in my own right". Minutes later however, she said: "I am sorry that I lost my temper Mr Attorney. We identify as individual lawyers. We are not to be identified as somebody's spouse or somebody's wife or husband. We are maintaining our individuality. Hence, we chose not to change our names."

Jaising told the bench that she has filed an application to intervene in the matter as the court was dealing with the issue of whether lawyers and litigants can criticise the court proceedings in a sub-judice matter to influence public opinion.

"I also write frequently. I am concerned and I must know the limit of law," she said, adding, "It is my own choice as to who should represent me. Kindly allow Mr Grover to appear for me". To this, the bench said, "Do not worry, we will hear everybody when we will hear the issue".

During the hearing, Bhushan admitted before the court that he had made a "genuine mistake" by tweeting that the government had perhaps submitted in the apex court fabricated documents of the high-powered selection panel on appointment of interim CBI chief.

Bhushan however refused to tender an "unconditional apology" in the apex court for seeking recusal of Justice Arun Mishra from hearing the contempt petition filed against him by Attorney General.

The bench has posted the matter for further hearing on 3 April.
India and Pakistan should quickly turn the page following the Pulwama terror attack and convert the present tensions into an opportunity for long term improvement in their relations, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Friday.

Beijing: India and Pakistan should quickly turn the page following the Pulwama terror attack and convert the present tensions into an opportunity for long term improvement in their relations, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Friday.

Wang also said post-Wuhan summit between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China wants to develop closer ties with India and forge ahead like the "Yangtze and Ganges" rivers despite Beijing's all-weather ties with Pakistan. Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in 14 February.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on 1 March. "China hopes Pakistan and India will transform the crisis into opportunity and meet each other halfway," Wang said.

He was replying to questions on the present India-Pakistan tensions following the Pulwama terror attack and how China plans to carry forward the spirit of last year's Wuhan summit between Prime Minister and President Xi."We advise both the parties to quickly turn the page and seek fundamental, long term improvement in their relations. When confrontation gives way to dialogue and disagreement are settled, we can create a better future through cooperation," he said. Recent events focussed international attention on the India-Pakistan relations, he said stating that China played a constructive role to resolve the tensions between the two neighbours.

"China has stressed from the beginning the need to exercise restraint prevent an escalation, find out what has happened and resolve the matter through dialogue," Wang said adding that Beijing tried to play a mediatory role. "In the meantime, country's sovereignty and territorial integrity should fully be respected. China followed these principles in its mediation and played a constructive role in defusing the tension, he said.

China recently dispatched its Vice Foreign Minister Kong Kong Xuanyou to Pakistan where he held talks with Prime Minister Imran Khan, Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, besides Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua, on the India-Pakistan tensions. His visit coincides with the US, the UK and French application in the 1267 counter-terrorism committee of the UNSC to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. If listed by the committee, Azhar would face a global travel ban and asset freeze. the JeM has already been banned by the UN.

While China blocked India's previous attempts to declare Azhar as a global terrorist, expectations are high that this time Beijing may take a different stand considering JeM has admitted its role in the Pulwama terror attack. "In the last couple of days both Pakistan and India indicated a desire to de-escalate the situation and start talks. We welcome this. Pakistan and India are neighbours and always have to live with each other," Wang said.

"Both countries face important opportunities to realise stability, development and prosperity. China hopes the two countries will get along and progress together," he said.

Asked post-Wuhan summit, how China plans to develop its relations with India in the light of challenges and Beijing's close ties with Pakistan, Wang said 2018 was a "year of great significance for China and India relations". "The historic meeting between Xi and Modi at Wuhan has created a new model of high-level interactions between our two countries deepened and trust between our leaders and set the direction for our future relations," he said.

The priority now is to see that the strategic understanding reached by the two leaders should go down to the people and become their common view through conscious efforts, he said. "China will work with India to comprehensively strengthen sectoral cooperation and people-to-people ties which are vital importance in the current context so that our friendship and cooperation will forge ahead like the Yangtze and Ganges giving strong and sustained impetus to our relationship," he said.

Wang said India and China are ancient civilisations with a combined population of 2.7 billion besides being the largest developing countries and neighbours. "China and India should be each other's partners in pursuing our respective dreams and each other's important opportunity for growing our respective economies. Collectively we must make our due contribution to Asia's revitalisation and prosperity," he said.
If a look is taken at female labour force participation (FLFP), a World Bank report found that the rate in India fell to 27 percent in 2017 from 37 percent in 2006.

Its 2019, which means it is 50 years past the inception of the womens movement in the US, and over 70 since India became independent. The current Narendra Modi government is credited for giving India its first woman defence minister, while the Congress is banking on Priyanka Gandhi to up its prospects in Uttar Pradesh. Yet, there is a feeling of underrepresentation of women in politics, the workforce and everywhere else. Why?

As per the Election Commission, there are only 11.8 percent women MPs in Lok Sabha, and 9 percent MLAs across the nation. A survey by citizens collective Shakti conducted on a mobile app Neta revealed that 82 percent voters want more women representatives in the next Lok Sabha.

If a look is taken at female labour force participation (FLFP), a World Bank report found that the rate in India fell to 27 percent in 2017 from 37 percent in 2006. Indias FLFP rates are among the lowest in the world, well below what is observed in neighbours Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Ahead of the International Womens Day, the National Alliance of Women's Organisations on Wednesday released, what they called, the Womanifesto for the consideration of parties for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Among the 44 demands put forth were the allotment of at least 33 percent tickets to women in the polls, and the reservation of one-third seats in all internal committees of parties for women.

It also called for the creation of one crore jobs for women in the next five years and the inclusion of women in all decision-making bodies dealing with climate change and environment. The Election Commission must make it mandatory for parties to have at least 33 percent women members so that political parties with fewer women can be de-registered, The Hindu quoted Joint Womens Programs Padmini Kumar as saying at the press conference as the activists criticised the BJP-led government for failing to keep its promise of getting the Womens Reservation Bill passed in the Parliament.

The Bill, which seeks to reserve 33 percent seats in Parliament and state Assemblies for women, was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010. It eventually lapsed in 2014 after the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.

In February, senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said at an event for Anganwadi workers that his party will pass the Bill in the first session of Parliament if it is elected to power at the Centre. Meanwhile, Odisha drew praise from the United Nations for passing a resolution for 33 percent reservation for women in the Assembly.

While these developments are clubbed under efforts towards womens empowerment, India is past the time when reservation can be claimed to be the only solution to tackle the lack of representation in all fields. The demand for gender equality is also a matter of visibility for women.

At the ground level, women still have to deal with social norms that restrict their opportunities. They are expected to fit in the framework designed by a patriarchal society while dealing with the gender pay gap. Safety and security still play a huge role in their decision-making. Despite the challenges, all that women ask for are equal opportunities based on their merit.

At an event on Thursday, Supreme Court judge Indira Banerjee explained why she feels reservation undermines womens capabilities. When I was elevated as a judge in the Calcutta High Court, for four and a half years, I was the only woman judge there. Male colleagues on the bench would say it on my face that I got a benefit because I was a woman, The Times of India quoted her as saying. I dont think I was elevated as a Supreme Court judge because I was a lady; I happened to be a lady. In the age of quota politics, the problem with is that our lawmakers continue to shy away from the real issues that ail women.

Several western countries have understood the importance of womens participation in areas of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). To increase their involvement, awareness activities are held to encourage girls to consider a career in STEM, sometimes by also involving female practitioners. Such practices should also make way to India, where theres a need for greater visibility of female role models in most fields.

In a 2018 paper published by the World Economic Forum, IMF chief Christine Lagarde and Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg said that India's GDP can boost by 27 percent by raising women's participation in the labour force to the same level as men. It is worrying that little is being done to being womens workforce participation on par with mens.

Initiatives that give women access to better educational and career opportunities will unarguably go a long way as far as womens empowerment is concerned. What the government needs to adopt is increased sensitivity and an understanding that women arent weaker vessels.

Reservation, in any aspect, should anyway just be seen as a short-term solution. If India actually takes steps to empower its women considering the dynamically-changing times, its efforts too will yield favourable results.
According to the Nobel Prize website, of the 904 unique individuals to have been awarded the Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences between 1901 and 2018, only 51 are women.

International Women's Day | The one thing about making an annual global event entirely about women is that at least once a year, the global discourse is squarely driven towards the real challenges women face in their day to day life. From pay parity to the fight for a gender-balanced workspace to how women leaders in their field still find it difficult to get equal recognition in a largely male-centric world. The world still doesnt do a great job of recognising women's contributions in fields like science, innovation, research and global policymaking.

Readers may think that statement is overly harsh? Then sample this: When Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize for her research on economic governance in 2009, it was the first (and so far, the only) time a woman won the prestigious prize for Economics. That prize has existed for nearly 50 years. Only three women have ever won a Nobel for Physics and five have been awarded a prize for Chemistry  two of the oldest categories for which the prize is awarded  and the statistical precedent of a woman receiving the prize is less than 6 percent of the total number of unique individuals who have received the prize.

Thats right!

According to the Nobel Prize website, of the 904 unique individuals to have been awarded the Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences between 1901 and 2018, only 51 are women. Only one woman, Marie Curie, has been honoured twice with the prize till date. And only 23 of these 51 women have not had to share the prize, either in recognition of collaborating colleagues or with multiple winners in the same category.

Marie Curie, the first ever woman to receive her Nobel (and till date the only woman to get it twice) only received a quarter of the prize money. The prize was divided between Antoine Henri Becquerel, who got half the award (in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity), and Pierre and Marie Curie, who split the other 50 percent  meaning they each received a quarter of the prize.

Sixty years later, Maria Goeppert Mayer became the second woman ever to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics, and she too, received a quarter of it as the lions share was awarded to Eugene Paul Wigner (for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles), while Mayer and J Hans D Jensen split the remaining half for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure.

Only four women of African origin have received the award so far and never for their contribution to science and innovation. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee (2015, Liberia) and Wangari Maathai (Kenya, 2004) have received the prize in Peace category, while Toni Morrison (US, 1993), the first black woman ever to receive the prize, won it in the Peace category. This is not to say the contributions made in the fields of Literature and Peace are any less remarkable than the other fields, but the statistic simply points out how science and research continue to be male-dominated fields, at least as far as it comes to earning global recognition.

In fact, the track record of women earning recognition in the field of science and academia is particularly bleak. According to The Harvard Business Review, the most prestigious prize in mathematics, the Fields Medal, has had just one female winner till date: the late Maryam Mirzakhani. And evidence suggests female academics are also less likely to receive grant funding due to gender bias. And prizes still remain a highly visible indicator of recognition in broader public opinion, sometimes which also include public policymakers and those who make decisions about scientific grants and other support. The prize money too almost always matters: each Nobel prize winner, for example, is awarded over $1 million.

The subject matter is so complex and open to interpretation that no direct research on the effect a prize has on women researchers, the means they have access to, and their motivation can be done. Some would simply argue that in case of a prestigious award like Nobel, quality wins over quantity and whoever does it gets it, irrespective of gender or race. The science speaks for itself; does it really matter who did it; and the best man wins (note the irony) is common adages used to superficially explain the gap in recognition given to women.

Nevertheless, the missing women Nobel Laureates in the humongous and elaborate list of luminaries does beg the question that why women  who roughly make up half of the world's population  don't even come up to 10 percent of those who received the Nobel prize for their "immense contribution to humanity." Are women generally underachievers? Or they simply lack appreciation, recognition and the means?

An article in The Guardian reviewed the possible reasons. "This scarcity of women (and black and minority ethnic men, for that matter) is often put down to the time lag between work being carried out and being rewarded with the highest accolade in science. The awards, it is argued, reflect the make-up of academic institutions way-back-when." The article attributes this to an increasing approach of "cautiousness" adopted by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is responsible for selecting the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates by the terms of Alfred Nobel's will.

But the list of laureates didn't look so conservative since the beginning.

The article notes that in recent years, the average age of recipients has been steadily climbing. Between 1931 and 1940 the average age of physics laureates was 41. It has risen steadily since, and so far this decade, it is 68.

Possibly, the full impact of discovery, or a movement, may not be visible immediately. But this also means that younger scientists who are still active, a greater proportion of whom are women than it used to be, miss out on the honour.

Another science journalist, writing in Forbes, attributes the missing women Nobel laureates to what she calls the classic case of a "pipeline problem" in science. "Its a corollary to the oft-cited pipeline problem in science: stuff happens along the pipeline from postdoc to Nobel contender. That stuff is a more complex brew than anything I ever worked with in the lab  it's choices, it's circumstances, it's bias, it's competition."

And her argument rings true given the folks deciding the Nobel Prize behind the curtains, are people, after all. Biases, political inclinations, capriciousness are all human vices, and so far I haven't seen any evidence that absolves any particular group of humans from these, decisively. Even Academy Awards (aka Oscars) have been criticised for pandering to an all-white male set of dignitaries, by a similarly constituted panel.

An article in The New Yorker discusses this at length. It notes that nominations flow in from across the world, and there is considerable debate about who ought to get credit for which discovery. But there is also a discussion about what message is sent by choosing to honour one scientist or discovery over another. This means that women researchers, who data shows, anyway find it more difficult to get grants for research and are more likely than their male peers to have their applications reviewed by reviewers with less expertise, means that there is just a higher chance they would miss out on the accolade even if things are presumably fair and square at the Nobel selection level.

A nomination for a Nobel Prize can undoubtedly open doors. And when, year after year, the demography of winners perpetuates an entrenched stereotype, questions will arise whether one of the world's most respected accolades is reasonably reflecting the achievements of women across the world. What needs answering is whether this is really the image the Nobel committee wishes to project to the world.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced that she will lead a padyatra (rally) in Kolkata on the occasion of International Womens Day on Friday.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced that she will lead a padyatra (rally) in Kolkata on the occasion of International Womens Day on Friday. The rally started at Shraddhananda Park at 12 noon on Friday and it will conclude at near Esplanade.

The purpose of this rally is to create a "new India, united India and strong India", the posters of the rally read. She also expressed pride in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for having 35 percent women MPs in the 16th Lok Sabha even as the Women's Reservation Bill was yet to be passed in Parliament.

"While the Womens Reservation Bill has not yet been passed in Parliament, I am proud that our party All India Trinamool Congress has 35 percent women MPs in the 16th Lok Sabha. We have also reserved 50 percent seats in local bodies for women candidates," she tweeted on the occasion of Women's Day.

Describing women as the "backbone" of Indian society, Banerjee congratulated women across the world on this day. Emphasising that her government is committed to the empowerment of women, the chief minister said the state government has recently launched 'Swasthya Sathi' health insurance smart cards for them.

Women are the backbone of our society. They are our pride. On #IWD2019 I want to congratulate all the women around the world. Today I will participate in a march to mark the occasion in #Kolkata 1/3 pic.twitter.com/RufVP5Hq96  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) March 8, 2019

"We have decided to issue these cards to a woman member of the family, recognising her as the head of the family. #IWD2019," Banerjee tweeted. Mamata was also expected to launch the TMC's campaign for the Lok Sabha polls on Friday, in keeping with the occasion, PTI reported.

Incidentally, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief had also commenced her party's campaign for the 2014 parliamentary and 2016 assembly elections on the same date.

"Although election dates are yet to be announced, but the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections will begin on 8 March. During the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and 2016 Assembly polls also, Mamata di had started her poll campaign on Women's Day," a senior leader of the TMC's women's wing had said.

"She (Banerjee) will give her message for the Lok Sabha polls. And after the dates are announced, a full-fledged campaign will begin," the report quoted the party leader as saying. Several rallies and marches are also expected to be held in various parts of the state to celebrate the day and kick off the poll campaign in the state, TMC sources said.

Banerjee, who has been the prime mover of an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) front, had organised a mega Opposition rally here on 19 January, during which she had given a call to oust the Modi government.

The TMC, which is vying to play a major role in the formation of the next government at the Centre, has vowed to win all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The party had won 34 seats in the 2014 general election. However, the BJP state leadership mocked TMC's decision to kick start its poll campaign on International Women's day.

"It's an irony that TMC is kick starting its poll campaign from March 8 when Bengal under TMC regime in last seven years has seen steep rise in atrocities against women," BJP state president Dilip Ghosh. Meanwhile, the saffron party's women wing too has scheduled several rallies in the state to mark the occasion.

With inputs from agencies
A MiG-21 fighter plane crashed in Shobhasar village near Rajasthan's Bikaner on Friday. This comes over a week after India lost a MiG-21 after Pakistan Air Force shot it down during a dogfight on 27 February.

A MiG-21 fighter plane crashed in Shobhasar village near Rajasthan's Bikaner on Friday.

The Superintendent of Police, Bikaner Pradeep Mohan Sharma was quoted by PTI as saying that one pilot ejected safely. Sharma further said the MiG aircraft crashed in Shobhasar ki Dhani, 12 kilometres from Bikaner city. He said police teams have rushed to the spot to cordon off the area. No loss of life has been reported.

The MiG-21 was said to have been on a routine mission when it took off from Nal near Bikaner. A court of inquiry (CoI) will investigate the cause of the accident.

Visuals: MiG-21 aircraft on a routine mission crashed today after getting airborne from Nal near Bikaner. The pilot of the aircraft ejected safely. Court of inquiry will investigate the cause of the accident. #Rajasthan pic.twitter.com/2HnWciPEB8  ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2019

On Twitter, the defence ministry spokesperson said that initial inputs have suggested the crash took place because of a bird hit.

This comes over a week after India lost a MiG-21 after the Pakistan Air Force shot it down during a dogfight. One of the MiG-21 fighters, flown by Indian Air Force wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was shot down during the 27 February dogfight while it was chasing the Pakistani jets and he landed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) where he was taken into captivity. He was handed over to India two days later on 1 March.

On Monday, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa sought to downplay questions over the use of MiG-21 Bison fighters to take on F-16 jets of the Pakistan Air Force during the aerial combat. "The Mig-21 Bison is a capable aircraft. It has been upgraded, Dhanoa said at a press conference.

With inputs from agencies
The fourth part of the section titled 'Religion' examines the differing views of high school and college graduates

The Lok Sabha election in a few months is set to see a massive 130 million first-time voters go to the polls. The stakes are already high for the National Democratic Alliance that seeks to secure five more years and a seemingly united Opposition that seeks to dislodge the ruling BJP and its allies at any cost.

To get a better idea of how young first-time voters  people aged 18 to 21  perceive of the forthcoming election, YouGov India and Firstpost conducted a nationwide survey between 5 and 16 December, 2018. There was a total of 1,332 respondents, from a panel of over 40,000, who answered questions ranging from politics and jobs, to religion and the media. The findings are being serialised in four sections:

1) Politics and Ideology

2) News and Media

3) Religion

4) Jobs and Economy

The fourth part of the section titled 'Religion' examines the differing views of high school and college graduates.

Fifty-four percent of high school graduates identified as being religious, compared to 62 percent of college graduates surveyed. And while 40 percent of college graduates claimed to pray at least once a week, 20 percent in this category stated that they visit a place of worship more than once a week. In comparison, 35 percent of high school graduates said they prayed at least once a week, with 16 percent claiming to visit a place of worship more than once a week.

When it comes to business-related matters, 39 percent of high school graduates said religion would impact their decision-making, compared to 44 percent of college graduates.

To read the findings of the section of the survey titled 'Politics and Ideology', click here.

To read the findings of the section of the survey titled 'News and Media', click here.
Narendra Modi on Friday asked state governments to take stern action if there is any attack on Kashmiris, calling those who targeted them recently in Lucknow 'crazed people'.

Kanpur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asked state governments to take stern action if there is any attack on Kashmiris, calling those who targeted them recently in Lucknow "crazed people".

In an apparent reference to remarks by Opposition leaders after the recent air strikes against the Balakot terror camp in Pakistan, Modi also lashed at those demeaning the valour displayed by the armed forces after the Jaish-e-Mohammed attack against the CRPF in Pulwama.

Addressing a public meeting, Modi brought up the Lucknow incident in which two Kashmiri vendors were thrashed on Wednesday, allegedly targeted by members of a right-wing group over the Pulwama attack that killed 40 paramilitary personnel last month.

The prime minister called the perpetrators sirphirey log (crazed people) in near identical remarks at the meeting and on Twitter. "It is very important to maintain an atmosphere of unity in the country," Modi said.

He congratulated the Yogi Adityanath government for acting promptly over what some crazed people did to our Kashmiri brothers in Lucknow.

"I would also like to request other state governments to take the strongest action possible wherever there is an attempt to do something like this," he said.

The prime minister was addressing the meeting after flagging off the commercial run on Lucknow Metro's North-South corridor, through video conferencing from Kanpur itself.

Modi also symbolically laid the foundation stone for the Agra Metro Rail project at the same event.

He visited Varanasi and Ghaziabad too on Friday, launching development projects and addressing public meetings.

In an apparent reference to Opposition parties, the prime minister said it is sad that the bravery displayed by the armed forces was being demeaned.

"The valour shown by our armed forces after the Pulwama attack was witnessed by the entire nation, he said.

But it is very sad that continuous efforts are being made back home to demean the valour of the armed forces. Today, when the entire world has built pressure on Pakistan and it has been caught red-handed over terrorism, at this juncture statements which help Pakistan are being made," he said.

"Does this behove them (the political parties)? he asked.

Do not forget that based on your statements, Pakistan is spreading lies in the world," Modi said.

"The statements being issued for vested political interests and the language used are giving strength to the enemies of the country," he said.

He said the terrorists had been left confused, and the recent terror attack in Jammu was a result of that.

Taking a dig at Opposition parties, the prime minister called their proposed grand alliance grand adulteration. He said they dislike him though he is fighting a decisive war against terrorism, corruption and poverty".

Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other Uttar Pradesh ministers attended the event.

Modi also distributed keys to houses built under the Prime Minister's Awas Yojana.
Pakistan is a 'global epicentre of terrorism and it needs to take verifiable and credible steps against terrorist organisations and terrorists', said the official on condition of anonymity.

Washington: As many as 22 terrorist training camps, including nine of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) are active in Pakistan, but no action is being taken against them, a senior Indian official said on Thursday, warning that New Delhi will carry out operation similar to that of the Balakot airstrike if there is an act of terrorism coming from across the border.

In a pinpointed and swift air strike that lasted less than two minutes, India pounded JeM's biggest training camp in Pakistan on 26 February, killing up to 350 terrorists and trainers who were moved there for their protection after the 14 February attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama in which 40 soldiers were killed. The JeM claimed responsibility for the Pulwama strike.

Pakistan is a "global epicentre of terrorism and it needs to take verifiable and credible steps against terrorist organisations and terrorists", said the official on condition of anonymity. The official also accused Pakistan and its leadership of being in denial mode and trying to create a war hysteria kind of situation between the two nuclear-weapon states. "As many as 22 terrorist training camps, including nine of JeM are still being run in Pakistan and there has been no action against them," the official said.

The Balakot airstrike conducted by India was a counter-terrorism operation, which was well within the international laws. However, a day after on 27 February, Pakistan attacked Indian military installation with as many as 20 fighter jets, the official claimed. "Instead of taking action against terrorist groups, Pakistan escalated the situation and indulged in war hysteria by doing things like declaring emergency in Karachi, blocking air traffic and creating rumours, which is part of its familiar pattern," the official said, adding, "India, on the other hand, exercised restraint."

Islamabad now bears the responsibility to end terrorism, the official said and warned that "India will carry out retaliatory counter-terrorism operation like the one on 26 February, deep inside Pakistan, anytime there is an act of terrorism coming from across the border". Referring to the recent actions taken by Pakistan against several terrorist groups, the official said that these actions are "nothing unusual" as the country takes such steps after every terrorist strike in India. "These actions", the official described, "are a revolving door policy, under which house arrest of terrorist leaders simply means keeping them in luxurious accommodation". They are released once the situation becomes normal, the official said.

But after the Pulwama attack, India has set "a new normal". "For every terrorist attack coming from across the border, India will retaliate and there will be a price that the neighbouring country would have to pay." Accusing Pakistan of being a state sponsor of terrorism, the official said there is a feeling in India that Islamabad is unlikely to stop funding terror activities "unless the cost of it is too heavy for it to pay". Asserting that India has the right to self-defence, the official told reporters that New Delhi by successfully carrying out strikes inside Pakistan "has been able to call the Pakistani bluff" on the nuclear front.

"This will not work in the future," the official said and warned Pakistan that "there will be reprisal" for every act of terrorism. Responding to a question, the official said India has given to the US details of the violation of the end user agreement by Pakistan when it used F-16 fighter jets and advanced missiles against India on 27 February. India, the official said, is very closely engaged with the US and has the support of the Trump administration. The official also said India is opposed to any IMF bailout packages to Pakistan.

Pakistan has received as many as 21 bailout packages, including seven in the recent past, from the IMF. However, none of them have been able to address the economic woes of Pakistan because the money intended to improve the economy and developmental purposes have been diverted for non-civilian means.
The paper said the relative calm after last week's confrontation between the two nations is not a solution.

New York: Pakistan has never seriously cracked down on militant groups that attack India, a leading US daily has said, warning that the threat of nuclear war between the two nations remains as a long-term solution to the conflict is unlikely without international pressure. The New York Times in an op-ed entitled 'This Is Where a Nuclear Exchange Is Most Likely. (It's Not North Korea.)' said the focus on North Korea's growing arsenal obscures the fact that the most likely trigger for a nuclear exchange could be the conflict between India and Pakistan.

The paper said the relative calm after last week's confrontation between the two nations is not a solution. "As long as India and Pakistan refuse to deal with their core dispute  the future of Kashmir  they face unpredictable, possibly terrifying, consequences," it said. The crisis started on 14 February, when a suicide bomber killed at least 40 CRPF personnel in Pulwama. Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Muhammed took responsibility for the attack.

While the JeM is on America's list of terrorist organisations and is formally banned in Pakistan, the group has been protected and armed by the Pakistani intelligence service, the paper said. India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on 26 February. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on 1 March.

The situation could have easily escalated, given that the two countries have fought three wars over 70 years, maintain a near-constant state of military readiness along their border and have little formal government-to-government dialogue. The next confrontation might not end so calmly, the paper said. The two countries have crossed into dangerous territory, with India attacking Pakistan and engaging in aerial duels. The next confrontation, or the one after that, could be far more unthinkable, it said.

Pakistan has never seriously cracked down on militant groups that attack India. Pakistani authorities said they detained 121 members of various armed groups, including a brother of Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Muhammrd, and planned to seize assets of militants on the United Nations terrorist list. But Pakistan has rarely followed through on such promises, the paper said.

Without international pressure, a long-term solution is unlikely, and the threat of nuclear war remains. China is a major ally and lender to Pakistan, and if it stopped blocking moves in the United Nations Security Council to add Azhar to the United Nations terrorist list, it would signal to Pakistan that it has to curb the militant groups, the daily said.
The sprawling seaside mansion of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, accused in the $2 billion PNB fraud case, was demolished Friday using explosives, Raigad District Collector Vijay Suryawanshi said

Mumbai: The sprawling seaside mansion of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, accused in the $2 billion PNB fraud case, was demolished on Friday using explosives, Raigad District Collector Vijay Suryawanshi said.

The district collector told PTI that it was controlled blasting.

The senior IAS official had issued the demolition orders after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) handed over the property situated in Raigad district, over 90 km from here.

On Tuesday, excavators were used to open up the pillars of the bungalow, called Roopanya, to make space for fixing the detonators. A special technical team was called to fix them.

Last year, the state government had written to the ED, which had sealed the bungalow, seeking a nod to demolish the property on Kihim beach near Alibaug.

The fixtures from the bungalow will be up for auction. Three items, a jacuzzi, a chandelier, and a Buddha statue, have been kept aside for handing over to the ED, Suryawanshi said.

On 25 January, district officials began the demolition work using bulldozers, but found it time-consuming due to the RCC construction.

On 27 January, structural engineers from Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technical University conducted a survey. The experts suggested that the district officers carry out the demolition with the help of controlled blasting.

Modi's bungalow was attached by the ED following his involvement in the Punjab National Bank fraud case. It was handed over to the collector's office on 24 January, after the ED seized two trucks full of valuables from the building.
The Supreme Court is scheduled on Friday to pronounce whether to refer Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case to mediation for amicable settlement.

The Supreme Court on Friday pushed for an "amicable" resolution for Ayodhya's Ram Janmanbhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case and ordered that a court-appointed panel undertake mediation to resolve the issue. The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that "no legal impediment was found in referring the matter to mediation".

The apex court has appointed a panel headed by former Supreme Court judge FM Khalifullah. Sri Sri Ravishankar and Sriram Panchu are to be the other two members of the panel. The apex court also allowed the panel of mediators to co-opt more members to the panel and said that in case of any difficulty they can inform apex court registry.

A crucial condition put in place by the Supreme Court is that the mediation process will be kept confidential and the media will not be allowed to report its developments.

The mediation process has also been directed to be "time-bound", reports said, adding that the mediation will span a duration of eight weeks in Uttar Pradesh's Faizabad. CNN-News18 reported that the mediation will begin in a week, and the first status report will be submitted in four weeks. The five-judge bench hearing the matter had on Wednesday reserved the order after hearing various contesting parties.

All Hindu bodies except Nirmohi Akhara had opposed the suggestion of the apex court to refer the issue for mediation, while Muslim bodies had supported it. The bench, which also comprised Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer, had concluded the hearing by asking stakeholders to give the names of possible mediators on Wednesday.

Hindu bodies like Nirmohi Akhara suggested the names of Justices (retd) Kurian Joseph, AK Patnaik and GS Singhvi as mediators, while the Hindu Mahasabha faction of Swami Chakrapani proposed the names of former CJIs Justices JS Khehar and Dipak Misra and Justice (retd) AK Patnaik to the bench.

The apex court in its Wednesday hearing had observed that primarily the issue is not about 1,500 square feet land, but about religious sentiments. The bench had said it was conscious of the gravity and impact of the issue on "public sentiment" and also on "body politics of the country".

It has also said that the judges were aware of the history and were seeing that the dispute be resolved amicably as "it is not only about property. It is about mind, heart and healing, if possible." The bench had also said it was not appropriate to pre-judge that the mediation would fail and people would not agree with the decision.

"We are conscious about the gravity of the issue and we are also conscious about its impact on body politic of the country. We understand how it goes and are looking at minds, hearts and healing if possible," the bench said.

When a lawyer contended about the injustices meted out to the Hindus by invaders in the past, the bench said, "We are not concerned what has happened in the past. Don't you think we have read the history? We are not concerned what Babar did in the past or who was the king and who invaded. We cannot undo what has happened but we can go into what exists in the present moment".

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the legal heirs of original litigant M Siddiq, said that outlining of the dispute is not necessary and court can order mediation by a mediator, when parties are unable to settle it. To this, the bench said that there may not be one mediator but a panel of mediators to deal with the issue.

The bench had agreed with the contention of Dhavan that confidentiality of proceedings should be maintained and said it thinks there has to be complete ban on media reporting on the developments of mediation process. "It is not something like gag order but there should be no reporting. It is easy to attribute something to somebody when the mediation process is on," the bench had said.

During the hearing, Justice Chandrachud said that considering it is not just a property dispute between the parties but a dispute involving two communities, it would be very difficult to bind millions of people by way of mediation.

Two faction of Hindu Mahasabha took opposite stand on the issue of mediation with one body supporting it, the other opposing it. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had told the bench that the government has the right to give away land to whosoever it wants after paying compensation to the others.

"PV Narsimha Rao government had in 1994 made commitment to apex court that if ever any evidence was found that there was a temple, land will be given for temple construction," Swamy had submitted.

Senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan, appearing for Hindu deity Ram Lala Virajman had said the faith that Lord Rama was born in Ayodhaya is not negotiable but the question is of Rama Janamsthan (birth place).

"We are even willing to crowd-fund a mosque somewhere else but no negotiations can take place with respect of Lord Rama's birthplace. Mediation won't serve any purpose," he said. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, had said the court should refer the matter for mediation only when there exists an element of settlement.

He said considering the nature of the dispute it will not be prudent and advisable to take this path of mediation. Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties  the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
The Rajasthan Subordinate and Ministerial Services Selection Board (RSMSSB) has announced results for examinations held to recruit for Lower Division Clerk and Junior Assistant posts.

RSMSSB LDC Result | The Rajasthan Subordinate and Ministerial Services Selection Board (RSMSSB) has announced results for examinations for Lower Division Clerk posts. The RSMSSB Junior Assistant results have also been declared.

The RSMSSB result 2019 can be found on the official website of the Board, rsmssb.rajasthan.gov.in. The RSMSSB examination was held in two phases on 12 and 19 August and 9 and 16 September, 2018.

As many as 11,255 vacant posts will be filled by the recruitment drive. The Rajasthan government had published the notification for the announcement of the exam results on 26 February, 2019.

Candidates who have been successful in the written examination will be called for an interview and a subsequent document verification process.

Here is how you can check if you have made it to the selection list:

1) Visit the official website of the Rajasthan government's Staff Selection Board.

2) At the bottom right of the welcome page, find the notification for the RSMSSB LDC Result. It should read: "LDC 2018: Result and Cut Off marks of LDC Exam 2018".

3) A PDF file will pop out.

4) You will find all the selected roll numbers listed there.

5) A detailed explainer on the category-wise cut-off marks and the weightage of each question of the examination at the bottom of the PDF as well.

You can also skip the above steps and find the PDF here.

RSMSSB LDC candidates were required to score a minimum of 40 perccent marks in both papers of Phase I.

The cut off marks for admission to RSMSSB LDC Phase II was determined on the basis of the number of candidates who scored more than 40 percent in each paper and the number of vacancies.
The PIL alleged that a category of persons in Assam whose names were deleted from the voter list were some whose names appeared in the draft NRC published on 30 July, 2018. The petition claimed these people had voted in the last Lok Sabha election held in 2014

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Election Commission of India secretary to appear before it on 12 March in connection with a PIL alleging that several categories of persons in Assam have been deprived of voting rights ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The apex court sought the personal appearance of the secretary as despite the notice being issued on 1 February no one appeared to represent the Election Commission.

The categories include some whose names figure in the draft NRC but not in the voters' list. The matter came up before a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices S A Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna.

The PIL alleged that a category of persons whose names were deleted from the voter list were some whose names appeared in the draft NRC published on 30 July, 2018. The petition claimed these people had voted in the last Lok Sabha election held in 2014.

The plea also submitted that there were people whose names were not included in the complete draft NRC, but they subsequently filed claims for inclusion of their names in it. They had voted in the earlier Lok Sabha elections and were waiting for inclusion of their names.

The third category of people were those who have been declared as foreigners by the foreigners' tribunal as well as by the Guwahati High Court but the court's order was stayed by the Supreme Court.

The petition said it is the category of the persons whose names were appearing in the voters list from time to time.

The petition said the fourth category of people were those who had already been declared foreigners by the foreigners' tribunal and such declarations were set aside by the apex court.

However, their names have been deleted from the voters list pursuant to the order of the foreigners' tribunal, the petition said.

The petition said the fifth category of persons are those whose names have not been included in the draft NRC, but other members of their families, including parents, are included in the NRC and they have filed their claim for the inclusion of their names.

"The above mentioned five categories of people whose names have not been included in the voters list are going to be deprived from their constitutional as well as statutory rights to vote in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election to be held in April 2019," the petition said.

The petition was filed by two Assam-based residents, Gopal Seth and Susanta Sen.
Former media executive Peter Mukerjea is the 'silent killer' of Sheena Bora, the daughter of his wife Indrani Mukerjea from a previous relationship, the CBI told a special court on Friday while opposing his bail plea in the 2012 murder case.

Mumbai: Former media executive Peter Mukerjea is the "silent killer" of Sheena Bora, the daughter of his wife Indrani Mukerjea from a previous relationship, the CBI told a special court on Friday while opposing his bail plea in the 2012 murder case.

Peter Mukerjea, arrested in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case in 2015, had moved the bail application in November last year before special CBI Judge JC Jagdale. This is the third time he has approached the court for bail.

Opposing his bail plea, special public prosecutor Bharat Badami argued that the CBI has sufficient evidence to prove Peter Mukerjea's role in the murder conspiracy.

Badami told the court Peter Mukerjea didn't take any step to find Sheena Bora, who had gone missing, despite the fact that she was his son Rahul Mukerjea's fiancee.

"Peter was knowing everything...he was not a statue of the family. He took no step when Rahul was desperately asking about Sheena..... Peter is silent killer of Sheena," the CBI lawyer said.

Rahul Mukerjea is yet to depose before the court and if Peter Mukerjea is released on bail, he may try to win over the witness (Rahul), the lawyer added.

Badami argued there was sufficient material against Peter Mukerjea that led to framing of charges against him. Therefore, the accused cannot seek bail by merely stating the charges against him were "defective", he said.

One of the reasons forwarded by Peter Mukerjea for not being involved in the Sheena's murder was that he was in London when the murder took place.

However, the CBI contested this argument.

Hafiz Saeed (LeT chief) was in Pakistan when the 26/11 Mumbai attacks took place, but that doesn't mean he wasn't involved in the attacks. So, even if Peter Mukerjea was in London (at the time of the murder) it doesn't mean he was not part of the criminal conspiracy, the CBI counsel argued.

The April 2012 murder of Sheena Bora (24), Indrani Mukerjea's daughter from an earlier relationship, came to light in August 2015 when her driver Shyamvar Rai spilled the beans after being arrested in another case.

Indrani Mukerjea, a former media executive, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna, Rai and Peter Mukerjea were arrested in the case. Rai later became an approver and was pardoned.

Indrani Mukerjea, who is in jail since her arrest in August 2015, is facing murder charge, while Peter Mukerjea has been accused by the CBI of being a part of the criminal conspiracy.

The CBI has claimed a financial dispute led to the killing of Sheena Bora.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi condemned the violence against Kashmiris and said India belonged to its citizens from every corner of the country. His reaction come after two Kashmiri vendors selling dry fruits were thrashed by a group of saffron-clad men in Lucknow on Wednesday.

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday condemned the violence against Kashmiris and said India belonged to its citizens from every corner of the country.

Rahul's reaction come after two Kashmiri vendors selling dry fruits were thrashed by a group of saffron-clad men in Lucknow on Wednesday.

Tweeting a video of the incident, the Congress chief said: "While I'm disgusted by this video of Kashmiri traders being attacked in Uttar Pradesh, I salute the braveheart who challenged the attackers. India belongs to its citizens, from every corner of our nation. I strongly condemn all acts of violence against our Kashmiri brothers and sisters."

Four people have been arrested in connection with the incident, the latest in a series of cases in which Kashmiris across the country were targeted after the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta observed this after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was appearing for Haryana, said he will satisfy the court that amendments in the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900 were not done to 'help somebody'

New Delhi: The Supreme Court warned the Haryana government on Friday that it will be in "trouble" if it has done "anything" with Aravalli hills or forest area by passing amendments to an Act to allow construction there.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta observed this after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was appearing for Haryana, said he will satisfy the court that amendments in the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900 were not done to "help somebody".

"We are concerned with Aravalli. If you are doing anything with Aravalli or Kant Enclave (where the top court had ordered demolition of buildings due to illegal constructions in forest area) you will be in trouble. If you are doing anything with forest, you will be in trouble. We are telling you," the bench told Mehta.

On 1 March, the bench had come down heavily on the Haryana government for passing amendments to the law and said the state would not act on it without the court's permission.

On 27 February, the Haryana Assembly had passed amendments to the Act opening up thousands of acres of land to real estate and other non-forest activity in the area that was protected under it for over a century.

The amendments to the Act were passed by the state assembly amid vociferous protests and walkout by opposition parties.

Haryana Chief Minister M L Khattar had said that the Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2019, was the "need of the hour", and had added that it was a "very old" Act and much has changed over a period of time.

This issue has cropped up in the court which is dealing with a matter in which it had earlier directed demolition of illegal constructions in forest area of Aravalli hills in Haryana.

During the brief hearing on Friday, Mehta told the bench that the Assembly has passed the bill but it has not become an Act yet.

He also said that media reports which claimed the amendments was passed by the state government to favour real estate developers were not correct.

"I have examined them (amendments). It does not say what the newspapers have said," he told the bench, adding, "When the matter will come up for hearing, I will be able to satisfy the court that it (amendments) is not for helping somebody".

Mehta told the bench that he will file the copy of the amendments in the court. The bench has posted the matter for further hearing in the first week of April.

The court was earlier told that despite the apex court's order to demolish certain structures in Kant Enclave, the state government has made certain amendments in PLPA to permit construction in the forest area and PLPA region also.

The PLPA was enacted by the then Punjab government in 1900 and it provided for conservation of subsoil water and prevention of erosion in areas found to be subject to erosion or likely to become liable to erosion.

The orders and notifications issued under the provisions of the act extend to approximately 10,945 sq km, accounting roughly for about 25 percent area of Haryana and it covers, wholly or partly, 14 out of the state's 22 districts.

The top court had in January, 2019 extended till 31 July the deadline for house owners, whose buildings were ordered to be demolished due to illegal constructions in forest area of Aravalli hills, to vacate their premises subject to furnishing of undertaking in this regard.

The court had said the 33 house owners in Faridabad's Kant Enclave, who were earlier directed by the apex court to vacate their premises by 31 March, would get time till 31 July if they file undertaking that they would vacate the properties by then.

On 11 September 2018, the apex court had termed "frightening" the illegal construction in the forest area of Aravalli hills and directed the Haryana government to demolish the unauthorised structures built there after 18 August, 1992.

The court had lashed out at the Haryana government and said the construction activity carried out by R Kant and Company, a private realtor who was a party to the case, was clearly in violation of the 18 August, 1992 notification and also in blatant defiance of the court's orders.

The 1992 notification issued under the provisions of the Punjab Land Preservation (PLP) Act had prohibited clearing or breaking up of land not ordinarily under cultivation.
Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer Param Vir Chakra, the country's highest military honour, on IAF pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman

Chennai: Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer Param Vir Chakra, the country's highest military honour, on Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, captured by Pakistan after a dogfight in the skies and released later.

In a letter to Modi, Palaniswami said the IAF pilot, a native of Tamil Nadu, displayed amazing poise and confidence in the face of an adverse condition and it would be appropriate he be awarded the highest military honour.

He noted that Varthaman was released by Pakistan "due to the diplomatic initiatives" of the Prime Minister and "intense international pressure".

"Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman displayed amazing poise and confidence in the face of adverse conditions, which has won him many hearts across the country. It is appropriate that he be awarded India's highest military honour Param Vir Chakra (PVC) for displaying most inimitable gallantry and valour," the chief minister said.

"I request the Government of India to confer the nation's highest military honour, Param Vir Chakra, on Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman," he added.

Palaniswami recalled that the MiG-21 Bison aircraft piloted by Varthaman had shot down a Pakistan Air Force fighter (F-16) when it tried to violate India's air space and that he was later taken into custody by Pakistani armed forces.

Varthaman, who was captured on 27 February, returned home on 1 March after Pakistan prime minster Imran Khan announced he would be released as a "gesture of peace".

According to the central government, Param Vir Chakra "is awarded for most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea, or in the air."
During the preliminary investigation, the cop who allegedly shot Apple executive Vivek Tiwari claimed that he fired at the latter's car in self-defence as it tried to run over his motorbike. The bullet was allegedly fired by constable Prashant, while he was accompanied by Sandeep

Lucknow: Two Uttar Pradesh Police constables, who were involved in the September 2018 midnight accident that led to the death of Apple executive and Lucknow resident Vivek Tiwari, will be tried under murder charges.

The constables, Prashant and Sandeep would be tried under murder charges after their statement was found to be false in a magisterial inquiry. After hearing the plea of Kalpana Tiwari, the wife of the deceased, the ADJ court on Thursday directed constable Sandeep to surrender by 22 March. He was earlier given a clean chit by SIT.

Sandeep was present at the scene of the crime along with the main accused, constable Prashant. On 28 September, 2018, Tiwari was allegedly shot dead by a patrolling constable for refusing to stop his car. On 2 October, the postmortem report of Tiwari revealed that he died due to a gunshot injury on the left side of his chin.

During the preliminary investigation, the cop who allegedly shot the Apple executive claimed that he fired at the latter's car in self-defence as it tried to run over his motorbike. The bullet was allegedly fired by constable Prashant, while he was accompanied by Sandeep.
International Women's Day is celebrated every year on 8 March to honour the strength and power of one half of the world and the reason for the other half, women. This year's theme is: 'Balance for Better'

International Women's Day is celebrated every year on 8 March to honour the strength and power of one half of the world and the reason for the other half, women. It is marked with much fervour in various parts of the world focusing on different themes each year ranging from women empowerment to menstrual hygiene awareness, breast cancer awareness, self-sufficiency and financial independence of women among others. This year's theme is: 'Balance for Better'.

The day is symbolic of thanking women for making the world a colourful place and remembering the sacrifices they make each day to not just sustain themselves but to bind together families and create a happy and healthy social fabric in the society at large. But what do men think of this day and what does it mean for them? I talked to a few of them to understand what women's day represents for those who co-exist with women and meet many wonderful ladies every day at work, home and now even at places which once only men forayed into!

Siddhant Talwar, 28, lawyer and education entrepreneur

It's a day where we celebrate women and their strength. I do believe that till the time we don't ensure strong woman role models in each and every household of our country, such days will remain just a customary day that we all celebrate and forget tomorrow. Let us try to give those women strength who are unable to speak up and fight for their rights. Those whose voices are hushed and their opinions shot down. If we take this as an agenda and reiterate this to ourselves every year on this day and every other day, then I think days like these won't be needed at all.

Sanjeev Sharma, 51, service professional

"To empower a woman is to empower the human community, the base on which the world stands is a woman," he says. Sharma emphasised that the best way to change the society and its underlying issues is to channelise the power of women in every walk of life. He thinks we should all empower the women around us in whatever way we can and allow them to make their own choices.

Anuraj Jhaver, 32, photographer and analyst

I look forward to this day as it makes me realise my duties as the 'responsible and caring' half of women who take the toil for my happiness and my comfort every day; whether it's my sister, my mother, my wife or even my teachers. They have made me who I am today. And I have always believed that "The guess, a woman makes is much accurate than the certainty a man asserts." So, I believe the women around me and use this day to pamper them and make them feel happy about their valuable existence in this world and my life.

Ankush Bahuguna, 26, writer-actor and video content producer

I have been taught the most important things in life by the women around me and nothing makes me happier than happy, talented and successful women," Ankush says. Women should continue to believe in themselves as they have the strength to change this world, he says. He also laid emphasis on inculcating the feeling of respect and honour for women in all young boys in schools and at home. "Masculinity isn't about deriding women,... and together men and women can make a more equitable world."

Tejas Verma, 19, budding cricketer

I believe men and women are equal. There should be no discrimination on the basis of gender and everyone should get equal opportunities. I have many female friends who want to get into sports just like I wish to be a cricketer, and I hope they get to fulfil all their dreams. Women face a lot of restrictions in our society, but this should change and we can stand together to make this happen.
Walter Bosshard was the first European photojournalist to reach Mao Zedong. He is also known for his striking intimate portraits of Gandhi

In one room sits Gandhi at his ashram, shaving his beard with a Gillette razor. In the next room is Mao Zedong, standing resolute in front of the entrance to the Red Academy.

These two figures stand in close proximity in the exhibition Envisioning Asia, which displays photographs by Walter Bosshard, who was equipped with a keen eye for capturing portraits, as well as the ability to find access to leaders of great stature.

Housed in the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai, the exhibition is in its third iteration. Bosshard was one of the first to embody the term photojournalist, said Peter Pfrunder, the director of the Swiss Foundation for Photography, who is one of the curators of the exhibition. Peter and Gayatri Sinha, the director of Critical Collective, spent over a year building the exhibition; the negatives of the photographs needed to be worked on substantially, as they had undergone a lot of damage.

Though Bosshard himself did not compare Gandhi and Mao in his writings, what is of note is the close timing of the revolutions both men were leading, the immediacy of these revolutions and uncertainty about their success, Peter added. And this is amply evident in the different ways in which Bosshard photographed them.

A Swiss photojournalist in Asia

In 1927, Walter Bosshard was assigned the documentation of a geographical expedition through the Himalayas, from India to the Taklamakan Desert. Notably, he was self-trained; during his time, there was no formal education about photography for journalism, though photographers did work for the press. He tried to sell the images from this trip in 1928.

After returning to Europe, he longed to go back to Asia. In March 1930, he was sent by the Munchner Illustrierte Presse to India to document the Independence movement and growing unrest. He travelled for eight months, across 20,000 kilometres, and he is said to have interacted with around 5,000 people, Peter said.

He was able to witness the Dandi March in its entirety  from the beginning at the Sabarmati ashram to the moment when people picked up salt in protest, Gayatri explained.

One witnesses both the personal and political in his pictures of Gandhi  pictures of him laughing (a rarely photographed image), him reading the papers, and eating onion soup sit next to shots of the Dandi march where swathes of people are walking.

There are some striking images of boycott in its various forms, too: of slogans painted on umbrellas, of Gandhi caps, of Urdu newspapers reporting on unrest. The pictures he would take in India would be circulated across the world.

The highlight of this reporting assignment was the cover of Munchner Illustrierte Presse in May  of Gandhi reading the newspaper, his head lightly rested on his arm. A master of both the image and word, Bosshards career took off when a new age had begun in news magazines. Increasingly, there was a greater focus on images; the text accompanied the image. The kind of images editors were looking for was also new Political magazines in Europe awakened to the brewing revolutions in Asia  specifically in India and China, said Peter.

Compare and contrast

Bosshard spent many years (six, to be precise) in China because he was absorbed by the political scenario and attracted to Chinese culture. He even learnt the language, says Peter.

He was the first European journalist to reach Mao, who then lived and operated in in the caves of Yanan.

The pictures from China, taken against the backdrop of a dramatic landscape, depict soldiers of the Red Army marching and driving through valleys, political billboards, the bombing of Hankou, and Chinas nomadic communities. Bosshard was the first to make a silent film on Mao, which can also be viewed at the exhibition.

One way to study Envisioning Asia is to view the pictures of the Dandi March and Maos march in contrast. Maos march appears militarised, and was material in nature; on the other hand, the Dandi march was spiritual, Gayatri remarked. The Chinese leader is a remote figure, whereas it is difficult to single out Gandhi amid the marchers.

In his documentation of Mao, one sees more text and less photos, and with Gandhi, we see the exact opposite, said Peter. He captured what Maos hands looked like to say that he was like any other person He documented those aspects of politics which were not well-known. One of the pieces he wrote from China was titled The Life of a Chinese Guerilla, Peter added.

Making a name for himself

Bosshard used film cameras like the ones made by the brand Plaubel, which were heavy ones and whose negatives needed to be changed with every use. He also used a Leica, though not during his travels in India. The publications he mainly contributed to were Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung and Munchner Illustrierte Presse, but he also wrote and photographed for Life magazine, and other international publications.

Envisioning Asia is the first time that these photographs by Bosshard are being taken out of the archives, said Gayatri. A lot of Bosshards work was lost during World War II, in a sense split up between archives and negatives; the latter often did not have context or information by themselves.

He was a reporter as much as a photojournalist. Some of his images may not be fine art; he was focused on getting both elements  the visual as well as the text, says Peter.

Gayatri regards Bosshards documentation of the Dandi march as a very modern moment. This moment came to India only in the 60s, with photographers such as Raghu Rai, who introduced what would go on to become a template. This template  or aesthetic  emerged in Europe in the 30s It is not as though there is no documentation of Gandhi or the Dandi March Bosshard plays an important role because we [Indians] did not know that foreign journalists had interacted with Gandhi in that time period. Henri Cartier-Bresson and others came 17 years later, says Gayatri.

Bosshard generates mass energy with the photos of the Dandi March this is nationalism at a street level, says Gayatri. Just as the salt march marked the zenith of his reportage in India, the fall of Hankou was an important year for his work in China. It was the site that witnessed some of the worst bombings by Japanese forces. He stayed in the area until the Japanese had invaded Hankow. During this period he met photojournalist Robert Capa, with whom he would soon become friends. Their work would even be published by the same magazines.

Bosshard himself featured on the cover of the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung.

What does this mean in the context of the media? That photographs were becoming more important than the story, Peter explains.

Engaged subjects  and a master photographer

In Bosshards intimate pictures of Gandhi, the subject fills the frames he was keen to portray him as a man of the masses, Gayatri says. Compare this to later pictures taken by photographers like Margaret Bourke-White; one notices a distance from the lens.

What is of note, Gayatri says, is the way Gandhi responds to Bosshards camera. While he does not react to the camera, he did allow proximity. He allowed Bosshard into his inner circle. Remember that Gandhi spoke of the darshan dilemma  the unrelenting fixity of public gaze directed at him.

One of the most significant features of Bosshards work presented in this exhibition is that which is not pictured  the access he had to famous personalities and the connect he established with them. He was clever at building networks. The first time hed visit a place, he wouldnt take pictures he built trust over time, says Peter. Specifically when it comes to Mao, it was the Chinese leaders close friends who helped Bosshard to reach him. He found Mao contemplative, Peter said.

Though Bosshards pictures portray a certain type of intimacy and nearness to their subjects, they dont necessarily portray them in an overtly positive light.

He was not an admirer, he was a critical observer of these leaders. He did not want to push his own opinions He was not sure what would come of this utopia [India on the cusp of independence] He was a believer of democracy but was critical of hero worship. This probably stemmed from the Swiss scepticism of people who become too powerful, adds Peter.

Bosshard also had a keen political sense, and was critical of Indian royal states siding with the coloniser, the curator-duo explained. He didnt see the Indian response to the British as a monolithic stance, Gayatri explains. This also reflects in his decision to stop contributing to German magazines once the Nazis had taken over such publications.

Envisioning Asia: Gandhi and Mao in the photographs of Walter Bosshard is on display at the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum till 24 March
After a brief display of mutual bitterness, the Asom Gana Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam seem to be willing to reunite.

After a brief display of mutual bitterness, the Asom Gana Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam seem to be willing to reunite. But the issue of Citizenship Amendment Bill still standsb as a hindrance.

As per sources, both the parties are involved in backdoor negotiations to strike a seat-sharing deal since both the parties share a common voter base. Disagreement over the proposed legislation is keeping them tight lipped about the talks.

The subject of alliance is yet under consideration. So far, we have not received any proposal from BJP formally. Nothing can be said as of now, Keshab Mahanta, an AGP MLA and former minister, told Firstpost.

Recently, the AGP formed a committee to decide upon the partys election strategy. Mahanta is one of the members in it.

The committee would decide on the issue of alliance, he added.

Significantly, AGP was an integral part in the BJP-led rainbow alliance in Assam, which registered a landslide victory in the 2016 Assembly polls.

The regional party severed its ties with the ruling party in January, opposing the BJPs move to pass the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 in the Parliament.

The bill proposed to grant citizenship to six minority communities namely Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Parsi and Jain living in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The move to grant citizenship to illegal immigrants ignited protests across the north-eastern region, as some claimed it defied the Assam Accord signed between the then leadership of All Assam Students Union and the Government of India in 1985. The accord mandates detection and deportation of illegal immigrants who infiltrated into Assam after 1971.

The AGP withdrew from the alliance with the BJP two months back over a tiff with the latter over its move to accept the bill.

The BJP finally refrained itself from tabling the bill in the Rajya Sabha, after facing the heat from its allies in the North East, allowing it to be lapsed. Since then, tension in the region has eased out and the issue disappeared from public discourse.

But a good number of AGP cadres are still against any alliance with the BJP because of its move of tabling and getting the bill passed in the Lok Sabha, Nurul Islam, a former AGP MLA, told Firstpost.

On Thursday, a group of AGP workers led by a person named Mantu Dutta locked the gates of the party head office at Ambari in Guwahati for 30 minutes in protest of its move to ally with the BJP again.

I am against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. It angered me when I got to know that the AGP, which broke the alliance with BJP over the Bill, is now again thinking of an alliance with the saffron party. In a fit of rage, I locked the gate, he told the media.

Though the BJP did not table the bill in the Rajya Sabha, party chief Amit Shah in a recent rally in Assam advocated for it again, which seems to have irked some of the regional partys leaders and workers.

What if the BJP gives asks us not to speak against the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the future as a condition of the alliance? It is not a cakewalk any more. Our leadership is keenly analysing the pros and cons of a possible alliance, said Balendra Kumar Bharali, another leader in the party.

No wonder both BJP and AGP leaders have chosen not to speak publicly on the issue.

Recently, it was reported in the media that in a meeting held between both the parties, the saffron party offered two parliamentary seats namely Barpeta and Kaliabor to the AGP as a seat-sharing agreement.

Sources in the AGP say that the party is bargaining for at least three parliamentary seats out of 14 in the state.

However, Mahanta denied that any such meeting took place between the parties.

Sources in the BJP say that many in the state unit of the saffron party are not inclined towards any alliance with the AGP, as they are confident of winning most of the seats without using AGP as a prop, but they think that the central leadership of the BJP may not want to take any chances.

The AGP hardly has any political weight left in it. It cannot win an election without an alliance with the BJP. In fact, the party has revived because of its alliance with the BJP. So, we do not require the AGP to win an election anymore, a source in BJP told Firstpost.

In the 2006 Assam Assembly election, AGP bagged 24 seats, which decreased to 10 in 2011. But despite its weaning popularity, it managed to get the second-highest share of votes in 35 constituencies, which could be seen as a fear factor by BJP's central leadership.

Ranjit Das, president of the state unit of BJP, while speaking to Firstpost, said that even if an alliance is struck this time around with the AGP, support for the Citizenship Amendment Bill would certainly be a pre-condition.

Neither have I received any proposal for alliance with the AGP nor has our central leadership informed me anything about such talks. But what if they break the alliance again over Citizenship Amendment Bill? he said.
Names of Congress candidates for the Lok Sabha seats in Punjab will be announced within a week, said Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Friday, warning party workers of expulsion if they rebel against the official nominees

Pathankot: Names of Congress candidates for the Lok Sabha seats in Punjab will be announced within a week, said Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Friday, warning party workers of expulsion if they rebel against the official nominees.

In an informal chat with media persons in Pathankot, the Punjab chief minister made it clear that the party's nominee from Gurdaspur would be sitting MP and state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar.

"The party candidates for the polls are likely to be declared within a week and anyone rebelling against the official nominees would be thrown out," Amarinder said.

He dismissed reports of dissent within the Congress following SAD rebel Sher Singh Ghubaya's entry into the party, saying all soldiers of the party would toe the line and the decision on ticket distribution taken by the high command.

If anyone goes against the high command's decision, they would be immediately expelled, he added.

The chief minister, in response to a question, reiterated that stern action would be taken against anyone found guilty of involvement in the sacrilege incidents and subsequent police firing in Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura in 2015.

The Special Investigation Team was investigating the matter and once it submits its report, suitable action would be taken against the guilty, as per the law, he added.
Ayodhya dispute: Over the years, the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case has become more political than religious; the Supreme Court order has managed to keep political parties outside the mediation

The Supreme Court decision to refer the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case to a three-member court-appointed panel for mediation makes it clear that there would be no judicial verdict on the politically and socially contentious issue before the conclusion of the 2019 parliamentary election.

The mediation process is expected to be concluded by 15 May, which again means that the outcome of mediation would be known after the General Election to Lok Sabha is over.

It should be noted that Hindu groups concerned were opposed to the mediation process as they thought it would further delay the final legal arbitration by the apex court in a dispute which is before various varied levels of administrative and judicial bodies since 1885 and before the judiciary of Independent India for the last 70 years.

Over the years, on the issue of mediation, the court itself has had a mixed position. Even the Sunni Waqf Board was opposed to mediation, so was another key party in the case, Ramlalla Virajman. Only Nirmohi Akhada was for a settlement of the case by mediation. The Sunni Waqf Board now seems to have reviewed its position and has agreed to send its representative to appear before the mediation panel. It should be noted that in October 2010, the Allahabad High Court verdict trifurcated 2.77 acres of the disputed land in equal proportions and the portion below the central dome (erstwhile Babri Masjid) under which the idol of Lord Rama is placed in a makeshift temple would be given to the Hindus.

Politically, the Congress party and its allies should be pleased with the latest turn in the case. In December 2017, when there was a perception that the Supreme Court was going to expeditiously hear the case, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal appearing on behalf of the Sunni Waqf Board argued in the court that the hearing should be deferred till July 2019 till the Lok Sabha election was over. His rationale was that the verdict will have strong political implications on the upcoming polls. Though Sibal has since then not appeared in the case, his arguments in the court still resonate in political circles.

Retired Supreme Court Justice FM Kallifulla will head the panel of mediators and spiritual guru Shri Shri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu who runs a firm called 'Mediation Chamber' specialising in the mediation of all kinds are members. They have been directed to conduct a mediation process with the concerned groups in Faizabad. Interestingly, Faizabad as per administrative orders of Yogi Government is now called Ayodhya.

Though the constituting a Supreme Court-appointed mediation committee headed by a retired justice is a new initiative, it leaves several questions unanswered. Will the recommendations of the mediation panel be binding on the court and to all the principal parties in the court? So far, all legal experts who appeared on various news channels have opined that the recommendations will not be binding. If its proposals are not binding then it opens a far bigger question: what purpose would this court-appointed panel achieve? Several past attempts to find a resolution to this vexed issue through mediation has failed. Whether or not this be any different this time around is anybodys guess.

Over a period in time, particularly since BJPs Palampur convention in 1989 and LK Advani leading the Ram Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya, the issue has become more political than religious. The Supreme Court order has kept political parties outside the purview of the mediation. Since 1989, the BJP has taken a consistent position that building a grand Ram temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi site is a matter of faith for them.

"Kasam Ram ki Khate hain mandir wahin banayegne... Ramlalla hum aayenge, mandir wahin banayege (Swear by Lord Rama, the temple will be built there... Ramlalla, we will come and build the temple there) were the slogans which were shouted not only in VHP meetings but also at BJP meets. Though the BJP is not chanting these slogans for the past few years, these were heard again at the VHP-RSS meet in Delhi and elsewhere. How would the BJP react if the mediation committee comes with recommendations that are favourable to their stated positions?

The Narendra Modi government had recently moved the court seeking its approval to return 67 acres land outside of the disputed 2.77-acre to those who owned the land prior to its acquisition by the PV Narasimha Rao government at the Centre. The major chunk of this 67-acre land was then owned by Ramjanambhoomi Nyas. However, the court has not yet begun hearing the Centres petition.

All three persons in the mediation panel are from Tamil Nadu. The court, perhaps, chose all members from south India with the thought they would take a more dispassionate view on the issue than those from north India. Justice Kallifulla and Sriram Panchus view on the subject is not known but views of Sri Sri Ravishankar who tried to mediate with the Hindu and Muslim groups in the dispute in the past as well are well known. He has been of the view that the Ram Mandir must be built at the site which Hindus believe is the birthplace of Lord Rama as there will be bloodshed if Hindus are denied of their right.

No one is sure what would be the beginning point of the mediation committee. It has Allahabad High Court judgment before it and the arguments as made by various parties in the Supreme Court. But then the panel could also start from a clean slate. It has weeks time to decide on the modalities and the formulations to begin the process.

The early signs are, however, not very enthusiastic.
Among issues that are speculated to come up in the crucial pre-poll meeting of the BJP's parliamentary body is whether the party should field candidates who are above the age of 75.

New Delhi: The BJP parliamentary body, the party's top decision making panel, will meet on Friday evening in New Delhi, to take stock of its preparedness ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

Among issues that are likely to come up is whether the party should field candidates above the age of 75.

The BJP is also set to decide on whether to give tickets to Rajya Sabha members and sitting legislators. The Election Commission is likely to announce the election dates in the next few days.

"Before we distribute tickets, top leaders of the party are to meet and take a call on giving tickets to these three categories of candidates," Hindustan Times quoted a top BJP leader as saying on condition of anonymity.

Soon after coming to power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a rule that leaders above 75 should not hold any administrative post in central or state governments.

Several prominent BJP faces be ruled out if this is implemented, including 91-year-old LK Advani, 85-year-old Murli Manohar Joshi and 77-year-old Kalraj Mishra.

The meeting, which will be attended by Modi and party president Amit Shah, comes at a time when the BJP's ideological fountainhead, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is also holding a meeting in Gwalior, which over 1,400 members from across the country are likely to attend, reported NDTV.

Three of the BJP's key Opposition parties, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Samajwadi Party, have released the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha election.

The Congress on Thursday released an initial list of 15 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, fielding UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli and party president Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.

The Samajwadi Party today released the names of six candidates who will contest from Uttar Pradesh, including former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav who will fight from the Mainpuri. Ending speculations of an alliance with the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, on 2 March, announced the names of party candidates who will contest in six of seven seats in Delhi.

With inputs from BJP
In a statement, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, 'The Congress has unequivocally maintained that the decision of the Supreme Court in the Ram Mandir case should be final and binding on all parties. We respect the decision to constitute a mediation panel.'

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday said it respects the decision of the Supreme Court to refer the politically-sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation, and added that it should be final and binding on all parties.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused the BJP of politicising the "faith-based issue for political gains for the past 27 years".

"Since 1992, BJP has kept the issue alive so as to be used in every election for political vote garnering and relegate the Ram Mandir issue to the annals of history post-election  to be revived again in the next election. We sincerely hope that people of India will see through the duplicity and doublespeak of BJP," he said.

In a statement, Surjewala said, "The Congress has unequivocally maintained that the decision of the Supreme Court in the Ram Mandir case should be final and binding on all parties. We respect the decision to constitute a mediation panel."

Giving another chance for mediation, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered setting up a three-member panel headed by a former apex court judge FMI Kalifulla to explore a possible settlement of the decades-old politically sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute in Ayodhya.

Spiritual guru and founder of Art of Living foundation Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, well known for his mediation experience, will be the other two members of the panel. Interestingly, all the three men appointed by the apex court hail from Tamil Nadu where the Ayodhya dispute does not have much resonance.

The mediation process in Faizabad of Uttar Pradesh, around 7 kilometres from the twin city of Ayodhya, will commence within a week and the panel will submit a progress report within four weeks, the top court said in its order that came ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Two Congress MLAs tendered their resignations, with one of them joining the ruling BJP later in the day and another announcing his decision to join the saffron party soon.

Ahmedabad: In a setback to the Congress in Gujarat ahead of the general elections, two party MLAs Friday tendered their resignations, with one of them joining the ruling BJP later in the day and another announcing his decision to join the saffron party soon.

Manavadar MLA Jawahar Chavda gave his resignation to Gujarat Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi in the afternoon, while Parsotam Sabariya, who represented Dhrangadhra seat in Morbi district, gave his resignation in the evening.

Chavda joined the BJP at the party's headquarters in Gandhinagar, while Sabariya announced that he will join the ruling party soon.

Sabariya was arrested in October last year in connection with the irrigation scam. He was granted bail in February by the Gujarat High Court.

"Congress MLA from Dhrangadhra seat, Parsotam Sabariya, tendered his resignation today evening. I have accepted his resignation. He has not given any particular reason in his resignation letter. He now ceases to be a member of the Gujarat Assembly," Trivedi said.

Commenting on his decision, Sabariya said he was joining the ruling BJP to develop his constituency.

"I was not under any pressure because of the pending case. I am already out on bail. I have resigned voluntarily. I am not dissatisfied with any Congress leader. I am joining the ruling BJP as I felt that this is the best way to serve the people of my constituency," he said.

The former MLA claimed that he was not offered any ministership in the Gujarat government by the BJP.

Sabariya was arrested in October last year for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe from persons accused in an irrigation scam in Morbi district in return for not raising the issue in the Assembly and with the state government.

Just an hour before Sabariya's resignation, Chavda joined the BJP at the party headquarters in Gandhinagar after giving his resignation as the MLA of Manavadar seat in Junagadh district.

Chavda, 55, a four-time MLA, was inducted into the party by state Home Minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja and senior party leader KC Patel.

After joining the BJP, Chavda said he has not left the Congress out of any discontent or differences with the Congress leadership.

Chavda, a prominent OBC leader from Ahir community, said he also resigned from the primary membership of the Congress and sent a letter to party president Rahul Gandhi to inform him about his decision.

Talking to reporters, he claimed that the BJP has not offered ministership to switch sides ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

"It is not true that I am joining the BJP to become a minister. I am in politics to serve the people. I am joining the BJP as I felt that I can serve the people in a better way if I join the party that is in power.

"I also felt it necessary to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the current security scenario of the country," Chavda said.

He had won the Manavadar seat in 1990, 2007, 2012 and 2017.

Though speculations are rife that he would be made a minister in the coming days, both Chavda and Jadeja dismissed the reports.

"The party will decide whether to give me a cabinet berth or not. Otherwise, I do not have any such aspirations. I left the Congress because I was not enjoying there. I was feeling suffocated for quite some time," he added.

According to Jadeja, Chavda joining the BJP will strengthen the party in Saurashtra region.

"As of now, he has joined the BJP only as a member. Chavda has not demanded anything for joining the BJP. The party leadership has not decided anything about giving him any cabinet berth as of now. I cannot comment about cabinet expansion at this moment," Jadeja said.

With the resignations of Chavda and Sabariya, four Congress MLAs have so far resigned from the House in the past few months.

In July last year, senior Congress MLA Kunvarji Bavalia had resigned as legislator. He was later made a cabinet minister in the current BJP dispensation.

Last month, first-time MLA from Unjha seat in Mehsana, Asha Patel, had resigned from the House and the Congress, and later joined the ruling BJP.
A staunch RSS man and a former chief of state unit of BJP, Rajasekharan, 65, is being seen as the saffron party's best Lok Sabha chance from Kerala, which is the only major state where it is yet to open an account.

Thiruvananthapuram: Kummanam Rajasekharan has resigned as the Mizoram governor less than 10 months after being appointed to the post setting of speculation that the senior BJP leader from Kerala may fight the Lok Sabha polls from Thiruvananthapuram, a seat held by Shashi Tharoor of the Congress.

A staunch RSS man and a former chief of state unit of BJP, Rajasekharan, 65, is being seen as the saffron party's best Lok Sabha chance from Kerala, which is the only major state where it is yet to open an account.

President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted the resignation of Rajasekharan as Mizoram governor, a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said in New Delhi on Friday.

Though the BJP leadership is yet to announce the candidate list, state party sources said chances are high that Rajasekharan could contest from the prestigious Thiruvananthapuram seat, one of the half-a-dozen constituencies where the party hopes to put up a good showing.

Rajasekharan was made the Mizoram governor on 25 May, 2018 in a surprise move when the crucial Chengannur Assembly bypoll was round the corner.

Since then, a section of party workers had been demanding and speculating about the return of the senior leader to active politics.

If Rajasekharan is chosen for the Thiruvananthapuram constituency, a fierce triangular contest involving the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) and the BJP is on the cards.

Though the Congress-led UDF is also yet to announce its candidate list, Tharoor is expected to seek a third term from Thiruvananthapuram .

The LDF has named CPI's sitting MLA C Divakaran as its nominee.

When his reaction on the possible fielding of Rajasekharan from the constituency was sought, Tharoor said the BJP leader was a good human being, but it was the ideology of the party which the candidate represented mattered.

"As far as I know, he is a good human being. But, not the individual but the ideology of the party which he represents and what kind of India that they envisage is most important. People of the constituency know very well what I have done for them in the last 10 years," he told reporters.

Divakaran said who would be the rival candidate did not matter for him."If Rajasekharan contests from here, it's good actually... because we will get a chance to debate with him on the performance of the BJP-led government at the Centre," he said.

BJP state president PS Sreedharan Pillai said as of now he could not confirm whether or not Rajasekharan would contest the upcoming polls. "It is up to our national leadership to announce the candidates. But, his (Rajasekharan) centre of action during the upcoming election will be Thiruvananthapuram," he said adding Rajasekharan's return to the state would give more strength to the party during the time of elections.

O Rajagopal, a senior BJP leader and the party's sole MLA in the state assembly, had given a tough fight to Tharoor in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He had garnered 2,83,226 votes then with Tharoor winning by a margin of little over 15,000 votes.

The BJP is pinning high hopes on Thiruvananthapuram especially in view of the Sabarimala issue over which a large number of people, including women, had come out against the LDF government's decision to implement the Supreme Court verdict permitting women of menstrual age to offer prayers at the Lord Ayyappa shrine.
Noting that it was his 'pleasure' to have initiated the work at Kashi Vishwanath, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, 'I have dreamt for a long time to work for this place. When I was not in politics I came here several times and used to think that something should happen here.'

Varanasi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday claimed that "non-cooperation" by the previous Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh was responsible for the delay in start of a beautification project in his Lok Sabha constituency.

He was addressing a gathering in Varanasi after laying the foundation stone for the Kashi Vishwanath Temple's approach road and its beautification.

"In the first three years there was non-cooperation of the state government. The developmental projects here picked pace after you (people of Uttar Pradesh) made Yogi Adityanath the chief minister," he said.

"Had there been cooperation earlier, we would have launched the project instead of laying the foundation," Modi said.

Attacking previous governments, the prime minister said, "In the past 70 years, no government thought of Baba (Lord Shiva) and were silent. They took care of themselves but not of this place."

Noting that it was his "pleasure" to have initiated the work at Kashi Vishwanath, he said, "I have dreamt for a long time to work for this place. When I was not in politics I came here several times and used to think that something should happen here."

"Bhole Baba ney tai kiya hoga baatein bahut karte ho yahan aao kuch karke dikhao. (Lord Shiva must have decided that you talk much, so now you should come here and do something)," he said, adding that due to the blessings the fulfillment of his dream has started.

After offering prayers at Kashi Vishwanath Temple, he said that he was blessed to be associated with the project of Kashi Vishwanath Dham.

About the beautification project, Modi said this is "mukti (freedom) for Kashi Vishwanath Dham" which was surrounded with encroachment.

He said the Kashi Vishwanath Temple has survived the vicissitudes of centuries and praised Queen Ahiyabai Holkar for her work on the shrine over two centuries ago.

He said not much thought had been given by those in power to the area around the temple. "For the first time, we acquired nearby buildings, removed encroachments after which 40 ancient temples came to the fore. Many of them were encroached, kitchens were set up and people were living there," he said.

Modi said the entire temple complex is now in the process of rejuvenation and the results are becoming visible, with a direct link being established between the Ganga river and Kashi Vishwanath temple.

He said this project will become a model for similar projects elsewhere and give a new global identity to Kashi.

The prime minister not only complimented the officers involved with the project for performing their task with devotion, but also thanked all the people who had property around the temple and allowed its acquisition for the project.

It was difficult to take people into confidence to give their properties and ensure the project does not take political colour, he said.

"I thank people of Kashi, who gave their properties for Baba. This is the biggest 'daan' (donation) they have given for Baba," the prime minister said.

"I have seen a lot of government employees as I was the chief minister for a long time. But I want to say with pride that the team of officers deployed here by Adityanath is doing work with 'bhakti' (devotion) and 'sewa bhav'," Modi said.

Stating that the Kashi Vishwanath temple was "targeted by enemies", he said they tried to destroy it but it again took "rebirth due to the faith" of people.

"When Gandhiji came here, he was pained why is this place is like this. In his address in the BHU, he expressed his thoughts," Modi said, suggesting the university should make a case study of the project so that when it is completed the world can know how it happened.

"We will also try to trace the history of the 40 temples discovered here and the government will also take care of them," the prime minister said, adding the project will be a model for "protection and preservation" of temples and a combination of modern technology with ancient faith.

"It will give new identity to Kashi in the world. Maybe it's in my fate. In 2014, when I came here I said 'mai aaya nahi mujhe bulaya hai' (I did not come here on my own, I was summoned). Maybe I came here for this work," he said.

Earlier, the prime minister visited the Kashi Vishwanath temple and also inspected the project site.

During his brief stay in his constituency, Modi attended the National Women Livelihood Meet 2019 at Deendayal Hastkala Sankul and distributed appreciation letters to five Women Self Help Groups, whose members shared their experiences with the prime minister.

Women SHGs aided by Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana under National Rural Livelihood Mission, Uttar Pradesh handed over a cheque to the prime minister for contribution to the 'Bharat Ke Veer' Fund.

Addressing a gathering at the meet, Modi said he could carry out development projects now that "middleman and corruption have been abolished and every penny is spent on people".

"Now there are no middleman and corruption. Modi did not have to take anything for himself. If he takes, what will he do... 125 crore people of the country are my family. Keep trusting me," he said.

Listing the schemes launched by his government for women, Modi said these were playing an important role in the making of a new India.
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Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, through his statement on Ayodhya, chose to terrorise the numerically inferior, by portraying a bloody, darkled future awaiting them.

Editor's Note: This article originally published on 9 March, 2018, is being republished in the view of Supreme Court's latest order pushing for an "amicable" resolution for Ayodhya's Ram Janmanbhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case and ordered that a court-appointed panel undertake mediation to resolve the issue. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is one of the members in the three-team mediation panel.

***

Sri Sri Ravi Shankars interview to CNN-News18 on the Ayodhya dispute has been interpreted as his attempt to court publicity, as is being said in jest, for winning a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet, it is important to decode his interview for the messages he has sought to convey to the nation, not least because of his proximity to the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Ravi Shankar has an aura of importance around him, partly created through a deft manipulation of popular perception. But this manipulation builds upon an element of reality. For instance, it was under his aegis that an assortment of gurus signed a proclamation at a conference in Bengaluru on 4 and 5 December, 2011 asking the United Nations to observe 21 June as International Yoga Day, an idea Modi endorsed and pushed after coming to power in 2014.

Then again, the Art of Living, a foundation established by Shankar, was chosen to organise a community reception and a yoga event for Modi on his visit to Mongolia in 2015. Modi returned the favour to Shankar, brushing aside the controversy surrounding the Art of Livings World Cultural Festival in March 2016 in Delhi to spend three hours there. Shankar has emerged as the ruling dispensations favourite guru, causing much heartburn in the camp of Baba Ramdev, who had earlier enjoyed that status.

Shankars new-found exalted status apart, we need to take his interview seriously because it echoes the views of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Ayodhya on many counts. For instance, Shankar has asked Muslims to give up their claims on Ayodhya as a goodwill gesture, a demand RSS-BJP leaders have repeatedly made ever since the Ram Janmabhoomi movement was launched in the 1980s. Like the BJP, Shankar too believes it is difficult to implement a court judgement in the Ayodhya dispute.

However, Shankar has gone a step further than the BJP, giving its traditional line on the Ayodhya dispute a chilling dimension. He told India Today, If the court rules against the temple, there will be bloodshed. The government may not be able to implement the court order. Do you think the majority community will accept such an order? He, then, has argued that the only tenable solution is an out-of-court settlement, essentially a euphemism for Muslims relinquishing their claim to the site where the Babri Masjid stood until it was demolished on 6 December, 1992.

Shankars opinions have to be analysed against the backdrop of a three-member bench of the Supreme Court hearing the Ayodhya dispute. The bench is headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, who retires on 2 October. It is believed that Misra wouldnt have taken up the Ayodhya matter had he not been reasonably sure of delivering the verdict before his retirement.

The final arguments in the Ayodhya dispute could not begin on two assigned dates  on 5 December and 8 February. The bench is to hear it on 14 March now. Misras slate is crowded with important cases  for instance, he is hearing the Aadhaar matter and also the case regarding the Land Acquisition Act of 2013. He is yet to pronounce a judgement in the case involving the distribution of power between the Delhi government and the Lieutenant Governor.

Will Misra have adequate time to complete the hearing in the Ayodhya dispute and also deliver his judgement? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar seems to think so, judging from his interview.

But he doesnt seem sure that the judgment will allow a Ram temple to be constructed at the disputed site, a conclusion he has presumably reached because Justice Misra in February said that his bench would treat the Ayodhya matter as a property dispute, not as an issue of faith. Such a line, it is thought, could weaken the case of Hindu litigants. This, in turn, has prompted Shankar to warn, in an interview to India Today, that a verdict against the Ram temple would create a Syria in India, shorthand for civil war, which will be devastating for the nation in general and the Muslim community in particular.

Shankars interview can also be seen as an attempt to mount pressure on the Supreme Court, telling it, in not so many words, that the government can only implement a verdict that is favourable to Hindus. He seems to suggest that this is the path the Supreme Court should take, failing which its majesty will take a severe beating.

His view echoes that of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Ten days before the Ayodhya matter came up before the Supreme Court on 5 December, Bhagwat said that no structure other than the Ram temple will be built at the disputed site in the temple town. Shankar has now gone a step further, outlining unequivocally the bloody consequences of granting the site to Muslims. This suggests that Shankar is reading out from a script someone else has written, designed to incrementally raise the pitch on Ayodhya.

It is almost impossible to second-guess court judgments in advance, let alone the hellishly complicated Ayodhya dispute. Yet, Shankars view will have a purpose even in a scenario in which the Supreme Court hands over the Babri Masjid site to Hindus. For one, the global media will point out that the site of the temple construction was where a medieval mosque had once stood. This will certainly have implications in West Asia, where Modi has been visiting to lure foreign investments. To have Muslims voluntary forsake the site in advance will enable the government to manage the foreign policy fallout.

A triumph through a court verdict is an incomplete victory for Hindutva, which believes Muslims must atone for the temples that Muslim rulers allegedly destroyed centuries ago. This can be symbolically achieved through a relinquishing of claims to the disputed site. Shankar has grasped the psychology at play, evident from his honey-laden words: Muslims are not surrendering this land to the people who demolished the Babri Masjid or to a particular organisation. On the contrary, they are gifting it to the people of India. This is classic sophistry.

It is also possible that Shankar doesnt think the Supreme Court has time to deliver the judgement. In this context, his interview can be seen as a way of keeping the Ayodhya pot simmering for the RSS-BJP, which cannot yet again go to the electorate in 2019 reiterating its promise of building the Ram temple. Unlike the NDAs earlier prime minister AB Vajpayee, Modi enjoys a majority in the Lok Sabha. He will be asked to account for inaction over Ayodhya.

Shankars interview hints at one possible route still available to the BJP. He has contemplated four possible solutions to the Ayodhya dispute  the Supreme Court delivering a verdict favourable to Muslims, or granting the land to Hindus, or upholding the trifurcation of the disputed property (which would imply re-constructing the mosque at the disputed site), or Parliament passing a legislation to settle the temple-mosque site. The first three options would be foreclosed if the Supreme Court were to fail to complete the hearing before 2 October.

Shankars fourth option, however, still remains available to the BJP. It can go the electorate saying it needs a massive mandate to legislate for overcoming the impediments that the Supreme Court and Muslims are creating in the construction of the Ram temple. It will provide the BJP a narrative to counter bad electoral news pouring out of Rajasthan, anti-incumbency in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and the prospect of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party entering into an alliance in Uttar Pradesh.

If the Supreme Court misses the 2 October deadline, the BJP may even explore the possibility of bringing such a Bill in the Winter Session of Parliament, not so much to construct the temple immediately, as it will certainly invite legal challenges, but for creating enough ballast to launch its 2019 campaign.

It is also possible that the Art of Living founder is not acting at the BJPs behest, and that he has chosen to give a sensational interview to be in the spotlight. In doing so, he has reduced his stature, and demonstrated that he is more a political camp-follower than a spiritualist, and acted contrary to the philosophy that his foundation propounds.

The Art of Living website loftily declares, Unless we have a stress-free mind and a violence-free society, we cannot achieve world peace. For this self-appointed messiah of peace, a better course would have been to crisscross the country, particularly Uttar Pradesh, to persuade the people why they need to respect the Constitution to build a peaceful society, and turn to the court in case they are unable to reconcile their differences. He has instead chosen to terrorise the weak, the numerically inferior, by portraying a bloody, darkled future awaiting them. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has turned the Art of Living into the art of fanning fear.
Reuters

Facebook Inc said on Thursday it had removed 137 fake pages, groups and Instagram accounts in the United Kingdom and a further 31 in Romania for engaging in hate speech and making divisive comments.

Facebook, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc have been under pressure from regulators around the globe to fight the spread of misinformation aimed at destabilising elections by stoking hardline positions or supporting propaganda campaigns.

Facebook also said here it would crack down on misinformation about vaccines, by reducing its distribution and providing users with more authoritative information on the topic.

The company said it would reduce the ranking of groups and pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in its News Feed and Search features and would also reject ads spreading such information.

Earlier on Thursday, Nathaniel Gleicher, head of Facebook's cybersecurity policy, wrote here in a blog post that the individuals behind the fake pages, groups and accounts represented themselves as far-right and anti-far-right activists in the UK,

Some of the most popular pages that were taken down defended the role of migrants and Muslims in Britain, and highlighted hostile content related to Tommy Robinson, the former leader of far-right extremist group English Defense League, according to a blog here by Digital Forensic Research (DFR) Lab.

DFR, a small online forensics team of Washington-based Atlantic Council thinktank, has been working with Facebook to enhance the social networks investigations of foreign interference.

Last month, Facebook removed hundreds of Indonesian accounts, pages and groups from its network after discovering they were linked to an online group accused of spreading hate speech and fake news.

Facebook said on Thursday the people behind the fake accounts frequently posted about local and political news including topics like immigration, free speech, racism, LGBT issues, far-right politics, issues between India and Pakistan, and religious beliefs including Islam and Christianity.

About 175,000 accounts followed one or more of these pages, and around 4,500 accounts followed one or more of these Instagram accounts.

In Romania, the page admins and account owners typically posted about political issues, including partisan news under fictitious bylines in support of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Gleicher said.
tech2 News Staff

Google has reported a vulnerability in Chrome and Microsoft Windows that hackers can exploit to gain access to your system. The vulnerability was first discovered several months ago and has been patched in the most recent version of Chrome and Windows.

Google recommends that users check that their Google Chrome browser has been updated to version 72.0.3626.121 or later. To do that, head to your Chrome menu>Help>About Google Chrome. If auto-updates are enabled, you should already be on the latest version of the browser.

The Windows vulnerability is serious enough, but, it only appears to affect the 32-bit version of Windows 7. While still popular in India, Windows 7 is 9 years old and mostly unsupported by Microsoft. The 32-bit version of the OS is even rarer because most systems use the 64-bit variant.

As Google notes, We strongly believe this vulnerability may only be exploitable on Windows 7 due to recent exploit mitigations added in newer versions of Windows. Google isnt saying that newer versions of Windows arent affected, only that newer versions are very likely secure.

As always, the easiest solution for staying safe is to simply ensure that youve got auto-updates enabled and that youre running on legitimate software.
Anita Gurumurthy

Every once in a while, there is the high optics drama about a woman celebrity or public persona who has been trolled, and then, predictably, the dust settles. But make no mistake. This is but the proverbial tip of an iceberg that is ballooning.

The internet-mediated world presents a contradiction of a magnitude and complexity that feminism didnt bargain for. Political pundits and world leaders who heralded the turn of the millennium as the century for women and girls may need to quell their enthusiasm a wee bit.

The digital society and its characteristic markers  lives beholden to the network, surveilled bodies, intelligent economics, data-defined politics  reflect a seamless intertwining. A post-human sociality structured by protocols of digital technologies and conventions of social institutions. In this is evident a massive (re)socialisation of gender power and a new legitimacy for sexism and misogyny in the public sphere.

The emancipation in the new online world for women  the promised land at the end of the patriarchal tunnel  seems to have been rendered a naive prediction in the face of this new sociality. This is not techno-cynicism. The many feminisms and their becoming power are very real. However, the unfortunate confluence of the digital paradigm and neo-liberal capitalism and a rapid subsumption thus of the digital society into the logic of surveillance capital was yet to unravel in the optimistic early years of the internet revolution. The digital society has been continuously primed since, through its historical evolution, to maximise profit, one click at a time, one like, one tweet, one retweet, and one swipe. Today, who we are is the universal, globalised reality where any binary, if at all, between the online and offline, has completely dissolved.

Online violence against women

IT for Change undertook a research in three Indian states (Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) with the born-digital generation in late 2018, covering nearly a thousand female college students in the age group 19 to 23 through a detailed self-administered survey. We also conducted group discussions with male and female students in the same age group in both metro cities and small towns. The emerging analysis makes for perturbing reading.

In their intimate digital interactions, young women are more comfortable accommodating, rather than resisting, sexism. Not to be mis-led here. Women do care about being online. It is perhaps the only space that gives them a sense of breaking free from the shackles of social diktats that suffocate their self-exploration and identity building, their right to discover what it means to be unruly and seek gratification legitimately. But what we also found  across the three states  is a self-fashioning behaviour among women, that is gender conservative.

Women navigate the digital carefully to ensure avoidance of trouble or conflict. They advise each other on the necessary caution needed in online disclosure. They are aware of the extreme consequences of an intimate picture gone viral without consent (revenge porn, as goes the misnomer). And they manage a complex balancing act with family, friends and sexual partners  posting what may seem decent, learning to ignore an unsolicited joke or picture that a male friend may send, and opting for demure display photos because the boyfriend thinks she should not be seen sitting brazenly, leg on leg.

The social burdens of digital encounters gone wrong are simply too huge; from corporal punishment by family members for crossing the line to the dread of forced sex with known or unknown men to buy silence and the ignominy of knowing that the neighbour has seen ones morphed pictures, women live the digital life with a precarity that can be devastating.

For women who wish to step outside of the online intimate into the online publics, the push-back is horrific, with violent intimidation that targets women for their specific social locations. A Dalit activist spoke to us about the indignity meted out to her friend on Twitter. So, during the #MeToo movement, my friend posted a video on Twitter about Dalit womens struggles. Immediately, two to three men started piling on and said things like, Look at your face; youre so disgusting. Nobody wants you...You are a kalmuhi (pejorative used in Indian languages to suggest someone who brings bad luck/a woman who is inauspicious). These are specifically casteist remarks. The abuse goes further, Youre so disgusting, nobody would even think of raping you; why are you thinking about #MeToo?

Many women do not survive the onslaught. They may opt out, either temporarily or permanently, again a huge price they must pay for being woman. Rana Ayyub, a journalist who has written extensively on the 2002 Gujarat riots, was issued death threats when a fake tweet supporting a child rapist and alleging Muslims in India were no longer safe were falsely attributed to her. Along with the barrage of death threats and sexual violence, her Muslim identity was invoked in order to harass and discredit her. Last year, prominent student leader Shehla Rashid had to quit Twitter when she realised she could not deal with the scale of violence online. As a woman, Kashmiri and Muslim, she stated she ticked all the wrong boxes, making her an easy target of organised cyber violence.

What the young men have to say

We also met young men in colleges for focus group discussions. The mens club, our discussions show, strongly polices female conformism to hyper-feminine performance  rating and ranking women, cautioning women against possible transgression  calling upon its male members to flex their hyper masculine privilege and hit out at women when necessary. This is gender-based hate put out as a standing invitation to cause violence.

Students told us about local young mens WhatsApp groups  named after particular places, Kattancherry boys, Kaverinagar boys, etc (names changed). In the homosocial private male space that is crafted in the online publics, men seek inscrutability to build a new age machismo  getting fluent with cuss-words, making sexualised memes to assert male entitlement, hooking women or chatting them up using fake profiles, and watching porn.

Rationalising male privilege and authority, we found, was commonplace across the three states. Young men articulated narratives of female freedom that online spaces bestow on women through post-gender ideas of equality. Gender-based subordination and social oppression were erased by the very fact that women now enjoy freedoms online. Even when young men acknowledged the sexual agency of women, they did think that male authority to aggress is an obvious entitlement that men are bound to assert if women decided to move on from a relationship. One male student observed:

Before taking nudes with a guy, the girl must think. There is no use crying now. If she was that deeply involved with him, she should have stayed in the relationship. If she cheats on him, she should know this can happen. The fact is both of them have cheated, and that is the way it is. They (women) must think of the family before getting into the relationship.

The architecture of virtual social space is decidedly building a generation of women and men whose everyday lives lie between the poles of the precious disinhibition that women seek online and the toxic disinhibition that men display in virtual spaces. Women must self-discipline to cope with ever-present surveillance or lose the opportunity to belong online. The virtual is also creating and feeding an endemic culture of regressive heteronormativity  notwithstanding all the sacred spaces that friends from the LGBTQI movements have made possible through the online  and a publicly virulent masculinity, where sexism and misogyny are asserted and validated.

The crux of the issue is that the virulence is all-pervading. It is not just about a bounded online space, but the spill-overs and cross-overs between the online and offline, all of which is decidedly very real and almost always, corporeal, for women. A Guwahati-based woman professor, who criticised the Army's role in Kashmir in the aftermath of the Pulwama attacks, received rape, lynching and death threats. She went to the police, but instead of taking action on her complaint, they detained and questioned her for the motives behind her objectionable remarks on the Army.

The double whammy for feminism

The visual cultures of the world of apps is noteworthy not only for how communicative cultures in contemporary society are transforming through memes, emojis and GIFs, but also for how such tools and apps (re)structure the very performance of gender. While acknowledging how feminist counter cultures use these very tools to poke fun at elite power, it is important not to forget the political economy of surveillance capitalism  how datafication through platform infrastructures is at the service of corporate consolidation and state totalitarianism and indeed, a collusion between the two, to centralise power.

TikTok, an app that enables creation and sharing of short videos, came up many times in our conversations with young women and men, during the research. One man told us, referring to the female body, "Women should cover whatever is needed to be covered. If a woman does not, anybody will encroach upon her". He went on to explain how he teased a young woman who had posted a music video on TikTok without wearing her duppatta, posting back another video, a duet, in which he is dressing her up with a duppatta. The video concludes with her appearing in a saree.



In popular cultures of the online publics, the self-exploring feminine confronts the civilising masculine. This is not simply a unidirectional influence of retrograde social values in the media space. That would be sociological determinism. The virality of information circulation online combines with the affordances of apps  (think WhatsApp forwards, newsfeeds, troll armies, propaganda bots) co-shaping contemporary culture, with their local flavours (a WeChat in China or local language platforms). What must be underlined is that the self-fashioning female subject and the hypermasculine male authority are primary tropes of digital lives, a twist in the internet freedoms tale that feminist movements cannot ignore.

Beyond doubt, what we are witnessing is a step back for gender equality. The power of the digital must be claimed, but the structures of digital sociality bring new contradictions  they stymie womens speech, discipline womens action, dehumanise the marginal woman citizen and punish women for being women, in both private and public spaces online. And they make women take a step back  strike a gender compromise, if you will  to be polite, in order to belong. And yet, nothing, nothing at all, is a guarantee that the bargain will work to protect women from the real threat of violence. The fact that the mechanics of a surveillance society disincentivise particular forms of female subjectivity and reward virulent masculinity is a double whammy for feminist gains.

Interestingly, a queer activist who we interviewed recalled how feminist communities that are oblivious to these contradictions risk depoliticising feminist action: There are some queer support groups online which state upfront that this is not a space for asserting political opinions. To explain with an example... they would be okay if members are sending Diwali greetings, but they will not tolerate a debate on the Hadiya case. I find this hard to understand  how can you live a queer identity fully if you insist on being apolitical?

Freedom from violence in surveillance society

Much has been said over the years about law enforcement agencies and the urgent need to re-train and re-orient them to shed their bias for the good victim and against the unruly trouble seeker. In fact, we found that the police are more likely to take a complaint seriously when women are accompanied by the spouse and only if the cybercrime implicates a stranger.

Police and courts undermine womens agency by invoking obscenity provisions in offenses of non-consensual circulation of a personal photograph that a woman took consensually and does not consider obscene. Understandably, women want to have little to do with the legal rigmarole and may often seek police help wanting merely to put an end to the harassment/violence, rather than go through a case registration. Seeking justice may only bring undesirable publicity with associated social sanctions.

So where do we go from here? We need to wake up to the fact that cyber violence is ubiquitous. As a society, we must identify the particular ways in which this results in divesting women of their social and political citizenship. The fight against normalisation of sexism and misogyny on a planetary scale needs to be a systemic attempt to tackle the techno-social; the digital protocols of the communicative arena and the socio-cultural fabric of institutional relations. Lawmakers, educational institutions, workplaces, law enforcement agencies, internet intermediaries and civic organisations need to start understanding gender-based cyber violence for its far-reaching consequences. Coming together across different persuasions, feminist activists need to have an informed dialogue to build normative responses that can inform rule making and new institutional mechanisms.

However, contentious issues abound. The first is the classic libertarian call to cure bad speech with more speech, usually citing Justice Louis Brandeis. But Brandeis didnt do Twitter. When the technological paradigm changes, so does the underlying system of domination. Power hierarchies may be disrupted, consolidated and new actors may emerge as dominant. The counter speech mobs of today are human-machine assemblages. They are intended to intimidate and harass. They are weapons used to silence women. The power of patriarchal forces that game the public sphere must therefore be evaluated for the current context in history. In any case, the argument for more speech is about truth claims of marginal populations and not about an absolutism that is blind to social power. This is what Brandeis intended, in his famous words.

The law must legitimise gender-based hate speech as a social reality that affects half the population. Nowhere in the world are laws impervious to speech regulation; some forms of speech are regulated. Unfortunately, in a world where sexism and misogyny circulate through the communicative protocols of digital society, bad speech affects women disproportionately. Anonymity and virtuality also embolden faceless men to attack women relentlessly, with impunity. The law must define gender-based hate speech and create the guidelines to inform law enforcement and judicial intervention. Current provisions on hate speech, it has been noted, are often misused for political purposes and to stifle creations of art. Clarifying the difference between unprotected and protected speech, as well as what the notions of threat, harm and intent imply, will therefore, be important.

It is noteworthy that while hearing an anticipatory bail plea filed by a leading male public figure in a case registered against him for a defamatory statement against women journalists, the High Court of Tamil Nadu upheld the possibility of treating women journalists as a wronged community and applying Section 505 of the Indian Penal code to cases of gender-based hate speech.

As a social institution, the law is very much part of the system that perpetuates gender inequality. Women may not wish to walk the long and arduous path to legal justice. But, the absence of formal claims results in misframing  the social negation of a rightful claim. To enable free speech for all in the public domain, the formal recognition of gender-based hate speech against women is the first step.

I had close to 1000 abusive messages and calls in a Cordinated and violent mob attack. These included a message to shoot me, a nude photo, many sexually abusive messages. I outed the men who did this. Twitter locked me till many of the details were taken down. I wroe this to them pic.twitter.com/XRyx9xbjcV  barkha dutt (@BDUTT) February 19, 2019

The second debate is about holding intermediaries accountable. Social media companies are notorious for ignoring complaints of violative speech or action from women, and for penalising women activists and dissenters time and again. For long, these corporations have sought immunity from regulatory oversight through various discursive tactics. However, increasing public pressure has forced the speech platforms of today to manage user expectations through protocols of speech governance. Despite wide criticism, corporations continue to be opaque about their procedures. It is time that they follow public interest obligations of transparency, notice, and fair procedures and reasoned explanations for decisions about, or changes to, policy. While internal mechanisms for end-users to complain about the conduct of the institution and seek redress are necessary, the role of state regulation and democratic public oversight cannot be overemphasised. The fact is that these platforms are central to the contours of democracy and commerce in current times and hence accountable to citizens.

The Government of India has put out draft guidelines to amend Section 79 of the Information Technology Act that deals with intermediary liability. The requirement to proactively identify unlawful information or content has met with public criticism. Concerns have been voiced that the phrase is vague and may lead to excessive censorship. However, some legal experts have opined the duty to block content has always been imposed on traditional publishers like newspapers or broadcasters such as news channels.

The guidelines have also been critiqued for the requirement of proactive filtering. While public opinion is broadly in favour of some sort of immunity in this regard for start-ups or micro platforms who may not be able to absorb the costs of such requirements, the option to avoid the use of AI tools to assist content governance is not really an option. This does not in any way suggest a carte blanche for AI tools, and neither does it mean any pre-eminence for the role of machine-based decisions. On the contrary, it is an argument for a balanced approach that accounts for the fact that machine intelligence is systematically mobilised to hound women. Technological tools may therefore be used as part of the wherewithal in processes of justice. Mandatory application of filtering tools should also be for limited purposes, and democratic institutional mechanisms for review and reform of the tools need to be put in place.

The procedures for application of proactive filtering cannot be content neutral. In issues concerning defamation or images, contextual circumstances are vital. A vertically calibrated regime that does not lump together all legal wrongs online, civil and criminal, is a much more equitable solution that counter-weighs free speech concerns of Internet users, the right to do business of the intermediary and the rights of the complainant. Internet intermediaries do use their private standards to conduct proactive filtering for egregious content such as child pornography. Tools such as Content ID are being employed for proactive monitoring of copyright infringing content. The EU recently enacted a new law requiring large internet platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to proactively monitor and take down copyright infringing content without waiting for legal notices from the copyright owner. Proactive filtering does not have to mean the lack of human judgment. Indeed, human moderation is already used widely by major internet platforms for content removal, and this process does call for continuous review and refinement.

Detailed guidelines for procedural safeguards and appropriate measures that intermediaries must put in place in the design and deployment of automated tools need to be issued. Content moderation provisions should also clarify procedures to contest wrongful removals. It would be important that the new guidelines include provisions for regular public audits and reviews of AI-based tools used for proactive filtering by a committee of feminists and public interest actors.

The draft rules require intermediaries to introduce a traceability requirement. Rather than dismiss this as an attempt to infringe on free speech, this may be read as an issue that concerns the rule of law. At the same time, we recognise that we come from a history of excessive surveillance and that any state-led intrusion into our communication channels must be preceded by a thorough constitutional test of necessity and proportionality.

The rapid virality of hate speech demands a responsible debate on the liability of big platforms that facilitate the publication, transmission or broadcast of any hate speech en masse. Today, women victims of online violence who embark on the process of access to justice despite the odds are deeply frustrated when police officials are unable to trace the offender. Investigating authorities in our research told us that the silence from Internet Intermediaries forecloses any and all progress on the most grievous crimes against women. For instance, between 2016 to 2018, the Cyber Crime Cell of the Chennai City police had sent about 1940 requests to online social media companies for IP logs in cases of cybercrime. Of this, only 484 IP logs were received.

The complexity inherent in balancing interests cannot become an excuse to avoid governance. Liberal democracies are built on acknowledgement of social power and the structural fragility of womens agency today is a reprehensible failure of human society that needs to be amended through deliberative processes.

Feminist blindspot

A final note. Feminists often recommend digital security training as a solution to the vexatious issues arising from surveillance. Transferring the burdens of navigating the digital on women to get on top of the surveillance assemblage may only be a part solution.

On issues that are systemic, social energies need to be invested in a range of institutional solutions; public and civic. What we now know for a fact is that self-disciplining is a visible consequence of womens struggles with ubiquitous violence online. It cannot also be the solution. Personal security hygiene as the solution will only render agency more fragile, through a neo-liberalisation of responsibility.

The author is with IT for Change, a research and advocacy organisation working on digital technologies and social justice
Reuters

Japans SoftBank Group is launching a $5 billion fund to invest in technology companies in Latin America, it said on Thursday, ramping up its tech ambitions beyond its huge Vision Fund.

The new fund will be headed by SoftBanks Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure, it said in a statement, with the Japanese technology conglomerate committing an initial $2 billion and serving as the funds general partner.

The group has already shaken up the technology sector with the Saudi-backed $100 billion Vision Fund, making splashy investments in late-stage start-ups such as ride-hailing company Uber and shared offices provider WeWork Cos.

The launch of the Latin America-focused SoftBank Innovation Fund will extend Bolivian-born billionaire Claures responsibility beyond managing SoftBank-owned companies like chip designer Arm.

Responsibility for driving synergies between minority-stake portfolio companies, which is a key rationale for SoftBanks investment strategy, is shared between Claure and the head of the Vision Fund Rajeev Mishra.

There is so much innovation and disruption taking place in the region and I believe the business opportunities have never been stronger, said Claure, who is executive chairman of SoftBanks U.S. telecoms unit Sprint Corp and is working to ensure the success of its planned takeover by Deutsche Telekoms T-Mobile.

The fund will invest across the region, targeting much the same sectors as SoftBanks existing investments, including e-commerce, fintech and healthcare.

Latin America presents significant opportunities for SoftBank Group and the Vision Fund will have the ability to co-invest alongside the SoftBank Innovation Fund, said Mishra.

Claure, Mishra and Chief Strategy Officer Katsunori Sago are all seen as potential successors to SoftBank Group founder and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son.

The new fund, the size of which will give it a strong presence in the region, will also help existing portfolio companies to expand in Latin America, SoftBank said.

SoftBanks previous bets in the region include a $100 million stake in ride-hailing business 99, which was later acquired by another of its investments, Didi Chuxing.
Reuters

Uber has paid around 2.3 million euros ($2.6 million) in a settlement after it was found to have offered an unlicensed taxi service in the Netherlands in 2014-2015, Dutch prosecutors said on Friday.

The settlement over Ubers UberPop service - in which people with no taxi license transport passengers in their own cars and use Uber software to find customers and handle payments - included both a fine and giving back revenue earned from the service in the Netherlands.

In more recent news, Uber Technologies Inc is not criminally liable in a March 2018 crash in Tempe, Arizona, in which one of the companys self-driving cars struck and killed a pedestrian, prosecutors said on 5 March.

The Yavapai County Attorney said in a letter made public that there was no basis for criminal liability for Uber, but that the back-up driver, Rafaela Vasquez, should be referred to the Tempe police for additional investigation.

Prosecutors decision not to pursue criminal charges removes one potential headache for the ride-hailing company as the companys executives try to resolve a long list of federal investigations, lawsuits and other legal risks ahead of a hotly anticipated initial public offering this year.
The Redmi Note 7 Pro punches way above its weight and just about nails everything for the price.

Having reviewed the Redmi Note 6 Pro not too long ago, I remember thinking to myself whether Xiaomi had begun resting on its laurels and given up on thinking a little out of the box. There wasn't much wrong about the phone but there just wasn't anything exciting about it.

Barely four months later, the Redmi Note 7 Pro is here and it is a testament to what Xiaomi's been able to achieve over the past 3-4 years in the Indian market. A smartphone that you pick up and ask yourself  How did they manage to pack this much into a phone that costs Rs 13,999?

The phone looks stunning, performs better than others priced much higher, features a smooth software experience, has a great camera and to top it all off, packs good battery life. I could even go on to say that the Redmi Note 7 Pro is perhaps the most complete budget smartphone out there at the moment and here's why.

Redmi Note 7 Pro Design 8/10: Finally, a Note that looks gorgeous!

Xiaomi's Redmi series has always been more about substance than style and that seemed like a logical approach for quite some time. But budget phones don't always look boring and Xiaomi's finally realised that and gone back to the drawing board with the Note 7 Pro.

For the very first time across any of Xiaomi's confusing spread of budget phones, the company's used a glass sandwich design and boy did they do a good job at it. Now, we had the Space Black (yes, they haven't stopped copying Apple just yet) unit for review and it reminded me a lot about how much I liked the design on the Nokia 6.1 Plus launched in August last year.

The Note 7 Pro is, of course, a much bigger phone than the 6.1 Plus, but looks and feels much more premium than what you'd expect from a sub-Rs 15,000 phone. The device feels dense and the finish is almost impeccable. I do wish Xiaomi would have used a metal frame here, but the choice of polycarbonate certainly doesn't take anything away from how good the Note 7 Pro looks and feels. I still prefer how grippy the Zenfone Max Pro M2 feels because of its curved back.

Weighing in at about 186 grams, the Redmi Note 7 Pro is about just as heavy as its predecessors and though that's not very convenient for single-handed use, I didn't find it feeling unnecessarily heavy when I held it up to take a selfie or just slipped it into my pocket. However, glass does come with it fair share of issues and though Xiaomi's used Gorilla Glass 5 panels on both sides, it still picks up scratches quite easily.

The glass also makes the phone quite slippery which is something to watch out for if you place the phone on a table. Even if you are quite careful with your phone, I'd suggest you slap a case on to save yourself from cleaning the phone several hundred times a day.

Redmi Note 7 Pro Display 8/10: The display's been upgraded as well

Xiaomi's upgraded the 6.26-inch IPS LCD display on the Note 6 Pro to an ever so slightly larger 6.3-inch LTPS LCD display. The difference in quality is very marginal here but you do get slightly better contrast with the Redmi Note 7 Pro. Something that is only visible if you see the phones side by side.

Xiaomis also reduced the notch to what resembles a teardrop/ waterdrop notch. Xiaomi though likes to call it a dot notch and all it houses is the front-facing camera within it.

The display is bright and viewing things under bright light is certainly not an issue. Xiaomi's also taken all the Widewine complaints into consideration this time and you can watch Netflix and Amazon Prime Video at FHD resolution on the Note 7 Pro.

I did have an issue with streaming video on Hotstar though, a problem which I have communicated to the Xiaomi team but yet to hear back about.

Redmi Note 7 Pro Performance 8/10: PUBG Mobile at max settings?

The past two iterations of the Redmi Note series featured the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC and while it was fine the first time around with the Note 5 Pro, it just doesn't do enough in 2019. The Redmi Note 7 Pro doesn't just see a step up to a Snapdragon 660 but goes above it with the fairly new Snapdragon 675 SoC, which in India is only available on the Vivo V15 Pro that priced at Rs 28,990.

Coupled with an Adreno 612 GPU, this upgrade works wonders for the Note 7 Pro. Apps load without any hiccups whatsoever and gaming too is buttery smooth. Xiaomi boasted about the fact that the 7 Pro can run PUBG Mobile at the highest graphic setting and this wasn't just an on-stage claim but one that definitely holds merit. I played PUBG Mobile at hours on end with the phone and it performed admirably well with minor frame drops here and there. The same applied for Shadowgun Legends and Asphalt 9: Legends.

App loads times here are also quicker and one could basically toss everything at the phone without a worry. Multitasking and quick switching is not an issue either and neither is the performance of the fingerprint scanner and the software-based face unlock feature.

The chip blows the competition out of the water when it comes to benchmarks as well.

In fact, the Poco F1 is perhaps the only smartphone which betters the performance of the Note 7 Pro, with a price tag which starts at Rs 19,999.

Redmi Note 7 Pro Software 7.5/10: Well-optimised MIUI 10 with Android Pie

The Redmi Note 7 Pro runs on a version of Xiaomi's familiar MIUI 10 skin built on top of Android Pie 9.0. There's nothing new to talk about here if you're familiar with MIUI 10.

Xiaomi includes all the basics and there aren't any new features as such here to talk about. Xiaomi did claim at the product launch that there are a few under the hood changes. These improve app load times and bandwidth allocation while playing games which require better ping (like PUBG Mobile) but these optimisations were too minute for me to notice throughout my review period.

The phone does come with the January security patch and I've come across no software glitches or random stutters using the phone as my daily driver.

The bottom firing single speaker is also worth mentioning here as it gets quite loud without sounding tinny even at the highest volume. The same goes for the earpiece which may be placed right at the top of the dot notch on the front, but does a great job when it comes to output.

Redmi Note 7 Pro Camera 8/10: A 48 MP camera beast? Well, pretty much!

Xiaomi has been setting the bar when it comes to cameras on budget phones for over a year now. The Redmi Note 7 Pro had to offer something new and what better way to do it than to jump aboard the 48 MP camera craze begun by Honor View 20?

The Note 7 Pro features a Sony IMX 586, an image sensor that natively supports images truly shot at 48 MP.

Despite being a 48 MP sensor though, the only way you can take full advantage of 48 million pixels is by jumping into the Pro mode in the Camera UI. By default, the Redmi Note 7 Pro takes 12 MP photos, which is achieved by binning four pixels into one to create one large superpixel. This effectively holds more light data theoretically resulting in better photos. We did take a few 48 MP shots to see how much detail can be recovered when zooming in.

Do we really need a 48 MP image for Instagram posts and regular use?

In most cases, no. But if you do wish to capture one aspect of an image and just can't get close enough to your subject, you do have the option of cropping into photos shot at 48 MP. Besides, you do have to take into account the fact that full 48 MP images do take up a lot of space on your phone. Each image shot RAW at 48 MP averages a size of 40-50 MB an image, while regular 12 MP shots average a size of about 3-5 MB even with HDR on.

With an aperture of f/1.79, the phone also does a great job in clicking images in both daylight as well as low-light. The night mode included here also does a great job in bringing out additional detail that would otherwise be lost. The portrait mode does equally well with great background separation even while shooting stationary objects.

Be your own judge and have a look at the images shot under various lighting conditions with the Redmi Note 7 Pro. Or click here to head to our Flickr album.

The video front has seen an upgrade as well. You now finally get 4K 30 fps recording on a Note series phone. You don't get EIS at the highest resolution though, which kicks in only if you scale things down to 1080p 60 fps.

As far as quality of videos go, there's nothing that will blow your mind. The autofocusing is fast and theres visibly nothing wrong while shooting at 1080p. At 4K, there is a visible amount of shake, rendering hand-held shots practically unusable unless youre shooting from a static position.

Redmi Note 7 Pro Battery 8/10: A 4,000 mAh battery that easily lasts a day

As has been the case with every Note series smartphone so far, the Note 7 Pro too features a 4,000 mAh battery. This may not be the highest battery capacity offered in the segment, but if do happen to binge on a lot of videos or you're someone who plays PUBG Mobile for hours on end, the Redmi Note 7 Pro will easily last you one full day with some juice to spare.

The new Note gets you support for Qualcomm's QuickCharge 4.0 standard which ensures that you can hook the phone up to a more potent adaptor to get it to charge faster.

Xiaomi doesn't pack a faster-charging adapter in the box but if you do invest in one (which will cost you an additional 500), you won't be disappointed. Plugging in a 20 W OnePlus charger, I was able to charge the Note 7 Pro is just under over an hour, while it took me an hour and 40 minutes to do so with the standard charger.

Verdict and price in India

The Redmi Note 7 Pro is a smartphone which doesn't really compare to anything that's currently offered in India in a budget of under Rs 20,000. Priced at just Rs 13,999 for the base variant and Rs 16,999 for the 6 GB RAM/128 GB storage variant, the Note 7 Pro offers unmatched overall value.

Unless you nitpick and try hard to find faults with the phone, there's really very little room to complain here. I still feel Xiaomi could have worked on how grippy the phone feels or how a dedicated Gaming mode could have been thrown into the software mix for gamers, but then again, this a budget device and it would be unfair to pull Xiaomi out for the minor misses.

If you do need more firepower in terms of gaming, you will have to stretch your budget to Rs 20,000 and get the Poco F1. Other competitors in the same price range include the Honor 10 Lite, the Nokia 6.1 Plus, the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 and the Realme 2 Pro.

Find latest and upcoming tech gadgets online on Tech2 Gadgets. Get technology news, gadgets reviews & ratings. Popular gadgets including laptop, tablet and mobile specifications, features, prices, comparison.
TV Padma

In recent years, one of the more iconic images in Indian science are those of the women scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisations mission control centre, cheering Indias successful injection of Mangalyaan spacecraft into the Mars orbit in 2014. Maybe under less dramatic circumstances, but in no less measure, are inspiring pictures of top Indian women scientists taking over the helms of organisations, or achieving success. In some cases, the images are from several decades back, when gender and feminism were not widely discussed.

But that is one part of the story.

"As many as 35 percent of the total Ph D awardees in science are women, and yet, "the number of women on the faculty of institutions of learning and research as well as teaching is not commensurate with the fractions at the Ph D stage," points out the 2015 report on Women Scientists in India. It goes on to say that this drop in percentages is even starker as one goes up the ranks at all these institutions. The report was authored by Rohini Godbole, a physicist and professor of physics at the Indian Institute of Science and Ramakrishna Ramaswamy, a chemist and professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Women are an integral part of science and mathematics education in schools and colleges. Yet, the percentage of women on the faculty of high-profile institutes like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the IITs, or Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is just about 10-12 percent. Apart from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the percentage of women faculty is "woefully low", particularly at associate professors and higher levels, the report says.

"The situation is starker when one considers leadership positions such as Directors/Deans of these Institutes and/or membership of Advisory bodies of these Institutes."

And when it comes to sciences academies, the figures sink further  only 5 percent of fellowships in the Indian Academy of Sciences fellows are women, for example. The problem is global and not specific to India, with similar inequalities at the higher levels in the US and Europe.

That said, many bright young Indian women scientists are joining institutes and faculties, many returning after successful research stints abroad. Women scientists are slowly but steadily being recognized at highest level in terms of awards and top directorial positions, says Lipi Thukral, a computational biologist at the Institute of Integrative Genomics and Biology under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi.

Examples include Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology; Soumya Swaminathan who headed the Indian Council of Medical Research before moving on to the World Health Organization; Gagandeep Kang who heads the Translational Health Science and Health Institute, and N Kalaiselvi who was appointed director of CSIRs Central Electro Chemical Research Institute (CECRI) in Karaikudi; and Tessy Thomas, director-general of aeronautical systems at Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and former project director for Agni-IV missile.

"In terms of awards, we still have to walk the long road, but the numbers have just started to appear. Till date, many women have been awarded the coveted Infosys Prize, which is quite refreshing," she says.

Half the Infosys Prize winners in 2017 were talented women in science, engineering and social sciences of different ages. Image: Infosys Prize

Indian women have excelled in various branches of science ranging from mathematics, medicine and life sciences, chemistry, physics, but these have been isolated cases, says Geetha Bali, Chief Scientific Officer, Cellspace Research Foundation; and former vice-chancellor of Karnataka State Women's University, Bijapur.

A large number of women in India are now engaged with information technology whose flexibility offers and the possibility of working from home. At least two institutions namely ISRO and DRDO have nurtured the potential of women scientists and these institutions have seen women scientists occupy high positions as directors, she adds.

The Department of Science & Technology too has pitched in with its Women Scientists scheme (WOS) to enable women scientists to return to labs after a maternity break and carry research at their choice of host institutions.

Few decades back, this topic was considered a struggle of the times and swept under the carpet. Something has changed, as there is a lot of discussion around the theme, which is always forthcoming and welcoming! Hopefully, we continue to have positive developments around gender inclusion, says Thukral.

There has been a tremendous advancement in the last 30 or 40 years, observes Sudipta Sengupta, who along with Aditi Pant were the first Indian women scientists to go to Antarctica, joining the 3rd Indian Antarctic expedition in 1983-84 and the 9th expedition in 1989-90.

It was very unusual for Indian women to go for such mission," Sengupta recalls. "When we went there, many sceptics thought that we were just showpieces. But we proved them wrong. We shared all the expedition duties along with our male colleagues besides carrying out our own research."

There's more to such an expedition that strenuous schedules, the continent's hostile environment with sub-zero temperatures and fierce winds. There was also an emotional toll, which surfaced in the 1989 expedition when three geologists died in an accident. "It was a traumatic experience for me and I had to carry out all the work on my own. But again, with determination, I completed my job successfully, says Sengupta.

Sengupta, however, points out that while Indian women are shining in every branch of science, these improvement reflects the progress of a selected section of women. Eighty percent of women still do not get a university education. So it is absolutely necessary to ensure education to all the girls for a better India.

Also, despite the availability of programmes such as DST-WOS, many women scientists find it difficult to continue their work after marriage and children. Nearly half of the science graduates or those who completed Ph.D s do not always build a career, they say.

Immunologist Indira Nath, first and only Indian woman scientist to win the LOreal UNESCOs Women in Science (Asia Pacific) award for women scientists, however, points out that "despite the availability of fellowships which have definitely increased the opportunities for Indian women scientists, when we look at top positions we are not there yet. As you go higher up, the bias becomes evident"

And while programmes such DST-WOS do help women scientists, only 15-20 percent of them get regular jobs.

Wherever recognition is by election or lobbying is needed, women stand less chance. We can see all science academies with male domination. Although women getting elected to these bodies is not impossible, they hardly play a pivotal role, points out Bali.

Other challenges include a poor system of peer evaluation that exists in India is against the interest of women. There is an unequal distribution of power and decision making positions between the two sexes. Scepticism about the performance of women under duress such as after childbirth, the possibility of giving up the job following marriage contribute for bias against women denying opportunities. Men changing jobs looking for greener pastures is not uncommon but this does not jeopardise them, she adds.

"Clearly, a lot needs to be done to increase gender diversity in the scientific domain," agrees Thukral. "In the life science area, any given lab would have mostly correct ratios of gender i.e., the beginning phase of scientific career. As the phase progresses from the critical postdoc to faculty transition, the number drops to an abysmal level."

The reasons are "obvious", she says. "We are not providing enough support during the critical stage of women's life transitions, including childbirth. Harsh age limit is one of the factors where we can improve. Currently, most of the competitive fellowships and scientist and professor positions have an upper limit of 35 years, which may not be inviting even the most meritorious women in science. Secondly, the judging criteria are also not relaxed for women who took maternity leave, as she would be judged at par with other applicants in the pool for their progress towards completion of the fellowship."

Finally, says Thukral, an acknowledgement of the challenges faced by women from policymakers is half the battle won.

The author is a science journalist and writer.
The Conversation

Marie Curie, Rita Levi-Montalcini, Brenda Milner, Martha Salcudean, Julie Payette, Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson.

What do these names bring to mind?

They are women whose pioneering work led the fight against cancer, ground-breaking discoveries about how brain cells live and die and to the unveiling of the secrets of human memory. They are leaders in innovation in mechanical engineering and space exploration.

They were among the first women in their classes in medicine, going on to provide health care for the poor, underserved and neglected.





These courageous women broke down norms and survived wars, abuse and gender and racial discrimination. They worked independently from men, in partnership with men and sometimes in rivalry with them. They have left legacies of greatness and other women like them continue their work today.

In addition to my research in neuroethics, I have been actively engaged in promoting women in science throughout my career, including as an elected member of the International Womens Forum, a global organization comprising more than 7,000 women leaders and heads of state.

Women become the majority

Women around the world have tried to follow their legacies. In some ways, they are succeeding. For example, women represent the majority of young university graduates. Yet they are still underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and computer science in many respects. Despite advances made in recent years, reports still suggest that women remain less likely to choose a career in science and technology than men.

Regional averages around the world show that women accounted for less than a third of those employed in scientific research and development across the world in 2014. Among Canadians ages 25 to 34 years holding bachelors degrees, men were almost twice as likely to work in science and technology jobs as women in 2016.

The share of science and engineering degrees is even smaller for women of colour: in 20142015, women of colour earned three to five per cent of related bachelors degrees. Globally, women made up about 12 per cent of board members in the information technology industry in 2015.

Leaky pipelines and other factors

Labour markets, family and work balance, interest, social class, cultural capital and social class are all factors reported to affect career choice and, by extension, career progress and satisfaction. Motivation is sometimes said to play a role when women decline to enter a field, but this is a highly contested assertion.

Whats more likely is that in 2015, for example, women who graduated with bachelors degrees in science and technology earned just 82 per cent of what their male counterparts earned.

Compounding these phenomena is the leaky pipeline: women disproportionately decide to leave a career trajectory due to isolation, ineffective feedback, insensitive interactions, and a lack of role models, mentors and sponsors. But lets be clear: good mentors and role models for women need not be only women. In my own life, some of the very best were men.

Yet the news is not all bad. In 2016, women comprised about 40 per cent of scientists and engineers in the EU-28, an increase of more than 20 per cent since 2007. In Central Asia, Latin American and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe and the Arab States, women represent over a third of the innovation workforce.

Equity, diversity and inclusivity of women have been topics of keen interest to the academic and corporate worlds that increasingly seek balance and justice among its educational systems and workforces, and to media that covers them. The Athena Program recognizes and rewards institutions for leadership in promoting women.

Canada has recently launched its own version of the Scientific Womens Academic Network (SWAN) Athena program. The Canada Research Chairs Program has taken significant steps to recalibrate for gender balance, albeit imperfectly under certain circumstances for senior women whose appointments have already been renewed once in this prestigious system.

Future collaborations



Author provided



It takes a global effort. In a visionary and bold initiative, women leaders from different countries are coming together to identify priorities and opportunities for international collaboration. "Women in Science, Health and Innovation: Leadership Looking To The Future" was held in Vancouver on 7 March. In this event that ties to International Womens Day  and foreshadows the 2019 Women Deliver conference in Vancouver on gender equality  researchers and speakers from Canada, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany and the United States will come together to address important questions:

What have been the greatest changes in North America and Europe and over time for women in health, science and innovation? What have been some of the historical and incentives barriers to women entering engineering and physical sciences? What is on the agenda for coming years in gender, medical research and innovation? How have women in the past set the path for women in academic medicine and entrepreneurship of the future?

We will have to see what these collaborations and others from around the world are, and where these conversations will go.

But there is much to look forward to when regional silos of strength and determination expand and mix into full-blown global efforts.

Judy Illes, Professor and Director, University of British Columbia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The hearing took place in a thatched, cone-shaped hut where the Waimiri-Atroari normally hold colorful festivities and long storytelling sessions. For one day last week, it transformed into a gloomy courthouse where six elders told a judge how over many years the 1964-1985 military dictatorship in Brazil tried to eradicate them with arms, bombs and chemicals

Waimiri-Atroari Reserve: First the helicopters arrived, dropping chemical bombs. Then came armed men in green uniforms who proceeded to slaughter members of an Amazon tribe to make way for a major road.

Bare Bornaldo Waimiri, at the time a teenage member of the Waimiri-Atroari tribe deep in Brazil's Amazon, said the day of that attack, many years ago, was the last he saw his family alive.

Now elderly, Bornaldo described the horrific scene last week during a historic hearing that put a spotlight on Brazil's military, which denies attacking the tribe. His testimony underscored the constant tension between development and conservation in Latin America's largest nation and comes as far-right President Jair Bolsonaro gives a prominent role to the military in his government and ends new indigenous land demarcations in the Amazon.

"I lost my father, my mother, my sister and my brother," Bornaldo said in a very low voice, wearing shorts and tapping his flip-flops on the ground as two translators put his words into Portuguese.

The hearing took place in a thatched, cone-shaped hut where the Waimiri-Atroari normally hold colorful festivities and long storytelling sessions. For one day last week, it transformed into a gloomy courthouse where six elders told a judge how over many years the 1964-1985 military dictatorship tried to eradicate them with arms, bombs and chemicals.

The Associated Press and one local newspaper were the only media allowed to attend the hearing. Non-tribal members in general are usually forbidden to enter the sprawling reserve that is the size of Israel and straddles the states of Amazonas and Roraima.

Tribe members and prosecutors said it marked the first time a judge was allowed on Waimiri-Atroari lands to hear witnesses tell of several alleged attacks over the years. Leaders said their aim was to deal with the past and avoid future incursions.

"To turn this page, we all have to read the book," tribal leader Mario Parwe Atroari said.

Most indigenous tribes that allege atrocities during the dictatorship are reluctant to give a full accounting of incidents in urban courthouses because they don't trust non-indigenous peoples. Some also fear being prosecuted for their own attacks against state agents and missionaries.

While tribesmen nodded during Bornaldo's testimony, a half-dozen military personnel in uniform stood in silence. Retired Colonel Hiram Reis e Silva, dressed in a white collared shirt and jeans, shook his head as the witnesses spoke. Reis e Silva, who said he worked near the reserve after 1982, was at the hearing to represent the military.

"My version of the story is very different," Reis e Silva told the AP. "There are some exaggerations. We hope truth is re-established."

"I also have several witnesses who are the pioneers of the highway and counter everything (the tribe members say)," Reis e Silva added, though when asked to share contacts with any such person he reclined to.

Before ruling, federal judge Raffaela Cassia de Sousa was expected to wait for forensics, which could include a determination of what chemical may have been used in the bombings witnesses described, and possibly more testimony and pieces of evidence.

There is no final date for a decision.

Federal prosecutors, who accuse the Brazilian state of genocide in their civil suit, said hundreds, if not thousands, of tribe members died between 1968 and 1977, when highway BR-174 was built. The deaths either happened by military strikes or because of diseases that came after the forceful construction of the road through the reserve, prosecutors said.
Together with its parent company Cupric Canyon, Khoemacau Copper Mine signed a loan facility of $565 million (P5, 9 billion) from Red Kite Mine Finance and Royal Gold AG to commence its copper and silver mining operations in the Northwest.

The funding will be used for construction of the companys 3.6 million tonne per annum starter project at Khoemacau processing ore. The direct construction of the Starter Project is $397 million over a two year construction time-line. First Copper Concentrate production is expected in the first half of 2021 with the initial annual production averaging 62000 tonnes copper and 1.9 million ounces of silver.

Cupric Canon Chief Executive, Johan Ferreira said securing the project funding package by partnering with two of the industrys leading global mine finance providers allows the company to move forward energetically with all project development activities.

This step marks the completion of a remarkable evolution of the company from discovery of zone 5 in 2012 to full construction of a high quality copper asset in 2019.

Khoemacau mining and exploration licenses cover an area of 4, 000 square kilometres in the Kalahari copper belt, which expanded after the acquisition of Boseto Mine in 2015. The company has been given a 20-year Mining License with 185 million tonnes of copper resources available for mining.

He said being able to commence the development of a large scale fully mechanized mine and deliver high quality jobs and sustainable development in the Kalahari copper belt reflects not only the quality of the mining environment in Botswana but also the strong support of government towards foreign investment and new mine development.

Khoemacau has been developing its coal mining project in Northwest Botswana over the past six years and has currently completed permitting and land access agreement; secured the required power and water; undertaken advanced engineering, procurement and mobilization such that it is ready for full construction release of the Starter Project, pending closing of the project funding package. The company has also signed Memorandum of Agreement with Botswana Power Corporation to source 30 megawatt power from the BPC grid. Upon production the mine is expected to create employment to 900 people.

The copper mining industry in Botswana suffered a setback when key base metal producer, BCL Mine closed in 2016. This followed the closure of Boseto Copper Mine which was operated by Discovery Metals.
By Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan ALEXANDRIA, Va.

By Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, at his sentencing hearing on Thursday, asked a U.S. judge for mercy after being convicted of financial crimes uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis was due to impose the sentence on Manafort, 69, during the hearing in Alexandria, Virginia. Manafort, a veteran Republican political consultant, was found guilty last August by a jury of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

Manafort asked Ellis for mercy and thanked him for conducting a fair trial. He did not express remorse for his actions but he talked about how the case has been difficult for him and his family. Manafort told the court that "to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement." Manafort added that his life is now "professionally and financially in shambles."

Manafort, with noticeably grayer hair than just months ago, was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair holding a cane, wearing a green prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the words "Alexandria inmate" on the back. It was a far cry from Manafort's usual dapper appearance and stylish garb. He has been jailed leading up to his sentencing.

Manafort's lawyers made a pitch for a lenient sentence, but Ellis rebuffed them. The hearing was ongoing.

Manafort was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the U.S. government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraine's former pro-Russia government. After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

Manafort faces sentencing in a separate case next Wednesday in Washington on two conspiracy charges to which he pleaded guilty last September.

While he faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson potentially could stack that on top of the sentence imposed in the Virginia case, rather than allowing the sentences to run concurrently.

Manafort is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mueller to have gone to trial. Several others including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen have pleaded guilty, while longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty.

Gates, a key witness against Manafort, has yet to be sentenced due to his ongoing cooperation with prosecutors.

Trump, who has called Mueller's investigation a politically motivated "witch hunt," has not ruled out granting a presidential pardon to Manafort, saying in November that "I wouldnt take it off the table."

Jackson on Feb. 13 ruled that Manafort had breached his agreement to cooperate with Mueller's office by lying to prosecutors about three matters pertinent to the Russia probe including his interactions with a business partner they have said has ties to Russian intelligence.

Mueller is preparing to submit to U.S. Attorney General William Barr a report on his investigation into whether Trump's campaign conspired with Russia and whether Trump has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Trump has denied collusion and obstruction and Russia has denied election interference.

The crimes for Manafort was convicted did not directly relate to the 2016 election.

STUNNING DOWNFALL

The sentencing capped a stunning downfall for Manafort, a prominent figure in Republican Party circles for decades who also worked as a consultant to such international figures as former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Yanukovych.

Manafort worked for Trump's campaign for five pivotal months in 2016 that included the Republican National Convention where Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, three of them as campaign chairman.

Defence lawyers had asked Ellis to sentence Manafort to between 4-1/4 and 5-1/4 years in prison, writing in their sentencing memo that Mueller's "attempt to vilify Mr. Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts before this court."

Prosecutors did not recommend a specific sentence but had cited federal sentencing guidelines that called for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison. Prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo that Manafort "blames everyone from the Special Counsel's Office to his Ukrainian clients for his own criminal choices."

Ellis had faced criticism by some in the legal community for comments he made during the trial that were widely interpreted as biased against the prosecution.

Ellis repeatedly interrupted prosecutors, told them to stop using the word "oligarch" to describe people associated with Manafort because it made him seem "despicable," and objected to pictures of Manafort's luxury items they planned to show jurors.

"It isn't a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending," Ellis told prosecutors during the trial.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Additional reporting by Andy Sullivan and Nathan Layne; Editing by Will Dunham)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The US has offered a $10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.

Lahore: Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has been barred by the government from delivering weekly Friday sermon at Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) headquarters in Lahore in Pakistan's Punjab province. This is perhaps for the first time in years that Saeed despite being present in Lahore will not be able to deliver Friday sermon at Jamia Masjid Qadsia, the JuD headquarters. Saeed was never stopped from delivering Friday sermons even during the years when Masjid Qadsia's control was under the Punjab government.

"As the Punjab police have sealed the Jamia Masjid Qadsia, Saeed will not be allowed to enter the premises to give his weekly sermon on Friday," a senior official of the Punjab government told PTI. "Saeed requested the Punjab government to allow him give sermon on Friday at Qadsia Masjid but it was turned down. This is significant with regard to the 'clout' of Saeed as for the first time he is not being allowed by the government to give sermon on Friday," he added.

Pakistan authorities on Thursday sealed the Lahore headquarters of JuD and FIF and detained over 120 suspected militants as part of an ongoing crackdown on banned groups. The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. It had been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.

The Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a $10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.
Trump had walked out of his summit meeting with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi as the two leaders could not agree on the various aspects of denuclearisation and its timeline

Washington: The denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula is still possible in President Donald Trump's first term, a top US diplomat said, a week after the collapse of the talks with North Korea in Hanoi.

Last week, Trump walked out of his summit meeting with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi as the two leaders could not agree on the various aspects of denuclearisation and its timeline. "We still believe this (denuclearisation) is all achievable within the President's first term, and that's the time-table we are working on. We have discussed extensively the outlines of the calendar that allow us to do that, and it is doable," a senior State Department official told reporters on Thursday.

The ultimate driver of this is not going to be the number of days it takes. "It's going to be the degree to which we can satisfactorily achieve the steps that we feel are necessary to finally and fully verify the denuclearisation of North Korea. That's what we are working for," he said. The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said that he fully believes at this point they have sufficient time in the President's first term to do that. "That's a little more than a year," he said.

Responding to a question, the official said the US seeking a fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea. "That means taking out all key parts of their nuclear fuel cycle, removing all their fissile material, removing their nuclear warheads, removing or destroying all their intercontinental ballistic missiles, and permanently freezing any other weapons of mass destruction programs," he said.

It also means moving them on a course to re-orient their economy towards civilian pursuits in order to make this a permanent direction for their country. "In exchange for that, what the North Koreans will be able to enjoy is integration into the global economy, a transformed relationship with the US, a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, and a closure to a 70-year relationship characterised by hostility and warfare between our two countries," the official said.

He said Trump has made abundantly clear to Chairman Kim that he is personally interested in taking North Korea in this direction if Pyongyang gives up all of its weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivery. Responding to a question on the collapse of the talks in Hanoi, the official said the negotiations with the North Koreans in the run-up to the summit were very productive. The two sides covered a lot of areas.

"The area that we fell most short was on denuclearisation and it was clear to us that our North Korean interlocutors had very little authority to move on the set of issues that were, in our view, central to the success of this outcome," the official said. Noting that the system in North Korea is driven from the top down, he said, and the US President understands this very much, and that's why he seeks to direct engagement with Kim Jong-un to invest him in a shared vision of that brighter future that could happen if they denuclearise.

"In order for our North Korean counterparts to have more latitude, it's clear they are going to have to get direction and space from the top. They will not do that on their own. They will not test ideas at the negotiating table," he said. So there's an important interplay between the President's summit meetings and the President's direct engagement between summit meetings with Kim

Jong-un and the amount of latitude that the negotiating teams at the working level are entrusted with in order to breathe life into some of these agreements, the state department official said. "We need the North Korean negotiators to have much more latitude than they did in the run-up to the summit on denuclearisation, but I am confident that if they get that direction from the top of the North Korean government, we can make quick progress with them," he said.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 'requested DoD support to identify space to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied alien children on DoD installations, if needed, through 30 September, 2019,' said Pentagon spokesperson

Washington: The administration of US President Donald Trump has asked the Department of Defense to prepare to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied migrant children amid what it calls a mounting "crisis" at the US-Mexico border, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), "requested DoD support to identify space to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied alien children on DoD installations, if needed, through 30 September, 2019," said Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis. "DoD will work with the military services to identify potential locations for such support, and will work with HHS to assess any DoD facilities or suitable DoD land for potential use to provide temporary shelter for unaccompanied alien children," he said. The request for beds is preventative  they will not definitely be used.

But it comes amid a surge in the number of families and unaccompanied children crossing the US border from Mexico illegally, most of them fleeing poverty and violence in Central America. Most request asylum. According to the Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP), the number of minors apprehended after entering the country illegally without family in February hit 6,825, up from 5,119 in January and 4,968 in October.

CBP hands the children over to HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement, which seeks to place them with relatives or other families in the United States while their requests to remain in the country are processed, which can take two years. At times last year they had more than 15,000 such children in their care at one time.

CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said on Tuesday that illegal immigration in February surged to the highest level in years, with 76,000 people stopped or apprehended, and was straining government facilities. "We are currently facing a humanitarian and national security crisis along our southwest border," he said.

"The vast increases in families and children coming across our border, in larger groups and in more remote areas, presents a unique challenge to our operations and facilities, and those of our partners." On Wednesday Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said they were expecting the numbers to grow in the coming months. Nielsen though said in many cases the children were being used as "pawns" to get into our country, and even "recycled" by smuggling rings to help multiple groups cross the border and get a foothold on US soil. She said she sympathized with the migrants but insisted that, as Trump formally declared last month, "It is an emergency."
North Korea's State media had earlier acknowledged for the first time the collapse of the high-stakes Hanoi summit, which ended without any agreement on reducing Pyongyang's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Washington: US president Donald Trump said Friday his relationship with North Korea's Kim Jong Un "remains good," despite the failure of a summit last week between the two leaders. North Korea's State media had earlier acknowledged for the first time the collapse of the high-stakes Hanoi summit, which ended without any agreement on reducing Pyongyang's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. "I have a feeling that our relationship with North Korea, Kim Jong Un and myself, I think it is a very good one. I think it remains good," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The meeting was supposed to build on the leaders' historic first meeting in Singapore last year. Trump repeated his frequent claim that he had brought the US back from the brink of war with North Korea since coming to office. "This was a disaster. I inherited a mess. It is straightening out a lot. We are doing very well there," he said. "I inherited a mess with North Korea and right now you have no (missile) testing. You have no nothing." Following the stalemate in Hanoi, researchers said this week that Pyongyang had started rebuilding the Sohae long-range rocket site after Kim had agreed last year to shut it as part of confidence-building measures.

"I would be surprised in a negative way if (Kim) did anything that was not per our understanding. But we'll see what happens," Trump added.

Trump's remarks, which came as he was departing the White House to visit tornado-hit Alabama, also touched on the fractious US-China trade relationship, domestic politics and the Mueller investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia. Asked about the months-long trade war with China, the president said he would not agree to any solution unless it was a good deal for the United States. "I am confident but... if this isn't a great deal, I won't make a deal," Trump told reporters.

US and Chinese officials have said they are making progress toward a resolution, but a US diplomat in Beijing said earlier an agreement was not imminent. Negotiations were extended through Sunday as officials race to reach a deal ahead of a deadline next week when US duty rates are due to rise sharply. Trump's remarks came a day after his former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison by a federal judge for tax crimes and bank fraud in the highest profile case yet stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

"I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it has been a very tough time for him," Trump said.

The Republican president also weighed in on the row engulfing the Democrats over anti-Semitism which has led to the party's biggest crisis since reclaiming the House majority two months ago.

The party passed a resolution against bigotry following an acrimonious debate over how to reprimand Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, who sparked a firestorm over repeated criticisms of Israel and a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington that exerts influence in US politics. "The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party and an anti-Jewish party," Trump said. The president was due to visit victims of last weekend's tornado that devastated Lee County in eastern Alabama last weekend, killing at least 23 and injuring dozens.
By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - Three dozen countries, including all 28 EU members, called on Saudi Arabia on Thursday to release 10 activists and cooperate with a U.N.-led investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its Istanbul consulate. It was the first rebuke of the kingdom at the U.N

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - Three dozen countries, including all 28 EU members, called on Saudi Arabia on Thursday to release 10 activists and cooperate with a U.N.-led investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its Istanbul consulate.

It was the first rebuke of the kingdom at the U.N. Human Rights Council since it was set up in 2006, and came amid growing international concern about alleged Saudi violations of basic freedoms such as freedom of expression.

"It is a success for Europe to be united on this," an envoy of an EU country told Reuters.

The unprecedented joint statement, also backed by Canada and Australia but not the United States, was read out by Harald Aspelund, Iceland's Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

"We are particularly concerned about the use of the counter-terrorism law and other national security provisions against individuals peacefully exercising their rights and freedoms," Aspelund said, reading the text.

Activists can and should play "a vital role in the process of reform which the Kingdom is pursuing," it said.

Saudi ambassador Abdulaziz M.O. Alwasil stressed its efforts to uphold human rights but called for "dealing with the human rights issues in the Kingdom in an impartial and objective manner, far away from what is rumoured in some media and NGOs".

The Saudi mission tweeted a summary of his remarks to the Council, saying he underlined "the right of sovereign countries to deal with issues affecting their security in accordance with their national laws and international obligations".

The joint statement called for the release of Loujain Al-Hathloul, Eman Al-Nafjan, Aziza Al-Yousef, Nassima Al-Sadah, Samar Badawi, Nouf Abdelaziz, Hatoon Al-Fassi, Mohammed Al-Bajadi, Amal Al-Harbi and Shadan al-Anezi.

Activists allege that jailed women activists, including those who campaigned for the right to drive, have been subjected to electric shocks, flogging, sexual assault and other forms of torture.

The Saudi deputy public prosecutor told Saudi-owned newspaper Alsharq Alawsat last week that his office had looked into media reports that the women were tortured and found no evidence, calling the reports "false".

The EU and other sponsoring countries said they "condemn in the strongest possible terms" the killing of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

"The circumstances of Mr. Khashoggi's death reaffirm the need to protect journalists and to uphold the right to freedom of expression around the world," the text said.

It called for cooperation with an inquiry led by Agnes Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions.

"It's an important step in ensuring accountability. The international community has a collective responsibility to highlight human rights violations in a country that until now had managed to escape that kind of scrutiny," Callamard told Reuters.

She added that she welcomed the call for cooperation with her investigation as the Saudis had to date not responded to her requests for meetings.

Turkey has not yet shared its police and forensic reports on the Khashoggi case, which authorities had pledged to do during her mission there last month, Callamard added.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Bill Berkrot)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Riding high on an annual debate on whether such a day is more farce than celebration, more a capitalist ploy than genuine appreciation, International Women's Day arrives with the usual fanfare, each year, on 8 March.

If there is a Google doodle, then it must be true. Riding high on an annual debate on whether such a day is more farce than celebration, more a capitalist ploy than genuine appreciation, International Women's Day arrives with the usual fanfare, each year, on 8 March.

In its essence and at its core, the day stands as a testament to the power of women and demands that they be given equal rights across the world. Each year since 1996, the United Nations has designated a theme for the day. This year, the theme is "think equal, build smart, innovate for change." Earlier themes have been women and HIV/AIDS (2004), women in decision-making (2006), end of violence against women and girls (2009) and empowerment of rural women (2012).

The official International Women's Day website has taken the UN's message further to define the theme as #BalanceforBetter where everyone strives for a gender balanced world.

How the day came into being

The University of Chicago, in its website for women's programmes, pegs the beginning of the International Women's Day in 1907, when 15,000 women workers in the textile industry walked in a march through New York, demanding shorter work hours, fair pay and lending their voice to the already growing clamour for suffrage for women. The demonstrators also commemorated police brutality on a similar women workers' demonstration in 1857.

On 28 February, 1909, the first national Woman's Day was celebrated in the United States of America. Novelist and social reformist Charlotte Perkins Gilman addressed a gathering in which she made the stirring claim, "It is true that a woman's duty is centered in her home and motherhood but home should mean the whole country."

While women gained prominence in political arenas, it was the World Wars that gave the day its present form. Wars were largely considered men's domain and in the tension-ridden atmosphere of the days preceding World War I, Russia saw some of its biggest all-women campaigns for peace.

As the World War I looked to end and the Russian Revolution was set to begin in 1917, women in Russia led a massive demonstration under feminist leader Alexandra Kollontai, on the last Sunday in February on the Soviet calendar. The day is 8 March according to the Gregorian calendar. In 1922, Lenin officially designated it as Women's Day.

By 1975, the 8 March date had gained popularity enough for the United Nations to designate it as International Women's Day. Two years later, the UN's General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a "United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national tradition."

Significance of Women's Day

International Women's Day is one of the most widely celebrated holidays in the world. With no religious or regional connotations defining it, the day is universally accepted as one where women of all race, colour, nationality and age are celebrated.

On 8 March, International #WomensDay, take a stand with everyone who wont accept the patriarchal status quo and take action to change what we cannot accept! pic.twitter.com/nbShZi0zJw  UN Women (@UN_Women) March 7, 2019

The day is an official holiday in many countries like Afghanistan, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Russia and Zambia. Yet the struggles of women are far from over, and 8 March has always been the day to resolve and strive for a better situation for women. The day is also an opportunity to remember the inequality faced by women in every sphere of life and the particular struggles of women in certain regions of the world.

"In recent decades, we have seen remarkable progress on womens rights and leadership in some areas. But these gains are far from complete or consistent  and they have already sparked a troubling backlash from an entrenched patriarchy," reads the UN Secretary General's statement on the theme of the 2019 Women's Day.

The UN has set a deadline of 2030 to complete the goals it has set to achieve equality for women. From urban planning that focuses on community safety to e-learning platforms that take classrooms to women and girls, from affordable and quality childcare centres across the world to more use of technology shaped by women, this Women's Day has been dedicated to realising all of these visions and more.

Women and men have been asked to post photos of themselves on social media, with a "hands out" pose signifying gender balance in a strong call-to-action for others to also help forge a balanced world without gender injustice.

Today, the day is as criticised as it is celebrated. Many have spoken out against the blithe commercialisation of the day, thanks to discount offers on feminine products that swamp the market at this time. It is, nonetheless, a time to reflect on progress made.
By Rich McKay (Reuters) - An Auschwitz survivor and stepsister of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank will meet on Thursday with some California high school students seen in viral online photos giving Nazi salutes over a swastika made of red cups used in a drinking game.

By Rich McKay

(Reuters) - An Auschwitz survivor and stepsister of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank will meet on Thursday with some California high school students seen in viral online photos giving Nazi salutes over a swastika made of red cups used in a drinking game.

The anti-Semitic comments and images posted mainly on Snapchat, which included an image with the title "master race" - a reference to the Nazi belief in ethnic purity - drew national outrage.

Holocaust survivor and peace activist Eva Schloss, 89, hoped that the students involved have the potential to become advocates of tolerance and understanding, organizers of the meeting said in a statement.

"It's imperative that today's young people come face to face with the consequences of unchecked hatred," said Rabbi Reuven Mintz, director of the Chabad Center for Jewish Life in Newport Beach, California.

The off-campus party was held at a home on Saturday night in Costa Mesa, California, which multiple media accounts said was attended by more than a dozen students from several high schools in upscale neighborhoods in Orange County.

The images included students with arms raised in a Nazi salute and about a dozen students crowded around the cups arranged in the shape of a swastika, media accounts said.

Some students have since written letters of apology, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Schloss is the stepsister of Frank, whose diary about her experiences hiding from the Nazis and time in a death camp, became world famous.

Frank died at age 15 at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in 1945, after being transferred from Auschwitz, Poland.

Schloss was captured by the Nazis in 1944 in Amsterdam and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where her brother and father died, according to her biography posted on her website, evaschloss.com.

Schloss and her mother were later liberated by the Russian Army, and her mother later married Frank's father.

The private meeting between Schloss and some students involved in the incident is scheduled to take place at Newport Harbor High School on Thursday, organizers said.

Rabbi Mintz worked closely with school officials to help facilitate the discussion.

"Our hope is that meeting someone who witnessed, firsthand, the atrocities committed under the same swastika and salute will help guide these students towards a life of tolerance and acceptance," he said.

The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks acts of racism, reported that anti-Semitic incidents rose nearly 60 percent in the U.S. in 2017 from 2016.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Darren Schuettler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
How do men perceive International Women's Day? Do most men look at it as a day to introspect, and a day to remind themselves of the fact that they do have a significant role to play in this battle for equality? Sadly not.

For Arka Dutta, a writer who has no qualms about calling himself a feminist, 8 March is the day that reminds him how "we should have behaved for the past seven thousand years or more."

This is a thought worth mulling over while scrolling through Facebook and Twitter, both of which are flooded with the myriad ways in which one can "celebrate" women.

How do men perceive International Women's Day? Do most men, like Dutta, look at it as a day to introspect, and a day to remind themselves of the fact that they do have a significant role to play in this battle for equality? Sadly not.

For a lot of men, this is the day on which they go around social media asking, "But what about International Men's Day?" This, by the way, is on 19 November, and centres around discussions on critical issues such as men's health.

An invigorating conversation with a non-Indian male friend brought interesting perspectives. He chooses to look at this day as an allocated time when all important issues concerning women's rights are reflected upon and brought to the fore via mainstream media. "I personally love women leaders and entrepreneurs making their views heard, views that are otherwise often restricted only to a niche audience," he says.

Not only globally, even in India, there is indeed a growing tribe of men who are willing to carry forward the discussion on women's rights, not only on this day but all through the year.

However, the innumerable "wishes" on 8 March, mainly from men, who thank women for their "love", "passion", "sacrifice" and "service" (no idea what), and say that we are yet to embrace equality as a concept and merely pay lip service on this day by extolling women through all those stereotypes that we are fighting to break every single day.

A quick glance through social media websites reveal that for a huge percentage of men, this day is a chance to remind women of their prescribed roles and thanking them for it.

A message thanked women for their "smiles", "touches", "anger" and "tantrums" and several others praised them for their "power", vaguely reminiscent of the qualities we endow our female goddesses with.

The enthusiasm about the day is markedly missing among a lot of men who feel "left out" and "discriminated against" on this day. We are all familiar with generic comments on social media complaining about the lack of media coverage of International Men's Day or bemoaning the "excessive attention" women garner on 8 March.

While we have every right to complain about denying men responsibility in the fight for equality and reducing this day to a celebration of stereotypes, we would do well to realise that popular culture and commercialism have inflicted as much harm as reluctant men. With our purses bursting at the seams with flashy pink coupons offering discounts at expensive spas and beauty parlours, and online shopping sites doling out lucrative deals to "celebrate" womanhood, we have buried its history under a male-dominated consumerist narrative.

Little mention is made of the long history of working women's and suffragettes' struggles and the contribution of women since the beginning of the 20th century to the fight for equal rights, a fight which we are still far from winning.

The United Nations' declared day for women often gets lost in the quagmire of urban stereotypes of privilege. Men often appropriate the day to remind women of their roles as mothers, sisters and caregivers, who will be lauded only for their sacrifices.

In a year when a short documentary on periods (Period. End of Sentence), brought India back to the Academy Awards map, it is probably a little tragic that we still have to write articles on men's perception of this day. Unpaid domestic labour, menstrual hygiene, the right to choose, recognition of rape as war crime  the fight for women's rights, especially in third world countries, still has a long way to go.

Yet, in the urban sphere we are placated by patronising men who believe in only as much women's rights as they are comfortable to cede.

It is high time we, as women, realise that this day needs to be commemorated to remind ourselves how far we have come in this fight and how much distance there is still to be covered. Even though popular female voices are making themselves heard across different channels, we still have kept men as the benchmark for our achievement.

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever to serve the US Congress and who is known for her bold feminist statements, was quoted by Huffpost as having said, "The idea that a woman can be as powerful as a man is something that our society cannot deal with. But I am as powerful as a man and it drives them crazy."

The fact that even a youth icon like Cortez, who inspires millions of girls and battles online abusers every day, feels the need to be compared to men to underline her strength, shows how influential and all-pervading male narrative of women's rights is.

Amidst endless debates on whether one day is enough for women or if the day is just a ploy by radical feminists to vilify men, it is essential to remember that 8 March's significance lies in its long history of working-class women's struggles and protests against war. And also that this struggle shall continue, whether all men are comfortable or not. It is high time women realise that this fight is theirs to take forward without sparing a thought on what men want.

(The writer is a research assistant at the department of politics of the University of York)
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday appointed ultra-conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi, a one-time presidential hopeful, as head of the judiciary, the leader's website said.

Tehran: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday appointed ultra-conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi, a one-time presidential hopeful, as head of the judiciary, the leader's website said.

Former judge Raisi, who currently heads the holy shrine of Imam Reza, was the leading rival to President Hassan Rouhani at Iran's 2017 election and has close ties to the supreme leader.

Khamenei said in a statement that he appointed Raisi to bring about a "transformation (in the judiciary) in line with (its) needs, advancements and challenges" on the 40th year of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"For carrying out this crucial act, I have chosen you who have a long track record in different levels of the judiciary and are in touch with its nuances," he said in the statement.

He called on Raisi to be "with the people, the revolution and against corruption" in his new role.

Raisi takes over from Sadegh Amoli Larijani who was in December appointed chairman of the powerful Expediency Council.

Raisi is a mainstay of the conservative establishment, having served as attorney general, supervisor of state broadcaster IRIB and prosecutor in the Special Court for Clerics.

He bears the title of Hojjat al-Islam, which is a rank under Ayatollah in the Shiite cleric hierarchy.

Raisi became deputy prosecutor at the Revolutionary Court of Tehran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Human rights organisations, opposition members and dissidents have accused the tribunal of overseeing the execution of political prisoners without due legal process during his tenure.

He was chosen by Khamenei in 2016 to head Iran's Imam Reza Shrine and lead its huge business conglomerate, Astan Qods Razavi, with interests in everything from IT and banking to construction and agriculture.

During his 2017 campaign, Raisi took a tough line on Rouhani's "weak efforts" in negotiating the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that brought the Islamic republic sanctions relief in exchange for limiting its nuclear programme.

US President Donald Trump last year withdrew Washington from the pact and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Nonofo Molefhi says it would be a long process to fully make some institutions under his ministry independent. The minister told Parliament that to move from Office of the President, Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), Ombudsman, Auditor General and Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) will take time as processes for their transfer to be independent would take time.

Independence that the Members of Parliament are talking about will be a process. It would not happen within three (3) months as some suggest. I would have to engage in legislative process which takes time. It cannot just be an announcement that I make. What is happening now is that all these institutions have administrative and operational independence, said the minister.

Molefhi pointed out that if DCEC could not undertake investigations in any case, the organisation would be failing the nation because it has operational independence. He said Batswana should be encouraged to continue to report corruption. The minister was responding to queries by MPs when debating the budget for his ministry. The MPs indicated that the time is now for the aforesaid institutions to be moved out of the Office of the President. They argued that even if there is administrative independence which they doubt exists, it is important for the institutions not to be under the control of OP.

The minister revealed that in an effort to fight corruption the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Bill will be tabled during the July session. He said the Bill is awaiting re-submission to Cabinet following a benchmarking visit to Rwanda by the DCEC.

In pursuit of refining the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, which will be used to improve monitoring and evaluation of anti-corruption programmes now and in future, the DCEC has benchmarked with the Ministry of Health and Wellness and National Strategy Office.

The Directorate is in the process of finalising the framework to facilitate utilisation by Monitoring and Evaluation Unit. MP for Gaborone Central Dr. Phenyo Butale said there is need for clear change of thinking and the institutions should be moved from OP. The legislator pointed out that if government wants to talk about legislative reforms but still has DCEC, Auditor General and Ombudsman and other institutions under OP, no achievement will be realised. He said the institutions can be supervised by Parliament. We can benchmark with other Parliaments and have these institutions to be accountable. We need to be consistent as government in what we want to do, he told Parliament.

MP for Gantsi North Noah Salakae said the current government does not take Batswana seriously. He also expressed concern about the expenditure of the presidential ministry. He said this is one ministry where wastage of funds is rampant. He wondered why the Finance Minister Kenneth Matambo continues to allow such spending at the presidential ministry. Salakae stated there is nothing that President Dr. Mokgweetsi Masisi is fixing as he is making Batswana to believe.
By Gavin Jones and Giuseppe Fonte ROME (Reuters) - A dispute in Italy's coalition over the future of a high-speed rail link with France escalated suddenly on Thursday and raised the risk of a government collapse, with one party chief accusing his partner of acting irresponsibly. The Alpine rail line is backed by the ruling League party but is fiercely opposed by its coalition partner, the 5-Star Movement, which argues Italy's share of the funding would be better spent upgrading existing roads and bridges. After League leader Matteo Salvini said in an evening television interview he would not back down and his party would 'never sign' a decree to block the project, 5-Star chief Luigi Di Maio accused him of threatening to bring down the government

By Gavin Jones and Giuseppe Fonte

ROME (Reuters) - A dispute in Italy's coalition over the future of a high-speed rail link with France escalated suddenly on Thursday and raised the risk of a government collapse, with one party chief accusing his partner of acting irresponsibly.

The Alpine rail line is backed by the ruling League party but is fiercely opposed by its coalition partner, the 5-Star Movement, which argues Italy's share of the funding would be better spent upgrading existing roads and bridges.

After League leader Matteo Salvini said in an evening television interview he would not back down and his party would "never sign" a decree to block the project, 5-Star chief Luigi Di Maio accused him of threatening to bring down the government.

"He will bear the responsibility before millions of Italians," Di Maio said in a statement. "I consider this to be irresponsible behaviour."

The TAV project (Treno Alta Velocita) is a joint venture between the Italian and French states to link the cities of Turin and Lyon with a 58-km (36-mile) tunnel through the Alps on which work has already begun.

The European Union has pledged to fund up to 40 percent of costs, Italy up to 35 percent and France up to 25 percent.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said earlier on Thursday that recently updated traffic projections for the line warranted a review of the project's long-term viability and, if necessary, a renegotiation of the way the funding is split.

He told reporters he had strong personal doubts about the validity of the venture and he would take responsibility for a final decision based on a cost-benefit analysis already carried out by the government.

That analysis, commissioned by Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli, a 5-Star politician, found the TAV was a waste of public money, estimating the economic return would be a negative balance of 7.0 billion-7.8 billion euros ($7.9 billion -$8.8 billion).

Conte, who is not a member of either ruling party but is closer to 5-Star, called the funding of the TAV "iniquitous" and said he would speak to France and the EU "to share our doubts and perplexities."

Despite these doubts, he acknowledged the ruling coalition remained "deadlocked" over the issue, as a Monday deadline approaches when the tenders must be launched to build or block key parts of the project.

The right-wing League and the anti-establishment 5-Star have often been at loggerheads since forming an unlikely alliance last year after inconclusive elections.

Conte dismissed media speculation the Alpine rail link could be the issue that finally brings it down as "absurd" and said the dispute between the ruling parties was transparent and constructive.

(additional reporting by Gavin Jones and Crispian Balmer; Editing by Mark Bendeich, Jon Boyle, Alexandra Hudson and Cynthia Osterman)

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Diplomatic protection is a rarely-used mechanism allowing nations to seek protection on behalf of its citizens on the grounds that they have been wronged by another state, according to Britain's foreign office

London: The UK said it will take the "extremely unusual" move of granting diplomatic protection to British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe jailed in Iran over spying allegations.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the decision was in response to the "unacceptable treatment" experienced by the dual national including a lack of medical care during her three years in detention.

"I have today decided that the UK will take a step that is extremely unusual and exercise diplomatic protection," he said in a statement on Thursday.

"This represents formal recognition by the British government that her treatment fails to meet Iran's obligations under international law and elevates it to a formal state to state issue."

Diplomatic protection is a rarely-used mechanism allowing nations to seek protection on behalf of its citizens on the grounds that they have been wronged by another state, according to Britain's foreign office.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe has suffered from health issues, including undergoing tests for breast cancer and a series of panic attacks, while her emotional state has worsened during her confinement.

"We have not even been able to secure her the medical treatment she urgently needs despite assurances to the contrary," Hunt added.

Hunt said his decision was "an important diplomatic step" signalling to Tehran that "its behaviour is totally wrong".

However he conceded that it was "unlikely to be a magic wand that leads to an overnight result" and repeated calls for her release.

"No government should use innocent individuals as pawns for diplomatic leverage so I call on Iran to release this innocent woman so she can be reunited with her family," he said.

A project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the media group's philanthropic arm, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 as she was leaving Iran at the end of a holiday with her infant daughter.

She was sentenced to five years in prison in September 2016 for allegedly trying to topple the Iranian government.

In August, 2018 the mother was unexpectedly released for a three-day furlough and was reunited with members of her family including her daughter Gabriella outside the Iranian capital.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the British government have consistently denied the charges against her.

Prime Minister Theresa May has also called for her release, directly appealing to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to free the mother at the UN's general assembly in New York in 2018.

Her husband Richard who has been lobbying Hunt and the previous foreign secretary Boris Johnson for diplomatic protection for his wife since 2017, welcomed the move.

"It is a very clear statement and so hopefully the Iranian authorities will realise this has gone on too long," the the UK's Press Association reported him as saying.

"They cannot play games like this with ordinary people's lives." Her London MP Tulip Siddiq said Iran has "violated numerous international human rights standards" including denial of a fair trial and consular access and holding her in inhumane conditions without proper access to medical care.
By Sarah N. Lynch ALEXANDRIA, Va.

By Sarah N. Lynch

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was due to be sentenced on Thursday by a U.S. judge who rejected a defence request for leniency for financial crimes uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis was due to impose a sentence on Manafort, 69, during the hearing in Alexandria, Virginia. Manafort, a veteran Republican political consultant, was found guilty last August by a jury of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

Manafort, with noticeably grayer hair than just months ago, was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair holding a cane, wearing a green prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the words "Alexandria inmate" on the back.

Manafort's lawyers made a pitch for a lenient sentence, but Ellis rebuffed them. The hearing was ongoing.

Manafort was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the U.S. government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraine's former pro-Russia government. After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

Manafort faces sentencing in a separate case next Wednesday in Washington on two conspiracy charges to which he pleaded guilty last September.

While he faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson potentially could stack that on top of the sentence imposed in the Virginia case, rather than allowing the sentences to run concurrently.

Manafort is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mueller to have gone to trial. Several others including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen have pleaded guilty, while longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty.

Gates, a key witness against Manafort, has yet to be sentenced due to his ongoing cooperation with prosecutors.

Trump, who has called Mueller's investigation a politically motivated "witch hunt," has not ruled out granting a presidential pardon to Manafort, saying in November that "I wouldnt take it off the table."

Jackson on Feb. 13 ruled that Manafort had breached his agreement to cooperate with Mueller's office by lying to prosecutors about three matters pertinent to the Russia probe including his interactions with a business partner they have said has ties to Russian intelligence.

Mueller is preparing to submit to U.S. Attorney General William Barr a report on his investigation into whether Trump's campaign conspired with Russia and whether Trump has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Trump has denied collusion and obstruction and Russia has denied election interference.

The crimes for Manafort was convicted did not directly relate to the 2016 election.

STUNNING DOWNFALL

The sentencing capped a stunning downfall for Manafort, a prominent figure in Republican Party circles for decades who also worked as a consultant to such international figures as former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Yanukovych.

Manafort worked for Trump's campaign for five pivotal months in 2016 that included the Republican National Convention where Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, three of them as campaign chairman.

Defence lawyers had asked Ellis to sentence Manafort to between 4-1/4 and 5-1/4 years in prison, writing in their sentencing memo that Mueller's "attempt to vilify Mr. Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts before this court."

Prosecutors did not recommend a specific sentence but had cited federal sentencing guidelines that called for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison. Prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo that Manafort "blames everyone from the Special Counsel's Office to his Ukrainian clients for his own criminal choices."

Ellis had faced criticism by some in the legal community for comments he made during the trial that were widely interpreted as biased against the prosecution.

Ellis repeatedly interrupted prosecutors, told them to stop using the word "oligarch" to describe people associated with Manafort because it made him seem "despicable," and objected to pictures of Manafort's luxury items they planned to show jurors.

"It isn't a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending," Ellis told prosecutors during the trial.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Additional reporting by Andy Sullivan and Nathan Layne; Editing by Will Dunham)

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(Reuters) - The Labour Party will not support a new referendum on Brexit in all circumstances, The Independent reported on Thursday, citing sources close to the party leadership. The sources said Labour is not advocating a referendum on anything other than a 'damaging Tory Brexit' deal, the report https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-brexit-eu-referendum-members-deal-jeremy-corbyn-theresa-may-a8813041.html said.

(Reuters) - The Labour Party will not support a new referendum on Brexit in all circumstances, The Independent reported on Thursday, citing sources close to the party leadership.

The sources said Labour is not advocating a referendum on anything other than a "damaging Tory Brexit" deal, the report https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-brexit-eu-referendum-members-deal-jeremy-corbyn-theresa-may-a8813041.html said. The confirmation that Labour would only support a public vote on Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May's deal was likely to anger Labour's pro-European Union members of parliament, the newspaper said.

(Reporting by Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru; editing by Grant McCool)

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Women's rights activists condemned the murder of Afzal Kohistani, whistleblower in a 2012 'honour killing' case that has shone a years-long spotlight on female victims  and the men who defend them  in Pakistan

Islamabad: Women's rights activists Friday condemned the murder of a whistleblower in a notorious "honour killing" case that has shone a years-long spotlight on female victims  and the men who defend them  in deeply patriarchal Pakistan.

Afzal Kohistani, the man who first drew attention to the infamous incident in 2012, was gunned down in Abbottabad on Wednesday, police have said.

He had pursued a case in which a local cleric order the deaths of male and female wedding guests shown enjoying themselves in a video.

Precise details remain shrouded in mystery but Kohistani had long been adamant that women shown in the video had been murdered.

He was shot five times on a busy road and died on the spot, Abdul Aziz Afridi, a senior police official, told AFP.

Officials said Friday that at least two arrests had been made.

"The perpetrators of this heinous crime will be brought to justice," provincial information minister Shaukat Yousafzai told AFP.

Kohistani's murder has ignited anger in Pakistan, where rights activists have long fought against the patriarchal notion of "honour", which remains prevalent across South Asia.

I march because the only pursuer of 7 years old Kohistan video case Afzal Kohistani killed two hours ago. He fought for justice against the brutal killing of three girls who were killed by jirga against the simple videos of them being spread in the village in 2012 #AuratMarch2019 pic.twitter.com/IXoaIfuSVB  Nighat Dad (@nighatdad) March 6, 2019

Women have been shot, stabbed, stoned, set alight and strangled for bringing "shame" on their families for everything from refusing marriage proposals to wedding the "wrong" man and helping friends elope.

Men can be victims too, though it is rarer.

"Will be raising this shocking murder of Afzal Kohistani in parliament," opposition leader Sherry Rehman tweeted.

Rights activists participating in a march to mark International Women's Day on Friday condemned Kohistani's shooting.

"This incident has brought to the focus, once again, how vulnerable those that raise their voice still are," said Benazir Jatoi, a human rights lawyer and march organiser.

Witness protection was "almost non-existent", she added.

"Today's march in Islamabad will remember Afzal and other brave Pakistanis like him and we will that perpetrators be held accountable," said Jatoi.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it was concerned the killing would "have a ripple effect on human rights defenders who monitor and report 'honour' killings and are reminded of what their work could cost them".

The wedding video emerged in 2012, showing women clapping as two men danced in the deeply conservative mountainous area of Kohistan, 175 kilometres (110 miles) north of the capital Islamabad.

I last interviewed #AfzalKohistani in 2016 on the menace of #honorkilling in Pakistan when Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy had won an Oscar. pic.twitter.com/sGI3g3yCaL  Naila Inayat   (@nailainayat) March 6, 2019

The men and women had allegedly been in the room together, in defiance of strict tribal customs that separate men and women at weddings  though the video does not show them together.

A local cleric sentenced several women and men to death over the video. Kohistani is believed to have been related to some of the men in the video. His entire family were banished from Kohistan as a result.

He took the rare step of pushing the case before the media and the justice system. The Supreme Court launched a commission to investigate  but in June 2012 was told the women had never been murdered at all.

A fact-finding team met women who were purportedly those shown in the video and said they were alive.

But Kohistani insisted that the women shown to the fact-finding officials were different women and that the death sentences had been carried out.

Three more men  Kohistani's brothers  were later killed by a rival family. A Pakistani court convicted six of their killers in 2014.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department indicted Mozambique's former finance minister, along with eight executives, officials and investment bankers, over their alleged roles in a $2 billion fraud and money laundering scheme, the department said on Thursday.

The alleged co-conspirators arranged for more than $2 billion in loans intended to fund three maritime projects, but diverted more than $200 million in loan proceeds in bribe payments to former Finance Minister Manuel Chang and other officials and kickback payments to three investment bankers, the department said.

(Reporting by Makini Brice; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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By Sarah N.

By Sarah N. Lynch, Andy Sullivan and Jan Wolfe

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced on Thursday by a U.S. judge to less than four years in prison - far shy of federal sentencing guidelines - for financial crimes uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis imposed the 47-month sentence on Manafort, 69, during a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, in which the veteran Republican political consultant asked for mercy but did not express remorse for his actions.

Ellis also ordered Manafort, who was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, to pay a fine of $50,000 and restitution of just over $24 million.

Manafort was found guilty by a jury last August of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

While prosecutors had not recommended a specific sentence, they had cited federal sentencing guidelines that called for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison.

"Clearly the guidelines were way out of whack on this," Ellis said.

The sentence was even less than what defence lawyers had sought. They had asked Ellis to sentence Manafort to between 4-1/4 and 5-1/4 years in prison, writing in their sentencing memo that Mueller's "attempt to vilify Mr. Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts before this court."

Some legal experts expressed surprise over the leniency of the sentence. "This is a tremendous defeat for the special counsel's office," said former federal prosecutor David Weinstein.

Ellis, appointed to the bench by Republican former President Ronald Reagan, called the sentence "sufficiently punitive," but noted that Manafort's time already served would be subtracted from the 47-month sentence. Manafort has been jailed since June 2018.

The judge also noted during the hearing that Manafort "is not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election."

Manafort faces sentencing in a separate case next Wednesday in Washington on two conspiracy charges to which he pleaded guilty last September. While he faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson potentially could stack that on top of the sentence imposed in the Virginia case, rather than allowing the sentences to run concurrently. Jackson was appointed by Democratic former President Barack Obama.

Before the sentencing, Manafort thanked Ellis for conducting a fair trial. He expressed no remorse but talked about how the case had been difficult for him and his family. Manafort, who opted not to testify during his trial, told the court that "to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement." He described his life as "professionally and financially in shambles."

Manafort was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the U.S. government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraine's former pro-Russia government. After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

The judge told Manafort: "I was surprised I did not hear you express regret for engaging in wrongful conduct."

Manafort, with noticeably grayer hair than just months ago, was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair holding a cane, wearing a green prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the words "Alexandria inmate" on the back. It was a far cry from Manafort's usual dapper appearance and stylish garb. He has been jailed leading up to his sentencing.

'A LOT OF MONEY'

Ellis had faced criticism by some in the legal community for comments he made during the trial that were widely interpreted as biased against the prosecution. Ellis repeatedly interrupted prosecutors, told them to stop using the word "oligarch" to describe people associated with Manafort because it made him seem "despicable," and objected to pictures of Manafort's luxury items they planned to show jurors.

"It isn't a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending," Ellis told prosecutors during the trial.

His defence team argued for leniency because Manafort had agreed to cooperate with the prosecution after he was convicted - although Jackson ruled he breached that deal by repeatedly lying to prosecutors - and because his bid to secure a $5.5 million bank loan on fraudulent premises did not actually succeed.

Prosecutor Greg Andres urged Ellis to impose a steep sentence. "This case must stand as a beacon to others that this conduct cannot be accepted," Andres told the hearing on Thursday.

Manafort is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mueller to have gone to trial. Several others including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen have pleaded guilty, while longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty.

Trump, a Republican who has called Mueller's investigation a politically motivated "witch hunt," has not ruled out granting a presidential pardon to Manafort, saying in November: "I wouldn't take it off the table."

Jackson ruled on Feb. 13 that Manafort had breached his agreement to cooperate with Mueller's office by lying to prosecutors about three matters pertinent to the Russia probe including his interactions with a business partner they have said has ties to Russian intelligence.

Mueller is preparing to submit to U.S. Attorney General William Barr a report on his investigation into whether Trump's campaign conspired with Russia and whether Trump has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Trump has denied collusion and obstruction and Russia has denied U.S. intelligence findings that it interfered in the 2016 election in an effort to boost Trump.

The case capped a stunning downfall for Manafort, a prominent figure in Republican Party circles for decades who also worked as a consultant to such international figures as former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Yanukovych.

Manafort worked for Trump's campaign for five pivotal months in 2016 that included the Republican National Convention where Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, three of them as campaign chairman.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Andy Sullivan and Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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By David Brunnstrom and Hyonhee Shin WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is open to additional talks with Pyongyang over denuclearisation, his national security adviser said on Thursday, despite reports that North Korea is reactivating parts of its missile program. New activity has been detected at a factory that produced North Korea's first intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the United States, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo and Donga Ilbo newspapers reported, citing lawmakers briefed by the National Intelligence Service.

By David Brunnstrom and Hyonhee Shin

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is open to additional talks with Pyongyang over denuclearisation, his national security adviser said on Thursday, despite reports that North Korea is reactivating parts of its missile program.

New activity has been detected at a factory that produced North Korea's first intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the United States, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo and Donga Ilbo newspapers reported, citing lawmakers briefed by the National Intelligence Service.

This week, two U.S. think tanks and Seoul's spy agency said North Korea was rebuilding its Sohae rocket launch site, prompting Trump to say he would be "very, very disappointed" in North Korea leader Kim Jong Un if it were true. The think tanks said on Thursday they believed the launch site was operational again.

Asked on Thursday if he was disappointed about recent North Korean activity, Trump told reporters: Its disappointing, while adding without elaborating: Well see. Well let you know in about a year.

The reports of North Korean activity raise more questions about the future of the dialogue Trump has pursued with Kim after a second summit between them broke down in Vietnam last week.White House national security adviser John Bolton, a hard-liner who has argued for a tough approach to North Korea in the past, said Trump was still open to more talks with the country.

"The president's obviously open to talking again. We'll see when that might be scheduled or how it might work out," he told Fox News, adding that it was too soon to make a determination on the reports of the North Korean activities.

"We're going to study the situation carefully. As the president said, it would be very, very disappointing if they were taking this direction."

The Feb. 27-28 Vietnam summit collapsed over differences on how far North Korea was willing to limit its nuclear program and the degree of U.S. willingness to ease economic sanctions.

Trump, eager for a big foreign policy win on North Korea that has eluded his predecessors for decades, has repeatedly stressed his good relationship with Kim. He went as far late last year as saying they "fell in love," but the bonhomie has failed so far to bridge the wide gap between the two sides.

"NO COMMITMENT YET"

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he was hopeful he would send a delegation to North Korea for more talks in the next couple of weeks, but that he had received "no commitment yet."

A senior State Department official told reporters on Thursday Washington was keen to resume talks as soon as possible, but North Korea's negotiators needed to be given more latitude than they were ahead of the summit.

He said no one in the U.S. administration advocated an incremental approach North Korea has been seeking and the condition for its integration into the global economy, a transformed relationship with the United States and a permanent peace regime, was complete denuclearisation.

"Fundamentally, where we really need to see the progress, and we need to see it soon, is on meaningful and verifiable steps on denuclearisation. That's our goal and that's how we see these negotiations picking up momentum."

The official, who did not want to be identified, said the U.S. side still saw North Korea's complete denuclearisation as achievable within Trump's current term, which ends in January 2021.

While the official said he would "not necessarily share the conclusion" that the Sohae site was operational again, any use of it would be seen as "backsliding" on commitments to Trump.

"We are watching in real-time developments at Sohae and we will definitely be seeking clarification on the purposes of that," he said.

MISSILE FACTORY

South Korean spy chief Suh Hoon told lawmakers in Seoul this week that movement of cargo vehicles was spotted recently around a North Korean ICBM factory at Sanumdong, the JoongAng Ilbo reported.

The paper also quoted Suh as saying North Korea had continued to run its uranium enrichment facility at the main Yongbyon nuclear complex after a first summit between Trump and Kim last June in Singapore.

The Sanumdong factory produced the Hwasong-15 ICBM, which can fly more than 13,000 km (8,080 miles). After a test flight in 2017, North Korea declared the completion of its "state nuclear force" before pursuing talks with South Korea and the United States last year.

South Korea's presidential office and defence ministry declined to confirm the Sanumdong reports and the U.S. State Department said it could not comment on intelligence matters.

Separately, Washington's 38 North and Center for Strategic and International Studies think tanks reported on Thursday that North Korea's Sohae Satellite Launching Station, which Kim pledged in Singapore to dismantle, appeared to be operational again after rebuilding work that began days before the Hanoi summit.

"The rebuilding activities at Sohae demonstrate how quickly North Korea can easily render reversible any steps taken towards scrapping its Weapons of Mass Destruction program with little hesitation," CSIS said.

It called the action "an affront" to Trumps diplomatic strategy that showed North Korean pique at his refusal to lift sanctions.

SANCTIONS WARNING

Some analysts see the work as aimed at pressing Washington to agree to a deal, rather than as a definite move to resume tests.

A U.S. government source, who did not want to be identified, said North Korea's plan in rebuilding the site could have been to offer a demonstration of good faith by conspicuously stopping again if a summit pact was struck, while furnishing a sign of defiance or resolve if the meeting failed.

38 North said photos from Wednesday showed a rail-mounted transfer building used to move rockets at the site was complete, cranes had been removed from the launch pad and the transfer building moved to the end of the pad.

"But we don't draw any conclusions from that besides they are restoring the facility," Joel Wit of 38 North told Reuters. "There is no evidence to suggest anything more than that."

On Wednesday Bolton warned of new sanctions if North Korea did not scrap its weapons program.

Despite his sanctions talk, there have been signs across Asia that the U.S. "maximum pressure" sanctions campaign against North Korea has sprung leaks.

In a new breach, three South Korean companies were found to have brought in more than 13,000 tons of North Korean coal, worth 2.1 billion won ($2 million) since 2017, South Korea said.

North Korean media have given conflicting signals on U.S. relations, while appearing to target Bolton as a spoiler.

Its state television aired a 78-minute documentary late on Wednesday showing a cordial mood between Trump and Kim as the Hanoi summit ended, indicating Pyongyang was not about to walk away from negotiations, experts say.

It also showed a stone-faced Bolton during a meeting in Hanoi, while Trump and other U.S. participants were all smiles.

In a return to a more usual strident tone, the KCNA news agency criticized new small-scale military exercises that the United States and South Korea plan to hold instead of a large-scale spring exercise they have called off.

It said the drills would be a "violent violation" of agreements with the United States and South Korea.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, David Brunnstrom and Steve Holland in Washington; additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, David Alexander and Tim Ahmann in Washington and Hyonhee Shin and Joyce Lee in Seoul; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Alistair Bell and James Dalgleish)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The spokesman for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric was asked if the UN chief had spoken with the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan to de-escalate tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.

United Nations: UN chief Antonio Guterres is "continually" monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan and his office is available to both parties, his spokesperson has said.

The spokesman for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric was asked if the UN chief had spoken with the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan to de-escalate tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.

"The Secretary-General and members of his staff are in touch have been in touch with the parties at various levels. We continually monitor the situation and [are] available to the parties," Dujarric told reporters on Thursday. Earlier this week, Dujarric had said that the Secretary-General had not spoken with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan over the situation between the two nations but had expressed his concern to officials on both sides on the need to de-escalate tensions.

"We're fully aware of the situation. The Secretary-General has had no calls with those two Heads of Government as far as I'm aware, but he's had contacts with both sides to express, I think, his concern and the need to do as much as anyone can to de-escalate the tensions," Dujarric had said at the daily press briefing Tuesday. When asked if the Secretary-General is planning to get involved to try and mediate a de-escalation, Dujarric had said last week that "as always", the Secretary General's good offices are always "available should both parties or all parties, depending on the situation, agree to do that".

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on 14 February. India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on 26 February. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on 1 March.
The Pentagon has not received any order from President Donald Trump to withdraw troops from war-torn Afghanistan, a top US commander said on Thursday.

Washington: The Pentagon has not received any order from President Donald Trump to withdraw troops from war-torn Afghanistan, a top US commander said on Thursday.

"We've not  congressman, we've not been directed to withdraw (troops from Afghanistan), and there are no orders to withdraw anything," Commander of the US Central Command, General Joseph Votel told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a Congressional hearing. Trump had in December last year announced that the US would pull troops from Afghanistan.

Gen Votel said his advice is that any decision to reduce forces in Afghanistan should be done in full consultation with its coalition partners, and of course the government of Afghanistan. "It should pivot off political progress and the reconciliation process," he said, responding to questions from lawmakers on news reports about a timeline of withdrawal of troops from this war-ravaged country. The US General said any drawdown or withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan should be based on conditions on the ground and the progress in the political process as well.

A high-level US team led by Special Representatives Zalmay Khalilzad is currently holding talks with the Taliban representatives in Qatar's capital, Doha. "Khalilzad's efforts are really focused on developing a framework that can lead to inter-Afghan discussions," Gen Votel said, adding that this involves overcoming some obstacles that, right now, are preventing the Taliban from talking to the government of Afghanistan.

"But Khalilzad is working through those issues. Once those inter-Afghan discussions are commenced, then I think we will have the opportunity to address the issues that you are talking about directly," he said when Congresswoman Debra Haaland asked if he can tell how the framework addresses the rights of women in Afghanistan and how women were being included in the negotiation process. The US Commander said that the US and the Taliban are in the very early in the process of talks.

"There have been no agreements from either side. We have not given anything up and they have not given anything up," he said, adding that the US and Special Representatives Khalilzad is not leaving out the democratically-elected government of Afghanistan in the process.

Winning in Afghanistan, the general described means a negotiated settlement between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban, and safeguarding US national interests. "Particularly ensuring that this country, this region can't be used to attack our homeland. So that would have to be satisfied as part of an overall agreement here in terms of that and I think is a lot of the nuance of the ongoing discussions that are taking are taking place right now," Gen Votel said. He also advocated the need to have a sustained presence of the US in Afghanistan.

"I think we have to ensure that there, either through our own presence or through whatever other arrangements we can make, that we can address that particular threat," he said.
Masa Square Hotel held the first ever Moet & Chandon Champagne brunch at the hotels rooftop venue. A classical affair that ticked all the right boxes for those who have been dying for something like this locally, the event was a success.

Transforming the Rooftop, the organisers had transformed the venue into a classy and beautiful setting that romanticised the intimate crowd in attendance. The event was held in association with and sponsored by Moet & Chandon. Staying true to the theme of the day, guests wore their finest attires, and some truly illustrated that they respected themes for any event. The likes of Mothusi Lesolle of iZaura and his famous legs came out to play. Dressed in a Japanese inspired kimono and black short and vests, the designer was fabulously dressed as well as a few others who also impressed.

The sweltering Gaborone heat did very little to dampen the spirit of those who came out to chill and party with their peers. Fifi Africa and Dj Kels provided a wide variety of music. Champagne lovers were welcomed with a tantalizing glass of Mimosa. The welcome drink was just the beginning as highlights of the intimate session included Champagne that was free flowing, and a brunch to die for.

The food station proved to be a hit, and a number of the guests made several trips to the station to nit-pick everything that tickled their fancy. On the menu, Executive Chef Melisa Ngoni and her team had gone all out to prepare a brunch that tied in well with the theme of the day. There was an assortment of appetizers and salads, fresh seafoods, and a handpicked selection of international cheese, charcuterie, and breads, and sweet treats for those who wanted to sweeten the deal. According to the Sales and Marketing Manager for the Hotel, Botho Mogami, love is effervescent and as a Hotel they continue to celebrate it just in time for the end of the month romantic gestures.

As a hotel, we have noticed an undeniable growing appetite for Champagne through out the world, and so we decided to bring that beverage wonderland to Botswana for our first ever Champagne breakfast in association with and sponsored by Moet & Chandon. Our rooftop venue is perfectly positioned to host this world class champagne brunch as it overlooks the bustling Gaborone central business district, she explains.

She further says that nothing says Sunday like a good feast, and that they sought out to create a world class experience for guests to enjoy as they unwind with friends and family on the weekend. We are excited to potentially host more of these one of a kind experiences for our clients as we always strive to cater to their needs and go beyond just being a place, they can lay their heads to rest, says Mogami.
The US State Department statement came as Pakistan started taking actions against some of the terrorist outfits and their leaders over the past few days.

Washington: Stepping up pressure on Pakistan, the United States has asked Islamabad to take "sustained and irreversible" actions against terrorist groups operating from its territory to prevent future attacks and promote regional stability.

The State Department statement came as Pakistan, under global pressure after the Pulwama terror attack and India's air strikes against Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on 26 February, started taking actions against some of the terrorist outfits and their leaders over the past few days.

In Islamabad, the Interior Ministry on Thursday announced that a total of 121 members of the proscribed groups have so far been taken into "preventive detention" across Pakistan.

State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino told reporters at his biweekly news conference on Thursday, "I would say that we, the United States note these steps and we continue to urge Pakistan to take sustained, irreversible actions against terrorist groups that will prevent future attacks and promote regional stability".

"We reiterate our call for Pakistan to abide by its United Nations Security Council obligations to deny terrorists safe haven and block their entry to funds," he said.

Responding to questions, Palladino refrained from giving a direct answer on the move at the United Nations Security Council to designate JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist.

However, he said that the US and its allies in the UN Security Council want to update the UN list of terrorist organisations and leaders.

"Our views on Masood Azhar and Jaish-e-Mohammed are well-known. Jaish-e-Mohammed is a United Nations-designated terrorist group that has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks and is a threat to regional stability. Masood Azhar is the founder and leader of JEM," Palladino said.

Questions on the United Nations Sanctions Committee deliberations are confidential and as such it is not something that the State Department is going to be able to comment on specific matters on the issue, he said.

"But we will continue to work with the sanctions committee to ensure that the list is updated and that it is accurate," Palladino said.

At the US Capitol, India's Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla met Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives and discussed the issue of terrorism.

"We must stand strong against acts of terrorism and work together to improve trade between our nations," the top Republican leader said after the meeting.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group JeM killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in 14 February.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on 1 March.
The State Department statement came as Pakistan, under global pressure after the Pulwama terror attack and India's air strikes against a JeM terrorist camp in Balakot on February 26, has started taking actions against some of the terrorist outfits and their leaders over the past few days.

Washington: The US has asked Pakistan to take "sustained and irreversible" actions against terrorist groups operating from its territory, according to a top State Department official.

The State Department statement came as Pakistan, under global pressure after the Pulwama terror attack and India's air strikes against a JeM terrorist camp in Balakot on 26 February, has started taking actions against some of the terrorist outfits and their leaders over the past few days.

In Islamabad, the Interior Ministry announced that a total of 121 members of the proscribed groups have so far been taken into "preventive detention" across Pakistan. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino told reporters at his biweekly news conference on Thursday, "I would say that we, the United States notes these steps and we continue to urge Pakistan to take sustained, irreversible actions against terrorist groups that will prevent future attacks and promote regional stability".

"We reiterate our call for Pakistan to abide by its United Nations Security Council obligations to deny terrorists safe haven and block their entry to funds," he said. Responding to questions, Palladino refrained from giving a direct answer on the move in New York to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader Masood Azhar as a global terrorist but said that the US and its allies in the UN Security Council want to update the UN list of terrorist organisations and leaders.

"Our views on Masood Azhar and Jaish-e-Mohammed are well-known. Jaish-e-Mohammed is a United Nations-designated terrorist group that has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks and is a threat to regional stability. Masood Azhar is the founder and leader of JEM," he said. Questions on United Nations sanctions committee deliberations are confidential and as such, it is not something that the State Department is going to be able to comment on specific matters in that regard, he said.

"But we will continue to work with the sanctions committee to ensure that the list is updated and that it is accurate," Palladino said. At the US Capitol, India's ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla met Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives. "We must stand strong against acts of terrorism and work together to improve trade between our nations," the top Republican leader said after the meeting.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group JeM killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on 14 February. India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on 1 March.
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday denied interfering in Canada's judicial system as he sought to defuse a month-long crisis threatening his political future, but offered no apology, asserting only that lessons had been learned. The crisis has prompted the resignations of former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, the Treasury Board president, Jane Philpott, and Trudeau's closest political aide, Gerald Butts.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday denied interfering in Canada's judicial system as he sought to defuse a month-long crisis threatening his political future, but offered no apology, asserting only that lessons had been learned.

The crisis has prompted the resignations of former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, the Treasury Board president, Jane Philpott, and Trudeau's closest political aide, Gerald Butts. It also raised questions about Trudeau's handling of the affair and polls show his Liberals could lose an election this October.

WHAT ARE THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST TRUDEAU

Trudeau has been dogged by allegations that he and his officials improperly leaned on Wilson-Raybould to help construction firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc avoid a criminal trial. Wilson-Raybould told the House of Commons justice committee last week that officials imposed "consistent and sustained pressure" on her from September to December last year to ensure SNC-Lavalin pay a large fine rather than go to trial.

WHAT IS SNC-LAVALIN'S INVOLVEMENT?

Montreal-based construction and engineering firm SNC-Lavalin was charged in 2015 by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada with bribing Libyan officials to influence the awarding of contracts between 2001 and 2011.

The company had tried unsuccessfully to avoid trial, arguing instead for a negotiated settlement since it had cleaned shop by changing executives and overhauling its ethics and compliance systems in recent years. The preliminary hearings in the case are ongoing.

The company has historically had close ties to the Liberals. In 2016, SNC-Lavalin admitted that some former executives had illegally arranged donations of more than C$80,000 to the Liberals from 2004 to 2011.

WHY IS SNC-LAVALIN CRITICAL TO TRUDEAU AND LIBERALS?

SNC-Lavalin has about 9,000 employees in Canada, including about 3,400 in the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec, which also includes Trudeau's parliamentary constituency. The Liberals say they need to pick up enough seats in Quebec in the October election to stand a chance of retaining a majority government.

Officials, citing conversations they said they had with the company, say they feared SNC-Lavalin would cut jobs or move its headquarters out of Quebec if found guilty. The company faces being barred from bidding on Canadian federal procurement contracts for 10 years, if found guilty.

"We will not comment on this matter," SNC-Lavalin spokesman Nicolas Ryan said on Thursday when asked if the company had warned Trudeau of possible job losses in case of a guilty verdict.

WHY DOES CRISIS THREATEN TRUDEAU'S POLITICAL FUTURE?

Critics accuse Trudeau of double standards and breaking the promises he made to do politics differently. Trudeau, 47, came to power in November 2015 promising more accountability and a greater number of women in the Cabinet. He now finds himself accused of trying to help arrange an old-style backroom deal with a major company as his officials leaned on a high-profile woman Cabinet minister. The departure of Philpott, another well-regarded minister and a close friend of Wilson-Raybould, has dented Trudeau's credibility.

No one inside the ruling Liberals has mounted an open challenge to Trudeau, since to do so would take time and open up splits inside the party. The heads of political parties in Canada are elected by party members at formal conventions and cannot be ousted after a snap vote by parliamentarians, as is the case in the UK and Australia. Opinion polls show the controversy is costing the Liberals.

A weekly tracking poll released by Nanos Research on Tuesday put the Conservatives at 35 percent public support, with the Liberals at 34 percent. A Jan. 8 poll by the same firm had the Liberals at 39 percent and the Conservatives at 33 percent. Each poll was based on a random phone survey of 1,000 Canadians.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Political analysts say Trudeau is safe for now, since he has made clear he wants to stay on and there are no challengers inside the party. The federal Parliament is not sitting next week, depriving the opposition of the chance to grill Trudeau, and the week after will see the release of the federal budget.

The two main opposition parties - the right-of-center Conservatives and the left-leaning New Democrats are demanding a public inquiry into the affair. But the Liberals oppose the idea, since probes take months to complete and are likely to trigger negative headlines.

Wilson-Raybould said she did not consider officials had broken any laws, so a probe by police is unlikely. Canada's independent ethics commissioner is looking into the allegations, but past experience shows such investigations can take months to wrap up and there is no guarantee the results would be released before the vote in October.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Writing by Denny Thomas; Editing by Peter Cooney)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
PODCAST: How the Tweed Courthouse became a symbol for everything rotten about 19th century American politics.

The roots of modern American corruption traces themselves back to a handsome  but not necessarily revolutionary  historic structure sitting behind New York City Hall.

The Tweed Courthouse is more than a mere landmark. Once called the New York County Courthouse, the Courthouse is better known for many traits that the concepts of law and order normally detest  greed, bribery, kickbacks and graft.

But Tammany Hall, the oft-maligned Democratic political machine, served a unique purpose in New York City in the 1850s and 60s, tending to the needs of newly arrived Irish immigrants who were being ignored by inadequate city services. But they required certain favors like the support of political candidates.

And that is how William Boss Tweed rose through the ranks of city politics to become the most powerful man in New York City. And it was Tweed, through various government organizations and his trusty Tweed Ring, who transformed this new courthouse project into a cash cow for the greediest of the Gilded Age.

How did the graft function during the construction of the Tweed Courthouse? What led to Tweeds downfall? And how did this literal temple to corruption become a beloved landmark in the 1980s?

Listen Now: Tweed Courthouse Podcast

To download this episode and subscribe to our show for free, visit iTunes or other podcasting services or get it straight from our satellite site.

You can also listen to the show on Overcast, Google Music and Stitcher streaming radio.

Or listen to it straight from here:

_________________________________________________________

The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you . by you!

We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. Were also looking to improve the show in other ways and expand in other ways as well  through publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!

We are now a member of Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators for as little as a $1 a month.

Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If youd like to help out, there are six different pledge levels (New Amsterdam, Five Points, Gilded Age, Jazz Age, Empire State and Greater New York). Check them out and consider being a sponsor.

And join us for the next episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon.

We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.

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Wed like to thank Mary Beth Betts of the NYC Public Design Commission for giving us a tour of the Tweed Courthouse. Tours are not currently available of the courthouse, but Betts and her docents lead tours of New York City Hall next door. Visit their website to book a free tour.

Some images from our visit 

Leopold Eidlitz brought a million arches into the courthouse, his medieval inspirations playing an interesting contrast to the Romanesque Revival of architect John Kellum.

Roy Lichtensteins Element E now dominates the interior of the courthouse. Students, teachers and administrators work in the spaces surrounding the sculpture.

The infamous rotunda roof which remained incomplete even when courts began convening in the courthouse in the 1870s.



The sumptuous staircases are all made of cast iron.

The courthouse has many curious staircases, leading to smaller spaces on the upper floors.



You can actually view the two competing architectural styles on the exterior facades facing into City Hall Park. (Hint: Arches vs. no arches)





The Tweed Courthouse under construction, date unknown



Image taken from page 269 of Kings Handbook of New York City. An outline history and description of the American metropolis. With  illustrations, etc. (Second edition.) Courtesy the British Library

A view of the Tweed Courthouse as seen from the City Hall elevated train station, 1915. The brownstone structure to the right of the courthouse is no longer there.



In 1915 the city planned to actually get rid of the Tweed Courthouse. This rendering creates a large park space surrounding City Hall.



H.M. Pettit. Department of Bridges/Plant & Structures collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

For an excellent look at Tweeds 20th century fight for survival, read Kenneth R. Cobbs excellent article (with tons of archival photography) on the Department of Records and Information Services website.

The courthouse in 1979  in shoddy condition and without its famous staircase! Photo by Walter Snalling, Jr., Library of Congress

Can the law reach him?The dwarf and the giant thief.

Thomas Nast/New York Public Library Digital Collection

Agroup of vultures waiting for the storm to blow over.Let us prey.

Thomas Nast/New York Public Library Digital Collection

Something that did blow overNovember 7, 1871.

Thomas Nast/New York Public Library Digital Collection

FURTHER READING:

Boss Tweeds New York by Seymour J. Mandelbaum

Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York by Kenneth D. Ackerman

Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics by Terry Golway

The Tweed Ring by Alexander B. Callow Jr.

The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall by Oliver E. Allen

FURTHER LISTENING:

Our original Boss Tweed show from 2009  with a big news reference at the very beginning that echoes the story were about to tell

The massive waves of Irish immigrants who arrived in this country starting in the 1830s and 40s changed New York City forever. Heres their story:

Fernando Wood was another major power broker in New York City politics in the 1860s.
What happened

Shares of NIO, Inc. (NYSE:NIO) were down sharply for a second straight day on Thursday, as investors continued to digest the company's so-so fourth-quarter earnings report and pessimistic guidance for 2019.

NIO's American depositary shares closed at $7.08 in New York on Thursday, down 11.6% for the day and 30.3% since Tuesday's close.

So what

There was good news and bad news in NIO's fourth-quarter earnings report, but the bad news was quite troubling. NIO, a Chinese maker of upscale electric cars that's often compared to early-stage Tesla, posted a net loss of $509.5 million -- greater than expected and despite revenue and delivery totals that beat its own prior guidance.

Check out the latest earnings call transcripts for the companies we cover.

But investors may be more concerned about the company's outlook for the year ahead. CFO Louis T. Hsieh said that the company's deliveries would likely be weak, at least through the first half of the year, due to uncertainty around China's economy and the status of a government subsidy for buyers of electric vehicles.

Another concern for investors: The company also announced that it has shelved plans to build its own factory. Right now, its vehicles are built in a factory owned by JAC Motors, under contract. NIO had planned to build its own factory nearby and shift its production to its own facility next year, but that plan is now on hold for at least the next two to three years.

Now what

Right now, NIO has just one vehicle on sale -- the ES8, an upscale seven-passenger electric SUV. The company (and its investors) hope that its next model, a smaller electric SUV called the ES6 that will go into production in June, will give it a lift in the second half of 2019. But the reality is this: If China's economy continues to slump, those hopes may be in vain.
China hopes Pakistan and India will replace confrontation with dialogue, settle disagreement with goodwill and create a better future with cooperation, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Friday.



Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi [Photo: VCG]

When responding to a question about the recent tension between Pakistan and India, Wang said that China welcomes the willingness expressed by the two countries in recent days to de-escalate the situation and start talks.

"China has stressed from the beginning the need to exercise calm and restraint and prevent escalation," Wang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress.
Scooters Coffee Teams Up With Local Schools To Help Special Education Students

Perks Program In Omaha Community Teaches Students Important Job Skills

March 07, 2019 // Franchising.com // Omaha, NE - Scooters Coffee, the Midwest-based coffee franchise that has experienced tremendous growth over the past year, is helping local special education students learn important job skills and what it takes to be an amazing barista!

This years Perks Program began in September 2018 and will run the entire 2018-2019 school year. Students at Millard South High School, Papillion-La Vista South High School, Millard North High School, and La Vista Middle School all have the opportunity to be baristas and deliver coffee to teachers during school hours. While doing so, they learn a little of what its like to have a job, building social interaction skills with students/teachers, and gaining self-confidence.

Partnering with these schools to make their coffee cart program dream a reality has not only made an impact amongst the student bodies and Scooters Coffee but the community as a whole, said Breanne Fabian, Scooters Coffee Brand Execution Specialist. With this program, the schools are able to source coffee at a reduced cost. The Perks Program is one of a kind, and I am proud to be a part of an amazing program that teaches special education students real-life and social interaction skills to prepare them for a real job in the future.

As part of this unique barista experience, students will be stickering lids with Scooters Coffees trademark smiley face stickers, weighing coffee grounds, and practicing barista talking points. Millard South High School Speech-Language Pathologist, Valerie Newton, has seen the program impact students in a positive way.

The Patriot Perk coffee cart program has promoted inclusion and acceptance while teaching social and vocational skills to the alternate curriculum program students at Millard South, said Newton. Seeing the growth within our students, as well as our building as a whole, has been so special to witness. Our partnership with Scooter's Coffee has allowed us to provide our customers with exceptional products. We can't begin to thank Scooter's Coffee enough for their unwavering generosity and support!

Special Education Teacher at Millard North High School, Nicole Torralbas, agrees that the program benefits both students and staff.

Scooters Coffees special education coffee cart program has given our students the opportunity to practice job and life skills, said Torralbas. Our students love interacting with all the teachers in the school building and brightening their day by serving them. Staff members often tell us that it is their favorite part of the day. Scooter's has been a wonderful partner for our special education coffee cart program. They have supplied us with the product, given us guidance, and shared expertise to help us make this the best possible program for our staff and student workers.

Scooters Coffee is a drive-thru franchise that has been serving world-class coffee for 20 years. It roasts only the finest beans, and it makes that first-morning sip convenient and rewarding for its customers across the nation. Scooters Coffee has over 200 locations in 14 states and has over 200 franchise commitments to build new stores. To find out why Scooters Coffee is among the best coffee franchises in the nation and to learn more about franchise opportunities, visit ownascooters.com.

About Scooters Coffee

Founded in 1998 by Don and Linda Eckles in Bellevue, Nebraska, Scooters Coffee roasts only the finest coffee beans in the world at its headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. In more than two decades of business, Scooters Coffees success is simple: stay committed to the original business principles and company core values. The Scooters Coffee Brand Promise, often recited to franchisees, customers and employees is: Amazing People, Amazing Drinks Amazingly Fast! It represents the companys business origins from 1998 and reflects a steady commitment to providing an unforgettable experience to loyal and new customers.

Scooters Coffee specializes in hand-tamped espresso drinks, fruit smoothies, baked-from-scratch pastries and features its signature drink, the Caramelicious. The company also serves a line of hot and iced organic teas, single-origin coffee and the original Cold Brew & Cream. This year, one of Scooters Coffees drink innovations includes Red Bull Infusions.

Scooters Coffee is at the dawn of a strategic growth phase in the Midwest and nationwide. The U.S. coffee market is an estimated $48 billion a year recession-resistant industry, and Scooters Coffee is striving to become the #1 drive-thru coffee franchise in the nation. Visit ownascooters.com to learn more about the benefits of owning a franchise of a well-established company.

For more information, visit scooterscoffee.com, facebook.com/scooterscoffee, ownascooters.com or call 877-494-7004.

SOURCE Scooters Coffee

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Comfort Keepers of Westerville, OH Grants One of 20 Wishes to Local Couple Douglas and Gerry Bailey

Celebrating 20 Years of Caregiving

WESTERVILLE, OHIO (PRWEB) March 08, 2019 - Twenty years after being established to help seniors and adults maintain their independence and quality of life, one of the worlds largest in-home senior care organizations is giving back by granting the longtime wishes of a local couple.

Comfort Keepers of Westerville, OH, in partnership with the worldwide Comfort Keepers brand, chose Douglas and Gerry Bailey as recipients of its nationwide 20 Years, 20 Wishes initiative. In February their caregivers surprised them with balloons and tickets to enjoy the Columbus Symphony perform in town this coming April.

A leading provider of quality, in-home care for seniors and other adults, Comfort Keepers is celebrating its platinum anniversary year by granting the wishes of 20 lucky Comfort Keepers clients. The Baileys were chosen after being nominated by owners Tim & Tricia McConnell.

We are thrilled to be able to make this wish come true for this couple as music is so important for seniors and helps them enjoy life and feel young at heart, says Tim and Tricia.

The Bailey's have attended the Columbus Symphony for many years together and would often make a day of it. They've enjoyed many local productions throughout Central Ohio including Picnic with the Pops, Otterbein Theatre, and the Grove City Summer Sizzle Series. Mrs Bailey taught public school music in Wisconsin and taught piano for many years in the Grove City Community.

Mr Bailey is a retired United Church Of Christ Minister and also worked for Franklin County Children Services. Music has been a thread throughout their entire marriage which has made this wish from Comfort Keepers so meaningful. They are looking forward to going and spending the evening together enjoying the Columbus Symphony Orchestra: Rossen Milanov - The Trumpet Shall Sound.

With more than 600 offices in the U.S. and over 700 worldwide, Comfort Keepers has over the last 20 years become a valued resource for families and seniors who depend on Comfort Keepers for loving, comforting care. Founded in 1998 from a single, Springfield, Ohio location, Comfort Keepers now comprises a vast network of franchises across the nation and around the world that provide in-home care services, respite care services, Alzheimers and dementia care and other services for seniors and adults.

For more information about Comfort Keepers of Westerville, OH, please visit https://www.comfortkeepers.com/columbus-oh-119.

About Comfort Keepers

For more than two decades, Comfort Keepers has been Elevating the Human SpiritSM through its in-home care network for seniors and other adults by empowering them to maintain their independence and realize joy in the everyday moments. A division of Sodexo, a global leader that delivers Quality of Life services to over 75 million consumers in 80 countries each day, Comfort Keepers operates a franchise network that has grown to more than 700 locations around the world. In addition to providing services that focus on health care and senior markets, Sodexos integrated offerings encompass more than 45 years of experience in reception, safety, maintenance and cleaning, foodservices, facilities and equipment management, and concierge services. For more information, visit ComfortKeepers.com.

Media Contact:

Tricia & Tim McConnell

Comfort Keepers Home Care

+1 (614) 699-6786

SOURCE Comfort Keepers

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Galveston, TX (77553)

Today

Cloudy this evening with showers after midnight. Low 66F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Cloudy this evening with showers after midnight. Low 66F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
From Softwares president Hidetaka Miyazaki has shared a surprising comment about battle royale games.

In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Miyazaki has indeed claimed the Japanese studio is interested in joining the genre.

Theres always the possibility, Miyazaki told the publication.

These games are definitely fun. And were interested in the patterns they are taking. If we did it, it might be a bit different! But were definitely interested and theres definitely that possibility in the future. Wed love to take a crack at them some day.

So, while you cant see soulslike gameplay fitting battle royale that good, theres a chance another historic From Software brand, Armored Core, could be used in the segment.

On top of that, a new IP could also be coming to just test the genre and see how the developer can make the best out of it.

Anyway, perhaps, its just talking. And its just surprising that Miyazaki, one of the leaders in the creation of single-player titles, has such a good opinion of battle royale games.

Were you expecting to think things like this about Fortnite, Apex Legends, PUBG and all the others?

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is releasing March 22, 2019 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One, and is approaching press with a quite controversial policy.
In a recent interview, From Softwares president Hidetaka Miyazaki has talked about multiplayer and single-player games, and the diversity the industry needs.

In a portion of the interview, as weve already reported, Miyazaki addressed his will to try and build a battle royale game sooner or later.

Single-player action games dont feel too rare in the current climate, the creator of Dark Souls and Bloodborne told the publication.

While Devil May Cry 5 has some online elements, its coming out two weeks before our game. And thats a very single-player focussed experience. Weve also had God of War and Spider-Man. We do need this diversity in the industry. Regardless of what From Software is doing, we need people making battle royale games and live services and we need people making single-player focussed experiences. We feel that this diversity is what will keep everyone going.

Thats a rather competent and clever comment about the state of the industry, where you usually see people do stupid crusades against a particular genre.

Of course, the industry needs the best quality possible in both genres to be a sustainable business, something the Uncharted creator doesnt think isnt at a good stage anymore.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
Irakli Gharibashvili makes political comeback as the Political Secretary of the Ruling party - GeorgianJournal
Google Doodle celebrating International Women's Day with inspirational quotes News oi-Karan Sharma Here's how Google celebrates International Women's Day with 13 inspirational quotes on Google Doodle.

Today is International Women's Day and Google is also celebrating the day in its own doodle style. The home page of the search engine giant has created a special doodle which represents a slideshow. When you open google.com today you will see this beautiful doodle which showcases some inspirational quotes in different languages. According to Google, these quotes are written by 13 female trailblazers. All the quotes in the doodle are based on "women empowering women" theme.

"The process of choosing the thirteen quotes was extremely difficult, but we aimed to include a diverse representation of voices on a day which celebrates the past, present, and future community of diverse women around the world," Google said in the doodle post. The especial doodle is created by Melissa Crowton, the American illustrator.

Here is the list of speakers who have written the 13 inspiring quotes

Chimamanda Adichie, Nigerian writer

Millicent Fawcett, British writer and suffragette

Zaha Hadid, British-Iraqi architect

Emma Herwegh, German writer

Dr Mae Jemison, American astronaul and physician

Frida Kahlo, Mexican artist

Mary Kom, Indian boxer

Clarice Lispector, Brazilian novelist

Yoko Ono, Japanese multimedia artist

George Sand, French novelist

Sanmao, Chinese-born Taiwanese writer

Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet

NL Beno Zephine, an Indian diplomat

Women's Day was first celebrated on Feb 28, 1909, in New York. Later in 1910 at the International Women's conference, it was decided that March 8 will be celebrated as International Women's Day across the globe. On this special occasion, we wish you a very Happy International Women's Day.

Source

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Multiple explosions rock western Kabul

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Kabul, March 7, IRNA -- Multiple explosions rocked ceremonies commemorating the anniversary of martyrdom of Abdolali Mazari, leader and founder of Afghan Vahdat Islami Party.

Executive Head of Afghanistan government, former vice president Mohammad Yunus Qanuni and Second Deputy Chief Executive Mohammad Mohaqiq were addressing the meeting when the explosions occurred.

The meeting closed immediately after the explosions when Mohaqiq asked the participants to leave the area.

Up to so far, sounce of almost 10 explosions have been heard and attacks continue. Army helicopter is hovering the area.

Spokesman of Afghan Health Ministry told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that the attacks injured at least two children and a woman and a body has been transferred to hospital.

Certain non-government sources put the dead at four and the injured at 21.

Meanwhile, spokesman of Afghan interior ministry told the media that the site targeted by mortars is cordoned off by security forces and one has been arrested on charges of firing mortars.

Based on related news, Daesh has undertaken the responsibility for the attacks.

Latest news put number of the dead at three and of injured at 22.

A candidate of next year presidential elections Abdullatif Pedram is said to be among the dead.

Certain news sources report that Abduljabar Taqva, former governor general of Kabul, is also among the injured.

1420**2050

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NATO Secretary General: Poland is a strong and committed Ally

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

07 Mar. 2019 - 08 Mar. 2019

Last updated: 07 Mar. 2019 18:17

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg arrived in Poland on Thursday (7 March 2019) for talks with President Andrezj Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. It is almost twenty years since Poland joined the Alliance.

Mr. Stoltenberg praised Poland's strong commitment to the Alliance, which includes hosting a NATO battlegroup, leading the Baltic Air Policing mission in Lithuania and contributing to NATO's training missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Secretary General also welcomed that Poland spends 2 percent of its GDP on defence and is making significant investments in new capabilities.

The Secretary General highlighted that Allies conduct regular training and exercises in Poland and that NATO has a strong deterrent presence in the region.

On Friday, Mr. Stoltenberg will attend an event held by the European People's Party (EPP). He will also address a conference organized by the Polish Institute of International Affairs with the German Marshall Fund of the United States. His speech will be on the topic "Delivering on the Promise of Europe Whole, Free and at Peace: NATO 20 Years After Enlargement and Beyond".

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India extends detention of two separatist leaders amid tensions in Kashmir

Iran Press TV

Thu Mar 7, 2019 03:54PM

Indian authorities have extended the detention of two separatist leaders arrested days after a car bomb killed dozens of paramilitary troops in the disputed Kashmir.

Yasin Malik, the chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), and Zahid Ali, a spokesman for the recently-banned Jamaat-e-Islami party, were being moved to a jail in Jammu, police said.

They were arraigned under a controversial law that allows for suspects to be held for up to two years without charge. The order is part of a crackdown on militancy and secessionist campaigns in Kashmir.

A senior Indian government official said more than two dozen other separatist leaders, most of them affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami, could be detained in coming days.

At least 300 separatists, most of them from Jamaat-e-Islami, have been arrested in the past three weeks.

Reacting to Malik's detention, a JKLF spokesman denounced the "arbitrary arrest", calling it a "glaring display of frustration" of Indian authorities.

Malik's supporters called for a shutdown in parts of Kashmir's main city of Srinagar to protest against his detention.

The JKLF chairman renounced violence and declared a ceasefire in 1994, but he has been imprisoned multiple times since then.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, denounced "illegal and undemocratic tactics" used by Indian authorities. He and other separatist leaders have called for a strike in Kashmir on Friday.

In a separate development on Thursday, a grenade explosion at a bus station in Jammu -- the Hindu-majority region of Kashmir -- killed one person and wounded nearly 30 others.

Police suggested that the blast could have been aimed at fomenting tensions among different communities in the city.

The developments come amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan after 40 Indian troops were killed in a suicide bombing in Kashmir on February 14.

The attack was claimed by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a militant group based in Pakistan. India has long accused Pakistan of supporting the insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies.

The bombing sparked tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, leading to tit-for-tat cross-border raids.

The tensions reached a peak on February 26, when India said it had conducted "pre-emptive" airstrikes against what it described as a militant training camp in Pakistan's Balakot.

Islamabad confirmed the attack and condemned the violation of its airspace but denied that the purported target had been hit.

Days later, the Pakistani military captured an Indian pilot after shooting down his MiG-21 fighter jet, which Islamabad said had violated Pakistani airspace.

The flare-up appeared to be easing after Pakistan handed back Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman in a goodwill gesture toward India but the tensions have dragged on.

Indian troops are in constant clashes with armed groups seeking Kashmir's independence or its merger with Pakistan.

India regularly accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants and allowing them across the restive frontier in an attempt to launch attacks. Pakistan strongly denies the allegation.

Kashmir has been split between India and Pakistan since partition in 1947. Both countries claim all of Kashmir and have fought three wars over the territory.

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Powerful car bomb explosion hits Somali capital, leaves four dead

Iran Press TV

Thu Mar 7, 2019 11:29AM

A deadly car bomb explosion claimed by al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants has hit near the presidential palace in Somalia's capital, security officials and witnesses say.

An explosives-laden car went off near a restaurant near the presidential palace in the heart of Mogadishu on Thursday morning, Somali police official Ibrahim Mohamed told AFP.

"The blast occurred at a checkpoint close to the National Theatre, we don't have the details but there are casualties," a security official said.

Somali police said four people have been killed and nine others sustained injuries in the powerful blast.

The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Last week, at least 36 people, mostly civilians, were killed and over 60 wounded after a bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into the Hotel Maka al-Mukarama and nearby buildings in Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab claimed that attack as well and threatened more such assaults in the future.

The militant outfit, which has long sought to topple Somalia's Western-backed government, was forced out of Mogadishu with the help of African Union forces in 2011.

Al-Shabaab, however, still wields control in large parts of the countryside, and every now and then carries out deadly attacks against government, military, and civilian targets in the capital as well as regional towns.

The terrorist group has fought successive Somali governments as well as neighboring governments in Kenya and Uganda.

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Afghan chief executive, ex-president unharmed after rocket attack in Kabul

Iran Press TV

Thu Mar 7, 2019 11:09AM

An event attended by Afghanistan's current chief executive and former president in the capital, Kabul, has been attacked with rockets, killing at least three people and injuring 22 others.

Several explosions caused by rockets were heard midday on Thursday at the site of a ceremony in western Kabul to mark the 24th anniversary of the death of Shia Hazara leader Abdul Ali Mazari.

Hundreds of people  including Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and former president Hamid Karzai and leaders of the Shia Hazara community  were present at the ceremony.

Afghanistan's Tolo News, which had a camera crew reporting live from the site, said that at least 10 explosions had been heard.

"The exact area from where the rockets were launched has been identified. So far, we have reports that three people were injured," said Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesperson at the Interior Ministry.

A reporter at the ceremony told TOLO that ambulances were rushed to the area, adding, "Many people were injured."

The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group later claimed the mortar attack saying its fighters targeted the ceremony with mortar fire, according to a statement published by the group's news outlet, Amaq.

Hazara people have been attacked by militants countless times. Abdul Ali Mazari was killed by the Taliban militant group on March 12, 1995 after being taken captive by the group a day earlier.

Taliban's five-year rule over at least three quarters of Afghanistan came to an end in the wake of a United States-led invasion in 2001, but the militant group still continues to attack government and civilian targets as well as foreign forces still present on Afghan soil.

The militant group is negotiating with the US but has so far refused to deal directly with the government in Kabul, which it says it does not recognize.

The US forces, meanwhile, have remained bogged down there through the presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and now Donald Trump.

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Trump cancels reporting deaths by US assassination drones

Iran Press TV

Thu Mar 7, 2019 03:12AM

US President Donald Trump has canceled the Obama-era plicy of reporting deaths caused by US assassination drones.

Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to roll back Obama-era rules for targeted killings in the United States' so-called war on terror.

Based on the order, US intelligence officials are no longer required to publicly disclose the numbers of people killed by the drones.

Previously, the administration was obliged to release an unclassified summary of "the number of strikes undertaken by the United States government against terrorist targets outside areas of active hostilities, as well as assessments of combatant and noncombatant deaths resulting from those strikes, among other information."

Use of drones on the pretext of fighting Daesh and al-Qaeda militants expanded severely under former President Barack Obama.

The rescinded rules also enjoyed a provision that required the CIA to come to "near certainty" of no civilian casualties before launching a strike.

New reports, however, suggest that delegation of authority to field level military commanders to use the killing drones has recently resulted in a surge in the number of innocent civilians being killed.

According to Michael Burns, political and military analyst based in New York, "the increase in the use of drones -- which are officially known as 'unmanned aerial systems' to mask their vicious ability -- to project power in other regions of the world has increased substantially under the Trump administration."

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Controversial Romanian Agency Again Summons Front-Runner For EU Prosecutor

By RFE/RL March 07, 2019

A controversial Romanian investigative agency has summoned the country's former chief anticorruption prosecutor, a front-runner in the race to lead the newly formed EU antifraud office, for a second hearing in less than a month.

Laura Codruta Koevesi appeared on March 7 before the newly formed agency that investigates potential crimes committed by magistrates as a suspect in a case where she is accused of abuse of office, bribery, and false testimony.

"I am accused of running an organized crime group inside the National Anticorruption Directorate [DNA]," she told reporters after the hearing, which comes as the European Parliament and representatives of EU member states started talks to choose the head of the new European Public Prosecutor's Office.

Critics have said that Koevesi was subpoenaed in order to smear her record and diminish her chances of getting the Brussels position.

Koevesi already appeared once in court on February 15, the same day she had been due in Brussels to present her candidacy for the EU prosecutor job.

Koevesi headed the DNA for five years until last year, when she was dismissed by the leftist government.

Many observers saw her dismissal as an attempt to sideline her after the DNA's conviction rates for high-level graft jumped across the political spectrum during her tenure in one of the bloc's most corrupt countries, drawing EU praise.

Critics say her dismissal was also meant to prevent the DNA from convicting more senior members of the governing alliance, including the leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party.

Liviu Dragnea, who is also speaker of the lower house of parliament, has been convicted of abuse of power with the help of the DNA and has a second pending sentence for corruption.

Romania's government, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, has also actively campaigned against Koevesi's candidacy for the European prosecutor post.

Several members of the European Parliament representing Romania's ruling coalition launched verbal attacks against Koevesi during a hearing on February 26, accusing her of abuse of power and lying, but failing to prevent her from winning the backing of the European Parliament for the EU prosecutor job.

Representatives of the EU lawmakers are starting talks on March 7 with the European Council, comprising representatives of all 28 EU member states, to agree on choosing either Koevesi or French prosecutor Francois Bohnert, who is the council's choice, for the European prosecutor job.

The same day, in an unusual move, Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader published an open letter in the Financial Times accusing Koevesi of using "coercion" to achieve a high conviction rate in corruption cases.

Toader has been widely criticized for his relentless attacks against the rule of law and his attempts to reverse antigraft legislation, which culminated in his firing of Koevesi.

With reporting by Digi24.ro, Balkan Insight, and G4media.ro

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/controversial -romanian-agency-again-summons-front-runner -for-eu-prosecutor/29808781.html

Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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NATO Chief Rules Out Nuclear Missile Deployment to Europe

Sputnik News

21:16 07.03.2019

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday ruled out deploying ground-based nuclear missiles to Europe, at a press conference in Warsaw, Poland.

He said the 29-nation alliance had already started planning for a world without the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

"It is too early to say the outcome of this process in NATO. But what I can say is that our response will be measured, it will be coordinated as a NATO Alliance, and we don't have any intentions of deploying new nuclear missiles, land-based missiles, in Europe," Stoltenberg said.

The US decision to suspend participation in the INF has prompted concerns of its European allies, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warning that Europe would be most vulnerable to any negative consequences of the potential collapse of the deal.

Russia-US Spat Over the INF

The United States formally suspended its obligations under the 1987 INF Treaty on February 2 and triggered the six-month withdrawal process, citing alleged Moscow's violation of the deal. The agreement bans all ground-launched missiles, conventional or nuclear, with ranges of 310 to 3,400 miles.

A months after, on 4 March Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree suspending Russia's obligations under the INF Treaty until the United States resumes its compliance with the agreement. Putin's decree came into effect on the day it was signed.

Putin said Moscow did not want a costly arms race but ruled out any new talks on arms controls, saying all earlier proposals remained on the table.

 Sputnik

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Israeli Tank Hits Hamas Position in Response to Shelling From Gaza Strip - IDF

Sputnik News

20:30 07.03.2019

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - An Israeli tank struck on Thursday a post belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip in response to shelling against Israel from the territory of the enclave, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) press service said.

"Moments ago, shots were fired from Gaza at an IDF position. In response, an IDF tank struck a Hamas military post in the northern Gaza Strip," the IDF press service said.

No reports on casualties as a result of the strike have been provided so far.

Tensions between the Israelis and the Palestinians near the Gaza border have been mounting since last March, which marked the beginning of the Great March of Return. Moreover, in fall, the situation on the Gaza border worsened due to continued shelling and launches of arson balloons from Gaza into the Israeli territory. Over 220 Palestinians, including children and media workers, have been killed by Israeli troops since then.

Following the escalation of the conflict and fierce exchange of fire between the sides in November, they managed to reach the ceasefire with Egypt's mediation efforts. However, the ceasefire prompted the resignation of Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who refused to support the government's decision, criticizing it as a "capitulation to terrorism." The minister, instead, has called for a more decisive blow against the Hamas movement. Apart from that, Lieberman announced his resignation and the withdrawal of his right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party from the ruling coalition headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the sharp disagreement on a Gaza ceasefire deal.

The Israeli authorities regularly blaming Hamas for the prompting aggression in the Gaza Strip.

 Sputnik

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US to Retain Residual Ground Forces in Syria, Details Being Developed  CENTCOM

Sputnik News

19:51 07.03.2019

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The US continues to withdraw American forces from Syria while developing plans for a residual force intended to help locals battle an evolving guerrilla campaign by the Daesh*, the commander of CENTCOM told Congress on Thursday.

"As the D-ISIS [Daesh in Arabic] campaign in Syria transitions from liberating terrain to enabling local security forces and addressing the ISIS clandestine insurgency, we will continue our deliberate withdrawal of forces and capabilities as directed by the president  but also retain a residual force on the ground to continue our mission and safeguard our interests," the commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM) General Joseph Votel told Congress said.

This comes after President Donald Trump has ordered a withdrawal of about 2,000 US combat troops from Syria following the recapture of territory previously controlled by the Daesh terror group.

However, Trump has also agreed to leave a residual force behind. US officials have said a continued American presence is needed to protect Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces from a threatened incursion by Turkey.

*Daesh  a terrorist group, banned in numerous countries, including Russia

 Sputnik

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US Doesn't Plan to Military Intervene Venezuela - Abrams

Sputnik News

19:15 07.03.2019(updated 20:38 07.03.2019)

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams announced that Washington did not have plans of military intervention to Venezuela.

"We are not pursuing that path," Abrams said when asked whether he was aware of any plans in the Trump administration for pursuing military action in Venezuela.

Abrams explained plans for protection of US embassies overseas are always on the table; however, the United States does not plan on intervening militarily in Venezuela in the context of the recent developments in that country.

At the same time, he noted that the United States is working with the international community to freeze Venezuelan government bank accounts around the world.

"We are working with the international community to freeze the regime's bank accounts across the globe," US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams said in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations committee.

Abrams said customers for Venezuela's oil are "dwindling" and expressed confidence that this situation would reduce the government's ability to sustain itself.

This comes after on Wednesday, US National Security Adviser John Bolton warned international financial institutions about potential sanctions if they engage in any transactions that benefit Maduro.

The United States, alongside a number of its allies, supports Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Gaudio, who has proclaimed himself the country's interim president. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, backed by Russia and China, among other states, has accused Guaido of acting at the behest of Washington in a bid to oust his government and seize Venezuela's oil assets.

 Sputnik

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Admiral Accuses Beijing of Militarising S China Sea After US Naval Encroachment

Sputnik News

17:47 07.03.2019

In February, the Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed dissatisfaction with US vessels entering waters near the Spratly Islands, an archipelago in the South China Sea that Beijing continues to regard as its "indisputable sovereignty", without authorisation.

Admiral Philip Davidson, the commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, claimed on Thursday that 2018 has seen an increase in Chinese military activity in the South China Sea.

"It's building, it's not reducing in any sense of the word. There has been more activity with ships, fighters and bombers over the last year than in previous years, absolutely," Davidson said.

He argued that this activity poses a hazard to trade, "commercial activity and financial information that flows on cables under the South China Sea".

Davidson declined to elaborate on whether the number of US freedom of navigation patrols would increase in connection with China's increased activity in the area.

At the same time, he stressed Washington's drive to remain engaged, touting the US as an "enduring Pacific power".

His remarks come after Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying blamed last month US vessels for illegally entering waters near the Spratly Islands, an archipelago in the South China Sea that Beijing continues to regard as its "indisputable sovereignty".

Hua stressed that Beijing respected freedom of navigation in the South China Sea but would not tolerate the use of this freedom as a pretext for undermining the country's sovereignty and security.

"We strongly call on the US party to immediately stop these provocative actions [] The Chinese party will take all necessary measures to resolutely defend its sovereignty and security as well as the stability in the South China Sea," the spokeswoman underscored.

According to Beijing, two US Navy destroyers sailed near the Spratly Islands without permission from the Chinese government earlier on February. Chinese vessels issued a warning for the warships and demanded that they immediately leave the area.

Beijing controls the vast majority of islands, reefs and shoals in the South China Sea, and is building up an array of artificial islands in a bid to further shore up its claims which are questioned by the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Taiwan, among other countries.

Beijing insists on negotiating the issue at the regional level, while the US has initiated naval freedom of navigation missions to contest China's claims.

 Sputnik

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Algeria's Bouteflika Warns of 'Chaos' as Protests Challenge His Re-Election Bid

Sputnik News

14:02 07.03.2019(updated 16:41 07.03.2019)

A group of lawyers has unsuccessfully attempted to prevent 82-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika from standing for re-election for a fifth consecutive term. His decision to run in the April election caused the biggest protests seen in the country since 2011.

Hundreds of lawyers reportedly swarmed the streets of Algeria's capital on Thursday, protesting against President Bouteflika's presidential bid.

Responding to the protests, Bouteflika warned Algerians against the risk of "chaos" resulting from possible foreign interference. "Breaking this peaceful expression by any treacherous internal or foreign group may lead to sedition and chaos and resulting crises and woes," he wrote in a letter reported by Algerian news agency APS and cited by Reuters.

The protests flared up on Thursday after the Constitutional Council of Algeria refused to consider lawyers' appeal against the ailing Bouteflika, Sky News Arabia reported on Thursday.

On 3 March, Bouteflika's campaign manager submitted his candidacy papers to the Council. According to Algerian laws, contenders must submit their bids in person. Moreover, critics say that a president can serve only two five-year terms. A 2016 constitutional reform limited presidents to two terms, reversing a 2008 reform which allowed Bouteflika to be re-elected the following year.

The incumbent president, who has been ruling the country since 1999, suffered a stroke in 2013. He has since been wheelchair-bound and has rarely been seen in public. He is ostensibly undergoing medial tests in a hospital in the Swiss city of Geneva.

Despite his condition being assessed as critical, Bouteflika wants to run for a fifth presidential term next month. His announced bid sparked nationwide protests, which have reportedly left over 180 people injured.

The demonstrations, numbering in thousands, prompted the president to sack the head of his campaign team, former Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal, and replace him with Transport Minister Abdelghani Zaalene. Bouteflika also promised to hold an early presidential election within a year in case he is elected, while he would not run.

 Sputnik

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2 Dead, 30 Injured in Grenade Attack in Indian State of Jammu & Kashmir

Sputnik News

10:49 07.03.2019(updated 13:31 07.03.2019)

A local police official told media that the injured people were rushed to hospital and a search is underway to find the perpetrator of the attack. Army and local police have cordoned off the site of the attack, which took place near a bus stop.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  According to emerging reports, the blast took place in a Punjab Roadways bus which was stationed at a Jammu bus stand at 11:45 am (Indian Standard Time). M K Sinha, a senior police official, said 18 passengers were injured in the grenade blast.

"They were shifted to GMC&H Jammu for treatment," said Sinha, adding that the condition of some passengers was serious," he said.

"The attack was clearly intended to disturb the state's internal peace. We are collecting evidence and an investigation is underway. No suspect has been taken into custody yet," Sinha added.

Jammu and Kashmir has been on high alert since 14 February, when a suicide bomber from the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group detonated his vehicle in front of a convoy of security personnel, killing over 40 soldiers. In retaliation, the Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted a "non-military" air strike against an apparent terrorist camp in Balakot inside Pakistan on 26 February.

The following day Islamabad announced it had shot down two Indian warplanes over the Kashmir border and captured Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, who was released a few days later.

 Sputnik

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Israeli Military Says Used Missile Defences After Rocket Launch From Gaza

Sputnik News

06:15 07.03.2019(updated 06:34 07.03.2019)

TEL AVIV (Sputnik)  The Israeli military registered a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip on the southern areas of Israel and activated its missile defences after it, the press service of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said.

"Warning sirens went off in the Eshkol Regional Council after a rocket launch from the Gaza Strip on the Israeli territory was registered. The missile defence system was used after the launch," the military said in a statement.

The IDF noted that the shelling had not resulted in any material damage or casualties.

Later, the Israel Defence Forces said that the Israeli aviation struck several targets of Palestinian movement Hamas in response to the launches of balloons carrying explosive devices and a rocket from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

"In response to the balloons carrying explosive devices and a rocket launched from #Gaza to #Israel, IDF fighter jets and aircraft struck several military targets in a Hamas compound in Gaza," the IDF wrote on Twitter.

The Israeli authorities have been blaming the Palestinian group Hamas for the Gaza residents' aggressive actions toward Israel. The military has been responding to previous rocket and arson balloon launches from Gaza by air raids and attacks on Hamas' targets.

 Sputnik

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Afghan CEO, Karzai, Presidential Candidates Caught in Attack

By Ayesha Tanzeem March 07, 2019

Unidentified attackers fired mortars at a gathering in the Afghan capital, Kabul, attended by several presidential candidates, former president Hamid Karzai, and Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.

Abdullah was on stage addressing the crowd Thursday when the attack started. He called it a "crime." Hundreds of members of the Hizb e Wahdat e Islami party had gathered for the 24th anniversary of the death of their leader, Abdul Ali Mazari.

At least one person was killed and 16 wounded according to the Afghan ministry of public health. Presidential candidate Hanif Atmar said on his Facebook page that eight of his guards were wounded. Another candidate, Abdul Latif Pedram, was also wounded, according to local Afghan channel Tolo news.

Police have arrested a man who was giving the coordinates of the venue from a nearby house to those who fired the mortars, according to Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman for the Afghan ministry of interior.

The organizers initially tried to keep the crowd calm, but later told them to leave.

"Our gathering is under attack and mortar shells are landing all over," Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, Abdullah's deputy and a member of Hizb e Wahdat, said to the people.

Violence in Afghanistan continues unabated even as Taliban representatives are engaged in talks with a team from the United States in Qatar's capital, Doha.

Thursday's attack comes a day after another attack in Jalalabad killed 16 workers of a construction company along with the five bombers and a week after an attack on an important military base in Helmand in which Taliban fighters killed 25 Afghan soldiers and took several others hostage.

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Will US Military Complete Planned Troop Cuts in Africa?

By Carla Babb March 07, 2019

The commander of U.S. forces in Africa has cast doubt on whether the Pentagon will complete plans to cut forces in Africa by 10 percent as the Department of Defense announced late last year.

In November, Pentagon officials said they would cut roughly 700 of the 7,200 U.S. troops on the African continent by June 2020. The reductions, officials said, were to "optimize" special operations forces that would be needed in a potential future fight against near-peer competitors like Russia or China.

Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, who heads U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), told lawmakers Thursday he already has reduced force numbers in Africa by about 300. But commanders appear to be rethinking plans to cut an additional 400 troops from the continent.

"Whether we'll ever be directed to execute the second half [of cuts] is to be determined," Waldhauser said.

Threats growing

The troop reductions were planned even though many West African nations are fighting insurgencies by al-Qaida-linked groups.

Niger and Mali are battling al-Qaida-linked militants, and Chad is combating a militant push from the expansion of Islamic State and Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria.

Burkina Faso, host to a U.S.-led counterterrorism exercise last week, is facing "an unprecedented humanitarian emergency" due to surging terrorist attacks and intercommunal violence, the United Nations warned Tuesday.

"The threat is growing," U.S. Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Andrew Young, told VOA in an interview. "We're in a tough fight, and the fight is getting harder."

Waldhauser said he had advised the secretary of defense that AFRICOM was prepared to "push back" on the planned cuts if they are not in "our best interest."

"Especially in Western Africa ... we are concerned. So far, there has been minimal impact," Waldhauser said. "If the groups grow, we may have to revisit these decisions."

'Small niche'

The general explained that the "optimization" cuts on the African continent were focused solely on the counterterrorism strategy.

"It's a very small niche," he said.

But this "small niche" of special operations forces and their enablers is a very important one. Local partners at the counterterrorism exercise in Burkina Faso told VOA their troops rely on these forces for help with everything from logistics to intelligence-gathering against militant threats.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Marcus Hicks, head of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, has cautioned that the United States and others interested in a secure and prosperous Africa should watch the Sahel "very closely" and "continually reassess whether or not there are enough resources applied."

"I wouldn't recommend we decrease forces at this point. I think we have a good approach in this region, and we are stable with our force structure here," Hicks said in an exclusive VOA interview last week.

Waldhauser explained Thursday that the cuts to U.S. forces in Africa have fallen mostly on places where U.S. troops had been training partner forces "for quite some time," and those partner units were now working on their own.

But when asked by a congresswoman whether he feels "angst" due to withdrawing forces from areas in West Africa where there are still problems with violent extremist organizations, Waldhauser responded, "The short answer to your question is yes."

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South Sudan's New Government Likely Won't Be Formed by Deadline

By Onen Walter Solomon March 07, 2019

Officials in South Sudan say obstacles in setting up and training a unified army will likely delay formation of a planned transitional unity government.

The news came Thursday from the National Pre-Transitional Committee (NPTC), one of the bodies established to help implement a revitalized peace deal aimed at ending South Sudan's civil war.

An official from the rebel SPLM-IO says parties to the deal should consider extending the deadline so security arrangements are in place before the next government is formed.

In about two months, an eight-month "pre-transitional" period ends. The government and rebel groups are supposed to form a transitional government by May 12 under terms of the peace deal, signed last year.

Martin Elia Lomuro, secretary of the pre-transitional committee, says a lack of money is slowing efforts to bring together rebel and government forces, train them and create one, unified army.

Before a new government is formed, Lomuro said, a unified force must be in place.

"That is a condition for the establishment of the transitional government. Without that force, the Transitional Government of National Unity will not be formed. And this is important to all the parties to the agreement ... to move all our forces expeditiously to assemble them and move in cantonment so that within the next three months, we can form that unified force," Lomuro told VOA's South Sudan in Focus.

Henry Odwar, the NPTC co-chairman and deputy head of the SPLM-IO, agrees.

"When are those unified forces going to be trained? Will it take a week? Will it take three months? Thereafter, we think that some of the forces either from the government side or from the opposition side will be left out after the unification and that poses a lot of problems," Odwar told VOA.

Odwar said the lack of funds to complete security arrangements on time may lead to forming a government that collapses.

He is urging NPTC members to handle the security arrangements carefully to protect the next government from a repeat of what happened in July 2016, when fighting broke out in the capital, Juba, between government and rebel forces, prompting President Salva Kiir's deputy and SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar to flee the country.

"The way is that the principals have to sit down, find out the time required for completing the security arrangements and then extend a dateline to the end of that time," Odwar told VOA.

States and boundaries

The number of states and their boundaries must also be resolved before the new government is formed. Kiir unilaterally redrew the country's internal map in 2014.

Lomuro said delays in resolving those issues are also likely to delay the formation of the new government.

"We are waiting for results of the Technical Border Committee to determine some of the tribal boundaries, and then the IBC, the Independent Boundaries Commission, would determine the number of states. ... The time that we have expected for the two committees to work has expired," Lomuro told VOA.

Odwar said the opposition thinks all parties should meet around a table now to find a compromise on the number of states.

"Do we go back to the 10 states and allow South Sudanese to decide how many states we want during the transitional period? Or should we go along with the former colonial districts because then, we did not have problems?" asked Lomuro.

The revitalized peace deal states that if the Independent Boundaries Commission fails to resolve the dispute over the number of states, the matter would be decided by referendum.

Odwar said the SPLM-IO does not trust the government to organize a credible referendum, noting, "The referendum will be conducted under the current incumbent government, and it will still have the president as the head of state; the whole security arrangement will still be under him."

Under that scenario, Odwar added, the chances of rigging the outcome are "very, very high."

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Mogadishu Car Bomb Blast Kills 5

By Mohamed Olad Hassan March 07, 2019

At least five people were killed and nine others injured Thursday in a car bomb blast outside a restaurant in Mogadishu, near Somalia's presidential palace.

Casualty totals come from security officials and the owner of the Dalsan restaurant, where the explosion occurred. The owner told VOA's Somali service the blast came from an "explosives-laden car" parked on the street.

The restaurant is frequented by government soldiers who control one of the security checkpoints for the presidential palace, located about half a kilometer away from the blast scene.

"We have taken nine injured people [to hospitals], some of them in critical condition," Amin Ambulance, the city's only emergency medical responders, told VOA.

Al-Shabab militants have claimed the responsibility for the explosion, saying they killed at least six government soldiers.

The blast comes a week after two suicide car bombs exploded in the city, killing at least 30 people and injuring another 140.

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Thai Court Bans Opposition Party for Nominating Princess to be PM

By VOA News March 07, 2019

A top court in Thailand has ordered the termination of a major opposition party because of its nomination of the king's sister as a candidate for prime minister just over two weeks before the March 24 election.

The decision by the Constitutional Court reduced the Thai Raksa Chart Party's chances of defeating parties that are allied with the military junta that has been in power since it ousted a democratically elected government in a 2014 coup.

The ruling by the court, which also banned Thai Raksa Chart executive board members from political activity for 10 years, also raises concerns about the fairness of the upcoming elections.

The party nominated Princess Ubolratana as its candidate on February 8, prompting her brother, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, to declare it "inappropriate" and unconstitutional. The party argued it could legally nominate her because her formal royal titles were rescinded in 1972 when she married a foreigner.

The Constitutional Court ranks among the most conservative institutions in the South Asian country, regularly ruling against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is aligned with the Thai Raksa Chart Party, and his allies.

The allied parties have been victors in every national election since 2001 but have twice been overthrown in coups.

Thai Raksa Chart is one of several parties loyal to former Prime Minister Thaksin in an election that generally pits his supporters against establishment parties.

Party leader Preechapol Pongpanich told reporters outside the Bangkok courthouse after the ruling, "we all had good intentions."

Thai Raksa Chart supporters were seen crying outside the courthouse, some of whom said they would vote for other opposition parties.

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The Rise of South Africa's Third Party

By Anita Powell March 07, 2019

This dusty South African mining town is perhaps best known for its darkest day: the 2012 police shooting of 34 striking mineworkers.

But anger over their deaths, and the systemic inequalities that remain 25 years after the end of apartheid, planted the seeds of a political movement that this year could upend the political status quo in a nation that has been ruled by the same party since the beginning of democracy in 1994.

From this soil, drenched with the blood of mineworkers, the Economic Freedom Fighters launched their far-left, radical political party in 2013. This year, as they approach their second national election, they stand a chance of making real gains in strongholds once controlled by the powerful African National Congress. The nation votes May 8.

Key wins for EFF

Already the party, which appeals to South Africa's black youth, has come to dominate university politics, winning student elections late last year at several prominent institutions, including the University of Johannesburg, the University of Cape Town and the University of Zululand.

In adult politics, the party also won key municipalities in the 2016 vote.

EFF ward councilor Wendy Pretorius represents the small, undeveloped area of Wonderkop, which contains the sacred hill where the miners gathered in 2012 to strike against conditions at the Lonmin platinum mine. The roads around it remain unpaved, and residents live in sheet-metal shacks without water or electricity.

Pretorius said she supported the long-dominant ANC until the deadly strike.

"The time the killings happened, I was there with the other women," she told VOA. "So, we were singing, waiting for the president of the country, Jacob Zuma. And Jacob Zuma, he never, never pitched. We were singing and waiting. And then, instead of coming to the mountain to see the people and to hear their side of the story, what's happening, he just went to the hospital, to the management of Lonmin. After that, he (went) back. So, after that, it's where we started to say, 'You know what? It seems like we are not belonging here in South Africa.'"

Criticisms of party

Critics of the party have pointed to its leaders' fiery, sometimes race-baiting, rhetoric; at its far-left policies; at parliamentarians' insistence on wearing bright red workman's uniforms for official appearances; and its habit, in its early days, of getting into violent scuffles in parliament.

But in the past year, the party has grown in ambition and maturity. It has encroached on the ANC's traditional base  South Africa's poor black majority. Because of that fierce loyalty, the ruling ANC has been forced to pay attention to the far-left party's calls for land redistribution without compensation.

At the local level, Marikana resident Nomxolisi Mafolwana said EFF representatives have brought positive change. Pretorius, she said, helped set up a small community project in which mineworkers' widows sell chickens. That, she says, has improved their meager income.

"EFF has made a good change," she told VOA as she plucked feathers from a freshly killed bird that she sold minutes later for less than $3 (R40). "She is trying, because this is not a place that it is people (who) live here. It's a place (where) pigs live, not people."

Urban supporters

The movement is also gaining supporters in urban areas, where adherents have protested for free university education and assistance for upwardly mobile young South Africans. Here at the University of Johannesburg, which has nearly 50,000 students, the EFF took over the Student Representative Council for the first time this year.

Chairperson and accounting student David Raphunga said the EFF strives to redress South Africa's historic inequalities, beginning by taking back land that was seized centuries ago by European settlers.

"Our people are still suffering," he said. "We are not in charge of the economic sector of South Africa. In the banking sector, we're not in charge. The manufacturing sector, we're not in charge. So, the land brings all that. When you have land, you are able to nationalize  nationalize your banks, you can nationalize your mines. All the resources and the profits, they are going to come back to the people. They benefit the people of South Africa, Africa and other parts of the world at large."

Raphunga said at the end of the day, EFF supporters want what was promised to all South Africans when the apartheid regime fell in 1994: a stake in their nation's potential.

"The people of London are owning a mine in Africa," he said. "But right next to the mine, there's an informal settlement. People are dying of hunger. There's no free education. People don't have water. They don't have no electricity. There in Marikana, we should have a city like Johannesburg. Where is the profit going? It's going to London. How? So, that must come to an end."

Back in Marikana, Mafolwana translated those ideals into tangible suggestions.

"We want jobs," she said. "We don't have jobs. We want roads here. We don't have roads here. And water."

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New aircraft 'to gather intel in S.China Sea'

Global Times

By Liu Xuanzun Source:Global Times Published: 2019/3/7 20:58:42

China has reportedly developed a new type of electronic warfare aircraft with extra antenna installations.

A military expert said that it would gather intelligence on whatever comes near the South China Sea and East China Sea to gain an advantage in case of conflict. A photo of the aircraft was featured in a China Central Television (CCTV) report on Wednesday, which called the warplane "a new type of special mission aircraft," without giving an exact designation.

The aircraft appears to have been developed from the Y-9, Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, told the Global Times on Thursday.

The Y-9, a medium-sized tactical transport plane with a maximum range of about 4,000 kilometers, has been modified, including as early warning aircraft, reconnaissance plane and anti-submarine aircraft, CCTV reported in 2018.

But the new variation is unlike the others: It has what seems to be a hemispheric radar dome under its chin, two large antennas on each side of the plane, an antenna on each side of the tailfin and an electronic warfare pod on top of the tailfin.

The devices on the plane mean it could effectively monitor enemies' radio communication and intercept their radar signals, Wei said.

It can also deliver electronic suppression, supporting China's aerial strike units by jamming and paralyzing hostile air defense systems, the report said.

However, Wei believes that the aggressive role is better left to electronic warfare aircraft modified from a fighter jet instead of from a transport plane, because the latter is more vulnerable and flies slower.

One important role the new aircraft could play is to gather intelligence and electronic data in the South China Sea and East China Sea on whatever comes near, according to Wei. With the pre-knowledge of hostile electronic signals, China can launch pointed electronic suppression and jamming in case of a conflict, which brings a significant advantage, he said.

The new aircraft could replace the GX-4, an older electronic warfare plane developed from the Y-8 transport plane, because the Y-9 platform can fly longer and carry more devices, experts said.

An airplane with the same traits was photographed years ago, but was grounded and painted yellow, which usually means it was in development. Military observers called it the GX-11.

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China's Huawei sues US over ban on products

Iran Press TV

Thu Mar 7, 2019 09:03AM

Chinese telecom giant Huawei has filed a lawsuit against a United States law that bans American government agencies from purchasing the Chinese company's equipment, calling the ban unconstitutional.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the world's biggest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, said in a statement on Thursday that it had filed the lawsuit in the US district court in Plano, Texas, arguing that section 889 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was in violation of the American constitution because it singled out an individual or group for punishment without trial.

Back in August last year, US President Donald Trump signed the section into law. Based on the new provision, federal agencies and their contractors are prohibited from purchasing Huawei's equipment and services over the accusation that the Chinese government uses the company's 5G (fifth generation) networks to spy on other countries.

Both Huawei and the Chinese government have rejected the accusation.

Washington has not provided any evidence to support the allegation. In its statement, Huawei pointed to that fact and said it was "compelled" to file the lawsuit.

"The US Congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence to support its restrictions on Huawei products. We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort," according to Huawei's statement, which was read out by Rotating Chairman Guo Ping in a news conference at the company's headquarters in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Although the company had a small market share in the US before the controversial law, it sought to expand its share there and is now trying to be at the forefront of a global roll-out of 5G mobile networks and services.

"This ban not only is unlawful, but also restricts Huawei from engaging in fair competition, ultimately harming US consumers. We look forward to the court's verdict, and trust that it will benefit both Huawei and the American people," Guo added, demanding the law to be overturned.

"Lifting the NDAA ban will give the US Government the flexibility it needs to work with Huawei and solve real security issues," he further said.

Separately, Song Liuping, Huawei's chief legal officer, rejected the accusation that Beijing was exercising any influence on the company.

"Huawei is not owned, controlled, or influenced by the Chinese government. Moreover, Huawei has an excellent security record and program. No contrary evidence has been offered," he said.

The lawsuit is likely to raise the stakes in a protracted diplomatic dispute between China on the one side and the US and Canada on the other. Canada has arrested the chief financial officer of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, on a US arrest warrant. She is now facing extradition to the US.

Meng, 47, was detained at a Vancouver airport on December 1 last year over the charge filed by the US that Huawei bypassed unilateral US sanctions against Iran. She was freed from jail ten days later on a bail of 10 million Canadian dollars (7.5 million US dollars) pending trial on the condition that she wear an ankle monitor and stay in Canada.

Beijing was infuriated by her detention and threatened Ottawa with consequences if Meng was not released immediately. It further strongly warned the Canadian authorities not to extradite her to the US.

Early this month, however, the Department of Justice Canada announced that it would allow an extradition hearing to proceed against Meng. It said that she would appear in a Vancouver court at 10 a.m. Pacific time (1800 GMT) on March 6, when a date would be set for her extradition hearing.

The decision drew an immediate response from the Chinese Embassy in Canada, which lambasted the move in a statement.

Following Meng's detention, China arrested two Canadian citizens on national security grounds and a Chinese court later sentenced to death another Canadian national who had been previously jailed for drug smuggling. Some observers claim those arrests and the sentencing are related to Meng's case.

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China's Huawei Sues US Government Over Ban

By Bill Ide, Joyce Huang March 07, 2019

Chinese tech giant Huawei has sued the U.S. government, arguing that legislation Congress passed last year restricting its business in the United States is "unconstitutional."

The case, which analysts see more as a public relations move, is the latest in an intensifying effort by the telecommunications company to fight U.S. security concerns that Huawei argues are unfair and unfounded.

In its lawsuit, Huawei argues that Section 889 of the National Defense Authorization Act violates the constitutional principles of separation of powers and due process. By singling out the company and punishing it without a trial, the company also argues that the law violates the Constitution's the bill of attainder clause.

Section 889 bans federal agencies and their contractors from purchasing equipment and services from Huawei as well as another Chinese telecom company ZTE. President Donald Trump signed it into law last year.

"This ban is not only unlawful but also harms both Huawei and U.S. consumers," Huawei's rotating chairman, Guo Ping, told reporters Thursday in Shenzhen. "This section strips Huawei of its due process, violating the separation of powers principles, breaks U.S. legal traditions, and goes against the very nature of the constitution."

Guo said that Huawei was left with no choice but to take legal action, noting that neither lawmakers nor the government had shown any proof to date to back up concerns the company is a security concern.

On Thursday, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino declined to comment on the pending lawsuit, but said the government needs to be vigilant when making procurement decisions.

"The United States advocates for secure telecom networks and supply chains that are free from suppliers subject to foreign government control or undue influence, which would pose risks of unauthorized access and malicious cyber activity," said Palladino in response to questions posed by VOA during a briefing.

"We believe that these risks posed by vendors subject to extrajudicial or unchecked compulsion by foreign states that do not share our values need to be weighed rigorously before making procurement decisions on these technologies," he added.

Huawei's chief legal officer, Song Liuping, said the company has no choice but to defend itself and try to clear its name.

"Section 889 is based on numerous false, unproven, and untested propositions. Contrary to the statutes' premise, Huawei is not owned, controlled, or influenced by the Chinese government," Song said.

That, however, is a central point of the debate over Huawei: how much a security threat the company is? And is it really independent from China's authoritarian government?

That debate is heating up at a crucial time as countries across the globe are preparing to roll out next generation mobile communications networks or 5G, an area where Huawei is a global leader.

At the press conference, Huawei officials argued repeatedly that the ban would cut off Americans from its advanced technology. They also gave assurances again that the company would never install backdoors into their equipment and that it puts the security concerns of its customers first.

Some countries, including the United States, Australia, and New Zealand believe Huawei is a security threat and have already banned the company from their roll outs of next generation mobile communications networks.

Others, including Britain, Canada, and Germany, are still weighing a decision. At the same time, Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou is in Canadian custody and is facing extradition to the United States to face charges of alleged violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran.

With Huawei fighting a battle on multiple fronts, the lawsuit is as much about public relations as it is an effort to clear itself of accusations that it is a security threat.

Legal analysts said it is unlikely the case will even go to trial.

"As a PR matter, this is brilliant, the fact that we are just talking about this now, tells you this is a great PR move, as a legal matter, this is a reach, to put it charitably," said law professor David Law of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Hong Kong. "I just can't see how a federal district judge in Texas is going to let this go to trial much less hand Huawei a win."

The case could put more pressure on the U.S. government to disclose more evidence to support its claims about the alleged security threat the company poses, according to some legal analysts. That could help Huawei in the process, said the Taiwan Bar Association's Calvin Yang.

"I think this is a move that carries more political weight than any litigation significance," Yang said, adding that the company's case was more about challenging the legitimacy of U.S. accusations. "It's using judicial procedure to force the federal government to provide more evidence to support its allegations of so-called backdoors in Huawei's equipment."

Some legal analysts have noted that Huawei's case is similar to the legal battle Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky lost late last year. Kaspersky challenged a ban on the use of its software on U.S. government networks. A U.S. federal appeals court ruled in the government's favor in November.

Whether that will figure into the Huawei case if it goes to trial is too early to tell, legal analysts note.

When it comes to national security concerns, they add that courts are unlikely to probe too deeply into those questions.

VOA State Department Correspondent Nike Ching and Kenneth Schwartz contributed to this report.

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UN's DPRK Mission Needs $120 Million to Respond to Country's Humanitarian Crisis

Sputnik News

00:23 08.03.2019

A new report from the United Nations office in North Korea found that while roughly 43 percent of the population is not properly nourished, humanitarian organizations in the country lack funding to reach people who need food and water aid, which includes local infrastructure investment. The report follows a plea from Pyongyang for aid.

The Wednesday plea by Tapan Mishra, the UN's resident coordinator in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), was not the first made on behalf of undernourished people in the small, mountainous socialist country wedged between Russia, China and South Korea. Mishra noted that an estimated 11 million people, or 43 percent of the country's population, do not receive proper daily nutrition, and he made a desperate plea for additional aid.

While the number of undernourished people in DPRK has declined in recent years, a series of natural disasters has set the country back by 1.4 million tons in expected harvests this year, and now the UN mission needs roughly $120 million "to urgently provide life-saving aid to 3.8 million people," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday.

"There is a food gap of about 1.4 million tons expected for 2019, and that's crops including rice, wheat, potato and soybeans," Dujarric said, citing figures provided by Pyongyang.

A letter to the UN delivered by North Korean diplomats late last month supplied that number, noting that if "international organizations" don't "urgently respond to addressing the food situation," they'll be forced to cut individual food rations from 550 grams to 300 grams per day, Sputnik reported.

Another UN report last month, by the Food and Agriculture Organization, came to similar conclusions, stating that "chronic food insecurity and malnutrition" had been exacerbated thanks to "not only natural disasters, but also shortages of arable land, lack of access to modern agricultural equipment and fertilizers."

Some of the problems mentioned in Mishra's report included a severe heat wave in provinces considered to be the country's "food basket" and the extensive damage caused by Typhoon Soulik, a powerful hurricane that struck the country in August, killing 83 people and displacing 65,000, according to NK News.

Mishra said humanitarian operations by the UN form a "critical lifeline for millions of people," with a priority on women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities, noting that 90 percent of nutrition assistance and 92 percent of medical assistance goes to children under five and to women.

Dujarric noted last month that in 2018 the UN only received one quarter of $111 million it requested for aid programs in DPRK. Because of this shortage, 1.4 million people didn't get food assistance, 800,000 people couldn't get essential health services provided by the mission, and an estimated 190,000 kindergarteners and 85,000 acutely malnourished children didn't get the nutrition support they needed, Wednesday's report shows.

However, Mishra noted that UN and international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) still reached 2 million in DPRK with their aid last year, and that since 2012, chronic undernutrition amongst children under five has fallen from 28 percent to 19 percent.

"Although Security Council sanctions clearly exempt humanitarian activities, life-saving programs continue to face serious challenges and delays," Mishra lamented on Wednesday. "While unintended consequences of sanctions persist, these delays have a real and tangible impact on the aid that we are able to provide to people who desperately need it. We must collectively fulfil our commitment under the Sustainable Development Goals to 'leave no one behind.'"

Among the problems with accessing necessities on its own, Mishra noted the DPRK's banking channel, "used to bring funds into the country to pay day-to-day operational costs, has been suspended since September 2017. Attempts to find a replacement channel have so far been unsuccessful."

The DPRK has faced sanctions from the West essentially since its inception in the late 1940s, when the Korean Workers Party under Kim Il-sung established a socialist government in roughly the northern half of the Korean Peninsula, which had been previously liberated by the Soviet Union from Japanese occupation by the time Tokyo surrendered, ending the Second World War. A US-allied, capitalist government was established in the southern half of the country at the same time.

These harsh restrictions can strangle the country's access to "legal" resources in other ways, too. For example, a paper published last December by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey looked at scientific projects in which North Korean scientists had partnered with scholars from other countries, noting that roughly 100 of the 1,300 they examined had "identifiable significance for dual-use technology, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or other military purposes."

That means that even though DPRK doctors might be studying epidemiology, their work could be subject to weapons sanctions. "When you study infectious diseases, which are a big burden in North Korea, you have to grow bacteria," Harvard Medical School neurosurgeon Kee Park, director of DPRK Programs for the Korean American Medical Association, told NPR at the time. "That's the kind of technology that goes into creating biological weapons."

The problem is that "virtually all technology you can possibly think of is dual use," professor and author Tim Beal told Sputnik.

 Sputnik

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India, Russia Ink $3.3 Billion Deal for Third Russian Nuclear Submarine - Source

Sputnik News

15:56 07.03.2019(updated 15:57 07.03.2019)

The deal, worth around $3.3 billion, is the biggest deal since October 2018, when the two countries signed a $5.43 billion deal for five units of S-400 air missile defence systems.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  India and Russia, on Thursday, signed a $3.3 billion deal for leasing a third nuclear-powered attack submarine- Akula Class- in New Delhi. Defence sources confirmed to Sputnik that the two countries have signed the inter-governmental agreement (IGA) for the Akula class submarine which is likely to be delivered to the Indian Navy by 2025. One of the several incomplete Soviet-era Akula hulls mothballed at the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk would undergo a deep refit and rebuild, to be fitted with Indian sensors, operation room electronics, and communication equipment before being delivered to India.

The submarine will be called Chakra-3 and will replace Chakra-2, whose 10 years lease is set to expire by 2022. However, the lease of Chakra-2 is expected to be extended for another five years to have sufficient time for the Chakra-3 to come on board.

It is signed days after the two countries also opened a facility to manufacture AK-203 assault rifles for the Indian infantry in Amethi of Uttar Pradesh.

The deal is signed after the proposal to acquire another Akula-class submarine obtained all major clearances from the Indian Defence Ministry in December 2018 after an Indian naval delegation inspected two Akula-class submarines, the Bratsk and the Samara, to select the one to be leased.

The Indian Navy had been negotiating for a second Akula-class submarine for several years. In 2015, however, the Navy temporarily switched its preference to the more advanced Project 885/885M Yasen-class SSN, one of which was commissioned by the Russian Navy in mid-2014. A further five to seven Yasen-class submarines were on order for the Russian Navy and the Indian Navy wanted its technicians to be involved in their construction. However, the negotiations to acquire Yasen Class submarine for the Indian Navy did not materlaise.

At present, the Indian Navy has a total of 13 conventional submarines plus one domestically-produced Arihant-class nuclear submarine and one Akula-class submarine on lease from Russia.

 Sputnik

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India says seeks US waiver to maintain current oil import from Iran

Iran Press TV

Thu Mar 7, 2019 03:23PM

India has said that it plans to maintain Iran oil import at the current level and is negotiating with the US to secure an extended exemption from US sanctions targeting Iran's energy sector.

An exclusive Reuters report quoted two Indian sources with knowledge of the matter as saying on Thursday that New Delhi seeks to maintain its crude shipments from Iran at its current level of about 300,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The sources added that India is trying to ensure renewal of the current waiver, which is set to expire this May.

The US left a multilateral nuclear agreement with Iran, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), last May and re-imposed nuclear-related sanctions that had been lifted under the deal, including those on Iran's oil sales. Washington, however, granted waivers to Iran's major customers, namely China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy, and Greece, on condition that they cut their crude imports from Iran. Washington is applying pressure on the major recipients of Iran's crude to reduce the country's oil exports to "zero" through the bans.

One of the Indian sources said talks with Washington on extending the waiver had slowed due to the US government shutdown that extended through January.

"Talks have now resumed and India wants to get clarity before general elections scheduled in May," Reuters cited the source as saying.

Iran is currently India's seventh biggest oil supplier.

In late October last year, a few days before the US was about to bring Iran's energy sector under its restrictive measures, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani assured the nation of the government's resolve to stand up to US threats. He emphasized that his team would do all in its power to resolve the economic problems caused by American pressure.

"We tell them that 'you will not reach any of your goals with regard to Iran's oil sales. You will neither be able to bring it to zero nor reduce it,'" Rouhani said.

"Our people need to rest assure that the government is not afraid of US threats," he added.

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'Serious Rights Violator' Appointed Head Of Iran's Judiciary

By RFE/RL March 07, 2019

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has appointed a controversial hard-line cleric accused of gross human rights violations as head of the country's influential Judiciary.

In a decree issued on March 7, Khamenei appointed 58-year-old Ebrahim Raisi as the new chief of the advisory body.

Raisi is a senior cleric and longtime prosecutor who is also custodian and chairman of the Astan Quds Razavi, the organization that runs Iran's holiest Shi'ite religious sites.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the U.S. State Department blasted his appointment at the helm of the Judiciary, saying that he was involved in the "mass executions" of political prisoners in the 1980s.

Observers said that Raisi's appointment could strengthen the hard-line camp and weaken the moderates, led by President Hassan Rohani.

The appointment "reflects the deteriorating human rights situation" in Iran, Human Rights Watch said in a statement, adding that Raisi "served on a four-person committee that ordered the execution of several thousand political prisoners in 1988.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at HRW, said: "It's disturbing and frankly frightening that [Raisi] will be overseeing justice and accountability in Iran."

He "should be investigated for grave crimes, rather than investigating them," she said.

Raisi, "involved in mass executions of political prisoners, was chosen to lead Iran's judiciary. What a disgrace!" U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino tweeted on March 5 before he was officially appointed.

The Iranian leadership "makes a mockery of the legal process by allowing unfair trials and inhumane prison conditions. Iranians deserve better!" he added.

Khamenei said Raisi has "faith, knowledge, and experience" and urged him to rejuvenate the Judiciary, fight corruption, restore public rights and legitimate freedoms, and supervise the implementation of laws.

Raisi succeeds Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, a conservative cleric with close ties to Khamenei as well as the country's military and intelligence bodies.

In December, Larijani was appointed as the head of the Expediency Council, which is tasked with mediating disputes between parliament and the Guardians Council, Iran's constitutional watchdog.

Rumors had circulated for months that Raisi would be appointed Larijani's successor.

He has also been mentioned among the possible successors to the 79-year-old Khamenei, who underwent prostate surgery in 2014 amid long-standing rumors that he has prostate cancer.

Raisi lost the presidential election in 2017 to Rohani, who won a second term.

The head of the Judiciary is appointed by Khamenei for a five-year term.

The decision comes at a challenging time for Iran, which is dealing with the reimposition by the United States of tough economic sanctions following President Donald Trump's decision in May 2018 to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran's hard-liners have been highly critical of the landmark agreement aimed at curbing the country's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

With reporting by Fars and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/serious-rights-violator-appointed -head-of-iran-s-judiciary/29809381.html

Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Iraq captures high-ranking Daesh cmdr. over 2014 Camp Speicher massacre

Iran Press TV

Thu Mar 7, 2019 05:17PM

Iraqi government forces have arrested a high-ranking commander of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group wanted for the June 2014 massacre of hundreds of military soldiers at an air force camp in the country's central city of Tikrit.

The Directorate of General Military Intelligence, in a statement released on Thursday, announced that the terrorist, whose identity was not immediately available, was captured following an intelligence operation in al-Hadar district in the northern province of Nineveh.

The statement added that the Takfiri is among the most dangerous terrorists, who participated in the Camp Speicher massacre. He was a notorious arms trafficker as well.

On June 12, 2014, Daesh terrorists killed around 1,700 Iraqi air force recruits after kidnapping them from Camp Speicher, a former US base. There were reportedly around 4,000 unarmed cadets in the camp when it came under attack by Daesh.

Following the abductions, the attackers took the victims to Tikrit's complex of presidential palaces and killed them. The terrorists also threw some of the bodies into a river.

The massacre was filmed by Daesh and broadcast on social media.

An investigation committee later revealed that 57 members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party had aided Daesh terrorists in the massacre.

On August 21, 2016, Iraqi judiciary officials hanged 36 men convicted of involvement in the carnage.

Tikrit was recaptured from Daesh in March 2015. During clean-up operations in the northern part of the city, Iraqi forces found the location of the 2014 carnage.

Former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against Daesh in the country on December 9, 2017.

On July 10 that year, he had formally declared victory over Daesh in the strategic northern city of Mosul, which served as the terrorists' main urban stronghold in Iraq.

In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and voluntary fighters from the pro-government Popular Mobilization Units (PMU)  better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha'abi  had made sweeping gains against Daesh.

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Pakistan takes control of religious schools in continued crackdown

Iran Press TV

Thu Mar 7, 2019 11:22AM

The Pakistani government has taken control of more than 180 purported religious schools as part of a crackdown on militant organizations operating in the country.

"Provincial governments have taken in their control management and administration of 182 seminaries (madaris)," Pakistan's Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday, using the Arabic word for the purported religious schools.

Those facilities are often funded by Saudi Arabia.

The ministry added that other facilities and properties belonging to different militant groups had been taken control of in the crackdown, which began this week. Those facilities include 34 schools or colleges, 163 dispensaries, 184 ambulances, five hospitals, and eight offices of banned organizations.

Pakistan's law enforcement agencies also arrested 121 people, according to the ministry.

On Tuesday, Pakistani security forces arrested dozens of militants in what was described as a crackdown against "proscribed organizations" following last month's bombing attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The younger brother of the leader of a militant group  which claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on an Indian security forces convoy in Kashmir on February 14  was among the detainees.

Pakistani officials said the crackdown was part of a long-planned drive and not a response to Indian anger over what New Delhi calls Islamabad's failure to rein in militant groups operating on Pakistani soil.

The terrorist attack in Kashmir left at least 40 troops dead, sparking tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors and spurring tit-for-tat cross-border raids. The tensions reached a peak last Tuesday, when India said it had conducted "preemptive" airstrikes against what it described as a militant training camp in Pakistan's Balakot.

Islamabad confirmed and condemned the violation of its airspace but denied that the purported target had been hit.

Days later, the Pakistani military captured an Indian pilot after shooting down his MiG-21 fighter jet, which Islamabad said had violated Pakistani airspace.

The flare-up between the two arch-foes appeared to be easing after Pakistan handed back Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, whose return was meant to be a goodwill gesture toward India.

But the tensions continued.

In a separate development on Thursday, a grenade explosion at a bus station in Jammu City  the Hindu-majority region of Kashmir  killed one person and wounded at least 29 others.

Kashmir has been split between India and Pakistan since partition in 1947. Both countries claim all of Kashmir and have fought three wars over the territory.

Indian troops are in constant clashes with armed groups seeking Kashmir's independence or its merger with Pakistan. India regularly accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants and allowing them across the restive frontier in an attempt to launch attacks. Pakistan strongly denies the allegation.

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Pakistan Not Aware of Any Deal Barring Use of F-16 Jets Against India - Def Min

Sputnik News

13:57 07.03.2019(updated 14:08 07.03.2019)

India has insisted that the dogfight that took place between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Pakistan involved a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet, which it claims is a violation of the US-Pak warplane purchase agreement.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  Amid reports of Islamabad apparently violating its F-16 purchase agreement with Washington, Pakistani Defence Minister Pervez Khattak said that he was not aware whether any such provision exists in the fighter jet purchase agreement between Pakistan and US.

Opposition leaders, including former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani, questioned the purpose of buying F-16 jets from the US if such a restriction exists.

"I will inform the House soon if such a deal exists," the minister replied to furious senators who sought clarification from the government as to whether any agreement exists with the US that bars Pakistan from using F-16 jets against India.

India has been insisting that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) used F-16 warplanes in the recent dogfight against the IAF on 27 February, which it claims was a violation of Pakistan's purchase agreement with the US.

Earlier, Senator Gen Abdul Qayyum (retired) of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, while taking part in an adjournment motion, said there is no restriction on the use of F-16 jets. "We had given hard cash to purchase these aircraft," he remarked.

On Tuesday, the US State Department acknowledged that it was very closely following reports on the alleged misuse of F-16s in air clashes between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.

"We've seen those reports and we're following that issue very closely. I can't confirm anything, but as a matter of policy, we don't publicly comment on the contents of bilateral agreements that we have in this regard involving US defence technologies nor the communications that we have with other countries about that," Robert Palladino, deputy spokesperson of the US Department of State, said during a media briefing.

Even as Pakistan continued to insist that the fighter jets used in the aerial clash with India were not F-16s, the Indian Air Force on Tuesday revealed a detailed account about the dogfight, seeking to establish that it was indeed an F-16 which the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had deployed against its neighbour amid escalating tensions.

 Sputnik

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Pakistan Changes Story on Jaish-e-Mohammed Militant Group

Sputnik News

10:29 07.03.2019

Contradicting earlier official statements on the whereabouts of the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Pakistan's military spokesman now claims that the group does not exist in the country. However, former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, in an interview on Wednesday, alleged that JeM had attempted to assassinate him twice.

New Delhi (Sputnik): Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, banned as a terror group in India, has become an Achilles heel for the Pakistani government.

In a major development, Pakistan's military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor has denied the existence of Jaish-e-Mohammed on Pakistani soil, saying that the outfit has no footprint in the country.

"Jaish-e-Mohammed does not exist in Pakistan. It has been proscribed by the UN and Pakistan also. Secondly, we are not doing anything under anybody's pressure," Major General Asif Ghafoor said in an interview with CNN.

He asserted that the Jaish-e-Mohammed's claim of responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack was not made from inside Pakistan.

In contrast, Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi last week had told BBC that Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Azhar Masood was in Pakistan and was not well. Qureshi had also admitted that the Pakistani establishment was in touch with Azhar.

On Wednesday, former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, in an interview given to a Pakistani journalist, acknowledged that Jaish-e-Mohammed was a terror organisation based out of Pakistan and that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI had used it to carry out attacks in India during his tenure. He also said that JeM had initiated failed assassination attempts against him twice.

It is being understood by politico-defense strategists that the present flip-flop by the Pakistani establishment was done under pressure from the Jaish leadership.

Jaish leadership is not happy with the Pakistani establishment's crackdown on the terror outfit under international pressure, sources within Pakistan government told Sputnik.

"In fact, the present statement by Pakistani Military Spokesperson Major General Ghafoor denying the very existence of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Pakistan has been made under pressure from the Jaish leadership. It's a known fact that Pakistani Army and ISI had been using JeM and other terror outfits in the proxy war against India," Major General (Rtd) A K Siwach, a former Indian Army Officer told Sputnik.

"I came to know that even Jaish leadership has threatened to expose Pakistani Army and ISI if they do not provide safe havens to Jaish and its leaders," Major General (Rtd) Siwach added.

Meanwhile, Chinese vice-foreign minister Kong Xuanyou has met Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in an unscheduled meet.

The visit is said to be crucial ahead of the UN's listing of Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. Earlier, on all occasions, China had thwarted attempts in United Nations Security Council to designate Azhar as a global terrorist.

Masood Azhar is the chief of JeM, a terror outfit that claimed responsibility for the recent terror attack at Pulwama, in Jammu and Kashmir on 14 February in which more than 40 Indian paramilitary forces were killed, leading to a serious conflagration, including aerial attacks and cross border shelling, between India and Pakistan.

 Sputnik

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Pakistan Seizes 400 Facilities Run by Banned Extremist Groups

By Ayaz Gul March 07, 2019

Authorities in Pakistan said Thursday that a nationwide counter-extremism effort has brought under government control 216 religious seminaries and educational institutions run by outlawed Islamist groups.

The federal interior ministry said in a statement provincial governments have also seized control of 176 mostly health-related welfare facilities, and scores of ambulances run by banned entities.

It said the operation is an ongoing effort to eradicate religious extremism, saying Pakistani "law enforcement agencies have placed 121 people under preventive detention as of today."

The intensified crackdown, critics say, is stemming from increased global pressure on Islamabad in the aftermath of a February 14 suicide bombing in the disputed Kashmir region that India blamed on Pakistan and was reportedly claimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant group.

Pakistani officials deny external pressure is behind the renewed push against militancy, but they have acknowledged a large number of suspects rounded up in recent days are linked to JeM. They have also confirmed that two brothers of Maulana Masood Azhar, who founded and runs JeM, are among the detainees.

Azhar and his brothers are on a list of suspects India has shared with Pakistan as part of its dossier into the February attack that targeted a security convoy in the Pulwama district.

The incident left more than 40 Indian security personnel dead. Pakistani authorities, however, have not issued an explanation for not detaining the JeM chief.

Pakistan is also under pressure from the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), to curb activities, financing and money laundering by terrorist groups. The country risks being blacklisted and coming under international sanctions if it fails to fully implement an action plan the global terrorism financing monitoring organization has outlined for Pakistan.

Officials say religious seminaries, health facilities and other entities that law enforcement agencies have brought under government control in recent days also include those linked to Jamatt-ud-Dawa (JuD) and its sister charity Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF).

Both organizations, outlawed last week, are known fronts for militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) that India says orchestrated the deadly 2008 attacks on its financial capital, Mumbai. The United States and the United Nations have listed JeM, LeT, JuD and FIF as global terrorist groups.

JuD sources estimate it has nearly 300,000 members, including 30,000"hardcore" activists trained for combat. The organization has over the years established 700 Islamic schools and runs a countrywide ambulance service among other entities.

Pakistan denied any role in the February bombing in Kashmir and offered India cooperation in investigating the carnage and punishing any Pakistani if found guilty. The ensuing escalation in military tensions led to an Indian cross-border strike against alleged JeM training camps.

Pakistani jets undertook a similar action in retaliation the next day and shot down what officials said were two Indian fighter planes. An Indian pilot was captured but returned two days later, marking a reduction in military tensions.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has credited the United States among other global powers with helping to ease tensions with India through what he said was "private U.S. diplomacy."He did not elaborate further. U.S. officials have acknowledged using regional allies, particularly those in the Gulf, to help defuse the tensions.

Tens of thousands of religious seminaries in Pakistan, known as madrassas, remain a challenge for authorities in the wake of allegations that some are responsible for radicalizing youngsters, spreading religious hatred and encouraging them to fight alongside militants in foreign conflicts.

Analysts say the curriculum in most of the Islamic schools is confined to reading the Muslim holy book, the Quran, and other religion-based books, and very few of the schools teach modern science subjects.

Critics caution that attempts to marginalize madrassas without offering effective rehabilitation plans would deprive millions of children of poverty-stricken families from receiving any sort of education.

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Russian fighter intercepts U.S. spy plane near Russian airspace: military

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 16:43, March 07, 2019

MOSCOW, March 7 (Xinhua) -- A Russian Su-27 fighter jet has intercepted a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft approaching the Russian airspace over the Baltic Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The Russian fighter jet approached the target at a safe distance and identified it as an RC-135 reconnaissance plane of the U.S. Air Force, according to the statement.

"The Russian fighter jet returned safely to its home base after the foreign aircraft flew away from the Russian border," the ministry said.

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Russian Duma Passes Bills Banning 'Fake News' And 'Insults'

By RFE/RL March 07, 2019

Russia's State Duma has approved legislation that would block websites that publish what the authorities deem to be "fake news" and penalizing websites that "insult" authorities, state symbols, and what the legislation vaguely describes as Russian "society."

To become law, the bills must still be approved by the parliament's upper chamber, the Federation Council, and signed by President Vladimir Putin.

Critics of the legislation say it would empower state officials to shut down websites that are critical of the Kremlin or other Russian authorities.

In the March 7 vote by the State Duma, 322 lawmakers supported the bill on banning so-called "fake news" and 78 voted against it.

The bill penalizing those who insult the authorities, state symbols, or Russian society was passed by a vote of 327-40, with one lawmaker abstaining.

The legislation would empower the state-run media watchdog Roskomnadzor to determine what constitutes "fake news."

It also sets maximum fines for publishing "fake news" of 100,000 rubles (more than $1,500) on individuals, 200,000 rubles (more than $3,000) on public officials, and 500,000 rubles (about $7,600) on companies.

The "fake news" bill says publications officially registered with Roskomnadzor, including online media outlets, will be given a chance to remove reports deemed as fake news before their websites are blocked.

It says websites that are not registered with Roskomnadzor will be blocked without warning.

Meanwhile, the bill that outlaws online insults would allow fines of up to 100,000 rubles, or about $1,500, for offending authorities, government agencies, the Russian state, the Russian public, Russia's flag, or the Russian Constitution.

It calls for second-time offenders to be fined up to 200,000 rubles or serve a jail sentence of up to 15 days.

It says those who violate the law more than twice will be fined up to 300,000 rubles and spend up to 15 days in jail.

Websites will be given 24 hours to remove material deemed by Roskomnadzor as insulting. Websites that fail to remove such material will be blocked, the bill says.

The legislation was not supported by lawmakers from A Just Russia, the Communist Party, and the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party.

With reporting by Meduza, Dozhd, TASS, and Interfax

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russian- duma-passes-bills-banning-fake-news- and-insults-/29808558.html

Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Russian Lower House Outlaws Spreading of Fake News, Insulting of State

Sputnik News

14:25 07.03.2019

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian lower house passed on Thursday a law prohibiting the dissemination of fake information.

The law prohibits spreading fake information that threatens human life and health and may disrupt social order or public security.

According to the law, the prosecution now can address the telecommunications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, requesting measures to limit access to a digital news outlet that has published a piece of fake news.

A fine for breaching the law may reach nearly $6,000 for individuals, $14,000 for public officials and $23,000 for legal entities.

Also, the Russian State Duma also passed a bill on blocking information that insults the state or state symbols.

Under the bill, the access to information expressed in an indecent form, which constitutes an affront to human dignity and public morality, demonstrates obvious disrespect for society, the state, the official state symbols of Russia, the country's constitution or bodies exercising state power in Russia, may be restricted.

If such information is found, the Russian prosecutor general or his deputies should turn to Roskomnadzor, requesting to remove this information or to limit the access to outlets that distribute it, in case they fail to delete this piece.

 Sputnik

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Su-27 Fighter Jet Scrambled to Intercept US Spy Plane Near Russian Airspace

Sputnik News

05:24 07.03.2019(updated 07:13 07.03.2019)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A Russian Su-27 fighter jet was scrambled to identify and intercept an air target approaching the Russian airspace over the Baltic Sea, the Russian Defence Ministry said Thursday.

"A Su-27 fighter on air defence duty was scrambled to establish the origin of the target and intercept it," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, the Russian fighter jet approached the target at a safe distance identified it as an RC-135 reconnaissance plane of the US Air Force.

"The Russian fighter jet returned safely to its home base after the foreign aircraft flew away from the Russian border," the ministry stressed.

Last month, the Russian military said that a Russian Su-27 fighter jet was scrambled to identify and intercept Swedish spy plane near the border.

 Sputnik

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Russian MPs Approve Bills Restricting Online Criticism of Kremlin

By VOA News March 07, 2019

The lower house of Russia's parliament has passed two bills that restrict online criticism of the government and authorizes the imposition of jail sentences or fines on those who publish erroneous information about the authorities.

The State Duma passed the measures Thursday and they are expected to be approved quickly in the upper chamber, after which they would be presented to President Vladimir Putin to be signed into law.

The laws call for people found guilty of publishing "indecent" material that demonstrates "disrespect for society, the state [and] state symbols of the Russian Federation" and government officials to be penalized. Repeat offenders could be sentenced to up to 15 days in jail.

Many opponents of the legislation view it as part of a broader Kremlin effort to suppress criticism and tighten control.

Television, radio and print organizations are already subject to government retribution for disseminating false information. The legislation approved by the lower chamber targets individuals and online media.

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36 nations, including Europeans, rap Saudi Arabia for 1st time at UN rights body

Iran Press TV

Thu Mar 7, 2019 04:51PM

As many as 36 countries, including all 28 members of the European Union, have taken Saudi Arabia to task for the first time at the United Nations Human Rights Council over Riyadh's glaring rights violations.

The group of countries expressed concern about Riyadh's rights records in a statement issued on Thursday and read out by Iceland.

"It is a success for Europe to be united on this," an envoy of an EU country told Reuters.

The United States, which considers Saudi Arabia to be one of its allies in the Middle East and maintains strong economic and military cooperation with Riyadh, however, opted out of signing the statement.

Saudi counter-terror law in focus

The signatories to the statement expressed concern about the kingdom's so-called counter-terrorism law, which it has been sweepingly using against protesters and dissidents.

"We are particularly concerned about the use of the counter-terrorism law and other national security provisions against individuals peacefully exercising their rights and freedoms," the statement read.

Jailed activists

The Council's members also called on Riyadh to release 10 prominent rights activists.

The joint statement named the activists as Loujain Al-Hathloul, Eman Al-Nafjan, Aziza Al-Yousef, Nassima Al-Sadah, Samar Badawi, Nouf Abdelaziz, Hatoon Al-Fassi, Mohammed Al-Bajadi, Amal Al-Harbi, and Shadan al-Anezi.

Jailed women activists subjected to torture

Advocacy and rights groups accuse the kingdom of widely using torture against jailed women activists, including those who campaigned for the right to drive, saying they have been subjected to electric shocks, flogging, sexual assault and other forms of torture.

Zaynab al-Khawaja of the Beirut-based Persian Gulf Center for Human Rights independent charity read out a litany of the instances of torture during a panel event attended by UN experts on the sidelines of a Human Rights Council gathering in Geneva on Monday.

"We highlight some of the torture methods that are being used in Saudi Arabia - electrocution, flogging, sometimes whipping, on the thighs for example, sexual assault where some women human rights defenders have been stripped, have been groped, have been photographed naked, some while handcuffed, and others while blindfolded," she said.

Khashoggi drama

The Council's statement further condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The prominent journalist was killed and had his body dismembered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October.

"The circumstances of Mr. Khashoggi's death reaffirm the need to protect journalists and to uphold the right to freedom of expression around the world," the text said.

"Investigations into the killing must be independent, impartial, and transparent," it added, specifically calling for cooperation with an inquiry led by Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions.

Evidence has shown that the killing was carried out by a hit squad with close links to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Turkish officials have blamed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of ordering the killing.

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Russia, Syria urge Jordan to admit refugees from Syria's Rukban camp

Iran Press TV

Thu Mar 7, 2019 06:56PM

The Russian and Syrian coordination centers on returning refugees have urged Jordan to open its border to displaced Syrians, who have been stranded in a camp near the frontier with the country.

"Jordanian authorities, citing security issues and difficult economic situation in the country, refuse to open the border to let refugees into their territory. The refugees are left with the only way to salvation, that is the humanitarian corridor provided by the Syrian authorities," the centers said in a joint statement published on Thursday.

They added, "We hope our Jordanian partners will further implement humanitarian initiatives on returning Syrian refugees and participate in resolving the Rukban camp issue, thus contribute to overall stabilization of the situation in the region  something Jordan is interested in."

The centers then called on the United Nations to demand Washington's contribution to the resolution of Rukban issue.

"We call on  members of the world community and above all the United Nations to take crucial steps aimed at solving the [Rukban] problem, which has lasted for years and claimed thousands of human lives, and to point out to the United States that places like Rukban camp are inadmissible in the modern world," the joint statement pointed out.

'Russia ready for dialogue on Rukban camp with all parties'

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing on Thursday that Moscow is ready to engage in unconditional dialogue on the Rukban camp with all interested parties, including the US.

"We are ready to continue unconditional dialogue on the Rukban camp with all the interested parties, including the United Nations, the United States and Jordan, without politicizing the humanitarian aspects of the issue," she said.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the US needs the Rukban refugee camp in order to justify its illegitimate military presence in Syria.

"The fact that people are not allowed to leave [the camp] and are held hostage makes one suggest that the US needs this camp to continue justifying its illegitimate presence there," Lavrov said at a joint press conference with Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Hamad Al Sabah in Kuwait City.

He added, "This is in line with the US policy aimed at creating something like a quasi-state on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. It does not want these territories to get back under the control of Syria's legitimate authorities."

"We will insist that these people are no longer held in the camp against their will," Lavrov pointed out.

The remarks came only a day after Russia's Defense Ministry said Russian satellites had found a cemetery with 300 graves immediately outside Rukban camp's fence.

On February 28, a Syrian official held US military forces and their allied militants responsible for the humanitarian crisis affecting thousands of internally displaced people in Rukban.

"The responsibility for the humanitarian crisis of our people at Rukban camp falls solely on US occupation forces and their stooges, as they have been preventing civilians' departure by means of force and threats. This is while safe corridors have been opened for those who are willing to leave the camp," the unnamed official at the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates was quoted by official SANA news agency as saying.

The UN says about 45,000 people, mostly women and children, are trapped inside Rukban, where conditions are desperate. This is while Geneva-based international aid agency Doctors Without Borders has put the number there at some 60,000.

Last October, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said people in Rukban had been without access to food and humanitarian aid for several months, highlighting that the tough situation was further complicated with a closed border by Jordan.

Jordan closed its border with Syria following an attack on its soldiers by Daesh Takfiri terrorists back in 2016.

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Damascus Accuses OPCW of Distorting Facts in Report on Douma Chemical Attack

Sputnik News

21:30 07.03.2019(updated 21:31 07.03.2019)

DAMASCUS (Sputnik) - Syrian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the latest report by the OPCW on the alleged chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma distorts the facts and was prepared by non-professional and biased experts who ignored the possession of chemical weapons by terrorists.

"This report does not differ from the previous mission reports filled with distorted facts," the ministry said in a statement.

Syrian Foreign Ministry further pointed out to "the lack of professionalism of the authors of the report," thus, it said "it was easy for the Syrian specialists to discover that the OPCW experts were lying when claiming that they investigated the incident in the report from various aspects."

The statement also said that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons "were far from neutrality and objectivity, as they ignored the possession of toxic chemicals by terrorist groups, although the mission found those substances in the warehouses of terrorists when they visited them."

This comes after on 1 March, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) published a report by its fact-finding mission on the results of the investigation of the incident in the city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta on 7 April 2018, which claims that a toxic chemical, most likely chlorine, was used in the attack.

In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the organisation had ignored the evidence provided by Russia and Syria, which confirmed that the attack had been staged by the White Helmets. The minister also expressed concern that the document sought to justify the subsequent foreign airstrikes in Syria.

 Sputnik

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Release of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission Report on Investigation Into Chemical Weapons Use in Douma, Syria, on 7 April 2018

Press Statement

Robert Palladino

Deputy Spokesperson

Washington, DC

March 7, 2019

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) released its final report on March 1, 2019, regarding its investigation into chemical weapons use in Douma, Syria, on April 7, 2018. The report concluded that there were reasonable grounds that chlorine was used as a chemical weapon in the attack. The FFM found that the weaponized chlorine was not manufactured at the sites, as alleged by the regime, and that it is possible that the chlorine was released by cylinders that had been dropped from the air, as indicated by their condition and surroundings.

The conclusions in the FFM report support what the United States determined in our assessment of the attack last April - that the regime is responsible for this heinous chemical weapons attack that killed and injured civilians. The Assad regime's use of chlorine as a chemical weapon is a violation of its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which it is a party, as well as UNSCR 2118.

The United States commends the FFM for its independent and impartial work undertaken in difficult and dangerous circumstances. We also welcome the full implementation of OPCW's mandate to identify perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. The victims of this barbaric attack and their families deserve justice and this is an important step in holding those responsible to account.

Further, the United States rejects the efforts of the Assad regime and its supporters  Russia chief among them - to sow disinformation about alleged chemical weapons attacks. We remain deeply concerned about such disinformation. As noted in our own assessment in April 2018, after the CW attack in Douma, the regime falsely accused opposition groups of perpetrating the chemical weapons attack in Douma; and regime and Russia forces delayed inspectors from entering Douma in an expedited manner with appropriate access consistent with their mandate.

Unfortunately, this is just the latest case where chemical weapons use in Syria has been confirmed by the FFM, an impartial outside investigator. Once again, the United States calls upon the Assad regime to fully cooperate with the OPCW, verifiably destroy its remaining chemical weapons program and completely disclose its activities related to chemical weapons. These are all obligations Syria accepted when it became party to the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013, but has failed to honor.

The United States continues to condemn the use of chemical weapons anywhere, by anyone, under any circumstances. Those who resort to the use of chemical weapons must be held to account. We call on all responsible nations to help us bring an end to the use of chemical weapons.

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Taiwan open to all fighter jet options: MND (update)

ROC Central News Agency

2019/03/07 18:29:28

Taipei, March 7 (CNA) Taiwan is open to all possible fighter jet options as long as they help beef up the nation's air defense capabilities, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Thursday in response to media reports that it last week asked the U.S. to sell the country 66 F-16Vs.

Asked to confirm, Maj. Gen. Tang Hung-an (), head of the Air Force Command's Planning Division, declined to give a concrete answer.

"The F-15, F-18, F-16 and even the F-35, are all among our options, as long as the jets help to strengthen our air defense capabilities," he said during a press event.

He also explained that the Air Force recently submitted a Letter of Request to the U.S. to buy a batch of fighter jets. The letter, however, did not specify what kind of model it is asking the U.S. to sell.

"We are still awaiting a U.S. response on what kind of aircraft it is willing to sell us before we evaluate if that model fits our needs and if we can afford it before making a final decision," Tang noted.

MND Department of Strategic Planning Director Wu Pao-kun (), meanwhile, would not confirm if the purchase could cost Taiwan US$13 billion.

Wu said Taiwan is waiting for an official U.S. response before it evaluates the financial aspect.

The expected spending would also be open to future negotiation and would also depend on which model of aircraft the U.S. decides to sell to Taiwan, he added.

According to the Apple Daily, the MND on Feb. 27 made a request to the U.S. to purchase a fleet of 66 F-16V or F-16 Viper fighter jets at a cost of US$13 billion, which would include missiles and related logistics, as well as the training of pilots and maintenance personnel.

Asked to comment on Taiwan's arms sale request, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) spokesperson Amanda Mansour told CNA the U.S. government does not comment on proposed weapons sales or transfers until the U.S. Congress has been notified.

However, Mansour said U.S. arms sales to Taiwan are guided by the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and based on an assessment of Taiwan's defense needs.

"This administration is resolved to fully implement the provisions of the TRA under which the United States makes available to Taiwan defense articles and services necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability," she said, adding that the Trump administration continues to evaluate Taiwan's defense needs in consultation with the U.S. Congress.

(By Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/AW

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Lienchiang Cross-Strait Matters Forum focuses on sea transportation

ROC Central News Agency

2019/03/06 22:35:24

Taipei, March 6 (CNA) The Lienchiang, Mainland-Lienchiang, Matsu Cross-Strait Matters Forum was held in Matsu on Tuesday to discuss issues of interest to both sides, particularly sea transportation.

Lienchiang, originally a county in Fujian Province, was split during the Chinese civil war (1927-1950), with the Republic of China retaining the Matsu archipelago, while the People's Republic of China took control of the mainland area of the county.

At the forum, Liu Tseng-ying (), magistrate of the Matsu side of Lienchiang County, said convenient transportation is fundamental to economic and trade development.

Therefore, both sides should work to increase the ferry service between them from two trips to four daily with the goal of attracting 200,000 Chinese tourists per year to Matsu, he said.

Liu also suggested speeding up the procedure for approval of additional boat trips under special circumstances and adjusting the travel schedule in rough weather to avoid having people stranded at sea ports.

Meanwhile, Zheng Limin, head of the mainland-side Lienchiang County said Matsu and Lienchiang could have a bright future because of their shared history and geographical advantage.

They should grasp the opportunity to enhance cooperation, formulate policies to strengthen their bilateral interactions, deepen economic exchanges and expand mutual interests, he said.

Zheng agreed to hold meetings to discuss the suggestions made by Liu, with the hope of implementing them in the shortest possible time.

He also announced that another "Lienchiang Forum" will be held in late March, with government officials, scholars and specialists from both sides invited to talk about interactions and developments and to sign economic cooperation agreements.

Held at the Matsu Folk Cultural Artifacts Exhibition Hall, Tuesday's forum also touched on issues such as tourism, aquaculture, education and health.

(By Feng Shao-fu and Emerson Lim)

Enditem/pc

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EU gives UK 48 hours to come up with Brexit solution

Iran Press TV

Thu Mar 7, 2019 11:10AM

The European Union has given Britain until Friday to table a workable solution to the Irish border dilemma if they want a breakthrough in stalled Brexit talks before the March 29 deadline.

British and European negotiators have been discussing possible changes to Prime Minister Theresa May's withdrawal agreement to make it more appealing to lawmakers before it comes up for a meaningful vote in the House of Commons next week, according to UK media reports.

The opponents of May's deal argue that the backstop undermines Britain's sovereignty, arguing that it may trap the UK in a permanent customs union with the EU.

Speaking to the media on Thursday morning, France's Europe minister, Nathalie Loiseau, said London had yet to offer any "precise proposals" on the so-called Irish backstop clause, the main bone of contention between lawmakers and the government.

"I'm not working on ifs and when's, I'm working on the positions or the proposals of the British government. We are waiting for a proposal from the British government, we have heard what you don't want, we are willing to know what you want," Loiseau told BBC early on Thursday.

"Let me tell you, there we no precise proposals, no. There were ideas, but there were never, until now - maybe there will be today because I know talks are going on in Brussels - but we are waiting for a sustainable proposal."

A European Commission spokesperson said Wednesday that talks had been "difficult" so far and that "no solution" was in sight.

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar confirmed the reports about London's failure to find a solution, telling the Irish parliament earlier this week that May's team had put forward no actual legal text for the EU to consider.

After his latest meeting with the EU negotiators on Wednesday, UK Attorney General Geoffrey Cox refused to reveal the discussions but said "both sides have exchanged robust, strong views and we are now facing the real discussions."

A leaked diplomatic note from European negotiators suggests that London has proposed two possible changes to the backstop but both of them have been turned down.

EU officials are said to have rejected both these plans because they believe they would undermine the certainty of the backstop preventing a hard border in Ireland.

May is expected to visit Brussels herself either this weekend or on Monday if enough progress is made.

Her visit would come a day before the second planned meaningful vote on the deal next Tuesday.

If the lawmakers once again reject May's deal, they should on Wednesday decide a no-deal exit and on Thursday whether the Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty should be extended.

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Deputized As Election Monitors, Ukrainian Ultranationalists 'Ready To Punch' Violators

By Christopher Miller March 07, 2019

KYIV -- They patrol the streets of the Ukrainian capital in matching urban camouflage and march in lockstep through Kyiv with torches.

They attack minority groups, including Roma and LGBT people. And some of them have trained with visiting American White supremacists.

They are the ultranationalist National Militia, street vigilantes with roots in the battle-tested Azov Battalion that emerged to defend Ukraine against Russia-backed separatists but was also accused of possible war crimes and neo-Nazi sympathies.

Yet despite the controversy surrounding it, the National Militia was granted permission by the Central Election Commission to officially monitor Ukraine's presidential election on March 31.

Now the commission appears to be rethinking that decision after the group's spokesman warned that its members will take matters into their own hands and use force in instances where law enforcement "fails" to stop election fraud.

"If law enforcers turn a blind eye to outright violations and don't want to document them," spokesman Ihor Vdovin vowed on March 6, the group will follow the instructions of its commander, Ihor Mikhailenko, who wrote on Telegram, "If we need to punch someone in the face in the name of justice, we will do this without hesitation."

'Only Police Can Use Force'

That call prompted the election commission to appeal to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) to assess the seriousness of the threat. And while it didn't threaten to revoke the National Militia's monitoring authority, the commission said it considers violence "inadmissible."

So far, the SBU has not commented on the matter.

The threats of force alarmed some activists and law enforcement bodies.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov was quick to respond, saying the right to use force belongs to the police.

"Neither volunteer squads nor any other organization can [use force], and [they] will not determine the situation by force," Avakov said in his statement. "Only cooperation and appeal to the legal forces of law and order are acceptable."

He warned that "any attempts to intervene in the electoral process will be firmly and, if necessary, harshly suppressed."

But it is unclear whether the pledge to keep the National Militia and other groups in check will convince the interior minister's critics, who have in the past described Avakov as a "far-right sympathizer" with "close ties" to some of the Azov veterans and commanders.

The National Militia's ranks number in the low thousands, nationally.

In torchlight marches and ceremonies as recent as March 3 (below), its members have sworn an oath to cleanse the streets of illegal alcohol, drug traffickers, and illegal gambling establishments.

But minority groups have seemingly been a favorite target, and the group appears at times to have acted with impunity.

On June 7, National Militia members used axes and hammers to destroy a Romany camp in Kyiv's Holosiyivskiy Park. None of them faced charges for the attack, which sent women and children scrambling to escape the violence.

Under a special agreement with the government, the National Militia enjoys many of the same rights as police officers, although its members may not carry arms. Still, the group -- which includes several openly neo-Nazi members tattooed with swastikas and SS bolts -- often resorts to violence and has been known to interrupt city government meetings to intimidate council members into supporting nationalist causes.

Independent polls show only around 1 percent of Ukrainians support Azov's political wing, the National Corps.

That low level of public sympathy is what kept National Corps lawmaker and former battalion commander Andriy Biletsky out of the crowded presidential race this year, according to Ukrainian sociologist Anya Hrytsenko, who researches far-right groups.

Instead, Biletsky and his party appear focused on trying to muster the 5 percent support to reach parliament in elections slated for the fall.

But while such Azov-related groups remain generally unpopular with voters, their slickly produced videos, street fashions, and mixed-martial-arts centers have attracted a growing young, mostly male following whose presence on Ukrainian streets has rights groups concerned.

In its latest show of force on March 3, nearly 2,000 National Militia members in matching uniforms gathered in Independence Square in the capital. Then, carrying torches down Kyiv's busiest streets, they forced police to intervene to stop traffic as they made their way to a fortress on a nearby hill.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/deputized-as-election -monitors-ukrainian-ultranationalists-ready -to-punch-violators/29809207.html

Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Vancouver, March 8, 2019 - Nortec Minerals Corp. . (the "Company" or "Nortec") (TSXV: NVT): Nortec announces the signing of a Letter of Agreement with Utah Mineral Resources LLC. ("UMR") a private Utah Company, to acquire a 100% interest in their Cottonwood Vanadium-Uranium Project ("Cottonwood" or "Property") located in Garfield County, Utah, USA (Figure 1). UMR located at Kaysville, Utah has sole exclusive right, title, interest and ownership of Cottonwood.

Terms of Agreement

1.A total cost of US $200,000 consisting and composed solely and exclusively of four (4) million fully paid ordinary shares of the capital of Nortec, at a deemed price of $0.05 per share;

2.The shares to be issued on receipt of acceptance and approval by the TSX Venture Exchange and regulatory authorities; and,

3.With the purchase, UMR is also entitled to receive a 1% NSR on any production from Cottonwood. The 1% NSR may be reduced to 0.5% by Nortec at any time by paying UMR US $500,000 on or before the 5-year anniversary of the Property Purchase Closing Date.

Cottonwood Vanadium-Uranium Property

The Cottonwood Property is located In Garfield County, Utah that is approximately 372 kilometres (230 miles) by road southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah. UMR holds contiguous mining lode claims, comprising 736 hectares (1,818 acres) within Township 32 South, Ranges 11 and 12 East. The claims are located on federal land and administered by the US Bureau of Land Management (Figures 1 & 2).

The Property is situated in the Cottonwood Wash-Trachyte vanadium-uranium district, Henry Mountains Basin. It is underlain by sub-horizontal Mesozoic sedimentary rocks (Figure 3). The Henry Mountains to the west are formed by mid-Tertiary intrusions of intermediate to mafic rocks and basalts. Vanadium -Uranium deposits in the Project area occur within the Salt Wash Member fluvial sandstones of the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation and the Shinarump conglomerates of the older Triassic Chinle Formation. The Salt Wash sandstones are overlain by the conglomeratic sandstones and shales of the Brushy Basin Shale Member and overlies sedimentary rocks of the Summerville Formation.

Most of the vanadium-uranium deposits within the Salt Wash Member occur 100 to 150 feet (30 to 45 meters) above the Salt Wash-Summerville contact, with better grades along the lower portions of thicker (20-60 feet or 6-18 meters) sandstone. The majority of these mineralized zones appear to occur directly beneath the conglomeratic sandstone strata of the Brushy Basin.

The Project area contains historical vanadium and uranium mineral occurrences, prospects and underground workings (Figure 3). The project area is also underlain at depth by the vanadium-hosting, Jurassic Entrada Sandstone and Triassic Shinarump Conglomerate formations, which are favorable for potential discoveries.

The majority of the deposits are located in an elongated cluster in eastern Garfield County, Utah. The deposits, discovered in 1913, were intermittently mined first for radium, and then for vanadium. Up to 1944, nearly 500 tons of high-grade ore were mined. During the period 1948 through 1978, some 130 properties in the Henry Mountains had produced 79,500 tons of ore with an average grade of 0.30 percent U3O8 and containing 474,500 pounds of uranium oxide (U3O8). In addition, vanadium has been recovered from 63,000 tons with an average grade of 1.35 percent V2O5 and containing 1,694,100 pounds of vanadium oxide (V2O5) (Re: W.L. Chenoweth, 1980, Henry Mountains Symposium, Utah Geological Association).

Mohan R. Vulimiri, M.Sc., P. Geo, Director and CEO of Nortec Minerals, is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Vulimiri has approved the corporate and technical content contained in this press release.

About Nortec Minerals Corp.

Nortec is a mineral exploration and development company based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Nortec earned a 51% interest of Tomboko Gold Project by incurring exploration expenditures of US$ 1 million and completing Phases 1 and 2 of the Definitive Option Agreement (Agreement) entered with The Golden Rule Mining Inc. in 2017. The Tomboko Gold Project is surrounded by producing gold mines in the historic mineral rich North-eastern area of the Republic of Guinea. It is within the administrative region of Kankan and the Prefecture of Siguiri and immediately west of the Siguiri Gold Mine operated by AngloGold-Ashanti. Nortec also spent approximately US$ 1 million of the required US$ 2.5 million to earn the remaining 29%. This will convert to pro-rata interest as defined in the Agreement.

The Company has a 20% interest in the Tammela Gold & Lithium Project in South-West Finland. Sunstone Metals (formerly Avalon Minerals), a public Australian mining company has earned the 51% interest and the 29% Stage 2 earn-in interest on the Tammela Project. Sunstone has completed more than 3,000 meters diamond drilling on the Kietyonmaki lithium prospect and the Satulinmaki and Riukka prospects that comprise the Tammela Project. Detailed information on the Company's projects have been posted on the Company's website www.nortecminerals.com.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, Nortec Minerals Corp. "Mohan R. Vulimiri" Mohan R. Vulimiri, CEO and Chairman

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept the responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This press release contains certain forward looking statements which involve known and unknown risks, delays and uncertainties not under the Company's control which may cause actual results, performances or achievements of the Company to be materially different from the results, performances or expectations implied by these forward looking statements. 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.



Click Image To View Full Size

Figure 1: Location map, Cottonwood Vanadium-Uranium Project.



Click Image To View Full Size



Click Image To View Full Size

Uranium-Vanadium District within Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation strata

Uranium-Vanadium District within Upper Triassic Chinle Formation strata

Farmers Knob -Past Producer

Figure 2: Vanadium-Uranium Districts in the Cottonwood Project area



Click Image To View Full Size

Figure 3: Geology Map with past producers and mineral occurrences, Garfield County, Utah


BUCKS COUNTY >> State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) has announced that four Bucks County police departments will receive a total of $188,437 in state funding through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). The breakdown of awards is as follows: Central Bucks Regional Police Department, $59,597; Solebury Township, $57,940; Lower Makefield Township, $36,000; and New Britain Township, $34,900 Keeping our...
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced that AZAA Investments, Inc., formerly known as AutoAnything, Inc., paid $1 million to resolve violations of the California Health and Safety Code and Vehicle Code related to the sale of illegal aftermarket performance auto parts in California.

Although the former AutoAnything, Inc. was a retailer, everyone in the chain of commercethat is manufacturers, distributors, dealers, installers, and retailershas an important responsibility to ensure that all aftermarket products they offer for sale have first been exempted by CARB. This settlement is a reminder of the serious consequences for ignoring this responsibility. CARB Enforcement Chief Todd Sax

CARB investigators discovered that AutoAnything, a major online retailer, advertised and sold performance parts that modified emissions components, ultimately committing approximately 4,000 violations between 2012 and 2015.

California law prohibits the advertising, sale, distribution, and delivery of parts that alter emissions control systems of vehicles unless these parts have first been exempted by CARB and are proven not to increase smog-forming emissions. These laws apply to all manufacturers, distributors, dealers, installers, and retailers, even if they do not manufacture the products themselves, or are located outside of California.

Illegal parts sold by the former AutoAnything, Inc. included engine programmers, air intake systems and catalytic converters that were not approved by CARB for use on highway vehicles. These products can reduce fuel economy and increase emissions.

Modified vehicles that no longer meet Californias emissions requirements pose a significant health threat to California residents. They create higher amounts of smog-forming pollutants, which can worsen respiratory problems and negatively impact other health conditions.

In addition, vehicles modified with illegal aftermarket parts will fail the smog check program, and the owner will be required to restore the vehicle to its original certified configuration before the vehicle can pass smog check and the owner can renew the vehicles registration with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

California law does allow marketing and sale of an aftermarket performance part after an evaluation by CARB to ensure the part does not raise emissions. Once CARB approves the part, it is granted an executive order that allows the sale and installation of the part on pollution-controlled vehicles. State law also requires manufacturers, retailers, and distributors to take steps to ensure that consumers understand the legality of parts offered for sale and to discourage illegal modifications to vehicles.

AZAA Investments, Inc. paid $1,006,250 to the California Air Pollution Control Fund which supports air pollution research and education. In addition, during the settlement process, AutoAnything was sold along with its online retail platform to a new owner. Along with the financial penalties imposed by the settlement, AZAA Investment Inc. is subject to a permanent injunction barring the sales of automotive parts and must notify CARB prior to resuming any related business activity.
A team led by researchers from Kanazawa University in Japan, with colleagues from Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion in China, have used ozone from an atmospheric-pressure non-equilibrium plasma together with the desulfurization catalyst MnO2 to almost completely eliminate NO 2 and SO 2 from diesel exhaust gas at a low temperature of 473 K (200 C).

This research, published in the journal Separation and Purification Technology, shows that ozone can be used to remove not only SO x but also NO x from fossil fuel combustion exhaust streams.





Conceptual scheme of plasma-assisted MnO 2 filter. Activated chemical species (O 3 , OH radicals etc.) are generated by inducing an atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasma. These species promote desulfurization and denitration reactions with MnO 2 . Osaka et al.

In our previous study, we found that MnO 2 can absorb not only SO 2 but also NO 2 simultaneously. In this study, to improve absorption performance of SO 2 and NO 2 , we added ozone in exhaust gas. Therefore, we investigated the effect of ozone on the desulfurization and denitration performances experimentally. Results showed that maintaining the absorption rate of 90% or more in SO 2 and NO 2 absorption was possible by adding ozone. The amount of NO 2 absorption significantly increased by adding ozone. However, the utilization rate of MnO 2 exceeded the theoretical absorption amount. This result suggested that SO 2 /NO 2 purification may have not only a simple absorption reaction but also a purification reaction similar to reduction denitration. Osaka et al.

MnO 2 reacts with sulfur and nitrogen oxides to produce sulfates and nitrates, respectively. The interaction between SO 2 and NO 2 degrades the performance of MnO 2 catalysts in eliminating both species.

Prof Huang of the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion analyzed the MnO 2 catalyst material after exposure to simulated exhaust gas containing both SO 2 and NO 2 and found that both manganese nitrate and manganese sulfate were produced.

The researchers then evaluated the impact of ozone on the performance of the catalyst for SO 2 and NO 2 removal. An atmospheric-pressure non-equilibrium plasma was generated by the dielectric barrier discharge method.

The performance of the catalyst in eliminating both SO 2 and NO 2 was improved by the introduction of ozone at a low concentration of about 50 ppm. The enhancement in NO 2 elimination was particularly notable, the researchers said.





The effect of ozone induction on SO 2 and NO 2 elimination. Ozone generated in an atmospheric-pressure non-equilibrium plasma was passed through the MnO 2 filter together with simulated exhaust gas. The simulated exhaust gas consisted of 500 ppm SO 2 , 500 ppm NO 2 ,10 wt% O 2 , 6 wt% CO 2 , an N 2 base, and 50 ppm O 3 (when plasma is induced). The MnO 2 was supported on an alumina honeycomb filter and the flow conditions (space velocity of 104 h1) mimicked typical vehicle exhaust streams and filter dimensions. Osaka et al.

The introduction of ozone appears to give a reaction to reduce nitrogen oxides to nitrogen. At the initial stage of the reaction, more than 99% of SO 2 and NO 2 were removed from the exhaust stream.

The researchers expect the findings to be widely applicable in the purification of exhaust from diesel engines using sulfur-containing fuels.

Resources
When Joyce Pellegrino took out her camera during a tour of Cuba, she wasnt expecting an art exhibit to come from it.

But nonetheless, an art exhibit in Black Rock features photos taken during her trip to Havana and its outskirts in 2017.

This is Pellegrinos first-ever art show, which will be inaugurated with a free public reception Saturday, March 9 at Framemakers Gallery, 3004 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport, from 2 to 4 p.m.

Pellegrino was encouraged by her friend and colleague, Mary Gibbs, whose paper-and-acrylic works were featured at Framemakers during Black History Month.

Originally from the New Haven area, Ms. Pellegrino lives in Branford. She attended Sacred Heart Academy and the University of Saint Joseph; and acquired a masters and advanced degrees in counseling and rehabilitation from Springfield College in Massachusetts. She works for the state of Connecticuts judicial branch, but photography became an avocational pursuit in recent years.

I believe my interest in photography began when I was able to start traveling, says Pellegrino. I viewed it necessary to capture the uniqueness of what I was seeing and (at the same time) feeling.

And it was coupled with the sense of passion and appreciation to be there in that moment, Pellegrino continues, adding that she is drawn to peoples expressions and their immediate surroundings, so that remains the substantial influence for my photographs.

For arranging the trip to Cuba, she credits her friend, Donna Borrelli, who owns Hamden Travel and planned the incredible trip itinerary for a (manageable) group of enthusiastic travelers.

The show consists of 29 small 8x10 works and 10 larger works.

Some of her photographs are of Cuban art, not scenery. A series of smaller-format panels depict details from vibrant murals at the Habana Compas Dance Company studio.

She also captures the vivid mural work from the Picasso of Cuba, Jose Fuster, who works mainly in tile. His palador (restaurant), home, workshop and gallery, roofs, doors, walls and benches stretch for blocks, filled with brightly colored sculptures and mosaics, she says.

What Pellegrino wants visitors to walk away with (aside from some of her art) is the idea of Cuban ingenuity.

One photo underscores that point. Unable to buy conventional fixtures, the owner of a bathroom turned a gas-station pump into a water faucet. For a vanity, the sinks basin is a metal bowl strapped to a tire.

I was so awestruck with how resourceful the people were, in so many ways, she says.

The show is on view through March. Visit Framemakers Facebook page for more information on the gallery.
HARTFORD  The bipartisanship that existed a few months ago, perhaps because the margins between the two parties was much smaller, seems to have devolved into name calling and finger pointing.

Republican legislative leaders wrote Democratic legislative leaders earlier this week to ask them to intervene.

In this letter, Republican Senate Leader Len Fasano and House Minority Leader Themis Klarides offered up two examples as reasons leadership should intervene. They pointed to Rep. Michael DAgostinos threat to subpoena information from beer and distilled spirit wholesalers before a public hearing on bills that would impact their industry.

Under the precedent set in this situation, if a member of the public were to testify against a bill, or for that matter even support a bill, a chairperson could require that person, under threat of a subpoena, to produce documents supporting their position, Fasano and Klarides wrote. This puts a chilling effect on the entire public hearing process and raises serious questions.

The second involved a Democratic member Googling personal information about a member of the public in an attempt to embarrass and curtail certain people from testifying.

Lawmakers should not be hastily searching for inflammatory personal information on the internet in an attempt to discredit someone when they come to the Capitol to testify on an issue, Fasano and Klarides wrote.

I hope that you agree with us that the state Capitol is meant to be the Peoples House, they wrote. It should be a place where all opinions and ideas are welcome. Weve heard you personally encourage people to testify at the Capitol on multiple occasions. However, the actions of certain members of your caucus will dramatically discourage the very same public discourse you invite.

Senate Democratic leadership declined to offer a response to the letter.

House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, said lawmakers have difficult jobs that require them to seek as much information as possible to help them make decisions, but its also imperative that people who come to the Capitol feel comfortable expressing their views.

As far as the exchange between DAgostino and the beer and distilled spirit wholesalers is concerned, Aresimowicz agreed, things were probably not handled in the best way at a recent hearing, which led to an unfortunate exchange with a hired industry lobbyist, but I understand the chairs inquiries were answered later which reflects the overall professionalism and respect that exists here.

Democrats now hold a 90 to 60 majority in the House and a 22 to 14 majority in the Senate.

Some Democrats have complained that Democratic lawmakers seem to have forgotten they have the majority when it comes to muscling through legislation.
Western Connecticut State University is celebrating Womens History Month with a pair of free, open-to-public presentations by Emmy Award-winning producer Kirsten Kelly on Wednesday, March 20, and Thursday, March 21.

Kelly will screen the award-winning documentary The Rape of Recy Taylor, a film by Nancy Buirski, as part of Odyssey Impacts national impact campaign, at 6 p.m., on March 20 in Room 122 of White Hall on the WCSU Midtown campus, 181 White St., Danbury.

The film will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Kelly, who is a senior producer at Transform Films, which released The Rape of Recy Taylor.

On March 21, Kelly will screen clips and discuss her current documentary project about womens work during WWII at 11 a.m., also in Room 122 of White Hall.

This is an amazing opportunity to meet an important female director, said Marcy May, co-chair of the WCSU Department of History and Non-Western Cultures. And even better, Kellys focus on women workers of World War II, those Rosie the Riveters, offers us a great way to explore womens contributions to our society.

Kellys work has focused not only on the contributions of women in society, but also the difficulties they face.

The Rape of Recy Taylor retells the trauma Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, faced when she was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama.

Click here for more information about The Rape of Recy Taylor and to view the trailer.

According to the films website, sexual violence like this happened commonly in the Jim Crow South and few women spoke up in fear for their lives. However, Taylor dididentified her rapists. The NAACP sent its rape investigator Rosa Parks to Alabama, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice,.

According to the website, the film also exposes the legacy of physical abuse inflicted upon black women and reveals Rosa Parks intimate role in Taylors story. An attempted rape against Parks was just one inspiration for her own ongoing fight for justice for countless women like Taylor, and Parks well-known 1955 bus boycott was the result of decades of activism, not the beginning.
GREENWICH  To developer John Fareri, his vision for West Putnam Avenue would revitalize an area badly in need of attention. To neighbors, it would bring a heavier burden of traffic and disrupt the character of the residential area.

And in between is the towns desire to add to its stock of moderate-income housing to make the Greenwich more affordable for people who work in town to be able to live in town.

Whether it helps 20 people or 40 people or 50 or three people, its helping this town, John Tesei, the attorney representing Fareri, said of the housing proposals. Thats the whole spirit of it.

A Greenwich resident, Fareri put together two development plans currently before the towns Planning and Zoning Commission. One would add 35 multifamily units, eight of which would be designated for moderate-income tenants, along with a parking garage alongside new office space at 500 W. Putnam Ave.

The other proposal would combine 581 and 585 W. Putnam into one lot and add 67 residential units, 14 for moderate-income renters, along with a multilevel parking garage. The buildings on the site would be demolished. Additionally, the development would include space for businesses, with a supermarket, a fitness center and a restaurant listed as possible tenants.

The towns 2009 Plan of Conservation and Development calls for more moderate-income housing. The work of two subsequent task forces resulted in changes to town zoning codes to offer incentives to developers to add moderate-income housing units. Those units would be set aside for teachers, police officers, members of Greenwich Emergency Medical Services and workers in other essential services in Greenwich.

Since the task forces recommendations were adopted in 2015, two projects that included moderate-income units have been proposed. One for Sheephill Road in Riverside was approved. But another for Sound Beach Avenue in Old Greenwich did not go forward. Both projects faced heavy resistance from neighbors.

In 2012, Fareri built an apartment building on Old Track Road in Greenwich that included moderate-income units.

The balance point is between the need to preserve the neighborhoods character and the need to increase and preserve the supply of moderate-income housing for the towns workforce as well as for seniors on fixed incomes and young adults, said Town Director of Planning and Zoning Katie DeLuca, who is overseeing work on the 2019 POCD.

Since the 2015 task force recommendations, five new apartment units designated as moderate-income housing have been built as part of approved complexes in town  with an additional 22 approved but yet to be built.

It is very gratifying to speak with the tenants of the existing units and hearing the substantial impact it has had on their lives and of the community they serve, DeLuca said.

The inclusion of the moderate-income housing has been pushed heavily during the Planning and Zoning Commissions review of the proposals. Tesei, the attorney representing Fareri, said the developer is committed to providing needed housing in the area.

Fareri also plans to improve pedestrian and traffic safety, widen nearby Valley Drive, and improve sewers in the area. Tesei told commission members that if the applications were denied, they might not like what could be built instead.

If this project is not approved by this commission, those lots will be developed and they will be developed separately, he said at a meeting Tuesday. Theyll be developed commercially and you wont have the safety features.

Neighbors showed up in force at Tuesdays hearing, with many speakers saying they had not been aware the developments were up for review until recently. Only one member of the public spoke at a commission hearing on the developments in January. But on Tuesday, there were more than three hours of speakers and questions about the 585 W. Putnam proposal alone.

Every speaker opposed the project, citing concerns about traffic, pedestrian and vehicle safety and neighborhood character and calling on the commission to turn down the proposals. Several speakers complained about the planned loss of trees and the removal of the rock outside 585 W. Putnam as well.

Saying Greenwich deserves better, nearby resident Tracy Lavery said the town has changed since his family moved here 35 years ago.

We have seen Greenwichs beauty and character under constant attack from real estate developers who dont care if they destroy, one project at a time, what makes Greenwich so special, Lavery said. This situation has intensified on the Post Road in Western Greenwich in recent years.

Critics of the plans point to the potential increase in traffic as a huge issue. Annette Wilson said the Citarella, another Fareri project across the street from 585 W. Putnam, has caused major congestion problems. Wilson worried what another supermarket would do, especially with deliveries by tractor-trailers.

Although the addition of moderate-income apartments is seen as a positive, even by those objecting to the project, they would come at too great a cost to Western Greenwich, critics said.

Neighbor Nick Cataldo said the quality of life in the area would be jeopardized  all while Fareri would gain through the zoning variances that come with the moderate-income housing.

Cataldo was one of the leading voices in the opposition to the twice-defeated development proposals for the Post Road Iron Works site at 345 W. Putnam Ave. Plans for senior housing and then for a 355-unit apartment complex were both shot down after failing to get the needed town land use approvals.

The first defeat came in 2012, at which time the Greenwich Neighborhood Preservation Association was formed. It rose up again in 2016 to battle the apartment plan. The group has not been as outspoken for the 500 and 585 W. Putnam plans, but Cataldo is a member of the group as well as an engineer.

On Thursday, Cataldo said the current proposals would defeat all the benefits for the community that could come from adding housing and developing the area. A lot could be done to make the area safer for pedestrians and drivers, he said, but not with the large developments that Fareri is proposing. Cataldo said the development plans need to be better integrated into the surrounding area.

Lin Lavery, another neighbor and opponent, is a former town selectman who was in office as the 2009 POCD was developed. She said she supported its goals, including the increase in moderate-income housing. But Lavery also said the conservation aspects of the POCD must be remembered and the character of residential neighborhoods preserved.

Lavery said she supports improvements at 581 and 585 W. Putnam, calling the buildings there derelict. But it is critical to get it right and protect the quality of residential neighborhoods, she said.

Given the rundown conditions at 581 W. Putnam, Tesei said the commission should be proud to support the proposed development. He told the commission he would hate like hell to see you throw out the baby with the bathwater because you may have a handful of people who may or may not have an opinion thats different than yours and different than mine.

The applications are likely to come back before the Planning and Zoning Commission at its March 19 meeting. An unlike the Post Road Iron Works proposals, Fareris plans are within town zoning regulations in all respects, Tesei said.

The commission offered suggestions, which could be addressed at that meeting, about adding more trees along the streetscape, adjusting entrance and exit points for 585 W. Putnam and possibly eliminating a connector driveway from the office park to the new development.

Calling the project a community win, Tesei has urged the commission to look at the benefits, which would fuel a revitalization effort for that part of West Putnam Avenue.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
GREENWICH  Students at Old Greenwich School might start predicting snow days, thanks to a weather station installed this school year for science classes.

With the station, students at the school on Sound Beach Avenue can track the peculiar weather patterns of the area, learn how to read and analyze data and yes, even call late starts and early dismissals. Residents can check the stations readings on Weather Underground.

You cannot get more real-life than whats happening with the weather, Principal Jen Bencivengo said.

Old Greenwich is the second school to get a weather station, after Hamilton Avenue, which received a station when it became a STEM magnet school. The station, purchased with a $7,500 grant from the Greenwich Alliance for Education, was installed in November.

Instruction on how to use the weather station started this year. (From October until December, Cos Cob School students had class in the science room while their school was repaired after a flood.)

A data station inside the library is connected to the weather station outside. It reads temperature, humidity, the date and time, barometric pressure, wind direction, speed and windchill, as well as the rate and amount of rainfall.

The station fits in at Old Greenwich because the area has a unique weather pattern, said Julie Faryniarz, president of the Greenwich Alliance for Education.

John Pellino, associate director for programming and instruction at the Talcott Mountain Science Center, called weather in Old Greenwich tricky because it is near Long Island Sound and where western and southern flows meet.

Talcott Mountain trains kindergarten through 12th grade teachers during the summer and provides curriculum and materials online, too. Pellino has leading the training sessions for Old Greenwich teachers.

The station comes as the new science curriculum emphasizes real-world applications, and employers need future workers who can read, understand and manipulate data.

There is no end to what data you can collect and contribute, Pellino said. This amount of data is a big jumping-off point for kids who want to do science projects.

A longtime science fair judge, he can attest that judges give more weight to projects in which students use original data.

Working with the data also prepares students for jobs that are in high demand. Future careers in finance, weather and artificial intelligence all have one thing in common: a need for data scientists.

Right now, if you want to write your own ticket as far as professional in science, data science is it, Pellino said. That is one thing we never predicted.

Talcott Mountain has been a helpful resource for Old Greenwich, Bencivengo said. Next year, the school will not have the Greenwich Education Alliance grant, but it will have support from its PTA.

Special-needs students at OG also learn how to read the data with a practical application: So they can determine whether they can go outside for recess.

For some kids, its entry level, but its purposeful, Bencivengo said.

Old Greenwich students share the data with Eastern Middle School and Greenwich High School.

Eastern Middle School science teacher Steve Farnum, who is also the parent of a child in Old Greenwich, allows his students to use the weather station data to examine trends, Bencivengo said.

Some Greenwich High School students, taught by Amy Farnum, also use data from the weather station in class.

Weather data from a residential area with a unique weather pattern is more realistic than readings from the airport, Pellino said.

This kind of data makes a huge difference, he said.

MJ Foti, a member of the independent grants committee that reviewed the application, appreciates that the station makes science real for students.

This get kids into science, as opposed to watching it, Foti said.

jo.kroeker@hearstmediact.com
In six days, dental professor launched first clinic in Iraq to treat families displaced after ISIS attacks

During the Khanke Camp clinics first weekend, Shibly performed cleanings and extractions for four women. Photo: University at Buffalo

UBs Othman Shibly to return to Iraqi Kurdistan on March 31 to treat 2,500 children

Othman Shibly, clinical professor and assistant dean for diversity and inclusion in the UB School of Dental Medicine

The Yezidis were in desperate need of dental care. Dental care that could not only enhance their health, but their self-esteem and create an opportunity for healing. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  Othman Shibly did not plan to perform any dental work during his first visit to Iraqi Kurdistan. However, a six-day trip to assess the needs of a Yezidi displacement camp led the University at Buffalo professor to launch the camps first dental clinic.

The new dental clinic, established in the Khanke Internally Displaced Population Camp in Duhok, Iraq, will provide the areas nearly 16,000 women and children with their first oral health care in five years.

The clinic was established with the support of the Global Motherhood Initiative, UB School of Dental Medicine, University of Duhok College of Dentistry, Henry Schein Cares Foundation and the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS).

Shibly will return to Khanke Camp with several UB School of Dental Medicine alumni to deliver oral health care to 2,500 children from March 31 to April 4.

The populations that are most affected and vulnerable during times of war are women and children, says Shibly, DDS, clinical professor and assistant dean for diversity and inclusion in the UB School of Dental Medicine.

The Yezidis were in desperate need of dental care. Dental care that could not only enhance their health, but their self-esteem and create an opportunity for healing.

From concept to clinic in six days

Shibly is no stranger to launching dental clinics with limited time and resources. Since 2012, he has helped open and support more than 20 dental clinics for Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.

When representatives from Global Motherhood Initiative, a nongovernmental organization that integrates health care with trauma therapy and psychosocial support, learned of Shiblys efforts, they invited him to Iraqi Kurdistan to assess the oral health needs of the Yezidi community living in Khanke Camp.

Khanke Camp is home to 16,000 people, mostly women and children, who became displaced in 2014 after an attempted genocide by the Islamic State destroyed their communities. Thousands of the women are victims of sexual violence.

No dental services have been offered in the camp since its inception. Although care is available in the nearby city Duhok, few of the camps residents have the money or resources available to pay for treatment or transportation.

During Shiblys visit on Jan. 31, he found cases of severe gum disease, tooth decay and broken teeth.

Some of my friends told me that the work Im doing to help Syrian refugees is enough, and any more would be too much. I told them what I always say to my students at UB, we should be like the sun. Anyone under it, human or animal, should feel its warmth, says Shibly.

I hope that what we at UB did, and will do, for the Yezidi women will be a step toward their healing. No woman in this time and age should suffer these types of abuses and crimes.

To start the clinic, Shibly relied on both previous partners and establishing new connections with organizations in the area.

Global Motherhood Initiative and Yezidi leaders helped him secure a location in Khanke Camp for the clinic. The group hired a plumber and electrician to supply the building with water and power.

The Henry Schein Cares Foundation supported the mission by providing dental instruments and supplies, and the UB School of Dental Medicines Miles for Smiles program helped cover the cost of locally purchasing a dental unit (including a chair, sterilizer and amalgamator).

Shibly also partnered with the University of Duhok to gather manpower. More than 100 dental students from the university will support the mission trip at the end of the month.

During the clinics first weekend, Shibly performed cleanings and extractions for four women. When he returns on March 31, he plans to treat thousands of children. He will be assisted by School of Dental Medicine alum Yousef Al Awadhi, DDS, a pediatric dentist based in Kuwait.

Building a sustainable model

To establish consistent care in Khanke Camp, Shibly secured funding from SAMS to hire a full-time dentist to work in the dental clinic.

He also aims to train and hire several Khanke Camp residents as community health care workers. The program would provide members of the Yezidi community with jobs and broaden access to basic oral health preventive care treatment, such as filling cavities and delivering fluoride varnishes.

The program is being tested in Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon. Shibly, with the help of SAMS and the Henry Schein Cares Foundation, trained and hired six full-time health care workers from refugee communities to assist camp dentists in providing care.

Shibly will return to Lebanon in May to evaluate the quality of their work and survey parents and children on the workers performances. If the program is deemed successful, the model will be implemented in Iraqi Kurdistan.
From March 8th through the 17th, the SXSW festival which initially began in 1987 will radically transform downtown Austin, Texas into the epicenter for all things technology, music, and movies.

If youve never been to SXSW before, its like spring break for adults. However, it's also an opportunity where legitimate business is transacted and access to VIP, invite-only experiences is a valuable commodity.

Personally, SXSW 2019 is my fourth time attending the interactive or tech-focused part of the extravaganza. My first time visiting (2016) is where an initial off-chance meeting in a hotel lobby bar led to a fruitful business relationship which allowed me to quit my corporate job years later which is why I regularly advocate colleagues if there is one conference out of the entire year that you should attend its without a doubt SXSW.

According to Chief Programming Officer Hugh Forrest, who is entering his 30th year with the festival, the mission of SXSW is to help creative people achieve their goals and celebrate creativity. Forrest advocates for having a game plan upon arrival whether its your first time or your tenth time attending SXSW. More specifically, Forrest says you should spend time figuring out who you want to meet and what you want to do, because if you dont have a game plan its easy to get overwhelmed  but, deviate from that game plan if something better happens."

Below are five things to do at SXSW that will help you get the most out of your experience:

1. Technology hacks

Its not uncommon to meet someone at SXSW and immediately ask, or be asked, for a business card. If youre like me, chances are you dont carry business cards with you, which is why LinkedIns Find nearby feature can up the ante on real-time matchmaking for following up after the conference.

Using this feature makes you appear tech savvy, and its a clever growth hack to increase your LinkedIn Connections without having to admit you dont carry business cards. Plus, you wont have business card clutter in your briefcase or backpack afterward. If you want to know whos also in town, run a filtered Twitter search to see who you follow is tweeting with #SXSW to easily identify and engage with people you want to meet.

2. Brand experiences and parties

A highlight of SXSW every year is the brand experiences, which are dedicated spaces that are bought out or rented by recognizable companies. A stroll through downtown Austin on the day before SXSW 2019 revealed that SAP, LG, and SONY would be hosting significant activations this year to feature A/R and V/R technology, celebrity appearances, performances and panels.

While the brand activations are typically the most in-demand experiences, most require either a full conference badge or an invitation to attend, which makes it hard to participate if you dont know someone on the inside. However, finding parties to attend isnt difficult at all. A quick Twitter search for SXSW parties reveals real-time updates including links where you can RSVP.

Speaking of Twitter, this year, Twitter is opening up its Twitter House to a broader audience of attendees where in the past its been strictly on an invite-only basis to Twitter clients and partners. A rep for Twitter shared a link with a variety of events which will take place through March 11th at its Rainey St. location. You can also sign up for the VIP Brand Summit event which I am personally hosting at WeWork on Saturday, March 9th.

3. Free food and networking

Although Austin is known for its world-famous BBQ and Tex-Mex tacos, SXSW attendees are typically able to get a free bite and adult beverages simply by rolling into a brand experience or finding someone to tag along with as a plus-one to a VIP party.

However, if you have time to sit down for a meal, be sure to head over to Lamberts BBQ, which is also playing host to the Brand Innovators annual event which is also free for professionals and marketers alike.

4. Getting around Downtown Austin

If its your first time coming to SXSW, be prepared to walk a lot and expect longer-than-usual wait times for ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft. This year it seems as though Bird and Lime electric scooters are the way to go if youre looking to hop around from destination to destination quickly. Fortunately, downtown Austin is easily walkable, and everything is within a stone's throw of the convention center.

5. Exclusive meetings

SXSW can be overwhelming because theres a lot to do and take in from a content standpoint. There are also a lot of people to meet if youre on a mission to grow your business pipeline and make fruitful connections, which is why its critical to know how to pull away from the hustle and bustle of the festival and retreat to somewhere thats quiet and more intimate if youre setting up a meeting.

Two venues which come to mind are the JW Marriott on 2nd Street, the lobby has plenty of seating and is a centralized meeting point. Also, WeWork at 600 Congress offers private offices and space, which are ideal for on-the-fly presentations and pitches.

Those pitches are likely to come your way, provided that youre finding yourself in right places and meeting the right people. The keyword at SXSW is serendipity -- you never know who you will meet, or how they might suddenly change the trajectory of your business or career.

Watch more videos from Carlos Gil on his YouTube channel here. Follow Carlos Gil on Instagram @CarlosGil83.

Related:

5 Ways to Optimize Your Trip to SXSW

6 startups mexicanas triunfaron en Texas gracias a su buen pitch

Una decena de emprendedores mexicanos conquistaran Texas en el festival South by Southwest



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Kentucky's Bernheim Forest will be welcoming three giant visitors to its giant woods.

As part of the forest's 90th anniversary, Danish artist, Thomas Dambo is creating three forest giants that will live at Bernheim.

The giants are made from recycled and repurposed materials that otherwise would be thrown away.

One giant is complete; the rest are expected to be finished by March 15.

Dr. Mark Wourms, executive director at Bernheim, hopes the sculptures inspire people to recycle and take care of the planet.

"We want them to understand that they can play a role in protecting forests and water and air and wildlife," said Wourms.

Wourms welcomes the public to watch Dambo and his team create the giants.
TORRINGTON- State Sen. Henri Martin (R-31) and state Rep. Laura Devlin (R-134), the Senate and House Ranking members of the Legislatures Transportation Committee, along with local legislators Sen. Craig Miner (R-30th), Sen. Kevin Witkos (R-8th), Rep. Jay Case (R-Winsted) and Rep. John Piscopo (R-Granby) invite the public to attend an informational forum on tolls at Torrington City Hall at 7 p.m., March 11.

The event will provide time for residents to share their concerns, get their questions answered about the proposals that are being considered, and discuss potential alternatives to tolls.

Torrington City Hall is located at 140 Main St.,

For more information, contact State Sen. Henri Martins office at (860) 240-8800 or State Rep. Laura Devlins office at 1-800-842-1423

Explore vernal pools at Flanders

WOODBURY  Residents are invited to learn about Flanders vernal pools and amphibian breeding places on Saturday, March 16 at 8 p.m.

Vernal pools are fishless temporary spring ponds that form in the forest essential to many amphibians and other aquatic creatures. During this program, Ph.D. biologist and DEEP Certified Master Naturalist Edward Boisits will discuss the importance of vernal pools. Then the group will head into the night to try to get a glimpse of some pools and see what their nocturnal inhabitants are up to.

The group will meet at the Flanders Sugar House located a quarter mile up from the intersection of Flanders and Church Hill Road. The cost is $5 for members and $10 for non-members. All ages are welcome and pre-registration is requested. Participants should plan on wearing boots and bringing flashlights and/or headlamps. Those interested may register online at www.flandersnaturecenter.org or call 203-263-3711, ext. 10, for more information.

CHH offers free smoking cessation classes

TORRINGTON  Charlotte Hungerford Hospital (CHH) will be offering its popular Freedom From Smoking cessation program in Winsted as part of their ongoing efforts to help smokers kick the habit and live smoke free. CHH is partnering with Northwestern Connecticut Community College in support of their current plan to create a smoke, vape and tobacco free campus in 2019.

The program features discussion and skill sessions led by trained, certified American Cancer Society facilitators who understand the motivations and rationalizations of smoking, and use a positive behavior change approach that teaches people how to become permanent non-smokers. Participants attend eight interactive classes with Quit Day midway through the session.

The program will be offered on Tuesdays in Winsted at Northwestern Connecticut Community College in Founders Hall, 4-5:30 p.m. beginning March 19 for 7 consecutive weeks.

In this step-by step program, participants will receive the personal attention they need to help them quit smoking and transition to a healthier, smoke free lifestyle through education, relaxation techniques, and methods of preventing weight gain. says Sandy Markus, long time smoking program facilitator.

As a special incentive, the $75 program fee will be waived for all participants. Call 860-496-6538 to register or receive more information. Space is limited.

According to the American Cancer Society, tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the US, yet millions of Americans still smoke. For more information about smoking and its dangers, visit the American Cancer Society website at www.cancer.org.

Technical school to hold open house

TORRINGTON - Oliver Wolcott Technical High School, part of the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System (CTECS), will hold an open house for prospective students and their families on Monday, March 11, 6-8 p.m. at 75 Oliver Street, Torrington. Wolcott Tech is accepting applications for students entering grades 9 and 10 in fall 2019.

The open house provide prospective students with information about academics and the 12 trade areas offered by the technical school. Trades include automotive collision repair and refinishing; automotive technology; carpentry; culinary arts; electrical; hairdressing and cosmetology; health technology; plumbing, heating, and cooling; electronics technology; graphics technology; mechanical design and engineering; and precision machining.

For more information about the open house, contact the school at 860-496-5300 and ask for the main office. Visit wolcott.cttech.org to download an application.

Market to hold winter harvest dinner

LITCHFIELD  The Litchfield Hills Farm-Fresh Market will host a Winter Harvest Dinner, March 16, 6-10 p.m. at Mockingbird Kitchen and Bar, Bantam.

Chef Samantha Tilley, owner of Mockingbird, is the dinners executive chef, and has offered to host the dinner at her restaurant. Tilley will be joined by contributing chefs Carol Byer-Alcorace, executive chef for the summer Farmers Table Dinners; and baker Barbara Mojon-Gugnoni, who has done the desserts for both the summer and harvest dinners.

Dinner ingredients provided by vendors and other local CT producers including Arethusa Farm, Earths Palate Farm, Plum Brook Chocolate, Bantam Bread, Laurel Ridge Farm, Stella Rose Farm, Berry Ledges Apiary, Maple View Farm, Troy Brook Bakery, Birdseye/Tanner Brook Farm, Mohawk Mtn. Mushrooms, Twin Pines Farm, Brookside Farm, Olive Oil Factory, Wave Hill Bread, and Cato Corner Farm. All proceeds from the event support the markets educational programs.

Tickets are $100 per person. Reservations confirmed with receipt of payment, first come first served. Tickets available at http://www.litchfieldfarmersmarket.org/winter-harvest-2019.html. Or mail a check to Winter Harvest Dinner, c/o LHF-FM, PO Box 607, Litchfield, CT 06759.
This appeared in Friday's Washington Post.

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The House last week passed two major gun-control bills. We say "major" not because they would lead to sweeping changes in policy. In fact, they are pretty modest. They are major, though, in contrast with Congress' total inaction on gun control in recent years. The last effort came in 2013, in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre. A bipartisan bill to enhance federal background checks failed in the Senate.

Mass shooting after mass shooting occurs unanswered, while everyday gun violence takes its less spectacular but far more deadly toll. But in the 2018 elections, in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, shooting, voters elevated a new crop of Democrats committed to fighting the carnage. The two House bills are the first tangible indication the new majority is unafraid of the gun lobby.

The bills would take useful steps. The first would close loopholes that allow people to avoid background checks in many gun sales and transfers. Parties to private sales would have to find a federally licensed dealer to conduct a proper background check. The second bill would give federal authorities 10 days, up from the current three, in which to conduct their background checks. This would close the "Charleston loophole," which allowed a racist zealot to buy guns because his quick background check did not reveal information about a drug arrest. He went on to slaughter worshipers in an African-American church in South Carolina.

There should be little serious opposition to these measures. If the federal government is going to have background checks, they should be effective and universal. Gun enthusiasts cite the ideal of a well-trained, responsible and armed populace. They cannot then logically oppose measures meant to ensure that gun buyers are, in fact, responsible citizens.

Yet almost every Republican voted against the measures, and in the Republican-controlled Senate their prospects are grim. Even if Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., brought the bills to a vote, it is unlikely they would fare any better than the 2013 Manchin-Toomey compromise that failed to attract 60 votes. On top of which, President Donald Trump has promised a veto.

This political reality says more about Senate Republicans and Trump than it does about the legislation's merits. Though this year House Democrats might succeed only in expressing where they stand on the issue, at least they have elevated it and shown that the National Rifle Association does not control both parties and both sides of the Capitol. Democrats' newfound willingness to broach the issue and stand up to the bullies of the NRA carries the possibility of progress down the road.
There seems to be some disagreement as to whether a sitting president can be indicted. I should think the Founding Fathers would regard this as a false argument. They were quite clear that the impeachment process they provided for in the Constitution was an indictment process of a sitting president.

They did not see it as a quasi indictment process, as I have heard it described, but as a full indictment process, making a reference to it four times in the document: Article I, Section 3, two references; Article II, Section 4; and Article III, Section 1. The Founding Fathers viewed the impeachment process to be similar to a grand jury indictment process, which they were fully aware of, and which they confined to a political arena, namely, to the House and Senate of the U.S. Congress, turning the House into a grand jury and the Senate into a trial court.

Debates on this question are not addressing a constitutional issue, as is believed. They are avoiding the Constitution itself and represent false debates and false discussions. Its just as false to say that the U.S. Supreme Court has to settle this matter. The Constitution settles it. Since indicting a sitting president is a provision in the Constitution, this is not a constitutional issue. What is at issue is people not recognizing, or showing an unwillingness to recognize, a quacking duck when they are looking at and listening to a quacking duck.

It has been said that a sitting president cannot be indicted for criminal charges. This was not the view of the Founding Fathers. They saw possible criminal charges being part of impeachment charges. In Article II, Section 4, they make a reference to Bribery, and also to high Crimes, without spelling out what they meant by that term. The latter term was not a reference to Treason, because that term is mentioned in Section 4, along with Bribery and high Crimes.

For the Founding Fathers, political and criminal charges could be impeachment charges, and conviction of them would result in a president being removed from office. Proof that the Founding Fathers felt that criminal charges could be part of an impeachment indictment is the fact, as the first reference to impeachment in Article I stipulates, a president convicted and removed from office could, once out of office, be libel and subject to Indictment, Trial Judgement, and Punishment according to Law. In other words, tried in a count of law for criminal acts that were part of the impeachment process and charges.

It has been said by some of President Trumps supporters that he, as president, could pardon himself. That certainly would not be what the Founding Fathers had in mind. What would be the point of establishing an impeachment process if the president was going to be allowed to overrule it? The Founding Fathers provided two specific ways for a president to be removed from office: being voted out or being removed by an impeachment process.

The question has been raised as to whether the president is above the law. The Founding Fathers would consider this question to be absurd. The president is given functions under the Constitution. None of them have anything to do with the president being above the law or acting outside the law. The question for a sitting president is whether he is violating the Constitution and his constitutional functions. Engaging in criminal behavior would certainly be in violation of those functions.

Since a sitting president, under the Constitution, can be impeached for political and criminal actions, and be removed from office for such, it would seem he would be acting in an unconstitutional manner if he pardoned individuals who could give testimony against him in an investigation of his own criminal activities. He would not be able to do that constitutionally during an impeachment process that involved the criminal charges. Making the effort to do so would be both an abuse of presidential power and obstruction and both would be impeachable offenses  because the Constitution says the president can grant Reprieves and Pardons or Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment; and that would seem to include his own impeachment.

However, there is a serious reason for probing this question, because of a policy established by the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Attorney Generals Office that too many take at face value. The OLC policy states that it is unconstitutional for a sitting president to be indicted. This policy is said to be binding on the U.S. attorney general, the deputy attorney general and a special prosecutor. This policy is obviously fallacious and is itself an abuse of the Constitution.

Neither the U.S. attorney general, nor any agency, division, department or official in the Department of Justice can declare anything to be constitutional or unconstitutional! The Constitution does not invest the DOJ with that kind of power. The federal judicial system determines what is constitutional or unconstitutional. This is a clear usurpation and abuse not only of DOJ power, but also of executive branch power. Even the Congress cant declare something to be constitutional or unconstitutional.

For the AG, others in his office, and those outside the office who say that an indictment of a sitting president would hamper carrying out the duties of the office, this was not something that was a special bother to the Founding Fathers. They knew full well that an impeachment process would hamper a president functioning in office. But they thought it was imperative to have a means to be able to remove a president from office when the need arose and not have to wait for a presidential election to do so. They were particularly fearful of a president endeavoring to act as a monarch and not having to observe laws, or constitutional or congressional legislative restraints exercising executive power, and having to wait for another presidential election to remedy the situation.

William Wright is professor emeritus of American history at Southern Connecticut State University.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 8)  Nadine Lustre admitted that she first felt wary about not working with her boyfriend James Reid on her latest film "Ulan."

"I guess in the beginning, I did worry about it," Lustre told CNN Philippines' The Source on an episode aired Friday. "But when I read the script po kasi, it's a really nice material. Even me, I fell in love with the story."

Lustre said working separate from Reid would allow them to grow individually.

Ulan is the first time Lustre worked on a film project without Reid since 2015 horror flick Chain Mail. Reid, meanwhile, starred without Lustre in the 2018 remake of the South Korean film Miss Granny.

Lustre, who plays "Maya" in Ulan, said Reid is very excited for the film and is curious about its storyline.

"He's also asking me bakit may [why is there a] tikbalang," she said.

The trailer for the upcoming romantic drama film features creatures from Filipino mythology, including a tikbalang  half-human, half-horse  getting married and ushering the rain.

The element of rain is also a main feature in the film's plot, its director Irene Villamor said.

"Lumaki siya [She grew up] with her pamahiin, superstitions ng lola niya [of her grandmother.] Everything associated with the rain, she feels that everything that's happening in her life is associated with the rain," Villamor told The Source.

Villamor added, "She feels that mayroong maganda or masama na mangyayari sa kanya tuwing umuulan. But she feels cursed in the present."

[Translation: She feels that something good or bad will happen to her everytime it rains. But she feels cursed in the present.]

She also said that the movie will also dwell on Maya's relationship with herself, her past self and all the supernatural elements associated with her life.

While refusing to discuss any further details on the film's storyline, Villamor said viewers will leave the theater asking about their role in the universe.

For her part, Lustre said she hopes that everyone gets inspired after watching the film.

"Sana [Hopefully] everyone finds the lesson of this movie very useful for them, and of course because this is a very unusual kind of movie," she said.

Ulan will premiere in theaters on March 13.




Haiti - Politic : Haiti ranked last in the Caribbean and Latin America zone for women's rights





The new index, presented in the World Bank report "Women, Business and the Law 2019 : A Decade of Reforms", published end of February 2019, assesses the important stages of a woman's professional life, from the first job to the retirement benefits, as well as the legal protections associated with each of these steps. The data cover a period of ten years, and each of the 187 countries analyzed was scored according to eight indicators.



In this new index, Haiti obtains a general score of 58.17 out of 100 and ranks 157th in the world out of 187 countries and last in the Caribbean zone and Latin America, behind Dominica (score 62.5)



Compared Dominican our neighbor gets an overall score of 88.57 out of 100 and 43rd in the world and 5th out of 187 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America behind Saint Lucia (89.38) Ecuador (89.38), Paraguay and Peru 94.38 (95.00)



The world ranking is dominated by Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Sweden who score 100/100.



The 3 worst countries in the world are Sudan (186th 29.38), United Arab Emirates (186th with 29.28) and Saudi Arabia (187th with 25.63)



Results by indicator (higher score is less for women)



1) Travel: Indicator that examines traffic constraints

Haiti: 50/100 - Dominican Republic 100/100



2) Starting a job: Indicator impact of laws that influence women's decisions to want to work

Haiti: 50/100 - Dominican Republic 100/100



3) Remuneration: Indicator that analyzes legislative and regulatory measures concerning women's wages

Haiti: 75/100 - Dominican Republic 75/100



4) Marriage: Indicator that assesses legal constraints related to marriage

Haiti: 40/100 - Dominican Republic 100/100



5) Children: Indicator that analyzes laws that affect women's work after having children

Haiti: 20/100 - Dominican Republic 60/100



6) Leading a business: An indicator that analyzes the constraints faced by women starting and running a business

Haiti: 75/100 - Dominican Republic 100/100



7) Asset Management: An indicator that analyzes gender differences in ownership and inheritance

Haiti: 80/100 - Dominican Republic 100/100



8) Pension / Retirement: Indicator that assesses laws that affect the size of a woman's pension

Haiti: 75/100 - Dominican Republic 75/100



The report highlights that women's right to work is progressing while recognizing that there are still many obstacles in different countries.



In addition, this Friday, March 8, celebration of the International Women's Day, the United Nations in Haiti reiterate their support for the efforts of the Government of Haiti to promote gender equality and the participation of women in public life, whether political, social or economic, as well as to eradicate any kind of violence against women, which affects at least one in four women in Haiti.



The Ministry for Women's Affairs and Women's Rights has adopted the national theme "Lape ak prwogre/devlopman se zafe fanm yo tou" (The peace and progress / development is also the case of women )



"The United Nations family in Haiti alongside Haitian and Haitian to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals and the target of Haiti to become an emerging country by 2030, representing a commitment to Haiti with his children and grandchildren for a better future. Achieving these goals is only possible with a real gender equality and women's participation [...]," said Mamadou Diallo, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General, Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Coordinator of the 19 agencies, funds and United Nations programs in Haiti.



The United Nations family in Haiti supports the authorities and their partners in a series of awareness and training activities to be held from March 8 to April 3 National Day of the Movement of Haitian Women and invites on reflection on the role of women as key actors in sustainable development. According to studies by different UN agencies, countries investing in women's and girls' real participation in social, economic and political life are becoming more prosperous and resilient to cope with natural hazards and other crises.



SL/ HaitiLibre


















The Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center in Hampton Bays was founded by Virginia Frati in the late 1990s to provide care and rehabilitation for injured wildlife. It's the only facility of its kind on Long Island. The Center cares for and rehabilitates injured wildlife until they are able to be released back into the wild. Some that cannot be fully rehabilitated have permanent homes there. Saunders & Associates agent Jane Gill, a member of the Center's Board of Directors, is involved in making major decisions, and as a trained handler for birds of prey she is...
A truck is parked out front of the former Kmart building as a worker does routine work on the site's pipes Jan. 29. North 40 Outfitters confirmed this morning that its Havre store will be moving into the building with an opening date tentatively set for later this year.

The North 40 Outfitters company issued a press release this morning confirming it is moving its Havre store out of Havre Holiday Village Mall into the former location of the Havre Kmart at 3180 U.S. Highway 2 West.

The release said remodeling will begin almost immediately and the opening in the new location is tentatively set for later this year.

Watch for more in today's Havre Daily News.
David Wall, a phlebotomist with American Red Cross, checks for a vein in the arm of donor Jen Henderson Thursday at Triangle Communications in Havre. According to Henderson's information in the Red Cross database, this was her 32nd time donating.

The American Red Cross concluded a four-day blood drive Thursday after travelling the Hi-Line and collecting donations in multiple towns.

David Wall, a phlebotomist with the American Red Cross, said he and a group of about 10 Red Cross workers came to Havre from Great Falls Monday and spent their week collecting blood in Havre, Chinook, Harlem and Turner.

By the end of Thursday, Wall said, the organization had collected blood from about 250 people over the four-day drive, which he said was a typical amount for the group's bimonthly trip to the Hi-Line.

"It's always a nice week up here for us," he said. "It's one of the most productive weeks we have."

On this most recent trip to Havre, the Red Cross emphasized the donation of type O blood because O negative blood is a universal donor and O positive can be donated to a majority of the population. Wall said, however, that he encourages people of all blood types to donate when the Red Cross makes a trip up to Havre every eight weeks.

Havre Daily News/Ryan Berry Jen Henderson, of Havre, squeezes a stress ball ass blood pumps from her arm Thursday at Triangle Communications in Havre. As a donor is giving blood, they are asked to squeeze the ball every five seconds to keep blood flowing.

Havreite Jen Henderson said she donates blood as often as she can. According to data held by the American Red Cross, Thursday was Henderson's 32nd time donating blood, which means she has donated about four gallons of blood in her lifetime.

"I started a while ago, because it's a way to make a difference and give back," she said. "The more you do it, the easier it is."

The American Red Cross will return to Havre May 6 to hold a blood drive at St. Jude Parish Center, which Wall said is the largest event of the year in the region.

"It's one of the biggest draws in the state, actually," he said.

When he returns in May, Wall said, he expects to receive at least 90 donations, but he encourages more people to come out and donate.

"We always are going to need blood," he said. "It's a constant need, it's an easy way to help out and (donating) only takes about an hour total of your time."
Last updated 3/8/2019 at 11:29am

The Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees will meet Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Havre Middle School.

The agenda for the meeting is:

A. Call to order

1. Pledge of Allegiance

2. Roll call

3. Welcome to visitors

4. Presentation and display

 Academic Achievement Awards

4. Agenda deletions or corrections, if any

B. Unanimous consent agenda

C. Old business

D. New business

1. Consideration of Havre High School course changes for the 2019-20 school year, Ed Norman, presenter.

2. Resolution for permissive levies.

3. Request by North Star School District 99 to cross bounda...
"Rocky Hillsides," by Linda Pollington, is the featured art at Montana State University-Northern's Office of Diversity Awareness and Multicultural Programs in March.

Press release

In addition to celebrating Women's History Month during the month of March, Irish-American Heritage Month also is celebrated to honor the achievements and contributions of Irish immigrants and their descendants living in the United States.

Cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and, of course, New York, have the tradition of a large Irish, ethnic population. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush, proclaimed March as Irish-American Heritage Month.

The piece that Montana State University-Northern's Office of Diversity Awareness and Multicultural Programs is displaying this mont...
Democrats call for Henson to resign

State Rep. Cody Henson has received a copy of the criminal summons filed by the Transylvania County Sheriffs Office, his attorney J. Michael Edney told Carolina Public Press late Thursday.

Henson has been accused of cyberstalking, and the Sheriffs Office has said its investigating him for a crime against his estranged wife, Kelsey Henson. Cyberstalking is a Class 2 misdemeanor, according to state statute.

Last month, a judge granted Kelsey Henson a yearlong restraining order against Cody Henson. Carolina Public Press first published the restraining order, which was issued after Kelsey Henson said her estranged husband will not quit texting the plaintiff at all hours of the day.

Edney provided a statement after Rep. Henson received the criminal summons.

Rep. Henson looks forward to addressing this allegation in due course through our judicial system and will not attempt to litigate the matter through the media, Edney said. Cody will continue to focus his love and energy on his two beautiful children and will continue to represent the people of District 113.

Thursday morning, after CPP reported on the criminal summons, the N.C. Democratic Party, Democratic Women of North Carolina and a House Democratic leader issued calls for Hensons resignation.

Now that a judge has seen fit, after a hearing on the merits, to grant a permanent restraining order against Rep. Henson, there has been a finding of domestic violence on his part, said House Democratic Whip Rep. Deb Butler. There is no place for domestic violence in our society, particularly on the part of an elected official who purports to be a role model for our youth. In my opinion, he should resign.

House Republican leaders and state party leaders have not responded to requests for comment on Henson since the allegations of domestic violence against him became public in early February.

Edney said Rep. Henson is scheduled to be in court on March 28 at the Transylvania County Courthouse. However, District Attorney Greg Newman has recused himself from the case and plans to ask Attorney General Josh Stein for his office to prosecute the case, according to a report from WLOS of Asheville.

Henson represents Transylvania and Polk counties as well as much of Henderson County in the N.C. House of Representatives. If he were unable to complete his term, the Republican Party executive committee for the 113th District would select a replacement.
Almost 70% of Travis Perkins apprentices have achieved a merit or better since it became the first ever builders merchant to achieve Employer Provider status.

Providing standardised training to all its employees was a key requirement for the Group, however, with approximately 28,000 employees at more than 2,000 branches, stores and sites, delivering it was easier said than done.

Instead of relying on external training providers, the Travis Perkins Group applied to become an Employer Provider, an organisation able to deliver its own apprenticeship training in-house. In October 2017, it received its certification and, in the process, became the first ever builders merchant in Britain to achieve that status.

Since attaining Employer Provider status, it has helped its apprentices and staff achieve impressive pass rates - 35 employees have completed their apprenticeships, with almost 70% achieving a merit or better and more than 50% achieving a distinction, the highest mark possible. One area in which Travis Perkins is seeing significant success is in training its employees to become members of the companys management team.

Ryan Martin, 29, (pictured) is preparing to complete his Warehouse Operative apprenticeship at Travis Perkins Range Centre in Tilbury. After joining the company as a Warehouse Worker in 2017, Ryan quickly impressed his employers and was promoted to Team Leader. Realising that pursuing a career in a senior position with Travis Perkins was what he wanted to do, Martin applied for the companys Warehouse Operative apprenticeship  a course which would teach him how to successfully manage a team to the level expected of a Supervisor. He was accepted onto the one-year course in February 2018.

Martin said: Without the apprenticeship, I would never have been able to get to the position Im in now. It can take years to get to a Supervisor position but Im on track to achieve that in the next few months thanks to the apprenticeship.

Being responsible for some of the people I used to work alongside is a bit weird but the apprenticeship has really helped with that because its taught me how to think differently and how to be a better leader. Its made me appreciate how important it is to still be able to relate to the team and have a laugh with them. I like being able to tell them off from time to time too though!

28-year-old Paul Cracknell has been employed by Travis Perkins for five years and is a Branch Supervisor at the companys Hatfield site.

Like Martin, Cracknell wanted to pursue a career in a more senior role, so he embarked on a Level 2 Retail Apprentice apprenticeship to allow him to become an Assistant Branch Manager, in March 2018.

Since completing his apprenticeship in February 2019, Cracknell has secured a role as Assistant Branch Manager at Travis Perkins Managed Services site in Stevenage and is already considering his next move - his ambition is to do another apprenticeship which will enable him to become a Branch Manager.

Cracknell said: I loved every minute of my apprenticeship, especially the parts about how to manage a team - this was an area in which I had no experience at that time, so it was really interesting and helpful. I learned how to lead and motivate a team, while also making sure customer service remained everyones priority.

Receiving in-house training has been really helpful because youre learning from people with first-hand experience who really know what theyre talking about, and youre constantly being pushed and challenged to come up with better ways of doing things, which really helps prepare you for management opportunities. The amount of time Travis Perkins invests in apprentices and the number of opportunities the apprenticeships give you is really encouraging and I hope to stay with the company for as long as possible.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said comments by the UK's Northern Secretary Karen Bradley over deaths caused by soldiers and police during The Troubles were insensitive and wrong.

Ms Bradley faced calls to resign following the comments on Wednesday, which sparked criticism from victims of the security forces and nationalist political leaders.

Ms Bradley initially told MPs: "The fewer than 10pc [of killings] that were at the hands of the military and police were not crimes.

"They were people acting under orders and under instruction and fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way."

Grieving

Mr Varadkar said although he respects Ms Bradley, her comments were wrong considering the ongoing search for answers from some victims' families.

"Legacy issues in Northern Ireland, Britain and Ireland are very difficult," he said.

"I've met families who have lost loved ones during The Troubles and they're still grieving. A lot of them are still hurting and have questions that are unanswered and are seeking justice even today.

"In that context, I think the secretary of state's comments were insensitive and they were wrong.

"Bear in mind we're talking about the killing of civilians, not combatants. Peaceful protesters in Derry on Bloody Sunday, we're talking about Ballymurphy, Kingsmill and Dublin and Monaghan," Mr Varadkar said.

"We need a British government that is at least open to the possibility that these killings of civilians were crimes.

"Indeed, there have been convictions for such killings."

Asked if Ms Bradley should resign, Mr Varadkar said: "Not going to go there.

"It's not for me to determine the composition of any other government, that's something for the prime minister and Karen herself to decide."

Tanaiste Simon Coveney met Ms Bradley in Dublin on Wednesday night, and speaking during leaders' questions said there was a lack of sensitivity in the comments.

"The timing couldn't be worse," he said.

"When you look at what is likely to happen next week, when 14 families are waiting for a briefing from the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland. That is a very stressful time for them.

"When considering the timing of the judgment in relation to the Pat Finucane case, again which has heightened focus on legacy issues.

"When you look at the Police Ombudsman's investigation and the information flow from the PSNI, which again has raised real concerns.

Sensitivity

"When you look at ongoing requests for more information being released in relation to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, this is a time of real sensitivity.

"It's also a time of real sensitivity for many victims of violence and terrorism too.

"We are at a really sensitive point in Northern Ireland where legacy needs to be dealt with in a sensitive way.

"[Ms Bradley] is very aware of that. That is why she has issued a long statement and I hope that we will see direct contact with some of the families concerned to look to try to rebuild some trust and faith following yesterday's comments."

Ms Bradley sought to apologise in a statement yesterday.

"Yesterday I made comments regarding the actions of soldiers during The Troubles," she said.

"I want to apologise. I am profoundly sorry for the offence and hurt that my words have caused. The language was wrong and even though this was not my intention, it was deeply insensitive to many of those who lost loved ones."
A landlord acted like a "raging bull" when he seized house keys from a man who was staying at his property.

Adriatik Vodo (48) pinned the victim against a fence and forcibly robbed him of his keys and mobile phone, leaving him with a dislocated thumb.

The man said he was subletting an apartment in the accused's building, but father-of-four Vodo insisted he had never seen him before.

Judge Marie Keane said Vodo had acted "disgracefully", but could avoid four months in jail if he was found suitable for community service.

Vodo, a taxi driver, had pleaded not guilty to robbing Ernest Iacob at Cabra Park, Phibsboro, last April 12.

Mr Iacob told Dublin District Court that Vodo "came toward me like a raging bull" and "ripped the phone out of my hand" after he had taken a photo of the accused's car registration.

Vodo walked off and when Mr Iacob followed and asked him to return the phone, he replied "What mobile?" and said: "Give me the keys for the apartment."

Busted

Mr Iacob refused, and Vodo then went through his tracksuit pocket. He tried to stop him, but Vodo managed to get the keys.

During the robbery, Vodo pushed him against a fence, Mr Iacob said. His left thumb was dislocated and his lip was "busted" after the attack.

In cross examination, he told defence solicitor Rory Staines he had been living in the apartment for a year at the time and had met Vodo on multiple occasions.

Vodo told the court he had never seen Mr Iacob before, and when he questioned him he replied: "Who the f**k are you?" He said he told Mr Iacob: "I own this place."

Vodo claimed he was holding the keys and Mr Iacob grabbed them, pushed him and ran. He followed him, and it took five to 10 minutes to get them back from Mr Iacob, he said.

He said the keys were his own property and denied using force to get them back. He also denied taking the phone.

Judge Keane said Vodo had used a "considerable amount of force", his behaviour was "simply outrageous" and he "took the law into his own hands".
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has agreed to set up a serious case review of the probe into the murder of Clodagh Hawe and her three sons.

Clodagh (39), Liam (13), Niall (11) and Ryan (6) were killed in their home near Ballyjamesduff in August 2016 by Alan Hawe, who took his own life.

This new development, confirmed by gardai, follows a meeting between Drew Harris and Clodagh's family at Garda Headquarters in Dublin.

"Commissioner Harris told the family he has appointed Assistant Commissioner Barry O'Brien to conduct a serious case review of the investigation," a spokesperson said.

"The review team will take a number of weeks to establish. Commissioner Harris said the family will be kept informed as the review progresses."

The review will look at the garda response to the family's deaths, rather than the lead-up to the murders themselves.

Following yesterday's meeting, Clodagh's mother Mary and sister Jacqueline told members of the media that they welcomed the decision.

"We have had a very constructive two-and-a-half hour meeting with the Garda Commissioner," said Jacqueline Connolly. "He has agreed to conduct a serious case review. We look forward to being appraised of that process in two weeks time.

"Once again, we would like to thank the media for the respectful coverage around Clodagh, Liam, Niall and Ryan and for the support we have received from everyone around the country."

Gardai described the meeting as being conducted in a "dignified manner".

"It is welcome that the family found it productive and it helped provide clarity for them on some matters," a spokesperson said. "Commissioner Harris provided the family with information on the criminal investigation undertaken while also respecting the data protection rights and confidentially of those individuals who had given statements in the course of the investigation."

Earlier this year, the family was refused copies of the garda files from the original investigation into the murders. The have since been appealing for a new and full inquiry into the murders and to be given access to the garda files. They are also calling for a review of Ireland's inheritance law, in which a spouse can benefit financially from domestic murder.

In an interview with the Sunday Independent, Ms Connolly said that in the days and weeks after the killings, they slowly started to learn that they had few rights.

This began when they moved to have Hawe exhumed from the grave he shared with Clodagh, Liam, Niall and Ryan.

"Of course, when we tried to have the body exhumed we learned that we had no rights. It would be the Hawe family that would have the ultimate say whether there would or would not be an exhumation," she said.

Since the inquest, Clodagh's family have learned from the notes of his counsellor that Hawe had been viewing pornography at work and was experimenting with cross-dressing.

He had stated he had been caught "red-handed" and Ms Connolly and Ms Coll want to know what that refers to.
St Patrick's Day is set to be a barrel of laughs in the city, as comedians Deirdre O'Kane and Jason Byrne have been lined up as Grand Marshals for Dublin's annual parade.

The festival runs from March 14 to 18 this year and celebrates the Irish tradition of storytelling - Scealaiocht agus Seanchai - which is something organisers feel comedy goes hand in hand with.

They have now asked the funny pair to lead the parade, which kicks off at noon on March 17.

Ireland's Got Talent judge Jason and former Dancing With The Stars finalist Deirdre are also involved in the Paddy's Night in Support of Comic Relief event in the 3Arena, spearheaded by Deirdre, who said the role of Grand Marshal teed them up nicely for the evening gig.

Recently, Comic Relief ambassador Stacey Dooley faced a backlash when she posed with children in Africa while she was filming for the charity, with suggestions she was promoting the image of a "white saviour".

Desperate

Deirdre said it was "beyond her" why someone would criticise a person trying to help others.

"The refugee crisis is off the scale and there are people in desperate need," she said.

"If somebody has a profile or a public voice of some kind they will get the media attention a lay person will have to work much harder to get, so it makes sense.

"They have always gone hand in hand together, it's always been needed - there is a lot of people who have a voice who don't bother, who don't use it so why anybody would criticise Stacey Dooley or anybody else is beyond me. It is much easier to say no and not do it."

Deirdre is also planning a separate trip to Gaza for five days with Trocaire in the coming months. She said she had been spurred on by watching acclaimed documentary Gaza.

"It made me want to go even more. I realised this is a dire situation and I feel so desperately sorry for the people living there, they are trapped," she said.

"I do feel there is a sense of why are the world not helping us - and I think that is for all refugees, how can you go on with your lives and ignore this?"

Meanwhile, the comedian (50) admitted she almost joined another Irish comic on a very popular project.

She told the Herald she was close to joining the line-up of smash-hit comedy Derry Girls, in which Tommy Tiernan stars as Erin's bewildered dad Gerry.

The Louth woman, whose mother originally hailed from Derry, said she had been approached by the show before season one hit screens, but said "it didn't work out".

However, Deirdre was still a big fan of the show, saying: "It's nice to see something that is essentially parochial - they are not trying to make it accessible for America."
Irish researchers are close to developing a drug which may be able to prevent patients with the deadly condition sepsis from suffering multiple organ failure.

The early-stage research from the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI), which is still at pre-clinical stage, could lead to the first non-antibiotic treatment for sepsis.

Sepsis is a relatively rare but serious complication of infection, which needs a quick response to stop multiple organ failure and death.

It kills 3,000 people in Ireland every year but can be treated using antibiotics if caught early.

However, in many cases antibiotics are not effective due to drug resistance or delays in identifying the type of bacteria that has caused the infection.

It means there is a need for a non-antibiotic therapy that can be used at all stages of infection against all bacterial causes of sepsis.

The findings relating to the pre-clinical trial of the drug, known as InnovoSep, were presented to the college's annual research meeting yesterday.

Window

"There is only a short window of opportunity for treatment of sepsis with the early administration of antibiotics and fluid," said principal investigator and inventor of InnovoSep, Professor Steve Kerrigan.

"Our research has shown the InnovoSep candidate drug can prevent sepsis progression early or indeed treat advanced sepsis.

The drug appears to act by preventing the bacteria from getting into the bloodstream from the site of infection by stabilising the blood vessels so that they cannot leak bacteria and infect major organs.

"The promising results of the InnovoSep pre-clinical trial gives hope for a new non-antibiotic treatment of this condition that could be effective in both the early and more advanced stages of sepsis," Prof Kerrigan added.

The findings come after the heartbroken family of a Finglas teenager who died from sepsis succeeded in getting a health awareness campaign on to the Dublin Bus network, in the hope that more people will become aware of the dangers of the killer illness.

Sean Hughes, known as 'Lil Red', was only 15 when he died in Temple Street Hospital last year.

His family was "hugely grateful" to Dublin Bus for putting up the Lil Red's Legacy posters, which describe the symptoms of sepsis so that people can become more familiar with them.
An Irish nun who works in conflict-torn South Sudan is among 10 people honoured with a prestigious award by US First Lady Melania Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Sr Orla Treacy, from Bray, Co Wicklow, received the International Women of Courage Award at the State Department in Washington, along with nine others from around the world.

The other women honoured came from Bangladesh, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Montenegro, Myanmar, Peru, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.

Sr Treacy, who is a member of the Loreto congregation, was commended for working to empower young women and girls in South Sudan "at great personal risk and sacrifice".

Reality

She spends much of her time combating what she calls the "everyday reality" of families in South Sudan forcing young girls into arranged marriages.

Ms Trump said the trait of courage is "one of the qualities we need most in society".

"Courage is what divides those who only talk about change from those who actually act to change," Ms Trump said.

"Courage takes sacrifice, bravery and humility. It is the ability to put others first."

Human rights activists, police officers and an investigative journalist were among recipients of the award, created by the State Department in 2007.

Mr Pompeo separately recognised women in Iran for protesting the requirement that they wear a head covering in public, as well as a Ukrainian activist who died last year after she was attacked with sulphuric acid.
Trucker charged with killing fellow driver on I-81 in West Virginia

A trucker is charged with fatally shooting a fellow driver in a road rage incident that stretched along Interstate 81 in West Virginia.
Michele Ndoki Archives

Military prosecutors this Thursday, charged Barrister Michele Ndoki, one of the most prominent female lawyers in the country with rebellion. After spending over 10 days in detention in Yaounde, Barrister Ndoki appeared before military prosecutors on Thursday, and later transferred to the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde

The arrest of lawyer and president of the womens wing of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) party of Maurice Kamto, comes after that of Kamto and over 150 militants by the government of Cameroon, on a crackdown on protesters in the country, following provisions of the new terrorism law.

Michele Ndoki went into hiding when government began arresting members of her party late January, after a nation wide protest the CRM organised. She sustained a gunshot injury during the manifestations, although government later communicated that its soldiers didnt use live bullets on any one.

In an attempt to run to a neighbouring country, Barrister Ndoki was arrested and placed under custody. She was later charged with offences same as the leader of her party, which includes insurrection, hostility to the fatherland and rebellion.

Michele Ndoki became a household name in Cameroon, when she challenged its constitutional council, against the 2018 presidential elections results, which she thought was fraudulent. This is the second time Michele Ndoki got arrested by the government of Cameroon. An earlier protests in December 2018, against same elections, led to the arrest of over 50 militants in Douala. A court of First Instance in Bonanjo, dropped charges against her.

Her arrests and that of Kamto has received widespread criticisms from both national and international human rights advocates. The European Union condemned the arrest few days ago, calling on the government to release them and make a comfortable political platform in Cameroon. Earlier during an interview on some French channels in Paris, the US Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Naguy, expressed his disappointment on the same issue in Cameroon.

However, Cameroons government spokesperson, Rene Emmanuel Sadi, regretted that the US diplomat, didnt master the state of affairs in Cameroon. He said Ndoki, Kamto and co were arrested due to crimes against the fatherland.
Les femmes en politique W. Tchango

Thousands of women across Cameroon are celebrating the 34th edition of the International Womens Day, with a commitment to intensify fight against gender discrimination, despite earlier calls for boycott.

Although the International community celebrates this edition under the theme,  Think equal, build smart, innovate for change", Cameroon went for, Crusade against Gender Inequalities: Committing to the New Impetus."

For a week, Cameroonian women have been involved in human investment activities, round table discussions, work shops, exhibitions, on the role of women in the society and the importance a family or community, stands to gain in an equal country, which stakeholders believe is the new impetus. Celebrations in Yaounde was chaired by First Lady Chantal Biya.

Cameroon has made key strides toward gender equality and womens empowerment through major international commitments, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the Declaration of Heads of State and Government of the African Union on Equality Between Women and Men, and the Sustainable Development Goals. However, though these international and regional commitments take precedence over Cameroons national laws, customs, and traditions, the preference for customary laws remains, and means that discrimination against women continues in Cameroon, especially in rural areas. Feminists still believe Cameroon has a long way especially with fa few women governing public structures and voting laws.

However, todays March past was timid and under tight security in the North West and South West regions. Unlike previous years where at least 3000 women crowded the Commercial Avenue grandstand, less than a quarter of this number took part this year. Some political figures had called on women to boycott celebrations this Friday. Kah Walla of the Cameroon Peoples Party (CPP), the South West, North West Women Task Force(SNWOT) all called for a nationwide boycott, stating the lives of women and children killed in the crisis-hit region was more important ,than a simple March past and a fabric. They called on government and other stakeholders to provide ending solutions to the ongoing war. Apart from their call on a boycott, separatists had declared a ghost town this Friday across both regions.
Manila (CNN Philippines Life)  This weekend, join a discussion on call-out culture, watch Noli Me Tangere performed as an opera, attend a film producing workshop led by Monster Jimenez, advance your knowledge on beatmaking and DJ-ing at a workshop for women, trans, and non-binary individuals, catch lectures and workshops on the use of pineapple fiber in clothing, and enjoy a weekend of coffee, culture, and more at the first Manila Coffee Festival.

"Noli Me Tangere," The opera

This weekend, enjoy Jose Rizals masterpiece in a different format. Noli Me Tangere, The opera is showing at the Cultural Center of the Philippines from March 8 to 10 as a tribute to our National Hero, as well as a way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the cultural center.

Show dates are as follows: March 8, 8 p.m., March 9, 2 p.m., and March 10, 2 p.m. Seats are limited, so make sure to reserve in advance.

The CCP is located at Roxas Blvd., Malate, Pasay City. For ticket prices and other information, visit the Facebook event page or call 0947-168-1714, 0915-819-3459, or 02-998-2356.

Hashtag Cancelledt: Unpacking call-out culture

If youve spent a lot of time on social media, youve probably encountered the terms cancelled and call-out culture. In an era where people are calling for more accountability and awareness of what counts as offensive and acceptable, it may be vital to know the causes and consequences of these emerging ideas. This Saturday, from 5:30 p.m., join the join the group Usapang Lalaki  a group that aims to give women a safe space to discuss issues that affect them while allowing men to listen and learn in a non-judgmental environment  as they unpack call-out culture.

The discussion is happening at Tomato Kick Malingap, located at 19 Malingap St., Teachers Village, Quezon City. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

Sinemaestra: Producing Masterclass with Monster Jimenez

Filmmaker Monster Jimenez is holding a masterclass on film production this Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the UP Film Institute Film Studio in UP Diliman. This is the first session of UPFIs Womens Masterclasses, which will be held throughout the month of March.

Monster Jimenez is an award-winning writer and filmmaker who produced films like Apocalypse Child, and Respeto, among others.

UPFI Film Studio is located at the UP Film Institute Media Center Building, Ylanan Ave., UP Diliman, Quezon City. For registration details and more information, visit the Facebook event page.

Spoon X DJ Workspace

Aspiring DJs can look forward to Spoon this weekend  dubbed as a DJ work space for practical training with CDJs & turntables. DJs with basic knowledge are given the opportunity to practice, get feedback, and ask question in a workshop led by Berlin-based DJ resom. The workshop prioritizes admission to women, trans, and non-binary people.

The workshop is happening on Saturday, March 9, at 2 p.m, at XX XX. There is a participation fee of 500, inclusive of food and drinks.

XX XX is located at 20b, La Fuerza Plaza 1, 2241 Don Chino Roces Ave., Makati City. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

Pina-Seda activities for Womens Month

On Friday, March 8, the world celebrates International Womens Day. This year, the National Museum of the Philippines will celebrate the event with free lectures and workshops on the uniqueness and versatility of pineapple fiber, which is commonly used in Filipiniana formal wear.

There will be an exhibition at the National Museum of Anthropology where a traveling pina loom and other relevant objects will be on display, and lectures will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 n.n. and an embroidery workshop from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The National Museum of Anthropology is located at Rizal Ave., Manila. For reservations and more information, visit the Facebook event page.

Manila Coffee Festival

Coffee-lovers are in luck this weekend as the first ever Manila Coffee Festival will be held at the World Trade Center. The event will showcase the best in Philippine coffee and lifestyle and will be an opportunity for coffee enthusiasts to enjoy and bond over coffee, food, art, and music.

The event is happening on Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The World Trade Center is located at Pasay Ext. cor. Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., Pasay City. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.
As per sources, one group comprising at least five Pakistan-trained terrorists have reportedly arrived in Nikial in a black colour vehicle directly from Kotli terror camp in the PoK.

The group is reportedly being escorted by allegedly their handler named Haji Arif. They have been recently spotted near the LoC on the other side of the border in the Rajouri sector.

Another group comprising of six terrorists probably from the Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba have been spotted near village Mohra Shried at LoC and reportedly waiting for a favourable time to slip into the Indian side.

According to the intelligence inputs received by the security forces, these terrorists are being accompanied by few members of the Pakistan Armys Special Service Group.

The inputs regarding the possible infiltration attempt by Pakistan-supported terrorists coincides with intelligence warnings that Pakistan-backed terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) is planning to carry out another Pulwama-style terror strike in Jammu and Kashmir in the next 3-4 days, intelligence sources have warned.

According to the intelligence inputs, the Masood Azhar-led JeM has planned to carry out an IED attack in Qazigund and Anantnag of south Kashmir. This time, they plan to use a Tata Sumo SUV to execute their plans.

In view of the specifics, security has been beefed up across Jammu and Kashmir and the security agencies have been directed to remain on high alert mode.

This warning came hours after a grenade attack was executed at a bus stop in Jammu on 7th March which left one 17-year-old Mohammad Sharik from Haridwar in Uttarakhand dead and at least 30 others injured.

The security agencies arrested a Hizbul-Mujahideen member, Yasir Arhaan in connection with the grenade attack at the Jammu bus stand in the evening. He had later confessed to the crime and, during his interrogation, revealed that the attack was masterminded by the district commander of Hizbul Mujahideen in Kulgam, Farooq Ahmed Bhatt alias Omar.

The grenade blast comes on the backdrop of the Pulwama Terror Attack that martyred over 40 soldiers of the CRPF. India had responded to it with airstrikes within Pakistani territory that led to tensions between India and Pakistan.

Source : Op India
A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by chief justice Ranjan Gogoi, on Friday ordered mediation in the Babri masjid case. Justice FM Khalifula, a retired Supreme Court judge, is the chairman of the panel. Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu are the other mediators on the panel. The proceedings will take place in camera and away from the media glare. The panel is supposed to submit the final report within eight weeks.

The judges suggested an amicable resolution while telling the parties that they were seriously giving a chance for mediation in an attempt to heal relationships. This is a laudable sentiment. But how have past mediations fared? Have they succeeded in resolving disputes like this?

The idea of mediation in the Babri masjid case is inherently flawed. The Supreme Court has deployed a flawed tool and put it in the hands of people, one of whom is Sri Sri Ravishankar, who has already made his position clear on the matter. I dont think we can really call him an independent mediator.

Various forms of mediation have been tried in the past  before the mosques demolition in 1992  by Justice VR Krishna Iyer and distinguished editor of Mainstream magazine, Nikhil Chakravarty. That went nowhere. Any mediation must establish a via media between the two sides; one of them has already accomplished its aim halfway by demolishing the mosque.

The criminal proceedings on this issue have dragged on for a quarter of a century. The charges have been framed and the case has been committed to the sessions court, which means that two judges have found that a prima facie case exists.

One of the judges of the SC bench, Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde , said that this is not a suit about the title to the property. He is only partially correct. The civil suits did begin with claims to the titles of the mosque. Despite the ruling of the SC quashing the Presidents reference to the SC for an advisory opinion on whether a temple existed on the site on which the mosque was built, it has been clear about restoring the civil proceedings as suits to the title to which the law of limitation would apply.

Two of the three judges of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court endorsed the excavation of the site ignoring the law of limitation and defying the ruling of the SC. Even further, they held that not the law of the land but the faith of the majority community would prevail. It is open to the SC now to nullify that high court ruling and try the case on the original pleadings to the title. Justice Bobde remarked that this is not a suit of property but based on the feelings and faith of the people, and this raises a disturbing question in the light of the background.

The courts reluctance to decide according to the law is understandable. The court is entitled to the highest respect, but it will soon discover that mediation is no solution. Hence, its hesitant to try it as a suit or title, given the feelings of people.

The proper course before it is to refuse to adjudicate on the case; hold that the case is a suit of a civil nature, which alone a court of law can decide under the civil procedure court; set aside the Allahabad high court judgment as, given the situation, the judicial process cant continue. There is precedence for it. In the UK, in the case of Guildford Four, the judge held that the given the state of public feelings, a fair trial was not possible, and refused to try the case altogether.

This is exactly what the SC must now do: leave it to a future generation to arrive at a fair and just settlement when sanity is restored.

AG Noorani is a constitutional expert

The views expressed are personal
Actor Amitabh Bachchan who often treats his fans to snapshots of some of his treasured memories by sharing photographs on social media, feels it was a huge mistake on his part to share one in which he was wearing swimming trunks.

Also read: Badla movie review

A month ago, Big B posted the photograph of himself on Instagram. He was seen in swimming trunks and sporting sunglasses. ... the beachcomber in Mauritius... my first visit in a delegation. What a moment, unforgettable! Moments later after this picture, went into the sea and got stung by that fish that stings .. dont know the name.. guess it didnt approve my outfit,  he wrote on Twitter along with the image.

T 3076 - ..... the beachcomber in Mauritius .. my first visit .. in a delegation .. what a moment .. unforgettable !! ... moments later after this picture went into the sea and got stung by that fish that stings .. don't know the name.. guess it didn't approve my outfit .. !!  pic.twitter.com/KmkyMhoHw0  Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) January 31, 2019

Recently during the promotions of his upcoming film, when he was asked to make a comment on the photograph, Big B said: I made a huge mistake by uploading this photo. When I had gone to Mauritius for the first time, I went for swimming and there was a person who took a photo with me. Recently, he sent me this photo to introduce himself to me. So I uploaded it by showing only myself and not him because I didnt want him to get any limelight. Photo daalne ke baad mujhe badi gaali padi,  quipped the actor.
Even with the weekend finally upon us, several Bollywood stars were still spotted putting in those extra hours at work. Actors were spotted promoting their upcoming films and projects and flying in and out of the city to attend important events.

Actor Ranveer Singh returned to India from South Africa on Friday. His sister Ritika Bhavnani was also seen with him at the airport. Ranveer was seen in a white sweatshirt and animal print pants. His sister was seen in a denim jacket and some really large sunglasses. Ranveer made sure his sister was safe and protected as they made their way to the car.

Actor Aamir Khan was seen in Santa Cruz by the paparazzi. He was seen in a black T-shirt and pants. He was wearing a black hat and appeared to have grown a thick beard since he was last seen.

Also read: Captain Marvel movie review: Brie Larson stars in a feature length trailer for Avengers Endgame

The cast and crew of Amazon Primes Made in Heaven celebrated the shows launch at producer Ritesh Sidhwanis place. Sobhita Dhulipala, Jim Sarbh, Kalki Koechlin and others were seen outside his home. Gully Boy actor Siddhant Chaturvedi was also seen.

Vicky Kaushal attended the screening of Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannus Badla. Amitabh was seen at the Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai on Friday. Check out more celeb pics:

Aamir Khan at Santa Cruz. (Varinder Chawla)

Sobhita Dhulipala and Kalki Koechlin. (Varinder Chawla)

Siddhant Chaturvedi at Riteish Sidhwanis home. (Varinder Chawla)

Taapsee Pannu at the screening of Badla. (Varinder Chawla)

Vicky Kaushal at the screening of Badla. (Varinder Chawla)

Taimur Ali Khan spotted in Bandra. (Varinder Chawla)

Zoya Akhtar and Vidya Balan at a panel discussion. (Varinder Chawla)

Sanya Malhotra and Nawazuddin Siddiqui promoting their film Photograph. (Varinder Chawla)

Kritika Kamra spotted by paparazzi. (Varinder Chawla)

Shraddha Kapoor at the airport. (Varinder Chawla)

Ranveer Singh and his sister at the airport. (Varinder Chawla)

Khushi Kapoor and Shanaya Kapoor at a restaurant. (Varinder Chawla)

Fatima Sana Shaikh, Taapsee Pannu and Mouni Roy. (Varinder Chawla)

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Actor Kareena Kapoor Khan had recently complained about having to wear new outfits to gym everyday for paparazzi and it looks there she has another actor who feels the same. Kareenas Takht co-star Janhvi Kapoor had a funny interaction with the paparazzi on Friday and told them she has to dress up for gym every day so they could click her pictures.

Gym se zaada aap logon ke liye tyaar hoke aati hu (More than the gym, I dress up for you), she told the photographers gathered outside her gym as she stepped out of her car. She was seen in grey leggings and a grey crop top.

Watch the video here:

Also read: Deepika Padukone, Kangana Ranaut, Alia Bhatt: Meet the new Rs 100 crore stars of Bollywood on International Womens Day

On her recent appearance on Koffee With Karan, filmmaker and host Karan Johar had asked Kareena if she invited paparazzi to click her pics outside her gym. I dont need to; I am telling them dont come please. I dont have any more gym clothes. I only have pyjamas now, she had said. Kareena and Janhvis gym looks are often heavily shared by their fanpages on social media.

Other than these two, the paparazzi also loves to click Kareenas son Taimur and Janhvis sister Khushi. She was seen yesterday outside her home in a de-glam avatar, sporting the simplest pair or pyjama and a big smile on her face.

Kareena and Janhvi will soon be seen together in Karans upcoming directorial, Takht. The film also stars Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal, Bhumi Pednekar and Anil Kapoor. It will begin shooting later this year and release next year.

Janhvi is currently shooting for the Gunjan Saxena biopic with Pankaj Tripathi. Kareena is shooting for Good News with Akshay Kumar.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Friday, March 8, 2019 at 10:17AM

Embed from Getty Images

Airbnb makes its biggest acquisition yet as it moves to increase hotel listings on its site. The company has agreed to buy HotelTonight, a provider of last-minute, boutique options for a nights stay. It does so ahead of an eventual initial public offering. Airbnb hasnt disclosed the financial terms of the deal, but according to a person familiar with the matter said its price is close to HotelTonights last private valuation, which is at US$463 million. Airbnbs last big purchase was Luxury Retreats, which it bought for $300 million.

The move has Airbnb encroaching further into the hotel industry and puts them into the position of being what Bloomberg calls the Amazon for travel or a one-stop-shop for holiday-goers. HotelTonights app and site will continue to operate independently of Airbnb. But the company might integrate its listings on its site in the future. And once the acquisition is complete, HotelTonights founder will report to Airbnbs President of Homes, Greg Greeley.
Sonali Bendres struggle against cancer has been an inspiration to millions who are battling this dreaded disease. Since July last year, when she first told her fans that she has been diagnosed with it, she has been constantly posting updates of her fight on social media and, quite literally, taken people along. While she has described about her feelings during the process, it is only now that she has opened up about the first few days when she came to know of her disease.

Speaking to Rajeev Masand, she said at first they werent told what stage of cancer she had. Subsequently, on reaching New York, it was her doctors there who told her that not only did she have Stage IV cancer, she had 30% chances of survival. She also said it was her husband Goldie Behls decision to go to New York and that till she reached New York, she wasnt convinced about it.

Sonali Bendre, spotted at the airport on her return from New York, in Mumbai on December 2, 2018. (PTI)

She said: I didnt want to go to New York. It was my husband who wanted to go. And I fought with him all through the flight. Why are you doing this? We have good doctors here. Why are you taking me away? My home, my life... in three days, we literally just packed and left and, I dont know, what was happening. I was like lets, at least, speak to the doctors here and he was just quiet through the whole thing and focussed. In the day, he was organising and, in the night, as New York was wake; so he was organising, so day and night--he was at that. So I got him and actually cribbed about the whole thing, on the flight. Through the flight, I have cribbed; I was really venting.

I land in New York and next day, we go to the doctor. He looks at everything and we had sent all our tests and he says, you know, it is fourth stage and you have 30% chance of survival. That really hit me; I just turned to Goldie and I remember saying: Thank God, you got me here. Goldie always says that tomorrow Id rather feel I over-reacted, over-spent than under-reacted and have that regret that I should have done that. There was no time for it and we were not told that it was fourth stage but Goldie had started reading about it and he was suspecting it.

Also read | Deepika Padukone, Kangana Ranaut, Alia Bhatt: Meet the new Rs 100 crore stars of Bollywood on International Womens Day

In early December last year, Sonali was back in India, after spending close to six months in the US. She is slowly getting back to work and recently did a photo shoot for Vogue India, embracing her cancer scars, from her treatment.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
We live in the age of the mob. Self-styled policemen of patriotism patrol our social media posts and navigate the imagined interiors of our minds to see if we pass or fail tests set by them. Television anchors  who have never known the grief of funerals, never seen the sight of either blood or bodies and have never reported from any conflict or war zone  pompously hand out certificates of nationalist and anti-national every night.

Right wing thugs thrash poor Kashmiri vendors on the streets of Lucknow. On Twitter, their more upscale versions threaten and smear those who dare to bring nuance into any conversation. I experienced this personally. For suggesting that those turning on innocent Kashmiri students were only playing into the hands of Pakistan  and for offering to help stranded Kashmiris  I was targeted in a coordinated mob attack with more than a thousand calls, nude photographs and death threats.

This coarseness is vile. If anyone is anti-national, it is these bullies and goons. They are not nationalists; they are pseudo-patriots. I would even say that, by their own definition, they are traitors. This is because nothing suits the Pakistani script more than Indian citizens quarrelling among themselves.

We must ask ourselves how we got to this point. How did this brute, ugly, bullys rulebook come to define how we see ourselves and each other? There is so much talk of reclaiming Hinduism from Hindutva. Even more crucial is the need to reclaim nationalism from pseudo-patriots.

Unfortunately, several of my liberal friends, especially those on the Left of the spectrum, dont get how important this is. They appear embarrassed by any visible displays of loyalty to the Indian State or any overt manifestations of patriotic sentiment. They deconstruct nationalism in an elite, academic and clinical way that is still rooted in European history instead of the homegrown constitutional patriotism of our own freedom movement. With its disavowal of or discomfort with the idea of the nation, the Left has vacated the entire space for the Right to define nationalism in the manner it chooses. The dogma of the Left has given rise to the Right and this crude playbook of patriotism.

Recently, I was under attack from a few liberal colleagues for openly identifying as an Indian journalist in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack and the subsequent Balakot airstrike. Some colleagues criticised me for my admiration of the courage of young Indian Air Force pilots who were part of the operations. Others objected to my argument that the Indian assault on a terror base in Pakistan after Pulwama was about justice and not war. Ironically, in the same week that the Left called me a warmonger, the right wing has continued to question my nationalism for my position that India should be tough with Pakistan but sensitive with its own people in Kashmir.

My argument with the venerable voices of the liberal-Left made me realise how woefully out of touch they are with the larger sentiment in India.

First, the Indian State and the Indian government are not interchangeable entities. I can  and do  applaud the courage of young soldiers and wing commanders without losing the right (and duty) to interrogate the ruling party.

Second, how can one not understand and reflect on the deep-seated anger at relentless terror attacks patronised by Pakistans deep State? This does not stop me  or anyone else  from asking for more effective and transparent communication from the government; or from objecting to soldiers being used as material for vote gathering. And one can feel deeply for war veterans and the honour of the uniform ( I do) while simultaneously calling out flaws in the domestic Kashmir policy (I do). That is why some of the wisest words on the situation in Kashmir have come from generals who have served in the Valley, including the officers who led the first surgical strikes in 2016.

America, the most liberal of nations, is an instructive example. Whatever else the Democrats and Republicans argue over, patriotism is not a point of disagreement. Former US President Barack Obama, a beloved of liberals, took out Osama bin Laden from inside Pakistan in a widely acclaimed operation. He was not called a war monger; nor were journalists who admired the skill of the US Navy Seals.

Jack Tapper, a fiercely independent and much admired CNN anchor, doesnt hide his affiliation with the American State (not the government.). In fact, he personally runs fund-raising drives for military veterans calling for his viewers to give back. Two politicians, who are opposed to the BJP, but get this are Yogendra Yadav and Asaduddin Owaisi. Both of them, in different ways, have venerated the constitutional patriotism represented by Indias freedom fighters.

Lofty commentary by several Left commentators has been mocking and oversimplistic. If those who otherwise talk non-stop about preserving the idea of India mock the sentiment people feel for India, they caricature themselves and do liberalism a disservice.

We, the people, need to reclaim our nationalism  as much from the right wings policing as the Left wings sneering.

Barkha Dutt is an award-winning journalist and author

The views expressed are personal
Satara was once the seat of power for Maratha Empire from where Hindu warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji ruled the region. Today, the Satara Lok Sabha constituency is represented by Shivajis 13th descendant and Nationalist Congress Party member Udayanraje Bhosale.

For years, Satara has been a stronghold of NCP, thanks to the Bhosales. With multiple rivers originating from the place, Sataras western parts are agriculturally prosperous. Koyna dam, one of the largest in the state, and popular hill station Mahabaleshwar are also in Satara constituency.

This time though, the constituency is more likely to witness a royal clash as Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator Shivendraraje Bhosale is up in the arms against Udayanraje, his cousin. While Shivendraraje is under pressure from his supporters to switch loyalties and join BJP, his recent meeting with former NCP leader and now BJP legislator Narendra Patil has increased headache for Udayanraje, who is already facing opposition within the party and is again aspiring for Lok Sabha ticket from the party.

Once represented by Maharashtras first chief minister Yashwantrao Chavan, Satara has given many political heavyweights including former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.

Looking at fissures within the NCP, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has taken personal interest and has reportedly asked Narendra Patil, MLA from Navi Mumbai and president of Annasaheb Patil Finance Development Corporation, a government body, to start preparations for fighting Lok Sabha polls from BJP.

Interestingly, Udayanraje is also exploring possibility from BJP if NCP ditches him at the last moment. Under the seat sharing formula, Satara Lok Sabha seat is with Shiv Sena but BJP wants to contest election from Satara by exchanging another seat - Palghar.

By fielding Patil, BJP aims to use his clouts among head-loaders who hail from Satara and work in Navi Mumbai. Like Udayanraje Bhosale, Patil too comes from the Maratha community, which has been given 16% reservation in government jobs and education by Fadnavis government.

According to Congress leaders, the chief minister has been trying to attract leaders from Congress and NCP from the district in the BJP. Top leadership from Congress confirmed that there are chances that two leaders from district would enter in BJP very soon.

BJP is eyeing some strong candidates from Congress and NCP and luring them with various promises ahead of elections, said Prithviraj Chavan, whose assembly constituency Karad south also falls under Satara Lok Sabha constituency.

Concerned about defection, NCP chief Sharad Pawar recently held a meeting with all the NCP leaders and Udyanraje and tried to bring them on one platform.

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is going to start a door-to-door campaign from March 10 to demand full statehood for Delhi.

The party on Tuesday also started reaching out to the citys women through pre-recorded phone calls assuring them of more safety if Delhi becomes a full state.

AAPs Delhi unit convener Gopal Rai said the party has constituted 1,000 teams for its door-to-door campaign which it will launch from March 10.

The party has decided to cancel the hunger strike planned by Kejriwal in view of the recent Indo-Pak tensions. But, we will go full throttle from March 10 campaigning for statehood. Around 1,000 teams will be deployed, who will hold discussions in every colony to make people aware of the limitations of the elected government and how this can be changed, he said.

With two days to go for International Womens Day, AAP chief, Kejriwal has devised a new way of reaching out to the women voters of Delhi. On Tuesday, several Delhiites said they received calls from unknown numbers in which Kejriwal delivers a pre-recorded talk on safety for two-minutes. I am Arvind Kejriwal, your own Chief Minister speaking  Namaste  how are you? I am extremely worried about women safety in Delhi and I want to talk to you for two minutes about this, the CM says in his call. The CM in his message talks about why the Delhi police are not listening to the people because it is directly under the Centres control. When Delhi will be a full state, the police will be under the control of your own elected chief minister, and then they will have to listen, Kejriwal is heard saying in the call.
In theory, the Supreme Courts decision to give mediation another chance in the contentious Ayodhya issue is a good one. After all, it holds out the possibility of a satisfactory closure to a painful dispute on which the first petition was filed 134 years ago. As some experts have pointed out though, it is probably an idea that looks doomed to failure. After all, one of the three main parties in the case disagreed with the notion when the court was hearing arguments for and against mediation.

Why then, did the court plump for this option? At one level, the five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi may have believed that mediation holds out hope of a healing touch in a vastly polarising dispute. As the court put it, if there is even a 1% chance of resolving this problem, it should be explored. Optimistic as that expectation may be, one cant find fault with it.

At another level, the mediation may be the perfect excuse for a breather in this case -- it wouldnt have made sense to hear it in the already heated environment ahead of the summers Lok Sabha elections . If this has at all played a part in the decision, then the court should be congratulated for its pragmatism.

Sceptics have already pointed out that this mediation effort is of a piece with many such efforts and formulas that have been proposed in the past, some by former prime ministers and others by religious leaders.

Supporters of the move counter that the Sunni Central Waqf Board has shown increasing accommodation and has signalled its willingness to talk. That the Shia Waqf Board has been clear that it is not opposed to building a temple at that site at all. And that only the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and some of its affiliates seems opposed to mediation. Surely, they argue, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological parent the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, can prevail upon it?

Clearly, the panel will have to explore fresh avenues for resolution and learn from past efforts which have not worked. The fact that the SC has ordered that the proceedings of the mediation be kept confidential will help in preventing it from becoming more of a political issue than it already is.

That this is a court-sanctioned mediation effort gives it greater legitimacy than some of the earlier attempts. A resolution to this deeply divisive dispute could transform Hindu-Muslim relations, hold out hope for greater communal harmony and end opportunistic politics --- all probably worth taking that 1% chance for.
Students in Lucknow found the ICSE class 10 Mathematics paper to be easy but slightly lengthy. A number of students could not complete the paper on time and had to leave out 1-2 questions unattended.

Student of St Teresas College, Aashiana, Anshika Shukla said the paper was easy but lengthy. Direct questions were asked as per the expected lines and it was easy to understand. My paper for ten marks was left unattempted as it was very lengthy, she said.

Shipra Mishra of the same school said that paper was quite easy. It was not tricky at all. I completed my paper almost in time. But there was no time left for revision, Shipra said. Ayushi Jaiswal said that most of the questions were formula based. Compulsory section was easy as compared to the selective section. I missed one of my questions, said Ayushi.

Arpit Vishwakarma said that the paper was easy and we managed to complete it satisfactorily. There was no ambiguity. Rishab Pandey said that it took me a while to complete it, as it was very lengthy but high scoring.

Maths teacher at St Teresas College, Aashiana, Niharika Dwivedi found that the ICSE Examination 2019, Maths paper was easy, students were very happy and confident after the examination.

When I saw the paper I was sure students will be able to solve the question paper easily. Structure of questions were same as we had discussed in the class. Paper was a balanced one. I am sure all the students will pass with flying colours as they were well prepared with the topics, Dwivedi said.

ICSE (Class X) Mathematics Examination of Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) was easy but lengthy, said the students of City Montessori Inter College, Aliganj, Lucknow, on Friday.

The paper catered to both the good and weak students in a balanced manner. We managed to finish the paper on time with barely little time left for revision, informed Shyam Agarwal and Parth Dwivedi.

Excitement and satisfaction of the children could be gauged by their happy gleaming faces. Gaurav Mittal, Apul Ranjan, Bishwa Bhushan, Amritansh and Navya said that the questions were direct and as per the expected lines.

Principal, Jyoti Kashyap of City Montessori Inter College, Aliganj, said the students looked confident. She was happy that the immediate expectation of the students had been met specially in Mathematics paper that would prove to be a real morale booster for the remaining examination papers.

Overall the question paper was well framed and was set within the scope of the syllabus prescribed, she said.

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As many as 10,000 Class 10 students of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) appeared for the mathematics examination at 28 centres in Ludhiana on Tuesday. The students found the one-mark questions in the paper lengthy and tricky.

However, the subject teachers said that the paper was balanced and nothing was out of syllabus.

Alisha Sharma, a Class 10 student of Atam Devki Niketan School, said, I took a lot of time to solve the one-mark questions as they were confusing. In the last half an hour, I attempted three questions and was not able to revise the paper.

Another student of Class 10, Gagandeep Singh, said, I attempted the six marks questions first and in the end I spent around 35 minutes to answer the one-mark questions. Despite my attempt to complete the paper, I left two questions due to shortage of time.

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The Maharashtra government decided Thursday to reduce the in-house quota for FYJC admissions after SSC exams, a move that will help open category students.

Education Minister Vinod Tawde said SSC pass students will now get 7 per cent seats in the open category, after reducing the in-house quota from 20 per cent to 10 per cent in FYJC (first year junior college) admissions.

Tawde Thursday held a meeting with various education institutions having in-house quota to sort out the issue.

It was decided to slash in-house admission quota from 20 per cent to 10 per cent, resulting in 7 per cent seats for students from the open category after implementation of the new 16 per cent Maratha reservation and 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker sections in admissions.

The state also issued a government resolution (GR) in this regard, providing relief to students from the open category, as they can now apply for 7 per cent seats in junior colleges attached to schools.

After the meeting, Tawde appealed to parents and students not to panic as far as FYJC admission was concerned.

It was an unnecessary assumption that the new 16 per cent reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) and 10 per cent for economically weaker section (EWC) quota would result in no seats for open category as the share of quota would go up to 103 per cent, said Tawde.

There are about 1,887 colleges in Mumbai of various streams and 639 of them have an in-house quota. Of these, 306 are of minority status and have 50 per cent reservation while 333 junior colleges are attached to higher secondary schools.

For all colleges that have 20 per cent in-house quota other than those colleges having minority status and following the 16 per cent Maratha and 10 per cent EWS quota, we have decided to reduce the 20 per cent in-house quota to 10 per cent to clear the way for 7 per cent seats for the open category, said Tawde.
A foreign national was allegedly duped of $4,300 by a man who claimed to be from Turkey, who engaged him in a conversation.

According to the police, the suspect fled with the Iraqi nationals money on Thursday evening from a Sector 39 park. The suspect is yet to be arrested.

The man who was allegedly conned has been identified as Wahhab Razzaq, who is a resident of Baghdad. He is undergoing chemotherapy at a private hospital.

The police said Razzaq was sitting in the park with his wife when a man claiming to be from Turkey approached them and engaged them in a conversation.

The suspect reportedly told him that he had never seen foreign currency notes and inquired if Razzaq was carrying any with him.

The victim opened his bag, in which he had kept currency notes of Iraq and Unites States of America. The accused allegedly stole the bundle of US dollars and fled. The victim was unable to chase him, said a police official.

Police said that since Razzaq has difficulty in speaking English, he had reported the matter to an interpreter, who filed the complaint on his behalf.

The interpreter, Mohammad Quamrul Islam, said Razzaq had come to the city only a week ago. The victim is in his mid-50s and has come here for medical treatment In the past three months, several such incidents have been reported where thieves posing as policemen have duped foreign nationals who come here for treatments, said Islam.

Dalbir Singh, station house officer (SHO), Sadar police station, said the accused in this case was suspected to be a foreign national and the police are trying to trace him. This does not seem to be the handiwork of the gang, which was allegedly involved in earlier cases, said Singh.
At a time when tension between the neighbouring countries has escalated in the wake of airstrikes on a terror launch pad across the border, a 33-year-old man from Haryana is all set to tie the knot with a woman from Sialkot in Pakistan.

The marriage between Parvinder Singh, a telecom contractor and resident of Tepla village in Ambala, will be solemnised by the end of this week at a gurdwara in Patiala as per Sikh tradition with Kiran Sarjeet (27) who along with her family reached India via Samjhauta Express on Thursday.

The two got engaged in 2016 when Sarjeet visited her maternal uncles house at Samana in Patiala.

Parvinder, who is the youngest of three siblings, said he had known Sarjeet for long since she is a distant relative of his aunt (wife of fathers younger brother). Her family had stayed back in Sialkot during Partition in 1947, he says.

I first saw her in 2014 when she was visiting India. Two years later, when I expressed interest in her, both she and her family agreed. We got engaged in a simple ceremony. Sarjeet, who is the eldest of five siblings, has done masters in English and is a teacher there. I hope she will be happy here after marriage, he said.

Parvinder says he was twice sponsored by Sarjeets family for the Pakistan visa, but he didnt get one.

They have got visa for 45 days for Patiala and I will try to get it extended it by submitting a request to the authorities after the wedding. I will try to get her visa for Ambala so that she can stay with me or I will have to rent a house in Patiala, Parvinder said.

Sarjeets family was to board Samjhauta Express last week, but they could not as the train was cancelled due to the rising tensions. Now, they boarded the train today (Thursday) and reached Delhi from where they will come to Patiala, he said.

The exact date of marriage is not finalised, but it is likely to take place on Saturday, he added.
Friday, March 8, 2019 at 9:42AM

Marie Kondo might be a familiar name to you now because of her Netflix show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. But before that, it started out as books and a personal brand for the Japanese personality. Now, her company is in talks to raise up to $40 million in venture capital funding to scale her business KonMari, which is behind all her ventures. This isnt the first time KonMari had venture investment. It had closed a small funding round led by top-tier VC fund Sequoia Capital last year. Kondo is looking to fundraise again for plans involving building an e-commerce platform.

Source: TechCrunch
A soldier of the armys Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI) was kidnapped from his home in Qazipora Chadoora in Jammu and Kashmirs Budgam district by unknown gunmen.

The kidnapped soldier has been identified as Mohammad Yasin Bhat. The incident took place late on Friday evening.

Police and army launched a manhunt to trace the soldier.

Officials said that Bhat was at his home at Qazipora when some unidentified gunmen abducted him from his house. Soon after police came to know about abduction of the soldier, a joint police and army team was send to village and search operation was launched in the area.

Officials said that Bhat was on leave from Febuary 26 till March 30.

In June, an army soldier Aurangzeb of 44 Rashtriya Rifles posted in south Kashmirs Shopian district was abducted by militants and his bullet-riddled body was found 10 kilometers away from the place of kidnapping.

Aurangzeb, a resident of Poonch in Jammu was on way to his home to celebarate Eid when militants abducted him.
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered mediation in Ayodhyas Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit and set up a three-member panel for resolution of the long-pending issue. The panel headed by retired Supreme Court judge, Justice FMI Kalifulla has four weeks to submit a report to the top court.

Other members of the Ayodhya case mediation panel are Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and lawyer Sriram Panchu. The court has barred reporting on mediation in the Ayodhya case.

The Supreme Court has viewed mediation in Ayodhya case as a possibility of healing relationships. HT explains what mediation, when ordered by a court, means.

What is Mediation?

Mediation is an out of the court and informal method of dispute resolution, where a neutral third party assists the parties in dispute to amicably resolve their dispute by using specialized communication and negotiation techniques. The mediator or mediators could be former judges, advocates and people trained in mediation.

In mediation, a third party (the mediator) assists the parties to negotiate their own settlement. In some cases, mediators may express a view on what might be a fair or reasonable settlement, generally where all the parties agree that the mediator may do so.

Confidential Process

Mediation is an informal process, which is not open to the public. Mediation is also confidential in nature, which means that statements made during mediation cannot be disclosed in any court proceedings or elsewhere without the written consent of all parties.

The decision to settle and decide the terms of settlement in mediation always rest with the parties. This right of self-determination is an essential element of the mediation process. The parties also have ultimate control over the outcome of mediation. Any party may withdraw from the mediation proceedings at any stage before its termination and without assigning any reason

Legal But Settlement Is Not A Verdict

Any settlement reached in a case referred for mediation during the course of litigation is required to be reduced to writing, signed by the concerned parties and filed in court for the passing of an appropriate order.

The concept of mediation received legislative recognition in India for the first time in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The conciliators appointed under the Act are charged with the duty of mediating in and promoting the settlement of Industrial disputes.

In 1999, the Indian Parliament passed the Civil Procedure Code Amendment Act of 1999 inserting Section 89 in the Code of Civil Procedure 1908, providing for reference of cases pending in the Courts to mediation.

Mandatory mediation through courts has now a legal sanction.

Goal Of Mediation

Mediation India are divided into two categories which are commonly followed: Court referred Mediation and Private Mediation.

Mediation addresses both the factual and legal issues and the underlying causes of a dispute. And the goal of mediation is to find a mutually acceptable solution that satisfies the needs, desires and interests of the parties.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the spiritual guru who has long championed negotiations to end the decades-old Ayodhya temple land dispute, on Friday spoke about ending conflicts and maintaining harmony.

Respecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society - we must all move together towards these goals, the spiritual guru tweeted minutes after five judges of the Supreme Court decided to give mediation a shot.

The top court has appointed a three-member panel led by retired SC judge FM Khalifulah. Senior lawyer Sriram Panchu, who specializes in mediation and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar are the other two members.

The spiritual guru had volunteered to mediate earlier too and reached out to many of the stakeholders concerned. Not everyone was as enthusiastic to engage with him. Like the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh.

Also Read | Opinion: Yet another opportunity to amicably resolve Ram temple tangle

Shortly after Sri Sri Ravi Shankar attempted to engage him, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat questioned the offer to play mediator, saying any such decision had to be taken through consultation at the Dharma Sansad.

There is a very popular person who also proposed to negotiate, announced in the media, which is where I heard it from... that person also came to me as well, but I said that is not my job, Bhagwat said at a closed door session of the three-day Dharma Sansad in November 2017.

The Art of Living founder held dialogue with stakeholders Ram Lalla Virajman, Nirmohi Akhara and Sunni Waqf Board and had also met chief minister Yogi Adityanath before travelling down to Ayodhya in mid-November last year. All appreciated his efforts but refused to adhere to any formula.

The formulas have ranged from construction of a temple where a makeshift one exists today on the debris of the demolished shrine while shifting the mosque elsewhere in the temple town to building a mosque and temple side by side.

The Supreme Court decision is an effort to try arriving at a negotiated settlement since this case wasnt just about property but about mind, heart and healing, if possible. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had welcomed the Supreme Courts recent stress on giving mediation a chance.

We should keep our egos and differences aside and come together with a spirit of honouring and accommodating the sentiments of the communities concerned, he tweeted this week after the Supreme Courts constitution bench discussed the possibility in court.

The Uttar Pradesh government along with other Hindu parties had objected to the effort but the top court has ruled that there were no legal impediments to give negotiations a shot.
The Delhi Police special cell has arrested four people in connection with calls made to the Karnataka high court chief justices office and the office of the registrar of the Andhra Pradesh high court by someone posing as the Chief Justice of Indias personal private secretary and seeking confidential information, according to documents accessed by HT.

One of the four, Pramod Kumar, served as private secretary to a former Union minister. Kumars wife confirmed that he had been picked up from their house by the police two weeks ago. The other three were identified as Mrityunjay Pandey, Jai Kumar Nayar and S Ashok.

Senior police officers declined to comment on the arrests. All four suspects are now in judicial custody.

According to the documents seen by HT, Delhi Police opposed bail for the suspects and told a city court last week that Kumar had influential contacts. Police did not reveal the nature of the confidential information sought by Kumar and the three others.

Kumars wife Rajkumari said she was surprised when the police picked up her husband from her Vikaspuri flat on February 13.

During my very brief interactions with him after his arrest, he told me he had made a mistake and it needed to be corrected. I dont know what he meant, said Rajkumari.

Delhi Police had registered a first information report after receiving a complaint from an apex court official.

The official informed the police about someone who had misused the office of the Chief Justice of India by posing as the chief justices personal private secretary and calling the offices of registrar of the Andhra Pradesh high court and the chief justice of the Karnataka high court. The caller had asked for the cell number of the Andhra Pradesh high court chief justice, according to the complaint.
A Haryana government order to consolidate land holdings in Faridabads Kot village, around 60 km outside Delhi, to ensure better cultivation has raised concerns about privatisation of Aravalli land.

Once consolidated, it would measure around 3,000 acres. Most of it is gair mumkin pahar (uncultivable land) and is part of the Aravallis, a part of the land is also shamlat (village common land), according to revenue records.

Environment activists and villagers claim that the consolidation move is being done to facilitate privatisation of land.

According to the February 1 order, issued under the East Punjab Holdings Act, 1948, the government wants to take up a scheme for consolidation of holdings under cultivation in the area.

Land consolidation is done by bringing together several small holdings scattered over a vast area.

Kot villagers are suspicious of the state governments motives. This is common land. We know an influential party has bought some 1,500 acres and consolidation is being done for that. The sarpanch had written to the government last year that we will not allow consolidation until shamlat is restored to the panchayat, said Kesar Singh, husband of Mundresh Devi, sarpanch of Kot.

In 2011, the Supreme Court, while hearing a case on protection of village common land, had directed that all common land, including shamlat, should be returned to panchayats.

Land owners had approached us and requested for consolidation. They wanted to build approach roads and other infrastructure. So, we initiated proceedings. It was initiated only because we got a demand. This will not affect common land or Aravalli land, said Nikhil Gairaj, director, consolidation of land holdings and land records, Haryana.

The hilly area of Kot village falls in the buffer zone of Mangar Bani, a sacred grove. It is an important wildlife habitat.The panchayat department had banned the sale and registry of common land in 2012, but we have been informed that thousands of acres have changed hands through power-of-attorney transactions, said Chetan Agarwal, a forestry expert

Out of a total 3,184 acres in Kot, about 2,565 acres is hilly where cultivation is not possible. Some areas are also forested and notified under Sections 4 and 5 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA).

In 2014, the National Green Tribunal had stayed consolidation of land in Kot because of involvement of forest land while hearing a petition challenging a consolidation order.

Last week, the Haryana Assembly amended the PLPA and opened up thousands of acres in the Aravallis and Shivalik ranges for real estate development and mining, both major threats to the environment and ecology in the Delhi-National Capital Region. Two days later, the Supreme Court sharply rebuked the government for proposing to destroy the forest and barred any action under the amended Act.

Earlier, in 2011, a similar consolidation order had proposed that land in all of Kot would be consolidated. But the following year, Ashok Khemka, who was director general of consolidation of holdings, Haryana, had withdrawn the order after an inquiry found it impracticable.

Khemkas inquiry report said: In case the consolidation exercise of the entire village, including gair mumkin pahar, is carried out, it would wrongly benefit certain influential outsider-purchasers.

Asked to comment on the February 1 consolidation order, Khemka, senior IAS officer and whistleblower said, The notification issued is very clear. Look at the area covered. It covers the entire village land. I cant say what the purpose of this consolidation is. Why dont you ask any local property dealer or the patwari (revenue official)?

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Police on Thursday arrested a 44-year-old woman for plotting her sons murder in Haryanas Jhajjar district after he found out about her illicit affair with his 23-year-old friend.

The deceased, Parmod, 23, worked as a bouncer in Gurugram. He was shot dead on February 19 at his house in Chamanpura village of the Jhajjar district.

The police had registered a case of murder against unknown persons on a complaint by Parmods mother.

The police said while working in Gurugram, Parmod had become friends with another bouncer Pradeep, 23, who hailed from a nearby village in Jhajjar.

After their friendship, Pradeep started visiting Parmods house often, during which he got into an affair with his mother Meena Devi, who is a widow.

The police said that for the past one month, Parmod had quit his job and was living at home. It was then that he got suspicious about his mothers affair with his friend and asked him to stop coming to his house.

As his mother could no longer meet her paramour, she chalked out a plan to murder her son with the help of Pradeep. The duo sought help from two of Pradeeps friends who shot Parmod dead at his house on the night of February 19. Next morning, his mother called the police and lodged a complaint against unknown persons for murdering her son. She said she was sleeping at house when the murder happened and only came to know about it after waking up in the morning.

The police said the entire mystery unravelled when they nabbed a man with an illegal weapon during routine search on Wednesday night. The man, identified as Saurabh of Bhiwani, was arrested and interrogated, during which he confessed about his involvement in Parmods murder, among other criminal cases.

The police arrested Pradeep, who confessed to his crime. The cops later arrested Meena, her paramour Pradeep and his two friends Saurabh and Monu.
The father of a student found dead in a water tank at a branch of Ryan International School sought compensation of Rs10 crore on Friday for the death he claimed had been caused by the schools negligence.

The Delhi high court sought responses from the Delhi government, the founder of Ryan International School, Augustine Francis Pinto, and its trustees on the plea by Ramhet Meena, whose son Devanshs body was discovered in the water tank at the Vasant Kunj branch on January 3, 2016.

Devanshs parents had earlier filed a police complaint alleging that negligence by the school had caused the death.

A bench of chief justice Rajendra Menon and justice V Kameswar Rao also issued notices to Pintos wife Grace Pinto, the principal of the school, Devanshs class teacher, and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), seeking their responses to the plea for ~10 crore compensation.

Last month, Meena approached a single-judge bench of the Delhi high court, which rejected his claim for compensation and asked him to approach a civil court or another competent authority.
Former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh has returned a medal and certificate for commendable service that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee gave her on August 15, 2014, saying she does not need them to prove her worth.

Ghosh had once described Mamata Banerjee as the mother of the former Maoist-dominated areas of West Bengal but resigned in 2017 after being transferred to a less significant post and faced CID investigation on charges of extortion.

The 51-year-old joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on February 4 in New Delhi. She alleged rule of thugs has replaced democracy in her home state. On February 28, Ghosh visited West Midnapore accompanied by BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and said that she has joined the BJP to work and not for any position.

Ghosh said she sent the medal and certificate by mail on Wednesday and that she wrote to the chief minister saying she should have returned them much earlier.

The chief ministers office declined to accept them when I sent the medal and certificate through a messenger. So I dispatched them through Speed Post, Ghosh said on Thursday.

My work speaks in Jungle Mahal and such medals are not needed. I hope other officers, be it in administrative service or police service, will follow my example and return their medals when they become victims of state repression or injustice, she wrote to the chief minister.

I would have returned the said Medal much earlier but the damage and loot by CID officers on 01.02.2018 in my matrimonial residence at Naktala left my residence in a shattered condition, she wrote, adding the medal was dumped by CID officers under a pile of wreckage.

The BJPs Bengal unit general secretary Sayantan Basu said the return of the medal by Ghosh shows apathy and humiliation by the government to officers.

West Bengal is a state where a (former) IPS officer has to return her medal and another one has to take his own life. This proves what humiliation is heaped on them, said Basu.

He was referring to former IPS officer Gaurav Dutt, who committed suicide on February 19 after alleging humiliation, persecution and denial of justice for ten years in a letter to the chief minister.

Though Ghosh was believed to be close to the chief minister, their relationship soured after the results of the Sabang assembly bypoll in West Midnapore district where she was the superintendent of police for six years.

She was transferred to the apparently less significant post of a battalion commandant of State Armed Police on December 26, 2017. Ghosh resigned from the service on December 28, 2017.

Last year, Ghosh was named in seven FIRs filed in police stations in West Midnapore on charges of extortion and illegal exchange of banned currency notes. The investigation was later handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The FIRs were in connection with an incident of 2016 in which gold was allegedly taken from a trader who is a resident of the district. Four officers of inspector and sub-inspector ranks, who were co-accused in the cases, were arrested last year.

In August 2018, CID officers also raided a house that belonged to her husband MAV Raju, who was also arrested.

Ghosh went underground for several months until the Supreme Court granted her protection from arrests.
What do you call the most guarded corridor inside New Delhis Tihar Central Jail, Indias biggest and most secure prison complex?

Jail officers simply call it Ward X  a row of barracks, deep inside the prison compound, where only four prisoners are kept. Four men whose security is a top priority for the state government.

The four have been carefully chosen: underworld don Chhota Rajan, convicted of the 2011 murder of journalist Jyotirmay Dey and sentenced last year to a life term; gangster-turned-politician Mohammad Shahabuddin, found guilty of a 2004 double murder and serving a life sentence; Delhi gangster Neeraj Bawana, convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison in 2016 for engaging in a shoot out with the police; and Christian Michel, the suspected middleman in the 3,600 crore AgustaWestland deal for the supply of 12 helicopters to ferry VVIPs, signed in 2010 and later scrapped.

Across the 400-acre complex, overcrowding is a perennial problem  15,000 prisoners are lodged in space meant for not more than 6,200 inmates. In Ward X, there is no such problem; Rajan, Bawana, Shahabuddin and Michel are lodged separately and cannot interact with or see each other.

The individual cells of Ward X are regular cells with a small courtyard and an attached bathroom, a prison officer said on condition of anonymity. Each cell also has a television set. The cells are guarded round-the-clock, and the inmates get to meet only their relatives, lawyers and jail officers.

It isnt a dungeon, like in the movies. It is an open and spacious cell. There is a courtyard, too, where prisoners can step out and take a walk. Underworld don Rajan lives in a space that could easily accommodate over 50 prisoners. But no prisoner has access to him or other prisoners. Such is the security that we have to keep in place for their safety, the jail officer cited above said.

Even during periodic visits to the prison hospital, the four are escorted by armed guards and at a time when all other prisoners have finished their check-ups. The hospital visit timings of Rajan, who needs regular treatment for some health conditions, are changed regularly.

The latest addition to Ward X is Michel, a British citizen who is alleged to have paid bribes to bureaucrats, political figures and even Air Force officers in the AugustaWestland deal. Last week, Michels advocate filed a complaint alleging he had been shifted to a ward where hardcore criminals are lodged.

People like Michel or Shahabuddin are important prisoners for any government. At this ward, the Intelligence Bureau routinely keeps a watch and makes suggestions. The record of all prison guards, who deal with these four men, is checked regularly. Based on their confidential reports, the duties of the jail guards are also changed regularly, another senior jail officer, who did not wish to be named, said.

Jail officers declined to comment on record on Ward X. Most senior officers said discussing the layout of the ward could be compromising jail security. Ward X has its own rules. While other prisoners are allowed to step out of their cell and meet their relatives twice a week, the prisoners of Ward X receive visitors in their cell to avoid any chance of being attacked by rivals or paid assassins.

Michel is not the only person who has made a requests to be shifted from Ward X. Bawana has approached court at least five times requesting a transfer to a regular cell. Bawanas advocate has claimed that his client was losing his sanity because of being lodged in the ward.

Until his arrest in April 2015, Bawana, whose real name is Neeraj Sehrawat, was the most wanted gangster in Delhi. Before being shifted to Ward X, he killed two rival gang members inside a jail van while returning from court. Bawanas gang members are lodged in different jails across the Tihar complex.

Last month, a Rohini-based businessman informed Delhi Police that he allegedly received an extortion call from Bawanas aide, Rahul Kala, who is lodged in jail 1. Kala had reportedly made a video call over WhatsApp to threaten the businessman to pay 50 lakh, according to the complaint.

Explaining the clout that prisoners such as Bawana wield, the former jail officer narrates an anecdote about the gangster. About two years ago, the officer was stressed because a relatives granddaughter had been unable to secure admission in a particular south Delhi school. The officer, a senior Delhi government bureaucrat, tapped a friend in the governments education department, but he couldnt help either.

On a summer morning he was out conducting regular checks across jail 1 when he passed by Bawanas cell. The usually reticent gangster, the office remembers, got up and wished him. Bawana then made him an offer  saab, mein admission kara sakta hoon uska wahan [Sir, I can get her admission there].
The United States and India have separately called upon Pakistan to ensure its post-Pulwama crackdown on terrorists was sustained, irreversible and not cosmetic as in the past when apprehended individuals and shut down facilities returned to normal when the glare of global scrutiny shifted away.

The United States notes these steps, said Robert Palladino, the US state department spokesperson Thursday, about the ongoing crackdown in Pakistan, and we continue to urge Pakistan to take sustained, irreversible action against terrorist groups that will prevent future attacks and that will promote regional stability.

He added: And we reiterate our call for Pakistan to abide by its United Nations Security Council obligations to deny terrorists safe haven and block their entry to funds

Separately, an Indian official told reporters at a background briefing Pakistan has staged such crackdowns  professed actions  before. Referring to Pakistans actions after the Mumbai 2008 attack, the official said most of the apprehensions either took place only on paper or those taken into custody were kept at VIP guesthouses and in luxurious accommodations. It was as if, the government was telling them you are our people, but you need to lie low for the time being.

Whether thee actions are cosmetic or credible is yet to be seen, the official said of the current actions, adding that India would be looking for credible and verifiable actions.

Hafiz Saeed, the founder and leader of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeY) and the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks that claimed 166 lives, for instance, who was arrested and released in 2017, had been kept under house arrest. at home.

Pakistan has said it has arrested 121 individuals  not calling them terrorists  and seized control of over 400 facilities and assets owned or run by proscribed organizations, including Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack, LeT and their fronts.

Those arrested so far include JeM head Masood Azhars brother Abdul Rauf Asghar and son Hammad Azhar.

But not Azhar himself, who the Pakistani government has claimed is ailing, so much so he cannot leave his house.

A move is afoot at the UN security council to designate him a terrorist, which Pakistan has resisted for years, with China, its all-weather friend, blocking three previous attempts. A decision is likely on March 13 to a proposal moved jointly by France, the United States and the United Kingdom.

As India seeks to mount pressure on Pakistan to give up the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy, it is also moving towards urging the world community to consider declaring Pakistan a state-sponsor of terrorism, the Indian official said. The United States, for instance, has Iran, North Korea, Syria and Sudan on its list of countries it has designated as state-sponsors of terrorism.

It nearly added Pakistan to that list in the 1990s. It has also been a recurring demand of many American lawmakers, from both parties, who have been frustrated by the duplicity demonstrated by a one-time ally in its actions to combat terrorism.

But India has itself hesitated to brand Pakistan as one arguing such a designation will come in the way of normalization of ties. It would be forced to break ties with Pakistan, which would become an enemy state.
A MiG-21 fighter jet of the Indian Air Force crashed in Rajasthans Bikaner on Friday. The plane crashed after it reportedly suffered a bird hit.

The plane had taken off from Nal near Bikaner. The pilot is said to have ejected safely.

Bikaner SP Pradeep Mohan Sharma said the MIG aircraft crashed in Shobhasar ki Dhani, 12 km from Bikaner city, news agency PTI reported.

Sharma said police teams have rushed the spot to cordon off the area. No loss of life has been reported.

A statement by the IAF said that the MiG-21 had taken off from the Indian Air Forces Nal airbase in Rajasthan and that it was on a routine mission.

The IAF statement said, Today afternoon a MiG-21 aircraft on a routine mission crashed after getting airborne from Nal near Bikaner. Initial inputs indicate the likely cause as bird hit after take off. Pilot of the aircraft ejected safely. A CoI [Court of Inquiry] will investigate the cause of the accident.

In recent times, the IAF has witnessed a series of crashes involving fighter jets and choppers.

On February 1, a Mirage 2000 fighter jet had crashed during a routine testing flight. Both the pilots in the jet had died after their safety equipment gave way. The pilots were on an acceptance sortie of the Mirage 2000 trainer aircraft after it was overhauled by the Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

Barely a fortnight later, two Surya Kiran Hawks were involved in a collision that led to the death of one pilot. The crash had taken place barely days before the 12 edition of Aero India.

On February 12, a MiG-27 fighter jet had crashed at the Pokhran firing range after taking off from the Jaisalmer air base. The jet was on a training mission. The pilot managed to eject safely from the jet before it crashed.

More recently, on February 27, a Mi17 helicopter of the Indian Air Force had crashed at Budgam in Kashmir. All six IAF personnel on board the chopper were killed. A civilian was also killed in the crash.

The MiG-21 fighter jet has been in the news recently after Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was flying a similar aircraft shot down a Pakistani F-16 before crashing in Pakistan.

The MiG-21 is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the erstwhile Soviet Union.
The Mamata Banerjee administration has revoked a notification issued on March 1 giving two additional responsibilities to former Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar.

Kumar was shifted as the additional director general of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) last month to comply with an Election Commission of India (EC) directive.

Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal lodged a complaint with the EC on March 4 and urged the poll panel to keep Kumar out of poll duties, labelling his transfer to CID as an eyewash transfer.

...the governor is pleased to revoke the order issued on 1.3.2019 wherein Rajeev Kumar, IPS, ADG & IGP, CID, WB was directed to hold the additional charges of Directorate of Economic Offences and of Special Task Force (STF), Kolkata with immediate effect, read the notification signed on March 6 and issued on Thursday evening.

An EC directive made it mandatory to shift those officers directly involved in the conduct of the poll process if they complete three years in their position on May 31, 2019.

Kumar, a 1989-batch IPS officer, became commissioner of Kolkata Police on May 21, 2016. The 53-year-old served in the same position between February and April 2016 as well.

Opposition leaders pointed out that putting Kumar in charge of STF of Kolkata Police defeated the purpose of removing him as the Kolkata Police commissioner since the STF was a crucial arm of the city police.

We are happy at the step of the government. It seems to have realised its mistake though at a late hour, said BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha.

BJP national executive committee member Mukul Roy, who headed the delegation to EC, had said the state government resorted to camouflage transfers.

Rajeev Kumar is still connected with Kolkata Police. Officers, who are the ruling partys lackeys, are being transferred from one department to another but in the same district, whereas the directive specifies that transfer has to take place outside revenue districts (district magistrates jurisdiction), Roy had said.

State Congress leaders also said they would move the poll panel against Kumars additional responsibilities.

Kumar, perceived to be close to Mamata Banerjee, hit national headlines after the chief minister held a 48-hour sit-in protest in February against an attempt by a CBI team to question the senior official for his alleged connection to the Saradha Ponzi scam investigation.
A tight contest is in store for the lone Lok Sabha seat from Puducherry in the upcoming 2019 elections.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held in 7 phases starting April 11. Counting of votes will take place on May 23.

The main contenders are Congress led by chief minister V Narayanasamy, a former minister in the PMO under Manmohan Singh. The Congress has the backing of the DMK in Tamil Nadu, led by MK Stalin.

Narayanasamy will take on his predecessor, N Rangasamy, a former Congressman and founder of AINRC, who has the support of AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

The Union territory has been in the news recently because of a tussle between the chief minister V Narayanasamy (Cong) and the Lt Governor Kiran Bedi, who has been appointed by the BJP government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Bedi has been accused of delaying welfare schemes by the Narayanasamy government. The chief minister sat on a dharna against the L-G, and got support from Delhi chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal. The stir was later called off.

The upcoming polls could significantly change the scenario for the former French colony.

Polling dates: April 18

Date of counting: May 23

Ruling Coalition: Congress-DMK

Number of Lok Sabha seats: 1

Partywise breakup

All India N Rangasamy Congress (AINRC): 1

Number of voters in the state: 9.48 lakh

Voter Turnout in 2014: 74.02%

Puducherry Assembly

Total Seats: 30 Elected/3 Nominated

Congress Alliance: 17 (Congress - 15 + DMK - 2)

AINRC: 7 (it was 8, but one member was disqualified following conviction)

AIADMK: 4

Independent: 1

Nominated: 3 (BJP)

Key Leaders

Congress: Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, PWD Minister & PCC Chief A Namasivayam

DMK: R Siva, AMH Nazeem

AINRC: N Rangasamy, party founder and former chief minister

BJP: State president V Saminathan

Key Issues:

The turf war between chief minister V Narayanasamy and Lt Governor Kiran Bedi took a serious turn with the former holding a sit-in for 6 days in front of Raj Bhavan.

Both have reached a truce and Bedi, who was accused of sitting over files and not sanctioning welfare programmes, has cleared certain schemes. But, the battle is still on.

With the AIADMK having allotted the Lok Sabha seat to the AINRC and DMK to the Congress, the contest is between the Congress and the AINRC.
The 2019 Lok Sabha elections are set to see a fierce battle between two fronts led by AIADMK and DMK in Tamil Nadu, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi set to raise the heat further with their support to the respective alliances.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held in 7 phases starting April 11. Counting of votes will take place on May 23.

The ruling AIADMK will look to hold on to as many seats as it can in the elections. Without its former stalwart the late Jayalalithaa, the party is being led by chief minister Edapaddi Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam.

The two leaders have struck an alliance pact with Narendra Modi-Amit Shah led BJP and the Vanniyar party PMK of S Ramadoss and his son Anbumani Ramadoss.

The party will face a strong opposition from DMK which has been out of power for several years in the state. Led by MK Stalin  after his father and the partys one of the most tallest leader, M Karunanidhi died  the party has struck an alliance with 8 parties, including Congress, VCK, MDMK and CPI.

The two fronts were in a tight contest to rope in actor Vijayakanths DMDK, which is seen to have a strong presence in the state.

Both the Dravidian majors are contesting much less seats in the Lok Sabha than it used to.

Vijayakanths fellow actor Kamal Hassans Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) has also thrown its hat into the fray, and hopes to make a start in electoral politics.

Polling dates: April 18

Date of counting: May 23

Ruling party in the state: AIADMK

Number of Lok Sabha seats: 39

Party-wise break-up

AIADMK: 37

BJP: 1

PMK: 1

Number of voters in the state: 5.86 crore

Voter turnout in 2014: 73.67%

Number of Assembly Seats: 234 (+1 nominated)

Party-wise breakup

AIADMK: 114

DMK: 88

Congress: 8

IUML: 1

Others: 1 (TTV Dhinakaran)

Nominated: 1

Speaker: 1

Vacant: 21 (Deceased 2, Disqualified TTV Supporters 18, AIADMK minister Balakrishna Reddy disqualified following conviction)

Key Leaders

AIADMK: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS), Deputy CM, O Panneerselvam, Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai

BJP: State president Tamilisai Soundarrajan, Union Minister Pon. Radhakrishnan

PMK: Anbumani Ramadoss

MNM: Kamal Hassan

DMK: MK Stalin, party president, his half-sister Kanimozhi, treasurer Duraimurugan, former Minister TR Balu and A Raja

Congress: P Chidambaram, TNCC president KS Alagiri, former TNCC presidents EVKS Elangovan, Su Thirunavukkarasar, Peter Alphonse, Kushbu Sundar

AMMK: TTV Dhinakaran

VCK: Thol Thirumavalavan

MDMK: Vaiko

DMDK: Vijayakanth, his wife Premalatha

Key Issues

Cauvery water sharing dispute: Water sharing dispute with Karnataka and the neighbouring states plans to construct a dam across Cauvery at Mekedatu in which the Centre is seen as siding with it is a live issue.

Tardy cyclone relief: After Vardah which battered Chennai and Ockhi, which ravaged Kanniyakumari district where nearly 100 fishermen went missing, cyclone Gaja has pounded Cauvery delta districts. The PM has neither visited the cyclone-hit region nor extended liberal financial assistance. While the state government sought Rs 15,000 crore, the Centre has sanctioned around Rs 1000 crore in instalments.

Thoothukudi firing on anti-Sterlite protesters: 13 people died after police opened indiscriminate firing upon a massive procession to the district collectorate to press for the closure of Sterlites copper smelter plant on the grounds of causing pollution.

Protests against mega projects: Farmers are up in arms against methane extraction project in the Cauvery delta, 8-Lane Greenfield Express Way between Chennai and Salem, Power Transmission Line in the Western region as well the Neutrino Project in the Western Ghats near Theni.

Prohibition: In Tamil Nadu, the state government is engaged in retail sale of liquor (IMFL). Revenue for liquor sale is more than Rs 26,000 crore per annum and this is what bankrolls the governments freebie programmes. Popular protests continue across the state for closure of liquor shops.
Mizoram governor Kummanam Rajasekharan on Friday resigned from his post, nine months after he was appointed in May 2018.

Rajasekharans resignation comes in the wake of the BJPs Kerala unit asking the party leadership to recall him and make him a candidate from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat against sitting Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

An official communique from the Presidents office said that Rajasekharans resignation had been accepted and Governor of Assam, Prof Jagdish Mukhi, has been given additional charge of the Mizoram, in addition to his own duties, until regular arrangements for the office of the Governor of Mizoram is made.

Talk about Rajasekharans resignation had been doing the rounds earlier. A senior BJP leader had said that the former Mizoram governor was willing to return if the party leadership gave him the nod.

Rajasekharan, a former RSS pracharak, hda been a surprise choice for the post of the BJPs state president in 2015.

During his three-year tenure as state BJP chief, he led the party well and had managed to open an account in the state assembly for the first time.However, he could not rein in the mounting factionalism within the party and in May 2018, he was unceremoniously removed as party president and sent to Mizoram as its governor.

The BJPs ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has also expressed its interest in Rajasekharans return.

Two weeks ago, when BJP chief Amit Shah visited Palakkad, an RSS delegation had raised the issue of Rajaseskharans return with him, party sources said adding there were many such precedents. They also gave the example of former Kerala governor Nikhil Kumar, who resigned in 2014 from his office to contest from Aurangabad in Bihar. A former Delhi police commissioner and DG of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police force, Kumar had however been defeated.

In the 2014 general election, BJP candidate O Rajagopal, a former minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, had put up a tough fight in Thiruvananthapuram. However, in the tough three-cornered contest, Tharoor had managed to retain the seat with a slender margin of 15,000 votes.

The CPI has already nominated former minister C Divakaran as its candidate from the Thiruvananthapuram seat.
The Opposition Congress party on Friday boycotted a ceremonial address by Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy on the first day of the state assemblys budget session in protest against his controversial tweets in the aftermath of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama on February 14.

Congress leader and former state chief minister Mukul Sangma said Roy posted his comments at a time when Kashmiris living outside the state were being attacked in some parts of the country.

He [Roy] had tweeted that all Kashmiri goods should be boycotted and people should not visit Kashmir, Sangma told reporters . Does it augur well for the nation when a person holding a constitutional post not less than that of governor, [sends out a] message that is capable of creating a rift amongst the citizens of the nation?

If there is a terror attack in the north-east, will people like the governor of Meghalaya tell the country to boycott the north-east? Sangma asked.

Roy said he was not worried about the Opposition boycotting his speech. I see they have done so. What can I do about it? he said.

Roy, a former West Bengal state unit president of the BJP, said he had nothing to add to the tweets he has already posted.

Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma, whose National Peoples Party government is supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), termed the boycott by the Opposition unfortunate.
Political parties broadly welcomed on Friday the Supreme Courts decision to refer the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute to mediation but a number of Hindu groups opposed the efforts, saying it would further delay any resolution in the contentious issue.

Union minister Uma Bharti asserted that she stood for building the Ram temple. It is important to resolve the issue but it is more important and essential to build a grand temple at Sri Ram Janmbhoomi, said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary P Muralidhar Rao.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said he respected the SC decision. We sincerely hope that the people of India will see through the BJPs duplicity and double speak, he added.

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati called the move appreciable but All India Masjls-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said one of the mediators, Ravi Shankar, should act in an unbiased manner.

Also read | Ayodhya case sent to 3 mediators including Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, get 4 weeks

The Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, which spearheads the Ram Temple movement, said it was not optimistic. More than a dozen efforts have been made to resolve the Ayodhya dispute through mediation. All of them failed due to stubborn approach of Muslim litigants, said Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, head of the Nyas.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh expressed its full faith in the Supreme Court but said the court must expedite and remove obstacles in constructing a temple. The VHP termed the process a futile exercise.

The Hindu Mahasabha, representatives of Ram Lalla (infant deity Ram) and the seers of Ayodhya opposed Ravi Shankars inclusion in the panel but the Nirmohi Akhada welcomed the courts decision.

The UP Sunni Central Waqf Board and the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) welcomed the initiative. AIMPLB secretary Zafaryab Jilani said, In the past, we have participated in negotiations and are again ready for talks but I would not like to say anything more at this stage.

Muslim litigant Iqbal Ansari welcomed the decision but questioned the absence of any local representative in the committee.

(with agency inputs)

Also read | Ayodhya mediators: Retired Supreme Court judge, spiritual guru and lawyer
China on Friday called on India and Pakistan to move on from the crisis triggered by the Pulwama terror attack last month and to work towards a long-term improvement in bilateral ties through dialogue.

The suggestion, made by foreign minister Wang Yi at his annual news conference on the sidelines of the ongoing session of Chinas rubber-stamp Parliament, the National Peoples Congress (NPC), came against the backdrop of persisting tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.

We advise both parties to quickly turn the page and seek a fundamental long-term improvement in their relations, Wang said, adding China was hopeful that the two countries would transform the crisis into an opportunity and meet each other halfway.

He added, When confrontation gives way to dialogue and disagreements are settled by goodwill, they can create a better future through cooperation.

Islamabad is under growing pressure from the world community to act against terror groups operating from its soil, including Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which claimed responsibility for the February 14 suicide bombing in Pulwama that killed 40 troops.

The attack  one of the worst in Kashmir  led to the most serious escalation between the two sides in years, with India conducting an air strike on a JeM camp in within Pakistan, and an aerial engagement over the skies of Kashmir when Pakistan retaliated.

China sent its vice foreign minister Kong Xuanyou to Pakistan during March 5-6 to discuss the tensions. Kong, who met Pakistans prime minister and army chief, assured Islamabad of Beijings support for peace and stability.

Wang, who is also a state councillor, made the remarks while responding to a question from a journalist from Pakistan on the India-Pakistan tensions and Chinas role in calming the situation.

Glad to take a question from our iron brother, Wang said, referring to the phrase the Chinese and Pakistani leadership use to describe their close ties. He said China has stressed on the need for India and Pakistan to exercise calm and restraint, prevent an escalation, find out what has happened and resolve the matter through dialogue.

He added, In the meantime, a countrys sovereignty and territorial integrity should be fully respected. China has followed these principles in its mediation efforts and played a constructive role in defusing the tension.

Wang referred to the current state of bilateral ties with India and said the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at Wuhan last year set the direction for future relations to surge ahead like the Yangtze and Ganges rivers.

The Wuhan summit in had also created a new model of high-level interactions and deepened trust between our leaders. Over the past year, government departments have done a lot and made considerable progress in following through many understandings reached by our leaders, he said.

China, he said, is ready to work with India to comprehensively strengthen sectoral cooperation and people-to-people ties which are of vital importance. The two countries, with a combined population of 2.7 billion and emerging markets, should be each others partner in pursuing our respective dreams and each others important opportunity for growing our respective economies, Wang said.

...
Businessman Robert Vadra has a message to honour the four strong women in his life on International Womens Day.

Wishing all wonderful women, a Happy Womens Day! I am happy to be surrounded by 4 strong women, my mother, my mother-in-law, my wife & my daughter. The keywords to describe them are hardworking, courageous, compassionate & determined (sic), Robert Vadra, the husband of Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, wrote on Facebook.

Vadra also shared two photographs: one with his mother-in-law and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and his mother Maureen Vadra around a table and another of Priyanka Gandhi and their daughter Miraya.

I know numerous other women, who have stood for their rights; who have excelled in fields including business, science, finance, sports. My message: today & everyday is its your day! Make the most of it. May India become a safe & secured country of your dreams (sic), Vadra, who is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate in cases of alleged money laundering, posted.

Also read: Robert Vadra moves application in Delhi court seeking copy of documents with ED

The agency had carried out raids at Delhi offices of Vadra, who is the brother-in-law of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, on December 7 last year. He has appeared before the ED for questioning on multiple occasions in Delhi and Jaipur.

The money laundering cases being probed by the ED relate to purchase of alleged illegal assets abroad and an alleged land scam in Bikaner, Rajasthan.

P.S. I will celebrate the day with them, once I am back from ED interrogation .... I have already deposed for 10 days of almost 64 hours, cooperating with the interrogations. I believe in truth n justice (sic), Vadra also said.

Also read: Not in hurry: Robert Vadra clarifies on political plunge after BJPs circus jibe

Vadra has said the agencys actions against him were a witch hunt and claimed that it showed complete misuse of the assertion of power.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi had accompanied her husband and mother-in-law Maureen Vadra to the Jaipur office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in connection with Bikaner land case.

She had also accompanied Robert Vadra to Delhi office of the ED in February when he was questioned for hours over three days in connection with another property case. Priyanka Gandhi had then said that her trip to the ED office in Delhi was designed to send a message.

He is my husband, he is my family...I support my family, Priyanka Gandhi said after dropping Vadra at the agency.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs annual meeting began in Madhya Pradeshs Gwalior on Friday in the shadow of the Ram temple issue.

The meeting of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha comes weeks ahead of the upcoming general election and is being keenly watched for political undertones and polemic, perhaps one reason why the Sangh chose to pass resolutions on the Sabarimala issue , the promotion of family values, and challenges in contemporary India.

Issues in the domain of electoral politics are generally avoided at such meetings, a functionary of the RSS said on condition of anonymity. The Supreme Courts decision to appoint a three-member committee, former SC judge Justice Kalifulla, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and advocate Sriram Panchu, to meet all the petitioners in the Ramjanmabhoomi case at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh, however, coincided with the inaugural of the Sabha, the meeting of the highest decision making body of the Sangh.

Although, the Sangh, the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party, did not issue a statement on the courts decision, functionaries who spoke on condition of anonymity said the order has not enthused the Sangh, which has been pushing or an early decision on the issue.

 The Sangh has made its stand clear that a decision on the issue must be passed without any more delay. Mediation has been tried in the past as well, but it did not bear any results; therefore, it is time that the issue is resolved without wasting any more time said a second senior functionary.

A third senior functionary said the issue and the apex courts order will come up for discussion at the meeting that concludes on Sunday. Another indication of the Sanghs opinion on the simmering issue came from the statement made in the annual report, frowning on the delay in the hearing of the issue in court.

In Ram Janambhomi case, instead of accelerating the judicial process to end the long-drawn dispute, the Supreme Court has taken a surprising stand. That the Supreme Court should find no priority for the sensitive subject associated with the deep faith of Hindu society is beyond understanding... the statement said. It went on to say that national pride and identity and Hindu society are being continuously neglected and called for judgment on the dispute to be expediated and obstacles removed in the construction a rand temple.

While affiliates of the RSS, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad mounted pressure on the Bharatiya Janata Party to bring a legislation to pave the way for the passage of the temple construction, the party, which is in power at the Centre decided to let the court find a resolution to the problem that has been a festering issue for both Hindus and Muslims . The courts decision to appoint Sri Sri Ravishankar as the mediator too has not gone down well with the Sangh.
The cost of air travel is going to increase marginally as a panel formed to review Passenger Service Fee (PSF) travellers pay has recommended the raise to recover the growing expenses incurred on security at airports.

The domestic passengers will end up paying 220 extra and international passengers up to $4.85 or around 340, two officials familiar with the matter said.

The PSF has remained unchanged since 2001 although the number of passengers has increased.

Airport operators say the fee is not sufficient as the security and equipment needed for it have become costlier.

Following request from airport operators, the Prime Minister Office formed a committee, which has now submitted its recommendation. As per the recommendation, the PSF for domestic passengers would increase from 200 to 220 and for international passengers it should increase from $3.25 to $4.85, said an official on condition of anonymity.

Central Industrial Security Force director general Rajesh Ranjan said a lot of airports were unable to make payments to his force in lieu of the security they provide. But the situation will improve now, he added.

The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), which operates the capitals airport, had in 2017 called for an increase in the PSF citing severe shortage of funds. ...And if the deficit continues to build up like this, we will not be able to meet even the mandatory expenditure to maintain security at the airport, DIAL had said in a letter to the civil aviation ministry.

The CISF, which provides security at airports, also wrote to the civil aviation ministry seeking its intervention in the release of mounting dues from DIAL and other airports.

Ranjan said that payment has been made regularly since then and dues are not alarming now.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday fired a fresh salvo at Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that he has misled the country more than any other person who has held the office. Gandhi targeted PM Modi over a range of issues including Rafale deal, unemployment, farm distress and representation of women in legislatures.

There have been so many prime ministers in India. But the volume of lies that this prime minister speaks is more than the combined lies spoken by all previous prime ministers, Gandhi said during an interaction with women on the International Womens Day at Koraput in Odisha.

Gandhi blamed the policies of the Narendra Modi government for growing unemployment and rising crime against women. He said Jobs are not being created in India. Unemployment leads to violence, hatred and alcoholismUnless you face the truth, you cant solve problems. This prime minister does not want to face the truth.

The Congress president promised if the party is voted to power in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, it would try to pass the Womens Reservation Bill for better representation of women in legislatures.

Hitting out at PM Modi over the Rafale deal, Gandhi said, The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has a plant here in KoraputThe prime minister snatched Rafale deal from the HAL and gave it to Anil Ambani, who got a contract of Rs 30,000 crore. This money belonged to HAL.

Gandhi has been raising the issue of Rafale deal in his public meetings to target PM Modi alleging malfeasance in the Rs 59,000-crore defence contract signed between India and France in 2016.

The Congress president also hit out at Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik saying that the BJD government has failed to ensure safety and security of women in the state. Every day 12 women are raped in Odisha and only seven get justice in a yearThe situation has worsened in the last four-five years.

He said if the Congress is elected to power in Odisha, it would make education and health priority sectors with greater budgetary allocations.
A Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi referred the decades-old Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute to a three-member mediation panel on Friday, setting aside the absence of consensus between rival claimants on such a move in the hope of reaching an amicable settlement.

Former Supreme Court judge FMI Kalifulla will lead the panel, which will have as its members Hindu guru Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, an expert in mediation and dispute resolution.

The bench said the panel would submit its first progress report on the mediation effort within four weeks. It reiterated its February 26 order that mediation would be an interim arrangement the court has opted for until the next date of hearing on the matter, which is after eight weeks. This suggests that the final report in the case, which is of immense significance in the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, may come at a time when the general elections are well underway. The summers elections are scheduled for April-May and the term of the current Lok Sabha expires on June 3.

We have considered the nature of the dispute arising. Notwithstanding the lack of consensus between the parties in the matter, we are of the view that an attempt should be made to settle the dispute by mediation, the bench, also comprising justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer, said.

In the last hearing on Wednesday, all Hindu parties  except the Nirmohi Akhara, a religious denomination and one of the main parties to the civil suit  opposed mediation, while the Muslim parties welcomed it.

Hindu organisations claim the disputed site in Ayodhya is the birthplace of the god Ram and that a mosque, the Babri Masjid, was constructed in the 16th century on the ruins of a temple demolished by the Mughals. The mosque was razed in December 1992 by a mob.

The 14 petitions before the SC are challenging the Allahabad high courts September 2010 verdict that called for a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acres in Ayodhya between the Nirmohi Akhara, the Sunni Central Waqf Board of Uttar Pradesh, and representatives of Ram Lalla Virajman, the child deity. To ensure the success of the effort, the court ordered the in-camera mediation proceedings to start in a weeks time in Uttar Pradeshs Faizabad district, of which the disputed area in Ayodhya is a part. The top court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to arrange a venue for the mediation and a place for the three mediators to stay in, their security and travel.

The bench favoured keeping the proceedings in utmost confidentiality. It was of the view that the media should not report on the proceedings, but refrained from passing any gag order and left it to the mediators to pass the orders they deem necessary.

Justice Kalifulla will be free to approach the SC registry in case the panel comes up against any difficulties in executing the task assigned to it, and also inform it of any requirements to facilitate the mediation and to bring the process to a speedy conclusion. The mediators were also given the option of co-opting more members and seeking legal assistance at any stage of the proceedings.

The court rejected concerns raised over the efficacy and legality of mediation. Considering the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code [CPC], we do not find any legal impediment to making a reference to mediation for a possible settlement of the dispute[s] arising out of the appeals, the court said.

On whether the CPC would apply in the event of a settlement or a compromise, the court said it would decide on it at an appropriate stage. Under the procedure, if the mediation concludes in a settlement, it would be made a part of a judicial order and be binding on the disputants. Such an order is not subject to appeal.

For the present, I can only say that if the committee has been constituted, we will take every step to resolve the dispute amicably, Kallifulla told reporters.

Ravi Shankar said it would be good for the country if the issue could be resolved through any mediation.

It is too premature for me to comment on the matter. But I can say that I will be meeting the panel soon and decide on the future course of action. All I can say is that I will try my best, said Panchu.

Leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress said they respected the courts order.

Union minister Uma Bharti asserted that she stood for building the Ram temple, while party general secretary P Muralidhar Rao said keeping the dispute pending was not in anyones interest.

It is important to resolve the issue but it is more important and essential to build a grand temple at Sri Ram Janmbhoomi, he said.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the BJP had milked the issue for political leverage. We respect the decision to constitute a mediation panel. Sadly, BJP has politicised a faith based issue for political gains for the last 27 years, he said.

The court on February 26 suggested mediation for the first time.

(with agency inputs)
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered mediation in the Ayodhya title suit. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi passed the order to this effect.

Mediation will start within a week at Faizabad and state of UP has to make arrangements, the Supreme Court ruled. Mediation panel has to give its report within four weeks.

The mediation will be done by a three-member panel, which the Supreme Court said, will be at liberty to induct more mediators or seek legal assistance. Justice FM Khalifulah, the retired Supreme Court judge is the chairman of the panel.

Art of Living head Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu are the other mediators on the panel. Panchu is a trained mediator.

The top court directed both parties to maintain utmost confidentiality during the process of mediation, which will be held in-camera. There ought not to be any reporting in print or electronic of the mediation process, the court said.

The mediation panel will revert to the Supreme Court registry if there are any hurdles in the process of mediation, the five-judge bench ruled. The other judges on the bench are justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order after hearing both sides on the proposal to try out mediation as an alternative to litigation to settle the decades-old dispute.

The suggestion was opposed by the Uttar Pradesh government and the Hindu parties, except the Nirmohi Akhara, a religious denomination that is one of the main parties to the civil suit, but was welcomed by the Muslim side.

Opinion: Yet another opportunity to amicably resolve Ram temple tangle

The court is hearing petitions challenging a 2010 Allahabad high court order that trifurcated the 2.77-acre-site between the Nirmohi Akhara, the Sunni Central Waqf Board, and Ram Lalla (the child deity).

The court is also considering a petition by the Centre, which wants to release 67.7 acres of land acquired in 1993 around the site  except for .303 acres on which the actual disputed structure stood  to its original owners.

The court mentioned mediation as a possibility to resolve the contentious dispute in a hearing on February 26. The judges suggested an amicable resolution while telling the parties that they were seriously giving a chance for mediation in an attempt to heal relationships.

The verdict may assume political signifiance because it comes just weeks ahead of the general elections this summer. With the dispute having been referred to mediation, the outcome is likely be known only after the polls.

Also Read | Ayodhya case: Parties divided as Supreme Court asks for list of mediators

Many of the Hindu parties opposed mediation saying it would only delay the case, and that previous attempts to mediate the dispute had failed.

In its last hearing on Wednesday, the judges urged lawyers on both sides to exercise restraint and not argue on history.

Dont tell us history. We have also read history. Do not tell us what we already know. We have no control over what happened in the past...we have no control over the past. We can only undo the present, which is the dispute before us, Justice Bodbe said.

Justice Chandrachud, however, aired his doubts over the binding nature of mediation and whether it would work in a dispute that has taken the nature of a representative suit.

Its no longer a dispute between just two parties but a wider dispute between two communities. Even if we go through mediation how would it be binding on all? he asked.
Since 1992, BJP has kept Ayodhya alive to be used in every poll: Congress

Since 1992, BJP has kept the issue alive so as to be used in every election for political vote garnering and relegate the Ram Mandir issue to the annals of history post-election -- to be revived again in the next election. We sincerely hope that people of India will see through the duplicity and doublespeak of BJP, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.

Resolution through mediation will be good for country: Ravi Shankar

If it (Ayodhya dispute) can be resolved through any mediation, it will be very good for the country, Sr Sri Ravi Shankar, one of the mediators in the dispute, said

Can there be anything other than a mosque in Mecca and Madina, asks Giriraj Singh

Union minister Giriraj Singh, known for his hardline stand on Hindutva issues, said he had no comments to offer on the court order, but asked Muslims not to be obstinate as he pitched for building the Ram temple.

Can there be anything other than a mosque in Mecca and Madina?... Do Hindus have not even this much right after partition that we can offer prayers to Lord Ram in Ayodhya? he asked.

Will take every step to resolve Ayodhya issue amicably: Justice Kallifulla

Retired Supreme Court judge F M I Kallifulla, head of the mediation team, says, For the present, I can only say that if the committee has been constituted, we will take every step to resolve the dispute amicably.

Resolution through dialogue would be most befitting: AIMPLB

It would be most befitting that the matter is resolved through dialogue...lets see what happens now, AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani told PTI over phone, welcoming the decision.

Regrettable non-neutral person has been appointed as mediator: Owaisi

MIM President Asaduddin Owaisi welcomed the Supreme Court order for mediation to settle the Ayodhya dispute, but voiced concern over Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar being made a mediator. He said the spiritual leader had warned that if Muslims did not give up the land, India will become a Syria. This is regrettable that such a person who is not neutral has been appointed by the Supreme Court.

Construction of Ram temple is non-negotiable: Subramanian Swamy

There is no question of not building a temple where we believe Lord Ram was born, says BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, a petitioner in the case.

Cannot keep issue pending for long time, P Muralidhar Rao

It is important to resolve the issue but it is more important and essential to build a grand temple at Sri Ram Janmbhoomi. This cannot be kept pending for a long time, says BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao.

One has to respect the Supreme Court order, says Uma Bharti

One has to respect the Supreme Court order, says Union minister Uma Bharti, but asserted that she stands for building the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and a mosque can be built only outside its vicinity.

It is a very serious responsibility, says advocate Sriram Panchu

It is a very serious responsibility given to me by the Honourable Supreme Court. I will do my best, says senior advocate Sriram Panchu, named by the Supreme Court as a member of the panel to mediate the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute.

Mediation is the only way: Sri Sri Ravishankar

Sri Sri Ravishankar on being appointed in Ayodhya mediation panel by Supreme Court: I just heard of this news, I think this will be good for the country, mediation is the only way, reports news agency ANI.

We must all move together towards ending long-standing conflicts: Sri Sri Ravishankar

Respecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society - we must all move together towards these goals, says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

As a Hindu, I think, a temple should be made where Lord Ram was born: Uma Bharti

Union Minister Uma Bharti: I dont want to comment on the Supreme Court order. I dont want to comment on the mediators named by the court. But as a Hindu, I think, a temple should be made where Lord Ram was born, reports news agency ANI.

It would have been better if Supreme Court had appointed a neutral person: Asaduddin Owaisi

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who has been appointed a mediator had earlier made a statement if muslims dont give up their claim on Ayodhya,India will become Syria. It would have been better if Supreme Court had appointed a neutral person: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, reports news agency ANI.

We will take every effort to resolve the issue amicably: Justice(Retd)FM Ibrahim Kalifullah

Justice(Retd)FM Ibrahim Kalifullah on Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case: I understand Supreme Court has appointed a mediation committee headed by me. I am yet to receive order copy. I can say if committee has been constituted we will take every effort to resolve the issue amicably, says PM Narendra Modi.

Will cooperate in mediation: AIMPLB member and convener of Babri Masjid Action Committee

We have already said that we will cooperate in the mediation. Now, whatever we have to say, we will say it to the mediation panel, not outside, said AIMPLB member and convener of Babri Masjid Action Committee Zafaryab Jilani.

We have already said that we will cooperate in the mediation: AIMPLB member and convener of Babri Masjid Action Committee Zafaryab Jilani

AIMPLB member and convener of Babri Masjid Action Committee Zafaryab Jilani, on Supreme Courts order on Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case: We have already said that we will cooperate in the mediation. Now, whatever we have to say, we will say it to the mediation panel, not outside, reports news agency ANI.

No lord Ram devotee or saint wants delay in construction of Ram Mandir: UP dy CM

Wont question Supreme Court order. In the past,efforts made to arrive at a solution, but with no success. No lord Ram devotee or saint wants delay in construction of Ram Mandir, said UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Uttar Pradesh government to provide mediators all the facilities in Faizabad

Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case: Supreme Court says, mediators can co-opt more on the panel if necessary. Uttar Pradesh government to provide mediators all the facilities in Faizabad. Mediators can seek further legal assistance as and when required, reports news agency ANI.

SC directs panel of mediators may co-opt more members

Supreme Court directs panel of mediators may co-opt more members and in case of any difficulty they can inform apex court registry, reports PTI.

SC directs mediation proceedings shall be completed within 8 weeks

Supreme Court directs mediation proceedings shall be completed within 8 weeks, reports PTI.

Both parties have been directed to maintain utmost confidentiality

Both parties have been directed to maintain utmost confidentiality. There ought not to be any reporting in print or electronic of the mediation process. Court says there is no legal infirmity in referring the dispute to mediation. Mediation will be in-camera proceedings. The panel had revert to the court registry if there are any hurdles in the process to start

Supreme Court says mediation proceedings should be held on-camera

Supreme Court says mediation proceedings should be held on-camera. Mediation process will be held in Faizabad. It will be headed by Justice FM Kaliifullah and also comprise Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, reports news agency ANI.

Justice Khaliifulah (Retd) to be the chairman, for court appointed and monitored mediation for a permanent solution

Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case: Justice Khaliifulah (Retd) to be the chairman, for court appointed and monitored mediation for a permanent solution, reports news agency ANI.

SCs Constitution Bench refers Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for court appointed and monitored mediation

Supreme Courts Constitution Bench refers Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for court appointed and monitored mediation for a permanent solution

Supreme Court reserved order on Wednesday

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order after hearing both sides on the proposal to try out mediation as an alternative to litigation to settle the decades-old dispute.
The Supreme Court on Friday warned the Haryana government against disturbing the Aravalli hills or forest area, and said the state administration would be in trouble if constructions were allowed there.

We are concerned with Aravalli. If you are doing anything with Aravalli or Kant Enclave (where the top court had ordered demolition of buildings due to illegal constructions in forest area) you will be in trouble. If you are doing anything with the forest, you will be in trouble. We are telling you, a bench led by Justice Arun Mishra told solicitor-general Tushar Mehta who appeared for Haryana. Mehta assured the court that he would satisfy the bench that amendments in the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900, were not done to help somebody.

The SC had on March 1 come down heavily on the Haryana government for passing amendments to the law, allowing construction activities in the Aravalli region. It refrained the state from acting on the amended law without the courts permission. The court said the changes were approved to circumvent its earlier order prohibiting any mining or construction activities in the ecologically fragile zone.

During the brief hearing on Friday, Mehta told the bench that the Assembly has passed the bill but it has not become an Act yet.
Stepping up pressure on Pakistan, the US has asked Islamabad to take sustained and irreversible actions against terrorist groups operating from its territory to prevent future attacks and promote regional stability.

The State Department statement came as Pakistan, under global pressure after the Pulwama terror attack and Indias air strikes against Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on February 26, started taking actions against some of the terrorist outfits and their leaders over the past few days.

In Islamabad, the Interior Ministry on Thursday announced that a total of 121 members of the proscribed groups have so far been taken into preventive detention across Pakistan.

State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino told reporters at his biweekly news conference on Thursday, I would say that we, the United States notes these steps and we continue to urge Pakistan to take sustained, irreversible actions against terrorist groups that will prevent future attacks and promote regional stability.

We reiterate our call for Pakistan to abide by its United Nations Security Council obligations to deny terrorists safe haven and block their entry to funds, he said.

Responding to questions, Palladino refrained from giving a direct answer on the move at the United Nations Security Council to designate JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist.

However, he said that the US and its allies in the UN Security Council want to update the UN list of terrorist organisations and leaders.

Also read | Imran Khan says he will not allow militant groups to operate, carry out attacks abroad

Our views on Masood Azhar and Jaish-e-Mohammed are well-known. Jaish-e-Mohammed is a United Nations-designated terrorist group that has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks and is a threat to regional stability. Masood Azhar is the founder and leader of JEM, Palladino said.

Questions on the United Nations Sanctions Committee deliberations are confidential and as such it is not something that the State Department is going to be able to comment on specific matters on the issue, he said.

But we will continue to work with the sanctions committee to ensure that the list is updated and that it is accurate, Palladino said.

At the US Capitol, Indias Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla met Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives and discussed the issue of terrorism.

We must stand strong against acts of terrorism and work together to improve trade between our nations, the top Republican leader said after the meeting.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group JeM killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama district in February 14.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.

Also read | Lets not miscalculate: Imran Khan after Pakistan jets violate Indian airspace
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said there is panic among the terror groups on the account of decisive action taken by India across the border. The terrorists are in panic. It is for this reason that another terror attack happened in Jammu, said PM Modi.

A grenade was lobbed at the Jammu bus stand on Thursday. Police said it was the handiwork of terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen. Two persons died in the terror attack and nearly 30 others were injured.

The kind of action our government is taking, there will be more panic among them, PM Modi said at a public rally in Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur adding, We have to be careful in fulfilling our responsibilities towards the nation.

The prime minister asserted that it was important to maintain harmony. He warned those targeting Kashmiri people in different parts after Pulwama terror attack asking the state governments to act tough in such cases. Forty CRPF jawans were killed in Pulwama terror attack last month.

His comments come two days after two Kashmiri vendors were beaten up by members of a little known right wing outfit, Vishwa Hindu Dal in Lucknow. Following the attack on the Kashmiris, Uttar Pradesh police arrested four people in this connection after video of the incident went viral on social media.

I also congratulate the Yogi government for taking immediate action against those lunatics who targeted Kashmiri people in Lucknow the day before yesterday. I urge other state governments to take strict action against those who try to indulge in such acts. We have to fight terrorism with the mantra of unity, PM Modi said.

PM Modi also targeted the opposition leaders amid row over Indian Air Force strike at a terror camp in Pakistans Balakot days after Pulwama terror attack. When the whole world has mounted pressure on Pakistan, some people in India are making statements to favour Pakistan, which is using those remarks to create confusion among international community, he said.

This was in reference to comments by opposition leaders including Kapil Sibal and P Chidambaram of the Congress who cited international media reports seeking clarification from the government over the success of the IAF strike in Pakistan.

The IAF had carried out strike on terror camps belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed, the Pakistan-based terror outfit which claimed responsibility for attack on CRPF jawans in Jammu and Kashmir. The IAF operation was carried out on February 26. Pakistan denied IAF action in Balakot saying only some trees were uprooted in the operation.
India is on course to lease out a second Akula-II nuclear-powered attack submarine from Russia with the two countries hammering out a deal worth almost $3 billion on Thursday, two officials said on the condition of anonymity.

The Indian Navy currently operates one Akula-II attack submarine, called Chakra II, leased from Russia in 2012 for 10 years. The second Akula-II being leased is likely to join the Navy in five to six years and will be called Chakra-III, the officials said. It will be the third Russian submarine to be leased to the Indian Navy.

Defence ministry spokesman Colonel Aman Anand refused to comment on the deal.

If a second nuclear-powered attack submarine is leased, it would significantly add to the Navys underwater domain capability. It will also take us ahead on the operational, tactical and technical as well as eventual indigenisation curves, said military affairs expert Rear Admiral Sudarshan Shrikhande (retd).

He said the Navys ability to maintain peace in the Indian Ocean region and having a good measure of underwater domain dominance depended on nuclear-powered attack submarines.

Apart from an Akula-II nuclear-powered attack boat, India currently operates 13 ageing conventional submarines, one Scorpene-class submarine INS Kalvari and the indigenous nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine INS Arihant, which successfully completed its first deterrence patrol in November 2018. The fully operational Arihant completed the sea leg of Indias nuclear triad, giving it enduring nuclear strike and counterstrike capabilities. The second Arihant-class submarine, called Arighat, was secretly launched in 2017 and is likely to join the naval fleet in 2021.

The Navy will induct its second Scorpene-class submarine Khanderi in April-end, a navy official said. Commissioned in December 2017, INS Kalvari is the first of six Scorpene submarines being built at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited in Mumbai, under licence from French firm Naval Group, previously called DCNS, under a 23,562-crore programme called Project-75.

The Navy hopes to induct all the six diesel-electric attack boats by 2020. The lease of Chakra II could be extended beyond 2022, said one of the officials cited above. One hopes that the lease of Chakra II is extended. Ideally, if two such boats are operated, it would be good, said Shrikhande.

Indias sub-sea power is way behind Chinas. The neighbours underwater capability is far superior with more than 60 diesel-electric attack submarines and a mix of 10 nuclear attack submarines and nuclear ballistic missile submarines, experts said.

Six more advanced submarines are also to be built under project P-75I under the Make in India initiative to scale up the Navys undersea warfare capabilities and counter the swift expansion of Chinas submarine fleet.
The meeting of the BJP parliamentary board, its top decision-making body, is currently underway to take an in-principle decision on whether the party should field candidates who are above the age of 75, Rajya Sabha members and sitting legislators in the Lok Sabha polls. The party has set 75 as the age limit for ministerial positions.

The Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to take place between April and May. The election commission is expected to announce the election schedule either over the weekend or early next week.

Among those present in the meeting were union ministers Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh.

Apart from the three main points of discussion, a BJP leader said the party top brass would also discuss a range of issues related to its campaign for the elections and to strategise its agenda in the days ahead.

A senior BJP leader had said that the party wanted to meet and take a call on giving tickets to the three categories of candidates. He also said that depending on the decision taken in the parliamentary board meeting, the party would start announcing the names of its candidates from next week.

In 2014, after Narendra Modi became prime minister, the party had adopted an upper age limit of 75 for ministerial posts. As part of this decision, Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel and Union ministers Najma Heptualla and Kalraj Mishra resigned after they turned 75.

Last month, the BJP leadership had hinted that the 75-plus age bar was only for ministerial positions and not to contest elections.

A decision to not field those who are already over the age of 75 would mean that veterans such as LK Advani (91), Murli Manohar Joshi (85), BC Khanduri (84), and Kalraj Mishra (77) would be left out.

The board will also take a call on whether to field Rajya Sabha members or not.
Rahul Gandhi wishes women on Womens Day in Goa

Rahul Gandhi wishes women on Womens Day in Goa. He apologises to booth workers in Goa for delay. Says due to bad weather, his flight was delayed in Visakhapatnam

Cong will give minimum income guarantee for poor: Rahul Gandhi

Cong will give minimum income guarantee for poor. This will start as soon as Congress government comes to power: Rahul Gandhi

BJP looted Goa govt: Rahul Gandhi

People voted for Congress, but BJP paid money and looted people of its govt. It did the same in other states. BJP looted Goa govt also. Spread the word, ask people to bring Cong govt in Goa and the Centre, says Rahul Gandhi

Cong will restart mining in a sustainable way: Rahul Gandhi

Cong will restart mining in a sustainable way. Goa made centre for coal for Modis cronies: Rahul Gandhi

After demonetisation, GST, Goa tourism gayab ho gaya: Rahul Gandhi

During demonetisation, people stood in queues, but not Nirav Modi or Anil Ambani. Modi brought demonetisation, Gabbar Singh Tax (GST) and Goa tourism gayab ho gaya. Employment rose to 40 yr high. Future of people was lost: Rahul Gandhi

Rafale files gayab ho gayi (are missing), like govt in Goa: Rahul Gandhi

Centre tells SC the files of Rafale are missing like the govt in Goa. Files mentioned that Modiji raised the price of Rafale fighter jets. Why not start probe from Goa? Start with (Goa CM Manohar) Parrikar. Parrikar said if he is removed as CM of Goa, he will expose Rafale files.

Rahul Gandhi raises Rafale deal again

Chowkidaar put Rs 30,000 crore in Anil Ambanis account. (Former) French president (Francois Hollande) said Indian PM told him to give contract to Ani Ambani. CBI director (Anil Ambani) was removed at 1.30 in the night for planning to start an inquiry into Rafale deal. SC brought back CBI director, but he is removed again within a few hours, says Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi thanks workers for fighting for Congress ideology

Rahul Gandhi thanks workers for fighting for Congress ideology

Rahul Gandhi to address booth workers in Goa

Rahul Gandhi to address booth workers in Goa.

Modi himself prepared new contract for Rafale deal, held separate negotiation: Rahul

Modi himself prepared new contract for Rafale deal, held separate negotiations, says Rahul Gandhi in Odisha.

Modi government making mockery of farmers by giving Rs 3.50 per day, but waives Rs 3.5 lakh crore industrialists loans: Rahul

Modi government making mockery of farmers by giving Rs 3.50 per day, but waives Rs 3.5 lakh crore industrialists loans: Rahul Gandhi in Odisha.

Unity is the Mantra: PM Modi

Unity is the Mantra. I say to those indulging in spurious politics to join fight against terror than wasting energy on Modi, says PM Narendra Modi.

Take strict action against those targeting Kashmiris: PM Modi at UP rally

Take strict action against those targeting Kashmiris, says PM Modi at UP rally

Attempts are being made to downplay our Armys valour: PM Modi

PM Modi: Unfortunately, attempts are being made to downplay our Armys valour. Can we forgive those who give statements which please Pakistan? Whole world is putting pressure on Pakistan but statements from some ppl in country are helping Pakistan, reports news agency ANI.

Maintaining unity in the country is the priority: PM Modi

Elections will come and go but it is responsibility of every one that enemy of the country should not get benefitted. These statements are helping Pakistan, which has been isolated in the international community. Our action will frustrate everyone related to terror activities.Maintaining unity in the country is the priority, says PM Narendra Modi.

For womens safety, a special officer will be posted in every panchayat: Rahul Gandhi

For womens safety, a special officer will be posted in every panchayat. A financial corporation will be formed to assist small and medium women entrepreneurs, says Rahul Gandhi.

When we form the government, we will provide free education to every girl in Odisha: Rahul Gandhi

When we form the government, we will provide free education to every girl in Odisha. We will provide Rs 2,000 widow allowance and financial assistance for marriage of every poor woman, says Rahul Gandhi

Its time to remember to those who have laid down their lives: PM Modi

Its time to remember to those who have laid down their lives. Sadly the people in our own country are belittling the valour of armed forces, says PM Narendra Modi.

My government doesnt believe in lip service but doing work on the ground: PM Modi

Modi hai to Mumkin hai. My government doesnt believe in lip service but doing work on the ground, says PM Narendra Modi.

Everyone will have a house by 2022: PM Modi

By 2022 there will not be a single family in the country that doesnt have a roof on the head. Everyone will have a house.

Lucknow metro facility will be on 23 km route: PM Modi

Lucknow metro extension launched. Metro facility will be on 23 km route, says PM Narendra Modi.

Today in the BJP states, law is weakened and land is acquired from Aadivasis and farmers without consent: Rahul

Thrice, Chowkidar tried to undo the Land Acquisition Bill and we stopped him every time. But, today in the BJP states, the law is weakened and land is acquired from Aadivasis and farmers without consent, says Rahul Gandhi.

By taking away the Rafale deal from HAL, youth of Odisha have lost the opportunity for employment: Rahul

By taking away the Rafale deal from HAL, while the French benefit from it, youth of Odisha have lost the opportunity for employment, says Rahul Gandhi.

Round the clock availability of electricity is very important: PM Modi

Round the clock availability of electricity is very important. You remember before this government what was the condition of electricity in Uttar Pradesh. Isnt this an irony that the first power plant was set up 52 years ago. Second 43 years ago?, says PM Narendra Modi.

I am in Kanpur to give strength to general life, business, industry: PM Modi

I am in Kanpur to give strength to general life, business, industry. The work going on will bring unexpected and big change in life of the people, says PM Narendra Modi.

Balakot air strike was targeted mission based on credible intelligence: Rajnath Singh

Warriors dont count people killed in war. Balakot air strike was targeted mission based on credible intelligence: Rajnath Singh in Rajasthan

PM talks of patriotism but he takes money from Air force and gives it to Anil Ambani: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi in Koraput: Few days ago Air Force attacked Pak, our people were martyred. For 70 years HAL is manufacturing aircraft for Air Force, Indian youth make aircraft for Air Force. PM talks of patriotism but he takes money from Air force and gives it to Anil Ambani, reports news agency ANI.

PM Modi lays foundation stone for Agra Metro

PM Modi lays the foundation stone for Agra Metro and also flags off the Lucknow Metro train.

LIVE : PM @narendramodi launches various development projects at Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Watch at https://t.co/iTMAiCOWBT pic.twitter.com/Z8ZihaZX7S  BJP LIVE (@BJPLive) March 8, 2019

Strongly condemn violence against Kashmiris: Rahul

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday condemned the violence against Kashmiris and said India belonged to its citizens from every corner of the country.

Gandhis reaction come after two Kashmiri vendors selling dry fruits were thrashed by a group of saffron-clad men in Lucknow on Wednesday.

Rahul Gandhis public address in Koraput, Odisha

Congress president Rahul Gandhis public address in Koraput, Odisha.

PM Modi launches various development projects at Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh

PM Modi launches various development projects at Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.

Need to recommit ourselves to breaking barriers that hinder womens path to equality: Rahul

On the occasion of International Womens Day on Friday Congress president Rahul Gandhi hailed the undaunted, fighting spirit of women and urged people to recommit themselves to breaking barriers that hinder a womans path to freedom and equality.

His party added that both UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi between September 2017 and July 2018, urging him to pass the Womens Reservation Bill and assuring their unconditional support to it.

If Congress forms government in Odisha, girls will get free education: Rahul Gandhi

If Congress forms government in Odisha, girls will get free education: Rahul Gandhi, reports PTI

LS poll will see more money, violence & hatred: Ex-CEC

The coming Lok Sabha election will be marked by more money, violence and hatred given the way political parties fight amongst themselves, former chief election commissioner (CEC) T S Krishnamurthy warned on Friday.

Krishnamurthy, who oversaw the 2004 Lok Sabha election, rejected suggestions from some leaders of Opposition parties who raised questions on the Election Commission (EC) for not announcing the poll dates yet.

Our approach is zero tolerance towards atrocities against women: Rahul Gandhi

Our approach is zero tolerance towards atrocities against women: Rahul Gandhi in Jeypore.

We will ensure passage of womens reservation bill if voted to power: Rahul Gandhi

We will ensure passage of womens reservation bill if voted to power: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi at womens convention in Odishas Jeypore.

You cant protect Rafale files, how will you protect national security, Mamata Banerjee asks Modi govt

You cant protect Rafale files, how will you protect national security, Mamata Banerjee asks Modi government.

Modi government has crossed expiry date, new government will bring peace in Kashmir: Mamata Banerjee

Modi government has crossed expiry date, new government will bring peace in Kashmir: Mamata Banerjee, reports PTI.

If voted to power, we will pass womens quota bill: Rahul Gandhi in Odisha

If voted to power, we will pass womens quota bill: Rahul Gandhi in Odisha.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is interacting with women in Odisha

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is interacting with women in Odisha.

PM Modi will address his third political rally in Kanpur

PM Narendra Modi will address his third political rally in Kanpur.

Before this, he had launched the party campaign in October 2013 with Vijay Shankhnaad rally for general elections. Then he kicked off campaign for assembly election from Nirala Nagar railway ground.

PM Modi would inaugurate metro rail projects in different cities from Kanpur and to be telecast live in auditorium at Agra

Main event will be in Kanpur where Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate metro rail projects in different cities from Kanpur and to be telecast live in auditorium at Agra.

Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma reaches Sur Sadan auditorium in Agra

Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma reaches Sur Sadan auditorium in Agra for being part of digital foundation laying ceremony of recently cleared Metro Rail Project for Agra.

PM Narendra Modi offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple at Varanasi, earlier today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple at Varanasi, earlier today.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple at Varanasi, earlier today. pic.twitter.com/5E3jkX02bO  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 8, 2019

Today, daughters in our country are flying fighter jet planes and also circumnavigating the globe: PM Modi

When our soldiers accomplish missions, our daughters also feel that if they get an opportunity they can also achieve. Today, daughters in our country are flying fighter jet planes and also circumnavigating the globe, says PM Narendra Modi.

Over 1 crore farmers received first instalment of the scheme: PM Modi

Over 1 crore farmers received first instalment of the scheme. Take advantage of pension scheme by connecting with it, says PM Narendra Modi.

There is need to launch a campaign for best from waste and wealth from waste: PM Modi

There is need to launch a campaign for best from waste and wealth from waste. Some self-help group women are doing it, says PM Narendra Modi.

Kisan credit card facility will be given to cattle rearers: PM Modi

Kisan credit card facility will be given to cattle rearers.There is need to improve marketing of products made by SHG members, says PM Narendra Modi.

Self-help group women are making solar lanterns which is giving them benefit: PM Modi

PM Modi said that self-help group women are making solar lanterns. It gives them benefit and provides light to the students, says PM Narendra Modi.

Self-help groups take resolution to eliminate poverty from their houses: PM Modi

PM Modi says self-help groups take resolution to eliminate poverty from their houses.

During last 4 years, Rs 2 lakh crore was given to the self-help groups: PM Modi

During last 4 years, Rs 2 lakh crore was given to the self-help groups. Recently it has been decided to give permanent commissions to women in some sectors of armed forces. When our jawans display valour, it is not only the men who are filled with pride, daughters also feel that given a chance they will also do the same, says PM Narendra Modi.

We tried to give a new energy to self-help groups: PM Modi

We tried to give a new energy to the self-help groups. Earlier, the self-help groups used to get loan of Rs 23,000 each annually. We increased it to Rs 44,000 annually, says PM Narendra Modi.

When I reached Kashi, operation of the airport was fully in hand of women: PM Modi

When I reached Kashi, operation of the airport was fully in hand of women.It was great, says PM Narendra Modi.

A train operated by women, guarded by women has introduced from Bhopal today: PM Modi

A train operated by women, guarded by women has introduced from Bhopal today, says PM Narendra Modi.

PM Modi extends greetings on International Womens Day

I offer my greetings to all the daughters, sisters and mothers of this country. You all are playing an important role in building a new India. Your active participation & blessings are very important in creating new culture of new India, says PM Narendra Modi on International Womens Day.

We have made law to ensure action against those who settled in foreign countries and abandon their wives: PM Modi

We have made law to ensure action against those who settled in foreign countries and abandon their wives, says PM Narendra Modi.

Now there will be feeling of bhavyata with divyata: PM Modi

Now there will be feeling of bhavyata with divyata. We are taking steps for shaping bright future of the girls, says PM Narendra Modi.

Kashi gave Rani Laxmibai who freed country from chain of slavery: PM Modi

I am happy that the event is taking place in my Kashi. Kashi gave Rani Laxmibai who freed country from chain of slavery. Devi Ahilya gave the current shape of Modern Kashi Viahwanath temple. With blessings of Baba Bhole, we are going to beautify the Kashi Temple, says PM Narendra Modi.

Women empowerment ensures participation in development of rural economy: PM Modi

Women empowerment ensures participation in development of rural economy, says PM Narendra Modi.

70 lakh women are participating in this event: PM Modi

You will be happy to know that 70 lakh women are participating in this event, says PM Narendra Modi.

Self-help groups women present a cheque worth Rs 21 lakh to PM Modi for the slain soldiers

Self-help groups women present a cheque worth Rs 21 lakh to PM Modi for the slain soldiers.

PM Modi presents appreciation certificates to five women

PM Modi presents appreciation certificates to five women.

Varanasi Airport was operated by women staff on the occasion of International Women Day when PM Modis plane landed at the airport

Varanasi Airport was operated by women staff on the occasion of International Women Day when PM Modis plane landed at the airport. Yogi Adityanath says this is a great honour for women power.

PM Modi conceptualized the project and laid foundation of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project: Yogi Adityanath

PM Modi conceptualized the project and laid foundation of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project, says Yogi Adityanath.

PM Modi made India a strategic power in the world: Yogi Adityanath

PM Modi made India a strategic power in the world by giving befitting reply to the enemy of the country, says Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

PM Narendra Modi arrives at National Livelihood Convention

PM Narendra Modi attends National Women Livelihood Meet 2019 in Varanasi.

PM Modi kick-started the proposed project by putting five bricks with the name of the temple inscribed on it

PM Modi kick-started the proposed project by putting five bricks with the name of the temple inscribed on it in the presence of Governor Ram Naik, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Mahendra Nath Pandey.

PM attended National Women Livelihood Meet  2019 at Deendayal Hastkala Sankul in Varanasi

PM attended National Women Livelihood Meet  2019 at Deendayal Hastkala Sankul in Varanasi and distributed appreciation letters to five Women Self Help Groups.

Members of the Women Self Help Groups also shared their experiences with Prime Minister. SHG member Fareeda Khatoon and Rajwanti shared their story with PM. Neelam Pradhan, Rinki Devi, Lajwanti, Ritu Devi received the appreciation letter from PM Modi.

Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project will ensure view of the temple directly from ghats

PM Modi laid foundation of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project that will ensure view of the temple directly from ghats.

40 temples found among the buildings will also be beautified: PM Modi

40 temples found among the buildings will also be beautified. The project will give new identity to Kashi, says PM Modi.

BHU should cooperate in the project: PM Modi

BHU should cooperate in the project. They should do a case study of it, says PM Narendra Modi.

Mahatma Gandhi wanted expansion but government didnt pay attention to that: PM Modi

Mahatma Gandhi wanted expansion but the government didnt pay attention to that, says PM Narendra Modi.

40 temples which were lying ignored among the buildings acquired for the project were also liberated: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said 40 temples which were lying ignored among the buildings acquired for the project were also liberated along with Bhole Baba.

PM Modi recalls Ahilyabai for rejuvenation of the temple

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled Ahilyabai for rejuvenation of the temple.

This place has been targeted by enemies. But it survived because of faith: PM Modi

This place has been targeted by enemies. But it survived because of faith, says PM Narendra Modi.

Vishwanath Dham is a project I have been thinking about for a long time: PM Modi

Vishwanath Dham is a project I have been thinking about for a long time. I have come to Kashi even before I was in active politics. Since then I would think that one must do something for the Temple Complex. With the blessings of Bhole Baba, my dream has come true, says PM Narendra Modi.

PM Modi lays foundation of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor

PM Narendra Modi lays foundation of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor.

Varanasi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi lays the foundation stone of Kashi Vishwanath Temple Corridor. pic.twitter.com/m4QrbFUECS  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 8, 2019

PM Modi begins poojan for laying foundatiin of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor

PM Narendra Modi begins poojan for laying the foundatiin of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor.

PM Modi begins offering prayers to Baba Kashi Vishwanath

PM Narendra Modi begins offering prayers to Baba Kashi Vishwanath.

PM Narendra Modi arrives in Varanasi

PM Narendra Modi arrives in Varanasi, to lay the foundation stone of Kashi Vishwanath Temple Corridor. He will also attend National Women Livelihood Meet 2019.

PM Narendra Modi arrives in Varanasi, to lay the foundation stone of Kashi Vishwanath Temple Corridor. He will also attend National Women Livelihood Meet 2019. pic.twitter.com/U4idHTBGqI  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 8, 2019

PM Modi to inaugurate commercial run through video conferencing from Kanpur

The PM will inaugurate the commercial run through video conferencing from Kanpur where he would be unveiling other development projects for the state. It is expected that Union home minister Rajnath Singh, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief ministers Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Maurya would be present at Chaudhary Charan Airport Metro station in Lucknow along with MLAs.

PM Modi to flag off Lucknow Metros commercial run on the 23-km North-South corridor

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to flag off Lucknow Metros commercial run on the 23-km North-South corridor on Friday.

Rahul Gandhi will interact with women at Sibasai Kalyan Mandap on the occasion of International Womens Day

Before addressing the rally, Gandhi will interact with women at Sibasai Kalyan Mandap on the occasion of International Womens Day, Jeypore Congress MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati said.

Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit Koraput district

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit Koraput district on Friday and address a public meeting at Jeypore, party sources said Thursday.

PM Modi to visit Kashi Vishwanath temple

According to an official release on Thursday, in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi, PM Modi will visit the Kashi Vishwanath Temple and lay the foundation stone of an approach road to the temple, beautification and strengthening project.

PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi to address election rallies today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Varanasi, Kanpur and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh on Friday and unveil multiple development projects for the state.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit Koraput district on Friday and address a public meeting at Jeypore
The Congress released its first list of candidates for 15 seats for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, naming UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, 72, as the partys candidate from Rae Bareli and Rahul from the Amethi seat. Sonia Gandhis re-nomination from Rae Bareli ends months of speculation that her daughter and party general secretary in-charge of east UP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, 47, may contest from the Gandhi family bastion this time.

The list comprises 4 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat and 11 in Uttar Pradesh where a formal alliance with the three-party combine led by Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati and Ajit Singh did not work out. SPs Akhilesh Yadav and BSPs Mayawati have, however, already announced that their front would not contest elections from Rae Bareli or Amethi to ensure that they did not cut into the anti-BJP votes in seats represented by the Congress president and his mother.

This, Mayawati has explained, was to ensure the two leaders were not tied down to their constituencies, leaving them free to campaign against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in other parts of the country.

Akhilesh Yadav often counts this arrangement as evidence that the Congress hadnt been left out in the cold. But a Congress leader indicated that the last word on the arrangement was yet to be said. Back channel talks are going on between the parties to arrive at some arrangement, a leader said.

But it is not going to be an easy conversation, one made no easy by the Congress decision to announce candidates on nine seats, in addition to Rae Bareli and Amethi on Thursday. Plus, it is unlikely that the 11 candidates are going to be the only ones from the Congress in UP.

The party had just last week inducted the BJPs Savitribai Phule who had won the last election and will have accommodate her. Ditto for other leaders such as former BSP MP from Sitapur Kaiser Jahan who joined the party just two days ago.

In the BSP-SP seat sharing pact that has been announced, the Mayawati-Akhilesh team has already allocated 38 seats to the BSP, 37 to the SP and 3 to Ajit Singhs Rashtriya Lok Dal.

In the 9 seats announced by the Congress on Thursday, four have been assigned to Samajwadi Party candidates and the other five, to the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Congress leaders suggest that candidates had been named for the 11 seats which are considered A-listers where the party had clear candidates.

The Congress won just 2 seats of UPs 80 in the 2014 elections when a wave in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi decimated the BJPs rivals. But it isnt that the Congress won every one of the 11 seats in 2009 too. The Saharanpur seat, for example, had gone to the BSP in 2009 and Jalaun, to the SP.

There is some recognition in the Congress that it wouldnt be easy to persuade Mayawati to give up five seats where candidates have been named today, not when she is widely perceived to be someone who nurses prime ministerial ambitions. Also, the Congress has given any indications that it could be willing to accommodate the BSP in other states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Congress leaders who believe that there is still a fighting chance that the back channel talks with the BSP-SP could help arrive at some kind of an understanding suggest that the BJP-led national coalitions ability to mobilize support after the Pulwama attacks could convince the opposition camp tone down its hardened position. The announcement of candidates on 11 seats, this section feels, could be an effort to signal that the Congress was well prepared to walk the talk on going alone.

Uttar Pradeshs list comes just a day after the Congresss Delhi unit chief Sheila Dikshit firmly shut the doors on the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party, which had proposed that the two rival parties work together to counter the BJP in the national capital that sends 7 lawmakers to Lok Sabha.
A controversy erupted after the rally of Congress president Rahul Gandhi at Moga on Thursday after Punjab local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu was not included in the list of speakers.

A miffed Sidhu said it was the first time after former chief minister Parkash Singh Badals rally in Amritsar in 2004 that he has not been allowed to speak. Sidhu was then Amritsar MP from the BJP.

If I am not good enough to speak at Rahuls rally, I am not good enough as a speaker and a campaigner. Whether I am invited to speak or not is something that is not under my control. But it has shown me my place and made it clear who all from the Congress will campaign for the party in the coming Lok Sabha polls, Sidhu said.

Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar said Sidhu should have been among the speakers and not inviting him to speak was an oversight. Sidhu is our partys star campaigner. It was an oversight on part of the party. Rahul ji asked me if all had spoken, when he (Rahul) was invited to speak. I told him I do not know as I had come with him, Jakhar said.

The event was anchored by state cooperation minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, whose department was the organiser of the debt waiver function. Randhawa said he was asked by chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs, Asha Kumari, to name just four speakers.

I was told that Rahul ji was getting late for another rally at Kangra in Himachal so only Jakhar, the CM, Asha Kumari and Rahul ji will speak. Had I been told Sidhu too is to be invited, I would have called him. He is our partys star campaigner and I enjoy a good rapport with him, Randhawa said.

Sidhu, who had prepared to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Balakot airstrikes, said he could not speak to Rahul too as the Congress president had to rush to Kangra. The Punjab chief minister and Sidhu have taken divergent stands on the airstrikes, with Sidhu questioning the BJP on the number of casualties and Amarinder saying that the message that acts of terror would not go unpunished was more important than whether one militant was killed in the airstrikes or 100.
Its International Womens Day and such a fantastic time to be alive! From gender equity to a seat at the table to bridging the pay gap and having a voice, women are making us proud in all walks of life and its the best feeling to look up to another woman as a source of empowerment and strength.

From managing homes to being just a working woman, there are superwomen everywhere, truly making a change to the world we live in and continuing conversations that may have begun years ago but have taken all this time to be realised as the talk, not just something that can be forgotten about once the sun sets on the horizon.

Here are some insights by Facebook on self-employed women, entrepreneurs

Take a look at some of the most inspiring stories of women weve come across who are working on making the world a better and happier place for everyone, through their efforts. Brands like Airbnb, Etsy, Body Shop, Preferred Hotels and more recently, Virgin Atlantic and Vistara and others are empowering women, while a few individuals continue to inspire us through their stories.

Virgin Atlantic, this week announced that their flight crew now has the choice to not wear makeup to work. The British airlines staff has previously been required to wear blush, mascara and red lipstick to complement the uniforms red skirts and shoes. Based on a feedback by their staff, the airline has now given the crew two new optionsto fly makeup-free, and opt for pants over skirts.

Following this, Vistara has become the first Indian flight to hand out sanitary napkins to the women who need it. This initiative is being called #PadsOnBoard.

Read on for more empowering stories of women across the country, some who chose entrepreneurship over a regular corporate job, some to sustain themselves and stand equal to the male members in the society.

- Snigdha Manchanda, Tea Sommelier and Founder of TeaTrunk.com

Snigdha perceives tea as a lifestyle product and not a commodity. She trained under Japanese Tea Master, Nao Numekawa and founded Tea Trunk in 2013. Tea Trunk curates finest teas directly from farmers and crafts them into unique tea blends with all natural ingredients. Snigdha is an empanelled author and spokesperson for Tea Board of India. Her passion for tea extends beyond the trade. She plans to launch a Tea School to revolutionise academic opportunities to study tea. Snigdhas vision is to set up a global learning hub for Tea, in India. She believes, India without a Tea school is like France without a Wine school.

KincheByPayal on Etsy

Payal Jaggi started her brand, dedicated to all strong women in the world, who believed in themselves and made life beautiful for everyone around them. Talking about the trademark jackets she makes she says, while dedicating the first (jacket I ever made) to Uma (another name for shakti which means strength) it struck me that there are many women who need to be celebrated and rejoiced about and I could have named this jacket after those women too! Just like them my jackets were unique and couldnt be replicated or made in different size, I decided to make more and name them and dedicate them to these awesome women across the world.

TheIndianPaperForest on Etsy

Suzanne Furtado, had always known that letting her creative bees rein free was the path to success. It was her Late husband (and then Boyfriend) who first recognized her Creative craftsmanship at the young age of 16. Since then she has gone from strength to strength and has 3 thriving Etsy shops, catering to custom designs for birthday, marriage invites, save the dates and similar decors.

SmallIdeaByShirali on Etsy

A science graduate who worked in retail for 12 years, only to give it up in favour of a creative profession. While looking for the best outlet to her artistic inclinations, Shirali came across miniatures and immediately fell in love with the art form. Now she makes earrings, bookmarks, fridge magnets, pen drives, bag charms and much more. They are as adorable as they are indestructible. Her miniature food magnets can hoodwink even the greatest food critics.

- SwapnrangIndia on Etsy

Swapnaja is a marine biologist and scuba diver by day. As if that wasnt exciting enough, she is also a budding painter and poet. She draws inspiration for her paintings from her dives into the ocean, where she discovers the world down under. Through her paintings, she tries to share the tranquillity and serenity of the ocean with her customers.

- Airbnb:

In a bid to promote tourism to quaint, rural locations of the country, Airbnb in India has tied up with SEWA to empower members to pursue their passions and earn a sustained livelihood, by becoming Airbnb Hosts.

a) Gauriben Brahman, Home Host - Gujarat, India

Gauriben Brahmans house lies in the village of Bakutra in the province of Gujarat. Its a thatched-roof house with three small rooms neatly lined with cots, and topped with hand embroidered sheets. Gauriben is an Airbnb host who welcomes guests from around the world, and in doing so, has earned more in one month from hosting on Airbnb than from an entire year harvesting crops.

b) Mayaben Mehsana, Home Host  Gujarat, India

She is one of the first SEWA hosts who joined the platform and since then she has been hosting and co-hosting 9 SEWA women homes. She has studied up to seventh grade and used to work as an agricultural worker before getting married. With the support of SEWA she is now computer literate, RJ, a trainer. To host a group of guests she rented 2 to 3 homes in her village. Hosting has helped her to become an entrepreneur as she hosts multiple properties on the platform. There is an evident change in her husband and he has become more supportive with all household responsibilities, he takes care of their kids, also help her with kitchen work.

Airbnb has seen a whopping 32.53% increase in women hosts between 2018 and 2019 with the largest number of women hosting in Goa, followed by Mumbai and Bangalore.

- Lindsey Ueberroth, Preferred Hotels & Resorts CEO recognizes the value and unique abilities that women bring to the workplace and is committed to effecting further change in the industry by putting female leadership at the forefront of the brands global strategy. There is still room to grow in terms of balanced gender representation in the hospitality industry, especially in leadership roles, said Lindsey. Its reassuring to see more companies place a stronger value on the diversity that women bring to executive leadership, and I am confident the industry will continue to move forward.

- Sandra Tikal  General Manager, Palazzo Versace Dubai, UAE, At Palazzo Versace Dubai, we live and breathe equality in the workplace. We share, we care, and we collaborate. Every position is critical and equally important to making a difference to the guest experience we offer. We are a multicultural place, and each of us has different understanding of what service is. Sandra believes that being a successful leader has nothing to do with gender, its about being open, approachable and a good listener.

Palazzo Versace Dubai is a member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts Legend Collection

- Carol Ignatius Lobo, Entrepreneur and OYO owner

In 2014, Carol was juggling a full time job as well as renting out her second home in Calangute to family and friends. While her earnings were fairly decent, maintenance and cleaning of the property was completely her responsibility. This made her life extremely hectic, with work 5 days a week and then evenings and weekends spent cleaning the second home, keeping it ready for the next set of visitors. A friend saw her plight and recommended OYO to her in 2016 and since then there has been no turning back for the ambitious, level-headed and strong-willed entrepreneur. Now Carol runs a successful guest house called Tesero Villa, located in Goa.

- Sugandha Tyagi, creator of ShoesYourDaddy

- Kirti Poonia, Founder Okhai Handicrafts  Fashion and Home decor brand

Kirti is an entrepreneur and founded her brand Okhai a few years ago as a means of generating livelihood for a large number of rural artisans. Her brand has since made significant contributions to the lives of the women artisans working with it, which has helped improve their economic as well as social status. Okhai products use mirror work, patchwork and embroidery created as a vibrant expression of the rural way of life, their rituals and their legends.

- Navi Pillai, Superwoman and Cancer survivor who recently did a concept photo-shoot and touched a chord in our hearts through her strength. Speaking about what motivated her to get up and get going she says, What inspired me was the struggles women are having these days however due to certain setbacks we always tend to avoid somethings because we lack confidence. So basically this shoot was to boost the confidence in women telling them that inner beauty is what matters most. Self-love and self-confidence is another importance. More power to you, Navi.

Take a look at some of her pictures on Instagram here:

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Between 1998 and 2001, Mumbai Polices Detection Crime Branch, popularly known as just Crime Branch, broke the chokehold in which the underworld had held the city for decades. Although some gangsters continued their operations, gangland activity would not regain the kind of dominance it had enjoyed in the 1980s and 1990s. The Crime Branch seemed to have eyes and ears everywhere.

Yet, when the net was closing around gangster Ravi Pujari in February this year, the Crime Branch that was once an expert on the underworld, was kept out of the loop. The news of his arrest in Senegal was broken by Bengaluru Police. Sources in the Intelligence Bureau said agencies were unwilling to share information with Mumbai Police because there were rumours of Pujari maintaining close links with some of its officers. A senior police officer said on condition of anonymity, The deterioration of the Crime Branch can be directly attributed to the officers who lead them.Tasked with monitoring the underworld and terrorists as well as the investigation of serious crimes, the Crime Branch has been one of Mumbai Polices most prestigious divisions. Today, however, it is a beleaguered version of its old avatar.

One reason may be the waning influence of the underworld. Joint commissioner of police Ashutosh Dhumbare said, The nature of crime changed after 1999-2000. Violent offences have either stabilised or decreased. Underworld-related crime has gone down. The new trend in Mumbai is cybercrime. The criteria of posting in the Crime Branch are same... But society is evolving and the cases related to cyber and fake call centres are more, said Dhumbare.

Serving officers say the Crime Branch has been hit hard by officials retiring or being transferred. A former official said, Officers at crime branch should not be transferred every two years because developing a good network and informant base in an area is not easy and it takes time to build relationships and trust. When an officer is abruptly transferred or comes under scrutiny, intelligence-gathering networks usually break down. In the 2000s, the Crime Branchs reputation took a beating when its officers were accused in the Rs. 3,000-crore fake stamp paper scam masterminded by Abdul Karim Telgi and charged with being compromised by their underworld contacts.

Insiders also say the units more recent entrants are struggling to fill their predecessors shoes. A serving Crime Branch officer said, We used to have units with nearly 30 constables who were all clued into their areas and used to know each and every element  whether social or anti-social  in the area. Today out of the 30 constables, hardly five know their area. Another Crime Branch officer said this impacts intelligence-gathering as well as everyday functioning. There have been instances where officers could not reach the crime spot alone and needed a constable to guide them, he said.

Meeran Chadha Borwankar, who headed the Crime Branch between 2004 and 2007, said, We focused on two types of officials while selecting officers. The first category of officials was primarily to handle operations, where they would have an excellent network of informers. The second group comprised officers and men who were very good at documentation. The latter is less talked-about, but arguably more effective in terms of cracking down on illegal activity. Between 1999 and 2001, more than 1,500 gangsters from gangs of Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan, Arun Gawli, Amar Naik were arrested under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities and Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Acts, said a retired IPS officer, pointing out that these arrests  rather than shootouts  were what crippled the underworld network.

Faced with a shifting criminal landscape, the citys Crime Branch is struggling. Statistics show it has seen limited success in recent years. Of the 144 murders registered in the city in 2016, the Crime Branch was instrumental in solving three. In 2017, it solved only one murder out of the 127 registered. There were 39,872 first information reports (FIRs) registered in Mumbai in 2017 and Crime Branch investigated only 58 of these (and solved 49). In 2018, of the 41,901 cases registered, Crime Branch investigated 93 cases and solved 83. The yesteryears Crime Branch was very different from todays, said a serving officer. The question is, what does the division need to do to reclaim its past glory?

Famous Crime Branch cases

Raman Raghav: Indias Jack the Ripper killed 41 people in Mumbai. His victims were all homeless and poor people. Raghav was finally arrested on August 27, 1968, when Ramakant Kulkarni was heading the Crime Branch, after a sub-inspector spotted Raghav in the city suburbs.

Charles Sobhraj: Nicknamed the bikini killer, Sobhraj had at least 32 cases of murder in different countries and had managed to slip out of Tihar Jail (with six inmates) in March 1986, by drugging the jail staff. Retired police officer Madhukar Zende, then with Mumbais Crime Branch, received information that Sobhraj was in Goa to celebrate his 42nd birthday and was able to arrest him in April 1986.

1993 serial blasts: Just a few hours after 12 bombs ripped through Mumbai on March 12, 1993, two young police sub-inspectors from the Crime Branch, Dinesh Kadam and Dhananjay Daund, found a Maruti Omni van in Worli with AK-47 rifles, ammunition and an identity card for one Rubina Memon. That card led the police officers to the Memon family home in Mahim and to Imtiaz Ghavte, whose arrest led the Mumbai Police to uncover the conspiracy hatched by Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim.

Maria Susairaj & Emile Jerome Mathew: Aspiring actress Maria Susairaj was among the group of friends who reported television executive Neeraj Grover missing in May 2008. Only she knew he was dead  after all, Susairajs boyfriend Lieutenant Emile Jerome Mathew had stabbed Grover to death, cut up his body into pieces and Susairaj had helped Mathew dispose of the body and evidence. Susairajs possible involvement was suspected by then joint commissioner of police (crime branch) Rakesh Maria. She would eventually admit to the crime when she was questioned. The court found Susairaj guilty of destroying evidence and Mathew was sentenced to 10 years for killing Grover.

Arun Gawli: After years of giving the police the slip, Arun Gawli was finally arrested by the Crime Branch for his involvement in the murder of Kamlakar Jamsandekar. To encourage Gawli to drop his guard, both the joint commissioner of police (crime branch) and his deputy pretended to go on leave. Then on May 20, 2008, a team of officers from the Crime Branch entered Dagdi Chawl in Byculla, and arrested the gangster at night.

Chandrabhan Sanap: Esther Anuhya, 23, was last seen alighting at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Kurla on January 5, 2014. Twelve days later, her decomposed body was found off the Eastern Express Highway in Bhandup. Neither the Government Railway Police (GRP) nor Kanjurmarg police station could make any headway. Using CCTV footage, location data from mobile services and other tools, Mumbais Crime Branch identified Chandrabhan Sanap, a driver, as Anuhyas killer and arrested him from Nashik, in March 2014.
Around 20 years after the Humsafar Trust started a support group for gay men, male sex workers and transgenders, creating awareness about the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the group inaugurated the countrys first HIV treatment centre and holistic clinic for the for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community.

Based out of the trusts office jn Mumbai, the centre will give free counselling and provide Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART).

ART is the use of HIV medicines to treat the infection, and is recommended for everyone who is infected with virus and delays the progression of the disease.

The centre will be open for all, said Ashok Row Kavi, founder chairperson of the Humsafar Trust.

Until now we would get testing done for the community members at our centre. If tested positive for the disease, they would be asked to go to Sion Hospital, but there was a huge dropout (rate) there. Because of how the community is perceived outside, a lot of these people wouldnt seek treatment, said Kavi.

Kavi added that the clinic would serve as a one-stop centre where pre-counselling, detection, counselling and treatment of HIV patients would be done.

Dr Srikala Acharya of Mumbai District AIDS Control Society said the number of HIV positive patients has decreased drastically over the past 20 years because of intervention by community-based groups.

Out of 4,000 males who have sex with men who are screened regularly by us, only 253 tested positive according to recent figures, said Acharya.
Chief minister (CM) Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday ruled out the possibility of holding the Maharashtra Assembly and Lok Sabha polls together. Meanwhile, the major Opposition parties  Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)  said they were ready to face both the elections.

The Fadnavis-led state government is in poll mode, clearing 22 decisions in its weekly cabinet meeting, and scheduling another meet on Friday to deliberate on 40-50 proposals. This has led to speculation of simultaneous polls in the state. There were also reports that the cabinet could decide on dissolving the Assembly soon. Rest assured the elections in Maharashtra are not going to be held prematurely. Such reports are baseless, the CM told reporters in Nagpur.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said, It will be an opportunist move and betrayal of peoples trust, if the BJP government goes for simultaneous elections. In 1999, too, the saffron combine made a similar attempt, and lost power. This time too, they will meet the same fate.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Supriya Sule said, Just like other parties, we are prepared for the polls. However, the BJP wont get the benefit of surgical strikes as their leaders didnt cross the border to attack the terrorist camp. They will also have to take the ownership of the Pulwama attack, which was a complete intelligence failure. People will not forget the loss of 40 lives.

Expressing shock over the Centres affidavit in the Supreme Court that documents related to Rafale deal were stolen from the office of the defence ministry, she said, Every citizen of this country must be feeling cheated.
In a new twist in the case of a 23-year-old Kashmiri student going missing from Noida in December, the investigating officer will now travel to Attari border near Wagah to find more clues about his whereabouts.

Originally from Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir, Syed Bashid Hasan, a final year BBA student of Asian Business School, was living in a paying guest (PG) accommodation in Raipur, Sector 126, Noida, when he went missing. He had last been seen on December 12, 2018.

Police said his exams were going on at the time and he had been alternating between his cousins place in Delhi and a friends paying guest accommodation in Sector 126.

A missing person complaint was registered at the Expressway police station in Noida on December 24 and one in Aloosa police station in Bandipora, Jammu and Kashmir, on December 25.

The decision that the investigating officer (IO) should travel to Attari in Punjab came after the Noida police was unable to get CCTV footage of the ATM in Amritsar to which Hasans last location was traced on December 13. I will leave for Punjab on March 12 to get the CCTV footage from the bank. After that, I will also go to Attari border to conduct some investigation, Gurwinder Singh, the IO in the case, said.

Police said the border is only 13 kilometres from the ATM to which he was traced to. When we are going there, we will probe further to ensure that he has not crossed over the border to Pakistan, Singh said.

Meanwhile, the family does not believe that their son might have left India. There is no reason for him to go there. It has now been almost three months since he went missing and there is still no lead on his whereabouts,  Syed Naseerul, Hasans father, said. An assistant sub-inspector in the Jammu and Kashmir police, Naseerul has also been trying to get in on his sons case, the family said.
Five people were trampled to death by a wild elephant across several villages in Supaul district on Wednesday and Thursday.

The police said a herd of wild elephants entered the Raghopur police station area from Nepal. One of the elephants from the herd was separated, after which the herd went on a rampage.

The first incident occurred at Karjain police station area on Wednesday evening. Yogeshwar, a resident of Chhint-Motipur, was trampled to death when he had gone to his agricultural field to irrigate his crops.

The elephant stormed into the Jahalipatti village next and attacked a house, resulting in the death of 55-year-old Chania Devi. Later, the wild animal reached Koriapatti village and trampled to death 45-year-old Ranjit Shah.

The tuskers rampage continued as it attacked two more people in Dharmpatti and Chowhatta villages on Thursday morning. Mohammad Jabbar of Dharmpatti was injured by the elephant and was admitted to a hospital in Darbhanga, where he succumbed to his injuries. Shyam Lal Kamat of Chowhatta was crushed to death while escaping the attack.

The elephant also damaged several houses and crops in villages in the Birpur, Karjain and Pipra police station areas.

After wreaking havoc for nearly eight hours, the elephant was chased away by police, forest guards and villagers and pushed back to Ratanpura in Nepal. Teams from forest departments of Patna and Purnia will camp in the district for the next few days, in case the herd comes back.

Mahendra Kumar, Supauls district magistrate, said that forest and administration officials handed over compensation cheques of 5 lakh each to the victims families.

Man-animal conflict is common along the Indo-Nepal border and stray elephants enter populated areas often, resulting in extensive damage. It is particularly difficult to spot wild elephants at night as they hide in forest areas and people in surrounding villages often come in contact with them accidentally.

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Hollywood superhero films have a huge fan following in India (like the rest of the world). However, how much of the reverse is true? That is anybodys guess. There may be one name though that is like to stand out  Baahubali.

The Hollywood actor Samuel L Jackson -- Avengers Nick Fury, who has just had a release (Captain Marvel, which has been headlined by Brie Larson) wants to act in Baahubali 3. Yes, you read it right and it is about time director SS Rajamouli took note of it as well.

The veteran actor was speaking to a YouTube channel Mostly Sane in Singapore where he was promoting Captain Marvel, when he made the revelation.

On being asked if he was planning to visit India, he said he would if they gave him a job. And on being asked, if he had heard of Bollywood and would like to work in a Bollywood movie, he was quick to reply: I want to be in Baahubali 3.

Baahubali, for the uninitiated, is a two-part fantasy film, directed by Rajamouli and stars two of the biggest names in Telugu films, Prabhas and Rana Daggubati. An epic saga of love, family and betrayal, the film was one of the most successful Indian films ever, with an estimated combined global earning of 2460 crores.

Also read | Captain Marvel movie review: Brie Larson stars in a feature length trailer for Avengers Endgame

Meanwhile, his latest film, Captain Marvel, has got mixed reviews. In its review of the film, Hindustan Times wrote: Theres a lot to enjoy in Captain Marvel, though - especially since the pre-established goodwill of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will likely be forgiving to its many flaws - but it cant help but feel stunningly insignificant in the larger scheme of things. Its like a feature length trailer for the character - all set-up with little payoff - and reignites repressed memories of Iron Man 2.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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Likely crossover of three parliamentarians, one each from the BJP, LJP and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) into the Congress is holding the party from taking a final decision on announcing the seats it would contest in alliance with RJD and other allies of the Grand Alliance (GA) in Bihar, senior Congress leaders involved in the decision making said on Thursday.

Congress and RJD, the two biggest parties in the GA, are still negotiating on the number of seats they would like to contest in the forthcoming parliamentary polls with Congress claiming minimum 12 seats.

The Lalu-led RJD is suggesting that it should contest 10, leave 20 for RJD and allow remaining 10 for distribution among other alliance partners.

Top Congress leaders said that the three MPs, BJPs Shatrughan Sinha, LJPs Mehboob Ali Qaiser and RLSPs Arun Kumar Singh are in constant touch with the senior Congress leaders in Delhi, but they havent quit their parties yet.

With the Election Commission of India set to announce the poll dates anytime now, the trio has been communicated to take a call at the earliest.

Leaders close to the Patna Sahib MP Shatrughan Sinha said that he was in a fix as he had the options to choose between RJD and Congress.

With the BJP having decided to completely disassociate itself from the cine-star-turned politician by not inviting him to any of the party functions or rallies, Sinha had begun holding parleys with both Congress and RJD leaders.

However, since RJD has a problem of plenty when it comes to ticket aspirants, Sinha might not have his say in the party. And since he is determined to contest only from Patna Sahib, a seat having a dominant upper caste vote base, it might also be difficult for him to plough into this constituency of voters on a RJD symbol.

While Sinha had called on Lalu Prasad in Ranchi recently where the latter, insiders said, had apparently advised him to prefer joining Congress where he would have a greater say and would also become the partys nationwide star campaigner. Moreover, Congress in Bihar faces dearth of winnable candidates and with Sinha joining them, they would fancy the chances with him as the partys nominee.

Speaking to reporters in Patna on Thursday soon after meeting former Bihar chief minister and RJD leader Rabri Devi at her residence, Sinha reiterated he had neither quit BJP nor the party has removed him yet, but said he was considering giving a reply to the injustice and step motherly treatment being meted out to him by his party. You will get to know my response soon, he said.

Khagarias LJP MP Mehboob Ali Qaiser is a former Bihar Congress president, holding the office during the 2010 assembly polls. He enjoyed much clout and influence in the organization. He had quit the party just before the last parliamentary polls in 2014 after being denied ticket, but Congress leaders said he has remained connected with top Congress leaders.

In the changed political equations with JD (U) back in NDA fold and LJP assured of only six seats to contest, there are reports that BJP would claim the Khagaria seat for its OBC leader Samrat Choudhary, son of former MP Shakuni Choudhary, to strengthen its backward votes in the wake of Upendra Kushawahas recent exit. Qaiser could not be reached for his comments. Repeated calls to him went unanswered.

On whether Qaiser is planning defection, LJP spokesperson Ashraf Ansari responded diplomatically saying, May or may not be.

He, however, said that during the March 3 NDAs Sankalp rally, both Qaiser and his son, Yusuf Salauddin, who is also a prominent LJP leader, had put large cutouts and banners across Patna welcoming Modi and visitors to the rally.

Jehanabad MP Dr Arun Kumar is already a rebel. After revolting against his party chief, Upendra Kushwaha, he and his supporters had announced to form a new political outfit, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party Secular while remaining a constituent of NDA in Bihar.

However, Congress leaders confirmed that he was in regular talks with top party leaders in Delhi till recently as there are strong possibilities that JD (U) might prefer fielding its own candidate from the seat.

Disgruntled MPs often defect to the other side to have tickets for getting even with their parties. But such decisions for accommodating them are only taken by the party high command. Hence, I would not be able to comment much on the joining of the three disgruntled MPs, said state Congress chief Madan Mohan Jha.
As many as 22 terrorist training camps, including nine of Jaish-e-Mohammed are active in Pakistan, but no action is being taken against them, a senior Indian official said in Washington on Thursday, warning that New Delhi will carry out operation similar to that of the Balakot airstrike if there is an act of terrorism coming from across the border.

In a pinpointed and swift air strike that lasted less than two minutes, India pounded JeMs biggest training camp in Pakistan on February 26, killing up to 350 terrorists and trainers who were moved there for their protection after the February 14 attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama in which 40 soldiers were killed. The JeM claimed responsibility for the Pulwama strike.

Pakistan is a global epicentre of terrorism and it needs to take verifiable and credible steps against terrorist organisations and terrorists, said the official on condition of anonymity. The official also accused Pakistan and its leadership of being in denial mode and trying to create a war hysteria kind of situation between the two nuclear-weapon states. As many as 22 terrorist training camps, including nine of JeM are still being run in Pakistan and there has been no action against them, the official said.

The Balakot airstrike conducted by India was a counter-terrorism operation, which was well within the international laws. However, a day after on February 27, Pakistan attacked Indian military installation with as many as 20 fighter jets, the official claimed. Instead of taking action against terrorist groups, Pakistan escalated the situation and indulged in war hysteria by doing things like declaring emergency in Karachi, blocking air traffic and creating rumours, which is part of its familiar pattern, the official said, adding, India on the other hand exercised restraint. Islamabad now bears the responsibility to end terrorism, the official said and warned that India will carry out retaliatory counter-terrorism operation like the one on February 26, deep inside Pakistan, anytime there is an act of terrorism coming from across the border.

Referring to the recent actions taken by Pakistan against several terrorist groups, the official said that these actions are nothing unusual as the country takes such steps after every terrorist strike in India. These actions, the official described, are a revolving door policy, under which house arrest of terrorist leaders simply means keeping them in luxurious accommodation.

They are released once the situation becomes normal, the official said.

But after the Pulwama attack, India has set a new normal. For every terrorist attack coming from across the border, India will retaliate and there will be a price that the neighbouring country would have to pay. Accusing Pakistan of being a state sponsor of terrorism, the official said there is a feeling in India that Islamabad is unlikely to stop funding terror activities unless the cost of it is too heavy for it to pay.

Asserting that India has the right to self-defence, the official told reporters that New Delhi by successfully carrying out strikes inside Pakistan has been able to call the Pakistani bluff on the nuclear front. This will not work in the future, the official said and warned Pakistan that there will be reprisal for every act of terrorism.

Responding to a question, the official said India has given to the US details of the violation of the end user agreement by Pakistan when it used F-16 fighter jets and advanced missiles against India on February 27.

India, the official said, is very closely engaged with the US and has support of the Trump administration. The official also said India is opposed to any IMF bailout packages to Pakistan. Pakistan has received as many as 21 bailout packages, including seven in the recent past, from the IMF. However, none of them have been able to address the economic woes of Pakistan because the money intended to improve the economy and developmental purposes have been diverted for non-civilian means.
Striving to gain parliamentary support for the EU withdrawal agreement, UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday warned rebel MPs and critics that no-one know what will happen if the agreement is again voted down on March 12.

The agreement stitched by Mays team after prolonged talks with Brussels since the 2016 EU referendum was resoundingly rejected in the House of Commons in January. A revised version is to be put to vote on March 12, as the due departure date of March 29 draws near.

Speaking in Grimbsy in north England that voted to leave the EU, May said: Next week, Members of Parliament in Westminster face a crucial choice. Whether to back the Brexit deal  or to reject it. Back it and the UK will leave the European Union.

Reject it and no-one knows what will happen. We may not leave the EU for many months. We may leave without the protections that the deal provides. We may never leave at all. The only certainty would be ongoing uncertainty.

Mays words are likely to add to alarm and worse among business organiations that have been clamouring for certainty on life beyond Brexit. Many companies  including over 700 Indian companies  have held off investment and expansion plans until clarity on life beyond Brexit emerges.

May also had a message for EU leaders, who have been resisting giving way on the contentious issue of the Irish backstop included in the agreement to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

But there are genuine concerns that there is no clear way out of the backstop if the future negotiations break down. I have taken those concerns to Brussels. I have explained them to every single EU leader. And we have put forward serious, detailed proposals to address them.

She added: We are both participants in this process. It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal. We are working with them but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.

European leaders tell me they worry that time is running out, and that we only have one chance to get it right. My message to them is: now is the moment for us to act.
In the continuing action against militant organisations, Pakistans Punjab government on Thursday barred JuD chief Hafiz Saeed from leading prayers at the Jamia Masjid Qadsia at Chowburji Chowk and appointed an official administrator there.

Administrators have been appointed at the Chowburji head office of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Jamia Al Qadsia and main centre in Muridke after taking control of the premises. A number of JuD properties all over the country have also been taken over by the respective local administrations.

Local media reported that police contingents were dispatched to Jamia Qadsia Masjid to help the administration take control. Police locked the adjoining head office of the JuD late in the night, an official told daily Dawn newspaper.

The official said the JuD leaders and other activists present there offered no resistance and rather cooperated with the law enforcement agencies.

He said the JuD leadership in Lahore had also handed over 75 ambulances to the police. The ambulances have been handed over to Rescue 1122 - an emergency service in the Punjab province - with a directive to redesign them and make them a permanent part of the emergency services. Similarly, the official said, security had also been tightened at the JuDs Muridke Markaz where the government had appointed six administrators, including two female officers, in various sections.

The official said a woman government schoolteacher had been appointed as administrator at a girls school at the Muridke Markaz, while a doctor had been posted at the hospital. A tehsildar had also been appointed as administrator to run the affairs of the entire premises of the JuD Markaz which housed more than 300 families, he added.

In reply to a question, the senior official said Lahore was home to hundreds of mosques under JuDs administration and that these would be taken control of in the coming days in phases. The authorities have seized a JuD seminary in Bajaur tribal district. According to a statement issued by Deputy Commissioner Usman Mehsoods office, the action was taken following directives by the federal government to take over the assets of proscribed organisations.

It stated that madrassa Taleemul Islam, situated in Lagagari area of Mamund tehsil, which was being controlled by the JuD, was seized by the district administration. After taking control of the seminary, the administration had appointed Sher Wali Khan, headmaster of the Laghari government high school, as in charge of the madrassa. The statement did not specify anything about the arrest of the seminarys teachers and principal.

Meanwhile, the district administration on Thursday took control of a health care facility run by the Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation, a charity wing of the banned JuD, in Chitral. Deputy Commissioner Khurshid Alam Mehsud told the media that the management of the hospital situated near Sabzi Mandi had been entrusted to the medical superintendent of DHQ Hospital. When asked about the welfare facilities and the office of the banned outfit, he said these had already been closed.
The government of Pakistans Punjab province on Thursday barred Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed from leading Friday prayers at Jamia Masjid Qadsia at Chowburji Chowk in Lahore and appointed an official administrator to take charge of the facility as part of its ongoing crackdown against terror groups and organisations affiliated to them.

A number of JuD properties all over the country, including its HQ, adjoining Jamia Masjid Qadsia, have been taken over by local administrations.

Local media reported that police teams were dispatched to Jamia Masjid Qadsia to help the administration take charge of the facility . Police locked the adjoining head office of the JuD late in the night, an official told Daily Dawn newspaper.

The official said the JuD leaders and other activists present there offered no resistance and cooperated with the law enforcement agencies. He said the JuD leadership in Lahore also handed over 75 ambulances to the police. The ambulances were given to Rescue 1122, an emergency service that serves Punjab, to redesign and make them a permanent part of its fleet. Security has been tightened at the Muridke Markaz of the JuD where the government has appointed six administrators, including two female officers.

The official said a woman government schoolteacher has been appointed administrator at a girls school at the Muridke Markaz while a doctor has been posted at the hospital. A tehsildar had been appointed as administrator to run the affairs of the entire premises of the JuD Markaz, which houses more than 300 families, he added.

The senior official said Lahore has hundreds of mosques under the administration of JuD which would be taken into official control in coming days in phases. The authorities have seized a JuD seminary in Bajaur district.

The senior official said Lahore has hundreds of mosques under the administration of JuD which would be taken into official control in coming days in phases. The authorities have seized a JuD seminary in Bajaur tribal district. According to a statement issued by Deputy Commissioner Usman Mehsoods office, the action was taken following directives by the federal government to take over assets of proscribed organisations.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday launched a scathing attack on his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, accusing the latter of engaging in politics of hatred with an eye on the upcoming elections, even as he pledged not to allow Pakistani soil to be used for terror directed at other countries.

Speaking against the backdrop of tensions between the two countries triggered by the February 14 terror attack at Pulwama that was claimed by the Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Khan reiterated his vow that Pakistan would respond to any sort of action by India.

The politics of hatred, dividing people for votes, is easy politics, Khan told a rally organised by his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party at Chachro in southern Sindh province, a region close to the Indian border, and with a sizeable Hindu population.

This is the politics of Narendra Modi. Divide humans, spread hatred and when a leader starts this, the workers under him do what we saw happened to the Kashmiris in India after Pulwama, he said, referring to incidents of Kashmiris being targeted in some parts of India.

Indias ministry of external affairs didnt officially respond to Khans speech.

The Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) spokesperson declined comment.

Indias permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva on Thursday lashed out at Pakistan, saying its use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy is a central problem and the international community must unequivocally condemn terrorism and its perpetrators.

The central problem is cross-border terrorism and Pakistans use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. This fact needs due recognition, Rajiv Chander said at the 40th session of the Human Rights Council, calling terrorism the most fundamental violation of human rights.

The diplomat underscored that India is a secular state and safeguarding the rights of minorities forms an essential core of its polity.

Pakistans PM Khan said in his speech that Muslims in India were now being persecuted. There was Mahatma Gandhi, who fasted several times to stop attacks on Muslims, and today, there is Narendra Modis India, where the lives of Muslims are difficult and hatred is spread against Pakistan and war hysteria is created, only so that he can win the election, Khan added.

India responded to the Pulwama attack by conducting an air strike on a JeM base within Pakistan on February 26. A day later, Pakistan targeted military installations across the Line of Control, triggering an aerial engagement in which an Indian jet was shot down and its pilot captured. India, too, shot down a Pakistani jet. The tensions reduced somewhat after Khan released the pilot.

We want peace. We sent messages several times that we want peace. We returned the pilot because we dont want war, Khan said.

Speaking in Urdu, Khan said Pakistan would respond to any possible action by India. If anyone thinks that to win an election, they will kill Pakistanis  dont be under the mistaken impression that if you do something, there wont be a response from here, he said.

If someone thinks they can enslave this country, whether it is India or a superpower, I want to say today that my country and I will fight for freedom till the last ball. Our armed forces have been training for the last 10-15 years, and they and the people are ready, he added.

Khan also criticised the Indian governments handling of minorities and said his government will protect the rights of Pakistans Hindu minority.

He also spoke about his governments crackdown on militant groups, which began on March 5 with the banning of Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, fronts from Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the detention of more than 100 members of banned organisations.

Khan said all political parties had endorsed the National Action Plan for counter-terrorism and no armed group will be allowed to function in Pakistan. The action is aimed at creating a stable and peaceful Pakistan that can attract investments which will boost business and create jobs.

But this government will not allow Pakistans soil to be used for any type of terrorism outside the country... There are several groups and I know their militant wings have ended. But as long as we are part of the international community and a responsible country, we will not allow any militant group to function in our country, he added.
The UK government on Thursday unveiled changes to its visa and immigration system which includes two new visa categories for business people from around the world and an expansion of the list of countries offered streamlined student visa procedures.

India once again failed to make the cut to be added to the expanded list of countries, which has now included Brazil, Kazakhstan, Mauritius, Oman, Peru and Tunisia. The UK Home Office said the change will not only benefit students, who will be able to apply for visas through a more streamlined process, but also help to ensure that the UKs world-leading education institutions remain competitive internationally.

This is the second time in months when a review of the so-called Appendix H list for Tier 4 student visas, which includes China and Mexico among other countries, has overlooked India - among the top source countries for foreign students applying to UK universities. The UK government claims that India does not meet the required criteria to be included on the expanded list and that Indian students will experience no change in the service they receive.

The other key changes unveiled by the UK Home Office on Thursday include two new visa routes open to skilled business people to set up businesses in the UK. The Start-up visa route will be open to those starting a business for the first time in the UK, while the Innovator visa route will be for more experienced business people who have funds to invest in their business.

Both routes will see endorsing bodies and business experts  rather than the UK Home Office  assessing applicants business ideas. This will make sure that the routes are focussed on only the most innovative, viable and scalable businesses.

My priority is making sure that talented business people continue to see the UK as an attractive destination to develop their businesses. This will help create more jobs across the country and ensure our economy continues to thrive, said UK immigration minister Caroline Nokes.

Alongside these new routes, the Home Office is also bringing forward reforms to the Tier 1 (Investor) route. The government said the reformed route will better protect the UK from illegally obtained funds, whilst ensuring that genuine investors have access to a viable visa route. Applicants will be required to prove that they have had control of the required 2 million pounds for at least two years, rather than 90 days, or provide evidence of the source of those funds  seen as an effort to combat fears of money laundering.

What we will not tolerate is those who seek to abuse our system and that is why I am bringing forward new measures which will make sure that only genuine investors, who intend to support UK businesses, can benefit from our immigration system, Nokes said.

The Home Office will also extend the salary exemption in the Tier 2 (General) visa so that the state-funded NHS and schools can continue to attract and hire experienced teachers, nurses and paramedics from overseas, including India. The salary exemption applies to all nurses and paramedics, medical radiographers and secondary school teachers whose subjects are in maths, physics, chemistry, computer science and Mandarin.

A two-year scheme, which will allow up to 20 nurses from Jamaica to come to the UK to gain vital experience in NHS hospitals as part of an exchange scheme, has also been announced.
China on Friday called on India and Pakistan to move on from the crisis triggered by the Pulwama terror attack last month and to work towards a long-term improvement in bilateral ties through dialogue.

The suggestion, made by foreign minister Wang Yi at his annual news conference on the sidelines of the ongoing session of Chinas rubber-stamp Parliament, the National Peoples Congress (NPC), came against the backdrop of persisting tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.

We advise both parties to quickly turn the page and seek a fundamental long-term improvement in their relations, Wang said, adding China was hopeful that the two countries would transform the crisis into an opportunity and meet each other halfway.

He added, When confrontation gives way to dialogue and disagreements are settled by goodwill, they can create a better future through cooperation.

Islamabad is under growing pressure from the world community to act against terror groups operating from its soil, including Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which claimed responsibility for the February 14 suicide bombing in Pulwama that killed 40 troops.

The attack  one of the worst in Kashmir  led to the most serious escalation between the two sides in years, with India conducting an air strike on a JeM camp in within Pakistan, and an aerial engagement over the skies of Kashmir when Pakistan retaliated.

China sent its vice foreign minister Kong Xuanyou to Pakistan during March 5-6 to discuss the tensions. Kong, who met Pakistans prime minister and army chief, assured Islamabad of Beijings support for peace and stability.

Wang, who is also a state councillor, made the remarks while responding to a question from a journalist from Pakistan on the India-Pakistan tensions and Chinas role in calming the situation.

Glad to take a question from our iron brother, Wang said, referring to the phrase the Chinese and Pakistani leadership use to describe their close ties. He said China has stressed on the need for India and Pakistan to exercise calm and restraint, prevent an escalation, find out what has happened and resolve the matter through dialogue.

He added, In the meantime, a countrys sovereignty and territorial integrity should be fully respected. China has followed these principles in its mediation efforts and played a constructive role in defusing the tension.

Wang referred to the current state of bilateral ties with India and said the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at Wuhan last year set the direction for future relations to surge ahead like the Yangtze and Ganges rivers.

The Wuhan summit in had also created a new model of high-level interactions and deepened trust between our leaders. Over the past year, government departments have done a lot and made considerable progress in following through many understandings reached by our leaders, he said.

China, he said, is ready to work with India to comprehensively strengthen sectoral cooperation and people-to-people ties which are of vital importance. The two countries, with a combined population of 2.7 billion and emerging markets, should be each others partner in pursuing our respective dreams and each others important opportunity for growing our respective economies, Wang said.
Pipeline

8 March 2019

The property, scheduled to open in late June, combines an eight-floor, 150-room AC Hotel with a seven-floor, 150-room Residence Inn in the same building. The two hotels are the first to open as part of an ambitious "lifestyle hotel campus" that is the first-of-its-kind in the country, bringing together four brands and 600 rooms within 50 yards of each other.

The dual-brand property at Frisco Station has separate entrances for the AC and for the Residence Inn, with lobbies and registration areas that are separate but connected. There is a single management and sales team, as well as a single housekeeping staff, with personnel thoroughly cross-trained about the distinctive features of both brands.

This new property in Frisco Station continues NewcrestImage's extensive experience with dual-branded properties. The company opened the first dual-branded in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area in December of 2013 and the first dual-branded hotel in downtown Dallas in October of 2017.
Rebranding

8 March 2019

Melia Hotels International, Spanish leading hotel group, today announced that it would take over the management of The Reed Hotel in May. The "bleisure"-focused property in Ninh Binh, Vietnam, will be completely rebranded as Melia Ninh Binh by January 2020. With this newly signed property, the group continues to expand its presence across Vietnam with a total of 6 operating hotels and 7 in the pipeline.

Within a two-hour drive from Vietnam capital city and the landmark property Melia Hanoi, Melia Ninh Binh is conveniently nestled in the heart of Ninh Binh province, a rising travel and MICE destination, occupying the highest building in the area, which offers a splendid panoramic view.

Embracing the city's spectacular natural landscape and cultural heritage, the property allows guests to easily transfer to key attractions, including the unspoiled Cuc Phuong National park, the latest King Kong movie shooting spot at Trang An Scenic Complex and the historical Hoa Lu Ancient Capital within a 30-minute drive, bringing an opportunity to step inside Vietnam's cultural adventure.

Adapting from Melia Hotels & Resorts brand's essence of 'Soul of Things' and the promise of catering to every aspect of guests' wellbeing, Melia Ninh Binh provides 153 rooms with a modern design and advanced amenities, an infinity pool featuring a sweeping skyline view, state-of-the-art fitness centre, a VIP Lounge and other facilities with thoughtful, added extras. For dining options, guests can indulge in an international gourmet at the all-day dining restaurant and local cuisine in the specialty restaurant, whereas the cafe is perfect for both relaxation and business gatherings.

Melia Hotels International recognizes the booming MICE market in Ninh Binh province and Melia Ninh Binh will elevate the standard in the field of the city with 4,000 m2 of meeting space and first-rate MICE facilities and technologies. Managed by Melia Ninh Binh and next to the hotel, the spacious Convention Center features multiple meeting rooms that are designed to hold monumental meetings, remarkable receptions, and energetic events. With a solid background of international experience and a professional Melia team, the hotel will become the ultimate place to delivering an exceptional meeting experience.
Appointment

8 March 2019

Power most recently joins the W Los Angeles - West Beverly Hills team from SLS Beverly Hills where he successfully led the 297-room hotel as director of hotel operations while simultaneously increasing hotel revenue, employee engagement and the overall guest experience.

Over the span of his career, Power led three Marriott International hotels as director of restaurants including; the Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel, Marina del Rey Marriott in Los Angeles, and the Washington D.C. Renaissance. While leading The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas as director of food and beverage, he was responsible for overseeing four on-property restaurants, with a focus on meetings and special events as well as banquet functions and streamlining event management. As Director of Food and Beverage at The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba Power managed more than 80,000 square feet of event space and positively improved the overall guest satisfaction of food and beverage.

Power has effectively assisted with the opening of seven franchise hotels. In his new role as General Manager at W Los Angeles - West Beverly Hills, Power aims to position the hotel as a destination within itself by fueling guests with innovative music, fresh design, and fashion trends through modern pop-ups and local partnerships.

Power earned his Bachelor of Arts in History at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.
Appointment

8 March 2019

Basin Harbor announces that longtime hotelier Jamie Fox, of San Antonio, Texas, has joined the family-owned establishment to oversee operations as general manager. Fox's background in luxury hotel operations, revenue management and international travel will assist in preserving Basin Harbor as Vermont's premier lakeside vacation destination.

Fox comes to Basin Harbor from The Hotel Emma in San Antonio, Texas, where he oversaw all rooms, guest service and maintenance operations, and helped lead the team to a AAA 5-Diamond rating. Fox has also held leadership positions at The Inn at Little Washington, Relais & Chateaux in Washington, Va.; The Lodge at Woodloch, A Destination Spa, in Hawley, Penn.; Sheraton Burlington Hotel & Conference Center in Burlington, Vt.; Adirondack Mountain Reserve & Ausable Club in Keene Valley, N.Y.; and Woodstock Inn and Resort in Woodstock, Vt.
Appointment

8 March 2019

Director of People & Culture Joe Garciaros comes to the time-honored, Italian-inspired Mr. C Beverly Hills with decades of expertise and esteemed know-how in human resources for the hospitality space. His proven leadership and ability to collaborate within the luxury and boutique hotel management arena has made him highly successful in developing staff to enhance the goals and experiences of numerous renowned hotel properties.

Some of the most notable moments in Garciaro's career include his role as a mentor for managers who have since moved on to play instrumental roles at some of the most revered luxury hotels throughout Los Angeles, such as the Director of HR for Hotel Bel-Air, Director of HR for the Viceroy L'Ermitage Beverly Hills, and Director of HR at Le Meridien Delfina Santa Monica. Garciaros has a genuine passion for the hospitality industry and was immediately drawn to Mr. C's chic European comfort, ambience, and sophisticated service.

Stepping into his new role, Garciaros aims to craft an unmatched luxury experience for guests by hiring employees with a passion for hospitality and impeccable customer service that will create memories and long-lasting memories for travelers. At the employee level, he looks to create a strong team and environment where his philosophy of treating everyone with respect and having a true open-door policy will be incorporated.
Event

The 2019 HTNG Middle East Conference will take place at The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai on 11-13 March! This event brings together key industry decision makers in the Middle East region. At the 2019 conference, network with some of the industry's top experts, attend diverse sessions focused on industry trends and expand your business development.

2019 HTNG Middle East Conference is organized by
Press Release

8 March 2019

The final day of IHIF 2019 opened with a series of interviews with providers of alternative models within the hospitality sector. The first of these was Greg Greeley, President of Homes, Airbnb interviewed by Omer Isvan, President, Servotel. Greeley said that from a company "whose owners opened their homes 10 years ago just to pay their rent" Airbnb now operates in 191 countries and has 7 million listings. Greeley believes they are in "the magical travel business". Isvan questioned Greeley on the relationship with hotels to which he answered "last year we opened our arms to boutique hotels and our phones have been ringing off the hook. Any boutique hotel who provides a unique experience should not think of us as a competitor, they should think of us as a partner". According to research, 89% of people who use Airbnb say they do so because there is no hotel in the area they want to stay so Airbnb say they stimulate travel in areas where it wouldn't normally be. Talking about the types of accommodation listed, Greeley said "traditional vacation rentals, which have been around for years, have found that Airbnb is a useful platform". Isvan wanted to understand the percentage of real estate that is purpose built for listing on Airbnb. Greeley replied that "there is there dialogue between developers and Airbnb. Airbnb is an open platform so developers who want to create a unique short-term rental, can do so."

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For a brand that is now a noun, Greeley believe the values are community and connecting. "We give the opportunity to stay somewhere there wasn't previously a hotel. People are going to places that are magical and they're making a connection, they're not having a commoditised travel experience."

This was followed by an interview with Liam Brown, President & Managing Director Europe, Marriott International interviewed by Alexi H. Khajavi, Managing Director EMEA & Chair of Hospitality + Travel Group, Questex. Brown, having recently returned to Europe from a period living in the US praised the European hotel market for having "remarkable breadth and depth of cultures and languages". Marriott, who have 18 brands in Europe want to create "raving brand fans" and whilst listing guests, owners, investors, developers, technologists as stakeholders in their business, Brown said "the guest is the true profit centre for all of us - they pay the bills". Discussing the balance of high tech and high touch, Brown said "if there is a seamless operation for checking in and checking out, that frees up our people to deliver amazing experiences because it's the human experiences that people remember - they are the most magical moments."

When questioned about the data breach, Brown said "it happened in the Starwood reservation database which has since been retired. Our forensics are complete. Our mission is to continue to work to have the trust of our guest and ensure it doesn't happen again." He said that Amazon and Google are brands that he admires for their constant innovation and dominant position but he also remains wary of them.

When challenged by Khajavi to name all 30 Marriott brands in a minute, Brown took up the challenge and concluded by saying that "our industry has a great opportunity to bring people together - hospitality has a higher purpose".

The final panel for the morning was the CEO Panel - Evolving Hospitality: The Trends Shaping the Future of Hospitality moderated by Philip Ward, CEO Hotels & Hospitality Group EMEA, JLL who was joined by Peter Fankhauser, CEO, Thomas Cook Group; Raul Gonzalez, CEO, Barcelo; Merilee Karr, Founder and CEO, UnderTheDoormat; Amar Lalvani, CEO & Managing Partner, Standard International and Lindsey Ueberroth, CEO, Preferred Hotels & Resorts. The engaging panel opened with Karr saying "in 5 years' time, every one of the major hotel brands will have a home accommodation brand in their portfolio" and when questioned about the number of operators said "in an industry that is growing at 30% each year, there is space for a lot of players". Ward suggested there was an "institutionalisation of hotel accommodation" emerging. On consumer demand for home accommodation like Airbnb and UnderTheDoormat, Lalvani said "the customer wants home accommodation and ultimately that is what wins. But what we can do is bring people together for common experiences and Airbnb can't." He challenged the usefulness of many of the hotel brand apps which simply put website content on them and said their app, One Night Standard, listed all their unsold inventory after 3pm to huge success.

Discussing Preferred Hotels (80% of which is individually owned), Ueberroth said "the hard brands have all launched a version of what we do. It is not competition but validates what we do".

Talking about the number of hotels and brands, Lalvani said "repeat bookings are totally driven by the experience on property - the number of hotels and brands doesn't matter".

Karr pointed out that "10% of stays in London are in home accommodation. I don't think it's a case of distruptors v's hotels. It's about how the whole sector of accommodation grows."

Coming back to the demand for different types of accommodation from various consumer group, Lalvani stated "young people around the world now first think about home accommodation before hotels. Hotel companies are naive in not recognising this".

Ward suggested that business travellers didn't use home accommodation, largely due to their employers not reimbursing home accommodation expenses. Karr responded by saying "home accommodation is part of the mix that business travellers will increasingly wake up to. I see companies paying more attention to the wellbeing of their employees and opening up their minds to home accommodation. The ability to have a bit of space and to be able to make your own healthy breakfast for example."

On F&B Fankhauser said "in Cook's Club, the centre of the activity is in the restaurant and bar.

Gonzalez said "as a family business we want to maintain a balance between ownership, leases and management" and he believes they "are competing in the happiness sector".

The subject of loyalty concluded the session and Ueberroth feels "we need to remove the word loyalty, now it's about lifestyle, about providing experiences and how do you pull that into the programme. Travel is about more than that time on property".

The morning closed with a keynote from Mark Gallagher, Founder, Performance Insights and Formula One industry analyst who spoke to the conference theme of Partnering for Peak Performance.

The 22nd IHIF closed with a sit-down, three-course meal, with many tables being hosted by the IHIF Sponsors and Patrons.
Juice WRLD's highly-anticipated sophomore effort, Death Race For Love, is finally upon us, and it was worth the wait. The 20-year-old multitalented artist previously released singles "Hear Me Calling" and "Robbery" off of the album that doesn't boast any features from chart-topping artists other than Lil Uzi Vert lending his vocals to "Wasted." Juice WRLD is known for blending rap and emo stylings to create a sound uniquely his own.

Currently, the Chicago-native is currently rocking stages in Europe as he joins forces with Nicki Minaj on the "Nicki WRLD Tour." Juice WRLD hasn't even peaked as an artist yet, as he truly received mainstream attention in 2018 with his single "Lucid Dreams" off his debut record, Goodbye & Good Riddance. The single climbed the Billboard Hot 100 chart and made it to #2, earning the rapper an MTV Video Awards nomination.

The young artist was once addicted to drugs, and recently he spoke with Vulture about what his creative process has been like since becoming sober, especially in an industry where drugs and rap not only coexist, they lean on each other. "I try not to let it affect me too much," Juice WRLD said. "It doesnt really have that big of an impact on me. More recently, Ive just kind of realized certain things about myself and my coming up, the way that substances played a part in my life, whether it was me doing them or other people. Its something that Im trying to separate myself from.

Tracklist

1. Empty

2. Maze

3. HeMotions

4. Demonz (Interlude) featuring Brent Faiyaz

5. Fast

6. Hear Me Calling

7. Big

8. Robbery

9. Flaws & Sins

10. Feeling

11. Syphilis

12. Who Shot Cupid?

13. Ring Ring featuring Clever

14. Desire

15. Out My Way

16. The Bees Knees

17. On God featuring Young Thug

18. 10 Feet

19. Won't Let Go

20. She's The One

21. Rider

22. Make Believe
Martin Shkreli gained infamy after he claimed to own Wu-Tang Clan's Once Upon A Time In Shaolin. The album has never been released to the public and Shkreli loved to gloat about listening to unreleased Wu-Tang music so everybody could be jealous of him. Before the official release of Lil Wayne's Tha Carter V, the former pharmaceuticals executive said that he was also in possession of that project, finding it in a car one day. He was sentenced to spend seven years in prison for fraud and conspiracy charges last year and during his first twelve months behind bars, he has earned himself a pretty accurate nickname.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Shkreli had been running his company from prison, using a contraband cell phone to organize the business. He was also tweeting from a secret account. Shkreli will likely be caught today since, you know, the story is out there that he has an illegal phone on him. The publication also notes that he has made a few close allies behind bars.



Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images

"He has made prison friends, including 'Krispy' and 'D-Block,'" writes the Wall Street Journal. "Some of whom affectionately call him 'Asshole,' according to people familiar with his new life. They walk alongside him in the hall to ward off shenanigans from other inmates."

Apparently, Shkreli wanted to join a prison band but his friends stopped him because the other members of the group were locked up for child molestation. Sounds about right.
South Africa: SA commits to support Iran

South Africa is committed to support the Republic of Iran, says International Relations and Cooperation Deputy Minister Reginah Mhaule.

Despite all the constraints we remain committed to continue to support the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is my firm belief that todays meeting will add further momentum to our bilateral relations, such that South Africa and Iran will weather the storm together, said the Deputy Minister on Friday.

The Deputy Minister made these comments at the start of the ninth Deputy Ministerial Working Group Meeting (DMWG) between South Africa and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

At the meeting in Cape Town, Mhaule welcomed the opportunity to engage with Irans Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Abbas Araghchi, saying the meeting is opportune as it will better bilateral relations between South Africa and the Western Asian country.

The Deputy Minister said much has happened in both countries since the seventh session held in 2017.

I know this visit is being undertaken during a challenging time for your country and we are grateful that the Islamic Republic of Iran values its relationship with South Africa. Difficult times, however, bring friends together and I am delighted to have witnessed the increased interactions between the Governments of Iran and South Africa during the last year.

Mhaule said it was regrettable that the US had withdrawn from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Your visit to South Africa takes place in trying circumstances for your country and I would like to emphasise that we, as South Africa, regard the decision of the United States to withdraw as regrettable, she said.

In 2015, Iran and six other powers including the US and the UN Security Council agreed on the JCPOA, which speaks of the removal of sanctions over Irans nuclear programme. The US in May 2018 announced its withdrawal from the deal.

South Africa has always believed in diplomacy and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, as a matter of principle, and we consider the JCPOA as a significant achievement in this regard. We believe that it provides the necessary framework and confidence-building measures, under which your country is able to pursue its nuclear activities for peaceful purposes; a fundamental principle of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The JCPOA was unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 2231, which provides a binding legal framework to the agreement.

We are heartened by Irans decision and those of the remaining parties to the JCPOA, to continue to uphold the commitments of this agreement.

"We believe that your country has adhered to its prescripts as reinforced by the various IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] Reports that had been presented to the Board of Governors and General Conference. - SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2019-03-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Manila (CNN Philippines Life)  Last weekend, retail brand Sunnies Studios opened their biggest store yet. This branch in Cebu is the first store that houses all of the Sunnies brands: Sunnies Studios, Sunnies Specs, Sunnies Face, and their new cafe concept Cup Point.

Cup Point, in particular, is located at Sunnies Specs locations in SM Southmall, SM CDO Downtown Premier, SM City Davao Ecoland, and SM Cebu. Cup Point is said to make waiting for your prescription eyewear much more worthwhile. The cafe serves coffee, milkshakes, matcha, and more.

Check out what the multi-stores interiors are like, the celebrities and personalities present, and of course, the #SunniesMerch:
By now it's no secret that the dad shoe trend when it comes to sneakers is here to stay. The trend was birthed thanks to Kanye West's immensely popular YEEZY Boost 700 "Wave Runner" model and never really seemed to go away. Pretty well every single sneaker company took advantage of the trend and came out with their own chunky runners. Even Adidas has made sure to revive some forgotten models in order to cash in on the current wave. One of those models is the Magmur Runner which is seeing a revival thanks to a collaboration with Danish retailer Naked.

Based on the images, it appears as though this collab will be coming out in two colorways. The first comes in a white upper with blue and green accents, while the second colorway is dressed in a creamy white. As is the case with most dad shoes, these have a chunky midsole that appears like a huge platform. Meanwhile, the tooling brings you through plenty of twists and turns to create a pretty interesting take on the trend.

Image via Naked

According to Sneaker News, these will be released globally on Saturday, March 16th for $150 USD.

Image via Naked
Move over little dog cause the big dogs movin in.

ExxonMobil and Chevron have announced plans to more than double oil production from the Permian Basin, confirming the maturity of shale drilling technology and ending the latest era of wildcatting. The transition is a time to profit and a time to reconsider whats next for an industry reliant on stubborn geniuses to revitalize it.

If Exxon and Chevron keep the pledges they made last week, each will pump 1 million barrels a day from West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. The entire Permian Basins liquids production was less than 1 million barrels a day in 2010.

Wildcatters made the difference. These small oil exploration and production companies took the hydraulic fracturing technology that George Mitchell pioneered to release natural gas from the Barnett Shale and applied it to the oil-rich shale rock underlying the Permian Basin.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Oil industrys future not as bright as government expects

By economic necessity, these innovative entrepreneurs refined horizontal drilling and fracking to obtain the maximum amount of oil for the least amount of money. The shale revolutionaries showed the major and supermajor oil companies what was possible in a basin that the big dogs had mostly abandoned.

But as with every revolution, once it takes hold, business people push aside the rebel leaders.

Now that the code has been cracked and the industry understands how best to develop the Permian, the way to do it is to have a whole lot of capital at low cost, said Dave Asmus, a co-leader of the energy practice at the law firm Sidley Austin. And who has that more than the majors and very large independents?

For Exxon and Chevron to meet their goals, they will need to expand at break-neck speed. Chevron is pumping 350,000 barrels a day and plans to hit 900,000 by 2023. Exxon is starting at less than 300,000 barrels and plans to pump 1 million barrels by 2024. Royal Dutch Shell has doubled Permian production to 145,000 barrels in just two years and also plans more.

All three corporations have been on a buying spree to add acreage and expand drilling. Many of the additional acres were purchased outright; many came from mergers and acquisitions.

Smaller oil companies find it difficult to compete when oil prices drop, drilling costs rise and the cost of obtaining capital becomes prohibitive. Wall Street investors are turning their back on risky wildcatters who typically move into speculative plays with unproven technology.

These days energy investors want a sure thing, which is putting pressure on companies in the Permian to rationalize and consolidate, Asmus said. Hes expecting extra work negotiating mergers and acquisitions.

You have companies who have been long-time players in the business playing a larger role in the M&A market, he added. Theyve taken the backseat over the last few years to private equity and other players, but I think with a relatively stable price environment, they are happy to do deals that enhance their portfolios. You are going to see more of the majors and the large independents doing deals.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Transforming an oil and gas business into clean energy means lower returns

Smart wildcatters will take a good deal and stick with their strategic advantages: nimbleness and willingness to experiment. Tell a wildcatter that a basin is out of oil, or it's too expensive to extract, and they will figure out a better way.

The opportunities for the smaller players increasingly will become elsewhere, in less popular plays, Asmus said. Where there is more opportunity to be more entrepreneurial.

History shows us, though, that technological breakthroughs are what triggered the great wildcatter eras. Who will invent something akin to fracking? Will the innovation take place in high-cost basins like Colorado, or offshore?

Then there is the more fundamental question: will prices and demand rise high enough to encourage experimentation? After all, it was high natural gas prices that inspired Mitchell to break up shale formations with high-pressure water hoses.

A formative era in the history of the oil and gas business is coming to an end  time to pay our respects to the innovators but acknowledge the superiority of operating at scale.

I have to wonder, though, if the next great wave of energy innovation will come from the oil and gas industry.

The new competition in the energy business is focused on transporting people from one location to another cheaply and efficiently, not about filling up gas tanks. Oil wildcatters are facing off against technology disruptors for what should be a fascinating battle.

Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy.

chris.tomlinson@chron.com

twitter.com/cltomlinson
The RodeoHouston lineup thus far has been dominated by newcomers: Kacey, Cardi and Camila; Prince Royce and Panic!

But there's nothing quite like the return of a superstar.

GOLDEN GIRL: Kacey Musgraves covers Selena at RodeoHouston debut

Tim McGraw made his ninth spin on the rotating stage Thursday night at NRG Stadium. He previously performed in 1996-97, 2003, 2008, 2010-11, 2013 and 2015.

McGraw was in his late 20s when he made his debut. He's now 51 years old  and he looks and sounds better than ever. He's a strapping, charismatic showman. And he continues to push artfully against his limitations, the mark of a true star.

Now Playing: Tim McGraw returns for a ninth time to RodeoHouston. Video: Joey Guerra, RODEOHOUSTON

He took the stage in a brown leather duster and jeans for a crowd of 66,491 paid attendance. Kickoff tune "Truck Yeah" owes a debt to Def Leppard. He strapped on a guitar for "Southern Voice." Strains of Southern rock rumbled through "All I Want is a Life." Airy harmonies wafted through "Shotgun Rider."

Even the older stuff had an extra kick. That old McGraw bounce pushed through "Something Like That," "Where the Green Grass Grows" and "For a Little While."

RECORD BREAKER: Cardi B is the queen of RodeoHouston

He tried out a pair of wistful new ballads, "Thought About You" and "Hallelujahville," from an album due later this year. And he jumped offstage and ran the perimeter of the stadium during "Felt Good On My Lips," doling out hundreds of high-fives.

Beaumont native Clay Walker joined McGraw for a spirited take on "I Like It, I Love It, each of them riding one of the stage's star points. It sent a jolt of energy through the already enthused crowd.

Tim McGraw RodeoHouston setlist "Truck Yeah" "Southern Voice" "All I Want is a Life" "Something Like That" "Shotgun Rider" "Where the Green Grass Grows" "For a Little While" "Thought About You" "Hallelujahville" "Felt Good On My Lips" "I Like It, I Love It" with Clay Walker "Humble & Kind" "Live Like You Were Dying" "Real Good Man" "Indian Outlaw" See More Collapse

McGraw's real magic, though, was apparent during "Humble & Kind" and "Live Like You Were Dying." He manages to breathe life and emotion into songs that could be canned and treacly.

Joey Guerra writes about music and pop culture for the Houston Chronicle. He will be writing about every single RodeoHouston concert. Follow him on Twitter. Send him news tips at joey.guerra@chron.com.

EDITOR'S PICKS: Photos from Day 11 of RodeoHouston

NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.
Standing on the mission control room floor at NASA's Johnson Space Center in November 2017, the first thing that struck me was the stillness of it all.

It was my first time visiting the Apollo control room. And it felt as if every person who had ever worked in this hallowed room  both dead and alive  was holding their breath as I took in the scenery.

The patches for each mission flown from this room hanging on the walls.

The old, mint green consoles that had definitely seen better days.

MISSION MOON: Apollo 11 lunar landing leaves lasting legacy 50 years later

The plaque given to mission controllers by the Apollo 13 astronauts expressing gratitude for their help surviving the 1970 aborted moon trip.

I admit that despite growing up in Ohio  home to Neil Armstrong, John Glenn and Jim Lovell, just to name a few  I had never been a space buff.

But that day in November 2017, I realized how important the moon landings  and NASA as a whole  was to the country and our lives, especially here in Houston.

I was awe struck.

The 50th anniversary still was two years away, but I soon started thinking about how best to represent the gravity of the moon landings.

Today the Houston Chronicle launches "Mission Moon," a project about the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Over the next four months, you'll read about how Houston became Space City and what that's meant to our identity. You'll hear from the Apollo greats, from Chris Kraft to Gene Kranz to Buzz Aldrin, about what the moon landing meant to them.

SPACE JUNK: Sign up for Mission Moon updates and out-of-this-world space news

But you'll also read about how NASA has shaped the world: how the technology that came from the Apollo missions brought us the computer, for example, and solar panels; how NASA fundamentally changed our culture; and the bold missions  and crippling setbacks  NASA has experienced since.

The future of spaceflight is upon us  and this series will walk you through that too.

I hope you read our Mission Moon series. And I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

***

MISSION MOON: Nearly 50 years have passed since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. The July 20, 1969, moon landing changed the world and forever changed Houston. Our "Mission Moon" project will explore how the country came together to fulfill President John F. Kennedy's goal of reaching the lunar surface by 1970, NASA's bold missions  and crippling tragedies  since that historic day, the future of space exploration and the fate of Houston as America's "Space City." Read the project on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  Gov. Greg Abbott has quietly been stocking Texas courts with Republican judges freshly rejected by voters, employing one of the strongest powers of his office to stem the erosion of the GOP's decades-long dominance in the state.

In the three months since the worst election night for Texas Republicans in a generation, four of Abbott's last six judicial appointments to fill key court vacancies have been former Republican judges who lost their 2018 races. One was elevated to the Texas Supreme Court just weeks after being voted out of a lower court in Houston.

Texas is among a handful of states that hold partisan elections of judges from lower-level district courts all the way through the highest appeals courts. The ability to fill vacancies is one of the strongest tools of the governor's office.

Abbott's recent appointments have stoked criticism from some Democrats that Abbott is thumbing his nose at voters. They've also questioned why Texas Republicans are sounding sudden alarms about partisan waves threatening judicial integrity. That includes Abbott, himself a former judge, who in February tweeted that the makeup of courts shouldn't be left "to the political winds of the day."

RELATED: Promise not to kill anyone? After losing election, TX judge wholesale releases juvenile defendants

Four days later, Abbott appointed Brett Busby to fill a state Supreme Court vacancy. The former attorney for Christian legal groups and member of the conservative Federalist Society had just lost his re-election bid to a Houston appeals court.

"The people have said they don't want these judges," said former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Larry Meyers, who served 20 years on the bench as a Republican, then switched parties and lost in 2016.

Democrats in November flipped majorities on four influential appeals courts with jurisdiction over some of the state's largest metropolitan areas. Abbott's office dismissed the election results as "immaterial" to the appointments and said the judges nominated were selected on the merits of their judicial record.

"The governor was elected statewide to make decisions on appointments. I'm honored that he chose me and I look forward to serving," Busby said Thursday.

In some cases, Abbott appointed judges who have lost multiple elections to Democrats.

Judge Greg Perkes was appointed Jan. 28 to the 13th Court of Appeals in South Texas. That put him on the same bench where he'd been removed by voters in 2016, and rejected again in 2018. Perkes will be the only Republican on the court and will serve with the two women Democrats who defeated him.

During his Senate confirmation hearing Feb. 7, Perkes was asked if he can work with his political adversaries. He said he could.

TEXAS TAKE: Catch the political news you need each weekday

"It was a hard election," in 2018, Perkes said. "Obviously I lost. All the judges on that court, including myself, are strict constructionists of the law and try to do our very best."

Judge Jaime Tijerina was appointed to a district court bench in the same border region. Tijerina narrowly lost in November to Democrat Rudy Delgado in a bid for the 13th Court of Appeals, despite Delgado being under federal indictment on bribery charges. Tijerina also was appointed to a district judgeship in 2013 and lost his election bid for that seat to a Democrat in 2014 in a landslide. Abbott then appointed Tijerina to another district bench in 2018.

Busby would have easily the most influence of all of Abbott's judicial appointments should he win Senate confirmation to the nine-member panel that serves as the state's highest court for civil matters.

A former U.S. Supreme Court clerk and 20-year appeals lawyer, Busby was elected to Houston's 14th Court of Appeals in 2012 but was voted out in 2018 in favor of a Democrat. Busby had barely returned to private practice when Abbott promoted him to the state Supreme Court, a bench with a track record as a launch pad into state politics, the federal judiciary and even the White House.

Abbott spokesman John Wittman said the governor bases his selections on judicial skill and merit.

"It is immaterial how those judicial candidates fared in past elections," Wittman said. "As a former judge himself, Governor Abbott knows that judicial races are often determined by factors other than the candidate's qualifications. The primary factor that Governor Abbott seeks is the candidate's proven ability to uphold the Constitution and apply the law as written."

Unlike federal judicial positions, the state courts are not lifetime posts. All would have to campaign in 2020 if they want to stay on the job.

The state nominations process rarely delivers the fireworks seen at the federal level such as the recent U.S. Senate hearings over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Democrats have been unwilling to spar over Abbott's judicial appointments, despite their complaints. They've been focused instead on blocking his nominee for the state's elections chief , David Whitley, who has come under intense criticism for using faulty data to question the U.S. citizenship of 95,000 voters.

The nominations of Perkes, Busby and Tijerina were presented to the Senate nominations committee by their local senators, all Democrats. The full Senate confirmed Perkes and Tijerina on unanimous votes last month. Busby faced few questions at his nominations hearing on Thursday and appears likely to sail through as well.

Democrats say they're being deferential to the governor's appointment powers, but not without frustration.

"Clearly the governor didn't receive the memo about the election results," Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Manny Garcia said. "Courts across the state have dramatically changed. Elected officials should be responsive to the electorate."

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By the time he turned 19, Alec Chester had lived in foster care, group homes and on the streets of Houston.

On Wednesday, sifting through papers at the Houston Alumni and Youth Center, he had his first real hope at getting an apartment of his own.

Its something Ive been striving for my whole life, said Chester, now 20 and living at the Salvation Army. I value my independence above all.

Chester is applying for help under a federal program that recently awarded $700,000 in assistance for Houston-area youth, like him, who are aging out of foster care, or for families separated by lack of housing.

The program will fund 85 housing vouchers and  barring changes at the federal level  would be renewed annually. The HAY center is partnering with the city to help youth eligible for the new vouchers fill out their applications and find landlords who will take a voucher.

Apartment rental is so expensive in Houston, said Joanquinta White, the centers director of housing. Sometimes its not the $750 per month  its coming up with three times the rent to show you can sustain it.

The 2017 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, based on data gathered on one night in January 2017, found that 23,548 people were homeless in Texas  or, 9 out of every 10,000 people. Of those, 6,840 were people in families with children and 1,318 were unaccompanied youth.

Over the past 12 months, 780 youth used homeless shelters in Houston  and 174 left the shelter homeless.

Sleeping on a cardboard box

The Family Reunification Program, run by the federal government, awarded Houston one of the top grants in the nation aimed at helping a population thats more at-risk for homelessness. The Houston Housing Authority unsuccessfully bid for the program in 2011.

Chester worked through the application Wednesday at the HAY Center for one of the 85 vouchers. Hes been in foster care since he was 14, when his mom gave him up after a he had a run-in with the police for disorderly conduct. He then bounced around group homes and tried to return to his biological mother at age 18 before living on the Houston streets for two months.

Getting a voucher  and finally having a place to live of his own after years of staying in shelters with enforced curfews and limited mobility  would mean the world to him.

I was lucky, but sleeping on a cardboard box  it sucks, he said.

Youth aging out of foster care are particularly susceptible to homelessness because many havent had the opportunity to develop the skills needed to sort through the process of finding an apartment, said White, with the HAY Center.

Many dont have foster family support. And even if a foster family wants to support a former foster kid, she said, they might not have the money to give because they have other foster kids to raise.

The HAY Center has partnered with the city on two other voucher programs before this one and housed 85 people. This round of vouchers has a 60-day window for someone who receives one to find housing, a process the HAY Center helps with.

Telling folks stories

Elexis Duckworth, 22, and her three younger siblings, went into foster car when she was 12.

She was a cheerleader in high school, taking Advanced Placement classes, when her foster mom had a heart attack. Knowing she was going to be moved yet again, she chose to run away.

Duckworth now has two little girls of her own  5 and 3 years old  but were evicted from their last apartment because she couldnt keep up on her rent working at Whataburger. Now, through a voucher, the family lives in a two-bedroom condo in Bellaire, with a separate bathroom for the girls.

The voucher money lets her save enough on rent to take her kids to Chuck E. Cheese and give them treats  things she didnt have growing up.

Us foster kids are not as fortunate as other people who get parents support, Duckworth said, fingering the rhinestone collar on her dress.

Mark Thiele, a senior vice president at the Houston Housing Authority, said part of the hurdle is getting landlords to buy into the program.

Texas is one of the only states that allows landlords to reject vouchers. White, the housing director at the HAY Center, keeps a list of landlords shes worked with before so that each foster kid has an easier time finding places to go.

We get folks who dont want to do additional paperwork, or have more inspections, he said. But to me, its telling folks stories. How can people hear what the benefit is? Everyone wants to be successful, but you dont start at the same place.

Ive been everywhere

Jonique Ardjon, 21, was sent into foster care when she was a preteen. She never found a home that really fit her. She said she was abused by her uncle as a child and her mother and grandmother, afraid of him, did nothing.

Ive been everywhere, she said.

Shes working on her coping skills and on having what she calls a better attitude. But after years of being abused and bounced around, its hard.

Her voucher for an earlier housing program came through on Thursday. Her next step is to find an apartment of her own  her first piece of stability in years.

I try to keep a positive attitude, and front up, like, I dont care, but inside its painful, she said, before breaking down into tears. I dont want anyone to go through what Ive been through.

sarah.smith@chron.com
Beginning in May, Harris County voters will be allowed to cast ballots at any polling place in the county, rather than their assigned precincts under a system that gained state approval Thursday.

Texas Secretary of State David Whitley on Thursday accepted Harris Countys application to participate in the states countywide polling program, giving County Clerk Diane Trautman the green light to put it in place for the May 4 school board elections.

Trautman, a Democrat, was elected last November after pitching the program during her campaign. She has sought to implement the system since taking office in January, holding public meetings to discuss the proposal and gaining approval from Commissioners Court last month to apply to Whitleys office.

The voters of Harris County have made it clear that a countywide polling place program would have a positive impact on elections and I am confident that the transition to a countywide polling place program will be successful, Trautman said in a statement.

Harris County, with more than 2 million registered voters, will be the largest county in the country to implement the program, according to Trautmans office.

During previous elections, Harris County residents could cast ballots at any one of dozens of locations during early voting, but were required to visit polls in their home precincts on Election Day.

In the November midterms, Harris County operated 46 early voting locations, each with far more poll workers and voting machines than the hundreds of traditional Election Day precinct polling sites.

Proponents of the countywide system tout it as a way to boost voter participation. Supporters also say it eventually could cut election costs because counties can replace smaller precinct sites with larger voting centers. More than 50 Texas counties successfully have implemented the countywide program, including neighboring Fort Bend and Brazoria, and some have seen an uptick in voter participation.

Trautman has said she would start by using the countys 46 early voting locations as Election Day voting centers, in addition to traditional precinct polling sites, which she would not close before first seeking the approval of residents.

Jay Aiyer, a Texas Southern University political analyst, said Trautman should wait at least a few election cycles before removing any precinct sites to avoid disenfranchising voters.

Harris County is basically a state, Aiyer said. So, what were talking about is a pretty fundamental change of an electoral process for an area, or at least a population base, thats larger than 25 states.

Some concerns, Aiyer said, include the vast length of Harris Countys ballot and the lack of straight-ticket voting in 2020, the first time Texas voters will be without that option. The change likely will create longer lines at the polls, Aiyer noted.

Harris County Republican Party Chair Paul Simpson decried the move, contending that Trautman, in a rush to revamp Harris County voting, is using unreliable technology that would actually depress turnout.

Trumpeting her new system as voter-approved, Ms. Trautman, in fact, hand-picked groups to support her voting center scheme despite the risk it poses to all Harris County voters, Simpson said in a statement. Her unproven voting center scheme might work in a smaller county. But in the large and diverse community of Harris County, it risks vote dilution and discouraging, confusing, and disenfranchising countless voters on election day."

Lubbock County became the first in Texas to run a countywide polling operation in 2006, under what was then a pilot program enacted by the Legislature. Since then, state lawmakers have made the program permanent, and Travis County, with about 788,000 registered voters as of the November midterms, is the largest Texas county to use the voting centers.

Trautman deliberately sought state approval before the May elections so she could roll out the program during a low-turnout election, instead of during the November 2019 city election or 2020 presidential election when turnout runs much higher. Harris County must secure approval from the secretary of states office after the May 4 election to continue using the countywide polling program.

Still, Simpson said he worried that voting centers would be unable to communicate electronically on Election Day to ensure no one votes more than once. County officials have said otherwise, and the states elections director, Keith Ingram, wrote in a letter to County Judge Lina Hidalgo Thursday that documentation provided by the county reflects that its polling devices can update the master voter database even upon losing cellular connection.

Former Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart, a Republican whom Trautman defeated, said during the campaign he was open to countywide polling sites. The option is only available, Stanart said, because the county began using electronic poll books, or modified iPads, that communicate with each other to prevent people from voting more than once.

In a statement, Hidalgo called the move a huge win for voters across Harris County.

Im committed to working with our county clerk to help implement a successful program, she said. Instituting voting centers will increase participation, making our democracy more inclusive and stronger.

Reporter Zach Despart contributed to this story.

jasper.scherer@chron.com

twitter.com/jaspscherer
Less than a year from now, Texas will hold its primary election to help decide if President Donald Trump gets the GOP nomination again, and whether a Texas Democrat would challenge him in 2020. But thats not quite soon enough for one Texas lawmaker.

While Iowa has long held its place as the first major contest in the presidential campaign cycle, State Rep. Lyle Larson and other Texas lawmakers are considering another push to claim that distinction  especially since Texas routinely puts top contenders in the field. Larson, a San Antonio Republican, has filed legislation that would move the Texas primaries into late January, leapfrogging traditional early presidential primary states like New Hampshire and Iowa, where caucuses have become the testing ground for presidential campaigns. Iowa is set to hold its caucus on Feb. 3, 2020.

We should not have to play second fiddle to these smaller states, Larson said.

More Information Early 2020 Presidential Primary Election Schedule Feb. 3 - Iowa Caucus Feb. 11 - New Hampshire Primary Feb. 22 - Nevada Caucus Feb. 29 - South Carolina Primary March 3 (Super Tuesday) - Texas, Alabama, California, Minnesota, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia See More Collapse

It is frustrating to watch voters in Iowa and New Hampshire decide which candidates are best on issues like border security or the military, Larson says, when Texas has the largest border with Mexico and has the third-highest number of active duty military personnel in the nation. The way he sees it, Texas deserves a shot at hosting Republicans and Democrats at pancake breakfasts and VFW halls like voters in Sioux City, Ames and other Iowa cities get every four years.

The legislation comes as two Texas Democrats  Julian Castro and Beto ORourke  are likely running in 2020. If Texas were first up, it could change their fate, not to mention those of possible future Republican candidates such as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who made a strong showing in 2016.

But the price would be steep. Iowa and New Hampshire have aggressively guarded their status at the beginning of the line and pushed political parties to enact stiff penalties to dissuade states from jumping the line. Larson said Texas needs to gamble that it is big enough and important enough that voters would still give a winning candidate a major boost even if the state were to lose delegates that determine who gets to attend the national conventions  a penalty that both parties have in place for states that try to move their primaries into January or February.

Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

The political parties in Texas say they want to be as relevant as possible, but Larson is going too far. They say Texas has already made itself more important by gradually moving its primary up to the earliest possible point without incurring penalties. As it stands now, after the first four smaller states  Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada  vote, Texas and its haul of delegates will loom as part of Super Tuesday on March 3, 2020. The California Legislature voted to move its primary to the same day, along with 8 other states that will share the stage on Super Tuesday.

We have already moved the primary up enough, said James Dickey, the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas.

Texas Democrats agree. Manny Garcia, the executive director of the party, said if the state avoids any penalties, it will have a massive haul of delegates for a potential winner. That, he said, is going to make Texas incredibly important in 2020 no matter what happens in Iowa or New Hampshire.

If we move too far ahead, it would actually lessen our influence because of the penalties, Garcia said.

In 2017, Larson had a similar bill that would have moved the primaries up. That bill passed the House Elections Committee but never made it to the full House for a vote.

Its an idea that has had support  at least in the past  from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican who runs the Texas Senate. In 2013, Patrick proposed a similar bill that would have moved the states primary elections to the first Tuesday in February. Patrick has not said if he would support moving next years primary up.

Related: National Democrats say theyll set up shop in Texas suburbs soon

Larson said he knows there are a lot of barriers ahead of him, but he said its long past time for Texas to assert itself.

Right now, we have been relevant so infrequently that the Texas Primary doesnt matter, he said. Why should we be deferring to these smaller states?

There is little doubt that he change would give Texas voters more options in future presidential primaries. Although there may be 17 or 18 Democrats in the field in early 2020, by the time Iowa finishes voting that could be down to 5 or 6, said Cal Jillson, professor of Political Science at Southern Methodist University.

Iowa has also become a crushing blow for many a Texan who has thought of himself as presidential timber since the 1970s. Poor showings in Iowa all but doomed presidential campaigns of former U.S. Sens Lloyd Bentsen (1976) and Phil Gramm (1996) and former governors Rick Perry (2012) and John Connally (1980).

Texas has largely been irrelevant in picking presidential nominees because its often weeks or months after the early states, Jillson said. By that time, the nominations for both parties are well secured or so one-sided that Texas has had little impact.

Historically, Texas has been a fundraising stop for candidates, but not usually relevant in the primary, Jillson said.

Perhaps the most notable Texas presidential primary was in 1976 when former California Gov. Ronald Reagan scored a dominant victory over President Gerald Ford in the Republican Primary, thanks to record turnout. Ford would go on to win the nomination, but it is a rare example of Texas playing a prominent role in a presidential primary, said Rhodes Cook, a political expert in Virginia who studies presidential primaries.

On the Democratic side that same year, then-Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter steamrolled over Bentsen, whose poor showing in Iowa months earlier had put him far behind long before Texas had a shot to vote.The argument to keep Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada early has been that they are small, allowing for more retail politicking and more interaction with voters than large television-market-driven states like Texas or California. But critics have contended a lack of diversity in those states is a problem and both parties would be better off allowing states that look more like the rest of the nation to vote early.

In 2008, other states including Florida and Michigan tried to break Iowas hold and move their primaries up. But those states were penalized and Iowa and New Hampshire pressured candidates to boycott Florida because of the move.

New Hampshire has a law that allows the Secretary of State to move the primary anytime another state tries to jump the line. Iowa has a law that the caucuses must be a week before New Hampshire votes. That one-two punch means that even if the Texas Legislature agreed to move the states vote to Jan. 28, New Hampshire can still counter by pushing its election to earlier in January, and Iowa even further. That is exactly what happened in 2008 when Florida moved its primary into late January.
The late U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Illinois, famously quipped about federal spending, A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money. The same phrase is appropriate for the constant drama surrounding our trade relationships, especially with China, and their impact on the American energy industry. An increase in tariffs here, a delayed investment decision there, and pretty soon you have a cumulative effect that makes a real difference for businesses, consumers and communities.

That reality is critical to remember as the United States works toward a comprehensive trade agreement with China. President Trump delayed the self-imposed March 1 deadline for tariff increases. Multiple press reports, moreover, suggest that negotiations would continue in advance of an expected visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Thats helpful. And in the coming weeks, as U.S. officials address legitimate concerns about unfair Chinese trade practices, its vital that they recognize the importance of continuing to facilitate energy exports and develop energy infrastructure.

To his credit, President Trump has done much to accelerate American energy production. Domestic oil production in 2019 is poised to surpass the 1970s record of 9.6 million barrels per day, and imports have fallen to a 30-year low, according to the Energy Information Administration. But at the same time, the presidents aggressive trade actions and the imposition of protectionist tariffs have taken some of the shine off of these developments as the U.S. energy industry suffers under the weight of an uncertain trade environment.

What could happen if we dont strike a US-China trade deal? The news isnt good, particularly for the energy sector and for energy-intensive economies like Texas.

Last year, for example, oil markets saw substantial swings in export volumes as a result of trade uncertainty. In 2017, China accounted for 19 percent of total US oil exports. But in 2018, U.S. oil exports to China stalled  and then plummeted  as Chinese importers shied away from American producers. China received an average of 378,000 barrels per day of crude in the first seven months of 2018, before dropping to virtually zero in August and September. And while the Chinese have resumed a much smaller level of U.S. oil imports, any further reduction in sales to the Chinese market could have a significant negative impact.

The same dynamic holds true for natural gas. China is currently the worlds second largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and it is projected to overtake Japan as the number one importer in the early 2020s. In September 2018, in retaliation for U.S. tariffs, China imposed a 10 percent tariff on US LNG. The impact was immediate and dramatic. Only six LNG cargoes went from the United States to China during the last six months of 2018, down from 25 during the same period in 2017, according to Reuters.

The trade tension not only affects current exports  it also threatens new energy projects. For example, Australia-based LNG Limited halted construction of the Louisiana Mongolia LNG Plant late last year, reportedly due to uncertainty with Chinese customers. And experts say the trade war could hold up other projects, too, threatening to sideline billions in investment. As Katie Bays, head of energy and utilities at Height Capital Markets, explained, Theyre just the elephant in the room and until theres clarity on where China is going to source their natural gas, then its hard for other buyers to make decisions about which projects to attach themselves to.

Additionally, a trade war harms the development of pipelines and other necessary infrastructure. With the cost of steel from China up 25 percent since the imposition of tariffs in 2018, material costs for U.S. oil companies have risen by more than 8 percent. This means that the cost of a typical pipeline project could rise by $76 million. TransCanadas proposed Keystone XL expansion, for instance, is estimated to cost an extra $300 million.

Besides the short-term impacts, there are even more significant long terms implications. In its annual Energy Outlook, BP outlines alternative scenarios - a base case in which global trade continues on the same trajectory as the recent past versus a scenario in which global trade disputes persist and worsen. In the status quo case, U.S. energy exports are projected to rise to 243 million tons of oil equivalent by 2040. In the greater trade dispute case, those exports would drop by two-thirds, to just 80 million tons. And BP finds that the detrimental impact would be comparatively worse for the United states than other energy exporters such as Russia.

Its time for President Trump to recognize the impact of his trade policies on the energy sector. By reaching a comprehensive, bilateral trade deal with the Chinese, he can help to ensure the continued growth of the industry. This would deliver benefits to workers and consumers throughout the US, and especially in Texas.

Kupfer, a former Acting Deputy Secretary of Energy in the Bush administration, is currently an adjunct professor of policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College and an adviser at Beacon Global Strategies.
Few things are as dread-inducing as a smartphone going missing. Whether it has been stolen, left behind or lost beneath a sofa cushion, a missing smartphone is a First World personal crisis. If it has happened to you, then you know what a sinking feeling that can be.

I certainly do. My iPhone was lifted out of my shirt pocket on a street in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in September 2017. My wife, thinking fast, snapped a photo of the thief as he sprinted away and I yelled curses in both Spanish and English after him. (I was not going to chase after him down unfamiliar side streets.) And then I used her iPhone to secure mine via the Find My iPhone app.

As far as I can tell, that device - a rose gold iPhone 7 Plus - has never again connected to a cell network or the internet. But if it ever does, a command awaits that will erase everything on it and render it unusable.

I was prepared for this to happen. Are you?

THIEVED: My iPhone and my innocence were stolen in San Miguel

Heres what you need to do before your smartphone vanishes  either through malicious or forgetful actions  and what you should do immediately upon discovering its gone.

Install or activate a tracker

Both Apple and Android phones have the built-in capability to find a lost device. On an iPhone or iPad, its called Find My iPhone. To make sure its on, go to Settings, tap your name at the top of the screen, then the name of your phone below that. From there, you can turn on Find My iPhone, if its not on already.

On Android devices, its Find My Device. On a stock Android installation, go to Settings and then Security & Location. Some Android handset manufacturers may have a different tracking app in another location, and if you have an older Android smartphone, you may need to install a third-party app.

Bonus tip: Both iPhones and Android devices can benefit from an app called Prey, which duplicates some of the functions of the built-in tracker and adds a few more. It appears as a game app, making it harder for thieves to spot. Its free at preyproject.com.

Lock down your phone

Both iPhones and Androids strongly discourage you from not setting some kind of lock mechanism on your phone, whether its a PIN, a swipe pattern, a fingerprint or facial recognition. Still, some people dont set it up, and this is a huge mistake.

For most people, a smartphone provides access to all kinds of personal and financial information that could be disastrous in the hands of an evildoer. Not having some kind of lock in place may not be convenient, but the inconvenience youd potentially suffer if your phone was maliciously accessed is not worth it.

Make regular backups

Both iOS and Android devices can make backups to cloud-based services. For iPhones and iPads, its iCloud (Settings > Tap your name > tap your device > iCloud Backup). On Android, its Googles servers (Settings > System > Advanced > Backup).

If your phone is stolen, you can then easily restore settings and even apps on a new device.

HANG UP: Heres how to stop robocalls to your smartphone

If your phone is lost or stolen, do these things.

Locate your phone

Using another iOS or Android devices, use Find My iPhone or Find My Device to locate your missing phone. If its powered up and communicating with cell towers or GPS, you should see its placement on a map. If its off or in Airplane Mode, youll see its last known location.

These same apps also let you put a message on the screen indicating the device is lost or stolen; lock the device if it was open when it left your possession; play a loud sound to help find it; and wipe all the information from the device.

You can also track your device and take the same actions on the web. For iOS, its at icloud.com/#find, and for Android its google.com/android/find.

I still have an erase command pending on my stolen iPhone  I can see it when I revisit Find My iPhone. So far, that phone has stayed offline.

Contact your carrier

Let your carrier know your phone is missing or stolen as soon as possible. Although it may take up to 24 hours, the service provider can lock the phone out of its network so it cant be used. And since the major carriers now share reports of stolen phones to a common database, a thief cant use it on another network, either.

Even though reporting a stolen smartphone to the police seldom results in a recovery, its worth doing just in case it does turn up. And if you have insurance that covers your smartphone, youll need a police report.

By the way, if you have renters or homeowners insurance, check to see if theft of personal property is covered. When my iPhone was stolen in Mexico, I reported it to the police there and was pleasantly surprised to learn my renters insurance at the time reimbursed me for much of it. The policy even covered the case it was in!

Change your passwords

Even if your device was locked or wiped clean, its a good idea to change the passwords on your most critical accounts, such as email, banking, social media, shopping. And when you do, take the opportunity to set up unique passwords for each account, so a breach at one doesnt leave you vulnerable at all the others.

And for some time after your phone has gone missing, check the activity on these accounts regularly, particularly your banking and shopping accounts. If you have taken all the right steps, you should be in the clear. But vigilance will cost you nothing and bring you added peace of mind.

Then, when you get your replacement phone, go back to the top of this column and use a checklist to prepare for your phone in advance should it happen again  God forbid.

Dwight Silverman is the technology editor for the Houston Chronicle and the grillmaster for the TechBurger tech news site. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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What happened to MH370? One day we will know

March 08,2019 | Source: CNTraveller

Like many others, Chennai resident KS Narendran, whose wife, Chandrika Sharma, former Executive Secretary of International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) was on board the ill-fated flight, is waiting for answers...



On 8 March 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared over the South China Sea. Among the 239 on board were five Indian passengers. One of them was Chandrika Sharma, who was to fly onward to Mongolia for a United Nations conference. On the eve of the 5th anniversary of the incident, her husband KS Narendran shares this call for action:



It is 5 years since I saw off my wife, Chandrika, and the last we heard from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the flight she boarded en route to Mongolia.



It has been a long haul dealing with loss and rebuilding a life, a task that remains incomplete. What became clear is that lately the cloud of sorrow and despair, the listlessness with life in general, and the restlessness with the MH370 search and investigation has become less intense.



What remains is the solidarity with the MH families, their loss and struggles to cope, to envision a future and reconstruct their lives. This only grows as each nuance in a shared language of loss, grief and reconstruction becomes more widely shared and understood.



5 years is a long time. Among the MH families, the old have grown older. Some whose will to live was broken by irreconcilable loss believe they have nothing left to live for. Among the young, some have by now moved on to pursue studies, take up jobs, move home, find partners, have babies Some things to cheer about and remind ourselves that winter is not the only season, each day isnt always drab, and the sky isnt only grey.



However, many among us continue to struggle while applying ourselves to the chores of daily existence. For all of us, knowing what happened to MH370 remains the key to unlock a part of our lives, our energies. Our prayers have remained unchanged: find the plane. Find the passengers. Give us answers to what, why, how and, if it comes to it, who.



Give us the truth. Yes, give us the truth. Not too many people we know are convinced that 459 pages of the 2018 report is the sum total of all that is known regarding the disappearance of MH370. Those who know more but have chosen silence, if indeed there are some, will eventually die a thousand deaths each day, for guilt is a latecomer but an unforgiving squatter. It is the order of things and not what we would wish for them.



In this search for the truth, there isnt a Malaysian truth, an Australian truth, a British truth or an American one. Or (even) an Indian and a Chinese one. There were 239 passengers from 14 countries. An international mix of nationalities. A Boeing 777, an American companys product. The incident is believed to have occurred in the Indian Ocean, in international waters. The investigation is governed by the conventions written in by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Experts from across the world when consulted or otherwise, have weighed in with their analysis and recommendations regarding the search. It is an event that concerns, every airline, every passenger and perhaps almost every family across the world exposed to civil aviation.



To suggest, as some do, that it should be left to Malaysians to script the story and the end game does not cut ice. If anything, the fact that it was a Malaysian airlines flight under Malaysian air traffic control and Malaysias leadership of the investigation places an unshakable burden of responsibility on the world at large to persist, to mobilise the funds, and to hunt for the credible evidence for further search that it never tires of reminding us as being a requirement. It also has the responsibility to test the claims of those who proclaim new knowledge, new evidence and fresh coordinates, and offer a public, transparent well-argued refutationif indeed that is what will end misguided or false narratives.



The best tribute we can offer to those we have lost on MH370 is to demonstrate the will to find credible answers, fix the issues and assure the world that more lives will not be lost to similar incidents.



A new Malaysia under this new government has been the source of a new fledgeling hope. To those who have fallen silent travelling on MH370, we remain respectful and eternally indebted for the time they shared with us. To those who have offered silent support, those who have lent their voice and those who have sent their prayers, we remain grateful. We draw strength from your little acts of kindness, words of solidarity, and your quest for the truthwhichever corner of the Earth you seek it from. Questions have a way of persisting and even outliving you and me till satisfactorily answered. I go back to pick up the threads of my life in Chennai secure, and with faith that one day we will know.



In 2017, KS Narendran published a book about the experience, Life After MH370: Journeying Through A Void

Theme(s): Fisheries Resources, Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods, Freshwater ecosystems and threats, Post Harvest Technology and Trade, Others, Communities and Organisations, Fisheries Development and Aquaculture, Landing Centres, Coastal Ecosystems and Threats.
Peoples and local communities are the most effective and efficient guardians of conservation, says Rights and Resourcess Lindsay Brigda

by Lucienne Cross

March 08,2019 | Source: Inhabitat

Unmanned systems such as drones, are increasingly used in a variety of fields  from border patrol, to cinematography to just plain showing off your cool new toy with neighbors. Thanks to rapidly improving technology, durability and artificial intelligence, these unmanned systems also show significant promise in the field of ocean conservation. Scientists can save significant time and resources by collecting data, mapping species and monitoring huge areas of ocean impossible to reach by boat.



Drones are fundamentally changing the way we monitor and manage our environment, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Institute Captain, Brian Taggart, told DroneLife. Taggart explained that unmanned systems can help scientists track the abundance and distribution of endangered species, patrol for illegal fishing and monitor areas that might be hard for boats to reach  such as shallow reefs.



WasteShark: the trash-eating ocean drone



RanMarine, a Dutch technology firm, has launched a floating drone called WasteShark in several countries. This remote-controlled or autonomously running drone collects floating trash at a rate of 130 pounds per trip, equaling 15 tons of waste every year. Think of it as a large, high-tech, trash-eating Roomba vacuum for the oceans surface. In addition to alleviating litter, the robot can also test water quality and remove oils, chemicals and harmful algae  all without threatening wildlife.



WasteShark is cheaper, greener, more effective and less disruptive than other methods of dealing with marine litter, Chief Commercial Officer of RanMarine, Oliver Cunningham, told the Daily Mail.



Aerial mapping and measuring



Drones are also used to collect data everywhere from the Caribbean to Antarctica. Conservation website Monga Bay reported that scientists in Antarctica are using drone imagery to measure and monitor leopard seal populations. This technology saves the researchers huge amounts of time, money and resources when compared to business as usual; physically capturing, sedating and then releasing each seal they measure. Weighing an average of 800 pounds each, this is a huge and costly endeavor that also disrupts the seal population.



The researchers conducted a study to compare the results of drone-measured seals versus those that they hand measure and found the results only varied by two to four percent.



Because we took the time to develop this technique and verify that its doing what we think its doing, we can feel confident about gathering monitoring information in the future that will both help us understand ecosystem function and also give us better data to support conservation efforts, lead scientist Douglas J. Krause told Monga Bay.



Drones give students a new perspective



Drones can also be used for educational purposes by giving scientists, researchers, students and the general public a gorgeous, birds-eye view of marine ecosystems and restoration projects that they otherwise could never see up-close. The Nature Conservancy used drones to teach students in Grenada about a coral reef restoration project and used the awe-inspiring robot technology to hover over the project infrastructure and convince the students of how cool ocean conservation can be.



Cracking down on drones in parks



With advancing technology and decreasing prices, it seems like everyone has a drone now, and many local and state governments are cracking down on their use in parks. All drones have been recently prohibited in Californias San Luis Obispo Coastal Park with authorities arguing that the unmanned systems disturb both wildlife and the publics recreational experiences. For example, unskilled drone users have been cited for accidentally landing drones on rock islands inhabited by sunbathing seals. Others have scared birds from their nests, while others lose their drones and trample through fragile ecosystems to retrieve them. Drone use for scientific research is still allowed with a permit and trained pilot.



Are drones taking jobs?



There are many examples of how drone technology improves ocean conservation, but how does this artificial technology impact local fishers, park rangers and other ocean-based livelihoods? The National Geographic Society recently awarded Moroccan company ATLAN a World Oceans Day Prize for their drone that can identify, recognize and alert authorities of illegal fishing activities across 435 miles  far more than rangers on a motor boat could ever accomplish.



This seems like a great achievement for protecting fish populations, especially when over 80 percent of the worlds fisheries are severely over fished. However, many marine protected areas  where fishing is prohibited  were established without consultation with subsistence and small-scale fishers. Despite their benefits to ecosystems, marine protected areas can often cause the displacement and criminalization of cultures and traditional ways of life without providing realistic alternatives.



The idea that conservation requires emptying the land of its customary inhabitants fails to acknowledge that Indigenous Peoples and local communities are the most effective and efficient guardians, Rights and Resourcess Lindsay Brigda wrote in their publication, Cornered by Protected Areas.



Many environmental organizations are now making a determined effort to consult with local communities and develop jobs in areas such as eco-tourism and conservation. With their extensive knowledge of navigated waters, fishers are often given jobs as park rangers an opportunity to earn a living protecting the species they used to exploit.



Drones, like most artificial intelligence, are still years away from completely replacing the need for humans, but a concerted effort to protect already limited conservation jobs and budget for displaced people is paramount.

Theme(s): Post Harvest Technology and Trade, Others, Fisheries Development and Aquaculture, Freshwater ecosystems and threats, Communities and Organisations, Landing Centres, Coastal Ecosystems and Threats, Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods, Fisheries Resources.
Chinese companies sign deal to fish in Somali waters

by Abdalle Ahmed Mumin

March 08,2019 | Source: China Dialogue Ocean

Legal experts and local fishing groups have warned that a deal between the Somali government and a consortium of Chinese companies will be difficult to regulate, may encourage piracy and could lead to the levels of overfishing seen in West Africa.



The Somali minister of fisheries, Abdillahi Bidhan, who signed it in December 2018, has confirmed the details of the deal, in which Chinese companies paid a total of US$1 million to fish within Somali waters off north-east Africa twice a year.



We have conducted the signing of 31 offshore tuna licenses to FOCA [the consortium] in a transparent manner. Anyone applying for a tuna licence must go through the requisite process upon which we will inspect their vessels, Bidhan said.



$135 million, The contribution of Somalias fishery sector to the economy.

According to the ministry of fisheries website, the deal allows 31 Chinese long-line vessels to fish for tuna and tuna-like species for one year, a deal that automatically renews each year. The vessels will be able to fish 24 nautical miles from shore within Somali territorial waters.



However, the government was reluctant to declare the full terms of the contract, according to Mohamud Nur Hasan, a member of parliaments sub-committee on fisheries and natural resources, who also represents fisheries communities in the Lower Shabelle region in the southern part of the country. The deal will certainly impact our local fishermen who depend on fishing for their livelihood, the lawmaker said. Chinese vessels have poured into African waters to get nice seafood for trade, degrading fish stocks.



Overfishing



He highlighted the environmental impact of such contracts. We worry [about] overfishing, destruction of fish species and availability of the tuna which the Chinese were granted to catch. In the long term this deal is not benefiting Somalis, Hasan added. Chinese trawlers have already destroyed parts of the ocean floor in West African countries.



Overfishing in West Africa continues to threaten food security, natural ecosystems and local economies. China is the largest fishing power, with more than 500 industrial fishing vessels operating in the regions waters. It is estimated that around 54% of local fish stocks are overfished, with illegal fishing accounting for almost 40% of all fish caught.



Local fishing communities operating from Mogadishus Liido beach  although worried about their catch  seemed unaware of issues such as habitat degradation and pollution that may directly impact the fish stocks they depend on for income.



Abdirahman Omar Osman, a Mogadishu-based environmental activist and lawyer, says lack of ecological protection and the governments weak or ineffective policies make it difficult to manage the fishing sector. He warned this is providing an opportunity for some Chinese companies that are believed to overfish in many African countries and elsewhere.



Overfishing by Chinese trawlers has cost thousands of jobs in West Africa. Thousands of fishers were left idle in their home towns. Now if they come to Somalia, they will ruin the local fishers and destroy our waters, he said.



Osman also warns the deal could make possible the return of Somali pirate groups, whose hijackings of global maritime vessels have been halted since 2012. This could even mean more illegal fishers come disguised with fake contracts, and armed pirates make a comeback in Somali waters, the lawyer said.



Hassan Mohamed Roble, head of Iskaashato, the Mogadishu fishing umbrella of more than 200 local fishers, blames the Somali government for hastily signing the contract without first setting up strong fishing laws. It is not the right time. We needed some laws and regulations to protect the local fishers first, Roble said. The contract is about tuna but we are afraid the Chinese will catch everything and leave us nothing,



The Somali government estimates that the domestic fishing sector annually contributes US$135 million to the economy. This would mean that, in the coming few years, our local fishermen will no longer be able to meet local consumption levels as fish stocks decline, Roble believes. According to the fisheries ministry, Somalia has 604 fish species with 420 of these being commercially viable in an exclusive economic zone of 1.2 million square kilometres.



Destructive gear



A major concern raised by local fishermen is the type of fishing equipment that will be used in Somali waters. The majority of Chinese boats use bottom trawling, an extremely destructive practice that drags long nets along the ocean floor and catches almost everything in its path.



Local fishermen use small nets and if sea creatures are accidentally trapped in their nets, they discard them back to the ocean, Mohamed Sheikh Ahmed, a boat owner and fisher in Mogadishu explained. These foreign trawlers catch even sea turtles which they later sell on the black market.



While many countries in Africa and elsewhere have taken steps to impede bottom trawling, the experts say Somalia lacks the strong government or regulations needed to stop disastrous fishing of the marine ecosystem.



There is nobody checking the type of equipment the Chinese will use for fishing in Somali waters, to ensure the marine ecosystem will be safe from harm. I think this is a looming threat, environmental lawyer Osman noted.



But minister Bidhan said the government will deploy its own personnel on board the Chinese vessels to ensure the companies adhere to the terms of the contract, which includes not exploiting other sea resources. There will be two government personnel on board every vessel of the Chinese fleet, the minister said.



Officials in Somaliland, an independent region in northern Somalia, have rejected the Chinese fishing deal with the government in Mogadishu, saying that it does not cover their waters. The Somaliland navy is regularly patrolling our coast, and will defend its territorial integrity from Chinese or any other illegal fishers, the Somaliland minister for livestock and fisheries, Hassan Ali Gafadhi, said.

Theme(s): Landing Centres, Post Harvest Technology and Trade, Freshwater ecosystems and threats, Coastal Ecosystems and Threats, Fisheries Development and Aquaculture, Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods, Communities and Organisations, Others, Fisheries Resources.
Chilean workers say they were lured to Nova Scotia with false promise

by Frances Willick

March 08,2019 | Source: CBC

Three Chilean temporary foreign workers who came to Nova Scotia under the promise of good-paying jobs say they ended up working at a fish plant for a fraction of the promised pay and living in a house with only salt water coming from the taps.



The case highlights concerns with the temporary foreign worker program and the risks it can pose to vulnerable employees, who are often under pressure not to blow the whistle on their bosses.



But the program isn't always a success for employers, either. The men's boss says he's out about $20,000 after paying for their airfare, a car for them to use and recruiting fees.



"Things just didn't work out for them and things didn't work out for me," said Andy Henneberry of Amos and Andy Fisheries in Sambro Head, N.S. "It was a learning experience."



Raimundo Alcazar Diaz, Claudio Godoy Gangas and Victor Aburto Ramirez spotted the job ad on Facebook last year offering pay of up to $8,000 a month for fishing boat crew members.



Alcazar said he already had a good job in Chile as an engineer in the merchant marine, but he was attracted by the higher pay and the possibility of someday moving his family to Canada.



"I think this is a very good chance and a very good opportunity to me and my family," he said in an interview in January. "It's for that reason it's, 'OK, I'm going now, where I can sign?'"



Alcazar and the other two men corresponded with a recruiter from a company called Coast Canada Fish Packers.



"She said, 'No, don't worry, it's very safe, it's all good, don't worry, it's a real job,'" Alcazar said.



CBC News could not find any records about this company, and no one responded to the email address listed in the original job ad.



The men had their work permits and plane tickets in hand when, a week before they were supposed to leave, they got a phone call from the recruiter.



"She said, 'Oh listen, we have problem,'" Alcazar said.



He said they were told there was an issue with the boat and they'd have to work in a fish plant for just one month before starting work on the vessel.



They were asked to sign a contract stating that they would be unloading, sorting and packing fish for $14 an hour for 48 hours a week  which amounts to $2,688 per month before taxes. The contract made no mention of working on a fishing vessel. The men signed it and arrived in Canada at the end of June.



Henneberry said he initially was looking for fishing vessel crew members, and the pay listed in the ad was accurate for that position, but when he learned that vessel crew needed to be Canadian citizens or permanent residents, he hired instead for fish plant workers.



Henneberry said he never told the workers their stint in the fish plant would only last a month.



"I made sure it was perfectly clear what they was coming to do, and I was assured they knew and they signed the contract."



Godoy says otherwise.



"When we arrived, he told us: 'One month, and after one month, the boat,'" said Godoy. "We were deceived. They changed the conditions of the work, the pay, everything."



Henneberry provided the men with a house to live in next to the fish plant and paid for utilities, internet and cable. Although the contract stated he would deduct $80 a week from their pay for lodging, he didn't initially deduct anything.



The men say they found out the hard way  by drinking the tap water  that the house only had salt water. Alcazar said Henneberry brought in bottled water for them to drink, but they continued to shower with salt water for the duration of their stay.



Henneberry said he lived in the house for many years and the water is "not that salty." He said the workers were immediately told not to drink the tap water. The men eventually asked Henneberry about the promised work on the fishing boat, and say they were told their job was strictly in the fish plant.



However, they also did construction work, building a small warehouse and repairing a wharf  jobs that were not included in their contract or mentioned in the job ad. Henneberry said it was his first time using the temporary foreign worker program, and he didn't know the men weren't allowed to do work outside their contract.



Alcazar's problems intensified when, in August, he had emergency gallbladder surgery in Halifax and was told he couldn't work for six weeks and couldn't lift over 10 pounds.



"I was worried because what happen with me?" Alcazar said. "If I don't work, I don't have money, right?"



Alcazar said he was sending $900 of his biweekly paycheques of $965 home to his wife and three kids in Chile, and living off the remainder was already difficult. Alcazar said after he went to Service Canada to explain his situation and apply for sick benefits, Henneberry fired him, but later retracted the firing.



Henneberry denies he fired Alcazar, saying there was no work available that didn't require heavy lifting, and that he couldn't allow Alcazar to work during his six-week convalescence.



"If he would have start working and if he would've tore his stitches out or something like that, guess who would've been in trouble?" Henneberry said.



Alcazar and the other two men, who quit, returned to Chile on Sept. 9 at Henneberry's expense.



"In the end, it was pure lies," said Godoy. "Lies about money, about work  lies."



Henneberry said he "bent over backwards" for the men, buying and insuring a car for them to use, paying for clothes, raingear and boots and lending them money. He said the men went back to Chile with one of his employee's cellphones and left behind a stack of credit card bills.



"If anyone got taken advantage of, I got taken advantage of," he said. "We done everything we could for them."



Service Canada investigation

The men said Service Canada, the federal agency that conducts inspections for the temporary foreign worker program, has told them repeatedly that staff are investigating the case, and an inspector showed up at their worksite on a day they were doing construction  clearly a violation of their contract.



Henneberry said Service Canada did speak with him shortly before the men left for Chile, and he was instructed to strictly enforce the contract, meaning he had to start charging them $80 a week for lodging and reduce their pay from $15 per hour to the stated amount of $14.



But six months after the workers' return to Chile, they haven't heard any news about the investigation and have lost hope that it will bear fruit.



A spokesperson for Service Canada told the CBC it cannot confirm whether an investigation has occurred or is ongoing. Amos and Andy Fisheries has not previously been found to be non-compliant with the temporary foreign worker program, the agency said.



A spokesperson for the provincial Labour Standards Division said the unit can't confirm whether it has started an investigation.



'Very little workers can do'

People who work in the immigration sector say stories such as these are not uncommon. Immigration lawyer Elizabeth Wozniak said sometimes "everybody feels like they got the short end of the stick."



"The employer feels like they've bent over backwards to fill in all the paperwork and do everything perfectly and treat this person fairly. The worker often feels like they didn't realize how high taxes were or what deductions were," she said. "It's almost like if everyone feels a little bit put out, that's probably the best we can aspire to."



Temporary foreign workers are vulnerable because they need the money from their job to support themselves, send to their families back home or pay back recruiters, said immigration lawyer Lee Cohen. They also often hope the work will lead to permanent resident status and enable their families to move to Canada.



"Many employees are prepared to tough it out despite a tyrannical working situation," Cohen said.



Improvements to program needed

Cohen said he'd like to see Service Canada hire more compliance officers to monitor workplaces and more severe penalties for employers who don't play by the rules.



Employers that violate the terms of the program can be fined up to $100,000 per violation, up to a maximum of $1 million each year. They can also be banned from using the program.



Muriel Jansen, the co-ordinator of the temporary foreign workers support program at the Immigration Services Association of Nova Scotia, said employees need more education about their rights.



Henneberry agreed that more education about the program for both workers and employers could help avoid misunderstandings.



Closed work permits  which prevent many temporary foreign workers from easily switching employers  are one of the major factors in abuse of temporary foreign workers, Jansen said.



"That employee is almost indentured to that particular employer because of that closed work permit," Jansen said.



That word  indentured  evokes slavery, and Godoy said that is sometimes how they felt and were perceived.



He recalled one day when they were unloading a boat and a man came to buy fish.



"He said in English, because he thought we didn't speak English ... he said loudly, 'Here are Andy's slaves.'  So we felt we were slaves of Mr. Andy."



Role of recruiters

It's unclear how the recruiters in the case of the Chilean workers affected their experience, but Cohen said not all recruiters are legitimate.



"Some recruiters are professional and official, and other recruiters are just people who are charlatans and who overcharge for the service they provide and may or may not be familiar with the jobs for which they're recruiting people," he said.



Even Wozniak, an expert in immigration, ran into an unscrupulous recruiter when she was hiring a nanny several years ago. Although she repeatedly instructed the agency not to pass any fees along to the nanny, the nanny confessed a year after her arrival that she had to pay the recruiter $2,000.



"So if that's happening right under my nose, for sure it's happening under other people's," she said.



Henneberry used a local immigration services company that worked with another agency in Chile. He said it's possible the Chilean agency misled the men about their terms of employment.



"I think they were just looking to get them out of here, get my money, and what the hell," Henneberry said of the Chilean agency.



Paul Villeneuve is the president of NewTown Immigration Inc., the company Henneberry used to navigate the temporary foreign worker process. Villeneuve said no one with his company gave the men incorrect information about the job, but the Chilean agency they used to help with recruitment could have done so. NewTown is on the province's list of licensed recruiters.



Program a needed tool



Despite what some say are the shortcomings of the temporary foreign worker program, Villeneuve said it is usually a success for both employee and boss.



"It's good for the workers who come, it's good for the Canadian businesses who employ them," he said. "Workers often end up as permanent residents and they fulfil their dreams of living in Canada."



Henneberry said the program is necessary, too.



"I need workers. There's nobody around here to work," he said. "We cannot find enough labour workers in this country."



 - Chronic labour shortage hobbling Meteghan lobster plant

- Nova Scotia seafood plant to benefit from eased foreign worker rules



That's a common refrain in the seafood industry as many employers turn to the program for help finding workers  so much so that in 2017, the federal auditor general investigated the use of temporary foreign workers in the sector.

Theme(s): Landing Centres, Others, Post Harvest Technology and Trade, Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods, Freshwater ecosystems and threats, Fisheries Resources, Communities and Organisations, Fisheries Development and Aquaculture, Coastal Ecosystems and Threats.
Today, on International Womens Day the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls for necessary and substantial improvement of womens representation in the media and the unions that represent them at work.

If we want to improve quality journalism, then the media must also accurately reflect society in its ranks. It is only when we have genuine equality inside our media operations and institutions that this can truly be achieved, said IFJ.

The #IFJ WomenLead campaign is part of the IFJ Asia Pacifics ongoing work to focus on the vital role that unions have in representing women journalists rights at work. Releasing figures today on womens representation in media unions, the IFJ said that women journalists currently represent 31% of all members in journalist unions and media associations in the Asia-Pacific, yet they occupied just 24% of positions on executive committees. More work is needed and changes are happening in unions that are active and committed to a gender equality agenda.

The IFJ said despite digital disruption and massive media job losses, membership in journalist unions continues to grow in the Asia-Pacific. Womens membership also continues to grow, increasing by 20% since 2015 - compared to an overall growth in union membership of 7%.

These are the wins the IFJ is celebrating today on International Womens Day.

Of its members, 37% of IFJ affiliates have already introduced gender quotas for executive bodies, and more than 40% of IFJ affiliates have established gender policies in place:

In Japan , Shinburoren is introducing a gender quota  with a minimum 10 women on executive committee  to be introduced in next 12 months

, Shinburoren is introducing a gender quota  with a minimum 10 women on executive committee  to be introduced in next 12 months In Nepal, the Nepal Press Union is increasing its gender quota to 30% and the Federation of Nepali Journalists increased its executive, with one female vice president.

the Nepal Press Union is increasing its gender quota to 30% and the Federation of Nepali Journalists increased its executive, with one female vice president. In Taiwan , while it has no quota system, the Association of Taiwan Journalists has more than 50% of its executive represented by women journalists

, while it has no quota system, the Association of Taiwan Journalists has more than 50% of its executive represented by women journalists In Myanmar , the Myanmar Journalist Association has a minimum 30% gender quota on its executive

, the Myanmar Journalist Association has a minimum 30% gender quota on its executive In Afghanistan, the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association has a 30% quota in executive positions and at least five of its provincial branch leaders are women.

IFJ President Philippe Leruth said: Ahead of UN Beijing + 25 we must make a difference and call on media and unions to do everything they can to advance women in the media. The future of journalism cannot be addressed without looking into our daily routines and leadership habits towards women. Lets make a change and look into our own structures, as unions, to make sure women are fairly represented at all levels and that we adopt strong policies securing gender equality. Ahead of our world congress in Tunis this June, I call on all our affiliates to send gender balanced delegations and support women being elected in our board.

See the latest from the IFJ here and here.

Share your stories and activities from IWD with the IFJ (alex.hearne[at]ifj-asia.org
Inday Espina-Varona: "A younger generation of women journalists are more conscious of their rights as workers"

Inday is the Convenor, Lets Organize for Democracy and Integrity arts and media alliance. She is the former chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.

What are the consequences of this lack of women in managing positions in media?

In the Philippines, women mostly rule the newsrooms across all platforms of legacy and new media. But males dominate as owners and shareholders of many legacy media firms. Many still hew to orthodox paradigms of employer-employee relations that apply in other industries, models that have made it a slog for women workers to win support systems in the work place.

Because many owners have business and political interests to protect, these sometimes result to tensions between news desks and owners.

As a woman who reached a leadership position, have you faced any obstacle because of your gender? If yes, which ones?

I remember my first day as a young desk editor in a national daily barely two years after the restoration of democracy.

The first words a senior editor told me was, the last time I saw you, you were still in panties. (He was a colleague of my father.)

I didnt personally face any serious obstacle but we had to work more hours, and show more toughness and dedication, to get ahead as the pre-martial male journalists returned to the newsrooms.

This toughness was expressed in the old macho notions that we felt a need to imitate  sexist language included to a certain extent. We were faced with all these macho elders and thought for some time that to get ahead we had out-macho them.

So we were most likely exploited, paid less for double the work that others did. And we were suckers for heavy workload because we wanted to prove ourselves.

I spent some years actually buying into the no cry babies culture until the need to struggle for rights took root. It also took some years for us to earn the confidence to infuse gender sensitivity into news gathering and production.

How can we solve this situation? Considering your personal experience, what would you suggest to reach gender equality in media?

My wake-up moment involved a conversation with a proofreader who told me: You work hard but you go home to a place where others take care of you and your children. We go home and still have to take care of the world.

So, yes, there was a class thing going on with all the feminist awakening and I wasnt very aware my slip was showing. Maybe because we were focused on winning back press freedom and keeping threats at bay. Achievements then were premised on individual output and sometimes there were blinders in terms of the economic and work burdens that colleagues faced.

Which is why I am very happy to see a revival of union work and women taking a greater role in campaigning and winning battles  including for security of tenure.

A younger generation of women journalists are more conscious of their rights as workers and more assertive in challenging employers over rights and welfare.

This is of equal importance as the fight for press freedom. It leads to better productivity and work, not to mention professional integrity; still a lot of work convincing owners of media companies, especially those publicly listed, to recognise this. In the smaller news outfits, there is better appreciation of the needs of women workers.

What are you doing at the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines for women?

Im no longer in the board of the NUJP but through the years it has played an important role in helping women workers in media combat sexism in the industry and the beats we cover.

The NUJP has also stepped up its work with unions and helped organisations campaigning for better economic rights to wage battles on various fronts.

The NUJP has had women in leadership positions. Two of us have served as chairpersons; women have served as secretary-generals, as safety officers, and there is gender parity in the NUJP board.

What could be the role of men journalists and media leaders in this process?

Men in journalism should be open to the reality of discrimination and sexism, whether overt or subtle, acknowledge these and join campaigns to have clear standards and instruments of redress.

In the era of Duterte, where misogyny is part of top governance and unleashed in attacks against critical media, our colleagues in the NUJP and other media organisations stand with us.

But we need more men to speak out against this. Some media executives and owners, some anchors with cosy relations to this regime are often complicit in downplaying the extent of the abuse and even add to it.
Julianne Moore has claimed she was fired by the original director of Can You Every Forgive Me? because the director in question did not like her work.

The actor spoke about the experience on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, while answering a viewers question.

Moore was originally supposed to play the main character in the movie, literary forger Lee Israel, while co-writer Nicole Holofcener was meant to direct the film.

In the end, Israels role went to Melissa McCarthy and filmmaker Marielle Heller took over the project.

Moore detailed her account of what happened when the initial movie fell apart on Cohens set after a viewer asked her why she had decided to leave the movie.

Best films of 2019 (so far) Show all 49 1 /49 Best films of 2019 (so far) Best films of 2019 (so far) The Favourite Macabre and fraught though The Favourite gets, this isnt so much a film about sex or power as it is about plain mischief. Its a hilarious, buffoonish pleasure, right down to the sets and costume design, and a breeze to spend 120 minutes with. Christopher Hooton Fox Searchlight Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Beautiful Boy Casting Chalamet as Nic was a very clever move. The young actor from Call Me by Your Name and Lady Bird has a natural charm and charisma. He still engages an audiences curiosity and sympathy even when his behaviour is at its most selfish and erratic. Geoffrey Macnab Amazon Studios Best films of 2019 (so far) The House by the Sea Guediguians storytelling style is deceptive. At first, it seems as if this is low-key social realism in the Dardennes or Ken Loach mould, albeit set on the French Riviera. Gradually, though, we realise how stylised and theatrical his approach really is. Geoffrey Macnab Best films of 2019 (so far) Stan & Ollie Director Jon S Baird, whose previous film was scabrous Irvine Welsh adaptation Filth, wrings every last drop of pathos he can from his material. This is very much a case of the tears of the clowns. Geoffrey Macnab Entertainment One Best films of 2019 (so far) Vice Vice is bravura storytelling. McKay isnt only taking us through Cheneys life and career but is giving us a whistle stop tour through US politics from the Nixon administration almost right to the present day. Geoffrey Macnab Annapurna Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Can You Ever Forgive Me? Playing Lee Israel, McCarthy manages something very special: she makes a character who is odd, obnoxious, difficult and alcoholic seem lovable and even heroic. The rest of the world is at fault, not Lee. Geoffrey Macnab Fox Searchlight Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Green Book "Green Book flatters the audience about its own good sense and tolerance. It deals with racism and homophobia but still has a fairytale, fantasy feel to it. Whatever humiliations Don endures on their road trip, we know no real harm will ever come to him as long as Tony is at his side. Geoffrey Macnab Universal Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Velvet Buzzsaw The golden age of bonkers horror movies is gloriously evoked by Netflixs latest feature length presentation. Beginning as a satire of the arts world, Velvet Buzzsaw swiftly and gleefully descends into a savage splatter-fest, smeared in paint, viscera and garishly-bright blood. Ed Power Netflix Best films of 2019 (so far) If Beale Street Could Talk The setting is New York in the 1970s. Anyone who has watched Martin Scorseses Taxi Driver knows this was an era of violence, corruption and sleaze on a monumental level, but [Barry] Jenkins somehow makes the city seem like a modern-day Eden. Geoffrey Macnab Annapurna Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) All Is True Written by Ben Elton and directed by its star Kenneth Branagh, the film plays so fast and loose with the playwrights final years that they neednt have bothered fitting Branagh with a prosthetic nose  accuracy is clearly not the priority here. Alexandra Pollard Sony Pictures Classics Best films of 2019 (so far) The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part "The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is the doomed progeny of a celebrated genius  brilliant but slightly stunted by the knowledge they will never live up to their predecessor. Clarisse Loughrey Warner Bros. Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Piercing Nicolas Pesces sleek and stylish horror comedy is repulsive and funny by turns. In adapting Ryu Murakamis cult novel, Pesce strikes just the right balance between humour and Grand Guignol-style shock tactics. Geoffrey Macnab Universal Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Capernaum "The best moments here are remarkable. Labaki elicits an astonishing performance from her young lead. Hes an irrepressible figure with such an inbuilt sense of moral decency the film seems upbeat and optimistic, even at its darkest moments. Geoffrey Macnab Sony Pictures Classics Best films of 2019 (so far) The White Crow "Ralph Fiennes combines thriller elements with poetic flashbacks to ballet legend Rudolf Nureyevs childhood and keeps a tight focus on the dancer. When he is most at risk, Nureyev makes decisions with his artistic future more in mind than his personal safety. As Fiennes reminds us again and again in what is his best film yet as a director, the 'white crow' will do anything to put himself in the limelight, the one place he is convinced he belongs." StudioCanal Best films of 2019 (so far) Border "Border reverses the perspective taken by most other horror films. In more conventional genre fare, Tina and Vore would be portrayed as malevolent outsiders, but in the world conjured up by director Ali Abbasi, the humans are the monsters. Tina is the innocent  a visionary who hardly understands her own powers but who can sense human venality and corruption wherever it appears." TriArt Film Best films of 2019 (so far) Fighting with My Family "Certain scenes feel very trite and predictable but the film gets you in a choke hold early on and wont let you go. It is far more gripping than its subject matter might suggest. Who ever would believe a story about a wrestling family from Norwich could have quite such heart and resonance?" James Field Best films of 2019 (so far) Us "Doppelgangers abound in Jordan Peeles weird, creepy and ingenious new horror film. As in his Oscar-winning 2017 feature Get Out, Peele leavens matters with ironic humour but the joking becomes increasingly uncomfortable once the main characters come face to face with dark shadows of themselves which wish them extreme harm." AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Avengers: Endgame "The Avengers cycle comes to a rich and very satisfying conclusion with Endgame, surely the most complex and emotional superhero movie in Marvel history. At 181 minutes, this is a veritable epic, but with so many characters and plot strands, it fully warrants its lengthy running time." AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Eighth Grade "Its a rare and precious feeling when a film completely dismantles you. Eighth Grade  the directorial debut of US comedian Bo Burnham  breaks down every delusion we have about ourselves and burrows deep into those parts weve made such an effort to lock away. You may cry. You may shudder as every awkward social interaction thats kept you up at night replays in your head all at once. You may feel the sharp pain associated with those moments when you feel completely isolated from the world. Burnham may have crafted a simple story about the most ordinary of teenage girls, but it speaks with the emotions of a true cinematic epic." A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) Vox Lux "Natalie Portman gives her fiercest, most memorable performance since Black Swan in Brady Corbets enjoyably subversive satire about a troubled pop star whose loss of innocence mirrors the fall from grace of the US itself. Portmans character, Celeste, is certainly one of the most objectionable figures she has played: a pampered, hard-drinking drug-taking floozy whose appearance and high-handed behaviour rekindle memories of Liz Taylor and Joan Crawford at their monstrous worst." Neon Best films of 2019 (so far) High Life Robert Pattinson gives one of his most striking performances as Monte, the death-row criminal in outer space, tricked into making a voyage described at one stage as a class-one suicide ride. The former Twilight star makes his shaven-headed, gaunt-faced character seem hyper naturally sensitive and feral at the same time. A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) Amazing Grace Amazing Grace is as uplifting a film as you will see all year. Its a concert movie filmed over two nights and featuring Aretha Franklin, the first lady of soul, performing gospel standards in a church in Los Angeles in 1972, with a huge backing choir and an enthusiastic congregation. Neon Best films of 2019 (so far) Aladdin Disneys live-action remake of its 1992 animated feature is a rip-roaring, old-fashioned matinee-style spectacle that turns out far better than we had any right to expect. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Booksmart Olivia Wilde is a visually inventive director, who keeps the tempo here so brisk that we hardly notice how glib the storytelling sometimes becomes. We can tell exactly how the film will end, but it still feels original both in its screwball energy and in the deft way it continually reverses stereotypes and gender cliches. Geoffrey Macnab Annapurna Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Late Night Late Night is a caustic satirical comedy that turns into an unlikely tearjerker. Its by turns snide and uplifting, and often very funny too. Its writer/producer/star Mindy Kaling makes vicious observations about the inanity, narcissism and corruption of the mainstream US media at the same time as she celebrates the professionalism of many of those who work within it. The film has a glorious performance from Emma Thompson and a very sly one from Kaling. Thompson is at her most imperious as Katherine Newbury, a legendary entertainer, the only female in a male-dominated field, but one whose career is beginning to slide. Geoffrey Macnab Amazon Studios Best films of 2019 (so far) Gloria Bell Gloria Bell is somewhat exhausting  both unbearably intimate and at a constant remove  but it is endlessly pulled back into focus by Moore, who has a firm understanding of the delicate balance between contentment and yearning, joy and pain, recklessness and spontaneity. In a remake that could have felt indulgent in the hands of people less skilled, she more than justifies its existence. Geoffrey Macnab Curzon Best films of 2019 (so far) Toy Story 4 "The brilliance of the new film lies in the surefooted way it caters both for children too young to have seen its predecessors and for adults whove grown up (or grown older) watching the previous instalments. It takes some kind of genius for the Pixar animators to give such a searing emotional charge to a story in which one of the main characters is a single use plastic spork retrieved from the trash." Pixar/Disney Best films of 2019 (so far) In Fabric In Fabric feels like Peter Strickland at his most free and playful, drawing as much from the British sense of humour  dry and morbid to a fault  as from Italian glamour. Curzon Artificial Eye Best films of 2019 (so far) The Flood "Perhaps The Flood isnt quite the urgent, profound film a crisis of this scale deserves, but in a culture where refugees are so rarely shown any empathy in mainstream media, maybe this is the film we need right now." Best films of 2019 (so far) Midsommar "Ari Aster's follow-up to Hereditary serves up much of the same: its a break-up movie wrapped up in pagan horror. Its also bound to be one of this years most memorable films, proving that Aster is far from a one-hit wonder." A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) The Lion King "The Lion King is undoubtedly a technological marvel that, much like Avatar, will come to be viewed as a milestone in special effects history, yet its just as interesting to see how all this innovation has been employed." AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Varda by Agnes "For a film thats almost entirely narrated by Agnes Varda's own voice, it doesnt feel driven by ego, but by pure intellectual and emotional curiosity." Best films of 2019 (so far) Animals "Animals treats its subjects with patience and generosity. Youll find no life lessons here. Its main characters are free to pursue their desires, to whatever end." Best films of 2019 (so far) Blinded by the Light "Blinded by the Light offers not only a reminder of Springsteens lyrical genius, but of how hes always served as a beacon for the disenfranchised." Warner Brothers Best films of 2019 (so far) Good Boys Lined up against some of this years other more heartfelt offerings, including Booksmart, Good Boys offers further proof that putting a little humanity in our comedy always gets the best results. Best films of 2019 (so far) Hustlers "Hustlers is an electrifying response to the deluge of stories weve had over the years about very rich, very bad dudes. Finally, we can turn the tables on every film thats used women, specifically strippers, as decorative accessories to drape over businessmen as they conduct their illicit backroom meetings. Or, failing that, to shake their out-of-focus tits in the background of a shot." AP Best films of 2019 (so far) For Sama For Sama is one of the most profoundly intimate depictions of the Syrian conflict ever put to film. Its the push to help those on the outside process something so incomprehensible in the depth of its horrors. Republic Film Distribution Best films of 2019 (so far) Ad Astra The real drama here is not whether or not apocalypse can be avoided but whether Brad Pitts character can reconcile himself with his father and overcome his own extreme emotional repression. In other words, in spite of all the jargon and the hardware, this is an intimate family melodrama at heart. Thanks to Pitts performance and Grays delicate direction, it turns into a very moving one. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) The Farewell Wrapped up in all the intricacies of immigrant identity and family politics, The Farewell is a comedy of warmth and bracing honesty. Simply put, its one of the best films of the year. A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) Judy This is Renee Zellwegers Judy. It doesnt belong to Rupert Goold, its director. Nor does it belong to Tom Edge, its screenwriter. Its a performance of such overwhelming force that it wrests authorship from every other hand that guided the films creation. Pathe Best films of 2019 (so far) Ready or Not As absurd and self-indulgent as Ready or Not can get, it doesnt mess around with its social commentary. The class system is the game we never asked to play, dont get a fair chance at, and have no hope of winning. Its a timeless metaphor. 20th Century Fox Best films of 2019 (so far) A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon Despite its mouthful of a title, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon is an utter delight  proof that good storytelling and strong craft are what matters, however familiar the packaging. Studio Canal Best films of 2019 (so far) The Beach Bum Clearly, Harmony Korine is steered by his attraction to the theatrical, the absurd and the grimly nihilistic. The Beach Bum is all of that and absolutely none of it, too  a leisurely, neon-soaked stroll through chaos and hazy bohemia, full of slapstick and pathos. It is as much Korines most mature film as it is his most juvenile. Neon/Vice Best films of 2019 (so far) The Last Black Man in San Francisco Its a beautiful, frightening and tragic vignette of the urban nightmare, though The Last Black Man in San Francisco isnt really an angry film. Its less of a rallying cry against gentrification than a rumination on the kind of pained acceptance those who suffer its effects must face. A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) The Irishman Scorseses signature camerawork goes down like a glass of fine whisky, as smooth and as elegant as youd expect. The violence arrives in short, sharp shocks. Steven Zaillians screenplay even nails the mobster patter, with arguments about fish, tardiness, and business shorts that feel destined to one day be quoted to death. Netflix Best films of 2019 (so far) Le Mans '66 The films greatest trick is saved for its final reel. For much of its running time, youd be easily fooled into thinking Mangold had made a grand ode to the American dream. Its a film about an immigrant worker who, through perseverance and toil, gains the respect of one of the richest men in the country. And then the rug is pulled right out from underneath you. Le Mans 66 may relish in the high life, but its final moments feel devastatingly hollow. AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Marriage Story The film never loses its sense of humour and absurdity. Somehow, in spite of the bleakness of the subject matter, it feels more redemptive than despairing. Best films of 2019 (so far) The Report Adam Driver plays Jones, Annette Bening Senator Feinstein, and director Scott Z Burns captures the events in a cold, rigorously factual, and largely dispassionate manner. But thats the point. The Report chooses to value the truth over bombastic displays of morality. AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Knives Out Casting an ensemble film is a little like perfecting a cocktail blend, balancing flavours until they sing together in harmony. Knives Out hits the mark here: the actors all feel well-suited to their roles and they bounce off each other with ease. Lionsgate

I didnt leave that movie. I was fired, Moore said.

Pressed by Cohen, she added: Yeah, yeah. Nicole fired me. I think she didnt like what I was doing.

Moore said the split happened in pre-production, after she had started rehearsing.

I think that [Holofceners] idea of what the character was was different than what my idea of the character was, and so she fired me, Moore said.

She added that she hasnt watched the film yet because its still kind of painful but that she loves and worships McCarthy and is certain shes great.

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Can You Ever Forgive Me? eventually earned McCarthy an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Richard E Grant was nominated in the Best Supported Actor category, and Holofcener was one of two people nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, along with Jeff Whitty.

The Independent has contacted Holofceners production company for comment.
Rapper TI has issued a controversial defence of Michael Jackson after Piers Morgan shared an interview with the late pop star, where he said he would "slit his wrists" before hurting a child.

Posting on Instagram, TI called Morgan "a real one" for sharing the clip and commented: "Let this man speak for himself to defend his legacy. Don't just listen to one side and expect to find truth. Oh that's right... Dead men can't speak."

He continued: "So what was the point again? Destroy another strong black historical LEGEND?!?! It's several examples of pedophilia in American history... if y'all pulling up our old s**t... we gotta examine ELVIS PRESLEY, HUGH HEPHNER [sic] and a whole slew of others guilty of the same if not more!!! But why us all the time? There's an agenda to destroy OUR CULTURE."

Leaving Neverland  photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Show all 9 1 /9 Leaving Neverland  photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Leaving Neverland  photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Michael Jackson with accuser Wade Robson Sundance Insitute Leaving Neverland  photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Accuser Wade Robson meeting Michael Jackson for the first time Channel 4 Leaving Neverland  photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Michael Jackson with the Robson family Channel 4 Leaving Neverland  photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Michael Jackson at the home of accuser James Safechuck Channel 4 Leaving Neverland  photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Dan Reed approached the Michael Jackson documentary with 'all the scepticism and rigorousness that I would approach a story about a terrorist attack' Channel 4 Leaving Neverland  photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Michael Jackson leaves the courtroom on a break at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse for the second day of closing arguments in his child molestation trial in Santa Maria, California, 2005 AFP/Getty Leaving Neverland  photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Michael Jackson accuser Wade Robson Channel 4 Leaving Neverland  photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers James Safechuck, another of Jackson's accusers Channel 4 Leaving Neverland  photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed Channel 4

TI's post comes amid the release of the harrowing Leaving Neverland documentary, which has reignited the conversation around Jackson's alleged child sexual abuse thanks to its interviews with Wade Robson and James Safechuck  both of whom claim Jackson raped and sexually abused them as children for several years.

Jackson's estate has denied the claims against him and branded Safechuck and Robson as "liars" and "opportunists".

Former child star Corey Feldman recently backtracked on comments where he defended Jackson, and now says he can "no longer" defend him.

"It comes to a point where as an advocate for victims, as an advocate for changing the statutes of limitations to make sure that victims' voices are heard, it becomes impossible for me to remain virtuous and not at least consider what's being said and not listen to what the victims are saying  this is very important."

Feldman asserted that "absolutely nothing inappropriate" happened between himself and Jackson.
It is now 18 months since the plight of the Rohingya hit the headlines, when the mass exodus of people from Myanmar peaked following an escalation in violence.

Since August 2017, more than 706,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled for safety across the border into Bangladesh. Many had seen family members killed, have been shot, suffered burns or are survivors of sexual violence.

The majority of people arrived in the refugee camps in Coxs Bazar with nothing, and the trauma of their experiences has had a huge impact on their mental health.

This International Womens Day some of the UKs leading international charities, working in the camps of Coxs Bazar, are putting a spotlight on the situation faced by Rohingya women and girls.

The real and hidden crisis, during and in the aftermath of any conflict, displacement or natural disaster, is that women and girls are disproportionately exposed to sexual violence, increased loss of livelihoods and even their lives. After fleeing violence and discrimination in Myanmar these women and girls are now struggling to cope with the loss and trauma they have experienced, to stay safe in the camps and for basic survival.

Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Show all 18 1 /18 Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Sultana Begum Sultana Begum*, 30, saw her husband die in front of her. She was also shot AJ Ghani/British Red Cross Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Zaheda* with her daughter Arofa* It took and her family 18 days to walk from her village to the border with Myanmar. We went across the mountains and it was a rough journey because I was three months pregnant. In the refugee camp when it was time for the baby to be born I went into labour. I tried to give birth in my shelter but I could not. My son died soon after he was born. The doctors said it was the stress of the journey. Zaheda worries about the safety of her daughters Gulsar*, 20, and Abeda*, 18, as there are reports of trafficking in the camps, so she accompanies them everywhere, even to the toilet Abbie Trayler-Smith/Oxfam Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Arofa* and her best friend Rashida* Arofa*, six years old, one of Zahedas younger daughters, and her best friend Rashida* share a moment in the refugee camp. Arofa lives with her eight siblings, mother, father and grandmother Nur Begum, in a three-roomed shelter made of tarpaulin and bamboo Abbie Trayler-Smith/Oxfam Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Ummee* is a 16-year old girl who arrived in Bangladesh with her brother, orphaned Ummee Salma*, 16: Me and my older brother came here four months ago. My parents are either killed or lost. When violence broke out we were separated. I heard them screaming our names but we couldnt find each other. That was the last time I saw them. If my parents were alive they would have come and found us in Bangladesh Josh Estey/Care International Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Almost 1 million people, mainly women and children, are now living in the sprawling refugee camps in Coxs Bazar, making it now the largest refugee camp in the world Abbie Trayler-Smith/Oxfam Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Rohana Begum If the people of Save the Children hadnt helped me when I was unconscious I would have died, says Rohana*. Rohana Begum* was alone in her shelter made of wood and plastic sheeting when she went into labour with Khotija*, now two and a half months. After delivering the baby on her own Rohana* began to lose a lot of blood. She lay unconscious and haemorrhaging until her mother-in law returned a few hours later. Save the Children estimates that 48,000 babies were born in the camps around Coxs Bazar in 2018 Allison Joyce/Save the Children Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Women in the camps face many issues; in addition to the extreme sexual and physical violence they experienced as they fled, they are still vulnerable in the camps. Many are alone, or just with their children, and overcrowding and limited privacy means that they are at further risk of violence, sexual abuse, child abuse, human trafficking and exploitation Saikat Mojumder /Plan International Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Marjina*, 25, with her 2 month old daughter Asma, in their tent in Balukhali refugee camp I was eight months pregnant when they came. It was just before dawn and we were sleeping. We heard gunshots and looked outside to work out what was happening. When we saw the house was on fire we had to pick up the children and run. As we ran through the forest they shot at us. Conditions in the camp are not good. I dont have nutritious food to give the children. My son keeps crying that he is hungry and asking me for food. I feel bad because I cant provide for them. I worry that Im not able to care for my baby properly. Farzana Hossen/Surya Photos/Oxfam Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Sajeda Begum*, 35 (on the left), is married with five children She has become firm friends with Sobika* (right) since meeting her at the ActionAid women-friendly space where they have been encouraged to talk. I have suffered so much torture and so many struggles over the last one year. When I sleep I can still see everything. They gathered all the male heads of the family together and tortured them. They uncovered our bodies and ripped our scarves, which is a big violation. They tortured the women and the small children too. They even beat pregnant women. The memory is still too clear for me. Too clear. The first time I came here and saw the other women talking I was surprised. But I was encouraged to tell my stories of where I have come from. I feel that life is more enjoyable now I am here. Stephanie Ross/ActionAid Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis A girl sells vegetables in Kutupalong refugee camp. There are currently 6,000 unaccompanied children living in Coxs Bazar, where they face crippling food shortages and are at risk of exploitation and abuse. Whilst looking for work women and girls are falling victim to exploitation and are being trafficked into the sex trade Christian Aid Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Isamatara, 15 Isamatara takes part in a session run by Plan International in Balukhali camp, Coxs Bazar, for teenage girls to talk about what its like to have their periods in a place like this. Girls are usually married within two to three years after they start menstruating, between the ages of 12 to 16 Plan International Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Rojia*, 25, with her youngest son Sultan*, 2 Rojias husband went missing in Myanmar. She thinks he was picked up by the military. He went out for a walk after lunch and never returned. Single mothers whose husbands are missing or dead head up 1 in 6 families in the Rohingya camps. They face particular problems, having to take on public roles that challenge cultural and religious assumptions about womens place in society. Oxfam has collaborated with women refugees to design improved toilets and washrooms that afford more privacy, and is calling for more to be done to support these vulnerable women such as help collecting aid packages and more community dialogue about men and womens traditional roles Abbie-Trayler Smith/Oxfam Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Fatima Fatimas* husband was killed in the attacks and shortly after their house was burnt. Since Fatima is head of the household, she has to do most of the work. From one of the nearby water pumps in the camp she usually fetches water in the evenings. Care provides her with safe drinking water and washing facilities, critical for the 22,000 people in her camp. No aid in the world can give me back my husband Josh Estey/Care International Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Fatima Look at my feet. I had lost my toe nails as we were climbing. It was so hard to climb over the mountains and we had to carry our old mother because she cant walk, says Fatima* Josh Estey/Care International Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Dr Fatema Akter Dr Fatema Akter, 42, one of ActionAids team in Coxs Bazar, says that when the crisis started she saw 80 people a day. At the beginning, most of the women came with reproductive problems because they had to walk a long time when they were crossing the border. Sometimes they were a few weeks pregnant, but when walking on this journey they were bleeding and it turned out they miscarried. There are also many rape cases. I try to understand my patients when I see them. A common problem is women being beaten by their husbands in the camp. And another problem is women being left by their husbands. To focus myself and try to hold back my tears, sometimes I try to remember my favourite films, or think about fun moments with my friends 'When they tell us what theyre going through, we try to provide them with support.' Noor Alam/ActionAid Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Dildar Begum Dildar Begum, 25, lost her husband as she fled to save herself and her childrens lives. After reaching Jamtoli camp she was reunited with her husband and they started living happily together. But soon he started abusing her physically and emotionally. She then discovered he had a new wife, occasionally he returned to torture her further, but now he doesnt come at all. She is pregnant again, a single mother of six children, and delivered her last baby all alone in the camp. Its very difficult to explain the struggle Ive faced in Myanmar and throughout my journey towards Bangladesh. I was five months pregnant and alone with my five children. Dildar now attends a Women and Child Friendly Space run by Gana Unnayan Kendra, a partner organisation of Christian Aid. Here women come together, share their stories, sew clothes to sell and wear, and get psychosocial support Faysal Ahamed/Christian Aid Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Rahima When I lost my two children, I wanted to climb into the hole with them and lay there. Though Im sad, its very important to tell our terrible story to the whole world. One of my children was killed crossing the border, she was 11. My other child was only seven. When we crossed it was very cold and raining, we didnt have enough food so my child got sick and was taken by disease. Rahima lost her husband and two other children before she fled Myanmar. Despite her unimaginable loss, she remains determined to help others now she is here. Rahima is just one of thousands of people that the Red Cross has trained in hygiene promotion. 'I want to protect other peoples children so they dont fall to disease. I have one child now and I will try my best to protect her and the communitys children.' AJ Ghani/British Red Cross Life for Rohingya women: the real and hidden crisis Minara, 20, with baby Shomima Shomima was seven days old when the photo was taken. One day, if its safe, of course we want to go home. I miss my home, my family. I miss my cows and my normal life. But at least this is safer, she says. In October 2018, a proposed repatriation deal was made between the Bangladesh and Myanmar governments. The deal was made against the wishes of many Rohingya, some of whom spoke of being terrified at being sent back. As a result of mounting concern amongst NGOs, human rights groups and the UNHCR, repatriation did not take place at this time. For now the Rohingya remain in limbo just across the border from Myanmar, and for women and girls in the camps of Coxs Bazar life remains precarious (*Names have been changed throughout gallery to protect identity) AJ Ghani/British Red Cross

Reports of violence in the camps are common; from August 2017 to August 2018 over 10,000 incidents of gender-based violence were reported.

Every day, around the world, 507 women and adolescent girls die from pregnancy and childbirth complications in emergency settings. Maternal and infant health in the camps around Coxs Bazar is an ongoing concern.

The Disasters Emergency Committee and its member charities, which together raised 30m for the crisis, are supporting women and girls in the camps by providing safe spaces for trauma counselling and providing clean water, hygiene and healthcare.

For more information and details on how you can support these women and girls this International Womens Day visit dec.org.uk.

*Names have been changed to protect identity
Amazon has confirmed rumours that their upcoming Lord Of The Rings series will take place before the events of Peter Jacksons trilogy.

The streaming services adaptation of JRR Tolkiens work will be set during the fictional Second Age. Jacksons trilogy took place during the Third Age.

The official Lord Of The Rings Twitter account revealed the news alongside a map of Middle-earth.

The Second Age covers a time period of 3,441 years. During this time, Sauron forged the Ring Of Power, with the Second Age coming to an end following his defeat at the hands of the King of Gonder, Isildur, who was seen in Jacksons trilogy.

The critically acclaimed films  consisting of The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return Of The King (2003)  focus on the heroes attempts to destroy the Ring Of Power and its creator.

47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Show all 47 1 /47 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination American Psycho (2000) Starring future Oscar-winner Christian Bale, Mary Harrons adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel  in which the Vice star plays the psychopathic Patrick Bateman - didnt receive a single nomination. Rex Features 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Before Sunrise (1995) While the final two chapters of Richard Linklaters Before trilogy earned screenplay nominations, the film that introduced the world to future married couple Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) was criminally overlooked. Columbia Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Big Heat (1953) Fritz Lang had a number of films overlooked by the Academy; this noir, starring Glenn Ford, Lee Marvin and and Gloria Grahame, was one of them. Columbia Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Big Lebowski (1998) The Academys generosity to the Coen brothers peaked when No Country for Old Men beat There Will Be Blood in one of the ceremonys closest Best Picture races of all time. It remains surprising that one of their few films to evade any nominations is this endlessly quotable mistaken identity comedy starring Jeff Bridges as The Dude. PolyGram Filmed Entertainment 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Blow Out (1981) Brian De Palma doesnt exactly make films in the hope of winning award, but his political thriller - based on Michelangelo Antonionis Blow Up  would have deserved any Oscar it was nominated for. Filmways Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Breathless (1960) Breathless' failure to receive a nomination is proof that the Oscars cant be trusted. Despite being one of the most studied films in the world, Jean Luc-Godards French masterpiece has an Academy Award tally of zero. Films Around The World 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Bringing Up Baby (1938) The Academy rewarded many notable screwball comedies, though this Howard Hawks-directed standout starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn - whod go on to hold the record for most wins - wasn't one of them. Courtesy of BFI 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Don't Look Now (1973) Nicolas Roeg, who directed this Venice-set chiller, is one of the most unfairly overlooked directors in Oscars history. Rex Features 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Donnie Darko (2004) Richard Kellys science-fiction mind-bender, which made a star of Jake Gyllenhaal, was a festival favourite upon its debut in 2004. Many expected a screenplay nomination to manifest. Rex Features 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) It wouldnt be until the 1990s that western films found favour with the Academy. It was ironically thanks to Unforgiven, a film directed by Clint Eastwood whose career flourished after starring in this Sergio Leone film that many consider to be the genres peak. 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination La haine (1995) Mathieu Kassovitzs black-and-white drama  translated in English as Hate  follows three young friends and their struggles living in the suburbs of Paris. 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Halloween (1978) The Academy may not be frothing at the mouth to nominate horror films, but do have previous (see: The Exorcist and The Silence of the Lamb), which makes the absence of John Carpenters influential Halloween a glaring oversight. Aquarius Releasing 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Harold and Maude (1971) This offbeat romantic drama was a critical and commercial flop at the time of release, which probably accounts for its lack of Oscar nominations. Today, though, its cult following ensures it remains in good favour with film fans. Paramount Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Heat (1995) On paper, the big screen union of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Michael Manns cop drama was a shoo-in for awards, but no Oscar nominations manifested. Warner Bros 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination His Girl Friday (1940) Yet another Howard Hawks screwball comedy starring Cary Grant that criminally failed to secure a single Oscar nomination. L/Columbia/Koba/Rex/Shutterstock 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Insomnia (2002) While falling short of Christopher Nolans best, modest drama Insomnia  made years before Batman Begins  had enough strong performances (Al Pacino, Robin Wiliams, Hilary Swank) to warrant acting nominations. Alas, it received none. Warner Bros Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Local Hero (1983) Bill Forsyths beloved comedy-drama follows the mishaps of an American man sent to buy up a Scottish village where the oil company he works for wants to build a refinery. Forsyth won the Bafta for Best Director, but the film received no such love from the Academy. 20th Century Fox 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination M (1931) Youd be mistaken for thinking the M stands for masterpiece in Fritz Langs German drama that follows the manhunt for a serial killer - not that the Academy agreed. 20th Century Fox 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination A Man Escaped (1956) Robert Bressons adaptation of Andre Devignys memoirs charts the French Resistance members time as prisoner of the Germans during World War II, and is even more enthralling considering Bresson himself was held captive years before. Gaumont Film Company 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Margaret (2011) Kenneth Lonergan would go on to win an Oscar for Manchester but he Sea, but Margaret - his three-hour plus drama featuring a searing performance from Anna Paquin - failed to secure a single nomination. Fox Searchlight Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination In the Mood for Love (2000) Wong Kar-wai set the benchmark for romance in film with his acclaimed Hong Kong drama following a man and woman (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) who develop feelings for one another after suspecting their respective spouses of having an affair together. defd Deutscher Fernsehdienst 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The King of Comedy (1982) It may have taken him decades to win an Oscar, but the Academy has rarely balked at nominating Martin Scorsese films  especially for films starring Robert De Niro. The King of Comedy was an exception. 20th Century Fox 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Long Goodbye (1973) Robert Altmans superior thriller stars Elliott Gould as Raymond Chandlers private investigator Philip Marlowe in one of the directors most entertaining films. The director would go on to be the recipient of the Honorary Award in 2006. 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Man With Two Brains (1983) He may have hosted several times, but Steve Martin has never been nominated for an Oscar. One film he deserved recognition for was Carl Reiner's 1983 sci-fi comedy, The Man with Two Brains. Warner Bros. 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination A Matter of Life and Death (1946) The Academy Film Archive may have preserved A Matter of Life and Death in 1999, but voters failed to recognise the Powell & Pressburgers fantasy-romance at the time of its release in 1946. Eagle-Lion Films 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Mean Streets (1973) It may not be credited as his debut, but Mean Streets is very much the first true Martin Scorsese film. The director would go on to win a belated Oscar for The Departed in 2007, but hed have to wait until 1975 for his first nomination (Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore). Warner Bros 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Melancholia (2011) No Lars von Trier film has ever been nominated for Best Picture, though Dancer in the Dark came close (it settled for a Best Original Song nomination). He came close with Melancholia, but ultimately, the drama didn't get Canal+ 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Miller's Crossing (1990) Despite being revered as a Coen brothers favourite, not to mention its notable performances from Gabriel Byrne and Albert Finney, Millers Crossing is one of few Coen brother films not to receive a single Oscar nomination. 20th Century Fox 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Though it's by no means a masterpiece, its staggering to think that Sergio Leones gangster epic - starring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci - didnt acquire any Oscar nominations (the film's music was disqualified from consideration after Warner Bros accidentally omitted the composer's name from the opening credits when trimming the films lengthy running time for its American release). Warner Bros 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Paterson (2016) Critics assumed Jim Jarmuschs Paterson would have been a shoo-in for awards recognition - most notably in the Best Actor category, thanks to a quietly fantastic performance from Adam Driver - but no such luck. Amazon Studios 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Paths of Glory (1957) Stanley Kubrick never won Best Director despite being nominated four times. One of his films that didnt make the Oscars cut in any category was his black-and-white anti-war film, Paths of Glory. United Artists 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Play Misty for Me (1971) Clint Eastwood would go onto become something of an Oscar darling thanks to Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River, but his directorial debut was ignored by the Academy. Univeral Pictures/Courtesy of Getty Images 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Reservoir Dogs (1992) Reservoir Dogs may not touch Quentin Tarantinos best, but it remains a surprise that the filmmakers debut didnt get recognised in the screenplay category, at least. Miramax Films 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Rider (2018) Of all the 2018 films to be snubbed at this years Oscars, Chloe Zhaos drama - which stars a real-life rodeo cowboy and his family - smacks as the most unfair. Sony Pictures Classics 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Searchers (1956) The role of Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards might be considered John Waynes best role, but the Academy didnt agree: he would win his sole Oscar for True Grit in 1970. Warner Bros 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Shining (1980) Another Kubrick film that was completely ignored by the Academy is the directors Stephen King adaptation, The Shining. Today, its considered one of his finest works as well as being one of the most revered horror films of all time. Warner Bros 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination The Shop Around the Corner (1953) It may have endured as one of the best loved romcoms of all time, but it has zero Oscar nominations to its name. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Still Walking (2008) Japanese director Hirokazo Kore-eda's portrait of a family over roughly 24 hours as they commemorate the death of the eldest son was a glaring oversight by the Academy. IFC Films 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Swingers Before he became Disney's go to, Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Jungle Book and the forthcoming live-action Lion King) wrote this independent film about the lives of single, unemployed actors living in Hollywood, California during the 1990s swing revival. Rex Features 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination This Is England (2006 The 2007 ceremony would have been far better had Shane Meadows' coming-of-drama been in contention for awards. Optimum Releasing 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Three Kings (1999) The Academy deemed Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle worthy of nominations, but not David O Russells Three Kings, which remains one of his greatest films to this day. Warner Bros Pictures 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Tokyo Story (1953) Tokyo Story is deemed Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu's masterpiece and was named Sight & Sound's best film of all time in 2012. Rex Features 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Touch of Evil (1958) Orson Welles' classic noir wasn't as well loved at the time of release as it is today. BFI 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Tyrannosaur (2011) Olivia Colman may be in contention for Best Actress at this years ceremony, but the fact she failed to earn a nomination (or Bafta, for that matter) for her role in Paddy Considines hard-hitting drama Tyrannosaur is one of the biggest oversights in awards history. StudioCanal UK 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Walkabout (1971) Another exceptional achievement in filmmaking from Nicolas Roeg that somehow failed to receive any Oscar nominations. 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination You Were Never Really Here (2018) Notch it down to bad timing, but Lynne Ramsays You Were Never Really Here - starring Joaquin Phoenix - is a sensational piece of work worthy of reward. Amazon Studio 47 brilliant films that didn't receive a single Oscar nomination Zodiac (2007) Three years later, David Fincher would go head-to-head with The King Speech's Tom Hooper for The Social Network. In truth, serial killer drama Zodiac is every bit as good as the Facebook drama. Warner Bros Pictures

Amazons series will see JD Payne and Patrick McKay serve as executive producers. There is no word yet on casting or a release date.

Rumours previously claimed the series would focus on a young Aragorn  however, the character, previously played by Viggo Mortensen, was born in the Third Age.
Brie Larson says she feels empowered by her Captain Marvel red carpet fashion.

Earlier this week, the Oscar-winner wore a rainbow sequined co-ord by Rodarte to the New York premiere of her latest superhero film. The actor teamed the look with a custom Edie Parker hot-pink clutch bag with the word Captain emblazoned on the front.

Clothes are a form of expression and they can be something that makes you feel empowered, Larson tells People.

Im introverted, and for me having something that makes me feel good in these very public moments is imperative.

The 29-year-old added the numerous outfits she wears during press tours give her the opportunity mediate on what empowerment really means when it comes to fashion.

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Larson explained that several of her looks during the films press tour in recent weeks have been inspired by her titular characters fashion, which she says has "been really fun to include.

On Wednesday, the actor said the Marvel press tour has also helped to learn how to own her body.

Brie Larson attends London premiere of 'Captain Marvel', March 2019 (Getty Images)

Thats been the theme of this whole press tour is owning my body and understanding that it changes from day-to-day what feels empowering to me and what makes me feel good, Larson explained on the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere.

Opening up about her fashion choices, she said: My style is going to be different  sometimes its super flows and feminine, sometimes its really hard and tough, sometimes I want to wear a suit, sometimes I want to wear something baggy.

Sometimes I want to lean into my youth, sometimes I want to be an older version of myself and Im allowed to do whatever I want.

 Brie Larson on why she hopes Captain Marvel will inspire a whole new generation of female pilots

Larsons statements comes days after she opened up about learning to perfect her facial expression to play the Marvel character.

Speaking with talk show host Jimmy Kimmel on Monday, Larson said her colleagues on the set of the film couldnt contain their laughter as they watched her try to master a solemn, focused, superhero "cool face".

"They're usually laughing at you while you're trying to find it, because it's hard. At least, it was for me. I would just bust up laughing," Larson joked.
When it comes to looking effortlessly chic, few nail it quite like the Scandinavians.

Spend just a few moments on Instagram and youll see that models, fashion editors and style influencers are head-to-toe in cult Scandi brands like Cos, Acne and By Malene Birger, all of whom pay homage to the minimalist flair that characterises the wardrobes of those in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

But eccentricity is having a moment on the Scandi fashion scene thanks to the rise of labels like Ganni and now, Saks Potts.

Saks Potts is the playful Copenhagen-based brand taking over Instagram with its flamboyant fur coats and colourful co-ords, which are a far cry from the muted styles that define the aforementioned brands.

The label was launched in 2013 by best friends Barbara Potts and Cathrine Saks, both of whom are 26 years old.

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"We basically started out making what we and our friends wanted to wear, they tell The Independent.

One of the brand's most recognisable staples is its fluorescent glitter two-pieces, which have been lighting up social media feeds since the mint green style was worn by Selena Gomez in her Taki Taki music video.

The exact same co-ord was subsequently sported by Kim Kardashian West's five-year-old daughter, North West, for a family party.

Those with a keen fashion eye mightve also spotted the monochrome SP logo tights doing the rounds at London Fashion Week, which were worn by savvy street stylers underneath everything from flirty floral dresses to oversized blazers.

But its the labels eccentric and vintage-inspired outerwear that is turning the most heads among the fashion set, with model Kendall Jenner leading the way by donning a vivid forest green fur-lined trench coat that made her look like shed just dashed off the set of Almost Famous.

Other celebrity fans include Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Cardi B, all of whom have been photographed wearing the label in the last year.

Whether in pastel shades of blue or eye-popping purples, these audacious fur-trimmed coats, like the rest of the label's garments, are made to appear distinctive, explain Potts and Saks.

The launch of Saks Potts all started with a missing coat, they explain. The outerwear market seemed to be ruled by the Scandinavian design aesthetic, which is characterised by architectural lines, muted colours and heavy fabrics like woo. Colours and three-dimensional materials were nowhere to be seen  it was almost as if you were not allowed to stand out in a crowd.

The designers sought out to break free from what they describe as the tonal monochrome status quo and set out to produce experimental clothing that would appeal to those in need of some sartorial wanderlust.

That was the baseline of our first collection," they say.

Aside from its obvious idiosyncratic quirks, another reason why Saks Potts stands out as a fashion label is that it uses real animal fur and skins  namely lamb skin and fox fur  a design choice that heavily goes against an ethical zeitgeist that has seen designers like Burberry and Chanel eschew fur in the place of faux alternatives.

We love natural fur, because its both beautiful and sustainable, Saks and Potts explain, adding that they source it from local fur farms in Denmark, which they say is renowned for its animal welfare being among the best in the world.

Fake fur made of plastic just cant create the same kind of elegant aesthetics and feel from a designers perspective.

Natural fur is also one of the worlds most sustainable and long-lasting materials that begins and ends in nature, and thats among the reasons why so many designers are using it.

Recommended Why hair clips and headbands are the hottest trends for spring

Fur keeps you warm, and thats important to remember when you are an outerwear brand coming from cold Denmark, they add.

In an age that is becoming increasingly ethically-conscious, the brands decision to use real fur might be unconventional, but theyre clearly not interested in following the crowd.

Prices range from 245 for shiny Space age T-shirts loved by fashion editors to 1,500 for the Insta-famous coats.
The world's most popular YouTube channel has once again attracted controversy after fans of PewDiePie defaced a World War II memorial in New York.

The Brooklyn War Memorial in Cadman Plaza Park was tagged with the graffiti, "Subscribe to PewDiePie", referencing a movement dedicated to preventing the YouTube channel from being dethroned by the Indian channel T-Series.

PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, has been the most popular channel on YouTube since 2013, but faces significant competition from T-Series.

The Indian record label was expected to dethrone him in October, with a data analytics firm originally predicting the takeover would take place in October.

The title of the world's most popular YouTube channel finally changed hands last month when T-Series took over  but only for eight minutes.

11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Show all 11 1 /11 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Play in the background One of the YouTube apps most frustrating shortcomings is the inability to play music videos in the background or when youre phones locked. There is a way around this, but only on iOS. Open the YouTube website in Safari, play a video and then press your iPhones home button. After that, launch the Control Centre by sliding up from the bottom of the screen and tap play. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Loop videos YouTubes looping option on desktop is really useful, but nowhere near as easy to find as it should be. To loop a video, right-click it while its playing and select Loop. Even if you have Autoplay enabled, your video will replay itself as soon as it finishes. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Enable Dark Theme YouTube recently introduced a black-and-red Dark Theme on the desktop, which is much easier on your eyes than the regular version of the site. Enable it by clicking the account symbol, selecting Dark Theme and turning Activate Dark Theme on. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Simplify YouTube Another alternative YouTube user interface is available to access at youtube.com/tv. Its a really simple, no-frills UI thats incredibly easy to navigate. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Try out new features You can test upcoming and experimental features early by signing up to YouTube TestTube. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Read When you want to watch a YouTube video but dont have your headphones and dont want to disturb anyone around you, turn on Captions. Theyre also really handy if youre trying to watch a video in a foreign language. Transcriptions, meanwhile, break down exactly when certain things take place, so you can skip to the part you want to watch accurately and easily. In the More tab under the video title, launch the dropdown menu and select Transcript. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Use shortcuts You can lean back in your seat and control YouTube videos with your keyboard if you want to. J and L let you rewind and fast-forward 10 seconds, K is pause/play, M is mute/unmute and the 0-9 keys let you jump through various stages of the video, from 0 per cent to 90 per cent. On the app, you can fast forward or rewind 10 seconds by double-tapping the right or left side of a video. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Limit data use If youre on a limited mobile data plan, there are easy ways to save yourself some money. In Settings on the YouTube app, hit General and enable Limit Mobile Data Usage and disable Autoplay. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Keep things private Unless you make them private, other people can see your Liked videos, your saved playlists and subscriptions. If you want to hide them, go to Settings and Privacy. You can also clear or pause your History. On either desktop or the mobile app, go to History and select Clear All Watch History or Pause Watch History. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Make sharing clearer Sometimes you want to share a video with a friend, but want them to watch a specific part, rather than the whole thing. Instead of sending the timestamp through as a separate message, make the video automatically play from the right place. Just pause it at the right moment, click the Share button, tick the Start At box and copy the URL. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Get nerdy Stats for Nerds shows you technical data for YouTube videos, including video format, audio format and bandwidth. On desktop, you can find the info simply by right-clicking the video player and selecting Stats for Nerds. On mobile, you have to enable it first in General Settings. Once thats done, open a video, hit the menu button in the top-right corner and tap the Stats for Nerds option.

Less than 15,000 subscribers currently separate the two channels, which each boast more than 88 million subscribers.

The sustained support campaign for PewDiePie now appears to be going to desperate lengths to prevent the takeover, with the war memorial graffiti condemned by local residents.

"I don't know what pewdiepie is but based on this it is terrible," one person wrote in the Brooklyn sub-Reddit, where an image of the graffiti originally appeared.

Mr Kjellberg previously stated he is not bothered if he is overtaken by T-Series, saying in an October video: "I don't really care about T-Series, I genuinely don't."

He has since gone on to urge his fans to do whatever they can to keep his channel on top.

"I love it, please keep it up," he said. "Just don't do anything illegal, OK, because that would look bad on me. That's the only reason."

The New York war memorial incident is not the first time PewDiePie supporters have committed acts of vandalism in support of the channel.

Images of defaced walls have spread across social media in recent weeks, showing messages stating "subscribe to PewDiePie" and "Defeat T-Series".

Cyber vandals even took over a section of the Wall Street Journal website in December in order to post a message of support for PewDiePie.

Other fans have used less controversial methods to promote PewDiePie, with one fan hiring billboards in his home town to advertise the channel.

A fan meet-up in Estonia last month saw a crowd march through the streets of Tallinn waving banners encouraging people to subscribe to the YouTuber.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk also joined the campaign by hosting a popular segment on the channel called Meme Review.

This caused the subscriber gap to widen to nearly 200,000 before steadily falling again over the last week.
SpaceXs Crew Dragon space capsule has successfully splashed down after a trip that could change the future of Nasa space travel.

The successful landing brought an end to a mission that saw the crew capsule fly up to the International Space Station, dock at the floating lab, then drop down to the ground in a fiery landing that confirmed it could one day carry people up to space.

Later this year, the same capsule will carry Nasa astronauts to the space station in a pioneering mission.

The Dragon autonomously undocked from the International Space Station early on Friday. Six hours later, the capsule carrying a test dummy fitted with a host of sensors fell into the Atlantic off the Florida coast.

It marks the first time in 50 years that a capsule designed for astronauts returned from space by falling into the Atlantic. Apollo 9 splashed down near the Bahamas on 13 March, 1969.

Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Show all 30 1 /30 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An image from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a 200,000 mile long solar filament ripping through the Sun's corona in September 2013 Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa Celebrates 50 Years of Spacewalking For 50 years, NASA has been "suiting up" for spacewalking. In this 1984 photograph of the first untethered spacewalk, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless is in the midst of the first "field" tryout of a nitrogen-propelled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Hubble Cosmic Couple The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427  more commonly known as WR 124  and the nebula M1-67 which surrounds it ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled in stunning detail a small section of the Veil Nebula - expanding remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago Nasa's most stunning pictures of space The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launch The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, carrying three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the satellite's inhabitants to celebrate the holidays Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth from the ISS From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Black Hole Friday Nasa celebrated Black Friday by looking into space instead  sharing pictures of black holes Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space NuSTAR X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Cassiopeia A c A false colour image of Cassiopeia A comprised with data from the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Orion Capsule splashes down The Orion capsule jetted off into space before heading back a few hours later  having proved that it can be used, one day, to carry humans to Mars Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth Observations From Gemini IV in 1965 This photograph of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19 in 1965. The Gemini IV crew conducted scientific experiments, including photography of Earth's weather and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following Ed White's historic spacewalk on June 3 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Frosty slopes of Mars This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. The image was taken by Nasa's HiRISE camera, which is mounted on its Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Yellowstone from space NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his twitter account Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Saturn This near-infrared color image shows a specular reflection, or sunglint, off of a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Worlds Apart Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" by moon standards (50 miles or 81 kilometers across) is elongated and irregular in shape. Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers across), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere due to self-gravity imposed by its higher mass Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An X1.6 class solar flare flashes in the middle of the sun in this image taken 10 September, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Mars Rover Spirit Nasa's Mars Rover Spirit took the first picture from Spirit since problems with communications began a week earlier. The image shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Morning Aurora From the Space Station Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station Nasa/Scott Kelly Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Launch of History - Making STS-41G Mission in 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger launches from Florida at dawn. On this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first U.S. woman to perform a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest to fly on a spacecraft at that time, and STS-41G was the first flight to include two female astronauts Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Fresh Perspective on an Extraordinary Cluster of Galaxies Galaxy clusters are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerations of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Sees a Galactic Sunflower The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in an image from the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the center of a sunflower ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Pluto image Four images from New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with colour data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced colour global view of Pluto Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Fresh Crater Near Sirenum Fossae Region of Mars The HiRISE camera aboard Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a "fresh" (on a geological scale, though quite old on a human scale) impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars. This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way This Nasa Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way NASA & ESA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space An Astronaut's View from Space Nasa astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on 2 September 2014 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Giant Landform on Mars On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy landforms formed by the wind, or aeolian bedforms: ripples, transverse aeolian ridges, dunes, and what are called draa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Expedition 39 Landing A sokol suit helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the spacecraft landed with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (NASA/Bill Ingalls) Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Jupiter's Great Red Spot Viewed by Voyager I Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and perhaps the most majestic. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Chandra Observatory Sees a Heart in the Darkness This Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of the young star cluster NGC 346 highlights a heart-shaped cloud of 8 million-degree Celsius gas in the central region

Nasa astronauts have been stuck riding Russian rockets since space shuttles retired eight years ago. It is now counting on SpaceX and Boeing to start launching astronauts this year.

Friday mornings splashdown was the final hurdle of SpaceXs six-day test flight.

Minutes earlier, Crew Dragon deployed its four parachutes successfully.

Everything happened just perfectly, right on time the way that we expected it to, Benjamin Reed, SpaceX director of crew mission management, said in a live stream from California.

The test mission was a crucial milestone in a government programme that paves the way for SpaceXs first crewed test flight. The flight is due to take place in July with astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken.

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This really is an American achievement that spans many generations of Nasa administrators and over a decade of work by the Nasa team, said Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine after the splash-down.

Steve Stich, also from Nasa, said: The vehicle is doing well. The recovery crews are out.

A boat was ready in the area where Dragon hit the Atlantic and was set to lift our the 16ft spacecraft using a crane. It will reach land with the craft on Sunday.

The first-of-a-kind mission brought 400lbs of test equipment to the space station, including a dummy named Ripley fitted with sensors around its head, neck, and spine to monitor how a flight would feel for a human.

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The space stations three-member crew greeted the capsule last Sunday, with US astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques entering Crew Dragons cabin to carry out air quality tests and inspections.

Nasa has awarded SpaceX and Boeing Co a total of $6.8bn (5bn) to build competing rocket and capsule systems to launch astronauts into orbit from American soil, something not possible since the US Space Shuttle was retired from service in 2011.

The launch systems are aimed at ending US reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets for $80m-per-seat rides to the $100bn orbital research laboratory, which flies about 250 miles above earth.

Bridenstine told Reuters the cost per seat on the Boeing or SpaceX systems would be lower than for the shuttle or Soyuz.

Privately owned SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, who is also a co-founder of electric car maker Tesla.

Additional reporting by agencies
In honour of International Womens Day 2019, Google is celebrating past and present female trailblazers with a Google Doodle.

International Womens Day is an annual global celebration of women and all they have accomplished, from political achievements to strides towards gender equality.

The celebration first started in the US in 1908 and now sees people around the globe acknowledge the day in support of women, and in the recognition of all that still needs to be achieved.

This year, Google is dedicating 8 March to women empowering women, with a selection of inspirational quotes from women around the world, illustrated by female artists.

The 13 quotes were comprised from a diverse group of women who all have one thing in common - they were trailblazers.

International Women's Day Designer T-Shirts Show all 6 1 /6 International Women's Day Designer T-Shirts International Women's Day Designer T-Shirts Victoria Beckham T-shirt, 175 International Women's Day Designer T-Shirts Alexa Chung T-shirt, 86 International Women's Day Designer T-Shirts Rosie Assoulin T-shirt, 155 International Women's Day Designer T-Shirts Isabel Marant T-shirt, 95 International Women's Day Designer T-Shirts Ellery T-shirt, 200 International Women's Day Designer T-Shirts Perfect Moment T-shirt, 145

We aimed to include a diverse representation of voices on a day which celebrates the past, present, and future community of diverse women around the world, the company said.

Celebrated through art, the resulting creations show the stunning effects of women coming together.

The first quote: I really believe in the idea of the future, said by British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, was illustrated by Abjad Design, a female-owned design studio in Dubai.

According to the design studio, the quote, illustrated in purple, carries with it a sense of hope and optimism for a brighter and better future.

The illustrations created by Brazilian type artist Cyla Costa are dedicated to two female novelists, George Sand, who said: The future can awaken in a more beautiful way than the past, and Clarice Lispector, who said: I am stronger than myself.

According to Costa, she interpreted Lispectors quote to mean the power of self-identity and the importance of women choosing their own identity.

A quote by Dr Mae Jemison, an American astronaut and physician, who said: Never be limited by other peoples limited imaginations, was conceptualised by Brighton-based British designer and illustrator Kate Forrester.

The words of German writer Emma Herwegh: Let nothing bind you in the world other than your highest inner truth, were illustrated in the next design, created by German designer and lettering artist Rosa Kammermeier.

Kammermeier chose to illustrate the quote with a bird escaping a cage as a symbol for the freedom of your mind.

Indian paper typographer and illustrator Sabeena Karnik was also featured in the Google Doodle, for her interpretations of quotes by Indian boxer Mary Kom, who said: Do not say you are weak, because you are a woman, and Indian diplomat NL Beno Zephine, who said: We are too precious to let disappointments enter our minds.

According to Karnik, Zephines words evoke the possibility of accomplishing ones dreams.

 Kelly Clarkson and Jess Glynne Reveal Female Heroes in International Women's Day Video

British writer and suffragette Millicent Fawcetts quote: Courage calls to courage everywhere, was illustrated by Australian lettering artist Gemma OBrien, who imagined the words in shades of purple for International Womens Day.

I think the most inspiring thing about this quote is how it applies beyond the womens movement, OBrien said. It only takes one courageous person to inspire many, many more.

A quote from Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie, who once said: I matter. I matter equally. Not if only, not as long as. I matter. Full stop, was conceptualised by New York City-based Polish graphic designer Zuzanna Rogatty - who used expressive and rhythmic lettering to bring the words to life.

The Google Doodle also features the work of Argentinian graphic designer Yai Salinas, who illustrated Frida Kahlos words: Feet, what do I need them for if I have wings to fly? and Russian poet Marina Tsvetaevas quote: Wings are freedom only when they are wide open in flight. On ones back they are a heavy weight.

Salinas brought Kahlos words to life through a visual representation of the artists life - specifically with the colour yellow.

Google also chose to celebrate the day with a quote by Yoko Ono, who famously said: A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality, and Taiwanese writer Sanmao, who also spoke about dreams when she said: A person who has at least one dream has a reason to be strong.

The quotes were illustrated by Japanese graphic designer Hazuki Tamano, who used the sky as inspiration for her interpretation of Onos words.

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For the opening and closing images, Google featured the work of American illustrator Melissa Crowton, who was inspired by the diversity of the women of the world.

Each element is unique in shape, texture, and size, which I found to be an apt representation of the beauty of our community, Crowton added.

All of the illustrations can be seen here.
Oprah Winfrey has revealed the defining realisation she experienced early on in her career that ultimately led to her success.

Appearing at the Qualtrics user conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, the talk show host recalled that, in 1989, she wasnt happy with the direction her show was going in.

According to Winfrey, there were two episodes that made her realise she needed to make a change - one where she interviewed skinheads, and later felt that shed given a platform to hatred, and another a week later that featured a cheating husband, his wife, and his girlfriend.

During the second show, the man informed the audience and live national television that his girlfriend was pregnant - a moment that served as a wake-up call for Winfrey.

I felt this should not happen to a human being and certainly not under my watch, Winfrey told conference attendees, KSL reports. I will not be a part of any kind of show that continued to do that.

The Oprah Winfrey Channel Show all 4 1 /4 The Oprah Winfrey Channel The Oprah Winfrey Channel 265219.bin AP The Oprah Winfrey Channel 265220.bin EPA The Oprah Winfrey Channel 265221.bin CHARLIE KNOBLOCK / AP The Oprah Winfrey Channel 265222.bin AP

The realisation prompted Winfrey to speak to her producers to discuss how they could be a force for good.

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But it was when reading "Seat of the Soul" by Gary Zukav that the talk show host and philanthropist realised she needed to understand the intent of her message before each show - a principal that changed the direction of her life.

I dont do anything without thinking about what I ultimately want the energy, the motivation Im putting into it. What is the end result going to be, she said. I only do what I intend to do."

It was after she began focusing on intention that her show began to really resonate with people, later earning her 16 Emmys over its 25 years on air.

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As for deciding what your intention should be, Winfrey said it helps to ask yourself: How do I use this in the service of something greater than myself?
Every year, International Mens Day is commemorated on the same date - 19 November - around the world.

The event aims to shine a spotlight on men who are making a positive difference, to focus on men's health and wellbeing issues, and to improve gender relations.

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With suicide being the biggest killer of men under the age of 45, according to charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), encouraging people to have open conversations about topics such as mens mental health and suicide is essential.

This year marks 28 years since the first International Men's Day celebration was held in Malta, and 21 years since the project was reinitialised in Trinidad and Tobago.

So why did International Mens Day start and what does it celebrate? Here is everything you need to know.

When is International Mens Day?

International Mens Day is celebrated annually on 19 November.

The date coincides with the birthday of the father of Dr Jerome Teelucksingh, a doctor from Trinidad and Tobago who relaunched International Mens Day in 1999.

Organisers say the event is designed to help more people consider what they can do to make a difference and to give men and boys better life chances by addressing issues such as high suicide rates, sexual abuse and health.

Every year on International Womens Day, which falls on 8 March, the same questions get asked again and again on Twitter: Is there an International Men's Day? and when is it?

Comedian Richard Herring makes it his mission to educate naysayers on the existence of International Mens Day, sharing comical replies to as many posts as he can.

In 2018 Herring used the attention that his tweets were receiving to raise more than 150,000 for domestic violence charity Refuge and in 2019, he set a target of 10,000 on his Just Giving page to raise money for CALM.

This year, the comedian has written a book, titled The Problem with Men: When is International Men's Day, with all proceeds going to CALM.

What does the day celebrate?

The aim of International Mens Day is to celebrate positive male role models and to raise awareness of mens issues.

These include topics such as mental health, toxic masculinity and the prevalence of male suicide.

In the UK, men are three times more likely than women to take their own lives, according to emotional support charity Samaritans.

International Mens Day coincides with Movember, which involves men growing their facial hair in an effort to promote conversations about mens mental health, suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer.

The observances of International Mens Day are part of a global love revolution, said Dr Teelucksingh.

"International Mens Day is observed on an annual basis by persons from all walks of life, who support the ongoing effort to improve lives, heal scarred hearts, seek solutions to social problems, mend troubled minds, reform the social outcasts and uplift the dysfunctional.

International Mens Day is designed to promote positive role models in society and develop wholesome individuals.

What is this years theme?

Each year a theme is assigned to International Mens Day. The theme for 2020 is the idea of Better Health for Men and Boys.

According to the International Men's Day website, the theme promotes the need to value men and boys and help people make practical improvements in men and boys health and well-being.

The concept and themes of International Mens Day are designed to give hope to the depressed, faith to the lonely, comfort to the broken-hearted, transcend barriers, eliminate stereotypes and create a more caring humanity," it adds.

If you are in need of mental health support, you can contact the free Samaritans helpline on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit www.samaritans.org to find details of your nearest branch.
Keira Knightley, Dame Emma Thompson and Dua Lipa are calling for the government to do more to fight for equality and support womens rights.

They are among a high-profile group of 76 women who have signed an open letter, published on International Womens Day in The Guardian, that states in no country in the world do women enjoy the same rights or opportunities as men.

The letter cites stats such as one in three women experiencing violence in their lifetime around the world and fewer than one in four parliamentarians are women.

Womens rights are human rights, yet women and girls everywhere are still denied their rights, it adds.

The letter is signed by women of all disciplines, including actors, activists, writers and politicians.

How IWD is marked around the world Show all 22 1 /22 How IWD is marked around the world How IWD is marked around the world Women bang pots and pans during a protest at the start of a nationwide feminist strike on International Women's Day at Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid, Spain Reuters How IWD is marked around the world People attend a rally, held to support women's rights and to protest against violence towards women in Saint Petersburg, Russia Reuters How IWD is marked around the world Women practice Shivkalin Yudha Kala, a Maharashtrian martial art on the eve of International Women's Day at a ground on the outskirts of Mumbai, India Reuters How IWD is marked around the world A march to mark International Women's Day in Melbourne, Australia AFP/Getty How IWD is marked around the world Topless members of feminist movement Femen tear down a gate that prevents the public from viewing Herbertstrasse, a street in Hamburg's red light district AFP/Getty How IWD is marked around the world Yazidi women attend a ceremony at Lilash Temple to commemorate the death of women who were killed by ISIS, on International Women's Day in Shekhan, Iraq Reuters How IWD is marked around the world A march to mark International Women's Day in Seoul, South Korea Getty How IWD is marked around the world A woman wears an earring that reads 'respect' looks on during a protest against femicide on International Women's Day in Nairobi, Kenya EPA How IWD is marked around the world A sculpture to honour the San Fermin festival is 'decorated' with aprons and a mop by feminist activists to mark International Women's Day in Pamplona, Spain EPA How IWD is marked around the world A woman poses in a banner put up by the Tibetan Women's Association, to mark International Women's Day in Dharmsala, India AP How IWD is marked around the world Artists graffiti on a barrier wall of the Ministry of Women's Affairs to mark International Women's Day in Kabul, Afghanistan AP How IWD is marked around the world A woman wears a mask that reads "Feminist Strike" as she takes part in a bike protest during a nationwide feminist strike on International Women's Day in Madrid, Spain Reuters How IWD is marked around the world A woman looks through a banner put up by the Tibetan Women's Association, to mark International Women's Day in Dharmsala, India AP How IWD is marked around the world EPA How IWD is marked around the world Women hold lit candles at the central Shaheed Minar premises to celebrate the International Women's Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh EPA How IWD is marked around the world EPA How IWD is marked around the world Customers buy flowers at a flower stall in Pyongyang. International Women's Day was marked with a public holiday in North Korea AFP/Getty How IWD is marked around the world A woman shouts slogans as she wears face painting with the venus symbol during a demonstration at the start of International Women's Day in Puerta del Sol Square, Madrid Getty How IWD is marked around the world Filipino women and supporters hold placards during a rally marking International Women's Day in Manila EPA How IWD is marked around the world Women hold lit candles at the central Shaheed Minar premises to celebrate the International Women's Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh EPA How IWD is marked around the world Bangladeshi women attend a candle light vigil to mark International Women's Day in Dhaka AFP/Getty Images How IWD is marked around the world Women shout slogans during a rally on the eve of International Women's Day in Karachi, Pakistan EPA

Among them, the group includes Emma Watson, Carey Mulligan, Paloma Faith, Felicity Jones, Gillian Anderson, Annie Lennox, Clemence Poesy, Caroline Lucas MP, and activist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Women in all their diversity  women of every nationality, race, ability, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity  need to have their voices heard and respected, the letter continues.

Every woman should have the freedom to make her own choices and claim her rights. Yet, when women speak out, attempt to have a say in the decisions affecting their lives or defend their rights, far too often they are silenced, undermined and even endangered.

The letter concludes with a direct address to global governments to recognise and trust the expertise of womens rights organisations and womens movement with a special emphasis on those in marginalised communities.

Were not looking for your sympathy, were demanding your action, it adds.

Because none of us are equal until all of us are equal.

Read more about International Women's Day here.
International Womens Day is about championing female empowerment and celebrating the social, economic and political achievements of women around the world.

Each year, the day prompts people to reflect on everything from gender equality and womens rights to who their female role models might be. Naturally, a lot of these contemplations take place on social media, with celebrities like Emma Watson and Miley Cyrus leading the way.

Whether youre marching, dancing, rising, resisting, protesting, striking, uniting or celebrating, wishing you all a wonderful #internationalwomensday!

Watson wrote on Instagram alongside a photograph of herself posing with one arm in the air wearing a T-shirt with the word: Marching emblazoned across it.

In a subsequent post, the 28-year-old actor and United Nations ambassador pointed her 50 million followers towards the charity Rape Crisis England & Wales, which supports sexual violence survivors.

Posing in a T-shirt with the words my body, my choice on it, Watson wrote: With the awareness generated by #metoo, there is an increased demand for support services as more people are emboldened to name what happened to them.

How IWD is marked around the world Show all 22 1 /22 How IWD is marked around the world How IWD is marked around the world Women bang pots and pans during a protest at the start of a nationwide feminist strike on International Women's Day at Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid, Spain Reuters How IWD is marked around the world People attend a rally, held to support women's rights and to protest against violence towards women in Saint Petersburg, Russia Reuters How IWD is marked around the world Women practice Shivkalin Yudha Kala, a Maharashtrian martial art on the eve of International Women's Day at a ground on the outskirts of Mumbai, India Reuters How IWD is marked around the world A march to mark International Women's Day in Melbourne, Australia AFP/Getty How IWD is marked around the world Topless members of feminist movement Femen tear down a gate that prevents the public from viewing Herbertstrasse, a street in Hamburg's red light district AFP/Getty How IWD is marked around the world Yazidi women attend a ceremony at Lilash Temple to commemorate the death of women who were killed by ISIS, on International Women's Day in Shekhan, Iraq Reuters How IWD is marked around the world A march to mark International Women's Day in Seoul, South Korea Getty How IWD is marked around the world A woman wears an earring that reads 'respect' looks on during a protest against femicide on International Women's Day in Nairobi, Kenya EPA How IWD is marked around the world A sculpture to honour the San Fermin festival is 'decorated' with aprons and a mop by feminist activists to mark International Women's Day in Pamplona, Spain EPA How IWD is marked around the world A woman poses in a banner put up by the Tibetan Women's Association, to mark International Women's Day in Dharmsala, India AP How IWD is marked around the world Artists graffiti on a barrier wall of the Ministry of Women's Affairs to mark International Women's Day in Kabul, Afghanistan AP How IWD is marked around the world A woman wears a mask that reads "Feminist Strike" as she takes part in a bike protest during a nationwide feminist strike on International Women's Day in Madrid, Spain Reuters How IWD is marked around the world A woman looks through a banner put up by the Tibetan Women's Association, to mark International Women's Day in Dharmsala, India AP How IWD is marked around the world EPA How IWD is marked around the world Women hold lit candles at the central Shaheed Minar premises to celebrate the International Women's Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh EPA How IWD is marked around the world EPA How IWD is marked around the world Customers buy flowers at a flower stall in Pyongyang. International Women's Day was marked with a public holiday in North Korea AFP/Getty How IWD is marked around the world A woman shouts slogans as she wears face painting with the venus symbol during a demonstration at the start of International Women's Day in Puerta del Sol Square, Madrid Getty How IWD is marked around the world Filipino women and supporters hold placards during a rally marking International Women's Day in Manila EPA How IWD is marked around the world Women hold lit candles at the central Shaheed Minar premises to celebrate the International Women's Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh EPA How IWD is marked around the world Bangladeshi women attend a candle light vigil to mark International Women's Day in Dhaka AFP/Getty Images How IWD is marked around the world Women shout slogans during a rally on the eve of International Women's Day in Karachi, Pakistan EPA

Rape Crisis Centres offer much-needed support to people who have been assaulted across England and Wales (@rapecrisisew), but demand way outstrips supply.

Watson noted that in March 2018, there were 6,355 survivors on Rape Crisis waiting lists.

This means that if a survivor calls to look for support they may be turned away, she added.

Miley Cyrus also marked IWD on social media by posting a series of photographs of herself on Instagram with some of her favourite bad a** bitches, who include Jane Fonda, Beyonce, Joan Jett, Cyndi Lauper and Ariana Grande.

Elsewhere, philanthropist and acid attack survivor Katie Piper posted a photograph of herself with her surgeon, thanking him for restoring her confidence and helping her and other women to rebuild their lives after acid attacks.

Actor and activist Jameela Jamil, meanwhile, wished her Twitter followers a happy International Womens Day by reminding them to protect [themselves] and one another.

See our pick of the best International Womens Day social media posts so far below.

David Beckham

Emma Watson

Miley Cyrus

Katie Piper

Jameela Jamil

David Lammy

Jeremy Corbyn
Norways $1 trillion (760bn) sovereign wealth fund will sell off around $7.5bn of oil and gas company shares to cut the risk it faces from a permanent global shift from fossil fuels to renewables.

The move covers 134 companies focused on oil and gas exploration and production but spares giants like Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil.

Exploration and production firms - known in the industry as upstream - will be the first to be damaged by a move to renewables because their business depends on finding and exploiting new oil and gas fields.

The majority of known reserves must stay in the ground if the world is to avoid catastrophic and irreversible climate change, scientists have warned.

Norways vast sovereign fund owns about 1.3 per cent of all listed company shares by value making it the biggest in the world. It has been built up almost entirely on the back of oil and gas production in the North Sea.

Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges Show all 25 1 /25 Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges Demonstrators block Westminster Bridge in central London to show anger at government inaction on climate and ecological issues AFP/Getty Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges A pro environment protester is arrested by police on Lambeth bridge in London EPA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges Organised by Extinction Rebellion, the protest is part of many taking place this weekend to bring attention to political inaction on issues of pollution and climate change Reuters Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges AFP/Getty Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges Organised by Extinction Rebellion, the protest is part of many taking place this weekend to bring attention to political inaction on issues of pollution and climate change PA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges Demonstrators on Blackfriars Bridge PA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges Police with demonstrators on Blackfriars Bridge PA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges AFP/Getty Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges EPA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges A demonstrator is led away by police on Blackfriars Bridge PA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges Reuters Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges PA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges Reuters Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges AFP/Getty Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges AFP/Getty Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges PA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges EPA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges EPA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges EPA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges PA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges Reuters Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges EPA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges AFP/Getty Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges EPA Extinction rebellion: Climate change protesters block London bridges Reuters

That leaves the country exposed if demand for oil falls sharply.

Charlie Kronick, oil campaigner for Greenpeace UK said This partial divestment from oil and gas is welcome, but not enough to mitigate Norways exposure to both global oil and gas prices and the wider financial ramifications of climate change.

However, it does send a clear signal that companies betting on the expansion of their oil and gas businesses present an unacceptable risk, not only to the climate but also to investors.

While BP and Shell are excluded from the current divestment proposal, they must now recognise that if they continue to spend billions chasing new fossil fuels, they are doomed.

After more than a year of deliberation, the Norwegian finance ministry on Friday excluded 134 oil and gas companies, including Anadarko, Chesapeake, Cnooc and Tullow, from its sovereign wealth fund.

The objective is to reduce the vulnerability of our common wealth to a permanent oil price decline, Finance Minister Siv Jensen said in a statement.

Hence, it is more accurate to sell companies which explore and produce oil and gas, rather than selling a broadly diversified energy sector.

The government has partially fulfilled a plan laid out in 2017 to divest entirely from the oil and gas sector. Norway has sought to project an image as a responsible environmental steward while pumping millions of barrels of oil and gas.
A third, previously HIV-positive person now appears to be free of the virus following a bone marrow transplant.

The patient shows no signs of HIV after three months without antiviral drugs, doctors have said.

The case of the Dusseldorf patient was reported at a scientific conference this week, but doctors said their remission is still at an early stage.

It came hours after researchers reported a London patient was the second ever person to see their HIV-positive status cured by a bone marrow transplant  which effectively replaces and reboots the cells of the immune system where HIV persists.

The London patient, who has decided to remain anonymous, has been off virus-suppressing drugs for 18 months and has no detectable traces of HIV, researchers reported in the journal Nature earlier this week.

Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary

This third case has only been off the medication for three months, but biopsies of tissue taken from lymph nodes and the gut show no sign of infection, doctors told the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle.

Bone marrow transplants have been known as a possible cure for HIV since the 2007 case of American Timothy Ray Brown, known as the Berlin patient.

He was diagnosed with leukaemia, a cancer of the white blood cells which make up the immune system, and was given a transplant to replace his cancerous cells with a donors after chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

The crucial factor for the patients cured of HIV in this way is that their donor carried a mutation in a gene called CCR5 which is only found in around 1 per cent of people in Western Europe  and is even more rare elsewhere.

People with a CCR5 mutation are naturally resistant to HIV and when used in a bone marrow transplant it effectively means the virus cannot return.

The procedure is unlikely to be a viable solution for the millions with HIV. In part because of the scarcity of CCR5 donors, but chiefly because of the risks of the procedure, which can see the donated cells rejected and has only been attempted in patients with life-threatening blood cancers  such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the case of the London patient.

Doctors say they are tracking a handful of other people who had HIV and have then had a CCR5 bone marrow transplant thanks to a register of CCR5 donors compiled by the IciStem collaboration.

This includes two patients who are still taking anti-retroviral medicines, as stopping taking the drugs risks harming their immune system and becoming infectious again.

Now multiple cases have shown that the CCR5 mutation can be protective against HIV researchers have said inserting the gene with technologies like Crispr could be a more viable way of treating it in future.
It doesnt matter if people know this is happening, they kill us anyway, Audrey Huntley says. We thought if we broke the silence something would change but unfortunately nothing has. The issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women may have once been an unspoken secret  but people now know about it. Marches, attention from politicians, international media focus, awareness of this North American crisis has hugely increased over the past two decades. But, as documentary-maker and victims' rights paralegal Huntley says, they kill us anyway.

Sisters, mothers, daughters, cousins, friends  Indigenous women and girls in the US and Canada continue to go missing at a disproportionate rate. Murder is the third leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaskan Native women. In Canada, a quarter of all women murdered in 2015 were Indigenous. In 1980 it was 9 per cent.

Justin Trudeau spearheaded a national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women (MMIW). The Savannas Act, aimed to curb the epidemic of violence against native women, passed unanimously in the US Senate during the last Congress. Yet Facebook is still full of heartbreaking missing posts of young native women, and Indigenous women continue to be raped, attacked, killed, at truly alarming rates.
Osman watches 20 golden falafel fry in a pan of simmering oil. He is using a recipe taught to him by his mother, more than four decades ago and thousands of miles away in Egypt. Now, hes in a community centre kitchen in south London. Ninety per cent of Egyptians eat falafel in the morning, he says. I made it with my hands, not a machine. Its different to the Lebanese falafel, its green not yellow  because of something special, its a secret. (A quick Google search suggests the something special is more coriander.)

The 53-year-old was raised on a farm outside Cairo, growing fruit and vegetables. I left school when I was 10 years old and started working to help with everything on the farm, and sometimes in the house, he says. I have one brother, whos a doctor now, and two sisters.

Osmans family is still in Egypt. He has a 24-year-old son who is due to qualify as a doctor this year, and a 14-year-old daughter who lives with his ex-wife. In Cairo he had his own business, exporting goods. But when he came to the UK in 2015, initially to resolve a business dispute over payment for containers of grapes, he knew no one. He had never been to Britain before.
A man threatened to sue a magazine for using his picture in an article about hipsters looking alike, only to learn the photo was of someone else who closely resembled him.

MIT Technology Review published a story about a mathematical study which purports to explain why anti-conformists always end up looking the same.

One reader was furious to recognise himself  sporting a beard and beanie hat  in an image illustrating the piece, and quickly fired off an email accusing the publication of slander and breach of copyright.

The magazine had licensed the stock photo from Getty Images, and set about investigating what had happened.

Editor Gideon Lichfield said: As far as I know, calling someone a hipster isnt slander, no matter how much they may hate it. Still, we would never use a picture without the proper license or model release. So we checked the license.

Getty looked in their archive for the model release. And came back to us with the surprising news: the models name wasnt the name of our angry hipster-hater.

Historical hipsters: Shakespeare and Elizabeth I get makeovers from modern artists Show all 6 1 /6 Historical hipsters: Shakespeare and Elizabeth I get makeovers from modern artists Historical hipsters: Shakespeare and Elizabeth I get makeovers from modern artists Elizabeth4.jpg Historical hipsters: Shakespeare and Elizabeth I get makeovers from modern artists Nelson1.jpg Historical hipsters: Shakespeare and Elizabeth I get makeovers from modern artists Marie.jpg Historical hipsters: Shakespeare and Elizabeth I get makeovers from modern artists Henry VIII - Mat Dolphin.jpg Historical hipsters: Shakespeare and Elizabeth I get makeovers from modern artists Shakespeare2.jpg Historical hipsters: Shakespeare and Elizabeth I get makeovers from modern artists Queen Elizabeth I - Mat Dolphin.jpg

He added: In other words, the guy whod threatened to sue us for misusing his image wasnt the one in the photo. Hed misidentified himself. All of which just proves the story we ran: hipsters look so much alike that they cant even tell themselves apart from each other.

The magazines article was about research into the hipster effect by Jonathan Touboul, a mathematics and neuroscience professor at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.

Prof Touboul created a computer model which simulated the behaviour of conformists and non-confirmists in society, in a bid to explain why people who reject mainstream styles often end up looking similar to each other.

He found that, in rejecting trends, non-conformists they tend to "consistently make the same choice", meaning they "they will switch all together to another state where they remain alike".

The study could have implications far beyond fashion, according to Prof Touboul, who said his findings could help to understanding the synchronisation of nerve cells, investment strategies in finance, and emergent dynamics in social science.
A killer whale that could be a new species is to be studied by scientists for the first time after it was seen off the coast of southern Chile.

A team of international researchers have collected genetic samples from a group of orcas roaming the sub-Antarctic waters off the tip of South America.

For decades, fishermen and tourists had returned with tales and even photos of killer whales in the region that look distinctly different from others. But the enigmatic marine mammals had eluded scientists until now.

The team encountered the killer whales  known only as Type D  while anchored off Cape Horn for a week waiting for storms to pass in January.

Scientists collected three biopsy samples from the pod, and biologists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are now conducting laboratory tests that will establish if the orcas are a new species.

Tragic photos show beached whales Show all 15 1 /15 Tragic photos show beached whales Tragic photos show beached whales A dead sperm whale lies on Hunstanton beach in Norfolk on 5 February 2016 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Volunteers pour buckets of water over the 80 remaining live pilot whales found stranded on remote Ocean Beach on New Zealand's southern-most Stewart island, 8 January 2003 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Contractors clear away the body of one of the dead 48ft sperm whales that were washed-up on a beach near Gibraltar Point in Skegness, Lincolnshire in 2016 PA Tragic photos show beached whales People pass by a beached whale at the Pointe de la Torche, near Brest in France on 29 November 2011 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales A woman touches the tail of a large whale carcass on Wattamola Beach at the Royal National Park in Sydney on 25 September 2018 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Beached humpback whale in California, 2015 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Dead long fin pilot whales at Hamelin Bay on Australia's west coast on 23 March 2009 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales A 36ft sperm whale lies dead on the beach at Sutton Bridge, in The Wash, off the Lincolnshire coast, where it became stranded in 2004 PA Tragic photos show beached whales A female fin whale opens its mouth as it lies stranded and alive on the beach at Carlyon Bay, Cornwall on 13 August 2012 Getty Tragic photos show beached whales The lower jaw of a dead sperm whale that stranded itself on a beach in Hunstanton, Norfolk on 5 February 2016 Getty Tragic photos show beached whales One of the five sperm whales that were found washed ashore on beaches near Skegness, Lincolnshire over the weekend on 25 January 2016 Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Employees at work to skin the remains of a beached 60ft whale on 25 January 2013 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Two long-finned pilot whales are stranded on a beach in the northern French city of Calais on 2 November 2015 AFP/Getty Tragic photos show beached whales A sperm whale lies dead after becoming stranded on a beach in Hunstanton, Norfolk on 5 February 2016 Getty Tragic photos show beached whales Crowds gather as a sperm whale lies dead after becoming stranded on a beach in Hunstanton, Norfolk on 5 February 2016 Getty

We are very excited about the genetic analyses to come, said Bob Pitman, marine ecologist who was part of the team that spotted the whales.

Type D killer whales could be the largest undescribed animal left on the planet and a clear indication of how little we know about life in our oceans.

The unusual killer whales were first documented in 1955, when 17 of them were stranded on the coast of Paraparaumu, New Zealand. Compared to other killer whales, they had a more rounded head, a narrower and more pointed dorsal fins, and a tiny white eyepatch.

Initially, scientists speculated that the unique look might have been caused by a genetic aberration only seen in the stranded pod. But in 2005, a French scientist showed Mr Pitman photographs of odd-looking killer whales that had been poaching catches from commercial fishing lines near Crozet Island in the southern Indian Ocean. They had the same tiny eye patches and bulbous heads.

Unlike killer whale types A to C, they are thought to eat fish rather than marine mammals such as seals. They are also slightly smaller, at 20ft to 25ft long.

The whales are so different they probably cannot breed with other killer whales and are likely to be a new species, according to Mr Pitman.

An adult male regular killer whale, top, and adult male Type D killer whale, bottom, with a smaller eye patch, more rounded head, and more narrow and pointed dorsal fin. (Uko Gorter/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Some outside experts were more cautious. Michael McGowen, marine mammal curator at the Smithsonian Institution, said calling the whale a new species without genetic data was premature.

However, he added: I think its pretty remarkable that there are still many things out there in the ocean like a huge killer whale that we dont know about.

The whales are hard to find because they live far south and away from shore "in the most inhospitable waters on the planet", said Mr Pitman.

"It's a good place to hide," he added.

The researchers followed the advice and directions of South American fishermen as they looked for the whales.

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After weeks of waiting, about 25 of the whales came up to the scientist's boat, looking like they expected to be fed.

Equipment problems prevented the scientists from recording enough of the whale songs, but they used a crossbow to get tiny tissue samples.

Mr Pitman said the whales are so big and their skin so tough that the arrow "is like a soda straw bouncing off a truck tyre" and does not hurt them.

"For 14 years I was looking for these guys. I finally got to see them," he said.
The foster carers of the Parsons Green bomber are suing Surrey County Council for failing to disclose he had been trained to kill by Isis.

Ron and Penny Jones fostered Iraqi asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan, who pretended to engage with the anti-extremism Prevent scheme as he plotted mass murder in London.

He was sentenced to life with a minimum of 34 years at the Old Bailey last year, after setting off a bomb with 400g of Mother of Satan explosive and 2.2kg of shrapnel at Parsons Green station, injuring 51 passengers on 15 September, 2017.

The Joneses, who were awarded an MBE in 2010, are claiming the council presented him merely as a troubled young person and did not disclose key information about the danger he posed.

During his trial, it was revealed Hassan arrived in Britain illegally in 2015 and told officials he had trained with Isis.

Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Show all 23 1 /23 Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion A bucket with flames and wires coming out of it was photographed in the carriage after the explosion  apparently the source of the blast AFP Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion An explosion on a packed Tube train has injured a number of people in west London AFP/Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion The blast triggered a stampede as commuters panicked AFP/Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion Click through for more pictures from the scene Reuters Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosioN Reuters Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion PA Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion Reuters Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion Reuters Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion AFP/Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion Reuters Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion AFP/Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion AFP/Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion Reuters Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Parsons Green explosion Reuters Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures AFP/Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures AFP/Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures AFP/Getty Terror attack at Parson's Green  in pictures AFP/Getty

In an interview with the Associated Press, Mr and Ms Jones, who fostered 269 children in 47 years, said they have been betrayed and hung out to dry by Surrey County Council, as they have not been asked to foster any more children since Hassans arrest.

Ms Jones, 72, said: We want to make sure that no other foster carers are ever treated like we have been.

The couple are claiming the council was negligent in not telling them the full story about Hassans past and that the council had breached their right to family life as protected under the Human Rights Act.

They told me that he had tried to kill himself and would only be released if he was fostered into a stable home so we took him in, Ms Jones said.

On the surface he was a lovely boy. He wouldnt let Ron mow the lawn and he would always carry the shopping in from the car. So when it came out he was building a bomb in our home it was a real shock.

 Metropolitan Police release CCTV footage showing moment of explosion at Parsons Green

Mr Jones said: We were told that the amount of explosives he had was enough to blow up this entire block of six houses. Its terrifying.

Ms Jones added: When Ahmeds trial was going on, I was asked if I knew if he had said he was trained to kill by Isis and I said no, we would never have taken him if wed known.

Caring for kids was my life and now this has been taken away from us.
Britain and the EU have publicly locked horns, with the government accusing Brussels of trying to rerun old arguments as clock ticks down to find a compromise deal during Brexit talks.

In an extraordinary exchange on social media, Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay demanded the EU agree to balanced proposals instead of going over old ground.

Just two hours earlier, the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier indicated that if the UK did not like the deal on the table, it could accept an alternative already outright rejected by Theresa May earlier in the negotiating process.

The offer from Mr Barnier points to an EU machine frustrated with British attempts to try to re-write the Irish backstop so hated by Conservative MPs, but deemed absolutely indispensable by Brussels.

At lunch time Ms May gave a speech with a pointed message for the EU, demanding it give more ground so a compromise in deadlocked talks can be found, telling the blocs leaders lets get it done.

The row comes hours before the two sides must secure changes if they are to be put before MPs in a critical vote next week, with the prime minister facing a second humiliating defeat and the prospect of parliament stripping her executive of power over the Brexit process.

UK negotiators have been trying to secure a legal way of escaping the Irish backstop arrangement  which comes into play if the two sides fail to secure a new trade deal by the end of 2020 and which could lock Britain into a customs union indefinitely.

In an unexpected move, Mr Barnier tweeted that the UK would only be able to leave the backstop unilaterally, if it effectively left Northern Ireland inside the arrangement, which would ensure there is no hard border with the Republic  something Ms May has already said no to and which her DUP allies in government would certainly vote down in the commons.

Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Show all 20 1 /20 Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Brexit supporters outside parliament PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An anti-Brexit protester adjusts her pro-EU wig AFP/Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A message to Jeremy Corbyn in support of a peoples vote Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A mock Titanic captained by Theresa May heads towards an iceberg in a stunt by campaigning group Avaaz AP Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Anti-Brexit protesters outside parliament PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Protesters of opposing sides are in close contact outside of parliament PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Paintings of Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage speaks to the media at the protests outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A pro-Brexit protester in Parliament Square Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Opposing protesters share the space outside parliament Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An anti-Brexit protester holds EU balloons outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Anti-Brexit protesters stand on Westminster Bridge PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage speaks to the media at the protests outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament EPA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A pro-Brexit protester sets up outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An Avaaz campaigner holds a Peoples Vote life float Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A demonstrator holds a sign advocating a no-deal Brexit outside parliament AFP/Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An anti-Brexit protester waves an EU flag on Westminster Bridge PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Protesters of opposing sides demonstrate outside parliament AFP/Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Protesters of opposing sides stand near parliament Reuters

After weeks of increasingly ill-tempered negotiations, Mr Barclay wrote back: With a very real deadline looming, now is not the time to rerun old arguments. The UK has put forward clear new proposals. We now need to agree a balanced solution that can work for both sides.

The offer by Mr Barnier for a unilateral exit for Great Britain, but not Northern Ireland effectively lets the UK revert to the original EU plan for the backstop  which would have put customs checks on the Irish sea between Northern Ireland and the mainland.

That plan was scrapped for the current UK-wide backstop after months of lobbying by the British side, but when it was taken back to MPs, they rejected that too  with Brexiteers worried that it would trap the UK inside a customs union with the EU.

[The new offer is] basically going back to the old backstop, one EU official said of the plan, which does not require the reopening of the withdrawal agreement.

Michel Barnier laid out the proposals in a series of tweets on Friday afternoon  an unusual move but one which came after Ms Mays speech which challenged the EU to give ground.

The EU commits to give UK the option to exit the single customs territory unilaterally, while the other elements of the backstop must be maintained to avoid a hard border. UK will not be forced into a customs union against its will, he said.

He added that the arbitration panel already included in the withdrawal agreement can, under Article 178 of the withdrawal agreement, give the UK the right to a proportionate suspension of its obligations under the backstop, as a last resort, if EU breaches its best endeavours/good faith obligations to negotiate alternative solutions.

 Former Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni: 'Brexit biggest mistake by a European country since war

He said the bloc would also give legal force to all commitments from the January letter from the European Council president and European Commission president through joint interpretative statement.

The EU will continue working intensively over the coming days to ensure that the UK leaves the EU with an agreement, he concluded.

In her speech in Grimsby on Friday, the prime minister turned her fire on European leaders demanding they make a move to get the Brexit negotiations moving again.

She said: European leaders tell me they worry that time is running out, and that we only have one chance to get it right. My message to them is: now is the moment for us to act.

We have worked hard together over two years on the deal. It is a comprehensive deal that provides for an orderly exit from the EU, and that sets a platform for an ambitious future relationship.

It needs just one more push, to address the final specific concerns of our parliament. So lets not hold back. Lets do what is necessary for MPs to back the deal on Tuesday.

On that day the House of Commons will again vote on Ms Mays Brexit deal  after rejecting it last time by a historic margin of defeat. If the agreement is rejected again the government has promised to give MPs votes on whether to rule out a no-deal Brexit, and whether to extend article 50. These votes are expected on Wednesday and Thursday of this week respectively.

Polling commissioned by The Irish Times and conducted by Ipsos MRBI shows Northern Irish votes overwhelmingly reject a hard Brexit, and that 67 per cent think the DUP is doing a bad job of representing Northern Ireland in Westminster.

69 per cent of Northern Irish people  including 57 of those with a protestant background, say they are dissatisfied with DUP leader Arlene Foster. Notably, more voters favour checks on goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland than do checks at the Irish border.

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday morning that it should be Theresa May offering the UK concessions if she wanted changes to the withdrawal agreement. He said talks were really a question of what they are willing to offer us and that he withdrawal agreement as it stood was already a compromise that had taken a year and a half to negotiate.
Jeremy Corbyn has warned Theresa May not to make a third attempt to ram through her Brexit deal if it crashes to its expected defeat next week, saying it must be the end of the road.

The prime minister has not ruled out a third meaningful vote if MPs reject her agreement next week  even with the scheduled exit day from the EU just three weeks away.

But, speaking to Labour activists in Scotland, Mr Corbyn said Ms May must accept that defeat on Tuesday would represent an unprecedented failure in British political history.

Having already failed once to get her deal through, I want to make it clear to the prime minister if she fails again it will be the end of the road for her deal, the Labour leader said.

There is no coming back from it. There can be no more playing for time.

Recommended EU says Britain can leave backstop but Northern Ireland must stay

Mr Corbyn again insisted Labours softer Brexit proposals could secure agreement both at Westminster and in Brussels, following his discussions with Michel Barnier [the EU negotiator].

However, he also insisted Labour was not obsessed by Brexit like other parties  pointing to poverty and climate change as the issues that really matter.

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Turn on the news at the moment and youll hear endlessly about constitutional issues. Brexit. Independence. It borders on the obsessive, he told a conference in Dundee.

You dont hear so much about the children arriving hungry to school or how the teachers at one nursery have had to arrange for Tesco and Greggs to donate their leftovers so they can feed the kids.

On climate change, Mr Corbyn said: Fundamentally the destruction of our climate is a class issue.

Its working class communities that suffer the worst pollution and the worst air quality. Its working class people who will lose their jobs as resources run dry.

And its working class people who will be left behind as the rich escape rising sea levels.

Nevertheless, the dismissal of Brexit as for obsessives will alarm Labour MPs desperate for Mr Corbyn to swing indisputably behind the campaign for a Final Say referendum.

He made only a passing reference to backing a public vote to prevent disaster, while insisting: We favour a general election. Well push for our alternative plan.

The government is braced for another heavy defeat on Tuesday, having failed to win concessions from the EU to solve the Irish border controversy.

MPs have then been promised a vote to veto a no-deal Brexit and, after doing that, a vote to delay it by extending the Article 50 process beyond 29 March.

If the Commons rejects all options next week, it could leave space for the prime minister to have a third go at passing her deal  particularly if the alternative is a long delay imposed by Brussels.
 Close Theresa May on Brexit: without a deal 'we might never leave the EU at all'

Theresa May pleaded with her EU counterparts to give ground in a key speech just days before MPs vote on her Brexit deal.

Speaking in Grimsby on Friday, the prime minister said no one knows what will happen if her plan is rejected, warning Brexiteers: We may never leave at all.

Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier reacted to Ms Mays speech in a series of tweets. He said the UK would have the unilateral right to leave the customs union, but also made clear Northern Ireland would have to stay inside it.

However, the apparent concession was dismissed by the DUP as neither realistic nor sensible. Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay suggested the EU plan was simply a return to an earlier version of the backstop which had already been rejected.

Ms May accused Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of supporting a divisive second referendum that would take the UK right back to square one.

Mr Corbyn fired back by warning the prime minister not to make a third attempt to ram through her deal if its defeated next week, saying it must be the end of the road.

Here's how the day unfolded:

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Jeremy Hunt has warned that future generations will blame the European Union if the Brexit talks end in acrimony.

With only days to go until MPs vote on Theresa Mays deal, the foreign secretary issued a stern rebuke to Brussels, saying they needed to be flexible in the negotiations and accept that the UK has a very clear ask on the changes needed to get the deal over the line.

The prime minister will use a speech in Grimsby to appeal to the EU to give ground on the divisive Irish backstop, but the mood among her top team is grim, as attempts to secure tweaks to her deal have floundered in recent days.

Ms May said the actions of Brussels negotiators will have a material impact on the outcome of the critical vote next week.

Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Show all 20 1 /20 Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Brexit supporters outside parliament PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An anti-Brexit protester adjusts her pro-EU wig AFP/Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A message to Jeremy Corbyn in support of a peoples vote Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A mock Titanic captained by Theresa May heads towards an iceberg in a stunt by campaigning group Avaaz AP Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Anti-Brexit protesters outside parliament PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Protesters of opposing sides are in close contact outside of parliament PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Paintings of Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage speaks to the media at the protests outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A pro-Brexit protester in Parliament Square Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Opposing protesters share the space outside parliament Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An anti-Brexit protester holds EU balloons outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Anti-Brexit protesters stand on Westminster Bridge PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage speaks to the media at the protests outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament EPA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A pro-Brexit protester sets up outside parliament Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An Avaaz campaigner holds a Peoples Vote life float Reuters Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament A demonstrator holds a sign advocating a no-deal Brexit outside parliament AFP/Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament An anti-Brexit protester waves an EU flag on Westminster Bridge PA Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Protesters of opposing sides demonstrate outside parliament AFP/Getty Brexit deal vote: Opposing groups of protesters gather by parliament Protesters of opposing sides stand near parliament Reuters

This is a moment of change in our relationship between the UK and the EU, and history will judge both sides very badly if we get this wrong, Mr Hunt told the Today programme.

We want to remain the best of friends with the EU. That means getting this agreement through in a way that doesnt inject poison into our relations for many years to come.

Thats what the UK has said we want to do, its what most people in the UK want and feel very strongly about.

But it does need the EU also to be flexible in these negotiations and understand that we now have a very, very clear ask.

MPs will vote on Tuesday on whether to support Ms Mays deal, in a second meaningful vote that could determine the course of Brexit.

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The latest test follows the humiliating defeat, by 230 votes, Ms May suffered the last time the Commons passed judgment on her Brexit deal in January.

Mr Hunt said: We know what it would take to get a deal through the House of Commons, and that is for a significant change to allow the attorney general to change his advice to the government and say we couldnt be trapped in a customs union forever.

Thats not an unreasonable thing to ask, and we have made, I think, some progress in the last few days. Theres a bit more to make. Its entirely possible to get there.

And frankly I think future generations, if this ends in acrimony, will say that the EU got this moment wrong. And I really hope they dont.

Conservative Party deputy chairman James Cleverly said it was inevitable the UK and the EU have ended up at this point, and urged colleagues to hold their nerve because at the final point of a negotiation of this magnitude it gets most intense, it gets most difficult, it gets most challenging.

Recommended May makes last ditch plea for EU to give ground in Brexit talks

He added: I think we are getting close to the point where modest but significant changes can unlock this.

Elsewhere, international trade secretary Liam Fox urged Conservative Brexiteers to rally behind the deal or run the risk of Brexit not happening.

The thing that I fear is that there will be ... a risk that we might not deliver Brexit at all, he told BBCs Newsnight.

In parliament there are a large number of MPs who do not see it as their primary objective to deliver on the referendum and would want to keep us locked to the European Union.

Negotiators are preparing to work through the weekend in a frantic effort to break the deadlock over the backstop measures, which are aimed at preventing a hard border with Ireland if no alternative trading arrangements are in place.
Irelands prime minister has turned the tables on Theresa May in Brexit talks, warning that she should in fact be making concessions to the EU if she wants changes to the agreement.

Leo Varadkar on Friday said talks were actually a question of what they are willing to offer us as Ms May urged concessions from the bloc. He said the UK had made no offer and should change its approach.

Ms May has been unable to get the deal she negotiated through parliament because of concerns about it from all sides. She wants the EU to change aspects of the withdrawal agreement to make it more palatable to hard Brexiteers within her party.

But speaking in Dublin the taoiseach said the withdrawal agreement as it stood was already a compromise that had taken a year and a half to negotiate.

Weve already agreed to a review clause so I think we have made a lot of compromises and whats not evident is what the UK government is offering the EU and Ireland should they wish us to make any further compromises, we receive no offer as to what they would give us in return for any changes, he said.

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It would require a change of approach by the UK government to understand that Brexit is a problem of their creation, what was agreed is already a compromise. They failed to secure ratification of this so it should be a question of what they are willing to offer us.

EU leaders have previously suggested the government should soften Brexit by renegotiating the future relationship, in order to gain Labour votes to pass the plan. Theresa May has rejected this approach  which would be likely to enrage hard Brexiteers in her party.

The prime minister wants legally binding changes to water down the Irish border backstop. Her negotiators, who have been shuttling between Brussels and London all week, have reportedly proposed a new system that could end the backstop early if both sides do not endeavour to replace it with new arrangements.

Theresa May speaking in Grimsby on Friday (Getty)

Ms May herself gave a speech in Grimsby on Friday afternoon, calling for one more push from the EU to get her deal over the line. The same day, foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said people would blame the EU if it did not make concessions for the UK.

EU diplomats willing to comment on the talks have spoken of their frustration with the UKs approach.

We are expecting a blame game after she loses the second meaningful vote next week, so it looks like she is already preparing the ground for this, one EU diplomat said.

Meanwhile Mr Varadkars deputy Simon Coveney warned the prime minister not to listen to hard Brexiteers in her party.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. 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We cant have the future relationship between the EU and UK determined by a relatively small number of hardliners who are trying to force the British prime minister to change her position, he told the broadcaster Euronews.

Mr Coveney added that he believed there was no real cause for optimism following a meeting he attended in London earlier this week.

The prime minister is expected to visit Brussels on Monday in a bid to secure final concessions in person. Her MPs will vote on her deal again on Tuesday, with votes on ruling out no deal and extending Article 50 close behind.
Theresa May has warned that if MPs reject her Brexit deal next week no one knows what will happen and that the UK may never leave the EU at all.

The prime minister told those preparing to take a decision on her deal in the House of Commons that they should move past the bitterness of the debate and back it so the country can more on.

But she also had a pointed message for the EU, demanding it give more ground so a compromise in deadlocked talks can be found, telling Brussels lets get it done.

It comes as talks to find a way out of a disagreement over the vexed issue of the Irish backstop remain at an impasse, with eurosceptic Tories and the DUP demanding alterations as the price for their support.

Speaking in Grimsby, Ms May said the commons would face, a crucial choice; whether to back the Brexit deal or to reject it.

She went on: Back it and the UK will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen.

We may not leave the EU for many months, we may leave without the protections that the deal provides. We may never leave at all.

Ms May reminded MPs that 33.5m people had taken part in the 2016 referendum and that the outcome was to leave.

Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Show all 12 1 /12 Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Middlesbrough After midnight, New Years Eve. A girl looks at her phone and smokes, framed against a line-up of antiquated postcard features of Britain. Shes the most authentic part of the scene, however, a glimpse of modern Britain, while the red phone box belongs to the past Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Middlesbrough I walk through a field by the industrial estate where several horses live chained to the ground. They feed on thinning grass. The Transporter Bridge lies in the background: an emblem of movement and motion and crossing divides, like a cruel joke played on the animals, stuck and fixed and static Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Middlesbrough The first second of 2019, welcomed with with a kiss, a hug, with stares and smiles, with a shot thrown down a throat, with phones and photos and forgetting Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Middlesbrough Shoes hang from lines of communication, sagging between houses, pulling down on the words and silences that somehow run through these black wires. It reminded me of the view from my bedroom window in Poland Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Middlesbrough A queue to keep going, into the night, further into 2019 before sleeping. Vape rises distinctly, a new sight on the street in the last few years, bringing atmospheric emissions to the image. Theres sweat and purpose and promise Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Middlesbrough Im struck by this naming and shaming, by the identification of supposed disloyalty, clearly marking the public space of the city for all to see, whether they care or not, whether they know or not Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Hartlepool A view from inside the Market Hall, looking out, onto another person sitting on the street and another person faced with the experience of walking by. Both lower their heads, as if in acknowledgement of the difficulty of the situation Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Hartlepool I walk to the end of a long jetty by the marina. Fisherman stand at the furthest tip, waiting for a bite, looking to the horizon where faint puffs of smoke appear and vanish from factories further down the east coast Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Seaham Dwelling spaces of the dead and the living, closer than usual, occupying the same public space, both observable in one view, the burial ground of the local church acting as a garden for the housing estate behind Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Sunderland A walk by the River Wear is comically framed from the Wearmouth Bridge, a view unavailable to the couple, who probably have no idea theyre walking into shot. Some things just cannot be appreciated at ground level and can only be seen from above Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Sunderland Somebody once wrote this on a wall. Thats all. But now its part of the scene, part of the view, part of the experience of walking up High Street West into town. Its tiny and anonymous, but noticeable and affecting Richard Morgan/The Independent Britain Before Brexit: Northeast England Sunderland Three elements of the city: a flapping pigeon; an austere grey tower block; purchasable sex Richard Morgan/The Independent

She said: Brexit does not belong to MPs in parliament. It belongs to the whole country. It belongs to the people who voted for it and want to see it implemented, so we can all move on to a prosperous future.

And that more prosperous future also belongs to those who voted against Brexit, and who expect politicians to make reasonable compromises to bring our country back together.

Ms Mays attorney general Geoffrey Cox was in Brussels earlier this week desperately trying to find a way to re-write the Irish backstop  an arrangement which, as it stands in the withdrawal agreement, would see the UK potentially trapped in an indefinite customs union if Britain and EU fail to agree a trade deal by the end of 2020.

The minister is yet to achieve any success, but if he cannot members of the European Research Group of Conservative backbenchers and Ms Mays partners in government have vowed to oppose her deal.

In her speech, the prime minister argued that the agreement on the table does stop cash payments to the EU, stops the free movement of people and ends the jurisdiction of the European Court.

Turning her fire on Brussels, Ms May said: European leaders tell me they worry that time is running out, and that we only have one chance to get it right. My message to them is: now is the moment for us to act.

 Former Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni: 'Brexit biggest mistake by a European country since war

We have worked hard together over two years on the deal. It is a comprehensive deal that provides for an orderly exit from the EU, and that sets a platform for an ambitious future relationship.

It needs just one more push, to address the final specific concerns of our Parliament. So lets not hold back. Lets do what is necessary for MPs to back the deal on Tuesday.

Brexit does not belong to MPs in parliament. It belongs to the whole country. It belongs to the people who voted for it and want to see it implemented, so we can all move on to a prosperous future Prime minister Theresa May

Ms May attacked Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who she said had made the chances of a second referendum more likely by giving one his backing.

She claimed the Labour leader had offered her one hour over the last five weeks despite repeated offers for a meeting from her office.

Labour hit back saying there was nothing new in the speech and accused her of running down the clock until Brexit. Earlier in the day, Mr Corbyn had said Ms Mays speech sounds like desperation.

Downing Street confirmed that the prime minister spoke by phone with counterparts from Bulgaria, Denmark and Portugal on Thursday evening and is expected to make further calls to EU leaders over the coming days.

 Attorney general Geoffrey Cox refers to his crotch during Parliamentary Brexit debate

A Number 10 spokeswoman said the conversations involved the changes Britain is seeking to the backstop as well as issues such as the status of expat citizens after Brexit.

The prime minister is expected to work through the weekend on Brexit from her Maidenhead constituency home, though there are currently no plans for her to travel to Brussels, something which might be necessary if there is a breakthrough in talks.

Negotiations being conducted by officials in Brussels are at a sensitive and critical stage, said Number 10, though the added there are currently no plans for Mr Cox to go to the Belgian capital on Friday either, as was once expected.

If Ms Mays withdrawal agreement is not passed by the commons on Tuesday, there is a possibility that subsequent votes on a no-deal Brexit and the extension of Article 50 could both be taken the following day.
Chuka Umunna, the spokesman for the Independent Group of breakaway MPs, has released a 50-page policy pamphlet outlining his views on everything from taxes to tuition fees.

The former Labour MP said he was sharing the ideas in a personal capacity, rather than establishing a manifesto for TIG  the 11-member collective he helped set up last month.

So what exactly is Mr Umunnas vision for Britains future? Weve taken a look at some of his key policy principles:

Tuition Fees

Mr Umunna wants means-tested tuition fees and the reintroduction of maintenance grants to help poorer students  without wasting money on the wealthiest students by axing fees altogether.

He writes: Rejecting the simplistic policy of scrapping all fees does not mean that we should put up with the status quo. Far from it. But progressives must be prepared to say where we think a policy, no matter how popular, is not the best use of public money.

In this case a more targeted approach would achieve significantly better social mobility outcomes for the same cost. Which is why rather than scrapping fees altogether we should favour means-testing fees and reinstating maintenance grants.

NHS

The TIG spokesman suggests a hypothecated tax to tackle the NHS crisis, where the revenue from a specific tax would be ring-fenced for the health service.

Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Show all 12 1 /12 Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Change UK Details on the individual MPs are in the following photos Reuters Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Heidi Allen Anti-Brexit MP for South Cambridgeshire resigned from the Conservative party on February 20 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Chuka Umunna MP for Streatham since 2010 and prominent People's Vote supporter PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Anna Soubry The prominent anti-Brexit MP for Broxtowe resigned from the Conservative party on February 20 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Luciana Berger MP for Liverpool Wavertree since 2010, resigned from the Labour Party over bullying and anti-semitism PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Sarah Wollaston Anti-Brexit MP for Totnes resigned from the Conservative party on February 20 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Joan Ryan MP for Enfield North resigned from the Labour party on February 19 citing its tolerance of a "culture of anti-Jewish racism" PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Ann Coffey MP for Stockport since 1992 Chris McAndrew / UK Parliament Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Gavin Shuker MP for Luton South since 2010 Getty Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Chris Leslie MP for Nottingham East since 2010 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Mike Gapes MP for Ilford South since 1992 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Angela Smith MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge since 2010

When it comes to funding, the majority of people would be prepared to pay more. However, the current National Insurance system is ineffective, a hypothecated (tax) is now needed. If voters can see the link between what goes out of their pay packet and into the NHS, it will make the case for giving the NHS the resources it needs much more powerful.

It need not be the only revenue stream for the NHS  if it were, the danger is the service would receive less revenue in a recession and more at times of growth  but it would certainly help bring the public round to paying more tax for something they treasure.

Taxes

Mr Umunna calls for a tax hike on shareholders receiving dividends. He wants to end the manifest unfairness of dividend income being taxed at as low as 7.5 per cent  far lower than the 20 per cent basic rate of income tax. He also wants to incentivise companies to tackle boardroom pay.

Its simply wrong that those with the most resources are benefiting from lower rates of tax than the tens of millions of hard-working families. And they are doing so at huge cost to the exchequer.

We urgently need to put in place a regulatory framework to incentivise companies to adopt pay structures for senior executives based on long-term equity and debt holdings: linking pay packages to the long-term fortunes of the company, with shares vesting over periods of at least five years, will encourage company leaders to take a longer-term view.

 Who is part of the Independent Group?

Renationalisation

The MP wants to replace some of the privatised utilities with public benefit companies  while avoiding the old-school renationalisation.

Not only is the price tag for traditional renationalisation huge, but those industries borrowings would become part of the national balance sheet  restricting a progressive governments ability to borrow for priorities like infrastructure investment.

An incoming progressive government could legislate to force companies providing key public services to write the provision of public benefit into their constitution, taking precedence over profit-making. It can then insist on taking a foundation share in each company as a condition of its operating licence.

Citizens Service

Mr Umunna suggests a new Citizens Service giving young people the chance to take part in voluntary work. He thinks it could help bring people together as they begin their adult life, but stresses it would not be a return to mandatory military service.

As progressives we should be prepared to get beyond visions of the past and create a version of national service that succeeds for todays world in achieving the one thing that those who actually undertook it are pretty much agreed on; it brought people from an array of different backgrounds and different parts of the country together in a way like no other.

Lets be clear. This is not a call for compulsory military service  whatever other objections its the last thing the armed forces say they want. Instead this is a call to look seriously at developing a programme of national service that will have the effect of bolstering social cohesion for generations to come.

Chuka Umunna addressing the press conference where the formation of TIG was announced (Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)

Ending Prime Ministers Questions

Mr Umunna thinks the circus of PMQs should be scrapped and MPs be moved to a horseshoe shaped chamber to make politics less adversarial. He also proposes voting at 16, the state funding of political parties and the adoption of the additional member system  a form of proportional representation.

Parliaments culture and ways of working need to be overhauled. It operates like a giant ornament stuck in a time warp instead of a modern legislature. PMQs is a circus which does a disservice to public debate and on a weekly basis illustrates all that is wrong with the status-quo: witless, tribal, unoriginal, uninspiring.

To invigorate democracy in an increasingly diverse country the next radical government might consider a new citizenship package: voting at 16, polling stations in schools combined with a compulsory civics GCSE and compulsory voting in ones first election.
Theresa May has been criticised after only taking one question from a woman during a press conference on International Womens Day.

The prime minister was taking queries from journalists after a speech during which she issued a last-ditch plea for MPs to back her Brexit deal.

But as the session ended after Ms May invited questions from six reporters, ITV political correspondent Libby Wiener challenged the leader as she left the podium.

Only one question from a woman on International Womens Day? Its a pretty poor show, isnt it, she said.

The PM appeared to laugh as she continued to walk away, before pausing to respond: They were all answered by a woman prime minister.

How IWD is marked around the world Show all 22 1 /22 How IWD is marked around the world How IWD is marked around the world Women bang pots and pans during a protest at the start of a nationwide feminist strike on International Women's Day at Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid, Spain Reuters How IWD is marked around the world People attend a rally, held to support women's rights and to protest against violence towards women in Saint Petersburg, Russia Reuters How IWD is marked around the world Women practice Shivkalin Yudha Kala, a Maharashtrian martial art on the eve of International Women's Day at a ground on the outskirts of Mumbai, India Reuters How IWD is marked around the world A march to mark International Women's Day in Melbourne, Australia AFP/Getty How IWD is marked around the world Topless members of feminist movement Femen tear down a gate that prevents the public from viewing Herbertstrasse, a street in Hamburg's red light district AFP/Getty How IWD is marked around the world Yazidi women attend a ceremony at Lilash Temple to commemorate the death of women who were killed by ISIS, on International Women's Day in Shekhan, Iraq Reuters How IWD is marked around the world A march to mark International Women's Day in Seoul, South Korea Getty How IWD is marked around the world A woman wears an earring that reads 'respect' looks on during a protest against femicide on International Women's Day in Nairobi, Kenya EPA How IWD is marked around the world A sculpture to honour the San Fermin festival is 'decorated' with aprons and a mop by feminist activists to mark International Women's Day in Pamplona, Spain EPA How IWD is marked around the world A woman poses in a banner put up by the Tibetan Women's Association, to mark International Women's Day in Dharmsala, India AP How IWD is marked around the world Artists graffiti on a barrier wall of the Ministry of Women's Affairs to mark International Women's Day in Kabul, Afghanistan AP How IWD is marked around the world A woman wears a mask that reads "Feminist Strike" as she takes part in a bike protest during a nationwide feminist strike on International Women's Day in Madrid, Spain Reuters How IWD is marked around the world A woman looks through a banner put up by the Tibetan Women's Association, to mark International Women's Day in Dharmsala, India AP How IWD is marked around the world EPA How IWD is marked around the world Women hold lit candles at the central Shaheed Minar premises to celebrate the International Women's Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh EPA How IWD is marked around the world EPA How IWD is marked around the world Customers buy flowers at a flower stall in Pyongyang. International Women's Day was marked with a public holiday in North Korea AFP/Getty How IWD is marked around the world A woman shouts slogans as she wears face painting with the venus symbol during a demonstration at the start of International Women's Day in Puerta del Sol Square, Madrid Getty How IWD is marked around the world Filipino women and supporters hold placards during a rally marking International Women's Day in Manila EPA How IWD is marked around the world Women hold lit candles at the central Shaheed Minar premises to celebrate the International Women's Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh EPA How IWD is marked around the world Bangladeshi women attend a candle light vigil to mark International Women's Day in Dhaka AFP/Getty Images How IWD is marked around the world Women shout slogans during a rally on the eve of International Women's Day in Karachi, Pakistan EPA

Her response prompted applause from the audience of around 50 workers and 30 journalists at the Orsted wind turbine complex in Grimsby.

Political journalism has infamously always suffered from a major gender imbalance  one even more stark than that which applies to the industry as a whole.

But while Ms May called on Sky News deputy political editor Beth Rigby to ask the first question, the next five were all from men.

Peter Walker from the Guardian, John Pienaar from the BBC, Rob Hutton from Bloomberg and Jack Maidment from the Daily Telegraph were all invited to ask questions before the prime minister announced she would take the last one from Patrick Daly from the Grimsby Telegraph.

Tim Iredale, the BBCs political editor for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, took to Twitter to ask Ms May why she just answered questions from the Westminster boys club.

Our very own Linsey Smith would have liked to have asked something relevant to the local audience, he added.

Mr Walker commented: Im biased as mine was one of the questions she failed to answer, but that was a pretty dire Q&A session from Theresa May in Grimsby. Utter refusal to deal with any specific questions.

Shortly after the speech in Grimsby, the prime ministers Twitter account posted a tweet reading: To celebrate International Womens Day I was delighted to welcome so many successful and inspirational female entrepreneurs to Downing Street.
Former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning was jailed on Friday for contempt of court after refusing to testify before a grand jury.

Ms Manning had appeared in court on Wednesday but declined to answer questions in connection with what is believed to be the government's long-running investigation into Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange.

The judge said she would be held in jail until she cooperates or the grand jury finishes its term.

It is unclear exactly why prosecutors want Ms Manning to testify, although her representatives say the questions she was asked concern the information she publically disclosed in 2010 through WikiLeaks.

She cited her first, fourth and sixth amendment rights and said she was prepared to face the consequences of my refusal. She said she had already given extensive answers in 2013 when she was convicted of espionage.

Ms Manning was also jailed in 2013 for other offences after contributing to more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to WikiLeaks while she was an intelligence analyst in Iraq.

Former President Barack Obama, in his final days in office, commuted the final 28 years of Ms Mannings 35-year sentence.

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

Her lawyers had asked that she be confined at home rather than in jail because of medical complications. But the judge said US officials could handle her medical care.

In her statement on Thursday, Ms Manning wrote, The court may find me in contempt, and order me to jail.

She continued: Yesterday, I appeared before a secret grand jury after being given immunity for my testimony. All of the substantive questions pertained to my disclosures of information to the public in 2010  answers I provided in extensive testimony during my court martial in 2013. I responded to each question with the following statement: I object to the question and refuse to answer on the grounds that the question is in violation of my First, Fourth, and Sixth Amendment, and other statutory rights.

Recommended Chelsea Manning called to testify in Julian Assange probe

In a brief statement after the hearing on Thursday, Ms Manning said she opposes the grand jury system as a matter of principle.

Grand juries are terrible, to say the least, she said, noting the rules prohibit her lawyers from accompanying her during her testimony. She said other rules were bent to suit prosecutors whims. She added: The idea that there is such a thing as an independent grand jury is long gone.

 Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

Ms Manning  who had a dozen supporters at the courthouse carrying signs that read Solidarity with Chelsea and defend Grand Jury Resistance  said she does not know why her testimony is being sought.

Additional reporting by AP and Reuters
A college student in California taught his teacher a lessonquite literally.

Maleek Eid, 23, delivered a presentation in his English class at College of the Desert in Palm Springs where he called out his professor for using the n-word twice in class.

The class was referring to Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter from Birmingham Jail as an example for annotations when the professor slipped the anti-black racial slur.

She said they used to use words like... and she said the n-word, Mr Eid told BuzzFeed News. I didnt say anything, I was actually so shocked.

Then, about one week later, the teacher said the n-word again in a similar situation.

So I was like, thats strike two, and strike one didnt sit well with me already, he added.

Mr Eid said other students didnt seem appalled when the professor said the racial slur, noting that none of his classmates were black.

The Palestinian-American student intended to submit a report to the school, but took a different route when his professor assigned students to deliver opposing arguments on a controversial topic.

Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Show all 15 1 /15 Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Kandy Freeman participates in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower People participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Hawk Newsome, a Black Lives Matter activist, leads a protest outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Hawk Newsome (C) leads a chant during a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, US. January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower People participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower An NYPD officer speaks with a Black Lives Matter leaders during a protest in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Kandy Freeman participates in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower An NYPD officer speaks with a Black Lives Matter leaders during a protest in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Carol Garza, a Black Lives Matter supporter, protests outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower People participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower A Black Lives Matter supporter protests in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Black Lives Matter activists march in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Black Lives Matter activists march in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Black Lives Matter supporters protest in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Black Lives Matter Kandy Freeman marches in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty

Mr Eid took that as an opportunity to create a powerpoint presentation where he argued against all the defences non-black people typically make for saying the n-word. Without hesitation, he called out the professor during his presentation.

This word was used twice in this class, the 23-year-old said. Theres really no excuse, theres really no justification.

This was all captured on video and posted on Twitter. It got over 1.2 million views.

In his presentation, Mr Eid said he felt the professor inappropriately used the n-word since she wasnt reading or quoting text. She just said racial slur.

I called her out, I told her hey, I didnt say it the first time, I didnt say it the second time, Im saying something now, he added.

The professor sat silently throughout his remarks, but defended herself to the class afterwards. She defended herself to the class after the presentation, despite it being centred on countering non-black peoples defensive arguments on using the n-word.

Mr Eid uploaded the audio recording of her response on Twitter as well.

I said the word because I wanted a response, I wanted someone to say, thats wrong to say that or I take offence to that, the professor said.

Sometimes when were discussing things and youre all sitting there going, the professor added before making snoring sounds, kind of thing, sometimes somebodys gotta shake you up.

Mr Eid was not going to let that slide. If the solution to getting your class to snap up is using the n-word then you need different strategies, he responded.

The professor then defended the use of the racial slurs within cultural context, noting that its been used in To Kill A Mockingbird or when Native Americans are referred to as Indian.

Things change, societys reaction to things change and sometimes its acceptable and sometimes its not, she added.

The professor then tried to shut down the debate by calling for a break, but Mr Eid kept talking to her. He argued that while using the n-word in a literature is understandable, she did not use it such context.

I get youre talking about using it in literature, but the two times you used it wasnt in literature, they would have been totally acceptable times to say n-word, Mr Eid said, while also calling out his classmates for not caring.

But the professor gave a snappy response. Or maybe they just dont have your sensitivity, she replied.

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The college student said he felt his classmates lackadaisical attitudes towards the professors use of the racial slur left him depressed. He said his classmates were unsupportive with some either disregarding the whole issue or giggling at it.

The College of Desert released a statement to BuzzFeed News addressing the professors use of the n-word, insisting its core values are based on inclusiveness and diversity in all forms, including academic freedom for both students and faculty.

She added it is the community colleges policy to recognise the importance of academic freedom in pursuit of academic excellence for both faculty and students, and that it embraces diversity and the right to access a safe and respectful learning environment.

Twitter users seem to have taken Mr Eids side of the argument with hundreds of people praising him for speaking up.

I think everyone should acknowledge the fact that not everybody wouldve had the strength or wouldve been brave enough to stand up to their professor like this knowing theyre taking risks, one user tweeted, referring the courage it required of Mr Eid to speak up. A true king.

But Mr Eid wants the viral fame directed away from him, noting that it is wrong for hima non-black person of colourto promote himself when "black people don't profit from their issues."

He said he is is also making donations to black charities.

"This isnt about me. I dont want to promote myself with black issues," he tweeted. "Ill cooperate with media to get the message out there but thats all this is about: A message."
A teacher from Georgia won $10,000 (7,680) after reading the commonly overlooked fine print on an insurance contract.

Donelan Andrews recently purchased travel insurance from the company Squaremouth for an upcoming trip to London she has planned with friends.

While reading over the fine print of the contract, which she told CBS News she does for all contracts, policies, and agreements, Andrews noticed the company was hosting a contest with a prize of $10,000.

The contest, which was reportedly included in the fine print of all of the companys travel insurance contracts, informs the reader they are eligible for the chance to win the grand prize.

If youve read this far, then you are one of the very few Tin Leg customers to review all of their policy documentation, the contract read - along with an email address where customers could email in.

Don't blow a bargain holiday by overpaying on insurance Show all 2 1 /2 Don't blow a bargain holiday by overpaying on insurance Don't blow a bargain holiday by overpaying on insurance Don't get caught out with holiday insurance Don't blow a bargain holiday by overpaying on insurance

According to the company, the first person to email in would win the money - which happened to be Andrews.

Recommended How to buy the right travel insurance

After awarding Andrews the prize, Squaremouth explained the contest on its website, writing: We understand most customers dont actually read contracts or documentation when buying something, but we know the importance of doing so.

We created the top-secret Pays to Read campaign in an effort to highlight the importance of reading policy documentation from start to finish.

According to the company, Andrews won the contest just 23 hours after it launched.

In addition to rewarding the high school teacher the $10,000 promised, Squaremouth also donated an additional $5,000 (3,840) to both of the schools Andrews teaches at - Upson-Lee High School and Lamar County High School, and $10,000 to childrens literacy charity Reading Is Fundamental.

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As for her plans for the money, Andrews said she and her husband will be taking a trip to Scotland to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.
Legislators in Georgia's House of Representatives have passed a bill that could ban most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

The bill aims to outlaw terminations carried out after a foetal heartbeat is detected. Similar restrictions are under consideration in Mississippi, Florida, Kentucky, Ohio and South Carolina.

During a tense debate on Thursday several Democratic legislators, who oppose the restrictions, turned their back on the bill's Republican author, Ed Setzler.

Earlier in the day some Democrats had brought in wire coat hangers, in reference to unsafe home abortions.

Women in Georgia currently have the right to undergo an abortion up to 20 weeks into a pregnancy.

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

But a foetal heartbeat is generally detected at around six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant.

Mr Setzler claimed that the bill sought "to recognise that the child in the womb, that is living distinct from their mother, has a right to life that is worthy of legal protection."

The Tennessee House of Representatives passed similar legislation earlier on Thursday after tense debate.

If the heartbeat bill is passed by Georgia's state Senate and signed into law, it will almost certainly trigger legal challenges.

But anti-abortion activists hope that such a challenge will lead to the US Supreme Court reversing Roe vs Wade, especially with new conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh sitting on the court.

Roe vs Wade, a 1973 court case, established a nationwide right to abortion in the US.

Renitta Shannon, a Democratic politician in Georgia, spoke against the bill and discussed her own abortion during Thursday's debate.

"Let's be clear, no matter what kind of law you pass to outlaw abortions, women will continue to seek and have abortions," she said.

Ms Shannon discussed the unsafe abortion options available before Roe vs Wade but was cut off for running over her allocated time.

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She remained on the floor until colleagues surrounded her, imploring her to walk away.

Mike Wilensky, a Democrat, also spoke against the bill.

"We know that this bill is unconstitutional. We know that there are going to be huge costs to litigate this," he said.

The fast-tracked bill came to the floor in the final minutes before a legislative deadline by which bills must generally pass out of one house or the other to be considered.

After it was passed, Democrats and abortion rights activists said they would continue to fight the bill and for safe access to abortion in Georgia.

Additional reporting by agencies
Jake Patterson, the 21-year-old man accused of kidnapping Wisconsin teenager Jayme Closs and holding her captive for three months, has apologised to his former prisoner and claimed he had complicated reasons for the abduction.

Mr Patterson said in the letter to a local NBC News affiliate that he would plead guilty to the charges he faces after the abduction, and the alleged earlier killing of the teens parents.

I knew when I was caught (which I thought would happen a lot sooner) I wouldnt fight anything, Mr Patterson wrote in the letter.

Jayme was went missing after police responded to a 911 call to find her parents shot dead in the family home in October.

She was missing for 88 days before she escaped Mr Pattersons Wisconsin home about an our north of where she went missing.

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 Patterson has been charged for the kidnapping, and for the deaths of James an Denise Closs, Jaymes parents.

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In the letter  which Mr Pattersons lawyer refused to verify  the accused claimed that he acted mostly on impulse even though authorities say he had specific intentions to kidnap Jayme, and went to great lengths to prepare to take her.
Martin Shkreli is continuing to run his pharmaceutical company from prison via a contraband smartphone, according to a new report.

Shkreli, who was once labelled the most hated man in America after he raised the price of the life-saving AIDS drug Daraprim from $13.50 (10) a pill to $750 (574) a pill, was sentenced to seven years prison in 2017 for securities fraud and conspiracy.

Despite remaining in federal prison, the Wall Street Journal reports Shkreli is continuing to run drug company Phoenixus AG, which he believes will grow to be worth $3.7bn (2.8bn) by the time he is released.

Most recently, Shkreli has reportedly dealt with the upper management of Phoenixus AG, firing CEO Kevin Mulleady, before reinstating him under a suspension, the WSJ reports.

In addition to managing the drug company, of which he owns 40 per cent, Shkreli has also managed to keep his social media accounts and blog updated during his prison time.

Counting the cost of a drugs revolution Show all 3 1 /3 Counting the cost of a drugs revolution Counting the cost of a drugs revolution 508455.bin AP Counting the cost of a drugs revolution 508456.bin Counting the cost of a drugs revolution 508458.bin

Shkrelis latest blog post, a critical review of a journal publication, was uploaded to Medium on 5 March.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, federal inmates are prohibited from possessing cell phones, and such an offence can result in imprisonment of up to one year and a fine, CNN reports.

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Despite forfeiting $7.4m (5.6m) in assets and paying a fine of $750,000 (574,000) as part of his sentence, Shkreli reportedly has a net worth of $27m (20m).
The House of Representatives has passed a resolution condemning antisemitism and other forms of hate amid a row involving a Muslim congresswoman that exposed a sharp division between the Democratic Partys establishment and its younger, more progressive members.

The measure passed by the House 407-23, condemned antisemitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values and aspirations that define the people of the United States. It also condemned anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry.

The passing of the resolution  support for which came from a number of Jewish members of Congress  followed a row among Democrats over remarks made by congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who last year become one of the two first Muslim women elected to congress.

Ms Omar, who represents a district in Minneapolis, triggered headlines over comments many believed repeated antisemtic tropes. Last month, she responded to tweet from journalist Glenn Greenwald, who posted about House Republican lader Kevin McCarthy threatening to punish her and another congresswoman for being critical of Israel.

Ms Omar replied Its all about the Benjamins baby, a line about $100 bills from a Puff Daddy song, which some said was part of a centuries-old smearing of Jews over money.

Ms Omar apologised at the time, saying: Antisemitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of antisemitic tropes.

Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Show all 20 1 /20 Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Donald Trump's Cabinet Donald Trump's Cabinet is one the richest in American history, filled with billionaires, conservatives and several career politicians. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mike Pence US Vice President Mike Pence has defended Donald Trump throughout his presidency while walking a fine line to avoid any public involvement in major scandals. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mike Pompeo Secretary of State Mike Pompeo replaced Donald Trump's previous appointment to the post, Rex Tillerson, and has led talks with North Korea in establishing high-profile summits between the president and Kim Jong Un. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Wilbur Ross Secretary of Commerce Wibur Ross raised controversy when he was accused of falsely claiming to have sold stock in a bank and violated a government ethics agreement. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Lighthizer US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been a fixture in Donald Trump's ongoing trade spat with China. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet William Barr Attorney General William Barr replaced Jeff Sessions as the nation's top cop in early 2019 and has refused to commit to recusing himself from the Russia probe despite an unsolicited memo he sent to the Justice Department decrying the investigation. EPA Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Rick Perry Energy Secretary Rick Perry has held his post throughout Donald Trump's presidency despite previously undermining the need for the agency he now leads in past public statements. Ken Shipp / United States Department of Energy Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Betsy DeVos Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has also held her post throughout the presidency, despite major backlash to her apparent undermining of the nationwide public school system and advocacy for charter programmes. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Steven Mnuchin Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has faced numerous controversies throughout his tenure as the head of Treasury, including costing taxpayers at least a million dollars in travel expenses. AP Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Wilkie Veterans Affairs secretary Robert Wilkie was appointed after Donald Trump's White House doctor Ronny Jackson withdrew over allegations he provided prescription drugs to patients without prescriptions. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet David Bernhardt Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt took office in January 2019 after the resignation of Ryan Zinke after previously serving as Zinke's deputy. Before taking office Bernhardt worked for many years as a solicitor for the Department of the Interior. Tami Heilemann / United States Department of the Interior Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Elaine Chao Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has held her post throughout the presidency and has mostly avoided controversy, despite a report claiming her office has been in frequent coordination with her husband's, Mitch McConnell. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Kevin McAleenan Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan took over from Kirstjen Nielsen after she resigned in April 2019. He previously worked as the executive director of the executive director of the Office of Anti Terrorism in the Customs and Border Protection agency United States Customs and Border Protection Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Ben Carson Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson was appointed shortly after Donald Trump took office and raised controversy over an exorbitant furnishing bill for his office. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Gina Haspel CIA Director Gina Haspel was appointed in 2018 and faced backlash surrounding her oversight of Guantanamo Bay. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Dan Coats Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats could be the next person to leave Donald Trump's administration over his refuting the president's claims surrounding ISIS. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Sonny Perdue Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has been dogged by ethics questions throughout his tenure and faced controversy when emails showed the agency appeared willing to eagerly work with lobbyists under his leadership. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Alex Azar Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is a former pharmaceutical lobbyist and former drug company executive. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mick Mulvaney Acting Chief of Staff and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has described himself as one of the most conservative officials in the White House. EPA Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Wilkie Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie has spent his career on Capitol Hill serving in various roles in foreign affairs and defence. He holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force Reserve. Gene Russell / United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Yet, many believe Ms Omar has been attacked because of her comments over the outsized influence Israel has on US policies  something that has long been alleged by some academics. Those who have studied the relationship, say it is based on both history and a strategic relationship in which the US has long supported Israel against attacks in institutions such as the United Nations.

Another factor is the power of evangelical Christians in the US  an important part of Donald Trumps support  whose so-called End time beliefs state that Jesus will return when Jerusalem is returned to the Israelites.

 Ilhan Omar: Democratic congresswoman interrogates Donald Trump's Venezuela envoy Elliot Abrams

A survey carried out last year of evangelical Christians, found half of evangelicals supported Israel because they believe it is important for fulfilling such prophecies.

Ms Omars comments about the influence of Israel and the pro-Israel lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), were made at a bookshop appearance with fellow congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who is also Muslim.

I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says its okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country, she said. I want to ask why is it okay for me to talk about the influence of the NRA (National Rifle Association), of fossil fuel industries or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policies.

As the president, Republicans and a number of Democrats attacked Mr Omar  the third-ranking Republican in the House Liz Cheney told reporters Ms Omar embodied a vile, hate-filled, antisemitic, anti-Israel bigotry  some Democrats came to her defence.

Politico reported that in separate statements Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and and Elizabeth Warren condemned antisemitism, but called for more discussion surrounding the USs policy with Israel.

Many said the episode highlighted a division between the Democrats establishment and its younger, more progressive members, many of whom are happy to question the USs unquestioning support for Israel.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has long been an outspoken supporter of Israel, said on Thursday she did not believe Mr Omars comments were intended in any antisemitic way.

I dont think that the congresswoman perhaps appreciates the full weight of how it was heard by other people, although I dont believe it was intended in any anti-Semitic way, Ms Pelosi said at her weekly news conference, according to CNN.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has rebuked a complaint filed with the Federal Elections Commission by a conservative group claiming her 2018 election campaign was in violation of campaign finance laws.

The freshman Democrat responded on Thursday night to the complaint filed this week by the National Legal and Policy Centre in a tweet.

In case you saw the conspiracy theory running around, she wrote, conservative groups have now taken to spamming us by filing bogus ethics complaints so that Fox News can report on alleged, untrue scandals.

She added, This is how the misinformation machine works, folks.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez posted a link to an NBC News fact-check, which directly refuted the notion her campaign had violated any laws.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez greets fellow lawmakers ahead of the State of the Union address Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez participates in an event with Democratic members of Congress EPA Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures The Democrat senator speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol January 30, 2019 Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Democrat Rashida Tlaib AP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the Senate chamber to watch two votes on January 24, 2019 Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez arrives with Chellie Pingree at a House Democratic Caucus meeting Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio-Cortez during Donald Trump's State of the Union address Reuters Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures New York State Assembly member Catalina Cruz with Ocasio-Cortez AFP/Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Nydia Velazquez talks with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Reuters Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio-Cortez casts her vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House EPA Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez poses with a campaign worker during a whistle stop in the Queens borough of New York Reuters Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio-Cortez outside the US Capitol AFP/Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio-Cortez after casting her ballot in the 2018 midterm general election at a polling site in New York EPA Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez looks on during a march organised by the Women's March Alliance in Manhattan Reuters Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio Cortez looks on at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 16, 2019 AFP/Getty

Her campaign attorney said in a statement to reporters on Wednesday that groups affiliated with the campaign have at all times been fully in compliance with federal campaign finance laws.

The report she linked to noted the complexities surrounding some aspects of her campaign and its vendors system, but campaign finance experts told the outlet there appeared to be no evidence of wrongdoing.

The conservative groups has accused Ms Ocasio-Cortez of an extensive off-the-books operation to make hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenditures in support of multiple candidates for federal office.

The Democrat and her team were aware, or should have been aware, of the sweeping and apparently illegal nature of the enterprise, the group claimed.

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The NBC News report goes on to break down the misleading controversy, concluding, There's no evidence of self-dealing or any kind of elaborate scam, two experts told NBC News, which is often the major concern with LLCs and PACs run by the same people.
The sentencing of Paul Manafort, former chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, was highly anticipated, capping a significant chapter in Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation. But it was an unlikely candidate to become the latest example of a conflict that has vexed legal professionals and activists for decades - systemic inequality in the criminal justice system.

As a federal judge handed down his sentence in a jam-packed Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom and observers digested the judge's decision - 47 months - Manafort's case was immediately perceived as a high-profile instance of the justice system working one way for a wealthy, well-connected man, while working in another, harsher, way for indigent defendants facing lesser crimes.

"Paul Manafort's lenient four-year sentence - far below the recommended 20 years despite extensive felonies and post-conviction obstruction - is a reminder of the blatant inequities in our justice system that we all know about, because they reoccur every week in courts across America," said Ari Melber, a legal analyst for NBC News, in a tweet shortly after the verdict.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Manafort faced up to 24 years in prison for bank fraud and for cheating on his taxes, yet US District Court Judge Thomas Selby Ellis said that calculation was "excessive." Manafort's crime's were "very serious," Mr Ellis said, but they did not warrant a punishment that could keep the 69-year-old imprisoned into his 90s.

Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor and expert in financial crimes, said Manafort's sentence was very light "by any stretch of the imagination." Manafort, who once agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors but then was found to have lied to them, got a sentence that resembled one given to someone who did not renege on their cooperation agreement, Mr Levin said.

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"His crimes went on for an extremely long time, at the very highest levels of our government and deeply affected our democracy," Mr Levin told The Washington Post. "To get away with it for such a short sentence is something that is absolutely mind-boggling."

However, he said, federal judges are not required to adhere to sentencing guidelines, which serve only as recommendations to judges. Ultimately, they are free to depart from the guidelines and come up with any number they see as appropriate.

"It seems pretty light to me, and to a lot of people," Mr Levin said. "But that is squarely in the purview of the judge to do."

The sentencing inspired a flood of lawyers to dig through news clips and their own recent cases. What they found was dozens of examples of defendants who, in their view, were no where nearly as fortunate as Manafort.

Scott Hechinger, a senior staff attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services, an organisation that provides legal representation to defendants who cannot afford it, used one of his recent clients, who was just offered a 36-to-72-month sentence, as an example. The crime? Stealing $100-worth of quarters from a residential laundry room. Mr Hechinger's client may wind up doing more time than Manafort, a man who defrauded the Internal Revenue Service out of $6m.

Paul Manafort's defense attorneys Kevin Downing (R) and Thomas Zehnle (L), briefly speak to the news media outside US District Court after a sentencing hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, USA, 07 March 2019. Manafort, who remains in federal custody, was sentenced to 47 months for defrauding banks and the government and failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars in income. ((Erik S. Lesser/EPA))

Mr Hechinger listed a half dozen more examples. Among them were a Brooklyn teenager who got a 19-years-to-life sentence for burning a mattress in the hallway of his apartment building, resulting in the smoke-inhalation death of an officer who responded to the scene. He also cited the case of Cyrstal Mason, an ex-felon who was sent back to prison for five years after voting in the 2016 presidential election while on probation - an act she said she did not know was illegal.

Other lawyers argued that Manafort's sentence underscores "a broader problem: white collar crimes (e.g. fraud, money laundering) just aren't taken seriously," wrote Louis Laverone, an international financial crimes attorney.

Mr Laverone cited the case of one Turkish banker who was charged with participating in a multi-billion-dollar scheme, violating US economic sanctions. In that case, guidelines called for a possible 105-year sentence. The banker got 32 months.

Judge Ellis is a Reagan appointee, known as tough and no-nonsense. But, in recent years, he has publicly complained about laws that impose cumbersome sentences, as Politico illustrated in a 2018 profile. In one striking example from that report, Mr Ellis sentenced a 37-year-old to a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison for dealing methamphetamine.

"This situation presents me with something I have no discretion to change and the only thing I can do is express my displeasure," the judge said. "I chafe a bit at that, but I follow the law. If I thought it was blatantly immoral, I'd have to resign. It's wrong, but not immoral."

In that man's case, the crime's mandatory minimum sentence forced Judge Ellis's hand. But for Manafort, Levin said, there was no such requirement, no mandatory minimum.

Because Manafort has already spent nine months in jail, his sentence could end in fewer than three years. But he still faces sentencing next week for a conspiracy charged in Washington DC federal court, which could result in up to an additional 10 years.

In a tweet, Senator Amy Klobuchar, a former prosecutor and presidential candidate, also denounced what she characterised as a lenient sentence. "Crimes committed in an office building should be treated as seriously as crimes committed on a street corner," she said. "Can't have two systems of justice!"

Mr Hechinger and other advocates of criminal justice reform who weighed in on Manafort's sentence stressed that they were not calling for harsher overall punishment - simply a justice system that was a little more just.

"I'm not advocating here or anywhere for worse treatment for all," he said. "Just wish my clients received same treatment as the privileged few."

The Washington Post
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has attacked the broken US justice system after Donald Trumps former campaign manager was jailed for 47 months for a $6m (4.5m) tax and bank fraud.

The New York Congresswoman said Paul Manaforts punishment  well below the 19 to 24 years sought by prosecutors  was an example of how rich people were treated differently in court.

In our current broken system, justice isnt blind, she tweeted. Its bought.

The sentencing by federal judge TS Ellis, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan, prompted lawyers and politicians to compare it to other cases involving longer prison terms, particularly those involving small amounts of drugs.

Last year the same judge sentenced Frederick Turner, 37, to a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison for dealing methamphetamine. Judge Ellis expressed misgivings at the time, adding that the mandatory minimum was wrong, but not immoral.

Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty

Democrat 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren brought up the example of Fate Winslow, a homeless man who was jailed for life for helping to sell $20 (15) worth of cannabis.

In other cases, a Texas woman, Crystal Mason, was sentenced to five years in prison for voting while on probation while a man was offered a prison sentence of between three and six years for stealing $100 from a laundry room.

Financial crimes attorney Louis Laverone said: Manaforts sentence is an example of a broader problem: white collar crimes (e.g. fraud, money laundering) just arent taken seriously.

Following a jury trial in Virginia last year, Manafort was convicted of hiding millions of dollars earned through his work advising politicians in Ukraine, including the former pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych.

Recommended Manafort sentenced to less than four years in prison

His lawyers argued that it amounted to a routine tax evasion, which often results in prison sentences of less than 12 months, and claimed that Manafort would never have been charged if it were not for the investigation by FBI special counsel Robert Mueller into links between the Trump campaign and Russia.

While the charges were not related to his work on Trumps campaign, prosecutors argued for a significant jail term because the 69 year-old tampered with witnesses during his trial, tried to shift the blame to others and failed to accept responsibility for his crimes.

Manafort still faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on two conspiracy charges in Washington DC next week. He had offered to cooperate with the Mueller probe after pleading guilty to those offences, but the deal was thrown out after a judge agreed he had lied to investigators.

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Additional reporting by Associated Press
An Auschwitz survivor and stepsister of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank met on Thursday with some of the California high school students who posed in social media photos giving Nazi salutes over a swastika made of red cups used in a drinking game.

The anti-Semitic images, one with the caption master race - a reference to the Nazi belief in ethnic purity - went viral after being posted to Snapchat on Saturday, fuelling concerns about a recent surge in incidents of hate speech in public schools nationwide.

Eva Schloss, 89, a peace activist who has chronicled her Holocaust experiences in several books, visited privately for more than hour at Newport Harbor High School with about 10 of the teens involved, along with their parents, student leaders, faculty members and a local rabbi who helped organise the meeting.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Ms Schloss said the students described the Nazi salute incident as a joke, and she was surprised when they professed not to have fully understood the meaning and consequences of their behaviour.

It did show that education, obviously, is still very, very inadequate, said Ms Schloss, a London resident who was in California this week on a U.S. speaking tour. She said the students expressed sincere remorse for what happened on Saturday.

Nazi Nuremberg rallies Show all 4 1 /4 Nazi Nuremberg rallies Nazi Nuremberg rallies The Zeppelin grandstand (Zeppelintribune) can be seen at the former German Nazi party rally grounds on January 23, 2010 AFP/Getty Images Nazi Nuremberg rallies circa 1935: A rally, at the Zeppelin Stadium in Nuremberg, of German women serving in the Nazi Women's Labour Service Getty Images Nazi Nuremberg rallies 12th September 1938: German Chancellor and leader of the Nazi Party Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945) addressing troops on the Zeppelin Field on the last day of the Nuremberg Congress Getty Images Nazi Nuremberg rallies 1933: National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) party rally at Nuremberg Getty Images

I was 16 when I came out of Auschwitz, Ms Schloss said she told the students. I was their age when I realised my life was completely shattered.

The photos were taken at a party attended by students from several high schools serving a cluster of predominantly white, largely affluent Orange County communities. The images included teens with arms raised in a Nazi salute and students crowded around the cups arranged in the shape of a swastika.

School officials said they have interviewed more than two dozen students and are weighing possible disciplinary action.

 Maduro attacks Trump's 'almost Nazi-style' speech after US president calls on military to abandon Venezuela leader

Lives intertwined

The early life of Ms Schloss, a native Austrian, closely parallels that of her German-born stepsister, Anne Frank. Both families moved to Amsterdam to escape anti-Jewish Nazi persecution in their homelands.

The two girls lived near each other and were friends before Germanys Dutch occupation, forcing both families into hiding. Ms Franks personal journal about her familys ordeal was posthumously published in 1947 as The Diary of a Young Girl.

Ms Frank died at age 15 at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in early 1945.

Like Ms Franks family, Ms Schloss was captured by the Nazis in 1944 in Amsterdam and was sent to Auschwitz, where her brother and father died. Ms Schloss and her mother were liberated by the Soviet army, and her mother married Ms Franks father, Otto, in 1953.

Newport Beach Rabbi Reuven Mintz, who helped organise the students meeting with Ms Schloss, said the controversy should be a wake-up call to a rising tide of anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which tracks acts of racism, says the number of anti-Semitic incidents reported at U.S. public schools jumped 94 percent from 2016 to 2017, the latest year such figures are available.

One factor appears to be wide-scale human migration stirred by war, political upheaval and environmental degradation, which in turn has fed a global rise in xenophobia and discriminatory politics that is becoming mainstreamed in much of the Western world, said regional ADL director Peter Levi.

High school kids are not immune from that, he said.

Another factor, he said, is the spread of extremist ideology by way of social media and the Internet, and everyone has access to that in his pockets.

Reuters
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 8)  As the whole world celebrates the feat of women this March 8, reigning Miss Universe herself-- Catriona Gray--took time to address some of the challenges her fellow Filipinas are facing today.

In an open letter for women posted on the website of LoveYourself Philippines, the 25-year-old beauty highlighted education and awareness, including her HIV/AIDS advocacy.

"I want to add a message that, as a woman you may have thought doesn't really apply to you. But it does. HIV/AIDS knows no gender, sexual preference or lifestyle. It can affect anyone and it does," Gray wrote on Friday.

"To the women reading this, I do not want your life to be taken or defined by HIV/AIDS. To change and uplift the world for women and all people, we need to be around to make change happen. So say that we're in this together. Let's protect and love ourselves."

Gray also encouraged her fellow Filipinas to get tested, emphasizing that health status "does not define you as a woman, more so as a person."

Below is an excerpt from Gray's online message:

"I've often been asked what's the best part of being a woman in 2019, and my answer is that we (women) are beginning to come together in communities and build each other up - because it's really when we combine our voices together that we begin to break barriers. But it doesn't just end at looking after ourselves, we need to gain further support from well-off countries to help our generation fight off this epidemic. Let's do our part. I'm optimistic that if we raise our voices together, we can create change, because every one of us is affected by HIV. Let the power of women create the ripples of positive change in our larger community and transpire all over the universe.

As I end this letter, let me share you the words of one of the most inspiring ladies on this advocacy - Elizabeth Taylor once said, "It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance." Let's continue to educate ourselves, our communities and one another, as we move forward to champion this cause.

As we endeavor a new beginning together this Women's Month, I hope that my fellow Filipinos, Catrionians and supporters from all corners of the universe could help me spread more awareness, not just about HIV, but to all the causes that concern all women. Together, let's uplift their spirits - for whatever journey they choose to pursue.

Gray is an ambassador of LoveYourself, an organization which provides HIV screening and counseling.

Read her full open letter here.
A look at where investigations related to President Donald Trump stand and what may lie ahead for him:

What's this all about?

Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia and whether the president obstructed the investigation. Mr Trump also plays a central role in a separate case in New York, where prosecutors have implicated him in a crime. They say Mr Trump directed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to make illegal hush-money payments to two women as a way to quash potential sex scandals during the campaign. New York prosecutors are also looking into Mr Trump's inaugural fund.

Congressional investigations also are swirling around the president. Democrats have launched a sweeping probe of Mr Trump, an aggressive investigation that threatens to shadow the president through the 2020 election season.

What do I need to know right now?

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced Thursday to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians.

The sentence caps the only jury trial so far following indictments stemming from Mr Mueller's investigation. It was not related to Mr Manafort's role in Trump's campaign.

Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty

Also Thursday, Michael Cohen's attorney said Trump's advisers had dangled the possibility of a pardon after the FBI raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room in April 2018. That appears to contradict Mr Cohen's public testimony before the House Oversight Committee last week.

Mr Cohen filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming the Trump Organisation broke a promise to pay his legal bills and owes at least $1.9 million to cover the cost of his defence.

So... Did the Trump campaign collude with Russia?

There is no smoking gun when it comes to the question of Russia collusion. But the evidence so far shows that a broad range of Trump associates had Russia-related contacts during the 2016 presidential campaign and transition period, and several lied about the communications.

 Democrat Rashida Tlaib announces plans to file impeachment resolution against Donald Trump

There is evidence that some people in Trump's orbit were discussing a possible email dump from WikiLeaks before it occurred. American intelligence agencies and Mueller have said Russia was the source of hacked material released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks during the campaign that was damaging to Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential effort.

Other questions to consider:

What about obstruction of justice? That is another unresolved question that Mr Mueller is pursuing. Investigators have examined key episodes such as Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey and Mr Trump's fury over Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recusal.

What does Trump have to say about all this? Trump has repeatedly slammed the Mueller investigation as a "witch hunt" and insisted there was "no collusion" with Russia. He also says Mr Cohen lied to get a lighter sentence in New York.

When will it all wrap up? It's unclear. Then-acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said in January that the probe is "close to being completed," the first official sign that Mr Mueller's investigation may be wrapping up. But he gave no specific timetable.

AP
Paul Manafort, Donald Trumps former campaign manager, has been sentenced by a judge to 47 months in jail  considerably less than prosecutors had sought for the 69-year-old known for wearing $10,000 suits.

In what came as nothing less than a jolt to observers  prosecutors had requested he be jailed for up to 25 years  the man who served as Mr Trumps campaign chief for a short but crucial few months, appeared to have been successful in his appeal to the federal judge TS Ellis to show mercy. There was no immediate reaction from either special counsel Robert Mueller or the president.

To say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement, said Manafort, who many expected could spend the rest of his life in jail after pleading guilty to tax and financial fraud in relation to his work for Ukraines former pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych. He said his life was now professionally and financially in shambles.

The sentence came after lengthy deliberations by the judge in Virginia on Thursday, who noted the crimes the former political operative was convicted of were not directly related to Russian meddling in the 2016 election, even if the special counsels office did charge him. Manafort is is due to be sentenced for other offences next week

Manafort, whose trial included revelations that he had spent $1.4m on clothes, arrived wearing a jumpsuit and in a wheelchair. The judge ordered him to pay $24m in restitutions.

Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty

In announcing his decision, the judge said Manafort was not being given credit for cooperating with that investigation after pleading guilty on separate conspiracy charges in Washington. But he also made clear he was not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.

While Manafort pleaded for mercy, he did not offer any apology, something the judge noted. I was surprised I did not hear you express regret for engaging in wrongful conduct, he said, according to Reuters.

Manaforts lawyers had argued their client deserved a light sentence as he was first time offender. They said in filings the special counsels attempt to vilify Mr Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts.

Yet, while the judge did not agree he should show leniency for this, he said he believed the prosecutorial sentencing guidelines that suggested the veteran political operative should serve between 19-24 years was excessive. He said other than the offences he had been convicted of, Manafort had lived an otherwise blameless life.

The special counsels office had earlier pushed back on any suggestion Manafort should be shown leniency. They noted that he attempted to tamper with witnesses during his trial last year, and that he continued to violate his plea agreement.

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Mr Mueller wrote that there is no reason to believe that Manafort would not commit further crimes given the opportunity.

Manaforts effort to shift the blame to others  as he did at trial  is not consistent with acceptance of responsibility or a mitigating factor. Manafort has failed to accept that he is responsible for the criminal choices that bring him to this Court for sentencing, Mr Mueller wrote.

The sentence marks a dramatic turn of fortune in the past two years for Manafort, who was once credited with securing Mr Trump the Republican nomination for president.

While the convictions Manafort has sustained did not revolve around the Russia investigation specifically, the case was brought forward by the special counsels office after evidence was uncovered during that investigation.

In August, Manafort was convicted on eight felony charges, but avoided another 10 counts when the jury failed to reach consensus.

The crimes he was convicted on included five counts of tax fraud, one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts, and two counts of bank fraud.

Before joining Mr Trumps 2016 campaign, Manafort had acted as a foreign political adviser for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine, which set the stage for the lavish lifestyle and crimes that have now led to Manaforts heavy sentence.

Following his conviction in Virginia, Manafort went on to plead guilty in Washington on conspiracy charges, with the special counsels office agreeing to push for a lighter sentence as a part of that deal if he cooperated with the investigation.

That plea deal was thrown out by a judge last month after it was determined that Manafort had lied during his cooperation in several key ways. He will be sentenced for those offences next week.
Almost half-a-dozen Republican politicians voted against a resolution condemning antisemitism and other forms of hate.

They argued that the measure did not lend support to Christians and failed to properly condemn congresswoman Ilhan Omars controversial comments on US-Israel relations.

In total, 407 congressman and women voted to pass the resolution which defined antisemitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values and aspirations that define the people of the United States. It also condemned Islamophobia and other expressions of bigotry.

Democrats, including Ms Omar, voted for the resolution. All of the 23 who voted against, were Republican.

Among them was Wyoming's representative Liz Cheney, who called the vote a sham. She said the language in the resolution did not address the issue that is front and centre.

Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Show all 20 1 /20 Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Donald Trump's Cabinet Donald Trump's Cabinet is one the richest in American history, filled with billionaires, conservatives and several career politicians. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mike Pence US Vice President Mike Pence has defended Donald Trump throughout his presidency while walking a fine line to avoid any public involvement in major scandals. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mike Pompeo Secretary of State Mike Pompeo replaced Donald Trump's previous appointment to the post, Rex Tillerson, and has led talks with North Korea in establishing high-profile summits between the president and Kim Jong Un. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Wilbur Ross Secretary of Commerce Wibur Ross raised controversy when he was accused of falsely claiming to have sold stock in a bank and violated a government ethics agreement. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Lighthizer US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been a fixture in Donald Trump's ongoing trade spat with China. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet William Barr Attorney General William Barr replaced Jeff Sessions as the nation's top cop in early 2019 and has refused to commit to recusing himself from the Russia probe despite an unsolicited memo he sent to the Justice Department decrying the investigation. EPA Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Rick Perry Energy Secretary Rick Perry has held his post throughout Donald Trump's presidency despite previously undermining the need for the agency he now leads in past public statements. Ken Shipp / United States Department of Energy Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Betsy DeVos Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has also held her post throughout the presidency, despite major backlash to her apparent undermining of the nationwide public school system and advocacy for charter programmes. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Steven Mnuchin Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has faced numerous controversies throughout his tenure as the head of Treasury, including costing taxpayers at least a million dollars in travel expenses. AP Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Wilkie Veterans Affairs secretary Robert Wilkie was appointed after Donald Trump's White House doctor Ronny Jackson withdrew over allegations he provided prescription drugs to patients without prescriptions. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet David Bernhardt Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt took office in January 2019 after the resignation of Ryan Zinke after previously serving as Zinke's deputy. Before taking office Bernhardt worked for many years as a solicitor for the Department of the Interior. Tami Heilemann / United States Department of the Interior Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Elaine Chao Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has held her post throughout the presidency and has mostly avoided controversy, despite a report claiming her office has been in frequent coordination with her husband's, Mitch McConnell. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Kevin McAleenan Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan took over from Kirstjen Nielsen after she resigned in April 2019. He previously worked as the executive director of the executive director of the Office of Anti Terrorism in the Customs and Border Protection agency United States Customs and Border Protection Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Ben Carson Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson was appointed shortly after Donald Trump took office and raised controversy over an exorbitant furnishing bill for his office. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Gina Haspel CIA Director Gina Haspel was appointed in 2018 and faced backlash surrounding her oversight of Guantanamo Bay. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Dan Coats Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats could be the next person to leave Donald Trump's administration over his refuting the president's claims surrounding ISIS. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Sonny Perdue Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has been dogged by ethics questions throughout his tenure and faced controversy when emails showed the agency appeared willing to eagerly work with lobbyists under his leadership. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Alex Azar Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is a former pharmaceutical lobbyist and former drug company executive. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mick Mulvaney Acting Chief of Staff and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has described himself as one of the most conservative officials in the White House. EPA Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Wilkie Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie has spent his career on Capitol Hill serving in various roles in foreign affairs and defence. He holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force Reserve. Gene Russell / United States Department of Veterans Affairs

The resolution was tabled after comments made by Ms Omar were labelled antisemitic by critics from both parties, although the resolution did not mention the congresswoman by name.

Ms Omar, who in January became one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress, said Israels supporters push lawmakers to pledge allegiance to a foreign country.

The remark, made at a bookshop appearance in February, was viewed by some politicians as playing into a Jewish trope about divided loyalties among Jewish-Americans.

Speaking about her decision not to support the resolution condemning antisemitism, Ms Cheney said: For Democratic leadership to kowtow to their radical members and refuse to offer legislative language that criticises Representative Omar's statements in the strongest possible manner confirms what we already knew: that their party is controlled by far-left extremists who can't even muster the courage to stand up to blatant anti-Semitism.

Other Republicans complained that the resolution did not mention White people and Christians.

In a statement emailed to the Washington Post, Alabama's congressman Mo Brooks said that he voted against the resolution because its wording suggests America's House of Representatives cares about virtually everyone except Christians and Caucasians.

Likewise congressman Michael Conaway of Texas, told The Washington Post that the measure included the Democrats' kitchen sink, but did not lend support to Christians, Mormons, and many other groups that face regular discrimination in this country and abroad.

Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky alluded to the abortion debate in his criticism of the resolution condemning antisemitism.

In a tweet, he wrote: Now that the resolution protects just about every group on the planet, can we add 'babies on the day of their birth' as a protected class?

Meanwhile congressman Steve King of Iowa, who was stripped of his committee consignments in January for questioning why white supremacy and white nationalist have become offensive, abstained without

However, other Republicans argued that the resolution had been watered down when it was revised to condemn discrimination against several minorities rather than just antisemitism.

Congressman Louie Gohmert of Texas said in a statement that all the edits to the resolution had made it so generic that it lost its meaning or significance.

And congressman Chris Collins of New York wrote on Twitter that he voted against the resolution because he did not feel it was strong enough in support of Israel.

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After the votes on the resolution were tallied up, many Democratic lawmakers expressed their condemnation of the Republicans who voted against the measure.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter: Wheres the outrage over the 23 GOP members who voted NO on a resolution condemning bigotry today? Oh, theres none?

Did they get called out, raked over, ambushed in halls and relentlessly asked why not? No? Okay. Got it.

Additional reporting by Washington Post
 Close Donald Trump calls Democrats 'anti-Israel, anti-Jewish' party

President Donald Trump has again attacked the witch hunt hoax embroiling his administration following the sentencing of ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort, declaring the outcome proved no collusion with Russia as Democrats decried the lenience of Manaforts 47-month sentence as a miscarriage of justice.

Departing for Alabama to tour the states devastation by a recent tornado, the president found time to denounce his opposition as an anti-Israel, anti-Jewish party over Congresswoman Ilhan Omars comments on the influence of Israeli interest groups in Washington, despite the House having passed a resolution condemning prejudice of all kinds by 402 to 23.

Meanwhile, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Doug Collins, has sent a scathing letter to its chairman, Jerrold Nadler, attacking the panels motivations in investigating the president for abuse of power, saying: Either you intend to impeach the president, for alleged crimes that have yet to be discovered, or you intend to embarrass him.

Manafort, was sentenced on Thursday by a federal judge to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians. The charges were unrelated to his work on Mr Trumps campaign or the focus of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The president repeated on Friday as he departed the White House to survey tornado damage in Alabama that Manaforts case had nothing to do with Russia.

Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty

It has been a "very, very tough time" for Manafort, he added.

In Alabama, the president signed Bibles at a local Baptist church and took photos with survivors of the deadly tornado outbreak that killed nearly two dozen people.

Mr Trump used a felt pen to scratch out his signature on the cover of a little girls Bible, which is decorated with pink camouflage, and first lady Melania Trump then added her signature.

The president and first lady surveyed the damage on Friday, meeting with local officials and victims. They also visited a makeshift disaster relief center set up at the church.

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New photos show that, weeks before the sting that implicated New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft in a prostitution and human trafficking operation, the owner of the day spa he allegedly patronised attended a Super Bowl party with Donald Trump.

The photo shows Li Yang, 45, smiling alongside the president. Ms Yang is the founder of the Orchids of Day Spa where police say they have video of Mr Kraft paying for oral sex in January during a second visit in 24 hours, according to The Miami Herald.

Mr Kraft has denied any wrongdoing. Ms Yang says that she had long since sold the day spa in question, and she has not been charged or implicated with crimes related to the sting.

Ms Yangs family still owns a handful of spas in South Florida, however.

That includes the Tokyo Day Spa there, which has branches that have been scrutinised by at least two police agencies for prostitution.

Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty

Ms Yang told The Herald in an interview that she and her family never broke the law. But, the newspaper reports that she did not answer when asked if therapists offer sex in the familys salons.

Photos reviewed by The Herald show that she has recently become politically active, with photos alongside the president, his adult sons, as well as other prominent Republicans like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

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And, while records show she was not previously politically active, she and her close family in 2017 donated a total of $58,000 to the presidents 2020 campaign and political action committees supporting him.
Donald Trump has labelled the investigation into his links with Russia a "collusion witch hoax", in a rambling and inaccurate tirade on the White House lawn.

Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn before flying to Alabama, the president wrongly suggested the judge who sentenced his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to 47 months in jail had said "there was no collusion with Russia".

I feel very badly for Paul Manafort, Mr Trump said. Both his lawyer, a highly respected man, and a very highly respected judge, the judge, said there was no collusion with Russia. It had nothing with collusion. There was no collusion.

He added: Its a collusion hoax, a collusion witch hoax. I dont collude with Russia. The judge made the statement that this had nothing to do collusion with Russia.

During Thursdays proceedings in a courtroom in Alexandria, US District Court Judge TS Ellis III had in fact said Manafort was not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election.

Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty

Mr Trump also said it had been a very, very tough time for his former campaign chairman.

Manafort faces additional sentencing next week in a separate case in which he has pleaded guilty to charges related to illegal lobbying.

He was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, much less than what was called for under sentencing guidelines.

Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he continues to deal with complications from gout, had no visible reaction as he heard sentence.

While that was the longest sentence to date to come from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, it could have been much worse for Manafort. Sentencing guidelines called for a 20-year-term, effectively a lifetime sentence for the 69-year-old.

Manafort has been jailed since June, so he will receive credit for the nine months he has already served. He still faces the possibility of additional time from his sentencing in a separate case in the District of Columbia.

He told the judge that saying I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement. But he offered no explicit apology, something Judge T.S. Ellis III noted before issuing his sentence Thursday.

Discussing character reference letters submitted by his friends and family, the judge said Manafort had lived an otherwise blameless life.
President Trump threw out the diplomatic rule book when he took office, tweeting gleefully about sensitive global issues, be it the nuclear showdown with North Korea or burden sharing within NATO. Now he has spawned a squad of in-house imitators.

John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, has tweeted more than 150 times about the political crisis in Venezuela, demanding that the countrys embattled president, Nicolas Maduro, go into exile and championing his waiting-in-the-wings replacement, Juan Guaido.

Jason D. Greenblatt, Mr Trumps Middle East envoy, has taken to Twitter dozens of times to debate or chide Palestinian leaders, with whom the White House has had no formal contact since late 2017, when the president announced he would move the American Embassy to Jerusalem.

Other administration officials, like Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany, and David M. Friedman, the ambassador to Israel, have used Twitter aggressively to defend their bosss policies and go after rivals like Iran. Even Vice President Mike Pence tweets regularly about Venezuela, accusing Cuba of propping up Mr Maduros discredited regime.

For Mr Trumps lieutenants, Twitter is a rare twofer: a way to promote the presidents agenda while bypassing what he disparages as the Fake News. And they are mindful that in this White House, emulating the boss never hurts.

Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Show all 20 1 /20 Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Donald Trump's Cabinet Donald Trump's Cabinet is one the richest in American history, filled with billionaires, conservatives and several career politicians. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mike Pence US Vice President Mike Pence has defended Donald Trump throughout his presidency while walking a fine line to avoid any public involvement in major scandals. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mike Pompeo Secretary of State Mike Pompeo replaced Donald Trump's previous appointment to the post, Rex Tillerson, and has led talks with North Korea in establishing high-profile summits between the president and Kim Jong Un. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Wilbur Ross Secretary of Commerce Wibur Ross raised controversy when he was accused of falsely claiming to have sold stock in a bank and violated a government ethics agreement. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Lighthizer US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been a fixture in Donald Trump's ongoing trade spat with China. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet William Barr Attorney General William Barr replaced Jeff Sessions as the nation's top cop in early 2019 and has refused to commit to recusing himself from the Russia probe despite an unsolicited memo he sent to the Justice Department decrying the investigation. EPA Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Rick Perry Energy Secretary Rick Perry has held his post throughout Donald Trump's presidency despite previously undermining the need for the agency he now leads in past public statements. Ken Shipp / United States Department of Energy Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Betsy DeVos Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has also held her post throughout the presidency, despite major backlash to her apparent undermining of the nationwide public school system and advocacy for charter programmes. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Steven Mnuchin Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has faced numerous controversies throughout his tenure as the head of Treasury, including costing taxpayers at least a million dollars in travel expenses. AP Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Wilkie Veterans Affairs secretary Robert Wilkie was appointed after Donald Trump's White House doctor Ronny Jackson withdrew over allegations he provided prescription drugs to patients without prescriptions. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet David Bernhardt Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt took office in January 2019 after the resignation of Ryan Zinke after previously serving as Zinke's deputy. Before taking office Bernhardt worked for many years as a solicitor for the Department of the Interior. Tami Heilemann / United States Department of the Interior Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Elaine Chao Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has held her post throughout the presidency and has mostly avoided controversy, despite a report claiming her office has been in frequent coordination with her husband's, Mitch McConnell. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Kevin McAleenan Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan took over from Kirstjen Nielsen after she resigned in April 2019. He previously worked as the executive director of the executive director of the Office of Anti Terrorism in the Customs and Border Protection agency United States Customs and Border Protection Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Ben Carson Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson was appointed shortly after Donald Trump took office and raised controversy over an exorbitant furnishing bill for his office. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Gina Haspel CIA Director Gina Haspel was appointed in 2018 and faced backlash surrounding her oversight of Guantanamo Bay. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Dan Coats Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats could be the next person to leave Donald Trump's administration over his refuting the president's claims surrounding ISIS. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Sonny Perdue Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has been dogged by ethics questions throughout his tenure and faced controversy when emails showed the agency appeared willing to eagerly work with lobbyists under his leadership. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Alex Azar Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is a former pharmaceutical lobbyist and former drug company executive. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mick Mulvaney Acting Chief of Staff and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has described himself as one of the most conservative officials in the White House. EPA Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Wilkie Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie has spent his career on Capitol Hill serving in various roles in foreign affairs and defence. He holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force Reserve. Gene Russell / United States Department of Veterans Affairs

But critics say the proliferation of Twitter diplomacy reveals an administration long on bombast and short on policy.

Sometimes it seems like Twitter is where policy is made, and not just an expression of policy, said Michael A. McFaul, who pioneered the use of Twitter as a diplomatic tool while ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama.

The old-fashioned policymaking process does not seem to be working, Mr McFaul said, and I dont think Twitter should be a substitute for that.

It is also clear that a tweet by Mr Trump carries more punch than one by his underlings. Mr Maduro is hanging tough in Venezuela, despite Mr Boltons daily barrage of threats. On Wednesday evening, he again raised the specter of military intervention, tweeting President Trump has made clear to Nicolas Maduro and those around him, all options are on the table.

 Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud

In the Middle East, Mr Greenblatts tweets have done little to repair the rift with the Palestinians or lay the groundwork for his long-anticipated peace plan. In a recent exchange, Mr Greenblatt accused the longtime Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, of unfairly maligning the proposal when he warned that it would be an apartheid system with ghettos for Palestinians.

Mr Grenell, whose no-holds-barred style most closely mirrors Mr Trumps, infuriated his German hosts last May when he tweeted, after the presidents decision to abandon the Iran nuclear deal, that German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately. Germany had opted to stay in the deal.

All of the presidents advisers pay close attention to his social media behaviour and copy some of his moves. Mr Bolton, for example, has taken his lead in pounding a message through sheer repetition: Mr Boltons 150-plus tweets on Venezuela are not unlike Mr Trumps repeated references to the special counsels Russia investigation as a witch hunt.

Mr Bolton told CNN that the tweets were a new experiment in public diplomacy  never mind that Mr McFaul, and later Secretary of State John Kerry, did it during the Obama administration.

A longtime commentator on Fox with a penchant for pungent statements, Mr Bolton sometimes infuses his tweets with a distinctly Trumpian tone. Talks between Russia and Maduros cronies are only useful if they are discussing retirement beaches for Maduro, he wrote last week of Russian efforts to broker a solution to the crisis.

Recommended Leaks and Trump tweets leave US Middle East policy in tatters

The difference between Mr Trump and his advisers is that his tweeting is usually more ad hoc. He has been known to tap out his messages off the cuff and not have them vetted, with a watch this expression, according to two people who have seen him do it.

Mr Bolton and Mr Greenblatt carefully consider their tweets before posting. A senior administration official described Mr Boltons Venezuela tweets as part of a strategic, tactical and purposeful plan to raise awareness of the need to oust Mr Maduro.

Experts on Latin America have likened Mr Boltons tweets to a prolonged info op on Venezuela. The problem, they said, is that the administration has so far been unable to buttress the communications strategy with concrete steps that will force Mr Maduro out of power.

On Wednesday, Mr Bolton issued an old-fashioned statement in which he warned foreign banks engaged in illicit transactions with the Maduro government that they faced American sanctions. We will not allow Maduro to steal the wealth of the Venezuelan people, he said.

In Mr Greenblatts case, the tweets are a way to engage Palestinians at a time when the Palestinian Authority refuses to talk to the administration. His audience, analysts said, is less the ageing Palestinian leadership than younger Palestinians, who Mr. Greenblatt hopes will respond by embracing the economic incentives in the peace proposal that he has been drafting with Jared Kushner, Mr Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser.

Unfortunately, there are many rumours out there, Mr Greenblatt said in a statement. Twitter allows me to rapidly set the record straight, without a middleman, when our policies are mischaracterised.

Mr Greenblatt said he had received largely positive feedback from Palestinians, as well as Israelis. Its good for diplomacy, he said, and its good for the people of the region.

Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty

But since the White House has yet to disclose the details of its plan, Mr Greenblatts tweets are more effective at tamping down ill-founded speculation than in laying out a case for the administrations policies.

Often, he criticises inflammatory statements made by Palestinians. In a recent tweet, Mr. Greenblatt condemned a columnist with ties to the Palestinian Authority who wrote that he resembled a person with Down syndrome.

Mr Friedman rallied to his friends defense, tweeting, I am disgusted  not for Jason (hes got broad shoulders)  but by this utter disregard for the value of every human life.

When a Palestinian journalist, Daoud Kuttab, tweeted his dismay at the personal attack on an American official, Mr Greenblatt replied, I know you disagree with our policies but glad you stood up for whats right, and invited him to the White House for a meeting.

Mr Greenblatts lively Twitter profile is in stark contrast to his low-key role in the administration and in Mr Trumps prior business life. The former chief legal officer of the Trump Organisation, he has barely figured in discussions of the presidents legal woes. In a leaky White House, the details of Mr Greenblatts peace plan remain tightly under wraps.

Experts on the Middle East said Mr Greenblatts decision to engage on Twitter had merit but was flawed in two respects. First, the Trump administrations policies have so alienated the Palestinians that it was difficult for Mr Greenblatt to overcome the hostility.

Right now, the context of the US-Palestinian relationship is overwhelmingly negative, said Ghaith al-Omari, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Palestinians think, You say you care about us, but youre cutting aid to Palestinians and closing our hospitals.

Second, critics said Mr Greenblatt was not explaining the administrations policies to a sceptical Palestinian audience as much as reproaching their leaders for what he believes is their shortsightedness. He is also, they said, one-sided.

I cant remember a single tweet that has been critical of a new Israeli settlement or an Israeli government decision, said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former American ambassador to Israel and Egypt. His tweets have strictly been used to point out Palestinian malfeasance.

The New York Times
The multimillion dollar mansion of an Indian diamond merchant  wanted in a $2bn fraud case with a state bank  was blown up on Friday.

Indian officials said that jeweller Nirav Modis $14 million mansion was in contravention of several environmental laws.

More than 100 dynamite sticks were used around the 33,000sq-ft bungalow near Kihim Beach, said Vijay Suryawanshi, district collector of Raigad.

Modi was a jeweller known to the stars, with his creations worn by A-listers from Bollywood and Hollywood, including Priyanka Chopra, Kate Winslet and Dakota Johnson.

Since August 2018, he has been wanted by Indian police on a range of charges including criminal conspiracy, corruption, money laundering, and fraud with officials from the Punjab National Bank.

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 is believed to be in hiding in London.

In January, officials had begun the demolition process using bulldozers, excavators and other equipment, but it proved to be slow and tedious.

This week, detonators were fixed at various points on the bungalow to carry out the controlled blast and bring it down in a single explosion.

The bungalows fixtures will be up for auction. Three items  a jacuzzi, a chandelier, and a Buddha statue  will be handed to Indias fraud agency.
A man clung to the bonnet of a moving car for more than a mile on a busy Indian road after getting into an argument with another driver.

The 32-year-old known locally as Jagbir, claimed his car had been struck by another on a road in the Indrapuram district of the northern Indian city of Ghaziabad.

After a minor argument between the two two drivers broke out, police intervened and asked them to pull over.

But both Jagbir the other driver tried to flee the scene, according to bystanders.

He then got out of his car and jumped onto the bonnet of the other car as it drove off.

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

Clutching on to the windscreen wipers, he held on to the windscreen wipers as the car continued driving down the road for over a mile.

"As Jagbir parked his car, the other driver tried to flee with his vehicle and the victim tried to come in front of the bonnet in order to stop his car but was driven on it instead," a witness said. "A few road users who saw the mishap unfold took out their camera and shot the incident."

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After driving for around a-mile-and-a-half, "Jagbir then asked the man to come out of his vehicle," they added.

After the car came to a halt, the driver got out of the vehicle and was handed over to the police by the assembled crowd.

Additional reporting by SWNS
An artificial earthquake has reportedly been detected in North Korea.

The 2.1-magnitude seismic activity is thought to have been caused by an explosion in a mine, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.

The earthquakes epicentre was measured near ground level in the mining town of Pyongyang on Thursday, reported the Korea Times.

Mining is known to cause minor seismic activity but the tremor came shortly after North Korea was reported to be pursuing the rapid rebuilding of a missile site it promised to dismantle.

South Koreas intelligence agency has reportedly been briefed on renewed activity at the Sohae long-range missile launch centre in Tongchang-ri, in North Koreas northeast.

North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits Show all 16 1 /16 North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea, portraits of former supreme leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are required by law to be hung in the home, the classroom, the factory and all manner of other private and public places Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the classroom AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the living room AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the maternity ward of the hospital Alamy North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits On board the ship Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits At the ballot box Mannen av bord North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the office AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits On the bridegroom Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits On the Pyongyang subway Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits On a government building Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the teacher training facility AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the home AFP/Getty North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits At the military parade Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits In the hall Reuters North Korea's pervasive leaders: the Kim portraits At the Chinese border AFP/Getty

The rebuilding was said to have started in the weeks before North Korean leader Kim Jong-uns failed talks with Donald Trump. Mr Trump said he would be very, very disappointed if the reports were true.

New activity has also been detected at a factory that produced North Koreas first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US, according to South Koreas JoongAng Ilbo and Donga Ilbo newspapers.

Recommended North Korea nuclear and missile bases monitored after new activity

Previous missile and nuclear tests in North Korea have triggered small earthquakes, although there is no evidence to suggest the latest tremors were caused by such tests.

On Thursday, Mr Trumps national security adviser said the US president was open to further talks with Mr Kim despite reports Pyongyang had reactivated part of its missile programme.

The two leaders second summit broke down without an agreement last week, with the US claiming North Korea had demanded an end to all sanctions in exchange for setting aside its nuclear ambitions.
A man who fought against honour killings in Pakistan was killed by his nephew, police said Friday.

Mohammed Afzal was shot dead on Wednesday in the northwestern district of Abbottabad.

We have arrested an accused from the scene of the crime and recovered a pistol from him, Abbas Majeed, the area police chief, said on Friday.

He identified the suspect as Mr Afzal's nephew but offered no motive or explanation for his alleged involvement.

Detectives are recommending the man be charged with murder, Mr Majeed added.

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 Afzal attracted national attention in 2012 after he claimed a tribal council had sentenced two of his brothers and four girls to death after a video emerged of the group dancing at a wedding.

The mixed gathering took place in the remote Pallas Valley, an extremely conservative part of Pakistan. Mr Afzal won praise and condemnation after he accused a cleric and the tribal assembly of ordering the killings.

A fifth girl, aged just 12-years-old, was killed for talking to her sister after the sentence was passed, he said.

While the case was being heard in court in 2013 three of Mr Afzal's brothers - including the two in the video - were killed.

The familys land was seized and their home burned down.

The fate of the five girls remains disputed. Two investigators concluded a hurried probe shortly after the scandal became public and said the women were alive,

But a witness said in 2013 that the women had been killed. The group have never appeared before a court.

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More than 1,000 women are murdered each year in honour killings across the country.

They often occur when a girl refuses an arranged marriage or chooses her own husband. Honour killings have also been reported for cases where a girl wore jeans, talked to a man or attempted to leave an abusive home.

Mr Afzal's death has prompted outrage in Pakistan's civil society.

Sherry Rehman, a prominent lawmaker, said she would raise his death in parliament.

Additional reporting by agencies
Australias prime minister has provoked a backlash after he said womens empowerment should not come at the expense of men.

Scott Morrison was giving an address to mark International Womens Day when he said his government wanted to see women rise, but not on the basis of others doing worse.

Speaking at a function organised by Australias mining industry, he referred to comments made by the countrys minister for women, Kelly ODwyer, and said gender equality isnt about pitting girls against boys.

Were not about setting Australians against each other, trying to push some down to lift others up, Mr Morrison said, according to The Guardian. That is an absolutely liberal value, that you dont push some people down to lift some people up. And that is true about gender equality too.

We want to see women rise. But we dont want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse.

International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Show all 17 1 /17 International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Radical political activist Angela Davis speaks at a protest in Raleigh Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Poor pay, 14 hour days and dangerous working conditions led to a strike by around 1400 women and girls at a match factory in Bow, London, 1888. The action was later coined The Matchgirls Strike International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Christabel Pankhurst, one of the founders of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and a leading member of the suffragette movement, addresses a crowd in Trafalgar Square in a speech in which she invites the crowd to rush the House of Commons, 11 October 1908. Christabel Pankhurst and her mother Emmeline, alongside Flora Drummond, were arrested two days later charged with conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace. The rush on parliament went ahead without them however, with over 60,000 suffragettes attempting to break through the 5000 strong police cordon protecting parliament. Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Suffragette Emily Davison is hit and killed by King George V's horse Anmer during the 1913 Epsom Derby. She fell underneath the galloping horse after leaping from the crowd and trying to grab hold of the reins Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Striking women machinists from the Ford plant at Dagenham protest outside negotiations over their wages, 1968. The women went on strike over their lack of pay in relation to their male colleagues. The action helped to trigger the Equal Pay Act 1970 Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history The women's liberation movement march in Washington, August 1970 Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Protestors disrupt the 1970 Miss World competition. Original caption: The Miss World contest causes a feminist storm as demonstrators invade the Royal Albert Hall where the contest was held. Protestors fired ink at spectators and let off stink bombs in scenes resembling a school assembly. The unruly ladies were eventually expelled from the hall by security guards and policemen Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Somalians demonstrating in Mogadishu for the release of Angela Davis, March 1972, a Black Panther activist imprisoned in the USA after being charged with first degree murder. Davis was later acquitted Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Jayaben Desai, one of the mostly British-Asian women out on strike at the Grunwick factory in 1977, pictured on the picket line Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Women protest against nuclear weapons outside of RAF base Greenham Common, 1982 Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Indian protestors hold candles during a rally in New Delhi in December 2012, after the death of a student who was gang raped on a bus in the Indian capital Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history A feminist group Sisters Uncut protesting against cuts to domestic violence refuges occupy the red carpet during a protest at the Suffragette premiere, 7 October 2015 Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history People gather for the Womens March in Washington, January 2017 Reuters International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Protesters walk during the Womens March on Washington, with the US Capitol in the background, in January, 2017. Donald Trump was sworn in as president the previous day Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Women march as part of the gender equality protest in London, March 2017 AFP/Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Demonstrators march through during the March4Women event, 4 March 2018, London Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Placards are displayed during the March4Women, 4 March 2018, London Getty

Mr Morrisons critics have pointed out just 22 per cent of sitting Liberal Party members across Australias two houses of parliament are women, CNN reported.

Meanwhile 44 per cent of sitting members of the opposition Labour Party are women.

Mr Morrison went on to say the Liberal Party has selected 19 women as candidates for the upcoming election.

 International Women's Day: when and how did the annual event start?

He later shared a video message marking International Womens Day, in which told Australians: Today Id encourage you to take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate all the women in your life.

Im blessed to live with three amazing women, with Jenny and Abby and Lily. You know the women in your life. And to women right across our nation, thank you so much.
Belgiums customs authority is advising companies that export to the UK to halt shipments after Brexit day to avoid customs chaos in the event of a no-deal scenario.

Kristian Vanderwaeren, chief executive of Belgian customs, called for a Brexitpauze after 29 March and said firms should do as much of their exporting as they can before new controls have to come in.

Who are we as customs to give the business world instructions? But we are still asking the SMEs and all other parties to wait. Do the necessary export to your customers before 29 March, he told Belgian business newspaper De Tijd.

Mr Vanderwaeren said larger industries such as pharmaceutical companies and car manufacturers had been storing stock in the UK for months to avoid having to get parts through after Brexit but that the vast majority of businesses were not well prepared with just weeks to go.

Belgiums main port of Zeebrugge is expected to have to deal with around a million additional import declarations and 4.5 million extra export declarations once the UK leaves the single market and customs union.

The warning follows chaos and hours of delays at Calais and the Eurostar terminal in Paris after French customs officers carried out a trial of the sort of checks they would have to impose under a no-deal Brexit.

The customs chief also warned that many small businesses that dealt with the UK were simply not prepared to export and that it would be better for them to pause operations.

Our customs authority has written letters to some 20,000 companies that trade with the UK telling them they have to apply for an EORI number, which is necessary to be able to import and export, Mr Vanderwaeren told the newspaper.

But today, three weeks before the Brexit, customs received only 4,700 positive answers. Customs has even set up a call centre that answers questions and calls companies to get them to register for customs licences.

France, the Netherlands and Belgium have all hired hundreds of extra customs officers to deal with the potential disruption caused by the UKs decision.

Unless Article 50 is extended or revoked, Britain is set to leave on 29 March. If Theresa Mays Brexit deal is approved by MPs, the UK will enter a transition period and little will change immediately  but there are few signs the government has the numbers in the House of Commons to get it approved.

If there is no extension of revocation and no transition period, the UK will crash out and the expected chaos at ports and airports will materialise.

Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well Show all 18 1 /18 Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well These billboards were plastered by campaign group Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well PA Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter Top politicians' Brexit tweets haven't aged well @ByDonkeys / Twitter

The UK government unveiled plans last month to wave through EU imports under a no-deal Brexit in a bid to head off disruption. Companies bringing products to the UK will not have to make a full customs declaration at the border and will be able to postpone paying import duties.

The Transitional Simplified Procedures, which require businesses to register in advance, will, however, not affect operations on the EU side.
A German man has been sentenced to life behind bars after poisoning his co-workers sandwiches, leaving one in a coma and two others with serious kidney damage.

The 57-year-old man, identified only as Klaus O because of German privacy rules, was caught on CCTV putting a suspicious powder on a colleagues sandwich at a business in the city of Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock.

When authorities searched his home, they found a primitive chemistry laboratory in the basement and a substance that Judge Georg Zimmermann described as more dangerous than all combat agents used in World War Two.

Two of the defendants colleagues, a 27-year-old man and 67-year-old man, suffered chronic kidney damage from poisoning with lead and cadmium. Both men face a heightened risk of cancer.

A 23-year-old trainee fell into a coma after ingesting mercury and now has permanent brain damage.

The worst ever inflight meals Show all 8 1 /8 The worst ever inflight meals The worst ever inflight meals Cockroach curry A cockroach was found in an Air India breakfast meal. Twitter/Manoj Khandekar The worst ever inflight meals Apples and pears Avianca's idea of a vegetarian meal was an apple and a pear on board one flight. Twitter/Steve Hogarty The worst ever inflight meals Chicken sandwich Emirates served this disappointing Cajun chicken and cheese sandwich on a flight to Dubai Paul Carlin The worst ever inflight meals Gluten-free banana Martin Pavelka was handed this banana, complete with "gluten-free" label, as his inflight meal on an ANA service from Tokyo to Sydney. Martin Pavelka/Evening Standard The worst ever inflight meals Mushroom sandwich Oman Air's finest: presenting something approximating a mushroom sandwich on a flight to Heathrow. Nick Boulos The worst ever inflight meals Raw vegetables Aegean Airways served up some raw pepper and carrot sticks as its veggie option on one flight. musterknabe The worst ever inflight meals More cockroaches An Air India passenger wasn't impressed when she found this in the business class lounge. Twitter/Harinder Baweja The worst ever inflight meals Leftovers Not everyone turns their nose up at plane food - this Urumqi flight attendant was suspended after a video of her eating leftovers went viral. Viral Press

The defendant refused to speak during his trial and his motives remain unclear  but prosecutors believe he wanted to see his colleagues physical decline.

The judge said the court considered the crimes to be as serious as homicide, according to German news agency dpa.

He found the defendant guilty of attempted murder and sentenced him to life in prison.

The judge also ordered that he should remain in prison after completing the life sentence, which in Germany typically means serving 15 years, because he remains a danger to the public.
Police in Switzerland have launched an investigation into a group seen wearing white hooded costumes resembling traditional Ku Klux Klan (KKK) outfits to a carnival.

Video captured by a witness in Brunnen shows around dozen cloaked figures carrying burning torches as they marched through the town.

The footage, shared on the Swiss website 20 Minuten, also showed the letters KKK emblazoned across the front of the white robes.

One passer-by said: That is definitely taking it too far there have to be limits.

The police are reportedly examining the video footage and photos of the group seen at the towns annual celebrations.

Political figures caricatured at German carnival Show all 22 1 /22 Political figures caricatured at German carnival Political figures caricatured at German carnival Donald Trump is depicted as a raging bull AP Political figures caricatured at German carnival Prime Minister Theresa May is depicted as piercing the economy with Brexit Getty Political figures caricatured at German carnival US president Donald Trump is depicted as an angel flying behind Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman who is wielding a bloody chainsaw Getty Political figures caricatured at German carnival Italian Inteior Minister and deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini is depicted as feeding racism and nationalism. He also bears a tattoo of affection for the mafia Getty Political figures caricatured at German carnival Chairman of Poland's leading Law and Justice Party (PIS) Jaroslaw Kaczynski is depicted as crucifying liberal Poland Getty Political figures caricatured at German carnival Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is depicted running towards the EU for asylum AP Political figures caricatured at German carnival Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is depicted running towards the EU for asylum Reuters Political figures caricatured at German carnival Planet Earth is depicted as eating plastic waste EPA Political figures caricatured at German carnival The frontside of a float depicting Germany's far-right party Alternative fur Deutschland (AFD)... Reuters Political figures caricatured at German carnival ...and the backside of the float. Depicting a German nazi AP Political figures caricatured at German carnival US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin are depicted tearing up the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which the US recently pulled out of Getty Political figures caricatured at German carnival A Catholic bishop is depicted as sleeping on "the merciless processing of abuse cases" Getty Political figures caricatured at German carnival Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is depicted as being covered in blood Reuters Political figures caricatured at German carnival Donald Trump is depicted as a raging bull Reuters Political figures caricatured at German carnival German Chancellor Angela Merkel is depicted as sitting on a knackered horse and holding out a carrot AP Political figures caricatured at German carnival The horse is called "Koalition" in reference to Germany's ruling coalition AFP/Getty Images Political figures caricatured at German carnival The carrot bears the label "AKK", an abbreviation of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Merkel's successor as leader of the Christian Democratic Union Reuters Political figures caricatured at German carnival A paper mache figure of a priest carrying an attache case reading "let the children come towards me" is seen during the presentation of the floats for the upcoming Rose Monday parade in Mainz, Germany Reuters Political figures caricatured at German carnival German Chancellor Angela Merkel is depicted as a rabbit waiting to be shot by her Interior Minister Horst Seehofer AP Political figures caricatured at German carnival German Chancellor Angela Merkel is depicted as a rabbit waiting to be shot by her Interior Minister Horst Seehofer EPA Political figures caricatured at German carnival German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is depicted as holding a bent gun that he intends to aim at Chancellor Angela Merkel EPA Political figures caricatured at German carnival Andrea Naples, leader of the German Social Democrats (SPD) who are in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's party AP

It is the second racism row at a European carnival in the space of a week, after a parade in Belgium provoked condemnation for featuring Jewish caricatures standing on piles of money.

The float in the city of Aalsts annual feast on Sunday showed two giant male figures with large sideburns, crooked noses and shtreimels  a fur hat worn by some Orthodox Jews. One had a rat on his shoulder.

European Commission spokesperson Margaritis Schinas compared it to Nazi propaganda and urged the Belgian authorities to take action.

 Belgian carnival float features puppets of smiling Jews and sacks of money

He said: It should be obvious to all that portraying such representations in the streets of Europe is absolutely unthinkable, 74 years after the Holocaust.

It is the responsibility of the national authorities to take the appropriate measures on the basis of the applicable law.

Recommended Antisemitic carnival float had Jewish puppets grinning amid money

The float was created by the Vismooiln group. Belgiums Forum of Jewish Organisations and the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organisations in Belgium both condemned the antisemitic imagery.

Lawyer Daniel Kettiger told 20 Minuten said the white cloaks seen in Swiss town were a faithful imitation of the US Ku Klux Klan  an organisation which had a history of racism against blacks.

But he also said it would be difficult to establish criminal cases against members of the group under Switzerlands existing anti-racism laws, because no specific race or ethnicity had necessarily been targeted by the group.
Vladmir Putin's attempt to mark International Women's Day went awry this week, after he mounted a horse which proceeded to walk backwards during a parade.

The Russian president was shown cantering on horseback alongside female police officers in footage broadcast across the country.

He was visiting a mounted police regiment at a training facility in Moscow on the eve of International Women's Day.

Flanked by women on white horses, Putin rode a brown one, before he took centre stage as the officers surrounded him in rows.

However, his horse would not stay in formation and walked backwards, with the helpless leader seemingly unable to stop it.

Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Show all 20 1 /20 Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin is pictured with a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin aims at a whale with an arbalest to take a piece of its skin for analysis on the Olga Bay, some 240 kilometres north-east of Nakhodka on August 25, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin plunges into the icy waters of lake Seliger during the celebration of the Epiphany holiday in Russia's Tver region AFP/Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin (top) takes part in a judo training session at the "Moscow" sports complex in St. Petersburg, on December 22, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin works out at a gym at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence in Sochi on August 30, 2015. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin fishes in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin (L) and the leader of the Night Wolves biker group, Alexander Zaldostanov (R), also known as the Surgeon, ride motorcycles on August 29, 2011 at a bikers' festival in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Russia. Putin described leather-clad bikers as brothers and boasted of the "indivisible Russian nation" after roaring into a biking rally on a Harley Davidson. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin wears glasses as he visits the Technology Park of the Novosibirsk Academic Town in Novosibirsk on February 17, 2012. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin rides a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin holds a pistol during his visit to a newly-built headquarters of the Russian General Staff's Main Intelligence Department (GRU) in Moscow, 08 November 2006. ?Some countries are seeking to untie their hands in order to take weapons to outer space, including nuclear weapons,? Putin said at the Chief Military Intelligence Department on Wednesday. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin sits inside a T-90AM tank during a visit to an arms exhibition in the Urals town of Nizhny Tagil on September 9, 2011 Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin wears a helmet and the uniform of the Renault Formula One team before driving a F1 race car on a special track in Leningrad region outside St. Petersburg on November 7, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin guides a boat during his vacation in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin hunts fish underwater in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin is seen at the Russian boxing team training club after casting his vote for the Russian Presidential election, 14 March 2004 in Moscow. Putin coasted to a landslide victory with 69.0 percent of the vote in Sunday's election, according to the first exit poll aired on Russian television moments after voting ended across the country's 11 time zones. AFP/Getty Images Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Russian President Vladimir Putin poses for a picture inside the Tupolev-160 strategic bomber jet at the Moscow's Chkalovsky military airport, 16 August 2005. President Vladimir Putin took off from Moscow for a supersonic flight in a cruise-missile carrying Tupolev-160 bomber jet, the latest in the Russian leader's action-packed public appearances. After a health check, Putin donned a flight suit and took the commander's position in the strategic bomber, which was piloted by Major General Anatoly Zhikharev, with a colonel and a lieutenant colonel in charge of navigation, Russian media reported. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? A picture released on March 6, 2010 shows Vladimir Putin look through binoculars in the Karatash area, near the town of Abakan, during his working trip to Khakassia, on February 25, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin measuring a polar bear on the island Alexandra Land, part of the Franz Josef Land archipalego in the Arctic Ocean. Putin, better known in the West for his tough-guy image, expressed concern for the fate of Arctic polar bears threatened by climate change. "The polar bear is under threat. Their population is currently only 25,000 individuals," Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin carries a hunting rifle during his trip in Ubsunur Hollow Biosphere Reserve in Tuva Republic in this undated picture released on October 30, 2010 by RIA Novosti news agency. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Russian President Vladimir Putin pilots a motorized hang glider while flying with cranes as he takes part in a scientific experiment as part of the "Flight of Hope", which aims to preserve a rare species of - cranes on September 5, 2012. At the helm of a motorized hang glider that the birds have taken as their leader, Putin made three flights - the first to get familiar with the process, and two others with the birds. AFP/Getty

Guards eventually coaxed the creature back into line.

Mr Putin has carefully cultivated a macho image during his 19 years in power and has been pictured riding a horse bare-chested in Siberia and taking a dip in icy water.

The Russian leader reportedly gave the police officers a horse named Golden Ray after the event.

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Ahead of International Womens Day, Mr Putin said women were increasingly taking an interest in working in law enforcement agencies and that just over a quarter of employees at the Interior Ministry were now women.

The 66-year-old's approval ratings have fallen recently due to years of lower real incomes and an unpopular move by the government last year to raise the retirement age.

Additional reporting by agencies
A survey of thousands of women in Afghanistan and Nigeria found that not one of them had heard of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault.

Women for Women International, a humanitarian organisation which supports marginalised women, asked 8,500 women across both countries if they had heard of the movement, but none of them had.

Campaigners, who released the research to coincide with International Womens Day, argued there were millions of women living in some of the most dangerous places in the world who had felt no tangible improvement to their lives due to #MeToo.

One in three women worldwide will experience physical or sexual violence at some point in her lifetime, mostly by an intimate partner, according to the World Health Organisation.

The #MeToo movement  the most visible and widespread feminist movement of recent times  exploded in late 2017 after a series of sexual assault allegations were made against men in Hollywood and a slew of other industries. Millions of women around the world shared their own stories of rape, assault and harassment.

International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Show all 17 1 /17 International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Radical political activist Angela Davis speaks at a protest in Raleigh Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Poor pay, 14 hour days and dangerous working conditions led to a strike by around 1400 women and girls at a match factory in Bow, London, 1888. The action was later coined The Matchgirls Strike International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Christabel Pankhurst, one of the founders of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and a leading member of the suffragette movement, addresses a crowd in Trafalgar Square in a speech in which she invites the crowd to rush the House of Commons, 11 October 1908. Christabel Pankhurst and her mother Emmeline, alongside Flora Drummond, were arrested two days later charged with conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace. The rush on parliament went ahead without them however, with over 60,000 suffragettes attempting to break through the 5000 strong police cordon protecting parliament. Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Suffragette Emily Davison is hit and killed by King George V's horse Anmer during the 1913 Epsom Derby. She fell underneath the galloping horse after leaping from the crowd and trying to grab hold of the reins Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Striking women machinists from the Ford plant at Dagenham protest outside negotiations over their wages, 1968. The women went on strike over their lack of pay in relation to their male colleagues. The action helped to trigger the Equal Pay Act 1970 Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history The women's liberation movement march in Washington, August 1970 Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Protestors disrupt the 1970 Miss World competition. Original caption: The Miss World contest causes a feminist storm as demonstrators invade the Royal Albert Hall where the contest was held. Protestors fired ink at spectators and let off stink bombs in scenes resembling a school assembly. The unruly ladies were eventually expelled from the hall by security guards and policemen Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Somalians demonstrating in Mogadishu for the release of Angela Davis, March 1972, a Black Panther activist imprisoned in the USA after being charged with first degree murder. Davis was later acquitted Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Jayaben Desai, one of the mostly British-Asian women out on strike at the Grunwick factory in 1977, pictured on the picket line Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Women protest against nuclear weapons outside of RAF base Greenham Common, 1982 Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Indian protestors hold candles during a rally in New Delhi in December 2012, after the death of a student who was gang raped on a bus in the Indian capital Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history A feminist group Sisters Uncut protesting against cuts to domestic violence refuges occupy the red carpet during a protest at the Suffragette premiere, 7 October 2015 Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history People gather for the Womens March in Washington, January 2017 Reuters International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Protesters walk during the Womens March on Washington, with the US Capitol in the background, in January, 2017. Donald Trump was sworn in as president the previous day Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Women march as part of the gender equality protest in London, March 2017 AFP/Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Demonstrators march through during the March4Women event, 4 March 2018, London Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Placards are displayed during the March4Women, 4 March 2018, London Getty

Brita Fernandez Schmidt, executive director of Women for Women International-UK, said the studys findings showed the profound disconnect between the #MeToo movement and women living in developing countries.

We are trying to show it is so much worse than we can even imagine if we take a worldwide view, she said. If anyone says #MeToo has gone too far, I would say it has not gone far enough.

It could be argued violence against women is one of the biggest epidemics in the world. It has an impact on the whole of society and also affects children who witness the violence and men themselves.

Ms Schmidt, who has worked for the organisation for a decade, said rape was used as a weapon of war to systematically erode communities, with men often forced to watch their wives and daughters being raped.

The root cause of violence is the same no matter where you go in the whole world, she said. The cause is the fact we are living in a society that has created a stereotype of men and women where women are the property of men. It means that men think they can treat women however they wish.

Women for Women International participants at the demonstration farm in Pushit Nigeria (Monilekan Screensmith)

She argued that it was imperative to acknowledge the shame, blame and stigma that stopped women from speaking out about the sexual violence they experienced at the hands of men.

Ms Schmidt said the prosecution rate for sexual assault against women in both Nigeria and Afghanistan was non-existent.

Often when women who are raped go back to their families, they are sent away because they are seen to be tainted, she said. The fear of stigma stops them from speaking out. They know it means they will be shunned and they will lose all their social networks. It will be them who gets all the shame instead of the perpetrator.

Also after conflict, there is a surge in domestic violence. The violence continues because you have not addressed the trauma that both the men and women have experienced due to the war.

She said she was not surprised by the findings of the study as she worked with women in those communities and they did not have access to the internet via smartphones to learn about the movement.

Research demonstrates that while women affected by poverty and conflict are disproportionately vulnerable to violence in all its forms, they are simultaneously least likely to be literate and have access to online devices.

Women for Women International, which notes that there are currently at least 40 brutal armed conflicts across the globe, argues the worlds attention moves on after conflicts come to a halt but women are left to carry the burden and rebuild their families and communities.

Bukola Onyishi, director of the organisations Nigeria branch, said: The women I meet in rural Nigeria need to hear the message of the #MeToo movement  that they are not alone, and above all that it is the perpetrators of sexual violence, not the survivors, who should feel shame and fear.

We must also change the perceptions in the wider community, and in the families of women who experience sexual violence, to ensure that the culture of silence around this issue can be broken.

The UN estimates that of all women who were the victims of homicide in 2017 (87,000), 58 per cent of them were killed by intimate partners or family members  meaning that 137 women across the world are killed by a member of their own family every day and that this number is on the rise.

The women surveyed in the study are largely marginalised and socially excluded women who are survivors of conflict. The majority of respondents are between the ages of 18-40 years, married with at least three children, with average daily earnings of less than US$1 (76p).

Out of 3,396 women in nine districts of Nigeria, not one had heard of the #MeToo Movement, while zero out of 5,099 women in nine districts of four provinces of Afghanistan had not heard of it either.

Frozan Pardis, the social empowerment manager for Women for Women International in Afghanistan, said: People here do not know about this movement. Even my colleagues do not know about it. There are many reasons they do not know  one is poverty  they do not have a smartphone or any phones.

Ms Pardis, who has worked with the organisation for five years, said some of those women were denied the opportunity to access social media.

I have a huge understanding of the community, she said. I have many meetings with them so for me, this study is not surprising. Many women also do not know about IWD on 8 March. They do not know there is a day for us women.

The campaigner, who was born in Kabul, said the country had many problems with harassment and women were afraid to tell the police or organisations about the sexual assault or domestic violence they had experienced.

We have many problems with harassment, she said. There is a bad culture among men. Women never go to the police. Women face a problem with the rule of law in some places because they are afraid of warlords.

Women for Women class in Afghanistan (Rada Akbar)

Ms Pardis works with women on the ground and talks to them about their rights both legally and in accordance to religious teachings  teaching them to value themselves and become more independent and self-reliant. The mens engagement training programmes she holds use the Koran to explain how womens rights are grounded in Islam.

Decades of violence in Afghanistan have resulted in millions of women and girls being displaced or widowed. Common discriminatory practices, augmented by extremist groups, often lead to it being dangerous for women to seek healthcare services, education, employment  or, in some cases, simply leave the home.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding an end to the 20-year presidency of Abdelaziz Bouteflika flooded the streets of Algerian cities on Friday in the greatest challenge to the North African nations leadership in three decades.

The protests, following midday prayers and concluding largely peacefully several hours later, marked the largest and perhaps broadest anti-government action in the country since a wave of demonstrations and unrest in the late 1980s triggered a brief democratic opening before the country descended into a decade-long civil war.



We have woken up, so get ready, they chanted. We want the riches of the country divided equally.

They came amid signs of fissures within the ruling elite with symbolic acts of protest by lawmakers, politicians and community leaders in support of the anti-government wave, which began last month.

For days, Algeria has been witnessing an unprecedented peaceful revolutionary situation led only by the people, wrote Mokrane Ait Larbi, a campaign manager for one of the presidential candidates running against Mr Bouteflika. Mr Larbi resigned from his post and dismissed the process as a sham.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Algiers, 9 April 2018 (Reuters)

It would not be possible at this historic crossroads to achieve a breakthrough via elections.

Protesters on Friday turned out under grey skies and blustery weather, despite a message attributed to Mr Bouteflika, issued through his minister of communications, warning of potential violence.

The tragedy of Algeria's 'disappeared' Show all 2 1 /2 The tragedy of Algeria's 'disappeared' The tragedy of Algeria's 'disappeared' 519569.bin AFP/GETTY IMAGES The tragedy of Algeria's 'disappeared' 519571.bin GETTY

The democratic pluralism, for which we tirelessly campaigned, is now a tangible reality, said his statement, which was issued on Thursday.

However, we have the duty to urge vigilance and caution against any possible infiltration of misleading parties, either internal or external, in this peaceful expression. Such parties may cause [sedition] and provoke chaos, with all they can trigger  crises and woes.

The bulk of those protesting on Friday appeared to be young Algerians raised in the post-conflict era. They took to the streets to oppose a fifth term for the ailing, 82-year-old Mr Bouteflika in upcoming 18 April elections, viewed by many Algerians and independent analysts as a pro forma extension of his rule.

The most well-known candidates running against Mr Bouteflika, including former prime minister Ali Benflis, the Islamist Abderrazek Makri and the leftist Louisa Hanoune, have dropped out of the election and thrown in their lot with the protesters. Describing the elections as pre-ordained, protesters on Friday booed Ali Ghediri, one of the minor candidates running against Mr Bouteflika.

Key organisations dating back to the 1952-1962 war of independence from France such as the National Organisation for the Children of Martyrs, the National Organisation of Mujahideen, workerss unions and several members of the politically well-connected Forum des Chefs dEntreprises, a business lobby, have edged towards the protest movement.

Ahmed Ferroukhi, a lawmaker and member of the National Liberation Front (FLN) party, along with a handful of other elected officials, have stepped down to show support for the protesters.

International journalists have been largely barred from entering Algeria in recent years. But Algerian media has been reporting aggressively on the protests.

People are not afraid and theres a lot of solidarity, one journalist employed by a major media outlet in Algiers told The Independent.

All categories of people, from all ages and social groups in major cities ... Theyre determined to keep things peaceful. There is a big awareness among the population. Everyone is calling for restraint and calm.

Video footage posted online showed demonstrations all around the country of 42 million, the largest nation by land mass in Africa, and a key player in Arab, Mediterranean, and African affairs. The electronic news outlet Tout Sur Algerie, with a million followers on Twitter, reported protests in the capital Algiers, in Boumerdes, a satellite city of the capital, Bouira, southwest of the capital, Constantine and Souk Ahras, in the countrys northeast, Mascara in the northwest, the Sahara oasis city of Ghardaia as well as the number two city of Oran.

Protesters in Tizi Ouzou, an important city in the largely ethnic Berber region of Kabylie, waved the blue, green and yellow flag of the Amazigh movement for cultural and political rights.

In the capital, authorities throttled the internet to slow communications and reporting on the protests, and blocked public transport access to protest venues, tactics used by Arab regimes during the 2011 uprisings against long-standing dictatorships.

Police tried to block protesters from the main squares and fired tear gas, but showed restraint: Algerias police are better trained and paid than counterparts in other Arab autocracies, and the journalist who attended the protests said they mostly stood on the sidelines despite a years-long ban on protests in the capital.

Beyond the election and the disconnect between Mr Bouteflikas entourage and the countrys youthful population, Algerians of all political leanings have long been angry at the countrys ruling elite over perceived corruption and the squandering of the countrys vast hydrocarbon wealth.

According to Swiss media outlets, Mr Bouteflika is currently in a Geneva hospital where he is recovering from respiratory and neurological medical complications that apparently leave him unable to speak. Once a dynamic politician who guided the country into an era of relative stability following the civil war, he has been wheelchair bound, largely quiet and mostly absent from public view since suffering a stroke nearly six years ago.

Many Algerians suspect his brother Caid Bouteflika and a clique of shadowy business and military figures are pulling the strings of government, divvying up the countrys spoils and mismanaging the nations affairs without any accountability.

The Algerian uprising is being closely watched across the Middle East and North Africa. Financial analysts have cautioned that any major unrest or violence could badly damage a fragile economy.

For decades, the country was seen by westerners and Arab autocrats as an example of how Arab autocracies could employ security forces to squelch popular demands for change. But the expanding protests suggest Algerias stability  which has benefited western oil and gas firms doing business in the country  has been a chimera.

Instead of ending unrest by addressing the underlying problems, they propose more repression, wrote Hassan Hassan, a scholar. This approach is reinforced by deteriorating economic conditions and dwindling resources, which make the regimes less capable of resolving the underlying issues.
Hardliners in Iran will present Britains decision to give diplomatic protection to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the UK citizen jailed in Iran, as an attempt by the west to interfere in internal affairs, according to a number of the countrys officials.

The announcement of the move by the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, had come as the US called on the United Nations to impose sanctions on Iran for carrying out missile testing, and Donald Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was due to address a rally calling for regime change in Tehran.

It also came as a Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric and former presidential candidate, who has been accused of extensive human rights abuses, was appointed the head of the Iranian judiciary in a blow for reformers in the country.

According to sources in Tehran, including those close to the government of Hassan Rouhani, who won the last election on a reformist agenda defeating Mr Raisi at the polls, the British governments action will be exploited by conservatives in the judiciary, clergy and the security apparatus.

They also pointed out that the use of diplomatic protection has insidious colonial connotations in Iran. The only other time it has been evoked by the British government was during a bitter dispute over the nationalisation of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company by Iran in the 1950s in a chain of events which ended with the overthrow of a progressive democratically elected government by Britain and the US.

Revolution in Iran: In pictures Show all 11 1 /11 Revolution in Iran: In pictures Revolution in Iran: In pictures A demonstration against the Shah in 1979 Getty Revolution in Iran: In pictures Armed women on guard in one of the main squares in Tehran at the beginning of the Iranian Revolution Getty Revolution in Iran: In pictures Demonstrators hold a poster of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in January 1979, in Tehran, during a demonstration against the Shah AFP/Getty Revolution in Iran: In pictures Iranian rebels pose with a U.S. flag they bayonetted upside down on trees at Sultanabad Garrison northeast of Tehran on February 12 2019 AP Revolution in Iran: In pictures A gun battle in Khorramshahr during the revolution, 1979 Getty Revolution in Iran: In pictures Ayatollah Khomeini's supporters demonstrate in the streets of Tehran against the Shah among tear gas. The "black friday" caused the death of 200 people according to the Iranian government, 2000 according to the opposition, September 8 1978 AFP/Getty Revolution in Iran: In pictures Women wearing the traditional Chador demonstrate in the streets of Tehran against the Shah on September 7 1978 AFP/Getty Revolution in Iran: In pictures Demonstrators in Tehran calling for the replacement of the Shah of Iran during the Iranian Revolution, 1979. They carry placards depicting Ayatollah Mahmoud Talaghani, one of the leading revolutionaries Getty Revolution in Iran: In pictures Ayatollah Khomeini's supporters demonstrate in the streets of Tehran against the Shah. The "black friday" caused the death of 200 people according to the Iranian government, 2000 according to the opposition, September 8 1978 AFP/Getty Revolution in Iran: In pictures Thousands of the Ayatollah Khomeini's supporters on the streets of Tehran calling for the religious leader's return in January 1979 Getty Revolution in Iran: In pictures The Iranian Islamic Republic Army demonstrates in solidarity with people in the street during the Iranian revolution. They are carrying posters of the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iranian religious and political leader Getty

The Foreign Office has stated that Mr Hunts declaration of diplomatic protection was the first time it had occurred in recent memory but has not provided details of its previous use.

The official response, so far, from the Iranian government has been from the countrys ambassador to the UK, Hamid Baeidinejad, who said in a tweet that the British move contravenes intl law, adding that Govts may only exercise such protection for own nationals.

As UK Govt is acutely aware, Iran does not recognize dual nationality. Irrespective of UK residency, Ms Zaghari thus remains Iranian.

The ambassador, who is not regarded as a hardliner, was restating the Iranian governments position on dual nationality and his message is being seen by diplomats as measured and non-aggressive.

But there are rising internal tensions in Iran. Donald Trumps jettisoning of Irans nuclear agreement with international powers, and re-imposition of sanctions, has led to severe economic problems in the country, strengthening the hands of the conservatives who have long opposed the deal.

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The divisions led to the temporary resignation of the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was the chief architect of the deal from the Iranian side. He has since stayed in his post for the time being, after President Rouhani refused to accept his resignation.

British officials have privately stressed that there had been no liaison with the Rouhani government before the announcement of diplomatic protection. The decision was taken, Mr Hunt said, to demonstrate to the whole world that Nazanin is innocent and the UK will not stand by when one of its citizens is treated so unjustly.

Diplomatic protection raises Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffes situation from a consular to a state-to-state issue and also opens the door for legal action, with the possibility of compensation if it is proved that she has been mistreated.

Any case would be dealt with by the International Court of Justice in The Hague. But senior British officials wanted to stress that there is no desire to go down the legal route for the time being.

We are puzzled as to why this is being done, at this time. The UK knows that there are people in Iran in responsible positions who have been trying hard to resolve this matter. Jeremy Hunt has said this himself to a lot of people, we know, said an adviser to the Rouhani government.

Iranian statesman Mohammed Mossadeq, pictured in 1951 (Getty) (Getty Images)

It is difficult to know what this will achieve in trying to get her released. But we know that some people (hardliners) are saying this is an attempt at outside interference which must be resisted. The tactic the British are using has bad colonial meaning, especially in Iran  this is unfortunate.

Diplomatic protection was exercised by Britain for employees of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company after it became the Anglo-Persian Oil Company  which later became British Petroleum and then BP  and was nationalised by the Iranian government of Mohammed Mossadeq. The government in London took the measure after failing in a case disputing the nationalisation at the International Court in The Hague.

Mr Mossadeq, democratically elected, was subsequently overthrown by a coup organised by MI6 and the CIA, codenamed Operation Ajax. Many of his supporters were tortured and his closest associate, the foreign minister Hossein Fatemi, was executed by a military court of the shah of Iran whose position had been strengthened by London and Washington.

In December 1953, Mr Mossadeq was sentenced to three years solitary confinement by a military court, which rejected the death sentence sought by prosecutors, supposedly at the instigation of the shah and his western advisers. The former prime minister was, however, kept under house arrest until his death in 1967.

Mr Mossadeqs funeral was forbidden by the shahs regime and he was buried at his home. He had wished to be laid to rest in a public cemetery among victims of political violence and state oppression.
The newborn son of Shamima Begum has died, according to the Kurdish forces holding her in northern Syria.

The British teenager, who fled to Syria to join Isis, has been stuck in a displacement camp for the past month after being detained while fleeing Isis territory.

Her lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, said he had received strong indications her son had died.

We have strong but as yet unconfirmed reports that Shamima Begums son has died, he posted on Twitter. He was a British citizen.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, the US-backed group that controls the camps where Isis families are being held, later confirmed the boy's death. A medical source cited by the BBC said the infant, Jarrah, was rushed to hospital yesterday morning with breathing difficulties and a lung infection. The source said the baby has already been buried.

Ms Begums baby is among dozens of infants who have died in the last few months after fleeing the diminishing territory of the Isis caliphate.

The 19-year-old arrived heavily pregnant at the al-Hol camp in early February, after leaving the last-held areas under the terror groups control. She gave birth to her son there shortly after, having already lost two children.

The British government has stripped her of her citizenship, leaving her unable to return to the UK. But her son was born before it was revoked, and so remained a citizen.

Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Show all 14 1 /14 Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Trucks full of women and children arrive from the last Isis-held areas in Deir ez-Zor, Syria Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Zikia Ibrahim, 28, with her two-year-old son and 8-month-old daughter, after fleeing the Isis caliphate Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Men who fled the last Isis-held area of Syria line up to be questioned by American and Kurdish intelligence officials Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate A young girl pulls her belongings after arriving Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate An SDF fighter hands out bread to women and children after they arrive Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Sita Ghazzar, 70, after fleeing from the last Isis-held territory in Syria Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate A family from Russia who recently fled the last Isis-held area of Syria Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Richard Hall/The Independent Syria at war: Fleeing the caliphate Richard Hall/The Independent

Earlier this month, her lawyer said she was moved to another site over safety concerns. It is believed that she is now staying at Roj camp, east of the city of Qamishli.

The camps have been overwhelmed as more and more flee the last remaining areas of Isis. More than 62,000 are now living in al-Hol camp, surpassing its capacity and leaving thousands sleeping out in the cold.

It has also been announced that 100 people have died over the past two months on their way to the camp or shortly after arriving, two thirds being babies and infants.

Aid groups have been sounding the alarm over conditions in the camp for weeks. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which operates at al-Hol, said it was now at breaking point.

We have seen a staggering number of children die on the journey to al-Hol camp due to a combination of malnutrition and hypothermia, said Misty Buswell, the IRCs Middle East advocacy director. There is now an urgent need for thousands more family tents to get to al-Hol to help shelter the latest arrivals as well as increased funding to support the health crisis unfolding at the camp.

Many of those arriving at the camp are in extremely poor health, the IRC added. There have been hundreds of cases of malnutrition and diarrhoea, including 364 infants under the age of five.

Ms Begum was 15 when she and two other schoolgirls left their homes in Bethnal Green to join the terror group in February 2015. The attention on her case has sparked a debate over how the UK should deal with British citizens who went to join Isis.

The home secretary, Sajid Javid, stripped her of her citizenship and promised to block any British citizen suspected of joining Isis from returning to the UK.

He said of her case: My message is clear: if you have supported terrorist organisations abroad I will not hesitate to prevent your return.

Ms Begums family have been lobbying the UK government to repatriate her infant son. Last month, her sister, Renu, wrote to Mr Javid to say the family planned to challenge his decision to strip Ms Begum of her citizenship and that her potential return was a matter for our British courts to decide.

She said her family had lost Shamima to a murderous and misogynistic cult that had exploited her and fundamentally damaged her, leading to the sickening comments she has made in recent interviews, including the suggestion that the Manchester Arena bombing was justified.

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We were pleased to learn from your comments in the Commons that you recognise my nephew, Shamimas son, as a British citizen, she wrote.

As a family, we ask now how we can assist you in bringing my nephew home to us. In all of this debacle, he is the one true innocent and should not lose the privilege of being raised in the safety of this country, the letter added.

But Mr Javid said he had considered the childs interest when deciding to revoke Ms Begums citizenship.

Asked whether there was any plan for Ms Begums son, Mr Javid told the Commons Home Affairs Committee last month it would be incredibly difficult for the government to facilitate the return of a child from Syria.

If it is possible somehow for a British child to be brought to a place where there is a British consular presence, the closest place  it might be Turkey for example  in those circumstances I guess potentially it is possible to arrange for some sort of help with the consent of the parent, he added. Inside Syria, whether in a camp or maybe somewhere else, there is no British consular presence.
The women of Afghanistan will mark International Womens Day today with a public holiday that will give them time to reflect on what could be their fate if the extreme misogynists of the Taliban are successful in their quest to return to power in their country.

A so-called peace process prompted by US President Donald Trump, aimed at ending the long war in Afghanistan and, more importantly, withdrawing American troops ahead of his possible bid for re-election in 2020, has given the Taliban a long sought-after global platform as a legitimate political force.

At the same time, it has marginalised and delegitimised the Afghan government and the people it represents, by indulging the Taliban in their insistence that they talk directly to Washington rather than to the puppets it claims the US has installed in Kabul.

Taliban figures who appear to have breached international travel bans to attend these get-togethers have been provided with largely uncritical air time to proclaim they will honour womens rights according to unspecified Islamic values and Afghan culture.

Afghans fear they will be forced to pay if they are pressured into accepting peace on terms dictated by the political agenda of a president who is rushing for the exit without regard for the huge strides made for all Afghans, and especially for women, since 2001.

International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Show all 17 1 /17 International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Radical political activist Angela Davis speaks at a protest in Raleigh Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Poor pay, 14 hour days and dangerous working conditions led to a strike by around 1400 women and girls at a match factory in Bow, London, 1888. The action was later coined The Matchgirls Strike International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Christabel Pankhurst, one of the founders of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and a leading member of the suffragette movement, addresses a crowd in Trafalgar Square in a speech in which she invites the crowd to rush the House of Commons, 11 October 1908. Christabel Pankhurst and her mother Emmeline, alongside Flora Drummond, were arrested two days later charged with conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace. The rush on parliament went ahead without them however, with over 60,000 suffragettes attempting to break through the 5000 strong police cordon protecting parliament. Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Suffragette Emily Davison is hit and killed by King George V's horse Anmer during the 1913 Epsom Derby. She fell underneath the galloping horse after leaping from the crowd and trying to grab hold of the reins Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Striking women machinists from the Ford plant at Dagenham protest outside negotiations over their wages, 1968. The women went on strike over their lack of pay in relation to their male colleagues. The action helped to trigger the Equal Pay Act 1970 Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history The women's liberation movement march in Washington, August 1970 Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Protestors disrupt the 1970 Miss World competition. Original caption: The Miss World contest causes a feminist storm as demonstrators invade the Royal Albert Hall where the contest was held. Protestors fired ink at spectators and let off stink bombs in scenes resembling a school assembly. The unruly ladies were eventually expelled from the hall by security guards and policemen Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Somalians demonstrating in Mogadishu for the release of Angela Davis, March 1972, a Black Panther activist imprisoned in the USA after being charged with first degree murder. Davis was later acquitted Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Jayaben Desai, one of the mostly British-Asian women out on strike at the Grunwick factory in 1977, pictured on the picket line Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Women protest against nuclear weapons outside of RAF base Greenham Common, 1982 Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Indian protestors hold candles during a rally in New Delhi in December 2012, after the death of a student who was gang raped on a bus in the Indian capital Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history A feminist group Sisters Uncut protesting against cuts to domestic violence refuges occupy the red carpet during a protest at the Suffragette premiere, 7 October 2015 Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history People gather for the Womens March in Washington, January 2017 Reuters International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Protesters walk during the Womens March on Washington, with the US Capitol in the background, in January, 2017. Donald Trump was sworn in as president the previous day Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Women march as part of the gender equality protest in London, March 2017 AFP/Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Demonstrators march through during the March4Women event, 4 March 2018, London Getty International Womens Day: groundbreaking figures from history Placards are displayed during the March4Women, 4 March 2018, London Getty

Critically, the Taliban, from their redoubts in Pakistan, refuse to acknowledge Afghanistans constitution, which guarantees a range of rights that we in the West take for granted, including rule of law; freedoms of speech, media and association; and, for women, equality and protection from violence.

It is just 18 years since the Taliban were forced from power in Afghanistan after harbouring Osama bin Ladens al-Qaeda network throughout the planning and execution of the 9/11 attacks on the US.

The treatment of women under their five-year regime featured prominently in the justification for the allied invasion that came just weeks after those attacks. The Taliban infamously forced women to remain inside their homes, and to appear in public only in the company of male relatives  and then only if they were wearing all-covering garments called burqas which make seeing and walking difficult.

Taliban enforcers roamed the streets to enforce an Islamic womens dress code, and publicly whipped any women they saw transgressing, however minutely, unwritten rules on how they should be clothed.

Girls were banned from school, and women from jobs. Not just their identity but their very existence was denied to them. Horrific photographs from that era show anonymous figures shrouded in blue rayon burqas quivering on their knees in public arenas, waiting to be executed for their apparent crimes, in front of crowds bussed in to observe the spectacle.

This brutality towards women  as well as bans on music, dancing, the national pastime of kite-flying; anything, really, that brought joy  was justified with recourse to their own interpretation of their religion.

Recent Taliban statements hint at just how they regard the gains made since 2001, denouncing so-called womens rights activists and the alien-culture clothes worn by women, while claiming commitment to all rights of women that have been given to them by the sacred religion of Islam.

The war in Afghanistan since 2001 has been costly, with 454 British and more than 2,400 American soldiers killed, and many more killed and wounded from allied nations. It has become fashionable in some quarters to say that it was all for nought, that the Talibans territorial gains are indicative of Western failure, that the time to leave is well overdue.

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This thinking ignores the phenomenal progress that the country has made, with the help of its Western allies, to transform itself in less than 20 years into an emerging parliamentary democracy and trading link between East and West.

No one could claim that Afghanistan has become a perfect model of democratic statehood since 2001; this is a multi-generational project that has only just begun. Millions of Afghan people who have braved Taliban threats and attacks to vote in multiple elections have shown they have faith in this project.

Millions of girls go to school and university; women run their own businesses and sit in parliament. They have access to health care and justice; thriving civil society and media champion their rights every day. All this exists where nothing did under the Taliban.

The men who spout vacuous platitudes in their vainglorious attempt to hoodwink Trumps emissaries into believing they are honourable, have spent their time cornering the global market in heroin while sending children in suicide vests to murder fellow Afghans.

Few Afghan women see the Taliban as anything other than the baby killers and widow makers that they are. Lets listen, on this of all days, when they remind us of what they have gained, and, more vitally, tell us what they could lose if the Taliban are permitted any say in the future of Afghanistan.
Some stories get told more than others. It might be because there's more political interest, a celebrity has alerted us towards them, or because they're closer to home. We know that the stories which deserve our attention don't always get it. So on International Womens Day last year, we launched a series called Forgotten Women to give a snapshot into the lives of women and girls who are often ignored.

Living in some of the most difficult situations imaginable, 10 remarkable women have shared their stories since then. Some you will certainly know about; others you may not. From New York to Idlib, Rwanda to Pakistan, these are the narratives which were in danger of being buried and which we strove to shine a light on instead.

I feel I cannot let the anniversary of this series pass without doing everything in my power to make people listen to them.

With thousands of men imprisoned or killed at the hands of Isis and the Syrian army, many women are left behind fighting for survival in Syria, without even knowing whether their husbands and sons are dead or alive.

Despite reeling from the horrific discovery of her husbands body, and constantly fighting to protect her five other children, Om Mohammed never gave up searching for her son. Eventually, through a remarkable search, she found out the truth.

How one Kenyan woman escaped FGM and saved thousands more from the cut

Nice Nailantei Lengete (Alexander Schmidjell)

As a child, Nice Nailantei Lengete hid to avoid being cut, and was the only girl in her community not to undergo FGM.

When I was hiding in the tree I was thinking: will they find me and force me to go through FGM? I saw death because of circumcision and I was worried that I might die, or if I did not die I would not be able to go back to school and I would be married.

Despite facing stigma and pressure, Nice has gone on to save around 16,000 Kenyan girls from the cut, and is changing deep-rooted cultural attitudes to the harmful practice.

Marita Growing Thunder (Save Our Sisters)

Indigenous women across North America face disproportionate levels of violence. They are far more likely to be murdered and raped, with thousands of native women going missing across Canada and the US every year.

Marita Growing Thunder, a 19-year-old murdered and missing indigenous women (MMIW) activist from Montana, has experienced this violent lack of justice firsthand  five times.

Gulalai Ismail (fifth from left) in Islamabad

In a climate where the government is repeatedly accused of stifling free speech, Pakistan has questions to answer about the arrest of Gulalai Ismail, and why activists like her are being detained.

Her sister, Saba, tells us about their fight against religious extremism and the risks involved in speaking out.

Illustration of Mukeshimana Vestine at her table in Rwanda (Tom Ford) (Illustrations by Tom Ford)

The only one of 14 siblings to survive the Rwandan genocide, and with four children of her own to look after, Mukeshimana Vestine also took on the care of her orphaned nieces.

Charting years of extreme poverty and near starvation, Vestines story shows how not only a family can rebuild and reform after such horror, but how a nation can too.

Rachel Lloyd speaking with GEMS members in New York (Joseph Rodriguez)

Rachel Lloyd was forced to leave her school in England after her abusive, alcoholic stepfather drained her mothers finances then left the family. As an underage teen she was raped by an adult and battled with substance abuse. When she moved to Germany, her boyfriend  who was a crack addict  eventually became her pimp.

Hers is by no means an isolated tale. So how do we break this destructive cycle? Rachels story shows how women can escape commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) and effect real change for others.

Sylvia Mdluli (Hazel Thompson)

South Africa has the biggest HIV epidemic in the world: 7.1 million people live with the virus. Many women have been unknowingly infected then passed it on to their children.

This is Sylvia Mdluli, a woman who lives and breathes these statistics. And a woman fighting to make history by helping mothers like her.

Ahlam, a displaced mother now living in Idlib (The Syria Project)

Thousands of people are still displaced in Syria, living with limited access to basic necessities such as food, electricity and fuel. Unknown numbers are detained or missing.

Many of those left behind are women doing what they can to support their families, often mourning the loss of loved ones at the same time. Even though there are fewer battlefields, fighting continues, leaving civilians in continuing mortal danger. Ahlam is one of the women trying to rebuild a life in Idlib not just for herself, but for the community around her.

16-year-old Agnes eloped with an older man after growing up in an abusive home (Womankind Worldwide)

Sexual assault in this African nation is on the rise: 78 per cent of women who have experienced domestic violence report that it was at the hand of their husband or partner.

Zimbabwe is not unique in its battle to reduce high rates of domestic violence, but it is a country at a turning point. Tireless campaigning has seen gender equality enshrined in law, even in a volatile political environment. By sharing their stories, women and girls such as Agnes are hoping to continue this progress.

Patience standing outside her hut in the Kigyayo displacement camp in Uganda (WomanKind)

Patience is a 30-year-old mother with six children who is doing everything she can to rebuild her life after her husband, Isaac, died in a Ugandan land grab. Like many others in the country, her family were forcefully evicted from their land, in this case so a sugar factory could be built there.

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One day, we were at home and we heard screams. There was so much violence. Guns, tear gas and machetes. If you delayed they burnt down your house. I heard screams everywhere and I started running. They took our goats, cows, chickens and our whole home.

When we last spoke with Patience she was living in a displacement camp, and gradually rebuilding what had been taken from her.
One event this week told us all we need to know about todays Labour Party, and its not about antisemitism or Brexit. It was the social media abuse hurled at Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, for saying she was glad Tony Blair was staying in the party, and praising a TV interview as one of his best.

Rayner, who faced calls to resign from Corbynistas, revealed she had installed panic alarms at her home after someone claiming to be a Jeremy Corbyn supporter threatened to rape and murder her. She is a loyalist but one with an independent mind  too independent, it seems, for Corbynistas who once saw her as a possible successor to their man, but no longer do.

For me, Rayner is one of the few people who could unite Labours hard and soft left and centre, and give it the broad appeal needed to win power. Yet Corbyn allies often seem more interested in maintaining their iron grip on the levers of power in the party.

For them, the term Blairite is an insult of choice, as my colleague John Rentoul and the academic Jon Davis note in a fascinating book, Heroes or Villains?, to be published by Oxford University Press next week. It is based on their course on the Blair government at Kings College, London, including lectures by ministers, political advisers and civil servants who served it, giving us an insightful ringside view.

Calling for a reassessment of the Blair administration, Rentoul and Davis argue that he was on balance a good prime minister, and better than most seeking office in the modern era. (After David Camerons ill-fated referendum and Theresa Mays failure to clear up the mess, its hard to disagree). Historic victories were achieved, mistakes were made, but overall we believe that the condition of the country improved, Rentoul and Davis write.

Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Show all 12 1 /12 Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Change UK Details on the individual MPs are in the following photos Reuters Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Heidi Allen Anti-Brexit MP for South Cambridgeshire resigned from the Conservative party on February 20 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Chuka Umunna MP for Streatham since 2010 and prominent People's Vote supporter PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Anna Soubry The prominent anti-Brexit MP for Broxtowe resigned from the Conservative party on February 20 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Luciana Berger MP for Liverpool Wavertree since 2010, resigned from the Labour Party over bullying and anti-semitism PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Sarah Wollaston Anti-Brexit MP for Totnes resigned from the Conservative party on February 20 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Joan Ryan MP for Enfield North resigned from the Labour party on February 19 citing its tolerance of a "culture of anti-Jewish racism" PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Ann Coffey MP for Stockport since 1992 Chris McAndrew / UK Parliament Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Gavin Shuker MP for Luton South since 2010 Getty Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Chris Leslie MP for Nottingham East since 2010 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Mike Gapes MP for Ilford South since 1992 PA Which MPs defected to form Change UK? Angela Smith MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge since 2010

They hope that Blairs reputation will eventually be in some way repaired, and make a convincing case. The barrier, of course, is a four-letter word  Iraq  on which they argue Blairs decision to back American invasion was made for good reasons in what he thought was the national interest. A hard sell, that one  even for me. But it is regrettable that Blairs record on domestic policy is so eclipsed by Iraq that today's Labour Party is still reluctant to trumpet his genuine achievements. That should be possible, even though Corbyns election as leader in 2015 was a reaction against New Labour.

The book is timely because voters who do not regard Blairite as a dirty word now have somewhere else to go, after eight Labour and three Tory MPs left their parties to form The Independent Group (TIG).

Today its spokesman Chuka Umunna has tried to answer the what are you for? question, and criticism that TIG is trying to be all things to all people and merely against the two established parties. In a pamphlet published by the Progressive Centre UK think tank, he argues that being centrist (another insult used by Corbyn Labour) does not mean supporting the status quo, and insists that TIG will be radical. He has a decent stab at a first draft of TIGs policies, while insisting it is not a manifesto.

It would be pro-enterprise but not afraid to intervene in the economy. Rather than renationalising the utilities as Labour plans, they would become public benefit companies; instead of scrapping university tuition fees, Umunna wants to means-test them, and tax on stock dividends would be raised, to bring it into line with income tax. The NHS would be funded by an earmarked tax  a big idea, if not a new one. Overall, results should supersede ideology  an echo of Blairs what works mantra. You just cant avoid the man, can you?

But Umunna argues that TIG should avoid splitting the difference between the old approaches of right and left. He is right: to break the mould, the new group will have to offer something new. So it shouldnt be Labour 2.0 or merge with the Liberal Democrats. There is certainly a gap in the market among the politically homeless who reject both the populist right and left.

Umunna writes that too many progressive people are sitting in parties  no longer true to their values. These include a lot of Corbynsceptic Labour MPs who are not ready to leave the party but privately share much of TIGs analysis. The question they must ask themselves is: can Labour be won back from the hard left? Some MPs tell me they are convinced it can be, admittedly over a long period. I am not so sure. I think we are heading for a socialist party backed by the trade unions, a Conservative Party that defies predictions it will split over Brexit and a new progressive centre party. The early signs are that TIG can fill this gap.
"Lock her up! Lock her up! Those words were regurgitated over and over again during Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, directed specifically at his opponent Hillary Clinton. In fact, the chant remains one of the favorites at Trump rallies across the US, acting as a continuation of sorts to Trump's seemingly empty promises to "drain the swamp" and take on political corruption in Washington DC.

The nation's eyes were focused on one particular courtroom in Virginia today, where a convicted criminal was just sentenced by a federal judge to a lengthy prison term. No, it wasn't Hillary Clinton, even though she had been on the receiving end of over six total years of investigations by Congressional Republicans. Instead, it was yet another member of President Trump's inner circle, his 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

Federal Judge T S Ellis sentenced Manafort in the first of his two scheduled sentencings, handing down a punishment of 47 months for his conviction on eight tax and bank fraud charges last year.

This is significant for the 69-year-old Manafort, who previously lived a life of extravagance which included luxury cars, multiple homes and lavish ostrich and python skinned jackets. He may have seen his last day of freedom end approximately nine months ago when Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson revoked his bail. This came after evidence was discovered showing that he had contacted two witnesses in his case in order to allegedly influence their testimony. The second sentencing for Manafort will come next week, in regards to additional charges of conspiracy and witness tampering. This subsequent sentencing carries a maximum prison term of 10 additional years.

Manafort could have had his sentence reduced significantly if he had upheld his original agreement with prosecutors to cooperate in the Mueller probe. Instead, as Judge Jackson ruled earlier this month, he broke his cooperation agreement with prosecutors by lying to investigators. Prosecutors allege that he lied about "an extremely sensitive issue" in order to improve his chances of receiving a pardon from the president. Now it appears, however, that these purported attempts to seek a pardon may have been for naught, as prosecutors in New York State are said to be strongly considering charging Manafort with state crimes which cannot be rescinded by a presidential pardon.

Ultimately, while the charges which Manafort has been convicted of, and now sentenced for, do not relate to his work as campaign chairman for Donald Trump, it does bring up an important question: How can a man who had once promised to "drain the swamp" in Washington, and once said that he "only hires the best people," surround himself with individuals who would probably be at the top of the food chain in just about any swamp known to man?

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It's not just one instance, but it's been proven over and over again that Donald Trump, in his run-up to the 2016 election, surrounded himself with individuals who have taken part in a vast array of crimes, engaged in inarguably immoral behavior, and acted like the very swamp creatures that the president promised to rid the nation's capital of.

Whether it be Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn or any one of the other Trump campaign aides who have been charged with, convicted of, or sentenced for significant federal crimes, it is almost impossible to truly believe that Donald Trump really had no idea that he was surrounded by corrupt and immoral individuals for, in some cases, several decades. After all, President Trump has known Paul Manafort and Roger Stone for over three decades, while Michael Cohen worked as Trump's attorney for over 10 years.

There are only two conclusions that a reasonable person can reach in regards to Donald Trump's ties to corruption and scandal. He either never intended to "drain the swamp" in the first place, instead opting merely to replace the existing swamp with a much murkier and more dangerous swamp of his own; or he is just really awful when it comes to hiring qualified surrogates. Most Democrats would probably say it's the former, while most Republicans would, with hesitation, settle on the latter. Regardless, neither situation is good for America.

Supporters of the President will claim that Hillary Clinton was "just as bad," or "even more corrupt," but there is no evidence showing that Hillary Clinton was surrounded by a litany of convicted criminals. And most importantly, Hillary Clinton is not the 45th President of the United States of America.

Ed Krassenstein is co-founder of Hill Reporter and the KrassenCast podcast
To get to the warehouse where Theresa May gave her latest last ditch speech on Brexit, you enter the dockside at Grimsby and drive till you run out of road.

This was a prime minister right on the edge. Quite literally. If shed have taken a hundred paces backwards from her lectern that would have been it. Straight in the drink.

But its distinctly possible this particular visual metaphor was not even the most unfortunate of the morning. She was at the UK headquarters of a renewable energy company called Orsted. They are heavily invested in saving mankind from its current existential crisis through the power of wind alone, and on this evidence, yet again, so is Theresa May.

As she spoke  yet again  of Brexit as that political call to action by a people who have been ignored, whose voices had never been heard, here those people were, sitting right in front of her, decked from head to toe in orange hi vis. This time they could not go unnoticed.

Actually, yes they could. Not one of them got to say a word. They werent permitted to ask a single question. But they still sat there, revelling in the joys of an easy morning, watching a prime minister in the final death throes of her own dignity.

It was around about the eight hundredth time, Theresa May was standing some arbitrary location, warning MPs of the grave choice they face when they vote next week, and for the eight hundredth time, they are not going to listen to her.

They say the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over gain and expect different results. Its not. Insanity is to think the vapour trails behind aeroplanes are spraying the human population with mind-controlling chemicals. To do the same thing over and over again and expect different results is not insane. Its just crushingly stupid.

Still, here she was, again, warning Remainer MPs that if they didnt vote for her deal they risked the consequences of a no-deal Brexit. Here she was again, in her next breath, warning Brexiteers if they didnt vote for her deal they risked no Brexit at all. The only vaguely new note to add to this ongoing cacaphonic ballet was to tell the EU directly that they too faced difficult choices in the coming days. That if they didnt give her what they didnt vote for and dont want, they too would be blamed for this crisis that is precisely zero per cent of their making.

When she first tried this gambit, months ago, I likened her to the heroin addict turned armed robber from the novel Shantaram. The first rule of streetfighting, he says, is to always get madder than the other guy. When three Indian prison guards are about to set on him, he warns them that, sure, theyll win, But one of you will lose an eye. And then, for an added rhetorical flourish, he punches himself in the face.

The guards, certain of victory, nevertheless back down. But its not working for Theresa May. Its been obvious for months that the hard Brexiteers, the Remainers and indeed everybody else will take the risk that its the other guy, not them, that will lose.

Other moments of not-madness punctuate. Yet again, Brexit was cast as the chance to walk towards a more prosperous future. That prosperous future belongs to those who voted against Brexit, she said. In the words of others, it would be a show of bravura. In Theresa May's its just a stunning lack of self-awareness. Those who voted against it, did it because they know full well it isnt going to be prosperous future.

And it would be a prosperous future, for the whole country, not just for London and the south east.

We can build the stronger communities that must be the real legacy of voting to leave, she said. The idea that membership of the EU has somehow caused the UK to have the most imbalanced major economy in the world is a perverse but popular one now. It is just a straightforward failure of government, with Brexit  the ultimate failure of a government  being the cake on top of the cherry.

Of course, if she really believes Brexit will rebalance the UK economy and make everyone richer, it is truly a wonder that three years ago she campaigned against it and voted against it. Of course, she doesnt believe a word of it. Its not even clear if she expects anyone else to.

She wandered off at the end in the direction of the open ocean, looking never more like the opening credits to Reggie Perrin.

ITV News had been deprived a question in the press conference, so their reporter, Libby Weiner, shouted after her. Just one question from a woman reporter on International Womens Day. Not very good is it prime minister.

She turned round, and replied. All the questions were answered by a woman prime minister. It got a gentle round of applause, though it did briefly recall the last time a woman held her job.

There is no limit to what a man can do so long as he doesnt mind who gets the credit, so said an inspirational quote of unclear origin that once sat in a frame on Ronald Reagans desk in the Oval Office in the days when Margaret Thatcher came to visit.

Theresa Mays days are numbered, quite possibly in single figures. If she is remembered for anything at all, it will be a bold reimagining of that noble sentiment. It really doesnt matter how bad things get, as long as you make damn sure somebody else takes the blame.
This week, someone who has spent a career with Canadas ruling Liberals told me Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's latest troubles are unprecedented. What about it? I asked. His perceived political interference in a judicial matter?

No, no, no, the person responded. It was the way that the justice minister and attorney-general at the time, Jody Wilson-Raybould, resisted what she said was repeated pressure from Trudeau and his staff.

Ah.

Handshakes in the smoke-filled room must happen all the time. Canada is certainly not the worlds bastion of moral leadership  a reputation built largely on Trudeaus idealistic vision for doing politics differently, distilled into a famous sunny ways election-night speech in 2015.

But this scandal actually moves Canada closer towards its glowing international reputation.

Wilson-Raybould eventually resigned, and another senior minister did the same. They saw that smoke-filled room and said no. And they said so publicly. The two former ministers represent precisely Trudeaus sunny ways, even if he himself seems to have strayed.

This scandal, which spiralled out of revelations last month by the Globe and Mail newspaper, proves Canadas moral fortitude, not lack thereof.

The cynical view is that there really is nothing to see here in Trudeaus allegedly trying to give a break to the Canadian construction giant SNC-Lavalin, which is facing bribery charges relating to its business in Libya.

SNC-Lavalin is, after all, a major employer in Trudeaus home province of Quebec, and an election is looming. Putting partisan political interests above all else  its really not that unusual.

I revealed in 2016 that Trudeaus government extended its military deployment in South Sudan, despite concerns about its soldiers' safety and even the entire mission's viability, after a senior official said doing so served the Liberal partys political goals.

The SNC-Lavalin affair is also hardly the first time Trudeau failed to live up to the high bar he set when his Liberals swept into power in 2015, championing equality, openness and social justice and even outflanking a farther-left rival party.

Trudeau never entirely fulfilled his promises of electoral and government-transparency reform. He never fully achieved better relations with the countrys socio-economically disadvantaged aboriginal people. He violated conflict-of-interest laws by vacationing with a billionaire religious leader. The list goes on.

Sunny ways was gone long before the SNC-Lavalin affair.

But Wilson-Rayboulds move  and that of her colleague, the recently resigned treasury-board president Jane Philpott  brought sunny ways back.

The two former ministers are first-term political outsiders, brought in by an in-opposition Trudeau to pit energy and vibrancy against a Conservative government lazy and comfortable from its decade in power.

Wilson-Raybould and Philpott were untainted by the ways of the so-called old boys' club, where partisan unity and loyalty before individual ethics is sometimes valued.

What they did in the SNC-Lavalin affair is what the prime minister should have expected. It is entirely in line with the idealism and diversity of experience and opinion promised by Trudeau when he began his term.

And their choosing of principle over the party line might just be infectious. They are hardly the only first-timers in the Liberal caucus, and polls show most Canadians side with Wilson-Raybould. She and Philpott have shown there is nothing wrong with proudly being political outsiders.

Already, after a Thursday press conference in which Trudeau said instances of simple conversation with Wilson-Raybould had been mischaracterised as pressure, a backbench Liberal legislator publicly challenged the prime ministers leadership style. Such breakaways weaken Trudeau, and politics is a game in which weakness is quickly sensed. Someone, somewhere, is no doubt sharpening a knife. Maybe its even one of the two former ministers, holding the whetstone if not the blade.

To be sure, the affair has not escalated to the point of Trudeaus losing his position. But it does need to go that far for Canadian politics to change in some way.

Like my Liberal acquaintance said, the manner with which politics is done for ages is already being disrupted. Trudeau deserves some credit for bringing about that change.

Sunny ways is among the few promises on which the prime minister actually delivered. It's just that, rather unfortunately, Trudeau likely never saw himself as a part of it.

Ethan Lou is a Canadian writer
Gardai investigating a fatal shooting in west Dublin are seeking information on two vehicles - one of which was stolen in Co Kildare on Valentine's Day.

David Chen (42) was shot dead at Foxdene, Clondalkin on March 1 at around 2.15pm.

The murder victim - who was also known as David Lynch - was shot a number of times by a gunman and died at the scene.

Investigating gardai are now appealing to the public for information on the movements of a white Peugeot van and a grey Toyota Avensis.

The van has registration number 141 D 6118 and had a red 'N' plate displayed on the front window and on the rear door of this vehicle.

The Toyota has registration number 12 KE 576 which was stolen from the Celbridge area on February 14.

Anyone with information on these vehicles is asked to contact Lucan Garda Station on 01-6667300, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any garda station.
Wont budge on position: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar with pupils from Our Lady Immaculate, Darndale, Dublin, during the Governments launch of the Action Plan for Education 2019 yesterday. Photo: PA

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has thrown down the gauntlet to the UK to come up with a workable solution to the Brexit impasse before it's too late to stop a no-deal scenario.

With talks in Brussels running into difficulty, the Taoiseach said Ireland had offered everything it can to help the situation.

His position is backed up by EU chiefs who are also piling the pressure on Britain ahead of a nervy weekend of talks.

The "difficult" discussions are now expected to go down to the wire - but UK Prime Minister Theresa May will need something to present to her parliament at least 24 hours before the so-called 'meaningful vote' takes place on Tuesday.

Frustration is mounting on both sides with Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, reportedly complaining the UK had produced "a legal solution to a political problem".

Mr Varadkar indicated Ireland will not budge when it comes to the legal definition of the backstop contained in the Withdrawal Agreement.

The 'Irish Protocol' outlines how the EU and UK customs regulations will remain closely aligned in order to prevent a hard Border "unless and until" an alternative way of achieving this is found.

However, UK attorney general Geoffrey Cox warned MPs this could see the country "trapped" indefinitely and limit the scope for striking new trade deals around the world.

Expand Close Heading back to Brussels: UK attorney general Geoffrey Cox said the UKs proposals are as clear as day. Photo: REUTERS / Facebook

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Whatsapp Heading back to Brussels: UK attorney general Geoffrey Cox said the UKs proposals are as clear as day. Photo: REUTERS

Asked what concessions Ireland could make to ease British concerns, Mr Varadkar expressed surprise that people were calling on his Government to give any further ground. "I often wonder why people are asking us to make further concessions, we've made a lot of concessions already - accepting a UK-wide element to the backstop when we only ever wanted it to be Northern Ireland specific.

"We never asked to tie-in Britain into any of these arrangements. We've already agreed to a review clause and a good faith clause," he said.

"This problem of Brexit, a hard Border on our island with disruption to trade and our economy, these are problems created in Britain.

"Surely they are the ones who should be coming forward with further concessions and further offers to us in terms of what more they can do to mitigate the damage they are creating."

The Irish Independent revealed yesterday that a 'package of measures' is being teased out in Brussels, including a timeline for assessing alternatives to the backstop.

But sources say the deadlock is far from being broken.

The European Commission confirmed "technical talks" were continuing and said president Jean-Claude Juncker was "available 24/7" to meet Mrs May if a deal was close.

In the Commons, Mr Cox said the talks would "almost certainly" carry on through the weekend. He and the Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay are thought likely to return to Brussels today.

Downing Street hopes a deal can be reached by Sunday night, with the possibility of the prime minister travelling to Brussels on Monday morning to sign off on the deal.

Mr Cox told MPs he was continuing to press for legally binding changes to the backstop, something the EU categorically ruled out long before the current round of discussions began. He rejected claims that the Government had again failed to come forward with concrete proposals, insisting there had been "focused, detailed and careful discussions".

"We are discussing text with the European Union," he said.

"I am surprised to hear the comments that have emerged over the last 48 hours that the proposals are not clear. They are as clear as day and we are continuing to discuss them."

Meanwhile, Britain has agreed to a deal which ensures flights to and from the EU would continue after Brexit, even if it leaves without a deal.

The UK government has agreed to match an offer by the European Union to protect flying rights for 12 months after March 29.
Confusion is mounting over the billed need for drivers to have a green card while travelling in the North in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The Irish Independent spoke to several motorists trying to prepare for the potential necessity, but some have been refused the green cards from insurance providers.

One woman, from Dublin, requested a green card from her insurance broker yesterday as she regularly drives to Northern Ireland and Britain.

She was told not one green card had been issued to customers from any of the 14 insurance companies on its books.

She was told she couldn't have a green card currently and was instead asked to call back late next week to see if there have been any updates.

Seamus Ward, from Dundalk, Co Louth, phoned his car insurance broker on Monday but was, he said, also instructed to wait until next week to apply.

"I spoke to a courteous lady who said they'd not been advised of any changes but to wait until after the vote in the Commons on March 12," the retired businessman said.

He claimed he was told "anything else was scaremongering in the media".

Another woman, from Dublin, said her insurance company told her a green card should be with her by the end of March and motorists living in Border counties were the first priority.

Axa Ireland tweeted a customer enquiring about green cards on Wednesday.

"In the event of a 'No Deal' Brexit, all direct car and van customers will automatically receive a green card by post, free of charge.

"You do not have to do anything," it said.

If a no-deal Brexit takes place, any driver with an Irish-registered vehicle driving to the UK, including Northern Ireland, will require a internationally recognised insurance document.

It is called a green card and it will show the PSNI in Northern Ireland and the British police that an Irish driver has valid motor insurance.

Currently, we are in a state of flux and all drivers have been advised by the Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland that they should request green cards from their motor insurance providers.

Brexit is due to happen on March 29 .

It's likely law enforcement in Northern Ireland and Britain will no longer recognise the Irish insurance document in a no-deal situation.

UK police have the power to seize uninsured vehicles, and in some cases destroy them, and there are also penalties of up to 350. UK police can also add six penalty points to driver licences if a case ends up going to court.
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has vigorously slapped down UK demands for fresh concessions on the Brexit backstop, saying Theresa May should be the one making offers.

In a clear sign that there is some distance to go before a breakthrough, Mr Varadkar publicly warned his counterpart that she needs to adopt a change of approach.

He described Brexit as a problem of their creation and accused the House of Commons of actively going against the wishes of a majority of people and businesses in Northern Ireland who support the backstop.

The Taoiseach said if Britain does not want to be part of the backstop thats fine  but Northern Ireland must be in order to ensure there is never a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The original backstop was only applicable to the North but Mrs May convinced the EU to make it UK-wide after the DUP complained about the creation of a virtual border down the Irish Sea.

In a speech today, Mrs May implored to the EU to give her legally-binding changes to the backstop ahead of a vote on the Withdrawal Agreement in parliament next Tuesday.

She said one more push was needed to get MPs on board. However, at the same time she delivered a message to politicians in London, saying: "Back it and the U.K. will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen."

Following a Cabinet meeting in Dublin though, Mr Varadkar was not providing a conciliatory tone.

He said the backstop as set out in the Withdrawal Agrement is already a compromise that took a year and a half to negotiate

Bear in mind elements of that compromise like extending the backstop on a UK-wide basis, the single customs territory involving all the United Kingdom, these were compromises that the British government sought.

We were and remain happy to apply the backstop to Northern Ireland only if they want to go back to that, he said

Asked if there was anything Ireland could offer to help break the impasse, Mr Varadkar replied: Whats not obvious is what the UK government is offering the European Union and Ireland should they wish us to make any further compromises. We have received no offer from them as to what they would give us in return for any changes.

It requires a change of approach from the UK government to understand that Brexit is a problem of their creation, he said.

They have failed to secure ratification of this so it should be a case of what they are now willing to offer us rather than the opposite.
CAIRN Homes chief executive Michael Stanley has said that first-time home buyers will continue to be the company's "core business", notwithstanding the rapid rise of the market for Build-to-Rent apartments in Dublin.

Commenting on the increasing number of sales of entire residential schemes to institutional investors, Mr Stanley described the BTR - or private rented sector (PRS) as it is also known - as "the release valve for the moment" of the imbalance between the supply and demand for housing.

The Cairn Homes chief acknowledged, however, the role that the PRS sector is set to play in Dublin in the long term.

He said: "We're starting to see some of the longer-hold money coming into Ireland which is very positive, because they [institutional investors] are likely to be 15, 20 or 30-year holders of these buildings."

Mr Stanley was speaking to reporters following the publication yesterday of Cairn Homes' results for 2018.

In a reflection of the housing market's ongoing recovery, the company recorded revenue of 337m for the 12-month period to the end of last December - an increase of 125pc on the 149m it recorded in 2017. Cairn closed the sale of 804 new homes in 2018 compared to 418 in 2017.

Average sale prices rose to 366,000 from 315,000 in 2017.
The European Union will not support a comprehensive trade deal with the United States that includes agriculture, the EU's top trade negotiator said on Thursday, so she is working toward a narrower deal focused on industrial goods and automobiles.

The European Union's trade commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, said at a Georgetown Law School event that an industrial goods agreement could be achieved more quickly and could rebuild trust between the two largest trading blocs that had been eroded by U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum.

"If we start with industrial goods, which is much less complicated, and which will be beneficial from both sides, we maybe can rebuild that trust and then maybe well see later" about agriculture, she said a day after meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

The EU and the United States spent three years trying to negotiate a comprehensive trade deal, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), but the talks failed to bridge gaps on allowing more U.S. access to Europe for agricultural products, including genetically modified crops, wine and cheese.

"A full, comprehensive trade agreement - TTIP-style: there is no support for that in the European Union right now. Thats the truth," Malmstrom said.

Europe has retaliated against the Trump administration's tariffs on EU-produced steel and aluminum based on national security grounds, imposing tariffs on a range of U.S. products from Harley-Davidson motorcycles to bourbon whiskey.

U.S. President Donald Trump is currently considering whether to impose similar "Section 232" tariffs on imported autos and auto parts on national security grounds, an action widely seen as a tool to gain negotiating leverage over the EU and Japan to lower their tariffs and non-tariff barriers to U.S. auto imports.

Trump pledged last year to European Union President Jean Claude Juncker that he would not impose such tariffs on EU-made cars as long as there is progress in the negotiations.

But the two sides have not yet agreed on the scope of the talks. The U.S. Trade Representative's office said in its negotiating objectives for the EU talks, published in January, that it would seek to reduce or eliminate EU tariffs and non-tariff barriers to U.S. farm products.

Members of the U.S. Congress have demanded increased agriculture access to Europe, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa farmer, has said he does not see how a deal that excludes agriculture could win congressional approval.

European member countries must approve two negotiating mandates to formally launch talks. But while Germany aims to start quickly, France has been more reluctant and remains adamantly opposed to talks on agriculture.

On Thursday, Malmstrom said the EU would be ready to launch negotiations with the United States within weeks.

She added that European officials would like to see cars and auto parts included in the talks, but said she had not seen any details about the U.S. recommendations regarding related "Section 232" tariffs.

Malmstrom also called on the Trump administration to take a lead role in reforming the 24-year-old World Trade Organization, whose rules have failed to address modern trade problems, such as China's excessive subsidies and technology transfer policies.

"Unless we save the international order, it may well be replaced and we might not like all of what we see," she said.
Maurice Carroll, show judge, and Frank Philbin, Townlaheen, Pontoon Road, Castlebar, Co Mayo with his champion bull, Clydagh Mark, at the Limousin Cattle Society Show and Sale at Gort Mart

This bullock was the smallest of a group of John Heneys four store cattle bought in September last year, averaging 423kg live weight. Factory returns showed that he killed-out a very good 336.5kg with a confirmation grade of O-

With spring right on our doorstep, it is time to take stock.

In spite of last year's first cut silage coming in a bit wet, my Friesian cattle appear to have maintained their condition fairly well over the winter period.

Experience has taught me that cattle who have been well fed on silage thrive very well when they go out to grass. With this in mind I am happy enough at how things stand.

I have just about finished preparing for the new season. Getting my fencing organised has taken up a good deal of my time and I also managed to finish rebuilding a six metre section of a roadside stone wall which collapsed mysteriously last summer.

After missing out on the fine spell in January, I eventually managed to get lime spread on some grazing fields which I felt had been under performing. I also got my slurry agitated and spread on this year's silage ground at a rate of about 2,000 gallons per acre.

Adding in a good deal of water is a great help when agitating slurry and also helps when spreading.

I like to get slurry spread in damp overcast (not waterlogged) conditions, I find that it helps it absorb into the soil much quicker.

This facilitates the uptake of the available nutrients by the plants and hopefully reduces unwanted nitrous oxide emissions.

Speaking of soil, I was recently invited to attend a screening of the film Symphony of the Soil in the Cabragh Wetlands Centre near Thurles.

The film explained how important good quality natural soil is for all our futures.

I was really impressed by what I saw and it was a reminder of how we are blessed in Ireland to have such a unique and valuable natural soil resource stretching right across our beautiful landscape.

Parasites

This film should be obligatory viewing for all farmers, members of our State agricultural advisory services and our government's agricultural policy makers

Biologists continue to tell us of the huge importance of the bugs, the minuscule parasites and nematodes, the mites and all the myriad life forms that buzz, crawl and throb beneath our feet. Biologists now think that these tiny creatures make up the beating heart of the biosphere and that the fate of all life on our planet may depend on the well-being of their fragile worlds.

So as a country which prides itself on producing fresh natural food, what are we doing to protect our valuable soil?

Except for highly commendable efforts to reduce the effects which the overuse of fertilisers may have on water quality and greenhouse gas emissions, it seems the best our experts can do in relation to overall biodiversity is to suggest leaving small and token uncultivated strips along fence lines.

Our National Biodiversity Data Centre has reported that, "of the 3,000 or so species that have undergone a Red List conservation assessment, on average one in every three or four species is threatened with extinction".

What do our farm leaders have to say on this issue?

It appears that critical issues such as the biology and diversity of our soils are well down the agenda compared to the constant debate and warnings about Brexit.

I greatly admire the extreme passion which our farm leaders are currently displaying in relation to the undoubted impact a hard Brexit would have on Irish beef farming.

But it is a bit late in the day to be showing concern for beef producers after years of neglect that has seen beef farming regress into the unfortunate state it is in today.

The tragic reality is that beef farming has now become little more than an expensive hobby for those who can still manage to afford it, and a nightmare for those who can't.

However, to finish on a more positive note, in the midst of all this chaos, a beacon of light appears to have shone on the ongoing climate-change debate in relation to grassland farming.

Tassos Haniotis, who holds a highly influential European Commission post in the Directorate General for Agriculture & Rural Development recently questioned the direction of the debate around greenhouse emissions from farming.

"Could it be that articles that only consider emissions often omit carbon sequestration and ignore the carbon emission problem that would come from converting grassland to alternative food products, overstate the problem?" he asked.

And Mr Haniotis sums up the current debate very well when he stated: "If we want to be politically correct, we had better start by being factually correct"

John Heney farms in Kilfeackle, Co Tipperary email: heney.john@gmail.com
Rocketts Castle on 250ac in Waterford is typical of the estates sought by wealthy UK buyers. The private treaty sale is guided at 4.75m

The twists and turns of the Brexit saga are having tangible effects on the land market here. Callum Bain of Colliers International property agents has seen the pattern of business change weekly as the story unfolds.

The phone lines became extremely busy as the prospect of a no-deal Brexit began to loom large. Individuals of "high-net worth" in the UK began to make contact with agents like Colliers, seeking sizeable farms in Ireland.

"During January and the first two weeks of February, we were very busy with enquiries from the UK," says Mr Bain.

"But since Theresa May announced the next series of votes will include a vote to prevent a no-deal scenario, many of the prospective buyers have put their offers on hold - at least until after March 12 to 14 when those votes are due to happen."

Bain doesn't expect much to change until the March 29 deadline has passed.

He refers to two cases that he says illustrate clearly what is going on.

"One buyer was hoping to acquire a farming property in Ireland to keep a foot in the UK and in the EU, while another was moving lock, stock and barrel to Ireland and bringing all his livestock," he says.

Legalities

Ireland is the preferred option for many of these property buyers as the legalities of buying land on the continent can be quite different to those that pertain here and in the UK.

"Anyone selling land in France, land that is under lease, has to give first refusal to the sitting tenant, who can buy it at a price set by the local government, a price that must reflect the average land price in the region," adds Mr Bain.

James Butler of Savills has also seen a noticeable increase in viewings, bids and offers from the UK, especially in the last few months.

"People with no connection whatsoever to Ireland are looking at properties here, rural properties, from the house with a few acres to full-blown estates. These are cash buyers," he says.

"As the shape of Brexit becomes even more uncertain, people do as they always did in uncertain times - they sit on their hands and won't move until there is clarity.

"As agents, we try to keep the market moving, but it is very difficult these days, even though there are great opportunities for buyers and sellers in a market like this."

Butler is confident that once there is clarity, things will improve substantially. He points to his experience of the Scottish Referendum.

"I was working in Scotland when the referendum for Scottish independence took place," he said. "Normally 20 major estates a year change hands there. In 2014, the year of the referendum, six estates changed hands. Once the matter was settled, the market opened up and the 12 months after the referendum was one of the best years we had in Scotland in terms of sales.

"Commerce will go on once there is clarity."

For the moment, agents from Galway to Cork are experiencing a 'Brexit bind'.

Tuam auctioneer Martin Tyrell describes it as "a big black cloud hanging over everything", while Mick Barry of Fermoy says people are not making any big purchases until they see what happens.

Meath auctioneer Robert Nixon says people are reluctant to put properties on the market.

"They are afraid that if we start an advertising campaign now, within four weeks, the world might have changed, so they are holding off," he says.

Mr Nixon feels that Irish people are far more affected by the prospect of Brexit than people in the UK.

"I was talking to a friend of mine who does a lot of business in England and he said the place is flying," he says.

"He was at a machinery auction there last week and the guy in front of him bought six machines because he has the customers for them. Do they know something we don't?"

Dundalk auctioneer Raymond Fee has seen a marked increase in land enquiries from across the border, and while he can see a certain reticence in buyers and sellers in the Republic, he agrees with James Butler that once there is clarity, life will go on.

"Like every major calamity or catastrophe, things change but life still goes on and deals are being done," says Mr Fee.

"We don't know the real story. What we see is the PR, the spin - it is hard to know what is really going on behind the politics.

"In the meantime, life has to go on - and it is going on."
The Beast from the East was a contributing factor to losses. Photo: PA

The cattle industry lost 100m last year due to falling prices and a small drop in the volume of livestock processed.

The value fell from 2.36bn in 2017 to 2.26bn last year, figures show.

Farmers continue to count the cost of market uncertainty from Brexit, leaving some on the brink of leaving the industry.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures illustrate how exposed farm incomes are to the vagaries of the weather and market sentiment.

They show the operating surplus in agriculture dropped 16pc from 3.4bn in 2017 to 2.9bn in 2018.

It follows on the back of a difficult 2018, where farmers forked out an extra 357m on feed as they faced an expensive late spring, the 'Beast from the East' storm and the summer drought.

However, another key expense on Irish farms is fertiliser for which spending rose 69m to 582m.

The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) warned that the time is now for Government action as the lack of certainty on future trade with the UK has caused market difficulties.

IFA president Joe Healy said there has been no improvement in the first few months of this year, and immediate political action is needed.

"The headline figure showing a decrease of 16pc was largely driven by a substantial hike of over 350m on feed," he said.

"A combination of the late, wet spring, Storm Emma and the summer drought added significantly to costs on farms during 2018 and affected the bottom line for farmers."

Overall, the figures show that spending on feeding animals increased by 356.5m or 27pc to 1.6bn, with a 20pc increase in the volume being purchased.

Farmers were forced to feed animals indoors for longer due to weather, while they were also hit later in the year, with drought affecting grass growth.

Pat McCormack, of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA), said that farmers had suffered a 500m blow from the rise in inputs coupled with the 43m drop in milk production.

"The figures are catastrophic and show the cost of feed increasing by over 350m, and fertiliser by 70m. Those figures speak for themselves," he said.

"Brexit is now days away, and we still operate in the dark, with no certainty of what faces us.

"At the very least, the EU and our Government should publish their actual programmes as to how they intend to support farmers, whether it is a deal or no-deal Brexit."

He also said the farming sector was "completely exposed to Brexit".

For dairy farmers, milk output last year increased 4.5pc, but falling prices saw a slight drop in value of 43m to 2.54bn.

Pig farmers have warned that many are on the brink of going out of business as the value of pigmeat output fell by 11pc as producers found themselves in a loss-making situation.

Agriculture Minister Michael Creed has said that in a hard Brexit, Ireland will seek major European Commission grant aid.
Vets recruited to work on border post will be paid 43/hour, as the Department of Agriculture looks to bolster its Brexit staff by 230 people.

The Department of Agriculture recently advertised for vets to work at Border Inspection posts, but didn't announce how many vets it was looking for, despite the Taoiseach announcing last October that 300 new vets would be recruited.

According to the Department of Agriculture, it will have in the region of 230 staff available for redeployment as part of its Brexit Response, including new recruits, redeployed staff and people on temporary contracts.

Dublin Port will be staffed on a 24/7 basis, while Rosslare ports will operate on the basis of two shifts per day, based on ferry activity.

Last summer the Cabinet agreed to recruit 700 additional customs officials and 300 more staff to ensure checks on agri-food products and animals at border points.

The veterinary recruits will be part of a team involved in protecting public health, animal health and animal welfare in any one of Irelands approved border inspection posts or any location associated with the operation of approved BIPs in Ireland including, but not limited to, Dublin Port, Dublin Airport, Shannon Airport and Rosslare Port.

Contractors will be required to attend on a shift basis that will include out of hours and weekend work. Contract terms will vary on a contract by contract basis.

The process is open to suitably qualified veterinary practitioners including private practitioners, who will be engaged on a contracted basis in 4 or 8 hour shift patterns up to a maximum of 40 hours per week for a pre-determined period.

The rate of payment for these contracted services will be 42.99 per hour.

According to the Department of Agriculture, the Government has already sanctioned in the region of 4m for the commencement of a phased process for the recruitment of additional staff across a range of skill sets to carry out increased volumes of import controls and export certification arising from Brexit.

These requirements are significant, and arise in relation to the carrying out of documentary, identity and physical checks on imports of animals, plants, and products of animal and plant origin, as set out in EU legislation.
Bulmers owner C&C expects premium products to account for an increasing amount of its sales, with demographic trends pushing alcohol consumption down.

The company published a trading update yesterday, saying it expected earnings before interest and tax to be at the upper end of market estimates this year.

The results are being helped by positive momentum at wholesaler Matthew Clark Bibendum, which C&C bought out of administration.

The shares rose 1.27pc in Dublin trading yesterday.

But CEO Stephen Glancey acknowledged yesterday that demographic trends pose challenges to drinks companies.

Analysts at Berenberg recently said this posed a challenge to C&C, saying that in the age of social media younger people were more pre-occupied with healthy living. "There aren't many mature markets where alcohol consumption is growing... people are drinking less but they're drinking better, they're going to premium," Mr Glancey told the Irish Independent.

"Equally they're going to local, artisan and craft... that's the market and you've got to play in it." He said the "craft super-premium" portfolio is currently 7pc of the company's net sales value, and that he wants to get that figure up to 10pc.
FOUR out of five people being appointed to senior jobs in regulated financial services firms last year were men, and the figures are even more stark for the most senior jobs.

Ulster Bank appointed Jane Howard as chief executive last year, joining Bank of Ireland's Francesca McDonagh and FBD insurance's Fiona Muldoon among the handful of women CEOs. However, figures from the Central Bank based on applications under its 'fitness and probity' process to approve senior appointments show that 84pc of applications for chairman and CEO posts were for men. There were 4,500 applications for approval to occupy senior roles last year, up as a result of Brexit on previous years.

The Central Bank found a small improvement in the share of women being put forward, with the most marked improvement in banking.

Across all sectors, the number of women put forward for approval rose to 24pc. Asset management (30pc) had the highest share of women moving into senior roles of any regulated sector,
Victim: LK Bennett has collapsed, but its Irish stores will not be affected

LK Bennett has become the latest victim on the UK high street after collapsing into administration.

The company's Irish operation will not be affected as yet however, as that comes under its international arm which is not part of the administration process.

Founded by entrepreneur Linda Bennett in 1990, the British firm made a 5.9m (6.9m) loss in the year to July 2017, according to the most recent set of accounts.

Famed for its kitten heel shoes, the womenswear retailer has appointed accountancy firm EY as administrators.

They have already cut the number of head office employees and closed five stores. EY will now try to find a buyer.

"Amidst tough trading conditions for retailers, the company has been further impacted by significant rent increases and business rate rises," said EY joint administrator Dan Hurd.

"[Ms Bennett] and the management team therefore made the difficult decision to place the company into administration to protect the future of the business."

He added: "LK Bennett is a strong luxury UK brand, the new season collection was critically acclaimed and recent trading is up, which we hope will be attractive to prospective buyers."

In 2008, Ms Bennett sold her business to Phoenix Equity Partners and Sirius Equity for 100m but was brought back as a consultant.

Additional reporting Daily Telegraph, London
Retail sales were down on a monthly basis for the third month running in January (Stock image)

The "unprecedented" uncertainty from Brexit is starting to impact small and medium businesses in Ireland.

This is according to the latest SME Market Monitor from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).

While the Irish economy has improved over recent years, with a return to more sustainable growth and trading conditions, there exists a number of challenges for SMEs, including the increased possibility of a no-deal Brexit, as well as a slowdown in the global economy, each of which could prove to be extremely difficult for small businesses.

The monitor, which was prepared by the EY-DKM Economic Advisory, looked at 15 different indicators including consumer sentiment, manufacturing PMI, domestic demand, disposable income, retail sales, and the rate of employment.

It points to a number of negative trends, including a fall in consumer sentiment, declines in retail sales and domestic demand, and a drop in the number of visitors coming to Ireland from Britain.

"Given that the average spend by visitors from Britain is 274 per trip, such a trend will be a concern for those SMEs reliant on the tourism industry," the monitor states.

Annette Hughes, director, EY-DKM Economic Advisory, said: "Our analysis shows that consumers are struggling to balance the possibility of an undesirable Brexit outcome with the reality of favourable macroeconomic conditions and there is evidence that this is starting to impact the sectors where SMEs tend to operate, such as retail, food and accommodation  sectors which are arguably also some of the most vulnerable to Brexit."

While Ms Hughes points to some of the factors that may mitigate the impact of Brexit uncertainty, such as the strength of the Irish economy, a healthy labour market and double-digit growth in new lending to SMEs, she warns that the short-term outlook for SMEs is a growing concern.

"Ultimately, the prospect of a no-deal Brexit or indeed an extension of Article 50, in tandem with a slowdown in some of the Eurozones largest economies remains a serious downside risk."

"As a consequence, and notwithstanding Irelands strong macroeconomic performance, a great deal of caution is warranted in regard to the short-term outlook," Ms Hughes added.
Primark is owned by Associated British Foods (ABF), which also owns brands including Twinings, Ovaltine and Ryvita. Stock image

PENNEYS owner Primark is moving a host of back office jobs to Dublin from the UK.

A total of 220 people working in the company's Reading office will be offered redeployment here.

The company said the move wasn't related to Brexit.

"This decision is solely for the purposes of driving operational efficiency and is completely unrelated to any other external factors," it said.

The people affected work in the areas of buying, merchandising, design, quality and sourcing. Primark CEO Paul Marchant said: "As the Primark brand continues to expand into new markets and new product categories, it is essential we deliver an exciting and consistent product proposition to all our customers.

"Currently, our product operations are separated across two locations, Dublin and Reading. From September 2019, we will be amalgamating all our buying, merchandising, design, quality and sourcing operations to be based at our headquarters in Dublin.

"This change will ensure our business strategy and our expansion into new international markets is fully supported."

Primark is owned by Associated British Foods (ABF), which also owns brands including Twinings, Ovaltine and Ryvita.

The fashion retailer is operating in a challenged sector, with many UK peers severely hit as people do more and more shopping online.

In a trading update last month ABF said like-for-like sales at Primark were expected to be 2pc lower in the first half of its financial year, but that new store openings would drive overall sales higher.

"With a much higher margin, profit is expected to be well ahead of the same period last year," ABF said. "Early trading of the new spring/summer range has been encouraging."
Insurance companies are enjoying bumper profits running into hundreds of millions of euro amid mounting pressure to ease the burden on customers.

Three major firms in Ireland made combined profits of almost 200m last year.

Despite the boom, high costs for consumers is still a major sticking point when it comes to the insurance industry.

Aviva is the latest to report massive earnings as it made 113m in operating profits in 2018. This was up from 99m in the previous year.

The profits are from motor, home and business insurance, as well as earnings from the company's life and pensions sections.

It is the fourth consecutive year of double-digit percentage growth in both its life and general business.

Despite "more challenging market conditions", profits at the general insurance business rose 4pc to 63m on an annual basis.

Now, the leading insurers are being urged to cut their premiums, given that they have returned to earning bumper profits.

The Alliance for Insurance Reform said insurance companies were benefiting from changes in the market brought in by the Government and the time has arrived for policy-holders to be given a break.

RSA revealed last week that it made profits of 35m in this market last year, and FBD reported profits of 50m.

However, FBD chief executive Fiona Muldoon did admit that the strong set of financial results the group reported does little to advance its cause in seeking reform.

And the chief executive officer of Aviva Ireland, John Quinlan, called for more Government-led progress to cut personal injury claims costs so insurers can reduce motor insurance premiums to more sustainable long-term levels.

"The high levels of personal injury awards have also been a factor in the increased cost of commercial insurance for our business customers.

"Further reforms are required here in order to reduce claims costs," said Mr Quinlan.

Insurers have consistently complained about high levels of awards paid out by the courts and the frequency of claims, citing what they believe is the prevalence of fraudulent claims.

Former High Court president Nicholas Kearns found in a report that awards in this country are almost five times higher than in England, and said that there was no deterrent to making a false claim.

Businesses have reported premiums for liability cover rising by between 300pc and 400pc, with some firms that provide play centre facilities forced to close because of the insurance crisis.

Motorists have seen premiums fall back recently, according to Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures, but this is only after massive hikes in the cost of cover.

Some say they are still being asked to pay more each year.

The Alliance for Insurance Reform said that insurers were benefiting from changes in the market brought in by the Government.

It argued that policy-holders should see an easing of premiums as a result.

Peter Boland, of the Alliance, said consumers, businesses and charities needed to see a drop in premiums to reflect reforms being introduced.

"We hear a lot from the insurance industry when it is making losses, but we seldom hear anything when they are making profits," he added.

He said insurance, particularly in the motor sector, was cyclical, but the market was profitable on average.

Mr Boland believes this market would not have so many big European insurance players if it was not so profitable.

He added that there was a lack of transparency about insurance claims, payouts by insurers, their profit levels and the impact on premiums.

Insurance Ireland pointed out that the CSO's Consumer Price Index shows the cost of motor insurance has fallen by 22pc since mid-2016.

"Insurers have managed the costs they have full control over, helping to deliver these reductions and returning the sector to profitability," it said.

It added that the Personal Injuries Commission has given the means to reduce the cost of claims in 2019, and the opportunity should not be missed by the Government.
Paddy Cosgraves Web Summit is to move MoneyConf, the 5,000-strong financial technology conference scheduled for Dublin this June, to Lisbon.

Instead of a standalone event this June, it will now be part of the Web Summit this November, said Mr Cosgrave.

It is understood that the decision was taken in recent weeks. Companies that had made plans around the two-day June conference in the RDS in June will now be accommodated through refunds and possibly travel and accommodation compensation.

The move is happening, Mr Cosgrave said, to integrate MoneyConf as a fintech segment within the companys three global conferences, Web Summit, Collision (in Toronto) and Rise (Hong Kong).

We feel strongly that a conference with as much potential as MoneyConf is deserving of a more prominent position on a more global stage, said Mr Cosgrave. We decided now was the right time to take action, to deliver an even better experience for everyone involved. We are ready for MoneyConf to fully go global.

The move is a reversal on previous comments made by Mr Cosgrave at last Junes Dublin event, when he said that MoneyConf would remain in Ireland for the foreseeable future.

It will also be seen as a blow to Dublin, which is trying to position itself as a European centre for fintech companies in the midst of Brexit.

And it is likely to disrupt the plans of several companies which had arranged to attend or host events around Moneyconf, scheduled for the RDS from June 10th to 12th.

In its short history, Moneyconf has had a number of different host cities, including Belfast, Madrid and Dublin.

Mr Cosgrave said that the Web Summit will remain headquartered in Dublin with 200 people.

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Weve built the best tech conference in the world in Lisbon and now have the certainty that comes with a 10 year deal and an incredible venue, said Mr Cosgrave. However Dublin will always be at the centre of everything we do.

Last year, the Web Summit struck a 110m deal with Lisbon authorities to keep the 70,000-strong conference in the Portuguese capital for 10 years.

Speaking at last Junes Dublin MoneyConf event, Mr Cosgrave said that Dublin still lacked the infrastructure for large global conferences.

Ireland has an opportunity to become a venue for much larger events, he said. To do that we need a convention centre thats much bigger. It wouldnt take much to build a venue that would cater to 40,000 or 50,000 people in this city.

The conference switch comes at a time when relations between the Web Summit and Irish authorities were improving after a public row over the Web Summits move to Lisbon in 2015.

MoneyConf attracted over 5,000 registered attendees, mainly from financial firms and technology companies focused on payments, fraud and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
A serious case review will examine the Garda response and investigation into the murder of Clodagh Hawe and her three sons.

Clodagh (39), Liam (13), Niall (11) and Ryan (6) were killed in their home near Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, in August 2016 by husband and father Alan Hawe, who subsequently took his own life.

Expand Close Clodagh Hawe's mother Mary Coll (left) and her sister Jacqueline Connelly leaving the Department of Justice in Dublin following a meeting with Justice minister Charlie Flanagan. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire / Facebook

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Whatsapp Clodagh Hawe's mother Mary Coll (left) and her sister Jacqueline Connelly leaving the Department of Justice in Dublin following a meeting with Justice minister Charlie Flanagan. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Clodagh's sister Jacqueline Connolly last week told the 'Sunday Independent' of unanswered questions surrounding the killings.

The family are concerned about a reported sighting of Alan Hawe, near the school where he was vice principal, early on the morning of August 29.

The new case review, confirmed by gardai last night, follows a meeting between Commissioner Drew Harris and Clodagh's family at Garda Headquarters in Dublin.

The review will look at the Garda response to the deaths, rather than the lead-up to the murders themselves. Clodagh's mother and sister welcomed the decision.

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"Commissioner Harris told the family that he has appointed Assistant Commissioner Barry O'Brien to conduct a serious case review of the investigation," a Garda spokesperson said.

"The review team will take a number of weeks to establish. Commissioner Harris said the family will be kept informed as the review progresses."

Clodagh's mother Mary Coll and sister Jacqueline Connolly attended the meeting.

"We have had a very constructive two-and-a-half hour meeting with the Garda Commissioner," Ms Connolly said.

"He has agreed to conduct a serious case review headed by his Assistant Commissioner Barry O'Brien.

"We look forward to being appraised of that process in two weeks' time.

"Once again, we would like to thank the media for the respectful coverage around Clodagh, Liam, Niall and Ryan and for the support we have received from everyone around the country."

Gardai described the meeting as being conducted in a "dignified manner".

"It is welcome that the family found it productive and it helped provide clarity for them on some matters," a spokesperson said.

"Commissioner Harris provided the family with information on the criminal investigation undertaken while also respecting the data protection rights and confidentially of those individuals who had given statements to An Garda Siochana in the course of the investigation."

Earlier this year, the family was refused copies of the Garda files from the original investigation into the murders.

They have since been appealing for a new and full inquiry into the murders and to be given access to the Garda files.

They are also calling for a review on Ireland's inheritance law where a spouse can benefit financially from domestic murder.

In an interview with the 'Sunday Independent', Ms Connolly said that in the days and weeks after the shocking killings, they slowly started to learn that as the victims' family they had little rights.

They have also been told by a local man that he saw Alan Hawe driving very close to the school where he was vice principal early on the morning of August 29.

However, Ms Connolly said that they were accused of interfering with a witness when they queried this with gardai.
A 51-year-old man charged with the murder of his wife in Dublin last week has been further remanded in custody.

Alan Ward with an address at Greenfort Drive, Clondalkin was charged with the murder of mother-of-three Cathy Ward.

The 41-year-old womans body was found in the bedroom of their house on Greenfort Drive in the early hours of March 1 last.

Her husband was arrested and on Saturday he was remanded in custody after he appeared at Dublin District Court charged with his wifes murder.

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He was remanded in custody and faced his second hearing yesterday/today (fri) when he appeared before Judge Victor Blake at Cloverhill District Court.

He was further remanded in custody to appear again on April 5 next.

A book of evidence has yet to be completed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

At his first hearing on March 2, Garda Sergeant Batt Moriarty said Mr Ward made no reply when charged.

Legal aid was granted and the district court had acceded to a request from defence solicitor Wayne Kenny for his client be given a medical assessment while in custody because of concerns about his mental health.
A jury has convicted a man of murdering a 90-year-old retired farmer, who has found beaten to death in his own home.

The panel of eight men and four women rejected the 28-year-old's claim that he repeatedly struck Mr Lyons in "self defence" after the pensioner, who suffered from osteoporosis and only had the use of one arm, "attacked" him with a stick.

The trial heard that the farmer's body was discovered slumped in his armchair at his home. Blood was smeared down his face and his penis was exposed through his underpants. Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster told the trial that Mr Lyons suffered multiple blows to his head and neck from a blunt weapon and had fractures of his hip joint, jawbone and ribs.

Paddy Lyons lived alone on his farm and had "trusted everyone", the court heard, but became the victim of what was described as a "truly shocking and outrageous" attack by Outram, who has previous convictions for burglary and assault.

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It was the State's case that Outram had carried out "a vicious and sustained attack on a defenceless old man" with a non-functioning arm and the defendant's claim of self-defence did "not bear thinking about.

Outram of Ferryland, Waterford Road, Clonmel in Co Tipperary, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Lyons at Loughleagh, Ballysaggart, Lismore, Co Waterford, at a time unknown between February 23 and 26, 2017.

Before sentencing today, a victim impact statement was read to the Central Criminal Court by the prosecution on behalf of Paddy Lyons' home help in Lismore, Mary Fennessy.

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Ms Fennessy said she knew Mr Lyons for over 20 years and "if anyone deserved a place in heaven it's Paddy".

"He was happy with simple things, had a great love for life and loved meeting people. He was a well known, well respected man of our community and he is greatly missed," she said.

Ms Fennessy explained that Mr Lyons was the oldest man in their village and he was a "very friendly and trusting man".

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"He didn't drive a car but everyone in the village knew him and would give him a lift in and out of Lismore. Everyone liked him," she said.

"He liked a simple life and loved sitting by the fire and listening to the radio. He loved having visitors and reminiscing about times long ago. He was a very religious man and never missed mass no matter how bad the weather was," she said.

"I loved going down to visit Paddy every day. He was very grateful for any job you'd do for him. I'd bring him down dinner and bring in timber for the fire. He didn't have running water or any luxuries that you'd have in a modern house but he was always happy and content with what he had," she said.

"One of the days when I saw Paddy at his happiest was when the priest said mass in Paddy's home, what we call 'stations'. He was king of the castle that day. Paddy said 'twas a great day altogether' and talked about it for months afterwards," she concluded.

The jury took three hours and 29 minutes to come to their unanimous guilty verdict. Mr Justice Paul Coffey thanked the jury for the conscientious manner in which they had dealt with this long and difficult case.

"The care you have given to the case has been exemplary," he said before exempting them from jury service for a period of 15 years.

Defence counsel Michael O'Higgins SC told the court that his client wanted to apologise for having killed Mr Lyons and he was remorseful for his actions.

The court heard that Outram has 25 previous convictions which include burglary, theft, possession of stolen property and assault causing harm.

Mr Justice Coffey then sentenced Outram to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murder. The sentence was backdated to when he went into custody on February 27, 2017.

Addressing Outram, Mr Justice Coffey said his conduct was "a truly shocking and outrageous fatal attack on a defenceless 90-year-old man in his own home."

During their deliberations yesterday, the jury had asked to re-hear evidence from two pathologists and to see a hoodie that belonged to Outram and a grey hat that belonged to Mr Lyons.

There was a further inquiry from the jury yesterday as to whether Mr Lyons' grey hat had blood on it. "The answer is no, no blood was found on that," replied Mr Justice Coffey.

Defence counsel, Michael O'Higgins SC, outlined in his closing speech that Outram told gardai in his interviews on two occasions that Mr Lyons was alive when he left the house because he [the deceased] had put on a grey hat.

Thats an unusual memory fragment and why would Mr Outram invent that detail? emphasised the barrister, adding that a garda had given evidence that he found a grey hat in the vicinity of Mr Lyons' fireplace.

However, the judge told the jury this morning that he wanted to address them in relation to "the issue of blood on the hat". "There is in fact no evidence that the hat was examined for blood and therefore no evidence that there is no blood on the hat.

If your examination of the hat raises a possibility that there is blood on it then no inference should be drawn against the accused," outlined the judge.

The hat was then given to the jury for them to examine in their jury room.

Forensic scientist John Hoade gave evidence in the trial that he examined a grey hoodie belonging to Outram and found blood on the right sleeve and hood which matched Mr Lyons' DNA profile. Garda Eugene O'Neill testified that he went to Outram's house at Ferryland on February 27 and searched the back bedroom, where he seized a grey hoodie.

Outram told gardai in interviews that he had fought back after Mr Lyons hit him with a walking stick and shovel, and that he had taken up to 100 Xanax that day. However, a pharmaceutical expert told the jury that there was "no proof" that Outram had taken Xanax.

The three-week trial heard medical evidence that Mr Lyons suffered a stiffness or fusion of his right shoulder during childbirth and could only keep it in one position.

Mr O'Higgins argued in his closing speech that Outram had acted in self-defence and that he could not be made liable for "a fall" which saw Mr Lyons break his hip if it was unconnected to the original injuries inflicted on him by the defendant

However, prosecution counsel John O'Kelly SC said in his closing speech that it flew in the face of all common sense to suggest that Mr Lyons hip injury could have occurred after he was subjected to the attack or could be seen as something entirely independent.

There is no evidence to show that it could have happened later or was entirely separate and independent, he outlined.

Furthermore, Mr O'Kelly submitted that no one knew how much truth "if any" was in Outrams version of events as he had lied consistently in his first six garda interviews.

In charging the jury, Mr Justice Coffey said that in order to convict Outram of murder they must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Lyons fall and the fracture of his hip was either directly caused by the multiple blows inflicted on him or it was reasonably foreseeable that it was a natural consequence of these blows.

If the jury found that Mr Lyons fell on the ground or collapsed in the course of being repeatedly beaten by his attacker, the judge said they could find that causation had been established.
THE brutal murder of Paddy Lyons (90) represents the ultimate nightmare of the elderly in rural Ireland.

Old, vulnerable people are now living in fear of attack in their own homes and within their own beloved communities.

In the tightknit west Waterford village of Ballysaggart, no one has forgotten kind-hearted Paddy and what he must have endured in the hours before his horrific death on February 23-26 2017.

Paddy was the hurling-obsessed village's best known character and a familiar figure on the Ballyduff-Lismore road where he would hitch a lift to do his shopping or to attend a social event.

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The 90 year old adored music and would attend any concert he could reach in Ballysaggart, Lismore, Cappoquin or Ballyduff.

Just three months before his death, Paddy attended the local Christmas party for the elderly - and insisted on dancing in his turned-down wellies to the delight of everyone.

He adored Irish ballads with The Fields of Athenry and Old Dungarvan Oak amongst his favourites.

Paddy was a regular at Mass in St Mary's Church in Ballysaggart, the church where he was baptised in 1927 when Ireland was a Free State and not yet a Republic.

He now lies buried beside his parents, John and Nora, to the rear of the same church.

Paddy never left Ballysaggart and lived his entire life at the Loughleagh cottage which had once been his parents home.

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Like similar homes across rural Ireland, the door used to be left unlocked - so that neighbours could call in to escape the rain or simply to share a cup of tea.

The Loughleagh cottage was famous for the warmth of the turf fires in Paddys hearth and the welcome he would offer neighbours, friends and visitors alike.

Paddy had been robbed several times between 2009 and 2016 but resisted all pleas from neighbours and community alert officials to install high security locks on all his doors or to have a burglar alarm fitted.

On February 26, Paddy was found lying blood-spattered in an armchair in the house where he had lived for 90 years.

He had been dead for some time after suffering multiple blows to his head and neck from a blunt weapon.

"The entire community was left traumatised," Pat Power said.

"The guards did a great job with the investigation but people were still left worried and frightened."

"I know a lot of old people around here were saying that if something like that could happen to Paddy, it could happen to them too."

"People were very, very upset by it."

Sales of house alarms and high-security locks soared across west Waterford in the wake of Paddy's death.

Friends and relatives painted a picture of a kind man who loved his farm, his community and his neighbours.

Margaret Fitzgerald, speaking on behalf of the extended Lyons family at Paddy's funeral, said he was "an unique, intelligent man, honest, kind and humble."

She said his death had cast "a great shadow" over the entire community."

"But he will live in our hearts forever."

Ballysaggart Parish Priest, Fr Michael Cullinan, said the entire community was left deeply shocked by a cowardly attack on a defenceless man.

He said the entire community had been left shattered by what happened.

One of the iconic images published in the days after Paddy's death was a photograph of him sitting by a bench beside Ballysaggart graveyard.

It was one of Paddy's favourite haunts because he could persuade people to stop for a chat - or ensure he could wave down a lift to wherever he wanted to go.

The photograph was taken by local man Paddy Geoghegan in the Indian summer of 2016.

"The people of Ballysaggart - man, woman and child - they all knew Paddy," he recalled.

"He was a lovely, lovely man. He was very outgoing, very sociable and loved his community and the people in it."

"He didn't take age into account at all - he would chat to anyone."

One of Paddy's favourite haunts was the Red House Pub in Lismore where regulars would chat about his favourite topics ranging from hurling to music and farming.

He could also be seen at Ballyduff's famous theatre festival and at St Carthage's Hall in Lismore for music or social occasions.

But it was his beloved music that drew Paddy from Loughleagh to the towns and villages around west Waterford.

If there was music playing anywhere locally, you could bet a 5 note that Paddy would be there smiling his great smile, Pat Power said.
Former Miss Ireland and TV Star Pamela Flood and husband Ronan Ryan can walk away without paying a penny of the 1.2 million debt they owe against the plush North Dublin home they have lived in rent free for the past nine years.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane was also told in the Circuit Civil Court Friday that they will not even have to pay the huge legal costs bill two banks have run up in trying to re-possess their family home at 136 Mount Prospect Avenue, in leafy Clontarf, Dublin 3.

The couples barrister Eoin OShea, who appeared with David M. Turner Solicitors, told the court that restaurateur Ryan and his wife, Pamela, had given the American-owned Tanager bank an undertaking they and their children will have vacated the property by July 9 next.

In return the bank would undertake to limit the couples indebtedness to whatever it could recover from the sale of the property -- no legal costs, no repayment of 374,000 arrears they had built up since 2010 and no liability for the 1.25 million outstanding on the mortgage.

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Whatsapp Restaurateur Ronan Ryan and former TV presenter Pamela Flood married in 2014. Photo: David Conachy

Rudi Neuman, counsel for Tanager Dac, told Judge Linnane that Ms Flood and Mr Ryan, who had taken out a 1.1 million mortgage with Bank of Scotland just before Christmas 2006, had consented to the court granting Tanager an order for possession against them.

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Mr Neuman, who appeared with Amoss Solicitors, told the court the bank had agreed to a stay on the execution of the order for four months on condition the couple delivered up vacant possession of the house, worth up to 800,000, along with all keys, fobs, electronic access devices and alarm codes and an undertaking to co-operate with an auctioneer to show off the property.

He said the bank sought an order restraining the couple from damaging the house or removing any fixtures and fittings and subject to their full compliance with the terms of the settlement document their indebtedness would be limited to the sum recovered from the sale. The bank was also not seeking any order for costs against the couple.

Mr OShea told Judge Linnane the terms of the settlement agreement had been explained carefully to his clients who had put forward the vacant possession proposal that had been accepted by the bank.

Judge Linnane, who heard that any other suggested arrangement would now be wholly unsustainable, said it was a pity such a settlement agreement could not have been reached much earlier in the proceedings and the judge made court orders in the terms of the proposed settlement.

The couple now have up to four months to find alternative accommodation for themselves and their four children.

The court heard earlier that Ryan (48) had not paid anything off his 1.1 million mortgage since August 2010. His 47-year-old wife had not been named on the 2006 mortgage documents with Bank of Scotland but had been joined as a Notice Party to the proceedings following her marriage to Ryan in 2014.

Tanager, described as an American-owned vulture fund, has a registered office at Clanwilliam Square, Grand Canal Quay, Dublin. It snapped up more than 2,000 distressed Irish home loans almost 10 years ago at heavily discounted rates from Bank of Scotland. More than 90 per cent of those loans were two years or more in arrears.

Ryan used to own three restaurants which were hit by the financial recession of 2008. Flood, a former host of Off the Rails television series and several RTE shows, was to have presented a TV3 documentary series about older mothers but this was shelved after Virgin Media took over the station. The former model and now mother of four won the Miss Ireland pageant 26 years ago.

She has stated in the past that despite her own career difficulties and those of her husband their marriage was rock solid.

Under the agreement the couple, after a period of two weeks following todays court case, will facilitate house sales representatives access to their home for the purpose of photographing and assessing the property for inclusion in sales brochures.
Seized: A photo issued by gardai of cannabis plants worth 640,000 found in the raid in Dublins north inner city. Photo: PA

TWO Portuguese men accused of drug cultivation at a suspected cannabis factory in central Dublin have been denied bail.

Miguel Lima (27) and Hugo Da Silva (22), who were both charged earlier this week following a 640,000 cannabis seizure, had their bail applications refused today after gardai objected.

Judge Bryan Smyth remanded them in custody to appear in court again on later dates, for the directions of the DPP.

Mr Lima, a barista, and Mr Da Silva, both of no fixed address, are charged with cultivating cannabis at Fredericks Lane North, Dublin 1 on Saturday, March 2.

Gardai objected to bail.

Det Gda Stephen Gillespie said on receipt of confidential information, the property was kept under surveillance by the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau as part of an intelligence-led operation.

Four men including the two accused were seen entering and exiting the building and were stopped and arrested on the street outside.

Mr Lima had a partner and child in Portugal and had come to Ireland a month agon via England.

Garda Mark ONeill told the court Mr Da Silva was allegedly found with the keys to the premises on his person when he was arrested. Mr Da Silva had also been in Ireland for a month and had travelled here via Luxembourg, he said.

The gardai said the two men had no ties to this country and had only been here for a number of weeks.

It was believed they had been living in Wexford but they had not provided any addresses.

Applying for bail for Mr Lima, solicitor Michael French said his client had exercised his right to silence in interview and was adamant he would be contesting the matter, which would undoubtedly end up in the circuit court.

Solicitor Claire Barry said her client, Mr Da Silva said he had been living at a campsite in Wexford. The final valuation of the drugs could be lower that the current estimate, she said.

Mr Da Silvas family were in Porto, Portugal and could raise up to 3,000 for cash bail, she said.

The court heard the accused would both abide by bail conditions, but the gardai said none would allay their fears.

Judge Smyth said he believed the accused did constitute flight risks and remanded them in custody; Mr Lima to April 5 and Mr Da Silva to March 21.

A third man charged over the seizure,Pedro Barbosa (34) of Suffolk Street, Rochdale in England, is due back before Dublin District Court on Monday, when he is expected to make a bail application.
TWO Romanian men have been charged by gardai investigating an ATM skimming operation in counties across Ireland.

Daniel Munteanu (30) and Iulian Craciun (48) were arrested and brought before Dublin District Court today accused of having skimming "paraphernalia."

Mr Munteanu faces a further 35 charges of theft totalling around 30,000.

Judge David McHugh remanded them both in custody when no bail applications were made on their behalf .

Mr Munteanu, with an address at Slane Road, Navan, Co Meath and Iulian Craciun, of no fixed address are both charged with one count of possession of ATM card skimming paraphernalia at Slane Road, Navan.

Mr Munteanu is further charged with 35 counts of theft from ATMs at locations in counties including Dublin, Meath, Westmeath, Galway, Offaly, Louth, Cavan, Monaghan and Wicklow.

The thefts, totalling are alleged to have happened on dates last year and this year.

Mr Munteanu is also charged with three counts of possession of false identification documents.

The accused were arrested at a house at Slane Road, Navan on Monday.

Det Gda Stephen Kelly told the court Mr Munteanu made no reply to any of the charges when they were put to him at Navan Garda Station this afternoon.

Mr Munteanu's solicitor said he was making no bail application.

Det Gda Paulina Szramowska said Mr Craciun also made no reply to the single charge against him.

His solicitor Maurice Regan said he was not making a bail application either.

Applying for legal aid, he handed a statement of his client's financial means in to court, adding "it's very sparse, I'm afraid."

Judge McHugh remanded the defendants in custody to appear by video link at Trim District District Court on March 14.

Judge McHugh deferred a legal application in Mr Munteanu's case after hearing the accused was unemployed but did not have a PPS number.

Det Gda Kelly said there were bank accounts in Romania and "large sums of money involved."

The judge granted legal aid in Mr Craciun's case after hearing there was no garda objection.

Assigning Mr Regan, he also certified for a Romanian interpreter.

Neither defendant was required to address the court during the hearing.

They have not yet indicated how they intend to plead to the charges.
A Spanish-born teenager found dead at a flat in Northern Ireland was strangled, police have said.

Allison Marimon-Herrera, 15, was one of three people discovered dead this week at a flat in Newry, Co Down, in a murder-suicide which investigators described as unspeakably tragic.

Detectives said there was a "strong possibility" her mother Giselle Marimon-Herrera, 37, from Colombia, was also throttled.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: "I can confirm that her 15-year-old daughter Allison was strangled."

Expand Close Murder probe: Police forensic officers enter the apartment complex at Glin Ree Court in Newry, Co Down. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire / Facebook

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Police said a 38-year-old man, Giselle Marimon-Herrera's partner, who also lived at the address, died by hanging.

Officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have launched a murder investigation and are not looking for anybody else.

Police received post-mortem examination results on Friday.

Officers went to the flat in Glin Ree Court close to the city centre after a relative reported concerns that they had not been in contact with a family member for days.

The bodies were discovered at about 11am on Thursday after police forced entry.

Mr Murphy added: "This is an unspeakable tragedy."

Ms Marimon-Herrera is originally from Colombia and moved to Northern Ireland four years ago.

She worked in the Newry area.

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Her daughter Allison was born in Spain and has lived in Northern Ireland since 2017.

She attended Newry High School.

Mr Murphy added: "I believe that Giselle and Allison were still alive in the early hours of Sunday morning but family members have not been able to contact them since."
Families bereaved by security force violence have met Karen Bradley to express concern about her controversial comments on state killings.

The Northern Ireland Secretary reached out to a number of victims' groups following her gaffe.

Some refused to meet Mrs Bradley but on Friday morning a delegation of relatives did travel to Stormont House in Belfast to discuss the furore.

Ms Bradley released a statement this afternoon, describing the meeting as "humbling".

"I am grateful to each of them for giving me the opportunity to apologise personally for the offence and hurt that my words in Parliament caused. What I said was deeply insensitive to many of those who lost loved ones.

"It was humbling to listen to each of them and their personal and deeply moving stories.

"I heard about the hurt and suffering endured over many years  about the experiences of those whose family members died at the hands of the security forces.

"This cannot have been felt more deeply than by those who lost children during the Troubles. The families I met today referred to unarmed civilians and 82 children who lost their lives in incidents involving the security forces.

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"Families from throughout Northern Ireland and from all parts of the community, who suffered as a result of the Troubles, rightly want to see justice properly delivered. Where there is any evidence of wrongdoing this should be pursued without fear or favour whoever the perpetrators might be."

After the meeting they tweeted they told Ms Bradley that there are no statute of limitations and no amnesty.

"We looked her in the eye and told her she needs to resign," they said. "We told her most of those killed by the British army were unarmed and posed no threat including 82 children. We told her the 10pc figure is insulting."

Mrs Bradley's remarks in the Commons on Wednesday that killings carried out by the police and military during the Troubles were not crimes, rather actions of people "fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way", sparked fury among some victims and political parties.

Ahead of the private meeting with her at Stormont, campaign group Relatives for Justice tweeted a picture of them, saying: "A delegation of families bereaved by the British Army and RUC outside Stormont House on way to meet Karen Bradley, look her in the eye, and tell her what they think."

Relatives of those killed in shootings involving the Army in Ballymurphy in west Belfast in 1971 refused to meet the Conservative MP.

John Teggart, whose father Danny was shot 14 times at Ballymurphy, said Mrs Bradley should resign.

"We will not meet her, and have one request for Mrs Bradley and that is for her to resign immediately," he said.

"Families request that those parties who support our campaign join us and refuse to meet with Karen Bradley.

"Do the dignified and appropriate thing - resign, Karen Bradley."

Mrs Bradley made it clear on Thursday that she would not be leaving her role, vowing instead to work to deliver for people she had offended.

"I want to get on and get this job done," she said.

Downing Street has said Prime Minister Theresa May retains full confidence in her.

The minister's comments carried added significance as they were made a week before long-awaited decisions from Northern Ireland prosecutors on whether 17 soldiers involved in the Bloody Sunday shootings in Londonderry in 1972 will face prosecution.

She returned to the Commons on Wednesday afternoon in a bid to clarify the comments and, on Thursday, issued a statement of apology, saying she was "profoundly sorry".

In an interview with the Press Association in Belfast on Thursday evening, Mrs Bradley said there were "no excuses" for what she said.

"I shouldn't have said it and I want to say sorry to all those people, all those families that have been kind enough to share their experiences with me," she said.

"I want to say sorry to them because I didn't want to cause hurt or pain or distress to them in any way, and what I want to do is deliver for them, and I am absolutely determined I will do.

"I recognise that a slip of the tongue at the wrong moment has caused enormous distress.

"I want to be very clear - I do not believe what I said, that is not my view.

"I believe that where crimes have happened, no matter who the perpetrator, they should be properly investigated by an independent authority and they should be prosecuted.

"There is no excuse for anybody where a crime has been committed."
Higher Education Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor has delivered a blistering attack on male attitudes to gender equality.

She described men's level of interest in equality as "small, as in teeny-weeny small, as in this small", as she gestured to her audience with her thumb and forefinger only centimetres apart.

The minister spoke about the silence from men to her women-only professorships initiative, although she also said some women "patted me on the head", claiming the jobs would be seen as second-rate.

Ms Mitchell O'Connor was speaking at a National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) conference, on the eve of International Women's Day, on the theme of creating a zero-tolerance approach to sexual violence and harassment in higher education.

The minister referred to some "ground-breaking" equality announcements that would follow today's special Cabinet meeting marking the event.

She told her largely female audience at the 'It Stops Now' conference that women were making a "huge mistake" if they thought talking about women's issues to groups made up exclusively of women was going to change things on the equality agenda.

"How many men, for example, do you think are going to contact the organisers of this event after we finish, looking for copies of any speeches made? Think about it," she said.

She said Ireland was full of powerful, influential, thoughtful men, in politics, in the arts, in business and in sport, and continued: "So every one of them must be clamouring to hear what we're saying here today, mustn't they?

"Well, if you can hear that clamour, your hearing must be a lot better than mine is."

She said anyone who believed the organisers were "going to have multiple requests for papers from the conference from influential men, from the men who matter in Ireland in 2019, you're a whole lot more optimistic than I am - and I'm optimistic by nature."

The minister said International Women's Day was "in danger of becoming what holy days used to be when we were going to school, back in the day; a chance to skive off with friends and have no homework for that day."

She said there was a need to repurpose it so it achieved solid objectives. But she went on to warn that "if we don't engage and involve men in this critical work" around equality, it wasn't going to happen "or if it does happen, it will be too little, too late".

Talking about "solid objectives", Ms Mitchell O'Connor referred to her announcement of 45 female-only professorships to be introduced in higher education as a way of redressing a gender imbalance in senior posts.

"On the day of the launch and thereafter, I didn't have to say 'curb your enthusiasm,' because enthusiasm stayed pretty much curbed without any help from me. Men stayed mostly silent, presumably feeling safer in silence.

"Women - committed feminists, even - patted me on the head and said they understood where I was coming from, but really, the positions would be seen as second-rate. Really?" And she emphasised, again: "Really?"

She said statistics proved that "academic posts are outrageously biased, in their distribution, towards men", a bias that was long-standing. There had been "a huge, massive, 'ginormous' unconscious bias present for decades."

She said "the bottom line is that for generations, men within academia have effectively confined hundreds of professorships and lectureships to men.

"Were any of those professorships or lectureships regarded as second-rate as a result of that? Are you kidding?

"Yet the minute a female minister says, 'Lads, here's a handful of posts you can't go for. Here are a handful of posts that, by way of a tiny tilt towards equality, will be kept for women,' the view taken is negative."

Women had been competing "like champions" for such posts and only a fraction of them had come through, added the minister.
Murder probe: Police forensic officers enter the apartment complex at Glin Ree Court in Newry, Co Down. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Police have launched a murder investigation following the deaths of three people in Newry, Co Down.

The bodies of a 37-year-old woman, her 15-year-old daughter and a 38-year-old man were discovered at a flat in Glin Ree Court at 11am yesterday morning.

It is understood they died in a particularly violent way, and one line of inquiry is a double murder and suicide.

The two female victims are understood to be a mother and daughter from Colombia.

The man was reportedly a neighbour of the women and originally from Scotland.

The three bodies have not yet been identified and the cause of death had not been established, according to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Police are investigating the cause of death and post-mortem examinations will take place in due course.

The police were alerted by a relative who had not heard anything for some days and became worried.

They confirmed they are not seeking anyone else in connection with the deaths.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: "At about 11am, the police received a call from a concerned member of a family worried they had not been in contact with the family member for a number of days.

"Police officers responded to the flat at Glin Ree Court in Newry and forced entry into the flat and found inside the bodies of three people.

"At this stage, we believe the bodies of those of a young female aged approximately 15, a female aged approximately 37, and a male aged approximately 38.

"At this stage, the deceased have not been formally identified and as yet we have no defined cause of death for those individuals.

"I do not believe that anybody else is involved in the deaths of those individuals and I am not currently seeking anybody else in connection with their deaths.

"It is still a very early part of the enquiry and the investigation is ongoing.

"If that position changes we will of course be in touch.

"At this stage we are treating this as a murder investigation. The exact cause of the death with regards to the three individuals is unclear."

Det Supt Murphy said it was not clear when the victims died and what nationality they were.

The PSNI's forensic team attended the scene yesterday afternoon.

Neighbours spoke of their distress at hearing the news.

Locals said that the woman and the teenage girl were believed to be foreign nationals.

Newry and Armagh DUP MLA William Irwin said he had been shocked by the discovery.

"This is an awful tragedy and I understand police have commenced investigations into this very concerning discovery," he said.

"I extend my sincerest sympathy, thoughts and prayers to the wider family of the deceased individuals at this awful time."

SDLP MLA Justin McNulty said a "dark cloud" was hanging over Newry.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased," he said.

"Over the coming hours and days, more will become known but for now this community is stunned and my thoughts are with the families of those who have lost their lives and with this community."

Shockwaves

Local SDLP councillor Michael Savage said that he believed a "very tragic story is unfolding" and said the news had sent "shockwaves across our city and has left many local people unnerved".

Sinn Fein councillor Charlie Casey offered his sympathies to the families of those involved.

"Details are still emerging and a police investigation is under way and that should be allowed to proceed," he said.

"I would encourage anyone with information on this incident to bring it forward to the PSNI."

Floral tributes later began arriving near the flat where the three people died.

An emotional woman visited the cordon with a child who carried a bunch of flowers, but they were not allowed into the sealed-off area.
The woman who has an Irish passport left the Defence Forces a number of years ago

A former female member of the Irish Defence Forces has been detained in Syria over alleged membership of ISIS.

It is understood the government has been made aware of the incident and are continuing to investigate the matter.

The woman - who has an Irish passport - left the Defence Forces a number of years ago.

It has emerged she has now been detained in recent days in Northern Syria.

It is also understood she has an infant child.

Sources told Independent.ie the woman wants to return to Ireland.

It comes just a fortnight after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Ireland would take back extremists or sympathisers who have travelled to war-torn regions.

He said this country shouldnt expect our citizens to be somebody elses problem.

The Taoiseach said he would be very loath to revoke anyones citizenship provided they are a citizen by right or acquired their citizenship appropriately.

I think its bad practice to revoke somebodys citizenship and render them stateless and leave them to be somebodys elses problem, he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told Independent.ie they are aware of reports of an Irish citizen detained in northern Syria.

Appropriate consular assistance is provided to all Irish citizens where it is possible to do so, however we do not comment on individual cases, he said.
Photo: Castanet

A story that sparked outrage among Castanet readers is helping to bring about change to laws that allow the consumption of pets as meat in Canada.

A classified ad that has since been removed stated:

"Looking to provide a loving humane organic home for unwanted cats and dogs. Will pay top prices per pound. Best quality of care and food provided. Free range of farm and home. Lots of love and attention. We are looking to use them as an ethical source of meat for our family. Slaughter is humane and quick after a very good life. All care and slaughter will be performed in accordance to Canadian law (although we pride ourselves in exceeding expectations)."

Many were shocked to learn it is not against the law to kill and eat your pets in Canada. It is only illegal to cause unnecessary suffering or slaughter them in a way that is deemed inhumane or results in distress.

But the story is now helping to draw attention to the issue, being added to a change.org petition that has garnered about 52,000 signatures.

Petition creator James Tsai of Arf Arf Bark Bark Rescue/Rehabilitation and Training in Vancouver says "people are starting to understand how to circumvent the (non-existent) law. Dogs and cats are being eaten in Canada."

The petition seeks to make it illegal to do so, and is said to have the support of Metro Vancouver MP Ken Hardie.

You can add your name here.
Ruth Clarke with her grandchildren, four year old twins Sean and Emma OSullivan who saved her life Pic Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision

HEROIC four year old twins were honoured with special bravery medals after their quick-thinking helped save their beloved grandmother's life.

Grandmother Ruth Clarke said she owes her life to her brave grandchildren Sean O Suilleabhain and Emma Nic Suilleabhain (4) after their quick-thinking allowed paramedics to save her by raising the alarm and ensuring she received prompt medical attention.

The twins' proud mother, May O Suilleabhain, said she cannot believe how courageously the two children responded to the sudden emergency.

"We thought the absolute worst - we thought that Nanny had passed away," she said.

"Sean was on the phone to me. He was screaming that he could not wake Nanny up."

"Our first thought was that she had passed away and what do we do now?"

"They (the twins) were locked in the house with her and it was dark outside."

"What do they do? It was unbelievable how they reacted. We are so, so proud of them."

The twins received the special bravery medals at the Naionra (play school) of Gaelscoil Mhichil Ui Choileain in Clonakilty, Co Cork where they are students.

The twins were being looked after in their own house by their grandparents, Ruth and Stephen Clarke, while their parents, May and Brian O Suilleabhain, were in Kerry for the day.

Their grandfather had gone on an errand to his own property when the twins realised that their granny had fallen ill.

Both twins were shocked when their granny fell unconscious and did not respond to their desperate attempts to wake her up.

Little Sean displayed remarkable quick-thinking by finding his granny's phone, searching through her stored numbers and managing to ring both his mother and grandfather.

Sean was able to contact his mother and she immediately raised the alarm while his grandfather raced to the house..

Sean and Emma were able to unlock the door to allow their grandfather in to assist the unconscious woman.

Paramedics were on the scene within minutes - and their prompt intervention ensured Ruth could be saved.

Emma had assisted Sean throughout the dramatic incident.

Their grandmother was rushed by ambulance to hospital and, thanks to the rapid attention she received due to the twins raising the alarm, has since made a good recovery.

Grandfather Stephen said the twins swift actions were truly remarkable.

"I got a phone call from Sean at 6am. Ruth was babysitting at the house because Brian and May were at a concert in Tralee."

"They said they couldn't wake Nanny. I rushed over to the house and found my wife unconscious on the bed."

"Sean had also phoned his Mum who had phoned for the ambulance."

"The ambulance arrived and they rushed her to Cork University Hospital (CUH) where she was in a coma. She was in a coma in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for two days."

"They later put it down to ageing epilepsy or an electrical malfunction in the brain."

"She is OK now - but they saved her life. No doubt about it. When I arrived to the house I couldn't get in because the door was locked. I said to Sean to open the door and, when he couldn't reach the latch, he got his tricycle, pulled it to the front door, climbed up on it and managed to open the door. He is only four but he is a very, very bright child."

"I didn't know what to expect that day - it was a terrible ordeal because you just didn't know what the outcome was going to be."

The twins father, Brian, said he was very proud of Sean and Emma.

"I was wondering if everything was OK and what was happening when I saw the call coming through on Nanny's phone," he said.

"We realised what the story was after Sean calmed down on the phone and told us exactly what happened."

"We rushed home straight away."

"Sean plays games on the phone and his Nanny was teaching him (how to use a phone). So he was well used to using the handset."

"We are delighted he was able to use the phone and ring both his Grandad and ourselves."

"We are delighted with the two children and they are thrilled by the award here today."

Tributes to the children were also paid by emergency services.

"Their quick actions definitely saved her life that day," one paramedic said.

The twins parents and grandparents admitted they were "very, very proud" to see the little boy and girl honoured for their actions.

"Tributes were paid to the bravery and quick-thinking of the twins by the Gaelscoil Principal Padraig O hEachthairn, West Cork Rapid Response director Dr Jason van dear Velde and the Mayor of Clonakilty Gretta O'Donovan."
A group holding the union of students in Ireland flags blocked the road to traffic on O'Connell Street today on International Women's Day Picture credit: Damien Eagers / INM

Traffic was brought to a standstill in Dublin city this afternoon as protesters took to the streets for International Womens Day.

About 100 demonstrators gathered at OConnell Bridge, blocking all southbound traffic during the scheduled event.

Traffic was diverted over the Rosie Hackett Bridge by gardai, but many motorists and commuters experienced significant delays as a result.

Many protesters left their workplace or colleges at 3pm to attend the demonstration for equal rights, while others marched against gender-based violence.

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Whatsapp A group blocked the road to traffic on O'Connell Streeton International Women's Day Picture credit: Damien Eagers / INM

Sara Millan, a UCD student from Barcelona told Independent.ie that women continue to be discriminated against in all walks of life.

There is far too much violence against women, which is still happening in Ireland and around the world, she said.

We stand in solidarity with those that have experienced domestic abuse and are here to use our voice to say no more.

We need to stop the everyday sexism in our society and are demanding to be treated equally, she said.

Jamie OConnor, a first-year student from Clondalkin, said causing traffic delays was a necessary step in getting their message across.

OConnell Street is the centre of Dublin, he said.

Sometimes causing congestion and ruffling a few feathers is what it takes for people to open their eyes and make a difference.

"We need to stand together and show our support for women," he said.

O'Connell Bridge has since reopened.
Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, with (L-R) Minister Heather Humphreys, Orla O'Connor, Director of the National women's council and Minister Charlie Flanagan after a cabinet meeting on International Women's Day Picture credit: Damien Eagers / INM

THERE is an epidemic of violence against women in Ireland, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

After chairing a special Cabinet meeting to mark International Womens Day, Mr Varadkar said more work is needed to protect women.

I think a lot of people will recognise that there is an epidemic of violence against women. It needs to stop.

We know the names of many women who have had violence perpetrated against them and the ratification of the Istanbul Convention today is a very important part of that, he said.

Expand Close Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, with Orla O'Connor, Director of the National women's council, left and cabinet colleagues on International Women's Day Picture credit: Damien Eagers / INM / Facebook

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Whatsapp Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, with Orla O'Connor, Director of the National women's council, left and cabinet colleagues on International Women's Day Picture credit: Damien Eagers / INM

The issue has been at the centre of public debate since the family of Clodagh Hawe, who was killed along with her three boys by husband Alan, spoke out about how gardai handled the investigation into her death.

Ministers met today in The Academy building on Dublins Pearse Street to formally ratify Irelands support for Istanbul Convention (the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence).

The venue was symbolic as it was also location of a public meeting on September 5, 1911, when the Irish Women Workers Union was founded. Constance Markievicz was among those to address that meeting.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said it was wonderful to reach the point where Ireland could sign-up to the convention.

He said it has enabled the Government to build on our existing legal framework by introducing a suite of new laws to tackle different forms of violence against women, including domestic violence and psychological violence.

The National Womens Council of Ireland (NWCI) described the ratification as a landmark day.

NWCI Director Orla OConnor said: Today, it is important to give a special thank you to women who showed such bravery in speaking out about their experiences of domestic and sexual violence and abuse, and their experiences of being re-victimised in family and criminal courts.

The Cabinet also agreed the text of the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill which will introduce measures to reduce the gender pay gap.

Mr Varadkar said the pay gap between men and women is roughly 14pc.

The new laws will require companies of 250 or more employees to complete and publish a wage survey. It will include both full-time and part-time employees and will extend to bonus payments and benefits-in-kind.
Tanaiste Simon Coveney will curtail his travel plans as part of the St Patrick's Day festivities amid growing anxiety over how the UK's approach to Brexit will develop in the coming days.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will proceed with his visit to US President Donald Trump in Washington next week, but his deputy has shortened his European schedule "significantly".

Ministers will visit all 27 European Union capitals over the St Patrick's Day period as well as a selection of locations in the US, Asia, Africa and South America.

Mr Varadkar will be in the United States when the House of Commons holds a series of votes on whether to accept the existing Withdrawal Agreement, sanction a disorderly Brexit, or seek a delay.

There is a broad political consensus that he should go ahead with the annual trip, especially as many US politicians have been publicly supportive of Ireland's position on the need to prevent the return of a hard Border.

But Mr Coveney told Independent.ie's 'Floating Voter' podcast that his decision was to curtail his itinerary, which was to include France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

"While my colleagues are doing necessary work to talk about Ireland and build our brand globally and interact with our diaspora all over the world in the build up to St Patrick's Day, I'm in the Seanad.

"I've shortened my trip significantly. I'm going to Paris and Brussels on the weekend. I'm going there next Friday, Saturday and Sunday," he said.

His meetings in Paris and Brussels will be heavily focused on Brexit, with the French taking a particular interest in the possibility that the UK will seek an extension to Article 50. Mr Coveney said there was "a possibility" he would be able to fit in Berlin and The Hague at some point over the St Patrick's period - "but at the moment Brexit preparations are being prioritised over everything else".

He said it was not clear at this stage what would develop in the House of Commons next, but expressed the view that there would be "a huge effort on the EU side and UK side to try get the basis for some optimism next week as we move into Tuesday".

Ministers have been briefed to use their time abroad as a platform to underline Ireland's commitment to and membership of the European Union.

Meanwhile, speaking about his second St Patrick's Day in the White House, Mr Varadkar said Northern Ireland would be high on the agenda for his talks with Mr Trump.

He said a US envoy "to assist in the talks and the peace process would always be welcome".

The Taoiseach added that he would be raising the issue of E3 visas for Irish citizens who wanted temporary live and work status in the US.

Mr Varadkar said the president had been supportive of issuing more visas for Irish people.
FIANNA Fail and their new partners in the SDLP are at odd over whether Northern Irelands Secretary of State Karen Bradley should resign.

Ms Bradley remains under intense pressure to step down after claiming that security forces killings during the Troubles were "not crimes".

She told the House of Commons on Wednesday that such killings were carried out by officers "fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way".

While Ms Bradley has since apologised profusely, a majority of parties in Northern Ireland remain of the view that she should stand down from her key position.

Among those making such a call is SDLP leader Colum Eastwood who has accused her of publicly interfering with the rule of law.

Next week, prosecutors will announce whether soldiers will face trial for the Bloody Sunday killings of 14 innocent civilians in Derry.

Mr Eastwood said nobody has the right to deliberately pressure or intervene with due process and added that she should resign.

However, Fianna Fails justice spokesman has stopped short of echoing the viewpoint, saying his party accepts her apology as sufficient.

Last month Fianna Fail and the SDLP announced a formal partnership that will see them work together on policy issues and campaigns into the future.

When asked about Ms Bradleys position, Jim OCallaghan said: Were not giving her our support but I suppose the question is are Fianna Fail calling on her to resign? Were not. But I do recognise that what she said was completely inappropriate.

He added: I think by apologising in such a profuse way that is sufficient. But certainly she needs to be very careful in terms of what she says in the future.

Earlier Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also veered away from calling on her to resign. He said her apology was genuine and heartfelt.

Shes accepted the comments she made were incentive and wrong. Whats important now is that its followed up on. From words must follows actions. And that involves full funding for the legacy inquests, it involves setting up the historical inquires team which has been committed to be the UK government.

Mr Varadkar added: And where there was wrongdoing by members of the security forces, whether it was north or south of the border they need to properly investigated and prosecuted if there is a case to be prosecuted.

This comes as the Government confirmed they will not seek the resignation of Ms Bradley over her controversial remarks.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said Mrs Bradley had admitted that what she had said was an error and he fundamentally disagreed with her comments.

But it was important that they should move on as she had a job of work to do and he trusted that she would do it to the best of her ability.

"I believe she realises herself that she was wrong and her statement was out of order.

"It is not a matter for me whether she stays in office", Mr Flanagan added.

He said he would not be calling for Mrs Bradley's resignation.
Karen Bradley: UK Northern Ireland Secretary has faced calls for her to resign.

Karen Bradley, Britain's Northern Ireland secretary, has said she is "profoundly sorry" for the "offence and hurt" she caused by suggesting that deaths caused by soldiers and police during the Troubles were not crimes.

She faced calls to resign after her comments on Wednesday, which sparked criticism from nationalist political leaders and victims of the security forces.

The Irish Government has also sought an explanation.

However, Downing Street said that Prime Minister Theresa May still has full confidence in her.

In her apology, Ms Bradley said her language was "wrong" and "deeply insensitive" to many of those who lost loved ones.

She said: "Yesterday, I made comments regarding the actions of soldiers during the Troubles. I want to apologise. I am profoundly sorry for the offence and hurt that my words have caused.

"The language was wrong and even though this was not my intention, it was deeply insensitive to many of those who lost loved ones.

"My position and the position of this government is clear. We believe fundamentally in the rule of law.

"Where there is any evidence of wrongdoing, this should be pursued without fear or favour, whoever the perpetrators might be."

Northern Ireland's former police ombudsman, Baroness Nuala O'Loan, urged Mrs May to seek Ms Bradley's resignation.

John Kelly, whose brother was killed on Bloody Sunday in 1972, dismissed Ms Bradley's apology as "too little, too late".

Mr Kelly told BBC Radio 4's 'The World At One': "What she said yesterday was a terrible, terrible statement. The families are very hurt.

"Her credibility has now gone, her impartiality has now gone. In my view, she should resign."

However, former Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers said there was no need for Ms Bradley to resign. Ms Villiers told the BBC: "She made an error and she's corrected it and she's apologised."
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has backtracked on his claim that ensuring property taxes remain stable will be "simply a case of adjusting the bands".

Amid accusations that he has withheld a long-awaited review of the local property tax (LPT) to coincide with the local elections, Mr Varadkar has now said it is a complicated process because "house prices haven't risen by the same percentage in every part of the country".

Householders currently pay the LPT based on the value of their property in 2013, but this is due to change from November.

At a Dublin selection convention on Wednesday night, the Taoiseach promised the "vast majority" of bill-payers would see no increase even though house prices have gone up 80pc in parts of the capital since the economic crash.

Fianna Fail's housing spokesman Darragh O'Brien accused the Fine Gael leader of "playing with people" when they need certainty.

He told the Irish Independent a review established by the Government should have been published months ago.

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"They are holding it back so that it can be released in April as part of an attempt to gain votes for Fine Gael in the local elections," he said.

Mr Varadkar denied this was the case, saying he doesn't have a date for the publication of the review yet "but obviously the re-valuations are due to happen in November 2019 so we'd have to have it well before that".

Around 1.9 million householders paid the LPT last year, raising 482m for local authorities.

Currently a householder whose property is worth between 150,000 and 200,000 must pay a standard annual rate of 315.

The bill rises to 405 for a property valued between 200,000 and 250,000.

Mr Varadkar announced the plan to ensure most homes attract no increase at the Fine Gael's selection convention for the Dublin constituency in the European elections.

He said "nobody will see a dramatic increase" in property tax next year.
Photo: Toronto Star

Veteran Affairs is the bottom of the heap

What is it about the Veterans Affairs portfolio that it seems to end up at bottom of the ministerial heap?

The recent news of the former Attorney Generals testimony to a parliamentary committee was framed in the context of her being demoted to the position of minister of Veterans Affairs after pushing back against the PMO, PM and Privy Councils office.

Should it not be one of the portfolios that we are most proud of? Despite the fact it appears to be underfunded on most occasions and a problematic delivery service for many, we should make it a priority.

In a month, we will remember Vimy Ridge, a pivotal battle in the First World War, and, some would argue, a pivotal time for Canada. The veterans from that campaign are no longer here to communicate the horrors of the battle, but we remember them on Vimy Ridge Day.

We are, however, pre-disposed to forget the importance of the contribution of not just those veterans, but veterans from the present day.

These are people who made a commitment to protect our country and our freedom, people who put their lives in harms way so that we may be able to sleep at night.

So in the context of politics, why the heck is it considered a demotion to get the Veterans Affairs portfolio?

Enough of this BS. Stop talking about it in the media that way,. The government needs to make it a priority and let's start giving some respect to the people who truly served this country.

The biggest privilege a politician should have is to be the minister of Veterans Affairs.
The quest for an armchair has my head melted. When did it get to be so difficult? The last time I bought one was almost 20 years ago. I walked in to Habitat on St Stephen's Green, bought a matching sofa and armchair, and they were delivered a few weeks later. The sofa predeceased the armchair but we got good mileage out of both of them. I'd go for the same again, if I could, but a lot of things have changed in 20 years.

Habitat is gone, of course, its Irish shops swept away by the recession in 2008. What's more, the notion of buying your living room furniture as a matching set is pretty much out the window. "Twenty years ago, when anyone bought anything it was a three-piece suite," says Lorraine Stevens of Lomi Design. "You ended up with an armchair that was a scaled-down version of the sofa."

I have to confess an abiding love for things that match, but it isn't very fashionable. Now, it's trendy to buy your sofa and armchair in different styles, preferably from different shops. A mismatching aesthetic makes a room look creative and interesting, but there's also a practical element to the trend. As Stevens explains, the armchair from a suite isn't always the best option for contemporary homes. "Most apartments and open-plan living areas are better suited to an L-shaped sofa, which helps to zone the space, with an accent chair."

Like most people, I'm doing the preliminary shopping online. Obsessively. The algorithms are wise to it by now with random armchairs appearing like popcorn in the Gmail sidebar. I'm finding it hard to get a sense of scale. "Measure out a newspaper and put it on the floor," Stevens advises. "Leave it there for a few days and see if you can live with it. If you find yourself stepping over it, it's probably too big for the room."

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Our armchair is square and fits snugly into an alcove just over a metre wide, but Stevens suggests that a round-backed armchair might look better. "Sometimes a piece of furniture needs a bit of space around it," she says. "Do you really want the room to look as though it's jammed full of jellybeans?"

Rather than buy a chair that slots into the available nook, she recommends something smaller and lighter on its feet. Lomi's Nikos armchair (from 1,858) has slender metal legs. Because you can see underneath it, there's a greater sense of visual space around the chair than you'd get with one that goes down almost to the ground. If that's too expensive, the Frame armchair from Made (around 569) is a perfectly acceptable alternative. Michael Murphy Furniture has a very similar looking chair also called the Frame (565). These are fine looking chairs but none of them, to my mind, look like somewhere that you'd want to spend the afternoon reading a book.

It's important to know exactly what you want from an armchair and I need something that I can curl up on. It doesn't have to look stylish - the existing one certainly doesn't - but it needs to look inviting. And, because I like to be able to rest a cup of tea on the arm of the chair, I prefer it to have square arms. There's a trend for sculpted arms that curve outwards like the flippers of a seal. It's a nice look, but try balancing your cup of tea on those elegant curves Disaster.

Finding the right armchair can be as tricky as buying a pair of shoes. "There's an armchair out there for everyone," Stevens says. "But it can be hard to find one that fits. Some people like a small, neat armchair that grabs them around the sides and makes them feel supported. And then there's the height of the back. Do you want a high-backed chair or a low-backed one?" The solution is to sit on it and see, so take your shoes off and make yourself comfortable. "We see people coming into the showroom and their bum barely touches the chair before they've made their decision. I always tell them that they have to sit on it properly. You have to put aside all your inhibitions about being seen lounging around on an armchair in public."

Then, there's the price. With armchairs you tend to get what you pay for. Good quality furniture costs more but it will repay you with years of use. If money were no object, I would be tempted by the Tirella armchair, designed by Paolo Grasselli for Bonaldo. It's a low lying beast of a chair with slim metal legs and a massive base cushion - but the detail is in the arms and the back which are made to look as though cushions have been casually slung over the surrounding frame. Even cooler, you can order the cushions in different colours. The catch is the cost. Prices from Lomi in plain fabric start at 3,383 and at 3,555 for multi-coloured fabric. That's an additional 172 for colour options but probably worth it. Might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb at that price.

Whatever your price range, armchairs are more expensive than you'd think. I'd naively imagined that you could calculate the cost of an armchair by taking the price of a three-seater sofa and dividing it by three. Not a bit of it! At the accessible end of the scale, the Alex armchair from Michael Murphy Home Furnishing costs 349. A two-seater sofa in the same range is 449 and a three-seater is 635. Slightly upmarket, the Zinc armchair from DFS costs 779, while the equivalent two-seater and three-seater sofas cost 1,129 each.

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"People are often unprepared for the cost of an armchair because they think of it as a smaller item," Stevens explains. "It does look quite expensive in terms of what you're getting, but there's the same amount of assembly in an armchair as there is in a sofa." So that explains the price.

Armchairs are expensive and there's no getting around it, unless you're prepared to buy second-hand. Here, there are bargains. In my area, the weekly auction at Herman & Wilkinson in Rathmines and Oxfam Home on Francis Street both have decent quality armchairs for less than 50. The aesthetic is mixed and so far I haven't seen anything that I could live with, but the trick to buying second-hand furniture is patience. The perfect armchair is out there somewhere!

See lomi.ie, dfs.ie, made.com, michaelmurphy.ie, hermanwilkinson.ie, and oxfamireland.org
In 1911, on the first International Women's Day, people around the world gathered in solidarity with working class women from the New York garment industry who faced down police violence to protest dangerous working conditions in factory sweatshops.

From its founding day, the movement celebrated a sisterhood who were prepared to face down corporate greed and systemic unfairness for the sake of political change.

Last year, arguably the most visible endeavours associated with the day were not the marches or the protests, but the marketing campaigns. McDonald's, an IWD partner, turned it's famous arches upside down to form a 'W'. Mattel, the makers of Barbie, chose IWD to launch their ranges of "role model dolls modelled on inspiring real women". And Budweiser made a bit of a show and dance of honouring its female employees on social media.

Has the event been hijacked as simply a "corporate marketing extravaganza", as the Financial Times declared last year? Is International Women's Day today little more than an excuse for 'femvertising' as brands co-opt messages of equality and empowerment as means by which to flog us stuff?

Academic Catherine Rottenberg, who is author of the book The Rise Of Neoliberal Feminism, thinks there is reason to be worried. "I think all of this points to the rise of what scholars call 'brand activism' and the way in which feminist themes have been taken up by neoliberal capitalist forces and thus defanged of their oppositional potential," she says. The rush of corporations willing to jump on the International Women's Day bandwagon risks "watering down any kind of feminist message and selling us a feel-good feminism".

She is particularly concerned about the rise of what she terms "neoliberal feminism", in which capitalist forces integrate and co-opt feminist principles. "This feminism encourages women to invest in themselves and their own aspirations, inciting them to build confidence, be empowered, and "lean in," she says.

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"And while such feminism acknowledges the gendered wage gap and sexual harassment as signs of continued inequality, the solutions it posits - precisely like encouraging individual women to take responsibility for their own well-being - ultimately elide the structural and economic undergirding of these phenomena."

This type of popular feminism is, she says, often promoted by celebrities. "It is a palatable and marketable feminism because it is a non-threatening feminism. It doesn't address the devastation wrought by neoliberal capitalism, neo-imperialism or systemic misogyny and sexism, so it is easy to embrace and it sells well on the marketplace.

"Also, given that neoliberal feminism is a feel-good feminism, it is not hard to understand why suddenly everyone seems to wants to be a 'feminist': from Ivanka Trump to movie stars like Emma Watson. I am not saying that the popularity of feminism is necessarily a bad thing, but I do think that we have to try and understand what kind of feminism has become popular and why it sells so well."

As for whether International Women's Day has lost its relevance, she argues that "mobilising around gender equality or gender justice once a year is not enough. So perhaps our energies need to be channelled into thinking about how we can maintain mass militant momentum beyond International Women's Day".

For Maynooth lecturer Dr Sinead Kennedy, a co-editor of The Abortion Papers, however, there are still plenty of good reasons to celebrate today. It's all about how you choose to look at it. She tends not to put too much emphasis on the way the day is represented "in the media and popular culture", focussing instead on its socialist origins.

"There have always been two women's movements," she says. "And they've always been in conflict - there's always been what then would have been referred to as 'bourgeois feminism', versus the movement from where the origins of International Women's Day would have come about, the working women movement.

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"When you think about IWD today, you see the same thing. There has always been much more radical roots to it, both here in Ireland and around the world. And that tradition also exists, as well as the kind of more corporate International Women's Day. That's reflective of the politics of feminism more generally."

She agrees that it is worrying that recently "feminism is seen as cool because it can sell things".

"This version of feminism is very much supposed to be about confidence or self-empowerment, so it's all about making women feel good, and you feel good by buying things. We have a whole industry [the fashion and beauty industry] that is there to make women feel bad about themselves and their bodies, and then to try and sell them things in order to supposedly make them feel better or make them feel empowered and in the process make billions and billions of dollars of profit. This is feminism that sees women as individual consumers and promotes the idea that you can buy your way to empowerment. Or to self-confidence.

"But the origins of the women's movement were never about individuals per se. It was about a collective struggle - a struggle from below that was about fighting for radical political change. About fighting for a better, more equal, more just world."

Dr Kennedy strongly believes that International Women's Day still has an important and relevant role to play in serving those goals. The proof can be clearly seen, particularly in Ireland.

"For the last few years, there have been really fantastic International Women's Day events. I worked with the coalition to repeal the Eighth Amendment and we had our International Women's Day march last year - where we launched #togetherforyes. There were thousands of young women campaigning, with the belief that we were going to make history - let's make history by repealing the Eighth Amendment. And now, a year later, we have done that."

This year, the struggle that has ignited with such force recently will continue. "Some organisations have come together, including UNITE, the unions and ROSA Women to organise an event called 'Time 4 Equality', which will take place on Dublin's O'Connell bridge," she says.

Today's event will "focus on questions about gender-based violence, the gender pay gap, housing, precarious conditions in work, but also the international struggle for abortion rights and questions about gender-based violence which have also been a very key topic here in Ireland for the last year,"

Dr Kennedy is adamant that the day is about much more than just PR for companies. And she's heartened by the level of political engagement she sees around her.

"There is still a desire," she says. "I see very often from my students that they are still very exercised about those issues - gender-based violence, sexual harassment, rape... these are huge issues for young women."
Here in the Bentiu Protection of Civilians (POC) site in South Sudan, women are less valued than men. Survival is their number one skill. They have survived internal displacement, gender-based violence and the loss of family members, while continuing in their caregiving role. The women of South Sudan endure.

As an MSF nurse from Co Wicklow, I can think of no more humbling a place to be on International Womens day than in Bentiu. In the West we talk so much of building resilience amongst women. Let me introduce you to the women of South Sudan:

*Nyandul cares for her husband who has TB. As part of the MSFTB-outreach team, I would arrive every morning to her dwelling to find her grinding sorghum with a large stone - an immensely difficult task - before using it to prepare a morning meal for her husband, two sons, her widowed sister-in-law and her children.

Nyandul is responsible for caring for her family alone, attending the MSF hospital weekly to collect her husbands medication. Lighting a fire to cook means leaving the relative safety of the camp to cut wood for charcoal. Many women from the camp have been victims of attack or rape while on these trips, without which they cannot complete basic household tasks. Children are left unattended daily during this time, leading to accidents causing severe causalities such as burns, dog bites, snake bites, and fatalities.

As her war-widowed sister-in-law had not previously been a resident of the camp, she and her two children were not registered for food rations. Nyadul was forced to stretch rations intended for three people amongst seven. During these visits I watched Nyadul carefully dish out the Sorghum, always waiting until the others had eaten to serve herself. She went without food on occasion. Her home had been cut off from water so Nyadul and her sister-in-law had to carry heavy containers of water from another sector every day. Yet every morning I arrived to a huge, welcoming smile and laughter when she greeted me as her Nyakawai (white) sister.

Nyaduls attitude is typical of the women of South Sudan. The MSF hospital is the only facility within the camp to offer secondary healthcare services; providing lifesaving surgeries including burn management, inpatient care for adults and children, and outpatient follow-up for people with HIV & TB.

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Many of the women have travelled by foot in scorching temperatures from outside the camp to bring their children to the hospital. Teenage girls travel here on foot for days, to care for male relatives with whom they are unacquainted, as their culture dictates. They do so with fervent dedication. Elderly women being treated within the inpatient department, who have lived through generations of war and who are often in pain sit up smartly and don their dresses when the ward round arrives, to preserve their pride and sense of self.

Within the hospital we see and hear accounts of horrific traumas faced by women, yet when encountering the women daily, it is hard to believe that they carry with them such hardship.

Of the numerous women who come through our emergency room, many arrive severely under nourished, some have severe psychological trauma and others have fresh wounds from beatings that lie on top of old wounds. Psychosocial support is provided by sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) specialists and the team of mental health staff is on hand. These teams provide targeted support for mental health emergencies such as post-traumatic stress.

Many women have lost everything they own time and time again. Yet each time they leave the hospital shaking the hands of our staff with gratitude. I cannot believe a more resilient group of people exists than the women I have met here.

My South Sudanese colleagues have a traditional saying when one of their international counterparts is leaving: mountains never meet but people do. It highlights how grateful we should be for the people we meet in our lives. I am privileged to have met so many of the women of Bentiu POC. I hope that their future is a place where they are shown the value and respect they rightly deserve.

*Names have been changed to protect peoples identities.

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Jennifer Collins is a nurse from county Wicklow who worked as a nursing activity manager for the Emergency Room, inpatient departments and HIV/TB outpatient department for Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Bentiu POC, South Sudan.
"I look up to Ruth Bader Ginsburg" and "I look up to Michelle Obama" are both illustrated by Fatti Burke.

Sinead Burke arrives at the Gucci show during Milan Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2019/20 on February 20, 2019 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for Gucci)

Irish illustrator Fatti Burke joins forces with BIC to launch a new line of pocket lighters inspired by Ireland for St Patricks Day

All I know from my experience is that Irish women are my whole world, theyre the people I love most, Im happy to be in Ireland when Im there, Im happy to know so many inspiring, badass women.

For the most part, Ireland has really advanced in things like gender, sexuality, and thats really refreshing. Irish people are all about respect and love. Weve the biggest hearts.

Irish illustrator Fatti Burke, best known for her art work in Irelandopedia, the bestselling childrens book, is currently living in Amsterdam, a colourful city thats had a subliminal effect on her own colourful work, but shes already making plans to move home. Ireland has come a long way, she says.

For the day job, she concerns herself with ancient female heroes like Granuaile, and she doesn't have to pause to name her contemporary female hero.

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Sinead Burke, Im really obsessed with her. Everything she does is amazing, really inspiring. And the joy of speaking to her, shes the smartest person Ive ever met," she muses on International Women's Day.

Fatti, who has produced Historopedia, Focloiropedia, and Granuaile with her father John Burke, is all about inspiring children (and their parents and teachers) to learn with visual cues, and making facts cool.

Her next book Find Tom in Time, Ancient Egypt will be published in May, and she is currently illustrating for a book based on Ancient Rome for UK publisher Nosy Crow.

I have a special part of my heart for kids. When Im drawing Im wondering how would a kid read this image? I have to think like a kid. When a child hurts, theres nothing worse in the universe. Id love to be a mentor for someone  if the child doesnt have role models in their home then they could have a mentor outside of the home  I've started thinking about going back to college to do youth service or counselling training.

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I used to work on a domestic abuse helpline, and it was great helping people just by listening to them. To do that with kids would be my absolute goal even if its just a side job.

Encouraging children to realise their dreams is crucial, she says. As a young girl, the people around her encouraged her to develop her love.

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I had an art teacher who was very encouraging. I knew that I had my heart set on going to art school, and my teacher encouraged me and helped me to get into college and believed in me.

"I always had confidence in my work, even when I didnt have confidence personally, I always knew I liked my art, and that came from my parents. They never said theres not much money in art. Its nice to have that support. One thing Id want children to have is someone who doesnt laugh when they come up with an idea, when they say this is my dream, someone who can help them achieve that. Its always good to encourage that kind of dream.

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Making education fun is a huge part of encouraging our children to blossom, Fatti says.

Im one of those people that finds it hard to learn just by reading and a lot of kids are visual learners too. Its nice that I have a little niche there that does help people, illustrating female role models in ancient times, and Im also working on a project on Irish birds, niche things that I find really interesting.

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Its about saying that its cool to want to learn new things and all these cool facts that are out there. You dont have to be a swat. We dont have to learn the same way, and for me the knowledge that teachers are using my books in class is really cool.
Robert Watt found himself in hot water before he even appeared before TDs for his grilling on the massive cost overruns at the National Children's Hospital (NCH). He was overheard outside the committee room allegedly saying that the chairman of the Dail's spending watchdog should "control the mob". It came as members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) were hitting out at the news that Paul Quinn, a senior civil servant who sits on the development board of the NCH, would not be attending the meeting.

PAC members got word of the "mob" comments and they weren't happy. Sinn Fein's David Cullinane branded it "outrageous". Sure enough, it was the first thing the public expenditure secretary general was asked about when he entered the room.

Mr Watt claimed he didn't recall the remarks but if he did say it, he meant it as a "colloquial expression". He added: "If I said something to offend the committee, of course I apologise but it's not meant to be an offensive remark".

But they were offended - Fine Gael's Alan Farrell claimed the comments were "unbecoming of someone in your office" and Independent Catherine Connolly branded them as "unacceptable". It was a bad start to seven hours of questions on the NCH cost overruns across two Oireachtas committees.

There were several tetchy exchanges during the PAC session and not much new information on the cost overruns at the NCH.

And it was Groundhog Day when Mr Watt appeared at the Finance Committee in the afternoon, only to find he was again being asked why Mr Quinn was not present.

Mr Quinn, the government's chief procurement officer, sits on the board of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB). Questions have been raised about his involvement in the NCH and why he didn't tell the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and Minister Paschal Donohoe about the escalating costs.

Mr Watt defended Mr Quinn numerous times during the day, insisting he's an "excellent official" who discharged his duties on the board with the chairman raising issues with the Department of Health.

He complained they have both been "criticised unfairly" by TDs but said he wouldn't make a "big fuss about that". He said Mr Quinn would be happy to appear at a future meeting with other members of the hospital's board. At one point, Mr Watt told the finance committee he wouldn't get into an argument with one of its members because "after Man United [won] last night I'm in good form".

And while he did battle with the likes of Labour's Alan Kelly and Fianna Fail's Marc MacSharry in the morning, the finance meeting was a much more sedate affair.

It prompted John McGuinness - the committee's combative chairman - to note with surprise: "We've ended the meeting without a row".
Revenge, we are often told, is a dish best served cold. But the obverse of that is that if one must eat humble pie, it is best eaten swiftly while warm.

We have already learned that Karen Bradley, the person chosen by UK Prime Minister Theresa May in January 2018 to manage Northern Ireland's affairs at one of the trickiest times in its history since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, is very far from being a skilled politician.

For many people on this island, Karen Bradley is a prime example of the gratuitous ignorance about Northern Ireland prevalent among the British establishment to an alarming degree. In September last year, eight months after taking on the role of Northern Ireland minister, she publicly admitted she had no understanding of even rudimentary facts about the sectarian nature of politics in the region.

"I didn't understand things like when elections are fought, for example, in Northern Ireland people who are nationalists don't vote for unionist parties and vice versa. So, the parties fight for election within their own community," she told Westminster's internal 'House' magazine.

She was not the first person given an important job who did not understand the first thing about it - and will not be the last.

But her inability to suppress that nugget of abject ignorance until she is publishing her retirement memoir tells much about a lack of political nous, and a lack of care for the people whose lives she is now responsible for.

This writer has the 1999 tome 'Lost Lives' - the meticulously researched stories of the 3,600-plus men and women who died over three decades of the so-called Northern Ireland Troubles - close at all times when writing about the North. The book steps away from political bickering and tells us about the everyday people who paid the ultimate price in that conflict, and their bereaved relatives whose lives were broken by grief and injustice.

On Wednesday, Ms Bradley correctly told MPs at Westminster that under 10pc of those killed in the Troubles died at the hands of the police and security forces. But her further comments stoked nationalist fury.

"The fewer than 10pc that were at the hands of the military and police were not crimes. They were people acting under orders and under instruction and fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way," she said.

Ms Bradley came back and apologised, partially and gradually. She met with Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney privately in London on Wednesday night and he tried to make the best of an invidious position without conceding ground.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said it was either ignorance or wilful disregard. The timing could not have been worse. Next week authorities will say whether the killers on Bloody Sunday in 1972 will face charges.
After today, there are just 14 working days until Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29. You'd be forgiven for thinking Brexit is as far away as ever, such is the irresponsibility of many of the hardliners insisting that, deal or no deal, all will be well and anyone raising concerns is involved in "project fear".

It doesn't matter how often or from which quarter warnings come, "taking back control" has become an article of religion amongst Brexiteers, and anyone with reservations can quickly be dismissed as an enemy of the people.

Just this week, the British Royal College of Radiologists warned that hospitals are likely to experience delays to cancer testing and treatment in the event of no deal being agreed with the EU.

Let that sink in. It's not just shortages of tomatoes and other perishable goods that Brits face if Theresa May can't get her deal across the line in the House of Commons.

People in need of lifesaving cancer drugs will have their treatment delayed with potentially dreadful consequences.

The handful of pro-Brexit cavaliers who bothered to respond to the warning offered little more than a shrug of the shoulders. The recklessness is breathtaking - if Brexit was a far-fetched movie, the critics would pan it, arguing that viewers would never believe that elected politicians would behave in such a way.

Former Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble - now a member of the House of Lords - has also entered the fray with an open letter to Mrs May making the audacious claim that any fears of Northern Ireland being affected by a no-deal Brexit are "groundless".

This is despite the fact that the Confederation of British Industry has warned that such a scenario would have a "devastating" impact on the North, shrinking the economy by almost 6bn over 15 years.

Lord Trimble assures the prime minister that such claims "fail to take into account obvious opportunities". Obvious to who? It's hard to tell. Mr Trimble doesn't feel it necessary to outline these so-called opportunities. Quelle surprise?

He goes on to assure Mrs May that in his view, Border "infrastructure is no longer needed since modern electronic procedures can do the job".

Like everyone else who has suggested an electronic solution for the frontier, he has no suggestions on how this mysterious technology would actually work.

His comments provoked a sharp rebuke from his fellow peer Baroness Nuala O'Loan who said he was talking "rubbish". The former police ombudsman for the North accused Mr Trimble of acting irresponsibly. That's putting it in rather parliamentary language.

The spectacle of a man who won a Nobel Prize for his commitment to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement being so blase is incredible to witness.

The genuine concerns of people as diverse as industry leaders, farmers and ordinary citizens who live along the Border are real and should be taken seriously rather than dismissed glibly.

The ironic thing, of course, is that Brexit drives a horse and cart through the agreement. Not that this will lead to a dismantling of the peace process or a return to violence, but the good faith on which the deal was reached has been damaged beyond repair.

The genius of the Good Friday Agreement was that it allowed for people in the North to choose British identity, Irish identity or both in the context of European citizenship.

Allied with the fact that Catholics could now get a fair crack of the whip, it effectively parked the "national question", and most nationalists were content with the status quo and threw their weight behind the post-1998 reformed Northern Ireland.

Many Northern nationalists were happy in the knowledge that they were Irish, but not necessarily Irish in the way that someone born and raised in the Republic is.

It became common to see people from both a unionist and a nationalist background choose to self-identify as "Northern Irish" rather than British or Irish.

Overall, people made their peace with the fact that Northern Ireland was a shared place with complex identities and the power-sharing government - at least in theory - ensured that no identity was exaggerated at the expense of another.

Brexit unpicks that and cuts the North off from the Republic and the rest of Europe. I never thought I would see in my lifetime a Border poll as set out in the Good Friday Agreement. Like most Northern nationalists, I always harboured a romantic ideal of a united Ireland, but it didn't keep me awake at night. It still doesn't, truth be told - but Brexit has made it a more attractive prospect and even many moderate unionists are showing signs of coming around to the idea.

Talk of a referendum on the future of the North has to be handled sensitively. Sinn Fein's call for an immediate Border poll is reckless. It's as if it has learnt nothing from the divisiveness of the Brexit referendum. History shows that communities don't react well when faced with what looks like an ultimatum.

The road to a vote on a united Ireland is one that sooner or later will have to be embarked upon. Even former DUP leader Peter Robinson has urged unionists to start thinking of their place in a new agreed Ireland.
Today is International Women's Day. It reportedly evolved out of the sweatshops in the US after women protested at their conditions in New York on March 8 1857. This is now said to be apocryphal although the date has remained unchanged over the centuries.

In 1909, the Socialist Party of America organised the National Women's Day and in the course of the next decade countries like Denmark, Germany, France and Switzerland marked it too. They held suffrage projects or celebrated the Paris Commune, aided by the Socialist parties in those countries. Soviet Russia declared March 8 a national holiday in 1917. The success of the socialist organisers since the first demonstration in New York in 1909 bore fruit when the United Nations adopted World Women's Day in 1975 and affixed themes to it annually.

This year the theme is 'Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change'. With a motto like this, comprising three meaningless goals, it is hardly surprising that World Animal Day is probably better known rather than Women's Day.

The Starship Enterprise, landing in Ireland today, would be somewhat confused about the role of women in Irish society now. Tuning in to our flagship radio and TV programmes, the occupants of the space ship would become acutely aware that we women are tied to the kitchen sink; a situation so grave that we are planning on ridding our Constitution of that dastardly provision in the next year or so.

They would hear that women in Ireland cannot succeed in academia because of unconscious bias against us, necessitating the establishment of female-only professor positions in our universities.

They would learn that the absence of women from the political arena is so grave that it is necessary to insist on gender quotas across all boards and professions if the rampant discrimination against women is to be stalled.

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These endless stereotypes portrayed by the media would terrify these alien visitors to our island. Unless of course they had their latest copy of 'The Global Gender Gap' (2018), published by the World Economic Forum. Its report is published annually and it discusses gender equality items around the world.

In 2018, the top gender-equal country in relation to equality was Iceland, followed by Norway, Sweden and Finland. Ireland was ranked ninth and was ahead of Britain, France and even Denmark.

No doubt these social wrongs will be endlessly discussed, dissected and debated over and over again at various lunches, events, seminars, poetry readings, circle dances and think-ins as the day tediously goes on. The content of the media bubble will be repeated again and again.

Clearly, I am ambivalent about days to mark special groups. The aim is to highlight problematic social or health issues around autism, cancer, mental health and so on. Perhaps these have certain merits as they highlight hidden and stigmatised issues in our society.

However, a day to mark the existence of 50pc of the population seems to me to be self-indulgence. Certainly, there are problems facing women, just as they also affect men. And there is also an International Men's Day in November, although it receives barely a mention in our media.

As an example of gender hypocrisy, last year Ellen Degeneres marked Men's Day on her show by drooling over the "hottest" men in Hollywood. Imagine the outcry if Greg Gutfeld on Fox News covers Women's Day in his show this evening showing pictures of semi-clad curvaceous blondes while commenting on their bust or hip size. The world would stop rotating and grind to a death-ringing halt.

International Women's Day is ultimately an excuse for virtue signalling, as every 'woke' celebrity and social commentator steps out to decry misogyny, gender bias, and the rape culture on campuses, while demanding trigger warnings, safe spaces, and insisting on deplatforming those whose opinions they do not agree with.

Of course, some will also and rightly call out female genital mutilation, domestic violence, homelessness and poverty.

But these social problems and many others also assail men and to appropriate them as female only is both incorrect and narrow. It also locates women as victims in the overall social landscape.

International Women's Day stems from socialist activism and continues to do so. Does it speak to those who are apolitical? Does it resonate with women who chose to be stay-at-home mothers (I am not one) or carers, to women who devote their time volunteering in the slums of Kolkata or to those who campaign against gendercide abortion and other such untrendy causes?

There is no doubt that women, just like men, face struggles that vary from culture to culture and country to country, but the struggles men and women face overlap more than they diverge.

And have either International Women's or Men's Day made any impact on the issues they claim to address? Are they just an excuse for having a luxury day with like-minded people or a serious political effort? Is it naive to think that a single day of the year to target all of the world's ills will make the slightest difference?

I think you know my answer.
Ireland should never publicly opine on British cabinet appointments.

The Northern Ireland secretary is often an English person (supposedly for 'partiality') - but they have often in the past displayed scant knowledge of the niceties of NI.

Mo Mowlam in that position engaged heroically in spite of health problems to facilitate the eventual Good Friday Agreement (GFA).

The Irish and British governments are, if you like, 'guardians' for that GFA (even if the Brexiteer wing doesn't seem too burdened by that responsibility).

Granted it is an 'intricate', complex posting and it's hard to expect any outsider to ever fully 'get' all the little nuances.

However, I think indirectly, through confidential diplomatic channels, our Government should be expressing shock at either Karen Bradley's lack of knowledge or, worse again, lack of concern.

The Troubles weren't really a 'war' per se, but a 30-year-long, dirty, tragic stain with lots of spies, betrayal, double-agents, ordinary criminals, shoot-to-kill policies, state collusion with certain terrorists and whatever you're having yourself.

Ms Bradley seems to favour the Trumpian/dystopian "the only one who can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" line. In her black and white world, 'our' guys in uniforms always equal 'good'.

'Their' guys are terrorists in plain clothes and are 'evil'. She quotes dubious stats that "under 10pc" of deaths in the Troubles were caused by 'our good guys' and because they're both ours and good, none of those could be considered crimes.

David Cameron apologised unreservedly for the "unjustifiable" crimes of the British army on Bloody Sunday in 1972 in Derry.

Maybe she doesn't know about that, but it seems Ms Bradley now thinks he shouldn't have apologised because they were just 'our' good guys shooting bad guys - just as part of their job.

Tom Richardson,

Co Tipperary

Depressing inadequacies of our mental health services

Few people would be surprised at the massive rise in the prescribing of antidepressants. The stress experienced by so many people is tangible. The pain of living for some people is unbearable, and the only hope of relief for many is a prescription.

GPs can struggle to find appropriate services to refer people on to for support.

Professionals have told us they can often find themselves accused of 'wasting time with people' if not adhering to time limits, generally set up by those with questionable experience in the value of human contact.

This too, we now hear, is creeping into the NGO/voluntary sector, with pressure on them to meet targets to get funding.

This certainly will have consequences for many vulnerable people.

The late Tony Gill who lived on the streets was known to us for many years and rests now in our burial plot in Glasnevin.

He once wrote: "Today I spoke to no one, And nobody spoke to me. Am I dead?"

With those simple words he certainly captured a sign of the times we are living in.

Alice Leahy,

Bride Road, Dublin 8

Playing the female card is indeed sexist - to women

When 19th-century British MP Benjamin Disraeli described "half the parliament as asses" he was called on to apologise.

The following day, he famously did so, saying "half the parliament are not asses".

Minister Shane Ross could probably take a leaf from his book. Comparing Sinn Fein TD Imelda Munster to a "donkey", for what Ross believed to be her lacklustre performance in Brexit debates, was unfortunate to say the least.

But Ross's critics were quick to play the 'woman' card, emphasising Ms Munster in media reports as 'a female' TD, as if that had any significance in relation to either Ross's comments or her contributions.

But the suggestion is clear - Ross's criticism is 'sexist'. This is a cheap shot, but one Munster wasn't slow in taking advantage of.

She asked "what message does this send to women trying to enter politics?"

Clearly Mr Ross's critics want to send the message that if your performance is roughly criticised you can always fall back on the 'sexism card' and, ironically, ask people to judge you on being female and not on your work.

Nick Folley,

Carrigaline, Co Cork

Ross's latest gaffe might have earned him a brand new title

Has Minister Shane Ross, sometimes referred to as Lord Ross, now earned the title of Lord Hee Haw?

Dr Mary Frances Rogan,

Annaghdown, Co Galway
Actor Jan-Michael Vincent, who was best known for starring in 1980s TV series Airwolf, has died at the age of 73.

A death certificate shows that Vincent died of cardiac arrest on February 10 in a North Carolina hospital.

Born in 1945 in Denver, Colorado, Vincent starred in films such as The Mechanic in 1972 and Hooper in 1978, in which he played a stuntman opposite Burt Reynolds.

He also starred in the 1983 television mini-series Winds Of War as the love interest of a character played by Ali MacGraw, and earned a Golden Globe nomination.

The character is stiff but as we've gone along we've been able to loosen him some.Jan-Michael Vincent

In a 1984 interview, Vincent described his passion for being on the water. He said he spent three months after wrapping up Winds Of War sailing the Caribbean. He also said he was a long-time surfer.

I was a travelling surfer for years.  Ive been all over the world surfing, he said. Ill be 40 in July and I still like to surf.

Perhaps his best-known role was in the television action-adventure series Airwolf, which lasted for several seasons after launching in 1984.

Vincent played Stringfellow Hawke, a rugged pilot who could pull off aerobatic crime-fighting manoeuvres in an advanced helicopter  but also play the cello.

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In the AP interview, he described trying to find the right way to loosen the character up.

The character is stiff, he says, but as weve gone along weve been able to loosen him some. Now youll sometimes see him crack a smile and say something funny. Even Clint Eastwood is mellowing, although Ill never be Burt Reynolds.

However, his surfer-like demeanour was overshadowed at times by his troubled personal life.

He pleaded guilty in 1997 to a drink driving accident that left him with a broken neck and was sentenced to a rehab programme.

He was also charged over 1980s pub brawls, receiving probation in one and an acquittal in another. In a separate case, he was acquitted in 1986 of hitting a woman.

He was sentenced to 60 days in jail in 2000 in Orange County, California, after he admitted to violating his probation by appearing drunk in public and assaulting his then girlfriend.
The Regional District of North Okanagan is getting closer to regulating single-use plastics.

Officials are encouraging local businesses to be cautious before they consider switching the types of bags they offer their customers as the RDNO is at the preliminary stages of creating a bylaw to regulate single-use plastics.

While we welcome the enthusiasm and passion that people have shown for moving away from single-use plastics, like plastic bags, we have not drafted the bylaw yet. We do not want to see businesses make changes before the regulations are defined only to have to make further changes if the new type of material they chose is also banned when the bylaw is adopted, said Mike Fox, general manager of community services.

There are big differences between compostable and biodegradable plastics. They are not all made the same, are not regulated consistently, and some are not environmentally friendly.

Businesses will be given up to a years notice when the bylaw is put in place, along with clear information on which materials will be permissible and which will be banned in the regulations.

Without the bylaw and single-use plastics diversion program finalized, we cannot confirm that compostable and biodegradable bags will be permitted; they may be, but there are many other factors that we have to consider before we can say either way, Fox said.

The Compost Education Centre located in Victoria offers a variety of information on composting including an understanding compostable plastics factsheet that helps explain the different types of plastics, bio-plastics, and compostable plastics available.

As stated on the factsheet, despite many claims, the technology does not exist to make a plastic bag that will completely compost in backyard bins or piles and even most certified compostable products still do not break down effectively within the designated processing time at commercial facilities. The best way to reduce waste and support our planet is to reduce the amount of plastic we use in the first place, compostable or otherwise.

Residents are encouraged to use reusable bags to support the RDNO mandate of rethinking consumption, reducing waste, and reusing items.
Female scientists have warned there is still work to do to reach equality in the field, as they celebrated their achievements on social media on International Womens Day.

Many shared images of themselves working in laboratories, while Louisa Brotherson, a 23-year-old PhD student at the University of Liverpool, said she is proud to work in a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) subject .

To me, as an early-career woman of colour in Stem, International Womens Day is both a celebration of the achievements of women and a reminder of the work we still have to do to reach equality, Ms Brotherson told the Press Association.

Ms Brotherson is a geoscientist, researching earthquakes using laboratory experiments and computer modelling.

Happy #InternationalWomensDay ! Proud to be a woman of colour in STEM, let's keep breaking down barriers and smashing those stereotypes   Louisa Brotherson (@louisa_geo) March 8, 2019

Too often Im the only woman, let alone black woman, in the room, said Ms Brotherson.

We need to make sure all women and young girls can see the potential in themselves, no matter their background, race, sexuality.

However, Im an optimist  I hope that this and every International Womens Day, women are empowered by each others stories and feel determined to achieve real equality.

Akinnawo Omowumi Olubukola, a PhD candidate in the department of biochemistry at Babcock University in Nigeria, said International Womens Day is a time to celebrate the accomplishments of women.

Its a day to reflect on the progress women have made in the world throughout history, honouring the courageous steps women have taken to create positive change in the world and talk about the change that still needs to be made, said the 30-year-old.

Dr Jackie Kendrick, 32, from the University of Liverpool, said: Im appreciative of both the increasing visibility of women in science and the recent improvements towards facilitating a career in academia.

However, Dr Kendrick added that there is still a long way to go.

Temporary contracts through to a decade or more after PhD completion often limits possibilities for women in academia who are forced to choose between a career or family, she said.

It is diversity of experience within the working community that makes a successful and knowledgeable environment, and making accommodations to allow everyone to contribute is something I am passionate about.

Fellow female scientists shared messages about women working in Stem subjects, with @Lis_Lowe from Newcastle University tweeting it was a very #InternationalWomensDay in science for us!

Current lab contains 6 amazing women, from UK, France, Lithuania and Portugal, so a very #InternationalWomensDay in science for us!   Lis Lowe (@Lis_Lowe) March 8, 2017

I am that woman who loves fashion and makeup, is passionate about #Sciences, sets and achieves goals like men, considers men and women as role models...

Is there any inconsistency? No 



My dress and lipstick dont mean that I dont have a brain.#IWD2019   Dr. Fadji Maina (@Yafadj) March 8, 2019

Meanwhile, US scientist @Yafadj, who has a PhD in hydrology from UC Berkeley, tweeted: I am that woman who loves fashion and makeup, is passionate about #Sciences, sets and achieves goals like men, considers men and women as role models.

My dress and lipstick dont mean that I dont have a brain.
Thailand's judges ruled yesterday to dissolve one of the country's main opposition parties, whose prime ministerial candidate was to have been the king's sister.

It deals a crushing blow to a democratic movement that was to contest the March 24 election.

The constitutional court ordered the Thai Raksa Chart Party (TRC) to disband and banished its executives from politics for 10 years.

Its 251 candidates were disqualified from campaigning or standing. The nine judges voted unanimously to dissolve the party.

The TRC, aligned to the Pheu Thai party of Thaksin Shinawatra, the exiled former prime minister, landed itself in a legal minefield last month when it nominated Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya as its leading candidate, causing uproar in a nation where the royalty is revered and laws make it a criminal offence to insult the monarchy.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn swiftly crushed his older sibling's political ambitions and the princess apologised.

Human rights groups were swift to condemn yesterday's court ruling.
Barclays boss Jes Staley will meet face-to-face with Edward Bramson next week, when the activist investor is expected to further elaborate on his vision for the banking giant.

Mr Bramson, through his investment vehicle Sherborne, holds a 5.5% stake in Barclays and will be meeting the bank chief and finance director Tushar Morzaria in New York on Tuesday as part of a shareholder roadshow.

Since coming clean about Sherbornes holding in Barclays last year, Mr Bramson has called for the lender to curtail its investment banking arm, increase returns for investors and demanded a board seat.

In January, Mr Bramson said the corporate and investment bank has legacy strategic weaknesses in customer and product mix that fundamentally limit the yield on assets it can achieve.

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It is understood Mr Bramson has been attempting to drum up support from other investors in the bank for his proposals.

However, both Mr Staley and Barclays outgoing chairman John McFarlane have recommended shareholders oppose his appointment to the top table.

Mr Staley said in February: I think the more engagement that we can have, the better. The more we understand his views and the more he understands our views, the more constructive the dialogue.

We want to hear his view because banks are very complicated to run and we want to gather all the views and thoughts that our shareholders have.

I just dont believe in order to have that engagement, he needs to be on the board.

The American has also rejected the notion of cutting back the investment bank.

Mr Staley said in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he had had a reasonable engagement with Mr Bramson, but the corporate raider is yet to reveal a clear strategy.

This was echoed by Mr MacFarlane, who said Mr Bramson has made some critical points but hasnt come up with a solution.

Earlier this week, Barclays said goodbye to three board directors  Reuben Jeffery, Dambisa Moyo and Mike Turner  who will stand down at the banks annual meeting in May.
Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been jailed for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.

US District Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning to be jailed on Friday after a brief hearing in which Manning confirmed she has no intention of testifying.

She told the judge she will accept whatever you bring upon me.

Manning has said she objects to the secrecy of the grand jury process, and that she already revealed everything she knows at her court martial.

tomorrow im facing a sealed contempt hearing for refusing to testify at a secret grand jury over my 2010 disclosures



statement: pic.twitter.com/M1uhssUzXh  Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) March 7, 2019

The judge said she will remain jailed until she testifies, or until the grand jury concludes its work.

Mannings lawyers had asked that she be sent to home confinement instead of the jail, because of medical complications she faces.

The judge said US Marshals can handle her medical care.
"It cannot be ruled out that the deceased made other preparations that could endanger further people," local police said (stock picture)

Little is known about Bernhard Graumann (59), a gardener who died last Friday in his home in Mehlingen, Germany. But reports indicate he enjoyed making things blow up, and authorities are now warning people who might have had bad relations with him to be extremely cautious.

Those who knew Graumann say he was a performer licensed to use explosives, using pyrotechnics to add an entertaining flair while re-enacting scenes from the Middle Ages. He also dabbled in recreating antique firearms that use gunpowder, according to the BBC.

But local authorities fear he also used his expertise to rig booby traps intended to harm his enemies from beyond the grave. One person has already been killed and two others were harmed in recent days because of hidden bombs. Police have linked those bombs to Graumann.

"It cannot be ruled out that the deceased made other preparations that could endanger further people," local police said.

On the day of Graumann's death, a 64-year-old doctor died in an explosion. A woman (37) and girl (4) were hurt in an incident on Sunday. More than 60 people called a hotline set up on Monday, fearing they could be next.

 Washington Post
The baby son of Islamic State runaway Shamima Begum has died.

Ms Begum, 19, gave birth in a refugee camp in the middle of February, having already lost two children.

Her third child's death was confirmed on Friday by her family's lawyer Tasnime Akunjee.

He had earlier tweeted: "He was a British citizen."

Ms Begum, from Bethnal Green in east London, was 15 when she and two other schoolgirls went to join the terror group in February 2015.

She resurfaced heavily pregnant in a refugee camp in northern Syria last month and spoke of her desire to return to the UK, as the self-styled caliphate collapsed.

On February 17, her family announced the boy's birth and said they believed he was "in good health".

In an earlier interview with the BBC Ms Begum said: "Losing my children the way I lost them, I don't want to lose this baby as well and this is really not a place to raise children, this camp."

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Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped Ms Begum of her British citizenship amid a fierce national debate over whether she should be allowed to return.

Her family, who pledged to appeal against the decision, also wrote to Mr Javid pleading with him to allow a safe passage for the boy to come to the UK.

Last month, Mr Javid confirmed the boy was a British citizen and said he had considered the child's interest when deciding to revoke Ms Begum's citizenship.

Following news of the boy's death shadow home secretary Diane Abbott criticised Mr Javid's decision.

She tweeted: "It is against international law to make someone stateless, and now an innocent child has died as a result of a British woman being stripped of her citizenship. This is callous and inhumane."

Asked whether there was any plan for Ms Begum's son, Mr Javid has previously told the Commons Home Affairs Committee it would be "incredibly difficult" for the Government to facilitate the return of a child from Syria.

"If it is possible somehow for a British child to be brought to a place where there is a British consular presence, the closest place - it might be Turkey for example - in those circumstances I guess potentially it is possible to arrange for some sort of help with the consent of the parent," he added.

"Inside Syria, whether in a camp or maybe somewhere else, there is no British consular presence."

A Government spokesman said: "The death of any child is tragic and deeply distressing for the family.

"The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has consistently advised against travel to Syria since April 2011.

"The Government will continue to do whatever we can to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and travelling to dangerous conflict zones."
American and British-made bombs may have killed or injured nearly 1,000 civilians, including women and children, in Yemen's four-year conflict, according to a report by human rights groups (stock photo)

American and British-made bombs may have killed or injured nearly 1,000 civilians, including women and children, in Yemen's four-year conflict, according to a report by human rights groups.

The airstrikes killed 203 people and injured at least 749, the report found. At least 122 children and 56 women were among the dead and wounded.

US and British lawmakers have mounted efforts to stop arms sales and end their countries' involvement in Yemen's civil war, which has created what the UN describes as the world's most severe humanitarian crisis.

The US has sold billions of dollars in weaponry to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, its key allies in the Middle East. Both nations lead a coalition that seeks to oust Houthi northern rebels and restore Yemen's internationally recognised government.

In their 128-page report, the US-based University Network for Human Rights and Yemeni rights group Mwatana probed 27 coalition airstrikes between April 2015 and April 2018 - all against civilian targets.

 Washington Post
Ryan Magers can now sue Alabama Women's Centre for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville, Alabama, on behalf on the aborted foetus (stock photo)

An Alabama judge has recognised an aborted foetus's legal rights, allowing a man whose girlfriend ended her pregnancy at six weeks to sue the maker of her pill and the clinic that gave it to her.

Ryan Magers can now sue Alabama Women's Centre for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville, Alabama, on behalf on the aborted foetus.

Madison County probate judge Frank Barger decreed that "Baby Roe" is a person and allowed Mr Magers (19) to name the foetus as a co-plaintiff in the suit for "wrongful death".

Abortion rights groups said the decision sets a dangerous precedent at a time when "foetal rights" are gaining currency in US law.
Photo: The Canadian Press

There's far more opposition than support for Kelowna's proposed bylaw changes around Airbnb-type short-term rentals.

Correspondence received by the city in advance of Tuesday's public hearing is running 10 to one against the bylaw and fee change.

While there are well over 2,000 properties listed for short-term rent in the city on sites such as Airbnb and VRBO, most of those are in areas where short-term rentals are not legal.

The proposed bylaws would make those legal in most areas of the city, and require operators to hold a business license and follow strict guidelines for parking, number of guests, noise and fire escape and protection.

The bylaw would also restrict the type of of properties available. The city says in order to protect the availability of the long-term rental market, secondary and basement suites and carriage houses would not be available for short-term rentals.

Most of the 20 responses opposing the bylaw state they are against that particular provision.

One respondent argued they rent a secondary suite to a student for eight months and make it available for short-term rentals the other four months.

Others claim the bylaw does not go far enough.

So far, two people have indicated they are in favour of the new bylaw.

Staff have indicated prospective operators could begin applying for business licenses in early spring if the bylaw passes second and third readings following the public hearing.
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced by a judge to less than four years in prison - far shy of federal sentencing guidelines - for financial crimes uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.

US District Judge T.S. Ellis imposed the surprisingly lenient 47-month sentence on Manafort, 69, during a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, in which the veteran Republican political consultant asked for mercy but expressed no remorse for his actions.

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Manafort was convicted by a jury last August of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

Ellis disregarded federal sentencing guidelines cited by prosecutors that called for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison. The judge ordered Manafort to pay a fine of $50,000 and restitution of just over $24 million.

Manafort, brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair because of a condition called gout, listened during the hearing as Ellis extolled his "otherwise blameless" life in which he "earned the admiration of a number of people" and engaged in "a lot of good things."

"Clearly the guidelines were way out of whack on this," Ellis said.

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Whatsapp Lawyer Kevin Downing following the sentencing of his client, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort (Cliff Owen/AP)

Manafort was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the US government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraine's former pro-Russia government. After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

The judge also said Manafort "is not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election."

The sentence was even less than the sentence recommended by Manafort's lawyers of 4-1/4 to 5-1/4 years in prison.

"These are serious crimes, we understand that," said Thomas Zehnle, one of Manafort's lawyers. "Tax evasion is by no means jaywalking. But it's not narcotics trafficking."

Legal experts expressed surprise over the sentence. "This is a tremendous defeat for the special counsel's office," former federal prosecutor David Weinstein said.

Manafort's sentence was less than half of what people who plead guilty and cooperate with the government typically get in similar cases, according to Mark Allenbaugh, a former attorney with the U.S. Sentencing Commission. "Very shocking," he said.

Ellis, appointed to the bench by Republican former President Ronald Reagan, called the sentence "sufficiently punitive," and noted that Manafort's time already served would be subtracted from the 47 months. Manafort has been jailed since June 2018.

Manafort's legal troubles are not over. He faces sentencing next Wednesday in Washington in a separate case for two conspiracy charges involving lobbying and money laundering to which he pleaded guilty last September.

Legal experts said the light sentence from Ellis could prompt U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to impose a sentence closer to the maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, and order that the sentence run after the current one is completed rather than concurrently. Jackson was appointed by Democratic former President Barack Obama.

'IN SHAMBLES'

Before the sentencing, Manafort expressed no remorse but talked about how the case had been difficult for him and his family. Manafort, who opted not to testify during his trial, told Ellis that "to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement." He described his life as "professionally and financially in shambles."

The judge told Manafort: "I was surprised I did not hear you express regret for engaging in wrongful conduct."

Manafort, with noticeably grayer hair than just months ago, came into the courtroom in a wheelchair holding a cane, wearing a green prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the words "Alexandria Inmate" on the back. It was a far cry from Manafort's usual dapper appearance and stylish garb.

During a break shortly before the sentence was handed down, Manafort turned around and blew his wife, Kathleen, a kiss.

The case capped a stunning downfall for Manafort, a prominent figure in Republican Party circles for decades who also worked as a consultant to such international figures as former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Yanukovych.

Ellis had faced criticism by some in the legal community for comments he made during the trial that were widely interpreted as biased against the prosecution. Ellis repeatedly interrupted prosecutors, told them to stop using the word "oligarch" to describe people associated with Manafort because it made him seem "despicable," and objected to pictures of Manafort's luxury items they planned to show jurors.

"It isn't a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending," Ellis told prosecutors during the trial.

Prosecutor Greg Andres urged Ellis to impose a steep sentence. "This case must stand as a beacon to others that this conduct cannot be accepted," Andres told the hearing on Thursday.

Jackson ruled on Feb. 13 that Manafort had breached his agreement to cooperate with Mueller's office by lying to prosecutors about three matters pertinent to the Russia probe including his interactions with a business partner they have said has ties to Russian intelligence.

Manafort is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mueller to have gone to trial. Several others including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen have pleaded guilty, while longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty.

Trump, a Republican who has called Mueller's investigation a politically motivated "witch hunt," has not ruled out giving Manafort a presidential pardon, saying in November: "I wouldn't take it off the table."

"There's absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia," Kevin Downing, another Manafort lawyer, said outside the courthouse.

The Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, quickly accused Downing of making "a deliberate appeal for a pardon" from Trump.

Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said after the sentencing: "I believe Manafort has been disproportionately harassed and hopefully soon there will be an investigation of the overzealous prosecutorial intimidation so it doesnt happen again."

Mueller is preparing to submit to U.S. Attorney General William Barr a report on his investigation into whether Trump's campaign conspired with Russia and whether Trump has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Trump has denied collusion and obstruction and Russia has denied U.S. intelligence findings that it interfered in the 2016 election in an effort to boost Trump.

Manafort worked for Trump's campaign for five pivotal months in 2016 that included the Republican National Convention where Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, three of them as campaign chairman.
Protesters sang and threw flowers during the protest (Anis Belghoul/AP)

Thousands of protesters are marching through central Algiers to protest over President Abdelaziz Bouteflikas hold on power.

The protesters, wrapped in Algerian flags, singing and throwing flowers, converged after prayers in a dense stream stretching nearly a kilometre.

Onlookers threw flowers and confetti from flag-draped balconies, while security forces watched from the sidelines without intervening.

The protesters are challenging Mr Bouteflikas fitness to run for a fifth term in next months election.

Expand Close A woman demonstrates in Algiers, Friday, March 8, 2019. As Friday prayers let out, Algerians gathered in the center of the capital under the close watch of nearby security forces. Holding signs calling for current President Abdelaziz Bouteflikas ouster, carrying Algerian flags and chanting, the crowd began walking down the citys wide boulevards. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul) / Facebook

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Whatsapp A woman demonstrates in Algiers, Friday, March 8, 2019. As Friday prayers let out, Algerians gathered in the center of the capital under the close watch of nearby security forces. Holding signs calling for current President Abdelaziz Bouteflikas ouster, carrying Algerian flags and chanting, the crowd began walking down the citys wide boulevards. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

The Algerian leader has been in power since 1999, but has been all but absent from the public eye since a stroke in 2013.

He has been in hospital in Switzerland since last month for what the government describes as medical tests.

It is the third Friday running that people have protested, and the demonstrations have continued into the week.

More than a dozen political parties and unions have thrown their support behind the widening street protests.

At a meeting that ended late on Thursday, 15 opposition parties and four unions praised the protest movement and criticised the government for its stubborn power in insisting upon the elections in April.

Protesters are calling for a general strike if the government does not back down.
Theresa Rose Bentaas has been charged with murder (Minnehaha County Jail via KELO via AP)

A US woman has been charged over the death of a newborn baby who was abandoned in a ditch 38 years ago.

Police in South Dakota said they used DNA and genealogy sites to determine Theresa Rose Bentaas was the babys mother.

Bentaas was arrested and charged with murder and manslaughter over the 1981 death of the boy, known as Baby Andrew.

Bentaas told authorities last month that she had hidden her pregnancy from her friends and family and gave birth while alone in her apartment, according to a court document.

I couldn't be more pleased with the results today and the arrest and the closure that we find, as well as the hard work and dedication for the pursuit of justice for Andrew.Matt Burns

Bentaas allegedly said she then drove the baby to the area he was later discovered, a cornfield ditch in Sioux Falls.

Bentaas, now 57, said she was young and stupid and felt sad and scared as she drove away, according to the document. The baby died of exposure.

Bentaas, who was 19 when her son died, later married the infants father and has two living adult children with him, it was reported.

The case has gripped Sioux Falls for decades. Roughly 50 people attended the childs funeral, held more than a week after he was discovered. Children left stuffed animals and a badge on his pyjamas read: You are loved.

Retired detective Mike Webb said authorities used DNA from the baby exhumed 10 years ago and DNA obtained from Bentaas through a search warrant.

I couldnt be more pleased with the results today and the arrest and the closure that we find, as well as the hard work and dedication for the pursuit of justice for Andrew, police chief Matt Burns said.

Public genealogy databases have been used in other recent cases, including the capture last April of the suspected Golden State Killer in northern California and the arrest of a businessman accused of fatally stabbing a Minneapolis woman in 1993.

In South Dakota, authorities submitted a DNA sample from Baby Andrew to Parabon NanoLabs, which found two possible matches using a public genealogical database.

Police constructed a family tree and performed a trash pull to collect beer and water containers and cigarette butts at Bentaass home.

Results from a cheek swab sample show there is extremely strong evidence to support a biological relationship between Bentaas and the child, according to the court affidavit.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 8)  Google celebrates women all over the world with today's Doodle.

In an interactive slideshow, Google Doodle features 12 inspirational quotes from women all over the world.

The women featured in the slideshow include Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, Japanese multimedia artist Yoko Ono and Indian boxer Mary Kom.

In a statement, Google said today's Doodle connects "to the larger theme of 'women empowering women,' the quotes were also designed by a talented group of female guest artists from around the globe."

The tech company added, "The process of choosing the thirteen quotes was extremely difficult, but we aimed to include a diverse representation of voices on a day which celebrates the past, present, and future community of diverse women around the world."
Photo: CFSEU-BC UGET Items seized by police in Kamloops.

Police work by officers specializing in gang violence has resulted in 10's of thousands of dollars being seized along with drugs and 19 weapons.

Since February, the Uniform Gang Enforcement Team has provided additional gang violence suppression to Kamloops RCMP.

UGET mitigation, disruption and suppression of local gang members and associates prevented further violence in Kamloops.

In addition to their dedicated gang suppression efforts, members were responsible for arresting several individuals on outstanding warrants.

Over nine days, 144 vehicles were stopped and 173 people were checked.

A variety of substances, believed to be methamphetamine, crack cocaine and fentanyl were seized. Over $48,000 in cash associated to the drug trade has been seized and over 19 weapons were taken off the streets.

Providing operational, overt suppression and disruption support of gang violence to Kamloops RCMP is an example of the integral role of our UGET officers in fulfilling the CSFEU-BC mandate and commitment to the communities of B.C., says Sgt. Brenda Winpenny.

Weapons that were seized include a .357 magnum pellet gun, several knives, brass knuckles and bear spray.

UGET also allowed Kamloops RCMP the opportunity to focus on their priority investigations and arrest key suspects responsible for recent violence.
The death toll in the grenade attack at a bus stand in Jammu on Thursday has risen to two after one more person succumbed to his injuries.

Mohammad Riyaz, a resident of Anantnag district died in the early hours of Friday while undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College hospital in Jammu.

AP

Earlier another teenager, Mohammad Sharik, was killed and 32 others were injured in the powerful blast rocked the crowded bus stand on Thursday.

According to reports, Sharik, a 17-year-old from Uttarakhand had gone to Jammu just a day ago, to learn tailoring and support his family.

According to the family in Haridwar, Sharik had gone to meet a relative in Jammu, and learn tailoring from him.

AFP

Meanwhile the Jammu and Kashmir police have arrested a teenager who is believed to be the one who hurled the grenade.

According to Jammu IGP M K Sinha the accused, identified as Yasir Javed Bhat, a resident of Kulgam, was indoctrinated by Hizbul Mujahideen Kulgam district commander Farooq Ahmad Bhat alias Umar to carry out the attack.

AP

Bhat, a student of a private school in Kulgam,reportedly travelled all the way to Jammu on Thursday morning.

He was identified with the help of CCTV visuals and was caught while attempting to flee to Kashmir after the blast.
Women in the 21st century have become self-reliant, strong and more openly express their opinions as compared to their aunts. These days, they do not hesitate to make their profession a priority over marriage. However, there are certain taboos that are still prevalent in our society.

For instance, a womans menstrual cycle is still a cause of worry for many. The deep-rooted stigma around the hormonal cycle is too strong to scare family members away. Some countries like Nepal subject women to grim situations where they have to stay in small huts during their periods.

Many have even died due to asphyxiation and starvation while living in those huts. Around 66 percent of girls enrolled in government schools across the New Delhi either skip classes or take a half days leave when they are on their period. The data was reported by Hindustan Times as per a survey of 10,000 girls that was conducted during the 2018-19 session.

Photo:BCCL

The three major reasons highlighted behind being absent during menstrual cycle were- cramps, fear of staining their clothes, and the difficulties they face in changing sanitary napkins while at school.

Even posh schools and offices do not have the basic facility of providing women sanitary napkins. Though, yesterday Vistara airline became the first airline to provide pads to women on board, there are a plethora of public places where women are denied a basic amenity.

The survey was conducted by a non-governmental organisation called Sachhi Saheli and its founder, Dr Surbhi Singh told HT, Its observed that a large number of girls do not get the necessary support from their families during their monthly cycle. There is a myth that one should not take medicine for period pains and most mothers do not allow their daughters to take any painkiller. However, there is no harm in consulting a doctor and taking pain medication. Thats why they have no option but to skip classes.

Another alarming fact was discovered during the survey that 68 per cent of the women did not know about menstruation until they got their periods while 26 per cent skipped classes because of fear of staining clothes.

The survey brought to the fore the current infrastructure problems and rigid mindsets that were driving this behaviour. Singh further added that a lot of counselling is needed around this topic to change mindset of the students and their parents.

The survey found that 77 per cent of the girls surveyed had been told either by their mothers or some other family members that menstrual blood was dirty. Though, principals and teachers from government schools have said that the frequency of activities around menstruation have increased, a lot of ground-work is still needed to dispel myths. Experts believe that educating girls about this cycle during their early years can make a lot of difference.

They should be nurtured in a way that they are encouraged to speak about this topic.
Photo: The Canadian Press Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick

The country's top public servant received profanity-laced social-media messages calling him "garbage," a "traitor," a "loser" and a "liar" after defending the Trudeau government's conduct in the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Michael Wernick, clerk of the Privy Council, tabled with the House of Commons justice committee Wednesday some of the messages he'd received since he first testified on the controversy two weeks ago.

"I believe that you will want to discuss this as the intimidation of a witness before your committee and a breach of the committee's privileges," Wernick said at the time.

As it turned out, committee members did not want to discuss the matter, preferring to concentrate on Wernick's alleged role in pressuring former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to halt a criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin. No one asked about the messages, sent to Wernick via Facebook messenger. Nor did the committee release them publicly since they were not in both official languages.

However, on Thursday, Wernick's office released copies of eight expletive-filled, sometimes barely coherent messages.

"Your garbage pal. If you don't want to be calked name like treason and traitor then don't indulge in it then, you (expletive) idiot goofs!" said one.

"You should be ashamed of yourself for the comments about assinations! Arrogant pos! Get a real job you (expletive) deadbeat," said another.

Wernick prefaced his first appearance before the committee with surprise remarks about the deteriorating state of political discourse in Canada.

"I worry about the rising tide of incitements to violence when people use terms like treason and traitor in open discourse," he said. "Those are words that lead to assassination. I'm worried that somebody is going to be shot in this country this year during the political campaign."

Wernick went on to say he's also worried about "the reputations of honourable people who have served their country being besmirched and dragged through the market square, I worry about the trolling from the vomitorium of social media entering the open media arena."

Wernick's performance before the committee, along with his stout defence of the integrity of staff in the Prime Minister's Office, earned him the scorn of opposition MPs, who accused him of being partisan and demanded that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fire him. In the House of Commons last week, NDP MP Charlie Angus referred to Wernick as Trudeau's "personal goon."

The social media vomitorium, as Wernick called it, has been less restrained.

"Michael, you are dirty. Your manipulation of the fallout on the SNC-Lavalin criminal bribery scandal does not look good on you," said one message he received.

"You're a loser. And a liar. You'll amount to an absolute nobody in Canadian history. A spineless puppet," said another.

"YOU SHOULD BE FIRED. A disgrace to Canada ... Overpaid, bureaucratic LIBERAL BOZO ... protecting liberal LIars!!!" opined yet another.
Led by Indian American Joe Mathai, My City Financial, a real estate financing company, is celebrating its 25th year anniversary. The success of that company led to the founding of real estate venture Prime California Realty, which opened in 1997. The companies are based in Artesia, Calif. (photo provided)
Indian American Vanita Gupta (left), a former U.S. Justice Department official, speaks as New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Steve Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, look on during a press conference to announce a multi-state lawsuit to block the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 Census form, on April 3, 2018 in New York City. Critics of President Donald Trump's administration's decision to reinstate the citizenship question contend that that it will frighten people in immigrant communities from responding to the census. The Trump administration has stated a citizenship question on the census will help enforce voting rights. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
In this December 6, 1992 photograph, Indian Hindu fundamentalists attack the wall of the 16th century Babri Masjid Mosque with iron rods at a disputed holy site in the city of Ayodhya. Hindu nationalists believe that Babur's commander-in-chief Mir Baki destroyed an existing temple at the site, which Hindus believe was the temple built to commemorate the birthplace of Rama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and ruler of Ayodhya. In 1992, the demolition of the 16th-century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya sparked riots that killed more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, and propelled India's Hindu nationalists into the political mainstream. (Douglas E. Curran/AFP/Getty Images)
A three-percentage-point cut to the rate of value added tax that Chinese manufacturers of metals and minerals pay will have little effect on export markets, traders said.

Market sources claim that the low levels of VAT exporters pay now will make the reduction more theoretical than actual.

The Chinese prime minister Li Keqiang announced the tax cut on March 5. The top rate of VAT, which is levied on manufacturers - including producers of industrial minerals - will fall by 3 points to 13%. The total value of these tax cuts is estimated at $90 billion per year.

This follows a one-point cut to the top rate of VAT to 16% in May 2018.

A portion of the VAT can be rebated for some exported goods, but there is no remittance on mineral exports. This means that, in theory, the cut could deliver a saving of 3% on the pre-tax price of any material bought from China.

China is a major exporter of a large number of metals and minerals, including antimony, bismuth, refractory materials, pigments and ceramics.

But traders downplayed the effect of the cuts, noting that a large volume of mineral sales already avoid VAT.

The Chinese government unveiled a massive overhaul to the existing export system in 2018 to cut down on tax avoidance.

Although many exporters are still getting around the tax, market participants reported to Fastmarkets.

"A lot of material is coming from alternative channels, there are different ways to avoid VAT, I'm not sure what impact this [3% increase] will have," an antimony trader said.

A refractories trader noticed the same pattern in the alumina and bauxite markets, with little impact on price expected.

"On the face of it, youd think prices would be lower," the trader said, but many producers already get around the VAT restrictions, for example, by shipping from the special economic zone in Shenzhen, he added.

"There will be a little relief for a short time but 3% is not such a big number," a European trader said, adding that a potential increase to tariffs in the United States could be more important.

A number of Chinese exports, including bismuth, cobalt, and titanium dioxide currently attract a 10% tariff on entering the US, a tariff that could rise again if trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing do not bear fruit. Antimony was initially included on the list of proposed tariffs but was removed in September 2018.

"The big number is the 25% increase on tariffs and that is the big deal," the trader warned. We have to look at the tariffs."

But the response to the news was more positive from bismuth exporters.

"For some enterprises that are fighting a shortage of cash flow, the tax cut could be a relief," one Chinese bismuth exporter said. "Because they bear less of a tax burden, therefore the profit of the company will be increased, the cash flow will be improved as well," the exporter said.

"The tax cut is undoubtedly a good thing for the export enterprises," a second Chinese bismuth trader said.

While an antimony exporter noted the move could be good for domestic demand for the material.

By William Clarke, Cristina Belda and Huaqing Fu



This article was first published on March 8 and was corrected to reflect that antimony was excluded from the list of Chinese materials facing a tariff when imported to the US.
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A West Kelowna resident spoke with city officials at the recent public budget meeting and came away with the impression that the 3.88 per cent increase in our property tax is needed for the Rose Valley water treatment plant.

If the city let residents believe the tax hike would help cover the water treatment plant cost, it is a lie or at best, deceptive.



That meeting had absolutely nothing to do with water, sewer, or garbage costs. The city fathers have not yet told the public how those costs will be increasing, and those user costs are over and above the 3.88 per cent property tax increase, which covers things like roads, sidewalks, fire and police services.



The city has stated that, if approved, the tax per cent increase would add $68.78 to the average West Kelowna house valued at $550,000. However, if you purchased your retirement home 15 years ago and it is now worth $750,000, you are going to pay an additional $93.80, which will go up even more the next year, and the next, and the next.

Did your pension or wage go up 3.88 per cent?



The water cost and related utility infrastructure is a totally separate issue from the 3.88 per cent property tax increase.



Water costs went up 26.4 per cent (2017 over 2016) and 33.7 per cent (2018 over 2017). The 2018 average costs are $198.48 per year more than in 2016. Water cost increases are not yet determined, but it is most likely going up another 30 per cent. The water costs may possibly go up a great deal more unless the city can have the Rose Valley filtration plant completed and in operation by March 2020, when the grant ends.

If it is not completed by then, we taxpayers may have to cover much more. The city does not even have the land for the filtration plant yet, and it has been two years.



Residents should be more aware of what they are paying and not let city staff or others allow them to believe a deception or untruth.

C. Edward
Corrigan has over 30 years experience in the insurance industry, with 15 years leading insurance teams in the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to joining Lockton, Corrigan was CEO of JLT Thailand. He spent most of his career with JLT, having held managerial roles in Indonesia, South Korea, and Vietnam.

I am delighted to appoint Philip as COO of Lockton Asia. With his market experience and expertise, he will take our APAC business to the next level, said Warren Merritt, CEO of Lockton Asia.

The APAC regions insurance sectors are made up of both mature markets and developing markets which are at various stages in their respective development. As such, we see a huge opportunity to enter new geographies in the region while also enhancing Lockton Asias existing businesses though the acquisition of personnel and expansion into new specialty business areas in those markets.

Lockton said that it will continue to invest in specialty which will assist all of its operations as well as its associated companies  Sime Darby Lockton (Malaysia) and Lockton Philippines.
The students were on their way home from a school-sponsored dance competition when the van they were riding in collided with a truck. Five other students and one adult were injured and are currently recovering in the hospital.

According to Briones, all 27 million schoolchildren in the Philippines must be provided with insurance.

Each time groups of children go out of the periphery of our campus, participate in competitions, and travel to other places, they have to be covered by insurance so that if there is a need for benefits and for assistance, these can be available, she said, adding the need for the establishment of a quick response fund, as the DepEds budget has no allocation for financial assistance in case of such incidents.

Briones also appealed to transport regulators to step up in their duty to keep vehicles and roads safe.
According to Marshs head of risk consulting  Pacific, Costa Zakis, political stability or lack thereof will undoubtedly impact how businesses choose to run their operations. However, he says insurable risks will be a difficult piece to get to grips with, and businesses need to carefully consider the unique risks of every overseas venture they think of taking on.

There is always going to be a cost of doing business, Zakis told Insurance Business.

The insurability of risks comes into play when a business decides to operate in a certain place, and if they sustain a loss during the course of those operations. You really need to understand the degree to which there could be some interruption to your service, or a loss of an asset or inability to produce or deliver as a result of an insurable event.

Its hard from an insurance perspective, because there isnt a quantifiable material loss from business uncertainty, so that in itself isnt something that you can insure for, Zakis explained. There is a degree of political risk that exists when people are making business decisions, and when theyre deciding where they will or wont conduct their operations. There are certain policies that may be applicable, depending on the nature of the risk and the way it plays out. So if, during the course of the business, you suffer a loss  thats where the insurance piece comes in.

Zakis says that policy decisions made by domestic governments also have their ramifications, and points to the Australian governments recent exclusion of Telecom and Huawei from its 5G network as a good example of this. He says businesses increasingly need to become savvier about their risk levels and how to properly manage them, and how to identify those which are fully, or at least partly, insurable.

If you look at the recent decision made here in Australia with regards to the Chinese Telecom-Huawei matter  that came as a cost to businesses, he explained. If those particular companies are unable to bid, does that mean Australians will get a different level of network service? All of these factors are interlinked, but the sentiment thats really come across is that things arent as politically stable as they might have been last year. As a result, businesses and individuals are starting to rethink which decisions are in the best interests of their company, clients and shareholders, and that includes who they choose to do business with.
A federal appeals court has upheld fraud convictions against two men for their roles in a Connecticut auto insurance scam that involved as many as 50 staged car crashes.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York on Wednesday rejected the appeals of Mackenzy Noze and Jonas Joseph.

Prosecutors say the men were among more than 15 people who staged crashes in and around New London County between 2011 and 2014.

Authorities say the scam collected $6,500 to $30,000 in insurance payouts per crash, bilking insurance companies out of an estimated $600,000.

Prosecutors say Noze, a Haiti native and legal permanent U.S. resident who lived in Norwich, was the ringleader.

Noze and Joseph argued there wasnt enough evidence to support their convictions.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Auto Connecticut
The New Hampshire Supreme Court has ruled that a labor appeals board was wrong to determine that workers compensation insurance cant reimburse an employee for the cost of medical marijuana.

The court found that under the states medical marijuana law, a carrier is not banned from reimbursing and that a qualified patient is entitled to medical marijuana under state law. But the court sent the case back for further consideration of the effect of federal law that makes possession or use of marijuana a federal crime.

Andrew Panaggio hurt his back at work and was approved by the state Health Department to participate in the therapeutic cannabis program and receive medical marijuana for his ongoing pain in 2016. He sought reimbursement through workers compensation, but his insurance carrier, CNA Insurance Co., denied it on the ground that medical marijuana is not reasonable/necessary or causally related to his injury.

Panaggio challenged the insurance carriers denial before the New Hampshire Department of Labor. The hearing officer found that Panaggio had failed to satisfy his burden of proof that the outstanding medical treatment is reasonable, related or made necessary by the work injury. Therefore, the officer concluded that reimbursement and payment of expense associated with the medicinal marijuana cannabis is not reasonable.

Panaggio appealed the hearing officers decision to the workers compensation board. Following a hearing, the board rejected the insurance carriers position that Panaggios use of medical marijuana was not medically reasonable or necessary. The board credited Panaggios testimony that cannabis is palliative and has the added benefit of reducing his need for opiates, and unanimously found that Panaggios use is reasonable and medically necessary.

Nonetheless, a majority of the board upheld the carriers refusal to reimburse Panaggio, concluding that the carrier is not able to provide medical marijuana because such reimbursement is not legal under state or federal law.

On further appeal, the high court noted in its opinion that although the statute does not create a right to reimbursement for the cost of medical marijuana nor require any of the listed entities to participate in the therapeutic cannabis program, neither does it bar any of those entities from providing reimbursement and the statute also says that a qualifying patient shall not be . . . denied any right or privilege for the therapeutic use of cannabis in accordance with this chapter.

To read the law as barring reimbursement of an employee with a workplace injury for his reasonable and necessary medical care is to ignore this plain statutory language, the court found..

Because the board found that Panaggios use of medical marijuana is reasonable, medically necessary, and causally related to his work injury, the high court said the board erred when it determined that the insurance carrier is prohibited from reimbursing Panaggio for the cost of purchasing medical marijuana.

The insurance carrier argued that if it is ordered to reimburse the employee for the payment of medical marijuana, it would be in express violation of federal laws that prohibit a person from knowingly possessing marijuana.

Panaggio argued that the board, having noted only that Panaggios possession and use of medical marijuana is a federal crime, did not explain why it necessarily follows that the carrier may not separately be ordered to comply with its own independent state law obligation to reimburse claimants for related medical treatment.

On the state vs. federal matter, the high court said the board failed to provide an adequate explanation of its reasoning regarding federal law. On those issues, it remanded the mater to the board for further consideration.

The opinion is An Appeal of Andrew Panaggio.

Topics Carriers Legislation Workers' Compensation Cannabis
Daimler and BMW are teaming up to develop autonomous driving technology to cut costs and set an industry standard that can help to shape future regulation for self-driving cars, senior executives said on Wednesday [March 6].

It is a chicken and egg situation. Somebody has to standardize the technology and regulation will follow, Klaus Froehlich, BMWs board member responsible for development, said.

Spiraling development costs for self-driving cars have forced BMW and Daimler to team up to share the financial and engineering burden, executives explained at a press conference in Geneva.

With fully autonomous cars that lack drivers, manufacturers take on potential liability risks arising from accidents, pressuring the industry to clarify technological standards so that regulators can draw up rules.

It is to push technology forward and to set standards already in generation two vehicles, and not just in generation four. We do not want to waste resources, Froehlich said to explain the collaboration between the German automakers.

We should not invent this complicated wheel twice. On the path to setting these standards, it makes sense to share some of these investments, Daimler board member Ola Kaellenius said.

BMW and Daimler will form committees to pick potential suppliers of advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving technology in the coming four months, executives said.

Daimler started earlier working on autonomous driving; they have invested in fields of computer vision where the cooperation will benefit from this experience, BMWs Froehlich said.

Kaellenius said BMW and Daimler would develop next generation advanced driver assistance systems for compact and larger cars.

The collaboration is designed to set standards and at a later stage other partners will be invited to join, the executives said.

FiatChrysler is already a partner (with BMW). We want this partner in the future, Froehlich said.

FiatChrysler Chief Executive Mike Manley said on Tuesday he would welcome an opportunity to continue collaborating with BMW on its next generation autonomous driving technology.

(Reporting by Edward Taylor; editing by Mark Potter)

Topics Mergers Tech Personal Auto
On Feb. 20, Conservative Senator David Tkachuk made a vile and egregious comment regarding pipeline protesters on Parliament Hill. He called on truckers as they returned to Alberta to roll over every Liberal left in the country.

Driving over opponents is precisely how terrorists killed 10 innocent people in Toronto less than a year ago and how they have wrought destruction elsewhere. It does not take much to embolden unbalanced individuals or political fanatics to take violent actions against perceived enemies.

Senator Tkachuk should realize that he is totally unfit to serve in the Parliament of Canada and resign immediately. However, he refuses to see this dangerous and inflammatory language as un-Canadian and destructive.

So far, Andrew Scheer has been silent, apparently unprepared to have Tkachuk removed from the Conservative caucus or even censured. Can we not expect better leadership from someone who so very clearly aspires to be prime minister of our great country?

I question why the Conservatives continue to import Trumpian political discourse into Canada to further their aims.

Are they unable to present their political views without resorting to half-truths and insults designed to pit Canadians against Canadians, and Canadian regions, against each other?

These tactics do not strengthen our country, they sow discord and hate.

Nicole Rustad, Kelowna
Tribal First, a division of Alliant Underwriting Solutions, has acquired Ottawa, Canada-based AFN Insurance Brokerage.

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition pairs AFN Insurance Brokerage, which is Canadas First Nations insurance leader, with Tribal First, the largest provider of insurance solutions to Tribal Nations in the United States, said Tribal First in a statement. (Tribal First is a managing general agent and AFN is a Lloyds coverholder and program administrator.)

Founded in 1998, AFN is a nationally incorporated insurance brokerage dedicated exclusively to serving First Nations across Canada. It offers a full suite of products and services that include insurance, risk management, consulting, and employee benefits. AFN has access to leading international carriers and works directly with a large base of retail broker partners.

Tribal First is dedicated to providing customized insurance solutions to native governments across North America, said Sean McConlogue, president of Newport Beach, Calif.-based Alliant Underwriting Solutions. AFN brings a longstanding legacy of integrity and strength to our platform, and this alliance will enable us to provide powerful services and solutions that are new to the Canadian market.

The AFN name is synonymous with strength, customization, and a careful attention to addressing the needs of Canadas First Nations and stands in direct alignment with Tribal Firsts longstanding mission in the U.S., said Robert Shearer, executive vice president and leader of Tribal First, which is headquartered in San Diego.

This is a powerful strategic alliance that will add considerable strength to the AFN team, said Gil Saunders, principal at AFN. Tribal Firsts large platform, strong market relationships, and dedicated team of specialists will enable us to provide significant value and results to both our broker partners and First Nations clients. Most importantly, Tribal First shares our core objective of designing and delivering customized solutions that are in the best interest of Canadas First Nations.

The acquisition continues the Northern expansion of Tribal First. In 2017, the firm acquired American Indian Health Services, an American Indian-owned organization dedicated to addressing the healthcare needs of American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and related enterprises.

Saunders and the AFN team will join Alliant and continue to service clients from AFNs Ottawa location.

Source: Tribal First

Topics Mergers Agencies Canada
Confusion around which goods will be subjected to U.K. import tariffs in a no-deal Brexit is exasperating companies as they seek to finalize preparations for the split.

The government will reveal details of the plan only if Prime Minister Theresa Mays deal to quit the European Union is rejected by Parliament next week, an official said Tuesday, without providing a timescale for publication.

The Freight Transport Association, which represents U.K. cargo firms and truckers who could face long lines at ports if a no-deal split triggers customs duties, said clients need clarity on tariffs now in order to evaluate the costs and consequences for their goods after the Brexit deadline on March 29.

It is unfair and unreasonable for the government to claim it is businesss responsibility to prepare for a no-deal Brexit when ministers are unable to provide essential information for importers and exporters, FTA Deputy Chief Executive Officer James Hookham said in an emailed statement.

The Department for International Trade intends to forgo the majority of tariffs in an effort to keep down consumer prices for products such as cereals and ease disruption to supply chains for items including auto-parts shipped from the EU, Sky News reported Tuesday. Other items such as beef, lamb and dairy products, finished cars and some textiles would retain tariffs to protect British producers and manufacturers from overseas competition, it said.

Bargaining Chip

The chances of a no-deal Brexit have receded after May promised Parliament a vote on whether to crash out of the EU without a negotiated settlement should her own proposals be defeated, though companies say theyre still having to plan for every possible scenario.

A survey of 273 businesses by the Confederation of British Industry suggests 90 percent of firms are concerned about the prospect of no-deal border delays, with close to three-fifths of respondents saying tariffs are a major worry.

Dropping U.K. tariff barriers unilaterally may not be wise as it would mean losing a key bargaining chip in future trade negotiations, said Ross Denton, a trade specialist at consultants Baker McKenzie in London.

Britain will also struggle to protect vulnerable industries while keeping consumer costs in check. For U.K. farming, for example, scrapping tariffs would be devastating, he said. But if it is to be protected, the logic of keeping prices down through tariff cuts is problematic.

The tariff regime wont just affect imports from mainland Europe.

A U.K. trade deal with Japan to replace one agreed by the EU wont be ready in time for a no-deal Brexit, Trade Secretary Liam Fox said last month. Goods arriving after March 29  and already in transit  could therefore be liable to customs duties that might make them unsellable, according to the FTA.

Companies taking part in the CBI survey also said that, on balance, Brexit has hurt sales and investment while increasing costs and stockpiling.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Europe Uk
A Spring, Texas, insurance adjuster has been sentenced for stealing nearly $100,000 from the insurance company where he worked, the Texas Department of Insurance announced.

Allen Castillo pleaded guilty after an investigation found he authorized payments to a network of friends and family.

TDI investigators found that Castillo authorized additional payments on auto claims he handled, sometimes months after the original claims. In the additional claims, Castillo created fake records indicating someone had recently come forward claiming a loss or injury. He would authorize a payment to that person, who would later return most of the money to Castillo.

Castillo attempted to hide the criminal scheme by having checks issued to addresses outside the state, but investigators found that most of the checks were deposited in the Houston area.

Castillo repaid the amount he stole as part of an agreement for a sentence of seven years of deferred adjudication and a fine. He also will have to perform 180 hours of community service.

Source: TDI

Topics Texas Fraud Commercial Lines Business Insurance
The production and sale of low-potency medical marijuana oil could soon be allowed in Georgia under a bill passed Tuesday by the House.

Lawmakers voted 123-40 to clear the measure, two days ahead of a legislative deadline that generally requires bills to pass at least one House by Thursday to survive. It now heads to the Senate for consideration.

In recent years, laws have been created to allow Georgians to possess low-potency medical marijuana oil and to expand the diagnoses that make them eligible to use the drug. But it remains illegal to grow, process, buy, sell or transport the substance in Georgia.

The bill would close this loophole that allows patients to possess the drug, but provides no real way to obtain it. It grants access to Georgians who are already state-registered as needing the oil.

Current state law allows individuals with 16 specific conditions, including cancer, seizure disorders and Parkinsons disease, to possess the substance.

These arent people who are seeking to use illicit drugs. These are people who have tried and failed with opioids, said the bills main supporter, Republican Rep. Micah Gravley of Douglasville. These are people who simply want their children to experience less seizures, a loved one to be eased in the pain of cancer, maybe a relative, a mom or a dad with Parkinsons, to enjoy a cup of coffee without shaking or not being able to hold a cup.

Critics of the measure fear that legalizing medical marijuana may lead to a slippery slope of legalizing recreational use. Nonetheless, Gravley has urged fellow lawmakers that this would not be the case.

Gravley has said his bill would help the roughly 8,400 Georgians who are already registered to use low-potency medical marijuana. He suspects the actual number of people who may be impacted may be upwards of 15,000. He said many people may not have applied for a Low THC Oil Registry Card in the absence of a safe, legal way to obtain the oil.

Gravley hopes his measure would provide relief to families who feel forced to break the law just to get medicine for their loved ones.

The bill would grant 10 licenses to grow and manufacture the drug in Georgia, and could create as many as 50 retail locations. It also would create an 11-member oversight board to review licensing applications and an office to regulate the program within the Department of Public Health.

Gravley said the entire regulation process would track all plants and products from seed to sale. He explained that there would be restrictions on who could enter retail dispensaries, requirements to disclose ingredients of the oil to buyers and third-party testing for safety and efficacy.

It also would explicitly ban use of the drug for vaping purposes.

One amendment added during the committee process requires the oversight board include at least two minority business owners in Georgia.

During Tuesdays floor debate, some lawmakers raised concerns that the bill may be better regulated if it were distributed through pharmacies, instead of retail sites.

Having pharmacies involved would help to regulate this even tighter than it currently is under the bill, said Republican Rep. Andy Welch from McDonough. He still recommended lawmakers vote for the measure.

Gravley said his bill still had stringent regulations but that he is still in talks with the Georgia Pharmacy Association to see how to work together going forward.

Several lawmakers, including Republican Rep. Mark Newton of Augusta, expressed support for their bill.

Is it a miracle medicine? No. It is not a panacea. It is not an answer for everything, said Newton, founder and CEO of Med Now Urgent Care Centers, with locations throughout Augusta and Columbia County. But in the right, controlled circumstances  similar to opioids when you have a femur fracture  in the right circumstances, its a very valuable medicine.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Cannabis Georgia Energy Oil Gas Drugs
Roughly 120,000 gallons (454,000 liters) of would-be bourbon have spilled at a Kentucky distillery.

News outlets report two people were injured in the fermented mash spill Tuesday at the Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown, where a storage collapse last year left thousands of barrels in a mountainous heap. Theyve been released from a hospital.

Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet spokesman John Mura says a leg of a 55,000-gallon (208,000-liter) tank gave way and flipped a container holding the mash.

He says 10,000 gallons (38,000 liters) ran in a storm drain to a tributary, but officials dont believe theres a threat to drinking water.

Amy Preske, a spokeswoman for Barton 1792s parent company, Sazerac, said Tuesday they were working to secure the area.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Kentucky
After successive years of devastating wildfires, Californias fire agency has announced a plan that would dramatically increase the removal of dead trees and other forest management efforts with the help of the National Guard.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection released a list of 35 priority fuel-reduction projects it wants to start immediately across the state over roughly 90,000 acres. Thats double the acreage the agency aimed to cover in the current fiscal year, CalFire Deputy Chief Scott McLean said.

The agency is also seeking National Guard assistance to coordinate the work. McLean said it was the first time he could recall turning to the National Guard for help with clearing trees and vegetation.

It just goes to show you how committed everybody is, he said.

The deadliest U.S. fire in a century destroyed much of Paradise  a city of 27,000 people in Northern California  in November 2018 and killed 86 people. California also experienced devastating wildfires in 2017, including a blaze that killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,500 structures around the wine country city of Santa Rosa.

Republican President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Californias Democratic officials for not doing a good enough job managing its forests and has threatened to cut off Californias federal disaster funding.

The 35 projects are based on input from local Calfire units and would reduce wildfire risk to more than 200 communities, according to Calfire. They include removing dead trees, clearing vegetation, and creating fuel breaks, defensible spaces and ingress and egress corridors.

The projects prioritize communities at high risk from wildfires but also with significant numbers of vulnerable groups such as the elderly or poor. They include work around the city of Redding, which was also devastated by wildfire last year, and in Butte County, where Paradise is located.

An estimated 15 million acres of forest land in California are in need of thinning or other restoration work, so the 35 projects are just a start, Calfire officials said. The agency wants to establish incident bases with the National Guard close to vulnerable communities to coordinate fuel-reduction projects.

Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California, said many of the recent fires were driven by high winds, so clearing trees and vegetation in forests is not the solution. Calfire should focus more on clearing brush immediately around homes and ensuring their roofs and attics are safe from flying embers, she said.

We need to make sure were doing the things that we know will protect homes, she said.

Calfire is also calling on officials to identify options for retrofitting homes as part of its recommendations released Tuesday.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics California Wildfire
London - March 8, 2019 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The World Federation of Exchanges ("WFE"), the global industry group for exchanges and CCPs, is pleased to confirm that its member exchanges are taking part in the fifth annual 'Ring the Bell for Gender Equality' initiative.

For the fifth consecutive year, a global collaboration across 80 exchanges around the world plan to ring opening or closing bells to celebrate International Women's Day 2019 (Friday 8 March 2019).

The events are a partnership between IFC, Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, UN Global Compact, UN Women, the World Federation of Exchanges and Women in ETFs, to raise awareness about the business case for women's economic empowerment and the opportunities for the private sector to advance gender equality and sustainable development.

The UN Women's theme for International Women's Day 2019 is 'Think equal, build smart, innovate for change'. The theme focuses on innovative ways in which the private sector can advance gender equality and women's empowerment, particularly in the areas of social protection systems, access to public services, and sustainable infrastructure.

In addition to the bell ringing events, the six bell ringing partner organisations applaud the work done to date, and encourage exchanges to take further action to improve gender equality in their markets. Recommended actions include signing the CEO Statement of Support for the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs); promoting gender equality in the workforce; introducing gender equality standards and supporting gender-equality themed investment products; providing guidance, training, mentoring, and education to market participants on gender equality and the role of gender diversity in business performance; and encouraging or requiring listed companies to publicly report on relevant gender metrics.

In March 2018, a record 65 exchanges rang their bells for gender equality, and this year looks set to be even bigger, with 80 exchanges confirmed as taking part.

Nandini Sukumar, CEO, WFE said: "We are pleased so many WFE members are participating in this important initiative, which has gone from strength to strength over the past five years. We are proud to raise awareness about this essential social and economic issue, both within the financial sector, and on a wider, global scale."

Exchanges taking part this year:

About the Partner Organizations:

About the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE):

Established in 1961, the WFE is the global industry association for exchanges and clearing houses. Headquartered in London, it represents over 250 market infrastructure providers, including standalone CCPs that are not part of exchange groups. Of our members, 37% are in Asia-Pacific, 43% in EMEA and 20% in the Americas. WFE exchanges are home to nearly 48,000 listed companies, and the market capitalisation of these entities is over $70.2 trillion; around $95 trillion (EOB) in trading annually passes through the infrastructures WFE members safeguard (at end 2018).

The WFE is the definitive source for exchange-traded statistics, and publishes over 350 market data indicators. Its free statistics database stretches back more than 40 years, and provides information and insight into developments on global exchanges. The WFE works with standard-setters, policy makers, regulators and government organisations around the world to support and promote the development of fair, transparent, stable and efficient markets. The WFE shares regulatory authorities' goals of ensuring the safety and soundness of the global financial system.

With extensive experience of developing and enforcing high standards of conduct, the WFE and its members support an orderly, secure, fair and transparent environment for investors; for companies that raise capital; and for all who deal with financial risk. We seek outcomes that maximise the common good, consumer confidence and economic growth. And we engage with policy makers and regulators in an open, collaborative way, reflecting the central, public role that exchanges and CCPs play in a globally integrated financial system.

IFC a

IFC - a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group - is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in the toughest areas of the world. In fiscal year 2018, we delivered more than $23 billion in long-term financing for developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to help end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. For more information, visit www.ifc.org. Follow us on Twitter: @IFC_org

The Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative

The SSE initiative is a peer-to-peer learning platform for exploring how exchanges, in collaboration with investors, regulators, and companies, can enhance corporate transparency - and ultimately performance - on ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) issues and encourage sustainable investment. The SSE initiative is convened by four organizations - the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the UN Global Compact, the UN Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), and the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). To learn more about becoming a Partner Stock Exchange or participating as a regulator or investor, visit sseinitiative.org Follow us on Twitter: @sseinitiative

United Nations Global Compact

As a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, the United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Launched in 2000, the mandate of the UN Global Compact is to guide and support the global business community in advancing UN goals and values through responsible corporate practices. With more than 9,500 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and more than 70 Local Networks, it is the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world. For more information, follow @globalcompact on social media and visit our website at www.unglobalcompact.org.

United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women)

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality, and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide. It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands behind women's equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on four strategic priorities: Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems; Women have income security, decent work and economic autonomy; All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence; Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience, and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system's work in advancing gender equality. Learn more at: http://www.unwomen.org and https://www.empowerwomen.org/en/weps/about. Follow us on Twitter @UN_Women @Empower_Women and on LinkedIn: UN Women

Women in ETFs (WE)

Women in ETFs is the first women's group for the ETF industry. Founded in January 2014, WE is a non-profit organization that brings together over 4,500 members, including women and men, in chapters in major financial centers across the United States, Canada, EMEA and Asia Pacific to: 1) CONNECT: Create opportunities for professional advancement of women by expanding connections among women and men in the ETF industry; 2) SUPPORT: Offer guidance for the current and next generation of women in ETFs and 3) INSPIRE: WE achieves this by organizing events at our chapters globally that support our goals of education, networking, philanthropy and idea sharing across the industry and beyond. For more information, visit: www.womeninetfs.com to learn more, join, or sponsor. Follow us on Twitter: @WomeninETFs and on Linkedin: Women in ETFs

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Calgary, Alberta - March 7, 2019 (Newsfile Corp.) (Investorideas.com Newswire) Leucrotta Exploration Inc. (TSXV: LXE) ("Leucrotta" or the "Company") is pleased to announce its 2018 year-end reserves as independently evaluated by GLJ Petroleum Consultants Ltd. ("GLJ") effective December 31, 2018 (the "GLJ Report"), in accordance with National Instrument 51-101 ("NI 51-101") and Canadian Oil and Gas Evaluation ("COGE") Handbook. All dollar figures are Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

2018 Highlights

Increased proved plus probable reserves by 60% to 59.2 million boe.

Increased proved reserves by 38% to 20.8 million boe.

Reserve replacement of 1,805% on a proved plus probable basis and 546% on a proved basis.

Achieved finding and development costs including changes in future development capital ("FDC") on a proved plus probable basis of $8.38 per boe.

Lower Montney cumulative booked reserves on only 13 net sections of approximately 220 net sections in the Doe/Mica/Two Rivers Montney Core area.

Upper Montney cumulative booked reserves on only 4.5 net sections of approximately 220 net sections in the Doe/Mica/Two Rivers Montney Core area.

Increased Net Asset Value to $1.66 per share exclusive of land value ($2.23 per share including land at cost).

Strategic Focus

Since inception, Leucrotta's focus has been on defining and quantifying its large Montney resource by moving the various Montney zones from exploration through the appraisal and delineation phases and ultimately to the development ready phase. Leucrotta has identified 3 potential Montney zones on its lands that it is moving through the various phases.

Lower Montney Turbidite

The Lower Montney Turbidite is the most pervasive zone on Leucrotta's land base and characterized as being predominantly in the volatile light oil window. Leucrotta has internally estimated that there are potentially over 5 billion barrels of light oil originally in place in addition to potentially over 5 TCF of original gas in place on its lands in the Lower Montney Turbidite.

To date, Leucrotta estimates that it has moved the project from exploration phase through to development ready phase on 140 of the approximately 220 net sections of land. On the 140 sections, Leucrotta has completed the following:

Collecting data to support the estimated resource in place including mapping the extent of such resource.

Delineating a large portion of the lands with vertical and horizontal wells.

Increased the frac intensity to successfully increase productivity and estimated recoveries.

Of note for 2018, the 5-19 well at north Mica not only proved a material extension of the productive area of the zone but added additional evidence that increased frac intensity has a positive effect on productivity and estimated recoveries.

The current reserve report reflects the development ready phase for the project but still has only 13 of the total approximately 220 net sections booked. When moving to full development, certain areas of focus to improve economics and enhance the values in the reserve report include:

Reducing capital and operating costs through pad development and economies of scale.

Increasing liquids yields through installation of deep cut plant (25% of booked reserves are currently oil and NGLs and deep cut plant could increase this to as much as an estimated 36%).

Increasing recoveries and improving economics through extended length wells and further frac design enhancements.

The remaining 80 sections are in the appraisal phase. Leucrotta intends to drill a horizontal multi-frac well on the block in late 2019 or early 2020 to assess productivity.

Upper Montney

The Upper Montney is also pervasive on Leucrotta's land base but less delineated than the Lower Montney Turbidite. The Upper Montney lands straddle the volatile light oil window and the condensate-rich gas window, however, lack of delineation to this point leaves the line between the two somewhat interpretative. Leucrotta has internally estimated that there are potentially over 1.5 billion barrels of light oil originally in place in addition to potentially over 2.5 TCF of original gas in place on its lands in the Upper Montney.

To date, approximately 8 net sections of Leucrotta's lands that are located at Doe are considered development ready while the remaining lands are either in delineation or appraisal phases. The successful A10-08 well at Two Rivers (previously announced test rate (June 18, 2018) of 1,842 boepd including 685 boepd of light oil) will move a significant area surrounding this well to the delineation phase. Based on the success of the A10-08 well, Leucrotta intends to drill additional appraisal wells on the land base.

The current reserve base reflects the development ready phase of the Upper Montney at Doe with only 4.5 of the total approximately 220 net sections booked. Given the complementary effect of stacked zones, the Upper Montney would benefit in a similar nature from the commercial development of the Lower Montney Turbidite as described above.

Below Lower Montney ("BLM")

The BLM is the lowest portion of the Montney and has been successfully tested by other operators from Pouce Coupe to Kakwa. Leucrotta has gathered various geological information through drilling other wells on its lands and believes the lands are primarily located within the volatile light oil window. Leucrotta has internally estimated that there are potentially over 4 billion barrels of light oil originally in place in addition to potentially over 4 TCF of original gas in place on its lands in the Below Lower Montney. No reserves have been booked in this zone.

For 2019, Leucrotta intends to drill one horizontal multi-frac appraisal well to test the productivity of this zone.

Outlook for 2019

Leucrotta estimates as at March 31, 2019 it will have approximately $5 million net working capital and no debt in addition to an undrawn bank line of $25 million.

Leucrotta intends to remain conservative and debt-free during 2019 while executing on its most impactful capital projects from a value and future growth perspective. Projects would include building infrastructure to tie in existing wells to increase production and cash flow, drilling an appraisal well in the BLM and delineation wells in the Upper Montney to prove stacked zones for future development.

Expansion of infrastructure and moving to pad development is expected to start in mid-2020.

Overview of 2018 Reserve Bookings

Leucrotta had several positives in the 2018 GLJ Report which include:

Positive technical revisions of 2,024 mboe (Proved plus probable).

Increase of $84 million in overall value of reserves (proved plus probable 10% NPV) despite an estimated $20 million reduction due to change in pricing from 2017 to 2018.

Leucrotta has maintained a conservative philosophy to booking reserves and has only booked locations immediately offsetting previously drilled wells that cover a large geographic area. A total of 4 new wells and 21 new locations were booked. Positive reserve revisions were material at 2.0 million boe due primarily to well performance and higher liquid recoveries.

New locations booked within the Lower Montney Turbidite oil window averaged 872 mboe per well on a proved plus probable basis, which is consistent with the 2017 average booking of 855 mboe.

On a cumulative basis, Leucrotta has booked 17 horizontal Montney wells and 53 horizontal Montney locations of which 13 wells and 39 locations are in the Lower Montney Turbidite.

Leucrotta has estimated, based on mapping and other technical data, that it has over 1,000 potential Montney drilling locations (predominantly in the Lower Montney Turbidite). Leucrotta has initially estimated locations based on 3 to 4 wells per section per zone.

Leucrotta estimates that it has the current financial capability (assuming pricing and performance are comparable to the GLJ Report) to execute on the $330 million of FDC (first five year average of $60 million) included in the GLJ Report and therefore realize on the values presented. Should Leucrotta be able to obtain similar drilling results on future wells, there is a large potential value to be booked and subsequently realized given Leucrotta's large unbooked drilling inventory.

For additional information on reserves assigned to these drilling locations please see "Forward Looking Information - Potential Drilling Locations" at the end of this news release.

Capital Expenditures

Leucrotta's capital expenditures were focused predominantly in the Doe/Mica area to expand its land base, improve and expand infrastructure, and delineate its large Montney land base. Capital allocation by category is as follows:

Note: (1) Numbers are unaudited. See Unaudited Financial Information section

Reserves Summary

Leucrotta's December 31, 2018 reserves as prepared by GLJ effective December 31, 2018 and based on the GLJ (2019-01) future price forecast are as follows (1,4):

Note: (1) Numbers may not add due to rounding.

(2) "Working Interest" or "Gross" reserves means Leucrotta's working interest (operating and non-operating) share before deduction of royalties and without including any royalty interest of Leucrotta.

(3) Oil equivalent amounts have been calculated using a conversion rate of six thousand cubic feet of natural gas to one barrel of oil.

(4) Disclosure of Net reserves will be included in Company's AIF to be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com on or before April 30, 2019. "Net" reserves means Leucrotta's working interest (operated and non-operated) share after deduction of royalties, plus Leucrotta's royalty interest in reserves.

Reserves Values

The estimated future net revenues before taxes associated with Leucrotta's reserves effective December 31, 2018 and based on the GLJ (2019-01) future price forecast are summarized in the following table (1,2,3,4):

Note: (1) Numbers may not add due to rounding.

(2) The estimated future net revenues are stated prior to provision for interest, debt service charges or general administrative expenses and after deduction of royalties, operating costs, estimated well abandonment and reclamation costs and estimated future capital expenditures.

(3) The estimated future net revenue contained in the table does not necessarily represent the fair market value of the reserves. There is no assurance that the forecast price and cost assumptions contained in the GLJ Report will be attained and variations could be material. The recovery and reserve estimates described herein are estimates only. Actual reserves may be greater or less than those calculated.

(4) The after-tax present values of future net revenue attributed to Leucrotta's reserves will be included in Company's AIF to be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com on or before April 30, 2019.

Price Forecast

The GLJ (2019-01) price forecast is as follows:

Note: (1) Escalated at two per cent per year starting in 2029 in the January 1, 2019 GLJ price forecast with the exception of foreign exchange, which remains flat.

For Leucrotta's full NI 51-101 disclosure related to its 2018 year-end reserves please refer to the Company's AIF to be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com on or before April 30, 2019.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "may", "will", "should", "believe", "intends", "forecast", "plans", "guidance" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements or information.

More particularly and without limitation, this document contains forward-looking statements and information relating to the Company's oil, NGLs and natural gas production and reserves and reserves values, capital programs, and oil, NGLs, and natural gas commodity prices. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company, including expectations and assumptions relating to prevailing commodity prices and exchange rates, applicable royalty rates and tax laws, future well production rates, the performance of existing wells, the success of drilling new wells, the availability of capital to undertake planned activities and the availability and cost of labour and services.

Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and information are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements and information address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, the risks associated with the oil and gas industry in general such as operational risks in development, exploration and production, delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures, the uncertainty of estimates and projections relating to production rates, costs and expenses, commodity price and exchange rate fluctuations, marketing and transportation, environmental risks, competition, the ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources and changes in tax, royalty and environmental legislation. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this document are made as of the date hereof for the purpose of providing the readers with the Company's expectations for the coming year. The forward-looking statements and information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

Reserves Data

There are numerous uncertainties inherent in estimating quantities of light and medium oil, tight oil, shale gas, conventional natural gas and NGLs reserves and the future cash flows attributed to such reserves. The reserve and associated cash flow information set forth above are estimates only. In general, estimates of economically recoverable light and medium oil, tight oil, shale gas, conventional natural gas and NGLs reserves and the future net cash flows therefrom are based upon a number of variable factors and assumptions, such as historical production from the properties, production rates, ultimate reserve recovery, timing and amount of capital expenditures, marketability of oil and natural gas, royalty rates, the assumed effects of regulation by governmental agencies and future operating costs, all of which may vary materially.

Individual properties may not reflect the same confidence level as estimates of reserves for all properties due to the effects of aggregation.

This news release contains estimates of the net present value of the Company's future net revenue from its reserves. Such amounts do not represent the fair market value of the Company's reserves.

The reserves data contained in this news release has been prepared in accordance with National Instrument 51-101 ("NI 51-101"). The reserve data provided in this news release presents only a portion of the disclosure required under NI 51-101. All of the required information will be contained in the Company's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2018, to be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com on or before April 30, 2019.

Reserves are estimated remaining quantities of oil and natural gas and related substance anticipated to be recoverable from known accumulations, as of a given date, based on the analysis of drilling, geological, geophysical and engineering data; the use of established technology, and specified economic conditions, which are generally accepted as being reasonable. Reserves are classified according to the degree of certainty associated with the estimates as follows:

Proved Reserves are those reserves that can be estimated with a high degree of certainty to be recoverable. It is likely that the actual remaining quantities recovered will exceed the estimated proved reserves.

Probable Reserves are those additional reserves that are less certain to be recovered than proved reserves. It is equally likely that the actual remaining quantities recovered will be greater or less than the sum of the estimated proved plus probable reserves.

Potential Drilling Locations

This news release discloses drilling locations in four categories: (i) proved undeveloped locations; (ii) probable undeveloped locations; (iii) unbooked locations; and (iv) an aggregate total of (i), (ii) and (iii).

Of the 1,000 total potential/possible Montney locations referenced in page 2 of this news release, only the following have been assigned reserves at December 31, 2018 as independently evaluated by GLJ, in accordance with NI 51-101:

19 Proved Undeveloped

34 Probable Undeveloped

The remaining 947 potential/possible locations are unbooked.

Unbooked locations are based on the Company's prospective acreage and internal estimates as to the number of wells that can be drilled per section. Unbooked locations do not have attributed reserves or resources (including contingent and prospective). Unbooked locations have been identified by management as an estimation of the Company's multi-year drilling activities based on evaluation of applicable geologic, seismic, engineering, production and reserves information and performed by a Qualified Reserves Evaluator (QRE). There is no certainty that the Company will drill all unbooked drilling locations and if drilled there is no certainty that such locations will result in additional oil and gas reserves, resources or production. The drilling locations on which the Company will actually drill wells, including the number and timing thereof is ultimately dependent upon the availability of funding, regulatory approvals, seasonal restrictions, oil and natural gas prices, costs, actual drilling results, additional reservoir information that is obtained and other factors. While certain of the unbooked drilling locations have been de-risked by drilling existing wells in relative close proximity to such unbooked drilling locations, the majority of other unbooked drilling locations are farther away from existing wells where management has less information about the characteristics of the reservoir and therefore there is more uncertainty whether wells will be drilled in such locations and if drilled there is more uncertainty that such wells will result in additional oil and gas reserves, resources or production.

Original Oil in Place (OOIP) and Original Gas in Place (OGIP)

OGIP (Original Gas in Place) and OOIP (Original Oil in Place) are equivalent to Total Petroleum Initially In Place ("TPIIP").

TPIIP - as defined in the Canadian Oil and Gas Evaluations Handbook ("COGEH"), is that quantity of petroleum that is estimated to exist originally in naturally occurring accumulations and is potentially producible. It includes that quantity of petroleum that is estimated, as of a given date, to be contained in known accumulations, prior to production, plus those estimated quantities in accumulations yet to be discovered (equivalent to "total resources"). There is no certainty that any portion of the resources will be discovered. If discovered, there is no certainty that it will be commercially viable to produce any portion of the resources.

The OGIP and OOIP estimates quoted in this press release are unaudited internal estimates effective December 31, 2018 prepared by a qualified reserves evaluator in accordance with the COGE Handbook. Product type for the OOIP number is "tight oil" and product type for the OGIP number is "shale gas". The location of the resource is the Montney formation in the Doe, Mica and Two Rivers areas of Northeast British Columbia, North of the Town of Dawson Creek and East of Fort St. John. Leucrotta owns 222 net sections (234 gross) of Montney rights in that area with an average working interest of 94%. The resource estimates quoted in this release represent Leucrotta's net working interest share.The key variables relevant to the evaluation are porosity, reservoir thickness, pressure, water saturation and gas composition which have increasing uncertainty, both positive and negative, with distance from existing wells.

Test Rates

The A10-08-83-16W6 well was production tested for 6 days after the original cleanup and produced at an average rate of 1,100 boe/d (48% gas, 52% Oil and Condensate) over that period, excluding load fluid and energizing fluid. At the end of the test, flowing wellhead pressure and production rates were stable. As noted earlier, this well had a flow rate on the last day of the test of 1,842 boepd.

A pressure transient analysis or well-test interpretation has not been carried out on this well and thus certain of the test results provided herein should be considered preliminary until such analysis or interpretation has been completed. Test results and initial production rates disclosed herein may not necessarily be indicative of long term performance or of ultimate recovery.

BOE Conversions

BOE's may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A BOE conversion ratio of 6 Mcf: 1 Bbl is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead.

Unaudited Financial Information

Certain financial and operating results included in this news release such as FD&A costs, F&D costs, capital expenditures, working capital and production information are based on unaudited estimated results. These estimated results are subject to change upon completion of the audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2018, and changes could be material. The Company anticipates filing its audited financial statements and related management's discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2018 on SEDAR at www.sedar.com on or before April 30, 2019.

Industry Metrics

This news release contains metrics commonly used in the oil and natural gas industry. Each of these metrics is determined by the Company as set out below or elsewhere in this news release. These metrics are "reserve replacement", "F&D costs", "FD&A costs", "net asset value", and "reserve-life index". These metrics do not have standardized meanings and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. As such, they should not be used to make comparisons.

Management uses these oil and gas metrics for its own performance measurements and to provide shareholders with measures to compare the Company's performance over time, however, such measures are not reliable indicators of the Company's future performance and future performance may not compare to the performance in previous periods.

"F&D costs" are calculated by dividing the sum of the total capital expenditures for the year (in dollars) by the change in reserves within the applicable reserves category (in boe). F&D costs, including FDC, includes all capital expenditures in the year as well as the change in FDC required to bring the reserves within the specified reserves category on production.

"FD&A costs" are calculated by dividing the sum of the total capital expenditures for the year inclusive of the net acquisition costs and disposition proceeds (in dollars) by the change in reserves within the applicable reserves category inclusive of changes due to acquisitions and dispositions (in boe). FD&A costs, including FDC, includes all capital expenditures in the year inclusive of the net acquisition costs and disposition proceeds as well as the change in FDC required to bring the reserves within the specified reserves category on production.

The Company uses F&D and FD&A as a measure of the efficiency of its overall capital program including the effect of acquisitions and dispositions. The aggregate of the exploration and development costs incurred in the most recent financial year and the change during that year in estimated future development costs generally will not reflect total finding and development costs related to reserves additions for that year.

"Net Asset Value" or "NAV" is calculated based on Leucrotta's estimated future net revenues before taxes associated with Leucrotta's reserves plus the value of undeveloped land and working capital, divided by the number of common shares outstanding. The term NAV does not have any standardized meaning according to IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Management believes that NAV can provide information useful to its shareholders in understanding its performance and may assist in the evaluation of its business relative to its peers.

"Reserve replacement" is calculated by dividing the annual proved plus probable reserve adds (in boe) by the Company's annual production (in boe). The Company uses this measure to determine the relative change of its reserves base over a period of time by measuring the amount of proved reserves and proved plus probable reserves added to a company's reserve base during the year relative to the amount of oil and gas produced.

"Reserve life index" or "RLI" is calculated by dividing the reserves (in boe) in the referenced category by the latest quarter of production (in boe) annualized. The Company uses this measure to determine how long the booked reserves will last at current production rates if no further reserves were added.

Abbreviations

Bbl barrel

Mbbl thousands of barrels

MMbtu millions of British thermal units

Mcf thousand cubic feet

MMcf million cubic feet

Tcf trillion cubic feet

NGLs natural gas liquids

BOE barrel of oil equivalent

MBOE thousands of barrels of oil equivalent

WTI West Texas Intermediate at Cushing Oklahoma

For further information, please contact:

LEUCROTTA EXPLORATION INC.

700, 639 -5th Ave SW

Calgary, Alberta T2P 0M9

www.leucrotta.ca

Phone: (403) 705-4525

Fax: (403) 705-4526

Robert Zakresky

President and Chief Executive Officer

Phone: (403) 705-4525

Nolan Chicoine

Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer

Phone: (403) 705-4525

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.

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March 8, 2019 (Investorideas.com Newswire) As Lion One moves forward with getting its low-cost, fully permitted Fiji gold mine into production, Dr. Quinton Hennigh joins the team as an advisor.

The mention of Fiji conjures pictures of pristine tropical beaches and pristine water. Fiji Water has become one of the top selling brands of imported water in the United States, and is intertwined, unexpectedly, with mining.

In the late 1960s, two Canadian entrepreneurs, David Gilmour and Peter Munk, bought property in Fiji and founded the Southern Pacific Hotels Corp., which they sold within a decade. They then went on to found Barrick Gold Corp., now the largest gold mining company in the world, and eventually also started Fiji Water.

Some two decades later, mining executive Walter Berukoff visited Fiji to invest in the hotel and resort industry, and learned that the same ancient volcanoes that served as aquifers for Fiji's water also created gold fields. He founded Lion One Metals Ltd. (LIO:TSX.V; LOMLF:OTCQX), which in 2011 acquired the high-grade Tuvatu gold mining project, located less than 20 kilometers from Fiji's major airport, Nadi, on the main island of Viti Levu.

Tuvatu's previous owners advanced it to a feasibility study in 2000, and the project has seen more than 110,000 meters of drilling to date, along with 1,600 meters of underground development. Last year the company reported that surface sampling from the Jomaki prospect of Tuvatu returned the high-grade result of 502 g/t gold over 0.70 meters. Less than 10% of its leased land has been explored.

Dr. Quinton Hennigh's appointment as technical advisor highlights the potential of the project. Dr. Hennigh is an "internationally renowned economic geologist, with over 25 years of exploration experience and expertise with major gold mining companies such as Homestake Mining Company, Newcrest Mining Limited, and Newmont Mining Corporation where he last served as senior research geologist in 2007."

Lion One noted that Hennigh has since "made a number of significant gold discoveries for Canadian exploration companies such as the 5 million ounce Springpole alkaline gold deposit near Red Lake, Ontario, for Gold Canyon Resources, and the Rattlesnake Hills gold project for Evolving Gold." He is the chairman and president of Novo Resources Corp., which is exploring for gold in Australia.

"Quinton is the ideal person to direct our Fiji exploration activities in conjunction with Lion One Managing Director Stephen Mann, and VP Exploration Darren Holden," said Lion One Chairman and CEO Walter Berukoff. "We're excited about him joining our team as we advance this project towards production. He clearly shares our thesis that Tuvatu is a gold system of similar potential scale to the world-class Vatukoula gold deposit 40 km away where 7 million ounces of gold have been produced."

"I recently visited Walter Berukoff and his Fiji exploration team and I'm very excited to provide strategic technical advice to Lion One on Tuvatu," said Dr. Hennigh. "After completing my site visit and technical review I believe that Tuvatu has similarities not only to Vatukoula and other large alkaline systems in the South Pacific, but also to several multi-million ounce alkaline gold systems I'm familiar with in North America. Given that only a very small volume of the overall system has been explored, I see excellent potential for growth at Tuvatu."

Clive Maund noted on March 1 on CliveMaund.com, "Hennigh was the driving force behind Novo Resources, which as we know turned out to be a spectacular investment for early buyers."

The share price of Hennigh's Novo Resources skyrocketed from CA$0.80 to over CA$8 in 2017 after it announced it found gold nuggets in its trench sampling at its Purdy's Reward prospect in Australia. The stock is currently trading at around CA$2.73.

Ring of Fire

Fiji sits in the southwest Pacific Ring of Fire that has resulted in large volcanic deposits in places like Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The Lihir Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea features a resource of 50 million ounces of gold, on top of the 9 million ounces of gold already produced.

Vatukoula, a gold mine in Fiji just 20 miles from Lion One's Tuvatu, has produced 7 million ounces of gold and has a 4 million ounce gold resource.

The government of Fiji supports mining and awarded Lion One a long-term mining lease in 2016. Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has said, "Mining will take Fiji forward; Tuvatu is a model of what we can achieve economically, socially and environmentally."

Hamish Greig, vice president of Lion One, lists some of the advantages Tuvatu offers. "Lion One has many of risks associated with mining covered," Greig noted. "On commodity price risk, Tuvatu is a high-grade, low-cost gold mining start-up with an internal rate of return (IRR) of 52% at a US$1,200 gold price. And gold is hanging in there at or above US$1,300."

On permitting, "Pierre Lassonde, chairman of Franco-Nevada Corp., has said that it is now taking an average of 7 to 12 years to permit a mine, but Lion One is fully permitted to production," Greig stated.

"Large miners face the issue of replacing reserves. We have an entire volcanic system that has gold outcroppings across five miles," he added.

At Tuvatu, derisking, development and exploration continue with plant site construction underway. The mine plan is to produce 260,000 ounces of gold in the first three years at a cash cost of US$567 per ounce and an all-in sustaining cost of $779 per ounce.

Advancements continue. The company recent announced that Lion One has contracted with Switzerland-based clean energy provider meeco Group to build and install a hybrid solar-diesel power plant for Tuvatu. "Lion One will use meeco's 7 MW peak 'sun2live' solar power generation system coupled with diesel generators to generate up to 11 MW peak power production providing a continuous 24-hour source of power for the Tuvatu gold mine and processing plant," the company noted.

"We are excited to partner with meeco to build a clean solar energy solution for powering the Tuvatu Gold Project," said Lion One Managing Director Stephen Mann. "meeco has a solid track record of installing and operating solar hybrid power plants world-wide. This hybrid system will not only reduce our carbon footprint, but will enable Lion One to meet our power capacity requirements while significantly reducing fuel consumption and operating costs for the Tuvatu gold."

Brien Lundin, writing in the March issue of Gold Newsletter, noted Lion One "plans to power its gold mine and processing plant at Tuvatu with a hybrid solar/diesel power plant that will generate up to 11 MW of peak power production. The company is working with Swiss-based clean energy provider the meeco Group to build and install the plant."

Lion One is also constructing an assay lab in Fiji and plans to start the commissioning process in Q2 2019. The new lab will be equipped for gold analysis by "fire assay with atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) finish. A large range of other elements will be assayed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). The facility will also be utilized to conduct metallurgical optimization test work including flotation and leaching."

"The new facility will greatly reduce costs and return times on geochemical and metallurgical sampling results," Mann noted. "Currently the return times on average take 4 to 6 weeks with samples sent to Australia or Canada at a significant cost that included other logistics such as customs clearance, freight, transport, and analysis. The company will soon be able to benefit from 24-48 hour turnaround on results, greatly enhancing planning and direction of future exploration, mine planning and metallurgical work at the Tuvatu Gold Project."

Because Fiji doesn't not have any geochemical and metallurgical analysis facilities, the company plans to have the facility internationally certified so that it also can serve local industries.

And, in another move to lower its costs, Lion One in January announced that it has purchased all the drilling assets of a Fiji-based drilling company, Geodrill.

"With the purchase of these drilling assets Lion One has also hired an experienced local drilling team that will ensure the company has readily available, cost effective drilling capabilities well into the future," said Mann. "We can now plan future exploration drilling and have access to essential equipment at a significantly reduced cost to undertake that work. Such further work will be scheduled following the end of the current wet season in Fiji."

Lion One has around 101 million shares outstanding, and just under 112 million fully diluted. Management owns about 22% of the shares, and major institutional shareholders include Donald Smith & Co. at 14%, Franklin Precious Metals Fund at 9.99%, JP Morgan Asset Management UK at 6% and MacKenzie Precious Metals at 3%.

Brien Lundin opines Lion One's stock "remains a levered exploration and development play on gold."

Technical analyst Clive Maund, writing on CliveMaund.com on March 1, noted, "Lion One is certainly showing signs that it is turning up here, and so it should given the company's steadily improving fundamentals and the brightening outlook for the sector. . .We therefore have a situation now that is explosively bullish  and the good news for buyers here is that even after the sharp rally in January, the stock still hasnt broken out of this downtrend, so the news that Quinton Hennigh is getting involved should really light a fire under it."

Disclosure:

1) Patrice Fusillo compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee. She or members of her household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She or members of her household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.

2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Lion One Metals. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees.

3) Comments and opinions expressed are those of the specific experts and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases.

Additional Disclosures

Gold Newsletter: The publisher and its affiliates, officers, directors and owner actively trade in investments discussed in this newsletter. They may have positions in the securities recommended and may increase or decrease such positions without notice. The publisher is not a registered investment advisor. Authors of articles or special reports are sometimes compensated for their services.

Clive Maund does not own shares of Lion One and he or his company has not been paid by Lion One.

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Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions.

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March 8, 2019 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Jay Taylor of J. Taylor's Gold, Energy & Tech Stocks discusses a royalty generator company with a large number of projects in Nevada.

This is a very easy and straightforward story to tell. Not only does Ely Gold Royalties Inc. (ELY:TSX.V; ELYGF:OTCQB) have 77 Nevada properties in play but it is already enjoying one royalty and expects a second royalty to start kicking in by June of this year. Without any other revenues, these two properties are expected to generate $1.25 million this year, which will cover all corporate overhead and SG&A. But that's chump change compared to what I expect this company will earn, as it has royalties on several advanced-stage projects in the hands of solid companies.

Of the 74 properties in play, here is a breakdown of their various stages:

27 deeded royalties

21 projects optioned to third parties

26 available properties

Anticipated royalty revenues in 2019: $1.25 million from a 1% royalty from the Fenelon Project in northern Quebec and a 0.75% royalty on the Isabella Claims in Nevada.

The company also has a strong database, which is the key to property transactions, and the database continues to generate new properties and district consolidations. Also impressive to me are some of the well-known mining company partners that working on various projects in Ely's portfolio, such as Barrick, Coeur Mining (two projects), Hochschild Mining (four projects) and Gold Resource Corp. (four projects).

Ely has also been able to consolidate properties and, as a result, gain royalties on a number of Nevada properties, including the following: Mina Gold, Isabella, County Line, Weepah, Tonapah and Gold Bar. The Isabella Project is being developed by NYSE-traded Gold Resource Corp. and the first royalties are expected to start flowing toward Ely by June of this year. The Gold Bar Project is being developed by one of our current recommendations, namely, Fremont Gold.

With the very large portfolio of companies owned by Ely, it is of course impossible to begin to talk about all of them. But let me point out some of the more advanced projects, beginning with two that are expected to start generating cash flow to Ely this year.

Fenelon Gold Mine, Northern QuebecWhile most all of the company's focus is on Nevada, last year management purchased a 1% royalty from Balmoral Resources for $500,000 in cash plus 1 million common shares issued at a deemed value of $0.10 per share. The underground mine currently has a small high-grade resource but with mineralization open at depth, exploration will be ongoing as mining proceeds. At present, commercial operating permits are being applied for but the company does have permission for bulk mining of some 35,000 tonnes grading between 18 and 25 g/t gold. Expectations are that some 26,000 ounces of gold will be produced from this bulk mining. A 1% royalty would amount to 260 ounces of gold, which at $1,300 would be worth approximately US$338,000. At current exchange rates, that mounts to around C$450,000, thus returning most of the initial cash investment to acquire this royalty.

Admittedly, a small-scale mining operation like this may not excite many investors, but as a starter asset, with a high probability of high-grade mineralization extending to depth, this project could provide long-term cash flows that repay the initial investment many times over.

The Fenelon Gold Mine Project is being advanced by Wallbridge Mining, another company that Eric Sprott has a position in. It trades in the U.S. under the symbol WLBMF. It is headed by Marz Kord, a mining engineer with over 30 years of experience in the mining industry, spanning a career over which Mr. Kord has held progressively more responsible roles in both operations and management. During the early part of his career with Falconbridge, Mr. Kord was involved in mining operations in both Sudbury and Timmins.

In 2017 and since acquisition, Wallbridge has completed 33 drill holes totalling 6,348 meters in three surface exploration drilling campaigns at Fenelon (see Wallbridge Press Release dated December 13, 2017). Results from this initial year's exploration drilling program exceeded expectations and resulted in an expanded exploration target for the area near existing infrastructure and above 150 meters depth. In 2017, some of the high-grade intersections were:

141.16 g/t over 7.06 meters

311.08 g/t over 3.06 meters

260.44 g/t over 7.02 meters

80.42 g/t over 4.73 meters

In 2018 with 18,000 meters drilled, 10,000 of which was from surface and 8,000 from underground, the following high-grade intersections were reported.

144.96 g/t over 1.77 meters

262.18 g/t over 0.97 meters

137.63 g/t over 4.1 meters

611.00 g/t over 0.4 meters

Very little drilling has been carried out below 150 meters and the mineralization remains open to depth and along strike. In addition, drill intersections along the 4-kilometer strike length of the mineralized structure demonstrate potential for new discoveries on the broader property. Wallbridge is immediately targeting 250,000 to 400,000 high-grade ounces at depth. It looks to me as if Ely Gold could receive a very quick payback of its capital and then enjoy a long life of royalties for its shareholders.

Isabella Pearl 0.75% NSRThe Isabella Pearl Gold Project is located in south-central Nevada's Walker Lane Mineral Belt in Mineral County, Nevada. The property covers 494 mining claims comprising 3,642 hectares (9,000 acres), of which 58 claims encompass the Isabella Pearl deposit and planned mine area.

On June 19, 2018, the company commenced construction at Isabella Pearl and targets the first gold pour by June 19, 2019. The Isabella Pearl project contains Proven and Probable reserves estimated at 2,694,500 tonnes grading 2.22 grams per tonne, which equates to 192,600 gold ounces based on a feasibility reported dated December 31, 2017. Future production development anticipates two adjacent open pits with the Isabella pit averaging approximately 1 gram per tonne gold with mineral outcropping at the surface, and the Pearl pit averaging approximately 3.7 grams per tonne gold with a higher-grade core averaging nearly 5 grams per tonne gold. The project estimates an average 5:1 strip ratio with metallurgical tests estimating gold recoveries for crushed oxide rock of 81% and run of mine ore (ROM) of 60% using conventional heap leaching. Small amounts of silver are expected in recoveries, which would be treated as by-product credits against gold production costs.

The Isabella Pearl is being developed by NYSE-traded Gold Resource Corporation (NYSE-GORO). The acquisition cost for Ely was US$300,000 cash. In year one it is expected to produce 20,000 to 30,000 ounces and in years 2 and 3 between 30,000 and 40,000 ounces. There are 10 Isabella Pearl claims, all of which are subject to Ely's 0.75% royalty.

Advanced Exploration Projects

Following is a list of the company's royalty holdings:

Here are a couple of the more advanced royalty holdings that are being worked on now:

Castle/Blackrock Lease 2% NSRThe Castle/Blackrock Lease was acquired for US$500,000 for a large package of properties and royalties, including Castle/Blackrock. It also included the Eastside Project, which is the flagship of Allegiant Gold, within its 17-project portfolio. The Eastside Project has a historical resource of 272,000 oz. of gold.

Gold Rock ResourceEly has a 0.50% NSR on this project that is being developed by Fiore Gold. The project consists of a large 20,300-hectare contiguous land package on the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend, anchored by the former Easy Junior Mine, which reportedly produced approximately 2.6 million tonnes at a grade of 0.89 grams per tonne for 74,945 gold ounces in the early 1990s. The area in and around the former Easy Junior Mine hosts a recently released mineral resource as follows:

Management believes there is an excellent chance to grow the project along strike, both north and south of the former Easy Junior open-pit mine. This is a 200-sq.-kilometer contiguous land package on the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend.

As noted above, the company has some 21 properties that are optioned to third parties. The options are for 100% and are purchased from Ely for cash payments and/or ongoing option requirements during the time the options are held. Following is a schedule of options held with the schedule of payments coming to the company in 2019 from the current portfolio.

These are options only. Ely has no interest in holding a JV interest. However, they are subject to future royalties payable to Ely and the projects are scalable, meaning that royalty payments in the future can grow as the project and production grow.

A typical option contract lasts for four years with escalating and balloon payments over that time frame. There are no work commitments and data is held open to the public on all properties.

As noted previously, the company has an additional 26 optionable properties available for options.

MANAGEMENT

Trey Wasser, President, CEO and Director

President and Director of Research for Pilot Point Partners LLC

Over 33 years of brokerage and venture capital experience, with 20 years as a corporate finance specialist with Merrill Lynch, Kidder Peabody and Paine Webber

Specialized in equity/debt re-structuring and cash management.

Founded Due Diligence Tours organizing analyst tours to hundreds of mining properties in North America.

Jerry W. Baughman, Director BSc, PGeo, President

Certified Professional Geologist (CPG) with the American Institute of Professional Geologists (since 1997), a graduate of University of Nevada with degrees in geology and economic geology

Over thirty years of experience in mineral exploration in the United States, Mexico and South America

Based in the Reno area, has extensive experience as an independent geologist evaluating gold and silver properties.

Former geologist and management positions with Southwestern Gold, Cambior (USA), Gryphon Gold, Fronteer Gold

A member of the Geological Society of Nevada (GSN), a member of the Nevada Petroleum Society (NPS), a member of the Society of Economic Geologist (SEG), a member of the British Columbia & Yukon Chamber of Mines, and a member of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC).

A Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101

Scott Kelly, CFO & Corporate Secretary

Over 12 years of senior management experience in the global mining sector

Current CFO of Ethos Gold Corp, Sonoro Metals Corp and Marlin Gold Mining Ltd.

Held the office of VP Finance for Pediment Gold Corp until its acquisition by Argonaut Gold Inc.

Bachelor of Commerce degree from Royal Roads University (2001).

Stephen Kenwood, BSc, PGeo, Director & Qualified Person

B.Sc. (geology) from the University of British Columbia. Over 25 years world-wide experience in mining sector and 15 years experience managing junior exploration companies

Former geologist with Cominco on the Snip gold mine, project geologist at Eskay Creek, and project geologist at the Petaquilla copper-gold porphyry deposit

Currently President and a director of Majestic Gold Corp., President and a director of Remo Resource Corp., and director of two other TSX.V listed companies

Tom Wharton, Independent Director

Over 30 years experience with start-up, development and financing of early stage mining companies

Currently on the board of Angel Gold, DV Resources and Dolly Varden Silver

Ron K. Husband, MBA, Independent Director

Currently Director of Sonoro Metals Corp.

15 years of world-wide experience

MBA from the University of Calgary

Chairman of the Audit & Compensation Committees

William M. Sheriff, Independent Director

Entrepreneur and visionary with over 30 years' experience in the minerals and securities industries.

Founder and Executive Chairman of Golden Predator Corp. Prior to founding Golden Predator Corp.

Currently serves as Chairman of enCore Energy Corp.

Previously served as Chairman of EMC Metals Corp., and as a Director of Western Lithium USA Inc., Uranium One Inc., Midway Gold Corp., Eurasian Minerals Inc. and Starcore International Mines Ltd.

Holds a B.Sc degree (Geology) from Fort Lewis College, Colorado and an MSc in Mining Geology from the University of Texas-El Paso.

THE BOTTOM LINE

This company has a large number of projects, most of which are in Nevada. Its business model generates cash now through its sale of options, and its large database allows it to generate new prospects. The one negative at the present time is that there are no really large-scale deposits yet outlined. However, with such a large number of prospective projects hosted in various area of Nevada where elephant-size deposits are known to exist, the potential for one of Ely's partners to outline something large that could allow this company to develop into something that is meaningfully large would seem to be considerable.

For the time being, as noted above, the company is set to receive at least $1.25 million in 2019, which will cover all overhead while work continues on several exploration targets. Compared to its peers, this company carries a very low valuation. I see very little downside compared to upside at a time when growth should really start to accelerate first from developing projects and longer term from the pipeline. If you find this story of interest, you may wish to view the presentation here, made on behalf of Ely Gold at the January 2019 Metals Investor forum.

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As he followed the demolition of the U.S. gold standard and the rapid rise in the national debt, Jay Taylor's interest in U.S. monetary and fiscal policy grew, particularly as it related to gold. He began publishing North American Gold Mining Stocks in 1981. In 1997, he decided to pursue his avocation as a new full-time careerincluding publication of his weekly J. Taylor's Gold, Energy & Tech Stocks newsletter. He also has a radio program, "Turning Hard Times Into Good Times."

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5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Allegiant Gold, a company mentioned in this article.

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J Taylor's Gold, Energy & Tech Stocks (JTGETS), is published monthly as a copyright publication of Taylor Hard Money Advisors, Inc. (THMA), Tel.: (718) 457-1426. Website: www.miningstocks.com. THMA provides investment ideas solely on a paid subscription basis. Companies are selected for presentation in JTGETS strictly on their merits as perceived by THMA. No fee is charged to the company for inclusion. The currency used in this publication is the U.S. dollar unless otherwise noted. The material contained herein is solely for information purposes. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and due diligence, and/or obtain professional advice. The information contained herein is based on sources, which the publisher believes to be reliable, but is not guaranteed to be accurate, and does not purport to be a complete statement or summary of the available information. Any opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. The editor, his family and associates and THMA are not responsible for errors or omissions. They may from time to time have a position in the securities of the companies mentioned herein. No statement or expression of any opinions contained in this report constitutes an offer to buy or sell the shares of the company mentioned above. Under copyright law, and upon their request companies mentioned in JTGETS, from time to time pay THMA a fee of $250 to $500 per page for the right to reprint articles that are otherwise restricted solely for the benefit of paid subscribers to JTGETS.

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Member of Parliament for South Okanagan-West Kootenay Richard Cannings said the recent turmoil in Ottawa resulting in high-level Liberal cabinet resignations is just another instance of a disappointing pattern.

"It shows a tendency of the Liberal government and I would say the Conservative government before them to try to get good deals for big corporations, and they're deals us normal people normally wouldn't get," Cannings said.

The Prime Minister's office is alleged to have improperly pressured then-attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to quash a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, a company facing corruption charges.

"SNC Lavalin is a big company, lots of Canadians work there, 9,000 jobs or something, and I certainly am concerned about those jobs, if they would have been at risk, but I don't think they would have been," Cannings said.

"This is a company that has acted quite badly on the international scene in terms of bribery and corruption, and we have laws in Canada about that and so that case is proceeding."

Cannings said he was disturbed by the Liberal government's choice to try and blame everything on Wilson-Raybould.

"And now we have Jane Philpott who has resigned, she's one of, if not the most, respected person in cabinet. You know, that I think speaks volumes as to the seriousness of this matter," Cannings said. "If anyone thinks there's nothing to see here, I think this shows that there indeed is."

Cannings, a member of the New Democratic Party, will be running in his riding again in the upcoming October election, against Conservative challenger Helena Konanz and Liberal Connie Denesiuk.
Zain Saudi Arabia and Nokia recently signed two important Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona that reportedly will enable Zain to quickly launch IoT services and applications and provide innovative end-to-end solutions to enterprise and public sector segments in Saudi Arabia. The collaboration will help Zain KSA to further its digitalization initiatives to transform Saudi Arabia in line with the National Transformation Plan 2020 and Vision 2030.

Zain KSA and Nokia said they will work together to provide Saudi Arabia with the latest innovative solutions including IoT, cloud services, security applications, and reliable and high-speed network connectivity solutions. By using Zain KSA's existing infrastructure and network connectivity coupled with Nokia's solutions, the mobile operator hopes to digitalize its services, increase agility and be fully secure with optimized CAPEX and OPEX investment.

As part of the first MoU, Zain KSA will leverage Nokia's Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) to launch IoT services and the two companies will work towards the development of a strong IoT ecosystem in the country.

According to the second MoU, Zain and Nokia will partner to provide innovative enterprise solutions including radio, cloud, IoT and security solutions to enterprises from different verticals, such as public safety, aviation, energy, transport, healthcare and water.

Accelerating our IoT and smart cities initiatives through Nokia's superior IoT platform, WING and ancillary professional services, will enable us to build a modern IoT infrastructure and provide services to improve productivity and lifestyle comfort, said Eng. Sultan Abdulaziz AlDeghaither, CEO of Zain Saudi Arabia. We will collaborate to explore new business models, technical requirements and use cases for the launch of IoT services."

These two important MoUs pave the way for the acceleration of Zain KSA's digitalization efforts toward transformation of Saudi Arabia. We look forward to working with the operator to support them in creating IoT use cases and applications for its enterprise subscribers, said Ali Jitawi, head of the Zain Saudi Arabia customer team, Nokia. Further, the enterprises, both large and small, want to use the latest technologies to enhance collaboration and bring down their operational expenditure. Our world-class and proven products along with Zain KSA's robust network infrastructure is a winning combination to address the demands of the enterprises in the country.

Edited by Ken Briodagh
Here are all the latest headlines this lunchtime...

GET INFORMED ...

IRELAND: Police in the North say a teenager and her mother found dead in Newry, Co. Down, yesterday were alive on Sunday.

IRELAND: A jury has convicted a man of murdering a 90-year-old retired farmer who was found beaten to death in his own home.

IRELAND: Families bereaved by security forces violence who met Karen Bradley over her controversial comments on state killings gave her a photograph of an 11-year-old boy in his coffin after he was shot dead by the British Army.

IRELAND: Several parts of the country are set to be hit with snow again this weekend.

WORLD: The UK will be plunged into uncertainty and may never leave the European Union if MPs reject the Brexit deal, Theresa May said.

BUSINESS: The chief executives of the top 350 FTSE companies on the London Stock Exchange are still more likely to be called Andrew or David than they are to be a woman, according to an expert.

ANALYSIS: Today is International Womens Day. It is a day to be happy and rejoice. We can decide to be either depressed or encouraged at the general state of gender equality, so lets choose the latter, writes Alison O'Connor.

SPORT: Aoife Lane: I believe GAA is ready to embrace equality.

SPORT: Cork have a deeper talent pool this year, says Ronan Curran.

... SOME DISTRACTION

LIFESTYLE: Feelgood guest editor Vicky Phelan: "When I was approached by the Irish Examiner to guest edit a cervical cancer special edition of Feelgood on International Womens Day, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands."

SHOWBIZ: Irish album of year prize 'a great way to finish up' for Cork-based band O Emperor.

VIRAL: Kinder is launching a new range of ice creams across Ireland, including two frozen versions of their Kinder Bueno bars.
Dr Colin Hunt has been appointed as the CEO and Executive Director of AIB.

He replaces Bernard Byrne who will step down from his executive duties today and who will leave the company on April 26 to join Davy Group as head of its Capital Markets division.

Dr Hunt joined AIB in August 2016 as Managing Director of the Wholesale, Institutional & Corporate Banking Division.

He has previously undertaken roles at Macquarie Capital, the Departments of Transport and Finance; Research Director, Goodbody Stockbrokers, Bank of Ireland and NatWest.

In a statement today, AIB said the regulatory fitness and probity assessment process and consultation with the Minister for Finance of Ireland in respect of the proposed appointment of Dr Hunt as CEO had concluded successfully.

Commenting on the appointment, AIBs Chairman, Richard Pym said: The Board are delighted to appoint Colin as the new CEO of AIB. This appointment from within our senior team is testament to the calibre of people we have in AIB.

"I want to thank Bernard for his leadership and commend his many achievements during his time with the bank.

"I look to the future with confidence and optimism that under Colins leadership AIB will continue to grow and prosper in

the years to come," he said.
Newly rebranded financial advisory firm BKK is ready to capitalise on a number of opportunities in Irelands vibrant economy, notably a lot of activity among tech startups.

Cork-based Buckley Kiely & Co, which started life in 1977 as an accountancy practice, has this week joined forces with Kildare-based FinCAS Ltd to become BKK.

In recent years, the combined entity has arranged funding in excess of 50m for a diverse portfolio of clients.

BKK has more than 40 years experience in delivering expert advice and strategic support to entrepreneurs and business pioneers across a range of industries.

In the 1980s, Buckley Kiely & Co founder Seamus Buckley worked on acquisition deals for engineering and manufacturing SMEs. Tech is currently very active.

We have a lot of second generation entrepreneurs who are exiting startups and reinvesting in other new early stage tech businesses, said Seamus Buckley.

There is not a lot of capital available, and it is difficult enough for this sector to attract investment, but it is positive to see some of those exiting taking the opportunity to reinvest in promising startups that are at a pre-venture capital investment stage.

"Having their names attached will certainly help attract the interest of Enterprise Ireland and the VCs.

There is also a lot of activity among traditional businesses that had suffered during the recession. A lot of business owners had got caught up in the property bubble, but that has resolved itself to an extent.

"Some of these business owners are reaching retirement age, so its really important for them to get value for the business theyre selling.

Its a one-time shot for a lifetime of work; it very important for us to get it right for them. Its a bit like the character in the movie Field of Dreams, build it and they will come. With us, its do it right and a lot of good things will follow.

BKK also advises clients on currency, one area where companies can try to offset Brexit impacts. Last year, BKK joined forces with John Finn of Treasury Solutions and fellow advisory firms Gilroy Gannon, RBK and McInerney Saunders to launch TheTreasuryHub.ie.

BKK advises clients on tax, accounts and auditing, sourcing finance and succession planning, among other services.

The rebrand will cement BKKs reputation as a broker of substantial corporate finance arrangements.

Arguably one of the best kept secrets in Munster business, BKK is credited as the hidden hand behind some of the countrys best-known business success stories.

Current and previous clients include Irish-Sino-US product design firm PCH International and digital verification success story Trustev, sold in 2015 to TransUnion LLC for some $44m (39m). A selection of client testimonials accompany this story.

Reflecting on the rebrand to BKK, founder Seamus Buckley said that while the practice would continue to deliver its core service suite it was appropriate to begin thinking  and communicating - as more than a team of accountants and taxation experts.

Since 1977 we have grown and evolved with the demands of the market and to answer the challenges facing our clients, Seamus Buckley said.

Today, as BKK, we find ourselves in the enviable and exciting position of acting as mentors and corporate strategic advisors for companies at all stages in the business cycle; from start-ups on the fundraising trail to mid-sized firms looking to successfully scale, and established names needing a trusted partner for long-term stability.

Were proud to be seen as the go-to for entrepreneurs and enterprises who need expertise, honesty, loyalty and a shared sense of belief in their business. Its the right time for us to reflect this in our name and identity, and to communicate clearly the range and the depth of our expertise.

FinCAS founder Fiachra Kirwan brings significant experience working closely with innovative companies, which will be invaluable in BKKs current wave of work with tech SMEs. He is a chartered accountant with over 15 years experience.

Mr Kirwan becomes a partner of the newly-named BKK, joining founding partner Seamus Buckley as well as partners John Kiely, John Flynn and Fearghal Collins on the firms senior management lineup.

Also coming under the BKK umbrella are the entire FinCAS team, bringing to 45 the number of BKK accountants, consultants and financial professionals, to be split between Blackrock, Cork, and Maynooth, Co Kildare.

Buckley Kiely & Co. has become BKK. A new name and a new brand, but the same depth of expertise and commitment to client service that has driven us for more than 40 years.



Read more: https://t.co/e1PU07WUTc pic.twitter.com/gTvKosmWVT  BKK (@BKK_Advisors) March 6, 2019

I am delighted to welcome Fiachra and his entire team in joining the BKK family, Seamus Buckley said.

It is a pivotal time for the company, and for me personally, as we position BKK for strategic growth and take on the challenge of competing at a national level.

Fiachras depth of expertise and his experience of the entrepreneurial mindset make him a fantastic match for BKK, and we look forward to a bright future together. For his part, Kirwan said the merger of FinCAS Ltd and BKK has served to strengthen the hand of both firms in meeting the opportunities of the years to come.

Ive long been an admirer of the work done by Seamus and his partners in the practice, and shared connections made our formally combining forces something of a natural evolution, Kirwan said.

Im extremely excited  as are all of FinCAS  to become BKK and to be plan for a productive future for our clients. As we speak we are finalising a number of major deals on behalf of clients which we look forward to sharing details of in the coming weeks and months.

A word from BKKs clients

The partnership with Seamus Buckley began in 1996, when I initially formed PCH International. In the early years, BKK fulfilled the role of managing the setup and administration of the company, enabling me to focus on business development. We maintain close involvement with BKK and use their extensive experience and expertise. Their advice is invaluable, as it is based on years of co-operation, integrity, and success.

 Liam Casey, PCH International

BKK was an invaluable partner to us at every stage of the development of Trustev, and went the extra mile to assist us in the start-up phase. The team is made up of real experts in their fields, which gave us great confidence and comfort that our affairs were well looked after. I recommend BKK to every IT start-up I know!

 Pat Phelan, former CEO, Trustev

Having recently worked with BKK on a key project, I can confirm they brought expert advice, strategic thinking, paid great attention to detail, went beyond the call of duty, and shared their wider network to ensure success of the project. The people are a pleasure to work with, as they are very client-focused.

 Pat Casey, Swyft Energy

BKK has been of tremendous support to us. I couldnt imagine doing it without them!

 DC Cahalane, Republic of Work

We have been using BKK outsourced payroll, bookkeeping and management accounts services since we opened in Ireland in 1997. The longevity of the relationship is testament to their quality of service and the relationship we have built with them.

 Sean Foley, Cypress Semiconductor Ireland

BKK were an essential part of helping us to build our expansion strategy since 2013, and also raising funds to implement that strategy. I will continue to work with them for Fairy Door or any other business I am involved in. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

 Oisin Barry, The Irish Fairy Door Company

Through boom and bust, BKK has continued to help keep us profitable and they are a great source of positive encouragement. Nothing is too much trouble. I would recommend BKK without hesitation to anyone in business or thinking of starting a business  they are professional, knowledgeable, experienced and will go the extra mile.

 Tom Bryan, Toss Bryan, Fermoy

BKK supported me through a company buy-out. I was reassured all throughout the process that the team had the relevant knowledge in order for the deal to be completed in the most efficient way. I would certainly recommend BKK to anyone looking for strong financial support within their company/organisation.

 Christine King, Castle Homecare
Lucy ODonoghue is the new manager of the Exxcel programme for proactive female entrepreneurs in the Rubicon Centre, CIT.

Lucy combines this part-time role with running her public relations and events management business in Cork.

Prior to setting up her own business, Lucy ODonoghue Consulting, she was membership and development manager at Cork Chamber.

Exxcel is a part-time programme aimed at busy female entrepreneurs who have a business idea with high growth and export potential, within the STEM sector (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). The 2019 programme starts shortly.

Lucy said: Im keen to tap into our innovation culture and the quality of entrepreneurial ideas out there and looking forward to getting the 2019 programme up and running. It is the only one in Ireland dedicated to the STEM sector and this sets it apart.

Id be delighted to get expressions of interest from females who are keen to start their entrepreneurship journey and take that first step with our support.

"You can register your interest online (see below) or you can email me email at LucyODonoghue@rubiconcentre.ie to arrange a suitable time to chat.

Part-funded by Enterprise Ireland, delivered over six months, it works around professional and busy life commitments, with participants taking modules on different topics over six Saturdays at the Rubicon Centre on CIT campus.

Recent graduates include Derval ORourke of DERVAL.ie, an online programme that creates food and fitness plans for clients, Breffni Allen of Habitus, a wearable device which has the ability to detect improper posture and Riona Flood of Smart Groom, an online website for grooms.

www.rubiconcentre.ie/programmes/exxcel-female-entrepreneurship

Grapevine: Business movers

Gearoid Collins has been appointed as sales director with wireless consultancy Vilicom. He joins from IWG PLC, where he was country manager for its brands Regus and Spaces.

He was previously head of commercial B2B with Virgin Media Business Ireland, and holds a BA from UCC, and DBS from UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.

Vilicom provides wireless engineering consultancy, solutions, services to mobile operators, real estate, transport and energy sectors.

It employs 70 people and has operations in Ireland, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

It is further expanding into EU markets in 2019 as it has seen an upsurge in demand for its services.

Kathleen Linehan has joined Trigon Hotels as Strategic Director of Human Resources.

Kathleen previously held the role of HR/ER Manager with The Gleneagle Hotel Group and previously ALPS Electric (Irl)) Ltd.

She has over 11 years experience in Human Resources having worked in both manufacturing, and hospitality industries, her expertise includes organisational development.

Kathleen has also a strong involvement with accessible tourism having been the first in the world to achieve an ENAT Quality label for her previous group and most recently a Failte Ireland Innovation Award.

Kathleen is a Millstreet native who has a keen involvement with local GAA and Comhaltas.

Donal Galvin, AIB Banks deputy CFO and group treasurer, has been appointed as CFO.

He joined AIB Group in September 2013. He has worked in domestic and international financial markets over the last 20 years.

Prior to joining AIB, he was MD with Mizuho Securities Asia, the investment banking arm of Japanese bank Mizuho, where he led Asian global markets.

Before that he was MD in Dutch Rabobank for its London and Asian global financial markets business as well as treasurer of Rabobank International.

Richard Pym, AIB chair, said: The fact that Donal has been appointed from within the ranks of AIB is a positive reflection on the group.

Keith Waine has been named as partner and head of financial regulation with law firm Dillon Eustace.

He will lead regulatory advice and support domestic and international corporates, financial services providers, banks, investment firms, retail credit firms, credit servicers, payments firms, e-money firms and insurers.

With 10 years of industry experience working as head of legal and compliance at National Irish Bank (later Danske Bank), co-founder and chief compliance officer of an alternative mortgage lender and head of legal at Barclays Bank Ireland, he joined Dillon Eustace in February.

Mr Waine qualified as a solicitor in 2002 with Linklaters in London, where he spent eight years.

He also holds the LCOI designation from the Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland.

Maurice Tulloch has been appointed CEO with insurance firm Aviva plc, with acting CEO Adrian Montague reverting to non-executive chairman.

Maurice joined Aviva in 1992 and was appointed to its board in 2017. He is Avivas CEO for international insurance, responsible its operations in France, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Turkey and India.

He was previously CEO of Aviva UK and Ireland General Insurance, one of the largest businesses in the Aviva group.

Born March 1969 in Falkirk, Scotland, he is a chartered professional accountant (CPA, CMA), and holds a MBA from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and a BA in Economics from the University of Waterloo.

He is a member of the Insurance Development Forum (IDF) and a non-executive director of Pool Re. Maurice was also previously chair of ClimateWise.

Gavin Downes has been appointed as head of strategy with creative agency Clive, based in its Dublin office.

He will work with Clives clients, including Indeed, Slack, Irish Life, Facebook, Accenture, Visa, Pinterest and Dell Technologies.

He has over 15 years experience across B2B and B2C in a mix of client and agency-side roles, covering the UK and Ireland, Western Europe and Australia.

He has worked with brands including Heineken, Vodafone, Three, Nokia, Telefonica O2, and Just Eat.

Born in Ireland, he has lived and worked in the US, Indonesia, UK and Australia.

Downes has also lectured to Marketing Masters Students in the Smurfit Business School, contributed to various marketing and business publications, and is a founding member of the Experiential Marketing Ireland network.
MoneyConf has announced it's moving its finance conference from Dublin to Lisbon this year.

It was scheduled to take place in Ireland in June but it's relocating to the Portuguese capital to run alongside the WebSummit in November.
UK retailer John Lewis Partnership cut its employee-owners annual bonuses to the lowest level in more than half a century, underlining the depths of the crisis in the countrys retail business.

The operator of department store chain, John Lewis, and grocer, Waitrose, said it cut the bonus to reduce debt, maintain investment, and retain cash, as it wrestles with uncertainty over the economy and consumer confidence.

Profit, before bonus payments, fell 45% in the latest year. The bonus of 3% is down from 5% a year earlier and is the lowest since 1953, when the company made no payout, as Britain was stuck in a postwar economic slump. Now, the retail industry is going through a new downturn, as shoppers buy more through Amazon and keep a tighter grip on their wallets in the run-up to Brexit.

Earlier this week, rival department-store chain Debenhams issued its fourth profit warning in 14 months and retailers like stationer Paperchase are seeking rent reductions from landlords. The profit decline shows the vulnerability of British retailers, as we hurtle towards Brexit, Kantar Consulting analyst, Anusha Couttigane, said in a research note.

As stores shut down, employment in the UK retail sector has fallen for more than three years, according to the British Retail Consortium.

The UKs biggest retailer, Tesco, announced plans to cut as many as 9,000 jobs, as German discounters, Aldi and Lidl, expand. Even the reduced payment provided a measure of relief to John Lewis employees, after the company had warned, in January, that it might not be able to pay a bonus at all. When the bonus was announced, there was a cheer louder than when there was a 15% bonus, chairman, Charlie Mayfield, said at a press briefing. The companys roughly 80,000 partners will share a lump sum of 44.7m, down from 74m a year ago.

Profit in the department store arm fell 56%. Earnings at Waitrose bounced back 18%.

Meanwhile, fashion retailer Quiz issued its third profit warning in six months, causing a renewed plunge in the shares, which have now fallen 92% percent from their July peak.

- Bloomberg
The UK said it would match an offer by the EU to protect airlines flying rights in the event of a no-deal Brexit, tackling one of the main concerns that planes could be grounded and lead to travel chaos.

The UKs Department for Transport said the British government was still working to secure a withdrawal and transition deal with Brussels, but that as part of its preparations for all eventualities it had agreed to reciprocate EU plans.
Vodafone said any move by Britain to bar equipment made by Chinas Huawei from all parts of new 5G networks would cost it hundreds of millions and very significantly slow down the deployment of the new technology.

The US has asked allies not to use Huaweis technology because it could be a vehicle for Chinese spy operations, an accusation denied by the company.

Vodafone said last month it had paused the use of Huawei components in its core networks in Europe until governments had assessed the risks.

The groups UK chief technology officer Scott Petty said that Huawei radio equipment was used in nearly a third of the companys 18,000 UK base stations - a part of the network it gauged to be very low risk.

It would also be part of the foundation for 5G technology. Vodafone said it would launch 5G in 19 towns and cities across Britain this year, adding 12 more locations to the seven cities that are already live or are soon to be live under its UK-wide trial.

If we were forced to remove Huawei from the network, we would need to go to the 32% of base stations that are currently using Huawei for radio and replace all of those with somebody elses technology and then deploy 5G on top of that, Mr Petty told reporters.

The cost of doing that runs into the hundreds of millions and would dramatically affect our 5G business case; we would have to slow down the deployment of 5G very significantly, he said.

He said operators should be able to use Huaweis radio technology on its masts even if they could not use the companys kit in the more critical transport network and core network.

Vodafone UK decided against using Chinese technology in the higher risk parts of its network more than five years ago, he added. The British government is reviewing the telecoms supply chain and is due to report in the coming months.

The head of Britains National Cyber Security Center said last month that the country was able to manage the security risks of using Huaweis equipment and it had not seen any evidence of malicious activity by the company. In the US, Huawei said it has sued the US government, saying a law limiting its US business was unconstitutional, racheting up its fight back against a US government bent on closing it out of global markets.

The law signed by President Donald Trump in August bars federal agencies and their contractors from procuring its equipment and services.

- Reuters
Kinder is launching a new range of ice creams across Ireland, including two frozen versions of their Kinder Bueno bars.

Irish people are among the highest consumers of ice cream per capita in Europe, so more varieties will surely be welcomed by ice cream lovers.

The range includes the Kinder Joy Ice Cream, Kinder Ice Cream Stick, Kinder Ice Cream Sandwich, Kinder Bueno Ice Cream Cone and the Kinder Bueno Ice Cream Bar.

"We are really excited about this partnership and to bring Kinder ice cream to Ireland," said Aoife Bambrick, brand manager of ice cream with Unilever Ireland.

This is a very special collaboration and we cant wait for the nation to try them!

The new range of frozen treats is available from today.

Kinder Bueno Ice Cream Bar

The unique Bueno bar is now available in Ice Cream form. A mix of hazelnut ice cream with a core of hazelnut sauce, covered with milk chocolate and topped with hazelnut stripes.

The Kinder Bueno Ice Cream Bar comes individually.

Kinder Bueno Ice Cream Cone

The famous Kinder Bueno refined hazelnut bar is also available as a cone. Unique hazelnut milk ice cream meets a core of milk chocolate sauce, embedded in a crunchy cone, topped with a thin layer of hazelnut cream made of Ferrero hazelnuts and topped with chocolate bits.

The Kinder Bueno Ice Cream Cone comes individually and in a four-piece multipack.

Kinder Joy Ice Cream

The iconic egg-shaped Kinder Joy is now available as an ice cream. It contains delicious milk and chocolate ice creams in a scooping cup with an exciting surprise for the summer!

The Kinder Joy Ice Cream comes individually.

Kinder Ice Cream Stick

Lovers of the popular Kinder products can now enjoy the unique Kinder experience. The Kinder Ice Cream Stick combines milk ice cream with fresh whole milk, covered with milk chocolate.

The Kinder Ice Cream Stick is available individually as well as in a 10-piece multipack.

Kinder Ice Cream Sandwich

Like all Kinder products, the Kinder Ice Cream Sandwich relies on good ingredients. Creamy milk ice cream with 40% fresh whole milk layered between two delicious cookies made of five different cereals.

Kinder Ice Cream Sandwich is the new snack for childrens afternoon break and comes individually as well as in a six-piece multipack for the whole family.
Thank you, Castanet, for Alanna Kelly's interview with Amy Soprano about the "ranch" where horses are hungry and thirsty.

I called the BC SPCA hotline and was informed the case is under investigation, and assured that the horses are now being provided with food and water.

I would like to believe they no longer need to eat their own frozen feces or plastic bags. The picture of a horse chewing a plastic bag is clear evidence of severe neglect.

The owner or manager of the ranch, Carla Christman, is no newcomer to charges of animal abuse. The BC SPCA laid charges against her in 2009 and in 2012.

However, without a lifetime ban to own animals, a previous conviction is no deterrent to business as usual and animal neglect as usual.

Until MPs acknowledge that the animal cruelty sections in the Criminal Code of Canada need to be amended to

close the loopholes which allow animal abuse, we will continue to see animals die of neglect and other cruelties.

If anyone is to blame for the continued tolerance of animal abuse in our justice system, it is the members

of Parliament who, over some 30 years, have rejected well-reasoned amendments to close those loopholes.

Helen Schiele, Kelowna
435 people have been arrested as part of a Europol-coordinated operation which seized medicines worth 168m.

The crackdown by police, customs and health regulatory authorities took place across 16 countries, including Ireland.

The items seized were worth in the region of 168m, and included 13 million units and 1.8 tonnes of medicines.

24 organised crime groups were disrupted, and criminal assets worth 3.2m were recovered.

A garda spokesperson said they were looking into the extent of these arrests had occurred in Ireland.

The operation targeting the illegal trafficking of misused medicines took place over seven months from April to October last year.

The details of the actions were not released until today due to operational reasons.

An initial nine participating EU Member States (Ireland, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Spain and the UK) were joined by seven new countries this year (Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Lithuania, Portugal, Serbia and Ukraine).

The MISMED 2 was led by the French Gendarmerie Nationale (National Gendarmerie) and the Finnish Tulli (Customs), with support from Europols Intellectual Property Crime Coalition (IPC3).

Europol's investigations show that the type of medicines trafficked across Europe includes opioids but also products used for treating major illnesses such as cancer and heart conditions.

Performance and image enhancing drugs were also found.

The number of falsified or counterfeit products being trafficked is also increasing, with these accounting for over half of the 13 million units seized in the MISMED 2 operation.
The husband of Caitriona Lucas has said it is a great honour that one of her paintings has been featured on two new stamps issued in recognition of the Irish Coast Guard.

Ms Lucas, 41, a volunteer from the Doolin Coast Guard Unit, drowned during a rescue mission off Doolin in September 2016.

An Post has now issued two stamps honouring the Irish Coast Guard which are based on an original painting by the late mother of two.

The artwork depicts a rescue team working at sea, both in the air and on the water. The scene in the painting was divided into two stamps by Vermillion Design.

Her husband, Bernard Lucas unveiled the stamps at the GPO in Dublin and said the fact that the painting features a helicopter and rescue boat made it incredibly poignant.

She painted stuff that she loved. She painted the animals at home on the farm and she painted the Coast Guard. She loved the Coast Guard, she was really into it, it was a very big part of her life, of both of our lives actually.

So, she would have painted stuff like that that she liked. Her last piece of work, for instance, was Padraig Pearse. She just had it finished just before the accident he told RTE Radios News at One programme.

Mr Lucas said Caitrionas father, her children and all her family were extremely proud of the work she did in the Coast Guard and described her as a bright light that shone brilliantly.

Mr Lucas said his hope was that the stamps would remind people of all the volunteers who are still going out every day but also of the importance of water safety.

Its what we are, what we do, thats what were there for, he said.

Caitriona Lucas who drowned during a rescue mission in 2016.

National Manager of the Coast Guards volunteer branch Gerard OFlynn said that the organisation was delighted with public recognition but was particularly pleased that Caitrionas work is being honored in this way.

We would hope that the Lucas family will take some strength from this recognition, he said.

Managing Director of An Post Retail, Debbie Byrne paid tribute to the Coast Guard and said that the stamps were a way of recognising that work and the fact that people have lost their lives in rescuing others from harm.

Stamps mark important aspects of Irish life and these beautiful stamps acknowledge the service given by members of the Coast Guard to keep us safe when we are in or near the water. We also recognise the families of those Coast Guard volunteers and staff who have lost their lives while serving the Irish people, she said.

The Irish Coast Guard responds to maritime and inland search and rescue emergencies with its main objective to reduce the loss of life on lakes, waterways, rivers, sea and coastal areas.

The organisation, comprising of 65 full-time staff and 940 volunteers, assist on average 4,500 people every year, saving 200 lives and handling 3,000 maritime emergencies.
The window of opportunity to save the life of Ruth Morrissey who is now terminally ill with cervical cancer opened in early 2016 and closed in February 2017, an expert has told the High Court.

Follow-up on Ruth Morrissey, who had surgery to remove her first bout of cervical cancer in 2014, was unthorough and she should have had MRI scans which are the gold standard every six months for three years and annually after that, Professor Bleddyn Jones said.

If she had scans after the surgery in August 2014, Professor Jones said a scan in July 2016 would have detected the recurrence.

Asked by Ruth Morrissey's Counsel Jeremy Maher SC if in 2016, depending on the location of the cancer, was there a probability of a cure, Prof. Jones replied "yes".

This poor lady is not typical of those who have belts and braces thrown at the cancer, he told Mr Justice Kevin Cross.

The window of opportunity was missed. The cancer should have been found In February 2017 but also earlier. By February 2017 it would be so large, it would not be missed, he said about the pelvic wall cancer which was diagnosed in Ms Morrissey in February last year when the tumour was found to be 7cm in diameter.

Professor Bleddyn Jones, a Professor of Clinical Radiation Biology at Oxford University and an expert in gynaecological cancer management was giving evidence in the continuing action by terminally ill Ruth Morrissey who has sued over the alleged misreading of her smear slides in 2009 and 2012 by two different US laboratories and which were taken under the

CervicalCheck screening programme.

She has also claimed if she had been told the results of smear test audits in late 2014 or early 2016 she would have insisted on an MRI and other scans.

Ruth Morrissey was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014 which recurred last year and the court has already heard the mother of one has a maximum of two years to live.

Ruth Morrissey

A recurrence of Ms Morrisey's cancer of her pelvic wall cancer was diagnosed in February 2018.

Prof. Jones told the court the cancer cells were probably in Ms Morrisseys pelvic wall before the 2014 operation. He said the follow-up after Ms Morrisseys 2014 operation was unthorough.

He told Jeremy Maher SC she developed a larger mass without it being detected which should never be the case."

Asked by Mr Maher if a scan would have detected the recurrence, he said it would become visible.

When Ruth Morrissey, he said, had the surgery, a trachelectomy in 2014, he said the tumour was so large there would be about 15% risk of recurrence and he would be extremely concerned for that patient not to have follow-up.

He said if a tumour is larger than. 2.5cm you are obliged to offer radiation.

He said you treat a patient as a relative and if Ruth Morrissey was your sister or your daughter you would do everything possible when there was a 15% risk of recurrence.

A 15% risk of recurrence, he said, would be sufficient to justify MRI scanning.

Asked by Mr Maher in relation to February 2017, Prof. Jones said if the larger tumour was treated Ms Morrissey could have a long disease-free interval but the disease had gone into the bone and her pain and suffering could have been totally prevented by radiation.

Ruth Morrissey and her husband Paul Morrissey of Kylemore, Schoolhouse Road, Monaleen, Co Limerick, have sued the HSE and the US laboratory Quest Diagnostics Ireland Ltd with offices at Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin along with Medlab Pathology Ltd with offices at Sandyford Business Park, Dublin 18.

It is claimed there was an alleged failure to correctly report and diagnose and there was an alleged misinterpretation of her smear samples taken in 2009 and 2012. A situation, it is claimed, allegedly developed where Ms Morrisseys cancer spread unidentified, unmonitored and untreated until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in June 2014.

It is further claimed a review of the 2009 and 2012 smears took place in 2014 and 2015 with the results sent to Ms Morrissey's treating gynaecologist in 2016, but she was not told until May 2018 of those review results which showed her smears were reported incorrectly.

The HSE, the court has already heard, admitted it owed a duty of care to Ms Morrissey. The laboratories deny all claims.

The case before Mr Justice Kevin Cross continues on Tuesday.
Shopping excursions to Fifth Avenue and tours of downtown Manhattan could finally be a reality for Cork Airport passengers after management said direct New York flights are two to three years away.

Flights to the Big Apple have been tantalisingly close in recent years after low-cost, long-haul airline Norwegian Air flew the first ever transatlantic journey from Cork Airport to Providence, Rhode Island on the US east coast in July 2017.

Corks runway has long been considered too short to fly transatlantic, because of the amount of fuel needed to take off and make the journey Stateside.

Despite ambitions to fly to New York from Cork, punters were disappointed when Norwegian nixed the plans, saying their Boeing Max aircraft could not make the extra air miles needed.

However, major advances in aircraft technology  even more fuel-efficient and nimble planes are in development  have now provided the clearance for liftoff, said Cork Airport managing director Niall MacCarthy.

The length of the runway will not be the previous restriction that it was, said Mr McCarthy. We were told originally that we could not do transatlantic because the technology did not enable it. The Boeing Max has proved we can do transatlantic, so the next thing is seeing how far we can go, and that is New York. The technology is getting better all the time.

Our Boston-Providence flight is back in April right through the summer with Norwegian, and our next aspiration is New York. We are working on New York, we have not got an airline interested yet, but we do foresee that there should be a flight to New York out of Cork probably in the next two to three years realistically.
Put down the cupcakes and pick up a placard.

The message from the traffic-stopping International Women's Day protest on O'Connell Bridge in Dublin city centre was both literal and figurative.

"This is not a celebration in Spain," explained Madrid native Tania Brazal who was determined to change the way the day was marked in her adopted home.

"It's a day of strike. We don't go to work, we don't go to college, we don't purchase anything. As it says here on my placard: When we stop, the world stops. We want the world to stop and take notice," she said.

"I see women coming together to have cupcakes and tea today. That's a nice thing to do but it's not going to change anything. Don't buy me cupcakes - treat me with respect. Don't bring me flowers - bring me my rights."

Tania was one of a group of several hundred women and several dozen men who assembled on the capital's main thoroughfare under the banners of trade unions, socialist parties, student unions and movements for reproductive rights.

They highlighted the plague of violence against women, the gender pay gap, lone parent poverty, the invisible and unpaid work of predominantly female carers, sexual harassment and the culture it thrives in and the plight of homeless mothers and their children.

They didn't insist on spurning cupcakes but the tone said there was a time to be militant and a time for merriment and today the former had to hold sway.

Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger was unimpressed by the special Cabinet meeting held earlier in the day to ratify the Istanbul Convention on violence against women.

It's utterly meaningless if refuges are not resourced, if rape crisis centres can't answer their phones, if the housing crisis continues.

Jess Morris of the DIT Students Union pleaded for a public consensus on the importance of embracing consent as the starting point of intimate relations.

Ciara Considence of Midwives for Choice demanded an end to the "obstetric monopoly" she said was depriving women of any say in how they gave birth.

Jessica Bowes, domestic violence survivor and campaigner, called for the establishment of a statutory maintenance agency to spare women the ordeal of having to pursue ex-partners for money to support their children.

Earlier, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan had announced Ireland's long-awaited ratification of the Istanbul Convention, saying it "sends an important message that Ireland does not tolerate such violence".

Women's Aid, Safe Ireland and the National Women's Council all welcomed the move but said that living up to its aims required much greater investment in emergency response services, legal supports, counselling and safe accommodation.

Caitriona Gleeson of Safe Ireland said: "Ireland has made significant strides in areas such as policy, training and legislation over the past few years but the reality on the ground is that the response to women looking for safety remains fragmented."

Margaret Martin of Women's Aid said: "There is still much work ahead."
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Education Minister Joe McHugh have sought to defend a dangerous decision to seal records of testimonies relating to child abuse in residential institutions for 75 years.

The Cabinet decision to approve a new bill restricting public access to the records has been the source of considerable criticism in recent days.

The Retention of Records Bill 2019 will see records from the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, the Residential Institutions Redress Board, and the Residential Institutions Redress Review Committee placed in the National Archives of Ireland and sealed for a minimum of 75 years.

Mr Varadkar defended the decision saying if the bill is not approved the records in question would be destroyed.

I would have to check with Minister Zappone, but my recollection is that these are records that potentially otherwise would have been destroyed because the people who contributed to those records, gave their testimony, and told their story did so on the basis that it was confidential, he said.

This means that rather than having them destroyed, they can be kept for a period of time and then be made public and maybe after those people have passed on. That is my recollection of the rationale but I would have to double-check with Minister Zappone. Normal administrative records held by departments will fall under normal rules and come available in 20 years, he added.

Mr McHugh, the line minister responsible, said the rules related to the redress bodies provide for the records to be destroyed.

Defending the 75-year seal, Mr McHugh said the limit was decided upon after due consideration was given to ensure the confidentiality of the records and those who provided them.

The bill is designed, firstly, to ensure that the records are not destroyed, but are retained intact. Secondly, for this approach to be sustainable, due consideration has to be given to the assurances of confidentiality to those who gave testimony, balanced with the wider public interest of retaining the records for posterity. The provisions of the bill in regard to a lengthy sealing period reflect the need to strike that balance, he said.

Mr McHugh said the retention of the records is essential to ensure that we never forget the abuse that was perpetrated against innocent children in institutions and that future generations can be made aware of and understand what took place.

The legal advice to the Government is that if the records are to be retained at all, then they must be sealed and withheld from public scrutiny for a lengthy period of time, he said. The proposal also provides for a review of the operation of the legislation after 25 years of it being in force, he said.

Catriona Crowe, former head of special projects at the National Archives of Ireland, said the decision by the Government to override the 1986 National Archives Act in relation to the records sets a dangerous and unnecessary precedent.
Update 6pm: Floral tributes have begun arriving near a flat where three people died in Northern Ireland.

The bodies of a man, a woman and a teenage girl were discovered at Glin Ree Court in Newry, Co Down, at around 11am on Thursday, police said.

It is understood they died in a violent way and one line of inquiry is a double murder and suicide. It is also understood that the three were known to each other.

The PSNI has confirmed they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths of three people in Newry, Co Down.

The bodies of a 15-year-old girl, a 37-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man were found in the apartment block

In reference to the victims identities, SDLP Assembly member Justin McNulty said: There is an international dimension.

Terrible news breaking.



This community is in shock and a dark cloud hangs over Newry this afternoon.



Its my understanding three people have lost their lives. Police are describing those deaths as suspicious.



My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased. pic.twitter.com/YXtLhIjZlg  Justin McNulty (@JustinMcNu1ty) March 7, 2019

He said he believed nobody else was in danger from an assailant, adding: It was all contained within the apartment.

Shocked visitors at the scene (Niall Carson/PA)

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: The circumstances of the deaths will now be subject to investigation and post-mortem examinations will take place in due course.

At this stage it would not be appropriate to elaborate further on the circumstances as our inquiries are at an extremely early stage.

Detectives are investigating after the bodies of three people were discovered at a flat in Glin Ree Court, Newry. The bodies of a male and two females were found at around 11am this morning.  Police Service NI (@PoliceServiceNI) March 7, 2019

Officers are at the scene and police tape marked the area preserved for forensic investigation in front of whitewashed flats.

Mr McNulty added: This community is in shock and a dark cloud hangs over Newry this afternoon. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased.

- Press Association

Earlier: PSNI investigating deaths of man, woman and teenager in Newry

Update 2.05pm: The PSNI is investigating the deaths of three people in an apartment in Newry, Co Down.

Glin Ree Court. Photo: Google Maps.

The bodies of a man, woman and teenage girl were discovered at 11am this morning in an apartment at Glin Ree Court in the town.

A large number of police officers are in the area which has been cordoned off.

Police said the circumstances of the deaths will be investigated and post-mortem examinations will take take place in due court.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: The bodies of an adult male, an adult female and a teenage girl were discovered at around 11am this morning, Thursday 7 March.

"The circumstances of the deaths will now be subject to investigation and post mortem examinations will take place in due course.

"At this stage it would not be appropriate to elaborate further on the circumstances as our enquiries at an extremely early stage.

Local politician Justin McNulty MLA of the SDLP has an office not far from the scene.

"The area is cordoned off [in an area] not far from the courthouse," he told Q Radio.

"Devastating news breaking which is that there have been three bodies found under suspicious circumstances, so a dark cloud is hanging over the place today."

Mr McNulty also confirmed the news on Twitter, writing that the community is in shock.

He wrote: "Its my understanding three people have lost their lives. Police are describing those deaths as suspicious."

Terrible news breaking.



This community is in shock and a dark cloud hangs over Newry this afternoon.



Its my understanding three people have lost their lives. Police are describing those deaths as suspicious.



My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased. pic.twitter.com/YXtLhIjZlg  Justin McNulty (@JustinMcNu1ty) March 7, 2019

Sinn Fein councillor Charlie Casey said the community in Newry was in shock.

My thoughts and sympathies are with all of those involved in this incident and their families.

Details are still emerging and a police investigation is under way. and that should be allowed to proceed.

I would encourage anyone with information on this incident to bring it forward to the PSNI.
Photo: TripAdvisor

A Penticton tourist that tried to cancel his motel room due to wildfire smoke in 2017 wont be getting a refund, ruled a civil resolution tribunal this week.

Araz Mehrabani used Expedia to reserve a room for three days at the Granada Motor Inn during the August long weekend at a cost of $584, which was charged to his credit card days after booking.

The applicant says a few days after booking the hotel room Health Canada raised the air quality advisory for Penticton from level 4 to 7 because of wildfires, tribunal member Sarah Orr writes in her decision.

He says he immediately contacted Expedia to cancel the hotel reservation and receive a refund because the air quality in Penticton was unsafe for his pregnant wife.

Expedia refused and referred the matter back to the motel, which called Mehrabani to tell him they could not issue a refund due to Expedia policy and assured him the air quality wasnt that bad.

Mehrabani then decided, since the room was paid for, he would make the trip to Penticton from Vancouver with a friend. On his way to Penticton he called the motel to say was going to make use of the reservation.

The respondent [motel] informed him they had cancelled his hotel room on instructions from Expedia, and that there were no rooms available, the decision reads. The applicant says he then phoned Expedia who told him the reservation had not been cancelled on their end.

Mehrabani sued the Granada Motor Inn seeking $584 for the room plus $120 for gas to drive to Penticton.

The tribunal didnt bite, and sided with the motel due to the evidence of a print-out of the cancellation confirmation issued to the motel by Expedia at 6:45 a.m. the day Mehrabani was scheduled to arrive.

I am not satisfied that the applicant is entitled to a refund of the cost of the hotel, Orr ruled, noting the evidence shows the no-refund policy was clear up-front.

"I find the respondent has established that it received notice from Expedia that the applicant had cancelled its reservation, and it charged the applicant the full cost of the room in accordance with the cancellation policy."

The applicants evidence suggests that Expedia gave him conflicting or inaccurate information about the status of his reservation, however he has not named Expedia as a party to this dispute, and I decline to comment on any claims the applicant may have against Expedia in that regard.

Orr also dismissed the claim for the $120 gas bill.
Gardai have released a photo of a car in connection with the shooting of David Lynch in Dublin last week.

Mr Lynch was shot dead at Foxdene, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 last Friday at around 2.15pm.

Gardai investigating the shooting are looking for information about two vehicles. The first vehicle is a White Peugeot Partner van, registration number 141 D 6118.

Officers are looking for any information on the location of this vehicle between December 18, 2018, and March 1, 2019. They have said that on March 1, 2019, a red 'N' plate was displayed on the front window and on the rear door of the van.

The second vehicle is a Grey Toyota Avensis, registration number 12 KE 576 which was stolen from an address in Celbridge, on February 14, 2019.

Gardai are asking for any information on the whereabouts of this car or anyone who may have seen it between February 14 and March 1, 2019.

People can contact Gardai at Lucan Garda Station on 01 - 6667300, The Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
Government hopes of a Brexit deal are dwindling after difficult talks between British and EU negotiators broke up ahead of key votes in Westminster next week.

Attention now turns to Sunday to whether Britain will make a second attempt to wrestle some compromise out of the EU on the backstop.

With just three weeks until the March 29 Brexit deadline, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar ruled out any concessions for Britain, insisting that the backstop to prevent a hard border was ideally temporary in nature.

There is now speculation that British attorney general Geoffrey Cox will return to Brussels for further talks on Sunday with the Brexit taskforce. British prime minister Theresa May needs to bring some compromise to Westminster MPs before a vote on her deal next Tuesday.

In the event this fails, Wednesday will see MPs vote to reject a no-deal while there is a parliament proposal for a Brexit extension on the Thursday.

Nonetheless, Irish Government sources are pessimistic after difficult British-EU talks broke up this week without agreement.

The British need to show what they have gained, but the feelings are not positive, explained one source.

Mr Varadkar said Ireland would not be offering up any more concessions to Britain, insisting a lot had already been conceded.

Speaking in Dublin, he said: I think weve made a lot of concessions already. I often wonder why people are asking us to make further concessions, weve made a lot of concessions already; accepting a UK wide element to the backstop when we only ever wanted it to be Northern Ireland specific.

We never asked to tie-in Britain into any of these arrangements. Weve already agreed to a review clause and a good faith cause.

This problem of a hard border on our island with disruption to trade and our economy, these are problems created in Britain. Surely they are the ones coming forward with further concessions and further offers to us in terms of what more they can do to mitigate the damage they are creating, he said.

Mr Varadkar said his interpretation and that of the EU is that the backstop is temporary and will apply unless and until a new arrangement supersedes it. That could be a UK-wife deal with the EU that is very close to what we have now or it could be a special arrangement for Northern Ireland.

In relation to the possible return of a border in the event of a no-deal, Mr Varadkar rejected that such a situation is inevitable.

I dont accept that a hard border is inevitable and weve made no preparation for physical infrastructure with checks and controls on the land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

If that arises we will have to have some difficult discussions with the EU and the UK about that but I certainly dont accept its inevitable, he said.
Ireland has the highest level of claimed sexual harassment in Europe - and is among the worst in the world.

That's according to a new survey of almost 31,000 people across 40 countries by market research and polling giant WIN International.

It found that 32% of women aged between 18 and 34 have experienced some form of sexual harassment in the last 12 months - the second highest out of all 40 countries surveyed and the worst in Europe. Only Mexico fared worse at 43%.

Ireland's rate of claimed sexual harassment among women in this age group was double that of the United Kingdom and more than twice the global average.

Mexico, Chile and Paraguay have the highest levels of claimed sexual harassment  with 16-20% having experienced this in the past year.

The prevalence of violence around the world is also high with 14.5% of the total sample experiencing violence in the last year.

Just over 1 in 10 adults in Ireland claim to have suffered violence, while the same proportion claim to have suffered sexual harassment.

Women are much more likely to have suffered sexual harassment, while younger age groups are more likely to have suffered either violence or harassment.

More than half (55%) of the population believe that the gender equality balance in Ireland either sometimes or always favours men, while just under one in five feels it sometimes or always favours women.

Like most of the other countries surveyed, Irish people feel social attitudes and behaviours favour men versus women. Some 68% of women think that the balance sometimes or always favours men.

Most people in Ireland believe gender equality has been achieved in the home and in social settings, and least likely in politics and work.

However, there is a major disparity between the views of men and women on this topic with regard to politics and work.

For example, 69% of men feel that gender equality has been achieved in the workplace compared to 47% of women. A total of 57% of men think that gender equality has been achieved in the political sphere compared to just 32% of women.

In general, Irish people have a lower opinion than the average of the rest of the world when in comes to views of gender balance in politics, but have a stronger view than the rest of the world in terms of quality in social settings.

President of WIN International Association, Vilma Scarpino, said that, while it is important to celebrate progress, it is clear that there is still some way to travel globally in terms of achieving true gender equality.
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has insisted that sufficient garda numbers and resources are ready for a no-deal Brexit and any new policing demands for the border area.

His comments come with just three weeks to go until the March 29 Brexit deadline and amid concern that any disorderly Brexit could impact on the peace process.

At the attestation of over 200 new gardai at the garda college in Templemore, Tipperary, Mr Flanagan said the force was prepared for Brexit.

He was asked about plans to deploy more gardai to the border region over Brexit.

In terms of deployment, this is a matter entirely for the Garda Commissioner," he said. "I have discussed the issue of the border with him and continue to do so. It is important in the context of any border area. There are going to be challenges in terms of organised crime or smuggling. The border area between any states is always one challenge.

I'm quite confident the gardai will deploy the appropriate and necessary resources that are deemed fit.

He said Garda Commissioner Drew Harris was continuously reviewing the policing of the border areas. Any future assignments would be a decision for the commissioner, he added.

Mr Flanagan said the government absolutely had a plan to secure the border, adding: The security of the state is my priority as Minister for Justice. Whether there is a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit, the government's plan is to protect people in the border area.

But Mr Flanagan declined to comment on specific numbers that may be needed in the border area in the event Britain crashes out of the EU and the region becomes a frontier for the union.

His comments come after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last week confirmed that increased numbers of armed gardai would be sent to border regions. But he denied this was linked to Brexit concerns. Mr Varadkar said this was to battle cross-border crime and burglaries.

This included proposals to send an armed unit to the Cavan region, he told the Dail. But he also told TDs: "I am happy to clarify that it would be happening, Brexit or no Brexit, due, unfortunately, to the level of crime people experience in Ireland, not least on foot of armed burglaries in rural areas on which we are determined to crack down, not only in Cavan, Donegal and Louth, but everywhere in the country.
The Government will introduce major inheritance law reforms in the coming weeks in a bid to ensure people who kill their partners are blocked from profiting from their crimes.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan committed to introducing what he said will be "Celine's law" in response to widespread public concern over the consequences of tragic cases in light of the deaths of Celine Cawley and Clodagh Hawe.

After a special cabinet meeting on international women's day, Mr Flanagan said the potential new law is at an advanced stage and will be tabled in the Dail in the coming weeks.

Noting the serious concerns over succession and inheritance laws when someone kills their partner, the Justice Minister said changes are needed in light of the recent high-profile murders: I want to acknowledge the important piece of legislation that will be amending the Succession act, in order to ensure that nobody benefits from crime. I would expect to advance matters over the course of this [St Patrick's Day] break.

Mr Flanagan was speaking as Fianna Fail put further pressure on Government to act on the matter by saying the Cabinet must introduce new domestic violence review laws when someone is killed.

The party's justice spokesman, Jim O'Callaghan, and equality spokeswoman, Fiona O'Loughlin said there is a pressing need to pass their domestic violence amendment bill.

Clodagh Hawe

The Fianna Fail bill, if passed, will ensure "domestic homicide" reviews are created to allow the sitting justice minister of the time to order a special examination if a person appears to have died as a result of violence or abuse by a relative or partner.

Mr O'Callaghan said the potential new law mirrors a similar system in place in Britain since 2011: "This bill has its origins in the tragic events that happened back in August 2016 when Clodagh Hawe and her three sons were murdered, and also has its origins in the very moving interview that Clodagh's mother and sister gave to Claire Byrne I think around 10 days ago."

"Although the crime of familicide has happened in Ireland, we really have not adequately responded to it. Traditionally what happens is when tragic murders, such as that, happen, the gardai go to the place of the crime and they quickly go to the person responsible to see if they are also dead. Consequently, the only statements that are taken by an Garda Siochana are statements in respect of the people who discovered the tragic scene when they entered the house," Mr O'Callaghan explained.
Alcohol and prescription drug overdoses and hangings among drugs users are driving an ongoing rise in drug-related deaths, figures show.

Fatalities linked to drug use reached a new high in 2016, with 736 people losing their lives.

The figure is an increase of one death on 2015 (735), but the two years together represent a peak since records began in 2014.

The figure for drug-related deaths  equating to more than two people a day  compares to road fatality figures of 186 in 2016 (148 in 2018).

Since 2004, the number of drug-related deaths have increased from 431, a jump of over 70%.

While overdoses (known as poisonings) have fallen more recently (from 400 in 2013 to 354 in 2016), non-poisoning deaths, including hangings, have increased (from 307 to 382).

The National Drug-Related Deaths Index, published by the Health Research Board, shows:

Alcohol-related deaths have increased by 18%, from 112 in 2015 to 132 in 2016  cementing its position as the number one drug implicated in overdoses

Prescription drugs as a whole were implicated in 258 deaths, representing almost three in four of all 354 deaths from overdoses

Methadone (legally prescribed to treat heroin addiction) and the prescribed sedative Diazepam are the most common prescription drugs implicated in overdoses

Cocktails of drugs were involved in almost two thirds of poisoning deaths in 2016, compared to 44% in 2004  with an average of four drugs involved

Hangings among drug users trebled since 2004, with 93 cases in 2016, with three in four people who died having a history of mental health problems

Deaths resulting from liver disease have jumped from eight in 2009, to 21 in 2013 and to 45 in 2016

The index shows there have been 8,207 drug-related deaths since 2004.

Behind these figures are lives lost and lives cut short, said HRB chief executive Darrin Morrissey.

The HRB report clearly illustrates the impact drug use has on families and society.

HRB senior researcher Suzi Lyons said the number of alcohol deaths increased in 2016.

Alcohol remains the number one drug implicated in deaths, alone or with other drugs, over the reporting period, she said.

Alcohol on its own was responsible for 16% (55) of all poisoning deaths in 2016, up from 13% in 2015.

Dr Lyons said prescription drugs and cocktails of drugs contributed significantly to deaths from poisoning.

Prescription drugs were implicated in almost seven in every ten poisoning deaths in 2016, she said.

Methadone and diazepam are the most common prescription drugs implicated.

She said there were new prescription drugs emerging in recent years, such as Pregabalin, used to treat epilepsy. This drug was implicated in 14 deaths in 2013, but jumped to 65 deaths in 2016.

A total of 258 deaths (73% of poisonings) were linked to prescription drugs. Benzodiazepines (prescribed tranquillisers) and methadone were the most common drugs involved.

Deaths involving heroin decreased again in 2016, from 83 in 2015 to 72 in 2016. This compares to 114 such deaths in 2009.

Other figures show cocaine-related deaths decreased from 45 in 2015 to 41 in 2016. The super-potent fentanyl was involved in seven deaths in 2016.

The HRB said 2016 figures were likely to be revised upwards as new data became available from closed inquest files.

Merchants Quay Ireland CEO Paula Byrne said: Addiction is destroying the physical and mental health of people, people are dying, and this sadly has become the norm. We must ask ourselves, as a society, are we OK with over 700 drug-related deaths?

There needs to be a greater investment in support services for people in addiction. We need more rehabilitation and detox beds.
An eyesight-test anomaly which has been blamed for depleted recruitment in the Naval Service Reserve (NSR) still remains in place, despite promises made nearly a year ago to scrap it.

On April 26 last, the minister with responsibility for defense, Paul Kehoe, told a joint Oireachtas committee on defence that the NSR eyesight standards were currently being changed.

The Naval Service Reserve requires 20/20 vision, whereas no other branches of the Defence Forces, either regulars or reserves, require perfect vision.

The delay in scrapping the 20/20 vision requirement has been criticised by the Reserve Defence Force Representative Association (RDFRA). A spokesman said certainty is needed ahead of the new recruitment drive, which the Irish Examiner understands was supposed to have started earlier this month, but has been delayed.

We estimate that we lose 50% of otherwise suitable candidates because of this regulation. But they can then go on to join the permanent Defence Forces, the spokesman said.

A Department of Defence spokeswoman said that a report regarding eyesight standards required for NSR recruits has been submitted by the flag officer commanding the Naval Service, Commodore Mick Malone, to the general staff and the findings of this report are actively being considered.

She said that, as is normal practice, this proposal has been circulated to a variety of offices within the Defence Forces that are required to have an input into it.

Any recommendation to amend eyesight standards will, of course, have a requirement for engagement with the representative associations, the spokeswoman added.
The Government will today agree new laws to force firms to publish details about gender wage gaps and will also approve minimum standards to prevent violence against women.

A Cabinet meeting to mark International Womens Day will also agree to put more women on State boards.

Ways to lower the cost of contraceptives will also be studied by the Department of Health.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his ministers will hold the special meeting in Dublin city centre.

A key item will be Irelands agreement to ratify the Istanbul Convention with the Council of Europe. This will require the Government to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence. The convention also aims to ensure the design of policies and measures for the protection of and assistance to all victims of such violence.

Ireland originally signed the international agreement in November 2015. The Government has since agreed actions, which include training and supports for victims, while other criminal laws have been passed. The completion of these will allow the treaty to be ratified.

Once ratified, the State will also be obliged to provide support to organisations and law agencies to co-operate in combatting violence against women.

Other measures under the convention require setting up treatment programmes for violent offenders and awareness-raising campaigns. The Government, under the international rules, must also ensure that preventive measures address the needs of child victims.

Junior justice minister David Stanton will also brief Cabinet about plans to increase the number of women on state boards and new laws to ensure firms release detail about gender wage gaps.

The new pay transparency measures will require companies with a minimum number of workers to release salary and bonus pay details.

The legislation, initially published last year, will initially only affect employers with over 250 employees but this will fall to 150 employees within three years and, ultimately, to employers with 50 or more employees.

Cabinet will be updated about the Governments national strategy for women and girls, which runs to 2020.

Health Minister Simon Harris will also tell the Cabinet this week about a working group to examine removing cost barriers to accessing contraception, as recommended by the Citizens Assembly on the Eighth Amendment almost two years ago. The group will look at legislation on contraception, licensing of products, and other obstacles.
Madison Erhardt

March marks Fraud Prevention Month across Canada  a month focused on encouraging people to recognize, reject and report fraud.

A number of Okanagan residents received a text Thursday from someone pretending to be from BC Hydro, claiming that a payment was ready to be received.

The link in the text led people to a website asking for personal banking information.

Castanet reached out to BC Hydro on the matter.

"We do not collect credit card or bank information over the phone or by text, or email. We are not going to call you and ask you to provide banking information or payments," said Dag Sharman, community relations for BC Hyrdo.

A staggering $45,000 was stolen from BC Hyrdo customers through fraud in 2018.

''Some of these scams have a threat that your account is going to be disconnect if you do not purchase a prepaid cash, credit card or bitcoin ATM. Those are all common frauds that we hear about," said Sharman.

''We want folks to know that we will not ever call you up or text you or email you seeking those thing and in fact we don't accept payment from prepaid cash, or credit card, or bitcoin," Sharman added.

BC Hydro has received reports of nearly 6,000 customers being contacted by scammers since 2014 and more then 2,000 of those were in 2018.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has a number of steps to help you avoid getting scammed.

''Remember, legitimate telemarketers have nothing to hide however, criminals will say anything to part you from your hard-earned money.''

1. Be cautious. You have the right to check out any caller by requesting written information, a call back number, references and time to think over the offer.

Legitimate business people will be happy to provide you with that information. After all, they want the "bad guys" out of business too. Always be careful about providing confidential personal information, especially banking or credit card details, unless you are certain the company is legitimate. And, if you have doubts about a caller, your best defence is to simply hang up. It's not rude  it's smart.

2.If you're in doubt, it's wise to ask the advice of a close friend or relative, or even your banker. Rely on people you can trust. Remember, you can Stop Phone Fraud - Just Hang Up!

The Kelowna RCMP are reminding the public to think twice before complying to anything regarding personal information.

March is Fraud Prevention Month and this scenario serves as an excellent reminder for residents to be vigilant. Often, you can spot a scam by simply asking yourself, is this a reasonable scenario?



''Remember, reputable organizations or financial institutions will never text or email you about your finances or sensitive case information.'' said Cpl. Jesse O'Donaghey.

''If you get a message, call the business or your bank using a phone number from a reputable source  don't use a phone number the suspected fraudster is providing you. You will then be able to verify whether or not the request is real and what you need to do," O'Donaghey added.



If you think you have been the victim of a fraud, contact police. If you've been contacted by a fraudulent scheme, report it to your local police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
Ross Outram has been jailed for life after a jury today found him guilty of murdering 90-year-old retired farmer Paddy Lyons, who was found beaten to death in his own home.

The panel of eight men and four women rejected the 28-year-old's claim that he repeatedly struck Mr Lyons in "self-defence" after the pensioner, who suffered from osteoporosis and only had the use of one arm, "attacked" him with a stick.

The trial heard that the farmer's body was discovered slumped in his armchair at his home. Blood was smeared down his face and his penis was exposed through his underpants. Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster told the trial that Mr Lyons suffered multiple blows to his head and neck from a blunt weapon and had fractures of his hip joint, jawbone and ribs.

Paddy Lyons lived alone on his farm and had "trusted everyone", the court heard, but became the victim of what was described as a "truly shocking and outrageous" attack by Outram, who has previous convictions for burglary and assault.

PaddyLyons.

It was the State's case that Outram had carried out "a vicious and sustained attack on a defenceless old man" with a non-functioning arm and the defendant's claim of self-defence did "not bear thinking about.

Outram of Ferryland, Waterford Road, Clonmel in Co Tipperary, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Lyons at Loughleagh, Ballysaggart, Lismore, Co Waterford, at a time unknown between February 23 and 26, 2017.

Before sentencing today, a victim impact statement was read to the Central Criminal Court by the prosecution on behalf of Paddy Lyons' home help in Lismore, Mary Fennessy.

Ms Fennessy said she knew Mr Lyons for over 20 years and "if anyone deserved a place in heaven it's Paddy".

"He was happy with simple things, had a great love for life and loved meeting people."

"He was a well-known, well-respected man of our community and he is greatly missed," she said.

Ms Fennessy explained that Mr Lyons was the oldest man in their village and he was a "very friendly and trusting man".

"He didn't drive a car but everyone in the village knew him and would give him a lift in and out of Lismore. Everyone liked him," she said.

"He liked a simple life and loved sitting by the fire and listening to the radio. He loved having visitors and reminiscing about times long ago. He was a very religious man and never missed mass no matter how bad the weather was," she said.

"I loved going down to visit Paddy every day. He was very grateful for any job you'd do for him. I'd bring him down dinner and bring in timber for the fire. He didn't have running water or any luxuries that you'd have in a modern house but he was always happy and content with what he had," she said.

"One of the days when I saw Paddy at his happiest was when the priest said mass in Paddy's home, what we call 'stations'. He was king of the castle that day. Paddy said 'twas a great day altogether' and talked about it for months afterwards," she concluded.

The jury took three hours and 29 minutes to come to their unanimous guilty verdict. Mr Justice Paul Coffey thanked the jury for the conscientious manner in which they had dealt with this long and difficult case. "The care you have given to the case has been exemplary," he said before exempting them from jury service for a period of 15 years.

Defence counsel Michael O'Higgins SC told the court that his client wanted to apologise for having killed Mr Lyons and he was remorseful for his actions.

The court heard that Outram has 25 previous convictions which include burglary, theft, possession of stolen property and assault causing harm.

Mr Justice Coffey then sentenced Outram to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for murder. The sentence was backdated to when he went into custody on February 27, 2017.

Addressing Outram, Mr Justice Coffey said his conduct was "a truly shocking and outrageous fatal attack on a defenceless 90-year-old man in his own home."

During their deliberations yesterday, the jury had asked to re-hear evidence from two pathologists and to see a hoodie that belonged to Outram and a grey hat that belonged to Mr Lyons.

Ross Outram.

There was a further inquiry from the jury yesterday as to whether Mr Lyons' grey hat had blood on it. "The answer is no, no blood was found on that," replied Mr Justice Coffey.

Defence counsel, Michael O'Higgins SC, outlined in his closing speech that Outram told gardai in his interviews on two occasions that Mr Lyons was alive when he left the house because he [the deceased] had put on a grey hat.

Thats an unusual memory fragment and why would Mr Outram invent that detail? emphasised the barrister, adding that a garda had given evidence that he found a grey hat in the vicinity of Mr Lyons' fireplace.

However, the judge told the jury this morning that he wanted to address them in relation to "the issue of blood on the hat".

"There is, in fact, no evidence that the hat was examined for blood and therefore no evidence that there is no blood on the hat. If your examination of the hat raises a possibility that there is blood on it then no inference should be drawn against the accused," outlined the judge.

The hat was then given to the jury for them to examine in their jury room.

Forensic scientist John Hoade gave evidence in the trial that he examined a grey hoodie belonging to Outram and found blood on the right sleeve and hood which matched Mr Lyons' DNA profile. Garda Eugene O'Neill testified that he went to Outram's house at Ferryland on February 27 and searched the back bedroom, where he seized a grey hoodie.

Outram told gardai in interviews that he had fought back after Mr Lyons hit him with a walking stick and shovel, and that he had taken up to 100 Xanax that day. However, a pharmaceutical expert told the jury that there was "no proof" that Outram had taken Xanax.

The three-week trial heard medical evidence that Mr Lyons suffered a stiffness or fusion of his right shoulder during childbirth and could only keep it in one position.

Mr O'Higgins argued in his closing speech that Outram had acted in self-defence and that he could not be made liable for "a fall" which saw Mr Lyons break his hip if it was unconnected to the original injuries inflicted on him by the defendant

However, prosecution counsel John O'Kelly SC said in his closing speech that it flew in the face of all common sense to suggest that Mr Lyons hip injury could have occurred after he was subjected to the attack or could be seen as something entirely independent. There is no evidence to show that it could have happened later or was entirely separate and independent, he outlined.

Furthermore, Mr O'Kelly submitted that no one knew how much truth "if any" was in Outrams version of events as he had lied consistently in his first six garda interviews.

In charging the jury, Mr Justice Coffey said that in order to convict Outram of murder they must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Lyons fall and the fracture of his hip was either directly caused by the multiple blows inflicted on him or it was reasonably foreseeable that it was a natural consequence of these blows.

If the jury found that Mr Lyons fell on the ground or collapsed in the course of being repeatedly beaten by his attacker, the judge said they could find that causation had been established.
Plans for a campervan site on the outskirts of Kenmare have suffered a setback, due a lack of capacity in the towns sewage-treatment system.

An Bord Pleanala has overturned the decision of Kerry County Council to grant planning permission for a new motorhome park at Reengappul, to the south-west of the town centre.

The decision was successfully appealed to the planning board by a resident, Colm Murphy, who claimed the site was unsuitable. Mr Murphy raised concerns about the capacity of Kenmares overloaded sewage treatment plant to handle additional waste from the motorhome park, as well as traffic issues. He claims traffic is already an issue on Market St, the narrow access route for the proposed development.

The street cannot accommodate such sized vehicles, said Mr Murphy.

Project developer Martin Arthur had sought permission for a motorhome park consisting of 10 pitches, together with a new building to contain a reception area, toilets, showers, and a laundry room.

Irish Water had signalled that it would facilitate a connection for the development to the towns water and wastewater network, although it had originally recommended refusal for the project, because the sewage treatment plant is operating well above its capacity. Planned upgrade works on the plant are scheduled to be completed by 2023.

An Taisce opposed the motorhome park, because it was close to the Finnihy River, which is prone to flooding during high rainfall, as well as being close to a stone circle that is a protected monument.

An Bord Pleanala said the proposed development was premature, because of the deficiencies in the sewage treatment plant to which the motorhome park would have been connected and the period within such constraints could reasonably be expected to cease.

The proposed development would, therefore, be prejudicial to public health and would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area, said a spokesperson.

The board said it could not be satisfied that the motorhome park, on its own or in combination with other projects, would not have a significant effect on special areas of conservation around Kenmare. As a consequence, An Bord Pleanala said it is precluded from granting planning permission for the development.

An inspector with An Bord Pleanala said the proposal for the motorhome park is compatible, in principle, with the Kerry County Development Plan and would assist in advancing the tourist product in the town of Kenmare. However, the inspector said the evidence indicates that the sewage plant, which experiences seasonal pressures associated with the tourist season, is overloaded.

To allow for the proposed connection to the system would exacerbate an already unsatisfactory situation and would be prejudicial to public health, said the An Bord Pleanala inspector.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and other politicians have refused to demand Britain's secretary of state for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley resignation over her "dignified" Troubles shootings claims, despite criticising the remarks.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan and Fianna Fail justice spokesman, Jim O'Callaghan stopped short of calling for Ms Bradley to be removed from office after her deeply divisive comments in the House of Commons.

In a damaging claim earlier this week, Ms Bradley told MPs in Westminster that while 90% of killings during the Troubles were by paramilitaries and therefore crimes, the remaining 10% by British soldiers were legal.

Ms Bradley has since apologised for the remark - which is heavily linked to upcoming legal action against British soldiers involved in the Bloody Sunday atrocity - claiming it is now "not what I believe".

Asked if Ms Bradley should resign as Britain's secretary of state for Northern Ireland in light of the controversy, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the remarks were "insensitive and wrong". However, he stopped short of calling for her to be sacked:

I think her apology was genuine and it was heartfelt. She has accepted that the comments that she made were insensitive and wrong. What's important now is that it is followed up on.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan mirrored the view, telling RTE Radio that Ms Bradley has apologised - a position repeated by Fianna Fail's justice spokesman, Jim O'Callaghan who said any decision on Ms Bradley's future is up to British prime minister Theresa May.

However, despite the conciliatory tone, families of people killed by the British army during the Troubles have continued to call for Ms Bradley to quit.

Frances Meehan, whose brother Michael Donnelly was hit with a plastic bullet in 1981, said Karen Bradley's position is untenable: "I wanted to meet her because I wanted to look her in the eye to tell her how I felt about her comments in the House of Commons. We know she has apologised but her position is completely and utterly untenable and she needs to resign."
A man who runs special historic walking tours in a harbour town has described how embarrassed he is at having to constantly point out dog excrement on its streets to visiting tourists so they don't step in it.

The situation has become so bad in Cobh, County Cork that the local municipal district council has decided to fund an "educational competition" in local schools to design anti-dog fouling signs.

The debate on dog poo was sparked at a Cobh/Glanmire Municipal District Council meeting by Cllr Kieran McCarthy. He runs Cork Rebel Walking Tours, which focuses on the town's War of Independence and regularly takes foreign tourists on the tours, especially ones who disembark from the many cruise liners which dock at Cobh's deepwater quay.

During general discussion on the municipal district council's anti-litter campaign, Cllr McCarthy said dog poo is becoming a major issue. He said he was recently taking a group of visiting American on a tour and was "embarrassed" by the amount of it on the footpaths: "I had to point to it or they'd walk into it."

This is despite the fact that the council provides free poo bags and special bins around the town for them. Municipal officials said they understand his concerns but don't have the resources or funding to clean up footpaths every day. Senior executive officer, Sean O'Callaghan, said: "It's a problem in every town."

Cllr Shepperd asked that the Council would allocate in the region of 2,500 from pay parking to fund a pick up after your dog signage initiative in the town and the Great Island area in general: "I have spoken to parents and to the principals at the schools. This would be educational as well. We could get all the schools to take part in an art competition and the winner will get their signs put up. I think it's something novel and will show we're proactive."

Cllr Diarmaid O Cadhla suggested there should be more than one type of sign put up, adding that they could pick four or five and put them into a montage. This was agreed.

Cllr Shepperd also complained that litter bins are overflowing. She was told by officials that people dump bags of domestic rubbish in them. The Council is looking at reducing the size of the openings to prevent this. However, they warned that if the dumping of household waste persists they might have to remove the litter bins altogether.
A vandalism attack on a council-owned bungalow reportedly due to house a Traveller family has been described as despicable and incitement to hatred.

Gardai in Clonmel are investigating the incident which happened sometime on Tuesday night or early on Wednesday morning and involved significant damage to the inside of the house, as well as broken windows.

Security personnel are now on duty outside the detached bungalow, which was renovated in recent months and was due to be handed over to Tipperary County Council Council by the contractor shortly.

Gardai are trying to establish if there are any CCTV cameras in the area, although thats believed to be unlikely, and have been carrying out door-to-door inquiries in a bid to establish what exactly happened to the house.

The vandalism was reported to the Garda station in Clonmel at about 8am on Wednesday morning by council staff who were made aware of what had happened.

Tipperary County Councils director of housing Sinead Carr said there was no definitive decision yet as to who was due to move into the house. Regardless of who it was allocated to, its an unacceptable act, she said of the vandalism. This house was only purchased recently by us, and refurbished.

According to the Tipperary Rural Traveller Network, a Traveller family from the Clonmel area was due to move into the house in the near future, but its unclear now if this will go ahead.

They were ready to move in, said Margaret Casey of the Tipperary Rural Traveller Network. Its just despicable... This is incitement to hatred, thats the kind of act that this is.

I hope whoever did it is found and gets justice for it.

She said such an incident is not isolated in Ireland. These incidents have been happening for the last 30, 40, 50 years.

Ms Casey said the family in question have been pulled from pillar to post in recent years, trying to get accommodation.

Its going to be very difficult for this family to move in there with the amount of fear. You or I wouldnt want to move into a place where you know people didnt want you.
Photo: The Canadian Press The Trans Mountain pipeline crossing in Stewart Creek in Chilliwack, B.C., on Dec. 12, 2018.

Work on a Trans Mountain pipeline crossing in a British Columbia stream altered habitat for young salmon, but the creek is expected to return to normal in one to two years, says Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Two biologists with the department visited Stewart Creek in Chilliwack on Jan. 30 after receiving a complaint from Mike Pearson, a biologist with 30 years of experience who raised concerns about the work done by Trans Mountain Corp.

Pearson said in January that the placement of 17 metres of articulated concrete mats at the bottom of the stream had reduced hiding places for coho and chum salmon and inhibited growth of the aquatic invertebrates they feed on.

The Fisheries Department said the habitat has been altered but the natural accumulation of sediment is expected to restore the salmon habitat.

"The stream bed in the vicinity of the works has been altered from soft sediment bottom to hard substrate as a result of the placement of the concrete articulated matting for protection of the pipeline," it said in a statement.

"Pre-existing habitat conditions are likely to be fully established within one to two years. However, monitoring of the site should be undertaken by the proponent to ensure that the habitat functions effectively."

The department believes it's unlikely salmon have been affected by the temporary alteration, as similar rearing habitat exists upstream and downstream of the site.

Pearson said while it's true the work covered a small area, it raises concerns about the ability of Trans Mountain to build infrastructure through waterways if the expansion project proceeds.

"The standard of work there is low, very low, in terms of habitat," Pearson said. "The cumulative effects of hundreds and hundreds of these (crossings) is not trivial."

The project was purchased by the Canadian government for $4.5 billion and would triple the capacity of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline by laying nearly 1,000 kilometres of new pipe from the Edmonton area to a marine shipping terminal in Burnaby, B.C.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the British government has failed to get its deal approved on Brexit and it is up to London to now compromise.

Ireland and the EU had already agreed to several compromises on the Withdrawal Agreement but Britain had yet to offer a fresh solution, he said.

Government hopes of a Brexit deal are dwindling after tough talks between British and EU sides broke up ahead of key votes in Westminster next week.

And with just three weeks until the March 29 Brexit deadline, attention will now turn to Sunday and whether London will make a second attempt to wrestle some compromise out of the EU about the Irish backstop.

Despite the threat of a no-deal Brexit looming, Mr Varadkar insists it is up to British prime minister Theresa May and her government to come back with an alternative plan.

Speaking after a Cabinet meeting in Dublin city centre, he told reporters:

I would argue that the Withdrawal Agreement, including the protocol on Ireland, is already a compromise and it was a compromise that took a year and a half to negotiate, involving the EU institutions and 28 governments.

Keep in mind elements of that compromise, like extending the backstop on a UK-wide basis, a single customs territory involving all the United Kingdom, these were compromises that the British government sought.

We were and remain happy to apply the backstop only to Northern Ireland, if they want to go back to that. It doesn't have to trap or keep all of the Great Britain in the customs territory, at all, or for a long period.

"That is up to them. We have already agreed to the review clause and the good faith clause so I think we have made a lot of compromises already.

What's not evident if what the UK government is offering the European and Ireland, should it wish to make any further compromises.

"We have received no offer from them as to what they would give us in return for any changes. So it requires a change of approach by the UK government.

They have failed to achieve ratification of this, so it should be a question of what they are willing to offer us rather than the opposite.
Im part of a very exclusive group on WhatsApp called Montenotte Women in Volvos Who Only Eat Vegan Food Made by Rich Protestants. #Elite. Yesterday, one of six Rachels in the group posted that her daughter, Beatrice, was watching an innocent video on YouTube when it was suddenly interrupted by this terrifying Norry called MamMam, who said: Cmere girl, you do be perfect for the majorettes.

Now, Im not sure I can trust this Rachel, shes a bit of a tit to be honest. But if she is telling the truth, this is an appalling threat to the children of Posh Cork. How can I check if its legit?

 Polly, Montenotte, Im exhausted from all the cosmetic enhancement.

Chin up Polly. (Literally.) If anyone would know about internet trends, its my cousin -hes the geekiest guy in Cork, measured by the number of girls who said theyd love to meet him again, but as a friend. I said, what are they calling the northsider who appears on screens and terrifies everyone? He said Roy Keane. #WrongButRight

Cmere, I pretended to be a feminist so I could get off with this Canadian one at work, she do look like Jennifer Lawrence without the wonky nose. Anyway, she wants me to go on a march for International Womens Day this weekend, where we go around calling out examples of the patriarchy, whatever that is. Could you let me know what I should be looking out for?

 Shane, Blarney.

My niece did a degree in Gender Studies, even though she had more than enough points for Med. (Her father cried for three months.)

I said to her, tell me what you know about the patriarchy. She said its an invisible thing that restricts women. I said, just like my Spanx! Complete silence. #NoJokeFeminism

Im the top Social Media Influencer in Cork, measured by the number of people who comment gorgeous hon on one of my posts before I have a chance to explain that its actually me without make-up and isnt it great the way Im just like everyone else. (As if.)

So, I hired a pretend boyfriend for my Instagram stories. It helps me get more invites to try out 5-star spa retreats, and discourages the no-hoper guys who want to send me photos of their ding-dongs or the sunset over Cobh. (Dont know which is worse.) So, pretend boyfriend is starting to make real eyes at me, which is never going to happen because he only has 2000 followers. If I dump him, what are the chances of nabbing a Munster rugby player?

 @yousowishlike, Turners Cross and Monte Carlo.

My posh cousin is an expert at flirting with Munster rugby players (shes almost fluent in Afrikaans.) I said, what are this influencers chances? She said zero because of ABTC. I said, what? She said, Anywhere But Turners Cross, the Munster players block their eyes passing there on the team bus, in case poverty is catching. #SoThatsWhy

Cmere, whats the story with my sister being a pain in the hole? Myself and old doll were sharing Facebook videos the other night because we do be completely out of things to say to each other.

There was this one video where someone threw a slice of cheese at a baby and it stuck to her face. It was funnier than a Waterford accent like, so I asked my sister if we could borrow her 6 month old to make a vid, and she says no, get your own baby, all cranky like. So, do you know where I can hire a cute baby for an hour?

 Dowcha Donie, Blackpool, we do have our own cheese.

Im part of a WhatsApp group called Ballinlough Women Who Make Money Out of Their Babies. I messaged them there and got six replies in under a minute.

I said, I hope this money will be put away for your childs education. I got five LMFAO replies, and Ciara sent me back a photo of a hotel in Rome. #KerchingBaby

Hello old stock, delicate times in Chez Reggie. I got an email last night saying that some crowd were after hacking into my account. Worse again this email came from my own address MrLovvaLovvaOldStock72@gmail.com, which sent a chill down my spine, as if Id heard that my biological father was a butcher from Dillons Cross.

They want me to pay them four grand in something called Bitcoin  it sounds like a scam, but they are threatening to share my browsing history with my wife Marjorie and Id rather she didnt find out I was searching for Naughty checkout girl gets her comeuppance from wealthy yachtsman. Should I pay up?

 Reggie, Blackrock, four grand is nothing really.

It would nearly buy you two pints in Kinsale, between the months of March and October. Its a tricky one  a hacker emailed me recently and said, Im going to show your partner the video you watched of a woman giving herself manual pleasure. I said, fantastic news, he could do with all the help he can get. #DownABit
The world of wine falls into two very distinct categories  the big brands making easy drinking accessible wines to please as many as possible, and the smaller producers that make wines in their own way and as best they can but with little or no thought to what the market wants  if they like it, why shouldnt others?

Lisa, my knowledgeable friend that runs the excellent Dublin dining website www.allthefood.ie regularly tells me that she is utterly mystified that I can like both styles of wine.

For her it has to be small and special, winemakers following their own vision, crafting unique flavours in a sustainable way: I have no interest in industrial wine, I want wines made by people, not machines, wine made in the correct way has a magical quality, industrial wine is just another commodity.

Lisa is perfectly correct of course, I love this kind of wine too but very few of those wines cost under 15, and Im also aware that the average Irish consumer spends less than 9, so I have to keep my mind open. I must also admit that Im often quite happy to glug a ripe fruity Malbec with my steak and chips on occasion.

One of the big importers represents this dichotomy better than anyone, and that is Findlaters. Findlaters are the agents for big brands such as Penfolds, Wolf Blass, Torres, Chapoutier and Bollinger but they also have a good range of wines from tiny producers in Austria, the Czech Republic, Wales and the excellent Lyrarakis Estate from Crete.

Lyrarakis was founded in 1966 but they are part of a centuries old tradition. Dotted among their vines are 14th century stone wine presses and we know that Crete is one of the oldest wine regions in continuous use in Europe  at least 4,000 years old. The Lyrarakis estate has been instrumental in saving indigenous Cretan grape varieties such as Dafni and Vilana and they were a bit of a find for Findlaters. I feature three of their wines below along with some inexpensive Malbec that I like but that Lisa would simply hate.

If you are curious about Greece at a lower price then selected Lidl also have their crisp fresh Assyrtiko (12) back in stock along with a dessert Muscat from the island of Samos (10)  both of these featured here last autumn and punch above their price.

Best Value Under 15

Norton Porteno Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina  14.95

Stockist: OBriens

This is part of the wines in the OBriens buy 1 get 2nd half price sale that is on for the month of March. Norton are a really solid producer and this is a fine expression of Malbec with no oak, just dark juicy fruits  perfect for a roast or even the barbecue if you are feeling brave. Nortons Barrel Select Malbec is also on offer should you prefer some oak.

H de LHospitalet Malbec, Languedoc, France  13.95

Stockist: OBriens

Another wine from OBriens buy 1 get 2nd half price sale  one of a few from Gerard Bertrand on offer this month. I like Bertrands wines a lot and although this is entry level it still packs in lots of ripe fruity flavours, red fruits at first with darker fruits on the finish. Bertrands Pic St Loup is also recommended for just one euro extra.

Michel Torino Reserva Malbec, Salta, Argentina  13.99

Stockist: JJ ODriscolls, Ardkeen, Martins, No. 21, Independents

Michel Torino is a solid entry level Malbec producer that I have not featured in a while. Based in the far northerly Salta-Cafayette region their vines are grown at significant altitude. Bright juicy and fruity with some decent structure and complexity. Their Don David range is also recommended.

BEST VALUE OVER 15

Lyrarakis Voila Assyrtiko 2017, Crete  18.99

Stockists: Bradleys, JJ ODriscolls, Mortons Galway, Wicklow Wine Co, Clontarf Wines, Whelehans, Greenman, 64 Wines.

Assyrtiko is one Greeces best known white grapes thanks to its ubiquity on the beautiful island of Santorini. Lyrarakis version is packed with mineral and citrus freshness with touches of fennel, clean, bright fresh and dried lemon zest flavours and not a little complexity.

Lyrarakis Dafni, Psardes Vineyard, Crete  22.99

Stockists: Bradleys, Greenman

This ancient variety was saved from extinction by the Lyrarakis family in the early 1990s. The name derives from the word for Laurel and it does indeed have a scent of bay leaves as well as sage. Lively and fresh with a

delightful lemon and lime leaf character and perfect for serving with some grilled fish with perhaps a lively olive oil and garlic sauce.

Lyrarakis Kotsifali, Alagni, Crete  18.99

Stockists: Bradleys Cork, Greenman, 64 Wines, Clontarf, Whelehans, Wicklow Wine Co.

Kotsifali is the most widely planted red grape on the island of Crete. Often used in blends, Syrah works well with it as it has some of Syrahs pepper flavours. Light ruby in colour, fresh and lively on the nose with black pepper and bright fruits and a spicy quality. Would work well lightly chilled.
The HPV vaccine is safe, effective and helps prevent many types of cancer, not just cervical. Thats why its now being rolled out to boys, writes Helen OCallaghan.

Its a compelling statistic that would make you glad the HPV vaccine will be offered to teen boys as well as girls in Irish schools from this September.

A comparison between the rates of throat cancer in 2009-2013 and 2014-2018 in eight cancer centres around Ireland found a 37% increase in this cancer type. Of that 37%, 50% is directly related to HPV infection and of that 50%, 78% are male, says James Paul ONeill, professor of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Beaumont Hospital.

These statistics emphasise the importance of the vaccine for boys, says ONeill. We presented the results to Hiqa, which ultimately recommended boys be included in the vaccination schedule and thankfully the Government agreed. HPV infection doesnt discriminate between boys and girls  85% of women and 91% of men with at least one heterosexual partner will contract a HPV infection during their lifetime.

Most healthy people with a normal, healthy sex life will be exposed to HPV at some stage, says ONeill, who confirms most common transmission is through vaginal and anal sex  and oral sex is also a way in.

While most people spontaneously clear HPV infections, theres no way to know who wont  some HPV infections can persist for years. And the trouble with HPV infections is about half of them  according to US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  are with a high-risk HPV strain that can cause cancer. Persistent infections with these HPV types can lead to cell changes, which, if left untreated, may progress to cancer.

HPV is responsible for about one in every 20 cases of cancer worldwide. HPV strains 16 and 18 are the big players  implicated in 70% of cervical cancers, 95% of anal cancers, 75% of throat cancers, 75% of vaginal cancers, 70% of vulval cancers and 60% of penile cancers.

Last December, Hiqa said it had advised the National Immunisation Schedule to switch from the 4-valent vaccine  which protects against four HPV types and which has been available to first-year secondary school girls for some years  to the 9-valent vaccine, which protects against another five HPV types, as part of a gender-neutral vaccination programme (extended to boys as well as girls).

File Image.

Hiqa director of health technology assessment and deputy chief executive Dr Mairin Ryan said extending the HPV vaccine to boys will provide direct protection against HPV-related disease to boys, indirect protection to girls who have not been vaccinated and would reduce HPV-related disease and mortality in Ireland.

She predicted that over 20 years, a gender-neutral 9-valent programme will prevent an estimated 101 additional cases of cervical cancer compared with the current girls-only 4-valent programme.

The HPV link with cervical cancer is now lodged pretty firmly in the public consciousness, but its connection to other cancers is less well known, says Prof Mark Lawler, dean of education at the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, as well as Chair in Translational Cancer Genomics, at Queens University Belfast.

Certainly, the majority of people would know theres some connection between HPV and cervical cancer.

But what a lot of people dont know is that HPV causes other cancers that occur in both males and females, particularly oropharyngeal (throat) cancer and anal cancer. In Britain, oropharyngeal cancer is the fastest-growing cancer.

ONeill points to a similar trend in the US, where throat cancer incidence has surpassed that of cervical cancer  2018 saw 18,226 cases of throat compared with 11,866 of cervical cancer.

And the majority of oropharyngeal cancer is in males, he says.

By extending the HPV vaccine programme to boys, Ireland has now joined the ranks of countries offering gender-neutral HPV vaccination: Australia, Austria, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Israel, regions of Italy, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Serbia, and the US.

It never really made sense to only vaccinate girls, says Dr Phil Kieran  Cork GP and star of RTEs You Should Really See a Doctor. Vaccinating half of the population means theres a reservoir of HPV left in the community  vaccination programmes are most effective when more than 80% of the population are vaccinated.

Back in the 2013/2014 academic year, average HPV vaccine uptake among first-year secondary school girls was almost 84%. Following anti-HPV vaccine publicity  fear was sparked by claims girls became very ill after getting the vaccine  it dropped to about 50% in 2015/2016, but by last September the HSE confirmed provisional uptake rate for the vaccine had risen again to 65%.

Responding to the rise, Minister for Health Simon Harris said the very welcome increase reflected huge amount of work done across the medical community, including school vaccination teams, GPs and pharmacists, to provide accurate and trusted information. He said he wanted to be unequivocal in saying the HPV vaccine protects young peoples lives.

The HSE points out that all national and international regulatory bodies have stated HPV vaccines are safe. It cites an endorsement of HPV vaccination issued in January 2017 from all 69 US National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Centers: We are compelled to collectively call upon parents and health care providers to increase vaccination rates so our nations children dont grow up to become cancer patients.

Most recently on February 4, World Cancer Day, the International Agency for Research on Cancer stated the HPV vaccine is safe, effective and critical for eliminating cervical cancer.

The jury is not out on the safety of the HPV vaccine. The jury is very much in. The vaccine is safe  weve known that for a long time, says ONeill, adding that most parents who decided not to vaccinate their daughters were good parents taking the decision out of concern.

They wanted to do the right thing. They decided not to vaccinate but it was because of the scaremongering, lies and mistruths being spread about [the vaccine]. Whats important is to reassure parents that the absolute correct thing to do is to vaccinate their boys and their girls.

Co Clare cervical cancer patient Laura Brennan, a HPV vaccine advocate, has been pivotal to achieving higher vaccine uptake rates. In July 2018, she was invited to Copenhagen by the World Health Organisation to consult about HPV advocacy.

My only reason for getting involved in this campaign was to save other families going through what mine is going through, to save other parents watching their child suffer from a preventable illness, caused by a virus which the majority of people have had or will have at some point in their life.

I was just unlucky that I caught a cancer-causing strain of the virus and my body couldnt fight it off. Thats why I got cervical cancer.

Her stark message is encapsulated in her words: Im facing my death and the reason is a virus that your child doesnt have to get.

If evidence from any country shines a spotlight on the absolute importance of cervical cancer screening, data from Romania does. Cervical cancer rates there are four times higher than the European averagem  13.5% compared to 3% generally in the rest of Europe. The reason: low participation in the free national cervical cancer-screening programme which has been in operation in Romania since 2012.

But screening programmes, even with high participation, are not foolproof, as highlighted by the CervicalCheck controversy. This proves the old adage that prevention is better than cure  or indeed treatment, says Kieran.

The HPV vaccine will not do away with the need for cervical screening completely  but it will reduce risk of the cancer overall, making the chances of missed abnormalities on a screening programme much lower.

Vaccinations also important because  apart from cervical cancer  screening isnt available or feasible for almost all HPV-associated cancers, says ONeill.

And throat cancers, for example, are difficult cancers, often presenting at an advanced stage. In the case of penile cancer, Kieran has seen just three cases in 12 years, but says its devastating when it occurs.

With the HPV vaccine also set to be rolled out to young boys in England, Scotland and Wales this autumn, Lawler points to the health-economic benefits. Cost of HPV vaccination for boys there will be 20-22m. Treating three things caused by HPV  genital warts in both sexes at 58.5m, HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer at over 21m and HPV-related anal cancer at 7m  comes to an overall cost of 86m. So there are significant cost savings.

These ratios will also bear out in Ireland, with similar savings for the health service. Theres potential for a four-fold saving by rolling out the HPV vaccine programme to boys in Ireland.

The big message, says Lawler, is that HPV disease is preventable because of the HPV vaccine. We have the tools at our disposal to eliminate it so thats what we should be doing  eradicating it as a disease.
Ranging in age from their 20s to 50s, these women survived cancer because of cervical screening, writes Arlene Harris.

Screening for cervical cancer has been in the headlines for months for all the wrong reasons.

We acknowledge the concern women in Ireland have had about cervical screening during the last year and are working to strengthen CervicalCheck in order to provide a screening programme of the highest possible standard, says Dr Caroline Mason Mohan, director of public health at the National Screening Service.

Like all screening programmes, cervical screening is not perfect. But it does save lives and can prevent 75% of cervical cancer cases.

CervicalCheck diagnoses one case of cervical cancer every two days and recommends women, aged 25 to 60, attend free cervical screening when they are called.

Here, five women of differing ages who were diagnosed with cervical cancer following a routine smear test, talk about the test that helped to save their lives.

Orla OConnor

Orla, from Douglas, Cork, had a smear test in June 2016 when she was 26.

Orla OConnor who had her first smear test at the age of 26 and cancer was detected. Picture Dan Linehan

I got called for a smear test when I was 25 but put it off for a year and ended up being asked by my GP why I hadnt had it done. Afterwards, I couldnt understand why I had put it off as it was so quick and just a little uncomfortable.

Six weeks later I was told abnormal cells had been found and was referred to a colposcopy clinic for further tests. At this point, I knew something was wrong and after being told there were cancer cells on the cervix, I was referred to an oncology gynaecologist. I felt rel-atively calm and kept positive while waiting for the surgery the following week.

During the operation, I had my cervix and abdominal lymph nodes removed and the recovery was tough. But I started to feel better around six weeks later  the big turning point was being able to tie my shoes and get into the shower unaided.

My prognosis today is excellent but the surgery left me with extremely painful periods and my right thigh is bigger than the left due to losing my lymph nodes and this can be painful occasionally. But if I hadnt gone for my smear then the [cancerous] cells would have continued to develop and it may have been too late by the time I found out what was happening. However, if I had gone when I turned 25 then maybe it would have been caught even earlier and not required any surgery at all.

I honestly cant put into words how important it is to get your smear.

Michelle OLoughlin

Michelle is a primary school teacher in Co Clare. She recalls how she underwent her first smear test aged 36 and discovered that she had cancer.

I never had a smear test before 2012  my doctor mentioned it in passing but I never received a letter from the cervical screening programme and didnt realise women of my age were having regular smears. I dont know how I reached the age of 36 without knowing how important they are. Perhaps its because Im not the best when it comes to looking after my health and Im very squeamish about blood tests or injections, so it would be normal for me to put off check-ups.

But in November 2012, at a follow-up appointment after minor surgery, I asked the doctor if she did smear tests. I didnt have any symptoms but she did the test and I got a call the following week informing me that there were some abnormal cells found and I was transferred to another doctor who said that cancerous cells had shown up during my test.

I underwent a colposcopy and an MRI and went back for results and was shocked to hear the cancer was at stage three. I had no signs or symptoms and couldnt believe that I was at this stage  I could easily have reached stage four if I had not asked my doctor for the smear test.

I had robotic surgery and spent four days in hospital but today my prognosis is good.

I would advise every woman to ask for a smear test if they notice any symptoms and I wish I had this advice when I was younger as I believe a smear test can save your life.

Shirley Murray

Shirley lives in Meath with her two children aged 17 and 11. She went for an overdue smear test when she was aged 39 after experiencing some pain.

Shirley Murray who has been treated for cervical cancer. Photograph: Moya Nolan.

I was due to get a smear test in 2012 but was struggling [after separating from my partner], so just ignored the letters.

I ended up suffering a terrible pain one day and went to get it checked after a friend suggested it could be an ovarian cyst. The nurse realised immediately there was a problem  she couldnt even touch my cervix without it bleeding  so the doctor referred me for a colposcopy.

When I was called back for results, I was told it was early-stage cancer which was very treatable and I would need a hysterectomy. I was in complete shock. The word cancer conjures up such dark and scary thoughts.

I found out on Christmas Eve 2013 that the cancer was invasive and about six weeks later, I had a radical hysterectomy and 37 lymph nodes removed from my pelvis.

The recovery was really tough I had a catheter for six weeks, was also injecting myself with blood thinners for six weeks, and the stents in my kidneys had to be removed after three months. I also suffered from lymphoedema in my legs.

It took me a year to get used to the new normal but I feel so lucky that a random pain led me to get the test which saved my life. Otherwise, I probably wouldnt have bothered as I didnt grasp the importance of it.

None of us is invincible. Cancer does not discriminate, it doesnt care about how busy you are or how embarrassed you might be to get that test. Yes, the system is under scrutiny right now but theres no better time to have that smear and be confident of the results.

Kathy Levick

Kathy lives in Co Wicklow with her husband Damian and two children aged 24 and 14. The production assistant underwent a routine smear test in 2017 anddiscovered at the age of 43 that she had cervical cancer.

Kathy Levick, Mellow's Ave, Arklow, Co Wicklow. Photograph: Garry O'Ne

I had a routine smear test in November 2017  it had been three years since my last one and I had never had an issue before  but was called back in January 2018 and told that abnormal cells were found so underwent further tests and then was called back for a D&C under general anaesthetic.

A month later, I heard that I had adenocarcinoma 1A2 cervical cancer. My husband and I were totally devastated, we just sat there and cried. I thought I was going to die and worried about how I would tell my children.

I underwent a radical hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, removing the the ovaries and the fallopian tubes, and had to wait until the operation was over to see if the cancer was in my lymph nodes. That would determine whether or not I would have to have chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

I wasnt concerned about the fertility aspect of things but was a bit worried about the menopause as I was told that I would go into it straight away. But luckily my lymph nodes were cancer free, so no further treatment was necessary.

Now my prognosis is good and I will be closely monitored for the next five years, but the worries about a recurrence stay with me.

I would say to anyone worried about the cervical smear test that it takes the nurse longer to fill out the label than it does taking the sample. If I hadnt had that smear test my outcome would have been very poor- so please, please go for the test  the system worked for me and saved my life.

Jacqui Power

Jacqui lives in Waterford with partner Seamus. She has two grown-up daughters and two grandchildren. The 56-year-old was diagnosed with cervical cancer 12 years ago after a smear test.

Jacqui Power from Waterford. Photo: Mary Browne.

I went for a test in 2007 after I had some abnormal bleeding and had a gut feeling that something was wrong. I went to see my doctor who (as well as doing the smear test) did an internal examination and told me she could see some blood in my cervix.

A week-and-a-half later I was called for a colposcopy and had a LEEP (Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure) carried out under local anaesthetic  I also had blood tests, a CT scan, an MRI, bone scan, and a chest X-ray.

Following all of these tests, the doctor told me that I had a tumour on my cervix and that I had cervical cancer  I was numb with shock.

I went on a programme of treatment  first was chemoradiotherapy (chemotherapy and radiotherapy together), with 33 rounds of radiotherapy and five rounds of chemotherapy. I also had brachytherapy (internal radiotherapy) and I coped by taking one day at a time and by counting down the radiotherapy treatments.

My advice to any women avoiding a smear test is please, please, please get yourself checked out. The earlier the detection, the better chance you have of survival. I am here today because I went for that five-minute smear test.
Aine Morgan was running out of treatment options until she heard about Pembro. Having access to the drug has given her renewed confidence, writes Marjorie Brennan.

In November last year, campaigner Vicky Phelan appeared alongside Aine Morgan on RTEs Claire Byrne Live programme to call for the experimental drug Pembrolizumab to be made available by the HSE to all women in Ireland with cervical cancer, not just those affected by the smear test scandal.

The appearance of these women, both terminally ill with the same cancer but one having the drug paid for and the other not, led to an outpouring of public support. Following an intensive lobbying campaign, the government confirmed in January that Pembro, as the drug is known, would be made available on a case-by-case basis to all women with cervical cancer, with the cost covered by the State.

Phelan credits the drug with significantly shrinking her tumours and saving her from another punishing round of palliative chemotherapy. She gets an infusion of the drug every three weeks in St Vincents Hospital in Dublin and noticed a positive effect almost immediately when she began the treatment, which can cost up to 8,500 per dose. Phelan initially covered the cost of the treatment herself.

The standard procedure is that you have three infusions and then you have a scan. But I noticed a difference after the first one. I didnt have as much pain but the most obvious thing for me after one dose was my stomach. The tumour is not in my stomach but it was so big, it was pushing it out so it looked like I was seven or eight months pregnant  I was wearing maternity clothes. But after one dose, it started to go down and by the second dose, it was gone down a good bit. It was a physical thing, that I knew straight away that this was working. At the same time, I dont think anybody was expecting the shrinkage that I got but the thing is that hasnt been sustained.

There was a massive shrinkage after the first scan, the second scan showed maybe a minimal shrinkage which wasnt visible on the scan  but everything was stable and that stability is good. Im happy enough with that.

Phelan acknowledges that the drug affects people in different ways, but says the side effects for her have been relatively minimal when compared to chemotherapy.

For me, there is no comparison. Im lucky, I dont really have any side effects. I did have at the beginning but the only one I really complained of was like an arthritis effect  I wouldnt be able to open a carton of milk. But that has resolved itself.

While Phelan acknowledges Pembro may not work for everyone in the same way, she says affected women deserve the opportunity to at least try it.

I am under no illusion that it [Pembro] will work for some and not for others but its about giving people the chance. If I hadnt been given the chance with this drug, theres no question Id be dead at this stage. Are we not entitled to quality of life when were sick?

Whats the point of keeping someone alive on chemotherapy if theyre going to be so sick they cant get out of bed?

Vicky Phelan and Aine Morgan speaking to the media outside the gates of Leinster House(The Dail) on the need for Pembro to be made available to all women being treated for cervical cancer. Photo: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

That is what drove me last year. I thought: No, Im not doing this again. I remembered how sick I was the first time and I said Id rather just take my chances and die with a good quality of life.

Ive been able to have the energy to do lots of things over the last year such as attend concerts and go away on holidays with my family. If I was on palliative chemotherapy and not Pembro, I simply would not have had the energy to do half of what I did last year. Being able to spend quality time with my family is what this has all been about for me.

Aines story

For musician Aine Morgan, the decision to give Pembro to women outside of the group affected by the CervicalCheck crisis has been a source of renewed hope. When we speak, she has just had her third infusion of the drug, the cost of which is now covered by the State.

Im beyond thrilled, she says.

Morgan had read about Pembro online but after attending a talk by Vicky Phelan in Galway, her resolve to access the drug was strengthened.

I had a chat with Vicky afterwards. It was before I started an intensive course of radiotherapy last year and I knew I was pretty much out of options at that stage.

The 43-year-old from Loughrea, Co Galway, was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer in October 2015. According to the doctors, I am a walking miracle. Ive outlived a prognosis of one to two years by three years and three months, she says.

While Morgan has not noticed an immediate improvement since she began treatment with Pembro, she is hopeful that she will feel the benefits of the drug after time. Just having access to the drug has given her hope, she says.

Hopefully over time, as my body adapts to it and gets used to it, I will feel the benefits of it. Because Ive had continuous treatment for three years, its bound to take its toll on the body, and its holding me back a bit more, that Im not feeling the benefit as quickly. Im very hopeful that I will. Its a lifeline, its hope.

You dont know further down the line what advancements are going to be made. Any time is brilliant when you are not really given a lot of time at all. Vicky has outlived her prognosis and I have well outlived mine.

How effective is Pembro

We spoke to Donal Brennan, professor of gynaecological oncology at UCD and consultant gynaecological oncologist at the Mater Hospital in Dublin, about the use of Pembro in treating cervical cancer.

How Pembro works

It is a new type of therapy  immunotherapy. It is what we call a checkpoint inhibitor. The tumours have developed ways of hiding from the immune system. Pembro basically unmasks the tumours and allows the natural immune cells within the body to attack the tumour. From that point of view, it is totally different to what we would call standard chemotherapy, which targets the tumour itself.

Evidence for its efficacy

It is still very much in its embryonic stages. There is only one trial that has been published and it has only been published in poster format, we dont even have a paper yet. That was the Keynote-158 study [an ongoing multi-centre trial that began in 2015]. It had 98 women with cervix cancer in it, all of whom had either recurrence or evidence of distant spread of their tumour. They would be the ones with the worst prognosis.

You need to do a test for a protein called PD-L1 which is expressed in the tumour. That is basically what the Pembro binds to, and if that is not in the tumour, it is a waste of time giving the drug.

It is like Herceptin  if you dont have a HER 2 positive breast cancer, you shouldnt give Herceptin. Likewise, if you dont have a PD-L1 positive cervix cancer, you shouldnt give Pembro. In that study, about 80% of the patients did express PD-L1. Of those, only 12 patients responded.

What is known about Pembro in terms of extending life?

What we know is very limited. The average survival in that patient cohort of 98 women was only about six months. With the 12 responders, only six of them were still responding at about 15 months.

The use of Pembro in other cancers

It is more well-studied in other cancers  [in terms of] melanoma, lung cancer, a small portion of colon cancers, it is off the charts, it is a game-changer. In melanoma in particular, immunotherapy, whether it is Pembro or one of the other types, has changed the face of melanoma. Likewise, in lung cancer, it is very clear that in a proportion of lung cancers, it can be very effective.

First-line treatment and Pembro

It shouldnt be substituted for treatments that we know work  chemotherapy, radiation or in some cases, surgery. There are women coming in who have options, sometimes curative options  which are horrible  but for one reason or another, it has been suggested they try this drug which is very much experimental. For example, if a woman has recurrent or metastatic cervix cancer, the first-line treatment is chemotherapy and a drug called Avastin. We know that 50% of women who are treated with those drugs will live for at least 15 months. We have large trials to confirm that.

Until Pembro is compared to that, we cant say That [process] is very slow which may not help the person in extremis right now, but if you dont do the studies properly, you will never know which drugs work better than which. The vast majority of new cancer drugs do not beat the standard [treatment].
Resignations and defections have changed the Dail voting arithmetic, so that non-aligned Independents now hold the balance of power, says Dr Michael Harty

The Dail voting arithmetic has changed substantially since the negotiation of the confidence-and-supply agreement between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in 2016. The agreement allows the Fine Gael-led minority government to win votes of no-confidence, and undertake cabinet reshuffles and budgets, provided Fianna Fail abstain.

It has been extended to cover one more budget and provide Government stability during Brexit uncertainty. However, continuing confidence-and-supply no longer guarantees government survival.

This altered Dail arithmetic was brought into stark focus by last weeks vote of no-confidence in Minister for Health, Simon Harris.

Over the last three years, defections, expulsions, and resignations have ensured that even should Fianna Fail abstain on critical votes, the Government is no longer guaranteed to win those votes. Confidence-and-supply no longer ensures that Fine Gael or Fianna Fail have the ultimate say on the continuation of the Government.

Stephen Donnelly has moved from the Social Democrats to Fianna Fail and thus from opposition to abstention

Peter Fitzpatrick has lost the Fine Gael whip and has moved from supporting the Government to opposition

Denis Naughten, having resigned from Government, can vote as he chooses, but, so far, has decided to support the Government; however, his vote is not guaranteed

I have moved from supporting the Government to opposition, based on health mismanagement and failure to support rural sustainability. Carol Nolan and Peadar Toibin have resigned from Sinn Fein, but will continue to oppose the Government.

Apart from the 21 Sinn Fein TDs, who proposed the vote of no-confidence, 32 other members, from smaller parties, technical groupings, and Independents, voted noconfidence in Mr Harris.

Votes of no-confidence are critical in any parliament and define the strength and ability of the ruling parties to govern and retain political authority

Mr Harris survived the vote of no confidence by 58 votes to 53, with Fianna Fail abstaining. 58 votes represent 37% of the 158 TDs in Dail Eireann, which is not exactly a ringing vote of confidence in his tenure as minister, or this minority coalitions ability to manage our health service.

Those voting to support Mr Harris consist of 49 Fine Gael TDs, four from the Independent Alliance, together with two non-aligned Independent ministers, all 55 TDs being members of Government. The three additional votes in favour of Mr Harris were provided by Independent TDs Michael Lowry, Noel Grealish, and Denis Naughten. If they had voted against Mr Harris, then, in spite of Fianna Fail abstaining, as agreed in confidence-and-supply, he would have lost the confidence of the Dail, he would have lost his ministry, and the Government may have collapsed.

It is now the case that Fianna Fail maintaining confidence-and-supply does not guarantee that the Government can get through crucial Dail votes, particularly budgetary votes. Thus, the Government is no longer solely dependent on Fianna Fail for its survival, but is additionally dependent on the votes of non-aligned independent TDs.

The voting intentions of these non-aligned TDs are thus critical for Government survival and their voting patterns will be interesting to follow over the remaining lifetime of this Dail, as they are in the twilight zone of critical floating votes, which can go either way, depending on how closely the Government courts their support.

Given this new voting reality in the Dail, it is not exclusively in the gift of Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin to decide on the continuation of this Government, in spite of maintaining the confidence-and-supply agreement.

Effectively, these three Independent TDs hold the balance of power and are in a pivotal position to decide on the future of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Martin, and the survival of this Government.

To use Brexit terminology, the confidence-and-supply agreement is no longer a bulletproof backstop ensuring the continuation of the Fine Gael-led coalition, as it also requires the support of twilight zone independents.

- Dr Michael Harty, TD, is chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Health Committee
Former Fox News executive Bill Shine has resigned as White House communications director and has joined President Donald Trump's re-election campaign as a senior adviser.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says that President Trump accepted Mr Shine's resignation on Thursday evening. The resignation is effective from today.
Asia "Buddhism Under Threat": Thai Election Gives Platform to Radicals

Sirima Sarakul, 36, a candidate for the Pandin Dharma Party, talks to supporters during a campaign rally in Bangkok, Thailand, on Feb. 25. / Reuters

PATHUM THANI, Thailand  A clothing and cosmetics model and a former monk are campaigning together for Thailands election at a market outside Bangkok. The message: Buddhism is under threat.

Their politics marks a new trend in traditionally tolerant Thailand, where Buddhist nationalist movements have never taken root in the same way as in countries such as Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Buddhism is one of the traditional pillars of Thai society and underpins many aspects of Thai life, but monks have little influence over the state compared to the monarchy and military.

The emergence of the Pandin Dharma Party to contest the March 24 election points to the rise of a fringe of Thai society that is at odds with the royalist-military establishment over religion and expresses growing antipathy to Islam.

I joined this party because of its policy to protect the religion, said Sirima Grace Sarakul, 36, the model, who is contesting a seat in Parliament as a Pandin Dharma Party candidate.

The threat to Buddhism, Pandin Dharmas supporters believe, is from secular authorities they accuse of harassing monks and of caring more about Thailands tiny Muslim minority than the religion followed by more than 90 percent of Thais.

Monks have been dealt with heavy-handedly by the state, complains former monk Korn Medee, 47, leader of the party whose name means Land of Buddhist Teaching. The government has overtly favored the other religion over Buddhism, he told Reuters.

The governments National Office of Buddhism declined to comment on the allegations or the rise of Buddhist nationalism, saying it was a matter of national security.

Two other avowedly Buddhist parties in the election are aligned with the junta, which has imposed measures to bring Thailands 40,000 temples under control in the name of tackling scandals ranging from corruption to sex to murder.

Paiboon Nititawan, 65, of the pro-military Peoples Reform Party, dismissed Pandin Dharma as not real Buddhists.

Our party is not even talking about religion per se, but rather about applying the teaching of the Buddha, he said.

Division

Thailands longstanding political fracture between the establishment and the populism of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is mirrored in religion.

Thai Buddhism itself is divided into two fraternities: the Mahanikaya of the masses and the more conservative Thammayut, bound to the establishment and more influential since its founding by a 19th century king.

There has been a conflict of interests between factions within the monkhood and the military government, said Buddhist scholar Somrit Luechai. As long as the monkhood remains under the centralized control of the state, this conflict will not end and could even intensify.

Religion has not been among the top issues ahead of a ballot that is largely shaping up as a contest between parties that support establishment-backed junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha and allies of Thaksin.

But an electoral system designed to help smaller parties  81 are standing for election  has given greater room for interest groups.

Dressed in white to mark themselves out as devout lay followers of Buddhism, Sirima and another former monk, Boonyatilert Sara, 45, found a ready reception in Pathum Thani Province, where northern Bangkoks sprawl gives way to rice fields.

Buddhism has been decaying in this country, said Yuttana Suksa-ard, 66. A party like this can help purify the religion.

Pandin Dharma accuses the military government of unfairly targeting senior monks  raiding prominent temples such as the giant Dhammakaya complex in Pathum Thani  over alleged scandals.

The party wants to formally make Buddhism the state religion and give more support for temples.

I want to protect the religion and to do that we need legislative power, said Boonyatilert. In neighboring Myanmar, the Buddhists there know truly what their religion is and they can defend it. Not here.

Muslims under fire

Although Pandin Dharma strongly rejects accusations of being anti-Muslim, it complains that Muslims get too much state help.

It wants state-sponsored Buddhist settlements in Muslim-majority southern provinces to aid the return of Buddhists who left because of a decades-old insurgency.

One of the partys candidates for prime minister, Banjob Bannaruji, has praised hardline Myanmar monk Wirathu and in a 2015 post asked: will we all succumb and allow Islam to take over the country or do we need Myanmar monks to help us?

Thai authorities have been tough on monks who express anti-Muslim views, defrocking one in 2016.

But some fear that Buddhist nationalism could also become a threat to centuries-old Muslim communities.

Before, it was just a bunch of personal animosities against Islam expressed online, but now these scattered movements are becoming more defined, said Zakee Pitakumpol, an academic at Prince of Songkla University and deputy secretary to the Sheikhul Islam, Thailands Islamic spiritual leader.

The Pandin Dharma Party is contesting only 145 out of 350 seats this time and Korn played down expectations of great success, saying the party did not have enough money for posters and was relying on social media and door-to-door campaigning.

Even if we dont get any seats, then at least now we have a platform, he said.
Asia Regulation Can Hinder Not Help Asia's Social Enterprises, Analysts Say

A Filipina Barista in Paranaque, Metro Manila, Philippines May 5, 2017. / Reuters

BANGKOKAs more Asian nations consider laws to promote social enterprises, analysts on Thursday warned that legislation could hold back, not help the growing number of ethical businesses.

Thailand last week passed a social enterprise act that gives tax breaks and other incentives to registered ventures that aim to deliver a positive social impact while turning a profit.

Such ventures can register if they generate half their revenues from the business, and reinvest 70 percent of profits.

The law makes it possible for social enterprisesand their supportersto receive various benefits, said Vichit Charadsooksawad, director of the industry law division of the governments advisory council, who helped draft the law.

It recognizes the role that social enterprises can play in solving social, economic and environmental challenges, he said on Thursday at a regional conference in Bangkok.

Across Southeast Asia, social enterprises are helping narrow inequality and create livelihood opportunities.

Thailand is among the few countries in the region with legislation aimed at such ventures.

Vietnam revised its enterprise law in 2014 to provide a legal definition of social enterprise, while Myanmar set up a committee to promote inclusive businesses and impact investing.

Malaysia had a three-year strategy to promote social ventures that ended last year, while the Philippines had drafted a bill to reduce poverty through social entrepreneurship.

But regulation is not always needed or desired, Tristan Ace, who heads the British Councils social enterprise program, said on the sidelines of the conference.

There is a difference between recognition and regulation. Recognition sends an important signal to the market that it is being taken seriously, he said.

But when you have a sector in a nascent stage of growth, you dont want to restrict it too much. Regulation can come later, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Instead, governments must first help the sector develop talent, and improve access to finance, said Ace.

This view was echoed by Alfie Othman, who heads the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise, which provides training and other resources for ethical entrepreneurs.

We are opposed to regulationit would kill innovation in the sector, he said. The tax breaks are not that importantwe want the sector to grow first.

Meanwhile in Indonesia, there is a discussion on whether a new law is needed, said Romy Cahyadi, chief executive at Instella, which supports social enterprises.

Some social enterprises want greater clarity and recognition as legal entities, he said.

The government plans to include social enterprise in the five-year national plan. We believe thats a good approach.

Thailand has a long history of social enterprises, with the quirky Cabbages and Condoms restaurant set up in 1975 to fund AIDS projects and sexual-health education programs.

It has since grown into a chain of restaurants and resorts in Thailand and overseas.

When we began, even the term social enterprise was not used. We made good money without any government support, and paid tax like any company, said founder Mechai Viravaidya, known as the godfather of Thai social business.

More than legislation, what we need is awareness and education, he said.
Burma Bus Company Owned by Ex-Dictator Ne Wins Grandsons at Risk of Lawsuit Over Unpaid Loan

U Kyaw Ne Win is seen in front of the buses purchased by his company, Omni Focus, when they arrived in Yangon in May 2017. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGONTwo grandsons of Myanmars ex-dictator Ne Win may be at risk of being sued by a local bank for failing to repay hire-purchase loans obtained to acquire buses for a transport company they own.

The bus company, Omni Focus, and two of its affiliatesCentral Yangon Network Company and Keen Support Companytook out a loan of 56 billion kyats (US$36.8 million) from AYA Bank in 2017 to buy 500 new buses to be operated by Yangon Bus Service (YBS). The loan was sought at the recommendation of Yangon Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein.

In a statement released on Friday, the bank said it is planning to sue the companies for failing to repay the loans. The bank said it had attempted to communicate with the companies for several months, including sending bank notices and legal notices requesting repayment, as per the banks procedures.

U Myint Zaw, managing director of AYA Bank, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that the three companies failed to make at least 50 billion kyats in repayments, including interest and late penalties, over the past 17 months.

As a bank, we gave them loan within the bank compliance and procedures. And now they have missed the deadline to make the repayment. We would like to urge them to repay the loan, he said.

U Kyaw Ne Win of the Omni Focus Company and officials from AYA Bank met separately with the Yangon Regional Parliaments Finance, Planning and Economy Committee on Thursday to discuss the dispute.

Regional lawmaker U Kyaw Zeya, who is a member of the committee, told The Irrawaddy that the loans were provided because the regional government told the bank to do so. He said the bank officials said that while other companies repay their loans regularly, the three companies, which are all under Omni Focus, failed to pay. He added that U Kyaw Ne Win acknowledged receiving notices from the bank.

During the meeting, U Kyaw Ne Win complained of the difficulties that his company is facing, including the fact that the bus lines are losing money; what he described as the Yangon Region Transport Authoritys failure to keep its promise to offer assistance to bus companies operating under the YBS; and a delay in the implementation of a cash payment system.

He said he doesnt mind the lawsuit. If he is sued, he will disclose his difficulties to the public, U Kyaw Zeya quoted U Kyaw Ne Win as saying.

A few hours after AYA Bank released its press statement, the bus company responded, saying it informed the bank on Jan. 31 that it would attempt to meet the repayment deadline.

However, U Myint Zaw said AYA Bank had no knowledge of the companys claim.
Burma Charter Amendment Committee Starts Work

Lawmakers attend a parliamentary committee meeting in Naypyitaw. / Htet Naing Zaw / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAW  The parliamentary committee drafting amendments to the Constitution met on Thursday in Naypyitaw for the first time since it was established over two weeks ago and discussed the first 14 articles covering the basic principles of the Union.

Lawmakers for the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and those appointed by the military, or Tatmadaw, who opposed the committees formation, showed up but did not join in the discussion.

Lawmakers from the Tatmadaw and the USDP didnt take part in the discussion, but they took notes on the discussion among the other parties, U Aung Kyaw Zan of the Arakan National Party (ANP) told reporters.

The ANP proposed restructuring Myanmars regions and state in such a way that would help put the main ethnic groups on equal footing.

USDP lawmakers declined to be interviewed after the meeting. Military-appointed lawmakers spoke only to Myawady Television, the military-owned broadcaster.

I am not authorized to reveal what was discussed at the meeting because it is graded classified information, USDP lawmaker U Sai Kyaw Moe said.

Committee Secretary U Myat Nyana Soe said all the member parties except the Wa Democratic Party attended the meeting and participated actively.

The other parties in the committee are the ruling National League for Democracy and the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, Zomi Congress for Democracy, Pa-O National Organization, Palang National Party, Kokang Democracy and Unity Party, United National Democracy Party, Mon National Party, National Unity Party, Kachin State Democracy Party, and Lisu National Development Party.

There are a total of 48 clauses in the first 14 articles of the Constitution. Committee members declined to say what was said about Article 6 (f), which allows the military to participate in the national political leadership of the state.

Any amendment to the Constitution requires the approval of more than 75 percent of lawmakers in the Union Parliament, where the military controls 25 percent of the seats as per the Constitution.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma More than a Dozen Soldiers, Including Captain, Killed in Clash with AA in Chin State

The military ID of Capt. Aung Chan Moe, issued by the Office of the Commander-in-Chief / AA info desk

YANGONMore than a dozen Myanmar Army soldiers, including a captain, were killed during a battle with the Arakan Army (AA) in Chin States Paletwa Township on Thursday.

Captain Aung Chan Moe was among the troops from Light Infantry Battalion No. 542, based in southern Rakhine States Kyaukphyu Township, who were killed in the clash.

The AA released an update via its official website on Friday afternoon displaying a number of soldiers ID cards, including that of Capt. Aung Chan Moe, along with badges, epaulettes and a 9-mm pistol. The AA said at least 15 government soldiers were killed.

It also displayed photos of three dead Army troops as well as a number of pieces of military equipment including binoculars, mine detectors, three MA assault rifles, more than 20 mortar rounds of different sizes, and six RPG rounds. In the AA handout, the ID of another captain, Saw Maung Maung Nyein, and an epaulette with three stars were also displayed, but it remains unclear whether the officer was among a group of soldiers who managed to escape, or if he was freed by the AA.

Since March 3, the AA has occasionally released battle updates via its website and that of its political wing, the United League for Arakan (ULA). The AA recently announced that it killed more than 30 Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) soldiers in a March 4 attack in Mrauk-U Township.

The AA said its fighters claimed to have ambushed two wooden motorboats carrying dozens of Tatmadaw soldiers who were part of reinforcements for an Army offensive in Mrauk-U. It said the soldiers drowned when the boats sank. The Irrawaddy could not independently verify this claim.

According to the AA, the Tatmadaws Light Infantry Division (LID) No. 55 has been pouring more troops into the frontline in Paletwa, and troops from LIDs No. 22, 33, 66 and 99 are also being deployed to battlefields in northern Rakhine. The AA estimates that the Tatmadaw has dispatched not less than 10,000 soldiers to Rakhine since armed clashes there escalated in December. The AA predicted the fighting would only intensify as long as the military continues to send in reinforcements.

After learning that the Tatmadaw was using private boats and vehicles to transport troops, the AA recently warned boat owners not to transport soldiers to contested zones.

A spokesman for the Office of the Commander-in-Chief did not respond to The Irrawaddys calls on Friday.

In late December, the Tatmadaw acknowledged that some high-ranking officers had been killed in clashes with the AA, without providing details. Another officer, Major Aung Ko Nyein, was shot dead during a battle in February.

Local relief groups estimate that nearly 10,000 civilians have been displaced across Rakhine due to the intense fighting in the northern of the state. Most of the IDPs are sheltering in poor conditions and are relying mainly on donations from the local groups.
Burma Key Players in Peace Process Steering Team Step Down

KNU Chairman Gen. Mutu Say Poe and General Secretary Padoh Saw Ta Doh Moo. / Karen National Union

CHIANG MAIKaren National Union (KNU) Chairperson Gen. Mutu Say Poe and Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) Chairperson Yawd Serk have stepped down from their respective positions as chairperson and vice-chairperson of the Peace Process Steering Team (PPST), a group representing 10 ethnic armed group signatories of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).

The PPST held a series of meetings in Thailands Chiang Mai from Tuesday to Thursday this week.

A new chairperson and vice-chairperson will be elected formally at the next summit, though the two outgoing leaders delegated authority to KNU General Secretary Padoh Saw Ta Doh Moo and RCSS Deputy Chief of Staff Brig-Gen Pao Khay.

Negotiations with the government and military on moving Myanmar toward a federal and democratic system that guaranteed equality and self-determination for ethnic minorities had deviated from the path set out by the NCA, the delegates said at the meeting.

The leadership change is aimed at putting the process back on the right track and continuing peace talks with the government based on the common ground reached at the meeting, said Saw Ta Doh Moo.

This is to replace [the PPST leadership] with younger generations who appear to be able to debate and negotiate more effectively, Saw Ta Doh Moo said in a press conference on Thursday.

Delegates of the KNU and the RCSS, the two biggest groups among the 10 NCA signatories, said that the leadership change would not impact peace talks, though some delegates of the smaller signatory groups expressed concerns that there would be a negative impact on talks.

We dont think it will have an impact because our argument will be framed by policies and not on personality, so it wont have an impact, RCSS Second Secretary Col. Sai Ngin said at the press conference.

During the meeting, delegates discussed the current peace process framework, discussing ways to make it more inclusive, and tried to reach a consensus on a timeframe for future talks with the government and military.

The PPST summit is scheduled to be held on May 14 when a proposal will be submitted to change its name to the Peace Process Consultative Meeting as well as the formal election of the chairperson and the vice-chairperson.

The PPST was formed by eight original signatories of the NCA in 2017 in Thailands Chiang Mai in order to facilitate peace talks with the government and Tatmadaw.

The PPST suspended all formal meetings following arguments over the concept of single army and non-secession from the Union brought up at exclusive meetings between the government, Tatmadaw and NCA signatories last October in Naypyitaw.
Burma Landmine Kills War Vet in Northern Rakhine

People drive past a stupa in Mrauk-U Township, Rakhine State. / Min Aung Khine / The Irrawaddy

SITTWE, Rakhine State  A landmine killed a 68-year-old man in Rakhine States Mrauk-U Township on Wednesday, bringing to five the number of civilians killed by landmines or unexploded ordnance in northern Rakhine and the neighboring township of Paletwa in Chin State since February.

The Myanmar military and Arakan Army have been fighting in the area since late last year.

On Tuesday, the Chin Human Rights Organization said U Aung Lun, a resident of Shin Ma Dein Village in Paletwa, was forced to guide the militarys Light Infantry Battalion 544 at the head of the column and was killed after stepping on a mine near the Bangladesh border on Feb. 25.

A captain and other soldiers were also seriously injured by the blast, the rights group said in a report, adding that the military promised to compensate the victims family in line with ethnic Chin traditions.

Two days later, a couple from Ahtet Thin Pone Tan Village in Ponnagyun Township died when an artillery shell they had found in the forest exploded while they were taking it home. Two other villagers on the boat with the couple were also injured.

On Dec. 29, an ethnic Mro villager from Leik Hpa Village, also in Ponnagyun, was injured after stepping on a landmine.

These figures exclude deaths from accidental shootings or assassination.

In the latest incident, three residents of Auk Tha Kan Village were on their way home from the forest at about 6 a.m. on Wednesday when one of them stepped on a landmine, according to police Capt. Aung Thu Myo of the Mrauk-U Township police force.

The man, a 68-year-old war veteran, lost his leg below the knee from the blast and bled to death on the way to the hospital in Mrauk-U.

The two others were slightly injured, U Tun Than Sein, a state lawmaker who represents Mrauk-U, told The Irrawaddy.

The military and Arakan Army clashed near the site of the mine blast on Feb. 19 and 20, according to locals.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  Having your pizza and pasta fix is now one free call away.

Greenwich has partnered with Globe Business, the enterprise information and communications technology arm of Globe Telecom, for a free mobile call delivery service for customers in and out of Metro Manila.

This allows fast and easy access to delivery services for anyone craving for Greenwich pizza, pasta, chicken, and other food offers.

To avail of free call, customers just need to press the hash tag (#) before keying in 5-55-55 on their mobile phone.

"Our best-tasting pizzas and pastas are now a convenient call away through the #5-55-55 and we could not be happier that more Filipinos can now enjoy solid barkada bonding moments through Greenwich," Greenwich General Manager Mike Castro said.

Peter Maquera, Globe Business senior vice president, said, "We are honored to have been chosen by Greenwich as their partner for this endeavor. Globe Business always aspires to provide Philippine enterprises opportunities to elevate service delivery and customer centricity and that is why a growing number of the country's top fast food chains have and are partnering with us to avail of the #Hashtag service."

Aside from the partnership with Greenwich, Globe Business has joined hands with leading fast-food chains under Jollibee Foods Corporation. Globe Business earlier launched Jollibee's #8-7000, and will soon bring the same service to Burger King, Mang Inasal, and Chowking.

To know more about Globe Business and how it can move your digital future, visit http://business.globe.com.ph
Photo: The Canadian Press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is greeted by an Inuit elder on Friday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on Friday for the way Inuit in northern Canada were treated for tuberculosis in the mid-20th century, calling it colonial and misguided.

Trudeau was in Iqaluit to deliver an apology to the Inuit on behalf of the federal government.

"Today, I am here to offer an official apology for the federal government's management of tuberculosis in the Arctic from the 1940s to the 1960s," he said. "Many of you know all too well how this policy played itself out."

Trudeau is acknowledging that many people with TB died after being removed from their families and communities and were taken on gruelling journeys south on ships, trains and aircraft.

The prime minister made the visit to the capital of Nunavut a day later than planned after bad weather prevented his plane from landing on Thursday.

Trudeau also announced the opening of a database that Inuit families can soon use to find loved ones who died when they were transported south for treatment.

The database is part of a wider initiative called Nanilavut, which means "let's find them" in Inuktitut.

The apology had been in the works for the better part of two years, since Trudeau signed an Inuit-Crown partnership agreement in 2017.

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., a representative for Inuit in Nunavut, has said it wanted to help family members locate burial sites of those who died during tuberculosis treatment from the 1940s through the 1960s. Their bodies were buried in southern Canada instead of being returned to their relatives.

The mistreatment of Inuit during the TB outbreaks was a "massive human rights failure" from the government of Canada in the treatment of its own citizens, said Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK).

His organization acts as the national voice of the roughly 60,000 Inuit living in four sections of northern Canada.

The government took far too long to formally acknowledge wrongdoing, Obed said.

"It is a long time, and I do wish the apology came sooner."

Inuit who were infected with TB in the mid-20th century were taken into government care, separated from their families and transported aboard ships to sanatoriums in the south of Canada, where they were disconnected from their culture and language.

In many cases, those who died from the disease were buried without their families knowing what happened to them or where they were laid to rest.
Burma New Yangon City Chief Grilled Over Chinese Contractors Reputation

NYDC chief executive Serge Pun speaks during a roundtable technical discussion on the New Yangon City project in September 2018. / NYDC Facebook

YANGONThe CEO of the company developing the controversial New City project on the west bank of the Yangon River has defended the involvement of a Chinese firm with an international reputation for engaging in bribery and corruption.

The Yangon government-backed New Yangon Development Company (NYDC) last year signed a US$1.5-billion (about 2.3 trillion kyats) framework agreement with Beijing-based China Communications Construction Company, Ltd. (CCCC) under which the latter will build infrastructure for the new city. The project, slated to be developed on 20,000 acres of land, is part of Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative in Myanmar.

However, the project has been a source of controversy due to its flood-prone location as well as CCCCs involvement. The Hong Kong-listed, Chinese state-owned company has been accused of engaging in corruption and bribery relating to development deals in at least 10 countries in Africa and Asia, from the Philippines to Bangladesh to Tanzania, according to international media reports.

At a public consultation meeting about the project in Yangon on Wednesday, NYDCs CEO Serge Pun was bombarded with questions on topics including the projects location, financial model, environmental feasibility, job creation and the controversial Chinese firms involvement, among others. Audience members wondered aloud whether the New City project would have a negative impact on Yangon and expressed concerns over Chinese influence over the New City once it is completed.

When asked if NYDC had done a background check on CCCC before signing the framework agreement, the CEO said it had. He acknowledged that the Chinese company had once been blacklisted by the World Bank along with internationally known U.S. and Canadian companies, but insisted that the situation has changed.

I dont want to comment on CCCCs past. But they have to stay on the right track when working with us, he said, adding that if it didnt the outcome would be poor.

My responsibility is to keep it on the right track, he said.

Serge Pun told the audience that since the formation of NYDC last year, many international firms had approached it about investing in the New City, but they had failed to meet NYDCs basic conditions for the project, under which it will provide the land while its partners must bankroll all the infrastructure projects.

So in the end only one was left: CCCC, he said.

Though CCCC has yet to be given the green light to proceed with the project, the framework agreement between NYDC and the Chinese company says NYDC will provide 28 sq.km of land for use by CCCC, which will invest $1.5 billion in building six infrastructure works including bridges, roads and power and water treatment plants.

During the town hall meeting, U Win Myo Thu, the chairman of the Advancing Life and Regenerating Motherland (ALARM) group, said the agreement was too good to be true.

Other investors have turned their backs [due to the huge investment required], but CCCC is still around. Why? Do they have a hidden agenda? he asked.

U Win Myo Thu cited examples in other countries where Chinese state banks have poured huge amount of cash into projects. Not only do the subcontracts all go to Chinese companies, he said, but when the project fails to generate sufficient profit to repay the loans, the Chinese developers seize the land.

China is known for playing this trick all over the world, he said.

If something goes wrong [with the New Yangon City project], we wont have much bargaining power with China either, he warned, while questioning whether the new city would become a Chinese enclave.

Serge Puns audience and co-panelists appeared less than impressed by his failure to provide concrete answers to some of their questions relating to the project.

When the moderator asked why a flood-prone location was chosen for the project he replied, Its difficult to answer.

I was assigned to take care of the project after they [the government] chose the location. I wasnt involved in the location selection process, he said.

When another member of the audience asked whether the project had been submitted to the Myanmar Investment Commission (any project with an investment value larger than $5 million requires the investment bodys approval), the CEO said simply that they were awaiting permission from Naypyitaw.

People upstairs are now in discussions. The Union Attorney Generals Office is reviewing the Pre-Project Document [a set of documents including technical specifications, a financial proposal and a business model] submitted by CCCC. I think it will happen soon, Serge Pun said.
Burma Ten Missing Taang Villagers Held by RCSS, Rights Groups Say

Photos released by two Taang rights groups reportedly found on a memory card appear to show some of the 10 missing residents of Mann Lee village in northern Shan State. According to locals, the 10 were detained by the RCSS. The 10 people disappeared on March 1 during fighting between rival ethnic armed groups in the village in Namtu Township. / TWO, TSYU

Taang rights groups have accused the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) of detaining 10 ethnic Taang residents of Mann Lee village in northern Shan States Namtu Township.

The 10 went missing after fighting broke out between rival ethnic armed groups in Mann Lee on March 1. According to the groups, a phone memory card found at the scene of the clash contained images of the missing villagers.

A family member of one of the missing found the card in a phone that had been left in the village and took it to the Taang Womens Organization (TWO).

Lway Poe Jae, joint secretary of the Taang Students and Youth Union (TSYU), told The Irrawaddy on Friday that, Our evidence is mainly from the villager who came to give the memory card to us. When we checked the memory card, we found they [the RCSS] had detained those 10 people.

The images show the missing villagers sitting down with their hands tied by rope and blindfolded. Armed men dressed in civilian clothes stand behind the victims, she said.

The TSYU and the TWO issued a joint statement announcing the discovery of the photos and accusing the RCSS of detaining the 10. It demanded that they be released.

Lway Poe Jae said local residents had identified the armed men in the photos as RCSS members.

The 10 disappeared on March 1 after the village became caught in fighting between the RCSS and a joint force of Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP) troops. The fighting caused the population of the village to flee. Two people who had stayed behind to take care of property and another eight villagers who were among those who fled were all later reported missing.

The TSYU and TWO said they would ask other rights groups including those from the Shan and international communities to lobby the RCSS to release the villagers.

Colonel Sai Oo, a spokesperson for the RCSS, denied the group is holding the missing villagers.

We did not arrest them, he said. He added that he had read the statement by the TSYU and TWO, but found the account of finding a memory card hard to believe.

Their armed group [the TNLA] sometimes arrests its own people but blames us, he said.

No one benefits from arresting civilians, he said, before calling on armed groups to help local residents.

Col. Sai Oo added that if his group had arrested any civilians, and if they were found to have done nothing wrong, the group would release them.

The fighting between ethnic armed groups in northern Shan State has inflamed tensions between ethnic Shan and Taang in the region. At least 40 people have disappeared in Namtu Township since fighting broke out between the TNLA and the RCSS in the area, according to Taang rights groups.

The RCSS is an ethnic Shan armed group historically based in Loi Tai Lang, southern Shan State. However, it has begun to exert control in areas in northern Shan since signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the Myanmar government in 2015.

The TNLA has been the RCSS main rival among the ethnic groups in the area, but the SSPP, a Shan ethnic armed group based in northern Shan State, has staged attacks against the RCSS of late too.

The TNLA and SSPP are members of the Northern Alliance bloc of armed groups. They have joined forces to attack the RCSS and defend their areas of control. Both the TNLA and SSPP accuse the RCSS of occupying their areas of control.

The two armed groups are trying to kick the RCSS out of northern Shan State. The RCSS retains small areas of control in Namtu and Hsipaw townships. Over 2,000 IDPs have fled villages in Namtu and Hsipaw amid ongoing clashes in the area.
Arts Yangon Timeout

This coming week, Yangon has lots of opportunities to enjoy fun and lively entertainment through live music, performance art, theater, art exhibitions and more.

Art, Nature & Heritage of Inle: Artist Residency Exhibition

After completing residency programs at Inle Lake in January, four Myanmar artists are displaying the artwork they created at the lake. See the paintings, sculpture and photography of Sai Htin Linn, Htet Myo Htut Aung (Pinky), Pyae Phyo Thet Paing and Aung Thu Phyo who were asked to represent the natural landscape, culture and traditions of Inle through their work. This event is held in conjunction with My Yangon My Home, The Loft Hotel and Inle Lake View Resort and Spa.

March 1 to 9 | The Loft Hotel | No. 33, Yaw Min Gyi Street, Dagon Township

Saudades Art Exhibition

Four artists from across the world will exhibit their work at Gallery 65 for four days. The collective works of artists Ardy Timmer-Cuijpers (Netherlands), Mafi Espirito Santo (Portugal/ S Africa), Sandar Khaing (Myanmar), and Zun Ei Phyu (Myanmar) will be shown. Saudade in Portuguese is a key emotion word that conveys a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. The four artists explore, recollect, re-enact and retrace what has since passed but remains alive in their consciousness.

March 7 to 10 | Gallery 65 | No. 65, Yaw Min Gyi Road, Dagon Township

Live Music with New Direction

Atlas Rooftop Bar and Lounge continues to keep us entertained and relaxed on Friday evenings when we have the chance to wind down after the busy week and clink glasses with friends to toast to the weekend. Live music will be provided by New Direction who will play pop hits in this breezy rooftop setting.

March 8 | 8 p.m. | Atlas Rooftop Bar & Lounge | Uniteam Building, 84 Pan Hlaing Street, Sanchaung Township |

Korea Day

For those of you who love everything Korean, get yourselves to Lotte Hotel this weekend. This event organized by the Myanmar-Korea Tourism Development Working Group is all about promoting Koreas food, culture and tourism. There will be a photo booth with traditional Korean outfits all weekend and live performance by Project K, Rose Quartz and Key on Saturday morning from 9 a.m. Famous Myanmar travel blogger May Zune Win of I Love Traveling will be there to give tips on traveling to Korea and Nu Myat Theingi Oo of Nu Myat Around the World travel blog will give a talk about why you should travel to Korea on Sunday afternoon.

March 9 and 10 | Sapphire Ballroom | Lotte Hotel Yangon, 6 Mile, Pyay Road, Hlaing Township

Womens Rights Week Outdoor Screening

To conclude the French Institutes week-long event schedule as part of International Womens Day, there will be a screening of the French film The One which is about the challenges women face in their professional lives. The film is in French with English subtitles.

March 9 | 6:30 p.m. | Institut Francais de Birmanie | 340, Pyay Road, Sanchaung Township

Bent Nails Performance Art

The performance art scene in Yangon is certainly growing and is supported in no small part by independent contemporary art gallery Myanm/art. Well-established artist Zoncy will collaborate with the Thinkers for a final performance before jetting to Germany for her next artist residency program. The image of bent nails offsets the theme of mistakes and perhaps even regret: Bent nails make me think of mistakes, or that which cannot be corrected again without a time machine.

March 9 | 6 p.m. | Myanm/art | 3FL, 98 Bogalayzay Street, Botahtaung Township

Live Music with Ruthless Jambalaya

Union Bar & Grill will be the venue for live music on Saturday evening by a trio of musicians who are well-known in the Yangon live music and open-mic scene. They play jazzy funk music with a smattering of blues that will have you tapping your toes, shaking your hips or taking to the floor to dance the evening away.

March 9 | 8 p.m. | Union Bar & Grill | 42 Strand Road, Botahtaung Township

Level 2 Sessions House & Techno

Level 2 Sessions is a regular club night which showcases the best house and techno DJ talent in Yangon. This Saturday night, Karl Ross, Lion Grunenberg and Yu KT will play eclectic and underground-oriented music at Level 2, a Yangon nightclub with top quality sound and lighting and a true underground club atmosphere. Tickets are 8,000 kyats and include a free beer.

March 9 | 11 p.m. | Level 2 | Compound of Yangon International Hotel, Corner of Ahlone Road and Pyay Road, Dagon Township

3 Issues 3 Acts

Students of Parami Institute will perform three short plays which they have also written and directed themselves. The plays deal with real issues facing young adults like themselves and others in Myanmar today. Titled Slash and Burn, Phantom Coercion and Legacy, the students developed their scripts through research and interviews, and workshops with professional performers and directors.

March 10 | 7 p.m. | Parami Institute of Liberal Arts & Sciences | Shwe Gone Plaza, Intersection of Kabar Aye Pagoda Road and Shwe Gone Daing Road, Bahan Township

G Talk: Little by Little

Julie Garnier, founder of Lilla clothing company, will give a talk about slow fashion, discussing why and how our clothing choices make a difference to the environment. This is the third session of G Talk, a regular seminar event which is organized to share knowledge and inspire people of Yangon.

March 11 | 5 p.m. | Hotel G | 5 Alan Pya Pagoda Street, Dagon Township

Wathann Animation Workshop

Organized by the Wathann Filmfest and The Japan Foundation, this workshop in Burmese language takes place over five full days and offers a unique chance to learn about animation for childrens cartoons. Three top Japanese animators will share their skills with budding animation artists and incorporating culture into cartoons will be a central theme.

March 13 to 17 | Film Development Center | No. 50, Golden Valley Road, Bahan Township
Analysis Infographic: Chinas Plantation Greed

A local worker at a banana plantation in Bhamo Township, Kachin State on March 5, 2019. / Myitkyina Journal

YANGONChinese tissue culture banana plantations, banned from Laos and Thailand, came to war-torn Kachin State in 2007. For more than two years, controversial China-backed banana plantations have been facing backlash from local residents in Kachin State, where operators are accused of unfairly taking over lands previously leased from the authorities by locals, many of whom were displaced by conflict.

As the plantations expand, villagers displaced by fighting and living in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) are increasingly concerned that their land may be occupied, and that they will not be able to farm when they return home.

The area occupied by tissue culture banana plantations has been expanding rapidly in Kachin State, particularly in Waimaw Township close to the state capital of Myitkyina, and most of the plantations are operated by Chinese companies.

According to the States agriculture ministry, there are more than 60,000 acres of banana plantations. However, civil society organizations have recorded more than 170,000 acres across Waimaw, Bhamo, Shwegu, Mansi, Momauk and Dokphoneyan townships in Kachin State. Local lawmakers have also pointed out the discrepancy between government data and information on the ground and are calling for action to be taken against those behind the cultivation of tissue-culture bananas.

According to a 2017 environmental study by the Lisu Civil Society Organization, Chinese companies have been planting tissue culture bananas since 2012 in Kachin States Special Region 1, which is under the control of the government-allied New Democratic Army-Kachin militia. It said the plantations have been gradually expanding to the other townships.

More than 50 farmers from multiple villages in two townships of Myitkyina District on Wednesday told the media how the China-backed plantations were causing suffering among the local communities. The famers also said they have been threatened by the Chinese companies for opposing the bananas plantation near their villages.

According to environmental reports by civil society organizations, the companies are using insecticides, weed killers and fertilizers and disposing of them carelessly. This has led to the pollution of water supplies in these areas, in turn causing soil damage and killing fish and livestock.

Here, The Irrawaddy illustrates and maps the expansion of banana plantations in Kachin State.

(This data is based on information from Myanmars Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, the 2018-2019 Land Security and Environmental Conservation report conducted by a coalition of 11 civil society organizations and a 2017 environmental report by the Lisu Civil Society Organization.)
Commentary Myanmar Govt, Military Use U.N. Opium Report to Slur Enemies, Shield Allies

People harvest opium in Pekon Township, Shan State, in 2014. / Lawi Weng / The Irrawaddy

It is clear to see that Myanmar authorities had a great deal of influence on the Myanmar Opium Survey the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released in January.

Many of us know who really grows the opium, and their ties to the authorities. Instead, the UNODC has put most of the blame on the ethnic armed groups fighting the Myanmar military.

The report was a joint effort of the UNODC and Myanmar government. The UNODC and the governments Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control would have each written a draft and then combined them.

The result reflects the way Myanmar authorities regularly accuse the ethnic armed groups they are fighting of growing opium and using the profits to buy weapons. The report reads less like a product of the UNODC than of the government.

Of course the UNODC could not have released the report without the governments approval, so it must be biased.

The UNODC accused the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a mostly ethnic Kachin armed group that engaged in heavy fighting with the military last year in northern Myanmar. Though the rivals have met several times in China for talks, sporadic fighting has continued.

Kachin State accounts for 15 percent of the opium produced in Myanmar. The rest comes from neighboring Shan State. We all know where the 15 percent in Kachin is grown.

According to the Transnational Institute, a research and advocacy group based in the Netherlands, most of the poppy cultivation in Kachin takes place it two locations: in Sadung Township bordering China and inside a tiger reserve in Tanai Township, which are effectively under military and government control.

Why did the UNODC fail to mention that a local border guard force under the militarys supervision is the one growing poppy in Sadung? The military clearly did not want fingers pointed at one of its allies.

The UNODC could cooperate with the KIA in many ways to combat opium production in Kachin State. But this report sullies the KIAs reputation, so it may now be unwilling to cooperate. The KIA advocates against drugs and has even cracked down on production, but the UNODC failed to mention this. It also failed to mention the work of Pat Jasan, a vigilante group that detains drug users and destroys poppy crops.

In northern Shan State, meanwhile, the Pansay militia allows locals to grow poppy in area under its control and then takes a cut of their revenue, all while fighting with the Taang National Liberation Army, another ethnic armed group in conflict with the military. Why did the UNODC not mention that?

Instead, the UNODC also accused the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army  yet another ethnic armed group fighting the military  which has a small area of control in Shan States Kokang region near the Chinese border.

But the government does not dare to blame the United Wa State Army (UWSA). The powerful ethnic armed group claims it has stopped growing poppy, but some still believe it continues to cultivate crops in a few remote areas in northern Shan. Again, the UNODC failed to accuse the UWSA.

The government and military have been blaming the countrys drug trade on their most hated enemies for a long time. The UNODC should get wise to the ruse. Otherwise, it will continue to be their tool.
Guest Column An Open Letter to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Women's Day

People participate in an event marking International Women's Day in Yangon in 2018. / The Irrawaddy

Today we celebrate International Womens Day, a day in which we mark the key role that women play in our societies, in Myanmar, in the Netherlands and all around the world.

Much has been accomplished in securing equal rights for women, ensuring equal opportunity for women and ensuring that women everywhere around the world can participate in all aspects of society. With the #SheDecides initiative, the Netherlands contributes to promoting sexual and reproductive rights for women and girls, creating a movement that is vibrant and active.

Much has been accomplished, but many challenges remain. Therefore we must aim for #BalanceforBetter, the theme of WWD2019. It makes clear that a better balance is not only needed but that we all stand to benefit if we are able to accomplish this goal. A balanced world is a better world.

In Myanmar many people, women and men, look up to your picture on their wall. They look up to you as you embody the hope that people have for a better future in Myanmar. However, as you have said yourself, a better future requires peace in Myanmar. While women are usually not the cause of conflict, they should be part of the solution. There can be no sustainable peace without the input and participation of women.

Women should be given the opportunity to express what they need from the peace process, how they want peace to be shaped. Women represent half of Myanmars population. Their voice cannot be excluded. And they should not only speak on womens issues or gender equality. Their perspective counts on any topic. Just as much, we need to hear men speak on all issues, including about gender and womens issues.

You have fought for democracy and human rights for the better part of your life. You are a role model for many women in Myanmar. As state counselor and chair of the Union Peace Conference, you are in a position to set an example for a Myanmar based on diversity and inclusion. So if we want #BalanceforBetter in the peace process, then lets not just talk about quotas but amplify powerful female voices, give them a platform, a seat at the table. All of Myanmar will benefit.

Wouter Jurgnes is the Netherlands ambassador to Myanmar.
On This Day The Fall of Rangoon

Japanese troops enter Rangoon on March 8, 1942.

On this day in 1942, Rangoon came under the control of the Burma Independence Army (BIA) and the Imperial Japanese Army. British Governor Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith had withdrawn his forces from Rangoon on March 1, knowing that the two armies were marching on the city. Formed in Bangkok by the 30 Comrades led by General Aung San, the BIA had entered Myanmar in three columns with the Japanese Army and arrived in Rangoon in early March.

On March 5, the BIA made the decision to take control of Rangoon. The armys Dawei column marched from Hmawbi Township at dusk on March 7 and occupied Rangoon at around 10 am on the following day after encountering some resistance.

Formed with only 100 or so troops, the BIAs ranks swelled to some 40,000 in Rangoon. It was Myanmars first national army since the abdication of the countrys last monarch, Thibaw, in 1885.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been jailed for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating Wikileaks.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning to jail Friday after a brief hearing in which Manning confirmed she has no intention of testifying. She told the judge she "will accept whatever you bring upon me."

Manning has said she objects to the secrecy of the grand jury process, and that she already revealed everything she knows at her court martial.

The judge said she will remain jailed until she testifies or until the grand jury concludes its work.

Manning's lawyers had asked that she be sent to home confinement instead of the jail, because of medical complications she faces.

The judge said U.S. Marshals can handle her medical care.
Friday, March 8th, 2019 (9:28 am) - Score 1,553

The former leader of the UK Liberal Democrat party and MP for South Lakes, Tim Farron, has accused the Chancellor (Philip Hammond) of fobbing off local communities by effectively imposing a tax rise on rural broadband ISP B4RN with its decision to withdraw their EIS tax relief.

At the start of this year ISPreview.co.uk revealed that the Government had decided B4RN, as well as other Community Benefit Society (CBS) based broadband operators, were seemingly no longer eligible to benefit from any tax breaks or other support afforded by the Enterprise Investment Scheme (here) because their approach was fundamentally uncommercial (i.e. not setup to make a profit, which is true).

Providers like B4RN typically build Gigabit capable full fibre (FTTH) broadband networks in some of the most challenging rural areas. In order to do this they rely on volunteers helping to build the network (usually in exchange for shares instead of cash) and landowners (e.g. farmers) agreeing to waive their right to payment under a wayleave (access) agreement.

However such providers make no secret of the fact that any money they make is then reinvested back into their network and used to further improve coverage or service quality. The loss of EIS support was thus a big blow to B4RNs deployment strategy (i.e. itll now take them and others like them a lot longer to roll-out into new areas).

In response Tim challenged the Chancellor over this and Philip Hammond said he would be happy to look at them again and respond to the MP (here). At the end of last month Tim finally got a response, albeit one from HMRC saying they wouldnt comment on a private companys affairs. No mention of any review. Tim has now written to the Chancellor again.

Tim Farron said (Letter Extract): B4RN have worked absolute wonders to provide some of the fastest internet speeds in the country to some of our most rural communities, reaching parts of Cumbria and Lancashire that the Government and BT couldnt or wouldnt reach. Therefore, to disincentivise people from investing in B4RN will clearly damage the delivery of high-speed connectivity in rural areas. I am astonished that you could condone this decision which might overturn the capacity of B4RN to deliver your policy on rural broadband at minimal cost to the Government. This policy, which would seem to have been made by HMRC on the hoof, MUST be reviewed and then reversed.

One fear is that if operators of a similar size cannot access this kind of support then it may simply result in the Government needing to dole out even more public funding (vouchers etc.) in order to resolve a problem that, in some areas at least, the local community could have done by itself.

Meanwhile B4RN has moved on and recently launched a crowdfunding drive with the aim of raising 3m (minimum of 1m) to support its future plans (here). Clearly they arent expecting a change of heart from the Government and since the recent launch theyve already raised over 100,000. But theres still a long way to go over the next 54 days.
Germany has tightened security criteria for all vendors who supply telecommunications equipment to the country's telcos, avoiding any friction with Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies.

The German rules, outlined by its Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur or BNetzA), said that equipment for all critical communications networks should be vetted by the country's cyber security watchdog, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), and undergo security checks by a BSI-approved testing body.

Berlin has been under pressure from the US to ban Huawei equipment from its 5G rollout. Washington has been pushing countries it considers allies to avoid the Chinese vendor's gear.

Only Australia and New Zealand have fallen in line with the wishes of the US, but Wellington has now indicated that the initial refusal for telco Spark to use Huawei gear is not the end of the matter. Huawei sued the US on Thursday, seeking to be reinstated as a telco supplier in the country.

Systems may only be sourced from trustworthy suppliers whose compliance with national security regulations and provisions for the secrecy of telecommunications and for data protection is assured.

Network traffic must be regularly and constantly monitored for any abnormality and, if there is any cause for concern, appropriate protection measures must be taken.

Security-related network and system components (critical key components) may only be used if they have have been certified by the BSI and undergone IT security checks by a BSI-approved testing body. Critical key components may only be sourced from trustworthy suppliers/manufacturers, ie those that can provide assurance of their trustworthiness.

Security-related network and system components (critical key components) may only be used following an appropriate acceptance test upon supply and must be subjected to regular and ongoing security tests. The components that are security-related (critical key components) will be defined by the BSI and Bundesnetzagentur by mutual agreement.

Only trained professionals may be employed in security-related areas.

Proof must be provided that the hardware tested for the selected, security-related components and the source code at the end of the supply chain are actually deployed in the products used.

When planning and building the network, "monocultures" must be avoided by using network and system components from different manufacturers.

Where system-related processes are outsourced, only professionally competent, reliable and trustworthy contractors may be selected.

Adequate redundancy must be available for critical, security-related network and system components (critical key components).

BNetzA listed the following additional security requirements which it plans to mandate if a company wants to supply telco equipment:

"We revise the security requirements on a regular basis in light of the current security situation and technological developments," said BNetzA president Jochen Homann. "Security requirements apply to all network operators and service providers, irrespective of the technology they deploy. All networks, not just individual standards like 5G, are included."

The BNetzA said it would issue a draft of the new security requirements by the time spring arrived, and a final version after interested parties had been given time to comment on the draft.
Chinese telecommunications equipment vendor Huawei Technologies is unlikely to win the case it has filed against the US Government, given that the latter generally wraps any action it takes against foreign companies in the mantle of national security.

Huawei sued the US on Thursday, challenging section 889 of the National Defence Authorisation Act, which it said unfairly discriminated against it and prevented it from operating in the US.

One of the company's arguments is that the ban on its products is a bill of attainder - a legislative act that condemns a particular person or group of people and punishes them with no trial. Bills of attainder are banned by the US constitution.

A second allegation made by Huawei is that its rights to due process have been violated. The argument being made is that Congress has violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers by acting as judge, jury and executioner.

were used by Kaspersky Lab, when it was banned from doing business with the US Government. The company lost its case, appealed and then had the appeal. It took about two years for the entire process to be gone through.

The Kaspersky case took place against the background of allegations of Russian interference in the US presidential elections of 2016. Additionally, the mainstream US media  the Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal  all carried anonymously sourced stories, claiming that the company was connected to Russian spying in the US.

In the case of Huawei, there have been no stories about spying. There have been reports about other alleged transgressions by the company  reportedly violating US domestic sanctions on Iran and stealing trade secrets  which have nothing to do with security.

But given the general atmosphere fanned by the US Government and media over China in general, and the fact that anything  last month it was German cars  can be cited as a threat to national security, the case is likely to only go one way.

Then why would Huawei sue? Former NSA hacker Jake Williams had this to say: "If I were Huawei I'd be suing too. While I doubt it will be successful, it is likely to force the government to, at least, discuss whether their concerns are concrete or theoretical.

"The outcome won't likely change US policy, but may take the teeth out of the 'if the US is blocking Huawei equipment, we should too' argument."

Huawei is likely to benefit from the case only if it gets past the motion to dismiss as it will then be able to ask for documents from the government and even ask officials to testify.

But that is unlikely to happen because the court would then have to question Congress' right to place such a ban in a national defence bill. And that is sacred territory.
Photo: CTV News

The labour market generated a second straight month of strong job gains in February with the creation of 55,900 net new positions, all of which were full time, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The surge followed an even bigger gain of 66,800 positions in January. The back-to-back results gave Canada its strongest two-month stretch of job creation since the spring of 2012  and its best two-month start to a year since 1981.

The unemployment rate held firm last month at 5.8 per cent as more people hunted for work, the agency said in its latest labour force survey.

The encouraging numbers provided a bright spot for the economy, which has posted disappointing data in recent months.

In particular, the employment figures arrived a week after another report showed Canada had a period of unexpectedly weak growth for the final three months of 2018.

TD Bank chief economist Beata Caranci said employment has been Canada's one area of consistency  and she believes it will help put a floor under the economy.

"It was a very good number for Canada, and to be honest, it's a relief because we sort of needed a win on the Canadian data side," Caranci said of the February data in an interview.

"We continue to see steady gains in employment and improvements in the participation rates. And so, every time you think that there's no more workers to hire, there's more workers that seem to get hired."

On Wednesday, the Bank of Canada acknowledged it was surprised by the extent of the weakness in last week's report. The central bank has since cast doubts about future rate hikes and has warned the ongoing slump could last through the first half of 2019  longer than it had anticipated.

Bank of Canada deputy governor Lynn Patterson said Thursday that she expected economic growth to build fresh momentum in the second half of the year, thanks in large part to the still-strong employment conditions and improving wages.

Caranci said the Bank of Canada will likely view the February numbers "as a positive sign and a bit of a relief."

The overall Canadian increase even outpaced job creation in the United States, where figures showed an increase of just 20,000 new positions last month.

The addition last month of 67,400 full-time jobs more than offset a loss of 11,600 part-time positions, the data showed. The agency said the number of more desirable employee positions in the private sector climbed by 31,800 last month, while public sector jobs rose 8,900. The number of self-employed increased by 15,100.

Overall, the increase was led by a gain of 46,200 positions the services sector, largely concentrated in the categories of professional, scientific and technical services, public administration and wholesale and retail trade.

The goods-producing sectors added 9,500 new positions following job gains in natural resources, agriculture and manufacturing.

Year-over-year average hourly wage growth in February was 2.3 per cent, which was up from a reading of two per cent in January.
A new study suggests companies in the Asia-Pacific region are struggling to contain the cost of cyber breaches.

Cisco's 2019 CISO Benchmark Study [PDF] surveyed 3200 IT security leaders in 18 countries, including Australia, China, India and Japan.

The company has for the first time broken out figures for the APAC region. And the news isn't all good.

Globally, 8% of respondents said the total cost of the highest impact breach they experienced in the last year was US$5 million or more. That figure remained unchanged from the 2018 report.

And at the other end of the scale, the proportion of companies reporting the cost was under US$500,000 increased from 47% to 51%, suggesting that "costs are down a little, or at least under control".

(If the size of those losses seems extraordinarily high, bear in mind that the people surveyed all worked for organisations with at least 250 employees and a formal IT department, and they mostly had job titles such as CISO, CTO, or IT director, and were actively involved in IT security.)

Cisco security marketing director Ben Monroe explained that the significance of US$500,000 was that in many companies it was the threshold for requiring board involvement.

But among the four APAC nations included in the study, 17% reported losses of US$5 million and above, more than twice the global incidence, and only 39% said the maximum loss was under $500,000.

Asked to explain these differences, Cisco vice-president of global security sales, John Maynard, suggested one reason could be that APAC organisations tended to use a more fragmented (ie, less integrated) set of security tools.

Traditionally, organisations have tended to select a particular product to address a particular security issue. This is often referred to as the 'best of breed' approach.

Its weakness is that it makes it hard to orchestrate the reaction to a breach. In contrast, more integrated tools provide better protection and recovery.

Globally, 63% of organisations used less than 10 security vendors, whereas that was true of just 54% companies in the APAC region, Monroe said.

Perhaps not surprisingly, 79% of all respondents said it was somewhat, or very, challenging to orchestrate alerts from products supplied by multiple vendors, and that rose to 93% in APAC.

The survey also found that time to remediate  rather than just detect  a breach has become a more common metric. In 2018, it was used by 30% of respondents, but it has shot up to 48% this year  "a surprise to all of us", said Maynard.

Interestingly, that 48% also applies to APAC.

"Cyber security is a numbers game, one that is skewed in favor of malicious actors. Businesses need to win all the time, while attackers need just one successful hit to make an impact," said Maynard.

"Every time the attackers succeed, there is a financial impact on the company targeted. This includes out-of-pocket expenses, legal fees, reputational damage and loss of business. The fact that an increasing number of companies are being able to contain this cost is a sign that businesses are starting to gain more control and balance their risks when hit by a breach.

"While this is a move in the right direction, a lot more needs to be done."
Multinational software company Citrix Systems says its internal network has been penetrated by "international cyber criminals" who managed to access and steal business documents.

Citrix provides server, application and desktop virtualisation, networking, software as a service, and cloud computing technologies. Among its clients are some 98% of the Fortune 500, according to its own website.

A blog post authored by Stan Black, chief security and information officer, said the company, which has headquarters in both Florida and California, had been told by the FBI on 6 March of the intrusion.

He said the specific documents that may have been accessed, however, were currently unknown, adding that there was no indication that the security of any Citrix product or service had been compromised.

Ex-NSA hacker Jake Williams told iTWire that one of the biggest takeaways from the Citrix statement was that it did not appear that the company had access logging on its file servers, given that it was unable to say specifically what was taken.

"If we take Citrix at their word, this appears to be more of an espionage case than a supply chain attack," said Williams who now runs his own information security outfit, Rendition Infosec.

Black wrote that the FBI had informed the company that the attackers had probably used a tactic known as password spraying, a technique that exploits weak passwords, to gain entry.

"Once they gained a foothold with limited access, they worked to circumvent additional layers of security," he wrote.

He said the company had started a forensic investigation and engaged an unspecified "leading cyber security firm" to help.

"[We] took actions to secure our internal network; and continue to co-operate with the FBI," Black added, promising the company would provide updates on the investigation as information came to hand.

In January, Citrix reported revenue of US$802 million for the final quarter of the fiscal year that ended on 31 December 2018. Profits were listed as US$166 million.

The company's share price fell by about 3% on news of the breach, according to Reuters.
The global organisation for women, Women on Boards, has called for Australian Governments and businesses to urgently prioritise closing both the gender-pay and gender-investment gaps to achieve a better balance.

To mark International Women's Day 2019, Claire Braund, founder and director of Women on Boards, said that with NSW and federal elections on the horizon, it was critical that governments came to grips with the notion of "financial gender balance" if the Australian economy and society were to prosper.

Braund said the 40:40:20 metric WOB had long-been advocating  40% men and women (and 20% of either and/or other genders)in the boardroom, in political & business leadership, at management level and within the community  was even more relevant to address the "financial gender imbalance" in Australia.

It has been proven over and again that gender balanced leadership leads to better decisions and more equitable outcomes for everyone, she said.

So lets consider the economic implications of having a minimum of 40% of our aggregate national payroll going to women, 40% of small business grant funding going to female-led businesses, 40% of venture capital being awarded to female founded start-ups... the list goes on.

At the top level its about enshrining the 40% principle  one which sees at least 40% of the financial assets in this nation being owned or controlled by women  if we are to avoid the perfect storm of more women living longer, retiring on less and relying on taxpayer funded welfare.

Braund said this did not mean social engineering, but considering the impact of all policies and decisions on women. She said a good example was ensuring that a gender-balanced workforce and reduction in the gender pay gap were two of the decision-making factors in the procurement of goods and services.

Another area that needs attention is funding measures that improve the long-term economic empowerment of women, such as the opportunities presented by the start-ups and early stage innovation companies.

It is a well-known fact that just 2.2% of venture capital goes to female-founded start-ups, despite much evidence that women have the potential to demonstrate impressive returns from less initial capital.

Braund cited a report by Boston Consulting Group and start-up accelerator network MassChallenge in 2018 that explained women were more likely to have their basic technical knowledge questioned when pitching for VC funding and often had to prove their credentials or skills before they could start promoting their ideas.

Anecdotal evidence also suggests that many funders will not back a company without at least one "tech partner" and often go through aggressive "shark-tank style" pitch rounds which do not play well with women.

There is also a strong focus on VC funding, innovation hubs and accelerators  many of which are male dominated and invest in male-led start-ups  rather than angel investing which is focused on helping start-ups take their first steps, rather than the possible profit they may get from the business, Braund said.

According to her, applying the 40% principle to government and private sector funding of entrepreneurs would be a great way realise the potential of the start-up sector for women.

She said WOB was calling for a pre-election commitment from all parties to close the gender-pay and gender-investment gap by:
The registrations of two cryptocurrency exchanges have been suspended following the arrest of a 27-year-old man from Bulleen in Victoria in connection with an Australian Federal Police investigation into an organised crime syndicate.

The man allegedly was a key member of the firms known as AUSCOIN ATM and MK Buy & Sell. The trading name of the latter is SK BTC.

A joint statement from the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre and the AFP on Friday said the first phase of the investigation had resulted in two men being charged for drug trafficking offences in October 2017.

AUSTRAC is the government financial intelligence agency that monitors financial transactions to identify money laundering, organised crime, tax evasion, welfare fraud and terrorism.

The statement said AFP officers had carried out searches in the Melbourne suburbs of Bulleen, Lower Templestowe and Malvern, and seized steroids, Australian currency and cryptocurrency-related items.

The man was charged with importing, trafficking and possessing a total of approximately 30 kilograms of drugs, such as MDMA, cocaine, methamphetamine and ketamine.

Police will allege in court that he had a key role in the criminal syndicate, which used various sites on the dark web, bitcoin accounts and legitimate businesses to source, pay for, and distribute the drugs.

In a separate action, the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce sought to seize assets valued in excess of $2 million using court orders.

Among these were a number of bank accounts, properties, motor vehicles, a motorcycle, cash and cryptocurrency.

AFP detective superintendent Paul Hopkins said: When you take the profit out of crime, you hit offenders where it hurts most. Combined with serious criminal charges attracting long prison sentences, this highlights how trafficking drugs is simply not worth it in the long-run.

Investigations such as this are inherently complex and the operational results achieved by the investigative team are a testament to good police work and strong inter-agency co-operation.

AUSTRAC national manager, Regulatory Operations, Dr Nathan Newman, said: AUSTRACs role is to deter and disrupt criminal exploitation of Australias financial system and we take swift action where we there is a reasonable risk of compromise. Our decision to suspend the registration of the two businesses means they can no longer lawfully operate.

The NSW Police and AUSTRAC later issued a statement, reminding digital currency exchange providers to be aware of their obligations following amendments to Commonwealth laws in 2018.

Dr Newman said: "Digital currency exchange providers have had adequate time and opportunity to comply with these new laws and AUSTRAC has already refused the registration of two digital currency exchange providers. We continue to actively monitor the sectors compliance.

Its important that digital currency exchange providers meet their obligations so we can identify any instances of criminal activity using their services to launder money, fund terrorism or commit other serious crimes.

Cyber Crime Squad Commander, detective superintendent Matt Craft, said: While cash is still king, digital currencies are fast becoming the preferred choice for organised criminal networks involved in money laundering, funding terrorism, and cyber crimes.

These amendments were implemented to ensure digital currencies were being monitored in the same ways as cash exchanges and transfers. Any information about illicit activity by digital currency exchange providers that is provided to our squad  whether related to organised crime, terrorism, or technology-enabled crime  will be actively pursued in partnership with AUSTRAC.

Let this be a warning to digital currency exchange providers: if you fail to comply with your obligations, your actions will not go unnoticed.
Student Advocates Defend Imprisoned Activist

March 7, 2019

Hatoon al-Fassi, a history professor and prominent women's rights activist, was arrested by the Saudi Arabian government in 2018. Photo from Scholars at Risk

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.  Four Illinois Wesleyan University students have traveled to Washington, D.C. to advocate on behalf of an imprisoned Saudi Arabian professor during Scholars at Risk (SAR)s third annual Student Advocacy Days, March 7-8.

Scholars at Risk is an international network of individuals from over 500 higher education institutions who are committed to protecting and offering sanctuary to threatened scholars and students. Students involved in SARs Student Advocacy Seminars work to defend the rights of specific scholars by conducting legal research and advocating to foreign governments on the scholars behalf.

SAR students and faculty advisors from across the U.S. and Canada participate in hands-on workshops on human rights practices, followed by a day of advocacy on Capitol Hill on behalf of wrongfully imprisoned scholars.

Hatoon al-Fassi, a history professor and prominent women's rights activist who was arrested by the Saudi Arabian government in 2018, is just one of these scholars. Student advocates Ann Crumbaugh 19, Drew Hiller 22, Kira Schoen 21 and Tatum Zsorey 21 hope that their efforts to investigate the details of al-Fassis imprisonment and torture will place pressure on the Saudi Arabian government to release al-Fassi and womens rights activists like her.

With cases such as Professor Hatoon al-Fassis, it is very difficult to imagine a happy ending, admitted Zsorey. While Saudi Arabia intentionally withholds information, it is difficult to establish the specifics of her arrest and the case in general. It is important for Professor Hatoon al-Fassi and all scholars like her that people continue to talk about and spread the word about her case. By reminding Saudi Arabia that the attention of the international community is on their human rights violations, we can hope that the professors conditions will at least be bettered and that she may one day be released.

SAR students voices will be joined by those of prominent figures in government and social policy. Throughout the event, students will have the chance to engage with guest speakers, scholars, panelists, government officials, and a number of leaders from NGOs such as PEN America, the Defending Freedoms Project and the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

Students will also present their cases and discuss potential advocacy actions with elected government officials.

This event is designed to provide students with skills theyll need in their future careers, said Clare Robinson, SARs Advocacy Director. They practice public speaking, develop leadership and cross-campus teamwork skills, and learn how to be an effective advocate.

And they make a difference while doing so.

Zsorey, an international studies major, has found that her work with Scholars at Risk and other advocacy groups has made a difference in her academics as well as her personal life.

Even though human rights violations dont affect our everyday lives, it still matters because the unchecked denial of one persons human rights anywhere around the world is a sign to violators that their actions are acceptable, Zsorey emphasized. The advancement of human rights truly fails when we stop talking about such cases and completely ignore the abhorrent conditions that prisoners of conscience face throughout the world.

We hope that in talking with members of Congress and spreading information about human rights and its defenders around college campuses, we will keep the pursuit of Professor Hatoon al-Fassis case alive.

By Rachel McCarthy 21
Photo: The Canadian Press Finland's Prime Minister Juha Sipila arrives to announce his cabinet's resignation, in Helsinki, Friday.

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila's centre-right government resigned Friday after the governing coalition failed to agree on and push through a planned social and health reform.

"I take the responsibility for the failure. It has been a huge disappointment to me," Sipila told a news conference, according to public broadcaster YLE. He added that the reform "had been one of our most important projects."

Finland's President Sauli Niinisto accepted Sipila's resignation. The prime minister, who came to power in May 2015, will continue to serve in a caretaking role.

The move comes week before Finland holds parliamentary elections on April 14 to renew Finland's 200-seat Eduskunta assembly. The government's resignation would not change the timetable for next month's elections, the justice ministry said.

The planned health care reform was meant to tackle an aging population, improve efficiency and reduce public spending by 3 billion euros ($3.4 billions) by 2029. Successive governments have so far failed to accomplish the reform.

Sipala's three-party governing coalition held 123 out of 200 seats in parliament. The coalition included his own Center Party, the National Coalition Party and the small populist Blue Reform Party, once part of the euroskeptic True Finns.

Last year, the latter broke up into two parties after internal divisions over tighter immigration policies.

Finland is due to take over the European Union's rotating presidency on July 1.
Photo: The Canadian Press Norwegian Minister of Finance Siv Jensen

Norway's US$1-trillion wealth fund, the biggest of its kind in the world, will begin dumping shares in oil and gas companies including some Canadian names, but stopped short of barring major producers like Suncor, ExxonMobil and Chevron.

The move was hailed by environmental activists as a sign that the global economy is increasingly moving away from fossil fuels toward cleaner energy.

The financial impact, however, may be relatively limited. The move will focus on companies that trade solely in exploration and production rather than the integrated oil giants, that do everything from searching for fossil fuels to selling them to consumers.

The fund is looking to sell some US$7.5 billion in shares in 134 energy companies over time, including 26 Canadian names.

The list includes large Canadian producers such as Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Encana Corp. but not large producers that also own refineries such as Suncor Energy Inc. and Husky Energy Inc.

Calgary-based oilsands producer Cenovus Energy Inc. is on the list even though it owns two U.S. refineries in partnership with Houston-based Phillips 66.

The Norwegian government said its motivation was not climate activism but financial. The fund, somewhat ironically, derives its income from Norway's booming oil and gas industry. So reinvesting those proceeds in other sectors is considered a way to keep the money safe should oil and gas prices fall.

"The objective is to reduce the aggregate oil price risk on the whole Norwegian economy," Minister of Finance Siv Jensen told The Associated Press. "The Norwegian state is highly exposed to oil."

Tax receipts from oil production have made Norway rich. They underpin generous welfare provisions. And a hefty proportion is siphoned off into the fund, which was conceived as a pension kitty for the country's 5.3 million inhabitants.

In Stavanger, a city on the rainy west coast where many oil companies are based, the sight of US$100,000 Teslas cruising along fjord-side roads are a marker of the town's oil-sponsored private wealth.

Mark Campanale, executive director of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, a think-tank on climate issues, says Friday's decision is more significant than when the fund sold off its shares in coal companies.

"This shows that while the fund was initially built on revenue from oil and gas, the Ministry of Finance understands that the future belongs to those who transition away from fossil fuels," he said. "Now is the time for smart investors around the world to follow their lead and make decisions driven by the reality of the energy transition."

The selloff of stakes in the Canadian companies is not expected to have a great impact on the market, which is already buffeted by issues related to pipeline export capacity and a shortage of capital, said analyst Phil Skolnick of Eight Capital.

He cited Bloomberg statistics from December that show the wealth fund owned just one per cent of Canadian Natural's stock, 0.57 per cent of Encana's shares and 0.68 per cent of Cenovus' shares.

"There's nothing of size when you look at the percentage of total shares outstanding," he said, while cautioning that the impact could worsen if other large funds follow the Norwegian fund's lead.
Photo: ParlDiplomacy MP Richard Cannings listened to government presentations on Indigenous reconciliation and engagement in New Zealand this week.

South Okanagan-West Kootenay MP Richard Cannings got the chance to meet with government officials on the other side of the globe in New Zealand this week through the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

"Every commonwealth country has parliamentarians who travel on trips to other commonwealth countries to see how things are done there, learn how things are done there, talk about not just how government works but topics of the day like climate change, women's equality issues," Cannings said.

When an opportunity for a visit comes around, the three major parties select members to attend the non-partisan trip, with Cannings being selected by the NDP this time due to his personal connection to and knowledge of the country.

"My son lives here, in fact I was just here on holiday in January, so I know a bit about New Zealand," Cannings said.

The group spent several days in New Zealand speaking about various issues as well as meeting with a non-government organization that oversees relationships between the country and nearby Pacific Island nations. One major discussion Cannings enjoyed learning from was the matter of Indigenous engagement and reconciliation practices.

"They in some ways ahead of us on that, and in some ways can learn from us, so those were very interesting meetings," Cannings said. "There's a lot of parallels with Canada, so that was really informative for us."

The group also visited the nearby nation of Samoa for a day, to talk directly to their government about Canada's relationship to the Pacific Islands.

Cannings returns home this weekend and will be back in his South Okanagan-West Kootenay riding by Monday for a multicultural event at Nickel Plate Nordic Centre.
Photo: Darren Handschuh After an extended cold snap through February and snow in early March, it would appear the worst is over and spring is on the way.

Congratulations Okanagan, you survived another winter.

After an extended cold snap through February and snow in early March, it would appear the worst is over and spring is on the way.

After one of the coldest Februaries on record  Kelowna set a record for the coldest February ever  the Okanagan can look forward to warmer temperatures and somewhat sunny skies.

According to Environment Canada, the Okanagan can expect highs of 3C Saturday with mainly cloudy skies.

The night will still be cool with temperatures dipping to -7C, but after the weekend the lows will be a lot higher coming in around -2C at night.

By the middle of next week, temperatures are expected to reach a balmy 9C during the day with sunny, blue skies.

The weather prognosticators are calling for similar highs and lows right across the Valley.
At Dorchester County Councils March 4 meeting, Heather Jenkins (center), with Dorchester County EMS, was recognized as the countys top employee of the year for care she administered to a child hostage in March 2018.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said, India wants to have good relations with all its neighbours but Pakistan has made terrorism a state policy.

He was interacting with the Indian community at Paraguay.

"We want to have good relations, including with all our neighbours. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said you can change friends, but you cannot change your neighbour. Keeping that in mind we are trying our best," said Vice President Naidu.

"But one of our neighbours has made terrorism a state policy. They are aiding, funding, training terrorists. Time and again, they have been persuaded, they make public commitments, but never stop funding terrorism," he added.

The Vice President dubbed terrorism as enemy of humanity and said, "It (terrorism) has no religion. It is mad and bad. It should be eliminated from the globe. That is possible only when the entire international community comes together."

He said that India is capable of fighting with the terrorist on its own. "We do not want any kind of support to fight terror in India. We are capable. We have shown our capacity recently. When they attacked CRPF and killed 40 people, the response was given. IAF not attacked military in Pakistan, didn't harm a single citizen and precisely hit the target," said Naidu.

The Vice President also hit out at the opposition parties for questioning the outcome of air strike and said "Now the discussion is going about casualties. It is for them to count the numbers. Yesterday, Home Minister suggested that if anyone has doubts, they can visit Pakistan and inquire Pakistan government. We don't want war, but can't be a silent spectator to nonsense going on for a war."

The Vice President is on a two-day visit to the Latin American Country.

Venkaiah Naidu is accompanied by a high-level delegation consisting of the Minister of State for Tourism K.J. Alphons, Ram Kumar Kashyap, Member of Parliament and senior officials from the Government of India.

Naidu met with the President of the Republic of Paraguay, H.E. Mario Abdo Benitez, the Vice President, H.E. Hugo Velazquez, and the President of the National Congress (Senate), H.E. Silvio Ovelar.

Both sides agreed that terrorism posed a grave threat to global peace and stability, stressing that there could be no justification for acts of terror on any grounds whatsoever.

-ANI
Accusing the government of politicising the Indian Air Force's strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed camp in Pakistan's Balakot, the NCP Thursday took a swipe at BJP president Amit Shah, saying he could count the number of terrorists killed in the action as he has special powers of a "nocturnal bird".

The BJP chief had recently claimed that over 250 terrorist had been killed in the air strike.

NCP's general secretary and chief spokesperson DP Tripathi said after the air strike, opposition parties stood firmly behind the government and it was a common understanding that the counter-terrorist operation will not be politicised.

"But unfortunately, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his government and the BJP leadership started politicising the issue. By doing so, they have insulted and made a mockery of the patriotic commitment of our armed forces," he told reporters in New Delhi.

The prime minister has been levelling baseless allegations against all opposition parties in his rallies across the country and he uses "very foul" and "indecent" language against them, Mr Tripathi alleged.

While Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale have refused to talk about the number of casualties in the air strike, Amit Shah has stated the figure as 250, Mr Tripathi said.

"Perhaps, he is endowed with special powers of one nocturnal bird to see in the dark. The contradictory statements made by the different sections of the central government demonstrate utter confusion...," he said.

The NCP leader claimed that any question regarding the air strike is perceived as "anti-national".

Mr Tripathi said a pertinent question that the government has to answer is about the breach of security by terrorists that led to the Pulwama attack.

On February 14, a suicide bomber from the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a CRPF bus in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, killing at least 40 personnel.

Mr Tripathi also said the government must put pressure on Pakistan to stop and ban all terrorist organisations operating from its soil.

-PTI
MEDFORD, Ore.,--Thursday evening, the Medford school district held a public input meeting to see what the community wants in a new superintendent. The School Board Chair, Cynthia Wright, says that input from the community will be used to make a profile of the ideal candidate. She says she want's the whole community to have a say in who is running their schools.

"We have a small picture and we want to have a larger view. We want to see what other people feel like because the superintendent really drives the direction of a district and so many people are affected by it in our community we want them to have a say in it and be able to give us some direction," says Wright.

At the meeting, community members brought up some of the things that they would like to see the future superintendent address. Teacher to student ratios, changing demographics, students homelessness, and strong communication with the community were some of the topics discussed.

If you didn't attend the meeting tonight, you can still have you voice heard. The school district will be posting a survey on their website later this month. You email your statement to YourVoiceMatters@medford.k12.or.us.
ASHLAND, Ore. -- From living in their car with their three children, David and Jennifer Flood have now made a home in this renovated school bus. It's complete with what you would find in any other home--a living room, two bedrooms and a kitchen.

"I don't know what we would have done if this hadn't happened, David Flood said. It just fit. It just fell into place."

The family of 5 has been living in there renovated bus since Thanksgiving thanks to Vehicles for Changes. It's an organization that wants to put an end to homelessness by helping struggling families into buses like the one the Floods call home. According to the non-profit, 20,000 Oregon children are homeless. The Floods were the very first family it's helped.

"It's like a container for the things a family should have, love, joy and hard work and happiness," David added.

Thursday, the Floods met two of the major donors, Lois Pettinger and Diane Erickson, that helped get them in there for the very first time.

"We couldn't have put our money to a better use, said Pettinger. The kids are wonderful. Its a wonderful space. Whenever you invest in something new, whenever you're trying to figure out if something is just getting started, if it's going to work or not--this is the full meal deal. We're very happy."

Cody Armond puts in the physical hard work turning the ordinary yellow school buses into a home for a family in need. Hes working on two more buses for families.

Each bus costs roughly $25,000 and takes about three to four months to get ready.

"We need to take care of each other I think we are forgetting that, said Armond. It's good to give back and give people roofs over their head."

Pettinger and Erickson plan to help other families get buses in the upcoming months. The Floods currently leasing their bus but hope to be able to buy it soon.

Vehicles for Changes is currently working on two more buses to help two more struggling families. If you'd like to donate to help the organization reach that goal, head here.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 8) - A 49-year-old Filipino-American priest has been charged with rape in the U.S., with reports saying he also filmed the attack.

A statement from the Archdiocese Of Philadelphia dated March 5 said, "The conduct in question is alleged to have occurred during the period 2014-2017."

The statement said a report in March last year said Rev. Armand Garcia, who was ordained in 2005, had "alleged miscondunct with a minor."

"Father Garcia was immediately placed on administrative leave and had his priestly faculties restricted by Archbishop Chaput following the notification from law enforcement. He was also removed from his residence at Saint Martin of Tours Parish in Philadelphia, where he had been assigned," the statement said.

It added Garcia was neither allowed to perform his duties as a priest nor present himself publicly as such during his administrative leave.

The archdiocese said, "At the time he was placed on administrative leave, Father Garcia possessed clear criminal background checks as well as child abuse clearances and had successfully completed safe environment training courses."

Garcia was arrested on March 4 this year and is facing charges of rape, corruption of a minor, and sexual abuse of a minor.

The Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines said Garcia turned himself over to authories on Monday, "and reportedly posted 10 percent of his $250,000 bail."

As of posting, no other details of Garcia's arrest have been released by authorities.

Garcia's arrest comes after Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican's treasurer, was found guilty of five counts of child sex abuse.

In February, the Catholic Church held a historic summit on clergy sexual abuse, where Pope Francis said priests and Catholics who abused children are "tools of Satan."
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My elderly patients miss the days when, in an emergency, they could call their family doctor at home, and theyd be cared for. Retired doctors reminisce about the good old days when they were in charge of their own schedules and could prescribe whatever drug or test they felt necessary based on years of experience. While there was a strong doctor-patient relationship in those bygone days, it was not necessarily an equal partnership. Patriarchal doctors expected their advice to be followed and patients generally complied because they trusted their doctors.

Patients today have lower expectations of their doctors, having never experienced a strong bond forged through generations of caregiving. Unless they need a prescription, patients seek out the help of their physician only after exhausting their own resources and well-intended advice from friends. When they do go to a doctor, its often at an urgent care or with someone other than their primary physician. The inability of patients to receive care from their own doctor when needed results in fragmented care  frustrating at best, dangerous at worst.

The commodification of health care is destroying the long-revered doctor-patient relationship. Doctors who joined this once-noble profession hoping to make a difference in their patients lives are disillusioned by endless paperwork, bureaucracy, and arguments with insurance companies that steal time away from their patients but contribute little to their actual health. Doctors dont mind working hard when the work is meaningful. But filling out forms and scrolling through computer screens instead of focusing on their patients doesnt contribute to a sense of purpose  it contributes to burnout. Burned out doctors not only lose compassion for their patients, but they make mistakes. They also leave medicine.

The doctor-patient relationship is complicated. During training, emotional attachment to patients is discouraged in part to protect doctors when patients inevitably become ill or die. Separation is also meant to promote objectivity and (supposedly) better patient care. A recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health, though, calls the latter rationale into question. Researchers demonstrated that female physicians had lower mortality rates and fewer hospital readmissions than their male counterparts. Researchers did not conclude that women doctors were better clinicians but rather that they were more patient-centered and reassuring than their male colleagues. This willingness to spend more time connecting with their patients actually saved lives.

The erosion of the doctor-patient relationship could be dismissed as the price of progress as healthcare facilities become more technologically savvy and rural patients are able to access doctors through telehealth. The potential health consequences of the disconnect, though, cant be ignored. Exasperated by escalating bills and rushed appointments, patients turn away from their doctors and toward the internet  and the distance widens. Patients with chronic illnesses and high deductibles often only seek out their doctor when theyre sick enough to need hospitalization. Victims of abuse wont disclose trauma to a doctor staring at a computer screen. When parents no longer trust their physicians, children arent vaccinated  a top 10 global health threat of 2019 according to the World Health Organization.

A recent study by social psychologists at Stanford University shows the true cost of the eroding doctor-patient relationship. It turns out that it actually matters to your health if you like your doctor. A doctors words of encouragement can improve the efficacy of drugs. Good rapport between doctor and patient isnt just an added bonus, its an essential component of healing. This is something doctors have intuitively known for decades. In a 1926 speech to Harvard Medical Students, Dr. Francis Weld Peabody said: One of the essential qualities of the physician is interest in humanity, for the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient.

There are changes that can be made on a national level to help reverse the trend of disconnect between doctor and patient. For one, every American should have access to affordable healthcare. Limits must be set on astronomical copays and deductibles that drive patients away from their doctors. Eliminating the time-consuming and expensive middlemen of bureaucracy would not only help reduce costs but also would give back precious doctor-patient time  time that could be used for health caring.

In theory, technology should free up time and allow doctors to spend more with their patients. Electronic medical records have fallen far short of this ideal, though, increasing provider frustration and further driving patients away. At a minimum, patient information stored in vast electronic files must be made more easily searchable  it should be simple to find out when a patients last colonoscopy was, or to compare bone densities, or retrieve all the drugs previously tried for depression. EMR systems should be able to talk to one another. Hospitalizations, specialist consults, and tests performed at outside facilities should be seamlessly integrated into a patients record. This would prevent duplication of testing and allow easy comparison of results. Doctors should not be wasting invaluable patient time fighting with inefficient and laborious EMR systems.

We dont need to wait for political changes or technology to improve the doctor-patient relationship, though. Doctors must find a way to reconnect with the compassion that attracted them to the healing profession in the first place  before they became defeated by the business of medicine. We can smile, make eye contact and be curious about our patients. These small acts may be more important than wielding the stethoscope or prescription pad.

Patients should understand that while the credentials of their doctors are important, their connection with them is even more critical. They should seek out doctors whose opinion they trust and who listen and hear what they say. Together, doctors and patients can work to build the doctor-patient team again.

Because, as it turns out, health care actually works better when caring is a part of it.

Jen Baker-Porazinski is a family physician who blogs at Pound of Prevention.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) -- A former church worker was sentenced to four years in prison for stealing more than $490,000 from an area church.

Judge Oscar Garcia sentenced Scott Edward Moore on Thursday. Moore had pleaded guilty in January to three counts of first-degree aggravated theft.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office first began investigating Moore last year after leaders at the Village Baptist Church in Beaverton contacted authorities about possible fraud involving church credit cards.

A forensics firm reviewed church finances and discovered that Moore, who was the church's operations manager before moving to Texas, had used the cards to make personal purchases.

The district attorney's office says when detectives confronted Moore, he admitted making the purchases.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Hundreds of people protested a contentious vaccine bill that would make it harder for Oregon parents to opt out of school vaccination requirements.

Parents spoke out against the proposal at a rally outside the state Capitol on Thursday. The measure would only allow students to opt out of vaccines if they have a doctor's note seeking an exemption for medical reasons.

The move comes as more than 70 people have been sickened with measles in an outbreak in southwest Washington. Health officials confirm that four people in Oregon have been sickened as part of the outbreak.

But parents say mandating vaccinations takes away personal and religious freedoms. They add that there isn't enough data on vaccine risks.

Health officials counter that vaccines are safe and effective, and the best way to prevent sickness.
Above: John Maher pictured with all his work colleagues at Keoghs Bakery on his last day. L to R: Grazina Masionyte, Clair Keogh, Eric Keogh, Daiva Grigauskiene, Brian Duffy, Kevin Doyle, Linda Hennessy, Brian Doyle, Tom Phelan, Billy Keogh. Front Liah Ryan, John Maher and Helen Kearney



The word legend is loosely used to describe a team, a sportsperson or even a world leader or politician and that is fine if he or she deserves that type of hero worshipping.



On Saturday at historic Keoghs Bakery on Bridge Street the legendary John Maher parked his bread van in the yard for the last time.



Legend, is the word that Tom Phelan who took over from John on Monday morning called him. He said that he spent a full week training with John on the van as he did his rounds and as Tom said I have a hard act to follow.

At his own admission, John spent 43 happy years as a bread sales man for Keoghs Bakery and in those years he saw many changes. It was so appropriate that the final presentations took place in the bakery house with all Johns colleagues gathered.



Billy Keogh spoke about John when he came to the company and how Johns job had changed over those forty plus years.

Billy said when John started the bakery business was so different as in most counties there would be at least four to six bakeries in each county, where as today there are only one or two.

Johns job back in the 1970s would have entailed calling door to door delivering the regular daily pan to households. There was a network of small country shops to be serviced also at that time. John said he had a daily visit to four shops in Windgap, Walshs, Doran, Ryans, and Guinans.

Sadly today there are no shops in Windgap and that is the pattern of life today throughout Johns bread run in South Kilkenny and Eastern Tipperary.

But as Billy said: As the things changed the bakery had to evolve and John Maher always bought into those changes.

Today there are not as many personal door to door calls, the vast majority of the country shops have closed, but with that came the supermarkets, more restaurants, delicatessens and it is those outlets that Keoghs Bakery turned their concentrations to.



Billy said that John was more than a van sales man, he said he was also a Good Samaritan to many on his regular run. Nothing was a problem for the quiet man on his daily route.

He regularly brought shopping to people in the countryside, he collected pensions, brought medicines and often dropped in on the elderly and those living alone to make sure they were ok. As we all know Lower Bridge Street was always prone to flooding for years with many houses suffering from serious water damage.



Keoghs Bakery was also in the line of fire from the Kings River, but John also had the eagle eye for a pending flood.

As Billy Keogh said John would often spot possible dangers up river from Callan while on his travels.

He might spot a field that showed signs of serious flooding and that would act as a warning to John and he would swiftly get word to Billy that there was a possible flood on the way.

That helped Billy and his staff to prepare for the worst.

Billy and John recounted the 43 years and Billy acknowledged that John had driven eight different vehicles in that period and never once had an accident.

Before John went to work at Keoghs Bakery at the age of 27 years he worked with the late Jimmy Hartley erecting farm and industrial sheds and when he saw the advert for van salesman at Keoghs Callan he went for it and so began a long and happy working period with Billy and before that with Kevin Keogh senior.

Two of Johns seven children live in Sydney and Melbourne and it is John and his wife Margarets intention to visit both of them later this year. Life has been busy for both Margaret and John so now they intend to enjoy life by ding some travel.

Billy Keogh made a special presentation to John while baker John Doyle spoke eloquently about John Maher and how he was so helpful to all staff hat worked at Keoghs and then presented him with a beautiful Citizen Watch on behalf of all the staff at Callan, Carrick-on-Suir and Kilkenny. John will be very much missed but certainly Keoghs have recruited an excellent replacement in Tom Phelan.



Tom is well known throughout South Kilkenny and South Tipperary having ran a successful shoe business in Carrick-on-Suir for many years and no doubt he will continue many of John Mahers traditions.
Former RTE newsreader Aengus MacGrianna is urging businesses in Kilkenny to support cancer patients and their families by getting behind the Irish Cancer Societys Daffodil Day on Friday, March 22nd, to ensure as many patients as possible receive the help and support they need this year.

Aengus, who lives on an alpaca farm run by his husband Terry, is calling on businesses in Kilkenny to help the Irish Cancer Society meet ever increasing demands for services such as counselling.

Aengus was just 11 when he lost his mother to cancer, and her death was devastating for his whole family. Losing mum to cancer was heart-breaking, especially as she was so young and we were still growing up. It was an extremely tough time. The Irish Cancer Societys free counselling sessions for families affected by cancer didnt exist when I was younger. This support, which is only available because of Daffodil Day donations, could be a lifeline for someone struggling with the impact of a diagnosis. Get your workplace involved on March 22 to ensure families like ours can receive free services and get the help they need to cope with a cancer diagnosis. 

Last year, with the help of Daffodil Day donations, 95 counselling sessions were provided to people from Kilkenny to help them deal with a cancer diagnosis. This represents an 18% increase in the number of sessions provided in 2016. With cancer incidence on the rise, the Society expects even more people to seek counselling in 2019, a demand that can only be met if enough funds are raised on Daffodil Day.

Companies can help rally around their customers and staff affected by cancer by hosting a fundraising coffee morning in work or by volunteering to sell daffodils on the day. Boots Ireland is the sponsor of Daffodil Day this year and all 87 stores are backing the campaign by selling daffodils and hosting instore fundraisers.

Chief Executive of the Irish Cancer Society Averil Power said, Because more people are getting cancer each year, not everyone is getting the care and support they need. We must do more to ensure we can support every cancer patient. With the help of local companies and supporters on Daffodil Day, cancer patients and their families can receive free counselling sessions across the country through our affiliated cancer support centres. To help deliver more care and support locally, and meet increasing demands, we are asking more companies to get involved in Daffodil Day this year.

Bernadette Lavery, MD, Boots Ireland said: Boots staff come face to face with people facing cancer every day. We do our best to offer support through local services such as the Boot Irish Cancer Society Information Pharmacists, who are trained specifically to provide information and advice on cancer, and our Beauty Cancer Advisors, who help women manage the visible side effects of cancer. Staff in our 87 stores are looking forward to showing further support for people affected by cancer on March 22, with cyclathons, bake sales and other fundraising activities taking place in our stores around the country.

To get involved register at www.cancer.ie/ daffodildayatwork
FOREST CITY, Iowa  A Michigan man is pleading guilty to dealing marijuana in North Iowa.

Braylin Martez Blocton, 22 of Detroit, MI, entered a guilty plea Friday to possession with intent to deliver marijuana. Law enforcement says when they searched a Forest City apartment where Blocton was staying, they found 42 grams of pot, a scale, and large amounts of cash in a safe.

His sentencing is set for April 19.
Update from Rochester Police on Saturday:

Today we were able to make contact with Priyanka Patel and confirm that she was safe and had not been the victim of any crime. Thank you for your assistance in seeking the publics help in locating Ms Patel.

OLMSTED COUNTY, Minn. - Authorities are asking for help to find a 20-year-old woman last seen at Rochester Community and Technical College on Monday.

Authorities say Priyanka Patel, 20, is 5-foot-4 and 120 pounds, and went missing when when her brother came back to pick her up at 3 p.m. Monday. Patel had been living in Grand Meadow.

She never came out of the building, authorities said in a press release. There is a reason to believe she may have traveled to the Chicago, IL., area where she had lived until January of this year.

Anybody with information about her whereabouts should call 507-328-6935.
MASON CITY, Iowa  A Britt woman is pleading not guilty to possession of meth, pot, and prescription pills.

Law enforcement says it found the drugs in June 2018 at a Mason City home where Heather Lynn Graves, 41, was staying. Graves was charged in February with possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine, possession of marijuana-2nd offense, and possession of prescription drugs without a prescription.

According to court documents, Graves admitted to authorities she used and sold meth. Her trial is due to start on May 7 in Cerro Gordo County District Court.
MASON CITY, Iowa  An accused meth dealer is pleading not guilty.

Almyra Elizabeth Sharp, 44 of Manly, is accused of delivering methamphetamine to someone working with the Cerro Gordo County Sheriffs Office on two occasions in July 2018 in Mason City. Sharp was arrested as one of several drug warrants executed in February.

Her trial for two counts of possession with intent to deliver meth is set to start on May 7.
MASON CITY, Iowa  A man accused of dealing meth in Mason City is going to trial.

Brett Gerald Wetter, 43 of Mason City, is charged with possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine. The Cerro Gordo County Sheriffs Office says Wetter gave the drug to someone working with the Sheriffs Office in August 2018.

Wetter was picked up in February as part of a warrant sweep. Hes entered a not guilty plea and is due to stand trial starting May 7.
MASON CITY, Iowa  A man accused of leading law enforcement on a 100 mph chase through blizzard conditions is pleading not guilty.

Jared Scott Schneckloth, 31 of Clear Lake, is charged with 1st degree theft, operating a motor vehicle while license in barred, and multiple other traffic violations. The Cerro Gordo County Sheriffs Office says a deputy saw a stolen vehicle being driven by Schneckloth on February 7, near the intersection of I-35 and Highway 18. Schneckloth allegedly sped away from a traffic stop, driving through Clear Lake and hitting speeds of 100 miles per hour.



Dylan Dimig Dylan Dimig

The Sheriffs Office says Scheckloth eventually lost control of the vehicle west of Clear Lake and crashed into a ditch near McIntosh Road. He was arrested in a nearby garage.

Schneckloths trial is due to begin on April 9.

Dylan Dimig, 26 of Schleswig, a passenger in Schneckloths vehicle is charged with interference with official acts for running away from the scene of the crash. He has not entered a plea.
FOREST CITY, Iowa  A plea deal is reached in a Winnebago County sex abuse case.

Williams Eugene Whytus, 39 of Fort Dodge, has entered a guilty plea to assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, an aggravated misdemeanor. He was originally charged with 3rd degree sex abuse for incidents involving a child between 12 and 13 that authorities say happened when Whytus lived in Buffalo Center between October 2014 and May 2015.

Hes been sentenced to 238 days in jail and a $625 fine.
ST. PAUL, Minn.  The public is being warned about Mexican Oxy after a fatal overdose in southern Minnesota.

The death of Beth Leann Roulet, 38, is believed to be connected to the pills which look like oxycodone but actually contain the much more dangerous drug fentanyl. Roulet was found dead in Mankato Tuesday and small, light-blue colored pills at the scene had the letter M on one side and the number 30 on the other.

Counterfeit opioid drugs are designed to look like the real thing, says Drew Evans, BCA Superintendent. Your supplier has no idea which dose would kill you, and neither will you. There is no safe dose.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Drug Chemistry Laboratory has confirmed the pills, which looked like legitimately manufactured oxycodone, had fentanyl in them. Investigators say these counterfeit pills are believed to originate in Mexico and have been linked to overdose deaths across the country.

Violent Crime Enforcement Teams are targeting mid to high level drug dealers in hopes of making our communities safer, says Brian Marquart, statewide gang and drug coordinator.

No charges have been filed as the Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force continues to investigate the overdose.

Photos courtesy of the Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force.
AUSTIN, Minn.- The Mower County Farmers Bureau held an event in honor of Food Awareness Month. Local area farmers gathered to educate consumers about where their foods come from.

Marlin Fay is one local farmer who says buying locally sourced food is important.

"When people interact with people and you're talking face to face and they know what you do and trust you, that's a big thing we want them to trust us so they're buying our products and we want them to buy our product and feel good about it so that's what it's all about."

He says interacting with the public and being able to explain his farming ways is crucial to consumers being confident in the foods they're putting into their bodies. "I think it's key in keeping people fed and having confidence in what their food is."
"We are engaged in a constructive manner," Bristow said on CNBC's "Mad Money" program. "We are talking. That's a good thing."

Major shareholders have pushed for a Nevada JV, expressing concern a full combination of both companies - which Barrick wants - could be too complex. Newmont has already rejected Barrick's $18 billion offer for the full company. Bristow said it was unlikely he could sweeten the offer.

"I don't give away premiums that haven't been earned," Bristow said.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder, editing by G Crosse)
Sarah N. Lynch, Andy Sullivan

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced on Thursday to nearly four years in prison by a U.S. judge for financial crimes uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russias role in the 2016 election.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis imposed the sentence of 47 months in prison on Manafort, 69, during the hearing in Alexandria, Virginia. Manafort, a veteran Republican political consultant, was found guilty last August by a jury of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

While prosecutors had not recommended a specific sentence, they had cited federal sentencing guidelines that called for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison. But Ellis said the sentencing guidelines were excessive and would create an unwarranted disparity with other cases.

Ellis also noted during the hearing that Manafort is not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.

Manafort asked Ellis for mercy and thanked him for conducting a fair trial. He did not express remorse for his actions but talked about how the case has been difficult for him and his family. Manafort, who opted not to testify during his trial, told the court that to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement. He described his life as professionally and financially in shambles.

Manafort, with noticeably grayer hair than just months ago, was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair holding a cane, wearing a green prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the words Alexandria inmate on the back. It was a far cry from Manaforts usual dapper appearance and stylish garb. He has been jailed leading up to his sentencing.

Manafort was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the U.S. government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraines former pro-Russia government. After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovychs ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

His defense team argued he should get a lighter sentence because he had agreed to cooperate with the prosecution after he was convicted - though another judge found he breached that deal by repeatedly lying to prosecutors - and because his bid to secure a $5.5 million bank loan on fraudulent premises did not actually succeed. Ellis rejected those efforts.

Manafort faces sentencing in a separate case next Wednesday in Washington on two conspiracy charges to which he pleaded guilty last September.

While he faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson potentially could stack that on top of the sentence imposed in the Virginia case, rather than allowing the sentences to run concurrently.

Manafort is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mueller to have gone to trial. Several others including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen have pleaded guilty, while longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty.

Gates, a key witness against Manafort, has yet to be sentenced due to his ongoing cooperation with prosecutors.

Trump, who has called Muellers investigation a politically motivated witch hunt, has not ruled out granting a presidential pardon to Manafort, saying in November that I wouldnt take it off the table.

Jackson on Feb. 13 ruled that Manafort had breached his agreement to cooperate with Muellers office by lying to prosecutors about three matters pertinent to the Russia probe including his interactions with a business partner they have said has ties to Russian intelligence.

Mueller is preparing to submit to U.S. Attorney General William Barr a report on his investigation into whether Trumps campaign conspired with Russia and whether Trump has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Trump has denied collusion and obstruction and Russia has denied election interference.

The crimes for Manafort was convicted did not directly relate to the 2016 election.

STUNNING DOWNFALL

The sentencing capped a stunning downfall for Manafort, a prominent figure in Republican Party circles for decades who also worked as a consultant to such international figures as former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Yanukovych.

Manafort worked for Trumps campaign for five pivotal months in 2016 that included the Republican National Convention where Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, three of them as campaign chairman.

Defense lawyers had asked Ellis to sentence Manafort to between 4-1/4 and 5-1/4 years in prison, writing in their sentencing memo that Muellers attempt to vilify Mr. Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts before this court.

Ellis had faced criticism by some in the legal community for comments he made during the trial that were widely interpreted as biased against the prosecution.

Ellis repeatedly interrupted prosecutors, told them to stop using the word oligarch to describe people associated with Manafort because it made him seem despicable, and objected to pictures of Manaforts luxury items they planned to show jurors.

It isnt a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending, Ellis told prosecutors during the trial.

Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Additional reporting by Andy Sullivan and Nathan Layne; Editing by Will Dunham
(Adds construction timing)

By Melanie Burton

WEIPA, Australia, March 8 (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto said on Friday that its $1.9 billion Amrun bauxite mine in northern Australia is set to enter full production after finishing its ramp-up phase, boosting output at its Weipa operations by more than a third.

Rio Tinto produces about 50 million tonnes of the aluminium raw material globally, accounting for around 15 percent of world supply.

The Amrun mine will produce 22.8 million tonnes at full production, and take Rio's bauxite output at Weipa on Australia's northern tip to 35 million tonnes a year, the company said.

"The mine and associated processing and port facilities will replace production from Rio Tinto's depleting East Weipa mine and increase annual bauxite export capacity by around 10 million tonnes, at a time when higher grade bauxite is becoming scarcer globally," Rio Chief Executive JS Jacques said in a statement.

Amrun, which was approved in November 2015, had originally been expected to begin production and shipping in the first half of 2019 and hit full production by the end of the year. In what it called an industry first, Rio Tinto was able to cut construction time by a year as the 1 km-long (0.6-mile) export facility was built in modules off-site and then brought to Amrun and hooked up, rather than having all the construction done over-water.

Bauxite mining has taken place at Weipa for more than 50 years, and the new mine will extend the operations for another 50 years, Jacques said.

Aluminium, a lightweight metal, is used in mobile phones and transportation like planes and trucks.

"Aluminium is one of the fastest growing base metals in the world. We forecast demand to grow steadily and remain robust," Jacques said.

The first shipment from the mine sailed in December.

(Reporting by Melanie Burton; editing by Richard Pullin)
(Kitco News) - The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) wrapped up on Wednesday, reporting outstanding attendance and a sense of a renaissance in the mining sector.

This year saw 25,843 attendees from more than 130 countries, the PDAC said in a press release on Wednesday.

The worlds largest mining convention, held annually in Toronto, has reported renewed optimism and excitement from the attendees this year.

After my 44th straight year attending the PDAC Convention, the enthusiasm I saw from exhibitors and attendees in 2019 was among the best yet, said PDAC President Glenn Mullan. Although we continue to face economic challenges and uncertainty, the mineral exploration and mining industry is experiencing a renaissance and renewed sense of confidence, highlighting its resilience once more.

This years PDAC highlights included a surprise visit from Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who focused his invite-only talk on mining, innovation, cleaner technologies and Indigenous partnerships.

#PDAC2019 day 3 starts off with Canadas PM @JustinTrudeau making an appearance. The room is quickly filling up with media and attendees. #mining #preciousmetals pic.twitter.com/shvdcFt71o  Kitco NEWS (@KitcoNewsNOW) March 5, 2019

Canadas PM @JustinTrudeau on #gold price: I was asked about the price of gold on a way here - I am not going anywhere close to that question. There is 50% it will go up, Trudeau joked | #mining #PDAC2019 @the_PDAC pic.twitter.com/wDFhDpTKBT  Kitco NEWS (@KitcoNewsNOW) March 5, 2019

The agenda this year included many timely topics, such as commodities outlook, new technology to power the future of mining, exploration activities, metal deficits, lack of investment, precious metals outlook, and millennials and mining.

Outlook for #gold production: 2019 will see some growth, followed by two years of declines - @SPGlobal #PDAC2019 @the_PDAC  Kitco NEWS (@KitcoNewsNOW) March 3, 2019

Gold mining outlook #PDAC2019: Old reality (growth at any cost) VS New reality (must run a profitable business focused on returns) - @agnicoeagle CEO Sean Boyd pic.twitter.com/wDy8QkhNJo  Kitco NEWS (@KitcoNewsNOW) March 3, 2019

In respect to millennials, there were many students in attendance, with many recent graduates presenting at the PDAC as well as looking for job opportunities.

#PDAC2019 LIVE: Social media is key if the mining industry is serious about cracking the lack of millennial participation problem - from the #millennials and #mining session pic.twitter.com/CSalv7Bok7  Kitco NEWS (@KitcoNewsNOW) March 4, 2019

#DAY 2 here at the #PDAC is looking to be even busier than yesterday! Whats your favourite thing about @the_PDAC? pic.twitter.com/U6OapOWryN  Kitco NEWS (@KitcoNewsNOW) March 4, 2019

The always popular #DisruptMining event also lived up to the hype surrounding the annual competition. The entertaining live Shark tank-style finale on Sunday ended with Andritzs project to train AI to operate a mineral facility winning Goldcorps $1-million prize.

Kitco News is at the #DisruptMining event organized by @Goldcorp_Inc! Time to meet the finalists @Andritz @Voith_Turbo @Anaconda_Mining. Which project will be revolutionary enough to receive an investment boost of up to $1 million? Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/IBznOrKX7z  Kitco NEWS (@KitcoNewsNOW) March 3, 2019

And the winner of #DisruptMining 2019 and the $1 million prize is... @Andritz with its artificial intelligence project to operate a mineral processing facility! @Goldcorp_Inc @the_PDAC #PDAC2019 pic.twitter.com/YSMokFVEui  Kitco NEWS (@KitcoNewsNOW) March 4, 2019

This years PDAC was a special one for the Kitco News team, marking our 10th PDAC. Our team was busy getting you in-depth interviews and live coverage of the event. Thank you for following our updates and engaging with us on social media! Some of you even stopped by our stage at the PDAC to say hi and take selfies!

The all-star interview line-ups this year included CEO of Sprott U.S. Holdings Rick Rule, Uranium Energy Corp. CEO and GoldMining Chairman Amir Adnani, Chile's Mines minister Baldo Prokurica, Covergalls' founder Alicia Woods, Metalla Royalty & Streaming director E.B. Tucker, CPM Group managing partner Jeffrey Christian and many others.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - An unmanned capsule from Elon Musks SpaceX splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean on Friday morning after a short-term stay on the International Space Station, capping the first orbital test mission in NASAs long-delayed quest to resume human space flight from U.S. soil later this year.

After a six-day mission on the orbital outpost, Crew Dragon autonomously detached about 2:30 a.m EST (0730 GMT) on Friday and sped back to earth reaching hypersonic speeds before an 8:45 a.m. EST (1345 GMT) splash-down in the Atlantic, about 200 miles off the Florida coast.

A SpaceX rocket launched the 16-foot-tall capsule from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida last Saturday.

Minutes before splash-down, Crew Dragon deployed its four parachutes, easing some concerns about functionality that both NASA and SpaceX had before the landing.

Everything happened just perfectly, right on time the way that we expected it to, Benjamin Reed, SpaceXs director of crew mission management, said in a live stream from California.

The test mission was a crucial milestone in the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administrations Commercial Crew Program ahead of SpaceXs first crewed test flight slated to launch in July with U.S. astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken.

This really is an American achievement that spans many generations of NASA administrators and over a decade of work by the NASA team, current Administrator Jim Bridenstine said after the splash-down.

The vehicle is doing well. The recovery crews are out. Theyre on the scene, said Steve Stich, the crew programs deputy manager with NASA.

A boat was in the zone where Dragon hit the Atlantic and was set to lift the 16-foot spacecraft out of the water about one hour after splash-down using a crane. It will carry the craft back to land by Sunday.

The first-of-a-kind mission brought 400 pounds of test equipment to the space station, including a dummy named Ripley outfitted with sensors around its head, neck, and spine to monitor how a flight would feel for a human.

The space stations three-member crew greeted the capsule last Sunday, with U.S. astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques entering Crew Dragons cabin to carry out air quality tests and inspections.

NASA has awarded SpaceX and Boeing Co a total of $6.8 billion to build competing rocket and capsule systems to launch astronauts into orbit from American soil, something not possible since the U.S. Space Shuttle was retired from service in 2011.

The launch systems are aimed at ending U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets for $80 million-per-seat rides to the $100 billion orbital research laboratory, which flies about 250 miles (400 km) above earth.

Bridenstine told Reuters the cost per seat on the Boeing or SpaceX systems would be lower than for the shuttle or Soyuz.

Privately owned SpaceX, also known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp, was founded in 2002 by Musk, who is also a co-founder of electric car maker Tesla Inc.
Editor's Note: Kitco News has the best precious metals coverage in the world and is in the process of improving its mining news, so we want to hear from you. If you work in the mining sector please take this short survey to help us bring you the news you want.

Richard Baker, editor of the Eureka Miner Report, sees potential for gold to keep rising in the wake of the most recent round of global economic data. The good and the bad this week are reflected in this morning's February jobs report; we find ugly far from our shores, Baker says. Low [U.S.] headline unemployment and strong wage growth suggest a vibrant domestic economy. The bad part is a big miss on jobs added (by separate survey) supporting notions that the economy is indeed slowing. Meanwhile, he says, China and Europe both had ugly economic numbers, and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi expressed concerns about the continents economy Thursday as the ECB reintroduced stimulus measures. Overall, gold did not move much this week. The metal fell near the $1,280 level Thursday but then tested $1,300 after Fridays job report. Importantly, gold made solid value gains relative to equities and commodities for the week, Baker says. This is a bullish for more gains next week as 10-year real rates still remain below 1%.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Price Group's Flynn: Economic Worries Underpinning Gold

Phil Flynn, senior market analyst with at Price Futures Group, looks for gold to keep rising as long as markets are looking at the proverbial glass of water as half empty, or in this case fretting over weak economic data and ignoring the good. Gold is higher on Friday on growing concerns about a global economic slowdown, particularly after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Thursday expressed concerns about the European economy. Gold is getting a safe-haven rally today and it should continue into next week, Flynn says. He also cites the soft U.S. jobs report, with nonfarm payrolls rising only 20,000 in February. However, Flynn cautions, hiring may have been crimped by cold weather in much of the nation, thus may have looked weaker than otherwise would be the case. Furthermore, housing starts rose sharply in January. Still, traders are focusing more on the disappointments at the moment, Flynn continues, and this works to the benefit of gold. The market is looking at the glass as half empty right now, Flynn says. As of 9:51 a.m. EST, Comex April gold was $9.70 higher to $1,295.80 an ounce.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

SP Angel: Chinas Central Bank Becoming Major Gold Buyer Again

Now that Chinas central bank has resumed buying gold, the country may be on pace to become the second-largest official-sector buyer behind Russia, says commodities brokerage SP Angel. Analysts cite data on the Peoples Bank of China website showing that holdings increased to 60.26 million ounces in February from 59.94 million a month earlier. In response to a falling global outlook, China has expanded its gold reserves for the third consecutive month, putting the Asian nation on track to be the biggest buyer after Russia, SP Angel says. Analysts later add, Last months inflow of 9.95t [tons] follows the addition of 11.8t in January and 9.95 tons in December, when buying restarted after a two-year pause. Russia leads the pack among central banks, taking in 274.3t in 2018. Chinas decision to boost purchases comes amid signals of slowing domestic growth and a transition to diversify total reserves away from the U.S. dollar, which has counterparty risk. SP Angel analysts cite World Gold Council data showing that Chinas gold holdings are the sixth-largest by country, but account for only 2.4% of Chinas reserves, compared with more than 70% in Germany and the U.S.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

RBC's Gero: Gold Bounces From 'Oversold Territory'

Gold is continuing its comeback from the 2019 low on Thursday, getting further help from Fridays U.S. jobs report for February, says George Gero, managing director with RBC Wealth Management. As of 8:46 a.m. EST, Comex April gold was $11.50 higher to $1,297.60 an ounce. The metal is bouncing from oversold territory, with some of the buying in the form of short covering, Gero says. Weak global economic data are also helping, he adds. In the U.S. Friday morning, the Labor Department reported a rise of only 20,000 nonfarm jobs during February, when expectations were for around 180,000. This could be a good support for gold, Gero says, explaining this means less chances of Federal Reserve rate hikes.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

CIBC: Feb. U.S. Jobs Data Weak But Fed May Consider One-Off

CIBC says the Federal Reserve is likely to treat the weak February jobs report as an aberration and only worry if the pattern continues in future months. U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by a paltry 20,000 in February. Coming off the back of such a strong January print, there was always the risk of a disappointing February job gain, says Andrew Grantham of CIBC Economics. However, the mere 20K increase in total non-farm payrolls was even weaker than we had anticipated, and puts a question mark over just how resilient the labor market is and how supportive household income growth will be in driving a pick-up in consumer spending. Still, Grantham describes some of the details of the report as encouraging, such as the unemployment rate dipping to 3.8% from 4% in January and wages rising by an above-consensus 0.4% for the month and 3.4% year-over-year. The U.S. dollar will likely trade lower and short-term yields could fall on the back of the large jobs surprise, Grantham says. However, given the recent volatility in the data, the Fed will likely discount this as a one-off and only begin to worry if we see some more weaker results in the months ahead.
ROME (Reuters) - Italys coalition will not open new discussions over a fiercely contested high-speed rail link with France before Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said, giving the divided ruling parties time to let tempers cool.

The Alpine rail line is backed by Salvinis League party but is strongly opposed by its coalition partner, the 5-Star Movement, which argues Italys share of the funding would be better spent upgrading existing roads and bridges.

Well talk about it again on Monday, Salvini told reporters in parliament, adding that a meeting among coalition leaders on the issue which had been expected later on Friday would not take place.

The long-running dispute suddenly escalated late on Thursday and raised the risk of a government collapse, with 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio accusing Salvini of acting irresponsibly and putting the coalitions future at risk.

Salvini reiterated in a breakfast-time radio interview on Friday that the League would never vote in parliament to block the project, as 5-Star wants.

Pushing back the discussion until Monday leaves open the vexed question of what to do about a deadline that day regarding the tenders that must be opened or blocked to carry out key parts of the construction work.

Some League politicians proposed on Friday that the tenders could be launched on schedule but with a clause that they could be revoked depending on the outcome of the coalition dispute. This suggestion has so far been rejected by 5-Star.

Markets have shrugged off the mounting coalition tensions.

Italian 10-year bond yields were heading on Friday for the biggest weekly drop since September, and the spread over German Bunds hovered around 245 basis points, compared with a recent high of around 280 on Feb 22.

The TAV project (Treno Alta Velocita) is a joint venture between the Italian and French states to link the cities of Turin and Lyon with a 58-km (36-mile) tunnel through the Alps on which work has already begun.

The European Union has pledged to fund up to 40 percent of costs, Italy up to 35 percent and France up to 25 percent.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Thursday he had strong personal doubts about the validity of the venture and he would take responsibility for a final decision based on a cost-benefit analysis already carried out by the government.

That analysis, commissioned by Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli, a 5-Star politician, found the TAV was a waste of public money, estimating the economic return would be a negative balance of at least 7 billion euros ($7.9 billion).

Conte, who is not a member of either ruling party but is closer to 5-Star, called the funding of the TAV iniquitous and said he would speak to France and the EU to share our doubts and perplexities.

His words were applauded by Di Maio but Salvini responded that he was ready to go all the way in backing the TAV, which the League says will create jobs, help the economy and reduce road haulage pollution.
By Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala

DAR ES SALAAM, March 8 (Reuters) - Acacia Mining Plc must halt waste water pollution at its North Mara gold mine in Tanzania by March 30 or the facility will be shut down, the country's mining minister said on Friday.

Doto Biteko said Acacia needs to stop contaminated water seeping from a waste storage dam at the mine to nearby communities in the country's north.

"The life of even one Tanzanian is worth more than their gold mining activities," Biteko told Reuters.

Acacia Mining said it had stopped a temporary overspill at the mine, blaming vandals for destroying sections of the pipe it uses to move waste water.

"The mine has undertaken to manage all seepage through the use of additional pumps and construction of other containment facilities," it said in a statement.

The mine has been flagged by the chief executive of Barrick Gold , Acacia's majority shareholder, as a possible "tier 1" asset, meaning it is low cost, large and has a remaining life of more than 10 years.

London stockbroker Peel Hunt described the mine as the "backbone" of Acacia's cash flow. "We see the potential for a shutdown of the mine as a serious threat to Acacia in the near term", the brokerage said in a note.

RBC analyst James Bell described the minister's comments as a "potential further pressure tactic ... due to the ongoing dispute between Acacia and the government".

North Mara is Acacia's largest mine, producing 336,055 ounces of gold last year, comprising 65 percent of the company's output, Acacia said in its annual report.

The mine has faced long-standing accusations of pollution, which Acacia Mining has previously denied.

Acacia's troubles in Tanzania began after President John Magufuli, nicknamed "The Bulldozer", swept to power in late 2015 pledging to secure a bigger share of the country's natural resource wealth and fight corruption.

Production at the London-listed miner's other two gold-producing mines in Tanzania - Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi - has been hampered by a ban on exports of gold and copper concentrates.

In September, Magufuli instructed the country's environment watchdog to conduct a new probe into historical allegations of pollution at North Mara. He described a previous report that found no evidence of wrongdoing as being compromised.

Canadian miner Barrick outlined last month details of a deal it reached with the government of Tanzania to settle the disputes with Acacia, which has been excluded from the talks.

Barrick's announcement confirms a 2017 deal that called for the creation of a Tanzanian firm to manage Acacia's assets, a 50-50 split of economic benefits and a $300 million payment to resolve all outstanding tax claims in the East African country.

In 2017 Acacia was handed a $190 billion tax bill - about four times the country's gross domestic product - for underreporting output, an allegation it denies.

(Reporting by Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala; Additional reporting by Zandi Shabalala in London; Editing by Hereward Holland and Dale Hudson)
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(Kitco News) - Wall Street flipped from bearish to bullish on gold, while Main Street remained bullish, in the weekly Kitco News survey.

Gold hit its weakest level of the year on Thursday but then went into comeback mode, drawing further strength Friday from a much smaller-than-forecast 20,000 rise in U.S. February nonfarm payrolls.

After todays figures, looks like $1,350 here we come! said Afshin Nabavi, head of trading at MKS (Switzerland) SA.

Fourteen market professionals took part in the Wall Street survey. Twelve participants, or 86%, described themselves as bullish for the week ahead. There was one vote each, or 7%, for lower and neutral.

Meanwhile, 538 respondents took part in an online Main Street poll. A total of 274 voters, or 51%, called for gold to rise. Another 177, or 33%, predicted gold would fall. The remaining 87 voters, or 16%, saw a sideways market.

Wall Street Bullish Bearish Neutral VS Main Street Bullish Bearish Neutral

In the last survey, the biggest bloc of Wall Street voters was bearish while Main Street participants were bullish on gold for the current week. Around 11:10 a.m. EST, Comex April gold futures were trading 70 cents lower for the week so far at $1,298.50 an ounce.

This is the bottom, said Sean Lusk, director of commercial hedging with Walsh Trading, referring to April golds $1,280.80 low on Thursday, before the market bounced. We are going to move higher. There are questions abounding about the global economy.

He looks for some longs who liquidated to return to the gold market, particularly amid uneasiness with recent weakness in stocks.

ForexLive managing director Adam Button said that gold has found support, and risk aversion in the week ahead is increasingly likely. That should keep a bid in gold, he said.

Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at SIA Wealth Management, said that he is bullish on gold in the near term but sees limited gains in the medium term. He said that the weak nonfarm payrolls number will keep the Federal Reserve on hold for the foreseeable future, which will limit U.S. dollar strength.

I think we still need to see more weak data to really push gold prices higher, but I think a peak in the U.S. dollar could push gold prices to $1,325 in the next few weeks, he said. To get above $1,350, you need to see Federal Reserve turn dovish, and I dont think they are ready to take that step right now.

Independent technical analyst Darin Newsom also said higher based on the charts.

Im looking for a Wave B (second wave) rally in golds ongoing secondary (intermediate-term) three-wave downtrend, he said. This week saw the April contract test support near $1,286 before rallying. This move should likely last a couple of weeks before turning down again.

Jim Wyckoff, senior technical analyst with Kitco, looks for gains, saying the market was technically oversold and due for a bounce, and the bulls still have the overall near-term technical advantage.

Bill Baruch, president of Blue Line Futures, said that it makes sense to hold gold now as the global economy starts to weaken following disappointing trade data out of China and weak manufacturing data out of Germany.

Meanwhile, Charlie Nedoss, senior market strategist with LaSalle Futures Group, looks for gold to pull back, calling the recent rally a retracement within a downward move. He listed key resistance for April gold at the 50-day moving average around $1,307 and the 20-day of $1,314.20.

Much will depend on whether the low number of jobs created in February turns out to be an aberration, Nedoss said.

The wage number was positive, he continued. It wasnt a totally disastrous report; lets put it that way.

Kevin Grady, president of Phoenix Futures and Options LLC, said he is neutral on the market for now. He sees the $1,305 level as resistance after it previously failed as support. He suggested Fridays rally was a knee-jerk reaction to the soft jobs report, but pointed out that gold has tended to run out of buyers on rallies.

This is a big short-covering rally as a result of that [U.S. jobs] number, he said.
Stuff reports:

KiwiBuild homes for sale in Huapai, West Auckland, had previously been listed  and did not sell  on the open market.

Construction firm Mike Greer has partnered with KiwiBuild to provide more than 100 homes for the scheme in West Auckland and Christchurch.

But the Huapai development, where six two-bedroom properties are currently listed for sale through KiwiBuild for $600,000 each, is a 12-unit development that was initially offered pre-construction entirely to private buyers.

So what does this mean?

Gareth Kiernan, chief forecaster at Infometrics, said whether bringing properties that had not otherwise sold into the KiwiSaver scheme rendered it redundant depended on its aims.

If the aim is to increase the supply of housing because were not building fast enough and thats contributing to the affordability programme, then Phil Twyfords modus operandi to date of walking down the street, finding a house thats already being built, and slapping a KiwiBuild sticker on is patently stupid and nothing more than window dressing, he said.

So patently stupid and window dressing.

However, if the aim of the programme is to effectively provide a taxpayer subsidy to help a select and lucky few people into their first home, then selling at a discounted rate to first-home buyers fits the objective.

So at best Kiwibuild helps a few well off people get a home a bit cheaper.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 8)  The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will deny opposition senatorial slate Otso Diretso's request for a debate against the administration-aligned Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP).

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez told CNN Philippines in an online exchange on Friday that granting Otso Diretso's request will be tantamount to giving preferential treatment to some senatorial candidates or Senate slates.

Jimenez added that it is "practically impossible" for the poll body to hold a meaningful debate involving all 62 senatorial bets, without facing allegations of preferential treatment and that there is no more time for debates.

He said the Comelec En Banc will issue a resolution on the matter soon.

"Failure of the Comelec to provide a venue for voters to hear the platform and stand on issues of the candidates on important policies is a disservice to the Filipino people," Otso Diretso senatorial candidate and Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano said.

Alejano added that the Comelec's decision to deny their request favors candidates who are dodging from participating in debates. "Congratulations, you were saved by the bell," he said.

"Dapat po, ilagay sa batas na responsibilidad ng Comelec na ipakilala ang bawat kandidato sa pamamagitan ng debate sa mga isyu imbes na hayaang ang pera at yaman ng bawat isa ang kumilos upang makilala ang isang kandidato," Otso Diretso candidate Samira Gutoc added.

[Translation: The law should be changed to say that the Comelec has the responsibility to introduce each candidate through a debate on the issues, instead of money and wealth do the work for a candidate to be known.]

Under the Fair Elections Act, it is only optional for the Comelec to require national television and radio networks to sponsor at least three national debates for presidential candidates and at least one national debate for vice presidential candidates.

Comelec chair Sheriff Abas earlier told CNN Philippines' The Source that the poll body is unlikely to hold an official debate for the senatorial elections as they no longer have time and resources for it.

Abas, however, said they would support TV networks which would host their own debates.

Otso Diretso, the opposition senatorial slate spearheaded by the formerly-ruling Liberal Party, earlier asked the Comelec to officiate or facilitate a debate with HNP, the regional party of presidential daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.

The opposition Senate bets have chided their HNP counterparts for not appearing in debates. Some HNP candidates have expressed openness to debating, while others said debates would be more beneficial for political newbies and that they should just debate on the Senate floor if they get elected.

All Otso Diretso bets have appeared in senatorial debates organized by TV networks, including in different installments of CNN Philippines' Senatorial Forum.

But of the 13-man HNP slate, Senators Cynthia Villar and Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara, House Deputy Speaker Pia Cayetano, former Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla, and former Special Assistant to the President Christopher "Bong" Go have not yet appeared in any televised debate.
(ATCHISON COUNTY, Mo.) Ameren Missouri is one step closer to building a second wind farm in the state.

The utility announced Wednesday it won unanimous approval from the Missouri Public Service Commission for a certificate of convenience and necessity, which is needed before construction can begin.

Ameren Missouri plans to build a 157-megawatt wind farm in Atchison County. The wind farm is expected to generate enough clean and renewable power to run nearly 47,000 homes.

A public meeting was held earlier this year in the county to discuss the project. More than 100 people attended with many of them objecting the deal over concerns that taxes generated from the wind farm would not stay local.

Ameren is also constructing a 400-megawatt wind farm in northeast Missouri. The company said both projects are expected to be complete by the end of 2020.

Ameren said the wind farms are part of its goal to cut carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050.
Prof. Dr. Juergen Hauer (left) and first author Erling Thyrhaug with their measuring instrument. In the background, spectra taken with it.

While spectroscopic measurements are normally averaged over myriad molecules, a new method developed by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) provides precise information about the interaction of individual molecules with their environment. This will accelerate the identification of efficient molecules for future photovoltaic technologies, for example.

An international team led by the TUM chemist Professor Jurgen Hauer has now succeeded in determining the spectral properties of individual molecules. The researchers acquired the absorption and emission spectra of the investigated molecules over a broad spectral range in a single measurement to accurately determine how the molecules interact with their environment, capturing and releasing energy.

Normally, these kinds of measurements are averaged over thousands, even millions, of molecules, sacrificing important detail information. "Previously, emission spectra could be routinely acquired, but absorption measurements on individual molecules were extremely expensive," explains Hauer. "We have now attained the ultimate limit of detectability."

Compact apparatus, quick measurement

The new method is based on a compact, merely DIN-A4-sized instrument that the Munich chemists developed in collaboration with colleagues at the Politecnico di Milano.

The key: It generates a double laser pulse with a controlled delay in between. The second pulse modulates the emission spectrum in a specific manner, which in turn provides information about the absorption spectrum. This information is then evaluated using a Fourier transformation.

"The primary advantage is that we can, with little effort, transform a conventional measurement setup for acquiring emission spectra into a device for measuring emission and absorption spectra," says Hauer. The measurement itself is relatively easy. "At nine o'clock in the morning, we installed the apparatus into the setup at the University of Copenhagen," says Hauer. "At half past eleven, already, we had our first useful measurement data."

On the tracks of photosynthesis

Using the new spectroscopy method, chemists hope to now study individual molecules, to understand phenomena such as the energy flow in metal-organic compounds and physical effects in molecules when they come into contact with water and other solvents.

The influence of solvents at the single molecule level is still poorly understood. The chemists also want to display the flow of energy in a time-resolved manner to understand why energy flows faster and more efficiently in certain molecules than in others. "Specifically, we are interested in the transfer of energy in biological systems in which photosynthesis takes place," says Hauer.

The goal: organic solar cells

The researchers have cast their view on the light collection complex LH2 for future applications. "Once we understand the natural light-harvesting complexes, we can start thinking about artificial systems for deployment in photovoltaics," says Hauer. The findings could form the basis for future technologies in photovoltaics. The goal is the development of a novel organic solar cell.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 8)  The International Criminal Court (ICC) may decide to launch an investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war next week, according to a lawyer who said he was contacted by the tribunal.

Speaking to CNN Philippines on Friday, lawyer Jude Sabio said "it is possible that the ICC will decide to open an investigation" before March 17, when the Philippines' withdrawal from the international tribunal takes effect.

Sabio is the lawyer of self-confessed hitmen Edgar Matobato and Arturo Lascanas who said they killed people in Davao City upon the orders of then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

In April 2017, Sabio submitted to the ICC a 77-page document on the killings, formally called by the tribunal as a "communication." This was followed by supplemental information from opposition lawmakers Senator Antonio Trillanes and Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano. They said over a thousand were killed by the so-called Davao Death Squad, while thousands more were killed in the war on drugs since Duterte became president.

In March 2018, Duterte pulled the country out of the ICC, a month after the international court announced a preliminary examination on alleged extrajudicial killings in the country. A preliminary examination will determine whether there is cause to go on a full-blown investigation.

Sabio believes the Philippines will have the same fate as Burundi, where the ICC handed its decision to open an investigation just two days before the country's withdrawal took effect.

READ: PH withdrawal from ICC brings case closer to a criminal investigation, lawyer says

'ICC securing witnesses'

What further convinced Sabio of an impending investigation was when a high-ranking official at the ICC Office of the Prosecutor contacted him in December 2018 in response to a letter he sent to the tribunal in February 2018. In that letter, Sabio asked the ICC about protective measures it can provide to whistleblowers Matobato and Lascanas.

"We talked about the two whistleblowers  Edgar Matobato and Arturo Lascanas. More specifically he asked me about the exact status and location of the two witnesses," Sabio said.

"I divulged details about them to assure that official that the witnesses are still alive and will be able to testify when needed," Sabio added.

Sabio believes the ICC wanted to ensure that they have vital witnesses so the possible case against the Philippines will prosper.

Duterte has repeatedly said he would not submit to the jurisdiction of the ICC and has mocked its Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, threatening to arrest her if she comes to the Philippines.

Sabio, however, said there's no stopping the ICC probe since "interested parties" like him and some opposition lawmakers can present evidence.

Impending withdrawal

The ICC, in an e-mail to CNN Philippines said a country's pullout, processed by the United Nations Secretary General, "is a sovereign decision, that can be reversed only by the national authorities themselves, as it has happened in the cases of South Africa and the Gambia."

According to the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court, only two things can stop the country's withdrawal from the ICC - if Malacanang changes its mind, or if the Supreme Court nullifies the government's pullout.

Its co-chairman, Arpee Santiago said any of the two "should come before because when the withdrawal becomes effective and this will be by March 17, then by March 18 the Philippines has already withdrawn."

However, a source from the Supreme Court told CNN Philippines there is no scheduled action on the case in next week's en banc session. If a ruling is not made before March 17, the issue would become moot, Santiago said.

The ICC could also hand down its ruling after March 17, since the Rome Statute that has formed it states that a state "shall not be discharged, by reason of its withdrawal, from the obligations arising from this Statute while it was a Party to the Statute."

READ: ICC review to proceed despite PH withdrawal

Malacanang, meanwhile, has claimed that the withdrawal was not needed in the first place because the Philippines was never a member of the ICC. They argued the country's ratification of the Rome Statute, the treaty that formed the ICC, never took effect as it was not published in the Official Gazette.

The High Court, however, has conducted oral arguments on the petition of oppositon lawmakers who said the executive cannot pull the country out of the international tribunal without the Senate's concurrence.
- A chieftain of the APC, Ibrahim Emokpaire, says the insecurity in Rivers state necessitates declaration of a state of emergency

- Emokpaire, a former APC national chairmanship aspirant, particularly condemns the killing of soldiers in the state

- The APC chieftain says there is no justifiable reason for soldiers and even ordinary citizens to be killed no matter the provocation

Ibrahim Emokpaire, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency in Rivers ahead of the elections.

The governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections have been scheduled for March 9.

Emokpaire made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday, March 7 in Abuja.

The APC chieftain said the call had become necessary following the insecurity and killings that characterised the Feb. 23, Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.

READ ALSO: Atiku calls on supporters to vote PDP in coming elections

Emokpaire, a former APC national chairmanship aspirant, particularly condemned the killing of soldiers in the state.

He noted that this was not the first time soldiers and other security agents would be killed in Rivers.

According to him, there was no justifiable reason for soldiers and even ordinary citizens to be killed no matter the provocation.

There is no country in the whole world where military personnel will be mowed down and the Commande-In-Chief will take it lightly with perpetrators of such heinous crime, Emokpaire said.

He said that irrespective of the immunity of Rivers State Governor Nysome Wike, the Federal Government should declare a state of emergency in the state.

This, he said was critical to deter others who think they could kill soldiers and other citizens and get away with it or without consequences.

The men in uniform that are protecting the country cannot just be mowed down without consequences. These are people that have committed their lives to protecting Nigerians.

Nobody, however, highly placed either with immunity or no immunity from any part of the country has the right to kill soldiers without consequences, he said.

He, therefore, tasked relevant agencies to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators of such killings.

Emokpaire said that such action must have consequences, saying we cannot take anything for granted, we cannot turn everything upside down in the name of democracy.

He noted that even in the United States of America, with the largest democratic process in the world, would not tolerate one of its soldiers being killed by anybody.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

Even when a soldier was attacked and killed by a terrorist on a street in London, the perpetrator was apprehended immediately.

Everybody connected with the crime and the perpetrator was apprehended and locked up for interrogation, the house of the terrorist was shut down completely, Emokpaire recalled.

NAN reports that Rivers had become the most volatile state in Nigeria since after the Febuary 23, presidential and National Assembly elections as residents of some communities in the state are beginning to leave their original aboard to seek safety elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, has raised allegation against the minister of transportation Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the GOC of 6 Division, Nigeria Army.

The Rivers governor accused the duo of masterminding the mass arrest of innocent Nigerians and prominent PDP members in the state.

This was disclosed in a statement by Emma Okah, commissioner of information and communications.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng upgrades to serve you better.

2019 Election: Atiku heads to court to contest election result, can he win? - on Legit TV

Source: Legit
- Federal Government officials are billed to participate in the 11th edition of ATOMEXPO - an international forum

- The Nigerian government will be represented by officials of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency and the Atomic Energy Commission

- Nigeria and Russia had earlier signed an inter-governmental agreement with the aim of constructing a center for nuclear science in Nigeria

Federal Government officials are billed to participate in the 11th edition of ATOMEXPO - an international forum which seeks global partnerships on peaceful uses of atomic energy.

Billed to hold in the Russian city of Sochi, the event will run from Monday, April 15 to Tuesday, April 16.

Officials of Nigerias Nuclear Regulatory Agency and the Atomic Energy Commission are billed to participate and represent the country.

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During the 2016 edition of the expo, Nigeria and Russia signed an inter-governmental agreement with the aim of constructing a center for nuclear science in Nigeria. This further paved the way for future developments in Nigerias quest to diversify its electric energy mix  through the inclusion of nuclear energy to the nations electricity grid.

This year's edition of Atom Expo will feature discussions on the contribution of nuclear technologies to sustainable development.

The agenda further covers global issues of carbon-free energy, responsible approach to the environment and natural resources, green investments and international partnership for sustainable development.

Round tables and panel discussions will cover topics such as non-energy application of nuclear and radiation technologies in industry, science, medicine and agriculture, distribution of advanced management decisions, and introduction of digital technologies for the development of urban infrastructure and improvement of living standards.

During the forum, guests will be able to find out more about a wide range of nuclear technology applications.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

Meanwhile, inspired by the need to nurture the next generation of nuclear technology experts, ROSATOM - Russia's state-run nuclear energy corporation, is set to train young Nigerians on nuclear energy.

The firm recently announced that applications are now open for scholarships in nuclear studies for Nigerian and African students at large.

Underscoring the rationale for the scholarship scheme, Dmitry Shornikov, CEO, ROSATOM Central and Southern Africa, said: The goal of the scholarship is to support interest in nuclear research and capabilities among young African scientists and engineers, and contribute to solving some of the world's most critical issues in the nearest future, allowing for the continent to be self-sufficient.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better.

Female aerospace engineer from the Tsaigumi UAV team on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng
- Facional members of the APC in Lagos clashed on Thursday evening, March 7

- At least two persons were feared killed in the violence which also led to the destruction of vehicles and the looting of shops

- The fracas occurred when supporters of an aggrieved party aspirant tried to prevent a candidate for the Lagos House of Assembly from entering the palace of the Oloto of Awori

Factional members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos allegedly engaged themselves in a free-for-all fight on Thursday evening, March 7, leading to fears that the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections holding on Saturday, March 9 may be violent.

According to Daily Trust, the clash between two warring APC factions occurred at Oto-Awori in Ijanikin area of Lagos, leading to the destruction of over 35 vehicles and the looting of shops.

The publication also reports that at least two persons were feared killed in the violence.

READ ALSO: PDP should recall past members for Buhari to investigate - Shehu Sani

Legit.ng gathers that the clash was between an aggrieved party member who felt he was robbed of victory during the partys 2018 primary elections, and supporters of a candidate of the party from Ojo contesting in the upcoming Lagos state House of Assembly election.

The clash reportedly occurred when the candidate, identified as Jafo, visited the palace of the Oloto of Awori, ahead of the election.

Some youths loyal to the aggrieved member, identified as Bibire, reportedly tried to prevent Jafo from entering the palace; claiming that the latter was the reason their aspirant was denied the partys ticket.

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In a similar development, Legit.ng previously reported that the campaign flag-off of the APC in Lagos ended abruptly as violence broke out mid-way into the well-attended programme.

Hoodlums suspected to be members of the National Union Road Transport Workers (NURTW) invaded the Skypower Ground Ikeja venue with guns, daggers and other dangerous weapons, engaging one another in a bloody factional fight.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service!

APC is the worst party in Nigeria, I regret being a member - on Legit TV:

Source: Legit
- Ahead of the Ogun governorship election, Adekunle Akinlade and Ladi Adebutu have reached an agreement on how to share power and split contracts in the new government

- With the last-minute alliance, Adebutu is expected to mobilise members of his faction of the PDP to aid Akinlades victory

- The agreement is expected to last for three years from the March 7 date when it was signed

Adekunle Akinlade, governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Ogun, and Ladi Adebutu, who lost the governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, have reached an agreement on how to share power and split contracts in the new government.

Documents on the agreement between the key political figures were seen by The Cable.

READ ALSO: Pandemonium as APC factions clash in Lagos

Legit.ng notes that while a serving senator, Buruji Kashamu, secured the PDPs ticket against Adebutus wish, Akinlade, who has the backing of Governor Ibikunle Amosun, defected to the APM after losing the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to Dapo Abiodun.

With the last-minute alliance, Adebutu is expected to mobilise members of his faction of the PDP to aid Akinlades victory.

The agreement reportedly states: The parties hereby agree to work together and support to ensure the victory of Hon Akinlade at the March 09, 2019 governorship election in Ogun state.

That Senator Amosun and Hon Akinlade hereby agree and Ladi Adebutu concur to the following allocation of positions in government and immediate attention to the infrastructure projects as listed herewith:

Commissioners (2), senior special assistants (3), special advisers (2), special assistants (5), chairman  SUBEB or Local Government Service Commission, DG-lands or OPIC chairman.

The award of contracts for 100 kilometres of community roads per federal constituency per annum, Ilisan-Ago Iwoye road, Iperu/Ilisan cargo airport (reactivation), OKFTZ, 5 mini-water works including reticulations per federal constituency, Sagamu-Ogijo-Ikorodu dualisation, Ijebu Ode-Ejinrin dualisation and Oba Erinwole By-Pass Sagamu, was also included in the agreement.

Also included in the agreement for the Adebutu-led group are appointments in executive director and director positions in key federal government agencies including: MINT, FHA, FERMA, BOI, Federal Mortgage Bank, Ogun-Osun River Basin, NERFUND, PTDF, secretary of transportation-FCT, Nigeria Agricultural Bank, Nigeria Railway Corporation, pro-chancellor (any federal university), DUKE, NAPIEMS.

The document reads further: The understanding is made with copious note that Sen Ibikunle Amosun and Hon Akinlade have respectfully agreed to implement all the above stated clauses with each assuming shared responsibilities on those projects in Ogun Central and West districts respectfully.

The agreement is to be valid for a period of three years from the March 7 date when it was signed.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that on Wednesday, March 6, Ogun state erupted in frenzy as prominent members of the APC including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo led the campaign rally of Prince Dapo Abiodun, the party's governorship candidate.

The vice president arrived the state at 1:40pm and was ushered to the residence of Aremo Osoba, the Ogun APC leader, where the campaign was kick-started across Abeokuta.

Beside Osinbajo and Osoba, top APC members including the senator-elect for Lagos West, Solomon Adeola Yayi, were also present at the campaign.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service!

What has changed in Nigeria since the last election? - on Legit TV:

Source: Legit
Nigerians on social media have shown love to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who on Friday, March 8 turned 62. Osinbajo, who was born on March 8, 1957, is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and professor of law.

Congratulatory messages are beginning to pour in for the vice president after his senior special assistant on media and publicity, Laolu Akande, showered encomium on him as he celebrates his birthday.

Legit.ng notes that Akande tweeted: "VP Osinbajo is 62 today. Happy birthday and many happy returns of the day to a god-fearing, hard-working & illustrious man of the people. So thankful to wear his badge. As his days, so shall his strength, wisdom & favour be in Jesus mighty name. Amen."

READ ALSO: Katsina: 23 political parties endorse PDP governorship candidate Lado

See tweet below:

A tweeter user identified as Hassan Musa Abbah, said: "Happy birthday to you sir. May God gives you more strength and wisdom to pilot the affair of this country in the nearest future. Age gracefully sir @ProfOsinbajo."

Amanze Emenyonu said: "Happy birthday Sir,As you increase in age so do we expect truth and firmness from a man of your age."

Akin said: "Happy birthday to u sir, my prayers and best wishes 4u. Ride on in Gods grace upon ur life. God helping u along as much is still expected from u, don't let nigerians down. Happy birthday once more."

Boye said: "Happy birthday sir. You are a blessing to this nation. Continue to wax stronger and stronger."

Olukunle Elutade said: "A glorious birthday anniversary to PYO, a man of honor indeed. Your honor shall not diminish and will know no limitations especially in this new year of yours."

Adenekan Samson said: Birthdays are a new start, a fresh beginning and a time to pursue new endeavors with new goals. Move forward with confidence and courage. You are a very special person. May today and all of your days be amazing!

Bolaji said: "Congratulations sir, God Almighty will bless your new age. Celebrate today as we are going to the NextLevel. Cheers and do have a wonderful celebration!"

Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Ogun state was on Wednesday, March 6, erupted in frenzy as prominent members of the All Progressive Congress (APC) including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo attended the campaign rally of Prince Dapo Abiodun, the party's governorship candidate.

The vice president arrived the state at 1:40pm and was ushered to the residence of Aremo Osoba, the Ogun APC leader, where the campaign was kick-started across Abeokuta.

Besides Osinbajo and Osoba, top APC members including the senator-elect for Lagos West, Solomon Adeola Yayi, were also present at the campaign.

Addressing the people of the state, Osinbajo thanked the APC supporters for voting President Muhammadu Buhari in the February 23 presidential election.

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The vice president, who was overtly full of gratitude, also urged the people of the state to vote the APC candidates in the March 9 governorship and state House of Assembly election.

He also urged the people of the state to disregards the growing threat of violence.

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INEC announces Buhari as 2019 election winner; Nigerians react - on Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng
- Over 15,000 officers would be deployed by the Rivers police command for the forthcoming governorship election in the state

- The police command said that over 1,500 personnel from other security agencies will also be engaged

- The force also mentioned that there will be restriction of movement during the electoral exercise in the state

The Rivers state police command has said that it will engage the service of 15,544 officers for this Saturdays governorship and state Assembly elections.

Usman Balel, the state commissioner of police, disclosed the full details about the deployment in Port Harcourt on Thursday, March 7.

According to him, over 1,500 personnel from other security agencies would also be deployed., Leadership reports.

READ ALSO: PDP should recall past members for Buhari to investigate - Shehu Sani

He also said movement will be restricted during the electoral exercise from 12:00 midnight on Friday, March 8 to 6pm on Saturday, March 9.

This development is coming after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state called on the Nigerian Army to release from detention the commissioner for education, Tamunosisi Gogo-Jaja, and the coordinator of Arise Nigeria, Benjamin Diri

The PDP in the state said that Gogojaja and his family were taken away by military officers from 6 Division of the Nigerian Army who invaded his home on Wednesday, March 6.

The party made this known through a statement signed by Jerry Needam, the media aide to the partys chairman, saying it totally condemned the how the military has overtaken the responsibility of the police in a very unfortunate manner.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that the Nigerian Army handed over to the Nigeria Police Force 14 suspected political thugs allegedly involved in carrying out various electoral offenses in Rivers during the just-concluded presidential and National Assembly elections which held on February 23.

Colonel Aminu Iliyasu, spokesman of the Nigerian Army 6 Division, said nine of the suspects were arrested in Abonnema, Akuku Toru Local Government Area, while five others were apprehended in Iwofe Area of Port Harcourt.

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6 things that may happen on Election Day | Legit TV

Source: Legit Newspaper
- Sources have said that President Buhari would be actively involved in the appointment of principal officers for 9th National Assembly

- It was gathered that the president and the leaders of APC would decide on zoning system after the governorship and House of Assembly elections

- Out of the 109 senatorial seats, APC won 65 , PDP won 42 and Young Progressives Party got one

There are indications that President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress(APC) leaders would meet after the governorship poll to decide the zoning formula for sharing power at the National Assembly.

The Nation reports that President Buhari has, however, told his strategists that he wont be a bystander this time around.

Legit.ng gathered that he said he would be involved in the talks and intrigues on the election of principal officers of the National Assembly.

The APC said it would also play an active role in choosing the new leaders of the National Assembly.

READ ALSO: Just in: Appeal Court clears Kano PDP's governorship candidate Yusuf

According to the results of the National Assembly released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), APC won 65 out of the 109 senatorial seats, representing about 59.6%. PDP won 42 senatorial seats (40.3%) and Young Progressives Party (YPP) got one (1%).

As for the House of Representatives, APC won over 230 of the 360 seats, leaving PDP with over 100 slots.

It was gathered that the horse-trading has started among the senators-elect and representatives-elect.

Leading the agitation for principal offices in the Senate are the senators-elect from the northeast, north central, south-south, and southwest.

According to report, some of those aspiring for Senate president include: Senate leader, Ahmed Lawan; former Senate leader, Ali Ndume; former Gombe state governor and outgoing chairman committee on appropriation, Danjuma Goje; the Parliamentary Support Group (PSG) chairman and ex-governor, Adamu Abdullahi; and Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.

Some of the seven ranking senators from the southwest are already jostling for either deputy Senate president or Senate leader or deputy Senate leader.

It was learnt that the speaker of House of Representatives may come from the southwest, with the outgoing majority leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, as a leading candidate. He would have a repeat match against speaker Yakubu Dogara of the Peoples Democratic Party.

READ ALSO: Afenifere pushes for Yoruba presidency in 2023

The APC has not decided on whether or not to retain its pre-2015 poll power sharing formula.

Some party leaders are said to be pushing for a review of the zoning system since the president has promised an all-inclusive government.

We are actually waiting for the last strands of the general elections before we work out a formula which will guide the election of principal officers in the National Assembly. We wont allow hijackers under any guise.

I think the ongoing agitation is based on the 2015 power rotation system in the party, which was altered by some rebellious members who later conspired with the PDP to produce Bukola Saraki as Senate president and Dogara as speaker.

Some of our leaders are pushing for the undiluted implementation of the 2015 power formula, but others are insisting that we must tinker with the zoning system and align it with the sharing formula in the executive arm in order to give a sense of belonging to all the six geopolitical zones.

In fact, some leaders want the allegation of nepotism against the APC administration addressed," a source was quoted to have said.

Asked of the position of the president on the 9th National Assembly leadership, a presidency source said: He has told his strategists that I wont be a bystander this time around. But he did not say his mindset or those he has favoured."

When contacted, the national publicity secretary of APC, Lanre Issa-Onilu, said: There is no discussion now on the choice of principal officers until after the governorship and state House of Assembly elections.

We will take stock after the poll because we need to know what our number is in the two chambers because there are still some results hanging.

I can, however, assure you that the party is going to play an active role this time around. We will ensure the emergence of principal officers who will put the nation first and assist the Executive to implement APC manifestoes.

Our party wants National Assembly leaders who will work hard and assist the president to execute far-reaching programmes.

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APC will mandate its members to cooperate with members of the opposition in the National Assembly to see that Nigerians get the best."

Responding to a question, Onilu said: We will not tolerate anti-party activities by newly elected senators and members of the House of Representatives and we have already demonstrated this. If a serving governor can be suspended by APC, then, it should be clear to all that we wont condone indiscipline.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the leadership of the APC in the south-south zone expressed its interest to produce the next Senate president in the incoming National Assembly.

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2019 Election: Why did Nigerian youths ignore Sowore, Durotoye, Moghalu? | - on Legit TV

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The main headlines in mainstream newspapers today, Friday, March 8 are all focused in issues relating to the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections slated for Saturday, March 9.

Leading the review, The Nation reports that in preparation for Saturdays crucial elections, various parties were consolidating their alliances on Thursday, March 7.

Last-minute defections and judicial interventions were recorded in several states just before campaigns ended on Thursday night.

In Ogun state, former governor and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Gbenga Daniel, endorsed Dapo Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Though Daniel did not defect to the ruling party, he urged his supporters to vote for Abiodun in the governorship election.

In Oyo, the chances of the APC governorship candidate, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, received a major boost with his adoption by 13 political parties under the aegis of the Forum of Political Parties.

In Lagos, the minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, urged the electorate to cast their votes for the APCs governorship candidate, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who reiterated his promise of a people-oriented administration.

The publication reports about many other such political developments in different states.

Front page of The Nation, Friday, March 8

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: 70 parties reject APCs call for removal of Enugu REC

Moving on, Punch reports that ahead of the March 9 elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it will not issue Certificates of Return to candidates in places where its officials are held hostage or forced to declare winners under duress.

The commissions chairman, Prof Mahmood akubu, stated this at a meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security which held at the commissions Conference Room in Abuja on Thursday.

INEC also threatened to record zero votes and cancel the results of polling units where its personnel deliberately failed to deploy the Smart Card Readers.

Yakubu said in part: The commission will not tolerate the act of holding our officials hostage and forcing them to declare winners under duress. Where such occurs, the commission will not reward bad behaviour by issuing them Certificates of Return.

We have once again reconfigured the Smart Card Readers for the elections on Saturday. The use of the card readers is mandatory and there will be no exemption to their deployment for accreditation of voters.

Front page of Punch, Friday, March 8

Source: UGC

Still on issues relating to INECs conduct of the March 9 elections, The Guardian reports that there is anxiety across the country about the use of the Smart Card Readers.

The publication notes that one of the allegations raised to discredit the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections was that while the use of the card readers was strictly enforced in the southern part of the country, to the effect that those not accredited by the machines were not allowed to vote, the rule was relaxed in the northern states, leading to a higher number of votes cast to determine the winners.

There are concerns over the functionality of the card readers at the critical time so that eligible and registered voters will not be disenfranchised, even though INEC has insisted that no election will hold without the devices.

To this effect, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, on Thursday, called for an effective and uncompromised use of the device.

Front page of The Guardian, Friday, March 8

Source: UGC

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Rounding things off, ThisDay reports that the Nigerian Air Force has deployed fighter planes and attack helicopters in some potential flashpoints across the country, ahead of Saturdays elections.

The air wing of the Nigerian military also said it has concluded airlifting of electoral materials to 31 locations in the country for onward distribution to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) locations and polling stations.

The NAF spokesman, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, in a chat with the publication, said attack helicopters, fighter planes and intelligence gathering platforms have been put on standby for potentially violence-prone areas.

He said: We have other aircraft, the ISR platforms, attack platforms, and helicopters; they have been deployed in different locations across the country.

Depending on where they are, they provide surveillance, reconnaissance in a show of force. They give feedback to Operations or Situation Room.

Front page of ThisDay, Friday, March 8

Source: UGC

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What has changed in Nigeria since the last election? - on Legit TV:

Source: Legit
- Lai Mohammed has accused the PDP of threatening Kwara voters

- According to the minister of information, the PDP has been creating panic to stop voters

- Mohammed assured that security operatives have been deployed to sustain peace

The minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has implored Kwara electorate to ignore the threat by the opposition to attack them during the Saturdays governorship and state assembly elections.

The minister stated this on Thursday, March 7, in Ilorin at the final rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to canvass vote for its governorship candidate, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and other candidates.

Mohammed who is APC leader in the state, said opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), having suffered defeat in the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections was deliberately creating panic to prevent voters from coming out.

READ ALSO: PDP should recall past members for Buhari to investigate - Shehu Sani

He said the president had ordered the security agencies to deploy their men to cover the elections and protect all voters from any form of intimidation and harassment.

There has been a lot of panic being deliberately created by the opposition having seeing the handwriting on the wall in the last elections. They want to intimidate people and prevent them from coming out to vote.

"Please do not be intimidated by anyone. Nobody can tell you not to come out to vote. Please come out en mass to vote for APC on Saturday.

The president has given the directive to all security agents that anyone who dares to disrupt Saturdays election action will have himself to blame.

After voting ensure that you wait to protect your votes until counting and accompany them to the collation centres. We will get our total independence from our oppressors on Saturday, he said.

Mohammed said that the last election was the part one of O to Ge (Enough is Enough) and the part two is coming up on Saturday.

He said the people should use their votes to completely exit the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his lieutenants from Kwara. The minister said that the people had been deceived for so long and they should use their vote on Saturday to get their final liberation.

Recall that Lai Mohammed said that the APC would win the Saturday, March 9, governorship and state assembly elections in Kwara state with higher margin than the presidential and National Assembly polls.

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Legit.ng reports that the minister, who is the leader of APC in the state, said this on Monday, March 4, after a meeting with the party leaders from the 16 local government areas in the state.

He said the meeting reviewed the past elections and strategised on how to garner more votes in the Saturdays governorship and state assembly polls.

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2019 Election: Nigerians react to Saraki's loss as INEC releases more results| - on Legit T

Source: Legit.ng
- Instead of the police helicopter that was used in the last election, a military jet will be deployed to Kwara state for the governorship and state House of Assembly elections

- According to Kwara police commissioner, the jet will do the job of surveillance better than the helicopter

- Residents have been advised not to panic, but to come out to participate in the electoral process

Kayode Egbetokun, Kwara police commissioner, has declared that Nigerian Army will deploy a jet to the state for the governorship and state House of Assembly elections.

According to Sahara Reporters, Egbetokun said the decision was taken to ensure better performance in the area of surveillance. He urged the residents not to panic, but to come out to participate in the electoral process.

He said: A military jet will be used for surveillance, instead of the police helicopter that was used in the last election. But residents should not panic when they see it, because it is just to ensure their safety. They should come out en masse and exercise their civic rights.

READ ALSO: Supreme Court upholds EFCC's seizure of Patience Jonathans $8.4m

The jet is to support our efforts at ensuring the safety of everybody. The military jet will do the job of surveillance better than the helicopter and we should feel comfortable with better equipment in use."

Air Commodore A. Adamu, the head of the Air Force Command in Kwara state, said the use of the military jet was because the helicopter used earlier had been deployed to combat operations in the fight against insurgency in the northeast.

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Adamu added that the use of the jet is faster, more precise and will aid response time to security challenges on the field.

Meanwhile, the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has implored Kwara electorate to ignore the threat by the opposition to attack them during the Saturdays governorship and state assembly elections.

Legit.ng reported that the minister stated this on Thursday, March 7, in Ilorin at the final rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to canvass vote for its governorship candidate, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and other candidates.

Mohammed who is APC leader in the state, said opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), having suffered defeat in the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections was deliberately creating panic to prevent voters from coming out.

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Nigerians raise money for Airport worker who returned millions after Legit.ng's report | Legit TV:

Source: Legit.ng
Nigeria as a nation is not one without its flaws especially in the area of patriarchy. It is a society where the girl child education still remains a fundamental issue, it is a society where violence against women is on the rise and a society where women are continuously denied their fundamental rights. Despite all of this, history has shown that women destined for greatness cannot be stopped, no matter the blows they are dealt.

With all of these factors determining how far a woman is allowed to go, there are many Nigerian women out there who have proven that dreams; no matter how little, are valid and achievable. As the world celebrates International Women's Day, Legit.ng has taken out time to celebrate some of these women.

From actors, media moguls, photographers to athletes, activists, pilots and engineers, Nigerian women stay steady breaking boundaries and remain unapologetic about it. From carving a niche for themselves in male dominated industries to becoming pioneers in their various works of life, there is no stopping the Nigerian woman.

READ ALSO: Personal letter from the Editor-in-Chief of Legit.ng (former NAIJ.com)

Here are six Nigerian women who have made a name for themselves and remain powerful inspirations to many other women all over the world:

1. Genevieve Nnaji

The prolific Nollywood actress, who got into the movie industry in the year 1998, is a perfect definition of the word unstoppable. From being a screen goddess, Genevieve built herself into a powerful force to reckon with in the Nigerian movie story.

She went from being a mere pretty-faced actor to directing, producing and screenwriting her own works. Her directional debut movie, Lionheart, put Nigeria on the global map after it was purchased by the largest online streaming service, Netflix.

Amazing!

2. TY Bello

At a time when women were relegated to the background and restricted to certain jobs, this amazing woman in the name of Toyin Sokefun-Bello popularly known as TY Bello proved to many that the word impossible only exists in the minds of those who harbor doubt.

Considered one of the pioneer female photographers in Nigeria, TY Bello has become a household name in Nigeria as she has used her talents to change lives as seen in the case of the popular bread seller, Olajumoke. She also organizes an annual photography exhibition to raise funds for orphans in Nigeria.

She was the official photographer for then-president, Goodluck Jonathan. With the likes of TY Bello in the world, several female photography lovers can pursue their dreams without fear.

3. Mo Abudu

Considered one of Nigeria's most shrewd businesswoman in the media industry, it came as no surprise when Mo Abudu was described as Africa's Most Successful Woman. Her reputation as a successful media proprietor is one that still marvels and inspires a lot of women.

With a network (Ebony TV) airing in more than 49 countries across Africa, Mo Abudu has not only grown her business but has empowered a lot of women who have in turn made a name for themselves. She was listed as one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Global TV by The Hollywood Reporter in 2013 and received the Entrepreneur of the Year award by Women Werk in New York in 2014.

READ ALSO: Power couples who are still adored by the public decades after

4. Linda Ikeji

From running a gossip blog to becoming a media mogul, the success story of Linda Ikeji is indeed a poster child for the word, determination.

Linda Ikeji who turned blogging into a commercial business, raking in millions of naira, has become a household name in the Nigerian media. From running a gossip blog to starting an online TV with thousands of subscribers from across the world, Linda Ikeji has proven that there is no stopping a determined woman.

Not only has she carved her niche, she has also empowered and paved the way for millions of young girls in the country to pursue their dreams and do great things.

5. Wendy Okolo

While America, especially the black community beam with pride as one of their own, Katherine Johnson, was recognized for the crucial role she played as a mathematician in the success of the first and subsequent US manned spaceflights, in Nigeria; we have Wendy Okolo.

Okolo has become the first black woman to get a doctorate degree in aerospace engineering. The 30-year-old lady who was born to a family of six has taken off her career at the national aeronautics and space administration (NASA), a United States agency responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Read more:

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6. Adeola Ogunmola Sowemimo

Although not yet a household name, Adeola has certainly made a lot of Nigerian women proud. Not only has she successfully made a name for herself in what is considered a male dominated industry especially in Nigeria, she has also broken a barrier and paved the way for many Nigerian women in the aviation industry.

Adeola has become the first female Nigerian pilot with Qatar Airways. She not only proved the importance of believing in oneself but also the need to keep pushing no matter how difficult it may appear.

For the many women who have been inspired, for the many young girls looking up to these women and for the impact they've had on the lives of millions of women in Nigeria, Legit.ng celebrates these women.

Happy International Women's day!

Woman who returned millions found at the airport speaks | Legit TV

Source: Legit
Social media has been a platform where many take to when they want to express their minds. For some celebrities, it is also an avenue where they take to in a bid to call out erring fellows.

Legit.ng had previously gathered the report of Gambian-born actress Princess Shyngle, who had taken to social media in excitement as she announced that her Nigerian boyfriend had gifted her a G-wagon, in commemoration of the Valentines Day celebration.

In a new development, however, it appears things are currently not on the rosy side between the two lovers. The actress recently took to her Instagram page to put her lover on a full and unreserved blast.

She shared a video in which she filmed herself addressing her lover, who she had seriously berated for overstepping and requesting way too many wifely duties from her, simply because he had gotten her an expensive car.

READ ALSO: 12 Times Meghan Markle Went Against Royal Rules

According to Shyngle, the man had asked her to come over to his house and cook for him and his friends. She had mimicked the way he made the request for her to come over and make continental and Nigerian dishes.

In the caption that accompanied her video, she charged ladies to desist from slaving away for their male counterpart as it does not guarantee marriage.

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She went on to add that ladies should prove to men that they can bring more than domestic chores to the table. According to her, every lady can do house chores, but not all ladies know how to make money.

See her post below:

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously gathered the report of popular Nigeria radio star Toke Makinwa, who had taken to social media with an advice for people trying to deal with ex-lovers from a broken relationship. According to her, success should not be the revenge such people should seek, instead, they should try to move on and achieve true growth.

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Can You Take a Blood Oath With Your Partner? | Legit TV

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- Sunday Ameh, Godswill Akpabios lawyer, has informed an FCT high court that his client has resolved to withdraw from a case challenging his Senate re-election loss

- The lawyer representing the INEC, Tanimu Inuwa, said the court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain the application since it is an election matter

- INEC earlier declared Chris Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom, winner of the election, against the incumbent senator, Akpabio

Former Senate minority leader, Godswill Akpabio, has withdrawn a case that he filed at the Federal Capital Territory high court, Abuja challenging his failure in the last National Assembly election that was held on Saturday, February 23.

Premium Times reports that Akpabios lawyer, Sunday Ameh, made the announcement of the withdrawal in court in Abuja on Friday, March 8, without giving any reasons for the decision.

Akpabio filed the case despite Nigerias legal provision that senatorial election disputes should be decided in the first instance by an election tribunal. Lawyers said conventional courts lack jurisdiction to hear such cases.

READ ALSO: Supreme Court upholds EFCC's seizure of Patience Jonathans $8.4m

It was learnt that the judge, Valentine Ashi, denied restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission from issuing certificate of return to the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Chris Ekpenyong.

Ashi said the media publications suggesting that he gave such an order were overstretching the facts of the matter treated by his court.

According to him, the nature of the application brought by Akpabio should have been clarified by the media or the lawyers who provided information to the media. He said the facts of the matter were twisted.

Akpabios lawyer informed the court that his client had resolved to withdraw the application for judicial review.

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The lawyer representing the INEC, Tanimu Inuwa, told journalists that the court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain the application since it is an election matter.

Inuwa explained: When a person requests for the enforcement of his right through an order of mandamus, what it means is that once that request is granted, parties are to stay proceedings until that right has been enforced. Thats what it means."

INEC had declared Chris Ekpenyong, a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom, winner of the election, against the incumbent senator, Godswill Akpabio.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the winner of the Ikot Ekpene senatorial district election, Chris Ekpenyong, said people of the district rejected Akpabio as the senator representing them because he has not represented them well for the past three and half years.

Ekpenyong who defeated Senator Akpabio in the Ikot Ekpene senatorial district election attributed his victory to the will of the people of the senatorial district.

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INEC announces Buhari as 2019 election winner, Nigerians react | Legit TV:

Source: Legit.ng
- INEC has postponed the State House of Assembly election in Nasarawa/Binyeri state constituency of Adamawa

- Election in the constituency was postponed after a candidate of the APC, Adamu Kwanate, died

- INEC said said that the postponement would allow APC and people of the constituency to find a replacement

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed the House of Assembly Election for the Nasarawa/Binyeri State Constituency of Adamawa.

Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mr Kashim Gaidam, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Yola.

Gaidam said that the postponement became necessary following the death of a member of the assembly, who was candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election.

NAN reports that the APC candidate, Mr Adamu Kwanate, until his death on Wednesday, was the member representing the constituency.

READ ALSO: 41 candidates vie for Ogun governorship seat - INEC

It was gathered that late Kwanate collapsed while campaigning for his re-election, and died later in an hospital in Yola.

Gaidam said that the postponement would allow APC and people of the constituency to find a replacement.

We received a letter from the party and the House of Assembly regarding the death of the candidate and we have replied, giving them one week to find a replacement.

We will communicate their replacement to the headquarters to fix a new date for the election, Gaidam said.

Meanwhile, the police command in Adamawa has announced a temporary restriction of vehicular movement across the state for Saturdays elections.

A statement by the commands spokesman, SP Othman Abubakar, warned that only vehicles on election duties and essential services would be allowed to move around.

There will be a temporary restriction of vehicular, motorcycle and tricycles (Keke-NAPEP) movement in all the 21 local government areas of the state, from 0600 hrs to 1800 hrs.

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Members of the public are hereby warned to adhere strictly to this directive, as the police will not hesitate to clamp down on anyone who fails to comply, Abubakar said.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that the commissioner of police in Jigawa, Bala Senchi, said the restriction of movements during elections starts from the midnight of Friday, March 8, except those on essential duties.

Senchi warned on Friday, March 8, that the police and other security agencies would not hesitate to clamp down on any person or persons trying to violate the order.

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6 things that may happen on Election Day | Legit TV

Source: Legit
- A massive defection has hit Borno PDP 24hours to election

- The party's secretary, Baba Ahmed Mustapha, was one of the defectors

- 12 party chairmen, women leader, youth leaders also defected to APC

Defection has hit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Borno state less than 24 hours to election as the party's secretary, Baba Ahmed Mustapha, and 12 local government party chairmen decamped to the main opposition, All Progressives Congress.

Several youths leaders and a women leader also defected from the party.

Baba Ahmed Mustapha, the party secretary, said he defected from the party because of injustice and indiscipline that characterised the state chapter of the PDP.

READ ALSO: INEC postpones assembly election in Adamawa as APC candidate dies

He said: "I defected to APC because of injustice and deciet in Borno PDP. 24hours to the election, you cannot feel the presence of PDP with no campaign even days before the election.

"PDP has a flag bearer, but he has since remained mute without campaingning, which means a deciet on the people. It really means that the candidate is deceiving people.

"The result of my defection with others will be reflected in the ballot box tomorrow. I call on other members of PDP to come and join progressives to move Borno to the next level."

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that no fewer than 41 political parties had fielded candidates to contest the forthcoming governorship election in Borno state.

Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim, the state INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) disclosed this in an interview on Wednesday, March 6, in Maiduguri.

He said the candidates were contesting the election under 41 parties, including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

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INEC announces Buhari as 2019 election winner, Nigerians react | Legit TV

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- Depot worker who killed his wife has been sentenced to death by hanging

- The father of two had reportedly been found guilty for killing his wife

- Lekan Shonde has allegedly killed his wife after he accused her of sleeping with another man

Legit.ng had years ago reported that a Nigerian man identified as Lekan Shonde had been charged with mother after his wife's body was found by his housekeeper. It was reported that the man had beaten his wife to death.

A Lagos high court has sentenced Shonde who was a depot worker to death by hanging for murdering his wife, Ronke. The woman had been a banker before she died.

According to reports, the depot worker had beaten his 37-year-old wife to death around 8:30pm on Friday, May 5, 2016, at their place of residence. The couple had lived with their two kids at Tiemo Close in Egbeda area of Lagos state.

Court sentences Nigerian man Lekan Shonde to death for killing his wife Twitter source: DnL Legal and Style/ PHENOMENON

Source: Twitter

READ ALSO: Man acquires brand new 2019 Rolls Royce, visits alleged relative in Agege, Lagos (video)

Justice Josephine Oyefeso reportedly found 53-year-old Shonde guilty of the crime this Friday, March 8.

It was gathered that the husband had beaten his wife to death after accusing her of sleeping with the general manager of a publishing company.

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Nigerian Twitter users have taken to their accounts to share the couple's story. Many have expressed that justice was served on a day that women are being celebrated.

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READ ALSO: 20 Funny Wedding Memes That Describe Almost Any Wedding

Five months ago, Legit.ng had reported that the victim had died due to severe brain injury. It had been gathered that a pathologist with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital had revealed that the injury could not have been self-inflicted.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

According to the pathologist, DR S.S. Soyele, who performed an autopsy on the deceased, the brain had been heavy, swollen and filled with water.

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My daughter's husband used her for money rituals' - Nigeria Street Gist - on Legit TV

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- Role of the Armed Forces in the ongoing elections is to support the police, The Defence headquarters says

- Acting Director Defence Information (DDI), who disclosed this said the militarys role in election is contained in Section 271 of the 1999 constitution

- The section stipulates that the military can be deployed to assist the police in maintenance of law and order during elections

The Defence headquarters reiterated on Friday, March 8, that the role of the Armed Forces in the ongoing elections is to support the police in providing security for voters to exercise their franchise.

The governorship and House of Assemblies elections, as well as the Area Councils elections in the Federal Capital Territory are scheduled to hold on Saturday.

READ ALSO: Atiku cant prove his case at tribunal - Bolori

Briefing newsmen in Abuja ahead of the elections, Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, the Acting Director Defence Information (DDI), said the militarys role in election is contained in Section 271 of the 1999 constitution.

The section stipulates that the military can be deployed to assist the police in maintenance of law and order during elections.

He said: In carrying out this onerous task, the Armed Forces of Nigeria is guided by the code of conduct and rules of engagement that have been provided for military personnel deployed to maintain security during elections.

We assure Nigerians that in tandem with our mandate, we will continue to compliment and support the efforts of the Nigerian Police in ensuring that all abiding citizens of this nation and members of the international community go about their legitimate duties and obligations in an environment devoid of violence and insecurity.

Nwachukwu restated the Chief of Defence Staffs (CDS), Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin directive that personnel had the right to vote during the ongoing elections, but must approach polling units in mufti.

Additionally, any military personnel who is not on election security duty found in military uniform on election day will be arrested and sanctioned in accordance with military justice system, the CDS had said.

Nwachukwu reminded commanders to ensure that sanity prevailed in their areas of responsibility.

He said their assigned tasks apart from ensuring security include the arrest of personnel in uniform but not on election duty, adding that civilians caught in uniform would be treated as impostor.

On soldiers killed by suspected political thugs in some states during the Feb. 23 elections, the DDI said the military would not carry out reprisal attacks.

In spite of the unfortunate attacks on our personnel by political hoodlums during the last elections, the armed forces of Nigeria, as a professional and reputable institution wishes to reassure the public that no reprisal attack will be carried out by military personnel, unit or formation.

He commiserated with the families of the deceased soldiers, saying that no one, including military, civilians, electoral officers or observers deserved to die for elections.

The DDI appealed to politicians and their supporters to embrace peace and conduct themselves within the ambit of the law.

The Defence Headquarters solicits the support and cooperation of Nigerians and the media toward the sustenance of peace and security before, during and after the elections, he said.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that troops of the 4 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Benin, on Friday, March 8, foiled a suspected robbery attempt on the Benin-Lagos expressway.

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Capt Mohammed Maidawa, the assistant director, army public relations, who confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin, said that the troops on operation safe conduct, were on a routine patrol when they received a distress call on the development.

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Robbers Return Firearms to Nigerian Police (Crime News in Nigeria) | Legit TV.

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One person was injured in one of three crashes during Friday mornings commute on Route 22 West in Northampton County.

Two crashes were reported on Route 22 West at the Route 33 interchange in Bethlehem Township, the first at 6:47 a.m. and the second at 7:19 a.m.

The second crash involved four vehicles, and one person was taken to St. Lukes University Hospital in Fountain Hill for treatment, Trooper Nathan Branosky said.

Pennsylvania State Police are investigating the crash, which cleared at about 8:15 a.m.

A third crash was reported at about 6 a.m. at Route 22 West and Route 191, and a work truck could be seen on the side of the road. That crash was cleared by about 8 a.m., but traffic continued to be slow-moving.

Multi vehicle crash on US 22 westbound between PA 33 North and PA 33 South/To I-78. There is a lane restriction.  511PA Allentown (@511PAAllentown) March 8, 2019

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Police in the Lehigh Valley are warning residents to be on the alert for two types of scams circulating.

Easton police Friday said theyre investigating several reports of one or two people posing as employees of the Met-Ed utility company.

They've been knocking on doors on College Hill and South Side since Tuesday, asking "suspicious-type questions," police said in a news release.

"Easton police have been in contact with Met-Ed and verified that they are not employees," police Lt. Matthew Gerould says in the release.

Investigators have gotten varying descriptions of the perpetrators.

Police are trying to identify them and determine their motive, and ask anyone with information to call detectives at 610-250-6635. Police also ask anyone who observes similar behavior to report it immediately by dialing 911.

Met-Ed, a FirstEnergy Corp. company, says on its Scams and Fraud page: Do not allow anyone claiming to be a utility employee into your home unless you scheduled an appointment and the employee has provided proper identification.

 Our employees will NEVER contact you to request sensitive info, such as a Social Security or bank account number. Keep these safety tips in mind to help ensure the safety of your family, property and personal info  https://t.co/xvePcVuwUO #StopScams pic.twitter.com/Xu9NUfjTe8  Met-Ed (@Met_Ed) March 1, 2019

The alert comes after Bethlehem police put out a warning last week about a phone scam, in which the caller claims to be a Bethlehem police officer advising you that you have a warrant.

"You will receive a phone call from an individual who will identify himself or herself by name and badge number ('Officer Victor, badge No. 267')," police Chief Mark DiLuzio wrote in a news release. "The name of the officer and badge number can be whatever they make up."

This scam has involved "Caller ID Spoofing," according to police. That's when a telemarketer or scammer manipulates caller ID information to appear as if they're coming from the same local area code as the recipient.

"If you have a digital phone, the phone number this call is coming from will come up as 610-865-7187," DiLuzio wrote. "Phone number 610-865-7187 is the actual non-emergency phone number for the Bethlehem Police Department. Some people will thus think this is a real call from Bethlehem police and follow the fake officers instructions."

The police impersonator has been telling people to call 844-242-0008 to pay the fine with a credit card or gift cards, according to police.

"These individuals sound official," DiLuzio says. "Because they spoof in a real police number and have you call different other numbers and speak with other people who indicate the same narrative, people will tend to believe them. In the past, real names of Bethlehem officers have been used, even my name.

"The narrative they give you sounds very real. DO NOT BE SCAMMED. This is NOT the Bethlehem Police Department calling you and they are NOT real officers. THIS IS A SCAM and these individuals are CRIMINALS looking for your credit card numbers and personal information. DO NOT GIVE THEM ANYTHING.

"The Bethlehem Police Department does not call you and ask for credit card information and/or gift cards to pay off warrants."

Bethlehem police ask anyone who receives one of these calls to take down all the information, then call police at 610-865-7187 to speak to the desk sergeant on duty.

Remember, if in doubt, call your local police and verify, DiLuzio says.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A 77-year-old Lehigh County woman was charged with homicide by vehicle in a Route 309 crash last year that claimed the lives of three people, including a married New Jersey couple.

Joyce Klahr, of the 700 block of East Rock Road in Salisbury Township, was arraigned Friday morning and released on $50,000 unsecured bail. A message left for Klahrs attorney, Brian Collins, was not immediately returned.

Prosecutors said the crash occurred a little before 9 a.m. on Aug. 12 on Route 309 North, at the intersection with West Saucon Valley Road/Center Valley Parkway.

Eldon Priestley, 74, and his wife, Fern Priestley, 77, of Morristown, New Jersey, were found trapped in a severely damaged 2014 Lexus in the northbound lanes of Route 309.

Timothy Hank, 51, of Pennsburg, Montgomery County, was found in a 2008 Ford Escape, on its side also in the northbound lanes of Route 309.

Klahr was driving a 2018 Jeep, which ended up on its side southeast of the intersection. Klahr was outside of her vehicle, alert and talking, when officers arrived.

Fern Priestley and Hank were each pronounced dead at the scene.

Eldon Priestley had severe injuries, and was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township. He died on Dec. 6 at the age of 75 from complications of traumatic brain injuries suffered in the crash, while he was a patient at a nursing facility in Montgomery County.

Upper Saucon Township police said Klahr ran a steady red traffic light, hitting the side of the Priestleys vehicle, which had the right of way.

Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin said Klahr running the red light set in motion a chain of events that killed three people.

Klahr was arraigned Friday morning on 15 charges, including the three felony homicide by vehicle counts as well as involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and summary traffic violations.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Authorities charged a Monroe County man with homicide after he walked into an Allentown hospital early Wednesday and admitted he was involved in killing a man in Lancaster County, according to a news release.

Matthew VanZandt, of Bartonsville, was saturated in blood when he arrived at St. Lukes Hospital, the Lancaster County District Attorneys Office says. VanZandt had gone there for treatment of an injured hand, WFMZ-TV69 reports.

While at the hospital, the 30-year-old provided information about the death of 31-year-old Ian Shannon, specifically that he was involved in Shannons death, the district attorneys office says in the news release.

VanZandt referred to Shannon as his boyfriend and had been staying at the Dickens Drive home, according to the prosecutor's office.

WGAL-NBC8 in Lancaster quotes investigators as saying VanZandt allegedly stabbed Shannon with a pocketknife, and that VanZandt claimed Shannon had been mocking him about the pair breaking up.

Manheim Township police responding about 3:15 a.m. Wednesday to Shannons house on Dickens Drive found him dead in a bedroom, having been stabbed and slashed numerous times, the DAs office says in the news release. Police recovered the knife believed to have been used in the killing.

Allentown police arrested VanZandt, and he was arraigned Wednesday in Lehigh County on a single count of homicide. He was being held without the possibility of bail and scheduled to be returned this week to Lancaster County.

Court records did not immediately list an attorney for VanZandt.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
By Jonathan M. Marks

Pennsylvania voters can expect some important improvements at their polling place in the next year.

More secure voting systems that produce a paper record are on the way. The paper record allows voters to verify their choices before casting the ballot. The systems also will make it easier for people with disabilities to vote without assistance and for officials to conduct better post-election audits.

At least 25 percent of Pennsylvanias 67 counties have already selected new voting systems that meet Pennsylvanias enhanced standards for security, accessibility and auditing. Other counties are in various stages of deciding which certified system will best serve the needs of their voters.

Susquehanna County led the way and installed new voting machines in time for last Novembers election. Pennsylvanias most populous county, Philadelphia, selected its new system last month with plans to implement it in time for this Novembers election.

We know we have little choice but to modernize our election infrastructure.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Senate and House intelligence committees are urging states to upgrade their voting systems. There is nearly universal agreement among national security and election experts that all voters should be casting their ballots on new paper-based systems.

Most other states have already made the vital switch to paper ballots.

Pennsylvania is one of only 13 states  and the only swing state  still using direct recording electronic voting machines with outdated hardware and software that manufacturers will soon stop supporting. Most if not all of these 13 states are in the process of or planning to convert to new paper ballot-based systems by 2020.

Election modernization in as large and diverse a state as Pennsylvania is no small feat. Thats why the Department of State planned ahead in telling counties they must select new voting systems that meet current standards. We gave counties two years to comply. Counties have until the end of 2019 to select their new voting systems and until the primary election in April 2020 to implement them.

Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed $75 million in state funding  $15 million a year for five years  to assist counties. The proposal supports counties in meeting a critically important expense while being fiscally prudent with state taxpayer dollars. The governor is seeking state funding to cover at least half of the cost to counties, on top of the $14.15 million in federal and state funding he earmarked last year for purchase of new voting equipment.

The department has issued a statewide purchasing contract that counties can use to cut through red tape and negotiate the best deal with voting system vendors. The department continues to investigate other funding sources, including more federal aid, low-interest financing, lease agreements and other means.

We believe that protecting voting, our most fundamental right, is the responsibility of officials at every level of government. That is why we are committed to seeking financing for new voting systems with federal, state and local governments sharing the cost.

We will continue discussions with the General Assembly to determine the most equitable method for allocating funding for new voting systems to counties.

County officials have shown diligence and thoughtfulness in the selection process. They have consulted voters, viewed vendor demonstrations and researched financing options. The department held five regional vendor expos late last year where the public and election officials tried out the new systems.

Under the Pennsylvania Election Code, counties must choose a voting system that is certified by both the federal Election Assistance Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of State. Four new voting systems that meet our updated standards have achieved this dual certification; two more are undergoing certification.

Voters and candidates can be more confident in election results with the new systems, which offer the latest cybersecurity technology, allow voters to verify their choices before casting their ballot, and provide paper records for use in recounts and post-election audits.

Those counties that have been using paper ballots all along will benefit as well from the improved scanning technology and the increased security and accessibility of new paper-ballot systems.

Most importantly, by the 2020 election, Pennsylvanias electoral system will be less vulnerable to foreign or other outside interference. Citizens will be voting on the most secure and accessible equipment available.

Jonathan M. Marks is the Deputy Secretary for Elections and Commissions for the Pennsylvania Department of State.
Laois County Council has granted planning permission to a Canadian multinational to set up a plant in Portlaoise in what will be the first multi-national investment in Laois in some years.

Greenfield Global has been given the go-ahead light to construct a blending and packaging facility, an electrical sub-station building and other facilities to facilitate a new building in the Industrial Development Authority's Business Park on the town's Mountrath Road.

Several conditions have been attached to the permission granted this week on a project that has been kept under wraps up to now. Most of the conditions relate to the construction phase of the development.

One condition requires the company to pay nearly 130,000 to Laois County Council. This charge covers the cost of roads and other public infrastructure provided by the local authority.

The IDA gave its backing to the company to develop a site which the company's planning application says could employ up to 25 staff when operational.



The almost 4,000 square metre facility will be located on a 15,000 square metre site. The application says half of the facility will be used for manufacturing. The company wants to begin construction in 2019.

Headquartered in Toronto, Greenfield Global operates in 15 locations around the world. The company claims to manufacture and ship more than 1,600 products in 50 countries worldwide.

Greenfield Global says it produces the highest purity pharmaceutical and analytical grade ethanol.

Greenfield is reported to be the largest high-purity alcohol company in North America. Under the Pharmco brand, the company offers a wide range of speciality alcohols and bio-based chemicals to quality-driven and environmentally-conscious customers around the globe.

The company has manufacturing and processing facilities in Canada, the United States and Malaysia.
With over 200 years of Maryborough in his blood from both sides of his family, proud townie John Dunne has released a brand new book, A Book About Portlaoise.

The book was launched to a packed Dunamaise theatre on Thursday evening, March 7.

It was a night of nostalgia as a slideshow of pictures of vanished Portlaoise had the packed theatre audience drawing up memories of times past that had been long forgotten. There was a huge focus on businesses on Main Street and Market Square over the years.

A Book About Portlaoise is a snapshot in time of the social history in Portlaoise. In the book, John has explored the seemingly insignificant things, the lives of the ordinary people that have made and continue to make Portlaoise what it is.

He said the book was driven by three emotions curiosity, love and pure ignorance. It is a record of life now for generations to come and an appreciation of ordinary people.

Nowadays we are living in an age of rampant globalisation. From powerful corporations down to the dominance of mobile telephones right down to the way so many Irish people speak with idioms and accents that are not their own, I dont like that.

I think it is very very important that we support local endeavour and we cherish and record our way of speaking, our habits for future generations. The little insignificant things that are all part of what we are," John said.

I think you will find that the book is full of ordinary people. Ordinary people, I believe, are as worthy of historical mention as any saint, general, sporting hero or Taoiseach. In todays world, I find that ordinary people are too often treated as mere commodities sometimes even with contempt.

Take banks, for instance, doing their very best to eliminate any sort of personal contact, if you need to call revenue or any telecom company you better have a flask and sandwiches with you. No wonder, more and more people are feeling alienated, he said.

John explained how his father was a keen storyteller who loved to talk about the people of Portlaoise. As a child, he was never interested but he has grown into it.

"Its in my blood. On both sides of my family on the Dunnes and Lalors, we go back to Maryborough and its environs at least 200 years.

"Genes move in mysterious ways and there is a long, long, long local history behind everything I am and everything I do. Not just physical appearance but in my speech. As well as my mothers love of music I also inherited her lisp. But my demeanour, my gesture, my attitudes in the proverbial nutshell my way of interacting with the world, almost by a process of osmosis, my fathers love of talking about the town has been passed on to me.

Daddy had a phenomenal memory but in later years when he knew I was getting interested in this whole area, I sometimes wondered if he wasn't having me on. I remember on one occasion he swore to me that he remembered being baptised in Ratheniska church, it was of a Sunday and it was snowing.

Look at me now, I have turned into my father. Be careful gentlemen, the same thing will happen to you, he said.

John dedicated the launch night to the late Malcolm Smith.

I would like to dedicate this evening to the memory of Malcolm Smith, wherever you are tonight Malcolm I hope there is music and I hope that you are there in the thick of it and I hope that you would be happy with the few words that I have written about the Smith family, the towns foremost musical family, he said.

Award-winning broadcaster Ann Marie Kelly was on hand to help John launch the book. She said history is safe in Johns hands.

I love calling John a keeper because I feel that our social history is safe in Johns hands because he loves it, he absolutely loves it. He is eccentric about it, he sees the tiny little details that we choose to forget but when we remember years later we laugh because it is part of our culture, she said.

John thanked everyone who was involved in the book. He said it makes him proud that the research, writing, printing, publishing, launching, sales are all being done by townies.

The book is available in AllBooks, Portlaoise for 20 and all money raised will go to local St Vincent de Paul.
Laois County Council is still accepting Rebuilding Ireland home loan applications, but it is waiting on government guidance to approve further loans.

The scheme for first time buyers who have failed to get mortgage approval from banks, was launched nationwide a year ago. However it has already hit its three year target of 1,000 loans nationwide, and is understood to be on hold by the Department of Public Expenditure.

The scheme gives 90% mortgages worth up to 320,000 in the counties Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow, and 250,000 in the rest of the country (including Laois).

Single applicants income must be less than 50,000. Joint applicants combined income must be less than 75,000.

So far in Laois, 44 applications have been approved, 35 were turned down and another 44 are awaiting a decision from the council.

Laois County Council's housing officer Michael Rainey has confirmed to the Leinster Express that they are awaiting further advice, but are still taking applications from people.

"Laois County Council is still accepting Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan applications at this time. Since the scheme has commenced 44 Rebuilding Ireland Home Loans have been approved. We are currently awaiting guidance from the Dept. of Housing Planning and Local Government with regard to the issuing of further loan approvals," he said on Friday March 8.

Speaking at the February council meeting, Mr Rainey had explained why some were turned down.

We are approving more than we are declining. The normal reasons are there would be a credit issue in the past, or they cant pay back a loan, or they have lots of loans already. Those are the three main reasons why people fail. We have to make sure people have the capacity to pay back loans that we are responsible for giving out, he said.

Cllr Padraig Fleming said that applicants who move back into their parents homes to save for a deposit for a council home loan are being turned down, because they have no history of paying rent.

You can have a very big deposit, but if youre not renting, paying 600 a month it goes against you. I have people who didnt get approval because they are living at home, he said.

At the meeting, Cllr Mary Sweeney had tabled a motion asking for the latest figures for Laois.

She wanted applicants to be given help.

How can we assist people so that they are securing approval? I know your staff are doing everything they can. I hope we can improve on the record, she said.

People can re-apply when they are refused, Mr Rainey said.

They might not have been employed long enough, or maybe after they can show a longer period of sustainable savings, he said.

Applications are first sent to a central office in Dublin for a credit check, and then sent back to Laois County Council with a recommendation for acceptance or refusal, with the council free to make a final decision.

Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald suggests that people should be able to meet council staff before they apply.

They should nearly have a pre-planning meeting. The window between the lowest and the highest income threshold is very limited, she said.

Cllr Fleming said that the council does offer advice.

If people come and say they are looking for a loan, you can give them parameters, and they can go away for a year and clear their loans. The council is very sensitive to people and do offer advice. Ive had a few difficult cases lately and after four or five months, they did get better, he said.
The winner of this years Bollinger Best Dressed Lady award at the Punchestown Festival will partake in an elite mission involving James Bond and his favourite champagne.

The overall winner of the coveted style competition will attend an exclusive invitational screening of the highly anticipated 25th James Bond movie in Paris in April 2020. Bollinger is the champagne of choice for the worlds most famous spy.

In addition, the lucky lady and a friend will enjoy a money cant buy trip to the Bollinger Estate and Champagne Libraries, France. This trip includes an overnight stay in the beautiful historic town of Reims, the capital of the Champagne region, Michelin dining and luxury overnight stay in Paris, the City of Light. Of course, a private chauffeur, champagne lunch experience and a years supply of Bollinger Champagne are a given!

The Punchestown Festival, the social and sporting highlight of the Irish calendar takes place from Tuesday, April 30 to Saturday, May 4 at Punchestown Racecourse, Kildare.

The search for the Bollinger Best Dressed Lady will be held over the first four days of the Punchestown Festival when style scouts will be tasked with finding the most stylish ladies in attendance and selecting a number of finalists each day. The daily winner will then progress to the grand final on Ladies Day, held on Friday, May 3, 2019.

Bollingers philosophy is that Life Can Be Perfect, and the family-owned Champagne House stays true to form with a bespoke prize created especially for the winner of Irelands most prestigious fashion title. Bollinger is a great champagne of character whose elegance is reminiscent of the famous special agent and qualities our judges will be looking for in this years Punchestown winner.

The Punchestown Festival takes place from Tuesday April 30, to Saturday May 4 2019. The action-packed, fun-filled, style showcase attracts over 130,000 people to the Kildare venue with packages ranging from high-end hospitality to great value admission only tickets available at www.punchestown.com or by calling +353 (0)45 897704

Prices start from as little as 30pp with concessions for groups, seniors and students. The famous Punchestown hospitality package range is available from just 129 pp.

SEE ALSO: Round Towers GAA to bring TV's The Chaser to Kildare town
Federal laws require airlines to permit passengers with disabilities to travel with service and emotional support animals in the cabin. Unlike pets, service and support animals fly at no added fee. But last year the Department of Transportation indicated it was open to some additional restrictions, including limiting passengers to a single support animal or requiring documentation of vaccination or training.
Five Kildare schools took park in the STEM Goals Day which was held on Thursday, March 7,2019 and got to make their own web and tech creations as part of Engineers Week 2019

The schools taking part were Maynooth Post Primary, Maynooth Community College, Colaiste Chiarain, Leixlip, Confey College, Leixlip and Celbridge Community School.

The female 2nd level students were shown how to design and create their own app as part of a fresh initiative to inspire and encourage the next generation of young women to enter the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) area.

The one-day event provided a structured introduction to STEM to over 40 young women from County Kildare who were given an overview of the range of exciting career options available to them after studying STEM subjects. Participants were also able to present their own crafted websites and tech creations to a number of senior managers from Intel and compete for prizes up for grabs.

Using HTML and other app building tools, the young students were shown by experts from the award-winning social enterprise Stemettes how to harness coding, software, digital and tech skills to build their own apps and other tech creations and explore the limitless possibilities the exciting world of STEM has to offer.

Part of Engineers Week 2019, the unique Stemettes STEM Goals Day event ahead of International Womens Day, was hosted by Engineers Ireland and supported by Intel, who recently announced a strategic partnership to inspire and engage future generations of STEM talent in Ireland.

Caroline Spillane, Director General of Engineers Ireland, and the first woman to hold the role, said: There is growing interest in STEM amongst women, but as we saw from our Engineering 2019: A barometer of the profession in Ireland report earlier this week, men still greatly outnumber women at each stage of engineering higher education and apprenticeships. That said, the gender gap has narrowed over the past five years so it is incumbent on teachers, policymakers, parents and us all in industry, to play our part in building further awareness and interest in STEM, and particularly engineering, as a creative and diverse profession amongst young female students.
Straffan National School students picked up Best Communication award for their 'What is the immune system' project in the Intel Mini Scientist Grand Final, which took place on Monday, March 4, 2019.

The Intel Mini Scientist, which is now in its 12th year, gives primary school students from 4th, 5th and 6th class, the chance to explore science through project based learning and exhibitions.

At the grand final, which was held in the Aula Maxima at Maynooth University, the participants exhibited their projects for a panel of judges, which was made up from Intel employees who each had the difficult task of choosing the winning projects from the very creative variety. Each of the projects included visual displays, projects books and practical experiments based on a scientific area aligned with the national primary science curriculum.

The first phase of the program involves students participating at local level exhibitions where Intel judges visit the participating schools, choosing two winning projects in each. The second phase saw each of these winning projects take part in the Mini Scientist Regional Finals which were hosted throughout December in Leixlip and Shannon.

The 2018 / 2019 initiative was described as another exciting year for the Mini Scientist competition with almost 8,000 students from 120 schools in 18 counties across Ireland taking part in the Grand Final event. This year there were almost 2,500 projects exhibited as part of the Mini Scientist competition and the Grand Final brought together the top 23 projects from across the country.

The Grand Final was filled with innovative and imaginative projects, put together through months of hard work and the judges praised all entrants.

SEE ALSO: Kildare students make their own tech creations
Renovation work is taking place at the former McDonalds restaurant at North Main Street, Naas.

The premises has been styled 101 Gastro Grill since mid-2018

It was reported at the time that it would be run by husband and wife team Peter and Sabrina Macari, who operate the Rustic Italian restaurant and bar, also in Naas.

It was intended there would be 15 to 20 people, including part time staff, working there.

The new eatery was scheduled to open towards the end of last year.

The Macari family also run Alvitos and Da Vincis restaurants in Leixlip as well as the Macari 101 chipper in Monread and they have a long association with the restaurant and food business in County Kildare.

The family's Da Vincis restaurant in Leixlip celebrated its 25th anniversary in September.

Mr Macari said at the time that 101 Grill would have the same setting and tone as Rustic with an emphasis on art deco (a decor style popular in the 1930s).

McDonalds closed almost two years ago, having opened in 1998.

READ ALSO New Naas primary school to open later this year

READ ALSO New Naas ring road will take traffic out of the town, says council
Carrick-on-Shannon Circuit Court Judge John Aylmer has told a Drumshanbo defendant to provide 10,000 restitution to victims of a beer bottle assault in order to avoid a jail sentence.

Dubhaltach McDonagh of 8 Cluain Locha, Carrick na Brack, Drumshanbo previously pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to two Dublin men at Park Lane, Carrick-on-Shannon and possession of a weapon, a broken beer bottle, on August 6, 2017.

At a sentence hearing last week, Judge Aylmer asked the accused to provide 5,000 in court before he would finalise the matter.

The judge went on to impose a sentence of two years each on both assault charges which will be suspended if he pays another 5,000 due before the court by next February.

Two Dublin men, Dean Clifford and Christopher Murphy were assaulted with a broken Heineken bottle by the accused.

Sergeant Fintan McHale had previously told the court the pair met McDonagh and his female friend and words were said.

He said Mr McDonagh left them and went to a car park, where it is believed McDonagh smashed a Heineken bottle and then attacked Dean Clifford cutting him on the neck and face with the broken bottle and then cutting Christopher Murphy on the palm of his hand.

Both victims were taken to hospital by ambulance.

Sgt McHale said the defendant was covered in blood at the scene.

Both men put forward the economic loss they have sustained due to injuries and the effects on their emotional states as well as their appearance.

The court previously heard that Mr McDonagh gave a voluntary statement to gardai. He told them he couldnt remember what happened.

He thought he heard the men say Ill f***ing kill him and next thing he remembers is sitting on the ground in hysterics.

He was arrested on September 21, 2017 and he told gardai he was not a regular drinker and had never been out in Carrick-on-Shannon before.

Sgt McHale said the defendant made no denials but couldnt recollect the incident. He has no previous convictions.

The defence told the court their client has been diagnosed with ADHD and spent time in foster care. They told the court he is very remorseful.

The probation report noted that the risk of the accused re-offending was moderate and would be reduced with training or work - he has received employment in Longford and works as a DJ at the weekend.

Mr McDonagh's father was in court and said he would loan the sum of 5,000 to his son as restitution which the defendant says he will pay off each week.

The case was adjourned to February 2020.
A Dowra farmer received a 12-month suspended sentence for claiming farm assist payments of almost 30,000 from the Department of Social Protection by deception.

66-year-old Patrick Leonard of Cornamuckla, Dowra pleaded guilty to obtaining social welfare payments by deception between March 8-9, 2010 after failing to declare at the social welfare office in Carrick-on-Shannon he had several thousand euro in multiple bank accounts.

Department of Social Protection inspector Donal Carroll informed Carrick-on- Shannon Circuit Court that Mr Leonard had previously been on unemployment assistance but switched to farm assist in 1999.

When he applied he declared he had no other income or capital other than savings of IR2,000. The farm assist payment is reviewed every year and details of personal finance are signed by the applicant.

Mr Carroll said his department was given information by revenue about interest accrued on savings by Mr Leonard.

He said there were 23 bank accounts investigated over four branches belonging to Mr Leonard.

From 2010 to 2013, Mr Leonard was found to have between 80,000-105,000 in savings.

Mr Carroll said Mr Leonard did admit having the money and said some was from savings, some was won on the horses and some was being kept for his brother.

Inspectors determined that the Dowra man had received an overpayment of 29,993 across several years .

Over 21,000 has so far been repaid to the department through 4,000 paid by Mr Leonard direct and monies withheld from his disability payments.

Mr Leonard's barrister Frank Martin said his client is in poor health and outlined how he worked in the Ballinamore mines and in the UK as a labourer. He explained that Mr Leonard paid 61,902.40 to his brother as his fair share in the farm Mr Leonard inherited.

Mr Martin said he saved his pennies and if he had been a spender not a saver he wouldnt be in this position

There were a number of testimonials in court to Mr Leonards good character.

Judge John Aylmer said the monies were claimed in a premeditated fashion but he acknowledged his hard work and good character.

He said it was unusual to see so much paid back and he gave him a 12 month suspended sentence.
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LIMERICK City East Labour councillor Elena Secas has called for an extension to the Kilmurry Cemetery, or a new burial ground in Castletroy.

She said: Local people are concerned that Kilmurry Cemetery is at capacity. These are people who have lived in the area all their lives and would like to be laid to rest here.

However, Cllr Secas has been told there is no public land available at Kilmurry to extend the graveyard, and at present, all grave plots have been allocated.

She added the only option for additional burials at the site are of ashes.

This is a cause of distress especially for elderly people in the area and I am calling on the council to acquire more land at Kilmurry or failing that to create another cemetery in Castletroy, said the Labour councillor.

The council is in the process of preparing a burial ground strategy for Limerick City and County and the Kilmurry Cemetery must be considered as part of this strategy, Cllr Secas added.

This disclosure comes almost exactly two years after a council motion to restrict Kilmurry graveyard to local families was rejected.

Cllr Michael Sheahan, Fine Gael, sought to have the grave plots restricted to locals, with no pre-purchasing allowed.

At the time, he warned this was needed as the cemetery has very few graves left for people living in a rapidly expanding community.

In a written reply, the council also expressed concerns that if this motion passed, it could leave them open to discrimination.

They also questioned the definition of the local community, and how it should be determined geographically.
A WOMAN who was prosecuted for littering in Limerick has apologised for her actions and promised to never do so again.

Patricia Moloney, 22, of Lower Hartstonge Street, Limerick pleaded guilty to an offence relating to a detection at Jesuit Lane in the city centre on October 3, 2018.

Environmental Inspector Michael Walsh told Limerick District Court that he discovered material linked to the defendant inside a number of black bags of rubbish which had been dumped on the street.

After submitting photographs to the court, he confirmed a 150 on-the-spot fine was issued and that a number of reminder letters were sent to the defendant.

Solicitor Leanne Purcell said her client, who has no previous convictions, had intended putting the rubbish in a communal bin where she lives but that it was full when she brought the rubbish outside.

It was full and she left it on the street, she said.

Ms Purcell said her client had suffered a bereavement a short time before the incident and that she was very upset around the time..

She apologises and she assures me it will never happen again, she told the court seeking leniency on begalf of her client.

Judge Marian OLeary accepted the submissions put forward which were corroborated by the material found in the rubbish bags.

Noting Ms Moloneys apology and assurances, she imposed a 100  giving her seven months to pay.

The defendant was also ordered to make a 100 contribution towards the costs of Limerick City and County Council relating to the case.
SHE is an exceptional young woman. We are all very, very proud of her.

It was a heart-stopping moment as John Cregan, chairman of Limerick GAA County Board paid tribute to his daughter Mary, now receiving palliative care.

It should have been Marys night, he explained, the launch of a fundraising event that she had organised to support four charities that had helped her through her cancer diagnosis.

The intention was that Mary would be here to speak, he said. But for the past couple of weeks, he told the capacity gathering, she had been receiving palliative care in her own home, thanks to Milford Care Centre and the Daffodil Nurses who were absolutely fantastic.

Their care, he said, was a great consolation to the family who hail from Dromcollogher-Broadford.

Mary, he continued, had faced her cancer with tremendous courage and positivity. Despite her illness, she was always looking out for others. She has been helping people all her life. With Mary, it was never about herself. And she has done that all her life.

Mary was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2015 when she was just 30 years of age and received extensive treatment. Unfortunately, the tumour returned last year.

Mary, John continued, had put all her focus and dedication into ensuring that her idea of the Help Fight the Big C fundraiser would be a success.

She set out with a modest target, he added. It appears to me now, from what I am hearing, this fund-raiser looks set to break records and that is very encouraging for all of us.

John paid tribute to the two people, Jim Barry and Eileen Kelly, who had taken on the role of organising the event on Marys behalf. And he thanked all those who attended the launch, who bought tickets or donated to the auction.

Earlier, Limerick senior hurling manager John Kiely, said it was a great honour to officially launch the fund-raiser which will take place in the Devon Inn Hotel on Friday, March 15. There is going to be a fantastic turn-out on the night, he predicted. Every one of our families has been touched by cancer.

It is an amazing gift to help people, he continued, recalling a visit by Fr Peter McVerry to his school where the activist for homelessness spoke about the gift of giving and the value of the gift of giving. It struck a chord with me. There is probably nothing greater than the gift of giving. And people will have the opportunity to give on March 15.

John Kiely also spoke of the legacy of Limericks historic hurling win. It brought a great sense of togetherness and community, he said. That same sense of belonging and support was at the heart of the fundraiser, he pointed out.

This is one of those fund-raisers where people dont mind being asked, he said. That is what it is about. We stick together. We support each other.

Tickets for Help Fight the Big C cost 10 and the night begins the Devon Inn Hotel at 9pm with music by Paddy Quilligan, the Liam OConnor Show and an auction with eleven very valuable items for sale, followed by a disco. There will also be a raffle on the night.

The four charities that will receive funding are the Brain Tumour Association of Ireland, Bru Columbanus which provides accommodation for the families of patients at University Hospital Cork; ACT,the Aid Cancer Treatment organisation which works to improve quality of life for cancer patients and BHOC, the Bandon Hyperbaric Oxygen Centre. BHOC has oxygen chambers which give patients large doses of oxygen which helps promote healing. Representatives from the charities who attended the launch explained the work of their organisations.

Speaking to the Limerick Leader a number of weeks ago, Mary explained why she took on the task.  I was lucky enough to have the support of many amazing charities, she said. Unfortunately nobody knows when cancer is going to knock on their door, but it brings amazing comfort to know that there are so many fantastic charities and organizations out there that go above and beyond every day to help people like me. These same organizations and charities would not be possible without fundraising, which is why I am doing something to give back.

At Mondays launch, John Cregan said they hoped to acknowledge the Milford Care Centre and the Irish Cancer Society as well.

A go-fund me page is also in place and has already raised almost 10,000. Go to https://www.gofundme.com/6pddoeo.
In the most recent case at United, the airline said it caught on after stopping three families traveling overseas on employee passes who couldnt name the employees who provided their tickets. The travelers told the airline they had paid thousands for a years worth of travel, United said in a warning to employees this week.
There are only 24 hours in a day, and usually about a third of that is spent sleeping. So, the overambitious have always wondered: Is it possible to make use of this time and learn a new skill or even a language? In other words, is sleep learning possible?

The answer is yes and no, depending on what we mean by "learning."

Absorbing complex information or picking up a new skill from scratch by, say, listening to an audio recording during sleep is almost certainly impossible. But research shows that the sleeping brain is far from idle and that some forms of learning can happen. However, whether that's worth losing sleep over has yet to be determined. [Why Can't We Remember Our Dreams?]

Sleep learning: From sham to science

The concept of sleep learning, or hypnopedia, has a long history. The first study to demonstrate a memory and learning benefit from sleep was published in 1914 by German psychologist Rosa Heine. She found that learning new material in the evening before sleep results in better recall compared to learning during the day.

Thanks to many studies done since then, we now know that sleep is crucial for forming long-term memories of what we have encountered during the day. The sleeping brain replays the day's experiences and stabilizes them by moving them from the hippocampus, where they are first formed, to regions across the brain. Given that so much is happening to memories during sleep, it's natural to ask if the memories can be altered, enhanced or even formed anew.

One popular approach to sleep learning was Psycho-phone, a popular device in the 1930s. It played out motivational messages to sleepers, such as "I radiate love," supposedly helping the people absorb the ideas in their subconscious and wake up with radiant confidence.

At first, it seemed that research backed up the idea behind devices like Psycho-phone. Some early studies found that people learned the material they encountered during sleep. But those findings were debunked in the 1950s, when scientists began to use EEG to monitor sleep brain waves. Researchers found that if any learning had happened, it was only because the stimuli had woken the participants. These poor studies launched sleep learning into the trash can of pseudoscience.

But in recent years, studies have found that the brain may not be a total blob during sleep. These findings suggest that it is possible for the sleeping brain to absorb information and even form new memories. The catch, however, is that the memories are implicit, or unconscious. Put another way, this form of learning is extremely basic, much simpler than what your brain has to accomplish if you want to learn German or quantum mechanics.

Still, these findings have elevated sleep learning from the category of pipe dreams and put it back on scientists' radar.

"For decades the scientific literature was saying sleep learning was impossible. So, even seeing the most basic form of learning is interesting for a scientist," said Thomas Andrillon, a neuroscientist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. "But people are not really interested in this basic form of learning."

For scientists, the recent discoveries have raised hopes about possible applications, Andrillon told Live Science. For example, the implicit nature of sleep learning makes the phenomenon useful for people who want to shed a bad habit, like smoking, or form new good ones. [Why Is It So Hard to Quit Smoking?]

Rotten eggs and smoking: Making associations

Multiple studies have found that a basic form of learning, called conditioning, can happen during sleep. In a 2012 study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, for example, Israeli researchers found that people can learn to associate sounds with odors during sleep. The scientists played a tone to sleeping study participants while unleashing a nasty spoiled-fish smell. Once awake, upon hearing the tone, the people held their breath in anticipation of a bad smell.

"This was a clear finding showing humans can form new memories during sleep," said Andrillion, who was not involved in that study.

Although the memory was implicit, it could affect the peoples behavior, researchers found in a 2014 study published in the Journal of Neuroscience. In that research, smokers used fewer cigarettes after spending a night being exposed to the smell of cigarettes paired with rotten eggs or spoiled fish.

"Guga" means elephant: Learning languages during sleep?

Andrillon and his colleagues have found that learning in sleep can go beyond simple conditioning. In their 2017 study published in the journal Nature Communications, subjects were able to pick out complex sound patterns that they had heard during sleep.

Learning abilities in sleep may extend to the learning of words. In a study published in the journal Current Biology in January, researchers played pairs of made-up words and their supposed meanings, like that "guga" means elephant, to sleeping participants. After this, when awake, the people performed better than chance when they had to pick the right translation of made-up words in a multichoice test.

What all these studies have in common is that they show an implicit form of memory. "It's not some knowledge they'll be able to use spontaneously, because they don't know this knowledge is even there," Andrillion said. "The question is, 'Where do we go from there?'"

Learning a new language involves many different layers: recognizing the sounds, learning the vocabulary and mastering the grammar. So far, research suggests it may be possible to get familiarized with the tone and accent of a language or even the meaning of words while sleeping, but to a weaker level than what we already do all the time during the day without noticing. [Why Don't We Remember Being Babies?]

And then you have to consider the cost, Andrillion said. Stimulating the sleeping brain with new information likely disrupts the functions of sleep, negatively affecting the pruning and strengthening of what we have learned over the previous day, he said.

While losing quality sleep to potentially learn a few words is not a smart trade-off, researchers continue to study sleep learning because the compromise may be worth it in special cases. For example, sleep learning could be useful when people need to change a habit or alter stubborn disturbing memories in cases of phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder.

And some forms of implicit learning that may help in those situation may occur more strongly during sleep. The conditioning that happened in the smoking and rotten egg study, for example, doesn't work well when done during wakefulness. If you smoke every day near a garbage bin, you know the two are unrelated, so you don't link them. We are not easily tricked when awake.

"But the sleeping brain is not so smart, and we can manipulate it for our own good," Andrillion said. "It sounds a lot like the 'Eternal Sunshine' [movie], and this is still ongoing work, but the possibility is there."

Until then, remember that a good night's sleep is already sleep learning at its best.

Originally published on Live Science.
Get ready to "spring forward" as people throughout the United States lose an hour of sleep in the early morning of Sunday.

Daylight saving time (not savings, as many people say) begins at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, March 10. While "smart" devices may change time automatically, don't forget to turn manual clocks an hour ahead, from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m.

Daylight saving time (DST) is designed to provide an extra hour of evening sunlight, and it will stay in effect for eight months until Nov. 3, when daylight saving time ends for the year. [Daylight Saving Time 2019: A Guide to the When, Why, What and How]

Benjamin Franklin, the brainchild of DST, proposed the idea in 1784 as a way to conserve energy, said David Prerau, author of "Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time" (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2005). Ideally, people would spend time outside, enjoying the extra hour of daylight, rather than sit inside, wasting energy on lighting, Franklin reasoned.

However, it's hard to say whether daylight saving translates into energy savings, according to several studies, including a 2007 Department of Energy study and a 1997 study on a residential home in Kansas, Live Science previously reported.

Even so, Franklin's idea spread in the 20th century. In 1908, a city in Ontario, Canada, became the first modern region to officially implement DST, according to Time and Date. The Germans began following DST in May 1916, with the goal of conserving fuel during World War I. The rest of Europe followed suit soon after, and the United States officially adopted daylight saving time in 1918.

However, American farmers objected to the change, as it eliminated an hour of their morning light (it's a myth that daylight saving time helps farmers). So, the country dropped the time change until World War II, and only a select number of states chose to follow it after the war's end.

Because daylight saving time was practiced at different times in different states, it threw the country's time zones into disarray. It wasn't until the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that daylight saving time acquired a standard start and stop time  although states themselves can choose whether to participate.

Currently, two U.S. states  Hawaii and most of Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation)  don't observe daylight saving time.

Every year, several states put forth bills or voter-led initiatives to ditch daylight saving time. However, it's anyone's guess whether these bills will become enforced law. Until then, don't forget to wake up an hour earlier on Sunday, unless you want to be late for brunch.

Originally published on Live Science.
The Crew Dragon capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast today (March 8) at 8:45 a.m. EST (1345 GMT), wrapping up a historic mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

There were no astronauts aboard this flight, only the sensor-packed dummy Ripley named after a character from the "Alien" films. But the success of the test flight, known as Demo-1, helps paves the way for a crewed mission of the SpaceX vehicle, perhaps as early as this summer.

That will be a huge milestone when it comes; astronauts haven't launched to orbit from American soil since NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in July 2011.

Related: SpaceX Dragon Crew Demo-1 Test Flight: Full Coverage

SpaceX's first Crew Dragon undocked from the International Space Station at 2:32 a.m. EST (0732 GMT) on March 8, 2019 to end its Demo-1 test flight for NASA. (Image credit: NASA TV)

"Fifty years after humans landed on the moon for the first time, America has driven a golden spike on the trail to new space exploration feats through the work of our commercial partner SpaceX and all of the dedicated and talented flight controllers at NASA and our international partners," NASA astronaut Anne McClain radioed Mission Control from the ISS when Crew Dragon undocked from the orbiting lab earlier today.

"This is a new era in human spaceflight," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday (March 6) during a webcast event with Vice President Mike Pence, who spoke to McClain and Canadian Space Agency's David Saint-Jacques from NASA's Mission Control center in Houston.

NASA officials said there was a bit of Apollo history involved in today's Crew Dragon splashdown: It came nearly 50 years to the day after the Apollo 9 spacecraft returned to Earth in the same area on March 13, 1969.

Related: SpaceX's Historic Crew Dragon Demo-1 Mission in Pictures

A pioneering flight

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the Crew Dragon Demo-1 mission from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 2, 2019. (Image credit: SpaceX)

NASA is currently dependent on Russian Soyuz rockets and spacecraft to ferry its astronauts to and from the ISS. And this service isn't cheap; each seat on the three-person Soyuz currently sells for about $80 million.

So, in 2014, NASA signed commercial-crew contracts with SpaceX and Boeing  worth $2.6 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively  to foster the development of homegrown American spaceships. Like SpaceX, Boeing is building a capsule, called CST-100 Starliner.

Back when the contracts were signed, NASA officials said they hoped these private spaceships would be up and running by the end of 2017. That didn't happen, of course. But both companies are now getting pretty close, as Demo-1 shows.

The mission began Saturday morning (March 2) with a liftoff atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Crew Dragon carried Ripley and about 450 lbs. (200 kilograms) of supplies for the ISS crew. Also aboard was the adorable "Little Earth" Celestial Buddies plush toy as a "zero-g" indicator. That toy will remain aboard the station  it will be retrieved by SpaceX's first astroanut crew later this year  but Crew Dragon did return about 330 lbs. (150 kg) of experiment results and other gear to Earth on this flight, NASA officials said.

Crew Dragon docked autonomously at the ISS Sunday morning (March 3) and then stayed attached to the orbiting lab for five days. The capsule departed at 2:32 a.m. EST (0732 GMT) today, survived the fiery descent through Earth's atmosphere, deployed its parachutes and splashed down gently into the Atlantic's rolling waves, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) off the Florida coast.

None of this was routine. Crew Dragon is based on SpaceX's robotic Dragon freighter, which has been flying resupply missions to the ISS under a separate NASA contract since 2012. But the two capsules are very different, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said.

"Dragon 2, or Crew Dragon, is a fundamental redesign," Musk said during a postlaunch news conference Saturday. There's "hardly a part in common with Dragon 1," he added.

For example, Crew Dragon has seats, windows, a life-support system, touch-screen controls, emergency-escape thrusters and other astronaut-related accoutrements that the cargo version lacks. Crew Dragon also docks directly with the ISS, whereas its older cousin must be grappled by the orbiting lab's huge robotic arm.

In addition, the crew-carrying capsule has a different parachute system and back-shell shape, neither of which had shown its mettle during an orbital mission. So, a successful return to Earth today was far from guaranteed.

"I see hypersonic re-entry as probably my greatest concern," Musk said during Saturday's news conference.

Crewed flight coming

The coming months will be packed with big milestones for both SpaceX and Boeing, if all goes according to plan.

Up next for SpaceX is a test of Crew Dragon's emergency-escape system, which is designed to get the capsule to safety if a serious problem were to occur during launch. This uncrewed flight, which is currently targeted for June, will employ the same capsule that just came back to Earth.

After that  possibly as early as July  will come Demo-2, Crew Dragon's astronaut-carrying debut. This landmark test flight will tote NASA's Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to and from the ISS. Operational, contracted missions, each of which will ferry four astronauts, will commence sometime thereafter.

Meanwhile, Starliner's first uncrewed test mission to the ISS could launch as soon as next month. The Boeing capsule's emergency-escape test and first crewed demonstration flight to the orbiting lab will occur no earlier than May and August, respectively.

"It won't be long before our astronaut colleagues are aboard Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner vehicles," McClain said. "And we can't wait."

Space.com managing editor Tariq Malik contributed to this story. Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There " (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated byKarl Tate is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcom or Facebook.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
Shippers will increasingly move European distribution hubs from the UK to continental Europe as they develop new post-Brexit logistics strategies, according to a range of leading supply chain executives.

With transport chaos threatened in the short-term  particularly if the UK pursues a no-deal Brexit  and the cost of distribution and customs clearances set to rise unless the UK remains in the Customs Union, European supply chains are in the process of being realigned, diminishing the UKs role in pan-EU distribution strategies.

John Pearson, CEO of DHL Express, said that for those companies that currently use the UK as a central hub for their European distribution needs, relocating to the continent was the safe bet. He added. If theyre growing, shippers will conclude: If we need a new warehouse or hub anyway, why dont we put it on the continent instead of in the UK?

Rogier Spoel, air and ocean freight policy manager at Dutch shipper body evofenedex and air freight policy manager at the European Shippers Council (ESC), also said UK-based shippers and supply chain companies were looking at how to transfer operations to mainland Europe.

Primarily, a lot of companies are looking at ways to reduce the number of times that goods are actually being transferred between the UK and Europe, he told Lloyds Loading List. To give a theoretical example, take a pharmaceutical company that is producing in the UK, shipping to Germany where (the product) is being sterilised, before being shipped back to the UK for packaging and distribution around the EU.

Now, considering that theres likely to be a hard border, and they cant switch their production location immediately, theyre looking at ways they can still produce it in the UK, still ship it to Germany for sterilising, but then instead of shipping it back to the UK putting it directly into a warehouse  probably in the Netherlands or in Belgium  and then distributing it on the European market.

Theyre trying to cut the times that goods would need to cross that border. Its true for pharma, but also the automotive sector where something like an engine might move eight times between the UK and the European Union before the engine is done. That is a big administrative burden that you get with all those transfers.

So theyre trying to cut that away by moving part or all of that supply chain out of the UK.

Sebastiaan Scholte, chief executive of Jan de Rijk Logistics, said the Netherlands was proving a popular alternative to the UK. We do a lot of contract logistics  so a lot of warehousing  and we have been approached by British shippers who want to move distribution from the UK to mainland Europe, and a lot to the Netherlands, he said.

Spoel said the transfer of distribution hubs out of the UK was already creating storage shortages elsewhere in the EU. In Belgium theyre already having a shortage of warehouses just because of Brexit, he said. If youre a UK company and youre trying to switch or search for warehouses in the Netherlands or Belgium, I think youre going to have a hard time finding them.

Spoel also warned that in the long-term, Brexit could have major implications for investment in Britain far beyond the logistics sector. He said many European businesses report a loss of confidence in the stability and reliability of UK politics and may be reluctant to invest there in future  even in the unlikely event that the decision to leave the EU was reversed.

One major company said to me that the problem for the UK is much bigger than just Brexit because in the end this will somehow be resolved, one way or another, he said. They said the confidence of businesses in the UK government is being hurt and if they had a future investment to make, they definitely would reconsider making it in the UK because now there is a lack of trust.

[The May government] is running the clock towards the end of March. This might save the faces of the people in the House of Commons, but for businesses, theyd rather hear yesterday that it was going to be a no deal rather than tomorrow.

The more you push a no-deal scenario to the end, the more time and energy and money companies need to invest in taking the right steps to prepare themselves. If at the end of the day Brexit does not happen, theyll still remember this.

Image: Shutterstock.com
When 18-year-old Dale Cook landed on Iwo Jima in February 1945, his commanding officer put a rifle in his hand and told him and his Marine comrades to capture the south airfield.

Thats what Cook did. And in the 36 days that followed  five weeks of some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II  Cook and his fellow Marines dodged bullets, slogged through mud, took cover in ditches and overtook key enemy positions in the hills of the remote North Pacific island.

But not without cost. In all, 6,800 U.S. service members died in the ferocious battle. Every man in his squad except for him, Cook said, was killed. Cook himself was wounded in the back and leg by a grenade and evacuated to a hospital ship.

What he did on Iwo Jima was a life-defining experience for him, said his granddaughter, Stacey Simon. It made him feel he could do anything. From that point on, he never took no for an answer.

Cook died Feb. 28 of natural causes at his home in Brentwood. He was 92 and among the last survivors of the Iwo Jima battlefield.

A native of Coeur dAlene, Idaho, Cook enlisted in the Marines in 1944 while still in high school and trained on a mortar crew. After the war, he joined the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the first of many veterans groups. Cook led an annual commemoration of the battle for many years, first at the Golden Gate National Cemetery, and then at the Marines Memorial Club in San Francisco. He returned to Iwo Jima three times, for reunions.

He was president of the Joe Rosenthal chapter of the U.S. Marines Corps Combat Correspondents Association. The chapter is named for the late San Francisco Chronicle and Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, who took the iconic picture of the Iwo Jima flag raising. At the time of his death, Cook was leading an effort to have a Navy ship named for Rosenthal.

After the war, Cook graduated from Washington State University and went on to a four-decade career as a newspaperman in Washington state and as a public relations officer for the Atomic Energy Commission, where he assisted reporters covering nuclear weapons tests in the Nevada desert.

In later years, he was a U.S. Army Reserve public information officer at the Presidio in San Francisco.

Cook was a Sierra hiker, a Boy Scout troop leader and a devoted raiser of English bulldogs, the Marines mascot. He enjoyed showing the dogs in local shows and acting as a dog show judge. His home was a Marine Corps museum stuffed with books, maps, artifacts, photos and awards.

And he never tired of sharing the story of Iwo Jima with family and friends.

He could re-create in words exactly what it was like, Simon said. You could close your eyes and picture yourself there, in the foxholes, at night, standing watch, with gunfire going on all around. Listening to my grandfather was like watching a movie.

He is survived by daughters Debra Kobold and Marie Wynn, both of Brentwood; sons Jim and Dale Jr., both of Martinez; 11 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Mary, his wife of 63 years, died in 2018.

A funeral Mass will be said on March 12 at 1 p.m. at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, 500 Fairview Ave., Brentwood.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com
Students from the Richard H. O'Rourke Middle School (Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) won the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Best Futuristic City award during the national competition held in Washington, D.C. Future City asks middle school age kids to design cities to solve important issues in society. This year's theme, Powering Our Future, challenged students to design innovative ways to power their future city so it could withstand and quickly recover from the impacts of a natural disaster.
I know there are other hospitals, but that is the hospital that is close to me and close to other people in our area, she said in Spanish, as translated by another speaker. Where I feel comfortable is Westlake. I have gone to other hospitals and I just dont feel comfortable.
A custodian wanted for offering to pay a high school student in Nevada for nude photos and offering her $50 to have sex with her has been arrested in Laredo.

Webb County Precinct 2 Constable's Office deputies and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested Danny Lisk, 27, while he was on his way to Mexico on Thursday via the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge.

Lisk was served with warrants charging him with promotion of a sexual performance of a minor, luring children and unlawful use of a minor in producing pornography.

He was taken to the Webb County Jail and is expected to be extradited.

READ ALSO: Ex-LISD superintendent charged with marijuana possession

Precinct 2 Constable Mike Villarreal said deputies working outbound operations at the bridge noticed Lisk did not have any clothing with him. He then provided conflicting statements about his destination. Lisk was in possession of about $8,800 and video games, Villarreal said.

Lisk was referred to secondary examination, where CBP officers discovered he was wanted out of the Nye County Sheriff's Office in Nevada.

Nye authorities said that on Jan. 30, Pahrump Valley High School officials stated that a 15-year-old girl reported "unusual activity" with an adult staff member of the school. She stated that Lisk was flirting with her via Snapchat, according to reports.

She said that around Jan. 17, she received a friend request from an unknown username on Snapchat. She did not know who the user was but accepted the request. He then identified himself as a staff member of the high school. He allegedly stated she knew him from school and that he had talked to her before at the school, authorities said.

Lisk would send pictures of himself to the juvenile while he was at work. He then made comments to the girl about her body and eventually requested nude pictures from her. He continued to send messages to the girl. At one point, he asked her to go out drinking with him and offered to pay her for nude pictures. Lisk allegedly offered her $50 to have sex with her.

RELATED: UISD: Sexual harassment claim against teacher unfounded after rumors spark investigation

A second 15-year-old female student came forward saying that Lisk had sent her a friend request on Snapchat. He made similar request to this second student and asked her to delete the conversations when they were done, Nye officials said.

Deputies executed a search warrant for Snapchat records for Lisk. Authorities discovered photos of himself and female high school students. Some photos displayed the student's buttocks and appeared to have been taken without their knowledge or consent, according to reports.

Lisk sent several hundred messages and friend requests to students at the high school using Snapchat, Nye authorities said.
BEIJING - Wading into a politically charged lawsuit, China's top diplomat on Friday backed Huawei's fight against U.S. government and praised the company for "refusing to be victimized like silent lambs."

The unusually sharp remarks by Foreign Minister Wang Yi represented the first time the Chinese government addressed a lawsuit filed this week by the technology giant, which is arguing in court that it operates independently of Beijing and has been unfairly stigmatized by congressional lawmakers who claim it poses an espionage threat to the United States.

Speaking to reporters, Wang slammed a litany of U.S. actions against Huawei and its executives as "by no means a pure judicial case, but a deliberate political move to bring them down" and pledged Beijing's support.

"China has and will continue to take all necessary measures to resolutely protect the legitimate and lawful interests of Chinese businesses and citizens," Wang said. "We support the company and individual in question in seeking legal redress to protect their own interests and refusing to be victimized like silent lambs."

Huawei on Wednesday filed suit in the Eastern District of Texas, the jurisdiction of its American headquarters in Plano. It alleges that Congress unfairly singled it out for punishment by banning federal agencies and contractors from buying its telecommunications equipment in an annual spending bill passed last year.

The Department of Justice has also indicted Huawei executives for technology theft and are seeking the extradition of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou from Canada to face fraud charges. Taken together, the actions have been seen by China as part of a concerted U.S. campaign to cripple the company and cut down China's chances of dominating next-generation telecom technology.

"What we want to uphold today is not only the rights and interests of a company, but the right to legitimate development as a nation," Wang said. "It's the right of all countries in the world to raise their level of science and technology."

At the same time, Wang downplayed the anti-China sentiment in Washington, and said the current climate favoring hard-edge competition was a blip in the overall trend of four decades of bilateral relations. Mainstream American society still wanted to cooperate with China, he said, adding that progress in the two countries' trade talks were widely welcomed and will eventually yield a satisfactory deal.

"Some people want the U.S. to 'decouple' from China but to me that's obviously unrealistic," he said. "To decouple from China would be to decouple from opportunity, to decouple from the future, and, in a sense, decouple from the world."

Although Wang's news conference every spring is heavily orchestrated with pre-vetted questions and scripted remarks, the event is typically the most significant opportunity for China to stake out a wide and expanding array of foreign policy positions before the gathered world press.

While relations with Washington loomed large, Wang this year urged for calm from both its longtime ally Pakistan and India, a traditional rival to whom China is slowly warming up. He talked up Beijing's affinity for Moscow, offered encouraging remarks about Japan, another traditional rival, and praised the summit meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as "moving in the right direction" despite its abrupt conclusion last week without a deal.

Analysts and diplomats have been looking for clues as to whether China might roll back or rebrand its Belt-and-Road Initiative following criticism from host countries and Western capitals that the infrastructure investments and loans have saddled countries like Sri Lanka and Malaysia with unrealistic debt and served only to further China's geopolitical reach.

The initiative, perhaps less high flying, remains very much alive. Wang said Beijing would host its largest B.R.I. summit this spring and offered a warm welcome to prospective new participants, including Italy, a country at the heart of Western Europe.

But he adopted a conciliatory tone, acknowledging that the project was still in its early stages and China was still learning and refining.

"We welcome any participants to offer constructive opinions so we can all negotiate together, build together and share together," he said. "We're injecting a strong impetus to joining hands and building a shared destiny for different peoples and countries."
Washington

President Donald Trump's advisers dangled the possibility of a pardon for his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen last year, Cohen's attorney said Thursday, as congressional investigators zero in on the president's pardon power.

The issue of pardons has emerged as a key line of inquiry as Democrats launch a series of sweeping investigations into Trump's political and personal dealings.

Lanny Davis, Cohen's lawyer, said in a written statement Thursday that his client was "open to the ongoing 'dangling' of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media" in the months after the FBI raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room in April 2018.

Davis, who was not Cohen's lawyer at the time, said Cohen "directed his attorney" to explore a possible pardon with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others on Trump's legal team. The statement appears to contradict Cohen's sworn testimony last week at a House Oversight Committee hearing that he had never asked for, and would not accept, a pardon from Trump.

Davis' comment raises questions about whether Cohen  who is slated to begin a three-year prison sentence in May for crimes including lying to Congress  lied to Congress again last week.

Cohen's legal team argued that his statement was correct because Cohen never asked the president himself for a pardon.

"This is more proof that Cohen is a liar," Giuliani said in an interview Thursday. "The guy says he never asked Trump for a pardon. He's hiding behind having his lawyers do it."

There is nothing inherently improper about a subject in a criminal investigation seeking a pardon from a president given the president's wide latitude in granting them. But investigators want to know if the prospects of presidential pardons were somehow offered or used inappropriately.

It is hard to untangle the conflicting narratives given the unreliability of some of the central characters. Cohen, for instance, has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and saw his credibility attacked last week by Republican lawmakers. Davis has had to walk back at least one bombshell assertion over the last year  that his client could tell investigators that Trump had advance knowledge of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign  and Giuliani has fumbled facts and repeatedly moved the goalposts about what sort of behavior by the president would constitute collusion or a crime.

Congressional investigators, meanwhile, appear to be focusing on presidential powers as a significant line of questioning in their probes.

The House Judiciary Committee, which is conducting a probe into possible obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power, sent letters to the FBI, the Justice Department and others for documents related to possible pardons for Cohen, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. All three have been charged in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible coordination between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign. Congressional investigators are also looking into whether anyone on Trump's legal team tried quietly to reach out to Cohen last year before he turned on the president and as his legal problems mounted.
Rush became one of the latest victims last year. The system disclosed late last month that as many as 45,000 patients may have had their names, addresses, birthdays, social security numbers and health insurance exposed. The incident most likely occurred in May 2018 when an employee of one of the hospital system's billing processing vendors improperly disclosed a file to "an unauthorized party," Rush said.
Paul Manafort, who once served as President Donald Trump's campaign chairman, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison Thursday for cheating on his taxes and bank fraud - a far lesser sentence than the roughly 20 years he had faced under federal sentencing guidelines.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III called that guidelines calculation "excessive" and sentenced the longtime lobbyist instead to 47 months in prison.

Apparently aware that he might be criticized for not imposing a longer prison term, Ellis told a packed courtroom in Alexandria, Va. that anyone who didn't think the punishment was tough enough should "go and spend a day, a week in jail or in the federal penitentiary. He has to spend 47 months."

Wearing a green jail uniform that said "ALEXANDRIA INMATE" on the back, Manafort, 69, sat in a wheelchair for the entire hearing and did not visibly react when the sentence was read by the judge. At times while the judge spoke, Manafort closed his eyes.

Prosecutors have painted Manafort as an incorrigible cheat who must be made to understand the seriousness of his wrongdoing. Manafort contends he is mere collateral damage in special counsel Robert Mueller III's investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election.

At a trial last year, Manafort was found guilty of hiding millions he made lobbying on behalf of Ukrainian politicians in overseas bank accounts, then falsifying his finances to get loans when his patrons lost power. Prosecutors highlighted his lavish lifestyle, saying his crimes were used to pay for high-end clothes and multiple properties.

Ellis said the sentence he imposed was more in line with those of others who had been convicted of similar crimes.

The judge noted that he must consider the entirety of Manafort's life when issuing a sentence, saying that letters show Manafort has been "a good friend" and a "generous person" but that that "can't erase the criminal activity." Manafort's tax crimes, the judge said, were "a theft of money from everyone who pays taxes."

Ellis expressed some sympathy for the GOP consultant, who had worked on the presidential campaigns of Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, becoming a Washington insider and highflying consultant for hire.

"He's lived an otherwise blameless life," Ellis said. The judged noted that Manafort has no past criminal history and "earned the admiration of a number of people" who wrote letters to the court.

Before the sentence was imposed, Manafort asked the judge to consider how much he has already suffered.

"The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family and I," Manafort said. "To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement."

Speaking from his chair, he asked for "compassion," adding, "I know it is my conduct that has brought me here."

The disgraced consultant thanked the judge for "the fairness of the trial you conducted."

Manafort said that the "media frenzy" surrounding the case had taken a toll on him and that "my life is professionally and financially in shambles."

But, he added, he hopes "to turn the notoriety into a positive and show who I really am."

The worst pain, he said, "is the pain my family is feeling," adding that he had drawn strength from the "outpouring of support" he had received.

The judge later told Manafort: "I was surprised that I did not hear you express regret for engaging in wrong conduct." That did not affect his sentence, "but I hope you will reflect on it and that your regret will be that you did not comply with the law," Ellis said.

Manafort has already spent nine months in jail - meaning the sentence imposed Thursday could end in less than three years, with an additional reduction for good behavior. Manafort was also ordered to pay a fine of $50,000.

But he still faces sentencing for related conspiracy charges in a case in District of Columbia federal court - a case in which he could receive an additional 10-year prison term. Manafort is set to be sentenced in that case next week, and that judge will decide if the sentences will run simultaneously, or staggered.

Manafort's trial documented his career as an international lobbyist whose profligate spending habits were part of the evidence showing he had cheated the Internal Revenue Service out of $6 million by hiding $16 million in income.

At the outset of the hearing, Ellis addressed the larger special counsel investigation, saying Manafort was not convicted "for anything to do with Russian colluding in the presidential election."

But the judge also rejected Manafort's attorneys' claims that the lack of any such evidence undermined the case, saying he had considered that issue at the beginning of the case. "I concluded that it was legitimate" for the special counsel to charge Manafort with financial crimes, Ellis said.

Sentencing guidelines in the Virginia case had called for Manafort to serve between 19 1/2 and 24 years in prison, after a jury found him guilty of eight charges and deadlocked on 10 others.

Legal experts had generally expected Ellis to sentence somewhere below the guideline range, but some were surprised by how far he went.

"It's a low sentence," said Timothy Belevetz, a former federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia. "Four years is nothing to sneeze at, but I think it is a little surprising because it's such a big variance from the guidelines."

Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice, said he expected such a sentence.

"Given the age and the health of this defendant, this is the kind of sentence that you can generally expect in a white-collar prosecution," Mintz said. "The sentencing guidelines and the request by the government for 19 to 24 years was something the judge was never going to seriously entertain, and I think what we saw here was a recognition that even this sentence could well be a life sentence for Mr. Manafort."

The first skirmish in the hearing came when Manafort's attorneys argued with federal prosecutors over those guidelines and whether Manafort deserved any credit for "acceptance of responsibility."

Manafort's attorneys noted that he spent 50 hours in proffer sessions with the special counsel for his plea agreement in the District case. But prosecutor Greg Andres said Manafort's purported cooperation was worthless - he either told prosecutors things they already knew, or told falsehoods.

"He did not provide valuable cooperation," Andres said. "He lied."

Manafort's lawyer Kevin Downing told a crowd of reporters outside the courthouse that his client "finally got the chance to speak."

"He accepted responsibility for his conduct," Downing said. "There is absolutely no evidence Paul Manafort worked in collusion with any government official from Russia."

Manafort's career as a political consultant stretches back decades. He joined the Trump campaign in March 2016, and left it five months later as questions arose about his work for Ukrainian political figures.

Prosecutors have said in court filings that Manafort "blames everyone from the special counsel's office to his Ukrainian clients for his own criminal choices."

Manafort has argued in court filings that while he is genuinely contrite, he has also been punished quite severely before sentencing. Until he was jailed by his District judge for witness tampering, he was a "relatively healthy" man, his lawyers say; he now suffers from gout and can walk only with a cane. An "extraordinary and largely successful career" has ended in ignominy. He has been in solitary confinement for the past nine months. He has given up $15 million in assets, including his mansion in the Hamptons, a brownstone in Brooklyn and three condos in Manhattan.

All this happened, his lawyers say, not because he broke the law but because he worked for Trump and was caught up in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

"Unable to establish that Mr. Manafort engaged in any such collusion, the special counsel charged him . . . with crimes . . . unrelated to the 2016 campaign or any collusion with the Russian government," defense attorneys wrote in a memo to the court.

Ellis repeatedly voiced similar sentiments in the run-up to trial, saying prosecutors wanted Manafort to "sing" against Trump and were using the financial charges to "turn the screws and get the information you really want." During the trial, he needled prosecutors for highlighting Manafort's lavish lifestyle and the unsavoriness of the Ukrainian politicians who made it possible.

Prosecutors have pushed back, noting that Manafort was under investigation for years before Mueller's appointment.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington is scheduled to sentence Manafort in his other case.
A man who has been one of the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives in a years-old homicide case of his fiancee was arrested in Prince George's County on Thursday, just hours, police say, after he killed a new girlfriend in the District of Columbia.

Lamont Stephenson's alleged District victim, 40-year-old Natina Kiah, was working as a security guard at a homeless shelter, her family said, and met Stephenson in recent weeks while he was staying there. Her body was found stabbed in her bedroom in Southeast late Wednesday night, along with her cat, according to police and family members.

Stephenson, 43, was arrested about 2 a.m. Thursday by three Prince George's patrol officers checking a report that a man was living in an Enterprise box truck stored on a rental company lot on Annapolis Road in Lanham. Officers found him with a backpack and a weapon, which they declined to describe in a news conference Thursday night.

"He initially stated he was homeless and was just trying to get out of the weather," said Prince George's County Police Chief Hank Stawinski.

The arrest brought Stephenson's years on the run in a 2014 New Jersey case to a halt. Authorities said he now is the hands of federal authorities. It was unclear when he would make an appearance in the District case or be returned to New Jersey.

In 2014, Stephenson was charged with murder two weeks after Olga DeJesus, 40, was found asphyxiated in her Newark, apartment on Oct. 17. The FBI said DeJesus' dog was also found strangled.

The FBI added Stephenson to its most wanted list in 2018 and noted he was last seen by a relative in or around Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in July 2017. Authorities said he had family ties to New Jersey, Virginia, and North and South Carolina. There was a $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

Authorities said they believe both killings were related to domestic issues.

At a news conference Thursday evening, Stawinski credited patrol officers Joseph Killian, Jeffrey Bragg and Eduardo Ventura with apprehending the suspect after getting an otherwise routine call from a security officer about a suspicious individual. The chief said Stephenson gave police his real name and "offered that he may be wanted in connection with additional crimes."

Stawinski said police found he was on the FBI's most wanted list, and federal authorities took him into custody. He said authorities then learned he may be connected to a killing in the District on Wednesday.

District Police Chief Peter Newsham confirmed in an interview that a warrant for Stephenson was issued in the stabbing death of Kiah.

A close cousin of Kiah said relatives became concerned Wednesday when she had not called her grandchildren and her oldest daughter, as she typically did each day. Relatives went to Kiah's apartment and, when they did not get an response, called police.

Officers forced the door open about 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday and reported finding Kiah unresponsive in her bedroom. Police later determined she had been stabbed, and she was pronounced dead.

Kiah's cousin, Shaun Montague, said Kiah met Stephenson about two weeks ago and that he seemed like a perfect soul mate for her. He said Kiah had told relatives they met at the shelter, but because she worked there, they assumed he also was working there.

Montague said he learned after his cousin was dead that Stephenson had been homeless and occasionally stayed at the shelter.

A spokeswoman for the District Department of Human Resources confirmed Kiah worked at the shelter as a security guard. Montague, who is 40 and lives in Maryland, said Kiah had introduced Stephenson to her parents recently and he had been around her four daughters - ages 14 to 21 - and her 2-year-old grandson.

Kiah's mother, Jennifer Wallace, 65, met Stephenson last week, she said, when he told people he was a minister and he was called "bishop."

"He was very affectionate," said Montague, who is a veterinary technician. "He didn't display any type of red flags. His clothes were clean. He was well spoken. He didn't use vulgar words. She seemed so happy with him and he seemed to be living OK. He showered her children with affection."

The only hesitation, Montague said, was that Stephenson did not have a job. Montague said he had visited the couple recently and arrived as they were cooking dinner together at Kiah's apartment, with a Marvin Gaye track playing in the background.

"It seemed she had finally found someone who was on her level," Montague said.

"He was so charming," Wallace said. "He looked at me and said, 'Now I know where your daughter's good looks come from.' " She said he took her grandchildren out to dinner at Red Lobster, racking up a $340 bill.

"I thought that was very nice of him," Wallace said.

Wallace described her security-guard daughter as "rough and ready" but said it appears she fell for Stephenson due to the affection he lavished on her and her children.

She said District police told her Wednesday night about the allegations in Stephenson's past, about case of the woman in Newark, and about the dog.

She said her daughter's cat had his throat slit and was found under the covers next to her daughter's body.

"It scared me," Wallace said. Of her daughter, she said, "She loved life, and she wanted to live."

Montague said Kiah had just been accepted into a voucher program to help buy her first house, and she was considering returning to school to study nursing.

"Everything was coming together for her," Montague said.

At the homeless shelter where she worked, Montague said, she would buy meals for the homeless or slip them money.

"She felt as long as she could keep giving, her life wasn't a loss," he said. "She worked to protect people, and yet no one was there to protect her in her final moments."
Washington

The wife of a former FBI agent who vanished in Iran in 2007 expressed bitter frustration Thursday about efforts to get her husband back home.

Christine Levinson told a House panel that she holds Iran responsible for the disappearance of her husband, Robert, but she also said three American administrations have failed to press the Tehran government hard enough for his return.

"Time and time again, Bob has been left behind, deprioritized, or seemingly forgotten," she said at a House hearing on the status of Americans detained in Iran.

Robert Levinson vanished while in Iran on an unauthorized CIA mission. Christine Levinson said she believes her husband is alive and that the U.S. should press Iran harder for answers. She praised the work of "some dedicated people from various agencies" but said others in the government have not communicated with each other regarding his case, or have questioned whether he is alive and have undercut efforts to secure his release.

"My husband served this country tirelessly for decades," she said. "He deserves better from all of us and from our government. He deserves our endless pursuit to bring him home, to fight day and night and leave no stone unturned."

Christine Levinson testified along with Babak Namazi whose Iranian-American father and brother, Baquer and Siamak Namazi, are both serving 10-year sentences on espionage charges. Omar Zakka also told lawmakers about his father, Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese-born U.S. permanent resident who was detained after he visited Iran in 2015 to attend a conference.

Babak Namazi said that more than two years after President Donald Trump took office, "it seems that we are not any closer in getting my family and other hostages home." He said time is running out for his 82-year-old father. The elder Namazi's health is rapidly deteriorating and needs to leave Iran for medical attention, the son said.

There are at least five Americans being held in Iran in addition to one U.S. permanent resident. The United Nations said last year that arrests of Americans in Iran are part of an "emerging pattern" by Tehran targeting dual nationalities.

"I am counting on President Trump to stay good to his word that Americans will not languish in Iran when he is president," Namazi said, citing the administration's recent successes freeing American hostages in other countries. "I implore the president to spare no effort to bring my family and the other American hostages home from Iran."

A hard line on Iran has been central to Trump's foreign policy, including withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal and reinstating economic sanctions. He has pledged "serious consequences" if Americans detained in Iran are not returned.

Dan Levinson, Robert's son, said his family has been more hopeful following the reimposition of sanctions.

"We believe after dealing with the Iranians for 12 years now that they only respond to pressure and we think that it's the only way to bring them to the negotiating table," he told reporters before the hearing.

Robert Levinson was a contractor for the CIA who traveled in March 2007 to an Iranian island, Kish, where he met with a U.S. fugitive. He has not been seen since except in a video sent to his family by his captors. His wife said in her testimony that an FBI assessment of the video and photos showing him in an orange jumpsuit concluded that the Iranian government must have developed them and sent them to the family. "All the facts of the case indicate they kidnapped my husband," she said.

Iran has said Levinson is not in the country and that it has no further information about him.

Rep. Ted Deutch, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that held the hearing, asked the family members what their message would be to Trump.

"I would ask that he would meet with us," Christine Levinson said. "He doesn't know us. He doesn't understand how difficult it is for us."

After the hearing, Deutch, D-Fla., and three other members of Congress introduced legislation that would empower the president to impose sanctions on hostage-takers, elevate the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs to the rank of ambassador, and create an interagency group that would work on hostage recovery and response.
In Illinois, marijuana companies set their businesses up the way the state dictated, and were focused on patients, said Jeremy Unruh, director of public and regulatory affairs at PharmaCann, which has two cultivation centers and four dispensaries in Illinois. The recreational industry is being driven by something else: An opportunity to right the wrongs caused by discriminatory marijuana arrests, and make sure those hit hardest are included, he said.
A member of the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Organization accused of threatening a government informant was arrested Thursday by federal authorities.

Albert DeLeon, 45, was charged with retaliating against an informant, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.

The indictment states that DeLeon approached the informant, who was not identified by authorities, on Feb. 22.

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DeLeon is alleged to have threatened to harm that person for providing information and evidence in the trial of Jeffrey Pike, former Bandidos national president, and ex-vice president John Portillo.

The two were sentenced to life in federal prison in September last year for directing murder, beatings, and other crimes.

"The arrest of Albert Deleon sends a strong and unified message that the mere intimidation and threating of a government witness will not be endured and those who commit these offenses will rightfully be brought to justice," stated Will R. Glaspy, special agent in charge of the Houston division of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

DeLeon faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.
An Air Force Reserve officer suspected in his wifes disappearance may have visited a San Antonio military training base within hours after she went missing, according to Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.

Salazar said at a news conference Thursday at Eisenhower Park that the search for Andreen McDonald has shifted to Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis, based on information developed within the past couple of days about where Air Force Reserve Maj. Andre McDonald may have gone shortly after his wife disappeared.

On ExpressNews.com: Lawyer for Air Force Reserve officer suspected in wifes disappearance cautions about rush to judgment

She was last seen alive Feb. 28 and reported missing the next day. She is feared dead based on evidence found at her Timberwood Park-area home. Andre McDonald is being held in jail on a charge of tampering with evidence for allegedly trying to destroy receipts of items that investigators believe he was going to use to dispose of her body.

We have information that the suspect, very early on in the investigation, or even before the investigation began, that he was in this area or on base, and he had no official business here, Salazar said. That is why we are concentrating on this area.

Before the media briefing, Rick de Castro, who is coordinating the overall search for Texas Search and Rescue, told a group of trained search and rescue members that we have intelligence her body may have been dumped here.

More than 300 searchers, about 200 of them volunteers, joined Thursdays search as members of the Air Forces 502nd Security Forces helped guide them through the 27,990-acre base where various branches of the military train.

On ExpressNews.com: Child told staffer: 'Daddy hurt Mommy' in missing S.A. woman case

Among them was one of Andreen McDonalds aunts, Cheryl Spencer, a professor at City University of New York, who flew in to San Antonio overnight.

Spencer thanked everyone  from authorities investigating her nieces disappearance to the military to volunteers to the media.

The people of San Antonio have been exemplary, Spencer said. Our hearts are low to the ground, but we are trying to keep our heads up. Were not blind. Were hopeful (shes alive). We refuse to speak of her in the past.

She said her family, which is literally spread out across the world, in Canada, Jamaica. West Indies and just about every (U.S.) state, is waiting for word of where Andreen McDonald might be.

The unknown is just crazy, but we just want to find her, Spencer said.

Guillermo Contreras covers federal courts in San Antonio and international legal issues. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | gcontreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland
It also says that Melrose Park had assigned a redevelopment agreement to the hospitals previous owner, which came with a tax increment financing district. That financing set aside certain property tax revenues to help financially support Westlake. Melrose Park agreed to transfer that agreement to Pipeline after Whitaker promised to keep the hospital open, the lawsuit alleges. Village leaders would not have transferred that agreement if they had known Pipeline would close the hospital, according to the lawsuit.
A new opportunity to experience true Hill Country Living is now available for your clients just a short drive west of I-10, minutes from downtown Boerne, 15 miles from La Cantera and 25 miles from San Antonio. Miralomas is a new, master planned community encompassing nearly 1,000 acres that embraces the topography of the area and is committed to preserving the natural beauty of its surroundings, even going so far as to set aside more than 200 acres for green space. According to Project Developer, Nicholas Prouty, CEO and Founder of Putnam Bridge, The vision of Miralomas is to create an iconic community intended to preserve the essence of the Texas Hill Country, foster wildlife habitation, and engage residents through meaningful community connections.

Amenities include The Clubhouse, serving as Miralomas main gathering area, providing free WIFI, a state-of-the-art fitness center, a multipurpose room for gatherings, and just outside The Clubhouse a crystal-clear resort style pool. In addition, residents will be encouraged to connect on the experiential playground, at the outdoor movie theater or at the large event lawn that is perfect for concerts and celebrations.

Homes in Miralomas range from 3,100 square-feet to 5,000 square-feet on lots ranging from 55 to 80 front feet. Our homebuilders include Casadomaine Custom Homes, Garner Homes, Gresham Homes, Mike Holloway Custom Homes, Prestige Homes and Sitterle Homes. These luxury homes were inspired by our Hill Country views and our pristine setting, and the latest in interior and exterior design trends. The homes are priced between the high $300s and range up to over $1 million. Miralomas Fiber-Powered Community delivers cutting-edge FIBER-TO-THE-HOME (FTTH) services that include high-speed fiber internet, telephone services, digital TV and security monitoring with connectHome provided by GVTC Communications.

Great care was taken in the development of Miralomas to maximize its environmental sustainability, and existing heritage trees, soil and rock formations were preserved during the development phase. Mr. Prouty noted that he believes that water will come to be the defining characteristic by which Texas housing projects retain, lower or increase their value. He said, We made our decision to make a significant capital investment in our off-site transmission pipeline to ensure access to water at Miralomas for generations to come, An innovative water conservation system was also developed that uses reclaimed water to provide irrigation to the communitys native trees and plants. Inventive solutions were created to control storm water as it moves through the sites varied topography. Additionally, Miralomas has invested nearly $10 million dollars to ensure its residents dedicated and uninterrupted access to high quality and abundant water.

Located along Highway 46 West, with sweeping Hill Country views, Miralomas offers a place that is away from the hustle and bustle feel of the city but is not that far from all of the important facilities that are available when needed. Being within the Boerne Independent School District which maintains a 99% graduation rate and a 15:1 student-teacher ratio one will find Fabra Elementary School, Boerne Middle School North and Boerne High School. And, just 18 miles down the road is the University of Texas at San Antonio, the largest university in the San Antonio region. Also, between the easily available Boerne and San Antonio areas are a myriad of world-class shopping, dining and entertainment opportunities and a diverse array of nationally recognized medical facilities. So, if you have not yet visited Miralomas to see what it has to offer your clients  now is the time! For more information about Miralomas you can call (830) 331-8546.

Related: Vintage Oaks The Hill Country's Fastest Growing Master Planned community

The Spring Tour of Homes hosted by the Greater San Antonio Builders Association and presented in partnership with CPS Energy and Keith Zars Pools. The Spring Tour of Homes features approximately 60 homes, 26 builders and 11 beautiful communities. Explore participating communities in San Antonio, Boerne, New Braunfels, and south of downtown.

The Spring Tour of Homes kicks off May 18 and runs through May 31. Enter for a chance to win a custom pool package from Keith Zars Pools valued at $50,000 (restrictions apply) during the Spring Tour of Homes. Visit a home on the tour to enter or sabuilders.com for more details.

2020 Spring Tour Of Homes:

Open House Hours:

Saturday, May 23rd 10am to 5pm

Sunday, May 24th 12:00 Noon to 5:00pm

Monday, May 25th 12:00 Noon to 5:00pm (Memorial Day)

Saturday, May 30th 10am to 5pm

Sunday, May 31st 12:00 Noon to 5pm

Editors Note: This content is made possible by Greater San Antonio Builders Association and Southstar Communities . It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasanantonio.com.
Three years ago, Brin Chartier went to Austin for the South by Southwest festival and decided she wasnt going to leave. The then 27-year-old found a job at a tech startup and moved there the following year. I fell in love, she said.

Lots of cities are trying to fashion themselves as the next Silicon Valley, but Austin is truly having a moment. Its economy, population and list of high-profile employers have all ballooned in recent years. Chartier is among a wave of Austin transplants, attracted by the mix of affordability, opportunity and eclecticism. So many new people were moving in, said Chartier, a Boston native. Its been wild. After a month or two, I was old news.

Austins population increased 23 percent from 2010 to 2017, growing faster than any other U.S. metropolitan region, and far outpacing the national rate of 5 percent, according to data from research firm Statista. Its slated to expand the size of the downtown area by half, based on projects under construction or planned, according to Austins economic development department. As a result, the city is becoming less affordable and driving longtime residents out. In other words, its starting to look more like the Valley in less desirable ways, too.

MEANWHILE, IN HOUSTON: Silicon Bayou? Houston makes tech pitch.

One draw for businesses is the local tax incentive program, which takes into account job creation and environmental impact. The technology industry is one of the biggest drivers of growth. And the city isnt over-reliant on one employerunlike, say, Arlington, Virginia, which Amazon.com Inc. plans to call its second home. In the past few years, Amazon, Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google have established large Austin outposts, and each recently signaled plans to expand there.

Amazon spent $13.7 billion to acquire Austin-based Whole Foods in 2017 and is leasing nearly half of a new tower under construction, according to a local report last month. Apples presence in Austin is the biggest after its headquarters in Cupertino, California, and the company said it would invest $1 billion in Austin to build an office park capable of holding 15,000 additional employees, roughly double the current workforce there. Juul Labs Inc., the San Francisco-based maker of a popular e-cigarette, said it will open an office in Austin for some four-dozen employees to start. The plans, which havent been previously reported, would designate Austin as the head of Americas for Juul.

South by Southwest, which kicks off Friday, serves as the citys annual showcase. Since the first music festival in 1987, organizers have added film screenings, a technology conference, video game competitions and political debates. This year will feature Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, alongside acting lessons from Jodie Foster and an interview with the founders of Instagram.

A quasi-official slogan of the city is Keep Austin Weird. That a landlocked, lone liberal stronghold in the countrys conservative heartland became a tech hub is a suitably weird fact. Jeff Haynie, who has spent the last two decades starting tech companies in Atlanta and Silicon Valley, moved his family and his newest startup, Pinpoint Software Inc., from Mountain View, California, to Austin last year. The companys investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Slack Technologies Inc. and Bloomberg Beta, the venture capital arm of Bloomberg LP.

HEAD WEST: Need to get to Austin? Startup matches up drivers and riders

More affordable housing, a higher quality of life, relaxed business licensing rules and the absence of personal state income taxes convinced Haynie to come to Texas, he said. The state climbed to become the third-most-popular place to start a new business over the last decade, from 20th, according to the Kauffman Foundation. The recent migration of talent and a change in attitudes among VCs makes starting a tech company outside of the Valley more possible than ever, Haynie said.

Haynie has been coming to South by Southwest since 2009. Hell spend the next week attending the festivities and entertaining friends and old colleagues from the Valley. More than 75,000 people are expected to descend on Austin for the event. Some restaurants pay the whole years rent in just that week, said Josh Baer, founder of a startup accelerator located downtown. Its hard to say whether Austin made South By or South By made Austin.

The tech influx has been good for Baer. His accelerator, Capital Factory, worked with more than 100 startups last year, up from five in 2011. But he worries Austin could lose its cherished weirdness and replicate the urban woes of San Francisco, where high-earning tech professionals drove up the real estate market to extraordinary levels.

The median home price in Austin jumped 40 percent over the last five years, exceeding the national average, according to Zillow. Traffic is already a problem, and a population boom could put an even greater strain on transportation and other infrastructure. Artists cant afford to live here anymore, Baer said. The cool people are going off to live somewhere else.

--With assistance from Ellen Huet and Olivia Zaleski.

2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Food, Wine, & Dining, Local News, Business & Finance, Travel & Local Attractions

By Sal B Published: March 07 2019

LocaLI Bred, helmed by Long Islanders Haile Geller and Theresa Pinelli are supporting local business in a big way with these curated boxes.

Written by Salvatore DiBenedetto

Its International Womens Month and well be celebrating Long Island women throughout the month. Our first feature focuses on two Long Islanders who are showcasing local business and bounty in an incredible way.

Meet Haile Geller and Theresa Pinelli, the female duo behind LocaLi Bred, a company who hand-curates gift boxes stocked with Long Island goods. LocaLI Bred offers an array of options from themed curations to seasonal subscription boxes. Most recently the company added a curated marketplace where shoppers can purchase individual products.

Neither grow up on Long Island, but their husbands did. After moving here and starting families, the ladies met through a Huntington Moms Group and instantly became best friends.

Though neither of us grew up in Long Island, we see it as our home and its an incredible place to live. Haile tells me, Its a small island but a big place. The idea of curating gift boxes with local flare came shortly after and within months they had quit their full time jobs.

Now you can find Haile and Theresa venturing around the island, meeting with local producers and craftsmen to fill their boxes with the best.

We spend a lot of time meeting with new makers, listening to their stories and trying out what they have to offer. Our goal is to change the perception of Long Island and feature small businesses in the area who produce quality, unique products to locals and beyond, explains Geller.

Haile, a former attorney and Theresa a former marketing professional who worked for companies like American Express and Estee Lauder, used their knowledge and background to get their Long Island in a Box concept off the ground. Its been a huge success since its launch and the pair look forward to growing it even further with their new corporate gifting bundles.

The boxes are perfect for friends and family who have moved out of town, wedding favors, or even as a local curious on the varying businesses around Long Island. In fact, every box supports at least 10 local businesses featuring artists, spice makers, coffee producers to handmade soaps and much more.

The company currently offers six themed boxes and four seasonal boxes, which ship to subscribers four times a year. Each box also features a special bonus, Theresas fresh baked Mia Brownie and Annabelle Blondie, named after the duos daughters who are coincidentally also best friends.

When we talked about the importance of celebrating women during National Womens Month, the duo chimed, Being Mothers and entrepreneurs has been both the biggest blessing and challenge. Our families fuel and motivate us, in fact, theyre the reason this has even started! But one flu can throw everything off. Every day is an adventure but we wouldnt have it any other way!

Learn more and order your box at www.localibred.com
Today, Lebanon is the first Arab country to have a female Minister of Interior. This achievement was made possible by women who have fought hard throughout the countrys history to break into politics, a domain that once belonged exclusively to men. These female pioneers led the way for Lebanese women to, slowly but surely, be represented in the echelons of power.

Saad Hariri appointed four women to ministerial posts in his new government, but Lebanon still lags behind other countries when it comes to female representation in politics. There are just six female MPs out of the 128 members of Parliament.

LOrient-Le Jour (OLJ) is honoring three women who made an impact in Lebanese politics before 1975 and who advanced the cause of womens rights in Lebanon, even if there is still a long way to go.

Myrna Bustani was the first woman to be elected to Parliament in 1963. Nohad Soueid, the Sicilian widow, fought to keep her husbands parliamentary seat in Jbeil. And Laure Moghaizel pushed to modernize Lebanese law to support womens rights.





(Dont miss, only today, our special offer exclusively for women: a premium subscription for one dollar only for a year)





Myrna Bustani: The first female parliamentarian

Myrna Bustani was not preparing to enter the world of politics. But her father, the businessman and MP Emile Bustani, passed away in 1963, and Myrna, as an only child, was obliged to take over his political legacy. At the age of 25, she stood as a candidate in the election held in the Chouf to fill the vacancy left by her fathers death and was automatically elected. It was the first time a woman became a member of Parliament.

Bustani served the remainder of the term, but did not seek re-election. Even though she didnt pursue a longer career in politics, her presence in Parliament continues to carry symbolic weight. I didnt stay long in the Parliament, because politics is tiresome and useless. But it was important for me to step in after my fathers death, and furthermore, it was the first time that a woman played such an important role in the political arena, Bustani told OLJ. My entrance to this masculine world was very nice. It was an interesting time, but I no longer wanted to be part of the political life. I believe that my presence in Parliament was very interesting for women, but I wasnt made for this life.

During her time in Parliament, Bustani focused on working within the parliamentary committee on education. Today, she is no longer involved in politics, but is an accomplished businesswoman and runs the family-owned Al-Bustan Hotel in Beit Mery. She has an immense passion for the arts and music and established the prestigious Al-Bustan International Festival in 1994. She is also an active member of numerous civil associations.

Nohad Soueid: The Rock of Jbeil

In 1965, Nohad Germanos was a 32yearold widow and mother of six children between 6 months and 12 years old. After her husband, Antoun Soueid, passed away, she stood as a candidate in the by-election to fill his seat in Jbeil, but was opposed by the notorious Raymond Edde, who won the election. Nohad Soueid is originally from Aqoura (a remote area in Jbeil). When she decided to run for elections after her husbands death, she had the electoral voices of the two decisive communities in Jbeil: Aqoura and Qartaba, the latter being her husbands native town. She announced her candidacy to the Legislatives in 1965, wearing a black head veil, looking like a Sicilian widow. She was the first woman in Lebanon to stand up against Raymond Edde, says her son and ex-parliament member Fares Soueid.

Nohad Soueid was affiliated with the Destour Party, founded by the late President of the Republic Bechara el-Khoury, and was close to the Nahj movement. She fought Raymond Eddes National Bloc for years. Edde was with the Helf movement, which was close to Kataeb and the National Liberal Party (PNL). Soueid went on to play an important role in by-elections in 1996 by backing the candidacy of Najib Khoury, who won the election. She also ran for a seat in Parliament in 1968 and 1972, but didnt win. In 1992, Soueid finally reconciled with Raymond Edde and they decided to boycott Jbeils elections at the request of then Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir. In 1996, she ran for Parliament again and finally won. She held her seat until 2000 when she relinquished it to her son, Fares Soueid. Nohad Soueid passed away in 2016 at the age of 84.





Laure Moghaizel: The Lebanese Simone Veil

Laure Moghaizel was neither a deputy nor a minister, but she fought within two political parties and pushed for the modernization of Lebanese laws. Like Simone Veil, a French womens rights advocate, Moghaizel pushed to reform many laws that discriminate against women. A lawyer by training, she was active within the Kataeb party in the 1940s and 50s and founded the Lebanese Democratic Party in 1969 with her husband, Joseph Moghaizel, and Emile Bitar, Bassem Jisr and Samir Nassar. The party, which attracted a new elite, aimed to make Lebanon a secular country and to overcome religious differences and allegiances. It did not survive the Lebanese Civil War.

Moghaizels work and perseverance, however, helped Lebanese women gain a host of rights that they were previously denied, including: the right to vote in 1953; the right for non-Muslim women to gain inheritance in 1959; the right for women to keep their nationality after marriage in 1960; the right to move freely without their husbands permission in 1974; access to contraception in 1983; the same retirement age as men in 1987; the right to work in the field of trade and the ability for female diplomats to marry a foreigner without being summoned to the local administration in 1994; and the ability of married women in regards to life insurance contracts in 1995.

In 1996, Moghaizel also convinced Lebanon to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. She passed away in 1997 while still working on many unfinished projects, including securing the right for Lebanese women to pass their nationality to their children and the implementation of a civil law on personal status.





(This article war originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour the 8th of March)





Discover our full special edition, in French here








Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 8)  In celebration of International Women's Day, Vice President Leni Robredo on Friday addressed the issues of equality and empowerment in the country-- including the challenges Filipinas face nowadays.

Robredo, speaking to reporters, specifically pointed out the issue of female economic empowerment in the country-- labeling it as a crucial aspect in our development.

"Pero iyong sa experience ko kasi, talagang economic empowerment iyong crucial, na iyong babae dapat nararamdaman niya na kaya niyang tumayo sa sarili niyang paa, para hindi niya tinatanggap iyong pang-aabuso sa kaniya," Robredo said in an interview.

[Translation: In my experience, it's really economic empowerment that's crucial for women because they should feel that they could stand on their own feet, so that she will be able to fight abuses against her.]

"Kasi karamihan sa nasalubong namin na mga problema, kahit inaabuso na, parang they would choose to go back to the abusive environment dahil ang pakiramdam niya, hindi niya kayang buhayin iyong sarili niya at saka mga anak," the Vice President added.

[Translation: Most of the problems we have encountered (for Filipinas) is that even when they are already being abused, it's like they would choose to go back to the abusive environment because she feels like she can't sustain herself and her children.]

According to global group Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), economic empowerment is the capacity of both males and females to "participate in, contribute to, and benefit from growth processes in ways that recognize the value of their contributions, respect their dignity and make it possible to negotiate a fairer distribution of the benefits of growth."

What is women's economic empowerment?

Economic empowerment, in specific, provides women more access to economic resources and opportunities like jobs, financial services, and other assets such as property and skills development. It is also considered as a prerequisite in achieving Millennium Development Goals.

To achieve this, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) had listed down factors that will help contribute in the increase of opportunities for women around the world: access to more and better jobs, business climate that supports women in starting and doing business, a financial sector that gives women financial services tailored to their needs, and greater livelihood security in times of food and fuel crisis.

In the Philippine setting, the government takes pride of the Republic Act 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women (MCW).

The MCW targets to promote women empowerment by eliminating discrimination through "recognition, protection, and promotion" of the Filipinas' rights-- especially those in the marginalized sectors.

READ: PH drops to 5th in 'women in business' global ranking

"Economic empowerment is the first step to real empowerment. For every woman that is economically independent, the entire family has the chance to break free from abuse and poverty," Robredo said Friday.

Working towards equality

In her speech at the International Women's Summit 2019, Robredo pointed out certain steps that can be made as the country aims to further strengthen women economic empowerment.

"There are so many gender equality campaigns and programs already, but we must ask ourselves if we are truly reaching out to the women at the margins and if we are truly empowering our women," she said.

She added the government should focus on the outcomes, rather than the activities and campaigns being made to promote the aspect.

"Rather than spending gender and development funds for Christmas parties, for socializations, and buying of t-shirts, why don't we come up with programs that are much more relevant, sustainable, and meaningful like expanding livelihood opportunities for women?"

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in 2018 reported that more males were employed than females in the Philippines.

Only 38.3 percent of the employed sector comprised women, while 61.7 percent were males, according to the latest PSA data.

The 2018 findings also showed seven in 10 persons -- or 69.3 percent of unemployed Filipinos -- were women.
Online shopping is very popular in China due to the great variety of products and cheap or even free product delivery. As a tactical choice, some IP owners begin to purchase infringing products online and have the process of product delivery notarised. In this way, the plaintiffs attempt to bring lawsuits in a venue having jurisdiction over the place where the delivered product is received or the place where they reside, so as to gain home court advantage or win a favourable edge over the defendants. However, this could cause unfairness and inconvenience to the defendants.

No clear jurisdiction rules

The current relevant laws and regulations are unclear as to whether such forum shopping is proper. According to the Civil Procedure Law (effective as of 2015), a lawsuit arising from acts of infringement may be brought in a court having jurisdiction over a place where an act of infringement is committed or where the defendant resides. There are three relevant articles in the Judicial Interpretations of the Civil Procedure Law released by the Supreme Court (SPC), but they seemingly have some overlap. Article 24 provides that places where acts of infringement are committed include a place where an act of infringement is performed and a place where the result of infringement occurs. While common understanding can be reached for the meaning of the place where an act of infringement is performed, disagreement has arisen about places where the result of infringement occurs.

As to the question whether a place where the delivered product is received can be understood as a place where the result of infringement occurs, there are a lot of controversies. Articles 20 and 25 make things more complicated: according to Article 20, for a sales contract concluded via information networks, the place where the contract is performed may be one where the purchaser resides or one where the purchased product is received; according to Article 25, a place where an act of information network infringement is performed includes a place where the computer performing the accused act of infringement is located, and a place where the result of infringement occurs may be one where the right holder resides.

Some plaintiffs rely on Article 20 or Article 25 to argue that they are entitled to bring a civil action in a court having jurisdiction over a place where the delivered product is received or where they reside. Several such IP cases emerged across the country during the past two years; different courts have different decisions. For example, such forum shopping tactics were supported by courts in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, but were rejected by courts in Beijing and Guangdong.

SPC's position

In two recent cases, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said no to such forum shopping tactics and held that patent or trade mark infringement cases are not governed under Article 20 or 25.

In a design patent infringement case No 2016-MinShen-731, the SPC held that the acts of patent infringement alleged by the plaintiff are essentially inconsistent with the acts of infringing online dissemination rights and thus the plaintiff's residence cannot be used as a link for venue choice. Although no detailed explanation is given in the court decision, SPC believes that an act of IP infringement is not an act of information network infringement and thus Article 25 is not applicable for venue purposes in patent infringement cases.

In a more recent trade mark infringement case No 2016-MinXiaZhong-107, the SPC made more clarifications. The SPC reasoned that the rationale behind Article 20, which sets a further provision regarding the place where the contract is performed, is that for a sales contract concluded via the information network, it's difficult to determine the place where the defendant resides or the place where the contract is performed. The SPC implied that IP infringement cases should not be subject to Article 20 since it's easy to determine the place where the defendant resides or the place where the contract is performed. In the SPC's view, a case arising from breach of contract largely differs from an IP infringement or unfair competition case: the former merely concerns particular acts and particular parties, while the latter is not directed to the particular product, but to all products embodying a particular IP right. For the latter, the allegations of the plaintiff are not directed to the other party to a contract, but to all parties suspicious of infringement relating to the product of concern under relevant laws. In consideration of these differences, the SPC concluded that IP infringement or unfair competition cases shall be subject to their respective particular provisions, and it's improper to apply Article 20 even if the accused infringing product is purchased via online shopping.

Implications

First, when it comes to forum shopping, the nature of patent and trade mark infringements remains unchanged in spite of the internet. For such cases, the place where an act of infringement is performed or the place where the defendant resides can be determined without much difficulty. Therefore, IP owners are not allowed to establish venue as in cases involving contracts concluded via information networks and infringements occurring via information networks.

Second, for IP cases, random forum shopping is not advocated and "centralised control" is the future trend. During the past three years, China launched a pilot programme to set up three specialised IP courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and to further include four new IP tribunals in Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu. All these measures are taken to avoid dispersing IP cases (especially patent cases) across the country, so as to avoid inconsistent decisions for similar cases to be reached at different courts. This is also supported by the case guidance system developed by the SPC and embraced by the Beijing IP Court. With these in mind, it would be easy to understand why the SPC is unwilling to empower jurisdiction of IP cases to all courts whose judicial districts can be reached via delivery or shipment.

Steve Song Christina Qi

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Klook welcomes the spring season with travel deals at the second run of Travel Fest

Travel booking platform Klook announces the return of the highly-anticipated Klook Travel Fest. The event will be held on March 9-10, 2019 at the SMX Aura Convention Center, Halls 1-3, and brings with it over a hundred travel deals and experiences to choose from.

The first of its kind, the Klook Travel Fest is the only mobile-led experiential travel festival in the Philippines. Under the overarching theme Blossom Deals, the event allows attendees to discover the very best of

or cherry blossom season through a variety of customizable experiences in key destinations including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
For International Working Womens Day on 8 March, the unions have once again obtained legal notice for the general strike called by the feminist movement. For several months, preparations have been underway in all parts of the Spanish State for what is to be an even more successful protest than that in 2018.

The economically active female population stands at almost eleven-and-a-half points below the male, and 90 percent of women who are inactive are in that position because they are doing housework. Women represent 73 percent of part-time employment and 90 percent of people who take leave of absence for childcare. In addition, the unemployment rate for men is 12.87 percent, while for women it is 16.26 percent.

[This article was written by Lucha de Clases (Spanish section of the IMT) ahead of International Working Womens Day, when there will be a general strike throughout the Spanish State for womens rights. Read the original in Spanish.]

These are just some of the data that show how women remain in a very unfavourable situation with respect to men, and bear the burden of double oppression: as workers and as women. That is why we women have said enough!, and 8 March has become one of the years most important days of struggle.

Working women face all kinds of prejudices when it comes to finding a job, and indeed in the workplace, especially if we are of childbearing age, since employers regard our labour as carrying an additional cost. That is why large multinational corporations have started offering us the opportunity to freeze our eggs so that we do not stop working in the most productive years of our lives, and instead become mothers after the age of 40, when our professional careers are more consolidated. They try to convince us that it means liberation, but in fact it only represents the preservation of business interests.

The companies offering this option to their female employees are now a minority, but are they not forcing women to renounce motherhood? Obviously we respect and support all the decisions of women in this regard but we denounce this trap disguised as modernity, in which women workers are forced to choose between dedicating ourselves to domestic chores and our families; to generate profit for others by renouncing our family life; or to be slaves of both the family and work. In short, we are forced to live under the yoke of two inseparable systems: patriarchy and capitalism.

Capitalism squeezes out all our productive potential through lengthy working days, temporary contracts that make it impossible to plan for ones future, and a rhythm of work deepens the inertia of life. Once a woman becomes a mother, the obstacles in her working life multiply. Reduced working hours or maternity leave mean a reduction in social security contributions, which will have significant consequences for pensions in the future. Can we speak of rights if we have to decide between being mothers or maintaining our present income (in the form of wages) and future security (our pensions)?

Defenceless against aggression

But we must not only endure this double oppression in the workplace. According to government data, in 2018, 125,223 incidents of gender-related violence were reported to the police and 47 women were murdered. In addition, in 2017 there were 2,219 reports of rape, of which only 68 percent were investigated.

Only with an effective strike, with participation by both female workers and male workers, can we fight for an end our oppression as women and as workers / Image: Flickr, Fotomovimiento

We are facing a situation of helplessness when we are physically, psychologically and sexually assaulted. This was demonstrated with the case of "the wolf-pack", when a young woman was the victim of a gang rape and came up against the wall of a judicial power inherited from Francoism, which limited itself to condemning those accused for sexual abuse instead of rape. Recall that, among the perpetrators was a soldier and a civil guard. They were all released on bail in June 2018, as there is no final decision and the Navarre Court understands that there is no risk of destruction of evidence, escape or repeat offence. This is scandalous, since four of the five members of the pack are facing another trial, in which they are charged with the sexual abuse of another young woman from Pozoblanco (Cordoba).

We also know the case of Juana Rivas, who was accused of "child abduction" when she came to Spain with her two children against the will of the father, who had been convicted in 2009 of abusing her. She again denounced her former partner for abuse in 2016, but that complaint was sent to Italy for lack of a translation and was not taken into account. Currently, the children of Juana Rivas have lived with their father for more than a year and their custody hearing has not yet taken place.

Working-class women, immigrants or those on low income have to suffer the male chauvinist prejudices of the police and judges, who in many cases ignore our complaints. It is in these concrete cases that the true role of the so-called justice system is revealed: safeguarding the established order of the ruling class.

Commodification of poor women

But if we talk about violence against women, we cannot ignore one of the worst forms of slavery that women experience: prostitution. It is estimated that there are some 100,000 women who are forced into prostitution either because they are victims of trafficking or because they live in a situation of extreme need. As Marxists we can only oppose the legalisation of prostitution, since it would be legalising the slavery of thousands of women who have no other way to survive.

In addition to prostitution, in the last year, the debate on surrogate pregnancy has been fueled. In this practice, a woman rents her uterus in exchange for money to gestate an embryo from a different father and mother. Some liberals label surrogacy as an "altruistic and supportive" act towards two people who want to, but cannot be parents. In the words of Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera, "Is there something more feminist than a woman helping another woman to be a mother, altruistically?" However, acts of solidarity and altruism are never accompanied by money.

Once again we see how male and, of course, female defenders of capitalism disguise the slavery of women under the mask of modernity and reform. You just have to listen to Ciudadanos leaders Ines Arrimadas or Begona Villacis to hear evidence of this.

Class struggle lies behind surrogacy: wealthy men and women pay a poor woman to gestate an embryo for them. It is an act that, just like prostitution, is done out of pure necessity. An act that would not be carried out if the women who rent their uterus had their material needs catered for. How many rich women lend their uterus to this "altruistic" cause?

That is why we must strive to create the necessary material conditions that allow a dignified life, without having to resort to turning our bodies into commodities. That means guaranteeing employment for the entire working class and unemployment benefits equal to the minimum wage for those without a job. Only in this way will the foundations be laid for a new society that will eradicate all the forms of slavery women workers endure under patriarchy and capitalism.

A struggle of women alone?

The struggle for equality is not only a matter of gender, it is also a matter of class. Our natural allies are our partners in the working class, and not bourgeois women. They themselves reject the call for strike action. The women representatives of right-wing political parties are only forced to go to the demonstrations, very reluctantly, by the movement of millions of women and men against patriarchy. They are defenders of and privileged by the capitalist system, and they themselves (as businesswomen or in the political sphere) carry out actions that oppress women workers.

Therefore, we do not share the idea that male workers and activists should be excluded from the tasks of organisation and participation in the strike and demonstrations on 8 March. The best way to combat the prejudices that many of our male colleagues still have towards the struggle of women is to incorporate them into our struggle and make them aware of our problems.

The experience of the strike and demonstrations last year showed that the idea of a day of mobilisation exclusively for women did not connect with the needs and instincts of the young women and women workers. Everywhere, masses of young people of both sexes overflowed the demonstrations, ending attempts to establish non-mixed blocks. Young students of both sexes participated in strike pickets at universities. And, of course, in the factories and workplaces, the strikes had a greater impact the more male workers were involved in them, rather than being relegated to covering for their female counterparts.

What kind of strike do we need?

We should remember that last years strike was called for in different ways. On the one hand, minority unions called a 24-hour strike, while the main unions CCOO and UGT called for a two-hour stoppage. This year, UGT and CCOO have legally registered a 24-hour strike and, although they call for a two-hour stoppage, they are open to "deciding on the convenience of extending the strike throughout the day" for which "they will provide the necessary legal cover. "

This is a small step forward. This year, there will be fewer doubts about the legality of the 24-hour strike but a clear call for such a strike, with the objective of bringing the whole country to a standstill, is still lacking. This will only be accomplished if all the unions and feminist movement agree on the same strike terms, including a clear call for the participation of both female workers and male workers for the same demands. The programme we defend as Marxists includes:

Equal work for equal pay.

16 weeks of non-transferable maternity and paternity leave.

A 30-hour working week for men and women, allowing for a balance of work and family life so that women are not forced to reduce their working hours and salaries to carry out domestic chores and rear children.

State nurseries and dining halls in every neighbourhood and workplace with 50 or more workers.

A housing plan for women victims of domestic abuse, who are economically dependent on their aggressors, without the need to file a police report.

The general incorporation of "housewives" into productive work outside the home, rather than wages for housework.

An unemployment subsidy equal to the minimum wage for all unemployed women.

Only with an effective strike for these demands will we be in a position to put the system on the ropes, and therefore be in a better situation to fight for an end, not only to our oppression as women, but also to the oppression that we suffer as workers.

Susana Lopez and Aura Orbe (Lucha de Clases, Spain)
BOSTON - The Massachusetts State Police distributed several surveillance photos and video footage of a suspect in a recent vandalism of the Massachusetts State House building in the hope that someone will identify the man.

The unknown man is accused of leaving several graffiti tags on the State House and other locations in the area in the early morning hours of March 3. In all, graffiti was found in five separate locations including:

the State House at Derne and Bowdoin streets, and at Mount Vernon and Hancock streets.

the Department of Conservation and Recreation guard building at Mount Vernon Street,

the Fielder Foot Bridge,

a privately owned residence at Mount Vernon and Hancock streets.

State police and Boston police are conducting a joint investigation to determine if this graffiti was made by the same person who left other examples of graffiti on private residences and vehicles in the Beacon Hill area.

Police have not disclosed what any of the graffiti said other than that consisted of words expressing strong political beliefs.

Anyone with information is asked to call state trooper Timothy Burns at the Troop H detective office at 617 740-7812.
CHICOPEE  Apical Inc., a marijuana startup now based in Easthampton, plans to invest $15 million in a 68,000-square-foot indoor marijuana farm in the former Rock-Tenn paper carton plant.

The grow room would be big enough to house more than 13,000 marijuana plants, said Kot Kasom CEO of Apical. He plans to explain Apicals plans in depth at a state-mandated community outreach meeting 6 to 8 p.m., Friday, March 15, at the proposed site on 77 Champion Drive.

Apical's total plant, including the growing operation, the would occupy 72,000-square-feet of a 154,000-square foot building. The Apical space was most recently Menck Windows, a failed window manufacturer that closed abruptly in 2017.

Building product distributor Holden Humphrey Co. occupies another portion of the building. The building is owned by Winstanley Enterprises of Concord, Massachusetts.

Rock-Tenn closed its Chicopee factory in 2008 after 25 years of operation.

Kasom said Friday that the grow operation, factory, offices and kitchens for marijuana-infused food products will employ 60 workers.

He promised security for the facility which he described as state-of-the-art.

Apical wont have retail sales in Chicopee. It has an application pending with the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission for a retail shop at 19 Wemelco Way, Easthampton.

Kasom said the company, which formally went by the name Green Life Dispensary, had planned to grow product in Easthampton. But it then learned of the Chicopee property and changed its plans.

Its the perfect location, he said. Its close to (Interstates) 291 and the 391 he said. You can get on the MassPike easily.

Apical wants to have two additional retail stores but Kasom said they wont be local. Hes looking at towns closer to Boston where the customer base is larger.
Massachusetts added 11,400 jobs in January as the unemployment rate held steady at 3.1 for the fourth consecutive month, according to figures released Friday by the states Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that Massachusetts had the highest employment to population gains of any state in 2018," Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta said in a news release. "The fact that our labor force grew last year by 109,500 shows that even with such a low unemployment rate, Massachusetts continues to attract additional workers into our labor pool to help grow our economy.

Over the past year, the states seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped five-tenths of a percentage point.

State labor officials plan to release February numbers next week. Local jobless numbers will follow.

The Massachusetts unemployment rate is more than double  7 percent  when those who are working part-time but would rather work full-time and those no longer looking for work were taken into consideration.

The Massachusetts labor force increased by 7,200 in January from 3.8 million in December, as 8,400 more residents were employed and 1,200 fewer residents were unemployed over the month.

Also on Friday, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics released nationwide unemployment statics for February. Nationally, the economy gained just 20,000 jobs in February. The national unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent in February.

The weak February numbers followed strong January job gains.

In terms of Massachusetts job gains and losses by sector of the economy:
Broadway favorites or a beloved Irish band  or maybe both.

The Springfield Symphony Orchestras evening of Broadway hits and performances by Bo Firzgerald and the YankCelt Band are just two of the offerings to look forward to this weekend.

Here are a few suggestions for things to do this weekend in Western Massachusetts:

Don't forget to visit masslive.com/events for all of our events listings.

Did we miss anything?

Post suggestions in the comments section below
SPRINGFIELD  Dario Grullon, asked why he was pleading guilty in a drug case Thursday, said, Im doing it for my brother.

Asked by Hampden Superior Court Judge John S. Ferrara if he would be pleading guilty even if his brother Dariel Grullon hadnt also been charged, Dario Grullon said he would because he was guilty.

Dario Grullon, 27, was sentenced to five to seven years in state prison after pleading guilty to reduced charges from a drug bust at a Chestnut Park apartment in June 2017.

If Grullon had pleaded to the original charge  trafficking heroin in the amount of over 200 grams  the mandatory minimum sentence would have been 12 years in state prison. But he was allowed to plead guilty to trafficking heroin in the amount of 18 to 36 grams, which has a mandatory minimum sentence of three and one half years in state prison.

He also pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine in the amount of 36 to 100 grams (also a reduced charge), possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number, illegal possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition. For those he received sentences concurrent with the five to seven years on the heroin trafficking crime.

Assistant District Attorney Lee Baker said the charges were reduced in part because Grullon was so young and also because he didnt have a criminal record. He said Grullon, who is from the Dominican Republic, is not a citizen and deportation is almost certain after the sentence is served.

Grullon agreed to forfeit the $10,280 in cash found in the apartment by police.

Baker said police found over 273 grams of heroin, over 138 grams of cocaine, and the gun inside a sneaker. He said the brother had been evicted and were moving out.

At the time of the raid, a police spokesperson said there were 18,147 bags of heroin with various stamps, and 809 grams of raw heroin. Baker said it was found later that not all of that was heroin. Some was found to be a cutting agent and some was found to be fentanyl, for which Grullon hadnt been indicted, he said.

Nikolas Andreopoulos, lawyer for Grullon, said the unit was essentially a stash house where drugs were being kept.

Baker dismissed the case against 25-year-old Dariel Grullon, who faced much the same charges as his brother.

Andreopoulos, who stood in Thursday for Dariel Grullons lawyer Vincent Bongiorni, said Dariel Grullon had already moved out of the unit but had the misfortune of walking in during the raid. He said Dario Grullon, not his brother Dariel Grullon, was the target of the search warrant.
LONGMEADOW  Standing before a room full of women, Bay Path University freshman Andrealis Martinez Padilla shared a video she made of her life before and after Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico in 2017.

I left everything when we left Puerto Rico  my family, my friends, Martinez Padilla said in a voice over in the video. I survived the catastrophe to tell this devastating story.

After arriving she decided to continue her education and was accepted into four universities ultimately choosing Bay Path. On Friday, she was one of the many women celebrated during the universitys On the Move forum.

The campus event was an opportunity to celebrate people and organizations who are committed to advancing women, inspiring girls and promoting for change.

International Womens Day is just one day out of the year that we can highlight the added value of women and continue to support each other, address issues and move forward with synergy, said Janine Fondon, chairwoman of the Communications Department at the school and organizer of the event.

Beyond the event, which included keynote speaker Barbara Nobles Crawford, senior leadership and organizational development consultant at Harvard University, Fondon worked with LuJuana Hood, executive director of the Pan African Historical Museum in Springfield, to create an exhibit celebrating women.

This day women across the world are doing exactly what we are doing here and I felt like we needed to know more about the untold stories of women, so we have a whole exhibit with these stories and when you see it you say to yourself this is worthy of being told, she said.

Nobles Crawford said she was excited to be a part of the celebration.

The sense of community, the sense of purpose and the opportunity to inspire if I can and to be inspired, thats why Im here, she said. I want these women to take away the importance allies.

Nobles Crawford said she has had great mentors throughout her career.

I am the beneficiary of having great mentors who were champions for me in my career, but what I have learned is that we need more, she said. We need to get allies and they can be your friends, your family, women in your community, something less formal than a mentor in your career.

Nobles Crawford said she hopes women choose to prop each other up instead of tearing each other down, especially when they are in a field where there are few women.

There is room at the table for more than just one. You dont want to be an only. We recently did a study around what if feels like to be an only and you dont want to be that, she said. " If we can inspire young women to support each other and not be the only then we can start to change history."

Bay Path president Carol A. Leary, PhD. said this is this annual event is meant to inspire and celebrate women.

We are committed to cerebrating Womens History Month and celebrating the diversity of women in our history as a country, she said. " This is not just about celebrating women in general, but about bringing to the forefront all the diverse women in history who have had an impact on our country."

Leary credited Fondon for bringing together women of all walks of life for the event.

The energy you see and feel in this room is because of Janine and her committee, she is a magnet for women to come together and celebrate womens history on campus," she said.

The event also included break out sessions where women could have more in-depth discussions of everything from women in science to education and politics to pay equity, mentorship and business.
A Quincy Police detective made a harrowing discovery in a Star Market parking lot Friday morning: the body of a woman in a truck that had been buried in snow since Mondays storm.

Boston 25 News reports that the 56-year-old woman appeared to have been the victim of an overdose and no foul play was suspected.

The detective found the body around 11 a.m. in a pickup truck that had remained buried in snow for at least four days, the Patriot Ledger reported.

40 people died of suspected overdoses in Quincy in 2017, the most recent year for which state overdose statistics are available.

MassLive has reached out to Quincy Police for additional information.
A Cambridge man charged with illegal ammunition possession after allegedly saying he intended to go on a shooting spree was motivated by hatred of Democrats and supported the right-wing extremists who rioted in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to statements his roommate gave police.

The roommate of Brian Schwarztrauber, 54, told police that she had overheard him on the phone discussing the delivery of a gun, a shooting spree and a willingness to shoot through windows if I have to, the Boston Globe reported.

And she believed that his anger was almost exclusively politically motivated by antipathy toward Democrats, according to police reports reviewed by the Globe. The roommate also told police she had heard Schwarztrauber talk of a desire to start a civil war.

Schwarztrauber, a finance and accounting consultant, pled not guilty. His attorney Maximilian Martucelli said that his client was cooperative with police and does not own a gun.

He certainly had no intention of committing any of these crimes that are being attributed to him, said Martucelli, according to the Globe.

Schwarztrauber was taken into custody on March 2 at the Northeast Gun Show in Wilmington after police received a report of a disruptive person, the Office of Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement.

While police were speaking to the defendant they received notification from Cambridge Police concerning statements allegedly made by the defendant indicating that he was going to use a firearm and ammunition to allegedly conduct a shooting spree, the district attorneys office said. Due to his level of intoxication the defendant was placed into protective custody while officers continued to investigate the incident.

As Wilmington police were speaking to Schwarztrauber, Cambridge police contacted them about the alleged comments about committing a shooting reported by his roommate. Police also found that Schwarztrauber had allegedly purchased 150 rounds of 9mm ammunition at the gun show without a license.

The vendor who sold Schwarztrauber the ammunition has also been charged.

When police obtained a search warrant to search Schwarztraubers home, they found additional rifle ammunition but no firearm.

Middlesex prosecutor Sam Zaganjori said at the arraignment that Schwarztrauber was in the process of obtaining a sniper rifle, CBS Boston reported.

Schwarztrauber was issued a $25,000 cash bail.

The vendor, identified as Stephen Fowler, 69, of Guilford, Connecticut, has been charged with selling ammunition without complying with the requirements relating to Firearms Identifications Cards. Fowler was arraigned in Woburn District Court on March 5 and was released on $500 cash bail, according to the district attorneys office. He was also ordered not to sell firearms or ammunition in Massachusetts.
LUDLOW  Plastics manufacturer Meredith-Springfield Associates Inc. can get the business it needs to grow, said President and CEO Mel OLeary.

OLeary said he can get the equipment to expand his company, a manufacturer of blow-molded plastics, even though machines at his Moody Street plant cost $1 million or more.

But he can't get the people to grow his staff of just fewer than 100 workers. And he'd need more people to staff new machines and make more product.

"If I could hire 15 people today who we could train and help us grow, I would," O'Leary said. "I'm resisting growth. I don't want to spend that money on a machine and have it idle whey we hire enough people to staff it.

Pay starts at a few dollars above minimum wage for very basic jobs to nearly six figures a year for supervisors and skilled workers.

Meredith-Springfield has recruiters, it works with local trade schools and gets some new employees through the Hampden County Sheriff and the Hampden County Jail and House of Correction located near the factory.

OLeary said he is pleased that employers, schools, the government and others are starting to work in regional efforts to train people with with manufacturing skills.

But it hasn't been enough. O'Leary said he's farming out $1 million worth of business to subcontractor's wright now, paying competitors to do work in New York or Tennessee. It's work he'd rather do in-house here in Ludlow.

Meredith-Springfield is making new products.

For nearly the past few years, the company has made disposable, recyclable clear plastic barware called Reserv -- stemless wine glasses, carafes, pilsner beer glasses, hurricane glasses or cups shaped like a Mason jar or beer can  for a company called WNA, or Waddington North America, in Chelmsford.

The idea, O'Leary said, is that people at upscale events want to drink out of something that feel like glass, with a certain heft and rigidity. They don't want the red plastic cup.

But event spaces like convention halls, patio bars and the like don't want to deal with glass because it breaks and can be dangerous.

What Meredith -Springfield does that is special is that after the glass is formed and a piece of waster plastic is trimmed from the top, Meredith -Springfield machines use a proprietary technology to roll the lip of the glass over so it's not a sharp plasticky edge.

"That's the feel consumers expect to have," O'Leary said.

The glasses are recyclable, made of the same PET plastic as a water bottle.

In another example of Meredith-Springfield replacing glass with a glass-like feel, the company started last year making bottles for pure maple syrup. Butternut Mountain Farm in Morrisville, Vermont, needed bottles that feel heavy and rigid, like the glass bottles syrup traditional comes in. But glass breaks in storage and many food distributors and warehouse operations won't handle it.

Meredith-Springfields innovation is creating a bottle that can also be filled with syrup that is still hot without the bottle losing shape.

Butternut Farms' syrup is sold as a store brand through a major chain retailer.

O'Leary hands over the bottle Meredith-Springfield makes, filled with syrup.

"People in focus groups think its glass," he said.

Meredith -Springfield takes gets a leg up when working with customers nearby.

Its made bottles for years for Absorbine horse-care products of W.F. Young in East Longmeadow, including a bottle with a quilted texture, quilted like a horse blanket and a bottle for black hoof polish that wont tip over.

Meredith-Springfield makes jars for packaging Mrs. Dash seasoning and Vermont Maid Pancake Syrup for New Jersey -based B&G Foods. It makes bottles for T.N. Dickinsons Witch Hazel manufactured by American Distilling of East Hampton, Connecticut.

It makes plastic nozzles for the vapor capture systems on gas pumps.

And it makes millions of empty plastic ice packs each year and ships them off to be filled with the goo that stays cold.

It's mostly for picnic coolers, but Meredith-Springfield's customer also makes a line of ice packs for the pharmaceutical industry that are used to keep drugs cool during shipment.

One machine is always making the ice packs, OLeary said. But hes about to switch over more production lines to ice packs so he can meet seasonal demand for summer picnics.
A Lawrence policeman accused of raping a child. A Cambridge man arrested for illegally buying ammunition after talking about going on a shooting spree.

Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday pointed to these two recent cases as further evidence that Massachusetts needs to reform the process by which a judge can order someone held as dangerous before their case goes to trial.

We do not have in Massachusetts a coherent way of determining whether or not somebody whos before the court is a danger or not, Baker told reporters after an unrelated in event in Boston.

Baker in January refiled a bill that would make it easier for judges to keep someone in jail after deeming them dangerous.

Currently, a judge can hold a dangerousness hearing and incarcerate someone pretrial if they are charged with specific crimes and under specific circumstances. Bakers bill would broaden those circumstances.

For example, it would allow a judge to consider the persons past criminal history. It would also expand the list of offenses that can lead to a dangerousness hearing.

Baker said the recent cases illustrate the need for reform.

In Lawrence, Police Officer Carlos Vieira was arrested for allegedly raping a 13-year-old boy he met using the app Grindr. The judge in that case said that due to a Supreme Judicial Court ruling, she could not order a dangerousness hearing for Vieira because the charge did not warrant it. His bail was set at $75,000.

In Cambridge, Brian Schwarztrauber was arrested for allegedly purchasing 150 rounds of ammunition at a gun show without a license. The Boston Globe reported that he had been talking to his roommate about going on shooting sprees. His bail was set at $25,000.

Baker said he is glad the state no longer uses bail as a means for holding someone who is considered dangerous, but only to ensure that someone shows up in court. But, Baker said, In the absence of that, there needs to be some mechanism that the judge, the prosecution and the defense can engage in a discussion about dangerousness in cases where its justified.

Baker initially filed the bill last year in the wake of the killings of three police officers in the state, all by men who had criminal records.

Baker said he hopes lawmakers act on his bill soon, before something really terrible happens.
By LISA MASCARO and LAURIE KELLMAN | Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP)  Divided in debate but mostly united in a final vote, the House passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other bigotry Thursday, with Democrats trying to push past a dispute that has overwhelmed their agenda and exposed fault lines that could shadow them through next year's elections.

The one-sided 407-23 vote belied the emotional infighting over how to respond to freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar's recent comments suggesting House supporters of Israel have dual allegiances. For days, Democrats wrestled with whether or how to punish the lawmaker, arguing over whether Omar, one of two Muslim women in Congress, should be singled out, what other types of bias should be decried in the text and whether the party would tolerate dissenting views on Israel.

Republicans generally joined in the favorable vote, though nearly two-dozen opposed the measure, one calling it a "sham."

Generational as well as ideological, the argument was fueled in part by young, liberal lawmakers  and voters  who have become a face of the newly empowered Democratic majority in the House. These lawmakers are critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, rejecting the conservative leader's approach to Palestinians and other issues.

They split sharply from Democratic leaders who seemed caught off guard by the support for Omar and unprepared for the debate. But the leaders regrouped.

"It's not about her. It's about these forms of hatred," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before the vote.

The resolution approved Thursday condemns anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities "as hateful expressions of intolerance." Omar, a Somali-American, and fellow Muslims Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Andrew Carson of Indiana, issued a statement praising the "historic" vote as the first resolution to condemn "anti-Muslim bigotry."

Some Democrats complained that Omar's comments on Israel had ignited all this debate while years of President Donald Trump's racially charged rhetoric had led to no similar congressional action.

The seven-page document details a history of recent attacks not only against Jews in the United States but also Muslims, as it condemns all such discrimination as contradictory to "the values and aspirations" of the people of the United States. The vote was delayed for a time on Thursday to include mention of Latinos to address concerns of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. It was inserted under a section on white supremacists who "weaponize hate for political gain" over a long list of "traditionally persecuted peoples."

An earlier version focused more narrowly on anti-Semitism. The final resolution did not mention Omar by name.

Getting this debate right will be crucial for Democrats in 2020. U.S.-Israel policy is a prominent issue that is exposing the splits between the party's core voters, its liberal flank and the more centrist Americans in Trump country the party hopes to reach.

"What I fear is going on in the House now is an effort to target Congresswoman Omar as a way of stifling that debate. That's wrong," said presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent.

"Anti-Semitism is a hateful and dangerous ideology which must be vigorously opposed in the United States and around the world," the senator said. "We must not, however, equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government in Israel."

Other Democratic presidential contenders tried to walk a similar line.

California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris said "we need to speak out against hate." But she said she also believes "there is a critical difference between criticism of policy or political leaders, and anti-Semitism."

A statement from Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said, "Branding criticism of Israel as automatically anti-Semitic has a chilling effect on our public discourse and makes it harder to achieve a peaceful solution between Israelis and Palestinians." She said threats of violence, including those made against Omar, "are never acceptable.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said, "Everyone is entitled to their opinion, they are allowed to have free speech in this country," Gillibrand said. "But we don't need to use anti-Semitic tropes or anti-Muslim tropes to be heard."

Another member of the new crop of outspoken young House freshmen, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, said the final product, as well as the way presidential candidates are now talking about the issue, showed "there's been some really great progress we've made."

But Omar's rhetoric is taking Democrats to a place that leaves many uneasy. The new lawmaker sparked a weeklong debate in Congress as fellow Democrats said her comments have no place in the party. She suggested Israel's supporters were pushing lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance" to a foreign country, reviving a trope of dual loyalties. It wasn't her first dip into such rhetoric.

The new congresswoman has been critical of the Jewish state in the past and apologized for those previous comments. But Omar has not apologized for what this latest comment.

Pelosi said she did not believe that Omar understood the "weight of her words" or that they would be perceived by some as anti-Semitic.

Asked whether the resolution was intended to "police" lawmakers' words, Pelosi replied: "We are not policing the speech of our members. We are condemning anti-Semitism," Islamophobia and white supremacy.

Some of the House's leading Jewish Democrats wanted to bring a resolution on the floor simply condemning anti-Semitism.

But other Democrats wanted to broaden the resolution to include a rejection of all forms of racism and bigotry. Others questioned whether a resolution was necessary at all and viewed it as unfairly singling out Omar at a time when Trump and others have made disparaging racial comments.

There remained frustration that the party that touts its diversity conducted such a messy and public debate about how to declare its opposition to bigotry.

"This shouldn't be so hard," Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., said on the House floor.

Among the Republican dissenters, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a member of the GOP leadership, called the resolution "a sham put forward by Democrats to avoid condemning one of their own and denouncing vile anti-Semitism."

In part, Democratic leaders were trying to fend off a challenge from Republicans on the issue.

They worry they could run into trouble on another bill, their signature ethics and voting reform package, if Republicans try to tack their own anti-Semitism bill on as an amendment. By voting Thursday, the House Democratic vote counters believed they could inoculate their lawmakers against such a move.
Classes resumed as normal after a student found a bullet in Beverly Middle School.

Beverly Police responded to the school around 8:48 a.m. after the live round was discovered. The school was placed into lockdown before officers declared the area safe, Massachusetts State Police said.

A State Police K9 unit also assisted with the search.

Officers with the assistance of local K9 units swept the grounds resulting in no more items being found, Beverly Police said. At this time, Beverly Middle School has lifted the learn in place and resumed normal operations. Added police presence will remain at the school for the remainder of the day.

The handgun round was found by a fifth grade student who brought it to the schools office, 7 News reported.

An investigation is ongoing.
A Massachusetts driver who was driving the wrong direction on Interstate 395 in Plainfield early Friday died after crashing head-on into another vehicle, according to reports.

The driver, Stephen Wild of Uxbridge, died of injuries in the 1 a.m. crash near exit 32, according to NBC Connecticut.

Wild was driving south in the northbound lane when he slammed head-on into another vehicle.

The driver and passenger in the other car suffered minor injuries and were taken to a hospital to be checked out.

The Norwich Bulletin cites Connecticut State Police sources who said the two vehicles collided at a spot in the highway where there was a slight incline and a curve.

The highway was closed for several hours while the crash scene was cleared.
Purdue Pharma is asking a Massachusetts judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Maura Healey that accused the company of lying to doctors and consumers about the addiction and health risks of the opioids it manufactures, including OxyContin.

The Commonwealths Amended Complaint is replete with sensational and inflammatory allegations, but utterly neglects to meet its burden to allege legally viable claims, lawyers for Purdue Pharma wrote in their court brief.

In a 46-page brief filed March 1 in Suffolk Superior Court, the company said Healey set forth a deliberately misleading narrative by grossly mischaracterizing Purdues internal business documents and emails.

The companys attorneys wrote, Recognizing the weakness of its legal theories, the Commonwealth has resorted to the creation of a sensationalist and distorted narrative that ignores facts and mischaracterizes numerous e-mails and business documents.

The company refers to Healeys lawsuit as oversimplified scapegoating based on a distorted account of the facts unsupported by applicable law.

Healeys lawsuit details aggressive marketing techniques used by Purdue Pharma to get doctors to prescribe more drugs to more patients in higher doses for longer periods of time. Healey says the company knew opioids were addictive, yet lied about it in order to increase their sales. She says company officials knew some doctors were prescribing improperly to patients who were abusing drugs.

Purdue Pharma responded that while there is a crisis of opioid abuse in Massachusetts, the responsibility cannot be tied to one company that manufactures a tiny fraction of the opioids prescribed in the state. Less than 2 percent of prescription opioids nationwide are manufactured by Purdue Pharma. The company notes that state officials have described opioid addiction as a complex issue with many contributing factors.

Purdue Pharmas motion to dismiss says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of OxyContin and other Purdue medications as safe and effective treatments for chronic pain, including for long-term therapy at high doses. The company complies with FDA requirements that it warn about the dangers of addiction on its medication labels.

The Commonwealths efforts to substitute its judgment over FDAs and hold Purdue liable for not providing the warnings that FDA, in its expert view of the science, declined to impose cannot stand, lawyers for the company wrote.

The company called Purdues sales tactics standard industry practice.

Company officials say Purdue cannot be held responsible for inappropriate prescribing practices of physicians.

Purdue said many of the claims by Healey were already resolved in a 2007 settlement in which Purdue executives pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally misbranding OxyContin by lying about its potential for addiction.
Logan Marks, 23, was born and raised in Mansfield, Mass., and he is expecting to see many friends and family members in the audience as he performs as stars as Mark Cohen in Rent when it comes to Hartford on Tuesday.

The Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning Rent is returning to the stage in a vibrant 20th anniversary tour, which runs through March 17 at The Bushnell in Hartford.

This is the closest the tour is coming to his hometown, and Marks is excited so many people he knows will see him perform. My mom made sure of it, he said with a chuckle during a telephone interview from Philadelphia.

Recommended for those age 13 and older, Rent follows an unforgettable year in the lives of seven artists struggling to follow their dreams. With an inspiring message of joy and hope in the face of fear, this timeless celebration of friendship and creativity encourages audience members to measure their lives with love.

Hope and joy are what Marks hopes the audiences will get from Rent, no matter what they face in life. Hopefully they will find beauty and joy in the world, he said. You have to find that.  Today may be your last day.

The musical opened on Broadway in 1996. It is a powerful, moving, heartbreaking and uplifting story of young, impoverished New York artists who were seeking to make their way in the world, longing to connect and trying to survive the looming specter of AIDS.

Marks plays Mark Cohen, an aspiring filmmaker who always carries his camera. The character is also the narrator. Its a neat opportunity to be on both sides of the story, he said.

News broke during the tour in early March that for just the second time since the global AIDS epidemic began, a patient appeared to have been cured of infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The first cases of what would later become known as AIDS were reported in the United States in 1981.

It was very exciting news for the cast, Marks said, noting that four of the eight principle characters have AIDS, which takes a toll on the group of friends.

We are lucky in 2019 that AIDS is less of an issue than it was in the 90s. There is a much, much, much better survival rate, he said. The fact that there was a second cure proves medicine and technology are getting better and more people have the opportunity to live (AIDS free).

The actors in the first production of Rent were black, white and brown; the characters were straight, gay, bisexual and transgender. Although the show was famously inspired by Puccinis opera, La Boheme, it was also a reflection of the life of its creator, Jonathan Larson, who wrote the book, music and lyrics. His score melded Broadway savvy with contemporary rock.

To celebrate the musicals 20th anniversary, key members of the original creative team have reunited for the national tour of Rent, enabling a new generation to discover why the show is so special and why it continues to have a profound effect on audiences.

It has enormously valid things to say about the ways in which we all seek out community and form families and how we take care of one another in very difficult times, said Michael Greif, who directed the original Off-Broadway and Broadway productions. The message of the musical is to truly appreciate the time that we have and to truly appreciate each other because you dont know when someone will be gone from your life.

This is Marks first national tour. A 2017 graduate of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee with a bachelors degree in fine arts in musical theater, he was cast in Rent in February 2018. He has performed in about 175 shows including some in China and Japan.

But the show never gets boring for him.

I love this role. I love this show. I love this cast and company, he said, admitting that sometimes he might feel a little robotic so the challenge is to keep the show fresh because each audience deserves to get a performance like opening night.

Each audience has its own energy, and that helps keep the show fresh, too, he said.

The Hartford production will be staged in The Bushnells William H. Mortensen Hall; it runs two hours and 35 minutes with one intermission.

There will be an ASL interpreted performance on March 17 at 6:30 p.m. For more information on how to acquire tickets, send requests to info@bushnell.org or call 860-987-6097 (TTY) or 860-987-5900 (Voice).

For general tickets and more information go to bushnell.org/RENT.
Authorities arrested a 40-year-old Springfield Six Corners neighborhood woman Tuesday for her alleged role in trafficking cocaine out of her home where she ran a daycare center.

Along with trafficking cocaine, Elsie Pereira, of Pine Street, was charged with trafficking cocaine over 200 grams and conspiracy to violate drug laws, according to a release by the Hampden District Attorneys office.

Detectives from the Massachusetts State Police Commonwealth Interstate Narcotics Reduction Enforcement Team, and inspectors from the United States Postal Service, through the course of their investigation, became aware of numerous suspicious packages addressed to Pereira at her home

A search warrant was obtained for the latest package which contained two kilograms, approximately 4.5 pounds, of cocaine. The estimated street value of the seized cocaine is approximately $160,000.

After placing the home under surveillance on Tuesday, detectives witnessed numerous children being dropped off there in the morning

On the same day, Pereira was called to a postal facility to acquire her package, rather than execute a search warrant at the home where there was an active daycare.

At approximately 6:45 p.m. Pereira appeared at the postal facility, signed for and took possession the parcel. She was stopped and arrested as she exited the facility.

State police detectives have notified the Department of Children and Families regarding the status of the daycare.

Pereira was arraigned in District Court on March 6 and ordered held in lieu of $2,000. Her next scheduled court date is on April 12.
SOUTH HADLEY  Voters from both of the towns fire and water districts will cast ballots at South Hadley High School for the April 9 town election, in a change to the voting process that officials hope will increase turnout.

Thats the positive side of it," said Selectboard Chairman Ira Brezinsky. There are some logistical issues to work out.

The Select Board recently approved the Town Election warrant, with Brezinsky announcing the election and the open positions at the boards March 5 meeting.

Voters will elect a Town Moderator for a two-year term, as well as members for the Planning and Select Boards, School Committee and Municipal Light Board. The election will also fill two seats on the Board of Assessors, three Library Trustee seas, a representative to the Hampshire County of Governments and seats on the Board of Health and Housing Authority.

Voters will also elect Town Meeting members. Precincts A, B, C, D and E will choose eight members for a three-year term. Precincts C, D and E will also select a member each for a two-year stint, while Precinct C will add one member for a one-year term.

Town Administrator Michael J. Sullivan said police will direct traffic and poll workers will assist voters who might have questions. He said elections for Fire and Water Districts #1 and #2 fall outside the towns authority.

In prior years, the districts held separate elections at their headquarters, usually in late spring. Voters in those districts recently agreed to cast ballots on the same day and location, South Hadley High School, coinciding with the April 9 Town Election.

The Massachusetts Secretary of States Office granted the town permission to hold the election. The town must post the warrant at least seven days before the election.

Copies of the warrant will be posted at Town Hall, the South Hadley Public Library, the Big Y Supermarket, the Council on Aging and the Fire District #2 station.

Voting hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
SPRINGFIELD  Holy Name Church will have Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, March 11, as part of Bishop Mitchell Rozanskis Diocesan Day of Prayer for Healing and Reconciliation.

In a Jan. 15 letter to parishes in the Springfield Roman Catholic diocese that covers all four counties of Western Massachusetts, Rozanski asked all churches to remain open on the first Monday in Lent as part of diocesan-wide efforts addressing the clergy sexual abuse crisis through prayer and dialogue.

Reminders have run in some parish bulletins and on websites, like that of Holy Name, and the diocese has explained the all-day hours, usually reserved only for observances in most parishes like Good Friday, as enabling parishioners to come to offer private prayers for victims of clergy abuse, their families and loved ones.

The healing day is part of other recent efforts the diocesan has undertaken in the wake of national and global events that have highlighted how the Churchs decades old abuse crisis continues to deepen and evolve and have ignited concerns in dioceses that did take early steps to address the issue.

A report published in early February at Rozanskis request in the diocesan magazine, The Catholic Mirror, to address how the diocese has responded to the clergy abuse crisis showed some 15 reports were made in 2018 and in a subsequent interview Rozanski said three more have been made since January.

Rozanski stressed that "none involves any allegation of current abuse and that all will be fully investigated.

The report prompted Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni to establish a hotline out of his office for victims to report directly to law enforcement any allegations of any sexual crimes committed by a member of the clergy in Hampden County.

The published report in the Catholic Mirror and on the dioceses website notes the diocese has had an independent board that reviews abuse allegations since 1994, that the majority of the abuse occurred prior to this century and that cases are reported to the relevant district attorney.

The report also shows that to date the Springfield diocese has paid out $14.9 million in settling 147 claims since 1992.

It also shows the diocese has paid $2.25 million for therapy and counseling for victims of abuse with more than $150,000 paid in 2018.

Other recent initiatives undertaken by Rozanski, who was installed as bishop here in 2014, include a series of listening and dialogue to address parishioners concerns about clergy sex abuse cases.

The two remaining sessions will be held Monday, March 18, at St. Mary Church, Westfield, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 24, at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, Northampton, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

On Sunday, April 7 at 2 p.m., there will be prayer services at St. Michaels Cathedral and at St. Joseph Church in Pittsfield.

The Vaticans recent summit gathering abuse survivors and bishops from around the world to address the issue ended with both reactions of praise for its historic nature and disappointment in concrete accomplishments.

The summit was held in the wake of a Pennsylvania 18-month grand jury report that revealed some 300 priests in six dioceses had sexually abused 1,000 children over seven decades and that the cases were covered up by church hierarchy.

It also occurred just as former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was removed from priesthood after a Vatican tribunal found him guilty of sexual abuse.

On Thursday, March 7, French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, was found guilty by a French tribunal of failing to report to authorities the alleged sexual abuse of a priest in his diocese, given a six-month suspended prison sentence ,and announced that he will resign as archbishop.

Cardinal George Pell will be sentenced Wednesday, March 13, in Australia for an abuse conviction handed down by a Melbourne court in December. He is the highest-ranked Catholic clergyman to be found guilty of child sexual abuse to date by a criminal court.

Speaking this week in Rome to a gathering of priests there, Pope Francis, according to the Catholic News Agency, said, Sin disfigures us, and we experience with pain the humiliating experience of when we ourselves or one of our brother priests or bishops falls into the bottomless pits of vice, corruption or, worse still, of the crime that destroys the lives of others."

He reportedly told them he feels with them the unbearable pain and suffering that the wave of scandals  which the whole worlds newspapers are now full of  causes in us and in the whole ecclesial body.
BOUNTIFUL, Utah  An elementary school teacher in Utah was placed on administrative leave and faces disciplinary action after forcing a fourth grade student to remove the cross mark from his forehead commemorating Ash Wednesday.

William McLeod said he tried to explain to his Valley View Elementary School teacher, Moana Patterson, the religious significance of the ashes on his forehead, which marked the first day of Lent for his fellow Catholics. However, she ordered him to remove it.

She took me aside and she said, You have to take it off, the youth told KSTU-TV, Channel 13, in Salt Lake City. She gave me a disinfection wipe  whatever they are called  and she made me wipe it off.

Valley View Elementary is part of the Davis School District, the second largest district in the predominately Mormon state. Catholics account for 5 percent of the Utah population, according to the Pew Research Center.

McLeods grandmother, Karen Fisher, told KSTU that she spoke with the teacher by telephone.

I asked her if she read the Constitution with the First Amendment, and she said, no, Fisher said.

McLeod said he has since received a handwritten apology and candy from Patterson.

The Davis School District has also apologized for the incident.

Patterson was placed on administrative leave Thursday pending the outcome of an investigation into the incident, NBC News reported.

We are sorry about what happened and apologize to the student and the family for the teachers actions, the district said in a statement. The actions were unacceptable. No student should ever be asked or required to remove an ash cross from his or her forehead.
A Winthrop, Massachusetts restaurant is facing some backlash on social media after canceling an event planned by supporters of President Donald Trump.

Members of the Facebook group MA 4 Trump planned to gather at JWs Thursday night.

The restaurant told WCVB they ended up canceling the event after a flood of calls was made in protest.

In a Facebook post, JWs said the planned event caused divisiveness in their community.

It was never our intention to be embroiled in any controversy, and for that we are regretful, they wrote.

It has been brought to our attention that the event scheduled for tomorrow evening, which we have canceled, has caused... Posted by JW's on Wednesday, March 6, 2019

The MA 4 Trump page founder, Dianna Ploss, said on the group page that in addition to their event being canceled, police were reportedly called on members after they ordered food and drink at the Holiday Inn in Chelsea.

We also hope that our events might bring together people who have been lead to believe erroneous things about President Trump, who has actually accomplished many great things, she wrote on JWs Facebook post.

Yet, never in my wildest imagination did I ever think that my Fellow American Citizens would band together to oppose the rights we have been blessed with, she added.

MassLive has reached out to JWs for comment.
SPRINGFIELD  A record $263,965 was raised during this years 94.7 WMAS-FM Childrens Miracle Network Radiothon benefiting Baystate Childrens Hospital.

It is the largest grand total raised in the 18-year history of the event, surpassing last years amount of $245,367.

Dr. Charlotte Boney, chair of pediatrics at Baystate Childrens, called the radiothon, hosted by the WMAS Kellogg Krew, a true labor of love that takes a great number of volunteers to put together.

"Counted among those many volunteers is each and every person who picked up their phone to contribute their support," said Boney in a prepared statement

"We thank you for your generous donations recognizing our extremely talented team of caregivers who are dedicated to improving the lives of children throughout the region."

The two-day broadcast that began March 5 was led by Kellogg Krew on-air personalities Chris Kellogg, Dina McMahon and Lopez and featured live as well as taped interviews with young patients, their families and hospital staff interspersed into the Krews regular radio format.

Kellogg said his Krew has been "so fortunate to have interviewed hundreds of miracle children who Baystate Children's Hospital has helped."

"Those children and their families who return year after year to share their stories, we consider to be our extended family. Every year, they remind us that miracles do happen, even in the toughest of times," Kellogg said.

Colleague McMahon added, "Knowing that we can make sure kids have the best resources to help them heal, because of support from our listeners and sponsors, makes us proud to be a part of this team effort."

Scott Berg, vice president of philanthropy at Baystate Health and executive director of the Baystate Health Foundation, noted that the Krew has participated for more than a decade "bringing their enthusiasm and talent to making the 94.7 WMAS Radiothon such a success."

Their success is our success," Berg said.

"Every dollar stays local at our hospital and helps us to purchases expensive, life-saving equipment and conduct research into childhood illnesses and their treatment."

Baystate Childrens is one of 170 fund-raising Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals.

Phone Bank sponsor for this years radiothon was Lia Auto Group, Miracle Maker sponsor was Cartamundi, and Change Hero program sponsor was Pioneer Valley Credit Union.

Other sponsors included Freedom Credit Union as the Giggle Break sponsor and Costco and Subway as hospitality sponsors.

Donations can still be made by visiting the radiothon website or texting WMASkids to 51555.

Baystate Childrens is a 110-bed and 57-bassinette hospital located within Baystate Medical Center.

It is the only accredited full-service childrens hospital in Western Massachusetts and provides primary and advanced medical care to babies, children, and adolescents and their families.
SPRINGFIELD -Police on Wednesday arrested a 29-year-old city man, charging him with dealing cocaine in the parking lot of a State Street drug store while he was working there as a security guard.

Raphelle Rosario is charged with distribution of a class B substance and possession of a class B substance with intent to distribute.

According to police spokesman Ryan Walsh, undercover narcotics detectives were on an unrelated investigation when they spotted Rosario exchange drugs for money with another man in the parking lot.

They watched Rosario go back inside the store and the other man drive off in a car.

The man in the car was stopped a few blocks away and charged with possession of cocaine.

Police returned to the store and found Rosario inside. He was not an employee of the CVS but instead working for a private company hired by CVS to provide security.

Police found $595 in his possession and two bags of cocaine in Rosarios car.
SPRINGFIELD - A rollover crash on Interstate 91 has clogged up southbound traffic in West Springfield and Springfield, according to Massachusetts State Police.

Police said the accident has resulted in injuries, but no information is available about how many are hurt or how badly.

Two of three travel lanes are closed, causing a major traffic tie-up along the highway into West Springfield and the North End of Springfield. The southbound lane of I-391 from Chicopee is also backed up where it merges with I-91.

Police had no information on when the scene would be cleared.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren called Friday for breaking up technology giants, like Facebook, Google and Amazon, so that such companies do not crowd out smaller competitors, prevent future innovation or hold too much power and influence in politics.

The Massachusetts Democrat, who is among several candidates seeking the partys 2020 presidential nomination, unveiled her plan to impose new antitrust measures on tech companies, which would bar many from owning any participants on their platforms and reverse some tech mergers, in a Medium.com post.

Arguing that todays big tech companies have too much power over Americas economy, society and democracy, Warren said her presidential administration would make major changes to the tech sector to crack down on such influence.

The senator likened her plan to steps lawmakers took a century ago to break up oil, railroad and communications trusts in an effort to ensure competition.

In that tradition, she said, her proposal would restore competition to the tech sector through two major steps: Passing legislation that requires large tech platforms to be designated as platform utilities and broken apart from any participant on that platform; and appointing regulators committed to reversing illegal and anti-competitive tech mergers.

The steps Im proposing today will allow existing big tech companies to keep offering customer-friendly services, while promoting competition, stimulating innovation in the tech sector and ensuring that America continues to lead the world in producing cutting-edge tech companies, she said. Its how we protect the future of the internet.

Under Warrens proposal, companies with annual global revenue of at least $25 billion, which offer online public marketplaces, exchanges or platforms for connecting third parties, would be designated as "platform utilities and prohibited from owning any participants on their platforms.

They would also have to meet a standard of fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory dealing with users and be barred from transferring or sharing data with third parties, she noted. Federal regulators, state attorneys general or injured private parties would also be able to sue platform utilities who violate such requirements.

Tech companies with annual global revenues between $90 million and $25 billion, meanwhile, would also be required to meet similar standards, but would not have to structurally separate from participants on their platforms, according to the senator.

Warren, for example, offered that under her plan, Amazon Marketplace, Googles ad exchange and Google Search would be considered platform utilities and split apart.

The Democrat added that her proposal would also empower federal regulations to break up mergers that reduce competition, like those involving Amazon, Whole Foods and Zappos; Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram; and Google, Waze, Nest and DoubleClick.

She argued that unwinding these mergers will promote healthy competition in the market, which will put pressure on big tech companies to be more responsive to user concerns, including about our privacy."

The senator further stressed that such changes will not impact how Americans use Google, Facebook and Amazon. They will, however, help small businesses sell their products on Amazon, prevent Google from demoting competitors products on it search engine and force Facebook to protect user privacy, she said.

Warren announced her proposal to break up big tech" ahead of a campaign organizing event in Long Island City, New York.

Amazon was expected to open part of its second headquarters in Long Island City before the company backed out of that expansion in February.
Paul Manafort, President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, was sentenced in federal court to 47 months in prison Thursday  six months after the 69-year-old political operative was convicted of charges brought as part of Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian election meddling.

Manafort had faced up to 24 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines for failing to pay taxes on income he earned as a Ukrainian political consultant and defrauding banks and the government. However, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis called that calculation excessive and sentenced him instead to 47 months.

Ellis said the 47-month sentence was more in line with others who had been convicted on similar crimes.

While not apologizing for his actions, Manafort had asked Ellis for compassion.

The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family and I, Manafort said inside the Eastern District of Virginia courtroom. To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.

Following the sentencing, Manaforts lawyer, Kevin Downing, told reporters his clients conviction and sentencing had nothing to do with allegations of Russian collusion by the Trump campaign.

Manafort faces another sentencing next week in a Washington D.C. courtroom, where he could be handed a prison term of up to 10 years.

Ahead of Thursdays sentencing hearing, Manaforts lawyers asked the judge to give their client less prison time, arguing that the courts 19- to 24-year guideline was "clearly disproportionate to the offense conduct for which Mr. Manafort was convicted.

His attorneys further cited his age, health and cooperation with Muellers investigation as reasons he should face a shorter sentence.

Manafort was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, holding a cane.

Muellers office, in a separate sentencing memo, said while the government does not take a position as to the specific sentence to be imposed here, it believes Manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law, and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars.

The sentence here should reflect the seriousness of these crimes, and serve to both deter Manafort and others from engaging in such conduct," officials said.

Manafort was found guilty in August 2018 of eight financial crimes in a trial that came as part of the special counsels investigation into Trump associates. A mistrial was declared on 10 other counts that the jury could not reach a consensus on.

The former Trump campaign chairman later pleaded guilty in September 2018 to a new set of federal conspiracy charges as part of a cooperation agreement with Muellers office.

A federal judge, however, ruled last month that Manafort lied to prosecutors in three of five areas alleged by Muellers office, breaching the cooperation deal -- something that could impact his March 13 sentencing in that case.

The former Trump campaign official has denied intentionally lying after striking the agreement.
Massachusetts lawmakers touted the U.S. House of Representatives Friday approval of a wide-ranging and high-priority bill to address voting rights, campaign finance and government ethics-related issues.

All nine members of the states U.S. House delegation joined other Democrats in passing the sweeping legislation -- known as H.R. 1, or the For the People Act -- on a 234 to 193 vote.

The bill contains several top priority measures for House Democrats, including language mandating that presidents publicly disclose tax information, encouraging elected officials to rely on small donors instead of large corporate contributions and expanding early voting options, among other things.

U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, the Democratic Caucus vice chair, said the bill seeks to put power back in the hands of the people" and called its passage a win for democracy."

The Melrose Democrat noted that the measure includes two of her proposals that would require presidents and vice presidents to divest from their conflicts of interest and to release their tax returns before taking office.

Were bringing accountability back to politics, she tweeted.

#HR1 passed the House! This is a win for democracy and the American people! #ForThePeople https://t.co/B4lV0sXz7A  Katherine Clark (@RepKClark) March 8, 2019

Congressman Richard Neal, a Springfield Democrat and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the legislation will help bring more transparency to Americas campaign finance system and safeguard every citizens right to vote, including those who complete prison sentences for felonies.

The passage of H.R. 1 is a major step in the right direction. ... Democrats have worked hard to ensure that they keep their promises to stand up to corporations, make sure the government works for everyday Americans and guarantees that all voices are heard," he said in a statement.

U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Westford, called the Houses vote a big step forward in the fight to preserve and expand the right to vote and for the integrity of our elections.

I am also pleased that the legislation contained two of my amendments that were aimed at protecting the voting rights and access of the families of our brave service members in uniform, as well as making sure that agents of foreign governments are not able to exercise influence over the drawing of new congressional districts," she said in a statement. Like so many of my colleagues I campaigned on the issue of making government more open, transparent and fair for the people we represent. This legislation represents a promise kept.

Congressman Stephen Lynch, D-South Boston, said he was proud to see the House pass a bold ethics reform package created to end the culture of corruption that has overtaken our nations capital.

We promised to restore our democracy and bring transparency and accountability to Washington, and this is a first step," he tweeted.

I'm proud to see #HR1 pass the House today, a bold ethics reform package created to end the culture of corruption that has overtaken our Nation's capital. We promised to restore our democracy & bring transparency & accountability to Washington & this is a first step #ForThePeople  Rep. Stephen Lynch (@RepStephenLynch) March 8, 2019

Lynch also touted the bills inclusion of his White House Ethics Transparency Act, which would require presidential administrations to disclose waivers of executive branch ethics rules to the independent Office of Government Ethics.

He argued that the measure, if signed into law, will ensure the American people know who is working behind closed doors in their government and will stop federal agencies from being flooded with former lobbyists and consultants whose previous work presents serious conflicts of interest.

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Boston, thanked her colleagues for supporting the legislation, offering that its needed as the political system has become increasingly focused on the privileged and powerful, drowning out the voices, experiences and needs of everyday Americans and their families.

Grateful to my colleagues who came together w/ the promise to make Washington work #ForThePeople. Today, we passed by the #ForThePeopleAct - a bold democracy & ethics reform package. #HR1 pic.twitter.com/u3ZDTmb4ZI  Rep Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) March 8, 2019

The bill now heads to the GOP-led U.S. Senate, where it not expected to see any action.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has said he will not bring the measure up for a vote on his chambers floor, according to various news outlets.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and 2020 presidential hopeful, however, urged supporters to join her in demanding that the GOP leader take action on the House-passed legislation.

Good news: The House just passed the For The People Act, which includes key elements from my End Corruption Now bill, to start cleaning up corruption in Washington, she tweeted. Im joining (End Citizens United) to demand that (the majority leader) give the bill a vote on the Senate floor. Are you with us?

Good news: The House just passed the #ForThePeople Act, which includes key elements from my #EndCorruptionNow bill, to start cleaning up corruption in Washington.



Im joining @StopBigMoney to demand that @senatemajldr give the bill a vote on the Senate floor. Are you with us?  Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) March 8, 2019

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
SPRINGFIELD  A 67-year-old man with no criminal record on Friday admitted he brought a gun to a dispute with a neighbor on Sept. 10, 2017 in Southwick.

Thomas Grabowski, who now lives mostly in Maryland, was sentenced to three years probation by Hampden Superior Court Judge John S. Ferrara.

Grabowski gets credit for 208 days, which was the amount of time he was held without right to bail under the states dangerousness statute.

Both the prosecution and defense had asked Ferrara to impose probationary term on Grabowskis guilty plea to assault with a dangerous weapon.

Defense lawyer Nikolas Andreopoulos said Grabowski is trying to sell the Southwick property. As a condition of probation, if he wants to go to the property to finish cleaning it up, he has to notify the Southwick police and the Probation Department at least 24 hours in advance. The Probation Department would notify the victim, Andreopoulos said.

He understands now bringing a revolver to a mundane dispute with his neighbor was a terrible thing to do," Andreopoulos said of his client.

Grabowski, who said he owned a concrete foundation business for more than 30 years, was a licensed gun owner. Andreopoulos said he was afraid of the victim, so he brought a gun.

He said Grabowski was 67, otherwise a completely law abiding life.

Assistant District Attorney Christopher E. McDonald said the arguments began over Grabowskis fire pit, which was close to the property line. The neighbor was upset about smoke blowing over to his property, McDonald said.

Grabowski brought a gun to one of the fire pit arguments and took it from his waistband. The neighbor tried to grab the gun and it went off. The neighbor wrestled the gun away and threw it, McDonald said.

He said the victims daughter was outside when the gun went off and his wife saw the incident. He doesnt want his daughter to have to see Grabowski, which is the reason for the advance notice provision, McDonald said.

Ferrara said he would impose the recommended sentence but he told Grabowski there have been many instances where someone come before him who has threatened someone with a gun and gets more jail time than that which Grabowski has served.

So its a lenient disposition, Ferrara said.
A tractor trailer rollover on I-495 southbound near exit 23 Thursday has caused delays that are expected to last into the evening, according to Massachusetts State Police.

The ramp from Route 9 eastbound to I-495 southbound remains closed. Westborough Fire responded to the scene around 2 p.m. The rollover closed three lanes of traffic. Boston25 video shows the truck carrying a load of Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey.

#MAtraffic crash Rte 495 S/B in #Westborough RTL open S/B, Ramp from Rte 9 E/B to 495 S/B remains closed, traffic backed up to Rte 20 in #Marlborough. Expect delays into the evening. pic.twitter.com/8j2IXVjBs6  Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) March 7, 2019

According to Google traffic, I-495 South is backed up from Route 9 to Route 20 in Marlborough.
Meanwhile, the board did not vote Tuesday on a new lease for the One to World program, which provides Apple iPads and Macintosh laptops to each SD220 student for use at home and in school, Ptashkin said.
Northwestern Engineering alumna Gwynne Shotwell (86, MS 88) received the prestigious Ralph Coats Roe Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in an on-campus ceremony on February 28.

The Roe Medal, established in 1972, recognizes outstanding contributions toward a better public understanding and appreciation of engineers worth to contemporary society. Ralph Coats Roe was a pioneer and innovator in the design and construction of highly efficient power plants and advanced desalination processes.

Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, which manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft, received the honor for her outstanding leadership and innovation for space commercialization and the promotion of STEM education.

We are always very pleased when one of our alums is recognized in some major way, and this medal from ASME is a big deal, said Julio M. Ottino, dean of the McCormick School of Engineering.

At the ceremony, Shotwell presented the Roe Lecture, Launching Our Future, to around 200 members of the Northwestern University community.

In 2012, SpaceXs Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to and from the International Space Station. In 2017, the company successfully achieved the historic first re-flight of an orbital class rocket, and in 2018, SpaceX launched Falcon Heavy, the worlds most powerful operational rocket.

The work that were doing, and others as well, completely changes the way we think about the world, our solar system, and life on earth, Shotwell said.

Shotwell told the audience about SpaceXs ambitious goals to build reliable and relatively inexpensive space transportation systems that can facilitate people living on other planets. A major step toward this was the March 2 launch of the Dragon 2, which is designed to carry people.

Engineers today are actually quite different from engineers in years past, motivated by doing things quickly but doing really exciting things and really changing humanity with the systems they get to design and the projects they get to work on, she said.

While at Northwestern, Shotwell earned an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and a masters degree in applied mathematics. She was also a student member of ASME.

Its an honor to receive the award, and I love coming back to campus, she said. Shotwell chose to donate the gold medal from the award to the University and the associated $12,000 honorarium to the Minerva Institute for Research and Scholarship.

Shotwell, who topped Business Insiders list of most powerful female engineers in 2018, joined SpaceX when it was founded in 2002 as vice president of business development. She previously spent 10 years at The Aerospace Corporation, where she was the chief engineer of a Medium Launch Vehicle (MLV)-class satellite program, and she served as a manager of the Space Systems Division at Microcosm. She serves as a member of the McCormick Advisory Council and the Northwestern Board of Trustees.
The roots of Small Batch Rye extend to 2007, when Kilbeggan celebrated the 250-year anniversary of receiving its distilling license. To commemorate the occasion, Kilbeggan acquired a roughly 180-year-old pot still that had originally been used at Old Tullamore Distillery. It then began building a boutique distillery around that still that sought to replicate the size and scale of a distillery from the 1840s. That was out of necessity because the pot still is small; it can only produce about 400 liters of spirit a day, while the distillerys other two stills produce 1,600 liters and 3,000 liters.
In the new museum, the archives of some 85,000 hours of broadcasting will remain on the first floor, essentially behind the admission desk. The second floor, where SNL is now, will be the exhibit space and is due to get a complete overhaul next year, said Kulovsek.
Medical devices play a significant role in healthcare worldwide, and the recent safety issues around medical devices, such as active implantable devices, have highlighted the need for enhanced pre-market and post-market evaluation.

As active implantable devices are meant for internal use, have complex functionality, and are relatively small in size, this medical device is among the hardest ones to manufacture. Moreover, active implantable device is a medical device that comes into direct contact with the patients, thereby, it has to meet the most stringent standards of all. Manufacturers of active implantable devices have been on incorporating the advancing technology in their manufacturing processes to be able to manufacture components that comply with the stringent parameters.

As many stakeholders argue that certain features of medicine safety evaluation must be applied to medical devices, including active implantable device, the manufacturers of active implantable device are under immense pressure to constantly alter devices to comply with the rapidly changing regulations on medical devices. Furthermore, due to active implantable devices extended lifecycle and prolonged contact with patients, they are subject to the most stern standards and regulations.

However, factors, such as the growing number of health related issues, hefty healthcare investments and increasing favorable reimbursement plans by medical associations and government point towards positive growth in active implantable device market.

Active implantable devices are medical devices that are partially or fully introduced, surgically or medically, inside a human body and remains inside after the procedure. Active implantable devices fall under one of the highest risk categories of devices and are therefore, subject to stringent government regulations before they are allowed entry into the global market. The regulatory parameters also apply to the accessories that are used along with the active implantable devices. The digital age is offering explosive growth opportunities for medical devices and changing the nature of health care delivery. Wireless technologies which include active implantable medical devices are built to control and monitor bodily functions and measure an array of psychological parameters. These devices, based on various applications, are able to control heart rhythm, monitor hypertension and cranial pressure, can operate as sensors and provide electrical stimulation for nerves.

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Active Implantable Device Market: Drivers and Restraints

Primary factors driving the active implantable device market are increasing number of cardiovascular and neurological diseases, growth in aging population, expanded applications, higher accessibility to advanced technologies, increasing development of advanced products with better technology and increasing healthcare expenditure and favorable reimbursement scenarios in various regions. However, increasing pricing pressure by the players who dominate the market pose a great challenge to the growth of the other competitors in this market. Stringent regulations related to active implantable devices in certain regions and high cost of implants along with an unfavorable reimbursement scenario in some regions are some of the factors which might hinder the growth of the active implantable device market.

Active Implantable Device Market: Segmentation

Tentatively, the global active implantable device market has been segmented on the basis of product type and geography.

Based on product type, the global active implantable device market is segmented into:

Implantable Cardiac Pacemakers

Implantable hearing devices

Implantable heart monitors

Implantable loop recorders

Ventricular assist devices

Neuro-stimulators Deep Brain Stimulators Sacral Nerve Stimulators Gastric Electric Stimulators Vagus Electrical Stimulators Spinal Cord Stimulators

Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators Transvenous Implantable Cardiverter Defibrillator Biventricular Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Dual-Chamber Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Single-Chamber Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Subcutaneous Implantable Cardiverter Defibrillators



Based on geography, the global active implantable device market is segmented into:

North America

Latin America

Western Europe

Eastern Europe

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

Middle East & Africa

Active Implantable Device Market: Overview

The global market for active implantable devices is highly consolidated with very few players operating in the global space. To expand their geographic presence and garner higher share in the market, the major players are focusing on mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, agreements, collaborations and expansions. The market is dominated, globally, by four major players who account for more than 75% of the market share. Some of the established brands of active implantable devices are Cochlear Limited (Australia), MED-EL (Austria), Sonova Holding AG (Switzerland), and William Demant Holding A/S (Denmark), Medtronic plc (Ireland) and Nurotron Biotechnology Co. Ltd. (China).

Active Implantable Device Market: Regional Wise Outlook

Geographically, the global Active Implantable Device Market is classified into 8 regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, China and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to be the leader in the global echogenic catheters market owing to high concentration of key market players in the region. The market in Asia Pacific is expected to witness high growth rate due to the expansion of product offerings by key players during the forecast period. Europe is expected to hold the second largest share in the global active implantable device market throughout the forecast period.

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Active Implantable Device Market: Key Players

Some of the major players in the global active implantable device market are Medtronic plc (Ireland), Abbott Laboratories (U.S.), Boston Scientific Corporation (U.S.), BIOTRONIK SE & Co. KG (Germany), and LivaNova PLC (U.K.). Whereas, Cochlear Limited (Australia), MED-EL (Austria), Sonova Holding AG (Switzerland), William Demant Holding A/S (Denmark) and Nurotron Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (China).

The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.

The report covers exhaustive analysis on:

Market Segments

Market Dynamics

Market Size

Supply & Demand

Current Trends/Issues/Challenges

Competition & Companies involved

Technology

Value Chain

Regional analysis includes

North America (U.S., Canada)

Latin America (Mexico, Brazil)

Western Europe (Germany, Italy, U.K, Spain, France, Nordic countries, BENELUX)

Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, Rest Of Eastern Europe)

Asia Pacific (India, Australia & New Zealand)

China

Japan

Middle East and Africa (GCC, S. Africa, Rest Of MEA)

Report Highlights:

Detailed overview of parent market

Changing market dynamics in the industry

In-depth market segmentation

Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value

Recent industry trends and developments

Competitive landscape

Strategies of key players and products offered

Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth

A neutral perspective on market performance

Must-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint.

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The global blood collection market stood at USD 7460 Mn in 2017 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.1% over the forecast period of 2018-2023, predicts Market Research Future (MRFR) in a detailed study.

High disease incidence, the rise in a number of accidents and an increase in the volume of surgeries across the globe has consequently fueled the demand for blood collection and driven the market for blood collection. Growing health awareness on a global scale has raised the demand for disease screening and diagnostics which generally involves blood tests. Rising demand for early diseases diagnosis and improving reimbursement scenario propels the market for blood collection.

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Technological improvements in blood collection techniques and devices coupled with rising in FDA approvals for the same has reflected positively on the growth of the global blood collection market. Other factors contributing to the growth of the market include growing awareness regarding blood collection, favorable medical device regulations, expandi9ng healthcare expenditure, and increasing R&D activities.

The high cost of automated blood collection, injuries caused during blood collection, and risks of blood contamination and other complications are possible bottlenecks to the growth of the global blood collection market. Nerve damage, fainting, Haematoma or excessive bleeding, arteriospasm or involuntary contraction of the artery are some of the complications associated with blood collection which might hinder the market growth. Besides, the lack of skilled healthcare professionals to perform advanced blood collection techniques remains a challenge for the market.

Segmentation

The global blood collection market has been segmented based on type of blood collection, product, method, and end user.

By type of blood collection, the global blood collection market has been segmented into capillary blood collection, venous blood collection, and vacuum blood collection.

By product, the global blood collection market has been segmented into blood collection devices, blood collection tubes and collector, needles and syringes, warming devices, blood bags, lancets, and others. The blood collection tubes and collector segment has been further segmented into serum collection tubes, and plasma or whole blood collection tubes. The plasma or whole blood collection tubes sub-segment has been further segmented into EDTA tubes, heparin tubes, coagulation tubes, glucose tubes, and ESR tubes.

By method, the global blood collection market has been segmented into automated blood collection and manual blood collection.

By end user, the global blood collection market has been segmented into hospitals & clinics, diagnostic centers and pathology laboratories, home diagnostics, blood banks, and others. The hospitals & clinics segment accounts for the largest share of the market share due to the growing burden of chronic diseases. The diagnostic centers and pathology laboratories segment is likely to capture the highest CAGR owing to the ongoing research on better blood sampling approaches.

Regional Analysis

The Americas, Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, and the Middle East & Africa (MEA) are the key markets for blood collection.

The Americas dominate the global blood collection market on account of the rising prevalence of chronic diseases which necessitates blood tests to be performed for diagnosis and treatment. High healthcare expenditure and improvement in blood collection methods and devices also favor market growth.

Europe follows the Americas closely and accounts for the second largest share of the global blood collection market. Rigorous R&D activities and government funding for the same propels the market in Europe. In addition, the growing presence of leading market players in the region acts as a plus for the growth of the market.

APAC is poised to exhibit the highest growth rate over the forecast period. Presence of a massive patient pool and improvement in healthcare infrastructure drive the market in APAC.

The MEA market is relatively smaller than other markets and holds the minimum share of the global market. Developing healthcare infrastructure and growing awareness about blood collection techniques spur the market growth in the region.

Competitive Landscape

The notable players in the global blood collection market include Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.,

Nipro Medical, Kawasumi Laboratories, Haemonetics, F.L. Medical, Sarstedt AG & Co, Grifols,

Terumo, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Medtronic, Fresenius, Greiner Holding, HTL-STREFA S.A., and BD.

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Industry Updates

January 2019- Magnolia Medical Technologies, a device development company focused on the improvement of accuracy of blood culture tests and diagnostics, collected USD 20 Mn in venture capital funding to expedite production of its Steripath Gen2 Initial Specimen Diversion Device, which is designed to reduce sample contamination during blood draws.

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Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed wireless bug-shaped microrobots using nanofabrication techniques. They are able to produce a million of the devices from a 4-inch silicon wafer. The microrobots can walk, survive in harsh environments, and can function even after passing through a hypodermic syringe, suggesting that they may have potential as injectable drug-delivery devices.

The microrobots are powered using on-board silicon solar cells and are only 70 microns long, the width of a thin human hair. Consisting of a glass skeleton coated with a thin silicon layer, the devices contain electronics control components that the researchers etch in place, and titanium/platinum bilayers form the legs of the robots. Each leg is just 100 atoms thick.

The really high-level explanation of how we make them is were taking technology developed by the semiconductor industry and using it to make tiny robots, said Marc Miskin, a researcher involved in the study.

To actuate the robots, the researchers shine a laser on them, which creates power through the on-board solar cells. This results in the platinum layer expanding, which causes the legs to bend. Different solar cells power the front and back legs, meaning that they can bend in sequence to create movement. The legs are super strong, said Miskin. Each robot carries a body thats 1,000 times thicker and weighs roughly 8,000 times more than each leg.

The current devices represent a proof-of-concept, but the researchers hope to create more sophisticated versions of the robots with on-board sensors and controllers.

The study abstract is due to be presented at the American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting in Boston.

Via: APS
by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, March 7, 2019

Hoping to damp down the inferno of privacy controversies and the clear misuse of customer data that extends back more than a decade, the Zuck might have grabbed a bucket of gasoline rather than water this week.

In a blog, he said that Facebook will shift from a social network in which people broadcast information to large groups of people to one in which people communicate with smaller groups and their content disappears after a short period. He said the social platform would spend the coming years assuring that its WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook content is encrypted so that outsiders, and even Facebook, cannot read it.

The head-scratcher is that this in no way addresses the concerns about privacy (except to surmise that if Facebook cant read your content, it cant use it to add to its already extensive profile of you with which it sells advertising.)

Not that most of you care, although there are some early grumblings. In a Harris Poll reputation score of 100 public companies, Facebook last year dropped from 51st to 94th. In a Pew Research Center study, a quarter of the Facebook users polled said they deleted the app from their smartphones last year, and more than half said they adjusted their privacy settings.

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Meanwhile, Facebook still has 3 gazillion users who accept compromised privacy as the price of getting the app free (and posting their photos of tropical sunsets and smiling graduates).

Having text messages that cant be read will piss off governments in every country who think they can better solve crimes with easy access to a suspects mobile communications activities. Not to mention significant others who count on such intelligence to confirm their suspicions.

I think we have already blown well past the Big Brother stage of compromised privacy. Now its only a question of how the entities who can get their mitts on your data, will use it. It seems to me that if the only use is to serve you ads more aligned with your interests and conditions (and are not made available to, say, the Russian government so they can play with your head) that is not a bad tradeoff for the wealth of content and applications that otherwise would have to charge you access fees.

We live in a funny world. Watching TV police dramas, we cheer when they use surveillance cameras to help solve a heinous crime, yet object that we might be on the tape as well. We really dont care about the other guys privacy as long as the system and institutions respect OUR privacy. If we get caught on camera shoplifting or scratching the other guys door when we pull into or out of a parking space, then security surveillance has gone too far.

While we are all familiar with the concept of an evil force using data to identify and round up those with a dangerous POV or belief, it is kind of OK if that dangerous POV or belief is something we fear personally (like ISIS or Trump supporters). We think it would never happen to Presbyterians or Boy Scouts, only Jews and white supremacists. Or Muslims. Or mafioso. So, who really cares? And besides, what can we do about it?

Right now, you want to spank Facebook. But trust me, this is the very tip of the iceberg. What is known about you is growing exponentially each day. We are well past the point that you can either stop it or perhaps even legislate against it. Its a byproduct of our digital lives, which we dont plan to give up any time soon.
by Tanya Gazdik , March 8, 2019

Just in time for International Womens Day, ForteBank is launching a campaign to help promote female entrepreneurship which isnt terribly unusual, except its in Kazakhstan.

Discussing womens rights is deemed inappropriate in Kazakhstani society, as is a womans desire to study or work. Yet, nearly 9 million Kazakhstan women account for 40% of the countrys GDP. Forty-three percent of all Kazakhstans small and medium-sized businesses are operated by women and 52% of the countrys sole proprietors are female, according to Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund.

Kazakhstan is a Central Asian country and former Soviet republic. It extends from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Altai Mountains at its eastern border with China and Russia.

ForteBank is addressing this paradox by producing Forte Femme perfume. They have distributed the fragrance to prominent female entrepreneurs throughout the country, encouraging them to daub their cash with it. The scented banknotes in circulation are now being dispensed at ATMs across the nation.

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Pink cash register tape is also being distributed to help support the campaign, which includes a 30-second TV spot from Voskhod Agency, Moscow.

The spot begins like a classic perfume promotion before revealing a bank is behind the scent. Well-known female entrepreneurs discuss how important women are to Kazakhstan's economy.

Kazakhstan is a region where women are traditionally expected to play the archetypal role of stay-at-home mothers, yet they contribute a huge amount to the countrys GDP, says Anton Kim, head of marketing, ForteBank.

We wanted to address this imbalance and champion the role of women in our economy, Kim stated. Encouraging the distribution of scented banknotes will raise awareness of this issue and demonstrate how important women are to our economic development.
by Sarah Mahoney @mahoney_sarah, March 8, 2019





Lots of brands reward loyal customers with fancy perks, but shoe retailer DSW is moving in the opposite direction. The retailer is asking its VIP members to compete to win a trip to an impoverished Caribbean destination where theyll hand out mountains of donated shoes.

DSW, one of the largest partners of Soles4Souls, a charity that distributes shoes in impoverished areas all around the world, says the idea stemmed from members enthusiastic donation rates. It believes the contest is the first of its kind.

When we relaunched our VIP program last May, we began giving people 50 reward points every time they donated a pair of shoes, says Simone Pace, senior director of marketing strategy for the Columbus, Ohio-based chain.

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Response from its 26 million members was so strong, DSW decided to go a step further. We wanted to give members the chance to take the shoes that have been given to us by our generous customers, and see how theyre distributed, Pace tells Marketing Daily.

The shoes are given out in economically depressed areas and turned into microbusinesses, many owned by women. It changes their lives, and we wanted to give our members a chance to see that in person. Were trying to bring the experience full circle.

So far, the contest has generated an impressive 2,000 entry essays, which she says are being read by an internal team. Well choose 10 people who we feel put the most heart and soul into their story, she says. The winners and a guest will fly to the Dominican Republic, all expenses paid, for four days in August, and participate in handing out the shoes.

She says its another way the company is trying to differentiate itself. People can buy shoes in many places, and our competitors run the gamut from online sellers to department stores, she says. But this isnt something you can buy anywhere else. Its an experience you can only get at DSW."

The company, which is also experimenting with adding W Nail Bar locations in stores, is doing well in a particularly brutal retail segment. While rival Payless ShoeSource recently filed for bankruptcy, DSW reported a 17% jump in sales in its latest quarterly results, with comparable sales rising 7.3%.
by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, March 8, 2019

These days, brands that arent doing something to mark International Womens Day (IWD) may be less prevalent than the ones that are.

Budweiser and Dove Chocolate are among the big names whose 2019 efforts stand out.

Bud announced its becoming a member of #SeeHer, the movement to advance more positive portrayals of women in advertising. According to Bud, currently just 61% of ads positively portray women.

To kick off the partnership, the beer brand that's had a he-man image for decades reimagined three of its own ads from the 1950s and '60s to show women in more balanced and empowered roles.

In addition to being featured on Budweisers social channels, the before and after ads (one set shown above) are appearing in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times today, to mark IWD. Each ad speaks to a theme: independence, equality and fulfillment. The other two sets of ads are posted on the brand's Twitter channel.

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The ads were developed in collaboration with #SeeHer and three prominent female illustrators: Heather Landis, Nicole Evans and Dena Cooper. VaynerMedias Chelsea Furlong and Jes Vallee helped lead the creative.

Monica Rustgi, vice president of marketing for Budweiser, said that the brand has made a long-term commitment to get #SeeHers input and evaluation of its advertising creative before it is released.

Dove Builds African Maretplace

Dove Chocolate has taken a different cause-related approach to honoring IWD.

In partnership with Care, the brand has begun establishing a new physical marketplace for women-led businesses in Cote dIvoire in West Africa  the cocoa source for Dove parent Mars Wrigley and most of the worlds chocolate makers.

According to the brand, 1,000 women entrepreneurs, community members and local dignitaries attended a ceremony this week in which the first stone was laid for the marketplace.

Set to open in July, the grid-connected marketplace will provide space for women to sell their goods and hold training and meetings, and be available for rent as another form of income.

Dove Chocolate has been supporting the development of small, female-driven enterprises in cocoa-farming communities since 2015, using Cares Village Savings & Loan Associations (VSLA) method.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, March 8, 2019

Take-it-or-leave-it privacy policies that require people to accept tracking cookies in order to access a website are illegal, Dutch regulators said this week.

Thorough monitoring and analysis of the behavior of website visitors and the sharing of this information with other parties is only allowed with permission. That permission must be completely free, the Dutch Data Protection Authority said Thursday, according to a Google translation of the decision.

With so-called 'cookie walls' on websites (no permission means no access) the permission is not given freely, the opinion continues. Permission is not 'free' if someone has no real or free choice. Or if the person can not refuse giving permission without adverse consequences.

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The Data Protection Authority said it had received dozens of complaints from people who weren't able to access websites after refusing tracking cookies. The agency added it will intensify monitoring efforts.

Europe's GDPR broadly requires companies to obtain people's consent before using cookies for tracking. Since the law took effect in May 2018, companies have faced complaints over their practices -- including their methods of obtaining consent.

Regulators in France said earlier this year they fined Google $57 million after concluding that the company failed to obtain people's unambiguous consent before using their data in order to personalize ads.

The French regulators said Google's interface included a pre-checked box that allowed the company to use data for ad targeting. The use of a form that had already been filled out rendered people's consent ambiguous, according to regulators.
Today, millions of people in the United States are unaware that they have diabetes. A recent study finds that data from a readily available smartphone app could help detect diabetes in people without requiring a trip to the clinic. Share on Pinterest Using data that a smartphone app has captured might help diagnose diabetes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 30 million people in the U.S. have diabetes. Worryingly, almost one in four people in the U.S. are living with diabetes but do not know. Without treatment, diabetes can have serious health consequences, including kidney problems, eye conditions, heart disease, and stroke. Currently, a doctor needs to take a blood sample to diagnose diabetes, which generally requires a trip to the clinic. For a wide range of reasons, many people do not have easy access to healthcare, so it is important to find simpler ways of detecting diabetes.

Using an app to diagnose diabetes Recently, researchers from the University of California in San Francisco decided to investigate an innovative and freely available solution: a common smartphone app. They capitalized on a function that many fitness apps on the market already use, called a photoplethysmography (PPG) signal. This technology uses the smartphones camera and flash. When the heart pushes blood away, this generates a pulse of pressure that moves through the body. Peripheral blood vessels swell to accommodate the incoming blood. By placing the smartphones flash and camera next to a finger, it is possible to observe the minute changes resulting from this expansion of the blood vessels. With every contraction of the heart, the skin reflects an increasing amount of light. The smartphones camera can detect this change, and from this data, it is possible to extract information about blood flow. In the early phases of diabetes, certain vascular changes occur. Diabetes can be asymptomatic for a long period of time, yet adverse vascular changes still occur silently, which can lead to cardiovascular complications, explains Dr. Robert Avram. This makes it especially important for us to examine low-cost, noninvasive opportunities that make it easy to screen millions of people.

Screening with a smartphone To investigate how smartphone technology performed as a diagnostic tool, the researchers recruited 54,269 participants through the online Health eHeart Study. This study used the Azumio Instant Heart Rate smartphone app, which is one of the heart-rate measuring apps on the market that people most frequently download. The scientists created a deep learning algorithm that used the apps PPG signal to ascertain who had diabetes. They will present their findings on Sunday, March 17 at the American College of Cardiologys 68th Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans, LA. When they pitted the algorithm against the database, the researchers found that it could correctly identify individuals with diabetes 72 percent of the time. When they also incorporated information about other known risk factors, such as body mass index (BMI), age, and sex, the algorithm identified diabetes an impressive 81 percent of the time. Importantly, their algorithm also worked the other way around  it correctly identified people as not having diabetes 97 percent of the time. Based on our findings, this strategy could become a low-cost way to screen for diabetes at home because it can be derived from any optical system that has a camera and a flashlight, and most people have a smartphone. Dr. Robert Avram
International Womens Day prompts us to celebrate women and womanhood. However, recent research suggests that women may face more than their fair share of challenges, including in receiving appropriate medical care. What are some of these challenges, and why do they occur? Share on Pinterest Why do women still have to fight to receive the correct diagnosis? Women have played a vital role in the improvement of medical care across clinical fields. Figures such as Dorothea Dix, who helped change the face of mental health care, Rosalind Franklin, who contributed to the discovery of human DNA structure, and Dr. Virginia Apgar, who put together the evaluation criteria assessing the health status of newborn infants, have revolutionized medicine. Despite this, women and girls across the world still face challenges and discrimination in medical settings. Only last year, for instance, senior staff from the Tokyo Medical School, as well as from Juntendo and Kitasato Universities in Japan, admitted to manipulating entrance exam scores so that fewer women candidates would qualify for their courses. These admissions spurred endless debates about the degree to which women who choose medical care as a profession keep on facing waves of discrimination. Such problems, however, do not stop at women trying to build a career in medical sciences. According to some reports, women also face discrimination as patients. Sometimes, their doctors fail to diagnose conditions they are struggling with, or offer them the wrong diagnosis and consequently, the wrong kind of therapy. In this Spotlight feature, we will look at some of the conditions that doctors underdiagnosed in women and explore some of the possible reasons behind these lacks in medical care.

1. Endometriosis One of the chronic conditions that many women struggle with for a long time before they manage to receive a correct diagnosis  if they ever do  is endometriosis. Share on Pinterest Women have to wait to get their endometriosis diagnosed for a disturbingly long time. Endometriosis is a progressive gynecological condition, which doctors currently consider incurable. Endometriosis occurs when the type of tissue that usually only lines the uterus grows in other parts of the body. This can include the ovaries, fallopian tubes, urethra, but also the bowel, kidneys, and other organs. Symptoms of this condition include debilitating pain in the pelvic area, as well as other parts of the body, heavy and persistent menstrual bleeding, spotting between periods, pain during sex with vaginal penetration, nausea and vomiting, severe headaches, and persistent fatigue. These symptoms can often have a severe impact on an individuals quality of life, affecting their productivity, other aspects of their physical and mental health, and their relationships. Estimates in the journal Fertility and Sterility indicate that 1015 percent of women of reproductive age live with this condition, and 70 percent of women who experience chronic pelvic pain actually have endometriosis. As the authors of that study paper write, The time from the onset of symptoms to diagnosis is disturbingly long. Two-thirds of the people they spoke to begin to experience symptoms of endometriosis during adolescence. However, most of these people do not seek medical attention immediately, and once they do, it can take doctors 1012 years to make a correct diagnosis. Typically, doctors can only diagnose endometriosis by conducting a laparoscopy. This is a minor surgical procedure in which a doctor inserts a tiny camera into the abdomen to look for lesions and abnormalities. A doctor may prescribe pain relief medication or hormonal therapy for the management of endometriosis, but since this condition is progressive, many people require multiple and regular surgeries to remove the abnormal tissue growth. So validating to know I wasnt weak or crazy One woman, aged 25, who spoke to Medical News Today, explained that she lived with severe endometriosis symptoms for years before she received a correct diagnosis. Primarily, this was because both she, her family, and the doctors that she consulted, thought that her disabling symptoms were nothing more than bad period pains, or else they mistook them for other health problems. I thought it was totally normal to have excruciating pain and 10-day-long heavy periods, she told us. My mom, aunt, and grandmother all had the same experience, so I was always told thats just how it is for women in our family,' she added. I thought maybe I was weak and not able to handle the pain as well as other girls. Last year I was diagnosed with deep infiltrating endometriosis and finally had an explanation and, most importantly, a treatment plan. It was so validating to know I wasnt weak or crazy, just dealing with a chronic condition. She also told us that her journey towards a diagnosis was difficult and long-winded. Ive gone through three [general practitioners] and two gynecologists in 2 years, she explained. She added that because her condition affected several organs, she received many different  and incorrect  diagnoses before the doctors eventually identified the real issue. I have endometriosis on my bladder, urethra, kidneys, and bowel, so I wound up with many doctors saying you have [irritable bowel syndrome] and you have [pelvic inflammatory disease], when I knew this wasnt the case.

2. Coronary heart disease Another health problem that doctors often fail to spot in women is coronary (or ischemic) heart disease (CHD). This disease occurs when the arteries that deliver oxygenated blood into the heart, so that the heart can pump it out to the other organs, become unable to service the heart effectively. Share on Pinterest Since researchers conduct most clinical trials in men, we still lack a clear idea of how heart disease manifests in women. The symptoms of CHD vary from person to person, which can make the condition challenging for doctors to spot. However, more generally, symptoms also differ between men and women, and more women thus go undiagnosed until the condition becomes exacerbated. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute explain that symptoms can also vary between different types of CHD, and some people do not experience any symptoms at all. However, some common symptoms include angina (pressure in the chest area, especially during physical activity), neck pain, and fatigue. They also state that [h]eart disease is the leading cause of death for women, and that women are more at risk than men of developing non-obstructive CHD. This condition can occur when the arteries that go into the heart abnormally tighten or are squeezed by the surrounding tissue. Unlike obstructive CHD, which is more likely to be characterized by tell-tale chest pain, non-obstructive CHD is often silent and may go unnoticed for a long time. Past research published in the BMJ has argued that doctors often miss CHD in women because of the different set of symptoms and because women themselves do not seek medical attention early on. Women may have more atypical symptoms than men  such as back pain, burning in the chest, abdominal discomfort, nausea, or fatigue  which makes the diagnosis more difficult, the researchers write. Moreover, they add that: Women are less likely to seek medical help and tend to present late in the process of their disease. They are also less likely to have appropriate investigations, such as coronary angiography and, together with late presentation to hospital, this can delay the start of effective treatment. Research has focused primarily on men Specialists have been trying to find better ways of assessing and diagnosing women with heart problems, but they acknowledge there is still a long way to go in this respect. One review , which appears in the journal Circulation Research, notes, For the past 3 decades, dramatic declines in heart disease mortality for both men and women have been observed, especially in the [over] 65 years age group. However, its authors add, recent data suggest stagnation in the improvements in incidence and mortality of coronary heart disease, specifically among younger women. But why is this the case? The study authors argue that it may all be down to the underrepresentation of female populations in clinical studies for heart and vascular problems. They write: For many decades, [cardiovascular disease] research has focused primarily on men, thus leading to an underappreciation of sex differences from an etiologic, diagnostic, and therapeutic perspective. As long as women are underrepresented in clinical trials, we will continue to lack data to make accurate clinical decisions on 51 [percent] of the worlds population.
He said, Honey, I did not kill Billy Logan. I did a lot of bad things in my life, but this I am not guilty of. And I said OK. It wouldnt have mattered to me if he did or didnt. I would have still loved him. No matter what people think of me, I would have still loved my father. You love your parents, no matter who they are, Forliano said.
As Salkind details the current summertime Chosen Few Old School Reunion Picnic in Jackson Park and Queen! nights at Metros Smart Bar, he conveys how house has endured through its local bonds. His involvement in such events as a DJ and dancer adds colorful insider/outsider perspectives, and he cites the late Northwestern University ethnographer Dwight Conquergoods work as a guide. But an older generation of performers always shapes the narrative. This becomes crucial when Salkind considers how many house creators and participants have departed (Knuckles died in 2014). How do we honor their memories on dance floors? Salkind asks. I suggest we do so, in part, by showing up, by caring for each other, and by telling their stories.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Terens Quick visited Ethiopia, as the head of a business mission, in the context of his tour of East African countries. The Deputy Minister was received by the President of Ethiopia, Ms Sale-Gouork Zeounta, who made the following statements:

I am happy to welcome Greece to Ethiopia's Presidential Palace. I am happy that a member of the Greek government is here in this room, after more than fifty years. The ties between the two countries go back centuries in any case, with many points in common that also have to do with culture. I shall not fail to mention the historically significant Greek community in my country. Following the discussion we had last December in Vienna, during the EU-Africa Ministerial Summit, I especially appreciate the fact that you remained true to your word and that you are here with a significant Greek business mission. Rest assured that, by doing business with Ethiopia, both sides achieve a win-win result.

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs conveyed the greetings of the President of the Hellenic Republic and the satisfaction of the Greek Government with Ethiopias initiative to proceed with a Peace agreement with Eritrea. In addition, he stressed that Greece, as a member of the European Union, monitors with special interest the great reforms undertaken by the ethiopean government, both in the administrative and financial sectors. The Deputy Minister also noted the fact that the new Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, chose to appoint women to more than half of the positions on his governments ministerial council, as the Chief of the Supreme Court and the Head of the Chamber of Commerce are also women.

Commencement of the work of the business mission took place at the Greek Embassy in Addis Ababa, in the presence of State Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge of Economy and Diaspora issues, Dr. Aklilu Hailemichael, with whom the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs subsequently had a bilateral meeting in the presence of Greek Ambassador Nikos Patakias.

Earlier, Mr. Quick had a meeting with the State Minister of Foreign Affairs for Political Issues, Dr. Marcos Tekle, while also meeting with the Delegation Head of the European Union in Ethiopia, Johan Borgstam, and the Head of the European Investment Bank in Addis Ababa, Eleni Kyrou. Finally, the Executive Vice President of SEV, Konstantinos Bitsios, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations, in the presence also of Georgios Zisimatos, a representative of Enterprise Greece.

In his statement to the English language newspaper the Herald, the Deputy Minister of Foreign affairs mentioned, inter alia:

Ethiopia is the base of the African Union. Also located here are the central offices of the European Investment Bank, of the basic ones on the African Continent, as well as the World Bank. Its growth ranges between 8% to 11%.

These are basic components that encourage the outward-looking nature of Greek companies also towards Ethiopia, in important fields where it promotes its needs, such as energy in all its forms, including Green energy, in the field of infrastructure construction, in the field of construction of residential complexes, standardisation of products, in the field of drugs and cosmetics, as well as the import of select agricultural products such as olive oil and wine, for example.

The Agreement with Eritrea, which now permits access on the part of Ethiopia to important ports, as I also discussed with the competent State Minister, open paths for us also for cooperation in the field of logistics, transports and shipping, where we can also agree on cooperation with the port of Pireaus for Ethiopias business with the European Continent.

Last year, current Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Katrougalos was here in Addis Ababa And now, over a period of two years, I am coming to Ethiopia for the second time, proof of the decisive manner in which the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to regard its relations with Ethiopia.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 8) - Authorities are cleaning up after an oil spill in a river in Carmen, Davao del Norte Thursday.

A report from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Friday said an incident at the Davao Packaging Corporation compound near the Ising River resulted in the spill of around 10,000 liters of blended fuel.

No details were released as to what type of incident cause the spill as of posting.

Members of the PCG's Marine Environmental Protection Unit were sent to contain the oil spill.

As of Thursday evening, a total of 24 drums of oily mixture and 117 bags of contaminated debris were recovered by coast guard personnel.

PCG Spokesperson Cdr. Armado Balilo told CNN Philippines Friday, "Tuloy-tuloy lang yung recovery operations."

[Translation: Recovery operations are ongoing.]
Miller grew up in Chicagos Englewood neighborhood, the youngest of four kids raised by their mother. She was the kind of mom, he says, who cooked and babysat for neighbors in need, and she instilled in him the spirit of helping. One of her friends had a son with muscular dystrophy, so Miller spent most nights at the boys house, bathing him, lifting him off and on the toilet, helping him into bed. It wasnt duty, he said, its what you do when you care.
On April 13, 1981, a customer entered the First National Bank of Barrington and went downstairs to the safe-deposit-box vault.

An employee put a key in the cylinder lock to open the customer`s box, and something strange happened: the lock fell into the unopened box.

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The bewildered customer was escorted out quickly, and police and the FBI were called. FBI agents looked closely at that box, then at other boxes. They tentatively pushed on the lock of another box, and the lock fell in.

By the time an inventory had been taken, more than $1 million in cash, gold coins and other valuables was reported missing from 74 safe-deposit boxes. None of the loot has been found.

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Agent Leroy Himebauch said it was the first successful looting of a safe- deposit vault in a federal bank in the United States.

A week ago a federal jury convicted William Smarto, 44, of northwest suburban Wheeling, of conspiracy and bank burglary in what prosecutors called an almost perfect crime. Smarto is to be sentenced in April and could face 55 years in prison.

Smarto says he is a hairdresser. Federal prosecutors say he is a

''criminal genius,'' the first man to spend the weekend in a bank safe-deposit vault and walk out with $1 million.

Alan Grossman and William Coulson, assistant U.S. attorneys, said Smarto`s escapades at the First National Bank of Barrington and two other suburban banks are a tale of steeled nerves, gall and a cunning criminal mind. In the end, prosecutors begrudgingly concede that though Smarto`s meticulously planned crimes were uncovered, he is intelligent and cool-headed. The story begins in 1978, when Smarto styled hair at the Velvet Brush in Deerfield, a shop he has since sold. ''He was a hairdresser by day and a bank burglar on the weekends,'' Grossman said.

Smarto and his brother rented safe-deposit boxes at the First National Bank of Deerfield and entered repeatedly, according to Grossman.

''They were casing the place, and one would divert the attention of the vault attendant,'' Coulson said. Holes were punched in the alarm system--two sound sensors resembling stereo speakers--on the ceiling and two alarm clocks were hidden in the vault`s false ceiling, he said.

The clock alarms were set to ring after banking hours. ''Someone outside the bank watched to see if the police came,'' Grossman said. ''When no one came, they knew the vault alarm didn`t work.''

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On Sunday, July 22, 1979, Smarto crept into the bushes behind the Deerfield bank and removed a ventilation grate, prosecutors said. He dropped into a room just outside the safe-deposit vault. Investigators later found that Smarto had brought in food, a drill, four crowbars, two flashlights, two headlamps, two sledgehammers, three chisels, eight screwdrivers, a vise grip, a hacksaw, goggles and a torch.

A janitor who arrived at the bank heard a noise in a basement conference room. He found Smarto standing on a chair that was on a table. He was drilling into the wall, Grossman said. Plaster and concrete were all over the floor.

Smarto bluffed the janitor, demanding, ''Who`s going to clean up this mess?'' The janitor said he would and left, believing that Smarto was a repairman. Minutes later, investigators believe, Smarto departed, leaving behind his tools and an unfinished hole in the wall.

Months later Smarto and his brother rented safe-deposit boxes at the First National Bank of Barrington. They entered repeatedly. Tools, clothing and alarm clocks were hidden in the false ceiling of the vault, Grossman said. Again the ceiling sound sensors were punched.

On Saturday, April 11, 1981, the regular vault attendant was on vacation, and no one was on duty downstairs. Investigators believe that Smarto used a credit card to get past a glass door leading to the vault. He then crawled on top of the safe-deposit boxes and dropped into the corner, where there was a 24-inch square open space.

''Bank employees did not even know there was a dead space in the corner,'' Grossman said. At 1 p.m. the vault`s heavy metal door closed. ''It was on a time lock and would not open until 7:30 a.m. Monday,'' Grossman said. Ten minutes later the alarm went off. Police arrived and checked the bank. Nothing suspicious could be found. Ten minutes later the alarm went off again. ''This time they became convinced it was a malfunction,'' he said.

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Investigators believe that the alarm was set off by Smarto as he crawled out of his hiding place to puncture an unpunched sound sensor.

The vault door opened Monday morning, and everything appeared normal. A bank employee later said she had noticed a man walking through the parking lot with two duffel bags when she arrived that morning. She said she saw the same man a few minutes later in the vault with two more duffel bags and thought he was a repairman.

Once the theft was discovered, investigators determined that after punching out the locks, the thief had replaced all of the cylinders in the boxes and swept up the mess. All of the trash had been hidden in the ceiling so the vault appeared normal when it was opened. The thief was hiding in the corner when the door was opened, investigators said.

''He took the risk that no one would be waiting outside the vault on Monday morning, because the alarm had gone off twice,'' Grossman said. ''He just calmly walked out.''

In the false ceiling, investigators found four flashlights, a sledgehammer, a crowbar, three screwdrivers, tape, batteries, a wire stripper, a trowel, scissors, pliers and four steel bolts.

Smarto`s brother also was charged but has not stood trial because of health problems.

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Smarto`s luck changed, however, at the First National Bank of Lake Forest on Sept. 3, 1982. A customer complained that a wooden panel had fallen from the ceiling. When Joseph Korn, superintendent of maintenance, went to replace the panel, he looked into the crawl space. He noticed a man there and climbed down.

Minutes later Smarto was under arrest. Above the washroom ceiling, police found a bottle of water, a radio, an alarm clock, gloves, scissors, two flashlights, pliers, five screwdrivers and a jogging suit. Bank employees later remembered that Smarto visited the washroom often, and they believed that he had weak kidneys, Grossman said.

In the vault`s false ceiling, investigators found tools, including an industrial-size jackhammer and bits and an electric saw to cut the hinges off the safe-deposit boxes.

''He would have gotten away with millions,'' Coulson said.
Its an understatement to say (its) shocking that they could make this decision almost three years ago and no one has the ethical or legal responsibility to let me know this so I could make a plan to leave with some honor or leave with some financial stability, Warner said. I have been a whistleblower. It is the only way I can think they would treat me this way. I am stressing the lack of resources for emotional injuries because I am suffering one.
UPPER THUMB -- Sister and brother duo, Savana and Peyton Roggenbuck, swept the Knights of Columbus Regional Spelling Bee in their respective divisions recently.

Savana, a seventh grader of Our Lady of Lake Huron Catholic School, defeated other participants in the seventh to ninth grade bracket, with her winning word: lunar after she spelled the word erroneous.
HURON COUNTY -- The Huron Area Rural Schools Quiz Bowl team recently hosted the February Middle School Quiz Bowl meet at the Huron Area Technical.

Schools participating in the Middle School Quiz Bowl are Bad Axe, Harbor Beach, Huron Area Rural Schools (Adams, Eccles, and Verona Mills) and Ubly.
On Thursday night, Rockford police organized a procession when the officer's body was taken to the morgue. "The first emotion is sadness, then at the same time you see the outpouring of support from the community, which is very humbling and it helps to improve your mood which definitely is not positive," Pozzi said. "It's a mix of emotions, it really is. We know it's part of what we have to do so we get through it and we face the next day as a new day."
SEBEWAING - For Unionville-Sebewaing Area students Alayna Wanless and Sierra Manial, the stage is a place that feels like home.

When the district's former drama director, Angie Noah, left for a new job in 2017, they knew they had to do something.

"We were all really close with our director," Wanless, a junior at USA, said. "We had been involved since the beginning of the program, so it was pretty sad for us to see it go because we worked really hard to build things up."

After not having the program for the last school year, Wanless and Manial had an idea.

"Last year, the school tried to find someone to replace it, but no one came forward, so they were unable to fill the position," Manial, a senior at USA said. "At the beginning of this year, we decided to maybe start it up by ourselves."

The first step was reaching out to USA High School Principal Josh Hahn.

"Right away, we had to go and talk to our principal and ask him about it," Wanless said. "We didn't even know if he would be OK with two students leading it. He was actually very supportive of the idea, he said we just had to find adult chaperones to be with us for rehearsals, and he would help us out in whatever way he could."

Wanless' father, Mike Wanless, and USA teacher Sherri Holland agreed to help guide the duo.

"They have an adult advisor that they work through, but I would say that their ideas and coordination and planning all come from the two of them," Hahn said. "Both of them are very driven, always looking to make things better, great young ladies and great role models to other students here. They do a great job with their peers, they're the ones that are recruiting kids to join the drama club and they do put together the performances."

Once Wanless and Manial received approval from Hahn to move forward with their endeavor, they started to recruit students for the program.

On their first day, more than 60 students showed up.

"It was honestly crazy at first," Manial said. "We didn't know what to expect. We printed out 20 paper copies for people that we thought were going to be there, and we had to go back to make copies about three times. I think we were all really shocked to see how many people were actually interested."

From there, the two started working for their first play.

"Sometimes it was kind of nerve-wracking," Wanless said. "At first it was really scary because neither of us have theatre degrees or anything. So, we had been talking to our former director and she was giving us feedback and we started using games we had learned when we were in drama club."

"We started just teaching them the basics of projecting, shooting out and everything that we had learned from Angie," Manial added. "I feel like that kind of helped shape them a little bit, and now, we just do regular rehearsals where they have their scripts, they go up on stage and then we'll watch and give them notes."

In December, the drama club hosted its first performance, Skittish for the Holidays, which Manial and Wanless cast, directed and even wrote some of.

"We were really nervous because this is the first time either of us had ever done anything like that," Wanless said. "I guess we never realized how much work goes into it honestly. We had to put in the work and it was a lot, but the kids worked really, really hard and we came out with a great show. The community showed up and there was an amazing audience."

Now, they are preparing for their second performance, The Enchanted Bookshop.

Performances start at 7 p.m. March 15-16 inside the USA auditorium. There will also be a performance at 2 p.m. March 17.

"It's about this woman who owns a book shop and at night, when no one is around, the book characters come to life," Manial said. "So, they have like Dorothy, Tom Sawyer, and Sherlock Holmes and there's a little bit of a conflict that goes on where the book characters try to help their book owners."

The two feel a bit more prepared for their second performance.

"I think we learned a lot," Wanless said. "There was definitely a learning curve, especially at the beginning and we are definitely still learning, but I think that we're better prepared at handling it now."

Now, the USA drama club is a strong as ever, and Wanless and Manial hope that it continues that way.

"It was very important for us to get this moving," Manial said. "It was my senior year and after not having it for a year, I think we just wanted to give that opportunity that we had as underclassmen to other students. We wanted them to be able to meet other students that have the same interests and just make friends."
While Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim is sitting comfortably on a financial cushion he amassed two years ago for his re-election campaign, his competitors  primarily state Sen. Marilyn Moore  are just now getting into the race and raising money to challenge him.

Just as Moore is turning to contributors outside the city of Bridgeport to fund her campaign, Ganim, too, is backed significantly by people who live beyond Bridgeports borders, a Hearst Connecticut Media analysis of his campaign contributions shows.

Ganim had collected more than $194,000 and has roughly $174,000 of that still in the bank, according to his most recent campaign finance report, filed in January with the Town Clerks office.

Of that, $157,000 came from individuals who gave $500 or more, and more than $125,000 came from contributors who do not live in the city of Bridgeport.

Ganim  who raised most of that money in February and March of 2017 before his failed run for governor took off  said Wednesday hes not thinking about his re-election campaign right now, and is instead focusing on the job he already has: running the city of Bridgeport.

We have huge challenges in Bridgeport and my goal is to be sensitive to the taxpayers and public safety, and at some point, Im sure, Ill turn toward re-election, Ganim said. All I can tell you is Ive had strong support in Bridgeport with regards to my election, my re-election, and running for governor, and I really appreciate that support.

While a dollar doesnt equal a vote, experts in campaign finance said it is notable that the bulk of Ganims campaign funds for a municipal election havent come from within the city he hopes to continue leading.

Thats really quite extraordinary. It really is, said Gary Rose, professor and chair of the Department of Government, Politics and Global Studies at Sacred Heart University. Its perplexing. I dont know of too many people who run for a mayoral position that taps into money like that from outside ... Im just wondering if some of these people are former acquaintances whove moved outside of Bridgeport or who do business there. Thats understandable, if so.

Raising money in Bridgeport

More Information Joe Ganim's mayoral campaign finances as of January: $194,000-plus received $174,000 still in the bank Includes $125,000 from contributors outside the city Source: Bridgeport Town Clerk See More Collapse

Ganims contributions come from 365 total individuals with 216 people giving $500 or more. A quarter of those who gave $500 or more are employed by the City of Bridgeport, and just 48 of the 216 individuals live within it, according to campaign finance reports. Contributions to municipal campaigns are capped at $1,000.

Ganim said in a text he has collected money from 384 individuals. Of those, he believes 124 live in Bridgeport, including people who gave less than $500.

Thats a lot of counting, but the gist is that the people who live in Bridgeport simply arent writing the big checks, a reality Moore is also encountering.

How many people do I know in Bridgeport who can afford to give me $1,000? Moore told Heart Connecticut Media on Tuesday when she explained why shes holding so many fundraisers outside the city.

But Ganim raised almost $108,000 in contributions between $1,000 and $3,500 from people who live in Bridgeport and almost $80,000 from city employees during his campaign for governor, an analysis of contributions to his gubernatorial campaign shows.

He raised nearly $841,000 in total for that campaign.

He was barred from the states public financing program due to his felony conviction.

Campaign finance reform

When Ganim ran to take back the mayors office in 2015, he campaigned on a package of clean-government initiatives. That included campaign finance reform for the city, but after he was re-elected the idea fell by the wayside, as campaign promises often do in politics.

I havent looked at it since whenever that was in 2015, Ganim said Wednesday. There wasnt any support for it at the time in Bridgeport.

Ganims model was New Havens Democracy Fund, which that city implemented more than a decade ago as part of a state pilot program. Participants in New Haven raise small contributions, between $10 and $370, in exchange for matching grants. The pilot program never gained traction in other cities, but its not off the table.

The law provides that the pilot program is open to three municipalities, and only New Haven has participated, leaving two openings, and the law doesnt have a sunset provision, said Michael Brandi, general counsel and executive director of the State Elections Enforcement Commission.

Cities and towns, unlike the state, which runs its own public campaign-finance program to battle corruption, also do not restrict city contractors from opening their wallets for local candidates.

Cheri Quickmire, executive director of Common Cause in Connecticut, said a municipal campaign finance program could encourage candidates in cities like Bridgeport to seek more of their campaign funding from voters within the city theyre running to represent, rather than deep pockets in the suburbs.

An understanding of the community not having the kind of resources to make contributions is something we all need to be aware of, and I think maybe we need to be thinking about public financing, Quickmire said, citing similar programs in cities like Seattle, which were designed to encourage politicians to engage with voters regardless of their ability to write big checks.

All the larger cities should be looking at this, Quickmire said. You may have cities where there are people who are able to write really big checks, but in addition there are not people who are able to do that and we should try to make it as uniform as we can.

kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt
MIDDLETOWN Despite the Common Council unanimously approving leasing the former Green Street Arts Center to St. Vincent DePaul Middletown earlier this week, one final hurdle remains.

A review of the revised proposal must be conducted by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The review, known as an 8-24 review, is mandated by the state.

The requirement takes its name from its place in the Connecticut General Statues. The local planning commission is required to review any municipal project to see if it is in compliance with municipalitys Plan of Conservation and Development.

The POCD, which is also mandated by the state, is intended to service as a guide/road map for development in a community.

The councils decision late Monday evening was greeted with unrestrained joy on the part of St. Vincent DePaul officials, their supporters and several of its clients.

Leaders of the Main Street fixture said the move will enable St. Vincent DePaul to expand the services it offers the community.

Mondays meeting drew well in excess of 200 people, most of whom came to comment upon the proposal to lease the property to St. Vincent DePaul. A majority of those people who spoke about the lease proposal favored awarding the site to St. Vincent DePaul.

St Vincent de Paul deserves this, our residents deserve this, and our city deserves it, Social worker Jessica Wagner said at the meeting.

Susan Murphy, who heads the Liberty Bank Foundation, said people in other communities are envious of Middletown because of work St. Vincent de Paul does.

They are the one open door for every person in this community, Murphy said.

More for you Soup kitchen to lease  not buy  Middletown arts center

A number of present or former officials of the agency, including the newly appointed executive director Ethel Higgins, spoke of the agencys on-going commitment to the city and its residents, as did several present or former clients of the facility.

St. Vincent DePaul also received messages of support from a number of establishment figures in the city, led by Larry McHugh, the president of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce.

Joining McHugh in praising the facility and supporting turning the former arts center over to St. Vincent DePaul were the chairman of the downtown business district, as well as representatives of the United Way, Middlesex Hospital, and the Liberty Bank Foundation and several members of the Wesleyan University faculty.

The Middletown Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed the original proposal to lease the Green Street property to St. Vincent dePaul  and rejected it as being detrimental to the neighborhood, PZC Chairman Stephen DeVoto told the council Monday.

In comments he made later in the meeting, Mayor Daniel T. Drew challenged the commissions decision, saying the panel had exceeded its role.

The council ultimately did vote to approve the transfer to St. Vincent DePaul  but added an amendment calling for portions of the new home to be made available to neighborhood residents for programs for youths and the arts.

Technically, that makes the proposal a new version, Drew said, which means it must go back to the zoning board for a second 8-24 review. He encouraged supporters of St. Vincent DePaul to make every effort to attend the next zoning meeting on March 13.

Drew did not respond to several telephone calls requesting comment about the 8-24 review process.

City Planner Mark DeVoe was out of the office Friday due to illness and could not be reached for comment.

jmill@middletownpress.com
HADDAM  A Higganum man under federal investigation for possible child exploitation was arrested by state police Friday and charged with voyerism and risk of injury.

Brian W. Beschel, 39, of Woods Road, was also charged with sale or delivery of tobacco to a minor, illegal sale or delivery of an electronic nicotine vapor device to a minor and dissemination of voyueristic material, according to state police.

His arrest follows the December execution of a search and seizure warrant at a Woods Road home by the Haddam Resident Troopers Office and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations unit, state police said Friday.

Homeland Security requested a troopers presence when serving a federal search warrant on Dec. 17 on Beschels home, an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Middletown court shows. Beschel is suspected of being involved in matters pertaining to child exploitation of a 15-year-old via social media chat rooms, police said in the affidavit.

During an interview with Homeland Security in December, which Connecticut State Police were given a report from, Beschel allegedly indicated he had an interest in child pornography and had sexual desire toward a 15-year-old girl. He admitted to having photos of the victim on his cellphone that he took while she was sleeping, and he also admitted to sharing those photos with others on social media, according to the affidavit.

Homeland Security conducted undercover social media chats with Beschel and provided records of those to state police, which started its own separate, parallel investigation, police said. Records seized by police showed multiple conversations on social media expressing his explicit sexual desires toward the victim, including a desire to drug her, according to the affidavit.

The victim told police she had also sent some photos to Beschel after he had made a fake social media account pretending to be one of her former friends.

During a meeting with Beschel, he bought her a pack of cigarettes from a gas station. He also gave her back an electronic cigarette that her mother had taken away, police said in the affidavit.

About six months ago, Beschel is accused of placing a security camera that looks like a smoke detector in the victims room, police said. He allegedly told police he wanted to keep an eye on the victim and to keep her safe.

Beschel turned himself in to Troop F in Westbrook on the state charges, police said. He was released on a $150,000 court set, cash-surety bond and is scheduled to appear in Middletown court March 19.

Homeland Security has not yet brought any federal charges against Beschel, state police said in the affidavit.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
When she last saw him, her son had come to her house to pick up his cat, Chili Fritos, after a trip to New Orleans. Since his death, Chili has sat at her door, waiting for him to come home, Lydia Bailey said. She plans to adopt her.
To the Editor:

I wonder if Jeff Mill was at the same meeting as I was Monday evening. His article March 6, about the Middletown Common Council decision to lease 51 Green Street to St. Vincent de Paul Middletown, so missed the mark.

(I could use many other words to describe how I feel about it, but Ill leave it at that.)

The overwhelming majority of speakers (three to one) spoke in favor of St. Vincents move to Green Street, and described in detail, over and over, about the good works that we do in this community and for the city of Middletown.

Mills choice to give voice to two of the more than 40 speakers who were the most negative of the bunch either reveals his own personal bias against St. Vincent de Paul, or it means he prefers to sensationalize an issue with the image of needles juxtaposed with schoolchildren and a common council committing domestic violence in one of the citys neighborhoods.

Does Mr. Mill really believe that those two quotes represented what happened there at Monday nights council meeting for almost five hours? Quite frankly, Im appalled that he chose not to give voice to one single person who talked about the life-giving and life-saving services they have received from our agency, nor anyone who spoke to the vision of how 51 Green St. will enable St. Vincent de Paul Middletown to better care for our neighbors and the Middletown community.

For the record, Mr. Mill should check his facts. In our application to the city, St. Vincent de Paul did not ask to purchase 51 Green Street  we proposed to lease it.

Ron Krom, project director, St. Vincent de Paul Middletown
Emanuel continues to maintain that emails and texts on personal accounts are not subject to the states open records law, regardless of whether they pertain to city business. Ultimately, however, Emanuel agreed to release city-related emails stored on his personal accounts. That led to Tribune stories exposing that a number of people had illegally lobbied the mayor. In one instance, a former Uber executive who had served as Barack Obamas campaign manager was fined $90,000 by the citys ethics board for illegally lobbying Emanuel on behalf of the ride-sharing company.
MIDDLETOWN  It is a Middlesex United Way tradition to embrace new staff with a warm welcome, and this time is no different. It is with great pleasure that we announce the start of the newest member of our team, Manny Martinez, who began his work as development director Monday.

Manny comes to us from the Connecticut Rivers Council Boy Scouts of America. Manny first joined the Boy Scouts of America in 2015 as a district executive, and through a great work ethic and reputation, worked his way up to development director before leaving to join Middlesex United Way.

In his most recent role, Manny was responsible for leading fundraising efforts, planning, supervising and executing development programs. He focused on assisting the council in reaching annual and long-range development goals, and also helped develop strategies to support the growth and expansion of the organization.

Through three major events with for the Connecticut Rivers Council, Manny and his team were able to successfully raise over $480,000, surpassing their previous goal of $460,000. The money raised was used to assist scouting programs throughout the state.

In his first year with the scouts, he successfully created a fundraising event highlighting Eagle Scouts from the greater Hartford area, and recognizing individuals from the community that supported youth development and other community initiatives. With this event, the goal was to raise $5,000, but under Mannys leadership, more than $30,000 was raised. For the past three years, the event has brought in over $75,000 of new money to support scouting programs.

Mannys professional career has primarily been in the nonprofit sector, with 11 years of experience, including working for the Boys and Girls Clubs and the Boy Scouts of the America. His last position with the Boy and Girls Club was director of operations at the Waterbury location.

Mannys past experience as a development director will transition perfectly into his new role here at Middlesex United Way. He will be using his leadership, fundraising, and interpersonal skills to help us achieve organization goals. Manny will be responsible for initiating, implementing and expanding development strategies.

We are confident Manny is the right person for the job and are thrilled that he is excited to join us.

Middlesex United Way does so much for the people in Middlesex County and understands the importance of bringing the community together and working towards the common goal of improving the quality of life for those in this area. We help people in a way we couldn't as individuals he said.

I am so happy to be a part of a great organization doing incredible things for a great community and look forward to bringing my skills and experiences to the continuous success of Middlesex United Way, Manny added.

Manny is an active member of the community. He is a member of the Asbury Methodist Church in Bristol and the River Delta Business Network International in Old Saybrook. He enjoys spending time with his children, Vayda, 11, and Levi, 7, and his girlfriend Amarillis Vega. Manny is a disc jockey in his spare time, and loves what music can do to bring all types of people together. He is a big fan of the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees and Orlando Magic.

We are so pleased to have Manny join our team. His values mirror ours, and his connections throughout the county will help strengthen existing relationships, as well as help create new ones. Manny is a dynamic, hard-working person of great integrity, and I am excited to see what great work he will accomplish.

Please join us in welcoming and getting to know Manny. He can be reached at manny.martinez@middlesexunitedway.org and 860-346-8695.

Kevin Wilhelm is president and CEO of the Middlesex United Way in Middletown.
The U.S. military is turning to allies in the Middle East to fill gaps when Navy aircraft carriers can't make it out to the region, a top general said Thursday.

Army Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, told lawmakers that his command can't always get an aircraft carrier into the region when they'd like to. His response comes as Pentagon leaders are reportedly considering retiring one of its 11 aircraft carriers -- the Harry S. Truman -- early.

"We had to work solutions that included other platforms and other coalition partners to help meet those requirements," Votel said Thursday during a House Armed Services committee hearing.

Defense leaders are currently debating the value of paying to refuel the Truman's nuclear reactor core, Breaking Defense reported last week. Retiring the supercarrier early -- between 2020 and 2025 --could save more than $30 billion, according to the site, which could be invested in more high-tech equipment.

The lack of carriers didn't hurt ongoing operations in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria, Votel said. They were still able to carry out their missions using the ships they did have "in conjunction with our land-based capabilities," he said.

The Marine Corps stood up a land-based crisis response unit in recent years to make up for a shortage in amphibious assault ships. That unit, called the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Central Command, operates from Kuwait and other locations and comes equipped with 2,000 Marines, aircraft and a logistics element.

Votel did not say what percentage of his requests for carrier presence went unfulfilled. He told Rep. Elaine Luria that he would get back to her with an answer on the rate.

Luria, a Virginia Democrat, was asking whether the Navy's Optimized Fleet Response Plan, which put ships on 36-month cycles instead of 24-month cycles, was hurting missions in Votel's combatant command. Troops spend less time deployed at sea under that model, though they must remain ready to go for more than a year after returning home.

Getting back out to the Middle East from the U.S. takes time though. And Luria wanted to know whether the U.S. is still able to meet its maritime requirements in the region.

That, Votel replied, can be a challenge. Key responsibilities in the Middle East include reassuring allies and deterring the enemy.

They also support freedom of navigation and commerce through critical chokepoints in the region, he said. Last year, for example, the military was prepared to keep a vital crude-oil transit lane open after Iranian leaders threatened to block it after they were threatened with new sanctions.

"In some cases, we have been challenged in these areas," Votel said, of operating without a carrier in the region.

The Navy put the Optimized Fleet Response Plan into action in fiscal 2015. More than four years later, Votel said it's still too early to tell whether the concept is working.

"I think we have a ways to go yet before we declare that this is not a concept that works," he said. "I think we've seen it work in other combatant commands, and we look forward to trying it in CENTCOM as well."

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Air Force's top civilian on Thursday said she has a greater respect for Arizona lawmaker and former Air Force combat pilot Sen. Martha McSally after the senator this week disclosed she was raped by a senior officer while she was on active duty.

"Martha McSally and I have been friends for close to 20 years, and I have a greater respect for her today than I did two days ago [for] being a very strong and wonderful leader," Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told reporters at the National Air and Space Museum before a screening of "Captain Marvel."

"And I think she has handled this situation with a kind of steely grace that typifies Martha McSally," Wilson added.

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on sexual assault in the military on Wednesday, McSally said understood why victims of sexual assault may have lost faith in the system, because she too was hesitant to report her own assault.

"The perpetrators use their positions of power in profound ways. And in one case, I was preyed upon and raped by a superior officer," McSally said during her opening statement.

When other sexual assault and harassment scandals within the service began coming to light, she discussed her own assault with others, but said she wasn't taken seriously. She said in the end, she never formally reported the incident.

"Like many victims, I felt the system was raping me all over again," she said.

Following McSally's testimony, the Air Force issued a statement saying the "actions [McSally described] violate what it means to be an airman."

"The criminal actions reported today by Senator McSally violate every part of what it means to be an airman," Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Carrie Volpe said. "We are appalled and deeply sorry for what Senator McSally experienced and we stand behind her and all victims of sexual assault. We are steadfast in our commitment to eliminate this reprehensible behavior and breach of trust in our ranks."

On Thursday, McSally tweeted, "Thank you for the outpouring of support. It means a lot for all who have reached out."

In the Air Force, McSally flew the A-10 Thunderbolt and went on to command the 354th Fighter Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, the first woman to command any combat aviation squadron, to include fighters and bombers.

She is the Air Force's first female pilot to fly in combat.

McSally deployed six times to the Middle East and Afghanistan and flew 325 combat hours, earning a Bronze Star and six air medals, according to her official website.

McSally retired as a colonel in 2010. She was appointed to the U.S. Senate in December as a permanent replacement for Sen. John McCain.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214.
AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM, Washington, D.C. -- Standing beside the Air Force's first female fighter pilot Thursday night as troops, fans and families lined up to see Marvel Studio's latest superhero on the silver screen, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said she was encouraged to see young kids making their way forward not only to celebrate a movie, but perhaps be part of the service's future story.

"All of us have been inspired by moments in history, or films we've seen in our lives that inspired us to do something, or stand up, and I'm really hoping this touches young people about who they can become," she told reporters before the screening of "Captain Marvel." (Wilson announced her resignation as secretary Friday.)

That includes a renewed push to inspire young women to join the Air Force's ranks. Before the film, Wilson was busy taking photos with young girls, some donning flight suits of their own.

There has been a social media backlash -- particularly from men -- about the first Marvel film to feature a solo female hero.

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It's true audiences won't see the typical fighter jock culture portrayed in the male-dominated "Top Gun."

But that's not the Air Force's story anyway, Wilson said.

In her opening remarks, Wilson hailed how far women have come in the military.

The film is set in the 1990s before women were allowed to fly in combat. Capt. Carol Danvers, an F-15 Eagle pilot who becomes Captain Marvel, has no memories of her past, but dreams of Air Force fighter jets lining a runway while she yearns to fly. The character, played by actress Brie Larson, is now known as "Vers" (pronounced Veers) on planet Hala, where she serves the Kree Empire with supernatural powers she didn't know she acquired back on Earth.

Wilson attended the event with Brig. Gen Jeannie Leavitt, the service's first female fighter pilot and currently head of the Air Force Recruiting Service, upon whom Danvers' character is loosely based. Leavitt was commander of the 57th Wing at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, as the movie was filming.

The film includes nods to Air Force culture with accurate representations of Basic Military Training, flight training and even a dogfight scene. At one point, Larson is briefly shown in the cockpit of an F-16 Fighting Falcon taxiing on a flight line.

The filmmakers credited the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base, California; the 144th Fighter Wing at Fresno Air National Guard Base, California; the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (the Air Force's "Boneyard") at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base; and the 57th Wing and 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, for aiding in production and training for Larson's character.

The movie also paid tribute to a fallen Thunderbird demonstration team pilot. The credits read, "In Memory of Maj Stephen "Cajun" Del Bagno, Thunderbird 4," to honor the pilot, who was participating in a routine training flight at the Nevada Test and Training Range last April when he crashed after losing consciousness. Del Bagno helped train Larson for her fighter scenes.

Otherwise, "Captain Marvel" is not the Air Force's version of "Top Gun," and features more superheroes than actual military might. Audiences can see a B-2 Spirit and F-22 Raptors nestled together in a hangar for a moment for a quick stealth fix.

The film, directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, does show how female pilots, particularly Danvers and her best pal and wingwoman, Maria Rambeau, broke barriers in flight testing at a time when women in the military were itching to soar on battlefields like their pilot brethren.

The service assisted in the movie's production for accuracy, Wilson said.

The airmen involved strove to "really capture what it means to be an American airman ... that ethos of going higher and further and faster. That ethos is found in women like Brig. Gen Jeannie Leavitt," Wilson said in her opening remarks.

Leavitt "helped to explain what it was like in those early years to be a woman fighter pilot, the professionalism, the determination and the spirit of being a fighter pilot for the U.S. Air Force," Wilson said. In 1994, a year after the Pentagon overturned the ban on women flying in combat, Leavitt was one of seven fighter pilots flying at a time when there were only 315 female pilots across the service.

"Today, we have 850 women flying for the U.S. Air Force in the defense of this country" with about 80 fighter pilots across the ranks, Wilson added. "And our airmen continue to push boundaries," much like audiences will see in "Captain Marvel."

For example, when Vers faces a life-or-death task, she manages to surprise her enemy to the point they begin to consider her a real threat -- not the young trainee she once was on Hala, nor the trainee she was at BMT.

Movie villain Ronan the Accuser is stunned by her prowess.

"We'll be back for the weapon," he says to his companion. "The [energy] core?" the companion asks.

"The woman," Ronan replies.

The film hits theaters tonight.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
The Air Force's top civilian is resigning to pursue a career in academia.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson will step down in May to become the next president of the University of Texas at El Paso, Reuters first reported Friday.

The Air Force said Wilson will resign as secretary effective May 31 to "allow sufficient time for a smooth transition."

"It has been a privilege to serve alongside our airmen over the past two years, and I am proud of the progress that we have made restoring our nation's defense," Wilson said in a statement sent to media.

"We have improved the readiness of the force; we have cut years out of acquisition schedules and gotten better prices through competition; we have repealed hundreds of superfluous regulations; and we have strengthened our ability to deter and dominate in space," she added.

Wilson's name had been floated for defense secretary since Jim Mattis resigned from that position in December. A congressional official confirmed to Military.com last month that Wilson had been rumored as a favored contender.

"Today I informed the President I will resign as Secretary of the Air Force to be President of the University of Texas at El Paso," Wilson posted on Twitter. "It has been a privilege to serve with our #Airmen--I am proud of the progress we have made to restore the readiness & lethality of #USAF."

In October, Foreign Policy reported that President Donald Trump had considered removing Wilson after her reluctance to get on board with the administration's "Space Force" proposal.

The Pentagon pushed back on the report that the president was assessing whether to fire Wilson, who was confirmed as the 24th Air Force secretary in May 2017.

"This is nonsense," then-Pentagon chief spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement at the time.

U.S. officials told Reuters that Wilson is not resigning "under pressure" from the administration.

On Friday, KTSM El Paso News reported Wilson had recently been "unanimously approved" by the University of Texas board of regents to become the school's next president. There is a 21-day waiting period before she can officially assume the position, the report said.

Before becoming secretary, Wilson served as president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, a public institution for science and engineering in Rapid City.

Wilson has often said she enjoys being out West, especially in New Mexico, where she represented New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, serving as a Republican in Congress from 1998 to 2009.

She is the third woman to serve as Air Force secretary, following Deborah Lee James, who held the post under President Barack Obama, and Sheila E. Widnall, who served in President Bill Clinton's administration.

Wilson graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1982, part of the third class to include women.

Pentagon officials, such as her four-star counterpart, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein, have often praised Wilson's leadership as she engaged with airmen across the country and at bases overseas.

"We hit the lottery with @SecAFOfficial  under her leadership, we became a better #USAF & our Airmen will continue rowing hard, becoming even faster, smarter. As she takes her talent & leadership to my home state of Texas, I wish her the very best," Goldfein tweeted after Wilson's announcement.

Wilson has voiced the need for more inclusivity in the ranks, saying she hopes that Air Force leadership -- from commanders to young enlisted members -- can become role models for a more diverse population.

"For young women, for minorities, for first-generation Americans, it's hard to be what you can't see," Wilson told audiences at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., last year. She was speaking on the center's panel, "Citizen Soldiers or Warrior Caste: Who Will Serve in America's Future Military?"

"And by being role models and making sure our role models are out there where younger women and minorities and others who haven't traditionally been strongly represented in the military can see what the possibility is for them ... that there's an opportunity there, we will inspire more to come to serve," she said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
Implementation of the Mission Act, suicide prevention and mental health care -- along with education, women veterans and environmental exposures -- top the lists of concerns veterans advocates have as they look toward the legislative year ahead.

For the past two weeks, in hearings before joint meetings of the Senate and Veterans Affairs Committees and meetings with lawmakers, veterans service organizations (VSOs) have discussed what is important to veterans from all eras this year.

The goal, as Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America CEO Jeremy Butler said during testimony Thursday, is to work with Congress to "deliver results, not just for IAVA veterans but for veterans of all organizations."

Topping the priorities for nearly all the VSOs is implementation of the Veterans Affairs Mission Act, the legislation that will provide health care services to veterans outside of Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities. The legislation replaced a number of outsourced care programs at the VA, including Choice, which allowed veterans who live more than 40 miles from a VA facility or faced wait times of more than 30 days for an appointment to seek private care.

Rene Bardorf, senior vice president of government and community relations for the Wounded Warrior Project, said implementation of an integrated system of care at the VA will require "transparency, oversight and strict adherence to the belief that our veterans are best served by a health care system designed to amplify access and quality."

"Please ensure a streamlined process exists to enroll providers. ... And reimbursements must be paid on time," Bardorf said Thursday.

Suicide also is a topic that nearly all VSOs want to see addressed -- both within the administration and through legislation. In an emotional moment during a hearing Thursday, Army veteran Regis Riley, AMVETS national commander, discussed veteran suicides, which average 20 a day.

Particularly, he noted the uptick in those occurring in parking lots of VA facilities, such as the death of Marine Col. Jim Turner on Dec. 10 at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center in Petersburg, Florida. And, he added, this week, an AMVETS post commander in Annville, Pennsylvania, died by suicide in front of his AMVETS post. He was 35.

"VA continues to insinuate that veterans killing themselves have not participated in VA care. What we are doing is not working. To start fixing the problem, you have to own the problem," Riley said.

While the groups were varied -- from the largest, including the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, to the more obscure, the American Ex-Prisoners of War -- they presented a unified front to Congress, urging lawmakers to support those who have served the nation.

"We cannot stress enough the need to preserve and strengthen the VA health care system while more resources, including the community, are leveraged to expand access to care," said David Zurfluh, national president of the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

The following are among issues veterans service organizations want to see addressed:

Female Veterans' Health Care

As the number of female veterans increases, the VA must do more to accommodate their physical and mental health needs, to include expanding services for them at VA medical centers and ensuring that female veterans are apprised of their benefits, the groups said.

While the VA has said it has attempted to call 1.2 million female veterans, and has reached 600,000, the effort is not enough unless all VA medical facilities can provide them quality care, according to the VSOs.

The American Legion is encouraging Congress to provide child-care services at VA medical centers for appointments, ensure that all VA facilities have up-to-date diagnostic and treatment options, and meet the privacy needs of female veterans at all facilities.

IAVA has named "galvanizing support for women veterans" one of its top six initiatives for the year. "While the past few years have been encouraging in the display of growing interest in ensuring health care accessibility for women veterans at VA ... there is still much work to be done," Butler said.

Education

Several organizations want to see increased protection for student veterans, to include ongoing oversight of the Forever GI Bill and ensuring that students can choose the schools that best meet their needs.

A number of groups also would like to see closure of what is known as the "90/10 loophole," which means that schools must have at least 10 percent of their funding from revenue sources that are not considered federal funds. Organizations say this loophole pushes less reputable schools to attract veterans -- at all costs, which allows them to prey on veterans through aggressive marketing campaigns.

Toxic Exposures

A number of organizations, including the VFW, are calling for legislation requiring the Defense Department and VA to document environmental exposures and support research and disability compensation for affected veterans. From the Blue Water Navy veterans and those affected by burn pits, contaminated water and other environmental hazards, former service members deserve care, they say.

"Congress can't fail these veterans again," VFW Commander in Chief Vincent Lawrence said.

Traumatic Brain Injury Research and Awareness

Noting that veterans with traumatic brain injuries are at higher risk for developing Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the Wounded Warrior Project and American Legion called for more research and preparation for what could be a significant number of veterans needing assisted living services and rehabilitative care.

"While the number of veterans diagnosed with TBI and PTSD is increasing significantly, the types of treatments offered remain limited and inadequate," American Legion National Commander Brett Reistad said in his prepared statement.

Other items that the advocates would like to see more support for include medical marijuana, improved implementation of caregiver programs and better support for catastrophically ill veterans.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.
British lawmakers are due to vote for a second time Tuesday on the deal, which they overwhelmingly rejected in January. If Parliament throws out the deal again, lawmakers will vote on whether to leave the EU without an agreement  an idea likely to be rejected  or to ask the EU to delay Brexit beyond the scheduled March 29 departure date.
Editors Note: This story has been updated with additional information from a Pentagon spokesman. All transgender people will not be barred from enlisting as first stated on Friday. Those diagnosed with gender dysphoria will be banned.

The Pentagon will enforce President Donald Trump's controversial policy that will bar certain transgender people from joining the military, a Defense Department spokesman said Friday, following a new court decision.

Transgender troops who are currently serving will be allowed to remain in uniform, Defense Department spokesman Charles Summers told reporters. But that won't be the case for everyone interested in joining the ranks.

"Those who are currently serving will continue to serve, and those who've had medical service for gender dysphoria will not be allowed to serve," he said.

Lt. Col. Joe Buccino, a spokesman for Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the proposed policy "is not a ban on service by transgender persons."

"Under the proposed policy, no one may be denied entry into the military or involuntarily discharged based solely on gender identity," he said. "However, a diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria, a medical condition requiring long-term treatment, can be disqualifying.

"In January," Buccino added, "a three-judge federal appeals court unanimously concluded that it was factually incorrect to describe the proposed policy as a blanket ban on service by transgender persons.

Except for those currently serving troops Buccino said would be exempt under the proposed policy, all service members must meet military standards. That including the standards associated with their biological sex, regardless of gender identity, he said.

A federal judge in Maryland on Thursday removed the order that prevented the Trump administration from putting its transgender ban into place. The Supreme Court had already allowed the ban to take effect in other states earlier this year.

U.S. District Judge George Russell III wrote on Thursday that there cannot be special rules for transgender people wanting to enlist or become officer candidates in Maryland, The Washington Post reported.

"The court is bound by the Supreme Court's decision to stay the preliminary injunctions in their entirety," Russell wrote.

Trump announced the transgender ban on Twitter in July 2017.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," he wrote. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

Defense Department officials, including then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, were reportedly surprised by the announcement. Trump's ban prompted multiple lawsuits, which temporarily prevented the ban from taking effect as they made their way through the courts.

Joshua Block, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented a dozen transgender individuals currently serving or wanting to serve in the military, called Russell's decision deeply disappointing.

"Each and every claim made by President Trump to justify this ban can be easily debunked by the conclusions drawn from the Department of Defense's own review process," Block said in a statement. "We will continue to fight against this discriminatory policy and the Trump administration's attacks on transgender people."

A 2016 Rand Corp. study found that transgender people serving in the military would have a minimal impact on readiness.

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.
Jessica D. Blankshain is an assistant professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College. All views expressed are the author's own and do not represent the views of the United States government, Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or U.S. Naval War College.

One of the things most people agree on regarding U.S. civil-military relations is that the military should stay out of politics. But how do we keep the military out of politics when politicians are in the military?

Adam Kinzinger, representative for Illinois' 16th Congressional District and a lieutenant colonel in the Wisconsin Air National Guard, is facing scrutiny for tweets and media appearances in which he criticized Wisconsin's governor, Tony Evers, for deciding to withdraw Wisconsin National Guard troops from the southern border.

Ultimately the Wisconsin Guard determined Kinzingers remarks were not a problem, announcing March 7 that a review had found he was speaking in his capacity as a Congressman, not a military officer.

But this dustup also highlights broader issues raised by members of the National Guard (and service reserves) serving concurrently in political office.

Members of the National Guard and reserve serving in Congress has been relatively uncontroversial for nearly 200 years. In the early 1800s, the House took action against a member who joined the militia between congressional sessions, arguing that it violated the Incompatibility Clause (Article 1 Section 6 of the U.S. Constitution), which prohibits individuals from serving in the executive and legislative branches simultaneously.

The law defining "employees" has since been reworded to avoid this issue but, in recent years, the question of legislators serving in the Guard and reserve has begun to draw attention from those who study American civil-military relations. This interest may be driven in part by the effects of the "Abrams Doctrine," which moved many critical capabilities into the Guard and reserve after Vietnam. [There are, of course, significant differences between the National Guard and service reserves, both in terms of force structure and relationship to state and federal government, but for present purposes I consider them together.]

Beginning roughly near the end of the Cold War and accelerating after 9/11, the United States has shifted from having a largely strategic reserve component -- "weekend warriors" who did not expect to deploy unless there was a crisis -- to having an operational reserve in which members of the Guard and reserve expect to deploy regularly in support of ongoing operations overseas, from the peacekeeping missions of the 1990s to combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s and beyond.

As a result, members of the Guard and reserve may now be perceived less as civilians who take up arms in time of need and more as part-time professional soldiers who have more in common with their active-duty counterparts than with average Americans.

Given the professional military's strong apolitical ethic, whether and when we view members of the Guard and reserve as members of the military profession has important implications for how we evaluate their political activity (similar to discussions of political participation by retired officers).

There can, of course, be benefits to having members of the Guard and reserve serving in Congress or other political offices. Their military experience may inform their lawmaking and oversight. And as we were somberly reminded by the death of Brent Taylor, a Utah National Guard major and mayor of North Ogden, in Afghanistan last year, they may also serve as a link between civilian communities and the military fighting on their behalf.

But there are challenges, too, as Rep. Kinzinger's case makes clear. When an officer who is also a politician publicly criticizes orders from his commander in chief, who belongs to a different political party, it raises concerns about good order and discipline within the military and, perhaps most significantly, it makes it harder to keep clear separation in the public mind between the military and politics. As the reserve component's role in the military has shifted, so too has the balance of these pros and cons.

Kinzinger's personal criticism of the governor highlights that concerns about good order and discipline are linked with concerns about politicization. On Twitter, Kinzinger questioned whether Evers visited to the border himself to understand the deployment or instead made a "political" decision. In a Fox News interview, he said that he was breaking the news of the withdrawal because he believed the governor didn't have the courage to do so. While these comments would not be particularly remarkable coming from a member of the opposing political party, they look very different coming from an officer in that state's National Guard. Kinzinger, of course, is both. How will his fellow Wisconsin Guard members, whom he will continue to serve alongside, perceive these comments?

Kinzinger's remarks also raise concerns about public perceptions of the politicization of the military. One of the main reasons Kinzinger's comments held weight was that he had just returned from a deployment to the border and drew on his experience there to support his criticism of the withdrawal. In the Fox appearance in particular, the hosts and Kinzinger all position him as a neutral expert drawing on his two-week deployment to the border to make a policy judgment, in contrast to partisan politicians who oppose the president's declaration of national emergency for political reasons.

Kinzinger is explicitly critical of Democrats, both in Congress and in state government. He might be perceived as trying to have it both ways -- using his apolitical military credibility to go after political opponents -- which could have implications for the public's view of the military as an institution. This last point is perhaps of most concern, given the high level of confidence the American public has in the military compared to elected officials, as well as indications that this confidence is increasingly taking on partisan dimensions.

Kinzinger's situation is by no means unique. There were at least 16 members concurrently serving in the Guard or reserve and the 115th Congress, and the intention of this piece is not to single him out for scrutiny. The shift from a strategic to an operational reserve component has changed the relationship between the reserve component and society, and we should be cognizant of those changes when thinking about how members of the Guard and reserve balance their military service with their political service.

Such a reassessment wouldn't require a ban on concurrent service, but might mean developing either explicit regulations or implicit norms around which issues such members should recuse themselves on, what boundaries they draw on their partisan political speech, or to what degree they invoke their service while campaigning and governing.

-- The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration.
The Air Force is hitting new milestones with drone technology, testing out an unmanned system that flies close to the speed of sound and another that can operate autonomously on missions.

The Air Force Research Lab, in partnership with Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems, recently flew the XQ-58A Valkyrie, which the service describes as a long-range, high subsonic unmanned aerial vehicle. The drone made its 76-minute maiden flight Tuesday over the Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, according to a service release.

Meanwhile, the 412th Test Wing's Emerging Technologies Combined Test Force out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, conducted first flights of its Testing of Autonomy in Complex Environments system, or TACE, on a small Lynx drone, according to a separate release.

The high-subsonic Valkyrie could fit into the service's efforts to create unmanned combat aerial vehicles similar to the unmanned fighter concept it has been experimenting with for some time. Last week, Boeing Co. debuted its concept for a "loyal wingman" fighter drone that would work autonomously alongside fourth- and fifth-generation fighter aircraft for the Australian government.

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"XQ-58A is the first example of a class of UAV that is defined by low procurement and operating costs while providing game-changing combat capability," Doug Szczublewski, AFRL's XQ-58A program manager, said in the release.

The Air Force is scheduled to keep testing Valkyrie.

"The XQ-58A has a total of five planned test flights in two phases with objectives that include evaluating system functionality, aerodynamic performance and launch and recovery systems," the release states.

Meanwhile, the Air Force's tests of autonomy are expanding the range of the possible for unmanned aerial systems.

The TACE technology is halfway between autonomous artificial intelligence system and an aircraft's autopilot, officials at Edwards said in a release. The base tested the system for three days.

Tested on the Lynx drone, the system "monitors the commands being sent from the autonomy to the autopilot and then sends back the aircraft state information such as position, speed and orientation to the autonomy," officials said.

"Today we had an autonomous algorithm commanding the aircraft without any direct human involvement," said Capt. Riley Livermore, 412th Test Wing ET-CTF Autonomy lead, in a news release. "We call it human ON the loop as opposed to most remotely piloted aircraft that are human IN the loop."

Officials said the TACE payload technology has not been designed for a specific aircraft, but can "be used on different aircraft sizes for test."

The unit plans to conduct future tests, and is expected to fly it on a much larger drone that can fly up to 250 miles per hour this summer. Both the Global Hawk and MQ-9 Reaper can reach those speeds.

TACE could act as the node carrying or distributing backup information a pilot may need in a signal or communications denied environment.

"Using TACE, a single live aircraft can fly in formation with a virtual wingman, with simulated sensors, flying in a simulated GPS-denied environment," Livermore said.

TACE has the ability "to allow simulated entities to interact with live aircraft," the release said. This configuration is known as the Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC).

"The beautiful thing about TACE and LVC is that it can stress the autonomous algorithms without jeopardizing the safety of flight," Livermore said.

Related Video:

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
Military members and veterans can get up to four free months of Apple Music through the Apple Music military discount -- but...
Now through April 19, military spouses can apply for the opportunity to earn a free financial counselor accreditation to help them find employment at any military installation or in the civilian sector.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Foundation Military Spouse Fellowship Program offers this career-enhancing credential to military spouses so they may in turn provide financial counseling and education to fellow members of the military community.

The program provides a clear pathway for participants to obtain an Accredited Financial Counselor designation, said Jennifer Chambers, a Baumholder military spouse who is currently enrolled in the program.

"The fellowship provides participants with textbooks, an exam study guide and an online webinar review course. The curriculum is comprehensive and has given me a broad understanding of financial issues that families regularly encounter," Chambers said.

Chambers and her family are moving back to the States this summer, but she'll be able to take her AFC designation with her to pursue career opportunities at their next location.

"I am hopeful that the skills and knowledge I have gained from the program will enable me to find suitable employment," Chambers said. "In the future, I hope to work as an accredited financial counselor and educator within the military community."

Alicia Hernandez, a Kaiserslautern military spouse, is also enrolled in the program and hopes to gain future employment as a financial counselor with Army Community Service after she receives her certification.

"The accredited financial counseling certificate earned from this course will help me break into the financial counseling field, which is what I am hoping to do. The volunteer hours that are required with the program will also give me the experience and background to be able to work with individuals in regards to their finances," Hernandez said.

"With each Permanent Change of Station move, military spouses often have to reinvent themselves in regards to their career," Hernandez said. The more skills military spouses can add to their resumes, the more it helps with their career searches, she explained.

The AFC designation is a gateway for military spouses to have a flexible and portable career while their Soldier or Airman serves on active duty, said Kristin James, Army Community Service Financial Readiness Program manager and accredited financial counselor.

Two members of the ACS Financial Readiness Team are fellowship alumni. James said "one of those spouses has worked in the industry for over eight years across three PCS moves because she obtained the AFC certification."

"Obtaining the AFC certification takes time and effort to pass the national exam and to build the necessary counseling hours, but it's an investment in yourself and it can definitely pay off," James concluded.

Since it began, the FINRA Foundation Military Spouse Fellowship Program has provided more than 1,530 military spouses the opportunity to earn the AFC certification. Those interested in applying for the 2019 fellowship must submit applications no later than April 19.

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In Spring 1993, a Vietnamese farmer was on his way to work his rice paddy when he passed his wife and children in the road. The wife sat on a rock and greeted him "scornfully," as his children cowered behind their mother.

The meeting shocked the farmer, as his wife and his three children were killed when their village was attacked in 1968 and his house was burned to the ground.

Stories like these are common in Vietnam, where rural communities attach deep meaning to spiritual encounters. In this case, the man understood his wife's grave had been disturbed in the village's recent developments.

He immediately set out to give them a proper reburial. But there are many, many more ghost stories throughout Vietnam, relevant to the war fought there. Many of those persist to this day.

Saigon's haunted apartments

The building at 727 Tran Hung Dao in Ho Chi Minh City  also known as Saigon  was a building that housed American service members for much of the Vietnam War. But its construction was plagued by accidents from the get-go, some of which killed the workers building it. Many blamed it on the number of floors the building had, 13, which was considered unlucky.

In order to assuage their fears and get the building completed, the architect decided to call in a shaman to fix the building's feng shui issues. It's said the shaman brought the dead bodies of four virgins from the local hospital and buried them at the four corners of the building, which would protect it from evil spirits.

To this day, residents hear screams of horror in the middle of the night, the sound of a military parade on the march through the building, and the apparition of a spectral American GI walking, holding hands with his Vietnamese girlfriend.

The tunnel rats encounter

On Reddit, a terminally-ill Vietnam veteran recounted a story of his time in Vietnam that he was going to take to his grave but opted to put it on r/nosleep instead. For the uninitiated, Army Tunnel Rats were troops who would crawl into NVA and Viet Cong tunnels to eradicate the troops that hid there below the surface.

It was one of the war's most dangerous jobs, crawling around in the dark, avoiding booby traps and trying to kill before they killed you.

This Tunnel Rat was crawling into the deepest tunnel he'd ever been in, along with his partner. When they finally arrived in the main room, they were astonished that no booby traps were set and an oil lamp was still lit.

The only thing they found was a tarp, but when they moved the tarp, it revealed a set of stone stairs, moving deeper underground. The stairs were odd, and definitely not built by the VC. They looked centuries old. The two men cautiously climbed down the stairs, guns drawn, when they came upon another tarp.

Cautiously, the Rats moved the tarp with their pistols and fixed their flashlights on 10 or so Vietnamese people, dressed as VC, but with blank faces looking into space, bodies rocking back and forth, eyes a solid color. The men waved their flashlights and weapons in their faces but nothing stopped their rocking motion.

Their now-rusted weapons were in a pile in the corner. At the head of the room was a golden icon of a naked woman, except the lower half of her body featured eight tentacles instead of human legs.

The men were tempted to touch the icon, but instead decided to rig the entrance with C4 and bail as fast as possible. As they were leaving, a woman's voice called out to them. Read the rest of the story on Reddit.

A veteran comes home

On a Notre Dame alumni website, on alum remarks about his chance encounter with a guy he had known since grade school. He was working a construction job in 1967 and was on his way home after work one night.

He was coming around the corner when he walked by an old funeral parlor. He noticed the man was his old friend Jerry, a guy he hadn't seen in two years. The construction worker was tired and not really in the mood to rehash old times, so he put his hat down and walked by his old friend unnoticed.

When he got home, his mother was on the phone, talking to one of the construction worker's friends. She immediately stopped her son to tell him that his old friend Jerry had been killed in Vietnam and his body was at the funeral parlor down the street.

Ghouls of the jungle

Marines in Vietnam would often try to recruit locals to help guide them in their area of operations. In some areas, however, the locals were fearful of going into the densest, darkest parts of the jungle. The reason, they found, was the local superstition that phantoms, called ma, occupied the trees there.

Montagnards warned the U.S. troops that reanimated corpses awaited them in the trees. The Marines, of course, shrugged the stories off as folklore.

Starting in 1965, it became very real. American troops in the jungles of Vietnam began reporting ghostly figures moving supernaturally through the trees. Others reported fanged creatures with black eyes that would try to kidnap and consume unsuspecting troops. In one encounter, the beasts were found to be bulletproof.

It didn't matter what time of day it was, the corpses lived by both day and night. Since the triple canopy jungle kept the sunlight from hitting them, the military's top brass decided to get rid of it.

That's the real reason the military developed Agent Orange and napalm. The Marines would then roll in with flamethrowers to finish the job.

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MQI working for the protection of the rights of women: Farah Naz

Addressing a meeting held in connection with the International Women Day, Mrs. Farah Naz, President of Minhaj Women League, has said that Islam gave economic protection to the women 1400 years ago by making her shareholder in the inheritance. She said that the rights of women have been clearly determined in different roles such as wife, daughter, and mother. She said that Islam talks about the equal rights for the women but the diseased and exploitative thinking present in the society does not know how to respect women rights. She said that it is the responsibility of the state to protect the rights of all citizens particularly the weaker segments.

Mrs. Farah Naz said that it is unfortunate that the women do not get the full salary for their hard work in a country that was achieved in the name of Islam. She said that in most of the cases, it is the women who become victim to law and order situations. They also face harassment at the workplaces and it is they who are subjected to forced marriages. She said that there is no space for such crimes either in Islam or laws of the land. He said that the oppression against women has been perpetuated and the kind of role one expected of the state to stem these anti-women practices is not visible.

MWL President said that the idea of women empowerment means to make women stand up on their feet educationally and economically. She said that educational facilities for women are far less compared to men in developing countries like Pakistan. She said that only an educated woman can play a role in national development. She bemoaned that some foreign-funded NGOs are confused about the exact nature of women empowerment, stating that empowerment of the women does not mean to add to their financial and social woes. She said that we are against both the extreme. She said that empowerment is all about giving women access to every kind of education.

Mrs. Farah Naz said that MQI is the only NGO that has set up schools and educational institutions for the education of the women, which also includes a chartered university. She said that an educated woman is the pride of Pakistan and the guarantee of the countrys progress.
Astros righty Justin Verlander chatted yesterday about his pending free agency with Jon Heyman of MLB Network (all links to Twitter). While hes keeping an open door to remaining in Houston, it doesnt sound as if theres any expectation of reaching a deal this spring. Verlander, whos still at the top of his game at 36 years of age, reiterated his previously stated intention to pitch well into his forties. That expectation wont lead him to chase the longest-possible guarantee in free agency, though. Having already secured career earnings in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Verlander says hell prioritize annual salary and other considerations while remaining cognizant of how his contract fits in the larger market picture. Further to that point, the veteran notes that big deals for this winters very best free agents have tended to mask the down-market struggles and number of teams that are not seeking to compete.

More from the western divisions 
Michigan medical marijuana patients have to leave their medicine behind when traveling out of state due to federal law.

But a new program in Hawaii could make the warm, tropical state even more attractive to Michiganders -- especially those with medical marijuana cards.

Hawaiian officials announced this week the state would start honoring medical marijuana cards issued by other states.

Out-of-state patients would have to apply online with the state of Hawaii 60 days in advance of their trip, pay a nonrefundable $49.50 fee and have a valid license in their home state. Hawaii would issue them electronic access to a temporary registry card thats valid for 60 days, which would allow out-of-state patients to purchase their medicine at provisioning centers on the islands.

Michigan offers similar reciprocity to out-of-state patients, though there is no state application required, according to a December 2018 bulletin from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

Michigan provisioning centers are allowed to sell medical marijuana to out-of-state patients as long as they have a valid license from their home state, and that their identity is verified with a government-issued photo I.D.

Though medical marijuana has been legal in Hawaii since 2000, adult-use remains illegal. The states legislature is attempting to legalize recreational cannabis this month.

-- Amy Biolchini is the marijuana beat reporter for MLive. Contact her with questions, tips or comments at abiolch1@mlive.com. Read more from MLive about medical marijuana.
A 25-year-old Ann Arbor man fought sheriffs deputies after being caught having sex with a woman in a public hot tub at Kalahari Resorts in Sandusky, Ohio on Tuesday, March 5, police say.

Kamden Mack and his female acquaintance apparently were caught engaged in sexual intercourse in the hot tub that is available to patrons of the resort in the public pool area, Erie County Sheriff Paul Sigsworth said.

Deputies were called when the couple refused managements request they leave the property, sheriffs officials said.

According to the sheriff, Mack became upset and belligerent" with deputies, who placed him under arrest.

Because Mack refused to stand or walk, deputies carried him and placed him inside a police vehicle. Mack managed to open the rear door of the vehicle and sprinted away, but he ran into a car in the parking lot and was subsequently arrested, Sigsworth said.

Mack continued to be combative after being transported to the county jail and was strapped into a chair used for restraining violent inmates, the sheriff said.

Mack is charged with felony escape, as well as two misdemeanors, persistent and disorderly conduct while intoxicated and criminal trespass.

The woman, a 22-year-old Hudson resident, is charged with misdemeanor persistent and disorderly conduct and criminal trespass.
Michigan restaurant chain Olgas Kitchen is celebrating International Womens Day today, on March 8, by giving all women free Snackers.

All 26 Michigan locations are offering women a free side of Snackers today with any purchase. Most Olgas restaurants are located in Metro Detroit. There is also one at Woodland Mall in Grand Rapids, a location in Lansing, one in Portage, one in Kalamazoo and one in Lansing. You can find all locations here.

Olga Loizon was a pioneer in the restaurant industry, providing women with the inspiration needed to continue to break barriers in pursuit of their dreams and passions, said Loredana Gianino, marketing manager of Olgas Kitchen. As we honor Olgas legacy, we wanted to open our kitchen and recognize moms, women entrepreneurs and our future female leaders on International Womens Day with a token of our appreciation. Olga is proof that anything is achievable, and Olgas Kitchen is here to serve as a source of encouragement for women following in her footsteps.

Olgas Kitchen is known for its Olga bread and sandwiches. The original Olga sandwich consists of seasoned beef and lamb, vine-ripened tomatoes, sweet onions, and Olgasauce. The menu also features soups, salads and desserts. Olgas was founded in 1970 by Olga Loizon. She passed away in January 2019 at the age of 92.
House and Senate Democrats are pushing to revert Michigans minimum wage back to what it would have been under a voter initiative before heavy amendments were signed into law late last year.

Sponsored by Rep. Bill Sowerby, D-Clinton Twp., and Sen. Betty Jean Alexander, D-Detroit, House Bill 4299 and Senate Bill 168 would bring tipped employees into the regular minimum wage rules and raise the minimum wage to $12 by 2022.

It mirrors the 2018 ballot initiative circulated by the group One Fair Wage, which earned enough signatures to come before the Legislature prior to heading to the statewide ballot. Instead of letting the measure proceed to the ballot, the legislature adopted the law with the intent to change it later on.

Under controversial legislative changes signed into law during the legislative lame duck session, the new minimum wage requirement leaves tipped workers separate and raises the general minimum wage to $12.05 by 2030, a longer time horizon than was originally proposed. Tipped workers will be at 38 percent of the regular minimum wage, and make a minimum of $4.58 per hour by 2030.

Alexander said before she was elected, she experienced the difficulties that come with living on minimum wage. The people who voted to change the initial voter-initiated law likely havent experienced the issue of stretching limited dollars to pay bills, she said.

I know the struggle - its real, Alexander said.

The legislation is unlikely to move in the Republican-led legislature. Asked about the proposal Thursday, House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, said he considers the issue settled: Im confident that we have the right structure moving forward, he said.

Sowerby said Democrats are continuing to push and challenge the current status quo in the House and Senate because this is the right thing to do.

This isnt a one-time thing - this is something that is affecting the economics of this state. This is affecting peoples livelihoods, he said.

Outside the legislature, other challenges to the legislative changes of the voter-initiated minimum wage law and paid sick time law are still ongoing.

Attorney General Dana Nessel is currently considering a request to issue a formal opinion on the matter, and House and Senate Republicans recently asked the Michigan Supreme Court to weigh in on the legislations constitutionality.
While it existing on the schedule might have been more happenstance than not, NASA has confirmed that its spacewalk scheduled for March 29 will be its first-ever featuring only women.

From the two astronauts to the flight director and flight controller, the team will embark on an expected seven-hour spacewalk outside of the International Space Station. One of these astronauts, Christina Hammock Koch, happens to be a Grand Rapids native even though she now calls Jacksonville, North Carolina home.

Related: Making NASA history: Grand Rapids native is 3rd from West Michigan to become astronaut, 1st Michigan woman

Koch will be joined on the spacewalk by fellow astronaut Anne C. McClain, who will also take part in a seven-hour spacewalk on March 22 with astronaut Nick Hague.

As currently scheduled, the March 29 spacewalk will be the first with only women, a spokesperson with the space agency confirmed to CNN. It is the second in a series of three planned spacewalks. Anne also will join Nick Hague for the March 22 spacewalks. And, of course, assignments and schedules could always change.

It was not orchestrated to be this way; these spacewalks were originally scheduled to take place in the fall. In addition to the two female spacewalkers, the lead flight director is Mary Lawrence, and Jackie Kagey is the lead EVA flight controller.

I could never have imagined how many people would see this tweet, and I want to recognize that Im part of a much larger team thats been prepping for this spacewalk for a long time. There is a whole whack of amazing people that made this happen, and I wish I could list them all!  Kristen Facciol (@kfacciol) March 7, 2019

NASA will provide coverage of the spacewalk starting 6:30 a.m. March 29, on its website, social media channels and on NASA TV. CNN reports this will represent Kochs first spacewalk and McClains first venture into space.

Koch graduated from the NASA Academy at Goddard Space Flight Center back in 2001, and was selected as part of the 2013 astronaut class. She is scheduled to launch to the space station on March 14, and will serve as the flight engineer for Expeditions 59 and 60 after she arrives to the orbiting laboratory.

Spacewalks allow astronauts to work outside their spacecraft while still in space. One job astronauts do on a spacewalk is science experiments, the space agency explains on its website. "Experiments can be attached to the outside of a spacecraft to see how the space environment affects different things.

Astronauts place the experiments outside their spacecraft during a spacewalk. They go back outside to get the experiments when the tests are over. Astronauts also can test new equipment and make repairs to satellites or to their spacecraft while in orbit. By going on spacewalks, astronauts can repair equipment that might otherwise have to be brought back to Earth for repair.
Ypsilanti Mayor Beth Bashert described a Tuesday City Council meeting as one of the more volatile shes ever attended.

The controversy surrounded City Manager Darwin McClarys decision to hire another fire chief candidate over Ypsilanti Interim Chief Ken Hobbs, a 33-year member of the department.

City council special meeting Posted by Ypsi Live on Thursday, March 7, 2019

Hobbs, the departments union head for the last 17 years, said he applied to become the new chief months ago and learned McClary selected an outside candidate to fill the role about 4:45 p.m. Friday, March 1.

In response to the decision, as well as the heated public meeting Tuesday, several City Council members called for a special meeting scheduled to take place at Ypsilanti City Hall at 4 p.m. today, March 7.

"We called the special meeting because we are asking to discuss staff ... " Ypsilanti Mayor Pro Tem Lois Richardson said. We have some things that have gone on with the city manager and some of his appointments -- or lack thereof -- and we just want to review those.

The special meeting agenda lists two public comment periods, one before and one after a closed session of the elected body. There is no explanation about what elected officials plan to discuss in private.

When asked if there is likely to be any vote Thursday, Richardson said that depends on what happens in the closed session.

At Tuesdays City Council meeting, some alleged racial bias in the hiring decision, both the mayor and interim chief said. While the new hires name hasnt been released publicly, according to Hobbs, who is black, the selection is a white captain currently employed in Livonia.

The city manger announced the hiring of a new fire chief and he passed over an internal candidate, who is African-American, for a white external candidate, Bashert said, and many in our community had strong feelings about that and expressed their fears about racism.

While Hobbs said theres a scarcity of black leaders in the firefighting profession, he believes a more significant factor in the managers decision is likely the ongoing adversarial relationship theyve had since McClary became city manager two years ago.

As the lead contract negotiator for the union, Hobbs said theyre often at odds.

Bashert expects some to call for the removal of McClary, a move she opposes. Bashert said the city is currently working through some very large projects, including an effort to secure grant funds for a train station, and the removal of a key person at this time is extremely problematic.

Hobbs became the interim fire chief on Jan. 4, taking over for Ypsilanti Fire Chief Max Anthouard, who retired on Jan. 11.

MLive left a message seeking comment with McClary.

The Ypsilanti Charter requires 24-hour notice and consensus from three city council members, or a request from the mayor, in order to hold a special meeting. Richardson, Councilwoman Peter Murdock and Councilwoman Nicole Brown requested Thursdays special meeting, according to Ypsilanti Deputy Clerk Andrew Hellenga.

Check back with MLive for more from the special meeting.
ANN ARBOR, MI - Two brothers are opening a super colorful and super flavorful, Asian-inspired restaurant this month, about a block away from another downtown restaurant they run.

Logan restaurant owners Thad and Ryan Gillies are opening Chow Asian Street Food on Monday, March 18 at 208 West Liberty St., the former kitchen for Marks Carts, a food truck courtyard at 211 W. Washington St. that closed in September 2017.

Thad Gillies, who was formerly a chef at Zingermans Delicatessen before taking a break for additional training in New York, created Logan as a boutique Manhattan-style restaurant where menu items are made from scratch, he said.

I think that I was born to do it," he said. "I came back because city life isnt for this guy. I grew up in Michigan and I love Ann Arbor.

He and his brother wanted to open another restaurant that was less like Logan and more of a quick and affordable option in the area.

We both wanted to do something fast casual, and Ive always been attracted to the flavors of Asia," Gillies said. The concept of the restaurant is bowls, soups and sandwiches. Within that very simple concept is a very complex menu because were doing everything form scratch.

Sandwiches will be about $6 and bowls range from $8 to $12. The restaurant will also carry sodas from the Detroit Soda Company, along with their own special Chow blend coffee through Mighty Good Coffee.

Everything is component-driven and chef-driven fast food at Chow, Gillies said, noting they make their own bread for sandwiches, with sauces that compliment each dish. The only item not made from scratch will be noodles for noodle bowls.

Gillies spent time supplementing his research on Asian recipes using cookbooks and the magic of YouTube, he said.

I wanted to explore this area. Asia is pretty big. The sandwiches are the only thing that I have that are truly Chinese. Its called a rou jia mo. Well make the bread for them. We grill the bread on a panini press and stuff it full of one of our four different proteins, Gillies said.

Proteins include: braised pork belly, coconut beef, Szechuan chicken and sesame garlic tofu. Each comes with a sauce that compliments the protein.

The brothers are in the process of hiring about 20 employees for the 60-seat restaurant, which Gillies describes as a warm and inviting space," with tables built by Ryan Gillies from an ash tree and an extremely healthy" menu.

The restaurant will be open everyday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
ANN ARBOR, MI - Kent Neigebauer may finally get into the Center for Forensic Psychiatry after a phone call from the judge in his homicide case.

The 67-year-old retired Ann Arbor police officer accused of killing his wife has been in the Washtenaw County Jail awaiting mental health treatment for nearly 10 months.

Neigebauer in May 2018 was found incompetent to stand trial for the 2017 death of his wife, 63-year-old Marcia Neigebauer.

In November, after months without treatment, a frustrated Washtenaw County Trial Judge Darlene OBrien said she planned to issue an order to prioritize his admittance.

But as of Thursday, March 7, that hadn't made a difference.

Kent Neigebauer appeared in a wheelchair Thursday, March 7 for a competency hearing at the trial court, but had the hearing delayed after OBrien revealed he still hadnt received treatment.

The judge said she called the center recently to address the delay.

"(They said) Mr. Neigebauer is No. 3 on their list to be admitted and should be admitted within the next two to three weeks," she said.

The center pointed to high volume for the delay, OBrien said at the November hearing.

The wait time for mentally ill defendants to be admitted into a state psychiatric hospital has been an ongoing issue in Michigan, and was the subject of a 2017 MLive investigation.

Two bills introduced in the state legislature that same year sought to address the long waits. They were directed at initial competency examinations, not treatment. The legislation stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee in March 2018.

Though Kent Neigebauer was found incompetent for trial, his criminal responsibility hasnt been ruled out. He may still face trial if his competency is deemed restored within the required time frame.

The state has 15 months or a third of the maximum prison sentence for the crime charged, whichever is less, to rehabilitate a defendant found incompetent to stand trial. For Neigebauer, facing life in prison, the state has 15 months.

Police say Neigebauer, who retired from the Ann Arbor Police Department in 2004, called 911 on the morning of Nov. 19, 2017 to report killing his wife in their apartment in the 5000 block of Plum Hollow Drive in Pittsfield Township.

He told police that he went insane and strangled Marcia Neigebauer, who was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, according to court documents. A breathing tube and scarf were found around her neck.

Kent Neigebauer now is scheduled for a competency review May 16. He remains held without bond.
ANN ARBOR, MI - A multi-vehicle crash blocked northbound U.S. 23 during the evening commute Friday, March 8.

The crash, reported about 3:45 p.m., blocked all lanes of U.S. 23 at Nine Mile Road, exit 54, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

The location is north of Ann Arbor in Livingston County's Green Oak Township.

Details on the incident were not immediately available.

Though the crash was cleared about 4:30 p.m., traffic still appeared backed up to North Territorial Road in Washtenaw County, according to MDOT traffic cameras.
SCIO TOWNSHIP, MI  More than 100 residents and officials concerned about threats to local water supplies packed into Scio Township Hall for a forum Thursday night.

Detections of toxic PFAS and dioxane chemicals in the Huron River and Ann Arbors drinking water, as well as some private wells in Washtenaw County, topped the list of concerns.

One resident asked whether its time to think about hooking up to Detroits water system.

We anticipate thats a question that we are going to hear, said Brian Steglitz, Ann Arbors water plant manager. Were going to be prepared to answer that as we look at future improvements that we need to do to our water system."

A city-hired consultant estimated in 2015 it might cost $250-$300 million to connect to Detroit's system.

Rather than go that route, Ann Arbor is planning a roughly $90 million rehabilitation of the citys aging water treatment plant on Sunset Road.

Obviously, if were going to choose to invest that kind of resources in our water treatment plant, we need to be sure that were doing it for a water supply that we can provide safe drinking water to our customers for many generations, Steglitz said.

A panel of county and state officials, along with a Huron River Watershed Council representative, shared their thoughts on dioxane and PFAS at the March 7 town hall hosted by state Rep. Donna Lasinski, D-Scio Township.

Some residents expressed frustration about the expanding Gelman dioxane plume, and the fact that polluter Gelman Sciences is still discharging dioxane-laced water into Honey Creek as part of pump-and-treat remediation efforts.

Honey Creek feeds to the Huron River and Barton Pond where Ann Arbor gets most of its drinking water. Some have suggested the dioxane should be discharged downstream of Barton Pond, or better treatment methods should be used to remove more of it.

So far, only trace amounts of dioxane have been detected in the citys drinking water, and city officials maintain the water is safe.

City officials also believe the PFAS levels in the citys drinking water, which have ranged between 17.2 and 88.1 parts per trillion in recent months, are safe, though some experts arent so sure.

I have always felt very safe drinking from my tap, Lasinski said, noting she has raised her children on Ann Arbor city water while living in Scio Township.

Lasinski is still pushing for establishing strict PFAS standards.

With only an advisory from the federal government and no state clean drinking water standard, there can be no legal enforcement of a rule that doesnt exist, she said. Its very frustrating."

Lasinski noted her cousin Tammie, who has two teenage daughters, now has PFAS in her water on the west side of the state.

She just found out that since they were 3 and 1, in Rockford, shes been raising her children on PFAS-laden water, had one of the highest well concentrations," she said, calling the situation unacceptable.

Lisa Fischer, a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services toxicologist, said health effects associated with PFAS include lowering a womans chance of getting pregnant, high blood pressure in pregnant women, thyroid disease, increased cholesterol levels, changes to immune response and increasing the chance of cancer, specifically kidney and testicular cancer.

For dioxane, So far, weve not seen any health effects from breathing low levels of dioxane, she said. At higher levels, combined exposure to dioxane, including skin contact, breathing vapors and drinking it, can cause cancer and affect the liver and kidneys, Fischer said.

The county health department is not aware of any residential wells locally with PFAS, said Kristen Schweighoefer, Washtenaw County environmental health director.

There are three current wells with dioxane detections of about 1-2 parts per billion, she said, noting the county is in close contact with those residents.

The county also works with the state to test 55 to 100-plus homes at least once a year for dioxane, and there have been some sporadic detections.

At this time, theres no broad recommendation for every county resident to test their well for PFAS or dioxane, Schweighoefer said.

Schools and daycares on well water underwent PFAS testing this past year, with only one school in Washtenaw County testing positive.

Emerson School, a private K-8 school in Lodi Township, is still figuring out a longterm solution for the PFAS in its well water and theres no known source, Schweighoefer said.

One daycare, the Avila Child Care Center in Chelsea, refused PFAS testing, Schweighoefer said.

For the 24 municipal water supplies in Washtenaw County, Ann Arbors system is the only with PFAS.

Daniel Brown, a Watershed Council planner, noted his group is suing Gelman Sciences due to concerns about how dioxane could affect the river.

Theres no evidence yet that PFAS exposure to skin is something to be concerned about, Brown said, but its different with dioxane.

Dioxane is potentially carcinogenic through all pathways of exposure, so if dioxane were to reach the river, that would be particularly catastrophic, he said. And based on that significant risk, thats why we were added to the lawsuit.

Brown expressed concern that a lack of regulatory standards is hampering efforts to clean up and deal with the risk of PFAS. Residents should contact state and federal lawmakers, he said.

There are some bills in the Michigan Legislature right now that I think would be very effective in doing that, he said.

The current health advisory from the EPA is 70 parts per trillion. Many researchers, many agencies, have said that that health advisory level is way too high, so we want a much stricter standard.

More fire departments also need to follow Ann Arbors lead and make sure to stop using PFAS-laden firefighting foam, Brown said.

Along with a lack of a polluter-pay cleanup law in Michigan, Lasinski said legislation approved during the recent lame-duck session is impeding progress.

Right now we cannot establish a rule thats stricter than federal, Lasinski said, noting there are efforts underway to repeal that prohibition.

She asked residents to contact state Sen. Lana Theis, a Republican who represents Livingston County and western Washtenaw County, to encourage her support.

Some residents expressed frustration about PFAS discharges from Wixom, where Tribar Manufacturing, a maker of chrome-plated auto parts, was identified last year as a major source of Huron River pollution.

Tribar now has carbon filters in place and its PFAS levels have gone down, said Gerald Tiernan, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality district supervisor.

Some residents said thats not good enough.

They need to be shut down, said Kathie Weinmann, a Scio Township resident.

Tribars wastewater is now essentially non-detect for PFAS, so the carbon filters helped, Brown said, but theres a lot of sewer pipe between Tribar and the Wixom wastewater treatment plant and some of the chemicals still may be coming through due to residue in the pipes.

Theyre still nowhere near zero. Theyre still too high, based on the last results that Ive seen, Brown said.

Granular activated carbon filters, which Ann Arbor is installing at its water treatment plant, are currently the best solution for removing PFAS from water. Tiernan is hopeful some of the best scientific minds are working on more solutions.
YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, MI - Police are investigating a report of a road rage incident that may have culminated in gunfire.

A driver called police at 3:53 p.m. Thursday, March 7 to a report a road rage incident in which another driver fired a handgun on westbound I-94 and Merriman Road, near Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, said Lt. Darren Green of the Michigan State Police First District.

A Michigan State Police sergeant further west on I-94 waited for the vehicles involved and followed behind, while waiting for backup, Green said.

When police finally turned on their emergency lights, the driver took about two minutes to stop, Green said. He eventually did, however, about 4:08 p.m. at westbound I-94 and Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti Township.

Police used a P.A. system to order the man from his vehicle and take him into custody, Green said. A handgun was found on the floor of his vehicle.

The details of the alleged road rage incident, including whether a shot was actually fired, had not been confirmed as of Thursday evening, Green said. Both drivers were being interviewed.

Further information was not immediately available.
FLINT, MI-- ELGA Credit Union is now open in downtown Flint.

Local politicians, businesses leaders and residents gathered to celebrate the grand opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony Friday, March 8 at the new ELGA location at corner of Saginaw and Second streets.

Its been a glorious morning and this is the perfect location, ELGA CEO Karen Church said. The revitalization of this city is remarkable and were excited to be a part of it.

The approximately 9,000 square-foot building housing ELGA will also serve as the location of Buckham Gallery and KeLan Foard The Brand, a mens grooming and clothing shop.

Work has been underway since fall 2018 on the building owned by nonprofit Uptown Reinvestment Corporation. The space will house a total of six retail units for lease when construction is completed in March.

The county purchased the property in 2000 after a Family Dollar store closed after operating for five years. Uptown purchased the property in 2006.

Prior to Family Dollar, the property was home to a Perry drug store, which closed in 1994.

The $1.4 million renovation project was aided by a $200,000 Michigan Community Revitalization grant via the state Economic Development Corporation.

A 12-year tax abatement valued at $50,000 under the states Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act was approved by the Flints Receivership Transition Advisory Board in July 2015 after it was turned down by city council members two months earlier.

Its expected 15 full-time jobs will come along with the new businesses, including four employees at the ELGA Credit Union branch announced in July 2018.

This full-service branch will add convenience for people working, living, going to school and visiting downtown Flint, Church previously said. We are excited about our new branch location and looking forward to working with downtown partners to help move Flint forward.

ELGA Credit Union currently employees over 200 people and looks to expand that figure with the Flint site and a 12th location set to open this year on 11-plus acres next to Applebees Grill & Bar on Hill Road in Grand Blanc Township.

Eight of the ELGA Credit Unions branches are located within Genesee County - Burton, Montrose Township, Goodrich, Flint Township, Mt. Morris Township, Davison Township, Fenton - as well as the city of Lapeer and Saginaw Township.

Tim Herman, president of Uptown Reinvestment and CEO of the Flint & Genesee Chamber of Commerce, recently said: The newly renovated retail space provides viable options for the growing entrepreneurial community and small businesses that will serve the needs of downtown residents and workers as well as visitors to the area."
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- After a police review exonerated a Grand Rapids police captain for contacting immigration authorities on a former Marine, the American Civil Liberties Union is appealing the case.

The appeal is the latest twist in the ongoing controversy surrounding the 3-day federal detention of U.S. citizen Jilmar Ramos-Gomez in December.

Grand Rapids Police Capt. Curt Vanderkooi emailed Immigration and Customs Enforcement when Ramos-Gomez was arrested in November for setting a small fire in Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital and then standing on rooftop helipad. He wanted ICE to check on Ramos-Gomezs status.

The contact ultimately prompted ICE to detain Ramos-Gomez upon his release from the Kent County Jail in December, even though he possessed a U.S. passport and military dog tags.

Leaders with the ACLU and Michigan Immigrant Rights Center say police are not being held accountable and have asked the Grand Rapids Civilian Appeal Board to review the February police Internal Affairs report that exonerated VanderKooi

The failure of the Internal Affairs investigation to recognize that this was racial profiling, plain and simple, shows that the police cannot police themselves, ACLU attorney Miriam Aukerman said in a written statement.

The Internal Affairs report found that VanderKooi was justified in contacting ICE, which is part of Homeland Security, because Ramos-Gomezs actions at the hospital initially were viewed as a potential terrorism incident.

VanderKooi was counseled for using unprofessional language when referring to Ramos-Gomez in his email to ICE. He used the word Loco.

The Civilian Appeal Board can rule on whether VanderKooi violated department rules. If it rules he did, City Manager Mark Washington then has authority to mete out discipline.

ACLU lawyers want the board to look at whether VanderKooi violated the police departments impartial policing policy and look at whether officers should have recognized his mental health issues. They say he has post-traumatic stress disorder.

The board meets next March 20, but ACLU officials say the appeal likely will be heard on April 17.

Meanwhile, VanderKooi is on administrative leave as of Feb. 28 while the citys Labor Relations Office determines whether he was properly held accountable for the language complaint.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A fleet of 10 buses ferrying workers each day between Holland, Grand Rapids and several cities along the way could be a reality in fall 2020.

The proposed pilot program for a commuter bus service along the Chicago Drive/I-196 corridor between Holland and Grand Rapids was presented Thursday, March 7, to the Mobile GR Commission.

If successful, the tentative service called West Michigan Express might then expand busing services or even evolve into a commuter rail service along the same route, said Patrick Waterman, Hudsonville city manager and chair of the West Michigan Express Task Force.

On any given weekday, 27,000 people head in either direction along the Chicago Drive corridor between Holland and Grand Rapids to get to work, according to the West Michigan Express Task Force.

The task force bills the West Michigan Express, in either bus or rail form, as a regional transportation service that would attract major employers, reduce traffic congestion, increase available parking and aid those who either cant or dont want to drive.

According to a recent interest survey completed by Hope College and commissioned by the task force, 38 percent of nearly 2,000 employees who work nearby the corridor said they were interested or very interested in commuting via bus or rail service.

Its a high level of interest, Waterman said, and is the reason the task force is moving forward with plans for a bus pilot.

The pilot plan envisions 10 buses outfitted with bathrooms, WiFi and other amenities. During peak commute hours, the buses would make stops every 15 minutes at stations in Holland, Zeeland, Hudsonville, Grandville and Grand Rapids.

Waterman estimates it would take about 40 minutes for a bus commuter heading from Holland to Grand Rapids, or the other way around.

He declined to speculate on what the total cost of implementing and operating the fleet would be, saying thats the next step. He said they conservatively estimate that 1,200 people would utilize the round-trip service every day, generating $1.4 million a year.

Were just looking at this as a pilot effort to see if its something thats feasible and can get off the ground, he said. "If so, it could be expanded and modeled in other corridors in the region as well, north to Rockford, east to Lowell, southeast to the (Gerald R. Ford International Airport), south to Kalamazoo. Theres a lot of opportunities to model this.

The next steps for the pilot are to create an operations plan, enlist an entity to oversee the proposed program and then garner public and private funding for the pilot.

If all goes to plan, Waterman said, the fleet could be up and running by fall 2020.

The pilot project isnt a surefire thing. If funding cant be secured or if operation expenses far exceed revenues, that could be the end of the line.

We dont know what the gap is yet in the operations cost, he said. If that gap is too large to overcome, it could fall apart. But were hoping West Michigan being a community that thinks forward on these things will find the money to make it happen and were going to keep pursuing it.

Some of the possible entities to take on the pilot project include existing area transit authorities and programs like The Rapid, Indian Trails, the Macatawa Area Express and Hope Networks Wheels to Work.

The West Michigan Express Task Force includes members from non-profits, the private sector and local and state governments.

It was formed to explore the possibility of a transit service along the Chicago Drive corridor after a study on the feasibility of rail and busing along the corridor.

The study was commissioned by a partnership between Hudsonville, Grand Valley Metro Council, Holland, Grandville, Zeeland, Macatawa Area Coordinating Council and Mobile GR and Parking Services.

The study, conducted by Muncie, Indiana-based consultant Mp2planning, determined it would cost $8 million to $28 million to implement a commuter rail system between Holland and Grand Rapids and another $1.5 million to $4 million each year to operate it, depending on the schedule.

Busing, however, would cost about $420,000 to acquire three buses and about $500,000 each year in operations costs, the study determined. Its unclear what operations costs for 10 buses would be.

Because of the steep investment with rail, starting with busing was seen as the best way to test interest and viability.

We just see, financially, beginning with bus is a safer bet, Waterman said. (Were) looking at bus as an incremental step toward rail.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  A man suspected of providing a fatal dose of fentanyl to a retired judges daughter faces federal charges.

Javontae Quintez White, 26, is accused of distributing fentanyl that killed Elaine Christensen, 33, also known as Elaine Mamagona, in July.

She was the daughter of retired Grand Rapids District Judge Michael Christensen and Nancy Christensen.

White, who has previous drug convictions, faces life in prison if convicted of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death. He faces lesser charges of distribution of fentanyl and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and cocaine, according to an indictment recently unsealed in U.S District Court in Grand Rapids.

White also faces state drugs charges.

The government said White provided the fentanyl that Christensen ingested on July 7. Christensen died the next day at her apartment on Fulton Street East. Fentanyl is a dangerous, synthetic opioid.

Fentanyl is increasingly available in Western Michigan," U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge said recently.

"Drug dealers are mixing fentanyl with heroin and  selling fentanyl as heroin. Fentanyl is so much more powerful than heroin that opioid deaths have risen in the past few years, Birge said.

Christensen died of acute fentanyl, ethanol and methamphetamine toxicity, an autopsy report showed.

Her obituary said that she was energetic, full of life, was happy and could light up a room with her warm smile. She was very loving and empathetic and volunteered in the rescue of many types of animals. She was a loyal friend to many and will be greatly missed.

Police responded to the victims home around 11 a.m. July 8 after a report that the victims boyfriend, Ryan Jon-Palmer Hall, was outside waving at passing cars. He told police he was overdosing on heroin. He said his girlfriend was dead inside the house, court records said.

Details of the investigation are provided in a Jan. 17 search warrant affidavit, seeking telephone records, filed by Jon Schafer, who is assigned to the Grand Rapids police Vice Unit and a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force.

Hall, 35, the victims boyfriend, was treated at a hospital. He told police that he and Christensen were drinking the afternoon before the death when he arranged to buy Xanax near Monument Park. Later, he decided to buy heroin, Schafer wrote.

He sent a message via Facebook Messenger to Mark Blodgett, who acted as a middleman for drug deals, Schafer wrote.

That night, Hall rode his bicycle to the Speedway gas station on Leonard Avenue NW to meet Blodgett, who then took him to meet the alleged drug dealer, White, to buy heroin, the government said.

Hall paid $80 for heroin and a $20 fee to the middleman.

Blodgett told Hall that there was fentanyl in the heroin, Schafer wrote. This made a difference in how much of the heroin Hall would use.  Hall told (the victim) that there was some fentanyl in the substance, and to only do a small amount.

They snorted the substance in the living room using a $20 bill. Hall passed out next to the couch. The next morning, he woke, drank some vodka, and saw Christensen in an unusual position on the bedroom floor.

He also snorted a small amount of what he thought was heroin.

Then, he realized that Christensen was unresponsive. He tried to call police but was too severely intoxicated so he went out outside and flagged a down motorist who called 911

Police seized drugs from the apartment. The state police Forensic Science Division determined later that a white powder found was fentanyl, not heroin.

On the day the woman was found dead, Grand Rapids police detectives arranged an undercover buy from Blodgett at the Speedway station. They drove to Grove Street NE and Plainfield Avenue where Blodgett got out briefly, then returned with drugs.

Police arrested Blodgett at the gas station.

Based on information police gathered, investigators set up surveillance that night at a residence on Grove Street NE. Police saw White and a man get into the back seat of a vehicle with two women already inside. Police followed the vehicle as it got onto northbound U.S. 131.

They followed the vehicle to the parking lot of Americas Best Inn and Suites on Three Mile Road NW in Walker. White, holding a cell phone to his ear, walked toward the hotel.

A plainclothes Grand Rapids police officer started walking toward White, and said: Police, I need to talk to you, court records said.

White bolted with police in pursuit, police said. He ran to the back of the hotel, jumped a fence and ran into the pool. He was ordered out of the pool and arrested without further incident, police said.

Police said he possessed cocaine, fentanyl and cash, which included pre-recorded bills police used in the undercover buy.

White has an arraignment and detention hearing set for Monday, March 11, in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.

Blodgett and Hall await sentencing in Kent County Circuit Court on drug charges, records showed.

Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker earlier requested a special prosecutor to be assigned because the victim was the judges daughter and her brother is an assistant Kent County prosecutor.
JACKSON, MI  A Jackson man on his way to breakfast with friends Thursday morning went to the hospital instead after unintentionally shooting himself in the IHOP parking lot, police say.

Police and rescue crews were called at about 9:50 a.m. Thursday, March 7, to IHOP, 1213 N. West Ave., for a report of a gunshot victim, Jackson Director of Police and Fire Services Elmer Hitt said.

The 30-year-old man was with his girlfriend and a friend parking in the IHOP parking lot on their way to eat at the restaurant when he got out of the car, went to holster his handgun and it went off, striking him in his left thigh, Hitt said.

The man called 911 and admitted to unintentionally shooting himself, police said.

The was gun legally owned by the man and he had a valid concealed carry permit with him at the scene, Hitt said.

The man was taken Henry Ford Allegiance Health to be treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, Hitt said. The shooting was ruled accidental, he said.
KALAMAZOO, MI  In 2020, the Kalamazoo Nature Center will celebrate its 60th anniversary. As a new decade approaches, new leadership is planting roots in the organization.

Last year, Nathan Smallwood was selected to serve as the Kalamazoo Nature Centers third director since the organizations founding in 1960.

Since he was hired, Smallwood said, his priorities for his first year have included expanding diversity, equity and inclusion within the organization and its programming as well as hiring executive leadership and improving sustainable practices at the nature center.

Smallwood sat down with MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette to speak about his first months in the position, and to discuss the nature centers plans for the coming year.

Its a real honor to be here, Smallwood said.

Smallwood has a bachelors degree in biology from Dartmouth College and two masters degrees -- in marketing and strategy and in environmental management, economics and policy -- from Yale University. An avid birder and amateur naturalist from a young age, Smallwood was serving as executive director of Cope Environmental Center in Indiana before coming to Kalamazoo.

Third CEO in 60 years

His predecessor, Bill Rose, stepped down at the end of April 2018 after serving in the position for 30 years. Rose succeeded H. Lewis Batts, who helped found the nature center in 1960.

In his three decades of leadership, Rose doubled the acreage owned by the nature center, increasing the organizations total holdings from 700 to 1,400 acres.

The main campus of the center sits on around 1,200 acres, with its central building located at 7000 N. Westnedege Ave. Its western portion includes DeLano Farms, 555 West E Ave. The center also owns and operates Heronwood Field Station, a 5000-square-foot home that sits on over 60 acres at 6378 Hart Drive, and the Urban Nature Park at 426 E. Michigan Ave., a four-acre natural area in the heart of downtown Kalamazoo.

In 2015, Jon Stryker donated 22 acres along the west fork of Portage Creek to the Kalamazoo Nature Center, and pledged up to $700,000 to help develop the land as part of a plan for a $1.4 million environmental and educational project at the site. The land borders the grounds of the Nature Centers Natures Way Preschool, which opened on nine acres in 1982 and expanded in 2013 into a 6,000-square-foot preschool facility at 4442 Oakland Drive.

Currently, the center is in the process of restoring properties on the land, which has been dubbed Stryker Nature Preserve. Smallwood said the center is looking at renovating structures to utilize and rent out for programming, which could include additional early childhood education programs in collaboration with the adjacent preschool.

Were also trying to find ways to work with underserved populations, whether thats people with disabilities, or people with economic circumstances," Smallwood said. Were going to use that land as a way to broaden our audiences for sure."

As the third CEO in 60 years, much of Smallwoods first eight months in Kalamazoo have been dedicated to drinking it all in and meeting people, he said.

Noting the centers history of growth, the level of community support for the Kalamazoo Nature Center is evident to its new director.

The community has really embraced me so far and I look forward to the future, Smallwood said.

Sustainability

The center is looking forward to strategic planning, projected to begin within the next six months and last about three months, Smallwood said. Until then, Smallwood is looking to the centers immediate needs.

For now, we sort of have a philosophy: to be more diverse and inclusive internally and to the people we serve," he said. "Were going to be more sustainable. We are going to create a greater sense of destination. We are restoring this, our main visitor center here.

Efforts to increase sustainability on the centers main campus have already begun.

As vehicles reach the end of their life, were automatically looking for hybrid or electric versions and are willing to make that investment in order to promote those practices, Smallwood said.

A Toyota Prius and a few electric lawn mowers and leaf blowers have already been purchased as old equipment is replaced, he said.

In addition, the center is looking at increasing solar power production by adding more solar panels on the property.

Over the expected lifetime of a building, the payoff is there," Smallwood said. "Everyone should be doing it. Nobody builds a building with a time horizon less than a few decades, typically. Yes, you do have to pay for it up front, but we think thats the responsible way to do it.

A series of solar panels installed on the property and unveiled in 2017 have already netted significant energy savings for the center.

Smallwood said much of his first months have been spent rebuilding the centers executive team, since others in the organization retired at the same time as Rose.

A news release on Dec. 31 introduced new executive team officers brought in during the centers first six months, under Smallwoods leadership.

Smallwood separated the centers education and conservation departments to accommodate for a growing number of programs offered at the center, and increased property acreage. Jenny Doezema was hired as vice president of learning and engagement and James Hensley now serves as president of facilities and project management. Smallwood also hired Christina Adams as the centers new vice president of finance.

Hiring process

The process used by the nature centers governing board to select and hire Smallwood from a field of applicants was cited as a reason some members of the board resigned in May of 2018. The trustees wanted to know more about other candidates considered for the job.

Forty applications were received, some from internal staff and others from candidates with a doctorate degree. A search committee made up of five trustees reviewed nine candidates and unanimously chose Smallwood as the lone finalist, presenting his candidacy to the full, 17-member board for approval.

In a closed-session meeting, a majority of the board selected Smallwood to lead the organization. The board is not subject to Michigans Open Meetings Act, and search committee chair Becki Fulgoni did not disclose how many votes were cast in Smallwoods favor.

Trustees Binney Girdler, Rebekah Kik, Jennifer Langeland and Michelle Johnson resigned, leaving the board with 13 members and four empty seats.

I wasnt privy to the controversy, but I can look at that and I can say the remaining board members look at that not defensively but as an opportunity to continue to learn and strive to be better, Smallwood said.

Diversity and inclusion

Since then, Smallwood said, the center has put additional steps in place to ensure they attract and interview diverse candidates for job openings.

In fact, issues of diversity, equity and inclusion are among my top goals in my first year here and will continue to be in strategic planning going forward, Smallwood said.

Initiatives the center is looking at now to expand diversity include increasing programming within the city of Kalamazoo and broadening where positions are posted when the center is hiring, Smallwood said. Reaching out to communities beyond the nature centers main campus is vital to reaching a more diverse audience and the center plans to further its efforts through strategic planning, he said.

We can look at conservation in the traditional way, which is park lands and beautiful settings like this, but we can also talk about issues of social, environmental justice," Smallwood said. "There are different lenses you can interpret our mission through so that it is inclusive in a way that nature centers have tried but not been entirely successful in doing.
CARO, MI  A Pinconning man has been arraigned on 20 counts related to a chase that led police through three counties.

James R. Martin, 31, has appeared in Tuscola County District Court for arraignment on the following litany of charges:

 Assault with intent to murder

 First-degree home invasion

 Assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder or by strangulation

 Breaking and entering a building

 Carry a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent

 Carry a concealed weapon

 Malicious destruction of police property

 Assault with a dangerous weapon

 Larceny in a building

 Operate a vehicle while license suspended

 Operating a vehicle while intoxicated

 Attempted motor vehicle theft

 Assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police officer, three counts

 Felony firearm, three counts

 Third-degree fleeing and eluding police officer, two counts

The arraigning judge set Martins bond at $800,000.

The Michigan Department of Corrections states Martin absconded from probation on Jan. 22, 2017. He had been placed on two years of probation in June 2016 on a conviction of third-degree home invasion.

Police have said they spotted Martin in a vehicle around 3:40 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5, near Brown City. Sanilac County Sheriffs deputies came to the assistance of Brown City police to apprehend the suspect.

Martin allegedly pulled a knife and held it to his own throat from inside the vehicle, police have said.

Deputies were able to remove a female driver and Martin from the vehicle. When they attempted to get Martin to put the knife down, he began to swing it at them, police have said. Attempts to use a Taser on him were ineffective, according to a statement from the Sanilac County Sheriffs Office.

He then fled in the vehicle, which belonged to the woman.

Sanilac County deputies pursued him into Lapeer County, then into Tuscola County. Martin eventually rammed a patrol vehicle and drove into a field where he got stuck, according to police.

Martin then fled on foot and entered a Frankenmuth Road home where he tried to steal a car, but was confronted by the homeowner with a gun.

Tuscola County Sheriffs deputies were eventually able to arrest Martin and transported him to the Tuscola County Jail.

Martins next court date is pending.
DETROIT -- Andreas Athanasiou whipped in a shot in the third period, when grabbed the small No. 7 patch on his jersey and pointed to Ted Lindsays number hanging in the rafters at Little Caesars Arena.

The Detroit Red Wings forward paid tribute to the franchise legend who died Monday at age 93.

I think I was just happy that the puck went in and obviously I just wanted to pay a little thanks to Ted and give the number a tap, Athanasiou said. I think it was just all in all a good night for us and I think a good tribute game for him.

Fans can pay their respects to Lindsay Friday at LCA during a visitation from 9:07 a.m. to 7:07 p.m.
The governments of the EU member states have unanimously rejected a blacklist of countries that have failed to tackle money laundering and terrorism financing. The paper cited four US territories and was slammed by Washington.

The Council of the European Union has unanimously decided to reject the list of high-risk third countries  a paper that would require banks and financial institutions operating in Europe to be more vigilant and to carry out extra checks in the context of transactions involving these nations.

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The document in question was drafted by the European Commission and was supposed to identify the nations that have strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regimes, which could thus pose significant threats to the blocs financial system.

Surprisingly, as many as four US territories - American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands  found themselves on the list. They were put there alongside about two dozen mostly Asian and African nations, including those suffering from acute political and economic turmoil as well as armed conflicts, such as Syria, Yemen or Libya.

A 35-page report accompanying the draft list accused the named US territories of having, among other issues, lax tax evasion legislation and a lack of legally binding control measures, that would allow identification of the end beneficiaries of various financial transactions. Large portion of high-risk sectors  are unregulated, the report said, listing the four US territories among the 11 nations that have particularly grave strategic deficiencies.

This development infuriated Washington. The US Treasury rushed to issue a damning statement the same day the draft list was published by the European Commission. The statement accused the EU of being superficial in its assessment and complained that the European authorities had failed to provide the US with any meaningful opportunity to challenge their inclusion or to discuss with the European Commission its basis for including the listed US territories.

Washington then stated that it flat-out rejects the conclusions of the European Commission and does not expect any US financial institutions to take this document into account in their policies and procedures.

In a bizarre coincidence, weeks later, the Council of the European Union, which consists of the ministers representing all 28 EU members, justified its decision to reject the document with the arguments that seemed strikingly similar to those employed by the US Treasury.

The Council cannot support the current proposal that was not established in a transparent and resilient process that actively incentivizes affected countries to take decisive action while also respecting their right to be heard, its statement said. It also demanded that the European Commission draft a new list that would address these concerns, apparently implying that it should first discuss the situation with all affected parties before adding them to the list  precisely what Washington wanted.

Also on rt.com EU leaders reject blacklisting of Saudi Arabia, US territories

In a separate development, the Council had also previously dismissed the Commissions proposal to place Saudi Arabia on the blacklist, claiming that deficiencies within Riyadhs anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regime were not established in a transparent and credible process.

The decision to remove Washingtons major Middle Eastern ally from the list also came after the Saudis explicitly voiced their opposition to the move, arguing that it could create difficulties in trade and investment flows between the Kingdom and the European Union.

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Germany does not intend to prevent Chinese tech giant Huawei from developing 5G networks, the countrys economy minister said, adding that the EU stands ready to defend its interests, should a trade war with Washington escalate.

Berlin will not pre-emptively ban any specific companies from bidding for contracts to develop the countrys next generation 5G mobile network, despite immense pressure from the United States to ostracize Huawei, Peter Altmaier said on Thursday evening, during a debate on ZDF television.

No, we will not want to exclude any company, he stressed, explaining that the government is capable of implementing enough safeguards to protect Germanys future networks.

Also on rt.com Huawei 5G ban: US dragging Germany into harmful economic war with China, warns industry union head

Ignoring Washingtons earnest concerns that, through Huawei systems, the Chinese government is planning to spy on the entire world, German authorities produced a list of telecom security requirements on Wednesday. Part of the new German rules requires certifying any security-related components with Germanys IT security agency. The 5G network may only be sourced from trustworthy suppliers whose compliance with national security regulations and provisions for the secrecy of telecommunications and for data protection is assured, Germanys Economic Ministry and the Federal Network Agency said in their guidelines.

Also on rt.com Huawei opens cybersecurity center in Belgium amid US crackdown

Thus Huawei, which has recently sued the US government demanding to see any proof behind their claims, can participate in the tendering process if it meets the requirements set out by Berlin.

There are no winners in any trade wars, Altmaier noted during the debate, stressing that the EU is trying to avoid such a confrontation with the US. But, should Washington continue its economic pressure or impose any new sanctions against European countries, the minister said Brussels is ready to respond with countermeasures to protect and defend our own interests.

Last June, the Trump administration slapped the EU with steel and aluminum tariff hikes, forcing Brussels to respond against American products like bourbon whiskey and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. While a full-blown confrontation over the $1 trillion bilateral trade relationship was averted in July, the move forced the European Union to review their economic ties with the US.

Also on rt.com EU curbs steel imports until 2021 to counter US trade policies

As trade meetings between EU and US representatives got underway this week, Trumps threat to impose a tariff of up to 25 percent on imports of cars and parts into the US is steering the show. The American threat is aimed mostly at Germany, the EUs largest economy, and automaker giants like BMW AG and Daimler AG.

Meanwhile the US trade deficit soared to a 10-year high despite President Trump's coercive efforts to tackle the issue through tariffs on imported goods, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The US goods trade deficit with China, Trumps biggest target, hit a record $419.2 billion in 2018.

Also on rt.com Nein, thanks: Germany snubs F-35, new fighter choice still up in air

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The Serbian energy regulator has given final approval for the construction of a branch of the Turkish Stream pipeline that will deliver Russian natural gas into Turkey as well as southern and southeastern Europe.

On March 5 the Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia made the final decision and responded positively to the Gastrans [company] statement for the implementation of the project, the Serbian minister of mining and energy, Aleksandar Antic, announced on Thursday. He added that works on the Turkish Stream project, also known as TurkStream, are set to start in April.

Also on rt.com Quite realistic: Putin doesnt rule out extending Turkish Stream pipeline into Greece

Gastrans is responsible for laying the gas transportation branch from Bulgaria to Hungary. The company is owned by Swiss-based South Stream Serbia, of which Russias Gazprom holds a 51-percent stake. Serbian gas company Srbijagas holds the remaining 49 percent.

Earlier in the day, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic noted the importance of implementing the gas pipeline project at a meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov in Belgrade.

Russia and Turkey officially agreed on the Turkish Stream, which consists of two lines with annual capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters, in October 2016. The first branch will deliver Russian natural gas directly to Turkey, while the second stretches to the Turkish-European border to reach European customers.

The project was created as an alternative to the South Stream route through Bulgaria, which ditched the pipeline project amid pressure from the EU and the US. On Thursday, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said he hopes the Turkish Stream will not share the fate of its predecessor.

As far as we are concerned, the construction of the section from the Bulgarian border to the border with Serbia is being worked out at all levels, and we hope that it will not turn out as previously, and no country will withdraw from the project, Dacic told reporters during a joint news conference with Borisov.

Another Russia-led energy project  the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea  has been under scrutiny from Washington and some European states. US President Donald Trump accused Berlin of being captive to Russia, and the US later threatened to sanction companies which participate in it, while pushing sales of its own liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe. Both Germany and Russia have repeatedly argued against the claims. Berlin has said it will not bow to pressure in determining its energy and security policies.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section
Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has rebuked UK Foreign Sec Jeremy Hunt after he cast doubt on his credibility due to his RT chat show.

The ex-SNP leader, who has fronted his own show on RT since November 2017, has argued that Hunts hapless meanderings have risked British national security every time he opens his mouth and that he made Boris Johnson look like a competent diplomat.

Also on rt.com Free Assange first: Twitter schools UK Foreign Sec over media freedom message

Salmond was responding to comments made by Hunt, who appeared to question the RT hosts morality during a visit to Glasgow to give a talk about the risks of cyber attacks on democracies.

Asked by Scottish Tory MSP Adam Tomkins whether Salmonds flirtation with RT was risking British national security or simply the SNPs credibility, Hunt punted for the latter, claiming the RT host doesnt appreciate what benefits the international world order has delivered.

I think Alex Salmond runs exactly the same risk of fundamentally showing people that the SNP doesnt understand the difference between good and evil.., Hunt added.

Also on rt.com A Soviet vassal state? UKs Hunt slammed for gaffe on Slovenia trip

In a statement to RT, Salmond claimed that Hunt knows as much about the international world order as he does about the English National Health Service, where he provoked the first doctors strike for 40 years, as health secretary.

In less than a year as foreign secretary he has compared the European Union to the old Soviet Union, described non-aligned Slovenia as a former vassal state and defended the Saudi bombing of South Yemen.

In February it was revealed that the foreign secretary tried to convince Germany to start selling arms to Saudi Arabia again after it stopped over concerns about Jamal Khashoggis killing and the war in Yemen. The move drew condemnation from UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 8)  Government forces launched attacks, including aerial bombings, against Abu Sayyaf fighters in Sulu Friday, the military said.

"Selective aerial bombardment" was ongoing as of 11:30 a.m., the Philippine Army's Joint Task Force Sulu said in a press release.

It said military assaults began at 6:40 a.m. following the "monitored and confirmed consolidation of 200 terrorists in the hinterland of Patikul, Sulu."

Patikul, a known lair of the Abu Sayyaf group, is a town near the provincial capital Jolo, where a church was bombed last January 27, leaving at least 22 people dead and at least 100 wounded. The military has since stepped up its offensive against the Abu Sayyaf in line with President Rodrigo Duterte's order to "destroy" the terror group.

The military believes Abu Sayyaf top leader Radullan Sahiron is in Sulu along with Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, the supposed acting leader of the international terrorist network ISIS in the country.

"The ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group) main leaders are reported to be in the consolidation area planning to launch terror acts," the military said.

Security remains tight in Jolo to thwart any possible attack the Abu Sayyaf may launch to divert the government forces' attention away from the intensified military operations, the military added.
Weve taken note of incidents on campuses when voices and ideas were stifled because they challenged political correctness or made some people uncomfortable. More frequently than not, its been conservative thought shut down by the liberal majority. Granted, some of those conservatives were obnoxious, but who said life should be free of intellectual conflict? Universities are designed to teach students to think and encourage the exploration of rival ideas. The minute college administrators employ a litmus test on thought, they fail at their responsibility. Trump is advocating the same inappropriate approach by other means: He wants to regulate the terms of discourse.
The US is helping its allies and partner countries in evaluating the "risks" before engaging Huawei, a senior official has said, after the Chinese telecom giant sued the American government for barring its agencies from buying its products.

The Chinese telecommunication company on March 7 filed a lawsuit against the US government for prohibiting the federal agencies of using its equipment.

"We are in the process of routinely engaging our allies and our partners to provide them with information to help them to evaluate the risks, to exercise vigilance, so they can secure their own systems and protect their own people," State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino told reporters at his biweekly news conference.

He said the US advocates for secure telecom networks and supply chains that are free from supplier's subject to foreign government control or undue influence, which would pose risks of unauthorised access and malicious cyber activity.

"Because we believe that these risks posed by vendors subject to extrajudicial or unchecked compulsion by foreign states that do not share our values need to be weighed rigorously before making procurement decisions on these technologies," Palladino said.

He said this is something that the US is engaged in with other countries, and this is a decision that every nation must make for itself.

Meanwhile, several US lawmakers slammed Huawei for filing a lawsuit against the government.

"Huawei is a Chinese state-directed telecom company with a singular goal: undermine foreign competition by stealing trade secrets and intellectual property, and through artificially low prices backed by the Chinese government," Senator Marco Rubio said.

The Communist Chinese government poses the greatest, long-term threat to America's national and economic security, he said, adding that the US must be vigilant in preventing Chinese state-directed telecoms companies, like Huawei, from undermining and endangering critical US systems and infrastructure.

"That is why Congress recently acted well within our constitutional authority to block Huawei from our telecommunications equipment market due to concerns with the company's links to China's intelligence services," Rubio said.

Congressman Mike Conway said that the Chinese government continues to deny their well-established use of state-directed commercial technology companies like Huawei to spy on the US.

"Congress acted decisively and well within our constitutional authority in the FY19 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to prevent Huawei and other similar companies from gaining access to US government communications. Unsurprisingly, China and Huawei are not happy about it," he said.

The NDAA is the name for each of a series of US federal laws specifying the annual budget and expenditures of the Department of Defense.

Senators Jim Risch and Bob Menendez, chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Thursday introduced bipartisan legislation that commends Canada for upholding the rule of law and expressing concern over actions by China in response to a request from the US to Canada calling for extradition of Huawei Technologies executive, Meng Wanzhou.

"China invests in Italy's factories, buildings, and culture: welcome news. China wants to invest in your PORTS, however, don't be fooled: They are looking for a stranglehold," Senator Mitt Romney said in a tweet.
Moneycontrol News

Sajjan Jindal's JSW Steel may square up with LN Mittal's ArcelorMittal in the race for Asian Colour Coated Ispat, which was referred to the insolvency courts.

Sources told Moneycontrol that both companies will be submitting bids on March 8, the last day. Apart from the two, a host of funds too may also participate.

The contenders had submitted Express of Interest (EoI) in November last year. Asia Colour Coated has a debt of over Rs 4,000 crore. "The bids are expected to be in the region of Rs 1,200 crore," said a senior industry executive.

Spokesperson of both the companies declined to comment.

This will be the third time that the two steelmakers will be facing each other. Both were in contention for the Italian steelmaker Ilva, and in India, Jindal had backed the Ruias in their bid to wrest back Essar Steel.

ArcelorMittal was selected as the preferred bidder by Essar Steel's bankers, late last year. The Ahmedabad bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is scheduled to give its order on ArcelorMittal's bid later on March 8.

Read: NCLT to pass order on Essar Steel insolvency case later today; ArcelorMittal favourite, all eyes on Ruias

Asian Colour Coating Ispat has manufacturing facilities close to Delhi and Mumbai, and specialises in downstream, galvanised and colour coated products that it exports to Europe, Latin America and Africa. It has an annual capacity of one million tonne.

The downstream facility will benefit both JSW Steel and ArcelorMittal.

The Jindal company has been eyeing downstream assets as it looks to increase the proportion of high-value products in its portfolio.

"Today what is left (in the insolvency courts) are companies that either of smaller size or downstream. So, we are particularly evaluating downstream side more intensely than the integrated side," JSW Steel Joint Managing Director and Group CFO Seshagiri Rao said in an earlier interview.

ArcelorMittal, which is favourite to bag Essar Steel, has been looking at facilities in other parts of the country that will complement its operations.

Talking about its India aspirations, the company had stated in its recently released 2018 Annual Report: "There is also a long-term aspiration to increase finished steel shipments to between 12 MT and 15 MT through the addition of new iron and steel making assets, so that ESIL (Essar Steel) can play an active role and fully benefit from the anticipated growth in the Indian steel industry."
Chinese telecoms giant Huawei said on March 8 it had no immediate plans to mount a legal challenge over Australia's decision to bar the company's equipment from the 5G network Down Under.

A day after taking Donald Trump's administration to court for banning US federal agencies from buying Huawei products, the firm said no such move was envisaged in Australia.

"Whilst we have our differences with the federal government, we would still rather work cooperatively," a company spokesman told AFP.

"A legal challenge is not a priority at this moment."

Australia in August announced guidelines on contracts to build fifth generation mobile networks in the country which effectively barred Huawei and another Chinese giant, ZTE, from the project.

Canberra cited intelligence agency warnings against the "involvement of vendors who are likely to be subject to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government".

As Huawei has grown, fears have emerged that the company could effectively provide the Chinese state with a switch to cut critical infrastructure during a crisis.

While Huawei insists it is a private company, its founder Ren Zhengfei is a 74-year-old former People's Liberation Army engineer.

And while there are no formal ties with the state, in practice large Chinese firms and the ruling Communist Party are intricately interlinked.

In 2015, Beijing passed a law obliging its corporations to aid the government on matters of national security.

That, coupled with Beijing's more muscular foreign and security policy overseas, has raised concerns among members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing collective.

All five members -- Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States -- have taken at least some steps toward limiting Huawei's role in sensitive infrastructure. But at the same time, Huawei has become enmeshed in local economies.

The company says its business in Australia alone is worth Aus dollars 650 million and has 700 employees, and its equipment is used directly or indirectly by half the population.
The Ahmedabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) will on March 8 deliver its verdict on the Essar Steel insolvency case.

The case is listed to be heard in the second half of the day, and is number 10 on the Cause List. Purpose of the hearing: 'Pronouncement order'. Essar Steel is the biggest, and probably the most debated, insolvency case from the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) first list of bankrupt companies referred to NCLT.

The hearing comes after a deadline set by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLT) during its hearing on February 28. The Appellate Tribunal had said it may pass an order, if the NCLT failed to do so by March 8.

The order will be on ArcelorMittal's Rs 42,000 crore offer, which was received the backing of Essar Steel lenders. The banks had refused to consider the last-minute proposal of Essar Steel Asia Holdings - controlled by the Ruias - despite it being higher at Rs 54,000 crore.

Earlier this week, operational creditors of Essar Steel had appealed to ArcelorMittal to consider their arrears also in the bid offer. Till now, the LN Mittal-company's offer hadn't included them.

Sources said the NCLT may ask ArcelorMittal to increase its offer to include payments to operational creditors too.

But it remains to be seen if the insolvency saga - which has been on for over a year - will end with today's order. The eyes of the industry will be on the Ruias, and what their next step would be, in case the bench rules in favour of ArcelorMittal's offer.
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Medical device maker Opto Circuits India said that it was working on various options to pare debt, including raising funds from investors and selling the company's land parcels in Hassan and Mysuru, as it tries to chart a turnaround.

In an exclusive interview with Moneycontrol, Chairman of Opto Circuits Vinod Ramnani said that they have given a mandate to a couple of merchant bankers to raise Rs 300 crore funds through convertible debentures.

"We are talking to private equity investors and a healthcare group, but are yet to sign any term-sheet," Ramnani said.

He added that the fund raised is intended to make the company debt free at the standalone level, in addition to giving it some working capital to grow the business.

Alternatively, if the process doesn't go through, Ramnani said the company may consider selling land parcels in Hassan and Mysuru. In Hassan, the company has 250 acres and Mysuru it has 33 acres, both together may fetch the company around Rs 200 crore.

At the consolidated level, Opto Circuits has a debt to the tune of Rs 550 crore.

Ramnani said so far the company managed to repay Rs 180-190 crore debt through internal accruals and entered into two one-time settlement agreements with lenders to pay-off a portion of the remaining debt.

"The business model is good, the business is reviving. It's just because of limited working capital we are unable to grow rapidly," Ramnani added.

He pointed out that the company had undergone various market related challenges across geographies, but overcame a majority of them and started life afresh.

After a three-year slide in business, Opto Circuits was able to stymie losses with a profit of Rs 35 crore and revenues of Rs 225 core in FY18.

Ramnani expressed confidence about sustainability of business operations, due to good growth from both domestic and international business.

He said the company's subsidiaries have started seeing order inflows.

"We have grown at 25 percent in last three quarters, without having any bank support or any additional borrowing," Ramnani said.

Charting turnaround

Headquartered in Bengaluru, Opto Circuits specialises in vital signs monitoring, emergency cardiac care, vascular treatments and sensing technologies.

It exports products to around 150 countries. But things aren't smooth for the company, the device maker fell into a debt trap following a series of acquisitions, some of which were too difficult for it to digest.

The company lost management control over US-based subsidiary Cardiac Science Corporation, a major source of its revenues in 2015, as it defaulted on loans worth $80 million taken from Singapore-based DBS Bank.

Opto Circuits bought Cardiac Science Corporation that automated external defibrillators for $54.7 million in 2010.

Ramnani said they have learnt hard lessons, as they were too greedy to scale up business, unmindful of consequences they were entering.

Shares of Opto Circuits rose 0.36 percent to close at Rs 8.45 on BSE, while the benchmark Sensex declined 0.15 percent to end 36,671.43 points.
India wants to keep buying Iranian oil at its current level of about 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), as it negotiates with Washington about extending a waiver of US sanctions past early May, two sources in India with knowledge of the matter said.

India has reduced its purchases of Iranian oil, but has been in talks on extending a sanctions waiver, known as a significant reduction exception, a senior India official said in January.

The talks come just as trade tensions rise between Washington and New Delhi. The United States is planning to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States.

India is the biggest beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preferences, which dates from the 1970s, and ending its participation would be the strongest punitive action that Washington has taken against the country since President Donald Trump took office.

Amid this, New Delhi is asking Washington to be allowed to still buy Iranian oil at current levels of around 1.25 million tonnes per month, equal to about 300,000 bpd, the sources said.

The United States reimposed sanctions against Iran last November in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear and missile ambitions, after President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers.

Although the United States granted Iran's biggest oil customers - China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy and Greece - waivers that have allowed them to continue limited imports, Washington is putting pressure on governments to eventually reduce purchases of Iranian oil to zero. The first round of waivers expires around May 4.

Vincent Campos, a spokesman at the US State Department's energy bureau, would not confirm that India was asking the United States to renew its waiver, but said talks are ongoing with the eight consumers of Iran's oil that received waivers in November with the aim of eventually cutting imports to zero.

"We continue to have bilateral discussions" with each of the countries, including India, Campos said.

A US State Department official is this week visiting South Korea, Iran's fourth largest oil customer in Asia, to talk about sanctions, Seoul said.

David Peyman, a deputy assistant secretary for counter threat finance and sanctions, met on Wednesday with Hong Jin-wook, an official specializing in African and Middle Eastern affairs at South Korea's foreign ministry.

Peyman offered "to continue to closely consult on the extension of sanctions exemption and Korean companies technical issues regarding trade with Iran," a statement from Seoul's foreign ministry said.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to questions about their talks.

Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), exported almost 3 million bpd of oil at its pre-sanctions peak, but that has dwindled to around 1.25 million bpd since the start of the year, shipping data from Refinitiv showed.

Talks with Washington on extending the waiver slowed due to the US government shutdown that extended through January, one of the Indian sources said. Talks have now resumed and India wants to get clarity before general elections scheduled in May, the source said.

No immediate comment was available from India's oil or external affairs ministries.

Iran was India's seventh biggest oil supplier in January, as compared with its position as third-biggest a year ago before the reimposition of sanctions.
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Kavita Rao was attending a job interview for a position as data analyst at an IT-services firm in Bengaluru. One of the questions puzzled her. She was asked if she will be able to 'handle' pressures of the work since she recently got married. Rao wondered if her male friends were asked the same.

In another part of India, Disha Basu was asked if she will be 'allowed' to work after 6 pm since her house was two hours away from her office in Purulia, West Bengal.

These are some of the questions, and factors that have led to a drop in the percentage of women in the country's labour force, a sobering thought as the world celebrates Women's Day.

The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) of females in India is among the lowest in the world. And this comes as no surprise. Human resource officials said that both organisational and societal factors play a role in the fewer number of women joining the workforce.

According to a 2018 World Bank report, the labour force participation rate (LFPR) among females in India was 26.97 LFPR female in 2018 in India. The world average stood at 48.47 percent in 2018.

The rate for women has been falling since 2005, when it was at a high of 36.78 percent.

Male versus female

Numbers from NSSO collaborate.

The NSSO's periodic Labour Force Survey Report for 2017-18 that was accessed by Business Standard said that the decline in LFPR for females (age group of 15 years and above) was between 2011-12 and 2017-18.

Compared to 2011-12, the LFPR for females fell by around 8 percentage points to 23.3 percent in 2017-18, whereas the LFPR for males dipped by 4 percentage points to 75.8 percent in 2017-18.

The 2017-18 report of the NSSO also said that the fall in the LFPR was far more in rural areas (from 67.7 percent to 58.7 percent) than in urban areas (from 49.3 percent to 47.6 percent).

What caused the decline in rural areas?

A direct link to the decline in the number of women in rural areas is also related to the number of girls dropping out of school, post puberty.

Human resource officials add that non-availability of basic facilities like clean toilets and long commute dissuade parents in remote locations from sending their daughters to school once the girls attain puberty.

In many areas, daughters are sent to girls' only schools after attaining puberty. These schools often have poor infrastructure and teaching facilities that impact their learning outcomes.

A report by Pratham (Annual Status of Education Report-Rural) 2018 said that 13.5 percent women in the age group of 15-16 years are not enrolled in school. In states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, it is higher at 24.9 percent and 26.8 percent respectively.

There is a subject-wise difference as well. The ASER report said that for the age group 14 to 16 years, the all India figure for the proportion of girls who can read at least an Std II level text is very similar to that of boys, at 77 percent.

However, the report said that in basic arithmetic, boys seem to hold a substantial advantage. Nationally, 50 percent of all boys in the age group 14 to 16 years can correctly solve a division problem, as compared to 44 percent of all girls.

Then there is the lack of jobs for women in rural areas too, resulting in a lesser number of them being part of the formal workforce.

Saundarya Rajesh, founder of Avtar Group, a diversity and inclusion consulting company said that there are more women in rural areas who are graduating and end up being over qualified for the kind of jobs that are available.

"There is a dearth of formal sector jobs in rural India. Apart from government initiatives like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which guarantees 100 days of paid labour on public works projects per year, other formal jobs usually employ men," she added.

Rajesh also explained that most salaried jobs are in the cities, towns and big villages. Hence, availability of transport and allied infrastructure has an impact on women's participation in the workforce, more so in the rural areas.

Some inroads

But, some companies have made inroads into increasing diversity in rural India. Rajesh cited instances of Tata Motors, Yamaha and Dell India practicing such initiatives.

Tata Motors has set up skill development centres across all plant locations, where it targets 50 percent to be women primarily from rural/small towns/economically-deprived areas. The pilot batch that the company started last year had 70 percent women.

Similarly, the automotive firm has a state-approved apprenticeship programme under the Swarn Jayanti Rozgar Yojana and saw 200 women being hired. The duration was three years, during which the women received industrial training and appeared for an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) examination at the end of each year. Upon completion of their term, the women received state approved ITI certification and an on-job training certificate by Yamaha.

Corporate biases?

In urban areas, pre-conceived notions and biases have led to women either choosing to stay at home, or dropping-out of the workplace after a while.

Catalyst, which is a global non-profit firm working on women's inclusion in the workplace, said that Indian women face a complex set of socio-cultural challenges.

"These include social expectations and stereotypes about gender roles, the complicated clashes between modernisation and tradition, and the impact of globalisation. There is an absence of reliable infrastructure outside of work, including daycare or transportation options," as per a report by Catalyst.

Apart from issues around maternity benefits, the pay gap is also a clear factor that exists. The Monster Salary Index released this week said that Indian women earn 19 percent less than men.

Here, the median gross hourly salary for men in India in 2018 stood at Rs 242.49, while for women it stood at around Rs 196.3. Even though sectors like IT/ITeS employ a higher number of women, there is a 26 percent pay gap between men and women.

Kamal Karanth, co-founder of staffing firm Xpheno said that apart from the societal factors in play, some subconscious biases at the workplaces also had a role to play when it came to women's participation in the workplace.

"The questions asked to a woman are different than what is asked to a man even in job interviews. A man will be judged based on his professional qualifications while there will be conversations around the likelihood of marriage and pregnancy in a prospective female candidate," he added.

Flexi-working is also a facility offered by companies on paper. But when it comes to implementation, it is not uniform. Rajesh said that flexibility is at the core of the labour force participation rate of women in the country and that this should be taken seriously.

Sectors-based biases also exist. For instance, manufacturing firms traditionally employ men in large numbers. HR consultants said that even if a woman is eligible, these companies would not hire them.

"For a large engineering services firm in Odisha, we had recommended three women who were qualified for the position. But the company specifically asked for men saying that the job will be 'physically demanding'," said a New Delhi-based head of a large staffing company.

Maternity Act and related issues

Earlier, the law allowed three months or 12 weeks of maternity leave which has now been extended to 26 weeks as per the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016. This new law will apply to all establishments having 10 or more employees and will be applicable only for the first two children.

For smaller companies, the real challenge according to HR consultants is keeping the number of women constant.

"SMEs have expressed displeasure with the 26 weeks maternity leave. This will mean that these firms will avoid hiring women which will further impact labour force participation," added a staffing firm CEO.

The Catalyst report said that nearly half of surveyed companies (48 percent) reported not offering any family care options such as on-site/near-site child care, emergency child care, referral and support services for child and elder care.

"Such a lack of organisational support for post-leave caregiving responsibilities raises questions about the extent to which India Inc is fully supporting women's ability to successfully integrate work-life needs," it said.

Bottomline

According to a 2017 World Bank report, less than a third (27 percent) of women who are 15 years or older are working or actively looking for a job. Three of every five prime working age Indian women (26-45 years) are not economically active, meaning that these individuals are neither working on a farm or in businesses nor are they earning any wage.

Only few countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia rank lower than India, which is an outlier with far lower female LFPRs compared to most countries at the same level of income.

A Deloitte report on empowering women released on March 7 said that empowering girls and women through targeted education and reskilling interventions, combined with reframing societal constraints, can potentially accelerate their learning and enhance their skill sets.

This, it said, will result in women emerging as an equitablestakeholder in the workforce, households, and communities.
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating Philip Morris International Inc and its Indian partner Godfrey Phillips for alleged violation of the country's laws, a senior directorate source told Reuters on Friday.

The Enforcement Directorate has been looking into both the companies and the scope of the investigation is much broader than the alleged foreign investment law violations highlighted in a Reuters story published on Wednesday, the source said.

Philip Morris has for years paid manufacturing costs to Godfrey Phillips to make its Marlboro cigarettes, circumventing a nine-year-old government ban on foreign direct investment in the industry, Reuters reported based on a review of dozens of internal company documents, which were dated between May 2009 and January 2018.

Three former officials and one former head of the Enforcement Directorate had reviewed the Philip Morris documents for Reuters and said the dealings should be investigated for circumventing India's foreign direct investment rules.

On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate source declined to comment on whether the ongoing investigation included Reuters reporting findings, but said "this is already under investigation."

"Both companies are being looked into," said the source, who declined to be named citing sensitivity of the investigation.

The source declined to share further details of the probe.

A spokesman for the Enforcement Directorate did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Philip Morris and Godfrey did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Philip Morris has previously told Reuters its business arrangements with Godfrey comply with India's foreign direct investment rules. Godfrey has said all the commercial arrangements "are in complete compliance with the extant regulations governing" India's foreign direct investment and other laws.

Shares in Godfrey briefly pared gains on Friday following the Reuters report about the investigation. They closed 2 percent higher.

MANUFACTURING CHARGES

India in 2010 prohibited foreign direct investment in cigarette manufacturing, saying this would enhance efforts to curb smoking.

Ahead of the ban, Philip Morris formed a new wholesale trading company with Godfrey. Since then, Godfrey has acted as a contract manufacturer of Marlboro cigarettes in India, while Philip Morris's local unit acts as a wholesale trading company and promotes the brand.

Dozens of internal company documents showed Philip Morris has been indirectly paying costs related to Marlboro cigarette manufacturing in India in a phased manner.

If the Enforcement Directorate finds a company in violation of the rules, Indian law allows it to impose a penalty of up to three times the amount contravened.
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Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the tender for developing the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar airport at Nagpur into an international aerodrome has been approved and GMR will execute the task.

Fadnavis was speaking at the inauguration of Nagpur Metro Rail.

Prime Minister Narendra Modiflagged off the first commercial run of Nagpur Metro Rail.

Fadnavis said, "We wanted that Nagpur should get an international airport and we had invited tender for Nagpur international airport.

"I am happy to announce that our board has approved the tender for Nagpur airport's development. GMR, which had developed Delhi airport, will develop Nagpur airport.

A completely new international airport will come up in Nagpur," informed Fadnavis.

Fadnavis, lauding the launch of commercial run of Nagpur Metro, said it was a historic day for the city.

"This is not just a start for metro rail. But, it is a start of 21st century Nagpur city through metro."

Fadnavis said a good public transport is very important for the progress of any city.

"If we want to improve our air quality and create sustainable cities, then people should get an option of 'smart public transport', which is sustainable and creates less carbon foot print.

"And, metro is a fast, efficient and sustainable transport system," he said.
Now the Illinois State Police is taking steps to prevent such tragedies. The agency has drawn up a set of useful changes in how revocations are handled. Local police and sheriffs will get improved access to the list of people whose cards have been invalidated, along with information on the basis for the revocation and whether the cardholder has provided the disposition record. The ISP will also furnish lists of guns bought by people whose cards are later canceled.
Hospitality service Airbnb helped Indian women entrepreneurs make approximately Rs 93,800 each in 2018, which is a total income of Rs 74 crore earning by hosting their homes on the website.

The company said in a statement that over 50 percent of the home hosts working with them are women.

"In India, Airbnb has seen a whopping 32.53 percent increase in women hosts between 2018 and 2019 with the largest number of women hosting in Goa, followed by Mumbai and Bangalore," Airbnb said.

The Indian arm of the online bed and breakfast accommodation service also collaborates with the Self Employed Womens Association (SEWA), an Indian trade union under which 2 million rural Indian women are employed. Through this collaboration, rural women hosts have earned close to Rs 10.50 lakh by hosting more than 500 guests from Asia, USA and Europe.

Around the world, the company overall has 55 percent women home hosts and 50 percent 'Experience' women hosts, who have collectively earned nearly $32 billion on Airbnb since the company was launched in 2008.

Airbnb had said in February that India is one of its fastest growing markets in the world while launching the 'Plus Homes' range in India. The main competitors of Airbnb in India are Treebo and Oyo Rooms. The latter has hinted that Airbnb could be a partner.

(With inputs from PTI)
Weighed down by muted global cues, both Nifty50 and Sensex managed to close above their crucial support levels. The Nifty50 closed above 11000 while Sensex held on to 36,650.

On a weekly basis, Nifty50 closed with gains of 1.5 percent while the Sensex rallied over 600 points or 1.6 percent for the week ended 8 March.

The Indian rupee strengthened against the US dollar on March 8. It was trading below Rs 70/USD in intraday trade, before closing at Rs 70.16.

FII inflows supported a rise in the rupee and cool off in oil price will further act as a tailwind for Indian markets in the coming week. For the month of March, FIIs have been net buyers in India markets for over Rs 2000 crore, according to provisional data available till 7 March.

However, moderation in GDP growth by ECB and weak export data from China affected the global sentiment and fuelled fears of a global slowdown.

In the week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) lowered its global growth forecast to 3.3 percent for this year, down from the 3.5 percent it predicted in November, which was itself a downgrade from a previous 3.7 percent.

Moderations in global growth is likely to impact India the most compared to election uncertainty which will weigh on sentiment for a month or two, suggest experts.

"Polls are crucial but fundamentals of the Indian economy are very robust and whatever happens post elections could results in some volatility for about 2 months but if I take one-year view things to look good for India," Shailendra Kumar, Chief Investment Officer at Narnolia Financial Advisors told Moneycontrol.

"But I can't say the same thing about the global issue. Any slowdown in growth will impact global trade. Europe is slowing down and ECB made it clear that EU growth will be much lower than forecasted. In the coming week, we have central bankers meeting in Japan and the UK. And, if the tone of the bankers hints at a slowdown will surely impact India companies which will in turn impact earnings, he explained.

Stocks in news:

The rise in rupee pushed IT stocks slower. The Nifty IT index closed lower by over 1% weighed down by losses in Wipro, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Infibeam Avenues etc. among others.

Maruti Suzuki India's shares fell nearly a percent after Kotak Institutional Equities downgraded its rating on the stock to add from buy earlier and also slashed price target to Rs 7,500 from Rs 7,600 apiece mainly driven by a cut in volume estimates.

Wipro plunged 4.6 percent after nearly Rs 700 crore worth of shares changed hands in a block deal on March 8.

Jubilant Life Sciences dropped 2 percent after the US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter to company's Roorkee facility.

Tata Motors declined 4 percent after the Jaguar Land Rover's global sales performance dented by China, down 4 percent YoY.

Global Markets:

On the global front, European markets were trading lower after President Mario Draghi announced a fresh round of loans to boost lending in euro zone banks. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were down 0.4-0.8 percent at the time of publishing this article.

Asian markets closed sharply lower after Chinese February trade data came in below analyst expectations. China's Shanghai Composite plunged 4.4 percent. Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 2 percent each.

Crude oil prices were also down on global growth concerns and higher US supply. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were down 1.5 percent to $65.34 a barrel at the time of publishing the story.
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Jubilant Life Sciences shares dropped nearly 5 percent intraday Friday after the US health regulator issued warning letter to company's Roorkee facility.

The stock was quoting at Rs 759.95, down Rs 23.95, or 3.06 percent on the BSE, at 13:20 hours IST.

The US Food and Drug Administration had conducted an inspection of solid dosage formulations manufacturing facility at Roorkee during August 2018 and classified the facility as 'Official Action Indicated' (OAI) in December 2018.

The agency today further issued a warning letter for the facility.

"The USFDA may withhold approval of any new applications or supplements till the company addresses all issues raised by the agency, the company said.

However, Jubilant believes that the existing manufacturing and sale of products from this facility will not be impacted.

US revenues from the facility is about 4 percent of the total revenues of the company.

The company is in the process of providing a thorough and comprehensive response to the USFDA within 15 working days.
Here are stocks that are in the news today:

Bank of India: Compensation cum Allotment Committee (CCAC) of the bank approved allotment of 6,25,52,188 equity shares to eligible employees under Bank of India  Employee Share Purchase Scheme (BOIESPS). Accordingly, the bank has raised a fresh capital of Rs 660.80 crore through B01-ESPS scheme.

Reliance Infrastructure: BC Patnaik, representative of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has been approved by the board for appointment as a Non Executive Director in place of Shiv Prabhat.

Jet Airways: An additional three aircraft have been grounded due to non-payment of amounts outstanding to lessors under their respective lease agreements.

KNR Constructions: Company bagged Hybrid Annuity Project (HAM) with bid project cost of Rs 920 and 1st year operation & maintenance cost of Rs 3 crore from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in Tamil Nadu.

Satin Creditcare Network: Promoter Taco Consultants Private Limited released a pledge on 1.6 lakh shares (representing 0.32 percent of paid-up equity) and Parinita Investments Private Limited also released a pledge on 1.6 lakh shares of the company.

Apex Frozen Foods: CRISIL reaffirmed its long term rating on bank loan facilities of Rs 114.77 crore at A-/Stable.

Indo Us Bio-Tech: Board approved issue of bonus shares.

LT Foods: SBI Mutual Fund cut stake in company by 1.09 percent to 2.53 percent.

Avadh Sugar & Energy: Company has carried out redemption of 2,43,50,000 8.50% unlisted non-convertible cumulative redeemable preference shares of Rs 10 each.

Piramal Enterprises: CARE assigned credit rating for short term non-convertible debentures.

Sadbhav Infrastructure Project: Sadbhav Kim Expressway Private Limited (SKEPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the company has submitted draft financing documents to NHAI in relation to financial closure.

Reliance Industries: RIL enters into MOU with NMSEZ - First Integrated Industrial Area to implement fourth industrial revolution.

: Board accorded in-principle approval for proposed amalgamation of ITI Reinsurance Limited with the company

subject to: (a) obtaining approval, if required from the IRDAI; (b) on completion of proposed Buyback by ITI Reinsurance Limited and (c) on ITI Reinsurance Limited became a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.

BLS International Services: Company has been signed up by the Embassy of Vietnam to accept visa applications in India.

Zensar Technologies: Zensar selected as IT transformation partner by Vyaire Medical, US.

Lupin: Company receives FDA approval for Atorvastatin Calcium tablets USP, which is used to lower cholesterol in blood.

Shashijit Infraprojects: Company received project from Western Zonal Assembly Mumbai Diocese of the Mar Thoma Church for construction of school building in Vapi, Gujarat. The project cost would be around Rs 3.80-3.90 crore.

Tata Coffee: Subsidiary Tata Coffee Vietnam Company unveiled its state-of-the art freeze dried instant coffee production plant at Binh Duong province of Vietnam.

Infosys: Company to deliver engineering and digital services to Rolls-Royce Group.

KNR Constructions: Company bagged an order worth Rs 135 crore from Karnataka Road Development Corporation for the work of 'development of road Kanchugaranahalli to Jigani via Harohalli and Urgandoddi of Bidadi - Harohalli road in Bengaluru' project in Karnataka.

Tata Motors - JLR February sales: JLR sales fall 4.1 percent to 38,288 units YoY. Land Rover sales drop 8.1 percent to 26,053 units while Jaguar sales rise 5.8 percent to 12,235 units.

Bulk Deals on March 07

NSE

Manaksia: Vajra Machineries Private Limited bought 3,43,024 shares of the company at Rs 36.7 per share.

Nagarjuna Oil Refinery: Alpha Leon Enterprises LLP sold 31,08,087 shares of the company and Multiplier S and S Adv Pvt Ltd sold 24,00,004 shares at 45 paise per share.

NIIT: Canara Robeco Mutual Fund A/C Canara Robeco Income Saer Fun bought 12 lakh shares of the company at Rs 92.8 per share.

Vijaya Bank: Morgan Stanley (France) SAS bought 81,29,150 shares of the company at Rs 45.97 per share.

Vikas EcoTech: Margi Jigneshbhai Shah sold 22,75,000 shares of the company at Rs 11 per share.

BSE

Sanghvi Movers: Alpna Enterprises bought 3 lakh shares of the company at Rs 98 per share.

(For more bulk deals, click here)

Analyst or Board Meet/Briefings

Bank of Maharashtra: Meeting of Compensation Committee of the Bank will be held on March 13 at Pune to consider Employee Share Purchase Scheme (BOM - ESPS) for issue of upto 10 crore new equity shares to the eligible employees of the bank and its related matters.

Manappuram Finance: Company's officials will attend Prabhudas Lilladhar Conference on March 8.

SRG Housing Finance: Analyst / Investor Meeting to be held on March 8.

ION Exchange India: Management will be attending the Valorem Analyst Conference 2019, organised by Valorem Advisors to be held on March 12.

Tata Steel: Company's officials will meet fund and broking houses on March 11 and 12.

MAS Financial Services: Board meeting is scheduled on March 14 to consider appointment and re-appointment of board members.

: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.
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The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has recently ordered all ceramic units that operate on coal gasifiers in Morbi, Gujarat to switch to gas or shutdown their operations. This move stands to benefit the industrial volumes of Gujarat Gas, which is the sole supplier of natural gas in the region. Given this positive impact, the companys stock has seen an steep uptick in trade.

- Morbi accounts for almost 70 percent of the ceramic industry in India and almost five percent worldwide

- The region consumes around 2.5 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCMD) of gas at present. Nearly 50 percent of ceramic companies were relying on coal gasifiers. Switch to gas is expected to take gas consumption to four MMSCMD

-Switch from coal to gas is a positive for Gujarat Gas. The company has been facing volume pressure since long, especially in the industrial segment, which accounts for almost 70 percent of the companys total volume

- Volumes are currently in the range of 6.8 MMSCMD. This means the uptick from this move would mean 22 percent of current volumes. Even if half of this comes through, it would mean almost 13-15 percent uptick in the companys FY20 estimated earnings per share (EPS).

- This recent order, however, stands to increase the cost of the ceramic companies, which are currently using coal gasifiers and is cheaper than gas. One cubic metre of gas costs Rs 36, compared to Rs 20 in the case of coal. Ceramic companies said they would challenge the decision in the higher court, so the actual implementation of the order would be something to watch out for.

Follow @Ruchiagrawal
- Tyre companies posted a subdued set of Q3 earnings- Raw material price continue to be a big concern, falling crude oil prices to aid margin- Domestic automobile industry outlook is sluggish in the near term, positive for the long term- Prefer Apollo Tyres and CEAT

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Tyre companies posted a disappointing set of Q3 FY19 earnings. Subdued topline growth and rising raw material prices marred operating profitability of companies in this space. Concerns over demand from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and margin pressure kept sentiment subdued for tyre companies. This soft patch, however, is expected to provide an appropriate opportunity to accumulate fundamentally strong businesses for the long-term.

Natural rubber and crude derivatives constitute a major portion of the raw material basket for tyre companies. Natural rubber prices have been flat at Rs 125 per kg as compared to average price of Rs 126/kg recorded in Q3 FY19. What could act as a big respite for tyre companies is a significant fall in the crude oil prices, leading to reduction in crude derivatives used in tyre manufacturing. The impact of this is expected to be felt in the operating profitability of tyre companies in Q4 FY19.Multiple macroeconomic challenges such as liquidity crunch, compulsory long-term third-party insurance, new axle load norms and tepid economic activity ahead of general elections have dampened demand for passenger vehicles (PVs), two-wheelers (2W) and commercial vehicle (CV) segments. Market conditions are expected to remain sluggish in the near term, but the long-term outlook for all segments continues to remain positive on the back of robust economic growth, rising income levels, lower penetration, governments thrust on increasing rural income and focus towards infrastructure and construction.CEAT posted an 8.9 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in net revenue from operations, driven by price hike taken by the management to pass on RM price increases. Volume growth stood at two percent due to tapering demand from original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and replacement market. Exports declined significantly as well.

In terms of operating profitability, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) witnessed a significant decline of 23.7 percent (YoY) on the back of significant increase in operating expenses (higher advertising expenses) and inventory build-up. This led to significant (356 bps) YoY contraction in EBITDA margin.

Though there is pressure in terms of demand outlook, the company is expected to grow on the back of its focus towards increasing market share in PVs, 2W and three-wheeler segments and expanding capacity in select pockets.

The company posted subdued (6.2 percent) growth in net revenue in Q3. Growth was much lower than its peers, indicating loss of market share for the company due to under penetration in truck bus radial (TBR) tyres and increase in competitive intensity in the 2W segment.

EBITDA margin continues to remain under pressure owing to significant rise in RM prices and negative operating leverage. Its EBITDA margin witnessed a contraction of 483 bps.

Apollo Tyres posted a 16.5 percent YoY growth in net sales on the back of performance across regions. Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa (APMEA) grew 17 percent and Europe 16 percent driven by strong volume and rich product mix.

With around 60 percent contribution from replacement market in domestic sales, Apollo Tyres has been the least impacted from the slowdown accruing from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The company witnesses a volume growth of 11 percent in the domestic market.

EBITDA margin contracted 108 bps YoY, although it showed a 20 bps expansion on quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis. EBITDA margin was marred by significant rise in RM prices, which was partially offset by reduction in operating expenses.

The management maintained its capital expenditure guidance at Rs 6,500 crore over the next three years. On the capacity expansion front, it is on track to ramp-up capacity at its Chennai plant to 12,000 tyres per day (TPD) from 10,000 TPD at present.

New plant construction in Andhra Pradesh for CVs and PVs has also started, which is expected to be online in Q4 FY20. Hungary plants capacity is expected to touch 16,000 TPD by FY19-end. Moreover, the plant is expected to be ramped up to 12,000 TPD by FY20-end and would act as another leg of volume growth for the company.

Amid market volatility, sluggish industry demand outlook and significant rise in RM prices, the share price of tyre companies have fallen significantly from their 52-week high (MRF: 29 percent, Apollo Tyres: 28 percent and CEAT: 32 percent).

We avoid MRF as the company has been continuously losing market share to its peers and under-penetration in the TBR segment. We advise long-term investors to accumulate Apollo Tyres and CEAT ahead of expected margin expansion in the upcoming quarter.

Follow @NitinAgrawal65

For more research articles, visit our Moneycontrol Research page

Moneycontrol Research analysts do not hold positions in the companies discussed here
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As a tactical pick, we are recommending DB Corp (CMP: Rs 192, M Cap: Rs 3,369 crore), one of the largest print media companies known for its flagship daily Dainik Bhaskar. Its print business has a presence in 12 states in north, central and western India. It also operates a radio business under the brand name 94.3 My FM.

On a consolidated level, the company derives majority of its revenue from advertisements issued in the publications (around 60 percent of total revenue in FY18) and sale of publications (22 percent of total revenue in FY18).

Growth of the print industry was disrupted by demonetisation and implementation of Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) and Goods & Services Tax (GST), which adversely impacted advertising revenue. Consequently, revenue growth of the newspaper industry in FY18 was the lowest in a decade at 3.9 percent, as per KPMG report. Just when the sector started stabilising with ad spends reverting back to normal levels, rise in newsprint prices jolted sentiment again.While the print media is facing tough times, what makes us constructive on the future of DB Corp? The answer isnt quite so simple and there are multiple reasons for the same.

First, upcoming national elections are expected to boost ad revenue. During 2014 national elections, ad revenue had risen by around seven percent for the sector.

In fact, DB Corp reported print ad revenue growth of 11.5 percent year-on-year in Q3 FY19, a double-digit growth after nine quarters. As Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh contribute around 60 percent to DB Corps ad revenue, it benefited from elections in these states.

Second, the biggest respite for DB Corp comes from peaking of newsprint prices. The management said international newsprint prices has come off sharply to $550-560 per tonne from a peak of $750-780 per tonne. It expects prices to fall further due to capacity addition in Russia and China. However, the benefit of the lower prices would accrue with a lag of couple of quarters owing to high cost inventory and locked-in contracts for imported newsprint. Imported newsprint account for around 30 percent of DB Corps newsprint consumption and hence a stable dollar-rupee would further comfort the company.

Third, the Bureau of Outreach and Communication (earlier known as the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity; DAVP) announced a 25 percent increase in the card rates for government ads. Subsequent to the ad rate hike, we expect revenue increase and improvement in EBITDA margin.

Read: Hike in print media ad rates to give much-needed impetus to sector

Last but not the least, attractive valuations motivates us to look at DB Corp. Valuation of the company is at historic lows. With return on equity (RoE) in high teens and FY20 estimated price-to-earnings multiple of 9.6 times, the risk  reward is extremely favourable.

For DB Corp, FY18 was an aberration and FY19 too has been a difficult year so far. While competition from digital the world is real, it is much less pronounced for Hindi and regional newspapers. Multiple levers of earnings improvement in FY20, including the upcoming elections, make DB Corp a worthy investment idea.
Ola is in talks with Hyundai Motor Company for investing about USD 300 million in the cab-hailing platform, according to sources. The discussions are at an advanced stage and a deal could be closed in the next few weeks, sources said.

If the deal goes through, it would be Hyundai's second investment in the Indian startup ecosystem. Previously, it had led a Rs 100-crore funding round in car rental startup Revv.

Ola did not respond to an e-mailed query on the development. A Hyundai Motors India spokesperson said the company is "open to cooperation with various potential partners but it is our policy not to comment on market speculation and rumours".

The fresh funding will give the Bengaluru-based company more ammunition to compete with rival Uber in India and other markets like Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

In February, Ola had announced that Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has invested about Rs 650 crore in the company. The investment was in Sachin's personal capacity and was also the largest financing by an individual in Ola.

Bansal's investment was part of Ola's plans to raise about USD 1 billion in funding. In October last year, the company had announced raising USD 1.1 billion funding from China's Tencent Holdings and SoftBank Group.

At that time, it had also stated that it was in "advanced talks" to close an additional USD 1 billion funding to take total mop-up to more than USD 2 billion.

Ola has been aggressively ramping up its rides business as well as food delivery operations (through Foodpanda).
Although we all need bank accounts- men or women- womens day is generally an occasion where some banks hawk bank accounts that are targeted towards women, specifically. Banks such as HDFC bank, Kotak Mahindra bank, ICICI bank, RBL Bank, etc. are offering specially designed savings account that offers several benefits aimed at women.

Typically, these accounts are offered on womens day, so theres a good chance that women bank customers might be offered these accounts today. Several offers come bundled with a womens saving bank account in the form of shopping discounts and such added benefits. But do you really need them? Lets take a look on whats on offer.

Typically, a womens saving bank starts by offering a lower minimum balance requirement as compared to a regular savings account. For example, minimum balance of womens savings account at RBL bank is Rs 10,000 against Rs 25,000 in regular savings bank account.

The women savings account can usually be opened either individually or jointly as a primary account holder, so there is not much difference here.

Some of the other benefits that come with women saving accounts are doorstep banking services, insurance covers like critical illness and/or personal accident covers, an additional kids account, discount/cash back offers for shopping through credit cards specially designed for women customers, etc.

For instance, with ICICI Banks women advantage savings account, you are eligible for iProtect smart life cover which provides protection against accidental death and 34 critical illnesses.

IDBI bank is offering a zero balance childrens account with a womens account, if required. Similarly, the debit and credit cards associated with the women savings account allow users to avail exclusive discounts and offers on products from select merchant partners including restaurants, jewelers and departmental stores.

Note that these women-specific credit cards are not available to women customers if they are second-holders to someone elses savings bank account, such as their spouse or their children.

In addition, some of the banks offer discount on processing fees (25% to 50%) while applying for two-wheeler loans and discount of 10% to 15% on lockers' rent in the first year, etc.

No Free Lunches

The features come at a cost. For instance, in iProtect smart life cover with ICICI Banks women advantage savings account you are eligible to get a life insurance cover as well as critical illness cover for a sum assured of Rs 4 lakh at a monthly premium of Rs 200. Note that the sum assured here is fixed at Rs 4 lakh for women aged 21 to 35 and Rs 3 lakh for women aged 36 to 50 years.

A life cover and critical illness cover of just Rs 4 lakh is generally too less for women- or any individual- aged below 30, especially since at that age you could in fact buy a higher cover with, of course, more premium. A life cover should be at least ten times of annual income.

Financial advisors always recommend keeping insurance and investments separate. Its not recommended to opt for insurance cover just because you are getting an insurance benefit with your savings account at discounted premium as bank claims.

Bhakti Rasal, Mumbai-based Certified Financial Planner cautioned, There are chances of discontinuation from the insurance company at the renewal stage or rating up of the premiums as per the renewed group insurance contract between the banker and an insurance company.

Financial experts recommend buying insurance policies as per your needs and not buy it as a bundled product.

Further, the account holder also needs to maintain monthly minimum balance in savings account which varies from bank to bank. On an average, the monthly minimum balance for womens savings bank account required is Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000. There are banks which ask to maintain a fixed deposit with the women savings account. For instance, at IndusInd bank women customers of savings account need to maintain Rs 5 lakh in fixed deposit at all times.

Banks are even offering attractive discounts / cash back offers for shopping to women account holders from merchants associated with the bank. Such discounts often entice customers to shop impulsively rather than when theres a genuine need.

Sapna Tiwari, Co-Founder and COO, Rupeewiz Investment Advisors said, Often such consumers end up in equated monthly installments (EMI) trap by using their credit cards from women savings account and pay interest cost of 30% to 45% per annum (it varies with the bank). You may even end up using your debit card which also has attractive discounts and utilize savings in shopping instead of investing for future goals.

Though womens saving bank accounts come with added benefits that may not accrue to women if they are second holders to their spouses or children or someone elses bank account, more often than not these benefits dont add value. For instance, standalone insurance cover works better as you can customize to your needs.

Locking away your money in a fixed deposit when you may not need one, may skew your asset allocation and lock your money away.

If you already have a zero salaried account from your employer with similar benefits, you may not need another separate account. Since, it will be additional cost to maintain monthly minimum balance in savings account. And beware of the EMI trap as Tiwari explained above.

Too many discounts and offers also come with the fineprint, which you should be prepared to go through minutely, if these discounts and add-ons attract you.

For the majority though, we suggest you avoid women specific bank accounts. Stick to plain-vanilla bank accounts and opt for separate insurance cover and credit cards that suit your needs.
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Off-highway tyre manufacturer Balkrishna Industries Limited (BKT) on Friday said it is working on a Rs 2,000 crore expansion plan in India to meet the increasing demand of its products globally.

The company is planning to set up a modern carbon black manufacturing facility at its plant in Bhuj, Gujarat.

"The company is working on a Rs 2,000 crore expansion plan," BKT's Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Poddar said.

Poddar was speaking to Indian journalist here at the international agri machinery exhibition SIMA.

Expecting healthy demand, he said farmers in India want good machines and the government too was focusing on the agriculture sector.

Currently, the company's share in the off-road tyre market in India is 7-8 per cent and it is "looking at increasing the share to 15 per cent in the next three to four years", he said.

Poddar also said the company will shift its Aurangabad plant to a new location. The project will be completed in 18 months at a cost of Rs 450 crore.

The company has five facilities in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Poddar said during the last financial year 2017-18 the company's turnover stood at Rs 4,500 crore.

"We are expecting this will increase to Rs 5,000 crore during the current financial year. We are expecting 10 to 15 percent growth in the years to come,'' he added.

The company mainly exports its tyres to Europe, America and Australia.

Currently, Europe accounts for about 52 per cent of its total exports.
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Drug firm Jubilant Life Sciences on Friday said the US health regulator has issued a warning letter to the company for its Roorkee facility in Uttarakhand.

"The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) may withhold approval of any new applications or supplements till the company addresses all issues raised by the agency," Jubilant Life Sciences said in a filing to the BSE.

The company did not provide any details about the issues raised by the USFDA in its warning letter.

"However, we believe that the existing manufacturing and sale of products from this facility will not be impacted. US revenues from the facility is about 4 per cent of the total revenues of the company," Jubilant Life Sciences said.

The company is committed to implementing the necessary corrective actions required to address USFDA concerns and is in the process of providing a thorough and comprehensive response to the USFDA within 15 working days, it added.

Earlier on December 8, 2018, the company had said in a regulatory filing that the US health regulator had classified its inspection of the company's Roorkee solid dosage formulations facility as "Official Action Indicated".

The facility was inspected by USFDA in August 2018, it added.

According to the US regulator, "when FDA finds that a manufacturer has significantly violated FDA regulations, FDA notifies the manufacturer. This notification is often in the form of a warning letter."

Shares of Jubilant Life Sciences were trading at Rs 766 per scrip during the day on the BSE, down 2.28 per cent from its previous close.
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on March 7 underlined the need to explore further business cooperation between India and Paraguay in fields of mutual interest. Naidu was in the South American country as part of his two-nation trip to Paraguay and Costa Rica.

He is the highest-level representative of India to visit Paraguay since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1961.

"VP @MVenkaiahNaidu addressed India-Paraguay Business Forum in presence of Paraguay's Industry & Commerce Minister @Lizcramer_py Remarked on sectors where complementarities exist & need to be explored for mutual benefit," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Ravish Kumar tweeted.

After a successful visit to Paraguay, Naidu emplaned for Costa Rica.
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Viju Cherian

On September 2017, concerned citizens in Delhi held a protest meeting at the Press Club of India to condemn the murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh. However, that hot afternoon was in the news for another reason. A video of former student leader Shehla Rashid speaking to a group of reporters outside the Press Club and asking a reporter from a TV News channel to leave went viral. Her objection was to the way that channel was treating the news about Lankeshs murder. Not many missed the irony that the protest meet was also to highlight freedom of press and the right to dissent.

Reactions on social media to Rashids actions were split, with many voices, including senior journalists, condemning her actions. The kernel point here is that one might have differences with the way the press/media functions and the fourth estate often fails to live up to the standards expected from it  but, under no circumstances can it be denied the right to do its duty.

The freedom of the press cannot  it must not  be obstructed, denied, or, as recently seen, threatened.

Undermining media freedom

On March 6, Attorney-General KK Venugopal, during the hearing of the Rafale case in the Supreme Court, said that the documents based on which The Hindu had published its reports were stolen and that these are privileged documents under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).Criminal action will be taken against those who have published it. The attorney-general is the governments voice in the judiciary and his mentioning the OSA can be construed as the government dropping a veiled threat to the media that it must stay away from reporting on the Rafale deal.

On Thursday, March 7, the Editors Guild of India, condemned Venugopals comments. In a statement it said, The Guild denounces these threats and urges the government to refrain from initiating any action that might undermine the medias freedom and independence. Though the government has cited national security as a reason to override press freedom, the fact is the right to know the truth must not be compromised.

For those who think that freedom of press is an unnecessary excuse  take a moment and think; think about the two things: one, why we need a free press, and; two, what has been achieved through this freedom.

A liberty above all

We live in a time when there is an information boom, where there is social media and the countless avenues for information (and misinformation) gathering. We might feel empowered but in the absence of an independent, fearless and conscientious press we could be caught in a web of propaganda, a string of lies and tied in knots of deceit. We live in times when fake news can influence electoral outcomes and thereby threaten democracy, and we live in times when misinformation can spread hatred and violence. In the history of mankind if there is the need for a free press, it is now more than ever.

It is the duty, nay the responsibility, of the press to ask the government and those in public office tough questions and to hold a mirror to the people  for it is the voice of the people. The importance of freedom of speech (and by extension a free press) is succinctly expressed by English poet John Milton in his 1644 speech to Parliament, where he says, Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, according to conscience, above all liberties.

What a scandal!

The second is what has been achieved through this freedom. If the OSA was thrown at the press for every daring expose and investigative journalism, we would not have known about the 2G Spectrum scam, the coal scam, the Bofors scam, and many more. Internationally, if not for the courage shown by the press, we would not have the Pentagon Papers and Vietnam War would have had a different trajectory. We would not have the Watergate scandal and Richard Nixon would have gone about abusing his powers for much longer.

The Official Secrets Act, first introduced by the British raj to censor a growing press under the nationalist movement, has undergone several amendments. The Act has its uses in checking espionage, but to use it to threat and muzzle the press is regrettable.

The fact that the government thought of throwing the OSA at the media reflects another worrying aspect of press freedom in India  its sorry state. Over the years Indias position in the World Press Freedom Index has been slipping. If in 2016 it was ranked 133rd among 180 nations, in 2017 it slipped three spots to 136, and in 2018 it was 138. Keeping august company with India is Pakistan at 139 and Myanmar at 137.

To sum up, the use of national security as a shield to deny or obstruct the freedom of press is a dangerous precedent and could muzzle us from hearing what we do not want to hear.

For more Opinion pieces, click here
Families of the 40 CRPF personnel, killed in a recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, have been paid over Rs 1 crore ex-gratia funds till now as per service rules, the force said on March 8.

Officials said the 'next of kin' of these slain personnel will also get an additional ex-gratia amount that has been announced by various state governments, where the troops hailed from, in a case-to-case basis.

A total amount of over Rs 1.01 crore has been paid to the families of the 40 personnel who were killed in the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, an official from the force said.

He added that this amount includes Rs 35 lakh given by the central government as ex-gratia to the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel killed in the line of action, Rs 21.50 lakh under the risk fund, Rs 15 lakh from the 'Bharat Ke Veer' corpus and Rs 30 lakh from the SBI paramilitary service pay insurance cover.

The families additionally are also being provided financial benefits from various government and non-government agencies even as some institutions have volunteered to take care of education of the wards of these personnel, he said.

"Liberalised Pension Award (LPA) is being given to all the 40 families and this amount equals to the last basic pay plus dearness allowance drawn by the killed personnel. This amount will be paid lifelong," the official said.

He added that while in some cases, the 'next of kin' of the killed personnel have been offered jobs by state governments, they are also eligible for compassionate appointment for jobs in the CRPF.

The force is soon going to launch a special mobile application which has been designed specifically for redressal of grievances relating to the families of killed personnel of the force. This will be launched soon, he said.

The 40 CRPF personnel were travelling in a force bus when a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the bus on February 14.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has deployed as many as 61 battalions in the state, with about 65,000 personnel, and is the lead counter-terrorist and internal security force in the Kashmir valley.
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The authorities on March 8 imposed restrictions in parts of the city here as a precautionary measure in view of a strike called by separatists against slapping of the Public Safety Act (PSA) on JKLF chairman Yasin Malik and ban on Jaamat-e-Islami (JeI). Restrictions have been imposed in six police station areas of Srinagar  the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

They said the curbs under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) were imposed in Nowhatta, Khanyar, Rainawari, MR Gunj, Safakadal and Maisuma police station areas of the city.

The officials said the restrictions were imposed as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order and to avoid any untoward incident in view of the strike called by separatists.

The separatists -- under the banner of the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) -- on March 7 called for a strike on March 8 against booking of the JKLF chairman and others under the PSA, the crackdown on separatists, ban on JeI and "attempts to tinker with hereditary state subject law under the pretext of 35-A and intimidating raids of the NIA against Kashmiris".

"Arbitrary arrest and detention of senior resistance leader and chairman JKLF and many others under the draconian PSA and shifting of Malik to Kot Balwal jail in Jammu is the most condemnable act.

"This spree of arrests, ban on JeI and attempts to tinker with hereditary state subject law under the pretext of 35-A and intimidating NIA raids on Kashmiris deserves our stiff protest and resistance and people of Kashmir, besides holding peaceful protests after Friday prayers, will also observe a complete shutdown tomorrow on 8th March 2019," the JRL said in a statement.

The JRL comprises of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Malik.

Shops, fuel stations and other business establishments remained shut in the city, the officials said.

They said public transport was off the roads while a few private cars, cabs and auto-rickshaws were seen plying in some areas of the city.

Similar reports of shutdown were received from other district headquarters of the Valley, the officials said.

The authorities have put Mirwaiz -- who is the chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference -- under house arrest, while Geelani -- who heads the hardline faction of the Hurriyat -- continued to remain under house detention for some time now.
N chief Antonio Guterres is "continually" monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan and his office is available to both parties, his spokesperson has said.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric was asked if the UN chief had spoken with the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan to de-escalate tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.

"The Secretary General and members of his staff are in touch have been in touch with the parties at various levels. We continually monitor the situation and [are] available to the parties," Dujarric told reporters here on Thursday.

Earlier this week, Dujarric had said that the Secretary General had not spoken with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan over the situation between the two nations but had expressed his concern to officials on both sides on the need to de-escalate tensions.

"We're fully aware of the situation. The Secretary General has had no calls with those two Heads of Government as far as I'm aware, but he's had contacts with both sides to express, I think, his concern and the need to do as much as anyone can to de-escalate the tensions," Dujarric had said at the daily press briefing on Tuesday.

When asked if the Secretary General is planning to get involved to try and mediate a de-escalation, Dujarric had said last week that "as always", the Secretary General's good offices are always "available should both parties or all parties, depending on the situation, agree to do that".

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in February 14.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.
Moneycontrol Contributors

On International Women's Day every year, conversations about women making it big despite being up against social, cultural and economic patriarchal structures crowd our news feeds.

Some stories are especially poignant because they erupt like blooms from the concrete cracks of politicised humanscapes. Like writer Nusrat Alis story in Kashmir Unheard, that tells us about Sama Beg, a certified dementia specialist from Anantnag who has started a brand of clothes and accessories named Koshur Wear. She now provides a livelihood to 28 employees and promotes graphic design celebrating Kashmiri proverbs rooted in a rather, yes, unheard social and cultural milieu.

Like Sama, all women represent a story that has never been heard before. And sometimes, even when it is heard, it remains unacknowledged.

On this edition of our Story of the Day on Moneycontrol, we will address the rampant inequality that exists in the way women and the work they do, are valued.

Unpaid and undervalued

In an earlier podcast, we had cited a January, 2019 PTI report published in the Hindu. The piece was based on an Oxfam report which said that unpaid work done by women across the globe amounts to a staggering $10 trillion a year, which is 43 times the annual turnover of the worlds biggest company Apple. Oxfam incidentally is part of the Fight Inequality Alliance -- a coalition of social movements, environmental groups, womens rights groups, trade unions and NGOs.

Inequality has a female face in India," stated Oxfam and further explained why this was so.

In India, said Oxfam, the unpaid work done by women looking after their homes and children is worth 3.1% of the countrys GDP. We quote PTI, Women spend 312 minutes per day in urban areas and 291 minutes per day in rural areas on such unpaid care work. In comparison, men spend only 29 minutes in urban and 32 minutes in rural areas on unpaid care work.

The report also said that women and girls are hardest hit by rising economic inequality, including in India.

Oxfam further said that women are less likely to have paid work when compared to men, while even among the richest there are only nine women in the Indias 119-member billionaires club.

How dire is the wage gap ?

Leave alone the vast amount of unpaid work that women do, India has a poor ranking in the gender gap index. As Oxfam said, Even the paid work that women do brings them less earnings as compared to men due to the existing wage gap and therefore households that rely primarily on female earners tend to be poorer. The gender pay gap is pegged by Oxfam at 34% and various intersections of caste, class, religion, age and sexual orientation have further implications on women inequality.

India is ranked 108th, says Oxfam in WEFs Global Gender Gap Index of 2018, saying it was 10 notches less than in 2006 and far below the global average and behind its neighbours China and Bangladesh.

Widespread gender violence in society and unreported instances of sexual harassment in organised and unorganised work structures further muddy the picture in the absence of functioning mechanisms and due processes.

Societal conditioning and restrictions further impede women in rural areas and sometimes in urban areas from undertaking paid work.

PTI quoted Oxfam International Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, who said and we quote again, While corporations and the super-rich enjoy low tax bills, millions of girls are denied a decent education and women are dying for lack of maternity care.

The point being that gender wage gap is the symptom of an ailing societal system that deprives women in various capacities at various stages of their life.

The deep roots of gender inequality

March 8, 2019 piece by Sonali Pimputkar in The Free Press Journal , cites the 2018 Monster Salary Index (MSI) survey to state that the overall pay gap between genders stands at 19 per cent. While the median gross hourly salary for men in India in 2018 stood at Rs 242.49, for women it stood at around Rs 196.3.

We quote, The gap widens with experience as men with 0-2 years of experience earn 7.8 per cent higher median wages than women while men with 6-10 years of experience earn 15.3 per cent more and men with 11 and more years of experience earn 25 per cent higher median wages than women.

The piece also quotes Priti Rathi Gupta, Founder of LXME The Digital Investment platform for women and MD and Promoter at Anand Rathi Group, who says that at the end of the day, women cannot be expected to remain motivated despite bad wages and to continue contributing to the work force if things don't change.

She also says that women need to manage their money better.

She further adds and we quote, In my 15 years of financial career, what I realised is that women in financial sectors dont take the responsibility of their own money. Less than 1 per cent of the working women actually invest their money and that is a very sad figure compared to close to about 18 per cent of men who invest their money.

Inequality across sections

MSI, incidentally is an initiative by Monster India in collaboration with Paycheck.in (managed by WageIndicator Foundation) and IIM-Ahmedabad as a research partner. And according to multiple news sources, the MSI survey says that the gender pay gap spans across key industries.

We quote, IT/ITES services showed a sharp pay gap of 26 per cent in favour of men, while in the manufacturing sector, men earn 24 per cent more than women. Surprisingly, even in sectors like healthcare, caring services, and social work, men earn 21 per cent more than women, even as notionally these sectors are more identified with women. Financial services, banking and insurance are the only industries where men earn just 2 per cent more.

A Livemint report quoted Abhijeet Mukherjee, CEO, Monster.com, APAC & Gulf and he said, The narrowing of the gender pay gap by just one per cent is not just a cause for concern, but a reminder to genuinely introspect if we are doing enough. It becomes pivotal to galvanize forces across corporates and industries to work towards gender pay parity.

The Livemint report further informs that when Monster.com also conducted the Women of India Inc survey aimed at understanding the working women of India and their workplace concerns, it found that 71 per cent men and 66 per cent women feel that gender parity needs to be a top priority for their organisations.

We quote, As high as 60 per cent of the working women felt that they are discriminated at work. The most notable form of discrimination is perception that women are less serious about work once they are married. About 46 per cent women feel that maternity leads to a perception that they will quit. About 46 per cent women also believe that there is a notion that women can't put the same number of hours as men.

The disparity continues

Wage gap in the Indian context is not a recent discovery by statisticians as Abhishek Waghmare cited in report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in a November 2018, Business Standard piece.

The report stated that women are paid the most unequally in India, compared to men, when it comes to hourly wages for labour. On average, women are paid 34 per cent less than men, the report said and added that this gap in wages, known as the gender wage gap, is the highest in India among 73 countries.

These findings were presented in the flagship publication of the ILO, the Global Wage Report 2018-19, which was released on November 26, 2018.

Business Standard has been reporting consistently on how gender pay gap increases with the average wage of enterprises: the higher the average wage, the wider the gender pay gap. The paper also reported an existent gap among chief executive officers that is pegged at about 40 per cent  twice as high as the overall gender pay gap, which is about 20 per cent.

Some reasons causing the gender pay gap

An August 2018 Womans Web piece by HR professional Nousheen Khan attributed the gap to the fact that there are fewer women in the work force and even less in lucrative professions and in senior/ leadership roles

Said the writer, While doing a gender audit on company level compensation may help to keep the issue of gender pay gap in our radar, it would require a multi-dimensional effort on hiring, retention and development of women.

Gender Pay Gap may not always be a direct outcome of discrimination but it is important to understand the discrimination inherent in our society and therefore, our workplace to understand the gender pay gap. For example, there is a strong bias in the industry while hiring women who have been on a career break for childcare. There is a bias in giving challenging opportunities to women at the workplace. At times, women may also hesitate in demanding quality work, promotion or higher salary increases, and this is because the second job of household work does not allow them space to do so.

She states that workplaces are a microcosm of society and so the ills that plague our society will be prevalent at the workplace too.

She divides the reasons that cause wage discrimination in multiple sections like Environmental/ Cultural and Socio-Economic Factors and Personal Choices. We quote, "The last one is heavily influenced by the first two. Most women would experience at least some, if not all of the factors mentioned above. It would also be an over-simplification to assume that these are only present in low income or underprivileged families. Many of these factors have been observed across socio-economic classes."

While her suggestions that women must invest in self-development, upscale their skills, build support networks of mentors at work and care givers at home, are sensible, they again put the onus to break the glass ceiling on women alone.

She however concludes, The gender pay gap is a complex phenomenon. Efforts need to be made at all levels by different institutions (Corporates, Government, NGOs etc.) and individuals to reduce the gender pay gap. We are now talking about it at least and thats a good start.

That we are still just talking about a disparate reality that affects and disadvantages so many women, is in our view, far from being an ideal scenario.

The undone vast

An interesting piece by Durba Ghosh and Kuwar Singh in Quartz India, mentions that behind the much awaited breakthroughs like that of flight lieutenant Avani Chaturvedi who created history by flying a MiG-21 bison solo this year, there are unheard stories of struggle. Avani is an exception who was part of the first batch of woman pilots inducted into an Indian Air Force fighter squadron in 2016, the two others being flying officers Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh.

But as the piece says and we quote, "However, feats like Chaturvedis arent what International Womens Day, being celebrated today (March 08), is about usually. At least not going by the spate of business brunches and girl power merchandising that peaks around this day every year"

That brings us to the point we started this podcast piece. The unheard stories need air time too.

But we are not here to only give you the bad news and as Quartz reported , in terms of financial inclusion, over 76% of Indian women surveyed by online lending platform IndiaLends, now make their own investment decisions.

But. And we pause a bit here, 59% of those who are self-employed still depend on their spouses for financial guidance.

The major story of the day is still that the wage gap between men and women in India is staggering.

A bright spot in the MSI survey is that more than half of the men surveyed felt they can be effective advocates for womens issues at the workplace. However, 44% of women felt men were gender-equality allies only in private, reported Quartz.

The piece also cites a survey by Ola Mobility Institute that over 90% of women feel the countrys public transport is unsafe so going to work itself is a complex issue .

We quote, Though gruesome incidents of violence against women have received attention in mainstream media, this data suggests that most women may face harassment such as verbal abuse, staring, groping, catcalls, whistling, molestation, which needs to be addressed to improve their perception of safety.

Quartz reports that the Ola Mobility Institute took into account views of 24,023 respondents across 11 cities such as Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Jammu, Kochi, Mumbai, Mysuru, and New Delhi, for this survey. Women constituted 41% of the respondents.

The final word

An interview with producer and film-maker Soundarya Rajinikanth by Anupama Ramakrishna in Deccan Herald sums up the aftertaste of the MSI report. We leave you with this quote by Soundarya, "Gender equality is when access to opportunities and opinions, regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making is provided to all the genders. It still isnt a fair world yet some industries and some individuals, I can say, have started considering men and women equal. But its not the case all over. I sincerely hope this changes in the coming days."
BJP president Amit Shah accused the Bhupesh Baghel government in Chhattisgarh of duping farmers by only waiving their short-term loans, as against the Congress's promise of writing off entire farm loan.

Shah also slammed the government over its decision to withdrawn the general consent accorded to the CBI to probe cases in the state, and also for pulling out of the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

He was addressing a convention of party workers here.

"The Congress has duped the farmers. The party had promised to waive their entire farm loan, but it wrote off only short-term loans and that too not completely," Shah said.

"Rahul baba had announced a hike in paddy procurement prices, but now they are sweating in cold. The condition is that the government has to take loans from the Reserve Bank of India for paddy procurement," he added.

Shah said, "After Coming to power in the state, Congress decided to pull out of the Ayushman Bharat scheme, which is meant to benefit poor. Why did the government ban the entry of CBI into the state? Are they (Congress) preparing to commit corruption. The chief minister should answer this."

On the liquor ban promise that the Congress had made in its assembly election manifesto, Shah said the party was now saying it was a complicated task.

"If it was a not an easy task, why did they promise it?" he asked.

He also slammed state government for rechristening the schemes named after Pt Deendayal Upadhyay.

"Our government never changed the names of the projects named after former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. But after the Congress came to power in the state, it rechristened schemes named after Pt Deendayal Upadhyay. This kind of act should not be done in public life," he added.

Shah said the BJP was the only party in which a worker sitting in the last line can rise to become the party chief.

He asked workers to ensure that the BJP wins all the 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state so that the Modi dispensation continues to remain in power.

This was Shah's first visit to the state after his party suffered a massive drubbing in the November assembly election and lost power after 15 years.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won 10 out of the 11 seats in the state.
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The DMDK on March 8 kept the suspense alive on a possible alliance with the AIADMK for the coming Lok Sabha elections, saying it will announce its stand in another two days. Senior Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam leader and party founder Vijayakanth's wife, Premalatha, said her party was capable of going into the polls alone and recalled that it had done so in the past.

"Whether to go alone or forge an alliance for the LS polls, whether to participate in the bypolls and local body elections, we will make our stand official in another two days," DMDK treasurer Premalatha told reporters here.

Eighteen Assembly seats fell vacant after the Madras High Court upheld the disqualification of an equal number of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MLAs for revolting against Chief Minister K Palaniswami in 2017.

Tiruvarur and Tirupparankundram segments await by-elections due to the death of sitting legislators former DMK chief M Karunanidhi and A K Bose of AIADMK respectively last year.

Hosur, represented by former AIADMK minister P Balakrishna Reddy, was declared vacant following Reddy's resignation after a special court sentenced him to three years' rigorous imprisonment in a two-decade-old riot case.

Premalatha's statement comes amidst the buzz in political circles over what the actor-politician's party will do vis-a-vis alliance, considering the AIADMK was wooing it to join the NDA coalition led by it in Tamil Nadu.

The NDA constituents in the state include the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Pattali Makkal Katchi, besides some smaller outfits.

Earlier, AIADMK coordinator and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and his colleague D Jayakumar had called on Vijayakanth, who had recently returned from the US after undergoing medical treatment.

On March 7, senior party leader LK Sutheesh had indicated that the DMDK could finalise its alliance with the AIADMK in a couple of days and referred to parleys he held on March 6 with BJP state-in-charge Piyush Goyal.

"Yesterday (Wednesday) you know we had held talks at a private hotel...we will inform in a couple of days the number of seats and segments," he had said.

Premalatha also trained her guns at senior DMK leader Durai Murugan who had said the DMDK had sought accommodation in his party-led alliance, amidst the protracted delay in conclusion of the AIADMK-DMDK talks earlier.

The DMDK leaders who had gone to his house had made it clear that they went on 'personal' work which was reiterated by Sutheesh on Thursday, she said, and asked why Durai Murugan had spoken otherwise.

"DMK has always targeted DMDK. Can Durai Murugan clarify on the unsavoury remarks he had made against his party leadership with Sutheesh," she asked.

To a question, she said her party would strive for the welfare of the state irrespective of the alliance that it would be in, and recalled the famous standoff between Vijayakanth, then Leader of Opposition, and late chief minister J Jayalalithaa in the state assembly once, despite being allies.

The DMDK founder had then spoken in the interest of the people, she said referring to the incident that turned out to be a flashpoint and led to the two parties later parting ways.
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The Shiv Sena on Friday said the face of Vidarbha had changed due to various development works by the government and, therefore, there was no need for the region to be given statehood.

In an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana', the Sena claimed Union minister Nitin Gadkari, a Lok Sabha MP from Nagpur in Vidarbha, had even said at an event recently that it was not right to demand for a separate state when the pace of development in Vidarbha had accelerated.

"Vidarbha has been developed exceptionally well in the last four years and a backlog of the last 40-50 years has been overcome," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

The editorial added that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is an MLA from Nagpur, had paid special attention to roads, industries and education in the Vidarbha region.

"Fadnavis appointed several able officers for the development of Vidarbha and provisions have been made in the budget for special schemes to be implemented there," it said.

The Sena said people of the region always thought injustice was being meted out to them and that none of the governments, before the current Sena-BJP dispensation, did anything to develop Vidarbha.

Vidarbha was always used as a political tool by leaders and the issue of a separate statehood was kept alive despite the demand having no ground support, the editorial claimed.

As proof of the separate statehood issue having no support from the people, the Sena claimed it won four Lok Sabha seats in the region despite traditionally being opposed to the idea of Vidarbha as a state separate from Maharashtra.

Sena said Gadkari had given Rs 80,000 crore to Vidarbha in the last four years and there was now an international airport, an international-level railway station, IIM, IIIT, and several other initiatives to bring about development and attract tourism to the region.

"Seeing the development and changed face of Vidarbha, there is no need to demand a separate state. Gadkari should be congratulated publicly for speaking about a united Maharashtra," the Sena said.

Gadkari, on March 6, had expressed anger after some people raised slogans at a public meeting in Nagpur in support of a separate Vidarbha state.

Gadkari reportedly threatened to get them "spanked and thrown out" from the event, which was attended by Fadnavis as well.
I was surprised to see the Tribune editorial endorsing a community benefits agreement for the Obama Presidential Center (Lightfoot, Preckwinkle and the Obama center: Locking in benefits for the South Side makes sense, March 1). The CBA proposed by the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition involves many desirable goals but is extremely ambitious. It includes dozens of proposals in the areas of economic development, education, employment, housing, sustainability and transportation. A few examples: develop a black business corridor; enhance science, technology, engineering and math programming in Chicago Public Schools; offer tutoring and mentorship programming; refer local residents to workforce development programs; and coordinate with Cook County for a property tax freeze or exemption for longtime neighbors of the presidential center. Many of the proposals are enough for a whole nonprofit organization.
K Rajasekharan (Image: ANI)

President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted the resignation of K Rajasekharan as the Governor of Mizoram, CNN News18 has reported.

Sources have told the news channel that Rajasekharan resigned so as to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala on a BJP ticket.

Currently, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is the MP from the state capital.

Kummanam Rajasekharan is a far-right leader who headed the BJP unit in Kerala until May 2018. He was then appointed as the Governor of Mizoram by the NDA government.

Rajasekharan, who is said to be a favourite among BJP's local cadre in Kerala, had lost the Thiruvanathapuram parliamentary constituency to Tharoor in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by a margin of less than 2 percent.

Sources from the saffron party said the 66-year-old zeroed in on him after it failed to persuade Mohanlal, one of Kerala's biggest actors.
Congress treasurer Ahmed Patel said the NDA government is the "weakest ever" dispensation at the Centre since independence and its leaders are only good at delivering good speeches.

Patel was replying to a question of newsmen at Singala village in Karjan tehsil on the grenade attack in Jammu in which one person died and around 30 others were injured.

"I say this is the weakest government after independence. This government believes that by delivering speeches they can fight terrorism.

"This government needs to do basic things to fight terrorism," Patel said.

He recalledBJP leaderstellingthe then Congress-led UPAgovernmentat the Centre to talk tough with Pakistan.

Withoutnaming anybody, he criticisedtheModi-led government for "weakening" spirit (manobal) of the Armyby politicising the air strike inside Pakistan.

"Why aretheypoliticising the attack of the Army in Pakistan territory and breaking their 'manobal'?he asked.

"The Congress has lauded the courage of Indian Air Force pilots who destroyed a Jaish-e-Mohammed trainingcamp in Pakistan,whilethe BJPwas politicising the sacrifices made by our armed forces," Patel said.

He said people who have not made any sacrifice for the country are askingthe Congress what it had done in 60 years of its rule.

"The Congress party will expose the BJP governments failure on various fronts during poll campaign. The BJP failed to provide jobs to youth, farmers are committing suicide while entrepreneurs and industrialists are facing problems," he said.

He asked Congress MLAs, who may think of joining the ruling BJP in Gujarat, to ponder over what happened to leaders who switched sides.

Patel, however, made it clear that no party MLA will join the BJP.
Senior Congress leader S Jaipal Reddy claimed that Rafale negotiations were brought to an "advanced stage" during UPA regime but the Modi government "delayed" the deal.

"Rafale has been delayed because of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi. The negotiations were brought to an advanced stage during the Manmohan Singh government. The negotiations were almost finalised in March, 2014. Then came the elections. Then you (Modi) took office in May. Why did you delay it for four years. There was no delay on the part of the UPA government at all, he told reporters.

He was asked to comment on Modi's allegation that the Rafale fighter aircraft deal got delayed because of the Congress and furore by other opposition parties.

Reddy also said India did very well in carrying out air strikes against terror camps in Pakistan, but that cannot be used for political purposes.

Asked about the political fight over the veracity of the strikes, Reddy said Congress President Rahul Gandhi was among the first to salute the IAF, it was Modi who "personalized" the entire outcome, he alleged.

The Congress leader congratulated The Hindu newspaper for publishing very relevant, correct, authentic document in regard to the alleged dissent about the price of Rafale aircraft.

"Rafale aircraft is more costly in the hands of NDA government than the one negotiated by UPA... The CAG said the price negotiated by the UPA was costlier by 2.5 per cent. It arrived at the figure because it did not take into account bank guarantees. If you take into account the expenditure incurred by bank guarantees, the purchase price under UPA would have been cheaper. This fact has been brought out through a document published by N Ram (of The Hindu).., Reddy said.

He said journalists should be able to publish any document provided it is authentic.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making fun of poor farmers by doling out only Rs 3.50 a day while waving loans worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore of industrialists.

Coming down heavily on the prime minister, the Congress chief said the PM-KISAN scheme launched by the Centre is nothing but an attempt to make mockery of poor farmers by doling out a paltry sum of Rs 6,000 annually.

Gandhi was addressing a well-attended Congress rally at this south Odisha town in tribal-dominated Koraput district, where the engine unit of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is located, ahead of the upcoming election for the state Assembly as well as the Lok Sabha.

Though the Modi government refused to waive farm loans and raise the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy, it readily wrote off loans to the tune of Rs 3.5 lakh crore owed by a handful of 15-20 industrialists, he claimed.

Sharpening his attack over the Rafale deal, Gandhi alleged that reports in an English daily stated that the prime minister himself prepared a new contract in the fighter jet deal and held parallel negotiations.

"This is the truth," he said and alleged that France was told to give the job contract to Anil Ambani and not to HAL.

UPA government had decided to purchase 126 Rafale jets for Rs 526 crore, but the BJP-led government went for less number of aircraft at a high price of Rs 1,600 crore in order to "dole out Rs 30,000 crore to Ambani," he said.

"The prime minister makes tall claims about patriotism on one hand, but takes Rs 30,000 crore from IAF and hands over to Anil Ambani," Gandhi alleged.

Taking on the Naveen Patnaik government in the state, Gandhi said it was being run by four to five bureaucrats.

He promised financial assistance for marriage of poor women in the state and a widow pension of Rs 2,000 per month, if the Congress is voted to power in Odisha.
File image

The RSS on March 8 lauded the Indian Air Force (IAF) for hitting terror launch pads in Pakistan and also praised the government for taking the decision.

A resolution to this effect was passed on day one of the three-day meeting of the Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha, RSS' highest policy-making body, which began here on March 8.

"The meeting passed an 'abhinandan prastav' lauding the IAF for the air strike and also praised the government for this decision," RSS joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya RSS told reporters.

"The government has taken the right decision to deal with the anti-national forces and Indians should also remain cautious of such elements," he said.

The meeting also expressed deep sorrow over the Pulwama and other terror attacks that killed armed forces personnel, he said.

"India's sahishnuta (tolerance) should not be treated as its weakness," Vaidya said.

Around 1,400 members of the Pratinidhi Sabha including RSS head, Mohan Bhagwat and Sarkaryavaha Bhaiyaji Joshi are taking part in the meeting, which will also discuss the Sabrimala shrine issue, he said.

Vaidya said after the Supreme Court ruling, Kerala government is working against the spirit of the court decision by playing with the faith of Hindus and forcing the temple entry of women who are not Hindus.

On the Ram temple issue, he said all those associated with the matter are putting their views in the Supreme Court.

"We have full faith in the judicial system and hope the all obstacles will be cleared and the temple constructed," Vaidya said.

He said no separate discussion will take place in the meeting on the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, adding the RSS believes that maximum number of people should vote.
Abhinandan Varthaman

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer Param Vir Chakra, the country's highest military honour, on Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, captured by Pakistan after a dogfight in the skies and released later.

In a letter to Modi, Palaniswami said the IAF pilot, a native of Tamil Nadu, displayed amazing poise and confidence in the face of adverse condition and it would be appropriate he be awarded the highest military honour.

He noted that Varthaman was released by Pakistan "due to the diplomatic initiatives" of the Prime Minister and "intense international pressure".

"Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman displayed amazing poise and confidence in the face of adverse conditions, which has won him many hearts across the country. It is appropriate that he be awarded India's highest military honour Param Vir Chakra (PVC) for displaying most inimitable gallantry and valour," the chief minister said.

"I request the Government of India to confer the nation's highest military honour, Param Vir Chakra, on Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman," he added.

Palaniswami recalled that the MiG-21 Bison aircraft piloted by Varthaman had shot down a Pakistan Air Force fighter (F-16) when it tried to violate India's air space and that he was later taken into custody by Pakistani armed forces.

Varthaman, who was captured on February 27, returned home on March 1 after Pakistan Prime Minster Imran Khan announced he would be released as a "gesture of peace".

According to the central government, Param Vir Chakra "is awarded for most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea, or in the air."
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on March 8 promised to strive for the passage of women's reservation bill in Parliament and a policy of zero tolerance towards atrocities on women if his party comes to power.

"There is an urgent need to provide reservation for women in state assemblies and Lok Sabha to ensure their empowerment. The Congress is keen to ensure this," Gandhi said during an interaction with women at a convention in Jeypore town of Odisha's Koraput district.

"If the Congress comes to power, our approach will be zero tolerance towards atrocities against women. They should get speedy justice," Gandhi said.

Referring to Odisha, Gandhi said if the grand old party is voted to power in the state, all women would be provided free education, be it in engineering or medical or any other field.

"All women, particularly tribals, Dalits and those belonging to the backward categories should get free education to ensure they are truly empowered," Gandhi added.

At the outset, the Congress chief congratulated women on the occasion of International Women's Day.
Aug 02, 2020 08:46 AM IST Demystifying the risk element of mutual funds, should read AUM monthly portfolio update for right decisions An investor has to be patient and undertake the necessary research before zeroing in on the schemes to invest  either lumpsum or via SIP.

Aug 01, 2020 02:37 PM IST Interest in ESG investing is rising, but identifying companies that meet the parameters is difficult We are still in the early days of ESG investing in India. But interest in the space has definitely been increasing and mutual fund companies have realized that.

Apr 27, 2020 01:47 PM IST Franklin Templeton crisis: Will RBI's Rs 50,000 cr relief comfort panicky MF investors? Ashwani Bhatia of SBI Mutual Fund feels it is a message largely to investors, mainly HNIs and institutions that this part of financial market is safe and RBI is looking at financial markets very carefully.

Dec 20, 2019 10:46 AM IST 'Smart money already moving into concentrated portfolios seeking alpha' We are very enthused by the promise the investment management sector is pointing towards. At the very least, this is an inflection point which will lead to a tangential growth of the industry in the next 5 odd years.

Jun 05, 2019 01:13 PM IST Karvy's Modi 2.0 portfolio: Midcaps see increased allocation; focus on infra & BFSI sectors Karvy's India Wealth Report projected Sensex at 1 lakh by 2025. We reiterate that same thought at current levels as well

Mar 04, 2019 09:40 AM IST Liquid funds: There is no paradigm shift The impact of the revised norms on returns from liquid funds would not be huge.

Feb 01, 2019 07:06 PM IST Budget 2019: An Election Agenda? The budget speech mainly reflected on the key achievements of the present government over the past five years and their vision for India.

Dec 20, 2018 08:54 AM IST Investors flock to MFs in 2018, but 2019 may test their patience Of the total financial savings and assets in the country, the share of MFs has increased in the last three years to 14% in March this year from 10% in 2016

Dec 04, 2018 11:04 AM IST Should you invest in ELSS beyond the Section 80C limit? You should never make an ELSS allocation decision in isolation. It should be part of your overall financial plan.

Nov 28, 2018 10:26 AM IST Picking the best mutual fund: Are past returns relevant after re-categorisation? While selecting a scheme for investment or while deciding whether to continue with a current investment, a funds performance track record does play a critical role and returns usually take precedence over other important factors that are considered while investing

Nov 27, 2018 03:59 PM IST Looking to invest in mutual funds? Answer these four important questions first It is rightly said that if you dont know where to go, then it doesnt matter which path you take.

Nov 16, 2018 11:27 AM IST Credit risk: Defaults by high-rated issuers show avoiding risk is not so simple By investing in AAA oriented portfolios, you are that much better off, but you cannot avoid credit risk completely.

Nov 07, 2018 12:09 PM IST Want to make some smart moves while investing? Think Glocal If we take a step back and take a look at our portfolios, in all probability well find that our investments are concentrated in Indian mutual funds and stocks.

Oct 29, 2018 09:42 AM IST Take the SIP route for equity mutual funds amid volatility, keep 3-5 yrs horizon The markets have reacted to macroeconomic factors which are out of the reach of both the government and central banks, which makes it even tougher to control such situations

Oct 26, 2018 08:36 AM IST How do mutual funds help you to invest better? Mutual funds can provide you products that can meet your financial goals with relatively lesser risk.

Oct 22, 2018 09:32 AM IST How tax is calculated on debt mutual fund investments The amount of capital gains tax to be paid on mutual funds depends on the type of investment (equity / debt) and the duration of time for which the investment is held

Oct 18, 2018 03:15 AM IST How to build your mutual fund portfolio from scratch You need to know that there is no such thing as a "perfect mutual fund portfolio". There can be numerous reasonably good portfolios, and there's no one-size-fits-all.

Oct 16, 2018 10:52 AM IST Why tax-saving mutual funds are better than other 80c investment options As compared to other havens available under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, ELSS has the shortest lock-in period

Oct 08, 2018 08:29 AM IST Check out how your mutual fund investments are taxed In case of mutual funds, a differential rate of taxation is applied across fund categories.

Oct 05, 2018 07:21 PM IST RBI does not hike interest rates, but stick to shorter maturity bond funds Longer maturity bonds or bond funds may be volatile for some more time.

Sep 27, 2018 08:54 AM IST How to use Systematic Withdrawal Plan to meet your monthly income needs SWP makes you financially self-dependent. This feature helps you live with dignity without compromising on your needs.

Sep 21, 2018 08:30 AM IST All you need to know before investing in credit risk funds It is expected, though not desirable, that credit-related incidents may happen

Sep 17, 2018 10:09 AM IST List of best mutual fund portfolios as per your risk appetite You can build a portfolio of mutual fund schemes based on your risk profile.
Dec 08, 2021 08:25 PM IST London, Paris, New York! RMZ Corp eyes key gateway cities as it plans to go global The company has its sights on an annual capital deployment of $4 billion, and out of this, a major portion of 15 percent will be used for global expansion, RMZ chief Manoj Menda reportedly said.

Dec 08, 2021 10:08 AM IST Indian house prices to lag inflation; affordability to improve Housing market activity was struggling before the COVID-19 pandemic as many home builders were still starved of cash after the government in 2016 removed high denomination banknotes from circulation. Demand from buyers was also not strong.

Dec 08, 2021 09:54 AM IST Shriram Properties IPO: Strong revenue visibility, business quality to create value Strong pipeline of projects to support Shriram Properties growth and help it return to profits

Dec 07, 2021 10:10 PM IST Three properties of former promoter and director of Amrapali Group auctioned for Rs 29 crore The three properties include two plots and one villa, and are located in Noida and Greater Noida.

Dec 07, 2021 07:05 PM IST Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushal may move into rented beachfront property in Mumbai after wedding The rent for the 5,055 sq ft apartment is Rs 8 lakh per month.

Dec 07, 2021 05:10 PM IST Half of office occupiers with presence in tier-II cities using flex spaces: JLL- Awfis Survey Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar and Coimbatore have emerged as the leading tier-II cities of choice in terms of flex space, followed closely by Jaipur, Chandigarh and Lucknow.

Dec 07, 2021 02:38 PM IST Too early to predict impact of Omicron variant on real estate sector, say experts The virus impact on the property market would depend on whether new restrictions are imposed and the intensity of a likely lockdown, they add.

Dec 07, 2021 09:48 AM IST NCLT permits withdrawal of insolvency proceedings against MGF Developments The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had ordered on November 30 that insolvency proceedings against MGF Developments be initiated and appointed Gaurav Katiyar as an interim resolution professional after suspending the board of the real estate company

Dec 06, 2021 09:21 PM IST Israeli firm to sell HSBC Tower in New York for $855 million The Israeli company, which is 63% owned by Discount Investment Corp, said it had also sold property in Israel for 390 million shekels ($123 million).

Dec 06, 2021 08:03 PM IST IPO-bound Shriram Properties to continue focus on mid-income housing Its growth plans concentrated in the South Indian markets of Bengaluru and Chennai and Kolkata in the eastern part of the country

Dec 06, 2021 07:43 PM IST Parsvnath gets 4,750 square metres of land for Rs 14.8 crore in Greater Noida following dispute settlement The company was allotted 18,000 square metres of plot on a 90-year lease by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority in Uttar Pradesh in a tender process held in 2007.

Dec 06, 2021 03:47 PM IST Top 7 cities witness over 1,757-acre land deals in a year; MMR and NCR top the list Approximately 28 separate land deals for over 1,205 acres have been proposed for residential development in the top seven cities.

Dec 06, 2021 11:55 AM IST Godrej Properties ties up with TDI Group for luxury housing project in Connaught Place The project is estimated to have a developable potential of approximately 1.25 lakh sq ft saleable area.

Dec 05, 2021 08:51 PM IST Prashant Jain buys duplex apartment in Mumbai for Rs 45 crore The 3400 sq ft property located in a posh Mumbai project called 33 South has been sold by Peddar Realty Private Limited.

Dec 03, 2021 06:37 PM IST Goldman Sachs plans return to Indian real estate with $2-3 billion investment The US investment bank plans both equity and debt deals with a focus on high-yield products.

Dec 03, 2021 05:57 PM IST Indias biggest Maruti dealer sells Hyderabad property for Rs 37 crore The house in the posh Jubilee Hills neighbourhood has been bought by Vasavi Group chairman and managing director Yerram Vijay Kumar

Dec 03, 2021 04:55 PM IST Co-working market size to double over next 5 years at 15% CAGR: Report Currently, approximately 35 mn sq. ft. flexible office stock is available across India of which around 71% is by large operators.

Dec 02, 2021 10:27 PM IST 6,936.6 hectares of land registered under DDA land pooling policy, says govt The portal for participating in DDA's land pooling policy is open till December 24; no proposal to amend either the land policy or its regulations.

Dec 02, 2021 10:08 PM IST Centre extends timeline for implementation of Smart Cities Mission to June 2023 According to an earlier deadline, the cities were expected to complete their projects within five years of being selected under the Smart Cities Mission.

Dec 02, 2021 09:44 PM IST Central Vista Avenue project has achieved 60% physical progress, govt tells Lok Sabha The amount incurred so far is Rs 190.76 crore and the estimated cost is Rs 608 crore.

Dec 02, 2021 09:38 PM IST INSACOG has sequenced over 1.02 lakh SARS-CoV-2 genomes till November 25: Govt The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), being coordinated by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), as on November 25, 2021 has sequenced 1,02,880 SARS-CoV-2 genomes

Dec 02, 2021 06:31 PM IST Noida Authority order: Will registration of flats by carpet area benefit homebuyers? The directive should lower the cost of buying a new home but the state government must first issue a notification so that homebuyers can also get the benefit of lower stamp duty
Britains Queen Elizabeth created history on March 8 as she embarked on the world of social media. She shared her first post after visiting the Top Secret exhibition at Londons Science Museum.

During her visit, the 92-year-old powerhouse saw a World War II Enigma code machine and the NeXT computer used by Tim Berners-Lee to design the World Wide Web in 1989.

She inaugurated the museums Smith Centre and posted an archive image on the British royal familys Instagram account. The account already has close to 5 million followers.

In the post she signed off as "Elizabeth R", the monarch wrote: Today, as I visit the Science Museum I was interested to discover a letter from the Royal Archives, written in 1843 to my great-great-grandfather Prince Albert. Charles Babbage, credited as the worlds first computer pioneer, designed the Difference Engine, of which Prince Albert had the opportunity to see a prototype in July 1843. In the letter, Babbage told Queen Victoria and Prince Albert about his invention the Analytical Engine upon which the first computer programmes were created by Ada Lovelace, a daughter of Lord Byron. Today, I had the pleasure of learning about childrens computer coding initiatives and it seems fitting to me that I publish this Instagram post, at the Science Museum which has long championed technology, innovation and inspired the next generation of inventors.

She also tagged the Science Museum in the post but did not use any hashtags. The picture shared was a photo of a letter written to Prince Albert by 19th-century mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage, which is on display at the science museum.

Nonetheless, after the Queen shared the post, her followers grew increasingly curious to learn who were the 26 accounts that she follows. Keeping in line with her regal lineage, she follows the likes of the Royal Opera House, British Fashion Council, Royal Parks, etc, which also reflect on her high quality of life.

The account also posted a video of the historic moment when the Queen shared her first post on Instagram.

This was however not Queen Elizabeth IIs first tour to the Science Museum. She first visited the site in 1938, and last visited it in 2014, when she inaugurated the Information Age gallery by tweeting for the first time.

In 2008, while visiting Google premises in London, the Queen uploaded her first YouTube video.
But its not hard to make legitimate criticism of Israeli politics sound like an attack against Israel and Jews in general, whether you want to or not. Omar, who can be quite gracious and charming in real life, turns into a bit of a liberal troll when she gets on Twitter or behind a lectern. That may excite a crowd that already agrees with her, but its a poor way to persuade people to understand her point of view.
Picture for representation

To celebrate Womens Day, most airlines operating in India have arranged something very special. It ranges from all-women crew to gifts and upgrades for female passengers. Some are offering special check-in options too.

Air India plans to operate 12 international and more than 40 domestic flights with an all-women crew.

The international flights will include both medium and long-haul routes, while the domestic ones will be short-haul, return flights.

The 12 special international flights scheduled for take-off on March 8 are Delhi-Sydney, Delhi-New York, Delhi-Chicago, Mumbai-London, Mumbai-Delhi-Shanghai, Delhi-Washington, Delhi-Rome, Delhi-London, Delhi-Paris, Mumbai-Newark, Mumbai-New York, and Delhi-San Francisco.

Speaking to IndiaToday, Ashwini Lohani, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India, said, I would like to congratulate our women crew for operating so many flights on various international and domestic routes fuelled by their indomitable 'nari shakti' (women power)".

The company will be deploying B787 Dreamliners and B777 aircraft to operate the 12 international flights.

GoAir has said all female travellers will get a complimentary upgrade to its business class depending on "availability and on first-come-first-serve basis".

SpiceJet also will operate 22 flights with an all-women crew. Female flyers will also have the option of 'priority check-in' and 'priority boarding' apart from receiving a rose while boarding. Here too, depending on availability, women will be offered an upgrade to SpiceMax seats.

Vistara distributed free biodegradable sanitary napkins to female passengers on its flights.

Apart from an all-women crew flight from New Delhi to Dharamsala, Alliance Air, the regional arm of Air India, will also organise cultural programmes at the airline's office.

Jet Airways too will operate four domestic flights with an all-women crew. Besides this, women will be taking part in ancillary functions such as engineering, ground handling and ground services, security, too.

Female flyers will also get surprise gift hampers; each goody bag will have products from top-notch brands. Moreover, Jet Airways is also supporting the work of two NGOs dealing with women's issues.
Picture for representation (Image: NASA)

In what may soon turn into a landmark event, astronauts aboard NASA International Space Station will conduct the first all-female spacewalk on March 29. Charting history, Christine Koch and Anne McClain will start out together nearly 240 miles above the Earth. And what better time to embark on this mission than during the Womens History Month.

McClain and Koch were both a part of NASAs 2013 astronaut class, and women comprised nearly half of it. Additionally, McClain is also slated to go for a spacewalk on March 22 with astronaut Nick Hague.

As per a Press Herald report, NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz said: It was not orchestrated to be this way. These spacewalks were originally scheduled to take place in the fall  they are to upgrade batteries on the space station.

This all-female spacewalk will be the second of the three excursions planned for Expedition 59; it will be launched next week.

Schierholz also outlined the fact that the controls too would be manned by women. Mary Lawrence will be the Lead Flight Director while Jackie Kagey will take charge of the spacewalk flight controller.

However, she added that assignments and schedules are subject to change.

McClain, is a major in the US Army and a pilot. She believes she aspired to become an astronaut from the time she was barely 3-4 years of age. In a previous interview to NASA, she has said: I remember telling my mom at that time, and I never deviated from what I wanted to become. Something about exploration has always fascinated me.

Koch, who is an electrical engineer, will join McClain at the International Space Station on March 14, and it will be her first space flight. Although the Space is something new Koch will explore, it is not her first quest; she has been on expeditions to the South Pole and the Arctic for work before.

Speaking on incidentally being able to make history on Womens History Month, Koch had said: It is a unique opportunity and I hope Im be able to inspire folks that might be watching.

A strong believer in following ones passion regardless of the background, the native of North Carolina has not seen many engineers to look up to as role models during the formative years of her career. So, she hopes to set the right example for someone who may regard her a mentor. She said: If thats a role I can serve, it would be my honour.

In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova, a citizen of Russia, became the first woman to fly in space. Then on, 59 women have flown into space, according to NASA.
The denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula is still possible in President Donald Trump's first term, a top US diplomat said, a week after the collapse of the talks with North Korea in Hanoi.

Last week, Trump walked out of his summit meeting with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi as the two leaders could not agree on the various aspects of denuclearisation and its time-line.

"We still believe this (denuclearisation) is all achievable within the President's first term, and that's the time-table we are working on. We have discussed extensively the outlines of the calendar that allow us to do that, and it is doable," a senior State department official told reporters on Thursday.

The ultimate driver of this is not going to be the amount of days it takes. "It's going to be the degree to which we can satisfactorily achieve the steps that we feel are necessary to finally and fully verify the denuclearisation of North Korea. That's what we are working for," he said.

The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said that he fully believes at this point they have sufficient time in the President's first term to do that.

"That's a little more than a year," he said.

Responding to a question, the official said the US seeking a fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea.

"That means taking out all key parts of their nuclear fuel cycle, removing all their fissile material, removing their nuclear warheads, removing or destroying all their intercontinental ballistic missiles, and permanently freezing any other weapons of mass destruction programs," he said.

It also means moving them on a course to re-orient their economy towards civilian pursuits in order to make this a permanent direction for their country.

"In exchange for that, what the North Koreans will be able to enjoy is integration into the global economy, a transformed relationship with the US, a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, and a closure to a 70-year relationship characterised by hostility and warfare between our two countries," the official said.

He said Trump has made abundantly clear to Chairman Kim that he is personally interested in taking North Korea in this direction if Pyongyang gives up all of its weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivery.

Responding to a question on the collapse of the talks in Hanoi, the official said the negotiations with the North Koreans in the run-up to the summit were very productive. The two sides covered a lot of areas.

"The area that we fell most short was on denuclearisation and it was clear to us that our North Korean interlocutors had very little authority to move on the set of issues that were, in our view, central to the success of this outcome," the official said.

Noting that the system in North Korea is driven from the top down, he said, and the US President understands this very much, and that's why he seeks to direct engagement with Kim Jong-Un to invest him in a shared vision of that brighter future that could happen if they denuclearise.

"In order for our North Korean counterparts to have more latitude, it's clear they are going to have to get direction and space from the top. They will not do that on their own. They will not test ideas at the negotiating table," he said.

So there's an important interplay between the President's summit meetings and the President's direct engagement between summit meetings with Kim Jong-Un and the amount of latitude that the negotiating teams at the working level are entrusted with in order to breathe life into some of these agreements, the State department official said.

"We need the North Korean negotiators to have much more latitude than they did in the run-up to the summit on denuclearisation, but I am confident that if they get that direction from the top of the North Korean Government, we can make quick progress with them," he said.
To mark International Women's Day, Google has made a Doodle which displays a collection of quotes from 13 inspirational women around the world.

The artwork contains the word "woman" written in 11 languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Arabic, French, Russian, Japanese, German, Italian and Spanish.

Clicking on the doodle starts slides of 13 quotes, starting with Mae Jemison, an American astronaut and physicist.

"Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations," said Jemison.

Two Indian women feature on the list - diplomat Beno Zephine and boxer MC Mary Kom.

"We are too precious to let disappointments enter our minds," Zephine said.

"Do not say you are weak because you are a woman," Mary Kom said.

Other women on the list include British-Iraqi artist Zaha Hadid, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, Japanese multimedia artist Yoko Ono and British writer Millicent Fawcett.

The slideshow ends with a strong quote from Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. "I matter. I matter equally. Not 'If only', not 'as long as'. I matter. Full stop."
Representative image

The Pentagon has not received any order from President Donald Trump to withdraw troops from war-torn Afghanistan, a top US commander said on March 7.

"We've not--congressman, we've not been directed to withdraw (troops from Afghanistan), and there are no orders to withdraw anything," Commander of the US Central Command, General Joseph Votel told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a Congressional hearing.

Trump had in December last year announced that the US would pull troops from Afghanistan.

Gen Votel said his advice is that any decision to reduce forces in Afghanistan should be done in full consultation with its coalition partners, and of course the government of Afghanistan.

"It should pivot off political progress and the reconciliation process," he said, responding to questions from lawmakers on news reports about a time-line of withdrawal of troops from this war-ravaged country.

The US General said any drawdown or withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan should be based on conditions on the ground and the progress in the political process as well.

A high-level US team led by Special Representatives Zalmay Khalilzad is currently holding talks with the Taliban representatives in Qatar's capital, Doha.

"Khalilzad's efforts are really focused on developing a framework that can lead to inter-Afghan discussions," Gen Votel said, adding that this involves overcoming some obstacles that, right now, are preventing the Taliban from talking to the government of Afghanistan.

"But Khalilzad is working through those issues. Once those inter-Afghan discussions are commenced, then I think we will have the opportunity to address the issues that you are talking about directly," he said, when Congresswoman Debra Haaland asked if he can tell how the framework addresses the rights of women in Afghanistan and how women were being included in the negotiation process.

The US Commander said that the US and the Taliban are in the very early in the process of talks.

"There have been no agreements from either side. We have not given anything up and they have not given anything up," he said, adding that the US and Special Representatives Khalilzad is not leaving out the democratically-elected government of Afghanistan in the process.

Winning in Afghanistan, the general described means a negotiated settlement between government of Afghanistan and the Taliban, and safeguarding US national interests.

"Particularly ensuring that this country, this region can't be used to attack our homeland. So that would have to be satisfied as part of any overall agreement here in terms of that and I think is a lot of the nuance of the ongoing discussions that are taking are taking place right now," Gen Votel said.

He also advocated the need to have a sustained presence of the US in Afghanistan.

"I think we have to ensure that there, either through our own presence or through whatever other arrangements we can make, that we can address that particular threat," he said.
SBI Mutual Fund has launched a new passive Nifty50 equity scheme with a focus on minimising volatility in the portfolio. The scheme, called SBI Equity Minimum Variance (SBI EMV), aims to mimic the Nifty50 market-cap weighted basket of stocks while employing additional parameters like correlation and covariance to minimise portfolio volatility. The stock weights in the scheme would be...
The invitation was routine, the speakers were not.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-Indian Women Network, Mumbai was hosting a summit on Indian women achievers. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)s Mangalyaan women were to share their stories about how they helped launch the Mars Orbiter Mission in 2013-14. Drawn by curiosity and an innate fascination with space scientistspicturing them as extraordinary beings with unusual lifestylesI went to listen to the women scientists talk about space.

For that one hour, Ritu Karidhal, Minal Sampat and Moumita Datta clearly owned the space and the room, full of mostly corporate women. They described the Mars Orbiter Mission or MOM and their work yes, but the manner in which they did it was utterly fascinating. One line in particular stayed with me long after I left the scientists to bask in the unaccustomed spotlight. For that one hour, Ritu Karidhal, Minal Sampat and Moumita Datta clearly owned the space and the room, full of mostly corporate women. They described the Mars Orbiter Mission or MOM and their work yes, but the manner in which they did it was utterly fascinating. One line in particular stayed with me long after I left the scientists to bask in the unaccustomed spotlight.

One of them lightly remarked, We worked on the Mars mission during the day and we often worked nights and in between we looked after our families and children.

It was this matter-of-fact attitude, with its unmistakable assumption of competency and confidence, that grabbed my attention.

And the idea of writing a book on these women from Mars and not Venus took shape on that day. A book that would profile these women scientists as icons for the next generation, especially young girls interested in science.

How did these women manage to overcome gender stereotyping, male biases, societal prejudices? Did they face any glass ceiling, were they mansplained to at work, were they given the important path-breaking projects to work on?

In late 2013, the ISRO launched MangalyaanIndias first inter-planetary missionafter just eighteen months, at a fraction of the cost of similar missions by foreign space agencies. The next year India became the first Asian nation to reach the Mars orbit and the first in the world to do so in its first attempt.

This historic mission, among ISROs other great successes, had amongst its leaders some of the most talented, dedicated and intrepid group of women scientists that the world has ever seen. Nandini Harinath and Ritu Karidhal, deputy operations directors for MOM, calculated the spacecrafts trajectory to Mars, besides overseeing the mission operations; Moumita Dutta and Minal Sampat, project managers for MOM, designed the complex scientific instruments involved in the mission; while numerous other Wonder Women have been instrumental in ISROs pathbreaking work in this mission and others. The many women scientists working in important areas for MOMas indeed on other missionsexecuted their tasks with precision and efficiency just like their male counterparts. The only difference during MOM was that the Indian public and the world got a glimpse of these women for the first time.

In the weeks and months that followed, I spent time with several women scientists at ISRO, interviewing not just the Mangalyaan women but various others in navigation, remote sensing, communication, applications and space science. I met veteran and senior-most scientists such as T K Anuradha (program director GEOSAT), N Vellarmathi (deputy director URSC) and Seetha Somasundaram (program director Space Science). I met youngsters such as Durga Darshini and Aasiyabano among 11 other women scientists at the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad.

These women opened to me windows into a lesser-known but enthralling world. For a science-challenged person like me, they also simplified explanations and terms, processes and missions, sharing anecdotes about tough times of not just doing rocket science but also the balancing act they all juggle with on a daily basis with family responsibilities. Marriage, pregnancy breaks, raising children, parent-teachers association (PTA) meetings jostling for space with high-pressure assignments and demanding deadlines. Time management was their key mantra to an equitable work-life-family balance.

The air of quiet efficiency came through even in simple interactions with meI never had to remind anyone about an appointment time, if a power point presentation for a school lecture had to be submitted in advance, it was done without a second prompt; data I needed was provided immediately by the scientists.

They came across as regular, hard working women doing exceptional work with a minimum of fuss and fanfare. As I have written in the book, they wear their gender tag lightly, letting their work speak for itself.

The work these ISRO women scientists do is awe-inspiring and aspirational for the millions of young girls across India who want to pursue science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), explore the mysteries of science and navigate their own odyssey into space.

For me, as a documentary film maker and journalist their stories were as good as watching science fiction films, which, as one of the scientists remarked, they dont have to do since they have enough of it in their daily lives!

Here is the link to pre order the book. https://www.speakingtigerbooks.com/shop/non-fiction/22250/
Chalmers officially recognized as an 'engaged university' -- the first in Europe

After an extensive evaluation process, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has been awarded the title of "Engaged University" by the international agency ACEEU. The accreditation is an acknowledgment of the high quality of Chalmers' methodological work to create value for the surrounding society.

Chalmers is only the fourth university in the world, and the first in Europe, to receive this official recognition, after careful consideration from ACEEU, the Accreditation Council for Entrepreneurial and Engaged Universities.

"ACEEU accreditation is awarded to those institutions that understand and implement engagement as a key aspect of their university. In Chalmers we found such an engaged university, and a great example of how a university can contribute to a more sustainable future by fostering engagement with external stakeholders," says Professor Thorsten Kliewe, Chair of the Council.

The highest grade of "Excellent" was awarded for, among other things, Chalmers' working cultures, its external involvement in research, and its collaboration with, and influence on, the surrounding region and the city. According to ACEEU, this is achieved through measures such as a rich range of engaging services and activities.

This is channelled, for example, through Chalmers' Areas of Advance, through varied meeting points for collaboration, a well-developed support system for innovation and entrepreneurship, and various forms of further professional education, in addition to traditional academic education.

"I am delighted and proud that we have received this recognition for the way in which we try to achieve an impact, as one of the first 'engaged universities' in the world. Chalmers has a long tradition of engagement with industry and society at large, which is well established and well-known in Sweden, and we have high ambitions to develop this ability even further," says Fredrik Horstedt, Vice President of Utilisation at Chalmers University of Technology.

###

The award will be officially presented to Chalmers during the University Industry Interaction Conference in Helsinki, 18-20 June, attended by over 500 academics and practitioners from more than 50 countries.

Read more about the accreditation in the press release from ACEEU:

The First European Engaged University - Chalmers University of Technology is awarded ACEEU Accreditation

A longer news on the accreditation is available on the Chalmers homepage:

International acknowledgement: Chalmers creates value

For more information, contact:

Fredrik Horstedt, Vice President of Utilisation

031-772 43 22

fredrik.horstedt@chalmers.se

Angela Hillemyr, Head of Department for Mechanics and Maritime Sciences

031-772 21 45,

angela.hillemyr@chalmers.se

Karolina Partheen, Head of Chalmers Innovation Office

031-772 25 88

karolina.partheen@chalmers.se

This story has been published on: 2019-03-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
(CNN)  On February 17, Baby Jane Teodoro Allas, 38, was fired from her job as a domestic worker in Hong Kong while on sick leave.

The reason her employer gave for her dismissal was simple: "Diagnosed with cervical cancer."

"Given your medical condition, I am no longer able to continue your employment," read the letter. "Wish you good health."

Allas, who is from Palawan in the Philippines, says the firing was akin to a death sentence.

Just weeks before, Allas had been diagnosed with aggressive Stage 3 cancer and needed immediate, life-saving treatment.

The termination of her contract would end Allas' employment visa, meaning she would no longer be able to access heavily subsidized public healthcare.

Without that, Allas estimates that her treatment in Hong Kong -- which includes three months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to shrink her tumor, then an operation -- will now cost at least 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($127,400).

There are 385,000 foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong. They contribute 3.6% to the local GDP, based on personal expenditure, the cost of tasks they carry out at local rates, and the value of freed-up time for mothers, according to a report published this week from the charity Enrich. Many domestic workers allow residents to stay in employment by caring for young children and elderly family members.

Yet Manuela Basto, of Hong Kong-based NGO HELP for Domestic Workers, says domestic workers being fired if they become too sick to work is not unusual.

While it's illegal to fire a domestic worker while they are on sick leave, it can be difficult for a foreigner to take legal action because without a visa they have two weeks to leave Hong Kong.

"I can think of five similar cases recently," Basto says. "If the sick worker has been terminated unlawfully, or they have been discriminated against, they may wish to pursue a claim. But to do that they have to remain in Hong Kong, where they can no longer access affordable healthcare. Every day they remain they are risking their health."

Searching for a better life

A mother of five, Allas arrived in Hong Kong in 2017 to earn money to support her family. "I was so excited to come here and see lots of tall buildings and nice places," she says.

Allas earned 4,520 Hong Kong dollars ($576) a month, the minimum wage for a domestic worker -- and far less than the average monthly Hong Kong salary of 16,800 Hong Kong dollars ($2,038).

But back home, she says, it costs 16,000 Philippines pesos ($306) -- just over 50% of her wages -- to feed, clothe, house and educate her children. The rest of the money she was saving to buy a house.

The working and living conditions she met in Hong Kong, however, were tough -- and she says they often didn't meet the standard set by the government.

Hong Kong law mandates that foreign domestic workers reside with their employers in suitable accommodation with reasonable privacy. It's not specified what "suitable accommodation" is, says Basto, and so the law is "open to interpretation and abuse."

Allas' contract, which CNN has seen, stipulated that she would be provided with a bedroom and bed in her employer's three bedroom-duplex shared by six people in Yuen Long, a suburb of Hong Kong on the border with mainland China. In reality, she says she was made to sleep in a storage cupboard on a blanket.

"At night time I had to take out all the things, the packs of rice, to make a bed," she says.

Basto is not surprised. "Often what is written on the contracts for a (worker) is not honored," she says. "Hong Kong apartments are small, and workers end up sleeping in the kitchen or on the sofa when everyone has gone to bed with no real privacy."

There are no maximum working hours for domestic workers, although they must legally receive one continuous period of 24 hours of rest a week.

Allas says her working day began when she woke at 6.30 a.m. and continued until 10.30 p.m. when she was expected to walk the dog. Her rest day was often interrupted by requests for cleaning and dog walking.

Furthermore, Allas' contract indicated that her employers would provide food rather than a food allowance, but she says she was only allowed leftovers, or food passed its best by date.

"It was my first time in Hong Kong and I was scared to leave them," she says. "If I broke my contract it could take a month to get a new job. How would I support my family?"

CNN's phone calls and text messages to Allas' employer went unanswered.

Diagnosis

Allas realized she was ill last December when she started to bleed heavily, despite having seemingly gone through the menopause three years earlier.

On January 20, Allas went to the doctor and was immediately diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer and was subsequently signed off on sick leave until February 18 (longer than her termination letter noted, due to further hospital appointments).

On February 17, Allas' employers terminated her contract while she was on sick leave.

Distraught, Allas says she begged her employer not to cancel her visa, but her pleas fell on deaf ears.

Allas was fortunate, however, in one way: She had a sister, Mary Ann, also working as a domestic worker in Hong Kong. Mary Ann's employer, Jessica Cutrera, offered Allas a place to live, and took on her legal and medical cases.

Through her pro bono lawyer, Allas has now filed a complaint with the Labor Department, alleging that her employers violated the Employment Ordinance, which makes it illegal to dismiss an employee who is on paid sick leave.

She has reported her employers for violating her contract by not honoring her day off and failing to provide a bed.

A complaint has also been filed with the Equal Opportunities Commission, on the grounds that it is illegal to discriminate against someone who has a disability.

Cutrera says that while Allas has "an incredibly strong case" because her employers were unusually "callous and blatant" in putting their reasons for firing her in writing, that the legal battle has been "time consuming and arduous."

"(For) a woman (like Allas) who whose written English isn't proficient, has a phone but no computer, and doesn't understand the laws," she says, it would have been an incredibly confusing process to navigate.

Allas' visa has now been extended until March 20, while her case is pending.

Cutrera has set up a charity funding page for Allas' medical expenses. She has also explored the possibility of Allas returning to the Philippines for treatment, but has been informed she would likely have to join a waiting list at a hospital in Manila, miles from her home.

"She will die without urgent treatment," says Cutrera.

The backbone of Hong Kong

Hong Kong is home to 385,000 foreign domestic workers, from countries including the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, who generate $12.6 billion to the city's economy each year, according to the Enrich report.

Only 49% of Hong Kong mothers aged between 25 and 54 would be able to contribute to the workforce without the aid of domestic help, the report found. As it stands, 78% of that demographic is in the workforce.

By enabling more mothers to work, foreign domestic workers are indirectly contributing $2.6 billion to Hong Kong's economy, according to the report.

More than that, Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia sent more than $2 billion in remittances in 2018 back to their home nations, illustrating that, in many ways, these women are also the backbone of their homelands.

"Most domestic workers come to Hong Kong to earn higher salaries in order to support their family," says Zamira Monteiro, communications officer at Enrich.

Cutrera and Allas agree that Hong Kong is one of the best places in the world for foreign domestic workers in terms of labor laws and wages, compared to places in the Middle East, for example. But they acknowledge that when something goes wrong -- such as a life-threatening illness -- the system is not easy enough to navigate.

"Imagine if Baby Jane didn't have a sister in Hong Kong," Cutrera says.

Basto, of Hong Kong-based NGO HELP for Domestic Workers, would like to see the laws updated to allow medical providers in Hong Kong to be more flexible about treating women like Allas, and also to allow foreign domestic workers to live outside the homes of their employers.

"These women are trusting their kids to us, but back home our parents are taking care of our children," says Allas' sister, Mary Ann. "If we don't take care of their kids, they cannot work.

"They give us a salary and we are doing our best, but it's give and take. All we ask is that people should treat us right. That's all."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Domestic workers are the economic backbone of HK but some of its worst-treated women"
Im thrilled about this legislation because I believe in reproductive choice. I believe its none of my business what a woman decides to do after she becomes pregnant. I believe that the very suggestion that women are casually obtaining late-term abortions because  whoops!  they just got around to making the appointment or have decided they really want to fit into that bridesmaids dress is offensively misleading and belies the wrenching, usually tragic circumstances.
March 08, 2019

Trump Asks Germany, Japan To Pay For Being Occupied

It will fun to watch this developing:

Trump Seeks Huge Premium From Allies Hosting U.S. Troops

Under White House direction, the administration is drawing up demands that Germany, Japan and eventually any other country hosting U.S. troops pay the full price of American soldiers deployed on their soil -- plus 50 percent or more for the privilege of hosting them, according to a dozen administration officials and people briefed on the matter.

...

Current and former administration officials briefed on the idea, who asked not to be identified discussing the program, describe it as far more advanced than is publicly known. As well as seeking more money, the administration wants to use it as a way to exert leverage on countries to do what the U.S. demands overseas. As evidence, they say officials at the Pentagon have been asked to calculate two formulas: One would determine how much money countries such as Germany ought to be asked to pay. The second would determine the discount those countries would get if their policies align closely with the U.S.

The extortion scheme Trump wants to use against 'allies' is a perfect own goal.

The German government under Chancellor Angela Merkel is already accused of being too deep inside the U.S. rear.

Her party supported the war on Iraq and now joined the illegal regime change attempt in Venezuela. The public is way less pro-American than German politicians. It will be quite difficult for Merkel and others to justify additional billions for U.S. troops in Germany. They are neither needed nor wanted. (The only sound reason to keep the 30,000 U.S. troops in Germany is to prevent them from moving to Poland from where they could threaten the country.)

The situation in Japan is similar. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe supports hawkish U.S. policies but is also under attack over a new U.S. base on Okinawa. It will have problems to justify spending for the privilege of keeping the country under U.S. occupation.

Trump's extortion racket will make it more difficult for Merkel and Abe to ally with the U.S. on other issues.

That is a sound reason to welcome it.

Posted by b on March 8, 2019 at 16:26 UTC | Permalink

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Preckwinkle faced even more questions about Burke after the Tribune reported she hired his son, Edward Burke Jr., to a nearly $100,000-a-year job while he was under investigation for misconduct by the Cook County sheriff's office where he worked. Preckwinkle said she did not know about his issues but acknowledged she met with Burke before the hire and the powerful alderman told her his son was looking for a job.
As Ohio continues to grapple with the opioid epidemic, state lawmakers are proposing sentencing reforms for those struggling with addiction disorders.

What we are trying to accomplish is to arrest the problem and get Ohioans who are struggling with addiction help before their offenses could mean jail time, Sen. John Eklund, R-Munson Township said. We want people to get better and move on to lead productive lives, while also ensuring that traffickers are arrested and stay behind bars.

His co-sponsor for Substitute Senate Bill 3, Bazetta Democrat Sean OBrien added, This is an attempt to recognize that and to deal with that crisis in the best way we can. We know we cant arrest our way out of it.

According to Eklunds office, the proposed bill would make possession of small amounts of drugs an unclassified misdemeanor charge with a presumption of treatment, but subject to a maximum one-year jail sentence (fifth-degree felony) if the court deems the offender a threat to others.

Eklund said in a press conference announcing the bill that everyone who has had a hand in this legislative process seems to agree that there are people who the criminal justice system, as it currently functions, is ill-suited to offer them the opportunity at redemption, the opportunity at a normal life.

Fentanyl would be excluded from reclassification. The powerful synthetic opioid contributed to nearly 71 percent of Ohios 2017 overdose deaths. Sexual assault-enabling drugs would also be excluded from reclassification.

Eklund said that the bill would also eliminate prosecution for trace amounts of a drug.

That was something that we heard from a lot of people, that nobody wants to be prosecuting people for trace amounts of drugs anymore anyway, he said.

Judges would have the ability to halt prosecution against first-time possession offenders if that person agrees to enter into a judge-prescribed treatment program. If successfully treated, the judge can dismiss the case altogether and no conviction is put on the offenders record.

The bill also seeks to reform sealing procedures, in an effort to remove the scarlet letter of prior possession convictions so that a recovering offender faces fewer obstacles to finding gainful employment and housing as the individual works toward an addiction-free life.

According to Eklunds office, the legislation would permit misdemeanor and fifth- and fourth-degree felony drug possessions to be sealed upon successful completion of drug court or intervention in lieu of conviction programs.

The bill puts drug trafficking into three tiers. The tier of an offense would depend on the amount of drugs being trafficked, Eklund said.

If the prosecution proves a person had intent to sell or distribute any amount of heroin, the offender could face trafficking charges and convictions. The bill also maintains mandatory prison sentencing for high-level trafficking offenses according to Eklunds office.

The bill does not retroactively change sentences for those convicted of crimes that would have more lenient punishments under the new proposed law.

OBrien said the logistics of doing so are daunting. Eklund said it is not completely off the table, however.
Corporate boards have become more gender diversethat's the headline across multiple news sources. MSCI shows an uptick in global board appointments filled by women. Deloitte finds that women hold 25% of Fortune 100 board seats. Equilar reports that women filled 35.9% of new board seats in 2018.

At first glance, Morningstar's equity data shows similar findings. For the Russell 3000, corporate boards have become steadily more gender-diverse since 2010, as shown in the chart below.

In the chart below, we looked within companies and tallied the number of female directors. Nearly 20% of boards are considered gender diverse, defined as having three or more women on them. Across the sample of the Russell 3000, all-male corporate boards are in the minority.

These two high-level views of the data on board gender diversity paint an encouraging picture of progress, albeit with plenty of room for improvement. However, when we take a deeper dive into the data, we see a less rosy picture.

A gap in board gender diversity

Small-cap companies are just reaching the level of board gender diversity that the S&P 500 was at a decade ago. As we look down the market cap, the disparity in board gender diversity appears to be increasing through time. In the graph below, we show that the gap between the S&P 500 and the remaining companies in the Russell 3000 is growing, from 5.4% in 2009 to 8% today. Whatever pressures are driving female representation at the upper end of the market-cap range, they are much weaker at the lower end of the range.

Progress is slow, but change can be swift, as shown in California. In September 2018, California passed S.B. 826, which requires public companies headquartered in California to have at least one woman on their boards by 2019. By 2021, if a board has five directors, then two must be women; and three must be women if there are six or more directors. Currently, Board Governance Research finds that 53% of microcaps in California have no female directors. To comply with S.B. 826, qualified women will be in high demand to fill these board seats.

Where will these women come from?

While there likely will be an increase in first-time female directors, boards tend to add women who are already directors of other boards. This is not a recent trend. In the past 15 years, the typical female director is on more boards than her male counterpart. The average female director is on boards at 1.3 companies, versus 1.2 for men. That gap is also increasing.

Of women who sit on boards, 24% sit on more than one, as shown in the chart above. Comparatively, only 17.9% of men serve on multiple boards. While small, the finding is statistically significant and carries important implications. The value of gender-diverse boards comes in having a diversity of opinions and what this means for the quality of corporate leadership. At a market level, if increasing board gender diversity just means hiring the same women onto more boards, there is no net increase in diverse perspectives in the market for board leadership. Furthermore, with the increasing demands on board directors, "overboarding" is a red flag that many governance advocates raise with respect to directors who hold three or more board positions.

Yet, there is a simple explanation: Boards face an availability pool issue. Assuming corporate boards are sincere in their desire to increase gender diversity, female candidates meeting the traditional standards are a rare resource. Women make up only a fraction of public company senior management positions and existing board positions. As a result, corporate boards are selecting from the same, small population of female executives and existing board directors.

A gender-diverse talent pool to fill board positions is not filling quickly

Unlike the trend to accelerate the percentage of women on boards, the representation of women on executive teams is barely improving. This should be a concern to those filling board director seats because executives feed the pool of potential directors. Firms like State Street, Vanguard, and BlackRock have announced their intention to support gender diversity within corporations and have begun actively voting against directors who do not sufficiently address board gender diversity.

However, increasing female representation on boards does not begin and end at the top; it starts within the workplace. Companies must be actively supporting women throughout their careers, so they can advance into senior roles. Boards cannot become more gender-diverse unless the available talent pool does, too.

The headline numbers for corporate board gender diversity look promising, but clearly there is much more work to be done. It starts far lower down the corporate hierarchy, and with measures that address structural obstacles to female advancement in the workplace.
The OSFI has granted U.S. technology debt financing firm Silicon Valley Bank a licence to operate in Canada, with the company beginning its new operations in Toronto.

Canada has a thriving innovation sector and were excited to be a catalyst for its continued growth, bank CEO Greg Becker stated.

The Canadian banking licence is a significant milestone in our global expansion. The growing team there is well-positioned to execute on SVBs mission to help innovative companies and their investors be even more successful.
The endorsement Thursday plays out against the backdrop of looming negotiations for new police and fire union contracts. The deals lapsed in 2017, and it will be up to the new mayor to broker agreements with both. Neither union endorsed in the first round, and the Fraternal Order of Police has not made an endorsement in the mayoral runoff either.
During his tenure running the Consumer Bureau, Mick Mulvaney  who is currently Trumps acting chief of staff  took many actions that hurt consumers, Waters said. Mulvaney closed the Office of Young Consumers, stripped the Office of Fair Lending of its ability to enforce fair-lending laws, cozied up to payday lenders, gave lenders a free pass to abuse active-duty service members and their families, and fired the Consumer Bureaus consumer advisory board. His mission was to dismantle the agency from within, and he leaves behind no less than 12 political appointees who are continuing to cause damage.

Waters, who has introduced legislation to strengthen the CFPB, said that the Financial Services Committee would fight back against what she and other Democrats view as the administrations abuse of consumers.

This committee will not tolerate the Trump administrations anti-consumer actions, she said.

Other committee Democrats said that Kraninger needed to roll back some of the changes Mulvaney made during his tenure at the bureau.

I want to help you be a great director here, but in order to do that, youve got to help us fix the damage that your predecessor did, Rep. David Scott (D-Fla.) told Kraninger.
Billions of dollars in pipeline expansion and construction projects are targeting the Permian Basin in an effort to ease the pain of the area's takeaway capacity constraints.

But those projects could cause more short-term pain if they all come to fruition, said Sandy Fielden, director, oil and gas products research, with Morningstar.

"It's a massive overbuild," he said in a phone interview from his Austin office.

In a recent report, he tallied the new pipeline capacity expected to come online in the next three years and found it will more than double takeaway capacity and, more importantly, far outstrip expected production.

OIL REPORT: Analysis urges planning now for oil export infrastructure

He estimates that the proposed pipeline projects will add just over 5 million barrels a day of takeaway capacity. Permian crude production soared 270 percent from 1.5 million barrels a day in the first quarter of 2014 to 4 million barrels in the first quarter of 2019, according to the Energy Information Administration. Morningstar forecasts Permian production will grow again by another 2.3 million barrels to 6.3 million barrels by the end of 2021.

Takeaway capacity is going to be overbuilt if all projects are completed, he said.

"My guess is there are going to be some changes," with some projects being consolidated or other projects delayed, he said.

Some of these new projects already have major shippers -- including ExxonMobil and Chevron -- attached, as they are looking for long-term, stable oil flows, he said. Nevertheless, he said the overbuild could turn into a "robbing Peter to pay Paul" situation. He said that if all projects come online, some midstream companies could be forced to discount term contract fees on their new pipelines to draw business away from older systems. Producers and shippers could secure lower contract fees, but midstream companies run the risk of losing existing customers to cheaper competitors.

That fierce competition will hurt pipeline companies "until the next time growing output runs up against constraints and the cycle repeats," he said.

OIL REPORT: Upton County acreage tabbed for major solar power project

"My guess is, the new pipes will be filled; the question is how quickly," he said.

He said the financial institutions, investors and private equity companies backing these projects could help dampen the enthusiasm.

"If you go to a bank to borrow billions, you'll get a pretty cold reception if you say it will take four or five years to pay off," he said.
Chris Watts' 4-year-old daughter knew her mother and younger sister, Celeste, had just been killed -- and she feared she would be next.

"Please Daddy, don't do to me what you just did to Cece," said Bella, according to a lawyer for the family of Shannan Watts, the girls' mother.

Earlier, Bella had walked into the room just after Watts had strangled his wife, Shannan, and was wrapping her in a sheet to dispose of her body. "What are you doing with Mommy?" Bella asked her father.

Bella's last words and other details about the disturbing familial murders were revealed by attorney Steven Lambert on Tuesday's "Dr. Phil" show.

Lambert's summary of the events provides a chilling picture of how Chris Watts killed his pregnant wife, Shanann, 34, and their two children, Bella and Celeste, 3, and then disposed of their bodies at a secluded oil field where he worked. Weld County, Colorado, prosecutors said he strangled his wife with his bare hands, suffocated the children, and loaded them in his vehicle and drove away to hide their remains.

Watts initially denied involvement in the August disappearance of his wife and daughters, and even spoke with a local news station about his worry for their well-being. However, he later pleaded guilty to the killings and was sentenced in November to five life sentences after prosecutors and Shanann's family agreed to drop the possibility of the death penalty.

Colorado Bureau of Investigations spokeswoman Susan Medina said Watts provided investigators with "additional information" about the murders of his family on February 18. The CBI said a written report and audio file from that interview will be released on Thursday.

Why he did it

After his sentencing last November, prosecutors had said they may never know what led Watts to kill his wife and daughters.

"I don't think he will ever tell us. I don't think he will give an honest assessment of why he did what he did, how he did what he did," Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke said.

But in the "Dr. Phil" interview, Lambert said the couple got into a fight and Chris Watts confessed he was having an affair. He also said he wanted a divorce and declared that their relationship was over.

"And she had said something to the effect of, 'Well, you're not gonna see the kids again.' As a consequence of that conversation, he strangled her to death," Lambert said.

As Watts was preparing to move the body, Bella walked in and asked about her mother, Lambert said.

"She's 4, what we've been told she's quite smart -- was quite smart -- and knew something likely was up. And what he said was that, 'Mommy is sick, we need to take her to the hospital to make her better,'" Lambert said.

Lambert said his understanding is that Chris Watts put Shanann's body in his truck and then put his children, who were alive at the time, into the truck. He took Celeste's favorite blanket and smothered her, Lambert said.

"At this point, Bella had unbuckled herself from the vehicle," Lambert said. Watts walked back to the truck and that's when Bella made the plea for her life, Lambert said.

At Watts' sentencing, prosecutors said Bella fought back, but was killed. Prosecutors also argued that Watts did not kill her in a rage but deliberately and viciously.

The "Dr. Phil" episode also features video of Chris Watts watching a neighbor's surveillance tape of him backing up his truck and putting something in the back. As Watts watches that surveillance tape, he puts his hands on his head, and the neighbor later notes that he was acting fidgety.
Services for Midland Police Department Officer Nathan Hayden Heidelberg are scheduled for 2 p.m. today at First Baptist Church. Burial will be tonight at Greenwood Cemetery.

The Patriot Guard will escort Heidelbergs casket from Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home, 3800 N. Big Spring St., to the church beginning around 9:45 a.m.

A viewing for members of the public is set for 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the church, 2104 W. Louisiana Ave.

Streets will be closed in conjunction with the funeral and burial, according to the city and Texas Department of Transportation.

In the area of FBC, Garfield Street will be closed between Kansas Avenue and Louisiana Avenue, and N Street will be closed between Cuthbert Avenue and Louisiana Avenue from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Law enforcement will escort the casket to the cemetery around 5:30 p.m. There will be lane closures on Farm-to-Market Road 307 and Farm-to-Market Road 1379 near the cemetery, until perhaps as late as 10 p.m.

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TxDOT offers its condolences to Officer Heidelbergs family and the law enforcement community as a whole in the wake of this tragedy. The Odessa District has a tremendous relationship with the law enforcement community as a whole, and this loss is felt throughout the community.
The word incorrect that appears on the screen to start the ad is a reference to a March 2 Tribune story. That story wrongly stated a Preckwinkle campaign ad and a Chicago Reader article quoted in it were incorrect in saying Lightfoot worked on two lawsuits brought by Republicans challenging congressional redistricting. The Preckwinkle ad and the Reader story accurately asserted that Lightfoot had worked on two lawsuits brought by Republicans challenging congressional redistricting. The Tribune story was updated online Saturday.
IDEA Public Schools announced the placement of 14 upcoming schools in the Midland-Odessa region during the Sewell Learning Event  and the audience responded with excitement, applauding Founder Tom Torkelsons many successes and for bringing them along to the Permian Basin.

The charter school  which stands for Individuals Dedicated to Excellence and Achievement  began in 2000 with 150 students in the Rio Grande Valley. Today, the charter system has more than 45,000 students and 5,000 staff in 79 campuses across Texas and southern Louisiana with around a half a billion operating budget, he said.

Since its first graduating class in 2007, 100 percent of seniors have been accepted to colleges and universities nationwide, Torkelson said. In one ceremony, every senior applied to more than five colleges and universities  of 5,000 applications total  and 4,654 of them were accepted, including applications to Brown and Yale ivy-league universities, according to a video that was shown during the presentation.

Four IDEA schools in the Rio Grande Valley (Brownsville, Mission, Edinburg and San Juan) are among the top 22 high schools in the state, according to U.S. News and World Report.

During Thursdays conference, Collin Sewell, president of Sewell Ford-Lincoln, gifted Torkelson $75,000 in the form of college scholarships, which will be given directly to students graduating from IDEA schools. Torkelson wiped tears from his eyes as he  literally  jumped into Sewells arms, wrapped his legs around his waist and hugged him.

In a later interview, Torkelson confirmed there are plans to place 14 IDEA schools in Midland and Odessa, but only one will begin next year  in August 2020  in partnership with Midland ISD. For clarification, Bethany Solis  IDEAs executive director of the Permian Basin  said the contract has been written up and signed by IDEA. The contract has been sent to MISD, and she said the current plan is for the board to discuss it at the next board meeting on March 25.

There are a couple schools (we have observed), he said. We are working with MISD to figure out what they think is going to be most helpful, and I think weve got all the points worked out in the contract were putting together.

MISD Chief Transformation Officer Elise Kail previously told the Reporter-Telegram a campus has not been designated to house the IDEA public charter. When the MISD negotiated previously with Legacy Traditional Schools, the district indicated that the in-district charter would be placed at Travis Elementary on Midlands southeast side. Travis is one of the districts worst-performing schools, having been among the Texas Education Agencys failing campuses the last four years.

Beginning in August, IDEA will start working with students and faculty on whichever campus the charter will be located, in preparation for its move-in.

Were really excited to partner with the district because the district will get credit when those scores go up, Torkelson said. The state will (also) kick in additional funding since we have this charter-district partnership (and) the state is trying to encourage more of that, and theres a building that we dont have to build.

He said the decision to come to the Permian Basin came about when the superintendents and school board members of Midland and Odessa schools showed there was a disproportionately high-number of schools that are improvement-required  or F-rated, he said.

In a previous Reporter-Telegram article, MISD stated there are plans to implement six in-district charters within the next two years.

Torkelson said the number of schools IDEA transforms into in-district charters depends MISD eventual plans. He also told the Reporter-Telegram the school district may be looking for a broader portfolio than IDEA schools. Either way, he said he is excited to bring the school system into the Permian Basin.

It just seems like a win, win, win, win, Torkelson said. I always ask, Whats the catch? and then there is no catch, and its just awesome.

Follow Brandi on Twitter for more education news: @BrandiDAddison
The oil and gas company led by the man alleged to have shot and killed a Midland Police Department officer stated Thursday it is deeply saddened by the events that took place this week.

Jared W. Schroeder, chief financial officer of Unitex Oil & Gas, offered the following in an email to the Reporter-Telegram.

We are deeply saddened by the events that took place this week, resulting in the death of Midland Officer Heidelberg. At Unitex Oil & Gas, our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the fallen officer and all of those affected by this devastating incident. As a Midland-based company, we take great pride in supporting the community where our employees live and work and will continue to do so during this difficult time.

Unitex Oil and Gas, according to its website, is an upstream exploration and production company located in Midland and led by David Wilson.

Since 2003, the company has been investing in and improving the production of conventional oil assets in the Permian Basin. In 2012, Ridgemont Equity Partners, a middle market buyout and growth equity firm, announced the formation of a new partnership with Unitex Oil and Gas management team and the closing of the partnerships first acquisition of conventional oil assets in Scurry County, according to the website.

Wilson faces charges of manslaughter, a second-degree felony, according to his arrest affidavit. Wilson told Texas Ranger Cody Allen that he was inside the residence in the 3300 block of Eagle Cove early Tuesday morning and fired a handgun in the direction of police officer Nathan Heidelberg, according to the arrest affidavit.
We didnt know whether wed find the whales at all. We laid at anchor in 40 to 60 knot winds for eight days before there was a brief break in the weather and we encountered 25 to 30 of them for several hours.
PHOTOS How to handle unexpected unemployment

Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, 59% of Americans were living paycheck-to-paycheck, according to a 2019 Charles Schwab survey. In March, the number of people reporting a temporary layoff more than doubled, bringing the number to 1.8 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the same survey, it was noted that the number of people who are unemployed rose by 1.4 million. This marked a March increase in the unemployment rate of 0.9 percent  the largest monthly increase since January 1975. If your job was one affected by the coronavirus, coping with the effects of that loss can be emotionally taxing. Here are some ways to handle the sudden change and to stay positive.
The Enlightened Capitalists: Cautionary Tales of Business Pioneers Who Tried to do Well by Doing Good

By James O'Toole

HarperBusiness. 545 pp. $35

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In 1935, Rob Johnson, the CEO of pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, wrote an essay addressed to his fellow CEOs. "It is to the enlightened self-interest of modern industry to realize that its service to its customers comes first, its service to its employees and management comes second, and its service to stockholders last," he argued. "It is to the enlightened self-interest of industry to accept and fulfill its share of social responsibility."

Those sentiments are hard to reconcile with today's scandal-plagued, short-term-profit-oriented Johnson & Johnson. Nor is the fate of Rob Johnson's beautiful dream unique. The way in which Johnson & Johnson lost sight of its mission is just one of many stories that James O'Toole, a professor at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business and the founding director of the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making, tells in his new book, "The Enlightened Capitalists: Cautionary Tales of Business Pioneers Who Tried to do Well by Doing Good."

It's a timely work. Right now, amid the widespread disillusionment with capitalism that came out of the financial crisis and the popular progressivism expressed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among others, there's a lot of talk that sounds just like Johnson did almost a century ago. Impact investing, social responsibility, conscious capitalism, double bottom lines, B corporations - these are all variations on the idea that a business should be about more than its profits, that capital needs to provide more to society than a return to investors. And we all seem to think this is something new, a sign of our changing and perhaps more idealistic times.

But as O'Toole demonstrates, it is not new at all. While his book is not an easy read - he has never met a detail he doesn't like - it offers important insight, especially for anyone who thinks the kind of change we seem to want will be easy. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, many observers, including O'Toole, believed that such seemingly common-sense practices as caring about employees and the environment were about to become business as usual. Instead, making a killing by any means necessary became the rule, and even those companies that were on a different path capitulated. "I still have egg on my face from the 1980s, when I advanced, as models to be emulated, twenty four American firms with impressive records of socially responsible, ethical and environmentally conscious behavior," writes O'Toole. "Alas, today only three of those companies have maintained their admirable practices."

The history of good intentions gone wrong dates back centuries. O'Toole tells it through character sketches, the first of which is of British businessman Robert Owen, who some 200 years ago, amid the horrors of the Industrial Revolution, tried to treat his mill workers humanely, giving them decent housing and access to education. He was mocked and criticized, his plans eventually failed, and he died unhinged and essentially bankrupt. ("A sad bad end," O'Toole writes. Indeed.) At one point, O'Toole recounts, Ralph Waldo Emerson asked Owen: "Who is your disciple? How many men possessed of your views will remain after you to put them into practice?" Owen answered, "Not one."

And so it mostly goes, from J.C. Penney to William Lever (Unilever) to William Norris (Control Data) to Edwin Land (Polaroid) to Milton Hershey (Hershey) to Anita Roddick (the Body Shop) and many more. Those who tried to use their companies to make money but also to provide good wages, good working conditions, and some degree of parity between management and employees have, for the most part, failed, especially over the long term. That might be because of managerial incompetence, successive leaders who don't want to follow the same path, a sale or pressure from shareholders. The reason varies. The outcome doesn't. What O'Toole writes about Johnson & Johnson - "yet another sad, bad end" - applies to many of these stories.

There are a few bright spots. O'Toole profiles a $3 billion maker of welding products, Lincoln Electric, which he calls the "nation's greatest continuing corporate success story." Founder James Lincoln, who ran the company from 1920 to 1965, "firmly believed the world's greatest untapped resources were the abilities of the millions of undereducated and untrained men and women trapped in social systems and work organizations in which they had no opportunity to develop, or exercise, their potential." Since 1947, Lincoln Electric hasn't laid off a single worker, and for more than 80 years it has paid bonuses to its workers averaging 40 to 100 percent of their annual salaries.

But even Lincoln was a failure in the sense that he did not inspire widespread emulation. "James Lincoln spent a great deal of time attempting to explain his company's unusual practices to all manner of doubters, skeptics and critics, few of whom he appears ever to have convinced," writes O'Toole. "What he would not - or could not - acknowledge was the reality that other business leaders were not interested in adopting his system."

Lincoln wasn't alone. Almost all of the executives O'Toole profiles were proselytizers. None of them won converts.

Ironically, their attempts inspired mostly opposition, including from some surprising sources like labor leaders, who have seen corporate do-goodism as a sneaky, manipulative way to get more out of workers or as a paternalistic imposition of a leader's values on his employees, customers and the public. As one wag wrote about Hershey, Pa., the idyllic town built by Milton Hershey to provide wholesome housing and education for his factory workers, "Tell me truly, tell me please, is Hershey a town, or a disease?" In 1994, the Harvard Business Review published a vicious critique of Roddick's environmentalism, charging, among other things, that it was just a cynical ploy designed to build a strong brand image for the Body Shop.

Even if executives did succeed during their tenures, the practices they tried to ingrain in their companies proved largely unsustainable after their departures. Herman Miller under CEO Max DePree - the third DePree to run the company - was both highly profitable and lauded for its social responsibility, but the first non-family CEOs quickly destroyed it all. "A shockingly bad, and surprising, end," O'Toole calls this one. All companies "lose their souls," a devastated DePree told O'Toole.

It's even unclear what Lincoln Electric's long-term fate will be. Its "protective shield is in the process of disintegrating," writes O'Toole - in large part because in 1995, Lincoln Electric sold shares to the public.

What O'Toole calls the "buzz saw of investor resistance" is often the biggest obstacle to any corporate mind-set other than a relentless focus on profits. The belief that business should be only about making money for investors stretches all the way back to the late 1300s and the Tuscan Francesco Datini, also known as the Merchant of Prato, whose motto, imprinted on many of his documents, was "In the name of God and of profit."

Fast-forward to more modern times. In 1919 the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Ford was not allowed to raise employee wages, on the grounds that "a business corporation is organized and carried on primarily for the profits of the stockholders." O'Toole notes that despite the fact that that case has never been cited by the Delaware court that hears most cases related to corporate governance, it nevertheless has become "gospel" to investors.

Thus it is that the companies that adhere to broader missions are privately held. Only four of the companies that O'Toole covers have managed to sustain their virtuous practices for more than two generations of leadership. Two are owned by trusts that are legally bound to preserve the founders' values, while the other two are largely owned by family foundations and employees. This is both encouraging - it's possible to sustain values! - and also discouraging. The vast bulk of wealth is in shareholder-owned companies, so how meaningful are virtuous practices if they can only exist on the fringes, where the real money is not?

The bigger question, of course, is whether all of today's talk about social responsibility means that the future might be different than the past. Count O'Toole a skeptic. He writes, "It would require a prodigious degree of optimism that I am incapable of mustering to conclude that the behavior of corporate leaders will appreciably change in the near future." Memo to us all: Beware pretty words.

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McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of several books.
GODFREY  Fire Chief Erik Kambarian said the community is hurting in the wake of the death of Fire Capt. Jacob Jake Ringering.

Kambarian addressed the community Wednesday, less than 24 hours after a fire in the 4000 block of Bethaltos Culp Lane claimed the life of 37-year-old Ringering when a brick structure collapsed on him. Kambarian fought back tears as he discussed the loss and its effect on the Godfrey Fire Protection District.

This is a small department, Kambarian said. We have thirty-three members, we have career members, we have volunteer members. Everyone is hurting. If we had a time machine and could go back, we would. We have to live with this now and make our department stronger and never forget that Jake is always going to be with us.

Kambarian added that being there for the Ringering family is the only thing to do, as Ringering leaves behind a wife and three young children.

We have to think about their families and our fire department family, Kambarian said. Three firemen remain hospitalized after Tuesdays fire.

While details regarding memorial and dedication for Ringering are pending, Kambarian said the best way to show support and condolences is to give the family space and offer a thank you to all firemen.

A thank you does it, he said. Thats all we ask for.

Having followed in his father footsteps as a fireman, Ringerings extended first responder family spreads across the region. Numerous fire departments, police departments and local organizations expressed their sympathies on social media late Tuesday and into Wednesday.

My sincere condolences to the family of Jake Ringering, East Alton Mayor Joe Silkwood said in a Facebook post. Jake was born and raised in East Alton and East Alton has always been proud of him. On behalf of the Board of Trustees and all of the citizens of the Village of East Alton we send our sincerest sympathy to his family and his firefighter family including Godfrey, East Alton and all the firefighters that Jake considered his brothers.

Flags flew at half-staff across the area in remembrance of Ringering, who had been with the Godfrey department for nine years. Both Ringering and firefighter Luke Warner, who was injured during Tuesdays efforts as well, were recent fire science instructors at Godfreys Lewis and Clark Community College, where the lights outside the colleges Weber Workforce Center went red in their honor.

The fact that both Jake and Luke were such well-regarded firefighters in their departments and also instructed at various times for the colleges fire science programs is a clear example of their dedication and service to the overall community, said Greg Bock, associate director of safety of the Houston Area Safety Council at Lewis and Clark, who worked with both Ringering and Warner at the college. They always went beyond mere duty. They answered to a higher and sacred calling.

Steven Spencer can be reached at 618-208-6460.
Trustee John Scaletta asked the developer where he planned to place snow in the winter and the civil engineer for the developer told the board it would be pushed to the northwest corner of the property. If there wasnt room on the site, he said it would have to be hauled out but that would be up to the franchisee of the 7-Eleven.
Call the outcome of the second Trump-Kim summit disappointing or frustrating, but it was anything but a failure. The real failure would have been President Donald Trumps signature authorizing concessions in return for promises made only to be broken. The Norths nuclear program is buried so deeply in the mindset of the Kim family dynasty that hes absolutely not going to surrender it under the guise of any agreement.

Trump avoided fake denuclearization, Kim Tae-woo, retired director of the Korea Institute of National Unification, told me. We really worried about a bad small deal. We were afraid North Korea would enjoy lifting of sanctions and maintenance of all facilities.

Or, if the summit could indeed be called a failure, then U.S. negotiators should have known what was coming. The dispute that led to the breakup could have been managed at the working level, in the view of Victor Cha, who served on the national security council during the George W. Bush presidency. Trump should have empowered his negotiators to make more progress before meeting.

They might not have gotten anywhere either, but Moon Jae-in, elected president nearly two years ago as the liberal darling after nearly a decade of conservative rule, now risks a backlash that endangers his presidency. Moons embarrassment was obvious on March 1, the centennial of a short-lived bloody revolt against Japanese colonial rule, when he had to revise a speech that he had assumed would be a great time for touting the results of the summit.

Moon had a tough day, said Lee Sung-yoon, a faculty member at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University. Crestfallen, was Lees word for Moons immediate response. He had planned for a major self-celebration featuring odes to himself on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, inter-Korean reconciliation, and Korean independence while his fans proclaimed Chairman Kim is the greatest and chanted, Yankee go home.

Now Moon, sensitive to conservative power in a society accustomed to the protection of the U.S.-Korean alliance, has to be careful about maintaining decent relations with the United States while leftists keep up demands for U.S. forces to leave.

North Korea goes on trying to drive a wedge between allies, said Kim Tae-woo. We know that their eventual goal is the destruction of the alliance while many are angry and very much resentful about Kims reluctance to compromise.

In fact, three days after the breakdown of the Trump-Kim summit, U.S. and South Korean defense officials announced a scaled-down joint military exercise with battalion-size units attacking imaginary enemy forces. Called Dong Maeng, alliance, the exercise replaces much larger war games that Trump halted after his summit with Kim in Singapore last June.

Trump after his summit in Vietnam signaled his desire to scale down this years war games when he remarked that a single large-scale exercise cost $100 million and South Korea should be picking up more of the expense. Regardless, Gen. Robert B. Abrams, commander of U.S. forces in Korea, and Gen. Park Han-ki, chairman of South Koreas joint chiefs, in a joint statement said such exercises were crucial in sustaining and strengthening the alliance.

This emphasis on military strength doesnt mean the end of approaches to the North by the United States as well as South Korea.

Thae Yong Ho, the former minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, who defected to South Korea nearly three years ago, thinks the Americans should talk directly to the North Korean people. More and more North Koreans, he argued while the summit was going on, need to learn about a better life in the South from tuning in secretly to South Korean TV and hearing from North Korean defectors.

If that seems far-fetched, so does the prospect of Kim ordering a nuclear strike. The greatest value of nuclear warheads is their use as a bargaining tool, but why worry about denuclearization? Kim is no longer wielding the nuclear threat while nursing hopes for concessions in lower level talks.

On that note, the break-up of the Hanoi summit, bereft of any Hanoi Declaration, as the Vietnamese host had proudly anticipated, should close an era of summitry. Trump would appear too preoccupied with issues at home while Kim may not be at all interested in accepting Moons repeated invitation to come to Seoul in return for hosting him in Pyongyang in September.

There wont be any more summit talks, said Shim Jae-hoon, former Seoul bureau chief for the old Far Eastern Economic Review. Kim is too busy finding money to feed his people. Trump is too busy fighting waves coming to destroy him.

That leaves it up to the two Koreas to try to sort things out in a process thats likely to go on for years.

Donald Kirk has been a columnist for Korea Times, South China Morning Post many other newspapers and magazines. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
To the editor:

The headline of the Feb. 17 edition of the Journal-Courier paper read, Push on to expand state reproductive rights. Within the article is quoted Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzkers vow to, make Illinois the most progressive state in the nation for access to reproductive health care  note the use of the term progressive.

Also in this lengthy article, contrasting various views on the subject, is inserted this short sentence, The lawmakers measure would additionally lift a state ban on partial-birth abortion procedures.

This is just another deceptive use of words to describe infanticide, the deliberate murder of innocent infant human beings. The writer of the article failed to state the most important view and, in the end, the final prevailing view  Gods view  which diametrically opposes not only this evil progressive agenda on abortion, but also almost every other agenda item of Satanically inspired progressivism.

The term progressive has been deceptively used and grievously abused by those of our elected political officials whose objective over the last 100-plus years has been to alter, nullify or eliminate the God-given foundational blocks  the family unit, Constitution, Bill of Rights, justice system, economic system, etc. Today, the revolutionary leftist socialist/communist Democratic Party is boldly, arrogantly and militantly foisting their poisonous policies from top level down as reflected in this state-level push on abortion discussed above.

Will the socialist/communist progressive state government succeed in their push to reform (expand, enhance, promote) abortion rights? For any rational, objective and observant person, the answer is intuitively obvious given the prevailing political makeup of our bankrupt state.

But of utmost importance is what will your answer be when you individually stand before Gods judgment seat and account for what you did to either support this murder of innocents or oppose, however possible, this Satan-inspired act of barbaric progressivism?

Roger True

Murrayville
I have the blueprint to the ...
Aldermen will vote on the deal that says Windfall would get any money above the $750,000 mark, the estimated amount of sales tax the center now generates. About half of that comes from the Best Buy at the center, which is doing very well. Windfall is negotiating a new, extended lease with Best Buy.
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(CNN)  BREAKING: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in prison.

Paul Manafort is in a federal courtroom Thursday afternoon to be sentenced for defrauding banks and the government and failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars in income he earned from Ukrainian political consulting -- charges that stemmed from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The penalty may be steep enough to keep the longtime lobbyist and former Trump campaign chairman in prison for the rest of his life.

Manafort, 69, was wearing a green jumpsuit that said "ALEXANDRIA INMATE" as he entered the courtroom in a wheelchair and holding a cane.

"The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family and I," Manafort told the court. "Humiliated and shamed would be a gross understatement."

Manafort spoke briefly about how prayer and faith have helped get him through this time and asked Judge T.S. Ellis "to be compassionate."

Prosecutors argued that Manafort deserves between 19 and 25 years in prison as well as millions of dollars in fines and restitution for the crimes, for which a jury convicted him after a three-week trial last summer. Manafort has shown little remorse, they say, and even lied under oath following a plea deal after the trial.

Prosecutor Greg Andres told Ellis that Manafort never gave meaningful help during his cooperation with the special counsel's office, despite spending 50 hours together.

"It wasn't information we didn't know," Andres said. "The reason he met for 50 hours was because he lied."

Shaped Mueller investigation

Ellis noted during Thursday's hearing that Manafort is not being sentenced for anything related to interference in the 2016 election.

"He is not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government," the judge said.

But in many ways, the Manafort case -- which reached back almost a decade to track the movement of money from his Ukrainian political consulting work, through the time he was broke and working for Trump in 2016 -- has shaped Mueller's actions for almost two years.

Manafort's was the first indictment Mueller announced in late 2017 and it used the criminal prosecution to ratchet up pressure on him throughout 2018 as they sought his cooperation on matters central to their probe. At one point, after securing Manafort's longtime deputy Rick Gates as a witness against him, prosecutors split his case in two, putting the more clear-cut financial crimes indictment in the fast-moving Northern Virginia federal court. Manafort's conviction at trial was a major win for Mueller -- the only official certification from an impartial group of citizens that Mueller had uncovered major crime.

The eight crimes for which Manafort will be sentenced on Thursday include five convictions of tax fraud from 2010 through 2014, hiding his foreign bank accounts from federal authorities in 2012 and defrauding two banks for more than $4 million in loans intended for real estate. At his trial, one juror refused to join the other 11 to convict him on 10 additional foreign banking and bank fraud charges. Prosecutors later dropped those counts.

Manafort did not testify in his own defense at his trial, which revealed a life of excess, even among high-rolling Washington lobbyists. He had bought ostrich and python jackets and luxury cars, and had souped up his Hamptons mansion with elaborate flowerbeds, home renovations and karaoke sets because of his secret Ukrainian stream of cash, witnesses testified.

At trial, accountants, a bookkeeper and Gates pointed to Manafort as the financial fraud mastermind.

Declining health

Manafort will receive a second sentence next week from a different federal judge for the two crimes he pleaded guilty to last year, witness tampering and conspiracy related to his illegal Ukrainian lobbying and money laundering. Prosecutors have looked to that second sentencing as a backstop to keep Manafort in prison, in case they feel Ellis was extremely lenient.

Ellis has sentenced hundreds of defendants during his 30 years on the federal bench -- and in a court that's typically considered tough on crime.

Manafort turns 70 years old on April 1. His health has declined -- forcing him to use a wheelchair and more recently a cane to walk -- since he lost his bail agreement and went to jail for the witness tampering allegation nine months ago.

Manafort has been held at the Alexandria Detention Center in solitary confinement for his own safety.

This story is breaking and will be updated.
When my family took over there, the rent was a lot cheaper and eventually they had to get out because it was too expensive, Tessie Lalam said. From there, we opened other restaurants in Lincoln Park and other places until we came here in 2008. Over all that time, our recipes and menu have not changed  weve added maybe two new things in the last 10 years.
Flooding in Sonora View Photos

Sonora, CA  Businesses impacted by Wednesdays torrential rains that caused destructive flooding in Tuolumne County could get federal assistance, but only if they ask for it.

Local businesses that had flooding are being encouraged by the Tuolumne County Economic Development Authority (TCEDA) to submit an economic injury worksheet. It will help determine if the county and city of Sonora meet the criteria to request an Economic Injury Disaster declaration from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and in turn allow for low-interest federal loans. It can also cover some operating expenses until a business recovers.

Here is how the worksheet comes into play. Currently, the California Governors Office of Emergency Services is working with the county to collect the paperwork. A minimum of five worksheets with substantial economic losses due to the disaster event are needed to get the ball rolling. The filings would establish the extent and magnitude of economic injury local businesses have suffered due to the flooding and subsequent loss of business. TCEDA officials advise that filling out the form does not obligate anyone to apply for a loan and it is not an application for assistance.

Business owners can get questions answered and help in filling out the worksheet at The 6th Annual Sonora Business Expo being held tonight from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Sonora Opera Hall. It is located at 250 South Washington Street in Sonora. Click here for a worksheet.

Additionally, TCEDA officials report that at tonights meeting Kate Winders from the Valley Sierra Small Business Development Center will be on hand to answer questions and help with filling out the worksheet. If you cannot make it, she can be contacted at (209-422-6416) or email kwinders@valleysierrasbdc.com.

Of note, the business expo, which was already scheduled before yesterdays flooding, has two speakers addressing the crowd regarding preventing business theft and new employment laws, including minimum wage changes.
With spring break kicking off this weekend for much of Texas, you can bet Gulf Coast beaches will be packed with families, students, thrill seekers, and workaholics turned beach bums.

And while most people head down to the coast have their minds on vacation rentals, restaurants and the like, few stop to think about what they'll be swimming in.
Hain prefers to view corrections as a reflection of societys ills  like poverty, the breakdown of family, addiction and mental health issues. Instead of sending inmates out our prison doors with no support, he is convinced a far better idea is to have a system in place that will help them find housing and jobs and will get them the assistance they need if struggling with drugs or alcohol or mental illness.
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

By Patrick Radden Keefe

Doubleday. 441 pp. $28.95

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People trying to end a war - even a dirty guerrilla war like the one that gripped Northern Ireland for decades - often say that the terms for peace must honor those who died in the conflict.

"Say Nothing," Patrick Radden Keefe's examination of "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, provides a fresh accounting of the moral balance sheet not just for those killed but for those who did the killing.

It is fitting that Keefe, an American writer with Irish ancestry but little connection to the place itself, took up the task. Irish Americans have always played an outsize role in that struggle; first, by supporting the Irish Republican Army financially and politically, when its other main source of funding was bank robberies, and second, through the Clinton administration's push toward the 1998 peace deal.

The book does not attempt to recount the entirety of the Troubles. Instead, it uses one killing - of Jean McConville, a single mother in Belfast slain by the IRA as a suspected "tout," or informant - to trace the conflict through the lives and deaths of two very different women.

The book begins with McConville's killing in 1972, and its central character is one of her killers, Dolours Price. Price was about 20 years old when she joined the IRA, and she quickly proved her worth to the organization at a time when a propensity for violence was most valued.

She robbed banks dressed as a nun, she planted bombs, and she was sentenced to decades in prison for explosions in London. In an era of self-styled revolutionaries, the London bombings gave her a level of notoriety.

McConville, by comparison, lived and died in obscurity. A widow and a mother of 10, McConville struggled in 1972 simply to keep her children clothed and fed. One night, a group of armed men and women came to her apartment and took her away over the protests of her children. She was never seen alive again. Her disappearance was not investigated; the only government action taken at the time was to split up her children and ship them off to a variety of grim, punishing institutions.

Many years later, Price confided that she had driven McConville to her death, and she and two others were tasked with the killing. In Price's telling, she deliberately missed when it was her turn to fire. McConville's body was dumped in a sandy grave, unmarked and undiscovered for decades.

Keefe's description of McConville's killing is haunting, and it seems to have haunted her killers. Years later, Price and some of the others who took part are angry, depressed and drinking heavily, as portrayed by Keefe.

Despite their guilt, they seem certain of one thing: that McConville was an informant for the hated British. Keefe is much more skeptical on that point, and such skepticism seems warranted, at least on the available evidence. In 2006, a police ombudsman declared her innocent of any such activity, saying there were no files to suggest she had ever been an informer for the British government. Yet for all the self-loathing voiced by McConville's killers, they remain determined not to concede that she might have been innocent. Perhaps they know something that remains buried; perhaps their capacity for guilt only goes so far.

The story of Price's confession is a saga unto itself.

In 2001, a wealthy Irish American businessman paid $200,000 to fund an unusual project - collecting the oral histories of those who had been foot soldiers and terrorists in Northern Ireland's sectarian violence. The goal was to gather the accounts of those like Price, who fought to unite the island, as well as the accounts of the loyalists who wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom.

The main impediment to the project, its backers realized quickly, was that all the ex-gunmen and women knew that talking could get them killed. So they offered a condition: Interviews would not become public until the deaths of those who participated.

Among the former IRA members, those who spoke for the project were largely those disenchanted with the direction of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political arm. Price and others had come to feel that the terms of the Good Friday accord were insultingly meager.

"For what Sinn Fein has achieved today, I would not have missed a good breakfast," she said in a radio interview. "Volunteers didn't only die. Volunteers had to kill, as well, you know?"

In private conversations, she laid the blame on her former commanding officer in the IRA, Gerry Adams. A scruffy terrorism suspect in the 1970s, Adams had by the 1990s transformed himself into a prominent politician who denied ever being a member of the IRA. By the time of the Good Friday agreement, even Bill Clinton struggled to know just what to make of Adams and his past, saying, "I don't know what the real deal is between him and the IRA." To Keefe, the public uncertainty surrounding Adams' past is what made the transition to peace possible; those who did not want to be seen as negotiating with a terrorist could say he wasn't one.

To Price and some of her compatriots, Adams' ascension to respectability was a sellout, given what he had once ordered them to do. It seemed a sick joke that the man who allegedly gave the order to kill McConville would declare, decades later, that her disappearance should be fully investigated. In Keefe's telling, Adams' insistence of innocence had a debilitating effect on the executioners - they alone would bear the silent moral burden of her killing and the killings of others.

And so Price and others spoke in secret to the Boston College history project. Their cooperation began spilling out in 2010, with the publication of a book featuring the accounts of two of the participants, and a subsequent conversation Price had with an Irish reporter. With that, Northern Irish police detectives began to demand access to records that could crack old, unsolved killings like that of McConville. After a lengthy battle in the U.S. courts, the detectives were able to review the oral history project's accounts of McConville's death. Adams was brought in for questioning, but without a confession there was apparently insufficient evidence to take him to court.

When Price died in 2013 of a toxic combination of medications, Adams did not attend the funeral - he was no longer welcome in the circles of violent Irish republicanism. By then Adams was a member of Parliament in the Republic of Ireland and the leader of Sinn Fein, which he had steered away from its IRA affiliation into a more traditional political party. But another major figure from the Troubles, Bernadette Devlin, spoke at her graveside. Her oration captured the sense of exhaustion that helped end the war.

"We cannot keep pretending forty years of cruel war, of loss, of sacrifice, of prison, of inhumanity, has not affected each and every one of us in heart and soul and spirit," Devlin said. "It broke our hearts, and it broke our bodies. It changed our perspectives, and it makes every day hard."

As a cautionary tale, "Say Nothing" speaks volumes - about the zealotry of youth, the long-term consequences of violence and the politics of forgetting.
A group of koalas will spend the summer at the San Antonio Zoo this year.

After more than 20 years, zoo visitors will be able to see the marsupials as part of an all-new attraction called "Wild Australia," from May 25 through Sept. 2, according to a news release.
3 1 of 3 Courtesy of Haily Morales Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy of Haily Morales Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Rather than slapping cheese slices on sandwich bread, the latest internet craze has people reaching into their refrigerators to throw cheddar on unassuming babies and  in a Texas case  furry friends.

No one has been safe from cheese-throwers in recent days. What started as targeting sitting ducks in highchairs, also known as babies, has extended to pets. Haily Morales, from McAllen, doesn't have kids so she improvised, using her dog Luke earlier this week.
Two people are dead in a workplace shooting in The Woodlands on Friday, Montgomery County Sheriff's Office officials confirmed.



Deputies were called to an office building at the 2100 block of Buckthorne Place, responding to reports of an active shooter. When they arrived on scene, deputies found one person dead from an apparent gunshot wound.

A second victim suffered blunt force trauma and was rushed to Memorial Hermann The Woodlands for treatment.

Officials with the Montgomery County Hospital District say a deadly, fiery crash near the shooting is possibly related.

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Deputies are asking the public to stay indoors and away from the area.

SOUTHWEST HOUSTON: Boy, 14, dies after stabbing outside Houston school

Heather Byrd worked on the second floor of the building where incident occurred around 4 p.m.

"It happened on the first floor, below us," she said. "We were in the midst of working and a policeman came through yelling asking us to leave and put our hands up. It was such a startling experience. They said put your hands up and we left. When we were coming out of the building here and there was a gun cartridge on the ground."



Byrd said she did not hear any gunshots.

"There is also a secondary scene that appears to be related to this scene that is a car crash," Sheriff's Office Captain Tim Holifield said.



The suspect is thought to have fled south from the primary scene on Grogan's Mill Road and crashed the car about a half-mile away.



The driver, suspected to be the shooter, died at the scene.



Byrd said law enforcement officials made her and others feel safe, and the evacuation was orderly and quick.



"It is scary, because I've worked here for about 8 years here in this building and we've never had anything like this."

Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message
A San Antonio man convicted of killing a friend and stuffing his body in a barrel was sentenced to 75 years in prison Friday.

It took a jury a little less than four hours to convict Jesse Ray Castilla, 38, of murder in the death of Joseph Camarena, 26, on Nov. 17, 2017. Jurors deliberated another hour and a half later Friday afternoon to determine Castillas sentence.

Castilla, who has been on trial since Tuesday, could have received life in prison. With the 75-year sentence, he must serve at least 30 years behind bars before hes eligible for parole.

Prosecutors said the killing happened over $500 that Camarena believed Castilla owed him.

San Antonio police initially received a call about a body around 9 p.m. the night of the shooting. When they arrived, they found a barrel with Camarenas body near a turnaround east of Morsund Boulevard and Loop 410 on the South Side.

According to an arrest affidavit, Castilla gave two people a bag of methamphetamine in exchange for dropping the barrel in a river. Reports indicate that when the barrel was removed from a pickup, it fell, exposing Camarena's feet.

Related: Trial begins in killing of San Antonio man found stuffed in barrel in 2017

In their closing arguments, prosecutors Kristina Escalona and Stephanie Paulissen urged jurors to look at the evidence collected from the 300 block of Lovett Avenue on the Southwest Side as a puzzle and that when they put the pieces together, they would find that Castilla lured his friend to his garage, shot him and had all the equipment needed to cover up the crime.

There was bleach in the garage, blood, gloves and a drop cloth, said Paulissen. The gloves were found right below where (bullet) shell casings were pulled.

Defense attorneys Suzanne Kramer and Sharon Thorn called the states argument hypothetical because no one saw the shooting and their clients DNA was not on the victim.

They said witness testimony established that there were many others in the home around the time Camarena died. They also said Castilla had those things in his home because of the work he did, and pointed out that most people have gloves and bleach around their homes.

We dont know what happened, Kramer said. Everyone has bleach; and if Jesse was involved in trying to dispose of the body, he probably did try to clean it up. But that doesnt mean he is guilty of murder.

The defense also attempted to discredit the testimony of Camarenas girlfriend, Baby Vasquez, who told the jury the day the trial opened that when she went to the home on Lovett to find her boyfriend, she saw Castilla with a gun. The defense pointed out that no other witness saw him with a gun.

You know other people were involved in this, Thorn told the panel. Use your common sense.

On Tuesday, Vasquez testified that she called hospitals all over San Antonio in an attempt to find Camarena, whom she called Angelo, after Castilla told her he took Camerena to a hospital for a possible seizure.

A call to the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office, during which she was asked about tattoos, helped Vasquez determine that Camarena was dead.

Related: Girlfriend describes frantic search for San Antonio man who was shot, stuffed in barrel

In her closing argument, prosecutor Escalona said the men were friends, and Camarena didnt see it coming, stating that Castilla didnt factor in that Vasquez would come looking for her boyfriend.

Jesse Castilla stopped her (Vasquez)  he had a gun  stopped her from going into that garage, she said, as Vasquez began sobbing and had to be led away from the courtroom. Escalona then continued, saying that on that November day in 2017, Vazquez was sent away, looking for a man who was about to be stuffed in a barrel.

The case was 290th District Judge Jennifer Penas first murder trial.

Elizabeth Zavala covers county and state courts in San Antonio. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863
A Bulverde police sergeant resigned Tuesday after he was arrested on a prostitution charge, officials said.

Hugo Cesar Ramos, 35, was booked into the Bexar County Jail Monday with a bail of $800 and bonded out the following day, according to online court records.

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"Because he is no longer an employee of the City, and because this incident did not occur within our jurisdiction, we have no further comment on this matter," Bulverde City Manager Danny Batts said.

According to Ramos' arrest warrant, he drove up to an undercover San Antonio police officer on Feb. 21 near South Presa and Mebane streets and agreed to pay her $20 for oral sex. The officer was part of a sting operation targeting men who pay for sex, the affidavit says.

RELATED: Police: San Marcos man accused of sexual assault may have victimized other women

The undercover officer walked away from Ramos' vehicle and told uniformed officers that he had agreed to pay her for sex, according to the affidavit. The officers tailed Ramos but he began "to drive at a high rate of speed," and the officers backed off.

They got his license plate number from security camera footage and positively identified him, the affidavit says. Authorities then secured a warrant for his arrest on the prostitution charge.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Caleb Downs covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com |

cdowns@mysa.com | @calebjdowns
A San Antonio firefighter was suspended for 75 days without pay in January, months after police accused him of drunken driving.

Jesus Cuevas received the lengthy punishment in connection to his Sept. 9, 2018, DWI arrest, according to the suspension document.

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An officer pulled Cuevas over near Interstate 35 South and Cesar Chavez Boulevard after he noticed Cuevas was "driving his vehicle without a tire on the left rear rim," according to the document.

Cuevas was also observed swerving between lanes and failing to signal, the document says.

After he was pulled over, Cuevas admitted to drinking and subsequent tests showed his blood alcohol content was 0.15, nearly twice the legal limit, officials said.

The document also indicated Cuevas was untruthful with police during his arrest. He told an officer he did not have any weapons in his car but police found a handgun next to the driver's seat along with two magazines, authorities said.

The firefighter was initially suspended indefinitely but the document shows the suspension was later reduced to 75 days.

Before returning to work, Cuevas must complete a rehabilitation program and counseling, the document shows.

His criminal case is still pending, court records showed.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | fsabawi@mysa.com|@FaresInSA
A Bexar County jailer who was caught on video assaulting an inmate is no longer facing criminal charges after striking a deal with the Bexar County District Attorney's Office, officials said Friday.

Garrett Flores, 31, was set to be tried on a charge of official oppression, but the case was dismissed Friday after he agreed to permanently surrender his Texas Commission on Law Enforcement license.
A driver smashed into a Northwest Side home early Friday and then fled, police said.

The homeowners told police they were sleeping at about 2:30 a.m. when the suspect barreled through their fence and crashed into their home in the 100 block of Coyle Place.

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Police said the driver likely failed to make a turn and veered into the home. After the crash, the driver fled the scene on foot.

The homeowners were not injured in the crash.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Caleb Downs covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com |

cdowns@mysa.com | @calebjdowns
On Ash Wednesday, the holy season of Lent began  and so did the annual fundraising drives by many of the nations Catholic bishops known as the bishops Lenten appeals.

My advice to my fellow Catholics? Dont give them a dime.

Last fall, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was supposed to vote on a resolution to create a special commission, including six lay members, to investigate bishops who cover up sexual abuse. At the last minute, Pope Francis barred the bishops from holding the vote. But its not clear the resolution would have passed. After all, the bishops did vote on a nonbinding resolution that declared, Be it resolved that the bishops of the USCCB encourage the Holy Father to release all the documentation that can be released consistent with canon and civil law regarding the misconduct of Archbishop (Theodore) McCarrick. As they debated the wording, the National Catholic Register reports, they could not even agree on the inclusion of the word soon.

Even the watered-down resolution was rejected 137 to 83, with three bishops abstaining. Want to know how your bishop voted? You cant. When I asked the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for the roll call vote, a spokesman replied, Sorry, the votes are anonymous so we dont know who voted for what. Thats their idea of transparency.

The situation in Rome is no better. This year, Francis reportedly informed Boston Cardinal Sean OMalley that he would not authorize a full-fledged investigation into the McCarrick coverup. In 2015, OMalley and a special Vatican advisory group Francis appointed him to lead made a simple recommendation: If any Vatican office receives a letter from an abuse survivor, it must acknowledge the letter. The pope approved the recommendation, but Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Vaticans Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has refused to comply  with no consequences from the pope.

The pope also agreed in 2015 to create a new tribunal, including laymen, to judge bishops who ignore or cover up sexual abuse. But a year later, he changed his mind. After an intense dialogue, Muller said, it was concluded that to confront possible criminal negligence by bishops we already had the competence of the Congregation for Bishops. Translation: The bishops can police themselves.

No, they cant. How is it that, 17 years after the abuse scandal first broke, we are still learning new information from grand juries and whistleblowers about the scandalous conduct of the bishops? Until every corrupt bishop who ignored or actively covered up abuse is exposed and removed, the laity should shun the bishops Lenten appeals. When your pastor hands you an envelope, hand it back empty  or better yet, send your bishop a letter explaining that he will get no financial support until the conspiracy of silence is ended and corrupt bishops are held to account.

I offer this advice with a heavy heart, because I am, and will always remain, a faithful Catholic. I will never leave the church for one simple reason: I will not let Judas separate me from Jesus. But lets be clear: There are Judases in the ranks of todays successors of the apostles. They covered up or ignored sexual misconduct and moved around predator priests  and continue to do so. They made secret payouts to victims while requiring them to sign confidentiality agreements. They were told about McCarricks serial abuses and did nothing  in many cases because McCarrick helped them rise to the powerful positions they now hold.

The church is not a democracy, nor should it be. It exists to spread the views of its founder, not its followers. But that does not mean that the laity must tolerate the bishops who have overlooked, ignored or covered up abuse. We must demand every bishop who did so be held to account and removed from office. Clearly the outcry of the victims is not enough. The only way we can get accountability is by voting with our pocketbooks.

Some may object that the bishops Lenten appeals fund many good causes. Theres a simple solution: bypass the bishops and give directly to the many wonderful Catholic charities that help the poor and vulnerable. At the National Catholic Register, Simcha Fisher has a list of nearly two dozen worthy Catholic charitable groups dedicated to aiding the destitute, the disabled, the aged, the persecuted, the widowed, the unwanted and the unborn.

Give them what you would normally give to the bishops. Give more. But until church leaders cleanse themselves of the stench of corruption, boycott the bishops.

@marcthiessen
Contrary to what some may be saying, America is already great, and it always has been. We are among the largest democracies in the world. We have the most powerful military. Were free to worship as we choose. We have a free press. And were free to speak our mind, even if what we say sometimes is ridiculous, uninformed or harebrained.

But what really makes America great is its people. People like world-famous chef Jose Andres, a Spanish immigrant who emerged as a leader of the disaster relief efforts in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017. He organized a grassroots movement of chefs and volunteers to establish communications, food supplies and other resources, and started serving meals. His organization, World Central Kitchen, served more than 2 million meals during the first month after the hurricane devastated Puerto Rico.

People like those in the Cajun Navy, informal ad-hoc volunteer groups of private boat owners who assist in search-and-rescue efforts in Louisiana and adjacent areas. Formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, they were reactivated in the aftermaths of the 2016 Louisiana floods, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma and the 2018 Hidalgo County flood. They have been credited with rescuing thousands during those disasters.

People like those who volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that helps build affordable houses for low-income families to call home. Since its founding in 1976, Habitat for Humanity has built thousands of affordable homes for American families in the U.S. and worldwide. Here in San Antonio, Habitat for Humanity volunteers build 40 to 50 affordable family homes every year.

And people like Brinley Williams, the 7-year-old from Hugo, Okla., who was given an American Girl doll when she was in the hospital for kidney problems and decided that she wanted to give back to others. So she sold lemonade and helped out in a restaurant to raise money to buy dolls for sick kids in St. Francis childrens hospital. She and her parents even customized the dolls so that theyd resemble the girls receiving them.

America achieved its greatness, and continues to demonstrate its greatness, by being a mosaic of different cultures. This country of Native Americans and immigrants who came from around the world (albeit some involuntarily) absorbs elements of different cultures to create a whole thats greater than the sum of its parts. E pluribus unum. Out of many we are one one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We have an amazing capacity for adjustment, self-correction and renewal, unequaled among the nations of the world. We possess a deep commitment to, and respect for, each persons inalienable rights as inscribed in our founding charter. It is the basis for Martin Luther King Jr.s I Have a Dream speech.

Our American birthright belongs to everyone.

President Harry S. Truman: America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.

Condoleezza Rice: The essence of America  that which really unites us  is not ethnicity or nationality or religion. It is an idea  and what an idea it is: That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things.

Yes, we can. And thats how I see it.

Larry Johnson is an author and motivational speaker. He is available for luncheon talks or workshop presentations. You can contact him via email at larjo1@prodigy.net or visit his website at www.mexicobytouch.com
This 2018 Parade of Homes Masterpiece sits on a gorgeous lot with stunning long range Hill Country Views! The spacious and open plan makes this the perfect house for entertaining. Full stacked sliding doors and butted glass windows across the entire rear of the home allows you to capture the amazing views that truly define Texas Hill Country and Miralomas.

Mike established Mike Hollaway Custom Homes in 1992, since then, we have become one of San Antonio's most respected homebuilders, with a reputation for designing beautiful and unique homes that reflect the needs and desires of our homeowners. Look to us for individualized service tailored to meet your specific needs.
Scandinavian Home has paid advertising banners and product affiliate links, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you click through and buy an item - these are stated with and asterisk and at the bottom of each post.
The US State Department has explained the extension of sanctions against Zimbabwe. The departments deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino answers questions on Zimbabwe sanctions from American media during a press briefing on Thursday in Washington DC.

Part of the questions and answer session is given below:

QUESTION: And then on Zimbabwe, please, yesterday the  or the day before that the President Trump extended the sanctions against Zimbabwe. It comes at a time when African leaders want those sanctions lifted. Is there any  why did the President extend them, and is there any discussions going on with the new government to lift some or all of them?

MR PALLADINO: Right, so youre referring to the March 4th renewal?

QUESTION: Correct, which the President put out.

MR PALLADINO: Right, which would maintain targeted sanctions on individuals and entities in Zimbabwe that are responsible for undermining democratic processes and institutions.

QUESTION: Correct.

MR PALLADINO: The basis of that is something that is renewed annually and has been done for  yeah, the basis  that is the basis of law.

QUESTION: I dont know. Thats why Im asking.

MR PALLADINO: Yes. Its done under  its in pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which are various executive orders under that  that fall under that.

QUESTION: So you believe that nothing has improved under the new government?

MR PALLADINO: I would say that these sanctions target certain persons and senior  who are senior officials in the Government of Zimbabwe that have participated in human rights abuses related to political repression, or theyve engaged in facilitating public corruption by senior officials. This is not comprehensive sanctions; this is targeted sanctions against specific individuals. And the renewal that was  that took place on the 4th is  does not add any new names. It is simply a renewal of the sanctions that were  targeted sanctions that were already in place, and Ill  does that 

QUESTION: So nothings improved?

MR PALLADINO: We believe that President Emmerson Mnangagwa has yet to implement the political and economic overhaul required to improve the countrys reputation with the community of nations, and with the United States, frankly. The actions of the targeted individuals continue to undermine Zimbabwes democratic processes, and Ill stop there. So we  well, were also seriously concerned about the ongoing human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

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The European Union has called upon the government of Zimbabwe to reveal what happened to missing activist Itai Dzamara who was abducted by suspected members of the Central Intelligence Organisation on the 9th of March 2015 while having a haircut at a local barber shop in Harare.

In a statement on Friday, the EU called on the governmrnt to do justice to the case which has remained unexplained four years on.

Four years after his abduction, Itai Dzamara remains missing. We call on Government of Zimbabwe to shed light on his fate and serve justice, and to tackle all human rights violations decisively, in line with Zimbabwes repeated commitment to human rights, freedoms and national healing, the mission said Friday.

Itai Dzamara, who was also a journalist, was kidnapped by five men as he left a barbershop near his home in Harare. He has not been seen since then. He had staged a series of demonstrations against the former president Robert Mugabe calling on him to step down accusing him of running down the country.

A protestor and fellow activist Dirk Frey, described his compatriot as brave and courageous.

He gave us the courage even when we were beaten, arrested and tortured. He wanted a free, fair and just Zimbabwe, Frey said.

We and our children deserve a just Zimbabwe. It will not be handed on a silver platter, we must fight for it.

The government has denied involvement in Dzamaras disappearance and has said it had no information on his fate.

The global rights watchdog Amnesty International called on authorities in Zimbabwe to scale up the search for Dzamara.

People dont just vanish into thin air. Someone out there knows what happened to Itai Dzamara, said Deprose Muchena, the regional director for Amnesty in Southern Africa.

The government must scale up Itais search. Impunity must not be allowed to thrive, he said in a statement.

But exiled Professor Jonathan Moyo has always insisted that Dzamara was abducted by the MID under the command of Brigadier General Mike Sango.

I got to know from a high level source with access to the information; that ZDFs Military Intelligence Department (MID) abducted Itai Dzamara & subjected him to extreme torture like in the gukurahundi & State of Emergency days. Mnangagwa, Chiwenga & Mohadi know about this!

The MID officer who oversaw this is Brigadier General Mike Sango who was then CID & is now Zimbabwes Ambassador to Russia. Why did they do this? To build a case against President Mugabe; as they did on 7 March 2007 with their savage attack on the late Morgan Tsvangirai! Prof Moyo said on Twitter last year.

https://twitter.com/ProfJNMoyo/status/1017897433349672960

Mugabe who presided over Zimbabwes slide from a regional breadbasket to a perennial food importer, stepped down following a military intervention in 2017 November.

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(As delivered)

Minister Czaputowicz, friends, its really a great pleasure to be here and to be able to address you on this occasion where we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Poland joining NATO, and especially to be here together with you, and seeing some people who were actually very active and instrumental in making that happen back in 1999. I see Madeleine Albright at the front row, so there are people in this room who actually made that happen.

It is hard to understand the impact of the enlargement of NATO, the importance, how it has transformed Europe. Because I remember, as a very young , active politician in Norway, we actually travelled to what we then called East Europe, during the Cold War, and that was a total different world. I was from Norway, we went into East Germany and Poland, and it was like, you know, going to a total different world. And if anyone had told me back then that, not so much later, Poland and many other of the former Warsaw Pact members were going to be members of NATO, I would have regarded that as absolutely impossible.

Then, today, this is the fact, and it shows that change is possible, and the enlargement of the European Union and the enlargement of NATO has really transformed Europe. And therefore, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Poland joining NATO is really something worth celebrating. And therefore it is also great to be together with you, and to say that what we have seen over the last two decades, with Poland as a member, is that Poland is a very committed Ally, an Ally which is contributing to our shared security, to our collective defence in many different ways. And it helps to strengthen NATO and helps to build the transatlantic partnership. And thats something which we really welcome.

Poland is contributing to NATO in many different ways. Poland is present in one of our battlegroups in Latvia, Enhanced Forward Presence. Poland is conducting air policing out from Lithuania. Poland is part of our Tailored Forward Presence in Romania, the NATO presence there. And Poland is also contributing to different NATO missions and operations, including in Afghanistan, our training mission in Iraq and also in Kosovo. And then, Poland is also leading by example by investing 2 percent of GDP on defence.

So, by doing all this, Poland is helping to strengthen our Alliance. At the same time, we see that NATO is also committed to Poland, by the fact that now Poland is covered by NATOs security guarantees and NATO has increased its presence in Poland with one of the battlegroups; we have four battlegroups, three in the Baltic countries and one in Poland. Thats the first time we have combat-ready troops in this part of the Alliance. Then the United States has a rotational armoured brigade. And then we have the site for missile defence in Poland, we have more exercises, we have investments in infrastructure, and we have also other kinds of NATO presence in Poland. So I think what we see is that Poland joining NATO has been good for Poland and, of course, also good for the NATO Alliance.

It was a sovereign decision to join the Alliance. And it is an important message from NATO that our door is open. And this year we signed the accession protocol for North Macedonia. In 2017 Montenegro joined. And as you know, after Poland joined, together with Hungary and the Czech Republic in 99, many other countries have joined  so we have actually almost doubled in size, more than doubled since our founding in 1949: 12 members to now 29. Most likely it will be 30 within not so many months, when the accession protocol with North Macedonia is ratified in all the Allied countries. So this enlargement has been a decision by sovereign nations and NATO respects those decisions and we send a very clear signal to all those who are protesting and saying that the enlargement of NATO is a provocation. Its not a provocation. It is the sovereign decision of a sovereign nation and we respect those sovereign decisions, because every nation has the right to make its own decisions on its own path. And thats exactly what Poland did when they decided to join NATO, and the NATO Allies welcomed them back in 99.

But, as you know, this year we are not only celebrating the 20th anniversary of Poland joining NATO, but also the 15th anniversary of a lot of other Allies joining NATO in 2004, and the 10th anniversary of Croatia and Albania, joining in 2009. And then we celebrate the 70th anniversary of NATO, the founding of NATO. The paradox is that despite that we are growing bigger, more countries are joining the Alliance, despite that we have been the most successful alliance in history, we see questions being asked about the strength and the relevance of the transatlantic bond, both in Europe and in North America.

And this is a paradox, because I have to admit that, of course, we see differences. We see disagreements between NATO Allies on important issues such as trade, climate change, the Iran nuclear deal, burden sharing and other issues. And we have to admit that these are differences on important issues. But the paradox is that despite these differences, North America and Europe are doing more together within NATO and on security and defence than they have done for many years.

We see that we have, for the first time, deployed battlegroups, increased our military presence in the eastern part of the Alliance. We have significantly, together, with North America, the United States, increased the readiness of our forces, tripled the size of the NATO Response Force and now we are adding even more.

We want what we call the Four Thirties initiative: 30 battalions, 30 warships and 30 air squadrons ready within 30 days, adding to the high readiness forces of NATO.

We are transforming, adapting the command structure with a new Command in Norfolk Virginia for the Atlantic, a new Command in Ulm in Germany for European mobility and logistics and the movement of equipment and forces throughout Europe.

We are stepping up the fight against terror.

We have made enormous progress in the fight against Daesh. The global coalition, NATO is part of that, all NATO Allies are part of that, its a transatlantic effort.

And we have seen some progress in Afghanistan, meaning that we have transformed our operation there from a combat operation to a train, assistant and advise operation, based on the idea that in the long run its better that we are able to train local forces, help them to stabilise their own country, instead of NATO being engaged in big or large combat operations. And hopefully we can see some outcome of the peace talks, which are now taking place between United States and Taliban, closely consulted with NATO.

So we do more together in that sense, but we also see that, contrary to what many people believe, or to a kind of public perception, the United States is not reducing their presence in Europe. The United States is committed to the security of Europe. Its right that after the end of the Cold War, the United States reduced its military presence in Europe  and that was quite natural because tensions went down.

But over the last years we have seen that United States is again increasing its military presence in Europe. The last US battle tank left Europe in December 2013. Now the United States is back with a full armoured brigade, many battle tanks, in Europe, actually rotational, based here in Poland. Thats not a sign of weakened commitment, thats a sign of strengthened commitment. The funding for the European Deterrence Initiative has been increased by 40 percent, the US funding for US military activities in Europe. More exercises, we had the Trident Juncture exercise, with a lot of participation from North America, Canada and the United States, the biggest exercise NATO has conducted since the end of the Cold War, last fall in Norway.

We have four battlegroups, as I said, two of them are led by North American Allies: one by the United States in Poland, and the other led by Canada in Latvia. Thats not less North American commitment to Europe, thats more North American commitment to Europe. Then the European Allies are stepping up, because after years of cutting defence spending, theyre now increasing. All European Allies have stopped the cuts. All European Allies and Canada have started to increase.

And since 2016 they will have added 100 billion extra for defence spending by the end of next year. This is also recognised in Washington. So, yes, there are differences, yes there are disagreements on many issues. But yes, when it comes to NATO, security, were actually strengthening our partnership. And, for me, it is important to convey this because perception matters. If the perception is that we are not strong, if the perception is that we are not standing together, then we reduce deterrence. And the strength of NATO, the deterrence we are delivering every day, the purpose of that is to prevent conflict, is to preserve the peace. And if there is any misunderstanding about that, we are actually increasing the risk of conflict, miscalculations and attack against a NATO Ally.

So therefore Im focused on the reality, but also how we are presenting the reality because deterrence is in the mind of your potential adversary. Then I would like to say that we see the need for transatlantic cooperation in many areas: the fight against terrorism that has been a transatlantic effort. Addressing some of the big new challenges  cyber, new technology  transatlantic.

We see China as a rising power, theres a great potential for cooperation, for partnership, but there are also some challenges we have to address together. But then we see a very urgent challenge, which really is a transatlantic challenge. And that is the Intermediate Range Forces. Its the US that signed the INF Treaty back in 1987, so its a US-Russia agreement, but it has direct impact on European security. So theres no way we can deal with it without being a transatlantic alliance.

And you know how important that INF Treaty has been. Its shaped understanding of security issues for a whole generation of politicians. The deployment of the Russian SS-20 missiles in the 70s, and then the NATO response with the Pershing and Cruise missiles. And I think we . . . it was hard to imagine how much we welcomed and appreciated the INF agreement signed in 1987, not only reducing or limiting the number of missiles, but banning all of them. All intermediate range missiles were banned by the INF Treaty. Now Russia is violating that treaty. It was the Obama administration, almost six years ago, that first raised that concern with Russia. All Allies have expressed their concerns and all Allies have agreed, and many of them independently, based on their own information that Russia is in violation. The new SSC-8 missile is nuclear capable, hard to detect, can reach European cities and reduce the warning time  and by that, also, it is reducing the threshold for any potential use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. So this is really serious. Russia still has the opportunity to come back into compliance. We call on them to do so. But, at the same time, we have started to plan for a world without the INF Treaty, with more Russian missiles in Europe. Its far too early to say what the outcome will be of that process in NATO, but what I can say is that we will be measured, we will be coordinated, it will be a NATO response, and we dont have any intention of deploying new nuclear ground launch missile systems in Europe. My message about this is that the INF issue is a serious challenge.

But my message is also that it highlights and once again reminds us of the importance of the transatlantic bond, because the only way we can deal with this as a transatlantic alliance, North America and Europe standing together.

So, 70 years of NATO, a great success; 20 years of Polish membership, a great success. And there are many more successful years to come. Thank you so much for the attention.
(Natural News) Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris) is a vegetable that belongs to the Chenopodiaceae family  the same family spinach, beets, and quinoa belong to. Its leaf blades are red or green, while its stalks can be red, white, or yellow. Despite its name, its not native to Switzerland  it was discovered by a Swiss botanist in 1753. Today, it is also referred to by other names, such as spinach beet, silverbeet, sea beet, and crab beet.

This leafy green is loaded with powerful antioxidants  having up to 13 different polyphenol antioxidants, 19 different types of betaxanthin antioxidants, and nine types of betacyanins  which are responsible for many of its health benefits, such as:

Enhancing nerve and muscle function: Swiss chard is rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium, and other minerals that keep the nervous and muscular systems healthy. Magnesium, in particular, helps enhance circulation and reduces pain and muscle cramps brought about by magnesium deficiency. In addition, this mineral also wards off stress-related symptoms that can impair the nervous system. When the functioning of the nervous system is disrupted, health problems such as headaches, mood swings, sleep problems, diabetes, and high blood pressure occur. Improving eye health: Swiss chard contains zeaxanthin and lutein  carotenoids which are best known for protecting the eyes. These two have the ability to absorb damaging blue light that enters the eye before it can harm the retina. They can protect against age-related eye disorders like glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, and night blindness. In addition, Swiss chard contains betalains that also protect the nervous system, including specialized nerve signaling that is important for communications between the brain and eyes. Keeping the heart healthy: This antioxidant-rich vegetable also improves heart health in many ways by simply reducing inflammation, which increases the risk of stroke, heart attacks, and other forms of cardiovascular disease. Inflammation also makes conditions like high cholesterol and high blood pressure worse. In addition to its antioxidant content, Swiss chards trace minerals  calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, and potassium  help improve blood vessel health, enhance blood flow, and regulate heartbeat. In a study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, researchers found that foods rich in nitrates, including Swiss chard, provide vascular benefits. They found that nitrate-rich foods inhibit platelet aggregation, lower blood pressure, and improve or preserve endothelial function. (Related: Eat more Swiss chard to enhance endurance and lower your blood pressure.) Managing diabetes: People with prediabetes, diabetes, and other types of insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome will benefit from eating Swiss chard. It contains alpha-lipoic acid, which is an antioxidant that has been reported to increase insulin sensitivity, lower blood sugar levels, and prevent oxidative stress-induced changes in diabetics. Evidence also shows that this antioxidant can reduce autonomic or peripheral neuropathy in those with diabetes. Moreover, Swiss chard contains certain flavonoids that help inhibit alpha-glucosidase activity, which breaks down carbohydrates into simple sugars. This, in turn, aids in blood sugar control. In addition, Swiss chard has a positive effect on pancreatic beta cells, which regulate insulin production. Strengthening the bones: Swiss chard also helps keep the bones healthy because of its vitamin K and calcium content. These nutrients are important for maintaining skeletal structure, mineral density, and bone strength. Warding off cancer: Research shows that Swiss chard helps fight cancer because of its anti-cancer nutrients, such as quercetin, beta-carotene, vitexin, various betalains, carotenoids, and chlorophyll. In a study published in the journal Phytochemical Analysis, researchers found that Swiss chard extract can stop the proliferation of human cancer cells.

Reap the benefits of Swiss chard by adding it to your diet. You can use it in many dishes, including salads, soups, pasta, and dips; add it to your smoothie; and make it into healthy chips.

Sources include:

FoodsForBetterHealth.com

Healthline.com
(Natural News) Leaked audio featuring yet another official from Google bashing the Right reveals his desire for the company to use its vast economic might to steer the conservative movement in a way that serves the political objectives and interests of the Left.

Adam Kovacevich, Googles senior director of U.S. public policy, described the recent annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as a sideshow Circus in the leaked audio, in which he also made the case that the tech giant should continue to sponsor future conferences to steer the conservative movement away from nationalistic and incendiary comments.

As reported by Breitbart News:

The comments came to light in leaked audio files allegedly of a company-wide meeting at Google, part of which is now exclusively reported by Breitbart News. Another part of the transcript was released last Friday on Tucker Carlson Tonight, while further snippets revealing Googles funding of establishment conservative think-tanks were published by the left-leaning tech magazine Wired in December.

The meeting allegedly occurred after Googles 2018 CPAC sponsorship triggered an angry response from Left-wing Google employees. Breitbart News reported exclusively on the internal rebellion at the time, noting that radical Leftists inside the company accused CPAC of ethno-nationalism and hate.

Google, so far, has not refuted the authenticity of the audio, Breitbart noted, but then why should it? No one else is reporting on what was said and certainly, the Left-wing mainstream media would applaud Kovacevichs suggestion. (Related: Study: Google, Facebook absolutely do have power to sway elections; is this why conservatives are being censored?)

According to clips of the audio reviewed by Breitbart News, Kovacevich said CPAC was a conference that had a dual identity, including one in which it serves as a premier gathering for a whole swath of conservatives including national security conservatives, economic conservatives, libertarians, Log Cabin Republicans, deficit hawks, [and] small government advocates.

But, according to an audio clip, on the flip side he disparaged CPAC which featured a sideshow circus-like element which CPAC organizers have intentionally cultivated sometimes, inviting outrageous figures that say incendiary and offensive things, I think in order to draw more attention and controversy to the conference.

Google doesnt really want to be a company for everyone

Kovacevich said he wanted to be clear that he does not agree with those things because we abhor and rebuke the offensive things that are said at the conference. He added: Those things obviously dont align with Googles values and our approach. And I think its challenging for us to reconcile those two identities of CPAC.

In another clip that was provided to Breitbart News, Kovacevich hit on the importance of continuing to reach out to conservatives but only as a means of countering conservative media. He noted that without being able to craft GOP and conservative messaging, Right-leaning publications would continue to push stories detailing Googles anti-conservative bias, which could be harmful to our mission of building products for everyone.

Google, which owns YouTube, clearly doesnt want to be a tech company for everyone. The bulk of its employees, it appears, align with the Democratic Left. Time and again, the companys officials have been exposed as critical of conservatives even as its social media properties have been caught banning conservative voices and media, and always under the false guise that were somehow less truthful and honest or that we traffic in fake news (when really, its the mainstream media Google supports that does that).

The good thing about leaks like this latest one is that they further demonstrate what Google has become  a Left-wing hate factory so intolerant of other viewpoints it is willing to go to any lengths to circumvent those viewpoints.

The bad thing is, the more Google officials are exposed as agents of authoritarian Marxism, the more that will drive them underground and theyll simply plot our demise in secret.

Where are the Trump administrations regulatory arms? Where is the Federal Election Commission? The Federal Communications Commission? Where is the Securities and Exchange Commission?

Political activism is one thing. Suppression of voices through fraudulent means, however, is something else entirely. Until Google is made to pay a steep price for plotting against its users, the company will just keep doing it.

Read more about the tech giants dishonest and propaganda campaigns at TechGiants.news and Propaganda.news.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com

NewsTarget.com
(Natural News) Researchers at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) recently discovered that in the case of some grape varieties, the suspect pathogens can adapt and cause harm anyway.

There are new varieties of grape that are resistant to pests like grapevine downy mildew that are already in the market. However, experts dont know the extent of this pathogens current ability to adapt. Researchers tried to come up with a way of showing how mildew in general can adapt rather quickly and still manage to affect local farms despite a good level of overall global resistance. The findings of the study have been published in the journal Evolutionary Applications.

One of the grapevine varieties that the study focused on is grapevine downy mildew, also known as Plasmopara viticola. Its an air-borne disease that highly affects certain cultivated grape varieties. Its a major pest, and certain grape varieties like Vitis vinifera cant defend itself against it, even as it adapts to its new surroundings after originally being imported from the U.S. to Europe during the 19th century.

To solve this problem, the current method is using fungicide over the course of an entire growing season, with the plant being treated as many as 10 times.

As an alternative, the researchers started using resistant grape varieties. Based on their results, they concluded that this new method could reduce the use of fungicides by up to 90 percent.

Managing the resistance

As part of the research, new ways to sustainably manage grape variety resistance have been developed. This is due in part to the fact that, while some level of disease resistance comes naturally to certain grape varieties, the effectiveness of the resistance becomes compromised after just a few years because of virulent strains.

To find out just how destructive the suspect pathogens can be after encountering resistance, researchers collected mildew from the resistant vines and compared it with naive strains that havent encountered resistance yet. All of the samples were collected from Switzerland and Germany, where a number of resistant grape varieties have already been planted. The results revealed that having partial resistance in the vines is globally effective at keeping mildew at bay. Whats interesting is that the resistant variety strains were shown to be more aggressive when compared with the naive strains.

After testing, the researchers found that pore production fell by as much as 92 percent in varieties with partial resistance when compared to that found vulnerable varieties. Meanwhile, adaptation in mildew populations account for an almost 26 percent reduction in resistance effectiveness. This is part of whats known as partial resistance erosion, where the mildew can adapt rather quickly even if not fully, over the course of less than five years.

The research concludes that further experiments are needed to confirm and gather more details about the results, especially with regards to the difference in aggressiveness between virulent and naive mildew strains.

For its part, INRA says it will soon release new resistant varieties of grape in the market. As such, the results of the study highlight the importance of considering the durability of a resistance, regardless of what grape variety is being grown or sold. The researchers will continue to experiment and come up with new ways to extend or enhance resistance in the meantime.

Sources include:

INRA.fr

BiomedCentral.com
(Natural News) If all vaccines were truly safe and effective as establishment health authorities and government goons routinely claim, then 36 infants wouldnt have died from a 6-in-1 vaccine known as Infanrix Hexa, developed by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), over a two-year period.

Confidential documents recently unearthed and made public by the website Initiative Citoyenne show that there were at least 1,742 adverse reactions, 503 of which were classified as serious, as well as the aforementioned 36 deaths, that occurred between October 23, 2009, and October 22, 2011  but that were never reported by GSK.

The eye-opening information contained in this 1,271-page document reveals that at least 1.5 deaths per month occurred in association with Infanrix Hexa  and these were just the deaths that were reported. Seeing as how only 1-10 percent of vaccine adverse reactions even end up in the official statistics, the number of deaths could be far higher.

According to that data that is publicly available, most of the babies who were reported to have died from Infanrix Hexa passed away within the first few days following vaccination. Three of the infants reportedly died within hours of receiving the vaccine.

Its not that 14 deaths were recorded by GSK between October 2009 and end in October 2011 as we had originally calculated but 36 (14 from 2010 to 2011 and 22 from 2009 to 2010), Initiative Citoyenne reported.

In addition to these 36 deaths [there were] at least 37 other deaths (sudden death mainly), bringing the total to at least 73 deaths since the launch of the vaccine in 2000, and again, this concerns only the death by sudden death, no further recovery of under-reporting.

For more vaccine-related news, be sure to check out Vaccines.news.

Infanrix Hexa also causes AUTISM

This roughly 24-month snapshot of injuries and deaths caused by Infanrix Hexa is supplemented by research that came out several years later linking the vaccine to permanent autism and brain damage.

As we reported at the time, Italian authorities ruled that this multivalent vaccine, which contains deadly chemicals like thimerosal (mercury), aluminum, formaldehyde (rat poison), genetically-modified viral components, and a slew of chemical preservatives, was responsible for causing a young boy to develop autism after receiving the three recommended doses of the jab.

Italys Ministry of Health at first rejected a petition put forth by the boys parents, prompting them to file a lawsuit  unlike in the United States, vaccine corporations are held liable for injuries and deaths caused by their products in Italy.

These parents ultimately won their case, setting a precedent at least in Europe that vaccines can, and do, cause autism, and that they arent 100 percent safe and effective as Big Vaccine is notorious for claiming.

Italy also ruled that MMR causes autism, despite industry claims to the contrary

Several years prior to this ruling, which was challenged by Italys Ministry of Health, an Italian judge by the name of Lucio Ardigo made a similar ruling with regards to the MMR vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella.

A boy who was vaccinated with MMR was damaged by irreversible complications due to vaccination (with trivalent MMR), read the official court documents associated with the case.

In other words, MMR does cause autism, and parents who wish to protect their children from potentially incurring permanent, lifelong brain damage would do best to avoid it entirely  along with all other vaccines, none of which have ever been scientifically proven to be either safe or effective.

Considering this information, is it any wonder that babies are dying after receiving vaccinations containing these ingredients? comments vaccine expert Christina England, writing for GreenMedInfo.

GlaxoSmithKline may try and hide the facts from us but they cannot hide them forever. Infanrix Hexa should be removed from the market immediately.

Sources for this article include:

GreenMedInfo.com

NaturalNews.com
Idol has sold more than 40 million albums and has nine Top 40 singles in the states and 10 in the U.K. The most recent releases include the studio album Kings & Queens of The Underground, the vinyl-only BFI Live and the 2018 remix collection Vital Idol: Revitalized which debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard Dance Chart.
(Natural News) Researchers from the Foro Italico University of Rome found evidence that regular intake of quercetin, a natural flavonoid found abundantly in vegetables and fruits, can prevent damage to red blood cells (erythrocytes) caused by oxidants. This finding was published recently in Nutrition Research following a clinical trial.

Quercetin is known to modulate the signaling pathways and gene expression involved in animal and human cells, thus exhibiting antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties.

Little is known about its effect on the redox status of humans, particularly in combination with strenuous exercise.

The researchers wanted to find out if regular consumption of quercetin supplements would be beneficial to the redox homeostasis of healthy persons doing eccentric exercise.

Fourteen individuals were recruited for a two-week controlled, randomized, crossover, intervention trial. Each one took one gram of quercetin or placebo each day.

Blood samples were taken before, after two weeks of quercetin consumption, and after a bout of eccentric exercise.

Quercetin significantly reduced erythrocytes lipid peroxidation levels and their susceptibility to hemolysis induced by the free radical generator AAPH, while no differences in antioxidant enzyme activities and glutathione homeostasis were found between the test and control groups.

After a single bout of eccentric exercise, quercetin supplementation improved redox status as shown by the reduced/oxidized glutathione ratio and reduced thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARs) levels both in erythrocytes and plasma.

Overall, the results suggest that regular consumption of quercetin supplements protects red blood cells (erythrocytes) from damage by oxidants prior to and after strenuous eccentric exercise.

For more information about quercitin and similar supplements, visit Phytonutrients.news.

Journal Reference:

Duranti G, Ceci R, Patrizio F, Sgro P, Luigi LD, Sabatini S, Felici F, Bazzucchi I. CHRONIC CONSUMPTION OF QUERCETIN REDUCES ERYTHROCYTES OXIDATIVE DAMAGE: EVALUATION AT RESTING AND AFTER ECCENTRIC EXERCISE IN HUMANS. Nutrition Research. February 2018;50. DOI: 10.1016/j.nutres.2017.12.002
(Natural News) Just as we warned would happen, the tech giants are now moving aggressively to ban all speech that contradicts whatever official position is decided to be the truth by the corrupt establishment. This week, Facebook announced it would block all content on Facebook that questions the official dogma on vaccines, which falsely insists that vaccines have never harmed anyone (a hilarious lie), that vaccines contain only safe ingredients (a blatant deception) and that vaccines always work on everyone (another laughable lie).

Facebook is achieving this by labeling vaccine awareness information misinformation or hoaxes. At the top of the list is the assertion that vaccines are linked to autism  something that even the CDCs own top whistleblower scientist reveals to be true, yet the vaccine industry claims its all a hoax (in order to cover of the crimes of medical violence against children that are being committed by the vaccine pushers).

Notably, tech giants are now banning vaccine truth information by labeling it misinformation in exactly the same way they ban conservative content by labeling it hate speech. They simply invent a false category to justify the ban, all while crushing the free speech of users (and ultimately leading to the vaccine maiming of millions of innocent children). Under this twisted system of speech policing, they can ban any content they dont like by simply labeling it false or hateful, even if its true and important.

Dont like infanticide and the killing of human infants after they are born? Thats hate speech against women, Facebook will soon declare. And youll be banned from talking about abortion.

Concerned about fluoride and how it harms developing brains and lowers the IQs of children? That will be labeled a hoax by Facebook, even though it is scientifically verified through multiple studies to be true.

The censorship trick: Limiting content to authoritative information

Monika Bickert, Facebooks vice president for global policy management, said the social media network would reduce the distribution of false data and provide users with authoritative information about vaccinations, reports AFP, via Breitbart.

Of course, authoritative information means whatever propaganda the vaccine deep state is pushing at the moment. The vaccine industry is steeped in conflicts of interest and a long history of suppressing scientists and whistleblowers who attempt to warn the public about the toxic effects of vaccine ingredients such as Thimerosal (containing mercury), aluminum adjuvants, MSG, formaldehyde and other neurotoxins that are openly admitted by the CDC to be ingredients used in vaccines administered to children.

Just recently, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons denounced mandatory vaccines, citing no rigorous safety studies and warning about vaccine industry corruption of science. Their statement includes the following:

Manufacturers are virtually immune from product liability, so the incentive to develop safer products is much diminished. Manufacturers may even refuse to make available a product believed to be safer, such as monovalent measles vaccine in preference to MMR (measles-mumps-rubella). Consumer refusal is the only incentive to do better.

There are enormous conflicts of interest involving lucrative relationships with vaccine purveyors.

Research into possible vaccine adverse effects is being quashed, as is dissent by professionals.

Vaccines are neither 100% safe nor 100% effective. Nor are they the only available means to control the spread of disease.

Yet Facebook, under pressure from radical, deranged Democrat Adam Schiff, has now been bullied into banning conversations about vaccines in order to appease the vaccine industry and cover up its crimes.

This is only the beginning: Facebook will soon ban human opinions on cancer, GMOs, pesticides, fluoride, abortion and politics

The bigger picture in all this goes way beyond the issue of vaccines, of course. With this decision, Facebook is now signaling that it will ban all conversations or content that contradicts official positions on any topic. Those topics will very rapidly be expanded to include GMOs, cancer treatments, water fluoridation, politics, elections, abortions, pesticides and nutrition.

Its no longer difficult to imagine Facebook banning all conversations about nutrition, citing the absurd FDA position that there is no such thing as a nutrient which can prevent, cure or treat any disease or health condition. Thats the actual authoritative FDA position, so by the same logic that Facebook has applied to the vaccine debate, they could simply ban all posts about vitamin D, vitamin D, resveratrol, astaxanthin or any other supplement.

Imagine being banned from Facebook for saying that vitamin C boosts your immune function. Thats exactly whats coming.

Even worse, Facebook could declare that authoritative sources have concluded President Trump colluded with the Russians. Any human opinion that contradicted that authoritative source would be banned on Facebook.

Authoritative sources are often the most corrupt and misleading sources run by the globalist pharma establishment

The problem with Facebook relying on so-called authoritative sources for censorship is that such sources almost always represent the corrupt globalist, pro-pharma, pro-establishment point of view thats steeped in fraud, deception and falsehoods. Vaccines, for example, are so dangerous that the U.S. government has now paid out nearly $4 billion in awards to families of vaccine-damaged children, yet any mention of those government statistics which are openly published by HHS (VAERS.HHS.gov) will be falsely labeled a hoax by Facebook, since the vaccine industry falsely insists that vaccines have never harmed anyone.

Thus, truth become a hoax, but lies become the official truth. Facebook becomes the Ministry of Truth (or more accurately, the Ministry of Lies), and all voices of truth and reason are silenced in the name of protecting corrupt, harmful industries that sacrifice children for profit.

This is what it has all come to now, which is why people are leaving Facebook in huge numbers.

Before long, Facebook wont even allow any human opinions at all, and the social media site will be nothing but AI robots spewing official propaganda that meets the definition of authoritative information from the globalist establishment.

Stay informed about Facebook at FacebookCollapse.com or MarkZuckerberg.news.
(Natural News) In what would seem to be a rare instance of justice actually prevailing in this country, Christian cake baker Jack Phillips of Lakewood, Colorado, is finally in the clear following a relentless, multi-year assault by the LGBT mafia against his constitutional right to refuse to be compelled to write words on a cake that celebrate a lifestyle which contradicts Phillips religious beliefs.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser recently announced that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission has agreed to end its legal crusade against Phillips after the pro-LGBT group lost a critical First Amendment case before the Supreme Court last year.

Phillips first made national headlines for refusing to bake a custom cake for a same-sex wedding, which quickly landed him in the crosshairs of LGBT zealots who demanded that he bake the cake against his will. Phillips again made the news when he similarly refused to bake a custom cake celebrating a gender transition.

Rather than bow to the idol of LGBT against his religious beliefs, Phillips stood his ground in both instances and eventually prevailed. And now, thanks to the grace of God, Phillips has received the very good news that he will no longer face any more persecution from the Cult of LGBT, at least as far as the Colorado Civil Rights Commission is concerned.

When I set out to build my dream of opening my own cake shop, combining my love for art and baking in a family business, I never imagined this chapter would be part of the Masterpiece Cakeshop story, Phillips said a recent statement.

I have and will always serve everyone who comes into my shop; I simply cant celebrate events or express messages that conflict with my religious beliefs.

For more news about the sinister actions of the LGBT mafia, be sure to check out Gender.news and LiberalMob.com.

California judge similarly strikes down lawsuit against another Christian cake baker, siding with the First Amendment rather than rabid lesbians

This dropping of all litigation against Phillips by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission represents a major victory for religious freedom in America, which the LGBT mafia is actively trying to destroy. Theres simply no such thing as a truly free America, after all, if Americans are being forced to do things against their will, in violation of their religious convictions.

The Supreme Court affirmed that government hostility against people of faith is unconstitutional, and that Colorado was hostile to my faith, Phillips further added in his celebratory statement.

That hostility cost me 40 percent of my business and the wedding work that I love to do. But even after this, Colorado was relentless in seeking to crush me and my shop for living consistently with my deeply held religious beliefs.

This really great news for Phillips comes just weeks after a judge in California ruled that another cake baker by the name of Cathy Miller, owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, did nothing wrong when she similarly refused to bake a cake for a lesbian couple.

The two lesbians tried to sue Miller, only to have the case thrown back in their face on First Amendment grounds.

So long as the Constitution remains intact, every American small business-owner is fully justified in refusing service to whomever he or she chooses, thanks to the Bill of Rights. This is what free speech is all about, after all  but its abundantly clear at this point that the LGBT mafia despises free speech and wants to see it completely eliminated.

The state launched a new prosecution against me just weeks after the Supreme Court ruled in my favor. Yet today, as evidence of the states hostility toward my faith continues to emerge, the state announced that it will be dismissing its most recent complaint against me, Phillips further stated about his case.

Today is a win for freedom. Im very grateful and looking forward to serving my customers as I always have: with love and respect.

Sources for this article include:

PJMedia.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) is an antioxidant that has well-documented therapeutic effects. It has been proven to regenerate damaged and dying tissue of the liver and pancreas, and it also kills tumorous cells in those organs without harming healthy tissue.

Developed by Dr. Burt Berkson, the curative compound is capable of restoring the liver to a healthy and normal state. It has also been shown to successfully treat some of the deadliest forms of cancer known to man.

ALA was first used to treat patients in the terminal stages of liver disease. It successfully reversed the metastatic condition of the liver, which was previously believed to be impossible, and the patients made full recoveries.

The unique antioxidant was later applied to other equally serious conditions and lethal diseases. In particular, it has been tested on pancreatic cancer, and demonstrated similar levels of effectiveness on the cancerous tumors and metastatic tissue.

Despite its proven efficacy in treating terminal liver and pancreatic diseases, ALA has not received acknowledgement from the American medical community. Big Pharma, the pharmaceutical drug industry that is obsessed with profits, is not interested in a low-cost alternative treatment when it can make much more money off existing, expensive treatments. (Related: New study confirms broccoli to be extremely effective at battling liver cancer.)

The deadliest and fastest-spreading cancers in the world

Liver cancer and pancreatic cancer are two of the fastest-spreading and most lethal cancers. In the late stages of the diseases, the tumors will rapidly spread across the remaining healthy parts of the organ through the process of metastasis.

Metastatic cancer will even infect nearby organs, and the proximity between the liver and pancreas make one likely to get infected by the other. When the disease reaches this metastatic stage, the patient only has a few months to live.

Drastic methods are recommended by conventional medicine. The cancerous organ must be removed through surgery and a healthy  not to mention biologically compatible  organ from a donor or dead person must be transplanted into the patient.

A person will survive without a pancreas, but diabetes is practically assured due to the ensuing lack of natural insulin and other hormones that control blood sugar. And while a human can survive with only a partially functional liver for a while, he or she will not survive the complete shutdown of the organ.

An alternative means of reversing liver and pancreatic disease

Alpha lipoic acid therapy offers an alternative and effective way of reversing liver and pancreatic disease without the need for expensive and risky surgical transplants. The natural antioxidant has met success since its first trial in a Cleveland hospital, where Berkson treated two patients in the terminal stage of liver poisoning.

Since that successful initial experiment in the 1970s, Berkson has been exploring the capabilities of ALA in new treatments. All of his patients were in the terminal stages of their disease. Their cancer had metastatized and spread from the originally affected organ to its neighbor. Health care providers believed there was no saving them.

In two papers that he published in the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies, Berkson described how he applied ALA to patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer that had already infected their livers. After a few months of antioxidant treatment, he reported complete elimination of the cancerous tumors in the liver and pancreas.

Furthermore, the effects of ALA appeared to last a very long time. Berkson reported in a 2007 paper that one of his patients did not show any signs of his pancreatic cancer coming back for more than eight years. These and other studies support alpha lipoic acid as a treatment for liver and pancreatic diseases.

Sources include:

NaturalHealth365.com

LiveScience.com

YaletownNaturopathic.com
Compared to other animals, chimpanzees show tremendous variation across groups in their behavior - from the types of tools they use in their feeding behavior to the specific gestures they use in communication. Research in captivity suggests that chimpanzees acquire information socially, learning to do things in a certain way based on how it is done by other members of their group. Thus, much of the variation in the behavior among wild chimpanzee groups may be akin to "cultural" variation in humans.

As part of an international team led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Arizona State University researchers Kevin Langergraber and Kevin Lee were coauthors in a study examining the relationship between human impact and behavioral diversity in chimpanzees. This paper will be published online by the journal Science on Thursday, March 7, 2019.

Unfortunately, chimpanzee populations are declining across their range in equatorial Africa due to deforestation, hunting and diseases, many of which originate in humans. Much of the empirical work and debate surrounding the loss of biodiversity has focused on declines in genetic diversity or population size.

However, behavioral diversity is also a facet of biodiversity, but has not been considered as an additional concern until recently. Several international conservation organizations, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity or the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, of the United Nations Environment Programme, now call for the protection of biological diversity in its entirety, including behavioral diversity of culturally rich wildlife.

Due to limited empirical data, until now it had been unclear whether behavioral diversity would similarly be negatively affected by human impact.

"Chimpanzees are highly intelligent and adaptable creatures," says Lee, "and there have been various reports of chimpanzees, both in captivity and in free-living conditions, that have relatively more frequent contact with humans exhibiting some 'novel' behaviors not observed in more remote populations, but it was not clear how overall behavioral diversity would be affected."

The international research team compiled an unprecedented dataset on 31 chimpanzee behaviors across 144 social groups or communities, located throughout the entire geographic range of wild chimpanzees. Though part of this information was already available in the scientific literature, the team also conducted extensive fieldwork at 46 locations, including on a group near Langergraber's long-term research site in Kibale National Park, Uganda, while Lee led a separate team in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. The particular set of behaviors considered in this study included the extraction and consumption of termites, ants, algae, nuts and honey; the use of tools for hunting or digging for tubers; and the use of stones, pools and caves among several others.

The occurrence of behaviors at a given site was investigated with respect to an aggregate measure of human impact.

"We measured multiple levels of human impact, including human population density, roads, rivers and forest cover," says Langergraber. "The analysis revealed a strong and robust pattern - chimpanzee behavioral diversity was reduced by 88 percent when human impact was highest compared to locations with the least human impact."

There are a number of potential mechanisms that may explain the loss of behaviors observed. As is known for humans, population size plays a major role in maintaining cultural traits and a similar mechanism may function in chimpanzees. Chimpanzees may also avoid conspicuous behaviors that inform hunters about their presence, such as nut cracking. Habitat degradation and resource depletion may also reduce opportunities for social learning and thus prevent the transfer of local traditions from one generation to the next. Lastly, climate change may also be important, as it may influence the production of important food resources and make their availability unpredictable. Very likely a combination of these potential mechanisms has caused the observed reduction in chimpanzee behavioral diversity.
The Indonesian island of Sulawesi has been long known for its enigmatic fauna, including the deer-pig (babirusa) and the midget buffalo. However, small insects inhabiting the tropical forests have remained largely unexplored.

Such is the case for the tiny weevils of the genus Trigonopterus of which only a single species had been known from the island since 1885. Nevertheless, a recent study conducted by a team of German and Indonesian scientists resulted in the discovery of a total of 103 new to science species, all identified as Trigonopterus. The beetles are described in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

"We had found hundreds of species on the neighboring islands of New Guinea, Borneo and Java - why should Sulawesi with its lush habitats remain an empty space?" asked entomologist and lead author of the study Dr Alexander Riedel, Natural History Museum Karlsruhe(Germany).

In fact, Riedel knew better. Back in 1990, during a survey of the fauna living on rainforest foliage in Central Sulawesi, he encountered the first specimens that would become the subject of the present study. Over the next years, a series of additional fieldwork, carried out in collaboration with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), managed to successfully complete the picture.

"Our survey is not yet complete and possibly we have just scratched the surface. Sulawesi is geologically complex and many areas have never been searched for these small beetles," said Raden Pramesa Narakusumo, curator of beetles at the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense (MZB), Indonesian Research Center for Biology.

Why have all these beetles remained overlooked for so long?

Unlike the all-time favorite stag beetles or jewel beetles, tiny beetles that measure no more than 2-3 millimeters seem to have been attracting little interest from entomologists. Their superficial resemblance does not help identification either.

In fact, the modern taxonomic approach of DNA sequencing seems to be the only efficient method to diagnose these beetles. However, the capacity for this kind of work in Indonesia is very limited. While substantial evidence points to thousands of undescribed species roaming the forests in the region, there is only one full-time position for a beetle researcher at the only Indonesian Zoological Museum near Jakarta. Therefore, international collaboration is crucial.

103 beetle names

Coming up with as many as 103 novel names for the newly described species was not a particularly easy task for the researchers either. While some of the weevils were best associated with their localities or characteristic morphology, others received quite curious names.

A small greenish and forest-dwelling species was aptly named after the Star Wars character Yoda, while a group of three species were named after Asterix, Obelix and Idefix - the main characters in the French comics series The Adventures of Asterix. Naturally, Trigonopterus obelix is larger and more roundish than his two 'friends'.

Other curious names include T. artemis and T. satyrus, named after two Greek mythological characters: Artemis, the goddess of hunting and nature and Satyr, a male nature spirit inhabiting remote localities.

Additionally, the names of four of the newly described beetles pay tribute to renowned biologists, including Charles Darwin (father of the Theory of Evolution), Paul D. N. Hebert (implementer of DNA barcoding as a tool in species identification) and Francis H. C. Crick and James D. Watson (discoverers of the structure of DNA).

Six-legged deja vu

Back in 2016, in another weevil discovery, Dr Alexander Riedel and colleagues described four new species from New Britain (Papua New Guinea), which were also placed in the genus Trigonopterus. Similarly, no weevils of the group had been known from the island prior to that study. Interestingly, one of the novel species was given the name of Star Wars' Chewbacca in reference to the insect's characteristically dense scales reminiscent of Chewie's hairiness. Again, T. chewbacca and its three relatives were described in ZooKeys.

On the origin of Trigonopterus weevils

Sulawesi is at the heart of Wallacea, a biogeographic transition zone between the Australian and Asian regions. The researchers assume that Trigonopterus weevils originated in Australia and New Guinea and later reached Sulawesi. In fact, it was found that only a few populations would one day diversify into more than a hundred species. A more detailed study on the rapid evolution of Sulawesi Trigonopterus is currently in preparation.

Future research

To help future taxonomists in their work, in addition to their monograph paper in ZooKeys, the authors have uploaded high-resolution photographs of each species along with a short scientific description to the website Species ID.

"This provides a face to the species name, and this is an important prerequisite for future studies on their evolution," explained the researchers.

"Studies investigating such evolutionary processes depend on names and clear diagnoses of the species. These are now available, at least for the fauna of Sulawesi."
In January 2019, an international team of scientists working off the tip of southern Chile got their first live look at what might be a new species of killer whale. Called Type D, the whales were previously known only from a beach stranding more than 60 years ago, fishermen's stories, and tourist photographs.

Genetic samples the team collected will help determine whether this animal, with its distinctly different color pattern and body shape, is indeed new to science.

"We are very excited about the genetic analyses to come. Type D killer whales could be the largest undescribed animal left on the planet and a clear indication of how little we know about life in our oceans," said Bob Pitman, a researcher from NOAA Fisheries' Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California.

The team's encounter with the distinctive whales came after they spent more than a week at anchor, waiting out the perpetual storms of Cape Horn off southern Chile. It was here that the scientists collected three biopsy samples--tiny bits of skin harmlessly taken from the whales with a crossbow dart--from a group of Type D killer whales.

Into the Laboratory

Unraveling the secrets of these unique killer whales has now moved from the blustery Southern Ocean to the laboratory, where NOAA scientists will analyze DNA from the skin samples. "These samples hold the key to determining whether this form of killer whale represents a distinct species," said Pitman.

The first record of the unusual killer whales came in 1955, when 17 animals stranded on the coast of Paraparaumu, New Zealand. Compared to other killer whales, they had more rounded heads, a narrower and more pointed dorsal fin, and a tiny white eyepatch; no whales like this had ever been described, before.

Initially, scientists speculated that the unique look might have been a genetic aberration only seen in with those stranded whales. Then, in 2005, a French scientist showed Pitman photographs of odd-looking killer whales that had taken fish from commercial fishing lines near Crozet Island in the southern Indian Ocean. They had the same tiny eye patches and bulbous heads.

The location, a quarter of the way around the world from New Zealand, suggested that relatives of the stranded whales might in fact be widespread.

Burgeoning tourism in Antarctica has since produced wildlife photographs in unprecedented quality and quantity. To monitor the distribution, movements, and abundance of killer whales in Antarctic waters, Pitman and colleagues began to collect killer whale images from the Southern Ocean, including from tour vessels.

New Sightings Emerge

Among the tens of thousands of images compiled were six additional sightings of the unique whales. In 2010, Pitman and colleagues published a paper in the scientific journal Polar Biology describing the Type D killer whales. They included photos from each encounter and a map of the sighting locations.

The sightings indicated a distribution around the entire continent of Antarctica, but within subantarctic waters. Because Type D killer whales seemed to avoid the coldest waters, the authors suggested "subantarctic killer whale" as a common name. It was also evident from the few sighting records that this animal lived in offshore waters, in some of the most inhospitable latitudes on the planet: the Roaring 40s and the Furious 50s, known for their strong winds. No wonder it was almost unknown to science!

The stories continued: Chilean fishermen complained of killer whales stripping valuable toothfish off their lines, 60 to 80 miles south of Cape Horn, where the continental shelf drops off into the abyss. Based on photographs by fisheries observers, most of the fish-stealing killer whales were "regular" killer whales, but, among the images, there were also some groups of Type D whales.

The fishermen reported that the types did not mix and that the Type Ds stayed further from the boats when regular killer whales were around.

The Stories Become Real

This year, the stories and photographs finally became real. With support from an anonymous donor and Cookson Adventure Tours, and in collaboration with Centro de Conservacion Cetacea, Chile, Pitman assembled an expedition of international whale experts: Bob Pitman and Lisa Ballance from the United States, John Totterdell and Rebecca Wellard from Australia, Jared Towers from Canada, and Mariano Sironi from Argentina. In January, they set sail from Ushuaia, Argentina, on the 22-meter research vessel Australis, to search for the elusive Type D killer whale.

At first, luck did not seem to favor the Australis team--at one point they sat at anchor for eight anxious days, pummeled by 40 to 60 knot winds at Cape Horn. Then, during a brief lull in the weather, Australis pounded its way back offshore when the team's fortune changed.

They finally found the animals that Pitman had sought for 14 years.

The Australis spent three hours among a group of about 30 whales, which approached the vessel many times. When killer whale vocalization expert Rebecca Wellard towed a hydrophone behind the boat to record Type D calls, whales immediately came over to inspect it. From wide-angle cameras mounted on her hydrophone, she obtained revealing underwater images as the curious whales showed details of their unique color patterning and body shape.

The Type D killer whale images brought back by team Australis serve as a reminder of how little we know about life in our oceans. In the next few months, the DNA samples should finally reveal just how different the Type D is from other killer whales.




He said that while the vast majority of city employees are fantastic, that some changes would need to be made among department heads and that an evaluation of each and every departments operations was in order. Clark also said he supported conducting a forensic audit.
Pacific Gas & Electric is asking a judge to approve between $235 million to $350 million in bonuses to some 10,000 employees in the midst of its ongoing bankruptcy proceeding.

The bonus plan for 2019 would be weighted based on a formula that gives 40 percent weight to financial performance with public safety given a ten percent factor.

But in a filing with the court, attorneys for the company say the debtors are sending a clear message to their workforce that the safety of the communities the debtors serve and of their employees is of paramount concern during the restructuring process and into the future.

In January, the company sought bankruptcy protection, citing up to $30 billion in wildfire liabilities between 2017 and 2018. After first proposing $130 million in bonuses for non-management workers for 2018, it abandoned that plan amid strong criticism from attorneys for wildfire victims.

In a filing this week, PG&E told the bankruptcy judge that such bonuses typically range from 6 percent to 20 percent of employee salaries and are designed to bring their rate of pay "in line with the utility labor market.

Dario de Ghetaldi, attorney for wildfire victims, said it defies logic to rate public safety as a 10 percent factor and financial performance at 40 percent. Much of the bonus rating, however, is based on other measures, including nuclear power safety, gas pipeline inspections, record keeping and workplace accident rates.

PG&E considers those four metrics as safety related. PG&E officials stress that together with public safety, the other categories combine to account for 50 percent of the bonus score, followed by 40 percent for financial factors. The remaining ten percent is based on customer satisfaction.

But De Ghetaldi says the 50 percent safety metric assertion is misleading because financial performance is still the largest single category, with the so called safety metric being an amalgam of factors that range from ongoing maintenance to credit for prioritizing a particular gas pipeline inspection method.

The clear message that they are sending is that making money is four times more important to PG&E than public safety, de Ghetaldi said.

He noted that a top financial official with the company, Jason Wells, was confronted at a hearing this week but could not explain the $2.5 million bonus to outgoing CEO Geisha Williams but failure to pay $20 million in settlements already reached with victims of the 2015 Butte fire in Calaveras County.
With races suspended indefinitely in response to a spate of horse deaths at Santa Anita, a renewed effort began Thursday to inspect the racing surface, while park operators worked to evaluate safety procedures and protocols.

Santa Anita officials on Tuesday announced that they had retained the park's former track superintendent, Dennis Moore, to inspect the racing surface. The announcement came hours after a 4-year-old filly named Lets Light the Way was injured during training and had to be euthanized, becoming the 21st horse to die at the track since Dec. 26.

On Tuesday night, track officials announced an unprecedented suspension of all racing and training activities at the park in response to the deaths. Following the heavy rain that fell Wednesday, Moore and Mick Peterson of Racing Services Testing Lab began an effort Thursday to do "additional testing of the track to ensure track consistency and uniformity for both training and racing," according to Santa Anita officials.

"At the same time, Santa Anita is conducting a comprehensive evaluation of all existing safety measures and current protocols," according to a track statement.

According to track officials, Moore and Peterson asked track workers to begin "harrowing and aerating the track which has been saturated due to recent rains."

Moore and Peterson told track officials they do not have a timetable for when the testing will be completed.

Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of track owner The Stronach Group, said Wednesday: "As horse lovers first and foremost, we are deeply saddened by the losses experienced over the past several weeks. The loss of one horse is one too many. While we can't prevent every injury, we can't overemphasize that the health and welfare of the horses and jockeys is our top priority.

"The track will be closed for live racing and training until our outside experts confirm the soundness of the track and let us know that it is safe to resume racing," Ritvo said.

Late Thursday, Santa Anita officials announced that the inner training track at the facility will reopen Friday morning, noting that none of the horse deaths have occurred on that track. Moore and Peterson inspected the inner track and will monitor its condition when horses begin using it. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert hailed the decision to open the training track. ``Like all athletes, horses need to stay active, so this is a good decision for their overall health since it allows our horses to get out of their stalls and keeps them moving to aid their digestion,'' Baffert said in a statement released by the track. The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported that the track's tentative plans don't call for racing to resume until at least March 28.

Track officials have not confirmed that report. Moore was Santa Anita's track superintendent until he retired in December. He is now track superintendent for Del Mar and Los Alamitos race tracks. The suspension of racing means some critical races that had been set for this weekend have been scrubbed and will need to be rescheduled.

Santa Anita was set to have five stakes races Saturday, including the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes, in which Game Winner -- who is undefeated in four starts and was named last year's champion 2-year-old colt -- was set to make his first 2019 start as he prepares for the Kentucky Derby.

Game Winner's stablemate, Improbable, is undefeated in three starts and was also set for his 2019 debut in the same race for trainer Bob Baffert. Other stakes races that had been set for Saturday were the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile, Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes and the China Doll Stakes.

One stakes race -- the Santa Ysabel Stakes -- was set for Sunday. Some animal-advocacy groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have called for a halt to racing at the track and for investigations into the trainers and veterinary records of the horses that have died.
Congestion relief could be coming for commuters on the Peninsula, but it might take a few years.

California Department of Transportation officials on Friday broke ground on 32-mile long express lanes on both directions of Highway 101 between Interstate 380 in San Bruno and State Road 237 in Sunnyvale.

"The express lanes will reduce congestion in the corridor, improve travel times and reliability, encourage carpooling and transit use, increase person throughput (the number of people moved) and use modern technology to manage traffic," officials said in a statement.

The express lanes will be different from the typical HOV lane. Buses and carpools will be able to use the lanes for free while other drivers will have to pay a toll.

The $514 million project partially funded by Senate Bill 1 is expected to be completed in 2021, according to officials.
Neighbors and classmates on Thursday were mourning two young boys found dead inside a San Jose apartment a day earlier in what investigators say was a murder-suicide commited by their mother.

Based on the preliminary investigation, detectives determined the woman killed her 4-year-old and 7-year-old sons, Eric and Kevin, before taking her own life, police said.

On Thursday, a makeshift memorial was growing outside the Dent Commons apartment where the boys lived. Grief counselors were on the campus of Lietz Ekementary School, where the boys attended class.

On Wednesday, homicide detectives responded about 12:30 p.m. to the Dent Commons apartment complex in the 5300 block of Dent Avenue in South San Jose, police said. The boys' bodies were found along with the mother, who reportedly hanged herself.

Witnesses said the husband and father returned home from a trip Wednesday and found his family dead.

"Its sad because were never gonna see the children on their bikes riding around the streets," neighbor Maria Flores said as she placed flowers on the memorial. "And my little one is asking a lot of questions."

Neighbors believe the mother was suffering from depression after losing her job. But police investigators were not releasing any details.

The Santa Clara Coroners Office will determine manner and cause of death. The identity of the victims and suspect will be released by the Coroners Office after notifying the next of kin.

The homicides were the citys eighth and ninth of the year.

NBC Bay Area's Robert Handa and Sergio Quintana contributed to this report.
Divided in debate but mostly united in a final vote, the House passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other bigotry. Democrats are trying to push past a dispute that has overwhelmed their agenda and exposed fault lines that could shadow them through next year's elections.

The one-sided 407-23 vote Thursday belied the emotional infighting over how to respond to freshman Rep. lIhan Omar's recent comments suggesting House supporters of Israel have dual allegiances. For days, Democrats wrestled with whether or how to punish the Minnesota Democratic lawmaker, arguing over whether Omar, one of two Muslim women in Congress, should be singled out, what other types of bias should be decried in the text and whether the party would tolerate dissenting views on Israel.

President Donald Trump, before leaving to tour tornado damage in Alabama on Friday, called the House vote "disgraceful."

"The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party," Trump said. "They've become an anti-Jewish party. And I thought that vote was a disgrace. And so does everybody else  if you get an honest answer. If you get an honest answer from politicians, they thought it was a disgrace."

Republicans generally joined in the favorable vote, though nearly two-dozen opposed the measure, one calling it a "sham."

Generational as well as ideological, the argument was fueled in part by young, liberal lawmakers  and voters  who have become a face of the newly empowered Democratic majority in the House. These lawmakers are critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, rejecting the conservative leader's approach to Palestinians and other issues.

They split sharply from Democratic leaders who seemed caught off guard by the support for Omar and unprepared for the debate. But the leaders regrouped.

"It's not about her. It's about these forms of hatred," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before the vote.

The resolution approved Thursday condemns anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities "as hateful expressions of intolerance."

Omar, a Somali-American, and fellow Muslims Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Andrew Carson of Indiana issued a statement saying they were proud to be part of a body that condemned all forms of bigotry including anti-Semitism, racism and white supremacy. They praised the "historic" vote as the first House resolution to condemn "anti-Muslim bigotry" in the nation's history.

Some Democrats complained that Omar's earlier comments on Israel had ignited so much discussion and dispute while years of President Donald Trump's racially charged rhetoric had led to no similar congressional action.

The seven-page document details a history of recent attacks not only against Jews in the United States but also Muslims, as it condemns all such discrimination as contradictory to "the values and aspirations" of the people of the United States. The vote was delayed for a time on Thursday to include mention of Latinos to address concerns of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. It was inserted under a section on white supremacists who "weaponize hate for political gain" over a long list of "traditionally persecuted peoples."

An earlier version focused more narrowly on anti-Semitism. The final resolution did not mention Omar by name.

Getting this debate right will be crucial for Democrats in 2020. U.S.-Israel policy is a prominent issue that is exposing the splits between the party's core voters, its liberal flank and the more centrist Americans in Trump country the party hopes to reach.

"What I fear is going on in the House now is an effort to target Congresswoman Omar as a way of stifling that debate. That's wrong," said presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent.

"Anti-Semitism is a hateful and dangerous ideology which must be vigorously opposed in the United States and around the world," the senator said. "We must not, however, equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government in Israel."

Other Democratic presidential contenders tried to walk a similar line.

California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris said "we need to speak out against hate." But she said she also believes "there is a critical difference between criticism of policy or political leaders, and anti-Semitism."

A statement from Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said, "Branding criticism of Israel as automatically anti-Semitic has a chilling effect on our public discourse and makes it harder to achieve a peaceful solution between Israelis and Palestinians." She said threats of violence, including those made against Omar, "are never acceptable.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said, "Everyone is entitled to their opinion, they are allowed to have free speech in this country," Gillibrand said. "But we don't need to use anti-Semitic tropes or anti-Muslim tropes to be heard."

Another member of the new crop of outspoken young House freshmen, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, said the final product, as well as the way presidential candidates are now talking about the issue, showed "there's been some really great progress we've made."

But Omar's rhetoric is taking Democrats to a place that leaves many uneasy. The new lawmaker sparked a weeklong debate in Congress as fellow Democrats said her comments have no place in the party. She suggested Israel's supporters were pushing lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance" to a foreign country, reviving a trope of dual loyalties. It wasn't her first dip into such rhetoric.

The new congresswoman has been critical of the Jewish state in the past and apologized for those previous comments. But Omar has not apologized for this latest comment.

Pelosi said she did not believe that Omar understood the "weight of her words" or that they would be perceived by some as anti-Semitic.

Asked whether the resolution was intended to "police" lawmakers' words, Pelosi replied: "We are not policing the speech of our members. We are condemning anti-Semitism," Islamophobia and white supremacy.

Some of the House's leading Jewish Democrats wanted to bring a resolution on the floor simply condemning anti-Semitism.

But other Democrats wanted to broaden the resolution to include a rejection of all forms of racism and bigotry. Others questioned whether a resolution was necessary at all and viewed it as unfairly singling out Omar at a time when Trump and others have made disparaging racial comments.

There remained frustration that the party that touts its diversity conducted such a messy and public debate about how to declare its opposition to bigotry.

"This shouldn't be so hard," Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., said on the House floor.

Among the Republican dissenters, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a member of the GOP leadership, called the resolution "a sham put forward by Democrats to avoid condemning one of their own and denouncing vile anti-Semitism."

In part, Democratic leaders were trying to fend off a challenge from Republicans on the issue.

They worry they could run into trouble on another bill, their signature ethics and voting reform package, if Republicans try to tack their own anti-Semitism bill on as an amendment. By voting Thursday, the House Democratic vote counters believed they could inoculate their lawmakers against such a move.

___

Associated Press writers Padmananda Rama, Mary Clare Jalonick, Elana Schor, Juana Summers and Doug Glass contributed to this report.
The Village of Monee also will have early voting available for Monee residents starting March 25. Early voting will be available from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; 12 to 7 p.m. Thursday, March 28; 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 29 and 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 30.
Note: You can watch the forum in its entirety on NBC 5 and in the video player above beginning Thursday at 6 p.m. CST.

Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle will square off Thursday in the first televised forum of the final two candidates for Chicago mayor - and there are plenty of ways to watch it.

NBC 5 and Telemundo Chicago, in partnership with the Union League Club of Chicago and the Chicago Urban League, will host the forum beginning at 6 p.m. on March 7.

The entire event will be broadcast live on NBC 5, on NBCChicago.com and on the NBC Chicago app. It will also be simultaneously translated live in Spanish on Telemundo Chicago, TelemundoChicago.com and on the Telemundo Chicago app.

The hour-long event will be broadcast live from NBC Tower and moderated by NBC 5 political editor Carol Marin, with NBC reporter Mary Ann Ahern and Telemundos Benjamin Zamora taking questions from the audience.

You can join the conversation about the forum on social media using the hashtag #ChiMayorForum.

Lightfoot and Preckwinkle advanced to the runoff election after garnering 17 and 16 percent of the vote, respectively, to finish first and second of the 14 candidates running in the municipal election on Tuesday. The runoff election, held when no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote outright, is scheduled for April 2.

Both stations previously hosted the first forum of the candidates for governor ahead of the November election, plus the first forum of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates before the March 2018 primary, as well as a 2014 forum of Republican candidates for Illinois governor and the award-winning Chicago Mayoral Debate in 2015.
A 28-year-old employee of a nightclub was killed when a gunman shot him and another man early Friday during a street fight in River North.

Just after midnight, about 15 people began brawling near the mouth of an alley in the 600 block of North Franklin, according to Chicago police.

A male in the crowd pulled out a handgun and fired several rounds, striking Thurman Bailey, 28, and a 58-year-old man, police and the Cook County medical examiners office said.

Bailey died about 1 a.m. after being taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds, police said. He lived in the Bronzeville neighborhood.

The older man brought himself to the same hospital with bullet fragments in his leg and arm, police said. He is expected to survive.

Police said the 28-year-old worked at the nightclub, while the 58-year-old was associated with the business.

No one has been arrested. The suspect is believed to be a male wearing a green puffy jacket and a black hat, police said.
One day after authorities say a gunman fatally shot a deputy trying to serve a warrant at a Rockford hotel, a murder complaint details the moments leading up to the shooting.

According to the complaint, officers of the U.S. Marshal's Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force attempted to execute state warrants for 39-year-old Floyd E. Brown at the Extended Stay hotel on North Bell School Road in Rockford.

Officers said they learned that Brown and Brown's girlfriend were staying in room 305 of the hotel and knocked on the door. Meanwhile, other officers "were positioned around the exterior of the hotel," including Deputy Jacob Keltner.

When police knocked, they heard a male voice inside yell "Don't do it," the complaint states. When the officers used a key to open the door, they discovered the interior swing lock was still engaged, according to the complaint.

Brown's girlfriend, who came to the door but did not open it, said she wanted to get out, the complaint reads. Meanwhile, a male voice could be heard yelling from inside the room before gunfire came through the hotel door and walls.

Brown fled out of the hotel room via a third-story window, the complaint states, shooting Keltner in the head as he did.

He fled the scene in a vehicle before police located him on an expressway in the Bloomington-Normal area. Once officers began pursuing him, he shot at them "multiple times using a long gun," according to the complaint.

The complaint does not detail the hours-long standoff that took place with state police and SWAT after Brown's vehicle crashed with a squad car.

Keltner was pronounced dead hours after the shooting. The nearly 13-year veteran of the McHenry County Sheriff's office was married and had two children, officials said.

"Deputy Keltner was an integral part of our office, someone who had risen quickly to greater responsibilities after he was first sworn in in 2006," McHenry County Sheriff Bill Prim said Thursday. "He was loved and respected by all his colleagues, and he will be sorely missed."

A U.S. Marshals task force officer was fatally shot while trying to serve an arrest warrant at a Rockford hotel Thursday morning and the suspect was apprehended after he fled more than 100 miles south, authorities said. Trina Orlando reports.

Keltner's body was escorted in a procession Thursday night to the Winnebago County Coroner's office.

A line of police cars with their lights flashing could be seen for miles.

A U.S. Marshals task force officer was fatally shot while trying to serve an arrest warrant at a Rockford hotel Thursday morning and the suspect was apprehended after he fled more than 100 miles south, authorities said. Phil Rogers reports.

After the standoff came to an end, Brown was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries related to the crash. He was last placed in ISP custody, but authorities said he will "eventually be turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

Brown was charged with killing a special deputy United States Marshal, a charge that carries a potential penality of death or life in prison if convicted.

He is expected to appear in court Monday.

First and foremost, we would like to extend our deepest condolences to the McHenry County Sheriffs Office and the family of Deputy Keltner, ISP Acting Director Brendan F. Kelly said. The men and women of the Illinois State Police, including responding Troopers from District 16, District 1, District 15, District 6, District 8, and District 9, all responded with seamless professionalism alongside the law enforcement of this state. ISPs SWAT team in particular showed incredible tactical restraint, bravery and boldness today. This dark day has come to an end, and this defendant can now be brought to justice."
President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming the Trump Organization broke a promise to pay his legal bills and owes at least $1.9 million to cover the cost of his defense.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in New York state court, claims the Trump Organization stopped paying Cohen's mounting legal fees after he began cooperating with federal prosecutors in their investigations related to Trump's business dealings in Russia and attempts to silence women with embarrassing stories about his personal life. It alleges breach of contract and seeks damages on Cohen's behalf.

Messages seeking comment have been left with the Trump Organization.

The lawsuit says the company stopped paying for his legal defense about two months after the FBI raided Cohen's home and office last year. It says that was around the time Cohen began discussing privately with friends and family that he was considering cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in New York.

"When it was publicly reported that I might be cooperating with prosecutors, the Trump Organization breached its agreement and stopped paying fees and costs," Cohen said in a statement released by his attorneys.

Cohen pleaded guilty in August to tax crimes, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations. He is expected to begin serving a three-year prison term in May.

The lawsuit said that as part of his work for Trump, the company agreed to indemnify him for his company-related work. It said the Trump Organization initially lived up to that promise, footing the bill for more than $1.7 million in Cohen's legal fees.

Cohen hired the law firm McDermott Will & Emery in spring 2017 after it became clear he was a "person of interest" in Mueller's investigation.

That firm withdrew from his case late last spring after the Trump Organization stopped paying Cohen's bills, a withdrawal the lawsuit says "prejudiced" Cohen's ability to respond to the federal investigations.

In addition to the $1.9 million in legal fees Cohen is seeking, the lawsuit claims the Trump Organization should also pay the $1.9 million Cohen was ordered to forfeit "as part of his criminal sentence arising from conduct undertaken by Mr. Cohen in furtherance of and at the behest of the Trump Organization and its principals, directors, and officers."

Cohen was one of Trump's lawyers and closest advisers for a decade until their public split last summer.

After once bragging that he would "take a bullet" for the president, Cohen met with federal prosecutors in New York and with the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, telling them he had lied to Congress to protect Trump and paid off two women to keep them from speaking out about alleged affairs with Trump.

Earlier this year, Cohen hired two new Chicago lawyers and parted ways with the attorneys who represented him for months as he cooperated with Mueller and prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. The Associated Press previously reported that the shake-up followed what a person familiar with the matter described as a dispute over unpaid legal fees.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Last week, Cohen told lawmakers he also has not been paying Lanny Davis, an attorney who has served as an adviser and spokesman for Cohen over the past several months.

"So he's doing all this work for nothing?" U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., asked Cohen during his daylong testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

"Yes, sir," Cohen said.

Cohen told Congress that Trump was a racist, a liar and a con man.

Trump, in turn, has assailed Cohen as a "rat" and a "serial liar."

Cohen has also tried crowdsourcing his legal fees. A GoFundMe page that Davis set up for Cohen after he first pleaded guilty in August has collected about $215,000, including $50,000 from an anonymous donor.
Amber Alerts that were issued in Texas for three siblings who were reported missing from Waterbury last month have been discontinued.

Waterbury Police were searching for 2-year-old Maryah Matthew, 5-year-old Dylan McGrath and 7-year-old Maddison McGrath. All three siblings were reported missing from Waterbury on Saturday, February 16, and were believed to be with their biological mother, 29-year-old Crystal McGrath.

Police said all three children were last seen with Crystal on February 16, 2019, at approximately 12:30 p.m.

Officers said Crystal was allowed supervised visits with her three children, but she violated the conditions of the supervised release last weekend.

Police said Crystal left a McDonald's restaurant on Reidville Drive in Waterbury with the children. Her boyfriend, 38-year-old Lester Joy, was believed to be in the vehicle, authorities said. They are driving a maroon 2002 Volvo with a Connecticut license plate of 417-YTY.

Texas Ambert Alert Network

Police said they were searching for Crystal and Joy in connection with the kids' abduction. Officers said they were last heard from in Sealy, Texas.

It was not immediately clear why the alert was discontinued.
You could have called Friday crumbling foundations day at the State Capitol.

A pair of committees are hearing testimony on nine separate bills trying to tackle the problem.

Thanks to past efforts by the state government, there is now $200 million now earmarked to help the hundreds of people with crumbling basements.

That amount is probably not enough, so a number of people impacted by the problem and legislators gathered to talk about how to get more money to help out, and further steps to prevent this from ever happening again.

Tim Heim gave impassioned testimony about the nightmare people are facing: having their basements crumbling beneath their homes with no way to pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to fix them.

Heim says the crisis has "...destroyed many families..good families, hardworking middle-class families here in Connecticut."

The problem, unique to north central and eastern Connecticut, is believed to have been caused by aggregate from one quarry in the region. But it has prompted calls to have more standards and testing for quarries statewide for the presence of pyrrhotite, the mineral believed to cause the cracking.

"All it took was one quarry to cause a billion dollar crisis," said Debbie MacCoy, who, like Heim, also has a crumbling basement.

The Connecticut Construction Industries Association says that most quarries have full time quality control staff and that "the purpose of additional oversight of other quarries with no reported problems is highly questionable."

A number of bills also take aim at insurance companies, which, for the most part, have said their policies do not cover crumbling basements.

One bill would require coverage for the problem, something The Insurance Association of Connecticut says would cause premiums to jump and "affect the availability and affordability of insurance for every homeowner in Connecticut."

Another move not in a bill, but getting a lot of attention at the hearing, was a move to initiate what is known as a CUIPA, or Connecticut Unfair Insurance Practices Act investigation, into how the insurance industry has not covered most of the crumbling basement claims.

State Rep. Thomas Delnicki of South Windsor, one of the towns most affected by crumbling basements said, "We need to get to the bottom of this. We need to find out if theres a smoking gun."

An investigation of this type would have to be initiated by the state insurance commissioner, according to legislators at the hearing.

The Insurance Association of Connecticut had no comment on the possibility of a CUIPA investigation.
More than zero!

That was the message from Waterbury teachers to school leaders on Thursday. Theyre facing a pay freeze for next year.

"Its kind of like a slap in the face, plain and simple," said Ali Kirchberger, a fifth-grade teacher.

They packed the gym at Bucks Hill Elementary School.

As the school board met, they supported their union, the Waterbury Teachers Association.

"They just want to understand why? Why the zero?" said Kevin Egan, president of the Waterbury Teachers Association.

Egan blasted the city for the zero raise which came after binding arbitration. But when it came time for the city to respond, most teachers walked out.

There was clear frustration on the part of Mayor Neil OLeary.

"Im a little disappointed," said OLeary.

OLeary went on to explain to those left in the room that it was hard to give the teachers a raise because the city depends on state funding and it could change with a new governor.

The mayor pointed out teachers have seen a boost in pay during his tenure and that should resume for the second and third year of their contract.

"There will be no question well be providing raises. Whats going to matter the most is what the legislative budget looks like," said OLeary.

Also OLeary says theres been a pay freeze for many city workers during these tough financial times.

Still there are worries that some teachers might leave.

"We have had a lot of turnover because Waterbury doesnt pay like the rest of the districts do," said Kathleen OBrien, a high school math teacher.

The mayor hopes to have a better idea in June of how much money the city will receive from the state.

Thats also when negotiations will resume with the teachers union about the next two years.
A vigil was held Thursday night for a girl whose body was found stuffed in a duffel bag off an equestrian trail in Hacienda Heights, California.

Singing "He's got the whole world in his hands," about 70 people gathered near where the girl, believed to be between ages 8 and 13, was found near a Buddhist Temple.

"This little girl is now part of this community," said Marlene Contreras, the vigil organizer.

Joseph Contreras, 11, was out Thursday night paying his respects to the unidentified girl.

"I feel lots of sadness about her," he said.

Detectives revealed few leads. They didn't know who she was and said there were no obvious signs of trauma. They reached out to the local school district but it didn't appear that she went to school there.

But people showed up to mourn the girl, regardless.

"In a county of 10 million people, her life did matter," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who was at the vigil.

A sketch depicting the girl  described as African American, 4 foot 5 inches tall and 55 pounds  was released during a news conference Wednesday.

The sketch shows her wearing a pink long-sleeved shirt that read, "Future Princess Hero," and panda patterned pants.

County workers clearing brush and doing maintenance on a trail discovered the body Tuesday about 10 a.m., said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Scott Hoglund.

Investigators believe the body was dumped down an embankment south of Colima Road sometime between Sunday night and the morning the body was found.

The body was found partially stuffed inside a black rollaway-type duffel bag, the upper portion of the body protruding from the bag, officials said. Detectives don't know if the girl was dead or alive when she was put in the bag.

Anyone with information on the case was urged to call the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500, or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.

Patrick Healy contributed to this report.
The House Committee on Homeland Security Thursday expressed great concern about a secret list used by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to stop, detain, question and search 59 reporters, attorneys, and immigration advocates.

In a letter to CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, committee chairman Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., said CBPs targeting (of) journalists, lawyers, and advocatesraises questions about possible misuse of CBPs border search authority and requires oversight to ensure the protection of Americans legal and constitutional rights.

The Committees letter -- and other harsh criticism about the CBP surveillance program -- was prompted by a detailed report on the secret surveillance published Friday by NBC 7 Investigates.

To read the exclusive investigation, click here.

Rep. Thompson and Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., who chairs the panels Subcommittee on Border Security, set a March 14 deadline for CBP to provide them with a copy of the list of individuals subject to surveillance. Thompson and Rice also requested copies of any dossiers on those private citizens, details on how many times those individuals have been stopped for questioning by CBP, and other information.

The Committee also expressed concern that some individuals have been required to allow CBP officers to search their cell phones before being released from detention.

PHOTOS: Leaked Documents Show Government Tracking Journalists, Immigration Advocates

CBP Thursday issued a statement on the controversial program, describing it as a necessary response to assaults against Border Patrol agents in November 2018 and January of this year. CBPs Assistant Commissioner of Public Affairs, Andrew Meehan, said the agency identified individuals who may have information relating to the instigators and/or organizers of these attacks.

Meehan said efforts to gather this type of information are a standard law enforcement practice, and assured critics that, CBP does not target journalists for inspection based on their occupation or their reporting.

CBP also revealed that its Office of Professional Responsibility launched an internal inquiry of the surveillance program last month, to ensure that all appropriate policies and practices were followed. The Office of Inspector General in the Department of Homeland Security is also involved in that internal review.

But that internal inquiry was apparently started after NBC 7 Investigates first questioned the agency about the controversial program and confirmed that it had obtained internal documents about the surveillance effort.

NBC 7 first contacted the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and other agencies involved in the intelligence gathering effort on Feb. 27.

One of the immigration activists subject to government surveillance and included in the documents obtained by NBC 7 strongly criticized the secret CBP program.

What is especially concerning is the number of human rights defenders and journalists who are being interrogated and added to this list, which is only designed to intimidate them and discourage them from speaking out, said Alex Mensing of the pro-immigrant group Pueblo Sin Fronteras.

Its upsetting to know the U.S. government is using its resources to monitor human rights defenders and journalists who are doing their work, Mensing said.

Some of the people listed in a federal database attempting to gain information on the migrant caravan are speaking out. NBC 7's Danny Freeman has more.

During a visit to San Diego Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced the dossier project as a Big Brother abuse of government power.

Newsom also contrasted CBPs extensive surveillance of private citizens with the governments flawed effort to keep track of immigrant children separated from their parents at the border.

I mean the irony of that shouldnt be lost on anyone, Newsom told NBC 7. That we have better data collection against journalists than we do of children and their parents. Thats America in 2019. Its a disgrace.

Three local congressmen, all Democrats, also criticized the surveillance program.

The Trump Administration should not be secretly tracking law-abiding journalists, lawyers, and advocates to stop them from simply doing their jobs, said freshman Rep. Mike Levin, 49th District. This is a stunning abuse of power and potentially unconstitutional.

Rep. Scott Peters, 52nd District, called the dossier collection an egregious abuse of power and another attempt by the Trump Administration to undermine the freedom of the press, which is vital to our democracy.

Peters said Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen should be focused on keeping track of (immigrant) children separated from their parents (and the border), not people lawfully doing their jobs.

Rep. Juan Vargas, 51st District, described himself as deeply troubled by the reports of U.S. and Mexican officials targeting journalists, attorneys, and immigration advocates at our southern border.

NBC 7 Investigates requested a comment from Republican Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, 50th District, an outspoken critic of illegal immigration and staunch supporter of President Trump and his efforts to build a border wall. Hunters office has not replied to that request of comment on the CBP surveillance program.

The controversy also reverberated in Mexico City, where that countrys secretary of foreign relations denied any involvement in the surveillance program.

The government of Mexico disapproves of all acts of illegal espionage against any person, domestic or foreign, the foreign secretary said. The Mexican government does not conduct illegal surveillance on anyone, for any type or category of activity.

But the Foreign Relations Office also pledged to ask the U. S. government, via official channels, to clarify any possible cases of illegal spying.
National parks across the United States are scrambling to clean up and repair damage that visitors and storms caused during the recent government shutdown while bracing for the possibility of another closure ahead of the busy Presidents Day weekend later this month.

Visitors left human waste, piles of trash, graffiti, used unauthorized trails and damaged Joshua trees at the namesake park in California during the 35-day shutdown. Many of the parks went unstaffed, while others had skeleton crews with local governments and nonprofits contributing money and volunteers.

National Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst in Washington, D.C., declined to provide a full accounting of the damage at more than 400 locations, saying it was isolated and most visitors took good care of the land.

But conservationists warn that damage to sensitive lands could take decades to recover. Even before the shutdown, national parks faced an estimated $12 billion maintenance backlog that has now grown.

President Donald Trump has said another shutdown could start Feb. 15 if he and Democratic leaders can't agree on funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, compounding the pressure the park service faces to catch up on repairs and maintenance.

Hiring seasonal workers who typically start in the spring as rangers, fee collectors and hiking guides also has been delayed.

"We're kind of ready to just have a bit more stability," said Angie Richman, a spokeswoman at Arches National Park in Utah.

Arches visitors left human waste outside a restroom, stomped out five trails in a permit-only area that was supposed to be closed and damaged an entrance gate to allow vehicles to drive on snow-covered roads when the park was closed after a storm, Richman said.

At Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California, one of the iconic twisted-limbed Joshua trees was run over by an off-road vehicle and a juniper tree was cut down, said park superintendent David Smith. Several other Joshua Trees were damaged, including one that was spray painted, but the park has yet to determine the exact number, he said. Off-road vehicles created extensive unauthorized trails in the park's deserts, with wheel marks dug into the delicate soil nearly a foot deep in some spots, Smith said.

Employees at Death Valley National Park found human waste and toilet paper scattered in the desert and evidence people tried to kick in locked restroom doors, said David Blacker, executive director of the Death Valley Natural History Association. The group kept the visitors center open during most of the shutdown, where tourists got information on packing out trash and digging a hole to use the bathroom.

A time-lapse video on Death Valley's Facebook page showed how it took staffers two hours to clean a restroom overflowing with trash and splashed with waste. Crews also have to rake and replant vegetation to repair ruts from off-road vehicles, which delays work elsewhere in the 3.4 million-acre park.

"It became pretty depressing the kinds of things people will do when they are unsupervised," Blacker said.

People in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park drove around locked gates and through meadows, spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said.

At Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddling the North Carolina-Tennessee line, visitors cut locks on some gates to closed roads and stole about $5,000 in maintenance tools, spokeswoman Dana Soehn said.

Winter storms damaged some parks that lacked enough staff to make repairs quickly.

Officials at Zion National Park in Utah, Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado and Olympic National Park in Washington were fixing trails, roads and campgrounds. Mesa Verde wasn't set to open until Monday, and some areas were still closed at Zion and Olympic.

Campgrounds, visitors centers and trails that seasonal workers help prepare could face delayed openings, and families planning spring break or summer vacations might think twice about visiting national parks if they don't think they're safe or fully staffed, said Phil Francis, chairman of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks.

"There are a lot of impacts that will be felt in the future that aren't being felt or even talked about now," he said.

In some parks, animals that typically don't interact with visitors claimed the space.

A colony of elephant seals took over a Northern California beach in Point Reyes National Seashore without staffers to discourage the animals from congregating in the popular tourist area. Rangers and volunteer docents will lead small groups of visitors starting this weekend to the edge of a parking lot so they can safely see the elephant seals and their newborn pups.

Meanwhile, the prospect of another shutdown looms.

Grand Canyon National Park could miss out on its main centennial celebration Feb. 26 and other related events.

"It's a big deal, and we are looking forward to celebrating it in whatever way we can," park spokeswoman Emily Davis said.

Elizabeth Jackson, a spokeswoman for Guadalupe Mountains National Park on the Texas-New Mexico border, noted the stress it places on workers.

"It's a way of life if you're a federal employee," Jackson said. "Not to be glib, but it's something we face every year."

Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer, David Warren, Matt Volz and Dan Elliott contributed to this story.
The typical Connecticut household has seen a 13 percent hike in their income tax rates since 1999, when the progressive income tax was fully phased in. Property taxes as a share of income are up more than 35 percent. The state has faced a budget deficit in 12 of the past 15 years. And Connecticut saw a 47 percent jump in the poverty rate while the rest of the nation saw a dip.
Monthly shots of HIV drugs worked as well as daily pills to control the virus that causes AIDS in two large international tests, researchers reported Thursday.

If approved by regulators in the United States and Europe, the shots would be a new option for people with HIV and could help some stay on treatment. Instead of having to remember to take pills, patients instead could get injections from a doctor or nurse each month.

"Some people will be thrilled" at the convenience, said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, an AIDS advocacy group.

Condoms remain the most widely available and inexpensive form of HIV prevention. Pills taken daily can keep HIV levels so low the virus is not transmittable to sex partners, but not everyone takes them as prescribed.

The shots could improve how well some people stick to treatment, perhaps helping those who have trouble remembering to take daily medicine to keep infection at bay.

There are other potential benefits. Getting shots at a clinic can lend more privacy to patients worried about the stigma of filling an HIV prescription at a pharmacy, said Dr. Susan Swindells of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, who presented results Thursday at an HIV conference in Seattle.

Cost will be an issue "to make sure that everyone has access to this medication," said Dr. Hyman Scott of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, who was not part of the study. It's not clear how much the shots would cost. HIV pills can cost a patient up to thousands of dollars monthly , depending on the drug combination, insurance coverage, rebates and discounts.

And there will be concerns about patients missing a monthly shot, which could lead to drug-resistant strains of the virus. It will be "a good option for some people," Scott said.

Whether monthly shots will also work to protect users' sex partners hasn't been studied yet, but there is reason to think they will, said experts at the conference.

The shots are a long-acting combo of two HIV drugs  rilpivirine, sold as Edurant by Johnson & Johnson's Janssen, and ViiV Healthcare's experimental drug known as cabotegravir.

ViiV Healthcare paid for the research. The drugmakers are seeking approval later this year in the United States and Europe.

One study included 616 people who were taking pills to treat their HIV infection. The other study enrolled 566 people who hadn't yet started treatment, so they first got pills to get the virus under control.

In each of the studies, half the participants switched to the shots while the rest stayed on pills. After nearly a year, 1 to 2 percent of people in both groups had traces of virus in their blood, whether they got shots or pills. That shows the shots worked as well as the standard pill therapy. A few people withdrew from the studies because of pain after the injections.

The studies were done in Europe and North America and in nations including Argentina, Australia, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Japan and Mexico.

"We don't have experience rolling out an injection in the real world," said Warren, the AIDS advocate. He said the next challenges will be how to deliver the shots and whether patients will remember to come back monthly. "These are big questions."
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and his counterpart in Mexico City Thursday launched a year-long celebration to commemorate 50 years as sister cities.

"Our 50 years as sister cities have shown that when local communities work together, we have the power to make real progress on everything from trade and tourism to transportation and technology," said Garcetti, who's in Mexico City for a two-day trip focused on climate change, tourism and U.S.- Mexico relations. "I know that Los Angeles and Mexico City will remain leaders in confronting climate change, creating green jobs, improving resilience against natural disasters, and building a future of sustainability and prosperity for everyone who calls our cities home."

As part of the sister cities anniversary celebration, L.A. and Mexico City will host a series of cultural events in both cities, including a film festival featuring Mexican, Chicano, and Angeleno film productions; a mural unveiling at the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles; and technical exchanges revolving around clean technology, sustainable mobility and resilience, according to Garcetti's office.

"This year marks the 50th anniversary of the sisterhood between the City of Angels and Mexico City, and we're going to commemorate our sisterhood with activities that will unite our cities even more," said Mexico City Head of Government Claudia Sheinbaum. "In particular, we are interested in the work that Mayor Garcetti is doing on climate issues, as well as issues of interculturality, human rights and migration. We're going to create celebrations this year in Mexico City that are dedicated to our friendship with Los Angeles."
A human trafficking investigation in Northern California led to the arrest of a Southern California police officer on suspicion of soliciting prostitution and having sex with a minor.

Sgt. Jason Bemowski was arrested Thursday for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old girl while off duty at a residence in Redlands.

The Roseville Police Department said 24-year-old Anthony Harrison was also arrested on suspicion of pimping and human trafficking and is being held at the South Placer jail on a bail of $1 million.

Roseville police said the Chino Police Department is cooperating fully with the investigation.

A 16-year veteran, Bemowski was arrested at the Chino Police Department. Chino Police Department spokeswoman Tamrin Olden said Bemowski is on paid administrative leave.
What to Know Law enforcement executed search warrants at a home where they seized at least $80,000 in cash.

According to the affidavit, down payments for most of the grow houses were traced back to wire transfers from China.

The total purchase price for the seven homes, which were bought between July 2013 and September 2017, was $4,067,882.

Three Southern California men were arrested Thursday on federal charges alleging they took part in a scheme that used millions of dollars wired from China to purchase homes that were converted into illegal marijuana grow houses.

Lin "Aaron" Li, 37, of Chino, Ben Chen, 42, of Alhambra, and Jimmy Yu, 44, of Pasadena, were each charged in Los Angeles federal court with one count of manufacturing, distributing and possessing with the intent to distribute marijuana.

In conjunction with the arrests, law enforcement executed search warrants at Li's home, where they seized at least $80,000 in cash, and at seven suspected marijuana grow houses in Chino, Ontario and Chino Hills, where aboug 1,650 marijuana plants were seized, federal prosecutors said.

Federal authorities have begun the process to take possession of the seven homes -- worth a total of more than $5 million, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors allege that Li, a real estate agent, orchestrated the scheme to purchase residential properties through transactions designed to conceal the homes' true owners, converted the houses to marijuana grow operations, and trafficked marijuana, with most of the processed cannabis sold to customers in California and Nevada.

After receiving financing from China, Li "acted as the Realtor for the purchase of (seven residences), which he then converted into illegal marijuana grow houses," the case affidavit alleges. "Li coordinated the purchase of the properties, managed them after purchase, paid their utilities and taxes, and established shell companies for the purpose of managing the properties' finances."

Investigators believe Li attempted to distance himself from the conspiracy by using Chen and Yu to manage day-to-day operations at the grow houses, to help with out-of-state distribution of the marijuana, and to return marijuana sale proceeds, according to court papers.

Li also allegedly used bypasses to physically divert electricity directly from power lines, thus stealing power from the utilities, hiding the grow houses' high power usage from law enforcement, and creating fire risks in neighborhoods.

According to the affidavit, Li's attempts to insulate himself from culpability allegedly went as far as creating fake leases for some of the properties, documents that included fake tenants, forged electronic signatures, and special clauses that purported to prohibit the fake tenants from cultivating marijuana at the homes.

"In states that have decriminalized marijuana, we have seen an influx of foreign money used to establish grow operations, with much of the marijuana being destined for out-of-state consumers," said U.S. Attorney Nick

Hanna. "By establishing illegal drug operations in residential neighborhoods, the defendants increased the risks to law-abiding homeowners, caused neighborhood blight, and stole power from utilities."

According to the affidavit, down payments for most of the grow houses were traced back to wire transfers from China, and several of the properties were bought by straw buyers who actually had nothing to do with the transaction.

The titles for most of the homes were transferred, shortly after they were purchased, to limited liability companies associated with Li, who served as the homes' property manager, prosecutors allege.

The total purchase price for the seven homes, which were bought between July 2013 and September 2017, was $4,067,882, according to the affidavit. Last June, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant and seized 1,038 marijuana plants at an eighth grow house in Chino Hills believed to be part of the same criminal scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The mother of a 24-year-old good Samaritan killed in a chain-collision involving six vehicles on the San Gabriel River (605) Freeway in Cerritos in 2017 is suing two drivers involved in the incident, including one who was allegedly drunk at the time.

Alba Trujillo, the mother of the late Gabriela Hernandez-Trujillo of Huntington Beach, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court against Amy Michelle Johnson of Long Beach and Ulises Zavala Rodriguez.

The suit alleges wrongful death, negligence and battery. The suit seeks unspecified damages.

The crash occurred about 2:50 a.m. March 11, 2017, on the southbound lanes of the 605 Freeway, just north of the Artesia (910) Freeway, the California Highway Patrol said at the time.

The chain of events started when Mario Antonio Hernandez-Ayala, the driver of a 1999 Saturn, crashed into another vehicle, the suit states. Hernandez-Ayala also died of his injuries.

Hernandez-Trujillo was a passenger in another car involved in the crashes that was driven by Rodriguez, the suit states. After getting out of the car in which she was riding so she could check on the condition of Hernandez-Ayala and offer her assistance, Hernandez-Trujillo realized that it was too late to help him, the suit states.

While walking back to the car in which she had been a passenger, Hernandez-Trujillo was struck by another car driven by an intoxicated Johnson, the suit states. Hernandez-Trujillo died later at a hospital. The plaintiff, who like her daughter and Rodriguez also lives in Huntington Beach, alleges he was driving negligently at the time of the collisions. The freeway was temporarily closed in both directions.
What to Know About five hours after it leaves the ISS, Crew Dragon will begin a roughly 15-minute deorbit burn.

Crew Dragon's maiden flight into space is a major milestone in American space flight.

SpaceX is tentatively expected to launch a pair of astronauts into space aboard Crew Dragon this summer.

SpaceX, in an effort to re-start American astronaut launches, is scheduled to depart the International Space Station late Thursday night for the last leg of its historic test mission.

The unmanned capsule, carrying about 400 pounds of supplies and equipment, was launched into space late March 1 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, and it docked with the International Space Station early Sunday morning.

Nearly five days later, astronauts at the Space Station closed the hatch on the capsule at 9:39 a.m. Thursday, according to NASA. The capsule is scheduled to undock from the station at 11:30 p.m., beginning its relatively short trip back to Earth.

According to NASA and SpaceX, about five hours after it leaves the ISS, Crew Dragon will begin a roughly 15-minute deorbit burn. The capsule will splash down in the Atlantic Ocean roughly 35 to 40 minutes later, or around 5:45 a.m. California time Friday.

Crew Dragon's maiden flight into space is a major milestone in American space flight. The United States has not launched astronauts into space since the space shuttle program was retired in 2011. SpaceX and Boeing have both now contracted with NASA to conduct astronaut launches, with Crew Dragon the first capsule actually launched into space on a test mission.

Assuming there are no glitches in the balance of the mission, SpaceX is tentatively expected to launch a pair of astronauts into space aboard Crew Dragon this summer, possibly July. NASA has already chosen astronauts Robert Behnken and Doug Hurley for the historic mission.

The only passenger on Crew Dragon during the current mission is a sensor-laden mannequin named Ripley, dubbed in honor of Sigourney Weaver's character in the "Alien" sci-fi film series.

After last week's launch of Crew Dragon, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the mission "marks a new chapter in American excellence,getting us closer to once again flying American astronauts on American rockets from American soil."
A Massachusetts man who allegedly threatened to conduct a "shooting spree" is facing charges for illegally purchasing 150 rounds of ammunition without a license.

Brian Schwarztrauber, 54, of Cambridge, was arraigned Wednesday in Cambridge District Court for illegal possession of ammunition and is facing an additional charge of purchasing ammunition without a license. He was ordered held on $25,000 cash bail.

According to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, police were called to the Shriner's Auditorium in Wilmington last Saturday for a report of a disruptive patron at the Northeast Gun Show.

Upon arrival, police allegedly located Schwarztrauber, who was being disruptive and refused to leave the gun show. When police approached him, they said they detected a strong odor of alcohol. While police were speaking with him, they received a notification from Cambridge police concerning statements Schwarztrauber had allegedly made indicating that he was going to use a firearm and ammunition to conduct a "shooting spree."

Due to his level of intoxication, Schwarztrauber was placed into protective custody while police continued to investigate.

While taking him into custody, police learned from a gun show employee that Schwarztrauber had allegedly purchased ammunition without a firearms identification card. Police subsequently located three 50-round boxes of PPU Handgun Line 9mm Luger ammunition in Schwarztrauber's vehicle. He was arrested at that time.

Cambridge police subsequently obtained a search warrant for Schwarztrauber's home in Cambridge, where they located a box of Hornady Valkyrie 224 rifle ammunition.

"About a week ago, I noticed him saying some things that I found very concerning," said his roommate, Amanda Greenfield, who went to police after she said she heard him talking on the phone about plans to shoot people up.

Greenfield says she overheard Schwarztrauber talking to a man named Chris, saying he was allegedly going to get a rifle and that he wanted a sniper rifle.

No firearms were found in the apartment.

"He's always ... been kind of full of anger and hate for the left, but lately, it's kind of become more crystalized," Greenfield said.

The police report said Schwarztrauber has recently been "talking about mass shootings" and that he would make "racist comments and is very much against the views of the Democratic party."

Schwarztrauber is scheduled to return to court on April 2.

Also charged as part of the investigation was Stephen Fowler, 69, of Guilford, Connecticut, the vendor at the gun show who sold the ammunition to Schwarztrauber.

Fowler was charged with selling ammunition without complying with the requirements relating to firearms identification cards. He was arraigned Tuesday in Woburn District Court and released on $500 cash bail with the condition that he not sell firearms in Massachusetts.
The Springfield man police identified as the gunman who opened fire on a U.S. Marshals task force team at a Rockford hotel Thursday has a long criminal history in Illinois dating back to the 1990s, records show.

Authorities believe Floyd Brown, 39, was the gunman who shot and wounded an officer at the Extended Stay hotel off North Bell School Road before embarking on a nearly 100-mile journey south of Chicago at a high rate of speed. He was eventually stopped by Illinois State Police near Lincoln, where a standoff shut down the interstate in both directions.

Three months earlier, Brown, a resident of Springfield, has been identified as a burglary suspect in Bloomington, Illinois. Police said Brown fled from officers investigating the burglaries, driving without headlights at a high rate of speed before crashing in a multi-car accident. He fled the accident scene on foot, police said, and it was not clear if he was ever taken into custody. A reward of up to $1,000 was being offered for information leading to his arrest at the time.

According to Sangamon County court records, Brown's history with law enforcement in the area dates back to 1996.

He previously was found guilty in that county of domestic battery, resisting peace officers, criminal trespass to a residence, aggravated battery of a peace officer or fireman, reckless discharge of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon, reckless driving, endangering the life of a child and more.

Court record also indicate Brown has had two orders of protection against him, though one was dismissed.

The Thursday incident began at the Extended Stay hotel off North Bell School Road, where authorities initially said officers were investigating an "active shooter" situation.

Rockford police said members of the task force were attempting to serve an arrest warrant around 9:15 a.m. when they were fired on. One officer was hit in the gunfire and critically wounded.

Police said the suspect, armed with a rifle, fled the room and was not in custody as of 1 p.m. Thursday.

Rockford police identified the suspect as Brown, who they believed was in a light blue or silver Mercury Grand Marquis with a license plate of BF13112 or a temporary plate of 4850256.

Illinois State Police said Brown crashed in a rural area off Interstate 55 south of Bloomington, between Springfield. He remained in the vehicle as negotiations were underway.

Police spokesman Andre Brass warned that Brown is considered "armed and dangerous."

"We just want to end this incident peacefully with his surrender," Brass said.
What to Know Deputies in Lake County arrested Craig McDonald after the home owner said he walked into her house, laid down and refused to leave.

A Central Florida man remains behind bars after he told police he was high on meth when a woman found him asleep on a couch inside her home.

Deputies in Lake County arrested 40-year-old Craig McDonald after the home owner said he walked into her house, laid down and refused to leave.

"I said, 'Excuse me, do you belong here? Where are you supposed to be? You're in the wrong house, dude,'" Michelle Oakley told NBC affiliate WESH-TV.

McDonald kicked one deputy in the chest and started swinging his fist at others, according to an arrest report. Deputies used a Taser to subdue McDonald and place him under arrest, where he was arrested and charged with trespassing and battery on an officer and is being held on $51,000 bond.
Buying a home can be the proudest moment of your life, but real estate insiders say cyber thieves are on the prowl. Homebuyer Ted Williams lost $300,000 dollars after he says a hacker sent fraudulent wiring instruction to his email.

It looked like it was coming through the real estate agency and their lawyers. So I just said okay, go ahead, he said.

When he showed up to closing he found out he sent the money to the wrong account.

I was informed the money wasnt there, and I said what do you mean the money is not there, he said. He later realized, the day the wiring instructions were sent, he received two emails.

He says the second email looked identical to the first, but two things were changed. The bank name was different and there were grammar mistakes in the email.

This is happening a lot more often than I even realized, Igor Shrayev with The Lending Group Company told us.

Shrayev called NBC 6 Responds after one of his clients in the Miami area got a similar email.

The grammar was a little bit quirky, the name of the title company was a little bit misspelled, he told us. Shrayev caught the red flags and saved his client from losing thousands, but the risk for other home buyers and real estate investors is still there.

Now a company hopes to use technology to prevent crimes like these. Nate Baker founded Qualia.

It keep all the communication in one place so that it is secure and simple, Baker said..

The technology helps to process home sales and aims to stop the scams. Qualia offers agents software with a digital safe room, where Baker says home buying communication can take place with only trusted and verified participants allowed inside.

Other companies offer similar technology but not all agents are using secure communication platforms. Baker travels the country speaking to groups of real estate insiders. Our cameras were in a meeting in Andover, Massachusetts.

Its always best to talk to your title company, but you need to in addition to that communicate securely via a common secure platform, he told us about real estate transactions.

Real Estate Attorney Barry Finegold agrees with Baker.

I believe that if more and more people adopt software thats safe and secure, said Finegold.

Real estate insiders say there are ways home buyers can help ensure their down payments make it to the right place. When you receive the wiring instructions call your closing agent and verbally verify the bank account number, routing number and the amount being transferred is correct.
What to Know Israel says in the lawsuit filed Thursday that DeSantis "engineered a political power play that interferes with the right of the public."

The South Florida sheriff who was suspended by the governor and accused of failing to prevent the Parkland school shooting filed suit Thursday seeking his job back and alleging Gov. Ron DeSantis improperly ousted him for political reasons.

Suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel argues in the lawsuit that DeSantis "engineered a political power play that interferes with the right of the public to determine their elected official," and says the governor failed to prove that Israel acted incompletely or neglected his duties.

DeSantis, who suspended Israel from his elected position in January and appointed an acting sheriff, had said Israel displayed poor leadership and failed to keep families and children safe before and during the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead.

"It is lamentable that Scott Israel refuses to be held accountable for his actions and continues to hold disregard for the law," DeSantis' spokeswoman Helen Ferre said in a statement.

She said the governor suspended Israel in accordance with Florida constitutional authority, citing "neglect of duty and incompetence" in both the Parkland slayings and a mass shooting at the Fort Lauderdale Airport in early 2017.

The Florida Legislature, which has final say on the suspension, is reviewing the matter. The Senate president has appointed a special master to preside over a hearing on the suspension, likely to take place next month.

Before the shooting, Israel had changed his department's policy to say deputies "may" confront shooters, instead of "shall." Critics say that gave eight deputies an excuse for not confronting the gunman during the shooting.

In the lawsuit, Israel said DeSantis did "not identify or describe any mandatory duty neglected or incompetently fulfilled by Sheriff Israel" and therefore the executive order "is an invalid exercise of authority. Sheriff Israel is entitled to reinstatement as Broward County Sheriff."

The ousted sheriff has already said he intends to run for office again next year.

Israel's attorney declined to give further comment Thursday.

Several parents of slain students had pushed the newly elected Republican governor to remove Israel, a Democrat. Calls for Israel's ouster began shortly after the shooting when it was revealed that the Broward deputy assigned to guard the school, Scot Peterson, had not gone into the building to confront the shooter, but took cover outside.

The heat increased after it was learned the sheriff's office received and disregarded a call in 2016 and another in 2017 warning that suspect Nikolas Cruz, now 20, was a potential school shooter. Deputies also had about 20 contacts with Cruz as a juvenile  mostly over arguments with his now-deceased mother.

Israel has said none of those contacts warranted an arrest. Law enforcement members of the state commission investigating the shooting have agreed with that conclusion.

Cruz remains jailed, charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder.
What to Know Seventeen police officers say they've paid a price for their military service: allegedly bullied and retaliated against by higher-ups

The police officers, through their attorney, have now put the City of Clifton on legal notice

Twelve of the officers met with the I-Team at the VFW Hall in Clifton. Five others are actively deployed

Many have combat medals. One has a purple heart. They all have a dedicated commitment to serving their country and their community.

But 17 Clifton police officers, many with multiple overseas deployments, now say theyve paid a price for their military service: allegedly bullied and retaliated against by higher-ups in their police department.

The cops, through their attorney, have now put the City of Clifton on legal notice, alleging "systemic harassment and discrimination and harassment by the city and its police department based on their [officers'] military service and/or their status as veterans." City officials deny any military discrimination.

Twelve of the officers met with the I-Team at the VFW Hall in Clifton. Five others are actively deployed.

"Its like youre torn between two families. You have your military family on one side and your police family on the other," Officer Wayne Stine said.

Officer Michael Zigarelli said he was threatened with termination by a supervisor, who has risen through the ranks.

I have definitely been bullied, absolutely," he said. I was told, Youve been warned. Im going for termination. Dont take these [military orders].

"He stated that the military was my mistress, and the police department was my wife. And he stated that I had to choose," Zigarelli added.

Officer Anthony Diaz said, Its us or them. They knew what we were when they hired us.

The officers said the tipping point came last November, when the 17 received letters ordering them to produce pay stubs for the past seven years for all paid military time, including active duty deployment.

The cops were given three weeks to comply or the city would dock their pay.

I didnt know if I would have money to pay my mortgage. This was completely out of nowhere," Officer Joel Muniz said.

Officer David Pereda said the officers have always complied with city requirements.

We provide drill schedules, pay scales, military orders, anything they require ahead of time. Why now all of a sudden are we being punished?" he asked.

"To ask for a pay stub, youre asking if they were really there, if you really served. If you really went to Afghanistan. If you really went to Iraq. Its insulting," the officers attorney, Catherine Elston, said.

Clifton City Manager Dominick Villano told the I-Team he had no idea the letter had been sent out to the 17 officers, saying the review of records was initiated last fall by the police chief and carried out by the chief financial officer.

That letter was a mistake, obviously, Villano said. It should never have been sent out.

Villano said no officers had ever been directly contacted by the city to rectify the mistake, but added the PBA, the police union, was recently advised the city would not be pursuing repayment of any past military time.

When asked what he would say to the officers, Villano responded, I apologize to them. I support our veterans.

Villano also said he had no prior knowledge of an email  obtained by the I-Team  sent from the city attorney to the officers union and the union's attorney.

In the email, the city attorney proposed a settlement" in which the city would waive all money that may be owed, but going forward, officers would be required to use vacation, accrued or compensatory time if they wanted to be paid for weekend training drills.

In addition, Clifton would no longer pay the difference between the police officers' military pay and city pay. In the past, according to a 2011 agreement, officers were not required to sacrifice earned pay leave, including vacation days, for drills.

Some officers said they have left the military because the conflict is too stressful.

The way I looked at it was, if I want to be successful within this department, I have to close this chapter of my life. The military chapter, Officer Alexander Zamora said.

When asked about the message to new recruits with military backgrounds, Officer Stine said, Do your homework. The billboard seems to be, 'Our Departments hiring. Vets need not apply.'"

Clifton Police Chief Mark Centurione declined the I-Teams request for an interview, but through a spokesman gave this statement: As a veteran myself, I am personally offended by the discourse that has transpired over this topic."

"The Clifton Police Department has never denied military leave to anyone at any time," he added. "Additionally, all employees have always received 100 percent of their due compensation. The details of how both salaries (police and military) are conjointly allocated, is currently in the process of being determined."
What to Know Surveillance video shows total chaos and terror as gunfire broke out in a Long Island IHOP earlier this week

Suffolk County police believe the shooting stemmed from an internal dispute between Bloods gang members

Police are also investigating two other shootings they say may be related to the IHOP shooting

Surveillance video from inside a Long Island IHOP shows utter chaos -- terrified customers scattering in a mad dash for exits and hiding under tables -- when gunfire broke out in the restaurant feet away from a toddler earlier this week.



Authorities have said the shooting at the IHOP on Portion Road in Lake Ronkonkoma appears to have been gang-related. The alleged shooter was taken into custody, another man needed immediate surgery for his gunshot wound.



Police had described the timeline of events -- but the surveillance video brings the bedlam into a jarring reality for anyone who sees it. It starts off innocuous --about a dozen or so diners are seen at various tables eating some food.



Two young men walk up to a table on the left side of the camera view. One makes a quick flash of his hand, then one of the people at the table pulls out a gun and fires several times. The video has no audio, so no frenzied sound can be heard, but the reactions of the two people who walked up to the table and those of other customers in the restaurant make the fear palpable.



As soon as the gun fires, the two people who had approached the shooter's table dive to the ground for cover, landing in the middle of the IHOP floor, then scrambling to their feet and running into each other -- and a table -- before they make a break to the right and run out of view of the camera. At the same time, all the diners who had been seated, eating, get up at once and start running in different directions. Most seem to be confused, shocked and terrified.



It appears their initial reaction is to run, but then they're not sure where to go, and end up cowering under tables as rapidly abandoned chairs lay upside down and sideways on the floor. Near the end of the footage, a woman rendered immobile by the shooting -- and by two people who fell on top of her -- grabs a toddler from a high chair. The child had been sitting feet away from the shooter.

The gunman, later identified as 19-year-old Deontrae Green, ran out of the restaurant as soon as he fired. He was taken into custody around the corner on charges of first-degree assault, first-degree criminal use of a firearm and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon; attorney information for Green wasn't immediately clear. The 20-year-old victim arrived at a hospital by private means and underwent surgery that afternoon; an update on his condition wasn't immediately available Thursday but authorities said he was likely to be OK.

Suffolk County police believe the shooting stemmed from an internal dispute between Bloods gang members. Police are also investigating two other shootings they say may be related to the IHOP shooting.
What to Know The longtime boss of the infamous Colombo crime family, Carmine "the Snake" Persico, has died in prison at the age of 85

Persico died Thursday; he had been serving what was effectively a life sentence at a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina

Prosecutors said Persico took over the murderous New York-based crime organization in the early 1970s when it was at the height of its power

Legendary New York mob boss Carmine Persico, who as head of the Colombo crime family was convicted in the 1980s for a laundry list of crimes, has died. He was 85.

His lawyer confirmed to NBC New York that Persico died Thursday at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. He had been serving what was effectively a life sentence at a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina.

Carmine John Persico Jr., known variously as "Junior" and "The Snake," was born in 1933 in Brooklyn. Prosecutors said Persico took over the murderous New York-based crime organization in the early 1970s when it was at the height of its powers.

In the summer of 1986, he was convicted of racketeering and murder in a prosecution of mob bosses led by then U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani and sentenced to more than a century in prison. He acted as his own lawyer at trial.

According to a New York Times report, Persico (who was his own attorney at the trial) blamed "Mafia mania" for influencing the proceedings.

Sentenced to more than 100 years in prison in 1987, Persico was reputed to still exert authority over the Colombo family from behind bars for decades.

In prison, he was also reported to have befriended notorious fraudster Bernie Madoff.
What to Know Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud

Facebook announced new policies to reduce the visibility of vaccine misinformation on its platform

An internal investigation has been opened regarding the possibility of information being leaked in the Jussie Smollett case, officials say

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Ex-Trump Campaign Boss Paul Manafort Sentenced to 47 Months

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, much less than what was called for under sentencing guidelines. Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he deals with complications from gout, had no visible reaction as he heard the 47-month sentence. While that was the longest sentence to date to come from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, it could have been much worse for Manafort. Sentencing guidelines called for a 20-year-term, effectively a lifetime sentence for the 69-year-old. Manafort still faces the possibility of additional time from his sentencing in a separate case in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty to charges related to illegal lobbying. Before Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed the sentence, Manafort told him that "saying I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement." But he offered no explicit apology, something Ellis noted before issuing his sentence.

House Broadly Condemns Hate After Anti-Semitism Dispute

Divided in debate but mostly united in a final vote, the House passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other bigotry, with Democrats trying to push past a dispute that has overwhelmed their agenda and exposed fault lines that could shadow them through next year's elections. The one-sided 407-23 vote belied the emotional infighting over how to respond to freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar's recent comments suggesting House supporters of Israel have dual allegiances. For days, Democrats wrestled with whether or how to punish the lawmaker, arguing over whether Omar, one of two Muslim women in Congress, should be singled out, what other types of bias should be decried in the text and whether the party would tolerate dissenting views on Israel. Republicans generally joined in the favorable vote, though nearly two-dozen opposed the measure, one calling it a "sham." Generational as well as ideological, the argument was fueled in part by young, liberal lawmakers  and voters  who have become a face of the newly empowered Democratic majority in the House.

Facebook Cracks Down on Vaccine Misinformation

Facebook announced new policies to reduce the visibility of vaccine misinformation on its platform, including rejecting advertising and excluding groups and pages from search results that spread vaccine hoaxes. The announcement comes after weeks of criticism from public health advocates and lawmakers who have called for action to curtail inaccurate information about vaccines, which have led to a resurgence of childhood diseases that had effectively been eradicated. We are fully committed to the safety of our community and will continue to expand on this work, wrote Monika Bickert, Facebooks vice president of global policy management, in a blog post announcing the change. The anti-vaccination community is united by the unscientific theory that vaccinations are toxic and cause myriad illnesses, including autism, and misguidedly believe a conspiracy helmed by the government and the pharmaceutical industry is keeping the truth about vaccines from the public.

Chicago Police Open Internal Probe Into Jussie Smollett Leaks

An internal investigation at the Chicago Police Department has been opened regarding the possibility of information being leaked in the Jussie Smollett case, officials confirmed. Smollett is charged with felony disorderly conduct for allegedly making a false police report. His attorneys say he's innocent. His report to police prompted days of intense media scrutiny. No other information was immediately available about the internal investigation. A little more than a week after Chicago police laid out what appeared to be a damaging case against the "Empire" star, a defense strategy began emerging  much of it centered on discrediting the two men who pointed at Smollett as the mastermind. Police say the case against Smollett turned in the final hour of their two-day interrogation of Nigerian brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo. But questions over the brothers' motives and the evidence prosecutors and police said they have against Smollett are rising, defense sources say. Smollett, who is openly gay, said his attackers used homophobic slurs during the incident.

Disney's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Attractions Set to Open

Get ready to buckle up and blast off. Disneys new Star Wars: Galaxys Edge attractions are now set to open ahead of schedule on May 31 at Disneyland in Anaheim, California and Aug. 29 at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The two attractions were previously slated to open in summer and fall. The news was announced by Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger at his annual shareholders meeting Thursday. He revealed both opening dates for the respective 14-acre, themed destinations set to take Star Wars fans into the world of the popular movie franchise. The sprawling sets on a remote world are based off of the newest "Star Wars" trilogy  so don't expect appearances by Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. But some familiar faces including Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren and fan-favorite Chewbacca will be a part of the adventure as visitors explore the immersive world.
Former Texas Rep. Ralph Hall, the oldest-ever member of the U.S. House and a man who claimed to have once sold cigarettes and Coca-Cola to the bank-robbing duo of Bonnie and Clyde, has died at age 95.

The Republican and World War II pilot died at his home in Rockwall on Thursday morning, said Ed Valentine, Hall's longtime strategist. Asked about a cause of death, Valentine simply cited Hall's age, saying he hadn't been suffering from any known long term ailments.

Former Rep. Ralph Hall, a political survivor whose career mirrored the massive partisan shift that marked the last 50 years of Texas politics and made him the oldest person to ever serve in the U.S. House, died Thursday. He was 95.

Hall was 91 when he left the House, after being defeated in a 2014 Republican primary runoff election by John Ratcliffe. The former U.S. attorney was less than half Hall's age and well-schooled in digital and data-heavy campaigning.

Hall won the 2012 Republican primary despite a tea party challenge. But he lost in a primary upset in 2014 to John Ratcliffe.

On the night he lost, Hall said he'd wasn't quitting.

"I am not going to retire and I'm sure not going to quit. I have a job until the 31st day of December. How many other 91-year-old men can say that," Hall said.

Ratcliffe, after learning of Hall's death, released the following statement Thursday afternoon.

An avid jogger who began his days with 2-mile runs, Hall marked Memorial Day 2012 -- when he was 89 -- by skydiving to honor American service members. That Christmas he became the oldest member of Congress' lower chamber, breaking the record set by North Carolina Rep. Charles Manly Stedman, who died in office when he was 89 years, 7 months and 25 days old.

"I'm just an old guy -- lived pretty clean," Hall said just after breaking the record. "I have no ailments. I don't hurt anywhere. I may run again. I'll just wait and see."

Getting ousted by his own party in 2014 came a decade after Hall became a Republican as Texas moved farther to the right. Hall served 12 terms in Congress as a Democrat but announced in January 2004 that he'd made the switch, backed by his friend, George W. Bush, who released the following statement early Thursday afternoon:

Hall, who flew Hellcat fighters during World War II, was known in Congress for promoting NASA and energy production. Hailing from the town of Rockwall, east of Dallas, he was fond of saying that he voted with his party often but always voted with his district.

But he was probably most popular for mailing or personally dolling out pennies fitted with a special silver band bearing his name.

Only three U.S. senators were older than Hall while still serving in Congress: South Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond, who was 100 when he retired in 2003; Democrat Theodore Francis Green of Rhode Island, who left the Senate at age 93; and West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd, who died in office in 2010 at age 92.

Hall stuck to retail politicking, preferring to greet voters personally rather than organize formal campaign stops, and was ever quick with a joke or a story. That was enough to retain his House seat in 2012, when he bested tea party primary opponent Steve Clark. The telecommunications executive spent around $100,000 of his own money on the failed campaign that was also supported by grassroots groups targeting incumbents.

But in 2014, Ratcliffe painted his opponent as a do-little Washington insider. He noted that Hall had represented the district so long that he had an airport, lake and highway named after him. Ratcliffe also used targeted data to bring that message to likely Republican voters.

Hall tried to modernize with the times, joining Twitter in 2013 and marking former President Ronald Reagan's 102nd birthday with his first Tweet. But that proved no match for Ratcliffe, who ran unopposed in the deeply red district in November 2014 general election.

Ralph Moody Hall was born on May 3, 1923, in Fate, Texas. He attended Texas Christian University and the University of Texas, before earning a law degree at Southern Methodist University in 1951.

While working in a pharmacy in his hometown as a boy, Hall said then-fugitives Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker used curb-side service. Hall said they bought "two cartons of Old Golds, two Coca-Colas and all the newspapers we had."

"He was a funny looking little guy. She was acceptable looking," Hall said in 2014. "I saw them. But I don't think it's that unusual. They were a lot of places."

[NATL] In Memoriam: Influential People We've Lost in 2019

Like his father, Hall worked in the energy sector, helping run bulldozers during the construction of a pipeline before joining the Navy at age 19. He married Mary Ellen Murphy in November 1944, while serving in Pensacola, Florida. The couple had three sons: Hampton, Brett and Blakeley.

After World War II, Hall returned to practice law in Rockwall County, where he served as a judge from 1950 to 1962. He was elected the following year to the Texas Senate. He ran unsuccessfully in the 1972 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor and left the chamber the following January.

Hall was president and chief executive officer of Texas Aluminum Corp. and general counsel of Texas Extrusion Co. Inc. He was a counsel for the aircraft parts maker Howmet Corporation from 1970 to 1974.

Winning a U.S. House seat in 1980, Hall came to Washington just as Ronald Reagan's presidency began. Hall was among the Democratic conservatives who sided with Reagan on key budget issues, favoring efforts to reduce federal spending.

He voted against the North American Free Trade Agreement and was an original co-sponsor of bills to repeal the estate tax and the marriage tax penalty.

Hall also supported a resolution allowing America's use of force in Iraq, and voted "present" in January 2003 rather than vote for Nancy Pelosi in her bid for minority leader. Two months later, he voted for a budget that included Bush's 10-year, $726 billion tax-cut plan.

After becoming a Republican, Hall leaned heavily on Bush, a former Texas governor, and got strong White House backing in 2004's three-way GOP primary, winning 77 percent of the vote.

In 2009, he opposed the federal bailout of the financial industry and the economic stimulus package, and was a harsh critic of federal health care reform when it was debated and ultimately approved by Congress in 2010.

Two years later, Hall was appointed chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. That October, when the Environmental Protection Agency proposed easing pollution restrictions that had angered several states, Hall said EPA's revision proved its rules were not based on sound science.

"As we have seen in Texas and throughout the United States, pursing an EPA-knows-best approach to compliance will unquestionably result in increased unemployment, power plant shutdowns and more expensive, less reliable energy," he said.

After the primary defeat to Ratcliffe, Hall injured his hip in car crash, and his recovery kept him away from Washington for much of the remainder of a term that formally ended in 2015.

Hall is survived by his three children. His wife died in 2008 at age 83, after 63 years of marriage.
President Donald Trump declared Friday that he rejected a personal appeal from his former lawyer Michael Cohen for a pardon, the strongest assertion yet that Cohen may have lied under oath.

Trump tweeted his claim after days of swirling questions about Cohen over the issue of pardons. It has emerged as a key line of inquiry for Democrats launching a series of sweeping investigations into Trump's political and personal dealings.

"Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon. His lawyers totally contradicted him. He lied!" Trump tweeted aboard Air Force One while en route to inspect damage from deadly tornados in Alabama. "Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!"

Cohen took to Twitter minutes later to deny the accusation.

"Just another set of lies by @POTUS @realdonaldtrump. Mr. President" he wrote, before invoking the women whose hush-money payments he helped facilitate. "Let me remind you that today is #InternationalWomensDay. You may want use today to apologize for your own #lies and #DirtyDeeds to women like Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford."

Lanny Davis, Cohen's lawyer, said in a written statement Thursday that his client was "open to the ongoing 'dangling' of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media" in the months after the FBI raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room in April 2018.

Davis, who was not Cohen's lawyer at the time, said Cohen "directed his attorney" to explore a possible pardon with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others on Trump's legal team. The statement appears to contradict Cohen's sworn testimony last week at a House Oversight Committee hearing that he had never asked for, and would not accept, a pardon from Trump.

Davis' comment raises questions about whether Cohen  who is slated to begin a three-year prison sentence in May for crimes including lying to Congress  lied to Congress again last week. Cohen's legal team argued that his statement was correct because Cohen never asked the president himself for a pardon.

Trump did not immediately provide evidence of Cohen's attempt to secure a pardon or reveal when the alleged request was made. Earlier Friday, speaking to reporters on the White House lawn, he said that Cohen had told a "stone cold lie" when he testified that he did not seek presidential intervention.

In response to Trump's tweet, Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat and member of the House judiciary and intelligence committees, called on Trump to testify under oath.

"Michael Cohen gave sworn testimony. Will you? Under oath to Mueller or Congress?" he tweeted, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign.

There is nothing inherently improper about a subject in a criminal investigation seeking a pardon from a president given the president's wide latitude in granting them. But investigators want to know if the prospects of presidential pardons were somehow offered or used inappropriately.

It is hard to untangle the conflicting narratives given the unreliability of some of the central characters.

Cohen, for instance, has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and saw his credibility attacked last week by Republican lawmakers. Davis has had to walk back at least one bombshell assertion over the last year  that his client could tell investigators that Trump had advance knowledge of a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign  and Giuliani has fumbled facts and repeatedly moved the goalposts about what sort of behavior by the president would constitute collusion or a crime.

Davis said that instead of attacking Cohen, Trump should "be explaining why he, his son and CFO signed checks for hush money to keep a woman quiet," referring to copies of checks that Cohen presented during his testimony last week showing he was reimbursed for the hush-money payment to Daniels. At least one of the checks was signed by Trump and another was signed by Donald Trump Jr. and Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's chief financial officer, Cohen said.

Congressional investigators, meanwhile, appear to be focusing on presidential powers as a significant line of questioning in their probes.

Giuliani said Thursday he was contacted in May or June about a possible pardon for Cohen.

"My answer was the president is not going to consider or give any pardons now," Giuliani said in an interview. "As I have said in the past, the president has the right to, and that doesn't mean he won't consider it when the investigation is over. But there are no plans to do so; that's the answer that Jay and I and the president settled on. 'The best thing for you to do,' I would tell everyone, 'is assume you don't have the pardon.'"

Jay Sekulow is another Trump lawyer.

Cohen has become a key figure in congressional investigations since turning on his former boss and cooperating with the special counsel. During last week's public testimony, he called Trump a con man, a cheat and a racist. Trump, in turn, has said Cohen "did bad things unrelated to Trump" and "is lying in order to reduce his prison time."

As questions grew this week, Cohen's legal team stressed that he was one of Trump's closest confidants and if he wanted a pardon, he would have just asked Trump himself  which the president, for the first time on Friday, claimed is what happened.

Cohen arranged payments to Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels, and McDougal to prevent them from speaking publicly about alleged affairs with Trump. Cohen on Thursday sued the Trump Organization over its decision to stop paying his legal bills, which Trump declared to be "the most ridiculous suit I've ever seen."
What to Know A man was stabbed during a Thursday morning altercation on SEPTA's Broad Street Line concourse.

Charles Dallas D. Green faces murder and robbery charges.

The stabbing occurred the morning after SEPTA transit officers went on strike. Other officers are being tasked with patrolling stations.

The first morning commute with SEPTA transit officers on strike was marred by a deadly stabbing in the SEPTA underground system in Center City.

At least two men got into an altercation in the underground concourse at Broad and Spruce Streets, near the Walnut-Locust Station of the Broad Street Line, around 6:30 a.m. Thursday, SEPTA spokeswoman Heather Redfern and Philadelphia police said.

Charles Dallas D Green stabbed another man in the chest and then both men left the station, investigators said. Both men are believed to be homeless and knew each other.

Medics rushed the 30-year-old stabbing victim to Hahnemann University Hospital where he died about an hour later, police said.

The 50-year-old Green fled the concourse, police said.

NBC10 / Philadelphia Police Department

Blood could be seen on the sidewalk just outside the exit from the concourse. The incident was caught on surveillance video and lasted less than a minute, police said.

The incident came during the first morning commute since SEPTA transit officers walked off the job as contract negotiations stalled Wednesday. Both sides sat down Thursday night to negotiate but an agreement was not reached. Talks are set to resume Friday morning.

Andrew Busch, SEPTA's chief spokesman, says 49 police supervisors are working 12 hour shifts patrolling systemwide. Police in Philadelphia and other towns that SEPTA serves have also stepped up patrols, he added.

Broad Street Line service wasn't impacted but the Spruce Street exit to the concourse was blocked off with police tape as investigators searched for clues.

A SEPTA police supervisor helped arrest Green about an hour and a half after the stabbing, a source with knowledge of the investigation told NBC10. The arrest took place at a homeless shelter, Philly police said.

Fraternal Order of Transit Police  Lodge 109 vice president Troy Parham offered his prayers to the victim's family and said the incident highlights the need for more transit police staffing that is one of the core issues the union is fighting for.

"I think that it's very important that we are out there, and our supervisors are doing the best job that they can, but I think it's a situation similar to one we are in when we are at work, we are just understaffed, we are undermanned," Parham said. "We can't be everywhere at once. They are doing the best job they can."

A judge arraigned Green on murder, robbery and weapons charges early Friday morning. Green is being held without bail. Online court records don't list an attorney who could comment on Green's behalf.
What to Know An investigation is underway after a woman was found shot to death inside a car in Willingboro Township, New Jersey.

The body of Maribely Lopez, 21, of Lindenwold, was found inside a vehicle on Medley Lane, Thursday morning.

A SWAT team searched a home Thursday night about a block away from where Lopez's body was found. No arrests have been made.

An investigation is underway after a woman was found shot to death inside a car in Willingboro Township, New Jersey.



Police were called to Medley Lane around 8:20 a.m. Thursday. When they arrived they found the body of Maribely Lopez, 21, of Lindenwold, inside her vehicle. Investigators say she had been shot to death. No arrests have been made and police havent released a description of any suspects.



Thursday night, a SWAT team descended on a home on Marboro Lane, about a block away from where Lopezs body was found. A source close to the investigation told NBC10 the search was connected to her death. They also searched through neighboring homes for surveillance footage.



Investigators have not yet revealed if they found anything during the search.



I was shocked with the police coming up to my door and basically asking questions about a car over here, Bo Bowens, a resident in the neighborhood, said.



One witness told NBC10 she saw the same car Lopez was found dead in on the other side of the street Wednesday but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.



Lopezs death comes three weeks after another 21-year-old was found shot to death inside a car in Willingboro.



Im hoping theyre not connected, Terrence Walker, another Willingboro resident, told NBC10. These things out here, they dont happen like that.



If you have any information on the shooting, please call Willingboro Township Police at 609-877-6958 or Burlington County Central Communications at 609-265-7113.
What to Know In all, state workers had $3.5 billion in unused leave as of 2017, the most recent period for which data was available.

Vacation balances for most employees are supposed to be capped at 640 hours, but there's sporadic enforcement of the rule.

The data do not include legislative employees or institutions such as public universities, meaning the cost is higher.

An analysis has found an increasing number of California state workers are retiring with massive payouts for unused vacation and other leave, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

The Times said its review of payroll data from the state controller's office shows the state paid employees nearly $300 million for banked time off last year.

Among them were more than 450 who took home six-figure checks, including a prison surgeon who received $456,002 and a transportation engineer who received $405,000 for time off that was never used.

Twenty employees with the biggest payouts last year received a combined $5.9 million and 17 received raises in the year before retirement. The newspaper's analysis found those raises increased the payouts by an average of $7,500 each.

In all, state workers had $3.5 billion in unused leave as of 2017, the most recent period for which data was available.

Vacation balances for most employees are supposed to be capped at 640 hours.

But the analysis found that sporadic enforcement of the rule and an increasing number of state workers retiring have led to a 60 percent rise in the number of six-figure payouts since 2012.

The data do not include legislative employees or institutions such as public universities, meaning the cost is higher. And total unfunded liability does not account for stockpiled days off used by employees at the end of their careers to remain employed while not actually working, which boosts the value of their pensions.

Joe Nation, a Stanford public policy professor, told the newspaper government mismanagement is responsible for the situation.

"It's like having a speed limit but not enforcing it," he said. "This is not a good way to run any organization."

Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom, countered that in recent years the state has made "significant strides" in reducing the unused leave balances.

Efforts to deal with the problem include offers by some departments to cash out up to 80 hours of time off each year. The strategy is intended to prevent even greater payouts when workers retire at higher salaries.

An effort by former Gov. Jerry Brown to reduce vacation balances led the state to pay out $111 million during a three-year period that ended in 2017.
The California state auditor looking into conditions at certain immigration detention centers housing undocumented people found that health and safety concerns are being overlooked and more oversight is needed.

The state audit looked at counties and cities that have contracts with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to house detainees. The report suggests the city of Adelanto, which has been paid millions of dollars in fees to have that contract, is not aware of what is happening behind the walls of the facility.

"Inside the detention center, it was hard for all people," said Romulo Avelica Gonzalez, a 51-year old father, who spent six months inside the Adelanto Detention Facility, more than 80 miles away from his family in Lincoln Heights. Avelica Gonzalez was arrested while dropping off one of his daughters at school in February 2017.

He was released after a detention order was overturned and is awaiting a decision on a visa.

But, he says he will never forget his time inside the Adelanto facility, including a moment when he says he witnessed a man who tried to kill himself.

"I see one people in the shower and he put the sheet in his neck and put the sheet on the shower," he said. "He don't want anymore live." Federal inspectors last year found health and safety risks at the Adelanto facility, including bed sheets turned into nooses in detainee cells.

According to a new report obtained by the NBC4 I-Team and released on February 26, the city of Adelanto was not aware of the inspection reports, nor did they review complaints or check to see if standards set by immigration and customs enforcement, including proper medical care, are being met.

The city contracts with a private company, Geo Group, to manage the facility, including safety. The state audit covered five years and says cities like Adelanto did not provide meaningful oversight.

The Geo Group said in a statement, "While we cannot speak to the findings and recommendations in the report as they relate to local cities and municipalities, we strongly dispute the claim that the facilities managed by Geo Group on behalf of the federal government lack sufficient oversight.

The ICE processing centers we manage are under constant operational oversight by full-time, on-site government monitors.

Furthermore, the facilities are subject to extensive regulatory requirements and on-going reviews and audits, including routine and unannounced independent reviews conducted by the federal government and independent accrediting organizations.

As a longstanding service provider to the federal government, our focus has always been and remains on delivering high-quality, culturally responsive services in safe and humane environments."

They point to several actions taken since last year, including the enforcement of the no hanging of bed sheets rule which they say detainees used for privacy and reviewing the medical services at the center that houses nearly 2,000 detainees.

Officials with Adelanto did not respond to requests for comment.

"I think it is very important to go there every month, the city or the federal agents to check the conditions of the center because it is very very hard," Gonzalez said.

The state auditor is actually calling for urgent legislation to require that cities have adequate oversight policies currently. The city and others have been named in a lawsuit citing inhumane conditions.

Geo Group denies any allegations of inadequate care. ICE says the city of Adelanto continues to have a multi-year agreement to house detainees, adding centers are subject to stringent and regular inspections.

An ICE spokesperson says: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is committed to providing for the welfare of all those entrusted to its custody and to ensuring all detainees are treated in a humane and professional manner. Accordingly, all facilities that house ICE detainees must meet rigorous performance standards, which specify detailed requirements for virtually every facet of the detention environment. The safety, rights and health of detainees in ICE's care are of paramount concern and all ICE detention facilities are subject to stringent, regular inspections."
Less than 24 hours after NBC 7 Investigates published leaked documents detailing how the U.S. government created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers, Congress is reacting.

A strongly worded letter from the Congressional Committee on Homeland Security called the practice "troubling" as debate begins over the legality of such a program. It has demanded information on protocol, copies of the "dossiers" of the 59 individuals listed and explanations for each listing later this month.

"I think there's generally a high bar for doing surveillance of journalists because journalists are assumed to be protected by the First Amendment and acting in the public interest," said Professor Dan Hallin of University of California San Diego. "Normally to do surveillance of journalists you have to have some very specific reason for thinking that journalist has been a conduit for national security."

"It's not entirely clear what the motive was but being a journalist does not give rise to reasonable suspicion that you are engaged in criminal activity," said legal analyst Dan Eaton.

NBC 7 spoke with a former U.S. attorney that said in The Department of Justice there is a "bright line" in getting information from lawyers or journalists. He was also quite adamant that approval would have to come from high up -- likely either the Deputy Attorney General or the Attorney General himself.

The secret database centered around clashes at the San Ysidro Port of Entry at the end of 2018, according to the United State Customs and Border Protection. Roughly 5,000 immigrants from Central America made their way north through Mexico to the United States southern border. The story made international headlines.

In the months that followed, journalists who covered the caravan, as well as those who offered assistance to caravan members, said they felt they had become targets of intense inspections and scrutiny by border officials.

Leaked documents provided to NBC 7 by a Homeland Security source on the condition of anonymity confirmed those suspicions.

The individuals listed include ten journalists, seven of whom are U.S. citizens, a U.S. attorney, and 48 people from the U.S. and other countries, labeled as organizers, instigators or their roles unknown.

"Customs and Border Protection has broad latitude to engage in law enforcement gathering," said Eaton. "The issue here comes in whether it chills these journalists and their abilities to do their job."

One photojournalist said she spent 13 hours detained by Mexican authorities when she tried to cross the border. Eventually, she was denied entry and sent back to the U.S.

"It reminded me of the kinds of things that happened in the 1960s," said Hallin. "It seemed like a throwback to an earlier era when the FBI would conduct surveillance on activists of various kinds as well as journalists."

Hallin likened it to the J. Edgar Hoover counterintelligence program called COINTELPRO. It was used to gather information on civil rights activists, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hallin also says this is reminiscent of President Richard Nixon's "Enemies List" of 1971.

It consisted of information on a number of journalists deemed adversarial to the administration. The list became public during Senate hearings and congressional scrutiny banned such scrutiny -- something certain to come up in arguments against this current program.

Eaton said you can expect a defense of the monitoring based on the broad right to engage in investigative activities related to law enforcement and sometimes that involves inconveniencing citizens.

"The fact that the president has declared a national emergency says that this seems to have risen to the level that this is a serious threat to the country," he said.

Still he added, there will be challenges to the motive: "Did this have the intent or effect of chilling the First Amendment right of the journalists?"
A man died Friday after a pickup truck collided with a sedan on Interstate 5 in Encinitas.

The crash occurred at approximately 1:15 a.m. in the northbound lanes of I-5 between Manchester and Birmingham, according to California Highway Patrol Sgt. Curtis Martin.

The driver of a black Nissan pickup truck was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after he rear-ended a silver Hyundai Elantra that was parked on the shoulder of the freeway.

Other drivers stopped to help but couldn't get the injured driver out of the Hyundai because of the damage to the door.

A witness described walking up to see if anyone was injured.

I tried to open up the drivers side door and was unable to while I was on the phone with 911, the man said. I was able to cut him out of his seatbelt.

The Hyundai driver, a 72-year-old man from Florida, was rushed to Scripps La Jolla according to City of Solana Beach, Encinitas and Del Mar Battalion Chief Robert Ford.

Four hours after the crash, CHP released information that the sedan driver had died as a result of his injuries.

The pickup driver was identified as identified as Dean Bednarcyzk, 42 of Oceanside. He was taken to Scripps Encinitas to be checked out and was later booked into the Vista Detention Facility on manslaughter and felony DUI charges.

Joseph Bush also stopped at the scene fo the crash and said the pickup truck driver was disoriented after the crash but appeared uninjured.

He kept asking me What happened, what happened, Bush said. He started cleaning out his car and putting stuff in bags.

CHP is investigating the collision.
An Army staff sergeant convicted of killing his wife and a rookie police officer in 2016 was formally sentenced Thursday to seven consecutive life sentences.

Ronald Hamilton is set to spend life in prison for killing Officer Ashley Guindon and his wife, Crystal Hamilton. Guindon was working her first shift when she responded to a domestic violence call at the Hamiltons' home in Woodbridge, Virginia. Guindon was 28. Crystal Hamilton was 29.

Both women's mothers spoke Thursday about the past three years they've spent coping with their daughters' murders.

Guindon's heartbroken mother called Hamilton a "vicious, cold-blooded, heartless killer."

Crystal Hamilton's mother nearly collapsed in the witness box.

"My heart is bleeding. He took everything. He's a coward ... He shot my daughter in the back," she said.

Hamilton wept in court but did not speak.

A jury in Manassas deadlocked in October on whether Hamilton deserved the death penalty.

Two officers, Jesse Hempen and David McKeown, who responded to the Hamilton home along with Guindon also were shot. They suffered serious injuries but survived.

Through the course of the two-month trial, jurors learned that Hamilton had been angered that his wife planned to attend a male dance revue with her girlfriends, and that Hamilton had vowed to prevent her from attending prior to the fatal shooting.

During a confrontation in the couple's Woodbridge home, Crystal Hamilton called 911 for help after her husband threw her into a wall and slammed her to the floor. Jurors heard the 911 call which ended with Crystal Hamilton pleading, "Stop!" Prosecutors say Ronald Hamilton shot his wife four times with a Glock handgun, all while the couple's 11-year-old son was in the home.

Several officers responded to the 911 call. The officers tried to enter the house to check on Crystal Hamilton's welfare, but Ronald Hamilton refused to let them in. One of the officers then kicked open the front door, only to find Hamilton crouched with an AK-47 rifle opening fire. All three officers who initially responded to the home were struck. Hempen and McKeown testified at the trial, and attended arguments as well.

Hamilton's history of violent behavior was evident years before the fatal shootings in February 2016, prosecutors previously said, citing several instances of road rage, including one in which Hamilton confronted a police officer. They also cited an assault by Hamilton on a man he believed was having an affair with his wife, though Hamilton avoided charges in that case.

Cherry Murphy, Crystal Hamilton's mother, described life without her daughter as hell.

"It's hard for me to get out there and start a day without thinking of her," she said. "Sometimes I don't get up."
Riding the momentum from November's elections, Democratic leaders in the states are wasting no time delivering on their biggest campaign promise  to expand access to health care and make it more affordable.

The first full week of state legislative sessions and swearings-in for governors saw a flurry of proposals.

In his initial actions, newly elected California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to expand Medicaid to those in the country illegally up to age 26, implement a mandate that everyone buys insurance or face a fine, and consolidate the state's prescription drug purchases in the hope that it will dramatically lower costs.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee proposed a public health insurance option for people who are not covered by Medicaid or private employers and have trouble affording policies on the private market.

Democrats in several states where they now control the legislature and governor's office, including New Mexico, are considering ways that people who are uninsured but make too much to qualify for Medicaid or other subsidized coverage can buy Medicaid policies.

And in the nation's most populous city, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a publicly run plan to link the uninsured, who already receive treatment in city hospitals, with primary care.

It's all in keeping with the main theme Democratic candidates promoted on the campaign trail in 2018.

They touted the benefits of former President Barack Obama's health overhaul  such as protections for people with pre-existing conditions, allowing young adults to remain on their parents' health insurance policies and expanded coverage options for lower-income Americans. At the same time, they painted Republicans as seeking to eliminate or greatly reduce health care options and protections.

"Once you give something to somebody, it's pretty hard to take it away, and I think we see that with how the support for the (Affordable Care Act) has grown over the last two years," said Washington House Rep. Eileen Cody, who is leading the state's public option proposal.

The actions also represent a pushback to steps taken by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans to undermine the Affordable Care Act.

The GOP tax law stripped away the individual mandate, which was intended to stabilize insurance markets by encouraging younger and healthier people to buy policies. And last summer, the Trump administration said it would freeze payments under an "Obamacare" program that protects insurers with sicker patients from financial losses. That move is expected to contribute to higher premiums.

The Democratic proposals fall short of providing universal health care, a goal of many Democrats but also an elusive one because of its cost. In recent years, California, Colorado and Vermont have all considered and then abandoned attempts to create state-run health care systems.

Still, many Democrats are eager to take steps that get them closer to that.

"This is not just a moral right," Inslee said in announcing his public option proposal this past week. "It is an economic wisdom, and this is very possible."

Some lawmakers in Colorado, where Democrats now control the legislature and the governor's office, are proposing a state-run health insurance plan similar to that announced by Inlsee. It would reach those who don't qualify for federal assistance or who live in rural areas with few health care choices.

Both states plan to rely on their agencies that administer Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides health coverage for roughly one-in-five Americans. Republicans are skeptical about whether the states can afford it, since they already pick up a portion of Medicaid costs.

"This is about having the government competing in the private market. Medicare-for-all will be priced out," Washington state Rep. Joe Schmick said.

Taking incremental steps to increase coverage options and make health care more affordable may be a smarter strategy than pursuing a costly and complicated all-or-nothing proposal for universal coverage, said Katherine Hempstead, senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

"Everybody wants to pay less for health care," she said.

Democrats now have more leverage to experiment. Campaign messaging around health care helped them flip seven governor's seats to bolster their numbers to 23 across the country and win back several state legislative chambers. They gained full control of state government in several states, including New York and Nevada.

That power will allow them to consider health care expansions that Republicans have resisted.

In Nevada, for example, the state's Democratically controlled legislature passed a bill in 2017 that would have let anyone in the state buy into a Medicaid insurance plan, similar to the option being pushed in New Mexico. But former Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, vetoed it.

The new governor, Democrat Steve Sisolak, is forming a committee to look at health care options, including the possibility of requiring everyone to have insurance. In addition to the California proposal, that mandate already is in place in Massachusetts and New Jersey, with Vermont following in 2020.

It's a similar dynamic in New Mexico, where Democratic lawmakers have talked for years about allowing people, including non-citizens, to buy into Medicaid if they cannot afford insurance any other way.

Colin Baillio, policy director for the advocacy group Health Action New Mexico, said a bill is being drafted with the goal of getting it adopted this year and implemented for 2020. The optimism comes because the new governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, is a Democrat.

"Folks are going to need to have health care one way or another," he said. "We think health coverage is a good investment for our state."
The first recreational pot shop in the Greater Boston area will soon open after getting the green light from state regulators.

New England Treatment Access, whose dispensary in Northampton, Massachusetts, was one of the first two to sell marijuana products to recreational customers in the eastern U.S., has received final approval for adult-use sales at its Brookline medical marijuana location.

"We want to thank the Cannabis Control Commission for approving the final license for adult-use retail sales at NETA's Brookine dispensary," the company said in a statement. "We now look forward to working with the CCC in the coming days to obtain a Commence Operations Certificate. When that process is complete, we will be pleased to announce an opening date for adult-use sales in Brookline."

Recreational sales have begun at 10 shops in Massachusetts, with six others having received final licenses from the state. Of those 16 locations, only Brookline is in the immediate vicinity of Boston.

The store is located on Route 9, under half a mile west of the Boston line, at the busy intersection with Washington Street. Medical marijuana customers have been visiting the location since 2016.

NETA dealt with large crowds in the weeks after beginning recreational sales in Northampton, and it has an online order reservation system. Still, the proximity to the city has officials preparing for traffic. NETA has agreed to open on a Saturday, as Brookline officials requested, in order to give police time to work out any issues that may arise before the work week.

"When surrounding traffic is down, we can test it out and hopefully, the curiosity will die down a bit before teh week comes," said Neil Wishinsky, chair of Brookline's select board.

Wishinsky said they will also provide more police officers and have crowds line up on Washington Street instead of Route 9. NETA is arranging offsite parking at a few locations, including the nearby Homewood Suites. They are urging customers to take public transportation if possible.

Eric Haas, who works at the Early Music Shop of New England down the street, said he already has issues with traffic due to the medical customers and he is not looking forward to more.

"The staff at NETA keeps coming down and chasing people away because they park in front of the driveway," Haas said. "I'm not really thrilled about the idea of thousands of people showing up."

A spokesman for NETA said an announcement about the opening should be made in the next two to four weeks. Town officials in Brookline also plan to send out a notice to residents.
A Massachusetts State Police trooper was taken to a hospital following a fentanyl exposure scare in Norwell.

At about 1:40 a.m. Friday, a trooper from the department's Norwell Barracks had a woman under arrest for possession of a class A drug and took her to the station for booking, according to state police. A substance was found on the woman's clothes during booking and she claimed it was fentanyl.

As a result, a hazmat response was initiated and the trooper was taken to South Shore Hospital as a precaution. The woman refused treatment so she was not taken to a medical center.

Testing by a hazardous materials team was unable to confirm the substance to be fentanyl. Authorities did not say what the substance was.

The trooper was released from the hospital and showed no signs of having exposure to fentanyl. The trooper's cruiser and the station are under a decontamination process, state police said.

Authorities did not release the name of the woman who was arrested or with what she had been charged. No injuries were reported.

The CDC warns that inhaling or ingesting fentanyl could cause life-threatening respiratory issues, and skin contact also poses a risk, although it is less of a risk if removed immediately.

The investigation is ongoing.
Hundreds gathered Friday night in Dorchester to mourn the loss of a 23-year-old Massachusetts mother who was kidnapped and killed following an outing for her birthday at a nightclub.

Governor Charlie Baker was among those to attend Jassy Correia's wake, which was held from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at St. Peter's Church.

Raw emotions poured out as loved ones left the church, but Correia's death has been felt across the Commonwealth.

"We feel bad about it and everything that happened to her," said Fa-Ti Fernandez, who works at Margaritas where Correia had been getting her hair done for 10 years. "It's not fair."

What happened to Correia is now serving as a cautionary tale for others her age.

"It's scary and I feel like everyone should take a lesson out of this," one woman said at the wake. "Every parent should embrace their children a little bit closer today."

"She didn't get to enjoy her life," another woman said. "It was cut so short."

Mourners also gathered outside the St. Peter's Church on Thursday to pay their respects to Correia during a vigil for her. The vigil was attended by more than 100 people that included family, friends, community members, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Police Commissioner William Gross.

She was remembered as a woman who was in the prime of her life and taken far too soon.

Correia's body was found inside the trunk of her suspected killer's car in Delaware on Feb. 28. Louis Coleman, 32, of Providence, Rhode Island, was arrested in connection to her death. He has been charged with kidnapping, resulting in death.

Court documents revealed the young mother died of blunt force trauma and strangulation.

Correia's death has inspired city leaders to reflect on how clubs and bars are ensuring the safety of patrons.

Her funeral will be held 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Peter's Church.
Police are looking for a missing 19-year-old Vermont woman they say was in a hospital after a car crash.

Cassie Marx-Dunn was reported missing Sunday, March 3, Shelburne Police said Friday. She had been seen Feb. 28 in Shelburne.

Authorities searching for Marx-Dunn determined that she had been in a crash resulting in an injury and left a hospital in St. Albans later on Feb. 28.

Marx-Dunn has not been seen since she left the hospital. While police say foul play is not suspected, they add that there are concerns for her welfare.

Police describe Marx-Dunn as a white woman who is about 5'1 and 150 pounds. She has brown hair and green eyes.

According to police, Marx-Dunn has ties to Chittenden County and Franklin County.

Anyone with information is asked to call 802-985-8051.
A coyote needed help freeing itself after becoming stuck in the railing of a Massachusetts porch.

Photos showed the wild animal stuck under the railing outside a home in Weston.

Officers assisted in freeing a coyote stuck in a porch railing in the Town of Weston; officers did not observe any injuries and the coyote ran away without issue once it was freed. pic.twitter.com/divgUhYl4W  MAEnviroPolice (@MAEnviroPolice) March 8, 2019

Elizabeth Freeman says the coyote found himself in a tight spot Thursday after getting spooked by the family dog who was just let outside.

The Freeman family says they called police when the coyote became stuck.

It was an interesting position for this wild animal that weve never seen, Janie Freeman said.

Weston police responded first.

The coyote tried to bite the police officer. So then they called Environmental Police, said Bella Freeman.

The family says the Environmental Police came and wedged a little piece of wood in the railing, managing to free the coyote.

The family says the animal didnt appear to be in pain and no injuries were observed.

The coyote ran off, and the Freeman family says they thought that would be the last they saw of him. But then about an hour later, the animal came back to the front door.

The coyote hasnt been seen since, but in the meantime the family is keeping an eye on their dog.
A disturbing email sent to a teacher at a Massachusetts high school has led to an investigation by the school district and local police.

The anonymous email was sent to an African-American teacher at Wellesley High School.

According to Principal Jamie Chisum, it contained "racist tones, language and repulsive terms that were highly insulting." In a letter, Chisum also said that "the teacher was shocked and hurt by the contents of the email."

"Things like this have happened at the school before," said senior Isabelle Maggioni. "It's really not OK for it to keep happening."

"While I do not believe this incident is representative of our community as a whole, when I consider other incidents that have occurred in recent years, I also believe we cannot treat this as an isolated occurrence," Superintendent David Lussier said in a statement.

"I know that there's a lot of talk about the school needing to do something, the community needing to do something, but I still don't see a whole lot of action behind that," said parent DD Marcoux.

One student, Caroline Harding, posted about the incident on Facebook, hoping to foster conversation to keep this kind of behavior from happening again.

"I have immense faith in this community and I do believe that we can bounce back from things like this," said Harding, a junior at Wellesley High School.

Some students believe the email may have come from one of their classmates.

The school district is working with its technology department and police to try to identify the sender.
Huawei Nepal has launched Y7 Pro 2019 in Nepal from 8th March Friday. Huawei keeps on releasing new phones in the different segment as they hold their rank of second largest phone maker in the world. The phone is in the affordable segment but packs exciting features like dew drop notch, AI capabilities, huge battery etc. The price of the Huawei Y7 Pro (2019) is Rs 19,990 18,490 (updated price). Find more specs, features and price of Y7 pro 2019 below. Check out the latest price of Huawei mobile phones in Nepal.

Huawei Y7 Pro 2019 features 6.26 inch 1520 x 720 HD+ IPS screen with a dewdrop notch and 19:9 aspect ratio. They say the screen has better saturation, more clarity and color rendering. The phone is powered by Snapdragon 450 processor, as found in similar affordable smartphones.

Back is curved with ceramic-like materials and smooth finish gives comfy feeling in your hand. The phone has dual AI rear camera of 13 MP + 2 MP. The main sensor is of 13 MP with F/1.8 aperture while 2 MP is a depth sensor. AI in the camera can realize up to 500+ scenes to optimize the camera for a better result.

The selfie snapper of 16 MP gives the perfect catch of yourself without the need to edit later. The bigger battery size of 4000 mAH bars you from worrying about the juice when you use the phone heavily.

The phone has 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage, along with the extra SD card slot to expand storage up to 512 GB. Huawei Y7 Pro 2019 lacks a fingerprint sensor but supports face unlocking feature.

Detailed specs

Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.8 GHz Octa-core 14nm processor

6.26-inch HD+ HUAWEI Dewdrop display (19:9, 1520 x 720)

3 GB of RAM and 32 GB storage

MicroSD memory slot up to 512 GB.

Weight: 168 gm

EMUI 8.2 over Android 8

Dual Nano SIM card

Colors: Aurora Blue, Black and (Coral Red will be available later).

Rear Camera: 13 MP + 2 MP (f/1.8) AI

Front Camera: 16 MP

4000 mAH battery

Price: Rs 18,490 (Huawei updates the price from Rs 19,990 to make it more competitive)

Availability

As known, the phone is available in all retail stores from Falgun 24, 2075. If you are looking for an affordable phone with more features, you can go for it. The specs compete well with Samsung M20 smartphone for under 20K smartphone. Huawei Y7 pro-2019 also supports 800 MHz for 4G LTE which will be used by Nepal Telecom for their upcoming LTE smartphone. As the news about the 800 MHz spectrum (band 20) has come, more affordable 4G phones with 800 MHz support has launched recently in Nepal.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Viber to get latest news, information about Ntc, Ncell, Smart Cell and phones in Nepal.



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New computer scheme following crime increase

POLICE plan to introduce a new computer app scheme to help tackle shoplifting in Hungerford.

The news was announced after councillor Martin Crane told a full meeting of Hungerford Town Council on Monday night: One shop has reported to me they had two suspicious people in, but no way to alert others or report it to police. They dont answer the 101 number.

Town mayor Helen Simpson replied: I have some good news on that. There will be a new app- based scheme introduced.

The new app will be called ShopSafe and [deputy mayor] Keith Knight and I both expressed an interest in it for our town.

Maybe the Chamber of Commerce would like to be involved.

Last May the town council heard how shoplifting was soaring, with thieves reportedly perceiving the town as an easy target.

Sgt Alan Hawkett said at the time that a group of prolific shoplifters was deliberately targeting the town and that thieves were also travelling from Swindon to shoplift in Hungerford High Street.

When Mr Crane asked Sgt Hawkett at that time whether a ShopSafe scheme could be introduced, in which police and traders shared information, he was circumspect.

Sgt Hawkett replied: We need to be very careful not to leave ourselves open to being sued.

Instead, Sgt Hawkett said there was a plan to deploy police community support officers from the neighbourhood police team to patrol the High Street and other potential shoplifting target areas, as a deterrent.

However, Mrs Simpson told the meeting on Monday night that the new scheme would be welcome and added: Were told its already working very, very well in Newbury.

Meanwhile, a new PubWatch scheme is being drawn up for Hungerford.

Mr Knight told the meeting: We attended a meeting with the neighbourhood police team and they said the new scheme has had a 100 per cent sign up from licensees in the town. Thats good to know.

Mr Knight said he would give more details at the next full town council meeting in April.
RIDGEFIELD  With the impending division of the zoning and wetlands panels, Ridgefield will have a new group of elected officials deciding on applications that affect town development.

When that split happens, Ridgefield Voters United will be ready.

The new citizens group, which formed in February, aims to protect residential property values and affect placement of commercial development.

Residential property makes up roughly 84 percent of the towns tax base, said Lori Mazzola, RVUs spokeswoman. Property values are down pretty much across the board in recent years. Even significant commercial development wont build the towns tax base. Only by improving the values of our residential properties and making thoughtful and deliberate planning decisions can we improve the towns finances.

Last year, Ridgefield voters the combined Planning and Zoning Commission and Inland Wetlands Board should become two separate boards, starting with the 2019 municipal election.

Ridgefield Voters United will recommend and promote candidates, Mazzola said, but ultimately voters will decide.

Theres a rising unease about the presence of board members with special or personal interests that may influence their ability to make the best and unbiased decisions for the town, she said. The candidates that we intend to support will not have any special interests to promote or protect.

Mazzola said the group is not registered as a political action committee as no funding is being solicited or used.

In the future, we may share fundraising links for candidates that we intend to support and promote, she said.

Mazzola said Ridgefield is one of seven towns in Connecticut with a combined PZC and IWB. She called the model ineffective.

P&Z members by and large lack the qualifications required to manage a proper IWB hearing, she said. Ninety-six percent of the states municipalities have separate boards.

Mazzola eschewed talking about specific applications, like the winter club that withdrew its special permit request in December following eight public hearings in front of the zoning commission.

The club received approval from the wetlands board in January for site work but without a special permit cannot operate on the six-acre, residential-zoned property.

Years ago, naturally, Ridgefield had much more raw acreage, Mazzola said. Over time, as its become more densely populated and developed, the need to make proper and best practice decisions with what remains, becomes more and more critical.

One could argue that the individuals on an effective P&Z arent necessarily equally effective on an Inland Wetlands Board, she added. Its our belief that members of these boards would naturally have different qualifications, perspectives and goals.
The Roger Sherman Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, which serves the Greater New Milford area, will present a program about patriotic sisterhood March 10 at 2 p.m. in New Milford.

The illustrated talk by William Hosley, an historian and writer who is passionate about local history and historic preservation, will be held at the New Milford Public Library, 24 Main St.

Connecticut Colonial Dames, Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution and rebranding Connecticut as the Constitution State are among the topics to be addressed.

The chapter will offer light refreshments, and this event is open to the public of all ages.

Hosley is a cultural resource development and marketing consultant, social media expert, historian, writer,and photographer.

He was formerly director of the New Haven Museum and Connecticut Landmarks, where he cared for a chain of historic attractions.

As an expert in heritage tourism, Hosley has studied, lectured and advised museums and heritage destinations around the country.

Bill has also served as a content specialist for PBS, BBC and CPTV film documentaries.

The NSDAR was founded in 1890 to promote historic preservation, education and patriotism.

Its members are descended from the patriots who won American independence during the Revolutionary War.

With nearly 185,000 members in approximately 3,000 chapters worldwide, DAR is one of the world's largest and most active service organizations.

To learn more about the work of the Roger Sherman Chapter NSDAR, visit www.RogerShermanDAR.org or connect with the chapter on social media.

For more information, contact Bonnie Butler at bbutler5129@gmail.com or 860-354-5129.
The New Milford Commission on the Arts will sponsor an Irish music and dance event March 16 in recognition of St. Patricks Day.

Live music by Wildcat Creek will be offered and members of the McArdle School of Irish Dance will perform at the Makery Coworking on Bank Street from 1 to 3:30 p.m.
The resignation of Scott Gottlieb as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration caught many FDA watchers by surprise. Gottlieb has been an active regulator in a very anti-regulatory Trump administration. Unlike many Trump officials, Gottlieb's work on e-cigarettes, nutrition, opioids and generic drugs has won him praise from both Democrats and Republicans.

Meanwhile, efforts are underway on Capitol Hill and in the states to fix some problems with the Affordable Care Act.

And with several outbreaks of measles and other contagious diseases around the country, public health officials are refocusing on how to convince parents that it's safe to vaccinate their children.

This week's panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner.

Among the takeaways from this week's podcast:

With the departure from the FDA of Scott Gottlieb in the coming weeks, it is not clear that whoever succeeds him will want to  or be able to  pursue the same sort of activist agenda on everything from nutrition labeling to cracking down on flavored tobacco and nicotine products to promoting generic medications.

Democrats in Congress are still hoping to fix some of the Affordable Care Act's outstanding issues, including reinstating funding for "navigators," who help consumers find and enroll in coverage, and boosting subsidies for those who earn just over the cutoff for federal help.

Though within the Democratic caucus there is a lot of talk about sweeping reforms like "Medicare-for-all," the Democratic leadership is focusing first here. It's viewed as a good place for the party's moderates. Some also say it's an opportunity for bipartisan action. Republicans, however, tend to disagree. Any effort to amend the ACA will reopen a major fight over abortion.

Medicaid expansion has been a big part of the ACA debate. But in some states where voters expressed their support for it, state legislators appear to be intervening and saying "not so fast." The later-adopting, more conservative states are interested in experimenting with expanding Medicaid, but they also want to put their stamp on the idea, by adding things like work requirements.

A Senate committee held hearings this week on why parents are reluctant to vaccinate their children against preventable diseases. The consensus of many of the senators and witnesses was that public health officials need to do a better job explaining how dangerous diseases like measles really are. But others say persuasion will have less of an impact than laws that make it harder for unvaccinated children to attend public school.

Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too:

Julie Rovner: Kaiser Health News' "Hidden FDA Reports Detail Harm Caused By Scores Of Medical Devices," by Christina Jewett

Margot Sanger-Katz: The Washington Post's "Long Overlooked by Science, Pregnancy Is Finally Getting Attention It Deserves," by Carolyn Y. Johnson

Joanne Kenen: ProPublica's "I'm a Journalist. Apparently, I'm Also One of America's 'Top Doctors,'" by Marshall Allen

Kimberly Leonard: The Toronto Globe and Mail's "Pharmacare Panel Offers No Prescription for How the New Program Would Work," by Kelly Grant

To hear all our podcasts, click here.

And subscribe to What the Health? on iTunes, Stitcher or Google Play.
Prior antibiotic exposure and use of acid suppressing medications known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) may increase the risk for hospitalized children to contract dangerous Clostridioides difficile infections, according to a study published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

"In pediatric patients, hospital-acquired infections due to C. difficile have increased over the last 20 years. However, few studies have looked at risk factors for these infections in children," said Charles Foster, MD, a co-author and pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Cleveland Clinic Children's. "We found that antibiotic exposure and use of proton-pump inhibitors may be risk factors. Clinicians should continue to utilize antibiotics judiciously in hospitalized children to minimize the risk of C. difficile infection."

The incidence and healthcare burden of C. difficile infection in hospitalized children has increased in the past two decades, mostly attributed to the emergence of a new, hypervirulent strain of the bacteria. While the risk factors are well understood in adult patients, current understanding of pediatric C. difficile is complicated. Many infants and toddlers under the age of 2 are colonized with the bacteria, but do not develop clinical illness.

Researchers performed a meta-analysis and systematic review of 14 studies, including 10.5 million children, 22,320 of whom developed C. difficile infection. Based on this meta-analysis, previous antibiotic exposure and PPI use appear to be the most important risk factors associated with C. difficile infection in children. Children with prior antibiotic exposure may have approximately twice the risk of developing C. difficile infection, compared to patients without a recent history of antibiotic exposure, but the association was not statistically significant after pooling studies with only adjusted data. Researchers said that PPIs are suspected risk factors for CDI because they suppress gastric acid, which may disrupt the normal gastrointestinal microbial diversity in children.

"Physicians should remain vigilant and continue judicious use of antibiotics and PPIs in hospitalized pediatric patients to minimize the risk of C. difficile infections," said Abhishek Deshpande, MD, PhD, a co-author and assistant professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Dr. Deshpande has received research support from 3M, Clorox Company, and STERIS unrelated to this study.

The researchers note the limitation of this research, including use of unadjusted data. Additional high-quality epidemiologic studies are needed to better evaluate the risk factors for C. difficile in children.

Source: http://shea-online.org/
DNA is small. Really, really, small. So, when researchers want to study the structure of a single-stranded DNA, they can't just pull out their microscopes: they have to get creative.

In a study published this week in Scientific Reports, researchers from Japan's Osaka University explain how they came up with a really small solution to the challenge of studying anticancer drugs incorporated into single strands of DNA.

With almost half of us likely to develop cancer at some point in our lifetime, the need for novel and effective treatments has never been more critical. And while researchers are constantly developing new and improved therapies to kill cancer cells, or at least halt their replication, a limited understanding of precisely how these drugs work can sometimes make it difficult to advance otherwise promising treatments.

One such treatment, trifluridine, is an anticancer drug that gets incorporated into DNA as it replicates. While similar to thymine, one of the four nucleotides that make up DNA, trifluridine can't bind to thymine's partner nucleotide, adenine. This destabilizes the DNA molecule, resulting in aberrant gene expression and, ultimately, cell death.

But exactly where trifluridine gets incorporated into the DNA remains a mystery because it is not distinguished by traditional DNA sequencing methods, hampering efforts to fully understand and develop the technology.

Therefore, the team at Osaka University set about developing a DNA sequencing method that could distinguish the drug molecules from normal nucleotides in short strands of DNA. Using microscopic probes, the researchers passed an electrical current across a distance approximately 65,000 times smaller than a grain of sanda gap just wide enough to fit a strand of DNA.

"Using this single-molecule quantum sequencing method, we successfully identified individual molecules in the DNA based on differences in electrical conductance," explains lead author Takahito Ohshiro. "For the first time, we were able to directly detect anticancer drug molecules incorporated in the DNA."

Importantly, the conductance of trifluridine was lower than that of the four native nucleotides, which also displayed divergent conductance values, allowing it to easily be distinguished in the DNA sequence. Based on these values, the researchers successfully sequenced single DNA strands of up to 21 nucleotides, pinpointing the exact insertion sites of trifluridine.

"Now that we have the ability to determine exactly where the drug is incorporated, we can develop a better understanding of the mechanism involved in DNA damage," says senior author Masateru Taniguchi. "We expect that this technology will aid in the rapid development of new and more effective anticancer drugs."
File photo of Akhilesh and Dimple Yadav. (Photo: PTI)



Dharmendra Yadav will contest from Badaun, Akshay Yadav from Firozabad, Kamlesh Katheria from Etawah, Bhailal Kol from Robertsganj and Shabbir Valmiki from Bahraich, the party announced. The list was signed by SP national chief general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav.



The Communist Party of India , meanwhile, has left out student leader Kanhaiya Kumar from its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, indicating that its seat-sharing talks with the RJD in Bihar has hit roadblocks. The Left party on Friday said it has identified 53 seats in 24 states for the upcoming polls and announced names of 15 candidates.



The Congress had on Thursday released its maiden list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections yesterday, fielding UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli and party president Rahul Gandhi from Amethi. The announcement put an end to speculation that Sonia Gandhi may not contest in the upcoming polls due to health reasons and the party's newly appointed general secretary in-charge of east UP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may be fielded from her constituency.



Meanwhile, amid rumours of him heading to the ruling BJP in Gujarat, OBC leader and Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor says he will take a call on his next political move today. Thakor had emerged as a prominent OBC leader in Gujarat after the Patidar community, led by Hardik Patel, launched an agitation for reservation in jobs and education under the OBC category. Thakor had rallied OBC communities of Gujarat against the demand of the Patidar community. Hardik Patel is likely to join the Congress on March 12.



Opposition parties have, meanwhile, questioned the delay in announcing the poll dates, with senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel asking the EC whether it was waiting for the Prime Minister's "official" travel programme "to conclude".



PM Narendra Modi has been making a quick dash to states, conducting election rallies as well as government functions ahead of the announcement. He inaugurated projects worth Rs. 59,000 crore this week across three states - Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Several other key ministers of the BJP were also busy with a string of inaugurations.



Once the model code of conduct  a set of guideliness issued by the EC for the conduct of political parties and candidates when the electoral process is underway  comes into force, parties in power at the Centre and in states are barred from making any announcements that can impact poll outcome or disturb the level playing field.



As per new rules introduced by the election commission, candidates will have to give details of their properties abroad, besides those in the country in their poll affidavits.



"The I-T department will look into it and, if any, discrepancies are found then it will be uploaded on the Election Commission (EC) website and strict action will be initiated," CEC Sunil Arora said.



When asked about the EC's stand on inflammatory speeches, Arora said in his review meetings, he tried to find out the status of such cases lodged during previous elections. In all the 1,63,331 polling centres, VVPAT machines will be used this time, he said.
My colleagues in the LGBTQ community again received a message that the church does not want to allow them to be full members . . . , Lowly said. There were a lot of cruel statements that were made. There was also anger that the conservative wing of the United Methodist Church was not able to be a part of a plan to have us all be a church together, even though we may differ on certain issues.
Kingpin's true plan to change the Marvel Universe revealed in Devil's Reign #1

Wilson Fisk's plan to outlaw superheroes in New York City is just the tip of the iceberg for what he's planning in Devil's Reign #1
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The way we view it is, you have the slate of candidates, the three of them, and theyre all working together for one purpose and thats to keep me from winning the election, Polony said. To give them equal speaking time and treat them as individual candidates is unfair to me because theyre all working together to defeat me and Im trying to defeat them.
Mumbai:

The sprawling seaside mansion of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, accused in the $2 billion PNB fraud case, was demolished Friday using explosives, Raigad District Collector Vijay Suryawanshi said. The district collector told PTI that it was controlled blasting.

The senior IAS official had issued the demolition orders after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) handed over the property situated in Raigad district, over 90 km from Mumbai.

Maharashtra: Authorities continue demolition of PNB scam accused Nirav Modi's bungalow in Alibag, Raigad district. pic.twitter.com/Tyu5Anz1VQ  ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2019

On Tuesday, excavators were used to open up the pillars of the bungalow, called Roopanya, to make space for fixing the detonators. A special technical team was called to fix them.

Last year, the state government had written to the ED, which had sealed the bungalow, seeking a nod to demolish the property on Kihim beach near Alibaug.

#WATCH Maharashtra: PNB Scam accused Nirav Modi's bungalow in Alibag, Raigad district demolished by authorities. pic.twitter.com/ngrJstNjoa  ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2019

The fixtures from the bungalow will be up for auction. Three items, a jacuzzi, a chandelier, and a Buddha statue, have been kept aside for handing over to the ED, Suryawanshi said.

On January 25, district officials began the demolition work using bulldozers, but found it time-consuming due to the RCC construction.

On January 27, structural engineers from Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technical University conducted a survey. The experts suggested that the district officers carry out the demolition with the help of controlled blasting.

Modi's bungalow was attached by the ED following his involvement in the Punjab National Bank fraud case. It was handed over to the collector's office on January 24, after the ED seized two trucks full of valuables from the building.

For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

In yet another blow to the Gujarat Congress, MLA Parshottam Sabariya on Friday resigned from the party. Sabariya is an MLA from Dhrangadhra constituency of Saurashtra region. Reports suggest that he is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) soon. The development comes hours after another legislator Jawaharbhai Chavda left the grand old party and joined the ruling party in the state.

Jawaharbhai Chavda, commonly known as Jawahar Chavda, tendered his resignation to Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi earlier in the day.

Chavda, son of Congress veteran Pethalji Chavda of Junagadh district, won from Manavadar in four consecutive elections and this has been a Congress fort. He won the 2017 Assembly polls defeating Nitinkumar Valjibhai Fadadu of BJP. He won the election in 2012 with 72,879 votes defeating Ratibhai Gordhanbhai Sureja of BJP by 4,402 votes.

The development assumes significance as sources say that Gujarat Congress MLA Alpesh Thakore is likely to join the BJP. He will also directly get a ministerial berth, the sources added. However, the OBC leader and Congress legislator from Radhanpur in north Gujarat, denied rumours that he was preparing to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Earlier in September 2018, Thakore had rubbished all rumours stating that he was going join the BJP. "I don't know who is spreading these canards at regular intervals but I want to state clearly that I am in the Congress and shall remain in the Congress," Thakore told reporters, flanked by state Congress president Amit Chavda and Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani. He had asserted: "I had joined the Congress after seeking the opinion of over 20,000 followers and today I am entrusted with national responsibility in the party, including in Bihar." There had been rumours of Thakore negotiating with the ruling BJP and that he might be accommodated as a Minister in the Vijay Rupani government. Political circles have also been speculating that he may vacate his constituency for former Minister Shankar Chaudhary.

Thakore had courted controversy for raising his voice against the Congress and supporting the BJP govermnent's move to raise salaries for legislators in the state from Rs 70,000-plus to over Rs 1.16 lakh per month.
New Delhi:

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has forged an alliance with the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) in Sikkim for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state. The saffron party will challenge the Pawan Kumar Chamling-led Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) in the state. Briefing the media on the latest development BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav said, "The Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) is the main opposition party in the state. Its President and MLAs came down to Delhi yesterday and met BJP President Amit Shah and today they came to meet me and finalised the understanding between BJP and SKM".

"We decided that both parties should fight the upcoming Parliament & Assembly elections together in Sikkim. Remaining details like seat sharing will be worked out in the next couple of days," Madhav added.

BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav: We decided that both parties should fight the upcoming Parliament & Assembly elections together in Sikkim. Remaining details like seat sharing will be worked out in the next couple of days. https://t.co/whTFZVv36z  ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2019

Early in January, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) president Prem Singh Tamang expressed confidence over their victory, saying the party will "sweep" the upcoming state assembly elections, as people are fed up of the "corrupt" Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) government.

Tamang, popularly known as PS Golay, also hit out at Chamling, his one-time mentor, for "dividing" the society on caste and communal grounds for "vote bank" politics. The SKM chief had to bear with the ignominy of being disqualified from the membership of the Sikkim legislative assembly in 2016, following his conviction for a year in a corruption case.

Read | 2019 Lok Sabha Election Analysis: What happened in Sikkim in 2014 polls? What will happen this year?

Meanwhile, there are also reports that Tamang will contest the upcoming assembly elections in the state following clarity on the legal position under the RPA Act with regard to disqualification of a member of assembly post-conviction in a case.

Golay had rebelled against Chamling after he was denied a ministerial berth following the SDF's victory in 2009 assembly polls. Four years later, the four-term MLA had floated the SKM to take on the ruling SDF. Supported by the Sikkim Sangram Parishad, the SKM had in 2014 Assembly Elections won 10 out of the 32 seats against SDF's 22.

Seven of these 10 SKM MLAs subsequently defected to the SDF while Golay himself was convicted to a year's imprisonment in a corruption case. He was released from jail after serving out the sentence in August last year.

In the 2014 Assembly elections, the SKM was supported by the Sikkim Sangram Parishad, which had ruled the state for three terms in the 1980s and early 1990s. Sangram president Dil Kumari Bhandari had recently asked the SKM to decide whether or not it was interested in an alliance this time as well.
New Delhi:

Jawaharbhai Chavda, the Congress MLA from Gujarats Manavadar constituency, has resigned from the state Assembly. Chavda tendered his resignation to Speaker Assembly Rajendra Trivedi earlier in the day. News Nation has learnt that Chavda along with Alpesh Thakore are likely to join BJP at a press conference at around 4pm. He won the 2017 Assembly polls defeating Nitinkumar Valjibhai Fadadu of BJP. He won the election in 2012 with 72,879 votes defeating Ratibhai Gordhanbhai Sureja of BJP by 4,402 votes.

The development comes amid speculations that Gujarat Congress MLA Alpesh Thakore is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party. He will also directly get a ministerial berth, the sources added. However, the OBC leader and Congress legislator from Radhanpur in north Gujarat, denied rumours that he was preparing to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Earlier in September 2018, Thakore had rubbished all rumours stating that he was going join the BJP. "I don't know who is spreading these canards at regular intervals but I want to state clearly that I am in the Congress and shall remain in the Congress," Thakore told reporters, flanked by state Congress president Amit Chavda and Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani. He had asserted: "I had joined the Congress after seeking the opinion of over 20,000 followers and today I am entrusted with national responsibility in the party, including in Bihar." There had been rumours of Thakore negotiating with the ruling BJP and that he might be accommodated as a Minister in the Vijay Rupani government. Political circles have also been speculating that he may vacate his constituency for former Minister Shankar Chaudhary.

Thakore had courted controversy for raising his voice against the Congress and supporting the BJP govermnent's move to raise salaries for legislators in the state from Rs 70,000-plus to over Rs 1.16 lakh per month.
New Delhi:

Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan tendered his resignation on Friday afternoon, leading to speculation that he may contest the BJPs ticket against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram in his home state Kerala.

Rajasekharan, the former BJP chief of Kerala, resigned days after the Kerala unit of the saffron party made an official plea to the Centre to relieve the former of his duties so that he can be fielded as the party candidate from Thiruvananthapuram.

His resignation has been accepted by President Ram Nath Kovind. Jagdish Mukhi, governor of Assam, has been given additional charge of Mizoram until a new nominee is selected.

Rajasekharans tenure as Mizoram Governor lasted for less than 10 months and came just two days before the crucial Chegannur by-polls.

Head of the Kerala BJP unit till May last year, Rajasekharan was unceremoniously dropped just ahead of a key by-election and sent to Mizoram.

In 2014, BJPs O Rajagopal had lost the Thiruvananthapuram seat to Tharoor by just over 15,000 votes. The BJP now is believed to be vesting its hopes on Rajasekharan -- a favourite of the Lingayat community and a popular face among the Hindu vote bank -- to retain the crucial seat.

The BJP also wants to capitalise on the Sabarimala sentiment as Rajasekharan is a Lord Ayyappa devotee, who gained political limelight in 1982 during the Nilakkal agitation.
New Delhi:

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's upcoming movie is touted to one of the biggest union of superstars.

Rumours are ripe that Shah Rukh Khan after failing to please fans with new movie directors is going back to his tried and tested form and joining Salman and Priyanka Chopra for the 'Devdas' director's movie.

Now fresh reports by Deccan Chronicle suggest, the Padmaavat director has registered the title Gangubai with the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association (IMPPA). The movie was purportedly supposed to be titled Heera Mandi initially, but Bhansali finally decided to go with the name of the character on whom the story is based on, on Gangubai Kothewali, a brothel owner.

Bhansali would not just register a title for the sake of it. The script has been with him for a while and he may well get PC to do that film. Sometimes the media does put two and two together to figure out if Salman and PC are in the same film  a chance they missed out recently on Bharat. So, in all probability PC will be Gangubai, a source was quoted as saying by the daily.



Bhansali is reuniting with Salman after a period of 7 years after Saawariya, and with Shah Rukh after a period of 16 years after Devdas. recent reports suggested that the romantic love story will be a love triangle between Shah Rukh, Salman and Priyanka.



After Priyanka pulled herself out from Bharat it was also being speculated that Salman is hesitant on the 'Mujhse Shaadi Karoge' actress as the female lead. PeeCee, however, on her latest appearance on Koffee With Karan had revealed that she is in talks with Bhansali for a film.

Priyanka will next be seen in Shonali Bose's The Sky is Pink opposite Farhan Akhtar While Salman's Bharat releases on the festival of Eid.

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New Delhi:

Last July, Sonali Bendre left the entire nation in shock when she shared that she has been diagnosed with high-grade cancer. She had taken off to New York for medical treatment with her husband Goldie Behl.A Currently, Sonali has taken a small break from her cancer treatment and is back in the bay. In a recent interview with Rajeev Masand she revealed that she did not want to go to New York.

''I didnat want to go to New York. It was my husband who wanted to go. And I fought with him all through the flight. aWhy are you doing this? We have good doctors here. Why are you taking me away?a My home, my life... in three days, we literally just packed and left and, I donat know, what was happening. I was like letas, at least, speak to the doctors here and he was just quiet through the whole thing and focussed. In the day, he was organising and, in the night, as New York was wake; so he was organising, so day and night - he was at that. So I got him and actually cribbed about the whole thing, on the flight. Through the flight, I have cribbed; I was really venting.aa

She went on to reveal that the doctors in New York had told her that she'd 30 per cent chance of survival.A ''I land in New York and next day, we go to the doctor. He looks at everything and we had sent all our tests and he says, you know, it is fourth stage and you have 30% chance of survival. That really hit me; I just turned to Goldie and I remember saying: aThank God, you got me herea. Goldie always says that atomorrow Iad rather feel I over-reacted, over-spent than under-reacted and have that regret that I should have done thata. There was no time for it and we were not told that it was fourth stage but Goldie had started reading about it and he was suspecting it,aa she added.A

In early December last year, Sonali was back in India, after spending close to six months in the US. She is slowly getting back to work and recently did a photo shoot for Vogue India, embracing her cancer scars, from her treatment.

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There are always going to be the students that think they know how to do it themselves, and those are the students were always outreaching to, to try and make sure theyre coming in to see us, Harris said. We also have a number of adult students. We do a lot with them in terms of advising, but they are probably some of the students who arent coming in [for academic advising] as frequently.
New Delhi:

Delhi's Patiala House Court on Friday extended the interim protection from arrest granted to former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis cases till March 25. A bunch of charge sheet was filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the father-son duo for allegedly conspiring with foreign investors to give them clearance for their venture.

"Aircel Maxis case: Interim protection of P Chidambaram and Karti Chidambaram extended till March 25 by Delhi's Patiala House Court," the news agency ANI reported.

Aircel Maxis case: Interim protection of P Chidambaram and Karti Chidambaram extended till March 25 by Delhi's Patiala House Court pic.twitter.com/OdbcS0yJ9E a ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2019

The other accused in the case include S Bhaskaraman (chartered accountant of Karti), V Srinivasan (former CEO of Aircel), Augustus Ralph Marshall (associated with Maxis), Astro All Asia Networks Plc Malaysia, Aircel Televentures Ltd, Maxis Mobile Services Sdn Bhd, Bumi Armada Berhad and Bumi Armada Navigation Sdn Bhd.

They are accused of money laundering of Rs 1.16 crore in lieu of illegal FIPB approval by the former minister in March 2006, given to the foreign investor Global Communication and Services Holdings Limited, Mauritius in violation of the various rules and regulations governing the FDI policy in India.

The material evidence revealed routing of proceeds of crime in the guise of bonafide business deals by the beneficiaries of illegal FIPB approval in the companies of Karti. The investigation has revealed the financial linkage of Karti Chidambaram and P Chidambaram with these companies.

Chidambaram and Karti were named in the charge sheet filed by the CBI in the case on July 19 last year. The agency filed a supplementary charge sheet before the special judge, who had fixed it for consideration on July 31.

The CBI is probing how Chidambaram, who was the Union finance minister in 2006, granted FIPB approval to a foreign firm when only the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) was empowered to do it. The ED is also probing a separate money-laundering case in the Aircel-Maxis matter, in which the Chidambarams have been questioned by the agency.

The CBI and the ED, in their replies to the anticipatory bail pleas of Chidambarams, had recently told the court that custodial interrogation of both the accused was required since various new materials have surfaced after the filing of the charge sheet, alleging that they were not cooperating in the probe.

The two have recently denied the allegations of both the agencies that they were evasive and non-cooperative during the probe in the case, and said the allegations against them were "unsubstantiated" and there was no need of their custodial interrogation.

P Chidambaram filed his anticipatory bail application in May last year. His protection from arrest has been extended from time to time. The agencies have sought the custodial interrogation of both the accused, saying they have not been cooperating and, therefore, making it difficult to complete the investigation in a time-bound manner as directed by the Supreme Court.

(With inputs from agencies)

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New Delhi:

An army jawan has been reportedly kidnapped by suspected terrorists. According to reports, the abducted jawan has been identified as Mohammad Yaseen Bhat. He was abducted from his residence at Qazipora Chadura in Central Kashmir's Budgam district on Friday.

Yaseen, posted with Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry Regiment, was on leave from February 26 to March 31. A massive search operation has been launched by special operation group along with the army and Jammu & Kashmir police.

The family of Yaseen informed police that some people came to their house at Qazipora Chadura and took him away.

"Immediately after receiving the news, teams of police and Army rushed to the village. A massive search operation has been started to trace the missing soldier," a police source said.

The kidnapping comes at a time when the Army, and other security forces, in the Valley have been put on high alert following the face-off with Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack on February 14 in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed.

The incident is reminiscent of the June 14, 2018 incident when Rifleman Aurangzeb was abducted from Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district. He was later killed by terrorists. Hailing from village Salani in Poonch, 24-year-old Aurangzeb had joined the Army in 2012. He is survived by his wife, parents and three brothers.

A similar incident was reported in September 2018 when three police personnel were abducted and shot in cold blood from their homes in the state's Shopian district. Hizbul Mujahideen claimed the responsibility for the attack.

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New Delhi:

Uma Bharti, the Union Minister in Narendra Modi government, has voiced a cautious opinion on the Supreme Courts Ayodhya order. I don't want to comment on the Supreme Court order. I don't want to comment on the mediators named by the court. But as a Hindu, I think, a temple should be made where Lord Ram was born, Bharti was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. Bharti, who was present at the site when the Mugha-era mosque was demolished by the karsevaks on December 6, 1992, has previously said that she was ready to die for construction of Ram temple.

"Grand Ram temple in Ayodhya is my dream. Ready to go to prison or be hanged for India and Ram Mandir," the senior BJP leader had said in 2017. She had asserted that she was "proud, unapologetic" and does not repent her role in the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign.

The Supreme Court on Friday referred the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation by a panel headed by retired apex court judge F M I Kalifulla to explore the possibility of an amicable settlement and gave it eight weeks to complete its proceedings. The other members of the panel will be spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, said a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and added that they can co-opt more members if needed.

The bench, also comprising justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer, said the mediation proceedings will be held at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh and directed the state government to make necessary arrangements for it. While referring the matter for mediation, the bench said there is no legal impediment to send the matter for mediation for arriving at a possible settlement.

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New Delhi:

Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has been slammed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for his comments in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror strike, launched a fresh attack on the Narendra Modi government, saying aintelligence failure led to martyrdom of 40 jawans.a

Worldas biggest defence deal file lost...

Intelligence failure led to martyrdom of 40 Jawans...

1708 terrorist acts...

48 Satellites but Govt not able to discern between trees and structures...



Serious aspersions cast on national security. #IsTheCountryReallyInSafeHands?? pic.twitter.com/Xr66YSRGB5 a Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) March 8, 2019

The Punjab minister for local bodies and tourism had earlier hit out at the BJP by reminding it of the release of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar 20 years ago during the Kandahar standoff in 1999. The minister had also sought exemplary action against those behind terrorist activities.

aWorldas biggest defence deal file lost... Intelligence failure led to martyrdom of 40 Jawans... 1708 terrorist acts... 48 Satellites but Govt not able to discern between trees and structures... Serious aspersions cast on national security,a tweeted Sidhu on Friday.

A The Congress had earlier said the current atmosphere was not conducive for a dialogue with Pakistan and termed the suggestions made in this regard by its leader and Sidhu as his personal opinion and not that of the party.

"There is a time to act and there is a time to talk. Dialogue can only take place when the atmosphere is conducive for dialogue and the current atmosphere is not conducive for a dialogue," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari had said.

The Punjab minister had insisted that dialogue and diplomatic pressure will count for in seeking a long-term solution to terror outfits operating across the border, amid strain in India-Pakistan ties in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack and subsequent developments.

A The 40 CRPF personnel were travelling in a force bus when a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the bus on February 14.A The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has deployed as many as 61 battalions in the state, with about 65,000 personnel, and is the lead counter-terrorist and internal security force in the Kashmir valley.A

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New Delhi :

A day after the grenade attack at Jammu bus stop that killed one person, security agencies on Friday recovered a circuit used in making bombs near Jammu airport. The circuit was connected with a battery. Following the recovery of the bomb circuit, a bomb disposal unit rushed to the spot and taken the device into their custody. As of now, the police has denied finding any kind of explosive but they launched a search operation around the airport premises. The area was already on high alert after the grenade blast at Jammu bus stop.

On Thursday, at least two persons were killed while 33 others sustained serious injuries in a grenade blast beneath a bus at Jammu bust stop. Jammu Medical Superintendent said. All the injured were rushed to Government Medical College hospital for treatment in critical condition. This is the third grenade attack by terrorists in Jammu bus stand since May last year.

Within hours of the blast, Yasir Javed Bhat, a resident of Khanpora-Dassein village in Kulgam whom the police said was tasked by terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen to carry out the attack was arrested.

Meanwhile, a day after the ghastly terror attack in the state, Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday appealed to shopkeepers to install CCTV cameras to help the force to keep the city safe. Inspector General of Police, Jammu, M K Sinha made the appeal in a post on his Twitter account.

It was the third grenade attack by terrorists on Jammu bus stand since May 2018 and comes just three weeks after the gruesome terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama on February 14 that killed 42 CRPF jawans and injured dozens of others bringing India and Pakistan on brink of war.

The grenade explosion was carried out inside the general bus stand area around 11.50 am on Thursday morning. A parked bus of the state road transport corporation (SRTC) suffered extensive damage in the blast causing panic among the people.

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New Delhi:

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami has demanded Param Vir Chakra, the country's highest military honour, for Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, captured by Pakistan after a dogfight in the skies and released later. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Palaniswami said the IAF pilot, a native of Tamil Nadu, displayed amazing poise and confidence in the face of adverse condition and it would be appropriate he be awarded the highest military honour.

He noted that Varthaman was released by Pakistan "due to the diplomatic initiatives" of the Prime Minister and "intense international pressure".

"Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman displayed amazing poise and confidence in the face of adverse conditions, which has won him many hearts across the country. It is appropriate that he be awarded India's highest military honour Param Vir Chakra (PVC) for displaying most inimitable gallantry and valour," the chief minister said.

"I request the Government of India to confer the nation's highest military honour, Param Vir Chakra, on Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman," he added.

Palaniswami recalled that the MiG-21 Bison aircraft piloted by Varthaman had shot down a Pakistan Air Force fighter (F-16) when it tried to violate India's air space and that he was later taken into custody by Pakistani armed forces.

Varthaman, who was captured on February 27, returned home on March 1 after Pakistan Prime Minster Imran Khan announced he would be released as a "gesture of peace".

According to the central government, Param Vir Chakra "is awarded for most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea, or in the air."

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered mediation in the Ram Mandir case on Friday. The top court has appointed a panel of mediators in the case. The verdict was given by a five-judge Constitution Bench. Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

They Supreme Court-appointed panel will be headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice FM Kalifulla. Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and lawyer Shriram Panchu are other two members. The mediation will remain confidential, the top court said. The deliberations will conclude within eight weeks and first status report will be submitted in four weeks. Mediation process will be held in Faizabad. The Supreme Court in its order also said that the media will be banned from reporting of the mediation proceedings.The Supreme Court has granted liberty to mediators to co-opt other members in the panel.

On Wednesday, all Hindu bodies except Nirmohi Akhara had opposed the suggestion of the apex court to refer the issue for mediation, while Muslim bodies backed it. However, after the order, Hindu Mahasabha chief Swami Chakrapani said that,  whatever happens, it will be good.

In last hearing, Justice Chandrachud had said that considering it is not just a property dispute between the parties but a dispute involving two communities, it would be very difficult to bind millions of people by way of mediation. Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had told the bench that the government has the right to give away land to whosoever it wants after paying compensation to the others. "P V Narsimha Rao government had in 1994 made commitment to apex court that if ever any evidence was found that there was a temple, land will be given for temple construction," Swamy had submitted.

Senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, appearing for Hindu deity Ram Lala Virajman had said the faith that Lord Rama was born in Ayodhaya is not negotiable but the question is of Rama Janamsthan (birth place). "We are even willing to crowd-fund a mosque somewhere else but no negotiations can take place with respect of Lord Rama's birthplace. Mediation won't serve any purpose," he said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, had said the court should refer the matter for mediation only when there exists an element of settlement.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi:

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, one of the mediators appointed by the Supreme Court in Ayodhya case, took to Twitter to express his view on the order. aRespecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society - we must all move together towards these goals,a the spiritual guru said in one of the tweets. Another tweet in Hindi talked about happy ending for the century-long dispute. The Art of Living founder has been one of the prominent names who have advocated for the mediation in the title dispute.A

A

Respecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society - we must all move together towards these goals.#ayodhyamediation a Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) March 8, 2019

Last year, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had said that, "I want unity...I want amity. This is just a beginning. We will talk to all." The spiritual guru had also met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. After the meeting, the Art of Living founder had said that, "As far as the Ayodhya issue is concerned, the chief minister's stand is very clear. The state government is not a party (to the dispute). We welcome any settlement and will honour the decision of the court."

Contrary to todayas stand, the VHP and AIMPLB had rejected the relevance of mediation efforts by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. "It is being said that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is talking to all the stakeholders in the case but he has not yet contacted the top leadership of All India Muslim Personal Law Board which is leading the Muslim side," AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Wali Rehmani had said. He said Ravi Shankar had made a similar move to resolve the dispute some 12 years ago and concluded that the disputed site be handed over to Hindus.

UP's Shia Waqf Board, which has impleaded itself in the case, has been siding with the Hindu parties to the case, with its chairman Wasim Rizvi saying no new mosque should be built in either Ayodhya or neighbouring Faizabad as part of the formula mooted by it to resolve the dispute. He had said since the Babri mosque was a Shia shrine, the board will identify a piece of land in a Muslim-dominated area for it and inform the government.

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Tokyo:

Toyota is teaming up with Japan's space agency on a planned mission to the Moon, with the Japanese auto giant expected to develop a lunar rover, officials and local media said. It will be the car manufacturer's first full-fledged entry into space exploration, after the company jointly developed a small robot sent to the International Space Station. "We are planning to cooperate with Toyota in an exploration mission to the Moon," said a spokesman with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Details will be announced by JAXA and Toyota Tuesday next week when the space agency hosts a symposium in Tokyo, the spokesman told AFP.

Toyota also confirmed plans to announce a joint project with JAXA "on mobility and a space probe" but declined to comment further.

Jiji Press news agency said the car giant is expected to jointly develop a "mobility method" to be used on the lunar surface for the mission.

The mission is part of renewed global interest in the Moon, sometimes called the "eighth continent" of the Earth, and comes 50 years after American astronauts first walked on the lunar surface.

Before humans set foot on the lunar surface again, NASA aims to land an unmanned vehicle on the Moon by 2024.

So far, only Russia, the United States and China have made the 384,000-kilometre (239,000-mile) journey and landed spacecraft on the Moon.

Last month, Israel launched a spacecraft that aims to join them.

In 2017, Japan revealed plans to put an astronaut on the Moon around 2030.

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Islamabad:

Women's rights activists on Friday condemned the murder of a whistleblower in a notorious "honour killing" case that has shone a years-long spotlight on female victims -- and the men who defend them -- in deeply patriarchal Pakistan. Afzal Kohistani, the man who first drew attention to the infamous incident in 2012, was gunned down in Abbottabad on Wednesday, police have said.

He had pursued a case in which a local cleric order the deaths of male and female wedding guests shown enjoying themselves in a video. Precise details remain shrouded in mystery but Kohistani had long been adamant that women shown in the video had been murdered.

He was shot five times on a busy road and died on the spot, Abdul Aziz Afridi, a senior police official, told AFP. Officials said Friday that at least two arrests had been made.

"The perpetrators of this heinous crime will be brought to justice," provincial information minister Shaukat Yousafzai told AFP. Kohistani's murder has ignited anger in Pakistan, where rights activists have long fought against the patriarchal notion of "honour", which remains prevalent across South Asia.

Women have been shot, stabbed, stoned, set alight and strangled for bringing "shame" on their families for everything from refusing marriage proposals to wedding the "wrong" man and helping friends elope. Men can be victims too, though it is rarer.

"Will be raising this shocking murder of Afzal Kohistani in parliament," opposition leader Sherry Rehman tweeted.

Rights activists participating in a march to mark International Women's Day on Friday condemned Kohistani's shooting.

"This incident has brought to the focus, once again, how vulnerable those that raise their voice still are," said Benazir Jatoi, a human rights lawyer and march organiser.

Witness protection was "almost non-existent", she added. "Today's march in Islamabad will remember Afzal and other brave Pakistanis like him and we will that perpetrators be held accountable," said Jatoi.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it was concerned the killing would "have a ripple effect on human rights defenders who monitor and report 'honour' killings and are reminded of what their work could cost them".

The wedding video emerged in 2012, showing women clapping as two men danced in the deeply conservative mountainous area of Kohistan, 175 kilometres (110 miles) north of the capital Islamabad.

The men and women had allegedly been in the room together, in defiance of strict tribal customs that separate men and women at weddings -- though the video does not show them together.

A local cleric sentenced several women and men to death over the video. Kohistani is believed to have been related to some of the men in the video.

His entire family were banished from Kohistan as a result.

He took the rare step of pushing the case before the media and the justice system. The Supreme Court launched a commission to investigate -- but in June 2012 was told the women had never been murdered at all. A fact-finding team met women who were purportedly those shown in the video and said they were alive.

But Kohistani insisted that the women shown to the fact-finding officials were different women, and that the death sentences had been carried out.

Three more men -- Kohistani's brothers -- were later killed by a rival family. A Pakistani court convicted six of their killers in 2014.

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London:

The new-born baby of Shamima Begum, a Bangladeshi-origin London schoolgirl who fled the UK to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group in Syria, may have died, according to her family's lawyer. In an online message on social media on Friday, Mohammed Akunjee said the family has received unconfirmed reports from within her refugee camp in the Middle East that her baby named Jerah has passed away.

"We have strong but as yet unconfirmed reports that Shamima Begum's son has died. He was a British Citizen," Akunjee stated on Twitter. As the baby was born while Begum was still a British national, his status remains that of a British national.

The news of his possible death follows a plea from Begum's London-based family to UK home secretary Sajid Javid to assist them in bringing the baby back to the UK based on his rights as a British citizen. It was in reaction to the minister's decision to revoke 19-year-old Begum's British citizenship on security grounds, indicating that she would have the right to acquire Bangladeshi citizenship by virtue of her parents' heritage.

"My number one job is to do whatever I can to keep this country safe," Javid had said last month when announcing the revocation of citizenship.

Begum's son was born on February 17, days after she was tracked down heavily-pregnant by in a refugee camp in Syria. She told reporters at the time that she had already lost two babies -- one to malnutrition and another to ill-health -- during her time with the ISIS and pleaded with the UK government to allow her and her new-born baby to return to the Britain.

"I would like them to re-evaluate my case with a bit more mercy in their heart. I am willing to change," she said, following the revocation of her citizenship.

She was 15 when she fled to join the ISIS in February 2015 and married Dutch ISIS recruit Yago Riedijk as a so-called jihadi bride. Her 27-year-old husband, who is being held in a Kurdish detention centre in north-eastern Syria, recently said in a media interview that he wanted his wife and baby to be allowed to return to the Netherlands.

Both the Netherlands and Bangladesh have since denied that Shamima Begum would have a right to entry into either country.

Earlier this week, her father Ahmed Ali, who now lives in Bangladesh, blamed the UK authorities for failing to prevent Begum fleeing the country on her sister's passport.

"The British immigration system is very informed, the most informed system in the world. I always say how did (Shamima) get there using another person's passport? She doesn't even have her own passport. These matters should be investigated," the 60-year-old said, urging the UK to allow his daughter to return and face the British legal system.

Under international law, the UK can revoke a citizenship of a British national only if the individual would not be made stateless. Begum's British citizenship was revoked on the grounds that she is eligible for citizenship of Bangladesh until the age of 21 through her parents' Bangladeshi dual nationality.

But Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has since ruled out such a possibility of her being considered for Bangladeshi citizenship. Begum is currently believed to be in a refugee camp closer to the Iraqi border after being removed from the Al-Hol camp in the north of Syria due to alleged threats following the worldwide media attention she attracted.

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Alexandria :

US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison Thursday for tax crimes and bank fraud. It was the stiffest sentence yet given to an associate of the president in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling -- but significantly lighter than many expected for the 69-year-old political consultant.

In a rebuff to Mueller's call for stiff punishment, the judge called the official guidelines for a prison sentence of 19 to 24 years "excessive." But Manafort still faces sentencing in a second case in Washington next week, where the maximum penalty is 10 years and the judge has appeared more sympathetic to prosecutors.

The charges involved Manafort's work for 10 years on behalf of Moscow-allied politicians in Ukraine, and nothing related to the 2016 election -- an issue he argued in asking the court for lenience.

Prosecutors alleged that Manafort used offshore bank accounts in Cyprus to hide more than $55 million from Ukrainian politicians from the tax authorities.

He is one of six top advisors and associates of Trump's 2016 presidential election campaign to be charged in the Mueller investigation.

During Manafort's trial, much of the damaging testimony against him was provided by his former deputy Rick Gates, who is awaiting sentencing after reaching a plea agreement with the Special Counsel's office.

Besides Manafort and Gates, four other former Trump associates face charges or have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Mueller investigation.

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials and is awaiting sentencing.

Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen is to begin serving a three-year prison sentence on May 6 for fraud, tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and lying to Congress.

George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was sentenced to two weeks in prison.

Another Trump advisor, Roger Stone, awaits trial.

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Lahore:

Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has been barred by the government from delivering weekly Friday sermon at Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) headquarters in Lahore in Pakistan's Punjab province. This is perhaps for the first time in years that Saeed despite being present in Lahore will not be able to deliver Friday sermon at Jamia Masjid Qadsia, the JuD headquarters in Lahore.

Saeed was never stopped from delivering Friday sermons even during the years when Masjid Qadsia's control was under the Punjab government.

"As the Punjab police have sealed the Jamia Masjid Qadsia, Saeed will not be allowed to enter the premises to give his weekly sermon on Friday," a senior official of the Punjab government told PTI.

"Saeed requested the Punjab government to allow him give sermon on Friday at Qadsia Masjid but it was turned down. This is significant with regard to the 'clout' of Saeed as for the first time he is not being allowed by the government to give sermon on Friday," he added.

Pakistan authorities on Thursday sealed the Lahore headquarters of JuD and FIF and detained over 120 suspected terrorists as part of an ongoing crackdown on banned groups.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. It had been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.

The US Department of the Treasury has designated its chief Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a $10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.

Meanwhile, in a significant development, the United Nations has rejected Saeeds appeal to remove his name from its list of banned terrorists, government sources said on Thursday.

The development comes close on the heels of UN's 1267 Sanctions Committee receiving a new request to ban Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar after the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. Jaish, Pakistan-based banned terror outfit has claimed responsibility for the strike.

The UN decision to reject the appeal of Saeed, also a co-founder of terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), came after India provided detailed evidence including "highly confidential information" about his activities, sources told PTI, adding that the verdict of the global body was conveyed to his lawyer Haider Rasul Mirza earlier this week.

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New Delhi:

India on Thursday sealed a USD 3 billion deal with Russia for the leasing of a nuclear-powered attack submarine for the Indian Navy for a period of 10 years, military sources said. The two countries signed an inter-governmental agreement capping months of negotiations on price and various other aspects of the deal.

Under the pact, Russia will have to deliver the Akula class submarine, to be known as Chakra III, to the Indian Navy by 2025. It will be the third Russian submarine to be leased to the Indian Navy. However, a spokesperson in the Defence Ministry refused to comment when asked about the deal.

India has been significantly bolstering its naval prowess in the backdrop of China's attempts to expand its influence in the Indian Ocean region. India Navy has taken two more submarines from Russia on a lease.

The first Russian nuclear-powered submarine -- christened INS Chakra -- was taken in 1988 under a three-year lease. A second INS Chakra was taken on lease in 2012 for a period of 10 years. The lease of Chakra II will expire in 2022 and India is looking at extending the lease, sources said.

The deal for the Chakra III came days after Indo-Russian joint production facility to manufacture AK-203 assault rifles for the Indian Army was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. In October, India signed a multi-billion dollar deal with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 air defence missile system.

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Geneva:

Thirty-six nations condemned Saudi Arabia on Thursday over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a rare censure of the oil-rich kingdom at the UN Human Rights Council. A statement read by Iceland on behalf of a group of states expressed "significant concerns" about reported abuses in Saudi Arabia and demanded justice following Khashoggi's killing. "Investigations into the killing must be prompt, effective and thorough, independent and impartial, and transparent. Those responsible must be held to account," added the statement read by Iceland's UN ambassador Harald Aspelund.

It called on Saudi authorities "to disclose all information available" about its own investigation while cooperating with separate UN inquiries into Khashoggi's death.

The statement was backed by EU states along with Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Human Rights Watch said the statement was "the first-ever collective action" at the council on rights in Saudi Arabia, which had successfully evaded criticism at the UN body.

HRW's Geneva director John Fisher called it "a landmark step toward justice" and urged "more scrutiny" of the country.

Responding to the statement, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the UN in Geneva condemned the use of "joint statements for political causes." "Interference in domestic affairs under the guise of defending human rights is in fact an attack on our sovereignty," ambassador Abdulaziz Alwasil said.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor and critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Saudi Arabia initially said it had no knowledge of his fate.

It has since blamed rogue agents for Khashoggi's death and the kingdom's public prosecutor has charged 11 people over his murder.

The UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard, is conducting an inquiry into the killing.

But Callamard is an independent human rights expert who does not speak for the UN and calls have mounted for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to push for a full UN-backed probe.

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Washington:

Adult-film actress Stormy Daniels lawsuit against President Donald Trump over a non-disparagement agreement on their alleged affair has been dismissed by a federal judge in Los Angeles. US District Judge S James Otero In Thursday said the suit, which sought to invalidate the USD 130,000 agreement that kept Daniels from speaking publicly about her allegations of an affair with Trump ahead of the 2016 election, lacks subject matter jurisdiction and should be sent back to California Superior Court, the CNN reported.

The judge found that Daniels lawsuit was moot because she had already received exactly what she wanted when Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen agreed last September not to enforce the confidentiality pact.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims that she and Trump had an affair in 2006, after he married first lady Melania Trump and she gave birth to their son, Barron. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.

Cohen arranged the nondisclosure agreement and paid Daniels USD 130,000. He admitted in federal court that in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office, he kept information that would have harmed Trump from becoming public during the 2016 election cycle. He has since said that the candidate was Trump.

Cohen has since been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to nine charges, including campaign-finance violations related to payments he arranged to silence women who claimed affairs with Trumpincluding Daniels. Trump has denied having affairs with the women.

Otero is the same judge who also dismissed Daniels separate defamation cases against Trump and Cohen. In addition to dismissing the defamation lawsuit, Otero ordered Daniels to pay nearly USD 300,000 in attorneys fees.

Daniels sued the President after he said in a tweet posted in April that her tale of a man threatening her not to come forward with her story of her alleged affair with Trump was a total con job. Trump had asked Otero to dismiss the lawsuit.

Daniels attorney, Michael Avenatti, declared victory in spite of the dismissal. The court found that Daniels received everything she asked for by way of the lawsuit she won and we forced Trump and Cohen to cave, Avenatti said.

Trump attorney Charles Harder welcomed the judges ruling. The US District Court confirmed today that the claim against the President has no basis in law. Combined with the attorneys fees and sanctions award in the Presidents favor totaling USD 293,000, the President has achieved total victory, he said.

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Two, having lived in Chicago and Hinsdale some 23-years each (I no longer live in either place), and having been a foot-pounding cog in the so-called city machine and a veteran door-knocker in the village, I can tell you the latter is nothing like the former, not even close. Boiling it way down, theres a Chicago way, but its not the Hinsdale way. No comparison, false equivalency.
You might have come across such a headline at least once, which exploits the curiosity gap. Unable to resist, you might have also clicked through the content only to get hooked to a linked piece of online content or malicious software. Consider yourself lucky, if youve not yet encountered one. Because, cybercriminals have turned click-baiting, as it is called today, into an art. If the conditions are right, you dont even need to click.

Meaning, even before realising, youre in a trap. Its sad but true. When it comes to clicking most of us are easily persuaded. Unfortunately, making use of it most are the cybercriminals. Malicious URLs used as click bait and delivered through both Email and Web are increasing in the Middle East. In Bahrain, there registered a 140 per cent increase in phishing and banking Trojan incidents, says a report by cybersecurity giant Kaspersky Lab.

To understand the magnitude, the report by the cybersecurity giant should be read along with the warning issued last month by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that says website registrars and internet service providers, particularly in the Middle East are being targeted at an alarming rate. There is evidence that it is coming out of Iran and being done in support of Iran, ICANN said. In its new report, the Kaspersky lab says it detected a 7.5pc increase in malware attacks, 55pc jump in ransomware attacks and 131pc increase in banking Trojan attack in Bahrain.

The in-depth analysis of various cyber threats all over the world in 2018 specifically points to the activities of MuddyWater APT group, which is a relatively new threat actor that surfaced in 2017. The group, which has been known to target government bodies, military entities, telcos and educational institutions in the Middle East, Europe and the US, is continually targeting Bahrain, the report says.

These new documents have appeared throughout 2018 and the activity escalated from May onwards. More importantly, countries in the Middle East need to focus on the protection of industrial systems and critical infrastructure, CEO Eugene Kaspersky told in a talk to Arabian business adding: All countries use the same protection software, all of them follow the same approach and the same logic with regards to cybersecurity.

The only difference is that the region hosts a number of largescale corporations that are new to cyber attacks, therefore struggle in preventing and destroying them, the report quoted him as saying. In order to protect, he suggests educating general staff to identify malicious behaviour such as phishing links and establish enterprise-grade patch management process among other measures.

One malicious URL in every 61 mails

The widening landscape of the malware attacks was also flagged by Mimecast in its Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA) report which says there is a 125pc increase in an email delivered malicious URLs in comparison to the last quarter. The report by Mimecast says it detected one malicious URL in every 61 emails screened.

Mimecast detected a total of 463,546 malicious URLs from the 28,407,664 emails, which were deemed safe by an organisations email security system. According to Matthew Gardiner, cybersecurity strategist at Mimecast: Cybercriminals are constantly looking for new ways to evade detection, often turning to easier methods like social engineering to gain intel on a person or pulling images from the internet to help legitimize their impersonation attempts to gain credentials or information from unsuspecting users.

Iran or in support of Iran

Meanwhile, ICANN last month warned that website registrars and internet service providers, particularly in the Middle East are being targeted. So-called DNSpionage attacks might date back to at least 2017, according to FireEye senior manager of cyber espionage analysis Ben Read. Weve seen primarily targeting of email names and passwords,  Read said.

There is evidence that it is coming out of Iran and being done in support of Iran. DNSpionage hackers appeared intent on stealing account credentials, such as email passwords, in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, according to Adam Meyers, vice president of intelligence at CrowdStrike cyber security firm.

Similar attacks took place in Europe and other parts of the Middle East, with targets including governments, intelligence services, police, airlines, and the oil industry, cybersecurity specialists said.
Bahrain Tourism and Exhibition Authority (BTEA) through its representative offices have contributed BD35 million to the national economy, said BTEA Chief Executive Officer yesterday. The revenue generated was attributed to the spending by 140,000 visitors who entered the Kingdom. BTEAs Saudi office, Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa said, was a major contributor as it attracted 115,875 tourists with their combined spending reaching BD23,360,400.

Visitors included business and project owners. BTEA said it collaborated with 150 Saudi travel agencies during the period. UK ranked second with 9,831 tourists arriving and contributing BD 5,164,814 to the national economy. UK representative office, BTEA said, succeeded in establishing partnerships with 10 of the most prominent agencies there including Expedia, Southall Travel, Travelbag and Lastminute. com. Closely following the UK was Russia with 7,719 travellers spending BD 4,055,253 million.

BTEA said it Russian office coordinated with a leading travel agency in Europe, Coral Travel, to operate charter flights carrying over 5,000 visitors. Additionally, the number of Russian travel agencies that organise regular trips to Bahrain has risen to reach 65 compared to only 15 prior to the opening of the representative office.

Also, the total number of tourists from India reached 3,697 and their spending amounted to BD 1,255,833. BTEA said it continues to steer its efforts towards making Bahrain a prime destination for weddings, as the Kingdom witnessed a notable increase in Indian Weddings held in Bahrain. BTEA has also opened its representative office in Kuwait.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns the terrorist explosion which occurred in the vicinity of the Presidential Palace in capital Mogadishu of the Federal Republic Somali killing and injuring a number of people. The Ministry expressed its heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and wishes the injured in this terrorist act speedy recovery. It also affirmed the solidarity of the Kingdom of Bahrain with the Federal Republic of Somalia against violence, extremism and terrorism of all forms.

Four people were killed and nine wounded when a car bomb exploded near a restaurant in central Mogadishu yesterday, police said, as the Al-Shabaab jihadist group claimed responsibility. The blast was caused by a car loaded with explosives, we perceive that it was parked near a restaurant along the road, Somali police official Ibrahim Mohamed said. The restaurant was near a security checkpoint in the Somali capital, not far from the presidential palace.

The road in which the blast occurred houses eateries and tea shops. The explosion was very heavy, and we could see the smoke and dust overwhelmed the whole area, it was a car bomb, said witness Ibrahim Farey. Another, Aisha Hassan, said several vehicles were destroyed and buildings damaged. Al-Shabaab said it had planted the bomb, claiming in a statement that its fighters targeted one of the checkpoints of the palace apostates.

The nationalist, Islamist group, linked to Al-Qaeda, is fighting an armed insurrection in Somalia against what it sees as heretic and foreign influence. The Shabaab were chased out of Mogadishu in 2011 by the 22,000-strong African Union mission AMISOM, and have had to abandon most of their strongholds. But they still control vast rural areas and remain the key threat to peace in Somalia. President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, elected in February 2017, has declared a state of war against the group.
Chinese authorities have prosecuted 11 people for smuggling $119 million worth of Mexican totoaba fish swim bladders, one of the countrys biggest busts related to the trafficking of an endangered species used in traditional medicine. Mexico has urged China for years to crack down on totoaba smuggling over fears that illegal fishing operations in the Gulf of California are also killing off the worlds smallest porpoise, the near-extinct vaquita marina.

The Jiangmen city procuratorate in southern Guangdong province said the 11 people are suspected of smuggling nearly 20,000 swim bladders worth more than 800 million yuan ($119 million) from Mexico. The group of smugglers, led by an individual named Liang Weihua, transported the fish parts in large quantities and sold them to consumers in China. This crime lasted for more than three years, said the Guangdong-based procuratorate, a legal supervision agency, on its website.

The smuggling route involved a number of neighbouring countries, including Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, it said, adding that the case is currently under further investigation. The critically endangered totoaba fish has been in steep decline since the 1940s, largely because of its reputed healing powers in Chinese medicine.

The fishs swim bladder can fetch up to $20,000 on the black market in China, where it is believed to have beautifying properties and cure a host of ailments, from arthritis pain to discomfort during pregnancy. In fact, they are so prized that some Chinese simply display them in fancy cases in their homes.
Irans continued interference in Bahrains internal affairs was strongly condemned by League of Arab States Council during its 151st session held on Wednesday at the headquarters of the General Secretariat in Cairo. The meeting affirmed the Kingdom full support in all measures taken to maintain its security and stability as well as welcomed a decision by world nations to designate Iran-backed Saraya al-Ashtar in Bahrain as a terrorist organisation.

This stance reflects the determination of world countries in confronting terrorism at a regional and international level, the Council statement said. The council also welcomed a report submitted by Bahrain on the Iranian interference in its internal affairs during the period from January to December 2018 Speaking on the occasion, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Undersecretary of Regional and GCC Affairs, Waheed Mubarak Sayyar, stressed on the importance of supporting joint Arab action and affirmed Bahrains support to combat terrorism and terrorist groups.

Moving on, the Council discussed ways to enhance joint Arab action, followed up the developments of the Palestinian issue and the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as activating the Arab peace initiative. Discussions also focused on the latest developments in Syria, security and combating terrorism, issues in Libya and Yemen and the dangers of Irans Bushehr nuclear reactor among others.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA)s undersecretary participated in the meeting of the Arab Ministerial Quartet Committee on Following-up on the Crisis with Iran and ways to address Irans interference in the internal affairs of the Arab countries held on the sidelines of the 151st session of Arab League Council at the ministerial level. The Council also confirmed its support to Bahrain in a number of its nominations for positions in the United Nations and its specialised agencies.
Saudi Arabia emerged as the top country importing from Bahrain, with second and third spots shared by the UAE and the United States of America, according to iGAs new foreign trade report. The report puts agglomerated iron ores and concentrates as the top products exported from Bahrain in January of 2019 with a value of BD22 million. Aluminium wires were positioned as the second products exported with a value of BD17m, and unwrought aluminium alloys stood third place for exported products with BD12m.

However, the value of the exported national origin decreased by 5pc as it reached BD168m during January of 2019 versus BD176m for the same month of the previous year. Top 10 countries account for 82pc of the exported national origin value and 18pc for other countries. This was revealed in the foreign trade report of January 2019 issued by the Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) which encompasses a balance of trade, imports, exports (National Origin) and re-exports.

Meanwhile, China is ranked as the first country to export to Bahrain with BD54m; United Arab Emirates (UAE) as second with BD37m whereas Saudi Arabia ranked third with BD34m. The value of imports decreased by 10pc as it reached BD372m versus BD412m for the same month of the previous year, while the top 10 countries account for 69pc of the imports value and 31pc for other countries.

The trade balance, the difference between exports and imports, the value of the deficit of the trade balance reached BD147m during January this year versus BD196m for the same month of the previous year with a decrease of 25pc.

Re-exports rose 49pc

The value of re-exports increased by 49pc as it reached BD58m during January versus BD39m in the same month a year ago. The top 10 countries account for 88pc of the re-exported value and 12pc for other countries. UAE is ranked as the first country to re-export from Bahrain with BD17m, Saudi Arabia is ranked as the second with BD17m, and China as the third with BD5m.

Agglomerated iron ores and concentrates emerged as the top products re-exported from Bahrain with BD9m, four-wheel drive cars came as second products with BD6m and gold ingots came as the third with BD4m.
Hundreds of acres in the Litchfield Hills are protected from development through the efforts of area land trusts.

A key part of that success is accreditation, a process many in the area are renewing now, including the Housatonic Valley Association. Accreditation builds confidence in land trusts and opens up grants, allowing for more land to be protected with conservation easements.

Tim Abbott, HVAs regional conservation and greenprint director, said accreditation has helped the association with its capital efforts. HVA has raised $1 million since it was accredited in 2014.

The accreditation leveraged another $6 million to help land trusts in the Litchfield Hills protect 1,600 acres of land.

Abbott said he doesnt know if its a direct correlation for all of the $1 million or if its HVAs expanded scope, but said there is one donor who wouldnt donate if they arent accredited.

Accreditation has helped land trusts across the country raise more money. An independent external evaluation of the Land Trust Accreditation Commission showed accredited land trusts have significantly bigger budgets, more staff and volunteers, have three times more land and eight times more money invested into their protected lands than their peers of similar size.

HVA was one of the first organizations in the state to become accredited. The Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, will use the renewal process to ensure HVA is following its policies and procedures, as well as improving in certain areas.

HVA has always been a land trust as well as a watershed organization, Abbott said. Its in our DNA to protect throughout the watershed.

Abbott said HVA is different from many of the other land trusts because it doesnt generally acquire land on its own, but instead helps local land trusts do so. He said they decided to invest in becoming accredited so they could better help those groups and continue to be a leader in conservation.

The Land Trust Accreditation Commission will now review all of HVAs documents. The public can also comment until April 21. A decision is expected to be announced in the fall.

Connecticut is no stranger to the accreditation process, especially Litchfield County. More than half of the states 30 or so accredited land trusts are in the northwest corner and belong to the Litchfield Hills Greenprint Collaborative, a program overseen by the HVA.

Several other groups are also renewing, or just about to start the process, including Sharon, Norfolk, Warren and Weantinoge.

I think our collaborative approach helped, Abbott said.

Connie Manes, HVAs greenprint manager, serves as a consultant, helping land trusts all over New England become accredited. She also helped draft the new standards, looking at the meaningful parts of the program, culling the risks and studying the strengths.

The creation of that code was instrumental in getting us to speak the same language, she said, adding accreditation takes it a step further. It brought us together in a way we hadnt been before.

She said land trusts protect land in perpetuity and this code allows that to happen because it requires that records are maintained appropriately.

How to comment on the plan Comments can be submitted online at Landtrustaccreditation.org, emailed to info@landtrustaccreditation.org, faxed to 518-587-3183, or mailed to Land Trust Accreditation Commission Attn: Public Comments Mail: 36 Philadelphia Street, suite 2 Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. See More Collapse

Abbott said creating the accreditation process resulted in good changes, including ensuring protected properties were appraised correctly and the trusts were looking at the deeds.

He said within HVA, the board was able to get a better understanding of these practices through the accreditation process.

Organizationally, its helped us tighten our ship, Abbott said.

kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345
DANBURY  A new $25,000 grant will help Danbury officials create a plan that could combine many of the citys shelter beds and homeless service providers into a single, centralized campus.

The plan follows a national model to consolidate into one location the government, mental health, substance abuse and social services groups that help the homeless or near-homeless, so that all of the providers are easier to access for people in need and can better coordinate care.

Mayor Mark Boughton has long hoped to do exactly that, but the complexity of coordinating so many providers and the myriad of available services in Danbury has drawn the process out over several years.

The grant through The Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation will finance a consultant who can finally bring all of those pieces together over the next few months, officials said.

At the heart of the new plan will be the combination of the homeless shelter beds at Dorothy Day Hospitality House, run by a nonprofit group, and the New Street shelter, operated by the city.

The vision is to be able to hire a consultant to bridge that barrier, if you will, about setting up a unified shelter that will bring in the strengths of both organizations as well as our nonprofit community at a new location, Boughton said. But we really feel we need a consultant to help walk us through that process to provide a plan ready to go  so that well be up and running to get this thing going as soon as we can dedicate funding to it.

Together, the shelters offer more than 35 overnight beds for the homeless and that capacity expands during cold weather to accommodate even more.

To put all of that capacity into a single location could help standardize the experience and make its operation more efficient, Boughton has said.

Each group does really good things, he said. The New Street shelter is very well structured. Dorothy Day does a great job of feeding and pulling all the volunteers together, so think of what they could do with a commercial grade kitchen.

City officials have scouted several possible locations but Boughton declined to specify and said that would have to be part of the implementation of the plan later.

Communities around the country are doing similar things with their shelters and then building out office space around them to accommodate the litany of service providers for the homeless to create a kind of one-stop shop for help, local experts said.

In Danbury, the city already has a version of that through a so-called community care team, which connects dozens of local doctors, rehab facilities, shelters, law enforcement and nonprofit groups. They meet weekly to discuss the cases of local homeless people or those near homelessness to try to help each individually, but they do not have a shared office space.

I have seen that done very successfully in other communities, said Michele Conderino, who oversees homeless services for the Catholic Charities of Fairfield County. We have that, just not literally in the same location.

But creating that central location poses a range of challenges, not the least of which will be who ultimately oversees and manages the operation. All of those organizations also bring their own funding to the table, either through private fundraising or any number of state and federal grants.

Theres a lot of value to that, we just havent been able to pull it together, Conderino said. Whos running it and whats the philosophy behind it?

The city and Dorothy Day also remain locked in litigation over a bitter zoning dispute that has threatened to close the Spring Street shelter. The operation remains open and that case is heading to mediation with a Hartford judge next week.

The systems not perfect, but I think we have the emergency space available we need and its more the long-term housing options that we still need to work on, Boughton said. Its hard bringing people to the table because people have different visions of what treatment ought to be and how it should be done. The Buck Foundation has agreed to fund what would give us a plan and it would be a third person to talk to people and help come up with a plan that can work.

zach.murdock@hearstmediact.com
Ive seen that we need new ways to engage people with the environment, said curator Christine Esposito, whom the library hired to manage the project. Artwork can be a way to not only engage, but also inspire and inform people, while connecting with them on an emotional and, thus, a more lasting level.
An 8-year-old boy allegedly was forced to wear plastic bags and sit in his own urine-soaked clothes after his mother says a California teacher refused to let him use the restroom.

"My child did not deserve this. No child deserves to be treated this way," the boy's mother Sonia Mongol said, KCBS-TV reported. "We are outraged."
A railroad-crossing accident that killed three people and injured nine in Long Island recently is renewing calls for a long-overdue look at the hazards where rail tracks go across well-traveled local roads.

These crossings inherently pose danger for cars vs trains, but enhanced safety features can reduce the risk and should be a priority. Yet the Senate committee with jurisdiction over rail safety hasnt had a hearing on the hazards of rail crossings in at least 15 years.

In the Westbury, New York, accident on Feb. 26 a vehicle was hit by two Long Island Rail Road trains heading in opposite directions. The president of the railroad said the driver went around the crossing gates, the vehicle was struck by one train, then by another, which caused the front two railcars to derail and crash into the station platform. The three who died were in the vehicle; the injured were seven train passengers, a conductor and an engineer.

The assertion that the driver was trying to beat the train does not mitigate the need to make crossings as safe as possible with highly visible warnings and gates.

With the alarming title of Accident Prediction Report, dated March 6, the Federal Railroad Administration shows 30 crossings in Connecticut ranked with the probability that a collision between a train and a vehicle will happen at the crossing in a year.

Of the 30 sites on the list, four are in Danbury, four in Norwalk, two in Stamford, two in Darien and includes single crossings in Bethel, New Canaan, North Haven, Ansonia, Portland and North Canaan.

The Web Accident Prevention System calculations are derived from computer models of data on the physical and operating characteristics of a crossing and five years of accident history.

The list does not rank crossings from most to least dangerous, but rather is intended as a tool to raise awareness of potential dangers and direct resources where most needed.

In response to the Long Island fatalities, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer are reintroducing the Highway-Rail Grade Safety Crossing Act that would provide federal grants to improve safety at rail crossings.

In the past five years, more than 1,000 fatalities, 4,000 injuries and 10,000 collisions have occurred at rail crossings across the country, according to U.S. Department of Transportation statistics.

This is something Congress should be talking about. The Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees rail safety, hasnt extensively discussed the issue since June, 2013, and hasnt had a hearing on rail crossing hazards in 15 years, according to Blumenthal.

In Connecticut, the dangers are all too well known. In 2012, two people were killed and two others injured when their car crossing tracks near the West Redding train station was struck by a train. The crossing had warning lights, but no gates. Four months later, gates were installed.

In our state where railroads, a plus for mobility and economic growth, wind through populous areas, safety must be in the forefront.
The rhetorical attacks keep coming at Saudi Arabia from the West. On Thursday, the European Union signed on to a rare rebuke of the kingdom. At a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, 36 countries, including all 28 member states of the continental bloc, called on the Saudis to release 10 imprisoned activists and cooperate with a U.N. inquiry into last year's killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The statement was the first collective reprimand of Riyadh issued at the council since it was founded in 2006.

"We call on Saudi Arabia to take many full steps to ensure that all matters of the public including human rights defenders and journalists can freely and fully exercise their rights to freedom of expression, opinion, and association including online and without fear of reprisals," read the text of the joint statement. It also urged Saudi Arabia "to disclose all information available" from its investigation into the death of Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi dissident voice who U.S. intelligence believes was abducted, tortured and killed on the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Both the Trump administration and Saudi officials have sought to shield Mohammed from scrutiny, but that hasn't dimmed the outrage of a host of Western governments and lawmakers. In Washington, Congress is still battling the White House over the latter's flouting of a legal requirement to report to the Senate on the crown prince's role in Khashoggi's death. Though U.S. politicians remain bitterly divided on most issues, they have found an unusual consensus in their antipathy toward Riyadh.

On top of what happened to Khashoggi, there's growing concern over the status of Walid Fitaihi, a Harvard-trained physician and a dual U.S.-Saudi national who has been detained by the Saudis since November 2017 and allegedly beaten and tortured on repeated occasions. According to the New York Times, friends close to Fitaihi believe his detention has to do with the palace intrigues surrounding the crown prince's ruthless consolidation of power. And they have expressed their disquiet with President Donald Trump's silence over his incarceration.

"He's gone full gangster," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said of Mohammed at a hearing Wednesday, "and it's difficult to work with a guy like that." Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., added that the Saudis' "list of human rights violations is so long, it's hard to comprehend what's going on there."

Several pieces of legislation are pending in the Senate and House, including a bill calling for the end of U.S. support of the Saudi-led war in Yemen and a bipartisan-sponsored measure that would effectively mandate sanctions on the crown prince.

"Now the question is whether the Senate will act to uphold its authority under the law and prevent the Saudi ruler from escaping accountability for the gruesome murder and dismemberment of a journalist who was a Virginia resident and a contributor to The Post," The Washington Post said in a March 6 editorial. "Not only the question of justice for Khashoggi is at issue: The crime is part of a pattern of reckless and destructive behavior by Mohammed bin Salman that ranges from the bombing of civilians in Yemen to the imprisonment and torture of a number of Saudi female activists, as well as a U.S. citizen."

But the Saudis' response has so far been categorical and unrepentant. "Interference in domestic affairs under the guise of defending human rights is in fact an attack on our sovereignty," said Abdul Aziz Alwasil, the kingdom's permanent representative in Geneva, in reaction to the European Union's statement. Similar bullish statements came from the Saudi Foreign Ministry this year as members of Congress weighed the passage of a punitive bill.

That Riyadh has endured only the slightest course corrections amid months of controversy speaks, firstly, to the durability of the monarchy's economic ties with a host of major powers. International political and business elites have shown themselves all too willing to overlook a regime's record when it suits their interests. But it also speaks to the fact that despite their concerns over Khashoggi's death, insiders in Washington cheer the Saudi push toward a more "normal" and secular modernity encouraged by Mohammed's ambitious economic and social reform agenda. Movie theaters have sprung up, and women can now learn to drive - no matter that key female activists who clamored for these rights are still in prison.

Mohammed has championed these reforms by inculcating a new spirit of nationalism. "Saudi Arabia's undergoing an aggressive nationalist rebranding, downplaying an austere religious doctrine associated abroad with terrorism, and promoting veneration of de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he pursues an economic overhaul," noted Bloomberg News this week, exploring the extent to which overt nationalism is supplanting the kingdom's traditional religious orthodoxy. "Amid efforts to maintain domestic support while redesigning the contract between state and citizen, traitors, not infidels, are the enemy."

The lecturing from Western capitals, too, plays into this dynamic, deepening national feeling among many patriotic Saudis who have rallied around their prince in the face of "unbalanced" criticism from abroad, said Ali Shihabi, founder of the Arabia Foundation, a Washington think tank with close ties to Riyadh. He added that "inspiring nationalism is an objective" of Mohammed's reform agenda.

Critics of the crown prince view him as a fundamentally destabilizing leader . Other experts argue that he's here to stay. "It's impossible to not see how much the country has changed" under Mohammed's watch, said former U.S. diplomat Dennis Ross at a panel hosted by the Arabia Foundation last week, saying that though the crown prince may be "reckless," the United States has much to gain from a "successful transformation" from Wahhabism to nationalism in Saudi Arabia.

In an op-ed written last year, Ross had even suggested the crown prince could turn into the Ataturk of the Gulf, a reference to the pioneering, secularizing founder of the Turkish republic. But one of his interlocutors last week fired back, arguing that Mohammed is no Ataturk and much more like Russian President Vladimir Putin - a figure to be contained and checked, not befriended and enabled.

- - - Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor and correspondent at Time magazine, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York.
A group of New York lawmakers wants to draw the line on religious freedom when it comes to requiring vaccinations for children in public, private and parochial schools.

Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli, D-Syracuse, is among seven co-sponsors of a bill that would end New Yorks long-standing practice of exempting students from vaccinations if it violates their religious beliefs.

The lawmakers say New York should join other states in more aggressively enforcing mandatory vaccinations amid a measles outbreak that infected at least 206 people in 11 states in January and February.

Since then the outbreak has grown. In New York, the worst measles outbreak in decades has infected 144 people in Rockland County this year through Wednesday. An additional 133 cases have been confirmed in Brooklyn and Queens, and seven cases in Monroe County as of this week.

At least 21 of the cases were connected to one yeshiva in Brooklyns Orthodox Jewish community that did not enforce the vaccination requirement.

Health officials say the highly-contagious respiratory disease has continued to spread, in part, because of children who never received the measles vaccination.

New York and most states ban students from attending school unless they receive vaccinations for measles and other diseases. The state offers exemptions only for religious and medical reasons. If parents without exemptions still choose to not vaccinate their children, those children are banned from school.

Magnarelli said the measles outbreak underscores why New York needs to ban religious exemptions for vaccinations.

The bottom line is to keep protecting the general public from having preventable outbreaks of diseases that have been, at least up to now, largely eradicated in our country due to vaccinations, Magnarelli said.

He added, The only exemption should be for situations where the immunization would be detrimental to a childs health.

The bill introduced in late January has yet to gain momentum in Albany. Magnarelli is among seven co-sponsors of the legislation written by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, D-Bronx.

Dinowitz and the other lawmakers say it has become clear that the need to protect public health should take priority over an individuals religious beliefs.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show at least 285 schools in New York have an immunization rate below 85 percent, and 170 schools are below 70 percent.

The CDC says a 95 percent vaccination rate is necessary to maintain herd immunity, the rate necessary to stop the spread of preventable diseases that include mumps, measles, diphtheria, rubella, hepatitis B, poliomyelitis and varicella.

Assemblyman Pat Burke, D-Buffalo, one of the bills co-sponsors, said in a statement that he understands why some people might be upset about ending the religious exemption for the vaccinations.

Freedom of religion is a fundamental right enshrined in our Constitution, Burke said. What leads to debate is where that line is drawn. Can parents refuse basic medical treatment for their child in the name of religion? I would generally say no.

He cited the 2008 case of Kara Neumann, an 11-year-old Wisconsin girl who died after her parents chose faith healing over medical treatment for her diabetes. The parents were convicted of second-degree reckless homicide.

There are limitations on religion when it is proven to cause direct harm to an individual or group, Burke said.

Most states allow exemptions from vaccinations for religious reasons, but this years measles outbreak has prompted New Jersey, Vermont, Maine, Iowa, Oregon and Washington to reconsider the policy.

California banned religious and all personal belief exemptions in 2016 after a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland and spread to seven states. California children now have the highest vaccination rate since 1998.

The bill to ban religious exemptions in New York comes only months after a state Senate committee passed legislation that would have made it easier for children to obtain the exemption on religious grounds. The bill did not advance to a vote in the full state Legislature.

Advocates wanted to standardize the religious exemption law for public and private schools so that a parents signature would be the only requirement to have their children opt out of a vaccination. The existing law gives school districts the discretion to determine if a parents religious beliefs are valid.

Rita Palma, a Long Island woman who founded the group My Kids, My Choice that advocates for a broad religious exemption, said Thursday that the bill to end the exemption is unlikely to gain much support in the Assembly or Senate.

We have been told by those in leadership in both houses that there is little appetite for removing a religious right, Palma said.

Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751
ORANGE  An upscale furnishings retailer is coming to the Orange Meadows shopping plaza, First Selectman Jim Zeoli said Thursday.

Homesense will located near Trader Joes in the shopping plaza ,which is at 560 Boston Post Road. It will be the first HomeSense store in Connecticut.

The chain has 19 stores in eight states. The corporate parent of Homesense is Massachusetts-based TJX Companies, whose other retail chains include T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.

Its exciting for the town, especially because this is such a challenging retail environment, Zeoli said.

Greenwich-based Urstadt Biddle Properties, which owns the retail center, has to reconfigure the plaza in order to accommodate the needs of Homesense, said Willing Biddle, president of the commercial real estate company. That reconfiguration involves relocating one or two of the plazas current tenants within the retail center.

Its only a matter of knocking down some walls, Biddle said, adding that he expects the process to take about nine months.

The relocation will involve moving one or two current tenants of the shopping center into some of the space formerly occupied by the L.L. Bean Outlet store, which closed at the end of last year. Biddle said about 7,000 square feet of retail space of the roughly 13,000 square feet that the outdoor retailer occupied will be left over once the reconfiguration is complete.

The Orange Economic Development Corp. announced Homesense was coming to the plaza on its Facebook page Wednesday.

The plans for the new store were approved by the towns Zoning Board of Appeals on Monday and received approval from the Plan and Zoning Commission on Tuesday, EDC officials said in a Facebook post. Building permits must still be obtained before the reconfiguration work can be done.

David Cadden, a professor emeritus at Quinnipiac Universitys School of Business, described Homesenses furnishings mix as a little bit more upscale than what youd get from Target or Walmart.

I think its interesting that they want to be next to Trader Joes, Cadden said. I think they are trying to attract the same type of hip customer, especially millennials who are looking to furnish their first apartment, but dont want a cookie cutter decor.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
HARTFORD  The legislatures expanded Democratic majority had advocates in favor of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour buzzing with excitement Thursday.

This has been a long time coming, Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, a staunch advocate for raising the minimum wage said at a press conference before the start of the Labor and Public Employees Committees public hearing. Im so excited.

Porter is the co-sponsor of a bill that would raise the minimum wage from its current $10.10 to $15 an hour by January of 2022.

Gov. Ned Lamont has his own bill to increase the minimum wage to $15  but his bill would take a year longer than to get to that goal, not hitting the $15 mark until January 2023.

At the press conference, Porter and Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, who co-chair the committee, were joined by workers currently earning minimum wage, labor leaders and economists to make the case that Connecticuts time has come.

It was five years ago this month that Connecticut passed a $10.10 hourly minimum wage to take effect by 2017, Kushner said. At that time, that was great, that was the highest in the nation. Now Connecticut badly lags behind our neighbors: Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont all have higher minimum wages than Connecticut.

The committees bill seeks to raise Connecticuts hourly minimum wage to $12 an hour by Jan. 1, 2020; $13.50 in 2021; and $15 in 2022, with future increases automatically tied to any rise in the consumer price index.

Lamonts bill seeks to increase the wage to $11.25 by Jan. 1, 2020; $12.50 in 2021; $13.75 in 2022; $15 an hour by 2023, and ties increases to the employment cost index. His bill mirrors Massachusetts schedule.

This legislation is long overdue and will help bring much-needed revenue back into the state economy by putting more disposable income into the pocket of workers  money that goes back into our communities and produces more revenue for the state, Porter said.

A higher minimum wage also will bring more dignity into the workplace, Porter said. The cost of everything  rent, utilities, food, clothes  has risen and minimum-wage workers, some whom are supporting families, are fighting and barely making ends meet.

Kyra Franklin of East Hartford lives on the minimum wage working at Wendys. Franklin wants to go to college to become a teacher. But its hard to pay the bills making the current minimum wage.

The problem is I have tons of bills and loan debt trying to put myself through school, Franklin said.

Connecticut AFL-CIO President Sal Luciano said the $10.10 minimum wage is almost criminal and that anyone making that wage is destined to live in poverty. He said getting to $15 an hour was a key first step but only the beginning of fighting for better pay for workers.

Speaking to the often repeated statement that raising the minimum wage significantly would hurt businesses, Economic Policy Institute economist David Cooper played down that mantra.

The minimum wage has been raised hundreds of times over the years and the sky has not fallen, Cooper said.

State Comptroller Kevin Lembo submitted written testimony backing all the minimum-wage proposals.

Recent studies by the University of California at Berkley have found that cities that have begun to increase their minimum wage toward $15 an hour have not experienced job losses in the food and hospitality sector, the largest economic center impacted by the minimum wage hike, Lembo said.

The studies Lembo cited also found that increased wages increase spending in the local economy and the higher wages will increase market participation, making it easier for employers to fill open positions and expanding the states total labor force, Lembo said.

But the bills have opposition.

Connecticut Business and Industry Association Vice President Eric Gjede said in written testimony that the annual hike in the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022 or 2023 is too much for business to bear.

The proposed rate of increases are significant new costs for businesses to bear, Gjede said. These increases, $1.90 in the first year and $1.50 in each the two years thereafter, are far higher than the average $0.30 increases to the minimum wage routinely implemented in the past.

Gjede asked the committee to oppose the bill, but asked that if members decide to hike the minimum wage, that they spread the increases over six or seven years, instead of three.

Gjede told the committee that the best way to help individuals in entry-level and low-skilled jobs is to stop adding costs to employers.

The Connecticut Food Association also weighed in in opposition, saying the bills try to do too much, too fast.

The accelerated rate at which this proposed bill increases wages to $15 does not allow for retailers to absorb these costs efficiently, President Wayne Pesce testified. We do support a six-year implementation of the states minimum wage with no CPI indexing.

Rep. David Rutigliano, R-Trumbull, said one issue he had with a $15-an-hour minimum wage is that it might take away some workers ambition to progress.

How difficult is it to get to the third rung of the ladder if were going to sit there and take the first two rungs out? Rutigliano said.

Committee co-chairs Porter and Kushner were asked if they were concerned about the time difference reaching $15 an hour a year earlier than the governors proposal.

We are in discussions with the governors office, Porter said. There is plenty of room for negotiation.

The committees deadline to act on the bill is March 26.
MILFORD  A Milford man has pleaded not guilty to charges he stole cash and firearms from an Orange gun shop.

Michael Ranaldo, 30, appeared before Judge Peter Brown Wednesday on charges of first-degree larceny and four counts of stealing a firearm.

According to an arrest warrant written by Orange Police Detective Harry Burke, cops received an employee theft complaint from Greyson Guns on Boston Post Road in December.

The businesss owners said an employee had made them aware of "income discrepancies" in the company books.

"They noticed there were a large number of merchandise returns to cash all made by the same employee," the warrant says.

The amount lost: $31,231.78

Company officials also flagged several gun transactions that looked iffy.

Police determined Ranaldo had stolen the guns and found them  three Glock handguns and a Marlin 1895GBL rifle together worth more than $2,000  in Ranaldos home.

The warrant says he confessed when questioned by detectives. He took the money "just to pay bills and to have extra cash," Ranaldo allegedly told police.

In court Wednesday, Ranaldos lawyer, Michael Hillis, entered not guilty pleas on Randaldos behalf.

The judge continued the case to March 27.
HAMDEN  Community residents will have the chance to enjoy a night out and help the Police Departments canine unit, as a fundraiser is to be held Wednesday at Mickeys Restaurant & Bar on Whitney Avenue.

The fundraiser is being organized by the Hometown Foundation, the charitable arm of Cheshire-based Bozzutos Inc., Officer Jason Venditto said Thursday.

The foundation, along with local businesses K&J Tree Service and American Total Protection, donated the money to purchase Vendittos new partner, a German shepherd named Knight. His last canine partner, Viking, also a German shepherd, died unexpectedly in September.

The fundraiser will go to purchase equipment and supplies for Knight, such as a GPS collar and medical supplies, benefit the departments canine program more generally, and also promote Down Syndrome Awareness Day, according to Venditto and Mackenzie J. Doyle, cause and marketing manager with the Hometown Foundation.

Venditto said the help with purchasing Knight had been a boon for the town, as the money to get another dog had not been included in the departments budget, and for him. He had trained Viking himself  the first time he had ever done that  and expected to work with him for years.

It was heart-breaking to lose Viking, especially unexpectedly, Venditto said.

He was a special dog, said Venditto. It was tough.

But getting Knight helped ease the pain, Venditto said.

The Hometown Foundation has worked to donate dogs to a number of departments, from Hamden to Tolland to New York City, Doyle said Friday.

The dogs help departments in a number of ways, from sniffing out drugs and explosives to helping people with Alzeheimers, Doyle said, but are typically privately funded.

Providing dogs to police departments is one of a series of causes they work to address, Doyle said.

The foundation works in five programming areas, according to its website: animal welfare, emergency response personnel, individuals with intellectual disabilities or in need, major illness and the military.

In the case of Venditto and Knight, Doyle said the communitys response had made the donation and outcome of Wednesdays fundraiser possible.

In addition to the support from K&J Tree Service and American Total Protection, a number of businesses had put out cash collection boxes; Mickeys was hosting the fundraiser, which approximately 500 people are already expected to attend.

Its not just the foundation  this took the entire town, said Doyle.

The fundraiser will run from 5 p.m. to closing time at Mickeys on March 13. Reservations are requested, according to a promotional video for the event. Twenty percent of food and beverage purchases will be donated to charity.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
HAMDEN  The town is moving forward with several school building projects, but the district is under pressure from the state to finish its plans sooner rather than later.

The town has plans to renovate Alice Peck School and build a new West Woods School building, but formalizing a comprehensive, districtwide school plan has delayed the projects, and now Hamden needs to submit additional plans by June 30 if it hopes to see more funding.

The town approved the West Woods School construction in 2016 for $24.2 million and another $26 million for a like new renovation of Shepherd Glen School, for which it will get partially reimbursed by the state. It also has $6.5 million approved for Alice Peck. But the scope of the projects changed when the Board of Education began assessing declining enrollment and considering redistricting.

I suggested that if we were to put an addition on the middle school and moved sixth grade to middle school from the elementary schools, that creates space for universal pre-K, which I wanted for 10 years, Councilman James Pascarella, D-8, said. When they started to look at all this, starting universal pre-K and adding a wing to the middle school, the addition to Shepherd Glen wouldnt be necessary and the entire scope changed.

The school board voted to close Shepherd Glen and Church Street School in November 2018 and take back Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School as a neighborhood school as part of the plan to provide pre-kindergarten at all the schools and move sixth grade to Hamden Middle School.

So the town put the breaks on construction pending space needs, Pascarella said. When the board decided to redistrict and close two schools, the town could proceed with the new building at West Woods and Alice Peck, but leave Shepherd Glen alone.

School board Chairman Chris Daur said the board decided it would be better to address diversity in the town and redistrict those areas to give the districts better balance before it started renovating schools.

I dont know that (the state) is used to seeing a school district taking a moment to rethink plans once money has been approved, Daur said. But were trying to create a more holistic approach.

Daur said when they met with state officials in January about the delay on West Woods, they explained what the town was trying to accomplish in the process, which impressed them because it aligned with what the state is trying to accomplish.

The state loves the concept were proceeding with, Pascarella said. We may be the only town in the state that offers universal pre-K and sixth grade at the middle school. They absolutely love it and even though theyre cutting back, theyve given a green light to this and are encouraging us to to go for it. I think were heading in a phenomenal direction and Im personally thrilled.

But plans for a new wing at the middle school and other elementary school renovations to accommodate pre-K still are in the works. They need to be formalized and voted on by the Legislative Council before they can be presented to the state prior to June 30.

State Rep. Michael DAgostino, D-Hamden, told the council the Department of Administrative Services school building unit wants to make Hamdens construction plans part of its bonding proposal, but it needs a financial commitment from the town and to see progress on the approved projects that have been languishing. He spoke before the council recently, urging it to move on the projects or the town will miss out on state funding.

My message, to be blunt, is lets not blow this, he said. This is an unprecedented opportunity at DAS at a time when these dollars are scarce. ... Weve got a remarkable opportunity where the state is willing to put its neck out for us but they need to see progress on our end. If we blow this, forget it when you want renovations down the road.

Its tight, Daur said.  Im very concerned theres a lot to be done between now and then. I dont want to be an alarmist, but its a tight timeline and a lot of things have to happen between now and then.

Alice Peck is scheduled to break ground in August along with West Woods, which will be a signal to the state that the town is doing what its supposed to, Pascarella said.

The Legislative Council recently approved an owners construction representative for the Alice Peck construction for $135,00, one of the last elements to approve before building starts. The project initially was approved about four years ago, but much of the delay was bureaucratic, Pascarella said.

When Hamden first presented the Alice Peck renovation to the state, they were concerned it wasnt a fully realized plan, Superintendent of Schools Jody Goeler said, because it only included fixing the guts of the school but there wasnt enough money to fully develop the program we wanted to provide. The state told the town to flesh out the entire plant to renovate it, including programming. That came to about $6 million  80 percent state funded  and took three years to finalize.

Alice Peck has served as a hybrid pre-K and special education school, but now it will focus on needs of children with anxiety disorders specifically because the district saw a surge in those students more than other special needs. The program at Alice Peck would address their needs, provide clinical supports, family supports and ease students back into our schools, Goeler said.

We want to address needs of our own kids first, but if seats were available, wed make them available in other districts at a tuition cost to other towns, Goeler said. He said the ability to offer seats to other districts was a key component early on to get state support because its an early bridge to regionalization.

Were ready to put shovels in the ground in the middle of August this year, Goeler said. The swing space for Alice Peck this year will be at Wintergreen while renovations happen; then, at the beginning of next year, students will be ready to move into Alice Peck, he said.

Were ready to go Goeler said. Now with the owners representative secured, the town will have someone to represent their interests on the project, such as sticking to a budget and planned time frame for construction.

Wintergreen, which is run by Area Cooperative Educational Services, still has a program going until June and the town needs it to be vacated. Goeler said students at Alice Peck also have to finish an extended school year program and the district didnt want to transition them in the middle of their program.

Once the town finishes renovations and redistricting, Wintergreen will be a neighborhood school that will also house some districtwide special education programs, Goeler said. ACES special education programs at Wintergreen will be relocated, but where is to be determined.

mdignan@hearstmediact.com
Highlights of Scullys legal career with the Department of Justice include the prosecution of former Chicago Police Chief of Detectives William Hanhardt, who ran an interstate jewelry theft crew; the prosecution of the On Leong gambling ring based out of the South Sides Chinatown; and the prosecution of the Operation Family Secrets, which resulted in convictions involving 18 unsolved murders dating back to 1970, according to the statement.
Maryland's Court of Appeals has ruled that Adnan Syed, whose murder conviction was the focus of the first season of the popular "Serial" podcast, will not get a new trial.



The Court of Appeals reinstated the conviction by reversing a March 2018 ruling by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. That court had ordered a new trial for Syed, who is serving a life sentence in the slaying of his ex-girlfriend.

Adnan had argued that he had ineffective counsel because his former defense lawyer didn't interview an alibi witness.

But in a ruling released Friday, the Maryland Court of Appeals said that because of "the totality of the evidence" against Syed, there was not "a significant or substantial possibility that the jury would have reached a different verdict had his trial counsel presented the alibi witness."

Read the Court of Appeals decision here

The court agreed that Syed's defense was deficient but ruled it "did not prejudice" the case.



In its conclusion, the court wrote: "We agree with the conclusion of the Court of Special Appeals that Mr. Syed's trial counsel's performance was deficient under the Strickland v. Washington standard in failing to investigate the alibi witness. We disagree, however, with that court's conclusion that Mr. Syed was prejudiced by his trial counsel's deficiency.

"Finally, we agree with the holding of the intermediate appellate court that Mr. Syed waived his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel related to his trial counsel's failure to challenge cell-tower location data. Accordingly, we hold that Mr. Syed waived this claim under the waiver provision of the UPPA. Because we conclude that trial counsel's deficient performance in one aspect of her representation did not prejudice Mr. Syed within the meaning of Strickland, we reverse the judgment of the intermediate appellate court."

His current attorney, Justin Brown, issued this statement: "We are devastated by the Court of Appeals' decision but we will not give up on Adnan Syed. Unfortunately we live in a binary criminal justice system in which you either win or you lose. Today we lost by a 4-3 vote."

Hae Min Lee and Syed were seniors at Woodlawn in Baltimore County in January 1999 when she disappeared. Her body was discovered in a city forest three weeks later.

A jury in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City convicted Syed of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and false imprisonment on Feb. 25, 2000.

In 2016, a Baltimore Circuit Court judge vacated Syed's conviction and ordered a new trial based on claims that Syed's trial lawyer failed to cross-examine the expert witness about the reliability of cell tower location evidence.

The state appealed the 2016 order, leading to a March 2018 ruling by the special appeals court ordering a new trial.

HBO will premiere a documentary, "The Case Against Adnan Syed," on Sunday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders said Thursday in an interview with WMUR-TV that he does not consider controversial comments by U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota to be anti-Semitic.

Sanders, an independent, said Omars comment was fair criticism of the conservative government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Omar, who is Muslim, was criticized by some Democrats and many Republicans last week when she said that pro-Israel lawmakers are under a political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.

This came after she apologized for a tweet last month that charged support for Israel in Washington is "all about the Benjamins."

"Criticism of the Israeli government itself is not anti-Semitism, and we have to make that separation quite clear," Sanders said. "So, anti-Semitism, (is) absolutely unacceptable and must be fought at every level. Criticism of the Israeli government and their policies is not, per se, anti-Semitism.

As I see it, she has been critical of the Israeli government, and I think that that is a fair criticism, Sanders said. And I have been very critical of the Israeli government in terms of their treatment of Palestinians.

He continued, As a nation, I am very worried about the increase in hate crimes. Im worried about racism. Im worried about anti-Semitism. We all remember the horrible mass shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue.

"Im worried about anti-Muslim activity, anti-gay activity. Frankly, this is something that we have got to address," he said.

Sanders announced his second run for president Feb. 19 and his Sunday visit will follow a trip to first-caucus state Iowa.

While Sanders is known for holding large  sometimes huge  rallies, he said that in 2016, he appeared at dozens and dozens of town hall meetings, and some of them were pretty small.

In a rural state like New Hampshire, Vermont or Iowa, it is important to touch people at the local level to talk about their issues. We have done that in the past and I think were going to do it again, Sanders said.

He reiterated his often-stated view, "We have the most dangerous president in the modern history of the country and the White House. It is imperative that we defeat him. It is imperative that we develop an agenda that speaks for the needs of the working class and the middle class and not just the 1 percent."

Sanders declined to prejudge whether President Donald Trump should be impeached and removed from office.

He noted that if the House impeaches the president  and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan said she will file an impeachment resolution before the end of this month  a trial will be held by the Senate on whether he should be removed.

I will be one of 100 people who judge, so it would be totally inappropriate for me to be commenting on whether or not I believe there was grounds for impeachment because Im going to have to be as objective as I can, Sanders said.

I dont like Trump. Thats no great secret. But as a member of the United States Senate, I would be acting as a judge and would have to hear all of the evidence before I make a decision.

Sanders noted that the House Committee on Education and Labor this week advanced to the House floor legislation to raise the federal minimum wage from the current level of $7.25 an hour to $15.

I am very proud of what they have done, he said. There is an excellent chance that raising the minimum wage in this country to a living wage will pass the U.S. House. Were going to have a fight on our hands here in the Senate because the Republican leadership apparently thinks that $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage is enough for workers. I dont.

Sanders has taken criticism from some Democrats for rejecting the nomination of the Democratic Party in his home state in his runs for the Senate.

But he has defended his Democratic bona fides and this week signed a Democratic National Committee loyalty pledge promising that he will run as a Democrat and, if he wins, serve as a Democrat.
Its exciting getting accepted to one college, maybe even two or three.



But Jordan Nixon has offers to dozens of colleges and universities, and its going to take a lot of narrowing down to make a decision.

The crazy thing is, Im still waiting on decision letters, but I was not expecting that at all, said 17-year-old Nixon, who has been accepted into 39 schools and counting.

Nixon said she did her research when trying to figure out which colleges would be the best fit for her. She said she looked for schools with diversity and schools that offered international business as a major.

Were so happy for her because she does put in a lot of due diligence into applying for these schools, said her parents, Angelia and Arthur Nixon.

Her proud parents said shes very independent, well-rounded, has great time management skills and participates in many extracurricular activities.

I am one of the captains of the varsity cheer team here at Douglas County. Im in Chick-fil-A Leader Academy, and I also participate in DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America), Nixon said.

On top of her usual workload and activities, she applied to around 50 schools. In letter after letter, the same word kept showing up: congratulations.

Its shocking, each and every time. Youre taken aback every time you open one, Nixon said.

It really was amazing at first, and then it became, 'When are the letters going to stop?' joked her mom.

Thirty-nine acceptance letters later, Nixon has a big decision to make. She was also awarded a huge amount of scholarship money.

Over $1.6 million, Nixon said.

Her high school's college and career center specialist said Nixon is very dedicated, and this is the most acceptance letters a student here has ever received.

Students like Jordan, who took advantage of being able to apply to a lot of schools through certain avenues like the Common Black App (College Black College Application), you can apply to a lot of schools with one low price for that one, and also, Common App, they can apply to up to 20 schools at one time on one app, said Pinky Quick, the College and Career Center Specialist at Douglass County High School.

Jordan said its her motivation and support system helped her the most.

I dont study all the time, but I definitely do study. I think my secret is to just give my all, said Nixon.

Nixon said shes narrowing down her choices, but she has until May 1 to make a decision.

She's not the only girl from the Atlanta area to have some mind-boggling scholarship offers, either.

Kayla Willis also applied to 50 schools and had heard back from more than 30 of them as of last month, and had received nearly $1 million in scholarship offers.
Longest running high school football rivalries in CT

Some of the longest running high school football rivalries in the country are right here in Connecticut, many of which are played on Thanksgiving.
NEW HAVEN  Alder Rosa Santana clearly was upset listening to the testimony.

The representative of the 13th Ward in Fair Haven Heights and Quinnipiac Meadows neighborhoods said the problem facing the group of young adults in front of her should have been solved decades ago.

Im sad to say this was a topic over 20 years ago ... and it breaks my heart to still hear today that we still have so many homeless youth and I want to cry because I understand the plight, Santana said.

I thought we had done a better job, but we have not, so it is my promise to you that I will make every effort that I can to hopefully make a dent (in providing housing) for youths now living on the street, in cars or scrambling to find a couch somewhere, Santana said.

She was co-chairwoman of the Joint Community Development/Legislation Committee that was taking testimony on the Affording Housing Task Force report, that after nine months submitted a far reaching, comprehensive approach to providing housing here for all levels of income by looking at zoning changes, more inspectors and regional solutions.

There was discussion of several avenues already being pursued toward increasing the availability of affordable housing based on the report.

Elizabeth Larkin, an outreach case manager at Youth Continuum, said the affordable housing study was not an abstract concept for the teenagers and young adults served by Continuum who are experiencing homelessness.

Those who spoke were members of the Youth Advisory Board, current and past clients, and the Room for All Coalition,

Chelsi Torres, 23, a member of the military for four years, asked that the housing needs of young people be prioritized.

She said she was homeless for two of the last five years and only has custody of her eight-year-old child because of the housing crisis she is facing. Her two youngest are staying with a relative. Torres now has a job and is working with Youth Continuum to find stable housing.

Do you know how hard it is to give up your children just because you dont have a home to call your own? Torres asked the alders.

Others talked about the number of New Haven Public School youths who are homeless and the need generally for low-cost housing that young adults can afford.

Destiny Staggers, 24, is in the Youth Continuum shelter now and goes to school. Staggers said that since she gotten involved with Youth Continuum, I got hope.

Several of those testifying asked that the city consider taking up recommendations of the Room for All Coalition that specifically apply to the homeless, which among other things include a proposed Y2Y youth homeless shelter that brought out major opposition in the Wooster Square neighborhood.

Also not included in the report was a Homeless Bill of Rights that would decriminalize homelessness, and a more accurate point in time count of the homeless that doesnt capture the extent of the crisis when it is conducted in the winter.

Kerry Ellington, who was part of the Room For All Coalition and works for the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, testified about her own struggles with being able to afford housing.

Ellington and several alders have all agreed that there should be a permanent Affordable Housing Commission to carry on the recommendations of the study. Ellington also emphasized that it include members of the community and those who have experienced homelessness.

As for her personal experience, Ellington said she has seen residents pushed out of the apartment complex on upper Chapel Street that was geared to a working class neighborhood for the last decade because of rising rents.

She said there are a handful of landlords who are monopolizing the housing market in low-income neighborhoods that a decade ago would cost $600 but now are doubled.

Ellington said it is crucial that the Livable City Initiative and the Fair Rent Commission be given more resources so landlords are held accountable. Ellington said more people are leaving New Haven for Waterbury and the Housatonic Valley because of the cost of housing here.

Serena Neal-Sanjurja, who heads LCI, said there are resources to hire a consultant to study inclusionary zoning in New Haven, where there would be a more formal process in which developers would designate a certain number of units in a new apartment complex as affordable.

It is a long time coming, Neal-Sanjurjo said of the changes needed to increase affordability and to keep the current housing stock maintained.

Alder Adam Marchand, D-25, said the board needs a game plan in which it takes appropriate action, which likely would start with an ordinance creating a permanent commission.

Alder Aaron Greenberg, D-8, who kept the task force moving forward, said the City Plan Department already is looking at the proposals on zoning changes that would allow for less parking, smaller homes, and ancillary structures that could help with the housing crisis.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577
NEW HAVEN  Justin Elicker has filed a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission over missing names of contributors to Mayor Toni Harps 2017 campaign, as well as the multiple reports that were filed months late.

Elicker, one of four residents running for the Democratic nomination for mayor, which includes Harp, filed the election complaint Thursday, charging that the last Harp campaign failed to list the names of contributors who gave her campaign $93,502.

In a statement, Elicker said he filed the complaint because the public deserves to know the details of nearly $100,000 in undisclosed payments to her last re-election bid.

In his complaint, he includes the missing donor names; failure to explain the campaigns deficit of $32,764 on a monthly basis; egregiously late filings and flouting other SEEC rules designed to keep our elected officials accountable.

Joshua Foley, a spokesman at the SEEC, said the complaint likely will be on the commissions March 20 meeting, at which point it will determine whether the charges need to be investigated. That threshold looks to see whether the complaint concerns alleged actions that, if proven true, violate election law. The SEEC has one year to issue a ruling.

Harp, who had not yet seen the complaint, said going forward, we are going to have a whole new financial team. We are going to correct the reports and make sure it doesnt happen again.

Elicker, in a statement, said campaigns reflect a politicians management capabilities and reflects their values. A leader who allows a campaign to be grossly mismanaged either doesnt care, or worse, has encouraged their team to hide the truth through disinformation and delay. Either way, these system violations are a betrayal of the public trust.

He said the finance laws require that all donors be named. By not doing this, the public is deprived of its statutory right. The people of New Haven deserve and have a right to know.

The Harp campaign raised $303,230 for the 2017 race when she ran against Marcus Paca, who took in $42,085. He was limited in what he could raise as a participant in the New Haven Democracy Fund.

The reports are the responsibility of the campaign treasurer. J. Peter Wilson was Harps treasurer for the 2017 campaign and is listed again as treasurer for her 2019 campaign.

Wilson did not return a call seeking comment.

The campaign didnt declare it had a deficit of $32,764 until Wilson filed a report with the city clerks office on June 26, 2018, which it labeled its Feb. 7, 2018, report.

Once a campaign has a deficit, the treasurer is supposed to file monthly reports on the 7th of the month if the campaign adds or subtracts $500 from the deficit.

A story in the New Haven Register on Feb. 20, which looked at the finance reports filed through June 26, 2018, found at least $66,032 in contributions for which no donors were named.

Wilson had missed multiple filing dates, catching up with some on June 20, 2018, and then filing four more last month on Feb. 20, after being sent questions on the reports by the New Haven Register.

Those reports show additional donations for which there are no individual donors listed totaling at least $18,726 more. When added to the $66,032, the mystery donors then total at least $84,758.

They include $16,085 raised from individuals in the summary sheet that Wilson labeled a July 10, 2018, report; $2,641 in donations in a report he labeled, Oct. 10, 2018.

In a third Feb. 20 report, which Wilson labeled Jan. 10, 2019, he said the campaign received $8,300 more in donations.

There is an attached sheet to this report listing donors, but the total is an estimated $15, 800. It captures checks and cash given to the campaign in May, June, October, November and December 2018, making it difficult to determine when they should have been filed.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577
ALBANY  New York lawmakers are planning to introduce a bill that would allow children as young as 14 to get vaccinated without their parents' consent.

Proposed by Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy and Sen. Liz Krueger, the bill would enable older children to protect themselves from preventable diseases such as measles, meningitis and human papillomavirus in the event their parents opt out of vaccinating them.

The lawmakers appear to have been inspired by Ethan Lindenberger, an 18-year-old from Norwalk, Ohio, who testified before Congress this week about his decision to get vaccinated against the wishes of his mother, who he said was heavily influenced by misinformation on Facebook.

"Lindenberger's case highlights the growing threat misinformation spread on social media can pose to public health," a news release from Fahy's office said. "His experience also demonstrates that oftentimes, teens and young adults have a stronger understanding of the benefits of immunization and the ability of misinformation to spread online."

New York is currently in the midst of one of its largest measles outbreaks in decades due to vaccine hesitancy, with more than 200 reported cases so far. Most cases have been reported downstate in New York City and Rockland County, and are concentrated in Orthodox Jewish communities where not all parents vaccinate their children against the highly contagious and potentially fatal respiratory disease.

Measles can be serious in all age groups. However, children younger than 5 and adults older than 20 are more likely to suffer from complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Severe complications may include pneumonia or swelling of the brain, which can cause death.

New York currently allows parents to opt out of vaccination for religious and medical reasons.

Some parents also oppose vaccinations for philosophical reasons. But a growing number of parents are opting children out due to medical misinformation that has proliferated on social media. That information repeats widely debunked studies that once linked vaccines with autism.

Meanwhile, a decade-long study out of Denmark published as this week once again debunked the myth.

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization announced that the growing anti-vaccination movement poses one of the 10 greatest threats to world health.

"We are on the cusp of a serious public health crisis, with long eradicated diseases now threatening at-risk populations such as very young children and immunocompromised individuals with conditions like leukemia," Fahy said. "Encouraging teens to take an active role in their health care empowers our youth to think critically about information spread on social media and to control their own educational future."

Only seven states and the District of Columbia currently allow minors to receive vaccinations when their parents refuse. Fahy said a number of other states are considering changing their laws in response to the outbreak.

She also noted that minors who aren't immunized may have trouble enrolling in high school and college  making teenage autonomy over the choice even more important.

"I don't introduce bills like this lightly because I have a fundamental respect for parents' rights," Fahy said Friday. "But when we're on the verge of a public health crisis, I think we have to put the importance of the public at large first."
A state police statement reported that the squad was parked around 12:24 a.m. in a center-median crossover at mile marker 19.5, which is south of Route 60 and north of Everett Road, when it was struck by a Ford Econoline van that drove onto the left shoulder.
NEW HAVEN  A police officer who shot a suspect in January said the suspect was pointing a gun at him, according to court documents.

Detective Francisco Sanchez told a state police investigator that he shot Marcus Rivera because, after confronting Rivera following a foot chase, being in fear of Rivera firing at him, he fired his weapon.

Rivera then fired at Sanchez, according to the account of the incident in an arrest warrant affidavit.

Police previously had said a exchange of gunfire took place as Rivera attempted to elude officers through the citys Hill neighborhood the evening of Jan. 8. More details in the case were revealed in an arrest warrant affidavit that was unsealed.

Detective Sanchez stated he pointed his firearm at Rivera and ordered him to show his hands. Detective Sanchez stated Rivera quickly raised his hands and pointed an object at him, Connecticut State Police Detective Michael Beauton wrote in the affidavit. Detective Sanchez stated he immediately recognized this object to be a firearm  being in fear of Rivera firing at him, he fired his weapon.

City police were attempting to arrest Rivera on a warrant when the shooting took place.

According to the affidavit written by Beauton, a member of the Western District Major Crime Squad, state police had obtained a warrant for Riveras arrest Dec. 20 after he allegedly fled from a traffic stop, leading officers on a chase through multiple jurisdictions and evading capture.

Rivera also was a suspect in a Dec. 19 shooting in New Haven, according to the affidavit in the Jan. 8 case.

New Haven officers learned of Riveras whereabouts Jan. 8, Beauton said. Police were informed that Rivera was selling narcotics and carrying a firearm in the area of Hulburt Street and Washington Avenue.

At least six officers proceeded to the area, identified Rivera riding his bicycle, then saw him enter the Sams Food Store on Kimberly Avenue, according to the affidavit.

Officers stepped out of undercover vehicles, announcing themselves as police, Beauton said. Rivera allegedly fled out the back door of the store, while officers followed, yelling, stop, police! and freeze, police!

In a written statement, Sanchez said he saw Rivera heading down Kimberly Avenue toward Greenwich Avenue, pursued by an officer, so he got out of his unmarked vehicle to give chase, Beauton said. Sanchez said he was wearing a ballistic vest emblazoned with POLICE on the front and back; he said he told Rivera to stop running and show his hands.

Sanchez said he drew his firearm as he pursued Rivera, then drew close to him, again telling him to stop running and show his hands. Rivera did not comply.

Detective Sanchez stated he feared Rivera was non-compliant with his commands due to the fact Rivera was in possession of a firearm, Beauton wrote.

Sanchez reported that he tried to grab and or strike Rivera; he could not grab him, and the blow he landed was absorbed by the hood of Riveras coat.

The two came face to face in a driveway on Greenwich Avenue, the affidavit said.

After firing his weapon, Sanchez said he backed up in an attempt to create some distance, then Rivera fired at him, according to the affidavit. He responded to this with another volley of gunfire. Rivera then fled down the driveway while Sanchez took cover behind a vehicle, Sanchez said.

Rivera, no longer wearing his coat or jeans, was apprehended by uniformed police after emerging from behind a Howard Avenue home, according to the affidavit. He told police he had been shot and robbed but would not provide his last name and ignored further questions.

Rivera had a visible gunshot wound on his lower abdomen and was hospitalized.

In surveillance footage, Rivera is seen discarding his jacket, jeans and sweatshirt in the backyard of a 1st Street home, then throwing a handgun over a fence into adjacent the yard of a Howard Avenue residence, Beauton said. He also is seen trying to force his way into a storage structure next to the 1st Street residence.

Western District Major Crime Unit detectives later found four .40-caliber shell casings, which would match the gun carried by Sanchez, and one .380-caliber casing on opposite ends of the driveway, according to the affidavit.

In the jacket, identified as Riveras through the surveillance footage, the detectives found two grams of individually-wrapped off-white rocks, later identified as crack cocaine, and two cellphones. Next to the jeans, they found $154 in cash, according to the affidavit.

In the yard of the Howard Avenue residence, state police found a stainless steel handgun that held .380-caliber ammunition.

Rivera was interviewed by state police Jan. 15 at Troop G in Bridgeport, according to the affidavit. He said he had run from New Haven police because he knew he was wanted for evading state police and had two bags of heroin on him.

In the interview, Rivera described a different series of events, which included being accosted by a male brandishing a pistol as he fled from police, then grabbing the gun and being wounded in the hand.

He denied selling drugs when speaking with police; no mention of him discussing whether he fired a gun is included in the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, Rivera said he was high on cocaine and heroin Jan. 8, which he said he began using to cope after being assaulted approximately one year ago. A toxicology report showed morphine and alcohol in his system.

Rivera, 22, of Quinnipiac Avenue, is charged with criminal attempt at first-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, unlawful discharge of a firearm, two counts of interfering with an officer / resisting arrest  one stemming a Bridgeport case  first-degree criminal attempt at burglary, evidence tampering, criminal attempt at assault on a police officer, possession of narcotics with intent to sell and possession of narcotics with intent to sell in a school zone in connection with this case.

He has not yet entered a plea to any of these charges, according to judicial records. He is due in court March 11.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
(Dye) should have been the first one to say, What are you doing? Cunningham said. Instead, he chose to delete the whole thing like it never happened. He wants to be a leader in this community, and as a leader, you have to deal with issues like this, and you have to deal with them correctly.
HARTFORD  For the first time in Connecticuts history, women comprise half the governors cabinet.

Gov. Ned Lamont heralded this fact as historic on Friday, International Womens Day, at the first meeting of his Council on Women and Girls.

We made a couple promises during the campaign. Susan and I said we wanted to have the most diverse administration in the history of the state, Lamont, referring to Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, chair of the council. We wanted to have women represented in equal proportion as they are in our state.

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Women have been named to head Lamonts departments of Children and Families, Energy and Environmental Protection, Mental Health and Addiction Services, Consumer Protection, Motor Vehicles, Public Health, Rehabilitation Services and Housing and the offices of Early Childhood and Heath Strategy.

Melissa McCaw, Lamonts secretary of the state Office of Policy and Management, arguably the most powerul non-elected executive post, is vice chair of the Council on Women and Girls. Women are also leading the Departments of Agriculture and Education until replacements are identified. Three commissioners have yet to be nominated.

Secretary of the State Denise Merrill was re-elected to office with Lamont and Bysiewicz in November.

Lamonts cabinet also has significant racial diversity.

Lamont also announced an updated domestic violence policy for the states 50,000 employees on Friday.

The new policy clarifies agency responsibilities in responding to domestic violence. It permits victims to take paid or unpaid leave to seek medical or psychological care, relocate, get victim services or participate in civil or criminal proceedings. It also makes clear that stalking falls under the definition of family violence.

According to national studies, one in seven women have been stalked by an intimate partner and believed they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said. This policy demonstrates this administrations commitment to providing appropriate supports for victims of domestic violence and stalking.

emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
GUILFORD  A lonely two-bay Gulf gas station sits all by itself along Route 80 at Long Hill Road.

Just two families have owned this Four Corners station since 1933. Ed Festa, now 85 years old, remembers growing up near the station. He still pumps gas  yes, Four Corners has always been and still is full-service, a rarity today. He hands the payment slips to customers who call him by name.

Eds son Dave Festa is the lead mechanic at this Gulf station. Brad Lindberg came to work there while attending Guilford High School, and after 20 years is also a mechanic. The trio is tight-knit.

Guilford zoning has prevented other businesses like fast-food restaurants and strip malls from building near this historic service station, erected only about two decades after the Ford Model T rolled along Connecticut roads.

Ed recalls the day the family moved to Guilford  Dec. 6, 1941. His family lived 3 miles down an unpaved Long Hill Road from Route 80. The highway runs from New Haven almost to the Connecticut River in Essex.

I remember neighbors who owned tractors used to walk up Long Hill, bringing containers to the station to get gas, he said.

In the 1940s, Ed attended the North Guilford School, now Melissa Jones School, and his teacher was actually Melissa Jones herself.

There were just two rooms in the school back then, and she taught the grades four-six, he said.

Ed met his wife, Elaine Barbary, when her car stalled in the snow near his home on Long Hill Road. He was called from Four Corners to help her, and that meeting was the spark plug for a romance that fueled marriage. Elaine Festa taught at Melissa Jones School until their son Dave was born.

Eds dad, also named Ed, bought the neighborhood station from Alfred Archibald in 1953. The station began as Texaco and remained with the company for 48 years of its now 86 years of service. When Texaco wanted its stations open for 24-hours and doing high-volume sales of gasoline, the Festa family switched to Gulf.

We wanted to remain a local family business, says Eds son, Dave. Were kind of a dinosaur, a neighborhood station, individually-owned. Even today, I recognize people around town by their cars. I cant remember their names until I see their cars.

He looked out the office window as a car stopped at a pump.

Oh, theres Karen, Dave said. I knew her in high school. I need to check something on her car. He rushed out with equipment in hand.

Growing up, Dave rode his bike to the station after school. I loved coming to the station after school. My dad said if I was going to be there, I had to do some work, so I cleaned up around the place. When I was a teen, I cleared snow from around the pumps, changed tires and oil, and then I became a full mechanic.

Dave pulled out a box containing pieces of metal, bone, wood and other odds and ends hes taken out of tires. Sometimes we find mice under the hood  they do a lot of damage.

Customers for gas or repairs are usually neighbors. But commuters along Route 80 find the station handy for a quick in-and-out fill-up.

People appreciate the personal service  you dont find that much anymore, Brad said. Theres a lot more traffic on Route 80 in the last 15 years. The road used to be quiet some of the time, but now theres more development and families have more cars. We get to know all the family members. Its really fulfilling, to diagnose car problems, to help people  we know why they need their cars  to get to a certain workplace, to a school where I went, too. We build relationships.

Dave laughs about his first date with his future wife who was new to the area. We were in a restaurant in Guilford, and everybody kept coming up and saying hello to me. As a local mechanic at a family service station, they all knew me  that really impressed her.

His father, Ed, proudly shows photos of the early days of the Four Corners station.

People always ask, When are you going to retire? I tell them, I am. This is my retirement home.
A Camden man has pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter for punching a man on an Atlantic City street in 2017 who later died from head trauma.

Johnny Morgan, 34, agreed to a plea with the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office in which hell be sentenced to 15 years in prison, and have to serve over 12 years before hes eligible for parole, the office announced.

On Nov. 3, 2017, Morgan and Andrew AJ McGarrigel, 53, of Atlantic City got into an altercation in the area of North Virginia Ave in which Morgan punched McGarrigel once in the head.

He never regained consciousness, and died from his injuries later that month at a local hospital.

McGarrigel was a lifeguard for the Atlantic City Beach Patrol, and a native of Brigantine. He enjoyed traveling, living in Texas, South Beach, Fla. and Syracuse. But he always came back to Brigantine, the city he loved, his obituary says.

Morgan will officially be sentenced in April, the prosecutors office said.

Taylor Tiamoyo Harris may be reached at tharris@njadvancemedia.com. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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In the 1950s, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles ensured that this important ally joined both the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) and Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), designed to replicate NATO in the Middle East and South Asia respectively. Pakistan and Britain were distinctive as members of both alliances. The alliances are long gone, but geostrategic importance of South Asia continues.
A technology-oriented bank is using a state tax credit to expand in Fort Lee, where it plans to hire 250 new employees.

Cross River Bank was awarded Grow New Jersey credits by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority in December to sway it to expand in Fort Lee -- rather than move its headquarters to Orangeburg, New York. The bank is expected to occupy 36,447 square feet initially of the 70,000 square foot facility it acquired.

The site will be the workplace for 200 employees from the banks current Fort Lee headquarters and it will hire another 250 people who will be employed there.

The states support will enable us to expand within New Jersey instead of leaving the state we have always called home, said Gilles Gade, President and CEO of Cross River. Governor (Phil) Murphys focus on supporting companies that look to the future and take advantage of innovative new solutions is exactly what New Jersey needs right now.

The Grow NJ program is performance-based and requires Cross River to meet certain commitments, including generating new tax revenue, completing capital investments, and hiring the promised number of employees prior to receiving any benefits. No money is provided up front, and annual certification of jobs is required throughout the term of the award.

Cross River was founded in 2008 and has been headquartered on Kelby Street in Fort Lee. It also has a New York City office, a branch in Teaneck and ATMs in Brooklyn and Monsey, New York. The company is a fast-growing financial services organization in the fintech (financial technology) industry that merges traditional bank services with offerings of a technology company.

It has been recognized as the Most Innovative Bank at the LendIT Fintech Industry Awards in 2017 and 2018, was named to Forbes 2019 list of Most Innovative Fintech Companies, and earned a spot on American Bankers Best Fintechs to Work for list.

Governor Murphys plan for a stronger, fairer New Jersey economy is centered on supporting innovative companies that create new, good-paying jobs for New Jersey workers, said NJEDA Chief Executive Officer Tim Sullivan. Cross River is the kind of innovative, high-growth company that will drive New Jerseys economy forward.

The Grow NJ program will stop accepting new applications at the end of June 2019.

Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonPries. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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A new healthy grocer with 300 stores in 19 states is ready to open its first in New Jersey -- and its hiring.

Sprouts Farmers Market is scheduled to open on June 5 in the Marlton Crossing Shopping Center on Route 73 in Evesham.

Sprouts says it offers 19,000 products, 90 percent of which are organic or natural. Among those products are what Sprouts says are thousands of organic, gluten-free and non-GMO, vegan and plant-based products. More than 2,400 of the products are Sprouts brand name items.

Sprouts said it believes healthy food should be affordable. Stores offer a range of grocery items, fresh meats, seafood, deli items, bulk foods, vitamins, supplements and prepared foods. Each store also has an in-house butcher who prepares hand-crafted and special cuts of meat and seafood offerings.

Sprouts said it plans to hire up to 150 full- and part-time workers for the store. A hiring fair is scheduled on April 23 and 24 at Aloft Mount Laurel on Fellowship Road, the company said.

The new store will be 33,000-square-feet and have a minimum of 140 parking spaces.

And an added bonus for shoppers is a Trader Joes Market directly across Route 73 from the location. Marlton Crossing also has T.J. Max, DSW, HomeGoods and Michaels.

Sprouts opened its first store in Chandler, Arizona, in 2002 and has been on a steady expansion ever since, according to its corporate history.

Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the classic picture book by Eric Carle, is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a staple of storytime for children.

The book, first published in 1969, features vibrant, childlike illustrations and hole-punched pages that tell the story of a caterpillars journey from an egg to a ravenous newborn to fully grown butterfly.

In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf, the story begins.

Along the way, children learn lessons about metamorphosis, counting, days of the week and why its important to eat healthy.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar went on to be published in 62 languages for a total of nearly 50 million copies.

To mark its half-century anniversary, an oversized caterpillar mascot and its Volkswagen Bug are going on a national tour.

The tour will have two stops in New Jersey, both on Saturday, April 27:

11 a.m. at Indigo , 1200 Morris Turnpike (the Mall at Short Hills) in Short Hills

2 p.m. at Books & Greetings , 271 Livingston St. in Northvale

The Very Hungry Caterpillar will start his tour at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival before traveling through 20 states. On each stop, the caterpillar will celebrate with a storytime event including coloring sheets, games, raffles, tattoos, and meet-and-greets and photos with the character and his car.

A 50th anniversary golden edition of The Very Hungry Caterpillar published in October includes an afterword by Dolly Parton and sketches from the making of the original book.

The book tour is part of a series of events tagged to the caterpillars 50th birthday. In September, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts launched The Very Hungry Caterpillar Turns 50 exhibit, which is on display until March 24.

For more information, visit vhc50.com

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Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice has put her foot down. She will not stay with her husband Joe if he is deported to Italy.

Giudice, 46, confirmed her feelings on the matter to Real Housewives maestro Andy Cohen during the final installment of a three-part RHONJ reunion on Wednesday.

What youre saying is you would split up, thats what youre saying, Cohen tells Giudice in the clip below.

The camera captures reaction shots from Giudices brother, Joe Gorga, and his wife Melissa, who look rather tortured and uneasy, before Giudice answers.

I mean, unless my kids say, Mommy, I wanna move to Italy, she replies, as longtime friend and castmate Dolores Catania sits next to her, looking like her head is about to explode.

The Giudices live in Towaco and have been married since 1999. They have four daughters, ages 10 to 18. In October, a judge ruled that Joe Giudice, 46, be deported to Italy upon his release from prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. His 41-month sentence is up on March 14. Giudice has appealed the deportation order, and that appeal is pending.

Gias going to college next year, Giudice tells Cohen in the Housewives" reunion, referring to her eldest daughter. I havent spoken to Milania or Audriana about it, she said, referring to her other daughters, ages 14 and 10, respectively. We havent gotten there yet.

Gabriella already voiced her opinion to me, Giudice says of her second eldest daughter, who is 15. Shes like, That would be so hard for me, Mommy. She doesnt speak the language. Shes like, that would kill me even more. You know, its like started a whole new life and theyve been through so much already, so, I mean, Im not doing a long-distance relationship. Im just not doing it."

Joe Giudice was born in Saronno, Italy, outside Milan, and moved to the United States when he was 1, but never became a citizen. In 2014, the Giudices pleaded guilty to fraud charges in federal court. Permanent residents who commit crimes of moral turpitude are eligible for deportation.

You know, I want somebody with me every day and I know exactly what happens, Giudice tells Cohen in the show. Like, you know, Im sure hell be with other women," she said, as her castmates squirmed in their seats, displaying a range of ... emotions. You know, it happens," she continues. We do the long distance thing, its not going to work. Like, Ill be like, bye-bye.

Giudice, who has been seen without her wedding ring, has denied rumors that she is having an affair. After she was spotted in Miami with realtor Blake Schreck, 26, Giudices lawyer told People they were just friends.

Who cares if I wear my rings or I dont? Giudice told Cohen during a previous installment of the RHONJ reunion. "Joe never wore rings.

The topic came up as Cohen, 50, asked Teresa about rumors that surfaced at the top of the year, saying she was being romanced by a younger man in Miami. Similar rumors popped up earlier this month, when Teresa was photographed holding hands in the Florida city with Blake Schreck, a realtor who is 20 years her junior.

Teresa Giudices feelings on Joes possible deportation have certainly changed over the years. When she was asked about it years ago, when the couple was still facing sentencing on wire, mail and bankruptcy fraud charges, she pledged to keep the family together, even if that meant moving to Italy. Teresa Giudice spent just shy of a year in prison, returning to her family in 2015. Joe reported to prison in 2016.

At a public appearance in October after a judge ordered that Joe be deported upon release from prison, Giudice asked people to pray for her husband. Milania and Gia Giudice also posted messages on social media about their fathers deportation order, arguing that he served his time and that they would continue to fight for him to return home.

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JERSEY CITY  A move by Newark council people to raise their salaries has renewed interest in Jersey City council members doing the same.

Theres no legislation before Jersey Citys governing body yet, but council members are discussing the matter internally, arguing that now is the right time to turn the part-time council gigs into full-time jobs with full-time salary.

Its been nearly 30 years since the council voted themselves pay raises. Right now most of them make about $36,000. At least four of them have no or little outside employment.

Mayor Steve Fulop has told council members he is opposed and has warned them privately about the potential political cost, according to an email obtained by The Jersey Journal.

The behind-the-scenes discussion over council pay has bubbled up occasionally in the last six years but has never come to a vote. In 2014, Councilman Michael Yun floated the idea of a hike that would more than double council pay but Yun could not find support among Fulops council allies when the mayor announced his opposition. Last year, Council President Rolando Lavarro made a new push for council salary increases when the administration asked for raises for department directors.

This all comes as Fulop is privately warring with Lavarro, a two-time Fulop running mate whose relationship with the mayor has soured.

Asked to comment, city spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said the mayor is opposed to self-serving council raises unless the public approves them in a referendum or they do not take effect until after the next regular city election, in 2021. Lavarro declined to comment.

Eight council members make a base salary of $36,180 and Lavarro gets $39,351 because he is the council president. Council members have argued that the job is a 24/7 commitment and increased pay is fair.

Newark's governing body has proposed increasing their salaries by 50 percent to $95,000 for most of them and $105,000 for its council president (there has been no final vote yet).

Council members in Jersey City have argued privately that even a large raise  say, $40,000 each  would add $360,000 to a budget that runs more than half a billion dollars. Total personnel costs for the city rose $39 million between 2015 and 2018.

Fulop is arguing against pay hikes for council members unless they do not take effect until 2021 or unless the public votes to approve them.

Fulop sent all nine council members an email on Feb. 28  two days after NJ Advance Media first reported on the proposed Newark council raises  telling them it makes sense to correct and increase the salaries but not now.

Councilwoman-at-large Joyce Watterman emailed Fulop in response that it is fair for council pay to be aligned with salaries in similar sized cities. Watterman acknowledged that people may be upset but that its the right thing.

Fulop shot back with a warning on how the public might view this.

I just feel the optics of a 50 percent raise or a 100 percent raise or a 25 percent raise  you can see would be really something that someone would wear, Fulop wrote.

Fulops salary of $109,057 has also not budged since he was elected in 2013 (a longevity bonus adds $6,543 to his total pay).

The last time council members voted to award themselves pay raises was in 1993, when now-County Executive Tom DeGise was the council president. They voted then to bump their salaries from $15,000 to $22,500 ($24,500 for council president) and add annual cost-of-living increases.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY  A Hudson County judge who will rule on a legal challenge to Jersey Citys new payroll tax was mostly supportive of arguments in favor of the tax during a Friday hearing in the case.

Hudson County Superior Court Judge Peter Bariso did not issue a decision but he told attorneys he had mostly made up his mind following a spirited 90-minute debate that saw Bariso aggressively question the attorneys challenging the tax. He also declared he did not agree with the argument that the state is not permitted to allow Jersey City to use the tax to raise money for local schools.

Bariso said he would issue a written decision soon. He said he had not decided yet on whether it is constitutional for the city to exempt local residents wages from the payroll tax.

All parties believe Barisos word will not be the final one. They expect this case to go to the New Jersey Supreme Court.

New Jersey gave the city permission last year to pass a local ordinance allowing for the tax, which amounts to 1 percent on a businesss payroll (the tax is levied on businesses, not their workers). The city exempted city residents wages to make the bill more palatable locally. The revenue is earmarked entirely for schools, which over the next seven years will lose a form of state aid that was roughly $175 million this school year. Next years cut is estimated to be $27 million.

Real estate developers, led by Mack-Cali and LeFrak, joined with some local labor unions to mount a legal challenge to the tax, calling the citys ordinance unconstitutional. The defendants, including the state of New Jersey and Jersey City, appeared in front of Bariso on Friday to argue that the case should be thrown out.

The case is being closely watched by state and local officials. Mayor Steve Fulop and Council President Rolando Lavarro were both in court for portions of Fridays hearing.

The plaintiffs, while conceding that a payroll tax is constitutional, argued three main points: that Jersey Citys clause exempting the wages of residents discriminates against out-of-town workers; that the city should not be able to tax the wages of work supervised from but not conducted in Jersey City; and that state lawmakers erred when they wrote the law requiring Jersey City to spend the revenue on education.

It was clear that Bariso was sympathetic with the citys and states arguments. He sharply quizzed Mack-Calis attorneys  Clark Alpert and Stephen Edelstein, of Weiner Law Group  leading to a lot of exchanges like this one, when Edelstein argued the state should have asked the New Jersey Supreme Court for guidance on school funding before lawmakers passed their bill allowing for the new tax:

Why does the legislature have to ask the courts for anything? Bariso said. They have the power to do a payroll tax. They dont need the courts permission.

"They have the power to do a payroll tax for any purpose except this," Edelstein said.

"What do you mean for any purpose except this? Bariso said. What law says that?"

Bariso took more seriously the plaintiffs arguments that Jersey City should not be able to exempt the wages of city residents. Fulop and others have argued the exemption encourages businesses to hire locally.

If there werent a thing called the U.S. Constitution, that would be an interesting policy, Alpert said on Friday.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
EDITORS NOTE: Entrepreneurs everywhere are eyeing the billion-dollar legal weed industry, an economic opportunity unrivaled in modern N.J. history. NJ Cannabis Insider features exclusive and premium weekly content geared toward those interested in the marijuana industry. View a sample issue. This story first appeared in NJ Cannabis Insider.

Since Gov. Phil Murphy took office more than a year ago, hes made expanding access to medical marijuana a priority. But his administrations latest efforts to grow the program could be in for a court battle that could last months, or longer.

In December, the state Department of Health announced the six companies it had selected to open medical marijuana dispensaries in the state, furthering an expansion of the states constrained medical marijuana program that had been started by Murphy earlier in 2018.

But in choosing those six applicants to open alternative treatment centers, the Health Department denied dozens of other companies vying to be part of the medical marijuana expansion.

At the beginning of February, five groups that werent selected appealed the states decision, calling the selection process arbitrary and capricious. The groups claimed the state Department of Healths application scoring was flawed, and multiple organizations asked the state for a delay on issuing the six new medical marijuana licenses while the appeals were pending.

But on Feb. 14, the Health Department denied the request for a stay from Harvest of New Jersey, one of the groups that wasnt chosen to open an alternative treatment center, according to documents obtained by NJ Cannabis Insider. That denial, plus appeals by five more groups, likely sets up a long court battle for the Health Department before it can issue the six new medical marijuana licenses.

Since the rejection letter sent on Feb. 14, the department has denied another request for a stay from a different appellant, according to Joshua Bauchner, an attorney representing another ATC hopeful, GGB NJ LLC.

In light of the department declining the stay requests, Bauchner said, he filed a motion last week with the appellate division on the state judiciary asking for a stay from the court. If the court grants the stay, it would prevent the department from issuing any of the new licenses until the matter is litigated.

But before the court decides whether to delay the expansion of the states medical marijuana program, the department will have a chance to respond to the motion filed by the scorned ATC applicants. We dont have any idea how long this process could take.

Its impossible to predict, Bauchner said of how quickly this process could play out in the court. Obviously we hope they would turn to it with some urgency.

Even if the court grants the stay, what happens next remains up in the air. Bauchner said the court could order the Health Department to reconsider the applicants who appealed or it could order the state to restart the whole application process.

Either way, this almost certainly will delay any additional plans from the Health Department to further expand the medical marijuana program. We reported last year that the department planned to consider applications for more medical marijuana providers, this time not vertically integrated, in the spring.

Now we wait.

Payton Guion may be reached at PGuion@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @PaytonGuion. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Appellate court judges have upheld the convictions of two men found guilty of killing an off-duty corrections officer in Trenton over six years ago.

The court did send the case back to the trial court for re-sentencing, however, because the judge wasnt clear about how many years Maurice L. Skillman and Hykeem E. Tucker should spend behind bars for the shooting death of Carl Batie.

They are serving 75-year prison terms.

Skillman and Tucker, both 32, appealed on various grounds, including claiming that their sentences were excessive.

Batie, 26, attended a Nov. 10, 2012, party at the Baldassari Regency banquet hall in Trenton to celebrate President Barack Obamas re-election.

He was standing on a balcony with his brother when a gunman in the parking lot fired more than 20 rounds at the balcony. One shot struck Batie in the forehead.

Surveillance video from inside the club and the parking lot was used to identify Skillman and Tucker as suspects. The men were inside the club for about 40 minutes before going outside, according testimony. Skillman was identified as the shooter.

Prosecutors said the two had planned the shooting but that Batie was not the intended target. A motive and intended target were never revealed.

Skillmans brother, who also attended the party, identified his bother and Tucker as the men seen in the videos, though he testified that neither of them were armed that night.

They were convicted in June 2016 of murder, aggravated assault with a firearm and weapons offenses. Their first trial, held earlier that year, ended in a hung jury.

In appealing the conviction, Skillman argued that the trial judge should have suppressed surveillance video evidence, which the defense argued was too grainy to identify the men, and should have barred a detective from narrating the video for the jury.

Tucker claimed the detective injected his opinion in the narration and usurped the jurys fact-finding role.

Among other challenges, the pair also called their sentences excessive.

Carl Batie, 26, was shot to death in 2012.

In rejecting the arguments about the video and the detectives narration, the appellate judges found that the detectives testimony assisted the jury in understanding the evidence and noted that the jury was instructed that it had to decide if the defendants were the men seen in the videos.

As for their sentences, the appeals court found that Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson followed sentencing guidelines and that there was sufficient evidence about both mens extensive criminal records.

The appellate judges remanded the case for re-sentencing because Smithson stated he was sentencing the pair to terms of life imprisonment. He went on to say that this meant 75 years behind bars and that 85 percent of that term must be served before they would be eligible for parole under the No Early Release Act.

NERA also stipulates, however, that when calculating a term of parole ineligibility, a sentence of life will be 75 years.

Thus, a life sentence is not the equivalent of a seventy-five year sentence, the judges concluded.

Batie was a Mercer County corrections officer for five years and his colleagues faithfully attended both trials, along with the victims family.

In sentencing the men, Smithson spoke about the brutality of their crime and said he hoped the life terms would serve as a wake-up call for the community.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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The man who stabbed a Union County-native to death during a botched robbery in the U.S. Virgin Islands was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison, following fears from the victims heartbroken family that the killer could evade justice.

Mekel Wayne Blash, 30, admitted he slashed Jimmy Malfettis throat during what authorities said was an early January 2014 break-in at his apartment, according to The St. John Source, a local news site.

Malfetti, a Scotch Plains native, moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands after vacations to the territory he loved. Sixteen months later, the 41-year-old was found slain in a guest house he rented at an estate along the Caribbean Sea on St. John.

As the killing remained unsolved, family members accused police of shoddy detective work and a lack of professionalism. His parents, James Jr. and Rosemary Malfetti, turned to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., in an effort to put FBI agents on the case.

Family members also created a Facebook page to bring attention to the case.

Seeking justice has been a long, tough, and absurd journey for us, and all of Jimmy's loved ones, a post Thursday said on the page.

Yesterday, 3/6/19, Mekel Blash of St. John, USVI pled guilty to 2nd degree murder for the murder of Jimmy Malfetti;... Posted by Justice for Jimmy on Thursday, March 7, 2019

Authorities arrested Blash in 2015, the The St. John Source reported. Prosecutors dropped charges of first degree murder and home invasion as part of a plea deal.

According to the report, Blash is not a U.S. citizen and federal officials could seek to have him deported.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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The Cape May County Prosecutors Office is investigating the death of a 60-year-old woman who suffered a medical emergency while in the custody of Wildwood police Jan. 19.

Margarita Candelaria-Betancourt was a 60-year-old grandmother, known to many by her nickname Daisy. While the prosecutors office said Wildwood police arrested her for possessing drug paraphernalia, her family told NJ Advance Media Thursday that she is diabetic, and police refused to believe the needles they found in her car were for insulin.

Her daughter-in-law, Yanaritza Candelaria, said Candelaria-Betancourt was a good woman and does not use drugs. Thats why her family was so shocked on Jan. 19 when a friend called and told them Candelaria had been arrested and, after she collapsed at the police station, was rushed to the hospital.

After she was transferred to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, they received an even bigger shock: doctors told them that Candelaria was brain dead.

She died four days later.

Still, it wasnt until two days after her collapse that the Wildwood Police Department was able to provide an officer who could speak Spanish, so the family could learn what had happened, Candelaria said Thursday.

The family has an attorney and believe an autopsy was conducted, but said police and the prosecutors office have not communicated with them since the week Candelaria died.

We want to know more, said Yanaritza Candelaria. Nobody tells us anything.

Though the death occurred six weeks ago, the prosecutors office only released information Thursday after the Press of Atlantic City reported briefly that the office was investigating an in-custody death at the Wildwood Police Station.

In a press statement, the prosecutors office said Officers Tristan Johns and Christopher Galloway arrested Candelaria-Betancourt at the intersection of Cresse and New Jersey avenues and took her back to the police station. There, she requested medical assistance and was treated by EMTs, the office said.

During that treatment she lost consciousness and was rushed to Cape Regional Medical Center, before later being transferred to Cooper University Hospital. She died Jan. 24, the office said, and her cause and manner of death are pending.

The prosecutors office did not say exactly why the police officers first came into contact with Candelaria-Betancourt.

Yanaritza Candelaria said that when talking with a Spanish-speaking officer on Jan. 21, the family learned that Candelaria-Betancourt had requested that her handcuffs be loosened because it was hurting her shoulder, and then asked for an asthma inhaler when she started having trouble breathing. Candelaria said police told her her mother-in-law was given the inhaler but still collapsed.

Candelaria said she learned at the hospital that her mother-in-law had stopped breathing for so long that she was brain dead.

Attorney Steve Barry, of the Wildwood law firm Barry, Corrado, Grassi & Gillin-Schwartz, said the family has hired the firm to investigate the matter and seek police and other records to determine what happened.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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On May 21, 1989, the television show "America's Most Wanted" presented a treatment of a case that had been unsolved for 18 years, John List's 1971 murder of his family in Westfield. Featured on the program was a bust by forensic artist Frank Bender depicting how he believed List would look at the time.

It was a remarkable likeness; tips flooded in with one particular call from a former neighbor leading to List's arrest in Richmond, Virginia, only 10 days after the show aired.

America's Most Wanted had been on the air for just over one season; this was its first mega-high profile capture and led to a network run of 23 years for the program.

Not all crimes and mysteries result in such a conclusion. Among those included in this gallery are crimes that have never been solved.

MORE: Vintage photos around New Jersey

This is just a sampling of crimes and mysteries through the years in New Jersey. Included are a number of missing persons cases that are still unresolved; yet even after long periods, sometimes decades, the List case showed us that mysteries can be solved with the assistance of tips, DNA technology and other forensic advances.

The New Jersey State Police maintain a website with unresolved missing persons cases at www.njsp.org/unidentified/; the National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law has a page of links related to New Jersey cities and counties with unresolved cases at ncstl.org/education/newjersey.

And check out these other historical galleries:

Greg Hatala may be reached at greghatalagalleries@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find Greg Hatala on Facebook.
By William Lambers

As we celebrate International Womens Day this Friday, lets remember an unsung hero who has done so much for Americas children. We can be inspired by this pioneer in the fight against hunger.

The year was 1908. A schoolteacher in Ohio, Ella Walsh, was a facing a crisis. Children who were attending the Jackson school in Cincinnati were not healthy. They were hungry and weak.

In April of that year, Ms. Walsh came up with a plan. The Cincinnati Post described how Walsh found a room in the basement and put together a few old tables, a gas stove and pots and pans. This became the lunch room or school cafeteria.

Walsh and her assistants started serving the children meals at noon. Yummy soup, spaghetti, rice, beans and fruit were the first items on the menu.

The cost was a penny for students who could pay. Hence the name became Penny Lunches. For students who could not afford the penny, they could still have the lunch.

Something many of us take for granted today, a school lunch program, was started. In those days, school feeding was rare. Walsh had started one of the first in the nation.

But what differed about Walsh's initiative from others was that it was sustained and expanded. Dr. Peters, in the American Journal of Public Health, wrote that penny lunches has not only been extended in Cincinnati, but school feeding constituted a part of the elementary school system of 70 American cities in 1913."

This was crucial especially during emergencies, such as the increased poverty during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

On the 25th anniversary of the penny lunches, the Cincinnati Post wrote But for these school luncheons, educators agree, thousands of children would, during the depression, have gone hungry, sickened and probably died.

Walsh was one of the pioneers that built the foundation of our national school lunch program. This has required a great effort of many unsung heroes like Walsh. Its vital to have the free and reduced price lunch programs to ensure children do not go hungry.

The year was 1908. A schoolteacher in Ohio, Ella Walsh, was a facing a crisis. Children who were attending the Jackson school in Cincinnati were not healthy. They were hungry and weak. Walsh found a feed them.

For hunger still is a crisis today for many children, which requires us to strengthen and expand our feeding programs where necessary. When school is closed, hungry children lose access to free lunches.

The Community Food Bank of New Jersey distributes Family Packs, which provide, according to the Food Bank, bags full of supplemental, nutritious food for hungry children and their families over the weekend. These types of programs depend on public support.

We also still need a national summer feeding program, supported by Congress, similar to the school lunch initiative. That would be another big step to improve the health of children and our nation.

When we think about the legacy of Walsh and the penny lunches on America, we should also reflect on the importance for other nations.

For there are children in developing countries that desperately need school feeding. Think of the child in Haiti who has who lived through earthquakes, hurricanes and droughts. The results of these disasters has been increased hunger. But food at school allows children to get nutrition, and stay in class learning.

The World Food Program (WFP) is trying to provide school meals in the war-torn countries of Yemen, Central African Republic, Syria and many others. We should support these meals for all children.

In fact, there is a program named after former senators George McGovern and Bob Dole, which feeds school children overseas. Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children, WFP, Mercy Corps and others provide the meals. We should expand these feeding programs that can help nations recover from conflict, disasters and poverty.

Ella Walsh was a teacher who developed an innovative approach to feed the hungry. She knew that children who were fed could learn and grow. That is what we should aspire for every child.

On International Womens Day its worthy to reflect on the pioneer Ms. Walsh and think of ways we can carry on her legacy.

William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program and Catholic Relief Services on the book Ending World Hunger. His writings have been published by the History News Network, Newsweek, The Hill and many other outlets.

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WASHINGTON  The House went on record Thursday as condemning anti-Semitism, though not in the way New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer would have preferred.

Outraged over comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, that resurrected the ages-old canard that Jews were not 100 percent loyal to the country they were citizens of, Gottheimer and others pushed for a resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

No matter how hard one tries, the allegation of dual loyalty (to the United States and Israel) simply does not constitute a legitimate opinion about foreign policy," Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., said on the House floor. "It is indefensible, and it is deserving of condemnation by everyone, every time.

The resolution passed, 407-23, with only Republicans voting no.

Approval was delayed as some House Democrats objected to singling out Omar. In the end, the resolution condemned both anti-Semitism while specifically addressing the allegations of dual loyalty, as well as criticizing attacks on Muslims.

The resolution rejects the perpetuation of anti-Semitic stereotypes in the United States and around the world, including the pernicious myth of dual loyalty and foreign allegiance, especially in the context of support for the United States-Israel alliance, and condemns anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against all minorities as contrary to the values of the United States.

Just recently, the West Virginia Republican Party held an event recently featuring a poster of Omar in front of the World Trade Center towers destroyed by Islamic terrorists on 9/11. Omar was one of two Muslim- Americans elected to the House last fall.

Omar, joined by two other Muslim House members, Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Andre Carson, D-Ohio, issued a joint statement praising the resolution.

We are tremendously proud to be part of a body that has put forth a condemnation of all forms of bigotry, including anti-Semitism, racism and white supremacy, they said.

Our nation is having a difficult conversation, but we believe this is great progress. pic.twitter.com/gSua9a8mki  Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) March 7, 2019

Still, Gottheimer and others, including House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said they would have preferred a clean resolution on anti-Semitism.

Im glad that the Congress voiced its opposition to anti-Semitism and made it clear that the dual loyalty smear is unacceptable, Gottheimer said. Unfortunately, it was clear from the discussions this week  and in the ultimate resolution  that many people treat anti-Semitism differently than other forms of bigotry and hatred. There shouldnt be an asterisk next to anti-Semitism."

The debate over the issue led Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, to say that there is a lot of work to do to educate many people, including elected officials, about what anti-Semitism is and how seriously it must be taken, even as the group welcomed passage of the resolution.

And the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a statement criticizing the fact that the resolution did not mention Omar by name.

Casting aside the original resolution, which spoke directly to Rep. Omars refusal to own the anti-Semitism that her recent words reflect, sends a message at home and to the world that the U.S. Congress lacks the courage to deal directly and forthrightly with anti-Jewish slanders uttered within its own house, said Rabbis Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the center, and Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action.

Among those who pushed back against moving ahead with a resolution was New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist., even as she voted in favor of it.

Watson Coleman said the furor was a distraction from the House Democratic agenda of prescription drugs, access to health care, infrastructure, jobs, that kind of thing. That was my objection only.

The measure did not single out Omar by name, as some lawmakers had wanted to do.

We mitigated that with the language, Watson Coleman said. "Its not about whether or not I agree with her. She has the right to say whatever she wants to say as an American. I just dont want any of these issues to be used as political tools.

Omar is a strong supporter of Palestinian rights and has been critical of Israeli policy.

Being opposed to Netanyahu and the occupation is not the same as being anti-Semitic. I am grateful to the many Jewish allies who have spoken out and said the same.  Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 3, 2019

But her language has mirrored the slurs used by anti-Semites throughout history. For example, she talked about "the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. The month before, she suggested that members of Congress supported Israel only because they were paid to do so, not because the country was a pro-western democracy and American ally.

House Democratic leaders responded to her earlier statements by calling on her to apologize.

Gottheimer said he was worried what Omar would say next.

What happens if the representative now says something again? he said. What do we do? If we cant stand up here, then when?"

President Donald Trump, criticized by the ADL for using anti-Semitic memes throughout his campaign, waded into the fray as well.

It is shameful that House Democrats wont take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference. Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and its inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 6, 2019

During the campaign, Trump showed pictures of prominent Jews in his final campaign ad as the narrator described these people that dont have your good in mind," called some of the neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, Virginia, very fine people, and falsely accused George Soros, a Jewish financier, of funding a caravan of immigrants seeking asylum in the United States.

And House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., singed out Soros and two other Jewish individuals in a now-deleted tweet, accusing them of trying to buy the 2018 midterm election.

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy posted this tweet AFTER a bomb was sent to Soros' house. Up until a couple of minutes ago it was pinned to the top of his profile. pic.twitter.com/FEeKoPolHL  Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) October 24, 2018

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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Updates with bill passage.

WASHINGTON  Democratic candidates Andy Kim and Tom Malinowski promised to clean up government when they ran for the House last fall. They wound up sweeping out two Republican incumbents.

On Friday, the Democratic-controlled House approved major campaign finance and ethics legislation in an effort to fulfill promises made during the midterms. The vote, solely along party lines, was 234-193.

There was no single issue that was more resonant with the voters of the 7th District than this, said Malinowski, D-7th Dist. I look forward to being able to say we passed this in the House because voters in the 7th District flipped the House. We can do the same thing in the Senate if the voters of the United States make the change that New Jersey helped make to the House in 2018.

The For the People Act was given the bill number H.R. 1 indicating its importance to the new majority. During the midterms, Kim and Malinowski helped lead an effort among more than 100 Democratic candidates to pledge that a top priority would be a bill to make changes to election rules and campaign finance regulations.

The legislation would require presidents and vice presidents, and the nominees for those offices, to release 10 years of tax returns; create universal voter registration, end partisan gerrymandering, require organizations that spend money on politics to disclose their big donors, match small-dollar donations to candidates, and strengthen the Office of Government Ethics.

It also would reduce the size of the Federal Election Commission to five members, with only two members of the same political party, rather than six, eliminating 3-3 splits on enforcement matters. The bill would allow residents who not have the types of identification required by state voter-ID laws to submit sworn written statements instead.

There would be grants to states to help improve the security of their voting systems. House Administration Committee Democrats last July named New Jersey as one of the five states most vulnerable to hacking.

Ethics reform has advocates in both parties. In a 2015 Gallup poll, more than two-thirds of Americans, 69 percent, said Congress was focused on the needs of special interests, while just 25 percent said lawmakers were focused on their constituents.

President Donald Trump attacked big-money political action committees during his presidential campaign and pledged to drain the swamp, though he later broke with 40 years of tradition and refused to release his income tax returns. He also nominated industry lobbyists to oversee federal agencies that regulate their former clients, and pushed through a tax law demanded by wealthy campaign donors.

Kim, Malinowski and dozens of other Democrats pledged not to accept corporate political action committee contributions during their campaigns. While they had little expectation of such money  most corporate PAC donations go to incumbents, not challengers  it was a symbolic move and a nod to voters.

These were steps we took because we thought it was the right thing to do, said Kim, whose yard signs read, For people, not corporations. It was the right way to engage in politics in pursuit of something we never did before but we wanted to do it on our terms.

In the largest crop of Democratic newcomers since the post-Watergate election of 1974, the freshmen pushed for changes on a scale not seen since the scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon.

We saw a wave of reformers who took this message of cleaning up corruption in Washington and getting big money out of politics, said Tiffany Muller, president and executive director of End Citizens United, an advocacy group that spent $635,066 on behalf of New Jersey Democratic candidates last year.

Immediately after the vote, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee began running digital ads in support of Kim, Malinowski and the other three New Jersey Democrats on its list of most vulnerable incumbents, Reps. Jeff Van Drew, D-2nd Dist.; Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist.; and Mikie Sherrill, D-11th Dist.

The National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee attacked the five for voting for public financing, money that could go to their own campaigns. Spokesman Michael McAdams said the vote showed they were "right at home in the swamp.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the bill will give Republicans a campaign issue to use in 2020.

We can actually win elections against people who vote for this turkey, he said at a press conference before the bill reached the House floor.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nations largest business lobby, has led a group of more than 300 organizations in opposition to the legislation, primarily its expanded disclosure and reporting requirements.

Their ultimate aim is to disclose members of groups so those members can be targeted and harassed and subject to boycotts, said Ryan Meyers, the chambers deputy general counsel. Disclosure is not merely a good government idea but is a first step in trying to harass and intimidate people from giving to organizations altogether.

Even so, Malinowski said the question he was repeatedly asked was why Congress wasnt following the will of the people. We are trying to fix the broken connections between our government and the voters the government is supposed to represent, Malinowski said. I can think of absolutely nothing more rewarding and more important we can do than that.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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There is only one thing worse than the sickening bang and thud of hitting a pothole and damaging a tire or a vital piece of your vehicles front suspension. Thats the ka-ching of the cash register at the repair shop and the empty feeling in your wallet afterward.

If only there was someone else who was responsible and could pay. How about the state or town charged with maintaining the road?

If youve ever dreamt of sending the bill to Trenton or town hall for that new tire and rim, generally, you can keep dreaming. What are the conditions that might get you a check? That the state or town knew about the pothole and didnt bother to fix it.

The claimant would have to demonstrate that we were aware of the pothole and had more than sufficient time and resources to repair (it), yet failed to make the repair, said Jennifer Sciortino, a treasury department spokeswoman. We allow claimants to make their case, but warn them of our immunities.

That same statute, Title 59, also covers towns, said Frank Marshall, staff attorney for the New Jersey league of Municipalities.

If damage occurred on a municipal road, a driver would need to meet the same standard when attempting to recover (repair costs) from a municipality, as they would have to with the state, he said.

Specific procedures for filing a claim would likely vary from town to town, he said. The states are pretty precise.

Even the instructions for filling out a claim form warns that New Jersey is immune for pothole damage claims under state law.

How slim are your chances of getting a check? Of 1,280 claims made last year, a mere eight were paid for a total of $3,007.46, treasury officials said.

Oh look honey...a NJ pothole! pic.twitter.com/YyGSC7EhBI  Silas Nixon (@SilasN52) February 9, 2019

Still want to proceed? The clock is running. Drivers have 90 days to file a claim after an incident. Tick tock.

Step one is to determine who owns the road the car was wounded on. If it was a local, county or toll road, you have to check with those agencies to see if a claim can be made and to report the pothole, treasury officials said. The state only covers state highways and interstates that it maintains.

Now the fun starts. There is a state form to fill out and evidence that the registered owner of the vehicle has to provide. First is a copy of the auto insurance declaration page to prove damage wont be covered by the owners insurance. If you have insurance, filing a claim with your insurance carrier is your first step to take, treasury officials said.

Vehicle owners also have to disclose if they have any auto club coverage or tire road hazard warranties. Any amount paid by insurance or other providers will be deducted from the claim made against the state.

Vehicle owners also have to provide copies of a police report, if one was made, copies of repair bills or estimates and the location of the pothole to the treasury departments Risk Management Division. Officials recommend sending the form and documents by certified mail to verify they arrived.

The Risk Management Division evaluates the claim with the state Attorney Generals office. That process includes checking Department of Transportation records for complaints by drivers about the pothole and repair schedules. A decision is usually made in three to six months.

If you think New Jersey is tough, at least this state gives people a shot at it.

In many states, they do not even accept this sort of claim, Sciortino said.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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New Orleans police reported a carjacking in the 6400 block of Derbyshire Drive in New Orleans East early Friday morning (March 8).
The outside of Edna Karr High School on Wednesday, February 1, 2017. (Photo by Chris Granger, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)
Henderson Lewis, Jr., superintendent of Orleans Parish Public Schools, speaks at the summer graduation ceremony at Xavier University on Thursday, August 30, 2018. (Photo by Chris Granger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
The Mardi Gras Indian Council announced the annual Uptown Super Sunday event will begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 17, at A.L Davis Park.

Mardi Gras Indians from various groups will showcase their intricately beaded and feathered suits for one another and the community. Most of these suits are constructed over the entirety of the prior year and are first displayed on Mardi Gras day.

Mardi Gras Indian wedding couldnt have been prettier

Tahj Williams, who masks with the Golden Eagles, suggested arriving before the parade, which begins at 1 p.m., to meet the Mardi Gras Indians in attendance, learn more about the culture and take photographs.

Two stages will feature performances by: Hot 8 Brass Band, Young Pinstripe Brass Band, The Original Pinettes Brass Band, Lucky LOU, D.J. Captain Charles, D.J. Jubilee, SOSU with Lady D, Young Men Olympian, Lady Buckjumpers and B.R.W. R&B Singing Group.

The free festival will also have 50 food and craft vendors, according to a press release.

The gathering is also a parade for the elders that cant come out on Mardi Gras day for medical or other reasons, Williams said by phone Thursday (March 7).

Mardi Gras Indians came out in force at Super Sunday in New Orleans: See photos

The parade will depart from A.L. Davis Park at 1 p.m. and continue down LaSalle Street to Simon Bolivar Avenue. It will turn left on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, left at South Claiborne Avenue and a final left onto Washington Avenue to conclude at A.L. Davis Park for more activities and performances.

"Know were in our suits ... so more than one person wants to take pictures and see the workmanship, Asmar Clark told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune in 2017. Clark is with the Young Generation Warriors Mardi Gras Indians. Be respectful.

Familiarize yourself with more of those tips here and about what you should or shouldnt do with the photographs taken of Mardi Gras Indians suits, as reported by The New York Times in 2010.

If you plan on attending the festival, keep an eye on the forecast. If it rains, Super Sunday is likely to be rescheduled for the sake of protecting the costumes.

Additional Super Sundays will take place Downtown and on the West Bank, Williams said. Those dates are typically announced after Uptown Super Sunday concludes, she said.

St. Josephs Night is scheduled for Tuesday, March 19, Williams said. The 5 p.m. event is for other tribes to meet one another and is not a time, like Super Sunday, for others to stop Mardi Gras Indians and ask to take photos of their costumes.

St. Patricks Day celebrations will take place the same weekend, split between Friday (March 15), Saturday (March 16) and Sunday (March 17). Find times and locations of those events here.
About the owners: Mike Marras owned restaurants 30 years ago and most recently ran a Chicago-style hot dog spot in Palatine. He was missing the business and wanted to be his own boss. The kids are grown, so we said, lets try it one more time, said wife and co-owner Vicki Marras.
A visible sheen was reported around the boat, which sank around 3 p.m. Thursday (March 7, 2019). A Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin Helicopter, diverted to conduct an overflight of the sunken vessel, reported the sheen from mile marker 132 to mile marker 117.
Developers have applied to Mississippi gambling authorities to build a casino at a site in Lakeshore east of the Silver Slipper Casino, shown in this photo.
Entergy Louisiana owes up to $4.4 billion for getting the lights back on after a string of storms and needs a $1 billion loan to meet those costs in the short-term, says the head of the utility that provides electricity to about half the states c
Hong Kong-based manufacturer Manli has announced two new variants of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics card. The Manli GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and Manli GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Gallardo both come with twin cooling fans and two composite copper heatpipes. The Gallardo variant of the card is overclockable.

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For those shopping for a new Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics card, there are now a couple of more options to choose from, thanks to Manli (PDF). First up is the Manli GeForce GTX 1660 Ti that has all the GPU specs you would expect from the card (1536 CUDA cores, 6 GB GDDR6, 192-bit memory interface), and it clocks between 1500 MHz and 1770 MHz.

The Manli GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Gallardo model is aimed at those who want to squeeze a bit more juice out of their GPU. The overclockable graphics card also has a base clock of 1500 MHz but can be pushed to a boost clock of 1815 MHz if required.

Manlis cooling solution for both GTX 1660 Ti cards consists of the two cooling fans and the aforementioned copper heatpipes  a combination that aids with heat dissipation and should offer lower noise levels. A 4 + 2 phase digital power design has been utilized for the Nvidia AIB partner's cards.
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I can find a lot of ingredients at Caputo's in Naperville or La Chiquita in Montgomery, she said. When her class sees the ingredient list, they are sometimes a little skeptical, but Pastore gently encourages them to give new flavors a try. We made Viking stew from Denmark. It was more of a stroganoff than a stew because it has cream in it. The class was concerned about the curry. So we all smelled it and talked about it until they were comfortable with it. I explained that there are many kinds of curry and they all don't taste the same. We made the stew and they loved it.
Tickets are $33 for adults, $29 for seniors and $15 for students. For more information, call 630-637-7469 or go to www.northcentralcollege.edu/showtix.
Now its students  many with credits that cannot be easily transferred  are stuck in a meltdown. On Wednesday, members of the faculty at Argosys Chicago and Northern Virginia campuses told students that they had been fired and instructed to remove their belongings. In Phoenix, an unpaid landlord locked students out of their classrooms. In California, a dean advised students two months away from graduation not to invite family to attend from out of town.

In less than a month, everything I have worked for the past three years has been taken from me, said Jayne Kenney, who is pursuing her doctorate in clinical psychology at Argosys Chicago campus. I am also conscious of the fact that what seems like the swift fall of an ax in less than one month has in reality been festering for years.

The fall accelerated last week when the Education Department cut off federal student loan funds to Argosy after the court-appointed receiver said school officials had taken about $13 million owed to students at 22 campuses and used it for expenses like payroll. The students, who had borrowed extra money to cover things like rent and groceries, were forced to use food banks or skip classes for lack of bus fare.

Lauren Jackson, a single mother seeking a doctorate at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology, an Argosy school in Chicago, did not receive the roughly $10,000 she was due in January. She has been paying expenses for herself and her 6-year-old daughter with borrowed money and GoFundMe donations.

On Tuesday, after three months of not paying her rent, she received an eviction notice.

I didnt want to go home and tell my baby that Mommy may not be a doctor, said Ms. Jackson, whose school could close Friday. Now I dont want to go home and tell her that we dont have a home.
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The skirmish started with an exchange of words and a man swinging at an officer in the lobby of a mens homeless shelter in Manhattan.

Soon, the man was being subdued by several uniformed officers working for the citys Department of Homeless Services, according to security video of the incident.

And thats when things got out of control, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

While officers held the man down, Cordell Fitts, who was working as a supervising sergeant with the citys Department of Homeless Services, kicked and stomped the mans head more than 10 times, prosecutors said.

Sergeant Fitts punched him two more times in the head after officers attempted to place the homeless man in handcuffs, prosecutors said. Sergeant Fitts, 34, was charged with deprivation of the victims civil rights and filing a false report about the incident.
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Joseph Cammarano Jr. and John Zancocchio were Mafia bosses who profited from a mob-controlled dump on Staten Island, overseeing underlings who strong-armed victims to exact payments and instill fear.

Or so federal prosecutors say.

Lawyers for the two men have offered an alternative explanation and a novel defense: Their clients, known to their friends as Joe C and Porky, were profiled for their ethnicity  Italian.

Looking like he stepped out of central casting in a mob movie doesnt make you part of one of these groups, said Jennifer Louis-Jeune, a lawyer defending Mr. Cammarano against racketeering and extortion charges.

And the Mafia? Its the stuff of bad-old-days folklore, she said.

Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was this thing called the Mafia and there were five families, Ms. Louis-Jeune said.


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Public officials and health experts had given several warnings: Do not allow a student in school if they had not been vaccinated against measles.



Still, during New York Citys largest measles outbreak in a decade, a school in Brooklyn ignored that advice, resulting in one student infecting at least 21 other people with the virus.

The outbreak, at Yeshiva Kehilath Yakov in Williamsburg, is reigniting concerns that too many people in New Yorks ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities are unvaccinated, as well as worries that measles would continue to spread after travelers arrived last fall from parts of Israel and Europe, where the virus was spreading.

City officials said they have struggled to increase vaccination rates in certain communities because of popularity of the widely debunked anti-vaccination movement, with parents declining vaccines for their children in fear that they increase the risk of autism.
Ralph Hall, a Texas Republican who was the oldest member in the history of the House of Representatives, died on Thursday at his home in Rockwall, Tex. He was 95.

His death was announced by Ed Valentine, his longtime strategist.

Mr. Hall was 91 when he left the House after 34 years. He was defeated in a Republican primary runoff in 2014 by John Ratcliffe, a former United States attorney less than half his age.

An avid jogger who began his days with two-mile runs, Mr. Hall celebrated Memorial Day 2012, when he was 89, by skydiving. That Christmas he became the oldest member of the House, breaking the record set by Charles Manly Stedman of North Carolina, who died in office in 1930 at the age of 89 years, seven months and 25 days.

Only three United States senators were older than Mr. Hall while still serving. The South Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond was 100 when he retired in 2003; the Rhode Island Democrat Theodore Francis Green was 93 when he left the Senate in 1961; and the West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd died in office at 92 in 2010.
In the Feb. 21, 2018, incident, Martinez followed the 42-year-old female motorist after she drove her car around his on Harlem Avenue, authorities said. After she stopped at the gas station, he approached her as she sat in her car, authorities said.
Congratulations  Friday is International Womens Day! As a woman, you must be so pleased to be recognized.

In this day and age, when everything is so polarizing, its really hard for progressive, multinational corporations like ours to know just when and how to take a stand. But this day is important to us. And while some might say that coming out in support of International Womens Day is a bold move  even a controversial one  we are willing to stick our necks out to show solidarity with half of the worlds population.

As some of the worlds biggest companies, we are doing many things to honor you on this day.

First, please take a sticker from our bank. Wearing this sticker is a great way to show that you are a woman, or support people who are women. Its unacceptable that American women make 80.5 cents for every dollar earned by men  and this gender pay gap is particularly wide in the international finance industry, where some banks pay women up to 44 percent less on average. Wearing a sticker while walking around our bank is a great way to remind people  for free!  that women in our industry should be paid more by someone.

Have you checked out what our male engineers have been up to on the internet? Did you notice our doodle? Just for one day, the two Os in our logo have been transformed into ovaries to honor your contribution to the world. We love you and your empowered ovaries. Women in Japan, Germany and Taiwan, we particularly honor your ovaries, and would love to support you in using them even more to help offset your declining populations. (Not that were saying thats your fault.)
As New York City has finally begun to exercise oversight over ultra-Orthodox yeshivas that have graduated students without a basic education, some of those Jewish schools have defied city health department scrutiny and helped to feed a measles outbreak. Forty children have contracted measles in recent months, all of the cases linked to a single Brooklyn yeshiva that ignored an order from city health officials to prevent children who hadnt been vaccinated from attending classes.

Yet that hasnt stopped yeshiva supporters in Albany from maneuvering to free the schools from government supervision, a reflection of the political pull ultra-Orthodox leaders have come to expect in New York.

Where to begin? How about 2015? Thats when a group of former yeshiva students known as Young Advocates for Fair Education filed a complaint accusing the New York City Department of Education of failing to hold dozens of yeshivas to state education standards, leaving them without a basic command of English, math or science.

There was little urgency in Mayor Bill de Blasios response. By last August, more than three years later , the city had inspected only half of the 30 yeshivas in the complaint that were still operating. Thanks to a push last year from the new schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, all are expected to be visited by the end of the month. City officials say that none of those visited have failed state education standards, but the city still needs to detail to the public what it finds.
INTERNATIONAL

An article on Tuesday about extradition laws in Hong Kong misspelled the surname of a legal scholar at the University of Hong Kong. He is Eric Cheung, not Chueng.

NATIONAL

An article on Thursday about lawyers seeking presidential pardons for their clients misstated when the authorities conducted searches on Michael D. Cohens residence and office. It was 2018, not 2017.



Because of an editing error, an article on Thursday about Senator Martha McSallys statement in a Senate hearing that she had been raped by a superior officer while serving in the Air Force misstated the nature of the abuse that Senator Joni Ernst said she suffered at the hands of her former husband. Ms. Ernst said that he had physically and emotionally abused her, not sexually assaulted her.

NEW YORK

A headline with an article on Wednesday about municipal control of the New York City subway misstated the year of the next mayoral election. As the article correctly noted, it is in 2021, not 2020.
I go to college in New York City and live with my best friend. Shes from here; Im not. I Googled her parents recently (for fully innocent reasons). I knew they were wealthier than my middle-class family, but I had no idea they were buy-a-record-price-penthouse-and-make-the-headlines rich! I was shocked: My friend is humble and avoids status symbols. Still, she has immense privilege and connections that I dont. Im also rethinking our decision to split checks and her correcting me on minor facts. (It seems condescending now.) I think I need to raise her family wealth. You?

JANE

Leave the rich girl alone! Our friends reveal themselves to us at their pace, not ours. This womans family money never affected your relationship before you went Googling. So, why force a conversation that may be hurtful to her before shes ready? Would you be so keen to chat if you discovered she was dirt poor?

You call her your best friend, but it sounds as if youre still getting to know each other. The fact that you had no inkling of her familys wealth, together with her modest manner, suggests that shes trying to fit in  not win special advantages. The closer (and safer) you feel together, the more you will probably confide in each other.

This friend is one of many people youll meet in college whose background differs from your own. That includes students whove had fewer advantages than you, too. Navigating those differences is an educational journey in itself. As you embark on it, be sensitive and try not to lean on assumptions. Were all self-conscious.
The opinion, from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, extends constitutional habeas corpus guarantees to those applying for asylum at the border and provides that they can seek a hearing in the federal courts before being summarily deported  though the court did not specify what standards the courts must use to evaluate such petitions.

The ruling applies to asylum seekers in the nine western states included in the courts jurisdiction and, because it conflicts with an earlier ruling rejecting such legal protections in the Third Circuit, the issue is likely to be resolved ultimately by the Supreme Court. In the meantime, legal analysts said, the courts decision is likely to have sweeping implications for immigration deterrence efforts by enabling thousands to remain in the country while they seek the court review.

Under current procedure, every migrant who arrives at the border and expresses a fear of persecution in his or her homeland is referred for an interview with an asylum officer. Those who succeed in convincing the officer that they have a credible fear are allowed to enter the country and proceed with their asylum cases in the immigration courts. Those who dont can request a review by an immigration judge, but it is usually cursory and favorable decisions are rare. There is usually no access to a lawyer, and no opportunity to challenge the decision; deportation quickly ensues.

In the case before the appeals court, Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam, a member of Sri Lankas Tamil ethnic minority, was arrested about 25 yards north of the border near San Ysidro, Calif., and told an asylum officer that he was fearful of returning to his homeland. The officer found no credible fear, and that finding was upheld by a supervisor and an immigration judge.

Mr. Thuraissigiam was in deportation proceedings when he filed a habeas corpus petition in the federal court. He argued that the asylum officer had failed to elicit important background about his case, including that he had been detained and beaten by Sri Lankan army officers on two occasions, and at one point had been lowered into a well and nearly drowned. He also said there were communication problems between the translator and both the asylum officer and the immigration judge.

As a result, his lawyers argued, he was deprived of a meaningful right to apply for asylum.

A district court judge in Los Angeles rejected that argument, but the three-judge appeals court panel, sitting in San Francisco, held that even though an asylum seeker may lack the right to a full trial in immigration court, the Constitution requires a more complete review than what immigration law currently provides.

At its historical core, said the 48-page opinion written by Judge A. Wallace Tashima, the writ of habeas corpus has served as a means of reviewing the legality of executive detention, and it is in that context that its protections have been strongest.
The Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, mimicking laws in other states that have been struck down by the courts and drawing the criticism of both advocates and opponents of abortion rights.

The measure, House Bill 77, would tightly restrict the window of time within which a woman could seek an abortion, because a fetal heartbeat can be detected as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. That is before many women even realize they are pregnant.

The bill, which is part of a category of anti-abortion measures called heartbeat bills, will now be referred to the State Senate, where abortion rights groups have said they hope to derail it. If it were to be passed by the Senate and signed into law, it would become one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

Hours after the vote in Tennessee, the Georgia House of Representatives passed a similar bill that would outlaw abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. The states governor, Brian Kemp, a Republican, has indicated that he will sign the legislation, House Bill 481, if it passes in the State Senate.
WASHINGTON  A Republican senators revelation of her sexual assault while serving in the Air Force is likely to renew debate over how to best get justice for victims, an issue that seemed settled several years ago when Congress adjusted conduct codes that dictate military justice.

Long before the #MeToo movement brought sexual violence and harassment to the fore, women in the military and their advocates had highlighted such misconduct in the armed forces. In 2005, Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and at the time a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, questioned a top Army official about the issue, and he dismissed her with annoyance.

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In the intervening years, Congress has sought to address the matter, which leaves a large number of veterans  women and men alike  in despair long afterward.

But it stopped short of a plan championed in 2013 by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, that would have taken sexual assault cases outside the military chain of command. Military prosecutors, rather than accusers commanders, would have the power to decide which cases to try.
All indications remain, however, that Mr. Cohen has proved to be a valuable witness for federal prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who have vouched for his truthfulness, and the Southern District of New York, who appear to have built a case at least in part around his accounts.

In his public testimony before the House Oversight Committee last week, Mr. Cohen emphatically denied that he had ever wanted a White House job or a presidential pardon.

I did not want to go to the White House, Mr. Cohen asserted under questioning.

But while he was still seated at the table in the hearing room, one of the presidents sons, Eric Trump, took to Twitter to dispute one of the claims.

Michael was lobbying EVERYONE to be Chief of Staff, he wrote. It was the biggest joke in the campaign and around the office. Did he just perjure himself again? Other members of the 2016 Trump campaign backed him up.

Mr. Cohen was just as adamant that he had not sought a pardon from Mr. Trump.

I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr. Trump, he said at the hearing.

A week after that testimony, though, Mr. Cohens lawyer, Lanny J. Davis, told The Wall Street Journal that Mr. Cohen had directed his former lawyer, Stephen Ryan, to inquire about the possibility of a pardon with Mr. Trumps lawyers.

Mr. Davis maintained that there was no discrepancy between that statement and Mr. Cohens testimony, insisting that his client had given those instructions only after the Trump team had dangled a possible pardon while they were all part of a shared defense. Mr. Davis said that Mr. Cohen was referring in his testimony to the period after early July 2018, when the presidents former fixer split from his old boss.
A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought against President Trump and his former lawyer by Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film actress who was paid to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Mr. Trump before the 2016 election.

The suit, brought a year ago in California, had sought to release Ms. Daniels from the nondisclosure agreement she had signed. As part of her arrangement, she received $130,000 in hush money through the presidents personal lawyer at the time, Michael D. Cohen.

As he tossed out the case this week, Judge S. James Otero, of United States District Court in Los Angeles, called the legal argument moot, given that Ms. Daniels had not been held to the terms of the agreement.

Indeed, Ms. Daniels and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, have spoken freely about the arrangement since the filing last March. The lawsuit led to escalating national attention that culminated in Mr. Cohens pleading guilty to related campaign-finance crimes last summer.
A widespread blackout enveloped much of Venezuela in darkness on Thursday night, stopping subway service in the capital and causing problems around the country, which has been plagued by power failures as its economic crisis has worsened.

The power failure appeared to be more severe than others, however, and the government of President Nicolas Maduro moved quickly to blame its opponents.

The minister of electrical power, Luis Motta Dominguez, said on state television that the blackout was caused by an attack on the Guri Dam, a large hydroelectric facility in east Venezuela. Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez, also on the state news network, said that right-wing criminals had committed sabotage to the dams system of generation and distribution.

The officials did not say how much of the country had been affected by the blackout.

Mr. Maduro accused the United States of orchestrating the power failure, writing on Twitter, The electrical war announced and directed by the imperialist United States against our people will be defeated.
WASHINGTON  President Trump declared himself a little disappointed on Thursday by new evidence that North Korea was restoring a space-missile launch site, as a senior American official warned that a satellite launch would violate Kim Jong-uns commitments to suspend missile and nuclear testing.

A week after a fruitless meeting in Vietnam with Mr. Kim, the North Korean leader, Mr. Trump attempted to avoid sounding very concerned about satellite evidence that Pyongyang was reactivating the launch site. Analysts believe that restoring the site is one of several steps Mr. Kim is taking to gain leverage as Mr. Trump demands a complete dismantlement of North Koreas nuclear and missile programs.

In brief comments in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump told reporters that well let you know in about a year whether his diplomacy in North Korea has been successful.

Last June, after his first meeting with Mr. Kim in Singapore, the president suggested that the success of the effort could be judged in six months.
Why did you not pursue more traditional art disciplines like your parents?

My parents taught in the art school, so naturally I studied at that school. I think I saw too much calligraphy, Chinese painting, sculpture. I never had an interest in trying these traditional disciplines.

After Chinas open-door policy, all these moving images, films, pop culture arrived. I naturally wanted to use the digital camera to express myself.

Can you talk about the 2006 film you made in the light bulb factory?

It was the first time I accepted a corporate project from a brand. The fact that I could use their right of access to the factory attracted me. I knew that, normally, it wasnt easy to get permission to go to the factory. Also, I was concerned about all the news reports about workers in the Pearl River Delta. I thought it was the right time to really look at this myself. I decided to spend half a year there.

It took an hour from my studio to the factory, so I went there two or three times a week. The Chinese managers were not really happy, because I spent too much time in the factory.

Did you find it sad watching the workers?

I think its a complicated feeling. Theyre happy and also they are sad. Like the lady doing the peacock dance in the factory. We still keep in touch. Shes become a very successful businesswoman in the south, and is not in the factory anymore.

But as an artist, do you see factory life and the Chinese industrial miracle as something of a human nightmare?
Douglas Dunn has been making dances since 1971. His choreography has earned acclaim and awards, but presenters dont call as frequently as they once did. That helps explains why, when Mr. Dunn was asked to present a premiere in the 92nd Street Ys Harkness Dance Festival this year, his emotions were mixed. Gratified to have his work chosen, he was disturbed by the reason underlying the choice: that 50 years ago he danced in work by someone else.

That someone else was Merce Cunningham, a giant of American dance, whose centennial is being honored this year with performances across the globe. Throughout March, the Harkness festival is joining the celebration, featuring programs of new work by Mr. Dunn and three other choreographers  Ellen Cornfield, Jonah Bokaer and Dylan Crossman  who danced in the Cunningham company, as much as 40 years apart.

That company, founded in 1953, no longer exists, having disbanded in 2011, two years after Cunninghams death. But Cunninghams influence is far from dead, as these choreographers know better than most.

Its a storied element of modern dance lineages: Dancers leave a company to become choreographers, then struggle to distinguish themselves from the company style, as children strive to differentiate themselves from their parents. Cunningham got his start dancing for Martha Graham, and was one of very few to escape her enormous shadow.
LONDON  An estimated $67.4 billion of art was sold worldwide last year, an increase of 6 percent on 2017, according to an influential report released on Friday. Yet growth in the art market remains within a narrow band, the data showed.

The total, cited in the annual Art Basel and UBS report, combined auction and dealer sales and was the second-highest in the last 10 years, behind the $68.2 billion of 2014.

But the report noted that while the number of wealthy individuals in the world had risen sharply, they were not spending much more on art.

The study quoted data from Credit Suisse estimating that the global population of dollar millionaires increased to 42.2 million last year, from 29.7 million in 2011. That does not seem to have translated into art buying, however. In 2011, global art sales were estimated at $64.6 billion, just a small fraction below what Art Basel and UBS calculated they were in 2018.
The John Zorn show came to the Miller Theater at Columbia University on Thursday. And it was most assertively a show. Though he did not perform himself, Mr. Zorn played the role of M.C. with relish, taking microphone in hand to introduce each successive grouping of players. He said a few words about each piece, encouraged applause, and then got off the stage. (Among his other attributes, Mr. Zorn is rare among new-music ringleaders in his frequent avoidance of energy-sapping intermissions.)

He had reason to be confident in his cast. The musicians who gathered to perform the hour-plus set of new and recent pieces was something of an all-star team. The JACK Quartet, the pianist Stephen Gosling, the percussionist Tyshawn Sorey and the vibraphonist Sae Hashimoto all made multiple appearances. Among the premieres, I was most struck by Mr. Goslings take on the piano-miniature series Encomia, which included tributes to composers as diverse as Charles Wuorinen and Debussy. And between its quick-changing volleys of Zornian exultation, Konx Om Pax  played by Mr. Gosling, Ms. Hashimoto, Mr. Sorey and the bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz  also contained stretches of luminous brooding, suggestive of noir film music.

It probably wont take very long for some of these pieces to appear on recordings from Mr. Zorns Tzadik label. But in the meantime, anyone looking for music similar to some of the works heard on Thursday should acquire The Interpretation of Dreams  a stirring 2017 disc that includes a piano quintet for the JACK players and Mr. Gosling, as well as some lights-out playing by Ms. Hashimoto and the rhythm section of Mr. Sorey and Mr. Blumenkranz. SETH COLTER WALLS

Like Caravaggio before her, the Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi knew how to build scenes of taut drama with far-from-idealized figures crammed into a constricted pictorial space and bathed in harsh light. The composer Laura Schwendinger and the librettist Ginger Strand achieve something similar in their potently claustrophobic opera Artemisia, which received its staged premiere at Trinity Wall Streets St. Pauls Chapel on Thursday (and repeats on Saturday).

Gentileschis life story could provide fodder for many hours of music drama. The daughter of a painter, she was raped by her teacher when she was a teenager. At a court trial, her assailant was convicted, but only after she had been subjected to torture to verify her testimony. She went on to attract the attention of Cosimo II de Medici, befriended Galileo Galilei and worked in London at the invitation of King Charles I.

Artemisia lasts just 80 minutes, but fits in big themes set to music of quivering intensity. The story of the rape is there, blended with Gentileschis unbearably compassionate painting of the biblical character Susanna, who was ogled and shamed in her bath. But larger questions of idea and form, image and projection, sight and gaze also find nuanced and intelligent treatment. CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM
If he is, I didnt hear it.

Instead, Mr. Adess 20-minute work comes off as an affectionate, joyous, remarkably uncomplicated tribute to tradition. The writing is labyrinthine, to be sure, but this is a composer so sure of his abilities and influences that there is no sense in this concerto of history as a burden or as something to be thrown off. It is, rather, something to be approached as an equal.

And while plenty of composers talk about how they have thought about the tradition when they write a new concerto, few have placed themselves in it with such breathtaking ease as Mr. Ades does here.

As ever, the craft is astounding, the orchestration ceaselessly brilliant. The voice is wholly his own  dissonant, offbeat, whiplash, wry  even as it whispers to musics past.

Something of the angular, unnerving opening theme bears an uncanny resemblance to the upward, four-note motif that George Gershwin used for the words I got rhythm. Something about the slow movement, which pulls at the heart with an open directness thats unusual in this composers music, can be traced to the atmosphere of Beethovens Fourth Concerto, its powerful brass and wind chorale answered with placid wonder by the piano, at least at first.

Theres a funny wink to hyper-Romantic excess when a glockenspiel tinkles above the fray at the end of the finale. The way a phrase will end, a mood shift, brings Rachmaninoff fluttering into mind. The technical demands are Lisztian and worse.

Not that anything seems to daunt Mr. Gerstein, the pianist who asked for the new work while rehearsing In Seven Days in Boston seven years ago. He dispatched this concerto with his customary virtuosity and commitment, but for all his double-octave flash, it was his tender voicing of the cluster chords that halo the melody of the slow movement that lingers in the ears. He played as if the concerto had been a friend for years.
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep  and lets us get paid to watch comedy. If youre interested in hearing from The Times regularly about great TV, sign up for our Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox.

Manafort Isnt Out of the Woods

Stephen Colbert was disappointed to learn that Paul Manafort, President Trumps former campaign chairman, had been sentenced on Thursday to less than four years in prison for financial fraud. That is far less than the roughly two decades recommended under sentencing guidelines.

But Colbert pointed out that there was still a chance Manafort would do more time: Next week, he will be sentenced in a separate trial.
Ricky Gervais plays a nasty widower in a new Netflix series. And the Tim Roth-led Tin Star returns to Amazon.

Whats Streaming

AFTER LIFE Stream on Netflix. The premise of this dark comedy series can be summed up in a piece of advice given in its first episode: I should warn you  he might say a few things that are a bit, uhh, brutal. That line, spoken by Matt (Tom Basden), the head of the local newspaper in a small British town, is said in reference to Tony (Ricky Gervais), an editor of the paper. The show is about Tony; hes a former nice guy who, after the death of his wife (Kerry Godliman), decides that life would be easier if he started being a jerk to everyone, all the time. Its a bit like a cynical, reversed version of the positive-thinking Jim Carrey comedy Yes Man, with the smile turned upside-down.

TIN STAR Stream on Amazon. Backcountry brooding is the lifeblood of this series, which stars Tim Roth as a British expat who gets hired as the police chief of a community in the Rocky Mountains. The first season ended in a betrayal that left Roths character for dead; the second season, which hasnt been available stateside until now, picks up right after that. Expect rough justice.
HOUSE OF STONE

By Novuyo Rosa Tshuma

Zamani, the narrator of Novuyo Rosa Tshumas remarkable first novel, House of Stone, has a troubled relationship with the past. For him there is history, and then there is hi-story, a subtle but important distinction for a man who wants more than the incomplete, fragmentary tale his uncle passed on to him before dying.

As an orphan born in the violent aftermath of Zimbabwes war for independence, Zamani sees the past as riddled with loss and impossible-to-bear gaps and silences that he must powder away in order to reinvent himself.

The path Zamani takes as he constructs a new hi-story is a circuitous one. If he were an ordinary narrator, he would most likely mine and interrogate memories and photographs to construct the narrative he wants. Zamani, however, is anything but ordinary; when we first meet him he has already woven himself into the fabric of another family, the Mlambos, whose son, Bukhosi, has mysteriously disappeared.

Zamani lives on the Mlambos property as a lodger in what he refers to as a pygmy room. Following Bukhosis disappearance he draws closer to the grieving parents, Abednego and Mamma Agnes, perversely referring to them as his surrogate mother and father and doing his best to fill the void left by their missing son. And yet, to be more than just a lodger Zamani needs intimate access to Abednego and Mamma Agness past, from their childhood memories of colonial Rhodesia to the buried, unspoken tragedies of their lives during Gukurahundi  the post-independence strategy of ethnic cleansing that began under President Robert Mugabe.
This seems like a time that demands more of the same, and then some. Its a time of crisis, in which America is at odds with its allies, susceptible to manipulation by its adversaries and mired in endless infighting. More than ever, it feels as if we need the glint of satire, not as the light at the end of the tunnel but as the light in the tunnel.

There has been no shortage of Trump satire, and while much of it has been on the small screen  this is a golden age, or at least a glittery one, for topical television comedy  some has been between the covers. Alec Baldwin joined forces with Kurt Andersen on You Cant Spell America Without Me, which both extended its title with a lengthy subtitle (The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year as President Donald J. Trump) and extended Baldwins Saturday Night Live parody of the president into a more traditional Oval Office diary. The British author Howard Jacobson published Pussy, a scabrous satire that imagines Trump as a faltering scion of a powerful family. Satirists are even targeting beginning readers: The comedian Michael Ian Black published A Childs First Book of Trump, and the writing staff of John Olivers Last Week Tonight created a book for Mike Pences pet rabbit Marlon Bundo. I even wrote a Trump book of my own, Don Quixotic, which collected a series of short fictions that were originally posted on social media, in discomfort and then disbelief, over the course of the 2016 election season.

But Trump satire can be a difficult row to hoe. For starters, Trump is almost impervious to it. An aspiring satirist might look at some of the presidents lesser Twitter typos, for example, and imagine more outlandish ones: He writes boarders instead of borders? Thats hilarious, but imagine if he couldnt spell hamburgers! Or maybe its worth lampooning the presidents penchant for taking credit where credit isnt due. What if he announced an Independence Day celebration as if he had invented the holi.  Oh. That happened? If reality consistently beats you to your punch, youre not writing satire. Youre writing episode recaps ahead of time. Its one of the reasons that many of the political skits on SNL these days use chunks of actual transcripts, heightening them slightly rather than starting with a fresh premise. Its an open question whether Trump has truly descended into self-parody or whether he has just learned to co-opt the strategies of those who would use satire to hold him to account. (See: Giuliani, Rudolph W.) But what is a closed question is that his descent or co-optation swallows the process. Subjecting him to ridicule is like pushing tacks into one of those giant gummy bears. All your sharp points just end up lost in there.

So how can satire be heard in a climate like this? By becoming louder and crasser. Subtle jabs are increasingly replaced by sledgehammer blows, clever insinuations by clumsy insults. Couple that with the fact that the practitioners of satire, or what passes for it these days, have proliferated greatly. On almost any day, on almost any topic, social media disgorges tens of thousands of not-quite-funny, not-quite-insightful exercises in topical vitriol. They come from the right. They come from the left. They come from a seemingly bottomless well. While theres nothing inherently wrong with outrage, its also not inherently artful. In fact, it works like a drug, ensuring that readers become resistant to anything without the equivalent levels of vitriol. (My book made Trump look like a fool at times, and at other times not, and people objected to the times that it did not. By sympathizing with him even for a minute, even in fiction, even for the purposes of trying to understand his thought process, I wasnt doing enough to illustrate that he was evil. I was letting him off easy, I was part of the problem, an apologist, complicit or worse.)

Trumps evident egomania, which seems in no danger of waning, also games the system so that satire cannot function correctly. The more perceptive satires not only speak truth to power, but also interrogate the societies that enabled that power to move into place. Its not just a matter of identifying a culprit, but of turning a mirror to society, as in the finale of Virginia Woolfs Between the Acts, when a theatrical pageant gives way to a group of actors onstage holding mirrors up to the audience. (I have always thought that Woolfs description of the mirror-bearers  malicious; observant; expectant; expository  neatly defines the four corners of satirical thinking.)
Over the past year, the Justice Department has pressured CGTN America to detail its connections to the Chinese state. The Chinese broadcaster has asserted to the American authorities that the Beijing government does not tell it what to broadcast.

[Read more about the scrutiny of CGTN and its programming in the United States.]

Most of the recalled employees were given roughly a month to depart the United States and return to China, one of the people added. The move to pull a large number of vital people from the organization without warning created uncertainty among the staff, according to the person, especially because their replacements would need time to apply for visas.

CGTN America, which reaches 30 million households in the United States, is part of a broad campaign by Beijing to increase Chinese soft power across the globe.

In a filing made under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires those doing publicity work on behalf of foreign governments to register with the United States government, Ms. Ma sought to separate CGTN from Chinas government. She wrote in the Justice Department filing that the group enjoyed editorial independence from any state control and that it operated like other news media organizations.

The reason for the recalls, as well as the effect they might have on the status of the broadcasters filing with the American authorities, were unclear. CGTN America and Ms. Ma did not respond to emailed requests for comment. CCTV did not respond to a faxed request for comment. The Justice Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
How is it proved?

To show that Mr. Musk is in contempt, the S.E.C. will have to show that the courts order demanding that tweets be vetted is clear and unambiguous, and that there is clear and convincing evidence that he refused to comply. (A charge of criminal contempt would require proof that he willfully violated the order, a standard that would be more difficult to reach.)

Mr. Musk will be given the opportunity to address the court, and Judge Nathan may require that he appear to explain his actions. The S.E.C.s contempt motion cited an interview that Mr. Musk gave to 60 Minutes and that aired in December, in which he said, I do not respect the S.E.C. A similarly bombastic statement in court could do him more harm than good.

Is there a punishment?

If the court finds he violated the order, the potential sanctions can be designed only to compel him to comply with it, or to compensate the S.E.C. for pursuing the matter.

The latter is unlikely because the agency did not suffer any direct loss. But it could argue that investors were harmed by the tweet and seek compensation for any losses during the brief period where the statement went uncorrected.

There is an adage in civil contempt cases: The defendant carries the keys of his prison in his own pocket. Any sanction that Judge Nathan might impose on Mr. Musk would have to ensure future compliance with the preapproval requirements, rather than punish him.

Could there be a settlement?

One possible remedy in this case might be a new judgment in which Teslas in-house lawyers review all of Mr. Musks tweets in advance. That might remove the possibility that he would violate the provisions of the agreement in the future.

Whether Judge Nathan would welcome such an agreement is unclear. Federal judges hate allowing defendants to breach judicial orders, so there is a reasonable possibility that she might require him to appear before her anyway for an ear-bashing. She could even require payment of civil penalties if he violates the order again.
The economys remarkably steady job-creation machine sputtered in February and produced a mere 20,000 jobs. It was the smallest gain in well over a year and came on top of other signs that the economy was off to a sluggish start in 2019.

For months, the labor market could be counted on for an upbeat counterpoint to negative developments, including a fragile global economy weighed down by trade tensions. In the United States, growth for the first quarter is expected to dance around the 1 percent bar, as the shot of adrenaline delivered by last years tax cuts fades.

Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust in Chicago, said Fridays news from the Labor Department was worrisome. This is a disappointing report, he said. I dont think theres any way to sugarcoat it.

But the longer-term trend is what matters, and there were competing interpretations of whether the report was a troubling omen or a fluke.
Starbucks stock has been soaring, its earnings are strong, and it has been expanding rapidly in its fastest-growing major market, China.

Yet as shareholders head toward the companys annual meeting on March 20, there is a cloud on the horizon: the risk that latte lovers will punish Starbucks because they are turned off by Howard Schultzs prospective campaign for president.

Mr. Schultz, who presided over Starbucks when it went public in 1992 and dominated it for years, gave up his last operational position at Starbucks in June. Still, the company embodies his taste and vision. Whats more, Mr. Schultz remains Starbucks largest individual shareholder, and the current chief executive, Kevin Johnson, is his chosen successor.

In official documents, Starbucks says this is a pivotal year, one in which it is making the transition from a founder-led to a founder-inspired company. That would have been hard enough if Mr. Schultz, 65, had retired quietly, said Nancy F. Koehn, a historian at the Harvard Business School who has studied Mr. Schultz and Starbucks extensively. But his incipient quest for the presidency as a third-party candidate, she said, makes the handover much more difficult.
He told me, You have to nail the techno babble, Ms. Wiseman said. When she went to send her photo to the shows producers, Mr. Averbach-Katz, who never comments on Ms. Wisemans wardrobe, told her to change. I was wearing this crazy hippie peasant dress with holes in it, she said. Noah was like, Mary, you have to wear something more structured.

Ms. Wiseman and Mr. Averbach-Katz moved into their Prospect Heights apartment just after she signed contracts to became Ensign Tilley. Both were starting to think marriage was in their future. And both were ready to put lessons they had learned about long-distance love to use as Ms. Wiseman prepared to commit to nine months a year shooting Star Trek in Toronto.

It was a watershed moment in my life. It was everything Id hoped for, like Id won the lottery, she said of the part. When she told her parents, I saw my dads shoulders relax in a way I dont think Ive ever seen in my life. He actually cut a different silhouette.

They were as relieved as she was at the idea of a steady paycheck, and the financial security that came with it.

But in other ways I was really sad at having to be apart from Noah, Ms. Wiseman said. Mr. Averbach-Katzs regional theater work had prepared them for separation in smaller doses. And they were armed with advice from theater veterans: Theres a general rule of thumb that older actors have told me, which is that you should really aim to see each other every two weeks. You can push it to three, but after that it gets really hard. They put that rule into practice as Ms. Wiseman left for her first season, in March 2017. Still, the experience of missing Noah was like someone had taken an organ out of me. It just felt like, I need this person.
We both felt an intense, stabbing pain. But there Dr. Rosenbaums path and mine diverged.

She was told she had a Jones fracture, a famously difficult break. She was handed a boot and crutches. She asked if she could swim, explaining that my mental health depends on exercise.

No, she was told: You have a notoriously slow-healing fracture.

When I injured my foot, I phoned an orthopedist , Dr. Justin Greisberg at Columbia University Medical Center, who suggested an X-ray. He called afterward to tell me what I had broken.

The fifth metatarsal is a very common fracture, he said, and mine was not very serious. I should use crutches as needed but could do pretty much anything I wanted to do.

Exercise? Yes. The elliptical machine? Yes.

I knew some things, like running, would be too excruciating to contemplate. But within a week, I had gone from using crutches occasionally to not using them at all. I was exercising on an arc trainer at the gym. A week later, I was back on the elliptical.

I had another X-ray a month later. Dr. Greisberg told me I could start running again, as much as was comfortable. So I did. And soon I forgot about the injury altogether.
It only required a glance at the ultrasound for the doctor to know that he was looking at identical twins.

The positioning of two amniotic sacs attached to one placenta was the giveaway. It would be a couple of months before he could tell the mother whether to expect two boys or two girls.

What seemed certain was that her babies would share a biological sex. And yet at 14 weeks when Dr. Nicholas M. Fisk, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital at the time, i nspected the ultrasound, he saw something perplexing.

One boy. One girl.

Sharing a single placenta.

It doesnt add up, Dr. Fisk recalled thinking.

As it turned out, the twins were neither fraternal nor identical. They fell into a third rare category known as semi-identical or sesquizygotic twins. Although it would take several years to prove, he was looking at the first set of semi-identical twins to be identified during pregnancy, according to a paper published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The following report compiles all significant security incidents confirmed by New York Times reporters throughout Afghanistan from the past seven days. It is necessarily incomplete as many local officials refuse to confirm casualty information. The report includes government claims of insurgent casualty figures, but in most cases these cannot be independently verified by The Times. Similarly, the reports do not include Taliban claims for their attacks on the government unless they can be verified. Both sides routinely inflate casualty totals for their opponents.

At least 119 pro-government forces and 26 civilians were killed in Afghanistan during the past week, in a surge of violent attacks amid ongoing peace negotiations between American diplomats and the Taliban in Qatar. The deadliest attack took place in Helmand Province, where insurgents penetrated a military compound and killed at least 40 Afghan soldiers over 36 hours of fighting. The site was once a major base for United States forces, and an adjoining part of the compound still houses American troops. There were no American casualties.

[Read the Afghan War Casualty Report from previous weeks.]

March 7 Kabul Province: three civilians killed

Three civilians were killed and 31 others were wounded in Kabul when attackers launched mortar and rocket attacks on a crowd of people commemorating the 24th anniversary of the death of Abdul Ali Mazari, a Hazara leader. The Islamic State claimed credit for the attack. High-ranking government officials and politicians were present at the event. Abdul Latif Pedram, a presidential candidate, was among those wounded. The attackers fired mortars from a nearby house. Two attackers were killed and another was arrested by security forces.

March 7 Baghlan Province: two police officers killed

A police Humvee hit a roadside bomb in the village of Hussainkhel in Pul-i-Kumri City, the provincial capital. Two police officers were killed and another was wounded in the explosion.
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The Times recently asked servicewomen and veterans to share stories about their military service for a project planned for today, International Womens Day. I wasnt surprised that we received more than 650 submissions to our reader call-out. But reading the dozens of accounts that poured in each day filled me with a renewed sense of appreciation and frustration for these womens service. Too many had to force their way into an institution that has been designed for and upheld by men for generations. Too many were told they didnt belong. And too many felt the physical and mental consequences of disrupting and threatening the male-dominated status quo in ways that should have been punishable  and yet were repeatedly ignored by senior military leaders.
Smallville, it aint. This superhero-horror hybrid takes place in a bucolic Kansas town where an alien child (Jackson Dunn) crash-lands and is raised on a farm by a kindly couple (Elizabeth Banks and David Denman). Only when his superpowers develop, hes tempted to use them for evil, not good. The unnerving trailer trumpets the presence of producer James Gunn, who was fired from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise over offensive past tweets, but the film was actually written by his brother Brian Gunn and cousin Mark Gunn, and directed by David Yarovesky.
For Ed Mangano, public service was self-service, the lead prosecutor, Catherine Mirabile, said during closing arguments at the latest trial. From the moment he took office, he cashed in the power to benefit himself and his wife.

That assessment could have been made for many members of the Nassau County Republican machine in recent years, as corruption scandals have picked off its leaders, who time and time again have been shown in courtrooms to have peddled their influence to line their pockets, violating the law.

It is a group that once wielded extraordinary influence and had a lock on elected offices for decades. But a culture of corruption has eviscerated Republican control of the county, and each new conviction has helped shift more power to Democrats, political strategists said.

When you are as powerful an electoral majority as the Nassau Republicans used to be, you tend to get a little arrogant, and you tend to believe that you can do things and not get caught, said Steve Israel, a former Democratic congressman representing Long Island. That has clearly caught up with the Republican machine in Nassau.

Today, Laura Curran, a Democrat, holds Mr. Manganos former position, and Democrats now make up a majority of party-affiliated voters in a county that once was the apogee of Republican control of Americas suburbs.

Last November, Long Island was credited with returning the State Senate to the Democrats for the first time in decades, and Nassau County was pivotal in that effort, electing Democrats to three seats formerly held by Republicans.

Part of the change is demographic. Lawrence Levy, the executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, said an influx of younger, minority and immigrant residents is one reason the citys suburbs, once strongholds of Republican power, have begun to wobble, a trend that he said bears out countrywide.
[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]

For more than 20 years, the murder of Howard Pilmar, a high-end coffee shop and office supply entrepreneur who was stabbed dozens of times and left in a hallway outside his Manhattan office in 1996, went unsolved.

From the get-go, the police investigating Mr. Pilmars grisly death were convinced that the culprit was someone who knew him. As they investigated, they discovered that Mr. Pilmars wife, Roslyn, and her brother, Evan Wald, had both visited Mr. Pilmars office the night before he was found dead.

The police learned that Mrs. Pilmar stood to receive more than a million dollars in life insurance benefits after her husbands death. When they questioned Mr. Wald, they noticed a cut on his hand.

But as the years passed, detectives never found enough evidence to charge or arrest Mrs. Pilmar or Mr. Wald. Yet they could not find any other suspects in Mr. Pilmars murder either.
Melanie Earle, 17, was involved in a car crash four years ago, leaving her with post-traumatic stress that she struggled to talk about for a long time. She hopes to use her scholarship to pursue mechanical engineering, humanitarian studies and maybe a language or two.

Jaylen Campbell, 17, earned top grades in middle school but was frustrated when his efforts did not improve life for his family in Brooklyn. So he collected bottles and cans on the street to recycle for a nickel apiece. Now he feels the academic work is paying off. Another scholarship has taken him to China, and in college, he wants to study engineering and use it to improve peoples lives.

Nefertari Elshiekh, 18, worked several jobs to support her family and still became an honor student. She was so grateful for the education she received that she is determined to become an elementary schoolteacher  and to fight for fair educational policies.

Hanah Jun, 17, watched her mother struggle with mental illness while she and her grandmother did their best to stay afloat in Queens. But Ms. Jun also excelled as a volleyball player and musician, participated in student government and held part-time jobs. She is passionate about the environment and open-minded about her career. I just want to help people, she said. I think that through everything, Ive developed a very strong sense of empathy.

Ms. Jun and several other scholarship winners described their favorite young adult novels or comic books with infectious enthusiasm, explaining that they found role models in fiction when they could not find them in real life. But the nonfiction was less comforting: In essays and interviews, all 10 pointed to recent news headlines that had left them unnerved or afraid.

Salma Elsayed, 17, a model student who taught English to girls in Egypt in 2017, was struck by news reports of teachers going on strike across the United States. The issue of education in this country is constantly something I think about, and the disparities that students face, she said.

Derek Rodriguez, 17, said news reports about children being separated from their parents at the United States border with Mexico struck a raw nerve. He could relate. His stepfather was taken away by immigration agents who stormed his home when he was 5. That was the point when I had to grow up, he said.
There have been protests, and some have questioned their relationship with the church and decided to leave.

Still, some argue that the fallout of the scandal is not necessarily measurable in emptier pews or fewer envelopes left on the collection plate, but instead in the difficult-to-quantify yet palpable angst of the Catholics who have kept coming to Mass.

Some have stayed in the church with the hope of driving change from inside. Others have found that, even with their frustration with church leaders, pulling away from Catholicism was difficult, as their parish is their sanctuary and Mass an essential part of their routine. Some said they were weighing the scandal against the ways in which they see the church, through its charitable and social justice efforts, as a positive force.

Its a way of life, a way of being, a way of looking at the world, Mr. Gibson said. Its very difficult to give that up.

Here in Guilford, a community of around 20,000 people just two hours from New York City, four of the five clergy members accused who served at St. Georges are dead; one was removed from ministry in 2010 and defrocked last year.

Last year, Archbishop Blair said he would release the names of priests accused of abuse going back to 1953, when the archdiocese was formed. Most of the alleged abuse took place in the 1970s and 1980s, well before Archbishop Blairs arrival in 2013. The archbishop during that period, the Most Rev. John F. Whealon, died in 1991. (Archbishop Blair spent his early career as a parish priest in the Detroit archdiocese and was bishop in Toledo, Ohio, before going to Hartford.)
While Facebook has always insisted otherwise, its commitment to protecting the information of users has been weak at best since its very founding. But now Mr. Zuckerberg has written a blog post  with not one single trace of irony and with nary a mention of the many privacy abuses he has presided over  announcing that the company would be betting big on private messaging and protected communications for its billions of users.

You know, like Snapchat, but on a Facebook scale.

Over the years, Facebook has swiped many nifty ideas from Snapchat, the ephemeral messaging platform  which Mr. Zuckerberg actually tried to buy many years ago when it was still a start-up. That has been especially true at the Facebook-owned Instagram, which did a wholesale shoplift of Snapchats Stories by creating  wait for it  Instagram Stories!

In a podcast interview with me, the Instagram co-founder and former chief executive Kevin Systrom did not even bother to hide the act. He said that he admired the creativity of Evan Spiegel, the Snapchat founder, and that taking a good idea and making it better was a thing that always happened in tech. He compared the Stories feature to a car radio that Instagram had simply improved on. Indeed it did, and it has been a huge hit for Facebook.

Thats fair enough, I guess. But this time Mr. Zuckerberg is pilfering so much more, sketching out a future business that looks a lot like Snapchat, with a little bit like Chinas WeChat mixed in. And, mostly, not at all like Facebook.

The big takeaway is that the penny has finally dropped with Mr. Zuckerberg that messaging and social media are very different to users, as much as he has tried to force them into an unholy mush.
About a decade ago, I stopped sending flowers on Mothers Day for political reasons. My mom, a high-school-educated Nuyorican with a soft spot for Hallmark holidays, was not pleased. But I dont want to celebrate you only as a mother, I tried to explain.

A resilient woman who once worked two jobs after my father abandoned her with three mortgages, two kids and no child support, she was more than just a parent to me. She was a superhero. I want to acknowledge everything that you are, I told her. The whole person. I started sending my mom flowers on March 8 instead.

It didnt go over well the first year. The date meant nothing to her.

Its International Womens Day, and its celebrated all over the world, I persisted. The United Nations declared it an official holiday in 1975.

Ive never seen a card for that, she said.

Well, its not celebrated in the United States.

At this, my mom harrumphed. Why not?
HAIFA, Israel  I was sitting in my familys home in Haifa in 1984 when I watched a man who had just won a seat in the Knesset appear on television. In American-accented Hebrew, he reiterated the cornerstone of his campaign platform: All Arabs must be expelled from the land  by force, if necessary. In its televised campaign advertisement, his party had declared, In the name of God and Israel, the Arabs must go. I was 9 years old, Palestinian, Arab and a citizen of Israel. This man, Meir Kahane, wanted me gone.

Thirty-five years later, I am still here. Mr. Kahanes party was banned by Israels High Court in 1988 and declared a terrorist organization in 1994. And I lead the Hadash Party and, for the past four years, the Joint List, representing Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Knesset. Mr. Kahanes adherents are still here, too, but no party that so explicitly pledges allegiance to his vision has made a successful bid for the Knesset since.

That looks like it will change this year.

On Feb. 20, I sat with my 10-year-old son, Tayeb, in our family home in Haifa as we watched news reports that a new Kahanist party called Jewish Power, which advocates ethnic cleansing throughout the country and whose leader, in 2012, openly called for the erasure of Gaza, had incorporated and joined with two other extremist political parties to run in the general election on April 9. It seems very likely that theyll take seats as members of the next Knesset.

In 1984, even right-wing members of Knesset left the room when Mr. Kahane stood to speak. The prime minister at the time, Yitzhak Shamir of the right-wing Likud Party, said he would absolutely refuse to allow Mr. Kahane into his coalition, even if it cost him the government. Now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is opening the doors of the Knesset and welcoming the Kahanists inside.
To the Editor:

Re How the Left Embraced Elitism (column, Feb. 12):

Economists produce lots of numbers. If you look at the ones David Brooks cites, then the productive dy namism of capitalism is truly a wonder to behold, and the turn toward socialism suggested by the Green New Deal would only serve to undermine the free markets success.

Or you could look at these: In 2011, extreme poverty in the United States was double the levels in 1996, with child poverty reaching r ecord levels.

In 2015, 100 million Ame ricans, almost a third of us, were living in near poverty. In 2018 the United Nations condemned the private wealth and public squalor i n the United States.

Looking at those numbers, one could be led to believe that capitalism had accomplished exactly what Marx predicted: made the rich richer and the poor poorer. Unfortunately, our politics is incapable of understanding that capitalism does both these things: It is very good at creating wealth and very bad at spreading it around.
In Nepal, many people believe that girls are impure when we are menstruating. We are often treated as untouchable during our periods. Some of us have been banished from our home and need to sleep outside in a cow shed or a mud hut. This process is called chhapaudi. We are forbidden from eating meat, milk products, and fruits or vegetables because it is believed that we will contaminate the source of those foods. We are not allowed to go in the kitchen, cook, or touch utensils and jars containing food. We are not even allowed to look at the faces of our father, brother, and other male member in the family. If we do, some believe it brings illness and perhaps death upon them. We live in Surkhet, Nepal. We range in age from 12 to 18. These are some of our menstruation stories. The first time I had my period, my grandmother told me to go to the river and bathe. It was cold, and the water was colder. I didnt want to bathe, but I had to. When I returned home, my grandmother told me to go into a dark room. I was not allowed to leave the room or touch anyone for 10 days. I was also forbidden from seeing the sun. I usually get lots of love from my family. But when I have my period, I am treated differently. I feel discriminated against and humiliated. Six two times? 12. When I started my period, my mom allowed me to go to school, but I had to hide from my brother because my family believed if I saw his face, his life would be shortened. During my first period, I stayed in my sisters home, but I could only be there in the nighttime. In the daytime, I stayed in a forest nearby. When I got my first period, I was afraid because my mom said I had to stay in the shed for 12 days. It was very cold, and the nights were long. I was also not allowed to go to school. When my older sisters were menstruating, our mother wouldnt allow them to enter our place because the witch doctor told her our home would be haunted if she wasnt strict about menstrual rules. My hope is that our generation will end the stigma against menstruation in Nepal. I hope people become educated about the fact that menstruation is a natural process. Girls and women are not polluted when they menstruate. I want the girls of next generation to be free of superstitious beliefs that isolate and humiliate them. I want future generations of girls to have access to sanitary napkins. I want them to be allowed to eat what they want, talk and touch the people they love, and live in all rooms of their home. I want them to be free of sin and fear during menstruation. I want the girls of future generations to have their freedom at all times. I also want this for me.
This article is part of David Leonhardts newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it each weekday.

Sherrod Brown yesterday joined the list of Democrats who are a) well positioned to appeal to swing voters and b) not running for president in 2020. Others on that list include Deval Patrick, Mitch Landrieu and Michael Bloomberg.

Im not shocked by Browns decision. He isnt very well-known nationally, despite his impressive record of winning elections in Ohio. And if he had run, he would have had to contend with discussion of his ugly 1986 divorce, during which his ex-wife accused him of mistreatment (although she now supports him).

Browns demurral adds to the importance of the decisions facing Joe Biden and Beto ORourke. They remain the last high-profile candidates who are likely to build a presidential campaign at least in part around appealing to swing voters  as well as the roughly half of Democratic voters who identify as moderate or conservative.
This is great, I definitely need help with the questions, Cheri Zoran said, as she and her daughter sat down at the computer to begin their session. College costs keep going up, and this takes some stress off the parents when they understand where to get financial help.
[Want to get this by email? Heres the sign-up.]

Listeners have come to expect it. Lots of it.

Tape.

Audio of real-world events as they unfold. Press conferences. Speeches. Newsreel. Archival recordings.

Its woven into almost every episode of The Daily to transport listeners to a time or a place, to create urgency and immediacy.

Heres an example from Fridays episode about Michael Jackson. Our guest, the Times culture critic and Still Processing co-host Wesley Morris, introduces the film Leaving Neverland, and tape begins to weave in and out around him.

Michael: What do we need to talk about this week? Wesley: Its probably Leaving Neverland, this Michael Jackson documentary. Tape: Not a trailer or even a single clip of this new documentary has been released ahead of its debut today, but that has not slowed the buzz behind it. Wesley: I became aware of this movie as it was making its way towards Sundance in January. Tape: Its probably right now the most talked-about film at Sundance.

Whats the point of tape like that? There are a few explanations. First, it alleviates the burden of the guest having to tell the entire story him- or herself. I could listen to Wesley talk all day, but its a lot to ask him to deliver every detail of a complex tale. Tape is the ultimate storytelling sidekick. Here, the tape does the work of explaining how much the world awaited this film  or dreaded its arrival. Second, the tape deepens our understanding of the reaction and impact around it. There really were protests over Leaving Neverland at the Sundance Film Festival. Dont take our word for it. The tape brings you there.

Every week, producers spend hours hunting for the perfect tape, diving into old archives, watching congressional hearings on C-Span. Were an obsessive bunch.
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and his team are said to be finishing their report, almost two years in the making, into possible Russian collusion and obstruction of justice by President Trump and those close to him. Four Times journalists who have been covering the developments closely, Amy Fiscus, Mark Mazzetti, Maggie Haberman and Katie Benner, dialed into a conference call with New York Times subscribers on Thursday morning. (Listen to the audio in full here.) They discussed their experience covering the story and answered questions from readers about the continuing investigation. Read a lightly edited excerpt from their conversation, led by Ms. Fiscus, here.

Amy Fiscus What questions are you each looking for this report to answer? What have been your white whales of covering this investigation?

Mark Mazzetti There are so many, since weve all been at this for so long. We have written so much about Russia, weve written about the different aspects of whats been called the collusion case, weve written about Middle Eastern countries having a role in this investigation. I think its going to be, to a degree, unsatisfying if, as we expect, the report is less expansive than we might want. And thats going to then set us up to go report out exactly what they knew about the evidence and why they decided not to bring charges. But I do think, stepping back, its important to say that if you look at the breadth of what Mueller has done so far, these indictments are incredibly detailed. And far more than is normal, in many cases. And so even if this final report is less expansive than we might think, if you go back and look at the, for instance, two big Russia indictments, theyre filled with information that is based on highly classified information that really does tell a narrative of what the Russians did in advance of the 2016 election, which is pretty breathtaking.
One frigid morning last month, April Turner sidled up to the parapet of a 21-story apartment building on the Upper West Side, climbed over the edge and dangled herself 188 feet above the pavement.

Suspended by ropes like the ones used by rock climbers, she slid past balcony ledges and window frames, careful not to lock eyes with dumbstruck residents. With a tiny mallet and a point-and-shoot camera, she cataloged cracks and blemishes on the buildings facade, pausing at each floor to feel around for fatal flaws.

If pedestrians bothered to watch, they might have applauded as she touched down near a neighboring nail salon. Without fanfare, she detached her gear, walked back inside the co-op and took the elevator to the roof for another drop  to canvass another section of the postwar buildings dappled face.

Its all in a days work for a growing number of New York Citys building facade inspectors.

The city requires that of the approximately 1 million buildings in New York City, those taller than six stories  more than 14,500 structures  have their facades inspected every five years, to ensure the safety of passers-by below. Rather than using bulky swing-stage scaffolds, like the ones for window washing, or hydraulic cranes that block traffic, an increasing number of design and engineering firms are training their staff to rappel down the side of skyscrapers in search of dangerous defects.
Faced with the prospect of a sizable asteroid heading toward Earth and causing doomsday, humanity has come up with various responses.

Hollywood may reckon that the best way to destroy an errant space rock is with nuclear weapons. This is rarely the preferred option of experts, but using some sort of spacecraft system to smash an asteroid into small, harmless pieces is seen as a real-world possibility. A new study, looking at a gigantic space rock-on-space rock clash, hints at how utterly ineffective this type of asteroid assassination attempt may be.

Using computer models, scientists simulated a 4,000-foot asteroid smashing into a 15.5-mile asteroid at 11,200 miles per hour. Immediately after colliding, the large asteroid cracked considerably, with debris flowing outward like a cascade of Ping-Pong balls. Despite some deep fractures, the heart of the asteroid was not comprehensively damaged.

As time went on, the gravitational pull of the asteroids resilient core was able to pull back ejected shards. It seems that asteroids dont just absorb mind-boggling amounts of damage, but, as previous work has hinted, they also are able to rebuild themselves.
The new American spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts and built by SpaceX gently splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday morning, ending a successful demonstration trip.

This is an amazing achievement in American history, Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, said on NASA Television afterward.

[Sign up to get reminders for space and astronomy events on your calendar.]

The mission, even though there were no astronauts aboard, was a milestone in NASAs strategy of turning to private companies to provide trips to orbit for its astronauts. Instead of building its own vehicles, like the space shuttles that were retired in 2011, the space agency hired SpaceX and Boeing to develop commercial space systems.

Last Saturday, SpaceX was the first to launch its spacecraft, an upgraded version of the Dragon capsule that has carried cargo to the space station for years. The Crew Dragon capsule docked with the International Space Station a day later. Early on Friday, it left and after a couple of orbits of Earth, it fired its thrusters to allow Earths gravity to pull it down.
Not long after, I decided to try dating again after an 11-year break. Technology had changed so much, and I was curious to see what it was like to go from websites with clunky messaging systems to smartphone apps requiring just the swipe of a finger. Yet the premise remained the same: We were browsing a human library, judging the books by their covers.

I decided my only expectation would be to meet new people. I had no desire to find a long-term partner. I wanted to have fun and I wanted attention  male, sexual attention, which had been missing since our son was born.

Soon enough I connected with a man, and our communication quickly turned sexual, despite my saying I wasnt interested in virtual sex.

Jens said he lived in Norway, had been separated for six months, traveled a lot for work and was in my area every two months or so. He was here right now, in fact, and he wanted to meet. But I wasnt available, and he had to fly out.

We stayed in touch, and soon photos and lascivious flirtations were streaming back and forth. He told me I was beautiful, attractive, desirable  things I hadnt heard in years. It didnt matter that we were typically 4,000 miles apart; the distance and the anticipation worked in tandem to magnify the desire.

I often would hear from him around dinnertime, which was his bedtime. More than once I found myself texting racy thoughts while putting a pot of pasta on the stove. His thing about visiting every two months became a joke to us as the two months stretched to three, then four. Finally, he sent a text saying he would be visiting in a week.
Discwoman , a booking agency in Brooklyn, is trying to answer questions that were often overlooked in night life: How do you create safety in parties and night life? And, how can you make everyone feel included in that safety?

Although much of electronic dance music, like house and techno, came into being at gay and black clubs in Detroit, Chicago and New York in the 1980s, today a lot of it is enjoyed at predominantly white clubs in Europe or at enormous festivals. And while dance-world night life can be community building and fun, there is also harassment, assault and drugging.

There are a few ways to fix that. By nature all of our events are inclusive, booking women and women of color. We try to make it feel normal rather than a spectacle, said Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson, a founder of Discwoman. Im really into the idea of it not being considered radical. Its just how it should be. I feel like thats how our parties should be, too.

Across the United States and in Europe, there are a number of collectives focused on diversity, inclusion and self-care in the electronic dance space.
A Design Gallery to Feel at Home In

On Monday, the influential design gallery the Future Perfect will open Casa Perfect New York, a West Village brownstone furnished with emerging contemporary design  one of the most exciting retail events in the field since Murray Moss opened his namesake store in 1994. The 19th-century house was formerly owned by the financier Nathaniel Rothschild who, in 2001, undertook a dramatic renovation of the space with the British architect David Chipperfield, who installed an angular oak staircase that zigzags up through the front third of the Italianate structure.

In the words of owner David Alhadeff, the bold move to open a gallery in a townhouse is a response to the increasing irrelevance of traditional retail. He adds, Its more and more difficult to get people out from behind their computers, but this kind of experience is what is working now. Alhadeff had the idea for Casa Perfect New York almost immediately after he opened Casa Perfect in Los Angeles in 2017. (The current West Coast Casa Perfect is a Beverly Hills estate formerly owned by Elvis Presley.) Showing a roster of exciting young designers in a residential space has appealed to collectors who spend time lounging around the house as if they were at the home of a friend. Ive invited you over to hang out, and yeah, you can shop if you want, says Alhadeff, who exudes a laid-back but infectious enthusiasm.

The Future Perfect, which opened in Williamsburg in 2003 and championed then-unknown designers Lindsey Adelman, Jason Miller and Fort Standard, has grown steadily over the last 16 years. In 2008, Alhadeff moved the gallery to Great Jones Street and over the last decade has expanded his program to include European designers, such as Dimore Studio and Marta Sala Editions. At a time when many retail businesses are scaling back, Alhadeff sees opportunities to expand. The new home is roughly twice the size of the current Great Jones Street space, a testament to the strength of the current market for contemporary design and its importance to the city. Casa Perfect New York will open by appointment starting Monday, March 11.  TOM DELAVAN
During the Great Depression, the Glass-Steagall Act forced banks to separate commercial and investment banking operations. Mr. Cicilline told the Financial Times that something similar could apply to tech.

Its an interesting idea whether there would be a way to think about separating what platforms do versus people who are selling products and information, he said.

Sadly, this feels like a nonstarter. Splitting the operations of banks was relatively straightforward; the data sales and platform components of companies like Google and Facebook are (whatever Mr. Zuckerberg says) deeply intertwined.

Still, its probably one of many options. There arent easy answers to Big Tech antitrust questions, Mr. Cicilline said to Bloomberg Opinion in January. Were not going to approach this, like, Heres my solution.

He has the wind at his back. Congressional hearings with Facebook and others last year revealed that lawmakers in both parties have antitrust concerns about tech companies. And the Federal Trade Commission recently announced a task force of 17 lawyers dedicated to monitoring competition in U.S. technology markets. The commissions director of competition, Bruce Hoffman, said some companies could be forced to spin off previous acquisitions.

How far these efforts will go  and how quickly  remains unclear. It may be difficult to prove violation of federal antitrust law until the laws are updated to better apply to technology companies. And splitting a company like Facebook or Google would require costly, lengthy legal battles that the government may yet balk at.

Whos to blame for robo-car deaths?

Arizona prosecutors said Tuesday that they wouldnt charge Uber with a crime after one of its autonomous cars hit and killed a pedestrian last year. Instead, they said investigators should look into what the safety driver would or should have seen that night.
I dont even know how to access my account, Mr. Simons said.

His comfort zone is antitrust regulation, a major focus for the F.T.C. and an area in which he has worked for most of his career. In his meticulous office, Mr. Simons keeps handy a worn Yale Law Journal with red plastic tabs on antitrust articles. He has had six of its authors speak at the F.T.C. since he arrived.

In one of his first actions as chairman, he held hearings on updating merger reviews and antitrust enforcement in the digital age. In late February, he announced a task force of 17 antitrust staff members to study potential problems that could arise from past tech mergers.

In antitrust, you want to focus on areas where there is likely to be market power or monopoly power, Mr. Simons said. So it is not unreasonable to look at big digital platforms and say, well, that might be an ripe area to look at.

He is new to the world of data privacy and admits he is cramming to understand it, immersing himself in articles and grilling staff about data protection. But that, he said, allows him to bring a fresh perspective to privacy enforcement.

I am willing to look at everything with a fresh eye, and to question long-held beliefs and assumptions, he said.

The F.T.C. monitors whether companies like Google, Uber and Facebook break promises written into privacy policies. But it cant directly fine a company for a first-time offense; it can only charge a company with deceptive or unfair business practices, which the agency must prove in court. The potential penalty against Facebook could reach billions of dollars because the case hinges on whether it violated a previous settlement.
Receiving designation as a Four Star School reflects academic excellence among students, educators, and the administration, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick said in a statement. I am honored to recognize these Four Star Schools for their hard work and dedication in preparing their students for a bright and prosperous future.
The move by the publishing company is only the latest legal controversy to erupt over the play since Mr. Rudin persuaded Ms. Lee, shortly before her death, to grant him the rights to create a Broadway adaptation of her novel and to permit the screenwriter Aaron Sorkin to write the script. Last year the Lee estate sued Mr. Rudin, asserting that a draft script deviated impermissibly from the novel; Mr. Rudin countersued, and the case was settled.

The latest dispute, over whether and when the Sergel adaptation can be staged now that the Sorkin adaptation exists, pits an agreement Ms. Lee signed with Dramatic Publishing in 1969 against one she signed with Mr. Rudin in 2015.

The disagreement broke into public view in January, when a British production company announced that it was canceling a planned tour of the Sergel production under threat from Mr. Rudins lawyers. Then last month, eight American theaters separately said they were canceling productions of the play for the same reason.

The cancellations, some of them at small, volunteer-run theaters, and in some cases just before the start of planned productions, prompted an outcry. Mr. Rudin then said he would allow the affected theaters to stage the Sorkin production, rather than the Sergel production, an offer that came too late for some, but was enticing to others.
How to navigate bathroom concerns

Many domestic flights are on single-aisle planes which rarely have accessible bathrooms onboard. Even though wide-body planes (those with two aisles) are required to have an accessible lavatory, the tight configuration doesnt work for many travelers with disabilities. To avoid embarrassment, always confirm before departure that the plane has an onboard wheelchair. Flight attendants can push you to the bathroom. They do not assist with transferring to a toilet or providing personal care.

Better yet, consider that domestic airports are required to have accessible restrooms in all terminals; you will definitely be better off using the toilet before you depart. However, some small or older airports in the United States, and others abroad may not have them. Staff at the information desk in the airport can guide you to an accessible or family bathroom, or you can review the terminal layout on a nearby map or on your smartphone before you depart to find the closest accessible restroom. Although it isnt healthy, Ms. Longmire stops eating and drinking the day before a flight. Other travelers might choose to use a catheter or wear protective undergarments. WheelchairTravel has more information here.

What to do once you get to the airport

Upon arrival at the airport, remind your airline that you need wheelchair assistance. At the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, passengers who cannot stand or walk go through a pat-down administered by an officer of their same gender. The T.S.A. website explains the process in detail. You may also call the T.S.A. Cares help line (855-787-2227) at least 72 hours before flying with any questions.

Once you get to the gate, tell the agent you have a disability and want to pre-board. Unfortunately, you cannot roll on the aircraft and remain in your wheelchair. Passengers who are unable to walk are transferred to a narrow, high-backed aisle chair with security straps. The preboarding is a safety measure that allows people with disabilities the additional time or assistance they need to get to their seats. The Air Carrier Access Act (A.C.C.A.) states individuals with disabilities are to board before all other passengers, including first class passengers, elite-level passengers, members of the military, passengers with small children, etc.

What to do if things go wrong

The A.C.C.A. prevents discrimination on the basis of disability and applies to all U.S. airlines and flights on foreign carriers that fly into or out of the United States. The Department of Transportation enforces the A.C.C.A.
Like Trump or hate Trump, now the border is an attraction, said Russell True, who with partners, bought Rancho de la Osa at auction complete with its vintage western furnishings and period art in late 2016. They dont publicize the ranchs proximity to the border fence and had hoped the border would be a neutral feature of the ranch. Instead, Mr. True said it has piqued the interest of guests.

The first thing they want to do is see the wall, he said. We could not have planned for the political shift and that it would become interesting.

Originally opened in the 1920s, Rancho de la Osa drew many celebrated guests, including Joan Crawford, Cesar Romero and John Wayne, for whom three of the 18 bedrooms are named (double room rates from $235 a person, all inclusive). The cowboy actor of the silent film era, Tom Mix, made one of his many films here. Authors checked in too, including the western novelist Zane Grey and Margaret Mitchell. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson led the political A-list along with William Clayton, who drafted the Marshall Plan to aid European countries after World War II in a two-bedroom house on the property.
When she first heard about the controversy, Eva Schloss, a Holocaust survivor whose mother later married Anne Franks father, was shocked.

Students at a school in Southern California had been photographed giving a Nazi salute while standing in front of several dozen red cups arranged in the shape of a swastika. The photos, shared widely on social media last weekend, provoked widespread outrage.

On Thursday, Ms. Schloss, 89, found out just what those teenagers were thinking. The answer, it turns out, is that they werent.

I think they really didnt think about the consequences, but I think they have learned a lesson for life, Ms. Schloss, who has been on a tour of the United States for several weeks speaking out about the dangers of prejudice, told reporters at a news conference Thursday after a private meeting with the students.
When religion is under attack, they stand by us, because theyve been there, said Zahra Ali, a Somali-American resident of Minneapolis who once saw Ms. Omars election as a beacon of hope but who did not plan to vote for her again.

For her to go out there and target, on a daily basis, Jews, is very sad, Ms. Ali said.

Ms. Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, was seen by voters as a symbolic counterweight to President Trump, who is deeply unpopular in Minneapolis and who has spoken critically about the regions large Somali population. Ms. Omar, a Somali refugee who came to the United States as a girl, received more than three-quarters of the vote last year, taking over a seat that had been held by Keith Ellison, a fellow Democrat and the countrys first Muslim elected to Congress.

Here in Minnesota, we dont only welcome immigrants, we send them to Washington, Ms. Omar told a jubilant crowd at her election night party.

But shortly after her victory, Ms. Omar began drawing controversy with her remarks about Jews and Israel. At various points, she suggested that Israel was not a democracy, insinuated that American support for Israel was motivated by money from a pro-Israel lobbying group and said pro-Israel activists were pushing for allegiance to a foreign country.

Rabbi Avi Olitzky, who helps lead a congregation in suburban St. Louis Park, in Ms. Omars district, said some of his members had gone from wanting to make sure their congresswoman was better educated about anti-Semitism to frightened about her views.

I think weve seen the recognition of the weight of her words, but the continued comments dont reflect that sensitivity, said Rabbi Olitzky, who said he had consulted with Ms. Omar and her aides in recent weeks. He suggested that the congresswoman should consider participating in bipartisan trips to Israel and making a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Still, he cautioned: I dont know about bouncing back from the damage already done.
DENVER  Just hours stood between Jorge Zaldivar and his meeting with immigration officials, and so once again his family gathered to say goodbye.

Nearly a million people in the United States have received deportation orders but have managed to stay in the country anyway, often hanging on through postponements granted to them at check-ins with immigration officials. For years, those appointments were largely routine, and most people went in expecting to receive another temporary reprieve.

That changed when the Trump administration said it would expand deportation priorities to include anyone who had crossed the border illegally. And in the last two years, in households across the country, the dinner before a check-in has turned into a grim ritual, with families never sure whether or not this meal is the last they share together.

[Read about a mother and daughter who were seeking asylum  they both have H.I.V. but only one was allowed entry.]
A Catholic school in Kansas is facing pressure to reverse its decision not to enroll a child with married same-sex parents.

More than 1,200 people have signed a petition presented to the institution, St. Ann Catholic School in Prairie Village, urging administrators to allow the child into kindergarten at the school, which serves students through eighth grade. Over a third of the people who had signed by Friday were parish members or had children enrolled in the school; others belonged to different parishes.

One of the many reasons that we choose to send our children to St. Ann is the welcoming culture, which is central to the original ministry of Jesus Christ, said an accompanying letter addressed to Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann and the superintendent of the archdioceses schools, Kathleen OHara.

We ask you to consider the many ways that other modern marriages may be inconsistent with the Churchs teaching on Sacramental marriage (i.e. vasectomy, IVF, divorce, and remarriage without approved annulment), the letter said. Further, St. Ann does accept non-Catholic children and families into our school. Presumably, these families are not in marriages that are conformant to the teachings of the Church.
WASHINGTON  Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who provided archives of secret military documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, was taken into custody on Friday after a federal judge found her in contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury that is investigating the antisecrecy group.

Judge Claude H. Hilton of Federal District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that Ms. Manning must stay in civil detention until she testifies. Ms. Manning had vowed not to cooperate in the investigation even though prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia granted immunity for her testimony.

In a statement posted on Twitter after she was arrested, Ms. Manning said she had ethical objections to the secrecy of the grand-jury system and will not comply with the subpoena.

The case is part of a long-running criminal inquiry into WikiLeaks and its leader, Julian Assange, that dates to the Obama administration and which the Trump administration revived. Ms. Manning said on Thursday that prosecutors on Wednesday had asked her a series of questions about WikiLeaks before the grand jury, but she had responded to every question by saying it violated her constitutional rights.
Mr. Cohen has told the associates that last March, before his office and homes were raided, he had dinner with Mr. Trump, and that he and the president talked on the phone after the raids in April. After those conversations, Mr. Cohen told the associates that he anticipated he would be given a pardon or some form of protection if he would remain silent about having been reimbursed by Mr. Trump for making the payments, according to people told of the discussions.

Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump were part of a formal agreement in which their lawyers worked together to review documents that the F.B.I. had seized to determine what could be declared off limits to law enforcement officials because of attorney-client privilege. But that joint effort ended in July 2018, as Mr. Trumps aides balked at paying parts of Mr. Cohens legal bills.

The exchange between the two men on Friday highlighted the stakes for both in establishing whether Mr. Cohen was credible in the accusations he has made against the president in his congressional testimony and in providing information to federal prosecutors. Republicans and Mr. Trumps allies have noted that in the testimony he said he had never sought a pardon. At the same time, Mr. Trump has often said things that are not true, including statements related to his knowledge of the payments to Ms. Daniels.

The questions about the credibility of Mr. Cohens public testimony stands in contrast with how some prosecutors working with him have described him. A memo to the federal court judge overseeing Mr. Cohens case in Manhattan from the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, said that Mr. Cohen had been truthful and provided useful information in connection with their work. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan were more questioning about the timing and motivation for Mr. Cohens help, but they also have used information he provided that they were able to corroborate.

The volleys between the two men on Friday also highlighted the continued questions about Mr. Trumps pardon power and how he might use it as Mr. Mueller wraps up his investigation, as other federal prosecutors and Democrats in Congress intensify theirs and expand their scope into the presidents business career.

The New York Times reported in March 2018 that Mr. Trumps previous lead lawyer, John Dowd, had raised the possibility of pardons with lawyers for Paul Manafort, the presidents former campaign chairman, and Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, after they had been charged in cases brought by Mr. Muellers team.

Mr. Trump was asked Friday about the possibility of a pardon for Mr. Manafort. Mr. Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison on Thursday in one of two cases brought against him by Mr. Muellers prosecutors.
WASHINGTON  The Air Force secretary, Heather A. Wilson, said on Friday that she would resign after two years of reining in Trump administration plans for a widely criticized Space Force and overseeing a branch of the military that is involved in lengthy air campaigns over Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

Ms. Wilson, one of the highest-ranking women at the Pentagon, had been considered a potential successor to Jim Mattis, who stepped down as defense secretary in December. Instead, she announced in a resignation letter that she would become president at the University of Texas at El Paso, after a vote by the universitys Board of Regents.

She plans to remain at the helm of the Air Force until May 31, allowing time for a smooth transition, she wrote in the resignation letter, which was first reported by Reuters.

American higher education needs strong leaders to meet the challenges of the 21st century, she wrote. It has been a privilege to serve alongside our airmen over the last two years and I am proud of the progress we have made restoring our nations defense.
Some of those provisions, however, have drawn criticism from both conservative and liberal groups that argue the language is overly broad and would infringe on First Amendment rights. The American Civil Liberties Union urged members to vote against the bill.

Democrats have also used the legislation to make clear that they believe that cleanup must start with the White House, and included several provisions jabbing at the president and homing in on a laundry list of his administrations alleged ethical abuses.

It would require presidents and vice presidents, as well as candidates for the nations highest offices, to release at least 10 years of federal tax returns  Mr. Trump has released none  and it stipulates that inaugural committees must disclose their expenditures.

And an amendment sponsored by Representative Raul Ruiz of California would prohibit federal funds from being spent at businesses owned or controlled by the president, the vice president or any cabinet official. Federal agencies spent about $13 million on four of Mr. Trumps trips to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in early 2017, according to a report by a nonpartisan congressional watchdog agency issued last month.

Two other measures also zero in on the costs of administration officials travel. One provision would require the Defense Department to regularly report to Congress details of the costs of presidential travel; the other would prohibit political appointees from using federal funds to pay for travel on noncommercial or private flights for official business.

We must hold our government leaders to the highest standards, and with so many high-profile ethics violations in the past years, it is clear we have failed to do that, Representative Tom OHalleran, Democrat of Arizona and the sponsor of the amendments, said in a statement.

Democrats also successfully put down an attempt by Republicans to divide the caucus and tar the legislation with a resolution expressing the sense that allowing illegal immigrants the right to vote devalues the franchise and diminishes the voting power of United States citizens.

Republicans have repeatedly ambushed Democrats  twice successfully  with politically freighted procedural motions in a drive to divide Democrats and draw out vulnerable swing-district members. But determined not to let that taint their signature legislation and fired up by a rousing speech from freshman Representative Max Rose of New York, Democrats held steady.
A new round of anger and outcry came immediately when Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, was sentenced Wednesday to three and a half years in prison, far less than the 10 he could have gotten. That was on top of less than four years in a separate but related case in which sentencing guidelines had recommended between 19 and 24 years.

After Mr. Manaforts punishment in the first case was announced, lawyers and advocates for leniency in sentencing guidelines flooded television and social media with examples of people who had been handed far longer prison terms for less serious crimes.

In one widely circulated post on Twitter, Scott Hechinger, a public defender in Brooklyn, wrote: For context on Manaforts 47 months in prison, my client yesterday was offered 36-72 months in prison for stealing $100 worth of quarters from a residential laundry room.

In their attempts to add perspective, critics of current sentencing practices raise questions that resonate. Here are some answers.
IOWA CITY  They dragged their friends to see Bernie Sanders in Iowa. In South Carolina, their unrelenting selfie requests made Cory Booker late. And in New Hampshire, so many showed up at a church for an event with Kamala Harris that an overflow crowd had to stand outside in the snow.

Im super overwhelmed by the number of Democratic candidates that have already come out, Regan Johnson, a 28-year-old from Omaha, said on Thursday in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where Mr. Sanders appeared at the first of three rallies in the state. Hopefully the excitement continues and were able to get a good, viable candidate that can beat Trump.

[Read more: Bernie Sanders-style politics are defining 2020 race, unnerving moderates.]

As the already large presidential field grows by the week, the enthusiasm that propelled Democrats to a decisive takeover of the House in the midterms is still surging, driving crowd sizes and intensity typically seen in the days before the first caucuses and primaries, not a year ahead of them. Powered by an almost desperate yearning to oust President Trump, and galvanized by the most diverse field in presidential primary history, Democrats are packing into gymnasiums, churches and exhibition halls to hear candidates speak  even if they are far from committed to supporting the candidate they are showing up to see.

The populist message many of the candidates have on offer is resonating: From Northern California to Council Bluffs to the Brooklyn streets where Mr. Sanders was raised, voters are delighting in the calls to spurn big donors, the policies to fight wealth inequality and the promises of relief from college debt and steep medical bills.
Paul Manafort: an experienced political consultant with a history of lobbying. Some people might term it influence-peddling. Including for some foreign dictators and human rights violators. Hes also Donald Trumps former campaign chairman. Now, he has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. So what happened? Manafort worked on Donald Trumps presidential campaign for five months in 2016. By August he was out amid scandal. Some breaking news here Campaign chairman Paul Manafort has resigned over the last several weeks there had been story after story that links Donald Trumps campaign manager to one of Vladimir Putins buddies. Reports had surfaced of Manaforts business dealings with Russian-aligned leaders in Ukraine and secret lobbying efforts in the United States. Fast forward to 2017. So help me God. Special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to oversee the investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia and any other wrongdoing he caught along the way. Muellers team alleged that Manafort engaged in a tax and bank fraud scheme that allowed him to hide millions of dollars from consulting work he did in Ukraine. So what are the charges? Manafort was convicted on eight counts of financial fraud in one case in Northern Virginia. In a separate case, Mueller charged Manafort with two counts of conspiracy. He agreed to cooperate and pleaded guilty. But it was later ruled that he had deceived prosecutors about a few things, including his interactions with a Russian associate, a breach of his plea deal. So whats next? Manafort has now been sentenced in both cases. He has also agreed to give up cash and property, including five homes in New York. Of the half dozen former Trump associates prosecuted by Mueller, Manafort received the harshest punishment yet.
PARIS  For a third successive week, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the capital and cities across Algeria on Friday to protest a fifth term for the countrys gravely ill president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, as new cracks opened in the longstanding authoritarian regime.

Many of the protesters on Friday started marching even before the end of weekly prayers, a new development in what has become a wildfire popular revolt organized largely through social media.

The streets of Algiers were so packed with demonstrators that movement inside the crowds was impossible, observers reported. At one point crowds forced through barriers blocking access to the presidential palace, the Mouradia.

The demonstrations were largely nonviolent although there were some clashes between demonstrators and the police, who used tear gas. The police detained 195 people, Algerian state television reported.
MOSCOW  On a rainy afternoon this week, a group of Russian officials and oil executives gathered for Mass in a Catholic church tucked away behind the imposing secret service headquarters in central Moscow.

They did not come to pray. Instead, they were commemorating the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, who poured billions of dollars into Russian weapons and machinery, and showing support for his embattled successor, Nicolas Maduro.

Mr. Maduro is fighting to save the political system he and Mr. Chavez have built, with Russian support, for two decades. Mr. Maduros catastrophic economic mismanagement has led the opposition to claim the countrys leadership with the support of the United States, the European Union and most South American nations.

To Russia, it was the latest attempt by the West to topple an adversarial government and check President Vladimir V. Putins global outreach. The Kremlin reacted by closing ranks around Mr. Maduro and offering him unequivocal diplomatic support, which was on display at St. Louis of France Church on Wednesday.
Sabotage is corruption, sabotage is lack of free elections, sabotage is the blockade of food and medicine, he posted on Twitter. His message is likely to be lost to most Venezuelans, who remain without power or cellular coverage.

Mr. Guaido, who claimed Venezuelas presidency earlier this year, pointing to evidence of fraud in Mr. Maduros re-election, has called the population to demonstrate on Saturday.

The Maduro administration has been responsible for grossly mismanaging the economy and plunging the country into a deep humanitarian crisis in which many people lack food and medical care. He has also attempted to crush the opposition by jailing or exiling critics, and using lethal force against antigovernment protesters.

The blackout may further anger the population and increase pressure on Mr. Maduro, and if it does not end soon, could fuel clashes in the coming days, said Ms. Grais-Targow.

On the political and social front, its problematic for a government that is trying to avoid any potential catalysts for social explosions in an already tense political and social environment, she said of the blackout. So far, the population seems to be relatively calm, but if this persists without resolution and starts to hit food supplies and hospitals ability to function more severely, the popular backlash will probably be severe.

As much of the country remained without electricity, the sole television station transmitting to the few households with power mostly showed soap operas and old news.
China sits on top of the largest technically recoverable reserves of shale gas in the world, according to the United States Energy Information Administration, and the government has set ambitious goals for expanding production in the years ahead.

There are many reasons. In addition to energy independence, the increased use of natural gas could help China meet its international commitments to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change. The transition to gas has already helped reduce pollution  at least in the northeast, where the authorities have phased out the use of coal to heat homes.

Chinas hopes to replicate the American fracking boom, however, have hit significant stumbling blocks. Shale deposits tend to be deeper here  3.5 kilometers in Rong County, or more than two miles down. That makes them more expensive to tap. The process also requires a lot of water, which is scarce in some regions.

Perhaps most importantly, China is much more densely populated, and many of its best shale deposits are in crowded places. Those include Sichuan, which has a population of more than 80 million. Since reserves were discovered there in 2009, scores of fracking sites have appeared  with virtually no public input, given the authoritarian nature of the government.

The 15 platforms in Rong County have 39 separate wells being drilled or already in operation. They have appeared within a 10-kilometer circle around the countys main town, surrounded by fencing and filled with trucks and equipment.

Because of the heavy equipment involved, the roads to the sites are rutted and, when it rains, nearly impassable because of mud. Long black tubes extend across once scenic valleys and terraced fields. As in other places, Rong County residents say they noticed an increase in tremors and quakes after production began.

The latest appeared to inflame discontent that had long been simmering.

A video of the protest outside the government building was first published by Radio Free Asia. Local residents also voiced complaints on Weibo, a social media site like Twitter. What on earth do you want from us? one woman wrote. Will you take the matter seriously only when theres loss of life?
SEOUL, South Korea  North Korea acknowledged for the first time on Friday that the summit meeting last week between its leader, Kim Jong-un, and President Trump ended without an agreement, claiming that people in and outside the North were blaming the United States for the breakdown.

Until now, North Koreas state news media had not reported the collapse of the summit meeting, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 27 and 28. The failed summit was considered a big embarrassment for Mr. Kim because he had to return home empty-handed after Mr. Trump rejected his demand for relief from United Nations sanctions.

People in and outside the North had hoped that the second North Korea-United States summit meeting, held in Hanoi, would yield good results, the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper published by the Norths ruling Workers Party, said in a commentary on Friday. After it unexpectedly ended without an agreement, they are letting out sighs of regret, all arguing that the United States was responsible.

But the commentary also said that the whole world sincerely hopes that the peace process on the Korean Peninsula will proceed smoothly and the North Korea-United States relations will improve soon.
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The Congressional Institute and members of the U.S. House of Representatives is sponsoring the Congressional Art Competition as an opportunity to promote the artistic talent in each Congressional District. There is no required theme for the submission, but themes from Northwest Indiana, United States history, government and culture are encouraged. The grand-prize winner will have their artwork displayed in the United States Capitol for one year, and will receive two complimentary round-trip tickets to attend a ceremony unveiling the artwork in Washington, D.C. All additional travel arrangements and expenses will be the responsibility of the winner. Artwork submissions and application forms must be brought to Congressman Pete Viscloskys office no later than 5 p.m. April 12. Artwork will be accepted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at 7895 Broadway, Suite A, Merrillville. Complete information, guidelines and applications are at https://visclosky.house.gov/serving-you/congressional-art-competition. More information: 219-795-1844.
TORONTO  Being a feminist is not an easy job.

Just ask Justin Trudeau. A day after his non-apology for the political crisis engulfing his government, with accusations that he bullied his female justice minister on a criminal case, the Canadian prime minister met with young women in Toronto to celebrate International Womens Day.

But women around the country are grumbling.

You cant just add women and stir, said Lise Gotell, professor of womens and gender studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Strong feminist leadership is principled, the antithesis of back-room party politics.

The prime minister is arguably not just Canadas most feminist leader, but also one of the worlds must public proponents of gender equality.

He appointed the countrys first gender-balanced cabinet and passed its first gender-equality budget. He increased international aid directed specifically at women, introduced policies to protect women from violence and sexual harassment at work and at home, and unlocked funding for grass-roots feminist organizations across the country.
AALST, Belgium  In Aalst, a small city northwest of Brussels, the Carnival parade is the main event of the year, where everyone and everything is mercilessly mocked, and drunkenness and a lack of taste are part of the mix.

But this year, floats that the townspeople regarded as the customary shameless satire of their famed Carnival set off an uproar. One float in the parade on Sunday carried two giant figures of Orthodox Jews, with side curls and grotesquely large noses, sitting on bags of money. Another group paraded in the white hoods and robes of the Ku Klux Klan.

At a time when expressions of anti-Semitism and racism are on the rise in many countries, images of the event quickly spread around the world, unleashing accusations of bigotry and historical ignorance.

Some critics began an international campaign to push Unesco, the United Nations cultural organization, to withdraw its official recognition of the Aalst Carnival  one of Europes largest  as a cultural heritage event.
LONDON  Her cabinet is split and her party is at war, but Britains prime minister, Theresa May, recently found time to get out and about, and says she heard a clear message from a weary public.

They want to see this resolved, Mrs. May told Parliament, referring to the tortuous, tedious, yet momentous task of withdrawing from the European Union, a process known as Brexit.

If so, the British are in for a disappointment. Not only is the Brexit process really just starting, in some respects it might never end.

On Tuesday, lawmakers are scheduled to vote on Mrs. Mays two-part plan for Britains departure: a legally binding agreement laying down divorce terms from the bloc, and a much vaguer declaration on future ties. If they defeat it, as many expect, they will be back to square one and, in all likelihood, pleading for an extension from the European Union that could last anything from a couple of months to a couple of years.
COPENHAGEN  Finlands center-right government, headed by Prime Minister Juha Sipila, resigned on Friday after failing to push through an overhaul of social and health care programs.

I take the responsibility for the failure. It has been a huge disappointment to me, Mr. Sipila said at a news conference, according to the public broadcaster YLE. The changes, he added, had been one of our most important projects.

President Sauli Niinisto accepted the resignation of Mr. Sipila, who came to power in May 2015 and will continue to serve in a care-taking role. The move came just weeks before parliamentary elections, scheduled for April 14, to renew the countrys 200-seat Eduskunta assembly.

The health care overhaul was intended to address the needs of an aging population while improving efficiency and reducing public spending by 3 billion euros, about $3.4 billion, by 2029. Several previous governments, like Mr. Siplias, tried and failed to make significant changes to the health care system.
You assume there must be other like-minded people all over the place, Ms. Keeble said. What woman wants to continue to sit behind, walk behind, listen to men interpret scripture to their benefit? There must be a bunch of women waiting for someone to step up and kick those doors down. Well, thats just not true.

The Berkeley mosques location was always tenuous. After a year occupying free space, the group moved to a temporary home, she said, and recently found new quarters at First Congregational Church of Oakland.

Real estate is the critical issue that determines the strength of reform mosques. In 2012, Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed opened a mosque in Paris designed to be inclusive to women and welcoming to homosexual Muslims. Faced with insults and some hostility, Mr. Zahed said members preferred to be discreet, moving locations every three months to avoid being targeted. The mosque closed after three years, and Mr. Zahed has since resettled in Marseille in the south of France to run an institute to train reform imams.

We had threats and people identified the places, Mr. Zahed said of the Paris mosque. Then owners didnt want us to stay any longer. They were very happy to have us in the beginning, but they had so much political pressure that they wanted us to leave. It was always like this.
In 2016, Margot Wallstrom, Swedens foreign minister, who introduced the policy, told The New York Times that a feminist foreign policy uses the usual tools of diplomacy to address three questions: Do women have equal rights? Are women at the decision-making table? And are resources equitably distributed to women?

Policy objectives include women's and girls freedom from physical, psychological and sexual violence; political participation and influence in all areas of society; economic rights and empowerment; and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Offering 480 days of parental leave

Sweden, which has a population of about 10 million people, has the most generous paid parental leave policy in the world. Parents get 480 days of leave to share, 390 of which are paid out at 80 percent. (S ingle parents are entitled to the full 480 days. ) These days can be used until the child turns 8. Swedens parental leave policy also applies to adopting parents.

Deconstructing gender in education

Starting with preschool, many of Swedens government-funded schools are doing what they can to counteract traditional gender roles and gender patterns, my colleague Ellen Barry reported last year. State curriculum even urges preschool teachers and principals to embrace their role as social engineers.

How are they doing that? Preschool teachers, for example, avoid referring to their students gender, Barry reported. They say friends instead of boys and girls, and play is organized to prevent children from sorting themselves by gender.

Today, girls generally earn better grades and perform better in national tests than boys, according to Swedens official website. And women now earn nearly two-thirds of all university degrees in Sweden. (Oh yeah, another thing: Swedish colleges and universities are free.)

Adopting gender-neutral pronouns (and quickly)

In 2012, the gender-neutral pronoun hen was introduced and swiftly absorbed into mainstream Swedish culture, something that, linguists say, has never happened in another country.
LONDON  Britain has waited for nine months, since Meghan Markle married Prince Harry in a frothy, celebrity-packed confection of a wedding, to see what the new Duchess of Sussex wanted to talk about.

The answer, it emerged on Friday, was  at least in part  menstruation.

At a panel convened by the Queens Commonwealth Trust in honor of International Womens Day, the duchess said self-consciousness around the topic hurts young women in many developing countries, who can be withdrawn from school or forced to use old rags, literally, because they cannot get sanitary pads.

At the end of the day, were doing our part just to normalize the conversation, she said. Thats the first step. This is 50 percent of the population thats affected by something, that can also end up creating the most beautiful thing in the world. So its a strange one that its ended up becoming so stigmatized.

It was the first lengthy, unscripted appearance since the wedding for Ms. Markle, who is now one of the most scrutinized women in the world. A central question about her adjustment to life as a member of the royal family is how she  an outspoken, 37-year-old American professional woman  will manage the traditional royal ban on expressing opinions on political matters.
BERLIN  Something was very wrong at the valve factory. A 23-year-old trainee at ARI-Armaturen, a middle-sized manufacturer in the German industrial town of Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock, fell into a persistent vegetative state. He was found to have ingested highly toxic mercury, but investigators could not work out where it had come from.

Another employee on the same shift went to doctors at least five times with mystery symptoms, and was eventually found to have severe kidney damage.

The truth emerged, according to media reports, only when a third employee, Klaus Radke, noticed a brownish substance in the ham-and-cheese sandwiches he brought from home. After it had happened several times, he went to the police, and  about 18 months after the young trainee fell into the coma  they asked the company to install a camera in its break room.

A 57-year-old machinist, identified under German privacy laws only as Klaus O., was poisoning his colleagues sandwiches. On Thursday, a court in the nearby city of Bielefeld sentenced him to life in prison.
Her first priority included increasing nurseries and day care for children, she said. Paternity leave came later. My basic idea was that men and women should share rights and duties. The idea is that men should be real parents.

Even with their increased clout, Swedish women still face many barriers, at work and at home. Is the Last Mile the Longest was the question posed in the title of a May 2018 report on Economic Gains From Gender Equality in Nordic Countries, by the O.E.C.D. The report concluded that while the Scandinavian countries have come closer than other countries to narrowing the gender gap, the challenge to closing it altogether remains stubbornly difficult.

In recent years, some have argued that Swedens reputation as the best in the class on gender equality has slipped. In 2007, Sweden ranked No. 1 on the World Economic Forums Global Gender Gap Report; now it is in third place. Many fathers still resist taking an equal share of the generous 480 days of parental leave provided at the birth of a child, leaving mothers to assume the greater responsibility for child care and house work, studies show. The wage gap between men and women is still there (women get 88 percent of mens wages) and in 2016, only 6 percent of chief executive positions in listed companies where held by women and 5 percent of board chairmanships.

We still have a lot to do, said Ms. Lindhagen, who has set efforts to combat domestic violence and to increase womens economic power as her top priorities as a member of Swedens new coalition government.

Sweden has resisted the move to legislate the kind of quotas for women in top corporate positions adopted in neighboring Norway in 2003, followed later by France, the Netherlands and Spain. Ms. Lindhagen said the emphasis still should be on improving working conditions so that women can thrive and be promoted. Then if it isnt happening, if it is taking too long, then I could say we should look at quotas, she said.

Voluntary quotas for women candidates were adopted over the years by Swedens political parties, but according to Ms. Dahl, the important work was done before quotas. First we laid the groundwork to facilitate womens entry into politics, she said in a 1998 report on women in politics by International IDEA, a Swedish foundation. We prepared the women to ensure they were competent, and we prepared the system, which made it a little less shameful for the men to step aside.

But numbers dont tell the whole story. In France, where the president, Emmanuel Macron, in 2017 named a cabinet divided equally between men and women, journalists and other observers note that the top staff in the ministries, and in the presidency itself, are male dominated.
CAIRO  If the famed pyramids of Giza are the epitome of ancient Egypt, the chaotic road that brings tourists to the complex offers a bracing and authentic taste of the modern country.

The Ring Road, a 68-mile belt of rutted tarmac, is Cairos suburban speedway, eight lanes of churning traffic with a hint of Mad Max.

Souped-up clunkers and overcrowded buses, liberated from the clogged traffic of central Cairo, hurtle down the road, weaving perilously between lanes. Speed limit signs are treated as ornaments. Cars travel up ramps in the wrong direction. Motorists compare the drive to a thrilling video game.

Fatal accidents are frequent; shootouts are more occasional. Early Thursday, three militants were killed in a gunfight with police officers at a checkpoint along the road, the interior ministry said.
This years elections are municipal and neither Burns Harbor nor Porter has contested primaries. Polling places for May 7 will be set up in those communities, as well as in the townships served by the school corporation, for the referendum, Bailey said. Chesterton has a contested town council race in District 3.
Lets drill down on one part of the credit freeze confusion, just to paint a picture of how little Equifax really does know about itself, as Mr. McHenry so aptly put it. When adults freeze their credit files, they get a personal identification number they can use to thaw that freeze when they want to apply for new credit. (Dont lose it! Its hard to get a new one and can make a hash of any semi-urgent need to borrow or, say, close a home purchase.)

Equifax has been sending out PINs for minor children whose parents do manage to successfully freeze their credit. One Your Money reader, Lan Wang of Houston, found herself in a situation where Equifax had rejected one of her requests while allowing another.

After I asked Equifax about her case, she found herself on the phone with LaDeamya Mixon, an Equifax employee who has spent 26 years there. Equifax assigned her to help the people I had sent its way, presumably handpicking someone with the authority to explain the problems accurately and solve them.

Ms. Mixon told her that the company was generally not sending PINs for minors. A PIN shouldnt be needed, she said, because you cant lift a freeze for a minor at all. Instead, the freeze automatically thaws a week before a minors 16th birthday.

But Nancy E. Bistritz-Balkan, Equifaxs vice president of communications and consumer education, told me something different. PINs are in fact still used  and necessary  for children. Freezes, she said, stay in place until a legal guardian or the child changes the childs status after he or she turns 16. So if you have a PIN, you had better hold on to it.

Trying to figure out which of these two Equifax employees is correct is no small thing for parents hoping to determine whether they need to keep track of a PIN for 15 years and what will happen when their child gets older. Presumably, the last word belongs to the vice president; Ms. Mixon did not reply to an email.

Its astounding that Equifax cant get its stories straight. How hard can it be to see that customers get correct information from the employees the company put on the front lines, particularly when it knew The New York Times was going to follow up with the customers who had problems? And why wouldnt Equifax put a senior executive forward to talk about the problems in the first place?
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I stand with the president often, and I do so with a loud voice. Today, I think hes wrong, not on policy, but in seeking to expand the powers of the presidency beyond their constitutional limits.

A fourth Republican senator announced support this week for a resolution that would overturn President Trumps declaration of a national emergency at the southern border, likely providing the crucial vote needed for the Senate to pass the measure.

Who was it?
The man was taken to Lake County Jail and was being held on preliminary charges of criminal recklessness and possession of marijuana, according to Wojas. The man had not been formally charged as of Friday morning, but Wojas said further charges may be pending.
Basic Light Bulbs Installed in U.S. Homes LED 14% 31% Compact fluorescent 44% Traditional incandescent light bulbs Halogen incandescent 68% 37% 6% 2010 11 12 13 14 15 2016 LED 14% 31% Compact fluorescent 44% Traditional incandescent light bulbs Halogen incandescent 68% 37% 6% 2010 11 12 13 14 15 2016 LED 14% 31% Compact fluorescent 44% Halogen incandescent Traditional incandescent light bulbs 68% 37% 6% 2010 11 12 13 14 15 2016 LED 14% 31% Compact fluorescent 44% Halogen incandescent 68% Traditional incandescent light bulbs 37% 6% 2010 11 12 13 14 15 2016 Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding. | Source: Department of Energy

Solar panels and wind turbines get a lot of attention, but a more inconspicuous instrument is helping to reshape Americas energy economy right now: The humble light bulb.

Over the past decade, traditional incandescent bulbs, those distinctive glass orbs with glowing wire centers, have been rapidly replaced by more energy-efficient lighting. The shift has driven down electricity demand in American homes, saving consumers money and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The energy savings are expected to grow as highly efficient and increasingly inexpensive LED bulbs continue to replace older lights. But energy efficiency advocates worry that the Trump administration could slow the pace of this lighting revolution.

Last month, the Department of Energy said it would withdraw an Obama-era regulation that nearly doubled the number of light bulbs subject to energy-efficiency requirements. (The chart above shows changes for basic, pear-shaped bulbs that are regulated by current rules. Other bulb styles, including globe, candelabra and reflector bulbs, as well as outdoor lighting, are not included.)

Industry groups are also pushing back on new lighting efficiency requirements slated to go into effect next year.

Energy Use Is Down in American Homes. Lighting Is a Big Part of the Story.

Residential Electricity Demand Per Household 12 thousand kilowatt hours 10 8 6 4 2 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 12 thousand kilowatt hours 10 8 6 4 2 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 12 thousand kilowatt hours 10 8 6 4 2 1970 75 80 85 90 95 00 05 10 15 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Census Bureau

After climbing for decades, electricity use by American households has declined over the past eight years.

Thats a staggering change, said Lucas Davis, an energy economist at the Haas School of Business, part of the University of California, Berkeley.

The economic recession in the late 2000s contributed to an initial dip in electricity demand, but as the economy improved, lighting and other energy-efficiency improvements continued to drive down household electricity use.

Congress established the first national light bulb efficiency standards in 2007, which were signed into law by President George W. Bush. Starting in 2012, the law required new light bulbs to use 28 percent less power than existing incandescent lights  essentially ending the sale of the older, inefficient bulbs.

A new generation of halogen bulbs initially replaced traditional incandescents, but, more recently, sales of highly efficient LEDs have grown as their prices have fallen.

The switch to more efficient lighting has been relatively rapid, Dr. Davis said, because of the short lifespan of traditional light bulbs. While consumers may replace an old refrigerator or dishwasher with an energy-saving model once a decade, incandescent bulbs last only about a year before they need replacing.

And that replacement yields huge relative savings.

When you take out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with LEDs, the amount of electricity you consume goes down more than 80 percent, Dr. Davis said. Theres nothing else like that.

Traditional incandescent bulbs waste a lot of energy as heat in order to create light. They last about one year, on average. Improved halogen incandescents use up to 30 percent less energy than traditional light bulbs and can last three times as long. Curly compact fluorescent bulbs use up to 75 percent less energy than traditional bulbs and can last for 10 years. But they can be slow to brighten and have a colder light quality. LED bulbs, or light emitting diodes, use up to 85 percent less energy than traditional bulbs and can last for 25 years, without some of the drawbacks of compact fluorescents. Source: Department of Energy

[Wirecutter, the product review site owned by The New York Times, has a guide to energy-efficient LED bulbs here.]

The Future of Lighting Efficiency

A second phase of the 2007 lighting efficiency rules is scheduled to go into effect next year, prohibiting the sale of lightbulbs that put out less than 45 lumens per watt. Currently, only compact fluorescent and LED bulbs can meet that requirement. That means all basic incandescent bulbs, including the recent generation of halogens, would be eliminated from store shelves on Jan. 1.

Industry groups have contested that standard, along with an Obama-era ruling that expanded which light bulbs it would apply to. The Department of Energy said last month that it had erred when it determined in 2017 that certain decorative and non-basic bulb styles would be subject to the 2020 standards.

Clark Silcox, a lawyer for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, a trade group that represents major lighting manufacturers like General Electric and Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), said that consumers were already switching to highly efficient LED bulbs on their own, pointing to industry data that shows LEDs outsold all other types of bulbs for the first time in 2017.

The question now is: Does the Department of Energy accelerate that by putting on a ban, Mr. Silcox said, even if it would disrupt retail terribly.

But Noah Horowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said theres no reason to move backward, adding that the lighting industry has had years to prepare for the next phase of efficiency rules.
McDermott, who began her term behind the bench in January 2017, was floored when she learned how many protective order cases are filed each year in Lake County, with 300 of those filed in circuit court. She hosted Wednesdays meeting to outline how a protective order is supposed to work, and to answer questions from workers in the trenches.
A demonstration about teachers salaries is helpful to show unity, but the only effective way to resolve this issue is to replace the legislators who pay lip service to the teachers by offering a low pay increase. The estimate of 40,000 union teachers could accomplish that change, simply by contacting all parents outside of the school venue and pointing out that if there is no living wage for teachers in Indiana their children will be the biggest losers! If qualified educators leave Indiana, who will they be replaced these qualified with? It would seem that face-to-face contact by parents and educators could wake up the legislature in Indianapolis.
The fact that misconduct is not as systemic here is perhaps down to the fact that financial advice is much more required in Australia, she continued. The average Australian will need to seek that advice at some point in their lives, and often more than once, whereas New Zealanders dont use it as much. But that isnt a good thing as theyre probably underinsured and under-prepared for retirement, and its also driven a culture where people here are less inclined to pay for financial advice.

The FMA has said its not looking to ban commissions  because it really cant. Its not just the banks that are under the spotlight in Australia, the recommendations that have come out could really damage the broker industry, and that would not benefit New Zealanders.

McMorran says getting FSLAB over the line will be key to ensuring good outcomes, as it will bring all advisers under the same regime and ensure that everyone across the industry is held to the same standard.

It will mean that theyre subject to that same code and the overarching principle that you put customer interests first, she said. The regulator can then make sure that thats exactly what youre doing, and if youve recommended a certain product over another and that product gave you better commission, youd need to justify why that product is better suited to the customer. That will definitely be a good thing.
The thing about science is it isn't a belief-based system, so your not believing that climate change is caused by people is irrelevant. Climate scientists agree almost unanimously that we are causing global climate change. It is real. It is a fact. The only downside to climate change "skeptics" such as yourself is the holding of the notion that nothing should be done to save the millions who will die because of global warming. Wake up and smell the greenhouse gasses, buddy.
Firefighters in West Virginia were stunned to find that not one of the over a dozen paper bibles and several wooden crosses at the Freedom Ministries Church were destroyed by the devastating fire that engulfed the holy place last Sunday morning.

In a Facebook post that quickly went viral, the Coal City Fire Department shared photos of nearly two dozen bibles and three wooden crosses that survived flames so massive that at one point firefighters had to back out. The fire was so devastating that the church will have to be rebuilt, and firefighters themselves admit that judging by the intensity of the flames everything inside should have been turned to ashes, and yet none of the bibles and crosses were destroyed.

Photo: congerdesign/Pixabay

Picture this, a building so hot that at one point in time, firefighters had to back out, the Coal City Fire Department posted on Facebook. In your mind, everything should be burned, ashes. Not a single bible was burned and not a single cross was harmed!!

Though odds were against us, God was not, the post read, adding that none of the firefighters were harmed during their mission.



Reverend Phil Farrington told the Washington Post that he sees the miraculous survival of the paper bibles and wooden crosses as a sign from God. In the midst of the fire, Gods word will always stand, he said.
If the idea of getting paid a decent monthly wage to do nothing, or whatever you want, for the rest of your life sounds appealing, you may be interested in this Swedish experimental art project that plans to hire a very lucky person for a responsibility-free job with just one very simple requirement.

This government-funded conceptual art project/ideal employment opportunity in Gothenburg, Sweden will select one very lucky applicant to show up at a train station currently under construction in the city every day and punch a time clock. This will turn on a set of fluorescent lights over the boarding platform to let everyone know that the useless employee showed up at work that day. After that, the person is free to do anything they want, or nothing at all, just as long as they return to the station to clock out and turn off the lights when their shift is over. They dont have to hang around the train station during working hours, and they can quit or be replaced by someone else anytime they want. As long as they dont get another job, the position is guaranteed for the rest of their lives.

Photo: jarmoluk/Pixabay

You might be wondering what a job that basically only requires you to clock in and clock out every day pays. Well, according to Atlas Obscura, the selected candidate will earn a monthly salary of about $2,320, plus annual raises, benefits, vacation time and a guaranteed pension fund. Its not the best paying job in the world, but considering that whatever the employee chooses to do constitutes the work, the offer isnt bad at all.

In 2017, Public Art Agency Sweden and the Swedish Transport Administration announced an international competition for artists willing to contribute ideas for the design of Gothenburgs Korsvagen train station, offering a prize of 7 million Swedish krona (about $750,000) to the winner. Only instead of coming up with actual design ideas, Swedish artist duo Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby suggested that the prize money be used to pay one workers salary and give them absolutely nothing to do all day. And thats how their Eternal Employement project began.

The two artists even came up with a plan to ensure that the prize money would be enough to pay the useless employee for eternity, which in this case means 120 years. By setting up a foundation to prevent the prize money from being taxed and then investing it in an equity fund, they came to the conclusion that there was a 75% chance that theyd be able to pay a $2,312 monthly wage, plus an annual salary increase of 3.2 percent, for 120 years or more.

The jury apparently loved the artists original idea as their project was announced as the winner in October of last year. There was an uproar in Sweden about it, with politicians from all sides of the aisle accusing them of wasting taxpayers money.

Photo: Marcin Wichary/Flickr

Old Social Democrats accused them of using financial realism to mock the transcendental accomplishments of the welfare state, Brian Kuan Wood, a board member for the Eternal Employment foundation, said. Neoliberal progressives accused them of wasting taxpayers money to stage a nostalgic return to that same welfare state.

Others just called the idea stupid and worthless, which the artists fully agree with. They acknowledge that paying someone to show up at a train station two times a day just to punch a time clock is unproductive and pointless, but thats the whole idea.

If youre already thinking where do I sign up? I have some bad news for you. Because Korsvagen train station is still under construction, the position will only become available in 2026, after the station is inaugurated. The artists will start taking in applications a year earlier, but if youd like to get more familiar with this unique employment opportunity, a draft job description is already available online.
The essence of the petition is the people who signed it and I would like to see the board consider other options besides the one that was presented [previously], Heffner said. In my personal opinion, the board for the next five months should make priority number one fixing whatever the math instructional deficiency was. If our math instruction is leaving those kids with gaps in their math understandings, we need to fix that now. Anything to help those kids, I think, would be very important.


Mark Penn

Stagwell Group chief Mark Penn is negotiating to assume the helm of MDC Partners and take an investment stake in the troubled ad/PR firm, according to the Wall Street Journal.

MDC, which faces a proxy fight at its June 4 shareholder meeting, has been conducting a strategic review.

The firm, which is the parent of Hunter, Allison+Partners, KWT Global and Sloane & Co., lost $36.2M during the nine-month ended September period on $1.1B in revenues.

It has long-term debt of $987M.

MDC CEO Scott Kauffman announced in September that he plans to step down once a successor is named.

Penn, former pollster for Bill and Hillary Clinton, ex-Burson Marsteller CEO and Microsoft chief strategy officer, had earlier tried to buy MDC with Apollo Global Management, according to the WSJ.

Stagwell's holdings include Finn Partners and SDKKnickerbocker.
An Offaly man has appeared in court in Kenya facing a charge relating to an alleged visa breach in the Africa country.

Tullamore native Rory Bracken had been preaching in the African country with the Testify World Ministries group and had performed ceremonies and healings, attracting thousands of followers and spectators.

He was thrown in prison in February and appeared in court on Thursday, March 7.

ABOVE: Mr Bracken performing a healing ceremony

It's understood the prosecution brought one witness, an immigration official, but appealed to the judge for a week's grace to acquire a statement from a second witness.

The case, which has attracted national media attention in Kenya, has now been put back to March 20 where Rory is expected to learn his fate.

The Tullamore native claims that he was sent to prison due to a "false charge of breaking a visa" and his lawyers are "confident" he will be vindicated in court.

He also believes a number of individuals have a "vendetta" against him and resent him preaching in Africa.

Last week he described the "inhumane" conditions he experienced having spent 22 days in jail in Kenya.

Rory says that now having seen the conditions of the prison, he will "stand and fight" for the rights of criminals, "especially if I receive compensation."

Rory is a former CBS Tullamore student who has spent many years preaching in Africa, as well as Pakistan. He is married to a woman in Uganda and claims that if he is unsuccessful in court and deportation is ordered, he will be fighting to be deported to Uganda.

He is due to appear in court facing visa-related charges on March 20.
Fianna Fail TD for Offaly, Deputy Barry Cowen has again reiterated the need for Minister of State, Kevin Boxer Moran to intervene in what he has called the misuse of Durrow Abbey House and Monastic Site.

Deputy Cowen spoke with Minister Moran after the Offaly Express reported that another rave may be held in the Abbey in the coming weeks following a similar event on New Year's Eve.

Deputy Cowen explained, While it says the location is secret, a quick search on Facebook will tell you that there is a rave to be held on Saturday, March 30 from 10pm to 5am in an Irish castle. It says this follows on from the success of the first rave held on New Years Eve."

Tickets are 25 for entry, bus tickets are anywhere from 15 upwards with buses due from Dundalk, Maynooth, Drogheda and many other towns. It is a bring your own alcohol and according to Facebook 528 people are going while another 1,700 are interested in going. Aside from everything else, this raises huge questions on crowd control and health and safety," Barry said.

The Durrow High Cross Committee, who have been fighting for the development of Durrow Abbey House and Monastic Site as a tourist attraction for over twenty years, were told by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) that the site could not be sign-posted as they deemed access to the site to be dangerous."

If its dangerous for would-be tourists, how is it safe for over one thousand revellers at a rave? The development of the site as a tourist attraction would bring much needed investment to the community with knock-on benefits to the wider area. It is a reasonable and sensible request, one which Minister Moran needs to examine without further delay," concluded Deputy Cowen.
Kids can convince their parents that everyone else is doing it, and parents can feel that pressure, and start to think, Do I let them? Cortesi said. But we know all of the studies find the number one reason kids dont use is their parents. Many have drawn a firm line at no, but I think the majority of parents can fall into the category of, I dont know what to do.
An initiative has been launched to pool together ideas from education experts to help parents play roles in their children's education in an efficient and scientific manner, according to the Ministry of Education.

The ministry and the China Education Association co-organized a meeting of education experts on Feb. 28 to start compiling a guide for parents to help their children's education.

Work on this book is among the ministry's key steps in 2019 to improve parent roles in child development and equip parents with appropriate educational concepts and methods, the ministry said.

The meeting adopted goals, work assignments and a schedule for the compiling job, stressing efforts to make a quality book.

The book will promote core socialist values and China's fine traditional culture, and provide specific guidance that takes into account of the features of children of different age groups and draws on expertise on parent education both at home and abroad, according to the ministry.
Election expenditure: How much did BJP, Congress, DMK, CPI, TMC, AIADMK receive funds and spent during polls?

Opposition front not possible without Congress: Shiv Sena leader Raut after meeting with Rahul Gandhi

1984 anti-Sikh riots case: CBI to complete probe against Tytler within 2 months

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar P

New Delhi, Mar 08: Investigation against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, accused in 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, to be completed within two months from today, CBI told Delhi court.

Also, the CBI filed report on lie-detector test conducted on Abhishek Verma, an eyewitness of riots before the Delhi court. The case has been adjourned till May 22.

The case pertained to the riots at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

Turning dreams to reality: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar after SC order on Ayodhya

The agency had reinvestigated the case of the killing of Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh near the Gurudwara after a court in December 2007 refused to accept its closure report. The CBI has filed three closure reports in the case.

Senior advocate HS Phoolka, who has been instrumental in re-opening the investigation in 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases, has written a letter to the Prime Minister demanding Congress leader Jagdish Tytler's custodial interrogation. He also lashed out at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for favouring the politician in the case.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 18:33 [IST]
7th Pay Commission: All hopes dashed, end game for CG employees

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Mar 08: The last Cabinet meeting before the elections was held on Thursday and there was some very bad news for the Central Government employees where the 7th Pay Commission was concerned.

There would be no further announcement on the hike in basic minimum pay as there would be no other forum available for the government to announce the good news that the CG employees have been waiting for.

With the last Cabinet meeting being held, the Election Commission of India would not announce the poll dates, following which the model code of conduct would come into place.

CG employees would now have to be content with the recent announcements which were related to an increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR).

Similar announcements were made by the governments of Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.

7th Pay Commission: Why CG employees would pin hopes on this last Cabinet meeting

The CG employees would clearly be upset that the government has not taken into consideration their long standing demand. Although there have been some sops that have been doled up, it has not been sufficient. Many say that instead of rolling out these sops, the government could have gone in directly for a hike in the basic minimum pay.

All through officials had made CG employees believe that there would be some positive news on this issue. However now it has turned out that these were just assurances to ensure that the CG employees did not agitate or go on strike.

The basic demand that the CG employees had been making was to hike the basic minimum pay to Rs 26,000. The government had indicated that it would be hiked to Rs 21,000, but it now appears that this action too had not been taken. The 7th Pay Commission it may be recalled had recommended a pay hike of Rs 18,000.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 7:04 [IST]
Ayodhya is getting its glory back with new grand Ram Mandir: PM Modi

An honest effort: Political parties welcome SC order on Ayodhya

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Mar 08: A five-judge Constitution Bench has referred Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case to mediation for amicable settlement.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, appointed a three-member panel to act as mediators.

The panel will be headed by former Supreme Court judge FM Kalifullah with spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and mediation expert Sriram Panchu as other members.

Turning dreams to reality: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar after SC order on Ayodhya

The mediation process will be held in Faizabad district and has to be completed within eight weeks. As per the top court order, the media has been barred from reporting on the mediation process.

No losers, Indians and India only winners: Khurshid

Responding to the Supreme Court's verdict, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid welcomed the mediation in Ayodhya matter saying that it can "show that path to a shared destiny of Hindus and Muslims".

Supreme Court has opened historic opportunity for us Indians to reaffirm the path of togetherness and harmony. Mediation in Ayodhya matter can show the path to the shared destiny of Hindus and Muslims. No winner-loser syndrome only winners: Indians & India  Salman Khurshid (@salman7khurshid) March 8, 2019

SC orders mediation in Ayodhya Case, appoints 3 mediators to report in 8 weeks

An honest effort, tweets BSP chief Mayawati

"Hon'ble Supreme Court's order to constitute in-camera mediation (in Faizabad) in order to resolve the Ayodhya matter seems an honest effort," tweeted BSP chief Mayawati.

Hon'ble Supreme Court's order to constitute in-camera mediation (in Faizabad) in order to resolve the Ayodhya matter seems an honest effort. Hon'ble Court looking for "a possibility of healing relationships" is an appreciable move. BSP welcomes it.  Mayawati (@Mayawati) March 8, 2019

"Hon'ble Court looking for "a possibility of healing relationships" is an appreciable move. BSP welcomes it," she said in the tweet.

Previous attempts to solve Ayodhya dispute through mediation

Previous mediation efforts were unsuccessful: Keshav Prasad Maurya

Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya said, "Won't question SC order. In the past,efforts made to arrive at a solution,but with no success. No Lord Ram devotee or saint wants delay in construction of Ram Mandir," news agency ANI reported.

Ayodhya panel needs a neutral person: Owaisi

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi expressed his displeasure on the inclusion of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in the mediation panel of Ayodhya dispute.

"Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who has been appointed a mediator had earlier made a statement 'if muslims don't give up their claim on Ayodhya,India will become Syria.' It would've been better if SC had appointed a neutral person," ANI quoted Owaisi as saying.
If normalcy to be brought in Kashmir, Article 370 has to be reinstated: Farooq Abdullah

Army Jawan abducted by militants from his home in Budgam

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar P

Budgam, Mar 08: An army Jawan of Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI), Mohammad Yaseen, has been reportedly kidnapped by terrorists from his residence in Qazipora Chadoora in Budgam on Friday.

Yaseen, who belongs to the Army's JAKLI Unit, was on a leave to visit his hometown. The forces have been rushed to the area.

MHA advisory asks states to ensure safety of Kashmiris

In a similar incident last year, JAKLI Unit jawan Aurangzeb was abducted by terrorists from Pulwama district. Later, his bullet-ridden was found. Aurangzeb, who was proceeding on leave for Eid when he was abducted, was shot in the head and neck.

His body was found by a team of police and Army at Gussu village, about 10 km away from Kalampora, in Pulwama district, from where he was abducted.
Ayodhya is getting its glory back with new grand Ram Mandir: PM Modi

Ayodhya dispute case: A timeline of events

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Mar 08: The decades-old Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Ayodhya title dispute case will be settled through mediation, the Supreme Court said on Friday, while constituting a three-member panel. The panel, to be headed by Retired Justice FM Kallifulla, will have Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Sriram Panchu.

Ayodhya dispute: History revisited

1528: Mir Baaqi, general of Mughal emperor Babur, builds the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya. It is allegedly built on Ram Janambhoomi, the birthplace of Lord Ram

1853: First recorded violence when Hindus attacked the place over the issue during British rule

December 23, 1949: Lord Ram's idols are planted inside the central dome. Both sides file court cases; the site is locked

December 17, 1959: The Nirmohi Akhara files a suit seeking possession of the site and claims to be the custodians of the disputed land

SC orders mediation in Ayodhya case, appoints 3 mediators to report in 8 weeks

December 18, 1961: The Sunni Central Board of Waqf files a suit claiming ownership of the site

1984: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) launches a campaign for the construction of the Ram temple at the Janmabhoomi site

February 1, 1986: Faizabad district court orders the gates of the mosque be opened and Hindus be allowed to worship there. Muslims protest the move and forms Babri Mosque Action Committee

November 9, 1989: VHP lays the foundation of a Ram temple on land next to the Babri Masjid following permission from the then Rajiv Gandhi government

September 25, 1990: Then BJP President L K Advani launches his Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya. He is arrested in Bihar's Samastipur in November

December 6, 1992: The disputed Babri Mosque is razed to the ground by kar sevaks

April, 2002: Three-judge Bench of high court begins hearing to determine the ownership of land. The HC orders the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to excavate the site to determine if it was a temple earlier.

2003: ASI finds evidence of the presence of a temple under the mosque. Muslim organisations dispute the findings

[Who are the mediators in Ayodhya dispute case?]

June 2009: The Liberhan commission submits its report but its contents are not made public.

July 26, 2010: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court reserves its judgment and advises all parties to solve the issue amicably.

September 30, 2010: The HC rules the disputed land be divided into three parts - one-third to Ram Lalla Virajman, represented by the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha; one-third to the Sunni Waqf Board; and the remaining to the Nirmohi Akhara. In December, the parties move the SC

May 2011: The SC stays the HC order March 2017: The Supreme Court says charges against Advani and other leaders cannot be dropped in the demolition case and that the case may be revived

March, 2015: Supreme Court issues notices to BJP leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi following a petition against dropping of conspiracy charges against them in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

March 21, 2017: The SC says the matter is sensitive and suggests it be settled out of court. It asks stakeholders to hold talks and find an amicable solution

May 30, 2017: Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and Vinay Katiyar charged with criminal conspiracy in the demolition case August 11, 2017: The SC schedules hearing of 13 appeals in the title dispute on December 5, 2017, coinciding with the eve of the 25th anniversary of the desecration of the Babri mosque

Dec 5, 2017: The SC says it will hear the civil appeals filed by various parties challenging the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict on February 8.

February 8, 2018: Senior Advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Sunni Waqf Board, seeks a day-to-day hearing in the case, but the Bench turns it down. Lists the case for hearing on March 14, 2018.

March 14, 2018: Senior Counsel Rajeev Dhavan submits that the matter deserves to be referred to a larger Bench in view of the decision rendered by the Constitution Bench of this Court in Dr. M. Ismail Faruqui & Ors. vs. Union of India & Ors.

April 6, 2018: Heated exchange between Rajeev Dhavan and Additional Solcitior Generals Maninder Singh and Tushar Mehta during the hearing.

July 20, 2018: Court reserves verdict on question of reference to larger Bench.

Sep 27, 2018: The Supreme Court has refused to refer to a larger Bench a question of law that said Mosque is not integral to Islam.

Friday 8, 2019:

The Supreme Court on Friday said, the decades-old Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Ayodhya title dispute case will be settled through mediation, while constituting a three-member panel. The panel, to be headed by Retired Justice FM Kallifulla, will have Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Sriram Panchu.

The panel, which has been directed to begin mediation in Faizabad within one week, will have to submit a progress report after four weeks. The process would go on till eight weeks. The apex court directed in camera proceedings of mediation in the case, restraining media from reporting its proceedings.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 13:04 [IST]
Till when does a father have to take responsibility of his child: SC clarifies

Air Pollution: You want to ban industries in Pakistan? Court asks UP govt

Bars responsibility in maintaining dignity of judiciary: SC explains

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, Mar 08: It is the responsibility of the Bar to ensure that "dignity of judiciary" is maintained, the Supreme Court said while hearing activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan's application seeking recusal of Justice Arun Mishra from adjudicating contempt plea filed against him by the Attorney General.

A bench comprising Justice Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha observed that though "fair criticism" has to be there, the judiciary and judges should not be denigrated.

"Independence of bar has to be maintained. At the same time, it is the responsibility of bar to ensure that dignity of judiciary should be maintained," the bench said.

"The judiciary stands on the solid pillar of the bar," it added.

The issue cropped up before the court when senior lawyer Dushyant Dave, appearing for the activist lawyer, said that Bhushan has filed an application seeking recusal of Justice Mishra from hearing the case.

Supreme Court order on mediation in Ayodhya case today

He referred to some earlier orders passed by Justice Mishra, including the one in which the court had made observations about lawyers going to the media on sub-judice cases, and said this has given rise to an apprehension in Bhushan's mind.

"Judges think independently. It is a matter of common knowledge that in some matters, some judges may have strict views while other judges will have different views. This is the beauty of this institution," Justice Sinha observed.

"We are all from the bar. When a lawyer comes to argue a matter, he knows from his heart that which way the judge will go. Then, in that situation, should he seek recusal of a judge," the bench observed.

Dave said apprehension has to be seen from the mind of litigants and not from the mind of judges. "Please hear our application (seeking recusal). There are reasons in it."

To this, the bench told Dave, "Sorry, we are not with you. We should not express any opinion on this kind of application. If you want, we can pass reasoned order and then it will reflect many things. We are telling you."

The bench also observed that the "Bar has the solemn duty to maintain the dignity of the institution".

Justice Mishra, who initially said he would not recuse from hearing the contempt plea, later heard detailed arguments on Bhushan's application in which he has sought his recusal.

During the hearing, Bhushan admitted in the court that he had made a "genuine mistake" by tweeting that the government had perhaps submitted in the court fabricated documents of the high-powered selection panel on appointment of interim CBI director.

However, Bhushan refused to tender an "unconditional apology" in the court for seeking recusal of Justice Mishra from hearing the contempt plea filed against him by Attorney General K K Venugopal.

Venugopal told the court that he would like to withdraw his contempt plea since Bhushan has made a statement that it was a "genuine mistake".

However, the Attorney General opposed Bhushan's recusal application and said, "I have serious apprehensions about bona fide of this application."

He said Bhushan, through his tweets, had tried to "poison the mind of public" by saying that the Centre had filed fabricated documents in the court on appointment of interim CBI director.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, which has also filed a separate contempt plea against Bhushan, referred to earlier orders passed by the court and said seeking recusal of judges has become a "pattern".

He said earlier also attempts were made to have two out of three judges recuse from hearing the pleas seeking probe into the death of special CBI judge B H Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for some social activists who have sought to intervene in the case, said Mehta has no locus to argue in the matter as the Centre's contempt plea against Bhushan was not maintainable.

"He (Mehta) appears in court, stands up and argues without being a party in the case," Dhavan said.

To this, Mehta said, "I refuse to be provoked or intimidated".

After witnessing some heated exchange of words between Dhavan and Mehta in the courtroom, the bench said, "please maintain the decorum of the court".

Later, the court also said it will deal with larger issue of whether lawyers and litigants can criticise the court proceedings in a matter which is sub-judice to influence public opinion.

The bench has posted the matter for further hearing on April 3.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 6:17 [IST]
PM-Kisan 10th installment to roll out by next week: How to check your status and name in beneficiary list?

Red caps are like red alert for UP, PM Modi's jibe at Samajwadi Party in Gorakhpur rally

PM Modi lauds UP govt for the work done for the benefit of sugarcane farmers

'Crazy people attacked Kashmiris': PM Modi condemns Lucknow assault

India

oi-Deepika S

Kanpur, Mar 08: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday condemned the attack on a group of Kashmiri merchants in Lucknow by a group of right-wing men, assuring that those behind the attack will be dealt with sternly by the Uttar Pradesh government.

Addressing a rally in Kanpur, PM Modi said, "Some crazy people in Lucknow attacked our Kashmiri brothers. The UP government has taken prompt action on them."

"It is very important to maintain an atmosphere of unity in the country," Modi told a gathering in Kanpur.

PM Modi inaugurates Hindon Airbase for commercial use

"I will also urge other state governments to take strict action whenever wherever they try to do such an act," PM Modi said while addressing a rally in Kanpur.

Earlier in the day, Congress president Rahul Gandhi condemned the violence against Kashmiris and said India belonged to its citizens from every corner of the country.

Tweeting a video of the incident, the Congress chief said: "While I'm disgusted by this video of Kashmiri traders being attacked in UP, I salute the braveheart who challenged the attackers. India belongs to its citizens, from every corner of our nation. I strongly condemn all acts of violence against our Kashmiri brothers and sisters."

Four people have been arrested in connection with the incident, the latest in a series of cases in which Kashmiris across the country were targeted after the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 18:20 [IST]
Google says it removed 71,132 content pieces in May, 83,613 items in June in India

Right to be forgotten: HC asks Centre, Google to reply to plea for removing verdict from search engine

Google dedicates Doodle to Filipino folk dancer Francisca Reyes-Aquino

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar P

Bengaluru, Mar 09: Google dedicated Doodle to celebrate the life and work of Francisca Reyes-Aquino, the Filipino folk dancer and cultural researcher who helped preserve numerous Filipino cultural traditions including the tinikling- one of the country's most well-known traditional dances.

Countless other regional dance forms might have been lost forever if not for the efforts of Reyes-Aquino, who is often referred to as the "Mother of Philippine Dancing."

Born on this day in 1899, Reyes-Aquino became interested in preserving the unique folk culture that thrived throughout the 7000+ islands that make up the Philippine archipelago. Earning a degree in Education from the University of the Philippines, she began traveling to rural communities with a small team of researchers to study the Filipino people's unique songs, games, and dances.

Google dedicates interactive Doodle made by women on International Women's Day 2019

Recording and transcribing everything in detail, Reyes-Aquino shared her findings at recitals of the university's folk dance troupe, helping to popularize and preserve dozens of dance forms through classes held by the university's department of physical education.

Today's animated Doodle depicts various Philippine traditional dances Reyes-Aquino helped document and preserve including the carinosa, singkil, pandanggo sa ilaw, and the national favorite: tinikling. Named after a small, native bird that had long been the nemesis of local rice farmers, the dance is inspired by the bird's hopping movements. Tinikling performers hop and skip skillfully between bamboo poles, creating a rhythmic combination of footwork and arm movements.

In 1954, Reyes-Aquino was awarded the Republic Award of Merit for her "outstanding contribution toward the advancement of Filipino culture." She was also named a National Artist of Dance in 1973.

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Story first published: Saturday, March 9, 2019, 0:36 [IST]
India reports 8,895 new Covid infections, 2,796 deaths in last 24 hours as Bihar, Kerala clear 'backlog'

List of 28 agreements/MoUs signed during the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit in New Delhi

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Indo-Russia nuclear powered submarine deal, explained

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, Mar 08: India sealed a $3 billion deal with Russia for leasing of a nuclear-powered attack submarine for the Indian Navy for a period of 10 years, military sources said.

The two countries signed an inter-governmental agreement capping months of negotiations on price and various other aspects of the deal.

Under the pact, Russia will have to deliver the Akula class submarine, to be known as Chakra III, to the Indian Navy by 2025.

It will be the third Russian submarine to be leased to the Indian Navy.

India trashes Pakistan's claim of intrusion by Indian Navy submarine

A spokesperson in the Defence Ministry refused to comment when asked about the deal.

India has been significantly bolstering its naval prowess in the backdrop of China's attempts to expand its influence in the Indian Ocean region.

India Navy has taken two more submarines from Russia on lease.

The first Russian nuclear-powered submarine -- christened INS Chakra -- was taken in 1988 under a three year lease. A second INS Chakra was taken on lease in 2012 for a period of 10 years.

The lease of Chakra II will expire in 2022 and India is looking at extending the lease, sources said.

The deal for the Chakra III came days after Indo-Russian joint production facility to manufacture AK-203 assault rifles for the Indian Army was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Uttar Pradesh's Amethi.

In October, India signed a multi-billion dollar deal with Russia to procure a batch of S-400 air defence missile system.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 6:11 [IST]
Guitar is the hero in many genres of Western music - and also in a small, mountainous county in southwestern China.

In 2013, Zheng Chuanjiu returned to Zheng'an county in Guizhou province to set up its first guitar factory.

Last year, the county produced and sold 6 million guitars worth about 6 billion yuan ($896 million), exporting to more than 30 countries and regions around the world, including the United States and Brazil. It also accounted for one-third of China's guitar exports.

The local government estimates that production will reach 10 million by 2020, with output valued at 10 billion yuan. The flourishing business has also helped lift 6,640 people in 1,278 households out of poverty, and had created more than 13,000 jobs by the end of October.

Zheng, the 41-year-old general manager of Zunyi Shenqu Musical Instruments Manufacturing, was elected a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, last year. This year, he said he will propose making the county's guitar industrial park a national cultural industry demonstration park, so that the local guitar business can benefit more from central policies.

He will also propose that three counties in Guizhou - Wuchuan, Zheng'an, Daozhen - be incorporated into the nearby Chongqing economic zone, and be connected to railways to improve the transportation of goods.

"Wuchuan, Zheng'an and Daozhen are all poverty-stricken areas in Guizhou, and I think a large reason for that is because of the inconvenient transportation," Zheng said. "Although they have been connected to highways, they still lack a railway. I hope high-speed transportation routes can be built in the mountains."

Though Zheng was familiar with the 186 steps in making a guitar, he did not know how to pluck the six strings to play a song. During the NPC meeting last year, he set himself the goal of being able to play the guitar at this year's congress.

He arrived in Beijing on Saturday. In a video posted online by Guizhou Daily, he smoothly plucks the strings of one of his factory's Bessica guitars and sings, "I come from the mountains with a small guitar..."

Zheng left his hometown with his brother in 1995 to earn a living in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, where they learned guitar-making skills at a factory.

After they were promoted to management positions, they started their own guitar manufacturing business in Guangzhou, before deciding to move the business to their hometown in 2013 to boost the local economy.

With encouragement from the Zheng brothers, along with advantageous policies, more skilled musical instrument makers from Zheng'an began returning to their hometown to work. As a result, the industrial park - which is home to 54 guitar-related enterprises - flourished.

"At first, people could hardly believe that guitars played by world-renowned artists were made by a group of farmers living deep in the mountains," Zheng said, adding that it is precisely their hardworking spirit that created such fine professionalism.

Zheng's company is now the supplier for six of the top 10 guitar brands in the world, including Tagima and Ibanez.

However, Zheng wants to build an original brand that can make Zheng'an guitars known to the world.

"We are no longer satisfied with guitar manufacturing, so we've created our own brand," he said. Their independently developed Bessica guitar has gone into production and was displayed at the Music China exhibition in Shanghai last year.

The county is also planning to establish the world's largest guitar museum and a high-end concert hall, according to Wu Qi, the head of Zheng'an county.

"We will transform and upgrade the guitar industry from being an original equipment manufacturer to creators of independent brands, as well as elevate low-end products to medium-and high-end ones," Wu said.
If normalcy to be brought in Kashmir, Article 370 has to be reinstated: Farooq Abdullah

MHA advisory asks states to ensure safety of Kashmiris

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar P

New Delhi, Mar 08: Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) through an advisory issued Thursday to the States and Union Territories asked them to reinforce the existing arrangements to ensure safety and security of persons belonging to Jammu and Kashmir residing in their respective jurisdictions.

Referring to its earlier advisory issued on 16 February in view of some students and residents of J&K experiencing intimidation and harassment, MHA urged state/UT police authorities to take strict action against the offenders as per law.

The new advisory has been issued in the wake of attack on two dry fruit vendors from Kashmir on a busy road in Lucknow.

'Crazy people attacked Kashmiris': PM Modi condemns Lucknow assault

A group of men belonging to a fringe right-wing group had on Wednesday attacked two dry fruit vendors from Kashmir. One of the accused men shared a video of the assault on social media, sparking widespread outrage. The men who assaulted the traders can be heard in the videos saying they did so as they were from Kashmir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also reacted to the incident. He cited the case of the attack to illustrate a point: "It is crucial to maintain an atmosphere of unity".

Separatists amalgam, Joint Resistance Leadership, comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, in a joint statement terming the attacks on Kashmiris "condemnable".

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 19:24 [IST]
Muslims and minorities feel threatened, says Farooq Abdullah

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Srinagar, Mar 08: Former J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Friday accused ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of creating rift between different religions in wake of upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2019.

While addressing media, Abdullah said,"I think we're facing tragedies. It's unfortunate that we've a situation where war is looming on our heads. We want peace and understanding between people. Unfortunately in this election ruling party is creating a rift between various religions and it's a tragedy for this country.''

The National Conference (NC) leader also claimed that Muslims and minorities are feeling threatened in India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi must come forward to clarify that this nation belong to all.

Lok Sabha polls 2019: SP releases first list of 6 candidates; Mulayam to contest from Mainpuri

He added,"Muslims and minorities feel threatened. I think PM should make it very clear that this nation doesn't belong to one party or one sect of people. He should make it very clear that it belongs to all of u and &we've to live in peace and harmony with each other."

His statement comes days after two Kashmiri dry fruit sellers were assaulted by a group of saffron-clad men in broad daylight in Lucknow on Wednesday. While one of them escaped after some heckling and beating, the other can be seen cornered by the two men, who constantly berate him for being a Kashmiri. "Why are you hitting him?", asks a passerby in the video, to which one of the attackers responds with, "He's a Kashmiri."

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 15:04 [IST]
Nirav Modi's Rs 100-cr bungalow in Alibaug demolished with explosives

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Mumbai, Mar 08: PNB scam's main accused Nirav Modi's sea facing luxury mansion worth of 100 crore was demolished with a huge quantity of explosives on Friday, a district administration officer said.

Authorities in Raigad District in Maharashtra used explosives to demolish fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi's bungalow in Alibaug. Controlled blasts were carried out during the demolition process undertaken by the office of District Collector of Raigad.

#WATCH Maharashtra: PNB Scam accused Nirav Modi's bungalow in Alibag, Raigad district demolished by authorities. pic.twitter.com/ngrJstNjoa  ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2019

Nirav Modi is wanted for defrauding Punjab National Bank (PNB) to the tune of Rs 13,000 crore. Modi's uncle Mehul Choksi is wanted as well. Both of them have fled the country.

Maha: Authorities continue demolition of PNB scam accused Nirav Modi's Alibaug bungalow

On February 1, the Maharashtra Government told Bombay High Court that the authorities will require two weeks to bring down the structure.

The first stage of demolition started on January 25, after which the district administration found that demolishing the 30,000-sq ft structure will take longer if done manually using earth movers and would be a costly affair. Excavators were used to drill into the thick concrete pillars of the bungalow to make space for fixing the detonators. A technical team was then called in to install the explosives.

The bungalow was built partly as a ground-plus-one structure and has a driveway, high metal fencing and a huge security gate. It includes a swimming pool, resort-like slides and expensive fittings. Situated at Kihim beach, over 90 km from Mumbai, it was declared illegal along with 58 other structures that flouted all environmental norms.
PM-Kisan 10th installment to roll out by next week: How to check your status and name in beneficiary list?

Red caps are like red alert for UP, PM Modi's jibe at Samajwadi Party in Gorakhpur rally

PM Modi lauds UP govt for the work done for the benefit of sugarcane farmers

Those seeking proof of air strike 'appeasing' Pakistan: Modi

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar P

New Delhi, Mar 08: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after inaugurating Hindon Airbase for commercial use in Ghaziabad, requested 'Pakistan Pleasers' to stop asking for Balakot air strike proof. He added that it was Pakistan who started crying in a tweet from 5 am on Feb 26.

"Will you (people) do anything that appeases Pakistan or makes Pakistan clap? But some of our Opposition leaders have been doing the same for the past 10 days. Identify these people, they are not worried about the country, but scared of going behind the bars and that is why they want to capture power at the Centre," Modi said at a public meeting.

Pointing about a tweet by a Pakistan Army spokesperson about the air strike, Modi said: "Is Pakistan 'moorkh' (stupid) that it would say that we have been struck? But this is our people asking for proof. Opposition parties can hear it loud and clear... the trust of 130-crore people is my proof. Please stop games that appease Pakistan."

Hindon Airbase for commercial use:

PM Modi inaugurated Hindon Airbase for commercial use on Friday. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and Governor Ram Naik were also present.

In the new airbase, only 80-seater aircraft will be allowed to operate. The Civil Enclave at the Air Force Station will be used to connect regional destinations to the national capital.

PM Modi blames 'non-cooperation' by SP govt for beautification project in Varanasi

Under UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) or the regional connectivity scheme seeks to connect unserved and underserved airports as well as provide air tickets at affordable rates. Civil enclaves are part of airports of armed forces that are used for civilian aircraft.

The land on which the government plans to build infrastructure for civilian flights are in Sikandarpur village, next to the base's perimeter wall.

(With agency inputs)
Ram temple in Ayodhya to be ready by 2025, open for 'darshan' to devotees by 2023 end

Foundation works for Ram Mandir to be ready by October, 'garbhagriha' by Dec 2023: VHP

Previous attempts to solve Ayodhya dispute through mediation

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Mar 08: The Supreme Court on Friday referred Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case to mediation for amicable settlement.

A five-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said the case was not about property, but about "mind, heart and healing-if possible." While the Supreme Court is in favour of mediation in the case, most parties involved do not approve of mediation.

The mediation process will be held in Faizabad and will start within a week, the Supreme Court said, The process should be done "utmost confidentiality," and should be concluded in eight weeks.

The Babri Masjid demolition case had witnessed several attempts to mediate a compromise between the opposing sides, all of which were unsuccessful.

Allahabad HC tried mediation

The three-judge Bench of the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court, too, had tried mediation. After arguments concluded on August 3, 2010, the Bench had called all lawyers into the chamber and asked whether they wanted to reconcile.

In September 2010, various attempts were made to defer a decision by the High Court on the ground of attempting mediation, but all ended being rejected.

Who are the mediators in Ayodhya dispute case?

The Supreme Court was informed then that the High Court is contemplating mediation and has given time till September 23 for the parties to arrive at a settlement.

A retired bureaucrat, Ramesh Chandra Tripathi, had moved a plea seeking mediation, but his petition was rejected by a three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court by 2:1 majority.

CJI J S Khehar too attempted for mediation



After several parties appealed the High Court order, Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar himself offered to act as a mediator between the Hindu and Muslim sides. He called it a "sentimental" issue, and said that the best way to reach an amicable solution would be to hold negotiations outside the court.

This attempt by the court at coaxing the parties into negotiating a settlement was, however, not formal, and did not go anywhere.

SC orders mediation in Ayodhya Case, appoints 3 mediators to report in 8 weeks

Mediation attempts by individuals

1990 - PM Chandra Shekhar attempted to resolve the matter between the two parties after VHP volunteers damaged the mosque partially. However, the negotiations between them failed.

1992- PV Narasimha Rao also initiated talks between Hindus and Muslims to resolve the case permanently. But Rao also failed to take the talks to a logical end.

2003- A significant effort was made by Atal Bihari Vajpayee when set up an Ayodhya cell in his office and designated a senior official to hold talks with Hindu and Muslim leaders. But this also failed.

2014- As per reports, in 2014, Ansari wanted to put an end to the dispute and make 'a fresh start'. Ansari was the oldest litigant in the Babri Masjid case, having been involved since his arrest in 1949 for protestingagainst the installation of the idols in the mosque. Talks did not progress.
Bombay HC pulls up MSRTC workers' union for going ahead with strike despite court directive

Prohibiting political adds on social media: Why no order as yet, HC asks ECI

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Mumbai, Mar 08: The Bombay High Court has asked the Election Commission of India why it was hesitant to issue specific directions to prohibit political advertisements on social media 48 hours before election day.

A bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice N M Jamdar posed the question after the poll panel submitted that it was deliberating on bringing in such a direction, and currently, consulting experts and stakeholders.

"But, how long will the deliberations go on? Why don't you take a decision, say yes, we are going to issue specific orders (to the above effect)?" the bench said.

It was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a lawyer, Sagar Suryavanshi, seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to regulate fake news in the form of paid political ads on social media.

Clear all hurdles in Malegaon blast case to facilitate trial says Bombay HC

The PIL had also urged the court to direct the ECI to prohibit all persons, whether politicians or private individuals, from posting advertisements related to politics or the elections, or paid political content on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, 48 hours before election day.

During the previous hearing, social media platform Facebook had told the court that it had introduced a strict "pre-verification processes" for all political ads and paid content of "national interest" on their websites in India ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The new system ensures that only bona fide individuals, who are citizens of India, and political organisations based in the country can place political ads.

Twitter and YouTube told the bench Thursday that they only permitted such political ads that had been verified by the ECI.

The social media sites, however, told the court that they could not voluntarily impose a 48-hour ban as sought by the petitioner.

The counsels for Facebook, Google, and YouTube said they could prohibit display of political ads on their websites 48 hours before polling day, if they are directed by the ECI to do so.

The Representation of the People Act already prohibits political campaigning 48 hours before polling day and a notification of the ECI regulating ads on TV and print media prohibits publication of political ads 48 hours before the polling day.

The court, therefore, asked why the ECI could not formulate a similar direction for political ads on social media.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 6:04 [IST]
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Pulwama attack: Karnataka Congress MP alleges match-fixing between PM Modi and Imran Khan

India

oi-PTI

Bengaluru, Mar 08: Sparking a major row, senior Congress leader B K Hariprasad on Thursday alleged there was a "match fixing" between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan on the Pulwama terror attack.

"There is a match fixing between Narendra Modi and Imran Khan, or else this Pulwama incident would not have taken place," Prasad, a Rajya Sabha member, told reporters here.

BJP in Karnataka sharply reacted to Hariprasad's charge, calling it irresponsible and saying he should be ashamed of making such statements.

Hariprasad's comments came while reacting to union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi on the "stolen" Rafale papers.

Digvijaya Singh dares PM Modi to file case against him over 'Pulwama accident' remark

Earlier in the day, Gandhi asked why a probe cannot be ordered against Modi for a "Rs 30,000-crore scam" when an investigation has been initiated into the theft of official documents related to the fighter jet deal.

Hitting back, Prasad said: "I totally condemn blatant lies of Rahul Gandhi. He does not believe the Indian Air Force, does not trust the Supreme Court verdict that clearly said there is no commercial impropriety in the (Rafale) procurement process. He does not believe the CAG."

Coming down on the union government, Hariprasad sought to know how the huge cache of RDX went undetected when the government agencies could find beef at different places.

"People who talk about the security of the nation, they can detect two kg of beef from Akhlaq's house, they can detect two kg of beef in Kerala guest house, they can't detect 350 kg of RDX on the national highway. It's a shame on them," he said.

BJP state general secretary and MLC N Ravikumar slammed Hariprasad for his remarks.

"This is a highly condemnable, irresponsible statement. He should be ashamed of making such statements. Where had he mortgaged his brain before making such a statement," he said.

He blamed the Congress for terrorism in the country.

Forty CRPF jawans were killed in a suicide attack carried on their convoy in Jammu & Kashmir on February 14, for which Pakistan based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed responsibility.

Indian Air Force had carried out pre-emptive strikes on the training camps of terrorists inside the Pakistan soil.

The attack had escalated tension between Pakistan and India.

Hariprasad is not new to controversies. Earlier in January, he had mocked BJP national president Amit Shah's illness when the latter was admitted to the AIIMS for contracting H1N1.

Addressing a meeting here, Prasad had said in Kannada that Amit Shah got the 'swine flu' because he tried to destabilise the Congress-JDS coalition government in Karnataka.

PTI

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 8:45 [IST]
Three more Rafale jets to land in India from France in non-stop flight

Rafale negotiations had reached advanced stage under UPA says Reddy

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, Mar 08: Senior Congress leader S Jaipal Reddy claimed that Rafale negotiations were brought to an "advanced stage" during UPA regime but the Modi government "delayed" the deal.

"Rafale has been delayed because of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi. The negotiations were brought to an advanced stage during the Manmohan Singh government. The negotiations were almost finalised in March, 2014. Then came the elections. Then you (Modi) took office in May. Why did you delay it for four years. There was no delay on the part of the UPA government at all, he told reporters.

Rafale: Explained, can RTI override the Official Secrets Act?

He was asked to comment on Modi's allegation that the Rafale fighter aircraft deal got delayed because of the Congress and furore by other opposition parties.

Reddy also said India did very well in carrying out air strikes against terror camps in Pakistan, but that cannot be used for political purposes.

Asked about the political fight over the veracity of the strikes, Reddy said Congress President Rahul Gandhi was among the first to salute the IAF, it was Modi who "personalized" the entire outcome, he alleged.

The Congress leader congratulated The Hindu newspaper for publishing very relevant, correct, authentic document in regard to the alleged dissent about the price of Rafale aircraft.

How do we fight Pak F-16s without Rafale: Govt in SC

"Rafale aircraft is more costly in the hands of NDA government than the one negotiated by UPA... The CAG said the price negotiated by the UPA was costlier by 2.5 per cent. It arrived at the figure because it did not take into account bank guarantees. If you take into account the expenditure incurred by bank guarantees, the purchase price under UPA would have been cheaper. This fact has been brought out through a document published by N Ram (of The Hindu).., Reddy said.

He said journalists should be able to publish any document provided it is authentic.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 5:41 [IST]
'Tarzan' actor Joe Lara passes away at 58 in US plane crash

Rajasthan: Fighter jet crashes near Bikaner, pilot ejects safely

India

oi-Deepika S

Bikaner, Mar 08: A MIG-21 jet of the Indian Air Force crashed in Rajasthan's Bikaner on Friday afternoon. The plane crashed after it reportedly suffered a bird hit.

News agency PTI, quoting Bikaner's superintendent of police, reported that the MiG-21 jet crashed in Bikaner's Shoba Sar ki Dhani area. A Court of Inquiry has been instituted to look into the accident.

Today afternoon a MiG-21 aircraft on a routine mission crashed after getting airborne from Nal near Bikaner. Pilot of the aircraft ejected safely. Initial inputs suggest a bird hit. CoI will be investigating the cause of the accident.@PMOIndia @nsitharaman @PIB_India @IAF_MCC  Defence Spokesperson (@SpokespersonMoD) March 8, 2019

A statement by the IAF said that the MiG-21 had taken off from the Indian Air Force's Nal airbase in Rajasthan and that it was on a routine mission.

The IAF statement said, "Today afternoon a MiG-21 aircraft on a routine mission crashed after getting airborne from Nal near Bikaner. Initial inputs indicate the likely cause as bird hit after take off. Pilot of the aircraft ejected safely. A CoI [Court of Inquiry] will investigate the cause of the accident."

The crash comes days after a fighter jet crashed in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district, killing two pilots and four others onboard, besides a local.

A few days back, IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman's MiG 21 had also crashed after a dogfight with an F-16 fighter jet of Pakistan Air Force, after which he was taken into custody by the Pakistani army. Abhinandan was released to India after 70 hours of detention in Pakistan.

On February 1, 2019, a Mirage 2000 jet crashed at HAL airport, Bengaluru., resulting in the death of two IAF pilots.
Ram temple in Ayodhya to be ready by 2025, open for 'darshan' to devotees by 2023 end

Foundation works for Ram Mandir to be ready by October, 'garbhagriha' by Dec 2023: VHP

Six temples of different deities in Ram temple's final blueprint

SC orders mediation in Ayodhya case, appoints 3 mediators to report in 8 weeks

India

oi-Deepika S

New Delhi, Mar 08: The Supreme Court on Friday referred Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation.

The court said that Justice Khaliifulah (Retd) will be the chairman for court appointed and monitored mediation for a " "permanent solution". Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Senior advocate Sriram Panchu will be the other members in the panel.

The mediation will be held in Faizabad, the court said

It will be held with "utmost confidentiality". Time given for mediation is 8 weeks. Report to be filed in SC in 4 weeks.

Ayodhya dispute mediators can co-opt more on the panel if necessary. UP govt to provide them with facilities in Faizabad. Mediation to start in a week. Will be held in-camera. Mediators can take legal assistance.

Supreme Court in its order also said that the reporting of the mediation proceedings in media will be banned.

The development is significant as it comes just weeks ahead of national elections due by May.

The Allahabad High Court had in 2010 carved up the land in the ration of 2:1 between the Hindus and the Muslims. Both sides have challenged the ruling. It has been pending in the top court ever since.

The Hindu parties to the case the Nirmohi Akhara, the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha and the All India Hindu Mahasabha have all expressed their opposition to mediation.




As 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Czech Republic, a special exhibition featuring artworks by Alphonse Mucha, a pioneer of Art Nouveau, will be staged in Chongqing, Yunnan, Beijing, and Tianjin to promote cultural communications between the two countries.









More than 200 works will be displayed at this year's exhibition, most of them created by Mucha. The works include a few utensils in the style of Art Nouveau, which is an international style of art, architecture and applied art most popular in Europe and America between 1890 and 1910.





The exhibition is curated by Youxiang Art Exhibition, sponsored by the Embassy of the Czech Republic, and supported by the Czech National Museum of Arts and Crafts, the City of Prague Museum, and the Billson Art Gallery.





Mucha, the famous Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist, was born in 1860 and lived in Paris during the Art Nouveau period. He was best known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters of Sarah Bernhardt.





As a pioneer in the Art Nouveau movement, Mucha produced illustrations, advertisements, decorative panels, and designs that became among the best-known images of the period. A lithographed advertising poster he was commissioned to create for a play featuring the celebrated actress Bernhardt in 1894 catapulted him out of obscurity and brought him instant success as a commercial artist. Rendered in pale pastels, much of his work depicts beautiful young women draped in Neoclassical robes set amidst flowers, feathers, and other sensuous natural forms. He was celebrated not only for illustrating advertising posters, but also for painting, book illustrations, sculpting, and designing theater sets, jewelry, and wallpaper. Mucha is also the designer of the first set of Czech's postage stamps, the first set of banknotes, the national emblem of the white lion, the police uniform, the interior murals of the Prague Civic Hall and the painted windows of St. Vita Cathedral.









The works of Mucha have strong and distinct characteristics of the Art Nouveau movement, and they were also tinged with a strong personal color. In his early years, Mucha's posters and decorative paintings were characterized by rhythmic decorative lines, with concise contours and soft and bright watercolor effects. His depictions of women were sweet, graceful, lovely, and touching. In his later years, Mucha began to diversify the styles of his works, which became freer and more unrestrained. He also started to create large paintings, integrating himself with the fate of his country and the epoch, so that the works were full of eternal vitality.








Just a matter of time for 9 day encounter in Rajouri-Poonch jungles to end

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Security forces kill three TPC ultras in encounter

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Hazaribagh, Mar 08: Three ultras of the banned Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) were killed in an encounter with security forces in Hazaribagh district, police said.

Hazaribagh Superintendent of Police Mayur Patel Kanhaiyalal said the encounter took place in a dense forest near Bundu under Keredari police station of Hazaribagh district, bordering Chatra district.

Superintendent of Police (Operation) Nigam Prasad said that the 190th battalion of the CRPF and district police on a tip-off about the presence of TPC ultras rushed to the Tara forest.

Naxal funding: NIA raids lead to seizure of Singapore dollars and Indian currency worth Re 1 crore

The ultras opened fire on the security personnel who returned the fire and in the encounter that followed three ultras were gunned down, Prasad said,

The bodies of the three ultras recovered and the process of their identification was underway, he said, adding that two INSAS rifles, one AK-47 rifle and bullets were recovered from the encounter spot.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 6:00 [IST]
Can't be disqualified as MLA, never quit from Congress: Alpesh Thakor

Alpesh Thakor, Dhavalsinh Zala who cross-voted during RS polls to join BJP on Jul 15

Speculation about Alpesh joining BJP; OBC leader to take call today

India

oi-Deepika S

Ahmedabad, Mar 08: Amid rumours of him heading to the ruling BJP in Gujarat, OBC leader and Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor has arrived in New Delhi to meet Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Friday. He is set to decide the next course of his political action today after weeks of suspense.

Thakor had campaigned for Congress in the Gujarat assembly elections. Thakor who represents Radhanpur constituency had earlier accused the grand old party of sidelining him and ignoring his community.

The Congress MLA from Radhanpur called a meeting of his Thakor Sena here Thursday to take a final decision on his next course of action amid speculation that he may join the saffron outfit.

"All the rumours that are being spread about me are aimed at damaging my image. I will hold a press conference tomorrow afternoon and clear my stand," Thakor told media after reports emerged he will be soon joining the BJP.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said doors of the BJP are open for anybody who wants to join the party.

"We welcome everybody who wants to join us and follow the BJP ideology," he said.

Congress treasurer Ahmed Patel, however, said in Vadodara that no Congress MLA will join the BJP.

Hardik Patel to join Congress on March 12, to contest from Jamnagar

"I have confidence that none of our MLAs will join the BJP as they are ideologically close to Congress thinking.

Thakor had emerged as a prominent OBC leader in Gujarat after the Patidar community, led by Hardik Patel, launched an agitation for reservation in jobs and education under the OBC category.

Thakor had rallied OBC communities of Gujarat against the demand of the Patidar community.

Thakor had joined the Congress before the 2017 assembly elections along with his supporters and won from Radhanpur seat in Patan district.

However, his name was embroiled in the violence against migrant workers in Gujarat last year.

The violence started when a minor girl of the Thakor community was allegedly raped by a migrant labourer.

Gujarat had seen exodus of migrants from Hindi- speaking states after sporadic attacks on them after the rape incident.

Recently, Thakor had met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and conveyed his displeasure against the functioning of the party's state leadership.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 12:55 [IST]
SSC CGL Tier-III results 2019 on July 9: Read full notice on cut off marks here

SSC Stenographer 2018 exam results to be out on this date

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Mar 08: The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) is expected to declare the results of Stenographer grade C and D exam 2018 in the month of April. Once the results will be declared by the commission, all the candidates can check the same from the official website, the link for which is ssc.nic.in

The SSC conducted the Stenographer Grade C & D recruitment exam 2018 from February 5 to February 7, 2019 at 208 test centres across the nation.

On March 25, the result of Junior Hindi Translators, Junior Translators, Senior Hindi Translator and Hindi Pradhyapak Examination-2018 (Paper-I) will be released, while on March 29, SSC will publish the final result of Stenographers' Grade 'C' & 'D' Examination2017.

SSC recruitment new candidate login procedure

On April 15, the written exam result of Stenographers' Grade 'C' & 'D' exam 2018 will be released.

SSC Stenographer Result 2018: Here's how to check

Go to the official website, https://ssc.nic.in/

On the homepage, search for 'SSC stenographer results' link once the results will be announced

Enter all the required information and click on submit

Results will be displayed on the screen

Download and take print out of the same for future reference.

Staff Selection Commission conducts exam for filling the grade VI officials in the Union government and its departments.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 17:44 [IST]
Tamil Nadu CM demands Param Veer Chakra to Wg Cdr Abhinandan Varthaman

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar P

Chennai, Mar 08: Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K. Palaniswami deamanded Param Veer Chakra (country's highest military honour) for Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

According to news agency ANI, CM Edappadi K Palaniswami wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting PVC, country's highest military honour for Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.

Abhinandan Varthaman became the first IAF pilot to shoot down an F-16 fighter jet during an aerial combat with the Pakistani Air Force. He was captured by the Pakistani Army after his MiG-21 Bison jet was hit in a fierce dogfight. He returned to India to a hero's welcome on March 1 night.

Rajasthan: Fighter jet crashes near Bikaner, pilot ejects safely

According to IAF, on 27 February 19 at around 1000 hrs IAF radars detected a large package of PAF aircraft heading towards the Indian territory towards general area Jhangar. They breached the Indian airspace west of Rajauri in Sunderbani Area. Ingressing aircraft were observed to be at various levels. IAF fighters including MiG-21Bison, Su-30MKI, Mirage-2000 were tasked to intercept the intruder. PAF aircraft attempting to target military installations, were intercepted by IAF fighters & thwarted their plans.

Although PAF bombs fell in Indian Army Formation compounds however they were unable to cause any damage to our Military Installations. In the aerial combat that ensued one F-16 of PAF was shot down by an IAF MiG-21 Bison. The F-16 crashed and fell across the LOC.

The IAF lost one MiG-21 in the aerial engagement and the pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman ejected safely, his parachute drifted into POJ&K where he was taken into custody by Pakistan Army.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 18:56 [IST]
People were willing to cooperate in Ayodhya Matter: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in his EU Address

Turning dreams to reality: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar after SC order on Ayodhya

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Mar 08: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered mediation to settle the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute by a three-member panel includes Sri Sri Ravishankar along wirh Justice Kalifulla and Sriram Panchu.

A spiritual guru, Sri Sri had been advocating for a constructive dialogue between the opposing parties on Ram Mandir issue.

Reacting to the verdict, Ravishankar said, "Respecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society - we must all move together towards these goals".

During the last hearing on Wednesday, most of the Hindu petitioners, the Uttar Pradesh government and the consul of "Ram Lalla", the deity infant Lord Ram, had shown reluctance towards mediation. The Sunni Waqf Board, ready to give mediation a shot, is concerned about privacy during negotiations. The Nirmohi Akhara, another petitioner in the case, has also agreed for mediation.

The Constitution Bench, which is hearing the case, said mediation may help in "healing relations". Even if there is "one per cent chance" of settling the dispute amicably, the parties should go for mediation, the bench had said.

Two years ago, the court had suggested that the two sides explore the possibility of resolving the matter through negotiation. The court even said it was ready to mediate if they agreed. But negotiations did not take off as all sides involved said they wanted the court to take a call.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 12:29 [IST]
Who are the mediators in Ayodhya dispute case?

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Mar 8: The Supreme Court on Friday appointed a mediation panel in the Ayodhya case. The bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, appointed a three-member panel to act as mediators. The panel will be headed by former Supreme Court judge FM Kalifullah with spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and mediation expert Sriram Panchu as other members.

[SC orders mediation in Ayodhya Case, appoints 3 mediators to report in 8 weeks]

Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla:

Born onn 23 July 1951, Kalifulla is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India. Kalifulla enrolled as an advocate on 20 August 1975, after which he began practicing labour law in the law firm of T.S. Gopalan & Co.

On 2 March 2000, he was appointed as a judge of the Madras High Court. In February 2011, he became a member of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and was appointed to serve as the acting Chief Justice two months later.

In September 2011, he was named as the Chief Justice of High Court of Jammu and Kashmir. On 2 April 2012, he was named to the Supreme Court of India, sworn in by Chief Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia. Justice Kalifulla retired from the Supreme Court of India on 22 July 2016.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Born on 13 May 1956, Ravi Shankar is an Indian spiritual leader. He is frequently referred to as "Sri Sri" or as Guruji or Gurudev. He founded the Art of Living Foundation in 1981, a volunteer-based NGO providing social support to the people. In 1997, he established a Geneva-based charity, the International Association for Human Values, an NGO that engages in relief work and rural development and aims to foster shared global values.

[Ayodhya case: Mediation to be held in Faizabad]

Ravi Shankar's efforts at mediation in the Ayodhya dispute in 2017 received a mixed response from both Hindu and Muslim leaders. Based on Supreme Court of India's suggestion for an out-of-court settlement, he proposed a mutual compromise where both communities "gift" neighbouring pieces of land to each other. This proposal was met with a lot of skepticism and resistance.

Sriram Panchu:

Sriram Panchu is a senior advocate and mediator. He is a founder of The Mediation Chambers, which offers services in mediation and med-arb. He is the president of the Association of Indian Mediators and a director on the board of the International Mediation Institute (IMI). He set up India's first court-annexed mediation centre in 2005, and has been instrumental in making mediation a part of India's legal system.

Panchu has mediated a large number of complex and high-value disputes across the range of commercial, corporate and contractual disputes in different parts of India. He is a certified mediator on the panel of the Singapore International Mediation Centre. He was appointed by Supreme Court to mediate a 500 square kilometre dispute between the states of Assam and Nagaland, and another public dispute involving the Parsi community in Bombay.
Womens Day: Biopic made on Indias first stuntwoman The Sholay Girl

India

oi-Shubham Ghosh

Bengaluru, March 8: Often, we hear and talk about stuntmen undertaking the tough acts on behalf of actors on the screen to save the stars from the real risks. But how many times do we really discuss about women stunts?

Or did many of us know before that the Hindi film industry also had women stunt artistes to chip in for leading ladies displaying acrobatic and fighting skills on the big screen?

When we talk about stuntwomen in films, one film that comes to our mind is the 1975 blockbuster 'Sholay' that had a sequence of even one of its leading heroines engaging in a life-and-death escape from horse-riding dacoits in her tonga.

Women's Day Special 2019: How should women plan their retirement?

However, although it was Hema Malini who had enthralled the audience with her daring act against the dacoits, the stunts were performed, some of which life-threatening, by Reshma Pradhan. She had been the body double of Hema Malini in the blockbuster and also for many other actresses in the Hindi film industry in the seventies and eighties.

However, it is not too many people who knew about Pradhan's contribution, especially in these years, but now, she is set to have a broader popular base as a biopic 'The Sholay Girl' released as an web film on Friday, March 8, the International Women's Day. Actress Bidita Bag portrayed the role of Pradhan in the film

'The Sholay Girl' is an original web film by Zee5 and is produced by Shrabani and Sai Deodhar - mother and daughter.

Pathan was just around 14 when she started the work as stuntwoman to back her poor family and faced a lot of resistance from the male stunt workers.

"At that time, there were hardly any women taking up the role of even body doubles, let alone those requiring stunts. So, she earned the wrath of stuntmen; they accused her of stealing her job!" Bidita was quoted as saying by The Better India.

Women's Day: This Bengaluru entrepreneur has revolutionised waste management

Pathan joined the industry in 1968 and it took some years for her before gaining recognition. She told The Better India: "Between 1971-72, I began getting more work, but these would rarely stretch beyond ten days in a month. Slowly, that began to change with more work coming along my way. But the real break came in 1975-with Sholay."

Pathan's name had such a circulation after that epic film that she even came to be known as "Sholay Girl". Pradhan also had faced several life-threatening situations in her career and had even suffered a serious injury during the stunt for 'Sholay' but she never gave up her work.

Once, a jumping sequence had also imperilled the baby she was carrying and then she decided to take a break only to return later, The Better India report added.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 16:15 [IST]
Gen Rawats chopper crashes: Those who were on board

Gen Bipin Rawat, others killed in helicopter crash: IAF's Mi17V5 chopper involved in a few incidents in past

Tamil Nadu copter crash: Lance Naik from Andhra spoke to wife four hours before mishap

Gen Bipin Rawat, wife to be cremated in Delhi on Friday

Balakot air strike: FIR filed in Pakistan against IAF pilots for bombing trees

International

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Islamabad, Mar 08: An FIR has been registered in Pakistan by the forestry department on Friday against the Indian Air Force (IAF) for bombing and destroying trees in the Balakot area, as reported by Express News.

The FIR, registered against unidentified IAF pilots, also details the damage suffered by 19 trees after Indian aircraft "hastily dropped their payload".

Earlier it was reported that Pakistan has planned to lodge a complaint against India at the United Nations, accusing it of "eco-terrorism" over air strikes that damaged pine trees, a Minister said on March 1.

Balakot air strikes: Pak accuses India of 'Eco Terrorism', to lodge UN complaint

Pakistan Climate Change Minister Malik Amin Aslam had claimed that India's IAF airstrike targeting a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp has damaged dozens of pine trees near the Pakistani town of Balakot. Taking note of which, the Pakistan plans to lodge a complaint against India at the United Nations, accusing it of "eco-terrorism".

The United Nations states that "destruction of the environment, not justified by military necessity and carried out wantonly, is clearly contrary to existing international law", according to the UN General Assembly resolution 47/37.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 13:29 [IST]
North Korea sees red over Seoul-US joint drills

International

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Seoul, Mar 08: North Korea attacked ongoing joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington as an "all out challenge" to moves towards peace on the Korean peninsula.

The US and South Korea agreed on Sunday to replace two major war games that take place every spring -- the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills -- with a shorter "Dong Maeng" or "Alliance" exercise which kicked off this week.

The move was designed to further ease tensions with the North following the dramatic detente since early 2018.

There are close to 30,000 US troops stationed in South Korea, and their annual drills with tens of thousands of South Korean soldiers have always infuriated the North -- with Pyongyang condemning the manoeuvres as provocative rehearsals for invasion.

However, following the first meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore last year, Trump raised eyebrows at a press conference when he said Washington would suspend the "very provocative" US joint military exercises with South Korea.

The two leaders also signed a vaguely-worded pledge on denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

On reports of N. Korea rebuilding a rocket site, Trump says "very, very disappointed"

But the North's official KCNA news agency has now warned that the ongoing nine-day drills were an "all out challenge" against efforts for peace and stability.

"The suspicious activities by the US and South Korean military are a reckless violation of the joint statement signed by Washington and Pyongyang and North-South declarations that commit to ending hostilities and easing military tensions," it said.

The flare-up comes just days after Trump and Kim Jong Un held a second summit, this time in Vietnam, but the talks broke up early with no progress toward Washington's goal of getting the isolated country to give up its nuclear weapons.

Following the stalemate, researchers said this week that Pyongyang was rebuilding the Sohae long-range rocket site after Kim had agreed last year to shut it as part of confidence-building measures.

Trump said he would be "very, very disappointed" if the reports proved true.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 5:51 [IST]
List of 28 agreements/MoUs signed during the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit in New Delhi

To de-escalate Indo-Pak tensions, all eyes on Kartarpur talks

International

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Islamabad, Mar 08: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said improved relations between India and Pakistan will lead to peace and stability in the region and the exchange of visits by delegations of the two countries discuss the Kartarpur Corridor will help in de-escalating tensions.

Qureshi's comment came following his meeting with Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Sohail Mehmood, who discussed with him the relations and current situation between Islamabad and New Delhi.

Mehmood, who is scheduled to return to New Delhi after he was summoned by Islamabad for consultations following flare up of tensions between the two neighbours after the Pulwama terror attack.

"Pakistan desires de-escalation and an improvement in the current situation. The delegation-level visits will play a key role in this," Qureshi was quoted as saying by Geo News.

PAF shot down 2 IAF fighter jets: Pak foreign minister tells Parliament

"In March, both the countries will hold consultations over the Kartarpur Corridor," he said.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in February 14.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.

Qureshi also said that Pakistan wants peace in the region and has taken several steps in this regard.

India and Pakistan will discuss on March 14 the modalities of the operationalisation of the Kartarpur Corridor to facilitate easy access by Indian Sikhs to Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan.

India had earlier said that the discussions with Pakistan over the Kartarpur Corridor would be held according to the government's decision to operationalise the corridor for easy access to the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 5:45 [IST]
Set in a former airport, a new cultural landmark in the West Bund area will hold three exhibitions as part of its grand opening in late March, Zhang Kun reports in Shanghai.



Anew cultural landmark called Tank Shanghai, an art space which comprises five repurposed giant oil tanks, will open in the West Bund area along the Huangpu River on March 23.

The tanks that make up this art space used to be part of the facilities of Longhua Airport, the city's first aviation hub.

The West Bund area that flanks the Huangpu is one of the most active art and culture centers in downtown Shanghai. The area is home to a cluster of important art and cultural institutions, such as the Long Museum, the Shanghai Center of Photography and the new Pompidou Centre Shanghai, which is still under construction. Situated across Longteng Avenue from the art space is the West Bund Art Center, the venue for an annual art fair in November that was attended by more than 100 leading galleries around the world.

Occupying 60,000 square meters, the art space was founded by Qiao Zhibing, a renowned collector of contemporary art. According to Qiao, the space is a multifunctional cultural hub that combines exhibition venues with parkland, a plaza, a bookstore, an education center and a restaurant. The project took more than five years to complete.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to reach Lucknow on July 16; Key meetings scheduled in Delhi before visit

UP Board Class 10th, 12th Result 2021 Declared: How to check

Members of farmers' body detained in Lucknow for trying to burn effigies of PM Modi, Shah

Section 144 CrPC invoked in Lucknow in view of Christmas, New Year

4 killed, 7 injured as car turns turtle after hitting cow in UP

Lucknow

oi-PTI

Sitapur, Mar 08: Four people were killed and seven others injured when their car turned upside down after hitting a cow in the Hargaon area here Friday, police said.

Additional Superintendent of Police (north) Madhuvan Kumar Singh said the incident took place in the morning on the Sitapur-Lakhimpur road at Badelia village.

Eleven people were in the car and they were returning from a marriage ceremony, he said.

"As their car reached Badelia village under Hargaon police station, suddenly a cow jumped in front of it. The driver lost control over the vehicle and it then turned upside down," Singh said.

Local people rushed to rescue the people from the car, he said.

While four died on the spot, seven were injured, two among them critically, the ASP said.

The deceased have been identified as Savitri, 35, Kiran, 30, Neetu, 15, and Mohini, 14, he said.

The injured are undergoing treatment at the district hospital, Singh said.

The bodies of the deceased have been sent for post-mortem, he added.

PTI

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 14:08 [IST]
Auto rickshaw fares in Delhi to increase by over 18 per cent

New Delhi

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Mar 08: Auto rickshaw fares in Delhi will increase by Rs. 1.50 rupee per kilometer after Delhi Cabinet's approved recommendations for fare revision today. The existing auto-rickshaw fare in the city is Rs. 8 per kilometre which has been raised to Rs. 9.50, an increase of 18.75 per cent.

The meter-down charge of Rs. 25 per two kilometre has also been revised by the committee and set to Rs. 25 for 1.5 kilometre, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said. The revised charges will be implemented after the Transport Department's notification, he added.

AAP trolls Congress after it mocks BJP over defaced website

In answer to a question, the transport minister said fare revision is not a reserved subject and there is no need for the approval of the Lieutenant Governor.

The auto-rickshaw meters will be re-calibrated to charge the revised fare, the minister said.

PTI

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Story first published: Friday, March 8, 2019, 20:30 [IST]
On a sunny afternoon, people were enjoying their drinks on outdoor terraces of local cafes. Among them was young Chinese musician Zhang Yuchen, who was rehearsing with her professor to get prepared for a concert.

"I do notice the pace of life in Zagreb is much slower (than in China), and people are sitting in the sun, enjoying coffee everywhere around the corner," Zhang told Xinhua. "It actually gives me a bit more time to adapt to the life here."

Zhang came here almost three years ago and has become the first Chinese student at the Academy of Music of the University of Zagreb. She is also one of the best classic guitar players in her class, very insightful and determined to succeed.

TIES WITH CROATIA

Back in 2011, Zhang enrolled in China's Tianjin Music Secondary School that is attached to Tianjin Music Conservatory and studied classic guitar there. Meanwhile, Zhang met Darko Petrinjak, one of the best-known Croatian guitarists, who was holding a master class in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin. Petrinjak recognized her musical talent and invited her to come to Croatia.

At Petrinjak's invitation, Zhang went to Zagreb in 2015 and spent the whole summer learning from Petrinjak. "I remember I had a feeling that a new chapter in my life had started," she recalled, and it was then when she decided to study in Croatia.

Zhang was the top-scorer in the entrance exam of the University of Zagreb and Petrinjak is satisfied with the progress she has made in the past few years.

"She is a very, very diligent student and a very serious one. She is making up for all deficiencies with which she came here three years ago. There were many problems in basic techniques and understanding Western music but she is progressing really quickly," Petrinjak told Xinhua.

Zhang's excellence as a music student was also recognized by renowned Croatian composer Sanda Majurec, who invited her to record Pebbles and Ripples, the first piece in a recently-published album of the composer's latest works. The young guitarist was honored and particularly excited as a "published artist."

HARVEST

Moving to Croatia was not an easy choice. "My parents had doubts. They were worried about me studying abroad alone because I was the first Chinese student here in Zagreb Music Academy. I am really glad that in the end they trusted me and let me choose my own path," Zhang said.

When she started her study here in 2016, the biggest challenge was to find balance between lessons, practice and leisure. During the last two and a half years, she has learned some Croatian, so life is now much easier than the beginning.

"Now, I have managed to balance everything. I have learned how to communicate with professors, how to study efficiently, how to solve problems independently, how to stay motivated and keep on practising to achieve the goal, and I have found time to go to gym, travel and enjoy pleasant leisure time with my close friends here in Croatia," Zhang said.

The young Chinese is thrilled by the European way of music education. It is different from China, which is more focused on the playing techniques, she said. Here, students are taught to better understand music itself.

"I think a genuine musician needs to own precise music playing techniques, professional music education, and more importantly a musical heart. The first, as well as parts of the second element, can be gained in China, while the third depends on every individual. But there is more chance for me to own all three here in Europe. And I did not start to be aware of and equip my playing with these three things until I came to Europe," Zhang said.

The China-Croatia relations have developed in the last few years, with more and more Chinese investments and tourists entering the southeastern European country.

In December 2018, the Chinese Embassy in Croatia signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Academy of Fine Arts, which is also affiliated to the University of Zagreb. There are currently dozens of exchange students in Croatia and the number will increase.

"I really hope that all I have learned through these years abroad, plus the work I did when I was very young in China, will foster me to become a mature musician and one day I could give all my knowledge to the next generations of young Chinese musicians to help them improve in all," Zhang told Xinhua.
The choice of China as a guest of honor of Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh Asian Film Festival (SAFF) implies that "both sides are expecting more cultural exchange," a Chinese renowed filmmaker told Xinhua in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

"Chinese contribution to the SAFF helps Egyptians know more about Chinese films and other cultural aspects," Xie Fei said on the sidelines of the SAFF held in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"We felt honored to be invited as a guest of honor," added the Chinese director, who is also a head of the festival's jury.

The film festival started on March 2 and will run until March 8 with the participation of 58 movies from 26 Asian countries, including three from Egypt and two from China.

According to Xie, the participating movies are "rich and varied."

The festival shows movies from Saudi Arabia, India, Republic of Korea, Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore, Tajikistan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Chinese participation in the third edition of the festival is strong and deep, Xie noted.

"We held a symposium on Tuesday to discuss professional issues. We screened Chinese films that won international awards, and exchanged ideas with colleagues from Egypt, Gulf and Asian countries on the cinematography," he said.

He also highlighted the Chinese singing, dancing and music performances for the international audience in the resort city on Wednesday to expand knowledge about Chinese art.

Commenting on the Egyptian cinema, Xie said he loved watching the 1950s Egyptian movies, especially those featuring Omar al-Sherif, a renowned international actor, and his wife Faten Hamama.

For the Chinese director, there are differences between Chinese and Egyptian films.

"When we look at old movies made in the two countries, we will find that their content and focus are not the same," Xie illustrated.

The Egyptian film at that time was more about story-telling, he added.

Despite efforts made by the filmmakers from both countries, "Egyptian and Chinese film industry need more efforts for development, and there is still a long way to go," Xie concluded.

For the first time in Egyptian history, an award will be presented for the Best Animated Feature Film. Other awards will include Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Documentary.

Awards will also be given for Best Short Film and two certificates of appreciation for the second and third runners-up.
Macau Experiences New Growth Pains at the End of a Two Year+ Streak

Published March 8, 2019 by Lee R

Macau often slows at this point in the year, but new factors are driving the drops this year.

Macau gambling revenues have dropped, for the first time in two years.

End of the Streak

The Chinese island territory saw gambling revenue drop 5 percent in January, with the waning of the appetite for gambling and slowed economic growth as result of the US trade war blamed for the first drop in more than two years.

Totals

The totals for the month came in at 24.9 billion patacas ($3 billion) revenue, versus 26.3 billion patacas for the same period a year ago, according to Macaus Gaming Inspection and Coordination.

Factors

Other local factors include a smoking ban that came into effect on Jan. 1 along with muted sentiment among VIP players ahead of Chinese New Year holidays in February. Analysts had predicted a 12 percent drop in growth.

Heavy Economic Reliance

Located on China's Southern coast, Macau is well known as the countrys only legal casino hub. Casino taxes accounted for over 80 percent of the jurisdiction's revenue.

The Streak

The last decline in GGR dates back to July of 2016, snapping a 29-month streak of year-on-year GGR growth. Last month in December, GGR had risen a very robust 16.6%, with total GGR for 2018 reaching $37.57 billion, a healthy 14% higher than 2017.

Analysts Predictions

Most analysts still have things turning around, but Macau might have to wait all the way until the second half of 2019 to see the growth, when single digit GGR growth is prognosticated to return.

What happened to VIPs?

The VIP sector has showing flat or receding growth the entire second half of 2018. The drop in demand for VIP junkets and the rise in online sales are conflicting against growth.

Private Operator Struggles

Private operators are slipping in Macau as well. Wynn resorts revealed Q4 profits to be 3.1% down year-on-year, with net income at $814.8 million, 8.4% lower than 2018 with the $584.2 million attributable to the operator representing a 21.8% drop.

More Private Drops

Analysts are predicting the premium segment in Macau which includes Wynn resorts will fall another 10-15% in 2019.

Outlook

With drops visible and predicted in Macau, the strength of their casino offerings may have to carry the jurisdiction while things balance out, and more promotion of online offerings will likely surface at some point in the balancing period.
Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

Japan's SoftBank Group (SBG) is launching a $5bn fund to invest in technology companies in Latin America, it said, ramping up its tech ambitions beyond its huge Vision Fund.

The new fund will be headed by SoftBank's Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure, it said in a statement, with the Japanese technology conglomerate committing an initial $2bn and serving as the fund's general partner.

Softbank, which already has a $100bn investment vehicle known as Softbank Vision Fund, has made sizeable investments in ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc, shared office provider WeWork, food delivery startup DoorDash and dog walking app Wag.

Marcelo Claure will serve as Chief Executive Officer of SoftBank Latin America, responsible for overseeing the new fund, its investments and operations. Claure will also continue to serve in his current roles as Chief Operating Officer of SoftBank Group Corp., Chief Executive Officer of SoftBank Group International and Executive Chairman of Sprint Corporation.

No decision has been made as to the location of the SoftBank Innovation Fund's headquarters.

Masayoshi Son, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of SBG, said, "Latin America is on the cusp of becoming one of the most important economic regions in the world, and we anticipate significant growth in the decades ahead."

"SBG plans to invest in entrepreneurs throughout Latin America and use technology to help address the challenges faced by many e......................

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Top trends driving the Stainless Steel Market demand by Top Manufacturers Jindal Stainless, ArcelorMittal, Outokumpu, North American Stainless, POSCO

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Strong application outlook in architecture and construction industry for sustainable building will stimulate stainless steel market growth. Stainless steel in a grain or polished finish helps in bringing natural light into the building by reducing overall energy consumption. Shift in focus towards aesthetic appearance of buildings will play a vital role in industry growth.Global Stainless-Steel Market may witness significant gains over forecast period owing to positive growth in the automotive sector & rise in public infrastructure expenditure for developing railways, roads & highways projects. Its key properties such as resistance to corrosion, strength, and low maintenance properties making it suitable for wide range of applications including transportation, heavy industries, and metal products.Request for table of contents of this report @Properties such as low maintenance, ease of fabrication, and aesthetic appeal has led to rise in preference for stainless steel over ordinary steel which is likely to favor industry growth. Growing usage of stainless steel in pre-engineered buildings for roofing and building system may boost the overall product demand over the forecast timeframe. It safeguards the building system in unfavorable environmental conditions. Global demand for pre-engineered buildings was valued for USD 9 billion in 2015 and may surpass USD 15 billion by 2020, registering over 12% growth.Increased product usage in automotive industry owing to their wide range of application in car exhaust systems, mufflers, fuel tanks, hoods, and vehicle frames for doors will trigger market growth in forecast timeframe. Apart from this, new environmental concerns and emission reduction standards are encouraging automotive OEMS to favor stainless steel in structural components. Growing demand for light weight automobiles may propel the product growth.Rise in demand for stainless steel in medical industry may propel the market growth over the forecast timeframe. It is widely used in construction of kidney dishes, surgical and dental instruments, in addition to other medical equipment such as steam sterilizers, MRI scanners, and cannulas. Positive application scope in consumer goods such as such as cookware, stoves, and showpieces are also expected to boost the product demand.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @North America led by U.S. stainless steel market may witness significant growth by increasing application scope in medical, oil & gas and heavy industries. High-grade stainless steel plays vital role in construction of valves, pipes, and storage tanks to provide resistance to corrosion over a wider range of temperatures. Growing adoption of stainless steel in oil & gas industry for off-shore oil rigs is expected to boost the overall market growth in the region.Asia Pacific led by China, India and Japan stainless steel market should witness significant growth owing to rise in demand for renewable energy in this region. Stainless steel components are widely used in hydro, geothermal, solar, and wind power as they are able to withstand the rigors of highly corrosive sea water environments. Rapid industrial development and rise in government investments in infrastructure sector for the construction of highways, roads and bridges may boost the industry growth in this region.Browse Complete Report Summary @Europe driven by France, UK and Germany stainless steel market may witness high growth owing to positive application outlook in automotive industry owing to its high strength that allows for thinner containers, saving fuel costs, whereas its resistance to corrosion helps in minimizing the maintenance and cleaning costs.Global stainless steel market share is competitive with major industry players include Jindal Stainless, Aperam Stainless, ArcelorMittal, Outokumpu, POSCO, ThyssenKrupp Stainless, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Steel, JFE Holdings, and North American Stainless. Manufacturers are also focusing on merger and acquisitions with local & regional companies to open new market opportunities this will further boost the market for stainless steel.About Global Market InsightsGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
What's driving the Clinical Laboratory Services Market Size Key Players are Abbott Laboratories, Arup Laboratories, Charles River Laboratories, Fresenius Medical Care, Fullerton Health, Genoptix Medical Laboratory

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MarketStudyReport.com Adds New Clinical Laboratory Services Market 2018  2024 research report providing information and data By Test Type, By Service Provider, By Region, Industry Analysis, Regional Outlook, Application Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast spreading across 185 Pages with table and figures in it.U.S. clinical laboratory services market is anticipated to grow at 6.7% over the coming years. Escalating prevalence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes coupled with presence of major industry players in the country will upsurge the revenue size. As per CDC National Diabetes Statistics report around 30.3 million individuals of different age groups had diabetes in 2015; this accounts for nearly 9.4% of the U.S. population.Request a sample of this premium report at:Inadequate reimbursements along with stringent regulations for clinical laboratory operations will restrain market growth over the coming years. Involvement of numerous regulatory authorities to ensure lab safety can impact negatively on clinical laboratory services industry growth. Clinical Laboratory Services Market will exceed USD 342 billion by 2024; as per a new research report.Routine chemistry of clinical chemistry segment held largest revenue share and will grow at 5.0% during forecast timeframe. Growing awareness of health check-ups and increasing preference for early disease diagnosis will stimulate routine chemistry segmental growth.Growing R&D investments for introducing innovative solutions that includes accuracy of analysis, real-time results, automation throughput, outcome assessment of laboratory tests will drive clinical laboratory services market growth during the forecast timeframe. Escalating prevalence of target diseases and growing initiatives by organizations to control these target diseases should impact positively on clinical laboratory services industry growth. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) around 43.9% U.S. adult population will have cardiovascular disease by 2030. This should offer immense business growth opportunities over the forecast period.Stand-alone laboratories segment held USD 83.3 million revenue in 2017, due to rising infectious diseases and growing initiatives by prominent industry players to set labs. In the U.S. as per CDC data in 2015 nearly 16.8 million people visited physician offices for infectious as well as parasitic diseases thus, contributing to segmental growth.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Notable industry competitors are Abbott Laboratories, Arup Laboratories, Charles River Laboratories, Fresenius Medical Care (Spectra Laboratories), Fullerton Health, Genoptix Medical Laboratory, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (Labcorp), Neogenomics Laboratories (Clarient), Opko Health (Bioreference Laboratories), Qiagen, Quest Diagnostics, Sanofi Genzyme, Siemens, Sonic Healthcare, and Synlab (Labco).Prominent business players are focusing on strategic acquisition and partnerships. Introduction of innovative solutions in clinical laboratory services should favor industry growth over the forecast period. Companies existing in industry are emphasizing on acquisition and collaborations to upsurge their revenue share in the clinical laboratory services market. For instance, in June 2018, Neogenomics Laboratories collaborated with Pharmaceutical Product Development to provide fully integrated molecular testing solutions to pharmaceutical and biotechnological clients. This collaboration will allow company to meet increasing worldwide client requirements.Table of Content:Chapter 1. Methodology and ScopeChapter 2. Executive SummaryChapter 3. Clinical Laboratory Services Industry InsightsChapter 4. Clinical Laboratory Services Market, By Test TypeChapter 5. Clinical Laboratory Services Market, By Service ProviderChapter 6. Clinical Laboratory Services Market, By RegionChapter 7. Company ProfilesMore Details on this Report At:/reports/Clinical Laboratory Services-marketRelated Report:United States Clinical Laboratory Services Market Report 2018In this report, the United States Clinical Laboratory Services market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.About Us:Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Contact Us:Market Study Report LLC4 North Main Street,Selbyville, Delaware 19975USAPhone: 1-302-273-0910US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:Blog:
What is driving the Contact Lenses Market Growth? CooperVision, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Blanchard, Contamac, Hoya, Essilor, Conforma, Bausch & Lomb, Menicon and Wesley Jessen

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According to Global Market Insights, Inc., contact lenses market is set to hit a targeted revenue margin of over USD 18 billion by 2024. The evolution of contact lenses market can be primarily attributed to the rising incidences of myopia, presbyopia, hyperopia, and nearsightedness across the globe. It would also be noteworthy to mention that the advent of new technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality have indeed revolutionized this business space.It has been observed that the younger populace, spending quite some time within the confines of their homes, glued to smartphone and laptop screens, are more prone to loss of distant vision than the yesteryear generation, thereby necessitating the requirement of contact lenses over eyeglasses or vision surgery.Request for a sample copy of this report @In consequence, this demand has had quite a proportional impact on contact lenses industry size, which was pegged at USD 9.5 billion in 2016. Reliable sources have quoted that over 40 million of the U.S. population wear contact lenses with most of them being soft lenses made from hydrogels.According to authentic estimates, nearly half of the Asian youth populace has been suffering from nearsightedness. It has been witnessed that the majority of the global population affected due to vision problems reside in the developing regions. As per the current global rankings, India and China have the highest population with poor vision problems.Researchers have estimated that negligence towards eye-care has resulted in the global costs amounting to nearly USD 3 trillion dollars annually. This has undeniably created global awareness toward the use of eyewear such as contact lenses, thereby accelerating contact lenses market trends.Company profiled in this report based on Business overview, Financial data, Product landscape, Strategic outlook & SWOT analysis:1. Cooper Vision2. Johnson Johnson3. Novartis4. Valeant Pharmaceuticals5. Blanchard Contact Lenses6. Zeiss International7. Conforma8. Contamac9. Essilor10. Hoya11. Menicon12. Wesley Jessen13. UltraVision14. Synergeyes15. Bausch LombBrowse Complete Report Summary @New product developments taking place taking across the eyewear sector are also predicted to provide rapid momentum to the expansion of contact lenses industry. Researchers at Oregon State University have recently introduced contact lenses for diabetes patients with implanted indium gallium Zinc Oxide biosensors to determine their glucose levels. Alongside, Google Inc. is also expected to penetrate contact lenses market with the development of smart contact lenses comprising wireless chips as well as the tiny glucose sensor devices.Researchers have claimed that these lenses have the ability to transfer monitored information to external instrument. Reputed firms such as Bausch + Lomb are not that far behind either, when it comes to making appreciable contributions to the contact lenses industry. The firm has in fact, launched the all-new Biotrue ONEday across twenty countries in Europe. The new products unique dehydration barrier feature helps in restoring 98% of moisture till 16 hours, and it is exclusively designed to meet the needs of astigmatic patients.Speaking in terms of geographical trends, a research study has demonstrated that a drastic shift in the lifestyles of the APAC population and rising eye health awareness among the populace will generate lucrative growth prospects for contact lenses market in the region. It is anticipated that the Asia Pacific contact lenses industry will grow at a rate of more than 4% over 2017-2024, having accounted for a revenue of over USD 2 billion in 2016. In North America, on the other hand, the rise in the aging population and introduction of new technologies across the eye care sector are expected to help augment the regional contact lenses market. As per estimates, North America contact lenses industry is expected to record a CAGR of 3.2% over 2017-2024.- Contact Lenses Industry, By Distribution Channel Optical stores Independent brand showrooms Online stores Retail stores Others- Contact Lenses Market, By Design Spherical Toric Bifocal and multifocal Others- Contact Lenses Market, By Usage Daily disposable Weekly disposable Monthly disposable AnnualMake an inquiry for purchasing this report @Global contact lenses market share, as per analysts, is partially consolidated, with a select few players such as Bausch & Lomb, Novartis International AG, ZEISS, and Hoya Corporation predominantly covering a major portion of the industry share via product innovations and strategic alliances. The business sphere has been forecast to reach commendable heights in the ensuing years, given the projected demand for these lenses across the developing and established economies.About Global Market InsightsGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
What is driving the Masterbatch Market Growth? Clariant, Cabot Corporation, PolyOne, RTP Company, Ampacet Corporation, Plastika Kritis S.A., Tosaf Group, A Schulman, Inc.

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According to a report collated by Global Market Insights, Inc., masterbatch market size is anticipated to surpass a total remuneration portfolio of USD 13 billion by 2024. The swift emergence of masterbatch market on the global business landscape can primarily be attributed to the ever-rising demand for masterbatches in a host of end-user sectors including automotive, agriculture, consumer goods, construction, and packaging among others.The rapid expansion of these end-user industries has, in turn, vigorously augmented the pace at which the masterbatch industry has been progressing in the recent times.Request for a sample copy of this report @Moreover, in a bid to enhance the quality of the existing bio-degradable masterbatches, which are predominantly utilized to manufacture agricultural films, a range of prominent masterbatch industry participants have been initiating a sizeable number of research and development activities which has further embellished the growth potential of this business space.As a consequence of the aforementioned factors, the overall masterbatch market has, of late, been garnering considerable recognition as one of the most fledgling and promising verticals of the worldwide polymers and advanced materials industry.The consistent research and development activities being undertaken to develop advanced tech has eventually improved the application of polymers as an alternative to traditional auto parts made of metal. This has necessitated the increased production of polymer auto parts in the automotive industry, given that they provide better durability and high strength. Moreover, the massive investments being made to develop electric vehicles would further drive the masterbatch market size expansion.- Masterbatch Market by End-user Automotive Consumer goods Packaging Agriculture Construction OthersBrowse Complete Report Summary @Owing to the aforementioned factors, the automotive industry, out of all end-user industries, seized a commendable share of the masterbatch market revenue share in the year 2017. As per reliable reports, the masterbatch industry size from automotive sector is projected to record an appreciable y-o-y growth rate over 2018-2024.Concurrently, it is rather imperative to take note of the fact that the leading industry participants appear to be optimistic pertaining to the prospective growth of the global masterbatch market size. Apparently, as a result of the increased optimism, it is being observed that a number of preeminent market players have been investing heavily to expand their current production capacities to cater the growing product demand from the diverse end-use industries arena.Following are a few instances which demonstrate the growing prominence of expansion strategies that are being undertaken across the globe: The U.S. based plastics material and resin manufacturing firm A. Schulman, for instance, has recently made it to the headlines for expanding its current capacity for color masterbatch production in Europe. The firm, regarded as one of the major masterbatch industry players, has reportedly announced to add three additional extruders to its manufacturing plants in Italy, Hungary, and Poland.This expansion, according to industry analysts would complement the firms existing manufacturing facilities and competence centers where customized color masterbatches are developed. Needless to say, this proactive move by A. Schulman would undoubtedly boost the masterbatch market size in Europe. Switzerland headquartered specialty chemicals manufacturer, Clariant has recently inaugurated its new cutting-edge masterbatch production plant in Saudi Arabia. The facility, a joint venture between Clariant and the Kingdoms leading plastic products manufacturer Rowad, is being built in Yanbu Industrial Zone and would chiefly focus on white masterbatches production.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @The additional capability would allow the firm to accentuate its profitability quotient and extend its masterbatch market share in the Middle East and Africa region.Owing to the vast expanse of end-user industries coupled with the efforts that are being employed by the foremost masterbatch industry giants to expand their reach across the globe, it is anticipated that this business space would undergo remarkable alterations in the immediate future.About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Contact Person: Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
Jojoba Oil Market Insights on Trends, Drivers and Opportunities by 2023 & key players - Jojoba company, Ecooil, Desert Whale Jojoba Company, Purcel Jojoba International, Inca Oil SA.

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Jojoba Oil Market Size and Growth Rate:Jojoba Oil Market was valued at USD XX billion in 2017 and projected to reach USD XX billion by 2023 growing at a CAGR of XX% during the forecast period 2018 to 2023.Jojoba Oil Market Overview:Jojoba oil is a carrier oil that is made from seeds of jojoba and is predominantly found in hot and arid areas of Northern Mexico, California and Arizona. Jojoba Oil has free fatty acid and high nutrient properties which makes it a significantly good fit to be used in cosmetic, personal care and pharmaceutical industries. Consumers across the globe prefer jojoba oil due to its unique traits which has led pharmaceutical companies to invest heavily in research and development activities for jojoba oil market, where it is utilized as a carrier for medicinal formulae, antibiotics stabilizer, and appetite depressant.Browse details of 87 number of pages research report developed on Jojoba Oil Market @Jojoba Oil Market Growth Drivers and Restraints:The growing trend of producing herbal medicines owing to the side effects of allopathic medicines is supposed to result in increasing penetration of the oil in the pharmaceutical sector. It is also employed for providing skin protection and prevent aging, resulting in its increased penetration in different cosmetics such as sunscreens, lotions, skin creams, moisturizers, lipsticks, and balms. It also plays a major role as a lubricant in various high temperature and pressure applications such as hydraulics and acts as a transformer oil, grading oil and cutting oil as well.Cosmetics was the largest segment of the global market, accounting for about 70.6% of the overall revenue in 2016 followed by the pharmaceutical industry.Huge demand in the cosmetics industry and rise in application of herbal medicines inherently drives this market. Also, high industrial growth rate in emerging economies supports the jojoba oil market expansion because of its application as a foam control agent, electric insulator, transformer oil, plasticizer, factice, adhesive, and more. However, a complete lack of commercialization is anticipated to hamper the market growth.Geographic Insights of Jojoba Oil Market:Geographically, the market for the jojoba oil is spread across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. North America region accounted for the highest percentage market share with 39.7% followed by Asia Pacific.Ask Free Sample of the report @Key Market Players of Jojoba Oil Market: Jojoba company Ecooil Desert Whale Jojoba Company Purcel Jojoba International Inca Oil SAJojoba Oil Market Key Segmentation:By Type: Unrefined RefinedBy Application: Cosmetics Pharmaceutical Industrial OthersBy Region: North America Europe Asia-Pacific Latin America Middle-East & AfricaFor any queries, inquire more @About Us:Research Cosmos is a provider of standard and customized market research, business intelligence and consulting services across more than 100 domains in different industries of the world. We host the trending market reports of the worlds top-notch publishing companies, offering services to a wide range of customers from students to fortune 500 companies and discloses the hidden opportunities in every leading industry of the world.Contact:Kevin StewartGlobal Sales ManagerResearch CosmosBlog:Blog:
LAN/WAN Test Equipment Market Future Growth with Top Worldwide Players (Agilent Technologies, AOIP SAS, Anritsu Corporation, Digital Lightwave, Finisar Corporation et al) During 2019-2025

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Worldwide LAN/WAN Test Equipment Market 2019 Industry Research Report focuses Market Size, Share, Growth, Manufacturers and Forecast to 2025. It vast repository provides analytical overview of market that will help to new and existing to take important decision. The report is beneficial for strategists and industry players to plan their future business strategies. The LAN/WAN Test Equipment Market Research Report primarily based upon factors on which the companies complete in the market and this factor which is useful and valuable to the business.Get Sample Copy of this Report The Global LAN/WAN Test Equipment market 2019 research provides a basic overview of the Industry including definitions, classifications, applications and Industry chain structure. The Global LAN/WAN Test Equipment market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins.Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers United States Europe China Japan Southeast Asia India Central & South AmericaGlobal LAN/WAN Test Equipment Industry 2019 Market Research Report is spread across 91 pages and provides exclusive vital statistics, data, information, trends and competitive landscape details in this niche sector.Inquire more or share questions if any before the purchase on this report @This report includes the estimation of market size for value (million USD) and volume (K Units). Both top-down and bottom-up approaches have been used to estimate and validate the market size of LAN/WAN Test Equipment market, to estimate the size of various other dependent submarkets in the overall market. Key players in the market have been identified through secondary research, and their market shares have been determined through primary and secondary research. All percentage shares, splits, and breakdowns have been determined using secondary sources and verified primary sources.Analysis of LAN/WAN Test Equipment Market Key Manufacturers: Agilent Technologies AOIP SAS Anritsu Corporation Digital Lightwave Inc Finisar Corporation EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc Fluke Networks Ixia ...Market segment by Type, the product can be split into Stress Testers & Performance Analyzers Protocol Analyzers Conformance Analyzers Interoperability Test Systems OthersMarket segment by Application, split into Telecom Datacom Wireless and Fiber Optics Test OthersResearch objectives of this report are: To analyze global LAN/WAN Test Equipment status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. To present the LAN/WAN Test Equipment development in United States, Europe and China. To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies. To define, describe and forecast the market by product type, market and key regions.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of LAN/WAN Test Equipment are as follows: History Year: 2014-2018 Base Year: 2018 Estimated Year: 2019 Forecast Year 2019 to 2025Order a copy of Global LAN/WAN Test Equipment Market Report 2019 @With tables and figures helping analyze worldwide Global LAN/WAN Test Equipment Market, this research provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Our research analysts will help you to get customized details for your report which can be modified in terms of specific region, application or any statistical details. Also, we are always willing to comply with the study which triangulated with your own data to make the market research more comprehensive in your perspective.Major Points from Table of Contents:Global LAN/WAN Test Equipment Market Research Report 20191 LAN/WAN Test Equipment Market Overview2 Global LAN/WAN Test Equipment Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global LAN/WAN Test Equipment Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2014-2019)4 Global LAN/WAN Test Equipment Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2014-2019)5 Global LAN/WAN Test Equipment Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global LAN/WAN Test Equipment Market Analysis by Application7 Global LAN/WAN Test Equipment Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 LAN/WAN Test Equipment Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global LAN/WAN Test Equipment Market Forecast (2019-2025)13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixAbout UsOrian Research is one of the most comprehensive collections of market intelligence reports on the World Wide Web. Our reports repository boasts of over 500000+ Industry and country research reports from over 100 top publishers. We continuously update our repository so as to provide our clients easy access to the worlds most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, and products. We also specialize in custom research in situations where our syndicate research offerings do not meet the specific requirements of our esteemed clients.Contact UsRuwin MendezVice President  Global Sales & Partner RelationsOrian Research ConsultantsUS: +1 (415) 830-3727 | UK: +44 020 8144-71-27Email: info@orianresearch.comWebsite:Follow Us on LinkedIn:
Security Advisory Services Market - Upcoming Trends & Top Players Outlook 2025

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Security Advisory Services Market: SnapshotThe global market for security advisory services has been expanding on account of the rising awareness about cyber dangers and threats. The physical as well as intellectual property of individuals and companies are amongst the most valued assets for the owner. This makes it integral to weave a net of security that safeguards the security of these assets and prevents undue externalities to affect work flows. Hence, security advisory services such as risk management strategy, penetration testing, incident response, security program development, and chief information security are offered by security merchants.Order Brochure for more detailed information @The increasing reliance on cloud services to store, manage, and retrieve organization data has propelled demand within the global market for security advisory services. Furthermore, the cases of cyber attacks and embezzlement of key individual or organization data has also led to the growth of the global market for security advisory services. The complexities of companies and organizations have been increasing alongside the emergence of new technologies. Hence, the there is a need to deploy a system that centrally safeguards and secures the key assets of various individual or organizational entities.The market players in the global market for security advisory services have made ardent efforts to provide the most apt services to the customers. Moreover, these market players have been focusing on customising their offerings in order to reach a wider market. Two of the key players in the global market for security advisory services are Kudelski Security and EY. It is predicted that the global market players would get into strategic alliances to enhance their growth prospects.Security Advisory Services Market: OverviewNumerous firms join their human and machine knowledge in cybersecurity to assist their customer associations with exhaustive assurance from smart security dangers. In the period of quick developments of organizations and expanded complexities in the IT foundation, the security of computerized resources has turned into the prime target of the associations. Consequently, the appropriation of security advisory services is said to be high among private and open associations crosswise over various verticals. The security merchants give different security advisory services, for example, incident response, vulnerability management, penetration testing, risk management strategy, compliance management, security program development, and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) advisory and support. As the recurrence of modern digital assaults on ventures is developing, the market is relied upon to pick up footing in the following 5 years.Request TOC for Facts & Tables @Security Advisory Services Market: Trends and ProspectsThe significant forces driving the security advisory services market are the expanded complexity levels of cyber threats and ascent in security breaches, and solid control consistence necessities. The security advisory services market merchants are consistently adding developments to their services to ensure the associations, and saving money and financial organizations, against cutting edge digital dangers. Internationally, the selection of security advisory services is expanding because of the ascent in security breaks focusing on endeavors. Moreover, security advisory services are being received in different verticals, for example, government and public sector, financial services and insurance (BFSI), banking, transportation and manufacturing, IT and telecommunication, energy and power, healthcare, and others (retail, travel and transportation, and education) which have prompted the development of the market over the globe.Security Advisory Services Market: Market PotentialAccording to a report by Cisco Systems Inc., a superior than-anticipated quarterly benefit on Wednesday, driven by profits from its more up to date organizations, for example, security, which more than balanced declines in its conventional switches and routers business. This demonstrates the innovation pioneer has started to turn a corner as it shifts center from software to hardware and repeating memberships.Security Advisory Services Market: Regional OverviewNorth America is relied upon to have the biggest market share and rule the security advisory services market from 2017 to 2022, because of the high number of early innovation adopters in this district. Particular spending distributions and commanded security advisory administration approaches are relied upon to make North America the most lucrative locale for the development of different classifications of sellers. The real power driving the reception of security advisory services in APAC is the expanding occurrences of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) assaults, which is exceedingly influencing the execution of basic business applications.Get Customize Report on Future Aspect of Market @Security Advisory Services Market: Vendor LandscapeThe major players additionally embraced the methodology of business development to increment and extend their administration portfolios. In March 2016, a firm named EY extended the business in Asia Pacific by opening 4 Centers of Excellence (CoE), to be specific, the Asia Pacific CoE in cybersecurity, the Asia Pacific CoE with respect to analytics, and Asia-Pacific CoE in terms of manufacturing. In August 2017, Kudelski Security expanded its business by growing its preparation and security training project to North America. With this extension, the organization upgraded its abilities in cybersecurity, investigation, assembling, and change methodology.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.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050
Increasing Demand in Solar Power Bank Market | Anker, Aukey, RavPower, Xiaomi Technology, Mophie Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, OnePlus, Samsung SDI Co., Sony and Forecast to 2018-2025

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Solar Power bank is a gadget that acts as a power reservoir for charging gadgets such as smartphones, tablets, and others. Increase in adoption of digital products has fueled the demand for power banks to ensure incessant use.The global solar power bank market expected to grow at a CAGR of +11% by 2025.Solar power banks require sunlight to be charged, so it is reliable in circumstances where the power supply or charger is not available. Most of the solar energy banks currently available can be charged alternatively through a computer with USB. Considering solar energy as a technology friendly to the environment, it is expected that the demand for solar energy banks will increase in the coming years. Solar energy has evolved as an important alternative source of energy. Solar energy is increasingly being used as a source of energy for street lighting, cars, appliances and others.Get Sample Copy of Report @Top Key Players:Anker, Aukey, RavPower, Xiaomi Technology, TP-Link, Zendure, Goal Zero, IEC Technology, Sony, Advantage Computers (I) Pvt. Ltd., LG Chem Ltd, China BAK Battery, Inc., Mophie Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, OnePlus, Samsung SDI Co. Ltd., UNU ELECTRONICS INC., Shenzhen Topband Co. LtdDepending on the application and the capacity of battery, solar power banks are designed and available in market with different capacity range. The solar power bank market is categorized by the capacity range offered by the solar power banks, which include 500 mAh to 3499 mAh, 3500 mAh to 6499 mAh, 6500 mAh to 9499 mAh, 9500 mAh to 12499 mAh, 12500 mAh to 15499 mAh and above 15500 mAh.Solar power banks find wide range of applications such as charging of smartphones, laptop, tablets and other devices. The growth of smartphones, laptops and tablets market has generated the need for external energy storage devices for charging. The escalated use of internet with the availability of 3G and 4G services on smartphones and tablets has increased the consumption of battery at a faster rate, thus, driving the solar power bank market.Ask for Discount on Report @Product Segment Analysis: Single USB, Dual USB, and Type 3Application Segment Analysis: Mobile, Tablet, OthersDifferent dynamic factors of the global market are also elaborated to get a complete analysis of internal and external driving or restraining factors. Moreover, increasing demand and popularity of solar energy sectors are driving the global Solar Power Bank Market. The research report has been made using data exploratory techniques such as qualitative and quantitative analysis.Report Consultant recognizes the manufacturing base, productivity and financial aspects of the global Solar Power Bank Market. This statistical report covers a wide-ranging examination of the global market to make well-informed business decisions.Reasons for Buying this Report: This report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics It provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growth It provides a six-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to grow It helps in understanding the key product segments and their future It provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitors It helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of Solar Power Bank Market segmentsIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Content:Chapter 1. Overview of Global Solar Power Bank MarketChapter 2. Cost Structure AnalysisChapter 3. Technical Data and Manufacturing Plant AnalysisChapter 4. Overall Market OverviewChapter 5. Regional Market AnalysisChapter 6. Global Solar Power Bank Market Analysis by TypeChapter 7. Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8. Major Manufacturers AnalysisChapter 9. Development Trend Analysis of Global Solar Power Bank MarketChapter 10. Market Analysis by TypeChapter 11. Consumer AnalysisChapter 12. ConclusionKnow More about Report before Buying @About Us:Report Consultant - A global leader in analytics, research and advisory that can assist you to renovate your business and modify your approach. With us, you will learn to take decisions intrepidly. We make sense of drawbacks, opportunities, circumstances, estimations and information using our experienced skills and verified methodologies.Our research reports will give you an exceptional experience of innovative solutions and outcomes. We have effectively steered businesses all over the world with our market research reports and are outstandingly positioned to lead digital transformations. Thus, we craft greater value for clients by presenting advanced opportunities in the global market.Contact Us:Rebecca Parker(Report Consultant)Akasaka biz tower,5-3-1 akasaka minato-ku,Tokyo, JapanContact No: +81-368444299sales@reportconsultant.com
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China customs has suspended the clearance of canola imports from Canadian company Richardson International Limited and relevant firms after harmful pests were discovered in their imports.

The suspension of clearance involves their canola imports shipped from March 1, according to a warning notice issued Thursday by the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

The warning will be valid until further notice, GAC officials said.

The move is taken to protect China's agriculture production and ecological safety, the GAC said.

Local custom offices of Huangpu, Dalian, Nanning and Shenzhen had recently detected harmful pests including Pseudomonas syringae, the GAC said and suggested that they strengthen quarantine on Canadian canola imports and report the results to the GAC.

The GAC will evaluate the results, timely adjust warning measures and inform local canola import firms.

The GAC said it had canceled Richardson's and other relevant firms' registration to ship canola to China and briefed the Canadian Food Inspection Agency about the situation.
Global Nursing Breast Pads Market In-Depth Analysis with Booming Trends Supporting Growth and Forecast till 2026 Key Players  Amed, Koninklijke Philips, Lansinoh, Medela, NUK, Pigeon

Nursing Breast Pads Market

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Nursing Breast Pads Market report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Nursing Breast Pads Market by Key players and regions. This report also displays the 2026 production, Consumption, revenue, Gross margin, Cost, Gross, market share, types, applications, and Market influencing factors of the Nursing Breast Pads Market.Request Sample Copy Of this Report @Nursing Breast Pads Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period.It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Nursing Breast Pads Market global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2019  2026.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The numerical data is backed up by statistical tools such as SWOT analysis, BCG matrix, SCOT analysis, PESTLE analysis and so on. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.The generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report for Nursing Breast Pads Market analysis & forecast 2019- 2026 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region- wise Analysis Nursing Breast Pads Market covers: North America Europe China Japan India Southeast Asia Other regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)For More Information On This Report, Please Visit @The Major Players Reported In The Report Are: Amed Koninklijke Philips Lansinoh Medela NUK PigeonGlobal Nursing Breast Pads Market: Product Segment Analysis: Reusable Disposable Silicone HydrogelGlobal Nursing Breast Pads Market: Application Segment Analysis: Hopsital HomeThe Report Covers In- Depth Analysis As Follows: Chapter 1 Overview of Nursing Breast Pads Market Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types Chapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry Chapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Nursing Breast Pads Market Chapter 6 Nursing Breast Pads Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers Chapter 7 Nursing Breast Pads Market Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data Chapter 8 Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis of Nursing Breast Pads Market Chapter 9 Cost and Gross Margin Analysis of Nursing Breast Pads Market Chapter 10 Marketing Status Analysis of Nursing Breast Pads Market Chapter 11 Report Conclusion Chapter 12 Research Methodology and ReferenceRead More details Nursing Breast Pads Market Analysis and Forecast 2019- 2026 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market- driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real- time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real- time scenario.Global Nursing Breast Pads Market: Key Stakeholders: Manufacturers Distributors/Traders/Wholesalers Subcomponent Manufacturers Industry Association Downstream VendorsIn this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Nursing Breast Pads Market are as follows: History Year: 2014-2018 Base Year: 2018 Estimated Year: 2019 Forecast Year 2019 to 2026Key Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Nursing Breast Pads Market and its commercial landscape. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations. To understand the future outlook and prospects for Nursing Breast Pads Market analysis and forecast 2019- 2026.Avail Discount On this Report @Customization of the Report:Up Market Research provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.You can also ask for region wise market research report, as below: Nursing Breast Pads Market  Global Market Status & Trend Report 2014- 2026 Top 20 Countries Data Nursing Breast Pads Market  North America Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Nursing Breast Pads Market  South America Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Nursing Breast Pads Market  Europe Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Nursing Breast Pads Market  EMEA Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Nursing Breast Pads Market  Asia Pacific Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Nursing Breast Pads Market  China Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Nursing Breast Pads Market  India Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Nursing Breast Pads Market  United States Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well- defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States.
Latest research on Defibrillators Pads Market With top key players: Cardiac Science, Koninklijke Philips, Boston Scientific, Stryker

Defibrillators Pads

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The newly released research at Up Market Research titled 2019 - 2026 Global Defibrillators Pads Market Report provides data, information, brief analysis, company profiles, statistics for past years and forecasts for next few years. This report presents a comprehensive overview, market shares, and growth opportunities of Defibrillators Pads Market by product type, application, key manufacturers and key regions.Request Sample Copy Of this Report @Defibrillators Pads Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period.It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Defibrillators Pads Market global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2019  2026.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The numerical data is backed up by statistical tools such as SWOT analysis, BCG matrix, SCOT analysis, PESTLE analysis and so on. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.The generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report for Defibrillators Pads Market analysis & forecast 2019- 2026 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region- wise Analysis Defibrillators Pads Market covers: North America Europe China Japan India Southeast Asia Other regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)For More Information On This Report, Please Visit @The Major Players Reported In The Report Are: Medtronic Cardiac Science Koninklijke Philips Boston Scientific Stryker Defibtech Mindray Medical Nihon Koden Cardinal HealthGlobal Defibrillators Pads Market: Product Segment Analysis: Pediatric Defibrillator Pads Adult Defibrillator PadsGlobal Defibrillators Pads Market: Application Segment Analysis: Hospital Public Access Home Healthcare OtherThe Report Covers In- Depth Analysis As Follows: Chapter 1 Overview of Defibrillators Pads Market Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types Chapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry Chapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Defibrillators Pads Market Chapter 6 Defibrillators Pads Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers Chapter 7 Defibrillators Pads Market Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data Chapter 8 Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis of Defibrillators Pads Market Chapter 9 Cost and Gross Margin Analysis of Defibrillators Pads Market Chapter 10 Marketing Status Analysis of Defibrillators Pads Market Chapter 11 Report Conclusion Chapter 12 Research Methodology and ReferenceRead More details Defibrillators Pads Market Analysis and Forecast 2019- 2026 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market- driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real- time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real- time scenario.Global Defibrillators Pads Market: Key Stakeholders: Manufacturers Distributors/Traders/Wholesalers Subcomponent Manufacturers Industry Association Downstream VendorsIn this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Defibrillators Pads Market are as follows: History Year: 2014-2018 Base Year: 2018 Estimated Year: 2019 Forecast Year 2019 to 2026Key Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Defibrillators Pads Market and its commercial landscape. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations. To understand the future outlook and prospects for Defibrillators Pads Market analysis and forecast 2019- 2026.Avail Discount On this Report @Customization of the Report:Up Market Research provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you toget a report that suits your necessities.You can also ask for region wise market research report, as below: Defibrillators Pads Market  Global Market Status & Trend Report 2014- 2026 Top 20 Countries Data Defibrillators Pads Market  North America Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Defibrillators Pads Market  South America Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Defibrillators Pads Market  Europe Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Defibrillators Pads Market  EMEA Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Defibrillators Pads Market  Asia Pacific Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Defibrillators Pads Market  China Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Defibrillators Pads Market  India Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Defibrillators Pads Market  United States Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well- defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States.
B2B Telecommunication Market to Expand at A Remarkable CAGR of 14% During the Forecast Period Of 2019-2023

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Global B2B Telecommunication Market Report: Information by Solution (Unified Communication and Collaboration), Deployment (Fixed, Mobile), Organization Size (Large, Enterprise), Application (Industrial, Commercial) and regions Global Forecast to 2023 The global B2B telecommunication market is projected to reach USD 73 Million at a CAGR of over 10% by the end of the forecast period 2019-2023.Global B2B Telecommunication Market: Key PlayersSome of the prime market players profiled by MRFR that are operating in the global B2B telecommunication market are Comarch SA. (Poland), Deutsche Telekom AG (Germany), NTT Communications (Japan), and Verizon Communications Inc. (the U.S.). Vodafone Group PLC (the U.K), Orange S.A. (France), AT&T Inc. (the U.S.), Cisco Systems, Inc. (the U.S.), Amdocs Ltd (the U.S.), Telstra Corporation Limited (Australia) and others. The players in the global B2B telecommunication market are undertaking various strategic initiatives such as increased investments for business expansion, carrying out mergers and acquisitions and others in order to sustain the competition in the global B2B telecommunication market.Get Sample Report @Global B2B Telecommunication Market: SynopsisRapid industrialization and urbanization are inducing high demand for an efficient communication service to maintain the business processes on an international level. B2B telecommunication provides optimum communication solutions to various small to large scale businesses by maintaining the security and quality of the communication among these enterprises. The report published by Market Research Future (MRFR states that the global B2B telecommunication market is marked to expand at a remarkable CAGR of 14% during the forecast period of 2017-2023. The factors like increased outsourcing of business processes form developed countries to developing countries due to the availability of cheap labor, recent innovations in communication technology, proliferation in business startups due to the presence of favorable government policies and high demand for security and quality in business communications are majorly contributing to the expansion of the global B2B telecommunication market during the assessment period.Global B2B Telecommunication Market: Segmental AnalysisThe global B2B telecommunication market has been segmented on the basis of solution, deployment, organization size, application, and region. Based on solution, the B2B telecommunication market has been segmented into unified communication and collaboration, WAN solution, M2M communication, cloud services and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Based on deployment, the global B2B telecommunication market has been segmented into fixed and mobile. Based on organization, the global B2B telecommunication market has been segmented into small & medium enterprises and large enterprises. Based on application, the global B2B telecommunication market has been segmented into industrial and commercial.Global B2B Telecommunication Market: Regional AnalysisGeographically, the global B2B telecommunication market has been segmented into four major regions such as North America, Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. The North America regions command the maximum share of the global B2B telecommunication market owing to the rapid industrialization, proliferation in various industry players, and high demand for optimum communication networks to maintain the outsourced processes in this region. The B2B telecommunication market in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region is projecting the fastest growth in the global B2B telecommunication market owing to the increase in process outsourcing from various western countries in emerging economy of India, rise in adoption of advanced telecom solutions in the business sector of the developing countries such as China, India, South Korea and others and rise in number of B2B telecommunication service providers in this region. Increased demand for a strong communication network in the developed business sector and emergence for secured telecommunication service in various industrial sectors are resulting in the noteworthy expansion of the B2B telecommunication market in the Europe region. Increased penetration of technologically advanced solutions in the developed areas of the Middle East and Africa region as a result of urbanization is contributing to the expansion of the B2B telecommunication market in this region.Get Complete Report @Intended Audience: Technology Investors Research/Consultancy Firms Software Providers System Integrators Original Equipment ManufacturersAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune  411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +91 841 198 5042Mail: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Hydropower Generation Market In-Depth Analysis with Booming Trends Supporting Growth and Forecast till 2026 Key Players - BC Hydro, Hydro-Quebec, Rus Hydro, China Yangtze Power, Agder Energi, Etc.

Hydropower Generation Market

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UpMarketResearch.com adds a new Hydropower Generation Market research report for the period of 2019 - 2026 focuses on the major drivers and restraints for the global key players providing analysis of the market share, segmentation, revenue forecasts and geographic regions of the market.Request Sample Copy Of this Report @Hydropower Generation Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period.It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Hydropower Generation Market global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2019  2026.The scope of the report extends from market scenarios to comparative pricing between major players, cost and profit of the specified market regions. The numerical data is backed up by statistical tools such as SWOT analysis, BCG matrix, SCOT analysis, PESTLE analysis and so on. The statistics are represented in graphical format for a clear understanding on facts and figures.The generated report is firmly based on primary research, interviews with top executives, news sources and information insiders. Secondary research techniques are implemented for better understanding and clarity for data analysis.The report for Hydropower Generation Market analysis & forecast 2019- 2026 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region- wise Analysis Hydropower Generation Market covers: North America Europe China Japan India Southeast Asia Other regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)For More Information On This Report, Please Visit @The Major Players Reported In The Report Are: BC Hydro Hydro-Quebec Rus Hydro China Yangtze Power Agder Energi Duke Energy Corporation Georgia Power Company Ontario Power Generation Stat KraftGlobal Hydropower Generation Market: Product Segment Analysis: Large Hydropower Small HydropowerGlobal Hydropower Generation Market: Application Segment Analysis: Industrial Residential CommercialThe Report Covers In- Depth Analysis As Follows: Chapter 1 Overview of Hydropower Generation Market Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types Chapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry Chapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Hydropower Generation Market Chapter 6 Hydropower Generation Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers Chapter 7 Hydropower Generation Market Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data Chapter 8 Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis of Hydropower Generation Market Chapter 9 Cost and Gross Margin Analysis of Hydropower Generation Market Chapter 10 Marketing Status Analysis of Hydropower Generation Market Chapter 11 Report Conclusion Chapter 12 Research Methodology and ReferenceRead More details Hydropower Generation Market Analysis and Forecast 2019- 2026 report helps the clients to take business decisions and to understand strategies of major players in the industry. The report also calls for market- driven results deriving feasibility studies for client needs. UpMarketResearch ensures qualified and verifiable aspects of market data operating in the real- time scenario. The analytical studies are conducted ensuring client needs with a thorough understanding of market capacities in the real- time scenario.Global Hydropower Generation Market: Key Stakeholders: Manufacturers Distributors/Traders/Wholesalers Subcomponent Manufacturers Industry Association Downstream VendorsIn this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Hydropower Generation Market are as follows: History Year: 2014-2018 Base Year: 2018 Estimated Year: 2019 Forecast Year 2019 to 2026Key Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Hydropower Generation Market and its commercial landscape. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations. To understand the future outlook and prospects for Hydropower Generation Market analysis and forecast 2019- 2026.Avail Discount On this Report @Customization of the Report:Up Market Research provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.You can also ask for region wise market research report, as below: Hydropower Generation Market  Global Market Status & Trend Report 2014- 2026 Top 20 Countries Data Hydropower Generation Market  North America Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Hydropower Generation Market  South America Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Hydropower Generation Market  Europe Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Hydropower Generation Market  EMEA Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Hydropower Generation Market  Asia Pacific Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Hydropower Generation Market  China Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Hydropower Generation Market  India Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026 Hydropower Generation Market  United States Market Status and Trend Report 2014- 2026About UpMarketResearch:The UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well- defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States
Digital Analytical Balance Industry Outlook to 2023  A&D Company Ltd., Mettler-Toledo International Inc., Sartorius AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Acculab Inc

Digital Analytical Balance

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March 2019, New York, USA( News) - An analytical balance (often called a "lab balance") is a class of balance designed to measure small mass in the sub-milligram range. The measuring pan of an analytical balance (0.1 mg or better) is inside a transparent enclosure with doors so that dust does not collect and so any air currents in the room do not affect the balance's operation. This enclosure is often called a draft shield.According to this study, over the next five years the Digital Analytical Balance market will register a xx% CAGR in terms of revenue, the global market size will reach US$ xx million by 2023, from US$ xx million in 2017. In particular, this report presents the global market share (sales and revenue) of key companies in Digital Analytical Balance business, shared in Chapter 3.Request for Sample of Global Digital Analytical Balance Market 2018 Research Report:Major Market Players: A&D Company Ltd., Mettler-Toledo International Inc., Sartorius AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Acculab Inc., Avery Weigh-Tronix Inc., Adam Equipment Co., BEL Engineering srl, Bonso ElectronicsThe use of a mechanically vented balance safety enclosure, which has uniquely designed acrylic airfoils, allows a smooth turbulence-free airflow that prevents balance fluctuation and the measure of mass down to 1 g without fluctuations or loss of product.[citation needed] Also, the sample must be at room temperature to prevent natural convection from forming air currents inside the enclosure from causing an error in reading.The key countries in each region are taken into consideration as well, such as United States, China, Japan, India, Korea, ASEAN, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, CIS, and Brazil etc.Ask for Customized Report:The key countries in each region are taken into consideration as well, such as United States, China, Japan, India, Korea, ASEAN, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, CIS, and Brazil etc.Directly Get Corporate Report:Research Objective:To study and analyze the global Digital Analytical Balance consumption (value & volume) by key regions/countries, product type and application, history data from 2013 to 2017, and forecast to 2023.To understand the structure of Digital Analytical Balance market by identifying its various sub-segments.Focuses on the key global Digital Analytical Balance manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the sales volume, value, market share, market competition landscape, SWOT analysis and development plans in next few years.To analyze the Digital Analytical Balance with respect to individual growth trends, future prospects, and their contribution to the total market.To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks).To project the consumption of Digital Analytical Balance sub-markets, with respect to key regions (along with their respective key countries).About Us:Research Reports Inc. is one of the leading destinations for market research reports across all industries, companies, and technologies. Our repository features an exhaustive list of market research reports from thousands of publishers worldwide.Contact Us:DavidSales Manager,US / Canada Toll Free: +18554192424UK: +4403308087757Email: sales@researchreportsinc.com
Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services Market 2019: Top Key Players are Aeris, AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Huawei, NTT, SoftBank, Sprint, Swisscom, Telefonica, T-Mobile etc.

Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services Market

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Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services Market 2019 Report analyses the industry status, size, share, trends, growth opportunity, competition landscape and forecast to 2025. This report also provides data on patterns, improvements, target business sectors, limits and advancements. Furthermore, this research report categorizes the market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.Get Sample Copy of this Report@ -Global Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services market 2019 research provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Global Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services market analysis is provided for the international markets including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analysed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins.Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services Market research report spread across 104 pages with top key manufacturers and list of tables and figures.Inquire more or share questions if any before the purchase on this report @ -Global Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services market competition by TOP MANUFACTURERS, with production, price, revenue (value) and each manufacturer including Aeris AT&T China Mobile Deutsche Telekom Ericsson Huawei NTT SoftBank Sprint Swisscom ..This report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, covering North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaGlobal Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services Market providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out. The Global Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services market development trends and marketing channels are analysed. Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed and overall research conclusions offered.With tables and figures helping analyse worldwide Global Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services market, this research provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Order a copy of Global Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services Market Report 2019 @ -Market segment by Type, the product can be split into Business consulting services Device and application management services Installation and integration services IoT billing and subscription management M2m billing servicesMarket segment by Application, the market can be split into Smart buildings and home automation Capillary network management Industrial manufacturing and automation Vehicle telematics Transportation, logistics tracking Energy and utilities Smart healthcare Traffic managementThe study objectives of this report are: To analyse global Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. To present the Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services development in United States, Europe and China. To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyse their development plan and strategies. To define, describe and forecast the market by product type, market and key regions.There are 14 Chapters to deeply display the global Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services marketChapter 1: To describe Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services Market Overview, Introduction, product scope, market opportunities, Application.Chapter 2: To analyse the Top Manufacturers of Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services, with sales, capacity, production, revenue, and price of Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services, in 2014 and 2019.Chapter 3: Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers with capacity, production, share by region, sales, revenue, gross margin and market share in 2014 and 2019.Chapter 4: To show the global market by regions, supply, consumption, with sales, export-import, revenue and market share of Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services, for each region, from 2014 Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services to 2019.Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 To analyse the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, with sales, analysis by application, 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, strategy analysis and factor analysis from 2014 Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services to 2019.Chapter 12 Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services market forecast, by regions, type, with sales and revenue, growth rate, price Forecast from 2019 to 2025 Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services.Chapter 13: Connected Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services.Chapter 14: To describe Internet of Things (IoT) Telecom Services sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.About Us:Research Reports World is the credible source for gaining the market reports that will provide you with the lead your business needs. At Research Reports World, our objective is providing a platform for many top-notch market research firms worldwide to publish their research reports, as well as helping the decision makers in finding most suitable market research solutions under one roof. Our aim is to provide the best solution that matches the exact customer requirements. This drives us to provide you with custom or syndicated research reports.Contact Us:Name: Mr. Ajay MoreEmail: sales@researchreportsworld.comOrganization: Research Reports WorldPhone: +1 4242530807/+44 203 239 8187
Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter Market 2019 Set to Witness Growth by 2025 | Global Key Companies Analysis Report (Landis+Gyr, Itron, Siemens, Kamstrup, Elster Group, Nuri Telecom, Sagemcom etc.)

Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter market

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Global Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter Market Research Report 2019 elaborates overall industry scenario which gives detailed perceptions of future trends, opportunities and challenges, Segmentation, top manufacturers, market scope, and region wise demand. Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter market report encloses data about the consumption, worldwide development strategies. The report also elaborates competition along with company profile, historical and futuristic revenue by analyzing data of various big companies and organizations, Industry chain.Get Sample Copy atFirstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global market of Router industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and import/export. Revenue and gross margin by regions (North America, EU, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India) and other regions can be added.Inquire more or share questions if any before the purchase on this report @All Key Regions Covered in Report:North America: US, Canada, MexicoEurope: Germany Spain France, Italy, UK, Rest of EuropeAsia Pacific: Japan, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Rest of Asia PacificSouth America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Rest of South AmericaMiddle East & Africa: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, South Africa, Rest of Middle East & AfricaNo. of Pages: 125The report focuses on Global Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter Market major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture, and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment, and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. What's more, the Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered. In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Key Companies Analyzed in this Report are: Landis+Gyr Itron Siemens Kamstrup Elster Group Nuri Telecom Sagemcom Iskraemeco ZIV Sanxing Linyang Electronics Wasion Group Haixing Electrical XJ Measurement & Control Meter Chintim Instruments Clou Electronics Holley Metering HND Electronics Longi Banner Sunrise Market segment by Type, the product can be split into Single Phase Three Phaseby Application, split into Commercial Industrial ResidentialOrder a copy of Global Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter Market Report 2019 @Major Points Covered in Table of Contents:1 Report Overview2 Global Growth Trends3 Market Share by Key Players4 Breakdown Data by Type and Application5 Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter Consumption by Regions6 Europe Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter Market Size (2013-2019)7 China Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter Market Size (2013-2019)8 Japan Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter Market Size (2013-2019)9 Southeast Asia Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter Market Size (2013-201910 India Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter Market Size (2013-2019)11 Central & South America Non-Network Connections IC Card Electricity Smart Meter Market Size (2013-2019)12 International Players Profiles13 Market Forecast 2019-202514 Analyst's Viewpoints/Conclusions15 AppendixAbout UsOrian Research is one of the most comprehensive collections of market intelligence reports on the World Wide Web. Our reports repository boasts of over 500000+ industry and country research reports from over 100 top publishers. We continuously update our repository so as to provide our clients easy access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, and products. We also specialize in custom research in situations where our syndicate research offerings do not meet the specific requirements of our esteemed clients.Contact Us:Ruwin MendezVice President  Global Sales & Partner RelationsOrian Research ConsultantsUS +1 (415) 830-3727 | UK +44 020 8144-71-27Email: info@orianresearch.comWebsite:Follow Us on LinkedIn:
Feeding Distiller Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) Market Progress by 2028 | Market Players are Globus Spirit Ltd., Land OLakes Inc., CropEnergies AG, CHS Inc., etc.

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In order to study the various trends and patterns prevailing in the concerned market, FactMR has included a new report titled Feeding Distiller Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) Market Progress by 2028 to its wide online database including upcoming trends and growth factors. This research assessment offers a clear insight about the influential factors that are expected to transform the global market in the near future. The report studies the feeding distiller dried grains with solubles market worldwide, especially in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, India and Other Regions with production, size, growth, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions. The intelligent report also anticipates that the market would grow at a constructive CAGR until 2028.Get Sample PDF Illustration Here -Production of livestock and poultry continues to be instrumental in driving the growth in adoption of feeding distillers dried grains and solubles (DDGS) at a global level. According to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), global meat trade is expected to increase in 2018, with beef witnessing high demand. This has led to increased beef production and exports across countries, further enhancing the growth of the feeding distillers dried grains and solubles (DDGS) market. Given its nutritional benefits for animal feedstock, growth in livestock production is directly proportional to the growth of the feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) market.In a new study drafted by FactMR, the growth prospects for feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) are likely to be positive during the assessment period across regional markets in the globe. According to this report, the feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 4.8% in terms of value throughout the period of assessment, 2018-2028. Additionally, report reveals that the demand for feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region is expected to increase, making APEJ an attractive market for feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS).Feed distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) market has been largely influenced with increasing adoption of corn DDGS for cattle and other livestock across the globe. Corn feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) have witnessed higher demand among cattle as it facilitates growth of milk yield as well as enhances the content of protein and fats in it. However, though adoption and sales of corn feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) is high, the scope of its application has reduced to cattle and sheep, reducing its pace across markets worldwide. Moreover, corn feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) cannot be used in pig diets owing high concentration of fibers, making the feed difficult to digest.Browse Market Report with TOC Here -On the contrary, wheat feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) have gained high traction since the past years. Wheat feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) are widely used in pig diets given its high protein content and less crude fat as compared to corn feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). Moreover, wheat feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) impart high strength, performance and facilitate increased feed intake. That said, use of wheat feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) in pig, sheep and other livestock diets is expected to witness a steady growth path, consequently aiding the growth of the overall feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) market during the forecast period.Furthermore, feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) market growth has also been influenced by the increasing use of rice feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), as they are expected to witness meteoric rate of consumption in animal feedstock as it offers moderation of fiber content, high protein content, easy digestibility, high energy and low fats. Rice feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), due to their nutritional benefits, are largely used in cattle, poultry animal and fish diets.North America continues to reflect potential growth opportunities for feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) market, ethanol production being one of the major factors of growth, given the increasing production of biofuels in the region. Sales of feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) are expected to remain concentrated in United States on the back of increasing beef exports in the country. According to USDA, beef exports in United States are expected to grow by 6 percent in 2018, buoyed by a strong demand from various countries including Mexico, Korea, Japan and Canada. Furthermore, according to USGC (U.S. Grains Council), exports of feeding distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) have increased to more than 11 metric tons in 2017 and expected to increase in the coming years.Buy Hassle Free Global Market Research Report Here -About FactMrFactMR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFactMR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400, Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Blog:
Global Lung Management Products Market Insights Focusing on Primary Trends until 2028 // GE Healthcare, Medicoengineering d.o.o, Lungpacer Medical, Inc. and Phoenix Medical Systems (P) Ltd

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Lung management products are required for patients dealing with severe conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancers. Lung management products are also used as a home-based care to exercise lungs and keep them healthy for a longer run. Several lung exercisers are available and being highly preferred. According to the American Lung Association, lung cancer was the most common cancer type in 2015 with 1.69 million deaths globally. Lung management products are useful for patients dealing with either of the lung cancers. Small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer are the two types of lung cancers. Lung management products are the efficient first line treatment option for lung cancers. Inhalers and respirators are used as lung management products for patients dealing with asthma.Request Brochure of this Report-Lung Management Products Market: DynamicsUnhealthy lifestyle, excessive smoking and rising pollution are responsible for the growing adoption of lung management practices. Growing incidence of lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary, asthma and lung cancer cases is expected to drive the growth of the Lung Management Products Market Globally. Almost 85% of the lung cancer cases are caused by long-term smoking habit. However, high cost of the products, average healthcare infrastructure and less acceptance of the education of lung-related ailments might hinder the growth of the market for lung management products over the forecast period.Lung Management Products Market: OverviewLung Management Products market is highly driven by the lung cancer segment. According to the American Lung Association, between 2005 & 2010, average of about 130,659 Americans died because of smoking-attributable lung cancer whereas, 7,330 people died because of passive smoking among the nonsmokers. Rise in incidence and prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is also expected to contribute to the market for lung management products. Peak flow meters are extensively used for lung management and is one of the major segment for lung management products owing it to the increase in asthma cases. Home-based care for lungs include lung exercisers and are being used for healthy exercising of the lungs for a longer and proper functioning.To know more about the Lung Management Products Market Visit the link-Lung Management Products Market: Regional OutlookOne of the vital factors which is driving the North America market for Lung Management Products is the growing awareness about the availability of lung management products for treatment of various chronic lung diseases and related ailments. North America market for lung management products is expected to contribute the highest share owing it to the rising and supportive government policies in the region and easy availability of lung management products. The lung management products market for North America also gather its highest share owing it to good healthcare expenditure and infrastructure. Europe lung management products market and Asia-Pacific lung management products market are also anticipated to grow at a moderate rate owing it to increase in awareness about lung management and lung cancers.Lung Management Products Market: Key PlayersExamples of some of the key players operating in the global lung management products market are Tri-anim Health Services, Vital Images, Medtronic, Koninklijke Philips N.V., MRS Systems, Inc., GE Healthcare, Medicoengineering d.o.o, Lungpacer Medical, Inc. and Phoenix Medical Systems (P) Ltd.The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.Request Brochure of this Report-About FactMRFactMR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market insights reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFactMR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Blog:Read Industry News at -
Online Meal Kit Market Share,Trends,Supply,Sales,Key Players Analysis,Demand and Forecast 2023

Online Meal Kit Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Online Meal Kit Market Share,Trends,Supply,Sales,Key Players Analysis,Demand and Forecast 2023.Online Meal Kit Industry 2019Description:-The Online Meal Kit industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth, the past four years, Online Meal Kit market size to maintain the average annual growth rate of 184% from 178.5 million $ in 2014 to 4085 million $ in 2017, The analysts believe that in the next few years, Online Meal Kit market size will be further expanded, we expect that by 2022, The market size of the Online Meal Kit will reach 32.22 Billion $.Get a Free Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThis Report covers the manufacturers data, including: shipment, price, revenue, gross profit, interview record, business distribution etc., these data help the consumer know about the competitors better. This report also covers all the regions and countries of the world, which shows a regional development status, including market size, volume and value, as well as price data.Besides, the report also covers segment data, including: type segment, industry segment, channel segment etc. cover different segment market size, both volume and value. Also cover different industries clients information, which is very important for the manufacturers.Sections:-Section 1: FreeDefinitionSection (2 3): 1200 USDMajor Player DetailHello FreshBlue ApronHome ChefGreen ChefSun BasketPlated.comChefs PlateChefdMuncheryPurple CarrotPeachDishMarley SpoonFresh DirectGobbleHandpickHungryroot IncJust Add CookingSaffron Fix IncSection 4: 900 USDRegion SegmentationNorth America Country (United States, Canada)South AmericaAsia Country (China, Japan, India, Korea)Europe Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy)Other Country (Middle East, Africa, Oceania).Enquiry About Report @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsSection 1 Online Meal Kit Definition 1Section 2 Global Online Meal Kit Market Major Player Share and Market Overview 12.1 Global Major Player Online Meal Kit Business Revenue 12.2 Global Online Meal Kit Market Overview 7Section 3 Major Player Online Meal Kit Business Introduction 73.1 Hello Fresh Online Meal Kit Business Introduction 73.1.1 Hello Fresh Online Meal Kit Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2014-2017 73.1.2 Hello Fresh Online Meal Kit Business Distribution by Region 83.1.3 Hello Fresh Interview Record 93.1.4 Hello Fresh Online Meal Kit Business Profile 93.1.5 Hello Fresh Online Meal Kit Introduction 103.2 Blue Apron Online Meal Kit Business Introduction 113.2.1 Blue Apron Online Meal Kit Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2014-2017 113.2.2 Blue Apron Online Meal Kit Business Distribution by Region 123.2.3 Interview Record 133.2.4 Blue Apron Online Meal Kit Business Overview 133.2.5 Blue Apron Online Meal Kit Introduction 143.3 Home Chef Online Meal Kit Business Introduction 153.3.1 Home Chef Online Meal Kit Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2014-2017 153.3.2 Home Chef Online Meal Kit Business Distribution by Region 163.3.3 Interview Record 173.3.4 Home Chef Online Meal Kit Business Overview 173.3.5 Home Chef Online Meal Kit Introduction 183.4 Green Chef Online Meal Kit Business Introduction 193.4.1 Green Chef Online Meal Kit Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2014-2017 193.4.2 Green Chef Online Meal Kit Business Distribution by Region 203.4.3 Interview Record 203.4.4 Green Chef Online Meal Kit Business Overview 213.4.5 Green Chef Online Meal Kit Introduction 213.5 Sun Basket Online Meal Kit Business Introduction 223.5.1 Sun Basket Online Meal Kit Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2014-2017 223.5.2 Sun Basket Online Meal Kit Business Distribution by Region 233.5.3 Interview Record 243.5.4 Sun Basket Online Meal Kit Business Overview 243.5.5 Sun Basket Online Meal Kit Introduction 243.6 Plated.com Online Meal Kit Business Introduction 253.6.1 Plated.com Online Meal Kit Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2014-2017 253.6.2 Plated.com Online Meal Kit Business Distribution by Region 263.6.3 Interview Record 273.6.4 Plated.com Online Meal Kit Business Overview 273.6.5 Plated.com Online Meal Kit Introduction 273.7 Chefs Plate Online Meal Kit Business Introduction 283.7.1 Chefs Plate Online Meal Kit Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2014-2017 283.7.2 Chefs Plate Online Meal Kit Business Distribution by Region 293.7.3 Interview Record 303.7.4 Chefs Plate Online Meal Kit Business Overview 303.7.5 Chefs Plate Online Meal Kit Introduction 313.8 Chefd Online Meal Kit Business Introduction 323.8.1 Chefd Online Meal Kit Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2014-2017 323.8.2 Chefd Online Meal Kit Business Distribution by Region 333.8.3 Interview Record 333.8.4 Chefd Online Meal Kit Business Overview 333.8.5 Chefd Online Meal Kit Introduction 343.9 Munchery Online Meal Kit Business Introduction 353.9.1 Munchery Online Meal Kit Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2014-2017 353.9.2 Munchery Online Meal Kit Business Distribution by Region 363.9.3 Interview Record 363.9.4 Munchery Online Meal Kit Business Overview 373.9.5 Munchery Online Meal Kit Introduction 37ContinuedBuy 1-user PDF @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.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
China expects to see wider opening-up as it pledges to do more to attract foreign investment and promote global cooperation at the ongoing annual "two sessions."



"We will promote all-round opening-up and foster new strengths in international economic cooperation and competition," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said when delivering the government work report to the annual legislative session Tuesday.

At the session, further relax of controls over market access has been announced, a draft foreign investment law will be deliberated, and the Belt and Road cooperation has been promoted.

Unveiling opportunities

The government will further shorten the negative list which outlines fields off-limits to foreign investors, Ning Jizhe, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual legislative session Wednesday.

China will roll out more opening measures to the agriculture, mining, manufacturing and service sectors, and allow wholly foreign-funded enterprises to operate in more sectors, Ning said.

John Huang with the British information service provider Experian believes that international investors will welcome China's further opening-up.

"Some core industries, once considered to be 'the most difficult areas to open up,' such as automobile manufacturing and financial services, are now welcoming foreign investment," said Huang, managing director for decision analytics of Experian Greater China.

"The Chinese government's consistent commitment to opening-up has given foreign enterprises confidence about the business environment here," said SangBoem Han, CEO of LG Display from the Republic of Korea.

In July 2018, LG Display opened an OLED panel factory in south China's Guangdong Province with a total investment of 46 billion yuan (6.9 billion U.S. dollars).

China saw a record foreign direct investment of 135 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 despite a global economic downturn and rising protectionism.

"In the early days, foreign firms received preferential policies regarding land, electricity and taxes in China," Han said, "but more recently, the government has increased its protection of intellectual property and improved efficiency."

Foreign investment law

On Tuesday, Premier Li emphasized opening up based on rules and related institutions.

This will help China better conform with the international rules, said Zhang Jin, a national political advisor and businessman from Guangdong.

"This is also in line with China's further integration with globalization and engagement in international competition," Zhang said.

A highlight at this year's "two sessions" is the draft foreign investment law, which is to be submitted to this year's session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) for review.

Once adopted, the unified law will replace three existing laws on Chinese-foreign equity joint ventures, non-equity joint ventures (or contractual joint ventures) and wholly foreign-owned enterprises.

The foreign investment law would be highly significant to protect legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors and ensure fair competition, said Loh Jen Yuh, president of China & Investment Management of CapitaLand Group, one of Asia's largest real estate companies.

"The law shows China's openness and the rule of law," said Han, who hoped that the enact of the law would further improve China's business environment.

Promoting global cooperation

Along with the efforts to attract foreign businesses, China is also stepping up the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to benefit more participants.

To date, a total of 152 countries and international organizations have signed cooperation documents with China on the BRI.

"Many countries along the Belt and Road have shown their intention to cooperate with Chinese manufacturers," said Wu Gang, a national political advisor and chairman of wind power firm Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology.

"We are more confident in going global under the government's favorable policies related to the BRI," said Wu, whose business has gained great market shares in Pakistan and Australia.

According to the government work report, China will continue to "promote the joint pursuit" of the BRI, aiming at "shared growth through discussion and collaboration."

China has signed free trade agreements with over 20 countries and regions. According to Zhao Ji, a national political advisor and president of China's Northeastern University, the country's efforts to strengthen the opening-up are especially important against the weak global economic growth.

"The development of China, which has been closely connected with the world, will continue to play a key role in promoting globalization," Zhao said.
Cosmetic Shea Butter Market: Growing Importance Regarding Skincare among Consumers Propels Demand

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Transparency Market Research (TMR) delivers detailed insights into the global cosmetic shea butter market, in its upcoming outlook titled, 'Cosmetic shea butter Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast 2018-2026'. The global cosmetic shea butter market is projected to register a relatively high CAGR of 4.5% in terms of value during the period of forecast, due to various factors influencing the market, regarding which, TMR offers detailed insights.Asia Pacific to Witness Predominant Growth in the Cosmetic Shea Butter MarketBeing a developing economy with a higher population of health-conscious consumers, and with increased purchasing power for natural cosmetics, Asia Pacific holds a substantial compound annual growth rate in the global cosmetic shea butter market, due to increasing consumption of color cosmetics and factors such as favorable government policies regarding trade. It is anticipated that Asia Pacific would witness a substantial growth rate in the cosmetic shea butter market, accounting for 5.2% during the forecast period.Get PDF Sample For More Information @High Propensity for Unrefined Cosmetic Shea ButterOn the basis of grade, the Grade A (unrefined) cosmetic shea butter segment is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.0% during the forecast period. Increasing consumer preference for chemical-free cosmetic products over the years has increased the market penetration of unrefined cosmetic shea butter. As a chemical-free ingredient, unrefined cosmetic shea butter has significant demand among natural and organic cosmetic manufacturers.Public-Private Partnerships are Gaining Traction among Cosmetic Product DevelopersPromotional support from non-profit organizations such as the Global Shea Alliance and International Cocoa Organization have increased mutual partnerships between various manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, and regional distributors of cosmetic shea butter across the world, thereby corroborating the supply chain of cosmetic shea butter. The Global Shea Alliance (GSA) associates 450 active market participants of shea butter, covering around 33 countries at present, which is expected to promote the well-defined trade of cosmetic shea butter during the forecast period.Growing Opportunities for Cosmetic Shea Butter in CosmeceuticalsAs an excellent cosmetic ingredient and cost-effective emollient, cosmetic shea butter has high demand in the cosmeceutical industry. High miscibility with non-polar and moderate-polar drugs enables the application of shea butter in cosmetic as well as pharmaceutical industries. In addition, shea butter is cost-effective in comparison with other carrier drugs that are used in dermal care products.Read Report Overview @This report covers the recent trends driving each segment, and offers both, qualitative and quantitative analysis and insights of the potential of the cosmetic shea butter market in specific regions. According to market attractiveness, Europe and Asia Pacific are relatively more attractive regions in the cosmetic shea butter market. Based on grade, the cosmetic shea butter market is segmented as grade A (unrefined), grade B (refined), and grade C (highly unrefined). Based on nature, the cosmetic shea butter market is segmented as conventional and organic. Based on end use, the cosmetic shea butter market is segmented as lotions & creams, lip balms & lipsticks, sun care, soaps & toiletries, cleansers, shampoos & conditioners, and others.TMR has profiled some of the most prominent companies active in the global cosmetic shea butter market, such as Cargill, Incorporated, Clariant AG, AAK AB, Olvea Group, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Bunge Limited, BASF SE, Croda International Plc, Ghana Nuts Company Ltd, Agrobotanicals, LLC, Sophim S.A., AOS Products Private Limited, The Savannah Fruits Company, Ojoba Collective, The HallStar Company, and others, to provide a wider view of the cosmetic shea butter market around the world.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRas experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Website:
Dried Vegetable Market Expected to Rise at a CAGR of 5.4% throughout 2018-2026

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According to a newly published report by Transparency Market Research, titled, 'Dried Vegetable Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2018-2026', the overall revenue generated from the dried vegetable market is anticipated to be valued at somewhere around US$ 32 Bn in 2018, which is expected to rise at a CAGR of 5.4% throughout the forecast period (2018-2026).The dried vegetable market has registered remarkable growth in the last few decades, due to the increasing vegan population and the rising demand for convenient food products. There has been a subtle increase in the vegan population from 1% to 6% in the U.S. from 2014 to 2017, and this trend is also increasing in European countries and many other regions. In the global dried vegetable market, Asia Pacific accounts for the major production and consumption of dried vegetables, owing to factors such as urbanization and increased working women population.Get PDF Sample For More Information @On the basis of our research, it is estimated that Asia Pacific holds 35.4% value share in the global dried vegetable market. Increased penetration of dried vegetable producers in developing economies has made the dried vegetable market more competitive with innovative product launches, global expansion, more convenient delivery of products, and high quality certified products in the dried vegetable market.A few of the key players operating in the global dried vegetable market are Naturex S.A., Olam International, Symrise AG, Mercer Foods, LLC., Vkc Nuts Private Limited, Viva Bella Orchards Inc, Kiantama, Sun-Maid Growers of California, and others. Food service providers and food manufacturers are showing keen interest in using dried vegetables in their production lines, which is expected to drive the demand for dried vegetables in the near future.Read Report Overview @Customers seek convenience foods that can reduce their food preparation time. The demand for convenience food is driven by a busy lifestyle and aging population. The major parameters among customers for convenience foods are their ease of use, packaging, nutritional value, safety, variety, and product appeal. The quest for convenience is primarily driven by the increased value of time and rising incomes.Dried vegetables preserve the nutritional contents, and maintains the texture and taste of the vegetable for a longer period of time. These features boost the dried vegetable market due to the convenience factor. The rapid growth of the foodservice industry in various developing markets is also expected to fuel the demand for convenience foods such as dried fruits and dried vegetables.The supply chain of dried vegetables is already established with decent transportation facilities that help in the easy flow of products. Existing supply models have benefitted dried vegetables to reach customers directly without any hurdles. Most dried vegetables are supplied in packages, which is effective during storage and transportation.TMR has profiled some of the prominent companies active in the dried vegetable market, such as Naturex S.A., Olam International, Symrise AG, Mercer Foods, LLC., Viva Bella Orchards Inc, Vkc Nuts Private Limited, Sun-Maid Growers Of California, Kiantama, Sunshine Raisin Corporation, Montagu Dried Vegetable and Nuts (Pty) Ltd, Traina Dried Vegetable Inc., Greek Dried Vegetables S.A., Sun Valley Raisins Inc. A California Corporation, Raisin Champion International, Geobres Nemean Currants and Sultana Raisins S.A., and others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRas experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Website:
Visual Project Software Industry Analysis, Global Market Overview, Top Companies, Growth Factors and Forecast 2019 To 2024

Visual Project Software Industry

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SummaryWiseGuyReports.com adds Visual Project Software Market 2019 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2024 reports to its database.Visual Project Software are garments made by humans for their canine companions. Visual Project Software that are purely for show would be used as costumes for holidays and special occasions such as Halloween or weddings.This report focuses on the global Visual Project Software status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Visual Project Software development in United States, Europe and China.The key players covered in this studyWrikeMonday.comProjectManagerZohoWorkamajig PlatinumAsanaSmartsheetMeisterTaskTaskworldJiraGantterOrnaviRequest Free Sample Report @Market segment by Type, the product can be split intoCloud-BasedOn-PremiseMarket segment by Application, split intoLarge EnterpriseSMBsMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaCentral & South AmericaThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze global Visual Project Software status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.To present the Visual Project Software development in United States, Europe and China.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies.To define, describe and forecast the market by product type, market and key regions.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Visual Project Software are as follows:History Year: 2014-2018Base Year: 2018Estimated Year: 2019Forecast Year 2019 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2018 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.At any Query @Major Key Points in Table of Content1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.4.1 Global Visual Project Software Market Size Growth Rate by Type (2014-2025)1.4.2 Cloud-Based1.4.3 On-Premise1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Visual Project Software Market Share by Application (2014-2025)1.5.2 Large Enterprise1.5.3 SMBs1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Global Growth Trends2.1 Visual Project Software Market Size2.2 Visual Project Software Growth Trends by Regions2.2.1 Visual Project Software Market Size by Regions (2014-2025)2.2.2 Visual Project Software Market Share by Regions (2014-2019)2.3 Industry Trends2.3.1 Market Top Trends2.3.2 Market Drivers2.3.3 Market Opportunities.12 International Players Profiles12.1 Wrike12.1.1 Wrike Company Details12.1.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.1.3 Visual Project Software Introduction12.1.4 Wrike Revenue in Visual Project Software Business (2014-2019)12.1.5 Wrike Recent Development12.2 Monday.com12.2.1 Monday.com Company Details12.2.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.2.3 Visual Project Software Introduction12.2.4 Monday.com Revenue in Visual Project Software Business (2014-2019)12.2.5 Monday.com Recent Development12.3 ProjectManager12.3.1 ProjectManager Company Details12.3.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.3.3 Visual Project Software Introduction12.3.4 ProjectManager Revenue in Visual Project Software Business (2014-2019)12.3.5 ProjectManager Recent Development12.4 Zoho12.4.1 Zoho Company Details12.4.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.4.3 Visual Project Software Introduction12.4.4 Zoho Revenue in Visual Project Software Business (2014-2019)12.4.5 Zoho Recent Development12.5 Workamajig Platinum12.5.1 Workamajig Platinum Company Details12.5.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.5.3 Visual Project Software Introduction12.5.4 Workamajig Platinum Revenue in Visual Project Software Business (2014-2019)12.5.5 Workamajig Platinum Recent Development12.6 Asana12.6.1 Asana Company Details12.6.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.6.3 Visual Project Software Introduction12.6.4 Asana Revenue in Visual Project Software Business (2014-2019)12.6.5 Asana Recent Development12.7 Smartsheet12.7.1 Smartsheet Company Details12.7.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.7.3 Visual Project Software Introduction12.7.4 Smartsheet Revenue in Visual Project Software Business (2014-2019)12.7.5 Smartsheet Recent Development12.8 MeisterTask12.8.1 MeisterTask Company Details12.8.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.8.3 Visual Project Software Introduction12.8.4 MeisterTask Revenue in Visual Project Software Business (2014-2019)12.8.5 MeisterTask Recent Development12.9 Taskworld12.9.1 Taskworld Company Details12.9.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.9.3 Visual Project Software Introduction12.9.4 Taskworld Revenue in Visual Project Software Business (2014-2019)12.9.5 Taskworld Recent Development12.10 Jira12.10.1 Jira Company Details12.10.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.10.3 Visual Project Software Introduction12.10.4 Jira Revenue in Visual Project Software Business (2014-2019)12.10.5 Jira Recent Development12.11 Gantter12.12 OrnaviBuy NOW @Continued....Contact Us: sales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Address:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune  411028Maharashtra,+91 841 198 5042
Digital Banking Market to be worth more than USD 9000 billion by 2024|By Key Vendors: BNY Mellon, Finastra Fiserv, Temenos, Backbase, Oracle, SAP SE, Intellect Design Arena, Kony

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Transactional services account for more than 90% share in the digital banking market. The market growth is credited to the growing adoption of electronic & mobile payment solutions. As the younger population across the countries is increasing, the demand for faster, convenient, and safer payment solutions is also rising. This is encouraging banking institutes to develop their own mobile & online platforms and provide services on the digital channel to gain customer loyalty and reduce the churn rate.Request for a sample of this research report @Digital Banking Market is anticipated to surpass USD 9 trillion mark by 2024 due to the rising investments in the Fintech market. Fintech has emerged as the most disruptive technology and venture capitalists and angel investors are investing billions to take advantage of the lucrative market. The banking institutes are also collaborating and investing in Fintech companies to develop their own digital solutions for customers to meet the consumer requirements.Company profiled in this report based on Business overview, Financial data, Product landscape, Strategic outlook & SWOT analysis: Appway Backbase BNY Mellon CREALOGIX ebanklT ETRONIKA Fidor Solutions Finastra Fiserv Halcom D.D. ieDigital Intellect Design Arena Kony NETinfo NF Innova Oracle SAB SAP SE Sopra TCS Technisys Temenos WorldlineThe increasing adoption of mobile & online banking platforms is also propelling the market growth. As the adoption of smartphone and internet services across the countries is increasing, consumers prefer mobile applications and websites to access their banking accounts. Furthermore, the integration of the advanced technologies, such as AI and blockchain, into the banking is also fostering market growth.Browse Full Report:The supportive government initiatives and policies across the countries are also promoting the adoption of digital banking solutions. The governments are constantly working on delivering banking services via the internet to reach remote areas. The digitalization & demonetization policies launched by the government will also encourage the adoption of digital banking solutions.Retail banking holds over 75% share in the digital banking market. The market is driven by the rising adoption of the internet and smartphones across the countries. As the adoption of the internet services and smartphones is increasing, and the information is easily available to customers, the buying of consumers is increasing. This is forcing banking institutes to provide a better customer experience and reach customers on their choice of the channel. Moreover, the increasing adoption of mobile and electronic payment solutions and the attractive offers and incentives offered by the payment solution providers are also the major forces accelerating the adoption of digital banking.The corporate sector is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of over 6% over the timeline. The increasing competition among Fintech players is the primary factor driving the adoption of digital banking in the corporate banking sector. Moreover, the integration of advanced analytics technologies such as Big Data to manage the assets, will reduce the risks and extract consumer insights, encouraging the adoption of digital solutions.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Asia Pacific is dominating the digital banking market with over 60% stake in 2017. The growing penetration of internet services and the adoption of smartphones are supporting market growth. Moreover, the digitalization initiatives launched by the government of emerging economies including India and China will also foster the demand for digital banking.The key vendors operating in the digital banking market are Backbase, BNY Mellon, Appway Crealogix, EdgeVerve Systems, ebanklT ETRONIKA, Finastra, Fiserv, Fidor, IE Digital, Halcom Intellect Design Arena, NETinfo, NF Innova, Kony, SAB, SAP, Oracle, Sopra, TCS, Technisys, Tagit, Worldline, and Temenos.Browse Related Report:Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Market Size, Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Spain, China, India, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, GCC, South Africa), Growth Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2018  2024About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:
Registration Software Market 2019 Global Analysis By Key Players  TeamSnap, Eventbrite, EventBank, Cvent, Ticket Tailor, Jolly Technologies, DoJiggy

Registration Software Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Registration Software Market 2019 Global Analysis By Key Players  TeamSnap, Eventbrite, EventBank, Cvent, Ticket Tailor, Jolly Technologies, DoJiggy.Registration Software Industry 2019Description:-The Registration Software industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth, the past four years, Registration Software market size to maintain the average annual growth rate of 13.13% from 3206 million $ in 2013 to 4642 million $ in 2016, The analysts believe that in the next few years, Registration Software market size will be further expanded, we expect that by 2021, The market size of the Registration Software will reach 7995 million $.Get a Free Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThis Report covers the Major Players data, including: revenue, gross profit, interview record, business distribution etc., these data help the consumer know about the competitors better. This report also covers all the regions and countries of the world, which shows a regional development status, including market size.Besides, the report also covers segment data, including: type segment, industry segment, channel segment etc. cover different segment market size. Also cover different industries clients information, which is very important for the Major Players.Sections:-Section 1: FreeDefinitionSection (2 3): 1200 USDMajor Player DetailTeamSnapEventbriteEventBankCventTicket TailorJolly TechnologiesDoJiggyTRSFamilyIDWeemssBookeoEvent WizardCONREGOEventboostEleyoEnnect EventRegOnlineExperientAmiliaRegFoxPlanetRegRegpackEtouchesBizzaboACTIVE NetworkCompuSystemsEventgrid..Enquiry About Report @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsSection 1 Registration Software Product DefinitionSection 2 Global Registration Software Market Major Player Share and Market Overview2.1 Global Major Player Registration Software Business Revenue2.2 Global Registration Software Market OverviewSection 3 Manufacturer Registration Software Business Introduction3.1 TeamSnap Registration Software Business Introduction3.1.1 TeamSnap Registration Software Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2013-20163.1.2 TeamSnap Registration Software Business Distribution by Region3.1.3 TeamSnap Interview Record3.1.4 TeamSnap Registration Software Business Profile3.1.5 TeamSnap Registration Software Product Profile3.2 Eventbrite Registration Software Business Introduction3.2.1 Eventbrite Registration Software Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2013-20163.2.2 Eventbrite Registration Software Business Distribution by Region3.2.3 Interview Record3.2.4 Eventbrite Registration Software Business Overview3.2.5 Eventbrite Registration Software Product Profile3.3 EventBank Registration Software Business Introduction3.3.1 EventBank Registration Software Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2013-20163.3.2 EventBank Registration Software Business Distribution by Region3.3.3 Interview Record3.3.4 EventBank Registration Software Business Overview3.3.5 EventBank Registration Software Product Profile3.4 Cvent Registration Software Business Introduction3.4.1 Cvent Registration Software Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2013-20163.4.2 Cvent Registration Software Business Distribution by Region3.4.3 Interview Record3.4.4 Cvent Registration Software Business Overview3.4.5 Cvent Registration Software Product Profile3.5 Ticket Tailor Registration Software Business Introduction3.5.1 Ticket Tailor Registration Software Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2013-20163.5.2 Ticket Tailor Registration Software Business Distribution by Region3.5.3 Interview Record3.5.4 Ticket Tailor Registration Software Business Overview3.5.5 Ticket Tailor Registration Software Product Profile3.6 Jolly Technologies Registration Software Business Introduction3.6.1 Jolly Technologies Registration Software Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2013-20163.6.2 Jolly Technologies Registration Software Business Distribution by Region3.6.3 Interview Record3.6.4 Jolly Technologies Registration Software Business Overview3.6.5 Jolly Technologies Registration Software Product Profile3.7 DoJiggy Registration Software Business Introduction3.7.1 DoJiggy Registration Software Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2013-20163.7.2 DoJiggy Registration Software Business Distribution by Region3.7.3 Interview Record3.7.4 DoJiggy Registration Software Business Overview3.7.5 DoJiggy Registration Software Product Profile3.8 TRS Registration Software Business Introduction3.8.1 TRS Registration Software Revenue, Growth Rate and Gross profit 2013-20163.8.2 TRS Registration Software Business Distribution by Region3.8.3 Interview Record3.8.4 TRS Registration Software Business Overview3.8.5 TRS Registration Software Product ProfileContinuedBuy 1-user PDF @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.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Global Polyester Staple Fiber Market to Exhibit 4.10% CAGR between 2017 and 2025, says TMR

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The global polyester staple fiber market has witnessed the foray of several new players in the past few years, rendering the vendor landscape increasingly concentrated and competitive, observes Transparency Market Research in a recent report. Despite this, the level of fragmentation among the numbered suppliers and the vast number of potential buyer remains low as the market features the need for high capital investment for establishing manufacturing facilities and large gestation period, making it challenging for small-scale players to establish themselves in the market. Companies in the market compete on the basis of product price, quality, and credit terms.Some of the leading companies in the market are Toray Industries Inc., Reliance Industries Limited, W. Barnet GmbH & Co. KG, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, Alpek S.A.B. de C.V., and Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited.Request a Sample of Global Polyester Staple Fiber Market:According to the report, the polyester staple fiber market, which had a valuation of US$23.167 bn in 2016, will exhibit a moderate 4.10% CAGR over the period between 2017 and 2025, rising to a revenue opportunity of US$34.546 bn by 2025. Based on end use, the market acquires the largest share of its revenue from the apparel segment and the trend is likely to remain strong in the near future as well. Geographically, the market in Asia Pacific presently dominates and is likely to retain its dominant stance in the overall market by the end of the forecast period as well.Rising Usage of Man-made Fibers in Several Application Areas to Drive GrowthThe global polyester staple fiber market has benefitted from the increased usage of manmade fibers across a number of conventional applications in the past few years. It has been found that the usage of manmade fibers in the textile sector has increased to nearly 65% of the overall fabric consumption in 2015, thanks to the excellent flexibility, strength, and variety of products made possible by manmade fibers along with a vast reduction in the cost of the final product. As a result, the consumption of polyester staple fibers has also increased in applications such as furniture, automotive, and apparel.View in-depth table of contents for this report @Besides this, the polyester staple fiber market is also expected to gain massively from the rising demand for tougher and more flexible fibers in the construction sector. The use of polyester staple fibers with asphalt cement is known to improve aspects such as shear, tensile strength, and temperature stability of the resulting concrete. As builders focus more on making their buildings and constructions stronger so as to comply with the stringent regulations put in place by a number of countries, the demand for polyester staple fibers is expected to rise in the construction industry in the next few years.Request For Multiple Chapters:Low Cost of Natural Fibers in Agrarian Economies to Hinder Market Growth ProspectsThe heavy anti-dumping duties imposed on purified terephthalic acid (PTA), which is one of the key raw materials used for the production of polyester staple fiber, has resulted in a vast rise in the costs of polyester staple fiber in these countries. Moreover, the commercial cost of cotton is regulated by the government in a number of emerging economies, making cotton a much cheaper substitute to polyester staple fiber. These factors could hamper the growth of the market to a certain extent in the next few years. Nevertheless, the promising rise in the set of applications of man-made fibers across a number of industries could help the polyester staple fiber market gain sustainable growth prospects in the near future.Request For Discount On This Report:This analysis of the global polyester staple fiber market is based on a recent market research report by Transparency Market Research, titled Polyester Staple Fiber Market (Type  Solid (Semi-dull Optical White, Bright Optical White, Black Dope Dyed, Colored Dope White, Others Semi-dull, and Others Bright) and Hollow; Origin  Virgin, Recycled, and Blend of Virgin and Recycled; End User  Apparel, Automotive, Home Furnishing, Filtration, Construction, and Personal Care and Hygiene)  Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017-2025.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Sandalwood: World Market Sales, Consumption, Demand and Forecast 2019  2023

Sandalwood Market

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Sandalwood: World Market Sales, Consumption, Demand and Forecast 2019  2023.Sandalwood Industry 2019Description:-The Sandalwood industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth, the past four years, In the past few years, the Sandalwood industry experienced a growth of 5.47%, the global Sandalwood production grow to 7749 tons in 2017 from 6555 tons in 2014, benefit from the development of the perfume and related downstream products, our analyst forecast that the Sandalwood will continue grow with a growth rate of about 5.40%.Get a Free Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThe market size of Sandalwood reached 165.46 million $ in 2017, of what is about 124.23 million $ in 2014. With the development of the Sandalwood manufacturing technology, manufacturers can reduce their manufacturing cost and price, new product type is being developed, BisReports analysts believe the market size will be further increased.This Report covers the manufacturers data, including: shipment, price, revenue, gross profit, interview record, business distribution etc., these data help the consumer know about the competitors better. This report also covers all the regions and countries of the world, which shows a regional development status, including market size, volume and value, as well as price data.Besides, the report also covers segment data, including: type segment, industry segment, channel segment etc. cover different segment market size, both volume and value. Also cover different industries clients information, which is very important for the manufacturers.Enquiry About Report @Table Of Contents  Major Key Points1 Market Overview 121.1 Market Segment 121.1.1 Sandalwood Overview 121.1.2 Products of Major Companies 131.2 Market Segment 151.2.1 Industry Chain 151.2.2 Consumer Distribution 161.3 Price & Cost Overview 181.3.1 Raw Material Suppliers and Price Analysis of Sandalwood 181.3.2 Equipment Suppliers Analysis of Sandalwood 191.3.3 Labor Cost Analysis 201.3.4 Other Cost Analysis 251.3.5 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis 271.3.6 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Sandalwood 272 Product Segment 282.1 By Type 282.1.1 Santalum album (Indian sandalwood) 282.1.2 Santalum spicatum (Australian sandalwood) 282.1.3 Santalum paniculatum 292.1.4 Santalum yasi 292.1.5 Santalum austrocaledonicum 302.2 Market Size by Type 302.2.1 Global Sandalwood Market Segmentation (Product Type Level) Market Size 2014-2018 302.2.2 Different Sandalwood Product Type Price 2014-2018 372.3 Market Forecast by Type 383 Global Market Demand 393.1 Segment Overview 393.1.1 Sandalwood Wood 393.1.2 Sandalwood Oil (Mouth Freshener, Fragrance, Cosmetics, Pharmaceuticals) 403.2 Market Size by Demand 443.3 Market Forecast by Demand 474 Major Region Market 474.1 Global Market Overview 474.1.1 Market Size & Growth 474.1.2 Market Forecast 544.2 Major Region 564.2.1 Market Size & Growth 564.2.2 Market Forecast 575 Sandalwood Companies List 585.1 Quintis 585.1.1 Company Profile 585.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications 615.1.3 Production, Price, Cost, Gross and Revenue 615.1.4 Contact Information 625.2 FPC 635.2.1 Company Profile 635.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications 645.2.3 Production, Price, Cost, Gross and Revenue 655.2.4 Contact Information 655.3 WA Sandalwood Plantations 665.3.1 Company Profile 665.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications 685.3.3 Production, Price, Cost, Gross and Revenue 685.3.4 Contact Information 695.4 Australian Sandalwood Network 705.4.1 Company Profile 705.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications 715.4.3 Production, Price, Cost, Gross and Revenue 725.4.4 Contact Information 735.5 Santanol Group 735.5.1 Company Profile 735.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications 755.5.3 Production, Price, Cost, Gross and Revenue 755.5.4 Contact Information 765.6 KS&DL 775.6.1 Company Profile 775.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications 785.6.3 Production, Price, Cost, Gross and Revenue 795.6.4 Contact Information 796 Global Sandalwood Market Manufacturer Share and Market Overview 806.1 Global Manufacturer Sandalwood Production 806.2 Global Manufacturer Sandalwood Business Revenue 836.3 Global Sandalwood Market Overview 87ContinuedBuy 1-user PDF @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.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Global Online Auction Software 2019 Market Key Players  501 Auctions, Promena e-Sourcing Solutions, bidlogix, RainWorx Software......

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Online Auction Software Market 2019Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Online Auction Software  Global Market Growth, Opportunities, Analysis Of Top Key Players And Forecast To 2025 To Its Research Database.Description:In 2018, the global Online Auction Software market size was xx million US$ and it is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during 2019-2025.This report focuses on the global Online Auction Software status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Online Auction Software development in United States, Europe and China.The key players covered in this study501 AuctionsPromena e-Sourcing SolutionsbidlogixRainWorx SoftwareEastern UnityHandbidBiddingOwlIlanceOnline Ventures SoftwareE-Multitech SolutionMerkeleon SoftwareAuction-ExpertsRequest Free Sample Report @Market segment by Type, the product can be split intoCloud-basedOn-premisesMarket segment by Application, split intoSmall and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)Large EnterprisesMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaCentral & South AmericaThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze global Online Auction Software status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.To present the Online Auction Software development in United States, Europe and China.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies.To define, describe and forecast the market by product type, market and key regions.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Online Auction Software are as follows:History Year: 2014-2018Base Year: 2018Estimated Year: 2019Forecast Year 2019 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2018 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Enquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Content:1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.4.1 Global Online Auction Software Market Size Growth Rate by Type (2014-2025)1.4.2 Cloud-based1.4.3 On-premises1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Online Auction Software Market Share by Application (2014-2025)1.5.2 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)1.5.3 Large Enterprises1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Global Growth Trends2.1 Online Auction Software Market Size2.2 Online Auction Software Growth Trends by Regions2.2.1 Online Auction Software Market Size by Regions (2014-2025)2.2.2 Online Auction Software Market Share by Regions (2014-2019)2.3 Industry Trends2.3.1 Market Top Trends2.3.2 Market Drivers2.3.3 Market Opportunities..12 International Players Profiles12.1 501 Auctions12.1.1 501 Auctions Company Details12.1.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.1.3 Online Auction Software Introduction12.1.4 501 Auctions Revenue in Online Auction Software Business (2014-2019)12.1.5 501 Auctions Recent Development12.2 Promena e-Sourcing Solutions12.2.1 Promena e-Sourcing Solutions Company Details12.2.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.2.3 Online Auction Software Introduction12.2.4 Promena e-Sourcing Solutions Revenue in Online Auction Software Business (2014-2019)12.2.5 Promena e-Sourcing Solutions Recent Development12.3 bidlogix12.3.1 bidlogix Company Details12.3.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.3.3 Online Auction Software Introduction12.3.4 bidlogix Revenue in Online Auction Software Business (2014-2019)12.3.5 bidlogix Recent Development12.4 RainWorx Software12.4.1 RainWorx Software Company Details12.4.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.4.3 Online Auction Software Introduction12.4.4 RainWorx Software Revenue in Online Auction Software Business (2014-2019)12.4.5 RainWorx Software Recent Development12.5 Eastern Unity12.5.1 Eastern Unity Company Details12.5.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.5.3 Online Auction Software Introduction12.5.4 Eastern Unity Revenue in Online Auction Software Business (2014-2019)12.5.5 Eastern Unity Recent Development12.6 Handbid12.6.1 Handbid Company Details12.6.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.6.3 Online Auction Software Introduction12.6.4 Handbid Revenue in Online Auction Software Business (2014-2019)12.6.5 Handbid Recent Development12.7 BiddingOwl12.7.1 BiddingOwl Company Details12.7.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.7.3 Online Auction Software Introduction12.7.4 BiddingOwl Revenue in Online Auction Software Business (2014-2019)12.7.5 BiddingOwl Recent Development12.8 Ilance12.8.1 Ilance Company Details12.8.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.8.3 Online Auction Software Introduction12.8.4 Ilance Revenue in Online Auction Software Business (2014-2019)12.8.5 Ilance Recent Development12.9 Online Ventures Software12.9.1 Online Ventures Software Company Details12.9.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.9.3 Online Auction Software Introduction12.9.4 Online Ventures Software Revenue in Online Auction Software Business (2014-2019)12.9.5 Online Ventures Software Recent Development12.10 E-Multitech Solution12.10.1 E-Multitech Solution Company Details12.10.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.10.3 Online Auction Software Introduction12.10.4 E-Multitech Solution Revenue in Online Auction Software Business (2014-2019)12.10.5 E-Multitech Solution Recent Development12.11 Merkeleon Software12.12 Auction-ExpertsContinued..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 Online Auction Softwarenning 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
What Would Jesus Say About Today's Christianity, The Catholic Church Scandal And American Mega Ministers - Terry Christian Issues Statement

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Nearly every day new headlines regarding the Catholic Church scandal appear on practically every media site in America. Our radio and television stations offer up endless broadcasts from yet more "mega-ministers". Today there are thousands of different Christian "manmade" religions worldwide. Is this progress?It's said that all things change. But the one thing that never changes is the word of God. For Christians, including modern-day Christians, this must be the starting point; the rock from which we form our collective and individual points of view.Terry Christian is the author of "What Did Jesus Say?" His book is a compelling overview of the sayings of Jesus - with nothing "man-made" added. He recently issued a statement concerning the state of today's Christianity. That statement reads in part:"What would Jesus say about today's Christianity, the scandal within the Roman Catholic Church, the gluttony of American mega-ministers and the other 30,000 different Christian manmade religions worldwide?"I believe the first thing Jesus would say is, WHY DO YOU CALL ME LORD, and not do what I say? For A Kingdom or House Divided cannot stand and not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord will enter Kingdom of Heaven."To the RCC, Jesus would say: Whoever causes one of these little ones to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea."There are many things Jesus would say especially to American Christians who have added greatly to the divisions of Christianity worldwide, with pastors and evangelists misleading and fleecing their flock. Since the RCC is protected with wealth and its priests are cash poor, they have their own troubles in dishonesty among their inner structure. The organized corruption with the man-made religion of Christianity that started between 325AD- 397AD hasnt stopped and will continue as long as divisions among them exists.3 Things Hurting Christianity Today :#1. Mega Prosperity (Personality Driven) Preachers : As Christians we need to be more aware of those representing the teachings of Jesus. We must ask ourselves - do they teach by example or are they just a voice expounding from biblical memory of scripture without true understanding and life application. When we forget our past were doomed to repeat it."For the record - Im not new to the Mega Christian Movements in America. As a boy I was raised on Oral Roberts and his multi-million dollar healing hospital and Jimmy Swaggart's jet vs Billy Grahams peaceful conservative lifestyle."Then as I got older, I can remember watching the rise of Richard Roberts, Robert Schuller, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, PTL (Jim Bakker), Paul Crouchs TBN, Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflow Dollar, TD Jakes, Mike Murdocks and now of course the most popular Joel Osteen."What do these preachers and evangelists all have in common? Outside of the late Billy Graham, they all lived or live multi-million dollar lavish lifestyles as Americas favored Christian Kings and Queens, all the while claiming to need money to help feed and clothe the needy worldwide.#2. Denominations, evangelists and preachers attacking one another: Its difficult to understand the denominations, preachers and teachers who openly attack one another while representing the 'God of Love'. Now, some of their confrontations may be justified - inaccurate preaching, adulterous affairs and mishandling of monies. However, we must attempt to do it in love at all times. I know its hard for some to watch Mega Ministers get away with un-christian like behavior, and then stay in the TV ministry simply because of their mega-money-making skills. Some of the behind the scenes behavior of Benny Hinn, Paula White, TD Jakes, Creflow Dollar, Kenneth Copeland etc., is no different than the past behavior of many others, including Oral Roberts and his son, Jimmy Swaggart and now his son, or the PTL Bakkers and Falwells of the past. It's all the same, its sinfully shameful. And as Christians we have all suffered for it as the world mocks us for supporting ministries that manipulate their flock for self gain."As Christians we need to know the words of Jesus well enough to know if we should be following these personality driven ministers who may love the sound of their own voice more than the true message of repentance, forgiveness, love and discipleship in the Lord. Above all, we should be praying for their uncompromising awakening to the teachings of Jesus Christ.#3. Non-Practicing Christians: These are ones who embarrass Christianity by false confessions and dishonest behavior, while calling themselves, non-practicing Christians. As a personal counselor, I am always surprised while talking to Christians when they say they know very little of what Jesus said in the 4 Gospels. About 90% said they never read all 4 Gospels and they actually called themselves Non-Practicing Christians and they expect to enter Heaven simply because they once said a prayer of repentance in church or while touching the TV screen. Most of them really didnt know what the word repentance means. And yet they expect to get into Heaven while theyre playing in Hell."ONE WAY CHRISTIANS can HELP: Its time for ALL CHRISTIANS to know what Jesus meant when He said, I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is our example to follow (WAY) He is the True Word of God, (TRUTH) and He lives in us and gives us LIFE."I think we ALL need to know for sure 'What Did Jesus Say?' and decide how much it matters to us. Our decision determines our desire to read his words. The great Bible teacher and commentator, Henry H. Halley, said it this way: The Four Gospels are, by all odds, the most important part of the Bible: more important than all the rest of the Bible put together: more important than all the rest of the books in the whole world put together, for we could better afford to be without the knowledge of everything else than to be without the knowledge of Jesus Christ."When you read the words of Jesus (highlighted in red) in your Bible, you will quickly see the intensity with which Jesus speaks and teaches. When Jesus speaks Hes not vague, Hes specific. He tells us over and over again to abide in His Words, follow His example and keep His commandments. Jesus says, By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. Now, thats specific! Thats why its so important to know that you know, What Did Jesus Say?The full text of the statement can be found at Terry's website.Imagine you're walking down the beach, and you come across a crowd waiting for Jesus to appear and teach them. What would he say? Would he talk about current religious and political conflicts, or would he speak about Love, Light, and Truth? Readers can join in for a walk with Jesus and listen to his words as he shares with them the Seven Messages from the Master. Each spiritual message reveals His teachings that will strengthen and guide anyone to a most peaceful life in Christ.'What Did Jesus Say' contains over 500 Bible verses spoken directly by Jesus as recorded in the red-letter edition of the New King James Bible, organized by subject. There is no interpretation, opinion or commentary.Terry Christian's ministry, Foundations For Life, is an online ministry dedicated to helping Christians worldwide. Their calling is to help all Christians mature in their relationship with Jesus Christ. H-E-L-P means Helping Everyone Live Peacefully in Christ.This brotherly approach allows us to focus on our loving similarities as members of the whole Body of Christ, rather than on our differences in worshiping and practicing our faith, so common today from one church to another or one Pastor to another. The mission is to teach the Way by the Word.Terry helps families and congregations, as well as clergy, come together, in love, as one body in Christ, in one accord, in order to perform a greater work for Christ. He is dedicated to creating the relationships that build stronger marriages, families and churches.'What Did Jesus Say...The Seven Messages From The Master' is available in full color glossy print, eBook and Kindle. An audiobook version is available for Windows and Macintosh. Several bundled packages are available at the book website.Terry Christian is available for media interviews. Please contact PrimeStar Publicity using the information below.More information is available at his ministry websites.Terry Christian is a former motivational speaker and executive trainer with over 20 years experience giving more than 2,500 presentations to private and public audiences across America and Canada. Today, Christian counsels individuals and couples seeking a more mature understanding of their relationship with Jesus Christ. His life is now dedicated to helping his Christian brothers and sisters live in a never-ending state of peace, love, truth and forgiveness as followers of Jesus Christ. He says after repentance and being born again, this was the main message Jesus taught; and teaching the Way by the Word is the cornerstone on which his book and ministry is founded.Press ContactTerry ChristianPO Box 1613Shallotte, NC, 28459Helen.Cook@primestarpublicity.com910-842-9248
Fabry Disease Treatment Market With Major Key Companies Amicus Therapeutics, Sanofi Genzyme, Idorsia Pharmaceuticals, Protalix BioTherapeutics, AvroBio

Fabry Disease Treatment

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Fabry disease also called as Anderson-Fabry disease and alpha-galactosidase-A deficiency is an X-linked, hereditary, lysosomal storage disease caused due to paucity of an enzyme  galactosidase A (an enzyme required to metabolize lipids, fat-like substances that include oils, waxes, and fatty acids). The mutated gene leads the formation of lipids to harmful levels in various part of body such as the autonomic nervous system, cardiovascular system, eyes, and kidneys. Some of the common symptoms of this multisystem disorder include chronic pain, acroparesthesia, gastrointestinal disturbances, characteristic skin lesions (angiokeratomata), progressive renal impairment, cardiomyopathy, and stroke.Fabry Disease Treatment Market DriversIn recent past, various regulatory bodies of key regions have approved novel medications for treatment of Fabry disease. Approval and launch of such novel medications in the region is expected to significantly support global Fabry disease treatment market growth over the forecast period.For instance, in August 2018, Amicus Therapeutics, Inc., received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its drug Galafold (migalastat). It is the first oral medication indicated for the treatment of adults with Fabry disease.The presence of robust medication pipeline indicated for treatment of Fabry disease is also expected to be a major factor fueling growth of global Fabry disease treatment market over the forecast period. Table mentioned below represents list of some novel therapies in pipeline for Fabry disease treatment.Download the PDF brochure:Furthermore, key players in the market are majorly investing in development of novel therapies for Fabry disease treatment, such strategic fundings by various players is expected to drastically fuel global Fabry Disease treatment market growth over the forecast period. For instance, in February 2018, AvroBio Inc., closed US$ 60 million financing to support the phase 2 study of its novel gene therapy, AVR-RD-01 underdevelopment for the treatment of Fabry disease.Fabry Disease Treatment Market Regional AnalysisEurope Fabry disease treatment market is expected to witness a drastic growth over the forecast period, owing to penetration of key players in key regions of Europe with their novel products for Fabry disease. For instance, Amicus Therapeutics Inc. launched Galafold (Migalastat) for treatment of Fabry disease in Italy (in March 2017) and in Spain (in January 2018)In November 2018, JCR Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd, a Japan-based company launched biosimilar for agalsidase beta for treatment of Fabry disease. Launch of biosimilars is expected to increase affordability of these therapies in key regions of Asia Pacific as biosimilars are quite cheaper than biologics, hence it is expected to boost Asia Pacific Fabry disease treatment market growth.Fabry Disease Treatment Market RestraintFabry disease is a very rare disease affecting around 1 individual in 50,000 (according to the National Fabry Disease Foundation), the diagnosis of Fabry disease is confirmed by demonstrating an enzyme deficiency in males and by identifying the specific GLA gene mutation in males and females.Hence, low diagnostic rate due to unavailability of such diagnostic procedures and trained professionals in emerging economies such as Africa, India, and China are expected to be major factor restraining global Fabry disease treatment market growth.Fabry Disease Treatment Market Key PlayersKey players operating in global Fabry disease treatment market include: Amicus Therapeutics Inc., Sanofi Genzyme (Sanofi S.A. company), Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Protalix BioTherapeutics, Inc., AvroBio Inc., JCR Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., Resverlogix Corp, and Ozmosis Research Inc.Get Discount On This Report:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr.ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email:sales@coherentmarketinsights.com
U.S. tariff measures are actually causing net losses of billions of dollars to domestic consumers and importers, according to two latest studies by U.S. economists.

One of papers, published Saturday and titled "The Impact of the 2018 Trade War on U.S. Prices and Welfare," said that the U.S. government levied import duties on approximately 283 billion dollars' worth of U.S. imports over the course of 2018.

"Overall, using standard economic methods, we find that the full incidence of the tariff falls on domestic consumers," argued Mary Amiti of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Stephen Redding of Princeton University and David Weinstein of Columbia University, co-authors of the paper.

The researchers said they estimated that by the end of 2018, import tariffs raised costs for U.S. consumers and the firms that import foreign goods by 4.4 billion dollars a month. They found that domestic consumers and importers spent three billion dollars per month in added tax and bore the burden of another 1.4 billion dollars per month in deadweight welfare losses.

For the first 11 months of 2018, the cumulative deadweight welfare cost, or reduction in real income, from the U.S. tariffs was around 6.9 billion dollars, with an additional cost of 12.3 billion dollars to domestic consumers and importers in the form of tariff revenue transferred to the government, according to the scholars.

"We estimate that if the tariffs that were in place by the end of 2018 were to continue, approximately 165 billion dollars of trade per year will continue to be redirected in order to avoid the tariffs," said the paper, which was published by the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research.

"We find that the U.S. tariffs were almost completely passed through into U.S. domestic prices, so that the entire incidence of the tariffs fell on domestic consumers and importers up to now, with no impact so far on the prices received by foreign exporters," the economists wrote, adding that they also found that U.S. producers responded to reduced import competition by raising their prices.

A separate study, titled "The Return of Protectionism" and done by economists including Pinelopi Goldberg, the World Bank's chief economist and a former editor-in-chief of the American Economic Review, reached a similar conclusion that U.S. firms and the American people are paying the price for U.S. tariff battle worldwide.

The paper, whose other authors are Pablo Fajgelbaum of the University of California, Los Angeles, Patrick Kennedy of the University of California, Berkeley, and Amit Khandelwal of Columbia University, put annual consumer and producer losses from the higher cost of imports at 68.8 billion dollars, or 0.37 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).

After accounting for higher tariff revenue and gains to domestic producers from higher prices, the aggregate welfare effect is a 7.8-billion-dollar loss, or 0.04 percent of GDP, according to the research, which was last updated on Tuesday.

"U.S. tariffs favored sectors located in politically competitive counties," the paper read. "We compute that tradeable-sector workers in heavily Republican counties are the most negatively affected by the trade war," it added, suggesting that the White House actually inflicted pains mostly on farmers and blue-collar workers.

"It's pretty unclear that this trade war is a net win for the economy at this point," Weinstein of Columbia said in an interview with Bloomberg news, which in a report called the two papers "the most authoritative yet to document the negative effect" of the tariffs on the U.S. economy.
Pediatric Nutrition Market Increasing Awareness World wide Appraised By Global Players Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, Nestle S.A., Abbott Laboratories, Baxter International Inc.

Global Pediatric Nutrition Market

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Pediatric nutrition refers to the nutritional products given to infants or children as a sole source of nutrition or supplement. These products support physical and mental growth of children, in turn supporting balanced growth in their formative years, from infancy to adolescence. The usage of these products is critical in cases of premature birth or babies suffering from severe allergies such as lactose intolerance. In premature birth, baby cant be directly breastfed and hence, these products are the sole source of nutrition till they get switched to breastfeeding. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2016, around 10% (1 in every 10) of births recorded were premature in the U.S. Moreover, globally, every year around 15 million births are premature, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Products are also being developed for infants suffering from certain inborn diseases such as maple syrup urine disease or phenylketonuria.Download PDF Brochure Of This Research Report @Market Dynamics:Increasing per capita income in emerging economies of Asia Pacific, emergence of new player in the market, and increasing investment from leading players such as Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, Nestle S.A., Abbott Laboratories, Groupe Danone, and Royal FrieslandCampina, in high demand countries such as India and China are major drivers for growth of the market. In the age of significantly lower birth rate in developed economies such as Germany, Canada, U.S. and UK, countries like India, with higher birth rate, presents an opportunity for the player in the market. Moreover, continuous effort from non-government organizations such as WHO, Save The Children, UNICEF and other similar minded organizations to end malnutrition has resulted in formulation of policy that recognizes the importance of nutritional products at very early age, and hence, supports this. For instance, National Nutrition Strategy formulation by Government of India in 2017. These favorable policies is expected to support growth in adoption rate for pediatric nutrition products which in turn will result in growth in the market.Increasing demand for nutritional products in Asia Pacific is expected to boost growth of the pediatric nutrition market:Asia Pacific is home to two of the most populous countries in the world, India and China. Number of births in these countries is also among the highest, every year. Moreover, in October 2015, China abolished its one-child policy, which in turn is expected to increase the birth rate in China. According to World Bank, in India, crude birth rate (birth per 1,000 people) was recorded to be 19 in 2015, which was much higher as compared to developed economies such as the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, and Italy which recorded crude birth rate of 12, 12, 9, 12, and 8, respectively. Significant year-on-year increase in the crude birth rate in India, is expected to increase in the number of total births in the country in the near future.Companies such as Mead Johnson Nutrition have operated with very high gross margins accounting for 64.2%, 64.3%, and 61.4% in 2016, 2015, and 2014, respectively. This in turn, indicates lucrative opportunity for market players in this market, which in turn is increasing the entry of large players. Due to the high gross margins, new manufacturers are competing with leading players by selling their products at a reasonable but profitable price.The global pediatric nutrition market was valued at US$ 35,211.6 million in 2016 and is expected to witness a CAGR of 6.4% over the forecast period (2017  2025).Browse Complete Report For More Information @Innovative products for babies with special needs is boosting market growth:Lactose intolerance, allergy to cows protein milk, maple syrup urine disease, phenylketonuria, and insulin resistance are some of the most common health complications faced by infants and children. These children require special nutrition, which can be provided by nutritional products. Mead Johnson Nutrition (acquired by Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc) developed a separate category of products specifically designed for children suffering from such diseases. These products include Mead Johnson BCAD, for children suffering from maple syrup urine disease and Mead Johnson PhenylFree, for children suffering from phenylketonuria. Other players such as Nestle S.A. and Abbott Laboratories also sell product for children with special needs. Increasing number of products to serve this special population coupled with increasing awareness about such diseases is expected to support growth of the global pediatric nutrition market. Furthermore, companies are focusing on development of products that may serve as nutrition enhancer or taste modifier, for the general population. Such products include ChocoMilk and Cal-C-Tose, which when added to milk enhance its nutritional value.Competitor Analysis:The key players operating in the global market of Pediatric Nutrition Market include,Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc ,Nestle S.A. ,Abbott Laboratories ,Groupe Danone ,Royal FrieslandCampina ,Baxter International Inc. ,Fresenius Kabi ,Braun Melsungen AGInquire Here Before Purchase Of This Research Report @Also, Coherent Market Insights has a proprietary database of pipeline biologics and biosimilars, called PHASE-XS. This database provides analytical data in addition to the clinical information of ongoing trials for biologics and biosimilars. An amalgamation of more than 30 parameters, PHASE-XS helps biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to analyze the market trend, competition, and market potential. For more information or to access this database, kindly click on the below link or contact at sales@coherentmarketinsights.comAbout Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com
Data Center Server : Market 2019 Huge Demand by Globally with Top Key Player  Dell, IBM, Fujitsu, Cisco, Lenovo, Oracle, Huawei, Inspur, Bull (Atos), Hitachi

Data Center Server

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The Data Center Server Market report aims to provide a complete 360-degree view of the market in terms of cutting-edge technology, key developments, drivers, restraints and future trends with impact analysis of these trends on the Market for short-term, mid-term and long-term during the forecast period. Further, the Data Center Server Market report also covers key players profiling with detailed SWOT analysis, financial facts and key developments of products/service from the past three years.Get Sample PDF Copy AtThe global market size of Data Center Server is $XX million in 2017 with XX CAGR from 2013 to 2017, and it is expected to reach $XX million by the end of 2023 with a CAGR of XX% from 2018 to 2023.There are 3 key segments covered in this report: geography segment, end use/application segment and competitor segment.For geography segment, regional supply, application-wise and type-wise demand, major players, price is presented from 2013 to 2023. This report coverss following regions:*North America*South America*Asia & Pacific*Europe*MEA (Middle East and Africa)Get Sample PDF Copy@The key countries in each region are taken into consideration as well, such as United States, China, Japan, India, Korea, ASEAN, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, CIS, and Brazil etc.For end use/application segment, this report focuses on the status and outlook for key applications. End users also can be listed.For competitor segment, the report includes global key players of Data Center Server as well as some small players. The compnaies include:Dell, IBM, Fujitsu, Cisco, Lenovo, Oracle, Huawei, Inspur, Bull (Atos), Hitachi, NEC, SGI, Supermicro et al.The information for each competitor includes:*Company Profile*Main Business Information*SWOT Analysis*Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin*Market ShareWe also can offer customized report to fulfill special requirements of our clients.Buy Now@About Us:Research Reports Inc. is one of the leading destinations for market research reports across all industries, companies, and technologies. Our repository features an exhaustive list of market research reports from thousands of publishers worldwide.US / Canada Toll Free: +18554192424, UK :+4403308087757 | Email: info@researchreportsinc.com
Artificial Organ & Bionics Market Overview by Technological Growth, Market Share, CAGR Analysis and Top Key Companys  Abiomed, Asahi Kasei Kuraray Medical, Thoratec, WorldHeart, Gambro AB | Global Forecast to 2023

Artificial Organ & Bionics Market

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A fresh report has been added to the wide database of Business Industry Reports. The research study is titled Artificial Organ & Bionics Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 which provides important data about the production, consumption, revenue and company profiles for key industry participants.Global Artificial Organ & Bionics Market Synopsis:According to Market Analyst, The Global Artificial Organ & Bionics Market is expected to grow at an impressive Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2019 to 2023.If you want to know more about Artificial Organ & Bionics, Get Sample Copy of Report @An artificial organ is a device which is man-made and is integrated or implanted into the human in order to restore target function via the replacement of a natural organ. The application and study of electronics and mechanics for replacing a limb or mechanically powered part of a functional organ is termed as medical bionics. Due to the rapid development in the field of biomedical science, organ transplantation has evolved as a common practice.According to Report, Increasing prevalence of acute renal failure and renal disorders due to lifestyle habits such as excessive alcohol consumption and growing geriatric population base causing a rise in organ failure rates is expected to serve this market as a high impact rendering driver.Global Artificial Organ & Bionics Market has been segmented on the Basis of Product Type, Application and Region. On the Basis of Product Type, Market can be sub segmented into Mechanical Bionics and Electronic Bionics. In the Application segment, Market further sub segmented into Hospital, Clinic, Others.This report focuses on Artificial Organ & Bionics volume and value at the global level, regional level and company level. From a global perspective, this report represents the overall Artificial Organ & Bionics market size by analyzing historical data and future prospect. At the company level, this report focuses on the production capacity, ex-factory price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer covered in this report.Complete report on Artificial Organ & Bionics Market spread across 125 Pages and No. of Table of contents. Buy Research @The Market is segmented and projected on the basis of major key players:1 Abiomed2 Asahi Kasei Kuraray Medical3 Thoratec4 WorldHeart5 Gambro ABMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers:1 United States2 China3 Europe4 Japan5 Southeast Asia6 IndiaRequest a Discount on standard prices of this premium report @Key Questions Answered in this Report:1 Which would be global Artificial Organ & Bionics market opportunities and restraints with producers in the industry?2 What all segmentations covered?3 Which will be the Artificial Organ & Bionics trending variables currently impacting the market shares?4 What will be the global Artificial Organ & Bionics market size in 2023?5 Who will be the top vendors in Artificial Organ & Bionics market?6 Whats going to be the growth speed?7 Which will be the significant Artificial Organ & Bionics market trends?8 Which industry regions are currently affecting on Artificial Organ & Bionics markets development?TABLE OF CONTENTSGlobal Artificial Organ & Bionics Sales Market Report 20191 Artificial Organ & Bionics Market Overview2 Global Artificial Organ & Bionics Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application3 United States Artificial Organ & Bionics (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4 China Artificial Organ & Bionics (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5 Europe Artificial Organ & Bionics (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6 Japan Artificial Organ & Bionics (Volume, Value and Sales Price)7 Southeast Asia Artificial Organ & Bionics (Volume, Value and Sales Price)8 India Artificial Organ & Bionics (Volume, Value and Sales Price)9 Global Artificial Organ & Bionics Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data10 Artificial Organ & Bionics Maufacturing Cost Analysis11 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers12 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Global Artificial Organ & Bionics Market Forecast (2019-2023)15 Research Findings and Conclusion16 AppendixAbout usBusinessindustryReports.com is digital database of comprehensive market reports for global industries. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Media ContactBusiness Industry ReportsPune  Indiasales@businessindustryreports.com+19376349940
Accounting Software Market 2019 Industry Players: INTUIT, SAGE SOFTWARE, SAP SE, ORACLE, MICROSOFT, INFOR, EPICOR SOFTWARE, UNIT4 BUSINESS SOFTWARE LIMITED, XERO, RED WING SOFTWARE, ACUMATICA

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The scope of the report is limited to software offered by various vendors. The regions considered in the scope of the report include North America, Europe, and others. The study emphasizes on the method of installation of the software, both cloud-based and on-premise methods. Several factors, such as increasing efficiency by adopting these software, are also discussed in this report.Detailed Sample Copy of Updated Analysis @Key Developments in the Market June 2017 - Oracle announced the launch of Oracle Monetization Cloud. The new cloud service stimulates the time to market digital and subscription-based products and services, by enabling the full life cycle of the customer onboarding, creating offer, robust rating and discounting, billing, customized invoicing, and reporting. May 2017 - EasemyGST and Microsoft India announced a strategic alliance to enable customers to comply with GST. Through this alliance, customers will get a simple and affordable platform to ease their GST requirements. EasemyGST is a cloud-based comprehensive GST compliance platform that integrates with ERP, accounting systems, and spreadsheets, with the enterprise on one end and GSTN on the other end. This partnership is expected to push other global companies to form such partnerships with Indian firms, for the launch of GST compliance solutions.Major Players:INTUIT INC., SAGE SOFTWARE INC., SAP SE, ORACLE CORPORATION (NETSUITE), MICROSOFT CORPORATION, INFOR INC., EPICOR SOFTWARE CORPORATION, UNIT4 BUSINESS SOFTWARE LIMITED, XERO LTD., RED WING SOFTWARE, ACUMATICA INC., OPEN SYSTEMS INC., ZOHO CORP, MYOB LTD., ACCLIVITY GROUP LLC, YONYOU NETWORK TECHNOLOGY CO. LTD., DELTEK INC., AND SYSPRO IMPACT SOFTWARE, INC., amongst others.Over the past two decades, the financial and accounting software solution market has witnessed numerous changes. One of the biggest changes is the cloud-based offering of accounting software solutions. A recent survey indicates that among the enterprises planning to opt for enterprise resource planning solutions, more than 50% of them are expected to choose cloud as their deployment mode. Agility, lower startup cost, and faster deployment are the major benefits of cloud-based solutions. Additionally, the advent of digital commerce and technological advancements, like integration with other online applications, such as automated bank feeds, automated billing features, etc., are expected drive the accounting software market over the forecast period.Increased Efficiency using Accounting Software to Drive the Markets GrowthAccounting software increases efficiency, as it is used to keep track of accounting transactions, or to manage the money flowing in and out of business. It has emerged as a better solution for managing the accounts of a business, as it can easily manage account payables, account receivables, business payroll, general ledger, and other business modules. Moreover, features that ensure accurate financials of the company, such as time-saving, cost-effective operation and higher overall productivity, are expected to drive the demand. In addition, these factors make this software more deployable for small businesses.Request Discount on this report @Cloud Installation Poised to Witness the Highest GrowthCloud accounting services, both online accessible and via software, are becoming lucrative options for small and medium business owners, as cloud-based offerings address the typical problems related to traditional accounting software. Single user access has been ineffective, when it comes to sharing access to financial and customer details within a team. In addition, customer support for a specific accounting software product is very slow and this affects the accounting requirements of companies. Moreover, over the last three decades, several changes have been observed in financial and accounting software solutions, such as SaaS-based and cloud-based accounting software solutions. These changes are expected to strengthen the demand for cloud-based software.Asia-Pacific to Witness the Highest GrowthThe growth of the Asia-Pacific business accounting software market can be attributed to factors, such as rising penetration of business accounting mobile applications and higher adoption of modern technologies in the region. Moreover, factors, such as the emergence of small businesses and growing investment in the business sector are likely to bolster the growth of the market. In India, where the country has switched to a GST scheme since July 2017, the demand for accounting software is expected to increase. In addition, the growth in the deployment of cloud technology in the region is further expected to drive the regional accounting software market.Enquiry Before Buying @About Market PrognosisWe at Market Prognosis believe in giving a crystal clear view of market dynamics for achieving success in todays complex and competitive marketplace through our quantitative & qualitative research methods.We help our clients identify the best market insights and analysis required for their business thus enabling them to take strategic and intelligent decision.We believe in delivering actionable insights for your business growth and success.Contact us:ProgMark Pvt Ltd,Thane - 421501India.Contact No: +1 973 241 5193Email: sales@marketprognosis.com
Cloud Computing in Healthcare - Thematic Research | Avizia, Biop Medical, Doctome, Medtronic, Merck, Novartis, Stanley Healthcare, Verge Health etc

Cloud Computing in Healthcare Market

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Cloud computing (including IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, private, and hybrid cloud services, managed cloud services and cloud management platforms) accounted for 7.6% of a global information and communications technology (ICT) market that was worth $3 trillion in 2017, according to Publisher. While the global ICT market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1% between 2018 and 2022, cloud computing revenues, which passed $233B in 2017, are growing at more than 25%. In theory, the entire IT market could shift to the cloud, so the disruption yet to be unleashed onto the global software and IT services sector is likely to be substantial.In recent years, investing in cloud computing technology has become an increased priority for healthcare organizations and networks. However, there is still inertia to overcome due to data security and privacy concerns, infrastructure availability, regulatory compliance worries, and a lack of the staff skills required to manage and maintain the technology.Download a Sample Copy @Understanding and adopting a cloud-based model can be beneficial for healthcare, as cloud solutions offer flexibility, scalability, back-up options, and remote access to services and information. They also make sure crucial structures are still running in case of a single-point failure, and they make system recovery a lot easier and faster.Key Highlights:- Develop and design your corporate strategies through an in-house expert analysis of the key cloud computing technologies impacting the healthcare industry.- Develop business strategies by understanding the key cloud computing technologies being used in the healthcare industry.- Stay up to date on the industry's big players in the cloud computing industry and where they sit in the value chain.- Identify emerging industry trends in cloud computing technologies to gain a competitive advantage.Scope:- This report provides in-house analyst expertise on the applications of cloud computing in healthcare and identifies the winners in cloud professional services. Components of the report include -- Key Players: identify the big players in the cloud computing industry and where they sit in the value chain.- Trends in the Cloud Computing Industry: key trends driving the cloud computing industry classified by tech trends and healthcare trends.- Industry Analysis: analysis of the impact of cloud computing in the healthcare industry.- Impact of Cloud Computing in Healthcare: identify key cloud computing applications in the healthcare industry including case studies demonstrating how healthcare companies are using cloud computing for improved outcomes.- Value Chain: identify the three key cloud computing applications driving growth in the cloud computing industry, highlighting the leaders in each category.Get Discount for this report:Reasons to buy:- Develop and design your corporate strategies through an in-house expert analysis of the key cloud computing technologies impacting the healthcare industry.- Develop business strategies by understanding the key cloud computing technologies being used in the healthcare industry.- Stay up to date on the industry's big players in the cloud computing industry and where they sit in the value chain.- Identify emerging industry trends in cloud computing technologies to gain a competitive advantage.Buy 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:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.com
Australian Consumer Credit-Forecasts and Future Opportunities 2018 | Society One, National Australia Bank, ANZ, Macquarie, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac, Ratesetter, SocietyOne, Afterpay, etc

Australian Consumer Credit Market

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Australia's overheating property market gradually lost steam in 2018 due to investors feeling jittery along with foreign capital outflows. Although falling property prices are good news for Australian buyers who have been priced out over the past few years, the current economic environment is pushing the market on the defensive. Business confidence is falling, influenced by uncertain ties in the greater global economic atmosphere. While this has not yet affected consumer confidence, the pressure will certainly be felt in the near term. With this in mind the next few years will be challenging for the Australian lending market.Australian Consumer Credit Market research report is being presented with a motive to enrich readers by offering an extensive and explicit analysis of Australian Consumer Credit industry. The report covers each characteristic of the Australian Consumer Credit industry including market growth.Top Key Players: Society One, National Australia Bank, ANZ, Macquarie, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac, Ratesetter, SocietyOne, Afterpay, Kogan, Temple & Webster, Latitude Finance.Get Sample Copy of this Report atSpecifically the report explores--Specialist loan providers are rapidly increasing their market share at the expense of established authorized deposit-taking institutions, recording a compound annual growth rate of 7.9% between June 2010 and June 2017.-Business confidence has sharply decreased since Q2 2018. While consumer sentiment is still on the up, declining business confidence will affect consumers over the near term, which in turn will tighten up consumer consumption.-Strong growth figures from the P2P sector mask the fundamental problem of low consumer awareness, despite high levels of online research. The small digital marketing budgets of P2P lenders relative to established banks and specialist finance lenders will likely hamper their growth prospects.Scope-How the personal lending market faired in the previous year and what the future will hold.-Factors that will affect the personal lending market.-Net changes in market share across product areas.Get discount on Purchase report @Reasons to buy-Which factors will impact the supply of lending--Which factors will affect consumer demand for credit--Which sectors offer the best prospects and opportunities for expansion over the next few years.Table of Contents:EXECUTIVE SUMMARY1.1. Market summary1.2. Key findings1.3. Critical success factorsOVERVIEW2.1. Personal lending balances decreased in 20182.2. Macroeconomic disparities across Australia's states have led to debt concentration increasingOUTLOOK FOR 2018 AND BEYOND3.1. Total fixed and revolving credit loans will reach A$164.7bn by 20223.2. Demand for credit will slowAPPENDIX4.1. Abbreviations and acronyms4.2. Supplementary data4.3. Definitions4.4. Methodology4.5. BibliographyPurchase a Copy of Report atAbout UsReportsWeb 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.The market research industry has changed in last decade. As corporate focus has shifted to niche markets and emerging countries, a number of publishers have stepped in to fulfil these information needs. We have experienced and trained staff that helps you navigate different options and lets you choose best research solution at most effective cost.Contact UsPhone : +1-646-491-9876E-Mail : sales@reportsweb.com
Increasing Demand for Bio-based Raw Materials Owing to Growing Environmental Concerns to Drive Demand for Methyl Ester Sulfonates

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Persistence Market Research, in its latest report titled Methyl Ester Sulfonate Market: Global Industry Analysis 20132017 and Forecast 20182026, provides decisive information on the global methyl ester sulfonate market and offers extensive information through structured market research. The report evaluates the methyl ester sulfonate market and estimates the upcoming market scenario on the basis of form, application and region. As per the insights presented in the report, the powder form of methyl ester sulfonates is estimated to account for relatively high consumption (>50%) throughout the forecast period. The global methyl ester sulfonate market was pegged at US$ 807.3 Mn, in terms of value, at the end of 2017 and is expected to reach US$ 2,199.6 Mn by the end of 2026, with a significant CAGR of 11.8%.Increasing Demand for Bio-based Raw Materials Owing to Growing Environmental Concerns to Drive Demand for Methyl Ester SulfonatesRising environmental concerns and increasing number of regulations have been surging the demand for bio-based raw materials from end-use industries for a variety of applications, such as laundry, personal care and cosmetics, among others. The growing demand for bio-biased raw materials is expected to boost the demand for methyl ester sulfonates, owing to their renewable nature and easy availability. Substantial characteristics such as high detergency in hard water conditions, readily biodegradable nature and low toxicity give methyl ester sulfonates an advantage over their traditional rival surfactant, linear alkylbenzene.Request for Report Sample@Population growth and rapidly increasing urbanization in emerging economies are expected to positively impact the methyl ester sulfonate market. The rising spending capacity of the middle class population towards laundry care and personal care products such as soap, shampoo and detergent, owing to the changing lifestyle and increasing awareness regarding personal hygiene are expected to boost the growth of the methyl ester sulfonate market. Also, the changing trend of using public laundries is expected to create substantial opportunities for bio-detergents, which is expected to positively impact the methyl ester sulfonate market. The increasing consumption of dish wash from household and commercial kitchen cleaning activities is another key factor contributing to the growth of the methyl ester sulfonate market.Manufacturers of methyl ester sulfonate have been facing problems, such as application technique and manufacturing control ability, which hinder the production of methyl ester sulfonate. Also, methyl ester sulfonate exhibits instability during different chemical conditions. This, coupled with low product awareness among consumers, has been restraining the growth of the methyl ester sulfonate market to an extent.Powder Form of Methyl Ester Sulfonates to Witness Strong Demand Owing to Superior Chemical and Physical PropertiesMethyl ester sulfonates are available in the form of powder, liquid and flakes in the commercial market around the world. Attributing to its unstable nature in certain chemical and physical conditions, the liquid form of methyl ester sulfonates has been witnessing low demand. On the other hand, the flakes form of methyl ester sulfonates is expected to witness a rise in demand, due to its relatively low price range as compared to the other forms. The powder form of methyl ester sulfonates is expected to hold the prominent share, owing to increasing demand from the detergent industry.APEJ to Witness Lucrative Growth Owing to Increasing Demand for Powder Detergents and Easy Availability of Raw MaterialsAsia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) is a prominent region for the cultivation of palm oil, which is an important raw material for the synthesis of methyl ester sulfonate. Further, there is an increasing demand for bio-detergents in countries such as China and India, and thus, the APEJ region is estimated to be a prominent market for methyl ester sulfonates. In matured economies such as North America and Europe, the demand for methyl ester sulfonates is expected to slow down slightly, owing to the shifting trend towards the use of liquid detergents. Despite this slowdown, North America and Europe are estimated to be promising markets for methyl ester sulfonates, owing to the surging demand for bio-detergents in these regions. The increasing penetration of washing machines in developing countries, growing urban population and increasing spending capacity on laundry and personal care products due to the rising awareness regarding personal hygiene are some of the factors that make LAMEA a potential market for methyl ester sulfonates.Request for Report Table of Content (TOC) @Methyl Ester Sulfonate Market: Competition OutlookSome of the players listed in the analysis of the global methyl ester sulfonate market include Chemithon Corporation, Wilmar International Ltd., Stepan Company, Lion Corporation and Henan Surface Chemical Industry Co Ltd, among others.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: sumit@tmr.comWeb:
Molded Plastic Market 2025: In-depth Growth Predictions, Application Scope, Latest Developments, and 2025 Forecast | Top Players: Eastman Chemical Company, SABIC, Huntsman Corporation, Lyondell Basell Industries N.V.

Molded Plastic Market

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This Global Molded Plastic report 2025 focus on global and regional market, providing information on major players like manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, traders, customers, investors and etc., major types, major applications from global and major regions such as Europe, North America, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and etc. Data type include capacity, production, market share, price, revenue, cost, gross, gross margin, growth rate, consumption, import, export and etc. Industry chain, manufacturing process, cost structure, marketing channel are also analyzed in this report.Major Players operating in market: This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering: Eastman Chemical Company, SABIC, Huntsman Corporation, LyondellBasell Industries N.V., INEOS Group AG, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, Reliance Industries Limited, Obeikan Investment Group (OIG), Takween Advanced Industries and BASF SE.Get Sample Report Here @:The increase adoption of light weight plastics in various industries is the major factor propelling the growth of molded plastics market. Moreover, the growth in the pharmaceutical industry has further surged the demand for molded plastics due to the increased use in packaging of liquid drugs and medical devices.The Molded plastic market is expected to register a CAGR of 6.1% over the forecast period (2017-2025) to reach US$ 217566 Million by 2025.Market Report by Product type (Polyvinyl chloride, Polypropylene, Polystyrene, Low density polyethylene, High density polyethylene, Polyethylene Terephthalate, and Engineering Plastic)On the basis of product type, molded polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the largest segment. It is a polyester resin used primarily for manufacturing of jars and blow molded bottles. The properties such as durability, corrosion resistance, and transparency makes it an efficient choice in packaging of pharmaceuticals products, Chemical products, beverages, and cosmetics.By Technology Type (Injection molding, Blow molding, Compression molding, Rotational molding, and Others)On the basis of technology, injection molding technology dominates the market and is expected to retain its position over the forecast period. Injection molding is extensively used for manufacturing a variety of components such as automotive parts, bottle caps, packaging, storage containers, mechanical parts, and wire spools. Low maintenance cost, low consumption of energy, and high accuracy are some of the properties offered by injection molding process, which in turn contribute to growth of the injection molding plastic segment.By End-use industry (Building and Construction, Electrical and Electronics, Automotive, Packaging, and Others)On the basis of end-use industry, packaging segment is expected to lead the market during the forecast years. The high tensile strength, greater design flexibility, and low weight has increased the demand for molded plastic in the packaging industry.What will you find in this Molded Plastic 2025 Report? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What will the market size be in 2025 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Table of Contents:*If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Place an Inquire before Purchase:About WMRWorldwide Market Reports is your one-stop repository of detailed and in-depth market research reports compiled by an extensive list of publishers from across the globe. We offer reports across virtually all domains and an exhaustive list of sub-domains under the sun. The in-depth market analysis by some of the most vastly experienced analysts provide our diverse range of clients from across all industries with vital decision making insights to plan and align their market strategies in line with current market trends. Worldwide Market Researchs well-researched inputs that encompass domains ranging from IT to healthcare enable our prized clients to capitalize upon key growth opportunities and shield against credible threats prevalent in the market in the current scenario and those expected in the near future.Contact Us:Mr. ShahWorldwide Market Reports1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154,U.STel: +1 415 871 0703Email:sales@worldwidemarketreports.comWEBSITE :
Water and Waste Management Consulting Services Market 2026 is Worth Growing across the World | AECOM, Arcadis NV, Stantec Inc. ,Tetra Tech Inc. , WorleyParsons Ltd.

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The demand for Water and Waste Management Consulting Services in the global market has increased due to the growing awareness of the depletion of water supplies and waste overload around the world. Several organizations and international campaigns have focused on educating and informing people about the need to conserve water and recycle their waste. Recently, several parts of Africa have suffered from severe water scarcity, forcing many international organizations to develop exploitable water management systems.It is safe to assume that the efforts of the UN and other recognized organizations to promote Water and Waste Management around the world would have a positive impact on the global market. In addition, despite abundant water resources in many areas, drinking water sources are still scarce in these areas. This has led governments and others to deploy Water and Waste Management resources in recent times. Which has raised the demand for Water and Waste Management Consulting ServicesGet Sample copy of this Report @:Companies Profiled in this Report includes,AECOMArcadis NVStantec Inc.Tetra Tech Inc.WorleyParsons Ltd.It is a comprehensive source of information of various aspects of businesses such as market size, growth, and shares. This research report further finds some important market segments such as application and types.Different leading industries have been described to get a clear thoughtful of effective plans from top-level companies. Geographically, many global areas such as North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and India have been scrutinized on the basis of output and investments. The analysts of this research report focus on different dynamic features of the market such as market needs and market value at the present time.Technological developments and current trends have been explained to get a clear information about various application platforms in the industries. Besides, it includes facts and figures about some significant financial terms which will help in understanding the growing financial state. The main key points are recorded in this analytical report which is responsible for driving the market. Apart from this, it gives focus on preventive influences which helps to know the risks and threat in front of the businesses. It studies various current market approach and the prediction of future growth has been mentioned clearly.Access complete Report @:Major Factors: Global Water and Waste Management Consulting Services Market Overview Economic Impact on Water and Waste Management Consulting Services Market Water and Waste Management Consulting Services Market Competition Global Water and Waste Management Consulting Services Market Analysis by Application Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders Global Water and Waste Management Consulting Services Market Effect, Factors, Analysis Global Water and Waste Management Consulting Services Market ForecastGet up to 20% Discount on This Premium Research Report now @:About usThe Research Insights  A global leader in analytics, research and advisory that can assist you to renovate your business and modify your approach. With us, you will learn to take decisions intrepidly. We make sense of drawbacks, opportunities, circumstances, estimations and information using our experienced skills and verified methodologies. Our research reports will give you an exceptional experience of innovative solutions and outcomes. We have effectively steered businesses all over the world with our market research reports and are outstandingly positioned to lead digital transformations. Thus, we craft greater value for clients by presenting advanced opportunities in the global market.Contact usRobinSales managerContact number: +91-996-067-0000sales@theresearchinsights.com
Digital Transformation Consulting Service Market Competitive Analysis 2026: A.T. Kearney Inc., Accenture PLC, Delloite, Bain & Company, Ernst & Young Ltd.

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This report provides a detailed and analytical look at the various companies that are working to achieve a high market share in the global Digital Transformation Consulting Service market. Data is provided for the top and fastest growing segments. This report implements a balanced mix of primary and secondary research methodologies for analysis. Markets are categorized according to key criteria. To this end, the report includes a section dedicated to the company profile.This report will help you identify your needs, discover problem areas, discover better opportunities, and help all your organization's primary leadership processes. You can ensure the performance of your public relations efforts and monitor customer objections to stay one step ahead and limit losses.Various factors contribute to the growth of the market, which is fully studied in the report. This report also lists the constraints that are threatening the global Digital Transformation Consulting Service market.Get sample copy of this report @Top key players are including in this report: A.T. Kearney Inc., Accenture PLC, Delloite, Bain & Company, Ernst & Young Ltd., KPMG, McKinsey & Company, Mercer LLC, The Boston Consulting Group, PWC etc.Objectives of global Digital Transformation Consulting Service Market:1. To provide a regional analysis of the Digital Transformation Consulting Service market based on different countries.2. To provide national level analysis based on a number of market segments such as applications and categories.3. To provide an analysis of various influencing factors such as drivers, trends, limitations.4. It provides systematic ways to increase global customers quickly.5. To analyze the global Digital Transformation Consulting Service is based on Porter's annual analysis and SWOT.The report also assesses delicate market issues such as drivers, restraints and opportunities, along with the impact on market growth. The report also reveals current industry trends and opportunities analysis of the Digital Transformation Consulting Service market.Get discount copy of this report @Six major regions around the world were evaluated in this report. The progress of each of these countries and regions in India, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, China and North America has been examined based on quotas, prices, local consumption, exports, imports and local supplies. This report also provides a basic overview of all geographic locations.With the advancement of digital technology and the continued development of cognitive science and computer science, the market is rapidly expanding. Perhaps the cost of making a product is higher and the profitability is less obvious, which is a major inhibitor of market development.If you have any query, Ask our experts:Major Factors: Global Digital Transformation Consulting Service Market Overview Economic Impact on Market Market Competition Global Digital Transformation Consulting Service Market Analysis by Application Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders Global Digital Transformation Consulting Service Market Effect, Factors, Analysis Global Digital Transformation Consulting Service Market ForecastAbout Us:We at, QYReports, a leading market research report published accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers includes prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SMEs and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into the analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Contact Us:QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.com
Photo taken on March 6, 2019 shows the Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 4MATIC at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland. [Photo/Xinhua]

The 89th Geneva International Motor Show (GIMS) was officially open to the public on Thursday, where electric cars have continued to take the lead as almost a consensus by many auto makers for the future development of the industry.

As the first annual European car show, GIMS is known as a vane of the automotive industry. At this year's show, this vane clearly points to electrification. Nearly half of the 150 world and European premieres launched at the show were pure electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid vehicles. The world's major automakers, such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, all unveiled their electric or hybrid models at the center of their stage.

Photo taken on March 6, 2019 shows the Audi Q4 e-tron concept at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland. [Photo/Xinhua]

For the past few years Audi has shown its ambitions in the field of electric vehicles. Following the launch of the all-electric model e-tron quattro at GIMS last year, it brought this time the world premiere of the brand new pure electric concept model Q4 e-tron. A compact SUV, the Q4 has an amazing cruising range of 450 km and is expected to be put into mass production by the end of 2020.

Besides the Q4, Audi also unveiled four pure electric models and four plug-in hybrids, saying that the company will fully expand its electrification strategy by launching 12 electric models for major global markets by 2025, when its electric vehicles are expected to account for one third of its global sales.

Photo taken on March 6, 2019 shows the Volkswagen all-electric ID.Buggy concept at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland. [Photo/Xinhua]

Volkswagen also introduced its all-terrain electric concept model ID.BUGGY, which eliminates the design of canopy and doors and is made of waterproof material. The new model chooses to integrate a high-voltage battery pack into the bottom of the car, resulting in a cruising range of up to 250 km even when challenging various terrain conditions. Volkswagen said it plans to launch 10 electric models in total by 2025.

Mercedes-Benz has taken a different approach by selecting various subdivided markets. Its new EQV concept car, one of the world's premieres at this year's auto show, is defined as the first pure electric MPV in luxury cars. It has a cruising range of up to 400 km and can travel 100 km with just 15 minutes of charging.

Meanwhile, Benz also launched the first pure electric racing model, the EQ Silver Arrow 01's. The auto giant said it's investing 10 billion euros (about 11.26 billion U.S. dollars) in developing electric vehicles and building a new global battery production network.

This year's GMIS saw the BMW launching six world's premiere plug-in hybrids, including the hybrid xDrive45e of the X5 series. BMW CEO Harald Kruger said by the end of next year, BMW will have launched more than 10 new and upgraded electric models, while as the same time providing convenient charging services for consumers around the world.

Photo taken on March 6, 2019 shows the all-electric Polestar 2 at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland. [Photo/Xinhua]

Although Volvo did not set up a stage at the auto show, the group's sub-brand Polestar launched its first pure electric car Polestar 2. As a high-performance electric brand owned by Volvo, Polestar was founded in 2017 and released the hybrid Polestar 1 at GIMS last year. Polestar 2 will begin mass production during the second half of 2019 and is expected to cooperate with Chinese companies such as AutoNavi and iFlytek in the future when entering the Chinese market.

Analysts believe that major automakers have all launched their strategies for electric vehicles, which is somehow related to the new auto emission reduction regulations among EU countries. The European Parliament and EU countries reached an agreement in December last year that aims to reduce by 2030 the CO2 emissions of new cars in the EU by 37.5 percent compared with 2021.
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission on Thursday voted to accept an investigators recommendation that Clackamas County Commission Chairman Jim Bernard violated state ethics rules when he used his government email account to urge two county officials to release information to his wife.

The board voted 7-1 to accept ethics investigator Hayley Weedns recommendation.

The panel, however, offered a mixed response to Weedns other recommendations.

The investigator found that Bernard has failed to declare a conflict of interest during an executive session when the county commission discussed a matter involving his wife. In a 7-1 vote, the ethics commission voted to dismiss that recommendation.

The ethics investigation voted 5-3 to issue a letter of education to Bernard related to an email he sent from his personal account to a fellow county commissioner. That email also pertained to his wifes request.

In an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive after the ethics commission meeting, Bernard said he was grateful to the commission for the chance to address the violations.

I found the session to be a valuable learning opportunity and take responsibility for my words, he said. I also understand their decision, will be more careful to be clear when I send emails and will think twice before I press send.

The panel on Thursday did not settle on sanctions for the violation.

Last year, the ethics commission opened an investigation into Bernard after the former county treasurer lodged a number of nepotism-related claims involving Bernards involvement in matters tied to his wifes employment. Bernards wife, Danielle Cowan, is the executive director of Clackamas County Tourism and Cultural Affairs.

An ethics investigator didnt find sufficient evidence to support some of allegations, but she recommended that the commission find that Bernard violated a state law prohibiting public officials from using their positions for financial gain.

According to ethics commission records, Bernard sent an email to two county officials as Cowan threatened to sue the county alleging that false and defamatory statements had been made about her during the executive session in June 2017.

Cowan had sought a recording of the meeting. In limited circumstances, Oregon law allows public bodies to meet and deliberate in executive sessions that are closed to the public.

Using his government email account, Bernard urged a county lawyer and the county administrator to comply with his wifes request, saying his family comes first.

I will support my wife in anyway possible just as both of you would, he wrote, according to the investigative report. We have made huge effort to separate our relationship from work but in this circumstance family is number 1.

One of my rules  has been to keep us out of court and public scrutiny. That is why I think her lawyer should be given access to the file.

Weedn wrote that in Bernards email to county administrators, the commissioner admitted that in making his request he was putting the interests of his family first.

-- Noelle Crombie

503-276-7184

ncrombie@oregonian.com

@noellecrombie

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Vancouver police shot and killed a person in Hazel Dell on Thursday  the third fatal shooting involving a department officer in as many weeks.

Two Vancouver police detectives pulled over a man in a car around 1:40 p.m. in the 2500 block of Northeast 78th Street as part of a drug trafficking investigation, according to Kim Kapp, a police spokeswoman. The man had a gun, didnt comply with the detectives orders and at some point was shot by both detectives, Kapp said.

The man died at the scene.

She said she didnt know if the man fired at the detectives, who are members of the Vancouver Police Departments gang unit. Kapp described the man as a suspect in the investigation who is a documented gang member. She said she didnt know anymore details of the shooting and an investigation is ongoing.

The identities of the people involved havent yet been released by police.

Three people have been killed by Vancouver officers in shootings since last month.

Cpl. Roger Evans killed 16-year-old Clayton Joseph on Feb. 19 after police said Joseph didnt follow officers orders to drop a knife he was holding.

Officers Christopher Douville and Andrew Dunbar fatally shot 29-year-old Michael E. Pierce on Feb. 28 after police said Pierce displayed a gun while officers were responding to reports that he was pointing the firearm at passing drivers and pedestrians.

Vancouver police were also involved in another shooting in Portland on Feb. 5, where a shootout occurred on Interstates 205 and 84 between police and alleged suspects in a January killing in Kelso, Washington. Portland police said one Vancouver officer suffered apparent minor injuries and one of two men in the truck suffered serious injuries that werent gunshots. No other injuries were reported.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 |@EvertonBailey

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Shortly after Portland Police Officer Consider Vosu fatally shot Andre Gladen inside a Southeast Portland home in January, other officers quickly noticed that a knife near Gladens body closely resembled one that many officers carry.

Vosu was standing in the living room of the home with his gun drawn and pointed at a man lying on his back at the entry to the bedroom when Officer Justin Raphael arrived at the scene.

Raphael noticed a black dagger by Vosus feet, stuck vertically into the hardwood floor, according to the police investigation of the shooting released Thursday.

Its a dagger that I carry. Im super familiar with it, Raphael told an investigator. Its a Benchmade fixed blade dagger.

Less than three hours after the shooting, East Precinct Officer Josh Letter bluntly described the knife to an investigator. He and Raphael were among the first to respond to the scene.

When the investigator asked Letter if it was the kind of knife for whittling with or knife fighting, he responded, Basically its the knives we carry.

Police still decline to confirm that the knife Gladen dropped at the scene belonged to the officer who shot him, though the bureau recently banned officers from carrying exposed knives on their exterior vests.

Sources have told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the knife was Vosus.

PPB does not have definitive information at this time to answer that question, said bureau spokeswoman Lt. Tina Jones. We are hoping to ascertain that information once the grand jury transcripts are released.

When a forensic criminalist was photographing Vosu and his gear about an hour after the shooting, two lead homicide detectives noticed that a knife sheath attached to Vosus external vest carrier appeared empty, according to their reports.

Police obtained what they call Touch DNA swabs from the knifes handle but didnt include the lab results in 194 pages of investigative reports.

A grand jury last month found no criminal wrongdoing in the Jan. 6 shooting of Gladen at the home. A tenant at the house at Southeast 96th Avenue and Madison Street had called police about 2 p.m. when Gladen came to his door, began pounding on it and refused to leave. The tenant didnt know Gladen, a legally blind man with schizophrenia who appeared to be suffering a mental health crisis.

DOCUMENTS: Portland police investigative reports on Jan. 6 police shooting of Andre Gladen

The police reports dont include an interview with Vosu. Vosu declined to be interviewed by homicide detectives but was interviewed later by internal affairs investigators. He also testified before the grand jury. Vosus account will be released when the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office releases transcripts of the grand jury proceeding. A spokesman said there was no timetable when that would happen.

The police investigation revealed that Gladens cousin, Diamond Randolph, had called 911 earlier that day, about 7 a.m., and reported being afraid of Gladen, who had awakened her and was talking about the devil living in his house.

Randolph told police that Gladen left her apartment through the front door, then came back in through a window and left again before police arrived, the reports said.

She told police he had been drinking some Mikes Hard Lemonade and added marijuana to it.

Police released a photo of this knife on Jan. 8, 2019, saying it was recovered in the Southeast Portland home where an officer fatally shot Andre Gladen two days earlier. Sources said it belonged to Officer Consider Vosu, who shot Gladen. Police officials and prosecutors have declined to say if the knife belonged to the officer, now more than two months after the shooting.

The reports also reveal that Gladen suddenly got very agitated when Vosu responded to the Southeast Portland home of Desmond Pescaia, where Gladen had been sleeping on the front porch and banging on Pescaias door to come inside. After giving Gladen a glass of water and offering him money for a MAX train ride that he declined, Pescaia called 911 at 2:03 p.m. to report an unwanted subject.

When Vosu arrived, Pescaia said he grabbed a club-like tree branch he had and held it over Gladen on his front stoop.

Gladen became volatile, called the officer a "fake cop'' with a "fake badge,'' and looked to Pescaia to help him, adamant he wasnt going to be taken away by the officer, Pescaia told investigators.

His demeanor changed to the point where Im was supposed to be like a brother or best friend to him. Telling me I need to protect him cause hes not going with this fake-(expletive ) cop with a fake badge.

Vosu, standing at the bottom of the stairs leading to Gladens apartment, called for cover officers to help him and told Pescaia to put down the tree branch, saying hed take care of it and was calling for backup, Pescaia said.

But the shooting occurred before any other officers arrived.

Officer Justin Raphael describes the knife found at the shooting scene to a police investigator. "I'm super familiar with it. It's a Benchmade fixed blade dagger.''

Pescaia called 911 at 2:03 p.m., and by 2:20 p.m., shots were fired, according to reports.

Pescaia told police that Gladen had burst into his home once the officer arrived, and Vosu followed. Gladen fell onto his back in the living room, and Vosu and Pescaia struggled to get Gladen onto his stomach so the officer could handcuff him. Pescaia said he put his foot on Gladens neck at one point to try to hold him down for the officer.

But Gladen kicked Vosu off. Vosu ordered Gladen to stand back and fired his stun gun at Gladen.

Gladen went down but then got up, Pescaia said. Gladen kept trying to rush at the officer, who was in Pescaias back bedroom. Vosu ordered Gladen to stand down before firing three shots at Gladen, who was in the doorway of the bedroom when he was shot, Pescaia said.

Pescaia told police on the day of the shooting that he first saw Gladen drop a knife after he was shot with the Taser, but the next day, he clarified that he first saw the knife fall from Gladen after Vosu shot him with a handgun.

Pescaia also acknowledged that he picked up the knife after the police shooting, but said he placed it on the floor where he had found it. A day after the shooting, Pescaia also told investigators it was clear that Gladen had discoloration in his right eye.

Officer Josh Letter describes the knife he saw at the scene of the Jan. 6, 2019 police shooting to an investigator: "Basically it's the knives that we carry.''

Officers who responded handcuffed Gladen and applied pressure to his wounds before ambulance medics arrived. The police reports indicate Gladen was revived by medics at the scene and then rushed to OHSU Hospital, where they continued CPR on him as he was wheeled into the emergency department. Gladen was declared dead about 3 p.m.

Two of the three shots hit Gladen in the left side of his chest. The wounds perforated his left lung, and one of the bullets exited his back. The other was recovered in the soft tissue of his back. He also had numerous abrasions to and scratches on his torso, abdomen, forearms, elbow and knees, according to an autopsy report.

Gladen was wearing a medical-type bracelet on his wrist with his name on it when he arrived at OHSU Hospital. He also had been wearing a white T-shirt that had been cut away, gray Levi jeans, one shoe and two socks, and a hospital gown.

He was positively identified the next day through fingerprints taken at his autopsy.

Vosu was led out of the home after the shooting by another officer and waited in a police car until an attorney arrived. When asked by Portland detectives if hed agree to give them a briefing on-scene or an interview, he declined.

At this time, I respectfully invoke my constitutional rights, including but not limited to my Fifth Amendment right to remain silent and my Sixth Amendment right to counsel,  he said.

Vosu was interviewed by an internal affairs investigator within 48 hours, according to police, and later testified before a grand jury. His account is not included in the police criminal investigative reports, which are separated from the ongoing internal administrative police inquiry into the shooting. Forensic photos of injuries Vosu suffered were taken days later, including injuries to his right hand, right leg and lower back, according to police reports.

The day of the shooting, police seized his handgun and found it was missing three rounds. Three bullet casings were found beside the bed inside Pescaias bedroom, and one bullet was found near the doorway between the bedroom and living room. Bullet holes were found in furniture and a wall of Pescaias living room.

If I did not move that inch and a half away at the time that bullet wouldve gone through me, Pescaia said about one of Vosus shots.

Pescaias landlady had recommended Pescaia call 911 that afternoon.

Lidiya Omelchenko told police she urged police be called, saying police will be (of) more help, and would know what to do.

I dont know what I could have done for him to save his life but for him to die like that, that was , Pescaia told a detective, trailing off and crying. Its not my faultI just feel like there was more I could do, but I dont know.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

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A woman who allegedly brought her dog along to steal a truck and then led police on a chase in Clackamas County ended up in the Willamette River, police said Friday.

Tualatin Police said they arrested Kyla Marie Byrd, 34, of Portland, after she swam from the truck she crashed into the river early Friday morning. Then, they said, they rescued her dog.

Police were responding to a 12:49 a.m. call about a suspicious woman knocking on a door when the caller told dispatch that the suspicious woman had stolen a truck from a neighbor, according to a release sent out by Tualatin Police.

A few minutes later, police located the stolen 2006 Ford F-250 on Southwest Stafford Rd. in Clackamas County.. The driver continued onto Interstate 205 north and did not stop when officers put on their lights and sirens, police said.

Police said they chased the truck down I-205 where it took exit 9 into Oregon City. There, the truck entered Jon Storm Park, which dead ends at a marina on the Willamette River.

According to the release, the truck then drove down an embankment and into the Willamette River. Once in the river, the driver got out of the car and began to swim.

She was taken into custody upon arriving at the marina dock, police said.

According to the release, that is when they discovered she wasnt alone in the truck. A dog was located in the truck, swimming in the air pocket left in cab.

Sergeant Nate Cooper, spokesperson for Tualatin Police, said over the phone Friday that officers rescued the dog and that the dog was evaluated by a veterinary clinic and seemed to be in good health.

I dont know whats going to happen to the dog, Cooper said, adding that police are planning to find placement for the dog while Byrd is in custody.

Byrd is currently booked at the Clackamas County Jail for unlawful use of a motor vehicle, felony elude and criminal mischief in the second degree.
A Vancouver police officer sat in the passenger seat of a speeding police car and used the dashboard to stabilize his AR-15 rifle as he shot through the front windshield at a fleeing truck carrying a suspected killer, spraying more than 40 rounds over several miles on Portland freeways.

The new details of the wild shootout that closed both Interstate 205 and Interstate 84 for hours Feb. 5 comes from officers familiar with the encounter.

The Vancouver officer, James Porter, began firing after someone in the pickup shot at his partner and him as they gave chase across the Washington border into Oregon, heading south on Interstate 205. Porter was serving as a field training officer that night, instructing a recruit, who had been on the job for less than a year. The recruit was behind the drivers wheel.

The chase hit speeds of up to 110 mph, according to sources familiar with the case but not authorized to talk about it publicly.

Firing through the windshield would initially shatter glass and deflect the first bullets but then most likely would bore a hole through the glass that would create an opening that after a few rounds would allow subsequent bullets to fly pretty straight, experts said.

The shootout between an occupant in the fleeing suspects truck and the Vancouver officer spanned more than six miles, as the truck turned west onto I-84 from I-205.

Porters car pulled over after it appeared Porter was hit in the face by flying debris. Other Vancouver police continued the chase.

Vancouver police performed a Pursuit Intervention Technique, or so-called PIT maneuver, to stop the dark pickup, ramming into a side of the truck with a police car on westbound I-84, near the Lloyd Center exit. One of the pickups occupants was ejected onto the road, and the pickup came to a rest against a concrete barrier along the shoulder of the westbound freeway lanes, its tires flattened.

Vancouver police were trying to arrest wanted suspect Erkinson K. Bossy, 23. Police say Bossy was involved in the Jan. 22 fatal shooting of a convenience store clerk in Kelso.

The officers were concerned that allowing the truck to get off the freeway could lead to the taking of a hostage or another violent situation, the sources said.

Under Vancouver police policy, an officer should fire at a moving vehicle or the people inside only when the officer reasonably believes there are no other means available to avert the threat of the vehicle, said Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp.

Portland police are leading the investigation of the shooting. Investigators found more than 40 casings from Porters rifle inside the Vancouver police car.

Its unclear if Bossy or another man in the pickup was shooting at police or how many times.

Porter, 28, was treated and released from Legacy Emanuel Medical Center the night of the shooting. He returned to patrol work on Feb. 21, Kapp said. Vancouver will do an independent investigation through its Professional Standards Division, she said.

The occupant of the pickup who was ejected suffered life-threatening injuries but was later said to be in stable condition at a local hospital. The other occupant was treated at a hospital for injuries that werent serious. Police did not disclose the nature of Bossys injuries, and still have not identified the second occupant of the truck.

Portland police spokeswoman Lt. Tina Jones said Thursday that the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office is reviewing the Portland police investigation.

The prosecutors office is waiting for the bureaus report and hasnt yet decided whether to present the case to a grand jury for review, according to Brent Weisberg, the office spokesman.

Grand juries typically review cases when a shooting by a police officer injures or kills someone, though the district attorney has discretion to determine that a review isnt warranted, according to the office policy.

The Vancouver officers shots didnt appear to wound Bossy. Its unclear if they hit anyone in the fleeing truck. Investigators havent indicated who was driving, or the name of another man who was in the truck at the time.

No one has been charged yet with shooting at Vancouver police.

Bossy remains in custody in Multnomah County on a fugitive warrant. Hes wanted in Cowlitz County on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and unlawful possession of a gun, court records indicate.

Two out-of-state police firearms trainers told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the tactics used by Vancouver police are warranted only in extreme circumstances.

An officer would have to consider the totality of circumstances, taking into account the traffic in the area, the officers line of sight and whos in the fleeing car, said Massad Ayoob, a Florida-based police firearms instructor who served for 19 years as chair of the Firearms Committee of the American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers.

When someone is shooting at police, that might require drastic measures, to stop the threat, he said.

Anyone who will shoot at a cop is dangerous enough to shoot at anybody. If the officer is under fire or he perceives the vehicle hes pursuing is in imminent danger of causing injury to others, hed be justified in shooting back, Ayoob said.

Retired Minnesota officer David Kisch called the encounter a no-win situation.

The officers duty is to stop the threat, said Kisch, who provides active shooter training to police.

When youve got people shooting at you when youre a cop, things have already gotten really bad, he said. As a police officer, you have to account for every bullet.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

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Kevin Downing retired from the Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality, where he ran the agency's Clean Diesel Initiative. He said the department backed away from a push for cleaner trucks in the face of a threat. Beth Nakamura/Staff
Oregon refuge occupier Jason Patrick on Thursday agreed to accept new conditions for his federal supervision to avoid heading back to prison.

U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown implored him to follow them: getting government-issued identification within 30 days, maintaining a job, filing an income tax return by April 15 and filling out monthly supervision sheets and ensuring theyre sent to and received by his probation officer.

If not, the judge warned Patrick, You wont be allowed to negotiate your way out of it again.

Patrick, now 46, was sentenced in February 2017 to one year and nine months in prison in the armed occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon. A jury convicted Patrick of conspiracy to impede federal workers through intimidation, threat or violence, a felony, and a judge convicted him of trespass, tampering with vehicles and equipment and destruction or removal of property, all misdemeanors.

At the time of his sentence, he had already served 16 months. He was released from prison March 30, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons. Most recently, he has been living in a trailer in Baker City.

He was arrested Feb. 27 on a warrant in Baker City, accused of violating his supervised release.

Brown said she issued the warrant because probation officer Brian Ring had tried a number of efforts to reach Patrick with no response.

In the past, prosecutors have argued that Patrick showed contempt for the court during hearings before his trial and at his trial. He repeatedly failed to carry any identification necessary to enter the courthouse and told Brown when he was late to court one day that he had no way to notify her and quipped that hed communicate via carrier pigeon in the future.

In court Thursday, Brown said it was Patricks responsibility to ensure that his written monthly supervision reports are delivered to his probation officer, and not by carrier pigeon.

I believe the U.S. mail works very well, Patrick responded.

He agreed to abide by the new conditions, saying, Yes, maam to all the judges admonitions.

Later Thursday, he explained why he doesnt carry government-issued IDs, such as a Social Security number or drivers license.

I have a strong religious objection to being numbered like a sign on my hand and a reminder on my forehead (Exodus 13:9) and most especially to any number that makes it where one could not buy or sell unless they had (Rev. 13:17) this number, he wrote to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

So what government ID will Patrick use?

The Federal Bureau of Prisons gave me an ID when I left and its still good, he said. I dont have that strong of an objection to carrying this because I didnt have to provide anything to get it.

Jason Patrick said he intends to use this government-issued ID to comply with one of the new conditions of his supervised release.

Patrick said among the problems during his early supervision was his probation officers rejection of Patricks job as a spiritual guidance counselor through a company set up by occupation supporter Maureen Peltier, who Patrick now calls his wife.

He said he received a cease and desist order from his probation officer regarding the work and was instructed to get legal employment. He said he plans to do more roof and construction work.

As for filing an income tax return, Patrick said he may submit a form that says Income Tax Return with a notice that says he didnt provide the government anything and doesnt expect anything in return, he said.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

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Emmy award-winning actor and comedian Katt Williams made his criminal case go away by paying $197,000 to a chauffeur who accused him of punching him in the face during a dispute about a dog.

The Multnomah County District Attorneys Office objected to the civil compromise deal and had instead wanted to bring Williams to trial, but Multnomah County Circuit Judge Judith Matarazzo approved the compromise Thursday. The amount of the payment wasnt uttered in court, but the agreement details were later filed electronically with the court system.

Williams, 47, paid the money to Wali Kanani. In turn, Kanani signed a release saying he no longer wanted the District Attorneys Office to prosecute the case and wanted the charges dismissed.

Kanani also signed a document saying he released Williams from any and all causes of action stemming from the comedians arrest -- meaning the civil compromise should put an end to a lawsuit Kanani filed against Williams.

Kanani originally sought $76,000, then upped that amount to $990,000 in an amended lawsuit.

So-called civil compromises are legal maneuvers that have been criticized for allowing the wealthy to dodge criminal prosecution by paying off victims. Critics say the compromises are unfair, in part, because poorer defendants simply dont have the option.

Williams troubles began after he landed at Portland International Airport in a private jet on Oct. 5 so he could perform at Nick Cannon's "Wild 'N Out" improv comedy show.

According to Kananis lawsuit, Williams, six other people and a large, aggressive German Shepherd met Kanani after getting off the jet. Williams insisted the dog ride in the passengers seat of the 2017 GMC Yukon XL Denali, but the chauffeur said no because he was not comfortable with an unknown (and possibly dangerous) dog in the front seat with him, the suit states.

Williams responded by calling him a piece of (expletive) and "white trash, then socked him in the face with his fist, according to the lawsuit.

The suit also alleges Williams and his dog chased Kanani to an airport terminal but Kanani was able to safely lock himself behind a glass door. Williams was booked in jail about 13 hours later, after Kanani called 911.

Williams civil attorney, Adam Heder, offered this comment Friday: The civil compromise provides Mr. Kanani appropriate restitution and allows the parties to put the incident behind them and get back to living their lives.

Brian Scherman, Williams court-appointed criminal attorney, couldnt be reached immediately for comment. Its unclear why Williams was allowed to have a court-appointed attorney paid for by tax dollars when Williams was able to come up with the $197,000 to settle the case.

Last year, Williams won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Willie in the TV series Atlanta. Williams, who lives in Georgia, even showed up to the Multnomah County Courthouse in November carrying his golden Emmy.

But Monday, Williams didnt show up to court for what was scheduled to be the first day of his two-day criminal trial by jury. Judge Kenneth Walker issued a warrant for Williams arrest for failing to appear.

Williams also didnt appear in court on Thursday when the other judge, Matarazzo, approved his civil compromise agreement. Matarazzo lifted the warrant and Williams wasnt penalized for his failure to appear for trial.

Williams legal name is Micah Sierra Williams.

Read the civil compromise agreement here.

-- -- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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Correction appended: This story has been updated to list the correct location of the crash.

A driver who lost his leg when he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a guardrail has filed a $2.5 million lawsuit against the state.

Jared Verardo faults the Oregon Department of Transportation for what Verardos lawsuit describes as an obsolete and unsafe guardrail system which did not comply with federal highway administration standards.

According to his suit, Verardo was driving at 7:30 a.m. March 16, 2017, along U.S. 20 near Ellmaker State Wayside in Lincoln County. He fell asleep at the wheel, drifted across the road and struck the end of the guardrail, which punctured the carriage of his car near the gas pedal, says the suit and Verardos lawyer.

The guardrail severed his right leg below the knee, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday.

A spokeswoman with the Transportation Department didnt respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon. The suit contends it was the departments responsibility to maintain the guardrail and ensure it was safe.

William Brandt, Verardos attorney, said there have been many cases across the country in which people have been injured by guardrails like Verardo was.

Guardrails have been around a long time, Brandt said. But guardrails have evolved significantly. Many times the state hasnt upgraded the guardrail to meet standards.

Brandt said the guardrail that injured Verardo didnt have a design feature attached to the end of it that would have prevented the guardrail from piercing into Verardos car.

It bolts onto the end like a sleeve, Brandt said.

Verardo seeks $250,000 for past and future medical bills and $286,000 for past and future lost wages, because he has been able to work only half-time since he was injured, his lawsuit states.

Verardo also seeks $2 million for his pain and suffering.

The suit was filed in Lincoln County Circuit Court. Read the lawsuit here.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

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By Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post Opinion

Paul Manafort, President Trumps former campaign chief, was sentenced to a mere 47 months for eight white-collar crime convictions. In handing down his sentence, Judge T.S. Ellis added insult to injury by stating Manafort had lived a blameless life before getting caught committing a host of crimes. Ellis seems to have been unaware that for a good deal of his adult life, Manafort made money  blood money, his own daughter called it  representing a rogues gallery of butchers. Newsweek recounted his non-Russian clientele:

Manafort has previously worked in other continents. His first lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly, which he ran with fellow Trump aid and political consultant Roger Stone, has been nicknamed the "torturers lobby" for having represented so many political leaders involved in human rights abuses.

Last year, Kenya received $38 million in U.S. foreign aid, and spent over $1.4 million on Washington lobbyists to get it. Nigeria received $8.3 million and expended in excess of $2.5 million. Whom did both countries call upon to do their bidding before the U.S. government? The lobbying firm of Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly Public Affairs Co., which received $660,000 from Kenya in 1992-1993 and $1 million from Nigeria in 1991, details a report from the Center for Public Integrity published in the early 1990s.

And yet, he led an exemplary life, we are to believe?

Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe tweeted, Judge Elliss assessment that Manafort led an otherwise blameless life was proof that hes unfit to serve on the federal bench. Ive rarely been more disgusted by a judges transparently preferential treatment to a rich white guy who betrayed the law and the nation.

Indeed, that reaction was widespread, as legal experts were flummoxed by the slap on the wrist for a sophisticated, greedy and unrepentant criminal. The sentence is ridiculous, and Elliss comments about Manaforts blameless life are outrageous, former DOJ spokesman Matthew Miller told me.

Manafort did not commit just one crime but eight, the jury found. His crime spree continued for a decade as he deliberately cheated on his taxes, defrauded banks and hid foreign bank accounts. His motive was pure greed and, to this day, he has yet to acknowledge guilt. He was humiliated, he said in court, because he got caught.

Former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah observed, I think it is a shockingly low sentence given what the recommended guidelines were. I have very rarely seen this drastic of a departure absent some extraordinary reason. And the fact that Manafort wasnt remorseful and the judge still gave him a very lenient sentence is just mouth-gaping.

This is not the end of Manaforts sentencing. He will be sentenced for a different set of crimes in federal court in the District of Columbia next week. Perhaps there his conduct tampering with a witness after arrest and lying to prosecutors in violation of a cooperation agreement will come into play. Miller notes that the Mueller team has another card to play. They decided to wait until after this sentence was handed down to recommend whether Manaforts D.C. sentence be served consecutively or concurrently, and I suspect you will see them ask Judge [Amy Berman] Jackson to throw the book at him next week.

Elliss ruling will only perpetuate the view of many Americans that if you are rich and white, you get one standard of justice; if poor and nonwhite, another. Minimal sentences give huge incentives for white-collar criminals, who will make a cost-benefit analysis and conclude its worth the risk to lie, defraud, cheat, etc. if the only real downside is the possibility of a few years in a relatively cushy federal prison.

In the case of Manafort, the result is especially perverse. Former prosecutor Joyce Vance White tells me, Its almost as though the judge has bought President Trumps line of thinking, that unless people are convicted of collusion, no other crime matters. White continues, Manafort was convicted of serious crimes and shouldve been sentenced within the guideline range. I expect Judge Jackson to run her sentence consecutive to this one, which will lead to a more appropriate result.

The light ruling also hobbles prosecutors by discouraging cooperation. Whats the point of cooperating, as Michael Cohen did, to get a few years in jail when you can remain defiant and get just about the same punishment? White notes, This sentence looks a lot more like what you would have expected if Manafort had cooperated with the government.

Perhaps Judge Jackson will help correct this grievous injustice. Americans deserve better than what Ellis handed down Thursday.

-- Jennifer Rubin writes reported opinion for The Washington Post. Follow
The All-China Women's Federation held a gathering attended by Chinese women representatives from all walks of life, as well as foreign diplomats and experts in Beijing Thursday ahead of International Women's Day, which falls on Friday.

The federation's president Shen Yueyue said in a speech that the sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security in the Chinese people, including women, has been growing.

Shen, who is also vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, called on Chinese women to conscientiously perform their duties, strive for a better life and mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China with outstanding accomplishments.

Chinese women are willing to work together with women from other countries to build a better world for all women and for all people, she added.

More than 1,000 people were present at the event to observe International Women's Day on March 8.
Chris Wallace is an exceptional interviewer, and Shepard Smith and Bret Baier are reality-based news anchors.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about the overall problem of Fox News, which started out with bad intentions in 1996 and has swiftly devolved into what often amounts to a propaganda network for a dishonest president and his allies.

The network, which attracts more viewers than its two major competitors, specializes in fearmongering and unrelenting alarmism. Remember "the caravan"?

At crucial times, it does not observe basic standards of journalistic practice: as with its eventually retracted, false reporting in 2017 on Seth Rich, which fueled conspiracy theories that Hillary Clinton had the former Democratic National Committee staffer killed because he was a source of campaign leaks.

Fox, you might recall, was a welcoming haven for birtherism -- the racist lies about President Barack Obamas birthplace. For years, it has constantly, unfairly and inaccurately bashed Hillary Clinton.

And its most high-profile personality, Sean Hannity, is not only a close confidant of President Donald Trump but appeared with him onstage at a campaign rally last year.

Anyone who was paying the slightest bit of attention knew all of this long before Jane Mayer's 11,000-word investigation in the New Yorker magazine was published a few days ago.

But because Mayer is so highly respected, and the piece so thorough, it made an impact. Within days, DNC chairman Tom Perez announced that Fox wouldn't be chosen as one of the hosts of the Democratic primary debates.

This was a mild, reasonable step that recognizes the reality that Fox News shouldn't be treated as an honest broker of political news. It was not censorship as some bizarrely claimed, merely a decision not to enter into a business relationship.

Some of the reactions, though, missed the point spectacularly.

Here, for example, was NBC political reporter Jonathan Allen on Twitter, careful to say this was only opinion:

"There are plenty of quality journalists at Fox, some of whom have been excellent questioners at past presidential debates. And really, if you can't answer questions - especially if they're not the questions you want asked - maybe you don't have good answers."

Others took it a step further, saying that Democrats are running scared. And Trump, predictably, vowed retribution in an overheated tweet.

Given First Amendment protections, Fox News can do pretty much what it wants on the air. It can shrug at Hannity's excesses. It can allow Tucker Carson's misleading rants on immigrants and crime. It can constantly undermine special counsel Robert Mueller III's investigation of Trump.

But for mainstream journalists to suggest that there be no consequences or even recognition is willfully blind - and smacks of an unseemly inside-the-Beltway solidarity.

What Fox News has become is destructive. To state the obvious: Democracy, if it's going to function, needs to be based on a shared set of facts, and the news media's role is to seek out and deliver those facts.

Most news organizations take that seriously, though they may flounder badly at times. When they do, they generally try to correct themselves - that's why you see editor's notes, lengthy corrections, on-air acknowledgments, suspensions and even firings of errant news people.

Not at Fox News.

The rule at Fox is to stonewall outside inquiries, and to close ranks around its rainmakers.

And, of course, to double down on its mission, described aptly by my Washington Post colleague Greg Sargent: "Fox News is fundamentally in the business of spreading disinformation, as opposed to conservative reportage." And that disinformation "is plainly about deceiving millions into believing that core functionings of our government - whether law enforcement or congressional oversight - no longer have any legitimacy."

Sometimes, as with Hannity's rally appearance or the Rich reporting, there will be a passing acknowledgment that standards haven't been met.

But we never know what those standards might be. Unlike most news organizations, Fox News doesn't seem to have a department in charge of ethics and standards, and it certainly doesn't publish its guidelines as some do.

So, yes, Fox News can continue to function as something close to Trump TV. It can go on spreading disinformation.

But everyone ought to see it for what it is: not a normal news organization with inevitable screw-ups, flaws and commercial interests, which sometimes fail to serve the public interest.

Instead, it's a shameless propaganda outfit, which makes billions of dollars a year as it chips away at the core democratic values we ought to hold dear: truth, accountability and the rule of law.

Despite the skills of a few journalists who should have long ago left the network in protest, Fox News has become an American plague.

Margaret Sullivan is The Washington Posts media columnist. Previously, she was the New York Times public editor, and the chief editor of the Buffalo News, her hometown paper.
By E.J. DIONNE JR.

A slide show of images are projected on the John Minor Wisdom United States Court of Appeals Building Wednesday, January 21, 2015 during a rally to mark the 5th Anniversary of Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruling that restructured the campaign finance landscape. The New Orleans Anti-Corruption Coalition led the rally. The New Orleans Anti-Corruption Coalition is a bipartisan group of citizens advocating for local campaign finance reform and ethics policies. The group announced their local resolution to create stronger campaign finance ethical standards during the rally. (Photo by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)

WASHINGTON -- A central challenge of the Trump era is how to deal urgently with the presidents transgressions while also taking steps to prevent politicians from abusing power in the future.

Equally important is restoring faith in our republican democracy as a genuinely representative system that is open to broad participation and protected from the outsized influence of the financially privileged.

President Trump is doing far more to pollute the political "swamp" he loves to invoke than draining it. But this doesn't mean that citizens worried about the swampiness of our politics are wrong.

So here's a challenge to citizens and the media alike: Pay attention this week to the House debate over H.R. 1, perhaps the most comprehensive political-reform proposal ever considered by our elected representatives.

Perhaps it's inevitable that Trump and his antics will always get more attention than any bill that includes lots of provisions. Legislation makes us work our brains a lot harder than Trump does.

But let's not hear the excuse that there's no point spending much time on legislation that, while likely to pass a Democratic House, has no chance in the Senate. That less-representative body -- always remember that Wyoming has as many senators as California -- is controlled by Republicans and led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who hated campaign finance reforms when they were proposed in the early 2000s by his late GOP colleague John McCain, and despises them still.

The House proposal, sniff the cognoscenti, is merely a "messaging bill."

Actually, no. It's a marker, a bill worth fighting for in the future. Recall that versions of Medicare, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and more expansive civil rights proposals all languished in Congress or were defeated before they passed.

What commends H.R. 1 is its comprehensiveness. It brings together traditional reformers (with strong incentives encouraging candidates to rely on small rather than large contributions, and tougher disclosure requirements of who is paying for what ads) and civil rights advocates (with provisions for automatic voter registration, expanded early voting, a ban on unjustified voter purges and re-enfranchisement of those who have served felony sentences). It also lays the groundwork for renewing the Voting Rights Act's effectiveness.

H.R. 1 has a battery of measures to deal with ethical lapses specific to Trump. These include tough provisions on presidential conflicts of interest and a requirement that presidential and vice presidential candidates disclose their income tax returns. And it confronts core problems our democracy faces by banning gerrymandering and calling for the use of paper ballots in federal elections to protect against hacked voting machines.

There's more there, but you get the drift. For all the talk of Democrats being divided between "the left" and "the moderates," this bill has support from all wings of the party. The left and center both worry about the undue influence of corporate money and billionaires on our politics. And, needless to say, political corruption is not particularly popular in any ideological camp.

As with any bill, the question needs to be asked: Is it addressing real, widely recognized problems, or is it more of a hobby-horse reflecting concerns that may be valid but are hardly front-burner?

Fred Wertheimer, the veteran political activist who helped develop H.R. 1, offered as clear an answer as I have heard about the genuine urgency of fixing our democracy.

"We have a campaign finance system we haven't seen since the Gilded Age," he said. "We have efforts at voter suppression we haven't seen since the days of segregation. We have gerrymandering at a level we have never seen before. And we have a president who raises financial abuse and corruption issues we haven't seen in generations."

Now, tell me again: Why should we ignore what the House is up to here and just go back to the latest incremental development in the Michael Cohen story?

Of course the Trump saga matters. Friends of decent government should welcome the fact that Congress -- scratch that, the Democratic House -- will be putting a lot of time and resources into getting to the bottom of a variety of allegations against the president.

But we must also ponder what our democracy will be like after Trump, and begin tending to what is in such desperate need of repair.

As for the opponents of H.R. 1, they need to tell us if they think our politics are working just splendidly. I'd love to hear them try to make that case. And if they don't, what exactly would they do to drain the swamp?

E.J. Dionne is on Twitter: @EJDionne.

(c) 2019, Washington Post Writers Group
SALEM  As a measles outbreak in southwest Washington continues to grow, hundreds of people, including families, swarmed the Oregon state Capitol to protest a measure making it harder for parents to opt out of school vaccination requirements.

"There is no measles emergency," said Sarah Bacon during a speech at a protest rally. Bacon is the executive director of Oregonians for Medical Freedom, a grassroots organization that advocates for parents' freedom to make medical decisions for their children.

So far 75 people in Washington and Oregon have been diagnosed with measles, and two people in Clark County are suspected of having measles but not confirmed.

Doctors and health officials have said that vaccines have been proven safe and effective, and noted that serious vaccine side effects are rare. In a video message last month, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams pleaded with parents to "protect their children by getting them vaccinated," saying it is the best protection against measles.

The recent outbreak has fueled lawmakers to tighten the states relaxed vaccine exemption policy. That policy allows parents to decline required immunizations for religious, personal or philosophical reasons. The states considering a proposal that would require children to receive vaccinations in order to attend school, unless they have a doctors note seeking an exemption for medical reasons.

If passed, Oregon would join only three other states in banning nonmedical exemptions for vaccines. Washington state is also considering a similar proposal.

But parents call the measure discriminatory, saying the state shouldn't hold a child's education hostage in exchange for receiving vaccines.

Emily Noel is a mother from Albany who said she used to be pro-vaccination but changed her mind after the birth of her son. She said that after talking to her pediatrician and reading scientific studies, she decided that the risks of some vaccines outweigh the benefits.

Her 1-year-old son is partially vaccinated, and under the Oregon bill she would be forced to decide whether to fully vaccinate her son, homeschool him, or leave the state.

While the vaccine debate has sparked pitched debate, Noel stresses that both sides should focus on "what we have in common."

"What we agree on is that community health is important, children's health is important," she said.

-- The Associated Press
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Todays stories

TETANUS CASE: An unvaccinated Oregon boy, 6, nearly dies of tetanus and racks up $1 million in medical bills. Read more.

HAYES SETTLEMENT: An Oregon ethics commission rejects a settlement with Cylvia Hayes, the states former first lady. Read more.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS: A substitute teacher tells a Salem fifth-grader to go back to Mexico, a report says. Read more.

PERS BILLS: Oregon Republicans slam Gov. Kate Browns idea to tap a workers comp surplus to backstop PERS. Read more.

HIPSTER RAGE: An angry hipster accidentally proves that all hipsters look the same. Read more.

MISHANDLED BALLOTS: The secretary of state will sharply reduce the penalty in a mishandled ballots case. Read more.

PORTLAND E-SCOOTERS: Disability advocates lobby for tighter regulations on e-scooters in Portland. Read more.

DAM SAFETY: Bill would rewrite Oregons 90-year-old dam safety rules. Read more.

OREGON STANDOFF: Malheur occupation figure Jason Patrick agrees to get a job and carry ID to avoid going back to prison. Read more.

JACKSON SCANDAL: OMSI cancels Michael Jackson laser light show after the controversial documentary Leaving Neverland airs on HBO. Read more.

IN THE COURTS: A drug conviction was tossed, but the defendant cant get his property back because police destroyed it. Read more.

UNEXPECTED DEFENSE: A white man accused of running over a black teen offers an unexpected defense: A head injury muddled his thinking. Read more.

OREGON LAWMAKERS: Legislative leaders call for budget cuts, despite record revenues. Read more.

PORTLAND SNOW: How do this winters totals compare to the past 10 years? Read more.

COURT SETTLEMENT: Comedian Katt Williams pays a victim; criminal and civil cases go away. Read more.

PORTLAND SCHOOLS: The majority of those arrested at Portland high schools last year were black, a new report shows. Read more.

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REAL ESTATE: 12 home design ideas and colors  smoky pink, burnt orange, muddy teal  youll see everywhere in 2019. Read more.

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Oregon AD Rob Mullens on Pac-12 falling behind financially: 'Were drifting out of range'

Parents protest Oregon vaccine bill as measles outbreak grows

Ask Amy: His crush is single for the 1st time in years but hes already gone out with her friend. Is it too late?

Dear Abby: Felons fiance wants to know why she did it, but she would rather stay mum

Carolyn Hax: 30-year-old lives at home with Pops, works at his company; is she a Daddys girl?

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Gloria Peterson dies at 89; she and husband Tom charmed Portlanders with quirky TV ads and good deals

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Today in history

AROUND THE WORLD: On March 8, 1702, Englands Queen Anne acceded to the throne upon the death of King William III.
Thats all?

Legal experts and attorneys were exasperated over the 47-month sentence for Paul Manafort, the former chairman of President Donald Trump's campaign, who was found guilty for cheating on his taxes and bank fraud - far less than the roughly 20-year sentencing guidelines.

The news also came to a shock for someone pretty familiar with prominent Washington scandals.

"Yup," Monica Lewinsky said on Twitter, with a hint of resignation. "I had been threatened w/ 27 years for filing a false affidavit + other actions trying desperately to keep an affair private."

Lewinsky commiserated with National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, who noted Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking classified information to WikiLeaks and who still faces legal jeopardy even after her sentence was commuted after seven years by President Barack Obama.

David Petraeus, the former Army general and CIA director, escaped jail time entirely after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified material with his biographer, Snowden added.

President Bill Clinton's affair with Lewinsky, and his lies to the grand jury that led to impeachment proceedings, nearly brought down his presidency.

Clinton had testified that information in an affidavit from Lewinsky denying they had a sexual relationship was "absolutely true," Peter Baker reported for The Washington Post in October 1998. "But Lewinsky testified before independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's grand jury that the affidavit she signed Jan. 7 was false and that she performed oral sex on Clinton in the White House on 10 occasions," Baker reported. "Starr accused Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice for attesting to the affidavit's accuracy and allowing it to be introduced as evidence."

In her tweet Lewinsky wrote that she filed the false affidavit and took "other actions" to avoid the affair from become a public spectacle.

It was not clear who threatened Lewinsky with jail time over the affidavit. The Post was unable to immediately reach her on Friday morning.

Manafort's trial documented his career as an international lobbyist whose profligate spending habits were part of the evidence showing he'd cheated the Internal Revenue Service out of $6 million by hiding $16 million in income.

But his sentence of a touch under four years led legal experts to blast the relative leniency he received in federal court.

Scott Hechinger, a senior staff attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services, an organization that provides legal representation to defendants who cannot afford it, used one of his recent clients, who was offered a 36-to-72-month sentence, as an example. The crime? Stealing $100 worth of quarters from a residential laundry room.

The treatment of Manafort was another example of white-collar criminals eluding harsh penalties, wrote Louis Laverone, an international financial-crimes attorney.

Laverone cited the case of one Turkish banker who was charged with participating in a multibillion-dollar scheme, violating U.S. economic sanctions. In that case, guidelines called for a possible 105-year sentence. The banker got 32 months.
Laura Ingraham wants you to know: College Republicans are under relentless attack, and the Justice Department should look into it.

The Fox News host devoted an extended segment this week to conservatives being mocked, shouted down and cursed at on college campuses around the country.

Under the banner The Anti-Free Speech Thugs, she announced: It happened again.

She then showed video of a bearded young disruptor sporting a man bun, who rang a cowbell and whooped over and over to upend a College Republicans event at Portland State.

The event featured conservative blogger Michael Strickland, whose YouTube channel is called LaughingAtLiberals. In 2016, Strickland was convicted of menacing, disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a firearm for waving a gun at activists during a Dont Shoot PDX march. He was banned from the Portland State campus for two years.

Before his arrest, Strickland was already known on campus for being squirrelly and pushing buttons at various events, a PSU spokeswoman said at the time.

Ingraham didnt mention any of this background on her show, The Ingraham Angle. She simply calling Strickland a little-known blogger before zeroing in on the protester with the cowbell.

The harassment continued for an hour, the appalled Ingraham said, giving the word hour extra emphasis, as campus police just looked on. The speaker was effectively silenced for that period of time and the event basically ruined.

The upshot: the libs, in this instance, owned the conservatives. A perspective went unheard for the period of time scheduled, Ingraham said. This is just another in a long line, though, of examples where conservatives on campus are deprived of their free-speech rights. Yes, Im going to say it again  deprived  of their free-speech rights.

Other conservative media also weighed in on the disruption of the PSU College Republicans event. The Daily Caller wrote that Strickland was there to explain his conviction, claiming he waved his gun at the 2016 protest because he was being threatened by protesters.

Andy Ngo, a journalist with Quillette, extensively covered the PSU incident and sent out photographs and video on Twitter.

Last night, College Republicans invited conservative blogger Michael Strickland to @Portland_State. Event got shut down by anarchist who came w/a bell. Strickland was to speak about his conviction related to him brandishing a gun at a mob who surrounded him at a 2016 BLM protest. pic.twitter.com/JnHO6ElSLa  Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) March 6, 2019

Ingraham said during the segment that her staff had contacted 17 officials at Portland State and that all of them declined to appear on the show.

In a statement, Portland State said that, due to the nature of the event advocating gun rights, a Campus Public Safety officer monitored the event to ensure the safety of participants. When an individual disrupted the event by ringing a cowbell, the officer used his professional judgment and determined not to threaten or restrain the individual so as not to escalate a potentially unsafe situation. After the disruption, the meeting continued, and PSU facilities management allowed the college Republicans to extend their meeting beyond the scheduled end time that night because of the disruption delay.

Ingraham, who faced an advertiser backlash last year after she mocked Parkland shooting survivor and Never Again activist David Hogg, did not think much of the PSU statement.

What message does [the campus-safety officer] just standing there send to other conservative students? she said, ignoring that protesting is also a form of free speech.

She continued: The chilling effect [of protests] continues long after the event is disrupted. She then voiced her support for President Donald Trumps recent announcement that he plans to issue an executive order concerning free speech at colleges.

Ingraham added that an executive order probably isnt enough.

She argued that because Antifa and other far-left groups conspire to prevent conservatives from speaking and associating on college campuses, perhaps it is time for the Justice Department to consider some kind of RICO prosecution.

RICO, the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, was fashioned to target the Mob.

Portland, needless to say, sees a lot of campus protests, and they can be directed at liberals as well as conservatives. Protests against Eurocentrism at Reed College have reportedly traumatized some of the famously permissive schools instructors and have been so persistent in recent years that theyve received national and international news coverage.

-- Douglas Perry

@douglasmperry

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China's ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing on Thursday published a report on the state of women rideshare drivers in China and Latin America.

The report, based on survey data collected from China, Brazil and Mexico, showed that mobile technology is driving down the cost of accessing information, helping women break through constraints in traditional industries and providing employment opportunities in new economy sectors, which helps eliminate gender discrimination and have a positive impact on gender equality.

Women rideshare drivers in Brazil, China and Mexico account for 16.7 percent, 7.4 percent and 5.6 percent of total rideshare drivers on DiDi platforms, respectively.

Ridesharing offers a buffer and a key source of income for women and their families to cope with the ever-changing macroeconomic conditions, the report said.

According to the report, there are a lot of differences among women rideshare drivers in terms of lifestyle and work conditions. However, their rideshare career plays an important role in their life, both in terms of contributing to their families and to social and economic development. It is also an important channel for achieving gender equality and autonomy.

The gig economy gives women another alternative to keep income and caretaking in balance. It also offers them a buffer to search for other long-term employment opportunities with increased autonomy, according to the report.

DiDi Chuxing operates under its own brand in China, Mexico, Australia and Japan. It also acquired 99, Brazil's leading rideshare company, in January 2018. A global ride-hailing investment and partnership network connecting DiDi with seven major international players now serves over 1,000 cities and reaches over 80 percent of the world's population, according to the company.
Creative 360's next Yes We Can! Tuesday Tribute features Ralph Rye, 94, designer and builder of creative art furniture. Enjoy lively conversation, tea and treats at Creative 360, 1517 Bayliss St., from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 12. Admission is $5.

Rye spent most of his career in Grand Rapids where he also taught at the Kendall College of Art and Design. He was licensed to build for the finest furniture companies in America, and his own custom furniture was in high demand by corporations and residential clients. His work has been published in national art and design publications, and exhibited in galleries across Michigan and Chicago. His Kite Tables and Rye chair were on exhibit during the Yes We Can! exhibition at Creative 360 this year. The chair continues to be in demand and commands prices in the thousands.
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - As part of the fight against terrorism, women are anxious to detect the first signs of radicalisation, said Burkinabe Minister for Women, Marie Laurence Ilboudo-Marchal, on the occasion of the 162nd International Women's Day, celebrated Friday under the theme, 'Contribution of women to the construction of Burkina Faso for security, peace and social cohesion'
Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisian army units on Friday morning rescued 64 clandestine migrants, including four women, off the town of Zarzis in the southeastern part of the country, an official told PANA
Chinese public security authorities cracked over 57,000 cybercrime cases in a campaign to clean up the internet last year, the Ministry of Public Security said on Thursday.

Over 83,000 suspects were arrested during the 10-month campaign, which kicked off last February. More than 34,000 internet companies were subject to administrative penalties.

The suspects included 49 who were nabbed through law enforcement cooperation with counterparts from abroad, especially countries in Southeast Asia, Wang Yingwei, Party chief of the cybersecurity bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, said at a news conference on Thursday.

They were involved in hacking, online gambling and spreading pornography, Wang said.

Compared with previous crackdowns on cybercrimes, the campaign last year has strengthened cross-border law enforcement, Wang said.

"International law enforcement cooperation will be strengthened this year, and efforts will focus especially on cybercrime gangs that hide in Southeast Asia to launch hacker attacks and organize online gambling," he said.

More than 5,000 of the cybercrime cases were related to the illegal acquisition and sale of personal information, with more than 13,000 suspects nabbed. In one case, they sold information about primary and middle school students in Zhejiang province.

Public security organs also strengthened supervision, inspection and law enforcement in response to the fact that some internet enterprises do not conscientiously fulfill their network security management obligations, and so contribute to the high frequency of online crimes.

A supervisory system was established to tackle problems related to mobile phone applications, some of which were found to provide avenues for gambling and the spread of obscene content, or to maliciously deduct fees and steal users' private information.

The system holds the app distribution platform responsible. Last year, more than 35,000 apps with malicious programs and behaviors were removed in accordance with the law.

On Jan. 22, the ministry launched a new round of crackdowns on cybercrimes.
Truth and transparency are the enemies of Donald Trump, the charlatan who hides behind a fake tan and delusions of grandeur. On Wednesday, our president took the opportunity to once again chip away at the governments accountability, this time in relation to drone warfare, as per Business Insider. Trump signed an executive order revoking a requirement from the Obama administration days stipulating that civilian deaths from U.S. drones in non-combat areas must be reported. The government is still required to report the number of civilian deaths in areas of active hostilities. In short, we will not know how many civilian are killed by drones in non-combat countries, including Somalia, Pakistan and Yemen.

Between 2009 and 2015, the director of intelligence reported 64 to 116 civilian deaths in non-combat zones. Of course, thats if that inexact number can be trusted, notes Daphne Eviatar, a director with Amnesty International USA. In a 2018 email to the New York Times, Eviatar wrote, The Defense Department has deemed that the vast majority of claims of civilian casualties are not credible without ever investigating them. Its numbers therefore likely severely undercount the actual civilian death toll.

Further, drone warfare has spiked since Trump assumed office. In the first two years of Trumps presidency (which have felt like a lifetime), 2,243 drone strikes were carried out, compared to 1,878 during Obamas eight years in office. In fact, 2017 civilian death figures in non-combat areas were not released last year in May, when the report usually goes out, despite the previous executive order still being in place.

The civilian death toll of strikes by the CIA and other such agencies will especially be cloaked in secrecy after this revocation of the Obama-era requirement.

Strikes by other government entities like the CIA were included under this requirement, Rita Siemion, international legal counsel for the group Human Rights First, explained to Politico. That was the intention of the wording.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who served as chair for the House Intelligence Committee, told the BBC that there is simply no justification for revoking the requirement, which he describes as an important measure of transparency.

Can you imagine if other countries tried to do this to the U.S.? Can you imagine the international outcry if they were killing our citizens in non-war zones and not even being transparent about the human price of their automated warfare? Just because no one is in the cockpit of a drone, that doesnt leave us blameless. Warfares automation is intended to distance us from the very real human toll of conflict, and Trumps latest order simply furthers our ability to bury our heads in the sand.
On Wednesday, Georgias House Health and Human Services Committee approved a bill banning abortion once a fetus heartbeat can be detected at around six weeks of pregnancy, often before a woman is even aware shes pregnant. Current laws in the state allow people with uteri to terminate pregnancies up until 20 weeks of gestation.

The legislation still has to be voted on by the House, as per the AP, a narrow turnaround considering today (March 7) marks the deadline for most bills to pass at least one of the states legislative chambers. Within the committee itself, the bill passed along party lines, with 17 Republicans (including 13 men) voting for the legislation and 14 Democrats voting against it.

Rep. Ed Setzler, who penned the bill, said, We know life begins at conception. I think thats worthy of full legal protection. Certainly we can come together and recognize if theres a human heartbeat, that childs worthy of protection.

Againmost women are not aware that they are pregnant at six weeks. If a womans menstrual cycle is irregular (at least 30 percent of women dont have regular periods), its very likely she will not know she is pregnant until after the heartbeat is detectable, making abortion virtually outlawed for Georgian women if Setzlers heartbeat bill passes. Also, the heartbeat qualifier is a strange marker considering that fetal viability (when the fetus can survive outside the uterus) isnt until 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The bill does allow exceptions for victims of rape and incest if theyve filed a police report (more than 75 percent of rapes go unreported) or if the womans life is at risk. Rep. Sharon Cooper introduced an amendment also permitting abortion for medically futile pregnancies (when it is unlikely the fetus will survive after birth).

Even with these exceptions, the legislation would take control of reproductive health away from many people with uteri and pose a huge safety risk for individuals who may seek illegal abortions. Dr. Melissa Kottke, who serves on the advisory board of Georgias OB-GYN Society, expressed her concerns that this will drive OB-GYNs away from the state, which is already suffering from a lack of obstetricians.

Its extremely dangerous for lawmakers to presume that theyre better equipped than women and their health care providers to judge what is appropriate medical care, she told the AP.

Georgias Gov. Brian Kemp promised during his campaign to sign the toughest abortion laws in the countrylets hope it wont come to that.
If you think Trumps many ties to Russia are complicated, just wait until you learn about whats been going on with Saudi Arabia. Ill do my best here to knock out the background on a massive and long-runningbut little-noticedscandal that centers around Jared Kushner and how his ties to Saudi Arabia have compromised him, especially including his personal business interests and corporate connections. The story doesnt end with Kushner, though: It also ensnares Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, in a sprawling scheme to capitalize on U.S. government offices. Bottom line: This is why you should care that Jared Kushners security clearance is a national security liability.

Ill try to simplify it all with simple geometry. Off we go.

Over the last two years weve seen periodic news reports detailing the comedy of errors that has been Jared Kushners security clearance process. The story flares up, but because it seems only to be about bureaucratic paperwork, it smolders just as quickly. This is because we mostly see the whatthe bureaucratic swindleand not the why. News: Its not boring.

Sadly, though, we cant get around the what of it, so Ill tell a short story:

Kushner, who needs a top-level clearance to do the jobs assigned to himsuch as negotiating the Middle East peace processdidnt receive a full clearance for a long, long time. When he did get cleared, it was because Donald Trumpwho is President of the United States and coincidentally also Kushners father-in-lawoverrode his national security officers and demanded it.

Why didnt Kushner qualify? First, he repeatedly withheld information on his security questionnaire (form SF-86), which he had to amend four times. (Flag this: The omissions included meetings with foreign officials.) Kushners applications were so riddled with errors and omissions that when Charles Phalen, director of the administrations National Background Investigations Bureau, was asked before Congress if he could recall if there has ever been an applicant having to submit four addenda detailing over 100 errors and omissions being able to maintain their security clearance, he replied he had never seen that level of mistakes.

But still Kushner skated.

We also recently learned that White House security specialists also rejected Kushners clearance after an FBI background check flagged him as potentially vulnerable to foreign influence. (Foreign influence. Flag that one, too.) Their superior, Carl Klinewho in May 2017 Trump named director of the personnel security office in the Executive Office of the Presidentoverruled their recommendation and gave Kushner his stamp of approval. But there was one hurdle to go: Because Kushner needed the highest level of clearance (SCI), the application then had to go through CIA vetting for a final decision. But CIA officers reportedly didnt like what they saw. They called the White House and asked why Jared even got a top-secret clearance, let alone the higher bar he was applying for. (Top-secret is information that, if passed on to foreign interests, could cause exceptionally grave damage to national security; SCI is even more sensitive.) NBC News reported the CIA didnt grant Kushner an SCI clearance, which theoretically means Kushner couldnt access critical intelligence he needs to do his job. Unless, of course, Trump stepped in. New reports say thats exactly what Trump did.

But again, this isnt the why of the story

In May 2017, Kushner flew with Trump to Saudi Arabia on the Presidents first international visit. While there, Trump announced a $110 billion arms deal with the kingdom, a claim that has since proved to be a fairly massive lie, even for Trump. That deal, Trump said, was part of an even larger $350 billion investment deal between the two countries. As part of that deal, Saudi Arabia pledged to invest $20 billion in a new $40 billion fundfifty percentmarked for U.S. infrastructure development.

The Kushner key: That $40 billion fund, announced at the time of the Saudi visit, is managed by a firm called the Blackstone Group (not to be confused with Blackrock, Bayrock, or Blackwater). Since 2013 Blackstone has loaned Kushner Companieswhich have been plagued by financial troublesmore than $400 million to fund an array of deals. But we can go one step further: Blackstone co-founder and CEO Stephen Schwarzman was actually in Saudi Arabia with Kushner and Trump when they made the deal. And even further: At the time, Schwarzman was the head of Trumps business-advisory council.

Blackstone stock rose eight percent upon the announcement of the deal, meaning Schwarzmans personal net worth increased about $500 million.

These are the first connections of this complex scandal, and to go back to the geometry, it forms a triangle: Kushner connecting former investors with a foreign authoritarian government.

Fast forward one year, and enter Elaine Chao, Trumps Secretary of Transportation and Mitch McConnells wife. In May 2018 Chao proposed to Congress a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan, which would get the majority of its backing not from the federal government, but from non-federal (i.e., private) sources. This ties back to the Blackstone/Saudi fifty-fifty $40 billion infrastructure fund investment, and in more than one way.

Elaine Chaos brother-in-law, a guy named Jim Breyer, was named to Blackstones board of directors in the summer of 2016. (Breyer is married to Chaos sister.) A few weeks after news broke that Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) had ordered the killing of Washington Post journalist and Virginia resident Jamal Khashoggi, Breyer attended a business summit in Saudi Arabia hosted by none other than MBS himself. Because MBS had essentially just been accused of murdering a U.S. journalist, most of the invitees didnt attend. Breyer obviously shared no such compunction.

So now our triangular scandal has become a square: Kushner, the Saudis, Blackstone, and Chao.

Lets! Get! Pentagonal!

Ah yes, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Famously and weirdly deferential to our maniac-in-chief. Blackstones CEOthat Schwarzman guy mentioned above, who headed Trumps business advisory council and went to Saudi Arabia with himalso donated $5 million to a PAC called the Senate Leadership Fund during the 2016 election. That PAC is closely aligned with McConnell.

So now we see Blackstone tied directly to a massive new U.S. government infrastructure project in three ways, via not only Kushner, but Chao and her husband McConnell (whose interests are obviously connected). Include the Saudi Arabia point, and its a pentagon. Or, considering the next section, perhaps its a pentagram.

In October 2018, according to U.S. intelligence assessments, MBS personally ordered the killing of U.S. journalist and former Saudi resident Jamal Khashoggi. Trump has never agreed with the intelligence communitys conclusion, and the New York Times reported that Kushner told Trump to support MBS until the outrage blows over. Weeks after the murder, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a closed-door meeting with MBS in which he reportedly passed the prince a road map to help him ride out the scandal.

Enter McConnell. Though the Senator condemned the killing, when a motion to end U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia in its unconscionable war against Yemen came to the Senate floor last December, McConnell was one of the few voices who spoke against it. We also want to preserve the 70-year partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia, he said, and we want to ensure it continues to serve American interests and stabilizes a dangerous and critical region. That motion passed the Senate despite his protestations, but McConnell is now poised to thwart another resolution censuring Saudi Arabia for the War in Yemen. Coincidentally, just last week Kushner met face-to-face with MBS for the first time since Khashoggis murder.

Its not their first hang. Last fall the New York Times published a knock-out report detailing the Saudis long and enduring campaign to ingratiate themselves to Kushner. In October 2017, a year before Khashoggis murder, Kushner took an unannounced trip to see MBS, and during that visit reportedly passed MBS a list of Saudi dissidents. That list reportedly came directly from the Presidents Daily Brief, one of the most sensitive documents in U.S. intelligence. Kushner at the time had an interim security clearance.

The prince seems to have returned the favor. About six months later, MBS visited Trump in Washington D.C., but during the trip a sizable section of his entourage stayed at Trump International Hotel in Manhattan. As the Washington Posts David Farenthold later reported, the Saudi coterie spent enough in its five-day visit to turn the Trump hotel a profit for the whole quarter:

After two years of decline, revenue from room rentals went up 13 percent in the first three months of 2018. What caused the uptick at President Trumps flagship hotel in New York? One major factor: a last-minute visit to New York by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, wrote [the hotels] general manager Prince A. Sanders in a May 15 letter, which was obtained by The Washington Post....Due to our close industry relationships, he wrote, we were able to accommodate many of the accompanying travelers.

So far we havent mentioned anything about Russia. Thank god, right? Well, sorry, guys. Hate to do this to you, for real, but go there we must.

Back to Jim BreyerElaine Chaos brother-in-law, who sits on Blackstones board of directors. Mentioned above, Breyer attended that Saudi Arabia business summit a few weeks after the Khashoggi killing. Because of the murder, he was one of comparatively few who attended. Among the others, however, was a guy named Kirill Dimitriev, CEO of the Russia Direct Investment Fund. SchwarzmanBlackstones CEOwas a member of the Russia Direct Investment Fund in 2011. (He was Blackstones CEO at that time, too, and Dimitriev was RDIFs CEO.) This seems like a tangent to our pentagram, but its not.

I know I probably dont have to draw the final line for you here, but to cinch it all up, in 2016 Donald Trump Jr. met in Trump Tower with an emissary from Saudi Arabia who reportedly offered help with the campaign. At that same time, remember, Saudi Arabia was seducing Kushner, and Trump was covering up his Trump Tower Moscow business opportunity.

When you add this all up, then, you begin to see quite clearly just why its important to the United States that Jared Kushner not have security clearance. His liabilityforeign business tiesis, perversely, the exact same reason his father-in-law overruled the CIA to give it to him unilaterally. The Saudi Arabia scandal, in a very real sense, is the Russia scandal. More accurately, I should point out that both of them are subsumed under a controlling scandal, the largest in U.S. history: The unmitigated, blasphemous corruption of Donald Trump and the people around him. The United States is on the auction block. You and I and everyone we know, we dont matter. What we want to believe, our principles of peace and human rights, dont matter. The only thing that matters is making a few billion more bucks, or in the case of Trump and Kushners financial incompetence, saving their own asses.

Come to think of it, I could have saved us all a lot of trouble and just posted one memea single line that blows the rest away:
I grew up fairly near to Pasadenas California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and typically drove by it, with my parents and then on my own, at least once or twice a month and probably, on average, just about every week. There was, in my mind, a sense of almost mystical awe around the place. Not terribly much further, though it wasnt part of my neighborhood the way Caltech was, was the famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in La Canada Flintridge, right on the edge of Pasadena, which is owned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and which is operated on behalf of NASA by Caltech. We would occasionally drive by it enroute to this or that destination in the high desert and elsewhere. One of the bishops of my teenage years was an engineer and rocket scientist at JPL.

These things influenced me in multiple ways, and probably go at least some distance to accounting for my continuing fascination with space and cosmology. As Ive said here before, I might well have become an astronomer had my eyesight not been so bad; at a certain point, seeing the stars as no more than blurs (before I realized why, and that others didnt) blunted my ambitions in that direction.

***

The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons. . . . The explorations of space end on a note of uncertainty. And necessarily so. . . . We know our immediate neighborhood rather intimately. With increasing distance, our knowledge fades, and fades rapidly. Eventually, we reach the dim boundarythe utmost limits of our telescopes. There, we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. Not until the empirical resources are exhausted, need we pass on to the dreamy realms of speculation. (Edwin Hubble, The Realm of the Nebulae)

***

Allan Sandage (1926-2010) was one of the most influential astronomers of the twentieth century. A graduate of the California Institute of Technology and the leading protege of Edwin Hubble, he discovered the first quasar and was the first to determine reasonably accurate values for the Hubble constant and for the age of the Universe. I learned only too late (since I would have loved to meet him), that he was a neighbor of mine in San Gabriel, California, where I grew up.

In 1983, in his late fifties, Dr. Sandage announced that he had become a Christian.

This is what Sandage said. This is what Allan Sandage said:

It was my science that drove me to the conclusion that the world is much more complicated than can be explained by science. It is only through the supernatural that I can understand the mystery of existence.
Bill Hamblin and I published the following article in the Deseret News back on 19 October 2013:

In late 1997, Brigham Young University Press published a new translation (with the original Arabic text on the facing page) of a volume by the 11th-12th century Islamic thinker al-Ghazali. Titled The Incoherence of the Philosophers, it ranks among the most important books ever written in the Islamic world.

Many of his faith consider al-Ghazali the second greatest Muslim after the Prophet Muhammad himself. His story is an interesting one with a distinctly modern ring to it.

Al-Ghazali was born within the borders of todays Iran but spent much of his life in Baghdad, the great capital of the far-flung Islamic empire. Superbly educated, he established himself at a young age among the keenest minds of his time and as a phenomenally popular lecturer on law and theology at the university in Baghdad, the Nizamiyya. What is more, he had the personal interest and patronage of Nizam al-Mulk, the remarkable prime minister of his day, after whom the school had been named.

Yet, he was inwardly unsatisfied. And suddenly he simply couldnt go on any longer. (His crisis may have been provoked when his patron was murdered by a group known as the Assassins  from whom we get that unhappy word.) He gave up teaching, and literally couldnt speak for a time. His teaching seemed to him to have no real value. Most catastrophically, he began to doubt virtually everything.

Finally, he left Baghdad to try to put his life back together. And, fortunately for us, he eventually also left behind an autobiography titled The Deliverer from Error, in which he recounts the path that restored him, in the end, to confidence, faith and conviction.

There were, he records, four basic groups who claimed to provide the religious certainty he craved. The theologians, for example, said that by applying sound interpretive techniques and rigorous logic to the revealed text of the Quran, they could lead their followers to indisputable truths.

But al-Ghazali was not convinced. Even if they could prove to him that the Quran taught such and such, how did he know that the Quran itself was true? And if he was uncertain about that, no interpretation of the Quran, no matter how carefully derived, could prove itself absolutely true. A stream cannot rise above its source. A building cannot be more firm than its foundation. Anybody can see that Homers Iliad says that Zeus is divine, but we non-pagans arent obliged to agree. Homer has no particular authority for us.

The same problem nullified the claims of the various groups in his day  the Assassins were among them  who said that they had an infallible religious leader and that one had only to follow him in order to be led, infallibly, to absolute truth. How, al-Ghazali asked, could a seeker after certainty know for sure which of the many infallible leaders was the real thing? (They all disagreed among themselves.) And if the initial decision was doubtful, nothing depending on it thereafter could be certain.

The philosophers of al-Ghazalis day, by contrast, claimed that their arguments were so airtight that anyone who really understood them could not doubt that their conclusions were true, just as anyone who understands geometry knows by definition that a circle has 360 degrees and a triangle 180. So al-Ghazali studied them, intensely. This resulted in a book summarizing their ideas titled The Aims of the Philosophers  which, translated into Latin, ironically led Europeans to regard Algazel himself as a philosopher. But once again, he was not convinced, and his great book The Incoherence of the Philosophers explains in detail, using their own logic and methods, why the philosophers too could not deliver the kind of certainty that they promised.

Finally, he turned to the mystics of Islam, the Sufis. Here al-Ghazali found peace of mind. Through his own mystical experience  by personal revelation, one might say  he came to know that revelation was possible, that divine knowledge could be had and that life was meaningful. Such personal experience was, he said, like the sense of taste. A person knows what it is, and that he or she has experienced it, but the experience remains individual, personal and subjective. It cannot really be communicated to others. The believer can point in the correct direction, can explain how he or she came to faith, but, ultimately, seekers of truth and religious certainty must find it for themselves.
Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region launched a three-year project on populus euphratica forest restoration along the Tarim River, local authorities said Thursday.

The regional forestry department plans to carry out field surveys on the coverage, distribution and degradation of populus euphratica forests in the Tarim River Basin, and conduct research on current water conditions, distribution of water-gates and the canal system along the river.

Spillways and flood barriers will be built for future irrigation, the department said.

Running through the drouthy southern part of Xinjiang, the 1,321-km-long Tarim River is China's longest inland river that nurtures 14 million local residents. Overexploitation of water resources since the 1950s caused river dry-ups and declining water levels. Swathes of the populus euphratica forest died.

Over the past two decades, China has invested more than 10 billion yuan (about 1.5 billion U. S. dollars) to protect the ecosystem in the lower Tarim region. A National Nature Reserve of 390,000 hectares of populus euphratica forests in Tarim River Basin was established in 2006.

The three-year restoration plan will cover a larger area including 11 cities and counties along the trunk and four branches of the Tarim River.

"Irrigation water supply is critical to protect the forests," said He Yu, an official with the Xinjiang Tarim River Basin Management Bureau, noting that the bureau has made detailed annual water transportation plans since 2016.

Oil producers in the area also contribute their bit to protect the eco-system. PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Company dismantled 30 oil-and-gas production facilities last year and will shut 34 wells by 2020.
The Galaxy S10+ might have a sky-high price tag, but its also a massive improvement over its predecessor, pushing the limits of conventional smartphone design just about as far as they can go.

Its something of a perfect coincidence that Samsungs Galaxy S10+ goes on sale the same day Captain Marvel lands in theaters. Both were once the most powerful members of their respective universes. Both are struggling with an identity crisis spurred by a larger-than-life existential threat. And both have a gorgeous shimmer when the light hits them just right.

Christopher Hebert/IDH The Galaxy S10+s fantastic display is in rarefied air.

And in many ways, theyre both the last of a dying breed. The Galaxy S10+ may represent the culmination of 10 years of Samsungs Android engineering, but its also the phone that doesnt fold. Much like last years iPhone 8 Plus, which existed in the shadow of the button-less and OLED iPhone X, the Galaxy S10+ no longer represents the pinnacle of Samsung innovation. That honor now falls to the Galaxy Fold arriving April 26. (In yet another curious coincidence, that date just so happens to be the same as Captain Marvels intergalactic turn in Avengers Endgame.)

But even with the forces of change closing in all sides, the Galaxy S10+ more than holds its own. It might have a sky-high price tag at $1,000, but the S10+ is also a massive improvement over its predecessor, pushing the limits of conventional smartphone design just about as far as they can go. And just like Carol Danvers, its not about to fade into irrelevance without a fight.

An upgrade to the classic design

Even without straying too far from the Infinity Display formula that began with the S8, the Galaxy S10+ is a completely new device. Most notably, Samsung has trimmed its empty spaces even further, leaving slivers of black above and below the screen. That brings the size of the S10+ down to 157.6 x 74.1 x 7.8 mm, a touch smaller than the Note 9 despite sporting the same 6.4-inch display dimension.

Christopher Hebert/IDG The back of the S10+ comes in all-new prism colors that beautifully reflect and refract light.

Theres not much to quibble with when it comes to the design. The return to chrome along the sides reflects a sophistication over the colorized aluminum of the S9, right down to the classic five-holed speaker grille along the bottom edge. The same chrome accent also lines the triple-camera array, which has been rotated to give your chosen color even more room to breathe. With so much glass, the S10+ tends to be a little slippery, but because Samsungs new prism palette of iridescent hues is so gorgeous, you wont want to cover it up. I suspect clear cases will be extra popular this time around.

The receiver has been pushed as high as it can go so it abuts the top edge rather than floating in the bezel, and as a result, its barely visible now. My only complaint is the power button, which is both shorter and higher than it is on the S9, making it that much more difficult to reach. The Bixby button is now in a much better spot, and itll get a lot more use this time, as Samsung is finally letting us remap it to launch an app or perform an action. And once again, the S10+ has a headphone jack, making it truly among the last of a dying breed.

No notch, but a hole in two

To achieve a near 90 percent screen-to-body ratio, Samsung had to push the front camera down into the display in the form of a hole in the right corner of the screen. Just like the controversial notches in its competitors screens, the hole in the Infinity O display wreaks havoc on the status bar, upsets full-screen images, and draws your eye in the worst way. Despite Samsungs bold claim of no notches, no distractions, the hole is even more apparent on the S10+ because Samsung needed room for two front cameras.

Christopher Hebert/IDG The selfie cam on the Galaxy S10+ is an eyesore when it isnt obscured by darkness.

This is why all of the stock wallpapers Samsung created for the S10+ have a clever bit of black in the corner to cover up the hole. Its the same trickery Apple uses to cover up the notch on the iPhone XS, and it speaks to the inherent compromises of so-called all-screen phones.

I prefer a notch to the uncentered hole because I dislike the indented status bar, but neither of the solutions are very elegant. (Although some of the wallpapers available are pretty darn creative.) Maybe the future is in slide-out cameras or the complete elimination of the selfie cam like Chinese companies Xiaomi and Vivo are proposing. But for now, holes and notches are just a fact of life. And the S10+ will remind you of that every time you pick it up.

Easy on the eyes, frustrating to the fingers

Hole complaints aside, the display on the Galaxy S10+ is stunning. Samsung has always excelled at displays, but out of the box the colors have always been a bit too oversaturated for my tastes. Well, thats not the case with the Dynamic AMOLED here. Samsungs color gamut is clear, crisp, and remarkably bright without requiring any adjustments, and colors are realistic without looking too dull or muted.

Christopher Hebert/IDG The S10+ has an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor built into the display, which has a cool animation when its working.

The display also hides one of the S10+s new tricks: an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which uses sound waves rather than light to read the whirls and loops on your skin. Samsungs fingerprint sensor has been a bone of contention ever since it moved to the rear of the phone precariously close to the cameras, and its no less of an issue here. In the age of Face ID and time-of-flight cameras, fingerprint scanning tech feels decidedly antiquated, and the hit-or-miss nature of the S10+s sensor doesnt help it feel any more modern, despite its under-the-glass hiding spot.

A mid-review biometric update improved the accuracy tenfold, but its still not an ideal solution for security or privacy in 2019. I wouldnt necessarily call it a step backward from the S9s physical scanner (which had its own placement issues), but its not much an improvement either (though I do like the ripple animation even if it is a millisecond slower).

What is a definite downgrade, however, is the loss of the iris scanner, leaving the fingerprint sensor as the only secure biometric option on the S10. That needs to change with the S11, and I hope the S10 5Gs time-of-flight sensor is a sign that 3D facial unlock is on the way.

Battery life makes a lasting impression

With the Snapdragon 855 processor and 8GB of RAM, the S10+ is every bit the beast it should be. Every benchmark I ran represented a significant jump over any 845 phone, and daily performance was stutter-, lag-, and slowdown-free. Heres how it compared to the Note 9::

Geekbench 4 (Single-core/multi-core)

Galaxy Note 9: 2,294/7,714 Galaxy S10+: 3,448/10,803

PCMark Work 2.0

Galaxy Note 9: 8,227 Galaxy S10+: 9,549

3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme

Galaxy Note 9: 4,659 Galaxy S10+: 5,456

Of course, off-the-charts performance is basically table stakes for a $1,000 phone. Battery life is far more important. The S10+ packs a 4,100mAh battery, bigger than the ones in both the S9+ and the Note 9. The larger capacity makes a big difference. In benchmarks, I was able to top 11 hours of runtime, about 10 percent longer than with other 4,000mAh phones Ive tested.

Christopher Hebert/IDG The five-hole speaker grille is a nice touch on the S10+.

In the real world, the S10+ is even better than the benchmarks indicate. Samsungs new phones have Android 9s new Adaptive power saving mode, which uses machine learning to intelligently shut off unnecessary apps and processes to conserve battery life. Switching it on makes the S10+ seem like it has a much larger battery than it does. I easily powered through a day of heavy use without needing to turn on the battery saver. A few percentage points might not seem like much, but over the course of a day it adds up.

And that extra battery life comes in handy when you want to use the Galaxy S10+s coolest party trick: reverse wireless charging. Its not the first phone to include the feature, but its the most mainstream one. Using it simplejust tap the Wireless PowerShare button in the quick settings, flip over your phone, and viola, its a chargerbut its probably not something youll use much after your try it out or show it off to your iPhone-using friends. But its definitely the kind of thing thatll be great to have on the rare occasion that you need it.

Finally, a worthy Galaxy interface

New Galaxy S phones traditionally usher in the latest version of the Samsung Experience, but Samsung actually first pushed its massive One UI overhaul to the older S9 this year. Ive already written at length about what One UI means to Samsungs family of devices, and on the S10 it truly feels like the software and hardware are finally in unison.

Christopher Hebert/IDG One UI on the S10+ is a vast improvement over the prior version.

The most obvious change is the switch from tap to gesture navigation, but Samsung isnt quite ready to embrace it whole-heartedly. I was surprised to find that full-screen gestures were switched off by default when I powered on the S10, and without a prompt during setup, I wonder how many people are going to find its hiding spot inside the nav bar settings.

Thats a shame, because gesture navigation is nearly perfect on the S10+. With ultra-slim bezels, the swipes for back, home, and recent are natural and easy to reach. The extra few millimeters of space afforded by the elimination of the navigation bar gives the phone a real full-screen feel. Id like to see Samsung experiment with more advanced gestures as One UI evolves, but the simple approach absolutely works. My only question is: Whyd we have to wait so long?

Christopher Hebert/IDG Night mode on the S10+ is gorgeous.

Night mode is also a standout on the S10+. Like a light switch for the S10+, Samsungs Dynamic AMOLED display generates deep blacks that accentuate text and buttons even more than on the S9. The curved corners of boxes and windows perfectly reflect the S10+s refined design, and the barely-there bezels make phone and the UI blend like never before. Even Bixby Home is better, with smarter card selections and engaging animations.

Speaking of Samsungs digital assistant, Bixby has learned some new tricks on the S10 in the form of if-this-then-that-style commands. A powerful and useful system of shortcuts, Bixby Routines isnt so much about voice commands as it is about intelligence. For example, you can set your S10 to conserve battery by turning off the always-on display if you forget to put it on the charger at night. Or you can limit auto-rotate to certain apps, such as YouTube and Netflix. Samsung provides a few routines to get started, but the combinations are basically endless, especially when compared to the relatively limited options with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.

A great camera gets better

Samsung has returned the S10 and S10+ to photo parity after making the dual lens an S9+ exclusive last year. Both phones gain the new triple-camera array that finally lets you capture ultra-wide images. Here are the specs:

Camera 1: 12MP telephoto Camera, f/2.4, OIS

12MP telephoto Camera, f/2.4, OIS Camera 2: 12MP wide-angle, dual f/1.5-f/2.4, OIS

12MP wide-angle, dual f/1.5-f/2.4, OIS Camera 3: 16MP ultra wide, f/2.2

The result is a camera that can take different photos than the S9 does, though not necessarily better ones. Thats not so much a criticism as it is a recognition that the Galaxy S9+ already offers one of the best smartphone cameras you can buy, and Samsung is basically in refinement mode at this point.

Christopher Hebert/IDG The Galaxy S10+ has a triple camera array, but the pics it takes arent that much better than the S9s single camera.

The biggest upgrade is in field of view. When switching to the ultra-wide camera (accessible via a button above the shutter), the viewing area increases dramatically, from 45 degrees to 77 degrees to 123 degrees. That means youll capture more of the scene without having to back up as much, as you can see in the comparison photos below, all taken from the same spot.

Michael Simon/IDG Theres a small bit of fisheye distortion at the edges of the frame in this image of Barcelona Cathedral when shooting in ultra-wide mode (right) and some exposure issues with the zoom lens (left), but its not enough to dissuade from using them.

The S10+ also performs great when capturing a range of colors, particularly when ample light is available. Images were consistently sharper, brighter, and more detailed when compared to the S9, and the S10+ even held its own against Googles incredible processing engine on the Pixel 3. In the image of the candy below, the S10+s auto white balance results in clearer definition and less saturated images, with less muddiness at the low end. When dealing with different shades of white, the S10+ wasnt fooled into unnatural adjustments.

Michael Simon/IDG The S10+ (left) handles color exceptionally well, even besting the Pixel 3 in this rainbow of candy.

Nighttime and low light are a different story. While I was extremely impressed with the S10+s ability to focus quickly in extremely low light, the pictures I snapped had far less detail than the ones I took with the Pixel 3. In some instances, it looked as though Samsungs post-processing engine applied a smoothing filter rather than even trying to suss out finer details that were clearly visible with the Pixel 3. Id love to see a Pixel-style Night Mode for Samsung phones at some point, maybe even later this year as part of the Note 9s feature set.

Michael Simon/IDG If you look at the detail on the ceiling in this shot, the S10+ (left) is no match for the Pixel 3. Shoot, look at the ground as well!

Around the front, Samsung has augmented the standard 10MP f/1.9 lens with a second 8MP RGB depth camera with a slightly wider 90 FOV. If you take a lot of selfies youll appreciate the edge detailing and depth-of-field adjustments, but theres nothing here that isnt also available on the S10s single front camera.

Michael Simon/IDG The Galaxy S10+ (left and center) takes excellent front camera shots with cool effects (center) as compared to the S9 (right). But the advantages of dual lens could have been greater.

I didnt have a standard S10 to compare it to, but the S10+ definitely outperformed the S9s front camera in basically every facet, as you can see above. However, as it stands the second front camera seems like a missed opportunity. I would have rather seen an ultra-wide second camera like on the Pixel 3 or a 3D camera for facial recognition.

Should you buy a Galaxy S10+?

Theres no denying that the Galaxy S10 is the absolute cream of the premium Android phone crop right now. It has the fastest processor, the most RAM, the most storage, and the best display money can buy. And its all wrapped in a beautiful package thats hard to find much fault with.

Christopher Hebert/IDG The Galaxy S10+ is a superhero of a handset even without any of 2019s bells and whistles.

But there are definitely places where the S10+ falls short. The fingerprint sensor remains a point of contention, and its the phones only biometric security mechanism. The hole in the display for the front camera is inelegant. The cameras are less impressive than in Samsungs past effortsa point underscored by Googles processing abilities in the Pixel 3.

Then theres the elephant in the room, the Galaxy Fold. The S phone has enjoyed flagship status for the better part of a decade, but suddenly it needs to figure out where it fits in Samsungs smartphone hierarchy, at least in terms of wow factor.

Still, even without the newest specs and features, the S10+ could very well still end up being Samsungs mightiest hero. It might not deliver the sci-fi sizzle of the Galaxy Fold. But like Captain Marvel, sometimes old school is all you need to properly defend the Galaxy.
A night at the symphony in Detroit turned into a nightmare for Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner, according to reports by KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh.

The news station says Wagner was arrested and detained by Detroit police following an altercation at the hotel where she and her husband were staying Tuesday night.

After the concert, Wagner was arrested at the Westin Book Cadillac hotel during an altercation with hotel security and police, KDKA writes.

UPDATE: Detroit Police this morning issued a warrant requesting assault and battery charges be filed against Wagner, KDKA reports.

However, Wagners own attorney, Heather Heidelbaugh, is telling KDKA the whole thing was a big misunderstanding:

She was arrested. Theres no charges. Theres no warrant and Controller Wagner is a victim of a very large misunderstanding by some hotel security and Michigan Police, Heidelbaugh told KDKA.

However, the Detroit Police Chief is saying Wagner grabbed a police officers jacket and her husband was drunk, sparking the altercation.

Details from KDKA:

According to Heidelbaugh, Wagner had gone to bed while her husband, Khari Mosley, stayed in the lobby. He later discovered he had lost his room key card. Since he and Wagner have different last names, the hotel allegedly would not give Mosley another card.

Heidelbaugh says a police officer and a security guard brought Mosley to the room in handcuffs and told Wagner they both had to leave.

So she was very, very concerned about what was going on and why security was there and why the police were there, and they were providing her with no information, Heidelbaugh said.

According to Heidelbaugh, a police officer threw Wagner to the ground, bruising her shoulder, and took her to jail in her pajamas. She described Wagner as distraught and injured.

But Detroit City Police Chief James Craig tells a very different story and was quoted in local reports as saying this about the incident:

(Story continues below)

#BREAKING: KDKA has learned that Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner has been arrested and detained in Detroit following an altercation with police. https://t.co/MlAUZkEBS5 pic.twitter.com/fGW2751gB3  KDKA (@KDKA) March 7, 2019

She (Wagner) grabbed officers jacket first; she was interfering and tried to block the elevator  The officers were being very polite, saying maam, please. At some point she decided to grab the officer, and he pushed her off him. She started to fall, and the officer tried to grab her to break her fall, because he didnt want her to be injured.

Chief James Craig also says Wagners husband was under the influence of alcohol and they would be filing charges against Wagner.

Detroit Police add they have body cam footage of the incident, and they are currently deciding whether to release that body cam footage.
Unionville Vineyards made the decision a couple years ago to go all in on Rhone grapes following a decade of experimentation.

After the 2017 harvest the winery in Ringoes, in central New Jersey, pulled out the Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon vines and turned that part of what it calls its Amwell Ridge vineyard over to several Rhone white grape varieties -- Marsanne and Rousanne. Said General Manager John Cifelli at the time: We will lose these rows from production in 2018, but by chip grafting - adhering young bud wood from the white varieties into a cut of the existing Cabernet Sauvignon trunk - we will see these 9 rows yielding Marsanne and Rousanne in 2019. Through the grafting process we take the shortcut around production loss that a vineyard feels when one rips out productive vines. That will have to be the case with the Petite Sirah. It doesnt ripen consistently enough, as it requires a wider growing window that our climate consistently affords.

The result, so far, has confirmed the decision to build the vineyard around Rhone grapes. Two of Unionvilles wines scored 91 points in a James Suckling tasting of wines from 14 states last fall, including its 2014 Pheasant Hill Vineyard Syrah and its 2015 Hunterdon Mistral Rouge Rhone red blend. And in a report on NewJersey wines thats not yet released, the authors of the International Wine Review gave the Unionville Vineyards 2016 Hunterdon Mistral Blanc New Jersey ($26) 89 points with the following description: This white Rhone blend is delicate and perfumed with a soft creamy texture and luscious, light citrus and melon flavors. Pleasant, easy drinking. A blend of 50% Viognier, 25% Marsanne, 25% Roussanne.

All of that helps provide the background for this note from Cifelli that was sent out to subscribers Thursday:

Counoise (pronounced ku.nwaz) is a red grape indigenous to the Rhone Valley, in southeast France. To our knowledge, were one of a dozen or so wineries in the United States that grow this punchy, zinger of a variety, and the only one on the East Coast. We know of just 5 other varietal expressions of Counoise in the country. Were releasing the 2015 bottling this weekend. Friday evening at our Open Mic Night will be the first chance to get a complimentary splash. Saturday and Sunday, in addition to celebratory sips, we will have one of the states best cheese producers, Cherry Grove Farm sampling and selling in our tasting room. We bottled just one barrel of this wine, the rest was blended into the 2015 Hunterdon Mistral Rouge, which earned a 92 point score from the Cork Report. The 2015 vintage continues to give generously. Every single vineyard bottling we produced from 15 has scored 89 points or higher. Just 16 cases of the Counoise are available. Itll be gone by the end of the month. Cant make it in? Buy it online and we will keep your bottles tucked away until you can visit.

For more on Unionville winery, take a look at this piece written recently by publisher and winery owner Carlo DeVito and posted on thecorkreport.us website.
Capital Area Transit is under new management, but now that state funding has been put on hold, any improvements the bus service has been making could stall out.

Its a long chain of transferred money that starts with travelers paying tolls to traverse the Pennsylvania Turnpike and ends with some of that money being funneled through PennDOT to CAT and other transit organizations around the state.

A federal lawsuit filed against the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and PennDOT has put those funds in jeopardy, which could end up meaning reduced service to CAT riders.

Our immediate concern is that our funding for operating next year will be flat, said Richard Farr, executive director of CAT and rabbittransit. Long-term, the effects could be much worse, he said.

The toll money is earmarked for CATs capital projects, such as the repair and replacement of buses and upgrading facilities. If that money dry up, service cuts would be necessary to pay for those needed repairs.

Our system would be greatly smaller than it is today, Farr said. We have not done that math yet, and I dont think we want to do it, either. Its going to be a scary outcome.

It all started with a lawsuit.

Two trucking organizations -- the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the National Motorists Association -- filed a federal suit last year seeking nearly $6 billion in refunds from Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls they say were excessively charged, adding the money was improperly transferred to PennDOT to fund public transit.

They argue it is unconstitutional for the Turnpike to give PennDOT $450 million a year, as required by Act 44 of 2007 (and the later amended Act 89,) to help pay for non-turnpike projects. As of the filling of the suit, the turnpike had paid $5.875 billion to PennDOT.

The Commission argues in court filings there is no evidence the tolls are so high that they interfere with commerce.

Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission CEO Mark Compton said Thursday an agreement struck with PennDOT and the state Office of Budget puts on hold the transfer of those toll funds while the lawsuit is pending. As of now, three fiscal quarters have passed and about $337.5 million has not been dispersed to CAT and other public transportation organizations.

Farr said if the Turnpike loses the lawsuit, CAT would lose $40 million over the next five years, which would make it impossible to stick to its schedule of bus replacement and repairs, driving up operating costs.

And long-term projects such as a new $60 million facility to replace the one on Cameron Street  which is a throwback to the days of the trolley  would be unlikely. As it is now, the facility does not have the modern capabilities allowing for a switch from diesel to more energy-and-cost-efficient fuels like compressed natural gas or electric. Compressed natural gas has already saved rabbittransit 30 to 50 cents per gallon in York, he said.

The downtown transfer center is also in need of a $20 million upgrade to make it a true connector, he said.

These are long overdue and should have been addressed 20 years ago, Farr said. None of those projects are possible if the Turnpike situation is not resolved.

Transportation funding has historically come 20 percent from the state and 80 percent from the federal government, but over the last 25 years, without an increase in federal transportation funding, that figure has dwindled, Farr said. Its more like 50-50 now, meaning CAT and others rely more and more on these state funds  all of which are coming from tolls.

Others are feeling the pinch, too, like Rabbittransit in York, which Farr also oversees, and SEPTA in Philadelphia, which now has numerous projects on hold, Philly.com is reporting.

Last year, rabbittransit took over the management of CAT.

State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale had recommended CAT consolidate with Rabbittransit after a study found $5.2 million could be saved in five years, noting CAT and its riders could well benefit from the expertise offered by Rabbittransits management team.

DePasquales office recommended Rabbittransit take over CAT operations after Cumberland County Commissioners found executive staff members received two public pensions, as well as other questionable practices and costly shortcomings.

Since Rabbitttransit took over CAT operations, Farr said things have been going well, besides the situation with the turnpike lawsuit.

They spent the first year taking a close look at CATs operations to see how they can be modernized. This year, plans are in place to upgrade the fare-collection system, moving towards modern electronic fare collection and mobile ticketing.

Were moving towards making a modern transit system that the community can be proud of, he said.

And much of that is reliant on the Turnpike funding.

Commission CEO Compton said the suit has not yet affected the Turnpikes day-to-day operations. He is not sure what will happen if the Turnpike lose the lawsuit, but he said its attorneys are confident they will prevail.

If its decided in our favor, we will make them whole on the money that we technically owe them, Compton said about the payments to CAT, via PennDOT.

He said all of the parties have submitted their evidence and arguments, and they are awaiting a ruling.

Right now, its in the hands of federal Judge Yvette Kane, who will likely decide one or three things: to dismiss the case, to push it to trial, or to hand down a ruling based upon the information provided.
A Harrisburg man was charged last month with delivering drugs that led to another mans fatal overdose.

Dominique Patterson, 24, is charged with drug delivery resulting in death.

Those charges stem from Patterson delivering heroin to 28-year-old Adam Esquivel in July 2018, according to police. Police said Esquivel then sold it to a man at a Hummelstown KFC parking lot on July 4. That man then died of an overdose on July 5.

According to the criminal complaint:

Officers with Lower Swatara Township were dispatched on July 5, 2018 to a residence in 1700 block of Oberlin Road for a potential drug overdose. Officers arrived to find Jeff Hauser, 32, dead in his bedroom, along with items associated with heroin use and other drug paraphernalia.

The coroner later determined Hausers urine tested positive for fentanyl, according to the criminal complaint.

A search of Hausers phone revealed messages with Esquivel in reference to a heroin deal, according to the criminal complaint. Hausers mother told police that he met with someone at the KFC in Hummelstown on July 4.

Officers reviewed surveillance footage at the restaurant, and saw Esquivel get heroin bags out of his pocket for a hand-to-hand exchange with Hauser at around 5:40 p.m. on July 4, according to the complaint.

In an interview with police on July 9 inside the Dauphin County Prison, Esquivel admitted to officers that he sold Hauser heroin on July 3 and July 4, according to the complaint. Esquivel also told officers he arranged the deal with Hauser over Facebook Messenger.

After executing a search warrant on Hausers phone, police found Facebook messages with someone by the name of Benjamin Franklin," a name used by Patterson, according to the criminal complaint.

Esquivel, 27, and Patterson were each initially charged with drug offenses after Hausers death.

The complaint indicates messages on Hausers phone included conversations about drugs. Officers also determined Patterson delivered drugs to Esquivel on July 3 and 4 at the KFC, which Esquivel later delivered to Hauser. In an interview with police in Dauphin County Prison on July 10, Patterson admitted to delivering the drugs to Esquivel, according to the complaint.

Esquivel spoke with police a second time on Feb. 22 with his attorney present, and gave police the same version of events from his interview in July.

Patterson is jailed at Dauphin County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail.
Just because you believed your father might have been a U.S. citizen doesnt mean youre one too.

Jozef Mader found that out the hard way, through a ruling from a federal court.

That precedential decision, issued in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit this week, deals a blow to the long-time Pittsburgh residents fight against being deported.

It is a complicated case.

The crux, Judge David J. Porter found in the circuit courts opinion, is the fact that Maders father never lived in the United States. His grandmother, however, was born in Ohio.

Untangling this citizenship question requires a brief journey through the Madar family tree, Porter wrote.

He noted that Madars paternal grandmother was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1906, but as a teenager emigrated to what later became Czechoslovakia. She married a Czech man and gave birth to Madars father in 1940.

Madars father lived in Czechoslovakia his entire life. His wife, the younger Madars mother, was not a U.S. citizen.

The fact that Madars dad never even set foot on American soil sinks Madars citizenship argument, Porter concluded.

Our immigration laws have long required foreign-born children of citizens to reside or be physically present in the United States for some amount of time to retain citizenship, the judge wrote.

He cited the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which requires that foreign-born children of U.S. citizens must be physically present in the U.S. for a total of at least 10 years to keep their citizenship. At least five of those years must be after they reach the age of 14.

Given those requirements, Madars father wasnt a citizen, so Madar isnt one, either, Porter concluded. The fathers claim that he couldnt emigrate to the U.S. during the Cold War, when Czechoslovakia was under a hostile communist regime, makes no difference, the judge found.

The only exception would be if the U.S. government made some mistake in denying citizenship status, and that did not occur in Maders case, Porter ruled.

He noted that Mader, who was born in Czechoslovakia in 1964 has been fighting over his immigration status for decades, ever since he entered the U.S. in 1991, right after the Cold War ended. Mader settled in Pittsburgh after overstaying his visa.

The circuit courts ruling upholds an earlier decision by a U.S. Western District judge.

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On Sunday I sat and read news reports where a statewide reporter wrote about the increased rise of drug thefts occurring in settings such as doctor offices, pharmacies and hospitals. The report detailed arrests made by the office of the Attorney General.

Attorney General Josh Shapiros spokesperson provided stats saying that inspections have increased by 50 percent and diversion cases are increasing during the past two years.

As a retired agent who spent almost 28 years working for the Office of Attorney General, 20 of which was spent working in or supervising diversion, I was angered by what I read.

The truth of the matter is this: Pennsylvania has hundreds of thousands of pharmacists, doctors and nurses along with hundreds of hospitals, thousands of nursing homes and thousands of pharmacies. All of these registrants, as they are referred to, dispense, prescribe, administer and store prescription drugs including dangerous opiates and benzodiazepines.

The fact that this Commonwealth faces an epidemic the likes of which have never been seen before should dictate that the oversight of pharmaceuticals is paramount.

The fact is that the Attorney Generals office has a staffing of 27 diversion agents. This fact  coupled with the reality that less than 5 percent of the hospitals, pharmacies and nursing homes are inspected by an OAG diversion Agent on an annual basis  tells us that the propaganda spouted by the Attorney Generals office does not paint a rosy picture like they make it sound.

Instead of solid numbers the press office uses percentages and other units of reflection.

An inquiry of those numbers by this writer was quickly ignored and dismissed by the press office. Rather than numbers I was given philosophical statements. I assume that it was ignored because I was familiar with how the regional offices report statistics to headquarters. Every single inspection, arrest and non diversion hours worked are reported.

In reading the reported information it appeared as if the focus of significant events was on people with addiction acquiring drugs by fraud. The attorney general says we cant arrest our way out, yet he brags about arrests of users. His own stats show 232 new cases initiated but only 53 arrests. That equates to only a 22% arrest clearance.

The attorney general cannot focus on the arrests and press releases while ignoring the results of those cases.

The Health Department reported over 200 cases of drug thefts. How many of those were turned over to law enforcement? How many people were held accountable for diverting pharmaceuticals?

The epidemic demands transparency, truth and accountability. We can no longer accept smoke and mirrors and crafty statistics to assess this deadly problem. Josh Shapiro pledged to restore integrity and ethics to the Office of Attorney General and the recent release or lack thereof falls short of that pledge.

--

C.C. Parker is a former investigator in the Office of Attorney General. His work appears occasionally on PennLive Opinion.
China has stepped up efforts to hunt down cybercriminals hiding overseas in response to the tendency of cybercrime gangs moving their dens and operations abroad, the Ministry of Public Security said Thursday.

Chinese police detained 49 cybercrime suspects from their overseas hideouts in a 10-month campaign to clean up the online environment last year, said Wang Yingwei, a senior official with the ministry's cybersecurity division, at a press conference.

The highlights of the operation were the capture of the principal members of a hacking ring, which had conducted aggressive cyberattacks for seven years, as well as the crackdown on a pornographic live-streaming platform with more than 2.8 million members, Wang said.

Police also repatriated a number of suspects who allegedly organized online gambling.
Crooked Tree, other business leaders, honored at Petoskey Breakfast for Champions

The Crooked Tree Arts Center received the Chairmans Award at Tuesdays Breakfast for Champions ceremony Tuesday.
ORLANDO  First alternate Johnson Wagner wasnt sure what the day held for him as he drove to Bay Hill Club & Lodge in the dark Thursday morning. He was in his car when the phone rang. PGA TOUR Rules Official Brad Fabel told him Davis Love III had withdrawn with a sore neck, and Wagner would get his spot if he could make a 7:20 tee time.

He not only made it, he shot a 1-under 71.

I was just going to come in and wait on the tee, said Wagner, 38, a three-time TOUR winner who has limited status this season. My plan was to be on the range warming up at 6:30, before the first tee time at 6:45. If someone couldnt go I was going to be available.

Wagner was fifth alternate at the entry deadline, but he already had to be in Orlando for a PGA TOUR Policy Board meeting on Monday. By then hed moved up some, and he ascended all the way to first alternate when Talor Gooch withdrew Wednesday morning. He would have been crazy not to stick around.

Playing with Daniel Berger (77) and Chesson Hadley (71) on Thursday, he tied for low man in the group.

I havent played here since 2013, said Wagner, who missed the cut at The Honda Classic but finished T2 at the Puerto Rico Open before that. Ive always loved this place. I finished (tied for) 4th in 2012.

I got in 21 events last year and Ill play 20 events, at least, this year, he added. I shouldve won in Puerto Rico. I was tied for the lead with two to play and hit a wedge into 17 and came up short and made bogey, and didnt birdie 18. But my confidence is high, and Im going to tear it up when I get in this year.

Wagner said hed twice been first alternate on a Thursday, once in 2010 and once in 2015, but didnt get in either time. He was certainly ready this time around, with the late, great Palmers trademark umbrella logo pinned to his hat and embroidered on his staff bag.

If I can go out there and rip it up tomorrow, Wagner said, get in contention, that would be a good story: first alternate to winner.
This beautiful book  compact yet flowing, lovingly translated by Charlotte Collins, understated yet passionate  brings German author Benedict Wells, only 35, front and center among world writers. Its both a family story and the tale of a man in search of the self he is afraid to own. When you reach the last words and set the book reluctantly down (you dont want to leave the world it has woven), you have suffered and lost again and again, and you are smiling. In the most adult, complex, worldly sense, youre experiencing that rarest of feats, a happy ending.

The End of Loneliness joins the world literature of solitude, including titles such as Gabriel Garcia Marquezs Hundred Years of Solitude, William Faulkners Light in August, Carson McCullers The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man. From birth to death, each of us is alone, and our essential solitude never wholly disappears. Though solitude can often be sweet, and we sure need it sometimes, it can also be painful, isolating, paralyzing. Contending with that double-sidedness is the work of a lifetime.

How, though, to contend? Wells tale seems to suggest that, because solitude never changes, it is we who have to change, in our attitude to our singleness, in our readiness to embrace what we really are. That can be hard and frightening. The triumph of this book is that its characters overcome monumental sadness to do this good, hard work. The story affirms the value of such spadework, even as it acknowledges how grinding and unavailing it sometimes is.

Jules Moreau and his siblings Marty and Liz grow up in a French German family. Perfect the family isnt, and we get glimpses of the parents failings and frustrations, particularly a weakness in the fathers character, a fear of prudent risk-taking or change. Its this weakness Jules must face up to, for he himself, as a loving son, has taken it on. But the family is fun and warm enough to draw us in.

When, as we know it must, misfortune blows them apart (and if the book has a failing, its the numerous portentous set-up sentences), the next years are hard. The author himself spent 13 years at state-run homes and schools, and the passages in which the three Moreau sibs live in such institutions are especially vivid. Liz is socially adept, magnetic, and bold; Marty is a mildly crazy, nihilist geek destined for success; Jules struggles.

None is really the person whose role he or she is acting; each must set off in search of the authentic. Thereve been so many paths in my life, Jules says, so many possibilities of being someone else. ... What would be the immutable part of you? The bit that would stay the same in every life, no matter what course it took. Hes talking to Alva, one of the books unforgettable creations. She, too, has sustained a permanent wound, the loss of a sister, and it pitches her into some hurtful choices. But she is also the great friend of Jules life, the very person his father has told him to find. In a story within the story that really constitutes a separate novella, we track these two over more than 30 years, from the 1980s to about the present.

Wells does not turn away from suffering, loss, or death. Whats not all right is not all right and can never be. Bad news unleashes in Jules a force so archaic that I was instantly struck dumb; it robbed me of all feeling, and for a moment I didnt know what to say or do. Although certainly an emotional novel, The End of Loneliness is not sentimental.

A nice trick, as, again rare to find, the family members do work their way into a different life, the one they were living, or could have lived, had they only known.

Which is why I marvel at The End of Loneliness. Underneath its steady flow, there is a bedrock of kindness, of belief in the power of those we love to bear us up. They cant and wont solve our problems, but they can help, and they do. Jules needs his brother and sister, needs them to work back round to him; and he needs to work back to them, back through addiction, conflict, motorcycle crashes, lines going dead, simple refusal to see. He must free himself from longing for the feelings of childhood, leave behind the fathers legacy, accept that he is worthy and capable. I might add that hes a dad, and that will help.

It was only very late, he says, that I understood that I myself am the sole architect of my existence. This coexists with the somewhat (and happily) contradictory The only way we can overcome the loneliness is together. Jules will always be lonely, but we feel he will seldom henceforth be altogether alone.
St. Christopher's Hospital for Children has experienced management turmoil since it was bought last year by a California private equity firm. Read more

Suzanne Richards has been been dismissed barely two months into her tenure as chief executive of Hahnemann University Hospital and St. Christophers Hospital for Children.

The departure is part of ongoing management churn at the hospitals, bought early last year for $170 million by an affiliate of a California private equity firm. A spokesperson for the owner of the hospitals on Thursday confirmed that Richards had been dismissed, but provided no additional details.

Richards, whose previous hospital experience was in Southern California, had replaced Anthony Rajkumar, who was at Hahnemann on an interim basis, and George Rizzuto, who was appointed to head St. Christophers last June. She presented herself as a turnaround expert at a staff meeting when she was introduced.

Paladin Healthcare, an investment firm in El Segundo, Calif., created American Academic Health System LLC to own the Philadelphia facilities. Paladin also owns four hospitals in Southern California and manages Howard University Hospital in Washington.

The departure of Barry A. Wolfman, an industry veteran with experience in Philadelphia and president of American Academic when it bought Hahnemann, St. Christophers, and related operations from Tenet Healthcare, was announced in October by Joel Freedman, chief executive and founder of Paladin.

At St. Christophers this year, American Academic fired Sarah Long, a renowned infectious disease specialist, in a move that reverberated though the Philadelphia medical community.

Gary Frazier, a spokesperson for American Academic, said internal promotions were in the works that would be announced in due time.

American Academic, also known as Philadelphia Academic Health System, has applied for a $5 million grant from Pennsylvanias Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to help pay for the first phase of a project that would include a St. Christophers outpatient clinic and pediatric emergency department.

Phase One includes demolishing a blighted, vacant and asbestos contaminated building adjacent to the main hospital building, the application says.
Hundreds of companies have pledged to sell only cage-free eggs by 2025. Read more

As consumers clamor for cruelty-free protein at the grocery store and in restaurants, big food is obliging them  hundreds of companies have pledged to sell only cage-free eggs by 2025, for example.

But has Corporate USA bitten off more than it can chew?

Producers are trying to create new housing for more than 300 million egg-laying hens across the U.S.  a gargantuan change that cant happen overnight. Currently, the country is only about a quarter of the way to those commitments, according to Christine McCracken, a protein analyst at Rabobank, a Dutch lender specializing in food and agriculture. The Egg Industry Center at Iowa State University, meanwhile, uses USDA data to estimate that about 17 percent of output is now cage-free, including organics.

Going forward, the transition will cost companies, which include Walmart Inc., McDonalds Corp. and General Mills Inc., about $7 billion, McCracken predicts. That forecast is roughly correct, according to the EIC.

To nudge the industry forward as it confronts this task, the Humane Society of the United States recently sent out a survey to the 100 biggest food companies, asking them to report advances theyve made in the treatment of livestock like pigs and chickens. Its also requesting information about companies ability to comply with new state laws, like Californias recent mandate on animal housing, and details on what theyre doing to add more plant-based options to their menus. Responses are due June 1.

Consumers and investors are going to have an opportunity to see which companies actually live up to their policies, said Josh Balk, vice president of farm animal protection for the Humane Society.

Some companies are ready to report on their progress, while others are more reticent. Kraft Heinz Co. said it now sources 60 percent of its eggs as cage-free or free-range globally. General Mills reached 40 percent cage-free worldwide in 2018 and Campbell Soup said its at 16 percent. McDonalds declined to comment on its progress and Walmart didnt respond to inquiries.

The changes  which often include the planning, permitting and building of new barns  arent easy to make.

Its a major construction project, said Brian Moscogiuri, an egg market analyst with Urner Barry.

But the pace will accelerate, Rabobanks McCracken said. She cited Proposition 12 in California, which passed in November and established more humane housing requirements for all eggs, pork and veal sold in the state by 2022. As part of these rules, all eggs sold will have to come from hens that are cage-free.

Entirely Different

Its an entirely different way of raising animals, McCracken said. It takes some learning on how to do that well. Its a slow conversion.

There is no uniform cage-free system, but the United Egg Producers mandates that each bird have 144 square inches of space. Caged systems, meanwhile, provide 67 to 86 square inches. The new spaces must allow birds to exhibit natural behaviors  so housing features like scratch areas, perches and nests are common. These spaces are also more expensive for producers, because they require more labor and can be less productive.

Even so, food-service operators havent raised prices, as the higher cost of production is still just a small part of the price of a menu item like an egg sandwich. At the retail level, cage-free egg sales rose 10 percent in the 12 months through Feb. 23, according to data from Nielsen. But those gains are largely driven by distribution into new stores, according to McCracken. Not all cage-free eggs find a home, either, Moscogiuri said, meaning they are sold as commodity eggs and the producer loses the premium.

Panera Bread, which was 14 percent cage-free according to its 2017 animal welfare report, is working to change the way it buys eggs, said Sara Burnett, the companys director of wellness and food policy.

We have to rethink our supply chain contracts to make sure we are being good partners to these farmers, she said. The chain is using longer-term contracts to help cover up front capital investments as egg producers transition to the new barns.

Companies have also made commitments to produce antibiotic-free chicken and gestation crate-free pork  which means female pigs arent packed into tiny containment areas for most of their lives.

With 2025 six years away, McCracken expects food service to hit their targets on cage-free eggs. But she isnt convinced about retailers. Balk, meanwhile, is more optimistic.

I expect by 2025 virtually every single egg-laying hen to be in a cage-free facility, he said. There may be some outliers that have to be spotlighted so they comport with the norm.
Some chefs rocket to the top when theyre young. Others rattle around for a while, following mentors and biding their time, soaking in what wisdom they can while taking deep breaths, sometimes for decades, before finally taking the ownership plunge.

Scott Morozin, already going silver at 40, is among the latter. But dont hold that against him.

I needed only look down from atop what Im calling the Tower of Chicken Power at his Verbena BYOB in Kennett Square to know the man can cook. This epic pedestal of poultry, a juicy cylinder of white meat stuffed with mushrooms and wrapped in a tawny sheet of bronzed skin, is a tribute to both old-school techniques (the deboning roulade wizardry of a galantine) and modernist tricks (a little meat glue goes a long way). But most important, it tastes delicious, perched over slow-cooked leeks stuffed with truffled cheese and a puddle of classic mustard wine jus.

The rest of that whole bird from Senat Poultry in North Jersey makes other cameos. The neck, feet, and wings head toward the stock pot to enhance the sauces, like that jus; the leg meat gets salt-cured overnight with coriander, fennel, and cloves, and is then ground into a beguiling Bolognese. Its served over yolk-rich strands of house fettuccine beneath a scoop of saffron mascarpone and a bending black sheet of paper made from pureed kalamatas that rips apart like a piquant fruit leather and completes one of a few notable signatures here  an original twist on a familiar dish that manages to be both flavorful and light.

I remember being similarly impressed a couple of years ago by some juniper-crisped softshells and a soy-basted duck breast at Sola in Bryn Mawr, Morozins previous post, which is where I first heard his name. Little did I know then that Morozin, like so many other unnamed sous-chefs, had cooked for me dozens of times before. At Roux 3 and Tangerine during his years under chef Jay Caputo (He never took it easy on me, and I appreciate that, Morozin says.) At Gayle, Rae, MidAtlantic, and R2L, when he cooked alongside Daniel Stern (Ive never seen such dexterity on the line  hes like an alien.). And stints at Yardleys Canal Street Grille and Chad Rosenthals Lucky Well in Ambler and 

Its a cooks life, Morozin said. Either you bounce around or you get bounced around  and neither one of them are bad.

Im glad hes gotten the chance to finally begin to realize his own vision at this 36-seater in Kennett Square, the former La Madera Bistro space whose rustic wood-plank walls are accented with live plant hangings and freshly painted colors of avocado and shiitake (because Kennett Square, of course, is mushroom-ville). Hes also found a warm dining room staff that might lack some polish, with the maddening habit of clearing dishes (and sometimes even wineglasses) while people are still eating and sipping but that can hardly contain its enthusiasm.

All our ingredients are local! Our fish is better than sushi-grade! Also, have you had tree water yet? Its the purest water on earth! said one server, hard-selling the bottles of sparkling Asarasi water extracted from the sap of sugar maples.

The water was a genuine curiosity  crisply effervescent, dry, and certified organic because it comes from living trees. But the server was unclear as to where Verbena was getting Pennsylvania zucchini in February for its featured appetizer of moriscos, a steel crock of tasty Moroccan-spiced squash and currants. (They werent local; they came on the Baldor truck).

Im still perplexed as to what kind of fish, other than one still flopping around, is graded fresher than something Id eat raw. She was the second server at two meals to tout this odd claim, and she dug an even deeper hole when pressed, slipping into vagaries about water temperatures, provenance, and travel time from boat to plate  which was ironic, as much of Verbenas otherwise fine fish is sourced from Alaska and New Zealand.

Aside from being inaccurate, the breathless hyperbole risks coming off as condescending to a scene well-versed in locavore ways, thanks to pioneer Talulas Table just a few doors down State Street. Many of these folks probably wont blink at entrees that hover in the high $20s on up. And its simply unnecessary when the quality is evident on the plate.

And most of the time, it was.

On its pedestals of ruffled shells, the scallop crudo was as delicious as it was beautiful, the raw scallops oceanic notes amplified by the sweetness of Cara Cara oranges three ways  jellied, fresh, and candied into strips  along with a swirl of basil oil and lemongrass vinegar. The deep orange hue of Ora King salmon ( sustainably farmed in New Zealand) was cured in gunpowder tea and vodka, then sliced into a thick translucent stripe of fish over creamy onion soubise.

Earthy celery root soup was artfully brightened with the sweetness and smoke of charred Fuji apples in the puree, with the tart crunch of saffron-pickled apples added as garnish. Trim from prime-grade rib eye was minced into a luscious beef tartare that sparked with a three-mustard vinaigrette and the extra gloss of a raw quail egg yolk on top. Even a simple salad of peppery winter greens from Flying Plow Farm in Maryland was thoughtfully layered with the textural surprises of lentils and haricots verts on the bottom, the subtle richness of avocado vinaigrette and spicy sunflower seeds on top.

There were a handful of moments when Morozins old sous-chef impulses to overdo it could have used some editing (not unlike the mission statement on Verbenas website, which rambles on for 1,100-plus words). His Pocono trout dish, for example, inverts the usual protein-over-starch paradigm and treats the butterflied fish more like a cafeteria tray or shingle, piled high with quinoa salad, sunflower shoots, trout roe, and a scoop of dense pistachio paste that was a mousse in aspiration only. The delicacy of the fish was an afterthought. Likewise, Morozin got too tricky with the alt-garnishes by pairing the short rib with two starches  undercooked flageolet beans and a sticky puree of kabocha squash that Id have deleted for more of an actual sauce over the meat, which was tender but dry. I also would have truly loved the rye-stuffed quail over celery root puree had the honey-basted bird been roasted to a better crisp. The flanks were a little flabby.

Morozins successes, though, easily outweighed the missteps.

The delicacy of a gorgeous West Coast halibut with apple slaw and a coconut milk potato veloute played off the meaty crisp of a braised pork belly. The prime-grade rib eye, butchered in house from a 15-pound side of beef, came over a potato croquette stuffed with minced deckle trim that was deep-fried in tallow rendered from the rib eyes fat cap. Yet more trimmings from that beef resulted in a Restaurant Week special that also was one of Verbenas most memorable dishes: unclassic beef meatballs that came in a crock of light tomato sauce misted over with a fog of Parmesan foam. Scattered with the tart crunch of pickled fennel, these surprising basil-scented orbs made for a fun and inventive starter, if not necessarily a bid to replace the real thing in Sunday gravy.

Like a lot of bare-bones BYOBs without dedicated pastry chefs, Verbenas desserts represent a downshift with some room for refinement. The stylish dome of the chocolate gateau with a crunchy maple tuile and side of a truffle is a good choice that should satisfy any basic cocoa cravings. But the lemon tart would have been better if its curd had had more tart snap and was less runny. I also wish the chef had resisted adding yet another flavor to the tart, already overcomplicated with pickled pistachios and raspberries, with a light chocolate ganache beneath the pastry that clashed. Ditto for the busy flavors of the bread puddings creme anglaise: Choose either rose or orange blossom to perfume it  not both.

My favorite dessert was the baklava, an unlikely Mediterranean classic that Morozin has carried with him through his past two stops as a tribute to the Aygris family. They own Canal Street Grille and are among the many employers hes appreciated over his long and methodical path to owning this place: They were more than generous to me personally and among the most welcoming families Ive seen.

Morozin likes to say that his version is less sweet, opting for honey ice cream instead of baklavas usual syrup drizzle. But its hard not to take a bite of its flaky, cinnamon-scented layers, acknowledge the two-decade journey of anonymous hard work that went into landing at this bistro, and think of it as anything but a fitting sweet finale.

Verbena BYOB

Very Good

102 E. State St., Kennett Square, 484-732-7932; verbenabyob.com

Chef-owner Scott Morozin has given downtown Kennett Square a sophisticated destination BYOB that frames mostly local ingredients in creative combinations tweaked with contemporary techniques, from olive paper to Parmesan foam. The tableside hype sometimes borders on hyperbole, and some dishes can be overwrought with too many flourishes. But that doesnt obscure the try-hard warmth of the service at this ambitious bistro, or the very good flavors that make a good case to root for Morozin, a longtime journeyman chef (last at Sola in Bryn Mawr) who has the elements here of a promising ownership debut.

MENU HIGHLIGHTS Celery root and charred apple soup; prime beef tartare; un-classic meatballs; cured salmon; scallop crudo; chicken Bolognese; mushroom-stuffed chicken; prime rib-eye; verbena-crusted halibut; chocolate gateau; baklava.

BYOB A food-friendly middleweight red wine (like pinot, Sangiovese or cab franc) would be a nice match for this menu. But a growler of beer from one of the local breweries (Kennett Brewing Co.; Victory) or a bottle of Chester County wine (Va La; Galer) would also be a fantastic pairing for a restaurant that touts the locavore roots of its food.

WEEKEND NOISE The noise level is reasonable, though table spacing is tight, so if the next party over is drinking heavily, the boisterous factor can climb quickly.

IF YOU GO Dinner Sunday, Tuesday through Thursday, 5-9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, until 10 p.m.

Dinner entrees, $26-$42.

All major cards.

Reservations recommended.

Wheelchair accessible entrance on side of building.

Street parking only, free after 5 p.m.
Our beer-loving neighbors to the north at Ontarios Collective Arts Brewing are expanding their distribution to Pennsylvania next week with a series of special events in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, plus a line of cans featuring work from local artists.

The Hamilton, Ontario-based brewery has partnered with 31st and Wharton to bring their beers to the Philadelphia area starting March 11, according to a release. Initially on offer will be draft and cans of some of the companys core beers, including Stranger Than Fiction Porter, Ransack the Universe IPA, Life in the Clouds IPA, and Jam Up the Mash Dry Hopped Sour, plus some rotating, small-batch brews.

Launching distribution in Pennsylvania is a natural fit for us, from a booming craft beer scene to a thriving arts scene, cofounder and CEO Matt Johnston says. Its very inspiring to us and very much aligns with our brand.

Founded in 2013 by Johnston and partner Bob Russell, Collective Arts describes itself as a grassroots brewery, and focuses especially on collaborations with musicians and visual artists. As Johnston says, Collective Arts typically does a global call for art every three months, after which they curate selections into a series and alternate the pieces as their can art throughout the year.

Through those collaborations, the brewery got connected with local artists like illustrator Christina Hess, one of four Philly-bases creators featured for Collective Arts local launch. Additional artists have not yet been announced, and a spokesperson did not respond to request for comment.

We engage with an artists collective or a small number of artists and give them the blank canvas to create something new and fresh, Johnston says. Its always evolving.

To celebrate coming to Pennsylvania, Collective Arts will hold a series of events to introduce their beers to the area starting March 10 with a spin your own vinyl night at Prohibition Taproom. From there events throughout the week at locations such as the Pub on Passyunk East, Pinnochios in Media, Delaware County, and Garage Fishtown, among other spots. A full list of events is available on Collective Arts website. Further local get-togethers, Johnston says, are in the works.

Pennsylvania is the brewerys latest area of expansion, which already includes US states such as Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York. Collective Arts beers are also available internationally in countries including Canada (of course), the UK, and Sweden.

In addition to expanding distribution, Collective Arts will begin entering in to the Canadian cannabis market with Collective Project Limited. Announced last month, the brewerys sister company will create and sell cannabis and CBD-infused beverages in Canada, where recreational marijuana recently was legalized. Johnston hopes to start selling those drinks, which could include nonalcoholic beer infused with THC and CBD, on the Canadian market in October, but he isnt yet sure about distribution on Pennsylvanias medical marijuana market.

We are working through everything to make sure we make the FDA happy, he says. I expect for sure to see CBD-infused beverages, and then we will look to extend from there.

Marijuana-infused beverages or not, Johnston says he hopes Collective Arts can bring a little more beer-based creativity to the Philadelphia area, as well as the world generally. After all, he says, that could be a help to everybody.

Not to be too deep, but we believe creativity helps to make the world a better place, Johnston says. Right now, the world needs a little more creativity in it. If we can do our little part, were happy.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was nominated by President Ronald Reagan and sworn in to office Sept. 26, 1986. The Originalist espoused his conservative ideology and jurisprudence on the court for nearly 30 years, influencing a generation of legal thinkers with his often witty and dynamic opinions.

Known as Nino to friends and family, he was an avid hunter of deer, wild boar, and even alligators. He claimed he enjoyed hunting more than anything except going to church with his family. So no one was too surprised when the 79-year-old justice traveled by private plane on Feb. 12, 2016, to a southwest Texas desert ranch near the Big Bend of the Rio Grande. He was part of a group of about three dozen guests, and went out quail hunting shortly after arriving.

Scalia was a heavy pipe smoker who favored a large black Sherlock Holmes pipe. His smoking habit had been blamed for a history of shortness of breath and cough, as well as nighttime breathing problems -- sleep apnea -- that woke him up. Doctors prescribed a breathing support machine known as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).

The night of Feb. 13, 2016, Scalia attended a party with the other guests, but left early to go to bed. The next morning, he didnt appear for breakfast and a planned group excursion.

Later in the morning, the resort management entered Scalias room to find his body face up in bed. He was lying on three pillows stacked up to elevate his head, the top pillowcase appearing to have slipped down to cover his eyes. His body was covered with sheets up to his chin, and both hands were at his sides under the sheets.

A breathing apparatus was on the table next to the bed, but it was unplugged and the switch was in the off position. A hose for the breathing machine was found on the left side of Scalias bed, but was not attached to him. Why was Scalia's breathing machine turned off and not even plugged in?

Solution

Scalias smoking habit led to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an inflammatory lung disorder. Given his underlying health problems and the circumstances in which he was found, it is likely that Scalia died  at the age of 79  of either a cardiac arrhythmia, massive stroke, or pulmonary embolism. However, no autopsy was performed, because it was not requested by county or Texas state authorities, or Scalias family.

Usually, doctors first suspect sleep apnea when a patients bed partner complains of the snoring  and sometimes the sound of choking  restless sleep pattern, and multiple sudden awakenings, and even that the breathing has stopped momentarily. The poor quality of sleep in these patients often results in daytime sleepiness. An overnight sleep study recording the number of apnea episodes should be performed by a pulmonary specialist.

OSA often is diagnosed along with hypertension, coronary heart disease or stroke.

A CPAP machine is designed to deliver adequate uninterrupted air flow at a prescribed pressure through the tubing and mask to keep the nose and throat airways open, allowing air to reach the lungs air sacs (alveoli), from which oxygen enters the blood.

An apnea patient may also be vulnerable to underlying heart disease, congestive heart failure, or atrial fibrillation, which might worsen during the apnea periods, as less oxygen is available or congestive fluids accumulate in airways and lungs. Studies show that, without the CPAP apparatus turned on, apnea patients are more vulnerable to sudden death between midnight and 6 a.m., with risk rising as blood-oxygen concentration decreases.

At the time of his death, some media reports stated that apnea patients may take breaks from using their CPAP machine because they have a cold, or find the mask irritating. Some also suggested the chance of death from not using the machine just once is very small.

Well never know whether Scalia skipped using the CPAP entirely, or turned it off in the middle of the night  though the fact that it was unplugged seems to suggest he never had it running. The fact that he was using so many pillows to elevate his head does indicate he needed help keeping his airway open.

What we do know is that the risks apnea patients face from skipping a night of CPAP are much higher if they have underlying chronic conditions. Scalia, who also had diabetes, coronary artery disease, and high blood pressure, and was a smoker, faced higher risk for a cardiac arrhythmia, pulmonary embolism or massive stroke, all of which could have killed him with or without the CPAP. But if it was a cardiovascular event he suffered, it might not have proved deadly had he been using the CPAP machine that fateful night.

Allan B. Schwartz, M.D., is a professor of medicine in the division of nephrology and hypertension at Drexel University College of Medicine.
Monsignor James St. George stands in Saint Miriam Parish and Friary in an exhibit by Willie Baronet entitled "We Are All Homeless" in Flourtown, PA, Thursday, March 7, 2019. Father Jim has focused his attention on homelessness in 2019 and hopes the exhibit will inspire people to give outwardly rather than giving up items or foods during Lent. Read more

Monsignor James St. George was walking into his Montgomery County church not too long ago when he teared up at the sight of the Beggar Christ statue at the parishs front doors.

The life-size bronze rendering of a homeless Jesus has stood at the entrance of Saint Miriam Parish and Friary in Flourtown for years now, but the sight of it that cold winter day, covered in rain and snow, seemed to refocus the churchs mission. In the words that Father Jim has long and often shared with his parishioners, of sinking into a life of service and caring for the marginalized, the lost, the lonely and the forgotten.

Focus less on giving up for Lent candy or coffee or whatever small worldly luxury they enjoyed, Father Jim advised, and focus more on the people we too often choose not to see.

It was why he had reached out to the Texas-based artist Willie Baronet about bringing his We Are All Homeless project to the church. In response to his own discomfort at witnessing poverty, Baronet had been buying and collecting signs since 1993 from people on the streets. In 2014, he and filmmakers drove across the country interviewing people and buying hundreds of signs for a documentary called Signs of Humanity. Among them was one held by Eddie Dunn, then homeless and addicted to heroin in Philadelphia. In part, his sign read: What if God occasionally visits Earth disguised as a homeless guy  ?

Even with that Philly connection, Father Jim wasnt sure if Baronet would accept his invitation to bring the exhibit to his suburban church when so many of his installations since 2009 were in larger spaces around the country. But he hoped.

Baronet accepted. His mother, Baronet later shared on social media, was a devout Catholic who had died 15 years earlier without seeing her lapsed Catholic sons project.

Im confident if she saw this email from Monsignor St. George, he wrote, she would have glowed.

The exhibit opens Saturday and runs through April 27.

Though that will hardly be the end of the churchs outreach. I could fill a few columns with the ongoing efforts of the inclusive church.

Take their Blessing Bags for homeless people that began as one bag with food, and then food and socks, and then morphed into a second bag with feminine-hygiene products and then a third with pet food.

And most recently there is the Car Safe Project, which opens up the churchs parking lot to individuals living in their cars. The project was prompted by a woman who stopped by the church seeking help. She was driving a fairly new luxury car that she later explained to Father Jim was all she had left: transportation, shelter, and safe haven for her and her teenage daughter.

And then there is the reason I first found my way to the church in 2015 and have returned numerous times over the years to stand over a strangers grave.

After Father Jim read my columns about Diamond Williams, a transgender woman who was murdered in Philadelphia in 2013, he opened up his heart and church to bury her ashes on the grounds.

I thought of Diamond, whod experienced homelessness several times in her life, as I walked through the exhibit, spread over two rooms. The signs, suspended from the ceiling on hangers, caught the days light from nearby windows and seemed to come to life when hit with air from a heater.

What I told my parish is When you start to engage this, I want you to do it over and over again, because its kind of like Scripture. You read a passage today and it might not mean much, but you read it later, depending on your mood or what youre going through, and it may strike you in a whole different way, " said Father Jim.

It was on my second viewing when I noticed how often God and prayers were invoked into the messages scribbled onto the cardboard signs.

God Bless.

Single father struggling wants work, needs prayers."

I pray blessings over you for the help youve given me.

On my way out, I stopped at the Beggar Christ statue, and thought: What if God really is the homeless person we so often pretend not to see?
A dragon boat team has the Schuylkill to themselves at sunset. The switch to daylight saving time this weekend means sunset will soon be a bit later. Read more

Dont stay out too late Saturday  youll need all the sleep you can get.

Daylight saving time begins Sunday, meaning one less hour of sleep, as most of the nation moves clocks ahead one hour.

Love it or hate it, springing forward and falling back is a practice that dates back decades. Heres what to know about it.

When does daylight saving time start and end?

For 2019, daylight saving time begins Sunday, March 10, at 2 a.m. and ends 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 3. But its not the same date every year. DST starts the second Sunday of each March and ends the first Sunday of November.

What is the origin of daylight saving time?

Some point to Benjamin Franklin, though the Franklin Institute is quick to clarify that Franklin didnt invent DST, but rather suggested in a 1784 satirical essay that Parisians adjust their sleep schedules to cut down on lighting costs.

George Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist, presented the idea in 1895, according to the Franklin Institute, while the New York Times credited the first idea to move the clock hands to William Willett, who unsuccessfully pitched it to the British Parliament in 1908. Germany adopted the practice in 1915 to save money during wartime. Britain and the United States soon followed, according to the Times.

After World War I, daylight saving time became the decision of local lawmakers, according to NPR. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established peacetime daylight saving time nationwide.

Why do we still have daylight saving time?

The nation keeps DST around to save energy, according to the Department of Transportation, which oversees daylight saving time as well as time zones.

People tend to spend more time outside in the evenings during daylight saving time, which reduces the need to use electricity in the home, the department says. Also, because the sunrise is very early in the morning during the summer months, most people will awake after the sun has already risen, which means they turn on fewer lights in their homes.

Daylight saving time also prevents traffic injuries and reduces crime, according to the department. But some data suggest otherwise.

 READ MORE: Whats the point of daylight saving time?

Does everyone use daylight saving time?

No. Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and most of Arizona dont participate in the change. State Rep. Russ Diamond, a Republican from Lebanon County, wants the Keystone State to join that list.

Changing clocks twice every year simply because weve always done it that way is not enough reason to continue the practice, Diamond wrote in a recent op-ed for the Inquirer.

 READ MORE: State should lead the charge on banning daylight saving time | Opinion

Does daylight saving time affect health?

Its no secret that skipping out on the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep a night can have negative health effects, including a greater risk for heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and depression.

Theres also a small jump in fatal accidents the Monday after daylight saving time starts, while the switch back to standard time in the fall is connected to a short-term increase in assaults, the Inquirer reported last year.

What else do I need to know?

Fire departments routinely use the clock changes to remind people to test their smoke alarms. The Philadelphia Fire Department encourages anyone in need of smoke alarms to reach out to Philly311 on Twitter or dial 311.

 READ MORE: Another reason to hate daylight saving time: More assaults
J. Del Conner holds a mold of his most popular fireback design, "The Great Oak," at his home, which doubles as a studio, in Hamburg, Berks County. Conner makes original firebacks, decorative pieces for fireplaces, and claims they are being pirated in China. Read more

J. Del Conners biggest headache is currently out of stock, but the Berks County renaissance man fears more could be en route, via cargo ships from China.

Conner, 69, designs and sells cast-iron firebacks, large plates that are propped up inside fireplaces to protect the bricks and radiate heat. Conner started Pennsylvania Firebacks in 1979 in Philadelphia, and at his peak was selling 1,000 a year at $300 to $900 apiece, depending on size and intricacy of design.

That number is down to about 600, and he blames China. Conner says foundries there have stolen his fireback designs, made cheaper versions, and shipped them to suppliers in the United States. Conner was so frustrated, he bought one of the knockoffs himself. The copies are often hundreds of dollars cheaper than his product, but the quality, he argues, is far from the same.

This is the one I made, and thats the copy from China, he said, holding two firebacks. Its the same exact thing. Theirs is 39 pounds and mine is 56. The back of theirs is hollow. Mine has my signature on it.

Conner said hes tried to track down the manufacturer, which has been fruitless. Hiring a lawyer, he said, wouldnt be cost-effective. Instead, hes focused on trying to reach out to the suppliers in the U.S. Hes found his designs for sale on Home Depots website.

Theres not much you can do. You can send letters, he said.

Many websites now say no stock currently available for the knockoffs, but that doesnt mean a shipment isnt on its way now from China, Conner said.

Competition from China is nothing new. The country has been the worlds leading exporter of manufactured goods for a decade. Conners firebacks arent the only uniquely Pennsylvania products counterfeited there. Zippo lighters, the largest employer in rural McKean County, battles rampant piracy in China, where its products are wildly popular.

In January, the Inquirer reported on a regulatory quirk that enables China to grow mushrooms and market them as a Product of the USA. The rapid advance of the Chinese market quickly imperiled several Chester County mushroom farmers.

Theyve managed to cripple me," one farmer said.

Jesus Espinoza, a spokesman for the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said trademark infringement affects every industry, from telecommunications to fashion, even something as unique as firebacks.

Its basically theft, Espinoza said. Family-owned business are especially affected.

Country Iron Foundry, a Paoli-based fireback manufacturer, did not return requests for comment. Firebacks are also made in England, Belgium, and France, Conner said.

While firebacks are the bulk of Conners income, hes also an inventor of sorts, making birds-eye-view maps, illustrations, and wax molds. The Germantown native studied at the Hussian School of Art in Philadelphia and made a living as a freelance commercial artist, designing a logo for Six Flags Great Adventure. Until Philadelphias soda tax arrived, Conner made his own brand of black cherry soda for a decade, based on a recipe by the physician Philip Syng Physick, his great-great-grandfather. The soda was sold in Old City, he said, and he even held a Phyzz Phest every year at the Physick House on South Fourth Street.

The soda tax, in seven months, killed it, he said. It just got to be too much.

In recent years, Conner moved from an 1854 stone house in Germantown to a modern home in Hamburg , 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia, that overlooks a rolling landscape of red barns and farm fences. He sketches and designs the firebacks in a home office, taking rubber molds to a nearby foundry. His home is filled with guitars and artifacts. One of his favorite fireback designs, The North Star," shined behind the fake logs in his gas fireplace.

Conner said a chimney sweep friend had recommended making firebacks, and Conner was familiar with them, having seen a roomful on display in the Mercer Museum in Doylestown. He was licensed to make reproductions from Winterthur Museum. Some of Conners pieces have been displayed at the Museum of the American Revolution. Hes currently designing firebacks for the daughter of the late British childrens author Roald Dahl.

But Conner says he cant compete with China and fears there could be more firebacks coming.

One of my designs, 'The Field of Leaves, was selling for less than what it cost me to make it here in Pennsylvania, he said. How can you compete with yourself? Id be losing money on every one.
The District Attorneys Office has accused a 50-year-old man of using forged deeds and notary stamps to steal six properties in the citys booming Point Breeze neighborhood.

Robert Stokes, who lives in the neighborhood, was charged with 47 counts of forgery, theft, and tampering with records.

Stokes, who has a long criminal record, filed his first forged deed to the city Records Department on Aug. 4, 2017, and his last two on Aug. 17 of that year, prosecutors said. He is alleged to have taken three lots in the 1500 block of South Lambert Street and three more in the same block of adjacent South Capitol Street, all near 21st and Dickinson Streets.

Lots in the gentrifying area sell for between $100,000 and $125,000, according to real estate broker Stuart Cohen of the Mike McCann Team/KW Philly agency.

In a common technique used by house thieves in the city, Stokes allegedly submitted bogus deeds, which bore the forged signatures of the owners and a notary who supposedly witnessed the transaction. In three instances, the owners were dead. One had been dead for 47 years

In three of the thefts, prosecutors said, Stokes quickly filed new deeds, using a legitimate notary, to transfer the properties to a business bearing his name. Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Esack, who heads the Economic Crime Unit, said the transfer appeared to be a way to obscure the thefts should a title company examine the sales histories of the lots.

Housing theft has grown as more neighborhoods have gentrified. The city Records Department logged 136 complaints of deed fraud last year, nearly doubling from the previous year. Esack said her unit fields as many as five calls a day from victims of property theft.

Last month, District Attorney Larry Krasner launched a crackdown on housing theft and organized a working group to find ways to close the loopholes that permit the thievery.

Esack worked on the investigation with Detectives Gerald Rocks and Kevin OGorman. They launched the inquiry after one victim realized that someone had forged his name on a fake deed. The victim called the District Attorneys Office.

Stokes turned himself in Wednesday. His criminal record includes a conviction on a firearms charge and five arrests for drug dealing. His last drug-dealing case led to a three- to seven-year prison sentence.

Esack and her team last month charged William E. Johnson III, 43, with stealing multiple houses from the dead. Johnson is accused of forging signatures and notary approvals to take seven houses. As the Inquirer has reported, most of his acquisitions were in the Brewerytown area, another neighborhood of fast-rising property values.
Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Chuck Hagel Forum in Global Leadership, on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Omaha Feb. 28, 2019. Many Pennsylvania Democrats are eager to see him run, and believe his more moderate tone could help win the state back after it supported President Donald Trump in 2016. Read more

WASHINGTON  As the Democratic presidential primary unfolds, a network of Pennsylvania donors and political officials is waiting on one man: Joe Biden.

A cadre of old-guard fund-raisers and insiders view the former vice president as a familiar and safe choice against President Donald Trump, especially given his deep ties to Pennsylvania, likely to be a crucial swing state in 2020. Many have vowed to support Biden if he announces a run in the coming days, as party insiders increasingly expect.

The anticipation has intensified as Biden prepares to speak Tuesday to the International Association of Firefighters convention in Washington. Its the kind of event that Biden supporters say will showcase the blue-collar appeal they believe makes him Democrats best bet to unify the party and win back states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, where many white, working-class voters turned to Trump in 2016, helping tip the election.

If I were to guess, Id guess hes going to run, said Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), who on Wednesday said he had spoken to Biden, a fellow Scranton native, within the previous 10 days. (Casey has not said whom he plans to support.)

Former U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic Party, said that Biden keeps telling me to keep my powder dry, and that he is ready to back his longtime friend.

And Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.), was optimistic Biden will join the contest. Echoing others, Coons hailed Bidens experience in international affairs and potential appeal to a wide swath of voters.

His ability to repair the damage thats been done to our place in the world is unmatched, Coons said, later adding that on many issues he gets the experience of the middle class in the United States better than any candidate in the field.

>> READ MORE: Trump visits the county that helped swing Pa. to the right. Can Democrats win it back?

Bidens route to the Democratic nomination got clearer last week when two potential ideological and stylistic rivals opted out of the contest. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who would have run as a centrist, and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), who has a Midwestern, working-class appeal, both announced they wouldnt run.

Their decisions could leave Biden as one of the few Democrats running on a moderate message, along with Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Though he represented Delaware, Pennsylvania Democrats have long treated the Scranton-born Biden as one of their own. Since leaving the White House he has established the Biden Center for Diplomacy & Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania and is said to be eyeing Philadelphia or Wilmington as a base of operations in a presidential run.

Keystone State Democrats still regularly seek his support, viewing Biden as an ally who can connect with ordinary voters in areas where the party has been in retreat. Last year Biden rallied with Casey during the senators reelection bid, campaigned with Rep. Conor Lamb as he ran in a Trump-friendly district in Western Pennsylvania, and marched in the Pittsburgh Labor Day parade. He has decades-long ties to many Pennsylvania political players.

In the conventional donor marketplace, Joe has 80 to 90 percent of the Philadelphia givers and raisers waiting for him to run, said former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, though he noted significant fund-raising now also occurs through small donations online.

Rendell said he is inclined to support Biden if he runs, and hailed him as the kind of candidate who can win both fervent Democrats and moderate voters.

Joe Biden is a 10 on the experience rating, Rendell said. Everyone else is a five or lower.

Some major Pennsylvania donors, however, are still waiting to see how the field takes shape, and few Democratic candidates have made sustained attempts to woo the states political elite so far.

Longtime Biden allies and fund-raisers Tom Leonard and Stephen Cozen, partners at Center City law firms, said they will back him if he runs. Each hailed Biden as the best option against Trump, especially as other Democratic contenders have supported sweeping liberal proposals that they fear could play poorly in swing states.

If Trump can run against socialism, he has a decent shot to be reelected, Leonard said.

Another Philadelphia fund-raiser, lawyer Kenneth Jarin, said he was very inclined to support Biden, though he also likes several current or former Democratic governors in the race or mulling campaigns.

The ultimate priority here is to win, and I think at least at the moment he appears to be the strongest candidate, if he runs, in terms of ability to beat Trump, Jarin said. But I think were a long way from really knowing the answer. I think this has to play out before anyone can really know.

Indeed, while Biden has led in early polling, there are many months to go and he would confront a crowded, diverse Democratic field. Biden has flopped in two previous presidential campaigns, and at 76 faces questions about his appeal and stamina for the job. Many of the insiders lining up for Biden are older white men with pro-business views, while much of the Democratic debate is being driven by younger and minority voters eager for new voices and bold ideas.

Bidens longevity has built him substantial Democratic support, including with African Americans, but some of his record looks out of step with the party of today. In recent months he has tried to ease concerns about how he led the Senate Judiciary Committee when it questioned Anita Hill about her sexual-harassment accusations against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and over his support of a 1994 crime bill now blamed for disproportionately punishing minorities. Some liberals have bristled at his chummy approach to Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence.

On Thursday, the Washington Post resurfaced comments from 1975 in which Biden spoke out against school busing to promote integration.

He has a lot more history and connection to the state, but I think like anything hes going to have to compete to win, said Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Pa.). This is not going to be decided by insiders. Its going to be decided by people.

Everyday Pennsylvanians, however, may have little direct say, since the state holds its Democratic primary in April 2020, late in the nominating contest.

But backing from Pennsylvanias donor world could bolster Biden as he competes elsewhere and underscore his supporters argument that he has the best odds in the places that matter most in the general election.
The paved path in Kensington's McPherson Square on the night of April 18, 2017, after Michelle Kolk was hit by a police cruiser about 4:25 p.m. She died a week later. Read more

The City of Philadelphia has agreed to pay $495,000 to the estate of a woman who died after a police car hit her in a Kensington park two years ago.

Michelle Kolk, 40, of Northeast Philadelphia, died at Temple University Hospital a week after she was hit about 4:25 p.m. April 18, 2017, by a police car backing up in McPherson Square on the 3000 block of F Street.

Andrew Richman, chief of staff for the Law Department, on Friday confirmed the settlement amount, which was reached in January. He declined to comment on the settlement.

Police have said that two 24th District officers had been conducting an investigation in the park and were trying to stop someone when they rushed back to their cruiser, parked on a paved pedestrian-and-vehicle path. Thats when, police have said, the driver, a 17-year veteran, put the car in reverse and struck Kolk.

A video shot by a bystander showed that after she was hit, the two officers carried the unconscious Kolk from the path to the police car before they rushed her to the hospital.

A police investigator had said in April 2017 that the officer driving the vehicle had not seen Kolk behind his car.

The settlement results from a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in Common Pleas Court in January 2018 against the city and Police Officer Matthew Quinn. The lawsuit named Quinn as the officer who had been driving the car that hit Kolk.

This collision resulted solely from the negligence and the recklessness of the defendants herein and was not caused by any act or failure to act on the part of Michelle, said the lawsuit, filed by attorney Edward F. Chacker. Chacker did not respond to an emailed request for comment Friday afternoon.

The lawsuit contended that Quinn failed to properly operate the vehicle, was driving inattentively, and failed to keep a proper lookout, among other alleged acts of negligence or carelessness. It contended that Quinn ran over Michelle twice.

A city lawyer, in a written response to the lawsuit, denied those allegations.

A police spokesperson said by email Friday that the Accident Investigation District had completed its investigation into the incident and found that no criminal charges were warranted.

Quinn, who had been placed on non-driving status after hitting Kolk, has since returned to driving and is working in the Seventh District in Bustleton, the spokesperson said.

Kolk, previously of Bucks County, had been living in Northeast Philadelphia at the time, and left two daughters, who at the time were 7 months and 7 years old, family members have said.

Staff writer Samantha Melamed contributed to this article.
ENGLEWOOD, N.J. (AP)  Authorities say anti-Semitic and antiblack writing was found at a private New Jersey high school that counts Anthony Bourdain and Brooke Shields as two of its graduates.

The North Jersey Record reports the scrawls were found Wednesday in bathrooms at Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, about 17 miles outside New York City.

Englewood Deputy Chief of Police Gregory Halstead said Thursday that two of the messages were discovered after an assembly was convened to discuss the first message that was found.

Officials said there is no threat to the school but there is increased security.

Halstead would not say what the messages said.

Dwight-Englewood School is a prep school that teaches students from prekindergarten to 12th grade.
FILE - In this Dec. 4, 2018 file photo, Katie Brennan, the chief of staff at the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, listens while testifying before the Select Oversight Committee at the Statehouse in Trenton, N.J. She spoke Thursday, March 7, in support of a measure to make it easier for childhood sexual-abuse victims to seek damages in court. Read more

TRENTON (AP)  New Jersey lawmakers on Thursday advanced legislation aimed at making it easier for childhood sexual-abuse victims to seek damages in court after hours of emotional testimony.

The Democrat-led Senate Judiciary Committee voted, 8-1, to advance the measure, sending it for a vote in the full Senate, in a packed hearing room, including some victims family members who carried pictures of their loved ones.

The legislation comes soon after the states five Roman Catholic dioceses released the names of more than 180 priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors over decades. It also comes after they announced last month the creation of a compensation fund for victims.

Some of the witnesses put the issue in stark terms.

"It should never be too late to hold rapists accountable," said Patricia Teffenhart, executive director of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Among those testifying in support of the measure were a family of sisters who say they were preyed on by a now-deceased priest who came to their Harrisburg, Pa., parish in the 1980s after serving in New Jersey.

Also speaking in support was Katie Brennan, the head of the state's housing mortgage agency, who came forward with sexual assault allegations against another state official in a newspaper account last year. Two county prosecutors declined to bring charges in the case against the man she says attacked her, but she is pursuing a civil complaint.

The legislation would allow child victims to sue up until they turn 55 or within seven years of their first realization that the abuse caused them harm.

The current limit is two years. Adult victims also would have seven years from the discovery of the abuse.

The bill also would give a two-year window to victims who were previously barred by the statute of limitations and allows victims to pursue claims as individuals as well as institutions.

There is no criminal statute of limitations in such cases in New Jersey.

Among those opposed to the measure were the state Catholic Conference and the New Jersey Civil Justice Institute.

Patrick Brannigan, the conference's executive director, said the New Jersey church is fully cooperating with state law enforcement officials who are investigating abuse claims in New Jersey and added that the church "sincerely regrets that some in the church failed to protect children."

He said that the church agrees with the intent of the bill but differs on its approach, specifically he asked the bill's implementation of Dec. 1 be made later.

Alida Kass, the president of the civil justice institute, said the bill's retroactivity could sweep in nonprofits and other organizations, and not just suspected predators.

"The collateral damage will be significant," she said.

Legislation to modify New Jersey's laws has been on lawmakers' agenda for nearly a decade, with lawmakers introducing a forerunner bill in 2010.

Other states have also acted to loosen their statutes of limitations.

Roughly three-quarters of states amended their statutes of limitations for child sex-abuse cases since 2002, according to Child USA, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit research and advocacy group. The group testified in favor of the bill Thursday.
Turkey vultures and black vultures land on the roof of a home on Grant Street in Mount Holly. Hundreds roost in the town each winter. Read more

If 200 ugly vultures decide to roost in a couple of trees right next to your house  for six long months  what do you do?

A. Chop down the darn 50-foot-tall trees the macabre birds return to every winter?

B. Set off firecrackers, bang sneakers together, or ring cowbells nightly?

C. Get a wildlife permit and hang a dead vulture upside down from a nearby tree?

D. Give up and ignore them, and the stench, and puddles of white poop.

Folks who live in Mount Holly, a historic town just south of Trenton, have done all of the above, and more.

But a decade after turkey vultures began invading their neighborhoods, perching on rooftops and trees and hovering ominously above the bustling Burlington County Courthouse, the town is trying something new: embracing the virtues of the ubiquitous birds.

A naturalist recently entertained 50 people who gathered at the Burlington County Lyceum of History and Natural Sciences in town to learn about vultures, their role in the ecosystem and their habits and how Hollywood has earned millions from using them in horror films. The night ended with a rousing sing-a-long that praised the scavengers as natures efficient cleanup crew.

In the gift shop, stuffed animals resembling fuzzy baby vultures were for sale. A caretaker with the Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge carried in a live vulture so the audience could see it close-up. Apollo spread his wings and cameras clicked.

Its true that vultures have a face only a mother could love, said Jane Galetto, the lecturer, but she said they play an important role in the ecological system and in society, safely eliminating road-kill that could spread disease and make highways unsafe. Turkey vultures only go after dead animals, but sometimes the more aggressive black vultures join the group, said Galetto, the president of Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River.

Tell that to Kay Schuh, who went to the town council in a panic several years ago when nearly 300 vultures swooped into three evergreens close to her Colonial-style home and refused to leave. I hate them, she said in a recent interview. Their droppings and regurgitated fur balls litter her lawn and leave stains on her backyard shed. A few came near her porch one day to retrieve a picked-clean deer spine her dog discovered in the backyard.

One neighbor, she said, cut down a pair of towering sycamore trees the birds used for their roost each winter after ringing a cowbell each night got old. Another axed the top of his trees to make them less desirable.

The vultures, which typically weigh about six pounds and can have 6-foot-long wingspans, are federally protected and anyone who kills or harasses them may be prosecuted. After Schuh complained, the town paid the $400 permit for Fish and Wildlife biologists to hang a frozen vulture carcass, with wings spread, in a backyard tree to shoo them. It worked, at least that year. A neighbor bought an artificial one from a place that sells movie props, but it was less effective.

The theory behind it is theyre smart enough to think thats one of us and something caused it to die, so its not a safe place to return to, said Erica Miller, a veterinarian with Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research, in Newark, Del., who works with injured vultures. They are very social and one of the most intelligent birds around."

Miller said they flock to areas like Mount Holly, Wenonah, and Lambertville, N.J. and Norristown  where hundreds have been spotted  because those towns are within 10 miles of a wooded area and a lot of speeding vehicles. Its a combination that creates a feast for vultures. She said Mount Hollys landfill, and the rodents it attracts, could also attract the vultures. They "might think lets roost on these nice rooftops where theres a buffet nearby,  she said.

Miller said vultures, like other wildlife that sometimes come into suburbia in droves, can become a nuisance. She said the Elmwood Zoo recently got rid of them by projecting green laser lights, often seen on homes at Christmas, into the trees.

Christie Dragan, who lives on Broad Street in one of the Victorian homes whose roofs often sprout vultures, says she bangs sneakers together at night to get rid of them. Theyre a mixture of majestic and hideous, she said. We have pictures of one bird perched like an eagle, with wings spread. ... Its spectacular, except for the face," she said. "Weve enjoyed seeing them, but its time for them to move on.

Dragan said they seem to have multiplied this year. Oh yes, theres hundreds, she said.

No one knows exactly why a town or backyard is selected.

Besides proximity to a landfill, a wildlife preserve, and rural roads, Galetto said there are a few other theories out there.

Mount Holly has a lot of old homes and places on the roof where heat escapes. They want to keep warm, she said. Another possibility, she said, is there may be undetected gas leaks. Gas companies add mercaptan to natural gas so a leak can be detected, and it smells like rotten eggs  or something dying or dead. Some scientists think the odor may lure the vultures, she said.

Randi Rothmel, chair of the towns advisory environmental committee, said vultures are the talk of the town and thats why she invited Galetto to offer perspective and facts. This is one of the birds thats made a big comeback in the area, she said. The Lyceum agreed to host the vulture event and even decided to make the vulture its mascot.

Wenonah adopted a similar strategy after hundreds of vultures appeared two decades ago in the tiny Gloucester County borough. Initially police tried shooing away the birds with pyrotechnics, but in 2006, the borough began celebrating them with the East Coast Vulture Festival. The event featured food, crafts, and people dressed as vultures who danced to tunes like Stayin Alive and Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road, said Richard Dilks, an environmentalist and a founder of the festival.

The annual festival ran seven years, attracting hundreds of people, but ended in 2013 when the birds mysteriously stopped coming. Dilks said the birds are always present in the region, but when they roost, or huddle together in large numbers each winter, people notice.

Dilks said he used to love watching them soar, floating on thermals and using very little energy." He doesnt know why the birds left Wenonah, but he has spotted a committee of them  as a group of vultures is called  in a big tree in nearby Woodbury Heights.

Rothmel said Mount Holly is just taking the first steps to raise vulture awareness and doesnt know if a vulture festival is in its future. Theres two trends of thought, she said. People either love them or hate them.
HARRISBURG  A little-known case before Pennsylvanias highest court could strike down the death penalty and block the executions of scores of people on death row.

At the heart of the case before the state Supreme Court is whether Pennsylvanias death-penalty system is so flawed that it violates the state constitutions prohibition on cruel punishment. The justices decision could affect not just future cases, but also the 142 inmates awaiting execution, potentially forcing the courts to resentence them.

If the death penalty is abolished, that would have a very real effect on a limited number of cases  which happen to be the most heinous cases, said Greg Rowe, legislation and policy director for the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association.

It could also set the stage for another showdown with the Republican-controlled legislature, which just last year accused the Democratic-majority court of trying to set public policy from the bench.

The essence of the question is  Whose jurisdiction is it? said Drew Crompton, the top lawyer in the state Senate. He added that there is concern that the courts action on this matter could further erode the legislative branchs powers to make laws and substantive changes to public policy.

Underpinning its potential impact, the case has bypassed the lower courts and gone straight to the Supreme Court, whose justices are weighing whether to accept it on an emergency basis and whether the states death-penalty system is unconstitutional.

Two death-row inmates  Jermont Cox and Kevin Marinelli  are spearheading the effort, arguing that the death penalty has been imposed unevenly and capriciously. Cox was ordered to die for a 1992 Philadelphia murder, Marinelli for a 1994 killing in Northumberland County.

In court papers, attorneys for the pair rely heavily on a 280-page report released last summer that took seven years to complete. That report highlighted troubling discrepancies in how and when the death penalty is imposed, finding that factors other than the merits of a case  things like race, geography, quality of representation  play an outsize role in determining whether someone is sentenced to death.





SOURCE: Death Penalty Information Center Staff Graphic

For instance, it found that defendants in Philadelphia were sentenced to death at higher rates than those in other counties. It also found that defendants in first-degree murder cases  the only ones in which the death penalty can be imposed  were more likely to receive a death sentence if the victim was white. And it noted a significant number of death sentences were later overturned, often because the defendants got inadequate legal representation.

The report, which was ordered up by the legislature, recommended Pennsylvania make sweeping changes throughout the trial and appeals process in hopes of reducing those disparities.

But lawyers for Cox and Marinelli say that such changes, even if they were enacted, would likely have little or no impact on them and others who are currently on death row.

This result is constitutionally intolerable, their attorneys, Stuart Lev and Helen Marino of the Federal Community Defender Office, argued in legal briefs submitted to the high court.

Several other organizations, including the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union, have filed court papers supporting the two inmates.

The state Attorney Generals Office, which defends state laws when they are challenged in the courts, has not yet weighed in on the case but expects to in the coming weeks.

Cox was convicted in Philadelphia in three separate drug-related murders that occurred in 1992. He was sentenced to death in the killing of one victim  Terrance Stewart  and to life imprisonment in the deaths of the two others, Lawrence Davis and Roosevelt Watson. Philadelphias current district attorney, Larry Krasner, who during his 2017 campaign spoke openly about his opposition to the death penalty, is expected to file court papers in the matter this month.

Marinelli was convicted of beating and fatally shooting Conrad Dumchock during a 1994 robbery in Kulpmont, Northumberland County. The current district attorney in that county, Tony Matulewicz, said this month the death penalty was appropriate in that case.

Pennsylvania is one of 30 states that has the death penalty, although Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf four years ago announced a temporary halt on executions in one of his first acts as governor. The moratorium still stands.

According to the state Department of Corrections, the death penalty in Pennsylvania dates to the late 1600s, although it was on hold for a period in the 1970s, while courts and state officials wrangled over its constitutionality. The means used to execute people evolved from hangings to the electric chair and then, in 1990, to lethal injection.

Since that time, three men have been executed. Gary Heidnik, convicted of killing of two women he imprisoned in his Philadelphia home, was the last person put to death in the state, in 1999.

In considering the new appeal, the seven-member Supreme Court has options. Among them: The justices could decide it does not merit any action; they could strike down the death penalty entirely; or they could effectively put the death penalty on hold until the legislature makes changes to eradicate disparities.

If were reading tea leaves, the court is sufficiently concerned about the systemic problems in Pennsylvanias death penalty that they at least want to look at the issue closer, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that tracks capital punishment across the country.

Oral arguments, which could offer hints at the justices positions, have not been scheduled in the case.

Whichever direction the court goes is bound to be politically fraught. A 2016 poll by Pennsylvania State University found that a majority of residents still favor the death penalty.

And the state legislature, while ushering in other criminal-justice reforms, has not taken a hard look at the death penalty. Having the high court tell it to do so is sure to rattle some critics in the state Capitol.

The core issue is abolishment vs. improvement, said Crompton. I think abolishing it is going to be a fundamental concern for a lot of people I answer to.
In this April 24, 2017 photo, Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner pauses during a press conference at her office in downtown Pittsburgh. Prosecutors said Friday, March 8, 2019, they are weighing criminal charges against Wagner after she had an altercation with police officers at a Detroit hotel. Wagner interfered with officers as they were accompanying her husband, Khari Mosley, at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel early Wednesday, March 6 according to police Chief James Craig. He said body camera video shows that Wagner grabbed an officer's jacket and tried to block an elevator. (Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP) Read more

PITTSBURGH (AP)  Prosecutors said Friday they are weighing criminal charges against an elected official from Pennsylvania after she had an altercation with police officers at a Detroit hotel.

Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner interfered with officers as they were preparing to remove her husband, Khari Mosley, from the premises of the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel early Wednesday, according to police Chief James Craig. He said body camera video shows that Wagner grabbed an officer's jacket and tried to block an elevator.

Wagner, a Democrat, was arrested and spent about 12 hours in jail.

Her lawyer disputed the chief's account, contending that police assaulted Wagner, a former state representative serving her second term as Allegheny County's chief fiscal officer. Allegheny County includes Pittsburgh.

Craig said Wagner could face charges that include assault and battery. Prosecutors in Detroit confirmed Friday they have received a "warrant request" for a "Pittsburgh official" but said no decision on charges has been made.

"The matter is currently being reviewed," said a statement from the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. "No further information will be released until a charging decision is made."

Wagner and Mosley were in Detroit for a concert. Afterward, Wagner went to their room while Mosley went to the hotel bar. Chief Craig said officers were called to the Westin by hotel security. He said they escorted Mosley back to his room but returned when the hotel again asked for help to remove him from the premises.

Craig told reporters Friday that Mosley and Wagner "appeared to be under some level of intoxication," based on his training and his viewing of the body camera video.

The Associated Press left a message with Wagners lawyer, Heather Heidelbaugh, requesting comment on Craigs statement that Wagner appeared to be under the influence.

Heidelbaugh told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Wagner saw her husband in handcuffs and asked officers where they were taking him. She said Wagner tried getting on an elevator ahead of police and her husband. At that point, she said, "the cop grabs her, pulls her out of the elevator and throws her to the ground."

Craig said the video backs up his account of what happened.

She grabbed the officers jacket first; she was interfering and tried to block the elevator, Craig told the Detroit News. The officers were being very polite, saying maam, please. At some point she decided to grab the officer, and he pushed her off him. She started to fall, and the officer tried to grab her to break her fall, because he didnt want her to be injured.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf delivers his budget address for the 2019-20 fiscal year to a joint session of the Pennsylvania House and Senate in Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. Read more

At a frail 77, William Smith, known to friends over his half-century in prison as Smitty, appeared likely to die in prison after the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons denied his commutation petition in 2017 by a single vote.

But, with support from Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, the board reversed course  and on Monday, Gov. Tom Wolf granted Smiths plea.

That makes five life sentences (plus one of 122 years) Wolf has commuted since taking office in 2015. And thats as many as were commuted in the 20 years before he became governor. The practice fell out of favor in the 1990s, after a commuted lifer, Reginald McFadden, went on a killing spree.

Smith  who was involved in a 1968 robbery that left the owner of a Southwest Philadelphia check-cashing business, Charles Ticktin, dead, but who was not the shooter  must spend a year in a community correction center before being released into the community, a spokesperson for Wolf said.

William Harris, one of Smiths 52-year-old twin sons, said he was grateful for the act of clemency, and for all the advocates who pushed for Smiths release. But he is also frustrated: He should have been out of there a long time ago. Im assuming he may have some difficulty once hes out, compared to how healthy he was a few years ago.

Recently, Smith had been in and out of the hospital. It seemed like he was losing hope, and getting tired. ... I was concerned, thinking the worst but trying to stay positive at the same time, Harris said.

Now, though, Harris is hoping the former Southwest Philadelphia resident can reconnect with family, including five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Thats whats going to be his medicine to rejuvenate himself: having his family around. They havent been around in a long time, Harris said.

Another lifer, George Trudel, who like Smith was rejected by the Board of Pardons  in Trudels case, by a 4-1 vote  will also get a second consideration next week, after the board voted unanimously to take up his case for review. As in Smiths case, Trudel had the benefit of a letter from Krasner indicating the District Attorneys Office no longer opposed commutation.

Trudel, 52, was convicted of participating in the fatal stabbing of Casimir Kaz Barowiec in 1986, though he was not the person wielding the knife and says he was not involved in the fight.

His case is wild, given that the person who took someones life that day was out in less than a decade, said Sean Damon of the Amistad Law Project, which has advocated for his case. Hes got a Villanova degree, and I believe he has never had a misconduct.

Trudel said last year he would take back his peripheral role in the crime if he could.

I think about my actions that night, and what its done to my family and Kazs family.  I never thought that I would be hurting people that werent even born yet: my daughter, my grandkids, my nieces and nephews.
A memorial service will be Wednesday, March 13, for Arthur J. Matthews, 89, a former chief inspector with the Philadelphia Police Department, who died Wednesday, Feb. 27, of a heart ailment at home.

Inspector Matthews served on the Philadelphia police force from 1961 to 1980, rising quickly from patrolman to captain.

He became the first African American to command the police homicide division, in 1969, and, after scoring fourth on the police inspectors exam, was appointed detective inspector with responsibility for units handling major crimes, organized crime, homicide, and narcotics.

At the same time, he lectured at West Chester University, Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, and Community College of Philadelphia.

In 1979, he was promoted to chief inspector in charge of detectives. A year later, when the casino industry was beginning to boom in Atlantic City, he left the force for a job in security at Harrahs Marina Casino-Hotel.

In what would become his second career, he oversaw the installation of a casino surveillance system at Harrahs. As a result, he became an expert in the field and was often called on to consult in other areas of the country where casino gambling had begun to thrive.

When he retired from casino security work, Inspector Matthews was already in his 80s, but determined not to let his mind grow fallow. He decided to research and write a book tracing the history of African Americans in the Philadelphia Police Department.

He told the stories of four black men who became police officers in 1881. The result of his labors was the 2016 Historical Commemoration of the Black in Blue, which is still available on Amazon.

He was a sought-after speaker once the book was released. He loved traveling near and far, sharing the history of the police department, his family said.

Inspector Matthews had gathered so much historical material that he decided to write a second book about the birth of the civil rights movement in Philadelphia. He literally worked on the second book up to the day God called his name, his family said. It will be published soon.

He donated his primary source material to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Open to researchers, it is titled the Black Cop of Philadelphia collection.

Because of his high profile, Inspector Matthews was often quoted in the press. In January 1975, when 20 Philadelphians were killed in 10 days during the start of the then-most violent year on record, he told the Standard-Speaker of Hazleton: I believe its the times were living in. Its not the economy; I dont believe that just being poor makes you a killer. I think todays morality makes some people hold life too cheaply.

Born in Philadelphia, he was the son of Isaac and Olive Matthews. He attended Benjamin Franklin High School and Temple University. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1953 after serving in the Korean War.

In 1961, he married Doris Elizabeth Hammock. The couple raised two children.

Family was important to Art, as he was called. He was a man of few words, but when he did speak, somewhere in the conversation, he was going to brag about his wife, children, or grandchild, his family said.

He is survived by his wife, Doris; a daughter, Jennifer S. Matthews; a son, Arthur Charles Chuck Matthews; and a grandson.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 13, at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, 419 S. Sixth St., Philadelphia. Burial is private.
This Nov. 30, 2014 image made from video released by Loujain al-Hathloul, shows her driving towards the United Arab Emirates - Saudi Arabia border before her arrest on Dec. 1, 2014, in Saudi Arabia. Rights activists say at least six people who have campaigned for human rights in Saudi Arabia, including four women, al-Hathloul among them, who pushed for the right to drive. Read more

International Womens Day should remind us that scores of female activists, lawyers, and journalists are currently imprisoned in appalling conditions around the world.

From Saudi Arabia to Syria and Egypt, from Turkey to Iran to Nicaragua to China, repressive regimes have jailed women (and men) for daring to promote womens rights  and broader civic rights. The White House embrace of many of these regimes  and its downplaying of human-rights violations  gives their oppressors a freer hand.

 READ MORE: Saudi women activists jailed and tortured. Still, Trump supports Mohammed bin Salman | Trudy Rubin

In some cases, notably with Saudi Arabia, Congress has stepped up pressure to free imprisoned women. But human-rights groups say it is essential to keep an international spotlight on their cases, which may make their oppressors more cautious.

Here are just a few horrific cases of women held in terrifying conditions around the world.

Egypt. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which promotes global press freedom, young photojournalist Shorouq Amjad al Sayed is one of 27 women journalists held around the world in appalling conditions. She was arrested last year and beaten unconscious until she made a forced confession that she belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Turkey. Well-known journalist Ayse Nazli Ilicak, 74, was sentenced to aggravated imprisonment for life for taking part in a TV broadcast critical of the government just before an aborted 2016 coup. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Turkey leads the world in jailing female journalists, with 14 behind bars.

Iran. Journalist and human-rights defender Narges Mohammadi and Paineveste blog editor Hengameh Shahidi received 10 and 12 years in prison  supposedly for conspiring against national security." And human-rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was just convicted of security-related crimes, after defending women arrested when they removed their Islamic head coverings.

Nicaragua. Lucia Pineda Ubau, news director of the Nicaraguan TV news channel 100% Noticias, is being held in the brutal El Chipote prison.

China. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that outspoken journalist Gulmire Imin, a member of the Uyghur Muslim minority, was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of separatism. Wang Jing, a reporter covering corruption and human rights for an independent website, was jailed for photographing protesters. Wang has a brain tumor and her condition is worsening in custody.

And then there is Saudi Arabia, where arrests of several women activists are especially troubling given the close White House relationship to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (known as MBS). President Donald Trump has given the prince a pass on the infamous murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. And First Son-in-law Jared Kushner is especially close to MBS.

Yet, in 2018, the Saudi regime imprisoned several of the leading campaigners for womens rights. Theres no sign Kushner (who just visited the prince), nor his wife, wannabe feminist Ivanka Trump, has protested the jailing of the women. They include Loujain al-Hathloul, an early leader in the driving campaign, who has reportedly been beaten, waterboarded, given electric shocks, and threatened with rape, according to her sister.

Also held are two Saudi women citizen-journalists and womens rights activists, Eman al Nafjan and Nouf Abdulaziz Al Jerawi. According to RSF, they were among several female activists tortured, harassed sexually, made to undress, and photographed naked. And Aziza Al-Youssef, a legal U.S. permanent resident who had helped lead a campaign against so-called male guardianship rules that require Saudi women to seek approval from a close male relative to travel or work. She has reportedly been beaten and tortured with electricity.

Their jailing is part and parcel of MBSs method of governing, of his crackdown on civil society, says Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. Although the prince lifted a ban on women driving, the arrested women had led the driving campaign for years, and were also leading a challenge to the guardianship rules. They had access to international media and could critique the regime, as did Khashoggi. They could make demands on government, says Whitson, but only MBS gets to have a voice.

White House silence enables autocrats in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. It is very clear, says Whitson, that when such regimes are embraced by Trump, it is an open announcement that human rights is not a U.S. priority and arms sales are. Whether it is MBS, or [another autocrat], all take cues from what the administration is actively promoting.

But there is another lesson to be drawn from the Saudi case. The focus on the Saudi crown prince caused by the Khashoggi murder has also helped bring global attention to imprisoned female activists. A bipartisan group of U.S. legislators has introduced a resolution championing their cause. There are now rumors, not confirmed, that Hathloul may be pardoned.

When the White House backs off promoting human rights, it becomes more urgent for U.S. legislators to take up key cases, and for concerned citizens to support the human-rights organizations that offer these women some hope.

We are basically one of the few lines of resistance, says Watson. Iranian activists tell us that international attention does make a difference and provides some protest against abuse. It is critically important to keep international pressure on."

On International Womens Day and throughout the year.
For this years Womens History Month, the Inquirer asked five Philadelphia women at different life stages  a Generation Zer, Millennial, Gen Xer, Baby Boomer, and member of the Silent Generation: Whats the biggest issue facing your peer group right now?

Men were always a part of my life growing up, but women were front, center, and at the core. All of the most memorable characters in my orbit were female. My mother was a strong-willed Italian who raised five children on her own after her husband died at 43. My grandmother, her mother, left school in the third grade so she could help support her first-generation family of 10. Both women had to deal with the suicides of beloved men, in my mothers case her son and in Mom Moms case, her father. Though they mourned, they did not complain.

I attended all-girls schools for 12 years, and learned independence from the Mercy nuns. They were fierce, outspoken, sometimes impatient and uncompromising, but always strong. So strong that, when I happened to spend a summer at Sea Isle next to their retreat house, it was a revelation to see they didnt have horns or halos under their habits.

Women raised me, shaped me, gave me examples to follow (and not), and made me appreciate the innate power of my gender. While I reject the label of feminist as being too exclusionary, I was taught to celebrate my identity by women who were proud of their own.

Thats why I have such a problem with the institutionalization of victimhood, which has become a theme for women of my generation and beyond. When women started coming out and blaming men for their problems, exaggerating claims of abuse or sexism or disrespect, I thought back to my mother and grandmother and all the amazing teachers in my life and couldnt remember one of them who allowed me to wallow in a sense of grievance.

To me, the #MeToo movement weaponized the anger and hurt that many women felt at being discounted and undervalued. But instead of teaching women to triumph in the ways that my widowed mother, my uneducated grandmother, and the holy sisters did, advocates of this movement have turned being a victim into a badge of honor, or sometimes a sword.

That is the exact opposite of what I learned from my beloved personal matriarchy. Because I am convinced that women are powerful creatures with infinite capacity to adapt and triumph, I hope to hear less anger and resentment, and more optimism and gratitude for the pinnacles weve reached.

Christine Flowers is a columnist for the Daily News and Inquirer and an immigration attorney. She belongs to the Baby Boomer generation, born between 1946 and 1964.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington Feb. 26, 2019. McConnell acknowledged Monday that opponents of President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border have enough votes in the Republican-led Senate to prevail on a resolution aimed at blocking the move. Read more

In February 2016, while Donald Trump was busy sweeping the Republican presidential field, Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) led a group of conservatives in launching the Article 1 Project (or A1P)  an initiative urging members of Congress to reassert their powers under Article 1 of the Constitution. Congress has delegated too much of its legislative authority to the executive branch  taking up a new position as backseat drivers of the republic, Lee and then-Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas) wrote at the time. We have moved from a nation governed by rule of law to one governed by the rule of rulers. Item No. 1 on A1Ps agenda? Reclaiming Congresss power of the purse.

Today, Congress power of the purse is being undermined by a Republican president. For the first time since Congress enacted the National Emergencies Act in 1976, a president has used his emergency authority to appropriate funds for a policy priority after Congress specifically refused to do so legislatively. This is not simply circumventing Congress. It is a direct assault on Congress Article 1 powers  exactly the kind of unprecedented abuse of power that A1P was created to fight against.

One would think that constitutional conservatives would be leading the fight in the Senate to reverse the presidents extraordinary emergency declaration and reclaim Congress power of the purse. So far, thats not happening. Instead, were seeing plenty of excuses, with Republicans arguing that what the president is doing is technically legal, even if he should not have that kind of power.

Sorry, thats a cop-out. Even if one thinks the emergency declaration is technically legal  and that is a point of debate among legal scholars  the law also provides Congress a mechanism to terminate an emergency declaration that it deems inappropriate. Why would any Republican not vote to use the express authority Congress granted itself under the law to do so?

Some Republicans are talking about amending the National Emergencies Act to have all emergencies end automatically in 30 days unless Congress votes affirmatively to extend the emergency  shifting power back from the executive to Congress. Fair enough. But up until now, such a law has not been necessary, because no president has abused his powers under the National Emergencies Act.

Almost all of the 59 previous emergency declarations have been to impose sanctions or trade restrictions on terrorists or other enemies. In the more than four decades since the act was passed, only twice has an emergency declaration been used to reallocate funds  and both instances were to carry out wartime construction projects, one related to the 1991 Persian Gulf War and one related to military response after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. So, it was not until Trumps unprecedented abuse of the act that a constitutional crisis emerged.

Congress can debate whether the act should be amended in light of that abuse. But that does not absolve individual members of their responsibility to address this specific abuse of power. Some object that a vote on the resolution of disapproval is little more than a show vote because the president will veto it and it lets Democrats pretend they care about separation of powers without doing anything real to address the problem. But it is within the GOPs power to make sure the resolution passes with a veto-proof majority, which would make it the opposite of a show vote.

Nor is a vote to reverse the presidents executive overreach a vote against building the wall. The fact is, the president does not need an emergency declaration to build a border wall. He can reprogram an additional $4.6 billion from Treasury Departments drug forfeiture fund and the Defense Departments drug interdiction program without one. Together with the $1.38 billion Congress just appropriated, that gives him nearly $6 billion in immediate wall funding. That is more than he requested from Congress to begin with.

Republicans understandably feel a political imperative to support their president. But they also have constitutional and institutional imperative to reverse this abuse of power by voting yes on the resolution of disapproval. Were Barack Obama doing what Trump is doing, they would be united in opposition. If they care at all about preserving their Article 1 powers, senators are going to have to stand up to the president, the consequences be damned.

Marc Thiessen writes a column for the Washington Post on foreign and domestic policy. He is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush. @marcthiessen
Last week, in delivering his fourth budget address, Mayor Jim Kenney asked the crowd to time-travel with him to the year 2024, painting a picture of a thriving and inclusive city. with universal pre-K, a high-performing public school system, fully funded libraries, affordable housing, a record-low crime rate, no opioid crisis, and almost no homelessness.

As a budget address it was imaginative. As a campaign appeal for four more years, it was even better. Budgets in election years are all about telling a positive story unburdened with tax hikes, program cuts, or unnecessary drama. This years state budget, which generated little heat when it passed in June, was another example.

Kenneys budget makes the case for continued investments in the programs he ran on in 2015: more funding for education, pre-K, and Rebuild. The spending plan for fiscal year 2020 is close to $5 billion. Here are takeaways from the plan:

1. We never have money. Now we have money and its going to education. Over the next five years, the city is committing to more than $1.2 billion for the School District  meaning that next year, the city will give the district more than $200 million  double the amount it got in 2017 and quadruple the amount it got in 2013. One of the factors in this change is the city taking back control of the schools from the state. Kenney is consistent in his declaring education to be a priority. Its hard not to wonder, though, where the money has been every year when the district came begging for far less than its getting now?

2. The economy is helping. Philadelphia is getting more revenue thanks to higher wage tax and business tax revenues due to a strong economy. This allows the city to invest more in programs and put money aside for the citys rainy-day fund. Another sign of fiscal health: The pension fund saw more contributions than payouts last year. It is still far from being fully funded, but at least it is not bleeding money.

3. Are we doing enough about overdoses and gun violence? The mayors five-year plan includes an additional $31.5 million in funding for the gun violence prevention program, Roadmap for Safer Communities, and $35.9 for the focused opioid crisis effort in Kensington, the Philadelphia Resilience Project. But because these problems are addressed with multiple funding streams, its hard to know if were spending enough until the city does a consolidated estimate of all the resources spent toward these crises that are killing our city.

Budgets are by definition aspirational. Its great to hear a positive spin on so many aspects of the city. But the full truth is more complicated: We still have a huge problem with poverty, and our job growth is positive only when were comparing it with our own past performance, instead of other cities . The property tax system has serious problems and the wage tax, while a happy source of income for the city, is not such a happy tax for employers.

The goal is a budget balanced, not just financially, but by reality.
Tyrique Glasgow, left, introduced me to Nasir Livingston when he was 15. Two years later, he was shot and killed in Grays Ferry. Read more

When I first met Nasir Livingston, he had two years to live.

He was 15 years old, with a serious expression that belied his age, and growing up in the heart of a street war decades older than he was. We spoke in 2015 while I was reporting on the latest of the endless back-and-forth shootings between young people who lived blocks from each other on 27th and 31st Streets in Grays Ferry.

In a neighborhood that can sometimes feel like a bell jar, Nasir and his friends dealt with an extra layer of claustrophobia, a deadly one: 29th Street was the border. Cross it, and you were courting a bullet.

At 15, Nasir stood on that precipice. His mother was dead from cancer. His brother, in the 27th Street crew, was in jail. Already, he kept a tally in his head of deaths. He told me about how he tried to look after the younger kids. About the endless shootings that only begat more. Its just how it is, he said.

I would never see him again.

Six days before Christmas in 2017, two masked men ambushed him in a Chinese takeout.

He was shot in the head as he pressed his weight against the door. There was a group of young children in the store, who screamed as he lay in a pool of his own blood, the stores emergency gates closing them all in.

He had posed on social media with guns and in rap videos with lyrics that boasted of shooting rival gang members. Nasir earned a nickname since wed met, one that investigators say spoke to his new status in the 27th Street crew: GOAT. Greatest of All Time.

He died at 17, another kid on the edge whom we failed to wrap our arms around.

Last week, two men were charged with his murder. The arrest came as part of a sweep of the two gangs, led by a city and state Gun Violence Task Force.

Among the eight arrested in connection with Nasirs murder and three other shootings were two women, who police say lured two men to a shooting ambush in North Philadelphia in retaliation for Nasirs murder.

The indictments offer a glimpse into the staggering weight of the gang warfare on a single community: In the 13 months between January 2017 and February 2018, the tit-for-tat violence led to 43 shootings, with 35 people hurt and three killed. Thats more than three shootings a month. Most of it exploded in a tight swath of blocks around South Philly, though, worryingly, some of the feud has spilled into other neighborhoods.

The violence in Grays Ferry stands apart for its pettiness. Its not an all-out battle over drug corners or money, investigators say, but a generational feud whose origins are long obscured. Now it rages on in social-media threats and simple slights, and consumes a new generation of kids. Investigators there say that sometimes, the shootings are not targeting specific crew members. Just whoevers around.

Just knowing someone can make you lose your life, said Jackee Nichols, whose grandson, Rasul Benson, was shot and killed while pumping gas for cheesesteak money at a neighborhood gas station in October. Police said the gas station was targeted because it was where kids from 27th Street hung out.

Rasul would have turned 16 next week. He didnt deserve to die at the age of 15 for that," his grandmother said. "I wont get the dance, the prom, the graduation. He never had a chance.

"Its mass terror.

She felt relieved at the recent arrests, even if none of them were for Rasuls murder. At least it was proof that someone cared.

Caterina Roman, an associate professor of criminal justice at Temple, says the city must do a better job  as others have  at helping younger kids in the years before the violence reaches them, kids touched by the trauma but not old enough to join a crew.

The issue is, how do we move the needle back? Why isnt there a strategic initiative to focus on these kids that arent walking into street life" but are traumatized nonetheless? she asked. Like the children who witnessed Nasirs murder.

Tyrique Glasgow, a former gang member who mentors neighborhood kids for the city, was with me that day in 2015 when I met Nasir. Glasgows still in the neighborhood, trying to instill worth in the kids who have begun to measure their value in social-media beefs, in the few squares of sidewalk where theyre from. The day he introduced me to Nasir, he told me so many people had already given up on the kids here.

And then, he said, as Nasir tagged along next to us, they get to a certain age, and you lose them.
HARRISBURG  Five times a year, Pennsylvania corrections officials meet inside a white block masonry field house on the grounds of the prison near Penn State, and carry out a mock execution.

They escort the "inmate" to the execution chamber. They strap that person onto the gurney. And then they simulate injecting a lethal dose of drugs into his body.

They perform this drill even though capital punishment in the commonwealth remains indefinitely on hold while government officials await a report, now years in the making, analyzing capital punishment's history, effectiveness and cost in Pennsylvania.

The death sentence imposed last month on Eric Frein, the Poconos survivalist who killed a State Police trooper and injured another in September 2014, has reignited questions  and in some cases, criticism  about why the state has taken so long to decide whether to continue or stop, once and for all, executing criminals.

Troopers say Gov. Wolf should sign Frein's death warrant.

"For us, it's all about justice," said Joe Kovel, president of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association. "It's time for the moratorium to be lifted."

And state Sen. Scott Wagner, a York County Republican hoping to unseat the governor next year, has signaled it's an issue he'll press on the campaign trail.

And state Sen. Scott Wagner, a York County Republican hoping to unseat the governor next year, has signaled it's an issue he'll press on the campaign trail. "I can assure you, when I'm governor, within the first 48 hours, I'll be up there reversing that moratorium," Wagner said in an interview Friday.

Pennsylvania isn't the only state in limbo over the death penalty, as debate has raged over the probability of an innocent person being executed and the propriety of lethal injection as an execution method. Capital punishment is authorized in 31 states, but only seven have carried out executions  31 of them  since the start of 2016, according to Amber Widgery, a capital punishment policy specialists at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

A view from the witness area into the execution chamber for Pennsylvania inmates.

"There are people in the world who think that no one innocent has ever been executed, and others who think it happens all the time," Widgery said. There are also some who don't believe you have to constitutionally execute a criminal painlessly, she said, and others who classify lethal injection as cruel and unusual.

In Pennsylvania, those and other concerns led Wolf, a Democrat, to impose a moratorium on the death penalty after taking office in early 2015. He argued the state should await the results of a long-awaited report by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment before putting any more criminals to death.

The report is expected to analyze more than a dozen factors involving the death penalty, such as cost, bias and effectiveness.

Wolf's decision has drawn backlash from organizations like the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, which in 2015 called it "a misuse of [the governor's] power" that ignores the law.

The study itself has also come under fire, particularly for how long it's taking to complete: It was ordered up by the state Senate in 2011 and was supposed to be completed by 2013.

"Based on the makeup of the group and how it's operating to date, we have serious concerns about the product that's going to be produced and it's very likely that it's going to be anti-death penalty," said Richard Long, executive director of the prosecutors' group.

Those involved in the study defend their work.

The initial research, conducted by Penn State's Justice Center for Research, took years because the researchers had to physically travel to county courts and district attorneys' and public defenders' offices to access documents, said the center's Managing Director, Gary Zajac.

The process of obtaining this data was a "long nightmare," Zajac said, requiring permission to access the information then "weeding throughirregularly organized files."

"It's a wonder we got done at all, but we did," he said in an email.

The Justice Center's report awaits a final peer review before it is complete. A scholar who had been scheduled to perform that task died, causing further delay.

"The report is almost like it's been cursed from the beginning," said Glenn Pasewicz, executive director of the Joint State Government Commission, which is tasked with producing it then sending it to legislators for consideration.

Meanwhile, tax dollars still go toward keeping prisoners on death row.

Each of the state's 165 death row inmates  from Frein, who was sentenced last month, to Henry Fahy, who has been awaiting his punishment since November 1983  cost Pennsylvania $10,000 more a year to house than a convict sentenced to life in prison. This does not account for the additional legal fees associated with capital cases: Some estimate prosecuting and litigating a capital murder case can cost up to $3 million more than a non-capital murder case.

The state is also paying to maintain the long-dormant execution facility on the grounds of State Correctional Institution Rockview. The last time it was used was in 1999, when Philadelphia "House of Horrors" murderer Gary Heidnik was executed by lethal injection.

"We have spent billions of dollars having a death penalty  including maintaining a death facility  and we have not executed someone who did not ask to be executed" since 1962, Sen. Daylin Leach, a Montgomery County Democrat and one of four members of a Senate task force awaiting the report, said last week.

Leach is an unapologetic opponent of the death penalty. He has introduced bills to abolish it since 2009, arguing that it is "immoral and barbaric," and calling the cost of capital punishment "troubling"  including the cost of maintaining the execution complex.

The "death house," as the chamber at the Rockview prison is sometimes called, requires tax dollars to be heated, lit and maintained. "It's literally something we are getting zero out of," Leach said.

The Department of Corrections was unable to provide information about the costs of maintaining the execution complex. But officials there say it has to be maintained in case an execution is suddenly scheduled.

Corrections officials declined requests to inspect or photograph the inside of the chamber, citing security reasons. They say it contains three cinderblock holding cells, where inmates are expected to spend their final hours. Approximately 20 feet away, in the execution chamber, a window peers through to a witness room, where media, citizens and victims can watch executions from rows of metal folding chairs.The field house has upstairs offices, currently unused, and an adjacent building with a kitchen to prepare an inmate's final meal.

But that hasn't been necessary since 1999.
City Council candidate Allan Domb (center) is greeted by applause as he arrives at his election-night celebration at Smith & Wollensky restaurant in Rittenhouse Square on May 19, 2015. Read more

If you turned on a television in the last week, chances are you saw City Councilman Allan Domb.

The millionaire real estate brokers early wave of reelection campaign commercials was everywhere, as rumors swirled in City Hall that Domb would scrap his bid for a second term and run instead in the May 21 Democratic primary against Mayor Jim Kenney.

Someone pulled nomination petitions for Domb to run for mayor. Domb said it wasnt him. A new Twitter account started urging him to run for mayor. Whos doing this stuff? Domb asked, vowing to run again for Council while leaving open the chance he could run for mayor in 2023.

Well know for sure Tuesday, the deadline for candidates to submit petitions to get on the primary ballot. Nearly 50 Democrats and 10 Republicans have pulled petitions to seek City Councils seven at-large seats.

Domb could shake things up even if he stays in the Council race, by triggering the millionaires provision in the citys campaign finance law. Contribution limits double from $3,000 to $6,000 for individuals and $11,900 to $23,800 for political action committees if one candidate in a race invests $250,000 or more of personal money in a campaign.

Domb sank $275,000 into broadcast and cable television air time for the week that ended Wednesday, according to a media buyer who did the math for Clout.

For context, Domb ended 2018 with $272,754 in his campaign account. And he told us this week that he has raised $130,000 to $140,000 from donors since Jan. 1. Domb already has given his campaign nearly $20,000 in in-kind contributions, mostly event expenses, since 2016.

Domb said he is not sure if or when he will trigger the provision doubling contribution limits. But he plans to air more television commercials.

David Thornburgh, president of the good-government group Committee of Seventy, said the political class that cuts checks for candidates cant be too happy about the prospects of doubling limits.

The limits tie their hands, conveniently, Thornburgh said. All of the sudden, the handcuffs have been taken off.

Domb pumped $996,375 into his successful 2015 run for Council, triggering the provision two weeks before the primary.

Were still 2 months out this year. Well know more about where candidates stand when their ballot positions are determined. They choose numbered bingo balls from an old Horn & Hardart coffee can. Low numbers equal best ballot positions.

Political consultant Neil Oxman said candidates who pull low numbers will then raise more money. But he questioned whether doubling the limits would have much of an impact in a crowded race.

A couple of thousands of dollars is not even a decent week of Philadelphia TV, Oxman said.

Local 98 vs. State Rep. Jared Solomon, Round 2

Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is still salty after State Rep. Jared Solomon called last week for City Councilman Bobby Henon to resign. Henon, Local 98 leader John Johnny Doc Dougherty, and six other union officials were indicted Jan. 30, accused of embezzling more than $600,000 in union funds.

Local 98 gave Solomon $5,000 in 2015. Concerned Irish Americans of Philadelphia, a political action committee funded by the union, gave him $25,000 in 2016.

Brian Eddis, a Local 98 official and treasurer of Concerned Irish Americans, wrote to Solomon this week demanding return of the $25,000 and threatening engagement of our legal representatives if that didnt happen.

Im not sure what theyre going to sue me for, Solomon said. Not being their puppet?

Local 98 spokesperson Frank Keel promised that Solomons road to reelection just got a lot rougher.

Solomon says he is giving $10,000 each  the $25,000 plus Local 98s $5,000  to three groups that help children in his Northeast Philly district.

I cant give it back so it goes for more snow removal and home repairs at Johnny Docs house, said Solomon, citing some of the charges from the indictment about alleged misspending of union funds.

Special election in the 190th District Tuesday

Movita Johnson-Harrell, the Democratic nominee for a special election in West Phillys 190th District of the state House, is favored to win, despite a long string of financial troubles that came to light with her candidacy. Eighty-seven percent of the voters in the district are Democrats.

Johnson-Harrell, who stepped down in February as a crime victims advocate in the Philadelphia District Attorneys Office, last year closed the personal-care home she operated, and she filed for bankruptcy in November, citing $607,429 in liabilities. That includes a $465,000 default judgment from a loan secured by the properties where she ran her business. She also has been the subject of several liens for unpaid Philadelphia property taxes, including three more filed by the city Monday.

Johnson still managed to scrape together $15,000 to lend her campaign last month, according to a campaign finance report she filed last week. Her Republican opponent, Michael Harvey, showed just $551 in his campaign account. Reports for two independent candidates, Amen Brown and Pastor Pam Williams, were unavailable.

Theyre all fighting for the seat vacated by Vanessa Lowery Brown, a Democrat who left office in disgrace after being convicted on bribery charges. The winner will complete her two-year term in the House, which pays $88,610.
In this Aug. 28, 2018, file photo, Justice Department official Bruce Ohr arrives for a closed hearing of the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees on Capitol Hill in Washington. Read more

WASHINGTON - The House Judiciary Committee's top Republican on Friday released the transcript of an interview with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, who came under the GOP's scrutiny last year over his contacts with the author of a controversial dossier alleging President Trump had personal and financial ties to Russian officials.

Republicans considered Ohr a key witness in an investigation they conducted last year of how federal law enforcement officials handled investigations surrounding Trump and his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, as Ohr served as a link between the dossier's author, former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, and the FBI.

Their suspicions were amplified, however, because Steele's research was partially funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, and because Ohr's wife - Nellie Ohr - worked briefly for Fusion GPS, the firm that was later linked to Steele and his work. President Donald Trump has denied the allegations in Steele's dossier, many of which have been called into question as Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill argue about whether Trump was engaged in any wrongdoing, and whether witnesses alleging so should be believed.

Rep. Douglas Collins, R-Ga., the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, elected to release Ohr's transcript - the first of many interview records he is planning to put out in the coming weeks - with no redactions, over the objections of Justice Department officials who wanted to keep some information out of public view.

As such, the transcript released Friday contains new details, but few surprises about the conversation lawmakers held with Ohr behind closed doors last August. Yet the release comes as the House, now led by Democrats, is turning its investigative muscle toward members of Trump's inner circle, such as his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, and business partners that could connect him to Russian projects, such as his former associate Felix Sater.

The president has denied he ever worked closely with Sater, and has sought to discredit Cohen's testimony, calling him a liar and a "rat." Cohen, who has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and will begin a three-year prison sentence in May, has acknowledged that he once lied about the timeline of a Moscow tower that Trump was trying to build well into his presidential campaign to protect the president from scrutiny.

Ohr's transcript details his testimony about his contacts with Steele, which continued even after Steele's formal relationship with the FBI ended, and how he passed that information on to investigators. The transcript shows that Ohr had doubts about the reliability of Steele's information because of his Russian sources and financial sponsors, even as he was transmitting it to officials, but did not think it was improper to pass it along.

"As I saw it, I was receiving information that I passed to people who were working on the investigation," the transcript shows Ohr said. "They decided what to do with it. I don't know what they did with it."

The record also shows that when Ohr's wife gave him a memory stick of Russian history work she did for Fusion GPS to pass on to law enforcement officials, he gave it to Joe Pientka, an FBI agent who had interviewed Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Strzok and Page, both former FBI officials, were found to have been sending anti-Trump text messages to each other while working on the probes of Trump and Clinton.

This story is developing and will be updated.

Matt Zapotosky, Rachael Bade, and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.
The sentencing of Paul Manafort, former chairman of President Trump's campaign, was highly anticipated, capping a significant chapter in Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation. But it was an unlikely candidate to become the latest example of a conflict that has vexed legal professionals and activists for decades: systemic inequality in the criminal justice system.

Yet, as a federal judge handed down his sentence in jam-packed Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom Thursday, and observers digested the judges decision  47 months  Manaforts case was immediately perceived as a high-profile instance of the justice system working one way for a wealthy, well-connected man, while working in another, harsher, way for indigent defendants facing lesser crimes.

"Paul Manafort's lenient 4-year sentence  far below the recommended 20 years despite extensive felonies and post-conviction obstruction  is a reminder of the blatant inequities in our justice system that we all know about, because they reoccur every week in courts across America," said Ari Melber, a legal analyst for NBC News, in a Thursday-night tweet.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Manafort faced up to 24 years in prison for bank fraud and for cheating on his taxes, yet U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis said that calculation was "excessive." Manafort's crime's were "very serious," Ellis said, but they didn't warrant a punishment that could keep the 69-year-old imprisoned into his 90s.

Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor and expert in financial crimes, said Manafort's sentence was very light "by any stretch of the imagination." Manafort, who once agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors but then was found to have lied to them, got a sentence that resembled one given to someone who did not renege on their cooperation agreement, Levin said.

"His crimes went on for an extremely long time, at the very highest levels of our government and deeply affected our democracy," Levin told The Washington Post. "To get away with it for such a short sentence is something that is absolutely mind-boggling."

However, he said, federal judges are not required to adhere to sentencing guidelines, which serve only as recommendations to judges. Ultimately, they are free to depart from the guidelines and come up with any number they see as appropriate.

"It seems pretty light to me, and to a lot of people," Levin said. "But that is squarely in the purview of the judge to do."

The sentencing inspired a flood of lawyers to dig through news clips and their own recent cases. What they found was dozens of examples of defendants who, in their view, were no where nearly as fortunate as Manafort.

Scott Hechinger, a senior staff attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services, an organization that provides legal representation to defendants who cannot afford it, used one of his recent clients, who was just offered a 36-to-72-month sentence, as an example. The crime? Stealing $100-worth of quarters from a residential laundry room. Hechinger's client may wind up doing more time than Manafort, a man who defrauded the Internal Revenue Service out of $6 million.

Hechinger listed a half dozen more examples. Among them were a Brooklyn teenager who got a 19-years-to-life sentence for burning a mattress in the hallway of his apartment building, resulting in the smoke-inhalation death of an officer who responded to the scene. He also cited the case of Cyrstal Mason, an ex-felon who was sent back to prison for five years after voting in the 2016 presidential election while on probation  an act she says she didn't know was illegal.

Other lawyers argued that Manafort's sentence underscores "a broader problem: white collar crimes (e.g. fraud, money laundering) just aren't taken seriously," wrote Louis Laverone, an international financial crimes attorney.

Laverone cited the case of one Turkish banker who was charged with participating in a multi-billion-dollar scheme, violating U.S. economic sanctions. In that case, guidelines called for a possible 105-year sentence. The banker got 32 months.

Judge Ellis is a Reagan appointee, known as tough and no-nonsense. But, in recent years, he has publicly complained about laws that impose cumbersome sentences, as Politico illustrated in a 2018 profile. In one striking example from that report, Ellis sentenced a 37-year-old to a mandatory minimum of 40 years in prison for dealing methamphetamine.

"This situation presents me with something I have no discretion to change and the only thing I can do is express my displeasure," the judge said. "I chafe a bit at that, but I follow the law. If I thought it was blatantly immoral, I'd have to resign. It's wrong, but not immoral."

In that man's case, the crime's mandatory minimum sentence forced Ellis's hand. But for Manafort, Levin said, there was no such requirement, no mandatory minimum.

Because Manafort has already spent nine months in jail, his sentence could end in fewer than three years. But he still faces sentencing next week for a conspiracy charged in D.C. federal court, which could result in up to an additional 10 years.

In a tweet, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., a former prosecutor and presidential candidate, also denounced what she characterized as a lenient sentence. "Crimes committed in an office building should be treated as seriously as crimes committed on a street corner," she said. "Can't have two systems of justice!"

Hechinger and other advocates of criminal justice reform who weighed in on Manafort's sentence stressed that they were not calling for harsher overall punishment  simply a justice system that was a little more just.

"I'm not advocating here or anywhere for worse treatment for all," he said. "Just wish my clients received same treatment as the privileged few."

The Washington Posts Deanna Paul contributed to this article.
1414 S. Penn Square #17B, a condominium in the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, is on the market for $1,750,000. Read more

Robert Marc Lieberman and Rafael Novoa already had a farm in Upper Makefield when they bought a condo at the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia.

We wanted the best of both worlds, Lieberman said. That being town and country.

It was the specific floor plan of the unit at the Ritz that appealed to the couple. Not only did it offer more than 2,000 square feet, it included City Hall views and a balcony. They knew they wanted an exterior feature.

We didnt want to feel like a monkey stuck up in a tree, he said.

In addition to personal views of Billy Penn atop City Hall, the home includes hotel-style amenities.

When you drive in, their motto is welcome home, Lieberman said. The staff are amazing.

When the couple bought the property five years ago, they made dramatic changes  to the aesthetic and the structure of the unit.

Both of us are very creative, and we wanted something unique, and we love to entertain, Lieberman said.

With Novoa in interior design and Lieberman retired from the business, they saw lots of opportunity. The three-bedroom condo with three full baths and a powder room became a two-bedroom condo with two full baths and a powder room.

It doubled the space for our living room, Lieberman said. When friends come over and they turn the corner of the gallery, they immediately see City Hall. Their mouths open up and theyre like, This is stunning.

Plus, the connection to the world-renowned Ritz gave them other options for additional guests.

Its so easy to put up our friends and family in the hotel next door, he said.

With more space for entertaining, they were able to focus on decorative elements in the home.

The biggest thing we love architecturally are the mirrored ceilings, Lieberman said. The treatment, which he calls mercury paper, runs from the front door, through a hallway and into the living room, kitchen and dining room. He said he got the idea from Elton Johns home in Palm Springs, Calif.

It makes the ceilings look almost two-story  thats the illusion we got from that paper, he said.

Although they love hosting parties and fund-raisers in the expansive living room, Lieberman said, his favorite place in the home is the dining room.

I just think the small, private little intimate space for dinner parties is wonderful, he said.

Lieberman said the couple are ready to embark on a new chapter of life and have recently decided to list their condo for sale.

We want to start a sort of snowbird lifestyle in Palm Beach, Fla., he said. We bought a new-construction deco home, and were really excited about that.

Theyre hanging on to their farm, though. And Lieberman said he could see himself one day moving into his favorite neighborhood: Rittenhouse Square.

My heart belongs to Philly, he said.

The home is listed with Andy Oei at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach for $1.75 million.
Despite the emotional and financial toll that her personal hardships have taken on Anna, she is trying to embrace the true meaning of Christmas spirit by doing all she can to bring joy to her children while being so grateful...
WPT LAPC: Elias Gunning for Fifth Title in Main, Ho Wins $25K

March 07, 2019 Mo Nuwwarah

Darren Elias already has the record for most World Poker Tour titles won with four, but it seems he's trying to put more distance between himself and the rest of the field.

After five days of play, the WPT L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 Main Event is down to its final six runners, with Elias holding a very wide chip lead of about double the stacks held by nearest challengers Matas Cimbolas and David "ODB" Baker.

With the winner set to bank over $1 million, a win here would not only solidify Elias as the top player in WPT history, it would also secure him the biggest cash in a career that's seen him rake in north of $6.6 million in live tournaments.

Here's how things stand heading into the delayed final table, set to play out on March 11 at HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas at Luxor:

Seat Player Home Country Stack (big blinds) 1 Jean-Claude Moussa USA 1,250,000 (25) 2 Matas Cimbolas Lithuania 4,675,000 (93) 3 John Smith USA 895,000 (17) 4 Darren Elias USA 9,070,000 (181) 5 David "ODB" Baker USA 4,760,000 (95) 6 Steve Yea South Korea 1,205,000 (24)

The freezeout drew 546 entries, a significant bump over last year's 493, possibly due to a renewed satellite push headed by WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage. That big field meant over $5.1 million in the prize pool and 69 places paid. In a tournament like this, the list of cashers is naturally full of recognizable names, with Billy Baxter, Ankush Mandavia, Gordon Vayo, Dan Shak and Mike Matusow among those making the money but busting before the final day.

Baker bagged Day 3 and Day 4 leads to head into Day 5 with over 180 big blinds, according to the live updates.

Day 5 Action

Former WPT champ Andy Frankenberger made Day 5 as the shortest stack, but he was the first player to bust out when he ran jacks into Steve Yea's aces.

Then, Elias played one of the biggest pots of the tournament, one in which he put most of his chips at risk. It was Level 23 (15,000/25,000/25,000) and Tony Tran made it 60,000 from the cutoff. Elias responded with a raise to 275,000 from the small blind, then Tran came back to make it 720,000 to go. Elias ripped it all in and Tran called for just under 2.5 million.

Elias:

Tran:

The monster flip went to Elias as he flopped an ace and rivered a king for good measure, stacking up to about 5.4 million.

Cimbolas then sent Jeffrey Colpitts packing with over after each player paired his kicker. That led to a final table redraw as three more would be eliminated before everyone would be paid out sixth-place money and the tournament go on ice for a few days.

Soon after Elias won a huge pot off Baker to secure himself the lead when he flopped a set of jacks on an ace-high board in a three-bet pot. Elias check-called two streets and then came out firing with a bit river bet on to get paid off on the end.

The four-time WPT champ followed by busting short-stacked Mike Meskin in ninth and then taking some chips from Paul Fontan to help hammer him down to 10 big blinds. Baker would then finish off Fontan in eighth in a flip.

It took several hours for the official final table bubble to burst, during which time Elias actually handed out a number of doubles to short stacks. However, he still increased from around 6.5 million to over 8 million by winning plenty of other pots.

Finally, Elias opened with and called when James Carroll shoved over him for 16 big blinds with . Neither player improved, so the queen kicker busted Carroll in seventh and boosted Elias over 9 million.

That leaves the final six to play out the remaining tournament in Las Vegas along with two other WPT final tables. Interestingly, Cimbolas and Elias both have experience on the stage after appearing at the WPT Tournament of Champions final table last year, where they finished second and third, respectively.

Here's a look at what the remaining six players are playing for:

Place Payout 1 $1,015,000* 2 $646,930 3 $473,280 4 $346,550 5 $267,400 6 $201,650

*includes $15,000 seat to WPT Tournament of Champions

25K High Roller

While the WPT LAPC Main Event grabbed the headlines over the past few days, it wasn't the only big tournament wrapping up at Commerce Casino since PokerNews laid out some of the results from the festival.

Maria Ho snagged her first Remington.

There was also a $25K High Roller, which drew 28 entries, just a hair over the 27 defeated by Rainer Kempe in the first $25K.

As fate would have it, the other half of Kempe's relationship, Maria Ho, collected the trophy and $276,690 after the final card was dealt. It's her first Remington and her second-largest cash after coming second in a bracelet event in 2011.

Ho defeated Kristen Bicknell heads up, according to the LAPC blog. Sean Winter, Tamon Nakamura, and Manig Loeser rounded out the paid top five.

Place Player Home Country Prize 1 Maria Ho USA $276,690 2 Kristen Bicknell Canada $180,070 3 Sean Winter USA $117,190 4 Tamon Nakamura Japan $76,270 5 Manig Loeser Germany $49,640

With that, LAPC has concluded save the completion of the delayed final table. To markthe end of the series, Savage had some words for all of the participants.

"Sixty-nine events in 50 days and the LAPC is over," he tweeted. "I want to thank all of the dealers, staff and especially the players for making this one of the best L.A. Poker Classics in its 26-year history."

Photos courtesy of WPT/LAPC
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A new poll shows that two-thirds of the American people oppose Trumps national emergency, and it is a looming disaster for Republicans.

According to the Monmouth University Poll:

The Monmouth University Poll also asked about Trump using emergency powers to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Just one-third of Americans (33%) approve of the presidents declaration of a national emergency in order to use military funding to build a border wall. Nearly twice as many (65%) disapprove of this move. Most Republicans (73%) support the president using emergency powers to build the wall, while nearly all Democrats (93%) and most independents (71%) are opposed. These results are virtually unchanged from January when the White House floated the idea of using emergency powers if the president did not get the wall funding he wanted in the new budget. At that time, 34% said they would approve of Trump making such a declaration, and 64% said they would disapprove if he did it.

In general, support for building a wall along the border with Mexico remains negative with 44% of the American public supporting it, while 51% are opposed. These results are nearly identical to Monmouths January poll which found 44% in favor and 52% opposed. Currently, 84% of Republicans, 40% of independents, and only 15% of Democrats support building a border wall.

Trumps national emergency is going to come back to haunt Republican

Americans see through Trumps fake national emergency, and if Republicans dont stop him, they and this president will be held accountable by voters in 2020. The American people dont want the wall. They arent buying what Trump is trying to sell as a national emergency. Two-thirds of the country can see through what Trump is doing.

Trump is failing to fake out America and con the nation.

The scheme isnt working, and if Republicans dont put country first, theyll pay in 2020.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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By Brendan OBrien

(Reuters)  The U.S. government has tracked activists and journalists involved in the migrant caravan from Central America at the end of 2018, NBC News reported on Wednesday.

The documents listed 10 journalists, an attorney and 47 others, some of them labeled organizers and instigators from the United States and elsewhere. The NBC affiliate in San Diego, KNSD-TV, said it received the documents from an unidentified source in the Department of Homeland Security.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency told Reuters in a statement that it identified individuals who may have information about attacks on border patrol agents. It said gathering such information was a standard law enforcement practice.

The documents dated Jan. 9, 2019 were titled San Diego Sector Foreign Operations Branch: Migrant Caravan FY-2019, Suspected Organizers, Coordinators, Instigators and Media, according to NBC 7 in San Diego.

At least three journalists and the attorney listed on the documents were unable to enter Mexico to work due to alerts placed on their passports and others have been subject to secondary screenings when crossing the border, the news station reported.

Reuters did not see the documents and was unable independently to corroborate NBCs findings. One of the journalists that the station said was listed was Go Nakamura, a photographer who has done several freelance assignments for Reuters and began covering the caravan on Nov. 10.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security referred questions on the report to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

CBP spokesman Andrew Meehan said in the statement that the tracking was related to assaults on agents that occurred during November and January.

CBP identified individuals who may have information relating to the instigators and/or organizers of these attacks, said Meehan.

Meehan said CBP does not target journalists for inspections.

The statement added that CPB launched an internal investigation last month to determine whether protocols were followed.

A Reuters spokesperson said: We are concerned by this report and are seeking more information on the matter.

Mexicos foreign ministry issued a statement saying it disapproved of illegal espionage and that it has asked the U.S. government to clarify any instance of unlawful espionage.

Thousands of migrants from Central America reached the San Ysidro Port of Entry in south San Diego County in November.

At one point, U.S. authorities fired tear gas at the migrants as some migrants threw rocks at them. The countrys busiest border crossing was later closed after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed the asylum-seekers would not easily enter the United States.

Immigration officials dubbed the effort to monitor the migrant caravan Operation Secure Line, the source told the NBC station.

The documents showed a photograph of each individual, a description of their identity and their alleged involvement in the caravan. They also show whether officials placed an alert on the individuals passport, the station reported.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the NBC 7 report. Trump has frequently criticized journalists and described news reports that contradict his opinion or policy positions as fake news.

(Reporting by Brendan OBrien in Milwaukee, Daniel Wallis in New York and David Alire Garcia in Mexico City; Editing by Daniel Wallis and David Gregorio)
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Former Attorney General Eric Holder suggested that after Democrats take back the Senate and the White House, they should expand the Supreme Court to wipe out the damage that Trump and the GOP have done and restore judicial norms.

The Daily Beast reported that Holder made the comments while speaking at Yale:

In response to a question, Attorney General Holder said that given the unfairness, unprecedented obstruction, and disregard of historical precedent by Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans, when Democrats retake the majority they should consider expanding the Supreme Court to restore adherence to previously accepted norms for judicial nominations, said spokesman Patrick Rodenbush.

Should Democrats Pack The Supreme Court?

Holder is the highest ranking Democratic official to embrace court packing. Democrats could easily add two seats to the court, one of which in the name of poetic justice should go to Merrick Garland, and create a 6-5 liberal majority. The reason for taking such a drastic step is that the court has been tainted first by Mitch McConnell blocking the Garland nomination, and then by a criminal president being allowed to nominate a Supreme Court justice under dubious circumstances.

If Trump crashes in a ball of scandal and disgrace, Democrats may have to take some unprecedented steps to get the country back on track and restore institutions and norms. Republicans broke the system, and it will be up to a future Democratic and Senate to fix it.

Court packing is an idea whose time may have come.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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In another major development in the ongoing Mueller investigation, Donald Trumps former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was sentenced on Thursday to just 47 months  nearly four years  in prison.

As MSNBC reporter Ken Dilanian noted, the light sentence bears no resemblance, essentially, to [Muellers guidelines] of 19 and a half to 24 years.

After the news broke, Ari Melber asked,  What are the point of the guidelines if, of all people, Paul Manafort, after conviction and blowing up his plea deal and lying to the Mueller prosecutors, if he is the star candidate to be up for 19 years and get four, what does that say? Ari Melber asked.

This is a message to the people who would commit this kind of conduct that we are not going to throw the book at you in this court in Alexandria, Virginia, Dilianian said.

More from MSNBC:

Manafort refused to apologize or express remorse for his crimes

In a brief statement that Paul Manafort made before his sentencing, the former Trump campaign manager took a page from Donald Trumps playbook and refused to apologize for his crimes.

Instead, Manafort essentially said that the only thing he was sorry for was himself, saying he has been humiliated.

The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family and I, he said. To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.

.@KenDilanianNBC just reported on MSNBC that Paul Manafort gave a fairly short statement in which he did not apologize, did not seem to express remorse. He said, To say that I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.'  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 7, 2019

In other words, Paul Manafort has no apologies for his crimes. Hes just mad he got caught.

Luckily for the former Trump campaign manager, Judge T.S. Ellis III  appointed by Ronald Reagan  didnt seem to care much about Manaforts crimes or his lack of remorse. Instead, Ellis essentially ignored Muellers guidelines to throw the book at Manafort and gave him a lenient sentence.

Manafort is not out of the woods yet

Next week in a court in Washington D.C., Judge Amy Berman Jackson will sentence Manafort for two conspiracy charges  each carrying a maximum of five years.

Hopefully, in that case, justice will be adequately served.

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 Flash

Israeli warplanes early on Thursday carried out intensive air strikes on southern Gaza Strip, with no injuries reported, said a Gaza-based radio.

Israeli warplanes fired six missiles at training military facilities that belong to Islamic Hamas movement and Islamic Jihad in southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, said Al-Quds Radio, which quoted security officials and eyewitnesses.

Severe destruction was caused to the facilities, and damage was spread to nearby houses, said the radio.

Israel's move followed its army's announcement that a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip and landed on an empty area in southern Israel, causing no damage or injuries.

No one claimed responsibility for firing the rocket from Gaza.

It is the fourth day in a row that Israeli warplanes and drones have been targeting Gaza military posts, facilities and training camps.

On Tuesday, a senior Egyptian security intelligence delegation held talks with leaders of Hamas and other factions to boost understanding and achieve reconciliation.

Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar have been mediating talks over the past a few months between the Palestinian factions and Israel to reinforce the calm understanding reached by the two sides to calm down their tension caused by the Marches of Return that started almost one year ago against Israel and has killed 260 Palestinians and injured more than 26,000 others.

The Marches of Return are demanding Israel end around 12 years of blockade that had been imposed on the Gaza Strip right after Hamas violently seized control of the coastal enclave and routed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces.
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House Democrats will force a vote next week on the releasing the Mueller report, as the battle begins to make Muellers findings public.

MSNBCs Ari Melber reported on The Beat, The whole push comes adds house Democrats are using their power to force a floor vote as early as next week on releasing the Mueller report. That matters because it would be Democrats forcing Republicans to get on the record about the matter of transparency. Raising the question, if Mueller doesnt have anything damning against Donald Trump  this is  this is what I want to emphasize here. The question that would be raised by that vote on the house floor is if they have nothing against Trump, why wouldnt you want to release the Mueller report?

Video:

House Democrats will force a vote on releasing the Mueller report next week. https://t.co/1p9nes5yYR pic.twitter.com/ZSkjeEZSRs  PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) March 7, 2019

If Trump is innocent, why would Republicans vote to bury the Mueller report?

It is a very simple question and one that has haunted the White House and the Republican Party since Trump took office. Donald Trump keeps proclaiming his innocence while trying to bury the facts and kill investigations. The question is why? If Trump did nothing wrong, he should welcome the investigations, because they would clear his name and put all of this behind him.

The only reason why a president would work so hard to obstruct and discredit an investigation is that he did something wrong.

Nancy Pelosi is going to put Republican feet to the fire, by forcing them to go on the record with their effort to protect Trump and bury Muellers report.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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The post-sentencing statement by Paul Manaforts lawyer on Thursday suggests that the former Trump campaign chairman is angling for a presidential pardon.

In his short remarks, Manaforts lawyer echoed Donald Trumps language and said that todays light sentence is further proof that there is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia.

Video:

Paul Manaforts lawyer addresses reporters after 47-month sentence handed down: He made clear he accepts responsibility for his conduct. He added: There is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia. pic.twitter.com/u13HMw3c2W  ABC News (@ABC) March 8, 2019

In a tweet, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff warned that the statement by Manaforts lawyer was no accident and appeared to be a deliberate appeal for a pardon.

The statement by Paul Manaforts lawyer after an already lenient sentence  repeating the Presidents mantra of no collusion  was no accident. It was a deliberate appeal for a pardon. One injustice must not follow another.  Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 8, 2019

Trump is obstructing justice by dangling a pardon

Donald Trump has been dangling a pardon for Paul Manafort throughout the course of the Mueller investigation.

As MSNBCs Chris Hayes noted on Thursday, it has largely been effective for the president. After all, Manafort has given no useful information to investigators and he continues to sit on a set of truths all the way to prison.

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell said on Thursday that Manaforts lawyers mimicry of Trump following the sentencing was further proof that a pardon is his ultimate endgame.

Eric Swalwell discusses the possibility of a Trump pardon following Manaforts soft sentencing. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/J801TqqHnK  PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) March 8, 2019

But as the Democratic congressman also said, dangling pardons over witnesses is a crime.

Whether he pardons him or not, if hes trying to keep him quiet, that is still obstruction of justice, Swalwell said.

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Michael Cohen is taking the Trump Organization to court after they agreed to pay his legal bills that they agreed to pay for.

Cohens lawsuit states, The Trump Organizations failure, without any reasonable basis, to pay Mr. Cohens attorneys fees and costs and other amounts incurred by Mr. Cohen in service to and at the behest of the organization and its principals, directors and officers, constitutes a breach of the Trump Organizations indemnification obligations

NBCs Tom Winter says that the Trump Organization agreed to pay Cohens legal bills, but have bailed on that agreement:

He is saying that there are bills for attorneys that I had back then and you agreed to pay those bills. You only paid half in a certain circumstance according to Cohen, and again we dont have a response from the Trump Organization yet. They havent filed a response in court. This really hasnt been fully entered into the docket. They have just dropped the lawsuit. So were just getting these documents. So I still need to figure out exactly what Cohen is claiming as far as when those legal bills should have been stopped. So in other words, whether or not Michael Cohens legal bills after he agreed to cooperate with the special counsels office after he pleaded guilty in the case brought by prosecutors here in New York, whether or not he believes those should be covered or not. That is something I still need to review.

Video:

Michael Cohen is suing Trump for trying to get out of paying his legal bills. https://t.co/EFAOXbsVGR pic.twitter.com/A0s8cF5mYH  PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) March 7, 2019

Cohen is suing for the legal bills that Trump agreed to pay after he was raised through Cohens first testimony before Congress. Michael Cohen is pulling a page out of Trumps playbook and suing the presidents business, which Trump still maintains control over for violating an agreement that they made to cover his bills. Michael Cohen isnt just providing evidence against Trump. He is also making the worlds most famous deadbeat pay his bills.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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For Fox News executive Bill Shine lasted all of eight months as Trumps communications director, as the White House announced his resignation on Friday.

The White House provided this statement to PoliticusUSA

Assistant to the President and Communications Director, Bill Shine offered his resignation to the President yesterday evening, and the President accepted. Bill continues to support President Trump and his agenda and will serve as Senior Advisor to the 2020 re-election campaign.

Serving President Trump and this country has been the most rewarding experience of my entire life. To be a small part of all this President has done for the American people has truly been an honor. Im looking forward to working on President Trumps reelection campaign and spending more time with my family. Bill Shine

Bill Shine has done an outstanding job working for me and the Administration. We will miss him in the White House, but look forward to working together on the 2020 Presidential Campaign, where he will be totally involved. Thank you to Bill and his wonderful family! President Donald J. Trump

Bill has been an asset of invaluable importance to this West Wing. I have enjoyed working with him and witnessing firsthand his unmatched talent, expertise and, and skills. I am grateful that he will continue to be an important member of team trump. I look forward to all of his future contributions. Mick Mulvaney

Bill Shine has been a great leader on our team and someone we have all loved working with every day. He has brought a tremendous amount of talent and expertise to the Administration. Bill has become a real friend and his generosity and his passion for our country will be sorely missed. It is a big loss for the White House, but a huge gain for the Presidents reelection campaign. Sarah Sanders.

The New Yorker Article Was The End For Bill Shine

Shine lasted longer than anyone else has as Trumps communications director, but Jane Meyers devastating New Yorker article was the end of the line for Shine. Trump was portrayed as a slave to Fox News who is being led around by the nose by the cable network. The article mentioned that Trump was blaming Shine because his media coverage has not improved.

Forget the propaganda in the White House statement. Shine is out because Trump doesnt get that he is the reason for all of the negative media coverage.

Not even a former top man at Fox News can save Trump from his self-created failure.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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The inauguration committee set up for Donald Trump in 2016 reportedly received large amounts of illegal contributions from shell companies that were set up to hide the involvement of a foreign contributors.

The Guardian is reporting that the creators of three shell organizations each gave $25,000 to the record $107 million fund for President Donald Trumps 2017 inauguration. The newspaper said that foreign nationals were involved who are not legally allowed to make U.S. political contributions.

US election law prohibits non-resident foreigners from contributing to political campaigns, including inaugurations. Donors or campaigns who knowingly and willfully breach this rule may be fined or prosecuted.

Federal prosecutors in New York and the attorney generals of New Jersey and Washington DC have in recent weeks issued subpoenas to the inauguration committee, demanding records and information on its contributors and spending.

The investigators want to see detailed financial information that would disclose exactly where all the money came from and where all the money went. Not only has the committee been accused of illegally receiving foreign donations, but it has also been accused of illegally funneling donations to the private businesses and accounts of Donald Trump.

One of the donations uncovered by The Guardian was made through a Delaware shell company by a wealthy Indian financier based in London who does not hold U.S. citizenship or residency.

Another donation was made by a company formed in Georgia by a lobbyist with ties to the Taiwanese government, and his wife said the firm was funded by Chinese investors.

One of the couples daughters was later given an internship in the Trump White House.

A third contribution, also worth $25,000, was made through a company formed anonymously in New York by an Israeli real estate developer known for helping foreign developers with U.S. legal issues.

The Israeli contributor told the newspaper he held a U.S. green card that permitted him to legally contribute.

Washington-based lobbyist Sam Patten, a former colleague of Paul Manafort, admitted last year that he illegally funneled $50,000 to Trumps inauguration from a Ukrainian oligarch.

Special counsel Robert Mueller, as well as other investigators, are looking into foreign attempts to influence American politics and the Trump administration.

Last month we reported that new evidence was uncovered that Donald Trump was skimming money off of his inaugural committee by having his daughter Ivanka overcharge for hotel rooms. We also reported that Ivanka may have violated tax laws due to her involvement in the scheme. The presidents daughter also is at the center of the investigation into $40 million missing dollars from Trumps inaugural committee.
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House Democrats have passed a comprehensive election reform bill (H.R. 1) with every single Republican voting against voting rights.

The final vote was 234 to 193 with every Democrat voting for the bill, and every Republican voting against it.

At her press conference on Thursday, Speaker Pelosi said of H.R. 1:

But, the public belief that we can do that depends on our passing legislation to amplify the voices of the American people and reduce the voice of dark, special interest money that has influenced decisions in Congress before.

It is also, H.R. 1, about ending voter suppression. What are some people afraid of when people have a right to vote? It contains John Lewiss language  fighting voter suppression. It also contains a path to H.R. 4, which is to restore the Voting Rights Act to its fullest efficacy, as it was pushed back by the Supreme Court.

And it also is a way to empower small donors over big donors, so that the public, again, knows that everyones voice is as important as anyone elses voice.

Again, it was a confidence  it is about confidence. It is about ending skepticism.

I said in Texas a couple days ago in such a town meeting, on the subject of H.R. 1 and how it related to voter suppression, that when we talk about voter suppression, we largely talk about reducing the hours that polling is available, the number of polling places, the number of days. It is about time and location, et cetera, in certain areas where polling places are closed.

But, one of the big suppressors of the vote is the suffocation of the airways by big, dark money, misleading the public  not telling the truth about what is at stake in the election. And, the public throws up their hands and then just decides not to vote. So, this is about honoring our democracy.

The Republican Party Is Revealing Its Ugly Face Under Trump

The bill is a sweeping combination of campaign finance reform, ethics reform, and voting rights protections. It is a key plank of democratic values and an expression of what the Democratic Party stands for.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has refused to allow a vote on the bill, as no member of Congress has been a bigger enemy of campaign finance reform and people-powered democracy than Mitch McConnell.

This vote came less than a day after 23 House Republicans voted against condemning hate.

Democrats are working to rebuild confidence and place democracy back into the hands of the majority, while Republicans are becoming the enemy within to the foundations of the republic.

If you care about the institutions and backbone that this nation was founded on, the Democratic Party is the only place to be.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook
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Even though the Trump administration has refused to provide Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trumps security clearance files to the House Oversight Committee, they appear to have gotten them anyway.

According to a confidential source in the White House, the Oversight Committee was given the documents by a staffer who now could be under fire for leaking the documents.

This was confirmed by a senior Democratic staff person involved in handling the confidential documents for the committee.

This new development could be significant in many ways. The Trump administration has been cracking down on leaks, which has plagued the White House ever since Trump took office.

But this shows that even as Trump and his aides attempt to withhold crucial information from Democratic investigators in the House, they will not always be successful. This will greatly help the House committees  run by Democrats  who are beginning to probe every aspect of Donald Trumps life and business affairs.

Earlier this week the White House had rejected Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings request for all of the documents in the possession of the White House that were used to determine if Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were to be granted security clearances.

According to the new report, the House Oversight Committee in early February obtained leaked documents that explain in detail the process used to grant security clearances to members of White House staff.

These documents include files from 2017 and 2018 that explain how both Kushner and Ivanka were granted their security clearances over the objections of U.S. security officials.

Reportedly two staffers on the Oversight Committee said: the documents are part of the puzzle that we would be asking for from the White House, so we appreciate having this upfront.

According to the new report, the documents leaked to the Oversight Committee provide detailed information on the timeline for how Kushners and Trumps security clearances were approved and who the people were involved in processing and the final decision.

One document obtained by the committee reportedly provides more details about the reasons that Kushners security clearance was changed from permanent to interim in September 2017:

According to the report:

Per conversation with White House counsel the clearance was changed to interim Top Secret until we can confirm that the DOJ or someone else actually granted a final clearance. This action was taken out of an abundance of caution because the background investigation has not been completed.

One of the leaked documents, dated February 23, 2018 offers this bit of intriguing information:

Clearance downgraded to Interim Secret per COS (chief of staff John Kelly) direction.

Donald Trump Will Not Succeed in Hiding Public Information

Even though Donald Trump will do all he can to prevent the American public from seeing what has been going on in his White House, he will not be successful. There are too many other people who truly care about the country and its security, which Donald Trump does not.

This new report also shows that the Democrats in charge of House committees that are investigating Trump and his administration will be successful. They will persevere and not give up as they fight to obtain the information they need to do their jobs of providing oversight over Trumps corrupt executive branch.
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Donald Trumps 2020 re-election chances took another hit today when a new poll was published in Michigan showing his support in that state has severely dissipated since 2016.

In the 2016 election Trump won Michigan by just 10,000 votes, representing .27% of the total votes cast.

The new poll shows that the vast majority of Michigan voters participating in the survey do not plan to vote for Trump again should he run for president in the 2020 election.

In fact, just 31 percent of poll participants said they will definitely vote to re-elect Trump in 2020.

The poll, conducted by EPIC-MRA of Lansing, Michigan, is consistent with other recent polls done in Michigan as well as in some other states such as Wisconsin and Florida.

Taken together these polls show that show Trump is in big trouble in swing states he won in 2016.

The new poll was taken during a time when the president has had a series of failures both domestically and in foreign affairs.

Trump failed to reach a deal to denuclearize North Korea Reports show that both the budget deficit and the trade deficit have increased significantly. He faces a vote in the Senate to repudiate his emergency declaration calling for construction of a wall on the southern border. He has been accused of racism and crimes by his former lawyer Michael Cohen, and others.

According to the new poll:

65 percent of Michigan voters say they will either definitely or probably vote to replace Trump in the 2020 election. 49 percent say they will definitely vote for someone else and another 16 percent say they will probably vote for someone else.

Only 31 percent of poll participants said they will definitely vote to re-elect Trump in 2020.

Independent voters are hurting Trumps numbers more than any other group. Among independents, 44 percent say they will definitely vote for someone else and 27 percent say they will probably back another candidate

Just 18 percent of independent Michigan voters say they will definitely vote to re-elect the president next year.

Among women, 57 percent say they definitely will vote for someone else, while 17 percent say they will consider another candidate.

Among men, 41 percent say they will vote for someone else and 14 percent who say they will consider someone else.

Only 67 percent of Republican voters in Michigan said they would definitely vote to re-elect Trump. Its interesting that 42 percent of Michigan voters identify as Republicans, but just 31 percent of voters say they definitely will vote for Trump next year.

The vote to re-elect numbers are 31 percent  11 points below the (Republican) Party identification.That spells trouble for him, said EPIC-MRA pollster Bernie Porn. And there are people who saying they like him, or are giving him a positive job rating, who are still saying they wont re-elect him. That gap is a problem.

Although there is time for Donald Trumps poll numbers to improve over the next 20 months, it does appear that his reelection chances are very dismal right now. Also, it is possible that as more revelations come out about his crimes and collusion with Russia, his poll numbers could go down even further.

This new poll is the latest evidence that it is very unlikely that Donald Trump will remain president after his first term runs out. Of course, he may not even make it that far.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), desperate to increase her standing in the 2020 presidential polls, today called for the breakup of tech giants Amazon, Google and Facebook.

In a Medium blog post, Warren named specific anti-competitive mergers she wants reversed, including:

Facebooks acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram; Amazons purchase of Whole Foods and Zappos; and Googles acquisitions of Waze, Nest and DoubleClick.

The senator also said she wants Congress to pass a law requiring that some large technology companies be designated as platform utilities and broken apart from any participant on that platform.

Those targets would include Amazon Marketplace, Googles ad exchange and Google Search.

Warren outlined her trust busting strategy ahead of a planned campaign rally she will have today in Long Island City in Queens, New York. This was the planned site for Amazons second headquarters until the company pulled out amid criticism from New York Democrats about excessive corporate tax breaks.

Warren is not the only 2020 Democratic presidential contender scrutinizing the market power of the tech giants which have come to have monopoly-like power.

Both Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have been talking about putting in some kind of regulations to curb the influence of technology giants.

Warrens comments today, however, are the most detailed proposed solution of any candidate so far.

In her blog post Warren wrote:

Todays big tech companies have too much power  too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy. Theyve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation.

I want a government that makes sure everybody  even the biggest and most powerful companies in America  plays by the rules. And I want to make sure that the next generation of great American tech companies can flourish. To do that, we need to stop this generation of big tech companies from throwing around their political power to shape the rules in their favor and throwing around their economic power to snuff out or buy up every potential competitor.

Thats why my Administration will make big, structural changes to the tech sector to promote more competition  including breaking up Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

Donald Trump has also called for the break up of tech giants because he says they are biased against conservatives. This is ironic considering that many people believe that Facebook was manipulated by Russian bots that used social media to spread disinformation about Trumps 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton.

It is not clear at this time whether Warrens latest proposal will help her standing in the polls. She has been slipping and now trails announced candidates Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, as well as unannounced candidates Joe Biden and Beto ORourke.

But it does show that she is a fighter and if she does lose the 2020 nomination it wont be because she hasnt made the effort to win.
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President Donald Trump went to Twitter this morning to share with the world his initial comments about Paul Manaforts sentence which was handed out last night by federal Judge T.S. Ellis in Alexandria, Virginia.

Trump tweeted:

Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia,

But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!

Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 8, 2019

However, when Judge Ellis sentenced Manafort to 47 months in prison, he definitely did NOT say that the Manafort case in any way proves that there was no collusion between the president and Russia in the 2016 election.

Instead, Ellis noted that Manafort was being sentenced for charges that exist outside of the collusion investigation conducted by Robert Mueller. Ellis noted that the case over which he presided did not involve collusion, which is a very different thing than saying that there was no collusion.

Trump Lies to Feel Better About Himself

As usual, Trump is lying to try to make himself look better, and to feel better about the world that is crumbling down around him. It does make you wonder who he thinks hes fooling, however. We know that many of his most die hard supporters are the lower educated low-information voters that he values so highly. And they probably believe everything he says.

For over two years Donald Trump has been trying to pretend that when he tweets something he makes it true. But obviously in this case the investigation of special counsel Mueller is what will determine what is true, not what Trump tweets.

Muellers Files Will Prove There Was Collusion

Robert Muellers investigative files  as well as the evidence he eventually provides in a court of law  will show just how wrong Donald Trump is. They will show that there is no witch hunt, and there is no hoax.

Instead, they will show  and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt  that there was indeed collusion (also known as illegal conspiracy) between the 2016 campaign of Donald Trump and the Russian government, led by President Vladimir Putin.

Its too bad that there are no more adults left in the White House to tell Donald Trump the truth. Instead, he spends his time spinning tall tales and living in a fantasy world created by his own imagination  and Fox News.

Someday soon, however, the real world will hit Donald Trump hard, and when it does his entire fantasy world, built on lies and deceit, will come tumbling down.
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The Philippines and Malaysia vowed on Thursday to ramp up their cooperation to address security issues in the region, particularly in combating terrorism, piracy and transnational crimes, including the fight against illegal drug trade.

"We resolved to address security issues. We touched on our extensive economic cooperation. We shared the view that its further expansion serves our mutual interests as that of ASEAN and our region," Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said after his meeting with visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad at the Malacanang presidential palace.

During their meeting, Duterte said he shared with Mahathir "the great strides we have achieved towards securing just and lasting peace in Mindanao" in the southern Philippines.

"The road leading to the historic transition to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region was paved in large part by the support of our international partners. Malaysia occupies a prominent role in this roster of friends," Duterte added.

Mahathir congratulated Duterte "on the successful ratification" of the Bangsamoro organic law and the appointment of members into the Bangsamoro transition authority.

Moreover, Mahathir said he and Duterte talked about security matters.

"Malaysia is committed to take the necessary steps to address the serious issues of terrorism and violent extremism through the trilateral cooperation agreement," he said. Under this framework, Malaysia and the Philippines together with Indonesia, have agreed to undertake maritime and air patrols to tackle the growing security challenges.

Mahathir arrived in Manila on Wednesday night for an official visit.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 43F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 43F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
An Arab nation looking to invest in South Carolina has set up an aeronautics firm with a Charleston headquarters, but the company's intent isn't clear and none of its principals are talking.

Qatar, a tiny oil-rich country along the Persian Gulf, has created a business called Barzan Aeronautical that is registered to a West Ashley accountant and lists its principal business address as 170 Meeting St., according to documents filed with the state and federal government.

One of those documents, filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, says the aeronautics firm's purpose is "development and production of surveillance aircraft."

That has some speculating that Qatar is quietly building a spy plane in Boeing Co.'s backyard. Jordan Schachtel, national security consultant for the Conservative Review website, was the first to report on the aeronautics firm's ties to Charleston. Other websites, some with anti-Qatar stances, have followed with their own reports.

Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace and defense analyst with The Teal Group in Fairfax, Va., says those reports either misinterpret or sensationalize the facts.

"There are dozens of niche companies" that do such work, he said, and most of the time it involves modifying existing aircraft for surveillance duties.

"Every country has some of these, and there are many modification shops out there creating them," Aboulafia said. "It's very easy for some people to get overheated on this, for no good reason at all."

The paper trail

Barzan Aeronautical is part of Barzan Holdings, which is owned by the Qatari Ministry of Defense. According to Barzan Holdings' website, the entity "is responsible for empowering the military capabilities of the Qatari Armed Forces" through partnerships with international companies.

The aeronautics company has hired the K Street lobbying firm Ott , Bielitzki and O'Neill of Washington, D.C., according to a filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The firm is supposed to provide counsel on legal, contract and export matters as well as possible briefings with congressional offices and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Christopher Ott, a principal with the lobbying firm, did not respond to a request for comment.

Barzan Aeronautical is paying the lobbying firm a flat fee of $75,000 per month, according to an open-ended contract between the entities. The company also has paid it $272,268 for air travel, hotel costs and other fees, most recently in January.

Gerald Straughn, an accountant who is listed as Barzan Aeronautical's registered agent, also is listed as the lobbying firm's chief financial officer. Straughn, whose West Ashley office is on Savannah Highway, did not respond to a request for comment.

Richard Craven told U.S. officials in a filing last month that he is CEO of Barzan Aeronautical. Craven, a citizen of the United Kingdom, stated his role is to "aid in the procurement-development of airborne ISR systems," a reference to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. Craven, whose LinkedIn page says he took the CEO job in December, also did not respond to a request for comment.

No one responded to an email The Post and Courier sent to the address listed on Barzan Aeronautical's website. An online database shows the domain name for that website was registered April 3 by GoDaddy.com, which keeps contact information for the site private under its "Domains by Proxy" program.

Barzan Aeronautical executives could not be reached Thursday at their Meeting Street offices, which are in a co-working space operated by Regus.

Investment talks

The company was registered with the South Carolina Secretary of State about a month after Qatari leaders met with South Carolina politicians, business executives and Boeing Co. officials  including Kevin McAllister, CEO of commercial airplanes  at Boeing's 787 Dreamliner plant in North Charleston.

That meeting was to announce the intention of investing some of the state-owned Qatar Investment Authority's billions of dollars in the Palmetto State.

Another delegation of Qatari leaders traveled to South Carolina a few weeks after the aeronautics firm was registered.

It's not clear if any Qatari officials from those meetings are involved in Barzan Aeronautical. Those officials made no public mention of an aeronautics venture during the Boeing luncheon.

Boeing has declined to comment. A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, who met with the Qatari officials a day before the Boeing luncheon, declined to comment.

South Carolina Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt also met with the Qatari delegation. His spokeswoman said the agency "is not able to discuss projects that may or may not have been discussed in the context of an economic development meeting."

The mystery has some observers thinking conspiracy.

"The Qatari regime's pernicious tentacles are finding a new home in the Palmetto State," Josh Hammer wrote for dailywire.com, which says it targets "a new generation of conservatives."

Others are skeptical that a hush-hush foreign military venture could be taking place on Charleston's peninsula.

"The national security issues would seem obvious," said Scott Hamilton, an aerospace analyst who closely follows the industry but had not heard of Barzan Aeronautical.

"ITAR alone would seem a major obstacle," Hamilton added, referring to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations designed to keep military technology out of the wrong hands.

Aboulafia of The Teal Group said the Barzan Aeronautics venture could be something as simple  and innocent  as adding cameras or other sensors to an already-in-production prop jet.

Hamilton said he doesn't see how the U.S. would allow development of a foreign spy plane as described by some website reports.

"But under the Trump Administration, stranger things have happened," he added. "It's hard to get your head wrapped around this."
 Flash

Paul Manafort, U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, was sentenced to 47 months in federal prison for tax and bank fraud on Thursday, much shorter than expected.

Prosecutors had recommended a sentence between 19.5 to 24 years behind bars.

In a federal courtroom in Virginia on Thursday afternoon, an attorney from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office said Manafort "failed to accept responsibility and is not remorseful."

"The last two years have been the most difficult of my life," Manafort said in court before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis handed down the sentence. "To say I am humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement."

The charges against him stemmed from Mueller's ongoing investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible ties with Trump's campaign. Russia had repeatedly denied the allegation while Trump called the probe a "witch-hunt."
Extension agents and ag professionals are pushing for more outreach programs as well as increased funding for them, but theres still plenty of work that needs to be done, which is why workshops like one Feb. 22 at the Mabel Community Center titled "Dealing with Stress in our Ag Communities" are becoming more common in rural communities.

The workshop covered the sources, signs, symptoms and effects of farm stress. And because mental health awareness has a lot to do with the relationships we have with other people, the morning began with everyone in the room introducing themselves. Present were pastors, bankers and farmers.

Workshop presenters were Meg Moynihan from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Cynthie Christensen, a registered nurse and counselor who is also the president of the Houston County Farm Bureau.

Christensen said her passion is rural mental health, and reaching out to farmers who might need help. She said in her experience, farmers are not coming forward with their own mental health concerns.

"Ive never had a farmer call me and say, I need to come to therapy," she said. "Its usually by insistence of a relative."

Moynihan also came to the workshop with experience in farming, as well as the stresses that come with it. She and her husband were running their organic dairy farm in Le Sueur County when they lost their milk buyer in 2016. The buyer informed them through a notice that after 30 days, they would no longer be picking up their milk.

She said it caused them to go into a spiral, dumping milk for two months. Her husband found other work as a truck driver, but she stayed and ran the farm by herself. Growing up in Milwaukee, Moynihan said she found out how little she actually knew about farming, and just how demanding the work can be.

"I found that it can be really draining and stressful," she said. "With the long hours, basically feeling incompetent about everything, and the overwhelming fear of what is going to happen to this farm, because its slipping through my fingers."

Taking first steps

Extension agents and other ag professionals talking openly about mental health is a big first step, said Moynihan.

"We want to make it easier for people to talk about whats happening, and make people more aware of how common these stresses are," she said.

Michael Cruse, extension educator at the University of Minnesota, said farmers have been known to ignore their own mental and physical health over the health of their animals.

"They let themselves go, but they take super good care of their animals," said Cruse.

When people start to show signs they are struggling with mental health, Christensen the most important thing a person can do for them is ask if they need some help.

"Its a scary conversation to have, but if youre willing to do that, it really speaks volumes to the person that you care about them," said Christensen.

Some of the people who can help struggling farmers the most are the bankers, local FSA agents, pastors and others they may see outside their farm. Farmers may come to town for small business transactions, but that could be their first or only personal connection of their day.

"Its so important for the community of people who work with farmers to be aware of this, because you are the people that farmers already have relationships with, and they already trust," said Moynihan. "Sometimes bumping into the right person at the right time can make a huge difference. And you can all be that right person."

No great statistics

In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study showing that those in farming, fishing and forestry occupations experienced a rate of suicide that was nearly five times that of the general population.

That study became widely cited and used to push for more rural mental health services, but it has since been retracted because of coding errors for certain occupational groups. The study was replaced with new information that disputed the claim that farmers and ranchers had an unusually high suicide rate. But the new numbers did reveal that the suicide rate for male farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers was double that of the general population in 2012.

But the reality, said Moynihan, is that theres no perfect data showing the high levels of stress in farming communities. She said the Department of Agriculture is looking into that.

"We know that theres not very good information out there, and we know that because reporters call us and the Department of Health to find more numbers," said Moynihan.

She said the two departments are now working together on getting better data for farm deaths in Minnesota.

"So that hopefully we can get a better handle on rural and farm deaths, and find out what is happening," she said. "With the idea that if we can understand a little bit more about those patterns, maybe we can devise some more affective solutions that will help prevent these deaths."

More state funding

The day after Gov. Tim Walzs budget proposal was released, state officials hosted a town hall meeting in Cloquet to discuss plans to improve health care access, including the expansion of mental health services.

At the event, Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen highlighted that the budget includes adding a second mental health counselor and additional funding for the 24-hour hotline that farmers can call for one-on-one counseling.

Right now there is only one rural mental health counselor, Ted Matthews, who works with farmers across the entire state at no cost to them.

Also included in the budget is additional funding for the Farm Advocate Program, which provides direct assistance to farmers who face crisis caused by either natural disaster or financial problems. The funding will go towards hiring two more farm advocates, on top of the 10 working now.

The budget allocations are the first of the kind since the programs started in the 1980s.
Im certainly not alone here. When I ask folks at the beginning of my stargazing/astronomy programs if they can find any constellations, the most common response I get is the Big Dipper. I have to let them down gently, however, because the Big Dipper isnt one of the 88 human-made constellations seen from Earth. The Big Dipper makes up the rear end and tail of the constellation Ursa Major, the Big Bear.

The second most common response I get from folks is Orion the Hunter, and I think the biggest reason is that the giant constellation is the home of the three stars neatly lined up in a row. You cant find any other parade of bright stars anywhere else in the celestial dome.

Over the years, cultures from around the world have come up with nicknames for Orions belt that have nothing to do with a mighty hermit hunter. Its been called the staff of St. Peter, one of the Apostles. The stars have also been called the Three Kings that visited the Christ child shortly after he was born in Bethlehem. That makes sense because Orions belt starts showing up in the evening night sky in December. Orions trio of stars also shows up in the Bible in the Book of Job, "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?" (King James Version).

Three's frame

Ive also heard Orions belt referred to as the Three Amigos, the Three Musketeers, the three blind mice, and even the Three Stooges. Back in November in Waconia, Minnesota, I had a woman come up to me after one of my star programs. She told me that on the farm she was raised on they referred to the stars as Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, characters in a popular old American childrens poem.

This time of year Orion and his famous belt of stars proudly shine almost directly above the southern horizon at the as evening twilight ends. From the lower left to the upper right, the belt stars are named Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. You would think that these stars are physically related to each other, but thats just not the case, not even close! They have nothing to do with each other astronomically. Theyre actually hundreds of light-years apart. Their arrangement in our sky from our vantage on planet Earth is purely accidental, or is it?

All three stars are much larger than our sun and are unique in their own ways.

The largest of the trio is Alnilam, an Arabic name that roughly translates to English as "string of pearls." That certainly seems appropriate. Alnilam is about 26 million miles in diameter, 30 times the diameter of our sun! At 1,976 light-years away, Alnilam is so far that even if you could travel at the speed of light, 186,300 miles a second, it would take you nearly two millennia to arrive at Alnilam. Make sure have a lot of reading material on that journey!

Alnilams a very hot star with temperatures over 45,000 degrees. Our sun, by comparison, is 10,000 degrees at its outer layer. What really amazes me is that Alnilam kicks out more than 100,000 times as much light as our sun does! Its a real shiner for sure! If it were 19 light-years away instead of 1,976 light-years, it would easily be the brightest star in our sky. Youd even see Alnilam brightly in broad daylight!

More than meets the eye

Alnitak, on the lower left side of Orions belt, is an Arabic name that means "the belt"; its the second largest of the three stars. This giant nuclear fusion powered gas ball is over 21 million miles in girth. Its surface temperature exceeds 60,000 degrees! Traveling to Alnitak would require a journey of a little over 800 light-years. By the way, just 1 light-year equals almost 6 trillion miles!

Alnitaks luminosity is 100,000 times that of our puny little sun. Theres also more than meets the eye when you see Alnitak. Its actually part of its own little three-star family. Alnitak has two smaller companion stars and all three stars orbit each other. Theres no way you can see Alnitaks companion stars with the naked eye. Actually, thats very common in our night sky. A lot of stars that appear as a single star in our sky may actually be part of a multi-star family with all of the stars orbiting each other. If you were on a planet around one of these stars you would have multiple suns in your sky!

Mintaka, on the upper right hand side of the belt, is about the same size as Alnitak. It has a surface temperature of over 50,000 degrees. and is about 900 light-years away. Just like Alnitak, Mintaka is another multiple star system made up of at least two stars orbiting and eclipsing each other. As the two stars pass in front of each other their combined brightness see does vary slightly over time.

Well thats it, the three stars that make up Orions belt, one of the true jewels of the sky. All three of these stars are different in their sizes, power output, temperature, and more; yet all three stars line up neatly in our sky with nearly identical brightness. Personally I cant help but think that maybe these three stars arent lined just by chance, but maybe by a divine hand.

CELESTIAL HUGGING THIS WEEK:On Sunday and Monday night the new crescent moon will pass by the planet Mars in the western evening sky.
You still see her there in Roma: Cleo, the silent and suffering indigenous housekeeper in director Alfonso Cuarons "Roma."

I watch her from the window of my room in the afternoons. She tips a wave of water from her heavy bucket onto the tiled courtyard floor, then runs it down with a broom, scraping the soot and the mud and, yes, sometimes the piles of excrement the neighbors dogs leave behind. Cuaron didnt spare any dirty details from his Oscar-nominated masterpiece.

Thats the sort of thing you never stop noticing when youre an American staying for long periods of time in Mexico City. The class system is real, race-based, open and lasting; only now the roles are played by the children and grandchildren of the characters in the 1970s, black-and-white world of "Roma."

Pity it? Sure. Exploit it? Yes, I do, like everyone else, local or foreign, who is on the lucky side of the socioeconomic system here. I get my apartment cleaned and my clothes laundered for a couple of bucks a day. I tip, even though tipping is rarely required, just to assuage my guilt.

HIPPEST NEIGHBORHOOD

The Roma neighborhood gets by this way, but its only part of the story. These days, you could fairly describe it as the hippest neighborhood in the entire metropolis of 21 million people. It houses the citys trendiest bars and restaurants; its poshest parks, art galleries and theaters. Everyone wears skinny jeans and fluffy scarves. Its as fashionable as Paris and one-third the price.

And technically, there are two of them. Roma Norte: young, gentrifying, tourist-friendly. And Roma Sur: quiet, residential and spread out enough that you can step back to enjoy the amazing mix of neoclassical, art deco and ultra-modern low-rise architecture that defines this part of town.

You go to Roma Norte to shop and party until 4 in the morning at places such as the renowned cocktail bar Licoreria Limantour, or the casual Pizza Felix, or the exclusive nightclub Departamento. In Roma Sur, you get a taste of how Mexicans of means really live, shopping from the stacks of oranges and avocados at the amazing Mercado Medellin or grabbing a beer and a movie at the homey Cine Tonala. Residents of the two colonias compete playfully for superiority, but the areas blend easily into each other, and both are welcoming to visitors.

And because they are centrally located, they offer a handy launching point for any journey to CDMX, as the sprawling capital has been branded lately. A cab to the Zocalo, the citys vibrant and historic downtown, with its baroque cathedrals, museums and relics of the earliest civilizations in North America, takes 20 minutes and costs less than $5. Though Mexico Citys unpredictable traffic can get in the way of that convenience at any time.

On their western edge, the two Romas border the massive, urban green space Chapultepec Park, which hosts the famous National Anthropology Museum, probably the citys most popular tourist spot. Just to the east of Roma is Arena Mexico, home to the lucha libre wrestlers, and surely the citys most fun tourist spot. You can walk to all of it.

Or you can never leave Roma, as I rarely do now that I live in that part of Mexico City about half the year.

GETTING AROUND

There are a lot of reasons I went from frequent tourist in Mexico to part-time resident. Some more concrete than others.

Im a 5-foot, 6-inch freelance art critic. In America, Im short, financially stretched and overly talkative.

None of that is true in Mexico, where my height is average, my income solidly middle class and my Spanish good enough to get by, but bad enough to just give up sometimes and shut my mouth.

In Roma, I sit quietly, drinking coffee in the mornings at Plaza Rio de Janeiro, in the shadow of the oversized replica of Michelangelos David. Or at Fuente de Cibeles, the circular public fountain ringed by cafes and centered on an imposing sculpture that mimics a nearly identical one in Madrid, serving as a symbol of Mexicos long-standing closeness to Spain.

Then I wander to the busy commercial strip on Avenida Alvaro Obregon to browse the three stories of stacks at El Pendulo books, or grab a sugary snack at El Moro churros. I might check out my favorite art space, the wild and unpredictable Galeria OMR, or pop into the latest show at the MUCA Roma contemporary art museum.

Then I work, and in the late afternoon, every afternoon, I cross Avenida Sonora into Parque Espana, where I watch the famous dog walkers do their magic. I count how many dogs  shepherds, Labs, terriers, hairless Mexican xolos  they can get to line up perfectly, untethered, without wandering away. One day I counted 43 in a row, all just sitting there like good friends passing the day.

Americans are welcome at all of it, and you see quite a few of them in Roma: tourists who cant get enough of the $1 quesadillas, successful business people who are happy with NAFTA just the way it is, ex-pats who actually followed through on their threat to leave America if Trump was elected.

They have their haunts  Cardinal Casa de Cafe, which specializes in local coffees; El Parnita eatery, where fish tacos are the house specialty; Rosetta Panaderia, with its renowned chocolate bread. At these places, you are almost as likely to hear people speaking English as you are Spanish.

I send my guests to all of those spots  and I have quite a few visitors from the U.S.  because its an easy way to acclimate to a city that can be quite confusing to newcomers. I put people up in a spare room or suggest the posh Hotel La Casona or the bargain Hotel MX. But I always encourage them to use Airbnb for accommodations and Uber for getting around. The Mexican economy is built on micro-entrepreneurs; every tortilla-maker, house cleaner and barber is essentially a small-business person, and the shared economy is the digital manifestation of that tradition. Its efficient, safe and dependable.

Its easy to get past the tourist traps  the limos that harass you at the airport, the American hotel chains that charge way too much. Foreigners do need to be careful, but not too careful. Dont drink the tap water, I always suggest, but do eat the street food (especially my favorite, the guajolota, a carb-y, tamale sandwich sold on nearly every corner). You protect your cellphone in the crowded markets and subways, but you can walk around at night feeling comfortable in Roma. Despite its reputation in some circles, Mexico City is no different than any major urban place; there are safe zones and dangerous zones, and you can usually tell them apart just by looking.

When you get lost  and I still get lost all the time; Mexico City is a maze and sometimes entirely different streets have the exact same name  you simply ask. Ive found Mexicans to be open and unsuspicious of "extranjeros" (foreigners, in English) in a way Americans arent known to be.

Thats especially true in the two Romas, which director Cuaron captured with such precision. They are "romantic" as their names imply, but in a way that recognizes both extraordinary beauty and everyday struggle as equal parts of the human condition. You enjoy the wealth, you witness the inequality. You see it all.
NORTH COVENTRY  Police are asking for the publics help in identifying a suspect in a retail theft.

Police said on March 2 at 3:10 p.m. the North Coventry Police responded to Boscovs at the Coventry Mall for a retail theft that had just occurred.

Upon arrival, police spoke with Loss Prevention, who advised them that a white male entered the store and concealed an electronic drone in his sweatshirt. The male exited the store without paying for the item. The male then fled to his truck which was described as a Maroon pickup truck and left the parking lot, police said.

Anyone with information regarding this theft or knows the male in the pictures is requested to contact the North Coventry Police at 610-323-8360 or submit a tip on-line.
POTTSTOWN  The new land bank in town is getting underway, adopting guidelines and selecting staff.

Peggy Lee-Clark, the director of PAID, Pottstowns economic development organization, will also be the director of the land bank.

Although her appointment is not yet formalized, Borough Manager Justin Keller confirmed the arrangement and was discussed in January, according to the minutes of the Jan. 28 land bank board meeting.

The law firm of Wolf-Baldwin Associates, which employs Borough Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr., will also provide legal services to the land bank and Assistant Borough Solicitor Matthew Hovey was at the Feb. 25 land bank board meeting fulfilling that role.

For now, the borough is covering the legal costs for the land bank as well as providing $25,000 worth of seed money, Keller said.

However, when the land bank ordinance was adopted in November of 2017, Keller told council then that there is no line for providing money to the land bank in the proposed 2018 budget. Nor was it publicly discussed by council prior to the adoption of the 2019 budget.

Council President Dan Weand said at the meeting on November of 2017 that it was never councils intention to have the land bank funded through the budget, but through grants and other sources of funding.

Keller told The Mercury last week that the borough hopes the $25,000 will provide matching money for the land bank to get up and running. I want that money to make money, Keller said.

In January, the land bank board discussed contacting the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development about grant opportunities for the land bank.

Land banks are allowed under a state law adopted in 2012. They have very specific powers to get control of key blighted properties, but cannot do so through eminent domain.

A land bank is a non-profit entity designed to get ownership of blighted properties, which are often delinquent on their taxes and other municipal payments.

All too often, the fees, back-taxes and fines are more than the property is worth, or at least add up to more than the cost of fixing the property.

A land bank takes properties that cant move on open market and removes obstacles to making them productive again, land bank expert Winnie Branton told council in 2017.

Branton has been advising the land bank board for the last year for a fee of $8,000, Keller said.

Land banks obtain blighted properties, often through tax sales, get the back taxes and fees forgiven and then transfer them into the hands of developers or owners who will redevelop or repair the properties to get them back onto the tax rolls.

In many places in Pennsylvania, land banks are county-wide, but Pottstown decided to set up its own for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is due to the high number of blighted property in the borough.

For example, there were 132 Pottstown properties listed for sheriff sale on March 6, according to board member Twila Fisher.

The broader question of how the land bank will raise enough money to purchase these properties, even at reduced prices, is also becoming clearer.

Keller said the current proposal is that once the land bank puts a blighted property back on the tax rolls, it will receive 50 percent of the borough taxes paid on that property for the first five years.

Of that amount, PAID will receive 30 percent, which is how Lee-Clark will get paid.

Its incentive, said Keller who has been sitting in on the land bank meetings and helping them work out the details for building the land banks foundation.

Its incentive to commit time to the land bank to make it successful, he said.

We anticipate that the administrative duties will be pretty light, but the land bank needed up front money to get started and the borough has a vested interest in making sure the land bank is successful, said Keller. So thats why it was arranged this way.

Although both the borough and the school board have signed the agreement forgiving back taxes on blighted properties the land bank takes over, Montgomery County has not.

Keller told the board that the county has indicated it will review whether to forgive any back taxes on a property obtained by the land bank on a case-by-case basis. But because the county portion of a property tax bill is the smallest, the absence of the countys forgiveness will not amount to much, he said.

After receiving approval from borough council and the Pottstown School Board, the land bank board also adopted its own set of policies and procedures.

The policies have been criticized by local attorney Michael Mauger, primarily for what he feels is the rules giving too much flexibility to the land bank board in choosing a developer to whom a blighted property is sold.

There has been discussion about finding the right balance to ensure the land bank has the flexibility to meet the conditions of willing developer and to ensure that no sweetheart land deals are undertaken.

Deb Penrod, the land bank board president, told council a conflict of interest policy should alleviate some of those concerns, but not before school board member Raymond Rose voiced reservations and suggested the school board hear from Mauger on the matter.

At the Feb. 25 land bank meeting, Hovey provided the board with a draft of a conflict of interest policy which would theoretically prevent members of the land bank board, or the organizations with which they are connected, from benefiting from a property sale.

That was the specific concern voiced by Pottstown Councilman Joseph Kirkland, who voted against the adoption of the policies and procedures and against the appointment of Fisher to the board last June.

Kirkland argued that because Fisher is the executive director of Hobarts Run  The Hill Schools neighborhood improvement initiative which is involved in property acquisitions near the school  she has a potential conflict of interest serving on the land bank board and getting first crack at vulnerable properties.

Whether or not the conflict of interest policy Hovey drafted for the land bank board will prevent Maugers concerns could not be determined because, as a draft, it is unavailable for review.

The Hill School recently purchased a residential property at 59 Edgewood St. along the eastern border of the campus and is renovating it to rent out. The property, which was facing foreclosure, will remain on the tax rolls and the rental revenue will fund Hobarts Run community improvement programs.

At the Feb. 25 meeting Penrod also said she will insist that there be a standard item on all of the boards meeting agendas asking if any policies need to be reviewed or changed.

The next land bank board meeting will be Monday, March 25, at 4:30 p.m. in the third floor meeting room of borough hall, 100 E. High St.
WEST CHESTER  The trial for the West Goshen man accused of shooting his neighbor outside their homes, the tragic end to a longtime dispute between the two, has been delayed again.

On Thursday, Common Pleas Judge Ann Marie Wheatcraft granted a motion to continue the start of the trial of Clayton Carter III until June.

A prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Vincent Cocco, told the judge during a brief proceeding in her courtroom that one of the two lead investigators in the case would not be available for the previously scheduled April start date of the trial.

Neither Carter nor his attorney, Joseph P. Green Jr. of West Chester, objected to the continuance request.

Wheatcraft set jury selection for the case for June 6 and 7, and said that testimony would begin on June 10. The trial is expected to last 10 days.

It is the second time that the trial has been put off because of scheduling issues after being transferred to Wheatcrafts court last year. It had initially been scheduled to go to trial in December, but Wheatcraft delayed that to give the two sides time to put together forensic evidence to present to the eventual jury panel.

Those reports will reportedly include one by psychologist Gerald Cooke on Carters mental health, which the prosecution could try to rebut with its own examination of Carter. Green has said that he has not determined whether to present evidence of Carters mental state at the time of the fatal shooting, but is reserving the right to do so.

Deputy District Attorney Thomas Ost-Prisco told Wheatcraft during a pre-trial hearing last October that he would need extra time to hire a forensic psychologist or psychiatrist, schedule an examination of Carter, and review it before proceeding to trial. There are also reports from Green about the toxicology of the victim G. Brooks Jennings at the time he died, DNA evidence found at the scene, and the result of a scan of the victims cell phone that he must review.

Carter, 52, is charged with first-degree murder and related offenses in the fatal shooting of Jennings, who died in the driveway of his home in the 300 block of Box Elder Drive.

Police had been called to their homes the evening before to try to resolve a dispute concerning cursing and backyard video recording, one in a long line of disputes involving the two. Although the situation was calmed at the time, the two men apparently squared off early the next morning.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed for his arrest, Carter arrived home about 1 a.m. after running an errand and took some grocery items inside his house. The two men engaged in a verbal argument in the space between their homes when the gunshots rang out. The victims wife later told police she heard one shot, and looked out the window and watched as Carter stood over her husband and fired a second shot as he lay on the ground.

To contact staff reporter Michael P. Rellahan, call 610-696-1544.
It was ten years ago that I wrote a controversial feature in the Washington Post lamenting that the conservative intellectual world was not producing significant serious books that attracted large public notice. With only a very few exceptions conservative best-sellers of the aughts seemed to be the frothy polemics from Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, and such.

Lately however there are a large number of new conservative books that are making a big splash (and also selling well), such as Patrick Deneens Why Liberalism Failed(even President Obama had to admit the book was a worthy challenge) and Yoram Hazonys The Virtue of Nationalism. Just about every day I seem to get the galleys of an important new book (most of them from our friends at Encounter Books, the sainted publisher of one especially important recent title now available in paperback!), and it is hard to keep up. I keep meaning to post mini-notices of most of them here, but my stack keeps falling over into an unmanageable heap on my office floor.

I just want to mention two right now. The first is John Marinis very timely Unmasking the Administrative State: The Crisis of American Politics in the 21stCentury. Marini has been writing on the deep philosophical, constitutional and political defects of the administrative state long before the term came into wider use (or merged with the deep state, which is not exactly the same thing). In fact, I went back and dusted off his 1992 book The Politics of Budget Control, which is unlike any book on the federal budget youve ever seen. Here is the first place he lays out the argument that the administrative state, the conscious product of Progressivism that did not become fully operational until the Great Society, undermines constitutional self-government. As Marini puts it in the introduction, In a constitutional system, the powers of government are thought to be limited; in the administrative state only resources are limited.

He returns to all of these themes in depth in Unmasking the Administrative State. Michael Anton has an in-depth review in the new edition of the Claremont Review of Books. For now I only want to share one brief excerpt from Marinis essay Donald Trump and the American Crisis included in the book.

Few serious policy analysts took Trump seriously. Like the Soviet experts who did not foresee the collapse of the Soviet Union, policy experts have failed to anticipate, or even detect, the crisis of America. Trumps success has revealed that one of our fundamental tasksa task he has addressed when no one else wouldis the need for political rule to be reanimated in a way that allows public opinion, understood to arise in the creation of constitutional majorities, to establish the legitimacy of politics, policy, and law, in a manner compatible with the rule of law and the common good. That requires revitalizing the meaning of citizenship and reaffirming the sovereignty of the people and the political branches of the government, so that both can become defenders of the Constitution and the country.

The second book at the top of my stack right now is The Rediscovery of America: Essays by Harry V. Jaffa on the New Birth of Politics, edited by Edward J. Erler and Ken Masugi. This collection includes a number of previously unpublished essays and lectures from Jaffa, along with a few hard-to-find pieces. One piece in particular recommends itself for our current moment of identify politics, The Reichstag Is Still Burning. Jaffa recounts how, following an arson fire at Claremont Mens College (as it was called in its pre-coed days), the administration capitulated to radical demands that a special black studies department be established, for reasons that are now very familiar on every campuseducation itself is said to be a function of race. The proposal came before the faculty, which was naturally inclined to appease it for the same reason Chamberlain appeased Hitlerto keep the peace on campus. Jaffa put the matter to the faculty as follows:

In the course of the ensuing debate, I asked repeatedly whether it was true that CMC, providing a white education taught white mathematics, or white economics, or white biology, or white physics, or for that matter white political science. Was there anything in Platos Republic, I asked, that indicated it was white justice that Socrates was seeking to define or discover. Was there anything in the Nicomachean Ethics, I asked, to indicate that it was white happiness that Aristotle sought as the summum bonum? Was there anything in Lockes Second Treatise of Government (or in the Declaration of Independence) to indicate that taxation without representation was unjust only for whites? Was there anything in in Lockes Letters on Toleration (or in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom) I asked, to indicate that it was only the case of white human beings, that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than on our opinions in physics or geometry? Although I hammered away on these questions, the opposition was uninterested in debating them.

Thats because the opposition cant debate their positions, and why we should believe them when they say that everything is about power relations. Because they want power. Justice, with whatever adjective-hyphen you want to add to it, is just a fig leaf. Not much has changed in 50 years since the episode Jaffa wrote about, except that everything has gotten steadily worse.
Today marked a turning point of sorts. The House of Representatives voted 407-23 in favor of the Democrats revised, anodyne resolution condemning all forms of bigotry. As Scott has noted, Nancy Pelosi retreated to this meaningless resolution because many House Democrats weighed in to support Ilhan Omars anti-Semitism. Faced with a rebellion in the ranks, Pelosi backed down. She now denies that the resolution had anything to do with Omar.

That is quite a change from the long-ago days (less than a month ago, actually) when Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer issued a statement saying, among other things, Congresswoman Omars use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israels supporters is deeply offensive. The Democratic Party leaderships climbdown is complete: today, as predicted, Omar voted for the resolution that began life as a censure of her anti-Semitism.

So Pelosi has been humiliated, and Omar and her friends are ascendant. Via Twitchy, some observations from the House:









Id laugh too, if I had just taken over the Democratic Party. I think we have crossed a Rubicon of sorts. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and the Congressional Black Caucuswhich supported Omar unanimously, as best one can tell from news reportsare in the drivers seat. Anti-Semitism is now accepted by the Democratic Party.

Never mind lame attempts to change the subject like the multiple tweets from presidential candidates to the effect that it is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the government of Israel. Of course not, but that is not what Omar did, and not what she got into trouble for doing. She has criticized, rather, American supporters of Israel who she says were bought off by Benjamins and are loyal to a foreign power. And she has tried to bring about the destruction of Israel, an important American ally, by supporting the BDS movement, which seeks Israels obliteration.

The Democratic Party is not the first to embrace anti-Semitism. A number of European parties did so in the early decades of the 20th century. The political calculus is straightforward: there are only a few Jews, a slow-growing (if growing at all) demographic, while there are lots of anti-Semites, especially among our fast-growing Islamic population. That is, of course, Omars base.

We witnessed today the birth of a new Democratic Party. And so far, I havent seen a single Democratic officeholder complain about it.
Yesterday socialist Bernie Sanders brought his campaign for the Democratic presidential campaign to Council Bluffs. We had Dave Begley on hand to cover the festivities. Dave is a Nebraska attorney practicing elder law and estate planning in Omaha. He is also our occasional presidential campaign correspondent. Dave has filed this report on Sanders in Council Bluffs (thumbnail photo and photo below courtesy of Matt Johnson):

For the first time in all of the political rallies I have attended on behalf of Power Line, the National Anthem was played and sung before the speeches. Our fellow citizens all stood, removed their hats and placed their hands over their hearts. Democrats may love our country but they are misguided and  to a great extent  miseducated and uninformed.

One of President Trumps talents is giving nicknames to his opponents. The nickname Crooked Hillary perfectly captured the corruption of the Clintons. Senator Bernie Sanders has been dubbed Crazy Bernie. When I see Senator Sanders, I picture him as some guy on a New York City street corner haranguing pedestrians with nutty ideas. But his ideas dont strike many as nutty now. Theyve mostly been adopted by the Democrat field. Bernies pitch to the crowd was that he was there first. The others are all copycats. His theme is to stick with him because hes been at it for years.

Bernies speech clocked in at just under an hour, but his big issue was Medicare for all. That routinely got the biggest cheers from the crowd. The rest of his ideas leaned on wealth redistribution to transform this country. It is a whole lot of class warfare aimed at the 1 percent, but really aimed at the middle class.

Here in Omaha, weve had one of our coldest and snowiest winters in years. Bernie, however, informed us that global warming is real and not a hoax. According to Bernie, we have to move away from fossil fuels to sustainable energy. This will magically create well-paying jobs.

Solar and wind, however, are expensive and impractical forms of energy. We are now the largest producer of oil and natural gas. The European experience in green energy has been an expensive and massive failure. People wont be happy paying more to heat their homes and depend on unreliable wind and solar if the Green Leap Forward becomes law. Bernies rationale for this foolishness is that it is our moral duty to abandon our fossil fuel wealth because we must save the planet for the kids.

Until now I have never figured out Crazy Bernies appeal, but I now think I have the answer. The people who like Bernie never took high school physics and are innumerate. At Omaha Creighton Prep I was blessed to have Mr. Ron Bruno as my physics teacher. While teaching Newtonian physics, he told us that there is no free lunch in the universe. This applies in physics, government and in life. The people who vote for Bernie dont understand that fundamental fact. Sanders asserted several times that we are the wealthiest nation in human history. And how did we get there? Free enterprise. Bernies solution is to take private wealth and give out free stuff. Socialism never ends well because, as Lady Thatcher noted, You eventually run out of other peoples money.

I spoke with one Bernie volunteer. I cited Venezuela as an example of how socialism fails. He wasnt familiar with what is happening there and was of the opinion that Bernie will give us the socialist system of Germany.

Id say at least 80 percent of the crowd was 30 and younger. In the last election, that was his strongest demographic. Sanders is counting on them again. The crowd was large and enthusiastic.

Sanders didnt take too many shots at Trump but he bizarrely asserted that he will unite us. He also used Obamas no red states, no blue states line. He does not claim credit for being first with this line, but it may be new to his younger supporters.

Bernies quest to transform our country is obviously not going to unite us at all. To give two examples, Bernie is all in favor of gun control and abortion. People on the opposite sides of the issues are going to be unhappy if Bernie wins. His campaign slogan is Not me, us. When the crowd chanted it, it sounded like knock me up.
The Democratic National Committee has decided to exclude Fox News Channel from televising any of its candidate debates during the 2019-2020 cycle. So reports the Washington Post. The stated reason for this decision is a report by Jane Mayer in the New Yorker that Fox News is too cozy with President Trump.

Fox News at times has been too cozy with Trump. But I dont think this is the real reason for the DNCs decision. Rather, I believe the decision is an attempt (1) to shield Democratic contenders from tough questions while (2) inflicting a blow on a news organization the Democrats despise.

Lets make the Democratic debates a friendly, family affair and screw Fox News in the process. Thats my takeaway from the decision.

Fox News is no more cozy with Trump than other news networks are with Democrats. Take CNN. As Molly Hemingway points out, it fed debate questions to Hillary Clinton before a primary debate. And CNNs Candy Crowley came to President Obamas aid by misrepresenting what Obama said regarding Benghazi, thereby undercutting Mitt Romney during the climax of the second debate in 2012.

Hope youre enjoying the Trump presidency, Candy.

Moreover, the Fox News personnel Jane Mayer accuses of coziness with Trump (some of whom are no longer with the network) would not be involved in the debates. The DNC could make this a condition of Fox News participation, but it wouldnt need to.

The anchors Fox would pick to participate in the debates  e.g., Bret Baier, Shannon Bream, and Chris Wallace are scrupulously fair, more so than their counterparts at other networks. But thats the point. The DNC doesnt want their candidates exposed to tough but fair journalists. It wants them exposed to friends.

Is there anything concrete Republicans can do in response to the DNCs decision? President Trump tweeted:

Democrats just blocked @FoxNews from holding a debate. Good, then I think Ill do the same thing with the Fake News Networks and the Radical Left Democrats in the General Election debates!

But Trump cant determine unilaterally which networks will carry the general election debates. That has to be negotiated with the Democrats.

If Trump has a convincing lead next Fall and if hes satisfied that blowing up debate negotiations wont hurt him, then he can insist that the fake news networks not carry the debates. This would probably mean either no debates (which would be bad for the country) or just one debate (which would be bad for Trump if the one debate doesnt go well for him  and first debates usually dont go well for incumbent presidents).

Otherwise, Trump wont be in a position to dictate to the Dems. He might try to exclude, say, CNN. Im not sure he could make even that stick.

What about the GOP trying to exclude certain networks from its debates the next time theres a seriously contested race for its nomination? Obviously, the Democrats would have no say in this. However, Republicans will want their debates to be widely viewed. Thus, they wont want to exclude the entire left-liberal media.

Maybe they could pick off CNN, say. But the other left-liberal networks might show solidarity with CNN and refuse to carry GOP debates if CNN is excluded.

A seriously contested GOP race for president is unlikely to occur until 2023-24, though. By then, we may be in full cold civil war mode, and all current thinking on the subject of debates may be obsolete.

By excluding Fox News, the DNC has taken the country one small step towards that sad state of affairs.
The Washington Post reports on an interview a Delaware newspaper conducted with Joe Biden in 1975. On the subject of race, Biden stated:

I do not buy the concept, popular in the 60s, which said, We have suppressed the black man for 300 years and the white man is now far ahead in the race for everything our society offers. In order to even the score, we must now give the black man a head start, or even hold the white man back, to even the race. I dont buy that.

Putting an even finer point on it, Biden added:

I dont feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather. I feel responsible for what the situation is today, for the sins of my own generation. And Ill be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago.

How about 345 years ago, Joe?

It followed from this sensible attitude that, as the Post notes, Biden took a lead role in the fight against busing white children to majority-black schools and black children to majority-white schools in order to force integration when neighborhood demographics cut against it.

Nowadays, mainstream Democrats, including those in the administration he served, want to force integration of the neighborhoods themselves.

Biden also had the right line on diversity, especially when its tied to quotas. He stated:

The new integration plans being offered are really just quota systems to assure a certain number of blacks, Chicanos, or whatever in each school. That, to me, is the most racist concept you can come up with. What it says is, In order for your child with curly black hair, brown eyes, and dark skin to be able to learn anything, he needs to sit next to my blond-haired, blue-eyed son. Thats racist! Who the hell do we think we are, that the only way a black man or woman can learn is if they rub shoulders with my white child?

Who, indeed?

Nowadays, the diversity rationale holds that Bidens white grandchildren need to sit next to kids with dark skin to be able to learn anything. This theory is just as racist and just as inane.

How will African-Americans react to Bidens ancient remarks on race? Perhaps the way Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP who now teaches at Harvard, did. Brooks told the Post that he has personal affection for Biden, but was taken aback by portions of the 1975 interview. He added:

If you said something like that [its not clear which statements Brooks was referring to] in 2019, there would be a response. . .that would be pretty harsh. Having served as vice president to the first African American president in U.S. history, and given all that hes seen in the intervening years, I would be stunned if he would stand behind that.

I would be stunned too, although a spokesperson said that Biden still believes he was right to oppose school busing.

Bidens defenders will say its unfair to judge him by statements he made more than 40 years ago, as a 29 year-old, given what he has learned since them. But Democrats are eager to judge, and disqualify, GOP presidential nominees based on what they wrote about race as college students. Biden was a U.S. Senator at the time he made the statements about race discussed here.

The left also demonizes famous American political figures of the past for positions they took 200 years ago or more. But those guys are all dead. They cant help leftists satisfy their lust for power. Joe Biden can, and a chastened Joe Biden can probably help them even more.
Having escaped condemnation for her anti-Semitic remarks, and indeed having avoided even a straight resolution condemning anti-Semtism itself, Rep. Ilhan Omar has gone on the attack. Thats not surprising, but some might be surprised at the target of her latest attack.

This time, its not Jews. This time the target is former president Barack Obama. The New York Post reports:

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar ripped former President Barack Obama in an interview published Friday, belittling his pretty face and saying his agenda of hope and change was an illusion. She cited the caging of kids at the Mexican border and the droning of countries around the world on Obamas watch  and argued that he wasnt much different from President Trump We cant be only upset with Trump, the freshman firebrand told Politico Magazine. His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies. They just were more polished than he was, Omar said. And thats not what we should be looking for anymore. We dont want anybody to get away with murder because they are polished. We want to recognize the actual policies that are behind the pretty face and the smile.

If this were the view of only Omar and some fringe Democrats, it wouldnt be a big deal. The problem for Democrats is that its the view of significant portion of congressional Democrats and Democratic voters. Omar is saying what many Democratic politicians believe but have been afraid to say until now.

How many House Democrats share Omars view? What percentage of Democratic voters do? These are the big questions, to which I dont know the answers.

But if you strip away Omars inflammatory rhetoric and focus on her two substantive talking points  the detention of illegal immigrants at the border and the use of lethal force by the U.S. military abroad, I wouldnt be surprised if her views have something approaching, or maybe even exceeding, majority support among Democrats.

Few Democrats would agree with Omars absurd suggestion that Presidents Obama and Trump are two sides of the same coin  a pretty side and an ugly side. But Trump will leave the stage either in 2021 or 2025. The policy rift in the Democratic party looks like its here to stay.

Either that or Omars side will prevail, in which case the Democrats risk years in the political wilderness.

The furies have been unleashed.
Archaeologists in Peru have found what they say is the site of the largest child sacrifice in the world. According to the Washington Post, about 140 children were slaughtered at the site in the mid 1400s.

The children all were killed in the same way. Their chests were slit open. This was done, researchers say, to remove their hearts.

Researchers have found a second site nearby that may contain as many sacrificial remains as the first. They also think they just found a third such site.

The Post helpfully points out that there was plenty of child sacrifice in the ancient world. But the 1400s arent so ancient. Say what you want about Western Civilization in that era (and since), child sacrifice wasnt part of its playbook.

The Post quotes an archaeologist who explains that the sacrifice was directed by a state level society, namely the Chimu civilization, a powerful empire that would soon be conquered by the Incas (who also engaged in the ritual sacrifice of children). Its not surprising that a powerful state would have directed the slaughter.

The Posts article explains that children in the South America of that time were thought to have a different kind of personhood than what we understand today. I assume so. However, powerful states are more likely to translate such understandings into slaughter of its own people than are smaller units like tribes.

But why did the Chimu state decide to sacrifice children? Scientists claim it was a response to extreme weather, a mega El Nino event. The evidence? Lots of mud with adult and human footprints around the burial pits in an area that normally receives little rain.

Climate history has become a big deal. I have no opinion as to whether it deserves its expanded role in historical analysis or as to its reliability.

We should be able to agree, though, that the find in Peru counsels against extreme responses to outbreaks of extreme weather.

UPDATE: A reader comments:
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Baby bottle warmers is very necessary device which is needed for warming the milk for baby at a particular temperature which is required and make the milk warm, so that baby can easily take the milk. The baby bottle warmer consist of warm heat which is produce by water boiling and small cooler which cool the bottle and make the temperature of milk normal. Milk is the main food for babies, as milk content all necessary component which is present for growth. The milk can be stored in a frozen condition where it can used for various hours. The bottle warmer is much more effective than any other traditional method for heating milk and then cooling by using cold water, this whole process increase the time limits for preparing the frozen milk to a normal milk which can be taken by babies. The traditional method for milk warming is a time taking process and the temperature control is also not done in a proper way, in some cases after boiling and cool the milk remain hot according to babies or in some cases after cooling the milk got extra chill, this all effect the babies lifestyle and the time management issue is created.Baby Bottle Warmers Market: Drivers and RestraintsBaby bottle warmers is a growing market over the forecast period, as the birth rate per hour is 15,000 over the worldwide which directly boost the market for baby bottle warmers. The time management is the major benefits of baby bottle warmer along with perfect temperature and less losses of energy. The baby bottle warmers are getting technology advancement which reduce more human efforts and improve the quality for temperature control and others. The high efficacy of the baby bottle warmers increase the market share for baby bottle warmers. The lack of product availability in the region along with lack of awareness about the product in all the region and high price problem is also the major hindrance for the growth of baby bottle warmers.Baby Bottle Warmers Market: SegmentationBaby Bottle Warmers market is segmented based onBaby Bottle Warmers based on Product TypesBaby Bottle Sterilizers TypeBaby Bottle Warmers TypeOther TypeBaby Bottle Warmers based on End UserHomecareBaby Care CentresOthersBaby Bottle Warmers Market: OverviewBaby bottle warmers market is mainly focused by increasing number of baby in various region over the worldwide. The advance technology increase the product quality with additional feature for fully automatic and alarm system when the warming process is completed. The baby bottle warmer is a most important product for all the mothers, as the baby food is the most important part for baby growth and development. Industries players are continuously working to improve the quality of the product with advance sensor technology, along with that the players are working on price problem to reduce the prices of the product.Baby Bottle Warmers Market: Region-wise OutlookGeographically, Baby Bottle Warmers market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America has the major market for baby bottle warmers as the present of major players along with lifestyle of the region also recommended the product by health professional. Western Europe & Eastern Europe Baby Bottle Warmers market also show growth as the product adaptation is increasing within the region. Asia Pacific Excluding Japan show sluggish growth due to lack of product availability with the region along with pricing is also the major factor which affect the Baby Bottle Warmers market growth of baby bottle warmers market.Request Sample Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-7123 Baby Bottle Warmers Market: Key PlayersSome of the players in baby bottle warmers market include: Koninklijke Philips N.V., Kiinde, Inc., Handi-Craft Company., beaba, Babybelle Asia Ltd, B.Well Swiss, Barkey GmbH & Co. KG, Tommee Tippee, BELDICO and others.
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A chest drainage system, also known as a thoracic drainage system, is a sterile, disposable system with a number of drainage holes that are inserted into the pleural (one of the two membranes around the lungs) space, i.e. the space between visceral and parietal pleura, most commonly known as the pleural cavity. It is used to prevent air or fluid back into the patient. A patient may require a chest drainage system at any time the negative pressure in the pleural cavity is disrupted, resulting in respiratory distress. A traditional chest drainage system usually has the following chambers: - collection chamber, water-seal chamber and the wet or dry suction chamber. In addition to the mentioned chambers, a chest drainage system also has many safety features to ensure that high negative pressures can be monitored and relieved quickly. Chest drainage system is usually air tight to prevent the inflow of atmospheric pressure.Chest Drainage System Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe growing prevalence and recurrence of cardiovascular diseases is expected to be the major factor driving the growth of the chest drainage system market over the forecast period. Pneumothorax is one of the major health problems across the globe. Expanding health insurance coverage is expected to increase demand for chest drainage system procedures. Patients with private coverage are more likely to seek medical treatment at an urgent care center or hospital settings. According to industry experts, favorable insurance coverage would influence the chest drain system market significantly by penetrating the sub-urban areas. These factors are expected to boost the growth of the chest drainage system market.Chest Drainage System Market: SegmentationTentatively, the global chest drainage system Market can be segmented on the basis of indication, end user and geography.Based on indications, the global chest drainage system market is segmented as:Pleural EffusionHemothoraxPneumothoraxCardiac tamponadeBased on end users, the global chest drainage system market is segmented as:HospitalsAmbulatory Surgical CentersSpecialty ClinicsBased on geography, the global chest drainage system market is segmented as:North AmericaLatin AmericaWestern EuropeEastern EuropeAsia PacificJapanChinaMiddle-East & AfricaChest Drainage System Market: OverviewThe global market for chest drainage system is expected to witness more transactions and consolidations in the next three to four years. Majority of the products are updated and introduced in the Chest Drainage System market and thus there exists a high competition among the key players. Among the indication types, the pneumothorax segment is expected to lead in the global chest drainage system market over the forecast period. Hospitals, by end users are expected to contribute a considerable share in the global chest drainage system market as it is the most accessible channel and majority of patients are recommended for outpatient treatment.Chest Drainage System Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the global chest drainage system market is segmented into viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, China and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America is expected to be dominant market in the global chest drainage system market due to the factors such as high costs, and high level of awareness. The Chest Drainage System Market in Asia Pacific excluding Japan is expected to grow at a significant CAGR due to rising awareness levels in the developing countries. Europe is expected to have second largest share in the global Chest Drainage System Market throughout the forecast period.Request Sample Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-7121 Chest Drainage System Market: Key PlayersThe global market for chest drainage System is highly competitive. Examples of some of the key players operating in the global chest drainage system market are Teleflex Incorporated, MAQUET Holding B.V. & Co. KG, Utah Medical Products, Inc., Smiths Medical, Inc., ATMOS Medizintechnik GmbH & Co. KG, Sinapi Biomedical, (Becton, Dickinson and Company) and others.
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Culture media is a special type of media that is used in the microbiological laboratories for growing several different kinds of microorganisms. A culture or growth media consists of several types of nutrients that are mandatory for microbial growth. Microorganisms happen to exist in different forms with unique properties and they require specific nutrients for their growth. Culture media are prepared based on what type of nutrients are present. Culture media preparators are used for preparation of culture media. Culture media preparators are used for different purposes like for preservation of the culture media, for enrichment of the culture media, for selective culture media, for differential culture media and for resuscitation culture media. When large volumes of media is processed, there is a difficulty in sterilization of culture media preparation. Culture media preparators cut down the problem of sterilization and help with better heat penetration to the entire media. Culture media preparators also reduce the heat sterilization period. Culture media preparators are highly preferred for minimal damage and higher efficiency of the culture media.Culture Media Preparators Market: Drivers and Restraints-Growing geriatric population and higher prevalence of infectious diseases are the major factors fueling the market growth for culture media preparators market. Culture media has wide applications in food industry, molecular biology, environmental analysis and several other industrial applications. Increasing applications of culture media is also expected to contribute to the market growth for culture media preparators over the forecast period. Growing prevalence of several chronic diseases and increase in demand for indication-specific diagnosis and treatment is also expected to drive the market for culture media preparators over the forecast period. However, certain temperature increase in the heating stage could lead to digestion and liquefaction of the culture media which might further hinder the market for culture media preparators. Lack of awareness of these culture media preparators and consistent use of traditional manual way of culture media preparation could also hamper the market growth for culture media preparators over the forecast period.Request Sample Report@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-7526 Culture Media Preparators Market: SegmentationTentatively, Culture Media PreparatorsMarket has been segmented on the basis of product type, end users and geography.On the basis of Product type, Culture Media Preparators Market can be segmented as:Automated Culture Media PreparatorsSemi-automated Culture Media PreparatorsOn the basis of end users, Culture Media Preparators Market can be segmented as:Ambulatory Surgical CentersHospitalsResearch InstitutesSpecialized ClinicsOthersOn the basis of geography, Culture Media Preparators Market can be segmented as:North- AmericaEastern EuropeWestern EuropeAsia-Pacific excluding China & JapanChinaJapanMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaCulture Media Preparators Market: OverviewGlobal Culture Media Preparators market is expected to grow significantly owing it to the increase in incidence and prevalence chronic diseases and growing demand for disease diagnosis and treatment. Growing technological advancements in the field of molecular biology, microbiology is expected to be a boon for the culture media preparators market. Culture media preparators for food and beverage industries have also constantly contributed to the culture media preparators market. By the product, automated culture media preparators are expected to grow at a robust rate owing it to less risk of errors like temperature errors and contaminations involved with the culture growth. Automated culture media preparators balance the consistency, composition and purpose of the culture media involved.Culture Media Preparators Market: Region-wise OutlookGeography wise, Culture Media Preparators market is divided into eight regions viz. North-America, Asia- Pacific excluding China & Japan, China, Japan, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Middle-East & Africa. North Americas Culture Media Preparators market is expanding because of high adoption rate and it will remain dominant over the period of forecast due to growing microbiology facilities and improved healthcare expenditure for chronic disease diagnosis and treatment. The incidence of these chronic cases is increasing which also contributes to the share in the region. Europes Culture Media Preparators market is also expected to grow at a significant rate due to improved product range of the Culture Media Preparators. Asia-Pacifics Culture Media Preparators market is anticipated to grow at a moderate rate due to poor awareness about Culture Media Preparators and low healthcare expenditure.Request to View TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-7526 Culture Media Preparators Market: Key Market ParticipantsSome of the market participants in the Global Culture Media Preparators market identified across the value chain include:Merck KGaA, bioMerieux SA, CertoClav Sterilizer GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific, INTEGRA Biosciences AG., Systec GmbH, Baker, Alliance Bio Expertise, Distek, Inc., medorex e.K. and Hansen Holding A/S.
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The requirement for airway cleaners is rising with the betterment in the reimbursement structure as well as the rising worries on a sound living. So as to conform to the developing necessity, the companies functioning in the market have made an effort to improve work. The airway clearances are hence arising to be the vital choice since they change liquid medication into mist or aerosol. In addition, the increase in per capita earnings in determining individuals to expend more on health care therefore worries about healthcare is growing with rising standards of living. The other aspects which are profiting the North America market for airway clearance systems are the enlargement of third-party payer reporting by producers, expansion of institutional and home care market, a higher occurrence rate of chronic ailments, usage of the Affordable Care Act as well as the bringing down price of the therapy settings. On the other hand, it is nevertheless to be determined that whether the rigid regulation scenario acts the same as a difficulty or not.Request For Report Sample with Table of Contents@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110115030/Airway-Clearance-Systems-Market Market players in the overall market are majorly centering on increasing in other regions, establishing advanced airway clearance technology fitting into the consumers requirement with the purpose of gaining a comparatively bigger market share. The global market for airway cleaner systems is likely to record a 7.6% CAGR for the duration of 2017 to 2025. Increasing from an evaluation of US$ 434.0 Million during 2016, the market is projected to account for an evaluation of US$ 838.7 Million before the finish of 2025.Region-wise, North America market is likely to take over the worldwide market because of growing disposable income together with expanding elderly populace all through the years to come. On the contrary, Europe market is likely to anticipate an upright expansion over the years to come. The price structure of institutional services or hospitals and home care in Europe alters substantially because of the value of services extended by respiratory care service manufacturers or providers that constitute another type of hospitality and monitoring services.Request For Report Discount@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110115030/Airway-Clearance-Systems-Market Based on the device type, the global market includes mechanical cough assist, intrapulmonary percussive ventilation, high-frequency chest wall compression, OPEP (oscillatory positive expiratory pressure) and PEP (positive expiratory pressure). Based on the application type, the overall market includes immotile cilia syndrome, bronchiectasis, chronic bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, and others. Based on the end user, the overall market includes home care settings, ambulatory surgical centers, hospitals and clinics, and others.Conventional participants have determined a value and brand image throughout the years that have made market infiltration very composite for novel players. The foremost companies operating in the global market are Monaghan Medical Corporation, Vortran Medical Technology, General Physiotherapy, Inc., Electromed Inc., Thayer Medical, Aptalis Pharma US, Inc., Philips Respironics (Koninklijke Philips N.V.,), Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. and others.Report Analysis@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110115030/Global-Market
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A thermostat is utilized to keep up the engine close to its ideal working temperature by controlling the course of coolant to an air-cooled radiator. This kind of thermostat operates utilizing a varnished chamber containing a wax pellet which melts and extends at a determined temperature. The expansion of the chamber controls a bar that opens a valve when the operating temperature is surpassed. The operating temperature is controlled by the piece of the wax. When the operating temperature is achieved, the thermostat vigorously increments or reduces its reaction to temperature alterations, progressively adjusting the coolant distribution flow along with the coolant flow to the radiator to keep up the engine temperature in the ideal range.Request For Report Sample with Table of Contents@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114846/Automotive-Thermostat-Market The global market for the automotive thermostat is estimated to account for a market value of US$ 2,094.5 Million through 2025 end up from a value at US$ 1,598.3 Million during 2017. The market is set to increase at a 3.4% CAGR during the predicted period.Global Automotive Thermostat Market Likely to Touch a Figure of US$ 2,094.5 Million Through 2025Market SegmentationBased on the design, the overall market includes dual valve and single valve. The single valve design is likely to grow highly attractive in the global market for automotive thermostat all through the predicted period. However, the dual valve category is likely to capture a minimum share in the overall market all through the predicted period. Nevertheless, this category is estimated to witness a firm growth rate all through the predicted period.Based on the sales channel, the worldwide market includes aftermarket and OEM. The OEM category will be accounting for a market share of 57.04% by the end of the year 2025, up from 56.62% by 2017.On the basis of the vehicle type, the worldwide market includes HCV, LCV and PC. The passenger vehicle type will be accounting for a market share of 73.6% by the end of the year 2025, up from 73.1% during 2017. The heavy commercial vehicle type is projected to attain 4.7% by 2025. Both HC and LCV vehicle type is likely to exhibit strong growth in the global market for automotive thermostat.Request For Report Discount@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114846/Automotive-Thermostat-Market On the basis of region, the overall market includes North America, Middle East & Africa, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Europe. The APAC market is considered to remain highly attractive all through the predicted period. North America regional market is also probable to demonstrate comparatively sturdy growth over the said period.Key Market PlayersSome of the major companies operating in the overall market for automotive thermostat includeDenso CorporationContinental AGBorgWarner Inc.MotoRad Ltd.MAHLE GmbHHella KGaA Hueck & Co.Valeo SASogefi S.p.A.Kraca Holding EnterpriseRobert Bosch GmbHNippon Thermostat Co. Ltd.Tama Enterprises Co., Ltd.Stant Manufacturing, Inc.Ningbo Xingci Thermal Electric Appliances Co. Ltd.Vernet SASOthersReport Analysis@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114846/Automotive-Thermostat-Market
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Future Market Insights delivers key insights on the global retread tires market in its latest report titled Retread Tires Market: Global Industry Analysis (2013  2017) and Opportunity Assessment 2018 2028. The long-term outlook of the global retread tires market remains positive and the market value is expected to increase at a CAGR of 4.6% during the forecast period (2018  2028). Among the end use segments of the retread tires market, the heavy commercial vehicles segment is expected to expand with a significant CAGR in terms of value as well as volume over the forecast period. The global sales of retread tires is estimated to be valued at US$ 8,684.9 Mn by the end of 2018. The China retread tires market is estimated to account for a value share of 29.6% in the global retread tires market by 2018 end and is anticipated to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. In this report, Future Market Insights throws light on the drivers and restraints likely to impact revenue growth of the retread tires market during this period.Request For Report Sample @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3657 Increasing Automotive Production and Vehicle Parc to Drive Market Revenue GrowthSales of retread tires is directly related to vehicle parc and vehicle production. Despite unstable economic conditions in the market in the recent past, the global automotive industry has witnessed satisfactory growth. Automotive production is anticipated to increase with a modest CAGR of 3%3.5% during the forecast period. Automotive production is expected to be higher in emerging economies as compared to that in developed economies. This can mainly be attributed to increasing urbanisation and stable economic conditions in these regions. During the forecast period, the fleet on road is also expected to rise with a modest CAGR, thereby providing marginal opportunities for the growth of the retread tires market over the forecast period.Global Retread Tires Market: Segmentation AnalysisThe global retread tires market can be segmented on the basis of vehicle type into passenger car, light commercial vehicle, heavy commercial vehicle and off road vehicle. On the basis of vehicle type, the heavy commercial vehicle segment is anticipated to continue to dominate the global market in terms of value over the forecast period. The demand for retread tires in heavy commercial vehicles is estimated to grow at a relatively high CAGR as compared to other vehicle types over the forecast period. This segment is expected to represent a total incremental opportunity of US$ 2,228.1 Mn between 2018 and 2028.Global Retread Tires Market: Regional Market ProjectionsThe China retread tires market is expected to represent a significantly high incremental opportunity between 2018 and 2028, while the South East Asia & Pacific retread tires market is projected to expand at a significant CAGR in terms of volume over the forecast period. Sales of retread tires in South East Asia & Pacific is expected to represent a total incremental opportunity of US$ 469.6 Mn between 2018 and 2028.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC): https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-3657 Global Retread Tires Market: Vendor LandscapeThe report highlights some of the top companies operating in the global retread tires market such as Bridgestone Corporation, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Marangoni S.p.A., MICHELIN, MRF Tyres JK Tyres, Easters Treads, Nokian Tyres plc, Kraiburg Austria Gmbh & Co.Kg , Pilipinas Kai Rubber Corporation.
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Global Security-as-a-Service (SaaS) market revenues totalled US$ 3.3 billion in 2016, and are anticipated to grow at a staggering CAGR of 17.1% through 2026. Key factors propelling the adoption of SaaS services include proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing. The key end use sectors for SaaS include telecom and IT, BFSI, and healthcare remain the largest end-users of SaaS, with telecom and IT particularly witnessing robust adoption. By 2026, the revenue share of telecom & IT is expected to reach 30%, whereas BFSI sector will account for 20.3% of total revenues.Concerns about potential security threats to confidential and important information is influencing telecom & IT companies to invest in SaaS. Consequently, providing end-to-end security solutions remains a lucrative mode of operation of SaaS companies. Prominent SaaS companies, including Intel Security, Cisco Systems, Inc., and Oracle Corporation are focusing on offering customised solutions to their clients. While IT & telecom will continue to remain the most lucrative end-user, gains will be steady in the healthcare and BFSI sector.Request For Report Sample with Table of Contents@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upsample/120124598/Security-as-a-Service-Market Global SaaS market revenues remain equally concentrated between large players and local vendors. It is projected that by 2026, large companies and multinational corporations will account for over 50% share, with the rest remaining fragmented among small and medium enterprises.A key trend in the global SaaS market is that service providers are focusing on becoming integrators of holistic solution providers rather than just offering one particular type of service.Reluctance to adopt cloud based solutions is steadily waning, and as more companies come on board, the SaaS market is anticipated to gain further traction.It is projected that the SaaS delivery market will grow at a higher rate as compared to traditional software. File sharing continues to be the leading end-use for SaaS globally, with virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) being the otherleading segment.For global players, growth of the security services of IoT and cost advantages remain key opportunities to leverage during the forecast period.Request For Report Discount@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/updiscount/120124598/Security-as-a-Service-Market Although the outlook on SaaS remains positive, longstanding challenges, such as difficulty in storing unstructured data and risk of organized attacks remain key challenges. Further, easy accessibility to data makes confidential information vulnerable to cyber-attack and hacks.Some of the leading market players profiled in this report include Intel Security, Oracle Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., Gemalto NV, Qualys Inc., Alert Logic Inc., Trend Micro Inc., Proofpoint Inc., Zscaler, Inc., and Okta, Inc.North America and Western Europe remain the two largest markets for SaaS, with the former accounting for over 35% revenue share of the market in 2016. The North America SaaS market was valued at US$ 1.04 billion in 2015, and is anticipated to grow at a staggering 20% CAGR through 2026. Western Europe, the second largest market globally, will also be the fastest growing market after North America.Report Analysis@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/upcomming/120124598/Security-as-a-Service-Market It is worthwhile to mention that SaaS market in North America will be completely dominated by the U.S., with Canada accounting for only 22% share of the market. This is expected to further decline to nearly 19% by the end of the forecast period.
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The worldwide market for skin rejuvenation is anticipated to record a remarkable 8.7% CAGR for the period of forecast to exhibit a notable market estimation. The global market to account for an evaluation of around US$ 2.2 Billion before the end of 2022The worldwide market is impacted by several factors for instance development in medical science, innovations in several products & improvement of technology, several makers preferring innovative skin rejuvenation medication treatments, growing occurrences of skin trouble because of aging together with increasing consciousness & growing disposable income of individual globally, rising awareness of minimally invasive and non-invasive processes and growing investment in R&D activities in the skin care sector by several organisations in this sector. Conversely, the foremost limitation to the expansion of this market is the affordability measure since not all class of individuals could give skin rejuvenation medications.Request For Report Sample with Table of Contents@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110115032/Skin-Rejuvenation-Market North America is anticipated to be a majorly lucrative region for the expansion of the worldwide market. This region exhibits high market attractiveness, & is the biggest regional market. It is directing the market as last years & this is mainly going to remain so throughout the assessment period. The North America skin rejuvenation market will foresee the maximum expansion to record a remarkable CAGR of around 9.5% all through the period of assessment, followed by Asia Pacific excluding Japan region reflects high prospects in the approaching years, with a remarkable expansion rate throughout the assessment period.In terms of the product, the global market is inclusive of laser based devices, energy based devices, ultrasound devices, RF devices, LED devices and IPL devices. Of these, the worldwide market for skin rejuvenation is lead by IPL devices category. This category is a majorly lucrative and projected to be the biggest category on the basis of market share and value. Before the finish of the figured year, the IPL devices category will reflect a high valuation of around US$ 690 Million. The laser based devices category is the quickest expanding category to touch stellar evaluation. This category is increasing due to increased utilization of laser in skin rejuvenation therapy processes.Request For Report Discount@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110115032/Skin-Rejuvenation-Market Based on the end users, the worldwide market is broadly categorised into beauty clinics and dermatology clinics. The dermatology clinics category is the biggest category and is expected to dominate the worldwide market for skin rejuvenation on the basis of market evaluation. During 2017, this category exhibited a higher market share of over 60% and is projected to carry on its status quo for the duration of the assessment, 2017-2022.The foremost companies active in the worldwide market includes Alma Lasers, Ltd., Sciton, Inc., Fotona d.d., EL.En . S.p.A., Venus Concept Canada Corp., Solta Medical Inc., Lynton Lasers Ltd, Cynosure, Inc., Lumenis Ltd., Syneron Medical Ltd., Strata Skin Sciences, Inc., Cutera Inc., Lutronic Corporation and others.Report Analysis@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110115032/Skin-Rejuvenation-Market
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BURBANK, CA / ACCESSWIRE / March 7, 2019 / Danny Bibi, the CEO of leading advertising solutions marketplace AdMedia.com , is proud to announce that the company has been awarded the first place in the most recent Mobile Seller Trust Index (MSTI) by Pixalate. This is the third consecutive report ranking the multi-channel ad tech and media group in the top five of trustworthy DSPs and the first time the platform has secured the leading position among programmatic sellers online.The MSTI ratings reflect the results of an analysis covering reach, invalid traffic by type, location, and transparency. With straight As in all categories and a final score of 93, AdMedia.com did particularly well on transparency, location, and sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT), where it scored 95 in each segment. The company was awarded 94 for general invalid traffic (GIVT) and 91 for reach, which rounded off a set of outstanding results achieved at a time when concerns over network quality, transparency, and digital ad fraud occupy the minds of digital marketers and agencies buying programmatically, Danny Bibi points out. In 2017, Juniper Research estimated that fraudulent activities would cost online and mobile advertisers about $19 billion in 2018, which represents daily losses of $51 million. According to that report, the figure will increase further to reach $44 billion by 2022.The engine technology from AdMedia.com is designed to exceed advertisers' key performance indicators (KPIs) while providing superior quality through artificial intelligence (AI)-powered channel optimization solutions. Given the platform shift from desktop to mobile, the company has prioritized traffic quality, designating it as a key pillar of its digital strategy. Its efforts have been duly recognized by the online community, ultimately improving its Pixalate trust rating over the past year. AdMedia.com utilizes a pre-bid ad filtration system in conjunction with the major third-party brand safety companies to identify potential invalid traffic and filter these sources before they even see an ad. It also offers first-party audience targeting capabilities, integration with third-party data management platforms, server-to-server integration with major mobile developers, and its own software development kit (SDK), which can be found at admobile.com . Highlighting the company's dedication to quality and transparency, vice-president Michael Aragon commented, "Our commitment to combating ad fraud in the digital ecosystem remains one of our core priorities. 2019 looks to be the year that showcases the full capabilities of the 5G experience. We feel this should continue to springboard the already significant shift from desktop to mobile advertising and content consumption. We want to ensure that our technology and integrated inventory is top in class while also prioritizing advertiser performance." Headquartered in Burbank, California, AdMedia.com has been delivering state-of-the-art ad solutions to advertisers and publishers since 1998. Empowered by its cross-channel capabilities, customers can create impactful and comprehensive campaigns by leveraging video, mobile, search, display, email, and remarketing, either in combination or as individual channels. All advertising products offered by the company incorporate algorithms and advanced contextual, geographical, and behavioral targeting technology to guarantee user engagement for every single ad and maximize return on investment for publishers.AdMedia - Leading Advertising Solutions Marketplace: http://admedianews.com AdMedia - Home - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdMediaCommunity AdMedia (@Ad_Media) - Twitter: https://twitter.com/ad_media Contact Information:info@ admedia.com SOURCE: AdMedia.com
The governorship election in Enugu State is shaping up as a no contest as the main opposition party in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and its candidate seems to have handed the diadem to the incumbent governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

After the primaries of the two parties last year, it seemed as if Mr Ugwuanyi faced a big battle from the APC governorship candidate, Ayogu Eze.

But Mr Eze and his party in the preceding months failed to build on the momentum generated by his emergence. Instead, the party seems to have pressed the self-destruct button leading to the gradual implosion of the party.

First, the APC broke into two factions with two persons staking claim to the chairmanship of the party. This leadership tussle started before the primaries but expanded after.

Less than a week to the election, the dispute over the chairmanship of the party remained in court between Ben Nwoye and Okey Ogbodo.

There was also a very bitter struggle over the governorship ticket of the party. The party submitted the name of Mr Eze to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but George Ogara of the other faction of the party challenged his candidature in court.

On March 5, the Federal High Court sacked Mr Eze and ordered INEC to recognise Mr Ogara as the candidate of the party.

Mr Eze headed to the appeal court. The court case forced INEC nor to list any candidate for the APC in its final list of candidates released during the week.

But on Thursday, barely 48 hours to the election, the court quashed the Abuja High Court ruling and reinstated Mr Eze.

But the court case may have destabilised the party beyond redemption.

Ayogu Eze

The chairman of the party in the state, Mr Nwoye, called for the postponement of the election in the state to allow their candidate time for campaign.

He asked INEC to immediately relist the name of Mr Eze as the APC standard bearer. The party chairman led thousands of party supporters to throng the INEC office in protest to that effect.

The long drawn legal battle and other alleged injustices arising from its acrimonious primaries plunged the party into chaos and confusion.

This led to the colossal loss of the party in the presidential and National Assembly elections in the state. The PDP had a field day in those elections, clearing all the National Assembly seats in the Enugu and winning the presidential election with ease.

But the APC seemed not to have learnt its lessons. Political observers expected it to embark on consensus building and reconciliation of aggrieved members. Instead, the national leadership of the party worsened the situation with last weeks suspension of the Director of Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechuikwu.

Mr Okechukwu was an aspirant for the Enugu West Senatorial ticket of the party. He lost the ticket to Juliet Ibekaku-Nwaugwu, a Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Okechukwu was accused of anti-party activities by the partys National Working Committee, which it said led to the poor performance of the party in the elections.

But Mr Okechukwu denied the charge and warned that the APC might face an even worse humiliation in the governorship election.

Please help me to inform Comrade Oshiohmole 9APC National Chairman, Adams) that there is no vigorous campaign going on in Enugu by Senator Ayogu Eze, he said as if mocking the party.

This information is important because he may accuse me unduly if APC loses. For when his darling candidate, Juliet Ibekaku Nwagu, lost the senatorial seat he allocated to her, he made me a scapegoat. Little did Comrade agree that Juliet is a dark horse, and to compound matters, she did not campaign vigorously.

She hoped to use federal might to write results, not reckoning with the ubiquitous Smart Card Reader. This assumption made her lose in Egede, her ward, and in the rest 80 wards of Enugu West Senatorial District, Mr Okechukwu said.

In contrast to the situation in the camp of his main opponent, Governor Ugwuanyi despite his popularity continued to campaign vigorously across the state.

Chimaraoke Nnamani

From the days of Chimaroke Nnamani who was elected governor in 1999, Enugu State has remained a PDP State with little or no opposition.

Both Messrs Ugwuanyi and Eze were aspirants in the PDP in 2015 before the emergence of Mr Ugwuanyi as the flag bearer. Mr Eze contested that nomination in court.

The matter ended at the Supreme Court a few months ago in favour of Mr Ugwuanyi. Mr Eze decided to jump ship and got the ticket of the APC.

The APC rank swelled with the defections of prominent politicians like a former governor of old Anambra State, Jim Nwobodo; former Senate President, Ken Nnamani; former governor, Sullivan Chime; former Secretary to the State Government, Onyemauche Nnamani; and former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Eugene Odo.

But Mr Nwobodo decamped back to the PDP, citing the achievements of Governor Ugwuanyi as his reason. He declared his support for the governors re-election.

But analysts believe the former governor became disillusioned over the protracted crisis in the party, which caused an irreconcilable division in the party.

The PDP has enjoyed a relatively smooth ride ahead of the polls.

Apart from one or two defections by some aspirants who had issues with the party over the primary elections, the party appears more united with fewer distractions as the elections approach.

One thing going for Governor Ugwuanyi is his disposition to peace and harmonious relationship which has endeared him even to the opposition. His relationship with the opposition constantly caused APC leaders to accuse each other of sabotaging their party.

Unlike his predecessors, the governor has also maintained a good relationship with elders of the state, including Messrs Nwobodo, Ken Nnamani and Chimaroke Nnamani.

Jim Nwobodo Photo: dailytimes..com.ng

Mr Ugwuanyi has broken the jinx of a sitting governor fighting his predecessor/godfather which had been the norm in the state.

Even after his predecessor, Mr Chime, defected to the APC, Mr Ugwuanyi continued to accord him due respect.

In all, if there is any candidate that could give Mr Ugwuanyi sleepless nights, it is Mr Eze, which was the reason the APC quickly adopted him as its candidate immediately he crossed over from the PDP.

For one, he has been in government circles having served as commissioner under Mr Nnamanis administration. He was also a stakeholder in the PDP before his defection and should know all the political tricks it may use against his new party.

However, Mr Eze is coming against a governor who is perceived to have performed, promoted peace and unity and whose political ratings towers above that of Mr Eze.

Mr Ugwuanyi is a grassroots politician who has retained his touch with the grassroots even as a governor.

Thus, the bookmakers expect an outright victory for Mr Ugwuanyi in the governorship elections on Saturday.
The World Health Organisation has commended the efforts of some Africans countries to resolve gender disparity in the continent but said all must do more.

The Africa Regional Director, WHO, Matshidiso Moeti, gave the commendation at a press briefing in Abuja on Friday in commemoration of the International Womens Day.

The event is marked every March 8 to advance the cause of women all over the world.

The theme of this years IWD is Think Equal, Build Smart, and Innovate for Change.

Ms Moeti said many countries in Africa have taken giant strides towards gender parity in education, health, economic and political system.

She said these countries have incorporated multisectoral actions for advancing womens health through the life course in their national health development strategies.

She reaffirmed WHO commitment to gender equality and women empowerment.

Let us all Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change to improve health outcomes for women and girls so they can realise their potential and contribute to transformative socioeconomic and political development in the Africa region.

The theme of this year is a clarion call to all of us that rapid economic and transformational development will only be achieved by addressing and resolving the gender-based differences relating to health needs, risk behaviours, power and control over resources and information, and access to health services, she said.

Ms Moeti said though gender advances have been made on the continent, countries need not relent because most of the positive developments are being masked by the fact that the regions gender gap has started to widen again.

This, she said, is due to significant inter-country variations in educational attainment, political empowerment, wage equality and the numbers of women engaged in professional and technical work.

African women are increasingly occupying positions of power and influencing bolder legislation and policy-making and demonstrating to other women that they too have a voice and can make decisions on issues impacting their lives.

Rwanda has the largest proportion of female parliamentarians in the world (61 per cent), and together with Ethiopia, has near-parity in ministerial positions; in Namibia, the proportion of women in parliament stands at about 46 per cent.

International Womens Day

Deep-seated gender, equity and rights issues are responsible for the persistently high number of HIV-related deaths, especially among young women, as well as unacceptably high rates of maternal mortality and other harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation.

We must also confront lifestyle issues and risk factors contributing to the increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases among women in Africa; ensure that girls remain in school until the completion of their secondary education, and end all forms of violence against women and girls, she said.

Also in commemoration of the day, the UN World Food Programme in a press statement said putting women and girls in the front and centre of policy decisions and programmes to tackle hunger and poverty is vital for reaching the goal of a Zero Hunger world by 2030.

The international organisation said reducing inequalities and removing barriers that exclude women from influencing development in all sectors advances food security.

WFP Executive Director, David Beasley, said the IWD was reminding people of the immense and valuable contribution women make towards a more peaceful, prosperous and well-fed world.

International Womens Day Celebration

All around the globe, WFP programmes help to empower women so they can have more opportunities to not just improve their lives, but those of their families, communities and nations.

He said gender continues to be a critical component of their work as WFP is constantly challenging the status quo and working to achieve gender equality and womens empowerment through its programmes.

School feeding programmes have demonstrated an increase in nutrition and education among girl students and contributed to a decrease in teen pregnancy and child marriage.

Our Food for Assets projects have empowered women who now are able to work in their communities, feed their families, sell their produce and contribute towards the development of themselves and their families, he said.
In Bauchi, the demon awakened by the last years contentious All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries still roves untamed.

And the virulent ghost seems prepared to strip the incumbent governor, Muhammed Abubakar of his political future. But he has vowed to do whatever it takes to exorcise the belligerent spirit that seems poised to drag him into a political limbo.

Like in most states across the country, the October 2018 primary in Bauchi was raucous and violent  at least one person was confirmed killed and several others injured.

Thugs drove from villages to villages in the 20 local governments of the states, intimidating party members. There was also the disagreement on the type of the primary to be conducted. While those who did not want the incumbent to return, wanted direct primary, the governors camp pushed for indirect primary.

At first, it seems like those opposed to the governor had had their way when the national leadership of the party ruled that direct primary would be used to choose the partys candidates in the 2019 elections.

But they had their hope dashed when the electoral committee in the state announced Mr Abubakar as the partys flagbearer.

Confusion

Depending on who you asked, the primary either did not hold at all or was free and fair. One thing was certain though, nobody has seen the official result of the primary.

As it is often the case with Nigerias ideological-empty politics, many of the aggrieved members left the APC. While some returned to the open hands of the former ruling People Democratic Party (PDP), others joined the newly rejuvenated Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).

Others like Ibrahim Lame and Bala Jibrin, aspirants who had run against the incumbent in the vexed primary, chose to remain in the party but with no love lost with Mr Abubakar. Their resolve to make sure the governor does not return for a second term was steadfast.

Abysmal tenure

On the night of the February 25, sitting in the large hall of the Bauchi State head office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office among a small group of his aide patiently waiting for the last results of the presidential election in the state to be announced, Mr Jubrin told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr Abubakars tenure has been abysmal.

This governor, you will write a lot home about him, but they are all negative. He is violent friendly, he likes terror. People were shot in order for him to do the primary without election. People were teargassed,  he said.

He said the governor could not account for the N500 billion he received as federal allocation and has nothing to show for his time in office.

I dont know what he has done that is worth celebrating. I dont know. I dont know any project that he started and completed from the beginning to the end in the last four years. You said you are from Lagos? If there is a way we can borrow Ambode that you people are trying to impeach, and let him come a spend the remaining part of the tenure, we would, he said.

Nigeria Former Minister Muhammad Pate [Photo Credit: Africa hospital group]

Bauchi State is at crossroads today and will need to decide on March 2, 2019 at the ballot on its future direction. It faces a choice between two contrasting future directions, between truth and falsehood, justice versus oppression, shared prosperity versus mass poverty, Muhammad Pate, the governorship candidate of the PRP, and a former Minister of State for Health also said.

Untapped Potentials

It is hard to fault these arguments. Outside Bauchi metropolis, a drowsy town peppered with chicken suya vendors at every street corner, the state is a neglected tourist treasure.

That Bauchi has consistently ranked at the bottom of almost all human development indices is not exactly the best PR for a governor seeking re-election.

A 2018 survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that Bauchi has about 1,239,759 out-of-school children, the most in the country. The state was also ranked as the poorest in the country

According to a 2016 United Nations Development Programmes Human Development Index (HDI) Bauchi, with a value 0.3238, occupied the 35th position. It had occupied the 29th position in 2013 with a value of 0.2636.

However, Jafaar Dass, a Public Administration lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, said it would be unfair to tar the entire tenure of the government a failure.

He said the best way to evaluate how a government has performed was to look at what it has achieved or failed to achieve sector by sector.

Mr Dass said one area where the Mr Abubakars administration deserves commendation was the construction of rural roads.

Another thing Mr Abubakar can boast of is that Bauchi is one of the few states in the country that has consistently paid its workers and pensioners as at when their salaries and pensions are due.

Indigene Question

In Nigeria, economic and social development are not particularly election deciders. Voters pay more attention to things like ethnicity, religion and political affiliations in choosing their leaders.

Even here, Mr Abubakar falls short.

The rumour in around Bauchi is that he is not a true indigene of the state. People said his father, a policeman, was originally from Kogi but settled down in Bauchi after he was transferred there years before the governor was born.

Therefore, many people still see him an outsider. Perhaps this is what Mr Jubrin was referring to when he told PREMIUM TIMES that Bauchi people want somebody who is proud to be from Bauchi and someone that has family values and dont want to tarnish the integrity of his family.

(He has) contempt for workers, contempt for the traditional institutions yet he is going from palace to palace and asking for titles. He wants to belong, yet he thinks everybody is his slave.

Unimpressed

The organising secretary of APC in Bauchi, Abdulkadir Gyangyan, said he was not in the mood to talk about the issues at stake.

Im not answering this question. Go and ask the person that told you that the governor is not popular he can give you that answer, he said.

You spoke to people of the opposition party. My brother, dont tell me that. I am with the governor right now. My only answer to you is the votes. It remains three or four days (to the election) you will see what happens in Bauchi. That is my answer. I know that MA (Muhammed Abubakar) will win the election, he said during a telephone interview.

Opposition

Apart from members of his own party who want him out, Mr Abubakar is also contending with a groundswell of challengers from the PDP and PRP, the two main opposition parties in the state.

If results from 23 February presidential election is anything to go by, one would think the incumbent should blitz over other contenders. But in politics, things are not always as they seem.

After the presidential and National Assembly elections, the APC won all three senatorial seats in the state and eight out of the 12 House of Representatives seats in the state. The PDP won one while the PRP took two of the seats. One of the seats is inconclusive.

Analysts have ascribed the partys gain in the last election to the popularity of President Muhammadu Buhari in the state. The president won over 70 per cent of the votes in the state. But on Saturday, the president will be out of the equation and it will be every man for himself.

Permutations

The PDP will do well in Bauchi South senatorial district where the influence of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara is unmatched in three of the seven local governments  Tafawa Balewa, Dass and Bogoro  of the district.

In Bauchi metropolis, the PRP is the most popular party and rightly won the House of Representatives seat of the town, which has some of the most populous polling units in the state.

In Bauchi North, APC lost the House of Representatives seat In Katagum local government, the most populated local government in the zone, to the PRP. Nuhu Gidado, a former deputy governor of the state, who resigned in May 2018 following what he described as dampened spirit and waning zeal in the discharge of his duties will be making sure Mr Abubakar gets as little votes as possible from the district.

But all is not completely bleak for Mr Abubakar. The failure of the opposition to present a united front is a plus for him.

Bala Mohammed, Governor of Bauchi State.

Mr Pate, and the PDP candidate, Bala Muhammed, a former minister of the FCT, will share opposition votes in key opposition strongholds like Bauchi and Katagum local governments.

Of the two opposition candidates, Mr Muhammed stands a better chance of toppling the incumbent, but his ongoing corruption trial will put off many voters who would have ordinarily voted for him.
If Governor Jibrilla Bindow emerges victorious after the final votes for Adamawa State governorship election are tallied on Saturday, he and other members of the All Progressives Congress may still want to pause after their celebrations to reflect on their dwindling fortune in a state they swept only four years ago.

Already, the Peoples Democratic Party has picked two of the states three senatorial districts at the February 23 federal parliamentary election. That exercise also saw the APC lose four out of the states eight federal constituencies.

The APC had all the three senatorial seats and eight House of Representatives seats before the poll. The presidential election also swung the way of the PDP, after President Muhammadu Buhari won it in 2015 with over 120,000 votes.

This has put the party on the defensive ahead of the governorship and state parliamentary elections on Saturday.

Umaru Fintiri, the PDP candidate, has positioned himself to maximise the momentum the results appeared to have accorded him.

One state, disparate yearnings

Analysts are still puzzled whether PDPs fortunes on February 23 reflected a verdict on the performance of the APC at state and federal levels over the past four years or indicated a rumbling cascade of votes received by Atiku Abubakar, who is the biggest politician from the state.

But an analysis of the February 23 election results reveals a sharp division between rural and suburban local government areas, with a discernible decrease in APC votes outside of metropolitan Jimeta-Yola compared to 2015 when the ruling party did well there.

While those in the rural areas accuse the governor of abandoning them as their farm produce are regularly destroyed by criminals, urban residents are hailing the construction of new roads and business clusters at an unprecedented scale.

The urban renewal project which the governor has embarked upon around Jimeta-Yola area has never been witnessed before, according to Ahmed Lawan, the organising secretary of the APC in Adamawa State. It has been rapid enough to be felt by residents in these areas in less than four years.

The infrastructure overhaul had resulted in noticeable improvement to roads, markets and services in suburban Yola, and heavy duty trucks are now allowed round-the-clock passage towards Jalingo and other northeastern hubs.

Due to the claimed uptick in economic activities, flight schedules have improved to three per day between Abuja and Yola, as well as in power generation and distribution.

People should not underestimate how far these things have improved the economic standing of the state, Mr Lawan added.

Mr Bindow, a career business developer, represented Adamawa North Senatorial District from 2011 until 2015 when he ran for governor. He went to the Senate under the PDP, but switched parties when he observed in 2014 that the political atmosphere in the party did not favour his governorship ambition.

The PDP gave its governorship ticket in 2015 to Nuhu Ribadu, but Mr Bindow easily defeated the former anti-graft chief, scoring 362,329 votes. The governors closest rival in that election was Makus Gundiri of the Social Democratic Party, who polled 181,806 votes. Mr Ribadu was in a far third with 98,917 votes.

Mr Bindows performance appeared tailored towards his success from 2015. While he did well in the metropolitan Yola North and Yola South Local Government Areas, he was trounced in rural settlements like Lamurde and Hong.

People in urban areas that voted for the governor are more encouraged than those in the rural area who did not, said Yola-based political analyst Aminu Yusuf. You can expert the governor to again do well in the urban areas.

But while there are bulk votes in urban areas, the are not as many as expected votes in the rural areas in ultimate sum.

If the rural local government areas gang up against the governor, he may not survive it even if he has 100 percent of votes from the urban centres, Mr Yusuf said.

Rural residents are largely farmers, but their produce in the past four years have not witnessed significant yield, and some of them blame the governor for not handling internal strife between settlers and marauding herders.

Repeated clashes in Numan and other local government areas where you have a large number of farming population left many of them wondering whether they have a governor, Mr Aminu said. Voters in those places are not going to be impressed by the renewal projects the governor is doing in the urban areas.

Ready or not?

Mr Fintiri, a former state lawmaker who served briefly as an acting-governor in 2014, appeared eager to be chasing his own full mandate, but analysts say he had not shown earnest readiness to deny Mr Bindow a second term.

Adamawa Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri

The candidate has not participated in debates, where he could have had a chance to tout his bona fides in education, health and agricultural development.

He also has been grappling with grievous allegations of corruption that trailed his three-month stay as governor between July and October 2014, with some voters expressing resistance about giving him a full four-year term with little guarantee he would be prudent with state resources.

Still, Mr Fintiris chances are brighter now than even the incumbents were in 2015, said Yola resident Daniel Tabiyatiya. The governor has failed in areas of workers welfare and his concentration on infrastructure would not be sufficient for many people in immediate terms.

Mr Fintiri, 61, has also been exploiting the fractures in the APC that saw the party lose more than a half of its federal elective offices on February 23.

The APC lost several politicians after the party decided to give tickets to elected officeholders without strong consideration of their performance over the past four years. Mr Bindow emerged through a turbulent direct primary, but that was more because he had strong contenders like Mr Ribadu and Mahmood Halilu, a brother of Aisha Buhari.

Amongst those who left the party was Abdulaziz Nyako, a serving senator who decamped from APC to African Democratic Congress in 2018. Mr Nyako, son of ex-Governor Murtala Nyako, has abandoned another run for Adamawa Central Senatorial District and now running as the governorship candidate of the ADC in the state.

Mr Nyako could split the Fulani votes with Mr Bindow in the state, while Mr Fintiri is expected to do well amongst Christian voters. Adamawa has almost even concentration of Christians and Muslims. Although all the three major candidates are Muslims, the PDP has historically benefitted from Christian votes. The SDP candidate who came second in the 2015 election was propelled into second place by Christian votes, despite running on a relatively obscured party.

And while Mr Bindow seems to be bleeding from the APC division, Mr Fintiri has been consolidating its support. Only a few days ago,the challenger entered into an understanding with 10 other governorship aspirants, all of whom pledged to rally their supporters to vote for the PDP.

Political analyst Timawus Mathias said the APC would be deeply hurt by members who had left the party within the last one year, but Mr Fintiri appeared incapable of exploiting the fracture.

Even then, people always feel they are better off when they align with the centre, Mr Mathias said in reference to President Buharis declaration as the winner of the presidential election last month.
The Court of Appeal has cleared the Kano Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Abba Yusuf, to participate in Saturdays governorship election.

The appeal court presided by Justice Daniel Kalio granted all the prayers put forward by the appellant. The court granted a stay of execution of the order of a high court which barred the PDP from recognizing Mr Yusuf as candidate.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the high court ruling following an application by an aggrieved PDP governorship aspirant, Mohammed El-Amin. The high court ruled in favour of Mr El-Amin and ordered the PDP to conduct fresh primaries.

A statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday evening by the spokesperson of PDP governorship candidate, Sanusi Dawakintofa, said the party sought a stay of execution on the previous judgement passed by a Federal High Court in Kano on the validity of the partys October 2 primaries.

The statement added that the Court of Appeal also restrained INEC from removing the name of Mr Yusuf and other PDP candidates from the list of 2019 contest.

Responding shortly after the verdict, Mr Yusuf said he is not surprised with the outcome from the appeal court.

As I always mention, the case mainly concerns our party and an aggrieved member who is working with the ruling All Progressive Party (APC) in the state to remedy the fast growing unpopularity of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.

Mr Yusuf called on supporters of PDP to keep their hopes alive and come out en mass to vote for the partys candidates.

Mr Yusuf is considered the main challenger to incumbent governor Umar Ganduje of the APC.
Saturdays governorship polls in Kano could determine the political careers of a former governor of the state, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and an incumbent governor, Abdullahi Ganduje.

Although there are 54 governorship candidates in Kano, the contest is really between Mr Ganduje of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Mr Kwankwasos anointed candidate, Abba Yusuf, contesting under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The PDP lost the presidential and all senatorial seats in Kano during the February 23 elections. So, the opposition party has to give all it has to Saturdays election.

Estranged Allies

Messrs Kwankwaso and Ganduje were political allies from 1999 when they were elected as governor and deputy governor respectively, up to 2015 when the former nominated the latter to succeed him as the state governor.

Less than two years after the election that brought Mr Ganduje to power, his relationship with his former boss became sour which finally led to the defection of Mr Kwankwaso to the PDP.

Mr Ganduje is seeking re-election to complete a second tenure as governor, while Mr Abba is contesting governorship for the first time.

Gladiators

Mr Ganduje was elected as APC gubernatorial candidate unopposed through a direct primary election in 444 political wards of Kano while Mr Abba was elected in a controversial primary election organised by Kwankwasiyya faction of the PDP.

The primary attracted damaging litigations.

Two governorship aspirants who were not satisfied by the outcome of the PDP primary election, Jafar Bello and Ibrahim Amin-little, approached the court challenging the emergence of Mr Yusuf.

While the case of Mr Bello was struck out at Kano State High Court on technical ground, the Federal High Court granted the prayer of Mr Amin-little seeking for nullification of Mr Yusuf candidature and ordered for fresh primary election. The appeal court, however, granted a stay of execution of the high court order.

Political clout

Abdullahi Ganduje (APC)

Mr Gandujes major strength in Kano is the popularity and acceptance of President Muhammad Buhari by the masses which extends to the flagbearers of the party.

In addition to the benefit of the power of incumbency, Mr Ganduje may enjoy the support of many residents of Kano for completing some capital projects inherited from previous administrations.

Many also perceive the candidature of Mr Yusuf as an extension of Mr Kwankwasos administration.

The former democratically elected governors of Kano, Kabiru Gaya and Ibrahim Shekarau, along with former deputy governors Abdullahi Gwarzo and Hafiz Abubakar are all behind the candidature of Mr Ganduje.

Many political parties on Thursday declared their support for the Mr Ganduje.

If Kano voters maintain the same voting pattern in the concluded presidential and National Assembly election, Mr Ganduje may sail through.

The major setback to Mr Gandujes governorship ambition is the widely circulated video clips published by Daily Nigerian newspaper depicting the governor receiving kickbacks from contractors.

Many may not support the candidature of Mr Ganduje due to the unresolved bribery allegation against him.

Also, the imposition of Kano State health contributory scheme (a replica of NHIS) to all Kano civil servants without their consent may likely cause Mr Ganduje to lose some votes.

Unpaid gratuities of retired civil servants may also pose obstacles to APCs road to Kano government house.

Many pensioners who retired four years ago are yet to get their gratuity.

The governments policy of allocating lands to individuals to construct corner shops at Kofar Mata Eid ground, ancient city wall and some major roads in Kano metropolis has attracted public condemnation. These may also influence voting patterns.

Perhaps, the most discussed political topic in Kano that may not favour Mr Ganduje is his wife, Hafsat Ganduje, who is accused of interferring in governance.

Another threat to Mr Gandujes governorship ambition is the emergence of a strong pressure group among Mr Buharis loyalists in Kano working tirelessly against him.

Staunch supporters of Mr Buhari in Kano such as Najaatu Muhammad, Bello Isa-Bayero and Danbilki Kwamanda have embarked on a ceaseless campaign for the PRP governorship candidate, Salihu Takai.

Abba Yusuf (PDP)

The major strength of the PDP governorship candidate, Mr Yusuf, is the large number of cult-like Kwankwasiyya loyalists behind him.

Mr Yusuf was singlehandedly chosen by Mr Kwankwaso to challenge governor Ganduje in Saturdays polls.

The major campaign appeal of Mr Yusuf is consolidating major achievements of his mentor and re-introduction of free education, school feeding and foreign scholarship.

His performance when he was commissioner of works during Kwankwasos administration may earn him the mandate of many voters.

Mr Yusufs appeal to young persons in Kano may likely boost his chances.

His major weakness was how Mr Kwankwaso dominated his campaign activities.

Until recently Mr Yusuf hardly personally presented his programmes and policies to the electorate.

The non-completion of 5KM road construction in 44 local government areas initiated by Mr Kwankwaso may pose a challenge too.

Politics of godfatherism

The PDP governorship candidate is seen as being tied to the apron strings of Mr Kwankwaso. This may work against him (or not).

Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. [PHOTO CREDIT: Pulse.ng]

In contrast, Mr Ganduje has received endorsement of some prominent politicians from both the APC and PDP such as the former Speaker of House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari; former minister of foreign affairs, Aminu Wali; former managing director of Nigeria Ports Authority, Aminu Dabo and Bello Hayatu-Gwarzo.

Gubernatorial Debate

Mr Ganduje abstained from participating in two gubernatorial debates organised by Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Studies, Mambayya, and BBC Hausa Service.

However, Mr Yusuf participated in both debates where he unveiled his policy document revolving around education, healthcare service youth and sport development, social safety and inclusion, agricultural transformation and infrastructure development.

Defections

A few days to the election, the chairman of the state PDP, Masud Doguwa, and other executive members defected to the APC alleging mistreatment from Kwankwasiyya group of PDP.

Other members of the PDP who earlier defected to APC are a former national treasurer of the party, Bala Borodo, a former commissioner of special duties during the Kwankwaso administration, Idris Dambazau, a former senior special assistant to President Jonathan on SURE-P, Muaz Magaji, and the immediate past deputy governor of Kano, Hafiz Abubakar.

Close Shave?

On Monday, the Federal High Court in Kano nullified the candidature of Mr Yusuf saying the party did not conduct primary election.

However, on Thursday, the Court of Appeal in Kaduna restrained INEC from delisting the PDP governorship candidate from participating in the election.

As the governorship and state assembly election approaches, the outcome may not only determine who would be the governor, but also effectively determine the political relevance of the main actors in Kano politics.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State has been gutted by fire, a day to a crucial governorship and house of assembly elections in the state.

The cause of the fire remains unknown for now.

A security guard who was on duty at the INEC office told PREMIUM TIMES the fire started around 2 a.m. on Friday.

We heard an explosion inside the building, when we rushed to check what it was, we saw flames of fire coming from one of the rooms, the guard said.

We raised alarm for help, and then we started fighting the fire, using water and sand. But it was too much for us.

A section of the building still smouldered and election materials apparently evacuated from the burnt building, were scattered around the premises, when a PREMIUM TIMES reporter visited the scene.

Several card readers meant for use in the Saturdays elections have been destroyed by the fire, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

It is unclear how the incident would affect the conduct of the elections.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini, is said to have visited the scene to ascertain the extent of the damage.

A handful of police officers were seen barricading the road leading to the INEC office as at 9 a.m on Friday.

There is rising tension in Akwa Ibom over Saturdays elections.

Even though the state governor, Udom Emmanuel, has assured the people of their safety and security during the elections, there is widespread fear that there may be bloody clashes among supporters of the two main political parties  the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr Emmanuel, who is contesting for a second term as governor, has Nsima Ekere of the APC as his main challenger.
Concerns about security may adversely affect voter turnout in Rivers State elections on Saturday.

This is following a build-up of tension and incidents of violence ahead of the polls.

The fallout of the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections marred by widespread violence which claimed several lives could have also aggravated public fear.

This is a state election involving more local actors with higher stakes, said Oby Ukomadu, making a comparison between the February 23 polls and tomorrows. So, this one will be more violent.

So, I will not be going out to vote for the love of my life, added Mrs Ukomadi, a resident of Eliozu in Obio Akpor Local Government Area of the state.

Another resident, Ibim Donald, from Okirka LGA said she and her family would not go out to vote tomorrow  and it is not because we dont have PVC.

Mrs Donald said: It is because I love my life and I cannot risk my life because of anybodys ambition.

It is common that people will not go out to vote. It is because of what happened in the presidential election and what things that have been happening ahead of the one coming up tomorrow.

She predicted that only partisans would be appearing for the polls.

I spoke with my uncle and he said he would go vote because nobody could intimidate him; but you know hes a party supporter and those are the only persons that may be going out (to vote), she said.

Last weekend, two soldiers were shot at and killed by gunmen in Abonnema in Akuku Toru LGA, forcing families to flee over fears of reprisal by the army.

That incident happened just one week after the bloody Election Day violence which saw soldiers kill several persons after one of them was slain by gunmen in an ambush.

The army is yet to react to the last Saturdays killing of two soldiers.

However, the Rivers State government and the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) have separately accused the army of violence and intimidation.

On Thursday, the state government, in a statement signed by the commissioner for information Emma Okah, said the transport minister and leader of the All Progressives Congress in the state, Rotimi Amaechi, and the army formation in Port Harcourt, (were) masterminding the mass arrest of innocent Nigerians and PDP members in the state.

The statement reads: The essence of the arrests is to precipitate a crisis and cause the INEC to postpone the elections in Rivers State. Failing this, the Minister will use the vacuum created by the absence of arrested leaders and rig the governorship election and force a candidate of his choice against the will of the people.

We have been saying it repeatedly that the Minister of Transportation has been commanding the army in Port Harcourt to do unprofessional things and the crisis are spreading.

He has been boasting that he has brought soldiers from Sokoto and other states to carry out his political agenda of disrupting or rigging elections on Saturday.

Mr Okah, however, did not list anybody already arrested by the army apart from mentioning that a lot of prominent persons have been pencilled down for arrest.

Also, the IYC said the army invaded the palace of Ateke Tom, ex-militant and now king of Okochiri Town in Rivers State.

IYC cannot comprehend why the Ijaw people are made the scapegoat of the FG Governments desperation in deploying the military to rig the elections? Only recently, on (the) 23rd of February, 2019, the Ijaw nation lost many of her promising youth to soldiers invasions in Rivers and Bayelsa states, read a statement by Pereotubo Oweilaemi.

The army could not be reached for comments on this report.

The telephone line of Aminu Iliyasu, the spokesperson for the army formation in Port Harcourt, was unavailable at the time of filing this report.

An aide to Mr Amaechi, who asked not to be named, said the transport minister would speak on the allegations against him later.

On Tuesday, the minister directly said Mr Wikes ambition was the basis for the killings in Rivers State, adding that the governor was encouraging armed men who dared soldiers.

Nobody has asked the governor that from the day you took over the number of killings that have taken place in Rivers State just because you want to run a second term. One mans ambition for second term, all Rivers people should die? He said.

The APC is not fielding candidates for the elections on Saturday.

However, the party is now supporting the candidate of the African Action Congress in the governorship election, Awara Biokpomabo.

The initial prediction is that the exercise tomorrow would be less tense and Mr Wike would not face a recognisable challenge in his bid for a second term.
Godswill Akpabio, a senator from Akwa Ibom State, has offered reasons why he withdrew his election case from an Abuja high court.

Mr Akpabio, who contested for re-election for a second term under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to represent the Akwa Ibom North-West District, lost to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Chris Ekpenyong.

Mr Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom, claimed victory in the election and accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of tampering with the election result.

Mr Akpabio, acting against the convention where aggrieved election losers seek redress at election tribunal, filed a lawsuit in a high court in Abuja for a judicial review for the issuance of a writ of mandamus, prohibition, injunction, and other declaratory reliefs against the respondent (INEC). He obtained a controversial order which restrained INEC from issuing a certificate of return to his opponent, Mr Ekpenyong.

The senator told PREMIUM TIMES, Friday night, he withdrew the case from the high court so he could file his case at the election tribunal on Monday.

I needed to withdraw this other matter so that it wont end up being an abuse of court process (to have the same matter in a court and a tribunal at the same time).

I must reclaim my mandate, he said.
The wife of the Nigerian president, Aisha Buhari, has advised the ruling party, APC, that any government it leads should consider only card-carrying members for political appointments.

She made the call at a dinner to celebrate the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari at Daura Stadium, Kastina State on Thursday.

Mrs Buharis statement at the dinner was sent to PREMIUM TIMES by her spokesperson, Suleiman Haruna.

This paper reported how Mrs Buhari in an unusual outburst last year alleged that a cabal of just two or three persons had caged her husband and was driving people who should help his government away from him.

She said the cabal had created so many problems for her husband, to the point of disconnecting him from the millions of Nigerians who voted for him in the 2015 presidential elections.

She said most of the officials of the government were unknown to the president and the first family, adding that they were usurpers who did nothing to help the APC struggle in 2015.

Speaking in the same vein on Thursday, Mrs Buhari noted that the constitution of the party specifies that appointments to offices in an APC-led government should go to card-carrying members.

She, therefore, advised that the party constitution should be respected.

She expressed appreciation over the support that the party enjoyed in the last presidential election, especially from women and youth and assured them that the government will do more to improve their lives.

I wish to thank the women and youth of this country for the number of votes they gave President Buhari in the 2019 election and to assure that he will continue to do his best to make Nigeria a better country.

Speaking at the event, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, praised the electorate for choosing Mr Buhari, whose integrity, he said, is time-tested.

He assured them that the second term of the president will result in development in all spheres of endeavour.

He commended Mrs Buhari for her initiative of engaging women and youth during the presidential campaign, which he said resulted in the massive votes recorded.

Goodwill messages were delivered by many politicians, including the Woman Leader of the APC Women and Youth Presidential Campaign Team, Binta Muazu, and Fatuhu Mohammed, the senator representing the Daura District.

The event was attended by the wife of the Governor of Katsina State, Zakiyya Masari; wife of the Deputy Governor, Mannir Yakubu, and wife of the Minister of Interior, Hadiza Dambazau.
An Ikeja High Court has sentenced a 51-year-old dockworker, Lekan Shonde, to death by hanging for beating his 39-year-old wife, Ronke, to death at their Egbeda, Lagos residence.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Josephine Oyefeso found Lekan guilty of murder in a two and a half hours judgment on Friday which was also the International Womens Day.

This is the sentence of the court upon you: That you should be hanged by the neck until you are dead. May the Lord have mercy upon you, Oyefeso said.

The judge held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt in the light of overwhelming evidence against Lekan.

The violence used by the defendant was in excess of a reasonable man.

The defendant was very economical with the truth, stating in his evidence before the court that he only slapped his wife when he overheard her on a phone praising the sexual prowess of a lover.

This does not match the degree of injuries indicated by the autopsy report, she said.

Ms Oyefeso said that the report of a pathologist, Shokunle Shoyemi indicated that there were old and fresh injuries on Ronke, a banker.

She said that bruises on the deceaseds cheeks, blood collection in the brain, brain swelling and other multiple injuries could not have been self-inflicted.

The judge held that the sentence was in line with Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that, on hearing the sentence, Lekan appeared perplexed as he alighted from the dock.

He was immediately told to sit down for a while in the courtroom before he was whisked away by a prison official.

I.B. Mohammed, who held brief for Robert Clarke, Lekans counsel, had prayed the judge to temper justice with mercy.

My Lord, we want to plead with the court to, while administering justice in this case, see reasons in this allocutus to temper justice with mercy.

There are two children in the marriage. I know as a matter of fact that these two children have passed through worst moments of their lives; agonies that are immeasurable.

I know, if these two children have any control over this proceeding, it will be that their father should not be prosecuted at all. But since it was not so, their wish is that their father should be sentenced in very liberal terms.

The defendant has no criminal record, he has developed failing health since his detention.

This defendant hardly sees very well, he sees faintly. My Lord, he is hypertensive, the authority of the prison can confirm this, Mohammed said.

NAN reports that Lekan, who was arraigned on Oct. 24, 2017, on a charge of murder, had pleaded not guilty to the charge.

During the trial, the sister of the deceased, the investigating police officer, the pathologist and the nanny to the children of the deceased, all testified for the prosecution while Lekan was the sole witness for the defence.

The pathologist testified on September 25, 2018, that Ronke suffered from severe brain injuries which led to her death.

In his evidence on October 24, 2018, exactly a year after his arraignment, Lekan denied killing his wife.

He said he only slapped her during an argument over her alleged extramarital affair.

The prosecution led by Y. G. Oshoala had said that Lekan committed the murder at 8.30 p.m. on May 5, 2016, at their residence at No. 3, Tiemo Close, Egbeda, Lagos.

The dockworker was said to have locked their residence and fled after Ronkes death, leaving her corpse in the living room.

The crime scene was discovered by neighbours, who heard the cries of their two children struggling to wake up their lifeless mother.

The story of Ronkes death went viral on social media and Lekan was said to have surrendered to the relevant authorities five days later, after an extensive hunt for him.

(NAN)
The Police Special Fraud Unit in Lagos has charged the managing director and chief executive officer of Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe, with 21 counts of conspiracy and stealing before an Ogun State High Court.

Mr Wigwe, Alawode Oluseye, Bayo Adesina, and Access Bank Plc are accused of conspiring and stealing 23,754.413 metric tonnes of steel billets valued at 2.5 billion belonging to BMCE Bank International Plc.

The alleged crime took place in June 2017 at the premises of Metal Africa Steel Products Limited along Sagamu/Ikorodu road, Ewe Jagun, in Ogun State, the police said.

According to the police, the defendants falsely presented themselves as the owners and sold the steel billets to Metal Africa Steel Products Limited without the authorisation of the actual owner.

The police said the defendants forged the Bill of Ladings number: MJINLOS1500071A; MJINLOS150007 1B; MJINLOS150007 1C; MJINLOS150007 2A; MJINLOS1500072B; MJINLOS150007 2C; MJINLOS150007 2C; MJINLOS150007 2D; MJINLOS150007 2E; MJINLOS150007 2F; MJINLOS150007 2G; MJINLOS150007

2H; MJINLOS150007 2I; MJINLOS150007 2J; MJINLOS150007 2k; MJINLOS1500072L and

MJINLOS1500072M, which they claimed were issued on January 9, 2016.

The offences according to the police are contrary to and punishable under Sections 518(6), 434, 383(1)(f) and 390(9), 516 and 464 and 467 of the criminal Code of Ogun State of Nigeria, 2006.

The offences also contravened Section 1(1)(a) and 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other related offences Act No. 14 of 2006.

During their arraignment, only Mr Oluseye was present in court. He pleaded not guilty to all the counts.

Edoka Onyeke, counsel to the defendants, however, informed the court that his clients were exploring an out-of-court settlement with the complainant.

He requested for a short adjournment.

N.I Agbelu, the judge adjourned till April 4 for report of the settlement.

Charge Sheet 1 Charge Sheet 2 Charge Sheet 3

Charge Sheet 4 Charge Sheet 5 Charge Sheet 6

Charge Sheet 7
A tantalising contest is in the offing in Oyo State as all the political parties and power brokers in the state have forged two broad coalitions behind the governorship candidates of the two leading parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

As the election has now been reduced to a two-horse race between Seyi Makinde of the PDP and Adebayo Adelabu of the APC, the battle has become even more intense.

Both candidates made a last-ditch effort to mop up support to turn the table on Saturday.

Earlier, Mr Makindes campaign received a boost when former governor and a key player in Ibadan politics, Rasheed Ladoja, collapsed his political structure to support his ambition. Mr Makinde and Ladoja have a history of political differences, which accounted for Mr Ladojas refusal to stay in the PDP after his return. However, his new move to support the PDP candidate is viewed as the tonic Mr Makinde needs to match the sweeping APC movement.

Mr Makinde also has the support of three governorship candidates, namely Sharafadeen Ali of Zenith Labour Party, Femi Lanlehin of the African Democratic Congress and Bolaji Ayorinde of the Social Democratic Party.

He has also received the endorsement of the Chairman of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Akin Fasogbon.

However, Mr Adelabu has sought to neutralise this move from the PDP with even more political parties endorsing him late on Thursday. At least 13 political parties have signified their support for the APC candidate, even brightening his chances of a win on Saturday.

The parties include the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Allied Peoples Movement, APM), United Progressives Party (UPP), Grassroots Development Party of Nigeria (GDPN), and the Young Democratic Party (YDP).

Others are Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), Independent Democrats (ID), Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), Mass Action Joint Alliance (MAJA), Nigeria Elements Progressives Party ((NEPP), Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), Rebuild Nigeria Party (RNP) and Democratic Peoples Party (DPP).

A faction of the ADC has also endorsed the APC despite the fact that their governorship candidate has gone with the PDP candidate.

The chairmen of the political parties conveyed their endorsement message to the APC chairman, Akin Oke, in a joint letter signed on March 6, 2019.

A more significant boost for the Adelabu campaign is the decision of a former governor of the state, Adebayo Alao-Akala, to take his ADP into an alliance with the APC. He was the candidate of the ADP.

Mr Akala is said to be the most popular politician in Ogbomoso and has never been beaten in the five local governments in the area. He has appealed to the people of Ogbomoso to follow him to the APC in the bid to emplace Mr Adelabu.

Interestingly, the APC and PDP candidates are both from Ibadan. The city has 11 local governments and harbours over 40 per cent of the voting strength of the state. They seem to have exhausted their campaign canisters in this zone.

They have also wisely chosen their deputies from Oke Ogun, the next most populated zone with 10 local governments. And during the week, both candidates turned to Ogbomoso to ensure the Akala factor was either maximised or minimised.

The ambience is peaceful as the clock ticks towards the polls on Saturday. Security is not palpable but peace seems to greet everyone on the street.

There have been fears of likely disruption of the polls by thugs on Saturday. Both parties have traded accusations along this line. But the voters seem to be prepared to vote according to their conscience.

Undoubtedly, the last minute realignments have altered the political permutations. Some residents have hinted that a change would be sweet to achieve. But the forces already on ground maintains a strong resistance. A certain balance rears its head and it is difficult to predict the outcome.
Nigerias Premier financial institution and iconic banking brand, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, had the world stand still on Friday, March 1, 2019, as it held its symbolic flag hoisting ceremony across Nigeria and other countries where it does business. The celebratory flag hoisting officially flags off the banks commemoration of attaining the milestone year of 125.

The event was also to reinforce the banks continuous march to greatness; a march that exemplifies tenacity, doggedness, viability, socio-economic impact and commitment across the length and breadth of Nigeria, Africas largest economy.

The flag hoisting ceremony was held in honour of the banks illustrious journey that started 125 years ago, a journey that encompasses more than half a dozen nations across Africa, Europe and Asia; notably Ghana, DR Congo, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, China, UK and France.

The distinctively designed anniversary flag comprised the banks iconic logo  the elephant head in the yellow gold dynamic shape; the figure 125 written in The Dreamer Font with the number 5 chipped out of an elephant tusk; the weaving needle; the embroidered fabrics from different cultures  Yoruba Adire, Tiv Lishi, Ghana Kente, the Scottish kilt to illustrate the diversity of a brand that transcends beyond borders and across continents.

In the course of the event, the symbolic flag was presented to the Oba of Lagos, his Royal Highness, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, in recognition of his traditional leadership of Lagos, the State where the journey began 125 years ago; the Chief of Naval Staff, represented by Rear Admiral Adebari, in recognition of the movement across the waters by the Banks founders from the United Kingdom; the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Mr Adebisi Shonubi represented by Director of Banking Operations, Dipo Fatokun as the event is not just about FirstBank but to pride the industry as one that has impacted the Nation through a century and a quarter years and lastly, the Chief Executive Officer, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Oscar N. Onyema, signifying the Bank as the oldest listed company.

In the welcome address delivered by the Banks Chief Executive Officer, Dr Adesola Adeduntan, he noted that the flag symbolises the identity, impact, permanence and reverence of a long-standing institution which predates Nigeria as a unified entity and added that FirstBank is entrenched in the nations development; woven into the very fabric of society, with the Banks involvement in every stage of national growth and development.

Reinforcing the Banks Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, whilst forging ahead into the future, across its business location, Adeduntan said Supporting our host communities to promote sustainable development and of course, putting You First, in all our business activities are some of the many secrets of our long existence. We are now building for the next 125 years and beyond; purposefully blazing the trail in our industry and ensuring that we maintain our leadership position.

Expressing his goodwill message to the Bank, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Oscar N. Onyema OON buttressed the Banks impact on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. He said FirstBank is one of the very first companies to be listed on the Exchange and they have become a bellwether for us when you look at the Banking industry.

In addition Onyema identified the leadership role by the Bank in the NSE stating that They have also produced a number of Presidents of the Council of the Exchange; from Oba Otudekoto Asabia and other captains of industry that FirstBank has offered to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Also speaking, Mr Adebisi Shonubi, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, represented by Director of banking operations, Dipo Fatokun lauded the bank for its achievement in the development of the financial sector and Nigeria as a whole.

Shonubi said that the history of the Central Bank of Nigeria cannot be written without the name of the Bank, FirstBank, lettered in gold, as the Bank has impacted the nation at large.

Other eminent personalities and dignitaries at the event include the former Managing Director of FirstBank and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Joseph Sanusi; immediate past Managing Director of the Bank, Mr.Bisi Onasanya; Former Nigerian Minister of Industry and former President of the Lagos State Chamber of Commerceand Industry, Mrs. Nike Akande and former Nigerias Minister of Communication Technology, Dr OmobolaJohnson.

Horse guards parade by the Nigeria Police were at the venue to add to the glitz and glamour of the event as well the military band who were on ground to provide music throughout the event, thereby instilling the Banks resolve to foster its support to customers, Nigeria and other locations across Continents where the Bank operates.

The anniversary flag and flag of countries where the Bank does business were hoisted at the Banks headquarters to represent the nations, peoples and the diversity the Bank represents.

The 125 anniversary celebration will continue all through the month of March and through the year with other activities which include the Bell Ringing at the Nigerian Stock Exchange; a religious thanks-giving to be held in churches and mosques across Continents and locations of its business activities; the Anniversary Lecture; the Anniversary Gala Dinner & Command drama Performance by the famed Bola Austen Peters group among others. Staff and customers of the bank will also have the opportunity to participate in the milestone ceremony with donations and volunteering efforts as part of the banks Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability initiative, SPARK (Spreading Acts of Random Kindness).
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned underage voters not to come near polling units in Plateau State ahead of Saturdays governorship and state assembly elections.

This was disclosed in an interview PREMIUM TIMES held on Friday with the Head of Department for Voter Education and Publicity, INEC Plateau State, Osarentin Imahinyereobo, at its headquarters in Jos.

He also urged the electorate to be patient with the commissions ad-hoc staff, adding that INEC has learnt from lapses that occurred during the last presidential elections.

He said any polling unit where manual registration is done would be recorded as zero.

(The) electorate should be patient and should not harass our officers, also areas where card readers are not used, would be entered as zero and areas where manual registration is done, would be zero, Mr Imahinyereobo said

He said the electorate should ensure that the card readers in the units are working and should query any irregularity.

He also warned underaged voters.

Underage voters should stay away from the polling units because the security (team) would arrest them.

Mr Imahinyereobo also said all INEC staff will get refresher training ahead of the polls.

Ad-hoc staff, this evening at their various RAC centres would be given refresher courses and training to understand if there were challenges.

We met with the EOs and they told us the challenges they had. Based on those changes and lessons learnt we have been able to plan our strategy, he said.

He also said their allowances had been paid.

He said materials have been delivered across all local governments in the state, and security personnel have assured that all polling units would be safe.

All materials have been delivered to the local government and RAC centres. Also, regarding materials, all are available. We are faster than what happened during the last presidential election.

We started distribution of materials on Wednesday and (by) Thursday all local governments have collected their materials, he said.

He also gave an emergency number members of the public can use.

We have a situation room out there in the field. When there is a situation, you can call: 08065068113, he said.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna State has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate the Kaduna State Government for allegedly inducing Muslim clerics with money to campaign for the ruling All Progressives Congress in mosques across the state.

The opposition party based the allegation on a document it said emanated from the director-general of the state Ministry of Interfaith Affairs, Namadi Musa, detailing how money was shared among prominent Islamic clerics in the state.

But the state government said the document was forged by the opposition PDP to exacerbate the religious division in the state.

The document which was seen by PREMIUM TIMES listed seven top Muslim clerics and the amount allegedly paid to them by the ministry.

The PDP campaign spokesperson, Yakubu Lere, in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES called on EFCC and security agencies to investigate the document which has been circulated on the social media.

It is most unfortunate that Kaduna State government will use our meagre resources to drag these Imams into politics and create division among Muslims ummah as well as create religious and ethnic tensions in the state as we approach the gubernatorial elections.

We equally want to call on security agencies to commence an investigation into the matter for possible arrest and prosecution of those Imams under the hate speech law introduced by the federal government, for preaching violence.

It is most unfortunate that a government that is supposed to use its resources in uniting the people and encourage religious and ethnic harmony will rather encourage Muslim clerics in the state to brainwash their followers to take the next election as a holy war against Christians, Mr Lere said.

PREMIUM TIMES, who spoke with the director-general, Mr Musa, denied writing the document.

Mr Musa who spoke in Hausa said he is not the author of the said document.

I saw the document too but let me tell you clear and straight that at no point in time did I write such a letter detailing how monies should be shared to some Islamic Imams in Kaduna.

I never authored it. in fact, the signature forgery was not done perfectly. My signature ends with Mohammad, not Musa as written on the letter and all our memo going out must be written on a letterhead which is not the case in this document.

We have some SAs (special assistants) to the governor on the list that could have gotten their share directly and not from me if that really happened. I wouldnt have to be the one to give it to them. They are Sheikh Khamis Almisiri and Sheikh Albani Samaru Zaria.

I am calling on Sheikh Tukur Almannar, Sheikh Murtala Shanono, Sheikh Aminu Kuwait, Sheikh Saidu Abubakar, Sheikh Balau and Sheikh Kabiru Gombe to please accept my apology for appearing on the list, Allah will judge those who did this, Mr Musa said.

The campaigns in Kaduna long took a trend in which Muslim and Christian clerics have been calling on their faithful to vote for specific candidates.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of the APC is seeking reelection but faces a tough challenge from a former member of the House of Representatives, Isah Ashiru, who is the candidate of the PDP.

Mr El-Rufai has chosen a Muslim woman, Hadiza Balarabe, as his running mate. The choice has further stirred controversy in a state where the governorship tickets traditionally have the Muslim/Christian balance to reflect the religious composition of the state.

A resident who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES, Ahmed Umaru, said there is heightened tension in the state with the political parties rounding up their campaigns.

Yes, some cleric where preaching that their followers should vote for a specific candidate. There is that rumour that some of them were paid. The call is for Muslims to vote for incumbent governor with a Muslim deputy governor.

Also, the spokesperson of Mr El-Rufai, Samuel Aruwan, has dismissed the purported memo as fake.

The PDP has repeatedly exposed itself as the party of violence, rigging and division. Their latest gimmick of circulating a fake memo alleging payments to certain Imams is part of their addiction to everything unholy.

The memo attributed to the Director-General (Interfaith) is not only fake but laughable. We pity a party that is so short of ideas that they have adopted fake news and forgery as their manifesto. This will fail because Kaduna people have rejected the poor legacy of the PDPs 16 years in power.

The APC Kaduna Campaign Council notes that the PDP could not disassociate itself from repeated incitement to violence by their spokesman. Also, their very weak candidate has been talking of the content that was eventually contained in the fake documents they are circulating, showing that the PDP is the instigator of the forgery, Mr Aruwan said in a statement.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday expressed heartfelt condolences to Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State over the death of his younger brother, Farouk Bagudu.

The president, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu in Abuja, prayed Almighty Allah to grant the soul of the departed eternal rest and comfort all who mourn the deceased.

Mr Buhari assured the governor, the Bagudu family and their friends of his personal prayers and thoughts as they mourned the passage of their beloved brother, husband, and father.

The president further prayed Allah to grant the children and other survivors the fortitude to bear the loss.

Until his demise, Farouk Bagudu was the Managing Director of Jihab Communication Limited.

(NAN)
A total of 3, 008 card readers will be used for Saturdays governorship and state House of Assembly elections, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kaduna State, Abdullahi Kaugama, has said.

Mr Kaugama said this while addressing journalists at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Ungwar Rimi Friday afternoon.

He said that the commission would cancel votes where card readers were not used, warning voters against the rejection of the device at polling units.

Where there is no card reader, there will be no voting, he said appealing to the electorate to cooperate with INEC officials.

He said further, We have given refresher training to all our card reader operators in the state.

As earlier discussed in our meeting, we are now ready for the conduct of the Saturday polls, he added.

The REC said all sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been dispatched to the 23 local government areas of the state.

Mr Kaugama said 38 governorship candidates would contest the polls adding that the commission was not aware of any contestant that had stepped down for popular candidates in the state.

He said 396 candidates will vie for the 34 state assembly seats in the state.

All materials, sensitive and non-sensitive have all been dispatched to the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.

As early as 7:30 a.m., all the ad hoc workers will be at the various polling units in the 23 LGs.

34,000 adhoc staff that will conduct tomorrow (Saturday) elections. 10,000 are from the National Youths Service Corp members.

38 candidates are contesting the Governorship Election. There are 34 state constituencies in the state and 398 candidates will contest.

It is too late for candidates to step down for each other because the ballot papers have since been printed with names of all the candidates on it.

The REC said the commission has investigated incidences of substitution of trained ad-hoc staff with untrained ones by some supervisors. He promised that the perpetrators would be brought to book.

We have carried out certain internal reorganisation to ensure that the culprits were sanctioned and to prevent a reoccurrence.

Also speaking, the state Commissioner of Police, Ahmad Abdurrahman, said the force had reviewed the lapses it recorded in the Presidential and National Assembly polls and put measures in place to correct them.

Mr Abdulrahman said that all vigilante or Civilian Joint Task Force operatives have no official role during the elections.
Unlike the eve of the previous governorship election, Kano State is largely calm.

PREMIUM TIMES observed that people are going about their normal businesses without any hindrance.

Discussions about Saturdays governorship and state assembly election among the populace is being done in a friendly manner.

The spokesperson of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, Salihu Yakasai, said the state commissioner of police, Mohammed Wakil, is responsible for the sanity prevailing in the state.

The CP is a great professional who has been able to bring sanity to the political scene here. He does not take sides and is quick to respond to any situation, he said.

Mr Wakil, one of the pioneer detectives at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was posted to Kano early in February.

Since his arrival, Mr Wakil, known for his fight against drug abuse and criminality has overseen the arrest and detention of several political thugs in the state.

The police in Kano have also confiscated a lot of weapons from thugs popularly known as yan daba.

A video of the police chief went viral recently where he was seen daring political thugs and criminals.

Shortly before the presidential election, Mr Wakil ordered a raid of black spots across Kano metropolis which led to the arrest of 80 suspects.

Mr Yakasai also expressed optimism that the voter turnout in the governorship election will be higher than that of the presidential poll.

A lot of women did not come out to vote during the presidential election because of fear and apprehension. But I am sure most will come out tomorrow seeing that there is basically no tension now due to what the security agencies have been able to do, he said.
An Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has dismissed a suit seeking to disqualify the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, from participating in the 2019 gubernatorial elections.

The court, presided over by a judge, Inyang Ekwo, ruled that the applicants brought their request outside of the stipulated time.

The court agreed with lawyers representing Mr Wike, who viewed that the request did not conform to demands of section 285 (9) of the 1999 Constitution.

The court also described the instant application as an abuse of court process.

The applicant, Elvis Chinda, had approached the court with a request for it to determine whether Mr Wike was not liable of providing false information to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

He also asked the court to determine whether the alleged misinformation was not sufficient to nullify Mr Wikes candidacy in the March 9 election.

However, in a ruling on Friday, the court held that Mr Chindas case failed woefully for want of evidence.

Mr Ekwo ruled that the failure of the applicant to present credible witnesses to back his arguments was fatal to his own application.

The judge said the documents presented in court were doubtful, as nothing was brought to show that the documents were legitimately obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Friday met with two diplomats from the United States and the United Kingdom as worries about security mount ahead of the governorship and state parliamentary elections opening tomorrow.

Mr Wike disclosed the development in a statement by his spokesperson, Simeon Nwakaudu.

The meeting took place amid allegations by the state government that Nigerian soldiers were invading houses of persons believed to be loyal to the Peoples Democratic Party of which Mr Wikes is the governorship candidate.

Read the full statement below.

Governorship Election: Governor Wike meets US and British Diplomats

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike on Friday met with the United States Consul-General to Nigeria, John Bray and the Political Officer of the British High Commission in Nigeria, Louis Edwards.

The joint meeting which lasted about one hour, had the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, Deputy Governor Ipalibo Harry Banigo, Rivers State PDP Chairman, Bro Felix Obuah and Senator Lee Maeba in attendance.

The International Diplomats visited Governor Wike on the heels of mass arrests of PDP leaders by security agencies. The Rivers State Government and the PDP have issued several statements alerting the world on the illegal activities of security agencies ahead of the elections.

Governor Wike tabled the concerns of the government and people of Rivers State before the American Embassy and the British High Commission.

At the end of the meeting, the International Diplomats declined comments as they left to continue with the 2019 Governorship and State Assembly elections in Rivers State.
The police high command has deployed a Commissioner of Police, Olushola David, for election duty in Bayelsa State for Saturdays house of assembly polls in the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr David had served in Abia South Senatorial District during the February 23 presidential and National Assembly Elections.

Speaking with journalists at the Police officers Mess in Yenagoa, the state capital on Friday, Mr David said his mandate was to create a safe environment that would enable electorate exercise their civic right during the elections.

I will ensure that police personnel that would be deployed for Saturdays election discharge their duties with strict adherence to professionalism, the CP said.

He urged residents in the state to steer clear of violence before, during and after the elections.

The governorship election would hold in Bayelsa later in the year.

(NAN)
The transport minister, Rotimi Amaechi, on Friday targeted Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, with powerfully evocative remarks, including calling the governor a killer.

Mr Amaechi, former Rivers governor, leads the All Progressives Congress in the oil-rich state and is canvassing votes against Mr Wike, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in tomorrows elections.

According to Mr Amaechi, speaking after meeting with British diplomats at his Port Harcourt residence on Friday, All Wike has done so far is killings and he doesnt care about the lives of the people.

His remarks came as a response to earlier allegations of conspiracy and violence made against him by Mr Wikes government.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the states commissioner for information, Emma Okah, accused the military and Mr Amaechi of masterminding violence and intimidating PDP leaders in the state.

Replying from his Port Harcourt residence, Mr Amaechi queried Mr Wikes worries about the military, saying the governor preferred a situation to freely manipulate polls.

Would Governor Wike and his PDP party prefer the election of 2015 where thugs overwhelmed the state and unleashed terror on innocent Rivers people that resulted in the loss of so many lives on the streets of Port Harcourt? asked Mr Amaechi. Even my cousin was also killed in front of Wike fathers house.

He continued: Wikes plan is to see the total withdrawal of the military and then have a free hand to start killing APC members as they did in the previous elections.

You are aware that they killed four APC members in the LGA of the PDP National Chairman and beheaded them and took away their corpses.

He added, When I was the governor of the state, I gave people assurances that my life is as important as their own lives.

Mr Amaechi has endorsed the African Action Congress to challenge Mr Wike in tomorrows election as his party is not participating.

My party is not on the ballot for tomorrows election and you know I have the right to vote, that is why I will vote for the candidate of the AAC, he said.

Earlier, the head of the delegation and member of the British High Commission to Nigeria, Louis Edwards, said they were in Port Harcourt to support free, fair and credible elections.
Magnus Abe, a senator from Rivers State, has spoken on the inability of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to field candidates for the March 9 governorship and house of assembly elections in the state.

The court had foreclosed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from accepting candidates from the APC because of a power tussle between a faction of the party that is loyal to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and another loyal to Mr Abe.

Mr Abe claims to be the authentic governorship candidate of the APC in Rivers, while Mr Amaechi wanted his man, Tonye Cole, to fly the partys flag.

We have filed a case at the Supreme Court, we trying to see if they can hear the case before the elections, Mr Abe told PREMIUM TIMES, Wednesday night.

It is an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal. You know, we had asked the Court of Appeal to declare us the candidate. But they refused. So, we went to the Supreme Court.

The senator, who spoke from Abuja, had said he was hopeful the Supreme Court could still deliver judgment on Thursday or Friday, before the elections on Saturday.

If APC is not on the ballot, I will not be in Port Harcourt (for the elections), he said.

PREMIUM TIMES asked the senator how he was feeling at the moment.

Like any other person that is racing against time, we are concerned that time is running out. But lets wait and see if we are able to get a date from the Supreme Court between today and tomorrow.

If we are not, then it becomes clear that our party will not be on the ballot, the senator said.

Mr Abe, interestingly, does not see what is going on as a lost opportunity for his party. It is part of the change that the APC promised Nigerians, he said.

We promised Nigerians that APC was the party of change and that we were going to change the way things are done in the country.

And I believe it is impossible to achieve true change, except people are ready to make the sacrifices that will make that change actually possible.

So, we see what we are doing as our own contribution to making our country better, making our politics better, and ultimately making our state better. It is important we should change the way politics is conducted in this country.

About how his supporters were feeling, the senator said, Oh, they are anxious. They are praying, they are fasting, they are crying.

A lot of them are in Abuja.

Like I said, it has been a long road. They all believe we have done the right thing and that God will help us.

He also talked about his plan for the future.

The elections should be over, and then there will be a need for us to put ourselves together properly and look to the future.

I am not discouraged in any way. You know, life could be unpredictable sometimes. I should continue to serve my people whether I have a government job or not, and continue to offer support to the values and leaders I believe in. We are going to continue to support the president.

I am not leaving APC. We will make the party work for Nigerians. We will make it live up to its ideals, Mr Abe said.

Meanwhile, the minister for transportation, Mr Amaechi, has asked the APC members and supporters in the state to vote for the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Awara Biokpomabo, who hails from troubled Akuku Toru Local Government Area.
Two men on a motorbike, on Thursday, shot at Nnamdi Nsorom, an aide to the Imo West Senatorial Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 23 presidential and National Assembly election, Jones Onyereri.

This is just as the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has deployed additional five Commissioners of Police to the state to curtail violence ahead of the governorship election on Saturday.

The newly deployed police commissioners are to join the police commissioner, Dazuki Galadanchi.

Mr Nsorom, who is currently in critical condition at the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, was at the gate to his boss house located behind Concord Hotel in the state capital, when the gunmen reportedly sprayed bullets at the gate, which hit him on the chest and arm.

Mr Onyereri was Governor Rochas Okorochas major opponent during the senatorial election on February 23, and has vowed to reclaim what he described as his stolen mandate.

But the Police Public Relations Officer in the State, Orlando Ikeonkwu, on Thursday night told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr Nsorom was trailed to the spot by the gunmen.

According to Mr Ikeonkwu, the attackers carted away some money found on Mr Nsorom as soon as he was shot.

He said: The attack was not on Honourable Onyereri but one of his aides. Information at our disposal indicated that he was being trailed and as soon as he was at the gate, they opened fire on him and carted away some money.

The commissioner has ordered full investigation into the matter and based on the lead, our men are also on the trail of the gunmen.

However, Mr Onyereri has denied knowledge of money being stolen at the spot, saying the report was strange to him.

According to him, he was yet to be briefed that money was carted away by the gunmen and that he could not have asked the victim, who was being wheeled to the theatre, whether the attackers took money or not.

Enhanced security measures

The Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES, said apart from the sitting commissioner of police who would operate from the control room, each of the three senatorial districts would be manned by three of the deployed commissioners.

Two other police commissioners have been deployed in Orlu and Okigwe Local Government Areas making six commissioners in all, Mr Mba said.

Meanwhile, some elders in the state have thanked the IGP for heeding their call by deploying more of his men to the state.

In a statement issued under the umbrella of Orlu Elders Council and signed by the Chairman, Francis Dike, a professor, and the Public Relations Officer, Ejike Uche, they said they are hopeful that the efforts would curtail impunity, violence and intimidation by hired thugs and officials in the employment of some failed politicians.

About 69 governorship candidates will be taking part in the election on Saturday with the candidates of the PDP, Action Alliance (AA), All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) being the leading contenders.

While Governor Rochas Okorochas son in-law, Uche Nwosu represents the AA, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha is the candidate of the PDP. Hope Uzodinma is the APCs candidate, and Ifeanyi Ararume and Ikedi Ohakim are the candidates of APGA and SDP respectively.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says 518 candidates are contesting the March 9 election for the 30 legislative seats in the Anambra State House of Assembly.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Awka North State Constituency with 23 candidates has the highest number of candidates, followed by Awka South with 22 candidates.

The head, Voter Education and Publicity, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Leo Nkedife, told NAN on Friday in Awka that Ayamelu and Anaocha fielded the least number of candidates. Thirteen candidates are contesting in each of the state constituency.

He said only the prominent political parties such as APGA, APC, PDP, SDP, YPP presented candidates for the election.

NAN recalls that governorship election will not hold in Anambra on Saturday as it held in the state in November 2017.

Mr Nkedife also said that INEC has distributed sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the conduct of the election.

From 12 noon today (Friday), our men and materials will be moved to Registration Area Centres, from where our men will sleep over so as to enable them to trek to the polling units.

As you can see, we now have fewer activities at INEC state headquarters now because all activities are now at local government area levels, he said.

(NAN)
The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal Owerri which upheld N1 billion contract debt owed E.F. Network Nigeria Limited by the Imo State Government.

Delivering judgment, Justice Amina Augie, held that the appeal filed by the Imo state government and Governor Rochas Okorocha challenging the judgment of the lower court was not meritorious.

Mrs Augie, who read the judgment prepared by Justice Kayode Arioola therefore, ordered the Imo State Governor and all other three appellants to immediately pay the firm and its promoter, Gideon Egbuchulam the N1billion.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the judgment sum was an outstanding amount left unpaid in a contract awarded to the company in 2008 under the administration of the states former governor, Ikedi Ohakim.

Mrs Augie went ahead to dismiss the appeal and awarded N500, 000 cost against the appellants.

Other appellants listed in the suit were Attorney-General of Imo State, Environmental Transformation Committee (Imo Entraco) and the Ministry of Environment, Imo State.

Mr Okorocha and others had approached the apex court to challenge the July 4, 2016 judgment of the court of appeal, Owerri.

The appellate court had upheld the February 11, 2014 judgment delivered by Justice Ijeoma Agugua of the Imo State High Court which gave the initial judgment against the state government.

The judgment creditors (E.F Network Nig. Ltd and Egbuchulam) had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the appellants failed to pay the sum after an execution of a contract for the state government.

The company and its promoter were contracted by the Ohakims administration which Mr Okorocha succeeded to implement the states Clean and Green Initiative.

The firm was awarded a contract to supply 10 million refuse bags and 40,000 plastic rolling containers at N42 per bag and N20 per plastic container.

(NAN)
Suspected thugs on Thursday attacked a rally organised by an All Progressives Congress (APC) Ogun State House of Assembly candidate, Kunle Oluomo.

At least one person was killed in the attack held in the Ifo constituency where the politician seeks to represent.

The Ogun State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed the attack, said ten persons have been arrested.

Mr Oluomo, speaking with journalists after the incident, named the victim as Thompson Emeka. He said several others were injured in the attack.

He explained that the rally was going on smoothly, when the thugs, who he claimed to be from Allied Peoples Movement (APM) attacked his supporters who were returning to his constituency office for merry.

Our boys allowed them to pass without hindrance only for APM thugs to open fire on our members bringing one of them down. I understand they are now pulling down the canopy and destroying all our properties in our constituency office at bungalow area of Ifo.

We then contacted the police immediately, and they came right on time, and took control of the environment, so as to secure all our members. Some of the members who were injured are; Mr, Sokunbi, Ali Dan, to mention few.

The corpse has been deposited at Ifo mortuary, while those that were injured have been taking to the hospital for medical attention, he said.

The police spokesperson, however, gave a different narrative. He said a vehicle, said to belong to another political party, was passing through the area when the driver lost control and hit the victim who died on the spot, a development he said led to the violence.
The management of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, in Oyo State, has suspended the activities of the Students Union of the school indefinitely over alleged unruly behaviour of the union officers.

The Registrar of the school, Kayode Ogunleye, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.

The University Management, having noticed the recent unpalatable and ugly situation on campus, which has led to a situation whereby Student Union leaders were attacking one another thus lost control of the leadership of the Union, decided that the Student Union of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, be proscribed with immediate effect, Mr Ogunleye said.

The university management said a caretaker committee has been formed in place of the proscribed union.

To ensure continuity of interaction between students and management of the university, a caretaker committee has been put in place to interface between students and the university management.

By this release, the leadership of the Student Union should hand over property of the Student Union and the University in their custody to the Ag Dean of Student Affairs with immediate effect.

We appeal to students of the University to continue to maintain peace and tranquillity on campus and report any case of security threat, the official said.

Repeated calls to the affected student leaders by PREMIUM TIMES to get their reactions to the development were not answered.

The suspension of the union may have a negative effect on the students as they now lack an independent body to engage the management on their behalf in the events of concerns over poor delivery of services.

The Trend

The suspension of LAUTECH Students Union activities has placed the institution on the trend of what is obtainable in many other Nigerian universities.

The OAU Students Union was suspended in November 2017, six months after the union at University Ibadan suffered a similar blow. Both cases were in the wake of the students protests.

In OAU, the management accused the union leaders of actions that could negatively impact its reputation and endanger the members of the university community.

Also, the authorities of the University of Ibadan accused the union of disrupting academic activities by mobilising students for a massive protest against the non-issuance of Identity (ID) cards and unruly behaviour of the president.

Interestingly, as the UI failed to issue ID cards to students, OAU also did not. At both schools, students are annually charged for ID cards.
We're carrying out our alliance obligations, the NATO secretary general's visit to Poland "strongly underlines" the fact of Poland's membership in the alliance, President Andrzej Duda stressed after a meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday.

Stoltenberg observed that for 20 years Poland has shown strong commitment to NATO.

Jens Stoltenberg was on an official visit to Poland on the occasion of the country's 20th anniversary of acceding to the alliance, as part of which, he met at Warsaw's Belweder Palace on Thursday evening with President Andrzej Duda.

Following the meeting, Andrzej Duda and Jens Stoltenberg related that they had talked among other issues about current challenges for security and about "what we can expect from Russia." The NATO secretary general underscored that Russia had breached the INF treaty (on the complete abolition of medium-range missiles).

Andrzej Duda stressed that Stoltenberg's visit to Poland "strongly underlines" the fact of Poland's membership in the North Atlantic Alliance. The president announced that during their talks, they had discussed the situation on the Black Sea and what actions NATO could take in region, among other issues. He added that they had talked about the situation in Syria and in the Middle East, about the situation in the Baltic Sea region and about "what we can expect from Russia." He also said the subject of cooperation between NATO partners had been raised including in the Black Sea region and in Georgia, Moldavia and support for Ukraine "in this difficult situation, in which it finds itself."

According to the President, the discussion also touched upon the necessity of making NATO forces mobile. He indicated that the Polish army "needs to leave its comfort zone and move so that soldiers start to be relocated." Andrzej Duda underscored that he had given the NATO secretary general his assurance that Poland is carrying out its alliance obligations, including increasing the presence of Polish troops in Afghanistan from 350 to 400. The president also stressed that Poland is meeting its obligations regarding defence spending and highlighted the law that obliges Poland to increase its military spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2030.

(PAP)
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.




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SOURCE CoolAutomation
The Foundation's citation regarding the Hasselblad Award Laureate 2019, Daido Moriyama:

"Daido Moriyama is one of Japan's most renowned photographers, celebrated for his radical approach to both medium and subject. Moriyama's images embrace a highly subjective but authentic approach. Reflecting a harsh vision of city life and its chaos of everyday existence and unusual characters, his work occupies a unique space between the illusory and the real. Moriyama became the most prominent artist to emerge from the short-lived yet profoundly influential Provoke movement, which played an important role in liberating photography from tradition and interrogating the very nature of the medium. His bold, uncompromising style has helped engender widespread recognition of Japanese photography within an international context. Influenced by photographer William Klein, the writings of Jack Kerouac and James Baldwin, and the experimental theatre of Shuji Terayama, Moriyama in turn has inspired subsequent generations of photographers, not only in Japan, but also around the world."

The Hasselblad Award Jury, which submitted its proposal to the Hasselblad Foundation's Board of Directors, consisted of:

Paul Roth, Chair

Curator and Director, Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto

Ann-Christin Bertrand

Curator, C/O Berlin Foundation, Berlin

Susanna Brown

Curator, Photographs, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Kristen Lubben

Executive Director, Magnum Foundation, New York

Thyago Noguiera

Curator, Instituto Moreira Salles, Sao Paulo

"Daido Moriyama's depiction of life is uncensored and he is not afraid of neither the ugly or the beautiful. He is truly a groundbreaking photographer and an inspiration to people from many creative fields, not just within the art and photography community. We are thrilled to be working with Daido Moriyama and his vast catalogue of images and publications and we hope to convey the richness of his continuous, obsessive scrutiny of the world in both our upcoming exhibition and catalogue," say curators at the Hasselblad Foundation, Sara Walker and Louise Wolthers

About the Hasselblad Foundation

The Hasselblad Foundation was established in 1979 under the terms of the last will and testament of Erna and Victor Hasselblad. The purpose of the Foundation is to promote education and research in photography and the natural sciences. The Foundation's annual international award for outstanding achievements in photography is considered one of the most prestigious photography awards worldwide.

Jenny Blixt

+46(0)317782154

jenny.blixt@hasselbladfoundation.org

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/832562/Hasselblad_Foundation.jpg





Related Links

http://www.hasselbladfoundation.org/wp/



SOURCE Hasselblad Foundation
LONGi Chuzhou 5GW factory, with a total investment of about USD 328 million, broke ground on May 2018. Contract, construction and commissioning were completed the same year. With cutting-edge equipment, technology and fully automated production lines, the factory manufactures high-efficiency modules, including the innovative Hi-MO3 bifacial mono half-cut PERC module and other next-generation products that meet the demand for high-efficiency, high-reliability and high-yield products.

After equipment commissioning, capacity ramp-up, efficiency stabilization and finalization work, LONGi Chuzhou factory rolled out its first module in January 2019. Today, Phase 1 project with 2.5GW is in full swing, manufacturing modules for global customers. Phase 2 is in the commissioning stage and will start full production soon.

In the past two years, mono PERC has been acclaimed and recognized in the global PV module market. High-efficiency PERC technology further enhances the power output and effectively reduces BOS cost. Add bifacial technology and it extends the advantages of monocrystalline PERC to the rear side of the module to enhance power generation capacity. At present, LONGi's monocrystalline cell and module capacities are all PERC, producing both monofacial and bifacial products.

Li Wenxue, President of LONGi Solar, said, "In 2019, our company identified a gap between fast-growing global orders and our high-efficiency cell and module capacities. LONGi Chuzhou factory will greatly narrow this gap. Besides manufacturing, the factory will also facilitate the transformation of technological and technical achievements to the mass production of new products."

LONGi also announced that it will move ahead its 45GW monocrystalline silicon ingot and wafer capacity expansion plans for 2020, and adapt cell and module capacities to market demand. As a global leader in solar monocrystalline technology, LONGi will continue to invest in R&D and maintain product and technology leadership and accelerate the vision of grid parity worldwide.

About LONGi:

Founded in 2000 and listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2012, LONGi is the world's largest manufacturer of solar monocrystalline silicon wafers, cells and modules, with an industrial chain throughout the world. LONGi planned 28GW production capacity for monocrystalline silicon wafers and 12GW for monocrystalline modules by the end of 2018, and expects to expand monocrystalline silicon wafer capacity to 45 GW by 2020. LONGi accounted for 38% of the global monocrystalline silicon wafer capacity and held the fourth place in the global module shipment in 2018. It ranked No.1 in global monocrystalline module shipments in 2016, 2017 and 2018 for three consecutive years.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/832831/LONGi_Launches_New_5GW_Mono_Module_Plant.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/781516/LONGi_Solar_Logo.jpg

SOURCE LONGi Solar
AUSTIN, Texas, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Aviator Nation, the beloved 1970's inspired California lifestyle brand, is celebrating this year's SXSW Music Conference with a series of events & performances in their new Austin flagship located at 1325 South Congress Avenue. In addition to the in-store awesomeness, Aviator Nation will also be creating festival merchandise that will be sold exclusively at the SXSW Marketplace & at Aviator Nation Austin.

LIVE BANDS & LATE-NIGHT DJ SETS

Dates: Friday, Saturday & Sunday (March 15th  17th)

Time: Daily, 5pm 'til late

Details: Pop by the store to check out some of this year's best up and coming bands and DJs. Aviator Nation truly believes in supporting local bands and artists and since its doors in October, they have created a rad hangout for Austin's community of creatives. The shop features a full-size stage with state-of-the-art sound system which makes it a breeze for bands to drop in and play. Performers include Kate Schecter, Striking Matches, The Brummies & more. Aviator Nation founder, Paige Mycoskie, will be making a cameo on the turntables on Saturday, March 15th.

LIVE MURAL PAINTING WITH FOUNDER, PAIGE MYCOSKIE

Dates: Sunday, March 10th  Wednesday, March 13th

Time: Daily from 11am

Details: Join Aviator Nation founder and Texas native, Paige Mycoskie, as she and a few of her local artist friends, paint an oversize mural in the front of the brand's Austin flagship. Stop by to chat with Paige as she transforms a blank wall into a vibrant, 70s-inspired work of art celebrating all things music and all things Austin.

ROOFTOP YOGA & GUIDED MEDITATION

Dates: Friday, Saturday & Sunday (March 15th  March 17th)

Time: Daily, 10am  11am

Details: Join some of Austin's top yoga instructors to namaste your way to good vibes before heading out to catch the latest bands around town.

EXCLUSIVE AVIATOR NATION X SXSW MERCH

Dates: Friday & Saturday (March 15th  16th)

Time: Daily, 10am  6pm

Location: Austin Convention Center  Exhibit Hall 5

Details: Aviator Nation has partnered with SXSW this year to create a capsule of limited-edition festival merch available exclusively at the SXSW Marketplace & Aviator Nation Austin. The new gear includes custom hoodies, crew neck sweatshirts & sweatpants for both men and women  designed by Aviator Nation founder, Paige Mycoskie. These super rad pieces will retail from $85 - $110.

In addition to the Aviator Nation x SXSW capsule, the SXSW Marketplace will be stocked with Aviator Nation's colorful core collection at lower than usual festival pricing. The SXSW Marketplace is open to SXSW badge holders & visitors to Austin.

About Aviator Nation

Aviator Nation is a 1970's inspired California lifestyle brand founded by Texas native, Paige Mycoskie. Hand-made and perfectly distressed hoodies and sweatpants are the foundation of what we do, but our aim is to unite a tribe of passionate individuals who want to inspire the world. We are a brand that believes in the highest quality of goods & the ultimate in customer satisfaction. For us, creating products that reflect our values and highlight the beauty of imperfection is the dream combo. We celebrate a time when music, surfing, and a love for community shaped our culture. Our mission is to keep this energy alive. Live. Love. Fly. www.aviatornation.com

SOURCE Aviator Nation
SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Bird today announced it's rolling out Bird Platform to providers in Canada, Latin America and New Zealand.

The roll out of Bird Platform will allow entrepreneurs and local business owners to bring Bird's fleet of shared e-scooters to people in Canada, Latin America and New Zealand while accelerating Bird's mission to make cities more livable by reducing car usage, traffic, and carbon emissions. By providing independent operators with vehicles at cost, Bird Platform provides an accessible path to building an e-scooter business as well as the tools needed to manage an e-scooter business. Platform partners have access to Bird's world-class tools, products and technology needed to efficiently manage a fleet of shared e-scooters in exchange for a service fee.

"Thousands of entrepreneurs and local business owners have expressed interest in partnering with Bird and joining the movement to reduce car usage," said Travis VanderZanden, founder and CEO of Bird. "Through Bird Platform we help empower independent entrepreneurs to bring environmentally-friendly transportation options to their community while investing in a sustainable future for everyone."

Cities around the world are faced with tackling the reality of car congestion and carbon emissions and pollution that contributes to the climate crisis. The introduction of shared e-scooters 18 months ago sparked a transportation mode shift to cleaner, affordable vehicles in more than 100 cities. Shared e-scooters are already replacing millions of car trips and the pollution that comes with them, and both Bird and Bird Platform partners will continue to work with cities to help them redesign their transportation networks so that they are safer and cleaner for everyone in the community.

For more information about Bird Platform visit: bird.co/platform .

SOURCE Bird

Related Links

http://www.bird.co


"Words are a powerful thing and can be a barrier to women's advancement. It's time for action this International Women's Day," says Lorraine Hariton, President and CEO of Catalyst

NEW YORK, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Catalyst, the leading global nonprofit focused on creating workplaces that work for women, is marking International Women's Day (IWD) by launching a bold campaign to tackle one of the biggest gender equality issues in the workplace: unconscious gender bias. The new campaign, which features women from diverse industries, aims to shine a light on the power of words used to describe women and encourage people to #BiasCorrect by paying more attention to theirs.

"Women and men with the same talents and skills are often described in very different ways due to unconscious gender bias, creating invisible barriers that can have an enormous impact on women's advancement," said Lorraine Hariton, President and CEO of Catalyst. "The good news is Catalyst's resources provide ways people can overcome their own unconscious biases. The #BiasCorrect campaign is designed to spark conversations around the power of words, and more importantly, to inspire learning and action."

Catalyst partnered with NYC-based brand transformation company Burns Group to bring its leading research to life with a creative idea to drive both action and awareness. The multifaceted campaign developed by Burns Group incorporates chat platforms, social media, digital assets, and outdoor placements.

Joanne McKinney, CEO of Burns Group, said, "We jumped at the chance to partner with Catalyst and apply creativity to the issue of unconscious gender bias. Our team was determined to create an idea that did more than just build awareness of the issue. The marriage of technology and humanity in this campaign is what makes it truly powerful."

On this important day of the year for women's advancement, Catalyst invites individuals and companies to check out its IWD #BiasCorrect webpage, which provides unique resources to help individuals understand unconscious bias, interrupt it, and correct it. The site includes videos, customizable social media posts for download, and information on how individuals and companies can combat unconscious bias, such as the soon-to-be released Catalyst Inclusion Accelerator, a leading-edge diagnostic tool designed to evaluate and monitor how employees are experiencing inclusion.

#BiasCorrect Plug-in

Among the tools offered in the campaign is the first-ever #BiasCorrect Plug-in to tag unconscious bias in real-time conversations on work-based chat platforms such as Slack. The plug-in identifies words that create harmful gender stereotypes and suggests alternative language. For instance, if a woman is described as "aggressive," the app suggests correcting the sentiment to "assertive." Eskalera, the company that developed the technology for the plug- in, is making the software available via open source code in an effort to spread the message and encourage change across every chat platform.

"When the Catalyst team approached Eskalera to support this initiative we could not have been more thrilled," said Tom Chavez, CEO of Eskalera. "This development amplifies Catalyst's important gender equity research by providing a tool that detects potentially gender-biased statements as they occur and suggests alternatives to unintentionally hurtful or demeaning language."

"To reduce the gender gap in leadership, we must break down the invisible barriers that keep women from advancing," added Ms. Hariton. "Inclusive leaders and managers must learn to interrupt bias to reap the benefits of a diverse workforce, including improved business performance, increased employee engagement, and greater innovation to remain competitive in the future. Let's act now to create workplaces that work for women."

About Catalyst

Catalyst is a global nonprofit working with some of the world's most powerful CEOs and leading companies to help build workplaces that work for women. Founded in 1962, Catalyst drives change with pioneering research, practical tools, and proven solutions to accelerate and advance women into leadershipbecause progress for women is progress for everyone.

About Burns Group

Burns Group is a brand transformation company that bravely co-creates the future of brands, young and old. We bring bravery to established brands and experience to startups. To learn more, visit burnsgroupnyc.com

About Eskalera

Eskalera transforms HR operations through future-forward systems delivering employee engagement, productivity, and growth. Our tools combine modern techniques from AI, data science, and evidence-based findings on implicit bias and Diversity & Inclusion (D&I). By capturing, processing, and analyzing data from easy-to-use mobile and desktop experiences, companies on Eskalera gain a real-time view of the zeitgeist of their employee base across levels and functions, leverage those insights to drive measurable business results through people, and enable their employees to grow and succeed in increasingly competitive, fast- moving markets.

Media Contacts:

U.S.:

Stephanie Wolf

+1 732 322 3698

[email protected]

Canada:

Francine Beck

+1 416 725 3710

[email protected]

Europe:

Frances Knox

+ 44 7850 470123

[email protected]

SOURCE Catalyst

Related Links

http://www.catalyst.org


CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy Progress, a subsidiary of Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), has completed its first issuance of $600 million in green bonds that will finance eligible green energy projects, including the development, construction and procurement of solar generation in the Carolinas.

This transaction, which involved two minority-owned banks to place the bonds, marks the second green bond transaction by a Duke Energy utility. Duke Energy Carolinas issued $1 billion of green bonds in November 2018.

"We are providing our customers and communities with ever-cleaner energy  and these investments help us get there even faster as we expand renewable energy across the Carolinas," said Duke Energy executive vice president and chief financial officer Steve Young. "We saw strong interest in our first green bond last year and are excited to expand these offerings for investors."

The company is well on its way to achieving its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030, having already reduced carbon emissions by 31 percent from 2005 levels.

In the last decade, Duke Energy Progress retired 12 older coal-fired units, increased nuclear generation capacity and added more than 2,000 megawatts (MW) of built or purchased solar capacity. For six straight years, the utility has been among the top 10 utilities nationwide for adding solar capacity to its system.

The green bonds, priced at 3.45 percent fixed-rate coupon and 10-year maturity, will ensure the company's eligible green projects continue to be financed on attractive terms to serve Carolinas customers.

The company priced the bonds on March 4 and closed the transaction earlier today.

Among the underwriters were two diversity banks  Academy Securities, Inc. and C.L. King & Associates. These two banks are owned and primarily staffed by disabled veterans and women, and increase Duke Energy's work with diverse investors and suppliers.

"This was an exciting opportunity to support Duke Energy's investments in green energy as well as its strategy to advance diversity and inclusion," said Chance Mims, CEO of Academy Securities. "As an investment bank owned by disabled veterans, we are proud of the business community's efforts to bolster awareness of firms with diverse backgrounds and look forward to seeing this focus further develop."

"As we look ahead, we plan to invest in clean, green generation sources into the future and will continue to look for innovative options to finance these projects with diversity-owned firms," said Young.

Duke Energy

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) is one of the largest energy holding companies in the U.S., with approximately 29,000 employees and a generating capacity of 49,500 megawatts. The company is transforming its customers' experience, modernizing its energy grid, generating cleaner energy and expanding its natural gas infrastructure to create a smarter energy future for the people and communities it serves.

The company's Electric Utilities and Infrastructure unit serves approximately 7.6 million retail electric customers in six states  North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Its Gas Utilities and Infrastructure unit distributes natural gas to approximately 1.6 million customers in five states  North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. Its Commercial Renewables unit operates a growing renewable energy portfolio across the U.S.

A Fortune 125 company, Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2018 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and Forbes' 2018 "America's Best Employers" list.

More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center includes news releases, fact sheets, photos, videos and other materials. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Contact: Catherine Butler

24-Hour: 800.559.3853

SOURCE Duke Energy

Related Links

http://www.duke-energy.com


HARRISBURG, Pa., March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) reminds eligible parties that applications for grants to fund programs that discourage and reduce underage and dangerous drinking are due by noon Friday, March 15, 2019.

Eligible grant applicants include Pennsylvania school districts and institutions of higher education (including technical, trade, and post-secondary establishments), community organizations, municipal police departments, municipal officials/representatives, and nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

The grant cycle is for one year, from July 2019 through June 2020. Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis with a maximum award of $20,000 per grantee. Applications will be received and evaluated by the PLCB's Bureau of Alcohol Education, with awards made subject to availability of funds.

During the last grant cycle, the PLCB awarded about $1 million in alcohol education grants. Initiatives funded in previous years include increased underage police patrols, enhanced law enforcement initiatives, MADD's Power of Parents campaigns, college alcohol assessment surveys, peer education and training programs, and more.

Grant applications are limited to one per organization, school, municipality, or institution of higher education.

The PLCB regulates the distribution of beverage alcohol in Pennsylvania, operates more than 600 wine and spirits stores statewide, and licenses 20,000 alcohol producers, retailers, and handlers. The PLCB also works to reduce and prevent dangerous and underage drinking through partnerships with schools, community groups, and licensees. Taxes and store profits  totaling $16.5 billion since the agency's inception  are returned to Pennsylvania's General Fund, which finances Pennsylvania's schools, health and human services programs, law enforcement, and public safety initiatives, among other important public services. The PLCB also provides financial support for the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, other state agencies, and local municipalities across the state. For more information about the PLCB, visit lcb.pa.gov.

MEDIA CONTACT: Shawn Kelly, 717.783.8864

SOURCE Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

Related Links

http://www.lcb.state.pa.us


NASHVILLE, Ga., March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Senator David Perdue (R-GA) recently toured the more than one million square foot Chaparral Boats Inc. manufacturing facility in an effort to learn more about the company and the recreational boat industry. Chaparral Boats employees 1,000 full-time employees in South Georgia and Senator Perdue was able to witness the manufacturing process first-hand.

Senator Perdue engaged the Chaparral team throughout his tour to discuss a range of issues including workforce development and trade, as well as production and logistics.

"I was extremely impressed with Senator Perdue's knowledge of current issues regarding our industry," said Buck Pegg, founder of Chaparral Boats. "Senator Perdue's background as a Fortune 500 CEO made him very familiar with the workforce challenges our company faces, as well as the negative impact of the tariffs, both U.S. imposed and retaliatory. It was encouraging to converse with a politician who had been responsible for a large payroll and was pro-business."

Senator Perdue recognizes the $4.3 billion economic impact that the recreational boating industry has in the state of Georgia, so he enthusiastically agreed to join the Congressional Boating Caucus during his visit.

"We were honored to host Senator Perdue at the Chaparral Boats production facilities," said Ann Baldree, senior vice president at Chaparral Boats. "Being a lifelong boater, Senator Perdue is an advocate for our industry and fully comprehends our challenges and opportunities. He was interested in what it would take to support our growth and to continue to sustain our local economy. We have been the largest employer in our region for several decades and our local economic impact is substantial."

All Chaparral boats come equipped and ready for action; however, many upgrade options and premium packages are available. For more information, please visit www.ChaparralBoats.com.



About Chaparral Boats, Inc & Robalo Boats, LLC.

Chaparral Boats, Inc. and Robalo Boats LLC are leading manufacturers of fiberglass boats under two brand names: sterndrive, jet, and outboard pleasure boats by Chaparral, including H2O Sport and Fish & Ski Boats, SSi and SSX Sportboats, Sunesta Sportdecks, Signature Cruisers, Vortex Jet Boats, SunCoast Outboard Sportdecks, and outboard sport fishing boats by Robalo. Chaparral Boats and Robalo Boats are subsidiaries of Marine Products Corporation (NYSE: MPX). For more information about Marine Products Corporation, Chaparral, and Robalo please visit our websites at www.marineproductscorp.com, www.chaparralboats.com, www.vortexboats.com, and www.robalo.com.

Press Contact:

Rhythm Communications

Rob Kremer, (404) 218-3077

Amy Woodward Parrish, (404) 310-6559

SOURCE Chaparral Boats Inc.

Related Links

http://www.chaparralboats.com


PHILADELPHIA, March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In the first wrongful death lawsuit of its kind in Pennsylvania, the family of a 25-year-old Pennsylvania human services counselor is alleging that his death last June was caused by "killer Kratom", the unregulated supplement whose manufacturer, SoCal Herbal Remedies, LLC, provides no warning label or dosage instructions, according to the complaint filed against the Big Bear, California company in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas (Estate of Caleb Sturgis v. SoCal Herbal Remedies, No. Jan 2019 No. 02001). Saltz, Mongeluzzi, Barrett & Bendesky, P.C., (SMBB) represents the plaintiff.

Attorney Robert J. Mongeluzzi, of SMBB, and his legal team announced the filing at a news conference this morning. "Kratom kills, and Kratom killed Caleb Sturgis, according to scientific medical testing and the Chester County Medical Examiner," said Mr. Mongeluzzi. "If Caleb had not been seduced by the misleading and unproven claims of the Kratom industry, this incredible young man would be alive today. Those responsible for his death must now be held accountable, and the Sturgis family is determined to do all it can to prevent other deaths caused by Kratom."

Caleb Sturgis, according to medical reports cited in the lawsuit, drank Kratom tea on the morning of June 27, 2018 before he drove to work as a human services counselor in the Philadelphia suburbs. SoCal made and packaged the tea, which is made from tropical Kratom tree leaves, and had no warnings or use instructions on its package, other than to keep away from children.

The Medical Examiner concluded that his death was the result of Acute Mitragynine Intoxication, directly related to the lethal concentration of Kratom (Mitragyna Speciosa) in his bloodstream. The only other "positive finding" reported was a level of caffeine consistent with his morning cup of coffee. The FDA contends that Kratom is an opioid and should be banned and all inventories removed from shelves until further research is conducted. As noted in the lawsuit, the agency considers all Kratom products potentially deadly, and classifies Caleb's death among more than 40 in the U.S. linked to Kratom.

Scott Sturgis, Caleb's father, said at the press conference, "We are speaking out so that people know that Kratom can and does kill. Kratom needs to be banned until there is sufficient research proving its safety, efficacy and dosing. Kratom killed our Caleb. We will not stand silent until it can't kill anyone else." Along with his wife, Lori, and their three other children, they discussed how Kratom killed their son and beloved brother.

Tanya Sturgis, Caleb's oldest sister, stated, "Our family lost Caleb but we are not going to lose our fight to see these opioids regulated, and full accountability on the part of those that traffic in Kratom."

While Caleb's death is, tragically, not the first in Pennsylvania linked to Kratom, the wrongful death lawsuit is the first in Pennsylvania that seeks to hold a Kratom manufacturer-marketer responsible. A jury trial is requested as part of the Complaint, and compensatory and punitive damages are sought.

"Our next steps will be to question the suppliers of the product that killed Caleb under oath to determine why they ignored the opinions of the FDA about the perils of this deadly product, and put it into the hands, and bloodstreams, of innocent consumers like Caleb Sturgis without any warnings regarding its potency, the safe amount that can be used, the frequency of use, or any of the other vital safety information every consumer needs to rely upon," said Mr. Mongeluzzi. "We look forward to learning all we can through pre-trial discovery and then at a jury trial." His co-counsel from SMBB is attorney Samuel B. Dordick.

The FDA has warned "consumers not to useKratom" and "is concerned that Kratomexposes users to the risks of addiction, abuse and dependence." Kratom is banned in its countries of origin, Thailand and Malaysia, as well as countries such as Australia, Sweden, and Germany and U.S. states including Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Vermont and Wisconsin. There is no FDA-approved use of Kratom, and relevant testing by the FDA has revealed the presence of Salmonella and heavy metals such as lead and nickel in Kratom obtained from some Kratom suppliers. The FDA has stated that "compounds in Kratom make it so it isn't just a plantit's an opioid" and the FDA is "confident in calling compounds found in Kratom, opioids."

Anyone concerned about Kratom purchased online or at a retailer should immediately contact their local health department or Poison Control Hotline at 1-800-222-1222. In emergency cases, immediately call 9-1-1.

#KRATOMKILLS

SOURCE Saltz, Mongeluzzi, Barrett & Bendesky, P.C.
NEW YORK and DENVER, March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Kimmeridge Energy Management Company, LLC ("Kimmeridge"), beneficial owners of 5.1% of the common shares of PDC Energy, Inc. ("PDC" or the "Company") (NYSE: PDCE), today announced that it is nominating three highly qualified candidates for election to PDC's Board of Directors at the Company's 2019 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. In addition, Kimmeridge has released an investor presentation discussing its reasons for making the nominations and detailing how it believes the Company should create value for stockholders. The presentation can be accessed here: www.kimmeridge.com/pdc/.

Ben Dell, Founder and Managing Partner of Kimmeridge, said, "Despite holding enviable assets, we believe PDC has consistently delivered poor financial and operational performance across a host of critical metrics. In addition, management has repeatedly appeared to be unwilling to meaningfully address the Company's failings, which has, in our view resulted in a steep discount to PDC's intrinsic value. The election of three new directors will instill much needed accountability and a fresh perspective at the Company. It's certainly time for change.

"Those who are familiar with PDC, and the public U.S. E&P space, fully understand that the sector is becoming increasingly 'uninvestable' due, in large part, to excessive SG&A, a misguided focus on production growth, and misalignment of executive compensation. Under the watch of PDC's current Board, the Company continues to resoundingly check each of these value destructive boxes while claiming a 'commitment to capital efficiency.'

"The Board nominees that we have put forth are solely committed to doing what is in the best interests of the Company and all of its stockholders over the near and long term. Each nominee possesses extensive E&P expertise  both operational and financial  and we believe the election of Dell, Gould, and Adelson would send a strong signal from the investment community that they want the Company to seriously consider taking required steps towards improving performance, maximizing shareholder value and, in turn, becoming an attractive investment opportunity."

Nominee bios:

Ben Dell is the founder of Kimmeridge where he leads the firm's investment activities, including overseeing the screening and diligence of new geological opportunities as well as the negotiation and execution of investment strategies. In 2016, Mr. Dell led the sale of Kimmeridge's Delaware Basin assets to PDC. Prior to founding Kimmeridge, Mr. Dell served as Co-Head of Energy Investments at AllianceBernstein and prior to that he was a Senior Equity Research Analyst for Oil and Gas E&P at Sanford Bernstein. Mr. Dell was also a member of British Petroleum's M&A and finance group. He received an undergraduate degree in Earth Sciences from St. Peter's College , Oxford.





is the founder of Kimmeridge where he leads the firm's investment activities, including overseeing the screening and diligence of new geological opportunities as well as the negotiation and execution of investment strategies. In 2016, Mr. Dell led the sale of Kimmeridge's Basin assets to PDC. Prior to founding Kimmeridge, Mr. Dell served as Co-Head of Energy Investments at AllianceBernstein and prior to that he was a Senior Equity Research Analyst for Oil and Gas E&P at Sanford Bernstein. Mr. Dell was also a member of British Petroleum's M&A and finance group. He received an undergraduate degree in Earth Sciences from , Oxford. Alice Gould is a member of the Board of Directors of CorePoint Lodging, Inc. (NYSE: CPLG), serving on its Compensation and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees. Alice previously led the Private Investments team at DUMAC, Inc., an investment office that manages over $18 billion for Duke University's endowment and other assets. Her responsibilities included the evaluation, selection, and monitoring of venture capital, leveraged buyout, credit, real estate, energy, and natural resources investments. She has also served on the advisory boards of over 20 private equity and real assets partnerships in the U.S. and abroad. Prior to joining DUMAC, Alice was a management consultant and worked for ten years at IBM in various management roles. Alice received a B.S. in Engineering from Duke University (magna cum laude) and an MBA from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University (Fuqua Scholar).





is a member of the Board of Directors of CorePoint Lodging, Inc. (NYSE: CPLG), serving on its Compensation and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees. Alice previously led the Private Investments team at DUMAC, Inc., an investment office that manages over for endowment and other assets. Her responsibilities included the evaluation, selection, and monitoring of venture capital, leveraged buyout, credit, real estate, energy, and natural resources investments. She has also served on the advisory boards of over 20 private equity and real assets partnerships in the U.S. and abroad. Prior to joining DUMAC, Alice was a management consultant and worked for ten years at IBM in various management roles. Alice received a B.S. in Engineering from (magna cum laude) and an MBA from The Fuqua School of Business at (Fuqua Scholar). James Adelson serves as the President and CEO of Nadel and Gussman, LLC, a fourth-generation family oil and gas business. He also serves as manager or managing partner of Nadel and Gussman's various energy affiliates, as well as Ellbar Partners, LLC, the family office entity that focuses on non-energy related opportunities. Jim is an experienced industry executive with over 30 years in oil and gas, including management, operational strategy, exploration and development, together with significant financial expertise in corporate finance, strategic planning and risk management. Jim received his B.A. in Economics from Cornell University .

Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP is providing legal counsel to Kimmeridge Energy.

About Kimmeridge Energy

Founded in 2012 by Ben Dell, Dr. Neil McMahon and Henry Makansi, Kimmeridge Energy is an energy private equity firm focused on making direct investments in unconventional oil and gas assets in the U.S. Rather than partner with separate management teams, Kimmeridge identifies, owns and operates each of its assets directly, maintaining an in-house geology and operating team with experience across all major E&P functions.

Kimmeridge Contact:

Noam Lockshin

646.517.7251

[email protected]

Investor Contact:

Scott Winter / Jonathan Salzberger

Innisfree M&A Incorporated

212.750.5833

Media Contact:

Daniel Yunger / Cathryn Vaulman

Kekst CNC

212.521.4800

[email protected]

[email protected]

Legend

Kimmeridge and Benjamin Dell, Alice E. Gould, and James F. Adelson (collectively, the "Nominees," together with Kimmeridge, the "Participants") intend to file with the SEC a definitive proxy statement and accompanying form of proxy to be used in connection with the solicitation of proxies from the stockholders of PDC. All stockholders of PDC are advised to read the definitive proxy statement and other documents related to the solicitation of proxies by the Participants when they become available, as they will contain important information, including additional information related to the Participants. The definitive proxy statement and an accompanying proxy card will be furnished to some or all of the Company's stockholders and will be, along with other relevant documents, available at no charge on the SEC website at http://www.sec.gov/.

Information about the Participants and a description of its direct or indirect interests by security holdings is contained in the Schedule 14A filed by Kimmeridge with the SEC on March 7, 2019. This document is available free of charge from the sources indicated above.

1 Source: publicly available information on PDC.

SOURCE Kimmeridge Energy

Related Links

http://www.kimmeridge.com


LOS ANGELES, March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --

Highlights

Korn Ferry reports fee revenue of $474.5 million in Q3 FY'19, an increase of 6% (10% on a constant currency basis) from Q3 FY'18, driven by organic growth in all segments.

reports fee revenue of in Q3 FY'19, an increase of 6% (10% on a constant currency basis) from Q3 FY'18, driven by organic growth in all segments. Operating income was $62.7 million in Q3 FY'19 with an operating margin of 13.2%. Adjusted EBITDA was $77.7 million with Adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.4%.

in Q3 FY'19 with an operating margin of 13.2%. Adjusted EBITDA was with Adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.4%. Q3 FY'19 diluted earnings per share was $0.80 compared to diluted earnings per share of $0.48 in Q3 FY'18. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.81 in Q3 FY'19 compared to Adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.70 in Q3 FY'18.

compared to diluted earnings per share of in Q3 FY'18. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was in Q3 FY'19 compared to Adjusted diluted earnings per share of in Q3 FY'18. The Company continued with its balanced approach to capital allocation, buying back $14.7 million of stock during the quarter and declaring a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share on March 6, 2019 payable on April 15, 2019 to stockholders of record on March 26 , 2019. In addition, on March 6, 2019 , the Board of Directors approved an increase in our capacity to repurchase shares to a total remaining availability of $250 million . The shares may be repurchased from time to time in the open market or privately negotiated transactions, subject to market conditions and other factors.

Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY), a global organizational consulting firm, today announced third quarter fee revenue of $474.5 million. Third quarter diluted earnings per share was $0.80 and Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.81. Adjusted diluted earnings per share for the third quarter excludes $0.8 million related to retention awards from a prior acquisition, or $0.01 per share.

"I am pleased with the results of our recently completed third quarter. We generated $475 million in fee revenue, up approximately 6% year-over-year, 10% at constant currency, with strong growth across all of our geographies and solutions. Adjusted EBITDA was $78 million, with an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.4 percent  an all-time high. We also continue to execute our balanced approach to capital deployment, repurchasing $14.7 million of our shares in the quarter, bringing our total recent share repurchases to nearly $100 million. We have increased our capacity to repurchase shares to a total remaining availability of $250 million. This move, in conjunction with our regular dividend, further drives our capital allocation strategy," said Gary D. Burnison, CEO, Korn Ferry.

"We are redefining an industry. We are building a firm that has the scale and offerings that synchronize our clients' strategy with their organization and people to help them drive superior performance," added Burnison.

Selected Financial Results

(dollars in millions, except per share amounts) (a)



Third Quarter

Year to Date

FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 Fee revenue $ 474.5

$ 447.6

$ 1,435.3

$ 1,291.9 Total revenue $ 486.2

$ 460.8

$ 1,471.3

$ 1,331.2 Operating income $ 62.7

$ 49.8

$ 78.6

$ 144.2 Operating margin

13.2%



11.1%



5.5%



11.2% Net income attributable to Korn Ferry $ 45.0

$ 27.2

$ 52.4

$ 92.6 Basic earnings per share $ 0.81

$ 0.49

$ 0.94

$ 1.65 Diluted earnings per share $ 0.80

$ 0.48

$ 0.92

$ 1.63







EBITDA Results (b): Third Quarter

Year to Date

FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 EBITDA $ 76.9

$ 69.7

$ 115.5

$ 195.6 EBITDA margin

16.2%



15.5%



8.0%



15.2%







Adjusted Results (c): Third Quarter

Year to Date







FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 Adjusted EBITDA (b) $ 77.7

$ 71.4

$ 228.8

$ 202.4 Adjusted EBITDA margin (b)

16.4%



15.9%



15.9%



15.7% Adjusted net income attributable to Korn Ferry $ 45.8

$ 39.9

$ 138.2

$ 108.9 Adjusted basic earnings per share $ 0.82

$ 0.71

$ 2.47

$ 1.94 Adjusted diluted earnings per share $ 0.81

$ 0.70

$ 2.43

$ 1.92 ___________ (a) Numbers may not total due to rounding. (b) EBITDA refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA further adjusts EBITDA to exclude tradename write-offs, integration/acquisition costs and restructuring charges, net. EBITDA, EBITDA margin, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures (see attached reconciliations). (c) Adjusted results are non-GAAP financial measures that adjust for the following, as applicable (see attached reconciliations):

Third Quarter

Year to Date







FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 Income tax impact due to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the "Tax Act") $ 

$ 11.3

$ 

$ 11.3 Tradename write-offs $ 

$ 

$ 106.6

$  Integration/acquisition costs $ 0.8

$ 1.7

$ 6.7

$ 6.7 Restructuring charges, net $ 

$ 

$ 

$ 0.1

Fee revenue was $474.5 million in Q3 FY'19, an increase of 6% (10% increase on a constant currency basis) compared to Q3 FY'18. The increase in fee revenue was due to organic growth in all segments.

Operating income was $62.7 million in Q3 FY'19 compared to $49.8 million in the year-ago quarter. Operating margin was 13.2% in Q3 FY'19 compared to 11.1% in the year-ago quarter. The increase in operating income was primarily due to the increase in fee revenue, partially offset by an increase in compensation and benefits expense driven by an increase in average headcount and performance related bonus expense.

Adjusted EBITDA margin was 16.4%, compared to 15.9% in the year-ago quarter. The increase in Adjusted EBITDA margin was impacted by the same factors as operating income offset by lower gains in other income, net due to market movements associated with marketable securities.

Results by Segment

Selected Executive Search Data

(dollars in millions) (a)



Third Quarter

Year to Date

FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 Fee revenue $ 193.4

$ 180.4

$ 584.0

$ 518.4 Total revenue $ 198.0

$ 185.5

$ 598.0

$ 531.9 Operating income $ 44.7

$ 34.4

$ 137.0

$ 102.6 Operating margin

23.1%



19.1%



23.5%



19.8%























Ending number of consultants

552



536



552



536 Average number of consultants

554



537



546



527 Engagements billed

3,849



3,671



8,201



7,709 New engagements (b)

1,608



1,564



5,073



4,735





















































EBITDA Results (c): Third Quarter

Year to Date

FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 EBITDA $ 48.2

$ 37.3

$ 144.1

$ 110.3 EBITDA margin

24.9%



20.7%



24.7%



21.3%























Adjusted Results (d): Third Quarter

Year to Date

FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 Adjusted EBITDA (c) $ 48.2

$ 37.3

$ 144.1

$ 110.6 Adjusted EBITDA margin (c)

24.9%



20.7%



24.7%



21.3%

___________ (a) Numbers may not total due to rounding. (b) Represents new engagements opened in the respective period. (c) EBITDA, EBITDA margin, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures (see attached reconciliations). (d) Adjusted results are non-GAAP financial measures that exclude the following (see attached reconciliations):







Third Quarter

Year to Date

FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 Restructuring charges, net $ 

$ 

$ 

$ 0.3

Fee revenue was $193.4 million in Q3 FY'19, an increase of $13.0 million or 7% (10% on a constant currency basis) compared to Q3 FY'18. The increase in fee revenue was attributable to higher fee revenue in the North American, Asia Pacific and Latin American regions.

Operating income was $44.7 million in Q3 FY'19 compared to $34.4 million in Q3 FY'18. Operating margin was 23.1% in Q3 FY'19 compared to 19.1% in the year-ago quarter. The increase in operating income was due to higher fee revenue in Q3 FY'19 compared to Q3 FY'18, partially offset by an increase in general and administrative expenses driven by higher premise and office expense and adversely impacted by foreign exchange losses in Q3 FY'19 compared to gains in the year-ago quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA was $48.2 million in Q3 FY'19 with an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 24.9% compared to $37.3 million and 20.7%, respectively, in the year-ago quarter.

Selected Advisory Data

(dollars in millions) (a)



Third Quarter

Year to Date

FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 Fee revenue $ 201.5

$ 198.1

$ 614.0

$ 577.5 Total revenue $ 205.7

$ 202.0

$ 627.2

$ 589.1 Operating income (loss) $ 29.3

$ 27.1

$ (24.4)

$ 72.5 Operating margin

14.5%



13.7%



(4.0%)



12.5%























Ending number of consultants (b)

569



590



569



590 Staff utilization (c)

62%



64%



65%



65%























EBITDA Results (d): Third Quarter

Year to Date

FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 EBITDA $ 37.4

$ 35.7

$ (1.1)

$ 98.2 EBITDA margin

18.5%



18.0%



(0.2%)



17.0%























Adjusted Results (e): Third Quarter

Year to Date







FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 Adjusted EBITDA (d) $ 38.1

$ 37.3

$ 112.1

$ 104.4 Adjusted EBITDA margin (d)

18.9%



18.8%



18.3%



18.1% ___________ (a) Numbers may not total due to rounding. (b) Represents number of employees originating consulting services. (c) Calculated by dividing the number of hours our full-time Advisory professional staff record to engagements during the period, by the total available working hours during the same period. (d) EBITDA, EBITDA margin, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures (see attached reconciliations). (e) Adjusted results are non-GAAP financial measures that adjust for the following (see attached reconciliations):







Third Quarter

Year to Date

FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 Tradename write-offs $ 

$ 

$ 106.6

$  Integration/acquisition costs $ 0.8

$ 1.6

$ 6.6

$ 6.5 Restructuring recoveries, net $ 

$ 

$ 

$ (0.2)

Fee revenue was $201.5 million in Q3 FY'19 compared to $198.1 million in Q3 FY'18, an increase of $3.4 million or 2% (6% on a constant currency basis) compared to Q3 FY'18. The increase in fee revenue was primarily driven by an increase in Consulting Solutions fee revenue across each of our Advisory businesses.

Operating income was $29.3 million in Q3 FY'19 with an operating margin of 14.5% compared to operating income of $27.1 million and an operating margin of 13.7% in the year-ago quarter. The increase in operating income was primarily due to higher fee revenue compared to the year-ago quarter, partially offset by an increase in compensation and benefits expense driven by the use of outside contractors and higher commission expense.

Adjusted EBITDA was $38.1 million in Q3 FY'19 with an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.9% compared to $37.3 million and 18.8%, respectively, in the year-ago quarter. The increase in Adjusted EBITDA margin was impacted by the same factors as operating income offset by decrease in integration/acquisition costs in Q3 FY'19 compared to the year-ago quarter.

Selected RPO and Professional Search Data

(dollars in millions) (a)



Third Quarter

Year to Date

FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 Fee revenue $ 79.6

$ 69.1

$ 237.4

$ 196.0 Total revenue $ 82.5

$ 73.3

$ 246.1

$ 210.2 Operating income $ 12.2

$ 10.1

$ 36.3

$ 27.7 Operating margin

15.3%



14.6%



15.3%



14.1%























Engagements billed (b)

1,296



1,284



2,809



2,677 New engagements (c)

652



730



2,154



2,173























EBITDA and Adjusted Results (d): Third Quarter

Year to Date

FY'19

FY'18

FY'19

FY'18 EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA $ 13.1

$ 10.8

$ 38.8

$ 30.1 EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin

16.4%



15.6%



16.3%



15.3%

___________ (a) Numbers may not total due to rounding. (b) Represents professional search engagements billed. (c) Represents new professional search engagements opened in the respective period. (d) EBITDA, EBITDA margin, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are non-GAAP financial measures (see attached reconciliations).

Fee revenue was $79.6 million in Q3 FY'19, an increase of $10.5 million or 15% (19% increase on a constant currency basis), compared to the year-ago quarter. The higher fee revenue was driven by an increase in fee revenue in recruitment process outsourcing and professional search of $6.7 million and $3.8 million, respectively, in Q3 FY'19 compared to Q3 FY'18.

Operating income was $12.2 million in Q3 FY'19, an increase of $2.1 million compared to Q3 FY'18 operating income of $10.1 million. Operating margin was 15.3% in the current quarter compared to 14.6% in the year-ago quarter.

EBITDA was $13.1 million during Q3 FY'19, an increase of $2.3 million compared to Q3 FY'18. EBITDA margin was 16.4% in Q3 FY'19 and 15.6% in Q3 FY'18.

Outlook

Assuming worldwide economic conditions, financial markets and foreign exchange rates remain steady, on a consolidated basis:

Q4 FY'19 fee revenue is expected to be in the range of $485 million and $505 million ; and

and ; and Q4 FY'19 diluted earnings per share is likely to range between $0.85 to $0.93 .

Earnings Conference Call Webcast

The earnings conference call will be held today at 4:30 PM (EST) and hosted by CEO Gary Burnison, CFO Robert Rozek and SVP Finance Gregg Kvochak. The conference call will be webcast and available online at ir.kornferry.com. We will also post to this section of our website slides, which will accompany our webcast, and other important information, and encourage you to review the information that we make available on our website.

About Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm. We help clients synchronize strategy and talent to drive superior performance. We work with organizations to design their structures, roles, and responsibilities. We help them hire the right people to bring their strategy to life. And we advise them on how to reward, develop, and motivate their people. Visit kornferry.com for more information.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release and our conference call that relate to future results and events ("forward-looking statements") are based on Korn Ferry's current expectations. These statements, which include words such as "believes", "expects" or "likely", include references to our outlook. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Actual results in future periods may differ materially from those currently expected or desired because of a number of risks and uncertainties that are beyond the control of Korn Ferry. The potential risks and uncertainties include those relating to competition, changes in demand for our services as a result of automation, the dependence on attracting and retaining qualified and experienced consultants, our ability to maintain relationships with customers and suppliers and retain key employees, maintaining our brand name and professional reputation, potential legal liability and regulatory developments, the portability of client relationships, global and local political or economic developments in or affecting countries where we have operations, currency fluctuations in our international operations, risks related to growth, alignment of our cost structure, restrictions imposed by off-limits agreements, reliance on information processing systems, cyber security vulnerabilities, changes to data security, data privacy and data protection laws, limited protection of our intellectual property, our ability to enhance and develop new technology, our ability to develop new products and services, the utilization and billing rates of our consultants, our ability to successfully recover from a disaster or other business continuity problems, changes in our accounting estimates/assumptions, tax accounting effects of the Tax Act, impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets, deferred tax assets that we may not be able to use, seasonality, risks related to the integration of recently acquired businesses, employment liability risk, the impact of rebranding on the Company's products and services; the expected timing of the Company's rebranding and entity rationalization plan, and the costs of the Company's rebranding and entity rationalization plan. For a detailed description of risks and uncertainties that could cause differences, please refer to Korn Ferry's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Korn Ferry disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release contains financial information calculated other than in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP"). In particular, it includes:

Adjusted net income attributable to Korn Ferry , adjusted to exclude the tax impact associated with the Tax Act, restructuring (recoveries) charges, net, integration/acquisition costs and tradename write-offs, net of income tax effect ;

Adjusted basic and diluted earnings per share, adjusted to exclude the tax impact associated with the Tax Act, restructuring (recoveries) charges, net, integration/acquisition costs and tradename write-offs, net of income tax effect; and in the case of the outlook section, also adjusted for tax rate impact;

Constant currency (calculated using a quarterly average) amounts that represent the outcome that would have resulted had exchange rates in the reported period been the same as those in effect in the comparable prior year period;

EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and EBITDA margin; and

Adjusted EBITDA, which is EBITDA further adjusted to exclude restructuring (recoveries) charges, net, integration/acquisition costs and tradename write-offs, and Adjusted EBITDA margin.

This non-GAAP disclosure has limitations as an analytical tool, should not be viewed as a substitute for financial information determined in accordance with GAAP, and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of the Company's results as reported under GAAP, nor is it necessarily comparable to non-GAAP performance measures that may be presented by other companies.

Management believes the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures in this press release provides meaningful supplemental information regarding Korn Ferry's performance by excluding certain charges and other items that may not be indicative of Korn Ferry's ongoing operating results. These non-GAAP financial measures are performance measures and are not indicative of the liquidity of Korn Ferry. These charges and other items represent 1) the tax impact associated with the Tax Act, 2) costs we incurred to acquire and integrate a portion of our Advisory business, 3) charges we incurred or recoveries we received to restructure the combined company due to the acquisition of a portion of our Advisory business, and 4) tradename write-offs associated with the rebranding plan initiated by Korn Ferry. The use of non-GAAP financial measures facilitates comparisons to Korn Ferry's historical performance. Korn Ferry includes non-GAAP financial measures because management believes they are useful to investors in allowing for greater transparency with respect to supplemental information used by management in its evaluation of Korn Ferry's ongoing operations and financial and operational decision-making. Management further believes that EBITDA is useful to investors because it is frequently used by investors and other interested parties to measure operating performance among companies with different capital structures, effective tax rates and tax attributes and capitalized asset values, all of which can vary substantially from company to company. In the case of constant currency amounts, management believes the presentation of such information provides useful supplemental information regarding Korn Ferry's performance as excluding the impact of exchange rate changes on Korn Ferry's financial performance allows investors to make more meaningful period-to-period comparisons of the Company's operating results, to better identify operating trends that may otherwise be masked or distorted by exchange rate changes and to perform related trend analysis, and provides a higher degree of transparency of information used by management in its evaluation of Korn Ferry's ongoing operations and financial and operational decision-making.

[Tables attached]

KORN FERRY AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (in thousands, except per share amounts)





Three Months Ended

Nine Months Ended



January 31,

January 31,



2019

2018

2019

2018



(unaudited) Fee revenue

$ 474,504

$ 447,581

$ 1,435,277

$ 1,291,853 Reimbursed out-of-pocket engagement expenses



11,668



13,189



36,050



39,302 Total revenue



486,172



460,770



1,471,327



1,331,155

























Compensation and benefits



321,835



309,527



979,575



882,102 General and administrative expenses



61,179



58,516



287,641



175,380 Reimbursed expenses



11,668



13,189



36,050



39,302 Cost of services



17,066



17,467



55,020



53,163 Depreciation and amortization



11,741



12,225



34,490



36,881 Restructuring charges, net



-



-



-



78 Total operating expenses



423,489



410,924



1,392,776



1,186,906

























Operating income



62,683



49,846



78,551



144,249 Other income, net



2,401



7,510



2,292



14,311 Interest expense, net



(4,282)



(3,710)



(12,722)



(11,014) Income before provision for income taxes and equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries



60,802



53,646



68,121



147,546 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries



62



97



191



187 Income tax provision



15,420



26,316



14,143



54,145 Net income



45,444



27,427



54,169



93,588 Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest



(480)



(180)



(1,782)



(969) Net income attributable to Korn Ferry

$ 44,964

$ 27,247

$ 52,387

$ 92,619

























Earnings per common share attributable to Korn Ferry:























Basic

$ 0.81

$ 0.49

$ 0.94

$ 1.65 Diluted

$ 0.80

$ 0.48

$ 0.92

$ 1.63

























Weighted-average common shares outstanding:























Basic



55,233



55,252



55,358



55,479 Diluted



55,753



55,997



56,181



56,236

























Cash dividends declared per share:

$ 0.10

$ 0.10

$ 0.30

$ 0.30

KORN FERRY AND SUBSIDIARIES FINANCIAL SUMMARY BY SEGMENT (in thousands) (unaudited)





Three Months Ended January 31,

Nine Months Ended January 31,



2019





2018

% Change

2019





2018

% Change









































Fee revenue:





































Executive Search:







































North America $ 114,215





$ 102,716

11.2%

$ 342,175





$ 296,093

15.6%

EMEA

45,940







46,782

(1.8%)



137,522







128,249

7.2%

Asia Pacific

25,687







24,493

4.9%



79,918







71,983

11.0%

Latin America

7,554







6,425

17.6%



24,339







22,048

10.4% Total Executive Search

193,396







180,416

7.2%



583,954







518,373

12.7% Advisory

201,502







198,056

1.7%



613,966







577,462

6.3% RPO and Professional Search

79,606







69,109

15.2%



237,357







196,018

21.1%

Total fee revenue

474,504







447,581

6.0%



1,435,277







1,291,853

11.1% Reimbursed out-of-pocket engagement expenses

11,668







13,189

(11.5%)



36,050







39,302

(8.3%)

Total revenue $ 486,172





$ 460,770

5.5%

$ 1,471,327





$ 1,331,155

10.5%







































Operating income (loss):





Margin







Margin







Margin







Margin Executive Search:







































North America $ 30,596

26.8%

$ 21,408

20.8%

$ 92,438

27.0%

$ 66,517

22.5%

EMEA

7,525

16.4%



7,329

15.7%



21,813

15.9%



20,349

15.9%

Asia Pacific

5,929

23.1%



5,289

21.6%



19,337

24.2%



12,811

17.8%

Latin America

653

8.6%



408

6.4%



3,460

14.2%



2,961

13.4% Total Executive Search

44,703

23.1%



34,434

19.1%



137,048

23.5%



102,638

19.8% Advisory

29,279

14.5%



27,057

13.7%



(24,374)

(4.0%)



72,459

12.5% RPO and Professional Search

12,176

15.3%



10,064

14.6%



36,337

15.3%



27,727

14.1% Corporate

(23,475)







(21,709)







(70,460)







(58,575)





Total operating income $ 62,683

13.2%

$ 49,846

11.1%

$ 78,551

5.5%

$ 144,249

11.2%

KORN FERRY AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (in thousands, except per share amounts)









January 31,

April 30,

2019

2018

(unaudited)





ASSETS









Cash and cash equivalents $ 489,509

$ 520,848 Marketable securities

6,414



14,293 Receivables due from clients, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $22,046 and $17,845 at January 31, 2019 and April 30, 2018, respectively

421,812



384,996 Income taxes and other receivables

29,502



29,089 Unearned compensation

41,739



37,333 Prepaid expenses and other assets

28,106



27,700 Total current assets

1,017,082



1,014,259











Marketable securities, non-current

126,950



122,792 Property and equipment, net

130,266



119,901 Cash surrender value of company owned life insurance policies, net of loans

124,607



120,087 Deferred income taxes

40,530



25,520 Goodwill

580,021



584,222 Intangible assets, net

86,308



203,216 Unearned compensation, non-current

88,986



78,295 Investments and other assets

22,803



19,622 Total assets $ 2,217,553

$ 2,287,914











LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY









Accounts payable $ 31,151

$ 35,196 Income taxes payable

24,287



23,034 Compensation and benefits payable

266,925



304,980 Current portion of long-term debt

-



24,911 Other accrued liabilities

163,997



170,339 Total current liabilities

486,360



558,460











Deferred compensation and other retirement plans

240,856



227,729 Long-term debt

222,662



211,311 Deferred tax liabilities

1,434



9,105 Other liabilities

59,201



61,694 Total liabilities

1,010,513



1,068,299











Stockholders' equity









Common stock: $0.01 par value, 150,000 shares authorized, 72,440 and 71,631 shares issued at January 31, 2019 and April 30, 2018, respectively, and 56,420 and 56,517 shares outstanding at January 31, 2019 and April 30, 2018, respectively

651,683



683,942 Retained earnings

616,282



572,800 Accumulated other comprehensive loss, net

(63,271)



(40,135) Total Korn Ferry stockholders' equity

1,204,694



1,216,607 Noncontrolling interest

2,346



3,008 Total stockholders' equity

1,207,040



1,219,615 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 2,217,553

$ 2,287,914

KORN FERRY AND SUBSIDIARIES RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES (in thousands, except per share amounts)













Three Months Ended

Nine Months Ended



January 31,

January 31,



2019

2018

2019

2018



(unaudited) Operating income

$ 62,683

$ 49,846

$ 78,551

$ 144,249 Depreciation and amortization



11,741



12,225



34,490



36,881 Other income, net



2,401



7,510



2,292



14,311 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries, net



62



97



191



187 EBITDA



76,887



69,678



115,524



195,628 Restructuring charges, net (1)



-



-



-



78 Integration/acquisition costs (2)



804



1,673



6,746



6,654 Tradename write-offs (3)



-



-



106,555



- Adjusted EBITDA

$ 77,691

$ 71,351

$ 228,825

$ 202,360

























Operating margin



13.2%



11.1%



5.5%



11.2% Depreciation and amortization



2.5%



2.7%



2.4%



2.9% Other income, net



0.5%



1.7%



0.1%



1.1% Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries, net



-



-



-



- EBITDA margin



16.2%



15.5%



8.0%



15.2% Restructuring charges, net (1)



-



-



-



- Integration/acquisition costs (2)



0.2%



0.4%



0.5%



0.5% Tradename write-offs (3)



-



-



7.4%



- Adjusted EBITDA margin



16.4%



15.9%



15.9%



15.7%

























Net income attributable to Korn Ferry

$ 44,964

$ 27,247

$ 52,387

$ 92,619 Restructuring charges, net (1)



-



-



-



78 Integration/acquisition costs (2)



804



1,673



6,746



6,654 Tradename write-offs (3)



-



-



106,555



- Tax effect on the above items (4)



31



(368)



(27,496)



(1,773) Tax effect on impact of new tax law (5)



-



11,345



-



11,345 Adjusted net income attributable to Korn Ferry

$ 45,799

$ 39,897

$ 138,192

$ 108,923

























Basic earnings per common share

$ 0.81

$ 0.49

$ 0.94

$ 1.65 Restructuring charges, net (1)



-



-



-



- Integration/acquisition costs (2)



0.01



0.03



0.12



0.12 Tradename write-offs (3)



-



-



1.92



- Tax effect on the above items (4)



-



(0.01)



(0.51)



(0.03) Tax effect on impact of new tax law (5)



-



0.20



-



0.20 Adjusted basic earnings per share

$ 0.82

$ 0.71

$ 2.47

$ 1.94

























Diluted earnings per common share

$ 0.80

$ 0.48

$ 0.92

$ 1.63 Restructuring charges, net (1)



-



-



-



- Integration/acquisition costs (2)



0.01



0.03



0.12



0.12 Tradename write-offs (3)



-



-



1.89



- Tax effect on the above items (4)



-



(0.01)



(0.50)



(0.03) Tax effect on impact of new tax law (5)



-



0.20



-



0.20 Adjusted diluted earnings per share

$ 0.81

$ 0.70

$ 2.43

$ 1.92



Explanation of Non-GAAP Adjustments (1) Restructuring plan implemented in order to rationalize our cost structure by eliminating redundant positions and consolidating office space due to a previous acquisition that took place on December 1, 2015. (2) Costs associated with completing a previous acquisition, such as legal and professional fees, retention awards and the on-going integration expenses to combine the companies. (3) The Company is implementing a plan to go to market under a single, master brand architecture to simplify the Company's organizational structure by eliminating and/or consolidating certain legal entities and implementing a rebranding of the Company to offer the Company's current products and services using the "Korn Ferry" name, branding and trademarks. As a result of this the Company was required under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles to record a one-time, non-cash tradename write-offs. (4) Tax effect on restructuring charges, net, integration/acquisition costs and tradename write-offs. (5) The tax impact due to provisional tax charge recorded as a result of the Tax Act.

KORN FERRY AND SUBSIDIARIES RECONCILIATION OF NET INCOME AND OPERATING INCOME (GAAP) TO EBITDA AND ADJUSTED EBITDA (NON-GAAP) (in thousands) (unaudited)



Three Months Ended January 31, 2019

Executive Search

























North

America

EMEA

Asia

Pacific

Latin

America

Subtotal

Advisory

RPO and

Professional

Search

Corporate

Consolidated





















































Fee revenue $ 114,215

$ 45,940

$ 25,687

$ 7,554

$ 193,396

$ 201,502

$ 79,606

$ -

$ 474,504 Total revenue $ 117,725

$ 46,639

$ 26,046

$ 7,573

$ 197,983

$ 205,677

$ 82,512

$ -

$ 486,172





















































Net income attributable to Korn Ferry















































$ 44,964 Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest

















































480 Other income, net

















































(2,401) Interest expense, net

















































4,282 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries, net

















































(62) Income tax provision

















































15,420 Operating income (loss) $ 30,596

$ 7,525

$ 5,929

$ 653

$ 44,703

$ 29,279

$ 12,176

$ (23,475)



62,683 Depreciation and amortization

970



402



338



97



1,807



7,307



803



1,824



11,741 Other income (loss), net

1,564



26



(134)



133



1,589



786



77



(51)



2,401 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries, net

62



-



-



-



62



-



-



-



62 EBITDA

33,192



7,953



6,133



883



48,161



37,372



13,056



(21,702)



76,887 EBITDA margin

29.1%



17.3%



23.9%



11.7%



24.9%



18.5%



16.4%









16.2%





















































Integration/acquisition costs

-



-



-



-



-



777



-



27



804 Adjusted EBITDA $ 33,192

$ 7,953

$ 6,133

$ 883

$ 48,161

$ 38,149

$ 13,056

$ (21,675)

$ 77,691 Adjusted EBITDA margin

29.1%



17.3%



23.9%



11.7%



24.9%



18.9%



16.4%









16.4%























































Three Months Ended January 31, 2018

Executive Search

























North

America

EMEA

Asia

Pacific

Latin

America

Subtotal

Advisory

RPO and Professional Search

Corporate

Consolidated





















































Fee revenue $ 102,716

$ 46,782

$ 24,493

$ 6,425

$ 180,416

$ 198,056

$ 69,109

$ -

$ 447,581 Total revenue $ 106,332

$ 47,763

$ 24,942

$ 6,456

$ 185,493

$ 201,961

$ 73,316

$ -

$ 460,770





















































Net income attributable to Korn Ferry















































$ 27,247 Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest

















































180 Other income, net

















































(7,510) Interest expense, net

















































3,710 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries, net

















































(97) Income tax provision

















































26,316 Operating income (loss) $ 21,408

$ 7,329

$ 5,289

$ 408

$ 34,434

$ 27,057

$ 10,064

$ (21,709)



49,846 Depreciation and amortization

990



458



361



113



1,922



7,882



733



1,688



12,225 Other income, net

585



37



185



40



847



768



2



5,893



7,510 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries, net

97



-



-



-



97



-



-



-



97 EBITDA

23,080



7,824



5,835



561



37,300



35,707



10,799



(14,128)



69,678 EBITDA margin

22.5%



16.7%



23.8%



8.7%



20.7%



18.0%



15.6%









15.5%





















































Integration/acquisition costs

-



-



-



-



-



1,593



-



80



1,673 Adjusted EBITDA $ 23,080

$ 7,824

$ 5,835

$ 561

$ 37,300

$ 37,300

$ 10,799

$ (14,048)

$ 71,351 Adjusted EBITDA margin

22.5%



16.7%



23.8%



8.7%



20.7%



18.8%



15.6%









15.9%





KORN FERRY AND SUBSIDIARIES RECONCILIATION OF NET INCOME AND OPERATING INCOME (GAAP) TO EBITDA AND ADJUSTED EBITDA (NON-GAAP) (in thousands) (unaudited)



Nine Months Ended January 31, 2019

Executive Search

























North

America

EMEA

Asia

Pacific

Latin

America

Subtotal

Advisory

RPO and

Professional

Search

Corporate

Consolidated





















































Fee revenue $ 342,175

$ 137,522

$ 79,918

$ 24,339

$ 583,954

$ 613,966

$ 237,357

$ -

$ 1,435,277 Total revenue $ 352,804

$ 140,024

$ 80,817

$ 24,388

$ 598,033

$ 627,243

$ 246,051

$ -

$ 1,471,327





















































Net income attributable to Korn Ferry















































$ 52,387 Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest

















































1,782 Other income, net

















































(2,292) Interest expense, net

















































12,722 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries, net

















































(191) Income tax provision

















































14,143 Operating income (loss) $ 92,438

$ 21,813

$ 19,337

$ 3,460

$ 137,048

$ (24,374)

$ 36,337

$ (70,460)



78,551 Depreciation and amortization

2,917



867



1,083



305



5,172



21,702



2,325



5,291



34,490 Other income (loss), net

955



388



118



263



1,724



1,621



103



(1,156)



2,292 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries, net

191



-



-



-



191



-



-



-



191 EBITDA

96,501



23,068



20,538



4,028



144,135



(1,051)



38,765



(66,325)



115,524 EBITDA margin

28.2%



16.8%



25.7%



16.5%



24.7%



(0.2%)



16.3%









8.0%





















































Integration/acquisition costs

-



-



-



-



-



6,559



-



187



6,746 Tradename write-offs

-



-



-



-



-



106,555



-



-



106,555 Adjusted EBITDA $ 96,501

$ 23,068

$ 20,538

$ 4,028

$ 144,135

$ 112,063

$ 38,765

$ (66,138)

$ 228,825 Adjusted EBITDA margin

28.2%



16.8%



25.7%



16.5%



24.7%



18.3%



16.3%









15.9%













































































































Nine Months Ended January 31, 2018

Executive Search

























North

America

EMEA

Asia

Pacific

Latin

America

Subtotal

Advisory

RPO and Professional Search

Corporate

Consolidated





















































Fee revenue $ 296,093

$ 128,249

$ 71,983

$ 22,048

$ 518,373

$ 577,462

$ 196,018

$ -

$ 1,291,853 Total revenue $ 305,866

$ 130,894

$ 73,009

$ 22,114

$ 531,883

$ 589,093

$ 210,179

$ -

$ 1,331,155





















































Net income attributable to Korn Ferry















































$ 92,619 Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest

















































969 Other income, net

















































(14,311) Interest expense, net

















































11,014 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries, net

















































(187) Income tax provision

















































54,145 Operating income (loss) $ 66,517

$ 20,349

$ 12,811

$ 2,961

$ 102,638

$ 72,459

$ 27,727

$ (58,575)



144,249 Depreciation and amortization

2,923



1,345



1,052



331



5,651



24,110



2,313



4,807



36,881 Other income, net

1,157



136



384



99



1,776



1,654



10



10,871



14,311 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries, net

187



-



-



-



187



-



-



-



187 EBITDA

70,784



21,830



14,247



3,391



110,252



98,223



30,050



(42,897)



195,628 EBITDA margin

23.9%



17.0%



19.8%



15.4%



21.3%



17.0%



15.3%









15.2%





















































Restructuring charges (recoveries), net

-



-



313



-



313



(241)



6



-



78 Integration/acquisition costs

-



-



-



-



-



6,455



-



199



6,654 Adjusted EBITDA $ 70,784

$ 21,830

$ 14,560

$ 3,391

$ 110,565

$ 104,437

$ 30,056

$ (42,698)

$ 202,360 Adjusted EBITDA margin

23.9%



17.0%



20.2%



15.4%



21.3%



18.1%



15.3%









15.7%

SOURCE Korn Ferry

Related Links

http://www.kornferry.com


VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- MYM Nutraceuticals Inc., (CSE: MYM) (CSE: MYM.CN) (OTCBB: MYMMF) ("MYM" or "The Company") is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement with Elite Ventures Group ("Elite") to grow 120 acres of CBD-rich hemp in Nevada, USA.

Under the agreement, MYM will fund Elite with $500,000 USD in exchange for the rights to 50% of CBD rich hemp grown on a 120 acre parcel of land in Nevada. In consideration for the investment, Elite will provide all the necessary capital and consumable supplies, plant, grow and harvest the hemp. If requested, Elite will also arrange for the processing and sale of the biomass at no less favourable terms than those found in the Elite supply agreements.

Based on Elite's previous success in cultivating 120 acres of similarly situated land in August 2018, the estimated production of hemp from the MYM parcel of land is 120,000 pounds per harvest with a CBD level of 10%-19%. This represents potential revenue of over $26 million, of which MYM is entitled to 50% less processing and sales fees.

"We are delighted to have entered into this agreement with Elite Ventures," said Howard Steinberg, CEO of MYM. "This agreement signals an important step forward in our plan to be a significant cultivator of hemp to satisfy the increasing demand of biomass and CBD worldwide."

About MYM Nutraceuticals Inc.

MYM Nutraceuticals Inc. is an innovative company focused on the global growth of cannabis and hemp. To ensure a strong presence and growth potential within the industry, MYM is actively looking to acquire complementary businesses and assets in the technology, nutraceuticals and CBD sectors. MYM shares trade in Canada, Germany and the USA under the following symbols: (CSE:MYM) (OTC:MYMMF) (FRA:0MY) (DEU:0MY) (MUN:0MY) (STU:0MY).

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Howard Steinberg, CEO

MYM Nutraceuticals Inc.

www.mym.ca

Keep up to date with MYM on our social media channels:

Twitter: @mymnutra

Facebook: @mymnutra

Instagram: @mymnutra

This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to revise or update such statements. For a description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis and other disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulators, which are posted on www.sedar.com.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE or CNSX Markets), nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the CSE), accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities law and may not be offered or sold in the "United States", as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act, unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration requirements is available.

Investor Relations

Billy Casselman

+1-778-522-2261

[email protected]

SOURCE MYM Nutraceuticals Inc.

Related Links

http://www.mym.ca


OSAKA, Japan, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Santen") announced on March 8 that as part of its initiatives to increase public awareness of glaucoma, it will sponsor activities to be conducted worldwide during World Glaucoma Week (hereinafter "WGW") from March 10 to 16, 2019.

(Image: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/img/201902283729-O1-R3TSUEqy)

To encourage early detection and continued treatment of glaucoma, the World Glaucoma Association has defined one week in March every year as WGW, and holds various events and awareness-raising activities around the world during the week.

During WGW this March, Santen plans to conduct various awareness-raising activities focusing on the disease. In Asia, for example, Santen will assist local glaucoma-related academic societies and medical institutions supporting the activities of those societies in conducting PR activities, holding public lectures, and performing free screenings to increase public awareness of glaucoma. In Europe, Santen will cooperate with the World Glaucoma Association in running a quiz-based glaucoma awareness-raising campaign and issuing media releases. In Japan, Santen will use digital signage to deliver information about "Light-up in Green!" events held by the Japan Glaucoma Society to foster public awareness of the disease, with the aim of helping this activity spread further. As a global initiative to encourage glaucoma awareness among many more people, Santen offers a glaucoma-focused mobile app simulating vision field narrowing that is easy to use for everyone, from patients to medical professionals. In addition, Santen also conducts activities targeting its employees; the company held glaucoma study meetings for employees in Japan in February, and during WGW will conduct an activity whereby all employees will share information about glaucoma with people close to them, including family members and friends.

Santen has also made sustained efforts to raise public awareness of glaucoma. In November 2018, it hosted an event targeting glaucoma patients to emphasize the importance of continued glaucoma treatment.

Early detection and early start of treatment can prevent glaucoma patients from losing their eyesight over the course of their lifetime. It is important to share with as many people as possible information about glaucoma, including the fact that early detection and treatment are essential for reducing the number of glaucoma patients who lose their eyesight.

Santen also continues to regard WGW as a period for employees to learn about glaucoma on their initiative and impart their learning to their loved ones, including family members and friends. The company will devote further efforts to encouraging all employees, including those working around the world, to deepen their understanding of glaucoma.

About Santen

As a specialized company dedicated to ophthalmology, Santen carries out research, development, marketing and sales of pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter products and medical devices. Santen is the market leader for prescription ophthalmic pharmaceuticals in Japan and its products now reach patients in over 60 countries. With scientific knowledge and organizational capabilities nurtured over a nearly 130-year history, Santen provides products and services to contribute to the well-being of patients, their loved ones and consequently to society. For more information, please visit Santen's website (www.santen.com).

SOURCE Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.santen.com


NEW YORK, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Though there has been some positive progress regarding the state of women in top corporate jobs in the United States and Canada, findings from the 14th Annual Rosenzweig Report indicate that women continue to be held back.

Indeed, the latest edition of this benchmark analysis of Canada's 100 largest public traded companies reveals an increase of only two women CEOs since the talent acquisition firm published its first report in 2006.

The 14th Annual Rosenzweig Report Shows a Continued Gap.

This marginal growth is further reflected in the slight increase in the number of female Named Executive Officers in this latest report. Of 532 NEOs in Canada, 53 are women, representing 9.96 per cent of all executive positions. The year prior, this number stood at 9.44 per cent.

"Progress can only be described as incremental. To put it in perspective, at this rate it will be at least 2040 before women will occupy even 30 per cent of these jobs. Today's millennial generation will be approaching retirement," said Jay Rosenzweig, Managing Partner of Rosenzweig & Company.

In fact, in some measures, the report reveals that women's roles in some sectors is retreating, as only three female CEOs remain among Canada's top 100 companies  half the number of the previous year. No female CEOs are found among Canada's 25 largest corporations. Surveys of Fortune 500 companies in the United States have also noted a decline in the number of women CEOs.

Rosenzweig noted that these latest findings illustrate the need for more proactive measures for promoting leadership opportunities for women among Canada's top businesses.

"While I have never advocated strict quotas as a solution, I do think corporate boards need to step up their efforts to expand the pipeline of CEO role-ready women as part of their succession planning mandate," he said.

"Our surveys over the years have shown that women at Canadian companies are disproportionately concentrated in non-operational roles. While these are often mission critical functions such as human resources, marketing, communications, finance and legal, they are rarely a launch pad to the top job because they lack profit and loss responsibility."

This lack of profit and loss responsibility subsequently limits women's ability to be prepared for these executive roles, a significant factor in Canadian companies' poor diversity. "Senior corporate management  still predominately male  must actively encourage women to take on these roles and mentor them," Rosenzweig added. "We know women can be successful, if given the opportunity."

Other business leaders are quick to agree with these sentiments. "It's time for companies to realize that a corporate ladder designed entirely to suit men with stay-at-home-wives is not a ladder, it's a strainer that will lose you a lot of great talent," said Nathalie Molina Nino, founder of Brava Investments and author of Leapfrog, The New Revolution For Women Entrepreneurs.

Many are quick to cite the work of the Rosenzweig Report as a crucial element of helping companies better understand the need for a change that is already affecting many different aspects of society.

"Women are the backbone of a progressive society, and yet it is so hard to be a woman, especially a woman of color. While it is difficult, we see women stepping up everywhere," said Van Jones, social entrepreneur, CNN political contributor and CEO of the REFORM Alliance.

"The 116th Congress, for example, recently made history with the number of women and African-American and Hispanic members sworn into office. Women should not have to fight this fight alone. We all have our blind spots, and we need each other. Jay Rosenzweig deserves kudos for tracking the number of women in leadership roles for the past 14 years, and for his actions and advocacy for change. Only through measurement and education can we hold one another to account, and spur greater action to affect the positive transformational change."

Added Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International and host of Yahoo News Through Her Eyes, added, "Beyond political will, it takes moral and conscious will to make gender equality a tangible change in every company. Thanks to the important work of the Rosenzweig Report, all those who care about gender equality will keep at it until real change is felt."

Indeed, as Rosenzweig noted, inspiring business leaders and other stakeholders to take direct action as a result of the report's findings is the ultimate goal of the annual study. "Recruiting for gender or other forms of diversity demands a substantially more intensive approach on the part of the search firm, focused on identifying and targeting pools of candidates far beyond self-selecting networks (which often, consciously or unconsciously, tend to hire individuals much like themselves)."

Other studies have consistently backed up the value of prioritizing women in NEO positions. For example, a Harvard Business Review study of 22,000 global firms found that companies with women in 30 per cent of NEO positions experienced an average 15 per cent profitability increase in comparison to companies without any women in C-suite positions.

The benefits of enhancing women's roles in corporate leadership are clear, though as the Rosenzweig Report reveals, there is still much work to be done. As Deepak Chopra, M.D., F.A.C.P., and founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing noted, "Only when women are on equal parity with men in all spheres of activity we will be ready for a more peaceful, just, sustainable and healthy world."

Highlights from the 2019 report:

Of the 532 Named Executive Officers (NEOs), 479 are men and 53 are women. The net number of women increased by two.

In percentage terms, women now hold 9.96% of these important jobs compared to 9.44% a year ago and only 4.62% in 2006, when the study began.

Of the 100 largest companies, 42 have at least one woman in a top leadership role, up 2 from the previous year.

In the 25 largest companies, there are now 11 female NEOs, unchanged from the previous year.

In the corner office, there are three women CEOs, down three from the previous year.

The full report can be found HERE.

Rosenzweig & Company is a global leader in talent acquisition, executive search, and emerging tech advisory.

Press contact:

Jordan French

[email protected]

SOURCE Rosenzweig & Company

Related Links

https://www.rosenzweigco.com


HORSHAM, Pa., March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Afilias, the world's second largest domain name registry, today announced that it has promoted Keith Lubsen to the newly created position of Chief Business Officer, responsible for general oversight of finance (including profitability), mergers and acquisitions, and legal aspects of the company, all areas he has been involved with for some time. Keith will report to the Afilias Board of Directors. Some of Afilias' President and CEO Hal Lubsen's, key previous direct reports will now report to Keith. Keith's appointment recognizes his successful efforts to increase the company's growth, profitability and shareholder value.



"Keith's deep level of involvement and ability to work well with the management team, gives me absolute certainty in his capability to guide Afilias successfully into the future," said Hal Lubsen.

Keith Lubsen has over 20 years of business experience, including over 15 years in the domain name industry. He joined Afilias in 2007 and was previously the Vice President of Business Development responsible for both internal and external oversight functions that helped the company achieve its business goals.



Keith was formerly at the domain name registrar Domain Bank, which was one of Afilias' founding members and shareholders, where he oversaw marketing and business development. He played an instrumental role in the sale of Domain Bank to Dotster in 2005 and helped manage the transition. Prior to Domain Bank, Keith was a successful real estate land developer in Utah.

About Afilias

Afilias is the world's second largest domain registry, with over 20 million domain names under management in over 200 top level domains. Afilias powers a wide variety of top-level domains, including TLDs for countries, cities, brands, communities and generic terms. Afilias' specialized technology makes Internet addresses more accessible and useful through a broad range of applications, including Internet domain registry services , managed DNS , and mobile Web services . Afilias, Inc. is based near Philadelphia  offices are also located in Dublin Ireland, Toronto Canada, New Delhi India, Melbourne Australia, Vista California, and Beijing China. Afilias holds a Guinness World Records title for the "Largest migration of an internet top-level domain in a single transition" for its migration of the .au top-level domain in 2018. For more information on Afilias services please visit www.afilias.info .

For More Information:

Afilias

Alan Wallace, Director of Corporate Communications

[email protected]

+1.425.691.8757 cell

SOURCE Afilias

Related Links

https://www.afilias.info


SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- McClatchy today named Aminda Marques Gonzalez as Editor and Publisher of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald, and expanded the leadership role of Sara Glines as Regional Publisher of McClatchy's Carolinas and East regions. They will begin in their new roles on April 15.

Aminda Marques Gonzalez named editor and publisher of Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald Sara Glines expands responsibilities as regional publisher to lead McClatchys East and Carolinas regions

Marques and Glines succeed Alexandra Villoch who is stepping down after 19 years at the Miami Herald Media Company to lead the Miami-based Baptist Health Foundation of South Florida as CEO. Villoch was also Regional Publisher for McClatchy's East region comprising seven local media companies.

"We're grateful to Alex for her strong leadership, dedication to local journalism and passion for Miami over nearly two decades," said Craig Forman, McClatchy's President and CEO. "At the same time, we could not be happier to appoint Mindy and Sara to these important leadership positions, continuing the high-impact essential journalism that resulted in two Pulitzer Prizes at the Herald and other prestigious awards in recent years."

Marques, currently Executive Editor of the Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald and the Bradenton Herald, grew up in South Florida and began her journalism career in 1986 as an intern at the Miami Herald. She was recently inducted into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame. During her tenure, the Miami Herald has won two Pulitzer Prizes and has been a finalist three times.

Most recently, she led the Miami Herald's coverage of youth gun violence in observance of the anniversary of the Parkland tragedy in an unprecedented collaboration with the non-profit The Trace and McClatchy newsrooms across the country.

Marques is a 1986 graduate of the University of Florida, where she was honored in 2012 as an Alumni of Distinction by the College of Journalism and Communications. She serves on the board of the Pulitzer Prizes, is past president of the Florida Society of News Editors and is an advisory board member for the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for Women in Communication at Florida International University. Marques will continue in the role of Executive Editor of the Bradenton Herald.

"We're thrilled to promote Mindy to this new position," said Forman. "Her distinguished accomplishments in journalism, her integrity and courageous leadership combine to make her one of the true stars of McClatchy," added Forman. "With her strong and dedicated team in Miami, we know she will continue her record of achievement."

"Growing up, my singular goal was to work at my hometown paper and I am excited to begin this new chapter leading the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald. I am so grateful for the support of all of my colleagues in Miami as I make this transition," commented Marques Gonzalez. "I've been lucky to have worked closely with Alex Villoch over the past five years and am grateful for her leadership and mentorship."

Sara Glines has led the McClatchy's Carolina region for the past three years. She is a veteran of the publishing industry and a leader in transformational change. Adding the East region to her current portfolio in the Carolinas, Glines will be responsible for 17 McClatchy media companies. Marques will report to Glines in her capacity as Publisher of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald.

Glines came to Raleigh after years as regional publisher with both Gannett and Digital First Media. Glines was Editor-in-Chief of NJ.com, one of the first major digital-only news sites. She also led the digital transition of various national magazines, including Car & Driver, Woman's Day, and Elle. She has been an industry leader in moving newspapers and magazines into the digital world to meet the ever-changing needs of the audience and the businesses they serve.

"Sara has a proven track record of solid business performance, strategic insight and boundless entrepreneurial energy to take on this expanded role," said Forman. "She has taken on several enterprise-wide strategic initiatives and delivered every time; we're thrilled that she is taking on a larger leadership role at McClatchy."

"My top priority is to continue to make sure we are meeting the needs of our readers, digital audiences, and our business partners today and long into the future," said Glines. "What we do is important and I am committed to making sure that the Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald and all of McClatchy's news operations are doing work that makes a difference in our communities.

About McClatchy

McClatchy operates 30 media companies in 14 states, providing each of its communities with strong independent local journalism in the public interest and advertising services in a wide array of digital and print formats. McClatchy publishes iconic local brands including the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, The Charlotte Observer, The (Raleigh) News & Observer, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. McClatchy is headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., and listed on the New York Stock Exchange American under the symbol MNI. #ReadLocal

SOURCE McClatchy

Related Links

http://www.mcclatchy.com


"The FORMERA offers a versatile, on trend design that uniquely blends clean, modern lines with practical functionality," states Tim Maicher, Director of Marketing for BLANCO.

"We really pushed the envelope to engineer FORMERA with a softer R30 radius corner, so that this rectangular sink offers a highly desirable design with an easy-to-clean, smooth finish."

BLANCO FORMERA 33" XL Super Single Bowl

33" x 18", 9" deep, outside cabinet: 36"

MSRP: $550

BLANCO FORMERA 28" Large Single Bowl

28" x 18", 9" deep, outside cabinet: 33"

MSRP: $520

BLANCO FORMERA 25" Medium Single Bowl

25" x 18", 9" deep, outside cabinet: 30"

MSRP: $340

BLANCO FORMERA Equal Double Bowl

33" x 18", 9" deep, outside cabinet: 36"

MSRP: $460

BLANCO FORMERA 1-3/4 Bowl

33" x 18", 9" deep, outside cabinet: 36"

MSRP: $485

BLANCO FORMERA Bar Bowl

16" x 18", 8" deep, outside cabinet: 21"

MSRP: $295

To download full press release and images, click here.

About BLANCO

For three generations, BLANCO has quietly and passionately elevated the standards for luxury sinks, faucets and decorative accessories. Proud of its European heritage and award-winning German engineering, BLANCO is steadfastly committed to their tradition of high quality, innovative design and unsurpassed service since 1925. Dedicated to quality without compromise, every sink is closely inspected many times before it receives the BLANCO name.

A remarkable history of firsts emphasizes BLANCO's zeal for innovation including the first stainless steel sink to achieve a 10mm radius  STEELART  the first to market colored hard composite sinks in North America  BLANCO's pioneering MicroEdge technology with its virtual flushmount edge  and the first apron front sink in composite granite. BLANCO is also featuring a patented new sink material called DURINOX that is twice the hardness of stainless steel with a warm, velvety finish that is scratch and fingerprint resistant.

BLANCO has a long tradition of environmental stewardship and their production facilities operate to strict DIN EN ISO 14001 environmental performance standards.

BLANCO is the brand of choice in the luxury sink and faucet category for its unparalleled quality and an inspirational breadth of design possibilities. From the precision craftsmanship and artistic creativity of its STEELART brand to the stunning durability of its ground breaking SILGRANIT collection, BLANCO has proven that the sink is far more than a mere functional element in the kitchen.

Since 1994, BLANCO has been a member of the Caux Round Table (CRT), an international network of principled business leaders and companies working to promote a moral capitalism.

SOURCE BLANCO
TORONTO, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - BMO Financial Group (TSX:BMO) (NYSE:BMO) today announced that it has filed its 2019 Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders and Management Proxy Circular with applicable securities regulators and has mailed it to common shareholders of Bank of Montreal. The document is available on the bank's website at https://www.bmo.com/home/about/banking/investor-relations/annual-general-meeting, as well as on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

BMO's Annual Meeting of Shareholders will be held at the BMO Institute for Learning, in Toronto, on Tuesday, April 2, 2019, at 9:30 a.m. EDT. The Management Proxy Circular contains key information for shareholders regarding the meeting and the items to be voted on, which are the election of directors, the appointment of auditors, the advisory vote on the bank's approach to executive compensation, as well as two shareholders proposals. A detailed description of these items is contained in the circular.

Fiscal 2018 was a good year for the bank, with Adjusted Net Income of $6 billion, an increase of 9% from the previous year. The dividends declared grew by 6.2%. At the end of fiscal 2018, Total Shareholder Return exceeded both the three- and five-year peer-group average, as well as the S&P/TSX composite index.

Underscoring BMO's commitment to values-based leadership and ethical business practices, the bank has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, as one of the 2019 World's Most Ethical Companies. BMO has been named to the index for two years in a row.

Earlier this year, BMO was named to the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI). The index measures gender equality across internal company statistics, employee policies, external community support and engagement, and gender-conscious product offerings.

About BMO Financial Group

Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial services provider - the 8th largest bank, by assets, in North America. With total assets of $807 billion as of January 31, 2019, and a team of diverse and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.

SOURCE BMO Financial Group

Related Links

www.bmo.com


LOS ANGELES, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Los Angeles-based CBD industry mavericks CBDfx announced the highly anticipated release of their new Disposable CBD Vape Pens with Terpenes. This line of flavored pens is notable, as they represent an increasing belief within the industry -- as well as from customers -- that terpenes are an essential part of the CBD experience.

CBD Terpene Vape Pens

The inclusion of terpenes in this new line of vape pens comes as part of increased research surrounding the "entourage effect." In essence, this scientific phenomenon describes a situation where the main active ingredient (in this case, CBD) is made more potent and effective when taken alongside the original plant's other molecular components. This effect appears to be especially pronounced in regards to terpenes - the oily, aromatic compounds that give plants like cannabis their unique smell.

The Journal of Pharmacology published a major study in 2011 underlining the apparent medicinally valuable effects of terpenes when consumed by humans. These effects ranged from protective to active, depending on the specific terpene used.

By taking a flagship item like the disposable CBD vape pen and infusing it with terpenes, CBDfx once again proves their commitment to delivering the most research-based, cutting-edge CBD products on the market.

The new CBD + Terpenes Vape Pens come in four exciting new flavors:

Gelato - A smooth and creamy treat that's not too sweet;

A smooth and creamy treat that's not too sweet; OG Kush - A citrusy, herbaceous flavor that's a bonafide classic;

A citrusy, herbaceous flavor that's a bonafide classic; Pineapple Express - A fruity, juicy experience with just the right amount of tang;

A fruity, juicy experience with just the right amount of tang; Platinum Rose - A subtle, classy flavor that stays delicate from start to finish.

About CBDfx: CBDfx is a Southern California-based company focused on providing high quality, full-spectrum CBD to customers in a wide variety of formats. The company began with a full range of CBD vape products, and has since expanded to include edible CBD products as well. The company's mission is to offer the purest and most effective organic/ethically sourced CBD options on the market today.

Media contact:

Christian Graversen

CBDfx

www.cbdfx.com

(855) 228-9953

[email protected]

SOURCE CBDfx

Related Links

http://www.cbdfx.com


FORT MYERS, Fla., March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Chico's FAS, Inc. (NYSE: CHS) is today celebrating International Women's Day with special events that promote and celebrate women empowerment and the Company's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. The Company also announced that in recognition of its accomplishments in these areas, Chico's FAS been named one of the 2019 NAFE Top Companies for Executive Women by the National Association for Female Executives in partnership with Working Mother.

"As a company founded by a woman, female empowerment is at the core of Chico's FAS and an area of action and achievement across our organization," said Shelley Broader, CEO and President of the Company. "We are committed to continuing to foster a diverse, inclusive environment that celebrates individuality, influences our culture and innovates the way we work, serve our customers and create value."

International Women's Day

In celebration of International Women's Day, at its corporate headquarters in Fort Myers, FL:

Chico's FAS is hosting a yoga session for associates. In addition to bringing a morning of wellness, the event symbolizes the importance of gender balance within organizations and reinforces the International Women's Day 2019 campaign theme, #BalanceforBetter.

Chico's FAS associates will be encouraged to showcase diversity within the organization by reproducing the Company's logo using a mosaic of individual employee photographs.

Seven women-owned food trucks will be on-site during lunchtime with menus designed around women empowerment themes.

Chico's FAS produced a video featuring Company leaders and associates and the positive impact they have had on individual women through their charitable activities and community outreach. The video is being shared internally to employees as well as externally on the Company's social media channels.

Each of the Company's three brands will also be engaging with customers through social media and via email with messages that recognize the importance of International Women's Day and the confidence, spirit and power of women.

2019 NAFE Top Companies for Executive Women

On March 5, 2019, Chico's FAS was named one of the top 70 companies for executive women by NAFE and Working Mother. This is the second consecutive year that Chico's FAS has received this award.

The recognition acknowledges U.S. corporations where there is a strong focus on best practices that demonstrate effectiveness in moving women to senior ranks, including mentoring, sponsorship, involvement in employee-resource groups and leadership-development training. It also highlights company benefits, including flexibility, corporate culture, and CEO involvement in advancing women. The NAFE Top 70 Companies is featured in the April/May issue of Working Mother.

With an executive team and Board of Directors composed of 57% and 56% women, respectively, Chico's FAS is consistently recognized for its commitment to diversity and attracting, retaining and supporting female talent.

Ms. Broader stated, "We are pleased to receive this recognition, which reflects our belief that diversity and inclusion are important corporate values. Women drive 70% of consumer purchases, through a combination of influence and buying power. It only makes good business sense to have decisions effecting those products in their hands, too."

"In 2019, a woman's journey up the corporate ladder still differs from a man's, but the Top Companies stand out in their application of remedies," says NAFE President Dr. Betty Spence. "They are models of how to progressively move women into senior roles, as reflected in their strong representation in the leadership ranks."

"The 2019 NAFE Top Companies continue to tell a progressive story about what organizations are doing to move women up into executive positions," says Subha V. Barry, President of Working Mother Media. "While the results are encouraging, there is still much work to do. There are still too few women serving as CEOs, managing large asset portfolios, and seated on boards of directors, but the NAFE Top Companies are paving the way for the advancement of women."

In addition to the 2019 and 2018 NAFE/Working Mother recognitions, Chico's FAS has received numerous other awards and acknowledgements for its excellence in female leadership:

Ranked #1 by Ledbetter, Most Female Representation in Senior Management Positions, (2017)

20/20 Women on Boards, Board of Directors Gender Diversity Recognition, (2012-2017)

Women Executive Leadership Florida Corporate Salute Elevate Award, Advancement of Gender Diversity in the Boardroom and C-suite, (2017)

Women's Forum of New York Corporate Champion, Accelerating Gender Parity in the Boardroom, (2017)

Empowerment of women has also been at the heart of the Company's corporate giving mission, Chico's FAS Cares. Through brand and corporate cause-related initiatives, Chico's FAS continues to pursue corporate citizenship partnerships that share the Company's focus on supporting women's health, well-being and empowerment. Examples include Chico's FAS's national and local Fort Myers, Florida partnerships with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity International, Living Beyond Breast Cancer, the American Red Cross and I Support the Girls.

ABOUT CHICO'S FAS, INC.

The Company, through its brands  Chico's, White House Black Market and Soma is a leading omnichannel specialty retailer of women's private branded, sophisticated, casual-to-dressy clothing, intimates and complementary accessories.

As of February 2, 2019, the Company operated 1,418 stores in the U.S. and Canada and sold merchandise through 83 international franchise locations in Mexico. The Company's merchandise is also available at www.chicos.com, www.chicosofftherack.com, www.whbm.com and www.soma.com as well as through third party channels. For more detailed information on the Company, please go to our corporate website at www.chicosfas.com. The information on our corporate website is not, and shall not be deemed to be, a part of this press release or incorporated into our federal securities law filings.

SOURCE Chico's FAS, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.chicosfas.com


SHANGHAI, March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- China-based high-tech firm P&P Biotech has been awarded a patent from the US for its hydrophilic, electro-spinning composite scaffold biomaterial and related methods and applications that are used in tissue regeneration, signalizing that China has moved into a leadership position in terms of biotechnology development. The patent, covering its platform technology rather than a single biological product or technology, opens up a market with an economic potential estimated at some 100 billion yuan (roughly USD 15 billion). The technology is projected to benefit the global community following commercialization.

Chinese biotechnology force taking shape

It is rare for an original biomaterial technology developed in China, and especially one that can serve as a platform technology, to be granted a US patent. China's medical biomaterial industry, despite a late start, the uneven development and the amount of catching up that had to take place in order to establish a position in the global market, expanded to approximately 200 billion yuan in 2017, on the back of an annual growth rate of nearly 15%. The country was facing a situation where about 70% of the mature products in the category were imported. To change the status quo, China has enhanced support it offers to technical innovation and promoted efforts that have led to breakthroughs in the technology.

In the early 1990s, He Hongbin, current CEO of P&P Biotech and one of the earliest researchers committed to biomaterial in China, studied tissue engineering and biology surgery in Austria and Japan, countries where substantial progress in the field had already been made. In 1995, he successfully developed the world's first first-generation animal-derived fibrin sealant for human use. He then returned to China to start up a business with the goal of commercializing what he had developed.

In 2002, he founded P&P Biotech. He and his R&D team have developed a number of high-tech products including fast-dissolution fibrin sealant (brand name: Chuangxufeng) and soft-tissue inductive biomaterial (biologic surgery graft and regenerative artificial ligaments). Given the gaps between China and the world's developed countries in terms of biotechnology, Dr. He, a veteran with years of experience in surgery, set as a mission the reduction of patient suffering by applying more advanced biotechnologies in operating rooms. Decades of efforts have brought him one step closer to the goal of making China one of the world's biotechnology leaders. P&P Biotech's new patent for its platform technology demonstrates not only the firm's prowess at innovation, but also China's strength when it comes to biomedical technology. It took P&P Biotech 15 years to obtain a patent from the US patent office, including some 6 years spent on the application process and the wait for approval.

The patented platform technology developed by a Chinese firm is the first of its kind worldwide as well as the first to have been approved by the U.S. Patent Office. The resulting materials has induced tissue regeneration in animal experiments, including skeletal muscle, blood vessels and Achilles tendon, among other membranous, tubular and cord-like forms. They can regenerate corresponding tissue structures in different parts of the body and restore the normal functions of human tissue.

The first high-strength product has now been approved for clinical use while several other products are in clinical trials. Another important product used for rotator cuffs has shown extraordinary efficacy in animal experiments, marking another milestone in P&P Biotech's clinical transformation.

Opening up a 100 billion yuan market

The fast-growing modern biotechnology sector has demonstrated significant progress and achieved a series of important breakthroughs, and is accelerating its real-life applications. In this strategic field, governments, especially those in developed countries, have established national strategies to quickly seize a leadership position and accelerate the revolutionary development of the industry. The US, Germany, Japan and South Korea have put in place relevant bioeconomy policies to promote in-country research and development.

According to Dr. He, the biotechnology market is huge and promising, and China has also been vigorously promoting the development of the sector over the past two years.

Obtaining the US patent for this platform technology means P&P Biotech can successfully meet world-class biomedicine standards, compete with international counterparts and enter the global biomaterial regeneration market. At the same time, the company has established a strong presence, opening up a 100 billion yuan market. Dr. He said that P&P Biotech will continue its efforts to expand into international markets and seek global cooperation in a move to advance this patented platform technology for the benefit of more people.

Taking a deep dive into the core technologies vertically while expanding applications horizontally

Biotech companies need both talent and technology to maintain their core competitiveness. Most of the core team members of P&P Biotech have international experience, having returned to China following stints in countries that have advanced the most in the field after studying abroad. In addition, P&P Biotech has established in-depth collaborations with senior experts, including Zhang Xingdong, an internationally renowned expert on regenerative biomaterials at the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and elected president of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE)*.

Dr. He said "So many years of research and technical achievements combined with our talented teams are our core competitiveness. A world leading brand needs to build a professional core competition barrier."

Last year, P&P Biotech scored several important clinical achievements in China. Its R&D project of high-strength implant systems that can induce ligament regeneration was selected at China's National Key R&D Program in 2018, while another key project, "Research and Development of Biomedical Materials and Tissue and Organ Repair Replacement", received financial support from the central government. The registered clinical trial for a surgical biological patch to be used in tandem with medical devices won the support of science and technology projects in the field of biomedicine associated with the 2018 Shanghai Action Plan for Scientific and Technological Innovation. In addition, the company has been approved by the National Medical Products Administration for the registration of a composite hernia patch, another innovative product.

Dr. He summed up by explaining that the next phase of growth for the company will focus on building a patent portfolio, saying "we will constantly strengthen the core competitiveness and form a 'patent family' based on the platform. We will rely not on a single patent, but rather on a number of patents, and apply for patents in each category in order to establish diversification across several fields. The strategy around the patent portfolio is key. Previously, it was all about a single product, but now it's about protecting an entire technology with a patent and developing a business-oriented platform technology. Looking ahead, the overall growth and direction of the company will be focused on clinical achievements that lead to the transformation of technologies, based on developing core technologies vertically and expanding the resultant applications horizontally."

Furthermore, Dr. He emphasized the importance of patent protection after obtaining the patent. In his view, China should strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, in order set a scenario where products "made-in-China" can compete fairly, find a place in international markets as Chinese firms more generally move towards a broader market.

*The International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE) is a body that brings together national and multi-national groups dedicated to the advancement of biomaterials, surgical implants, prosthetics, artificial organs, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. It currently includes members from Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, South America and the United States of America.

SOURCE P&P Biotech
"Bess the Book Bus is one of our favorite initiatives," said Larry Elizondo, CITGO general manager community relations, CSR and legislative affairs. "We've been partners for more than 10 years now, but seeing the look on children's faces as they explore the bus and leave with an armful of books will never get old. Sparking a love of reading is one of the most important ways to foster a spirit of education amongst our youth, which is a core pillar of the CITGO corporate social responsibility program."

Bess the Book Bus will be making several stops in Louisiana and Texas in early 2019. The bus began its tour at Hunter Head Start Wonderland of Play in Lake Charles on Feb. 28, before moving on to Vincent Settlement Elementary School in Sulphur, La. On March 1, the bus stopped at E.K. Key Elementary and Maplewood Elementary in Sulphur. Bess continued to multiple locations in Houston, Texas in March, stopping at Rees Elementary School and Petrosky Elementary School on March 6. On March 7, the bus visited Burrus Elementary School and Kennedy Elementary School. Both are in the Houston Independent School District and the Independence Heights community where CITGO is focusing its post-Harvey work, and on March 8, the bus visited Bear Boulevard School and Lion Lane School.

Based in Tampa, Fla., Bess the Book Bus was founded in 2002 to help build home libraries and increase book ownership among underserved children across the country. The program has grown to become one of the nation's most innovative and well-respected literacy initiatives, making trips each year with the help of a network of volunteers.

About Bess the Book Bus

Bess the Book Bus is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization committed to extending literacy across the country. Run by Jennifer Frances of Tampa, Fla., the organization visits local communities across the country in a specially designed "book bus," coordinating reading events and providing children with free, new books for them to keep. For more information, visit www.bessthebookbus.org.

About CITGO

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, CITGO Petroleum Corporation is a recognized leader in the refining industry with a well-known brand. CITGO operates three refineries located in Corpus Christi, Texas; Lake Charles, La.; and Lemont, Ill., and wholly and/or jointly owns 48 terminals, nine pipelines and three lubricants blending and packaging plants. With approximately 3,400 employees and a combined crude capacity of approximately 749,000 barrels-per-day (bpd), CITGO is ranked as the fifth-largest, and one of the most complex independent refiners in the United States. CITGO transports and markets transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products and supplies a network of approximately 5,000 locally owned and operated branded retail outlets in 30 states and the District of Columbia. CITGO Petroleum Corporation is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc. For more information, visit www.CITGO.com.

SOURCE CITGO

Related Links

https://www.citgo.com


HOUSTON, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Crossmark Global Investments, Inc. (Crossmark), is pleased to announce that Refinitiv has awarded the Crossmark Steward Global Equity Income Fund (ticker: SGISX) (the "Fund") with Lipper Fund Awards for Best Global Equity Income Fund in the three-year, five-year, and ten-year performance categories for the period ending 11/30/2018. This marks the fifth consecutive year in which the Fund has received a Lipper Award, and the first time the Fund has been recognized with the 10-year performance award.

The Fund seeks income and long-term capital appreciation by investing in domestic and international dividend paying stocks. It applies a proprietary set of values screens that allow investors to avoid owning securities in companies that choose to profit from businesses that are at odds with values-based investing. The Steward Screens exclude companies materially involved with alcohol, tobacco, gambling, life ethics, and mature content. The same screening process is applied to the five other values-based equity and fixed income funds that together constitute Crossmark's Steward Fund suite.

The Fund was selected for the three-year, five-year and ten-year awards from over 34, 30 and 18 other equity funds, respectively. Of the other funds in the category, the Crossmark Steward Global Equity Income Fund is the only one to screen for socially responsible issues (SRI), highlighting that investors do not need to sacrifice investment returns to align with their values.

"We are pleased to be recognized for our investment strategy with such a prestigious award for the fifth year in a row, validating our investment process and commitment to our clients' socially responsible investment values," said John Wolf, Managing Director of Equity Investments. "It is an honor to also receive the 10-year performance award as the Fund enters its 10-year track record this year."

The U.S. Lipper Fund Award recognized the Crossmark Steward Global Equity Income Fund (the fund) on March 7th, 2019, for delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to its peers for the 3-year, 5-year and 10-year period. The Fund achieved the highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return (Effective Return Net of Expenses) over an individual time period in its classification. In making their evaluations, Lipper reviews funds based on at least 36 months of performance history at of the end of the calendar year of the respective evaluation year. More information about the methodology can be viewed here.

To learn more about Crossmark, visit the firm's website, crossmarkglobal.com, or LinkedIn page.

About Crossmark Global Investments

Crossmark Global Investments is an innovative investment management firm. The firm provides a full suite of investment management solutions to institutional investors, financial advisors and the clients they serve. Crossmark has a multi-decade legacy of specializing in values-based investing strategies for clients. Founded in 1987, the firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Additionally, Crossmark is the exclusive manager of the Crossmark Steward Funds, a fund family that applies an overarching values-based screening methodology to its suite of equity and fixed income funds.

The Crossmark Steward Funds are offered by Crossmark Distributors, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Crossmark Distributors is an affiliate of Crossmark Global Investments, the Steward Funds' investment adviser. Crossmark Global Investments is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission that provides discretionary investment management services to mutual funds, institutions, and individual clients.

Before investing in a mutual fund, you should read the fund's prospectus carefully and consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. The prospectus contains this and other information about the fund. A copy of the Steward Funds' prospectus may be obtained free of charge by calling Crossmark Distributors at 800-262-6631.

Past performance does not guarantee future results.

From Lipper Fund Awards from Refinitiv, 2019 Refinitiv. All rights reserved. Used under license.

Media Contact:

Sara Guenoun/Stephanie Dressler

(646) 808-3514

http://www.crossmarkglobal.com

SOURCE Crossmark Global Investments

Related Links

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TORONTO, March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Denison Mines Corp. ("Denison" or the "Company") (DML: TSX, DNN: NYSE American) filed its Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion & Analysis ("MD&A") for the year ended December 31, 2018. Both documents can be found on the Company's website at www.denisonmines.com or on SEDAR (at www.sedar.com) and EDGAR (at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml). The highlights provided below are derived from these documents and should be read in conjunction with them. All amounts in this release are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated. View PDF Version

David Cates, President and CEO of Denison commented, "The previous twelve months have been transformational for Denison  highlighted by the completion of a Pre-Feasibility Study, or PFS, on the Company's 90% owned Wheeler River project. The PFS pairs the world's lowest cost mining method for uranium, in-situ recovery, with the world's highest-grade undeveloped uranium deposit, Phoenix, to produce a robust financial result. Initial capital costs have been reduced significantly, and the project's pre-tax NPV is up ~175% - leading to unanimous approval from the Company's Board of Directors to initiate the Environmental Assessment and Feasibility Study processes in 2019.

Our team is energized with the success of the Wheeler River PFS and focused on building the next uranium mine in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin region. We are motivated by the prospect of Phoenix being the lowest cost uranium mining operation in the world  with an estimated operating cost of US$3.33/lb U 3 O 8 . At this level, we are expecting to produce a near 90% operating margin based on current spot prices. While we anticipate the uranium market improving, the low-cost nature of this project provides us with the ability to justify advancement today, despite the current uranium price environment. Similarly we have the flexibility advance the project without needing to build a book of long-term uranium contracts. We can maintain full exposure to rising prices and enter into contracts when we consider price conditions to be attractive enough to justify doing so. The ability to move forward under these conditions is quite unique for our industry and is expected to deliver our shareholders superior leverage to an anticipated recovery in both the spot and long-term price of uranium in the coming years."

PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS

Wheeler River indicated mineral resources increased by 88% to 132 million pounds of U 3 O 8

On January 31, 2018, Denison announced an 88% increase in the indicated mineral resources estimated for the Wheeler River project ('Wheeler River'), located in northern Saskatchewan. The result was attributable to an increase in the estimated resources at the Gryphon deposit, which is estimated to contain, above a cut-off grade of 0.2% U 3 O 8 , 61.9 million pounds of U 3 O 8 (1,643,000 tonnes at 1.71% U 3 O 8 ) in indicated mineral resources, plus 1.9 million pounds of U 3 O 8 (73,000 tonnes at 1.18% U 3 O 8 ) in inferred mineral resources. Together with the resources estimated for the Phoenix deposit, Wheeler River is now host to 132.1 million pounds of U 3 O 8 (1,809,000 tonnes at an average grade of 3.3%) in total indicated mineral resources. Following the resource update, Wheeler River retained and improved its standing as the largest undeveloped high-grade uranium project in the infrastructure rich eastern portion of the Athabasca Basin. The updated mineral resource estimate was used in the preparation of the Pre-Feasibility Study ('PFS').

Completion of the Wheeler River PFS with a project level pre-tax NPV of $1.31 billion and IRR of 38.7%

On October 30, 2018, Denison filed a technical report in accordance with NI 43-101 for Wheeler River. The PFS results are highlighted by the selection of the in-situ recovery ('ISR') mining method for the Phoenix deposit, resulting in an estimated average operating cost of $4.33 (USD$3.33) per pound U 3 O 8 . The project, on a 100% basis, is estimated to have mine production of 109.4 million pounds of U 3 O 8 over a 14-year mine life, with a base case pre-tax Net Present Value ('NPV') of $1.31 billion (8% discount rate), Internal Rate of Return ('IRR') of 38.7%, and initial pre-production capital expenditures of $322.5 million. The base-case NPV assumes uranium sales are made at UxC Consulting Company, LLC's annual estimated spot price (composite mid-point scenario in constant dollars) for mine production from the Phoenix deposit (from ~USD$29/lb U 3 O 8 to USD$45/lb U 3 O 8 ), and a fixed price for mine production from the Gryphon deposit (USD$50/lb U 3 O 8 ).

Upon the completion of the PFS and in accordance with NI 43-101, Denison has declared probable mineral reserves of 109.4 million pounds of U 3 O 8 (Phoenix 59.7 million pounds U 3 O 8 from 141,000 tonnes at 19.1% U 3 O 8 , and Gryphon 49.7 million pounds U 3 O 8 from 1,257,000 tonnes at 1.8% U 3 O 8 ), indicated mineral resources (inclusive of reserves) of 132.1 million pounds of U 3 O 8 , (1,809,000 tonnes at an average grade of 3.3%) and inferred mineral resources of 3.0 million pounds of U 3 O 8 (82,000 tonnes at an average grade of 1.7% U 3 O 8 ) for Wheeler River.

Acquisition of additional Wheeler River ownership interest

On October 26, 2018, Denison completed a transaction with Cameco Corporation ('Cameco') to increase its ownership interest in the Wheeler River Joint Venture ('WRJV') to 90%. Denison acquired Cameco's 23.92% interest in the project in exchange for the issuance of 24,615,000 common shares of Denison.

Approval of the advancement of Wheeler River

In December 2018, the Company's Board of Directors, and the WRJV approved the advancement of Wheeler River, following a detailed assessment of the robust economic results demonstrated in the PFS. In support of the decision to advance Wheeler River, the WRJV approved a $10.3 million budget for 2019 (100% basis), which is highlighted by plans to initiate the Environmental Assessment ('EA') process, the completion of ISR wellfield testing, as well as the initiation of metallurgical pilot plant testing and other engineering studies related to ISR mining.

Uranium mineralization discovered on regional explorations targets at Wheeler River and Waterbury Lake

High-grade unconformity uranium northeast of Wheeler River's Gryphon deposit

High-grade uranium drill intercepts were obtained at the sub-Athabasca unconformity to the northeast of the Gryphon deposit along the K North trend. Results were highlighted by assays from drill hole WR-704, which included 1.4% U 3 O 8 over 5.5 metres, located 600 metres northeast of Gryphon and drill hole WR-710D1, which included 1.1% U 3 O 8 over 3.0 metres, located one kilometre northeast of Gryphon. Further potential for mineralization exists, both at the unconformity and within the basement, between the 200 metre-spaced drill fences.

Unconformity uranium and base metals on the K West trend at Wheeler River

Highlights from the Company's summer 2018 diamond drilling program at Wheeler River include the discovery of unconformity-hosted mineralization on the K West trend, including 0.30% U 3 O 8 , 4.7% Co, 3.7% Ni and 0.55% Cu over one metre in drill hole WR-733D1, and 1.2% Cu and 0.49% Ni over six metres in drill hole WR-733D2. The K West trend is a priority target area located approximately 500 metres west of the parallel K North trend, which hosts the Gryphon deposit. The results are encouraging and further drill testing is warranted to the south, where up to five kilometres of strike length remains untested along the K West trend.

Uranium mineralization on the GB Trend at Waterbury Lake

Basement-hosted uranium mineralization was intersected in two drill holes on the Waterbury Lake property (65.92% Denison owned), at the interpreted intersection of the regional Midwest structure with the GB trend, approximately three kilometres northeast of the project's Huskie deposit. Mineralized assay intervals included 0.43% U 3 O 8 over 1.0 metre (including 0.73% U 3 O 8 over 0.5 metre) in drill hole WAT18-478 and 0.45% U 3 O 8 over 0.5 metre, as well as 0.31% U 3 O 8 over 0.5 metre and 0.20% U 3 O 8 over 0.5 metre in drill hole WAT18-479. The results validated the Company's geological concept that uranium mineralization occurs at the intersection of the interpreted regional Midwest structure with cross-cutting, graphite-bearing, structural corridors. Follow-up is warranted along the GB trend and at several other exploration targets related to the interpreted regional Midwest structure.

Maiden mineral resource estimate completed for the Huskie deposit at Waterbury Lake

Denison completed a maiden mineral resource estimate for the Huskie uranium deposit ('Huskie') on the Waterbury Lake property. The mineral resource estimate was completed in accordance with NI 43-101 and CIM Definitions (2014), and was reviewed and audited by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. ('SRK'), with a resulting estimate of 5.7 million pounds of U 3 O 8 (above a cut-off grade of 0.1% U 3 O 8 ) based on 268,000 tonnes of mineralization at an average grade of 0.96% U 3 O 8 . Since its discovery in 2017, Denison has completed 28 drill holes at Huskie at a spacing of approximately 50 metres x 50 metres to define a basement hosted uranium deposit over a strike length of approximately 210 metres and dip length of up to 215 metres. The deposit has been interpreted to include three parallel, stacked lenses of mineralization (Huskie 1, Huskie 2 and Huskie 3) which vary in true thickness between approximately one and seven metres. The effective date of the resource estimate is October 17, 2018.

Increase in mineral resources estimated for Midwest

On March 27, 2018, Denison reported an updated mineral resource estimate for the Midwest Main and Midwest A deposits located on the Midwest property (25.17% Denison owned), which is operated by Orano Canada Inc. ('Orano Canada'). Inferred mineral resources for the property increased by 13.5 million pounds of U 3 O 8 and currently total 18.2 million pounds of U 3 O 8 (846,000 tonnes at 0.98% U 3 O 8 ) above a cut-off grade of 0.1% U 3 O 8 . Indicated mineral resources for the property increased by 2.1 million pounds of U 3 O 8 and currently total 50.7 million pounds of U 3 O 8 (1,019,000 tonnes at 2.3% U 3 O 8 ) above a cut-off grade of 0.1% U 3 O 8 .

Obtained financing for the Company's 2019 Canadian exploration activities

In November 2018, the Company completed a $5,000,000 bought deal private placement equity offering for the issuance of 4,950,495 common shares on a flow-through basis at a price of $1.01 per share. The proceeds from the financing will be used to fund Canadian exploration activities through to the end of 2019.

SELECTED ANNUAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION











(in thousands, except for per share amounts)

Year ended December 31,

2018

Year ended December 31,

2017









Total revenues $ 15,550 $ 16,067 Net loss $ (30,077) $ (19,454) Basic and diluted loss per share $ (0.05) $ (0.04) (in thousands)

As at

December 31,

2018

As at

December 31,

2017









Financial Position:







Cash and cash equivalents $ 23,207 $ 3,636 Investments in debt instruments (GICs) $ - $ 37,807 Cash, cash equivalents and GICs $ 23,207 $ 41,443









Working capital $ 19,221 $ 34,756 Property, plant and equipment $ 258,291 $ 249,002 Total assets $ 312,187 $ 326,300 Total long-term liabilities(1) $ 77,455 $ 80,943

(1) Predominantly comprised of the non-current portion of deferred revenue, non-current reclamation obligations, and deferred income taxes.

RESULTS OF CONTINUING OPERATIONS

Revenues

During 2018, the McClean Lake mill processed 18 million pounds U 3 O 8 for the Cigar Lake Joint Venture ('CLJV'). The Company recorded toll milling revenue of $4,239,000 and related accretion expense of $3,314,000.

Revenue from the Company's Denison Environmental Services ('DES') division was $9,298,000 and revenue from the Company's management contract with Uranium Participation Corporation ('UPC') was $2,013,000 during 2018.

Effective January 1, 2018, upon adoption of IFRS 15, the accounting policy applicable to the Company's toll milling deferred revenue arrangement with Anglo Pacific Group PLC (the 'APG Transaction') has changed and the comparative period has been restated to reflect this change. Refer to the Company's consolidated financial statements and related notes for more details on the accounting for the APG Transaction related revenue.

Operating expenses

Operating expenses in the Canadian mining segment include depreciation, mining and other development costs, as well as adjustments, where applicable, to the estimates of future reclamation costs in relation to the companies mining properties. Operating expenses during 2018 were $7,528,000 including $3,264,000 of depreciation from the McClean Lake mill, which is associated with the processing and packaging of U 3 O 8 for the CLJV. Operating expenses include development and other operating costs related to the McClean Lake Joint Venture ('MLJV') of $3,893,000. These costs predominantly relate to the advancement of the Surface Access Borehole Resource Extraction ('SABRE') mining technology, as part of a multi-year test mining program operated by Orano Canada within the MLJV. During 2018, the SABRE team continued engineering and procurement activities related to development of the mining equipment and high pressure pumping systems. In addition, four access holes were drilled and cased from surface to the top of the McClean North deposit. The holes will allow for mining of the orebody during the latter stages of the test mining program, currently scheduled to occur in 2020.

Operating expenses at DES during 2018 totaled $8,211,000 and relate primarily to care and maintenance, and environmental consulting services provided to clients, and includes labour and other costs.

Exploration and evaluation

During 2018, the Company continued to focus on its highest priority projects in the Athabasca Basin region in Saskatchewan. Denison's share of exploration and evaluation expenditures in 2018 was $15,457,000. During 2018, the Company's exploration and evaluation expenditures decreased, primarily due to decreased exploration activity at Wheeler River, partially offset by increased evaluation activities at Wheeler River associated with the completion of the PFS in 2018, as well as increased activities at certain exploration pipeline properties, including the Hook Carter and Waterbury Lake projects.

Wheeler River project:

During 2018, Denison's share of evaluation costs at Wheeler River amounted to $3,130,000, which related to work on the PFS, as well as environmental activities. Denison's share of exploration costs at Wheeler River amounted to $6,883,000 during the winter and summer 2018 diamond drilling programs for a total of 39,555 metres in 60 drill holes.

The Company also continued with the community consultation and engagement process  ensuring the continuous engagement of stakeholders.

In 2018 the Company also continued environmental baseline data collection in key areas to better characterize the existing environment in the project area. This data will form the foundation of the environmental impact assessment for the project. The information will also be used in the design of various aspects of the project, including the location and layout of site infrastructure, the location for treated effluent discharge and fresh water intake, and the designs of water treatment plants, waste storage facilities, and other project activities interacting with the environment.

After careful consideration of the PFS economic results, risks and opportunities associated with permitting and concurrent advancement of project engineering activities, the Company has decided to submit a Project Description ('PD') and initiate the EA process in early 2019 for the Phoenix ISR project. The permitting process for the Gryphon project will commence at a later date, in order to meet the PFS plan for first production of Gryphon ore by 2030. This staggered approach is expected to simplify the EA and permitting process for the Phoenix project and reduce the capital required to advance the project to a definitive development decision. Following completion of the PFS, drafting of the PD was initiated with submission of the document to federal and provincial authorities occurring in February 2019.

Final assay results from the winter and summer exploration drilling programs were received in May 2018 and November 2018, respectively, and were reported in Denison's press release dated June 6, 2018 and Denison's third quarter MD&A dated November 12, 2018.

Further details regarding Wheeler River, including the estimated mineral reserves and resources and PFS, are provided in the Technical Report for the Wheeler River project titled 'Pre-feasibility Study Report for the Wheeler River Uranium Project, Saskatchewan, Canada' prepared by Mark Liskowich, P.Geo. of SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. with an effective date of September 24, 2018 ('PFS Technical Report'). A copy of this report is available on Denison's website and under its profile on each of SEDAR and EDGAR.

Exploration pipeline properties:

While spending on exploration pipeline projects has been reduced from prior year levels, exploration activities continue to deliver encouraging results generally warranting follow-up. During 2018, the Company managed or participated in five other drilling exploration programs (three operated by Denison) on the Company's pipeline properties, as reported in previous quarters, including Waterbury Lake and Hook-Carter.

General and administrative expenses

Total general and administrative expenses were $7,189,000 during 2018. These costs are mainly comprised of head office salaries and benefits (including stock based compensation), office costs in multiple locations, audit and regulatory costs, legal fees, investor relations expenses, and all other costs related to operating a public company with listings in Canada and the United States, as well as non-recurring project or legal costs.

Impairment of mineral properties

During 2018, the Company recognized an impairment expense of $6,086,000, due to the Company's current intention to let claims on three of its Canadian properties lapse in the normal course.

Other income and expenses

During 2018, the Company recognized a loss of $5,865,000 in other income/expense. The loss is predominantly due to losses on investments carried at fair value of $5,411,000. Gains and losses on investments carried at fair value are driven by the closing share price of the related investee at end of the quarter. The loss recorded in 2018 was mainly due to unfavourable mark-to-market adjustments on the Company's investments in common share purchase warrants of GoviEx Uranium Inc. and common shares of Skyharbour Resources Ltd.

Liquidity and capital resources

Cash and cash equivalents were $23,207,000 at December 31, 2018.

In January, 2019, the Company's $24 million credit facility was amended and extended to January 31, 2020. The credit facility is fully utilized for non-financial letters of credit in relation to future decommissioning and reclamation plans.

As at December 31, 2018, the Company has fulfilled its obligation to spend $14,499,790 on eligible Canadian exploration expenditures as a result of the issuance of the Tranche A and Tranche B flow-through shares in March 2017.

As at December 31, 2018, the Company has spent $253,000 towards its obligation to spend $5,000,000 on eligible Canadian exploration expenditures under the flow-through share financing completed in November 2018.

Outlook for 2019

Denison's plans for 2019 continue to focus on the activities necessary to position the Company as the next uranium producer in Canada. Accordingly, the 2019 budget is focused on the advancement of Wheeler River through the EA process and the necessary de-risking ahead of the completion of a feasibility study.







('000)

2019 BUDGET(2) Canada Mining Segment



Mineral Sales

970 Development & Operations

(3,640) Mineral Property Exploration & Evaluation

(12,350)



(15,020) DES Segment



DES Environmental Services

1,520



1,520 Corporate and Other Segment



UPC Management Services

1,920 Corporate Administration & Other

(5,170)



(3,250) Total(1)

$ (16,750)

Notes: 1. Only material operations shown. 2. The budget is prepared on a cash basis.

Mineral Sales

Denison's revenue from the sale of approximately 26,000 pounds of U 3 O 8 currently held in inventory, is budgeted to be $1.0 million.

Development & Operations

In 2019, Denison's share of operating and capital expenditures at the Orano Canada operated McClean Lake and Midwest joint ventures are budgeted to be $2.6 million. The large majority of the operating expenditures relate to McClean, including $2.3 million in respect of Denison's share of the 2019 budget for the advancement of the SABRE mining method. The 2019 SABRE program includes the engineering and fabrication of the mining equipment and pipe to be used during the test mining process. In order to accommodate the time required to complete this process, the test mining activities originally planned by Orano Canada for 2019 have been delayed until 2020.

The 2019 operating expenditures are also expected to include $800,000 for reclamation expenditures related to Denison's legacy mine sites in Elliot Lake.

Mineral Property Exploration & Evaluation

The budget for exploration and evaluation activities in 2019 is approximately $12.4 million (Denison's share). Including partner's share of expenses, the projected 2019 exploration and evaluation work program is budgeted to be $13.4 million. The exploration program is expected to include approximately 25,000 metres of drilling across three of Denison's high priority projects, namely Wheeler River, Waterbury Lake and Hook Carter. The majority of the exploration activity will occur during the winter months, resulting in higher levels of expenditures in the first quarter of 2019. See Denison's press release dated January 9, 2019 for further details regarding the 2019 exploration program.

Evaluation activities are expected to continue at Wheeler River throughout the year.

Wheeler River

A $10.3 million budget (100% basis) has been approved for Wheeler River. The budget includes exploration expenditures of $3.2 million and evaluation expenditures of $7.1 million. Denison's share of the budget is expected to be $9.3 million, consistent with the Company's 90% ownership interest.

Evaluation

The 2019 evaluation program includes the initiation of the EA process, as well as engineering studies and related programs required to advance the high-grade Phoenix deposit as an ISR mining operation. Engineering studies during 2019 will include ISR wellfield testing, the initiation of metallurgical IRS pilot plant testing, Gryphon optimization studies, and third party reviews of the Phoenix engineering plans. In addition, following the submission of a PD in February 2019 to the Federal and Provincial regulatory authorities, the multi-year EA, consultation, and permitting process for the project has been initiated.

Exploration

Following the completion of the PFS in the third quarter of 2018, and given the highly encouraging results from the proposed Phoenix ISR operation, the planned 2019 exploration drilling program will be focused on initial testing of regional targets at the sub-Athabasca unconformity, with the potential to discover additional ISR amenable uranium deposits. Potential for basement hosted uranium mineralization will not be ignored where opportunities also exist to evaluate prospective basement targets. High priority regional target areas planned for testing in 2019 include K West, M Zone, K South, Gryphon South, Q South (East), and O Zone.

The 2019 Wheeler River exploration budget includes approximately 13,500 metres of diamond drilling in 23 holes. Drilling activities commenced early January 2019 for the winter season, which will be followed by a results-driven summer drilling program  providing a staged-approach to target evaluation.

Exploration Pipeline Properties

Denison remains active on high potential exploration pipeline projects  each assessed to have the potential to deliver a meaningful discovery of new uranium mineralization.

Denison-Operated Projects

Exploration drill programs, to be operated by Denison, are planned on the Waterbury Lake and Hook Carter projects during the winter of 2019.

Waterbury Lake Project

The 2019 Waterbury Lake budget totals $1.8 million (100% basis) which includes approximately 7,300 metres of diamond drilling in 18 holes. The results-driven drilling program is expected to be completed during the winter season, and will be funded by Denison, as KWULP has elected to continue to dilute their interest in the project.

Hook Carter Project

A $1.4 million (100% basis) diamond drilling program, consisting of approximately 3,900 metres in 6 holes, is planned for winter 2019. The program is designed to complete the first phase of reconnaissance exploration along 7.5 kilometres of the Patterson Corridor. The 2019 exploration program will be funded 100% by Denison as part of its agreement to fund ALX's 20% share of the first $12 million in expenditures on the project (see Denison's Press Releases dated October 13 and November 7, 2016).

Non-Operated Projects

Denison has elected not to fund its 14.4% share of the $1.6 million diamond drilling program planned for the Waterfound River Project in 2019. The Waterfound River project is a joint venture between Orano Canada (53.98%), JCU (31.60%) and Denison (14.42%). Orano Canada is the operator of the project.

Management and Environmental Services

Net management fees for 2019 from the management services agreement with UPC are budgeted at $1.9 million. A portion of the management fees earned from UPC are based on UPC's net asset value, and are therefore dependent upon the uranium spot price. Denison's budget for 2019 assumes a uranium spot price of USD$28.75 per pound U 3 O 8 . Each USD$2 per pound U 3 O 8 increase is expected to translate into approximately $0.1 million in additional management fees to Denison. While the term of the management services agreement with UPC ends March 31, 2019, the 2019 budget has been prepared with the assumption that the contract will be renewed.

Revenue from operations at DES during 2019 is budgeted to be $10.0 million, with operating, overhead, and capital expenditures budgeted to be $8.5 million, resulting in a net contribution of approximately $1.5 million.

Corporate Administration and Other

Corporate administration expenses are budgeted to be $5.2 million in 2019 and include head office salaries and benefits, office costs, audit and regulatory costs, legal fees, investor relations expenses and all other costs related to operating a public company with listings in Canada and the United States.

In addition to corporate administration expenses in 2019, letter of credit and standby fees relating to the 2019 Credit Facility are expected to be approximately $400,000, which is expected to be more than offset by interest income on the Company's cash and short-term investments.

ABOUT DENISON

Denison Mines Corp. was formed under the laws of Ontario and is a reporting issuer in all Canadian provinces. Denison's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the 'TSX') under the symbol 'DML' and on the NYSE American (formerly NYSE MKT) exchange under the symbol 'DNN'.

Denison is a uranium exploration and development company with interests focused in the Athabasca Basin region of northern Saskatchewan, Canada. In addition to its 90% owned Wheeler River project, which hosts the high grade Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits, Denison's exploration portfolio consists of numerous projects covering approximately 320,000 hectares in the Athabasca Basin region. Denison's interests in Saskatchewan also include a 22.5% ownership interest in the MLJV, which includes several uranium deposits and the McClean Lake uranium mill, which is currently processing ore from the Cigar Lake mine under a toll milling agreement, plus a 25.17% interest in the Midwest deposits and a 65.92% interest in the J Zone and Huskie deposits on the Waterbury Lake property. The Midwest, J Zone and Huskie deposits are located within 20 kilometres of the McClean Lake mill.

Denison is engaged in mine decommissioning and environmental services through its DES division, which manages Denison's Elliot Lake reclamation projects and provides post-closure mine and maintenance services as well as environmental consulting services to a variety of industry and government clients.

Denison is also the manager of UPC, a publicly traded company listed on the TSX under the symbol 'U', which invests in uranium oxide in concentrates ('U 3 O 8 ') and uranium hexafluoride ('UF 6 ').

Qualified Persons

The disclosure regarding the estimated Mineral Reserves, 2016 PEA, PFS, and environmental and sustainability activities for the Wheeler River project was reviewed and approved by Peter Longo, P. Eng, MBA, PMP, Denison's Vice-President, and Project Development, who is a Qualified Person in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101.

The balance of the disclosure of scientific and technical information regarding Denison's properties in this news release, including estimated Mineral Resources, was prepared or approved by Dale Verran, MSc, P. Geo, Pr.Sci.Nat., the Company's Vice President, Exploration, a Qualified Person in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101. For a description of Denison's assay procedures, downhole gamma probe procedures, and the quality assurance program and quality control measures applied by Denison, please see Denison's Annual Information Form dated March 27, 2018 available under Denison's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and its Form 40-F available on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain information contained in this news release constitutes 'forward-looking information', within the meaning of the applicable United States and Canadian legislation concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Denison.

Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as 'plans', 'expects', 'budget', 'scheduled', 'estimates', 'forecasts', 'intends', 'anticipates', or 'believes', or the negatives and/or variations of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results 'may', 'could', 'would', 'might' or 'will be taken', 'occur', 'be achieved' or 'has the potential to'.

In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information pertaining to the following: the benefits to be derived from corporate transactions; the estimates of Denison's mineral reserves and mineral resources, including the new mineral resource estimate for the Huskie deposit; exploration, development and expansion plans and objectives, including the results of the PFS, and statements regarding anticipated budgets, fees and expenditures; expectations regarding Denison's joint venture ownership interests and the continuity of its agreements with its partners; expectations regarding adding to its mineral reserves and resources through acquisitions or exploration; expectations regarding the toll milling of Cigar Lake ores; expectations regarding revenues and expenditures from operations at DES; expectations regarding revenues from the UPC management contract; and the annual operating budget and capital expenditure programs, estimated exploration and development expenditures and reclamation costs and Denison's share of same. Statements relating to 'mineral reserves' or 'mineral resources' are deemed to be forward-looking information, as they involve the implied assessment, based on certain estimates and assumptions that the mineral reserves and mineral resources described can be profitably produced in the future.

Forward looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made, and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Denison to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Denison believes that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be accurate and results may differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information. For a discussion in respect of risks and other factors that could influence forward-looking events, please refer to the factors discussed in Denison's Annual Information Form dated March 27, 2018 under the heading 'Risk Factors'. These factors are not, and should not be construed as being exhaustive.

Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Any forward-looking information and the assumptions made with respect thereto speaks only as of the date of this news release. Denison does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information after the date of this news release to conform such information to actual results or to changes in Denison's expectations except as otherwise required by applicable legislation.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors Concerning Estimates of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources and Probable Mineral Reserves: This news release may use the terms 'measured', 'indicated' and 'inferred' mineral resources. United States investors are advised that while such terms have been prepared in accordance with the definition standards on mineral reserves of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum referred to in Canadian National Instrument 43-101 Mineral Disclosure Standards ("NI 43-101") and are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") does not recognize them. 'Inferred mineral resources' have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of measured or indicated mineral resources will ever be converted into mineral reserves. United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable. The estimates of mineral reserves in this news release have been prepared in accordance with NI 43-101. The definition of probable mineral reserves used in NI 43-101 differs from the definition used by the SEC in the SEC's Industry Guide 7. Under the requirements of the SEC, mineralization may not be classified as a "reserve" unless the determination has been made, pursuant to a "final" feasibility study that the mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the reserve determination is made. Denison has not prepared a feasibility study for the purposes of NI 43-101 or the requirements of the SEC. Accordingly, Denison's probable mineral reserves disclosure may not be comparable to information from U.S. companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC.

SOURCE Denison Mines Corp.

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LONDON, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Matt Buttery, Head of Digital, Sky Ireland, and Mervyn Neary, Head of Change and Improvement, Sky Ireland, will lead a capstone keynote discussion, Transformational Visions for the Future, at the 13th Annual Customer Contact Europe: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange.

To register for the 13th Annual Customer Contact Europe: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange or to view the event agenda, please visit: https://www.customercontacteu.com/

Co-presenters Buttery and Neary will close the event with this unique, interactive Q&A keynote in which participants will be encouraged to boldly imagine the digital capabilities that could help transform their organizations in the (near) future. Key questions posed will include:

How might you use conversational user interface and bots to improve the digital experience?

How might you build a dynamic support model which flexes to demand?

How might you remove friction from sign-in without compromising security?

Participants will leave with valuable digital ideas and scenarios for future planning.

Jan Smets, Director Retail and Customer Care, bpost, will lead an Executive Insights session, Contact Centre Measurements: Driving Operations, Following Hypes or Indicators of Value Generation? Drawing from his recent 2018 book, "Contact Center Management: From Complaint Department to Value Center," he will examine how contact centre executives typically report their activities to the C-level: Do they systematically reinforce the value-contributing force of the contact centre? Do customers really dislike contact centre or is that a cliche that doesn't stand up to reality? Key takeaways from his session will include:

The evolution in the role and positioning of the contact centre

Insights on how contact centres typically report their activities

A fresh perspective on the "big picture" attempting to settle the eternal debates on whether NPS, CSAT, ESAT or CES is the more appropriate measurement

The 13th Annual Customer Contact Europe: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange will offer contact centre and customer experience executives the opportunity to benefit from dynamic collaboration zones fostering disruptive and transformational thinking and numerous networking opportunities with customer contact industry peers.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to leverage the latest customer service thinking for competitive advantage. For additional information, please email [email protected] or contact Alan Bowman at +44 1865 398 644.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion

Contact:

Kristina Menzefricke

Corporate Communications  Europe

P: +44 (0) 208 996 8589

E: [email protected]

www.frost.com

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

Related Links

http://www.frost.com


JACKSON, Miss., March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- EastGroup Properties (NYSE: EGP) announced today that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $.72 per share payable on April 15, 2019 to shareholders of record of Common Stock on March 29, 2019. This dividend is the 157th consecutive quarterly distribution to EastGroup's shareholders and represents an annualized dividend rate of $2.88 per share. EastGroup has increased or maintained its dividend for 26 consecutive years. The Company has increased it 23 years over that period, including increases in each of the last seven years.

EastGroup Properties, Inc. is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in major Sunbelt markets throughout the United States with an emphasis in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina. The Company's strategy for growth is based on ownership of premier distribution facilities generally clustered near major transportation features in supply constrained submarkets. EastGroup's portfolio, including development projects and value-add acquisitions in lease-up and under construction, currently includes approximately 42 million square feet.

EastGroup Properties, Inc. press releases are available at www.eastgroup.net.

SOURCE EastGroup Properties

Related Links

http://www.eastgroup.net


WASHINGTON, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- DKT International, one of the largest private providers of family planning products and services in the developing world, is proud to announce its newest expansion in Anglophone West Africa from its Ghana office into Sierra Leone and Liberia  with new offices, country managers, and programs tailored to the needs of those countries.

Mario E. Flores Alvarez, DKT Country Director in Ghana, explains that what has been accomplished with great determination in Ghana can also be accomplished in Sierra Leone and Liberia, both nations with a dire need for family planning after years of setbacks by war and the Ebola pandemic. "DKT's objective in Ghana since establishing our program in 2010 has been to raise the contraceptive prevalence rate, thus reducing maternal mortality, infant mortality, and unwanted pregnancies by ensuring that high quality contraceptives  including condoms, IUDs, implants, and other contraceptives  are widely available and easily affordable" through the Lydia brand with three female contraceptives under the brand Lydia, including oral contraceptive pills, IUDs and the Lydia Postpil (emergency contraceptive pill).

In terms of quality options for HIV prevention which is also a priority for DKT Ghana, two condom brands, Fiesta and Kiss, are targeted to young and older male and female consumers respectively. In 2018, DKT Ghana achieved nearly 631,000 couple years of protection (CYPs) across its full product line.

With support of DKT International, DKT's contraceptive sales began in Liberia in July of 2018. armed with a full range of contraceptive products, healthcare provider training, and family planning "market storms" in such places as red light districts, DKT's efforts resulted in 11,630 CYPs in 2018, with only 5 months of operation. In addition, DKT's status as an NGO was successfully confirmed in Sierra Leone late last year, and distribution of all contraceptives has begun from last month.

Chris Purdy, DKT's CEO, adds, "Ghana's new TV campaign for Lydia contraceptives will soon support education and sales in Liberia and Sierra Leone by ensuring access to family planning, while triumphing over differences in culture, economics, politics, gender, and religion. Supporting women in choosing a better future for themselves, even in some of the world's most challenging places, is what drives our mission."

Since 1989, DKT International's core mission has been to provide safe and affordable options for family planning and HIV prevention through social marketing in underserved countries throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

SOURCE DKT International

Related Links

https://www.dktinternational.org


BOCA RATON, Fla., March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Through Florida Atlantic University's new Edu-Vantage Partner Program, JM Family Enterprises will offer its associates full tuition for both undergraduate and graduate degrees and certifications. With this new benefit, the automotive company's 4,300 full-time associates are eligible to enroll in FAU's online and on-campus courses starting in the fall semester.

"At JM Family, we believe it's important to foster an environment of continuous learning so our associates are constantly building capacity, remaining agile and well-positioned for changes in the marketplace," said Brent Burns, president and CEO of JM Family, who is also a member of FAU's Board of Trustees and an alumnus of the university. "Associates are our most important asset and our biggest competitive advantage. We want to provide them with the tools they need to excel. Their success is our success."

JM Family is the first organization to join FAU's Edu-Vantage Partner Program. The partner program works with employers and corporate community partners to provide employees the opportunity to achieve their educational and professional goals while maintaining full-time careers, family responsibilities and numerous other life commitments.

"We are truly excited to launch the FAU Edu-Vantage Partner Program with JM Family Enterprises as our first partner," said Daniel Gropper, Ph.D., dean of FAU's College of Business. "JM Family is recognized as one of the best workplaces in the nation, and we are pleased that FAU can provide educational programs for their associates."

Although JM Family has offered college tuition reimbursement to its associates for several decades, students paid upfront and were limited to reimbursement of $5,000 per year for undergraduate courses and $7,000 for graduate degrees.

Under this new partnership with FAU, there is:

No limit to the number of classes an associate can take

No upfront payment

Full tuition, books and fees are all covered directly by JM Family; no out-of-pocket expenses for associates

No location constraints since classes can be taken online for associates at all locations: Mobile, Alabama ; Commerce and Alpharetta, Georgia ; St. Louis, Missouri ; Jacksonville ; field associates across North America , as well JM Family's South Florida associates

; and ; ; ; field associates across , as well JM Family's associates Dedicated support for JM Family students through FAU's Executive Education department

JM Family has internally branded the program as nextGRAD, emphasizing the ongoing journey associates can take to continuously learn and improve. Eligible coursework was chosen to align with the business needs of JM Family, and some of the available courses include:

Undergraduate:

Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting



Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing



Bachelor of Business Administration in Management



Bachelor of Business Administration in Management with a concentration in Leadership and Applied Managerial Skills



Computer Science (B.S.)

Graduate Online Offerings:

Online MBA - General



Online MBA - Finance, Management Information Systems, Operations Management, International Business



Master of Accounting or Tax

Certifications:

Big Data Analytics

The FAU Edu-Vantage Partner Program will be managed by the College of Business Executive Education Department, which provides concierge service and dedicated support for working professionals.

"JM Family has been a great partner of Executive Education for over a decade, and we are looking forward to continue to assist their associates," said Vegar Wiik, executive director of executive education in FAU's College of Business.

SOURCE Florida Atlantic University College of Business

Related Links

http://fau.edu


HARRISBURG, Pa., March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com will offer free shipping to any FW&GS store for all orders of Irish whiskey placed between midnight on Friday, March 8, and 11:59 PM on Wednesday, March 13.

FWGS.com offers customers an extensive product selection, as well as the convenience of delivery directly to homes, businesses, and FW&GS stores. Orders must be placed by March 12 to guarantee delivery in time for St. Patrick's Day, March 17.

There is no minimum purchase requirement to be eligible for free shipping to stores; however, additional items that are not Irish whiskey, but are purchased as part of the same order, will be subject to standard shipping charges. Free shipping does not apply to orders shipped to home, Special Order items, Limited-Release Lottery items, Wine Club subscriptions, and licensee purchases. Offer applies to items currently in e-commerce inventory, while supplies last. All other terms and conditions for purchases made at FWGS.com apply.

The PLCB regulates the distribution of beverage alcohol in Pennsylvania, operates more than 600 wine and spirits stores statewide and licenses more than 20,000 beverage alcohol producers and retailers. The PLCB also works to reduce and prevent dangerous and underage drinking through partnerships with schools, community groups and licensees. Taxes and store profits  totaling $16.5 billion since the agency's inception  are returned to Pennsylvania's General Fund, which finances Pennsylvania's schools, health and human services programs, law enforcement, and public safety initiatives, among other important public services. The PLCB also provides financial support for the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, other state agencies and local municipalities across the state. For more information about the PLCB, visit lcb.pa.gov.

MEDIA CONTACT: Shawn M. Kelly, 717.783.8864

SOURCE Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

Related Links

http://www.lcb.pa.gov


DENVER, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- GRYYT, LLC, a social impact intelligence company focused on impacting the world's greatest socioeconomic and quality of life challenges, today announced their commitment to addressing and combating the U.S. drug epidemic. GRYYT will provide platforms and services that enhance communication within rehabilitation organizations, resulting in both improved outreach to communities and more robust access to treatment for patients seeking care.

"We've formed a Recovery Vertical," notes CEO Stephen Deason. "GRYYT has the expertise and strategic assets to make an impactful change in this arena. Improvements in residential and outpatient programs, therapy, medication, and counseling are all addressed within the vertical. We are confident that building and creating Recovery communities will save lives."

GRYYT engaged in this initiative prompted by the fact that in 2017, more than 72,000 people died from overdose. Illicit drug use in the U.S. is on the rise among all age groups, including children as young as twelve.

About GRYYT

GRYYT is an agency for nonprofits and for-purpose organizations. We are a TRIBE - comprised of our team, our partners, and our community. We are committed to solving the world's biggest challenges. We embody GRIT in all that we do. We believe in exceptional experiences, in the way we work together, the way we engage, the way we partner, and the people they serve. Visit us at gryyt.com .

SOURCE GRYYT, LLC

Related Links

http://gryyt.com


TORONTO, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Hydro One announced today that the Province of Ontario's Management Board of Cabinet has approved a revised executive compensation framework.

With this approval, Hydro One's Board of Directors will now continue with its CEO selection process.

The revised framework can be viewed at www.hydroone.com/compensation.

About Hydro One Limited

We are Ontario's largest electricity transmission and distribution provider with almost 1.4 million valued customers, over C$26.4 billion in assets and 2018 annual revenues of over C$6.2 billion. Our team of approximately 8,600 skilled and dedicated employees proudly build and maintain a safe and reliable electricity system which is essential to supporting strong and successful communities. In 2018, Hydro One invested almost $1.6 billion in its 30,000 circuit km of high-voltage transmission and 123,000 circuit km of primary distribution networks and injected approximately $1.3 billion into the economy by buying goods and services in Ontario. We are committed to the communities where we live and work through community investment, sustainability and diversity initiatives. We are one of only six utility companies in Canada to achieve the Sustainable Electricity Company designation from the Canadian Electricity Association. Through Hydro One Telecom Inc.'s extensive fibre optic network, we also provide advanced broadband telecommunications services on a wholesale basis. Hydro One Limited's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: H).

SOURCE Hydro One Limited

Related Links

http://www.hydroone.com


NEW YORK, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Newsweek's CEO Dev Pragad today announced that James Green has been named Chief Revenue Officer. As CRO, Green will influence future of new verticals and events for the magazine. Additionally, he'll oversee new sales packages and partner strategy helping grow Newsweek and its properties.

Prior to joining Newsweek, Green served as CEO of search retargeting leader Magnetic where he grew the company from $1 to $100 million in revenue. Before that he was CEO of four other VC-funded businesses: Giant Realm, PVI, Giant Bear, and Sabela Media. The latter was sold to 24/7 Media and later to DoubleClick. Previously, Green worked for at Pixar Animation Studios running marketing and new business development. Earlier in his career, he held several roles at The Walt Disney Company, including General Manager of the Japanese Market.

In tandem, sales leader Shaun Hekking has been appointed to the ad sales team as Vice President. In this role, Hekking will help manage and grow existing accounts across multiple verticals including spirits, automotive, pharma, travel and leisure, CPG, and more. He will also work closely with the editorial and production teams to develop and execute strategic initiatives.

Hekking comes to Newsweek from Acuity, where he served as Senior Director of Advertising Sales and Programmatic Partnerships. Before Acuity, Shaun held senior sales management roles at Reuters, Pandora and NBC Local Media.

"James and Shaun will add tremendous value to the Newsweek brand as they've helped leading companies grow their bottom lines by double digits," said Pragad. "They both hold the necessary skills and relationships to drive significant ad revenue for Newsweek."

Green currently sits on multiple boards and advises promising startups; he also volunteers his time as Executive Director of The Squash Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, whose mission is to make squash more accessible to the general public. He graduated from McGill University where he occasionally guest lectures and holds an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA.

In his spare time, Hekking works closely with The TD Foundation, which provides aid to children of wounded warriors and fallen heroes, while helping American Veterans' families in crisis. He also works with The Art Therapy Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping trauma survivors through the creative process. He holds a bachelor's degree in English from the University of New Hampshire and currently resides in New York City.

About Newsweek

Newsweek is the modern global digital news organization built around the iconic, 85-year-old American magazine. Newsweek reaches more than 30 million people each month with its thought-provoking news, opinion, images, graphics and video delivered across a dozen print and digital platforms. Headquartered in New York City, Newsweek also publishes international editions in EMEA and Asia.

SOURCE Newsweek
"Kroger believes in supporting women in our business and where we do business," said Stuart Aitken, executive sponsor of Women's EDGE ( associate resource group ) and senior vice president of alternative business. "Kroger invests in women's success and advancement every day. We employ more than 250,000 women and partner with a growing number of nearly 500 women-owned businesses in the U.S. Kroger also sources products that are Fair Trade Certified as part of our Simple Truth brand, supporting women-owned cooperatives and businesses internationally."

Throughout Women's History Month, Kroger is highlighting the impact and influence women have across its business through celebratory events and empowering women through storytelling.

Empowering Women through Career Advancement

More than half of Kroger's workforce are women, each offering a unique personal story and career journey like Lisa Black, who's worked as a professional driver for the company's Ralphs division for 28 years in Los Angeles.

"I'm passionate about identifying, developing and advancing talent across our dynamic organization. I also admire and appreciate all the women who are leading positive change in our business and society," said Lanell Ohlinger, vice president of talent development. "My 19-year career with Kroger is an illustration that we are a company that supports the development of women, whether you're pursuing a STEM, retail, corporate, human resources, manufacturing or logistics profession. At Kroger, you can have a career with promise."

Kroger is again celebrating International Women's Day by illuminating its downtown Cincinnati headquarters with the Venus symbol, displaying its commitment to uplifting women in the workplace.

Empowering Women through Storytelling

Every Monday in March, you can visit KrogerStories.com to read a feature story about an inspiring woman who embodies Kroger's purpose to Feed the Human Spirit. The series will feature women across the company leading change and making a difference.

Empowering Women through the Supply Chain

Kroger's global supply chain is powered by women on all levels. Members of the company's Our Brands team traveled with Fair Trade partners in February to Africa to spend time at the Sorwathe Tea Estate in Rwanda, where the retailer sources its Simple Truth Organic Chai and Simple Truth Earl Grey Black Tea. During this celebratory month, Kroger encourages everyone to take time for teaand other products powered by womenlike Simple Truth Orange Blossom Honey and Private Selection Raw and Unfiltered Wildflower Honey, both produced by Dutch Gold Honey, a woman-operated business in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. These products, as well as thousands of other items from women-owned businesses, are available in Kroger Family of Stores across the country, as well as through Ship, Delivery and Pickup.

Kroger also welcomes everyone to travel to the fields of the Sorwathe Tea Estate through a mobile virtual reality experience to explore a day in the life of the women behind Simple Truth tea, who are accomplishing firsts in their families and cultivating change in their communities.

In 2018, Kroger awarded funds to the Assopthe Tea Cooperative to build a preschool and implement a meal program. During the team's trip last month to Rwanda, they celebrated the opening of the new youth learning center with the students and educators.

Empowering Women Financially through Business Development

Kroger supports an increasing number of nearly 500 women-owned businesses across the country and is recognized by the Billion Dollar Roundtable for reaching more than $1 billion in spend with certified minority- and woman-owned suppliers. Kroger is also a part of the Omni50, which is a list produced by Omnikal featuring the top 50 corporate and government buyers of products and services from inclusive and diverse suppliers.

The company is participating in and sponsoring the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) Summit & Salute event on March 11-13 in Houston. Angel Colon, Kroger's senior director of diversity, will attend the event to accept WBENC's prestigious America's Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises award.

"As the nation's largest certifier of women-owned businesses, WBENC is proud to partner with corporations like Kroger that are dedicated to supporting a diverse supply chain and providing opportunities for women entrepreneurs," said Pamela Prince-Eason, WBENC president and CEO. "We created the Women Owned Logo to help consumers use the power of the purse to identify and support women-owned businesses. For International Women's Day and every day, we encourage everyone to #BuyWomenOwned."

This spring, Kroger will host a Supplier Inclusion Innovation Summit in Cincinnati, presenting the opportunity for women- and minority-owned emerging brands, businesses and startups to engage and pitch their products and services to Kroger buyers, category managers and leaders.

To learn more about Kroger's Women's History Month celebration, visit kroger.com.

At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are dedicated to our Purpose: to Feed the Human Spirit. We are nearly half a million associates who serve over nine million customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and 2,764 retail food stores under a variety of banner names, serving America through food inspiration and uplift, and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site.

SOURCE The Kroger Co.

Related Links

http://www.kroger.com


AUSTIN, Texas, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 20 mayors from across the country are in Austin, TX this weekend for South by Southwest (SXSW), the world-famous event that brings together new ideas, emerging technologies, and a prolific concentration of cross-industry thought leaders. As part of the annual gathering, mayors are participating in Civic I/O, the Mayors Summit at SXSW, an event that was created in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors, South by Southwest and the Office of Austin Mayor Steve Adler. Mayors will join in a series of interactive discussions that will focus on how cities can leverage emerging technologies to tackle some of the biggest civic and municipal challenges.

Participating Mayors include:

Steve Adler, Austin (TX)

Bryan Barnett, Rochester Hills (MI)

Shane Bemis, Gresham (OR)

Steve Benjamin, Columbia (SC)

Pete Buttigieg, South Bend (IN)

Christopher Cabaldon, West Sacramento (CA)

David Condon, Spokane (WA)

Jorge Elorza, Providence (RI)

John Giles, Mesa (AZ)

Daniel Horrigan, Akron (OH)

Tim Keller, Albuquerque (NM)

Chris Koos, Normal (IL)

Harry LaRosiliere, Plano (TX)

Sam Liccardo, San Jose (CA)

Dee Margo, El Paso (TX)

Tony Martinez, Brownsville (TX)

Adrian Perkins, Shreveport (LA)

Betsy Price, Fort Worth (TX)

Mike Rawlings, Dallas (TX)

Francis Suarez, Miami (FL)

Michael Tubbs, Stockton (CA)

Alan Webber, Santa Fe (NM)

Nan Whaley, Dayton (OH)

A press avail with mayors is scheduled for Sunday, March 10 at 9:30 am CT. It will take place in the Hilton Austin Downtown, SXSW City Hall (The Reverbery). Interested media should RSVP to Sara Durr at [email protected].

Highlights Include:

Sunday, March 10 at 2 pm: The City Hall Blueprint For Running the Country

Featuring South Bend (IN) Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Dallas (TX) Mayor Mike Rawlings, and Miami (FL) Mayor Francis Suarez

LBJ once said, "When the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worse. I could be a mayor." Mayors are executives of government who are relied on to get stuff done and can't afford to play political games or shut down their governments. As several mayors and former mayors explore their own runs for the White House, this discussion will examine the political realities of how a mayor could turn the success of running a city into a successful model for Washington. LOCATION: Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon C

Saturday, March 9 at 2 pm: Out for the Count: How to Repair the Broken 2020 Census

Featuring Mesa (AZ) Mayor John Giles

The census is more than just a survey. It is a once-a-decade head count of everyone living in our country that has a major impact on our lives. The census is used to determine such critical things as the number of seats each state has in the US House of Representatives and to how we distribute billions in federal funds to local communities. As we approach the 2020 Census, it is already fraught with major challenges. Do we have enough resources to adequately execute the census? How will the attempt to add a citizenship question impact the census? What issues exist as we shift to a digital census regarding privacy and digital access for all communities? How would a census undercount impact the country? Hear local and national leaders discuss what lies ahead for the 2020 census and what you can do about it. LOCATION: Hilton Downtown Austin, Salon A

Sunday, March 10 at 11 am: Mayors Matchup: Tech Innovation Pitch Competition

Emerging companies will pitch their ideas to address challenges facing cities in a "Shark Tank"-style forum. A panel of mayors and industry experts will serve as judges and award $10,000 to the winner. Last year's first place winner was Biobot Analytics, which uses cutting-edge technology to transform sewers into public health observatories. Their product, the Opioid Consumption Monitoring (OCM) Program is helping address the nation's opioid drug crisis by gathering data before opioid use results in arrests and deaths by overdose. LOCATION: Hilton Austin Downtown, SXSW City Hall (The Reverbery)

***NOTE: Panels will be on the record and open to media with an official SXSW badge unless otherwise indicated. All Civic I/O evening events are closed to press. Mayors are available for interviews while in Austin. To arrange an interview, please contact Sara Durr at [email protected].

About The United States Conference of Mayors -- The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are nearly 1,400 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/usmayors, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/usmayors.

About Civic I/O -- Civic I/O is a network of innovators and instigators committed to the hard work of progressing their cities. United by a common drive and ambition, civic leaders join together to help each other imagine and realize what is truly possible, altering the course of their city's future and making a lasting impact.

SOURCE U.S. Conference of Mayors

Related Links

www.usmayors.org


"This year's International Women's Day theme is 'Balance for Better' and our new Personal Care Line aims to help women feel balanced and empowered in their overall health and wellness," said HempMeds President Todd Morrow. "While our new Personal Care Line is accessible to all who want to benefit from CBD, our approach to the design and development of the line focused on consideration of women in particular, from the ingredients used to the solutions it offers."

HempMeds new Personal Care Line features an array of CBD-infused products such as:

- HempMeds Purifying Sulfate-Free Shampoo: Combining pure CBD sourced from generations-old hemp farms in The Netherlands with natural extracts like Argan oil and Goji Berry, this hemp shampoo will leave your hair and scalp feeling restored and nourished. It is free of sulfates, parabens, and artificial dyes and is designed to stimulate and boost the growth of hair follicles.

- HempMeds Nourishing Conditioner: This hemp conditioner is perfect for both moisturizing and detangling because of its rich anti-inflammatory ingredients. In addition to CBD, this nutrient-rich conditioner also features Green Tea, which is well-known for protecting against free radicals. It's great for repairing and protecting hair from the daily damage of heat styling, chemical processing and color treatments as well as hydrating dry scalp and hair.

- HempMeds Revitalizing Sulfate-Free Body Wash: Clean and clear skin starts with this CBD-infused foaming body wash. It contains Omega 3, 6 and 9 acids that can replenish and nourish damaged or dry skin as well as unique ingredients such as peppermint to provide a soothing aroma and licorice root to fight germs with its natural antibacterial properties.

- HempMeds Hydrating Lotion: A botanical blend of CBD and Green Tea in this hemp lotion not only serves to protect and hydrate skin, but also has the power to relax and soothe sore muscles. The Argan Oil in this lotion is rich in essential fatty acids, and has moisturizing, anti-aging and antioxidant properties.

HempMeds was the first company to ever bring hemp-based cannabidiol (CBD) oil products to market in the U.S. in 2012 -- and the first to both make CBD products available in bulk for U.S. consumers and also provide high-quality CBD hemp oil to customers around the world. HempMeds was also the first-ever company to receive historic federal government import approvals for its CBD products in the nations of Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Paraguay.

Consumers are encouraged to buy CBD oil and other products at HempMeds shop .

About HempMeds

HempMeds is a corporate portfolio company of Medical Marijuana, Inc. (OTC: MJNA) and the Company's exclusive master distributor and contracted marketing company, handling sales and distribution.

About Medical Marijuana, Inc.

We are a company of firsts. Our mission is to be the premier cannabis and hemp industry innovators, leveraging our team of professionals to source, evaluate and purchase value-added companies and products, while allowing them to keep their integrity and entrepreneurial spirit. We strive to create awareness within our industry, develop environmentally-friendly, economically sustainable businesses, while increasing shareholder value. For details on Medical Marijuana, Inc.'s portfolio and investment companies, visit www.medicalmarijuanainc.com .

To see Medical Marijuana, Inc.'s corporate video, click here.

FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Medical Marijuana, Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein.

FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION (FDA) DISCLOSURE

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.

LEGAL DISCLOSURE

Medical Marijuana, Inc. does not sell or distribute any products that are in violation of the United States Controlled Substances Act (US.CSA). These companies do grow, sell, and distribute hemp-based products and are involved with the federally legal distribution of medical marijuana-based products within certain international markets. Cannabidiol is a natural constituent of hemp oil.

CONTACT:

Public Relations Contact:

Andrew Hard

Chief Executive Officer, CMW Media

P. 858-264-6600

[email protected]

www.cmwmedia.com

SOURCE Medical Marijuana, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.medicalmarijuanainc.com


NEW YORK, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Nonprofit research organization MDRC and Grameen America, Inc., the fastest growing nonprofit microfinance organization in the United States, today released the early results of a research study, Microfinance in the United States: Early Impacts of the Grameen America Program. The study, funded by Robin Hood, is the most rigorous, independent, third-party evaluation of group microfinance in the United States, assessing Grameen America's program, a microfinance model that provides small loans to low-income women entrepreneurs in the United States seeking to launch or expand small businesses.

The first-of-its-kind random assignment study examined 1,492 women (in 300 loan groups) who applied in groups of five to the Grameen America microlending program in Union City, New Jersey. Applicant groups were assigned at random into two groups: those eligible to receive Grameen America loans (the program group) and those not eligible (the control group). The outcomes of the two groups were compared over time. Random assignment studies, often called the "gold standard" of evaluations, use the same rigorous methods as pharmaceutical trials.

Highlights from the early findings of the evaluation of the Grameen America program include:

More than 94 percent of Grameen America members reported that their financial situation is better than it was the previous year, a 13-percentage point increase over the control group average.

The Grameen America program produced a 22-percentage point increase in the attainment of a credit score - a VantageScore  at 712 months after participants enrolled in the study, and a 6-percentage point increase in the attainment of a Prime credit score, the top tier of creditworthiness.

Grameen America members were 13 percentage points more likely than their control group counterparts to report that they could afford to buy the things they needed.

Over 95 percent of Grameen America members reported operating their own businesses 6 months after joining the program, an increase of 11 percentage points over the control group average.

"Our goal in embarking upon this rigorous study was to determine whether the Grameen America model leads to the alleviation of poverty for borrowers," said Gordon Berlin, President, MDRC. "The early results are promising. The Grameen America program produced reductions in measures of financial hardship, which puts the program in a position to increase income and reduce poverty, the ultimate goals of Grameen America, down the road."

"Though often associated with the emerging markets, the need for microfinance loan programs in industrialized countries like the U.S. is severely understated. Safe and affordable access to financial services transcends borders and politics. It is the chief force behind economic mobility, empowering people to save, borrow, and invest. Unfortunately, financial services are not readily available for a large swatch of the population, often women in the lowest income brackets," said Andrea Jung, President and CEO, Grameen America.

Jung continued, "The early results provide encouraging evidence that microfinance programs can be a sustainable, scalable solution to help close the financial inclusion gap in the U.S. Microlending not only empowers women to launch businesses, lessening their reliance on having one primary employer, it has the potential to transform entire communities."

"For many women, a loan from Grameen may be their first experience accessing formal financial services and can help build their financial identity. A good credit score is a vital asset for not only accessing credit, but also a mobile phone contract, renting an apartment, or applying for a mortgage." said Bob Annibale, Global Director, Citi Community Development and Inclusive Finance, which made MDRC's six-month study possible.

According to Grameen America, its unique group lending model, which requires that women create a group of five in order to be eligible, strengthens loan meeting attendance and repayment rates, providing an environment of encouragement, support and motivation. Overall, the organization has invested over $1 billion in microfinance loans to 110,000 women across 14 U.S. cities and counting, and has achieved a 99% loan repayment rate.

Ray Dalio, Founder, Chairman and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Bridgewater Associates and Director Emeritus of the Grameen America Board said, "The research conducted by MDRC only validates the Grameen America model that I have seen work great and have confidently invested in for over ten years. These solid results put Grameen America in an even stronger position to continue to expand the group microlending model on a national scale."

The early results of the Grameen America program evaluation are the first set of preliminary results in the long-term study conducted by MDRC. The roadmap of the study intends to analyze results at the 18-month and 36-month mark, with an eye to go as far as a 5-year evaluation. Future reports from the Grameen America evaluation will present longer-term impacts on a much wider range of outcomes, including overall income and earnings, which are the ultimate goals of the Grameen America program.

About MDRC:

MDRC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization dedicated to learning what works to improve programs and policies that affect the poor. MDRC is best known for mounting large-scale demonstrations and evaluations of real-world policies and programs targeted to low-income people. We helped pioneer the use of random assignment  the same highly reliable methodology used to test new medicines  in our evaluations. From welfare policy to high school reform, MDRC's work has helped to shape legislation, program design, and operational practices across the country. Working in fields where emotion and ideology often dominate public debates, MDRC is a source of objective, unbiased evidence about cost-effective solutions that can be replicated and expanded to scale.

About Grameen America:

Founded by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus, Grameen America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit microfinance organization dedicated to helping entrepreneurial women who live in poverty build small businesses to enable financial mobility. The organization offers microloans, training, and support to transform communities and fight poverty in the United States. Since opening in January 2008, Grameen America has invested over $1 Billion in more than 110,000 low-income women entrepreneurs. Started in Jackson Heights, Queens, Grameen America has expanded to 21 locations in New York City, Austin, TX, Boston, MA, Charlotte, NC, Indianapolis, IN, Los Angeles, CA, Newark, NJ, Omaha, NE, Oakland, CA, San Jose, CA, San Juan, PR, Union City, NJ, Houston, TX, and Miami, FL. Learn more at www.grameenamerica.org .

About Robin Hood:

Founded in 1988, Robin Hood finds, fuels, and creates the most impactful and scalable solutions lifting families out of poverty in New York City, with models that can work across the country. Robin Hood invests roughly $100 million annually to provide legal services, housing, meals, workforce development training, education programs, and more to families in poverty in New York City. Robin Hood tracks every program with rigorous metrics. Learn more at www.robinhood.org ; and follow Robin Hood Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , LinkedIn .

About Citi Community Development:

Citi Community Development leads Citi's commitment to financial inclusion and economic empowerment for underserved individuals, families and communities across the U.S. Through innovative collaborations with municipalities, community groups and leading nonprofit organizations, we harness the institution's expertise, products and services to help expand opportunity for all.

Media Contacts:

Bar Cudkevich, Aspectus Group for Grameen America

[email protected]

646-793-3150



John Hutchins, MDRC

[email protected]

212-340-8604

SOURCE Grameen America

Related Links

http://www.grameenamerica.org


SAN MATEO, Calif., March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Paine Schwartz Partners, LLC ("Paine Schwartz"), a global leader in sustainable food chain investing, today announced that Peter Hawthorne is joining the firm as an Operating Director.

Mr. Hawthorne brings more than 35 years of experience, including decades of expertise in the food and agribusiness industries. He served as Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Development with Cargill for more than ten years, leading corporate development with an annual investment budget of more than $2 billion across operations in 70 countries. He also served as Chairman of the Board for three of Cargill's largest joint ventures in Ardent Mills, North Star BlueScope Steel and NatureWorks.

Kevin Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer and a founding Partner of Paine Schwartz, said, "Peter is an accomplished business leader with significant experience identifying and executing on attractive opportunities in the global food and agribusiness sectors. He has deep relationships across the food and agribusiness industries with an extensive track record of growing businesses and coordinating complex transactions. He's a great fit for Paine Schwartz and we are pleased to have him join our team."

Mr. Hawthorne said, "I look forward to applying my global experience investing in, building and running ag, food, and related tech and industrial companies. I have known and respected the team at Paine Schwartz for their leadership in sustainable food chain investing. I am excited about working closely with them as part of the overall investment process and building value at portfolio companies."

About Peter Hawthorne

Peter Hawthorne previously served as Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development at Cargill, from 2006 to 2018. He chaired the boards of Ardent Mills LLC, the leading flour milling company in North America, North Star BlueScope Steel, a leading supplier in the steel industry and NatureWorks LLC, the leading global bio-polymers company. He currently serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board of Citrofrut S.A., Mexico's largest juice producer. Previously he worked at The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., the Bain & Company and the Carlson Companies. Mr. Hawthorne has a B.A. in Economics from Brown University and an MBA from Stanford University.

About Paine Schwartz Partners

A global leader in sustainable food chain investing, Paine Schwartz Partners is a private equity firm focused exclusively on investment opportunities in the fast-growing, dynamic global food and agribusiness sectors. The firm's investment, operations and finance professionals invest throughout cycles across the food and agribusiness value chain, and bring a collaborative and active management approach to portfolio companies. For further information, please see www.paineschwartz.com.

Contacts:

Andy Brimmer / Aaron Palash

Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher

+1 212-355-4449

SOURCE Paine Schwartz Partners, LLC

Related Links

http://www.paineschwartz.com


NEW YORK, March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Patient Flow Management market in North America is expected to grow from US$ 218.24 Mn in the year 2017 and is expected to reach US$ 1028.23 Mn by 2025 growing at a CAGR of 21.9% over the forecast period.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05730255



Driving factor such as rising adoption of patient-centric approach by healthcare providers, and shortage of nursing staff and doctors are expected to boost the market growth over the years.However, the shortage of skilled IT technicians and risks associated with cyber threats are likely to have a negative impact on the growth of the market in the coming years.



The current scenario of the mobile health platforms is increasing day by day.The increasing adoption of universally advanced technology is expected to propel the growth for patient flow management market in the forecast period.



For 2017, the number of smartphone users in Canada was estimated to reach 24.02 million. The increasing penetration of smartphones and growing wireless network technology provides improved digital healthcare system with novel opportunities to address more challenges that associated with accessibility, quality, effectiveness, efficiency and cost of healthcare. Additionally, the use of smartphones among common populace with respect to healthcare applications is also on the verge of increase. For instance, according to a report published in JMIR Mhealth Uhealth Journal in October 2016, 58.23% of mobile phone users participated in the survey in the US had downloaded and used healthcare apps and used them for various purposes. This will leading to an increasing adoption of the mobile health technology in the digital health community and likely to be a prevalent trend within the patient flow management market.

North America patient flow management market, based on the product was segmented into integrated and standalone. In 2017, the standalone segment held a largest market share of 68.1% of the patient flow management solutions, by product. This segment is also expected to dominate the market in 2025. The growth of the market is primarily attributed to the current use of standalone patient flow management solutions in various healthcare institutions across the globe. However, the integrated segment is expected to grow with the fastest growth rate of 22.6% during the forecast period, 2018 to 2025.

North America patient flow management market, based on component was segmented into software, hardware, and services. In 2017, the software segment dominated the market based on the component contributing a share of 46.7%. Software components are compatible with the systems offered as an standalone solutions via manufacturers as well as can be integrated with the various other devices such as computer and mobile systems that are feasible to be used by healthcare providers, leading to high share of software component segment over the coming years.

Some of the major primary and secondary sources included in the report for the North America patient flow management market are World Health Organization (WHO), American Hospital Association, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, National Ambulatory Care Reporting System, and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), among others.



Reasons to Buy

Save and reduce time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the growth, size, leading players and segments in the patient flow management market.

-Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.

-The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the North America patient flow management market, thereby allowing players across the value chain to develop effective long-term strategies.

-Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.

-Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.

-Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin security interest with respect to client products, segmentation, pricing and distribution.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05730255



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: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

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CLEVELAND, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- For a country of its sizeand proximity to Germany and other large, mature marketsPoland may seem unlikely to support a nonwovens industry of global significance. Yet demand for nonwoven fabrics in Poland is comparable to that of more developed, populous countries like Italy and the UK, and the market is expected to grow at an above average rate of 3.2% per year through 2022.

Download the new Poland: A Rising Nonwovens Market today to learn more.

https://www.freedoniagroup.com/Content/Poland-A-Rising-Nonwovens-Market

The ebook discusses such factors and trends as a local production shortage:

"Despite the substantial growth end-use industries have seen in the last two decades, the nonwovens industry hasn't quite caught up, causing end-use product manufacturers to rely heavily on imported materials to meet production needs.The trade deficit therefore presents an opportunity for nonwovens producers to build new production lines in Poland."

For more insight into the global nonwovens market, see Global Nonwovens by The Freedonia Group. https://www.freedoniagroup.com/industry-study/global-nonwovens-3693.htm

And for coverage of the US market for nonwovens and wipes, see Nonwovens Market in the US, Wipes Market in the US and Global Disposable Medical Supplies. These comprehensive reports provide the following:

historical demand data and forecasts

analysis of trends affecting market outlooks

industry structure and composition

company market share

About The Freedonia Group, a division of MarketResearch.com  The Freedonia Group is a leading international industrial research company publishing more than 100 studies annually. Since 1985, we have provided research to customers ranging in size from global conglomerates to one-person consulting firms. More than 90% of the industrial companies in the Fortune 500 use Freedonia Group research to help with their strategic planning.

Press Contact:

Corinne Gangloff

+1 440.684.9600

[email protected]

SOURCE The Freedonia Group
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Prime Meridian Holding Company (OTCQX: PMHG), based in Tallahassee, Florida, today announced Sammie D. Dixon, Jr., Vice Chairman, President and CEO, will present live at VirtualInvestorConferences.com on March 14th.

DATE: Thursday, March 14th TIME: 10:00 am (ET) LINK: https://tinyurl.com/314Pre-OTCBanksVIC

This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will also be made available after the event.

It is recommended that investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates.

Learn more about the event at www.VirtualInvestorConferences.com.

Recent Company Highlights

The Company reported record net earnings for year ended December 31, 2018 , boosted by organic loan growth and a lower corporate tax rate.

, boosted by organic loan growth and a lower corporate tax rate. At December 31, 2018 , the Company reported $401.7 million in total assets, $349.1 million in deposits, and $290.1 million in portfolio net loans. This compares to $347.2 million in total assets, $298.3 million in deposits, and $250.3 million in portfolio net loans at December 31, 2017 .

, the Company reported in total assets, in deposits, and in portfolio net loans. This compares to in total assets, in deposits, and in portfolio net loans at . In 2018, Prime Meridian Bank ranked third in both mortgage dollar volume and number of mortgage originations in Leon County among all financial service providers.

among all financial service providers. The Company's total stockholders' equity was $50.8 million , or 12.7% of total assets, at December 31, 2018 , compared to $47.0 million , or 13.5% of total assets, at December 31, 2017 .

, or 12.7% of total assets, at , compared to , or 13.5% of total assets, at . The Company's book value per share increased from $15.06 at December 31, 2017 to $16.19 at December 31, 2018 , with 3,138,945 common shares outstanding.

The following promotions and retirement were approved and announced at the February 21, 2019 board meeting:

R. Randy Guemple retires as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer on March 31, 2019 . He will remain on the Boards of Directors.

retires as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer on . He will remain on the Boards of Directors. Clint F. Weber becomes Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer as of April 1, 2019 . He succeeds Mr. Guemple in these roles.

becomes Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer as of . He succeeds Mr. Guemple in these roles. Michael A. Micallef, Jr. joins the Boards of Directors as of March 1, 2019 .

joins the Boards of Directors as of . Monte L. Ward becomes Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer as of April 1, 2019 .

Founded in 2008, Prime Meridian Bank is a relationship  driven bank, managed by a dedicated team of community bankers who are focused on client needs with respect to lending and asset management. Headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, Prime Meridian Bank serves clients in the North Florida and South Georgia markets. In the Spring of 2019 the Bank expands into the Central Florida market. The company had over 75 employees and assets exceeding $400 million as of year-end 2018. Prime Meridian Bank promotes growth among its team members through investment in continuing education so they, in turn, may foster the success and well-being of the clients and communities in which we serve. Prime Meridian Bank's culture of transparency and its five core principles of Passion, Grace, Integrity, Tenacity and Accountability support its actions and guide decision-making.

About Virtual Investor Conferences



Virtual Investor Conferences is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly-traded companies to meet and present directly with investors.

A real-time solution for investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences is part of OTC Market Group's suite of investor relations services specifically designed for more efficient Investor Access. Replicating the look and feel of on-site investor conferences, Virtual Investor Conferences combine leading-edge conferencing and investor communications capabilities with a comprehensive global investor audience network.

SOURCE virtualinvestorconferences.com

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SEATTLE, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- JND Legal Administration

A class action Settlement has been reached in Podawiltz v. Swisher International Inc., Plaid Pantry, Inc., and Plaid Pantries, Inc., Case No. 16CV27621. This lawsuit alleges that Swisher's national cigarillos advertising campaign was misleading. You are a member of Settlement Class if you purchased Swisher cigar products under any of the following promotions in any of the fifty States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico: "5 for the price of 3"; "3 for the price of 2"; "buy 1 get 1 free"; "buy 4 get 1 free."

Class Members who submit a valid and complete Claim Form are entitled to receive between two and five vouchers, each with a face value of $1.00 and a two-year expiration date, which can be redeemed at retail for the purchase of Swisher cigar products. Claims will be processed on a first-come, first-serve basis, and there will be a cap of $2.5 million on the total dollar value of vouchers distributed under the terms of the Settlement. To complete a Claim Form to receive Settlement benefits go to www.SwisherSweetsSettlement.com, or call 1-833-285-1326 or write: Swisher Sweets Settlement, c/o JND Legal Administration, P.O. Box 91047, Seattle, WA 98111.

Any Class Member who wishes to opt out of the Settlement must submit a request for exclusion such that it is received no later than July 19, 2019. If you properly exclude yourself from the Settlement Class, you will not be bound by any judgments or orders entered by the Court in the Action and you will not be eligible to receive Settlement benefits.

Any Class Member who has not timely submitted a written request for exclusion from the Settlement, may object to the fairness, reasonableness or adequacy of the Settlement by filing a written objection and mailing it to the lead attorney for the class, Attn: Michael Fuller, OlsenDaines, US Bancorp Tower, 111 SW 5th Ave., Suite 3150, Portland, Oregon 97204, postmarked no later than July 19, 2019.

For specific details about how to receive a benefit, opt out/file exclusion or object to the Settlement, go to www.SwisherSweetsSettlement.com.

A hearing will be held on August 9, 2019 at 9:00 am, before the Honorable Kathleen M. Dailey, at the Circuit Court for the State of Oregon for the Multnomah County, Courtroom 736, 1021 SW 4th Avenue, Portland, OR 97204-1123, to determine (i) whether the Settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate and should be given final approval; and (ii) whether Plaintiff's Class Counsel's application for an award of attorneys' fees, reimbursement of expenses, and lead plaintiff incentive award should be granted.

For additional information go to www.SwisherSweetsSettlement.com , call 1-833-285-1326 or write: Swisher Sweets Settlement,  JND Legal Administration, P.O. Box 91047, Seattle, WA 98111.

SOURCE JND Legal Administration
Mack is the first of many exceptional women that the eDiscovery software industry leader will recognize this year for their positive impact on the eDiscovery field and lives of others. The yearlong campaign will culminate this October at Relativity Fest in Chicago with a new Innovation Award of the same name. After a vote by the eDiscovery community, Relativity will bestow the Stellar Woman in eDiscovery Award upon one 2019 candidate who best represents the mentorship, leadership, and spirit needed to create a positive, measured impact on diversity in the industry.

"Mary Mack is a trailblazer in the eDiscovery industry thanks to her passion, commitment to community building, and expert knowledge of the space," said April Runft, Team Lead, Brand Programs at Relativity. "We are proud to recognize Mary as part of Stellar Women in e-Discovery and to continue partnering with her to increase and celebrate diversity in the industry."

"Mary Mack's experience in the eDiscovery landscape is known to all in this industry. As Executive Director for ACEDS, she is literally building an international community where the exchange of training, professional development and networking thrives between a wide variety of eDiscovery practitioners," said Barbara Bennett, CEDS, Litigation Support Manager, FCA North America and ACEDS Detroit Chapter Chairman of the Board. "Mary's talent for warmly embracing all eDiscovery professionals, her determined assistance to raise up those around her, and her quest to raise the bar in terms of knowledge within this industry is the definition of establishing the balance that's needed to drive a better working world. I cannot think of a better candidate for Relativity's Stellar Woman award."

Known as an eDiscovery leader and pioneer, Mack authored the very first book on the field, A Process of Illumination: The Practical Guide to Electronic Discovery. Her follow-up book, eDiscovery for Corporate Counsel published by Thomson Reuters, co-edited with Carole Basri, is now in its eighth edition. Mack has pioneered processes, helped build the global eDiscovery community and written articles and posts that have helped build the industry. She is widely known for her technical expertise, and has served as product counsel and subject matter expert. She is an internationally recognized speaker and frequently sought after for her expert opinion on the complex issues facing our industry and the people in it.

"I'm honored and humbled to be included in the group of women who have received this honor," said Mack. "Over the years I've watched our eDiscovery community grow, thrive and become ever-more relevant in today's legal environment. Our accomplishments are due to the commitment, skills and efforts of the professionals around me and I am grateful for their support and collaboration."

Mack is perceived by her colleagues to personify the 2019 International Women's Day theme of #BalanceForBetter, driving diversity and inclusion in every area and tirelessly advancing the careers of women and underrepresented communities in technology for over two decades. She has invested her time and talents to mentor countless people, and connected individuals and companies with opportunities, all with an eye toward strengthening the greater legal tech community.

"Mary Mack is the matriarch of our eDiscovery industry," said Suzanne H. Clark, Esq., CEDS. "When I think of Mary, I don't simply think of the kind, wise, intelligent, and accomplished woman she is. Rather, I have distinct memories of specific times she has guided and supported me over the years. Mary has been a mentor and confidant who I could call on for advice, counsel, and encouragement. I know the only repayment she would ask is that I aim to do the same for others."

About ACEDS

The Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS), part of leading legal education provider The BARBRI Group, is a global membership association committed to promoting and verifying eDiscovery skills and competence for organizations and individuals through training, certification, and supported by ACEDS chapters around the world. The association's goal is to help professionals and organizations reduce the costs and risks associated with eDiscovery, and realize the advantages of performing it effectively. ACEDS awards the Certified E-Discovery Specialist (CEDS) credential, which is held by practitioners at AmLaw 200 firms, government agencies, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and United Nations and some of the largest multinational corporations in the world.

About Relativity

At Relativity, we make software to help users organize data, discover the truth, and act on it. Our e-discovery platform is used by thousands of organizations around the world to manage large volumes of data and quickly identify key issues during litigation, internal investigations, and compliance projects. Relativity has over 180,000 users in 40+ countries from organizations including the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 70 Fortune 100 companies, and 198 of the Am Law 200. RelativityOne offers all the functionality of Relativity in a secure and comprehensive SaaS product. Relativity has been named one of Chicago's Top Workplaces by the Chicago Tribune for eight consecutive years. Please contact Relativity at [email protected] or visit http://www.relativity.com for more information.

Contact: Cindy Parks

913.526.6912

[email protected]

SOURCE Association of Certified eDiscovery Specialists

Related Links

http://www.aceds.org


HAUPPAUGE, N.Y., March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Spring is coming up fast and pool owners may be wondering - when is the right time to open your pool? The general rule of thumb is that you can open anytime between March and May, but that window does span a few months. Removable pool fence manufacturer, LOOP-LOC, discusses the pros and cons of opening your pool early.

Let's begin with the pros of opening your pool early this season:

The most obvious pro is that you'll be lengthening the pool season so you can use your pool for longer. If you're looking to get the most out of your pool season, opening early may be the right move for you. The longer you wait to open your pool, the less potent any winterizing chemicals you added will be. By opening early, you're more likely to see clearer water when you take off your cover. Warm water is a prime spot for bacteria and algae to grow. Opening early can alleviate some of the time spent on re-balancing pool chemicals so your water is safe to swim in. Don't wait until the warm weather sets in to start thinking about opening your pool. Opening early can help you plan and accommodate your schedule accordingly. The springtime can be very busy for pool owners and checking this off your list right in the beginning can provide a big relief.

With the pros, come some cons to consider as well:

Lengthening the pool season also equates to increased maintenance costs. Since your pool will be open longer, it's likely to cause an increase in electricity and chemical usage. In the early spring season, pollen can be a pest for your pool. Sometimes, you'll wake up to a thin film of pollen right across the water. However, daily straining can alleviate this issue. Depending on your region, inconsistent weather can be a problem in early spring. It can be snowy, rainy, and sunny all within a couple months span. You'll need to keep a close eye on your water level and chemicals if this is common where you live.

When determining when the optimal time to open your pool is this season, you can refer to the reasons above to weigh out the pros and cons. Whether you decide to wait it out or get a head start this season, make sure you enjoy your pool as much as possible this season!

About LOOP-LOC: There's only one company known for manufacturing safety pool covers strong and tough enough to support an elephant: the legendary LOOP-LOC. LOOP-LOC Safety Pool Fence Manufacturer is a global leader in the pool industry with a 200,000-square-foot headquarters in Hauppauge, New York, and 300 employees. Through its network of dealers, the company has sold safety swimming pool covers on every continent on earth except Antarctica. LOOP-LOC pool safety covers manufacturer now also manufactures a line of luxury in-ground pool linerswith more exclusive designer patterns than any other companyas well as the BABY-LOC removable fencing, a convenient, cost-effective additional layer of protection to help deter toddlers from gaining access to a swimming pool.

SOURCE LOOP-LOC

Related Links

http://www.looploc.com


Alice Wang of JPMorgan Chase to address RMA's 13th annual Governance, Compliance, and Operational Risk Conference regarding ways Libor replacement will affect banks

PHILADELPHIA, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading banking industry experts will share their experiences regarding AI, machine learning, and blockchain, as well as their views on evolving cyber resiliency and third-party risk management practices at GCOR XIII. The Risk Management Association's 13th annual Governance, Compliance, and Operational Risk Conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency, Cambridge, Mass., April 10-11, 2019.

Alice Wang, managing director, global head of CIB Operational Risk, JPMorgan Chase, will be a keynote speaker, outlining ways banks can prepare now for the transition from Libor to the new reference rate.

The conference will also feature sessions on topics such as effective challenge; risk appetite; LIBOR risk management; agile risk management; and additional programming on culture, conduct, and reputation risk.

"As the industry transitions away from Libor, internal communication and collaboration with working groups is critical. Everyone at the institution must be coordinated, and banks must educate their clients on ways to remove their dependence from Libor-based products and transition to the new reference rate," said RMA Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel Edward J. DeMarco, Jr.

For more information and to register, visit www.rmahq.org/gcorxiii.

About RMA

Founded in 1914, The Risk Management Association is a not-for-profit, member-driven professional association whose sole purpose is to advance the use of sound risk management principles in the financial services industry. RMA promotes an enterprise approach to risk management that focuses on credit risk, market risk and operational risk. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, RMA has 2,500 institutional members that include banks of all sizes as well as nonbank financial institutions. They are represented in the Association by 18,000 individuals located throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Asia/Pacific.

SOURCE The Risk Management Association
TAMPA, Fla., March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Givens Givens Sparks' attorney Robert Sparks was selected to America's Top 100 Personal Injury Attorneys for 2019. Selection to America's Top 100 Personal Injury Attorneys is by invitation only and is reserved to identify the nation's most exceptional litigators for high-value personal injury, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, product liability, and medical malpractice matters.

To be considered for selection, an attorney must focus more than 50% of their active legal practice on personal injury, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, product liability, and/or medical malpractice matters. Thereafter, candidates are carefully screened through Advanced Data Analytics evaluating a broad array of criteria, including the candidate's professional experience, litigation experience, significant personal injury settlements and/or verdicts, peer reputation, and community impact in order to rank the candidates throughout the state.

Only the top 100 qualifying attorneys in each state receive this honor and are selected for membership among America's Top 100 Personal Injury Attorneys. With these extremely high standards for selection to America's Top 100 Personal Injury Attorneys, less than one-half percent (0.5%) of active attorneys in the United States will receive this honor  truly the most exclusive and elite level of attorneys in the community.

After litigating a pedestrian injury case which resulted in a $30 million jury verdict, Sparks, along with his co-counsel on the case, Christopher Codling, have been recognized by several organizations, including: Expertise.com Best Personal Injury Firm in Tampa, Lawyers of Distinction, Super Lawyers, America's Top 100 High Stakes Litigators, National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Attorneys, National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Trial Attorneys Under 40, National Black Trial Lawyers Top 100, and the Million Dollar Advocates Forum.

Sparks is the managing partner and lead trial attorney for the personal injury division of his firm, which has recovered millions of dollars on behalf of its clients in both state and federal courts.

Givens Givens Sparks is an award-winning trial law firm representing individuals and their families in state and federal cases ranging from personal injury and wrong death actions, to commercial insurance litigation and complex high net-worth divorce cases. With more than 135 years of combined professional experience, the Givens Givens Sparks team of lawyers is dedicated to the advocacy and protection of their clients and their families. To learn more about Givens Givens Sparks, please visit: www.givenssparks.com

SOURCE Givens Givens Sparks

Related Links

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In SIRVA's 2018 report, almost 250 participants representing 235 organizations from a variety of industries took part in its mobility survey, offering insights on topics such as program demographics, customer employee experience, mobility partnerships, policy and delivery approach and organizational change.

Participant insights show that the role of mobility has changed for organizations in the past couple years. According to SIRVA's 2018 report, 57% of organizations have experienced a shift in the role of the global mobility function in the past 24 months. The shift was likely motivated by strategic business objectives requiring talent deployment, focus on compliance/risk awareness, and focus on the employee/customer experience.

Additionally, SIRVA's 2018 report covers the lump sum delivery approach extensively. A popular term in the relocation industry, lump sums provide an option to deliver support to a relocating employee while potentially minimizing administrative needs and providing more predictability to anticipated relocation costs. A lump sum approach will not be ideal for some employees but may provide benefits when leveraged appropriately.

For example, the core benefits lump sum is provided to assist with designated core relocation benefits that would have otherwise been provided as part of a reimbursement. On the other hand, flex benefits can also be part of a lump sum which provides an element of flexibility when used to assist with flex benefits offered in a relocation policy. Flex benefits include: spousal support, additional home finding trip, pet shipment and other extended temporary living benefits.

SIRVA's 2018 report indicates that 64% of organizations include a lump sum component in one or more available policy types (domestic and global). 37% of organizations offer a "lump sum only" package where the employee is not provided any additional support. When calculating the value of the lump sum, 29% of organizations base the amount on defined policy provisions (e.g., final move expenses based on home/host location and family size).

In this context, SIRVA's 2018 report outlines that a lump sum will differ from a miscellaneous relocation allowance. The miscellaneous relocation allowance is provided to the employee to cover incidental relocation costs that are not covered elsewhere in the policy. In contrast, a lump sum is defined as a cash payment to a relocating employee that is intended to cover all or a portion of relocation services that would otherwise be delivered directly to the employee.

Another important aspect of SIRVA's 2018 report deals with the partnerships between mobility teams and internal/external subject matter experts. These partnerships provide the option to leverage the knowledge, expertise, global reach and operational infrastructure of each stakeholder. Market entry, resource limitations, and cost minimization and transparency are areas where partnerships within the mobility space can be beneficial. As the role of mobility shifts from operational to consultative, there is a need to create capacity for the mobility team to focus on business partnering opportunities. SIRVA's 2018 report indicates that 63% of organizations believe they can improve the customer and/or employee mobility experience by maintaining program control internally.

These insights only scratch the surface of the data and findings in SIRVA's 2018 Mobility Report that are available for your organization. Additional topics covered include: mobility deployment drivers, mobility program demographics, organizational changes and more. To learn more, readers are encouraged to download a copy of the full report.

About SIRVA

SIRVA Worldwide Relocation and Moving is a global leader in moving and relocation services, offering solutions for mobility programs to companies of every size. With 58 locations in 177 countries, we offer unmatched global breadth supported by localized attention and innovative technology that strikes the right balance of self service and human support. From relocation and household goods to commercial moving and storage, our portfolio of Brands (SIRVA, Team Relocations, Allied, northAmerican, Allied Pickfords & SMARTBOX) provides the only integrated moving/relocation solution in the industry. By leveraging our global network, we deliver a superior experience that only a "one-stop shop" can provide.

Ryan Valentine

Marketing Coordinator

+1 630 570 3269

[email protected]

SOURCE SIRVA Worldwide Relocation & Moving
Ensuring the advancement of women in the boardroom for more than four decades

NEW YORK, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Spencer Stuart, a leading executive search and leadership advisory firm, is proud to recognize a new milestone in its board work, helping corporate boards around the world add more than 2,000 female directors.

For more than 40 years, Spencer Stuart has helped boards that share its commitment to increasing the diversity of perspectives in the boardroom find exceptional female directors. In 2018, 40 percent of the firm's global board of director placements were women. Gender diversity was a priority for boards across major regional markets:

In the United States , 47 percent of the directors Spencer Stuart helped place were women, outpacing the percentage of new female directors on S&P 500 boards (40 percent). One quarter (25 percent) of these female placements were CEOs/presidents, 18 percent were CFOs/former audit partners and 11 percent were group presidents/CEOs.

, 47 percent of the directors Spencer Stuart helped place were women, outpacing the percentage of new female directors on S&P 500 boards (40 percent). One quarter (25 percent) of these female placements were CEOs/presidents, 18 percent were CFOs/former audit partners and 11 percent were group presidents/CEOs. Forty-four percent (44%) of board director placements in Asia Pacific were women.

were women. In Europe , 35 percent of the firm's placements were women.

"We at Spencer Stuart have long recognized that diversity is important and makes for better decision making and richer debate in the boardroom," said Julie Hembrock Daum, leader of Spencer Stuart's North American Board Practice. "We're proud of our track record of helping companies build high-performing, diverse boards and celebrate the contributions and careers of the thousands of women we have helped place. Over the past five years, 35 percent of our global board placements were women, enabling us to double the number of women directors we helped place from 1,000 to 2,000 in just six years."

Spencer Stuart has tracked female director representation for more than two decades and in over 20 countries through its Spencer Stuart Board Index. Its research has found that several European countries lead the pack in gender diversity, with Norway (46%), France (43%) and Sweden (39%) having the highest female representation. It has been the global premier sponsor of the WomenCorporateDirectors Foundation since 2014.

"Throughout Europe, Spencer Stuart actively supports national diversity initiatives designed to improve the representation of women on boards" said Katherine Moos, leader of Spencer Stuart's Board and CEO practice in Europe. "We continue to host a variety of director education and governance development events that support our clients' diversity goals, such as Directors' Forum programs in the UK and Germany and prestigious Board Governance Forums in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland."

"We are seeing broad momentum in support of greater gender diversity, as business leaders, investors, corporate boards and others push for progress," said Ben Williams, chief executive officer of Spencer Stuart. "We have a long-standing commitment to supporting the advancement of diversity in the boardroom and in leadership teams, while helping organizations find the outstanding leaders who will have a lasting positive impact on their business."

To celebrate this milestone and ignite more progress in the boardroom, Spencer Stuart has put together a yearlong program that includes new research and local events around boardroom diversity.

The Spencer Stuart Board Practice helps boards around the world identify and recruit independent directors and provides advice to board chairs, CEOs and nominating committees on important governance issues. In the past year alone, the firm conducted more than 750 director searches. It hosts various director education and governance development initiatives in markets around the world.

About Spencer Stuart

At Spencer Stuart, we know how much leadership matters. We are trusted by organizations around the world to help them make the senior-level leadership decisions that have a lasting impact on their enterprises. Through our executive search, board and leadership advisory services, we help build and enhance high-performing teams for select clients ranging from major multinationals to emerging companies to nonprofit institutions.

Privately held since 1956, we focus on delivering knowledge, insight and results through the collaborative efforts of a team of experts  now spanning 57 offices, 30 countries and more than 50 practice specialties. Boards and leaders consistently turn to Spencer Stuart to help address their evolving leadership needs in areas such as senior-level executive search, board recruitment, board effectiveness, succession planning, in-depth senior management assessment and many other facets of organizational effectiveness. For more information on Spencer Stuart, please visit www.spencerstuart.com.

SOURCE Spencer Stuart

Related Links

http://www.spencerstuart.com


In 1972, Gordon took his family on vacation in Brownsville, TX, where it rained cats and dogs. True to his entrepreneurial spirit, he and his wife, Mickey, loaded the kids into the station wagon and drove around the muddy town in search for his next business idea. That's where he first laid eyes on the self storage industry, which wasn't even an industry to speak of at the time.

With that trip began a vision that would be realized with his first self storage facility on Rangeline Street in Columbia, Missouri. That facility is still a thriving part of the company's global portfolio todaya portfolio that includes more than 210 locations in three countries.

In the decades that have passed from that rainy vacation, Gordon became a founding member of the self storage industry and was recognized by his peers when he was inducted into the 2005 inaugural class of the Self Storage Hall of Fame.

StorageMart started with a single store in Columbia, MO and has grown to be the largest privately-owned, family operated storage company in the world. StorageMart is led by the Burnam family, who have been in the storage industry for four generations. Dedicated to providing easy, clean, and friendly service to each and every customer, StorageMart is also committed to giving back to the many communities it calls home through their Store It Forward program. In 2018, the company donated more than $281,000 to charities, in addition to donating over $520,000 in free rent to charities throughout the US, UK and Canada. Find out more at http://www.storage-mart.com.

Contact: Sarah Little

573.449.0091

[email protected]

SOURCE StorageMart

Related Links

https://www.storage-mart.com


Nikhil Handa to assume role of CFO of Supreme Cannabis.

to assume role of CFO of Supreme Cannabis. CFO Dimitre Naoumov to become Vice President, Finance.

TORONTO, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - The Supreme Cannabis Company, Inc. ("Supreme Cannabis" or the "Company") (TSX: FIRE) (OTCQX: SPRWF) (FRA: 53S1) today announced that the Company has appointed Mr. Nikhil Handa as the Company's new Chief Financial Officer. Current Chief Financial Officer, Dimitre Naoumov, will become the Company's Vice President, Finance.

As the Company continues to grow and execute on its business plan, Supreme Cannabis is realigning the leadership of its finance department to further accelerate its international and domestic growth initiatives. Mr. Handa, as CFO, will be responsible for the stewardship of Supreme Cannabis' finance department, with an emphasis on capital allocation planning, M&A, and transactional execution as the Company focuses on expanding operations and distribution of its premium cannabis products domestically and internationally.

Mr. Handa joins Supreme Cannabis with considerable cross-sector capital markets experience. Most recently he was the VP of Finance at Well.ca, a leading online destination for health, wellness, beauty and baby products. In that role he led the finance function, provided leadership across various aspects of operations and drove key strategic initiatives including the sale of Well.ca to McKesson Canada. Over the course of his career, Mr. Handa also held a variety of senior finance and operational roles at Restaurant Brands International, the fast food holding company created by the merger of Burger King and Tim Hortons and majority owned by 3G Capital. Additionally, he was a key member of the mergers and acquisition group of RBC Capital Markets.

"Mr. Handa brings a wealth of transactional experience, strategic leadership and financial acumen to our management team and will provide complimentary experience to our already strong finance team," said Navdeep Dhaliwal, CEO of Supreme Cannabis. "His addition will help ensure our Company is well-positioned to seize on available growth opportunities as we look to expand our portfolio of businesses throughout 2019."

Mr. Naoumov will continue to be a valuable member of the Company's senior leadership team in his role as VP, Finance. In this capacity, Mr. Naoumov will ensure the Company continues to implement and adopt the best practises in financial reporting, corporate governance, and on-going finance operational improvements.

"During Dimitre's tenure as CFO, Supreme Cannabis has undergone tremendous operational growth and executed on a number of significant long-term value creation initiatives. In particular, Dimitre played a key role in the successful implementation of an ERP system while maintaining best-in-class financial reporting," said Navdeep Dhaliwal, CEO of Supreme Cannabis. "As we embark on this next stage of global growth, Dimitre's expertise will be heavily relied upon to implement and adopt best practises in financial reporting, tax planning, and the integration of new assets."

About Supreme Cannabis

The Supreme Cannabis Company (TSX: FIRE) (OTCQX: SPRWF) (FRA: 53S1) is a Canadian publicly traded company committed to providing premium brands and products that proudly reflect its consumers, people and uniquely innovative culture. The Company's portfolio includes its wholly-owned subsidiary and multi-award-winning brand, 7ACRES.

7ACRES is a federally licensed producer of cannabis operating inside a 440,000-square-foot facility in Kincardine, Ontario. 7ACRES is dedicated to providing consumers with a premium-quality product that recognizes its customers are informed, discerning and value a brand and culture that aligns with their principles. 7ACRES brand success has been reflected in its multiple award wins, including the "Brand of the Year" award at the 2018 Canadian Cannabis Awards, and in provincial supply agreements where 7ACRES' product is consistently listed in the highest brand category available to recreational consumers.

The Company's growing portfolio also includes an equity investment and long-term global distribution partnership with Lesotho-based Medigrow for the exporting of medical-grade cannabis oil.

The Supreme Cannabis Company has been a leading innovator in the sector including the design of growing facilities and development of operational excellence metrics. We are confident that together with our flagship brand, proprietary technology and products, truly unique culture, and industry-leading team, we will deliver our shareholders consistent long-term value creation.

Stay Connected:

For more information, please visit The Supreme Cannabis Company and 7ACRES websites.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements made in this press release may constitute forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. These statements may relate to anticipated events or results including statements that are not historical facts. Particularly, information regarding our expectations of future results, targets, performance achievements, prospects or opportunities is forward-looking information. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "expect", "believe", "estimate", "plan", "could", "should", "would", "outlook", "forecast", "anticipate", "foresee", "continue" or the negative of these terms or variations of them or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements are current as of the date they are made and are based on applicable estimates and assumptions made by us at the relevant time in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that we believe are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. However, we do not undertake to update any such forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities laws in Canada. There can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. Many factors could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements or future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, the factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Information Form dated October 2, 2018 ("AIF"). A copy of the AIF and the Company's other publicly filed documents can be accessed under the Company's profile on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval ("SEDAR") at www.sedar.com. The Company cautions that the list of risk factors and uncertainties described in the AIF is not exhaustive and other factors could also adversely affect its results. Readers are urged to consider the risks, uncertainties and assumptions carefully in evaluating the forward-looking information and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information.

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.

SOURCE The Supreme Cannabis Company, Inc.
HSINCHU, Taiwan, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- TaiwanJ Pharmaceuticals has signed a US$26 million contract with Newsoara Biopharma to license out its drug candidate JKB-122 for further development in Asia. On March 2nd, 2019, TaiwanJ announced that its JKB-122, an effective phase 2 nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) drug candidate, had been successfully licensed out to Newsoara Biopharma Co. Ltd, a company located in Shanghai. Newsoara Biopharma, known for its capability of drug developments, will be responsible for the clinical development and market commercialization of JKB-122 in Asia, except Taiwan.

According to the agreement, TaiwanJ will receive US$2 million of upfront and up to US$24 million of milestone payments, which will be paid when each milestone in the development and commercialization process is achieved. The two companies are also working together to conduct preclinical research for JKB-122's second generation compound JKB-133. In addition, TaiwanJ will maintain its right of global clinical development and subsequent worldwide market commercialization.

JKB-122 is a small molecule and a long-acting TLR4 antagonist showing anti-fibrotic, immuno-modulating, and anti-inflammatory effects for the treatments of chronic liver diseases including Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH), and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH).

Meanwhile, global market research firm Research And Markets predicted that the NASH therapeutic market will grow at a CAGR of 58.4 % over 2021-2025, estimated from US$1.17 billion (2017) to 21.47 billion (2025). NASH is a serious liver disease affecting up to 10% of the adult population in the United States. This chronic condition is hallmarked by metabolic dysfunction and excessive fat accumulation in the liver, or steatosis, which may promote inflammation and hepatocellular injury, and in turn progress to cirrhosis that ultimately results with liver transplantation as the only viable treatment option.

About TaiwanJ Pharmaceuticals

TaiwanJ is a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of small molecules for unmet medical needs such as organ fibrosis, chronic organ inflammation of metabolic, autoimmune and infectious etiologies. In addition, novel steroid-sparing therapies for allergy/asthma are being pursued. The company is developing a rich pipeline of new chemical entities (NCEs) for therapy to address chronic liver diseases and cancers.

For additional information on TaiwanJ, please visit the Company's website at www.taiwanj.com for English http://www.taiwanj.com/pages/page_index_en, where you can review the Company's SEC filings, press releases, announcements and events.

Forward-Looking Statement

Various statements in this release concerning TaiwanJ's future expectations constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Taiwan Securities and Exchange Act. These statements include words such as "may," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and "intends," and describe opinions about future events. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of TaiwanJ to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these risks are: changes in relationships with collaborators; the impact of competitive products and technological changes; risks relating to the development of new products; and the ability to implement technological improvements. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent TaiwanJ's views only as of the date of this release and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. TaiwanJ does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements unless required by law.

Contact

TaiwanJ Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.

[email protected]

+886-36587721 X205

SOURCE TaiwanJ Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.taiwanj.com


As a prestigious international brand exhibition in China's lighting industry, GILF has become a regular destination for the professional audience of more than 110 countries and regions around the world. This year, the fair will continue to expand the connection between the exhibition and stores. With 8 venues and an exhibition area of over 1,500,000 sqm in total, it will gather 2,000+ famous lighting enterprises, providing a convenient and cost-effective one-stop lighting business platform for suppliers, buyers, distributors and designers.

GILF focuses on domestic sales, but also takes into account export sales. The fair will cover the upstream, midstream and downstream of the lighting industry chain with many products. Major exhibitors will focus on new products, attracting domestic and foreign professional buyers with preferential prices, attractive discounts, and excellent quality, creating a cost-effective procurement environment.

Creating the Strongest Voice in the Industry; Strong Purchasing and Intelligence Atmosphere

This fair focuses on smart home lighting and will set up a smart home lighting area, which fully meets the needs of the intelligent era and promotes the development of smart cities. It creates a more avant-garde and high-quality life with more high-end intelligent lighting products. A broad set of advanced intelligent lighting products are provided, where there are thousands of new products on the scene, the buyers can also visit the manufacturer's production base.

The fair will gather a large number of high-quality businesses and domestic advanced manufacturing technologies to focus on individualized production and intelligent manufacturing application solutions. Many exhibitors have integrated market development needs. Among them, exhibitors in the main venue are mainly innovative and small and medium-sized enterprises. At present, the fair has attracted many well-known enterprises: Oman Lighting, Dark Energy Power, Shanghai Bright Power Semiconductor, ATTA Lighting, Vanhi IOT, Cayon Lighting, Sanxiang Lighting and Chuanglite Lighting. In terms of manufacturing and supporting zones, it has attracted famous enterprises such as PTC, Everfine, and Dongya Machinery.

Purchasing Carnival and Pre-registration

GILF has integrated with the B2B website (www.denggle.com), presenting 20,000+ selected quality products and 200,000 professional quality buyers, covering 6 continents and 34 provincial administrative regions, and creating all year round online fair.

Online pre-registration is now available through the official website of GILF, DENGGLE.COM, or the WeChat official account of GILF. Through pre-registration, people can not only save RMB100 on the ticket and enter the lighting fair by simply providing the mobile phone number, but also can enjoy the VIP services provided by the sponsors, such as receiving e-mails about the latest information of the GILF.

GILF is not only a platform for business between exhibitors and visitors, but also the vane of industry development. It is an international must-see annual event in the lighting industry. Look forward to your arrival at the fair on March 18, 2019!

Website: www.denggle.com

Facebook: @guzhenlightingfair

SOURCE China (Guzhen) International Lighting Fair

Related Links

http://www.denggle.com


CHICAGO, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Four colleges within the nonprofit TCS Education System network have been announced to Argosy students as a transfer option. Pacific Oaks College, Saybrook University, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and The Santa Barbara & Ventura Colleges of Law offer a number of the same or similar programs as Argosy University.

"Nobody wants students to be negatively impacted by this unfortunate situation. Our goal is to try to provide them assistance quickly so that there is as little uncertainty as possible about how they will finish their degree," TCS President Dr. Michael Horowitz explains. "We are working closely with the U.S. Department of Education, the Western Senior College and University Commission, state regulators, and Argosy University to create a seamless pathway for Argosy students to transfer into one of our colleges."

In major metropolitan areas across the country (Chicago, San Diego, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Dallas, and more) and online, TCS Education System's network of colleges have programs Argosy students needin psychology, education, nursing, law, business, and more.

For Argosy students who want more information about transferring, visit https://transfer.tcsedsystem.edu/.

About TCS Education System

TCS Education System (TCS) is a nonprofit system of colleges that was launched in 2009 to advance student success and community impact. Currently, the System spans five colleges, campus locations across 12 cities, and a community of more than 30 global academic partners to fulfill the aspirations of 9,000 students annually. The TCS model provides its colleges with the scale of resources necessary to succeed, including admissions and enrollment operations, finance and accounting, information and learning technology, marketing, strategic planning, compliance and legal services, human resources, and global engagement among other areas of professional expertise. The System was founded on the belief that by sharing administrative resources and allowing colleges to concentrate on providing students with quality, social change-focused education, it can give each member of its collective community the power to change the world. TCS colleges include The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Pacific Oaks College & Children's School, The Santa Barbara & Ventura Colleges of Law, Dallas Nursing Institute, and Saybrook University. To learn more, visit www.tcsedsystem.edu.

SOURCE TCS Education System

Related Links

http://www.tcsedsystem.edu


WILTON MANORS, Fla., March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On February 22, 2019, the Urban League of Broward County received the Children's Services Council of Broward County Collective Impact of Youth Award at the 9th Annual Community Care Plan Non-Profit Awards presented by Signature Grand and hosted by 2-1-1 Broward. Wilton Manors Police Chief Paul O'Connell has been a member of the task force for many years, fostering relationships between youth and law enforcement.

Nominated alongside two other Broward-based organizations, the Urban League of Broward County was selected as the award recipient due to their creation of the Justice Task Force. "Since the inception of the Justice Task Force, my fellow members and I have engaged more than 550 community participants through community-wide events," said Paul O'Connell, Chief of Police for the Wilton Manors Police Department.

Founded in 1975 as an affiliate of the National Urban League, the Urban League of Broward County is a community-based organization dedicated to empowering communities and changing lives in the areas of education, jobs, housing, and health. For over 40 years, the Urban League of Broward County has worked with partners to create a fair shot at success for thousands of people and youth in Broward County.

Chief O'Connell has worked in law enforcement for more than 40 years and has led the City of Wilton Manors Police Department since 2011. In addition to being selected by the Anti-Defamation League for its 2013 ADL Florida Excellence in Law Enforcement Award, Chief O'Connell is also a member of the Florida Bar and has practiced law in the areas of Labor Law and Insurance Defense.

To learn more about the City of Wilton Manors Police Department, visit http://bit.ly/WiltonManorsPD. To learn more about the Urban League of Broward County visit https://www.ulbroward.org/.

Officer Jennifer Bickhardt

Public Information Officer

954-866-5848 (Cell)

[email protected]

SOURCE Wilton Manors Police Department
XUZHOU, China, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading Chinese construction machinery manufacturer XCMG is celebrating female engineers and their accomplishments on the occasion of the International Women's Day on March 8.

Currently, there are around 600 female engineers and technicians holding positions in both of XCMG's production and research and development departments.

"At XCMG, we stress diversity and are committed to establishing an inclusive culture that values every employee equally. We are very honored and proud to have so many talented women working in the construction machinery industry who've made significant contributions towards XCMG's leading position in technological innovation and manufacturing, as well as pushing the company to do better and better," noted Wang Min, the Chairman of XCMG.

Sun Li, a 47-year-old female senior engineer who joined XCMG in 1994, has headed designs of XCMG crawler cranes in the past two decades, including the 4,000-ton XGC88000 crawler crane that excelled in the market for its hoisting capacity, working condition coverage, safety and reliability, transportation efficiency and economic applicability.

"XCMG created its first 50-ton crawler crane with proprietary intellectual property rights the same year I entered the company, but that was way behind the world's top manufacturers who already had 800-ton products. We swore that we would make Chinese cranes that could compete with the best brands globally and I'm very fortunate to be part of the great adventure," said Sun, who is currently the Assistant General Manager of XCMG Machinery.

She was the chief designer of the world's largest 3,600-ton crawler crane project in 2010. Her team filled multiple technical gaps within months, and with 46 national patents and 18 patents for invention, the model brought Chinese hoisting machineries to a leading level internationally.

Sun is also a mentor who has helped many young engineers to grow and achieve success. In 2011, Sun guided young R&D teams to develop the new generation K-series crawler crane that led to major developments in the industry.

"As an engineer, I was given not only trust to make the right products, but also the responsibility to break new ground in the international market with our innovative, advanced and durable products," noted Sun.

For more information, please visit: www.xcmg.com, or XCMG pages on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram.

SOURCE XCMG

Related Links

http://www.xcmg.com


TSX: G NYSE: GG (All dollar amounts in $US)

VANCOUVER, March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - GOLDCORP INC. (TSX: G,NYSE: GG), Yamana Gold Inc. (TSX:YRI;NYSE:AUY) ("Yamana") and Glencore International AG (LSE:GLEN; JSE:GLN) ("Glencore") (collectively the "Parties") are pleased to announce the signing of an integration agreement (the "Agreement") pursuant to which the Agua Rica project would be developed and operated using the existing infrastructure and facilities of Minera Alumbrera Limited ("Alumbrera") in the Catamarca Province of Argentina.

The Parties believe the integration of the Agua Rica project and the Alumbrera mine (the "Integrated Project") has significant merit given the proximity of the assets, and the potential to realize significant synergies by taking full advantage of existing infrastructure associated with the Alumbrera mine for the development and operation of Agua Rica. Agua Rica hosts a large scale, long life copper mineral resource with associated gold, silver, and molybdenum while the Alumbrera infrastructure is of significant scale and configuration that is ideally suited for the integration plan. Preliminary studies show the potential for a mine life in excess of 25 years at average annual production of approximately 236,000 tonnes (520 million pounds) of copper-equivalent metal(1), including the contributions of gold, molybdenum, and silver, for the first 10 years of operation. This is based on the Agua Rica mineral reserve(2) estimated to contain proven and probable mineral reserves of approximately 4.5 million tonnes (10 billion pounds) of copper and 6.5 million ounces of gold contained in approximately 910 million tonnes of ore.

The Agreement represents a significant step forward towards the optimization of Agua Rica. The Alumbrera infrastructure, including the existing infrastructure for concentrate logistics located in northern Argentina between the mine site and the port, presents a unique opportunity to enhance project economics while also reducing both the project complexity and environmental footprint.

The Parties have established a Technical Committee to direct the review and evaluation of the Integrated Project. It is expected that a pre-feasibility study for the Integrated Project will be completed in 2019 and that a full feasibility study with updated mineral reserve, production and project cost estimates will be completed by 2020. This will provide the framework for the submission of a new Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") to the authorities of the Catamarca Province and for the continued engagement with local stakeholders and communities.

(All amounts are expressed in United States dollars unless otherwise indicated.) (1) Copper equivalent metal includes copper with gold, molybdenum, and silver converted to copper-equivalent metal based on the following metal price assumptions: US$6,614/tonne for copper, US$1,250/oz for gold, US$24,250/tonne for molybdenum, and US$18/oz for silver. (2) As of December 31, 2018, further details including tonnes, grade and assumptions are presented at the end of this press release.

The Parties have been working together with key government stakeholders to support a path forward for the evaluation and development of the Integrated Project. An agreement has been reached with the Catamarca state mining company, Catamarca Minera y Energetica Sociedad del Estado ("CAMYEN"), in respect to CAMYEN's participation in the Integrated Project. The Catamarca Province has approved a closure plan for the progressive reclamation of the Alumbrera mine that synchronizes with the advancement of the Integrated Project and is funded with existing cash of Alumbrera on reserve for reclamation activities. Yacimientos Mineros de Agua de Dionisio ("YMAD") has indicated its support for the use of the Alumbrera infrastructure for the Integrated Project. Finally, the National Government implemented a mechanism that was pending since the 2003 reform of the Argentine Mining Investments Law, which sets out the framework for refund of amounts paid in excess of a mining project's overall tax burden, at a federal level. This supports fiscal stability of mining projects in country, and the Integrated Project specifically, as it advances.

Transaction Overview

The Agreement provides the Parties with a path to a full integration of the Agua Rica project and the Alumbrera mine technically and legally. The ownership of the Parties upon the consummation of the integration structure is set forth below:

Party Percentage Ownership Interest Yamana 56.25% Glencore 25.00% Goldcorp 18.75%

In respect of the contribution of the Parties, Yamana will contribute its current 100% interest in the Agua Rica project and its 12.5% interest in Alumbrera, while Glencore and Goldcorp will contribute their respective 50% and 37.5% interests in Alumbrera. Full integration is expected to occur with the filing of the full feasibility study and EIA. The integration transaction structure will be determined based on the final construction financing plan, which may include completing a business transaction or other monetization event involving one or more third parties with respect to the Integration Project, and which may include a going public transaction. During this period the Parties will further advance the technical work to facilitate the permitting and dialogue with communities and stakeholders, perform confirmatory due diligence, finalize binding agreements with government stakeholders and finalize the legal integration structure.

Qualified Person

Scientific and technical information contained in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Ivan Mullany, FAusIMM, Senior Vice President, Technical Services for Goldcorp. Ivan Mullany is an employee of Goldcorp and a "Qualified Person" ("QP") as defined by Canadian Securities Administrators' National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Mineral Reserve Statement, Agua Rica Project



Proven Mineral Reserves Probable Mineral Reserves Total Proven & Probable Tonnes Grade Contained Tonnes Grade Contained Tonnes Grade Contained (000's) (g/t) oz. (000's) (000's) (g/t) oz. (000's) (000's) (g/t) oz. (000's) Gold 384,871 0.25 3,080 524,055 0.21 3,479 908,926 0.22 6,559 Silver 384,871 3.7 46,176 524,055 3.3 56,070 908,926 3.5 102,246





















Tonnes Grade Contained Tonnes Grade Contained Tonnes Grade Contained

(000's) (%) lbs (mm) (000's) (%) lbs (mm) (000's) (%) lbs (mm) Copper 384,871 0.56 4,779 524,055 0.43 5,011 908,926 0.49 9,790 Moly 384,871 0.033 279 524,055 0.030 350 908,926 0.031 629

Mineral Resource Statement, Agua Rica Project



Measured Mineral Resources Indicated Mineral Resources Total Measured & Indicated

Tonnes Grade Contained Tonnes Grade Contained Tonnes Grade Contained

(000's) (g/t) oz. (000's) (000's) (g/t) oz. (000's) (000's) (g/t) oz. (000's) Gold 27,081 0.14 120 173,917 0.14 776 200,998 0.14 896 Silver 27,081 2.4 2,042 173,917 2.9 16,158 200,998 2.8 18,200





















Tonnes Grade Contained Tonnes Grade Contained Tonnes Grade Contained

(000's) (%) lbs (mm) (000's) (%) lbs (mm) (000's) (%) lbs (mm) Copper 27,081 0.45 266 173,917 0.38 1,447 200,998 0.39 1,714 Moly 27,081 0.049 29 173,917 0.037 142 200,998 0.039 172



Inferred Mineral Resources

Tonnes Grade Contained

(000's) (g/t) oz. (000's) Gold 642,110 0.12 2,444 Silver 642,110 2.3 48,124









Tonnes Grade Contained

(000's) (%) lbs (mm) Copper 642,110 0.34 4,853 Molybdenum 642,110 0.034 480

Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource Reporting Notes

1. Metal Price, Cut-off Grade, Metallurgical Recovery:

Mineral Reserves Mineral Resources Cut-off grade at 0.2% copper Cut-off grade at 0.2% copper Price assumption: $1,000/oz gold, $2.25/lb copper, $17.00/oz silver and $12.00/lb molybdenum

Metallurgical recoveries are 84.9% for copper, 52.7% for gold, 67.6% for

silver, 65.9% for zinc and 68.0% for molybdenum

2. All Mineral Resources are reported exclusive of Mineral Reserves. 3. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. 4. Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources are reported as of December 31, 2018. 5. Due to rounding, numbers may not add up precisely to the totals. 6. Mineral Reserves QP, Enrique Munoz, MAusIMM, Registered Member of Chilean Mining Commission and Mineral Resources QP, Felipe Machado de Araujo, Registered Member of Chilean Mining Commission.

About Goldcorp

Goldcorp is a senior gold producer focused on responsible mining practices with safe, low-cost production from a high-quality portfolio of mines.

About Yamana

Yamana is a Canadian-based gold, silver and copper producer with a significant portfolio comprised of operating mines, development stage projects, and exploration and mineral properties throughout the Americas, mainly in Canada, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Yamana plans to continue to build on this base through expansion and optimization initiatives at existing operating mines, development of new mines, the advancement of its exploration properties and, at times, by targeting other consolidation opportunities with a primary focus in the Americas.

About Glencore

Glencore is one of the world's largest global diversified natural resource companies and a major producer and marketer of more than 90 commodities. The Glencore group's operations comprise around 150 mining and metallurgical sites, oil production assets and agricultural facilities.

With a strong footprint in both established and emerging regions for natural resources, Glencore's industrial and marketing activities are supported by a global network of more than 90 offices located in over 50 countries.

Glencore's customers are industrial consumers, such as those in the automotive, steel, power generation, oil and food processing sectors. Glencore also provides financing, logistics and other services to producers and consumers of commodities. Glencore's companies employ around 158,000 people, including contractors.

Glencore is proud to be a member of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and the International Council on Mining and Metals. Glencore is an active participant in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Goldcorp

Investors

Shawn Campbell, Director, Investor Relations t: 800 567-6223

E-mail: [email protected]

Media

Christine Marks, Director, Corporate Communications t: 604 696-3050

E-mail: [email protected]

Yamana

Investors and Media

Steve Parsons, SVP, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

t: 416-815-0220 or 1-888-809-0925

Email: [email protected]

Glencore

Investors

Martin Fewings t: +41 41 709 2880 m: +41 79 737 5642

E-mail: [email protected]

Ash Lazenby t: +41 41 709 2714 m: +41 79 543 3804

E-mail: [email protected]

Media

Charles Watenphul t: +41 41 709 24 62 m: +41 79 904 33 20

E-mail: [email protected]

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the United States Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, or in releases made by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, all as may be amended from time to time, and "forward-looking information" under the provisions of applicable Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Goldcorp. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the Agua Rica project, and the Alumbrera mine and the proposed integration of the projects; estimates of future production, including expected annual production range and Reserve base; estimates of future capital expenditures; estimates of savings and efficiencies, including estimated Full Potential cost and efficiency improvements and anticipated benefits; expectations regarding the targeted internal rate of return; expected financial flexibility and balance sheet strength; expectations regarding future exploration and the development, growth and potential of Goldcorp's operations, project pipeline and investments, including, without limitation, project returns; expectations of future dividends and returns to shareholders; expectations regarding potential synergies and benefits; expectations of future plans and benefits. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" , "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" , "believes", or variations or comparable language of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of factors and assumptions that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances or achievements of Goldcorp to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which Goldcorp will operate in the future, the price of gold, anticipated costs and ability to achieve goals. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, among others, risks relating to the development, exploration and construction plans for the proposed integrated project being met, delays or failure to obtain the required approvals; changes to the current scientific and technical information; permitting, development, operations and expansion of Goldcorp's operations and projects being consistent with current expectations and mine plans, including without limitation receipt of export approvals; political developments in any jurisdiction in which Goldcorp operate being consistent with its current expectations; planning and integration assumptions; gold price volatility, discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and mineral resources and metallurgical recoveries, mining operational and development risks, litigation risks, regulatory restrictions (including environmental regulatory restrictions and liability), changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls or regulations and/or change in the administration of laws, policies and practices, expropriation or nationalization of property and political or economic developments in Canada, the United States and other jurisdictions in which the Company does or may carry on business in the future, delays, suspension and technical challenges associated with capital projects, higher prices for fuel, steel, power, labour and other consumables, currency fluctuations, the speculative nature of gold exploration, the global economic climate, dilution, share price volatility, competition, loss of key employees, additional funding requirements and defective title to mineral claims or property, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Description of the Business  Risk Factors" in Goldcorp's most recent annual information form available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Although Goldcorp has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. Except as otherwise indicated by Goldcorp, these statements do not reflect the potential impact of any non-recurring or other special items or of any disposition, monetization, merger, acquisition, other business combination or other transaction that may be announced or that may occur after the date hereof. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of Goldcorp's operating environment. Goldcorp does not intend or undertake to publicly update any forward-looking statements that are included in this document, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Goldcorp Inc.

Related Links

http://www.goldcorp.com


According to refractive specialist Dr. John Doane of Discover Vision Center in Kansas City, the epithelium is the outermost layer of the cornea and is known to actively remodel itself in response to subtle changes in corneal shape due to pathologies such as early keratoconus that may be missed if using corneal topography alone. "With CIRRUS' Epithelial Thickness Mapping, I can now better identify eligible patients for refractive surgery, and I can also monitor the cornea's post-surgical healing response," Doane said.

ETM with CIRRUS provides a detailed nine-millimeter map of epithelial thickness that enables more thorough assessment of patients before refractive surgery, allows monitoring of the cornea's response to treatment, and aids in managing patients with ocular surface disorders such as dry eye and progressive corneal diseases such as keratoconus. With ETM, patients can expect a quick, comfortable non-contact exam that takes less than 1-second.

"The addition of this new software is another testament of our continued commitment to providing our customers innovative platforms so they can provide their patients the highest level of care," said Jim Mazzo, Global President of Ophthalmic Devices at Carl Zeiss Meditec. "From early detection to post-operative evaluation, we're here to support our customers, every step of the way," he added.

"ZEISS has been at the forefront of industry-defining advancements that have made CIRRUS HD-OCT the industry's standard of care for identifying retinal and glaucoma disease," said Dr. Ludwin Monz, President, and CEO of Carl Zeiss Meditec. "This milestone is yet another example of the strength and breadth of our portfolio, expanding CIRRUS' anterior segment capabilities to serve the needs of all eye care professionals."

ZEISS will showcase the new ETM feature in the latest CIRRUS Software release, along with other flagship products in Booth LP4003 at the Vision Expo East in New York from March 21-24, 2019.

For more information, visit https://www.zeiss.com/meditec.

Brief profile

Carl Zeiss Meditec AG (ISIN: DE 0005313704), which is listed on MDAX and TecDax of the German stock exchange, is one of the world's leading medical technology companies. The Company supplies innovative technologies and application-oriented solutions designed to help doctors improve the quality of life of their patients. The Company offers complete solutions, including implants and consumables, to diagnose and treat eye diseases. The Company creates innovative visualization solutions in the field of microsurgery.

With approximately 3,050 employees worldwide, the Group generated revenue of 1,280.9m in fiscal year 2017/18 (to 30 September).

The Group's head office is located in Jena, Germany, and it has subsidiaries in Germany and abroad; more than 50 percent of its employees are based in the USA, Japan, Spain and France. The Center for Application and Research (CARIn) in Bangalore, India and the Carl Zeiss Innovations Center for Research and Development in Shanghai, China, strengthen the Company's presence in these rapidly developing economies. Around 41 percent of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG's shares are in free float. The remaining approx. 59 percent are held by Carl Zeiss AG, one of the world's leading groups in the optical and optoelectronic industries.

For more information visit our website at: www.zeiss.com/med

SOURCE ZEISS

Related Links

http://www.zeiss.com


Bogota, March 8 : The top envoy to Colombia of Venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president on Thursday rejected the possibility of a Colombian military intervention in the neighbouring country.

"The last thing you want to see is a Colombian military incursion ... in Venezuela. That would mark us for the rest of our days. So you have to manage these things with a lot of prudence," Humberto Calderon Berti said at the "What Will Happen in Venezuela?" forum, organised by Colombian weekly magazine Semana.

"We're in this neighbourhood and we can't move away. Everything we do much be done with extreme prudence," he said, reports Efe.

Calderon said his calls for caution have prompted "attacks from radicals," who call him an "old dinosaur" when he expresses opposition to potential military action.

Juan Guaido, the speaker of Venezuela's opposition-controlled but toothless National Assembly (unicameral legislature), declared himself that country's interim president in late January, saying that leftist head of state Nicolas Maduro's re-election victory in May 2018 was fraudulent.

Around 50 countries, including the US, Germany, the UK, Colombia and Brazil, recognise Guaido as acting president and are calling for new presidential balloting.

Russia, China and India are among the dozens of nations that still regard Maduro as the legitimate president of the South American nation.

Asked about what has happened with Venezuela's embassy building in Bogota after Maduro's move late last month to sever ties with Colombia, Calderon said it is now completely empty.

Maduro broke off bilateral ties amid a row over the opposition's unsuccessful attempt to bring in tons of humanitarian aid.

Venezuela's government has refused to accept that assistance, saying it is a Trojan horse and that he would be paving the way for a US-led military intervention if he did not use his army to block it from entering from Colombia and Brazil.

Calderon said his duties as Guaido's envoy to Colombia include extending a hand to Venezuelans living there.

He also expressed concern for unaccompanied children who have crossed the border, as well as the situation of kids who were born in Colombia to undocumented parents and who "aren't Colombians and aren't Venezuelans."
London, March 8 : UK Prime Minister Theresa May will urge the European Union (EU) to help get her Brexit deal through the Commons by agreeing legally binding changes to the controversial backstop.

On Friday, she'll say the EU's actions will "have a big impact on the outcome" when MPs vote on it next week.

But Labour's Sir Keir Starmer said it was now "clear" the PM "will not be able to deliver the changes she promised to her failed Brexit deal".

The EU says the UK must come forward with new ideas to break the deadlock. The UK is due to leave on 29 March, the BBC reported.

May will visit workers in Grimsby, Lincolnshire on Friday, days before the second "meaningful vote" in the House of Commons on the withdrawal deal she has negotiated with the EU.

She will tell them: "Just as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice too.

"We are both participants in this process. It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal. We are working with them but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote."

The first vote, in January, saw the deal rejected by 432 votes to 202, the largest defeat for a sitting government in history.

May is seeking legally-enforceable changes to the "backstop" -- a controversial insurance policy designed to prevent physical checks on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland -- but there have been few visible signs of progress.
San Francisco, March 8 : Microsoft on Thursday said that its Windows 10 operating system (OS) is now running on more than 800 million active devices worldwide, one step closer to its goal of 1 billion Windows 10 users.

"Thank you to all our customers and partners for helping us achieve 800 million Windows 10 devices and the highest customer satisfaction in the history of Windows," Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Modern Life and Devices Group tweeted.

It took almost three years and eight months for Windows 10 to reach the goal of 800 million after it was released in July 2015, Xinhua news agency reported.

Microsoft had originally expected to attain the goal of having Windows 10 installed on 1 billion devices globally in three years after its release, but it missed the target last year.

The company announced in September 2018 that over 700 million devices were running Windows 10, indicating it had won 100 million new users in less than six months.
Washington, March 8 : Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, was sentenced to 47 months in federal prison for tax and bank fraud on Thursday, much shorter than expected.

Prosecutors had recommended a sentence between 19.5 to 24 years behind bars, reports Xinhua news agency.

In a federal courtroom in Virginia on Thursday afternoon, an attorney from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office said Manafort "failed to accept responsibility and is not remorseful."

"The last two years have been the most difficult of my life," Manafort said in court before US District Judge T.S. Ellis handed down the sentence. "To say I am humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement."

The charges against him stemmed from Mueller's ongoing investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and possible ties with Trump's campaign. Russia had repeatedly denied the allegation while Trump called the probe a "witch-hunt."
Madrid, March 8 : A flight manned by an all-women crew, musical shows composed and performed by feminist activists, awards and protests calling for gender equality are some of the events set to mark International Women's Day on Friday across the world.

Female workers in France were entitled to down tools at 3.40 p.m., the time when it is estimated that they work for free owing to the gender pay gap, reports Efe news.

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to present an award named after the late former minister Simone Veil, who was known for fighting for women's rights.

In Spain, both female and male workers can choose to strike for an hour or eight hours, according to different trade unions, and in Italy strikes called by the feminist association "Non una di menos" (Not one less) will affect the transport, health and education sectors.

Portugal, Greece and Belgium will see their first strikes organised by their respective feminist groups and trade unions.

Marches will take place across Europe, including in Russia, Belarus, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.

Rallies were expected to highlight policies that go against gender equality and that are promoted or defended by governments, including those of Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro and Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines.

In Brazil, protests are set to take place in 25 cities, including Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo.

Besides calling for gender equality, participants are also expected to denounce the reform of the pension system under far-right President Bolsonaro as well as demand justice for Marielle Franco, an activist who was killed almost one year ago.

In the Philippines, a group of feminist activists named "Gabriela" has called a march against misogyny and government policies that promote violence, such as Duterte's so-called war on drugs.

Some 8,000 women were expected to attend that march and other protests are slated to take place across the country.

In Bangkok, there will be a Fem Film Festival as well as a "Women in gastronomy" event featuring female chefs, including Cristina Bowerman.

In China, the National Grand Theatre will host a special Women's Day concert, while in Uruguay the Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra will perform music composed only by women under the direction of Spanish conductor, Isabel Cortes.

A half-day strike will take place in Uruguay, along with a march in the afternoon.

Other initiatives will take place in Africa, including a protest in Kenya and a presentation in Ghana by the National Corporate Gender Diversity Index to promote equality in business, while in Malawi the "She Is Equal" awards will be given out to recognise contributions by women to communities Ethiopia, the only African country with a female President, will mark the day with a flight of its national airline, Ethiopian Airlines, manned by an entirely-female crew, from Addis Ababa to the Norwegian capital Oslo.

And in Lebanon, the Lebanese Forces party will present a bill to criminalise rape within marriage.
Washington, March 8 : Adult film star Stormy Daniels' lawsuit against US President Donald Trump over a non-disparagement agreement has been tossed out of federal court.

On Thursday, US District Judge James Otero said the suit, which sought to invalidate the $130,000 agreement that kept Daniels from speaking publicly about her allegations of an affair with Trump ahead of the 2016 election, "lacks subject matter jurisdiction", CNN reported.

By saying that the lawsuit should be sent back to the California Superior Court, where it was first filed, Otero made it clear the case was over.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has claimed that she and Trump had an affair in 2006, after he married First Lady Melania Trump and she gave birth to their son, Barron.

Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.

Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, arranged the agreement and paid Daniels $130,000.

He admitted in federal court that "in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office", he kept information that would have harmed Trump from becoming public during the 2016 election cycle.

He has since said that the candidate was Trump.

Cohen has een sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to nine charges, including campaign-finance violations related to payments he arranged to silence women who claimed affairs with Trump -- including Daniels.

Trump has also denied having affairs with the women.

Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti told CNN on Thursday night that by dismissing the case, the judge essentially gave Daniels what she wanted all along -- to be able to tell her story without the fear of being sued for millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, Trump's attorney, Charles Harder, told CNN: "The US District Court confirmed today that the claim against the President has no basis in law.

"Combined with the attorneys' fees and sanctions award in the President's favour totalling $293,000, the President has achieved total victory."
Lahore, March 8 : Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader Hafiz Saeed has been barred from leading prayers at Lahore's Jamia Masjid Qadsia as part of the Pakistan government's crackdown on terror groups, the media reported on Friday.

The development on Thursday night comes as Pakistani law enforcement agencies took 121 people into preventive detention and seized 182 madrasas earlier in the day.

Police contingents were dispatched to the Jamia Qadsia Masjid to help the administration take control, Dawn news reported citing an informed source as saying.

The police also locked the JuD's and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation's (FIF) Chauburji headquarters late Thursday night.

The FIF is a charity wing of the JuD.

The official said that security had been tightened at the outfit's Muridke Markaz office where the government has appointed six administrators.

The crackdown was launched on Tuesday amid tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad after the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group claimed responsibility for the February 14 suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 40 CRPF troopers.

On Tuesday, the brother and son of JeM leader Masood Azhar along with 42 others affiliated with the banned outfit were arrested.

The next day, at least two seminaries and assets belonging to the JuD and FIF were taken over by the authorities.
New Delhi, March 8 : President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday greeted the nation's women on the occasion of International Women's Day.

"On International Women's Day, greetings to women in India and across the world. Women are the sheet-anchor of society, an inspiration for their families and for our nation. Let us strive to ensure equality of opportunity for every women and every girl child," the President tweeted.

The Prime Minister saluted the spirit of 'Nari Shakti' (female power).

"On International Women's Day, we salute our indomitable 'Nari Shakti'. We are proud to have taken numerous decisions that have furthered women empowerment. Every Indian is proud of the stupendous accomplishments of women in various spheres. #NewIndia4NariShakti," Modi said in a tweet.

In a video message, the Prime Minister hailed women for making strides in all fields and taking the country forward.

International Women's Day is celebrated annually on March 8. This year's theme is 'Balance for Better'.
United Nations, March 8 : India has called for a "UN-led consensus on zero tolerance on terrorism", while condemning Pakistan's use of cross-border insurgency as an instrument of state policy.

"We all need to unequivocally condemn terrorism and its perpetrators," Rajiv Chander, India's Permanent Representative to the UN, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday after Islamabad had criticised New Delhi.

He said that in Jammu and Kashmir, "the central problem is cross-border terrorism and Pakistan's use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy". "This fact needs due recognition."

"We firmly believe that UN-led consensus on zero tolerance on terrorism is as much an international obligation as it is a commitment to our own people" he said.

Speaking after the Pakistani delegation, who launched an attack asserting that Jammu and Kashmir "was under illegal Indian occupation", Chander declared that "the whole state is an integral part of India. Pakistan remains in illegal occupation of a part of our territory".

He did not directly mention the Pakistan representative or the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michele Bachelet, who had criticised India on Wednesday.

"India is a secular State and safeguarding the rights of minorities forms an essential core of our polity" Chander said in comments that responded to her criticism.

"The Indian Constitution enshrines various provisions for the protection of rights and interests of the minorities... The state makes no distinction between caste, creed, colour or religion of a citizen."

Bachelet had spoken of "reports that indicate increasing harassment and targeting of minorities - in particular Muslims and people from historically disadvantaged and marginalised groups, such as Dalits and Adivasis" and said that "that narrow political agendas are driving the further marginalisation of vulnerable people" and deepening inequalities.

Chander said that as the world's largest democracy, "Indian polity also weaves in immense diversity along with respect for tolerance and mutual understanding".

India had an independent judiciary, free and vibrant media, and a vocal civil society while "national and state-level Human Rights Commissions along with other specific Commissions continue to monitor complaints from minority communities".

The Indian government has issued Communal Harmony Guidelines that sets out standard operating procedures to deal with communal violence, he added.

Pakistan's acting Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Tahir Hussain Andrabi, spoke twice before Chander -- the first time on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and then on behalf of his country.

In his OIC speech, he made only a passing reference to Jammu and Kashmir along with other hotspots like Myanmar, where he said people suffered from long-standing disputes.

Speaking on behalf of Pakistan, Andrabi denied that his country had a hand in the troubles in the state, asserting that the source of the unrest was "indigenous" and cited Indian "experts" as saying it resulted from its "own operational and policy failures" that alienated Kashmiris.

He mentioned the arrest of Kashmiri journalist Asif Sultan as an example of reprisals against human rights activists.

Sultan, a former assistant editor of Kashmir Narrator, has been charged with harbouring terrorists.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)
New York, March 8 : In a controversial resolution that initially split the Democrats before being expansively reworded, the House of Representatives has condemned hate against Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims and other minorities and denounced accusations of dual loyalty.

A key element in the resolution adopted on Thursday is the condemnation of dual loyalty that insinuates doubt about patriotism of sections of citizens that has a resonance for Indian-Americans who sometimes face that accusation for expressing support for India.

While 234 Democrats backed the resolution and one abstained, 173 Republicans voted for it and 23 against it.

The Executive Director of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), Suhag Shukla, welcoming the resolution pointed out that "our communities have also faced suspicion and bigotry from people on the far-left end of the political spectrum with baseless accusations of dual loyalties to India".

The build-up to the resolution exposed a deep divide within the Democrats as the party leadership faced a rebellion from its Left and African-American groups, while the moderates pushed for the original version that targeted only anti-Semitism.

There is risk the divide that is also being reflected in the ideological divisions economic and social policies also may grow and undermine party unity to the advantage of Republicans.

The resolution was first proposed as a response to repeated anti-Jewish statements by a newly elected Muslim Representative of Somali descent, Ilhan Omar, who had accused supporters of Israel as having "allegiance to a foreign country" and tweeted that support for Israel was motivated by "Benjamin's Babies" - an anti-Semitic slur referring to $100 notes - which implied lawmakers were being bought.

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposal to condemn anti-Semitism faced opposition from the left wing of the party as well as the African-American bloc in the House, even though the initial draft did not mention Omar.

Indian-American Senator Kamala Harris, for example, said that it would draw attention to Omar and endanger her.

As a compromise to get the vocal dissenters to back the resolution, references to Muslims and African-Americans were added. The final version included other religions, Asians, immigrants, gays, lesbians and transgender people and other minorities.

But it left out Budhists, Mormons and others.

The HAF had lobbied for the inclusion of Hinduism in the resolution along with other groups.

Rajwand Singh, the senior adviser to the National Sikh Campaign, said: "We welcome the resolution as it hits home for us as we have been victims of hatred and violence because of our identity."

The opposition was because of the watering down of the resolution to deflect the prime reason for it - anti-Jewish comments from a Democrat. A Jewish Representative Lee Zeldin, for example, called the resolution resolution "spineless".

Omar and two other Muslim Representatives, Rashida Tlaib and Andre Carson, turned it around making it a victory for themselves and proclaimed: "It's the first time we have voted on a resolution condemning anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation's history."

The resolution prominently mentioned White Supremacists, but also included others saying, "whether from the political right, centre or left, bigotry, discrimination, oppression, racism and imputations of dual loyalty threaten American democracy and have no place in American political discourse".

The reasons for the sensitivity to accusations of dual loyalty and use of money power is because they were the starting point of the anti-Semitism in Europe that led to the Nazi holocaust in which six million Jews were killed.

Similar accusations have also led to anti-Semitism in the US leading to violence and discrimination against Jews.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, about 60 per cent of the hate crimes in the US targeted Jews and showed an increase of 37 per cent from the previous year.

During World War II, Japanese Americans were accused of dual loyalty and lack of American patriotism and herded into internment camps under extremely harsh conditions.

The American Jewish people are unfairly targeted for the US support to Israel through unfair stereotyping. In reality, they are not the monolithic, powerful force behind support for Israel as many claim. Many Jews, including politicians, criticise Israel and oppose President Donald Trump's policies in support of Israel like recognising Jerusalem as its capital.

It is, in fact, the Christian fundamentalists who are the staunchest and uncritical supporters of Israel and drive US policy towards that country. Trump's Israel policies are aimed at this bloc that is the core of his base.

In the mid-term elections, 75 per cent of Christian fundamentalists voted for the Republican Party in contrast to 79 per cent of Jews who voted for the Democratic Party, according to Pew Research Centre.

Many Jews themselves oppose the Christian fundamentalists' backing for Israel because the reason for their support is that according to their interpretation of the Bible, Jesus Christ will return when Israel is reconstituted.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)
Thiruvananthapuram, March 8 : One of country's oldest press clubs, the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club, has invited entries from photo journalists in the country for its All India News Photography Contest.

Instituted in the memory of late photo journalists S.S.Ram and S.Harisankar, the contest carries an award of Rs 1 lakh for the winner, said Press Club Secretary M.Radhakrishnan.

Each participant can send a maximum of three entries, published between January 1 and December 31, 2018.

All entries must be endorsed by the News Editor or Resident Editor of the applicant's organisation.

The application form can be downloaded from www.keralapressclub.com and the entries should be send to pressphotocontest@gmail.com.

The last date of submission of entries is March 20.
New Delhi, March 8 : "Main pehle ek mahila hu aur uske baad ek sex worker (I am a woman first and then a sex worker)." Kiran Ramchandra Deshmukh, 40, says with pride, in the hope that the world treats women like her with equality, dignity and respect.

Kiran, a sex worker for over 20 years in Maharashtra, notes how the world of showbiz has portrayed sex workers over the years and isn't impressed by the stereotyping.

She takes offence at the dialogue "Aurat maa hoti hai, bahen hoti hai, patni hoti hai, dost hoti hai... aur jab woh kuch nahi hoti, toh tawaif hoti hai (woman is a mother, a sister, a wife, a friend. When she is nothing, she is a prostitute) from the 2002 film "Devdas".

"According to the dialogue, we don't even deserve to be called women? That's not fair. I can proudly say that I am a woman," Kiran told IANS as she delved on the sentiments of several sex workers like her.

Renuka, another sex worker, has urged filmmakers not to show them as "use and throw" objects -- as it happened in Salman Khan's movie "Chori Chori Chupke Chupke" on surrogacy.

Indian filmmakers have time and again delved into the life of women sex workers. "Mughal-e-Azam", "Mausam", "Mandi", "Devdas", "Chandni Bar", "Laaga Chunari Mein Daag: Journey of a woman", "Dev D" and "Begum Jaan" are movies that have delved into their world, but sex wokers and activists say these films do not reflect the real world.

Social activist and lawyer Aarthi Pai says mainstream cinema has done a lot of damage to "the identity of sex workers".

"There has been some niche cinema which has attempted to show sex workers in a much more positive light, but most of the movies have shown them in dangerous type of stereotyping. Dangerous because it has harmed sex workers over the years.

"This stereotype of sex workers hanging out in verandahs and showing their breasts, chewing betel is one which dominates public imagination. Sex workers are of different types and they have different realities. Unfortunately, great injustice is done to them through the movies."

Kiran said it is a reality that not everyone is forced into sex work.

"Many women like me are willingly doing it to earn our livelihood. Even we have the right to say 'No'."

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, whose deft handling of a story of a bar dancer won a National Award, says people shouldn't forget sex workers are humans too.

"They are also humans. They are being discriminated in our society. People are not willing to give them a house... They are a part of our society and we should accept them with open arms."

Author Anurag Garg, who also works for NGO Kat-Katha, feels movies usually depict sex workers' lives on a "surface level".

"In most of the movies, a lot of glamour is attached to sex workers. They are mostly seen in loud make-up and depicted as women who are always ready for sex. But there is more beyond that."

Most recently, Tabrez Noorani's "Love Sonia" took a deep dive into the world of human trafficking. It ended with giving a ray of hope, keeping with the larger aim to galvanise support for organisations that work towards rescuing trafficked women and giving them a new lease of life.

Actress Richa Chadha, who played a brothel owner in the film, told IANS: "Bollywood is as responsible as society is, in stereotyping sex workers... Very few films have depicted the truth about this bleak world."

"Love Sonia" protagonist Mrunal Thakur calls for films which create a powerful impact on society and make people more educated and aware.

"What we see in the films is just a fraction of what these girls go through in life."

(Simran Sethi can be contacted at simran.s@ians.in <mailto:simran.s@ians.in>)</mailto:simran.s@ians.in>
Varanasi, March 8 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday laid the foundation stone of the ambitious 'Kashi Vishwanath Mandir Vistarikaran-Saundarayakaran Yojana' (Kashi Vishwanath Temple Extension and Beautification Plan) here that would be rolled out in four phases.

He kick-started the Rs 600 crore project by putting some bricks with the name of the temple inscribed on it, in the presence of Governor Ram Naik, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Mahendra Nath Pandey.

Addressing a gathering at the ceremony, he said the area would be soon decongested and uncluttered, providing relief to the devotees.

The Prime Minister landed in Varanasi, his parliamentary constituency, earlier in the day in an Indian Air Force plane at the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport where he was received by Naik and Adityanath.

Officials told IANS that work will soon begin on the 40,000 square metre corridor.

Slamming previous governments in the state for delaying the project, Modi said that had the Samajwadi Party government cooperated, he would today be inaugurating the project rather than laying its foundation stone.

"Even Mahatma Gandhi raised the matter some 100 years back and had aired his thoughts on decongesting the area," he added.

The Prime Minister thanked those who shifted their houses to clear out the area so that the project could see the light of the day.

"For decades people were only concerned about themselves and when the demolition of the buildings surrounding the temple started, it was discovered that 40 temples had been taken over by the people," he noted.

Modi also requested the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) to take up the project as a case study.
Kuala Lumpur, March 8 : Relatives of the 239 passengers, who disappeared with Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in 2014, on Friday called for a fresh search to find the aircraft on the fifth anniversary of its disappearance.

The Beijing-bound plane disappeared off the radar on March 8, 2014, about 40 minutes after take-off from Kuala Lumpur when someone had turned off the communication systems and changed the aircraft's route, according to an official report.

The investigation concluded that the plane crashed in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean, where 232,000 kilometres of the sea bed have since been combed unsuccessfully in search operations.

Grace Nathan, whose mother was aboard the plane, rued the lack of progress in resolving "one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history" and called for a new search for the plane, Efe news reported.

"Another search is not a waste of time or money. It's a matter of preventing this from happening again," she said.

"Every day people fly and there is a possibility that another plane could vanish. It's an experience that we know and that we don't want to happen again to other people," added the Malaysian woman, who is a member of Voice MH370, an association representing the families of the victims.

In May 2018, Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his government may resume the search if new evidence came to light.

So far, fragments or suspected fragments of the aircraft have been recovered from beaches in Reunion, Mozambique, Mauritius, South Africa and Pemba Island (Zanzibar).

Experts said that three wing parts found in Reunion, Mauritius and Pemba belonged to MH370 and another seven pieces - including parts of interior of the cockpit - were "almost certainly" from the missing plane, while another eight were "highly likely" to be from it.

The fragments were believed to have been swept across the Indian Ocean by currents.

Some of these pieces were displayed to the public for the first time on Sunday at an event in Kuala Lumpur in memory of the victims.

Malaysia, Australia and China, who carried out the first search at a cost of over $151 million, agreed to suspend it in January 2017 until the appearance of new solid evidence.

The US-based seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity, which conducted a second search, has offered to carry out another under the same no-find no-fee conditions.
New Delhi, March 8 : Ahead of his appearance on Friday before the ED for questioning in a money laundering case, Robert Vadra, Congress President Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law, extended International Women's Day greetings, saying that he was surrounded by "four strong women".

"Wishing all wonderful women, a Happy Women's Day! I am happy to be surrounded by four strong women, 'my mother (Maureen Vadra), my mother-in-law (Sonia Gandhi), my wife (Priyanka Gandhi) and my daughter (Miraya Vadra)'," the businessman said in a Facebook post earlier in the day.

"The keywords to describe them are 'hardworking, courageous, compassionate and determined.

"I will celebrate the day with them, once I am back from the ED interrogation... I have already deposed for 10 days for almost 64 hours, cooperating with the interrogations. I believe in truth and justice," he added.

Vadra has been questioned by the Enforcement Directorate officials in connection with the case related to his ownership of overseas assets in London.

The ED officials said that Vadra arrived at the agency's office at 10.40 a.m.

Vadra, husband of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, is on interim bail till March 19.

Vadra had also deposed before the ED twice in Jaipur in connection with another money-laundering case related to an alleged land scam in Bikaner. His mother Maureen, too, was questioned by the agency once during the same deposition.
Bengaluru, March 8 : Indian IT apex body Nasscom on Friday said it has entered into a partnership with Xuzhou city in Jiangsu province to develop an IT corridor in eastern China.

"The partnership with Xuzhou is to help develop the software market and build the third IT corridor in Xuzhou after Dalian and Guiyang in the eastern China region," the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said in a statement here.
Washington, March 8 : Two NASA astronauts are scheduled to carry out the first ever all female spacewalk in history on March 29.

NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch will share the credit of performing the spacewalk at the International Space Station, CNN reported.

The two will receive support on the ground by Canadian Space Agency flight controller Kristen Facciol.

"I just found out that I'll be on console providing support for the first all female spacewalk with @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Christina and I cannot contain my excitement," Facciol said in a tweet.

The March 29 spacewalk is second in a series of three planned spacewalks, NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz told CNN.

"Anne also will join Nick Hague for the March 22 spacewalk. And of course, assignments and schedules could always change," Schierholz added.

While McClain is currently on the ISS, Koch is set to blast off on March 14 to reach the space station.

The March 29 spacewalk is likely to last about seven hours, but NASA has not yet specified what tasks the two astronauts will perform.
New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, March 8 : President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted the resignation of Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan amid speculation that he will be the BJP candidate in Thiruvananthapuram in the Lok Sabha elections.

A communique from the Rashtrapathi Bhavan on Friday said the President had accepted the resignation of Rajasekharan.

"The President is pleased to appoint Jagdish Mukhi, Governor of Assam, to discharge the functions of the Governor of Mizoram, in addition to his own duties, until regular arrangements for the office of the Governor of Mizoram is made," it said.

Rajasekharan was the Kerala BJP President when he was appointed the Mizoram Governor last year.

"I have resigned as the party wished that I should be in Kerala. I also wished to be in Kerala and hence I have quit," Rajasekheran told a Kerala TV channel on Friday.

State BJP President P.S. Sreedharan Pillai said: "This is happy news for the BJP and Sangh Parivar forces."

In 2016, Rajasekharan put up a close fight and finished a close third in the Vatiyurkavu Assembly constituency in the Thiruvananthapuram district. When the Congress won the seat, the CPI-M candidate finished second.
Mumbai, March 8 : Huma Qureshi-starrer "Leila" will release globally on June 14.

Netflix on Friday announced the release date of their next Indian original series "Leila".

Based on a book by Prayaag Akbar, "Leila" also stars Siddharth, Rahul Khanna, Sanjay Suri and Arif Zakaria. Deepa Mehta is the Creative Executive Producer.

Huma is thrilled to essay the role of Shalini "whose unique mix of strength, grace and optimism is what gets her through all kinds of obstacles".

"So it really has been an honour to portray a character that has not only pushed me as an artiste but I believe will resonate with a lot of young women," Huma said in a statement.

The six-episode series is a dystopian work of fiction set in the near future and follows the journey of Shalini, a mother in search of her daughter Leila whom she lost one summer.

Shalini deals with various hardships in the course of her search. The series is directed by Mehta, Shanker Raman and Pawan Kumar.

Talking about the series, Mehta said: "At the heart of this series is the journey of a woman in search of her daughter Leila, but also in search of identity. 'Leila' is about awareness, about paying attention, about looking at the world around us and asking pertinent questions about our future.

"That's what makes it so perfect on a platform like Netflix with its global reach and ability to address a range of audiences with relevant, resonant stories."

Siddharth will essay the role of Bhanu.

"It is a complex one and playing him has been an intense yet fruitful journey. Although the story is set in a dystopian age, it is about human emotions."
New Delhi, March 8 : Marking the occasion of International Women's Day, Google on Friday showcased an interactive, slideshow doodle featuring inspirational quotes by women.

The doodle begins with "woman" written in 11 different languages -- Hindi, Arabic, French, Bangla, Russian, Japanese, German, Italian, English, Spanish and Portuguese.

The quotes in various languages are from 14 international female trendsetters, including Indian boxer Mary Kom, British writer and suffragette Millicent Fawcett, American astronaut and physician Mae Jemison, and British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.

"The process of choosing the fourteen quotes was extremely difficult, but we aimed to include a diverse representation of voices on a day which celebrates the past, present, and future community of diverse women around the world," Google said in a blog post.

The quotes were designed by a group of female guest artists from around the globe.
Lucknow, March 8 : BSP chief Mayawati on Friday welcomed the mediation ordered by the Supreme Court to resolve the dragging Ayodhya temple-mosque dispute.

The Bahujan Samaj Party leader tweeted that the apex court order to set up in-camera mediation in Faizabad seemed an honest effort.

The court was looking for "a possibility of healing relationships" and that was appreciable, she said.

The lone Muslim litigant in the matter, Iqbal Ansari, also welcomed the court order and said that talks could be a way forward if the court monitored it.

"Am okay with the order. At the end of the day we all want a just, peaceful resolution to the issue which has been going on for decades," Ansari told IANS on telephone.

The Convenor of the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee, Zafaryab Jilani, said they will extend all possible cooperation to the mediation panel.

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said the Hindu community wanted an early decision on the matter. He added that many such efforts had been initiated in the past but with no success.
Bengaluru, March 8 : Indian IT apex body Nasscom on Friday said it has entered into a partnership with Xuzhou city in Jiangsu province to develop an IT corridor in eastern China.

"The partnership with Xuzhou is to help develop the software market and build the third IT corridor in Xuzhou after Dalian and Guiyang in the eastern China region," the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said in a statement here.

The new corridor will facilitate partnerships between Indian and Chinese firms as part of Nasscom's efforts to evangelise IT development in newer geographies.

As the centre of the Huai Hai economic zone, Xuzhou is an important national transportation hub. One can reach major industrial and economic hubs like Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Suzhou within three hours by high speed train.

"Through the partnership, the platform will enable match-making between Indian firms and their counterparts in the Huai Hai economic zone, looking to adopt digital transformation from verticals such as manufacturing, retail, automotive, healthcare and utilities," said the statement.

"The partnership will create more jobs in Xuzhou and India, facilitating talent transfer between the two countries," it said.

The apex body had created opportunities for 300 Chinese firms in the region, where 10 Indian small and medium enterprise (SEMs) signed deals valued at $4.5 million (Rs 315 crore).

Initiatives in the first two IT corridors led to investment of $4.6 million (Rs 322 crore) in Dalian and $8.9 million (623 crore) in Guiyang.

The two corridors paved the way for cooperation in emerging technologies such as AI, IoT and Analytics in the Chinese market.

The China-India (Xuzhou) IT corridor project is an important step for the Indian software and service industry to enter "our market and seize the development opportunity of the Huai-hai Economic Zone", said Xuzhou Municipal government Mayor Zhou Tiegen.

The corridor will inject momentum into the development of the Xuzhou software service outsourcing industry.

The Mayor hoped that Nasscom will bring its advantages on capital, talent and technology as per the agreement to improve the construction, operation and development of the park.

"The corridor will help strengthen China-India digital cooperation leveraging our respective strengths in hardware and software to build innovative products and solutions in the co-create mode," said Nasscom Director Gagan Sabharwal in the statement.

As the eastern region is known for manufacturing capabilities, the apex body expects collaborative case studies emerging from the smart manufacturing domain.

"As the third collaboration, we hope the new corridor will act as a building block towards strengthening the India-Chinese relationship while we stimulate the ecosystem," added Sabharwal.

India's Consul General in Shanghai, Anil Kumar Rai, said that being a dominant manufacturing country, China required software, IT and IT-enabled services to transform into smart manufacturing.

"The IT corridor at Xuzhou has the potential to fill the institutional void of software support for small and medium size industries in their language," added Rai.

As the economic centre in the regional economic layout, Xuzhou is an industrial powerhouse, with several firms setting up their base in the city.
Washington, March 8 : A nuclear war between India and Pakistan is "most likely" and the "relative calm" is not a solution as long as the two neighbours refuse to deal with their core dispute of Kashmir, the New York Times has said in an opinion piece.

In the Thursday write-up, the daily's Editorial Board said that although the India-Pakistan tensions had diffused for now, their "nuclear arsenals mean unthinkable consequences are always possible".

The board wrote that "this relative calm is not a solution" and the US needed to get involved in defusing the tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.

"As long as India and Pakistan refuse to deal with their core dispute - the future of Kashmir - they face unpredictable, possibly terrifying, consequences."

According to the NYT, the next confrontation between the two neighbours might not end "so calmly".

"With Pakistan's Army most likely shaken by the Indian raid and unwilling to slide into protracted conflict, Prime Minister Imran Khan returned the pilot to India, in what was seen as a goodwill gesture, called for talks and promised an investigation into the bombing. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi took the opportunity to back off further escalation", it said.

"The next confrontation might not end so calmly," it added.

Tensions between India and Pakistan worsened after a Kashmir suicide bombing on February 14 killed 40 CRPF troopers and was claimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

India retaliated by bombing the terror group's biggest training camp in Balakot, Pakistan. Pakistan hit back with its air force the next day.

Islamabad also captured an Indian Air Force pilot after a February 27 dogfight between the two air forces. He was released on March 1 as a "peace gesture" by Pakistan.

The NYT said the the US "could help India strengthen its counterterrorism capabilities to prevent future attacks and it could encourage India to modify its approach to those opposing its rule in Kashmir, which the UN and other groups say involves widespread human rights abuses.

"And while it's good when India and Pakistan decide to walk back from the brink, as they seem to be doing now, the US should be ready to assist if they cannot."

The article stated that Islamabad and New Delhi were "long among the world's most antagonistic neighbours" and that it was fortunate they found "the good sense to de-escalate".

The NYT stated: "The JeM, which seeks independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan, took responsibility (for the Kashmir bombing). While it is on America's list of terrorist organisations and is formally banned in Pakistan, the group has been protected and armed by the Pakistani intelligence service."

The NYT said that the situation between India and Pakistan "could have easily escalated, given that the two countries have fought three wars over 70 years, maintain a near-constant state of military readiness along their border and have little formal government-to-government dialogue.

"Adding to the volatility, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is waging a tough re-election campaign in which he has used anti-Pakistan talk to fuel Hindu nationalism," it said.

The daily said that Pakistan "has never seriously cracked down on militant groups that attack India and the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.

"In recent days, Pakistani authorities said they detained 44 members of various armed groups, including a brother of Masood Azhar, the head of JeM, and planned to seize assets of militants on the UN terrorist list. But Pakistan has rarely followed through on such promises."

The NYT said that without international pressure, a long-term solution was "unlikely and the threat of nuclear war remained".

"While the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations aggressively worked to ensure that India-Pakistan confrontations in 1999, 2002 and 2008 did not spiral out of control, the (Donald) Trump administration has done little but issue a few statements urging restraint.

"It's hard to see a role as a mediator for Trump, who has shifted the US more firmly against Pakistan and towards India, where he has pursued business interests.

"A solution to a conflict that touches so many religious and nationalist nerves must ultimately come from within, through talks among India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir," it said.
Kolkata, March 8 : Kickstarting her party's Lok Sabha poll campaign on International Women's Day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government, saying that it had reached its "expiry date" and that the country needs a "people's government" for future years.

She accused the Centre of showing off its military prowess and playing war games to influence people ahead of the forthcoming general elections, and claimed that the new government formed by the opposition parties will fight against terrorism and reinstate peace in the Kashmir Valley.

"Elections are near. So now they (Centre) are busy showing off the missiles and playing war games. Your expiry date has come. The new government will fight terrorism and bring back peace in Kashmir.

"It is our promise to reinstate peace and harmony in the country. All of us will do it together," Banerjee said at a rally in central Kolkata's Dorina Crossing.

"So many incidents of terror strikes like Pathankot, Uri, Pulwama took place in the last five years. Where was the government then? Remember, the country needs a people's government. It needs a united India government," she said, referring to the anti-BJP alliance.

Coming down heavily on the Centre for saying that the documents related to the Rafale fighter jet deal have been stolen, she questioned whether documents related to the country's internal security have also been misplaced.

She wondered how the Central government could ensure the nation's security when it cannot protect simple documents.

"They are saying Rafale documents have been stolen. Has the nation's internal security documents also been stolen? When you cannot protect Rafale documents then how will you provide security to the country?" the Trinamool Congress supremo asked.

Renewing her attack on the Prime Minister, Banerjee said Modi has stolen the nation's property and destroyed all the institutions in the country and raised the slogan of 'Modi hatao Desh Bachao' (oust Modi, save the nation).

"You (Modi) have stolen the entire country. What is left of it? When you are removed from power, the country would come to know how you have stolen all our assets. All the institutions are destroyed. Such is the situation that the RBI chief had to resign and the CBI chief was forced to leave.

"Only Modi-bhai campaign is going on," she said.

Earlier in the day, Banerjee, accompanied by senior women leaders of her party walked from central Kolkata's Sradhananda Park to Esplanade to celebrate the power of womanhood on the occasion of International Women's Day.

"I congratulate all the mothers and sisters on International Women's Day. I strongly condemn the atrocities on Dalits, tribals, women, minorities and farmers in the name of lynching," Banerjee said.

"Bengal has highest respect for women. Trinamool Congress is the only party where 35 per cent of its elected members in Parliament are women. In the coming elections, we will make sure that more than 35 percent of our candidates are women," she added.
Mumbai, March 8 : Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who advocates greater participation of women in development of technology products, reached Mumbai to celebrate International Women's Day on Friday.

"In Mumbai today and happy to celebrate #IWD2019 with the India chapter of Women@Google at their 'I Am Remarkable' event. Thank you for inspiring me with your stories about the experiences, challenges and triumphs of being women in tech," Pichai said in a tweet.

Speaking at a World Economic Forum event last year, Pichai said, "There is a moral imperative to involve more women in the development of technology products, as our technology products are for everyone."

The search engine giant recently came into the spotlight after a study found that it paid men less money than women for doing similar work.

Google earlier fired the author of a controversial memo on gender diversity that went viral inside the company.

Authored by James Damore, the memo titled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber" claims that when it comes to technology, there is a biological differences between men and women.
Gandhinagar, March 8 : In yet another setback to the Congress in Gujarat, the party's sitting legislator Jawahar Chavda from Manavadar constituency in Saurashtra region, put in his papers here on Friday and was all set to join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

BJP sources said Chavda would join the party by Friday evening and might even be made a minister immediately.

Chavda submitted his resignation as a MLA to Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi who accepted it forthwith.

Chavda, son of Congress veteran Pethalji Chavda of Junagadh district, won from Manavadar in four consecutive elections and this has been a Congress fort.

Senior Congress legislator Shailesh Parmar, speaking on behalf of the party, told reporters: "We are shocked at Chavda's resignation since he had never raised any issues nor has he given any reasons for quitting. In fact, he has been given important responsibilities ahead of the CWC (Congress Working Committee) meeting in Ahmedabad (on March 12)."

"The Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to sabotage the Congress prospects knowing well that the party can never repeat its 2014 performance of winning 26 out of 26 (Lok Sabha) seats. It is playing a dirty game," he added.

Political circles are agog with speculation that at least three more Congress legislators are in touch with the BJP leadership and may quit anytime soon.

This includes OBC leader and young legislator Alpesh Thakore, who had joined the Congress in the run up to the 2017 assembly elections.

While Thakore has been denying any such moves, it is public knowledge that he has had meetings with Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and BJP chief Jitubhai Vaghani. Simultaneously, he has also met Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

Chavda's resignation comes days after Congress MLA from Unjha, Asha Patel joined the BJP. Months ago, key Congress MLA Kunwarji Bawalia joined the BJP and was made a cabinet minister the same day.
New Delhi, March 8 : The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Friday said it has filed a second FIR with the Delhi Police against "fake news regarding paper leaks" it alleged is circulating on social media.

After it filed a complaint on Wednesday, the board filed another complaint on Thursday requesting the Delhi Police to take "stern action against the perpetrators".

CBSE lodged its latest complaint against those who shared videos on YouTube regarding the maths paper which was conducted on Thursday. It said that people in these videos falsely claimed to have access to the original paper.

"The Board has located more uploads on YouTube falsely claiming to have access to the original question papers... and filed yet another complaint and again written to the Delhi Police to take suitable and strict action against miscreants under provision of IPC and IT Act," the CBSE said in the statement.

"The Board seeks the cooperation of public not to believe the fake, unverified news and help in maintaining the sanctity of all the examinations at all costs," it added.

CBSE began its examination exercise on February 15 this year, and since then has "successfully" conducted exams in a total of 167 subjects for Class 10 and 12 across the country.
New Delhi, March 8 : On International Women's Day on Friday, the Women and Child Development Ministry joined hands with the Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry to provide skills training and employment to women.

The officials of the two ministries signed a MoU in the presence of Union Ministers Maneka Gandhi and Dharmendra Pradhan.

"The agreement would help women in becoming self-sufficient. The WCD Ministry through the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) will identify the skill sets and their geographical relevance which is suitable for enhancing livelihoods of women through self-employment," Gandhi said.

Pradhan added that the agreement would train thousands of women and promote self-employment or wage employment.

The Skill Development Ministry will provide details of women to the WCD Ministry who have received skill development training and thereafter are engaged in producing goods or services, he said.

The WCD Ministry through the RMK shall assist such women to join the Mahila e-haat platform, a digital platform for selling products produced by women, according to the details of the agreement.

The RMK and the National Skill Development Council will be the implementing partners on behalf of the two ministries, Gandhi said, adding that the agreement would be valid for three years.
Colombo, March 8 : A Sri Lankan court has been informed that the skeletal remains unearthed from the largest mass grave in Mannar last year dates back to around 500 years, authorities said on Friday.

A report from a carbon dating laboratory in the US revealed that the six bone samples collected from the grave falls within the 1499 to 1719 period, reports Xinhua news agency.

The samples were sent to the laboratory after concerns were raised to ascertain if the remains were of those who were killed during the island's 30 year civil war between government troops and Tamil Tiger guerrillas which ended in May 2009.

Mannar Magistrate T. Sarvanarajah ordered authorities to make the report public when the case was taken up for hearing following a motion filed by relatives of some people who went missing allegedly during the ethnic conflict.

Sri Lankan authorities found the remains of over 300 men, women, and children in the mass grave.

The country's newly established Office on Missing Persons (OMP) funded the tests.
Chandigarh, March 8 : With Punjab's ruling Congress leadership categorically ruling out an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the latter finds itself out on a limb as it scampers for alliance partners.

The AAP's Punjab unit leaders, led by state president Bhagwant Mann, have been holding parleys with leaders of the recently formed Shiromani Akali Dal (Taksali) but both sides have not been able to announce a formal alliance so far.

"We have met and discussed matters. There are some issues that need to be sorted out. We will have more meetings to take a decision in this regard," Mann said here on Thursday after both sides failed to arrive on a consensus on an alliance.

The AAP had won four Lok Sabha seats from Punjab in the 2014 parliamentary elections, even though it had failed to win a single seat anywhere else in the country. Mann, an actor-turned-politician who contested for the first time, had romped home with the highest victory margin of over 2.25 lakh votes among all the 13 parliamentary constituencies in Punjab.

The SAD (Taksali) was floated in December last year by senior leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) who had been expelled for anti-party activities.

The senior Akali leaders, including incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) from Khadoor Sahib Rattan Singh Ajnala, had revolted against SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and questioned his leadership.

"Taksali means genuine and old. We are the real Akali Dal," the president of the new party, Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, said recently.

The AAP has been forced to turn towards the SAD-Taksali leadership after being snubbed by its earlier alliance partner, the Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) led by the Bains brothers - Simarjit Singh Bains and Balwinder Singh Bains.

The LIP and AAP had contested the Punjab assembly elections together in February 2017. The AAP won 20 seats while the LIP won both the seats it contested.

The LIP has now joined the newly-created Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) comprising four political parties and groups.The PDA comprises the Punjab Ekta Party (PEP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), LIP and the Punjab Manch led by Dr. Dharam Vira Gandhi, the AAP MP from Patiala who was suspended in May 2015 for questioning the party leadership's functioning. The PDA has announced that it will contest nine Lok Sabha seats.

The PEP was formed recently by former AAP leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who earlier headed a group of rebel legislators within the AAP. Khaira continues to enjoy the support of these rebels.

The party has been facing a leadership crisis in the past 3-4 years and its cadres are also disappointed.

Having started with a fresh image and a position of strength in the 2014 general elections, the AAP went into the assembly polls in February 2017 with a lot of promise. Even though it ended up with just 20 seats in the 117-member assembly, it finished as the main opposition party, relegating the SAD to the third position in the assembly.

(Jaideep Sarin can be reached at jaideep.s@ians.in)
Kolkata, March 8 : With the Left Front and the Congress yet to firm up any alliance, the fight for the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal is fast developing into a direct contest between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP.

As against the hive of activity in the Trinamool and the BJP camps, there is virtual ennui in the LF and Congress ranks, save occasional media meets, and some tweets from the leaders.

The two forces are locked in what has seemingly become long-drawn sit adjustment talks, now stalled over the Congress' adamant refusal to part with two seats - Raiganj and Murhidabad, won by LF major CPI-M five years ago.

After negotiations among state leaders failed to break the ice, both sides decided to lob the contentious matter to their chiefs. It is now for Congress president Rahul Gandhi and CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury to sit across the table and try to find a formula acceptable to their respective party units that could save the alliance from the brink.

Congress leaders admit that the formation of the alliance is crucial to ensure the Congress and the Left remain relevant.

"We badly need the alliance. Otherwise, it will be a direct fight between the BJP and the Trinamool," said a state Congress vice president on condition of anonymity.

"But if the seat adjustment talks succeed, the BJP will be pushed on the backfoot," he added.

But the BJP pooh-poohed such talks, saying they will gain in case of a triangular fight.

"It is surely a direct fight between the BJP and the Trinamool. It is a fight of equals," BJP General Secretary in-charge of West Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya told IANS.

"The CPI-M and the Congress are far, far behind. In fact, they are nowhere. It is for this reason that they are trying to work out an alliance. But take it from me. Even if there is a triangular fight, we will be the beneficiary," he said.

Apparently, the BJP's calculation is based on hopes for a likely division in Muslim votes - which otherwise could mostly go the Trinamool way - that the LF-Congress alliance can bring about. The party feels that in such a scenario, it could fare well in seats with a mixed population by projecting itself as the only party upholding the Hindu cause or by canvassing loudly on issues like infiltration and national security.

While Shah has set a target of winning at least 23 of the 42 seats up for grabs from the state, Vijayvargiya prophesied his party could go past the figure. The BJP had won two seats - Asansol and Darjeeling - in 2014.

"We will surely go beyond the number set by Shah," he said.

On the ground, BJP campaign managers have identified 17-18 "winnable seats" where the party would focus during the campaign.

The party had finished second or third in these seats five years back and even improved its vote share in subsequent by-polls in some of them.

"But these seats do not include Asansol and Darjeeling," said a leader.

As part of the party's Look East policy for the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has been pulling out all stops to better its show in Bengal - an erstwhile red citadel where the Communist Party of India-Marxist led Left Front enjoyed power for 34 years at a stretch (1977-2011).

The constituencies thus identified include Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Malda North and Malda South, Jhargram, Midnapore, Bolpur, Birbhum, Purulia, Howrah, Hooghly, Diamond Harbour, Barrackpore, Dum Dum, Basirhat, Krishnanagar, Kolkata North and Kolkata South.

(Sirshendu Panth can be contacted at s.panth@ians.in)
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Washington, March 8 : US President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud, far short of what had been expected and recommended by the sentencing guidelines.

The sentence imposed by Judge T.S. Ellis III on Thursday was significantly less than the 19 to 25 years Manafort could have received under the advisory recommendations.

Manafort was convicted in 2018 of hiding millions of dollars of income earned through his political consulting in Ukraine.

The charges against him stemmed from an inquiry by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

The crimes, though serious among white-collar offences, did not relate directly to Manafort's work as Trump's 2016 campaign chairman, CNN reported.

Prosecutors painted Manafort as an "incorrigible cheat" who must be made to understand the seriousness of his wrongdoing. Trump's former aide said he was "mere collateral damage" in Mueller's probe.

At a trial last year, Manafort was convicted for defrauding banks and the government as well as for failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars in income he had earned from Ukrainian political consulting.

Prosecutors highlighted his lavish lifestyle, saying his crimes were used to pay for high-end clothes and multiple properties.

In a federal courtroom in Virginia, an attorney from Mueller's office said Manafort "failed to accept responsibility and was not remorseful".

"The last two years have been the most difficult of my life," Manafort said in court before Ellis handed down the sentence. "To say I am humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement."

Judge Ellis said that Manafort was "not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government" and added that though Manafort's financial crimes were "very serious", he found the sentencing guideline range for him was "not at all appropriate".

"Life is making choices, Manafort, and living with the choices you make," the judge said before he delivered the sentence. "You made choices to engage in criminal conduct."

In addition to the sentence, Ellis ordered Manafort to pay a $50,000 fine, the lowest fine provided for by guidelines that recommended a fine between $50,000 and $24 million.

Manafort will also receive a sentence from the other federal judge next week, for the two crimes he pleaded guilty to last year -- witness tampering and conspiracy related to years of illegal Ukrainian lobbying and money laundering -- which could stack on top of the time he received on Thursday.
Hyderabad, March 8 : MIM President Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court order for mediation to settle the Ayodhya dispute but voiced concern over Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar being made a mediator saying he was related to the subject matter and was also a party to the dispute.

The Hyderabad MP said Ravi Shankar had made a statement on November 4, 2018 threatening violence. He said the spiritual leader had warned that if Muslims did not give up the land, India will become a Syria.

Owaisi said Ravi Shankar had also asked Muslims to give up their claim as a goodwill gesture. He said it would have been better if the Supreme Court had not appointed him as a mediator.

He, however, hoped that Ravi Shankar would realize the huge responsibility entrusted to him by the apex court and act as a neutral mediator.

The MP said he was welcoming the Supreme Court order on behalf of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). He said the All India Muslim Personal Law Board would spell out its stand.

The MIM leader, also a member of Personal Law Board, said the Muslim side should go to the three mediators appointed by the Supreme Court and put forward its view.

He also welcomed the Supreme Court order that the mediation process would be confidential. He said this would leave no room for speculation in media and thus avoid a situation where politicians could draw mileage for electoral gains.
Bangkok, March 8 : The UN in Bangkok on Friday marked the International Women's Day (IWD) by calling for gender equality and the empowerment of women under its global theme "Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change".

Echoing the theme for the 63rd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63), the International Women's Day 2019 explored ways where women can be more innovation-inclusive.

UN Women Deputy Regional Director Anna-Karin Jatfors said a "think equal and innovate for change" mindset can bring changes for women, according to Xinhua news agency.

"The problem for women in the Asia-Pacific Region is that despite the girls being educated, it is not translated to equal rights to labour market... and the main reason is social-norm," Anna-Karin said, adding that women still do a lot of unpaid care work and domestic work than men as a result of gender bias.

Kalpana Viswanath, who launched a mobile navigation application for women in India to get from one place to another safely, said it was vital to encourage women to become innovative-inclusive as technology can facilitate their everyday lives.

"In India, very often in the cities during night time, women don't dare to venture outside of their homes, fearing insecurity and perhaps violence that may inflict upon them," said Viswanath, who created a navigation application "Safetipin".

"And just like Google Map, women can use Safetipin app to find out whether an area is safe or not by reading comments posted by users."

As part of the celebrations, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, UN Women and partner organizations "ring the bell" for gender equality to raise awareness of the pivotal role the private sector can play in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment.

In Nepal, the UN Women partnered with United Nations Population Fund on a photo exhibition showcasing women in non-traditional jobs.

In Myanmar, a women leaders' forum was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, to showcase innovative solutions and provide recommendations for a road map to strengthen women's access to economic autonomy and opportunity.
New Delhi, March 8 : The Supreme Court on Friday warned the Haryana government that it would be in "trouble" if it tried to interfere in the Aravalli ranges, its forest cover or top court's order on razing unauthorised dwellings in the posh locality Kant Enclave on the outskirts of the national capital.

The court has sought from the state government a copy of the Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2019.

In the last hearing in the case on March 1 as well, the apex court had sought a copy of the Bill and directed the Haryana government "not to act under the Amendment Act without its permission".

on Friday, a bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Deepak Gupta told the state government, "In case, Aravalli, its forest cover, the Punjab Land Preservation Act, or Kant Enclave is interfered with, you will be in trouble."

The court conveyed its stern position after Haryana government's counsel Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought to dispel the impression that the amendment to the Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2019 was aimed at taking away the protection of the Aravalli ranges.

The Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2019, amending the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900 was passed by the Haryana Assembly on February 27.

The Bill takes the protection cover off the Aravalis and Shivaliks exposing nearly 28,000 acres of land in Gurugram, Faridabad and seven other districts adjoining the national capital to private builders and land sharks.

However, Mehta said what was being told to the court was based on newspaper reports which did not depict the correct position. "There is no Act. It is still a Bill. It is before the Governor," said Mehta.

Contesting Haryana government's position, senior counsel and amicus curiae on environment matters Ranjit Kumar told the court that the Bill seeks to do what has been reported in the media. "It (amendment) has been made retrospective from 1966," Kumar said.

Facing strong resistance, Mehta asked Kumar who he was appearing for.

Kumar replied that he was amicus curiae in the matter, after which Justice Mishra told Solicitor General Mehta, "You are also supposed to be the amicus of the court and not the counsel for Haryana. You are first the amicus of the court."

Granting three weeks time to place the amended law before it, the court posted the next hearing for the first week of April.
New Delhi, March 8 : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday released a book "Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas", a compilation of selected speeches delivered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Releasing the book on the occasion of International Women's Day, Jaitley said that the Prime Minister has an excellent knowledge of subjects and his speeches are a clear reflection of that knowledge.

Stating that speeches should be effective so that they can have a grip on the audience, Jaitley said: "The Prime Minister has a good grip over a wide bandwidth of subjects including political history, economy, foreign policy, strategic issues, among others."

"He is a quick learner coupled with clarity of thinking, which together ensure delivery of flawless speeches by him," he added.

Recalling a few great orators from India's recent history including Mahatma Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Jagjivan Ram and Indrajit Gupta, the Finance Minister said their speeches are etched in the memory and consciousness of the country.

He said there is a difference between the speeches of ordinary politicians and those who want to be a statesman.

"Many ordinary politicians think of only making it to headlines this evening or tomorrow morning. But, if you rise to a higher level, you are thinking of the next generation," he said.

Compiled in five volumes, the book brought out by the publications division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, was released in Hindi as well as English. It is edited by publication division member Kanchan Gupta.

Each of these volumes is categorized into five segments, covering the Prime Minister's ideas on good governance; making India competent and efficient; hailing bravehearts, farmers and brilliant scientists; taking along people on an inclusive path of growth and hope; and sharing the message of a resurgent India with the international community.

Last week, Jaitley had also released a book that was a compilation of Modi's message in the first 50 episodes of his monthly radio programme "Mann Ki Baat".

On the occasion, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said that the speeches of the Prime Minister are a repository of practical solutions which are inspired by his simple, down to earth and connected to roots lifestyle.
Mumbai, March 8 : After being called an "aunty" on social media, actress Kareena Kapoor Khan seems to be upset with netizens for constantly targeting celebrities on social media.

In the trailer of an upcoming web series, celebrities like Sonakshi Sinha, Karan Johar, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Kapil Sharma are seen chatting with its host and actor Arbaaz Khan. In the over two-minute long video, among various things, Arbaaz is seen showing a comment to Kareena. It reads "You are an aunty now.. don't act like a teenager".

After reading it, she is seen smiling. Later in the video, Kareena seems to be angry. She says: "Celebrities, actors, actresses do not have any feelings. We have to just take everything."

Despite not being on social media, Kareena is not immune to trolls and online critics. This is not the first time that she has been trolled or been judged on the Internet.

On the work front, Kareena is currently shooting for her upcoming film "Good News" for which she reportedly sported a baby bump.
Mumbai, March 8 : Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who advocates greater participation of women in development of technology products, reached Mumbai to celebrate International Women's Day and spend some time with young students on Friday.

"In Mumbai today and happy to celebrate #IWD2019 with the India chapter of Women@Google at their 'I Am Remarkable' event. Thank you for inspiring me with your stories about the experiences, challenges and triumphs of being women in tech," Pichai said in a tweet.

Later, he was seen spending time with kids who used the newly-launched Google's reading tutor app "Bolo".

"Earlier this week, we launched #Bolo in India: a reading tutor app powered by #GoogleAI text-to-speech & speech recognition.

"Had the chance to visit some students today who are learning to read using 'Bolo', excited for all the great books they'll discover!," Pichai further tweeted.

Launched on March 5, parents can download the free app to help primary grade children improve their Hindi and English-reading skills.

All the reading material on the app is free and the initial catalogue from Storyweaver.org.in includes 50 stories in Hindi and 40 in English.

Google piloted "Bolo" with over 900 children in 200 villages in Uttar Pradesh with the help of ASER Centre, a research and assessment unit of Pratham Education Foundation.
New Delhi, March 8 : O.P. Jindal Global University has launched a 4-week long online course in 'impact investment', aiming to train people in how to invest in companies to generate measurable social and environmental gains and at the same time earn from it too.

The course was launched on Thursday on FutureLearn (https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/impact-investing) -- Europe's leading online social learning platform -- by the Jindal Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship (JSiE) of the university.

"The power of impact investing lies in its ability to deliver both a positive social or environmental impact and a financial return. The objective of this online course is to offer virtual education to financial and social sector professionals or anyone interested to learn about the potential of impact investing without the restraints of a physical institution," the centre said in a statement.

One of the purposes of the course is to teach how to "make the world a better place in measurable ways", Jeremy Wade, one of the two who will conduct the course, said in a video on the centre's website.

The course has been co-created by JSiE & Asha Impact, one of India's leading impact funds and development think tanks and will carry video interviews with leading investors in the field like the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Acumen Fund, Omidyar Network, Grameen Capital, Aavishkaar and more, according to the centre.

Professor (Dr) C. Raj Kumar, founding Vice Chancellor of the university, said: "JGU fosters and encourages a strong foundation for training programmes for social enterprises and social entrepreneurs. Universities have the social responsibility to make education more accessible."

Kartik Desai, Executive Director of Asha Impact, said: "What makes impact investing compelling is its potential to scale market-based solutions to social problems in partnership with government and industry."

Nigel Smith, MD of Courses and Learning at FutureLearn, said: "Positive social impact and strong financial returns don't always go hand-in-hand so it's important to celebrate examples of their harmony where they do coexist."
Kanpur, March 8 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi tore into the opposition on Friday and slammed them for making "politically motivated" statements that are "demotivating the defence forces".

Addressing a public rally in Kanpur, Modi said he is making this "serious charge" against some political opponents who, blinded by their dislike for Modi, are harming the interests of the nation.

"For political mileage and benefits, some political parties are making statements questioning the air strikes and the bravery and valour of our Army personnel, deliberately," he said.

As people cheered him, Modi said at a time when the country is "fighting a decisive battle against terrorism to uproot it forever", there are some who are making statements in a language that become a "weapon in Pakistan's armoury" to speak against India on the global stage.

He also talked about the Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF troopers were killed.

The Prime Minister asked the crowd to tell him whether they are satisfied with his reaction to the dastardly attack. When people responded with a yes, he said: "While your chest is getting pumped up and feeling proud of the air strikes, opposition parties are using the issue to settle political scores with me. Will the country ever forgive them?"

Calling it a matter of disgrace, Modi went on to say that the "insiders in India" are doing things that are music to Pakistan's ears. "They are doubting the bravery of the armed forces, they are levelling dirty allegations against the government... Who will it help at the end of the day?" he said, alleging that the "enemies of the nation are doing this deliberately".

There is immense pressure on Pakistan for patronising and protecting terror groups, the PM said, adding that the masterminds of the terror outfits smile when these allegations are made against him by "our very own" political parties.

"Utterances, statements of our very own are giving ammunition to Pakistan, which has been caught red-handed in terrorism. Terrorists know it is end game for them and hence they are rattled. The grenade attack on bus in Jammu on Thursday was such an attempt," he pointed out.

Assuring the people that the Union government is closing in on them and would uproot them for ever, he however stressed on the need for unity, peace and harmony in the country to enable his government to take decisive action against terror.

Referring to the recent assault in Lucknow on two dry-fruit sellers from Kashmir, the Prime Minister lauded the Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Adityanath government for acting promptly and urged all state governments to act against such incidents.

"Peace, unity and harmony in the nation will give me the intrinsic strength to take decisive action against terror," he said while seeking people's support in this endeavour.

He also castigated the opposition for trying to stick up an alliance.

"They are not bothered about the nation, poverty, terrorism, middle class, industry, army, Ganga...nothing," he said pointing out how the "mahamilawat alliance" is between people, "some of whom are in jail, some are soon going to jail and the others who are on bail".
Bhubaneswar, March 8 : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday announced a slew of benefits for women including free education if Congress is voted to power in Odisha.

"We have taken some decisions in our manifesto for women in Odisha. If Congress is voted to power in the state, all women would be provided free education, be it in engineering, medical, school, college or any other disciplines," said Gandhi addressing a public meeting in Jeypore.

He said financial assistance would be provided to poor girls for marriage, while Rs 2,000 monthly pension would be provided to widows.

Besides, Congress will appoint special women safety officers in every Gram Panchayat to curb violence against women in the state, he added.

The Congress president promised to waive off farm loan in the state and provide a minimum support price of not less than Rs 2,500 for paddy per quintal to the farmers.

Gandhi also attacked the Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

He said the Odisha government is being governed by 4-5 officers, not by the "voice of the people" of the state.

"While we are protecting the lands of the people, Patnaik is taking your land without asking you and handing over them to industrialists. He is benefiting a handful of people," he added.
Agartala, March 8 : The Indian member of the terror outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), who was arrested in Tripura earlier this week and is now under 12-day police custody, confessed that he is a close associate of the terror outfit and involved in terror activities, police said on Friday.

"JMB cadre Nazir Shaikh confessed that a few years back he was a follower of the terror group and paid Rs 500 per month as subscription to the outfit... For the past two years, he is a member of the banned group," a top police officer told IANS.

Two senior officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), besides other central and state intelligence officials, are interrogating the 25-year-old JMB man at a police station on the outskirts of the capital city.

"The JMB terrorist confessed to have committed many crimes in different parts of India, including in West Bengal and in Bengaluru, and gave significant information about the terror outfit's clandestine plan and ongoing works. NIA officials after taking transit remand from the court might take him outside the state as part of their investigation," said the officer, who also questioned the detainee.

Arrested in Tripura on March 5, the JMB cadre was on Wednesday sent to 12 days' police custody by a local court here. He would be produced in the court again on March 18.

"For the past two weeks, he had been working in a private construction firm in Arundhitinagar (on the outskirts of the capital city in western Tripura)."

Tripura Director General of Police (DGP) Akhil Kumar Shukla had earlier said that the detainee had been involved in many terror activities both in Bangladesh and India.

"Shaikh, a resident of West Bengal's Murshidabad district, is an expert in making IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices)."

Shukla told the media that the JMB, banned both in Bangladesh and India, conducted simultaneous explosions in 63 districts in Bangladesh in 2005.

"Nazir Shaikh was involved in the Bodh Gaya blasts in January last year. He was involved in various terror activities in India. We would try to find out all possible angles about his arrival in Tripura ahead of the Lok Sabha elections," he said.

At the time of explosion in Bodh Gaya, Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, along with several Buddhist pilgrims, was camping in the town to participate in the month-long Kalachakra puja.

The Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police and the West Bengal Police have arrested some JMB terrorists and collaborators in the state over the past few years.

Five Indian states -- West Bengal (2,216 km), Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km) -- share 4,096-km border with Bangladesh.

Though the large portions of the frontiers have barbed wire fencing, there are unfenced, mountainous and riverine borders prone to crime and smuggling, besides trans-border illegal movements.
Kolkata, March 8 : West Bengal BJP leaders on Friday paid tributes to the two slain security personnel from the state, who were killed in Jammu and Kashmir earlier this year.

BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha presented mementos to the bereaved family members of CRPF trooper Bablu Santra, killed in Pulwama terror strike on February 14 and BSF Assistant Commandant Vinay Prasad, shot dead in sniper fire from across the border in Kashmir's Samba sector on January 15.

Banamala Santra, the mother of Pulwama martyr from Howrah district, said she was proud of her son, adding no politics should be involved in the programme at the state BJP headquarters.

"I am happy and honoured to be able to come here. I am proud of my son," she said.

Mother and wife of the other slain soldier Prasad were also present.
Bengaluru, March 8 : On the International Women's Day, Bengaluru airport operator BIAL on Friday announced it has inducted 14 women firefighters into its aircraft rescue and firefighting squad.

"Recruited from across Karnataka, the women, who were inducted on February 19, are currently undergoing training at the Bengaluru airport," the Bangalore International Airport Ltd said in a statement.

BIAL also claimed that it has become the first airport in the country to have women firefighters in its crew and among the few Asian airports to have a female contingent of its size after these appointments.

The appointment of a women firefighting squad marks transformation in the Indian aviation sector, which has traditionally been male-dominated, BIAL said.

"With the airport's second runway and second terminal set to become operational in 2019 and 2021 respectively, the recruitment of women will strengthen the airport's emergency preparedness," the statement said.
New Delhi, March 8 : A BJP delegation led by senior party leaders met the Election Commission (EC) officials on Friday and alleged that the Andhra Pradesh government was involved in electoral data theft and had "subverted" all the government processes to gain undue advantage over its political rivals.

The Bharatiya Janata Party team urged the poll panel to take "corrective steps" to nullify the undue advantage taken by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

"With the active connivance of people in high positions in the Andhra Pradesh government, confidential and secure data of the states' voters and residents have been leaked to the ruling TDP.

"This large-scale data theft has not only put the people of the state at a great risk, but has also given undue advantage to the ruling party," the BJP said in a memorandum submitted to the EC.

It alleged that the ruling party has gained illegitimate access to data like Aadhaar numbers and linked bank accounts, photographs of all the voters from the master voter database of the EC and social mapping and political preferences of the voters obtained through government sponsored surveys.

"The state government has subverted all the government processes to gain undue advantage over its political rivals. Corrective steps must be taken so that the undue advantage gained by the ruling TDP is nullified," the memorandum stated.

The party also alleged that a large number of bogus voters have been added to the electoral rolls with duplicate names and "juggling" of names.

"The complaints to the Chief Electoral Officer of Andhra Pradesh have not yielded much results as the verification exercise through the revenue officials of the state government has been subverted to favour the TDP," the delegation said.

The BJP also sought to make changes in the leadership of the state police force ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

"The Director General of Police (DGP) and a few other high-ranking officers must be sent out of the state during the elections to give confidence to the political parties and the voters that the poll process is free and fair," the party said.

The BJP delegation also raised apprehensions that "bribes" may be directly deposited in the bank accounts of the voters on the eve of the elections.

"We suspect that information regarding bank accounts have been leaked to the private companies working for the ruling party to effect bribe transfers ahead of the elections. This hi-tech 'direct bribe transfer' can completely vitiate the election process and alter the poll dynamics," the BJP said.

The party claimed that to woo voters, the state government has issued post-dated cheques to people under many schemes only to hoodwink them ahead of the polls.

"We appeal to the EC to declare this as a fraudulent practice and make all such actions null and void," the BJP delegation said.
Lucknow, March 8 : The two Kashmiri vendors of dry fruits who were thrashed by four rightwing Hindu activists here on Wednesday triggering outrage resumed their trade on Friday at the very same place -- bringing smiles all around.

Senior Superintendent of Police Kalanidhi Naithani said all four attackers had been arrested and sent to jail.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at his public rally in Kanpur on Friday, lauded the Uttar Pradesh government for taking prompt action and urged all states to act strictly against "such elements".

"Our animosity is against terror and not people of a certain region," Modi said.

Abdul Salam and Mohd Afzal Nayak, who belong to the Kashmir Valley, have been selling dry fruits in Lucknow for years and had never faced any trouble in the past.

On Wednesday, the Hindu activists thrashed them after accusing them of being "stone pelters".

They survived the attack only because a passer-by intervened and called the police.

As the video of the attack went viral on the social media, the attackers were charged with, among other offences, attempt to murder.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah condemned the brutality.

"Nothing will do more damage to the idea of India in Jammu and Kashmir than videos like these," he said.

"Keep thrashing Kashmiris like this on the streets at the hands of RSS/Bajrang Dal goons and then try to sell the idea of 'atoot ang' (unbreakable part), it simply won't fly."

The police said they have compensated for the losses suffered by the vendors and have assured them full security.
Islamabad, March 8 : Pakistan on Friday lodged an FIR against the pilots of the Indian Air Force (IAF) for bombing and destroying trees in Balakot area of the country's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the media reported.

India on February 26 had bombed the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed's (JeM) biggest training camp in Balakot in retaliation to the February 14 Kashmir suicide bombing that killed 40 CRPF troopers and was claimed by the terror group.

The FIR was filed by the Forestry Department against "unidentified IAF pilots" and also detailed the damage suffered by 19 trees after Indian aircraft "hastily dropped their payload", the Express News reported.

Islamabad also plans to lodge a complaint against India at the UN, accusing New Delhi of "eco-terrorism", the report said.

Climate Change Minister Malik Amin Aslam said Indian jets bombed a "forest reserve" and the government was undertaking an environmental impact assessment, which will be the basis a complaint at the UN and other forums.

"What happened over there is environmental terrorism. There has been serious environmental damage," Aslam said, adding dozens of pine trees fell in the area after the bombing.
Jammu, March 8 : Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh on Friday inaugurated a 331-metre long bridge in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district.

A Defence Ministry statement said the Minister, along with Lt Gen Harpal Singh, Director General of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), dedicated the Bein bridge to the nation through e-inauguration from New Delhi.

The strategically important Bein bridge is located on Parole-Rajpura road near the international border. It will facilitate in smooth connectivity and help the socio-economic development of the border villages in Samba region, the statement said.

The bridge was constructed at a cost of Rs 21 crore six months before its scheduled time.

The Minister praised the BRO personnel for working away from their families in "most hostile and difficult areas".
Helsinki, March 8 : The government of Finland resigned on Friday, a month before parliamentary elections, citing a failure of the plan to reform the public healthcare system.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto accepted the resignation of the government led by centrist Prime Minister Juha Sipila, national broadcaster Yle reported.

"The social welfare and healthcare reform was one of our government's most important objectives," Sipila said at a press conference. "The snapshot of the situation that I got from the Parliament obliged me to examine if there was a possibility of continuing the reform process. There wasn't.

"My conclusion was that my government had to hand in our resignation," he said. "I take my responsibility."

The government's collapse came after Sipila failed to push through reforms that had been considered a crucial part of the country's three-party governing coalition plan to balance public finances, Efe news reported.

"Prime Minister Sipila requests to resign because the healthcare reform cannot be accomplished during this government term," tweeted Antti Kaikkonen, the Head of Sipila's Centre Party's parliamentary group.

"If anyone asks what political responsibility means, then I would say this is an example of that," he added.

A majority of politicians agreed that some sort of reform to the system was required but they spent the past decade debating how to make it happen, the report said.

The government's efforts were finally brought down by a parliamentary constitutional committee which contended that the proposed cuts did not respect equal rights among all Finns.

Sipila had previously said he would dissolve his centre-right coalition government if it failed to push through its health care, welfare and local government reforms.

President Sauli Niinisto has asked Sipila to remain in office as a caretaker Prime minister until an April 14 parliamentary election.
Mathura, March 8 : Mathura-based entrepreneur Pawani Khandelwal will be representing India at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation's conference on women entrepreneurship and economic empowerment next month.

The conference, part of the Foundation's programmes on the World Economic Order, will be held in Washington DC and Chicago from March 22.

Khandelwal, 24, runs "Aatm Nirbhar", an all women two-wheeler driving school for women in Mathura, Agra, Lucknow and Jaipur.

She told IANS that nine other women heading social organisations in different countries had been selected for the fully-funded programme after a rigorous process.

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation receives thousands of applications every year for the programme and someone from India getting selected was rare.

Khandelwal will talk about women empowerment, opportunities for women in the social sector, role of women in economic growth and importance of female employees in an organisation.

"Aatm Nirbhar has so far empowered over 5,000 women and will add a few zeros to the figure very soon," she said.
New Delhi, March 8 : The Enforcement Directorate probing 13 money laundering case in Jammu and Kashmir related to terror funding has identified at least six persons who bought properties in the state with the money linked to alleged 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

According to the financial probe agency sources, the ED has identified several properties bought from the money transferred to the six people and several NGOs in the state from the Paksitan-based terrorist and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jammat-ud-Dawah chief Saeed.

An ED source related to the probe requesting anonymity told IANS: "We have identified six persons, who acted as the front to buy properties in the state." The source identified two of the six suspects -- Aftaab and Naeem, both residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

The source said that the six persons came on the agency's radar after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case of terror funding in May 2017. The anti-terror agency had on January 18 last year filed chargesheet against 12 persons, including LeT founder Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, seven Kashmiri separatist leaders and others in terror funding.

Same year (2017) ED also registered a case of money laundering based on the NIA FIR against several separatist leaders in the state including Saeed. The NIA had seized incriminating documents from several separatist leaders.

Last month, the ED registered a fresh case against Saeed.

"After going through the detailed scrutiny of the bank transactions, we found the evidences against the six people," the source said.

He said that Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmed Watali, who was arrested in August 2017, "acted as fund manager to many persons to park the money received from across the border".

Watali was granted bail by the Delhi High Court in September last year.

The ED last year also questioned Dubai-based hawala operator, Naval Kishore Kapoor, who was arrested by NIA. Kapoor is currently lodged in Tihar Central Jail, as the ED continues its probe into details of funding that emerged post-26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

Kapoor was arrested by the NIA on July 16 last year.

According to the ED sources, questioning of Kapoor was required as the NIA probe had revealed a lease agreement signed in 2014 between him and Kashmiri businessman Watali.

The source said the questioning led to several improtant tips to unearth the funding module in the Kashmir Valley.

Besides, the six people, the ED has identified several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which acted as a conduit to route the money of Saeed in the state.

The source however, refused to share the names of the NGOs. He said that these NGOs helped the people to park the money to stoke unrest in the state. The source said that soon ED will attach their properties.

The NIA had in July 2017 arrested 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.

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. Shahid-ul-Islam is an aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Khandey is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat.

(Anand Singh can be contacted at anand.s@ians.in)
Hong Kong: Complaints handled fairly: CSD

The Correctional Services Department said it reviews and enhances the mechanism for handling complaints from time to time to increase its transparency and credibility in handling them in an open, fair and impartial manner.

The department made the statement today in response to a press conference held by Legislative Council members regarding the mechanism and the inspection arrangement for Justices of the Peace.

Currently, people in custody can lodge complaints to the institutional management, directorate officers of the department headquarters during their inspection, or the independent Complaints Investigation Unit which is appointed by the Commissioner of Correctional Services.

The unit will investigate each complaint in a fair, impartial and comprehensive manner, or make referral to other law enforcement agencies for follow up.

If the person lodging the complaint is not satisfied with the findings, an appeal can be made to the departments Complaints Appeal Board.

To further boost the mechanism to scrutinise appeals, the number of appeal board members increased from 10 to 18 in April of last year. Apart from Justices of the Peace, religious people who are acquainted with correctional operations were also appointed.

The department said it does not arrange visits by Justices of the Peace.

It said the existing mechanism for such visits is functioning well and that there were 414 inspections conducted by Justices of the Peace in 2018.

The department added it attaches great importance to staff members conduct, integrity and ethics. Any staff members who breach the law will be dealt with seriously.

This story has been published on: 2019-03-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Mumbai, March 8 : The CBI has arrested a former Mumbai Customs officer who was impersonating as a doctor in an Uttar Pradesh medical college, 20 years after he disappeared, an official said on Friday.

Abhinav Singh was caught after he was found impersonating and working as a 'Dr Rajeev Gupta' and a Professor in a medical college in Mathura, two decades after he was declared a Proclaimed Offender by the CBI Special Court here.

Following a complaint by the Customs Department, the CBI had registered a case on September 29, 1999 against Singh and another individual as well as some private firms.

Singh was then an Appraiser at Custom House, Mumbai, and was charged with abusing his official position and wrongly confirming as 'genuine' a fake Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) submitted by the accused companies and individuals.

The alleged fraud resulted in a loss of over Rs 4 crore to the government by way of customs duty on imported goods.

For his 'services', Singh was paid Rs 500,000 and gifted a Maruti Zen car in 1998-99, said the official.

After the case was registered, Singh absconded and using fake and forged degree certificates he started working as a doctor in medical colleges and hospitals.

Finally, he was arrested while working as a 'doctor' and Associate Professor with a medical college in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.

He was brought to Mumbai on a transit remand and produced before the Special CBI Court which has remanded him in custody till March 13.
New York, March 8 : Faced with harsh economic sanctions, North Korea has amassed around $670 million in foreign and virtual currency through cyberthefts, according to a UN panel, the Nikkei Asian Review reported on Friday.

Detailing for the first time on how North Korea acquires foreign currency through cyberattacks, a panel of experts told the UN Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee that Pyongyang has used Blockchain, the basic technology behind cryptocurrencies, to cover its tracks.

Virtual currencies "provide the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with more ways to evade sanctions, given that they are harder to trace, can be laundered many times and are independent from government regulation", the panel was quoted as saying.

The panel looked into North Korean-backed cyberattacks on foreign financial institutions from 2015 to 2018.

Economic sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programmes have restricted Pyongyang's exports of coal, a key earner of foreign exchange.

North Korean companies also used social media platforms such as YouTube and Instagram to market the country's military equipment, said the report.

A summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ended on February 28 with no agreement after Washington refused Pyongyang's demands for economic sanctions relief.
New Delhi, March 8 : A Delhi Court on Friday granted more time to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file a response on Dubai-based businessman Rajiv Saxena's plea seeking to become an approver in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.

Special Public Prosecutor D.P. Singh told Special Judge Arvind Kumar that he needs more time to examine the statement made by Saxena.

The court allowed his plea and listed the matter for further hearing on March 14.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) security agencies picked up Saxena from his Dubai residence on January 30 and extradited him to India the same night.

He was granted bail on medical grounds last week. The ED did not oppose his bail application.

According to the ED, Saxena, in connivance with lawyer Gautam Khaitan, provided the global corporate structure that laundered money for payment to various political leaders, bureaucrats and Indian Air Force (IAF) officials to influence the contract for supplying 12 VVIP helicopters in favour of AgustaWestland.
New Delhi, March 8 : The Union Home Ministry on Friday issued an advisory to all States and Union Territories asking them to reinforce the existing arrangements to ensure safety and security of persons belonging to Jammu and Kashmir who residing in their respective jurisdictions.

Referring to its earlier advisory issued on February 16 after some students and residents of Jammu and Kashmir experienced intimidation and harassment, the Home Ministry directed the police of states and union territories to take strict action against offenders.

A Home Ministry official said the advisory has been issued in the wake of some reports of students and other residents of Jammu and Kashmir experiencing threats and intimidation in the backdrop of the February 14 suicide bombing in Pulwama that left 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel dead.

The CRPF troopers were killed when their convoy was hit by a car packed with explosives on the Jammu-Srinagar highway. The vehicle was driven by a Jammu and Kashmir youth Adil Ahmad Dar. The Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed led by Masood Azhar has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Islamabad, March 8 : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Friday that his government would not let any armed groups function in the country amid intensifying crackdown on Islamist groups and their leaders.

"Under the National Action Plan (NAP), we will not permit any armed group in Pakistan. No country does this. This was decided by all the parties of Pakistan. Since our government came to power, we have decided that we will implement the NAP," Khan said while addressing a rally in Tharparkar district.

"Pakistan's soil will not be allowed to be used for terrorism," he was quoted as saying by Geo News.

His comments came amid tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad after the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) claimed responsibility for the February 14 Kashmir suicide bombing that killed 40 CRPF troopers.

The Kashmir bombing resulted in mounting pressure from the international community on Islamabad to act on terrorist groups based on its soil.

Following that, Pakistan launched a crackdown against terror groups earlier this week and arrested the brother and son of JeM Masood Azhar along with 42 others affiliated with the banned terror groups.

It said that law enforcement agencies took 121 people into preventive detention and seized 182 madrasas as part of its continuing crackdown on terror groups.

The government also seized properties belonging to Hafiz Saeed's proscribed Jamaat-ud-Dawa and its charity arm Falah-e-Insaniyat. But Pakistan says that its action against the terror groups was not taken under any pressure.

Khan also spoke about the security of the minorities in Pakistan and said that his country stood with them unlike India where "the minorities were being targeted".

He said his government stood with the people of the Hindu community, a minority in Pakistan, and would not tolerate any injustice against them.

"In this Pakistan, it is our responsibility to ensure that minorities are equal citizens and will not be discriminated against."

India, in retaliation to the Kashmir bombing, had bombed the JeM's biggest training camp in Balakot, Pakistan, on February 26. The next day, Islamabad captured an Indian Air Force pilot after a dogfight between the two air forces. He was released on March 1 as a "peace gesture" by Pakistan.

Reiterating that his country wanted peace, Khan said: "We returned the pilot because we don't want war. We decided that if you (India) have casualties in Pulwama, we are willing to provide help. However, no one should mistake this for fear."

He added that the main focus of his government was to eliminate poverty.

"When I spoke to Modi after becoming Prime Minister, I said South Asia has the highest rate of poverty and we should resolve issues through dialogue. But I did not know that as soon as their election campaign began, their focus shifted to gain votes by spreading hatred."
Thiruvananthapuram, March 8 : Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan has resigned as the Governor of Mizoram, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said on Friday, and he is likely to be the BJP candidate in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat now held by Shashi Tharoor of the Congress.

With the Left Democratic Front already announcing the name of senior CPI legislator and former Minister C. Divakaran as its candidate and the two-time MP Tharoor determined to win, a a stiff contest is in the offing in the Kerala capital.

Divakaran accepted that with Rajasekharan jumping into the fray, the contest has turned tough.

"But I am confident that I will win as the LDF can take on both the BJP and the Congress," he said.

Tharoor told the media that he was least affected as to who his opponents would be.

"Earlier there was speculation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself might contest from here. For me, it does not matter as I have been the MP from here for the past 10 years while the BJP has been ruling the country for five years and the Left is ruling Kerala for the past three years. What counts is what one has done here," he said.

"I will rather not speak anything about the opposing candidates," he added.

While Tharoor in his first outing in 2009 won the Lok Sabha battle by one lakh votes, in 2014 his margin fell to around 15,000 votes after BJP veteran and former Union Minister O. Rajagopal finished a close second, leaving the CPI far behind.

The Rashtrapathi Bhavan said on Friday that President Ram Nath Kovind had accepted the resignation of Rajasekharan.

"The President is pleased to appoint Jagdish Mukhi, Governor of Assam, to discharge the functions of the Governor of Mizoram, in addition to his own duties, until regular arrangements for the office of the Governor of Mizoram is made," a communique said.

An aide to Rajasekharan told IANS over phone from Mizoram that he was busy handing over charge and will not speak to the media as of now.

Rajasekharan was the Kerala BJP President when he was appointed the Mizoram Governor last year.

"I have resigned as the party wished that I should be in Kerala. I also wished to be in Kerala and hence I have quit," Rajasekharan told a Kerala TV channel on Friday.

State BJP President P.S. Sreedharan Pillai said: "This is happy news for the BJP and Sangh Parivar forces."

In 2016, Rajasekharan finished a close third in the Vatiyurkavu Assembly constituency in the Thiruvananthapuram district. When the Congress won the seat, the CPI-M came second.
Kolkata, March 8 : Kolkata Police arrested two seasoned heroin dealers from the city and seized 460 grams of heroin amounting to Rs 4 lakh, a senior police officer said on Friday.

"Sabina Biwi, a seasoned heroin dealer, and her associate Bapi Molla were arrested from Pragati Maidan police station area on Thursday. 460 grams of heroin packed in around 4300 multicoloured packets were recovered from them," Joint Commissioner of Kolkata Police (crime) Praveen Tripathi told reporters here.

The officer said Biwi was involved in selling heroin to students of a number of schools and colleges in the city's Sealdah, Entally and E.M. Bypass areas.

Mollah used to collect the narcotic substance from Biwi and sell it to the students of a few prominent schools in central Kolkata.

The accused have been charged under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, the officer added.
New Delhi: New Delhi: Sunni Waqf Board representative, senior advocate Shakeel Ahmed Syed talks to media person at Supreme Court in New Delhi on March 8, 2019. The Supreme Court on Friday ordered mediation to settle the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid A Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: All India Hindu Mahasabha leader Swami Chakrapani Maharaj talks to media persons at Supreme Court in New Delhi on March 7, 2019. The Supreme Court on Friday ordered mediation to settle the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Ayodhya title dispute Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi: New Delhi: Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha President Nand Kishore Mishra and Nirmohi Akhada Mahant Sitaram Das at Supreme Court lawn during the hearing of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Ayodhya title dispute case, in New Delhi on March 8, Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, March 8 : The Supreme Court on Friday ordered mediation to settle the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Ayodhya title dispute case by a three-member panel.

The members comprise two legal experts, both proponents of their field and a spiritual leader with a massive following. A brief look at the three who would be leading the mediation for the resolution of the case, which has been dragging on since 1992 and has kept the country on its toes with an anxious fervour.

Retired Judge Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla: The Supreme Court retired judge, who has been appointed to head the mediation committee, began his legal career in 1975 with law firm T.S. Gopalan & Co. He rose through the ranks to become a judge at the apex court in 2012, when he was sworn in by the then Chief Justice S. H. Kapadia. The Tamil Nadu born judge was made Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in 2011 after serving as acting Chief Justice for two months. Kalifulla retired from the profession in July 2016 .

Sriram Panchu: Panchu, also named to be a member of the committee, is a known and expert mediator who founded The Mediation Chambers in 2005. He is the president of the Association of Indian Mediators and a director on the board of the International Mediation Institute (IMI). He set up India's first court-annexed mediation centre in 2005.

Panchu was appointed by India's Supreme Court to mediate a 500-square kilometre dispute between the states of Assam and Nagaland, and another public dispute involving the Parsi community in Bombay.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: He is the well known founder of the Art of Living Foundation. He was in the news for the wrong reasons when he took over the Yamuna floodplains for which the NGT fined him. The National Green Tribunal had held Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living responsible for the damage to the Yamuna floodplains caused by the holding of the World Culture Festival in 2016. Earlier NGT imposed Rs 5 crore as interim environment compensation on the Art of Living Foundation for the event's impact on the environment. It had held that if the amount required for the restoration was above Rs 5 crore, then the urban body had to recover the money from the organisation.

In the last couple of years, the spiritual leader has emerged as a dispute mediator.

In the past, Sri Sri has also offered mediation over the Kashmir issue. He has met Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq at his residence in Srinagar, where the two had a discussion on the prevailing situation in the Valley.

He met Muzaffar Wani, father of Burhan Wani, the 22-year-old poster boy of militant organization Hizbul Mujahideen, who was shot by the Army in July 2016.

Sri Sri has also held discussions with United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) chief Paresh Barua to come to peace talks with the government.

In 2015, he is said to have held talks with Columbian rebel group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army). He had even visited Iraq in 2008 and 2014, with the Art of Living Foundation airdropping aid for nearly 5,000 Iraq war victims.

He is believed to have met Yazidi leaders, who were fighting the ISIS, in Iraq.
Kabul, March 8 : The death toll in an attack against a Shia gathering in Kabul rose to 11 on Friday while 95 people were wounded, Afghan authorities said.

Several rockets were fired at the gathering of members of the Shia Muslim Hazara minority community on Thursday. The event was held to mark the anniversary of the death of Abdul Ali Mazari, a Hazara leader, and was attended by Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah among other top officials of the government.

The event was cancelled immediately after the attack and Deputy Chief Executive and the event's organizer, Mohammad Mohaqiq, advised the participants to evacuate gradually.

Abdullah escaped the attack unhurt, while Presidential candidate Abdul Latif Pedram escaped with minor injuries.

"Eleven people were martyred including three women and another 95 people including 12 women were injured," Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told Efe news.

He said that according to the initial investigation the attack was carried out by the Taliban. The strike was, however, claimed by the Islamic State terror group.

Rahimi said the act was carried out by three insurgents and two of them died in the shootout.

"One (of the terrorists) was detained alive by the security forces and two more were killed... They offered an armed resistance against security forces after they were sieged in a yard from where they were firing the mortars," he added.
Lucknow, March 8 : The entire 23-km stretch of the Lucknow Metro Rail became operational on Friday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi digitally inaugurated its first commercial run, officials said.

After this, the commuters in the state capital will be able to take its ride from the Chowdhary Charan Singh International Airport at Amausi to Munshipuliya.

The Lucknow Metro Rail project was conceived in the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) government regime and a small segment between Alambagh and Charbagh was inaugurated in haste just before the 2017 Assembly elections.

With the start of the entire stretch on Friday, however, traffic in the city is likely to be decongested in a big way.

There are 21 stations on the North-South Corridor. Kumar Keshav, Managing Director of Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC), told IANS that it was a transport system dedicated to the people of the state capital and the fact that it was completed in a record time was a feat for all to remember.

Union Minister of Urban Development Hardeep Puri was present at the inauguration.

He credited the early completion of the project to the continuous efforts of Home Minister Rajnath Singh. "Both the central and the state government are trying to improve the infrastructure in the state in a big way and Metro was a part of it," the minister said.

The foundation stone of the ambitious Rs 6,880 crore project was laid in March, 2014 for the North-South Corridor of 23-km and the civil work commenced on September 27, 2014. The financials have been shared equally by the government of India and the state government, with an external loan of Rs 3,502 crore provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB), officials informed.

The state government provided free land for the project and has also reimbursed the state taxes.
Kolkata, March 8 : The West Bengal BJP's Mahila Morcha (women's wing) on Friday took out a rally here on the occasion of International Women's Day protesting against the rise in atrocities against women under the Mamata Banerjee government.

The rally led by the party's state women's wing chief, Locket Chatterjee, was held from the state BJP headquarters in central Kolkata to north Kolkata's Shyambazar.

The rallyists held posters and placards demanding progress and empowerment of women and shouted slogans against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for not taking action against offenders.

Accusing the Trinamool Congress government of failing to curb incidents of violence and atrocities against women in Bengal, BJP said it is a matter of shame that the state tops the charts in various categories like women trafficking and women suicide despite the Chief Minister being a woman.

"It is a matter of shame that despite the state having a woman Chief Minister, there has been a sharp increase in the number of incidents of rape and atrocities against women. For 3-4 consecutive years, the state has topped the charts in the number of incidents of rape," Chatterjee said.

Taking a dig at the ruling Trinamool Congress for holding a women's day rally, she said those who are silent on atrocities against women do not deserve to hold such rallies.

"All the mothers and sisters in Bengal should come out and protest against the attack on women here. Those who do not protest against atrocities on women and keep mum on issues like triple talaq, do not deserve to hold rallies on this day," she added.
New Delhi, March 8 : The Delhi Cabinet has given the green light to hike the auto-rickshaw fares from existing Rs 8 per km to Rs 9.5 per km, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said on Friday.

The base fare will be Rs 25 for first 1.5 km instead of existing limit of 2 km as per the revised new auto-rickshaw rate, the Minister tweeted.

He, however, did not mention the exact date since when the new fare would be implemented.

Gahlot said the waiting charges of 75 paisa per minute would be applicable for every minute when vehicle is stationary or stuck in traffic or moving slow. There is no change in night charges and the luggage charges. The Aam Aadmi Party government will issue a notification to this effect soon.

He said the last revision in the auto-rickshaw fare was done in 2013.

In 2013, the Delhi government had hiked the fares of auto-rickshaws by 25 per cent, keeping in view the increase in prices of CNG and spare parts. The base fare of auto then was raised from Rs 19 for the first 2 km to Rs 25 and the fare for every subsequent kilometre was raised from Rs 6.5 to Rs 8.
New Delhi, March 8 : The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Friday said that the family members of 40 of its personnel killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama suicide bombing have been paid over Rs 1 crore and would also be provided ex-gratia amount announced by the respective native states to which they belong.

The force said it would shortly launch a special mobile application being designed specifically for redressal of grievances relating to the family of those personnel.

An ex-gratia amount of Rs 35 lakh from Central government, Risk Fund and Central Welfare Fund of Rs 21.50 lakh, Bharat Ke Veer fund of over Rs 15 lakh and State Bank of India's Paramilitary Salary Package worth Rs 30 lakh have been provided to the "next of kin" of each CRPF personnel killed in the terror attack, said a CRPF statement.

It said that the family members of the killed personnel will also get an ex-gratia amount announced by the respective native state to which they belong.

In addition, the statement said, the financial benefits extended by various state governments and non government agencies are being paid to them "immediately".

"Liberalized Pension Award (LPA) to all 40 families equal to last basic pay including the dearness allowance will be paid to them lifelong. The family members of the CRPF personnel have also been offered jobs by some state governments. They will also be entitled for compassionate appointment in CRPF," said the statement.

Various government and semi-government institutions have volunteered to take care of education of wards of the slain CRPF personnel, it added.

The force, unlike previous occasions, issued the statement in the backdrop of reports that some family members of the slain personnel have blamed the Centre of not extending any help to them.

The CRPF personnel were killed after a suicide bomber hit a car packed with explosives to a bus carrying them was moving on the Jammu and Srinagar highway on February 14. The bus was part of a 78-vehicle convoy. Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed has taken the responsibility of the attack.
New Delhi, March 8 : The Income Tax Department on Friday conducted search at Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s Uttam Nagar legislator Naresh Balyan's property in the national capital and recovered cash over Rs 2 crore.

According to informed sources, a team of the IT Department carried out the search at the residential premises in west Delhi's Dwarka area after it received a credible information that some financial transaction would take place there.

At the time of search, the AAP legislator was also present. The property is said to be related to Akash Builders, he said.

"During the search, the IT officials recovered Rs 2 crore in cash and the legislator could not explain the source of money," the source said.

Balyan, also a property dealer, is considered to be a close aide of AAP Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

In October last year, the IT Department had searched 16 locations associated with Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot across Delhi-NCR.
New Delhi, March 8 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday questioned Robert Vadra, brother-in-law of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, for over eight hours in connection with a money laundeering case.

According to ED officials, Vadra arrived at the agency's office here at 10.40 a.m and left after eight hours at 7.25 p.m.

During the questioning, the ED officials demanded some documents from Vadra, which were later provided by Vadra's lawyers.

The documents related to bank accounts and properties of Vadra, according to the Directorate officials.

Vadra has been questioned by the ED officials in connection with the case related to his ownership of overseas assets in London.

Vadra, husband of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, is on interim bail till March 19.

He had also deposed before the ED twice in Jaipur in connection with another money-laundering case related to an alleged land scam in Bikaner. His mother Maureen, too, was questioned by the agency once.

Ahead of his appearance before the ED for questioning in a money laundering case, Vadra extended International Women's Day greetings, saying that he was surrounded by "four strong women".

"Wishing all wonderful women, a Happy Women's Day! I am happy to be surrounded by four strong women, 'my mother (Maureen Vadra), my mother-in-law (Sonia Gandhi), my wife (Priyanka Gandhi) and my daughter (Miraya Vadra)'," the businessman said in a Facebook post earlier in the day.

"The keywords to describe them are 'hardworking, courageous, compassionate and determined.

"I will celebrate the day with them, once I am back from the ED interrogation... I have already deposed for 10 days for almost 64 hours, cooperating with the interrogations. I believe in truth and justice," he wrote.
New Delhi, March 8 : The government on Friday set up a five member committee headed by Legal Affairs Secretary Alok Srivastava to examine issues related to framing of a structured scheme for providing insurance cover to advocates.

The committee would also suggest modalities for the implementation of such a scheme and would submit its report within three months, the government said.

The other members of the committee would include a senior representative from the Department of Financial Services and a representative from the Department of Legal Affairs. The committee will also have one representative each from the Bar Council of India and the State Bar Councils, an official statement said.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad directed that the committee shall recommend a comprehensive insurance scheme for the welfare of advocates all over India to address concerns relating to untimely death and medical insurance.

The committee may take the opinion of all stakeholders including the representatives of the insurance companies to devise the proposed scheme, the statement said.

Earlier this month, a delegation of lawyers, which included members of the Bar Council of India and office bearers of various Advocates Associations, met Prasad in connection with their concerns and demands.

Prasad said that the scheme may include assistance from central and state governments as also the involvement of State Bar Councils and the representatives operating the lawyers welfare fund.
New Delhi, March 8 : Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has said that free WiFi facility with high-speed Internet will be available at 6,441 stations across the country by Ganesh Chaturthi this year.

Addressing a press conference after launching a host of railway development projects, the Minister said: "Currently free WiFi facility is available at over 830 stations and 775 more stations will be added to the list by the end of March."

Goyal said that a MoU was signed between Tata Trust and RailTel to provide WiFi facility at 4,791 railway stations.

"And these stations would also be connected with the high-speed Internet progressively by September 2, on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi," he said.

He said that the facility will be provided by the Tata Trust under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

The Minister said that over 2,400 toilets will be constructed in the circulating area of stations with separate units for men, women and 'divyangjan' with low-cost sanitary pads dispenser, incinerator and condom vending machines, through CSR support from corporates like Coal India Ltd. and its subsidiaries.
New Delhi, March 8 : Terming the independent audit report, which earlier this week gave a boost to the share price of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL), as "a classical case of window shopping", Cobrapost on Friday said that the report submitted to the SEBI failed to answer all the questions it had raised.

Earlier, Cobrapost had alleged that the primary promoters of DHFL siphoned off over Rs 31,000 crore of public money through loans and advances to shell companies and other means to create private wealth for themselves.

A statement by Cobrapost said: "Adopting a selective approach, in a classical case of window shopping, the auditors examined the transactions of DHFL with 26 entities for loans aggregating to Rs 11,522 crores ... leaving out all the entities that were identified in the expose.

"A closer look at the report, which was submitted to the SEBI by DHFL Chairman and Managing Director Kapil Wadhawan on March 5, 2019, makes it clear that the audit carried out by T.P. Ostwal & Associates has left more questions than answered."

Cobrapost said that the scope of the audit was "examination in respect of transaction relating to the company only". The ambit of the audit was, thus, limited to DHFL only and does not include examination of other companies associated with the Wadhawans or shell companies which were used to siphon off the funds from DHFL.

Besides, the investigative newsportal said there is no attempt on the part of the auditing company to source information from the Ministry of Company Affairs, Registrar of Companies (RoC), SEBI, Income Tax Department or other bodies, which could enlighten its report.

"If the auditor's report is to be believed, then the audited annual reports filed with the MCA are false and incorrect."
Chandigarh, March 8 : With Punjab government employees on strike in support of their demands, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday promised employees that his government would implement the decisions taken by the Committee of Ministers on Employees' Issues in letter and spirit.

Amarinder urged the striking government employees, who went on strike on Thursday, to resume duties immediately in the interests of the people of the state.

The Chief Minister reviewed the decisions taken by the committee, comprising Health Minister Brahm Mohindra, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, and reiterated the state government's commitment to protect their interests and welfare.

"The Chief Minister made it clear after the review meeting that the decisions taken by the Committee of Ministers shall be implemented in a time-bound manner and urged the employees to end their strike immediately and work with diligence in the interest of the people of Punjab," said Chief Minister's Media Advisor Raveen Thukral .

Amarinder clarified that despite the financial constraints of the state government, 7 per cent dearness allowance had been released to all employees from February 1, as decided by the Committee of Ministers after a meeting with the Punjab State Ministerial Services Union on February 27.

Thukral said the balance of the DA and its arrears will be released in due course as and when the financial position of the state government improves further.

The striking employees are demanding rollback of the Punjab government's decision to delink DA, reducing the probation period from three years to two years, including the probation period for ascertaining seniority and pension of the staff, restoration of old pension scheme and regularizing services of temporary and ad hoc employees.
Shillong, March 8 : The Meghalaya High Court on Friday held the Editor of The Shillong Times Patricia Mukhim and her publisher Shobha Chaudhuri guilty of contempt of court and sentenced them to sit in the corner of the court room till the rising of the court.

Diposing of a case of contempt, a division bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Justice Sudip Ranjan Sen said, "In exercise of the power vested in us by Article 215 of the Constitution of India, we sentence both the contemnors to sit in the corner of the court room till the rising of the court and impose a fine of Rs 2 lakh each which is to be deposited with the Registry within a week and then to be deposited in the welfare fund of this high court."

In default of the payment, the court said both the contemnors will have to undergo six-month simple imprisonment and the paper will be "banned".

Counsels S. Dey, N. Syngkon, K. Ch Gautam and C.H. Mawlong volunteered as amicus curiae in the case, while K. Paul and S Thapa represented the contemnors.

The contempt proceeding was initiated against the English daily on the basis of two reports published on December 6, 2018 and December 10, 2018 under the caption "When judges judge for themselves" and "High Court pursues retirement benefits to judges, family".

The report had claimed that according to the order, Justice Sen, who incidentally retired on Friday, wanted several provisions for retired chief justices and judges and their spouses and children.

"Besides providing medical facilities for the spouses and children, the order stressed the need for providing protocol, guest houses, domestic help, mobile/internet charge at the rate of Rs 10,000 and mobile for Rs 80,000 for judges", the newspaper said.

On March 1, Mukhim and Chaudhuri filed two affidavits in the registry without any permission and later tendered unconditional apology, which the court observed to be a "calculated strategy to avoid punishment".

"The contemnors have all along contested the matter and finally the realising that the contest is not in their better interest have tendered unconditional apology at the last moment. The contemnors being responsible persons should not have indulged in the acts falling within the purview of derogation to the administration of justice," the bench noted.

Moreover, the court also found that Mukhim made a derogatory comment.

"When she (Mukhim) was confronted on February 25, 2019 for those remarks, she had no answer," the court noted.

Justice Sen had issued a show-cause notice to Mukhim and Chaudhuri asking them to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against the daily.
Panaji, March 8 : Any inquiry into the "missing" Rafale files should begin with Goa Chief Minister and former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said on Friday.

Addressing a meeting of the party's booth committee workers, Gandhi said like the missing Rafale files, the Goa government, headed by the ailing Parrikar, was also missing.

"You want to start an inquiry, then start the inquiry with Parrikar. Parrikar said clearly in the cabinet, it is taped, that Rafale files are with him and that Narendra Modi cannot remove him as Goa Chief Minister," Gandhi said.

"Not just the files are missing. The Goa government is missing," Gandhi said, hinting at a slump in administration in the coastal state, especially with Parrikar being afflicted with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Gandhi said had the contract to build Rafale planes been given to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the planes would have been built at the government-owned aviation company's facilities in Bengaluru, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, which would have provided jobs to local youth, especially engineers.

Gandhi said that fresh revelations which have been unearthed by a national newspaper have indicated that the delivery of the Rafale fighter jets would in fact now take place after 10 years.

"...it is written clearly that because of Narendra Modi, the Rafale plane will arrive late and that it would take 10 years for Rafale to come to India," Gandhi said.

The Congress president also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for trying to conduct "parallel negitiations" in the Rafale deal, which he said, eventually led to a steep escalation in the price of the fighter.

"The Supreme Court said bring back the CBI director. CBI director is brought back and in some hours, Modi sacked him again. We don't know why, what was the hurry?" Gandhi said.

The Congress president also said that during the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign, the slogan 'Achche Din Ayenge' was popular, but added that in the run-up to the 2019 general election, the "mood of the nation" was summed up with the Congress slogan 'Chowkidar chor hai'.

"Earlier, the slogan was 'Achche Din Ayenge'. Modi ji used to say 'Achche din' and people would say 'Ayenge'. Now you say 'Chowkidar' and people say 'Chor hai'. There is no need to say anything else," Gandhi said.
Hyderabad/Amaravati, March 8 : Telangana's Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing data theft case on Friday seized the office of IT Grids, the firm providing IT services to Andhra Pradesh's ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

Intensifying the probe, the SIT seized the office of the company located in Madhapur in the information technology hub here.

The police, which already seized some hard-disks and electronic gadgets, also took possession of computers and some other material and sealed the office. Some police personnel were deployed there to prevent entry of any person.

The nine-member SIT, constituted on Wednesday, is analyzing the data in the hard-disks. It is also making efforts to arrest IT Grids CEO D. Ashok, who remained at large.

Cyberabad police had booked a case against IT Grids on March 2 on a complaint by T. Lokeswara Reddy that sensitive data including personal information of citizens of Andhra Pradesh was being processed illegally by the company without consent of the citizens.

The data was allegedly used by the company for an app developed by it for TDP cadres.

This triggered a row between the Telugu states with Andhra Pradesh alleging that TDP's data was stolen under a conspiracy by Telangana's ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and YSR Congress party.

Telangana government constituted SIT headed by Inspector General of Police Stephen Ravindra for a thorough investigation into the case.

In a tit-for-tat, Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday set up SIT to probe data theft case against Telangana.

This followed a case registered in Guntur district on a complaint by cabinet minister K. Kala Venkat Rao, who is also president of Andhra Pradesh unit of TDP. He alleged that a conspiracy was hatched between YSR Congress leaders and some senior police officials of Telangana to steal the data belonging to TDP.

He also alleged that they conspired to engineer en-masse requests for deletion of names from the voters' list.

Additional Director General of Police and Transport Commissioner N. Bala Subramanyam, who is heading the Andhra Pradesh SIT, along with some other members of the team, on Friday met Director General of Police R.P. Thakur to discuss the case.

Bala Subramanyam said if necessary they would go to Hyderabad for the investigations but this would depend on the evidence they get in the case.
Agartala/Aizawl, March 8 : Japan is keen to extend all possible financial and technical help for the development of Tripura and Mizoram, particularly in the fields of infrastructure, bamboo development, agriculture, disaster management and human resource development, Kenji Hiramatsu, Japanese Ambassador to India said on Friday.

The Japanese envoy visited Mizoram and Tripura in the past three days and met the Chief Ministers of the two northeastern states - Zoramthanga and Biplab Kumar Deb - and discussed various developmental issues and possible collaboration.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had earlier given Rs 1,364 crore to Tripura in two phases for the promotion of forest based livelihood of the tribals and other backward people and value addition of non-timber forest produces. The-JICA sponsored projects are now going on.

In 2016, the JICA had extended Rs 4,000 crore soft loan to India to improve two National Highways (NH 54 and NH 51) in Mizoram and Meghalaya.

While talking to the media here on Friday, Hiramatsu said there are huge potentiality in Tripura in the bamboo handicrafts, tourism, bamboo cultivation and their value addition, connectivity and forest management for multi dimensional growth.

He said that both India and Japan in the 2nd meeting of "Japan-India Act East Forum" in October last year in New Delhi had agreed for deeper cooperation in various sectors including building infrastructure in northeastern region, forest management projects of Tripura and Meghalaya.

"Japan can also help in disaster management, collaborative efforts and technical support in diverse areas," the envoy told the media before leaving for Kolkata on Friday evening.

Hiramatsu is the first Japanese Ambassador to India to visit Tripura and Mizoram.
New Delhi, March 8 : Three men were roughed up by a group of advocates at the Dwarka District Court on Friday after one of them snatched a revolver from a police officer and tried to attack an advocate following a brawl in a queue to collect certificates, the police said.

The three men were later arrested by the police.

The incident occurred at the district court premises when an advocate, identified as Saurav Goel, told the police that three men assaulted him and even tried to kill him near his chamber.

"During investigation, it was found that the accused persons, identified as Aashish and Saurabh Solanki from Palam and Rohit from Sonepat, had come to the Dwarka District Court to collect copies of some certificates. The trio got involved in a fight with Goel over their position in a queue," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police R.P. Meena told IANS.

"During the brawl, Aashish snatched the revolver of Satyaprakash, an Assistant Sub Inspector present in the court premises, and attempted to kill Goel. However, he was overpowered by a constable," Meena said.

"The accused were then roughed up by a group of advocates before being sent to a nearby hospital for treatment," Meena said, adding that the accused have been arrested.
New Delhi, March 8 : India and Japan held their first Space Dialogue here on Friday with discussions centering on cooperation between their space agencies as also on global navigation satellite system, space situational awareness (SSA), space security and space-related norms.

The Indian delegation was led by Indra Mani Pandey, Additional Secretary for Disarmament and International Security Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, while the Japanese delegation was co-led by Kansuke Nagaoka, Deputy Assistant Minister, Foreign Policy Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Mr. Shuzo Takada, Director General, National Space Policy Secretariat, Cabinet Office.

The dialogue brought together ministries and agencies related to outer space in the two countries and provided an opportunity for information exchange on the respective space policies.

"Discussions were also held on bilateral cooperation between Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), their space industries, global navigation satellite system, space situational awareness (SSA), space security and space-related norms," an official release said.

China is making strides in the space sector and India and Japan are striving for higher level of cooperation in various critical areas.
New Delhi, March 8 : Two highway robbers were arrested for seizing a truck loaded with 17 cartoons of cigarettes worth Rs 1 crore, Delhi police said on Friday.

The police said Yashpal, 26, a resident of Haryana's Sonepat and Shakil, 21, a resident of Delhi's Bhalaswa Dairy were involved in the robbery. Yashpal was arrested on Wednesday from Prashant Vihar area when he came to meet his contact.

"On information of Yashpal, a police team later arrested his accomplice, Shakil, from his hideout. Yashpal and Shakil along with their other accomplices -- identified as Prince, Shobhit, Guddu and Pandit -- procured three country-made pistol to execute the robbery," Additional Commissioner of Police Rajiv Ranjan said.

"As per the plan, Guddu was assigned at the godown located at Narela Industrial area to inform about the movement of truck loaded with cigarettes. Shakil was assigned the job to intercept the truck and other gang members were tasked to overpower the truck driver and helper and snatched their mobile phone at a deserted place in Narela," the officer said.

The gang members executed the robbery on February 21 and also loaded the cigarettes consignment in their own truck. Sachin and Pandit later disposed the robbed cigarettes carton in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat," he said.
New Delhi, March 8 : Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has said that the focus of alliance between the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and the Congress is to "win the maximum number of seats" in the next Lok Sabha elections, amid indications that the party may climb down from 10 seats it is keen to contest in the state.

The Chief Minister is expected to meet Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday or Sunday to arrive at a final understanding on the seats.

JD-S chief and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda had met Gandhi on Wednesday and said that the party wants to contest 10 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka.

"Several points about seat sharing were discussed. We wanted 12 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, now we have come down to 10 seats," he had said.

In the 2014 election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won 17, Congress nine and the JD-S two of the 28 seats in the state.
New Delhi, March 9 : In a somersault, Attorney General K. K. Venugopal on Friday said he had never told the Supreme Court that Rafale file/documents were stolen, but had only said that the photocopies of the same were unauthorisedly taken away.

The clarification by the Attorney General came two days after he had twice told the court that Rafale documents were "stolen" and once he said that they were "purloined" and that the investigation was underway.

Sources close to the Attorney General on Friday sought to clarify that he had never said that the Rafale documents that were published in a section of the media and used by the petitioners were "stolen." All that he had told the court was that these documents were unauthorisedly photocopied, sources added.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her tweet quoted Attorney General as saying that he had never said that that the Rafale documents were stolen. He had told the top court that the petitioners (Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan) in their application used "photocopies of the original" papers, deemed by the government.

The Congress Spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala in his tweet late in the evening said, "Art of serving hundred lies to hide one truth. Yesterday in Supreme Court - Rafale files have been stolen. Today - photocopies of Rafale files have been stolen."

In the course of the hearing on March 6 when AG said that Rafale papers were stolen and that everytime on the day of hearing something appeared in the media, the court had asked what he had done after first write-up appeared in the media on February 8.

"What have you done? Papers were stolen; first article came on February 8. In between what had happened?" CJI had questioned AG on March 6 in the course of the hearing of the review plea, among others, by Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan.

Sinha has moved an application seeking perjury against the officials for misleading the court and suppressing information.

In the course of the hearing, the court had asked if the Defence Ministry could file an affidavit stating that documents published by the newspaper were stolen. The AG had agreed to do so by the next week.

The court had even asked the AG to apprise it of the steps taken vis-a-vis the documents allegedly stolen.
Amaravati, March 9 : Telugu Desam Party (TDP) spokesperson Yamini Sadineni on Friday filed a police complaint against those who were trolling her and posting objectionable content against her on the social media.

In a complaint filed at the Pattabhipuram police station in Guntur, she sought action against those trying to defame her on the social media.

She said despite the cyber laws, some people were running a campaign to defame her by by trolling her and posting objectionable content against her on social media platforms.

Claiming that women leaders in all the parties were facing harassment on the social media, she sought stringent action against those violating cyber laws.

She alleged that some people managed to secure her cellphone number and posted the same on Facebook and Twitter. She said some unknown persons were harassing her by making calls even at midnight.

The TDP leader said she welcomed political criticism but would not tolerate if the rivals cross their limits.

A young entrepreneur, Yamini was appointed TDP spokesperson last year. She heads the IT company Shreeyam Group.
New Delhi, March 9 : A youth has been arrested from West Bengal on charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a minor girl. The victim, a resident of the national capital, was safely rescued from his hideout, a police officer said on Friday.

"Sumit Raj, 19, a resident of Bihar had on August 29 kidnapped the minor girl, Rubina, 14, after luring her from west Delhi's Khyala area. A case on the complaint of victim's mother was registered in Khyala Police Station," ADCP Sameer Sharma said.

"During investigation, police teams and victim's mother suspected on Sumit Raj who used to live in the neighbouring area went missing from the locality," he added.

"Sumit Raj was arrested on Thursday from Durgapur in West Bengal from his hideout where he also kept the minor. The victim was rescued and was medically examined following which Raj was booked under POCSO act," Sharma added.

"During interrogation, Raj disclosed that he was already married in his village at Bihar's Nalanda. He in 2018 had come to Delhi for searching job and stayed at a relative house. During this period, he was infatuated with the victim. He with the intention to marry her, started luring her with false promises and won her confidence," he said.

"The accused later kidnapped the victim and took her to Bihar and later shifted to Durgapur to evade his arrest," he said, adding that a reward of Rs 20,000 was also declared by Commissioner of Police on November 29 last year to nab him.
Washington, March 9 : Chelsea Manning, a former Iraq-based US Army intelligence analyst giving classified data to WikiLeaks in 2010, was arrested on Friday for refusing to testify to a grand jury probing the international anti-secrecy website.

Manning will be held in jail until she testifies before the grand jury or that grand jury is no longer operating, Claude M. Hilton, a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, ruled on Friday, reports Xinhua.

"I've found you in contempt," Hilton told Manning, ordering her to custody immediately, "either until you purge yourself or the end of the life of the grand jury."

"The court may find me in contempt and order me to jail," Manning said in a statement issued on Thursday, "In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles."

"My legal team continues to challenge the secrecy of these proceedings, and I am prepared to face the consequences of my refusal," her statement read.

Local media said prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have been investigating WikiLeaks for years, and revealed last year that they had charged the website's founder Julian Assange under seal.

Manning, a transgender formerly known as a male soldier called Bradley Manning, was arrested in 2010 after leaking 700,000 military files including a battlefield video and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, the largest leak of classified data in US history.

She was court-martialed and sentenced in 2013 to 35 years in jail, the longest sentence ever imposed for a leak conviction in US history. Yet in January, 2017, the then outgoing US President Barack Obama shortened the sentence to seven years after she had requested clemency. Manning walked out of a military prison in May that year.
Kaufland, one of the worlds largest supermarket chains, has confirmed it will open its first Australian distribution centre at the Merrifield Business Park (pictured) in Melbournes north.

The supermarket chain has purchased a large 28-hectare site.

It plans to construct a 110,000 sqm distribution centre, one of the largest of its kind in Australia.

It will feature temperature controlled storage, the latest automated warehousing with a 40 metre high bay storage as well as a 3,600 sqm office.

The total investment in the facility is upwards of $450 million and is expected to be completed in 2020.

The facility is expected to bring an additional estimated 600 jobs to the local area upon completion.

Kaufland, which is owned by Schwarz Group, the fourth largest retail chain in the world, will be joining Dulux, DOrsogna and Steritech in Victorias largest business park.

MAB Director of Business Parks, Michael Martin, said the park had successfully lured a number of brands to relocate from interstate, including DOrsogna from Western Australia and Steritech from Queensland, to take advantage of the location.

A spokesperson from Kaufland said, our new state of the art distribution centre at Merrifield Business Park will be the companys single biggest investment in Australia and enable Kauflands expansion. Merrifield was selected for its strategic location and ability to cater for future expansion of the facility.

The ability to tailor a solution for a client and to deliver opportunities of scale is very rare and why Merrifield Business Park is able to lure a global brand like Kaufland and other companies from interstate, said Mr Martin.

Daniel Eramo, Associate Director CBRE, said Merrifield Business Park was unique in Australia, being one of the only industrial land holdings offering such significant scale and flexibility for premier brands across the country.

There are very few other areas where Kaufland  or any business  could purchase 28 hectares on one of Australias major freeways. These sites just dont exist in proximity to major roads and transport links, Mr Eramo said.

Merrifield Business Park in Mickleham is the largest masterplanned business and employment precinct in Victoria, spanning 330 hectares.
Sustained population and employment growth on the Gold Coast will underpin the citys continued maturation as a service centre and business hub, which will in turn strengthen its office market, according to recent research from Knight Frank.

Tania Moore, Knight Frank Partner and Joint Head of Gold Coast, said tenant demand in the regions office market was steadily improving following the first half of 2018 where business was interrupted by the Commonwealth Games.

The second half of 2018 and into 2019 has seen stronger levels of tenant enquiry, and we forecast this will only get stronger as the citys population continues to grow, along with employment growth, which is underscoring office demand, she said.

The report found, the number of workers on the Gold Coast grew by 24% in the five years to November 2018, with the two fastest growing white collar sectors being Finance & Insurance (up 58%) and Education & Training (up 45%).

Moore said tenant demand in the Gold Coasts office market had remained dominated by local businesses, but there was a growing core of larger corporates with branch or head offices located in the region, including National Disability Insurance Agency, Mantra Group (Accor) and Wyndham Vacation Resorts and Asia Pacific, creating competition between the two tenant groups for limited stock.

With only 37,500 square metres of supply added to the Gold Coast market over the past 10 years, equating to a 9% growth in the stock base, there is a relatively small pool of modern assets which can handle the higher employee densities required for major corporate branch offices, processing centres and call centres, Moore said.

This concentrates demand into these relatively few assets and can require tenants to compromise on location or efficiency.

This disconnect between the wish lists of tenants and the available stock on the ground is likely to only widen in the coming years with limited supply anticipated.

The Knight Frank research found supply in the Gold Coast office market remained low but pre-committed new construction was beginning to flow through with Acuity Business Park to start construction in Robina.

The supply of new office space across the core Gold Coast precincts remained stalled during 2018 with only 2,744 square metres of refurbished space returning to the market, said Jennelle Wilson, Knight Frank Partner, Research and Consulting.

Supply is expected to remain small, sporadic and pre-commitment driven in the medium term.

The Knight Frank report commented that total vacancy in the Gold Coast office market was 11.6% after hitting 12% in mid 2018, and up from the 10-year lows of 10.6% in January 2018, according to Property Council of Australia figures.
Clarence Property is seeking to raise $20 million capital for its Westlawn Property Trust (WPT).

Its previous offering returned 22.1% last financial year and closed oversubscribed at $22 million.

Clarence is forecasting a gross distribution of 8.8% per annum for new investors, backed by the Trust's average annual return of 14.5% over the past three years and 13.8% since its inception in 1994.

WPT recently acquired a 136-lot Yamba Quays development for $70 million.

It is the last canal-front community in New South Wales, following the 1996 State Government legislation to ban further canal development.

WPT portfolio now exceeds $300 million with assets from Yamba to Brisbane.

These include master-planned communities, shopping centres and industrial and commercial buildings.

Clarence Property Managing Director Peter Fahey says the new capital raising will allow WPT to maintain its low loan to value ratio (LVR).

"This past year has been one of our most active yet, with the acquisition of a total $60 million of new assets for WPT, and the continued development of existing projects including our 500-lot Epiq Lennox masterplanned community, which is now home to dozens of families," he said.

"Part of our strategy with WPT is to maintain close to a 50% LVR, so we don't over-borrow to acquire new assets.

"We have just commenced a $5 million renovation program to improve yields and WALE at a number of our regional shopping centres, which have become the backbone of WPT.

"Looking ahead, 2019 should be a fruitful year for WPT as we build on our 1,000-strong investor base and our excellent track record of delivering returns above our forecast distribution."
GUEST OBSERVATION

New Zealands Tax Working Group (TWG) released its final report last month, with the most significant recommendation to introduce a capital gains tax.

The key motivation for the Labour-led government in establishing the TWG was to investigate a fairer tax system. For reasons of simplicity, the TWG proposes broad exclusions from a capital gains tax, including a taxpayers primary home and all personal assets such as collectables and artworks.

I argue that this exclusion could nudge taxpayers towards investing in art.

Taxing works of art

My research explores how the tax system can promote the arts and fair reward for artists. But I am concerned by the lack of principle or clear purpose underpinning the TWGs collectables recommendation.

Few countries specifically privilege artworks for capital gains tax purposes. But in the United States, artworks have long qualified for roll-over relief, whereby a taxpayer can sell an artwork but not pay tax on any gain if they reinvest in art. This roll-over relief has been eliminated by Donald Trumps tax reforms, but investments in special economic development areas offer similar deferral opportunities or even elimination of capital gains tax liability.

A more common approach internationally is to include artworks in a general category of personal assets that are excluded, provided they are held for at least a year. France excludes sales of artworks or other collectables from a capital gains tax if the sale price does not exceed 5000 (about A$8,000). Similarly, the United Kingdom only taxes collectables sold for more than 6,000 (about A$11,000) but excludes other personal assets. In contrast, Australia taxes the gains on collectables bought for more than A$500 but excludes gains on personal-use assets bought for no more than A$10,000.

The problem of categories

Once policymakers draw distinctions between types of assets for capital gains purposes, anomalies inevitably arise. The United Kingdom distinguishes between personal assets deemed to have a lifespan shorter or longer than 50 years. Stamps, for example, are deemed to have a lifespan of more than 50 years and therefore potentially attract capital gains tax, whereas antique clocks or watches are deemed to last fewer than 50 years and are not taxed.

From Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

But since plant or machinery used in a business is deemed to have a lifespan of fewer than 50 years, the Court of Appeal famously ruled that Omai, a 250-year-old painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, was plant that did not attract capital gains tax on disposal.

In Australia, personal-use assets include boats, furniture, electrical goods and household items. Collectables include paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings and photographs. Disputably, personal-use assets are presumed to be wasting assets, whereas collectables are not.

Different types of assets may not fit neatly into either category: for example, furniture has a utilitarian function and eventually deteriorates but is commonly collected. It is a troubling thought that such policy distinctions may lead to a (presumably unintended) preference for the utilitarian over the aesthetic.

For the sake of simplicity, New Zealands TWG recommends excluding all personal assets, including collectables, from its proposed capital gains tax. Artists may incidentally benefit from such an exclusion. A wealthy person might choose to invest in artworks to hang on the walls of their tax-free principal residence. In Australia, the tax nudge is in favour of non-collectable personal-use assets.

An investor might even choose to invest in artworks rather than, say, listed shares. These investment decisions could have a beneficial trickle-down effect for living domestic artists, although purchasing works by internationally recognised artists with established track records may be a more attractive investment option.

Proposed exclusion for artworks

Capital gains tax is an inherently complex tax. The complexities are exacerbated once politically necessary exemptions are introduced. Every deviation from the fundamental principle that all receipts should be taxed diminishes equity. But equity is not the only generally accepted tax principle. Efficiency, neutrality, sustainability and simplicity, among other criteria, should also be considered.

With regard to personal assets, the TWG has elevated simplicity above other pertinent considerations. Consequently, wealthy people might continue to receive tax-free capital gains by investing in their principal residence and collectables. This possibility would be unfair, inefficient, non-neutral and unsustainable.

Promoting the arts in the public sphere and the economic well-being of artists is most effectively pursued through direct grants and subsidies, but a proportionate capital gains tax exclusion might also assist. For example, while roll-over relief in the United States generally benefited the art market, it may have been a disproportionate way of promoting public access to the arts or helping artists most in need.

A painting by an old master stored in a bank vault has no immediate social benefit.

So how might a tax exclusion benefit the arts and artists?

First, no distinction should be drawn, as Australia does, between personal-use and collectable assets, because a nudge towards personal-use assets may discourage investment in artworks.

Second, a cap on the value of excluded collectables, say NZ$10,000, might encourage purchases of less expensive artworks created by emerging local artists.

Third, for more valuable artworks a rebate might apply for public display. For example, if an owner lends an artwork to a public gallery for half the period they own it, a 50% rebate could apply. If the New Zealand government takes up the TWG recommendation for a capital gains tax, proposed exclusions could be modified to benefit the arts and artists. Australia might also usefully reconsider how it treats artworks for tax purposes.

Jonathan Barrett, Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Main photo; For more valuable artworks, a tax rebate could apply if an owner lends an artwork to a public gallery. from www.shutterstock.com, CC BY-SA
The pressure of Australias ageing population and growing desire for affordability calls for an investigation into the diversity of housing options such as Manufactured Home Estates (MHEs), according to PRD Nationwide.

Aged care and retirement villages are the two more common accommodation choices, whilst Manufactured Home Estates (MHEs) are less recognised.

PRD Nationwide define MHEs as a house like structure that are traditionally designed to be moved, not permanently attached to land (pictured).

However, in recent years there has been a move towards more luxurious and permanent structures.

MHEs are found in purpose-built parks, made up of manufactured homes exclusively, and are often targeted to the over-50s age group.

These homes are managed/owned by a park owner. A resident can purchase the house structure but not the land.

MHEs may offer a more affordable alternative with remarkable investment benefits in a highly demand driven market. However, there is a lack of industry information available.

As a result PRD Nationwide is launching a research project of which the primary aim is to determine the affordability of MHEs, the possible benefits, and potential problems of MHEs for both residents, developers and operators.

The secondary aim is to establish avenues for future research to encourage more exposure on this alternative accommodation solution.

The average listing price of MHEs in the South East Queensland (SEQ) region was $338,178, which is lower than the median house prices in Queensland metro areas such as Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.

This suggests that MHEs can address some affordability issues and accommodate certain demographics of the retired population. The lower to middle wealth retirees can achieve this by selling their home and purchasing a MHE.

This will allow them to have sufficient cash left over to afford a comfortable lifestyle. However PRD found some major challenges in the MHE industry relating to:

The availability of suitable and affordable land

Determining what to provide and for who

Keeping up with demand

Providing a higher level of care

Based on MHE property listings in SEQ (Table 1), a buyer of an older MHE could pay as little as $110,000, yet newer MHEs are being sold for as much as $650,000 or up to $1,050,000.

They found, "the change in pricing can be explained through the introduction of recreation facilities around the MHE, as well as more luxurious fit-out within the MHE itself."

"Furthermore there is a higher tendency from the 50+ aged group to downsize from their current homes to a more lifestyle orientated MHE, as opposed to choosing a traditional aged care home with limited options."

"This suggests that MHEs are moving away from their traditional purpose as an affordable option for retirees and are now becoming a highly sought-after product for wealthier buyers and part-time workers."

"Premium MHEs are typically located in well serviced areas, have pleasant scenery, and modern facilities."

"That said, the average price of MHEs remain relatively low when compared to houses within their locality, indicating that there are still affordable MHE options available in SEQ," PRD stated.

PRD argues there are a number of reasons to pursue MHE's as an avenue for retirees ranging from:

Retirees not having to break the bank or sacrificing their wealth.

Architects, designers, developers and sales agents will have a new line of products to create and sell.

The construction of new and/or improved MHEs will increase labour demand for builders.

Investors and MHE site/park owners will benefit from a high yielding market that has solid and consistent cash flows.

MHEs could soften pressures on governments as their need for funding the ageing populations needs relaxes, allowing them to re-direct their budget into other sectors such as education, infrastructure development, and others.

"The progression of this industry can be accomplished by wielding all the valuable stakeholders with a deeper understanding of the benefits of MHEs as a retirement housing option. This will improve the decision-making practices for buyers and investors; and help to maintain sufficient, appropriate and adequate housing solutions for the ageing and retired," PRD concluded.
Savills Australia is celebrating recruitment success, after enlisting 12 staff members from JLLs Sydney and Melbourne industrial businesses in the past four months.

Savills Australia & New Zealand CEO, Paul Craig, said the company was aggressively growing several core divisions, with the Industrial & Business Services and Office Leasing product lines leading the charge.

"We have welcomed more than 300 new staff members in the past 12 months, with 66 of those starting in the past six weeks."

Of the new hires, 15 are returning employees, highlighting the attraction of Savills collaborative workplace culture and our ongoing commitment to developing our people," he concluded.

The agencys Industrial & Business Services division is set to expand with the appointment of 12 industrial team members from JLL, including directors Michael Wall, Nick Crothers, Brad Esler, Scott Nienhuis, Jeremy Cooper and Edward Washer.

National head of Industrial & Business Services, Michael Fenton, who also joined Savills from JLL last year, said the recruitment was consistent with the business national growth strategy to take Savills to the top ranking in the Australian industrial market.

Savills have also opened a new South Sydney Office (pictured).

The news follows Savills announcement of an alliance with Queensland-based proptech start-up company, SA1 Property, in late 2018.

Mr Fenton said the union had been allowing Savills to provide its clients with "unique information for location decisions," which were likely to result in millions of dollars in savings for industrial occupiers and de-risk the investment thesis for investors and developers in transactions.

This is an exciting point of difference for Savills and is generating business for our industrial agency and tenant representation product lines, he said.
Two entrepreneurs Najah Roberts and business partner Jaci Marie, both Crypto Blockchain experts have announced the opening of Crypto Blockchain Plug. Not only are they the first African-American, women-owned Cryptocurrency OTC exchange in the country but also 1 of only 3 Cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States! The Grand Opening is being held on Saturday, March 9th, 12 noon to 7 pm at 614 E. Manchester Boulevard, Inglewood, California 90301 and is open to the entire community. This free event is family/children friendly. Metered street parking is available.

Located in the revitalizing heart of Inglewood, the 3,000 square feet of beautifully designed office space was built with Crypto and Blockchain enthusiasts in mind, and its creators grand vision of offering more than simply a currency exchange. The newly renovated space offers two chic lounges, a 12-seat conference room, a kitchenette, Social Media Recording Studio, shared offices (one is a Blockchain Museum of sorts), a Crypto Blockchain store and a space for kids entitled Krypto Kids Kamp. Last, but not least they have the new CryptoSpace Smart ATM with both Crypto and Regular Banking capabilities. In an effort to educate the community with the proper understanding of the Cryptocurrency/Blockchain Eco System, monthly meet-ups and free workshops will be offered to bring individuals unfamiliar with this new financial concept, into realization.

The Open House will offer food, wine and beer as well as tours of Crypto Blockchain Plug for those interested in seeing what the space has to offer.

With all the rave surrounding Cryptocurrency, astute entrepreneurs Najah Roberts and Jaci Marie feel that the timing is perfect for the community to gain knowledge, adopt, and adhere to this new wave of the future and be prepared.

I believe strongly that Cryptocurrency is one of the most viable ways to finally close the wealth gap that exists in our world states Najah Roberts.

According to Jaci Marie Cryptocurrency and Blockchain are the revolutionary new technology of our future generations. As a mother, I believe it is my responsibility to be aware of the advancements made that will affect the way my son will acquire new knowledge. Blockchain technology is definitely one of those major advancements.

While the atmosphere and amenities are upscale, the space is inviting, unintimidating and priced right  and, it brings a much-needed service to the community. Its accessible, affordable and a great place for community members to learn the basics, have a place to meet, work together and get to know each other.

Several CEOs of various Cryptocurrency companies will also be present at the March 9th Grand Opening including: Sebastian - Exodus Wallet; Peter Fuller - Savvy.io; Gaston Cruz - Blockchain Plus; Ernesto Huerta - Crypto Space; Jaci Marie - Moms of Blockchain; Ann Willmott - Rabbit Hole; Rick Briamonte - LA Token; Ken Peterson - OWNii Coin; Rafael Groswit - No Limit Coin; Sebastian - Exodus Wallet; Justin Renken - Ark.io; Jamar James - Digital Currency Guy; and Justin Sun  Bibox 360 to speak about what their specific companies and products bring to Eco System.

According to Entrepreneur.com, black female-owned businesses are the fastest growing economic force in the U.S. The number of black women-owned businesses grew 67 percent between 2007 and 2012, outpacing the 27 percent growth rate for female-owned businesses, reports the U.S. Census Bureau. The rapid growth is particularly impressive and hard-won considering the challenges that black women face as entrepreneurs, including lack of startup capital, resources and loans, along with racial and gender discrimination within the largely white, male-dominated sectors of financing and technology.

Both Najah Roberts and Jaci Marie are passionate about mass adoption and understand that it can only be done through education. They are currently positioning themselves to be Ambassadors of the community, providing patrons with in-person interaction, and security and comfort in knowing where they can receive assistance daily. Real People. Real Solutions.

For additional information, visit http://www.cryptoblockchainplug.com. For interviews with Najah Roberts and Jaci Marie, contact Queen Publicity at (310) 849-3820 or email Allison.Queen@gmail.com.
With numerous big-box stores across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as a strong online presence, The Home Depot carries several models of Ella Walk-In Bathtubs which incorporate the breakthrough and eco-friendly Infusion Microbubble Therapy technology.

The much-anticipated Ella Microbubble Therapy bathtubs enable people of all ages, including those with mobility issues to enjoy a deeply relaxing, safe and therapeutic spa experience, in the comfort of their own home. The Home Depot is now allowing anyone who is interested in owning an Ella Infusion Microbubble Therapy bathtub to choose the one that best suits the needs and preferences of their family members, as well as the their budget.

Ella's Bubbles' microbubble bath technology makes use of a thin film device specifically designed to increase the oxygen saturation of the water by up to 70% more than regular tap water. At the simple touch of a button, billions of minuscule (10-50 microns) bubbles are released. Once the microbubble therapy is activated, the entire body will be enveloped in a mantle of oxygen-rich bubbles that work their therapeutic magic on the skin.

Immersing in an Ella bathtub that incorporates the avant-garde microbubble therapy offers a plethora of beneficial effects for one's physical, emotional, and mental health. Infusion Microbubble Therapy is completely free from any kind of chemicals and it naturally adds a new dimension to luxurious hydrotherapy in the comfort of one's home. Deep relaxation and a zen-like state of mind, muscle tension and pain relief, dramatically improved skin hydration, elasticity, tone and softness, enhanced collagen production and skin desquamation (or natural exfoliation), increased macro and micro-circulation of the blood are just some of the benefits provided by Ella's in-home, all-natural hydrotherapy.

Moreover, clinical evidence suggests that Infusion Microbubble Therapy has powerful sterilization effects, killing two harmful and common bacteria, Aeruginosa and Legionella in just 10 minutes of bathing. Additional benefits of bathing in any Ella Microbubble Therapy bathtubs include flushing out toxins from the system, deep cleansing, fighting against free radicals and oxidative stress that cause premature aging, relieving lower back and neck pain, reducing symptoms associated with skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema and allowing for an overall sense of well-being.

Each Ella Microbubble Therapy bathtub available at The Home Depot is masterfully assembled, jetted and meticulously tested at the company's headquarters in Chicago, IL, sourcing best-in-class UL certified components from Ella's Bubbles' partner NuWhirl Systems, based in Corona, California. The specialized personnel at The Home Depot can help prospect buyers make an informed purchasing decision, but if they prefer to contact the manufacturer directly, then Ella's Bubbles is at their service with expert advice. The company is committed to facilitate personal, highly rewarding and generously accessible in-home spa experiences for each and every customer.

If you are looking to buy an accessible Microbubble Therapy walk-in bathtub, then do not hesitate to contact Ella's Bubbles by phone at 800-480-6850 or online via the contact form for any questions or for free information on pricing.

Ella's Bubbles has an extensive network of contractors and dealers with hands-on experience in handling the company's products and a track record of customer satisfaction, They will work with both residential and commercial bathroom renovation projects, including care homes, hospitals, nursing homes, hotels, public institutions and more, irrespective of the size of the project. They will also work closely with any homeowner to facilitate the accessibility to the bathroom for everyone in the household.
Attorney ReShea Balams We bring a powerful combination of skill, experience, and dedication to each clients case because we know how important the right result will be for them in the future.

ReShea Balams was recently honored by two of Georgias most respected attorney award programs. Super Lawyers Magazine named Balams a Rising Star, a distinction reserved for 2.5% of the states attorneys under the age of forty or practicing less than ten years. Selection is determined by the voting of other Georgia attorneys, as well as independent research conducted by the editorial team at Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters company.

Balams also earned a spot on Georgia Trend Magazines annual list of the states Legal Elite. This honor has particular significance because it is based entirely on the voting of other attorneys practicing in Georgia.

Balams is the founding attorney of The Balams Law Firm based in Atlanta, which represents individuals and families in personal injury cases including car, truck and motorcycle accidents, dangerous property injuries, and medical malpractice claims. Balams took notification of the honors to reflect on the effectiveness and commitment of her law firms entire team.

We bring a powerful combination of skill, experience, and dedication to each clients case because we know how important the right result will be for them in the future, said Balams. We plan to continue to provide the highest quality legal representation to deserving clients.

Prior to opening her own law firm, Balams gained invaluable experience as an attorney for large insurance companies before realizing her true calling to represent families impacted by life-changing tragedies. She has also been recognized as one of Georgias Top 40 Under 40 attorneys by The National Trial Lawyers.

About The Balams Firm: Headquartered in Atlanta, The Balams Law Firm provides award-winning legal representation to individuals and clients throughout the state of Georgia in matters involving significant injuries and death. In addition to an unwavering commitment to exceptional case results, the firm is dedicated to the local community and started The Balams Firm Scholarship in 2018 which annually recognizes and awards a student who represents the very best leadership qualities in his/her community.
"We are thrilled the editors of AutoGuide.com recognized the Kona and Kona Electric models as CUVs worthy of their highest recommendation," said Mike OBrien, vice president, Product, Corporate and Digital Planning, Hyundai Motor America.

AutoGuide.com has awarded the Hyundai Kona as its 2019 Utility Vehicle of the Year.

This small CUV has truly raised the bar for its segment, but what really helped it seal the win is the fact that it's also available as a fully electric model in the Kona EV. The entire Kona lineup addresses many of its competitors' shortcomings to offer a fully featured and well-rounded crossover. The Kona is refreshing and makes it clear that Hyundai isn't interested in cutting corners or making lackluster vehicles.

"The Hyundai Kona elevates its segment and I feel confident recommending it to anyone shopping for a subcompact crossover," said AutoGuide.com editor-in-chief Jodi Lai. "The Kona is an impressive vehicle that sets a new benchmark in a very competitive segment, which is not an easy thing to accomplish. The lineup is made even more impressive and relevant with the addition of the Kona EV."

Hyundai has had a strong year and its Veloster lineup was also in the running for AutoGuide.com's 2019 Car of the Year.

"We are thrilled the editors of AutoGuide.com recognized the Kona and Kona Electric models as CUVs worthy of their highest recommendation," said Mike OBrien, vice president, Product, Corporate and Digital Planning, Hyundai Motor America. Kona is an affordable, stylish and functional compact CUV, tailored to the needs of customers who pursue active lifestyles of all kinds. Even more, AutoGuide.com is both highly discerning and selective, so their recognition of Kona as their 2019 Utility Vehicle of the Year is certainly a strong indicator of Kona product line excellence.

The Hyundai Kona faced some stiff competition to win AutoGuide.com's Utility Vehicle of the Year award. It beat the shortlisted Toyota RAV4, Nissan Kicks, Subaru Forester, and Volvo XC40, all very impressive crossovers that each bring something new and important to the segment.

The Genesis G70 was awarded as AutoGuide.com's 2019 Car of the Year, so it's clear that parent company Hyundai is working hard to shake things up.

About AutoGuide.com (div. of VerticalScope Inc.) AutoGuide.com, a VerticalScope property, is a new car shopping consumer resource site and flagship of the AutoGuide.com Group comprising over 600 vehicle and manufacturer online community websites. According to independent audience measurement agency, comScore Media Metrix, the AutoGuide.com Group ranks first in monthly audience size among all automotive resource websites.

About VerticalScope Inc. VerticalScope enables the world to share expertise and discover knowledge on subjects they love. Established in 1999, VerticalScope owns and operates consumer shopping portals and interest based online communities focused on the Automotive, Powersports, Outdoor, Health & Wellness, Home Improvement, Pets, and Technology vertical markets. VerticalScope's online properties reach an average of 95 million highly qualified buyers and purchase decision makers each month.
With the population aging, its expected that by 2020 nearly seven million Americans will be undergoing an orthopaedic procedure each year. While this has led to the development of less invasive procedures and the creation of more durable implants, the practice is not without its challenges.

One of the biggest issues facing orthopedics is the demand for surgeon time. There are approximately 25,500 practicing orthopaedic surgeons in the United States; when compared to the number of anticipated procedures, that equals about 275 procedures per surgeon annually.

But its not just a time-waster; suturing can lead to scarring and even wound dehiscence, while tapes and glues can be messy and unpleasant. There are also limitations in using staples on the neck, feet, and face, along with the risk of wound infection. With these standard wound closure techniques posing so many challenges, a group of like-minded medical professionals decided it was time for the technique to evolve. We have come forward with an outstanding innovation to eliminate complexities in wound closure, says Fred Smith, CEO of BandGrip, Inc.

The innovation is BandGrip, a fast, easy, and non-invasive skin closure device that uses patented micro-anchors to close wounds, allowing the body to heal naturally. It reduces scarring, infection, needlestick injuries, and perhaps best of all, the amount of time surgeons spend closing wounds (while eliminating the need for a return visit for removal).

Orthopaedic surgeons can now experience BandGrip for themselves at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) annual meeting in Las Vegas. The event will be held at the Venetian/Sands Expo March 12-16, with exhibits being featured March 13-15.

BandGrip will be there at Booth #6846, and attendees can even pre-register for a demo here.

https://www.bandgrip.com/aaos-expo-demo

About BandGrip, Inc.

https://www.bandgrip.com/

Based in Chicago, Illinois, BandGrip was founded in 2015 with the goal of developing a faster, easier, and non-invasive way to safely close wounds. After extensive canvassing of surgeons to identify ways to reduce closure time, improve ambulation, and minimize scarring, the companys team of medical professionals developed the patented technology behind BandGrip Micro-Anchor Skin Closures.

Today, BandGrip remains committed to delivering medical innovations that allow hospitals and doctors to reduce procedure time and improve the patient experience, while envisioning a future where its products can help improve the lives of people around the world.

About the AAOS

https://www.aaem.org

Founded in 1933, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons is the worlds premier provider of musculoskeletal education to orthopaedic surgeons and others in the healthcare field. Along with its world-renowned annual meeting, the AAOS holds multiple Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses around the country and at the Orthopaedic Learning Center.

Not content to simply teach but also wanting to engage in health policy and advocacy activities on behalf of orthopedic patients and surgeons, the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons was next founded by the Academys Board of Directors in 1997.
With more than 1,250 caregivers in 18 offices across 4 states, its challenging to teach important person-centered care skills, such as communication, customer service, and problem-solving at scale. CareAcademy helps us provide a high-level of training across a large pool of employees.

CareAcademy, the home care industrys first mobile-friendly caregiver training platform, is set to be used at all Phoenix Home Care & Hospice locations beginning in 2019.

CareAcademys online training helps home care agencies meet clients needs and state training compliance.

Quality caregiver training is essential to providing a high level of care for our clients, said Gwen Beebe, Vice President of Operations and Business Development of Phoenix Home Care and Hospice. We pride ourselves in providing education through our own PHCU University for Caregiversand CareAcademy is the channel that makes this possible on a large scale. With more than 1,250 caregivers in 18 offices across 4 states, its challenging to teach important person-centered care skills, such as communication, customer service, and problem-solving at scale. CareAcademy helps us provide a high-level of training and care to our clients across a large pool of employees.

With CareAcademy, caregivers can learn new skills and grow professionally anytime and anywhere. Classes can be taken on laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

There are many home health care agencies in the marketplace. On the outside, they all look pretty much the same. Its whats inside that mattersthe culture. Phoenix Home Care & Hospice has set out to distinguish ourselves through the selection of employees, the client-focused training, highly skilled caregivers, and the value-based leadership practices of our management, says Phil Melugin, President and Owner of Phoenix Home Care and Hospice. With CareAcademy, client-specific training is delivered to caregivers immediately. This level of accessibility is beneficial for the caregivers, which impacts the client's experience.

Were so excited to be working with Phoenix Home Care & Hospice because of our shared values and desire for excellence, said CareAcademy CEO and Co-Founder Helen Adeosun. Were providing training that meets the needs of caregivers and home care agencies.

CareAcademys engaging training content incorporates real-world scenarios to build critical-thinking skills and set caregivers up for success. Ongoing education through CareAcademy ensures that seniors and their families receive professional and consistent quality care.

About Phoenix Home Care & Hospice

Phoenix Home Care & Hospice is a leading provider of home care and home health services in the US. With 18 locations and over 3,500 employees, Phoenix is committed to improving the quality of life of the people they serve. Each of their principals has experienced the need for home care for a loved one and understands the importance of compassion in finding fresh starts and new beginnings. It is that desire to share the freedom of new beginnings that drives the team at Phoenix Home Care. To learn more, visit: https://phoenixhomehc.com/

About CareAcademy

CareAcademy creates online training that empowers senior care professionals to deliver the highest caliber of service and improve the lives of older adults. Over 32,000 caregivers are learning and growing professionally through CareAcademy. Coupled with its advanced reporting and training management dashboard, CareAcademy is an end-to-end, scalable training solution that transforms home care businesses into efficient industry leaders. To learn more, visit http://www.CareAcademy.com.
Twenty years after being established to help seniors and adults maintain their independence and quality of life, one of the worlds largest in-home senior care organizations is giving back by granting the longtime wishes of a local couple.

Comfort Keepers of Westerville, OH, in partnership with the worldwide Comfort Keepers brand, chose Douglas and Gerry Bailey as recipients of its nationwide 20 Years, 20 Wishes initiative. In February their caregivers surprised them with balloons and tickets to enjoy the Columbus Symphony perform in town this coming April.

A leading provider of quality, in-home care for seniors and other adults, Comfort Keepers is celebrating its platinum anniversary year by granting the wishes of 20 lucky Comfort Keepers clients. The Baileys were chosen after being nominated by owners Tim & Tricia McConnell.

We are thrilled to be able to make this wish come true for this couple as music is so important for seniors and helps them enjoy life and feel young at heart, says Tim and Tricia.

The Bailey's have attended the Columbus Symphony for many years together and would often make a day of it. They've enjoyed many local productions throughout Central Ohio including Picnic with the Pops, Otterbein Theatre, and the Grove City Summer Sizzle Series. Mrs Bailey taught public school music in Wisconsin and taught piano for many years in the Grove City Community.

Mr Bailey is a retired United Church Of Christ Minister and also worked for Franklin County Children Services. Music has been a thread throughout their entire marriage which has made this wish from Comfort Keepers so meaningful. They are looking forward to going and spending the evening together enjoying the Columbus Symphony Orchestra: Rossen Milanov - The Trumpet Shall Sound.

With more than 600 offices in the U.S. and over 700 worldwide, Comfort Keepers has over the last 20 years become a valued resource for families and seniors who depend on Comfort Keepers for loving, comforting care. Founded in 1998 from a single, Springfield, Ohio location, Comfort Keepers now comprises a vast network of franchises across the nation and around the world that provide in-home care services, respite care services, Alzheimers and dementia care and other services for seniors and adults.

For more information about Comfort Keepers of Westerville, OH, please visit https://www.comfortkeepers.com/columbus-oh-119.

About Comfort Keepers

For more than two decades, Comfort Keepers has been Elevating the Human SpiritSM through its in-home care network for seniors and other adults by empowering them to maintain their independence and realize joy in the everyday moments. A division of Sodexo, a global leader that delivers Quality of Life services to over 75 million consumers in 80 countries each day, Comfort Keepers operates a franchise network that has grown to more than 700 locations around the world. In addition to providing services that focus on health care and senior markets, Sodexos integrated offerings encompass more than 45 years of experience in reception, safety, maintenance and cleaning, foodservices, facilities and equipment management, and concierge services. For more information, visit ComfortKeepers.com.
America Fighting Back (AFB), a Conservative organization formed just prior to the 2018 U.S. Mid-Term election cycle has begun the process of mounting a counter-offensive to push back against the growing concern of a Socialist agenda to undermine U.S. political, corporate and social institutions.

The Chairman and Co-Chair respectively of the American Fighting Back coalition are former U.S. presidential candidate Herman Cain and Arizona businessman Floyd Brown.

America Fighting Back Chairman Herman Cain stated the AFB effort is a growing movement designed to counter and push-back on a radical Socialist agenda. AFBs national effort will meet, match and defeat the misguided and dangerous Socialist movement and its agenda.

Floyd Brown, AFB Co-Chair addedwhat was once an effort people chuckled and rolled their eyes at has now become an issue we as patriots now have to directly address, or before we know it, we will not be able to untangle our U.S. institutions from a radical Socialist strategy. Their goals and objective are clear and so are ours.

America Fighting Back (AFB) recently held a strategy and tactics meeting in Phoenix, AZ. The objective was to outline a national comprehensive campaign to push-back on the Socialist agenda and to stop the National Popular Vote Campaign. AFB will officially launch the America Fighting Back campaign to preserve the Electoral College and defeat radical Socialism on March 15th. AFBs political strategist Aaron T. Manaigo will spearhead this effort.
Data Marketing With DigDev Direct Includes B2B Options

DigDev, a global media solutions provider based out of Deerfield Beach, specializes in data and email marketing to access multiple customers and increase revenues manifold. With a huge database of more than 140 data sources, DigDevDirect leverages businesses profitability by providing them with the necessary information. With dedicated email campaigns as well as programmatic advertising on various social media platforms, clients can now reach businesses much faster.

Media Direct representative, Research proves that more than 80% of businesses look for their prospective sellers online. The right presence via social media platforms such as targeted email campaigns, generating customer insights, identifying a clients intent, display advertising on specific social media platforms, and much more form an integral part of a clients acquisition process. DigDevDirect uses advanced data marketing strategies that aim at garnering business data, based on various algorithms and business sources, to channelize a companys growth.

In addition to a companys data options, DigDev also offers viable business solutions to combine different digital strategies to leverage business. To enable a world-class customer experience and improve a companys performance, businesses need to leverage all resources to generate the required leads. DigDev offers a comprehensive email list to be uploaded on their social media platforms to target the right customers. This helps to increase brand awareness and generates an interest in the business offerings for a longer period of time.

People are continuously browsing through social media to look for the most optimal business solution that will cater to their need perfectly. If you are a business looking at reaching out to other businesses, why dont you adopt intrinsic data marketing strategies to do it for you? As a manufacturer of automobile parts, your end customer is an organization who buys those parts to assemble it in their automobiles. Data marketing helps you connect with your target business house by identifying their purchase patterns, purchase requirements, number of automobiles to be manufactured in a year and so forth.

Generating customer insights through data analytics is a step closer to closing a business deal.

For more information regarding this feature, please contact Dennis John at djohn(at)digdev(dot)com.

About DigDev Direct

DigDev Direct utilizes a multi-channel marketing platform to cater to high-level services for customer acquisition and retention. Each channel comes with highly targeted strategies whether it be search engine optimization, pay per click, email marketing, mobile, data appending or more.
DigDevDirect is a multi-channel partner for data and digital marketing services based out of Deerfield Beach, Florida. With combined prowess of email marketing and postal records, clients can now address a wider customer base to expand their business reach. DigDev goes deeper in collating data from reliable data points that include state filings, postal records, web and internet feed, telephone connects and disconnects, public records, and much more to create an impactful creative campaign for your business.

"The only reason companies fail to release their product to the real audience is because of lack of data. Data is everywhere but if you need to have the correct way of collecting and utilizing it without causing conundrums. DigDevDirect analyses the products USP that needs to get launched in a market or for a product that needs to expand its existing customer base, depending on strategic data marketing services. These are further combined successfully with email and postal marketing services to enhance a customers experience." Media Direct representative.

Many clients are aware of the benefits of direct mail marketing and email marketing campaigns, but fail to optimally utilize it. DigDevDirect helps the client understand their target audience by segregating data based on age, income, gender, geography, preferential products, websites visited, and much more. This creates a strong base to launch a successful email marketing campaign along with direct mail campaigns to engage with the target audience better.

Your restaurant is doing fairly well but you do not see an upward growth. You have been utilizing email campaigns that are probably going to everyone on the mailing list, but not really addressing the right type of audience! This is the difference DigDev Direct brings to a business. We narrow down your target audience, select them for active email campaigns and direct mail campaigns that are sent consistently to garner attention. This will help you to see an upward graph in your business revenue. DigDev representative.

Uplifting business models with scalable email and data marketing campaigns!

For more information regarding this feature, please contact Dennis John at djohn@digdev.com.

About DigDev Direct

DigDev Direct utilizes a multi-channel marketing platform to cater to high-level services for customer acquisition and retention. Each channel comes with highly targeted strategies whether it be search engine optimization, pay per click, email marketing, mobile, data appending or more.
DigDev Utilizing New Digital Services With Data Marketing

DigDev is a multi-channel data and digital marketing firm based out of Deerfield Beach, Florida. With extensive experience spanning more than 10 years, DigDev has managed to bring game-changing experiences to companies seeking digital and data marketing services. Big Data leads the way in increasing customer acquisition leveraging an upward revenue model. With effective data marketing services, clients can now filter requirements based on demographics, gender, age, political affiliations, and select the best social media platforms to promote products and services.

"Every organization needs a structure to function and without the right roadmap and data- driven strategy, everything becomes meaningless. People are clued in on their smart devices for a majority of their day. They love to check their email and upload their data on various social media platforms of their choice. We assist brands to engage with their target audience in a better and more comprehensive manner by laying down new digital services with the help of data marketing." Media Direct representative.

DigDevDirect utilizes data marketing services along with a suite of other advertising options that not only cater to the clients immediate need but also predict a future trend in the market. Companies can run personalized advertisements on social media platforms that have the maximum footfall of target consumers. This can be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or even LinkedIn! With over 250 million customer email addresses, DigDev Direct helps companies run direct email campaigns to ensure that the right message reaches the right customer.

"A big feature in todays data marketing is the intent. Intent steers a consumers choice from X to Y and helps to establish a pattern that needs to be addressed by the respective companies. An intent can range from searching for a particular product on different platforms repeatedly or by logging in on different websites looking for a particular service for a specific timeline. Data marketing services by DigDev Direct pays close attention to the intent of the consumer, based on which we provide customized digital marketing strategies that will work best for you."

Businesses can now narrow their search to specific aspects of every consumer before approaching the market with products and services.

For more information regarding this feature, please contact Dennis John at djohn(at)digdev.com.

About DigDev Direct

DigDev Direct utilizes a multi-channel marketing platform to cater to high-level services for customer acquisition and retention. Each channel comes with highly targeted strategies whether it be search engine optimization, pay per click, email marketing, mobile, data appending or more.
MaximTrak (a RouteOne company), the automotive industrys premier finance and insurance (F&I) platform, was named a preferred provider to Ford Protect, a provider of extended service plans.

MaximTrak will provide Ford dealers across the country with advanced F&I Menu and Reporting technologies including the companys interactive FLITE platform. Ford chose MaximTrak as a preferred provider to offer dealers best-in-class options for showroom digitization and enhancing the customer experience in the F&I Office. MaximTrak simplifies the transaction, increasing delivery speeds and deal efficiency, and assists dealers in helping customers protect their vehicles through increasing Service Contract and F&I product penetration.

Ford dealers that enroll will also get the benefits of a streamlined eContracting process. The products the consumers select on the MaximTrak platform will automatically be available for signature in the RouteOne eContracting system which now features a unified customer signing ceremony for Ford finance, lease, and protection product agreements including Ford Extended Service Plans, Maintenance Plans, GAP Protection, and other Ford Protect products. This functionality enables a fast and secure digital signing experience and allows for the electronic distribution of all F&I documents.

MaximTraks digital solutions available through this preferred provider include:



MenuTrak  electronic F&I menus, sales presentation, and compliance management.

ServiceTrak  Service lane and RO up sales and also support protection product sales and enrollment.

Dashboards  Comprehensive DMS enabled reporting platform.

FLITE  Digital showroom experience leveraging consumer-interactive drag & drop technology, smart customer survey, predictive decisioning engine and intelligent product recommendations solution.

Digital Retail - Enables consumers to engage with dealers as they shop for cars online including online credit application, payment quotation, and F&I product education.

We are honored and excited to have the opportunity to service and support Ford Protects dealer body, said Jim Maxim Jr., President of MaximTrak and Chief Digital Officer for RouteOne. Our company is uniquely positioned to provide the absolute best service available in the industry, with over 30 dedicated field professionals that already support the +3,000 Ford dealers with credit application and electronic contracting today. Providing an integrated F&I experience and next generation technologies to customers like Ford Protect is one of the reasons we brought RouteOne and MaximTrak together in late 2016. We are very excited to be able to leverage the significant investments that our RouteOne owners have made in MaximTrak.

We look forward to working with MaximTrak as a preferred provider for Ford and Lincoln Protect dealers. MaximTraks digital solutions and connections with RouteOne create a streamlined and integrated experience to support a dealers F&I processes, said Steve Lopez, Ford & Lincoln Protect US Operations Manager.

Dealers interested in MaximTraks fully-integrated F&I suite of customizable tools can contact 800.282.6308 or sales@maximtrak.com or subscribe through the RouteOne portal under premium services.

###

About MaximTrak

MaximTrak, a RouteOne Company, offers an all-in-one, digitized platform for flexible F&I and is preferred by leaders in the industry concerned with efficiency, profitability, compliance, and the modern customer experience. The MaximTrak platform transforms the vehicle delivery process into a flexible, customer-friendly program that converts traditional F&I wisdom into consistent, repeatable, and sustainable results. For more information, call 800.282.6308 or visit http://www.maximtrak.com
Left to Right: Matt Jesson, Wes McCorkle, Mike Bradley, John Guth Im extremely blessed and lucky to work for a company that not only appreciates its employees, but rewards them. Working at Green Lawn Fertilizing / Green Pest Solutions is one of the best things that has ever happened to me and my family. -Mike Bradley

Michael Bradley, Sales Associate at Green Lawn Fertilizing and Green Pest Solutions, was awarded a Disney trip valued at $5,000 at the companys annual company kickoff meeting on February 26th. Mikes Rolling Out the Red Carpet idea came to light after reading the book Be Our Guest by Theodore Kinni.

Michael Bradley could not have been happier and more appreciative to accept the grand prize. He shared his feelings after the kickoff meeting on his Facebook page along with an awesome picture with his son and oversized novelty check, Im extremely blessed and lucky to work for a company that not only appreciates its employees, but rewards them. This week I won a work contest and received a $5,000 trip to Disney! Working at Green Lawn Fertilizing / Green Pest Solutions is one of the best things that has ever happened to me and my family. I am extremely appreciative and excited to see what the future holds.

The Be Our Guest Disney Challenge was a company-wide contest created to help bring new ideas which could be implemented into the business and help improve Green Lawn Fertilizing and Green Pest Solutions. Participants were asked to read the book Be Our Guest and come up with three ideas that could be used to help improve any aspect of the business. President, Matt Jesson, spoke about how important getting ideas from all company employees was during his kickoff speech. Our goal at Green Lawn and Green Pest is to reinvent the company every year so that we can improve our service for team members and customers! This contest is one avenue that we use to get valuable feedback from our team members. We received nearly 100 great ideas in our Be Our Guest Challenge!

Disney is well known for having intense training for all new employees. Many new hires at Disney World are required to tour the amusement park (40 square miles) so they know where everything is. They also learn about other job functions outside of their own to get a better understanding of their co-workers daily roles. Disney takes a great deal of pride in themselves and their superior customer service. They coined the term Guestology which Disney calls: the art and science of knowing and understanding customers. They also emphasize that no organization can succeed without a great workforce (AKA at Disney as cast members).

Mikes idea included implementing similar practices to the Green Lawn and Green Pest on-boarding process for all new hires, including meeting with everyone on the senior management team, cross training between Green Pest and Green Lawn as well as a day in the field with a technician. This helps new hires learn more about each position as well as the person behind all the hard work that happens at Green Lawn Fertilizing and Green Pest Solutions! As the company has already brought on more than 40 new hires in 2019, the new onboarding process that Mike Bradley helped shape has been instrumental in getting new team members off and running! Due to Mike Bradleys $5,000 idea the company made three key changes in the business:

1) Upgraded day 1 onboarding training

2) An added leadership training day

3) Improved 30 day training calendars in all departments

The Be Our Guest Challenge is just one of many ways that Green Lawn and Green Pest award and incentive their team members. The company has an annual awards dinner where it recognizes employee excellence across 25 categories. Everything from top production to top sales to the unsung hero are recognized among winners. Smaller contests are conducted among teams to reach a weekly or monthly goal and twice a year the company runs a week long sales blitz where all the members of the winning team win a paid day off.

2018s Be Our Guest challenge was so successful that, Matt Jesson at the company kickoff meeting announced a new book related contest for 2019. A copy of the book The Service Culture Handbook by Jeff Toister was given to each of the 150+ team members in attendance at the company kickoff meeting and a new $5,000 trip will be up for grabs to the person with the absolute best idea to improve the Green Lawn and Green Pest customer experience.

# # #

Green Lawn Fertilizing and Green Pest Solutions is an independent lawn and pest control company that was founded in 2004. Under the leadership of Matt Jesson, President and Owner of Green Lawn Fertilizing / Green Pest Solutions, the company has grown to over 130 team members and over 80 service vehicles in its fleet. They have a mission to become the leader in the lawn and pest industry by providing superior customer service. Over the last several years, highly reputable publications have taken notice of the company succeeding in that mission. For six consecutive years the company received the Inc. 5000 award for being recognized as one of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies in the America. In 2018, Green Pest Solutions was named "Best of Philly Earth-Friendly Exterminator" by Philadelphia Magazine and in 2017 they were named "Best Pest Control by Philly.com. In 2017, the company received the Customer Service Excellence Award by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

http://www.greenlawnfertilizing.com
We are excited to have Heidi join our team of real estate brokers dedicated to true homebuyer representation

Attorney and Realtor Heidi Blanchet, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, recently joined exclusive buyer agent real estate firm Buyers Brokers Only, LLC.

Blanchet is an exclusive buyer agent who provides homebuyer representation in the Greater Haverhill area, including Methuen, Merrimac, Groveland, Georgetown, and the surrounding Merrimack Valley and North of Boston cities and towns.

Blanchet is a licensed real estate broker in Massachusetts and a member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. She is also a Realtor, with memberships in the National Association of Realtors, Massachusetts Association of Realtors, and the North Shore Association of Realtors.

"We are excited to have Heidi join our team of real estate brokers dedicated to true homebuyer representation," Richard Rosa, co-founder of Buyers Brokers Only, LLC said. "She has the background and experience to guide Massachusetts first-time homebuyers, as well as more experienced real estate consumers, through the home-buying process."

Blanchet grew up in Newburyport, Massachusetts and attended the Pingree School in South Hamilton. She earned her Bachelor's of Arts, magna cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover. As an attorney licensed in Massachusetts, she has worked in the areas of family law, estate planning, and as a Bar Advocate for the Committee for Public Counsel Services.

When Blanchet is not helping home buyers purchase real estate, she spends time with her family and Great Danes. She has been a resident of Haverhill since 2008 and has managed investment properties in the area.

Blanchet helps first-time homebuyers and other real estate consumers purchase single-family homes, condominiums, and multi-family properties. During an initial consultation, she will discuss a consumer's home search, explain the home-buying process in detail, and answer questions about everything from financing to closing.

Homebuyers can email hblanchet(at)buyersbrokersonly.com, call, or text (978-390-2621) Blanchet to schedule a personal home-buying consultation.

ABOUT BUYERS BROKERS ONLY, LLC: Buyers Brokers Only, LLC exclusively represents home buyers, and all its real estate brokers also are lawyers. Because Buyers Brokers Only, LLC only serves homebuyers, and not ever sellers, its 100 percent loyal to its homebuyer clients 100 percent of the time. The real estate brokers at Buyers Brokers Only, LLC never practice dual agency or designated buyer agency.

With the headquarters located in historic downtown Haverhill, Massachusetts, the more than 20 buyer brokers at Buyers Brokers Only, LLC work from and cover an area that includes Boston, Bostons south and north shores, MetroWest, the Merrimack Valley, Central Massachusetts, Southeastern Massachusetts, upper Cape Cod, and Southern New Hampshire. Buyers Brokers Only, LLC is the largest exclusive buyer agent real estate firm in the United States.
We are in a period where many industries are in desperate need of tech talent. While a challenge, it also presents an exciting opportunity for more women than ever before to emerge as leaders in a space traditionally dominated by men." Dorothy Creamer, editor of Hospitality Technology

Hospitality Technology (HT) magazine is pleased to announce the winners of its 2019 Top Women in Restaurant Technology Awards. The 2019 awards program is sponsored by 7shifts, an employee scheduling and workforce management platform designed specifically for restaurants and QSRs.

Dorothy Creamer, editor of HT, says there is much to celebrate with this years Top Women in Restaurant Technology program.

Weve seen exponential growth in the number of nominations we receive for this program since its first installment in 2017, she notes. We are in a period where many industries are in desperate need of tech talent. While a challenge, it also presents an exciting opportunity for more women than ever before to emerge as leaders in a space traditionally dominated by men. We are honored to be able to recognize this years innovators, from the up-and-comers to the trailblazers, who have always known that women in IT have always been powering the possible.

Now in its third year, the Top Women in Restaurant Technology Awards seeks to honor outstanding women from both restaurants and technology suppliers for reimagining restaurant processes and operations while demonstrating excellence in leadership, inventiveness and skill.

On behalf of the entire team at 7shifts, congratulations to all the inspiring winners and nominees of this year's Top Women in Restaurant Technology Awards. We are proud to sponsor these awards and highlight all the women from across the restaurant industry who are innovating and leading by example," said Jordan Boesch, CEO of 7shifts.

Winners were recognized in the following categories:

Rising Star:

Presented to women from any level of an organization with less than five years' experience in the industry, who have demonstrated leadership and are already making a mark in foodservice technology at an early stage in their careers.

Innovator:

Presented to women who are forward thinkers and who have executed on tools and strategy to transform the foodservice technology space in a positive manner by creating or deploying emerging technologies that reimagine how things are done while paving the way for future technologies.

Lifetime Achievement:

This award is presented in recognition of a lifetime (no less than 15 years) of service and accomplishments in the foodservice technology industry. We seek to honor women who have had an impact on the foodservice technology industry as well as their colleagues and industry peers through enthusiasm, mentorship and commitment, while also showing how technologies can provide new ways of doing things.

The winners of the 2019 Top Women in Restaurant Technology Awards are:

Rising Stars



Cacy Merrifield, Sonic Drive-In Director, Program Management (Oklahoma City, Okla.)

Carissa De Santis, Director, IT Restaurant Solutions, TGI Friday's (Carrollton, Texas)

Laura Kirkwood, Head of Innovation & Customer Experience, Merivale (Sydney, Australia)

Sif Rai, Chief Marketing Officer, QikServe (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Innovators



Kesha Williams, Software Engineering Manager, Chick-fil-A (Atlanta)

Allison Page, Co-Founder, Chief Product Officer, SevenRooms (New York)

Nora Naranjo, Mechanical Engineer, eatsa (San Francisco)

Kathy Hartman, Co-founder, Chief Strategy Officer, HubKonnect (New York and Chicago)

Lifetime Achievement



Kristi Turner, Chief Marketing Officer, Compeat (Austin, Texas, and Atlanta)

Laura Rea Dickey, Chief Executive Officer, Dickeys Barbecue Pit (Dallas)

Winners are profiled in the April 2019 issue of Hospitality Technology magazine (https://hospitalitytech.com/hts-2019-top-women-restaurant-technology). The awards will be presented on March 12 at the 24th annual MURTEC (Multi-Unit Restaurant Technology Conference), being held March 11-13, at The Paris in Las Vegas.

About Hospitality Technology

Hospitality Technology (HT) is the only publication dedicated to covering the role of information technology in improving business performance for both hotel and restaurant operators. The Hospitality Technology editorial portfolio includes: a print publication that publishes nine times annually and reaches more than 16,000 hospitality industry executives, three networking and educational events (MURTEC, HT-NEXT and MURTEC Executive Summit), a comprehensive website, e-newsletters, web seminars, and several exclusive annual reports and studies. Visit Hospitality Technology online at http://www.hospitalitytech.com. Hospitality Technology is published by EnsembleIQ, headquartered in Chicago.

About 7SHIFTS

7shifts is an employee scheduling and workforce management platform designed specifically for restaurants and QSRs. We help managers, operators, and chains automate staff scheduling and team communication to standardize & streamline operations, dramatically reduce labor costs and provide the actionable business insights that helps hospitality professionals thrive. https://www.7shifts.com.

About EnsembleIQ

EnsembleIQ is a premier business intelligence resource that exists to help people and their organizations succeed. It is structured to serve the business-to-business needs of retailers, consumer goods manufacturers, technology vendors, marketing agencies and retail service providers by using its integrated network of media and information resources designed to inform, connect and provide actionable marketplace intelligence. Learn more about EnsembleIQ at http://www.ensembleiq.com. EnsembleIQ is a portfolio company of RFE Investment Partners, a private equity investor with more than 30 years of experience investing in growth companies in partnership with strong management teams. Information on RFE can be found at http://rfeip.com/.
The Inheritance is the memoir of Christopher Fulton, a survivor of the national security state who is now freely speaking about his experience.

The Inheritance is the memoir of Christopher Fulton, a survivor of the national security state. He was incarcerated and attacked for nine years due to his possession of Bobby Kennedys key evidence from JFKs assassination ... evidence that dismantled the governments official position of the Presidents death.

Mr. Fulton will make presentations about his book Friday, April 5, 4 pm at the Olney Central College, Political Assassinataions of the 1960s Conference and April 13-14, LA Times Festival of Books, Booth 955

Christopher Fulton, a successful American developer in Vancouver, Canada, was labeled a threat to U.S. national security, placed on the FBIs most wanted list, arrested, extradited, and interrogated without counsel; he was then viciously prosecuted and federally incarcerated. Christopher Fulton is the last survivor of the U.S. governments ongoing attempt to finalize the suppression of Robert Kennedys unsecured evidence from JFKs assassination, as detailed in the book, The Inheritance.

Christopher Fulton unwittingly unlocked some of the mysteries that have surrounded JFKs life and death for more than 55 years when he acquired personal items JFKs secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, had kept locked away for years, at the request of Robert Kennedy. These included JFKs secret Oval Office recordings.

These non-secured materials, including a Cartier watch JFK had on at the time of his assassination, had the ability to alter the course of U.S. politics and history, according to Mr. Fulton. Following Mrs. Lincolns passing and the transfer of these materials to Mr. Fulton and his subsequent meeting with JFK Jr. who had plans to acquire the evidence and expose the truth about JFKs death, the U.S. Government intervened, and put Christopher Fulton right in the middle of the Assassination Records Review Boards investigation under President Bill Clinton. Though promised by President Donald Trump to be released, the files related to Mr. Fultons experience remain sealed or missing.

Now a free man, Christopher Fulton wants to tell his story and how this experience has impacted his professional and family life, how being brutally attacked and incarcerated brought him face-to- face with the nations cruel penal system, and how a political agenda can overrule justice. While there is much discussion in the nation about a Deep State, Christopher believes he came up against it by accidentally, opening a hidden chapter in U.S. history.

ABOUT CHRIS FULTON:

Christopher Fulton was born in 1965, just outside Washington, D.C., into a family with rich military history. He was on his way to being accepted to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis but chose a career in commercial construction. His discipline and diligence took him to the top of the high-rise construction industry in Vancouver, British Columbia, where at age 33, during the height of his success, he was extradited and spent years in federal prison for his possession of the physical evidence related to JFKs assassination. His wife, Michelle Fulton, helped him write a memoir of the experience, called The Inheritance: Poisoned Fruit of JFKs Assassination. The Fultons reside in California with their two children and rescue dogs.

For more information or interviews:

Kris Millegan (800) 556-2012; ramillegan@aol.com

J. Barnes/C. Brylski (504) 897-6110; bcobarnes@aol.com

Julia W. Brown (619) 888-7956
We are delighted to be a preferred exhibitor of Ellie Mae Experience 2019. This annual event provides a venue for mortgage industry professionals to network, receive training, and learn how to get more value from their technology investments.

Indecomm Global Services, a leading provider of business process as a service (BPaaS), software as a service (SaaS) technology, and learning solutions for the mortgage industry, announced that it is an exhibitor of Ellie Mae Experience 2019. The annual conference will be held March 10-13, 2019 at Moscone West in San Francisco, California. This years conference theme, Driving Innovation Home, encourages attendees to learn about the latest technologies defining the mortgage industry while offering training, solutions, and networking to improve compliance, loan quality and efficiency. Indecomm will be in Booth #213 in the Experience 2019 Exhibit Hall.

For over 25 years, Indecomm has partnered with the mortgage industrys leading lenders and service providers to help them succeed and grow. Indecomm provides clients with services and resources spanning the loan life cycle, including loan lifecycle management, risk management, document management, and title and settlement solutions. An innovator income calculation automation, Indecomms IncomeGenius automated income analysis software integrates with Ellie Maes Encompass loan origination system.

Our relationship with Ellie Mae is very important to us and to our clients, said Rajan Nair, CEO, Financial Services, Indecomm Global Services. We are delighted to be a preferred exhibitor of Ellie Mae Experience 2019. This annual event provides a venue for mortgage industry professionals to network, receive training, and learn how to get more value from their technology investments.

Ellie Mae Experience 2019 will bring together 3,500 mortgage industry professionals for three days of specialized tracks, breakout sessions, training, networking and keynotes. To learn more about Ellie Mae Experience 2019, visit http://experience.elliemae.com.

To learn more about Indecomm, visit http://www.indecomm.net.

About Indecomm Global Services

Indecomm was founded in 2003 as a technology-enabled services company focused on high-speed document imaging technologies and automated data capture from structured and unstructured forms, with an innate ability to apply these technologies meaningfully to improve operational efficiency and client experience. We have been consistently ranked among the Global Top 100 IT and ITeS providers. With over 3,800 associates in 21 locations, Indecomm services its clients from global delivery centers and offices in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, the United Kingdom, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mauritius, and the Cayman Islands. We have active business engagements with over 300 global clients, including 20+ Fortune 500 companies.

Visit http://www.indecomm.net or call (732) 404-0081 to learn more.

About Indecomm Mortgage Services

Indecomm Mortgage Services is a leading provider of business services and technology for the US mortgage industry. With solutions for every stage of the mortgage lifecycle, Indecomm Mortgage Services provides outsourcing services, software as a service (SaaS) technology, and learning solutions to support the various needs of mortgage industry clients. With a proven track record of over 25 years in the mortgage industry, Indecomm partners with large and mid-sized lenders, servicers, and title companies as a trusted partner with a singular focus - helping them grow.

Visit http://mortgage.indecomm.net or call (732) 404-0081 to learn more.
We are interested in long-term relationships and strive to exceed expectations at every phase of the hiring process.

Lucas Group, ranked third on Forbes Best Professional Recruiting Firms list for 2018, announced today that its Contract Division has won ClearlyRated's Best of Staffing Client and Talent Awards for providing superior service to their clients and placed talent. Presented in partnership with CareerBuilder, ClearlyRateds Best of Staffing winners have proven to be industry leaders in service quality based entirely on ratings from their clients and the candidates theyve placed. On average, clients of winning agencies are 2.2 times more likely to be completely satisfied, and candidates who have been placed by winning agencies are 1.7 times more likely to be completely satisfied with the services provided compared to those working with non-winning agencies. Less than 2% of all staffing agencies in the U.S. and Canada have earned the Best of Staffing Award for service excellence.

Focused on recruiting exceptional professionals for clients and investing in its internal talent, Lucas Group received satisfaction scores of 9 or 10 out of 10 from 64% of their clients and 73% of their talent, significantly higher than the industrys average of 45%.

At Lucas Group, we partner with our Clients and Candidates to ensure that they have continued professional success and we are honored to be recognized for our efforts in this way, said Andi Jennings, President and CEO of Lucas Group. We are interested in long-term relationships and strive to exceed expectations at every phase of the hiring process.

"In todays historically tight labor market, hiring managers and job seekers need a clear and reputable way to vet potential staffing and recruiting partners, said ClearlyRateds CEO Eric Gregg. Best of Staffing winners have set themselves apart by demonstrating their commitment to client and candidate service, investing in a survey and feedback program that brings transparency to the client and talent experience at their firm. Im thrilled to showcase these service leaders alongside their validated client and talent ratings on ClearlyRated.com!

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with 15 locations across the country, Lucas Group recruiters are able to source leading talent with unparalleled results. Offices are located in Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Irvine, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Diego, Tampa Bay and Washington, D.C.

About Lucas Group

Lucas Group is North Americas premier executive search firm. Since 1970, our culture and methodologies have driven superior results. We assist clients ranging in size from small to medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 companies find transcendent, executive talent; candidates fully realize their ambitions; and associates find professional success. To learn more, please visit Lucas Group at http://www.lucasgroup.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

About ClearlyRated

ClearlyRated (formerly known as Inavero) administers more staffing agency client and talent satisfaction surveys than any other firm in the world, reporting on more than 1.2 million satisfaction surveys from staffing agency clients and job seekers each year. Committed to delivering ongoing value to the industry, ClearlyRated is proud to serve as the American Staffing Associations exclusive service quality partner. Learn more at ClearlyRated.com/Solutions

About Best of Staffing

ClearlyRateds Best of Staffing Award is the only award in the U.S. and Canada that recognizes staffing agencies that have proven superior service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients and job candidates. Award winners are showcased by city and area of expertise on ClearlyRated.com  an online business directory that helps buyers of professional services find service leaders and vet prospective firms  based exclusively on validated client and candidate ratings and testimonials.
Students can see for themselves how life choices such as getting an education, buying a home, having children, saving for retirement, and many other things all have an impact on their futures.

In response to issues surrounding college debt, as well as troubling trends regarding part-time employment, affordable health-care and retirement security for future generations, many states across the U.S. are taking action and signing bills to incorporate personal finance programs into their curricula. After developing, testing, and refining its products for over three years, Money Experience (ME)  a Cambridge, MA based ed-tech firm  has just launched major new versions directed at classrooms, counselors, and the broader community to provide schools, colleges, non-profit organizations, and foundations with better tools and training to address the growing demand for effective personal finance education.

Money Experience personal finance products cover the whole arc of life decisions from high school to retirement. Using a graphic novel featuring relatable characters and a highly engaging simulator, Money Experience courses take a personalized approach to financial education by focusing on quality of life, personal priorities, and decision-making, and help students gain perspective on how their lifestyle and financial choices will impact their futures.

Our most important goal was to be engaging and relevant to a young adult audience. And rather than lecturing students about how they should do things, we let them make their own decisions in the very forgiving environment of a life simulator and see how things work out, said Jeet Singh, CEO and founder of Money Experience. "Students can see for themselves how life choices such as getting an education, buying a home, having children, saving for retirement, and many other things all have an impact on their futures."

The new versions of the product feature a chat-like simulator interface, online support and forum tools for students, counselors, and instructors, and offer extensive summary reporting on outcomes for use in classrooms as well as by counselors and administrators. The new product is also specifically designed to accommodate self-paced, online use.

It is difficult to balance the shortage of resources  such as instructor or counselor time or the availability of slots in students full schedules  with the need for creating a good learning experience, said Brilene Faherty, Director of Curriculum at ME. The new offerings combine the best aspects of self-paced, online learning with flexible options for face-to-face interaction, depending on the needs of the client organization. We believe this blended model has the best chance of success.

The three product versions available are:

Classroom  ME Classroom Edition is an 8-10 hour in-classroom curriculum and integrated software offering that can be taught as weekly after-school or in-school modules, a one or two-day intensive workshop, or as a summer camp offering. Classroom provides professional development for the instructor and extensive in-classroom tools, including user progress and issues monitoring, automated grading, and more.

Counselor  ME Counselor Edition is an online, self-paced learning experience geared toward counselors, advisors, mentors, and other instructors looking to make the most of their short windows of time with students or community members. Counselor Edition provides professional development for the facilitator and detailed reports on a users life choices, priorities, and goals for the facilitator to then discuss with the student or user for efficient and productive advising sessions in either group or individual settings.

Community  ME Community Edition is a self-paced learning experience provided as a self-serve online resource for students, families, staff, and the broader community of any organization  even if there are no instructors or counselors available to facilitate it. With the same full simulator and life choices experience as the other versions, the Community Edition also provides aggregated group reports on the population being supported that give insight into users choices, priorities, goals, and knowledge of personal finance concepts.

About Money Experience

Part of the family of companies founded by noted Boston tech entrepreneurs Jeet Singh and Joe Chung (ATG, ThirdChannel, Kinto, Winterline Global Education), Money Experience is an educational technology company addressing the need for educating young people and adults about personal finance. Money Experience is headquartered at One Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The 12th annual Womens Private Equity Summit will take place March 13-15, 2019 at its new venue, the Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California. Conference producer Falk Marques Group anticipates more than 650 senior-level women from the worlds leading private equity and venture capital firms, establishing the Summit as a premier industry conference.

We are delighted to be hosting this years Summit in Southern California, an area that is quickly becoming a destination for institutional capital, commented Beth Falk, Summit founder and president of Falk Marques Group. We made the decision to move in order to accommodate the Summits extraordinary growth. The fact that this community of women continues to grow year after year is a testament to the progress that is being made toward our firms mission: connecting women in private equity, venture capital, and other alternatives to build a trusted network in which to support and do business with one another.

More Than 100 Dynamic Speakers

This years Summit features two-and-a-half days of networking, keynote plenary sessions, and moderated workshops and panel discussions, as well as the UnSessions  the Summits facilitated roundtable conversations on topics developed by attendees, for attendees. Included among the speakers are highly respected Limited Partners and General Partners: Clara Chan, Hong Kong Monetary Authority; Maya Chorengel, TPGs The Rise Fund; Kristi Craig, Georgetown University; Dayna Grayson, New Enterprise Associates; Kathleen Jacobs, New York University; Annie Lamont, Oak HC/FT; Juli Marley, Blue Point Capital Partners; Molly Murphy, Orange County Employees Retirement System; Chrissie Chen Pariso, Exelon Corporation; Christy Richardson, Hewlett Foundation; Renata Quintini, Lux Capital; Shelby Wanstrath, Teacher Retirement System of Texas; and many more.

2019 Trailblazer Award Recipient

The Trailblazer Award, which honors pioneering women who have paved the way for their peers in the industry, is awarded annually at the Summit. The 2019 recipient is Sandra Robertson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Executive Officer at the Oxford University Endowment Management (OUem), in honor of her standing as OUems first Chief Investment Officer and her long-time involvement in backing private equity managers. Sandra will give a keynote speech on Private Equity: Reflections on a Changing Industry and a Look Toward the Future during the Summit.

Sponsors & Partners  2019 Womens Private Equity Summit

The 2019 Womens Private Equity Summit has attracted an extraordinary group of blue-chip sponsors and partners, including some of private equitys top industry advisors and organizations, as well as leading private equity firms.

Platinum:

KPMG

Proskauer

Neuberger Berman

Vista Equity Partners

Gold:

American Securities

GCM Grosvenor

Goldman Sachs

KKR

Landmark Partners

Lindsay Goldberg

TA Associates

TPG

Warwick Energy

Silver:

Apollo

Edelman

Jordan Company

Kayne Capital

West Monroe Partners

For a complete list of sponsors, exhibitors, partners, and supporters, visit the Summit websites sponsor page (http://www.womensprivateequitysummit.com/sponsors.php). For more information about the conference, visit the conference website (http://www.womensprivateequitysummit.com), follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter, or call +1.781.652.0900.

About Falk Marques Group

Falk Marques Group LLC develops and produces professional conferences, insightful industry news and event content, and unmatched networking opportunities for an international audience of senior-level decision makers in private equity, venture capital, and other alternative investments.

The highly acclaimed Women's Private Equity Summit and Women's Alternative Investment Summit are the cornerstones of the firms success. These annual industry events attract more than 650 and 450 attendees, respectively, bringing together institutional investors, fund managers, and advisors to the industry for an honest exchange of business ideas and information, invaluable networking, and unrivaled dealmaking. Later this year, in September 2019, Falk Marques Group will launch a new conference, Womens Leadership Unbound Summit, a two-day interactive Summit for up to 200 GPs, LPs, and industry advisors that already play a key role within their firm and are ready to break through to the next level of power. The firm also publishes a weekly e-newsletter, Womens PE Briefs, which showcases the achievements of women in private equity and venture capital. For more information, visit http://falkmarquesgroup.com.

Note to media: The Womens Private Equity Summit is closed to the press. We would be pleased to facilitate interviews with Summit speakers or organizers before or after the conference. Contact Stephanie Schwartz, Falk Marques Group, at Stephanie.Schwartz(at)FalkMarquesGroup.com or +1.781.652.0900, to make arrangements or with questions regarding the Summit.
Im honored to open our new My Eyelab optical store in Oakland. We look forward to becoming a member of the local East Oakland community and building our reputation for eye care ease and excellence.

My Eyelab, one of the nation's fastest growing full-service retail optical centers, has just expanded its franchise offering to the state of California with a new store in the San Francisco market. The store, located at 5859 Foothill Blvd, Suite 3 in Oakland, will open on Monday, Mar. 11, marking the companys commitment to serve the community in the San Francisco market and entry into California.

The newest My Eyelab location will offer great deals and amazing services, with a wide range of over 2,000 affordable frames, prescription lenses, contact lenses and prescription sunglasses for men, women and children.

My Eyelabs first Californian franchisee, Sid Afshar, owner of the Oakland My Eyelab store, stated Im honored to open our new My Eyelab optical store in Oakland. We look forward to becoming a member of the local East Oakland community and building our reputation for eye care ease and excellence.

Vision Precision Holdings, now known as Now Optics, whose retail divisions include Stanton Optical and My Eyelab, has seen massive growth, with a combined 129 corporate and franchise locations across the country. The new store is Now Optics 23rd location in the state of California.

My Eyelab aims to grow in additional California markets, bringing its cutting-edge technology and easy eye care to new communities. With the help of qualified franchisees who have the drive and skill set to help spread the company's vision for easy eye care, My Eyelab plans to strategically target nationwide developments.

Visit the new My Eyelab location at 5859 Foothill Blvd, Suite 3 in Oakland for a special offer on two pairs of eyeglasses for $59.95 including the cost of the eye exam, or visit MyEyelab.com for more information. Also available at My Eyelab is a contact lens value pack, which includes an eye exam and contact lenses, starting at just $129.

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About My Eyelab

Founded in 2013, My Eyelab is one of the fastest-growing full-service teleconsulting and retail optical centers in the nation. With a vision of easy eye care and the mission to provide fast, friendly and affordable eye care services, My Eyelab has become a leader in the eye health industry by developing an accessible alternative to its overpriced competitors.

Franchising since 2016, My Eyelab consistently ranks among the largest optical retailers in the United States by Vision Monday. My Eyelab offers single and multi-unit franchise options, with an initial franchise fee of $34,900, a $200,000 liquid cash investment, and $500,000 minimum net worth requirement for interested prospects. For more information, visit MyEyelab.com.
Delta is a great example of a company investing in an innovative program that will positively affect the future of young people. Together, we are able to have a positive impact on a large group of students.

The National Flight Academy (NFA) in Pensacola, Fla. is proud to announce that Delta Air Lines is offering 80 tuition scholarships, totaling $100,000, to children of active duty or retired military service members to attend a six-day overnight Deployment program during Summer 2019.

Attendees, or AMBITION Experimental Pilots (AXPs), live aboard AMBITION, a state-of-the art program housed onboard a 102,000-square-foot virtual aircraft carrier. The aviation-based adventure weaves STEM learning objectives with important 21st century skills including critical thinking, problem solving, leadership development and effective communication.

AXPs plan missions with ultramodern and advanced technology as well as learn to fly in networked aircraft, eat on mess decks, sleep in staterooms and receive mission briefings in six fully-electronic ready rooms. Additionally, they experience different areas aboard the virtual carrier, including the Mess Deck, Join Intelligence Center, Joint Operations Center, Berthing Spaces and Hangar Bay.

Delta is a great example of a company investing in an innovative program that will positively affect the future of young people, said retired Marine Lt. Gen. Duane Thiessen, president of the National Flight Academy. Together, we are able to have a positive impact on a large group of students.

Each interested and eligible student must participate in a video contest or submit a 500-word essay for a chance to win a scholarship seat. Applicants must be between 11 to 17 years old, entering 7th  12th grade, and must be an active duty or retired military dependent.

The video or essay must answer one of the following prompts:

1. How would you use Science, Technology, Engineering and Math to be a positive influence on the world? Please include why you would want to attend the National Flight Academy.

2. How do you think the aviation industry will use Science, Technology, Engineering and Math concepts to make significant advances to aviation over the next 50 years? Please include why you would want to attend the National Flight Academy.

Tuition scholarships are valued at $1,250 each. Delta Air Lines does not cover travel to and from the National Flight Academy in Pensacola, FL. However, shuttle service is provided from Pensacola International Airport to the NFA for those students traveling by air.

The video and essay contest submission deadline is Friday, March 15, 2019 at 11:59 pm CST. Any videos or essays submitted after this deadline will not be considered. Parents must submit their childs video or essay through this portal https://tinyurl.com/ybrzhba3.

Selected students will be notified by the NFA no later than March 30, 2019 at 5:00 pm CST via the parents email address provided during the submission process. Selected students must be available to attend one of the following weeks: June 16  21, June 30  July 5 or July 14 -19. For full video and essay contest information, visit https://adobe.ly/2RTCwR6.

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About the National Flight Academy

The National Flight Academy, located aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida, is designed to address the serious concerns of declining Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) skills and standards in our country. The Academys mission is to inspire students who subsequently return to their parent schools and seek out the more challenging courses in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

The NFA is a self-supporting, tuition-based educational program. We welcome support from individuals, corporations and foundations for both our scholarship program and general operation funds. The National Flight Academy, a program of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation Inc., is authorized but not endorsed or funded by the U.S. Navy or U.S. Government.

For more information about the National Flight Academy, visit http://www.nationalflightacademy.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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Please contact Malerie Shelton, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, via email at mshelton@navalaviationmueum.org for more information.

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Beautiful fit, feel and function of the VA condom...worn-of-women.

The designers of the VA worn-of-women female condom brand announce its successful online launch in Europe.

The VA is sold exclusively online in Europe at the VA w.o.w website, vawow.com. CE-Mark approved for sale in Europe, the VA is expected to be available in the USA by the end of the year.

Female condoms need to become more popular in Germany. We welcome the new VA to play a major role for womens sexual health, says Harriet Langanke from Germanys Charitable Foundation Sexuality and Health (GSSG) in Cologne, Germany.

U.S. design firm IXu said the popularity of the VA in European, Brazilian and African test markets prompted their manufacturing contract with major global condom maker HLL Lifecare Ltd. of India.

The VA obtained the highest efficacy rating in a comparison of all four European CE-Mark approved female condoms in an independent clinical study published in the British Lancet Medical Journal. And the VA achieved a 97% satisfaction rating in a user survey.

IXu CEO Brian Osterberg states, Were pleased to finally offer global consumers the sensual-looking, body-fitting female condom that's been missing from the market. In test markets, the VA easily became more popular than the older-known brand, the brand recently dropped from the U.S. retail market by its own maker. The new VA looks nothing like the older brand. The pink latex VA is extremely sleek and feminine, almost fashionable in appearance and fit, as seen in the demonstration models. We have simply changed the way female condoms are designed and marketed to women."

The VA registered a successful two-year trial market at all Portuguese public health clinics. Distributed by the Clinifar company of Lisbon, after one year, the VA was selected as the only brand to be offered in clinics, due entirely to consumer response.

Clinifar is pleased to once again offer the VA condom, as the Portuguese Health Ministry had success with the popularity of the VA in nationwide clinics in a prior trial market, states Monica Costa, Manager, Clinifar, Lisbon, Portugal.

IXu states the VA proved more than the functional equivalent of the only US FDA-approved female condom, surpassing it in efficacy ratings as published in the Lancet medical journal.

HLL Lifecare Ltd. is the exclusive contract-manufacturer of the VA for IXu LLC.

The demand for simple, effective and inexpensive latex female condoms has been proven with our VA condom, and should increase greatly in the years to come with proven popularity, said Mr. T. Rajasekar, Director of Marketing, HLL, Our launching in Europe allows it to become a global game-changer for safe sex. HLL is delighted to partner exclusively with IXu for the manufacture of VA W.o.W condoms for women.

IXu will expand the VA line this year with a VA Vibe model featuring miniature vibrating accessories attached to a standard VA condom.

Contact:

Brian Osterberg, CEO

IXu LLC

Petoskey, MI 49770 USA

USA phone: 001 231 242 4440

vawow.com

ixullc.com

info@vawow.com

info@ixullc.com
Topgun: An American Story is available wherever books are sold. "With the hot-seat velocity and cockpit realism of a military combat thriller, the author delivers exacting details and emotional acuity....A noble, thrillingly realized combat aviation memoir from one of America's finest." Kirkus Reviews

When American fighter jets were being downed at a disturbing and unprecedented rate during the Vietnam War, the U.S. Navy turned to a young lieutenant commander, Dan Yank Pedersen, to figure out a way to reverse their dark fortune.

Pedersen, aka the Godfather of Topgun, was the Hollywood image of a fighter pilot, seldom appearing without his Ray-Ban sunglasses, when a report about the shocking casualties foiling Navy air operations in Vietnam prompted a wholesale reevaluation of American fighter strategy.

On a shoestring budget and with little official support, his mission was to challenge the status quo and determine the weapons systems and tactics that would once again make Americas fighter jets the masters of the sky.

Pedersen selected eight of the finest pilots to develop a graduate curriculum and train a new generation to bend jets like the F-4 Phantom to their will and learn how to dogfight all over again. The new graduate Fighter Weapons School was credited with raising the air combat kill ratio from two Vietnamese planes downed for every American plane lost to more than 12 to 1.

Pedersens mantra: In combat, second best is dead last. He and his superb team established a legacy that has been carried on for six decades by some of America's greatest subsequent leaders.

In "TOPGUN: An American Story" (Hachette Books; March 2019), the founder of the famous program tells the inside story for the first time, from Miramar to Area 51.

Pedersens vivid anecdotes are wide-ranging, touching on how the financial support for the Topgun was so limited and the red tape so thick that his team had to resort to stealing furniture to build Topguns first headquarters. One of his RIOs (radar interceptors), Steve Smith, found a dilapidated modular trailer and convinced an off-duty crane operator to move it to their part of the base for a case of scotch; then they scrounged for office furniture to fill it.

The book details the secret trip Pedersen and the other original instructors took to Area-51 in 1969 to study MiG-17 planes captured from Vietnam, and how Pedersen ignored the orders of the three-star general in charge of them who insisted the planes were not to be used for dogfighting and had a dogfight in it anyway.

Pedersens cinematic prose also weaves a heart-wrenching backdrop: from falling in love with his high school sweetheart to penning letters throughout combat training to losing touch as he struggled to survive the demands of the thirty-year career to finally reuniting and marrying his soul mate as a seasoned veteran.

On the heels of the 50th anniversary, Jerry Bruckheimer is producing Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel to the 1986 blockbuster with Tom Cruise, which is scheduled for 2020. Top Gun was the highest-grossing movie of 1986, earning $356.8 million worldwide. "TOPGUN: An American Story" touches on what was different in the movie from real life, i.e. how the Topgun instructors were so competitivesome things about the movie were true!that they tried to dogfight each other, and how Pedersen, fearing that a fight could result in a lost plane that could put the program at risk, intervened.

A riveting narrative in the tradition of bestselling military reads, "TOPGUN: An American Story" is sure to delight history buffs, movie-fans, and general audience alike.

About the Author:

Dan Pedersen entered the U.S. Navy in 1953 as an enlisted mechanic. He was later the senior officer in the group of nine men who formed the Navy's legendary "Topgun" graduate program at Naval Air Station Miramar in March 1969. He served in combat during the Vietnam War, with two flying cruises on USS Hancock (CVA-19) and two on USS Enterprise (CVN-65). He commanded the super aircraft carrier USS Ranger. He ultimately retired as a captain, having accumulated 6,100 flight hours and 1,005 carrier landings while flying 39 types of aircraft. Pedersen is an accomplished public speaker, having presented to many varying audiences, large or small, from school children to very senior military or corporate executives. He has also been inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in the Palm Springs Air Museum and San Diegos Air and Space Museum.
Rich Fine We at FineProperty are qualified professionals that will direct you to the best properties at the best possible prices. Our network is highly organized and efficient, utilizing modern technologies and methodologies to make sure you get exactly what you came for.

We managed to combine Park City and Utah MLS systems in one search tool, said Rich. Working with one of our agents lets you get Zillow-like results specific to your Park City real estate needs.

The new site, https://www.fineproperty.com/, features an advanced search link, where people can search for homes by map, subdivision and/or Park City and Deer Valley areas. It also includes links for homes, condos and land, and an informative market blog.

During the course of his distinguished career, Rich has been the 2018 President of the Wasatch Back MLS Board; 2002 and 2013 Realtor of the Year; 2002, 2004 and 2006 Salesperson of the Year; and past President of the Board of Realtors.

In addition to real estate, Rich is passionate about his community. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Park City Chamber Bureau, the Peoples Health Clinic and the Rotary Club of Park City. Rich attended the University of Utah, earning a degree in Finance and Economics.

We at FineProperty are qualified professionals that will direct you to the best properties at the best possible prices, noted Rich. Our network is highly organized and efficient, utilizing modern technologies and methodologies to make sure you get exactly what you came for.

Concluded client David C., Rich worked with us very well. He even changed his schedule a few times to adapt to our needs as out-of-state buyers. He understands what the buyer is looking for and directs you that way while giving you the freedom you need. I would completely recommend Rich.

About Rich Fine, FineProperty

Rich Fine has been helping buyers and sellers in the Park City Utah area since 1994. FineProperty and Rich Fine are part of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Utah Real Estate. For more information, please call (435) 640-2124, or email Rich(at)FineProperty.com.

For media inquiries, please call the NALA at 805.650.6121, ext. 361.
Held February 10-12 in Scottsdale, Arizona, FANUCs 2019 Authorized System Integrator (ASI) Conference draws FANUC distributors from across the US and serves as a platform to discuss industry trends, introduce new technologies and provide networking opportunities. During this years event, Pearson was acknowledged for the volume of robots sold totaling 110 in a 10-month period. The second award recognized Pearsons sales growth from 2017 to 2018, which reached well over 250%. Even if the acquisition of Flexicell is taken into account, the combined organizations robot sales grew more than 80% over the previous year.

We are extremely pleased with the synergistic effects the acquisition of Flexicell has created for Pearson. Each brands customer base recognized the strengths both organizations brought in terms of experience, specialized product expertise, and breadth of product portfolio covering all aspects of top-loaded secondary packaging equipment and integration needs, declares Michael Senske, President and CEO of Pearson Packaging Systems. The addition of an east coast manufacturing location in close proximity to a large portion of our customer baseas well as extended business hours covering three time zonesenables us to be more customer-centric, available where and when they need us.

Pearson, who is also a FANUC Certified Service Provider with rigorous robotic training in mechanical and electrical operation, preventive and reactive maintenance, advanced software programming, troubleshooting, and safety is well positioned to support the accelerated adoption of robots in the industry. According to FANUC, in 2018, for the first time, the general industry including packaging, surpassed the automotive industrylong-term automation pioneerin total sales volume.

Our customers increasingly see the value robots provide to their operation. In terms of reliability and flexibility, and ultimately total cost of ownership (TCO) robotic solutions are indisputably delivering superior returns over their mechanical alternatives, adds Stuart Cooper, Pearsons Chief Revenue Officer who accepted the ASI recognition on Pearsons behalf.

About Pearson Packaging Systems

Pearson Packaging Systems specializes in the design, production, integration and service of secondary packaging automation solutions. With the industrys most comprehensive portfolio of customizable machinery to erect, pack, seal, and palletize top-loaded cartons, cases and trays, Pearson is also uniquely positioned to provide fully integrated turnkey systems.

To provide flexible and scalable solutions and minimize total cost of ownership, Pearson Packaging Systems is dedicated to the application of advanced technologies and a user centric design. This commitment was reinforced by the 2018 acquisition of the 25-year-old company Flexicell, the industrys longest established robotic automation provider for pick, pack and palletizing applications.

Since our inception more than 60 years ago, a diverse set of high-volume manufacturers and distributors in the food, beverage, personal care, and online commerce industries has relied on our products and services to help them meet their growth and profitability objectives. To this date, Pearson has deployed over 20,000 machines worldwide, with some equipment and accompanying field service traveling to locations as remote as Tibet. Designed and built for 24/7, multi-shift environments, our systems and solutions have proven themselves in even the most demanding environments supported by our experienced Aftermarket, Parts and Service Departments.
The world of Scotch and Whiskey is far and wide  stretching from Kentucky, USA to the rolling Highlands of Speyside  making it difficult for the everyday person to know where to start their tasting experience. Seattle Scotch & Beer Fest bypasses the need to take planes, trains, and automobiles, bringing together 12 of the best international spirits and the experts that know them best for two days of tasting.

Seattle Scotch & Beer Fest returns April 19-20 as a fundraiser for Seattle Humane, combining old world spirits with new world craft beers, all under one roof indoors at Fremont Studios. Guests will choose from two different tasting flights, each offering them the opportunity to detect the subtle nuances and different expressions of these vintage malt beverages as they taste them side-by-side.

Assisting guests in their discovery will be whiskey experts and ambassadors flown in from around the globe. Leading this group of experts is Rick Edwards, one of only a handful of certified Masters of Scotch in the world. Edwards is knowledgeable in Scotch and Whiskey, being named an Icon of Whisky recently by industry publications, and often facilitates celebrity whiskey tastings in Hollywood.

Im so excited to explore the amazing world of whisky with guests in Seattle this April, says Edwards. This event is a great opportunity for both novice and seasoned Scotch drinkers to expand their knowledge in a fun environment. Anyone attending this years Scotch & Beer Fest is in for a treat as the lineup of spirits is incredible.

In addition to helping guests understand the different libations in Seattle Scotch & Beer Fests spirit flights, Edwards is leading two Top Shelf Seminars during the event. The Top Shelf Seminars are limited capacity and feature a lineup of 10 different spirits curated by Edwards for a deeper understanding of the world of Scotch and Whiskey.

ABOUT THE 2019 SPIRIT FLIGHTS

If the guest chooses to go classic, they can literally take flight to Scotland with the 2019 Scotch Flight, featuring well-known brands The Glenlivet, Aberlour, Chivas, and Scapa.

2019 Scotch Flight

The Glenlivet Founders Reserve

Aberlour 16

Chivas Mizunara

The Glenlivet French Oak 15

The Glenlivet Nadurra Peated Cask Finish

Scapa Glansa

If the guest wants to stray from the typical, they can explore the 2019 Whiskey Influenced Flight, featuring six different barrel-aged libations from around the world.

2019 Whiskey Influenced Flight

Del Maguey Vida

Avion Anejo

Smooth Amber Contradiction

Martell Blue Swift

Jameson Caskmates IPA-Edition

Jameson Caskmates Stout-Edition

In addition to spirit tastings, guests can sample more than 50 craft beers from west coast breweries, local wine and cider, in the festivals commemorative pilsner cup.

Tickets to Seattle Scotch & Beer Fest are now on sale. Guests can choose from three admission types and have the option to register for limited-seating Top Shelf Seminars. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.scotchbeerfest.com.

Press Contact:

John Thorburn

john(at)boldhatproductions.com

253-686-3898
"In yet another inspiring program, the SIA Women in Security Forum is thrilled to welcome Juliette Kayyem, who has played a pivotal role in major homeland security operations, to this special event to share her knowledge and experiences with ISC West attendees.  Don Erickson, CEO, SIA

The Security Industry Association (SIA)  as part of its Women in Security Forum initiative  will host a breakfast event during ISC West featuring insights from special guest Juliette Kayyem, a national leader in Americas homeland security efforts.

The SIA Women in Security Forum Breakfast @ ISC West will take place Friday, April 12, in Room 1001/1004 of the Sands Convention Center at 8:30 a.m. Learn more and RSVP.

Kayyem previously served as President Obamas assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patricks homeland security advisor; she is now the CEO of lifestyle company Zemcar and the founder of Kayyem Solutions. Kayyem serves as the Belfer Lecturer in International Security at Harvard Kennedy School, teaching new leaders in emergency management and homeland security, and an academic member of SIA through her work with Harvard. Kayyem is a regular on-air national security analyst and contributor for CNN, has hosted a national security podcast called The SCIF and has been a weekly featured analyst on Boston Public Radio, 89.7 WGBH Bostons Local NPR.

Event attendees will enjoy complimentary breakfast and networking and hear Kayyems crisis management advice, key takeaways from her domestic security career and insights for women in the security industry.

SIA enthusiastically encourages its members and industry stakeholders to promote the advancement of women in the security industry and draw talented women to the profession, said Don Erickson, SIA CEO. In yet another inspiring program, the SIA Women in Security Forum is thrilled to welcome Juliette Kayyem, who has played a pivotal role in major homeland security operations, to this special event to share her knowledge and experiences with ISC West attendees.

SIAs Women in Security Forum  which marked its first anniversary on International Womens Day  offers programs, professional development opportunities and networking events to support the involvement of women in the security industry. Key efforts and activities include the SIA Progress Award, which celebrates individuals who advance opportunities and pave the way to success for women in the security industry; SECURE Perspectives, a monthly column profiling successful women in the industry; an entirely women-authored issue of the SIA Technology Insights journal; and exciting networking events. The Women in Security Forum is open to SIA members, regardless of gender.

About SIA

SIA is the leading trade association for global security solution providers, with nearly 1,000 innovative member companies representing thousands of security leaders and experts who shape the future of the security industry. SIA protects and advances its members interests by advocating pro-industry policies and legislation at the federal and state levels, creating open industry standards that enable integration, advancing industry professionalism through education and training, opening global market opportunities and collaborating with other like-minded organizations. As the premier sponsor of ISC Events expos and conferences, SIA ensures its members have access to top-level buyers and influencers, as well as unparalleled learning and network opportunities. SIA also enhances the position of its members in the security marketplace through SIA GovSummit, which brings together private industry with government decision makers, and Securing New Ground, the security industrys top executive conference for peer-to-peer networking.
The Junior League of Boston (JL Boston) is pleased to announce that we are accepting applications for 2019 Community Assistance Grants. The purpose of the annual Community Assistance Grant program is to identify and aid non-profit agencies in Greater Boston whose proposed funding is aligned with JL Bostons mission of developing the potential of women.

Since 1906, the Junior League of Boston has been collaborating with and supporting local, like-minded organizations to improve our communities through effective action, said Michelle Lentz, 2018-2020 JL Boston President. We recognize that meaningful change takes a collaborative effort and are proud to be granting deserving organizations with much-needed funds to further their mission of impact.

Eligible 501(c)(3) organizations located in the Greater Boston area are invited to submit the 2019 Community Assistance Grant Application. To apply, complete the application form and submit it to grants (at) jlboston (dot) org by March 31, 2019. All grant applicants will be notified of a decision in late-May/early-June of 2019.

In 2018, JL Boston awarded eight organizations $2,500 each to support community programming in Greater Boston. The recipients were: Art Resource Collaborative for Kids (ARCK), Boston Centers for Youth & Families, Boys & Girls Club of Stoneham & Wakefield, Girls Rock, Healthy Waltham, More Than Words, Project Hope, and YW Boston.

To donate to JL Boston and help expand our impact, please visit http://www.jlboston.org.

About the Junior League of Boston:

The Junior League of Boston, Inc. is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable.

Contact:

Lindsey Shepardson

External Communications

Junior League of Boston

externalrelations (at) jlboston (dot) org
Western University of Health Sciences President Daniel R. Wilson, MD, PhD, gives his "State of Our University" address March 6, 2019 on WesternU's Pomona, Calif. campus. (Jeff Malet, WesternU)

Western University of Health Sciences was built on an audacious vision, and with a new Strategic Plan in place is poised to reach new heights.

WesternU President Daniel R. Wilson, MD, PhD, gave his State of Our University address March 6, 2019. The University is robustly healthy, with strong finances, strong colleges, strong partnerships, and a strong strategic plan, he said.

We have sound operations and a broadening reach. We have bright horizons and a wealth of opportunities from which to select here in California and Oregon and elsewhere in the United States and internationally, Wilson said. We are blessed with truly talented, loyal and creative people. I have not been in an institution that has such a strong mission-driven culture and close-knit familiarity. Its very special here.

The WesternU Board of Trustees approved the strategic plan about seven months ago.

Since then a robust movement of the plan into the hands of the University community has taken place in a way that is strikingly speedy not just for a university community but even for a corporate community, Wilson said. (Faculty and staff) have embraced it so quickly and fully, and that, I have to say, really warms my heart, because this is where the talent and energy of a broad range of people across the University gets mobilized to help author further chapters in our strategic plan with perspective, wisdom, and sometimes interesting ideas.

The Strategic Performance Group (SPG), made up of more than 100 WesternU faculty and staff, is moving the strategic plan from concept to consequence in five areas: strategy, academics, finance, brand and innovation.

They are examining and evaluating readiness assessments in a number of key areas, gap analyses, what do we need to put in place to perform better, project charters, action plans and projected outcomes across these five critical areas, Wilson said.

The two metrics of success for SPG: the conventional business concept of return on investment and Wilsons concept of return on mission.

How much of what we do really expands our mission? Wilson said. We are an educational research and service nonprofit, but if we do things as efficiently as we can, we can have more consequence in the cities that we reside in, and even nationally.

Wilson wants to invite innovators, inventors and progressive-thinking people to WesternU to help promote their ideas, and in turn help promote the University. WesternU is actively pursuing partnerships with industry and other universities in the innovation arena, including Cal Poly Pomona.

Addressing Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval, who was in the audience, Wilson said, I dont mean to put my good friend the mayor on the spot, but if I were mayor I would try to have a critical mass of university operations flourishing together in downtown Pomona. Sandoval responded with a hearty, Yes.

The master plan for WesternUs Pomona campus envisions not only the Universitys needs but also what can happen in partnership with the city, Cal Poly Pomona, hospitals and other enterprises, Wilson said.

I think we can build a true university village here, he said. I can even imagine over time some of these commercial buildings could be converted into bioscience and biotech startups if we work together and plan.

Strategic planning will allow WesternU to improve its current operations while also seizing new opportunities without straining its resources, Wilson said.

Wilson emphasized the importance of bolstering WesternUs culture of philanthropy. The university needs to build a benefaction engine, which will take years to accomplish, he said.

We have a wonderful story to tell. Were not as well known as we can or should be, Wilson said. When people hear about WesternU they are amazed, and rightfully so. We have a long way to go. We will ramp this up, and that is vitally important.

The success of WesternU  Oregon shows that the University must remain nimble and willing to adapt.

WesternU in Oregon was not in the strategic plan, Wilson said. Sensible, sincere, creative parties came together and built an absolutely remarkable ecosystem, again in the WesternU way, out of thin air, or in the case of Lebanon, out of an old field of grass and hay.

That was an opportunity that was seized and, in retrospect, was a brilliant thing. The success of Oregon makes me believe we have a duty to look for other places where we might expand our mission, whether its another campus in the U.S. or perhaps internationally.

WesternU expanded its clinical operations into Oregon with the opening of WesternU Health  Oliver Station in Portland. Wilson, along with College of Graduate Nursing (CGN) Dean Mary Lopez, PhD, RN, and CGN Assistant Dean Ivy Tuason, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, laid the foundation for potential pipeline programs and international partnerships with several institutions during a recent trip to India.

The total economic impact of WesternU, when taking into consideration all its alumni spread throughout the world, is close to $6 billion. From a boarded-up J.C. Penney 40 years ago -- and simply a dream of creating a college of osteopathic medicine through energy, ideas and effort -- all of this has been built. Remarkable, Wilson said.

We are a very creative community (of) great character, and we are now future-ready for big opportunities, Wilson said. We will embody a culture of audacious, nimble innovation that will sustain our future success, and we will do it the WesternU way, with our vision and values intact: caring, respect, empathy, trust, and inclusion.
Cusco captures the beauty and heritage of Peru, past and present. Peru has become increasingly known for its culinary offerings in recent years, and in Lima, and Cafe de Museo Larco is one of its best regarded restaurants.

Travellers are set to save almost a third of the price of their Peru vacation with a new offer from Goway Travel. The 9-day Wonders of Peru is one of Goways most popular itineraries, offering an ideal introduction to this fascinating country that includes flights from North America. Until March 31, travellers will save up to US $810 on a May 4 departure, and enjoy a complimentary dinner at Limas acclaimed Larco Museum. Great rates are also available on other departures throughout 2019.

Machu Picchu is the centrepiece that many Peru-bound travellers come to see. Set high in the Andes, this ancient citadel speaks to the success of the Incan empire, once the largest in the world. Besides Machu Picchu, Wonders of Peru visits the Sacred Valley and Cuzco, the ancient capital that today preserves the regions past alongside present day life. The trip also includes a stop in Lima, simultaneously one of South Americas oldest colonial cities, and the cosmopolitan economic powerhouse of modern Peru. Peru has become increasingly known for its culinary offerings in recent years, and in Lima, and Cafe de Museo Larco is one of its best regarded restaurants.

Included are international and domestic flights, accommodation as per itinerary, shared transfers and excursions, Lima and Sacred Valley tours, Machu Picchu visit with return train trip, entrance fees, an English-speaking guide and meals as per itinerary. Globetrotters must book Wonders of Peru by March 31 to receive the discounted price, and complimentary dinner at Cafe de Museo.

Since 1970, Goway has been providing unforgettable travel experiences to Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Central & South America, Idyllic Island destinations and Europe. Today Goway is recognized as one of North America's leading travel companies for individuals, families and groups to select exotic destinations around the globe. Goway has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Manila, and Sydney, Australia.

For reservations and information, visit http://www.goway.com, or call 1-800-387-8850.
Tropizen Cannabis Hot Sauce We are very excited about this product, how we are teaming with local farms to produce it, and the excitement we are seeing from patients as they discover a new way to add medical cannabis to their daily lifestyle,

Canovanas, Puerto Rico - Tropizen, a licensed Puerto Rico cultivator and manufacturer of medical cannabis products, announced the launch of the first cannabis infused Puerto Rican-style hot sauce, known locally as pique, for sale at dispensaries throughout the island.

The new product represents the latest addition to a line of cannabis infused edibles that includes real-fruit gummies offered in a variety of natural flavors including passion fruit, mango, pineapple and quenepa (a local seasonal fruit also known as Spanish lime), Power Bites, a high-protein energy bar, and traditional pilones, an infused edible in sesame, passion fruit and coconut flavors.

We are very excited about this product, how we are teaming with local farms to produce it, and the excitement we are seeing from patients as they discover a new way to add medical cannabis to their daily lifestyle, stated Marni Meistrell, Co-founder of Tropizen. Tropizen Pique is an example of the thoughtfulness that goes into our brand and each product we create. It exemplifies the essence of our company philosophy and approach.

Tropizen Pique is manufactured at its 22,000 square foot state-of-the art facility, using locally sourced ingredients, including salt from Cabo Rojo and three different kinds of peppers. One of them is so rare the company decided to team up with experienced farmers to grow the amount needed for large-scale production. Local growers Frutos del Guacabo in Manati, Greens to Go Puerto Rico in Aibonito and other farms supply the peppers and herbs like cilantro, oregano and recao. Raw whole-plant cannabis oil is used in the formula to retain the plants optimal health benefits as well as enhance the flavor. We are committed to promoting and developing top-level agriculture production in Puerto Rico through our own operations and through strategic partnerships, said Meistrell.

The development process for Tropizen pique lasted almost two years. Our team stayed together and kept going through hurricane Maria, which makes this launch a big milestone for us, stated Meistrell. Each 2 ounce bottle contains 120mg of THC, with 5ml (half teaspoon) delivering a dosage of 5mg with a spicy, but flavorful kick. Thoughtful packaging includes a child safety cap to secure the contents of the bottle and a custom-made carton tube.

In just a few weeks, the company has already secured distribution for Tropizen Pique at over 80% of medical cannabis dispensaries with additional dispensaries set to be added once production capacity increases.

According to Meistrell, Tropizen has made a multi-million dollar contribution to Puerto Ricos economy through its investment in people and operations. Currently, the company has 17 full time direct employees, a number that is expected to reach 50 by the end of the year. The Tropizen facility is undergoing construction to double indoor cultivation and manufacturing space as well as expand into outdoor greenhouse cultivation.

About Tropizen

TPZ Ventures, DBA Tropizen, is a Puerto Ricobased medical cannabis cultivation and manufacturing company, providing best-in-class product manufacturing, quality control, and service to cannabis brands and biotech. Tropizen is committed to producing an extensive array of highly purified, locally-sourced cannabis products to serve the needs of patients and support local communities.

For more information about Tropizen, LLC visit: http://www.tropizen.com/

Facebook @https://www.facebook.com/tropizenmed/

Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/tropizenmed/


Web-Don

Web-Don Inc., a distributor of quality cabinets, laminates, postform tops, and quartz, with 6 locations across the southeast is proud to announce its National Certification as a Womens Business Enterprise by the Greater Womens Business Council (GWBC), a regional certifying partner of the Womens Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

Web-Don is very proud to be a female owned distributor of building supply materials. This will allow our customers to attract business from those companies and government entities who want to award business to women. said Missy ODaniel, President and CEO of Web-Don, Inc.

Mrs. ODaniel added, We want to offer our customers every benefit available to help them grow, by coupling this latest certification with product mix and top level service, it is sure to be a tremendous advantage to our customer base. Our vision is to keep Web-Don moving into the future as a strong and dependable distributor for the next 50 years."

WBENCs national standard of certification, implemented by the Greater Womens Business Council (GWBC), is a meticulous process that includes an in-depth review of the business and site inspection. The certification process is designed to confirm the business is at least 51% owned, operated and controlled by a woman or women.

By including women-owned businesses among their suppliers, corporations and government agencies demonstrate their commitment to fostering diversity and the continued development of their supplier diversity programs.

About Web-Don, Inc.:

Founded in 1972, Web-Don, Inc opened in Charlotte, NC and began its journey as a Wilsonart distributor. What started with selling laminate for countertops has morphed into so much more. Web-Don, Inc. is proudly celebrating 47 years in the building materials industry and counting. Among their crowning achievements are the Carolina Heartwood Cabinetry cabinet line, a 35+ year relationship with Hartson-Kennedy distributing postform countertops, and the partnership with Hyundai L&C distributing their HanStone quartz. For more information, visit http://www.web-don.com

About WBENC:

WBENC is the nations leader in womens business development and the leading third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women. Founded in 1997, with more than 13,000 certified Womens Business Enterprises, 14 national Regional Partner Organizations, and over 300 Corporate Members. More than 1,000 corporations representing Americas most prestigious brands as well as many states, cities, and other entities accept WBENC Certification. For more information, visit http://www.wbenc.org.
Carpathia Dance Group This Festival was created to integrate, preserve and promote Baltimore and D.C 's rich cultural heritage by bringing together these different and diverse dance groups. Past News Releases RSS

Energetic Dancing, Beautiful Costumes, and Folk Dancers with roots from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Macedonia, Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Transylvania, Denmark, Finland, Norway and SwedenThis is what you will see at the Fourth Annual WINDMILLS International Dance Festival on Saturday, March 30 from 1:00  5:30 PM in the Grand Ballroom of the Lithuanian Hall in Baltimore, MD! In addition, and new this year, an International Folk-Dance Workshop will follow the performances beginning at 6:00 until 8:00 PM in the same location.

The fourth annual Windmills International Folk-Dance Festival will feature creative performances by European dance groups dancing traditional dances from Northern, Eastern and Central Europe. The dance performers are from the Maryland and Washington DC region and represent Lithuania (Malunas Dance Group), Latvia (Namejs), Estonia (Pillelkaar Washington DC), Austria, Germany, Switzerland (Alpine Dancers), Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden (Nordic Dancers of Washington DC), Hungary (Tisza Ensemble), Ukraine, Polish, Macedonia, Gypsy (Carpathia Folk Dance Ensemble), and Russia (Kalinka Dance Ensemble of Baltimore).

The audience get to participate in a workshop led by the directors and choreographers of the different performing groups after the show. The workshop is free and open to the public!

Egle Baublyte-Noeth, the event originator and coordinator, explained, "This Festival was created to integrate, preserve and promote Baltimore and D.C 's rich cultural heritage by bringing together these different and diverse dance groups. The focus is to bring harmony through dance and to place Baltimore on the map as an exhibition place for artistic folk-dance. We hope to expand this event to include more than European folk-dance groups but traditional dance from all over the world."

Tickets are $20 for Adult; $18 for Seniors. Children 12 and under are free. (Workshop is free to public. Doors open at 5:30 pm) Tickets for the performance can be purchased in advance at EventBrite

Delicious Eastern European food such as Cepelinai, Kugelis, Sakotis, etc. will be available for purchase. Also, a cash bar will be offering a wide variety of European beer and liquor and non-alcoholic drinks. The Lithuanian History Museum and Library will be open during event hours.

The Lithuanian Hall address is 851 Hollins St, Baltimore, MD 21201. Street parking is very limited, but garage parking is available in the UM Biopark Garage at 1 N Poppleton St (at the corner of N. Poppleton St and Baltimore St and 2 blocks from the Hall) and is recommended.

For More Information please contact:

Egle Baublyte-Noeth

Phone: (443) 694-8161

email: windmillsbaltimore(at)gmail.com

See other exciting pictures from previous years festivals by checking out the Windmills Photos.

Photo credits: Bob Noeth and Peter Alunans
All the emotion is in the music.

Women Warriors: The Voices of Change is a cultural tour de force whose time has come! This groundbreaking concert event honors the strength and heroism of Fanny Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Sonita Alizadeh, Nadia Murad, Malala Yousafzai and many others who have risked their lives for freedom of speech, social justice and equality.

Warrior Women: The Voices of Changes is an original feminist documentary presented in 12 Chapters. Each chapter is paired with rich, symphonic music that highlights the history of feminism - featuring activists tackling civil rights, climate change, human trafficking, womens rights in Iran and child marriage, among other social justice issues. This momentous event has been two years in the making; with thrilling live-to-screen visuals and a full symphony orchestra. It is a unique experience not to be missed!

Watch Trailer Here: https://vimeo.com/321550264/491817e1d2

Orchestra Moderne NYC, described as a first-rate classical ensemble,* will premiere at Lincoln Center, NYC on September 20, 2019 and will include guest performers and visuals that give voice, hope and inspiration to women and girls around the world.

Amy Andersson, referred to as Americas most watched symphony orchestra conductor,** joins forces with dynamic female Hollywood film composers - Lolita Ritmanis, Penka Kouneva, Starr Parodi, Isolde Fair, Miriam Cutler, Mandy Hoffman, Anne-Kathrin Dern, Nathalie Bonin and Sharon Farber to honor real life Women Warriors, global activists, who have battled against social injustice, championed gender equality, fought for the environment, civil and human rights and the educational rights of every girl in the World.

Funds raised for this project go directly to the New State York registered non-profit Music Resonates, Inc, 501(c)3, which funds women and minority composers featured in socially relevant concerts performed by Orchestra Moderne NYC. Your contribution will support production costs for the world premiere of Women Warriors: The Voices of Change at Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall. This is a non-profit special concert event.

Ms. Andersson has conducted concerts in 22 countries and has appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS Morning & Evening News and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal.

*Brian Taylor, ZealNYC

**Music Critic, Norman Lebrecht

DONATE AT: https://www.gofundme.com/women-warriors-the-voices-of-change

If you would like to be a proud sponsor of this event, please contact tommy@larendeeroos.com

Nations for Womens Sponsorship - $5,000/per person

Corporate Sponsorship - $10,000 per chapter

All sponsors will be noted in the Women Warriors: Voices of Change Playbill

Please share this article.

Website: https://orchestramoderne-nyc.com / https://amyanderssonconductor.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/amymaestra

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amymaestra/

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/orchestramodernenyc/

#amyanderrson #orchestramodernenyc #nyc

#feminism #feminist #internationalwomensday

#activist #truthispower #warrriorwomen #musicresonates

#orchestra #syphony #event
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We live in an age of lists. Every week on line there are more and more lists of everything, including great books (many of them assembled on this site) across a range of genres. But this week, OCLC published a pretty eye-opening literary listthe Library 100, which ranks the library world's most widely held novels of all time, based on the comprehensive data held in OCLC's WorldCat database.

How comprehensive, you ask? OCLC officials say the list was culled from the collections of more than 18,000 libraries which have contributed information about more than 2.7 billion copies of some 447 million titles.

Libraries provide a unique opportunity to track long-term trends in published literature, said Skip Prichard, OCLC President and CEO, in a release, adding that the data libraries contribute to WorldCat very likely offers the best view of the world's published record. WorldCat is a unique resource that can tell us more about publishing patterns and, by extension, cultural patterns, Prichard says.

So, what is the most widely held novel in libraries around the world? Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, followed by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. As you might expect, the list features a large number of classics, for obvious reasons. Which makes it all the more interesting to see where more contemporary works fall on the Library 100 list, and in some cases, where some other great novels don't fall. I wont spoil any surprises here (though I cant believe where Harry Potter ranks).

One other notable thing about this list: the data was gathered from library collections that were mostly selected and curated by humans. Given the rise of algorithms and AI, library lists of the future could look very (and perhaps worryingly) different, as other headlines in the news this week suggest.

Editors Note: The Week in Libraries column will be off next Friday, March 15, due to the London Book Fair. The column will return with the March 22 edition of PW Preview For Librarians.

Reserve Reading

From Wired, this article examines how Amazon's Algorithms have curated "a dystopian" bookstore. "Once relegated to tabloids and web forums, health misinformation and conspiracies have found a new megaphone in the curation engines that power massive platforms like Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Search, trending, and recommendation algorithms can be gamed to make fringe ideas appear mainstream." The story notes that in Amazons Epidemiology category several of the top titles being pushed to consumers are anti-vaccine tomes. Further, "scrolling through a simple keyword search for 'vaccine' in Amazons top-level Books section reveals anti-vaccine literature prominently marked as '#1 Best Seller' in categories ranging from Emergency Pediatrics, to History of Medicine, to Chemistry." The first pro-vaccine book appears 12th on the list, and it is "the only pro-vaccine book on the first page of search results."

And from NBC News, this chilling report: "a book that pushes the conspiracy theory Qanon climbed within the top 75 of all books sold on Amazon in recent days, pushed by Amazons algorithmically generated recommendations page." For the uninitiated, the Qanon conspiracy theory holds that the world is run by a secret, evil cabal led by Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump and Robert Mueller are secretly working together to defeat it. NBC News reports that the book, An Invitation to the Great Awakening, was a lofty #9 among politics books, and, shockingly, hit #1 among books on Censorship, beating out Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451.

Via Ars Technica, Democrats have introduced "a net neutrality bill that would fully restore the Obama-era rules that were repealed by the FCC's current Republican majority." The Save the Internet Act "would nullify FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's December 2017 repeal of the FCC order passed in February 2015 and forbid the FCC from repealing the rules in the future." In a statement, ALA president Loida Garcia Febo said ALA was reviewing the bill, but supported the bill's aim of restoring net neutrality. A free and open internet is critical for equitable access to online information and resources for the nearly 120,000 libraries ALA represents and the communities we serve across America.

The Courier-Journal reports that a Drag Queen Storytime event has been canceled without explanation by the Louisville Free Public Library.

NPR reports that a second federal judge has issued a court order to block the Trump administration's plans to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census. In short, the inclusion of the citizenship question on the 2020 Census threatens the very foundation of our democratic systemand does so based on a self-defeating rationale," Seeborg wrote in a 126-page opinion released Wednesday." Good news for the library community, which has been standing against a citizenship question on the census.

From The Washington Post, a piece on Carla Hayden's vision for the Library of Congress. "Two and a half years into her 10-year term, Hayden is making good on her promise to throw open the doors of Americas 'palace of knowledge' and invite ordinary citizens to join scholars in exploring its treasures."

In other news, the Library of Congress this week announced the launch of "The Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film." In conjunction with the Better Angels Society and the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation, the annual award will recognize "exemplary accomplishment in historical documentaries" that use "original research and compelling narrative to tell stories that touch on some aspect of American history."

Stop me if you've heard this one before: From The Daily Texan, the University of Texas's student newspaper, comes a story about the high cost of scholarly journals. "Because the libraries cant keep up with the growing expenses, their ability to collect and provide scholastic material for academic research is in jeopardy."

On the subject of scholarly journals, plenty more coverage in the media this week of the University of California's decision to terminate its subscription deal with Elsevier. Posted just after our story went out last week, came this very enlightening explainer on the University of California web site: "Elsevier made a new, quite complex, but novel proposal to us at the end of January," the piece confirms, but that deal would have "increased the amount of our payments by 80%an additional $30 million over a three-year contract."

The Atlantic offered it's take on U.C.'s decision walk away from Elsevier: "On one hand, this is a dispute about library fees. On the other, this is a dispute about the future of how knowledge is disseminated."

Vox offered this blunt assessment: "The costs of academic publishing are absurd. The University of California is fighting back."

And from TechDirt, this cogent observation: "What will worry Elsevier more is that the University of California is effectively saying that the company's journals are not so indispensable that it will sign up to a bad deal. It's the academic publishing equivalent of pointing out that the emperor has no clothes."

From the Austin American Statesman, success for school librarians: the Texas Senate on Monday unanimously passed a bill giving all classroom teachers a $5,000 annual pay raise, and added school librarians, who were originally excluded. This part of the story is especially instructive: when reporters asked the bill's sponsor why school librarians were excluded in the first place, even though they are required to have teaching experience, and teach every day as part of their duties, she replied: I didnt know that.

Form The New York Times, a look at how the New York Public Library selects its books.

From the Memphis Commercial Appeal, a story that must be a recurring nightmare for librarians weeding their collections: thanks to an eagle-eyed staffer, the Friends of the Memphis Public Library saved a 1968 first-edition of the Philip K. Dick classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?and then sold it for $1,250, which paid for all kinds of good stuff for the library.

The Verge reports on Mark Zuckerberg's post suggesting a pivot to "a privacy-focused future" for his companys various messaging platforms.

Wired, meanwhile, points out that something crucial is missing from Zuckerberg's take on privacy for Facebook users: "He said nothing about how Facebook plans to approach data sharing and ad targeting in this privacy-focused future."

And this is some funny stuff: From Good: "Librarians are sounding off on annoying customers and its awesome hearing them vent."
In Outsiders: Five Women Writers Who Changed the World, Lyndall Gordon brilliantly ties together the biographies of five women writers who bravely embraced outsider status and summoned the will to explore oddity in ways that speak to us about our unseen selves. Gordon assigns each woman a primary role: Emily Bronte (visionary), George Eliot (outlaw), Mary Shelley (prodigy), Olive Schreiner (orator), and Virginia Woolf (explorer). Painstakingly examining her subjects diaries, letters, speeches, and novels, as well as their lives and times, Gordon draws close connections between them. Here, Gordon shares some lesser-known biographical facts about Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary, I must be private, secret, as anonymous and submerged as possible in order to write. Given the multiple volumes of her diary, letters and memoirs, the outward facts of her life are well-documented, but the priority she gives to the inward life, to what lies obscured in night and shadow, leaves much yet unknown.

1. The Mysterious Case of Miss V. This is the title of a scrap of manuscript written in 1906 about a woman who passes unknown and silent through her lifetime. The challenge is to track down the shadow, to see where she lived and if she lived, and talk to her Who was the unnamed Miss V? Might she bear some relation to Miss Virginia Stephen (Woolfs maiden name)?

2. The Unnoticed Influence of Woolfs Aunt. Virginia Woolfs father Leslie Stephen put down his sister Miss Caroline Emilia Stephen as Silly Milly who wrote little books. It was the way of Victorian men towards spinsters (like the fictional Miss V). Leslie Stephens children took up his tone towards his sister, whom they called the Nun. This dismissal has distracted attention from what was formative for 22-year-old Virginia during the last months of 1904 when she lived with her 72-year-old aunt Caroline at The Perch, her home in Cambridge. It was, Virginia said, an ideal retreat for me, following a breakdown. A Quaker convert and theologian, her aunts chief book, Quaker Strongholds (1890)  reprinted three times -- and her papers in Londons Metropolitan Museum reveal habits of mind that are precisely those of her niece: to switch off the clamor of public voices in favor of the witness within and demand more than votes for women: nothing less than the disuse of power. She did not wish women to imitate the abuses of male power and called for women to exercise their vote collectively.

3. The first published essay. It was while Virginia Stephen lived with her aunt Caroline that she picked up her pen to write professionally for the first time in November 1904. It was for a womens supplement to a church magazine called The Guardian. The topic she chose was a pilgrimage to the Bronte Parsonage in Haworth. In the museum, above a bank on the steep village street, shes thrilled to find the little oak stool which Emily carried with her on her solitary moorland tramps, and on which she sat, if not to write, as they say, to think.

4. Thinking back through our mothers. This famous phrase, which sparked a turn to womens history, appeared in Woolfs first feminist treatise, A Room Of Ones Own (1929). The book originated in lectures to women students at Cambridge in 1928, the year of the Equal Franchise Act, granting the vote to all women. But back in 1906 Virginia Stephen was already exploring the possibility of womens history in a neglected but wonderful story, The Journal of Mistress Joan Martyn, about 15th century women who maintain domestic order while thugs (recorded by traditional history as the Wars of the Roses) rampage outside their walls.

5. A Question of Madness. A nervous temperament was thought to unfit people, especially females, for public life. In fact, Virginia Woolf shared a predisposition for mental illness with forebears who were particularly able in public office. Her grandfather, Sir James Stephen, had a severe nervous illness after drawing up the Parliamentary bill against slavery in 1833. As Colonial Under-Secretary, his anxiety over the colonies (when slave-owners resisted his bill) was so overwrought as to be a test of insanity. He apologized to his wife for being moonstruck. His son, Leslie Stephen, a successful man of letters, had what he termed Berserker fits. Caroline Stephen, who established a womens refuge in the 1870s, had a breakdown of sorts after her mother died.

6. A prelude to marriage. To be 29 and unmarried  to be a failure  childless  insane too, no writer, Virginia Stephen groaned to her sister in June 1911. That very month Leonard Woolf turned up on leave from his Colonial Office post in Ceylon. Ten months later, when they announced their engagement, she wrote teasingly to two single friends, I am marrying a penniless Jew. It is impossible to document fully what happened when their union was put to the test early on, between 1913 and 1915  a period Virginia Woolf later called the prelude to marriage. Following her breakdowns during those years, her second novel, Night and Day (1919), devises a positive reply to what is a critical and even adversarial stance in Leonard Woolfs novel, The Wise Virgins (1914) with its ambiguous Virginia figure Camilla Lawrence, who is too classy, too non-Jewish for the hero, Harry. We can have some insight into this fraught time through the way their books talk to each other, and take in what Virginia did to heal what had been hurtful to Leonard.

7. The Russian Ballet. Dates in Leonard Woolfs diary in 1911, 1912, and 1918, record visits to the Diaghilev Ballet when they performed to enraptured audiences. Among these was a performance of Act II of Swan Lake and its worth exploring a link between the revelation of the Swan Queens outsider existence in the dark woods (versus the routines of court) and the honeymoon versus marriage plot of Virginia Woolfs greatest story, Lappin and Lapinova. Lopokova was the name of Diaghilevs prima ballerina during the 1918 season in London at the time Virginia Woolf first conceived this story.

8. The Outsiders Society. Virginia Woolf is usually seen as an insider among her Bloomsbury set, made up largely of privileged, upper-middle-class men who had been at top schools and Cambridge University. But in her treatise, Three Guineas (1938), she positions herself as an Outsider and member of an Outsiders Society. This is a secret and anonymous organization of women. In her diary, on February 7, 1938, Virginia Woolf considers putting out an illustrated sheet to be called The Outsider, as a way of popularizing and politicizing an Outsider party. Members work for the same aims as men who are brothers: liberty, equality and peace. But women do this separately, by their own methods, resisting militancy and the temptation to imitate men.

9. Preparing for suicide. It is a fact that Virginia Woolf committed suicide on March 28, 1941 by weighting her pockets with stones and wading into the fast-running River Ouse near her writing room in the village of Rodmell in Sussex. What is less well-known is that in 1940 Leonard proposed joint suicide to a reluctant Virginia. At that time German invasion of Britain seemed imminent after the rest of Europe had fallen to the Nazis. As a Jew, Leonard expected to be seized and his wife too. In fact, they were already on Himmlers list for immediate arrest.

10. Silencing and Voicing. In the 19thcentury nice women were quiet. Virginia Woolf said that she and her sister were taught the tea-table manner. This was designed to keep polite, self-effacing conversation flowing. The most vital fact in her life was the contrast between this stifling of utterance, this concealment in shadow  epitomized by Miss V  and the ground shaking under her like an earthquake when she brought out her full-throated Outsider voice, protesting against military or domestic violence in favour of nurture, listening and sympathy, values which the civilized of both sexes already share. The voice of her Outsider prepares the way for the present voice of the #MeToo generation.
INDIA: A further programme of enhancements to increase capacity on the Mumbai suburban network was formally approved by the national governments Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on March 7, and is expected to be completed in five years.
NORWAY: The first of eight Oaris EMUs being built by CAF for Oslo airport express operator Flytoget was officially unveiled on March 5.
UK: Regional franchisee Northern expects to put its first CAF-built Class 331 EMUs into passenger services between Leeds and Doncaster with the May 19 timetable change, having received regulatory authorisation from the Office of Road & Rail.
The UK producers trade association, Pact, has announced a new legal framework to protect the sharing of confidential ideas and intellectual property between UK and Chinese co-production partners.





Fully compliant with both UK and Chinese law, the new framework is a new addition to a suite of legal and logistics documents featured in the UK-China Film & TV Toolkit, a resource developed along with the UKs intellectual property attache to China based in the British Embassy in Beijing and the British Film Institute (BFI). The announcement comes on the eve of the third annual UK China Creative Exchange programme and is also designed to foster deeper collaboration between British and Chinese content producers and stimulate trade by protecting and promoting the co creation of ideas. The UK China Creative Exchange 2019 takes place from March 1115 commencing with a facilitated workshop session in London.Over the past eight years, Pact has run several missions and attended markets in China, introducing more than 100 UK production companies to Chinese broadcasters and producers, tripling trade between participating businesses.Bringing likeminded producers together from the UK and China is key to fostering collaboration, said Pacts MD of business development and global strategy, Dawn McCarthy-Simpson (pictured). This extension to our UK-China Film & TV Toolkit aims to provide the legal structure and confidence for both parties to share creative ideas, safe in the knowledge that they jointly own the IP.
Having an America First president elected on the MAGA platform left many Australians anxious about the future of U.S. engagement in our region. But Trumps tweets and meetings with despots may be distracting from a coherent and almost traditional Republican foreign policy in Asia.

Australians also have come to understand that Trumps bark is worse than his bite.

When the President takes a close personal interest in something, it hurtles down a chaotic and seemingly irreversible path. It was only three days into his presidency that he pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that actually commenced negotiations under President George W. Bush. This continues to be his poorest foreign policy decision to date.

But after the region spent Trumps first year worrying about U.S. withdrawal from the region, the U.S. security establishment came to furious agreement that China posed a strategic threat. This decision, outlined in the December 2017 National Security Strategy, has yielded coherent policy responses. The strategy articulates a vision for the region where the U.S. competes with, outbids and outmanoeuvres China.

The launch of the trade war admittedly had more to do with Trumps intention to deliver better trading terms with China than it did a broader strategic contest in the Indo-Pacific. On the Korean Peninsula, Trump has given status to the pariah North Korean dictator and ended South Korean annual military exercises without extracting any commitments to de-nuclearise in return.

But the U.S. administration is not just the President. There are still some experts in the room: the foreign policy establishment is prevailing and U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific is not dramatically removed from previous Republican foreign policies.

The Asia Reassurance Initiative Act (ARIA), signed by Trump on the last day of 2018, puts money behind the rhetoric of the National Security Strategy. Though it received minimal attention, the ARIA recommits the United States to its alliance and security partners, but also authorises a further U.S.$1.5 billion in spending in Asia.

The Act also codifies the U.S. commitment to the revived Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a plurilateral meeting between the U.S., Australia, India and Japan to promote the rules-based order and a free and open Indo-Pacific. The Quad has its detractors and has generated little more than hype to date. But such high-level meetings between these four countries can be seen as a show of strength at a time when China is posturing. The Quad may even have real teeth at some point  it isnt impossible to imagine quadrilateral naval exercises or some kind of joint support for ASEAN in its South China Sea Code of Conduct negotiations.

Under Trump, the U.S. Navy has increased the tempo of freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea and transits in the Taiwan Strait. For the record, it isnt clear that these have deterred China. But Australians and the broader region should be reassured that the Trumps election has not ended Obamas pivot to Asia.

There are many more examples of U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy in action. The U.S.-Japan-Australia trilateral infrastructure project falls well short of providing an alternative vision to Chinas Belt and Road. But providing financing with accountability and safeguards, and trying to avoid smaller states becoming beholden to large powers through debt-traps  this sounds much more like the internationalist United States to which we are accustomed.

Only last week Secretary of State Pompeo provided assurance to the Philippines about the Mutual Defense Treaty and its application to the South China Sea. With a Philippine general election looming and the Philippines warming up to China under its populist leader Duterte, Pompeos commitment speaks to an engaged and internationalist United States.

Australians understand that the personality of the U.S. President doesnt change decades of close relations between the two countries. The 2018 Lowy Institute Poll found Australians to be strongly supportive of the U.S. alliance, despite very low levels of confidence in Trump.

Australians also have come to understand that Trumps bark is worse than his bite. During Trumps campaign when election rhetoric was running high, 45% of Lowy Poll respondents said Australia should distance themselves from the United States under Trump. But in 2017 this number dropped significantly to 29% following his election, when Trump did not, in fact, renegotiate our trade agreements, refuse our refugees or make us start paying for troops stationed in Darwin.

So rather than assume U.S. officials are living in fear of the next tweet, we should recognise they are just hoping Trump gets out of the way. For two years, Australians have been concerned by vacant posts in the State Department and Trumps random and arbitrary threats, but a strategy for the Indo-Pacific is emerging. Even if it seemed implausible on election day, the Trump has found a team that can navigate the increasingly contested space that is the Indo-Pacific.

It might not be pretty, and Trumps tweets rarely are, but they are in fact sound and fury signifying nothing (at least in policy terms). Regardless of whether we agree that China is the strategic threat the U.S. claims it is, this furious agreement has ensured the fundamentals of U.S. engagement in the Indo-Pacific are as strong as ever.
The French national birth-defect agency REMERA recently identified clusters of children born with malformed limbs in three rural regions in France. Each cluster has three to eight children with malformations that include children with missing or deformed arms and hands.

The French public health department (Sante Publique France) originally suggested that these cases were not above what was naturally expected each year. Around 3-4% of children, worldwide, have a birth malformation. Although genetic, chromosomal and environmental causes  such as medicines  can account for some of these malformations, in most cases the cause is unknown.

It is difficult to know if the type and number of these limb differences in France are to be expected or if they are cause for concern. This is made more difficult by the fact that the French birth-defects registry only covers 19% of the countrys births.

However, Sante Publique France has now established a formal panel to investigate these cases and determine the cause, probably in response to pressure from the public to find answers.

Looking for causes

Exactly how limb defects come about is still not fully understood, but we do know they are linked to exposure to certain drugs, such as thalidomide, as well as industrial pollutants  as was the case in Corby, England in the 1990s.

Genetic influences are a potential cause, though this appears to have been ruled out by REMERA as the childrens families did not have similar problems in previous generations.

Of course, spontaneous mutations in genes involved in limb formation could be the cause, but these events are rare. The fact that it occurred in several children causing similar damage in three different rural areas of France makes this theory unlikely.

REMERA has proposed that the limb malformations could result from exposure to pesticides and herbicides that are used on nearby farms. This may be a credible theory as herbicides, such as glyphosate, have been shown to cause limb malformations in frog embryos in laboratory experiments.

Also, insecticides, such as methoprene, that have contaminated ponds in the wild have been linked to malformed limbs in wild frogs in the US and Canada.

Laboratory tests show that these compounds can convert into a retinoic-acid-like molecule. Retinoic acid comes from vitamin A and is very important in embryonic development. Exposing mink frog embryos to retinoic acid in lab tests resulted in a range of damage to the embryos.

These facts suggest that agricultural chemicals, getting into the water supply or food chain, could influence embryonic development and result in damage. But more work is needed before we can be sure that these chemicals cause limb malformations in humans.

Unilateral limb defect

Perhaps what is most striking about the reported French cases is that many of the children have defects to just one arm. This is called a unilateral limb defect. How unilateral limb differences come about is poorly understood.

Recent research shows that the right and left arms may have differences in some of the genes involved in ensuring the arms form correctly and symmetrically. We also know that retinoic acid can control some of the genes involved in forming limbs.

The effect of insecticides, pesticides and herbicides on human health is also poorly understood. We know some can cause cancer  though how they do this is unclear. Given that some herbicides and insecticides appear to be able to affect retinoic acid signalling, which is needed to control gene activity in the embryo, it might help explain the unilateral limb differences.

It cannot be ruled out these clusters could simply be random events and within the range of what is to be expected naturally. However, this seems difficult to confirm with incomplete birth-defect records. Given the reported use of pesticides and herbicides in the cluster areas, all lines of investigation should be kept open.

Neil Vargesson, Professor in Developmental Biology, University of Aberdeen

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Tensions have been high in South Asia, to say the least. India and Pakistan are nuclear powers, and any time one nuclear power attacks another it reminds us how easy it would be to trigger nuclear annihilation. All it takes is one miscalculation or mistaken intention for none of us to be here anymore. Though these concerns are valid, they are sometimes overblown. The laws of deterrence that have governed nuclear brinksmanship since the advent of nuclear weapons are still in place today. And since India and Pakistan are constrained by these laws too, they were always unlikely to nuke each other into oblivion.

Still, the fact that they do occasionally engage in skirmishes makes the situation in South Asia unique among all territorial disputes and nuclear war games. Because the stakes are so high, its important to understand how India and Pakistan got to this point and why nuclear weapons are likely to prevent a major conventional conflict, even if nuclear war cant be ruled out altogether.

On Feb. 14, a suicide bomber attacked Pulwama, in India-controlled Kashmir, killing 40 people and injuring dozens, including Indian paramilitary personnel. Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based jihadist group with known ties to Pakistani state security institutions, claimed responsibility. On Feb. 26, India responded with airstrikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Balakot, Pakistan. India claimed the strikes caused 300 casualties, while Pakistan maintains that India merely struck dirt.

Pakistan responded with low-level retaliation, including a purported airstrike by F-16s against Indian army positions near the Line of Control  the de facto border between the countries respective portions of Kashmir  though Pakistan didnt hit anything important, perhaps to avoid escalating things further. (A Pakistani major general said that the jets locked on to Indian targets to demonstrate capability, but then purposefully avoided causing damage.) The response appears to be a sort of minimum required reaction to demonstrate its resolve against the Indian military entering its territory without doing anything that would warrant a serious response.

(click to enlarge)

This is the first time since 1971 that India has struck a target within Pakistan proper, and the first time that any nuclear power has conducted airstrikes in the territory of another. Only twice before  the 1969 Sino-Soviet border conflict and the 1999 Kargil War between India and Pakistan  have two nuclear powers engaged in any direct violent conflict.

Partly thats because the fear of nuclear war is a strong deterrent. But its not an ironclad deterrent. Its true that no one has used nuclear weapons since World War II, but past behavior doesnt always predict future behavior, and in any case, the sample size is small. Better to consider the nuclear doctrines of the countries involved.

The Best-Laid Plans

Nuclear doctrines are difficult to dissect because theyre mutable. Leaders may find comfort in their best-laid plans, but they will respond to the situation they are confronted with, regardless of whether its the one they actually prepared for. Yet similarities remain, and most doctrines are geopolitically relevant in three key ways. First, a doctrine will outline what types of weapons are needed to support it, and therefore which weapons are produced by and in the inventory of the nuclear country. Second, nuclear war happens fast. Leaders must quickly determine whether incoming missiles or artillery shells are armed with nuclear weapons  and therefore whether to launch a nuclear retaliation. That leaves little time for cooler heads to prevail. The third and closely related issue is how a countrys command and control is structured, and how decision-making autonomy is distributed within the chain of command ahead of time. For example, in the event of a nuclear exchange, does the commander of a nuclear-armed submarine have a direct line to the countrys senior leadership? If not, the commander may jump the gun and launch a nuclear weapon in response to a perceived nuclear first strike.

One of the most important concepts of nuclear deterrence theory is that of first use  the willingness to launch a first strike rather than in retaliation. During the Cold War, the concept of mutual assured destruction  the idea that any nuclear attack would be met with a massive nuclear counterattack  established some equilibrium between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The risk of a first strike was diminished, since neither side could reasonably expect to survive a nuclear exchange, regardless of who drew first.

Shortly after Indias second nuclear test in 1998, it developed a nuclear doctrine that called for no first use (though it did allow for first use of nuclear weapons in retaliation against a chemical or biological weapons attack). In the absence of MAD, India was trying to limit the risk of a Pakistani first strike against Indias nuclear installations  a doctrine called credible minimum deterrence. This doctrine worked for India; it kept open the opportunity to use its more powerful conventional force against Pakistan, while also minimizing the risk of nuclear escalation.

(click to enlarge)

Pakistans nuclear doctrine once included something like credible minimum deterrence. But then India developed the notion of a cold start  the idea that it could launch a non-nuclear, conventional ground offensive that wouldnt meet Pakistans threshold for nuclear use. Pakistan promptly revised its doctrine to full spectrum deterrence, which does allow for first use. In a cold start, its possible that Pakistans weaker conventional forces wouldnt repel the Indian invasion, and Pakistan could use low-yield tactical nuclear weapons (that is, nuclear weapons meant to be used on the battlefield in conjunction with tactical maneuvers, rather than against strategic targets like military installations or cities) to repel the attack.

The problem with a cold start is in knowing exactly where Pakistans nuclear retaliation threshold lies. With that uncertainty, some Indian leaders have cast doubt on Indias no-first-use policy in recent years. They concluded that if India launches an invasion and a Pakistani tactical nuclear strike becomes imminent, India would want to launch the first strike and eliminate Pakistans nuclear stockpile before it can be deployed against its invading ground forces. With India more willing to launch the first strike, Pakistan itself might be motivated to pre-empt with strategic strikes of its own on Indian military installations.

New Technology, New Thresholds

The problem with MAD  and the conundrum for India and Pakistan  is that it rests on the assumption that the country that struck first will, when the dust settles, still have a nuclear arsenal to retaliate with. To ensure second-strike capability, nuclear states typically seek to develop submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Nuclear-capable submarines, constantly moving in the oceans depths, all but guarantee a country can retaliate if it sustains a first strike on land. Widely dispersing land-based weapons helps in this regard too.

To develop a more credible second-strike capability, India and Pakistan have been investing in submarines. India is now believed to have a nuclear-armed submarine, the INS Arihant. Its unclear whether the Arihant is fully functional, but it is clear that India is close to having SLBM capability. Pakistan is developing a nuclear submarine too, but its not as far along as India. An Indian nuclear-armed submarine guarantees a credible second strike against Pakistan, essentially ensuring Pakistans destruction if it strikes first. The rationale is that this decreases Pakistans willingness to use any nuclear weapons first, since doing so would be suicide.

With submarine-based second-strike capability comes the devolution of command. In war, theres always a chance that submarines will be unable to communicate with leadership, so they tend to have some authority to make launch decisions on their own. There are usually checks to prevent a single person having decision-making authority, but uncertainty over whats happening on the surface would still make it difficult for isolated commanders to make a fully informed decision. This also raises the risk that the country on the receiving end of an SLBM is unsure whether it is nuclear-armed. There are additional risks with Pakistan putting nukes on subs, given that its military has been infiltrated by jihadists in the past.

Indias more credible second-strike capability plays some part in the recent airstrikes against Pakistan. The government in New Delhi is testing Pakistans assumption that India, fearing Pakistans doctrine that allows first use of nuclear weapons, would not respond to terrorist attacks by targeting Pakistani territory  an assumption voiced last year by Indian Gen. Bipin Rawat, who said, We will call their bluff. If given the task, we will not say we cannot cross the border because they have nuclear weapons.

This makes some sense  terrorism is a low-cost way for Pakistan to hit India, especially if it knows retaliation will be limited to terrorist targets in Kashmir and not military targets in Pakistan. But it also raises the question of where, exactly, Pakistans threshold for a nuclear first strike lies. Since India knows that Pakistan is theoretically willing to use tactical nuclear weapons to repel a ground invasion, a limited airstrike against a single terrorist training camp, even inside Pakistan, is not that tripwire. Still, India is showing that it will be more assertive in establishing a conventional deterrent to Pakistani terror attacks, demonstrating how developments in technology can influence how a state pursues its security interests. If nothing else, the airstrikes show that India may not feel as constrained by Pakistans nuclear doctrine as it once was. Indias success with the Arihant only emboldens its decision. And while there is likely no intention to cross this line, knowing better where it lies helps Indias strategic planning.

There may be more to this attack than just nuclear gamesmanship  there are domestic political forces at play, too. 2019 is an election year in India, and Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata Party has had some poor performances in a number of recent local elections, casting doubt on its ability to hold onto power in the national elections in May. Just as Russia went to war in Syria to distract from its economic duress at home, Modi may find it politically useful to stir up Hindu nationalism and rally his country around the flag just a couple of months before the vote.

But in this case, technology is as geopolitically relevant to Modis decisions as political expedience. Technology can influence doctrines, and doctrines  even if they are arent universally applicable  can influence what types of actions states are willing and able to make with their conventional forces.

In the case of South Asia, the nuclear weapons possessed by India and Pakistan will continue to limit the risk of a major conventional war, and thus continue to allow Pakistan some room to provoke India without fear of major retaliation, especially a ground retaliation. However, that, along with Pakistans problems with militants infiltrating the military, means that the risk of an unintended escalation to nuclear exchange cant be ignored altogether.

Reprinted with permission from Geopolitical Futures.
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2019 season spoilers

finally reveals Colton's decision

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spoilers reveal all the details of 's two-night Season 23 finale event and what Colton Underwood chooses to do after having his heart broken by Cassie Randolph The finale will air live in two parts on Monday, March 11 at 8PM ET/PT and on Tuesday, March 12 at 8PM ET/PT on ABC.A devastated Colton, who just lost Cassie, will be shown deciding whether to continue his journey to find love on March 11 after viewers just watched his final pick leave.And then on March 12, ABC says Bachelor Nation will be "rocked by the stunning live conclusion to Colton's love story" in Part 2 of the finale.Colton will be live in-studio with host Chris Harrison as both broadcasts air, and he will recall the emotional moments of his season's ending and be able to disclose the current status of his love life.On : Season Finale Part 1, Colton's much-anticipated Fantasy Suite dates turn into a nightmare.Harrison and the production crew will continue looking for Colton in a remote area of Portugal after he took off in the night with no microphone or cameras following him.Where did he go? Did he quit the show? What happened to Hannah G. and Tayshia? All of that will be revealed and more.Colton will discuss with Harrison on the show how he decided to overcome his shattered heart.Past Bachelor favorites Blake Horstmann Ben Higgins and Garrett Yrigoyen will also make an appearance and predict how everything will end for Colton.And then on : Season Finale Part 2, Bachelor Nation will finally watch the end to Colton's season, as he decides what is best for him.Colton will explain what was going through his mind and heart those final days of his journey to find love. Jason Tartick and Chris Randone will also take the stage with Harrison to speculate on "the extraordinary conclusion," ABC teases.In addition, the next ette star will officially be announced.According to Reality Steve spoiler blogger Steve Carbone, the finale will begin with Colton picking up the pieces after Cassie confessed she wasn't "in love" with him and wasn't ready to get engaged."Colton will gather himself the next day and speak with both Hannah G. and Tayshia separately and dump them," Carbone wrote in his blog.Colton therefore never enjoys an overnight Fantasy Suite date with Hannah G., as the process ended prematurely.Carbone reports Cassie returned home to California after leaving the show, and then instead of settling for Hannah G. or Tayshia, Colton travels back to America and essentially chases Cassie down.'s production crew reportedly filmed Colton tracking Cassie down in the Los Angeles area and having a conversation in which he tells her that he'd like to be with her and date regardless of whether they get engaged.Colton firmly believed Cassie was The One for him at the time of filming, and fans may also recall him saying he'd never give up on her and continue to fight for their relationship no matter what.Colton's desperate plea reportedly resulted in the couple choosing to continue dating each other while taking an engagement off the table since Cassie is only 23 years old."Colton comes to Cassie and basically says, 'We don't need to be engaged, but I want to be with you.' And that's where we are for right now," Carbone insisted."They are definitely seeing each other, and have been seeing each other since the end of filming."Colton and Cassie will apparently update fans on the status of their relationship live on finale."My guess is Cassie is very young, and her feeling of, back in November, telling Colton, 'I'm not ready to be engaged,' [is] probably still going to stand in March. But that's just a guess. We'll see what happens," Carbone predicted.However, Cassie appeared to play up the rumors and spoilers about her relationship with Colton in a recent Instagram post.Cassie posted a photo of herself flipping a tire on a previous group date in which the girls had participated in a "Bachelor's Strongest Woman" contest."Caption Options: 1. When you gotta secure the ring 2. Get this ring away from me. I'm not ready for that...Or am I? 3. Hey @neillanejewelry ... do you make rings this big?" Cassie teased on Instagram.Maybe Cassie has come around to the idea of an engagement after all!Interested in more news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
Porterville, CA (93257)

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Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Low 47F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Low 47F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%.
Grow It Know It is a partnership between Clarke County and Barrow County schools, UGA Extension, UGA Office of Service Learning and UGArden. The program is meant to highlight issues such as poverty, food insecurity and environmental sustainability through hands-on activities in the classroom.
Model UN is a competitive club that travels to conferences, where members act out crisis simulations in committees of 20 people. The University of Georgias Model UN team has three main events throughout the year: hosting a high school conference and traveling to two collegiate conferences.
While IDBI Banks 140 million customers and 1800-odd branches will come in handy for LIC to hawk insurance, the bank can use LICs massive agent network to sell its retail loans.

But if it is run the same way it had been in the past and LIC is a proxy of the government, then it has no future, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

Life Insurance Corporation of Indias open offer made for IDBI Bank Ltd has said all provisions of Indias banking act and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) instructions and guidelines for private banks are applicable to the target company -- positioning IDBI Bank as a private bank.

The RBI, however, continues to classify it in the category of other public sector banks.

This creates an existential dilemma for IDBI Bank which is yet to be out of the woods.

For the ninth consecutive quarter, it reported a net loss of Rs 4,185.5 crore for the December quarter, raising the pile of loss close to Rs 28,000 crore since September 2015 when the RBI instituted the first-of-its-kind asset quality review, directing all banks to come up clean by March 2017.

IDBI Bank would have ended up reporting even higher losses for the December quarter but for a Rs 1,620-crore tax write-back.

The last time it had made a net profit was in September 2017 -- Rs 55.52 crore.

To keep it going, LIC, which ramped up its stake to 51 per cent in IDBI Bank in January after completion of the open offer, has infused Rs 21,624 crore in six instalments since September 2018.

How much more will it need to infuse to revive the bank?

Is it a classic case of throwing good money after bad?

Frankly, not everything is bad with IDBI Bank.

In fact, there have been improvements on a few fronts.

The most important of them is the rise in its capital adequacy ratio to 12.51 per cent.

Indeed, it continues to make losses but the provision coverage ratio has risen to 75.21 per cent.

This means the bank has set aside money to cover three-fourths of its bad assets and the recovery of such assets in future will add to its bottomline.

In fact, the key reason behind the stiff loss in December quarter is hefty provisioning.

Its gross bad loans have marginally come down to 29.67 per cent of advances and net bad loans to 14.01 per cent.

An optical illusion of a lower ratio of bad assets gets created when a banks advance portfolio grows but IDBI Banks advance portfolio has been shrinking.

Another happy sign is that even though the infrastructure sector has at least 18 per cent share in its total loan book, the retail loans now have 48 per cent share in IDBI Banks overall loan book, up from 41 per cent two years ago.

During this period, the share of low-cost current and savings accounts or CASA has risen to 38.36 per cent of the deposits, from 36.14 per cent.

If the momentum continues, IDBI Bank should be out of the so-called prompt-corrective action or PCA framework of RBI in next two quarters -- a quarantine which restrains banks from many of their activities.

Is it time to celebrate?

In medical parlance, IDBI Bank is probably being shifted from ICU (intensive care unit) to HDU (high dependency unit) when the care required continues to be intense but the nurse-to-patient ratio is diluted.

Theoretically, LICs acquisition of IDBI Bank can work wonders for both.

A task force has been created to look into the business synergy of the two.

LIC has, in fact, already started training sessions at IDBI Bank branches across India to sell its insurance products.

Technically, it is called Bancassurance -- an arrangement between a bank and an insurance company, allowing the insurance company to sell its products to the bank's client base.

This partnership is profitable for both as banks earn additional revenue by selling insurance products and insurance companies expand their customer bases without increasing their sales force.

While IDBI Banks 140 million customers and 1800-odd branches will come in handy for LIC to hawk insurance, the bank can use LICs massive agent network to sell its retail loans.

Also, LIC has a big pool of long-term money which IDBI Bank can dip into for project loans, if it wants to continue with its legacy.

In future, LIC could also merge its mortgage unit with the bank whose home loans account for 11.50 per cent of the total loan book.

All these are possible, theoretically.

But LIC doesnt have any experience in running a bank and, had the 55-year old IDBI Bank known this well, it would not have been in this mess.

This means, the bank must be run by a professional management, under the guidance of a competent board.

Barring the entry of a lone director from LIC, the banks board has not been reconstructed.

Even though the government stake has come down to 46.46 per cent, the IDBI Bank boss is often seen at the department of financial services in the ministry of finance, New Delhi.

Why should he be there?

The key to success of the IDBI Bank experiment is corporate governance.

If it is run the same way it had been in the past and LIC is a proxy of the government, then it has no future.

Rakesh Sharma, who took over as MD and CEO, of the bank in mid-October 2018 is just about a fortnight away from his retirement.

His predecessor B Sriram, a former MD of State Bank of India, had a three-month stint.

Such short tenures of the CEO of the bank at such a critical juncture doesnt smack of seriousness.

LIC is required to bring down its stake to 40 per cent by December 2031.

Twelve years is a long time but whether its a profitable investment for LIC will depend on how it runs the bank.

In April 2001, the Munich-based insurance firm Allianz SE bought Dresdner Bank AG for at least 20 billion, making it the most important deal of the year, marrying banking, investment banking and insurance.

The idea was to exploit the synergy between the two.

But Dresdners 35.5 billion problem loans and cultural issues played the spoilt sport.

The projected synergies never materialised; in August 2008, Allianz sold Dresdner Bank to Commerzbank AG for 9.8 billion.

By that time, Dresdner Bank had lost more than half its value.

Its another story that nothing much is left for IDBI Bank to lose.

In his February 2016 Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had spoken about the transformation of IDBI Bank: The process of transformation of IDBI Bank has already started.

"[The] government will take it forward and also consider the option of reducing its stake to below 50 per cent.

Lets watch how the transformation unfolds.

Tamal Bandyopadhyay, a consulting editor of Business Standard, is an author and senior adviser to Jana Small Finance Bank Ltd.
'The jobs that are being created now are the delivery boy jobs which are of extremely poor quality, or contractual jobs where you hire a person on a per piece basis.'

Kindly note that the image has been published only for representational purposes. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

The latest unemployment figures for India, released by the Mumbai-based think-tank Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, paints a dismal picture.

According to CMIE data, unemployment numbers in February 2019 touched a 28-month low, of 7.2%, up from 5.9% a year ago.

Further, the labour participation rate -- that is, those above 15 years who are either employed or are actively looking for employment -- is also on the decline.

Compounding the problem is that the number of employed persons has, since September 2016, declined by a whopping 18.3 million.

All of which leads to the question: Is there a job crisis in India?

Mahesh Vyas, managing director, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, would not like to call it a crisis, but a very serious problem.

"The world's second largest country in terms of people does not have enough people working by world standards. That is the nature of the disease, and it is a serious ailment," Vyas tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.

Is unemployment the biggest problem India faces right now? Is it a crisis?

I wouldn't call it a crisis. I would call it a very serious problem. A crisis would imply that a greater calamity or meltdown would happen because of the situation. It is insidious in nature.

We seem to suffer from this poor labour economics on a consistent and persistent basis. It doesn't seem to go away.

First, the nature of the problem needs to be understood.

India has a labour participation of less than 50% whereas the world average is 67%.

The world's second largest country in terms of people does not have enough people working by world standards.

That is the nature of the disease, and it is a serious ailment.

We have got this huge problem with which we are living with for quite some time.

There is no crisis, there is no calamity, there are no riots on the streets.

Usually, unemployment leads to social unrest, but we don't see unrest in our society...

That will happen in a country where there are formal jobs. When people like us start losing jobs left, right and centre, there would be social unrest.

People like us are not losing jobs. But young graduates don't find jobs. This is a different kind of a problem.

Will that not lead to social unrest?

There is no unrest because they are willing to wait.

In most towns in India, they keep applying for government jobs.

Till you are 30, you can continue to apply to these jobs.

If you are an SC/ST, you can apply for a few more years.

After 30, you will not cause social unrest. You take up whatever jobs you get, get married and settle down.

Many people say it is not unemployment, but under-employment that is the problem India faces. There are jobs, but not the right kind of jobs.

That is exactly what I was saying. Till 30, they try for a government job and after that, they take whatever job they get. They will continue to live with it, under-employed.

Women don't go to work because there are not enough jobs.

This is because India is not producing sufficient good quality jobs.

The jobs that are being created now are the delivery boy jobs which are of extremely poor quality, or contractual jobs where you hire a person on a per piece basis.

The nature of the situation is such that it will not cause any crisis. But it is a crisis brewing and we will probably live with it in these conditions.

For how long?

Till we realise that this is not acceptable. Today, we seem to be accepting it. We seem to be happy with what we are getting.

We have a penchant for saying we must educate ourselves. So, the blame is put on reservations for not getting a job.

We tend to put the blame on other issues and not focussing on the macro economic problems like the country is not generating good quality jobs.

This lack of recognition of the real problem is our biggest enemy.

We are willing to accept the situation as it is.

Then, there is a tremendous pressure from the intermediate castes for reservations. This is the manifestation of the problem.

Why are people asking for reservations? Because there are no jobs.

Do you think, like some experts say, unless you have land and labour reforms, India will not produce jobs?

The question is, for example, what do you mean by labour reforms?

If labour reforms means hire and fire more people, does it create more jobs? It is questionable.

I agree that we require labour reforms. For me, the meaning of labour reforms is, producing decent jobs.

No hire and fire?

You can hire and fire, but no contractual jobs, no jobs that do not give enough social security cover.

It means an employee's provident fund and gratuity should be accounted for, health cover should be given and leave should be granted.

If the business shrinks, you can fire the employee, but he should get his two months's salary when he leaves.

But the kind of hire and fire you see today is asking an employee not to come the next day.

In Sriperumbudur, women working in the Nokia factory were given two days's notice. That is not okay.

There is an ILO definition of a decent job and you need to provide jobs which are defined like that.

They also don't say you can't hire and fire. Every business will have ups and downs. If a business is not competitive, it is obvious that you have to lay off people. I am not saying you cannot do that.

The general complaint of Indian industry is that the graduates coming out of universities are unemployable.

When I interviewed Sridhar Vembu of Zoho, he said it was the role of industry to train fresh graduates in whatever skill they wanted...

I don't agree with that at all. Education is supposed to be provided by educational institutions.

They should be ready for industry when they come out. If you are saying it is the responsibility of industry to train them...

In skill development...

Okay. In the first year, the company would be training the person without skills and after that, he will go elsewhere.

After acquiring the skills, he will be more attractive to somebody else. So, why should the company bear the cost which was supposed to be done by the educational institution?

So, what the company will do is, the person without skills will not be paid well and will be asked to work in conditions that are detrimental to his life.

So, it is the job of the educational institutions and skill institutions to create people who are fit for employment.

Today, skill institutions like MBA schools are working like placement agencies. They don't train the students well at all.

Who is at fault? The universities?

It is the entire education system that is at fault, the education system that does not have good teaching system.

Who trains those who eventually become teachers? It is a privatised industry and it is not functioning correctly.

You don't have a proper teacher training system, and that is the problem.

Skilling programmes today are only about meeting targets.

While the universities do not act like a placement agency, MBA schools behave like a placement agency.

There is a lot of unlearning happening in many of the MBA schools. The problem is, you are placing people who are not skilled enough.

This is a crisis in the education system and not on the job front.

So, you will not blame industry for saying the fresh graduates are unemployable?

I will not blame industry for saying they are unemployable, I will blame the education system for rendering them unemployable.

It is said there is a shortage of 48% manpower globally while India has more than 50% extra manpower. How can we make this workforce fill the gap?

Have we not been doing that these last 25 years, to a point that other countries have raised barriers against us?

It means opportunities will not be there forever, they are there only for a limited window.

What India should do is create opportunities in India and train our people better.

You mean when the world is talking about protectionism, we should be concentrating on the Indian market?

Yes, India has got a very big market.

We require many more goods and services of better quality.

We require to provide job opportunities to those massive human resources we have got to serve our needs.

There is a labour shortage in Kerala and most of southern India and even in Gujarat. And there is a labour surplus in Bihar, UP, MP, etc.

If we can make it culturally comfortable for a Bihari to work in Kerala, we are making progress.

That is already happening. A majority of the labour force in Kerala or Tamil Nadu is from Bihar, UP, Odisha and Bengal...

It is happening, but very often the Biharis get beaten up. There should not be any animosity towards these migrants. We need to accept them as our own brethren to have mutual growth.

Another migration that is happening is from the rural to urban areas. Is it not a lopsided development?

No. We require more urban areas to develop.

Tamil Nadu has done very well with more than 50% of the state as urban.

If other parts of the country also become more urban, it will solve most of our problems.

30% of urbanisation is not enough. India require at least 50% urbanisation.

You feel the way to develop is through industrialisation and urbanisation?

Yes. Urbanisation and industrialisation are the right way to develop.

Instead of flooding one Chennai, you can have many more Coimbatores and Madurais.

Tamil Nadu has actually shown the way with 50% urbanisation and has least problems because of an urban explosion.

On the other hand, Karnataka has a very big problem with Bangalore in a very bad shape.

Chennai is not in such a bad shape compared to Bangalore.

Look at the condition of Gurgaon; it is in extremely bad shape.

As the managing director of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, how would you describe the Indian economy?

I see the Indian economy slightly stressed currently. The growth rate has fallen and employment has stagnated.

For the Indian economy to revive itself, you need stronger investments.

Is it a gloomy scenario?

It is gloomy.

We have to create a more conducive environment for the private sector to invest.

Currently, the investment hunger has reduced; we need to revive that hunger in private sector to invest aggressively.

When we move away from focussing our attention on political problems like Kashmir, Pakistan, etc, to economic problems, then we will start doing better.
This closure has led to increase in flight duration and has put a strain on Mumbais air traffic controllers, who are working extra shifts to handle the increase in traffic.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

Air India is incurring a loss of around Rs 3 crore daily on its Europe, US flights due to the closure of Pakistan airspace, a senior airline official said on Thursday.

Last Wednesday, Pakistan closed its airspace to all overflying flights forcing airlines from India and other nations to take a detour.

This has led to increase in flight duration and has put a strain on Mumbais air traffic controllers, who are working extra shifts to handle the increase in traffic.

On Thursday, Pakistan civil aviation authority extended the closure for overflying flights till Friday afternoon.

Flights within and to Pakistan from overseas are operating for past few days.

Air India operates Boeing 777 aircraft on non-stop flights to New York, Newark, Chicago, Washington and San Francisco on 14-16 hour flights.

It has 36 weekly departures from Delhi and Mumbai to the US which would transit the Pakistan airspace.

The closure has resulted in change in routes - flights from Delhi now head South and enter the Omani and Iran airspace.

This has led to an increase in flight duration by around two hours.

The airline is also forced to make a halt in Sharjah for refuelling in both directions.

Air India operates flights to ten cities in Europe with its Boeing 787 planes.

Their usual duration is 7.30-9 hours and it has now increased by additional 90 minutes as planes skip Pakistan airspace.

"There is an increase of around Rs 20 lakh in operating costs.

"We are incurring a loss of around Rs three crore daily because of Pakistan air space closure.

"The rise in costs is largely due to increase in fuel burn, ground handling charges at Sharjah and maintenance expenses.

"We have not cancelled a single flight and we will continue to operate the scheduled flights," a senior Air India executive.

Air India is now preparing to operate its US flights one stop via Birmingham or Vienna instead of Sharjah in case the Pakistan air space remains closed.

This would enable it to optimise its crew utilisation providing them adequate rest period too.

Its non stop flights and also the one via Sharjah now have a complement of 4 pilots and 15 crew members.

Pilots and cabin crew duty time are governed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation regulations and the airline has secured waiver from the regulator for increase in duty hours due to the detour around Pakistan.

The airline is planning to fly one stop via Europe and these flights would be manned by two pilots in each sector allowing the airline to better utilise its crew.
The sprawling seaside mansion of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, accused in the USD 2 billion PNB fraud case, was demolished on Friday using explosives, Raigad district collector Vijay Suryawanshi said.

IMAGE: The fixtures from Nirav Modi's demolished bungalow will be up for auction. Photograph: ANI

The district collector told PTI that it was controlled blasting.

The senior IAS official had issued the demolition orders after the Enforcement Directorate handed over the property situated in Raigad district, over 90 km from Mumbai.

On Tuesday, excavators were used to open up the pillars of the bungalow, called Roopanya, to make space for fixing the detonators. A special technical team was called to fix them.

Last year, the state government had written to the ED, which had sealed the bungalow, seeking a nod to demolish the property on Kihim beach near Alibaug.

The fixtures from the bungalow will be up for auction. Three items, a jacuzzi, a chandelier, and a Buddha statue, have been kept aside for handing over to the ED, Suryawanshi said.

On January 25, district officials began the demolition work using bulldozers, but found it time-consuming due to the RCC construction.

On January 27, structural engineers from Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technical University conducted a survey. The experts suggested that the district officers carry out the demolition with the help of controlled blasting.

Modis bungalow was attached by the ED following his involvement in the Punjab National Bank fraud case. It was handed over to the collector's office on January 24, after the ED seized two trucks full of valuables from the building.
While three of the top five FPIs - Capital, Government of Singapore, and Vanguard - have seen their investment value more than triple, Indias benchmark indices have risen just 70%.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

Despite sustained outflows seen last year, overseas investors continue to keep the faith in the countrys long-term growth potential.

The investment value of 25 top foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in Indian shares has more than doubled in the past five years between December 2013 and December 2018, the data collated from PRIME Database shows.

This was at a time when the countrys benchmark indices rose just 70 per cent. The investors include a number of sovereign wealth funds such as Government of Singapore, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Norges.

The data looks at funds that own more than 1 per cent in Indian stocks.

FPIs, one of the largest drivers of Indian equities, own roughly 25 per cent of Indian equities.

Controlling stakeholders, or promoters, own almost 50 per cent.

Three of the top five FPIs - Capital, Government of Singapore, and Vanguard - have seen their investment value more than triple during this period.

The holding of EuroPacific Growth Fund, for instance, has risen to Rs 80,739 crore at the end of December 2018.

The funds top five global holdings include HDFC Bank (2.7 per cent) and Reliance Industries (2.3 per cent) as on January 31, 2019.

EuroPacific Growth Fund, which managed assets of nearly $150 billion worldwide, is an open-ended equity mutual fund and managed by Capital Research and Management Company.

The fund invests in companies based chiefly in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Basin.

Government of Singapores holdings are worth Rs 51,181 crore, while that of Vanguard is at Rs 25,163 crore at the end of December 2018.

Foreign brokerage Goldman Sachs has been strategically overweight on India since March 2014, expecting pro-growth government policies and structural reforms to drive a pick-up in economic growth and a recovery in corporate profits.

While earnings have improved, Indian equities have almost doubled over the past five years.

"We expect markets to consolidate heading into the elections and Nifty to reach 12,000, our 12-month target as political uncertainty wanes and earnings accrue, said Goldman Sachs analysts led by Sunil Koul in its September 2018 note.

In the past five years, the government has initiated several policy changes, such as the goods and services tax (GST), Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, easing of foreign direct investment limits in various sectors, direct transfer of subsidy benefits, financial inclusion and digitisation measures, the Make in India programme, Ujjwala Yojana, and the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana for the power distribution sector.

Specific to FPIs, the government has brought more clarity in the tax regime and amended tax treaties with Mauritius and Singapore, among others.

India continues to remain attractive among the other emerging economies, said U R Bhat, managing director, Dalton Capital Advisors (India).

The earnings growth is likely to pick up in the next few quarters.

"The formalisation of economy, reform measures such as GST, and investment in infrastructure will make Corporate India more competitive, added Bhat.

The valuation for Indian equities, however, remains expensive and some de-rating is warranted, given the general elections in April-May, according to Credit Suisse.

The benchmark Nifty is trading at a 12-month forward price-to-earnings multiple of 17.1, versus the 10-year average of 15.3.

Despite this, equity markets could gradually grind higher as corporate earnings are set to accelerate, says the brokerage in a recent note, even as the Reserve Bank of Indias 25-basis point rate cut provides further impetus to the economy.

The third quarter earnings so far portray good earnings momentum, which should get further fillip once the consumption stimulus, announced in the form of income transfer and tax rebate for lower income groups, starts to show its effect, said Jitendra Gohil, CFA and head of India equity research, Credit Suisse Wealth Management, India.

The brokerage likes select names in financials, chemicals, construction materials, and information technology, but is cautious on consumer companies, given the overstretched valuations.
Since its launch in September, Ayushman Bharat has issued 20 million cards and has set an ambitious target to hit another 30 million within the next three months.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

They are out there. They are eligible. They could definitely benefit. But who are they and how can they be tracked down in urban jungles?

For Ayushman Bharat, the ambitious national health protection scheme, it has been a challenge to identify urban candidates, but now its hit upon the idea of tapping into the huge employee base of companies like Amazon, Walmart-owned Flipkart, Uber and the like to reach those who qualify for its Rs 500,000 per annum health cover.

Ayushman Bharat has identified a total of 21 potential private companies, many of them funded by foreign investors, for negotiations to be able to access their eligible employees and get them to register.

As a first move, it has signed up with Uber India to identify its driver-partners so that it can offer them the medical cover, provided they fulfil the income and profession criteria.

Uber India chief executive officer (CEO) Pradeep Parameswaran reckons that 40 per cent of its driver-partners will be eligible for the schemes health card.

Our plan is to reach 500 million people across the country, said Indu Bhushan, CEO, Ayushman Bharat.

Our data and quality of reach in urban areas is not as good as in rural areas.

"The last mile is always a challenge for us.

"So if the pilot with Uber succeeds, we are looking at similar tie-ups with private sector companies and we have identified about 21 potential partners like this.

"They have a large number of employees who fit in to our criterion of eligibility.

According to estimates, these firms have over 3 million workers.

Apart from drivers, they employ delivery boys and those who work in the warehouses, to name only some.

If all of them are eligible, it would mean that the Ayushman scheme would be able to reach out to about 15 million people, assuming an average family size of five.

Since its launch in September, Ayushman Bharat has issued 20 million cards and has set an ambitious target to hit another 30 million within the next three months.

Bhushan says the target is to ramp up the number of beneficiaries registering under the scheme from around 400,000 a month to a million.

Uber India is also planning to use its Partner Seva Kendras (currently used by drivers whenever they need any assistance) in 37 cities to function as help centres for all employees who are eligible for the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

At these centres, staff will help driver-partners fill out the forms with the relevant documents to get the health card.

Although some 15,000 hospitals are already on board, Bhushan is working on targeting Indias top 200 hospitals so that they are also accredited under Ayushman Bharat.

This has been something of a challenge because many hospitals have complained about the low rates offered for various ailments.

Bhushan said that only 30 per cent of the hospitals in this list, which includes Apollo and Medanta, have joined the scheme.

Talks are underway to persuade others to join. When that is out of the way, the plan is to concentrate on quality of service rather than just numbers.

In terms of those who have been treated, the government has disbursed Rs 1,800 crore to 1.3 million patients.
Reversal is because of strengthening rupee, subdued demand, and lack of reasons for bulls to continue positions and speculation of reduction in import duty.

Gold prices seem to be reversing from its all-time high seen in third week of last month.

Reversal is because of strengthening rupee, subdued demand, and lack of reasons for bulls to continue positions and speculation of reduction in import duty.

Analysts dont see much reasons for sharp fall, though the prices have fallen over 5 per cent in a fortnight.

Ahammed MP, chairman, Malabar Gold & Diamond said, Strengthening indian rupee had aided to fall in prices as there is no drastic changes in supply demand situation.

"Price is still high which keeps buyers away even during festival seasons.

A strong buzz of cut in import duty was also impacting spot and gold futures prices.

Standard Gold price which closed Rs 33725 on February 20 has closed Rs 31,975 per 10 gram in Mumbai spot market.

"In just 15 days price has reversed from bullish to bearish, gold prices on MCX futures dropped nearly 2230 Rs i.e. 6.55% down from 20th Feb high of 34031 missing its all time high of 34034 in 2013 as rupee gained more than 2% as indo-Pak and us China trade tensions eased, said Ajay Kedia, director, Kedia commodities.

He also said volumes and open interest in April contract fell sharply after last months high as bulls booked profit.

There is also a buzz in the market that the comprehensive gold policy is ready and center may announce it soon.

Debajit Saha, India and south asia head of GFMS Thomson Reuters said that, Demand for gold has seen some pick up in last two days on lower prices but overall demand in the current quarter is low or subdued.

Photograph: Reuters
The Anchor and Panasonic connection is a blend of legacy and quality and there really is no question of substituting one for the other.

Panasonic is banking on Anchor's familiarity and widespread recall, to push its way ahead in the premium, automation-aided home appliances and accessories market.

How do you create brand differentiation in something as everyday as a switch for an appliance?

After all, theres little that meets the eye beyond plastic buttons and panels that stay flush to a wall.

Anchor Electricals which started half a century ago, as a home-grown maker of electrical switches is seeking to separate itself from the pack by highlighting its legacy and modern design capabilities.

Legacy is an easy recall for Anchor that has straddled the low-to-mid range of the market and more recently, also the premium end.

It accounts for the lions share of branded switches in the country and has remained a value-for-money label.

However design and reliability are values that the brand would be keen to imbibe from its Japanese parent, Panasonic.

In 2007, when Anchor Electricals was bought out for $420 million, the deal which was the biggest ever executed by a Japanese company in India, was projected to assist Matsushita Electric Works, a maker of building materials and lighting equipment, deepen its footprint in India.

Many expected it to be swallowed up by the parent brand, but that has not happened.

Vivek Sharma managing director for Anchor By Panasonic, says that the decision to retain the Indian companys name was based on the recognition and loyalty that it commanded in the market.

Its no different than the Vivanta hotels which had Vivanta By Taj emphasised on its product so the customer knew that the concept was different from the parent brand but connected to it, Sharma says.

Anchor has remained a significant revenue generator, accounting for Rs 3,500 crore of the Rs 12,000 crore the firm generates in India and more than 50 per cent of its profits.

Panasonic is keen to leverage the Anchor brand, its familiarity and widespread recall, to push its way ahead in the premium, automation-aided home appliances and accessories market.

However it also has other labels in the group aimed at different segments within the market, these include the parent brand Panasonic, Roma, Penta, Vision, KMX and others.

The modular switch market and home automation is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 22 per cent to $1.6 billion by 2022, according to Allied Market Research.

If you look at switches and buttons today they are offered in a variety of designs that were never conceivable, says Rajesh Mishra founder market research firm Thinking Hats.

Anchor switches retail between Rs 10 and Rs 60 per unit and its home automation systems start at Rs 250,000.

It is not uncommon to spend Rs 50 lakh to do up a Rs 3 crore apartment, says Mishra and adds that the market is also highly fragmented and branding can make a difference especially for people willing to fork out a significant sum on home decor.

Associating Panasonic and Anchor in a single brand unit helps drive a premium association by proxy.

The idea is that it has a rub-off of innovation that is driven by international technology, Sharma says.

It wont be an easy run though, given that the market has established players that include French company Legrand, Havells, Wipro, Schneider Electric, Larsen & Toubro and Siemens.

Does the Japanese brand-cache attached make a difference?

Sandeep Goyal, formerly the founder chairman of Japanese firm Dentsu in India says that historically Anchor was deeply entrenched in the mainstream consumer psyche.

Timing the strategy and having the patience to add the Japanese parents name, was well-played.

Jettisoning the Indian name would have not made sense, he says.

For Sharma the Anchor and Panasonic connection is a blend of legacy and quality and there really is no question of substituting one for the other.

So is Anchor seen as Japanese or Indian?

Sharma says that Anchor stands for a hardy Indian-made appliance while Panasonic is purely Japanese technology.

For good or bad, both brands are seen both as Indian and Japanese, he quips.

Photograph: Courtesy, Panasonic.com
'If we play our cards right, we may even benefit from the competition between the US and China as seen from increased investment from each of these countries into India.'

'The size of our market gives us an important lever of power which we shall have to play adroitly and intelligently,' points out Ambassador Gautam Bambawale -- who served as India's envoy to China -- in the Professor V M Dandekar Memorial Lecture 2019, delivered on March 8, 2019 in Pune.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

Professor S B Mujumdar, Chancellor and Founder of Symbiosis International

Professor Rajani Gupte, Vice Chancellor of Symbiosis International

Professor Hrishikesh Soman, Principal of the Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I thank you for inviting me to deliver this year's Professor V M Dandekar Memorial Lecture.

It is a great pleasure as well as an honour to be able to do so, especially since I was a student of Professor Dandekar at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics here in Pune, who then flew the coop, so to say, and instead of pursuing a doctorate in economics which would have been the preferred option of my teachers, I strayed into being a diplomat for India.

In this capacity, I have been away from Pune for almost 35 years.

During the last few of those 35 years, I have had the honor of serving India as her Ambassador to Bhutan and China as well as her High Commissioner to Pakistan.

So, if Professor Dandekar had been alive today, he would have looked at my return to my roots in Pune as somewhat of a return of the prodigal.

When we think back about Professor V M Dandekar, we remember him not merely for his intellect and erudition, his wit and his perseverance, as well as the constant mischievous glint in his eyes, but the most outstanding characteristic he brought to bear in whatever he did was his sense of commitment and passion, which seemed to all of us then, to become ever stronger with each passing day.

I for one recollect the passion with which he taught us the neo-Ricardian economics of the late Italian scholar Piero Sraffa.

While imparting his instructions to us, not only did he convey his deep understanding of the subject at hand but much more importantly he radiated with passion and enthusiasm for many of Sraffa's propositions.

Later, he brought the same passion in establishing the Indian School of Political Economy not far from this campus.

Both the Gokhale Institute as well as the Indian School are today institutions of great learning and eminence in our city of Pune.

So my message to all the young men and women present here today, especially students of the Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, is that please be passionate about whatever it is that you decide to do in your life.

This is the most important lesson we learnt from the late Professor V M Dandekar and this is the lesson which I would like to convey to a younger generation present here today.

Whatever is your chosen field of specialisation, whatever occupation or profession you finally decide on, you will succeed only if you are passionate about your work and retain this passion till the end.

This zest for life or as the French call it joie de vivre, is what distinguishes people and gives them that little edge in successful careers.

I would also like to acknowledge the presence here today of Professor S B Mujumdar whose own passion for his idea of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam or the world is one family, led him to found Symbiosis which has over these past years now grown into a huge organisation about which we are all aware about.

Once again, these feats have been possible only due to the ideas of Professor Mujumdar and the passion he brought to bear in implementing them.

Since today is the 8th of March or International Women's Day a word for the young ladies out there in the audience.

Professor V M Dandekar gave every encouragement to the girl student of his day.

Two of them have done exceedingly well and are present here with all of us today.

Both Professor Rajani Gupte, Vice Chancellor, Symbiosis International as well as your own Vice Principal Professor Sunayini Parchure were students of Professor Dandekar.

I am sure they owe a debt of gratitude to him.

To the young ladies who are present here today, let me express the common hope and wish of the Symbiosis family that all of you will do well in your chosen careers, that some of you will break the still existing glass ceilings in our country and that some of you will represent India in international forums thereby making Pune and India proud of your achievements.

IMAGE: Bullet trains at a high-speed train maintenance base in Guangzhou, China. Photograph: Reuters

I have been asked to speak to all of you today on the US-China Trade War and its implications for India.

Let me begin by first talking about China, a country that I have visited and seen for 30 years now.

My first memory of China is that in February 1988 when I took a train from Guangzhou in southern China, also called Canton, to Beijing, the capital of that ancient nation.

It was a 36 hour journey during which I spent two nights on the train with a group of other foreigners who were in my compartment.

Today, the High Speed Railway takes just 12 hours to perform this journey and you do not need to spend a night on the train.

The reason I have recounted this experience is to highlight how much China has changed over these past 30 years.

It was in December 1978 that the then supreme leader of China Deng Xiaoping set her on the path of economic reform and opening to the outside world, a road to which China has stuck despite turns and twists in its history and its politics.

The results are there for all to see.

Over the 30 year period from 1980 to 2010, China's GDP grew at an annual average rate of over 10 per cent per annum and has only begun to slow down since 2013.

In this period China has grown from a US 200 billion dollar economy to a US 12.5 trillion dollar one.

To provide some comparison, the United States is today a US 20.5 trillion dollar economy while India is a US 2.6 trillion dollar one.

IMAGE: Women at a company manufacturing medical textiles in the Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China. Photograph: Reuters

However, China continues to be, as it has since 1949, a polity which is dominated and controlled by the Communist Party.

So it remains a centrally driven polity, economy as well as society.

Land is owned by the State which is the Communist Party of China although the agricultural reforms pursued there based on the contract responsibility system provided incentives to individual farmers and cultivators and did lead to huge increases in agricultural output as well as productivity.

Similarly, most industrial and other firms are either publicly owned and are what we would term as PSUs who control the commanding heights of the Chinese economy.

The Communist Party is ever present even in so-called private firms including foreign invested joint ventures with a cell of the Party in each and every such enterprise.

Very often, the Party cell in a company will routinely interfere in decision making on pricing, employment and marketing.

Since the major factors of production are owned by the State its pricing is non-market based.

Hence, in China, land is easily and cheaply available for major infrastructure projects while here in India land acquisition often become the major stumbling block in executing large scale infrastructure development.

One point that I would like to make in passing is that since China is a non-market economy, the supply of infrastructure runs ahead of the demand for infrastructure.

Public investment is an important instrument to ensure high economic growth.

Therefore, in many cities of China you will find that new airports are being constructed even before the older ones are becoming congested or exceeding capacity.

In much of the rest of the world, including in the United States, and, of course, in India too, the supply of infrastructure follows the demand for it.

Only when Pune airport becomes extremely overcrowded and terribly congested will a new airport be built for the city.

This has been the experience in both Delhi and Mumbai.

IMAGE: Workers make Orolay jackets at the company's factory complex in Jiaxing, China. Photograph: Pei Li/Reuters

One final point that I would like to make about China is that ever since she embarked on the policy of integrating with the rest of the world, she has followed a mercantilist policy of ensuring that exports exceeded imports and that there were ever rising foreign exchange reserves in her kitty.

This coupled with the rising importance and size of China in the world economy has created tensions and problems for almost every nation on the globe.

Take India as an example.

We have an ever increasing trade deficit with China which last year amounted to about 62 billion US dollars.

It was roughly half of our global trade deficit with all countries.

Some of our problems relate to Non Tariff Barriers.

So we sell our software and our pharmaceuticals all over the world, but they do not find entry into the China market, thereby compounding our trade problems with that country.

Prior to China joining the World Trade Organisation in 2001, all countries including India and the United States negotiated our own bilateral agreements with China.

We found that the US had insisted and obtained agreement from China that at least 10 Hollywood films would be allowed to be screened in China each year.

We did not insist on a certain number of Bollywood films being permitted into China each year and hence did not have any kind of written agreement with the Chinese on this issue.

However, over the last few years Bollywood has made its own way into the China market as witnessed by the success there of films such as Dangal, Secret Superstar and Hindi Medium.

As many of you may know, the film Dangal made more money in China than it did in India.

Photograph: Ng Han Guan/Reuters

The reason I have dwelt at length about developments in the Chinese economy is to set the stage for the main part of my talk about the US-China trade war.

At the turn of the century, around the year 2000, the general approach of the United States towards China was that once China got into international organisations, she herself would change and become more open and democratic.

Therefore, the US actively worked towards China's entry into the WTO in December 2001.

This policy approach was a constant from the Clinton administration right down to the Obama presidency.

However, right through this period the United States as well as her Western allies ensured that controlled technologies which had dual purposes were not made available to China.

So too with military platforms and assets.

However, through this period China's military modernisation process continued apace and many were of the opinion that they were able to steal and reverse engineer advanced technologies.

Many political scientists and international relations experts were of the opinion that since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the United States was the pre-eminent superpower in the world and that she would not tolerate the rise of a new peer competitor.

This is where I would once again refer back to Professor V M Dandekar.

He has always seen the link between economics and politics.

Though this was more in a domestic context, it can be seen from the names of the institutions he was linked with -- the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics and then later the Indian School of Political Economy.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the US-China Trade War that we are currently witnessing is truly the meeting ground of geopolitics and geo-economics.

The current superpower -- the United States -- responding to the challenge of the rising power -- China -- and since there cannot be an overtly military conflict the gauntlet is being thrown down in the economic sphere.

The US National Security Strategy of December 2017 states that 'For decades, US policy was rooted in the belief that support for China's 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.'

'China gathers and exploits data on an unrivaled scale and spreads features of its authoritarian system, including corruption and the use of surveillance.'

The US National Defense Strategy 2018 says, 'China is a strategic competitor using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbours.'

IMAGE: China's President Xi Jinping inspects People's Liberation Army troops at the PLA's Hong Kong garrison, June 30, 2017. Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

With the advent of the Trump presidency in the US, increasing focus has been placed on China's trade practices including non-tariff barriers, her theft of intellectual property, her arm twisting of foreign enterprises who are in China to part with their technologies, her mercantilist trade policies, her potential for manipulating her currency and her enhanced use of big data and artificial intelligence for surveillance of her own citizens.

The Made in China 2025 programme which aims at making China a world leader in robotics, AI and biotechnology which in turn will challenge America's unrivalled leadership in technology has alarmed the Americans and forced them to accept and stare down this challenge.

The fact that these developments have been accompanied with the rising influence of the Communist Party of China in that country's economic and social life have only added to the sense of competition.

It is the American way of life which is under threat.

American values are under fire.

The American position was articulated by Vice President Mike Pence in a major speech on October 4, 2018 in which he stated, 'After the fall of the Soviet Union, we assumed that a free China was inevitable.'

'Heady with optimism at the turn of the 21st century, America agreed to give Beijing open access to our economy and we brought China into the WTO.'

Speaking about the problem areas as seen by the United States, he added, 'The Chinese Communist Party has also used an arsenal of policies inconsistent with free and fair trade including tariffs, quotas, currency manipulation, forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft and industrial subsidies.'

Summing up the new US approach to trade with China, Vice President Pence noted, '... The United States of America has adopted a new approach to China.'

'We seek a relationship grounded in fairness, reciprocity and respect for sovereignty.'

On the trade front itself, the US too, like India, faced a large and growing trade deficit. The deficit amounted to 375 billion US dollars in 2017 and 323 billion US dollars in 2018. Hence, the Americans keep calling for free, fair and reciprocal trade in their war with China.

IMAGE: China's President Xi Jinping, First Lady Peng Liyuan, United States President Donald J Trump and First Lady Melania at a State dinner at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, November 9, 2017. Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters

Therefore, in order to put China on notice to alter its economic policies and to provide the United States with fair and reciprocal trading and economic arrangements, President Trump levied an additional 10% tariff on Chinese exports amounting to 60 billion US dollars in early 2018.

The Chinese side retaliated in a tit-for-tat move and levied the same amount of additional tariffs on US exports to China worth 60 billion dollars.

The number of Chinese export commodities on which the US has levied tariffs has grown over time and today stands at 250 billion US dollars.

The US has also threatened to increase these tariffs from 10% to 25% if talks between the two nations does not yield a satisfactory result.

So far they have held off from carrying out this threat since talks are ongoing between the two governments.

For their part, China has levied tariffs on US exports to China valued at 110 billion US dollars.

Trump has, in turn, threatened to levy enhanced tariffs on a further 267 billion worth of Chinese exports to America.

The weakness in the Chinese position is that since it exports much more to the United States than it imports from that nation, there is a finite limit to which it can levy tariffs on the US.

Moreover, China has grown to a large extent based on export led growth in which strategy the United States is an extremely important market.

Hence, the Chinese are on a weaker wicket and are very keen to reach some kind of agreement.

Also, they have to ensure that nothing halts or decelerates China's current growth rate of about 6.5%.

A lot of people argue that President Trump is a transactional man.

Well, let me say that the Chinese government is even more transactional.

Hence, the two sides are currently having intense discussions aimed at averting a further enhancement of the trade or economic war between the two.

Currently, the deadline is March 31, but that is not cast in stone.

The United States will hope for a deal which will prove to be for China what the Plaza Accord did to Japan.

On its part, China will negotiate to ensure that this does not happen and that China's growth and rise is not stopped in its tracks or set back seriously.

Negotiations between the two continue even as I speak and the two sides hope to sign a deal, once struck, at a summit meeting between the two presidents possibly somewhere in the US.

The point I would like to highlight here is that while the frictions between the United States and China are deep rooted and based in geo-politics, given the transactional nature of both regimes, please do not rule out some kind of deal in the short term so that both can claim victory.

Given the more fundamental nature of the divide between the two countries, however, a truce will prove to be short lived and tensions will flare up again in the not too distant future.

Remember, what we are witnessing today is the rise of a new world power challenging the existing superpower.

Such developments have never been easy or peaceful in the history of mankind.

IMAGE: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi at the Hubei provincial museum in Wuhan, April 27, 2018. Photograph: China Daily/Reuters

So what should India be doing in this current scenario? Is there anything we can do when the fight is between the two largest economies in the world?

There is a Chinese saying that when elephants fight, the grass below their feet will get trampled on.

So my advice for India will be to keep its head down and make sure that we are not the grass which gets trampled on.

Some of this is becoming evident in the recent action by the Trump administration to end India's GSP benefits recently, which all of you must have read about.

The big picture is that India must ensure that its rising economy is not hindered in any way and that we do not become the unwitting victim of the US-China trade war.

We have to ensure that our GDP continues to rise at 7 or 7.5 per cent each year and that we reach our next 6 to 7 year target of becoming a 5 trillion dollar economy.

So what do we need to do in order to ensure that these goals are met?

We need not take sides in the current trade war even if a further opening and ease of doing business in China will eventually prove beneficial to us.

If non tariff barriers in the Chinese economy do indeed lower, we will be able to sell more Indian pharmaceutical products there and possibly more software.

That will aid the reduction in the trade deficit with China.

However, the deficit is dictated by the very composition of India-China trade where we import large amounts of manufactured, finished products such as iron and steel, power equipment, mobile phones and electronics.

When our exports to China are mainly agricultural products then we can see that the deficit will indeed grow.

I would propose that we need to look at the Invisibles in our balance of payments with China and therefore I recommend that we work seriously on attracting more Chinese tourists to India.

If we are able to undertake a very serious, focused and intensive media campaign in China to market Incredible India there including in their Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, then we should be able to get 1.5 million Chinese tourists to visit India by 2020.

This will not merely enable us to meet our tourism targets but it will provide huge employment to many of our countrymen and women, while also helping balance payments with China.

Photograph: Jason Lee/Reuters

We are also seeing more attention by Chinese companies to the Indian market and increasingly they are investing in India, despite the fact that we are not an easy country in which to do business.

This is entirely due to the size of our market and the recent success of Xiaomi in becoming the market leader in our mobile handset sector in a fairly short period of time does provide encouragement to Chinese firms to look at India seriously as an investment destination.

We need to encourage this trend, while paying attention to issues such as data privacy and security.

The tussle and competition between the US and China on the development of 5G technology is another case in point.

US moves against the Chinese firm Huawei are well known to all of you.

We are also aware that Huawei is indeed one of the leading companies in the world where development of 5G technology is concerned.

Where should India stand on this matter? Naturally, security is an important consideration and we must pay adequate attention to it.

However, we need not take a stand on which firm or firms from what countries develop the technology.

We want it to be rolled out in India as soon as the rest of the world has it and we want it to be as cheap as possible.

As many of you may know, Huawei does have large operations in India, it does sell its equipment to many of our mobile phone service providers and it has a huge development park in Bengaluru where about 5,000 Indian engineers are employed.

Chinese investment in India will also help balance our deficit in goods by bringing inflows on capital account.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi with US President Donald J Trump. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

How do we deal with the United States? We have an excellent relationship with the United States, there is little doubt about that.

We have over 3 million Indian Americans who provide a bridge between the two nations.

Most importantly, we share values of democracy, transparency and the importance of individual rights with America.

Recently, the US has also made available to us many dual use products and technologies which we did not have access to earlier.

So our relations with America are important even to our continued economic and social growth and development.

We are aware that President Trump is transactional.

So what stops us from matching him? Why do we stand on ceremony and principle, when he asks us to lower tariffs on Harley Davidson mobikes? I feel we must introspect on this matter.

In this way we shall keep all our options open since India's continued growth and development needs capital, technology and management expertise from any source or any country we can get it from.

To sum up, where do we stand on this entire matter of the US-China Trade War.

First, it is quite apparent that the trade war is actually a contest between a rising world power and the existing super power.

History shows that such a contest is not going to be short and quick, but will stretch for several years possibly decades.

Moreover, the trade war is the manifestation of a much more serious geo political match-up between the two sides.

Second, in this current scenario India must protect its own national interest which is to safeguard our own growth and development.

We cannot permit this turmoil to threaten our rise in any way and in order to do that we need not take sides.

Third, if we play our cards right, we may even benefit from the competition between the two as seen from increased investment from each of these countries into India.

The size of our market gives us an important lever of power which we shall have to play adroitly and intelligently.

Fourth, it is imperative that we put our heads down and keep doing domestically what is required for our own benefit whether it is to clean India, encourage startups, raise the proportion of manufacturing in our GDP, skill India or provide more remunerative returns to our farmers.

If we do not stay the course internally, then howsoever favourable the external environment we shall not be able to meet our targets and goals that we have set ourselves.

Therefore, Ladies and Gentlemen, it appears that the contention between China and the United States is here to stay for some time.

This is not necessarily a bad thing for us, if we play our cards right we may even end up benefiting from it.

Thank you for your attention.
'Such incidents can only exacerbate the sense of alienation among the Kashmiri people, in particular the Kashmiri youth.'

'It is as if for some of our political figures and misguided youth, Kashmir is a piece of real estate over which we assert our claim, but the people there are dispensable,' notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.

IMAGE: Kashmiri vendors selling dry fruit were thrashed by a group of hoodlums in Daliganj, Lucknow, March 6, 2019 in an incident that has become all too common in India.

Post-Pulwama developments in Kashmir are deeply disturbing. The fact that the terrorist attack on the Central Reserve Police Force convoy was carried out by a local Kashmiri youth should lead to honest introspection among all right-thinking Indians.

What deep resentment and frustration could have led an otherwise normal and educated Kashmiri boy to take this extreme step?

Even if we believe that he was led astray by evil forces across the border, what made him receptive to their dark and murderous intent?

In achieving success in eliminating terrorists in the valley, do we stop and reflect why the number of local recruits still keeps going up?

There have been allegations of intelligence failure, but the ability to stop terrorist incidents and apprehending terrorists is most effective if the local populace is ready to provide intelligence that is relatively specific.

This is possible only if there is a high level of trust and confidence between the populace and the security forces. This is becoming problematic as a result of intrusive and sometimes aggressive operations carried out by security forces who are also exposed to heightened risk.

Collateral damage to innocent citizens caught in a cross-fire is difficult to avoid. Sometimes during security operations, houses belonging to innocent families may be blasted into ruins in order to ferret out terrorists who may have forcibly sought shelter.

Even if the affected families are compensated, the loss and hurt lingers on.

In my several visits to the valley while I was with the National Security Advisory Board, what came out loud and clear from civil society that one interacted with was a pervasive sense of injured dignity and loss of self respect that ordinary citizens felt as a consequence of prolonged security operations and disruption of day-to-day life.

No insurgency can be dealt with if a population itself turns hostile and alienated. And there are signs of that beginning to happen in the valley.

So while we must deal with cross-border terrorism and respond to Pakistan's hostile behaviour, we must not lose the trust and goodwill of the people of Kashmir in the process.

In this context, attacks against Kashmiri students in several North Indian cities as also attacks on the person and property of ordinary Kashmiris pursuing their trade in different parts of India are particularly shameful and reprehensible.

Such incidents can only exacerbate the sense of alienation among the Kashmiri people, in particular the Kashmiri youth.

It is as if for some of our political figures and misguided youth, Kashmir is a piece of real estate over which we assert our claim, but the people there are dispensable. It is encouraging that the prime minister has spoken strongly against these attacks, but his sentiments do not seem to find resonance in other sections of the political class.

Just think what a traumatic and bitter experience it would have been for those Kashmiri youth who have been subjected to abuse and assault and have had to flee back to Kashmir or seek shelter with sympathetic fellow citizens.

It is claimed that these are isolated incidents and the numbers involved are not many. But each will be carrying horror stories to narrate to their families and friends and the circle of disaffection will spread.

What one would have expected is an all-party statement condemning such attacks in the strongest possible terms and conveying a sense of reassurance to, and expressing solidarity with, Kashmiri youth and Kashmiris in general.

It is also unfortunate that at a sensitive time there are rumours about an intended change in the Constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir.

The actions of the state government to induct appreciable numbers of additional security forces, the cancelling of leave of officials and putting hospitals on alert have fuelled these rumours.

These have gained currency as they come in the wake of repeated calls for abrogating Article 35 A and Article 370 which grant a special status to the state and its people.

The argument is that it is this special status which is at the root of the troubles which the Indian State is confronted with in the valley since it detracts from our assertion that the state is an integral part of the Indian Union.

It is a fact that the Instrument of Accession signed by the then ruler of Kashmir was without conditions and the same as those signed by other princely states. However, the subsequent Constitutional and legal provisions are also a historical reality.

The crisis in Kashmir is political and must be resolved politically.

A change in its legal status will not make the problem go away. There could be a calculation that a 'nationalist' move to do away with these provisions may yield electoral dividends.

Make no mistake that any cynical change in the legal status of Kashmir dispensing with democratic processes would lead to a very strong and negative popular reaction in the valley.

There could be widespread violence and disaffection. Separatist sentiment will spread rather than diminish and we may be locked into a prolonged crisis where local violence and State repression escalate in a dangerous cycle.

One hopes that better sense will prevail and precipitate action is avoided in an atmosphere already full of tension and apprehension.

Those who are concerned about the future of this country need to reflect on the dangers that lie round the corner and sound a note of warning against rash and risky intentions.

We are living in a time when ironically nationalism and national unity, both positive and laudable values, are being turned into instruments of threat and intimidation, to sweep aside warnings of dangers that lie ahead.

These pressures must be resisted and citizens of this country must assert their rights as stakeholders in its future.
'Earlier, Sri Sri told me we (Muslims) must give up our claim to the Babri Masjid site and be large-hearted.'

'Sri Sri has always taken sides on this issue, and isn't neutral at all.'

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi greeted by Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar on the opening day of the World Culture Festival on the banks of the Yamuna in New Delhi. Photograph: PTI

The Supreme Court on Friday, March 8, referred the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for mediation by a panel headed by retired Supreme Court Justice F M I Kalifulla to explore the possibility of an amicable settlement.

The other two members of the panel are Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate and mediation expert Sriram Panchu.

S Q R Ilyas, co-convener of the Babri Masjid Action Committee and All India Muslim Personal Law Board, who is also one of the parties to the long-pending dispute, says he is ready to meet the Supreme Court panel within the time frame of eight weeks given by the apex court and is hopeful of finding a solution to the issue.

Speaking to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com, Ilyas asks, "How can you say that this is a matter of aastha (faith)? There has to be proof in history."

What is your reaction to the Supreme Court decision to opt for mediation to resolve the Ayodhya dispute?

This proposal on mediation is not new. We had told the court earlier too that we are not opposed to mediation, but mediation must be on some buniyad (basis). Now let us see who will this mediation panel sit and talk to and where.

But it is obvious that the mediation has to be with the concerned party (the Babri Masjid Action Committee).

Are you happy with the option of mediation?

Mediation is one option. Earlier too, we tried mediation. The Allahabad high court had tried to mediate before delivering its judgment in 2010, but nothing came out of it.

Won't it be different this time because it is a Supreme Court monitored mediation?

It all depends on the mediators. If they want to solve this issue amicably, then it is possible. And we hope something will come out.

What's your opinion on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar being part of the mediation panel?

I feel the court should have opted for a more neutral team.

Sri Sri's views on the issue are very clear; so he should not have been a part of the panel, as he is not neutral.

Earlier, Sri Sri had spoken to me and told me that we (Muslims) must give up our claim to the Babri Masjid site and be large-hearted. It was then that I had told him that they (Hindus) must give up their claim as our elder brothers.

Sri Sri has always taken sides on this issue, and isn't neutral at all.

Will you meet him this time?

Yes, surely. The Supreme Court has said, so we will go.

So what was the problem during the mediation with him earlier?

He took the stance that Muslims must give up their claim to the Babri Masjid.

If you take such a stance, how can you be considered to be a neutral person, as you are clearly favouring one party, isn't it?

So how can he mediate if he is not a neutral party?

What did you tell Sri Sri Ravi Shankar when he was in favour of the Ram Mandir built in place of the Babri Masjid?

He said the Ram Mandir was an issue of aastha (faith) for Hindus.

I told him he was wrong as how could he bring aastha?

Till 1949, there was no aastha to that place. It is recorded in the Faizabad district magistrate and collector's office that a mosque existed in that spot for the last 450 years.

Muslims have been praying over there.

An idol (of Lord Ram) was placed overnight on December 22, 1949, at that very place by some miscreants to create trouble. And after that they shut down the Babri Masjid site.

So how can you say that this is a matter of aastha?

There has to be proof in history.

In the past, Sri Sri reportedly said if the Ram Mandir was not constructed at that spot, then India could turn into a Syria.

He made a wrong statement. It is like saying he has the majority and he can do anything.

Is there no rule of law? Is there no justice in India?

It was a threat from his side (to Muslims) so he cannot be a neutral person.

But millions of Indians do believe Lord Ram was indeed born there.

What do you mean by belief? You are forcefully making people believe this birth theory of Lord Ram at the Babri Masjid site.

Before 1949, no one used to believe Lord Ram was born there.

In fact, there are three other places in Ayodhya where people believe Lord Ram was born.

It is wrong to say that crores of Hindus believe Lord Ram was born at that spot.

There is historical proof that a riot took place in Ayodhya over the same issue in 1860.

At that time there was a chabutra (platform) where Lord Ram's idol was placed.

One pujari, Hari Shankar, gave an application in court that he wanted to put a shed on the chabutra, but the court rejected the application. And the reason given was that a mosque was next to the Ram Chabutra.

This was the dispute in 1860, and not about aastha as you are saying.

IMAGE: A rally in favour of constructing the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Don't you think this issue has been dragging on for decades?

Now the court has given eight weeks. And if the issue is not resolved in eight weeks, then this will go on for long.

But why are you holding onto Babri Masjid land when the popular sentiment is for the mandir?

I want to counter you with another question. Why are they holding onto their claim? It is historical proof that the Babri Masjid exited at the spot.

There is historical proof that it was demolished on December 6, 1992.

It is historical proof that Lord Ram's statue was placed there in 1949.

It is historical proof that the locks of the Babri Masjid were opened to perform puja.

Historical proof is contrary to what they are saying.

It is historical proof that you captured one mosque, placed an idol and broke down that mosque. So there has to be justice.

And now you tell us that this place is the Ram Janambhoomi by saying millions of Hindus have faith, so we must respect that faith. What is wrong is wrong!

How many times have you tried to solve this dispute through mediation? Is there any middle path which could be acceptable to all?

Never. Both sides have stuck to their stance.

We, on our side, have said many times that if they have proof that the Ram Mandir was demolished and the Babri Masjid was built, they must give us some proof.

Our stance is simple: According to Islamic Shariat, a masjid cannot be built on any land which has been occupied illegally.

So, we just demand one thing -- prove to us that the Ram mandir was destroyed in 1528 by Babur after which the Babri Masjid was built.

They are not providing us with any proof, but saying that it is a matter of faith.

K K Muhammed, an archaeologist from Kerala, has shown there was a Ram Mandir in the place of the Babri Masjid. He also said secular historians distorted history by saying the Ram Mandir never existed at that place.

It does not matter if one man says so. The Archaeological Survey of India report is in front of the Supreme Court of India.

Four times that place was dug and prominent names from the world of archaeology have inspected the site. They have all said that there was no Ram Mandir. I was present when all these things happened.

There is also the fear that if the court verdict goes in favour of the masjid, it may lead to violence. We have seen it happen before.

Why? I say if the verdict goes in favour of the Ram Mandir too, nothing will happen in this country.

We have said the judicial verdict is acceptable to us. You must talk of justice.

The country can run on faith, but there has to be history and proof of that.

When you say it is Ram Janambhoomi, give us proof or some history book.
Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said the current National Democratic Alliance government had set a very high benchmark for the next dispensation to live up to by ensuring safety of women through its policies.

IMAGE: Women practice Shivkalin Yudha Kala, a Maharashtrian martial art at a ground on the outskirts of Mumbai. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters

Greeting women on the occasion of International Women's Day, Gandhi noted that women of today are much more aware than they were previously.

"The present government has set a very high benchmark for the next government by ensuring women safety through its policies and the work done in the last five years by this government has not been done by any government in the last 70 years," the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.

"Right from ensuring women safety to their empowerment, the government has ensured gender equality and equal opportunities for them," the Union minister said.

Right from the first week, she said, the BJP-led government showed "zero tolerance" towards brutalities against women. "I am confident that a time of gender equality would come. We ensured women gets the basic necessities of toilets, electricity and gas cylinders to make their lives easy."

"We also ensured that NRI husbands who abandon their wives are punished. We have cancelled 45 passports and the number would go up to thousands," Gandhi said.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, the women and child development ministry and the skill development and entrepreneurship ministry entered into an agreement to provide skills training and employment to women.

Gandhi said the agreement would help women in becoming self-sufficient. "The WCD ministry, through the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh, will identify the skill sets and their geographical relevance, which is suitable for enhancing livelihood of women through self-employment," she said.

Under the agreement, the skill development ministry will provide details of women to the WCD ministry who have received skill development training and engaged in producing goods or services after their training.

The WCD ministry, through the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh, shall assist such women to on board into the Mahila E-haat platform, a digital platform for selling products produced by women, according to the details of the agreement.

The RMK and the National Skill Development Council will be the implementing partners on behalf of the two ministries, Gandhi said, adding that the agreement would be valid for a period of three years.
The INS Chakra III will be ideal for 'sea denial' missions, in which the submarine denies the enemy the use of the sea.

Ajai Shukla reports.

Photograph: Reuters

Underlining slow progress in the indigenous project to design and build six nuclear-powered attack submarines, India and Russia have signed a 10-year lease for a new Russian SSN, which will join the Indian fleet around 2025.

The navy already operates a Russian SSN, the INS Chakra, which was taken on a 10-year lease in April 2012 for almost a billion dollars.

This was to return to Russia in 2022, but defence ministry sources say its lease could be extended by three years, while the next INS Chakra is built.

India leased its first nuclear submarine, the Charlie-class INS Chakra, in 1988. That went back to Russia in 1991 and the navy did without an SSN for 21 years until it leased an Akula-class SSN, the second INS Chakra, in 2012.

India has indigenously designed and built a nuclear-propelled, nuclear ballistic missile submarine, the INS Arihant. A second SSBN, the INS Arighat, is to follow shortly, with two more in the pipeline.

SSBNs are not a part of the navy's combat fleet. They are armed with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles that are the underwater leg of India's nuclear delivery triad -- nuclear weapons delivered by land-based missiles, aircraft-dropped weapons and those fired from under water.

SSNs, in contrast, are a part of the navy's combat fleet. They are propelled by a nuclear reactor, but do not carry nuclear weapons. Their weapons load consists of land attack and anti-ship missiles, and torpedoes to sink enemy shipping.

While the current INS Chakra operates Russian weaponry and command systems, the next model will be fitted with Indian systems to validate them for the indigenous submarines. However, a key system that remains to be developed is a nuclear reactor for the SSN.

Besides the INS Chakra, the navy operates 14 conventional submarines and is to receive five more Scorpene submarines, which are under construction in Mazagon Dock, Mumbai.

These also fire missiles and torpedoes, but since their diesel engines cannot run underwater for lack of air, a conventional submarine can remain submerged for only as long as its on-board electric batteries provide power.

When the batteries are drained, typically in 8 to 48 hours, the submarine must surface to run its generators and recharge batteries. A surfaced submarine is vulnerable to detection and attack.

In contrast, an SSN's nuclear reactor can run underwater, allowing it to remain submerged indefinitely when it is extremely hard to detect.

This allows SSNs to slip underwater into its patrol area -- say, the Gulf of Malacca -- and lurk in ambush for days on end, listening through its sonar for enemy ships.

Then it can torpedo them and escape at high speed underwater.

SSNs are ideal for these so-called 'sea denial' missions, in which one denies the enemy the use of the sea. Meanwhile, the navy uses aircraft carrier battle groups for 'sea control' missions, where carrier-borne air power dominates an expanse of ocean.

The cost of the 10-year lease signed on Thursday, March 7, is being reported as $3 billion. That would be over thrice the cost of the lease of the current INS Chakra.
A 32-year-old Kashmiri man, who was injured in a grenade attack at a bus stand in Jammu, succumbed to injuries Friday, raising the death toll to two, officials said.

IMAGE: Police personnel with a sniffer dog inspect the site after a powerful explosion at a bus stand in Jammu. Photograph: PTI Photo

Mohammad Riyaz, a resident of Anantnag district's Mattan village, died while undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College hospital in the early hours, the officials said.

A teenager, Mohammad Sharik, from Uttarakhand was killed and 32 others injured when a powerful blast rocked the crowded general bus stand around Thursday afternoon.

Within hours of the incident, police arrested the accused and said he was tasked by terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen to carry out the attack.

Inspector General of Police, Jammu, M K Sinha had said Yasir Javed Bhat, a resident of Khanpora-Dassein village in Kulgam, was tasked by HM district commander, Kulgam, Farooq Ahmad Bhat alias "Umar" to carry out the attack.

Bhat, who had reached Jammu along with the grenade Thursday morning after he left Kulgam the previous night, was fleeing after the attack when he was arrested by alert policemen at Nagrota in the outskirts of the city, he had said.

The third grenade attack by terrorists on Jammu bus stand since May last comes just three weeks after the Pulwama terror strike on February 14 that killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force jawans, bringing India and Pakistan on brink of war.
Political leaders welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to appoint a panel headed by retired apex court judge F M I Kalifulla to explore the possibility of an amicable settlement of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.

The other members of the panel are spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu.

Here are some of the reactions to the apex court's decision.

Hon'ble Supreme Court's order to constitute in-camera mediation (in Faizabad) in order to resolve the Ayodhya matter seems an honest effort. Hon'ble Court looking for 'a possibility of healing relationships' is an appreciable move. BSP welcomes it

Mayawati, Bahujan Samaj Party president

It would have been better had the Supreme Court appointed a neutral person. One of the members of the panel had threatened Muslims that India would become Syria and I hope that he keeps those thoughts out of his mind while being on the mediation panel. We welcome the decision

Asaduddin Owaisi, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief

There is no question of not building a temple where we believe Lord Ram was born

Subramanian Swamy, BHaratiya Janata Party MP

This move towards mediation by the Hon Supreme Court is in the best interest of the country and all parties concerned. We should not leave any stone unturned in resolving this burning issue amicably. We should keep our egos and differences aside and come together with a spirit of honouring & accommodating the sentiments of the communities concerned. Respecting everyone, turning dreams to reality, ending long-standing conflicts happily and maintaining harmony in society - we must all move together towards these goals

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, spiritual guru and member of the SC-appointed panel to mediate the Ayodhya dispute

Ram temple can be built at the disputed site in Ayodhya and a mosque only outside its vicinity

Uma Bharti, Union minister

Can there be anything other than a mosque in Mecca and Madina?... Do Hindus have not even this much right after partition that we can offer prayers to Lord Ram in Ayodhya?

Giriraj Singh, Union minister
Reaching out to the huge constituency of women voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Friday promised passage of the women's reservation bill, in limbo for the last nine years since being cleared by the Rajya Sabha, if his party is voted to power.

Interacting with women on the International Women's Day, Gandhi exhorted them to fight for "space" in every sphere of life as the country cannot progress without their effective and equal participation.

"You must fight for your space and don't consider yourself lesser than a man. Women should fight for due place, be it the assembly, Lok Sabha or the business field," he said responding to a query by a woman delegate at the conclave.

He also asked men to work towards securing for women their due place in society.

"There is an urgent need to provide reservation for women in state assemblies and Lok Sabha to ensure their empowerment. The Congress is keen to ensure this and will do it if it voted to power," Gandhi said, calling women's reservation bill an effective instrument for their empowerment.

The 108th Constitution (amendment) Bill, which envisages 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and state assemblies, was brought by the then United Progressive Alliance government in 2008 and passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010.

Its passage was one of the promises made by the Bharatiya Janata Party in its election manifesto for the 2014 general elections. Apart from the BJP and the Congress, several parties including the Left, the Nationalist Congress Party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have backed the legislation but a law for women's reservation in these bodies remains as elusive as ever.

Gandhi said women should participate more and more in politics, and referred to how they had benefited from quotas in panchayati raj institutions in some states.

The Congress president, whose party has been relegated to the margins in Odisha politics, deplored that there were only two women ministers in the state.

When a delegate raised the issue of alleged rape of a woman by a BJP MLA in Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi was quick to claim the prime minister had remained silent on the issue.

He said the Congress wanted a policy of "zero tolerance" to incidents of atrocities on women.

"In case of rape and atrocities on women, the prime minister and chief ministers must make thier views clear. If the Congress comes to power, our approach will be zero tolerance towards atrocities against women. They should get speedy justice," he said.

The Congress leader claimed though eight women were raped in Odisha on an average every day, only seven accused were convicted in a year because of alleged lack of concern of the government.

Gandhi promised that if the Congress was voted to power in Odisha, its government will provide for free education for women at all levels, including in medical and engineering colleges.

"All women, particularly tribals, dalits and those belonging to backward categories should get free education to ensure they are truly empowered," Gandhi added.

Assembly elections in Odisha are to be held with Lok Sabha polls.

He said revenue generated from the mining sector will be utilised for health and education.

Replying to a question on growing unemployment, Gandhi said the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd plant at Sunebada in Odisha's Koraput district could have created many job opportunities if the public sector undertaking had bagged the Rafale fighter jet deal.
The report said that Pakistan also plans to lodge a complaint against India at the United Nations, accusing New Delhi of "eco-terrorism".

p class="rbig">Pakistan on Friday registered a first information report against "unidentified pilots" of the Indian Air Force for bombing and destroying 19 trees in the Balakot area, according to a media report, days after India's preemptive strike against the Jaish-e-Mohammed's largest terrorist training camp in the country.

The FIR was filed by the forestry department on Friday against pilots of the IAF for bombing and destroying trees in the Balakot area, the Express News reported.

The FIR, registered against "unidentified IAF pilots", also details the damage suffered by 19 trees after the Indian fighter jets "hastily dropped their payload", it says.

On March 26, India said IAF jets, in the face of imminent danger, launched a preemptive strike on Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

"In an intelligence led operation in the early hours of today, India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated," Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said in a statement in New Delhi.

He said the JeM facility at Balakot was headed by Maulana Yousuf Azhar, the brother-in-law of Masood Azhar, the chief of JeM.

The Pakistani military has has said the IAF jets released their payload which "had free fall in open area."

"No infrastructure got hit, no casualties," Pakistan military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said in a tweet soon after the Indian preemptive strike.

The Express News report said Pakistan also plans to lodge a complaint against India at the United Nations, accusing New Delhi of "eco-terrorism".

The Indian warplanes bombed Jabba Top, a hilly forest area near the northern town of Balakot, about 40km from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Pakistan's Climate Change Minister Malik Amin Aslam had said Indian jets bombed a "forest reserve" and the government was undertaking an environmental impact assessment, which will be the basis of a complaint at the United Nations and other forums, the report said.

"What happened over there is environmental terrorism," Aslam said, adding that dozens of pine trees had been felled. "There has been serious environmental damage," Aslam was quoted as saying.

The United Nations states that "destruction of the environment, not justified by military necessity and carried out wantonly, is clearly contrary to existing international law", the report quoted the UN General Assembly resolution 47/37 as saying.
CBI Special Prosecutor Bharat B Badami presents the first part of his arguments countering Peter Mukerjea's November 2018 bail plea.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

At Courtroom 51 at the Mumbai city and sessions court, south Mumbai, Friday March 8, 2019, CBI Special Prosecutor Bharat B Badami presented, over an hour, the first part of his arguments countering Peter Mukerjea's November 2018 bail plea, his third as Accused No 4 in the Sheena Bora murder trial.

Declaring that the prosecution had plenty of evidence against Peter and that their charges were not faulty, some of the more salient points Badami made Friday were:

Peter was an "influential person" and if let out on bail, he could either influence the witnesses or abscond. Badami also questioned the idea of looking for bail when the trial was on its 37th witness.

Being Sheena's stepfather, and knowing that Sheena was the fiancee of Rahul Mukerjea, his son from his first marriage, Peter took no steps to ensure that he knew she was safe.

Why was it that Sheena's father Siddharth Das gave his blessings when Rahul and Sheena got engaged, but Accused No 4 did not.

Badami brought up the calls between Indrani Mukerjea and Peter Mukerjea on the night of the murder, April 24, 2012, that lasted 15 to 16 minutes and were made at "odd hours."

Constant communication between Peter and Indrani was "a very important fact of the case". He had knowledge about what was going, declared Badami. "Peter was knowing everything. He was not a statue of the family. He used to take care of the welfare of family."

Rahul has not yet appeared as a witness in court. If Accused No 4 is released on bail then there is a chance he can "win over Rahul Mukerjea."

Accused No 4 could not put the "entire blame" on Accused No 1. Accused No 1 had an equal role to play in murder. Accusing Peter of being uncharitable and hinting that he was not being fair to his wife, Badami said roundly, "You cannot throw (everything) on the head and shoulder of Indrani?"

Badami wondered what steps had Peter Mukerjea taken to ensure Sheena's well-being or turn those in who were responsible for her lack of well-being till August 2015 when former Mukerjea driver Shyamvar Rai was arrested and it was known that Sheena was dead?

Badami stated that Peter could have compelled Indrani to give him Sheena's phone, contact number or something to talk to her. If he was concerned for his son, "you cannot sit idle."

Comparing Peter to Muhammad Saeed, the Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder, Badami said Saeed was in Pakistan when the 26/11 attacks occurred, but he was part of the conspiracy. "So Peter cannot say he was in London.

Badami then said dramatically: "Peter is the silent killer of Sheena Bora."

He will continue his argumentson Monday, March 11.

After submitting this part of his reply in court, Badami later mentioned how Peter was attempting to "bifurcate" the conspiracy which was not tenable.

He also added that after the Mukerjeas visited then additional police commissioner crime Deven Bharti to say Sheena was missing, why did they tell Bharti three days later she was no longer missing.

The prosecutor reiterated his point "conspiracy karte hai toh (to do a conspiracy) physical presence is not required."

Peter was in court, along with his defence team, looking slightly worn out.

Privately, those on Peter's team called Badami's accusations a "farrago of lies" and wondered why the prosecution lawyer harked back to 26/11 when there were more recent incidents like Pulwama, Kashmir, in February 2019.

MUST READ: The Sheena Bora Murder Trial

Additional Inputs: Press Trust of India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched a blistering attack on the opposition for raising questions over the air strikes on the Balakot terror camp in Pakistan, even as he asked state governments to act tough on those who target Kashmiris.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public gathering at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

Addressing a public meeting in Kanpur, he called those who assaulted two Kashmiri traders in Lucknow "crazy people", using the Hindi term sirphirey log for them.

"It is very important to maintain an atmosphere of unity in the country," Modi said.

He congratulated the Yogi Adityanath government for acting promptly over what some crazy people did to our Kashmiri brothers in the Uttar Pradesh capital.

"I would also like to request other state governments to take the strongest action possible wherever there is an attempt to do something like this," he said.

Two Kashmiri traders were thrashed in Lucknow, the latest in a series of such incidents after terrorists killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in a car bomb attack in Pulwama last month.

The prime minister lashed at opposition leaders who have sought proof of the damage inflicted on the Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp at Balakot in the Indian Air Force strike in retaliation to the Pulwama attack.

He said a Pakistan Army spokesperson had tweeted about the air strike first, and asked if that country would be moorkh (stupid) enough to admit that it had been struck.

But this is our people asking for proof, he mocked.

The trust of 130-crore people is my proof. Please stop playing games that make Pakistan happy," he said.

Apart from addressing public meetings, the prime minister launched a slew of development projects during his visits Friday to his parliamentary constituency Varanasi, Kanpur and Ghaziabad.

The Uttar Pradesh trip comes just days ahead of the expected Election Commission announcement of Lok Sabha poll dates.

He asked people at the Ghaziabad rally if they would do anything that gets applause from Pakistan.

But some of our opposition leaders have been doing just that for the past 10 days. Identify these people, they are not worried about the country, but are scared of going behind the bars and that is why they want to capture power at the Centre," Modi said.

Modi accused the previous Congress-led government of doing nothing after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

"When terrorists killed our 40 soldiers in Pulwama, should Modi also have kept quiet? If I had to behave like the previous governments, why did the people elect me?" he said.

He hit out at the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, charging that they were not prepared to trust the armed forces.

Modi said these were the same people who questioned the 2016 surgical strike across the Line of Control after the terrorist attack in Uri.

But when full facts on that military operation emerged, they turned speechless", he said.

The prime minister said the remarks by the opposition parties were demeaning the valour shown by the country's armed forces after the Pulwama attack.

Taking a dig at them, he called their proposed opposition mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) a maha-milawat, or grand adulteration.

Such people remember the poor, the farmers, the youth, the Ganga and the industries only when they go out to seek votes, he said.

They say come let's do 'maha-milawat', let's unite those who are in jail, those who will be going to jail and those who are out on bail. And they say come let's finish Modi unitedly. I say we should unitedly finish terror."

In Varanasi, Modi claimed that "non-cooperation" by the previous Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh was responsible for the delay in beginning a beautification project in the holy city.

He laid a foundation stone there for Kashi Vishwanath Temple's approach road.

In Kanpur, the prime minister laid the foundation stone for the Panki thermal power plant.

He flagged off the commercial run on Lucknow Metro's 23-km-long north-south corridor, through video conferencing from Kanpur itself and symbolically laid the foundation stone for the Agra Metro Rail project at the same event.

He laid the foundation stone for a project to build the ambitious Regional Rail Transport System that would connect Delhi and Meerut via Ghaziabad.

"The RRTS is being built at a cost of more than Rs 30,000 crore. Once work on the country's first RRTS is completed, the distance between Delhi and Meerut can be covered in just one hour," Modi told the gathering in Ghaziabad.

He also inaugurated an extension of the Delhi Metro's Red Line and a new terminal building at Hindon airport.
The Supreme Court's idea on Friday, favouring amicable settlement, was mooted earlier as well by the top court -- on March 21, 2017. However, the contesting parties were hesitant to support the suggestion made by the then bench.



IMAGE: All India Hindu Mahasabha leader Swami Chakrapani Maharaj reacts after a hearing of the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case. Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo

Giving another chance for mediation, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered setting up a three-member panel headed by a former apex court judge F M I Kalifulla to explore a possible settlement of the decades-old politically sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute in Ayodhya.

Spiritual guru and founder of Art of Living foundation Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Panchu, well known for his mediation experience, will be the other two members of the panel.

Interestingly, all the three men appointed by the apex court hail from Tamil Nadu where the Ayodhya dispute does not have much resonance.

The mediation process in Faizabad of Uttar Pradesh, around 7 km from the twin city of Ayodhya, will commence within a week and the panel will submit a progress report within four weeks, the top court said in its order that came ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

It said the mediation proceeding to be held "in-camera" and in "utmost confidentiality" will be completed within eight weeks which is the interregnum period granted earlier by the apex court to the parties in the main Ayodhya case to go through translations of oral and documentary evidences.

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it does not find any "legal impediment" to make a reference to mediation for a possible settlement of the dispute.

"We therefore order accordingly, and having taken note of the names suggested by the parties, we are of the view that the following panel of mediators should be appointed to go into the dispute with liberty to the mediators to co-opt other members of the panel, if so required," it said.

Declaring the names, the bench said: "Justice (retd) Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla-chairman, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar-member, senior advocate Sriram Panchu-member."

The bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer, was told earlier by Hindu bodies, except for Nirmohi Akhara, and the Uttar Pradesh government, that they oppose the court's suggestion for mediation.

The Muslim bodies supported the proposal.

However, both sides suggested the panel of names for possible mediators.

The three panel members separately said they will strive to achieve a resolution of the vexed dispute.

"For the present, I can only say that if the committee has been constituted, we will take every step to resolve the dispute amicably," Kalifulla said in Chennai.

He had earlier served as a judge of the Madras high court.

While Ravishankar said everybody must move together to end long-standing conflicts, Panchu said the court has given a "serious" responsibility and he will do his best.

Ravishankar also said the decision is in the best interest of the country.

A number of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders made it clear that building Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya is the only way out of the impasse.

Union minister Uma Bharti said one has to respect the court order but asserted that she stands for building the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and a mosque can be built only outside its vicinity.

BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao said keeping the dispute pending for long is not in anyone's interest.

IMAGE: Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha member Pandit Nand Kishore Mishra and Nirmohi Akhara's Sitaram Das at the Supreme Court premises. Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board welcomed the court order, saying it would be most befitting that the matter is resolved through negotiations.

While Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati called the move "appreciable", All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said Ravi Shankar should act in an "unbiased" manner.

The Congress said it respects the Court decision and noted that the court's verdict should be final and binding on all parties.

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Brinda Karat said the previous mediation efforts had failed to yield results but this time, the Supreme Court is monitoring it and all the parties who have gone to the court are in agreement with the decision and it is to be seen what will be the result.

While opposing the suggestion of mediation, Hindu bodies have argued that earlier attempts of reaching a compromise have failed and provisions of Civil Procedure Code require public notice to be issued before the start of mediation process.

"Considering the provisions of the CPC..., we do not find any legal impediment in making a reference to mediation for a possible settlement of the dispute(s) arising out of the appeals. Whether the said provisions of the CPC would apply in the event parties arrive at a settlement/compromise in the mediation proceedings is a matter left open to be decided at the appropriate stage," the bench said.

The top court directed that the mediation proceedings be conducted with "utmost confidentiality" for ensuring its success and the views expressed by any of the parties including the mediators should be kept confidential and not be revealed to any other person.

"We are of the further opinion that while the mediation proceedings are being carried out, there ought not to be any reporting of the said proceedings either in the print or in the electronic media," the bench said.

However, it refrained from passing any specific restrain order at this stage and instead empowered the mediators to pass necessary orders in writing, if so required, to restrain publication of the details of the mediation proceedings.

"The Chairman of the mediation panel may also inform the registry of this court any difficulties that the panel may face in carrying out the task assigned to it by the present order and also to inform of any requirement to facilitate the mediation and to conclude the same at the earliest."

The Supreme Court's idea on Friday, favouring amicable settlement, was mooted earlier as well by the top court -- on March 21, 2017.

A bench headed by the then Chief Justice J S Khehar had said that fresh attempts must be made by all parties concerned to find a solution to the Ayodhya temple dispute which is a "sensitive" and "sentimental" matter.

However, the contesting parties were hesitant to support the suggestion made by the then bench, which also comprised Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul.

Fixing the seat for mediation process in Faizabad, the court on Friday said that adequate arrangements including the venue of the mediation, place of stay of the mediators, their security, travel should be forthwith arranged by the state government so that proceedings could commence immediately.

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad high court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

On December 6, 1992, the Babri Masjid, constructed at the disputed site in the 16th century by Shia Muslim Mir Baqi, was demolished triggering communal riots across the country in which nearly 2,000 people were killed.
Amid mounting world pressure in the wake of Pulwama terror attack, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said his government will not allow any terror group on Pakistani soil which carries attacks outside the country.

Khan blamed the previous governments for the flourishing of terror and extremist groups in the country, saying none had taken any action against the banned individuals and outfits.

However, after the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf took over, the National Action Plan for countering terrorism and extremism was taken seriously, he said while addressing a public meeting in Tharparkar district of Sindh.

The remarks came amid mounting international pressure on Pakistan to act against terror groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack.

In his speech, Khan said Pakistan wants peace with India but will retaliate in case of any aggression by the neighbouring country.

We want peace and not war. But no one should remain mistaken. Pakistan is awake. Any aggression or misadventure by India will receive a befitting reply. We are ready to fight till our last breath, the prime minister added.

"Agar aapko lagta hai ki Pakistanio ka khun karke aap election jeetenge to aisi galat faimy mei mat rehna. Aap kuch bhi karoge uspe jawabi karwayei hogi (If you think that you will win elections by killing Pakistanis, you should not be in that mistaken notion. If you do anything, there will be an answer to it)," he said.

There has been heightened tension between India and Pakistan since India carried out an air strike at Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan on February 26.

The IAF action came in the wake of Pulwama terror attack by JeM on February 12.

Speaking on the outcry over the anti-Hindu remarks by his partys minister who hassince been sacked, Khan said his government stands with the minority communities in Pakistan.

Khan noted that half of the Sindhi population belongs to Hindu religion.
Indrani exclaimed excitedly, her face lighting up like a little girl's: "I know him soo0o well."

Sanjeev Khanna, Accused No 2, jokingly suggested to Badami: "Influencing the witness!"

Badami retorted good humouredly: "She can't influence witnesses. She can only influence you and Peter."

Vaihayasi Pande Daniel reports from the Sheena Bora murder trial.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

On arrival at the Mumbai city civil and sessions court, Kala Ghoda, south Mumbai, on Thursday, March 7, 2019, a sunny spring day, Nagpur Police Commissioner Dr Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay briskly strode down the court annexe's third floor corridor, heading first to CBI Special Judge Jayendra Chandrasen Jagdale's chambers to offer his salutations.

Accused No 1 Indrani Mukerjea, clad in a light blue shirt, white pants, black shoes and a touch of sindhoor at the edge of her hairline, was sitting on the backless wooden bench outside Courtroom 51, deeply immersed in her legal papers. But she, her expressive grasshopper eyes always roving about, the inimitable antennae quivering, never ever missing much, saw Dr Upadhyay walk past.

She exclaimed excitedly, her face lighting up like a little girl's, to CBI Public Prosecutor Bharat B Badami: "I know him soo0o well."

Sanjeev Khanna, Accused No 2, in orange and brown, sitting at a bench a little away, jokingly suggested to Badami: "Influencing the witness!"

Badami retorted good humouredly: "She can't influence witnesses. She can only influence you and Peter."

Laughter.

When the hearing began shortly after 3 pm, the police officer became Prosecution Witness 37 in the Sheena Bora murder trial.

It lasted nearly an hour -- quite a bit longer than the 10 seconds Indrani's trial lawyer Sudeep Ratnamberdutt Pasbola had predicted to Badami the previous week, when he faulted him for not bringing enough witnesses quickly enough and wasting time.

Before that, Peter Mukerjea, wearing khaki and white, took the stand to request the judge for progress on his bail application which he had filed in November 2018.

Pleading with the judge -- "I am an old man" -- Peter requested some quicker movement on his plea.

Judge Jagdale reassured him.

Later, the judge asked Badami when he would give his answering arguments to the bail application and firmly persuaded him into replying by Friday, March 8.

CBI Special Prosecutor Kavita Patil, in a floral silk sari with a black border, took Dr Upadhyay through his testimony in chief.

The police officer, a fairly tall man of strong build, starchy-looking in his police uniform, the Ashoka lions emblem and crossed swords on his epaulets and a medal on his chest, took the witness stand and greeted the judge with, "Sir, namaskar."

Still wearing his hat and carrying his brown police baton under his left arm, he began to testify, first offering his personal details and that he was presently the police commissioner of Nagpur (since July 2018) but had been principal secretary of the home department of Maharashtra in Mumbai in 2015.

Patil: "Sir, are you aware about the Sheena Bora murder case?"

Dr Upadhyay: "Yes."

Patil: "In what context you came across this case?"

Dr Upadhyay: "I came across it (during the) transfer of this case to the CBI."

Judge Jagdale: "The file came to your department for transfer of the investigation to the CBI?"

Dr Upadhyay: "Yes."

Patil: "What was the decision?"

Upadhyay: "The decision was by the home ministry that this case should go to the CBI."

Dr Upadhyay's face was guarded throughout the hearing, his face conveying little, a flat expression always in place, his eyes at times sweeping the room, his hands holding the railing.

He spoke carefully, strongly, offering minimum, bare-boned answers, addressing both Pasbola and the judge as "Sir".

There was nothing about his manner, through that one hour, to indicate the colourful, eloquent, man he actually is -- a 1989 Maharashtra cadre Indian Police Service officer, who hails from Bihar, awarded four prestigious police medals, with a PhD in Sanskrit and near perfect fluency in Urdu, for which he received an award from the Maharashtra Urdu Sahitya Akademi in 2016.

The author of a few books, Urdu was a language Dr Upadhyay picked up -- through various postings in Solapur, Jalgaon, Chandrapur, Pandharpur, Osmanabad, Latur -- he has said in several public speeches, to aid his police work because he felt Urdu was a language that united people and brought harmony, just like said literature does.

The commissioner confirmed that a notification was issued to that effect by him to have the Sheena Bora murder case transferred to the CBI and was willing to identify the notification and his signature on it.

A paper was presented to him by the clerks, at Patil's say so, when Pasbola objected saying it was not an original.

The judge dismayed, shaking his head: "Not an original?"

The paper showing this notification was examined and re-examined and other papers were rearranged to see if an original was about. Dr Upadhyay's aides, who had perhaps accompanied him from Nagpur, came forward with their files and copies.

Pasbola teased Patil, "Madam aap ke ghar mein ho sakta hai (maybe it is in your home)."

The judge looked askance at the prosecution and clucked in Marathi, perturbed: "Three (court) dates have gone by and the originals are still not there. I don't understand."

It was decided that the originals would be eventually produced while Patil continued conducting Dr Upadhyay's 'chief' and the senior police officer was asked to compare the different copies of this notification.

Pasbola intervened sharply again: "The question is of comparison of what with a photocopy?!"

Patil, miffed: "Why you shouting?"

Badami echoing Patil, in solidarity: "Don't shout."

Patil, piously: "You can address the court in a mild voice. Maintain the decorum of the court."

Badami, adding his two bits: "In a sound voice."

Pasbola, equanimously and logically: "But I have a sound voice."

Badami countered: "I am also having double voice."

The police officer had a copy of the notification with him. While not the original that Pasbola was seeking, the commissioner's document was deemed an 'original office copy' that had Dr Upadhyay's signature on it.

The judge: "Original signature?"

Dr Upadhyay: "Yes."

The judge, with a laugh, his eyes twinkling: "Every time it should be the original."

Judge Jagdale, whose pleasant face radiates positivity, succeeds in always ably and smoothly maintaining, unusually, both a level of dignity and a kind of good-humoured peace in Courtroom 51.

Badami, reminding Pasbola of his earlier 10 second declaration: "Ten minutes ho gaya (Already ten minutes have elapsed)."

Pasbola came back with: "Khush? (Happy?)"

Dr Upadhyay blandly looked on, watching the banter. Not exactly bemused. Not entirely comprehending either.

All newcomers to court are perhaps puzzled by the equations that exist. The prosecution and defence may spar and quarrel, engaged in non-stop chillam chilli (clamour), sometimes alarmingly, but it also accompanied by loads of joviality and jesting.

The lawyer got up to cross-examine the commissioner addressing him respectfully throughout as Dr Upadhyay.

His initial endeavour was to understand how the notification for a transfer of the Sheena Bora murder case from the Khar police station, north west Mumbai, which was investigating the case in August-September 2015, under the supervision of then Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria, to the CBI, came about, from whom and the reasons for that decision.

It transpired that the letter, dated September 18, 2015, ordering the transfer of the case came from then director general of police Sanjeev Dayal (who retired in December that year) and was addressed to then Maharashtra additional chief secretary K P Bakshi.

Dr Upadhyay accepted the proposal that "very day" and it was put on file and sent to the home affairs minister, a post being held then (and now) by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who accepted on also the same day too and the notification was issued.

At the time, only three people were in the know of this proposal and notification, Dr Upadhyay being the fourth and the desk officer who drew it up the fifth.

Pasbola questioned Dr Upadhyay narrowly but politely and wondered what was Dr Upadhyay's reason for accepting the proposal.

Dr Upadhyay, quietly but steadfastly: "I felt that the letter of the DG director general of police) was in the interest of justice."

Pasbola, succinctly: "You were in a lower rank to the DG at that time?"

Upadhyay: "Yes."

After a pause he strategically added, neutralising Pasbola's suggestion calmly: "As per protocol I was not working as (a police officer then), I was working as a secretary to the Government of India and was not under the DGP."

The lawyer asked about the documents accompanying the proposal, to justify it.

The commissioner, who still had some papers in front of him, swiftly shuffled through them, doing some quick homework on the stand, before answering.

He confirmed there were no documents accompanying the proposal.

Pasbola checked if he had the proposal for that September 2015 notification with him.

He had.

The lawyer requested that the proposal be put before the court.

A small ruckus erupted. Both Patil and Badami were adamant that it was a "highly confidential document" of the government and could not be tabled in court.

At the back in the accused box, Indrani was eagerly on her feet, also asking that it be shown to the court.

Pasbola pointed out that a document deemed confidential within the government did not translate to mean it was confidential in a court too.

That is the intriguing aspect of a courtroom, that applies through and through -- before a court nothing entering from outside is sacrosanct.

Dr Upadhyay might be a police commissioner outside the courtroom, but his jurisdiction ends as he enters the court.

Interactions between lawyers and witnesses (no matter who they are), quite like how it is between journalists and their subjects, occurs with a special ruthless impunity afforded to lawyers.

While lawyers might speak with respect with a witness during a trial, everyone is strictly on the same plane, where there is no hierarchy.

The power play here is quite different, with a lawyer having the right to best a police commissioner in argument or through cross-examination.

Also, only when you enter a courtroom do you fathom the absolute power of a judge, who is almost no less than a god of a democracy and the awe in which he is to be held.

A three-way exchange began with the judge asking Pasbola to show that the document was needed in the interest of a fair trial.

Pasbola declared: "There was interference of the then commissioner of police... The facts are there on record."

He added later angrily that they needed to know why the case was transferred, "In the beginning there was a criminal conspiracy" to implicate his client he implied.

The lawyer named no names, but it was clear he was referring to Rakesh Maria and his perceived interest in this case which implicated Indrani and Peter Mukerjea.

Patil kept protesting that it was confidential, with Badami backing her up.

Pasbola, vexed by their joint noisy protest: "Doh doh jan chilane ka zaroorat nahin hai? (Do two people have to keep shouting?) We have ten," pointing to the flank of black suits on his left, indicating he could get them to start yelling too.

Badami, equally aggravated: "You bring ten more."

Pasbola: "Let it not be a machchi (fish) bazaar."

He also argued before the judge that one had look at through a different "prism" and how it was all "very nebulous" and said there was no law that the accused should not see it and that he did not see "what prejudice is caused by taking it (proposal) on record."

Pasbola mentioned as well that portions of the proposal could be used by the defence at a later date

Patil suggested that they ask the commissioner and also said it was for the court to decide.

The judge turned to Dr Upadhyay, who cautiously agreed that it should be left up to the court to make a decision.

Judge Jagdale put down on record: "I have gone through the contents of the proposal. In my opinion, in the interest of (a) fair trial the proposal can be (produced) on record though it was confidential official correspondence still, I hold that, the contents of the said proposal will be helpful for fair trial..."

Pasbola to the judge: "My lord, grateful."

And then turning to the commissioner, "Now Dr Upadhyay, do you know that there were two different cases?"

Elucidating further, he said there was the initial arms act case against Shyamvar Pintu Rai, the Mukherjeas's driver, now the approver in the case. And then the case of murder.

Upadhyay said he did not know the actual details of the case and also that the proposal had been drafted by a desk officer at Mantralaya, the seat of the Maharashtra government.

Pasbola then zoomed in on his crucial last two questions: "Please see your notification. And please see your proposal. Section 3 and 25 of Arms Act (implicating Accused No 3 Shyamvar Pinturam Rai for possession of an illegal firearm) not there in the proposal."

Dr Upadhyay agreed it was not there. Although it was there in the notification.

Pasbola: "You will not be able to say why it was added?"

Dr Upadhyay: "No."

Pasbola: "As per this notification it is there," implying that there was no reasoning why both cases under the Arms Act and case of 302 Indian Penal Code (punishment for murder) were transferred to the CBI, since for some mysterious reason it was not in the initial proposal, which was only about transferring the case relating to Sheena's murder to the CBI.

The defence asked for a copy of the proposal.

A further rumpus started up.

The prosecution was not willing to give it.

Pasbola interjected, saying it was now an exhibit and it had to be given.

Badami said the defence had to "solemnly swear" not to reveal its contents to anyone else.

The judge cut in, beaming: "Don't scandalise the court."

Looking at Indrani's lawyer Gunjan Mangla, who was scanning the document with her phone, Badami was horrified: "Don't WhatsApp it!"

Mangla protested vigorously, "I am not WhatsApping it. I am scanning it", explaining, amused, giggling, that there was more than one thing that one could do with a cellphone.

Badami expressed surprise, mock amused puzzlement writ large on his face, either about the unbelievable advance of technology or towards the events unfolding before him, mumbled something to the effect: "These days what is happening I don't know."

After the hearing ended, he came out into the corridor, still muttering, "They want originals. Everyone wants proof. Opposition wants proof of surgical strikes. Kisi ko kacha channa nahin khana hai, pakka channa khayenge (everybody wants only the final product, nothing half-baked)."

The next hearing is set for March 12.
Medha Patkar

Probably the best known woman activist in India as well as abroad who has spent her life fighting for the marginalised sections of the population.

She is best known for initiating the Narmada Bachao Andolan in 1985 against big dams on the Narmada river in three states -- Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

In addition to questioning the feasibility of the project from the technical, financial, social (rehabilitation) and environmental stand points, her larger contribution has put under review the entire idea of modern development.

Initially, intellectuals and political parties christened the movement as anti-development and because of this some people also accused Medha Patkar of being anti-national.

But when it was seen that in projects after projects the benefits were exaggerated and costs underestimated, that well-off sections of the population or industries were the beneficiaries and poor communities, often tribal, were displaced without proper rehabilitation and environment was adversely affected, people began to change their opinion on the concept of 'development'.

Questions like 'Whose development?' 'At whose cost?' began to be raised.

Jawaharlal Nehru had described these projects as temples of modern India. Hence, these projects acquired a certain degree of sanctity in the sense that they could not be questioned.

It took lot of effort for Medha Patkar and her fellow activists to shake policy makers, intellectuals and larger society out of this parochial mindset.

Her stand was vindicated when she was chosen as one of the two Indian members on the World Commission on Dams. The Commission came out with a report recommending that social and environmental aspects have to be given the same significance as technical, economic and financial, that there should be informed participation of all stakeholders in decision making and most importantly, free, prior and informed consent of indigenous people should be ensured.

Soon, Medha Patkar's role grew larger than the movement and she began to be invited by all victims of various development projects in the country.

She and her colleagues formed the National Alliance of People's Movements to bring all such movements on a single platform.

The platform continues to play an important role and has large number of people's movements on board.

Medha Patkar also initiated the Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao movement in Mumbai for the right of slum dwellers and against demolition of their slums by civic authorities.

NAPM was also behind exposing the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai by using the Right to Information Act.
TORRINGTON  Police are looking for a missing 78-year-old man from Torrington.

A Silver Alert was issued early Friday morning for Andrew Gardner, 78.

Gardner, a white male with white hair and brown eyes, stands approximately 5-feet, 6-inches tall and weighs about 170 pounds, according to the alert.

He is believed to be driving a red 2005 Mazda 6 with Connecticut license plate HE5967.

Anyone with infomation about his whereabouts is asked to contact Torrington police at 860-489-2000.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
Six activists of the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) have fled Cambodia this week, fearing political persecution at the hands of the court, which they say is controlled by the Hun Sen-led Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP).

They are now seeking refugee status in an undisclosed country, and join about 75 others who have fled Cambodias since Hun Sens attack on the CNRP began in late 2017.

The six were charged with incitement after gathering together to make public statements in December and January in support of acting party chief Sam Rainsys plan to return to Cambodia to challenge the CPPs stranglehold on political power.

Sam Rainsy, a co-founder of the CNRP, has been living in self-imposed exile since November 2015 in Paris, France to avoid court action on criminal charges.

On Feb. 28, Kampong Speu provincial court issued summons for the six activists to appear March 19 for questioning.

The activists lawyer, Sam Sokong, said that his clients are now in an undisclosed country after they left Cambodia earlier this week. He said they left because they didnt believe that justice would be served in Cambodias court system.

The court order is illegal because [the six] have the right to assembly, which is guaranteed by the constitution, said Sam Sokong.

One of the six, former Traeng Trayeung commune chief Kim Tola said she gathered with the other activists to support Sam Rainsys return and she didnt commit any crimes.

It is a politically motivated case, she said in an interview with RFAs Khmer Service.

It is wrong to charge us of a serious crime, said Kim Tola.

Another activist in the group, Hong Theng, said that if he were to show up in court, he would be arrested and detained, and that it was a good choice to leave the country.

They accused me of incitement to commit a crime, he said.

It is a criminal charge. How could they charge me with a crime for what I did? I was just showing support for Sam Rainsy, he said.

Former CNRP lawmaker Long Ry, who fled Cambodia in 2017 and is now in the United States, revealed on Wednesday that the six are now in an undisclosed location. He said there were about 75 activists there who left Cambodia to avoid persecution.

He noted that in the past there were as many as 100, but some have returned home. He urged the six activists not to succumb to the courts orders.

We must maintain our mission at the ground level to make sure Sam Rainsy can return, he said, adding that he believed the interim president would return in 2019.

A senior CNRP member said that the six activists will apply for refugee status from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) office in Bangkok. He also said that among the other Cambodian activists in Bangkok, several have been granted asylum, but some have not because they desire to return to political life back home.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan said that all activists who fled from Cambodia are only doing so because they want to revolt.

They are leaving so that they can settle down overseas to form a rebel group to oppose the government, he said.

Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Canadian police are investigating whether a torrent of online abuse and harassment of a Tibetan woman studying at the University of Toronto last month constitutes a crime.



"The Toronto police are currently investigating the threatening online messages sent to Chemi Lhamo," police spokeswoman Jenifferjit Sidhu told reporters.



"The investigation began on Feb. 26, and is still ongoing," she said. "We won't be able to take the next step yet, as we are still gathering more evidence."



Chemi Lhamo, who was born in India and is a vocal supporter of Students For a Free Tibet, started getting hate mail after being elected President of Scarborough Campus Students Union (SCSU) on Feb. 9.



One comment read: "China is your daddyyou better know this," while another threatened her, saying "we will make sure things get done so u won't survive a day. Peace RIP."



Meanwhile, a petition calling on Lhamo to step down garnered nearly 10,000 signatures, and screenshots calling Lhamo a "Tibetan separatist" were shared via social media.



Lhamo issued a statement saying she wouldn't be influenced by the hate mail, and blaming the abuse on on Chinese government infiltration of Canadian universities.



Now, Toronto police are scrolling through around 15,000 comments in different languages on various social media sites, to determine whether any of the messages broke Canadian law.



Lhamo is also reporting to campus police on an hourly basis to ensure her safety, the National Post newspaper reported.



China denies involvement



The Chinese consulate in Toronto has denied any involvement in the mobilization of Chinese students against Lhamo, saying the online comments were spontaneously generated by "objective facts and patriotic enthusiasm."



Canadian lawyer Richard Lee said police could be looking for messages that constitute harassment under Canadian law.



"Part of the law on harassment defines harassment as using communications in a way that could constitute threats or cause a person anxiety," Lee told RFA. "If such actions occur repeatedly, then this could constitute the crime of harassment."



"If criminal charges are proven, then they can result in a fine or a prison sentence," he said.



The maximum sentence in severe cases is 10 years' imprisonment, while less serious charges could result in a C$5,000 fine and six months' imprisonment, Lee said.



'Deeply concerned'



An independent group of overseas Chinese students last month hit out at Chinese Communist Party-backed student groups on overseas campuses, following reports that they threatened and harassed Chemi Lhamo, among other activists campaigning against Beijing's human rights violations.



The Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars in USA (IFCSS) said it was "deeply concerned" about reports that have emerged from universities in the United States, Canada, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands of the coordinated targeting of activists campaigning against China's treatment of ethnic minorities.



It said that "apparently organized pro-CCP (Chinese Communist Party) students harassed, abused and threatened Uyghur and Tibetan students, concerned scholars and activists," in incidents at McMaster University and the University of Toronto in Canada, and Duke University in the U.S.



Uyghur activist Rukiye Turdush, whose lecture on the mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other ethnic minority Muslims in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) was disrupted by Chinese students at Duke University, said Chinese students had discussed locating her son, while screenshots emerged suggesting the students were liaising with the Chinese embassy or consulate.



Routinely targeted



Meanwhile, the University of Toronto student newspaper Varsity published an opinion piece from the president of the Students For a Free Tibet group on Scarborough Campus, saying that its members are routinely targeted by mainland Chinese students.



"Our members have been a constant target of ire from certain sections of the international Chinese student community at our events on campus," Dechen Tenzin wrote.



"It is not uncommon for Chinese students to show up at our tables to mock, question, and demean our displays and our objective of spreading awareness about the ongoing Tibetan struggle."



"It would not be entirely surprising if the international Chinese students campaigning against Lhamo were receiving direct support from the Chinese government," Dechen Tenzin said.



"It would not be the first time that questions over the Chinese governments interference through student groups have surfaced."



Reported by Liu Fei for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
The democratic island of Taiwan would welcome a visit from exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, the leader of its ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has said.



DPP secretary-general Lo Wen-jia told Tibetan and human rights activists in Taipei on Thursday that the Dalai Lama should be free to visit anywhere he wants, including Tibet.



"We would welcome the Dalai Lama if he is able to visit Taiwan," Lo said. "Actually, he should have the right to visit anywhere he chooses, including his homeland [of Tibet]."



Lo's remarks came ahead of a planned march in Taipei to mark the 60th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese Communist Party rule.



He also used the example of China's suppression of Tibetan religion and culture over the past 60 years to warn against heeding Chinese President Xi Jinping's Jan. 2 call for "peaceful unification" with Taiwan.



After the Chinese Communist regime signed 17 agreements with Tibet, the agreements were torn up and their army entered Tibet, he said.



During the occupation, 1.2 million Tibetans died of unnatural causes, more than 6,000 Buddhist holy sites were destroyed, and countless Tibetans were exiled overseas, he said.



"I believe that there should be no grey areas between democracy and dictatorship, human rights and totalitarianism," Lo told reporters.



"I hope that [any of our politicians] will be able to make it clear which side they are on."



He said there should be "no illusions" when dealing with Beijing.



"We should have no illusions about any dictatorship," Lo said. "Peace agreements will never bring peace; only massacres and persecution."



Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen rejected Xi's proposal, saying the island's government wouldn't negotiate unless China itself became democratic, and that Taiwan had no intention of giving up its sovereignty as the Republic of China, which dates back to Sun Yat-sen's 1911 revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).



Lo also hit out at the mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other minority ethnic Muslims in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).



"How is this different from the Nazis in the Second World War?," Lo said.



Proposed annexation



Tashi Tsering, founder of Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan, said Lo's assessment of Tibet's history was accurate.



"The Taiwan government wants to be very careful with any negotiations with China," he warned. "Historically, we have Tibet on the one hand, and Hong Kong on the other."



The return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997 has seen a marked increase in Communist Party power and influence in the former British colony, with the gradual erosion of its status as a separate legal jurisdiction and its traditional freedoms, according to its own democratic politicians, journalists and lawyers, as well as overseas rights groups and governments.



Beijing is proposing to annex Taiwan "peacefully" under the same promise of "one country, two systems."



The Dalai Lama last visited Taiwan in 2009, after hundreds of people died in Typhoon Morakot.



Reported by Hsia Hsiao-hwa for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Chung Kuang-cheng for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Women who campaign for human rights in China face reprisals from the ruling Chinese Communist Party, including enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, sexual abuse and torture, an overseas rights group has said.



Since the death of rights activist Cao Shunli in a police detention center five years ago, women who challenge official abuse of power are still in a vulnerable situation, the overseas based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network said, in a report released ahead of International Women's Day on .



"The Chinese government has intensified suppression of womens rights advocates, including NGOs advocating for womens rights, in recent years," the report said.



It said activist Jin Shunnu died in in detention on charges related to "national security," but when her family filed a complaint in January calling on Fushan city authorities to investigate, officials refused to give the family any explanation.



When the killers of women in custody are brought to justice, their sentences can be relatively light, the report said, citing the prison terms handed down to seven officials convicted over Li Shulian's 2009 death by torture in an extralegal "black jail" in Longkou, Shandong.



Cao died aged 52 on , 2014 after she was denied medical treatment for months while in detention, according to her brother and fellow activists who blasted the government for using medical care as leverage to silence critics.



Her lawyers had made repeated requests for her release to allow her to receive medical treatment, but no action was taken until she was seriously ill. She suffered from tuberculosis in both her lungs, cirrhosis of the liver, and uterine fibroids.



Cao was detained as she set out for Switzerland to take part in a U.N. Human Rights Council review in .



Since then, the ruling Chinese Communist Party has targeted civil organizations including the Beijing Yirenping Center, a public health and anti-discrimination NGO, the Weizhiming Womens Center in Hangzhou, which had run campaigns against gender discrimination, violence against women and sexual harassment, and the Beijing Zhongze Womens Legal Counseling Service Center, which provided legal assistance to women, CHRD said.



"While the #MeToo movement sparked a conversation in 2018, mainly online, about sexual harassment in China, it also led to some backlash and widespread censorship," the group said.



"Authorities also shut down Sina Weibo and Tencent WeChat accounts of the group Feminist Voices in March," it said.



Far fewer feminist voices in 2019



Wang Xiaoli, a women's rights activist from the eastern province of Jiangsu, said she had noticed far fewer feminist voices on China's tightly controlled internet on this year's International Women's Day than in previous years.



She said a petition calling for better rights for women had appeared on social media, but had garnered scant support.



"A few dozen people signed, but then after that, nobody signed at all, that I could see," Wang said. "There are so few people signing petitions these days; a lot of feminists are afraid to express their views."



"It's not like it was a few years ago; the suppression by the Chinese Communist Party is very harsh," she said. "Nobody's going to stand there holding placards ... because that would get you detained for 'picking quarrels and stirring up trouble'."



Wang said that government crackdowns appeared to be working, as very few people are now willing to express support for women's rights in China now.



Rights lawyer Wang Shengsheng said the administration of President Xi Jinping, who is currently serving an indefinite term in office, regards anyone who campaigns for anyone's rights as a threat.



"It doesn't matter what rights you are fighting for; they will regard your actions as illegal," Wang Shengsheng said. "There are now very tight controls on freedom of thought and expression, whether it is to do with feminism or something else."



"[They are] preventing [civil rights] from developing, to the extent of sending them into reverse."



According to CHRD, an estimated 976 activists and dissidents are currently under enforced disappearance, pretrial detention, or in prison in China.



Many women who have tried to defend human rights in China have faced persecution, including arbitrary detention, torture and inhumane punishment by medical deprivation, the group said, citing the cases of lawyer Li Yuhan, activists Liu Ping, Li Xiaoling and Su Changlan and citizen journalists Ding Lingjie and Wang Jing, among many others.



"Persecuted women [rights activists] often face sexual harassment," it said. "Several women ... spoke out in 2018, accusing policemen of subjecting them to degrading treatment by forcing them to undergo strip searches,and sexual harassment to intimidate them."



House arrest for lawyer's wife

CHRD said Xu Yan, wife of detained human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, lawyer Shihua and activist Zhang Lifang were among them.



Unidentified people wearing the red armbands of citizen security details in Beijing placed Xu under house arrest on , she told RFA.



Xu, who is now under the guard of around a dozen police officers and neighborhood officials at her Beijing apartment, said her surveillance had been ordered by the Shijingshan district state security police.



"I just went out to the corridor and found several people sitting in the corridor," she said. "They wouldn't let me go out."



"There were about 12 of them blocking the corridor ... so I didn't go out ," Xu said. "These people are on duty are on duty 24 hours a day, all through the night."



The move comes after Xu wrote last month to Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress of China, and several vice-chairmen and secretary-generals, urging them to strengthen supervision of the judiciary.



Other wives, sisters and mothers of detained prisoners of conscience have also faced harsh retaliation from authorities, CHRD said, citing the beating and detention last December of Huang Qi's mother Pu Wenqing, 86.



"To silence her, police detained Pu in a secret location for more than one month and only released her into house arrest as her health seriously deteriorated," CHRD said.



Authorities have also hit back at campaigning women and their children with detention, abduction, housing eviction, restricted movement, banned travel abroad, and constant surveillance and monitoring, it said.



Reported by Wong Lok-to for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Gao Feng for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Three Lao workers trapped last week by a landslide while digging a passage to divert creek water to a nearby dam were found dead this week, with a fourth worker badly hurt, sources in the country say.



The three men killed in the accident, which occurred on Feb. 28 in the Paksong district of Champassak province in southern Laos, were identified as Hang, 41, a laborer from Savannakhet province; Koy, 35, a welder from Salavan province; and Ko, 32, a mechanic from Savannakhet.



Injured in the collapse was a driver from Savannakhet named Kanya, aged 49.



In an announcement following the bodies discovery on Wednesday, the Xaysongkham Company, which had been contracted by project owner B Grimm Power Lao Co. to dig the passage, took full responsibility for the loss of life.



The company and the families of the victims have already agreed on the amount of compensation for their losses, an official from the provincial Labor and Social Welfare Department told RFA.



On Wednesday, the victims families conducted Buddhist ceremonies and funerals for the men killed in the collapse.



Speaking to RFA on March 5, a provincial administration official said the collapse had also trapped a bulldozer and backhoe used to cut a 5-meter wide passage through a valley to send water to a reservoir servicing the Xe Namnoi 2 - Xe Katam 1 dam.



The dam, built at a cost of $49 million, has been operational since 2016, but its reservoir often faces water shortages, especially during the dry season, sources said.



An investigation into the accidents cause is still under way, Lao sources said.



The latest incident comes as Laos has stepped up scrutiny of its ambitious hydropower dam building program following a July 2018 dam disaster described as the countrys worst flooding in decades.



The disaster occurred when a saddle dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy (PNPC) hydropower project collapsed, inundating 12 villages and killing at least 40 people in Champassak and Attapeu provinces, leaving many more missing.



Reported and translated by Max Avary for RFAs Lao Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.
A railway connecting the Lao capital Vientiane with the port of Vung Ang on Vietnams coast may have trouble finding lenders to finance the project, plans for which were announced at the end of February by Lao and Vietnamese leaders, experts say.



The proposed 555-km (330-mile) rail line is expected to cost U.S. $5 billion, with each side pledging to seek financing for the stretch of railway on its soil, according to a Feb. 25 report by the Vientiane Times.



Money for the project, announced during a Feb. 24-25 visit to Laos by Vietnamese president Nguyen Phu Trong, may be hard to find though, Murray Hiebertsenior associate for the Southeast Asia program at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studiestold RFAs Lao Service in an interview.



I dont see any funders out there that are going to want to put up $5 billion right now, Hiebert said, adding that international lending institutions are now concerned at the level of Laoss debt, projected to rise this year to as much as 60 percent of the landlocked, impoverished Southeast Asian countrys GDP.



I talked to them at some length last year, some months ago, and there was really not much interest in adding to Laoss debt burden, Hiebert said.



Laos really doesnt have a lot of room to keep borrowing money for these big infrastructure projects, Hiebert said, noting that Laos has borrowed heavily to build dams on the Mekong River and has already spent over $500 million on a still unfinished high-speed railroad connecting China with the Lao capital Vientiane.



The rail link now planned to run to Vietnams coast may be more a diplomatic project than an economic one, Hiebert said.



What Laos is trying to do is find a way to show Vietnam that it still wants to be friends with them, too, he said.



[But] I think that Laos has pretty much stretched its capability to borrow money, Hiebert said.



Too little transparency



Also speaking to RFA, Keith Barneysenior lecturer at the Crawford School of Public Policy at Australian National Universitysaid that the proposed rail link joining Laos with Vietnam would be better supported economically by also connecting with Thailand.



"I am doubtful whether it would be wise for Laos to proceed with another expensive railway project that has no existing Thai connection, Barney said.



And though a feasibility study for the project has already been completed by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KICA), the results of that study have not been made public.



Without a publicly accessible feasibility study, the Lao public is still being kept in the dark regarding the potential costs and benefits of railway infrastructure, Barney said, adding, There is so little transparency behind all of these projects.



If Laos is left facing a major financial crisis in the future, Lao citizens may start to ask very difficult questions about how these projects have been organized and managed, Barney said.



[And] so there are political risks [involved] in this rapid rush to land-linked status.



Thousands of Lao families ordered from their land and homes to make way for a high-speed railway linking the country with China are meanwhile still waiting for compensation promised by their government though construction has surged ahead, sources in the country say.



Plans now call for work on the railway to end in 2021, with Chinese companies promising completion by that date despite the challenges of boring tunnels in mountainous areas of the countrys north.



Landlocked Laos expects the railroad to lower the cost of exports and consumer goods while boosting socioeconomic development in the impoverished nation of nearly 7 million people.



Reported and translated by Ounkeo Souksavanh for RFAs Lao Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.




Displaced Kachin civilians cross a river to escape fighting between the Kachin Independence Army and Myanmar government troops in a village near Myitkyina close to Myanmar's border with China, April 26, 2018.

Officials from the southwestern Chinese province that borders Myanmar have offered cash to entice ethnic Kachin refugees to return to their war-torn homeland and threatened a blockade if the group's armed forces refuse to sign a peace deal, a Kachin religious leader told RFAs Myanmar Service after talks in China last week.

The officials from Chinas Yunnan province offered as much as 120,000 yuan (U.S. $20,000) to each displaced Kachin refugee family who opts to return home to northeastern Myanmar. Yunnan accounts for the bulk of the 2,200-kilometer (1,370-mile) China-Myanmar border, the Kachin official said.

The offer, which came with a Chinese entreaty that Kachins accept the Myanmar governments nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA), was made during a March 1 meeting at the Chinese border town of Ruili between Yunnan authorities and Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) representatives, said KBC chairman Hkalam Samson.

The Yunnan delegation also urged the Kachin public not to oppose the signing of Myanmar governments NCA. The October 2015 agreement is the centerpiece of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyis peace plan to end decades of warfare between ethnic armies and the central government.

China, a major player in the ethnic conflicts along the Myanmar-China border with ambitious plans to build dams and pipelines and to exploit natural resources in Myanmar, offered to assist the refugee returnees by building homes and providing other necessities once the cease-fire process is concluded, the KBC official said.

RFA called the Chinese embassy in Myanmar's commercial capital Yangon seeking confirmation of the offer, but got no reply.

Give-and-take deal

Activist Khon Ja of the Kachin Peace Network, an NGO, said a Chinese government offer conditional on refugees returning would not go down well with displaced Kachins.

I dont think the return of the displaced Kachin refugees to their prior-to-displacement conditions can be achieved by making a give-and-take deal, he said.

Internally displaced persons [IDPs] have the right to agree to return only if conditions are right for them to live in dignity. They shouldnt be exploited politically, socially and economically. So if they want to help the IDPs, it should be a no-strings-attached deal, added Khon Ja.

Decades of warfare in Kachin state have created a population of some 100,000 Kachin refugees. Recent fighting that flared up in 2018 displaced some 4,000 Kachins.

The authorities from Yunnan province also asked the KBC leaders to appeal to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic armed group representing the mostly Christian Kachins, to sign the governments NCA as soon as possible, Hkalam Samson said.

He told RFA that the Yunnan authorities threatened a blockade if the KIA refuses to sign the NCA. Other reports have said the Yunnan officials said they will recall Chinese technicians who are providing technical assistance to KIA and close the border gates, if the KIA refuses to sign the pact.

They stated clearly that KIA needs to sign the NCA, Hkalam Samson told RFA.

If the KIA does not sign the NCA by the end of 2019, the Chinese side will start a blockade, he said, referring to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) which has been engaged in hostilities with the Myanmar military in Kachin state.

It could include all traffic, both human and commerce flows, and stop all exports and imports and flow of daily commuters through the border gate, he added.

RFA contacted KIA spokesperson Colonel Naw Bu, but he said on Thursday that he lacked authority to comment on the Chinese threats.

KIO 'ready to sign'

The KIA and other armed groups  the Arakan Army (AA), Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA)  are known collectively as the Northern Alliance.

The ethnic armies of the Northern Alliance have not signed truces with the government and continue to engage in sporadic fighting with Myanmar forces in their quest for greater autonomy and ethnic minority rights within a federal system.

KBC chairman Hkalam Samson said the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the KIA's political wing, prefers signing a bilateral agreement with the Myanmar government rather than join the multilateral NCA.

The KIO is ready to sign the bilateral agreement for now. It would [approach] NCA agreements through political negotiations. In my understanding, if there's progress for returning refugees and an improvement in public confidence, it is more likely they would sign NCA, he said.

Kachin Youth leader Seng Nu Pan said that the conditions were not yet ripe for signing the NCA.

Ethnic minorities have been demanding the rights of autonomy and self-determination. These are our main concerns. If we are granted these rights, we can accept the demands to sign NCA, he told RFA.

If the military refuses to grant us these rights, they shouldnt be making these demands to sign the NCA, he said.

Reported by Khin Khin Ei and Kyaw Tun Naing for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Khaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Paul Eckert.
General Mutu Say Poe, chairman of Myanmar's Karen National Union, arrives at a reception marking the 72nd anniversary of country's National Union Day in Naypyidaw, Feb. 12, 2019.

The head of a group of 10 ethnic armed organizations that have signed a nationwide truce with the Myanmar government has resigned, citing dissatisfaction with the countrys peace process, one of his colleagues said Wednesday following the teams two-day meeting in northern Thailand.

General Mutu Say Poe, chairman of the Karen National Union (KNU) and commander-in-chief of its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), stepped down from his position as head of the Peace Process Steering Team (PPST), KNU general secretary Tar Do Mu told reporters at a news conference in the Thai city of Chiang Mai.

Tar Do Mu was selected to replace Mutu Say Poe as one of the PPSTs two top leaders, he said.

After the resignation of the chairman, I will take over his responsibilities on the PPST, Tar Do Mu said.

Sources close to the ethnic group leaders predicted on Tuesday that Tar Do Mu would replace Mutu Say Poe, and that vice chief commander Brigadier General Baung Khae would step in for Lieutenant General Yawd Serk, the other PPST leader who is chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and commander of its military wing the Shan State Army-South.

Representatives from the ethnic armed organizations who attended the gathering agreed to the leadership change in principle but decided that Ywad Serk would remain in his position until the end of an ethnic armed group summit in May.

The members have requested that the No. 2 leader of the team, the RCSS chairman, continue in his leadership position, so he will continue to be the leader of the group in the meantime, Tar Do Mu said.

The PPST leadership changes will be confirmed at the summit, he said.

During the two-day meeting, Mutu Say Poe expressed dissatisfaction with the current implementation of the government's nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA) signed by the 10 organizations, saying it has deviated from the goal of creating a democratic federal union that includes ethnic equality and rights of autonomy.

Myanmars civilian-led government under State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has made the NCA a prerequisite for ethnic armies to participate in periodic peace negotiations, known as the 21st-Century Panglong Conference and the Union Peace Conference, to try to end decades of armed conflict that have stymied the countrys transition to a democratic federal union.

About a dozen ethnic armies have yet to sign the NCA.

Getting back on track

To get the process back on track, leaders from the 10 NCA-signatory groups will meet informally on March 9 with members of Myanmar's peace commission, who also will hold a separate unofficial meeting with KNU leaders.

The ethnic armed organizations that comprise the PSST have common goals for reaching a federal system, but their views on what kind of federal system they want differ from those of the ethnic armies implementing the terms of the NCA, Mutu Say Poe said.

We are going to launch a road map for forming a federal nation, he said. It will be a step-by-step process to reach the goal. With regards to that process, we would like to present the plan to the government leaders and talk it over. 

Leaders from the ethnic armed groups also discussed prospects for amending Myanmars 2008 constitution during the PPST meeting and pledged to change the charter to fit the needs of the NCA signatories, according to an announcement the group issued Thursday.

Myanmars parliament has established a joint committee to review and amend the constitution, drafted by a previous military junta that ruled the country, to bring it into line with democratic principles.

Currently, we are going to focus on agreements from the NCA, said RCSS spokesperson Brigadier General Sai Ngin. According to the NCA, the prospect of amending the 2008 constitution will be based on the results of the Union Peace Conference.

The PPST representatives also formed a working group to discuss with government officials three agenda items that the KNU and RCSS chairmen had outlined in a letter to Aung San Suu Kyi and military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in October 2018.

The three issues concern earlier assurances by Min Aung Hlaing to secure peace by 2020 and by Aung San Suu Kyi that three Union Peace Conference sessions would be held in 2019; a review and renegotiation of all NCA mechanisms to ensure they are fair for all parties; and the formation of a consensus among differing opinions on the degree of federalism.

Reported by Aung Moe Myint and Kyaw Lwin Oo for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Myanmar's former first lady Su Su Lwin (L), State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi (C), and Khan Thet Htay (R), wife of Vice President Myint Swe converse after an International Women's Day ceremony in Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw, Feb. 8, 2018.

International Womens Day was celebrated throughout Southeast Asia on Friday with peaceful processions calling for equal opportunities for all women and personal appeals for greater female involvement in politics in the traditionally conservative, male-dominated region.

While women in Myanmar, which is led by a prominent female leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, lamented their low representation in positions of power and the suffering of refugees from the countrys civil wars, activists in Cambodia were prevented from marching on Friday. In Vietnam, NGOs called attention to jailed women bloggers and journalists.

International Women's Day is celebrated annually on March 8 to commemorate the movement for women's rights.

Women, who comprise more than half of Myanmars population, occupy only 11.3 percent of the 433 seats in the lower house of parliament, and 12 percent of 224 seats in the upper house in the country led by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, the most visible female leader in Myanmar who also serves as foreign affairs minister.

Mya Lay Sein, deputy minister for health and sports, is the only woman in a top ministerial-level position, while at the regional level, two women serve as chief ministers, five as ethnic ministers, another five as township administrators, and 84 as village administrators.

Myanmar women are not encouraged to participate in the positions that can make important decisions, said Thinzar Shunlei Yi, an advocacy coordinator with the NGO coalition Action Committee for Democracy Development.

People need to support women lawmakers, she said. They can be trusted, but they are not trusted as much as they should be. Women also [encounter] many obstacles in doing what they want to do.

Ma Thida, a human rights activist, surgeon, writer, and former prisoner of conscience agreed.

Becuase our society is weak in supporting women to become leaders, to accept as leaders, to respect women leaders, [women] cant show their qualifications even if they reach higher level positions, said the first elected president of PEN Myanmar who now serves as a board member of PEN International, a global organization that promotes freedom for writers.

If women can work more in the administrative, judicial, and legislative sectors, there will be more balance in these sectors, said Yangon-based political commentator Yan Myo Thein.

Also, the peace process could move faster if we use womens initiative abilities, he said, referring to the governments efforts to end seven decades of armed conflict in Myanmar. Men need to try to include women as participants.

Myanmar Vice President Henry Van Thio pledged that the government would ensure that women comprise 30 percent of the participants in every sector during an event marking International Womens Day in Naypyidaw, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

The government's current national strategic plan that runs to 2022 is pushing for the advancement of women in the areas of livelihoods, education, health, and human rights, among others, the newspaper said.

As part of the plan, the government has created task forces to prevent violence against women and girls, to help them participate in politics and business, to promote gender equality in all sectors, and to ensure peace and security for women, it said.

Many ordinary women in Myanmar, especially those in rural areas with limited educational opportunities, face gender discrimination in both the workplace and society at large along with possible abuse by partners or by soldiers in areas of armed conflict.

The obstacles for these women are made even more difficult to surmount by a culture and tradition that hold that women are inferior to men and should be relegated to being housewives and raising children.

Womens places in rural area are still in the back, said Mi Ah Chai, an activist with the Mon Youth Association, referring to their lack of leadership roles in male-dominated agrarian society. There is no balance for them yet.

There are a lot of barriers for young women to work for what they want for their future, she said. It is important for young women to have good support from men, like their fathers, brothers or friends, for raising their capacity building.

Myanmar activist Naw K'nyaw Paw speaks at the International Women of Courage awards ceremony at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., March 7, 2019. Credit: AFP Human trafficking dangers in war zones

While women called for equal opportunities and gender balance at a public event marking International Womens Day in Yangon, Myanmars commercial capital, others from some of the countrys war-torn ethnic regions underscored the physical dangers that women and children face in these areas.

Khun Jar, a leader of the Kachin Peace Network, a Yangon-based humanitarian organization that assists civilians displaced by conflict in northern Myanmar, told RFAs Myanmar Service that her group is working on a case in which a 13-year-old girl was sold to China on Thursday.

This case shows that the situation of women in ethnic areas, especially in conflict areas, are worse [than elsewhere], she said. They dont even have [basic] safety. Not only their security but also their survival are at risk, and their opportunities to participate in decision-making positions are few and far between.

More than 107,000 civilians, including women and children, have been displaced in Kachin and neighboring northern Shan state during the past seven years by fighting between the Myanmar Army and ethnic armed groups or between different ethnic armies.

Human traffickers are known to operate in the border regions, such as that of Muse in Shan state, recruiting women as brides and birth surrogates for Chinese men through advertisements posted on the streets.

A day earlier in Washington, U.S. first lady Melania Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saluted 10 woman from around the world, including one from Myanmar and a Rohingya from Bangladesh, as recipients of the prestigious International Women of Courage Award.

Razia Sultana, a Bangladeshi Rohingya lawyer was honored in Washington for her fearless efforts to defend the Rohingya community in Myanmar by advocating for human rights for the Muslim refugees and documenting systematic sexual violence against women and girls.

Thousands of Rohingya women and girls suffered sexual assaults at the hands of Myanmar military forces during a brutal crackdown in northern Rakhine state in 2017 that caused more than 730,000 members of the stateless and persecuted minority group to flee their homes and seek shelter in neighboring Bangladesh.

Now living in sprawling displacement camps in southeastern Bangladesh, female Rohingya refugees are subject to sexual assaults by Rohingya men.

[In] 2017, the world watched in horror as the Burmese army unleashed unspeakable crime, and this time against the Rohingya women, said Myanmar activist Naw Knyaw Paw, who was also honored at the event for her lifelong work condemning the military-led violence against the Rohingya and helping to improve the lives of women and children in conflict-affected communities.

Thousands of rapes have been documented from one ethnic nationality to another, and still these men run the country and control the lives of our people, she said during a speech at the Washington ceremony.

Naw Knyaw Paw, a rights worker with the Karen Womens Organization (KWO) who herself was born in a displaced persons camp after government soldiers destroyed more than 3,500 villages and killed thousands of people in southeastern Myanmars Kayin state, said that many other women in other ethnic areas continue to suffer at the hands of the army.

Women are either vulnerable to attacks or currently being attacked by the Burmese army, she said. It will not end until the world takes action.

The KWO, which has more than 60,000 members in refugee camps in Thailand, in internally displaced persons camps in Kayin state, and in villages across southeastern Myanmar, has documented the militarys abuse of Karen women in various reports.

We need the world to act as a united community to implement target sanctions against the military and to have a body outside Burma to [deliver] justice and to hold generals accountable for these extreme human right violations, Naw Knyaw Paw said.

Cambodian police prevent women celebrating International Women's Day from leaving Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh, March 8, 2019. Photo courtesy of the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights Lao women lack education, job opportunities

On International Womens Day in neighboring Laos, women called for the government to improve heir basic living conditions and educational opportunities.

A teacher from Savannakhet province told RFA's Lao Service that she wants the government to raise the salaries of low-paid teachers, who sometimes go months without receiving their wages due to local government budget shortfalls.

She also asked that officials consider giving teachers who must travel far from their homes to work places to live that are closer to their schools, and to ensure that schools have electricity and toilets.

A woman from Khammouane province in the central part of the country said she also wants the government to create more job opportunities for women, especially since most factories tend to hire more men than women.

Another woman from Khammouane Province said she wants the Lao Womens Union Federation, which implements policies and laws related to the rights of women and children, womens advancement, and gender equality, to find grants that will pay for women to study and set up businesses to support their families.

But so far nothing has happened, she said.

In Cambodia, authorities restricted women rights activists from marching to the Council of Ministers building in Phnom Penh to deliver petitions outlining several demands for improving their safety and work conditions.

Rights activists, workers, union leaders, and NGO workers who participated in the demonstration were confined to the Olympic Stadium to prevent them from delivering their petitions.

More than 100 security personnel, including police, were deployed to block the women as they tried to leave the stadium.

Authorities said they didnt allow the march to the Council of Ministers office because they were afraid the event would cause traffic chaos and social disorder.

Chak Sopheap, the executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) who attended the event, said Cambodians must not be denied their rights to freedom of assembly and expression.

She also said that women should be encouraged and empowered so that they can fully and actively engage in all aspects of life.

Later in the day on Friday, Phnom Penh spokesman Meas Chanyada agreed to receive the petition and said he would submit it to the relevant state institutions by March 13.

In the document, the women called on the government to create community kindergartens and daycare centers at workplaces, build safe shelters for women and domestic workers who are victims of domestic violence, take measures to end sexual violence against women in the workplace and against female right activists, and prevent the exploitation, human trafficking, and modern-day slavery of migrant workers.

Land rights activists and victims of land grabs were not allowed to celebrate International Womens Day events in five Cambodian provinces, including Tbong Khmum and Kampong Speu.

Am Sam Ath, a senior investigator for the domestic rights group Licadho, said that peoples rights to assembly in Cambodia remain restricted.

I think the authorities should encourage people to celebrate the event, he told RFA's Khmer Service. They should take the advantage of the opportunity to appreciate the issues women face and what they need instead of restricting their rights.

Vietnamese blogger and rights activist Tran Thi Nga (C) stands during an appeal of her prison sentence at a local people's court in northern Vietnam's Ha Nam province, Dec. 22, 2017. Credit: AFP Vietnams jailed journalists

Also on International Women's Day, New York-based media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) highlighted cases of female journalists jailed around the world in retaliation for their work, including those of Tran Thi Nga and Huynh Thuc Vy.

The two women are serving sentences in Vietnam for their reporting on human rights abuses and corruption, CPJ said.

Nga, who writes under the pen name Thuy Nga, is serving a nine-year sentence for spreading propaganda against the state after writing about abuses by authorities, including trafficking, the confiscation of land, and police brutality.

At her one-day trial in July 2017, prosecutors presented as evidence videos she made on a massive fish kill caused by water pollution from toxic industrial waste discharged by a steel plant, territorial disputes with China, and state corruption, which were in violation of the law.

Can Thi Theu, a female rights activist jailed for 20 months for public disorder charges for protesting government-sanctioned evictions used to clear the way for commercial development, said Nga is not faring well in prison.

Recently, a prisoner who was freed from Ngas prison told me that Nga has to endure a lot of pressure from the guards, she told RFA's Vietnamese Service. She has always been struggling, even in the prison environment.

Vy, an independent blogger since 2008 and human rights advocate who frequently writes on political, environmental, and social issues, including the country's political prisoners,was placed under house arrest in August 2018 in central Vietnam's Dak Lak province.

Police confiscated computers, books, and other materials from her home as part of their investigation into her reporting activities, CPJ said.

More than three months later was was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for defacing the Vietnamese flag, a criminal anti-state offense under Article 276 of the country's Penal Code.

The court ruled she would be held under house arrest until her children reached three years of age at which time she would have to begin serving her jail sentence.

Of course, no one who has kids wants to leave them, she told RFA in November 2018. However long you have to serve the sentence, you lose the same period of time being far away from your children to bring them up. Such time is a waste.

Vy said she did not file an appeal of her case because she knew that officials in Dak Lak province would force her to leave the country.

Reported by Zarni Htun for RFAs Myanmar Service and by the Lao, Khmer, and Vietnamese services. Translated by Khet Mar, Sidney Khotpanya, Nareth Muong, and Gia Minh. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
New York-based media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) marked International Womens Day Friday by highlighting nearly three dozen women imprisoned around the world for their work as reportersthree of whom are Uyghurs from Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).



In a blog post, CPJ said that at least 33 of 251 journalists in jail at the time of its global prison census in December were women.



Among the 33 are ethnic Uyghur reporters Gulmire Imin, who is serving a life sentence for separatism, leaking state secrets and organizing an illegal demonstration, Atikem Rozi, one of several students detained for their work on Uighurbiz.net, a website started by imprisoned Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, and editor Chimengul Awut, who is being detained for producing dangerous books.



Imin, a former local official in the XUAR capital Urumqi, was arrested following July 2009 ethnic violence in the city and sentenced in August 2010 to life in jail. She was accused of organizing demonstrations on July 5, 2009 through the cultural website Salkin and leaking state secrets to her husband, who lives in Norway.



The Munich-based World Uyghur Congress exile group has confirmed that Imin was being held in the Xinjiang Womens Prison in Urumqi, but the state of her health is currently unknown.



Rozi, who wrote for Uighurbiz.net, was convicted on unspecified charges along with six other students at a secret trial in November 2014. The seven students received sentences of between three and eight years, according to state media, although the length of sentence for each and where they are being held is unclear.



Tohti, the websites founder, was sentenced to life in prison on Sept. 23, 2014 following a two-day show trial on charges of promoting separatism.



Awut, an editor at the Kashgar Publishing House in the XUARs Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) prefecture, is one of 14 people who worked at the company to be detained at a political re-education camp since last year.



A celebrated poet, sources recently confirmed to RFAs Uyghur Service that Awut was arrested in July last year for editing a novel by a well-known Uyghur writer and sent to the camp network, where more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities accused of harboring strong religious views and politically incorrect ideas are believed to have been detained throughout the XUAR since April 2017.



The three women are among seven female journalists incarcerated in Chinasix of whom are held on anti-state charges.



Among the remaining female journalists highlighted in CPJs blog post, 14 were jailed in Turkey, four in Saudi Arabia, two in Vietnam, two in Egypt, two in Israel, and one in Syria.



Imin was one of three women CPJ said are serving life terms for crimes against the state.
Independent citizens in Vietnam are camping out near toll booths to count cars in an effort to determine the extent of suspected toll fraud taking place at several Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) infrastructure projects.

Under the BOT model, investors transfer the projects to the state after building and operating them for a certain amount of time.

The VTC News Network reported on March 2 that a group of citizens in south-central Khanh Hoa province set up camp near the Ninh Loc toll booth and counted vehicles near the booth between February 26 and March 4.

In an interview with RFAs Vietnamese Service, Nguyen Minh Hung, a representative of the group, said that the vehicle counting effort is to boost transparency.

Frauds in fee collection have been detected at the Ho Chi Minh City  Trung Luong Expressway Toll Station and at the Long Thanh  Dau Giay booth, said Nguyen.

The latter booth was the site of a robbery in early February in which two former employees made off with VND 2.2 billion ($95,000) but were arrested hours later.

People suspect that the toll stations are falsifying their collection records and are not transparent. My house is near here so I joined in to help check whether the reported collection figures are right or not, he said.

Nguyen said the group found some numbers that need explanation.

The Ninh Loc BOT toll station said that it invested VND 1.437 trillion [about $62 million] and expected that they would collect tolls for 14 years and 5 months, he said, adding, But for some reason they changed these figures, saying they invested VND 2.644 trillion [about $114 million] and would need to collect tolls for 21 years 8 months and 16 days.

As traffic volume increases each year, the amount of time they need to collect tolls should shorten, but it increases. Why? People are afraid the operator is not being transparent, so thats why we are out here counting cars, said Nguyen.

The director of Vietnams General Department of Road Administration told reporters Sunday that his agency is aware that citizens groups are keeping tabs on the numbers.

He said the car counters have not interfered with toll collection, but warned that if the counters engage in any disruptive behavior that prevents collection or causes disorder, the department would ask the police to intervene.

Despite not breaking any laws, Nguyens group has had scrapes with the authorities over their efforts to monitor the toll booth.

At first we set up near Ninh Loc BOT station, then the local authorities requested that we dismantle our camp because we were on public land. So we moved to land owned by one of our members.

Nguyen said that the data the group is compiling cannot be published because it will be sent to the Ministry of Transport, the State Audit and the Government Inspectorate.

The toll booths are currently manned, but the government has been pushing for an electronic toll collection system. Nguyen said this was a good idea.

It has certain advantages, he said. Vehicles can pass through faster so there will be fewer traffic jams, and it will also be much more transparent, said Nguyen.

Electronic toll collection legislation has already passed in Vietnams National Assembly. According to the road administration department the system will be implemented on all highways by the end of this year.

I think [electronic toll collection] is reasonable, said Dr. Le Dang Doanh, an economist.

If any vehicle passes through a toll booth and pays the fee, the supervisory agency will be directly notified. Thats probably in line with international practices, he said.

But Nguyen warned that while electronic toll collection is more transparent than manned booths, it is not absolutely transparent.



Cheaters can find a way past anything, just like at the booths in Ho Chi Minh Citys Trung Luong Station, where theyre already collecting tolls this way, said Nguyen.

Five have been prosecuted for using software to hack into the system, he said.

On Tuesday, Nguyen revealed to RFA that the citizens groups efforts were put on hold as seven days of records were stolen. He said the group would consider using cameras to count vehicles instead of doing it by hand.

By Thursday counting had not been resumed.

Investors in the Ninh Loc BOT toll Station Friday called on the central government to ask the Ministry of Public Security to prevent possible disruptions to social order and robberies at the station.

In related news, Ha Van Nam, a BOT-protesting driver from Hanoi, was arrested on Tuesday.

The online newspaper VNExpress said that he and 6 other drivers who had joined a protest at Pha Lai BOT Station were arrested for disrupting social order.

Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by An Nguyen. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
KYIV -- At least three anti-feminist activists were detained in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, during an International Women's Day rally on March 8.

Some 150 activists, mainly women, took part in the rally called "Women's March," on Mykhayliv Square in Kyiv, protesting domestic, sexual, and psychological violence against women.

They demanded that the government join the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

Many were also protesting against what they called "kitchen slavery."

The feminists held posters, saying " My Body Is My Business." Some of them also held lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) flags.

A rival protest was held by dozens of people representing far-right nationalist groups.

They held posters saying "God! Fatherland! Patriarchate!" and "Feminism Destroys Ukrainian Families."

Hundreds of riot police officers separated the two groups. At least three antifeminist protesters were detained after they clashed with police.

Earlier on March 7, Amnesty International urged the Ukrainian authorities to ensure that participants in events marking International Women's Day on March 8 are "protected from violence."

Oksana Pokalchuk, the director of the London-based human rights watchdog's office in Ukraine, called on Kyiv to prevent violence at events organized by feminist groups in Ukraine.

Pokalchuk also said that the Ukrainian authorities' "failure to ensure adequate protection" at such events in the last two years has led to "injuries to peaceful attendees at solidarity events."

In February, Amnesty International criticized the Ukrainian authorities' failure to prevent or investigate "numerous" human rights violations committed last year against rights activists -- in particular those defending the rights of women and members of the LGBT community -- political opponents, and ethnic minorities.
Austria has protested Ukraine's move to bar an Austrian reporter, calling the move an act of censorship.



Ukraine told Austria it would deny entry to Christian Wehrschuetz, the Kyiv bureau chief for the Austrian national broadcaster ORF, branding him a "threat to national security," an Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on March 8.



Wehrschuetz says Kyiv accuses him of crossing the bridge Russia has built between Crimea, which Russian forces seized from Ukraine in 2014, and Russia. He denies the accusation, saying that when he reported on the bridge in July his crew crossed it but he did not.



"The travel ban imposed on...Wehrschuetz in Ukraine is an unacceptable act of censorship," Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, who danced with Russian President Vladimir Putin at her wedding last year, said on Twitter on March 7.



The Foreign Ministry spokesman said on March 8 that the Ukrainian ambassador had been summoned and would meet the ministry's secretary general on March 11. Kneissl will be in Moscow that day to meet her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and dpa
Balkars in Russia's North Caucasus region of Kabardino-Balkaria are marking the 75th anniversary of their mass deportation to Central Asia by Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

Balkars are a Turkic-speaking and predominantly Muslim ethnic group that numbers an estimated 110,000 people.

Prayers in the region's mosques on March 8 were dedicated to those who died during their deportation to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan between 1944 and 1957.

The acting head of Kabardino-Balkaria, Kazbek Kokov, called the deportation "a monstrous crime."

"On that day we all feel pain, remembering the burden of deprivations and bitterness of losses the Balkar people faced then and honor innocent victims of the arbitrariness and lawlessness," Kokov said in a statement on March 8.

About 38,000 Balkars, more than half of whom were women and children, were deported on March 8, 1944 to Central Asia by Stalin's regime, which accused them of collaborating with Nazi Germany.

Those who survived deportation were able to return to the North Caucasus in 1957, after the Soviet Union's Supreme Council restored the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
Human rights lawyer Galina Muzyka was found dead in her apartment in the Siberian city of Usolye-Sibirskoye late on March 2 under what fellow activist and regional public oversight commission member Pavel Glushchenko described as "strange circumstances," one day after she is thought to have made a cell phone video allegedly showing nine Investigative Committee employees beating a detained suspect.

The chain of events leading up to that somber discovery began on a local road on the night of February 28. Mikhail Zagvozdin was driving together with his 18-month-old son when he approached an intersection too quickly and nearly rear-ended the car in front of him, his wife, Yulya Zagvozdina, told RFE/RL on March 1.



The driver of the other vehicle got out and tried to hit him through the window that Zagvozdin had opened to speak with the man. Zagvozdin said he did not want to get out of the car with his son in it. When the man allegedly reached in and tried to grab his keys, Zagvozdin began to drive off.

He was bleeding, and I could see how they were punching him in the kidneys.... My pleading that our children...were watching was ignored. My son still thinks that 'they murdered papa.'"

"He closed the window and slowly drove off, while the other man held onto the window," Zagvozdina said. "For several meters, he ran alongside the car."



Zagvozdin returned home and thought it was the end of the story -- until early the next morning when law enforcement officers began pounding on the door to his apartment and threatening to break it down.



"They said they were police, and seven men in plainclothes rushed in, as well as one investigator [from the local branch of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor-General's Office]," Zagvozdina said. "They immediately went for my husband, pushed him up against the wall and demanded that he sign a paper authorizing them to conduct a search. My husband refused to sign anything without reading it, so they immediately began beating him.



"He was bleeding, and I could see how they were punching him in the kidneys..." she continued. "My pleading that our children -- one 18 months and one 4 years old -- were watching was ignored. My son still thinks that 'they murdered papa.'"

The officers took Zagvozdin away without saying where or leaving any documentation. Zagvozdina said they also took her telephone, her husband's telephone, and various other things after overturning furniture and generally ransacking the apartment. Although they ordered her not to call anyone, she immediately borrowed a neighbor's phone and called around to human rights groups. They helped her find a reputable defense lawyer, Galina Muzyka.

Later the same day, Muzyka went to the remand prison of the Investigative Committee to find out Zagvozdin's fate. Local rights activist Glushchenko told RFE/RL he spoke with Zagvozdin, who told him that investigators were beating him a second time.



"They were beating Misha in a room at the Usolye Investigative Committee," Glushchenko said. "He was surrounded by nine men, including one investigator in uniform. At that moment, he heard Galina shouting through the open door: 'What are you doing?' He saw that she was filming it with her mobile phone. That was Friday, March 1."



It was the last time Muzyka was seen alive.



On March 2, Muzyka was supposed to meet with human rights advocates to brief them on the case, but she never showed up. Zagvozdina reported her missing.

The cause of death was most likely not criminal. It is not a matter for us. If something is uncovered, then we will investigate."

Late that evening, Muzyka was found dead in her apartment.



"There was no video of the beating on her phone or other devices," Glushchenko said.



According to police, Muzyka was surrounded by open packets of medicine. Her phone had dialed the emergency number for an ambulance. The door was locked from the inside.



"The cause of death was most likely not criminal," local Investigative Committee head Karina Golobachyova told RFE/RL. "It is not a matter for us. If something is uncovered, then we will investigate."



Officials preliminarily said the cause of death was a heart condition.



It turned out that the other man involved in the traffic incident with Zagvozdin was a local police officer who has not been identified but who alleged that Zagvozdin ran him down and drove for nearly a kilometer with him on the car's hood.



On March 5, Zagvozdin was officially charged with "exerting violence against a public official." He was placed under house arrest pending trial.



The Mediazona human rights website reported that the Investigative Committee denies Zagvozdin was mistreated, adding that he resisted arrest, which was carried out by a police rapid-reaction team (SOBR).



Zagvozdin has filed a complaint with the Irkutsk Oblast human rights ombudsman alleging police abuse and torture. The ombudsman requested that investigators order a medical examination of Zagvozdin and an autopsy of Muzyka by regional, rather than local, medical officials.



Local rights activists have posted online their understanding of the Zagvozdin case and photographs showing the extent of his injuries.



Muzyka's family has been silent on the matter. Her son, Aleksei Muzyka, did not respond to RFE/RL's request for comment.



"The city is outraged," activist Glushchenko wrote on Facebook on March 3. "The appropriate response now by law enforcement organs would be to send an independent investigative group to finally look into the incidents of torture in Usolye-Sibirskoye and into those who are protecting this group of werewolves."

Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson based on reporting by the Siberia Desk of RFE/RL's Russian Service
Leaders of the European Parliament have endorsed former Romanian anti-corruption chief Laura Codruta Koevesi as their top choice to be the first-ever EU chief prosecutor.

The parliament's Conference of Presidents on March 7 approved a prior decision of two parliamentary committees to put Koevesi at the top of their shortlist.

The conference then assigned three European lawmakers to negotiate with the Council of the EU, which comprises representatives of all 28 EU member states, on choosing either Koevesi or French prosecutor Jean-Francois Bohnert, who is the council's choice, for the European prosecutor job.

The European Union decided in November 2017 to set up the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) to tackle graft, VAT fraud, and other crimes involving the bloc's multibillion-euro joint budget. The EPPO is expected to begin operating next year or in 2021.

The need for such a trans-EU body has become necessary to tackle the activities of organized criminals who make multibillion-euro profits from circumventing national and EU rules.

According to official figures from across the bloc, the EU budget was defrauded of 638 million euros ($718 million) in 2015 alone.

Romania's government, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council, has actively lobbied against Koevesi, who served as the country's chief anti-corruption prosecutor until she was fired last year.

Also on March 7, Koevesi was summoned by a controversial Romanian investigative agency for a second hearing in less than a month on charges of abuse of office, bribery, and false testimony.

At the end of the hearing, Koevesi told the media that she was held incommunicado for five hours before a "group of nine or 10 lawyers" came to officially inform her that she had been indicted in a second case.

"I am accused of running an organized crime group inside the National Anti-Corruption Directorate," she told reporters after the hearing.

"I am categorically telling you, I am not guilty of any of the accusations leveled against me. All this campaign is categorically tied to my candidacy.... I was subpoenaed exactly on the day when the [European Parliament] vote was being decided."

Critics have said that Koevesi was subpoenaed in order to smear her record and diminish her chances of getting the Brussels position.

Koevesi headed the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) for five years until last year, when she was dismissed by the leftist government.

Many observers saw her dismissal as an attempt to sideline her after the DNA's conviction rates for high-level graft jumped across the political spectrum during her tenure in one of the bloc's most corrupt countries, drawing EU praise.

Critics say her dismissal was also meant to prevent the DNA from convicting more senior members of the governing alliance, including the leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party.

Liviu Dragnea, who is also speaker of the lower house of parliament, has been convicted of abuse of power with the help of the DNA and has a second pending sentence for corruption.

Koevesi's efficiency as chief anti-graft prosecutor in one of the bloc's most corrupt countries has attracted not only praise from the EU, but also a lot of interest from Brussels, whose European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) established in 1999 has had only limited scope.

Unlike OLAF, which is empowered to conduct only administrative investigations and has no judicial power to compel member states to act on its follow-up recommendations, the EPPO will be responsible for cross-border criminal investigations.

While acting in the interests of the bloc, the EPPO will be fully independent, taking no orders from the EU or national authorities. It will operate as a single office across the 22 participating countries, outside the EU institutions.

OLAF will keep looking into irregularities and fraud affecting the EU's financial interests at an administrative level, while consulting and coordinating closely with the EPPO.

Six EU member states have not joined the EPPO: Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Sweden, Britain, and Denmark. With the exception of Denmark, which has an opt-out from the bloc's Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, the other five states may join at any time.

Written by Eugen Tomiuc with reporting by Politico.eu, Digi24.ro, G4media.ro, and RFE/RL's Romanian Service
BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's former Deputy Prime Minister Bekbolot Talgarbekov has been released from prison on parole.

Talgarbekov's son, Arstan, told RFE/RL on March 8 that his father was released the previous day, some six months before the end of his five-year prison term.

Talgarbekov, who at the moment was a leader of the People's Parliament public movement, and his several associates were arrested in May 2016 after they held a rally, demanding the resignation of then-President Almazbek Atambaev.

He was charged with plotting to forcibly overthrow the government and inciting hatred.

In August 2018, Talgarbekov was found guilty on both charges and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Last month, Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Court canceled Talgarbekov's conviction on the charge of plotting to overthrow the government and shortened his prison term to five years.
A court in Kosovo has acquitted an ethnic Serb on charges of war crimes.



The court in the city of Peja on March 8 acquitted former Serb policeman Milorad Zajic of war crimes and genocide charges following suspicion of his involvement in crimes committed during the 1998-99 war.



The court also released Zajic from house arrest.



Zajic was suspected of taking part in attacks in June-July 1998 on the ethnic Albanian village of Dush, around 60 kilometers west of the capital, Pristina.



The judges said the reason for the acquittal was the "contradictory" testimonies given by witnesses.



Kosovo was a province of Serbia in 1999 when NATO launched air strikes to stop the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians by Serbian forces during a two-year war.



Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Although 116 countries recognize Kosovo, Serbia and Russia do not.

Based on reporting by AP and Balkan Insight
Pakistani police have arrested a man suspected of killing prominent activist Afzal Kohistani, who had campaigned against so-called "honor" killings.



Kohistani, 31, was shot dead on March 6 in the northwestern city of Abbottabad, police said on March 8.



Local police chief Abbas Majeed identified the suspect as 23-year-old Faizur Rahman, Afzal's nephew.



Police have registered a case against him and recommended that he be charged with murder, Majeed said.



Kohistani gained prominence in 2012, calling for justice after four of his female relatives and two of his brothers were killed after a video emerged of them singing and clapping to music.



Kohistani said a tribal council had ordered their executions for "breaching the honor" of the family, although no arrests were ever made.



Hundreds of women are killed every year in Pakistan in honor killings for violating what Pakistani conservatives consider traditions on love, marriage, and public behavior.



Pakistan's parliament passed legislation against honor killings in 2016, introducing tough punishment and removing a loophole in the law that allowed killers to walk free if pardoned by family members.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
Editor's Note: To receive Steve Gutterman's Week In Russia each week via e-mail, subscribe by clicking here.

A bizarre claim by Russia's top general that the Pentagon is developing a strategy involving air strikes and support for protesters sounds like bad news for Russians themselves, or at least for those in the mood to demonstrate against President Vladimir Putin's government, garbage dumps, or anything at all. Meanwhile, a tabloid sends Putin a warning about "the impermanence of power."

Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward.

'Trojan Horse'

Imagine this: Its 2022 and Putins opinion-poll ratings are lower than ever before, leaving his authority to stay in power by changing the constitution -- or even to secure his future by guiding an anointed successor into the Kremlin -- in doubt.

With Aleksei Navalny leading 200,000 antigovernment protesters in a demonstration on Bolotnaya Square amid rumors that Putin is about to declare an emergency and extend his term by two years, the United States  determined to ensure that he leaves the Kremlin at the end of his term in 2024  hits a missile-defense facility near Moscow with a conventional prompt global strike weapon.

Hard to imagine? Of course it is -- its absurd, unthinkable.

But judging by a speech delivered by Russias top general on March 2, its exactly the kind of scenario that Moscows military believes -- or claims to believe (big difference there)  it needs to think about. And prepare for.

The Pentagon has started developing a completely new strategy of military action, which has already been christened the Trojan Horse, said Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Armed Forces General Staff. Its essence lies in the active use of the fifth column protest potential to destabilize the situation along with simultaneous precision strikes on the most important targets.

Really?

No.

Gerasimov, who made the startling claim in a speech at the Academy of Military Sciences, provided no evidence to support it. It came right after he asserted that the United States and its allies are developing offensive military actions such as a global strike and multidomain battle, and are using the technologies of color revolution and soft power.

The goal, he alleged, is nothing less than the liquidation of the statehood of undesirable countries.

Fifth Column Fakery?

In painting a picture of the United States using protesters and military strikes in a two-pronged attack, Gerasimov mixed two assertions that Putin has made repeatedly -- but usually separately.

One is that Washington encourages antigovernment protesters in Russia. Recall his claim that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave the signal to demonstrators in December 2011, when the Bolotnaya protests erupted over claims of fraud in parliamentary elections and at his decision to return to the Kremlin after a stint as prime minister.

What the generals and the Kremlin are really scared ofis ordinary Russians."

The other is that the United States is bent on containing Russia, holding it back, and potentially even pulling it apart  and might try to do so if it gains too much of an edge militarily.

In describing the alleged threat of a future attack in which Washington and the West would use both military hardware and protesters, Gerasimov seems to have based his comments in part on real developments or remarks by U.S. military officials  but to have made the fifth column element out of whole cloth.

In a March 4 article about the speech, Bloomberg Opinion columnist Leonid Bershidsky suggested that Gerasimovs claims were based partly on what Russia has gleaned about U.S. thinking on conventional prompt global strikes (building weapons that would allow America to strike high-value targets anywhere in the world within an hour).

Bershidsky traces Gerasimovs talk of a Trojan Horse strategy to recent remarks by the U.S. Air Force chief of staff and a German online magazine article about those remarks. However, he points out, neither the air force official nor the article said anything about the U.S. using a fifth column or fomenting unrest.

We Have Met The Enemy

Whether Russian generals and their commander in chief really believe in the potential threat described by Gerasimov is unclear. Propaganda is part of his job, if you judge by his appearances at the conferences Russia held for several years in which it invited foreign military officials and diplomats to upscale Moscow hotels to be lectured on alleged Western aggression.

But whether they believe it may be beside the point. Either way, it looks like bad news for the people they are supposed to protect.

What the generals and the Kremlin are really scared ofis ordinary Russians, Bershidsky wrote.

While Putin and the military hand out warnings to the West with sometimes astonishing regularity, this particular one also came with a word of caution for Russians themselves: Dont protest. If you do, it probably means youre aiding and abetting Western efforts to undermine your country.

That, after all, is the very real signal sent by several laws Putin has signed in his years in power, most notably the one that enables the state to stamp a foreign-agent brand on NGOs that receive funding from abroad and are deemed  by the state -- to be involved in political activity.

'An Unsubtle Hint'

Its also the message that Putin delivered, in the final few sentences of his state-of-the nation speech on March 20. After setting out ambitious goals, he said they could only be achieved in a unified society whose people share a common confidence in the authorities.

As RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson put it in our annotation of the address, Putin concluded with an unsubtle hint that dissent is not to be tolerated, that failing to follow the government's leadership is tantamount to fracturing the country and undermining its development.

Success, Putin said, will be achieved by any means necessary.

By coincidence or not, Putins emphasis on confidence in the authorities followed a January survey by state pollster VTsIOM that found public trust in Putin was at its lowest in 13 years. The latest VTsOIM poll found that it had dropped again in late February-early March, with 32 percent of respondents naming Putin when asked which politicians they trust to handle important affairs of state.

If those figures dont worry Putin, he got a wordier warning from an article in the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK) on March 4, whose headline predicted that the Russian people will not lend the authorities a hand at the moment of their collapse.

Citing a century of history, from murdered Tsar Nicholas II and dictator Josef Stalin to Mikhail Gorbachev and Putins predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, it sent the potentially chilling message that the people will lend those in power their silent support  until they dont.

At Stalins funeral, everyone was crying, seemingly sincerely, but after just three years they calmly accepted the exposure of the 'personality cult' and then the removal of the body of the former chief from the mausoleum on Red Square, where his corpse had lain along with Lenins from 1953 to 1961, the article said.

Today a mainstream Russian newspaper warns the Kremlin that Russians couldnt care less about the fate of the authorities when power collapses, which sooner or later it does, BBC Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg tweeted.

Or, as author and analyst Mark Galeotti put it in a tweet: Useful reminderthat even Russians are aware of the impermanence of power + are not willing to indulge any leader forever.

The Kremlin portrays Putin as a leader who has lifted Russia from its knees. In the MK article, however, Yevgeny Gontmakher argues that it is "the ordinary Russian person" who is beginning, slowly but surely, to rise up off his kneesand recognize himself no longer as part of the faceless mass of people but as an individual with dignity and personal interests.

These interests include doing what one wants, having the opportunity to earn a decent living for themselves and their families, and being able to expect protection from lawlessness and injustice in court, it said -- before concluding that the Russian state that is in place after the current power system will be able to exist as a stable institution only if it serves these interests and not its own.
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia -- Paul Manafort, who built a lucrative career consulting for Ukrainian politicians and later served as President Donald Trump's campaign chairman, has been sentenced to 47 months in prison.



The sentence, handed down on March 7 by U.S. Judge T.S. Ellis, followed Manaforts conviction in August on bank- and tax-fraud charges, and was significantly less than what prosecutors had sought.



Manafort's case was the first to be brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and interactions between Russian officials and Trump associates.



But his conviction did not deal directly with questions of possible Russian interference.



Instead, it dealt with his efforts to hide millions in dollars he earned working for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians and failing to pay U.S. taxes, utilizing more than 30 overseas bank accounts and shell companies.



Ellis made that point explicitly in comments before he sentenced Manafort, 69, in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.



"He's not here today for allegations that either he or the presidential campaign colluded with Russian government to interfere in the election," Ellis said.



Before the judge pronounced the sentence, Manafort, dressed in a green prison jumpsuit and seated in a wheelchair, told the court, "To say I've been humiliated and shamed would be a gross understatement."



"The last two years have been the most difficult my family and I have experienced," he said.



But he did not apologize, something Ellis also pointed out.



"I am surprised that I didn't hear you express regret for engaging in this wrongful conduct," he said.



Federal sentencing guidelines called for 19.5 to 24 years, but Ellis called such a term "excessive" as he handed down the much shorter sentence.



The sentence was also less than what Manafort's own defense lawyers asked for in their presentencing fillings. Ellis also ordered him to pay a $50,000 fine and pay $25 million in restitution.



The charges brought against Manafort predated his time with the Trump campaign.



For nearly a decade, Manafort worked for Ukraine's Party of Regions, whose main candidate was Viktor Yanukovych. Funded in part by wealthy and powerful Ukrainian oligarchs, Manaforts political strategies helped resurrect Yanukovych's political career and propelled him to the presidency in 2010.



In 2014, however, Yanukovych was driven from office after months of massive street protests, and he fled to Russia.



Manaforts work in Ukraine then dried up, forcing him, according to prosecutors, to resort to hiding his income in order to lower his tax burden and to get access to bank loans to continue his lavish lifestyle.



In 2016, Manafort joined Trumps election campaign, and became chairman. In August of that year, however, he was fired from the campaign after revelations about the extent of the lobbying and consulting work he did for the Party of Regions.



For years, one of Manafort's closest co-workers in Ukraine was Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian-Ukrainian man whom prosecutors have alleged has close ties to Russian intelligence agencies.



Federal prosecutors last year charged that Manafort, and Kilimnik, contacted potential witnesses in the criminal case against Manafort, and both were then charged with witness tampering. In June, a judge revoked Manaforts bail, and ordered him confined to jail, where hes been since.



Kilimnik is believed to be in Russia and is unlikely to ever face federal charges in the United States.



The sentence is the first of two that Manafort will receive this month.



Next week, a judge in Washington, D.C., federal court will sentence him for the two conspiracy charges, which each carry a maximum penalty of five years. Those charges include more serious allegations: acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Ukraine, money laundering, and witness tampering.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for immediate talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, saying peace can only be reached through "comprehensive intra-Afghan dialogue."

In a report to the Security Council circulated on March 7, Guterres said current developments represented "perhaps the most significant chance" to reach an end to the country's 17-year war.

He added that "a sustainable peace agreement can be reached only through comprehensive intra-Afghan dialogue."

"I call for the beginning of immediate, direct, and substantive talks, towards the hope of ending this conflict and its unacceptable toll in lives," he said.

He cited progress reported in talks between U.S. officials and the Taliban in Qatar and expressed hopes they will lead to direct talks between Kabul and the militant group.

The Taliban has so far refused to negotiate directly with the Afghan government, demanding that foreign troops first be withdrawn.

The United States invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 after the Taliban-led government protected Al-Qaeda terrorists and Osama bin Laden, who organized the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people.

The Taliban was driven from power but has stepped up its efforts to overthrow the government in Kabul in recent years.

Based on reporting by AP
The United States has for the first time named Gulnara Karimova, the elder daughter of the late president of Uzbekistan, in a major international bribery scheme, charging her with conspiracy to violate U.S. foreign-corruption laws.



The criminal charges, announced on March 7 by the U.S. Justice Department, came just days after Karimova was abruptly detained in Tashkent, accused of violating her house arrest, and ordered sent to an Uzbek prison.



While U.S. court documents have in the past suggested the involvement of Karimova in violation of foreign corrupt practices, the filing was the first time she has been explicitly named -- a further sign of how deep her criminal liability has become.



The Justice Department said it was one of the largest bribery schemes ever under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.



It is also an indication of how the government of Uzbekistan, under the successor to President Islam Karimov, has moved to target major figures from the Karimov era  including his relatives.



The charges stem from an alleged bribery scheme involving Russias largest mobile-phone provider, MTS.



The Moscow-based company, whose shares trade on U.S. stock exchanges, on March 7 announced it had reached an agreement with U.S. prosecutors under which it would pay $850 million to settle bribery and corruption charges related to its business in Uzbekistan.



According to U.S. court filings, Karimov and a longtime aide named Bekhzod Akhmedov conspired to solicit more than $865 million in bribes related to mobile-phone licenses and regulations in Uzbekistan over more than 11 years, between 2001 and 2012.



The companies included MTS, but also VimpelCom and the Scandinavian telecom company that used to be known as TeliaSonera.



Both those companies paid record settlements to U.S. and other foreign regulators for bribery schemes that also were connected to Karimova.



"This is the third installment in a trilogy of cases arising from an almost $1 billion bribery scheme that reached the highest echelons of the Uzbekistan government and was orchestrated by some of the largest telecommunications companies in the world," U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement.



Following her detention, Karimova's whereabouts was not clear.



Akhmedov, meanwhile, was a longtime aide for Karimova, who fled to Moscow in 2012.



In an affidavit filed in September 2012 with Russian law enforcement officials, Akhmedov provided explicit details about Karimovas business practices while he still lived in Tashkent.



He asserted that he and his family was threatened repeatedly and pressured to pony up hundreds of thousands of dollars for a Karimova foundation event.



 flashy socialite known for fashion shows and syrupy pop-music videos, Karimova was at one point thought to be an heir to Karimov and the presidency.



But she disappeared from the public eye in 2014. Uzbek prosecutors subsequently confirmed she was under house arrest and being investigated for suspected corruption and other charges.



On March 5, Uzbekistans Prosecutor-General's Office said a Tashkent court had found she had violated the terms of her house arrest and ordered her sent to prison.



Since Karimovs death in 2016, his successor, Shavkat Mirziyoev, has moved to make Uzbekistan more business-friendly and to attract Western investment. His government has also engaged in a purge of thousands of government officials appointed under Karimov and has even moved to target top law enforcement, including the former prosecutor-general.



U.S. authorities, meanwhile, have been engaged in multiyear negotiations with Uzbekistan over the fate of nearly $1 billion in assets belonging to Karimova that have been frozen in Swiss and other bank accounts.
The United States has urged the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran over its recent ballistic-missile test and launches of two satellites, saying they violate the world body's resolutions.



Acting U.S. Ambassador Jonathan Cohen on March 7 condemned "Iran's destabilizing activities" in a letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and called on Tehran "to cease immediately all activities related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons."



The statement cited a 2015 UN resolution that "called upon" Iran to refrain for up to eight years from tests of ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons.



The resolution was tied to a landmark nuclear deal that Tehran signed that same year with the United States and five other world powers that provided Iran with sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear weapons and missile programs.



U.S. President Donald Trump last year pulled out of the nuclear deal and reimposed U.S. sanction on Iran.



Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia have remained a part of the nuclear deal, and Tehran has so far said it is honoring the terms of the deal.



Cohen's letter to the Security Council said that Iran tested a medium-range ballistic missile on December 1, 2018, and attempted to place satellites in orbit on January 15 and February 5 of this year.

Both of the satellite launches ended in failure and did not reach orbit.



"Iran has carried out these three launches in defiance of the expressed will of the UN Security Council, and such provocations continue to destabilize the entire Middle East region," Cohen wrote.



He called on the council to "join us in imposing real consequences on Iran for its flagrant defiance of the council's demands and bring back tougher international restrictions to deter Iran's missile program."



Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Iran's UN mission, denied that Tehran had any ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear weapons -- "therefore none of the ballistic-missile launches of Iran are covered by that resolution."

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP
On International Women's Day, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has brought to the attention of the world the cases of women journalists jailed in retaliation for their work.

The New York-based CPJ said in a blog post published on March 8 that at least 33 of the 251 journalists who were in jail in December were women.

At least one of them -- Turkish reporter and artist Zehra Dogan -- was released last month after serving a sentence on antistate charges, CPJ said.

Turkey, the largest jailer of journalists in the world, also has by far the largest number of imprisoned women journalists, 14 out of a total of 68.

One of them, Hatice Duman, is serving a life sentence for being accused of being a member of the banned Marxist Leninist Communist Party, a charge that CPJ considers unsubstantiated after having viewed court documents.

China is holding seven women journalists behind bars -- three of them for reporting on the plight of the Uyghur Muslims in the western Xinjiang region.

Saudi Arabia has jailed four women journalists -- all put behind bars over their criticism of the kingdom's ban on women driving.

Israel has imprisoned two women bloggers for criticism aimed at the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority, and radical Israeli groups.

Two women journalists are being held in prison in communist Vietnam for "antistate propaganda," while Egypt has imprisoned two photojournalists on antistate and false-news charges.

The sole woman journalist known to be in prison in civil-war-wracked Syria is a blogger, Tal al-Mallohi, who was detained in 2009 for allegedly spying for the United States.

CPJ says women journalists held behind bars around the world are subjected to abusive behavior, including sexual violence, invasive strip searches, and beatings.
At age 29, he was appointed as mayor of Dushanbe. In 2018, the Tajik Constitution was amended to allow a person as young as 30 to run for president.

Now, following claims by a prominent opposition activist that he was recently abducted, tortured, and pressured to support Rustam Emomali in the 2020 presidential election, the 31-year-old son of the country's long-standing authoritarian leader is squarely back in the spotlight.

Rustam Emomali, the eldest son of 66-year-old President Emomali Rahmon, has never publicly said he would run for the presidency, but it is widely believed that he is being groomed as the heir apparent.

The prospect reemerged this week after Sharofiddin Gadoev, a member of the banned Group 24 opposition movement, made allegations that state officials had pressured him to support Emomali.

Their plan for me included...leading the 17 members of Group 24 who have returned to Tajikistan and gradually supporting the policies of President Rahmon and Rustam Emomali," he told RFE/RL's Tajik Service in a March 7 interview. "They mentioned that 'Rustam Emomali will take part in the 2020 election and...you will support him.'"

Prior to replacing Muhammadsaid Ubaidulloev, a Rahmon ally, as Dushanbe mayor two years ago, Emomali headed a state financial oversight and anticorruption agency. Prior to that, he served as the chief of the state customs service, a position he received at the age of 25, along with a military rank of major general.

His age stood in the way of him ascending politically at the national level. But in 2018, Tajikistan's parliament approved amendments to the elections law, reducing the eligibility age from 35 to 30 both for the presidency and for legislative posts in parliament's upper chamber.

The amendments, endorsed in a 2016 referendum, also gave Rahmon the right to run for an unlimited number of terms. Rahmon signed the measures into law in February 2018.

The right to unlimited terms applies only to Rahmon, who was granted the title of Leader of the Nation.

No Opposition

With no real opposition, and no genuine political rival to challenge the incumbent Rahmon, the main question being asked by analysts is whether it will be father or son in the presidential office after 2020.

Tajikistan is expected to hold both presidential and parliamentary elections that year, although no exact dates have been set yet.

"There are two options in the election that both depend on the same person: Will Rahmon decide to run himself or bring forward his son, Rustam's candidacy?" says Parviz Mullojonov, a Dushanbe-based independent expert on political affairs. "This is what the experts believe."

Tajikistan doesnt have a record of free-and-fair elections. Rahmons government has been repeatedly criticized for suppressing dissent and restricting political freedoms.

The opposition Islamic Renaissance Party, which is viewed as a moderate religious movement, was branded as a terrorist group and banned in 2015. Dozens of party officials and lawyers were sent to prison.

The Group 24 movement was branded extremist and outlawed in 2014 after it called for antigovernment protests.

Gadoev's comments suggest that efforts are under way in Dushanbe to transfer power to Emomali sooner rather than later.

The activist said that during interrogations in Dushanbe, one high-ranking general told him that "Rustam Emomali is the future president of Tajikistan."
Playa del Carmen mayor meets with state attorney on security

Playa del Carmen, Q.R.  Playa del Carmen mayor Laura Beristain has met with the state attorney general to discuss security issues, noting that the approval of the new National Guard is key.

Security meetings between police and the municipality of Solidaridad resumed with a visit between State Attorney General Oscar Montes de Oca and municipal president Laura Beristain. The meeting was held to discuss strengthening security coordination and actions to help curb the wave of violence that exists in the north portion of the state.

I came to talk with her. We talked about security issues that relate to events here in Playa del Carmen () The whole issue in general, the homicides that are happening are certainly a concern of the state, said Montes de Oca.

He said that he was willing to work together and develop a common strategy to address the challenges facing Solidaridad

Approaching from a point to see the issues of law enforcement, develop a strategy to solve security problems in Playa del Carmen and streamline research files are part of the agreements that will solve the violence that exists in Solidaridad, he noted.

While Beristain expressed concerns about insecurity, she also stressed the importance of the newly approved National Guard being created by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The National Guard will strengthen security actions being carried out today by the Municipal Police together with military and federal forces in this important holiday resort, she said.

Earlier this week, the National Guard project that has been proposed by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, won a majority approval across the country and will be sent to congress. Once finalized, the Guardia Nacional will consist of more than 50,000 from Mexicos naval, military and federal police under a civilian chain.
He must also pay $24m (18m) in restitution and a $50,000 fine. He was indicted for hiding $55m in offshore bank accounts in Cyprus, money he was paid as a political consultant for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians. The judge declined to give Manafort any credit for accepting responsibility for his crimes. Prosecutors called for between 19.5 and 24 years in prison, which was considered excessive. Manafort has been held in solitary confinement for the last nine months at a local jail. His legal team has previously said he suffers from debilitating foot pain resulting from gout as a result of his incarceration.

Manafort was not convicted on 10 other criminal counts in that case, which were deadlocked by the 12-person jury. He is due to be sentenced next Wednesday in another case brought by the special counsel, this time in Washington DC. He pleaded guilty in September to two felony counts, conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Investigators said Manafort had repeatedly lied to the government.
Union Power Minister R K Singh

New Delhi, Mar 8: The government has cleared investment of around Rs 31,560 crore in four power projects of total 3,760 MW generation capacity and approved two policies to boost hydro power as well as revive stressed assets in the sector, Union Power Minister R K Singh said Thursday. However, Singh admitted that two recommendations of a high level committee (HLC) regarding payment security mechanism for private power producers and gas-based stressed assets were not approved by the Union Cabinet on Thursday, saying a lot of ground is to be covered for implementing those suggestions.

The HLC had suggested that bills of discoms towards generators can be discounted by the financial institution. "The government today approved investment for four power projects and two policies on hydro power and stressed power assets," Singh told reporters. He said that a lot of ground is to be covered for implementing payment security mechanism for private power producers and reviving gas-based stranded projects as talks are going on with RBI as well as oil ministry on both the issues.

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Talking about the hydro policy, he informed that the government approved a slew of measures under the hydro policy including providing renewable energy status for large hydel projects and new funding provisions. Earlier, hydro projects up to 25 MW capacity were considered as renewables and were eligible for various incentives like financial assistance and cheaper credit. With the government's decision, hydro projects above 25 MW can also avail the benefits.

The Cabinet decision has also paved the way for adding hydro capacities of about 45 GW to the renewable energy basket of existing 77 GW which includes solar, wind and small hydro. India is aiming 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022. With addition of large hydro to clean energy segment, India is poised to have 225 GW of renewable energy by 2022.

With the new measures, large hydro projects (LHPs) would be allowed back loading (reducing) of tariff after increasing project life to 40 years, increasing debt repayment period to 18 years and introducing escalating tariff of 2 per cent. At present, hydro power tariff is expensive than other sources. Discoms are reluctant to sign Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for hydro power due to higher tariff, particularly, in the initial years.

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Govt clears Rs 31K cr for power projects

These measure would help rationalise the tariff by hydro power projects. The policy also provides for funding for enabling infrastructure like roads and bridges of Rs 1.5 crore per MW for projects up to 200 MW and Rs 1 crore per MW for projects above 200 MW. The Cabinet Committee has also approved recommendations of the Group of Ministers based on suggestion made by the HLC.

The minister told that that recommendations of the GoM include grant of linkage coal for short-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), allowing existing coal linkage to be used in case of termination of PPAs due to payment default by discoms and procurement of bulk power by a nodal agency against pre-declared linkages. The GoM has also recommended that Central/State Gencos may act as an aggregator of power, increase in quantity of coal for special forward e-auction for power sector, coal linkage auctions to be held at regular intervals.

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Besides, it recommended non-lapsing of short supplies of coal and ACQ (Annual Contract Quantity) to be determined based on efficiency. The panel also recommended that payment of Late Payment Surcharge be made mandatory, non-cancellation of PPA/FSA (fuel supply agreement)/LTOA (long term open access) post NCLT proceedings and non-cancellation of PPA for non-compliance of COD (commercial date of operation).

The government has said with the implementation of these recommendations, many of the issues affecting the thermal power sector are likely to get resolved. The government had constituted the HLC to address the issues of stressed thermal power projects. It submitted its report in November 2018. The government also approved investment of Rs 10,439.09 crore for 2x660 MW thermal power project in Buxar district of Bihar.

The plant will be set up by the SJVN Thermal Private Ltd, an arm of state-run SJVN Ltd. The government also approved investment of Rs 11,089.42 crore for setting up a 2x660MW Super Thermal Power Plant in Khurja, District Bulandshahar of Uttar Pradesh and has also approved the funds for the development of the allotted coal block the Amelia Coal Mine in District Singraulli, Madhya Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 1587.16 crores.

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Approves policy on hydro, stressed assets

The project will be set up by state-run THDC India Ltd. The government also approved investment sanction of Rs 4,287.59 crore for construction of Kiru hydro project (624 MW) by Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Ltd (CVPPPL). The CVPPPL is a joint venture company amongst NHPC, JKSPDC and PTC with equity shareholding of 49 per cent, 49 per cent and 2 per cent respectively. The project is located on River Chenab in Kishtwar district of Jammu & Kashmir.

The government also approved the proposal to take over of Lanco's Teesta Stage-VI hydro project of 500 MW by state-run NHPC. In Bidding Process under NCLT, the NHPC has emerged as highest bidder with bid Amount of Rs 907 crore. Accordingly, the investment proposal for an estimated cost of Rs 5748.04 crore, being implemented by the NHPC has been approved by the CCEA on Thursday.
Senior Congress leader S Jaipal Reddy

Hyderabad, Mar 8 (PTI) Senior Congress leader S Jaipal Reddy Thursday claimed that Rafale negotiations were brought to an "advanced stage" during UPA regime but the Modi government "delayed" the deal. "Rafale has been delayed because of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi. The negotiations were brought to an advanced stage during the Manmohan Singh government. The negotiations were almost finalised in March, 2014. Then came the elections. Then you (Modi) took office in May.

Why did you delay it for four years. There was no delay on the part of the UPA government at all, he told reporters. He was asked to comment on Modi's allegation that the Rafale fighter aircraft deal got delayed because of the Congress and furore by other opposition parties. Reddy also said India did very well in carrying out air strikes against terror camps in Pakistan, but that cannot be used for political purposes.

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Asked about the political fight over the veracity of the strikes, Reddy said Congress President Rahul Gandhi was among the first to salute the IAF, it was Modi who "personalized" the entire outcome, he alleged. The Congress leader congratulated The Hindu newspaper for publishing very relevant, correct, authentic document in regard to the alleged dissent about the price of Rafale aircraft. "Rafale aircraft is more costly in the hands of NDA government than the one negotiated by UPA...

The CAG said the price negotiated by the UPA was costlier by 2.5 per cent. It arrived at the figure because it did not take into account bank guarantees. If you take into account the expenditure incurred by bank guarantees, the purchase price under UPA would have been cheaper. This fact has been brought out through a document published by N Ram (of The Hindu).., Reddy said. He said journalists should be able to publish any document provided it is authentic.
Supreme Court

New Delhi, Mar 8: The Supreme Court Friday referred Ayodhya's Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case to mediation for amicable settlement. Former apex court judge Justice (retd) F M Kallifulla will head a panel of mediators in the case. A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Wednesday had reserved the order after hearing various contesting parties.

SC refers Ayodhya land dispute for mediation

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Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
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March 8, 2019: This report focuses on the global Load Balancing Software status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Load Balancing Software development in United States, Europe and China.

Load balancing software solution distributes load of work among various servers through software-defined networks and virtual network resources. The load balancing software augments load balancing capability and provides high availability with scalable work force distribution. Through various deployment modes such as cloud and on-premise deployment, various industry players including IBM Corporation, KEMP Technologies, Inc., Google Inc., and others are offering efficient load balancing software in the global market.

Download sample Copy of This Report at: https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-load-balancing-software-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025/request-sample

The global load balancing software market is expected to register substantial growth in the near future, attributed to rise in ICT spending by governments in several developed as well as developing regions including North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. In addition, rise in concerns over data loss, recovery, and server load management give rise to the load balancing software industry among several user groups such as large and small and medium enterprises. However, security concerns over cloud load balancing is expected to restrain the growth of the market.

In 2017, the global Load Balancing Software market size was xx million US$ and it is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during 2018-2025.

View summary of this report @ https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-load-balancing-software-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025

The key players covered in this study

Hewlett Packard

IBM Corporation

Microsoft Corporation

Google Inc

Cisco Systems Inc

Jetnexus Solutions Limited

KEMP Technologies, Inc

ZEVENET

NGINX Inc

Inlab Networks GmbH

Market segment by Type, the product can be split into

Software

Service

Market segment by Application, split into

Cloud

On-premise

Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers

United States

Europe

China

Japan

Southeast Asia

India

Central & South America

The study objectives of this report are:

To analyze global Load Balancing Software status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.

To present the Load Balancing Software development in United States, Europe and China.

To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies.

To define, describe and forecast the market by product type, market and key regions.

In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Load Balancing Software are as follows:

History Year: 2013-2017

Base Year: 2017

Estimated Year: 2018

Forecast Year 2018 to 2025

About Radiant Insights

Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. We assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. We have a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets. In addition to over extensive database of reports, our experienced research coordinators also offer a host of ancillary services such as, research partnerships/ tie-ups and customized research solutions.

For More Information, Visit Radiant Insights

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Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Radiant Insights, Inc

Phone: 1-415-349-0054

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@radiantinsights.com

Blog URL: http://ictmarketforecasts.wordpress.com
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh

Moga, Mar 8: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving "mere assurances" on resolving the food legacy debt of Rs 31,000 crore that has put a massive burden on the state exchequer. "I had met Modi not once, twice, or thrice... (but) at least five times on this issue. He assured me that he will look into it.

Our finance minister, Manpreet Badal, met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, but he also gave just assurances," Singh said while recalling his meetings with Modi regarding the food legacy debt. The debt arose because of a mismatch between the cash credit availed for procuring wheat, paddy and foodgrain stocks in the account books of the state procurement agencies since 2004. The Rs 31,000-crore amount included Rs 12,000 crore principal and around Rs 19,000 crore interest.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The Congress leader also blamed the previous regime led by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the debt. "What did you (SAD) do when the amount reached Rs 31,000 crore? Your minister (Harsimrat Kaur Badal) is in the cabinet at the Centre, but you failed to resolve the issue. And you burdened the state by converting Rs 31,000 crore of cash credit limit gap into long-term loan on its last day of term. Why should we pay for it?" he asked.

Singh said the state had been paying Rs 3,200 crore per annum as interest on this debt and it would end up paying Rs 65,000 crore after 20 years. The chief minister was addressing a public meeting in Moga district during the launch of the fourth phase of the state government's farm-loan relief scheme. Congress president Rahul Gandhi was also present at the occasion. Singh called for a resounding victory in favour of the Congress to oust the BJP at the Centre in the general election and reiterated his 'Mission 13' to give all the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state to Gandhi.

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Harsimrat Kaur Badal

"Time has come for a battle. Elections may be announced anytime. You (voters) have to be strong and support us to oust the Akalis and the BJP." Singh claimed that his own government had successfully fulfilled all its major promises, -- including farm-loan waiver and breaking the backbone of drugs -- in sharp contrast to the "misrule" of the previous Akali regime. The chief minister said the 43 incidents of desecration of holy scriptures reported during the Akali rule had been solved since his government took over.

He vowed not to spare even the mightiest of those involved and ensure that each one of them goes behind the bars. Earlier, state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar lambasted Modi for "forcing the country into war for political gains". Alleging that Punjab faced discrimination from the BJP-led government, Jakhar demanded from Gandhi that if the Congress comes to power at the Centre, it should allot a big project for the state. The Congress incharge of Punjab, Asha Kumari, accused the Akalis and the BJP for plunging a prosperous Punjab into the drug net
Captain Amarinder Singh

SHAHPUR KANDI (PATHANKOT) 8th March: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday rededicated to the people of the state the vital Shahpur Kandi Dam project, construction on which is all set to begin at a cost of Rs. 2073 crore. The project has been revived with the Chief Ministers personal efforts to resolve all pending issues with the Jammu & Kashmir government. Of the estimated cost, which is in addition to the Rs 640 crore already spent till 2014, Rs. 1408 crore would be spent on the power component,

with 100 percent share of Punjab Government, and Rs. 685 crore on the irrigation component, with a share of Rs. 485 crore to be contributed by Government of India and Rs. 179.28 crore by the State Government. The Chief Minister, while announcing that the project would be completed within three years, said it would result in increased irrigated of 5000 hectares across the state. Apart from generating clean power, the project would also improve irrigation potential of 1.18 lakh hectares of Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC), he added.

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Captain Amarinder further said it would reduce the water flowing into Pakistan drastically and would help save the critical water resources of the state. As many as 230 families ousted as a result of the project had been offered jobs and another 34 would be given jobs shortly, he added. The Chief Minister, who was accompanied by MP Sunil Jakhar and MLA Bhoa Joginder Pal, personally handed over appointment letters to five employees recruited for the Shahpur Kandi Dam construction.

Asserting that the border belt up to Shahpur Kandi would be one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the world, the Chief Minister said that the project would also give impetus to tourism besides supplementing the income of residents in the region. With the construction of the Shahpur Kandi Dam, the historic Mukteshwar Temple would also be saved from submergence by creating a retaining wall, he added.

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Holding the Akalis responsible for the complete mess prevailing in the state, the Chief Minister said that there was Rs. 43,000 crore debt when they came to power in 2007 and it had crossed Rs. 2.10 lakh crore over 10 years of their rule, with no development at all in the state. Conceding a demand put forth by MP Sunil Jakhar, the Chief Minister also announced 60 kms of new roads for Dhar area to be laid by the Mandi Board.

He also announced a Government Girls College for Jugial, besides a Sewerage project for Sujanpur to provide basic amenities to the residents of the region. The Chief Minister announced that an ITI would be established in Dhar, for which tenders had already been been called. He also assured to resolve the problem of shortage of doctors in the area. Earlier, Power Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar described the dam project as a historic initiative of Captain Amarinder Singh. He said that the water currently flowing to Pakistan would be utilized by the farmers in Punjab after the completion of the project.

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In his address, Sunil Jakhar said it was the landmark decision of the State Government to restart the work on Shahpur Kandi Dam, which was halted in 2014. He said that Captain Amarinder Singh had taken a personal initiative to get this project revived, which will benefit Punjab and J&K. He said that former PM Manmohan Singh had announced this project as a National Project, which was not followed up by the SAD-BJP Government. With the slogan of Congress Leyao, Desh Bachao, Jakhar appealed the people to bring Congress to power at the Centre to save the country from internal and external aggressions.

On the occasion, Captain Amarinder Singh and Jakhar, along with MLAs Joginder Pal and Amit Vij, planted a sapling at the site. Pertinently, the Shahpur Kandi Dam Project is being constructed on River Ravi, 11 KM downstream of Ranjit Sagar Dam Project and 7 KM up stream of Madhopur Head works. During February 2008,the Government of India declared the Shahpurkandi Dam Project as National Project along with 13 other Projects.

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Construction work was going on in full swing and proposed to be completed by July 2017, but due to the intervention of the J&K Authority, the work in J&K Territory was stopped on August 30, 2014 under the guise of Punjab Termination of Agreements Act 2004. It was with the persistent efforts of the Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab Government and the intervention of Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, along with Govt. of India/PMO,

all issues were finally resolved through an agreement signed on September 8, 2018 between the Chief Secretaries of Punjab and J&K. Gurdaspur MLA Barinder Singh Pahra, Special Principal Secretary to CM Gurkirat Kirpal Singh and Principal Secretary Water Resources Sarvjit Singh, Chairman Powercom Baldev Singh Sran and Chief Engineer Ranjit Sagar Dam Jagmohan Nagi were present at the ceremony today.
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March 8, 2019: This report focuses on the global Procurement Software status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Procurement Software development in United States, Europe and China.

Procurement software is a program that allows organizations to automate the process of purchasing resources and managing inventory.

The rising need for the automation of procurement processes will drive the growth prospects for the global procurement software market in the forthcoming years.

In 2017, the global Procurement Software market size was xx million US$ and it is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during 2018-2025.

Download sample Copy of This Report at: https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-procurement-software-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025/request-sample

The key players covered in this study

Basware

IBM

Oracle

PROACTIS

SAP

SciQuest

BravoSolution

BuyerQuest

Coupa Software

Elcom

Epicor

Infor

IQNavigator

Ivalua

JDA Software

Browse Full Report With TOC @ https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-procurement-software-market-size-status-and-forecast-2018-2025

Market segment by Type, the product can be split into

Cloud

On-premises

Market segment by Application, split into

The School

The Factory

The Hospital

The Supermarket

Other

Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers

United States

Europe

China

Japan

Southeast Asia

India

Central & South America

The study objectives of this report are:

To analyze global Procurement Software status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.

To present the Procurement Software development in United States, Europe and China.

To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies.

To define, describe and forecast the market by product type, market and key regions.

In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Procurement Software are as follows:

History Year: 2013-2017

Base Year: 2017

Estimated Year: 2018

Forecast Year 2018 to 2025

About Radiant Insights

Radiant Insights is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. We assist and facilitate organizations and individuals procure market research reports, helping them in the decision making process. We have a comprehensive collection of reports, covering over 40 key industries and a host of micro markets. In addition to over extensive database of reports, our experienced research coordinators also offer a host of ancillary services such as, research partnerships/ tie-ups and customized research solutions.

For More Information, Visit Radiant Insights

Contact:

Michelle Thoras

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Radiant Insights, Inc

Phone: 1-415-349-0054

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@radiantinsights.com

Blog URL: http://ictmarketforecasts.wordpress.com


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Orthobiologics are substances used to heal injuries such as fractures and injured muscles, ligaments, and tendons within a short period of time. Orthobiologics are made from substances that naturally occur in the body. Some examples of orthobiologics are bone grafts, autologous blood, autologous conditioned serum, platelet rich plasma, growth factors, and stem cells. Click To Read More On Orthobiologics Market.

Increasing prevalence of injury and facture due to falls and road accidents are expected to augment growth of the orthobiologics market

According to World Health Organization (WHO), 2017, fatal falls are the second-leading cause of accidental injury and factures worldwide. Every year around 646000 individuals die from falls, globally. Increasing incidence of fall is expected to increase the chances of fractures, which in turn, is expected to create a highly conductive environment for growth of the orthobiologics market over the forecast period.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), in 2017, around 1.25 million deaths were recorded and 20 to 50 million people suffered from severe injuries and fractures. Increasing prevalence of factures due to road accidents is expected to boost growth of the orthobiologics market in the near future. According to National Institute of Health (NIH), in 2016, around 8.5%, accounting for around 617 million of the world population was aged 65 years and above. Growing geriatric population, which is highly susceptible to injuries and fractures due to fragile skeletal framework, is increasing the prevalence of orthopedic disorders, in turn, driving growth of the orthobiologics market. The major factor restraining market growth is the high cost associated with orthobiologics-based treatments.

Competitive Landscsape

Major players in the market are focusing on inorganic growth strategies such as mergers and acquisitions, to enhance their foothold in the global orthobiologics market. For instance, in May 2015, Bone Biologics Corp. collaborated with the University of California for the development of Nell-1, a bone growth stimulator orthobiological product.

Key players operating in the orthobiologics market include Medtronic Plc, DePuy Synthes, Inc., Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc., Bone Biologics Corp, Harvest Technologies Corporation, Globus Medical, Inc., Smith & Nephew plc. NuVasive Inc., Stryker Corporation, and Genzyme.

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North America is expected to hold a dominant position due to rapid development of new innovative products by key players present in region

North America is expected to hold a dominant position in the orthobiologics market due to rampant research activities and rapid development of innovative products by key players present in the region. For instance, in 2015, NuVasive Inc.U.S.-based companylaunched its new innovative biologics technology, AttraX Putty, which is a synthetic bone graft, indicated in posterolateral spinal surgery as an autograft extender. Asia Pacific is expected to witness rapid growth, owing to growing geriatric population in the region. According to The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), 2016, the Asia Pacific region recorded around 60 percent of the geriatric population across the globe. The region recorded around 547 million people aged 65 years and above, which is projected to reach up to 1.3 billion by 2050.

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An international team of researchers, which includes scientists from McMaster's School of Geography & Earth Sciences, NASA, and others, is tackling one of the biggest problems of space travel to Mars: what happens when we get there?

A series of articles published today in a special edition of the journal Astrobiology, focuses on the scientific, logistical, operational and communications challenges of sending astronauts to deep space.

It is the culmination of years of work in NASA's BASALT research program, or the Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains, which involves geologists, microbiologists, geneticists, engineers and astrobiologists from all over the world.

One of the biggest challenges the team is investigating is how best to conduct meaningful science in such harsh and dangerous conditions -- where time and resources are highly restricted -- and how to send valuable information back to Earth to enable input from an Earth-based science support team.

Researchers simulated mission conditions on Mars in several scenarios which included conducting field work in the unforgiving, Mars-like terrain of Craters of the Moon National Park Monument and Preserve in Idaho and the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

These regions are rich in basalt, a fine-grained rock similar to rock found on Mars. Scientists hope samples can provide important clues in the ongoing search for life on Mars.

Supported by funding from the Canadian Space Agency, Allyson Brady, a post-doctoral fellow in McMaster's School of Geography & Earth Sciences, who is working with her advisor Greg Slater on the project, is investigating organic biomarkers of microbial life associated with the rocks.

"When astronauts finally go to Mars, we need to identify the best place to potentially find evidence of life and to target the kind of basalt rock samples which may contain a lot of organic material, for example," explains Brady. "There will be many, many limitations on Mars so we need to consider the best way to conduct research and gather samples including getting timely feedback from science experts on Earth."

Brady and NASA scientists are also considering the challenges of sharing information when teams are millions of kilometres apart. For example, they tested different forms of communications -- video and photo transmissions, voice messaging, texting using specialized software -- between field researchers, who wore communications packs as an astronaut might, and mission control.

"There can be a significant delay, as long as 20 minutes, between an astronaut on Mars and the team on earth," explains Brady. "So we are working to optimize operations so astronauts don't have idle time and the flow of information continues," she says.
Researchers have created a huge resource for investigating the biological mechanisms that cause cancer. The scientists from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators identified which patterns of DNA damage -- mutational fingerprints that represent the origins of cancer -- were present in over a thousand human cancer cell lines. They also revealed that a major mutation pattern found in human cancer, previously linked to a virus-fighting immune response, occurred in bursts in cancer cell lines with long periods of silence in between, but the cause of these mutational bursts remains mysterious.

Published today (7th March) in Cell, the resource will enable scientists to study what causes mutations that lead to the development of cancer, directly in human cancer cells. Further understanding into these mutational processes could help researchers find novel avenues for research towards cancer prevention and treatment.

All cancers are caused by DNA mutations, and these mutations form molecular fingerprints in the DNA called mutational signatures. More than 50 different signatures have been found, many of which are caused by external factors, for example ultraviolet light exposure or tobacco smoking. Others are due to factors inside the cell such as the failure of DNA repair mechanisms. However, the causes of many mutational signatures are unknown and they are extremely challenging to study experimentally.

The researchers studied the genome sequences of 1,001 human cancer cell lines and 577 grafts of human cancers*, including the most widely used models in cancer research and therapeutics testing. They used all the known mutational signatures and catalogued which signature is present in each cancer model. This resource then allowed the scientists to choose specific cell lines and study how each mutational pattern changed over time in cancer cells.

They found that mutational signatures from known external factors like smoking or UV light stopped being created in cell lines, whereas most signatures associated with factors inside the cell continued to be generated, and at a steady rate. Surprisingly however, they discovered that two common mutational signatures associated with a DNA editing protein known as APOBEC, actually switched on and off over time in cell lines, a phenomenon they called "episodic mutagenesis."

APOBEC DNA editing enzymes are part of the innate immune system, protecting us from infections by causing mutations in viruses such as HIV, leaving APOBEC mutational signatures in the viral genomes. APOBEC-like signatures are a major mutation pattern in cancers, found in more than 70 per cent of cancer types. A theory for this is that viruses or inflammation could activate the enzymes to mutate the human genome instead of the virus. However, cell lines are not subject to inflammation and no viruses were found, suggesting other factors are involved. Importantly, cell lines found to generate these and other signatures over time can now be used by researchers to investigate the underlying causes of mutations in cancer.

Dr Mia Petljak, the first author on the paper from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "Mutational signatures in human DNA represent traces of the mutational processes that happened in the past. In the first systematic study of mutational signatures in cell lines over time, we found that the signatures previously associated with APOBEC enzymes were the only mutations that came in bursts of activity. Cell lines that continue to generate APOBEC-associated, and other, signatures over time now provide us and other groups with a set of powerful tools to study root causes of human cancer -- the origins of mutations."

Dr Peter Campbell, an author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "By annotating over a thousand publically available cancer cell lines with information on mutational signatures, we have provided the largest ever resource for experimentally investigating the biological mechanisms underlying these signatures. Now, researchers will be able to choose the right cell line to work with and systematically knock-out individual genes to study how this affects the generation of any mutational signature over time."

Dr David Scott, Cancer Research UK's director of discovery research, said: "This international team has created a giant library of the genetic codes that underpin cancer. Scientists anywhere at any time can 'check out' cancer cells from the library with this genetic information, to study the specific causes of these diseases, and the mechanisms we can exploit to prevent or treat them in future. Cancer is a global problem and requires a global solution."

"This research, which supports Cancer Research UK's Grand Challenge initiative, shows the value of drawing on the expertise of researchers from around the world to understand the root causes of cancer."

Prof Sir Mike Stratton, lead author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "Human cancer cell lines carry the signatures of the mutational processes that led to the cancer. Our work investigating what causes these signatures will lead to a better understanding of the origins of cancers. If we can determine exactly what triggers these mutational processes, it could be possible to avoid or limit that exposure, and thus help towards prevention of that cancer."
People living in rural areas are more likely to have ambiguous beliefs and fears about getting cancer, as well as more fatalistic viewpoints than urban dwellers, reports a research team from Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, with campuses in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona; Jacksonville, Florida; and Rochester, Minnesota. The center's catchment area includes 29 counties in five states with multiple rural areas. The team conducted a population-based survey of randomly selected households across the three regions of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center catchment area, receiving 1,157 completed responses.

"Survey respondents who live in the rural areas were more likely to agree with statements such as 'It seems like everything causes cancer,' 'There is not much you can do to lower your chances of getting cancer,' and 'There are so many different recommendations about preventing cancer, it's hard to know which ones to follow,' says Kristin J. Harden, M.P.H., a health services researcher at Mayo Clinic and the study's lead author. "They were also more likely to respond 'extremely' to the question 'How worried are you about getting cancer?'"

Even though the team controlled for social and demographic variables, such as education, race and ethnicity, and health insurance status; they found that in general, people living in rural areas preferred not to know what their risk of developing cancer was.

What you don't know can't hurt you ...

In this instance at least, a lack of knowledge could be deadly. "Having these kinds of pessimistic beliefs towards cancer prevention may discourage participation in cancer prevention and screening, which could contribute to health disparities," says Harden.

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Recent reports indicate that both the incidence rates of cancer, as well as cancer-related deaths, are decreasing in the U.S. However, in rural areas, observed declines are slower. In fact, Harden says, "this is particularly true for cancers that can be prevented through behavior change, such as stopping smoking or participating in evidence-based cancer screenings such as colonoscopy."

"Public health researchers and health care professionals working in rural areas need to understand these attitudes, as well as the variability across the different communities they work in," she says.

"Interventions that work in one community may not work in another. Therefore, professionals developing potential interventions should do so in collaboration with community members to ensure alignment with individual community needs and values."

Collaboration and continued research

The research team hopes to expand on these findings, collaborating with rural community members to help better understand the findings and collect ideas that could lead to customized interventions for different communities.

"This research is directly responsive to NCI priorities, both with its focus on catchment area and on rural populations," says study senior author Lila Finney Rutten, Ph.D., M.P.H., Professor of Health Services Research in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science; and the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Scientific Director for Population Health Science, in the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery.

"We expect these findings to inform our continued research in Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, as well as to improve our ability to better engage with and care for our rural populations," says Dr. Rutten.
Fireflies, heart cells, clocks, and power grids all do it -- they can spontaneously sync up, sending signals out in unison. For centuries, scientists have been perplexed by this self-organizing behavior, coming up with theories and experiments that make up the science of sync. But despite progress being made in the field, mysteries still persist -- in particular how networks of completely identical elements can fall out of sync.

Now, in a new study in the March 8 issue of the journal Science, Caltech researchers have shown experimentally how a simple network of identical synchronized nanomachines can give rise to out-of-sync, complex states. Imagine a line of Rockette dancers: When they are all kicking at the same time, they are in sync. One of the complex states observed to arise from the simple network would be akin to the Rockette dancers kicking their legs "out of phase" with each other, where every other dancer is kicking a leg up, while the dancers in between have just finished a kick.

The findings experimentally demonstrate that even simple networks can lead to complexity, and this knowledge, in turn, may ultimately lead to new tools for controlling those networks. For example, by better understanding how heart cells or power grids display complexity in seemingly uniform networks, researchers may be able to develop new tools for pushing those networks back into rhythm.

"We want to learn how we can just tickle, or gently push, a system in the right direction to set it back into a synced state," says Michael L. Roukes, the Frank J. Roshek Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Bioengineering at Caltech, and principal investigator of the new Science study. "This could perhaps engender a form of new, less harsh defibrillators, for example, for shocking the heart back into rhythm."

Synchronized oscillations were first noted as far back as the 1600s, when the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens, known for discovering the Saturnian moon Titan, noted that two pendulum clocks hung from a common support would eventually come to tick in unison. Through the centuries, mathematicians and other scientists have come up with various ways to explain the strange phenomenon, seen also in heart and brain cells, fireflies, clouds of cold atoms, the circadian rhythms of animals, and many other systems.

In essence, these networks consist of two or more oscillators (the nodes of the network), which have the ability to tick on their own, sending out repeated signals. The nodes must also be connected in some way to each other (through the network edges), so that they can communicate and send out messages about their various states.

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But it has also been observed since the early 2000s that these networks, even when consisting of identical oscillators, can spontaneously flip out of sync and evolve into complex patterns. To better understand what is going on, Roukes and colleagues began to develop networks of oscillating nanomechanical devices. They started by just connecting two, and now, in the new study, have developed an interconnected system of eight.

To the team's surprise, the eight-node system spontaneously evolved into various exotic, complex states. "This is the first experimental demonstration that these many distinct, complex states can occur in the same simple system," says co-author James Crutchfield, a visiting associate in physics at Caltech and a professor of physics at UC Davis.

To return to the Rockettes metaphor, another example of one of these complex states would be if every other dancer were kicking a leg up, while the dancers in between were doing something entirely different like waving their hats. And the examples get even more nuanced than this; with pairs of dancers doing the same movements between pairs of other dances doing something different.

"The perplexing feature of these particular states is that the Rockettes in our metaphor can only see their nearest neighbor, yet manage to be coordinating with their neighbor's neighbor," says lead author Matthew Matheny, a research scientist at Caltech and member of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute.

"We didn't know what we were going to see," says Matheny. "But what these experiments are telling us is that you can get complexity out of a very simple system. This was something that was hinted at before but not shown experimentally until now."

"These exotic states arising from a simple system are what we call emergent," says Roukes. "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts."

The researchers hope to continue to build increasingly complex networks and observe what happens when more than eight nodes are connected. They say that the more they can understand about how the networks evolve over time, the more they can precisely control them in useful ways. And eventually they may even be able to apply what they are learning to model and better understand the human brain -- one of the most complex networks that we know of, with not just eight nodes but 200 billion neurons connected to each other typically by thousands of synaptic edges.

"Decades after the first theories of the science of sync, and we are just finally beginning to understand what's going on," says Roukes. "It's going to take quite a while before we understand the unbelievably complex network of our brain."
The age a woman begins menstruation is associated with having high blood pressure later in her life, according to a team of researchers at the University of Georgia.

Specifically, researchers found that early onset menstruation significantly increased risk of hypertension in late adulthood, even after controlling for independent social economic factors, lifestyle behaviors, and other metabolic measures.

The study, which appeared in Hypertension Research, aimed to shed some light on how the age of menarche and menopause may affect chronic disease later in life. Existing research on the issue has yielded inconsistent answers.

"Some studies suggested that early menarche increased the risk of hypertension in late adulthood, while other studies indicated that late onset of menarche was associated with hypertension in late adulthood," said Luqi Shen, a doctoral student at UGA's College of Public Health and study author.

The data

The researchers evaluated survey data of 7,893 Chinese women from the Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, which included information about biological, demographic and lifestyle factors that may contribute to high blood pressure.

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Shen says the link may be explained by the rate our body systems develop. When one system develops early or experiences a delay that can have an impact on other body systems.

"Women with early menarche may have less than optimal developed cardiovascular system, therefore, had higher risk for adverse outcomes, such as hypertension in late adulthood," said Shen. "So, the association of early menarche with hypertension is as expected in this population."

However, they did not find a strong connection between age of menopause and blood pressure once they controlled for other lifestyle factors.

Body weight management

"Interestingly, this association is entirely explained by body mass index," said Shen. "This suggests that body weight management around menopausal stage is critical in blood pressure management for women at menopausal age, and we believe this finding is not specific to Chinese women and may be applicable to women in all countries."

The study contributes to a growing body of research seeking to determine how experiences in early life may affect long-term health, but Shen cautions that biological mechanisms underlying these associations may be alleviated by a healthy living environment and access to good healthcare.

Co-authors include Li Wang with Shanghai Baoshan Luo Dian Hospital, Ying Hu with West China Second Hospital, Tingting Liu with the University of Arkansas, Jinzhen Guo with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; and Ye Shen, Ruiyuan Zhang, Toni Miles, and Changwei Li with the University of Georgia College of Public Health.
The West African chimpanzee population has declined by nearly 80 percent in recent decades. Habitat loss is threatening their livelihoods across the continent, and especially in Senegal, where corporate mining has started eating up land in recent years.

The geographical distribution of West African chimps overlaps almost perfectly with gold and iron ore deposits, and unfortunately for the chimps, mining is a key piece of the country's development strategy, said Stacy Lindshield, a biological anthropologist at Purdue University.

Extractive industries are already improving people's livelihoods and promoting investment and infrastructure development, and researchers are trying to find a way to protect Senegal's chimps without surrendering these benefits. Many of Earth's animal species are now dying off at accelerated rates, but as human's closest living relatives, they tend to tug at our heart strings. Chimps are scientifically important, too -- because they participate in collective activities such as hunting and food-sharing, they're often studied by social science researchers.

A new study of animal populations inside and outside a protected area in Senegal, Niokolo-Koba National Park, shows that protecting such an area from human interaction and development preserves not only chimps but many other mammal species. The findings were published in the journal Folia Primatologica.

"We saw the same number of chimpanzee species inside and outside the park, but more species of carnivores and ungulates in the protected area," Lindshield said.

Although habitat loss is the biggest threat to West African chimps, they're sometimes killed for meat. This is uncommon in Senegal, where eating chimpanzee meat is a taboo -- people think chimps are too similar to humans to eat. But this isn't the case in other West African countries, where researchers might see a bigger difference in chimp populations inside and outside protected areas. National parks could be especially effective at protecting chimps in these nations.

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The difference in the number of species of carnivores and hooved animals (known as ungulates), inside and outside the park was stark -- their populations were 14 and 42 percent higher in the park, respectively. This is in sharp contrast with what Lindshield was hearing on the ground in Senegal: There's nothing in the park; all the animals are gone.

"There were qualitative and quantitative differences between what people were telling me and what I was seeing in the park," she said. "Niokolo-Koba National Park is huge, and the area we study is nestled deeply in the interior where it's difficult for humans to access. As a consequence, we see a lot of animals there."

Hunting practices and human-carnivore conflict are two big reasons for ungulates thriving inside the park. These animals are frequently targeted by hunters, and some carnivore species turn to livestock as a food source when their prey species are dwindling, creating potential for conflict with humans. Because the two sites are relatively close geographically and have similar grassland, woodland and forest cover, the researchers think human activity is the root of differences between the two sites.

Lindshield's team conducted basic field surveys by walking around the two sites and recording the animals they saw. They also installed camera traps at key water sources, gallery forests and caves to record more rare and nocturnal animals.

"We're engaging in basic research, but it's crucial in an area that's rapidly developing and home to an endangered species," Lindshield said. "This provides evidence that the protected area is effective, at least where we are working, counter to what I was hearing from the public. The management of protected areas is highly complex. Myriad challenges can make management goals nearly impossible, such as funding shortfalls or lack of buy-in from local communities, but I think it's important for people to recognize that this park is not a lost cause; it's working as it's intended to at Assirik, especially for large ungulates and carnivores."

Lindshield hopes her future studies will uncover not only which species exist in each site, but population sizes of each species. This metric, known as species evenness, is a key measure of biodiversity.

Data from the unprotected area in Senegal was collected by Jill Pruetz of Texas State University. Stephanie Bogart and Papa Ibnou Ndiaye of the University of Florida, and Malle Gueye of Niokolo-Koba National Park, also contributed to this research. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, Leakey Foundation, Rufford Foundation, Primate Conservation Inc., Jane Goodall Research Center at University of Southern California, Purdue and Iowa State University.
During his first week in office, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order known as the Expanded Global Gag Rule that cuts funding to foreign aid organizations that provide or refer women to abortions. A new journal article by researchers in the Global Health Justice and Governance program (GHJG) at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health argues that the policy is having a chilling effect, dampening debate, advocacy, and collaboration around abortion and other sexual and reproductive rights. A similar policy known as the Domestic Gag Rule is expected to go into effect by the end of April.

The article, which appears online in the Journal of International Affairs, a Columbia SIPA publication, reports that organizations receiving U.S. global health assistance have pulled out of reproductive health and rights meetings and coalitions.

"Organizations that comply with the rule often over-interpret its restrictions, whether because they lack information about what speech is allowed, they receive misinformation from U.S. government employees about what is allowed, or they fear a major donor," says first author Marta Schaaf, DrPH, director of programming and operations for GHJG. "As a result, organizations that comply with the rule often decline to participate in meetings where abortion or even contraception is discussed. In this way, the Global Gag Rule not only curtails free speech, but it limits the ability of organizations to deliver quality healthcare."

Similar chilling effects were documented when the Global Gag Rule was implemented under previous Republican administrations, but Schaaf and her co-authors argue that the newly expanded policy could be much worse. Whereas previous versions of the Global Gag rule applied to family planning assistance, the new rule applies to all global health assistance, affecting approximately $9 billion in funding, up from $600 million during the George W. Bush Administration. The U.S. is the world's largest global health donor; no other government can make up for the policy's restrictions. Moreover, the Expanded Global Gag Rule comes at a time when civil society organizations and activists in many countries are increasingly under attack.

According to an estimate by CIVICUS, a global civil society alliance, civil society is under attack in 111 of 196 countries worldwide, limiting people's freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of expression. As one example, in 2018 the government of Tanzania banned advertisements regarding family planning and criminalized the public dissemination of any statistical information contradicting official government figures, making the collection of public health or health service provision data by civil society or the media nearly impossible.

"We're seeing a crackdown on free speech and organizing around the world, particularly on individuals and groups defending women's human rights. The Expanded Global Gag Rule is feeding that trend," says Terry McGovern, JD, director of GHJG, chair of the Columbia Mailman Department of Population and Family Health, and co-author of the journal article.

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Follow the Money

Since the launch of GHJG last fall, members of the program have worked to document the far-reaching harms of the Global Gag Rule. Schaaf and her GHJG colleague Emily Maistrellis co-authored a draft policy statement of the American Public Health Association that argues that the rule is harmful to health and in violation of human rights; the statement is currently open for comment by APHA members. A forthcoming journal article by the researchers will report initial findings from a collaborative investigation with the Center for Health and Gender Equity, Washington D.C., funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The ongoing research with researchers and NGOs in Kenya, Madagascar, and Nepal is examining the ways that the federal policy is harmful to health--even beyond the domain of sexual and reproductive health.

As one example, a Washington Post article highlighted the story of the nonprofit WaterAid, which works to improve access to clean drinking water, decided not to comply with the Global Gag Rule, as the nonprofit refers women who had been sexually assaulted while collecting water to comprehensive reproductive health services, many of which provide abortion services. As a result, WaterAid ended some projects and has stopped applying for USAID funding, and has significantly decreased the scope and reach of their work in several countries, including in Madagascar.

"The U.S. flow of funding touches so many actors and issues. To understand the impact of the Global Gag Rule, we followed the flows of money, and we followed the flows of people in the health system," Schaaf explains. "People don't realize the real social costs of the Gag Rule because they think all it does is prohibit U.S. funds from supporting abortion. They don't realize it affects all these other things--the integration of health services, referrals within the health system, health services beyond sexual and reproductive health, and free speech. It also undermines sovereignty in these countries. Nepal has liberalized their abortion law. It's not our business to intervene in that."

The GHJG team also has its eye on the domestic front. In late February, the Trump Administration announced that the Domestic Gag Rule will proceed within 60 days, a move that is already facing multiple legal challenges. Last summer, 24 faculty and staff in the Department of Population and Family Health submitted a public comment related to the new rule. Much like the Global Gag Rule, the Domestic Gag Rule aims to prohibit providers from performing, promoting, referring for, or supporting abortion as a method of family planning. The comment stated that the proposed rule "imposes serious risks to the health and well-being of millions of women and girls," particularly poor women of color. College-age women who often rely on programs like Planned Parenthood would also be disproportionally affected. Among the policy's anticipated consequences are an increase in unplanned pregnancies and abortions.

"Globally and domestically, these policies impose the political agenda of a minority of Americans on our health and human rights," says McGovern. "This is nothing short of an attack on women, and we are ready to fight back."
The United States could fulfill its greenhouse gas emission pledge under the Paris Climate Agreement by virtually eliminating coal as an energy source by 2024, according to new research from Portland State University.

Although the Trump Administration announced in 2017 that United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the U.S. cannot officially pull out until 2020.

The research -- co-authored by PSU Ph.D. graduate student John Anasis and faculty from PSU's departments of physics, economics, and system science -- will be published in the March issue of the journal Applied Energy. It examines the energy shifts that would need to take place for both the U.S. and China to reach the Paris Agreement's goals. Together, the two countries produce roughly 40 percent of global emissions.

The researchers said eliminating coal as an energy source was the most significant step for the U.S. to meet its emissions target. As a result, the U.S. would need a shift to an energy portfolio based on natural gas, efficiency, wind, solar power, and biofuels, with oil used predominately for transportation fuel.

In the best of all worlds, nuclear power also would be part of the mix. The authors state that 12 new nuclear power plants would have to be built by 2025 to cost efficiently make up for the loss of coal, but that the goals could be reached without them at only a slightly higher cost.

"Given the concerns and controversy surrounding nuclear power, this is significant," said PSU Economics Professor Randall Bluffstone, one of the co-authors.

Anasis, the paper's lead author, said the research also showed that a strong push towards energy efficiency and the adoption of electric vehicles would be among the most cost-effective strategies for meeting the emissions targets under the Paris accord.

The authors say many of the energy resource shifts described in the paper are well underway.

"The declining costs of both natural gas and renewables is already displacing significant amounts of coal-fired generation," Bluffstone said.
Enhanced warming in the Arctic (north of 67N) is found in both recent observational investigations and model simulations with greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions increasing. Global warming is occurring twice as fast in the Arctic than anywhere else on Earth. However, why the largest the Arctic amplification (AA) only occurs in certain periods over areas with significant sea-ice loss is still under great debate.

Scientists from the State University of New York, Albany and Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences found the answers by means of historical data analyzation and climate model simulations. Their analyses indicated that AA would not slow down until the 22nd and 23rd centuries, after almost all of the Arctic's sea ice has melted away with GHGs emissions increasing.

"Rapid Arctic warming and sea ice loss are attracting a lot of attention in the media, public and scientific community. Our study links the two together and suggests that the sea ice loss is causing the rapid warming in the Arctic," said the lead author, Aiguo DAI, In a news release. "When the sea ice melts away completely, this elevated warming will also disappear and the warming rate in the Arctic will be similar to the rest of the world,"

According to this research, the large AA only occurs in the cold season (October to April), and only over the area of prominent sea-ice loss. This is mainly because seasonal sea-ice melting from May to September causes more extensive upper seawater and absorbs more sunlight during the warm season and the heat energy is stored in sea-surface Arctic waters. Most of this energy is released into the atmosphere through longwave radiation, and latent and sensible heat fluxes to heating the atmosphere during the cold season when Arctic Ocean becomes a heat source, leading to the large AA.

Scientists warn that the melting of Arctic sea ice will greatly enhance warming in the Arctic for the coming decades and could also impact weather patterns in mid-latitudes, causing more frequent intrusions of winter polar vortex into China and the continental U.S., leading to extreme events including severe winter weather.

This research was published in Nature Communications.
Aging onto the street Nearly half of older homeless people fell into trouble after age 50, new research shows. Meet three people who worked hard in life but fell through a tattered safety net

Aging onto the street Nearly half of older homeless people fell into trouble after age 50, new research shows. Meet three people who worked hard in life but fell through a tattered safety net

For the past six years, Joe White has been waking up every morning in a parking lot in downtown Oakland. Some days, its freezing. Other days, hes baking, drenched or, sometimes, tolerably comfortable.

One constant is the asphalt: Its always hard. And food, which White has to protect from the rats that squirm through the hole theyve chewed through his tent door, always requires a hunt.

But hes OK, he says. Hes tough, and he has to be. Hes 68 years old.

White is at an age when many senior citizens are in the easy-chair phase of life, taking grandkids out for ice cream and traveling for fun. Not White  and not an increasing number of people who, like him, fell into homelessness past their 50th birthdays.

In a study that raises alarms about an increasingly tattered safety net for low-income seniors in America, researchers have found that just short of half  44 percent  of all homeless people older than 50 years old hit the streets for the first time after they were 50.

While a full half of the nations people living without homes are older than 50, its the growing number of those who fall into homelessness after that age that most concerns Margot Kushel, the UCSF professor who heads the study. The problem is especially acute in the Bay Area, where housing costs, including rents, have risen dramatically over the past decade.

The studys finding speaks to the danger of a shrinking ability of people to adequately save money and make other arrangements for retirement, Kushel said. And it indicates, she said, that there is too little help in place to catch them before they fall into homelessness when hard times hit.

Perhaps most disturbingly, it reflects societys ambivalence toward the plight of the elderly, she said.

It should shock us as a nation that we have this problem, Kushel said. Its almost too painful to realize.

Kushel, whose study just concluded its fifth year and has just been renewed for another five, said White and the 450 other people shes been tracking serve as a warning that a veritable tidal wave of older people will probably be living on the streets in the coming years.

A separate study on aging homeless, released last month by other researchers, echoed Kushels concerns and projected that the elderly homeless population will nearly triple over the next decade.

Over and over, she said, the story is the same: A person works into late middle age at a low-wage job, hanging in there but unable to save much money, and then trouble strikes. He or she can no longer swing a hammer, sling a shovel, stand all day in front of a cash register, drive long shifts in a truck.

The parents in a multigenerational rental home die, and those left behind cant afford to stay. Or the older lady or man they were caring for as a home health aide dies, and so does the job.

Or they become disabled, like White, whose left knee is so badly damaged the kneecap juts out at a sickening 45-degree angle from where it should be.

The problem here is not a lack of willingness to work, or mental health  its a society that doesnt care, doesnt have an adequate safety net built, especially for our senior citizens, Kushel said. This is what happens when you pay people a minimum wage they cant live on and is worth less than it used to be, there is way too little affordable housing, and there are practically no pensions anymore. They were never able to build wealth, save for their old age.

You put all these together, and we are shocked, shocked shocked that homelessness among older people is rising?

Data from the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that studies labor issues, show that todays federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25 would have to actually be set at $19 to pay for food, housing and other costs in the same way possible in 1970. Meanwhile, the average price of a house has quadrupled nationwide since 1980, and the median rent has doubled, according to online real estate databases Zillow and ApartmentList. In the Bay Area, where rents are the highest in the nation, the challenges are more severe. In San Francisco, even the citys $15 minimum wage cant bridge the livability gap.

In this market, in the Bay Area, 10 or 15 years ago we would not have found the quantity of older homeless people that we see every day  were just seeing more and more of them all the time, said John Weeks, a coordinator of the UCSF study. When things went wrong, you could still rent a room, find a place somewhere, get by somehow. Not now.

Kushel, one of the nations foremost researchers into geriatric homelessness, co-wrote the first study, in 2006, showing that the average age of homeless people in the U.S. was in the mid-50s.

Her latest study, titled Hope-Home, doesnt reach back to the 1980s, when modern homelessness began. So she has no way to estimate how many people were becoming homeless after 50 then. But the steady graying of the street population since 1990 is significant enough to portend a coming crisis for seniors, she said. In 1990, only 11 percent of the population nationwide was 50 or older, according to UCSF statistics. Today its 50 percent.

Margot is doing very important work, said Dennis Culhane, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who led last months study projecting a tripling of elderly street population. He agreed with Kushel that her research reflects a national problem, not just the Bay Areas.

We should all be very concerned about this, Culhane said. Its going to be very upsetting to people to see so many more elderly people who are homeless, but thats basically what we are facing: a growing aging and frail homeless population.

Kushel, who found her study participants in Oakland, is tracking them throughout Northern California as they cycle in and out of shelters, camps and stays with friends or family. A fortunate few have gotten into permanent housing. In exploring how they cope, she and her researchers have found that that homeless older folks have far more trouble with depression, eyesight, hearing, balance, and performing average daily activities such as bathing or dressing than housed people their age.

That is unsurprising, Kushel said. Homeless people in their 50s generally display the geriatric difficulties of people age 75 or 80. That means caring for the coming boom in older street people will be expensive.

Were going to have to get our shelters and our supportive housing ready for an older population, with more intensive medical care  accommodations for people who have the needs of 80-year-olds, Kushel said. We also need to expand our attention to prevent seniors from becoming homeless to begin with, perhaps by giving subsidies so they can stay with families, the way we do for children through child welfare services.

About 80 percent of the UCSF study participants are African American. Across America, a disproportionate 43 percent of homeless people are black, a number reflected in the Bay Area. In contrast, just 13 percent of the national population is black.

Kushel attributes this local and national disparity to a grim history of redlining, economic oppression and other ills.

Were going to have to make some hard decisions as a society to address how racial inequality affects so many things, but in this case, homelessness, she said. For one, we have to more vigorously enforce fair housing laws. Create more affordable housing for everyone. Pay people something they can actually live on.

This will take some painful and honest conversations about housing segregation and income inequality. But they are conversations we have to have if we dont want it to get worse.

Three Bay Area residents in Kushels study spoke with The Chronicle about how they ended up homeless after age 50. Here are their stories:

Wayne Shannon

Most of the people in Kushels study were low-income before they became indigent. But some werent. They were just laid low by bad luck, a debilitating injury  or, like Wayne Shannon, by an inability or unwillingness to plan for their golden years.

Shannon is 74 and worked a full career as a draftsman, having earned a bachelors degree in 1973 in industrial arts at San Jose State University. He held great jobs one after the other, working at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Chevron, in addition to contractor gigs in Alaska and the Philippines. But he never stayed long in any one place, and he didnt save his money.

He also never married. Never had children. And many years ago sold the only condo he ever bought.

In 2001, at 56, he found himself laid off from what became his last job. Too young to begin receiving Social Security, he couldnt afford rent anywhere in the Bay Area. So he began living in a van. Thats where he was when Kushels team found him at a soup kitchen five years ago and recruited him into the study.

I guess I didnt think things through, he said in a habitually slow, careful tone. I never stayed in a job long enough to put down roots, and my retirement plan was to collect Social Security. But who knew things would get so expensive?

I never thought Id be living in a van. Time just kind of snuck up on me.

Shannon said he has always believed in carrying his own weight, and aside from using veteran medical services  he was an Army sergeant in the Vietnam War  he asks very little of anyone. He lived in his van until it fell apart two years ago. With a governmental housing subsidy, he moved into senior housing in Oakland.

Thats where he is today, now carefully managing his budget from a monthly Social Security check and making regular three-hour trips to the Fort Miley VA Medical Center in San Francisco for checkups on diabetes, a crushed vertebrae and other ailments he picked up from his time with no permanent roof.

Shannon visits his two brothers in the Central Valley, but only at holiday time.

You dont want to impose, Shannon said. Were supposed to take care of ourselves in America, and thats what I do. I would never think of imposing on my relatives. Theyre good people, and I see them at Thanksgiving and the like, but Ive always taken care of myself. And Im fine with that.

Echoing that sentiment is Shannons brother, who also had a full career  in water management  but planned more effectively before retiring to Lodi (San Joaquin County).

Wayne has not ever asked us if he could live with us, Warren Shannon said. Its not out of animosity or disunity. We do love each other. But hes independent.

Joe White

His ruined knee is what steered Joe White to a soggy tent on the asphalt in downtown Oakland.

He put in a decades-long career as a food services worker for the Oakland Unified School District before he fell off a ladder, severely fractured his kneecap and everything around it, and ended his career. An operation to repair the knee failed. That was six years ago, when he was 62. He never saw homelessness coming.

I worked all my life until I was in my 60s, hurt my knee and couldnt work anymore, he said recently as he carefully unfolded a batch of rain-drenched clothes and spread them out on his parking lot home. I never in a million years thought I would wind up here in this parking lot, living like this. No sir.

A tear trickled from one eye as he smoothed out a crease in his jeans, which, like his black jacket and sneakers, were tidy and clean  not the signs of guy whod been sleeping in a tattered tent in the rain.

Its been a hard struggle, man, he said quietly. But Im not the only one. I see a lot of old guys like me out here. Its getting worse. Not better.

Whites parking lot is on 13th Street, across from the historic Hotel Oakland, where movie stars and presidents from Wilson to Roosevelt stayed before it was turned into a senior citizens home. Over time, he has become a somewhat beloved figure on his block.

He wears a big smile and chats up everyone who stops by. He watches after peoples cars when theyre at work. He reports problems when he sees them.

Its a common technique for older homeless people living outside  they become what some street counselors call neighborhood mascots. Stay nice, help out, dont be a problem, and you wont get rousted. Youre too old to really fight with anyone, so create your own peace as much as possible.

For White, its not always easy. Sometimes the throbbing in his damaged knee is so bad that he has to heat a needle in his tent and lance it to drain it out. But he manages.

What amazes me about Joe is how hes created his own community out there, said Corinne Jan, who works nearby. Some people outside isolate themselves, and its harder to know them, know what to expect. Not Joe. Everybody knows him and likes him.

Jan is head of Family Bridges, a nonprofit that helps low-income families find resources, and this winter she took White on as a mini-project. She connected him with a transitional housing program, and though White doesnt like crowded buildings, preferring to stay in his tent most of the time, he is working with counselors to get a permanent studio with government assistance.

CJ  shes a very sharp lady, and she cares, he said during a visit to her office. She opened up my heart.

You can do this, Joe, Jan said, leaning her face close to his. I know you can get inside. You just have to keep with it.

Michelle Myers

About 30 percent of older homeless people bunk with family now and then, Kushels team has found  but they typically cant stay. More often than not, the relatives are barely hanging on economically themselves and cant afford to permanently provide for another mouth at the dinner table, Kushel said.

Theres a lot of pride among these older homeless people, she said. A lot of lower-income families rent places with restrictions, and they dont want to screw up the lease by staying there against the rules.

And if there is one more person in the house, thats one more who is eating, flushing the toilet, using the lights. Time and time again, they say, I dont want to take food out of my grandbabys mouth, so Id rather be outside and take care of myself. But as much as anything, they just plain dont want to impose.

Thats how it is with 62-year-old Michelle Myers.

A waitress who raised three sons alone, shed been living with her father with only intermittent jobs until 2013, when he died of cancer. Her mother had died a few years earlier. Before that, her second husband died of a heart attack.

Without a parent or spouse to share rent, she burned through her paltry savings, couldnt find work  and wound up living in her Volkswagen bug. Heroin soon captured her. She gave up.

In the state I was in, I didnt  and dont  want to be a burden to my children, she said. So I just tried to handle things myself. Didnt work out very well.

Its hard to get help when youre like that, no money, no home. People push you away because youre older. They down-rate you. Yeah, its my fault I did drugs. Everyone makes mistakes. But my gosh, how our society neglects its older people.

Landing in a hospital with pneumonia two years ago saved her  along with the kindness shown her by Kushels study team. Encouraged by the researchers to accept the help the hospital staff offered her, she enrolled in a residential rehab program and got clean. A year ago Myers scored one of Oaklands scarce government-funded residential placements for the homeless and moved into the Harrison Hotel supportive housing complex.

Her room was supposed to be temporary, but last month it became permanent when she was diagnosed with stomach cancer  which came on top of an existing HIV diagnosis.

A few years ago, Myers said, she might have crumbled with the diagnoses.

Not now, she said, standing in the century-old, restored residential hotel and grinning as she saw the sun peeping through her window. I am picking myself up. I pray. I go to church. I stay clean. Seniors shouldnt have to go through what Ive gone through, but I wont be a burden to my sons.

I got lucky here. Not everyone else is. No sir, no. Ive had too many friends wind up in coffins too early.

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron
Collin Chappelle/NYT

A civil rights agency and a former employee of a San Leandro company that sells solar panels accused the company Thursday of refusing to do business with customers of Middle Eastern or Indian descent.

During three weeks of employment at Fidelity Home Energy in 2015, Ayesha Faiz was told not to make appointments for customers whose names sounded Middle Eastern or Indian, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court by Faiz and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
When 18-year-old Dale Cook landed on Iwo Jima in February 1945, his commanding officer put a rifle in his hand and told him and his Marine comrades to capture the south airfield.

Thats what Cook did. And in the 36 days that followed  five weeks of some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II  Cook and his fellow Marines dodged bullets, slogged through mud, took cover in ditches and overtook key enemy positions in the hills of the remote North Pacific island.

But not without cost. In all, 6,800 U.S. service members died in the ferocious battle. Every man in his squad except for him, Cook said, was killed. Cook himself was wounded in the back and leg by a grenade and evacuated to a hospital ship.

What he did on Iwo Jima was a life-defining experience for him, said his granddaughter, Stacey Simon. It made him feel he could do anything. From that point on, he never took no for an answer.

Cook died Feb. 28 of natural causes at his home in Brentwood. He was 92 and among the last survivors of the Iwo Jima battlefield.

A native of Coeur dAlene, Idaho, Cook enlisted in the Marines in 1944 while still in high school and trained on a mortar crew. After the war, he joined the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the first of many veterans groups. Cook led an annual commemoration of the battle for many years, first at the Golden Gate National Cemetery, and then at the Marines Memorial Club in San Francisco. He returned to Iwo Jima three times, for reunions.

He was president of the Joe Rosenthal chapter of the U.S. Marines Corps Combat Correspondents Association. The chapter is named for the late San Francisco Chronicle and Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, who took the iconic picture of the Iwo Jima flag raising. At the time of his death, Cook was leading an effort to have a Navy ship named for Rosenthal.

After the war, Cook graduated from Washington State University and went on to a four-decade career as a newspaperman in Washington state and as a public relations officer for the Atomic Energy Commission, where he assisted reporters covering nuclear weapons tests in the Nevada desert.

In later years, he was a U.S. Army Reserve public information officer at the Presidio in San Francisco.

Cook was a Sierra hiker, a Boy Scout troop leader and a devoted raiser of English bulldogs, the Marines mascot. He enjoyed showing the dogs in local shows and acting as a dog show judge. His home was a Marine Corps museum stuffed with books, maps, artifacts, photos and awards.

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And he never tired of sharing the story of Iwo Jima with family and friends.

He could re-create in words exactly what it was like, Simon said. You could close your eyes and picture yourself there, in the foxholes, at night, standing watch, with gunfire going on all around. Listening to my grandfather was like watching a movie.

He is survived by daughters Debra Kobold and Marie Wynn, both of Brentwood; sons Jim and Dale Jr., both of Martinez; 11 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Mary, his wife of 63 years, died in 2018.

A funeral Mass will be said on March 12 at 1 p.m. at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, 500 Fairview Ave., Brentwood.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com
One of San Franciscos most dangerous streets for cyclists and pedestrians claimed another life Friday morning when a Berkeley woman riding a bike was run over by a truck in the citys South of Market neighborhood, prompting city officials to call for swift action in implementing safety measures.

The collision was reported around 8:30 a.m. near the intersection of Howard and Sixth streets, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Howard Street was identified by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency as part of the citys High Injury Network, which consists of roadways that pose the most risk.

San Francisco medical examiners officials identified the bicyclist Friday night as 30-year-old Tess Rothstein.

Twelve percent of San Francisco streets account for 70 percent of San Franciscos severe and fatal traffic crashes, according to Vision Zero, an initiative initiated by SFMTA seeking to create safer streets and eliminate all traffic deaths.

So far, five people have been killed in 2019 due to traffic-related incidents, according to Vision Zero. Three people were killed while walking and one person was killed while driving, according to the latest city figures. The womans death Friday brings the years total to five.

Mayor London Breed called the death heartbreaking, and she noted that immediate action will be taken in making changes to the road.

There are long-term safety improvements coming to Howard Street, and I am pushing to move those forward as fast as possible, Breed said. But while we wait for these capital improvements, we need to make short-term safety enhancements, which I have instructed SFMTA to do without delay.

The transit agency started the Folsom-Howard Streetscape Project in 2016 to redesign the two streets that run parallel with one another to make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians. For cyclists, the project will create concrete buffers for parking-protected bikeways, new concrete protection for bicyclists at intersections, more traffic signals with phases for cyclists and turning vehicles, and raised bikeways in certain alleyways.

The efforts will focus on Howard Street between Third and 11th streets, and on Folsom Street between Second and 11th streets. In 2018, two people were killed on Folsom and Howard streets, SFMTA reported.

The agency has already made some improvements to Sixth Street, including painted safety zones and new mid-block crossings and traffic signals, said Paul Rose, SFMTAs spokesman. Protected bike lanes were installed and a red zone was implemented on the corners of Howard Street between Sixth and 11th streets to ensure that people in cars have a better view of pedestrians and cyclists.

The original timeline for Sixth Street was for construction to start in 2020, and we are exploring options to install improvements as fast as possible as part of the new directive from the mayor, Rose said.

The agency also plans to finish installing a protected left-turn lane in May from Howard to Sixth Street to separate pedestrians from turning vehicles, Rose said.

On Friday, the scene of the collision was somber as dozens of people watched police investigate.

Dexter Greene, 38, of San Francisco, was grabbing his wallet from his friends vehicle near the scene when he saw a womans body get thrown from under a truck. He immediately started yelling at the driver to stop.

I saw her just come out of the back tire, Greene said. I yelled at the box truck, Hey, you guys hit that girl, you ran her over.

The driver of the truck then stopped and got out of the vehicle, he said.

He saw her and put his hand over his mouth, Greene added.

Next to a black bike, a yellow sheet covered the body of the woman. The truck was parked less than 10 feet away from her.

Rob Divino, 66, had just come outside to walk his dog when he saw the womans body on the ground. She was wearing a helmet, he said, but it appeared her body had been crushed by the weight of the truck.

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It was just horrible, said Divino, a San Francisco resident. These people drive down Howard Street like they have no conscience. They drive quick. Its a problem.

The driver of the truck stayed at the scene and was cooperating with authorities, said Officer Robert Rueca, a San Francisco police spokesman.

We havent determined what the cause of the collision is at this point, he said.

Authorities were on scene investigating the incident.

Howard Street between Fifth and Sixth streets was shut down for nearly five hours.

We know this time of the morning, it is already congested, Rueca said.

After the fatal collision Friday, District Six Supervisor Matt Haney tweeted that there should be a protected bike lane on Howard Street. He said he would work with the San Francisco Bike Coalition for immediate safety improvements.

Its heartbreaking, he said. We have to do so much better to protect cyclists and pedestrians.

Chronicle staff writer Lauren Hernandez contributed to this report.
Democratic Assemblyman David Chiu stepped into a political typhoon Thursday, when he introduced a state bill to create a Bay Area housing authority that would put tax measures on the ballot.

To Chiu and other housing advocates, this is the first step toward filling the states 3.5 million-home deficit, and developing communities in which families can afford to live near jobs, schools and hospitals.

Right now, people have to drive farther to work, they cant get their kids into good schools and they live far away from services, said Matthew Lewis, spokesman for the pro-housing advocacy group California YIMBY. We know, by every metric, thats what is freaking Californians out.

Chius bill, AB1487, would create a new regional agency to raise funds for affordable housing construction  through, say, the sale of bonds accompanied by a tax increase, though those details still have to be worked out. If voters approve the funding mechanisms, they could generate $1.5 billion a year to be disbursed among the nine Bay Area counties. Communities would receive a portion of the money and still make their own land-use decisions.

But the notion of a new agency and more taxes infuriates some city leaders who say the government is running roughshod over local control.

Heres a closer look:

The problem: Since the recession ended in 2009, the Bay Area has added 722,000 jobs but built only 106,000 homes, an imbalance thats had severe consequences. Its raised the price of real estate, pushing people farther and farther away from the urban core, in search of cheaper housing. As a result, workers spend two or three hours a day commuting. More people are moving into rural areas and wildfire zones.

The crisis has deepened for decades. Though the state sets regional housing goals, it never penalizes cities that fail to meet them. For the most part, communities are left on their own.

Building housing is complicated, and cities have many tools to make it happen or not. Residents often object to new development, saying it mars the look and feel of their communities. Politicians resent the state intervening to tell them what to build and where to put it. Affordable housing is costly to build without subsidies, and developers wont commit to projects that wont make a profit.

The region is tightly interconnected, Chiu said, so a city council obstructing development in the South Bay puts pressure on Oakland and San Francisco. And, ultimately, the effects ripple, creating a severe economic split between homeowners and renters, and older and younger generations.

Most local leaders recognize this crisis. But many dont want to cede their decision-making power to the state  or to a new regional body that represents another layer of government.

The proposed solution: Chius idea for a regional agency called Housing Alliance for the Bay Area derives from a controversial 10-point plan that originated two years ago, when the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments convened a panel of mayors, tech executives, tenant advocates and developers to tackle the crisis together.

Called Committee to House the Bay Area but nicknamed CASA, the panel put together an ambitious blueprint that calls for production of 35,000 homes a year, including 14,000 that are affordable to low-income families, and 7,000 that are affordable to moderate-income families.

The panel also called for preservation of 30,000 units of existing affordable housing, and protections for 300,000 households that are on the verge of getting displaced.

The document was intended as political ammunition for legislators, and several have picked up parts of it already  more than 200 housing bills were introduced this session.

Chius AB1487 would create an agency to fund and shepherd the policies. It would introduce regional parcel or sales tax measures, spending the money on affordable housing production, rental assistance for tenants, and other forms of aid. It would help cities acquire land to build affordable housing and deliver reports on the regions housing progress.

CASA estimates that the Bay Area needs to fill a $2.5 billion funding gap to meet its affordable housing goals. If it passes, AB1487 would provide more than half that money, and Chiu hopes that other state and local measures would provide the rest.

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How it would work: Housing Alliance for the Bay Area would include members of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, members of the Association of Bay Area Governments and appointees of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has elevated housing as a top policy priority.

If voters approve the agencys future funding measures, then 75 percent of the tax money generated by a county would stay within that county.

While the agency aims to build thousands of affordable units each year, it wouldnt strip land-use authority from cities or counties, and it wouldnt have the power of eminent domain to seize private property.

Why some cities object: Despite widespread concern about the housing shortage, some city leaders oppose a new layer of government bureaucracy making decisions on how tax money is spent. Many also felt alienated by the CASA process, saying it favored three big cities  San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose.

Moving forward with legislators, Id love to ensure that other voices are heard besides the big three, said Los Gatos City Councilwoman Marico Sayoc. She hasnt taken a position on Chius bill yet, but she already has some questions. Namely, how will the money be distributed? And if most of it comes back to the county, then why does it have to be diverted to an agency in the first place?

How it could get complicated: Its still unclear what will happen if cities refuse to build. Right now there is no real mechanism for the state to override local land-use authority. When Newsom proposed withholding transportation dollars from cities that dont meet their housing targets, he ignited a political flame war.

Chiu hopes that other zoning bills will address these questions, or that the governor will come up with a way to coerce housing production. He said he wants the Housing Alliance to provide desperately needed funding, but not serve as an enforcement arm.

We want HABA to be a carrot, not a stick, he said.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @rachelswan
In the two weeks since Public Defender Jeff Adachis shocking death, admirers of the larger-than-life attorney have praised his aggressiveness, his brashness and his never-give-up courtroom style.

At his City Hall memorial on Monday, he was eulogized as, Our sansei Superman ... fighting for truth, justice and the American way.

During a Board of Supervisors commemoration the week before, Supervisor Hillary Ronen said Adachi told attorneys in the public defenders office, including her husband, to fight with everything theyve got for every single client  to take risks, to push boundaries.

Theres no question that Adachi pushed enough boundaries to turn the office into the premier public defenders unit in the country. It is funded and staffed to match, and often trounce, the district attorneys office.

But did he ever cross those boundaries? This happened to be a matter I was looking into shortly before his death and one that was the subject of my last interview with Adachi.

At issue were court records suggesting attorneys in the Public Defenders Office failed to tell their clients of plea deals offered by the district attorney, instead insisting the cases go to trial. Failing to convey plea offers is an offense so anathema to proper legal conduct, it could get an attorney disbarred.

Robert Joy said it happened to him.

On Jan. 29, 2016, Joy, then 21, was driving to a hospital where his pregnant wife was in labor. Joy was speeding and struck a traffic control officer, who sustained minor injuries. Joy was quickly arrested and missed the birth of his daughter.

He was charged with two felonies, later dropped to two misdemeanors and an infraction, and was represented by an attorney in Adachis office. The case went to trial, and a jury found Joy guilty on all counts on Dec. 18, 2017. He faced up to a year in prison and hired a private attorney, Alexander Guilmartin, to appeal the conviction.

Guilmartin sought a new trial on the grounds that Joys public defender had failed to convey a plea deal the district attorneys office offered days before the trial started. Under the deal, if Joy pleaded guilty, paid a fine, completed 80 hours of community service and took a drivers safety course, hed be left with just a single misdemeanor vehicle code violation on his record. Hed also avoid jail time.

Mr. Joy proceeded to trial in complete ignorance of this plea offer, Guilmartin wrote in court records. Mr. Joy was similarly unaware of the long-rumored policy of the San Francisco Public Defenders Office to encourage trials in misdemeanor cases, thereby filling courtrooms and forcing favorable resolutions in felony cases.

The theory is that Adachi wanted his misdemeanor attorneys to go to trial to take up courtroom space and judges time. That would mean felony trials would take longer to schedule and that witnesses memories could fade, they might move or they could die, resulting in better outcomes for the public defenders clients charged with the most serious crimes.

Its a rumor that has circulated at the Hall of Justice and City Hall for years, and one that Adachi flatly disputed.

Thats ridiculous, Adachi told me several weeks before he died. That we would try misdemeanor cases for the purposes of delaying felony cases makes absolutely no sense. The clients are completely separate.

Leah Millis / The Chronicle 2017

He did admit  proudly  that his office takes a lot of misdemeanor cases to trial, more than public defenders offices in other California counties.

We do spend a lot of court time trying misdemeanor cases, Adachi said. We spend a lot of time training our attorneys to go to trial, and we encourage our attorneys to go to trial.

Encourage might have been an understatement.

Adachi set myriad targets for his attorneys each year, including 10 trials each for misdemeanor attorneys. Failure wouldnt necessarily get an attorney fired, but were going to examine what youre doing, he said.

He said when he arrived at the Public Defenders Office in 1986, it was a plea-bargaining mill, with clients encouraged to take whatever deal the district attorneys office offered. Now, he explained, most misdemeanor cases are still settled, but taking some cases to trial keeps his attorneys sharp.

But going to trial isnt only good for his attorneys, its also good for his clients, Adachi said, because the ultimate verdict is often better for them than the original plea offer. He provided statistics showing the outcomes after trials  of misdemeanor cases and felony cases combined  were better than the plea offer 59 percent of the time last year and worse just 15 percent of the time. The rest of the time, the outcome matched the plea offer.

The District Attorneys Office does not track that data but said it was dubious the statistics were correct.

Brian Pearlman, managing attorney of the public defenders misdemeanors unit, answered more of my questions after his boss death. He was adamant that attorneys always convey plea deals and that doing so is a very clear standard in the office.

That said, he readily acknowledged that attorneys often try to persuade their clients to reject plea deals and go to trial instead. He said he sometimes spends up to 30 hours over many jail visits trying to persuade a client to reject a plea offer.

He gave a hypothetical example of a mentally ill or high man dropping his pants to urinate on a sidewalk. A woman passing by might think he was masturbating, and he could be charged with indecent exposure. But pleading guilty to get out of jail quickly could mean he would have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

The system is set up as a plea mill where they want people to come in, plead guilty and go home, Pearlman said. We empower our attorneys, and in turn, they empower their clients to fight these cases.

But clients cant be talked out of accepting a plea offer they never knew about in the first place. And thats the allegation from Joy and a few other clients.

There was the case of a man  who talked to me on the condition he not be named because he feared losing his security job  who was at a Beyonce concert at AT&T Park in 2014 when he swiped tickets for the next nights concert from an office desk.

The case dragged on  it required dozens of court appearances, he said  before he dumped his public defender in frustration and hired a private attorney.

Only then did he learn that the district attorneys office had offered him pretrial diversion. If he had taken 12 classes designed to discourage theft, including learning impulse control, his case would have been dropped. Emails reviewed by The Chronicle show his public defender rebuffed the offer of pretrial diversion two minutes after receiving it.

The private attorney sought to have the case dismissed because of ineffective counsel by the Public Defenders Office. At a hearing, two public defenders whod worked on the case testified they did convey the offer and the judge did not dismiss the case.

Still, the district attorneys office was convinced the defendant was telling the truth and moved to drop the case.

In the 2017 court hearing to end the case, Judge Kay Tsenin said to the defendant, I have my own issues with the way public defenders handle cases in court. I have for 20 years. ... You are speaking to the choir.

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The man said afterward that when he learned of the pretrial diversion offer, My heart was pounding. I couldnt believe it.

Adachi had said that in the Beyonce case and the Robert Joy case, the men simply werent telling the truth. They had been informed of the offers and rejected them, he said.

Its not unusual for a client to have second thoughts, Adachi said. Im 100 percent certain our attorneys completely complied with our offices procedure that each and every offer be conveyed.

In a third case, defendant Benjamin Chase was convicted of multiple crimes related to a home burglary. Chase requested that the court appoint a new attorney because his public defender had failed to tell the prosecutor that he had accepted an offer to plead guilty to one count of residential burglary in exchange for two years in state prison.

I at no time wanted to ever go to trial, Chase said in court, according to a transcript.

The Court of Appeal sided with Chase in May 2018 and granted him a new trial. The district attorneys office agreed to allow Chase to take the original deal of two years in state prison.

Adachi said his attorney had been deep into another trial and immediately left for an international vacation, thinking the offer would still be on the table when she returned. But in the meantime, a different prosecutor was assigned to the case, and the offer was removed.

Court records show similar patterns in a few other cases, though Adachi had explanations for each one.

District Attorney George Gascon declined to comment for this column. His spokesman, Max Szabo, talked about the matter before Adachis death. He said that because prosecutors cant talk to defendants, its extremely rare for these kinds of allegations to surface.

Thats why having this many occurrences surface publicly is so concerning, he said. Its impossible to know how many other defendants are out there who dont even know an offer was conveyed.

He added: Attorneys are required to make the interests of their client paramount, not their own interests, and certainly not the interests of their boss. If the public defender is pushing his attorneys to go to trial, and reportedly rewarding them for it, that would seem to create an office-wide conflict.

The reward can include a promotion to the felony unit after completing 20 misdemeanor trials. Pearlman said that number is not a hard-and-fast rule but added, Around 20 trials is a good barometer.

The case of Joy, the new dad who hit the traffic control officer, was before Judge Stephen Murphy in November. Joys private attorney asked that his convictions be vacated and that he be allowed to take the original plea deal. Murphy agreed.

I asked Joy what he planned to do now that the nearly three-year ordeal is over.

Live my life, he said.

Do some community service, too, his lawyer interjected.

Yes, community service and take care of my children, Joy said. Thank God.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf
Burma Club, the spacious new iteration of San Franciscos Burma Superstar, quietly opened for dinner this week at 8 Mint Plaza.

Co-owner Desmond Tan said the Burmese spot will function as a dinner-only destination for now, until lunch service gets added into the mix, in about three months.

As for the food, Tan said the menu will ring familiar for anyone aware of Burma Superstars tea leaf salad (and long waits on Clement Street), but hes leaving room for the options to change.

In the end, the customers and neighborhood will dictate what they want and we plan to listen to what they want, he said. We want to start slow, try to minimize mistakes and just adapt to the area.

Burma Clubs story began in fall 2018 when Tan took over the former Oro space in Mint Plaza and announced plans to create the Burma Superstar brands most ambitious project to date. Burma Club sprawls across three floors  main dining room, downstairs lounge, mezzanine area  and caters to large party dining. Communal seating is scattered throughout the building along with ample bar and lounge space.

Even the name is meant signify the restaurants scope: Burma Club is a reference to San Franciscos grand social and supper clubs.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

With Burma Club openings its doors, the popular Burmese brand now includes multiple Bay Area Burma Superstar outposts as well as Burma Love.

Burma Club: 8 Mint Plaza, San Francisco: Open Tuesday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @JustMrPhillips
I grew up with Paul Newmans Israel, the heroic nation that inspired the 1960 epic Exodus and made the desert bloom. At 18, I summered on a kibbutz, and in 1976 was on my way back, planning to spend my sophomore year at the Hebrew University.

By then, however, Israels Technicolor sheen had faded in the wake of two wars and the capture of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. I was already starting to second-guess my plan when I met an Israeli conscientious objector staying at the home of some friends in London. Well into the night, he harangued me for casting my lot with the oppressors.

Global sympathy was rising for the Palestinians, even as Palestinian terrorists stepped up attacks, bombing and shooting Israeli civilians. I was young and easily intimidated. Two days later, I flew home.

For the next three decades, I mostly put Israel out of my mind. My Jewish friends, like me, were political liberals. We cared about poverty, womens rights and the environment  the easy stuff. We avoided arguments about occupied lands or Palestinian rights. We didnt want to risk being politically incorrect.

Until this year.

This year found me standing at Jerusalems Western Wall, watching my 20-year-old son holding a Torah and a gun while being sworn in to the infantry of the Israel Defense Forces. At my side was my other son, who at 23 was nearing the end of his service in Israels border police. Midway through college, at roughly the same age as I was when I bolted from Israels complexity and heartbreak, my two children ran in the other direction. This has forced me to look more closely at Israel, just when polls show record numbers of American liberals like me have been turning away.

A large survey last year of Jews in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live, found that only 21 percent described themselves as very attached to the Jewish homeland. And while 43 percent said they sympathized more with Israelis than with Palestinians, about half sympathized with both sides, or with neither, or werent sure.

Liberal Jews, in particular, are retreating from an Israel whose policies and image are in unprecedented disrepute  no thanks to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose latest cringeworthy move has been to align with racist, far-right politicians to bolster his re-election prospects.

My liberal sons are obvious exceptions. Along with more than 6,300 other lone soldier foreign volunteers  one-third of them American  they share none of my ambivalence. And Ive spent the last year trying to understand why. They didnt get this from their father and me: Were not only not active Zionists, were both knee-jerk pacifists and gun-control zealots distrustful of patriotic displays.

When I ask my boys why theyre serving, they act like its a no-brainer. They believe in a Jewish homeland, and a nation under constant threat must be protected. Unlike the U.S. military, Israels soldiers main mission is defense, as they point out. They guard checkpoints, destroy attack tunnels dug under their borders and train to prepare for war from all sides.

This still raises the question of why theyve gone so far as to put their own lives on the line, enduring boot camp, canned corn, and rocks and Molotov cocktails hurled in their direction. Because I love and want to understand them, Ive tried to look deeper into what led to their choice, retracing their steps as best I can.

Before blazing the trail to Tel Aviv, my older son attended Columbia University, with its famously active Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. A lifelong defender of underdogs, he soon joined a chapter of Students Supporting Israel, which runs counter-programming during Israel Apartheid Week, an annual event orchestrated by pro-Palestine groups. SSI says BDS demonizes Israel, raising the reasonable question of why theres no strong student movement against Russia, which has hijacked our democracy, or Saudi Arabia, which killed a U.S.-based Saudi journalist last year, routinely tortures political activists, and bombs children in Yemen.

The AMCHA Initiative, a Santa Cruz-based group that tracks anti-Semitism on campuses, says attacks on Jews have increased in step with the anti-Zionist activities. In 2017, when both of my sons were still in college, the Anti-Defamation League reported 204 incidents of anti-Jewish harassment, vandalism and assault on U.S. campuses, an 89 percent increase over 2016.

Reflecting on what it must have felt like for my children to study in this environment has given me a better sense of the appeal for them in wearing uniforms and learning how to shoot. A common stereotype of Jews is that were wimpy and frail: easy targets for those who hate us. Israel is proof we can protect ourselves.

Watching my kids determination has reminded me why I grew up believing in Israel. My grandfather fled to New York from Odessa, Ukraine, as a teenager after two of his brothers were slaughtered in pogroms. These days, the chants of Jews will not replace us in Charlottesville, Va., and last years massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue make me grateful theres one place in the world where we would never be turned away.

Still, my attachment to Israel goes beyond fear. I deeply admire its open society, full of debate and dissent, where, as New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof once noted, the most cogent critiques of Israels treatment of Palestinians invariably come from Israels own human rights organizations. Israel is more than Netanyahu, just as America is more than Donald Trump.

None of this means Ill be moving to Israel anytime soon, or that Im not relieved that both my sons plan to come home after their service. Nor does it mean Im not deeply troubled by reports of violations of Palestinian human rights and by the Israeli governments support of West Bank settlements, which makes lasting peace through a two-state solution ever more elusive.

Still, I worry now that if political liberals like me keep fleeing to the sidelines, Israel will be left with only the extremists, wholl be likely to encourage its governments most self-destructive policies.

The late writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said that the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. My brave sons have made me understand that I can love Israel, just like I love America, even as I hate some of its governments behavior. But Im no longer free to look away.

Katherine Ellison is a journalist and author who lives in Marin County. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at SFChronicle.com/letters.
Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

A climate change skeptic runs the Environmental Protection Agency, and a former oil and gas lobbyist is the acting Interior Department secretary. When Scott Gottlieb was named head of the Food and Drug Administration, there were predictions hed be another industry shill running a key Washington agency.

But Gottlieb, whos announcing his retirement after two years, never lived up to that billing. He went after vaping, slamming San Francisco-based Juul and other e-cigarette makers for flavored offerings that drew young users. He broadcast warnings on opioids, a strong voice in a notably slow-acting administration. He spoke against states that allowed anti-vaccine parents to dodge the need for shots, a dangerous loophole thats worsened a measles outbreak.
The Democratic Party is having a rough time condemning anti-Semitism. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has, on several occasions, made classically anti-Semitic claims about American Jews, and the effort to formally denounce those statements in the House ruined a week in which the Democrats were supposed to talk about their agenda.

The gist of Omars complaints is that the perfidious, string-pulling Hebraic hordes control Congress with their shady shekels, Israel has hypnotized the world, and American Jews are guilty of dual loyalty.

The controversies have been compounded by the fact that her apologies suggest shes not apologetic. Omar has claimed that the anti-Semitism charge is an effort to silence her because she wants to talk about the Jewish scheme to push for allegiance to a foreign country. In an earlier sorry-not-sorry episode, she apologized for hurting anyones feelings, which is not quite the same thing as recanting.

The whole issue of hurt feelings is a red herring  which is precisely why so many Democrats want to focus on feelings rather than on the relevant facts. Indeed, if Omar had better facts on her side, she wouldnt be in this mess.

For instance, Omar seems to think the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a political action committee that funds candidates on behalf of Israel. Inconveniently for Omar, AIPAC isnt a PAC (political action committee), doesnt work for Israel and doesnt donate to political campaigns.

More interesting, however, is the Democratic leaderships fact problem  namely the fact Omar simply isnt a fan of Jews, or at least Jews who support Israel. Its fine to be a critic of Israel, by the way. But when you hate the country so much that you cant explain criticism of Israel without resorting to bigotry, you have a problem. Or rather, the Democratic Party does.

Because its not just Omar. If Omar had no sympathizers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would probably have thrown her under the bus already. The younger, fresher and more radical fringe of the party led by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesnt think Omar should be singled out for criticism or censure. In fairness, the primary reason is not that they all share Omars hang-up with the Jews. Some are just anti-Israel. Others think its unfair that Omar should be criticized when Donald Trump or other Republicans have said bigoted things.

Ocasio-Cortez called efforts to censure Omar hurtful because statements by other politicians, most obviously Trump, arent similarly condemned. She has something of a point. I certainly wish Republicans did more to condemn many of the things Trump has said. But she seems to have forgotten that Republicans did condemn and punish Iowa Rep. Steve King recently for his on-brand racist blather.

So while Ocasio-Cortez is right to a point, that point doesnt take her very far. Its her party that has established a zero-tolerance-for-bigotry standard. And whataboutist arguments are the lowest form of defense. Some Republicans may be hypocrites for not condemning all bigotry equally, but thats a criticism of Republicans, not a defense of Omar.

The effort to avoid singling out Omar is putting Democrats in knots they will be hard-pressed to untie anytime soon. Pelosi has said Omar wasnt intentionally anti-Semitic.

Asked if Omars comment about Jewish dual loyalty was anti-Semitic, Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver of Missouri offered this profile in courage: It may or may not be. I havent thought deeply about it.

South Carolinas James Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the House, offered a baffling defense of Omar by talking about  surprise!  her feelings. He says Omars experience as a refugee from Somalia who spent time in a Kenyan refugee camp has to be taken into account.

There are people who tell me, Well, my parents are Holocaust survivors. My parents did this. Its more personal with her, Clyburn told The Hill, the newspaper of Capitol Hill. Ive talked to her, and I can tell you she is living through a lot of pain.

Leave aside the fact that whatever happened to Omar in Kenya or Somalia, it has nothing to do with Israel or Jews. Are we going to have greater tolerance for bigotry based on a time-since-victimhood score? Slavery was even longer ago than the Holocaust. Does that make racist comments less outrageous than anti-Semitic comments?

On Thursday, Pelosi announced that the House would vote on a resolution condemning all forms of hate. Its a transparent dodge to avoid condemning a specific kind of hate.

It might do the trick to turn the page. But it will almost surely be a temporary respite, because Omar (and others) come to their anti-Semitism honestly, and theyre inclined to be honest about it. So well be here again.

 2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Jonah Goldberg is the author of Suicide of the West. Email: goldbergcolumn@gmail.com. Twitter: @JonahNRO. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at SFChronicle.com/letters.
To solve Californias housing crisis, its vital for the state to know which cities and counties are developing their fair share of housing  and which ones are not.

Supposedly, the state can learn this information by looking at a city or countys progress toward meeting the goals of its Regional Housing Needs Assessment.

RHNA is a statewide program that determines a regions housing development targets for four different income levels over cycles of five and eight years. When it was enacted in 1969, the goal was to ensure that all of Californias communities were building enough housing for a wide variety of income levels.

But the results of a recent report from Beacon Economics make it clear that the RHNA goals themselves have become part of Californias crisis.

Consider the data.

According to Zillow, the median home value in Beverly Hills is $3.55 million. In the regional transportation plan forecast by Southern Californias Association of Governments, Beverly Hills is expected to add 3,400 jobs and 300 households between 2008 and 2020.

But the total number of units the state expected that tony city to build over the current eight-year RHNA cycle? A grand total of three.

Meanwhile, San Francisco permitted the most units of very low-income housing of any Bay Area county in the last RHNA cycle from 2007-14  3,920 units. San Franciscos low-income housing goals for the current RHNA cycle are 6,234 units  and its total goal for this period is 28,869 units. Its permitted 13,091 of those units so far.

Yet because it didnt fully meet its relatively aggressive targets, San Francisco received a worse grade than Beverly Hills did in Beacon Economics analysis.

The RHNA allocations are a highly politicized process, said state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. Every time, theres a food fight, and the wealthier cities are almost always able to get much lower allocations than they should based on population and growth. Beverly Hills is the most extreme example.

Wiener has been one of Californias most effective leaders on the housing crisis, and his bill last year, SB828, began the much-needed process of reforming RHNA allocations. Signed into law by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, SB828 will prohibit local governments from basing their development allocations on prior rates of production and require them to take a more data-based approach.

Theres a lot more to be done when it comes to making sure the RHNA numbers meet actual need, Wiener said.

The first big thing would be ensuring that every community actually participates in the process. According to the Beacon Economics report, 1 of every 6 California jurisdictions isnt even submitting an annual RHNA progress report.

The majority of jurisdictions that have never submitted a report are in predominantly low-income regions. Its not surprising that the states less affluent localities would lack the staff and resources to fulfill obligations that dont seem essential.

But housing development is an essential obligation for the entire state at this point. The California Department of Housing and Community Development must work with these places to get this data.

A bigger challenge thing is for the state to institute an enforcement mechanism.

Right now, the only thing that RHNA does is push cities and counties to plan for housing development in all four income levels. When and if they fail to meet their numbers  and the vast majority of Californias cities and counties do fail  they face no penalties.

That has to change. Local governments lack both political and financial incentives to build housing, and too often theyre choosing not to bother.

There are many possible strategies for the state to push harder on development. It could tie transportation funding to housing development, as Gov. Gavin Newsom recently threatened to do.

It could create regional housing bodies throughout the state and empower them to enforce development according to RHNA allocations.

Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, is introducing a bill to create a Bay Area agency with the power to raise public funds for housing initiatives. Chius agency wouldnt have development enforcement authority, but his idea represents the start of an important process.

Whatever its strategy, the important thing is for the state government to commit to a plan and follow through on enforcement. We cant live with the alternative for much longer.

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.
As the House of Representatives demonstrated Thursday with an awkward vote against bigotry itself, a big tent may contain a party or a circus. A resolution against anti-Semitism and a smorgasbord of other prejudices did produce, if nothing else, Democratic unanimity, a growing challenge for Speaker Nancy Pelosis ungainly majority.

The vote was the San Francisco Democrats attempt to paper over a flareup of religious, racial, political and generational divides in her caucus. It seems being large and diverse can be a problem for a political party, even if its a good problem to have.

The Democrats resolution aimed a garbled rebuke at one of their own. Minnesota freshman Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee who became one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, represents the partys strengths in those respects. Less auspicious is her difficulty criticizing Israel without the aid of anti-Semitic chestnuts. She has characterized her fellow lawmakers support for the Jewish state as allegiance to a foreign country and all about the Benjamins (that is, money), evoking stereotypes of Jews as disloyal and acquisitive.

Several more senior Democrats, some of them Jewish, demanded a formal rejection of anti-Semitism.

Republicans, of course, gleefully and disingenuously stoked the controversy, never mind rising anti-Semitism on the right as well as the left. Take Bakersfields own Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader and one of Omars detractors: Just before his partys midterm shellacking, the congressman tweeted that we cannot allow Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg to BUY this election, evoking much the same stereotype of a moneyed Jewish conspiracy.

Omars defenders  including Kamala Harris, the California senator and presidential contender  objected that she was being unfairly targeted, leading to the broadened resolution condemning hatred of people of color, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and others.

Pelosi and her fellow Democratic leaders, who hoped the resolution would put the matter behind them in favor of more substantive legislation, might have accomplished the opposite by drawing attention to a watered-down waste of their taxpayer-compensated time. Still, McCarthys Republicans managed to do worse: 24 members of his deservedly diminished caucus failed to join the vote against bigotry.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.
The military-industrial complex and the rest of the federal government want your money, but they dont want to let you know how its spent.

Thats the common theme of two legal battles, one in front of the U.S. Supreme Court and another before a San Francisco federal judge in which the American Small Business League is waging a David-and-Goliath struggle against the Pentagon and large defense contractors.

The Supreme Court this spring will hear a case in which big business, joined by the Trump administration, is asking the high court to give it carte blanche to hide a wide range of information that businesses give the government to get federal money.

For decades, courts have interpreted the Freedom of Information Act the way it should be interpreted. Businesses that want to hide information they give the government to get federal dollars have had to show a likelihood they will suffer substantial competitive harm from public disclosure if they want to keep the information secret. Thats a high bar, as it should be, because the public has a right to know how tax dollars are spent.

Now, a coalition of big businesses is asking the high court to discard decades of precedent and rule that any time a business says information is confidential, or a bureaucrat agrees to keep it secret, the public cant see it. If a business didnt want the public to find out how tax dollars are spent, it would have veto power.

The big businesses want to have their cake and eat it, too: They want to grab as many federal dollars as they can get their hands on, but they dont want to let taxpayers know how the money is spent. (The case is Food Marketing Institute vs. Argus Leader Media, No. 18-481, a case in which a newspaper asked for information about how federal food stamp dollars are spent on retailers. Lower courts ruled in favor of disclosure, but the U.S. Supreme Court then agreed to hear the case.)

This is a vital issue, because if big businesses win the case, the public will be unable to discover whether the government is getting its moneys worth from billions of dollars in government contracts given to the private sector. Businesses could agree with a compliant or corrupt public official that information shedding light on the performance of a contract, or on wasteful spending, could be kept secret.

The San Francisco case involving the American Small Business League is a good illustration of how dangerous it would be if the high court ruled in favor of big business. The ASBL is trying to find out how much federal money the big defense contractors give to small business subcontractors, as required by the Small Business Act. The government is providing free legal help to the big defense contractors, arguing that they can hide from the public how much goes to small or women-owned businesses, and even hide records showing the governments compliance reviews of how that money is spent.

The defense contractors argue that whether they meet their small business subcontracting goals is a trade secret, but in a prior case, an official of Sikorsky helicopters said the release of the information wouldnt harm the company. The government then released the information, with no harm.

But now the Defense Department has given the court a statement from the same Sikorsky witness whose credibility was shredded in the prior case, asking the court to believe someone the Pentagon knows is not credible. The case shows that some big businesses will go to any lengths to keep information from the public whose tax dollars they grab.

The Freedom of Information Act has given the public a right to know how its money is spent for decades, something worth celebrating as Sunshine Week begins Sunday. Lets hope the Supreme Court doesnt weaken that right this year.

Karl Olson, an attorney with a San Francisco law firm, specializes in public records litigation. He is counsel for the American Small Business League in the case against the Defense Department.
Upcoming political events in the Bay Area.

FRIDAY

International Womens Day: Presentations on women fighters of the past and present, at home and abroad. Sponsored by San Francisco Party for Socialism and Liberation. $10-$3. 7 p.m., 2969 Mission St., San Francisco. More information is here.

SATURDAY

International Womens Day: Members of GABRIELA Oakland hold a rally and march to commemorate International Working Women's Day, in honor of the first women strikers in 1908. 11 a.m., Fruitvale Village, International Boulevard & 34th Avenue, Oakland. More information is here.

Justice for women: An International Womens Day program on equal justice for women in the U.S. and abroad. Sponsored by the United Nations Association of the United States of America and American Legion Post 315. $10 for nonmembers, free for students. 2 p.m., War Memorial Veterans Building, 401 Van Ness Ave., Room 210, San Francisco. More information is here.

Venezuela rally: March and rally against the Trump administrations campaign against the Maduro government in Venezuela. Sponsored by the ANSWER coalition. Noon, Civic Center Plaza, San Francisco. More information is here.

Willie McCoy: Rally and candlelight vigil calling for justice in the case of 21-year-old Willie McCoy, who was shot to death by Vallejo police on Feb. 9. 11 a.m. rally, 7 p.m. vigil. 974 Admiral Callaghan Way, Vallejo. More information is here.

SUNDAY

Black Panthers: Panel discussion on the Black Power movement and its lasting impact on Oakland's arts. $20, $16 for Oakland Museum members. 2 p.m., Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. More information is here.

MONDAY

London Breed town hall: San Francisco mayor hosts a town hall meeting. 6 p.m., SF LGBT Center, 1800 Market St. More information is here.

Podcast Club: The Ballot holds its Podcast Club, a monthly series discussing several podcasts on a particular topic. This months subject is women and the media. Free. 6:30 p.m., Mannys, 3092 16th St., San Francisco. Podcasts and more information here.

TUESDAY

Youth-police roundtable: The San Francisco Youth Commission Transformative Justice Committee invites youths ages 12 to 24 to a roundtable with police to come up with community-oriented solutions to issues plaguing the justice system. 5 p.m., San Francisco Main Library, Latino/Hispanic Room A, 100 Larkin St. More information is here.

WEDNESDAY

Andrew McCabe: Former FBI deputy director speaks at the Commonwealth Club. $30 for nonmembers, $10 for students. Noon, 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

Robert Reich: UC Berkeley public policy professor and former labor secretary discusses free speech in angry times. Free. Pauley Ballroom, ASUC Student Union, UC Berkeley. More information is here.

New citizen voting: Democracy Action volunteers will register new citizens to vote following swearing-in ceremonies. Two sessions, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. More information is here.

MARCH 14

Naila and the Uprising: Screening of the film chronicling women on the front lines of the first Palestinian intifada of the late 1980s. Benefit for Middle East Children Alliance. $15-$50. 7 p.m., Berkeley City College 2050 Center St., Berkeley. More information is here.

Morality of capitalism: Yaron Brook, chairman of Ayn Rand Institute, discusses the morality of finance, free markets, savings, insurance and using debt to fund consumption. Free; registration encouraged. 5:30 p.m., UC Berkeley, location TBA. More information is here.

MARCH 15

Andrew Yang: Democratic presidential contender Andrew Yang discusses universal basic income and other issues. 6 p.m., Spark Social S.F., 601 Mission Bay Blvd. North, San Francisco. More information is here.

Lessons from teachers strike: A representative from the Oakland teachers union discusses the recent strike and its relationship to the broader fight for workers rights. Sponsored by the S.F. Party for Socialism & Liberation. $3-$10. 7 p.m., 2969 Mission St., San Francisco. More information is here.

MARCH 16

Rep. Jackie Speier town hall: San Mateo Democrat meets with constituents. 10:30 a.m., Chetcuti Room, 450 Poplar Ave., Millbrae. More information is here.

MARCH 18

John Lanchester, Michael Lewis: Lanchester, author of The Wall, and Lewis, author of The Fifth Risk, in conversation at the Commonwealth Club. 6:30 p.m. $30 for nonmembers, $10 for students. 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

Religion and politics: A discussion on the place and role of religion and religious leadership in the progressive movement, with Islamic Network Groups founder Maha Elgenaidi, Rabbi Noa Kushner and the Rev. Richard Smith, vicar emeritus of St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in San Francisco. $6-$12. Mannys, 3092 16th St., San Francisco. More information is here.

MARCH 21

Two Koreas: Harry Harris, U.S. ambassador to South Korea, and Cho Yoon-je, South Korean ambassador to the U.S., discuss the future of relations between the two Koreas as well as U.S. relations with the countries. $25 for non-Commonwealth Club members, $10 for students. Noon, 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

MARCH 22

Heather Booth: Democracy Labs hosts a screening of Heather Booth: Changing the World, and a talk with the longtime organizer and activist. $10, students free. 6:30 p.m., Mannys 3092 16th St., San Francisco. More information is here.

MARCH 24

Latino Democratic Club: Monthly meeting. Free. 6 p.m., 362 Capp St., San Francisco. More information is here.

MARCH 28

Jerry and Anne Gust Brown: An evening with the former governor and states former first lady at the Commonwealth Club. $40 for nonmembers, $15 for students. 6:30 p.m., Marines Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco. More information is here.

Indigenous resistance: Nick Estes, author of Our History is the Future, traces iIndigenous resistance from the days of the Indian Wars through the campaign for indigenous rights at the United Nations. Benefit for KPFA-FM. $12. 7:30 p.m., Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley. More information is here.

Code for America: CTO Lou Moore and members of the engineering team give a look at technology such as tools that help Clear My Record parse rap sheets. $10. 5:30 p.m., 972 Mission St., fifth floor, San Francisco. More information is here.

APRIL 3

Honduran coup aftermath: Author and UC Santa Cruz Professor Dana Frank discusses the 2009 coup in Honduras, its fallout and the resistance movement. Benefit for KPFA-FM. $12. 7:30 p.m., St. Johns Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave., Berkeley. More information is here.

Drinking water crisis: A discussion with people working to provide safe and affordable drinking water to more than 1 million Californians who lack it. Sponsored by the Community Water Center, Sierra Club California, and the David Brower Center. Free. 6 p.m., 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley. More information is here.

APRIL 6

Newsom chief of staff: Gov. Gavin Newsoms chief of staff, Ann OLeary, discusses her job and goals. $15. 7:30 p.m., Mannys, 3092 16th St., San Francisco. More information is here.

APRIL 11

Valerie Jarrett: Former adviser to President Barack Obama discusses her book Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward, in a Commonwealth Club event. $35 for nommembers, $10 for students. Noon, Marines Memorial Theater, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco. More information is here.

APRIL 17

William Burns: Former deputy secretary of state and former ambassador to Russia in conversation at the Commonwealth Club with ex-Rep. Ellen Tauscher. $25 for members, $10 for students. 6:30 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. More information is here.

New citizen voting: Democracy Action volunteers will register new citizens to vote following swearing-in ceremonies. Two sessions, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. More information is here.

APRIL 18

Lawrence Lessig: Harvard legal scholar gives a TED+Salon talk on the future of democracy. Comedian Will Durst opens. $32.50 and up. 7:30 p.m., Angelico Hall, Dominican University, 50 Acacia Ave., San Rafael. More information is here.

APRIL 25-27

Right-wing studies: UC Berkeleys Center for Right-Wing Studies holds a three-day conference hosting scholars whose work deals with the right as a social, political andintellectual phenomenon from the 19th century to the present day. $25, $20 for students. Full agenda and more information are here.

To list an event, email Politics Editor Trapper Byrne at tbyrne@sfchronicle.com
FRANKFORT, Ky.  Kentuckys bourbon industry has a bracing message for its home state lawmakers as they consider whether to relax restrictions on wine sales: Whats good for California vineyards should also apply to the bluegrass states signature spirit.

The Kentucky Distillers Association is pushing to have the spirits industry included in a bill that, in its current form, would allow direct out-of-state shipments of wine to Kentucky consumers.

The group, also known as KDA, is asking lawmakers to add language to the bill so bourbon drinkers in some other states can place online or phone orders with their favorite Kentucky distillers. Such long-distance transactions could only occur if other states allow spirits to be shipped directly to consumers. For now, that list of states is limited, but the spirits industry expects it to grow.

Whiskey makers see online sales as a potentially lucrative market, especially for smaller producers looking to build market share.

Weve got a situation where Kentucky is looking to favor another states signature industry over its own, and thats going to put us at a competitive disadvantage, KDA President Eric Gregory said. All were asking for is if you let wine do that, let bourbon do that. Just give us equal treatment.

But mixing wine with bourbon is causing queasiness among some of the bills supporters. And it has raised the stakes for a proposal that passed the Kentucky Senate with little fanfare and is now pending before a House committee.

Now the discussion is becoming spirited.

The bourbon industry says it opposes the wine-shipment measure without such changes. The states distilled spirits industry is an ever-growing economic powerhouse in Kentucky, contributing $8.6 billion annually to the states economy and wielding considerable influence.

Republican Sen. Max Wise, the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 99, said he prefers that the measure, however, apply only to wine shipments. Its a response to frustrated Kentuckians who want to join out-of-state wine clubs, he said.

Wine Institute, a public policy advocacy group for nearly 1,000 California wineries and affiliated businesses, is resisting the efforts of Kentucky distillers to expand the bill. So is a group representing Kentucky package liquor stores.

It would be much better to leave SB99 as a wine-only bill and deal with spirits and beer shipping separately, said Wine Institute official Hunter Limbaugh.

Broadening the bill to include spirits would hurt liquor store sales, said Karen Lentz, executive director of the Kentucky Association of Beverage Retailers.

Liquor stores pay local alcohol taxes that arent assessed on direct shipments, Lentz said. If Kentucky whiskey is shipped to other states, it would have to reciprocate by allowing Kentuckians to order spirits directly from distillers in those states  which could be good for consumers but doesnt have much appeal for liquor store owners.

They can greatly undercut us on price, she said.

Lentz said her organization is neutral on the direct wine shipments because it realizes that some wines arent available at liquor stores.

Kentucky law doesnt allow whiskey connoisseurs to place online or phone orders for their favorite Kentucky bourbons, Gregory said. Out-of-state shipments now are limited to purchases made by tourists while visiting Kentucky distilleries.

Bourbon industry leaders said that lifting the ban on online and phone orders would especially help small distillers with limited distribution. Kentucky produces about 95 percent of the worlds bourbon.

A small cluster of states now allow direct spirits shipments in and out of their states to consumers, according to spirits industry officials. But bourbon industry officials expect that list to grow, Gregory said.

More and more states are moving toward this, he said. So were saying, lets go ahead and give us this privilege now so we can grow into it.

The wine shipment bill sailed through the Kentucky Senate in mid-February and is pending before the House Licensing, Occupations and Administrative Regulations Committee. In its original form, the bill would allow each adult to purchase up to 24 cases of 9-liter bottles of wine each year through direct shipments. Kentucky is among five states that dont allow direct wine shipments to consumers in their states, Wise said.

The committee chairman, Republican Rep. Adam Koenig, said hes heard the bourbon industrys pitch to expand the bill and lawmakers are studying those concerns.

Im a fan of parity, Koenig said in an interview. Weve made great strides in the last couple of years trying to get everything on a level playing field.

The bourbon sector supports expanding the bill to have it apply to beer and other alcoholic beverages, Gregory said.

If you change it for wine, you need to change it for everybody, he said.

Bruce Schreiner is an Associated Press writer.
This International Woman's Day, March 8, why not celebrate with a night out?

OpenTable teamed up with the James Beard Foundation to highlight 21 restaurants in San Francisco led by amazing chefs and restaurateurs, who also happen to be women.

Let's be honest: It's hard to be a woman in just about every industry. And as the past year's headlines have proven, the restaurant business is no exception. Harassment is far too common in the kitchen and The Chronicle's reporting has been working to reveal abuse where it exists.

The Chronicle's new food critic, Soleil Ho, has also said she won't review restaurants run by men credibly accused of assault or harassment. Instead, she's eating at places like Nyum Bai in Oakland, where chef and owner Nite Yun is popularizing Cambodian cuisine in the Bay Area.

Speaking of Oakland, the city's array of diverse restaurants run by women earned it a spot on Food & Wine's list of 29 places to go (and eat) in 2019.

READ MORE: Diverse restaurants run by women earn Oakland recognition from prominent food magazine

Click or swipe through the slideshow at the top of this story for the full list of women-led restaurants in San Francisco from OpenTable and the James Beard Foundation.

See the restaurants mapped out and make reservations with OpenTable.

Of course, there are so many other great options out there. Let us know which ones you'd include on the list in the comments.

Editor's note: The James Beard Foundation list of women-led restaurants originally included Bar Crudo, where Melissa Perfit was previously head chef. Perfit has since moved on to Ayala, and the list has been edited to remove Bar Crudo.

Read Alix Martichoux's latest stories and send her news tips at alix.martichoux@sfgate.com.

Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news.
Despite Trader Joe's being one of the most popular grocery chains around, the company has refused traditional ads to market its famous brand, instead relying on its Fearless Flyer to make product announcements.

But one other way the grocery store is slyly putting word out on new items is through its podcast "Inside Trader Joe's." What began as a five-part series last year has since expanded to a regularly updating series filled with, well, insider information on Trader Joe's straight from its employees.

This week's new episode is a deep dive into the freezer section of the store, with the podcast tapping Catherine, a Product Developer with Trader Joe's, as a guest. Among the new items rolling into stores? A new cauliflower dish, according to Catherine.

READ ALSO: The Trader Joe's products that professional chefs swear by

"[Cauliflower has] really proven to be the perfect substitute for high carb foods, so if you are watching your calories, you're watching your carbohydrates, you can use riced cauliflower as a base instead of rice," Catherine said.

"The Cauliflower Gnocchi honestly caught me by surprise," she added. "Our riced cauliflower was a huge success for us, but the Cauliflower Gnocchi was that times 10. It's blown out of the stores."

Also rolling out soon? Two new, high-protein ice cream flavors.

Among the other interesting tidbits learned from the podcast is the origin story of the store's Mini Stroopwafel Ice Cream Sandwiches, apparently borne out of a company holiday party.

READ ALSO: Californians' favorite Trader Joe's item is different from every other state's

"So every year at Trader Joe's we have a holiday party. There's unique Trader Joe's songs and, of course, because we're a food company, we have plenty of food to enjoy afterwards. So one of my colleagues, they took two stroopwafels, put vanilla ice cream inside and made an ice cream sandwich," recalled Catherine.

"I watched him do this, I thought was absolutely an awesome idea. So I reached out the next day to one of our frozen novelty suppliers."

Those suppliers created a custom, mini version of the stroopwafel for the company, according to Catherine, which became a holiday offering last season, and will be available again during the next holiday season.

To listen to the podcast, head over to the Trader Joe's website or search for "Inside Trader Joe's" on your podcast app.

To find out more about the new frozen products  as well as some other Trader Joe's tidbits from the podcast  scroll through the slideshow above.

Read Dianne de Guzman's latest stories and send her news tips at ddeguzman@sfchronicle.com.

Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news.
A growing movement of Generation Z activists  those born in the mid-1990s and early 2000s  argue that its finally time for us to talk about periods. Openly.

Members of the menstrual equity movement, as theyre calling it, are working to make hygiene products accessible and affordable to all who need them, from school campuses to homeless shelters. In reducing the stigma and inconvenience surrounding a biological function that half of all humans experience, they hope to erase stubborn barriers to gender equality.

Period care often gets ignored because half the population doesnt have direct experience of it, says Annie Wang, 20, a member of the UC Davis chapter of Period, an organization founded by Nadya Okamoto, Harvard undergraduate and author of the 2018 book Period Power: A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement.

Its such a basic hygiene need that would be easily addressed if we put the right products in public places, Wang continues. She and fellow students are working with UC Davis to make sure each building on campus has at least one bathroom stocked with pads and tampons; currently only two buildings do.

This new openness to discussing periods isnt limited to activists. A full-on cultural shift is in progress: Rayka Zehtabchis Period. End of Sentence, a film about impoverished women in India who make low-cost sanitary pads for their community, just won the Oscar for best short documentary. Snart phone keyboards are about to gain a period emoji.

Sarahbeth Maney / Special to The Chronicle

The shift may have started in 2015, when poet Rupi Kaur posted a photo of herself on Instagram wearing sweatpants with a period blood stain, an image the social media company famously took down twice for breaking community guidelines. Later that year, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump said that Fox News host Megyn Kelly had blood coming out of her wherever after she hosted during a Republican debate, raising awareness about how often period insults are used to sideline women.

This association that one, its gross, and two, that its something that can be used in a joking matter  Oh, are you on your period?  hides a certain degree of misogyny that we need to unpack, says Malika Dia, 19, a sophomore at Johns Hopkins University and youth ambassador at Plan International USA, the global organization for childrens rights and girls equality.

This year, the group successfully lobbied the Unicode Consortium to add the image of a single drop of blood to the standard emoji set. (The consortium didnt approve the groups original proposed image of a pair of underpants with a few dainty blood drops on the front, according to Plan International.)

The goal of the emoji was partly to demystify periods, says Dia, who recently learned that a friends teenage brother thought they came only once a year, rather than once a month.

Emojis are all about being seen in the world and being able to represent what youre going through and your mood, says Dia. Its a great way, just casually in conversations, to normalize it.

Sarahbeth Maney / Special to the Chronicle

Taboos dont disappear overnight, however, and activists say there are still other crucial issues to address, especially period poverty, or the inability to afford feminine hygiene products.

Its a concept better known in the United Kingdom, where a 2017 survey conducted by Plan International found 1 in 10 women and girls between the ages of 14 and 21 cant afford to buy pads or tampons.

In the United States, a survey conducted last year by the pad manufacturer Always found that 1 in 5 girls has missed school or left school early because they didnt have access to period products.

Wang, the UC Davis student, can speak from personal experience. As a freshman, she was seated toward the front of a 500-seat chemistry lecture hall when her period started. She didnt want to interrupt the middle of the lecture, and she knew there werent products in the bathroom anyway. By the end of class, she realized, I left my mark on UC Davis in a way I didnt want to.

When she talked with fellow students about what had happened, she learned that many had had similar experiences. After founding their chapter of Period, the group conducted a survey that found 50 percent of UC Davis undergraduate and graduate students had missed some kind of academic or professional development because of their periods.

Having a period shouldnt be something that prevents you from having equal opportunity, or prevent you from feeling clean and healthy, or from working hard, Wang says.

Sarahbeth Maney / Special to the Chronicle

Sarahbeth Maney / Special to The Chronicle

In California public schools, the situation is improving somewhat after AB10 went into effect last year. The new law requires middle and high schools with at least a 40 percent low-income population to stock free feminine hygiene products in restrooms.

More Information Period. The Menstrual Movement. Founded by then high schoolers Nadya Okamoto and Vincent Forand in 2014, this organization's mission is to "celebrate periods and provide products to those in need." https://www.period.org. Plan International USA works toward advancing children's rights and equality for girls, with projects in 50 countries. https://www.planusa.org. Simply the Basics. This San Francisco nonprofit provides hygiene products to schools, homeless shelters and individuals. http://www.simplythebasics.org. -Tara Duggan See More Collapse

In San Francisco, Simply the Basics, a 3-year-old nonprofit organization and self-proclaimed hygiene bank, delivers products to schools once a semester to augment what they already have, and recommends each school put pads and tampons in the library as well as in restrooms and locker rooms for all genders. Thats partly to serve transgender and nonbinary students who menstruate, and also to make the issue more open to both boys and girls.

Ying Wu, 18, started the Care Club, a group at Lowell High School in San Francisco, in the fall with 10 other girls after stumbling across a video on YouTube about homeless women needing access to pads and tampons. The video showed how women struggle on the streets getting products and how they have to stretch those products out, she says. It really resonated with me.

During their first after-school hygiene drive, students dropped off 240 individually wrapped pads and tampons. Club members placed two-month supplies in paper bags and donated them to the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, which provides services to the homeless.

The Care Club advertises its fundraisers with a poster that raises awareness in itself. An unwrapped pad and tampon are taped to the front. When people notice, Ying says, sometimes their eyes shift and they walk away  especially the adults. Other times theyre curious and want to know more.

We want it to just be as visible as a box of Kleenex, says Simply the Basics founder Meghan Freebeck. If its something you see more often, youll understand its a human issue even if you dont use it.

Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan
A 12-year-old New Zealand boy named William Bush may just be Metallica's biggest fan.

Six months back, Bush started an online Change.org petition to bring the famed Bay Area act all the way to the Kiwi country. As it turned out, he was actually successful. Metallica just recently announced a show at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland for October 31, 2019.

Bush wound up getting 6,793 signatures on the petition, which asked the band to consider playing anywhere across the country, whether that was "in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington (or) my home province Hawkes Bay."

"The Bogans and Metal heads of our country have had a 8 year withdrawal and can't wait for the next time they'll get to see Metallica live in NZ," he wrote. "Who knows, Napier would be a great place for you to play! We believe this is long overdue and we deserve a Metallica Concert!!!"

RELATED: Metallica donates $1 million to 10 community colleges for trade skill education

Bush heard the news of the announced Metallica show on the radio; shortly thereafter, he was invited to fly to Auckland to appear on TV to talk about the petition. Unbeknownst to him, he was actually about to meet New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern there. While he was no doubt at first surprised to see the politician, his shock turned to excitement when she gave him two tickets to the show.

RELATED: Metallica to release recording of acoustic SF show for charity after $100k Camp Fire donation

"I am reliably told that your petition actually made a real difference to Metallica and the promoters," Ardern told Bush, according to the BBC.

Bush's next challenge: figuring out who he's going to bring with him to the show.

Talking to reporters about whether he'll be bringing his brother or his dad, he said, "We may have to buy two more tickets."

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


WASHINGTON  Joe Biden isnt a presidential candidate yet. But with two key rivals already getting out of the way, the former vice president has more space to court voters who could help him claim the Democratic nomination.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said Thursday he wouldnt run for president, following an announcement earlier this week from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that he would also sit out 2020.

The two men have vastly different political profiles. Brown has deep connections to blue-collar, union-friendly voters in the Midwest while Bloomberg saw his path to the nomination run through centrists uncomfortable with the partys move to the left. But together, their decisions could give Biden a greater opportunity to appeal to the middle-America voters who sided with President Trump in 2016 and could be crucial to Democratic hopes of winning back the White House.

I think it certainly creates a whole new constituency for the vice president that might have been split otherwise, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has vowed to support Biden if he runs, said soon after Browns announcement. So, thats good.

Chris Coons, elected in 2010 to fill the Delaware Senate seat Biden occupied for 36 years, said Browns decision not to run absolutely strengthened the former vice presidents case.

Brown comes from and connects to the heartland in a remarkable way. Hes a real guy, Coons said, likening his appeal to Bidens.

Bloombergs aides said their internal polling suggested his path to the Democratic nomination was narrow, particularly if Biden  who shares some of Bloombergs moderate positions  decides to run. Brown, in contrast, denied that the former vice president had any effect on his choice to opt out of the primary.

Biden spokesman Bill Russo declined to comment on either Bloombergs or Browns decisions.

Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders consistently lead in early surveys of the 2020 Democratic field, and former Texas Rep. Beto ORourke could shake up the race if he decides to run. Browns departure also provides a possible boost to Sanders, given their shared distaste for free-trade deals and vocal criticism of Wall Street.

Still, Biden will have to confront several vulnerabilities. He is famously prone to gaffes and angered some in the LGBT community last week when he called Vice President Mike Pence a decent guy.

Elana Schor is an Associated Press writer.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. Paul Manafort, the political consultant and Trump presidential campaign chairman whose lucrative work in Ukraine and ties to well-connected Russians made him a target of special counsel Robert Mueller, was sentenced to 47 months in prison Thursday in the financial fraud case that left his grand lifestyle and power-broker reputation in ruins.

Of the half-dozen former Trump associates prosecuted by Mueller, Manafort garnered the harshest punishment yet in the case that came to a conclusion Thursday  the first of two for which Manafort is being sentenced this month. But Judge T.S. Ellis III of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., declined to follow advisory sentencing guidelines that would have effectively put Manafort, who turns 70 next month, in prison for the rest of his life.

For nearly two years, prosecutors pursued Manafort on two tracks, charging him with more than two dozen felonies, including obstruction of justice, bank fraud and violations of lobbying laws. But while they won a jury conviction and a guilty plea, Muellers prosecutors have yet to provide a full public account of what information they gleaned from Manaforts case regarding Russias interference in the 2016 election and the degree of involvement by Trump associates.

The evidence in the case tried last summer before Ellis showed that Manafort hid millions of dollars of income in overseas accounts and lied to banks to obtain millions more in loans  a financial scheme that prosecutors said was rooted in greed and in Manaforts sense that he was above the law.

They described him as a hardened, remorseless criminal who never fully accepted responsibility for his offenses and who continued to lie to federal prosecutors even after he pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts in a related case in Washington and agreed to cooperate with the special counsels office.

While they asked for no specific punishment, the prosecutors cited sentencing guidelines that recommended a prison term of 19 to 24 years. Defense lawyers asked for leniency, citing Manaforts age, health problems and lack of criminal record.

Manafort was a prime target for Mueller, who is expected to deliver a report soon to Attorney General William Barr. While the prosecutions against Manafort did not involve his five months of work for the Trump campaign, prosecutors clearly hoped for winning his cooperation with the Russia inquiry.

But Manaforts value as a witness ultimately proved limited. Prosecutors abandoned their plea agreement with him in November, saying Manafort had repeatedly lied to them. The federal judge overseeing the Washington case agreed that Manafort had deceived investigators about three matters, including his interactions with a Russian associate who prosecutors have said is linked to Russian intelligence.

Manafort will be sentenced next week in the Washington case.

Sharon LaFraniere is a New York Times writer.
SAN DIEGO  The U.S. government ran an operation to screen journalists, activists and others while investigating last years migrant caravan from Mexico, a San Diego TV station reported Wednesday, citing leaked documents.

Dossiers that included photos from their passports or social media accounts, date of birth and other details were kept in a database and some freelance journalists had alerts placed on their passports and were flagged for secondary screenings at customs points, the station KNSD-TV said.

One freelance photojournalist was denied entry to Mexico for reasons that were never stated, the station reported.

The documents, in the form of dossiers and screenshots, were provided to NBC 7 Investigates by a Homeland Security source on the condition of anonymity, the station reported. Those listed as warranting secondary screening included 10 journalists  seven of them U.S. citizens  a U.S. attorney and 47 people from various countries labeled as organizers, instigators or unknown, the station said.

The intelligence-gathering efforts were done under the umbrella of Operation Secure Line, which was designed to monitor the caravan of thousands of people who began making their way north from Central America late last year to seek asylum in the United States, the source told the TV station.

A Customs and Border Protection statement on Wednesday said the extra security followed a breach of a border wall in San Diego on Nov. 25 in a violent confrontation between caravan members and border agents.

Such criminal events ... involving assaults on law enforcement and a risk to public safety, are routinely monitored and investigated by authorities, the statement said.

It is protocol following these incidents to collect evidence that might be needed for future legal actions and to determine if the event was orchestrated.

The statement didnt address specifics of why journalists would be on the list to have their passports flagged.

The American Civil Liberties Union condemned the operation.

This is an outrageous violation of the First Amendment, attorney Esha Bhandari said. The government cannot use the pretext of the border to target activists critical of its policies, lawyers providing legal representation, or journalists simply doing their jobs.

Two freelance photojournalists confirmed to the station that the information in their dossiers was accurate. Both were pulled in for secondary questioning at border crossings and one, Kitra Cahana, eventually was stopped in Mexico, denied entry and had to fly back to the U.S.
With an eye for design and savvy business acumen, Gail Dunnett built a bicoastal home-staging enterprise. Her firm in the Mission District, Studio D, helps Realtors, developers and sellers market their properties by fashionably furnishing the interiors.

Studio Ds touch resides in homes throughout the city (recent projects include Cow Hollow, the Marina district and Potrero Hill) and beyond.

A satellite office in New York enables Studio D to also stage residences in SoHo, penthouses in Tribeca and condos in the West Village.

Dunnett graduated from the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School of Business and once worked as a management consultant for Bain & Company. She also had stints as the vice president of merchandising for Connecticuts Exposure Homes catalog and spent some time working for Pottery Barn Kids in San Francisco.

She opened Studio D in 2003, and acquired a second office in New York in 2010. Her clients over the years include celebrities like Stephen and Ayesha Curry, Lady Gaga and Mike Myers.

Dunnett is quick to heap praise on her team, with whom she credits as the ones composing a seemingly endless symphony of inventory, houses and deadlines.

I wouldnt be able to do this without my super talented designers in New York and California, she said. Each brings a unique style and personality, and I love how it comes through in their work. We dont like to be formulaic.

Q: What is something you want to accomplish?

Gail Dunnett, Studio D Address: 3130 20th St., Mission District, San Francisco. Phone: 415-695-1430 Email: hello.sf@studiod home.com. Website: www.studiodhome. com. See More Collapse

A: Ive been wanting to incorporate local artists into our staging. It would be exciting to be able to introduce them and get their work seen more, rather than it sitting in studios. So far we havent had the bandwidth to make those connections, and I want local artisans to reach out to us. I think thats something that could help set us apart. We have been in touch with a local artists rep with whom we are trying to work, so its only one contact point.

Q: How does being a designer influence the way you look at the world?

A: My old business partner couldnt go to a hotel without moving the furniture around. Im not that bad. But I love traveling and seeing different boutique hotels. Theres a hotel in New Orleans, the Old No. 77, thats so uniquely done with a cool local vibe. I like staying in boutique hotels because Im fascinated by their one-off designs and not a cookie-cutter feel. They tend to be a lot edgier, as opposed to a Westin or Ritz-Carlton. The boutique hotels evoke an emotion and I like that.

Q: What's a piece of technology you can't imagine doing your job without?

A: My phone. Everything is tracked by phone. Theres a lot of moving parts operationally  you have to load the trucks on time with all the right items, the driver needs to know how to get there, where to park, the stagers need to know their ETA  and the phone makes it so we can collaborate and can all see whats going on with each job. We use WhatsApp, which allows me to have real-time information and feedback. If an agent calls and wants to know whats happening or where trucks are, I can answer in a flash. And Google Calendar has everything labeled and color coded to help track all our scheduling. But it all happens on the phone. The phone is how I see what were doing at that moment every moment. Of course, theres the Instagram inspirations we drool over and our very own postings on @studiodhome. Huh, maybe thats why Im constantly in my phone.
Through fire and shock, the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 destroyed more than 80 percent of the citys buildings. The grand Fairmont Hotel, only days from opening, was gutted by flames, leaving only a shell.

The hotels owners, determined to rebuild, turned to a young architect, Julia Morgan. Only three years earlier she had built a bell tower on the campus of Mills College, and it had withstood the earthquake unscathed  proof that Morgan was as experienced in reinforced concrete as she was in European design.

But word that a woman had been hired to renovate the luxurious hotel was met with astonishment. Was the building really in the charge of a woman?, Jane Armstrong, a reporter for The San Francisco Call, asked the projects foreman in 1907 on a visit to the hotels ballroom after Morgan had restored it to its original splendor.

Yes, the foreman answered, it was in the charge of a real architect, and her name happens to be Julia Morgan, but it might as well be John Morgan. 

To him it was work well done, Armstrong wrote. After she toured the building with Morgan, she added, she was so inspired that she wanted to emblazon above it the part that a woman has played.

As the first woman to receive an architects license in California, in 1904, Morgan early on was used to skepticism about her abilities. But she came to allay those doubts by building a sterling reputation with projects now known around the world, including the Asilomar conference grounds on the Monterey Peninsula and, most notably, the Hearst Castle at San Simeon. By the time she retired in 1951, at 79, she had designed hundreds of buildings and sites.

Morgan was born in San Francisco on Jan. 20, 1872. Her father, Charles Bill Morgan, had settled in California in 1867, having reached it from Brooklyn, New York, by sailing around the tip of South America accompanied by his new bride, Eliza Woodland Parmelee. A mining engineer, he had seen the West as the place to make his fortune. Julia Morgan and her four siblings were raised in a large Victorian house across San Francisco Bay in Oakland.

Morgan enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied civil engineering. When she was a senior, she met architect Bernard Maybeck, who would go on to design one of the defining works of the Bay Area School of architecture, the First Church of Christ, Scientist (1910) in Berkeley, as well as the neo-Classical Palace of Fine Arts (1915) in San Francisco.

Maybeck was a charismatic teacher and mentor who encouraged many of his students, including Morgan, to study, as he had, at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, then the worlds most prestigious architecture school.

She applied, and at 26 became the first woman to pass the schools entrance exams. The San Francisco Examiner hailed her achievement with the headline, California Girl Wins High Honor.

Morgan returned to Oakland in 1902, degree in hand, and soon established an independent practice. She adopted the dark suit and tie of the rank-and-file male architect, but with a skirt rather than trousers.

Eschewing a regular purse, which would encumber her hands, she utilized suit pockets to carry necessaries, Elinor Richey wrote in the book Eminent Women of the West (1975).

Her first office, at 456 Montgomery St. in San Francisco, was also destroyed by the 1906 earthquake, an event that precipitated a construction boom.

At the time, a growing womens network, developed through campaigns for the abolition of slavery, temperance and womens suffrage, was primed to help a female professional. And in 1903, Mills College, a womens school in Oakland, asked Morgan to design El Campanil, a 72-foot-tall reinforced concrete bell tower in the red-roofed Mission style then popular in the West; like many of her beaux-arts-trained contemporaries, Morgan was a master of historical styles and worked in many genres specific to California.

The Young Womens Christian Association also became a major client, for which Morgan designed a dozen centers on the West Coast, as well as one in Honolulu.

In 1913 Phoebe Apperson Hearst, whom she had met through Maybeck, hired Morgan to transform 30 acres on the Monterey Peninsula into the YWCA conference center, renamed Asilomar, or refuge by the sea. Over the next 16 years Morgan would add 16 buildings, most in a rustic Arts and Crafts style featuring dramatic exposed wood trusses, redwood walls and stone fireplaces. Asilomar became a state park in 1956, and in 1987 Morgans buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Phoebe Hearst also introduced Morgan to her son, newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, for whom she designed the block-long white stucco Examiner Building in 1915.

Four years later he hired her again, initially asking her to help him build a modest bungalow at his ranch in San Simeon, California. Soon his ambitions changed.

The commission would turn into an extraordinary, long-running architect-client relationship that would produce a vast castle of fantastic, Pan-European architecture augmented by fragments of buildings, mostly from Italy and Spain, that Hearst had collected and shipped to California. Morgan spent 25 years working continuously with Hearst, spending a majority of her weekends on-site.

The castle became Morgans most famous work.

She could do any style, castles for Hearst up at Mount Shasta, Italianate, stucco, little cottages and Craftsman buildings, said Lynn Forney McMurray, the daughter of Morgans longtime secretary, Lillian Forney, and her goddaughter. Her houses were built from the inside out; she thought about how the people were to live. That was what was important to her.

But eventually those skills went out of style. In the 1950s, the emphasis was on the new, the modern, and the heroic  not to mention on architecture to house the masses. Morgan was largely forgotten.

The profession has tended to lionize only those architects who break new formal ground or dramatically cut stylistic ties from their predecessors, former Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne wrote in an appreciation of Morgan in Architect magazine in 2014.

Her reputation was restored, however, largely thanks to a 1988 biography, Julia Morgan, Architect, by architectural historian Sara Boutelle.

Boutelles biography examined the vast extent of Morgans work and her hundreds of clients and commissions beyond Hearst, including the Chinese YWCA in San Francisco (now the Chinese Historical Society), the Berkeley City Club and dozens of homes across California.

Morgan, who never married, died Feb. 2, 1957, at her apartment in San Francisco. She was 85.

Architecture, construction and engineering remain fields dominated by men, and yet all the biases against her she turned into assets, said Julia Donoho, an architect and lawyer who successfully nominated Morgan for the 2014 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal  the first time the organization had given its highest honor to a woman.

She added, I dont know why we didnt learn about Julia Morgan in school, but I hope that will never happen again.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
California prosecutors have added five new charges against a man alleged to be the so-called NorCal Rapist, bringing the number of victims to nine in six counties.

Sacramento County prosecutors filed new charges Thursday against Roy Charles Waller. They allege one additional rape and the kidnapping of two victims in Davis in 1997.

Defense attorney Joseph Farina says Waller intends to plead not guilty.

Authorities say Waller broke into homes late at night or forced victims to withdraw money from ATMs between 1991 and 2006, often assaulting his victims repeatedly. Waller is now facing over 40 charges in connection to nine victims, with the alleged crimes occurring in Sacramento, Yolo, Butte, Contra Costa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

ALSO: 2 women were strangled in Tahoe in the 1970s. Investigators finally think they know who did it.

The NorCal Rapist's spree began in 1991. According to police, a man raped a woman in her Rohnert Park townhouse after entering through an unlocked door. In one particularly disturbing attack on Halloween 1996, police say the man wore a skeleton mask; a few weeks later, he called the victim and apologized to her.

Waller, a Benicia resident, was arrested in September at UC Berkeley, where he worked as a safety specialist at the Environmental, Health & Safety office since 1992.

Over a decade ago, authorities linked the rapes to a single suspect using DNA found at the scene. But until the advent of genetic genealogy, a technique also used to apprehend a suspect in the long-cold Golden State Killer case, investigators had few leads in the case.

By using commercially available genealogy databases  like the kind that consumers use to find DNA matches for their family tree  investigators are able to narrow down their DNA samples to someone in the suspect's immediate or extended family. From there, police work helps determine the suspect.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
OAKLAND (BCN)



Eight extraordinary Bay Area women will be honored Friday in Oakland to help celebrate International Women's Day and Women's History Month, organizers said.



Starting at 11 a.m. at Scott's Seafood Restaurant in Jack London Square, the eight will be honored at the 10th Annual Powerful Women of the Bay Awards Luncheon.



The luncheon celebrates women who are passionate about empowering, educating and connecting with women in the community and in business.



Receiving awards this year are Kim Bardakian, spokeswoman for the Kapor Center; Denise Miles, senior vice president, Corporate Responsibility and Community Relations at Wells Fargo; Dalana Brand, vice president of People Rewards and Experience at Twitter; San Francisco Superior Court Judge Teri Jackson; Markia Archuleta, vice president, Global Sales Operations at Oracle Corporation; and D'Lonra Ellis, assistant general counsel for the Oakland A's.



Sherri McMullen, founder and head buyer at McMullen will receive the Dr. C. Diane Howell Entrepreneur Award and Italina Kirkinis, CEO of Italina Image & Branding will receive the Innovator Award.





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Big changes are coming to the way voters get to choose candidates for the West Contra Costa Unified School District's school board starting in 2020, and proponents of the change say historically underrepresented communities will now be guaranteed a seat at the table.



Rather than electing trustees from anywhere in the school district in an "at large" model, voters will be able to choose trustees to represent their specific geographical area within the district.



The move comes as a result of litigation with the Bay Area Voting Rights Initiative, which argued that the previous election methodology violated the California Voting Rights Act and that it resulted in "racially polarized voting," which may have left minority communities underrepresented on the school board.



A map of these new "trustee areas," which has been approved by a court after lengthy negotiations with the plaintiff as well as public input at a series of meetings, is available online at https://bit.ly/2XINZSx. District officials said they sought to create at least two trustee areas in traditionally underrepresented areas within western Contra Costa County.



The new map, however, will not affect which schools students attend based on where they live. For most voters the biggest change will be that instead of getting to vote for all five seats on the board, they will only get to select one board member to represent the part of the community they reside in.



In a statement issued Wednesday, board President Tom Panas said he was glad to see the litigation come to a close.



"It is the hope of this Board that the transition to trustee areas elections will give residents elected representatives who are passionate and effective advocates for all of the children in this District," Panas said.



Speaking on behalf of the plaintiff, Walnut Creek attorney Scott Rafferty said this agreement will have a significant impact on the way the district operates. He argues that in the past the board has often had a majority of trustees from El Cerrito, which represents a relatively small portion of the district's population.



"This district was one of the biggest school districts in CA that elected trustees at large, so trustees answered to special interests whose funding they needed," Rafferty said Thursday in a statement. "Now, grass roots candidates can run in their own neighborhoods."



"Winner take all meant that few minorities got elected... urban Richmond and San Pablo are now guaranteed two seats on the Board, including a majority Latino area, as required by federal law," Rafferty said.



As part of the judgment, which is available online at https://bit.ly/2XIhfsJ courtesy of district officials, the court has also directed the district to pay the plaintiffs $280,000 for their legal expenses -- in addition to $30,600 already paid.





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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)



A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Thursday that asylum seekers who are turned away after an initial interview with U.S. immigration officials are entitled to challenge those actions in the U.S. court system.



A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that a federal law that prohibits court appeals in such cases violates the constitutional right of habeas corpus.



The appeals court quoted the U.S. Supreme Court in calling habeas corpus, or the right of a prisoner to challenge the legality of his or her detention, "a right of first importance."



The panel ruled in the case of Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam of Sri Lanka, who sought asylum on the ground that he had been beaten and tortured because of his political views and feared persecution if returned to Sri Lanka.



Thuraissigiam was ordered to be deported, in a process known as expedited removal, after an asylum officer determined in a screening interview that he did not have a credible fear of persecution.



The law overruled by the appeals court allows for review of expedited removal by a supervisor and an immigration law judge, but in most instances prohibits any further review in the court system.



The appeals court sent the case back to a federal district judge in San Diego for further proceedings on Thuraissigiam's habeas corpus petition.



American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt, who represented Thuraissigiam, said in a statement, "The historical and practical importance of this ruling cannot be overstated.



"This decision reaffirms the Constitution's foundational principle that individuals deprived of their liberty must have access to a federal court," Gelernt said.



U.S. Justice Department spokesman Steve Stafford said the government has "no comment at this time" as to whether it will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.



For the time being, unless it is successfully appealed to a larger 9th Circuit panel or the Supreme Court, the ruling applies within the nine western states of the 9th Circuit, including the southern border states of California and Arizona.



The only other appeals court to address the issue, the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit, ruled in 2016 that asylum seekers facing expedited removal could not file habeas corpus petitions. The Supreme Court declined to review that decision in 2017.



Thuraissigiam, a member of the Tamil ethnic minority, fled from Sri Lanka in 2016, made his way to Mexico, crossed the border near the San Ysidro port of entry south of San Diego on Feb. 17, 2017, and was arrested 25 yards north of the border by a customs officer that night.



He was placed in expedited removal status after an asylum officer determined he lacked a credible fear of persecution, a supervisor approved and an immigration judge affirmed by checking a box on a form. His deportation has been stayed by the appeals court until his case is concluded.









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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)



Assemblymember Phil Ting joined San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon Thursday to announce state legislation he's introducing that would use technology to clear records for former convicts eligible under existing laws.



Assembly Bill 1076 aims to clear records for an estimated 8 million people in California arrested or convicted of misdemeanor and non-violent offenses by automating the process.



"These are people who have paid their debt to society in many cases or people who were actually arrested and they were never convicted of a crime," Gascon said.



Because of their record, those people, he said, in many cases are excluded from employment in certain fields and from applying for housing, among other restrictions.



"The current laws allow people to get this relief," Gascon said, but many are "unable to get the relief because they either don't have the resources or they don't have the time," he said.



On average, only about 20 percent of those eligible for the relief actually seek it, he said.



"AB 1076 is actually very simple: it's asking the California Department of Justice to put together a database of all the eligible people who have served their time, served their probation, are done and are completely entitled to have their records expunged," Ting said.



The process of having a record expunged can cost up to $3,700. That cost, combined with the time it takes to go through with the process, present barriers for some, Ting said.



"We know what the impacts are when you have something on your record. It's hard to find a job, it's hard to find housing, it's hard to have a normal life," he said. "The point isn't to keep that debt forever. At some point it's been paid and you get a chance to start over."



Much like the district attorney's office recently announced it used an algorithm to expunge more than 9,300 citywide marijuana-related convictions, AB 1076 would use a similar model, Gascon said.



"There would be algorithms that will be set up at the Department of Justice that will, on a periodic basis and very regularly, will go through the qualifying records and those that qualify will then be registered and the counties will be notified, the county courthouses, that they are no longer able to release that history to any private enterprise," Gascon said.



"The information will continue to be available for criminal justice purposes, but it will simply not be used to keep people from getting housing, from getting employment, getting educational loans, and quite frankly even participating in simple things like after school activities with their children."



Jay Jordan with the group Californians for Safety and Justice said he was convicted of auto burglary 14 years ago. After serving his time, he said he still feels like he's being punished.



"AB 1076 will begin to chip away a big piece of this iceberg from barriers that block people from everyday life," he said.



As a convict, he said he faces 43,000 legal restrictions, with 40 percent of those being employment-related and 70 percent being lifetime bans.



"That means I'm going to die with these collateral consequences. And it's not just people like me; it's not just black folks in South Los Angeles, East Oakland, it's a lot of people," he said.



Jordan said with the current restrictions, he's unable to adopt a child with his wife and is having issues joining a homeowner's association, after recently purchasing a home.



Gascon said, "It's about bringing people back into mainstream society; it's about reducing recidivism. Every time we keep people from going back to a life of crime, we are reducing crime, were making our community safer.



"And it's quite frankly absurd to think we can put people in custody then release them with no skills, no housing, no employment opportunities; completely marginalized and then expect that somehow they're not going to have to go back to committing crimes in order to survive."



According to Gascon, the opportunity to clear a record wouldn't apply to sex offenses or violent crimes and does not have any effect on firearms ownership eligibility.



The records, however, could be revealed if the person applies for a government job and would also still be available to law enforcement and courts, he said.



If the bill passes, no action would be required from a person petitioning that their record be expunged.





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SAN LEANDRO (BCN)



A former employee for a San Leandro-based company that sells solar equipment to homeowners filed a civil rights lawsuit on Thursday alleging that it had a policy of refusing to do business with customers it believed to be of Middle Eastern or Indian origin.



Ayesha Faiz, who was a supervisor in a call center for Fidelity Home Energy Inc., claims in her federal complaint that she was instructed by Fidelity not to process customer leads with homeowners whose names "sounded Middle Eastern or Indian."



Faiz said that unbeknownst to Fidelity Home she herself is of Middle Eastern descent, having immigrated from Afghanistan when she was one.



She alleges in her suit that Fidelity's policy created a hostile and oppressive work environment that forced her to leave her job after just three weeks.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) also filed suit against Fidelity Home on Thursday based on the same conduct.



"The toxic and reprehensible policy Ayesha was forced to implement didn't just run afoul of California's consumer laws -- it also violated federal and state civil rights laws that guarantee all employees the right to a workplace that is free of discrimination," Beth Mora, one of Faiz's attorneys, said in a statement.



Mora said, "Fidelity's working environment was thoroughly permeated with discrimination against persons of Middle Eastern or Indian descent. That had a devastating impact on Ayesha herself."



Marisa Diaz, a staff attorney with Legal Aid at Work, who also represents Faiz, said, "Our society should be far beyond the point where discrimination against any group is acceptable, let alone serve as a company's standard operating procedure."



Diaz said, "No employee should be forced to take part in such discrimination as the price of her job."



Faiz's attorneys said discrimination against persons based on their names is a widespread and well-documented phenomenon, occurring in the real estate industry, the employment context, and elsewhere.



They said studies have found that landlords, rental hosts, and employers disproportionately reject rental or job applicants based on them having Arab- or African-American-sounding names.



They also said companies have been found to charge higher prices for the same products to consumers who have Muslim-sounding names.



Executives at Fidelity Home Energy, which has been in business for nearly 20 years, weren't available for comment on Thursday.




Eight extraordinary Bay Area women will be honored Friday in Oakland to help celebrate International Women's Day and Women's History Month, organizers said.



Starting at 11 a.m. at Scott's Seafood Restaurant in Jack London Square, the eight will be honored at the 10th Annual Powerful Women of the Bay Awards Luncheon.



The luncheon celebrates women who are passionate about empowering, educating and connecting with women in the community and in business.



Receiving awards this year are Kim Bardakian, spokeswoman for the Kapor Center; Denise Miles, senior vice president, Corporate Responsibility and Community Relations at Wells Fargo; Dalana Brand, vice president of People Rewards and Experience at Twitter; San Francisco Superior Court Judge Teri Jackson; Markia Archuleta, vice president, Global Sales Operations at Oracle Corporation; and D'Lonra Ellis, assistant general counsel for the Oakland A's.



Sherri McMullen, founder and head buyer at McMullen will receive the Dr. C. Diane Howell Entrepreneur Award and Italina Kirkinis, CEO of Italina Image & Branding will receive the Innovator Award.







A pedestrian died in a collision with two vehicles Thursday evening in Fremont, according to preliminary information from the California Highway Patrol.



The collision was reported at about 7:30 p.m. at Warm Springs and Mission boulevards.







A man died after being hit by a SUV while crossing the street in South San Jose Wednesday evening, police reported.



Officers responded to Snell Avenue and Cedargate Lane at about 7:15 p.m. to reports of a vehicle hitting a pedestrian.



An investigation found a man was driving a 2001 Toyota SUV south on Snell when the SUV hit the man walking in an uncontrolled intersection.



The victim was taken to a hospital and died a short while later. He will be identified by the Santa Clara County medical examiner's office once his family is contacted.



The SUV driver remained at the scene and cooperated with officers, according to police, and neither drugs nor alcohol are believed to be factors in the crash.







Customers at an East Oakland business were robbed of their laptops Thursday afternoon, police said.



Someone called dispatchers at 12:52 p.m. to report the robbery at a business in the 3700 block of MacArthur Boulevard near Laurel Elementary School.



Police said the robber was armed with a gun when he went into the business and stole the computers.



Police said the suspect had on an orange vest and a bandana over his face. The suspect is still at large.







A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Thursday that asylum seekers who are turned away after an initial interview with U.S. immigration officials are entitled to challenge those actions in the U.S. court system.



A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that a federal law that prohibits court appeals in such cases violates the constitutional right of habeas corpus.



The appeals court quoted the U.S. Supreme Court in calling habeas corpus, or the right of a prisoner to challenge the legality of his or her detention, "a right of first importance."



The panel ruled in the case of Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam of Sri Lanka, who sought asylum on the ground that he had been beaten and tortured because of his political views and feared persecution if returned to Sri Lanka.



Thuraissigiam was ordered to be deported, in a process known as expedited removal, after an asylum officer determined in a screening interview that he did not have a credible fear of persecution.







Amid allegations of abuse happening at San Francisco jails at the hands of sheriff's deputies, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Government Audit & Oversight Committee held a hearing during its meeting Tuesday to discuss how the sheriff's department handles claims of abuse by deputies.



The hearing was called by Supervisor Shamann Walton last month after the allegations, which involve physical abuse and illegal strip searches, were revealed by late Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who passed away suddenly less than two weeks ago.



Thursday's hearing also comes after the district attorney's office dropped charges last month against a former and two current San Francisco sheriff's deputies linked to a 2015 jailhouse "fight club" in which inmates were allegedly forced to fight each other. In that case, the charges were dropped because of allegations that sheriff's department investigators destroyed a hard drive with evidence connected to the department's own criminal investigation into it's deputies.



The hearing involved representatives from the district attorney's office and the public defender's office, as well as Sheriff Vicki Hennessy and Paul Henderson, head of the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability.



"We brought in the department of police accountability to see how they conduct their independent investigations for the San Francisco Police Department and see if this is possibly the appropriate body to conduct investigations over the sheriff's department and conduct independent investigations in the future," Walton said at the beginning of the meeting.







Assemblymember Phil Ting joined San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon Thursday to announce state legislation he's introducing that would use technology to clear records for former convicts eligible under existing laws.



Assembly Bill 1076 aims to clear records for an estimated 8 million people in California arrested or convicted of misdemeanor and non-violent offenses by automating the process.



"These are people who have paid their debt to society in many cases or people who were actually arrested and they were never convicted of a crime," Gascon said.



Because of their record, those people, he said, in many cases are excluded from employment in certain fields and from applying for housing, among other restrictions.



"The current laws allow people to get this relief," Gascon said, but many are "unable to get the relief because they either don't have the resources or they don't have the time," he said.







A Cotati tax preparer was sentenced in federal court in San Francisco Wednesday to two years and nine months in prison for tax fraud and ordered to pay $657,888 in restitution.



Stanley Charles, 33, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney in July to one count of preparing a false income tax return for a couple who were clients and one count of filing a false return for himself for the 2011 tax year.



He admitted in a written plea agreement to preparing a total of 428 fraudulent returns listing false deductions and credits for other taxpayers between 2009 and 2015.



The $657,888 in restitution ordered by Chesney includes $648,063 in restitution to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and $9,825 for four clients who were ordered by the IRS to repay the undeserved refunds.



The two years and nine months in prison and the restitution amount were agreed to by both sides in the plea agreement.







Friday will be partly cloudy and breezy. Highs will be in the lower to mid 50s. West winds will be 20 to 30 mph.



Friday night will be partly cloudy in the evening before becoming mostly cloudy. There will be a chance of showers after midnight. Lows will be in the mid 40s. West winds will be 5 to 15 mph, switching to south winds of 10 to 20 mph after midnight.



Saturday will be mostly cloudy and breezy with a chance of showers. Highs will be in the lower 50s. South winds will be 20 to 30 mph.









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OAKLAND (BCN)



A man was sentenced on Friday to 25 years to life in state prison for violently assaulting three prostitutes in Oakland three years ago.



Luis Enrique Garcia, 25, pleaded no contest on Jan. 23 to two counts of attempted murder and one count of forcible rape for the attacks, which occurred on Oct. 11, Nov. 12 and Dec. 1, 2016.



Alameda County prosecutors said Garcia picked up the women in his car, agreed to pay them for sex but after the sex acts began or during them he choked them until they passed out.



They said he would then dump their half-naked bodies in the woods, or in the streets of Oakland in one case.



But all three women survived and testified against him at his preliminary hearing in January 2018.



Oakland police said Garcia gave a full confession after he was arrested on Dec. 8, 2016.



At Garcia's preliminary hearing in January 2018 a sex worker testified that she thought she would die when Garcia choked her and hit her with his car three times after they had sex near the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland in October 2016.



The woman, whose name wasn't disclosed in court, said she had consensual sex with Garcia in the back seat of his red SUV after they met near the Fruitvale BART station in the early morning hours of Oct. 11, 2016.



The woman, who's now 22, said she told Garcia that it was time to go after they had sex, for which he paid her $80, but then he "squeezed my neck for a few minutes."



The woman said she passed out and when she woke up she realized that they were in his car in a remote location in the Oakland hills.



The woman said she tried to get out of Garcia's car but she couldn't because the child safety lock had been activated.



The sex worker said Garcia finally allowed her to get out of his SUV but then he hit her with it three times when she tried to run away.



The woman, who broke down in tears at one point, said, "I felt worried and scared and thought I was going to die."



Alameda County Superior Court Judge James Cramer, who sentenced Garcia, ordered him to undergo HIV testing and to stay away from the victims if he's ever released from prison.



Garcia's attorney Stephen Avilla said after the hearing that Garcia entered into the plea agreement because he hopes it will allow him to eventually be released from prison, as he could have faced an even longer sentence if he'd gone to trial and been convicted of all the charges against him.





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YOUNTVILLE (BCN)



The town of Yountville is holding a community remembrance Saturday for the three clinical staff workers of The Pathway Home veterans mental health treatment center who were killed by a former client a year ago.



Executive Director Christine Loeber, 48, Jennifer Gray Golick, 42, a clinical director, and Jennifer K. Gonzales Shushereba, 32, a clinical psychologist and her unborn daughter were killed by Albert Wong, 36, of Sacramento, a former Pathway Home client.



Wong shot the women with a rifle in Madison Hall of the Pathway Home at the Veterans Home of California in Yountville on March 9, 2018. Wong then shot himself in the head and died.



Shushereba's unborn daughter also died from a lack of oxygen caused by her mother's death.



The remembrance ceremony is at noon Saturday at Veterans Memorial Park, 6465 Washington St. in Yountville. The event is public, and Pathway Home officials will make brief remarks.





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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)



Amid allegations of abuse happening at San Francisco jails at the hands of sheriff's deputies, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Government Audit & Oversight Committee held a hearing during its meeting Tuesday to discuss how the sheriff's department handles claims of abuse by deputies.



The hearing was called by Supervisor Shamann Walton last month after the allegations, which involve physical abuse and illegal strip searches, were revealed by late Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who passed away suddenly less than two weeks ago.



Thursday's hearing also comes after the district attorney's office dropped charges last month against a former and two current San Francisco sheriff's deputies linked to a 2015 jailhouse "fight club" in which inmates were allegedly forced to fight each other. In that case, the charges were dropped because of allegations that sheriff's department investigators destroyed a hard drive with evidence connected to the department's own criminal investigation into it's deputies.



The hearing involved representatives from the district attorney's office and the public defender's office, as well as Sheriff Vicki Hennessy and Paul Henderson, head of the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability.



"We brought in the department of police accountability to see how they conduct their independent investigations for the San Francisco Police Department and see if this is possibly the appropriate body to conduct investigations over the sheriff's department and conduct independent investigations in the future," Walton said at the beginning of the meeting.



"We have to have a body that is independent of the sheriff's department that also imposes what the punishment may be if we find that allegations of misconduct are valid," he said.



Speaking on the recent allegations, Deputy Public Defender Chesa Boudin said, "More than 20 inmates came forward recently after being physically abused by sheriff's department staff while incarcerated. A separate group of female inmates came forward after being strip-searched in the presence of male deputies.



"Through the investigation into the allegations, though it's ongoing, it's clear that there is a serious problem with sheriff staff failing to follow the law and failing to respect their own internal policy. It's clear that there is a lack of public confidence in the sheriff's ability to handle internal investigations and discipline," he said.



While recognizing that many inmates are among the city's most vulnerable residents, some suffering from mental health and substance abuse diseases, Hennessy said at the hearing, "My job as sheriff is to keep everyone safe and when they're not safe I take it personally."



Upon hearing about the abuse claims involving illegal strip-searches on Dec. 3, Hennessy said, "I immediately opened an internal investigation and asked Jeff (Adachi) to forward me any information he had."



Although witnesses and inmates were interviewed during the month of January, Hennessy said, "I became concerned about the pace of the investigations and realized that others were also concerned."



After meeting with Henderson, Hennessy said, "I felt confident that the DPA was the right fit to provide professional, independent investigations. This week, I began turning over the Dec. 3 investigations to the Department of Police Accountability."



If allegations are proven to be true, Hennessy said the "DPA will turn that investigation over to the appropriate law enforcement agency for the jurisdiction."



Hennessy noted that a case of misconduct by a deputy at the city's San Bruno Jail, located in San Mateo County, has already been filed within that jurisdiction, although she didn't elaborate.



Hennessey said that out of 67 open sheriff's department internal affairs investigations from 2018, 21 have already been handed to the police accountability department.



If any of the investigations find criminal allegations to be true, she said, the cases would be handed to the district attorney.



Representing the district attorney's office, Chief of Staff Cristine Soto DeBerry said prosecutors have a memorandum of understanding with the Police Department to investigate cases of officer-involved shootings, excessive use of force and in-custody deaths, but not the sheriff's department. Such complaints are handled by the sheriff's department internal affairs division. Once that division determines potential criminal conduct, then the case is referred to the district attorney's office.



"We're not involved in the investigation, we're not involved in the collection of evidence, and we have learned from our involvement with the San Francisco Police Department cases that that is a critical juncture where we are really able to ensure that the investigation is conducted independent and thoroughly."



Referring to the 2015 jail fight club case, DeBerry said, "We asked the sheriff's department to stand down on the criminal investigation and under a different elected sheriff that did not happen and we ended up three years later where we ended up.



"It's very difficult for us when there's accusations of destruction of evidence or withholding of evidence to proceed with a clean investigation and prosecution."



DeBerry said currently, her office is conducting its own independent investigation into the 2015 allegations and may refile the case.



At the end of the hearing, Supervisor Vallie Brown, a committee member said, "From what I've heard, I just feel like the DA is the right department to take these (misconduct allegations) cases and we should use the model that the police department has."



Walton said, "What we are focused on here today is complete systemic change and looking to ensure allegations of misconduct are independently investigated and consequences are independently decided when allegations are proven to be valid. In the cases of allegations of assault, civil rights violations, use of force and in custody deaths, this is even more crucial.



"I'm going to work with my colleagues and I'm going to work with the city attorney's office to find a way to include independent investigations and find a way to ensure that consequences of proven allegations are not decided by one person," he said.





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Prosecutors have filed murder charges against a suspect who they say carjacked and then shot and killed a man in the El Sobrante area of unincorporated Contra Costa County in January.



Contra Costa County sheriff's deputies were called to a reported shooting at Jasmine Court and Jasmine Way shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 26.



Deputies found Michael Bagwell, 52, of Richmond, dead in the intersection, according to sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee. Bagwell's vehicle had evidently been stolen.



Deputies then linked Jorge Ortega Campos, 38, from the Richmond area, to the killing and carjacking, Lee said. Authorities haven't said why they believe Campos is the suspect, and Lee didn't return a call asking for more information.



After deputies identified Campos as the suspect, they didn't have to look hard for him. He had already been booked into the Martinez Detention Facility on unrelated charges.



A bystander in Concord had spotted Campos acting suspiciously on Mountbatten Court and so the bystander detained Campos until police arrived, according to Lee.



Campos was charged with drug possession and violating his parole. He was later charged with murder and carjacking and is now being held without bail.



Authorities asked anyone with more information about the killing to call (925) 313-2600.





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OAKLAND (BCN)



A transient man with seven prior felony convictions was sentenced on Friday to 29 years to life in state prison for fatally stabbing another man during a dispute over a bicycle at a homeless camp in Oakland last May.



Mario Castineda, 38, was convicted on Dec. 6 of first-degree murder for the death of 52-year-old John Bell. He also was convicted of an enhancement of using a knife to kill Bell and of having prior convictions, findings that added to his prison term.



Castineda's lawyer Tiffany Danao told jurors that Castineda is innocent because the description of his attacker that Bell provided to police before he died doesn't match Castineda.



Danao said Bell, who was stabbed at the camp in the area of Fifth and Webster streets underneath Interstate Highway 880 on May 26 and died five days later, described his assailant as an Asian man in his early 20s who was about 5-foot-3 and weighs about 120 pounds.



But the defense lawyer said Castineda is Mexican, is in his late 30s and is significantly larger than 5-foot-3 and 120 pounds. Jail records list Castineda as 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds.



Danao told jurors, "Mr. Castineda is innocent and the government has charged the wrong man."



She said, "Mario Castineda did not stab John Bell."



But Alameda County prosecutor Tim Wagstaffe said Bell consistently said that the man who stabbed him was "Rio," which is Castineda's nickname.



Wagstaffe also said that at one point Bell described his attacker as "a short Mexican guy" and his later description "wasn't that far off" the mark.



Wagstaffe said he thinks the evidence against Castineda was "fairly overwhelming" and that's why the jury convicted him after only a day of deliberations.



Oakland police Officer Hector Jimenez wrote in a probable cause statement that Castineda stabbed Bell at the homeless camp on May 26 and then rode off with Bell's bicycle, which was later recovered at a nearby Shell gas station.



After he was attacked, Castineda was taken to a hospital, where he was treated and released.



However, on May 31 Bell succumbed to his stabbing wounds and was pronounced dead after police found him at Fifth and Webster streets.



Castineda's prior convictions, which date back to 2000, include assault, possession of a controlled substance, receiving stolen property, unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle and possession of a firearm by a felon.





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Many California travelers have explored the glitzy Spanish Colonial home of William Randolph Hearst since it became open to the public for tours, but only some have seen La Cuesta Encantada under a starry sky.

This month, the Central Coast landmark brings back its night tour, complete with guides dressing in full '30s-era appropriate attire.
TravelSkills on SFGate is brought to you by Visa

Calling it a "significant change" for the aviation industry, Virgin Atlantic this week dropped a company requirement that female cabin crew members wear makeup while on the job. The carrier - known for its flashy looks and extravagant use of red in its livery, uniforms and even shoes - said the policy change came at the request of its employees.

"We have been listening to the views of our people and as a result have announced some changes to our styling and grooming policy that supports this," Mark Anderson, Virgin Atlantic's Executive Vice President of Customer, said in a written statement. "Not only do the new guidelines offer an increased level of comfort, they also provide our team with more choice on how they want to express themselves at work."

Going forward, female flight attendants - or cabin crew as they're referred to in the United Kingdom - can still apply makeup if they want in accordance with company guidelines, but it's no longer mandatory.

The airline will also provide trousers to female flight attendants as a uniform piece. Previously, female cabin crew uniforms defaulted to wearing Virgin Atlantic's signature crimson-colored dress. Female employees had to specially request trousers from the airline's uniforms department if they wanted to wear pants instead.

Reaction online has been overwhelmingly in support: fans of the policy change applauded the move, calling the airline's make-up requirement and dress code outdated particularly in an era where there's a growing focus on gender equality.

"Helping people to be themselves is core to our desire to be the most loved travel company," Anderson said.

With the announcement, Virgin Atlantic becomes the latest big global airline to relax requirements that have been in place for decades about how a crew member presents him or herself while on the job. Airlines are traditionally very obsessed about the look of its front line employees since they represent the "face of the company."

Many other global airlines, particularly those renowned for luxurious service like Emirates, Singapore Airlines, and Qatar Airways, have rigid company dress and style standards. Other carriers reportedly have company requirements about piercings, tattoos and nicotine use. More about that here. And a few Southeast Asia carriers have ended up in hot water for dressing female flight attendants in tight-fitting uniforms and even bikinis.

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Chris McGinnis

Standards and requirements are much more progressive at U.S. carriers. None of the U.S. airlines we surveyed - American, Delta, United, JetBlue and Southwest - have a makeup requirement as part of company policy for flight attendants. Some airlines impose restrictions on the facial hair of male flight attendants. United forbids male flight attendants from wearing makeup, according to the Telegraph. Alaska Airlines did not comment on its policy for this story.

Each carrier also gives female flight attendants a pants option as part of the uniform.

Even Southwest Airlines - which was once famous for its in-flight hot-pants, and later, khaki shorts and polo shirts - explained makeup worn by flight attendants should be "professional, conservative" and "complementary to the uniform and the employee's complexion." Any "exaggerated or eccentric" makeup styles are a no-no at Southwest and at many other carriers.

What do you think of airline flight attendant grooming requirements? Does makeup make a difference? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Read all recent TravelSkills posts here

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Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.
Airbus Defense & Space/38 North

SEOUL  U.S. analysts say North Korea appears to have restored normal operations at a long-range rocket launch site it had partially dismantled last year as part of disarmament steps.

Some experts say North Korea is trying to convey displeasure over the breakdown of a high-stakes nuclear summit last week between leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump over what the Americans said were Kims excessive demands for sanctions relief.
MADRID  Marches and protests were held Friday across the globe to mark International Womens Day under the slogan #BalanceforBetter, with calls for a more gender-balanced world.

The day, sponsored by the United Nations since 1975, celebrates womens achievements and aims to further their rights.

Thousands of women walked off the job in Spain, joining millions more around the world demanding equality amid a persistent salary gap, violence and widespread inequality.

Police in the Ukrainian capital Kiev detained three people as far-right demonstrators tried to provoke activists protesting domestic and sexual violence. They held placards reading God! Homeland! Patriarchy! and Feminism is destroying Ukrainian families.

In Spain, where womens rights have become one of the hot topics in the run-up to a general election next month, many female employees didnt show up to work Friday. Others also halted domestic work or left to men the care of children and ill or elderly people.

In neighboring Portugal, the Cabinet observed a minute of silence Thursday as part of a day of national mourning it decreed for victims of domestic violence. Portuguese police say 12 women have died this year in domestic violence incidents.

In Germany, topless feminist protesters went to one of the countrys most famous red-light districts in Hamburg and pulled down a metal barrier wall intended to keep out women other than prostitutes.

A half-dozen women belonging to the Femen activist group had the slogan No brothels for women written on their bare backs in black lettering.

In Russia, International Womens Day is a public holiday but it mostly lauds gender roles that are now outdated. As is his custom every year, President Vladimir Putin gave a speech thanking women for their patience, good grace and support.

In India, hundreds of women marched on the streets of New Delhi demanding an end to domestic violence, sexual attacks and discrimination in jobs.

And in Niger, first lady Aissata Issoufou Mahamadou oversaw the awards in the Miss Intellect Niger contest.

Women al;so protested against gender-based violence in Kenyas capital of Nairobi.

Barry Hatton and Aritz Parra are Associated Press writers.
Footage captured at the Tijuana-San Diego border from December 2018 shows a Border patrol agent photographing people, including journalists, on the other side of the fence.



Recently leaked documents revealed the US Government has been tracking journalists and immigration activists tied to the migrant caravan, NBC 7 reported.



''This is evidence that the information-gathering process stretched beyond the reported violence that occurred in November, which is the story currently being presented by Customs and Border Protection,'' the filmer said.



A migrant caravan from Central America made its way to the US-Mexico border in December 2018, prompting more intensive media coverage of the border.



Journalists covering the situation at the border, attorneys and advocates giving assistance to the caravan members later denounced intense inspections by border officials, and claim to have been monitored by the US government.
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"Better Balance, Better World" (#BalanceforBetter) is the theme of this year's International Women's Day (IWD), celebrated today as a call to recognize women's achievements, provide greater equity in the workplace and offer the next generation of women more opportunities to enter male-dominated fields.

Global companies celebrate IWD, which often is marked abroad with special lunches to recognize women and their positive impact on businesses, according to Andrea Conner, president of ATHENA International, a nonprofit organization in Cary, N.C. It supports, develops and honors women leaders.

But barriers around the world prevent women from working or advancing, she noted.

"We're slowly putting chips into that glass ceiling. I believe women supporting women is making that difference," Conner said.

Many studies show having more women in leadership has a direct, positive correlation to a business's bottom line, according to Corinne Sharp, president of Sharp Perspective Inc. in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

"When 50 percent of the population are women and there is a talent gap in many industries, are business leaders really working hard enough to find, retain and grow their female talent?" she asked.

"Equal pay is still a huge issue," said Andee Harris, president of YouEarnedIt/HighGround, headquartered in Austin, Texas. "Women from October on are working free," she said, referencing the gender pay gap. Because of women's lower average hourly earnings, women around the world "work for free" beginning in October or November.

Her company embarked on a pay-leveling project three months ago. It also is providing resources for women on its Slack network to help make the celebration of women a year-round activity. Harris, who is based in Chicago, is speaking at the headquarters of real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield there today.

In the U.S., jobs requiring education in science, technology, education and math (STEM) are still male-dominated, said Jessica Ortega. She is a website security analyst with SiteLock in Scottsdale, Ariz. When she meets with colleagues in Asia, often the only women present are in subordinate roles.

Equal representation of women is needed around the globe, she said. That will require additional efforts to attract top female talent and to provide STEM education to more girls, she pointed out.

SHRM Online has collected the following articles and resources on IWD from its archives and other trusted media outlets and organizations.







International Women's Day 2019: 'Better Workplaces, Better World'

SHRM celebrates the achievements of women around the globe by participating in the 108th annual International Women's Day. As these contributions to society are applauded, it is important to recognize that women and girls continue to face barriers to education and employment in many countries.

SHRM staff members share in video and blog posts what they believe will build a world of work that works for all.

(SHRM blog)



[SHRM members-only toolkit: Introduction to the Global Human Resources Discipline]

Women Bang Pots and Pans in Madrid to Kick Off International Women's Day

Loudly banging pots and pans, a few hundred female protesters gathered in Madrid in the early hours on Friday to mark the start of International Women's Day.

"It's essential to demonstrate and more [so] in a day like women's day because there are still a lot of gaps and problems in society that women face and need to overcome. We are in a patriarchal society," said Abril Vilatrollol, a 21-year-old cinema student protesting in the square.

Larger rallies are expected in Spain later Friday during a general strike, at a time when gender inequality has become a divisive issue ahead of an April 28 parliamentary election.

(New York Times)



International Women's Day: History, Strikes and Celebrations



You might have seen International Women's Day mentioned in the media or heard friends talking about it. But what is it for? When is it? Is it a celebration or a protest?

(BBC)



Gender Equality Sought in Middle East

In the lead-up to International Women's Day, the Arab Women's Organization of Jordan held a conference March 6 on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. The event focused on labor law in the context of women's rights, said Manal Al-Talem, the organization's program coordinator for the Women's Political Participation Program. In addition, the Lebanese League for Women in Business recently launched a campaign to raise the number of women on boards of directors, with a target of 30 percent by 2025.

(The Jerusalem Post)



Men and Women Must Work Together to Achieve Real Change



Since the origins of the IWD in the early 1900s, women have achieved much in the workplace. While there have been many positive shifts, in 2019 IWD is as important as ever because this day raises awareness of the challenges that women face today in every part of the world and in every facet of our lives.

(SHRM Blog)



Events for IWD Include High Tea and Professional Wrestling



IWD, which began in 1911 with women around the world rallying for voting and other rights, will be observed with all kinds of events today. Business chambers and councils of the International Chamber House in Melbourne, Australia, are holding an annual high tea and a panel discussion on promoting diversity. Entrepreneurs in Uganda are hosting a worldwide discussion on WhatsApp on gender balance that will be shared on various social-media platforms. And in London, She Fights on Fridays will feature all-female professional wrestlers "kicking gender stereotypes right in the face."

(SHRM Online)



[Visit SHRM's resource page on pay equity]



Women Still Struggle to Find a Job, Let Alone Reach the Top



Released on the eve of International Women's Day, the International Labour Organization (ILO) report found that 1.3 billion women were at work in 2018, compared with 2 billion mena less than 2 percent improvement in the last 27 years.

(UN News)



Equal Rights Lag Across the Globe



Only six countriesBelgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Swedenhave equal rights for men and women, according to a World Bank report released March 2, up from zero a decade ago.



The report examined the following criteria: going places, starting a job, getting paid, getting married, having children, running a business, managing assets and getting a pension.



"Change is happening, but not fast enough, and 2.7 billion women are still legally barred from having the same choice of jobs as men," said World Bank Group Interim President Kristalina Georgieva.

(CNN)



Daring to Ride a Bike and 5 Other Ways Women Are Changing the World



To highlight the March 8 commemoration, here are some of the remarkable women and women's movements NPR has covered over the past year.

(NPR)


Page Content

Companies in the United Kingdom are due to submit their second annual reports on gender pay gaps by April 4, and data show that large U.K. employers have significant work to do to close the compensation divide between men and women.

Slightly more than 1,200 employersa relatively small percentage of those who must submit reports to the U.K. governmenthad provided 2018 data as of Feb. 22.

As recent reports showing a high and widening gender pay gap at British banking giant HSBC illustrates, a brief period of compensation disclosure doesn't translate into overnight improvement for women's earnings.

Slow Change

The pay gap exists, but not necessarily between men and women who do the same job. The preponderance of highly paid positions in companies are occupied by men, while women most often perform lower-paid jobs.

Last yearthe first year that employers were required to reportcompany data showed that men working full time across all jobs earned 9.1 percent more in 2017, based on median hourly wages, than their female counterparts.

The reports filed so far this year indicate that the gap narrowed to 8.4 percent in 2018, according to Michelle Sequeira, Mercer's U.K. diversity and inclusion and analytics lead and talent strategy consultant in London.

"It's so encouraging to see the extent to which gender pay-gap reporting has shone a light on the topic of diversity and inclusion in the U.K. But this is only a step in a journey that may take generations," said Katy Bennett, diversity and inclusion consulting director at PwC in London.

Reporting regulations regarding the U.K.'s gender pay gap require organizations with at least 250 employees to provide annual reports on compensation differences by gender, both on their own websites and via a government portal. The first report was due April 4, 2018.

Companies must report on mean and median hourly and bonus-pay gaps, the proportions of men and women receiving bonus payments, and the ratio of men and women, divided into four groups, by pay.

As the government points out, a gender pay gap isn't the same as unequal pay, which is illegal and defined as paying men and women differently for performing the same or similar work. The gender pay gapthe difference in men's and women's average hourly wages across an employer's workforceis usually bigger in companies where women perform more of the lower-paid work.

"From what we have seen so far, it looks like, unsurprisingly, progress has been slow. Encouragingly, just over half of companies so far appear to be reporting a decrease in the mean pay gap," Bennett said. But many are reporting an increase, she added. "The majority of companies so far have reported an increase in their bonus gap."

[SHRM members-only toolkit: Introduction to the Global Human Resources Discipline]

Pay Gaps Across Professions

"At an industry level, it will come as no surprise that the largest gender pay-gap figures are in the most male-dominated sectors," with financial services showing a 24.6 percent median pay gap and software firms a 20.6 percent gap, Sequeira said.

"However, it is worth noting that sectors that are male-dominated but at the unskilled or semiskilled level, such as in logistics and manufacturing, have the lowest median gender pay-gap figures," she added. "We typically see that the organizations with the largest gender pay gap have a large proportion of female employees in the most junior grades and in lower-paid occupations, such as administration and support services."

In addition to financial services, the largest gaps also typically occur in the engineering-construction industry and the legal profession, according to Shirley Hall, senior partner in law firm Eversheds Sutherland in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Hospitality and health care organizations often produce lower gaps, PwC's Bennett noted.

The reasons for gaps vary by sector, and the differentials don't necessarily reflect the effort that companies and industries are making to address gender pay imbalance, Bennett said. "Ultimately the factors that are driving pay gaps are complex and variedwhich is why addressing them is so challenging."

Different Approaches

The U.K.'s Government Equalities Office has issued guidance on reducing the gender pay gap, and companies have taken different approaches, depending on their issues.

Some have focused on programs such as mentorships, sponsorships or "returnships" to attract and support female talent, while others are evaluating their recruitment and promotion processes, Bennett said.

"Leading organizations are using their own data as a starting point to understand why they don't have women in, say, senior roles. Are they not being hired, are they leaving, or are they getting stuck in the middle and not progressing to senior levels?" Bennett said.



Some employers have implemented equal-pay audits following their mandatory reporting, "as they are often concerned that their gender pay gap may reveal a potential equal-pay issue and are looking for assurance in this respect," Hall said.

Making Changes Throughout the Organization

Equality consultant Sheila Wild, a former Equality and Human Rights Commission policymaker now running the EqualPayPortal in Oldham, England, suggested that a change in the data over one year doesn't necessarily reflect a significant shift.

Reading too much into short-term statistics "is to misunderstand how the gender pay gap manifests at an organizational level. If, for example, the salary of the CEO contributes to the pay gap, and a male CEO is replaced by a female, or vice versa, then the pay gap will narrow or widen accordingly in the year that the change takes place, but it can just as easily be reversed," Wild said.

"Companies are looking at their gender profiles, and many are discovering that it isn't sufficient to seek to bring more women in at the top. What is needed is a more even gender distribution throughout the organization," she said. "And getting men into 'women's jobs' is harder than getting women into 'men's jobs.' Evening out the gender profile will take years, but it's essential."

Dinah Wisenberg Brin is a freelance writer and journalist based in Philadelphia.
Page Content

The Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed a $35,308 salary threshold for the white-collar exemptions from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). But some employers need to comply with higher state levels.

Multistate employers should look at compliance on a state-by-state basis, said Tamara Devitt, an attorney with Haynes and Boone in Costa Mesa, Calif. The general rule in employment law is that businesses must comply with the rule that provides the most protection for the employee. So, for example, in states that have their own exemption testssuch as Californiathe employer must satisfy whichever salary threshold is greater, whether it's the federal or state rate.

Some states may have different duties tests as well as salary cut-offs, and it is important to understand and comply with the more stringent of the applicable rules, noted Alfred Robinson Jr., an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Washington, D.C.

How Is the Threshold Calculated?



Many states set their own minimum wage, and, in some cases, the exempt salary threshold is tied to that rate. In California, for example, the salary threshold for the executive, administrative and professional exemptions is double the state minimum wage. So, when the minimum wage goes up statewide, so does the exempt salary threshold. California's threshold is currently $49,920 for businesses with at least 26 employees and $45,760 for those with fewer.

In New York, the state's minimum salary threshold for executive and administrative employees has been increased in phases, and the actual rate depends on geographic location and employer size. For example, the threshold is currently $58,500 (annualized) for employees who work in New York City for large employers and fast-food restaurants and $52,650 for workers at other businesses with 10 or fewer employees. In Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties, the threshold is $46,800, and in other areas of the state it's $43,264.



In Maine, the annual salary for exempt workers must be at least 3,000 times the state minimum wage, but, if the salary basis is higher under the FLSA, then the employer must meet the FLSA's threshold. Employers should comply with the law that provides the most compensation to the employee, Devitt noted.

Maine's current minimum wage is $11 an hour, which translates to a $33,000 salary threshold for the white-collar exemptions. In January 2020, the state's minimum wage and salary threshold will rise to $12 an hour and $36,000, respectively. So, Maine employers will need to closely monitor federal changes to determine which threshold will apply.

Multistate employers may be able to apply the new FLSA rule in some jurisdictions but not others. Consider creating compliance programs for California and New York (and any other states with higher thresholds) and then a separate compliance program that meets the requirements for the rest of the country, said Anne Cherry Barnett, an attorney with Reed Smith in San Francisco. "Such an approach will permit an employer to meet the most-generous policy requirements for all locations and be compliant with both state law and the FLSA in a cost-efficient manner."

Duties Tests



Employers also need to review the job duties that qualify for a particular exemptionwhich may be different under federal and state law. When federal and state rules conflict, employers must conduct an often-complicated analysis to determine which rule applies, Devitt said.

Under the administrative exemption, for instance, the FLSA and California law each require (among other things) that an employee's primary duties include the exercise of discretion and independent judgment. Under the FLSA, "primary duty" means "the principal, main, major or most important duty that the employee performs." While the FLSA doesn't specify how much time must be spent on such duties, California law states that "primarily engaged" means employees must spend more than half of their work time on such duties.

Employers in California will almost always need to follow state law because it is generally far more employee-friendly than federal exemption and minimum-wage laws, Barnett noted.

[SHRM members-only toolkit: Complying with California Wage Payment and Hours of Work Laws]

Beyond California and New York, other states are considering laws and regulations that are more protective than the FLSA, Robinson said. "Thus, employers with multistate operations need to verify that they are complying with the federal regulations and any state law requirement that may apply."

Multistate employers already need to comply with divergent state-law requirements for various workplace issues, said Josh Woodard, an attorney with Snell & Wilmer in Phoenix. So, having a new federal salary threshold might not be administratively burdensome for some employers. Others may feel the economic impact, he said, noting that some businesses may opt to reclassify certain employees to nonexempt and pay overtime premiums rather than raise salaries.

Employers should note that the DOL's $35,308 threshold is just a proposal and must go through the formal rulemaking process, which includes a comment period. Employersand other interested members of the publicthat wish to comment on the proposal may do so by visiting www.regulations.gov. They will have 60 days to comment from the time the rule is published in the Federal Register. For now, the FLSA salary threshold is still $23,660 for the white-collar exemptions.

[Visit SHRM's resource page on FLSA exemption classification.]
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The New York League of Conservation Voters (NYLCV) released its evaluation of each of the citys City Council members support of environmental issues in its 2018 NYC Council Environmental Scorecard.

The NYLCV is the only non-partisan, statewide environmental organization in New York that takes a pragmatic approach to fighting for clean water, healthy air, renewable energy, and open space, according to its website.

Scores are calculated based on voting and sponsorship issues on 13 key environmental bills identified in this years scorecard that promote clean energy, improve public health, and encourage sustainable transportation.

According to the NYLCV, a score of under 70 is a failing score.

No Staten Island City Council member earned a perfect score of 100, according to the Scorecard.

Councilman Joseph Borelli (R-South Shore) and Councilman Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island) both received scores of 23 out of 100. The councilmen received the lowest scores of any in the City Council and were two of four Council members who received failing scorecards for 2018.

In 2017, Borelli and Matteo both scored 31 out of 100.

Democratic North Shore Councilwoman Debi Rose received a score of 92, down from 2017s perfect score of 100.

With the executive branch in Washington undermining years of environmental progress, it is more important than ever for local governments to fill that void, said NYLCVs President Julie Tighe.

We will work with legislative leaders to enact policies to encourage the use of renewable energy, decrease emissions, and reduce waste  all top NYLCV priorities, Tighe said.

The full scorecards can be viewed here.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Richmond County District Attorney Michael E. McMahon announced that he will be seeking re-election at a kick-off reception fundraiser held Thursday night at LiGrecis Staaten in West Brighton.

More than 100 supporters, including political and community leaders, attended the event, intended to begin McMahons campaign.

McMahon said the outpouring of support was very encouraging, because it shows that people appreciate that we made promises to Staten Island three and a half years ago, and we kept those promises.

His office has enhanced and grown since he took office over three years ago, McMahon said. He plans to continue to drive down the opioid overdose numbers, along with continuing to fight to get illegal guns off the street.

In addition, McMahon said his office is working very hard to bring a community justice center to Staten Island, a goal for his second term as district attorney.

A Republican party candidate has not been named in the race.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  As the victims sister wept in the audience, a jury on Thursday convicted an Elm Park man of murdering his pregnant girlfriend in their Elm Park home 15 months ago.

Keith Jackson, 43, sat in stony silence as the jury foreman announced the verdict at about 6:30 p.m. in state Supreme Court, St. George.

Jackson, a repeat felon, was found guilty of second-degree murder and two counts of criminal weapon possession for fatally shooting Bridget Shenk on Dec. 21, 2017, in their Trantor Place apartment.

Shenk, 35, was three months pregnant, although jurors were not told that information for fear of prejudicing them.

The jury, which got the case early in the afternoon, deliberated for about six hours.

Jackson faces 25 years to life when sentenced on March 27.

The verdict was bittersweet for Shenks family.

Its some closure, but it doesnt bring her back, Michael Shenk, the victims brother, said afterward.

Jennifer Shenk, the victims sister, cried and hugged Assistant District Attorney Lisa Davis, who, along with Assistant District Attorney Timothy Richard, prosecuted Jackson.

Thank you, she said.

Up to a dozen of the victims family members and friends, including her mother and siblings, attended the trial every day. It began on Feb. 25.

Defense lawyer Matthew Zuntag said Jackson would exhaust his appeals and all of his legal rights going forward.

We obviously think that the jury was wrong, said Zuntag, who, along with attorney Kevin Byrne, represented Jackson. Its not clear to me at all that the prosecutors established their case.

The defense contended the shooting was accidental, and Jackson never meant to harm or kill Shenk.

Jackson was so high on PCP he did not have the knowledge or capacity to intentionally kill the victim, the defense contended.

In a tape-recorded interrogation, Jackson told detectives he was smoking angel dust (the street name for PCP) and had f----- up.

It was an accident," he said.

Jackson did not testify at trial.

Prosecutors said Jackson shot Shenk twice in the back. She fell face down onto the kitchen floor after getting hit the first time, said prosecutors.

Jackson pegged a second shot into her as she lay prone, prosecutors said.

A detective testified one of the bullets lodged in the plywood subfloor after penetrating the linoleum.

One of the first officers on the scene testified that Jackson told her, I bugged out. I bugged out, when he answered the door.

The gun was in his pocket, and he handed it to her, said the cop. It was a .40-caliber semiautomatic Smith & Wesson, she said.

Dr. Jonee Taylor, who performed Shenks autopsy, said the victim was shot twice in the upper right side of her back.

The bullets moved slightly downward from right to left and exited the victims left breast, she said.

In a recorded jailhouse phone call on Dec. 30, 2017, which was played for jurors, Jackson told a woman that Shenk had his gun in her pocket, and she had racked a bullet into the firing chamber.

He said he must have accidentally hit the trigger when he hugged her, causing the weapon to discharge.

He said the bullet fired upward.

Dr. Taylor, however, said the size and shape of the wounds led her to believe conclusively that Shenk had been shot twice from behind in a downward trajectory and not upward from the front.

This defendant murdered his girlfriend in cold blood, tragically cutting her life short with two gunshots to her back, said District Attorney Michael E. McMahon in a statement. Because of his senseless act of violence, the victims family had their loved one needlessly torn from their lives forever.

The conviction, McMahon said, holds the defendant fully accountable for the life he took, and, I hope, provides closure to the victims family and friends.

The D.A. thanked jurors for their service and commended Davis and Richard for vigorously prosecuting this case and fighting on behalf of victims of domestic violence.

Jackson has served three prior prison stints, according to online records of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

In 2001, he was sentenced to two years behind bars after being convicted of attempted criminal weapon possession.

Later, in 2008, he was hit with a prison sentence of two to four years for a weapon-possession conviction.

Jackson was shipped back upstate in 2012 after being sentenced to 18 months to three years for attempted criminal weapon possession.
It is unfortunate that despite New Yorkers compassion for the unprecedented homelessness crisis across our city, the words homeless shelter still trigger strong skepticism from many. Much of the discussion around the newly-proposed family homeless shelter in Tompkinsville is already revealing big misconceptions about the reality of homelessness on Staten Island: Most people dont know that homelessness predominantly impacts women and children. Its time to go beyond the rhetoric and look at the facts behind this crisis.

And as someone who has worked with New Yorks most vulnerable families for years, I implore the Staten Island community to first consider the full context of the new shelter space before rushing to conclusions.

The vast majority of homeless New Yorkers are actually mothers with children, including working single mothers. Of the over 61,000 New Yorkers in a shelter tonight, more than 70 percent are families, and many of them have young children. Across the family shelters run by Win, more than 50 percent of our families have a working parent and more than 40 percent of the children living with us are under the age of six. Children alone make up more than a third of the citywide homeless population.

When most New Yorkers think of the homeless, they think of single  sometimes mentally ill  adults. While all New Yorkers in need deserve compassion and help, the reality is that those individuals dont represent the full picture of the homeless population in New York and thats not who is going to be living on Victory Boulevard.

The Tompkinsville shelter will provide refuge for 200 families  nearly all moms and their kids  with priority given to Staten Islanders who are experiencing homelessness and who are desperate to stay in or return to their community. They are our neighbors who have fallen on hard times, often beyond their control. They are families who have been unfairly evicted by landlords trying to cash in on gentrification; they are families who have lost their home after the death of a sick relative; and they are mothers who are fleeing domestic violence with their children  and have nowhere else to go.

The idea by some that these struggling Staten Island families striving to rebuild their lives would somehow put a damper on the economic development along the Bay Street Corridor is simply not supported by any facts.

The proposed development would replace an eyesore of an empty lot on Victory Boulevard with a newly-constructed, state of the art five-story building that will include 10,000 square feet of new, ground-level retail, which would only add to an economic resurgence. We expect this facility to add nearly 100 full and part-time jobs to the community  with priority hiring given to Staten Islanders.

As the largest provider of family shelters in New York City, Win has opened shelters in a diverse array of communities across Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx. These family shelters do not negatively impact crime nor real estate values, and we affirm that Staten Island women and children in need pose no threat whatsoever to the vitality or safety of the North Shore. This proposed shelter will be populated with mothers who work in the community and send their young children to school here.

Homelessness is a citywide crisis, including in Staten Island. There are currently 1,300 homeless Staten Islanders  and 70 percent of them are families. However, only 134 of them are housed on the Islands single existing shelter. This means that when most of Staten Islands single mothers fall into homelessness, they have to uproot their entire lives and that of their children. They are often forced to move to opposite ends of the city, often hours away from their childrens school, doctors, and any remaining supportive networks they may have in their home neighborhood.

Many New Yorkers also do not realize that our family shelters are not just housing facilities. Like all of Wins shelters, the Victory Boulevard facility will provide wrap-around social services, child care and income-building programs that help break the cycle of homelessness once and for all. We work closely with our families each day to foster important life and job skills, expand their access to health care, and help them secure a steady income and find a permanent home. The average stay in our shelters is only about a year, after which many families are set on a path to be economically contributing members of the New York City community.

Its extremely upsetting that the need to provide Staten Island women and children with a shelter is pitting neighbors against each other and sowing resentment against our most vulnerable. The plight of homeless moms and their children may not be obvious to everyone. But that doesnt mean that they arent there, dont deserve to be seen and cared for, or that their crisis doesnt need an immediate response.

I know the heart and soul of Staten Island is grounded in community, compassion, and common-sense. And as the future operator of the Victory Boulevard shelter, its my commitment to be your partner and ally in making this project the win for the North Shore that I know it can be.

(Christine Quinn, a former City Council speaker, is the president and chief executive officer of Win, a provider of shelter, social services and supportive housing for homeless families in New York City.)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A South Beach ex-convict has already served one prison sentence for a mugging. Hell soon make it two.

Carlos Cortes, 43, of Jackson Avenue, has pleaded guilty to third-degree robbery stemming from an incident on Nov. 20 in which he and two accomplices beat a victim and stole money in Port Richmond, said a criminal complaint.

Cortes, along with Nitetel Defendini, 43, and an unidentified accomplice, accosted the victim at about 1:45 a.m. on Park and Castleton avenues, said a criminal complaint.

Cortes punched the man in the face while Defendini and the other accomplice continuously beat him about the body with their fists, the complaint said.

The trio snatched $40 before fleeing, said police.

They didnt get far. Cops nabbed Cortes about 15 minutes later, police said.

In exchange for his plea, Cortes will be sentenced March 26 in state Supreme Court, St. George, to three to six years in prison.

His lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the case.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Tannousis is prosecuting it.

Defendinis case is pending in Criminal Court, online state court records said.

Advance records show Cortes was previously arrested in June 2013.

Authorities alleged he followed a man out of a Port Richmond Center bar, knocked the victim to the ground and swiped his wallet and Samsung S3 phone.

Cortes later pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and was sentenced to two years behind bars, said online records of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

He was paroled in March 2015.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Legal Aid Society released a new interactive database focused on providing the public with information concerning lawsuits alleging police misconduct throughout the five boroughs.

CAPstat, the online database, highlights cases and precinct commands in New York City identified in federal lawsuits from 2015 through June 2018.

Of Staten Islands four precincts, the 120th Precinct, serving the North Shore of the Island, had the highest amount of cases during the aforementioned span.

Twenty-two lawsuits have been filed in connection with the precinct, according to CAPstat, with a total of $285,000 in settlements. The settlement total only reflects eight cases, as the other 14 cases are still pending.

The 120th Precinct ranks ninth on the list of New York City precincts in total federal lawsuits, and ranks 10th in overall settlement amount, according to CAPstat.

On the other end of Staten Island -- and on the other end of the lawsuit total -- the 123rd Precinct has only one lawsuit since 2015, though no settlement has been reached, according to CAPstat.

The 122nd Precinct, serving primarily the East Shore of Staten Island, has six lawsuits recorded from 2015 to June 2018, CAPstat says, though only one has been settled for a total amount of $9,000.

With the second-highest lawsuit total in Staten Island, the 121st Precinct has 16 federal cases, according to CAPstat. While CAPstat lists that the total settlement amount for the 121st Precinct is $12,500, three cases are listed as being settled out of the aforementioned 16 lawsuits, totaling $137,500.

Two barriers that we face toward real policing reform are a lack of transparency and accountability -- and accountability requires transparency," City Councilman and Public Advocate-elect Jumaane Williams said in a press release issued by the Legal Aid Society.

I believe that the CAPStat database will be a vital tool for the public as well as for the NYPD and advocates to review, to find and address systemic failures, Williams added.

For each lawsuit listed on the database, details are available on the locations and time of the underlying incident, along with victim demographic information, types of civil rights violations alleged, charges underlying false arrest cases and any uses of force, according to the Legal Aid Society release.

In addition, all of the officers named in the 2015 to 2018 lawsuits can be sorted to reflect total number of lawsuits, salary and overtime compensation.

Transparency and accountability around police misconduct are two of the most important issues we face in the fight for criminal justice reform today," said Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Queens), chair of the City Councils Committee on Public Safety.

While the toll police misconduct takes on our families and communities weighs the heaviest, it also hits our citys wallet hard as well and the more information available, the better we all can be at addressing patterns of abuse and neglect," Richards said.
CITY HALL -- As some Staten Island elected officials are celebrating borough Democratic attorney Patricia Anne Taylors recent appointment as the newest commissioner to the city Board of Elections, others are reeling.

Last week, the City Council approved Taylors nomination to the BOE by Speaker Corey Johnson, but her appointment appears to have widened a rift in the Islands Democratic Party, according to those familiar with the vote.

Taylor is the first African American BOE commissioner in Island history.

According to an Island Democratic source, borough Democratic Chairman John Gulino wanted BOE Commissioner Maria Guastella to be reappointed to the post, but several Island Democrats wanted her out as a rebuke to Gulino.

Guastella had served in that role since 2011.

The source said that the the shakeup was tied to the fact that many Island Democrats and grassroots organizations were dissatisfied by Gulinos job as chair.

Last year, the party organization failed to get two Democratic state Supreme Court candidates on the ballot, effectively handing the coveted seats to the Republicans.

Gulino also took heat for failing to endorse longtime lawmaker and party stalwart Matthew Titone for judge of the Surrogates Court. Titone, a former assemblyman and the first openly gay lawmaker in borough history, prevailed in a party primary and then in the general election.

Its a massive slap in the face to him, the source said of Taylors appointment.

The source said Gulino had also been lobbying Johnson behind the scenes to vote for Guastella. But instead, Johnson went against Gulino and decided to go with the Island Democrats pick.

GOING AGAINST GULINOS PICK JUST THE FIRST STEP

The source said going against Gulinos pick for BOE commissioner is just the first step in bringing change to the Islands Democratic party.

In July, the source said a majority of the Islands Democratic Committee plan to vote for a new chairman and remove Gulino from his post.

As the city and state move forward with reforms to make voting more accessible to all New Yorkers  including early voting, same-day voter registration and more  I know Anne is eminently qualified, over qualified in fact, to move the Board of Elections forward," said Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore).

Taylor has held a number of prominent posts over the years.

She has served as principal court attorney with the New York State Office of Court Administration and served in the Criminal Courts of the City of New York from 2007 to 2018 as law clerk to the Hon. Dena E. Douglas.

Taylor has also led the Staten Island Womens Bar Association, growing the associations membership to by more than 120 percent.

Gulino did not respond to attempts to reach him for comment for this story.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Are you enthusiastic about Staten Island and all it has to offer?

If so, you might be the perfect candidate to welcome tourists and give them a rundown of the borough as they walk through the Staten Island ferry terminal in St. George.

Borough President James Oddos Office is seeking volunteers to man the kiosk and inform the crowds of tourists who arrive at the terminal each day about the boroughs offerings.

Staten Island is sure to see a major uptick in tourism. There has been a lot of buzz about our borough in the media, both locally and internationally. We at Borough Hall know this is going to be an important economic driver, and we are excited to be able to assist in that effort with this kiosk that helps direct tourists, Oddo said.

The Staten Island Ferry is one of the most visited attractions in New York City, with over 1.5 million tourists riding the ferry each year.

Our goal is to connect tourists to the wonderful cultural attractions Staten Island has to offer, providing directions, information on where they can eat, shop, and stay. Staten Island is open for business in every way possible, he said.

The ideal volunteer should have excellent communication skills, a willingness to learn about the boroughs destinations and attractions, and enthusiasm about making the borough key destination.

The booth will be open from Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with three two-hour shifts daily from May to October. At least three volunteers are needed for each shift.

Volunteer will be awarded a Certification of Completion for their work, in addition to expanding their interpersonal skills by interacting with a diverse audience.

Applications for the volunteer positions are still be accepted through April 1.

For more information, contact Colleen Siuzdak at the Staten Island Borough Presidents Office of Tourism and Cultural Affairs at CSiuzdak@StatenIslandUSA.com or by calling 718-816-2057.

Last year, Oddos office rebranded the Island as The Unexpected Borough and launched its new website for VISIT Staten Island.
Crybaby Statue of Liberty protester Patricia Okoumou wants to set her own punishment for not only risking the lives of police officers who removed her from the statue, but also closing down a treasured landmark, thus denying visitors their rights.

Let free, she brazenly does it again in Austin, Texas. She believes Trump is persecuting illegal immigrants held by border security. She has the right to protest. No one disputes that. But she has no right to endanger others by her illegal actions. Her lawyers argue that incarceration would not deter her political activities.

Maybe not her legal activities, but it certainly would stop her from climbing another statue while in jail. Moreover, its not her right to determine her sentence. If you cant do the time, dont do the crime. She hasnt the moxie to stand up to the consequences of her dangerous actions. She is no Dr. King, who was not afraid to face the consequences of his actions and went to jail in Alabama.

No, coward Okoumou wants a get out of jail free card. If she doesnt get jail time, that only serves to encourage others to commit similar unlawful protests.

(Joseph Valente is a South Beach resident.)
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We never want to go through an experience like that again, Brian Hartzer told the House of Representatives economics committee in Canberra on Friday.

The Westpac boss was of course referring to the banking royal commission, which he described as a sad indictment on the financial services industry.

It certainly was an indictment on a sector that has been riddled with scandals for years that were fobbed off as sideshows caused by a few bad apples.

Hartzer believed the royal commission was as significant an event as the 1991 recession, which he described as a massive wake-up call on credit and control, the 2008 global financial crisis, which he saw as a massive wake-up call on balance sheet and liquidity funding risk.
Malaysian accommodation operator Tune Hotels has gained planning approval to knock down a two-storey building in Melbournes Flinders Lane and replace it with dual hotel and serviced apartment towers.

The approved plans show a building stretching half a city block with a smaller 24-storey tower fronting Flinders Street and a larger 30-storey tower at 539-545 Flinders Lane.

The combined hotel offering will have 457 rooms alongside 80 serviced apartments.

Parts of Flinders Lane are home to some of the city's hippest restaurant, cafe and music venues. Credit:Eddie Jim

Tune and its partner Plato Capital swooped on the site in 2016, buying it from NM Computer Services for $19.9 million.
There is a swath of new hotels brands and offering set to hit the Australian market to take advantage of the high demand for rooms with a twist.

It comes as investment in the sector has surpassed the $1 billion mark in the space of a few months.

The new Kafnu hotel in Alexandria, Sydney

Leanne Harwood, managing director Australasia & Japan, InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG), said Australia is coming off the back of a stellar year in the hospitality sector, with the highest growth seen in a long time.

''Half of all new Australasian hotel signings by the big players in 2018 by were under an IHG brand, so that means well be opening a whopping 29 hotels over the next couple of years, 13 of them in 2020,'' Ms Harwood said.
The slowing housing market and looming oversupply are weighing on the $1.2 billion a year self-storage sector, with operators forced to discount rates to maintain occupancy levels and average per-metre revenues.

While Perth has been the worst-performing market, the malaise is clearly evident in Sydney and Melbourne although the trends are inconsistent on a suburb-by-suburb basis.

The fast-growing sector is vulnerable not so much to declining property prices, but the resulting slow-down in housing turnover that results in fewer residents temporarily parking their goods in storage units.

Self-storage mogul Sam Kennard says this is the first time in many years he has seen such wide price reductions. Credit:Kennards

The observations from the field ... are that competition is biting hard and aggressive pricing is becoming commonplace, said Kennards Self Storage CEO Sam Kennard.
Australias ASX-listed landlords are responding to rising energy costs by ramping up investment in renewable energy, with six of the largest planning enough rooftop solar to power about 18,000 homes a year.

Others are striking unique deals to lease rooftop space to energy retailers or are buying firmed renewable power for their office towers.

A reduction in the cost of solar panels combined with a doubling of the wholesale power price has prompted a dramatic uptake of large-scale systems on shopping centre and warehouse roofs across the country.

Solar panels line the roof of Vicinity's Elizabeth City Centre mall in South Australia.

Property giants such as Dexus, Goodman, Charter Hall, Vicinity, GPT Group and Stockland are leading the charge with more than 62 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity under consideration.
Here's an endless, humming expanse of the reddest earth you ever saw. Here's a thatched hut, a wild ocean, a tropical thunderhead. Here's the neighbour walking his greyhounds past a white picket fence.

If you live in Australia, they're all photos of home. David Bridie mostly snapped them on his phone, at various points on his endless travels from the streets of Thornbury to the red desert to Papua New Guinea ("Australia's not really an island," he notes in passing. "You can walk there at low tide.")

David Bridie has been awarded the prestigious Don Banks award. Credit:Eddie Jim

The collected images adorn the Melbourne composer's latest album, The Wisdom Line, between sparsely quoted lyrics and broad swaths of empty space: a typically minimalist invocation of something inexpressibly vast.

"One of the wonderful things about being an artist in Australia is that we've got this unique set of circumstances," he says, as we sit at a wooden table under the tin-roofed back veranda of his house. A short hop through a garden of natives and veggies sits a well-appointed backyard recording shed.
When Fiona Crombie was a teen, her dad, film and TV director Donald Crombie, 76, hoped she'd have a "safe" life as a lawyer. Now 45, the production designer recently landed an Oscar nomination for her work in The Favourite.

Donald Crombie: "Wed be watching plays like Hedda Gabler and my wife Judy would say, Isnt that our tablecloth?" Credit:John Davis

Fiona: Dad and I have always been very connected. He was away for work a lot when I was a kid and I'd always have 24 hours of feeling completely lost. Right from when he was making documentaries about Indigenous outback communities in the 1960s, he has travelled widely and stayed curious. When he was at home in Adelaide, he was really home. He'd do all the cooking, the school lunches and pick-ups.

He recognised a creative spirit in me, took me on father-daughter dates to the theatre, opera, musicals. At a concert of Peter and the Wolf, I demanded to know when the wolf was coming on. He said, "Listen, this bit is the wolf." He encouraged me to use all my senses.

I spent a lot of time on his film sets as a kid, did work experience on the 1989 TV mini-series he directed, The Heroes, and storyboarding on his 2000 fantasy film Selkie, and saw how he inspired loyalty because of his kindness.
"Radio is a sound salvation," Elvis Costello sang facetiously four decades ago  and the ironic sentiment remains especially true for female musicians.

Of the top 100 songs played on Australian radio across 58 stations last year, only 21 were by solo female artists or all-female groups, compared to 52 by male solo artists and all-male groups.

The trend was also highlighted in Triple J's Hottest 100 this year, which featured 63 songs by solo male artists and all-male acts, and just 21 from solo female artists and all-female acts.

Such findings were published Friday in Triple J's Women in Music report, written by Hack's Ange McCormack.
The developer of a controversial coal mine in NSW plans to appeal a landmark decision that blocked the project in part on climate change grounds.

Gloucester Resources Ltd - which last month had its Rocky Hill open-cut mine near the Mid North Coast of NSW blocked in the Land and Environment Court - lodged its intention to appeal on March 5, the Supreme Court said.

Gloucester residents were jubilant after their win in the Land and Environment Court in Sydney against the proposed Rocky Hill open-cut coal mine in Gloucester a month ago - but the uncertainty has returned. Credit:Janie Barrett

A court spokeswoman said the miner has until May 8 to formally appeal, but added the period to make the appeal could be extended further.

Gloucester Resources confirmed it had filed a Notice of Intention to Appeal against the refusal of its coal mine. It declined to comment further.
A bikie complained his nose was full of snot and blood after he allegedly had four fkin cracks laid on him by a rival at a busy restaurant, court documents say.

Police were alerted to a man being punched and theyre Comancheros, theyre starting shit about 8pm on January 18, however did not attend the Woden Southern Cross Club until four days later.

Six bikies or associates have been charged with affray over the incident. Credit:Jamila Toderas

Police used surveillance footage to identify the men involved in the alleged incident.

The documents describe six men allegedly connected to the Comanchero, including the commander of the ACT chapter, allegedly intimidating four Nomads who were sitting in a restaurant booth.
It was these two events that would eventually lead her to Lifeline, first as a volunteer, and later as a paid staff member. Shes about to clock up 18 years in the office, and her work is as vital as ever. "You never know when you pick up that phone what's going to happen," she says. Born and bred in Cooma - her parents met on the Snowy in 1965 - she married a local and had two kids, before the family moved to Canberra. She had originally worked in the travel industry, but, when the kids were still small, she decided to cast around for something else to do. She decided to volunteer at Lifeline. Back then, in 2001, the office on Northbourne Avenue had just two phone lines in a tiny room. In the years since, the office has expanded to seven lines, and is now a national service, taking calls from all over the country. And the phones have never stopped ringing. "We have 1 million calls a year across the country, but the sad fact of that is that we only answer about 850-870,000 calls," she says.

Its those 150,000 calls - around 15 per cent - left unanswered that keep her up at night. "These callers will ring Lifeline, and they'll get on our queue service for our first available crisis supporter, but if it's 11 o'clock at night, we can be absolutely flat out and you may have to wait 10 minutes to get through to a crisis supporter," she says. "That's a bloody long time if you're in crisis. So for me, this is one of the reasons I'm still there, because every caller that rings Lifeline should be answered. Every single caller." Meanwhile, just 4 per cent of Lifeline Canberras funding comes from government "We have to fundraise for 96 per cent of our budget. Thank god for the book fairs," she says. Canberras hugely popular twice-yearly event is the offices main source of revenue.

Funding or no funding, the phones ring at all hours. On the other end are "all kinds of people, from all kinds of socio-economic backgrounds, calling for all kinds of reasons," she says. "Just to give you an example, we just had a 21-year-old girl who'd had a stroke, and she was talking about the loss of her life, the loss of her identity, and the loss of who she is as a person. We're in a more connected society, now, but people are more alone. Mandy Larsson "A couple of weeks ago, we had someone who's just found out she's got six weeks to live from cancer. And then there are people who are just lonely and have nobody else to talk to."

Its the rise of loneliness that has been one of the biggest changes during her time at Lifeline. "We're in a more connected society, now, but people are more alone - they don't have that connectedness on a human level." The office fields calls from people who ring the service every day for months on end, as well as first-time callers from a wide variety of backgrounds. "It could be just to get through that crisis, they could call every day for a couple of months, or life's just really tough and they might call for a year every day, and that's ok. And that's hard for us to talk to them every day - to imagine living that life," she says. "And every day you pick up a phone and it's a first-time caller too. And what we've found is that we've had a 22 per cent increase in people talking about a third-party suicide - not being suicidal themselves, but needing help for another person."

Larsson still answers the phones herself as much as possible - she needs to know what her staff are dealing with - but the training and supervision of staff is as vigilant as its ever been. Loading "I still get anxious before I pick up that phone, and that's important, because that means I care about who's on the end of the phone. If I don't have that rush, I shouldn't be doing it anymore," she says. "The other thing that's changed greatly is just that we have so much debriefing and so much more supervision, because that's just so important. If you're taking a crisis call, you need that chain of support to back you up." Larsson received a medal of the Order of Australia in January for her services to the community, but she says her work is far from being done.

The office is in constant need of more volunteers, and with Canberra's transient population, it's harder to keep people coming back. "Canberra is an amazing community and we have about 320 volunteers on the phones now, but we have the ability to have more. "The thing is, life changes. People are studying or working." While taking calls from people in crisis for hours on end is draining, Larsson says she and her staff rely on black humour - some days, its what pulls them all through - and the ability to switch off the moment they leave the office. "I think now I do what I do, and do my best, but then I let it go. I can remember maybe a handful of callers now," she says.

"And every day I walk out of there and think geez, I'm so lucky. Some people's lives are just incredibly sad. You feel grateful, and you feel hopefully that you've been able to make some sort of a difference by keeping them going, keeping them having faith in life." She stresses that not all calls involve people deep in crisis; for every suicidal caller, there could be half a dozen people who just want to talk "That person who wants to have a yarn, if you give them 20 minutes, maybe you're the only person they're going to talk to in the day," she says. "But I think as a nation, as a society, we have to recognise that Lifeline's number is similar to the Triple 0 number. It is a necessary number to save lives. We do that every day." "I think that needs to be told more, we need to be aware that this service is integral in the health and wellbeing of our society, so we need to put more money into it."
For many of the thousands of families who have walked through the doors of the Queen Elizabeth II Family Centre over the last 56 years, the women of the Canberra Mothercraft Society have been a godsend.

The society has been at the helm of the hospital, known more fondly as QEII, since it opened. But on June 30, they'll hand the reins to another organisation as the public health sector becomes more complex to navigate.

Belconnen resident Farleigh Jay, pictured with her daughters Leilani (left) and Mereani Taginakaibure (right). Ms Jay attended the Queen Elizabeth II Family Centre following a staph infection and hospital stay in 2017. Credit:Jamila Toderas

Farleigh Jay attended the centre with her daughter Mereani in late 2017, a couple of weeks after she was born. The visit was a chance to regenerate after they both contracted an antibiotic-resistant staph infection.

"Because we actually weren't allowed skin-to-skin contact, we had both been in isolation in hospital for seven days. QEII gave me time afterwards to bond with my daughter," Ms Jay said.
Less than two years on, an extensive investigation into the dealings between Human Group and the offices of former chiefs of staff to CEOs Cameron Clyne and later, Andrew Thorburn, has netted two scalps. Loading The investigation by the NSW financial crimes squad's Strike Force Napthali is ongoing. The past week has seen the arrest and subsequent charging of both Mrs Rogers and Human Group director Helen Rosamond, 43, who between them face more than 100 charges of bribery and corruption between 2013 and 2017. It follows an internal whistleblower letter to management at the bank alleging misconduct in December 2017, before the bank reported the allegations to police on January 30 last year.

Both women stand accused over an alleged kickbacks scheme, in which extravagant bribes were paid in order to maintain the contract between the two organisations and to ensure the approval of over-inflated invoices to the bank. One such bribe was allegedly a $10,000 prepaid credit card, gifted to Mrs Rogers, who then re-gifted it to the executive assistant of then-CEO Clyne, who said she received it on behalf of Rose and Cameron". Former NAB chief Cameron Clyne. Credit:Sasha Woolley Mr Clyne has told police he has no knowledge of this card. What, if any, bribes were paid in the five years prior to 2013, when the formal contractual relationship between the two organisations began, remains unknown.

The alleged bribery, fraud and corruption at the centre of the scandal is so complex, the cost of forensic accounting to the bank since has grown such that it may have been a factor in the banks decision not to examine any period prior to 2013. Loading Documents tendered for the first court appearances for the two women this week reveal four years of decadent travel, fine dining, luxury accommodation and other perks allegedly enjoyed by Mrs Rogers and her family and paid for by Ms Rosamond, all in the service of a $40 million corporate contract. Police allege the benefits were the result of a deal to maintain a contract worth $40 million with Human Group, and to "rubber-stamp" bloated invoices submitted by the events firm. This week the 43-year-old was arrested when she travelled to Sydney to attend the Surry Hills police station. There she was charged with 56 counts of bribery and two of fraud, on a rap sheet revealing almost $6 million in actual benefits she allegedly enjoyed between 2013 and 2017.

Ms Rosamond has also been charged with more than 50 bribery and corruption related offences. Now further details uncover just how far the alleged deception went. In 2017, a house for sale caught the eye of Mrs Rogers, then a prominent executive adviser at NAB. The Williamstown house, in Melbourne's inner west, purchased by Rosemary Rogers. Its a homeowners dream: 1880s architecture, complemented with an indoor pool, climate-controlled pavilion, four bedrooms, two bathrooms and an open-plan kitchen, all tucked away on a leafy block less than 10km from Melbournes CBD.

One real estate listing described the $3.8 million Williamstown property as Victorian elegance meets todays excellence. In August 2017, Mrs Rogers - wife of Anthony Rogers and a mother of two - was seeking out her NAB personal banker, with a $3.8 million property purchase in mind. Helen Rosamond, former CEO of executive events firm Human Group. Credit:Jessica Hromas In less than a month, Mrs Rogers and her husband signed a contract of sale for 40 Power St, Williamstown, with the $380,000 deposit paid to the real estate agent three days later by Ms Rosamond. By the end of October, NAB had paid the $2.2 million invoice issued by Human Group, while Mrs Rogers had submitted a letter for a loan application, purportedly signed by her parents-in-law Clifford and Janis Rogers, stating that they would be contributing $1.2 million as a gift to assist with the purchase of the Williamstown house.

The indoor pool of the $3.8 million home. Police investigators have since identified differences between the actual signatures of Mr and Mrs Rogers snr and those on the letter, while it is understood Mr Rogers has told police the signatures were not genuine, nor had he ever seen or signed a letter regarding a gift of $1.2 million. But the 1880s home would still be purchased thanks to an alleged $1.5 million transferred by Ms Rosamond to Mrs Rogers and her husband. It is now alleged that funds paid to Human Group following the issue of the $2.2 million invoice contributed to the purchase of the Williamstown home. The four-bedroom house is one of a number of Mrs Rogers' assets frozen by the NSW Crime Commission last year, along with three of her bank accounts and a $1 million NAB bank cheque.

Before she resigned from the bank in December 2017, Mrs Rogers managed the office of the CEO and was its senior adviser, enjoying a salary package of almost $700,000, including bonuses. She was granted a final payout of around $185,000. Among her responsibilities was managing the NAB employee gift register, in accordance with company policy that any gifts over $300 received by an employee are to be entered into the register. Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast. Court documents reveal an array of alleged gifts paid for by Ms Rosamond and given to Mrs Rogers over the four years in question, such as a one-month family holiday to Europe worth almost $188,000, another family trip to the US for $485,000, extravagant weekends away in Wolgan Valley and at the Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast. For these group holidays, and others, Mrs Rogers also allegedly received a separate contribution, paid into her personal account by members of her family, to go towards the trip.

More than $30,000 for an in-home nanny, $128,000 in renovations, a BMW X5 and a $46,000 Bayliner boat - plus marina berthing fees - were also among benefits allegedly received. But not all gifts were so extravagant. Others included prepaid credit cards used for expenses such as a Telstra account bill, an Energy Australia bill and women's clothes at Witchery. It is understood there is no record of any of the benefits allegedly received by Mrs Rogers in the gift register. A formal agreement between NAB and Human Group was first signed in 2008, underscoring a relationship in which Human Group manage executive events, such as off-site meetings of the board, the executive leadership team and other forums. As of 2015 NAB would be the sole client of Human Group, which is no longer trading.

It is understood this professional relationship, almost solely managed by Mrs Rogers and Ms Rosamond, led to a friendship developing between them. National Australia Bank's former CEO Andrew Thorburn. Credit:Eddie Jim From 2010 onwards, the bank's contract for executive event services was never put out to tender, instead it was extended every two years by way of a one-page letter. Throughout this period almost all invoices and payments were handled by Ms Rosamond and Mrs Rogers on either end. It is alleged Ms Rosamond would submit an invoice directly to Mrs Rogers, who would pass it on to an accounts team in NAB, before it would find its way back to her as the final approver. Over 12 years, the roll-over contract was worth almost $120 million, before it was terminated in February last year.

Both Mrs Rogers and Ms Rosamond are on bail in their respective home towns of Melbourne and Sydney, bound by strict conditions, including that they do not contact one another after a court heard there was an ongoing risk of collusion between the two women, who had been in contact since being made aware of the investigation against them. The alleged scam could hardly come at a worse time for NAB under new chairman Phil Chronican. The Melbourne-based bank was wounded by the royal commission more than any other big four lender, with the dramatic resignations last month of its former chief executive Andrew Thorburn, and chairman Ken Henry. Managing director of NAB shareholder White Funds Management, Angus Gluskie, described the alleged bribery as a "really bad circumstance". "It's exactly what you don't want to see," Gluskie says. "I think it raises questions about how loose things were and what needs to be tightened up."
An estimated 3000 officers at NSW prisons have been told to return to work on Saturday, having gone on strike after a spate of assaults at Goulburn's Supermax prison and a recent court decision they believe could trigger further attacks.

A Corrective Services NSW spokeswoman said the industrial action taken on Friday was unauthorised, and that the governing body has ordered correctional officers back to work on Saturday. It's understood they had agreed to stop work until Monday, before the Industrial Relations Commission stepped in.

Hundreds of correctional officers went on strike after a spate of assaults at Goulburn's Supermax prison. Credit:Barry Chapman

Courts around the state have also been brought to a standstill as a result of the strike.

Because of the lack of staff, any matter that has an offender or a defendant who has been remanded in custody cannot go ahead, with jails being reduced to skeleton staff, citing issues of staff assault as the main reason for the action.
Theres a lot to be said for not making the perfect the enemy of the good. Criticism of the transport policies of Gladys Berejiklians government should grapple with the fact the government is doing a lot, and a lot of what it is doing will be of huge benefit to Sydney and NSW.

But sometimes the government does things that are weird, and it can be difficult not to quibble with the good.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Transport Minister Andrew Constance arrive at Westmead train station to announce an extra $3.4 billion on the Metro West if she wins this month's election. Credit:AAP

This column is about the governments confused and the confusing use of the term metro.

It is building  has pretty much built  a metro rail line from Epping to beyond Rouse Hill. It is building another "metro" under Sydneys harbour and central business district, from Chatswood to Sydenham. It will extend that metro to Bankstown. This week it said it would start construction on a line between Westmead and the CBD next year. And it has committed to a metro running to the airport at Badgerys Creek.
Minutes before Tamworth dentist Dr Harshwardhan Narde died in a fiery car crash he took a call from a friend and told them he was abandoning plans to drive to Sydney and would head back home.

The call, his brother Dr Alok Narde told the Herald on Friday, lasted three minutes during which he was "composed" even after being questioned throughout the day by police in Tamworth about his ex-girlfriend, fellow dentist Dr Preethi Reddy's disappearance.

Dentists Dr Harshwardhan Narde and Dr Preethi Reddy.

"[He was] conscious enough to follow traffic sense and rules such as stopping [his] vehicle prior to taking a call and sensible enough to honour a friend's genuine request to return back home," his brother said in a statement.

Twenty minutes after he hung up Dr Narde died when he drove his BMW into the path of a semi-trailer at Willow Tree in what is "believed to be a deliberate act", police said.
After five years in prison for his parasitic plundering of his unions funds, former Health Services Union boss Michael Williamson has been released from jail and is living with his ex-wife in a waterfront house bought and renovated using stolen union funds.

His former wife Julieanne received the house in the divorce settlement she struck with her husband before he went to jail.

Michael Williamson leaves his new lakeside home in Brightside. Credit:Nick Moir

The former national president of the Labor Party was released from Cessnock jail last Saturday and his family drove him 45 kilometres to their two-storey holiday home at Brightwaters on the shores of Lake Macquarie. The family also own the house next door.

In October 2013 Williamson agreed to plead guilty to stealing $1 million from the union, but in reality the amount was estimated to be closer $20 million. As part of his plea deal he signed an undertaking to repay the HSU $5 million which he had fraudulently used to maintain his familys lavish lifestyle.
Police are urgently looking for Darra woman Sheena Miller and her five-month-old baby daughter, who have been missing in Queensland for two days.

Darra woman Sheena Miller, 39, and her five-month-old baby daughter have been missing since March 6 in Queensland.

They were last seen at a Darra address about 9am on Wednesday before they left the home and had not contacted family or friends since.

It is believed the 39-year-old woman may have been wearing a black T-shirt, grey shorts and her hair may have been tied in a bun.

Police hold concerns for their safety and wellbeing.
Jim Black, left, sent out SOS message before HMAS Vampire sunk.

One of the remaining maritime mysteries of World War II may soon be solved, thanks to a joint operation between the Royal Australian Navy and the Sri Lankan Navy.

Nine sailors died when the destroyer HMAS Vampire sank after enduring an intensive Japanese air attack off the Sri Lankan coast. The Vampire had been attempting to protect the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes on April 9, 1942. Hermes was sunk before the bombers turned their attention to Vampire.

Attacked by at least 15 enemy aircraft the destroyer fought back shooting down one of the Japanese aircraft, and damaging others, before she was hit by several bombs and broke in half; sinking in less than ten minutes. Commander William Moran and eight ratings were killed or died of wounds.

Commander of Australias Fleet, Rear Admiral Jonathan Mead said the ships precise location had never been confirmed but that a new lead had recently emerged.
Why cant a random sample of jury deliberations be recorded and released for research purposes after a suitable delay? The selection process is doubly flawed. A random selection is bound to result in some ill-equipped people being selected. Often those better equipped are also in a better position to escape jury duty. Further, psychology experiments going back to the 1930s prove that people are easily led and join majority opinion because they want to fit in. And the jury does not have to give reasons. As a result appeal courts go into the process with one hand tied behind their back. They cannot know the jurys reasoning, or if it was sound. All they can do is read the transcript of the hearing.

In Australia the leading case is the High Courts decision in M v R in 1994 involving the sexual abuse of a minor. It held that it is not enough for the appeal court to have a doubt. The appeal court must take into account the fact that the jury had the advantage of seeing and hearing the evidence. Precisely what they did with that advantage, of course, can never be known. Where the so-called jurys advantage of hearing and seeing the evidence can resolve the appellate courts doubts, the verdict stands. It is only "if the evidence, upon the record itself, contains discrepancies, displays inadequacies, is tainted or otherwise lacks probative force" that the appeal is allowed. It is not enough for the appeal court judges (with all their experience and wisdom) to say, "We would never have convicted on that evidence." The verdict would still stand.

"The jury is the body entrusted with the primary responsibility of determining guilt or innocence," the majority judgement said. But we can never have access to its reasoning. Another judge in that case said the test is that an independent assessment of the evidence must establish that a reasonable jury MUST have had a reasonable doubt about guilt. Usually conservatives support the jury system, but now that quite a few of them have attacked the Pell jury and therefore implicitly the system itself , it might be a good time to have a really good look at juries. Just because the system has been around for hundreds of years does not mean it is best practice. To the contrary, if you were designing a criminal justice system from scratch today you would not get 12 randomly selected people who know nothing of the law and simply might not be up to the task.

You would know from the body of the past centurys psychological research that people want to fit in and are easily swayed. The fact that 12 people come to the same conclusion might be persuasive if they all came to that opinion independently. But they dont. They do it in collusion. You might prefer a system with a senior judge to decide the law and two junior judicial officers who with the judge determine the facts. With three, it would check against biases and misconceptions. More importantly they would have to provide reasons for their verdict. That in turn would enable an appeal court to check that the verdict and reasoning behind it were sound. At present, an appeal courts blind faith that a jury has made best use of seeing and hearing witnesses is unwarranted.
We were the first marked unit there. I saw Gary on the ground. I walked towards him but a member I didnt know said: Dont go down there, he has already gone. Sergeant Gary Silk. We found Rod on the apron near the Silky Emperor. I held his hand and cradled him, I just hoped he would pull through. Even though Miller was in agony and knew he was dying, he accurately described the suspect vehicle and, according to the first responders, said there were two gunmen. This is supported by communication tapes of police unit Cheltenham 206 broadcasting: "Member shot twice ... He said two offenders, two on foot."

What exactly was said and how that became evidence in the trial of Bandali Debs and Jason Roberts is now the subject of a Supreme Court review and an Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) investigation. Key to the re-investigation is the revelation that the initial statement made by one of those responders, Glenn Pullin, was replaced by a later version to be consistent with a prosecution case that there were two shooters. The IBAC probe found a series of statements were incomplete or altered, with the counsel assisting, Jack Rush QC, alleging police failed to carry out their duty fairly and impartially. December 2002: Jason Roberts is led into court during his murder trial. Credit:Joe Armao Debs was sentenced to life while Roberts, 19 at the time of the killings, was sentenced to a minimum of 35 years. Retrospective changes in the law banning the release of convicted police killers means Roberts has been effectively resentenced to life.

Roberts now claims he was not there, that Debs acted alone, that he has new alibi evidence and that the altered statements are an abuse of process. The revelation of altered statements is a serious one that demands examination. It has created enormous collateral damage to Silk's and Miller's families and the first response police now forced to relive the events of that night. Pullin was examined in IBAC open hearings about his statement, his recollections and the circumstances in which a second statement was taken. The truth is he is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and his memory of that night is hopelessly jumbled. Constable Glenn Pullin arrests a man outside the rollerskating rink in Noble Park in 1992. Credit:Joe Armao Well before the IBAC enquiry he told me that after nursing Miller, the next few hours are blank. I just remember sitting in the gutter and looking down to see a pile of cigarette butts at my feet, so I must have been there just smoking. All I can remember is seeing two blokes with shotguns run past. I dont know who they were.

Looking back, I went to work that night and a different person came home. Helen Poke is another who resents having to relive the nightmare at the IBAC hearings. Pressed in the witness box on how she felt, she responded with refreshing honesty: What do you reckon I felt like? I felt like crap, like every other copper that was there ... You [IBAC] just want to f--- people over and make them feel like shit and relive all this ... and I go home and I spend the rest of my f---ing week and months reliving this because you just want to keep rehashing all this crap and putting us through it. Speak to your detectives who did the brief ... Im not coming back. Thwaites was not rostered on that night: I was rung at home and asked if I could cover the nightshift because someones mother had died and that member had to go to Queensland. Instead it ruined my life. Both Thwaites and Poke independently say Miller referred to two offenders. He said, Get them c---s, Im f---ed, according to Thwaites. There is no doubt in my mind, I will go to the grave with that. Rod Miller and wife Carmel Arthur. Credit:The Age

Pokes notes taken at the time say Miller said: Two offenders, one on foot, six foot tall with a checked shirt. Thwaites is angry the first responders have been hung out to dry. There has been a total lack of welfare checks. No recognition for us, who were there under the worst circumstances. We didnt even get a thankyou. We had to live through the incident, the funerals, the fifth, 10th and 20th anniversaries and now this. I just want to get on with my own life. While IBAC is looking at the police statements, the issue of whether Roberts was the victim of a miscarriage of justice is before the Supreme Court. Roberts first approached then chief commissioner Simon Overland, saying he had information linking Debs to unsolved murders he would share if his case was reopened. Overland gave him a two-word refusal.

Years later he approached respected homicide investigator Detective Senior Sergeant Ron Iddles with a similar deal. Iddles spoke to Roberts, who persuaded him he might be innocent. Iddles told Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton of his concerns and was authorised to complete a review. Iddles found no evidence to contradict Roberts claim that he was not with Debs in the Hyundai. I found two or three things that maybe, on the balance of probabilities, [Roberts] wasnt there, he told radio station 3AW. Former senior police officer Ron Iddles. Credit:Mal Fairclough This is why Millers words are so important, because he was the only one who knew. It is clear from the testimony of Poke, Thwaites and Senior Constable Colin Clarke, who passed on Millers description on the Cheltenham 206 radio broadcast, that the dying policeman identified two offenders. Two guns were used to kill the police - which made it likely but not certain that there were two offenders. Roberts says he did not tell police, his lawyers, the committal hearing, his Supreme Court trial or his appeal that he was not there because he was frightened of Debs.

The listening devices tell a different story. In the beginning Debs is the master and Roberts the apprentice, but over months there is a subtle shift, with the younger man taking the lead. After the double murder Debs and Roberts stopped committing armed robberies, but on May 4, 2000, it is Roberts who wants a return to action while the older man urges caution. Bandali Debs: surveillance shows power shifted from him to his younger associate Roberts. Credit:Simon Schluter Roberts: Its time for a job, Ben." Debs responds: "What job? Bang. Bang? ... Id love to. But its, its so hot you wouldnt believe.

Debs is taped repeatedly indicating he was with a partner when describing the shooting: They [police] dont know what happened. He called him away to talk to him. The jury was told Silk took Roberts away from the car and was shot dead. The prosecution case was that Debs and Roberts drove into the Silky Emperor car park, saw police, drove out and were stopped in Cochranes Road. Debs says: Straight away, soon as we drove into the car park they came behind ... they seen us so they drove behind us and drove down the street to stop us. Then its not good ... As soon as that happened [the shooting] we went. When detectives released information claiming they had a new witness, Debs says: No one was there but us.

Roberts agrees, saying: No one was there. Roberts was recorded bragging that I kill D's [detectives]. A police image of the man seen beside the stopped car when Rod Miller and Gary Silk were killed, released within days of the murders and based on descriptions by senior constables Frank Bendeich and Darren Sherren. This cannot possibly be Debs, which means there must have been two men present. Credit:Victoria Police On the night of the stakeout, another unmarked police car cruised past as Silk and Miller walked towards the suspect Hyundai. Senior constables Frank Bendeich and Darren Sherren caught a glimpse of only one offender, standing next to the driver's door. This is pivotal to Roberts' claim that he wasnt there and Debs acted alone. But here is the sticking point. Bendeich and Sherren described someone who bears no resemblance to the heavy-set, middle-aged Debs. As there is no doubt that Debs was there, does this indicate a second offender? And who does the man they describe look like? Ill give you one guess.
An aerial view of Tonimbuk, showing the devastation caused by the Bunyip State Park bushfire. Credit:Nine News

An out-of-control bushfire still burning in Victoria's east has destroyed more than 100 buildings, including 29 homes and another 67 outbuildings and sheds.

The Bunyip State Park remains closed as the bushfire continues to burn out of control, a week after a series of lightning strikes in the area sparked several fires.

An aerial view of a house exploding in a massive fireball in Tonimbuk in the Bunyip fire. Credit:Nine News

On Friday, authorities revealed the initial assessment that nine homes had been lost had been revised up to 29 after a specialist team were able to gain access to more of the fireground and complete their assessment of hundreds of properties in the area.
A former bikie enforcer dubbed the "Crybaby Comanchero" who took two bullets to the head at a tattoo parlour last year is facing at least 13 years behind bars for drug trafficking and a plot to burn down a strip club.

Robert Ale was sentenced to 18 years prison with a non-parole period of 13 years and nine months on Friday, after pleading guilty to nine charges relating to his time as head of the Last Kings, a brutal offshoot of the Comancheros.

Robert Ale, third from the left, stands beside now jailed Comanchero president Mick Murray (second from the left) and other members. Credit:Facebook

County Court Judge Paul Higham said the Last Kings were "used by the Comancheros to do jobs they could not be seen to be doing", including hits on rival outlaw motorcycle gangs and stand-over jobs.

Weeping was heard in the courtroom as Ale, heavily-bearded and wearing a blue suit, nodded assuredly to a family member when his sentence was read out.
An 11-year-old boy who played a minor role in three home burglaries should never have been sentenced to a mandatory 12 months jail under a 'three strikes' home burglary law introduced in 2015 for adult offenders.

The boy, whose identity is protected, spent 108 days on remand at Banksia Hill Detention Centre under "harsh conditions", developing a fungal infection from an untreated burn and contracting head lice and scabies.

File photo: The 11-year-old was spent 108 days on remand at Banksia Hill Detention Centre.

He was then sentenced in the Bunbury Children's Court in April 2018 to a 12-month intensive supervision order with detention as he fell under the 'three strikes' mandatory sentencing laws, which required a minimum 12-month detention term.

Human Rights Law Centre lawyer Shahleena Musk said the boy should never have been caught up in the criminal justice system to begin with, let alone given a mandatory jail sentence, which she says is not legal in other Australian states.
A man charged with the manslaughter of 14-year-old Radina Djukich, who went missing in Perth in 1992, has faced court.

Police have charged the man over the death of 14-year-old Radina Djukich. Credit:Nine News Perth

Ronald Joseph Buckland, 69, made a brief appearance via video link from Casuarina Prison in Perth Magistrates Court on Friday morning.

Wearing a green prison T-shirt, he spoke only to confirm his name and that he understood the charge he is faced with.

The charge, read to him by magistrate Geoff Lawrence, alleges he unlawfully killed Radina Djukich at North Beach between May 15-16, 1992.
Desperation is struggling to raise $100,000 for a brain operation one sausage sizzle at a time.

It's waking up to a front page report about the need for $75 million to refurbish a sports arena located next to a brand new sports stadium, while you can't even get out of bed most days.

It's not being able to laugh with and cuddle your beautiful young kids who don't understand why Mum is so sick.

And it's not being able to afford to attend an event at that stadium when illness has stolen the ability to work from you and now your husband must spend all of his time caring for you and your kids.
The prime minister is preparing to unveil a $96 million package designed to ease traffic congestion on Perth's roads. The revamp will see upgrades at three bottleneck areas, allowing commuters to spend less time on the road, and more time with their families. Scott Morrison says the funds will mean Perth commuters spend less time on the road. Credit:travellinglight / Alamy Stock Photo "That is why we are investing in public transport infrastructure and removing pinch points and bottlenecks will make a real difference to the lives of people living in fast-growing suburbs," Scott Morrison said on Friday. "This will help families and businesses get back valuable time."

The $96 million package will go towards upgrades at Hazelmere, Alkimos and Kewdale, the widening of the Kwinana and Mitchell Freeways as well as Perth's Smart Freeway, and the construction of a train station at Lakelands on the Mandurah Line. Urban Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge said the funding was designed to eliminate congestion issues where they are hurting the most. "Not only the major freeways but the local pinch points which can provide daily headaches to commuters," he said. "These investments are about managing the flow of vehicles onto, through and out of the freeway corridors to maximise the network's performance." Mr Morrison is mid-way through a four-day visit to Western Australia, as the coalition fights to hold onto four seats it can ill afford to lose at the federal election.
Parents have been warned to remain vigilant after a stranger in attempted to coax children into his car near schools in Perths southern suburbs over the last week.

A letter went out to parents at Melville Senior High School and Melville Primary School on Friday and detailed two separate alleged incidents currently being investigated by the school.

Where the second incident is alleged to have happened. Credit:Google Maps

On Wednesday, a primary school student was on their way to school when they were approached by a man in a car.

Its understood the man was acting suspiciously when talking to the child, and the parent of the student reported the incident to both local police and the primary school principal.
Any prime minister  indeed, any minister  is free to focus on policies and programs, and to maximise opportunities for propaganda in which he or she argues that the government's policy is the best, and that the opposition's proposals will ruin the nation, cause a recession or incite an invasion of foreigners. No one really complains when there are some stunts, impromptu ministerial visits and gatherings, at public expense, of players with concerned faces trying to underline the message and the warning. But that does not extend to announcing spending of more than $1 billion (to be paid in arrears by an incoming government) to forestall the confidently (but tendentiously) predicted disaster that will unfold if the opposition is elected. Loading Thus, Scott Morrison was well within his rights to fly to Christmas Island with a few colleagues and carefully chosen stenographers from the press gallery for a photo opportunity, through which he warned the nation that Bill Shorten and the Labor Party were soft and irresolute on boat people. Morrison can insist (if not on the basis of actual intelligence) that, as a result, people smugglers are already planning voyages to test the incoming government's will  if Australians elect Labor. He is far less within his rights to make a range of announcements, most of which will take effect only after the election, to prevent the disaster he so confidently expects (and secretly hopes for). The money in question has not yet really been appropriated by the Parliament, even within the existing constitutional twilight by which a dumb High Court allows vague appropriation bills to mean almost anything, other than a check on executive government. Even if the invasion of boats were not to happen, and officials were to recommend (say, a few months after the election) that the new facilities be closed or scaled down, one can expect that the cost of undoing what Morrison has started will be enormous  particularly the cost of paying out contracts settled by officials. And especially officials of the Department of Home affairs, treating matters, as usual, as an emergency, justifying multiple deviations from good management practice.

Until recent times, I wouldn't have said that the present government's bad record on patronage was noticeably worse than Labor's, even if Labor, through John Faulkner, cleaned up its practices. But the smell of death has sent Coalition chicanery off the scale, with jobs for the boys (and the occasional girl) in diplomacy, on well-paid boards, and with judicial and quasi-judicial posts. Patronage doesn't usually start with a vacancy and the task of finding the best person for it. It starts at the other end: finding a sinecure for an old mate (say, a colleague who has lost his seat, or her pre-selection, or who has become bored in Parliament or needs a job into retirement). In particular, Attorney-General Christian Porter's raft of seeming patronage appointments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal has brought the government into the Caligula class. One hesitates to nominate a particular Incitatus, though several come to mind. So do questions about Porter's fitness to be entrusted with public power, especially if it involves the law, ever again. Attorney-General Christian Porter handed out a raft of well-paid jobs to former Liberal MPs, staff and associates. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer The inappropriateness of these appointments is not merely a matter of many of the appointees seeming to have been chosen primarily because they have a world view like Peter Dutton's. He is a former policeman not well disposed to having his black-and-white view of the world second-guessed by people more intelligent, or liberal, than himself. Obvious merit for AAT jobs seems to have taken a distinct second place even when the "candidate" was not an obvious friend, relative, minder, crony, donor or acquaintance of the minister or one of his colleagues. The administrative tribunal system's authority and the prestige (including that of many of its members who were properly qualified and chosen) suffer from the infusion of duds. So does tribunal efficiency and effectiveness. A government that has complained non-stop about the supposed inefficiencies and poor productivity of the Federal Magistrates Court and the Family Court seems now to be trying to slow, handicap and limit the work of administrative review.

Ministers will point out piously that such tribunals are not courts, even if they operate in a somewhat similar manner. Nor are members judges (even if some are, in other lives). Tribunals are an essential part of modern practical public administration, and the public's confidence in it. They offer the prospect of a fresh and independent second look at decisions made by public servants. The decision must have aggrieved an ordinary citizen  perhaps over a tax matter, a right to a pension or a visa extension, or a freedom-of-information matter. The law cannot freeze out appeal rights  however much Dutton and his departmental secretary, Mike Pezzullo, might want it  but it can make reviews easier, cheaper, and more united by general principle and consistency. These help good government and help create popular consensus around the laws and policies by which agencies work. The government has been loudly unhappy that the AAT and the courts have repeatedly overturned its decisions. But what this (now probably outgoing) government seems to want, of its now stacked tribunals, is not independence of mind, or strict compliance with the spirit and letter of the law. It wants robots parroting this government's pet prejudices, particularly about immigrants  and to do so during the next government's term. The government  or at least Dutton  has been loudly unhappy that the AAT (and the courts) have repeatedly overturned decisions by officials imbued with the enthusiasms and world view of Pezzullo, their great leader. The answer, apparently, is to stack the decks  and not for themselves but as an encumbrance on the next government. Unless Labor (if it wins) moves on some of these appointees (on salaries of between $200,000 and $400,000 a year), there is a risk the AAT will be parroting the hard-right ideology of Liberal factions rather than adhering to law. I have watched the AAT reasonably closely since its inception nearly 40 years ago. It is true that a small percentage of its members have been Labor luvvies. There have also been Tory luvvies. But wherever they have come from, most have not seen themselves as delegates of those who have appointed them. That is now an inevitable suggestion that will be made of the most recent set.

Perhaps Australia should go the full Washington hog, with various categories of officials, including ambassadors, consuls-general, government board members (including for the ABC), judges and quasi-judges having tenure only for the term of the government of the day. Loading Thanks to John Howard and to Abbott, each of whom saw an active interest in political pedigree as essential in the culture wars, we are pretty much at that point now with many boards. At a change of government, many board members (unnecessarily) offer their resignations to new ministers as a courtesy. The Howard and Abbott style was not only to accept resignations gracefully, but to replace them with right-wing activists, crusaders and warriors, rather than middle-of-the-road folk. Over the past three decades, boards have been far more political than they were, say, in the time of Bob Hawke, Malcolm Fraser, Gough Whitlam or John Gorton  each of whom favoured a good mix rather than a platoon of yes men and women. The alternative depends on having a strong rather than a weak federal independent commission against corruption. Politicians usually try to limit the scope of such commissions. My instinct is to expand them. I suggest that an ICAC regard the wholesale use of public monies for partisan purposes, the deliberate and politically motivated placement of time bombs in the saddlebags of future governments (particularly within six months of an election), and appointments by obvious patronage, nepotism and cronyism rather than by merit as prima facie corrupt. That does not rule out the appointment of well-qualified folk of similar political outlook, of course.
A slowdown across the economy and signs consumers are reacting to falling house prices by reducing spending has forced financial markets and most of the nation's top economists to bet the Reserve Bank will slice interest rates in the days before the May election.

At least one prominent economist, AMP Capital's Shane Oliver, believes the central bank could be forced into cutting the rate three times this year, while on Friday the NAB changed its position, arguing the cash rate could tumble to 1 per cent by November.

AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver believes the Reserve Bank may have to cut rates three times to prop up an ailing economy. Credit:Louie Douvis

As the Morrison government attempts to paint itself as a safe pair of hands, it could face defending its policies as the RBA takes official rates to a new record low to prop up the economy.

Four months ago markets and economists believed the Reserve would increase the official cash rate, currently at 1.5 per cent, this year. But back-to-back poor GDP results, tumbling house prices, continuing low inflation and stagnant wages have forced a major rethink.
The Nationals lost Orange to the Shooters in a bruising byelection in 2016 on the back of the unpopular greyhound ban and council amalgamations. They also suffered big swings away from them in the Cootamundra and Murray byelections in 2017. On top of that, each electorate is so unique that Nationals state director Ross Cadell says the party is essentially running 16 byelections across the state. People who arent from the regions do not understand the size, the towns, the parochialism of the electorates and that is why it so difficult to identify a single issue in a seat, he says. A tricky challenge The Nationals are now defending seats with very different demographic and economic characteristics. The contrast between the sprawling western electorate of Barwon - which covers more than 40 per cent of NSW - and the small seat of Tweed on the states far north coast, illustrates this conundrum.

Loading Both seats are held by the Nationals but the key concerns of voters in many of the small rural communities that make up much of Barwon are vastly different to those in Tweed, which is increasingly urbanised and heavily dependent on tourism. A senior Nationals figure says: Barwon is a seat the size of Germany and you have as many issues in that seat as you would in a country. The Nationals fear that Barwon, which also has a retiring MP, could fall to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers. In Tweed, the single issue dividing the electorate is the location of a new hospital. The government has committed to a site on state significant farming land, while Labor wants to build it at Kings Forest.

Because of these divergent political currents, those holding seats on the states north coast have been dubbed saltwater Nats and those with seats further west freshwater Nats. Economic differences between Sydney and parts of regional NSW have also exacerbated the states political fault-lines. Analysis by Terry Rawnsley, a leading regional economist, shows Sydneys economy grew at three times the rate of regional NSW last financial year. The city's economy has now outpaced the rest of the state for much of the past decade. Sydney's average annual growth between 2007-08 and 2017-18 has been 2.7 per cent compared with only 1.7 per cent in regional NSW. In Dubbo, where Nationals MP Police Minister Troy Grant is retiring, the regional economy, for instance, grew by just 0.1 per cent last financial year while growth in the Wagga Wagga area was only 0.4 per cent.

Loading Regional areas have not been immune to the sweeping economic changes in many advanced economies over the past three decades. Twenty years ago manufacturing was the biggest contributor to economic output in regional NSW, but its share is on the wane. Rawnsley says the decline of traditional industries has undermined confidence in the future of local jobs and economic opportunity. These economic trends have stoked voter discontent in regional NSW. People hear politicians saying hey NSW is going great, jobs are up and GDP is up but thats largely being driven by Sydney and its hard for many people to reconcile that with their own experience, says Rawnsley. Demographic change is also helping to reshape regional politics. A swag of regional seats are aging much more quickly than those in Sydney.

In the Liberal-held electorate of Bega, the states oldest, the median age has reached 52, which is 21 years higher than the median age in the eastern Sydney seat of Heffron, the states youngest. The gap between the median ages in the oldest and youngest electorates has jumped by seven years during the past decade. The states 10 oldest electorates are all in regional areas and six of them are held by the National Party. Seats with an older age profile tend to have a relatively high share of retirees who tend to be on relatively low, fixed incomes, which makes them acutely aware of cost of living pressures. There are also striking differences in household incomes between some city and country electorates. The 10 seats with the lowest median household incomes in NSW are all in regional areas and seven of them are held by the Nationals. The top 30 electorates in the state by weekly median incomes are in Sydney. Census figures show the north coast electorate of Myall Lakes has the state's lowest median weekly household income of $883 per week. Thats little more than a third of the median weekly household income in the state's best-paid electorate - Davidson on Sydney's north shore ($2581).

Anger in the bush Rohan Boehm, co-founder of the grassroots political group Anyone But Nats, says many voters in regional NSW are disillusioned and frustrated with the Nationals. He says there is white hot anger in some areas of the bush from farmers who feel they have been abandoned by the Nationals. I really think the sky has fallen on the Nats and they have lost a grip with the real world and the real problems people are facing, Boehm says. Water seems to be the main ignition point when you talk to people but there are other issues too and I can tell you the pork-barrelling is doing nothing but creating a massive case of indigestion. The Nats brand has totally tanked and candidates arent even mentioning they are a Nat on their campaign material. The party has lost its way completely.

Loading Sitting in the cluttered office of Aussie Diggers, his camping supplies store in Lismore, a seat that could fall to Labor or the Greens, a former branch president of the Nationals echoes his disgust for the party in its current state. John Barnes says he started helping out the Country Party in elections when he was 16 and has backed the Nationals in every election in the 60 years since then. This year he is supporting a local independent, Greg Bennett. He says the Nationals today have lost their identity and sold out to big business Pitt Street farmers in the Liberal Party and environmentalists. If you put a blindfold on sat in a party room meeting [in Sydney] youd think you were in the Greens, says Barnes. Asked which specific policies he opposes, Barnes lists regulations on farming practices he says hampers the Nationals core constituency. They want to tell you what you can plant, how you can plow.

But it is clear he is talking about a cultural identity he believes the party has lost. And he laments that the party has now embraced a preselection process that allows the whole community to vote rather than just party members. The candidate chosen in Lismore under that system was Austin Curtin, who Barnes describes as a nice young bloke. The independent, Bennett, stands little chance of winning the seat, but he could siphon first preference votes from the Nationals, to the significant benefit of either Labor or the Greens. In the states far southern seat of Murray the Nationals are also being abandoned by some rusted-on supporters, many of them furious over water policy which they believe favours agribusiness giants growing cotton in the far north over family irrigators in the south west. Nationals supporters like Chris Brooks, chairman of Southern Riverina Irrigators group which represents 1800 irrigators in the region, are now actively supporting the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party candidate in Murray, local farmer Helen Dalton.

'Pork Barilaro' A decade ago, a road trip north on the Pacific Highway would include an obligatory stop at Coffs Harbours main tourist attraction, the Big Banana. The gigantic piece of road-side fruit was emblematic of the towns main industry, which in its heyday had 1000 banana growers. But now blueberries have taken over. Gurmesh Singh, a fourth generation farmer who was born and bred in Coffs Harbour, heads the Oz Group Co-Op in the town. The co-op is the biggest blueberry supplier in Australia, producing 37 million punnets a year. Singh is the Nationals candidate in the seat that has been held by Andrew Fraser since 1990. It should be safe with a comfortable margin of 14 per cent but with Fraser retiring, the seat is at risk. Gurmesh Singh, the Nationals candidate for Coffs Harbour. Credit:Louise Kennerley Whether you loved Fraser or hated him, and there were plenty of people on either side of that argument, he was his own brand and when we lose that, it is really hard to get back, a National party strategist says.

Upper Hunter has a similar problem. Although the incumbent Michael Johnsen has held the seat for the Nationals since George Souris retired in 2015, the MP has not managed to win over the electorate like his predecessor, who was the Nationals member for 27 years. Loading Even the late scratching of a Labor candidate in Upper Hunter, who stepped down in January after an anonymous complaint about him was lodged with NSW Labor and its leader Michael Daley, has not seemed to help Johnsens chances. Labor quickly found a replacement in Melanie Dagg, a Cessnock councillor. While pork-barrelling is often a term used derogatorily in election campaigns, Barilaro sees it as a positive in this one. He is convinced that people will see it as investment rather than buying bush votes. Despite the Nationals apparent largesse, there isnt money for everything. The elderly woman who phoned Barilaros election office inquiring about a grant to have her fence fixed was told no such fund existed. So Barilaro and his brother-in-law went around to the womans house last month with their tools and fixed the fence themselves. They also pumped up the tyres of her motorised scooter.
NSW Labor leader Michael Daley says half of all government-related board and committee positions, including on the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust, will go to women if he wins the election.

On International Women's Day, Mr Daley said an estimated 40 per cent of positions on about 400 public boards and committees across the state were held by women.

NSW Labor leader Michael Daley announces women's health policies on International Women's Day.

Earlier this week he vowed to sack most of the prestigious SCG Trust board and ensure it reflects "modern society" after accusing it of "colluding" with the government over the Allianz Stadium rebuild plans.

"The Labor Party has led the way on women's rights and we will continue to do more to make sure women are supported every step of the way in society," Mr Daley said on Friday.
Most NSW voters are still opposed to the state government funding a new Sydney stadium, polling reveals, as Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday launched her first vigorous defence of the $730 million policy.

The new poll, taken two days after Labor leader Michael Daley sensationally told 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones that he would sack most of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust if elected premier, shows more than 52 per cent of voters oppose or strongly oppose the government's stadiums policy.

About 37 per cent of people support or strongly support the policy and about 10 per cent are undecided.

The poll results come as Ms Berejiklian changed campaign tactics on Friday and defended the rebuild of Allianz Stadium.
The consequence has been that both candidates have embraced Islam like never before in a presidential campaign, in a nation where the official state ideology, Pancasila, is a byword for pluralism and tolerance. Indonesian President Joko Widodo, second left, with his running mate Ma'ruf Amin, left, and his contender Prabowo Subianto, second right, with his running mate Sandiaga Uno. Credit:AP Prabowo and his running mate, Sandiaga Uno, talk up promises to build up sharia-based industries such as in the finance and banking sector, and halal tourism. They want to bring down the cost of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, too. Jokowi, who is seeking a second five-year term, has used his time in office to make the construction of the International Islamic Indonesian University in Depok a national strategic project and established 41 micro-finance banks in Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) to help low-income Indonesians. He has also flirted with the early release from jail of Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of the Bali bombers, and chosen as his running mate Ma'ruf Amin, an ageing cleric and head of the world's largest (and relatively moderate) Islamic organisation, the Nahdlatul Ulama.

Aaron Connelly, a research fellow at Singapore's International Institute for Strategic Studies and a close observer of Indonesian politics, is blunt in his assessment: "Islam is playing a much bigger role than it did five years ago. "It's more pronounced than 2014 ... Jokowi has rushed to catch up [to Prabowo]." Prabowo Subianto harking back to his military background. Credit:James Massola The inflexion point, for Connelly, was in late 2016 when huge protests broke out against the ethnically-Chinese Christian governor of Jakarta, Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama for alleged blasphemy against Islam. Ahok had been Jokowi's deptuy and protege, and took over from him as governor. Ahok was found guilty by the court system in 2017 and jailed for nearly two years, despite questionable evidence, and Jokowi walked away from his former ally.

"In the [presidential] palace at that time, paranoia set in," Connelly says. "There was a two-pronged strategy - reaching out to some Muslim organisations and seeking to co-opt them, and on the other hand trying to push out those who resisted this effort." Loading Arguably, the selection of Ma'ruf Amin - who recently apologised for testifying against Ahok in the 2016 blasphemy trial - best highlights the president's effort to re-calibrate and reach more conservative-minded Muslims. Just as when Obama was seeking a second term, this time around some of the gloss has come off the incumbent. Though Jokowi can point to significant investments in road and rail infrastructure and the distribution of millions of land ownership certificates to poor farmers, other promises such as improving social services, tackling head-on the legacy of human rights abuses and mass killings of the anti-Communist purges in 1965 and 66 and achieving annual economic growth at around 7 per cent (it hovers at around 5 per cent) have not been met.

Similarly, the Prabowo of 2014 - dogged by allegations of human rights abuses while he was a commander in special forces unit Kopassus, famous for his fiery speeches, huge rallies, populist-nationalist policies (many of which he shared and still shares with Jokowi) and tegas (firmness) - is not quite the firebrand he once was. The Australian National University's Indonesia-expert Marcus Mietzner says it is "somewhat misleading to suggest that both sides are pandering to 'conservative Muslims' because truly 'conservative Muslims are solidly locked in for Prabowo and would never even consider voting for Jokowi". He estimates the conservative cohort at about 30 per cent of voters. Jokowi has support from a larger proportion of the electorate - perhaps 40 per cent - including minorities and secular or liberal Muslims. That means the contest is for the final 30 per cent, the so-called mainstream Muslims, who could go either way. Both camps are trying to find reasons why the other candidate is unelectable and make it stick. Of course, representatives of both the major candidates see things rather less sceptically.

Usman Kansong, a official in Jokowi's campaign, says the president chose Ma'ruf as his running mate to "reduce the politicising of religion and minimise the practice of political identity". The president, he points out, disbanded the radical Hizb ut-Tahrir group. "Whoever the leader of Indonesia is, he or she must deal with Islam but the question is which kind of Islam? Pak Jokowi chose NU [Nahdlatul Ulama] and Muhammadiyah [another mass, moderate-leaning Islamic organisation]." And Prabowo campaign spokesman Andre Rosiade, too, plays down the importance to his candidate of pursuing conservative voters. "In principle, for us, whoever has the right to vote is important regardless of their faith, ethnicity, conservative or not conservative," he says.

What about the sharia-based industry plan? That, he says, is just about capturing the economic potential of the growing "halal tourism" dollar, which Thailand and Japan are already doing. "The philosophy is not about religion or politics, its purely economic. The economic potential is so big. Indonesias biggest problem right now is not politics or religion but the economy. And friendly countries should not be afraid if Prabowo-Sandi win the election because both are Western-educated." The ANU's Mietzner is more skeptical about the conduct of both candidates' campaign teams to date. "The Prabowo camp is essentially re-running the 2014 themes: Jokowi is a communist, is going to secularise Indonesia, sell the country to the Chinese kafir [infidel]. It is the Jokowi camp that has significantly stepped up its campaign in this regard in comparison to 2014," he says. "It now runs an aggressive, above-the-ground campaign that suggests Prabowo is not a practicing Muslim; that his Muslim credentials are in doubt because of his non-Muslim family members; and that he doesn't have an intact family, given his divorce and (although this remains unspoken) gay son. Jokowi's parading of his grandchildren during the campaign hit right into this spot."
Washington: A debate within the Democratic Party over charges that one of its House of Representatives members made anti-Semitic remarks has exposed an ideological and generational rift in the party, prompting a vote condemning bigotry against minorities.

Some Democrats, including several senators who are seeking the party's 2020 presidential nomination, warned that party leaders were playing into Republicans' hands and had stymied legitimate debate over US-Israel policy.

Ilhan Omar. Credit:AP

The House, which is controlled by Democrats, voted 407-23 on Thursday to approve a broad resolution condemning anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim discrimination and other forms of bigotry.

The vote came less than a week after Representative Ilhan Omar, one of the two first Muslim women elected to Congress, made statements at a Washington event that were denounced by some as anti-Semitic.
Washington: Huawei Technologies has opened up a new front in its battle with the US government by filing a lawsuit challenging a congressional ban on federal agencies' use of the Chinese technology company's products.

The UK said it has not made a decision yet on whether to ban Huawei. Credit:AP

Legal experts said the firm is likely to lose its case because US courts tend to avoid second-guessing Congress' actions relating to national security, including the ban enacted in August as part of a defense spending bill.

But some lawyers said that Huawei might be hoping to score public relations points against the US government even if it knows its chances of winning are slim.

The following explains the measures against Huawei, the nature of the lawsuit, and why it will likely be dismissed.
~ 3rd 8 days extension granted to the Prosecution on Thursday.~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Leader of the United Democrats Theodore Heyliger will be spending another 8 days in pretrial detention since the Judge of Instruction granted the prosecution their request to extend the pretrial detention for the third time since Heyligers arrest on February 19th, 2019.

The spokesman for the TBO Roderick Gouvneur confirmed that the pretrial detention was extended on Thursday and Heyliger will remain on Bonaire while in custody.

Heyliger is a suspect in the LARIMAR investigation, that involves Windward Roads, Ronald Masdaam and several others including top civil servants.

The case has been described as a corruption case where it is alleged that several persons took bribes from Masdaam. Heyliger is accused of accepting bribes from Masdaam and offered bribes to former MP Romain LaVille. The case involing LaVille is codenamed Catfish.

The attorney representing Heyliger already filed a petition with the court to have his client brought back to St. Maarten but so far no date has been fixed for that hearing. Heyliger's attorney claimed that he was not informed that his client would have been taken to Bonaire.

Last week supporters and relatives of the longtime politician protested outside the Court of First Instance and behind the Philipsburg Police station. The protestors were demanding Heyliger's immediate release due to the unhygienic conditions of the Philipsburg holding cells. Already the UN condemned the Netherlands for human rights violations when a well-known businessman on St. Maarten spent 8 months there pending his extradition.

Since the arrest of the UD leader who is also a Member of Parliament, the parliament of St. Maarten has been lacking one MP to complete the full membership of parliament based on article 45 of the Constitution of St. Maarten.

Since Heyliger extension last Friday he was automatically suspended from parliament, however, the United Democrats and the Electoral Council have not appointed or swore in the person who would be deputizing for Heyliger based on article 50 of the Constitution of St. Maarten.

Based on parliamentary procedures the next in line for the seat in parliament is former MP Jules James but that is not clearly outlined in the constitution of St. Maarten or the Electoral Ordinance. The Parliament of St. Maarten will be meeting on Friday to further discuss the letter sent by the Prosecutor's Office to the Minister of Justice officially informing him that MP Theodore Heyliger has been officially suspended from parliament and their way forward.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Miss Keshia Richards, a young and dynamic former student of the Milton Peters College and no stranger to the Cabinet of Sint Maarten in the Netherlands, achieved her Master's degree in notary law on 27th of February 2019 at Leiden University. Together with her proud parents, Miss Richards, now a candidate notary, visited the Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten in The Hague, where she informed the Minister of her plans to return home to the island to begin her career as a candidate notary at an established firm on the island.

She came to the Netherlands about 10,5 years ago where after 4 years later she achieved her bachelors in Groningen at the Hanze Hogeschool, specializing in International Law and Dutch Law. Keshia opted to further her studies at the Leiden university specializing in notary law. After 4 years she has now graduated with a background in family and succession law.

Despite hardships and at times being discouraged and being told that this line of study was not suited for her and that she was not capable enough to see this through, she persevered it and not only achieved her second bachelors in Notary Law but can now proudly boast after having achieved her Masters.

The daughter of Mr. Franklyn Richards former lieutenant governor and Mrs. Angela Richards through faith and the support of a strong family unit is a clear role-model and example to many young scholars who have traveled to the Netherlands to pursue higher education, minister Wuite states. Through perseverance and a clear goal, students can and will achieve their highest potentials with which they are of great value to a country in development and charting a new course, Sint Maarten.

The minister congratulated the proud parents and commended them for the great job they have done in giving Keshia the necessary tools during her upbringing through which she was able to achieve her goals. She further applauded Keshia on her decision to return to the island to practice and carry out her duties on Sint Maarten, stating that many before her had chosen to remain in the Netherlands to jumpstart the professional careers.Sint Maarten is clearly in need of young professionals with law degrees in order to strengthen SXM professionals on key positions. The tendency of headhunters in the Netherlands is to recruit young professionals from the Caribbean, as they perform well on the job market. Thus it is commendable when our own choose to return to the islands to carry on their professional careers, which certainly is a win-win for all.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The hosting of the First International Conference on Disaster Medicine and Hurricane Resiliency will take place on St. Maarten and more importantly in the Caribbean, once again confirms that St. Maarten as a tourist destination is an important market for MICE (Meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions).



The conference is hosted by the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC), in partnership with Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (HMFP) slated from March 8th - 11th, 2019 at the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC).



The AUC conference and its partners are bringing together various stakeholders from disaster safety and the resilience movement.



As our country moves forward in rebuilding, the country also has much to offer in terms of advice and in building disaster-resilient communities.



At the same time, this type of tourism is very much welcomed because of the benefits to the national economy. I take this opportunity to welcome all conference attendees and I encourage them as much as they can to enjoy the Friendly Island as much as possible, Minister Stuart Johnson said on Thursday.



The St. Maarten Tourist Bureau will be providing welcome bags to the delegates of the International Conference on Disaster Medicine and Hurricane Resiliency.



AUC has confirmed 80 overseas attendees coming from 13 countries, including other Caribbean nations, countries in South America and Central America, and the United States, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom.



The conference will bring together physicians, nurses, educators, and other professionals to explore disaster medicine in the context of the threat posed by hurricanes and other severe weather events.



According to the Interim Director of Tourism May-Ling Chun, these types of conferences are very important as they increase destination awareness, increases visitor arrivals, and it gives the delegates an opportunity to return for a vacation.
Ximen Option Partner Requests Tellurium Re-Analysis of Select 2018 High Grade Drill Core Samples at the C.O.D. Vein

Posted by Publisher Internet

Ximen Mining Corp. (TSX.v: XIM) (OTCQB:XXMMF) (the ?Company? or ?Ximen?) is pleased to announce its option partner GGX Gold Corp. (TSX.v:GGX) has requested tellurium re-analysis of select drill core samples from the Fall 2018 diamond drill program at the Gold Drop Property, located in southern British Columbia. The Fall 2018 drill program was conducted at the C.O.D. Vein, located in the Gold Drop Southwest Zone. Multiple drill core samples from drill holes COD18-67 and COD18-70 exceeded the upper 500 grams per tonne (g/t) analytical limit for tellurium. These samples returned high grade values for gold and silver. These samples will be re-analyzed to determine tellurium grades. ?Highlights from the Fall 2018 drill program include (News Releases of January 11 and 18, 2019):

COD18-67: 129 g/t gold & 1154 g/t silver over 7.28-meter core length

COD18-70: 107 g/t gold & 880 g/t silver over 6.90-meter core length

? Due to the multiple industry inquiries and spiked interest with regards to the Tellurium grades as well as the fact that the Te grades have exceeded upper analytical limits ?at the Lab ( ie 500 G/T Te ) the decision was made to re-assay these drill core samples with a focus on obtaining the actual Tellurium grades.? States Anderson CEO Ximen Mining Corp

The 2018 Fall diamond drill program tested the COD vein. The program followed up on results from previous 2018 diamond drilling at the southern extension of the COD vein. The highlights of the 2018 Fall drill program are drill hole COD18-67 which intersected 129 g/t gold and 1,154 g/t silver over 7.28 meters core length and drill hole COD18-70 which intersected 107.5 g/t gold and 880 g/t silver over 6.90 meters core length (News Releases of January 11and 18, 2019). Intersections for 2017 and 2018 diamond drill holes at the C.O.D. vein include the following (please refer to the Company?s website for News Releases announcing these results):

Fourteen drill core samples from the high-grade gold and silver intersections of drill holes COD-18-67 and COD-18-70 returned greater than the upper analytical limit of 500 g/t for tellurium during initial analysis (four acid ICP-MS analysis by ALS Canada Ltd. in North Vancouver). As a result, the tellurium weighted average grade for these intersections could not be determined. The Company has requested ALS Canada Ltd. to re-analyze these samples for tellurium.?

Tellurium (Te) remains as one of the rarest elements on earth. Tellurium production has been a by-product of copper and gold mining. The production is limited, estimated to being on the order of 800 metric tonnes per year. According to the USGS total production for 2007 was 107 Mtonnes.

Up until recently, the sole use of tellurium has been the alloying of other metals to increase the machinability of copper or to decrease the corrosive action of sulfuric acid on lead.

The most significant modern use of tellurium is the Cadmium-telluride (Cd-Te) photovoltaic solar cells. These solar cells are at the forefront of solar power. One gigawatt (GW) of Cd-Te, at current efficiencies, would require approximately 93 metric tons of tellurium. These cells have the smallest carbon footprint and the shortest energy payback time of all solar cells. The efficiency of technology is constantly improving and the Cd-Te now takes up 5.1% of worldwide PV production.

In the C.O.D vein system the tellurium occurs as a soft silver-grey telluride mineral. The telluride mineral is a Silver-Tellurium-Gold alloy speculated to be sylvanite. Whenever this mineral is observed in the drill core the interval has elevated silver, gold and tellurium values.

Details of the analytical procedures and QA/QC methods used are given in previous news releases from which these highlights are drawn.

Allan Beaton, P.Eng., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and member of the Advisory Board, is responsible for and approved the technical information contained in this News Release.

To view the Original News release with pictures please go to the website or contact the Company.

About Ximen Mining Corp.

Ximen Mining Corp. owns 100 percent interest in all three of its precious metal projects located in southern BC. ?Ximen`s two Gold projects are The Gold Drop Project and The Brett Epithermal Gold Project. Ximen also owns the Treasure Mountain Silver Project adjacent to the past-producing Huldra Silver Mine. ?Currently both the Gold Drop Project and the Treasure Mountain Silver Project are under option agreements. The option partners are making annual staged cash and stocks payments as well as funding the development of these projects.

Ximen is a publicly listed company trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol XIM, in the USA under the symbol XXMMF, and in Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin Stock Exchanges in Germany under the symbol 1XMA and WKN with the number as A2JBKL.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.

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.

Ximen Mining Corp

888 Dunsmuir Street  Suite 888,

Vancouver, B.C., V6C 3K4
New \edit mode\ of Keeeb?s Enterprise Intelligence Platform saves clicks and time

Keeeb?s Enterprise Intelligence Platform makes it possible: With a simple Google search employees are also able to find company-internal results quickly ? for example from Salesforce, Office 365, Box, SharePoint, or Confluence. Beyond finding internal and external information, Keeeb can do much more: The solution additionally allows to save search results in a structured way and edit them intuitively within seconds.

With the new \edit mode\ this task gets much easier: Only one click and the selected texts can be edited according to the user?s requirements. Moreover, users no longer have to manually save their changes ? it is done automatically.

Another advantage is the optimized editing toolbar which enables users to edit texts intuitively as known from Microsoft Word. Similarly, the new text alignment options left-aligned, right-aligned, centered, and justified comply with the users? habits. Furthermore, the new edit mode displays content-related tags more prominent directly at the beginning of the content making classifying and retrieving information much easier.

\It is our goal to optimize Keeeb according to the demands and habits of our users. Searching, structuring, and editing information should be as smiple and intuitive as possible. With this in mind, we developed our new edit mode.\, Dan Nommensen, Chief Product Officer of Keeeb, explains.

Keeeb?s Enterprise Intelligence Platform ? Overview of key aspects

Keeeb?s Enterprise Intelligence Platform enables organizations for the first time to establish one continuous workflow for finding, curating, and collaborating knowledge without the need to move existing data or change user behavior:

? Bundle data repositories in one unified platform: For the first time organizations can transform a simple Google search into a complex universal search that yields not only public knowledge, but personal, professional, and people knowledge that was previously beyond the reach of browsers (e.g. Salesforce, Box, SharePoint, One-Drive, Office 365, Confluence, third-party knowledge providers, individual systems).

? Discover knowledge intuitively: Organizations are able to turn the cumbersome search process into an intuitive, automated knowledge discovery by integrating all knowledge bundled into familiar digital environments presenting it at the point of application where people are used to search.

? Curate and collaborate knowledge efficiently: By making collecting, curating, sharing, and collaborating information with Keeeb easier and faster than ever before, organizations can significantly enhance their productivity and drive the flow of knowledge.
4 smart ways to use security to power the business of the future

In the new era of work, our relationship with the workplace is defined by flexibility and mobility. Employees are working across the home, office, and blended spaces more than ever before, as well as working varied hours to suit the modern work schedule. This new hybrid workforce model holds the potential for more diverse talent and better productivity, but it also comes with its challenges  one being how to ensure security, health, and safety in the workplace. Strong and smart security ecosystem While nearly one-third of companies report that theyve implemented a hybrid model, according to a recent survey by STANLEY Security, many still have much to do to prepare their office for the future. Building a strong  and smart  security ecosystem is crucial in preparing for the future. As such, businesses should consider technologies that help protect their people, as well as safeguard their assets, optimise their operations, and secure their network. 1)Protect your people Implementation of a security ecosystem combines health, safety, and security hardware and software solutions seamlessly Nearly 60% of mid-market and enterprise businesses across the UK and US report that the health and safety of their employees and customers are a primary concern when implementing modern and hybrid working models. This begs the question: How can businesses create a safe and healthy work environment when 59% are planning to bring employees back on-site in some capacity within the next 18 months? The answer lies, in part, in the implementation of a security ecosystem that combines various health, safety, and security hardware and software solutions seamlessly. Integrating platform Nearly half (46%) of business decision-makers say they are interested in adopting an integrated platform such as this. This means integrating traditional and digital security solutions, then leveraging the data and insights they produce to further enhance the workplace experience. Take this example: With employees and visitors moving in and out of the office at different times, a business may lack oversight of occupancy or density levels, people flow, workspace scheduling, visitor check-in processes, and more. However, with visitor management, access control, and other building/business systems integrated, employees can reserve a workspace for a specific date and time and be granted access to the building. Leveraging AI and machine learning Visitors can pre-register, answer a health screening questionnaire, and receive a mobile credential before arriving. Once the visitor arrives on-site, the system can alert the respective department  all without the close contact typically required for traditional visitor check-in processes. When layering artificial intelligence and machine learning on top of the data, a business may identify trends in people flow and opportunities to optimise congested areas. They may also see that certain rooms within the building get more use than others and leverage these insights to manage their space more effectively. All of this is powered by a security ecosystem that can help a business better protect its people while realising other benefits in the process. 2) Safeguard your assets Businesses are concerned about the security of their assets when it comes to the hybrid workforce model Even more, businesses are concerned about the security of their assets when it comes to the hybrid workforce model. About 72% of leaders say this is, in fact, their primary concern with the hybrid approach. This figure isnt surprising when you consider the impact of the pandemic, which left many businesses closed either temporarily or permanently, with few people allowed on-site to manage facility operations. As a result of the pandemic, we saw tech adoption accelerate at an astonishing rate  simply because businesses had to implement cloud and remote technologies to survive during a time when buildings were closed indefinitely. Remote management and visibility This was particularly true for security solutions, such as cloud video surveillance and cloud access control solutions like wireless IoT-connected locks. Nine out of 10 businesses (91%) report that they have already implemented cloud security technology; of those, nearly half (48%) stated that this was due to the pandemic. These technologies allow for remote management and provide visibility into business operations at the same time. In a retail setting, for example, cloud video surveillance allows businesses to identify and track not only criminal activity, but also foot traffic patterns, peak operating hours, staff shortages, and more. Loss prevention strategy When integrated with the retailers point-of-sale (POS) system, businesses can gain greater insights into their traffic counts, end cap effectiveness, loyalty card activity, and a variety of POS exceptions, such as high-dollar transactions, repeated transactions, excessive returns, employee discounts, and more. For retailers especially, a security ecosystem means a more efficient loss prevention strategy that helps safeguard assets and profits. 3) Optimise your operations The future of work is still very much a work in progress, but one thing is clear: Businesses are looking for ways to increase efficiencies, drive cost savings, and, ultimately, optimise their operations  especially now with the challenges posed by price inflation. A relatively untapped opportunity for businesses to achieve these goals lies within their security infrastructure. Security technology and solutions gather incredibly rich data which, when unlocked, can help businesses understand how their buildings are being used, when the busiest times are, where there are highly trafficked areas, and more. Leveraging cloud video surveillance systems, businesses could identify emerging staff training needs Cloud video surveillance systems For example, by leveraging the insights produced by cloud video surveillance systems, businesses could identify emerging staff training needs, which could ultimately result in improved employee satisfaction and reduced attrition. However, much of this data sits untouched within the infrastructure, leaving businesses unaware of the opportunities in front of them. 44% of businesses that currently use a cloud security system for its primary use say they want to know how else this technology can be utilised, and an additional 20% arent even aware that it could be used in other ways. AI and analytics The interest in adoption is promising for the office of the future, especially when we see that the majority of businesses (78%) would consider using AI and analytics technologies to optimise their operations, helping their business to operate more effectively and efficiently. The increase in adoption of cloud technology  paired with the rise in interest in AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics  could make it possible for businesses to uncover invaluable insights from their security infrastructure and leverage them to adapt and build business resilience. 4) Secure your network Advanced technology help businesses improve their cybersecurity, making it harder for hackers to gain entry With cyber threats becoming more prevalent, businesses are increasingly looking to secure their networks and protect their data. More than half (54%) of those surveyed expressed interest in using AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics to secure their network by identifying and eliminating cybersecurity threats. Advanced and automated technology can help businesses improve their cybersecurity, making it harder for hackers to gain entry to the larger corporate network. Modern cybersecurity tools that use AI and machine learning can detect anomalies in network traffic or alert and act on suspicious behaviour. Cybersecurity software For example, if an IoT device suddenly begins broadcasting and establishing connections with multiple devices, cybersecurity software could detect this abnormal behaviour, send an alert, and suspend traffic or quarantine an endpoint immediately  saving precious time during a potential breach. A single data breach could result in widespread distrust from workers and customers, potentially leading to decreased business as well as litigation issues. As such, businesses need to take action to update and strengthen their defences so that they can avoid downtime and continue to operate with peace of mind. Prepare your business for the future Businesses will continue to look for more ways to extract value out of their existing infrastructure, including their security technology. For many, the tools to do so are already in place, its just a matter of unlocking the insights with a security ecosystem. With such an ecosystem  one that helps protect a business people, assets, and network, while optimising operations  companies can better safeguard the future of their workspaces and usher in the new era of work with confidence.
A map showing the proposed location of three groins at the beach at DeBordieu Colony. The State Department of Health and Environmental Control has issued a permit for the groins, but two groups are challenging it.
Two U.S. Air Force craft were traveling so fast  quicker than the speed of sound  and so close together that the shock waves emanating from the craft began to merge and NASA was there to capture photographic proof.

The resulting snapshots are the first-ever photos of two supersonic shock waves (pressure waves) interacting in the air. And it's quite a sight: It looks as though the atmosphere folded up into a fresh batch of laundry. [Supersonic! The 10 Fastest Military Airplanes]

As an aircraft travels, it pushes the air in front of it and creates waves, just like a motor boat creates waves as it moves through the water.

But when aircraft travel faster than the speed of sound  or faster than 767 mph (1235 km/h)  it moves faster than the waves it creates. Because air molecules can't keep up with its speed, they begin to compress. This creates a rapid increase in pressure in front of the craft, resulting in a different kind of wave: supersonic shock wave. Though humans can't see these shock waves, we can hear them merging together as they move through the atmosphere as a thunder-like sound called a sonic boom.

In the recent event, NASA's air-to-air schlieren photographic technology captured images of mingling shock waves from two T-38 supersonic U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School airplanes. These craft fly about 30 feet (9 meters) from one another and at a 10-foot (3 m) difference in height, according to a NASA statement.

Snapped by another plane flying at about 2,000 feet (610 m) above the two fast-moving aircraft, the images captured how the shock waves became distorted or curved as they interacted. "We never dreamt that it would be this clear, this beautiful," J.T. Heineck, a physical scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, said in the statement.

They also snapped a photo that they called a "knife-edge" shot of supersonic shock waves created by a single T-38. Shock waves created by a single aircraft look like straight lines emenating like a cone off the tip of the aircraft.

NASA captures a single image of a supersonic shockwave in what they call a "knife-edge" shot. (Image credit: NASA)

Their camera was improved from previous models and included a wider field of view with the ability to collect 1,400 frames per second. The photos are part of a NASA flight series aimed at capturing high-quality images of shock waves; these photos will help scientists better understand how the shock waves form and interact. NASA and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works are currently designing an aircraft called the X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology X-Plane that will not create sonic booms, but rather quiet rumbles, according to the statement.

By understanding how shock waves form and interact in the air, engineers hope to hone the aircraft's design and, eventually, show regulators that supersonic aircraft can be made quiet, NASA officials said in the statement. These quieter aircraft, in turn, may one day lead lawmakers to lift restrictions on supersonic aircraft flights over land.

Originally published on Live Science.
Citing cost growth, NASA has dropped plans to develop a magnetometer instrument selected in 2015 for the Europa Clipper mission, but will look for ways to add a less expensive version to the spacecraft.

WASHINGTON  NASA has removed an instrument previously selected for the Europa Clipper mission, citing cost growth, but will seek ways to replace it with a less complex design.

In a March 5 statement, NASA said that it would no longer pursue development of the Interior Characterization of Europa Using Magnetometry (ICEMAG) instrument, a magnetometer designed to measure the magnetic field around the icy moon of Jupiter. ICEMAG was one of nine instruments originally selected by NASA in 2015 for development for the Europa Clipper mission.

NASA said that the increasing cost of ICEMAG, still in its preliminary design phase, led to its removal from the mission. "I believe this decision was necessary as a result of continued, significant cost growth and remaining high cost risk for this investigation," Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, said in a memo.

Related: Scientists Prepare for Mission to Jupiter's Icy Moon Europa

In that memo, he said that ICEMAG exceeded a "cost trigger" last summer that had been put in place for it and other instruments to keep costs under control. That cost trigger escalated reviews of the instrument all the way to NASA Headquarters, including a briefing there Feb. 14. The key problem with the instrument was accommodating its "scalar vector helium sensors," used to measure the magnitude and direction of the magnetic field.

Zurbuchen said in the memo that, at the time of the February review, ICEMAG's estimated cost has grown to $45.6 million, $16 million above its original cost trigger and $8.3 million above a revised cost trigger established just a month earlier. That cost was also three times above the original estimate in the ICEMAG proposal.

"The level of cost growth on ICEMAG is not acceptable, and NASA considers the investigation to possess significant potential for additional cost growth," Zurbuchen wrote in the memo. "As a result, I decided to terminate the ICEMAG investigation."

NASA will instead pursue options for "a simpler, less complex" magnetometer on Europa Clipper, although the announcement contained few details about how that will be accomplished. Scientists who were part of the ICEMAG team will be invited to remain on the overall mission science team.

"A magnetometer investigation brings significant value to Europa science and exploration," Zurbchen said in the statement about ICEMAG's removal. "We have enough time before launch to find such a replacement and will move quickly to implement this."

Scientists consider the inclusion of a magnetometer particularly valuable for probing the interior of Europa, thought to contain a global ocean of liquid water. Data from the magnetometer on the Galileo spacecraft, which performed many flybys of Europa, detected variations in Jupiter's magnetic field in the vicinity of the moon that scientists said were likely caused by the presence of an electrically conductive fluid, like water, beneath the surface.

Photos: Europa, Mysterious Icy Moon of Jupiter

Scientists had hoped ICEMAG would provide more detailed magnetic field measurements that could constrain the depth, thickness and salinity of the ocean. That would help scientists assess the potential habitability of Europa, a key goal of the overall Europa Clipper mission.

"The nature of the subsurface ocean and how it interacts with the surface is critical to evaluating Europa's potential habitability," Carol Raymond of JPL, the principal investigator for ICEMAG, said in a 2015 statement about the instrument's selection. "Knowledge of the ocean properties helps us understand Europa's evolution and allows evaluation of processes that have cycled material between the depths and the surface."

Zurbuchen said that NASA was still committed to the overall Europa Clipper mission, but instituted the cost trigger process to manage the mission's overall costs and avoid increases that could upset the overall balance of the agency's planetary science programs. "We consider it a critical part of the mission portfolio of NASA Science, and am looking forward to see this development mature towards flight," he wrote in the memo.

The Europa Clipper mission benefited for years from the patronage of Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), a House appropriator who became chairman of the subcommittee that funds NASA four years ago. Culberson was an unusually staunch advocate for both Europa Clipper and a follow-on lander, providing funding for the mission far above any NASA request for them. In the final fiscal year 2019 funding bill, passed in February but whose NASA provisions were finalized late last year, Europa Clipper received $545 million, more than double NASA's request of $264.7 million.

Culberson, though, lost re-election last November. While NASA says it remains committed to flying Europa Clipper, the mission is unlikely to see the increased funding provided to accelerate its development. The 2019 spending bill set a 2023 deadline for launching the mission, a year later than previous bills, but NASA's statement about the removal of ICEMAG said only that it plans to launch Europa Clipper "in the 2020s."
When SpaceX launched its first Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station last week, the gleaming white vehicle soared into space on its maiden voyage. Now, Crew Dragon is back, and it doesn't look so new.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon returned to Earth today (March 8) with a smooth splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, just off the east coast of Florida, ending a six-day test flight to the International Space Station. When the spacecraft undocked from the space station earlier in the day, it was still a clear white. But now, after experiencing the fiery heat of re-entry, not so much.

"You might also notice that the thermal protection system on the outside of Dragon, if you were watching during launch, was a pristine white," said SpaceX engineer Kate Tice with the company's build and flight reliability team during live splashdown commentary. "There was plasma, of course, as it re-entered through Earth's atmosphere, so we have a lovely toasted marshmallow there sitting in the nest of our recovery ship."

"It's just really cool to see that evidence of return back to Earth," Tice added.

Related: SpaceX's Historic Crew Dragon Demo-1 Mission in Pictures

Image 1 of 3 SpaceX's Crew Dragon was a pristine white when it left the International Space Station on March 8, 2019. Now it's a "toasted marshmallow." (Image credit: NASA TV) Image 2 of 3 Here's a view of Crew Dragon streaking through Earth's atmosphere during re-entry, as seen by a NASA WB-57 chase plane. (Image credit: NASA TV) Image 3 of 3 Another look at Crew Dragon as a "toasted marshmallow" as it's retrieved by SpaceX's GO Searcher recovery ship. (Image credit: NASA TV)

Tice is referring to the searing hot plasma of super-heated gases that buffet a spacecraft during atmospheric re-entry. SpaceX's Crew Dragon, like all returning spacecraft, has a protective heat shield on its base to bear the brunt of that heat, but the white thermal protection layers along its side look like they got a bit cooked. And that's only to be expected.

In fact, Elon Musk said the scorch marks on Crew Dragon weren't even from the hottest point of re-entry, which is what the spacecraft's main heat shield on its bottom successfully withstood.

"Atmospheric entry at 17,000 mph is like a meteor & will vaporize steel," Musk wrote on Twitter alongside a photo of the toasted Crew Dragon. "Burn marks below are on the cold side. Main heatshield [sic] on bottom."

Atmospheric entry at 17,000 mph is like a meteor & will vaporize steel. Burn marks below are on cold side. Main heatshield on bottom. https://t.co/GRs7j751R4March 8, 2019 See more

SpaceX has seen similar scorching on its Falcon 9 rocket boosters after they touch down on the company's drone ships or ground-based landing pads. SpaceX's cargo Dragon vehicles also show evidence of fiery re-entry. The first of those vehicles hangs today inside the company's Hawthorne, California rocket factory.

Crew Dragon is SpaceX's first spacecraft built to carry astronauts for NASA under the agencys' Commercial Crew program. This flight, called Demo-1, was an uncrewed test mission to see if the spacecraft will be ready for its astronauts. For Demo-1, Crew Dragon carried a dummy astronaut named Ripley, named after a character from the "Alien" films, in a SpaceX spacesuit to record what a human astronaut might experience.

In addition to SpaceX's Crew Dragon, NASA also plans to fly astronauts on the CST-100 Starliner built by Boeing this year. That spacecraft is scheduled to fly its own uncrewed test flight in April. SpaceX and Boeing must also successfully perform uncrewed tests of their vehicles' in-flight abort systems before launching astronauts into space.
The first mission of SpaceX's new astronaut taxi is in the books.

The Crew Dragon capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast today (March 8) at 8:45 a.m. EST (1345 GMT), wrapping up a historic mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

There were no astronauts aboard this flight, only the sensor-packed dummy Ripley named after a character from the "Alien" films. But the success of the test flight, known as Demo-1, helps paves the way for a crewed mission of the SpaceX vehicle, perhaps as early as this summer.

That will be a huge milestone when it comes; astronauts haven't launched to orbit from American soil since NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in July 2011.

Related: SpaceX Dragon Crew Demo-1 Test Flight: Full Coverage

Image 1 of 9 SpaceX's first Crew Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station at 2:32 a.m. EST (0732 GMT) on March 8, 2019 to end its Demo-1 test flight for NASA. (Image credit: NASA TV) Image 2 of 9 SpaceX's first Crew Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station at 2:32 a.m. EST (0732 GMT) on March 8, 2019 to end its Demo-1 test flight for NASA. (Image credit: NASA TV) Image 3 of 9 SpaceX's first Crew Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station at 2:32 a.m. EST (0732 GMT) on March 8, 2019 to end its Demo-1 test flight for NASA. (Image credit: NASA TV) Image 4 of 9 SpaceX's first Crew Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station at 2:32 a.m. EST (0732 GMT) on March 8, 2019 to end its Demo-1 test flight for NASA. (Image credit: NASA TV) Image 5 of 9 SpaceX's first Crew Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station at 2:32 a.m. EST (0732 GMT) on March 8, 2019 to end its Demo-1 test flight for NASA. (Image credit: NASA TV) Image 6 of 9 SpaceX's first Crew Dragon spacecraft re-enters Earth's atmosphere in this still from a NASA video captured by a WB-57 reconnaissance plane taken before splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean on March 8, 2019. (Image credit: NASA TV) Image 7 of 9 A view of SpaceX's Crew Dragon under its four main parachutes. (Image credit: NASA TV) Image 8 of 9 SpaceX's first Crew Dragon capsule splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean on March 8, 2019, ending its uncrewed first test flight to the International Space Station. (Image credit: NASA TV) Image 9 of 9 Recovery teams reach SpaceX's first Crew Dragon in the Atlantic Ocean after its succesful splashdown. (Image credit: NASA TV)

"Fifty years after humans landed on the moon for the first time, America has driven a golden spike on the trail to new space exploration feats through the work of our commercial partner SpaceX and all of the dedicated and talented flight controllers at NASA and our international partners," NASA astronaut Anne McClain radioed Mission Control from the ISS when Crew Dragon undocked from the orbiting lab earlier today.

"This is a new era in human spaceflight," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday (March 6) during a webcast event with Vice President Mike Pence, who spoke to McClain and Canadian Space Agency's David Saint-Jacques from NASA's Mission Control center in Houston.

NASA officials said there was a bit of Apollo history involved in today's Crew Dragon splashdown: It came nearly 50 years to the day after the Apollo 9 spacecraft returned to Earth in the same area on March 13, 1969.

Related: SpaceX's Historic Crew Dragon Demo-1 Mission in Pictures

A pioneering flight

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the Crew Dragon Demo-1 mission from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 2, 2019. (Image credit: SpaceX)

NASA is currently dependent on Russian Soyuz rockets and spacecraft to ferry its astronauts to and from the ISS. And this service isn't cheap; each seat on the three-person Soyuz currently sells for about $80 million.

So, in 2014, NASA signed commercial-crew contracts with SpaceX and Boeing  worth $2.6 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively  to foster the development of homegrown American spaceships. Like SpaceX, Boeing is building a capsule, called CST-100 Starliner .

Back when the contracts were signed, NASA officials said they hoped these private spaceships would be up and running by the end of 2017. That didn't happen, of course. But both companies are now getting pretty close, as Demo-1 shows.

The mission began Saturday morning (March 2) with a liftoff atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Crew Dragon carried Ripley and about 450 lbs. (200 kilograms) of supplies for the ISS crew. Also aboard was the adorable "Little Earth" Celestial Buddies plush toy as a "zero-g" indicator. That toy will remain aboard the station  it will be retrieved by SpaceX's first astroanut crew later this year  but Crew Dragon did return about 330 lbs. (150 kg) of experiment results and other gear to Earth on this flight, NASA officials said.

The main goal of Demo-1 was to test the capsule's many systems in flight, to make sure Crew Dragon is ready to carry astronauts. And the private spacecraft seems to have hit all its marks.

Crew Dragon docked autonomously at the ISS Sunday morning (March 3) and then stayed attached to the orbiting lab for five days. The capsule departed at 2:32 a.m. EST (0732 GMT) today, survived the fiery descent through Earth's atmosphere, deployed its parachutes and splashed down gently into the Atlantic's rolling waves, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) off the Florida coast.

None of this was routine. Crew Dragon is based on SpaceX's robotic Dragon freighter , which has been flying resupply missions to the ISS under a separate NASA contract since 2012. But the two capsules are very different, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said.

"Dragon 2, or Crew Dragon, is a fundamental redesign," Musk said during a postlaunch news conference Saturday. There's "hardly a part in common with Dragon 1," he added.

For example, Crew Dragon has seats, windows, a life-support system, touch-screen controls, emergency-escape thrusters and other astronaut-related accoutrements that the cargo version lacks. Crew Dragon also docks directly with the ISS, whereas its older cousin must be grappled by the orbiting lab's huge robotic arm.

In addition, the crew-carrying capsule has a different parachute system and back-shell shape, neither of which had shown its mettle during an orbital mission. So, a successful return to Earth today was far from guaranteed .

"I see hypersonic re-entry as probably my greatest concern," Musk said during Saturday's news conference.

Crewed flight coming

The coming months will be packed with big milestones for both SpaceX and Boeing, if all goes according to plan.

Up next for SpaceX is a test of Crew Dragon's emergency-escape system, which is designed to get the capsule to safety if a serious problem were to occur during launch. This uncrewed flight, which is currently targeted for June , will employ the same capsule that just came back to Earth.

After that  possibly as early as July  will come Demo-2, Crew Dragon's astronaut-carrying debut. This landmark test flight will tote NASA's Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to and from the ISS. Operational, contracted missions, each of which will ferry four astronauts, will commence sometime thereafter.

Meanwhile, Starliner's first uncrewed test mission to the ISS could launch as soon as next month. The Boeing capsule's emergency-escape test and first crewed demonstration flight to the orbiting lab will occur no earlier than May and August, respectively.

"It won't be long before our astronaut colleagues are aboard Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner vehicles," McClain said. "And we can't wait."

Space.com managing editor Tariq Malik contributed to this story. Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, " Out There " (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate ) is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook .
Stockholm, Sweden, March 07, 2019 (SPS) - Minister of Cooperation of the Sahrawi Government, Mr. Bulahi Saiid, started on Thursday a working visit to Sweden. He is expected to meet representatives of the government, parties and the Swedish civil society according of diplomatic source from Frente POLISARIOs representative in Sweden

Minister of Cooperation was received in the beginning of his visit by the Deputy Speaker of the Swedish Parliament and Swedish Left Party MP Lotta Johansen

Lotta Johansen has renewed her support to the cause of the Saharawi people and for their just struggle for self-determination and independence. It is the same principled position adopted by her party, the Swedish Left Party, which continues to affirm its solidarity with this just cause.

For his part, Sahrawi official has broached his host on the latest developments in the process of decolonization of Western Sahara, praising the support and solidarity enjoyed by the Saharawi people in Sweden, calling for exerting the necessary pressure on Morocco to comply with international legitimacy and fulfilling its obligations in the process of peaceful settlement sponsored by the United Nations since 1991.

The Swedish parliament approved in 2012 a recommendation calling on the Swedish government to recognize the Sahrawi Republic.

It should be recalled that the Minister was accompanied by the representative of the Frente POLISARIO in Sweden, Dr. Limam Khalil.SPS

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STAMFORD  The litigation continues to grow against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma  and so do the questions about its future.

As the Stamford-based company grapples with more than 1,000 lawsuits that accuse it of stoking the opioid crisis with deceptive marketing of its pain drugs, reports have emerged in the past week about its exploration of a bankruptcy filing to help contain its potentially massive liability. Chapter 11 protection could bolster Purdues long-term viability, but it would also usher in another round of scrutiny of the already-changing firm.

A possible reason for filing for bankruptcy may be to avoid compensating the injured parties that have sought to hold parties such as Purdue accountable, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who sued Purdue when he was attorney general of Connecticut, said in an interview. That would not be a proper purpose for the declaration of bankruptcy. Any such plan would have to be carefully scrutinized.

In a statement this week, Purdue said that it is looking at all of its options, but we have made no decisions and have not set any timetables. The company is committed to working with the state of Connecticut and the other states to help address this public health challenge.

Moving toward bankruptcy?

So far, Purdue has not filed for bankruptcy, according to public court records.

In its statement, the company said it had ample liquidity. Some of its recent court filings have also pushed back on the perception that its finances are imperiled.

Even at last weeks hearing, the states attorneys suggested Purdue would file (for) bankruptcy this week, the company said in a Feb. 22 filing, in response to Oklahomas lawsuit, which also names several other opioid makers. Yet Purdue is still here, ready, willing and eager to prove in this court that the states claims are baseless.

Attorneys general who have sued the company give a more ominous forecast.

This is as serious as it can be, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in an interview last month. The scale of the damages and liability is enormous.

Recent moves have also stoked speculation that the company could be contemplating an overhaul.

Its advisers purportedly include AlixPartners LLP, a Manhattan-based consulting firm known for its restructuring work.

Last year, the company hired law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP for restructuring help and brought in a corporate-turnaround specialist, Steve Miller, as its new board chairman.

AlixPartners declined to comment. A message left for Davis Polk & Wardwell was not returned.

Many stakeholders

In contrast with a Chapter 7 filing, a Chapter 11 plan would not liquidate the company.

Among Connecticut companies that have sought Chapter 11 protection in recent years, Stamford-based printing-and-mailing company Cenveo last year became privately held and changed its CEO after going through the process.

Essentially, what you would be trying to show is that the company is worth more to creditors alive than dead, said Jeff Hellman, a New Haven-based attorney, whose practice concentrates on commercial litigation and bankruptcy. There are many examples of companies doing well after coming out of Chapter 11.

A prospective Purdue bankruptcy could halt the litigation. Any subsequent moves, such as settlements, would then have to be approved by the bankruptcy court handling the case.

Estimates of Purdues and other opioid makers financial exposure vary, but a comprehensive agreement with the plaintiffs could easily amount to many billions of dollars.

Significant creditor support would be needed to enact a Chapter 11 plan. In Purdues case, the stakeholders would include the local and state governments that have sued. Banks and other organizations that might be financing the company would also participate in the proceedings.

Anything is possible in a bankruptcy, said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. But the idea is to preserve the assets and allow the business to continue after everyone (among the creditors) has been paid and after the company has been reorganized.

At the same time, a number of state attorneys general have reiterated their intent to advance their cases.

We will oppose any attempt to avoid our claims and will continue to vigorously and aggressively pursue our claims against Purdue and the Sackler family, Connecticuts Tong said in a statement.

In Oklahoma, the trial for the states lawsuit is scheduled to start May 28.

Purdue has filed a motion to push back the start, saying a delay is necessary after the state produced 165,000 documents last month. Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter appears undeterred.

Our focus over the next several months is on trial preparation and ensuring the facts and evidence in this case will be heard by Oklahoma triers of fact in an Oklahoma courtroom, Hunter said in a statement this week.

Meanwhile, about 1,500 municipal and county lawsuits against Purdue and other pharmaceutical firms have been consolidated in multidistrict litigation federal court in Cleveland. The first trial linked to those cases is scheduled to start in October.

Paul Hanly, co-lead counsel for the MDL plaintiffs, declined to comment this week. In an interview last year, he expressed his desire for Purdue to keep operating.

We dont want any of these companies to go out of business; this is not an act of vengeance, Hanly said in the interview. This is litigation to recover money that these government entities have spent and lost as a consequence of the defendants.

Business in transition

In the meantime, Purdue continues to undergo major changes.

Last year, it disbanded its controversial sales force and laid off several hundred employees.

It is also increasingly diversifying its research-and-development pipeline.

A drug to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder made by new subsidiary Adlon Therapeutics gained approval last week from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.

The endorsement of Adhansia XR followed a Feb. 22 announcement that the FDA had granted orphan drug designation to a bile-duct cancer treatment made by another new Purdue subsidiary, Imbrium Therapeutics.

Applying to makers of drugs for diseases affecting less than 200,000 people, the orphan label makes recipients eligible for a number of incentives, including tax credits for certain clinical testing.

Both Adlon and Imbrium are based in the same building as their parent company, at 201 Tresser Blvd. in downtown Stamford.

You definitely want to diversify your product line to remain viable, said Angela Mattie, a professor in the schools of business and medicine at Quinnipiac University. I think its a good strategy for Purdue given the public outcry about its role in the opioid crisis and all of the litigation involving the company.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott
Can Connecticut catch a break? We thought we had a decent year in 2018, adding 15,200 jobs compared with 2017.

That would have been a nearly 1 percent gain, the best year of jobs growth since 2011  a huge uptick from the 2,300 jobs we thought the states economy added in 2017.

Instead, we got dumped with a March surprise, an economic noreaster on a sunny Friday: Connecticut employers added only 2,200 jobs, in net, for all of 2018  based on annual averages. The 2017 gain was revised up to 3,200, for what its worth.

What the hell is going on? How could the numbers have been so wrong? And most important, how can we move the needle upward? Maybe tax hikes really arent the answer.

More Business Revised employment data bad news for CT economy

The state and U.S. Labor Departments revise prior year estimates every March. Neither I, nor Andy Condon, the state DOL research director, could ever recall anything quite this stunning. It happened once before, maybe.

Whats weird is that other measures remain solid, or at least OK: overall economic growth, wage gains, total income. The unemployment rate in January was down to 3.8 percent, slightly better than the national rate last month and the same as the U.S. rate now.

People with any skills at all certainly arent out of work unless they want to be. One possibility is that hires are healthy but so are quits, Condon said.

And those people quitting are either exiting the state or dropping out of the labor force.

Tony Cirone, managing partner of CironeFriedberg LLP, a Fairfield County accounting, tax and consulting firm, doesnt need to look far to come up with a prime example. He had an accountant on staff, moving up the ladder, likely to make partner in the next couple of years.

That young, talented accountant lived in the Naugatuck Valley town of Seymour, and decided to look for a house closer to the Danbury main office.

Instead, Cirone told me, the account saw house prices in places like Brookfield, and switched gears late last year  with a second child on the way and his in-laws living in North Carolina.

He went down to North Carolina and the real estate costs were a lot less and the property tax costs were a lot less, and he got a job at just about the same compensation as we were paying him here, Cirone said, adding that the accountants local property taxes fell from $12,000 to $3,000 in the move.

Yes, that newly minted Tar Heel (whatever that is) will have to pay for private school because the public schools arent as good as Connecticuts. But Cirone added, Hes on partner track down in North Carolina.

And thats not unusual. Cirone said it took his firm six months to find the right receptionist for its Bridgeport office. Hes not sure hed have seen a faster result if he tacked another $4 an hour onto the advertised wage.

Jobs are open but hard to fill. Employers are hiring but also losing people. The Connecticut economy is strong in many ways. But its just. Not. Growing.

So what do we do? My knee-jerk reaction is to say, stop the cost increases. Now! Tolls, minimum wage hike, paid family and medical leave, Gov. Ned Lamonts proposed sales tax expansion  all of it. No more.

Just Friday morning, before the data shocker, I got a call from Brian Jessurun, who co-owns three restaurants in Storrs, Pomfret and Putnam. A $15 minimum wage ramped up by 2022 would drive him out, he said.

Maybe the Republicans are right, enough really is enough.

On the other hand, people dont want to come to a state with crumbling highways, low-budget schools and lackluster job training programs. Its about value, not cost.

Were obviously paying for the sins of the past, and thats why we have a nonstop budget crisis which, in turn, makes matters worse. Why choke off the present if our problem is the costs we racked up in the past?

Connecticuts poverty rate is 35 percent lower than the rate in North Carolina and we have just about the highest percentage of people with health insurance. Thats who we are.

Theres no easy answer. Certainly we cant do all of those things that add cost, especially with the national economy showing signs of crapping out after nine good years. Fridays weak national jobs report didnt exactly boost confidence.

The odds of a formal recession in 2019 are now a 50/50 proposition, said economist Donald L. Klepper-Smith of DataCore Partners, based on his projections.

That includes a downward revision of his Liberty Bank Business Barometer, which predicts overall growth before we see the federal data. The decent gross domestic product gain for the first nine months of 2018 just might go poof as well.

Condon asked, Is this an issue of stagnant economy or is this an issue of a shortage of labor and slow labor force growth? I dont know, but I will. Its difficult to expand when you dont have the people to do it.

A little bit on the numbers here: Another way to look at annual changes is by comparing December of one year to December of the next. In that scenario, Connecticut fell from a reported gain of 19,900 jobs to 10,000.

That method is widely used by journalists because it doesnt require downloading and calculating averages  but its deceptive. Any two pairs of months can show widely varying results. The 2,200-job gain is based on the average of all months in 2018, using numbers adjusted to smooth out seasonal variations, compared with the average in 2017.

Any way we look at it, Connecticuts economy has about 1.7 million jobs, including about 235,000 in government (including the Native American casinos). Those government jobs have been down in recent years as former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy eliminated thousands of state worker positions, the casinos shed jobs and local schools run leaner.

A very good year is up 20,000, and we last saw that in 2006. Malloy had some numbers in the teens, as high as 16,700, but here are the totals for the last few years based on the new data:

In 2018: 2,200; 2017: 3,200; 2016: 3,600; and in 2015, 13,000.

Looking at the sectors, manufacturing is still showing decent gains, even after the revisions. Financial services is flat, which is bad news for Fairfield County. Professional services took a big hit over the last year.

Weve got work to do, Condon said.

He was referring to DOL analysts trying to sort out this statistical storm  but he might as well have been talking about all of us in Connecticut, trying to right the ship.

An earlier version of this column said the preliminary estimate for 2018 was 16,000 new jobs; it was 15,200.

dhaar@hearstmediact.com
WASHINGTON The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

Connecticut Democratic lawmakers contributed to the lopsided vote brought on by the controversial statements of freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn  including one in which she equated support of Israel with allegiance to a foreign country.

I supported todays resolution as it is about more than any one persons words, said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. We must condemn anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry in all its forms. As public officials, we must exercise the utmost care with the words we use in our public discourse.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., had said previously he would vote to support the resolution, which became a seven-page recitation of anti-Semitism and bigotry in the U.S. that ultimately was expanded to include Muslims, Latinos, African-Americans, the LGBTQ community and other groups.

Its productive and proper for elected officials to have open and honest debate about U.S. foreign policy  thats our job, said Himes. Once that debate becomes tinged by anti-Semitic tropes, anti-Muslim language or any identity-based attacks, however, we cross into dangerous territory. We must all use clear and concise language to debate these policies on their merits and not impugn the motives of others.

Himes, DeLauro and Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., voted yes on the resolution, which passed 407-23 with only Republicans voting no.

There was never any question or hesitation on my vote in favor of the resolution, Hayes said in a statement. I stand with the entire delegation and was happy to see the House take action.

It was the second time in as many months the House voted indirectly to condemn Omar, although neither resolution mentioned her by name. Democrats who took control of the House in January worried that controversy over Omars remarks  which she defended as legitimate criticism of Israel  is distracting from their progressive agenda and giving Republicans political ammunition.

Omar, who represents a district in Minneapolis, is one of the 67 new Democrats who swept to victory in a wave reaction to President Donald Trump in last years election, giving control of the House to Democrats for the first time since 2011.

A refugee from the conflict in Somalia, Omar, 37, spent time in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the U.S. She customarily wears a hijab.

Last month, she triggered a similar backlash when she suggested House members support Israel because they depend on contributions from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee  AIPAC.

Its all about the Benjamins baby, she tweeted, referring to $100 bills.

She apologized; the House passed its first resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

But Omar ignited another firestorm last week when she questioned the loyalty of Americans who support Israel.

I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country, she said at a public gathering.

The vote, originally scheduled for Tuesday, got pushed back to Thursday as Democrats debated it behind closed doors. Many in the caucus pushed for inclusion of other groups into the text in order to broaden it.

Jewish leaders hailed passage of the resolution but expressed dismay that it ended up including so many other groups.

Folding anti-Semitism into a package of other social phobias is not a means of addressing the problem; its a way of avoiding the problem, said Bnai Brith International President Charles O. Kaufman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin in a statement. Anti-Semitism merits its own resolution; the failure of the House to pass one diminishes the threat that anti-Semitism poses and has the look of an action taken for the sake of expediency.

dan@hearstdc.com
STAMFORD  While police laud the efforts of city legislators to ban homemade firearms, known as ghost guns, in Stamford, they say the state has to step up and criminalize their possession to truly help keep citizens safe.

It is a first step and a signal to the state that it is a topic that must be addressed, said Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin.

The Stamford Board of Representatives voted on Tuesday to hold a public hearing on an ordinance that would prohibit anyone from owning, using or selling a do-it-yourself gun. The weapons are made from parts that can be ordered online or created using a 3-D printer.

But the ordinance would only fine people for having, making or selling a ghost gun. Only state and federal governments have the power to enact criminal laws, with more serious penalties. To date, there are no state or federal laws that ban the weapons.

Conklin did point out that carrying any kind of pistol around, be it homemade or otherwise, without a permit is against the law and would result in a criminal charge.

Bridgeport enacted a ban similar to the one proposed in Stamford five months ago. The public hearing on the Stamford ordinance is to take place later this month.

We are hoping for a buy in from the state and that is where someone could be prosecuted for owning one of these weapons, Conklin said.

A new state bill would make having or selling one of the weapons a felony. That bill, House Bill 7219, proposed by state Rep. Steve Safstrom, D-Bridgeport, the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee, would ban guns without serial numbers and regulate those that require the purchaser to finish the assembly of the weapon or that are made on a 3-D printer.

Lawmakers would have to take care, however, to make sure a new law wouldnt add to what he called the contradictory and confusing weapons laws already on the books, Conklin said.

A great deal of thought and consideration has to go into crafting any new laws that come out, he said.

Assistant Police Chief James Matheny said the Stamford department backs any legislation that contributes to common sense gun control.

Though ghost guns are not commonly encountered here we stand behind the drafters of this ordinance as this is something that could turn into a large scale public safety issue without proper guidelines and controls, Matheny said. As new technologies are developed we believe it only makes sense to make a stand now before this becomes a more prevalent issue.

Only a single ghost gun has been picked up by police so far in Stamford, Conklin said. That gun, which was confiscated last year, was an AR-15-type rifle, said Lt. Chris Baker, who heads up the Narcotics and Organized Crime squad.

Guns manufactured without serial numbers so law enforcement cant track them should be regulated, said Jeffrey Stella and Rodney Pratt, both District 9 Democrats on the Stamford Board of Representatives who are advocating for the ordinance. Stella is a retired New York Police Department detective and Pratt is a bail-enforcement agent.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong proposed a state law that would make the possession of such weapons a felony last when when he served as head of the General Assemblys Judiciary Committee.

We can use all the help we can get, said Tonga Stamford resident and former state representative whose district included North Stamford and New Canaan. Im very much in favor. It makes no sense at all that you could buy 80 percent of a gun online that is unserial numbered and unregistered that you could send to your home in Connecticut.

I think that it is great that our local legislatures are supporting this initiative. Criminal penalties for the states gun laws are the responsibility of the state Legislature, he said.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
A substitute teacher is out of work in one Oregon school district after a fifth-grade student says she made a racially charged comment.

The incident happened in the Salem-Keizer School District.

Fifth-grader Steven Zendejas said the substitute teacher didn't like that he wasn't participating in the Pledge of Allegiance.

"She said, 'If you don't want to sing, go back to Mexico' and that, like, got me really depressed," Steven told KATU-TV.

Steven said he asked to use the restroom and instead went to the vice principal's office to explain what happened.

School leaders acted quickly, district spokeswoman Lillian Govus said.

"What that substitute teacher said to that student doesn't align with our values," Govus said.

Steven's mom is happy with the district's actions.

"We're not going to allow this kind of behavior in our community, here in Salem," Lilian Ruiz said. She said her son was born in the United States and is a citizen.

Govus said district leaders are proud of Steven's actions.

"He not only recognized that the adult was wrong here, but he went and told other adults so that we were able to take action," she said.
A Czech tycoon has taken a 55 million punt on Londons luxury homes market, buying a portfolio of flats on the capitals Billionaires Row, the Evening Standard can reveal.

European developer CPI Property Group, majority-owned by real estate mogul Radovan Vitek, has teamed up with London-based private investor Dean Main to buy 11 apartments on The Bishops Avenue, industry sources said.

Vitek is worth $3.5 billion according to business magazine Forbes.

The flats are at a scheme called Buxmead on the Hampstead Heath end of the street.

The new owners want to rent out the homes  mainly three bedrooms  for between 5000 and 10,000 per week. Tenants would have access to a private gym, bar, swimming pool and cinema.

Agent Savills, which declined to comment, sold them on behalf of property developer Harrison Varma.

Mark Pollack, a director at Aston Chase  selling Kenmore House for 15 million on The Bishops Avenue  said: We have seen a flurry of activity from buyers who want to get deals over the line before we leave the EU.

Glentrees Trevor Abrahmsohn said: Some international buyers are starting to think it might be best to get in now before the pound rises and therefore properties become more expensive when a Brexit deal is agreed.
I ts not much fun trying to raise money for a business when youre a woman. A friend of mine told me a few stories once and it was so shocking I got her to write an anonymous piece about it.

This is broadly the process: first, identify potential investors and draft an email and one-page summary; second, try not to be pissed off when only 30% get a reply (compared with the 60% response rate a man would get for virtually the same email); third, set up introductory calls and be the only woman on 90% of them where youll be thoroughly grilled on the numbers or the market  unlike men wholl be treated more gently; fourth, expect to get looked up and down and quizzed on irrelevancies when you do finally get into the same room.

I was reminded of my friends experience while reading RBS chief Alison Roses review on female entrepreneurship.

Shes bang on the money about the unconscious bias in venture finance. But is it that surprising when only 13% of senior people in UK venture capital teams are women, and nearly half of all teams have no women at all?

Roses report cites research showing 67% of questions asked of men are promotion questions, designed to identify the potential benefits of investment, but 66% of questions asked of women are prevention questions aimed at highlighting risks.

No wonder then that women are seen as a fifth as likely to build a 1 million business.

The key recommendation from Rose, then, is new investment funding vehicles to focus solely on women-led businesses.
T he author of the satirical woke Twitter feed of Titania McGrath, the 24-year-old radical intersectionalist poet committed to feminism, social justice and armed peaceful protest, turns out to be a man, one Andrew Doyle, a stand-up comedian and polemicist. His fictional Gen Z character is hilarious, even if in book form (published this week) the parody becomes repetitive.

Doyles clever barbs are particularly sharp when applied to modern social-media-led activism, sniffing out prejudice like valiant bloodhounds of righteousness, he writes, courageously snapping at the heels of injustice.

Virtuousness, virtual or otherwise, is an easy target. Being woke even simpler to satirise. And there are activist stars who deserve our ire, with their agents and handling teams, furiously criticising when it suits; staying quiet when it doesnt. I silently rant at feminists parading their near-naked bodies online in the guise of self-love, gifted designer bags casually slung next to their near-naked butts.

But the fact remains that most of us are everyday hypocrites, clamouring on about climate change this and sexism that, while endlessly falling short. I berate my poor local shopkeeper for handing out plastic bags, then climb into my diesel car. That makes me a prize t*t. Or human. Or both.

Every day we feel powerless at the vast number of injustices we perceive  it can be Brexit, people starving in Yemen, or a parking ticket unfairly received.

Hurrying around in our own little lives, we dont have always have the time to set about fighting for serious change. There are children to tend to, usually a job and a never-ending list of to-dos. Thank God there are others who will tie themselves to a bollard all day in the name of saving the planet...

If a like or a tweet on the latest social media campaign doing the rounds or a womens day hashtag is all the activism youve had time for this week, then hooray for you. Make your fight against mounting cynicism.

Yes, the tide of plastic at the supermarket must be stopped but its OK if you dont want to make a scene  youre British  and strip the offending packaging off in front of the Tesco manager. I spend every holiday picking up rubbish from whatever beach were idling on, instead. Then stuff it into the back of the car. Its still something. Even tiny ripples can eventually make a wave.

"If a like on a womens day hashtag is all the activism youve had time for this week, then hooray for you"

In two weekends time with a million or so others Im going to join that Brexit march. I hold little hope it will change the crazy, directionless circle we are trapped in.

But for that one afternoon it will make me feel better to shout and wave my banner. Give me comfort Im helping. Its better than fireside cynicism. And who knows, Westminster and the odd Brexiteer might even listen.

Feeling Private Eyes barbs is an honour  dont take yourself too seriously

Im a long-held fan of Private Eye  well, its covers anyway. Admittedly, I never buy it. Ive once been in Pseuds corner  I saw it as a badge of honour then and I was equally delighted to be roasted in its pages this week for my fledgling media company, #ThisMuchIKnow.

I am painted as a naive ingenue, each fact outrageously twisted to back up their skewering of events. The depiction is both purposefully riling and extremely funny. My husband laughed. I put it up on Instagram.

Former Conde Nast MD Nicholas Coleridge once wrote a piece saying his top career rule was to never take yourself too seriously. I have kept that advice close. Its easy to take offence and get panicked if you are publicly ridiculed but only if you care about what people think of you rather than what you do.

Laughing at yourself puts fears of failure in perspective. Private Eye and any other doubters can shred my new journalistic endeavour all they like. Its more publicity.

I got loads of new fans this week thanks to Private Eye and BuzzFeed. I went through the process of raising money  women are still out in the cold when it comes to gaining funds. Yesterday a brilliant journalist agreed to work with me. And Ive begun the process with a tech team of rethinking how we present the news. Who knows what the future holds?

Better warn gran about Insta, Harry

Prince Harry / Redferns
A s part of our Future London project, which celebrates the diversity of Londons culture, we caught up with Izumi Thomas, events and cultural relations manager at Japan House to hear more about Japanese culture in the city.

I have been living in London for over 15 years and I believe I have pretty much familiarised myself with U.K. life, says Izumi.

However since I joined the Japan House project, its funny that I started to realise how deeply I am Japanese. At the same time, I found I still dont know many things about past and present Japanese culture. I always enjoy learning about new aspects of Japan through the events and exhibitions at Japan House. There are so many things to discover.

One of the first events I organised was bringing a Japanese folk drum-dance group from my hometown in Kagoshima Prefecture to come and perform in the U.K. They performed in schools and museums and I saw the way in which these events can link people and inspire people.

One of their events was a collaborative dance session with Morris Dancers. Their dances have been inherited and formed in a completely different culture and environment, but they share similar spirit and desire to keep their traditions.

Izumi helps to create the galleries at the centre, and says that the creators always surprise and inspire her.

Their thought behind the design, dedication and attitude to their displays is incredible. During the exhibition set-up, for example, they say please move that object 1 cm to the left  I am always amazed that such tiny alterations can make such a big difference to the impression of the display, she said.

Izumi grew up in a Buddhist family, where her mother often burned incense sticks and chanted Buddhist sutras which are canonical scriptures, regarded as records of the oral teachings of the Buddha.

She says that New Years Eve is the most special event for her family.

Just before midnight on New Years Eve, people from my hometown go to our local beach and shrine to perform a ceremony. With torches in hand, we all walk down to the beach together and pick shells up in the dark under the moonlight.

Then we make our way down to the sea and each build a small sand mountain next to the water. We then wait for a wave to break over the sand and pray in four directions (north, east, south and west). My mother told me that this wave represents the washing away of the past year and the welcoming of the new year. We fill our shells with newly wet sand and then we go to the Shinto Shrine. Then we give the shells as an offering to the shrine and pray.

Its interesting though as this is actually Shinto event, not a Buddhist one. The concept of Shinbutsu shugo (Japanese for the fusion of kami (Shinto deities) and Buddhas) exists in Japan and refers to a form of cultural-religious syncretism, which blends Buddhist practices with Shinto rituals. People in Japan naturally engage with both Shinto and Buddhism events.

Back in London, Izumi relaxes by having a houji-cha latte (a lightly roasted Japanese green tea) with almond milk at the cafe in Japan House.
F rom suffragette protests to SlutWalks, London has long been a battleground for women's rights.

The struggles and successes of women of the past are celebrated across the capital, from the collections in the Feminist Library to the walking tours about town.

Over the years, the city has seen a number of pivotal moments in women's history, from equal pay marches of the 50s to the first female speaker in the House of Commons in 1992, and continues to do so today.

To mark International Women's Day, we've rounded up our pick of London's most interesting spots to learn more of women's history.

The Feminist Library

This spot is home to the largest collection of womens liberation literature in London  in particular, second-wave materials dating from the late 1960s to the 90s. Since its establishment in 1975, the library has been committed to supporting activist research and community projects, and volunteers have kept it going strong for 45 years. It's open to everyone and is incredibly accessible with no registration or membership required. Take your time in the bookshop, which boasts both new and second-hand books as well as periodicals and zines. It's also currently running a crowdfunding campaign to help its move to Peckham this spring.

5 Westminster Bridge Rd, SE1 7XW, feministlibrary.co.uk

National Portrait Gallery

AFP/Getty Images

The National Portrait Gallery is home to a variety of paintings that commemorate inspiring women from British history. Visitors can find portraits of female trailblazers from the worlds of arts, literature, politics and more, with the likes of Emmeline Pankhurst hanging in the gallery's permanent collection as well as Florence Nightingale and Jane Austen lining the walls elsewhere. It's also the spot to learn about influential women in art history  later in 2019 it's set to host an exhibition titled Pre-Raphaelite Sisters. The show will explore the untold stories of female artists, models, and muses and how they contributed to the famous art movement. Definitely one to get in the diary.

Museum of London

Museum of London

The Museum of Londons Votes for Women exhibition may be closing its doors this month, but theres still time to catch the final few days of the show. It features a number of standout objects from the museums extensive Suffragette collection, including Emmeline Pankhurst's hunger strike medal and jewellery from Kitty Marshall and Louise Eates. Those that don't have time to head to the show before it closes will still be able to soak up the long-term Suffragette display in the museum's People's City gallery, which features banners, news clippings, letters, medals and more.

150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN, museumoflondon.org.uk

The Women's Library at LSE

The Womens Library started out in a converted pub on Marsham Street in Westminster, and now has 60,000 books and pamphlets detailing key moments in women's history. The library, which can be found at LSE, features more than 50 artefacts including suffrage campaign banners, photographs, posters, ceramics, tickets, badges, textiles and more. The largest collection on the women's movement in Britain, it focuses mainly on UK history spanning from the late 19th century to the present day. Its made up of seven key threads: womens suffrage, prostitution and trafficking, women in the workplace, women in public life, women in the church, womens liberation movement of the 1970s and peace campaigns  so there's plenty to get stuck into.

Houghton St, WC2A 2AE, lse.ac.uk

Historical walking tours

(Matt Brown/Flickr) / Matt Brown/FLickr

If youre partial to a little walk around the capital, try one of these. The London Town Walks are particularly good, boasting a suffragette walk starting at Embankment Underground station and finishing at the Emmeline Pankhurst memorial next to the Houses of Parliament. For something a little more dramatic, opt for Women on the Walk  a theatrical walking tour based in central London, which explores tales of women living in the city during pivotal times in history. Elsewhere, Black History Walks host regular ventures detailing African history in the capital and Beyond the Streets offer an alternative Jack the Ripper tour, focusing on the hidden history of East End women.

Across London

East End Women's Museum

It may not be officially open yet but that hasnt stopped the East End Womens museum hosting events and exhibitions across the city. Set to open its doors in Barking in 2020, this will be the first museum in the capital solely dedicated to women's history. Past projects include an exhibition at Hackney Museum on 100 years of womens activism as well as a pop-up show on women's political efforts in east London, which was hosted at Whitechapel Idea Store. While it looks like the team are taking a break from events before their new launch, they're currently looking for local residents with a passion for women's history to bring ideas for the new museum. Updates on the venue opening can be found on the official website.

Events held across London, for more information visit eastendwomensmuseum.org
Review at a glance









W ho would win in a fight between Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel? Since they exist in the mutually exclusive comic book universes of DC and Marvel, this will never be resolved. But the answer is irrelevant. What matters is that the question exists.

For many decades, those who are nauseatingly described as childen of all ages have argued the relative strengths of male superheroes. This endless area of debate is ready to shift genders.

In 2017, Gal Gadots Amazon princess flipped the dismal DC form book in Wonder Woman, so a counterstrike from the rival studio was assured.

Behold, Brie Larson lands today as Captain Marvel, though she is never addressed as that (She may assume the title next month when she returns in Avengers: Endgame, if only to wind up Captain America).

In this studiedly low-key, devilishly skilful debut  it adroitly tells her origin story while also laying the ground for the Avengers finale  she has two names.

In the galaxy far, far away where she has spent the past six years as one of the technically hyper-advanced Kree  a self-consciously regal race right down to the blue blood  she is Vers (pronounced veers, as in veers towards being the most kick-ass superhero in all creation).

How she left this planet at the behest of Kree magus Mar-Vell (Annette Bening) is eventually explained after it opens with an un-Marvelishly ponderous festival of martial artistry.

Debut: Brie Larson stars as Captain Marvel for the first time

Here on C53, as Earth is impertinently known by the Kree, she was Carol Danvers. That sounds like a prosaic name for a Top Gun-style US fighter pilot but its one she proudly reclaims by the movies end.

She remembers nothing of her human existence until she returns to her home planet. Shards of memory  an overbearing father, best friend and fellow pilot Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), karaoke rock nights in a scuzzy bar  start piercing her amnesia after she crashes unharmed in a soulless, edge-of-town Californian shopping complex. Nearby is a branch of Blockbuster and an internet cafe where folks use Alta Vista to search the net.

The film has a powerfully nostalgic Nineties vibe. The soundtrack features Nirvana (as Carol, her fashion sense tends towards the grungy) and, perhaps for irony, No Doubts Just a Girl. That she aint.

After that damp-fuse opening, the movie ignites with the arrival of a digitally de-aged Samuel L Jackson as a young Nick Fury with both his eyes intact. At the inception of the special law-enforcement organisation SHIELD, Vers is his first alien encounter.

The sweetly mocking interplay between the two contrasts with Vers uneasy relationship with Kree mentor Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), a pompous git forever mansplaining the need to keep her emotions in check. He couldnt be more wrong. Only when she surrenders to them will she find her humanity, and the full extent of her powers.

The slightly convoluted plot concerns the Krees war with the Skrull, a lizardy, giant-eared race who, in ways beyond their ability to shift shape, are seldom what they seem, and whose invasion of C53 is led by the engaging Talos (Ben Mendelsohn on brilliant form).

The biggest films arriving in 2019 1 /8 The biggest films arriving in 2019 The Lion King Jon Favreau is one again in the director's seat for the Lion King, after helming Disneys Jungle Book reboot in 2016. Beyonce and Donald Glover lead a steller voice cast, while Funny or Dies Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen voice the duo Timon and Pumba. Release date: July 19 Disney Aladdin The diamond in the rough is back in action in Aladdin, yet another Disney remake happening in 2019. Will Smith has the unenviable task of stepping into Robin Williams alibaba slippers as the Genie. Release date: May 24 Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Jon Favreau is back in the director's seat for the Lion King, after helming Disneys Jungle Book reboot in 2016. Beyonce and Donald Glover lead a steller voice cast, while Funny or Dies Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen voice the duo Timon and Pumba. Release date: July 19 It: Chapter Two Pennywise returns to haunt the citizens of Derry, 27 years after the events of the hit 2017 horror It. Jessica Chastain leads an impressive cast, which also includes James McAvoy, Bill Hader and the returning Bill Skarsgard. Frozen 2 The biggest Disney film of recent times is getting a long-awaited sequel in 2019, with Frozen 2 arriving in the Winter. Expect more winter wonderment, empowering female leads in the form of sisters Anna and Elsa, as well as more anthems on the soundtrack. Release date: November 22 Spider-Man: Far From Home Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man is swinging into cinemas in 2019, with Tom Holland continuing his excellent run in the title role. The film sees Parker and his pals head out on a European vacation. Sony Pictures Toy Story 4 The Toy Story franchise Is reaching infinity and beyond in 2019, welcoming Buzz, Woody and the gang back one last time. Bring the tissues kids, it's going to get emotional. Release date: June 21 Walt Disney/Pixar Joker Joaquin Phoenix is taking on the role of Batmans greatest adversary in this upcoming origin story from director Todd Phillips  marking the first big screen portrayal of the character since Heath Ledgers unforgettable performance in 2008s The Dark Knight. Release date: October 4 Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

But the plot is incidental. The real action concerns the transitioning from Carol to Vers (as told in flashback), then slowly back to Carol and, finally, thrillingly, into the mightiest warrior in Marvels quadrant of the cosmos.

Larson brings little definition to the role, and this is deliberate. Until the closing scenes the character has no idea who she is. Within that limitation she strikes the perfect balance between softness, humour, nonchalance, physicality, self-doubt and arrogance.

While she underplays it to the max with as naturalistic a performance as the genre has known, Jackson hams it up gloriously as a lighter, more playful Fury than the world-weary SHIELD supremo of the recent canon.

His baby-talk byplay with a remarkable cat, named Goose to ram home the Top Gun nostalgia, offers as many easy laughs as Mrs Slocombe managed by referencing her pussy in an entire series of Are You Being Served?

Directed and co-written by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who come to this blockbuster from an indie background, the flavour is less lurid and vivid than Marvel fans might expect, and possibly want.

Captain Marvel Featurette - Combo Training

Despite its share of tiresome CGI pyrotechnics, it favours restraint over melodramatics. The determination to avoid grandstanding, and delicacy of self-empowerment messaging, permit one stand-out shot. After Marias adorable daughter Monica (Akira Akbar) chooses her new body armour colour scheme (claret and blue; Monica must be the only 11-year-old West Ham fan in Louisiana), Carol Danvers soars towards the clouds. As she hangs there, glowing and exultant, the girl gazes up at her in sheer wonderment.
These days, Taylor Swift appears to be happily settled with actor boyfriend Joe Alwyn.

Though fans briefly worried that some of the breakup songs on her new album, Folklore, meant the two had split, Swift shared that the songs on the album were a mix of her real life and characters she had made up. Alwyn is even suspected to have co-written two songs on the album, under the pseudonym, William Bowery.

Prior to the Folklore's release, the couple had reportedly talked of marriage. They were also believed to be self-isolating together during the coronavirus lockdown, as Alwyn shared a number of pictures on his Instagram stories of Swifts cat Benjamin Button.

Many fans think Swift has been hinting at marriage ever since the 'Me!' music video, where she's wearing what appears to be an engagement ring. In the title track from her 2019 album, 'Lover,' she sings "my heart's been borrowed and yours has been blue, all's well that ends well to end up with you," leading to more speculation than ever that she's close to tying the knot with her London boy.

Speculation came to an all time high after Swift wore a piece of string knotted around her ring finger in a Vogue photoshoot, leading some to believe that it was a hint she and Alwyn were engaged. (Neither has revealed if they are engaged.)

Taylor Swift / Getty

She also discussed the press around her past relationships in 'The Man,' saying, "And they would toast to me, oh, let the players play, Id be just like Leo in Saint-Tropez," about how her dating history would be perceived differently if she was a man.

Swift and her former boyfriends might have enjoyed putting on the PDAs (remember her short-lived fling with Tom Hiddleston?), but her relationship with Alwyn has remained largely private. The pair met at the 2016 Met Gala and started dating in October of that same year.

I dont think anyone you meet on the streets would just spill their guts out to you, and therefore why should I?" Alwyn told Mr Porter.

Splash News

Recently, however, they've started to step out together in public more often. While she and Alwyn are rarely photographed in public together, they were snapped walking in the woods. Swift even skipped the Grammys to support Alwyn at the BAFTAs, during which his film The Favourite was up for a number of awards. He also showed up to support her at the premiere of Cats, where they were seen holding hands under an umbrella on the way out.

Her relationship with Alwyn might be under-the-radar but Swift's past romances were quite public. She had an array high profile ex-boyfriends, who inspired plenty of love (and hate) songs - remember 'Dear John'?

Swift had a few high school beaus, but her first A-list boyfriend was Jonas Brother Joe Jonas, who infamously broke up with her in a 27-second phone call (we wonder what he said). Post-Jonas, she was linked to everyone's favorite Twilight werewolf Taylor Lautner.

Taylor Swift and John Mayer perform during the Z100's Jingle Ball 2009. / Getty Images

Later on, Swift also had far more serious relationships, ones worthy of entire albums. She commemorated her relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal in the classic breakup scream-along 'All Too Well,' which felt relatable whether or not you've dated Gyllenhaal.

And who could forget the time she almost became a Kennedy? The 22-year-old songstress dated 18-year-old Conor Kennedy from summer 2012 until that fall. She even bought her own Hyannis Port home in an apparent effort to be neighbors with her new beau. While real estate might seem like a high stakes move for a short-lived summer fling, who among us wouldnt want to be part of an American dynasty?

And of course, who could overlook her most recent, and most legendary, relationships? She dallied with the most handsome One Directioner, Harry Styles, reportedly penning 'I Knew You Were Trouble' about him.

Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris lounging on a swan float. / taylorswift/Instagram

Post-Styles, she dated DJ Calvin Harris for two years, after meeting through Ellie Goulding. The couple announced their relationship with an Instagram on top of a swan float. Ultimately, it didnt last, but it did lead to her making an appearance on Rihannas single 'This is What You Came For,' which he produced and Swift wrote.
Its International Womens Day today and to kick off the celebrations, Victoria Beckham teamed up with model Rosemary Ferguson and British Fashion Council chair and Farfetch Chief Strategy Officer Stephanie Phair to discuss how women are represented in the fashion industry.

Held at exclusive members club Annabels, Victoria Beckham came dressed to impress in pieces from her own line. She shared a preview of what she was wearing to the private event on Instagram stories: the brands Front Split Skinny Trouser (575) and the lightweight trench (1,395).

Dave Benett

As part of the event, guests were treated to a special breakfast designed by Rebecca Ferguson. The model, who in recent years has focused on her career as a nutritionist and naturopath, revealed a teaser of herself in Annabels kitchens preparing for the big day. Ferguson also wore one of Victoria Beckham's charity shirts designed specifically for the national day, a white tee which reads "I am her".

Victoria Beckham shared a peek at the curated menu, which included a Cacao Espresso Smoothie, Granola Parfait and a Lime Parsley Juice.

Instagram / @victoriabeckham

After that, she met up with two of the inspiring women in her life: her mother Jackie Adams and her mother-in-law Sandra Beckham. They were seen together at her fashion brand's store on 36 Dover Street, all dressed like they were ready to take on the world.

Dave Benett

Guests from the breakfast event were invited to join them and preview her newest collection. Victoria revealed she actually gave customers a helping hand, saying on Instagram that she "loved shopping with my customers". In another story, she also encouraged her fans to subscribe to her YouTube channel as a cameraman circled her - perhaps a hint that she would be releasing exclusive footage of the event to her channel.

This isnt Victoria Beckhams only contribution to International Womens Day, as the designer also worked with NET-A-PORTER on a charity project for Women For Women International. She and a host of other designers, including Alexa Chung and Rosie Assoulin, were asked to design a shirt focused on female empowerment, which led Beckham to create a top which read, I am her - the same one Ferguson wore to the event. With Beckhams priced at 175, all the proceeds go towards funding Women for Women International.

The shirt has sadly already sold out, but here are a few options from the same charitable collection that are still available.

Alexa Chung International Women's Day Flocked Cotton-Jersey T-Shirt

Rosie Assoulin International Women's Day Printed Cotton T-Shirt
Feminists all across the globe are fighting for gender equality and championing female excellence every single day. These powerful women inspire us constantly with their words and with their actions, whether it's Michelle Obama speaking at the DNC or author Roxane Gay's feminist, groundbreaking works of literature (her Twitter feed is excellent, too).

From Laverne Cox to Ruth Bader Ginsberg, we've compiled some words of encouragement that will keep you fighting the good fight no matter what you're faced with.

1. "When you've worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. You reach back."

Michelle Obama, speaking at the DNC

Getty Images

2. You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man. Do you hear me?...Your life belongs to you and you alone.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, from Half of a Yellow Sun

3. "When we stand for something, were unhinged. When were too good theres something wrong with us. And if we get angry, were hysterical or irrational or just being crazy... So if they want to call you crazy? Fine. Show them what crazy can do.'

Serena Williams, speaking in a 2018 Nike advertisement

4. "This is what most girls are taughtthat we should be slender and small. We should not take up space. We should be seen and not heard, and if we are seen, we should be pleasing to men, acceptable to society. And most women know this, that we are supposed to disappear, but its something that needs to be said, loudly, over and over again, so that we can resist surrendering to what is expected of us.

Roxane Gay, from Hunger

5. I am a person of color, working-class, born to a single mother, but I stand before you tonight an artist, an actress and a sister and a daughter, and I believe that it is important to name the multiple parts of my identity because I am not just one thing, and neither are you

Laverne Cox, speaking to university students in 2015

Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows

6. "I identify more with who I feel myself to be than what I look like. Either way, am I obliged to entertain you with my appearance?"

Carrie Fisher

7. "Even if you find yourself standing alone, speak up. Even if people get mad at you, speak up. It's not our job to stay silent so that others can stay comfortable. Use your voice to shape the world or others will shape it for us."

Olivia Munn, in the wake of standing up to film bosses after they cast a registered sex offender in The Predator

8. No black woman writer in this culture can write 'too much'. Indeed, no woman writer can write 'too much'...No woman has ever written enough.

Bell hooks, from remembered rapture: the writer at work

9. "The idea that a woman can be as powerful as a man is something that our society cant deal with. But I am as powerful as a man and it drives them crazy."

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, speaking to The New Yorker in 2019

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10. We are now a force, and you are nothing.

Athlete Aly Raisman speaking to Larry Nassar, who was charged with sexually abusing her and multiple underage female athletes

11. No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women.

Malala Yousafzai

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12. "Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn't be that women are the exception."

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

13. "What's interesting is that I hear a lot of people saying, when talking about girls empowerment and women as well, youll often hear people saying, Youre helping them find their voices', I fundamentally disagree with that. Women dont need to find their voice. They need to feel empowered to use it and people need to be encouraged to listen."

Meghan Markle

PA

14. "Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women."

Maya Angelou

15. "For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up. Their time is up."

Oprah Winfrey accepting the Cecil B. de Mille Award at the Golden Globes, 2018

16. You want me to be a tragic backdrop so that you can appear to be illuminated, so that people can say Wow, isnt he so terribly brave to love a girl who is so obviously sad? You think Ill be the dark sky so you can be the star? Ill swallow you whole.

Warsan Shire

17. We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. That decision is ours and ours alone.

Jennifer Aniston, in her personal essay for the Huffington Post about her choice to have children or not

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18. "I grew up never seeing myself on-screen, and its really important to me to give people who look like me a chance to see themselves. I want to see myself as the hero of any story. I want to see myself save the world from the bomb."

Sandra Oh, speaking to Today in 2005

19. "Feminism is about giving women choice. Its not a stick with which to beat other women with. Its about freedom. Its about liberation. Its about equality. I really dont know what my tits have to do with it."

Emma Watson, speaking to The Guardian in 2017

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20. Feminism has fought no wars. It has killed no opponents. It has set up no concentration camps, starved no enemies, practiced no cruelties. Its battles have been for education, for the vote, for better working conditionsfor safety on the streetsfor child care, for social welfarefor rape crisis centers, womens refuges, reforms in the law. If someone says, 'Oh, Im not a feminist,' I ask, 'Why, whats your problem?'
At least in the cold months it seems like its a really good business over here, Chef Ilan Hall says about his latest venture, a pop-up version of his vegan Los Angeles restaurant Ramen Hood in New York City, which specializes in piping hot ramen soup.

The Brooklyn-based chef is now helming a popular pop-up at Chefs Club Counter in Soho.

Ramen Hood

Ramen Hood is famous for serving up eerily realistic vegan eggs served atop five different ramen broths made with sunflower seeds.

The visual of it is pretty amazing and people dont think its a fake egg. Thats probably the number one comment we get on our Instagram feed. How can it be vegan? Theres an egg on it. That just shows how well weve done on it, he said over heaping bowls of ramen at the restaurant.

Ramen Hood

It took a month or two to figure it out. We knew from the beginning we wanted to. We had to get the components together and figure out how we were going to do it. I felt like we needed some kind of soft-cooked egg because its an essential part of ramen, the Top Chef winner told us.

We were doing another dish where we were braising sunflower seeds and the leftover liquid had this amazing texture and tasted like ramen broth and we were using flavor profiles that would go with ramen. From there, Ramen Hood was born.

Ramen Hood

The concept ended up moving into Grand Central Market in Los Angeles. Its a historic food hall and marketplace, just the way it looks and feels was reminiscent of the old food halls in Europe that still exist in Barcelona, Florence, where you can buy produce, you can have a meal. It was really nice to see that existed naturally in other places sop it was a no-brainer. In LA, one popular dish is a cold version of the ramen.

And while he cant reveal the proprietary ingredients, Hall did walk Insider through the egg-making process. What we do is a combination of our proprietary ratios of nutritional yeast, beta carotene, sodium alginate and black salt. We just puree it with water and thats our yolk mix.

Ramen Hood

After pureeing the yolk, they're set and frozen for later. To make the whites, the basic OG sunflower seed broth is combined with agar to set it and give it an egg white consistency. They then scoop the egg white out with a melon baller where the yolk would go.

We try to keep that process pretty seamless so it doesnt set up too much, so you have the texture of this slightly soft egg, and then we put it on top of the ramen, he explained.

Ramen Hood

The egg itself doesn't taste exactly like a soft-boiled egg but it is pretty close. The whites are silky and the yellow breaks into the broth.

And like in most ramen, vegan or not, the "egg" soaks up the flavor of the soup, lending to it a taste of silky whites, saltiness and the customary sunflower broth. If you don't actually eat eggs, it's as close as you're going to get.

The vegan New York pop-up is now open until the end of April.
I nternational Womens Day exists to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Allowing us all to shine a spotlight on women achieving some incredible things across the world.

This year, we spoke to five inspirational women making a difference around London.

From eradicating period poverty to supporting female entrepreneurs, find out more about these brilliant women below.

Amika George, founder of FreePeriods campaign

Amika George / Sophia Spring

When we first met Amika George nearly two years ago, the then 17-year-old had just launched the FreePeriods - a campaign to eradicate period poverty for school-aged girls in the UK. Period poverty in the UK means girls as young as 10 are routinely missing school because their families are unable to afford sanitary products.

Since then, George organised a protest outside Downing Street, received a campaign award recognised by Bill and Melinda Gates and has started a legal campaign to ensure equal access to education.

What made you start the #FreePeriods campaign?

I started FreePeriods after I realised that girls my age, or younger, were missing school because they couldnt afford to buy menstrual products. I couldnt believe that girls were being forced to compromise on their education because of our period, something we do not choose to have.

Yet the government was refusing to act, so I decided to start campaigning for free menstrual products for girls from low income families.

Its been about two years since you started it, what changes have you seen made towards periods in that time?

Its clear that periods are being spoken about much more, in a more empowering tone. There is a much greater awareness of period poverty, and people are recognising that the impact on a young girls life can be long-lasting and detrimental to her future aspirations.

"There is also a collective outcry that the womens issues are not being addressed by the government but things are slowly changing. Recently, the NHS announced that menstrual products will be available for all patients who need them. But theres a lot more that needs to be done.

FreePeriods led a protest outside Downing St just over a year ago, and it was a testament to how much the campaign has grown. A few months after the protest, the government pledged to give 1.5m of the tampon tax fund to charities to tackle period poverty, which was just brilliant."

What is the long-term goal for the campaign and is this something you want to continue until lasting change is made?

A few weeks ago we started a legal campaign to ensure equal access to education. We want the government to comply with its existing legal obligations, and make sure that they give funding for all schools and colleges to provide free pads and tampons to whoever needs them. Under the Equalities Act, the government must eradicate any known barrier to education, and period poverty is such a barrier, so they are obliged to find a solution.

We started with a crowdfunder and its going well. We are working with Human Rights lawyers to build our case. Scotland has taken steps to eradicate period poverty, so theres no reason why we cant too.

Francesca Hodgson, co-founder and COO of GoodBox

Francesca Hodgson / GoodBox

In 2016, Francesca Hodgson along with two co-founders started GoodBox - a company changing the way we donate to charities.

They've developed technology which offers contactless donation points for people to simply 'tap' as they walk past and donate money to a charity.

How was GoodBox founded and what was the initial inspiration behind it?

I founded GoodBox in 2016 alongside my two co-founders. Having worked with charities for over a decade, I was well aware of the issues they were facing in trying to keep pace with fast technological change. At a time when charities need public support more than ever, I could see that changing payment behaviours and a move towards a cashless society was having a damaging impact on the sector. GoodBox was founded to ensure that our vital third sector has access to the very best technology, thereby protecting charitable activity both now and into the future.

How does GoodBox work?

We provide products and services which are custom built for the charity sector. Our contactless hardware has been our Trojan Horse into the charity sector  through our hardware weve raised over 1 million for UK-based charities, from over 200,000 donors.

How can Londoners get involved and donate to charities through GoodBox?

Londoners can donate to the work of our fantastic  and free  cultural sector, at locations across the city, including the Natural History Museum, National Portrait Galleries and V&A. They can also get involved in Sadiq Khans winter campaign by donating to the work of TAP London, an innovative organisation using tech to tackle homelessness.

Whats the long-term goal for GoodBox?

Ultimately, we want to expand our service and products internationally, so our social impact can scale globally. With organic demand from over 11 countries to date, its clear that this ambition is within reach. As a company we are driven by a mission to create a better world, where charities are supported with the best technology available, enabling them to spend more time focussing on whats most important - their cause.

June Sarpong, broadcaster and author of Diversify

June Sarpong

June Sarpong MBE, had had an extensive career working across broadcasting, charities and is also the co-founder of Women: Inspiration & Enterprise.

In 2017, Sarpong released Diversify, a book putting the spotlight on groups who are often marginalised in our society.

What inspired you to write Diversify?

I was inspired to write Diversify because of an incident that happened while I was working in America, where I came up against my own unconscious bias and found myself prejudging someone based on assumptions I had made about their external packaging.

What did you learn through the process of writing Diversify?

I learned a lot in that moment about unconscious bias and prejudice, I had always looked at the issue from the perspective of being on the receiving end as opposed to discriminating against others myself. The whole episode motivated me to help open up a dialogue to honestly address these issues.

What can we do to help make London more diverse?

I think Londoners can do one simple thing, really take the time to reach out to your neighbours. The wonderful thing about London is, it is one of the few capital cities where diverse communities live side by side, the next step is to make sure we also develop authentic connections with each 'other'.

Fiona Grayson, Founder of She can. She did.

Fiona Grayson

She can. She did. began as a website profiling female entrepreneurs from around the UK, but has grown over to now include Midweek Mingles - networking events for female entrepreneurs - across the country and Fiona Grayson has recently launched a podcast of the same name where she records her interviews with the entrepreneurs.

With nearly 10,000 followers on Instagram, Grayson has tapped into the social media generation to put the spotlight on female entrepreneurs across the UK.

Why did you decide to start profiling female entrepreneurs?

I'd started to notice on social media that more and more young women were launching their own businesses, but it really bothered me that everything about their businesses looked flawless online. Every time I tried to research more about young female founders on Google, I was met with the 'Forbes 30 under 30 list' or magazines that only ever offered these founders' highlight reels.

I wanted to know the truth and I wanted to know how these women had really got to where they are today, warts and all. So I decided that if I can't find the articles that I'm looking for, why don't I just reach out to these women myself and see if they'd be willing to open up and chat.

How have you seen She can. She did. grow since you started it?

Word of mouth and Instagram have been so powerful for the She can. She did. community. My own ambitions for She can. She did. have evolved since the outset. I obviously started the platform as a project but it has evolved from candid, face-to-face interviews with female founders from around the UK, to an event series in the form of The Midweek Mingles which started as ad-hoc evening events in London last April and has evolved into a UK-wide series of events that are now sponsored by Xero and the newly released She can. She did. podcast too.

Tell us more about the Midweek Mingle and the new podcast 

The Midweek Mingle is an event series that I launched in London last April that brings together female business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs for an evening of chit chat about the realities of what the panel of female founders have been through behind the scenes to get to where they are today. I was so aware before I launched the Mingles that networking/business events can be so stuffy and intimidating to attend on your own so The Midweek Mingles have been designed with that in mind.

After over 80 face-to-face interviews, I launched the She can. She did. podcast at the end of January. Each week I sit down with women I admire and we have a good chat about her journey so far."

What can we next expect from She can. She did.?

After chatting to female founders from all areas of the UK about their experiences so far, I noticed recurring challenges crop up across the board which sparked a much bigger idea for She can. She did. that I'm working on behind the scenes at present. When that is up and running, She can. She did. will evolve to offer a service to female founders with the overarching aim to support female founders on their journeys and encourage more young women to launch a business.

Brigette Bard, founder of BioSURE

Brigette Bard

Brigette Bard is the founder and CEO of BioSURE, which has created the worlds first CE-marked, blood-based at-home HIV test - a test that has been used by over 300,000 people worldwide.

Bards aim with BioSURE is to help create the first AIDS free generation.

Where did the idea for BioSURE come from?

Globally there are not enough doctors so I have always passionately believed that self-testing is where global healthcare is heading. For many years, self-testing for HIV was not legal as it was then a death sentence, but antiretroviral treatments are now so good that the virus can be suppressed to undetectable levels."

How do you use BioSURE?

You prick your finger with the retractable paediatric lancet, be sure to prick the side of your finger rather than the pad as there are hardly any nerves there. Then you touch the tip of the device onto the drop of blood so it automatically collects the right amount of blood and then push it into the pot of buffer solution. Your result is then shown after 15 minutes as either one line (negative) or two lines (positive). If you do get a positive result, you must then go and get it confirmed by a healthcare professional who can start you on treatment on the same day.

What impact do you hope BioSURE has?

There is still an estimated 14 million people undiagnosed globally, who are unknowingly responsible for most of the ongoing transmissions. There is a UN plan to eradicate HIV/AIDS by 2030, but the first step towards that is getting people to know their HIV status, because if you dont know, you cant treat. We really do see BioSURE having a role to play in ending the epidemic.

Whats next for BioSURE?
T he family of a young man who was stabbed to death after moving to London to pursue a career as a chef today told of their total devastation.

David Martinez, 26, collapsed and died in the street in Leyton after being repeatedly knifed in a flat on Wednesday afternoon.

Born in Colombias capital Bogota, he emigrated to Spain with his mother and two siblings as a child, before moving to London about six months ago to work in a restaurant and learn English.

His cousin, Yohan Martinez, 26, said: He was a great human being. I shared the best moments of my childhood with him. The whole family is emotionally shattered. We did not know this would have happened to such a noble person.

The victim was named today as David Martinez, 26 (Metropolitan Police ) / Metropolitan Police

He has been hardworking since childhood. We will always take him in our heart.

His mother was said to have been completely destroyed by her sons death. In an emotional Facebook post, Yohan Martinez added: He lived as I think the vast majority would have wanted to live, knowing the world in the most humble way.

Working, taking his family forward. I admire it and admire it forever. I hope you make the best recipes there in heaven.

Police have said that Mr Martinez knew his attacker.

Police at the scene of the fatal stabbing / PA

Neighbours told how he ran barefoot and screaming from the flat before collapsing in a pool of blood at about 4.30pm. Despite the efforts of medics and bystanders he was pronounced dead at the scene 40 minutes later.

A neighbour said: He was screaming for help and crying. He just kept repeating, Help, help, help, they are after me. People were getting towels to soak up the blood. A girl had blood all over her hands. We were all in shock.

Mr Martinezs mother is trying to repatriate his body as soon as possible for a funeral in the city of Valladolid in north-west Spain.
A mother is facing up to 14 years in prison after becoming the first person to be found guilty of female genital mutilation (FGM).

The 37-year-old Ugandan woman was found guilty of cutting her three-year-old daughter. She is said to have attempted to deploying "witchcraft" to "shut up" her accusers.

She will be sentenced by Mrs Justice Whipple at the Old Bailey later today.

Her partner, a 43-year-old Ghanaian, was cleared of involvement following a trial.

The couple, from Walthamstow, east London, had been jointly accused of carrying out FGM on their daughter over the 2017 summer bank holiday.

The girl was subjected to "deliberate cutting with a sharp instrument" at her mother's dirty home, the Old Bailey heard.

Medics raised the alarm after she was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital with severe bleeding.

The defendants told authorities that their daughter had been reaching for a biscuit when she fell and cut herself on the edge of a kitchen cupboard.

But the victim later confided in specially trained officers that she had been cut by a "witch".

While the parents were on bail, police searched the unemployed mother's home and found evidence of witchcraft.

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry QC said "Two cow tongues, they were bound in wire with nails and a small blunt knife also embedded in them, 40 limes were found and other fruit which when opened contained pieces of paper with names on them.

"The names embedded included both police officers involved in the investigation of the case, the social worker, her own son and the then director of public prosecutions.

"These people were to 'shut up' and 'freeze their mouths'. There was a jar with a picture of a social worker in pepper found hidden behind the toilet in the bathroom. Another spell was hidden under the bed."

Giving evidence, the mother denied cutting her daughter, saying: "It's a big accusation. Someone who would cut a child's private parts, they're not human. I'm not like that."

She told jurors that she resorted to spells because "cutting your child, that's not something for any person. So, as a mother, I knew I did not do it."

The father denied having an interest in "voodoo" or "witchcraft" and claimed he was outside when his daughter was hurt.

The court heard FGM would need more than one person to do it, although police have not identified anyone else in the case.

Type II female genital mutilation, of the type inflicted on the toddler, involves the mutilation of the clitoris and removal of the labia minora, the court heard.

Immediate effects include bleeding, severe pain, shock and susceptibility to infection, with long-term impacts including gynaecological problems, reduced sexual enjoyment, higher risk pregnancies and mental health problems.

FGM carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
A mother who inflicted sickening female genital mutilation on her three-year-old daughter has been jailed for 13 years after the first ever successful UK prosecution of the crime.

The 37-year-old Ugandan woman deliberately had her daughter cut with a scalpel, enlisting the help of an older woman for the illegal procedure carried out in August 2017.

When her young daughter started bleeding heavily, she was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment and was then identified by doctors as an FGM victim.

The mother, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, lied that the injuries had been sustained when her daughter fell on to a cupboard door while reaching for biscuits.

Frozen limes with notes inside were found inside the defendant's home / Met Police

When police raided her home in Walthamstow, they discovered witchcraft spells she had cast in a bid to silence police, social workers, and prosecutors including then DPP Alison Saunders.

The mother had used lemons, limes, and mineral alum for the homemade spells, and also had two cow tongues bound in wire and stabbed with nails and a knife in her freezer.

She was convicted of FGM last month, in the first ever conviction in the UK since the practice was first criminalised in 1985.

Handing down the sentence at the Old Bailey on International Womens Day, Mrs Justice Whipple sentenced her to 11 years in prison for FGM and an extra two years for indecent images of children and extreme pornography discovered after her arrest.

Two cows tongues with nails through them were found in the mother's freezer / Met Police

The judge said the crime was sickening and involved an abuse of trust as the girls mother.

FGM has long been against the law and lets be clear, FGM is a form of child abuse, she said.

It involves deliberate genital mutilation, it is a barbaric practice and a serious crime. Its an offence that targets women, particularly inflicted when they are young and vulnerable.

She said the girl may be embarrassed and inhibited when she grows up with the life-long burden of being an FGM victim.

The true significance of what occurred may not become apparent to her for years to come, she said.

The judge added that the motive for the crime may never be known, as the mother did not come from a culture where FGM takes place.

Today, the woman pleaded guilty to distributing an indecent video of a child and publishing online extreme pornography involving animals, which was discovered after her arrest for FGM.

Her estranged partner was cleared at trial of the FGM against his daughter, but was jailed for 11 months today after he pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children and extreme pornography.

A kitchen cupboard door at the mother's home / Met Police

Prosecutor Caroline Carberry QC told the court the mother started making spells to silence her accusers even as her daughter was laying in a hospital bed.

The girl was taken into foster care and revealed that she had been told to lie about how she was injured.

Ms Carberry said the mother held down her daughter while the other woman, described by the girl as a witch, wielded the scalpel.

It was a gross breach of trust carried out at the hands of a person who should have cared for her the most, she said.

40 limes containing messages on small pieces of paper were found in a freezer / Met Police

She is likely to experience reduced sexual sensations in the future and the psychological impact upon her cannot yet be ascertained.

During the trial, the mother stuck to her story that her daughter had been injured in a fall on to a kitchen cupboard, despite overwhelming medical evidence that this could not be true.

Her lawyer, Rebecca Wong QC, told the court: The nature of the offence for which she was convicted means, in reality, that her safety will be of concern for the duration of her sentence.

She has already been the subject of a number of threats in custody and she is no longer able to work in the prison kitchen. Her sentence will be harder than many other sentences of comparable length.
P olice are searching for a thief who posed as a Good Samaritan before stealing a woman's phone while she was suffering a seizure.

The woman, in her twenties, suffered the seizure outside Selly Oak station in Birmingham around 12pm on February 17.

But a passer-by who rushed to her aid took the phone from the victim's pocket and put it in her own.

The victim was taken to hospital by ambulance.

The victim had her phone taken while she had a seizure in Selly Oak / British Transport Police

British Transport Police Officers believe the woman in the CCTV image may have information which could help their investigation.
T he Home Secretary is to be told by police chiefs how much it will cost to launch an emergency "surge" to tackle knife crime in the UK.

Police constables were given until today to respond to Sajid Javid with a figure on how much funding is required to get more officers into knife crime hotspots.

The teenager, who was stabbed in the chest in West Kensington on Thursday afternoon, is the 19th person to have died from a knife attack in the capital this year.

The scene in Lanfrey Place on Thursday / NIGEL HOWARD

Her family were joined by friends and neighbours, many who were wearing purple, Ms Chesneys favourite colour.

Friends and family of Jodie Chesney march on the streets in Romford. / PA

They demanded more front line officers to tackle the scourge of knife violence.

Knife arches were deployed in the West End will likely become a familiar site as police step up their blitz on knives.

Police recover what appears to be a knife after searching a drain in West Kensington / Steve Parsons/PA

It follows backlash against Chancellor Phillip Hammond, who demanded that police shift existing resources into tackling knife crime rather than expect more funding.

Mr Hammond said forces should move officers away from "lower priority" crime and on to knife violence.

His words, which also included a suggestion that public services would get more cash if MPs voted for Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, were lambasted by the Police Federation of England and Wales.

A knife arch operation took place in Walker's Court, Soho. / Lucy Young

The organisation's national chairman John Apter said: "Children are dying on our streets and he has the audacity to suggest that the police need to prioritise. Let me assure him - this is a priority.

"Across England and Wales, my members are the ones working flat out to prevent more young people being killed.

"They are often the ones on their knees in the street trying desperately to save the lives of these young victims, they are the ones who have to deliver the terrible news to families that their loved one will never be coming home again.

Theresa May on tackling knife crime

"And they are doing it with almost 22,000 fewer colleagues than when the Conservative Government came to power."

Mr Hammond insisted that police budgets were rising, and said knife crime was "an immediate problem, you cannot solve it by recruiting and training more officers - that takes time".

One of Britain's most senior police officers, chief constable of Merseyside Police, Andy Cooke, demanded "harsh" sentences for criminals caught carrying knives

Tributes laid in Harold Hill after the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Jodie Chesneyon / PA

He said judges needed to get tough on people who end up before the courts for carrying weapons, and urged the Government to unite in tackling the issue of knife crime, "rather than putting an obstacle in the way at every turn".

He told the Daily Express: "I think the sentencing guidelines for knife possession are about right. We just need to make sure that those sentences are actually being carried out.
A poverty of hope has led to the rise in knife crime, according to the CEO of Britains leading childrens charity.

Barnardo's boss Javed Khan told BBC Question Time that although funding more police officers could help tackle the crisis, it would be a mistake to think it would solve the problem.

Speaking in Dudley on Thursday, Mr Khan said many young people carry knives to feel safe and that investing in communities could prevent more deaths.

He spoke on the same night hundreds marched through Romford to remember murdered teenager Jodie Chesney and protest against Londons recent spate of killings.

The scene in Lanfrey Place on Thursday / NIGEL HOWARD

A teenager who was stabbed in West Kensington on Thursday became the 17th person killed by a knife in London alone in 2019.

Mr Khan said: We feel safer when we see more police officers, but it would be a mistake to think more bobbies on the beat would solve the problem.

The root causes actually lie elsewhere. When I talk to these young kids who are on the verge of violent crime or in and out of gangs, what they talk to me about is the lives that they are living.

They say they carry knives to stay safe and I say to them you dont need a knife to stay safe, but they say thats easy for you to say, live in the housing estate that I live in, walk from my housing estate to my school and tell me whether you feel safe or not.

Theres a whole range of answers, but policing alone isnt. Policing is important, but I think we need to invest in the communities where these young people are living.

Police recover what appears to be a knife after searching a drain in West Kensington / Steve Parsons/PA

We need to fund police officers but we need to fund youth and community workers as well, we need to fund community centres, we need to create new spaces where young people feel safe.

We need to give them hope, because I believe that poverty is an issue, but what Im seeing is a poverty of hope, where young people do not see a reason to change their behaviours  thats where weve got to invest.

Poverty, yes  put more money in, its welcome, put more bobbies on the beat  but dont forget about investing in the communities themselves.

Employ people from those communities, because they are likely to know what the answers are and they will be more trusted than anybody else will.

Mr Khan appeared alongside former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, Labour's Margaret Beckett, Times columnist Iain Martin and journalist Owen Jones.

Jodie Chesney was attacked and stabbed in a park in Harold's Hill last Friday night

The programme was aired as one of Britains most senior police officers called on judges to ensure harsh sentences are given to knife carriers.

Andy Cooke, Merseyside Police chief constable, said judges must get tough on those who face court for carrying blades as he urged that more must be done to end the bloodbath.

A secondary school teacher who spoke on the BBC show said she works in a school between where two young men were murdered in Birmingham last month.

Three teenagers died in the city in just 12 days in February.

She said teachers can only do so much because young peoples services have all had their funding slashed.

Jodie Chesney: march against knife killings - in pictures 1 /10 Jodie Chesney: march against knife killings - in pictures People march through Romford town centre to protest against knife violence and remember Jodie Chesney PA Jodie Chesney was stabbed to death near a children's playground at Harold Hill, east London PA People marched along the high street of the east London town with banners which read: 'RIP Jodie' PA Protesters chanted 'no more knives' as they took to the streets PA Banners and signs are held up in Romford town centre as part of the protest PA Purple balloons were held during the march PA A woman holds up a banner in Romford town centre as part of the protest of the fatal stabbing of Jodie Chesney PA People march through Romford town centre PA A young boy ties a ribbon in Romford town centre as part of the march PA People march through Romford PA

The teacher added: We like to think that we can reassure our pupils but all their services have been cut.

Were telling them not to go to parks but where can they go? Everything has been withdrawn.

When I first started teaching in 2007, we had youth support people, we had youth centres, we had outreach projects, and we had people coming in and out of schools all the time.

We do not have any funding for those sorts of projects, or very little, and were making the best of what we can do.
P olice have arrested a second man over the fatal stabbing of teenager Jodie Chesney in an east London park.

The suspect was arrested in London on Friday morning on suspicion of murder.

Police have given no other details about the man.

Ms Chesney was approached by two males and knifed in the back while she listened to music with friends near a children's playground in Harold Hill.

Jodie Chesney: march against knife killings - in pictures 1 /10 Jodie Chesney: march against knife killings - in pictures People march through Romford town centre to protest against knife violence and remember Jodie Chesney PA Jodie Chesney was stabbed to death near a children's playground at Harold Hill, east London PA People marched along the high street of the east London town with banners which read: 'RIP Jodie' PA Protesters chanted 'no more knives' as they took to the streets PA Banners and signs are held up in Romford town centre as part of the protest PA Purple balloons were held during the march PA A woman holds up a banner in Romford town centre as part of the protest of the fatal stabbing of Jodie Chesney PA People march through Romford town centre PA A young boy ties a ribbon in Romford town centre as part of the march PA People march through Romford PA

Detectives had said investigators were "focusing totally" on a witness appeal to try and track down the suspects.

Detective Chief Inspector Dave Whellams, who is leading the investigation, said: "This was a savage, evil attack. We're progressing well with the investigation and continue to ask the public to assist us.

"At this time, there being no clear motive is very unusual. We retain an open mind and can't rule anything out.

Family members, father Peter, stepmother Joanne and sister Lucy, of murdered teenager Jodie Chesney. / PA

Ms Chesney is one of 17 people to be fatally stabbed in London this year.

On Thursday evening, thousands of people marched through Romford town centre to remember the 17-year-old and protest against the spate of knife killings.

Demonstrators wore purple - Ms Chesney's favourite colour - and chanted "no more knives" during the march on Thursday evening.

Jodie Chesney was stabbed to death in a park in east London

Speaking at the march, a friend of Ms Chesney's family said This march shows the ripple effect that knife crime has. It touches all of our lives."
S peedboat killer Jack Shepherd could be behind bars in a UK jail by the end of March.

The 31-year-old is in custody in Tbilisi, Georgia, after he was convicted in his absence last year of killing 24-year-old Charlotte Brown on a first date in December 21015 when the speedboat they were in overturned in the Thames.

The UK sent extradition papers to Georgian authorities last week and Shepherd could face an extradition hearing by the end of this month, far earlier than had originally been planned.

If prosecutors are successful, Shepherd is likely to be transferred to the UK within three days of the hearing, according to the Mirror.

Charlotte Brown who was killed in a speedboat crash on the River Thames whilst on a date with Jack Shepherd. / Metropolitan Police/PA Wire

Prosecutor Irakli Chilingarashvili said the case satisfies every legal ground for extradition and hopefully by the end of the month Shepherd will be in court.

His next court appearance was originally planned for the end of April.

It comes after Mariam Kublashvili, who is representing Shepherd, said that he may not fight his extradition to the UK and that he regrets going on the run prior to his conviction.

She told Victoria Derbyshire: We will make a decisions thats right, if there is a reason to fight extradition we will fight, but if there is a reason to support extradition we will [support] it, she told Victoria Derbyshire on Monday.

However, she continued: We feel and we know it is not safe to come back for him.

He will have problems in British prison I need the people to know who is against him, the politicians, the government is against him, making Jack seem like a criminal, serial criminal and dangerous person.
A stalker recently released from jail for breaking into Taylor Swifts home has been re-arrested for doing it a second time, police have said.

Roger Alvarado, 23, climbed a ladder and smashed a glass door to get inside the pop stars property, authorities said on Thursday night. It comes one month after he was released from jail following a break-in last April.

The arrest also came just hours after Swift said she is so worried about her own safety that she carries around military-grade bandages at all times. "You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house and you kind of start prepping for bad things," the pop star wrote in a column for Elle Magazine.

Alvarado, of Homestead, Florida, was on probation after getting out of jail on February 5. This is at least the third time he has been detained at Swift's home, US police said.

He has been charged with burglary and criminal contempt.

No one was home at Swifts $18million mansion during the latest break-in which unfolded at about 2.30am, officers added.

A break-in in April, in which police said Alvarado used Swift's shower and slept in her bed, put him behind bars for more than nine months. As part of the sentence, a judge ordered Alvarado to complete a mental-health program.

Two months before that, he was arrested for allegedly breaking the front door with a shovel.

Swift was not home on either occasion.

Swift told Elle Magazine on Wednesday that she fears violence and takes precautions such as carrying military-grade quick-clotting agents to stop bleeding from potential gunshot or stab wounds.
O ne of Britains most senior police officers has called on judges to ensure harsh sentences are given to knife carriers as the country is gripped in a crisis of violence.

Andy Cooke, Merseyside Police chief constable, said judges must get tough on those who face court for carrying blades as he urged that more must be done to end the bloodbath.

The top officers remarks on Friday came in the wake of a spate of fatal stabbings on the UKs streets which have prompted warnings of a national emergency.

A teenager who was last night stabbed in West Kensington became the 17th person killed by a knife in London alone in 2019 alone.

Police recover what appears to be a knife after searching a drain near Lanfrey Place / Steve Parsons/PA

Mr Cooke told the Daily Express: "We need harsh sentences for people carrying knives. We need to ensure that those sentences are being carried out.

"I think the sentencing guidelines for knife possession are about right. We just need to make sure that those sentences are actually being carried out.

"We need the judiciary to be sentencing at the higher end of the sentencing that they can achieve on each and every occasion."

A knife arch operation took place in Walker's Court, Soho. / Lucy Young

His calls follow a backlash against Chancellor Philip Hammond, who demanded that police shift existing resources into tackling knife crime rather than expect more funding.

Mr Hammond said forces should move officers away from "lower priority" crime and on to knife violence.

His words, which also included a suggestion that public services would get more cash if MPs voted for Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, were lambasted by the Police Federation of England and Wales.

Theresa May on tackling knife crime

The organisation's national chairman John Apter said: "Children are dying on our streets and he has the audacity to suggest that the police need to prioritise. Let me assure him - this is a priority.

"Across England and Wales, my members are the ones working flat out to prevent more young people being killed.

"They are often the ones on their knees in the street trying desperately to save the lives of these young victims, they are the ones who have to deliver the terrible news to families that their loved one will never be coming home again.

"And they are doing it with almost 22,000 fewer colleagues than when the Conservative Government came to power."

Mr Hammond insisted that police budgets were rising, and said knife crime was "an immediate problem, you cannot solve it by recruiting and training more officers - that takes time".

The number of police officers across the 43 forces in England and Wales has fallen by more than 20,000 since 2009 but the Prime Minister has said there is no correlation between the decline and "certain crimes".

Calling on Mr Hammond to "leave his Westminster bubble" and increase funding, Mr Apter said: "It is an insult to my dedicated and hard-working colleagues, and it shows a shocking lack of awareness or understanding of the reality of the crisis happening right now in towns and cities across the country."

Cressida Dick says she could get the military involved to tackle knife crime

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell accused Mr Hammond of being "tin-eared" and "acting like a management consultant".

He said: "The two most senior members of the Government are in total denial about the impact of police cuts. You can't protect people on the cheap."

Also on Friday, police announced the death of a 37-year-old man who had been injured in a stabbing in Soho on Sunday, while David Martinez was named as the 26-year-old Spanish man who died after a stabbing in Leyton, east London, on Wednesday.
A top London primary school has had its Sats results scrapped amid allegations that children were helped during their exams.

Year 6 pupils at Our Lady of Victories Roman Catholic Primary School in Putney had their test results annulled over maladministration following an investigation by the Department for Education last year.

Headteacher Deirdre McDonald stepped down in December, shortly after parents had been told about the results. A spokesman said this was completely unrelated to the ruling by the Standards and Testing Agency.

The school, which was attended by Nick Cleggs eldest son Antonio, was the top performing primary in Wandsworth last year and is ranked among Londons best state schools.

In 2018, it was one of only nine state primaries in London to score 100 per cent pass rates for reading, writing and maths Sats. But in a letter to parents, seen by the Standard, the school said: Following an investigation  the KS2 [Key Stage 2] results for spelling, punctuation & grammar and mathematics at Our Lady of Victories have been annulled on the grounds of maladministration. This investigation was prompted by an anonymous allegation to Ofsted of over-aiding and reviewing of completed papers. The STA identified what they considered to be a number of areas of concern about the accuracy of pupils results.

It is a distressing situation for the school and we can assure you that the governors are taking it extremely seriously.

The 209-pupil school, rated outstanding by Ofsted, is being led by interim head Anna Madden while a candidate is sought to fill the 72,000-a-year role.

One parent, who asked not to be named, said: As parents, we care about what our children are learning and trust that schools are behaving honestly. If pupils are being given help to complete tests then it doesnt do them any favours  if they dont actually have the knowledge they are supposed to.

A DfE spokeswoman said the issue would not adversely affect pupils personally, but added: Any instances of maladministration of the national curriculum assessments are completely unacceptable.
T he Citys historic Smithfield meat market could leave London for the first time in more than 800 years under plans to move it to the fringes of the capital.

A former oil refinery site in Thurrock, Essex, is on a shortlist of four locations for a vast, new mega-market which could also house Billingsgate fish market and New Spitalfields fruit and vegetable market. The other three potential sites are at Barking power station in Dagenham, Silvertown near City airport in Docklands, and Fairlop in Redbridge. The City of London Corporation wants to amalgamate the three historic markets in a purpose-built facility to free up land for housing.

The Thurrock proposal from property company ISEC would see the markets move to the Thames Enterprise Park at the former Coryton refinery on the banks of the river  but outside Greater London.

Stephen Lawrence, chief executive of Thames Enterprise Park, said it had made a proposal in respect of the consolidation and relocation of the City of London markets  However, the City of Londons process of site selection is at an early stage so we do not intend to comment any further at this point.

Barking and Dagenham council leader Darren Rodwell believes the markets should stay within the boundaries of the capital. If London lost its iconic markets it would lose some of its soul, he said. The competition to host the 800 million-a-year markets is likely to be closely contested as it would bring an economic boost including about 500,000 of business rate revenue for the winning local authority. The corporation is expected to make a recommendation on its preferred option next month before starting a consultation with traders until the summer.

It is thought to favour the Barking power station option after it paid about 100 million to buy it from ATCO Power Generation and secure the 42-acre site before Christmas. But last week Redbridge council unveiled rival plans for a combined market facility on 162 acres of open land at Hainault Road, Little Heath in Fairlop.

Smithfield is the only one of the three markets to remain at its original site in the heart of the City. There are records of a meat market dating back to at least 1174. Billingsgate moved from Lower Thames Street to Poplar in 1982, while Spitalfields relocated to Leyton in 1991.

Any move would require a private Bill to be to be passed by Parliament and the corporation is expected to submit the proposed legislation in the autumn.

James Tumbridge, Chairman of the City of London Corporations Markets Committee, said: "The City's three world-leading wholesale food markets at Billingsgate, New Spitalfields and Smithfield have been serving our citizens for hundreds of years, and we are committed to their future for London.

In order to secure their continued success and best possible future, following a strategic review, we are developing a programme for consolidating the City Corporations wholesale markets onto one site. The aim is to offer more modern facilities and space for our traders to grow and support the food economy of London beyond our current offering.

As part of this programme we are consulting with the market tenants, traders and their customers, and other key stakeholders in London. We will have a public consultation in 2019 on our options to determine where our future markets will be located .
H undreds of new social rented homes and a dedicated womens centre will be built on the site of Holloway prison, the notorious womens jail where murderers Myra Hindley and Ruth Ellis and hundreds of suffragettes were held.

City Hall has lent housing association Peabody 42 million towards the 80 million paid to the Ministry of Justice for the 10-acre site in Islington.

Peabody, in a partnership with housebuilder London Square, plans to build more than 1,000 homes, of which 600 will be affordable with about 400 available for social rent.

Parks, a womens centre and shops will also be created where Europes largest womens jail stood until 2016, with construction due to be completed by 2026.

Mayor Sadiq Khan announced the sale at the site this morning accompanied by local MP and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Mr Khan said: For too long, Londoners have rightly been fed up seeing public land sold off to the highest bidder and then developed with little or no social or affordable housing. We have made sure the Holloway prison site will be different.

Prisons minister Rory Stewart said money from the sale will help replace ageing prisons with modern, purpose-built establishments.

For developer London Square it is in the latest in a series of big London projects. It is building in Bermondsey and has previously created flats on New Kings Road and in Staines Upon Thames. Adam Lawrence, chief executive of London Square, said: We have a strong track record of delivering high quality, sustainable and mixed communities in London and are delighted to be part of this high-quality team.

Brendan Sarsfield, chief executive of Peabody said: "As well as providing new homes we will also ensure social infrastructure and placemaking are at the heart of our proposals. We are pleased to be working with London Square which is a continuation of our longer term relationship across a number of sites in London.
J eremy Corbyn faced new questions over Labours handling of anti-Semitism today after the Standard learned that the party has readmitted an activist who referred to Zionist criminals.

Marlene Ellis, who also claimed that Zionists were involved with Nazis, has been allowed by the partys national leadership to rejoin its Streatham branch in south London.

Momentum activist Ms Ellis was suspended in 2016 after writing a blog defending former mayor Ken Livingstones bizarre claim that Adolf Hitler was a Zionist. She claimed it was an outrage to suspend Mr Livingstone and accused her party of seeking to curry favour with the pro-Zionist lobby in and beyond the media.

In an open letter to Mr Corbyn, she wrote: It is our belief that your statement plays right into the hands of Zionist criminals. Ms Ellis also played down remarks made at the time by a Labour MP that suggested Israeli Jews be transported to America. Her statement is not so outrageous within the historical context and involvement of Zionists with Nazis, asserted Ms Ellis.

The MP who made the comments about transportation, Naz Shah, has since apologised profusely and won praise for rebuilding bridges with the Jewish community.

In a separate controversy, Ms Ellis attacked black MPs who were in her view not politically black  a comment that appeared to be aimed at Streatham MP Chuka Umunna. Mr Umunna, who left Labour to form The Independent Group, told the Standard he was surprised to hear she was a member again. I have said I thought the party was institutionally anti-Semitic, and I believe it is. Ive been pretty disturbed by some of the reports I have received of some of the experiences of Jewish people in my borough and I think the party has a major problem. Ms Ellis has also called for the suspension of Labour MP John Mann for confronting Mr Livingstone.

Mr Mann said today: People stating these things have got no place in the Labour Party. The Labour Party needs to explain the criteria on which it made the decisions and precisely who made the decisions, and then pass the details to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to look at.

Labour did not respond to the Standards questions on why Ms Ellis was allowed to rejoin or who took the decision. A spokesperson said Laura Murray, the controversial aide to Mr Corbyn, was not involved.

Streatham Labour branch chairman Joel Bodmer said: It is a national matter which the national party compliance unit will have made a ruling on rather than us.

The row comes a day after the Equality and Human Rights Commission commenced formal moves towards a full investigation into anti-Semitism in the party.

It said it believes Labour may have unlawfully discriminated against people because of their ethnicity and religious beliefs.
M Ps have swiftly dismissed the EU's latest effort to secure a Brexit deal after the bloc said the UK could be allowed to leave the customs union of its own accord in a backstop scenario.

The proposed concession came from EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier just days before a second meaningful vote on Theresa May's Brexit deal in the House of Commons.

It has previously been suggested that both the EU and the UK would have to agree for Britain to be able to fully leave the customs union in a backstop scenario.

However, the EU would now be willing to allow the UK to fully leave the customs union unilaterally - provided it avoids a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Theresa May: If MPs reject Brexit deal, we may never leave EU

"The UK will not be forced into a customs union against its will," Mr Barnier said. "The EU will continue working intensively over the coming days to ensure that the UK leaves the EU with an agreement."

TODO: define component type apester

He stressed that Britain would still need to keep the sensitive border between EU member state Ireland and the UK province of Northern Ireland free of controls.

In a series of messages on Twitter, Mr Barnier also said the EU had proposed a "legally binding interpretation" of the Withdrawal Agreement.

He said arbitration panel envisaged the deal would give the UK the right to a "proportionate suspension of its obligations under the backstop, as a last resort" if the EU breached its obligations to use "best endeavours" and act in "good faith" to negotiate alternative solutions.

The EU was also ready to give "legal force" to the commitments made in January's letter from Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, writing them into a "joint interpretative statement".

However, following Mr Barnier's comments on the customs union DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said his proposal regarding the Northern Ireland backstop was neither "realistic nor sensible".

TODO: define component type apester

"It disrespects the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom," he said.

"This is an attempt to get ahead of a possible blame game and appear positive when in reality it is going backwards to something rejected a year ago."

Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay also dismissed Mr Barnier's proposal.

He tweeted: "With a very real deadline looming, now is not the time to rerun old arguments. The UK has put forward clear new proposals. We now need to agree a balanced solution that can work for both sides."

The development comes after the Prime Minister have a speech warning warning the UK will be plunged into crisis if MPs reject the Withdrawal Agreement at the upcoming vote.

She said "no-one knows" what will happen if her plan is defeated, with the possibility of Brexit being derailed completely.

Mrs May said both the democratic and economic cases for backing her deal are "clear" as she issued a plea to MPs of: "Let's get it done."

The Prime Minister had also used her speech in Leave-supporting Grimsby to both urge the European Union to give ground on the Northern Ireland backstop.

She also called on Tory Eurosceptics to recognise failure to back the deal could result in a softer Brexit or another referendum.

"Next week, MPs in Westminster face a crucial choice: Whether to back the Brexit deal or to reject it," she said.

"Back it and the UK will leave the European Union. Reject it and no-one knows what will happen.

"We may not leave the EU for many months, we may leave without the protections that the deal provides. We may never leave at all."

If the Prime Ministers deal is passed, she may still need to extend article 50 in order to make arrangements for the current Brexit date of March 29.

Mrs May is due to speak to EU leaders by telephone over the weekend and a European Commission spokesman said "intensive work" was going on between London and Brussels.

It is unsure what could happen if the vote fails and this would leave Parliament searching for an alternative in time for the looming deadline.
T heresa May is set to plead with EU leaders to give ground and help her Brexit deal survive next week's Commons showdown.

The Prime Minister said decisions made in the coming days in Brussels would have a big impact on the fate of her plan.

MPs will vote on whether they support the Withdrawal Agreement on Tuesday as Mrs May seeks concessions on the backstop.

She is moving to reverse the humiliating 230-vote defeat suffered last time Parliament passed judgement on her struggling deal.

Theresa May's Brexit deal vote for MPs is set for Tuesday, March 12 / Alex Lentati / Evening Standard

Mrs May will use a speech in Grimsby to say the Government is determined to secure legally binding changes to the backstop.

Urging the EU to agree, the Prime Minister will say: "We are both participants in this process.

"It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal.

"We are working with them but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer cast doubts over the Prime Minsters ability to deliver changes to the deal.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer speaking outside Parliament / AFP/Getty Images

This speech looks set to be an admission of failure, he said.

"After two years of negotiation, the Government is simply incapable of delivering a Brexit deal that protects jobs, the economy and people's livelihoods."

Countdown to Brexit: 22 days until Britain leaves the EU

Negotiators are preparing to work through the weekend in a frantic effort to break the deadlock over the backstop measures.

The measures are aimed at preventing a hard border with Ireland if no alternative trading arrangements are in place.

EU officials are reported to have given the UK until Friday to come back with fresh proposals after "difficult" talks stalled this week.

TODO: define component type apester

The European Commission confirmed "technical talks" were continuing.

It said President Jean-Claude Juncker was "available 24/7" to meet Mrs May if a deal was close.

Talks: Theresa May with Jean-Claude Juncker / EPA

Number 10 is believed to hope a deal can be reached by Sunday night.

It is possible the Prime Minister travelling to Brussels on Monday morning to meet Mr Juncker.

Ministers were said to be braced for another heavy defeat on Tuesday after the previous "meaningful vote" was lost.
I ndependent Group MP Chuka Umunna today unveiled his "vision" for the future of the UK as he says it is time for a new "progressive" party to change British politics.

Mr Umunna, spokesman for the recently formed Independent Group of MPs published a pamphlet outlining six key values that he believes progressive politicians could "rally around", marking the first move by the new group towards a debut manifesto.

The Streatham MP has included bold proposals including a compulsory form of "national service" for school leavers, state funding of political parties, and ending excessive pay in the boardroom.

His ideas are due to go into TIG's first policy forum, however the MP has insisted they "should not be considered a manifesto or the official policies of our group".

Independent Group MPs Mr Umunna, Gavin Shuker Ann Coffey, Heidi Allen and Chris Leslie held talks at the Electoral Commission earlier this week about becoming a fully-fledged political party / Getty Images

It comes two weeks after 11 MPs dramatically defected from the Labour and Conservative parties to form the new group.

Writing in the pamphlet, TIG's frontman said: It is time we dump this countrys old-fashioned politics and create a new politics that does justice to who we are today and gives this country a politics fit for the 21st Century not the last one. A politics that looks, listens and learns from ideas and experience elsewhere in the world to better inform the course we take at home.

The 11 members of The Independent Group

"Our departure from the status quo parties was in part framed by reference to what we were against and what we disliked both about the policies and the cultures of what we had left. This pamphlet sets out what I think those who subscribe to progressive politics are actually for."

In the document, Mr Umunna set out six key values for a progressive party: Unity, Reciprocity, Work, Family and Community, Democracy, and Patriotic Internationalism.

He then put forward seven new ideas "intended to start, rather than finish, debate".

The idea was to "start a national conversation" rather than offer "prescriptive policies", Mr Umunna wrote.

These include:

A new form of Public Benefit Companies putting public benefit at the heart of utilities

Ending excessive pay in the board room

Introducing means-testing tuition fees to support students who need most support and re-introducing maintenance grants. This would allow resources for a 'skills revolution' campaign backed by serious money and a Minister sitting in Cabinet

Equalising rates of tax on income and dividends and using the proceeds to fund universal childcare

Hypothecated NHS tax to help it meet the needs of an ageing society

Introducing compulsory Citizens Service for school leavers

State funding of political parties

The pamphlet also looks into greater detail at economic challenges facing Britain, technology and foreign policy.

Throughout the document Mr Umunna stressed how British politicians should "open their eyes" and learn more from policy iniatives being undertaken in other countries to tackle the same and similar big challenges to those faced by the UK.

TODO: define component type apester

He said this new agenda can only be pursued through a new progressive party.

The truth is too many progressive people are sitting in parties which, through those parties words and deeds, are no longer true to their values," he said.

"This leads to the inescapable conclusion that our politics needs to be reconfigured to better reflect modern Britain and that it is time for the different progressive political traditions to come together under one roof  a new progressive party.

TIG MPs held talks about becoming a political party earlier this week, with the aim of putting forward candidates at the next General Election.

TIG is formed of eight MPs who left Labour and three who quit the Tories.
T heresa May's bid to force the European Union into last-minute Brexit concessions backfired today by triggering a furious reaction.

Her tactics came under fire from the European Commission, the Irish premier and even Britains own former chief diplomat.

Facing a crushing defeat in the Commons next week, Mrs May tried to put pressure on the other 27 EU leaders by saying their response to her pleas over the backstop would have a big impact on the survival of the withdrawal deal.

But Irelands prime minister Leo Varadkar led an outraged reaction to her tactics, stating that the UK should be offering compromises, not making fresh demands.

I think we have made a lot of compromises already and what is not evident is what the UK government is offering to the European Union and Ireland should they wish us to make any further compromises, he told reporters in Dublin.

TODO: define component type apester

I think it requires a change of approach by the UK government to understand that Brexit is a problem of their own creation. What was agreed was already a compromise. They have failed to secure ratification of this so it should be a question of what they are now willing to offer us. He said he would be happy for the backstop to apply only to Northern Ireland  something Mrs Mays Democratic Unionist Party allies have rejected.

A Commission spokesman pointed out: The EU side has offered ideas on how to give further reassurances regarding the backstop.

A former head of the Foreign Office, Lord Ricketts, warned of a bad mistake after Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt rowed in behind Mrs May. Mr Hunt said future generations would conclude the EU got this moment wrong if it failed to bail out the Prime Minister. He warned on BBC Radio 4s Today programme that an acrimonious Brexit could inject poison into relations for many years.

But Lord Ricketts responded on Twitter: Mr Hunt is making a big mistake if he thinks this transparent blame game is going to change any minds in Europe. In other key developments:

Downing Street admitted it had abandoned trying to pass swathes of Brexit legislation before the supposed exit date of March 29. Around half of 500 to 600 statutory instruments (SIs) are still outstanding, fuelling expectations that Mrs May will need to postpone Brexit regardless of next weeks vote. We are prioritising the important SIs, said a spokeswoman, who insisted vital laws would be passed in time.

Cabinet ministers have been asked to take part in a ring-round of Brexiteers organised by the whips this weekend to plead with them to swallow their objections and back Mrs Mays deal. Her chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, has asked Tory officials to help by approaching MPs they know well.

A Commons committee slammed the Governments strategy, saying it had made the UK side vulnerable to internal division which undermined its own negotiating position with the EU. Committee chair Sir Bill Cash said the withdrawal deal was completely disastrous.

Conservative sources fear the party is facing losses of more than 1,000 seats in Mays local elections if Brexit is delayed, as expected. Some 270 English local councils will go to the polls, delivering a potentially lethal blow to the Prime Minister.

Downing Street said Mrs May was working all weekend from her constituency on Brexit, and had made calls to EU leaders including Portugal, Denmark and Bulgaria. Negotiations were at a critical stage, said her spokeswomen, adding: We are having detailed discussions.

The Prime Minister used a speech in Leave-voting Grimsby to put pressure on EU leaders to give ground over the Irish backstop. Just as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice too, she said. The decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote. But one EU diplomat asked: If she has a message for the EU, why did she go to Grimsby?

Asked if a blame game could backfire, the Prime Ministers spokeswoman said: I wouldnt accept that.

Hopes of a breakthrough faded when Attorney General Geoffrey Cox confirmed that he was not going to Brussels for talks today.

Mr Hunt said on the Today programme that the EU would have failed if the Brexit deal falls. We want to remain the best of friends with the EU. That means getting this agreement through in a way that doesnt inject poison into our relations for many years to come.

But it does need the EU also to be flexible in these negotiations and understand that we now have a very, very clear ask. He added: And frankly I think future generations, if this ends in acrimony, will say that the EU got this moment wrong. And I really hope they dont.

Former farming minister George Eustice, who quit the Government just days ago, claimed the negotiations with Brussels had been bungled. The reason our negotiations to leave the EU have got into trouble is that we have played to their rules, and we have used the familiar tactics of being an EU member when we needed to adopt totally different ones, he told ConservativeHome.
T heresa May has said if Parliament rejects her Brexit deal next week Britain "may never leave the EU".

MPs are due to vote next Tuesday in a new 'meaningful vote' on her Brexit deal.

In a speech in Grimsby today, Mrs May said "no one knows" what will happen if MPs reject her deal.

"Next week MPs in Westminster face a crucial choice: whether to back the Brexit deal or to reject it.

Back it and the UK will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen.

"We may not leave the EU for many months, we may leave without the protections that the deal provides. We may never leave at all."

Theresa May delivers a speech on Brexit in Grimsby / Getty Images

If the Prime Ministers deal is passed, she may still need to extend article 50 in order to make arrangements for Brexit Day.

However, it is unsure what could happen if the vote fails, and will leave Parliament in chaos searching for an alternative in time for March 29.

Any extension to the article 50 process requires unanimous agreement from the rest of the EU.

TODO: define component type apester

The Prime Minister said that rejecting the deal would mean "the only certainty would be ongoing uncertainty.

She also sidestepped questions over whether she would allow Tory MPs to block a no-deal Brexit.

"Months more spent arguing about Brexit when we could be focusing on improving our NHS, our schools and our communities," she said.

Mrs May said discussions with the EU had been "at times difficult and robust" but both sides had worked to get a good deal over the line.

The first meaningful vote, in January, saw the deal rejected by 432 to 202  the largest ever government defeat.

She confirmed she will open the debate in the Commons on Tuesday.

And she added: "Brexit does not belong to MPs in Parliament. It belongs to the whole country. It belongs to the people who voted for it and want to see it implemented so we can all move on to a prosperous future.

"And that more prosperous future also belongs to those who voted against Brexit and who expect politicians to make reasonable compromises to bring our country back together.

"Everyone now wants to get it done, move beyond the arguments, past the bitterness of the debate and out of the EU as a united country ready to make a success of the future."

Her speech came as Irish premier Leo Varadkar said the Government has failed to offer any solutions on the Withdrawal Agreement.

A line of trucks snakes along an access road leading towards the Port of Calais on Wednesday / Leon Neal/Getty Images

Great Grimsby's Labour MP Melanie Onn met Theresa May after her speech but said the Prime Minister needed to move closer to the Opposition's position.

"She must be aware that if she needs to get the deal through and the backstop arrangements are insufficient to secure the support from her back benches, there will need to be movement towards securing more support from Labour members," she told BBC Radio 4's World At One.

Asked if she could back the deal, the shadow housing minister said: "As it stands, no. Nothing has changed from when she brought it forward in January."

Responding to the Prime Minister's speech, the Scottish National Party's Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: "Theresa May must stop passing the buck and take personal responsibility for the Brexit crisis created as a result of her own intransigence.

"The Tory leader's damaging Brexit deal is fundamentally flawed and would be devastating for Scotland - inflicting lasting harm on jobs, living standards, our public services and the economy.
T he most senior Muslim woman in the Commons, Nusrat Ghani MP, has today warned against a two-track system developing for ethnic minority females in the jobs market.

The Transport Minister was the first ever Muslim woman to speak at the despatch box and said she worries that while progress is made in womens representation, those from Pakistani backgrounds  like her own  still face significant hurdles.

In an interview with the Evening Standard on International Womens Day, she said: Studies show that women of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin have the least economic independence in the country: we need to recognise and respond to the fact that even as we try to smash glass ceilings, that some women are only just getting admitted into the room in the first place. We need to ensure that there is not a two-track system in place.

For me, it is about ensuring all women are treated equally regardless of background or perceived cultural differences.

Ms Ghani was the first female Muslim minister to speak from the Commons dispatch box / Matt Writtle

Pakistani and Bangladeshi people in Britain are more likely to be paid below the living wage than any other group, and women from those communities are typically paid less than white British women.

An inquiry by the Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee also found that not all Muslim women who aspire to work or progress in their careers are being supported to make that a reality.

The 46-year-old described taking her own place in political history by speaking at the despatch box in 2018 as a surreal moment as only considered politics as an option for her much later in life.

She said: When I am away from Parliament and with my siblings we still talk about how we arrived in the UK with very little, grew up in a council house in a neighbourhood where brushes with the law were common.

And now their sister has somehow made it to the House of Commons and is making laws. I also never forget that I have had opportunities that were denied to my mother as she never allowed to go to school.

Ms Ghani said no community leaders when she was growing up in Birmingham gave her the belief she could go into politics herself. She was even told how to vote.

Despite Margaret Thatcher and Betty Bothroyd being her political idols, because she did not see another MP like her she did not think it was a career she could follow.

But she adds: Defying low expectations is what shaped my political outlook.

After going to Birmingham City University and taking a masters at Leeds University, she worked for charities and the BBC World Service and joined the Conservative Party in 2009 in her 30s following David Camerons call-out for more diverse candidates.

The very next year she decided to stand as an MP for the first time, in Birmingham Ladywood where she was beaten by Labour. In 2015 she became the MP for Wealden in the South East.

She still worries women are being put off from going into politics due to a lack of representation, and also because the long hours that are difficult for family life.

This week she missed a parents evening, which her husband attended instead, but said the job is always rewarding.

And as for getting more women into politics, she said the Conservatives record on equalities should encourage women to consider involving themselves in politics.

She said: We have a hugely talented slate of female representation but we arent complacent and we want more women to join us. The party has a great record on delivering for women, from tackling the gender pay gap and flexible parental leave, to investing in programmes to helping women return to work. Equality of opportunity is basic conservatism, thats why I am a proud Feminist and Conservative.

I love a picture I have of my mum and my daughter out campaigning, three generations of Ghani women promoting the Conservative party.

On the fact that at the 2017 General Election, 76 percent of non-white voters voted Labour and Sajid Javid being the first person from an Asian background to take one of the Great Offices of State, she said: We have never taken anyones vote for granted and know we have to make the case that Conservatives represent all communities, values and interests.
T he Duchess of Sussex said she doesnt look at Twitter during her first appearance as vice-president of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust on International Womens Day.

Meghan Markle also joked about the movements of her unborn baby, during the panel on female empowerment, but insisted the couple are keeping the babys sex a secret.

The panel, held at Kings College London, also featured Australian former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Model and Gurls Talk founder Adwoa Aboah and pop star campaigner Annie Lennox.

When asked by chairwoman Anne McElvoy "how's the bump treating you?" she replied "very well" and said she had been watching a "documentary about feminism on Netflix and one of the things they said during pregnancy was 'I feel the embryonic kicking of feminism'."

Meghan also told of her feeling the "embryonic kicking of feminism" when discussing her baby bump / EPA

She told the audience: "I loved that - boy or girl, whatever it is, we hope that's the case."

Asked by the panel chairwoman about the selling of feminism to men and boys, Meghan replied: "I've said for a long time you can be feminine and a feminist, you can be masculine.

"And I think in terms of masculinity you understand that your strength includes knowing your vulnerabilities and your sense of self and security, and your confidence comes from knowing a woman by your side, not behind you, is actually something you should not be threatened about - as opposed you should feel really empowered in having that."

Meghan arrives at the event at King's College in London / AP

When asked if she looked at Twitter she replied: "No, sorry no. For me that's my personal preference.

Meghan was asked by the chairwoman how she responded to newspaper headlines describing her feminism as "trendy" and whether it was "water off a duck's back".

The Duchess said: "I don't read anything, it's much safer that way, but equally that's just my own personal preference because I think positive or negative it can all sort of just feel like noise to a certain extent these days, as opposed to getting muddled with that to focus on the real cause.

Model Adwoa Aboah, former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the Duchess of Sussex, journalist Anne McElvoy, Camfed Regional Director Zimbabwe's Angeline Murimirwa and campaigner Chrisann Jarrett before the panel / PA

"So for me I think the idea of making the word feminism trendy, that doesn't make any sense to me personally, right? This is something that is going to be part of the conversation forever."

Her new role is alongside husband Harry, who is president of the body, and the Queen, who is patron.

Her comment comes just days after Buckingham Palace declared war on the trolls who post vile comments on the Royal Familys social media accounts - warning that the worst offenders will be reported to the police.

The Duchess of Sussex visits King's College ahead of spring due date 1 /21 The Duchess of Sussex visits King's College ahead of spring due date Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrives to participate in a panel discussion convened by the Queen's Commonwealth Trust to mark International Women's Day in London AFP/Getty Images Model Adwoa Aboah, the Duchess of Sussex and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard during a panel discussion convened by The Queen's Commonwealth Trust to mark International Women's Day at King's College in Londo PA AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images EPA PA PA AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Model Adwoa Aboah, the Duchess of Sussex and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard during a panel discussion convened by The Queen's Commonwealth Trust to mark International Women's Day at King's College in Londo PA AP AFP/Getty Images PA AFP/Getty Images AP Reuters PA AFP/Getty Images EPA AFP/Getty Images AP

In a rare intervention, senior courtiers published rules for posts in a bid to create a safe environment on all social media channels run by The Royal Family, Clarence House and Kensington Palace.

The move follows growing alarm about the volume of abusive, and in some cases illegal, attacks on members of the Royal Family, many aimed at the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Sussex.

The Palace statement said: We ask that anyone engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities.

The problem is believed to have exploded to unprecedented levels since last Mays royal wedding with palace staff having to spend hours moderating abusive comments, which in the most extreme cases have included threats of violence.

In some cases oddball theories have been peddled by trolls such as claims that Meghan has faked her pregnancy.
T here is still a huge amount of uncertainty surrounding Brexit as the deadline to leave the EU looms ever closer.

One area of concern is travelling to Europe after the UK leaves the bloc, with British holidaymakers and the travel industry worried about the rules post-Brexit especially in the event of no deal.

In such an event, passport regulations will change drastically.

Brits heading to Spain have already been warned they could face five-hour delays, while millions have been told to renew their documents to guarantee travel to Europe.

So in light of this, what would a no deal Brexit look like for British holidaymakers? Here's everything you need to know.

UK to EU flights after Brexit

Will you be able to fly to Europe under a no deal Brexit? / PA

Both the European Commission and the UK government have both offered assurances that flights between the two will operate as normal.

But the commission said it will aim to only "ensure basic connectivity" with the UK.

The UK government said although it hopes EU countries will grant airlines permission to operate in its airspace, it warned that there "could be disruption to some flights".

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has previously said that "uncertainty for travellers and airlines" remains, arguing that a no deal scenario could lead to a cap on flights and higher prices.

Alexandre de Juniac, director general and CEO, said: "But with two months left until Britain leaves the EU, airlines still do not know exactly what kind of Brexit they should be planning for.

"In the small window remaining before Brexit it is imperative that the EU and UK prioritise finding a solution that brings certainty to airlines planning growth to meet demand and to travellers planning business trips and family holidays."

Driving in the EU after Brexit

Official government advice says that you may need an international driving permit to drive in the EU in the event of a no deal scenario.

If you are currently living in the EU with a UK driving licence, it is recommended you get a local EU driving licence before March 29.

After that date you may need to pass a new driving test.

Holidaymakers and businesses intending to use their vehicles on the continent, or anyone crossing the Irish border by road, have also been warned they will need a "Green Card" if a deal is not reached.

Private motorists and companies have been told to contact their insurance providers around a month before they plan to travel to get one or risk breaking the law. The same rules apply to European Economic Area (EEA) motorists travelling to the UK.

Visas for EU countries after Brexit

Will you need a visa to visit the Alps? / Cheval Blanc

The EU confirmed last year that travellers would have to pay seven euros every three years to travel to Schengen countries after Brexit.

Holidaymakers won't need a visa if a deal was agreed, but they will need to apply for the three-year pre-travel authorisation called an ETIAS, which is similar to the scheme used by the USA and only takes minutes to fill out.

This does not count for countries that are part of the EU but not in the Schengen zone.

However, a spokesman said last year that if Britain crashes out of the bloc with no agreement in place to mitigate ensuing disruptions, Britons could require visas.

Booking a European holiday for after March 29 - what are the passport rules in the event of a no deal Brexit?

After March 29, the Home Office advises travellers to have at least six months left on their passports from the date of arrival in the EU.

They also add: "If you renewed a passport before it expired, up to 9 extra months may have been added to your new passports expiry date.

"Any extra months on your passport over 10 years may not count towards the 6 months that should be remaining for travel to most countries in Europe."

This advice applies for travel to and between countries in the Schengen zone, but does not apply when travelling to Ireland. Different rules apply for countries in the EU but not in the Schengen area.

However, aside from this Brexit is not expected to affect holiday plans too drastically.

Downing Street last year moved to dismiss claims that travellers were told not to book holidays after March in the event of a no deal Brexit.

Travel agents' body Abta added: "There is nothing to suggest that you will not be able to continue with your holiday plans after 29 March.
N azanin Zaghari-Ratcliffes husband today said she would get a big lift from being granted diplomatic protection and hopes she may be freed from jail in Iran within months.

Richard Ratcliffe stressed the move had raised her imprisonment from a consular issue into a dispute between two nations.

Now its also the British Governments case and all the injustices that happen to Nazanin are effectively injustices against the British Government, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

He last spoke to his wife on Wednesday and she was a bit more upbeat than shed been before given the talk about her being afforded diplomatic protection, a mechanism not believed to have been used for an individual by the UK for more than 100 years.

Im sure this will give her a big lift, he said.

Nazanin's husband Richard hopes her case could now be resolved within months / PA

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 40, who has suffered from health problems in prison in Tehran, had got very low recently, he added, and went on hunger strike after she was denied treatment.

The mother-of-one from Hampstead, north London, who has dual British/Iranian citizenship, was arrested in April 2016 at Tehran airport and later jailed on spying charges, which she strongly denies.

Stressing her innocence, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt decided to grant the charity worker diplomatic protection to increase pressure on Iran to release her and to ensure she is properly treated in jail.

Nazanin was arrested in Iran on spying charges

It paves the way to bringing a case for reparations at the International Court of Justice, although this could lead to a lengthy legal battle.

So it is more likely the UK will pursue diplomatic avenues including through international bodies to get other nations to support the calls for her freedom.

Probably the first things are to get a doctor in, then weve talked about doing stuff at the UN, then maybe summoning the ambassador, said Mr Ratcliffe.

You cant jump straight into legal action, there are a whole series of things that legally you need to do first before you are entitled to, and thats months away. Hopefully we are not months away from a solution.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe went on hunger strike on January 14 / PA

He also believes it would now be more difficult for Iran to turn down requests for UK officials to visit his wife in prison to check her health.

Iran has denied Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe consular assistance from the UK as it does not recognise her dual citizenship.

Mr Hunt stressed diplomatic protection is unlikely to be a magic wand that leads to an overnight result.

But he added: It sends a very strong message to Iran: You are a great civilisation, you may have disagreements with the UK, but at the heart of this is an innocent woman, vulnerable, unwell and scared and she has a four-year-old daughter. She should not be paying the price for whatever disagreements you have with the UK.

We do want the world to know that the UK will not stand by when our citizens are unjustly treated and we want states to understand that if they use individuals as pawns, then people are not just going to let it go, there is going to be a price to be paid.

Diplomatic protection is separate from diplomatic immunity which protects British diplomats abroad.

Tehran may initially respond negatively to the diplomatic protection move, possibly even saying that it has blighted the chance of an early release for Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

But the hope is that the additional pressure might lead to a more measured, positive response at a later stage.
B ritain today ratcheted up pressure on Iran to free jailed London mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe by granting her diplomatic protection.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced the move which means her imprisonment will be treated as a state-for-state dispute rather than a consular matter.

Diplomatic protection, which is an extremely rarely used mechanism, means that the UK could launch legal action at the International Court of Justice seeking reparations for wrongful detention.

However, it is more likely to pursue, at least initially, diplomatic avenues to pile pressure on Tehran to free Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 40, by mobilising support at the United Nations and through other international bodies.

It is unlikely to be a magic wand that leads to an overnight result, said Mr Hunt.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, pictured with her daughter Gabriella, was arrested in Iran in April 2016 / PA

But it demonstrates to the whole world that Nazanin is innocent and the UK will not stand by when one of its citizens is treated so unjustly.

Britain is not believed to have used diplomatic protection in a case for decades.

It is separate from diplomatic immunity which protects British diplomats abroad.

Mother-of-one Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 at Tehran airport and later jailed on spying charges, which she strongly denies.

Tehran may initially respond negatively to the diplomatic protection move, possibly even saying that it has blighted the chance of an early release for the charity worker, from Hampstead, north London.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt meeting Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's daughter Gabriella

But the hope is that the additional pressure might lead to a more measured, positive response at a latter stage.

Mr Hunt added: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is an innocent woman who has spent the last three years in an Iranian jail, separated from her daughter and husband.

We have been working hard to secure her release but despite repeated efforts have not been successful. We have not even been able to secure her the medical treatment she urgently needs despite assurances to the contrary.

He accused Iran of failing to meets its obligations under international law in the way Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been treated.

Her husband Richard has campaigned for the release of his wife who was in Iran on a holiday to introduce their daughter Gabriella, now four, to her family.

Richard Ratcliffe speaks at a press conference earlier this year (Victoria Jones/PA ) / Victoria Jones/PA

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has gone on hunger strike over her treatment, which includes a lack of access to medical care.

Mr Hunt emphasised that there had also been a lack of due process in the legal proceedings brought against her.

Moderate parts of the Iranian regime, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are believed to be far more open about the case for freeing Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe but to have faced opposition from hardliners.

Mr Hunt emphasised: Iran is one of the oldest civilisations in the world. I know there are many in Iran who understand the unjustness of this situation.

No government should use innocent individuals as pawns for diplomatic leverage so I call on Iran to release this innocent woman so she can be reunited with her family.

Launching legal action is one option for the Government but this could lead to a court battle which could last years.

Iran has denied Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe consular assistance from the UK as it does not recognise her dual British/Iranian citizenship.
A regular one hour nap can lower blood pressure by almost the same amount as taking medication with the same goal, according to new research.

A study by doctors from the Asklepieion General Hospital in Voula found the correlation between napping and the health benefit, the Mail Online reports.

Experts tracked 212 patients with a high blood pressure figure of 130mmHg and found daily napping brought this down by 5mmHg.

This is comparable to medication, which usually does so by 5 to 7mmHg.

"Based on our findings, if someone has the luxury to take a nap during the day, it may also have benefits for high blood pressure," Dr Manolis Kallistratos is quotes as saying in reports.

"Napping can be easily adopted and typically doesnt cost anything. The higher the blood pressure levels, the more pronounced any effort to lower it will appear."

He said even minor reductions in blood pressure can have an impact on health and help to avoid a number of issues such as heart attacks.

He added: "We obviously dont want to encourage people to sleep for hours on end during the day, but on the other hand, they shouldnt feel guilty if they can take a short nap, given the potential health benefits."

High blood pressure can put pressure on the heart and other organs, which can lead to heart disease and strokes.

It is measured with two numbers, the systolic pressure then the diastolic pressure.

The first is the force at which blood is pumped and the latter is the resistance to blood flow.
D onald Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to almost four years in prison for tax and bank fraud.

The financial crimes were uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 US presidential election.

He was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the US government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraine's former pro-Russia government.

A US district judge imposed the sentence of 47 months in prison on Republican political consultant Manafort, 69, during a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday.

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort / REUTERS

The judge said that Manafort "is not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election."

Manafort asked Ellis for mercy and thanked him for conducting a fair trial. He did not express remorse for his actions but talked about how the case has been difficult for him and his family.

He told the court that "to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement." He described his life as "professionally and financially in shambles."

Manafort was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair holding a cane, wearing a green prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the words "Alexandria inmate" on the back.

Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he is pictured alongside his then-campaign manager Paul Manafort in July, 2016 / REUTERS

Prosecutors said Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

His defence team argued he should get a lighter sentence because he had agreed to cooperate with the prosecution after he was convicted.

Manafort faces sentencing in a separate case next Wednesday in Washington on two conspiracy charges to which he pleaded guilty last September.

He is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mueller to have gone to trial.
T im Cook has poked fun at Donald Trump after the president referred to him as Tim Apple in an awkward slip of the tongue.

The Apple CEO, rather than acknowledging the error in person, later quietly altered his Twitter name to Tim Apple.

Mr Cook made the revision using his firms Apple logo after a number of requests from his social media followers.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, seriously should change his name to Tim Apple! Its catchy, one commentator wrote on Twitter.

The President met the tech boss during a meeting at the White House for the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board.

But he slipped up, saying: Youve really put a big investment in our country, we appreciate it very much Tim Apple.

Mr Trump then went on a rant about the invasion of immigrants over the southern border, and human trafficking, which he said had been going on for a million years.

He has previously struggled with names, having called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "Betanyahu, and regularly confuses the names of staff members.

President Trump was widely mocked on social media for the gaffe, with journalist James Kosur commenting: Donald Trump called Tim Cook (Apple's CEO), "Tim Apple" during a White House visit.

His next set of guests include Bill Microsoft, Jack Twitter, Sergey Google, Elon Tesla, and Mark Facebook.
M uch of Venezuela has been plunged into darkness in what appeared to be one of the largest blackouts ever in the country.

The huge power outage, which hit large swathes of the South American nation, sparked chaos as people struggled to navigate their way home on Thursday evening.

It began as commuters were leaving work, with hundreds crammed into the streets of Caracas forced to walk because the subway service was halted.

President Nicolas Maduro blasted the outage as an "electrical war" directed by the United States in a statement on Twitter.

His information minister, Jorge Rodriguez, said right-wing extremists intent on creating pandemonium by leaving the country without power for several days were behind the blackout, but he offered no proof.

"A little bit of patience," Rodriguez urged on state television.

"If you're in your home, stay in your home. If you're in a protected space or at work, it's better for you to stay there."

General view of the city during the blackout in Caracas, Venezuela / REUTERS

The outage came as Venezuela was in the throes of a political struggle between Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, the head of congress who declared himself the nation's rightful president in January and is recognised by the United States and about 50 nations.

Guaido took to Twitter to blast Maduro for the outage. "How do you tell a mom who needs to cook, an ill person who depends on a machine, a worker who should be labouring that we are in a powerful country without electricity?" he wrote.

"Venezuela is clear that the light will return with the end of usurpation."

People get on a bus in Caracas during the blackout / REUTERS

Venezuela's electrical system was once the envy of Latin America but it has fallen into a state of disrepair after years of poor maintenance and mismanagement.

High-ranking officials have been accused in US court proceedings of looting government money earmarked for the electrical system.

The government keeps home power bills exceptionally low - just a couple dollars a month - relying heavily on subsidies from the Maduro administration, with is under increasing financial duress.

State-owned electricity operator Corpoelec blamed the outage on act of "sabotage" at the Guri Dam, one of the world's largest hydroelectric stations and the cornerstone of Venezuela's electrical grid.

Rodriguez described it as a "cyber" attack intended to derail the whole system. He said electricity in Venezuela's eastern region had been restored within two hours.

"What's the intention?" he said. "To submit the Venezuelan people to various days without electricity to attack, to mistreat, so that vital areas would be without power."
A mar Latif learned at the age of four that he would eventually lose his sight to the rare genetic condition retinitis pigmentosa. By 18 he had become almost totally blind.

He has responded to this challenge by turning himself into an entrepreneur, creating a company called Traveleyes which specialises in serving blind travellers, becoming a motivational speaker, and appearing in and presenting TV programmes, including Beyond Boundaries. On his own website, he calls himself The Blind Guy Who Wants to Show You the World.

Little of this is explained in Travelling Blind, in which he simply introduces himself by saying: All my life Ive been exploring our planet, without revealing how this has been possible. This time Im teaming up with the comedian Sara Pascoe  shell be my travel eyes as we head off to Turkey. My aim is to show her that to really see the world, you dont actually need your sight at all.

Pascoe and Latif had not met before undertaking this journey together  but it is inspired casting. For if Latif is outgoing, adventurous and cheery, Pascoe, it becomes clear, is the opposite. For all her jokes and bright clothes, shes nervous, awkward and not adventurous. She doesnt even like scary films or spicy food, she says. She suspects strangers of being murderers, we soon find out.

So they make a perfect odd couple, bold, blind Amar and anxious, seeing Sara, as they explore Istanbul, the remote mountains of eastern Turkey and the extraordinary rock formations of Cappadocia. Hes always up for it  and shes invariably not.

En route to their hotel, they go through Istanbuls bustling Grand Bazaar. While he revels in the experience, all she wants to do is get to her room. This is where life is happening and I want to be part of it, he says. OK, says Sara. I dont know where we are and I dont know where we are going.

The next day Amar explains that when he travels he recruits local eyes through a small ad online. Through the internet? For a stranger? Youre gonna get murdered, Sara remarks. A friendly foodie takes them to a market where theres a fine fish stall. Can you describe some fish, Sara? Amar asks. Corpses, vegan Sara retorts, corpses of the sea. Not very insightful.

But as their journey progresses  taking in an extraordinary oil wrestling festival, with Amar feeling up the bulging chest of a macho champion who doesnt seem to like it much  they come to understand each other a little better.

Admitting that shed just hide away on her own if she ever went blind, Sara asks Amar how he is so positive. He turns a little tearful. As a boy hed been shy but blindness changed him. I just realised that this was it, that I was going blind, and I was so scared. I didnt want to be that blind person. So I just found myself saying yes to this, yes to that. And people always say, Amar youre so positive  and thats why. Because if I dont keep moving, Im going to end up back down in that dark place. And I dont want to go there.

They share a spectacular sunrise over mountains near the Black Sea. This is the most beautiful place Ive ever seen in my life, says Sara, I find it really difficult to describe it, its breathtaking. I dont have words but you could just sit all day and look at it. I wish you could see it. Is that bad? No, says Amar  but then he admits sadly that hes beginning to forget the way things look.
B eing a woman in tech can be difficult. In the UK, only 17 per cent of women make up the UK tech industry, and only a smidge of funding, 2 per cent in fact, goes to female founders.

But at the forefront of championing women in tech and everything theyre doing is accelerateHER, an organisation that is part of the wider Founders Forum network, launched by lastminute.com founded Brent Hoberman.

Led by co-CEOs Poppy Gaye and Laura Stebbing, the organisation aims to address the under-representation of women in tech through a series of initiatives including events and lists like the Inspiring Fifty UK which launched last year.

Were in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution and its critical that women are engaged in this industry right now, Stebbing tells the Standard. Whether thats everything from AI and realising that algorithms are built by humans and imbued with bias  it's vital women are engaged in creating these products.

As part of International Womens Day, we caught up with Gaye and Stebbing in their West London office to find out all about accelerateHER and the boundaries its smashing through for women.

How accelerateHER came to be

Gaye and Stebbing both came to tech through different avenues: Gaye with a background in acting and film production, who also launched a fashion start-up in 2008, whilst Stebbing worked for organisations including the Cherie Blair Foundation  Blair sits on the accelerateHER board.

It was after Gaye began working at Founders Forum with Hoberman, that the lack of women in the industry became apparent. We had access to this amazing network of over 5,000 people across the world, fast-growing companies and well-known CEOs, founders and investors, and we thought, we need to do something about this, she tells the Standard.

AccelerateHER launched at Founders Forum annual event in 2016, four and a half years ago. Stebbing came on board as co-CEO with Gaye after the two met in a meeting.

I knew a good thing when I saw it and I wasnt going to take no for an answer, laughs Gaye.

Its a lean start-up  just three full time employees and an intern, but thanks to its connection with Founders Forum and the huge network that comes with that, an investment firm FirstMinute Capital, the Founders Factory incubator and accelerator programmes, they can get a lot done with such a small team.

Although were early stage in many respects, we have this extraordinary machine behind us of support and this network which was built over 14 years, says Gaye.

From events to Male Champions of Change

One aspect of accelerateHER is the regular events it holds throughout the year to champion women in the industry. The invite-only, free events bring together top investors, CEOs and figures in the industry to introduce them to amazing women.

Were really lucky to have had some amazing speakers in the last few years, says Gaye. Sheryl Sandberg did our opening address, Marissa Mayer literally left her job at Yahoo, got on a plane and came to speak.

Theyve held events in London, Tel Aviv, New York and Germany, as a way to tap into the different pockets of talent around the world.

Yet its not just about events and meetings, though these do help to facilitate connections amongst the attendees.

Last year, accelerateHER launched a Male Champions of Change (MCC) strategy alongside 15 global tech companies to advance gender equality, at Intel Capitals global summit. The initiative was first started by Australias former sex discrimination commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, with a focus on how the support of men can champion women. The accelerateHER team are working alongside Broderick and the MCC Institute to lead the global tech arm of the initiative.

Many male leaders in tech came to us saying, I get the bottom line that my company will do better if I invest in women and theres a moral imperative, but how do I do it? explains Stebbing.

Stebbing and Gaye with the Male Champions of Change global tech group in Davos earlier this year (AccelerateHER ) / AccelerateHER

The likes of Hoberman, the BBCs Lord Tony Hall, Intel senior VP and president of Intel Capital Wendell Brooks, and YOOX Net-a-Porter Group CEO and chairman Federico Marchetti are all part of the tech MCC group, which met for the first time at Davos earlier this year.

They spent the last few months doing a listening and learning exercise within their organisations, looking at leadership in relation to gender, doing focus groups to listen in and [hear] the barriers, says Stebbing.

Its extraordinary to have them listening to people, adds Gaye. One of them is a multi-national company with employees all over the world and the CEO said I had no idea this was happening in one of these territories and as a result, they changed their entire strategy around that.

Its quite intimidating to acknowledge there are issues and to do so openly. Its not an easy topic [but] its a safe haven to talk transparently. Nothing will change unless you can acknowledge where your issues are.

Last year, accelerateHER also launched the inaugural Inspiring Fifty UK list  a group of 50 inspiring women in the tech industry, in partnership with the diversity non-profit Inspiring Fifty.

People can always name Natalie Massanet and Martha Lane Fox, but actually what about these other amazing women that are not known about, explains Stebbing.

They hope to release a new Inspiring Fifty list every few years, with the next planned for 2020, as a way to highlight whats going on in the women in tech space.

From 2016 to now: how is the conversation changing?

Last December, venture fund Atomico's State of European Tech report revealed that of all the funds raised by European VC-backed companies in 2018, 93 per cent went to all-male teams. One stat from Pitchbook is even worse: in the US, all female founders raised $10 billion less in funding than the amount one e-cigarette company, Juul, took in by itself.

Yet, change is coming. Stebbing and Gaye both note that more female-focused VC funds are cropping up such as Jane VC, and welcomed the recent arrival of Backstage Capital in London, a US-based fund which invests only in start-ups led by people from diverse backgrounds.

Its frustrating that women are not getting the investment they need and start-ups arent getting the attention, but its positive that things are being set up to address this, says Stebbing.

When it comes to funding, its not just money on the table where women can be short-changed, but also in the set up of investments. One thing Stebbing is keen to talk about is cap tables, a document which demonstrates the ownership stakes each founder has in the company.

When it comes to equity, women hold 33 per cent, compared to men which hold 67 per cent. This has a major impact on the start-up network: typically when a company is sold and founders exit, they will take their money and start other companies or invest in new start-ups. If women are exiting with fewer funds than men, then they dont have the same spending power in the industry.

I mentioned this the other day at a talk with three female founders and they said oh, I havent looked at my cap table, says Stebbing. I think that if were looking at how to address the inequality in the system, thats a really important place to start.

The next steps for accelerateHER include continuing its events and leading the charge with MCC.

The feeling in the room is of such positive support, enthusiasm, and excitement, Gaye says of accelerateHER events. And not like, 'oh look, a women whos successful, what a surprise'. Its more, of course she is.
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One of the most reputed minstrels of the central County of Mures, Rafila Moldovan from the Idicel de Padure village, who has turned her home into a museum clustering the most important ethnographic assets of the Mures village, was awarded the "Living Human Treasure" title on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and National Identity (MCIN).

Rafila Moldovan who will turn 80 this 19 October has arranged together with her son in a small cottage in her courtyard a museum where she preserved several items bringing to mind the life of the old village: folk costumes, household items from dowry boxes to jar-heated irons, items used for wool carding or to preapring the loom, to the traditional wooden goat young people once carried when caroling.

A part of the items in the museum-cottage belonged to her mother and grandmother, others she just saved ahead of being burnt by the village people, some were donated to her, while other items she simply bought."Such things are hard to find because people have given them to ashes. Now, if I ask anybody for an item, they ask me for money, but if they intend to trow it away they need nothing for it. They'd better burn those items! Many beautiful things were burnt in this village! I loved them and didn't wreck them (...) It didn't take long to collect all these things, many I have woven myself, while these are from my mother. Many of these items were stored by my mother in a large box and hidden underneath the bed, during wartime. At the end of the war, they were brought to light (...) Nobody is sewing today such folk costumes, now everybody is on the phone," said Rafila Moldovan.She added her soul is bound to each of the items in the museum-cottage, as tiny and insignificant as it might seem, since each has a story, personal or of the village."I've noticed all things decay and I was so sorry when seeing that the people throw away clothes and put them on fire. It broke my heart. I remember the moment my mother dug up the clothes from the large box, at the end of the war, perhaps the reason why I love so much the skirt I wear. This one belonged to my grandmother, to my mother, it is over 150 years old. My mother taught us to take care of them, she used to say take care of them, do not ruin them, because they are so hard to make.' If not taken care of, they could not last that much time," aunt Rafila said.Recently, the Targu Mures Ethnography and Folk Art Museum presented Rafila Moldovan with the Ethnographic Cultural Merit title, collector, folk craftsperson and minstrel, for her involvement in salvaging and promoting the Romanian traditional costume in this area.Aunt Rafila, who became a widow at only 36, and having three little children, is one of the most reputed and beloved folk minstrels of the Mures County, who is volunteering in saving the Romanian folk costumes of the Upper Mures Valley. Obviously, these efforts didn't make her popular, the villagers are envious of her and most of the time isolate her.Aunt Rafila says she is accustomed to being appreciated "only from Brancovenesti onwards", meaning from 10 km away from her village whose culture she has rescued.Her merit is even greater as she managed to rescue and proudly wear a skirt over 150 years old that was witness to two World Wars and all of the tragedies they've brought about.
Romania has come a long way in promoting gender equality in the economy, but there are still many aspects that need improvement, European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu conveyed on Thursday evening at the "Women in Economy" Gala, organised by the National Confederation for Female Entrepreneurs (CONAF) and the Capital Media Production according to Agerpres.

"The fact that this evening a large number of successful business women are present in the same place it means that Romania has come a long way in promoting gender equality in the economy. However, we all know well that there are many things still to be improved, if we were to take into account how many women occupy high positions or leadership positions in businesses, politics or public administration, not just in Romania, but in various EU member states," the video message conveyed by Corina Cretu informs.

The European Commissioner brought to mind that women are intensely supported at the level of the EU programmes.Thus, Commissioner Cretu brought to mind that companies owned by women are actively promoted at the EU level.The European official mentioned the amount earmarked to Romania by the European Commission in order to promote programmes supporting female entrepreneurs.She underscored that the observance of equal opportunities between women and men represents a fundamental value of the European Union.
The Romanian Presidency at the Council of the European Union Council has proved to be efficient and of quality, highly praised by all European partners, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said on Friday, adding that 67 files on the agenda have been closed according to Agerpres.

She presented a review of the first two months of Romania's tenure of the six-month rotating Presidency of the EU Council, at the Government House in Bucharest.

"The European Community means a better life for hundreds of millions of citizens, social security and cohesion, guaranteed rights and freedoms. They are the guiding principles of our actions, which continue to inspire us in holding the presidency. The Romanian Government, its members and the Permanent Representation have acted with professionalism and responsibility, and, in just two months, we obtained results that other Presidencies didn't get throughout their entire mandate," Dancila said.In her view, that demonstrates "how unfounded the attacks and the gloomy forecasts launched before the takeover of this tenure were, and those who did it acted for purely electoral reasons, without worrying that they put Romania in an unfavorable light externally.""Despite these attacks, we have proved an efficient tenure and of quality, highly praised by all European partners. The Romanians can be proud of all the high-level meetings that we have had during this period; Romania has been congratulated on its exceptional way to handle the heavy files on the table," Viorica Dancila stated.She said that since the takeover of the mandate, 650 events and meetings have been organised in Bucharest and Brussels, attended by 2,600 delegates.
Presidential adviser Cosmin Marinescu on Friday said Parliament ought to provide Romania with a credible, well-founded national budget, built on solid bases that will not burden up the Romanians' economic future and that will guarantee stability, predictability and prosperity for all Romanians in the years to come according to Agerpres.

At a news briefing at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, he criticised the fact that the 2019 national budget under the ceiling regulations, provides for structural adjustments only in 2021, "which indicates that the Government, missing solutions, keeps postponing its pledged commitments.".

"Regarding the budget deficit, the budget bill ignores a number of provisions in the Fiscal-Budgetary Responsibility Law, those on the medium-term budgetary objective, those concerning the measures to be taken in case of temporary deviations of the deficit, as is currently the case with Romania. The deficit ratio of 2.76pct of the GDP, shows that the adjustment against the year 2018 is practically non-existent. That violates the EU recommendation of November 27, 2018, referring to the procedure of significant deviation of the public deficit, a recommendation stipulating a structural adjustment of 1pct of the GDP in 2019," Marinescu said.He also criticised the appropriations for the social protection system."The 2019 budget bill provides for a fundamental change, it is a governmental scheming regarding the funding of the child protection system, centres for people with disabilities and the system for the protection of people with disabilities. All these social services were transferred from the national budget to the budgets of the local administrations. The government's scheming means an extra bill of about 2.5 billion lei to be footed by the local public administrations from their own revenues, money that could have been used for investment and for the development of local communities," Marinescu said.In his opinion, the social security services transferred to the local administrations requires expenditures of about 6.5 billion lei in 2019 nationwide. "Under the budget bill, the funding sources are made up of Value Added Tax (VAT) revenues for balancing local budgets and own revenues of the local administrations, but VAT rebalancing amounts for 2019 increase by only 4 billion lei compared with the previous year," Marinescu added.
Presidential Advisor Cosmin Marinescu presented on Friday at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace a review of the state budget on 2019, arguing that the Government's macroeconomic forecasts are "excessively optimistic," budget revenues are "over-estimated" and based on promises, while expenditure are "underestimated" and have "deliberate negative" adjustments according to Agerpres.

According to Marinescu, the macroeconomic forecasts are "excessively optimistic" and there are "risks in terms of the stability of public finance". He added that 5.5% economic growth is not a "responsible" prognosis, as Romania's partner economies in the EU are facing problems.

The Presidential Adviser said that the revenues mentioned in the budget are "on paper" and "will not be collected in reality", resulting in "sources of expenditure being uncertain, ungrounded."Cosmin Marinescu also drew attention to the fact that the forecasts are made before the adoption of Ordinance No.114 and the international rating agencies forecast a "slowdown in economic dynamics."In his opinion, budget revenues are "over-estimated" by 10 billion lei, or 1% of the GDP, which is "very much".According to government documents, the Adviser also said that tax revenues of 7.5 billion lei are 'based on promises'.At the same time, spending is "underestimated" and "deliberate negative adjustments, as could be the case for pensions", the budget for this chapter being reduced by 1.4 billion lei.The Presidency asks the Government to "make sure that the amounts for pensions are included in the budget for the entire year."Marinescu believes that another underestimation is Romania's contribution to the EU budget, reduced by 500 million lei "without explanation."He argued that the budget for investments is low, with local authorities worth more than one billion lei.
The shares held by the state in 28 companies will participate in the share capital of the Sovereign Development and Investment Fund (FSDI), representing a contribution in kind worth 10,112 billion lei, according to a draft Government Decision published by the Ministry of Public Finance.

The total share capital of FSDI is initially set at 19,112 billion lei and consists of a cash contribution of 9 billion lei coming from privatization revenues and a contribution in kind represented by nominative stock packages worth 10,112 billion lei, held by the state within the 28 economic operators.

The shares held by the state will make up the FSDI capital in the following companies: Engie Romania, Electrica, Delgaz Grid, E.ON Energie Romania, Chimcomplex, OMV Petrom, Telekom Romania Communications, Romanian Lottery, IAR, Oil Terminal, Romgaz, Hidroelectrica, Bucharest Airports National Company, Nuclearelectrica, National Imprimeria, Conpet, Timisoara International Airport Traian Vuia, Spa Treatment and Recovery Society TBRCM, Danube River Basin Administration, National Company for Boiler Control, Lifting Pressure Vessels' Company, Cuprumin Abrud, National Salt Society, Romaero, Constanta Ports Maritime Administration, Navigable Canal Administration, Antibiotics and Unifarm National Company.The Chamber of Deputies adopted the Law on the Establishment of the Sovereign Development and Investment Fund - SA in its meeting on 6 June 2018 as a decision-making chamber. The legislative act was, however, declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court on 18 July 2018, given the individual character of the law and the fact that, according to Law no. 15/1990 on the reorganization of the state economic units as autonomous administrations and commercial companies, "the economic units of republican interest are organized as commercial companies through a Government decision."
Gender equality between men and women is a principle that significantly increases the economic efficiency of companies, said the participants in a specialized forum organized in Bucharest on Friday.

In this context, Swedish Ambassador Anneli Lindahl Kenny explained the economic benefits of promoting gender equality.

Gender equality is a fundamental human right, and gender discrimination affects the structure of society and devalues us all. Gender inequality is also a huge waste of the potential of women. Achieving an equal society from gender viewpoint makes economic sense. Since the 1970s Sweden has greatly subsidized high quality childcare. (...) We have noticed that in Romania gender issues are more traditional, and one rarely sees fathers who are on paternal leave. We must ensure that women participate fully and have equal rights in leadership and decision-making positions in political, economic and public life. We must adopt strong policies in promoting gender equality and also make sure that women have power at all levels, said Sweden's representative in Bucharest.She called for bridging the gender gap between men and women.On the same subject, Eugen Crai, Ambassador of the Charter of Diversity in Romania, explained the advantages of joining this organization. He also pointed out that Romania ranks 25th among the 28 EU member states in the classification of the Gender Equality Index.Ambassadors, bank directors or from other multinational companies in Romania, mostly women, participated on Friday in the forum titled "Equality is Better for Everyone," an event organized by Ikea.
President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani on Friday sent George Ciamba, Romanian Minister-delegate of European Affairs and President-in-Office of the Council of the EU, the official letter announcing that Laura Codruta Kovesi is the EP's candidate for the position of European Chief Prosecutor and also informs him of the composition of the negotiation team of the community legislature in the future discussions with the Council.

Tajani announced the sending of the letter on Twitter, which he also posted on his official EP President's account.

Laura Codruta Kovesi is the @Europarl_EN candidate for the European Public Prosecutor's Office. She has all the qualities needed to do a very good job. We need more exemplary women as she is in leadership positions, posted Tajani on his Twitter account.In the letter, Tajani brings to mind that, in accordance with the rules in force, Parliament and the Council shall appoint by common accord the European Chief Prosecutor for a non-renewable 7-year term, starting from a short list of qualified candidates drawn up by the selection committee of the EPPO.The EP president also reminds that following a joint hearing in the EP Committee on Civil Liberties and Budgetary Control on 26 February, Laura Codruta Kovesi outperformed her counterparts Jean-Francois Bohnert (France) and Andres Ritter (Germany) in the number of votes.At the meeting on 7 March, the Conference of Presidents decided that Ms Laura Codruta Kovesi is the candidate of Parliament and mandated a team of three negotiators (...) to support this position in the forthcoming discussions with the Council on the appointment of the European Chief Prosecutor, the letter further mentions.The three MEPs mandated to negotiate with the Council of the EU on this file are the British Claude Moraes (Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats), the chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), German MEP Ingeborg Grassle (the European People's Party - EPP), chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) and Dutch MEP Judith Sargentini (Greens), Vice-Chair of LIBE.
This week the head of Ukrainian armed forces Viktor Muzhenko claimed that Russia was prepping a massive invasion of his country with up to 80,000 troops. Such incendiary claims have been made before by Kiev, only to be proven false over and over.

How is that such a reckless regime is not hauled before an international court for incitement against peace owing to its crazed claims? Of course, because it is patronized by Washington and European allies who are not exactly averse to incitement against peace as can be seen with regard to Venezuela, Syria and countless other countries.

Another twist this week in the tortuous Russians are coming scaremongering fable were Ukrainian media claims that eight Russian submarines were spotted in the Azov Sea. Presumably that lurid vignette was intended to amplify public fears of a naval offensive in conjunction with the alleged mass troop invasion from north, east and south.

However, by way of illustrating the absurdity of the submarine armada story, several observers pointed out that the Azov Sea only has a maximum depth of 13 meters. How such a shallow body of water is supposed to accommodate eight subs would be a feat that defies physics. The only realm that could contain such a number is that of a fevered imagination.

All the latest warmongering hysteria comes as presidential elections loom in Ukraine where the incumbent Petro Poroshenko is staring at the prospect of a drubbing defeat. Poroshenko, who came to power following the 2014 CIA-backed coup detat in Kiev, is trailing in the polls behind two other candidates.

Significantly, those candidates, TV personality Vladimir Zelensky and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, are indicating that they are open to negotiations with Russia to resolve the ongoing crisis that Ukraine was plunged into following the 2014 coup.

Neither Zelensky nor Tymoshenko are friendly towards Russia. They both espouse continuing a political direction of closer association with the European Union and NATO. Nevertheless, both candidates seem savvy enough to realize that the policy of irrational hostility towards Russia must be at least tamped down for the sake of Ukrainian national well-being.

By contrast, Poroshenko, an oligarchic figure who gained his wealth from chocolate manufacture, has shored up his presidency by shamelessly playing up Russophobia and baseless fears of military invasion of Ukraine by Russia. But during his office, Ukraine has descended into economic chaos as well as being racked by a frozen conflict with breakaway self-declared republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Poroshenko has also become tainted with the stench of financial corruption. It is claimed that some of his close associates made huge monetary fortunes through illegal graft and smuggling of weapons parts  ironically, from Russia  a country which Poroshenko has relentlessly sought to demonize as an enemy of Ukraine.

All in all, the hard-pressed Ukrainian populace seems to have grown extremely weary and contemptuous of President Poroshenko.

It is this context that would account for the latest scaremongering by the Kiev regime. In a bid to rally people around the flag in the defense of the fatherland, the wild claims about a Russian invasion obviously serve to bolster Poroshenkos tarnished image and faltering re-election chances.

The truly shameful thing is that this warmongering hysteria has been going on for the past five years. Time and again, Poroshenko and the Kiev regime have sounded sensational alarms to the EU and the US over an alleged imminent Russian invasion.

In November, following the Kerch Incident in which three Ukrainian naval vessels were apprehended by Russia for a provocative incursion, Poroshenko was demanding that NATO forces should be deployed immediately because his country was coming under attack from Russia. If he had been heeded, the result could have been World War III erupting.

Petro and his ilk in Kiev are like the little boy in Aesops fable who continually cried wolf. They have told so many lies concerning Russia and alleged aggression, no-one can possibly find any credence in anything they utter.

This weeks unhinged warmongering towards Russia was more classic ropey routine from the bankrupt Kiev regime and its futile president.

The mess that Ukraine finds itself in will not be easily fixed even if its citizens vote for a new face. Thats because Russophobia has become a staple of Kiev politics under the patronage of Washington and the EU. Billions of dollars of IMF loans and military support from NATO have recklessly encouraged a reactionary, rightwing, anti-Russia political mindset.

Instead of continually indulging the Kiev regime, the EU and NATO should be censuring its provocations against peace and stability in Europe  if, that is, those Atlanticist organizations were genuinely concerned to uphold peace and security.

Poroshenkos political downfall may bring some respite in relations between Ukraine and Russia. But there is little sign for a full-fledged normalization under the present Western-indulged politics of that blighted country. That is a matter of poignant regret for most ordinary Russians and Ukrainians who share so much common historical and cultural heritage.
At any given moment there are mass protests happening somewhere for some reason. Whether the protestors have a legitimate call to arms is a very delicate question. However for the Mainstream Media things are much more black and white and this narrative is a critical component of each and every Color Revolution.

Over the last few months a protest movement has sparked up in Serbia and we are going to take a look at this via the mainstream media coverage of it. The actual motivations behind it (although proving motivation beyond a reasonable doubt is impossible) do not matter so much as what the media declares them to be. The Mainstream Media creates a narrative about the movement in order to either motivate us to sympathize with those in the streets (thus legitimizing them) or to be repulsed and afraid of them (thus blocking any chance of legitimacy). Ignoring the obvious and hoping it goes away is a common third option.

You will see this dynamic in action if we take a look at the BBCs breakdown of the protests

Thousands of demonstrators in Serbia have rallied for the fifth week against President Aleksandar Vucic. Protesters say the president has seized control of the media and launched attacks on the opposition and journalists. An attack on opposition politician Borko Stefanovic by unknown assailants in November triggered the marches. Opposition umbrella group Alliance for Serbia (SZS) says they were supporters of Mr Vucic  a claim authorities deny.

At a quick glance this may seem very neutral but the first words of the article make a very bold hint to the subconscious of the reader. First off, the BBC makes it clear that the protestors are just normal Serbian citizens, when in fact all protests are organized and the more successful ones are organized by professional activists. Thousands of normal people on their own dont just drop their lives for two months to walk around with signs in the hope of making some abstract changes. Even if the masses agree with the protestors there is no way to prove this.

The next form of manipulation is that the BBC and no other media outlet offers any other motives for the attack on Stefanovic other than protestors say Vucics guys did it, which essentially tells the reader that Vucic is guilty. There is no alternative and if anyone who supports you does a crime then you are guilty even if you have millions of supporters from all walks of life and levels of sanity.

Next if we take a look at Euronewss situation breakdown then we can see that there is more Color Revolution language.

What are their (the protestors) demands? They demand more media freedom and more coverage of opposition groups by the public broadcaster as well as an end to attacks on journalists and opposition figures.

This is something that sounds nice and reasonable at first, but is actually impossible to implement because it is not a concrete demand. No matter what a government does the opposition could always claim that it is not enough.

For example, if the government in Country X banned Product Y and the population was organized to march to change the law then the government could legalize Product Y and the protestors would get what they want and go home. As long as the government did not look weak during this reversal on position this would pose no threat to causing a Color Revolution. That is why concrete demands are horrible if you want a regime change.

So how can make media freedom into a concrete demand? How many opposition members are needed in Serbias media and in what capacity would be freedom? I am sure Serbia has a few Neo-Nazis, Satanists and NAMBLA members in the hills somewhere, do they need access to the media too, they are opposition groups after all, right?

Euronews continues their breakdown

Vucic, who has served as president of Serbia since May 2017, became known for his nationalist stance following the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992.

In EU-speak being called a nationalist basically means you are a hardcore Hitlerian Nazi. (Deutsche Welle called him Ultranationalistic, meaning he is definitely an Ultra Nazi) Furthermore this text is placed a few lines above a picture of Vucic standing next to Vladimir Putin. This drives home the portrayal of him as the bad guy aligned with the Evil Putin. This photo is of some relevance as the protests did spark up around the time of a visit by the Russian President, but then again if you do a Google search for pictures of Vucic you can see him shaking hands with Xi, Trump and Merkel who all hold very different ideological views. They could have shown him in this article with the Angel I, the Queen of EU, but they chose the KGB dark Tsar instead on purpose.

Deutsche Welle early in the article mentioned above lays out the protestors supposed motivations in a very clear Color Revolution tone.

what they called a climate of political violence created by Vucic and his Serbian Progressive Party

One would think that journalists, when hearing an accusation of a climate of violence would try to present the evidence regarding said violence but DW just sort of lets it fly to the readers that there is some kind of conditions for brutality somewhere, that are somehow consciously caused by one man  The President of Serbia. Violence is very easy to measure, an abstract climate of violence is not and therefore it is good Color Revolution rhetoric  you can accuse the enemy of widespread violence even if there is no actual violence.

DW continues their journalism by writing

A group of opposition leaders last week drafted an agreement with the citizens listing their next steps, including not to take part in an election until the conditions for a free and fair vote are met.

If the people on Vucics side who are also activists made an agreement with the citizens would that also bear some sort of legitimacy? DW makes no effort to question by what authority the protestors assume they represent the masses of the nation. Every Mainstream Media outlet writes that there are thousands of protestors, yet thousands of people in any country that is not a tiny island are a small percent of the population at best.

So what we can see is that across the board is the European Mainstream Media is saying.
The Syrian National News Agency headlined on February 26th, Gold deal between United States and Daesh (Daesh is ISIS) and reported that,

Information from local sources said that US army helicopters have already transported the gold bullions under cover of darkness on Sunday [February 24th], before transporting them to the United States.

The sources said that tens of tons that Daesh had been keeping in their last hotbed in al-Baghouz area in Deir Ezzor countryside have been handed to the Americans, adding up to other tons of gold that Americans have found in other hideouts for Daesh, making the total amount of gold taken by the Americans to the US around 50 tons, leaving only scraps for the SDF [Kurdish] militias that serve them [the US operation].

Recently, sources said that the area where Daesh leaders and members have barricaded themselves in, contains around 40 tons of gold and tens of millions of dollars.

Allegedly, US occupation forces in the Syrian al-Jazeera area made a deal with Daesh terrorists, by which Washington gets tens of tons of gold that the terror organization had stolen, in exchange for providing safe passage for the terrorists and their leaders from the areas in Deir Ezzor where they are located.

ISIS was financing its operations largely by the theft of oil from the oil wells in the Deir Ezzor area, Syrias oil-producing region, and they transported and sold this stolen oil via their allied forces, through Turkey, which was one of those US allies trying to overthrow Syrias secular Government and install a Sunni fundamentalist regime that would be ruled from Riyadh (i.e., controlled by the Saud family). This gold is the property of the Syrian Government, which owns all that oil and the oil wells, which ISIS had captured (stolen), and then sold. Thus, this gold is from sale of that stolen black-market oil, which was Syrias property.

The US Government claims to be anti-ISIS, but actually didnt even once bomb ISIS in Syria until Russia started bombing ISIS in Syria on 30 September 2015, and the US had actually been secretly arming ISIS there so as to help ISIS and especially Al Qaeda (and the US was strongly protecting Al Qaeda in Syria) to overthrow Syrias secular and non-sectarian Government. Thus, whereas Russia started bombing ISIS in Syria on 30 September 2015, America (having become embarrassed) started bombing ISIS in Syria on 16 November 2015. The US Governments excuse was This is our first strike against tanker trucks, and to minimize risks to civilians, we conducted a leaflet drop prior to the strike. They pretended it was out of compassion  not in order to extend for as long as possible ISISs success in taking over territory in Syria. (And, under Trump, on the night of 2 March 2019, the US rained down upon ISIS in northeast Syria the excruciating and internationally banned white phosphorous to burn ISIS and its hostages alive, which Trumps predecessor Barack Obama had routinely done to burn alive the residents in Donetsk and other parts of eastern former Ukraine where voters had voted more than 90% for the democratically elected Ukrainian President whom Obamas coupin Ukraine had replaced. It was a way to eliminate some of the most-undesired voters  people who must never again be voting in a Ukrainian national election, not even if that region subsequently does become conquered by the post-coup, US-imposed, regime. The land there is wanted; its residents certainly are not wanted by the Obama-imposed regime.) Americas line was: Russia just isnt as compassionate as America. Zero Hedge aptly headlined Get Out Of Your Trucks And Run Away: US Gives ISIS 45 Minute Warning On Oil Tanker Strikes. Nobody exceeds the United States Government in sheer hypocrisy.

The US Government evidently thinks that the public are fools, idiots. Americas allies seem to be constantly amazed at how successful that approach turns out to be.

Indeed, on 28 November 2012, Syria News headlined Emir of Qatar & Prime Minister of Turkey Steal Syrian Oil Machinery in Broad Daylight and presented video allegedly showing it (but unfortunately providing no authentication of the date and locale of that video).

Jihadists were recruited from throughout the world to fight against Syrias secular Government. Whereas ISIS was funded mainly by black-market sales of oil from conquered areas, the Al-Qaeda-led groups were mainly funded by the Sauds and other Arab royal families and their retinues, the rest of their aristocracy. On 13 December 2013, BBC headlined Guide to the Syrian rebels and opened There are believed to be as many as 1,000 armed opposition groups in Syria, commanding an estimated 100,000 fighters. Except in the Kurdish areas in Syrias northeast, almost all of those fighters were being led by Al Qaedas Syrian Branch, al-Nusra. Britains Center on Religion & Politics headlined on 21 December 2015, Ideology and Objectives of the Syrian Rebellion and reported: If ISIS is defeated, there are at least 65,000 fighters belonging to other Salafi-jihadi groups ready to take its place. Almost all of those 65,000 were trained and are led by Syrias Al Qaeda (Nusra), which was protected by the US

In September 2016 a UK official FINAL REPORT OF THE TASK FORCE ON COMBATING TERRORIST AND FOREIGN FIGHTER TRAVEL asserted that, Over 25,000 foreign fighters have traveled to the battlefield to enlist with Islamist terrorist groups, including at least 4,500 Westerners. More than 250 individuals from the United States have also joined. Even just 25,000 (that official lowest estimate) was a sizable US proxy-army of religious fanatics to overthrow Syrias Government.

On 26 November 2015, the first of Russias videos of Russias bombing ISIS oil trucks headed into Turkey was bannered at a US military website Russia Airstrike on ISIS Oil Tankers, and exactly a month later, on 26 December 2015, Britains Daily Express headlined WATCH: Russian fighter jets smash ISIS oil tankers after spotting 12,000 at Turkish border. This article, reporting around twelve thousand ISIS oil-tanker trucks heading into Turkey, opened: The latest video, released by the Russian defence ministry, shows the tankers bunched together as they make their way along the road. They are then blasted by the fighter jet. The US military had nothing comparable to offer to its news-media. Britains Financial Times headlined on 14 October 2015, Isis Inc: how oil fuels the jihadi terrorists. Only Americas allies were involved in this commerce with ISIS  no nation that supported Syrias Government was participating in this black market of stolen Syrian goods. So, its now clear that a lot of that stolen oil was sold for gold as Syrias enemy-nations means of buying that oil from ISIS. Theyd purchase it from ISIS, but not from Syrias Government, the actual owner.

On 30 November 2015 Israels business-news daily Globes News Service bannered Israel has become the main buyer for oil from ISIS controlled territory, report, and reported:

An estimated 20,000-40,000 barrels of oil are produced daily in ISIS controlled territory generating $1-1.5 million daily profit for the terrorist organization. The oil is extracted from Dir A-Zur in Syria and two fields in Iraq and transported to the Kurdish city of Zakhu in a triangle of land near the borders of Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Israeli and Turkish mediators come to the city and when prices are agreed, the oil is smuggled to the Turkish city of Silop marked as originating from Kurdish regions of Iraq and sold for $15-18 per barrel (WTI and Brent Crude currently sell for $41 and $45 per barrel) to the Israeli mediator, a man in his 50s with dual Greek-Israeli citizenship known as Dr. Farid. He transports the oil via several Turkish ports and then onto other ports, with Israel among the main destinations.

After all, Israel too wants to overthrow Syrias secular, non-sectarian Government, which would be replaced by rulers selected by the Saud family, who are the US Governments main international ally.

On 9 November 2014, when Turkey was still a crucial US ally trying to overthrow Syrias secular Government (and this was before the failed 15 July 2016 US-backed coup-attempt to overthrow and replace Turkeys Government so as to impose an outright US stooge), Turkey was perhaps ISISs most crucial international backer. Tayyip Erdogan, Turkeys leader, had received no diploma beyond k-12, and all of that schooling was in Sunni schools and based on the Quran. (He pretended, however, to have a university diploma.) On 15 July 2015, AWD News headlined Turkish Presidents daughter heads a covert medical corps to help ISIS injured members. On 2 December 2015, a Russian news-site headlined Defense Ministry: Erdogan and his family are involved in the illegal supply of oil; so, the Erdogan family itself was religiously committed to ISISs fighters against Syria, and they were key to the success of the US operation against Syrians  theft from Syrians. The great investigative journalist Christof Lehmann, who was personally acquainted with many of the leading political figures in Africa and the Middle East, headlined on 22 June 2014, US Embassy in Ankara Headquarter for ISIS War on Iraq  Hariri Insider, and he reported that the NATO-front the Atlantic Council had held a meeting in Turkey during 22-23 of November 2013 at which high officials of the US and allied governments agreed that they were going to take over Syrias oil, and that they even were threatening Iraqs Government for its not complying with their demands to cooperate on overthrowing Syrias Government. So, behind the scenes, this conquest of Syria was the clear aim by the US and all of its allies.

The US had done the same thing when it took over Ukraine by a brutal coup in February 2014: It grabbed the gold. Iskra News in Russian reported, on 7 March 2014, that At 2 a.m. this morning  an unmarked transport plane was on the runway at Borosipol Airport near Kiev in the west, and that, According to airport staff, before the plane came to the airport, four trucks and two Volkswagen minibuses arrived, all the truck license plates missing. This was as translated by Michel Chossudovsky at Global Research headlining on 14 March, Ukraines Gold Reserves Secretly Flown Out and Confiscated by the New York Federal Reserve? in which he noted that, when asked, A spokesman for the New York Fed said simply, Any inquiry regarding gold accounts should be directed to the account holder. The load was said to be more than 40 heavy boxes. Chossudovsky noted that, The National Bank of Ukraine (Central Bank) estimated Ukraines gold reserves in February to be worth $1.8 billion dollars. It was allegedly 36 tons. The US, according to Victoria Nuland (Obamas detail-person overseeing the coup) had invested around $5 billion in the coup. Was her installed Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk cleaning out the nations gold reserves in order to strip the nation so that the nations steep indebtedness for Russian gas would never be repaid to Russias oligarchs? Or was he doing it as a payoff for Nulands having installed him? Or both? In any case: Russia was being squeezed by this fascist Ukrainian-American ploy.

On 14 November 2014, a Russian youtube headlined In Ukraine, there is no more gold and currency reserves and reported that there is virtually no gold. There is a small amount of gold bars, but its just 1% of before the coup. Four days later, Zero Hedge bannered Ukraine Admits Its Gold Is Gone: There Is Almost No Gold Left In The Central Bank Vault. From actually 42.3 tons just before the coup, it was now far less than one ton.

The Syria operation was about oil, gold, and guns. However, most of Americas support was to Al-Qaeda-led jihadists, not to ISIS-jihadists. As the great independent investigative journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva reported on 2 July 2017:

In December of last year while reporting on the battle of Aleppo as a correspondent for Bulgarian media I found and filmed 9 underground warehouses full of heavy weapons with Bulgaria as their country of origin. They were used by Al Nusra Front (Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria designated as a terrorist organization by the UN).

The US had acquired weapons from around the world, and shipped them (and Gaytandzhievas report even displayed the transit-documents) through a network of its embassies, into Syria, for Nusra-led forces inside Syria. Almost certainly, the US Governments central command center for the entire arms-smuggling operation was the worlds largest embassy, which is Americas embassy in Baghdad.

Furthermore, On 8 March 2013, Richard Spenser of Britains Telegraph reported that Croatias Jutarnji List newspaper had reported that 3,000 tons of weapons dating back to the former Yugoslavia have been sent in 75 planeloads from Zagreb airport to the rebels, largely via Jordan since November.  The airlift of dated but effective Yugoslav-made weapons meets key concerns of the West, and especially Turkey and the United States, who want the rebels to be better armed to drive out the Assad regime.

Also, a September 2014 study by Conflict Armaments Research (CAR), titled Islamic State Weapons in Iraq and Syria, reported that not only east-European, but even US-made, weapons were being captured from Islamic State forces by Kurds who were working for the Americans, and that this was very puzzling and disturbing to those Kurds, who were risking their lives to fight against those jihadists.

In December 2017, CAR headlined Weapons of the Islamic State and reported that this materiel was rapidly captured by IS forces, only to be deployed by the group against international coalition forces. The assumption made there was that the transfer of weapons to ISIS was all unintentional.

That report ignored contrary evidence, which I summed up on 2 September 2017 headlining Russian TV Reports US Secretly Backing ISIS in Syria, and reporting there also from the Turkish Government an admission that the US was working with Turkey to funnel surviving members of Iraqs ISIS into the Deir Ezzor part of Syria to help defeat Syrias Government in that crucial oil-producing region. Moreover, at least one member of the rebels that the US was training at Al Tanf on Syrias Jordanian border had quit because his American trainers were secretly diverting some of their weapons to ISIS. Furthermore: why hadnt the US bombed Syrian ISIS before Russia entered the Syrian war on 30 September 2015? America talked lots about its supposed effort against ISIS, but why did US wait till 16 November 2015 before taking action, Get Out Of Your Trucks And Run Away: US Gives ISIS 45 Minute Warning On Oil Tanker Strikes?

So, regardless of whether the US Government uses jihadists as its proxy-forces, or uses fascists as its proxy-forces, it grabs the gold  and grabs the oil, and takes whatever else it can.

This is todays form of imperialism. Grab what you can, and run. And call it fighting for freedom and democracy and human rights and against corruption. And the imperial regimes allies watch in amazement, as they take their respective cuts of the loot. Thats the deal, and they call it fighting for freedom and democracy and human rights and against corruption around the world. Thats the way it works. International gangland. Thats the reality, while most of the public think its instead really fighting for freedom and democracy and human rights and against corruption around the world. For example, as RT reported on Sunday, March 3rd, about John Boltons effort at regime-change in Venezuela, Bolton said: Id like to see as broad a coalition as we can put together to replace Maduro, to replace the whole corrupt regime, Bolton told CNNs Jake Tapper. Trumps regime wants to bring clean and democratic government to the poor Venezuelans, just like Bushs did to the Iraqis, and Obamas did to the Libyans and to the Syrians and to the Ukrainians. And Trump, who pretends to oppose Obamas regime-change policies, alternately expands them and shrinks them. Though hes slightly different from Obama on domestic policies, he never, as the US President, condemns any of his predecessors many coups and invasions, all of which were disasters for everybody except Americas and allies billionaires. Theyre all in on the take.

The American public were suckered into destroying Iraq in 2003, Libya in 2011, Syria in 2011-now, and so many other countries, and still havent learned anything, other than to keep trusting the allegations of this lying and psychopathically vicious and super-aggressive Government and of its stenographic news-media. When is enough finally enough? Never? If not never, then when? Or do most people never learn? Or maybe they dont really care. Perhaps thats the problem.

On March 4th, the Jerusalem Post bannered IRAN AND TURKEY MEDIA PUSH CONSPIRACY THEORIES ABOUT US, ISIS: Claims pushed by Syrian regime media assert that US gave ISIS safe passage out of Baghuz in return for gold, a conspiracy picked up in Tehran and Ankara, and simply assumed that its false  but provided no evidence to back their speculation up  and they closed by asserting The conspiracies, which are manufactured in Damascus, are disseminated to Iraq and Turkey, both of whom oppose US policy in eastern Syria. Why do people even subscribe to such news-sources as that? The key facts are hidden, the speculation thats based on their own prejudices replaces whatever facts exist. Do the subscribers, to that, simply want to be deceived? Are most people that stupid?

Back on 21 December 2018, one of the US regimes top news-media, the Washington Post, had headlined Retreating ISIS army smuggled a fortune in cash and gold out of Iraq and Syria and reported that the Islamic State is sitting on a mountain of stolen cash and gold that its leaders stashed away to finance terrorist operations. So, its not as if there hadnt been prior reason to believe that some day some of the gold would be found after Americas defeat in Syria. Maybe they just hadnt expected this to happen quite so soon. But the regime will find ways to hoodwink its public, in the future, just as it has in the past. Unless the public wises-up (if thats even possible).
Iran recently announced it had built a new type of submarine, the 660 ton Fateh. Iran claims this sub could remain submerged up to 200 meters (650 feet) for up to five weeks, apparently using a periscope type snorkel (a pipe type device to bring in air and expel diesel engine fumes) and fire locally built Hoveizeh cruise missiles (with a range of 1,300 kilometers and able to reach Israel). Hoveizeh was designed to be fired from a truck but Iran implies it has developed a version that can be expelled from a torpedo tube, get to the surface and get into the air. No evidence of that being tested yet.

Iran boasted that Fateh construction began in 2008 and the sub was built using Iranian resources and required 4.2 million manhours to assemble 420,000 components. The accuracy of all these details is dubious, based on past press releases for locally made weapons. However, Iran has been building small submarines for two decades and some have been detected in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, never far from their bases. Thus Iran has been able to use a lot of foreign submarine technology for some time. Fateh probably does exist and does work to some extent. But considering the poor reliability and performance of locally made warships the capabilities of Fateh and its weapons are probably more aspirational than actual.

In 2010 Iran announced that it had put four more mini-submarines into service, for a total of eleven built over the previous five years. Since 2000 Iran has, apparently with technical help from North Korea, been building mini-submarines for operations along its coasts, and throughout the Persian Gulf. The first two entered service around 2005. The Iranians said they would use the mini-subs to lay mines or launch underwater commando attacks. While the North Koreans provided some technical assistance, the Iranian sub was a local design, smaller than most North Korean mini-subs, which is a reflection of the more turbulent seas found off the Korean coast.

The first Iranian mini subs appear to have been based on the North Korean M100D, a 76 ton, 19 meter (58 foot) long boat that has a crew of four and can carry eight divers and their equipment, or several naval mines, or a torpedo. The North Koreans got the idea for the M100D when they bought the plans for a 25 ton Yugoslav mini-sub in the 1980s. Only four of those Yugoslav minis were built, apparently as experiments to develop a larger North Korean design. There are believed to be over 30 M100Ds, in addition to 23 of the 115 ton Iranian variation, called the Ghadir. These have two torpedo tubes and a crew of 18.

Building subs like this are not high tech and Iran is not the only amateurs going at it. Back in 2010 a drug gang in Ecuador was caught building a 30 meter (98 feet) long submarine on the bank of a jungle river. This boat was three meters in diameter and capable of submerging to about 30 meters. The locally built boat had a periscope, conning tower and was air-conditioned. It was captured where it was being assembled, and a nearby camp, for the builders, appeared to house about fifty people. This was the first such sub to be completed, but not the first to be built. Nearly a decade earlier, Russian naval architects and engineers were discovered among those designing and building a similar, but larger, boat. However, that effort did not last, as the Russian designs were too complex and expensive. It was found easier to build semi-submersible craft. But more and more of these are being caught at sea. The 2010 sub was not military grade. It could travel submerged, but not dive deep. It was built using the same fiberglass material used for the semi-submersible craft, but was larger, and had berths for six crew. There was space for about ten tons of cocaine. It probably cost several million dollars to build and was weeks away from completion and sea trials. The drug sub was similar to the small subs being built since the 1970s for offshore oil operations and underwater tourism.

North Korea has developed several mini-sub designs, most of them available to anyone with the cash to pay. Until Fateh, the largest was the 250 ton Sang-O, which is actually a coastal sub modified for special operations. There is a crew of 19, plus either six scuba swimmer commandos or a dozen men who can go ashore in an inflatable boat. Some Sang-Os have two or four torpedo tubes. Over thirty were built, and one was captured by South Korea when it ran aground in 1996. North Korea is believed to have fitted some of the Song-Os and M100Ds with acoustic tiles, to make them more difficult to detect by sonar. This technology was popular with the Russians, and that's where the North Koreans were believed to have got the technology.

The most novel North Korean design is a submersible speedboat. This 13 meter (40 foot) boat looks like a speedboat, displaces ten tons and can carry up to eight people. It only submerges to a depth of about 4 meters. Using a snorkel apparatus the boat could move underwater. In 1998, a South Korean destroyer sank one of these. A follow on class displaced only five tons, and could carry six people (including one or two to run the boat). At least eight of these were believed built and construction continues in South America.

Iran also has had some Russian built Kilo class subs. This is a 30 year old design that first entered service in 1982. So far, 70 have been built, 60 are still in service and more are under construction. It may be an old design, but it is mature and has been updated with modern electronics and quieting technology (that makes it more difficult to detect underwater.) Iran received three of these boats in the 1990s. The Kilos weigh 2,300 tons (surface displacement), have six torpedo tubes and a crew of 52. They can travel about 700 kilometers underwater at a quiet speed of about five kilometers an hour. Top speed underwater is 32 kilometers an hour. Kilos carry 18 torpedoes or SS-N-27 anti-ship missiles (with a range of 300 kilometers and launched underwater from the torpedo tubes.) Kilos can stay at sea 45 days at a time. It can travel at periscope depth (using a snorkel) for 12,000 kilometers at 12 kilometers an hour. The combination of quietness and cruise missiles makes Kilo very dangerous to American carriers. The Iranian Kilos are not used a lot because sanctions have made it difficult to obtain spare parts but using locally made substitutes Iran has kept these three boats operational. Iran has announced plans to build Kilo type subs but no such activity has been detected. For the last five years, Iran has been working on the 1,200 ton Besat but it is unclear when this sub will be completed. The Fateh may be an intermediate step in attempting a larger boat like Besat that is similar to the Kilo.
The government is monitoring 389 officials, including 11 provincial governors and 55 mayors, who were found (via captured documents and interrogations) to have paid extortion demands by NPA rebels in the past. These officials are candidates for office in the May 2019 elections. These demands are typically made during election campaigns when NPA factions threaten violence and even assassination if officials dont pay up. Making these extortion payments is against the law and a violation of election regulations but these laws have rarely been enforced. In areas where NPA is particularly strong officials quietly pay. Some of those who have paid are suspected to also being supporters of NPA, which is the illegal armed wing of the local Communist Party.

The NPA has long depended on extortion, theft and other criminal activity to survive. This is causing much anger and protest in areas where the NPA still operates for the good of the people. Yet the NPA can no longer do much political work when their very survival is at risk. The government has been trying for years, without much success, to negotiate a peace deal. The NPA leadership, as well as the commanders of various armed factions, are split on a peace agreement and most are continuing to operate (fighting and stealing). The NPA, to most Filipinos, have become bandits with a veneer of communist ideology to justify their crimes. The banditry option is not working well enough to assure long-term survival of the organization. This can also be seen when factions run short of money. Those actions begin to suffer from desertions. The army will grant amnesty to NPA members who surrender, especially if they bring their weapons and some useful information with them. Information on where NPA camps or weapons storage sites are considered useful and the fact that more NPA camps are being attacked and weapons storage sites seized indicates that NPA is losing secrets as well as people and popular support. Some NPA leaders feel this is all a temporary setback and that a peace deal would enable a revitalized Philippines Communist Party to become a major political power. These delusions make negotiating a peace deal more difficult. Meanwhile, the NPA has become a major source of criminal (as opposed to Islamic terrorist) activity in the country. Most of the NPA senior leadership live in Europe and are considered somewhat out of touch with the reality of what the NPA has become in the Philippines. Despite all that the NPA and communism still have supporters, especially among the well-educated.

March 6, 2019: The Chinese government said it was investigating Filipino accusations that Chinese ships were still preventing Filipino fishing boats from working near Pagasa Island, a traditional Filipino fishing area. In late January China appeared to have reduced to 42 the number of warships and naval militia boats near Pagasa. China had as many as 95 of these ships off Pagasa in late 2018 as the Philippines began a construction project on the island to create more land and put up more buildings. China did not press the issue by having the militia fishing boats try to physically block Filipino commercial or military ship from getting to Pagasa but it had become more difficult for Filipino fishing boats to operate in areas they had long worked. China has been threatening cut off access to Pagasa since 2014 but has never followed through, possibly because the Philippines has often stationed a warship off Pagasa.

China claims ownership, despite Pagasa being closer to the Philippines than China and long occupied by Filipinos. Also called Thitu Island, Pagasa is the second-largest (37.2 hectares/93 acres) of the Spratly Islands and is inhabited by 200 Filipinos civilians and a few military personnel. Filipinos have lived on the island since 1956 and there has been a Filipino military presence there since 1970. China has been increasingly belligerent about its claims to Pagasa and threatens to take it back by force. After 2014 Chinese military and civilian ships were showing up near Pagasa with increasing frequency and sometimes the Chinese vessels tried (by getting in the way) to prevent non-Chinese vessels from getting too close to the island. The Philippines often has a coast guard patrol boat off the island (which is 480 kilometers from the nearest Filipino territory China does not claim) and that provides the possibility of a violent military encounter. China is also concerned with the increasingly frequent visits of American warships to the Philippines (for leave and maintenance) and the South China Seas (to challenge Chinese claims.) So far China has not been violent but with more and more Chinese warships, warplanes and troops showing up in the South China Sea there appears to be increased risk of someone opening fire. There are a growing number of offenders for the Chinese to shoot at. In addition to ships from the nearest countries (mainly Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan) there are the more powerful allies of these countries (mainly Japan and the United States).

March 1, 2019: The U.S. declared that it would defend the Philippines in the South China Sea according to the mutual defense treaty the U.S. and Philippines have had since 1951. Filipino officials asked for a more precise definition of what constituted an attack. Chinese strategy is to be aggressive but not to the extent that it would be an obvious act of war. Filipino officials are worried that the U.S. might get involved in a war with China over access to the South China Sea even though no Filipino territory was being threatened. That could, in theory, oblige the Philippines to become a part of that war because of the 1951 treaty.

February 28, 2019: In the south (North Cotabato province), BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters) gunmen ambushed and killed three soldiers in two incidents the Islamic terrorists described as revenge for the death of a BIFF leader several days earlier during an army operation. BIFF is a MILF faction that backs persecutions of Christians in areas of the south where Christians are present in large numbers (and often the majority). BIFF also considers it part of the local ISIL franchise.

February 25, 2019: The navy is upgrading the electronics on its three del Pilar class frigates. These ships are former American Hamilton class Coast Guard cutters. These are 3,200 ton ocean going patrol ships that the Philippines added more weapons to and uses as warships. The new electronics would improve the search capabilities of the del Pilars, which spend most of their time patrolling offshore waters looking for smugglers or Chinese ships seeking to claim Filipino maritime areas and the small islands found there. The navy has managed to update and upgrade its equipment on a small budget by soliciting donations from allies. That has worked. Since 2015 Australia has donated two LCH handing craft as well as many smaller vessels. The two Balikpapan class LCH ships can land up to 180 tons of cargo directly on a beach. These ships are oceangoing, have a crew of 16 and an endurance of five days while carrying a full load and about two weeks if traveling empty. Eight of these ships were built in Australia in the early 1970s. Australia refurbished two of those that were retired, before turning them over to the Philippines. South Korea and Japan have also donated ships. This is an effort to assist the Philippines in upgrading and expanding its navy despite having very little cash to pay for it. The Philippines has also received patrol aircraft from Japan as well as eleven of the 21 coastal radars the Philippines is installing to cover water areas often used by smugglers or Chinese trespassers. The navy is buying 12 new coastal fast patrol boats for use down south around Mindanao and the smaller southern islands. The navy recently received two 12 meter (40 foot) patrol boats from Japan.

February 22, 2019: In the capital (Manila), the first leader of the newly approved BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) was sworn in. Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim is now the interim chief minister of BARMM until elections are held in 2022. Armed members of MILF are now responsible for local security although the Filipino armed forces still handles most of the counter-terrorism operations, especially against ISIL, Abu Sayyaf and BIFF. Murad has 80 members of the BTA (Bangsamoro Transition Authority) to assist in running BARMM until the first elected officials are known and sworn in. BARMM consists of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces, as well as the cities of Marawi, Lamitan, Cotabato and 63 villages of North Cotabato province.

The government responded to a recently released Abu Sayyaf video that showed three hostages (a Malaysian and two Indonesians taken from a ship on December 5th 2018) held captive somewhere on Jolo Island. Abu Sayyaf demanded that the government pay the $700,000 ransom or the three captives will be killed. The government refused to consider paying ransom as this would provide Abu Sayyaf and ISIL with cash to fund further terror attacks and encourage more kidnappings. The last time Abu Sayyaf actually killed a foreign hostage because a ransom was not paid was in 2017 when a German man was killed after being held three months. While Abu Sayyaf considers itself part of the local ISIL franchise Abu Sayyaf remains a largely local Islamic terrorist/gangster operation that depends on a lot of good will from fellow Moslems in the southwestern islands (especially Sulu and Jolo). When they have the cash, Abu Sayyaf spreads it around to purchase some loyalty. When the cash supply gets depleted, as it has over the last few years, the local support weakens. That is what has been happing over the last few years as the persistent efforts by the military (especially the marines and scout rangers) have caused a lot of damage. American tech assistance (intelligence gathering and special operations advisors) have made it more difficult for groups like Abu Sayyaf to avoid constant attacks on their camps. Worse Abu Sayyaf has lost lots of key personnel (tech experts and leaders) and this has led to more losses and fewer successful efforts to raise money and avoid detection. For over a year Abu Sayyaf has been very much on the defensive and that is not a good sign for an Islamic terrorist organization.

February 21, 2019: American intelligence agreed with their Philippines counterparts that Filipino native Hatib Sawadjaan was named the new head of the Philippines branch of ISIL at the end of 2018. Hatib Sawadjaan has apparently never left the Philippines and was influenced by foreign ISIL members who fled to the Philippines.

February 18, 2019: The National Police reported that a recent survey found that two-thirds of Filipinos say their villages or neighborhoods are either free of drug activity or that such activity is much reduced since the war on drugs began three years ago. President Duterte continues to get a lot of criticism, mostly from Western nations, about the death toll but Duterte remains a very popular president both for the reduction in drug activity as well as increased prosecutions of corrupt officials and police as well reduced Islamic terrorist activity in the Moslem south.

February 17, 2019: In the south (North Cotabato province), a local MILF leader was killed because of a family feud. Such fatal feuds are more common in the Moslem south than the rest of the country and that has long been the case. This time police identified the four killers and arrested them.

February 16, 2019: In the south (Sulu Island), four Abu Sayyaf men were killed and four wounded during a clash with soldiers seeking those responsible for the January 27 bombing of a Catholic cathedral. Elsewhere in the south NPA released six policemen who had been held for ransom since late 2018. The leftist rebels said they released the six as a peace gesture while the military says the six were freed because the military pressure had made it difficult to keep the prisoners.

February 14, 2019: In the south (Bukidnon province), soldiers visiting a village encountered about 30 NPA rebels and a firefight broke out. The troops called in reinforcements and the leftist rebels fled but lost four dead and several more wounded. Several weapons were seized along with a lot of equipment the rebels discarded to aid their escape.
A Tauranga woman allegedly at the centre of two schools being forced into lockdown has been granted name suppression.

The 44-year-old woman was arrested yesterday following reports of gunshots in the Bellevue area.

Bellevue Primary and Otumoetai College went into lockdown after two shot were heard in the area around 9am.

Police were notified and cordoned off the area. The woman was arrested later in the day following police enquiries.

She has been charged with unlawfully carrying a firearm, possession of a firearm and reckless discharge of a firearm, according to court documents.

During her appearance in Tauranga District Court today, the accused applied for bail through her lawyer.

This was declined by the judge and police also opposed the application.

The woman will remain in custody until her next court appearance on March 22.
The opening of Te Okuroa Drive has been delayed further due to an unexpected plant breakdown.

The new arterial road linking Livingstone Drive and Parton Road in Papamoa was planned to be completed in early February.

Project Manager of Infrastructure Richard Conning says the delay is due to a bitumen plant breaking down.

It was beyond our control.

The bitumen plant is now operational and the last of the road surfacing is being laid over the next few days, we are working towards opening the next stage of Te Okuroa Drive next week.

Still March, but not as early as we had hoped.
Ronald Ron Edward Maul of Bennet, NE, 77, passed away peacefully in the comfort of his home and went to be with his Lord and Savior on February 20, 2019.

Rons memorial will be at Mahoney State Park, March 9th, 2019. Reverend Darin Corder will officiate the ceremony. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Barbara Maul in Bennet NE. Barbara and family will donate a memorial at Mahoney State Park in honor of Ron.

Ron was born July 1st, 1941 to Edward and Vivian Maul in Scottsbluff, NE. Ron grew up in Sidney, NE and graduated from Sidney HS in 1959. He joined the Air Force and served our nation for 4 years, and 2 years with the reserves. Ron loved nature, learning and understanding everything about Gods creation. He enjoyed camping, boating, hiking, fishing, and hunting along with making rich memories with family and friends. He read about nature, watched documentaries, and experienced nature; fresh air, running river waters, sounds of the waves on a lake, and the cool nights of camping among the pine trees. Ron truly loved nature but his real love affair began in March of 1964 when he met Barbara Jean Aurich. Ron and Barbara married on December 28th, 1965 at Salem Lutheran Church in Gurley. They were a match of a lifetime; inseparable for 53 years. You could find them enjoying a good game of cards, your choice, pitch or five-hundred, it didnt matter as long as they were together. Ron and Barbara started their family in Nebraska. Years later Ron accepted a Federal Government job as a journeyman lineman supervisor taking them to Arizona. They continued lifes adventure exploring the rims of the Grand Canyon area and logged many hours on Lake Powell viewing Rainbow Bridge, Cookie Jar, Antelope Island, and Gun Sight to name a few. After many years in Arizona, Ron and Barbara returned home to Nebraska to enjoy retirement, family, and friends. Ron was a loving husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather.

Ron is survived by his wife, Barbara; children, Jennifer Maul and partner, Cindy; Kimberly Warner and husband, Lonny; grandchildren, Nikolas Beedle and wife, Alexis, Katelyn Van Dyke and husband, Jacob, Emma Warner, Sarah Warner, and Kate Ostermeyer; great grandson, Breyden; sister,Ruthie Weisweaver and husband, Tom; brothers, Dennis Maul and Gregory Maul; sister-in-law, Diana Hollman and husband, Stu; sister-in-law, Marlyce Schaffert, and nieces and nephews.

Ron was preceded in death by his father, Edward Maul, his mother, Vivian Maul and his brother, James Maul.
Syracuse, N.Y. -- A few dozen workers who will lose their jobs when AT&T closes its call center in Syracuse next month rallied Friday in support of legislation that would bar government benefits for companies that move call center jobs out of New York.

The workers accused AT&T of closing its customer service center at 250 S. Clinton St., eliminating 150 local jobs, because it could pay lower wages and benefits to workers at its call center in Orange Park, Fla., where the work at the Syracuse center is being shipped.

I really feel that we have been betrayed, said Linda Rosenberg, who has worked at the Syracuse center for 22 years assisting large corporate and government customers with billing disputes.

AT&T has offered workers at the Syracuse center the chance to move with their jobs to Florida. Representatives of the Communications Workers of America union said about 50 workers have accepted the transfers but 100 workers have not.

Rosenberg said her mother has Alzheimers and she cant leave her. Gina McClurkin said she is a widow with two daughters to support and cannot move to Florida.

Florida isnt an option because Central New York is my home, said McClurkin.

Hae-Lin Choi, deputy political director for CWA District 1, said workers at the Syracuse facility earn an average of $72,000 a year. She said average wages were lower in the Florida center, though she could not provide specifics.

Chris Wise, who has worked at the center for 22 years, said he would have had to take a pay cut of $200 a week if he agreed to transfer to the Florida center.

And there is no guarantee how long the job would last," he said. Their contract expires in August.

A collection of unions and worker rights advocates called the Save NY Call Center Jobs Coalition is urging passage of a bill that would require call center operators in New York to notify the state Department of Labor if they intend to move at least 30 percent of their call volume out of the state. The bill would prohibit the companies from receiving any grants, loans, tax benefits or state contracts for five years.

Even if the companies are not receiving government benefits, the reporting requirement would create a public list shaming them for moving jobs out of the state, union officials said.

We call it a bad actors list, said Choi.

The Democrat-controlled state Assembly has passed the bill each of the last two years, but it has died both times in what was the Republican-controlled Senate. However, Democrats now control both houses this year, giving the coalition hope that the bill will become law this year.

The CWA estimates that more than 40,000 call center jobs have been lost in New York since 2006. Choi said some were no doubt lost to technological advancements, but that many were simply shipped to states where unions are weaker and wages and benefits are lower.

She estimated there are about 260,000 call center workers left in New York. The CWA represents about 5,000 of them, mostly at Verizon.

Union officials criticized AT&T and other corporations that benefited to the tune of millions of dollars from the GOP tax cut law last year but have continued to slash call center jobs.

Theyre addicted to tax breaks, said Ann Marie Taliercio, president of Unite-Here Local 150. Its got to stop.

AT&T will close its call center at 250 S. Clinton St. in downtown Syracuse in April, cutting 150 local jobs. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)Rick Moriarty

The coalition held the rally at the 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East office in the same building where the AT&T call center is located.

Jim Kimberly, a spokesman for AT&T, said the lease on the Syracuse center is expiring and the company is taking the opportunity to consolidate the work done there with its call center in Orange Park to increase efficiency and make the most effective use of our facilities.

Virtually all affected employees were offered a job in Orange Park, and a relocation allowance," he said.

He said the handful of employees in Syracuse who were not offered jobs in Orange Park were offered positions elsewhere in the company. He said AT&T hired nearly 500 people in New York last year and is currently hiring nearly 40 more.

We also did some hiring in Orange Park, in addition to those employees who elected to go there from Syracuse," he said.

Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Contact him anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
Former Airwolf" TV star Jan-Michael Vincent is dead at age 74, according to multiple reports.

Variety reports Vincent died Feb. 10 after suffering cardiac arrest. His death was confirmed Friday after TMZ obtained a copy of his death certificate.

The actor was best known for playing pilot Stringfellow String Hawke on the 80s CBS series Airwolf. He flew the titular helicopter on espionage missions for three seasons with co-star Ernest Borgnine; Vincent was reportedly one of the highest-paid actors on TV at the time, earning $200,000 per episode.

Jan-Michael Vincent Dies: Airwolf Star & Golden Globe Nominee Was 73 https://t.co/8wrcFXWNrn pic.twitter.com/g2oOdtJm8P  Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) March 8, 2019

Vincents credits also included The Undefeated, Hooper, Gunsmoke, Bite the Bandit and the 1972 movie The Mechanic. According to Variety, he was discovered by a talent scout in 1967 after finishing a stint in the California Army National Guard, and landed a role in the Robert Conrad film The Bandits.

Vincent was also known for his off-screen troubles, including several arrests for domestic violence, drug possession, and alcohol abuse. He was ordered to pay $350,000 in 2000 after physically assaulting an ex-girlfriend and causing her to miscarry their child.

In 2014, Vincent said he was still struggling with alcoholism and nearly died in 2012 when an infection forced him to have his right leg amputated. He also said he was struggling to reconnect with his only child, a daughter from his first marriage.
HERKIMER, N.Y. -- A Herkimer County woman is accused of stealing more than $50,000 from her former employer, Peter Smith Trucking in Herkimer, according to New York State Police.

Debra M. Claus, 51, of Salisbury Center, was charged with second-degree grand larceny, a felony, state police said.

Claus, who was employed as a secretary and bookkeeper for the company, is accused of cashing business checks and depositing them into her personal account, state police said.

Claus was arraigned in German Flatts Town Court and remanded to the Herkimer County Jail on $5,000 cash bail or $10,000 bond. She is scheduled to reappear in court at a later date.

The investigation is continuing.

Note: State police previously stated Debra M. Claus was accused of stealing more than $16,000, but they later sent a correction. The amount state police are accusing Claus of stealing from her former employer is more than $50,000.
TRENTON, N.Y. -- A 25-year-old Oneida County man is accused of raping a woman in the town of Trenton, according to New York State Police.

Joshua D. Santee, of Taberg, was charged Thursday with first-degree rape, unlawful imprisonment, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and tampering with physical evidence, all felonies, state police said.

Santee is accused of raping a 34-year-old woman Wednesday at a residence in the town of Trenton, state police said.

Santee was arraigned in the Oneida County Centralized Arraignment court and was remanded to Oneida County Jail without bail.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Scammers are constantly looking for ways to deceive and manipulate people into sending money or sharing personal information.

One scam that is making its way around Central New York involves jury duty. The scammer calls a person claiming to be a law enforcement officer and tells the person that they have missed jury duty, failed to pay some fines or they have a warrant for their arrest, according to Sgt. Jon Seeber, a spokesman for the Onondaga County Sheriffs Office.

Seeber said the scam is a recurring scam and some scammers have claimed to be an Onondaga County sheriff deputy.

The scammer tells the potential victim that they can clear up the matter by paying a fee or fine over the phone, Seeber said.

Citizens should be cautioned that any phone call from a subject claiming to be law enforcement demanding payment over the phone is a scam, Seeber said. The sheriffs office will never contact someone and demand payment or personal information by phone or email.

The Rome Police Department in Oneida County said they received several calls in February in regards to the jury duty scam. However, the scammers were seeking personal information to commit identity theft, Rome police said.

A scammer calls claiming to work for a local court and states that the person did not appear for jury duty. The scammer tells the victim that a warrant has been or is going to be issued for his or her arrest.

The victim almost always responds that they never received a jury duty notification. The scammer then asks the victim for confidential information for verification purposes," Rome police said.

Specifically, the scammer will ask for the victims social security number, birth date and other private information, which the scammer seeks to use to commit identity theft.

Please keep in mind, court workers will never call you to ask for social security numbers or any other private information, Rome police said. Most courts dont have jurors phone numbers and even if they did, juror correspondence is done via U.S. mail.

Onondaga County Commissioner of Jurors Sandra A. Schepp said she is aware of the jury duty scam and her office has heard from one resident who received a fraudulent email. Schepp encourages anyone who receives a call or email to look up an official phone number online and call with questions.

Schepp said there are fines and penalties for people who fail to show up for juror duty but fines would be issued by a judge and very rarely do people go to jail.

Seeber said the public should be aware of numerous scams that may harm CNYers. Visit the Federal Trade Commissions consumer information website for details on other scams.
Syracuse, NY -- A professional security guard accused of shooting up the Salina Dennys restaurant early Feb. 3 will remain in jail after a judge denied to lower bail.

Justus Holmes, 24, is facing more than 50 years in prison if convicted in the shootings of three people around 4 a.m. that began with a dispute involving Holmess girlfriend. Holmes was arraigned in trial court today after an indictment was filed against him.

Holmes possessed a legal handgun at the time of the shooting, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick has said.

But it wasnt for his job as a security guard: his state licensing only allows for an unarmed position, according to state records. Holmes license was valid until 2020. Its unclear under what reasoning he was granted a pistol permit.

For now, hell remain in jail on $100,000 cash or $200,000 bond on attempted murder, assault and illegal weapon charges. The weapon charges stems from the allegation that he intended to use it unlawfully against others, not that he wasnt allowed to carry.

Holmess case now heads to trial. Today, defense lawyer Terrence Hoffman told a judge that his client could afford bail of $50,000. Prosecutor Jordan McNamara asked for bail of $250,000.

State Supreme Court Justice Gordon Cuffy decided to keep bail where it had been to this point: $100,000 cash or $200,000 bond.

Holmes is due back to court next month.
Cor Development executive Steven Aiello will remain free on bail during his appeal, while the former top governors aide hes convicted of conspiring with has one week to surrender himself to federal prison.

Its the latest twist in a case that has been filled with them. The public likely wont ever get a full explanation as to why one man is headed to prison and the other isnt. The Second Circuit federal appellate panel did not offer any explanation in its two one-page orders issued today.

But oral arguments suggest recent changes to the law pertaining to corruption cases -- and the fact that the men were charged in multiple schemes -- are factors that the panel of three judges considered.

Aiello, 60, the former CEO of Fayetteville-based Cor Development, was found guilty last year by two separate juries for his role in two corruption schemes involving New York state officials. Juries found that Aiello had conspired to bribe former top governors aide Joseph Percoco, and schemed to rig bids for lucrative state contracts with former SUNY Polytechnic Institute President Alain Kaloyeros. Aiellos business partner Joseph Gerardi was also convicted in the bid-rigging scheme.

All of the defendants, who remained free during the trials, have appealed the verdicts. A judge after the convictions agreed the bid-rigging defendants could remain free while they filed their appeals.

The fate of Aiello and Percoco in the bribery scheme has been less certain. U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni, who presided over the trials, ordered Percoco, 61, and Aiello to prison in February. Caproni wrote at the time that their appeals do not raise a substantial question of law or fact that is likely to result in a reversal of the convictions.

When such substantial questions are at stake, defendants can remain free. Thats why Gerardi and Kaloyeros have been spared from prison so far. Its what happened in the case of former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Lawyers cited the same recent Supreme Court case, involving a former governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, as the reason for substantial legal questions. That case narrowed down the types of conduct that can be considered a bribe or fraud by a public official.

The Second Circuit today issued its ruling in this case, ordering Percoco to surrender to prison within a week. It ruled Aiello could remain free indefinitely.

In this case, lawyers argued that because Percoco left his position in state government to run Gov. Andrew Cuomos campaign, he was not acting as a public official. Prosecutors countered that Percoco continued to act as an official, even when he wasnt on the payroll. They point to evidence that Percoco continued to have access to the governors chambers and used his old office phone while running the campaign.

The panel, which heard from prosecutors and defense attorneys Wednesday, asked multiple questions distinguishing the case against Percoco from Aiello.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky, who spoke on behalf of the prosecution team, emphasized that Percoco was convicted as part of two different bribery schemes. He was also found guilty of accepting payments from an energy company building a plant in the Hudson Valley region. Podolsky said that scheme took place over several years including when Percoco was in office.

The scheme involving Aiello, however, was shorter.

Aiello was accused of funneling $35,000 to Percoco through Cor Development and a shell company set up by lobbyist Todd Howe. Aiellos lawyers noted the checks alleged to be part of the scheme were issued only during the period of time in which Percoco was not working for the governor.

Prosecutors say Aiello and Percoco made an arrangement that Percoco would help out Cor on an as opportunities arise basis. The judges on the appellate panel noted that was a rare set of circumstances, perhaps the kind of novel legal question that allows a defendant to remain free.

A separate panel of judges will consider whether the case will be sent back to Judge Caproni for a new trial. Lawyers still have more than a month to submit written briefs to the panel. Appeals typically take several months or even years.

Public Affairs Reporter Julie McMahon covers courts, government and other issues affecting taxpayers. She can be reached anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1992
Roy S. Gutterman is an associate professor and director of the Tully Center for Free Speech at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. He is writing a book about Irving Feiner and his case.

Seventy years ago today (March 8), Irving Feiner was arrested on a Syracuse street corner. The arrest for disorderly conduct and subsequent conviction took Feiner, a Syracuse University student at the time, all the way to the United States Supreme Court, arguing, unsuccessfully, for his First Amendment right to free speech.

Feiners story and fight is as relevant today as it was in 1949. Our national politics are just as divisive, our reactions to opposing political viewpoints just as visceral, and our right to free speech just as vulnerable.

Feiner, an Army veteran from the Bronx, was giving an impassioned, venom-laced speech at the corner of Harrison and McBride streets.

His speech began as an effort to generate an audience for a controversial speaker brought to Syracuse by the Young Progressives of America, a group considered by some to be too far to the political left that it was communist.

Feiner, literally standing on a soapbox with a microphone in hand, in the heart of the 15th Ward, promoted the event featuring O. John Rogge, a former high-ranking Department of Justice lawyer who was representing a group of black men wrongfully accused of murder in Trenton, New Jersey.

His Syracuse appearance was slated for the auditorium at the Madison School, until leaders of a veterans group protested to local politicians and convinced Mayor Frank Costello to revoke the permit because of Rogges and YPAs political viewpoints.

No transcript of Feiners speech exists. The court record highlighted some of the statements attributed to Feiner: He called the mayor a champagne-sipping bum and President Harry Truman a bum; the American Legion, he said, was a Nazi Gestapo. He said the Ward was run by corrupt politicians and urged blacks to rise up in arms and fight for their rights.

The verbatim statements were never verified by Feiner in any official record, but throughout his life, he acknowledged that it sounded like things he would say. He could be abrasive but he was passionate about political causes and firm in his beliefs.

That evening in 1949, some passersby stopped to listen and a group of between 75 and 80 people gathered. Others on the street just kept on walking. After police showed up, somebody told one of the officers, If you dont get that son of a bitch off, I will go over and get him off there myself. This speaker was never identified or even adequately described by the two police officers. (At least one Supreme Court justice thought this unidentified man was the true culprit.)

After he ignored police orders to step down, Feiner was arrested for disorderly conduct. Judge William Bamerick set bail at $1,000, the equivalent of about $10,000 today. The message was clear and reiterated a couple of months later in the two-day bench trial. In issuing the verdict, the judge reprimanded Feiner for his conduct, and ostensibly his message, before sentencing him to 30 days in jail.

Feiner appealed his conviction on free speech grounds. Feiner v. New York became a test case for what would emerge a couple years later with McCarthyism. Blacklists, loyalty oaths and national paranoia would permeate the country and chill a broad range of speech, much of it with the imprimatur of the Supreme Court.

The court wasnt necessarily hostile to free speech; the day Feiners case was argued and his conviction was affirmed, the Supreme Court overturned convictions in two other free speech cases. It was Feiners politics they despised.

The story on the front page of the Jan. 15, 1951, Syracuse Herald-Journal reporting the Supreme Court's decision in Feiner v. New York. The court ruled against Irving Feiner's free speech claim. (Herald-Journal archives)Herald-Journal archives

Feiners speech and his message were deemed so dangerous, Chief Justice Fred Vinsons 6-3 majority opinion held police could legitimately censor or punish speakers who may incite a breach of the peace. Though he wrote a hostile audience cannot be allowed to silence a speaker, thats exactly what the majority sanctioned.

The high court also deferred to the judgment of the state courts and concluded that the imminence of greater disorder coupled with (Feiners) deliberate defiance of the police officers convince us that we should not reverse this conviction in the name of free speech.

Passionate dissents by Justices Hugo Black and William O. Douglas pointed out numerous flaws, not only with the majority opinion but also the underlying facts, witness testimony and interpretation of statements attributed to Feiner.

These flaws perhaps limited the cases reach. The thumbnail takeaway has been known as the hecklers veto, a phrase not explicitly articulated in the opinion, but found in a 1965 book about the First Amendment and the civil rights movement. It means that a single speaker or small group threatening disorder or violence can essentially have a speaker silenced, much like that unidentified man in the crowd.

In recent years, controversial speakers have been silenced and drowned out at events. Counter-protesters have forced universities to cancel speeches and revoke invitations for controversial speakers. Though the politics have changed, the effect on public discourse is the same  a chill.

Feiner paid the price for free speech. He was kicked out of SU, had his law school plans pulled out from under him, and was blacklisted for employment. He wanted to be a civil rights lawyer and ended up being surveilled by the FBI for decades. I wonder what he could have done had his life not been altered by this case.

Irving Feiner is pictured at the inauguration of the Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University in 2006. (Provided photo courtesy of Syracuse University)Provided photo courtesy of Syracuse University

Instead, the communist became a businessman, working in his brothers printing company, briefly owning movie theaters and ultimately opening up his own rare tropical fish company. He finished his college degree in 1984.

Politics infused his life. Feiner ran numerous times for local office in Rockland County. With his wife, Trudi, the Feiners raised two politically active daughters: Emily, a social worker for the VA, and Susan, a retired economics professor. Susan is currently in her own political fight for bringing students from a class to Washington, D.C., to protest the nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Irving Feiner died in 2009.

Justice Black wrote that upholding Feiners conviction makes a mockery of the free speech guarantees of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. He added that cities and states can with impunity subject all speeches, political or otherwise, on streets or elsewhere, to the supervision and censorship of the local police. I will have no part or parcel in this holding which I view as a long step toward totalitarian authority.

It all sounds a little too familiar today.

More from our guest columnists.
WASHINGTON  U.S. Rep. John Katko on Friday voted against a sweeping package of campaign finance, election and ethics reforms that had become the top priority of Democrats in the new Congress.

Katko, R-Camillus, joined Republicans in trying to defeat the For the People Act, a bill intended to reduce the influence of wealthy donors and money in politics.

The bill passed 234 to 193 along party lines, with all House Democrats who were present voting for the reforms. Katko was among a unanimous bloc of 193 Republicans who voted against the measure (H.R. 1).

During his campaign last year, Katko said he would support legislation to reduce the influence of money in politics and eliminate dark money raised from secret donors with hidden agendas.

But Katko said in a statement that he didnt support Fridays bill because it would set up a system to use billions of dollars in public money to finance congressional campaigns.

The bill would provide up to a $6 match in public money for every dollar raised by a candidate. The public financing would come from a 2.75 percent surcharge on fines paid by companies or corporate officers convicted of federal crimes.

Katko said he supports campaign finance reform, but the bill before the House today represents a significant constitutional overreach that would attempt to establish a publicly funded electoral system, which I staunchly oppose.

Katko said he supported other aspects of the bill, which would set up a system for automatic voter registration, improve election security, protect elections from foreign interference and require presidential candidates to release 10 years of their tax returns. The bill also expands early voting and ends the process of partisan redistricting of congressional district boundaries.

Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-Utica, who also represents parts of Central New York, voted Friday to pass the bill.

The legislation now moves to the Republican-controlled Senate, where the bill is unlikely to advance. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he will not allow a vote on the reform package, and President Donald Trump has threatened a veto if the legislation reaches his desk.

Despite Katkos opposition to the overall bill, he co-sponsored a bipartisan amendment to the legislation that passed Thursday.

The amendment written by 24 Democrats and 20 Republicans requires the Federal Elections Commission to conduct random audits after each election cycle to look for illicit foreign money in the election.

In January, Katko became the only Republican to support a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Courts decision in Citizens United.

The 2010 court case gave corporations, nonprofits, unions and other special interests the right to spend unlimited amounts of money advocating for or against a candidate, often without disclosing the source of their money or how they spend it.

The House bill that passed Friday included an amendment written by Brindisi that requires all regions of a state to have the same polling hours during an election.

Brindisi said his amendment is aimed at changing New York states practice of the giving primary voters in New York City and its suburbs six more hours to vote in federal primary elections than voters in the rest of the state. Polls open at 6 a.m. in New York City during federal primaries, compared to noon in Upstate New York.

Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751
The Trump administration on Thursday proposed new rules mandating when certain workers must be given overtime pay, pushing a plan that would raise pay for more than a million people but scales back the previous administrations plans to expand overtime pay to even more workers.

Under the administration's proposal, employees who earn under $35,308 a year must be paid overtime if they work more than 40 hours per week, according to a news release from the Department of Labor. Under current law, that number is set at $23,660 -- approximately 30 percent lower than the administration's proposal.

The Obama administration had proposed a more aggressive threshold, mandating overtime pay to those earning less than about $47,000 annually, but that plan was thwarted by a court challenge brought by more than a dozen Republican states and has never taken effect. The Obama administration plan would have made overtime pay available to more than four million additional workers, while the Trump administration estimates its plan would affect 1.1 million workers. The rule proposed by the Obama administration was invalidated by a Texas judge weeks before it was scheduled to go into effect.

"Our economy has more job openings than job seekers and more Americans are joining the labor force," Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta said in a news release. "... Today's proposal would bring common sense, consistency, and higher wages to working Americans."

The current overtime rules have not been updated since 2004, during the Bush administration. The Trump administration announced in 2017 that it was reviewing Obama's proposed rule, with Acosta acknowledging workers' costs had risen but telling lawmakers doubling the threshold might "create a stress" for companies with a new mandate.

The proposal will now head to the Federal Register for a 60 day public comment proposal, but will face further review from and likely legal challenge. Congressional Democrats are expected to soon propose legislation that would more significantly expand overtime protections for workers, Bloomberg Law reported, but the bill is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate.

Workers who are paid on an hourly basis are entitled to overtime regardless of their income. But a number of workers in retail, fast food, and other industries have been categorized as having supervisory responsibilities, thus depriving them of overtime pay even if they make as little as $23,000.

In the 1970s, over 65 percent of America's salaried workforce was covered by the nation's overtime rules. Because of the 2004 overtime regulations, which dramatically weakened coverage, that number has now shrunk to 7 percent, said Judy Conti, government affairs director for the National Employment Law Project. The Trump administration's rule would likely raise it to at most 25 percent, while Obama's would have raised it do about 33 percent.

The Trump Department of Labor is pretending to be a champion of workers but all they are doing is perpetuating a system that allows people to get phony titles and marginal extra responsibilities so they can be made to work as many hours as an employer wants without any extra pay at all, Conti said. No one should mistake this as a pro-worker policy.
Why it matters: The number of active devices running Windows 10 is getting ever closer that one billion target. Microsoft has announced that the latest version of its OS now has over 800 million installs, just a few months after becoming the world's most popular desktop operating system.

The news comes after Net Market Share announced in January that Windows 10s worldwide market share (39.22 percent) had finally passed Windows 7 (36.09 percent). This had been on the cards for a while, as shown by Windows 10 reaching 700 million devices last year.

When Windows 10 launched in 2015, Microsoft said it hoped the software would be installed on one billion devices by 2018. A year later, the company admitted this vision was overly optimistic, but its now just 200 million installs away from that original target. If Windows 10s popularity continues to increase at the current rate, it should be running on one billion devices before the end of 2019.

One factor that will be driving Windows 10 uptake is Windows 7 entering its final 12 months of extended support. From January 14, 2020, only paying businesses and education customers will receive extended security updates (ESUs) for Windows 7, and they dont come cheap.

Thank you to all our customers and partners for helping us achieve 800 million #Windows10 devices and the highest customer satisfaction in the history of Windows. https://t.co/G3CRdkFoPT pic.twitter.com/je9kvBvYhj  Yusuf Mehdi (@yusuf_i_mehdi) 7 March 2019

In addition to revealing the latest figures, Microsoft Corps Corporate Vice President of Modern Life & Devices, Yusuf Mehdi, tweeted that Windows 10 had the highest customer satisfaction in the history of Windows. That may come as a surprise, given the questions over its approach to privacy a few years ago. Since then, however, Microsoft has given users more control over how their data is used. The company also admitted that the malware-like tactics it introduced to get people to upgrade went too far.
In context: Financial phishing attacks are on the rise, with Kaspersky reporting this week that banking trojan attacks increased 16 percent year-over-year among their users. The news is even worse for Android users, with 2018 showing a three-fold increase in banking malware attacks YoY.

Kaspersky Lab recently revealed some grim news related to the use of banking malware, detecting almost 900,000 attacks globally in 2018, an increase of 16 percent versus 2017.

A banking trojan is malware that disguises itself as a genuine app, software, or login page for a bank, which users then access or install. Once the user inputs their login information into the spoofed page, the credentials are sent back to the malware developers, granting them access to the user's bank account.

Each trojan operates a bit differently. For example, Marcher is triggered when a mobile user opens a genuine banking app, and overlays its own fake screen on top of the login screen. This method of gaining access often goes undetected by the user, as the fake login screen is usually a perfect copy of the real one. Zeus, another widespread banking malware, targets Windows users via spam emails and forced downloads.

While Russia and Germany accounted for almost 43 percent of all attacks, the increase in banking malware was seen across the globe. India, Italy, Vietnam, and the US were all hit hard, collectively accounting for almost 20 percent of all attacks.

The RTM trojan is the culprit responsible for a large portion of the increase, with the malware showing explosive growth in 2018 and becoming the most prevalent.

David Emm, Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky, addressed the increased threat, saying:

"2018 didn't give individuals much respite from financial threats. Our research demonstrates that infamous banking Trojan attacks are still increasing in number and hunting for money. The RTM banking Trojan was particularly interesting; its explosive growth massively inflated the attack figures last year. In the wake of these findings, we urge people to maintain caution when conducting financial operations online from PCs. Never underestimate the professionalism of modern cybercriminals -- and never leave your computer unprotected."

Those 900k attacks were measured among Kaspersky users only, and the news is much worse for Android users. Kaspersky's research indicated that almost 1.8 million Android users fell victim to banking malware, an increase of over 200 percent YoY. Android users are far and away the most likely to be the target of financial phishing schemes.

How can you stay safe from banking trojans?

Download apps only from trusted sources, double-check URLs and from addresses.

If you're an Android user, stay away from third-party APK installations and only download apps from the Play Store after verifying they are exactly what you're intending to install. You can do this by checking the download count, and reading reviews of the app.

For Windows users, don't download software from a site that seems shady, find another source or research the site before downloading. Here on TechSpot we have a software downloads section that caters to enthusiasts' needs and we've had a security standard practice of scanning every file with VirusTotal before we offer it to users as well as warning them of potential third-party installers. Needless to be said, we've never supported that practice.

Don't click any links in spam email, and look for "https" in the address bar when logging into banking websites to make sure the connection is secure. If you get an email from a banking service or payment service such as PayPal, check the "from" email address to make sure it's coming from the expected domain. Preferrably, don't click those links but access your bank's website by manually accessing it from your web browser.

Use two-factor authentication whenever you can.

Two-factor, or 2FA, is becoming more prevalent across apps and websites alike. Two-factor requires a secondary verification, be it a phone number or authenticator app, and makes it that much harder for your account to be compromised. Most banks offer 2FA, and if yours is one of them then it's in your best interest to take advantage of it, at least until less intrusive ways of logging in become available.

Update your security software.

Make sure your flavor of anti-virus is being updated regularly. If you're using Windows Defender, make sure Windows Update is running to keep the definitions up to date. Our security downloads page offers a repository of the latest versions of all types of virus scanner and security applications. Malwarebytes is one of the most recommended (and free) security apps to complement the OS' security capabilities.

Be aware of suspicious-looking login pages and apps.

If your bank's login page suddenly looks different than you remember it, tread carefully. Your bank will likely never ask you for personal information, so if you're being asked to provide more than just your login credentials, something may be amiss. If your login page does sound the alarm, double check the URL or verify the app's authenticity via the app store. Scan your device for malware before proceeding.

Never trust unofficial banking apps, even if they are offered in the Google Play or Apple's App Store.

That's just a basic shortlist of security essentials to remain safe when logging in to your banking institution's sites and mobile applications.
NASA has released a series of images of two T38s aircraft interacting with shockwaves during flight using advanced air-to-air technology.

The images, published on Wednesday, March 6, on its website would help the U.S. space agency continue the development of the X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology X-Plane that will enable over-land supersonic flight possible by removing the disruptive "boom" from regular aircraft designs.

An Almost Impossible Feat

The images were produced during the fourth phase of the Air-to-Air Background Oriented Schlieren (AirBOS) flights where the space agency tested an upgraded imaging system that can capture shockwaves in high quality. The technology was carried up in the air by the Beechcraft B200 Super King Air aircraft which flew to up to about 9,100 meters.

"With this upgraded system, we have, by an order of magnitude, improved both the speed and quality of our imagery from previous research," stated J.T. Heineck, a scientist from NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

The series of images features a pair of T-38s from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. Heather Maliska, AirBOS sub-project manager, commented that the toughest part of the effort was to get the timing right. To capture the shockwave, all three aircraft needed to be in a formation and flying at supersonic speeds. The two T-38s flew in about 10 meters of distance in between and about 600 meters away from the B200.

The result is stunning images that show the interaction between shockwaves and aircraft for the first time ever.

"What's interesting is, if you look at the rear T-38, you see these shocks kind of interact in a curve," Neal Smith, a research engineer from the AerospaceComputing Inc. at NASA, explained. "This is because the trailing T-38 is flying in the wake of the leading aircraft, so the shocks are going to be shaped differently."

Less Disruptive Flights

The exercise is in preparation for NASA's Low-Boom Flight Demonstration of the X-59. The mission hopes to collect enough data to convince regulators in the United States and around the world to lift current restrictions around supersonic flights over land.

NASA says supersonic flights over land will dramatically reduce travel time across the United States and anywhere in the world.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
New research finds that unusual rain may be contributing to the sea level rise in the Arctic, possibly accelerating it beyond the current predictions. Researchers warn that such rains may be more common in parts of the Greenland ice sheet.

Unusual Rain

Greenland is already losing ice each year because of warming, and it is believed to be losing 270 billion tons of ice each year. Until recently, most of the ice loss is believed to come from icebergs breaking off from the sheet and into the ocean, but a new study found that direct surface melting now accounts for 70 percent of the loss.

Whats more, they found that unusual rain, particularly in the winter, largely contributes to the melting. Whats worrying is that the trend may even spread as the Earth continues to warm.

Rain-Related Ice Melt

The researchers used satellite imagery from 1979 to 2012 to see what triggered the ice melt in specific places, and they did so because the satellite images can distinguish between snow and liquid water. They also used camera-equipped drones to map the area, and they also scoured the temperature and precipitation data from 20 automated weather stations on the ice sheet.

The researchers found over 300 melting events that were triggered by rain, with almost a third of the total meltwater runoff associated with it. Such rain-related melting events actually doubled in the summer and tripled in the winter.

Furthermore, they found that while the amount of precipitation did not increase, the form of precipitation changed. Instead of snow, the ice sheet was getting rain because of the warmer air.

Sea Level Rise

With rains becoming increasingly common in some parts of the Greenland ice sheet, it could possibly accelerate the sea level rise more than the current predictions. So far, the global sea level rise accelerated from 2.2 millimeters per year in 1993 to 3.3 millimeters per year on 2014, most of it attributed to the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

The study is published in The Cryosphere.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Google is bringing Continued Conversation to Assistant-powered Smart Displays, such as its Home Hub and Lenovo Smart Display.

At the I/O 2018 event, the Mountain View company officially unveiled the feature and eventually released it to Home smart speakers in June. Now it's expanding support to more devices.

Continue Conversations With Assistant

With Continued Conversation, Assistant will keep an ear open for a few more seconds  eight seconds, to be exact  for more commands after answering an inquiry. This effectively reduces the number of times users have to say, "OK Google" or "Hey Google," and in the context of a normal conversation, it makes sense since it seems unnatural to keep repeating wake words over and over.

To use this feature, just open the Google Home app, head on over to Account > Settings > Assistant tab > Continued Conversation, and set it to on.

It's also worth noting that users can end conversations immediately with the keywords "Thank you," "Thanks Google," or "I'm done."

Users will know whether Assistant is listening for more commands or not when the LED lights at the top of the Google Home are spinning or the ones on the Google Home Mini and Google Home Max are pulsing. In the case of Smart Displays, this is indicated by an icon in the top-left corner of the screen, which can also be tapped to stop the virtual assistant from listening any further, according to 9to5Google.

Confirmed But Not Yet Announced

At the time of this writing, the Google Home support page regarding Continued Conversation doesn't list the Home Hub just yet, but the company has already confirmed to Android Central that the feature is making its way to all Smart Displays.

It should start rolling out over the next few days to users in the United States. That said, Continued Conversation is available only to U.S. residents who have their Assistant languages set to English (United States).

Google's Smart Display lineup includes the Google Home Hub, Lenovo Smart Display, Harman JBL LINK VIEW, and LG XBOOM AI ThinQ WK9.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Yet another LSU fraternity has become the subject of police investigation into hazing and drug use while the university grapples with continued problems at its Greek institutions.

An LSU student in the Kappa Sigma fraternity has received a misdemeanor summons related to a hazing incident, while LSU Police this week searched the three-story Kappa Sigma house after they received a report about a drug overdose there. Details about the hazing incident are murky, but LSUs former vice president of student affairs noted in an email in January that police were investigating the fraternity for a hazing violation related to theft.

+6 LSU was warned that DKE pledge left school after stress from pledging, but did little to respond LSU officials received at least two specific warnings over the past three years about problems at the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, records 

This weeks raid on the Kappa Sigma house is the latest in a series of unflattering episodes that have thrust LSUs Greek system under the microscope. A month ago, nine members of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity were arrested and accused of hazing. The fraternity closed its LSU chapter in January. In 2017, LSU fraternity pledge Max Gruver died after a hazing incident at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, which has also since closed.

LSU released few details about the hazing summons for the Kappa Sigma member, and did not name the student who received it or say when he received it. But officials said the case was turned over to the East Baton Rouge District Attorneys office for prosecution.

The case is also under review for violations of the Student Code of Conduct, LSU spokeswoman Alison Lee Satake said in a statement Friday. When that is completed, a determination will be made about changes in the fraternitys status.

+8 DKE gameday banners were a constant source of drama inside LSU, new records show No one was safe from mockery when LSUs Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity members sat down to craft their gameday banners.

Its unclear if the search warrant that LSU Police filed in the 19th Judicial District this week is part of a broader police investigation into Kappa Sigma. LSU police wrote an affidavit supporting the warrant March 5 that said they were called to the Kappa Sigma house a day earlier after reports of a drug overdose.

Police wrote that a Kappa Sigma member who told them he took fentanyl was combative when they arrived, and another tried to flee the scene. Officers brought both members to a hospital for treatment.

The Kappa Sigma member who originally fled the scene told emergency medical personnel that he had smoked dabs, a wax substance made up of THC  the psychoactive drug found in marijuana. He said he mixed an unknown substance with the THC wax, police wrote.

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+2 LSU's DKE chapter closed after alumnus saw wounds on grandson pledging, demanded investigation A grandfather who saw hazing wounds on his grandson while the LSU student was swimming demanded the investigation of the Delta Kappa Epsilon f

The fraternity member who said he took fentanyl had to be fastened to a medical bed because the drug he took made him violent and caused him to have a seizure, police wrote. Its unclear whether the fentanyl  known for its deadly potency  was actually in his system. Other fraternity members later told LSU police that their friends smoked marijuana earlier that night in the Kappa Sigma house.

A detective, Michael Garguiolo, returned to the fraternity house the next day, March 5, with a search warrant. He reported that he seized three glass bongs, two marijuana grinders, one metal pipe and one computer system.

Though the search warrant only references drugs, LSUs former vice president of student affairs wrote in an email Jan. 18 that Kappa Sigma was on conditional status with the university. Kurt Keppler's email to LSU Provost Stacia Haynie said police were investigating a hazing violation related to theft at Kappa Sigma, according to documents The Advocate received as part of a public-records request. Keppler is no longer vice president of student affairs at LSU.

Officials at Kappa Sigmas national headquarters did not return a message from The Advocate on Friday. The fraternity has had an LSU presence since 1887, but the fraternitys house is brand-new. The old house was deemed uninhabitable in 2015, and the fraternity raised $7 million to build the new iteration, which features brick and columns. Around Halloween last year, multiple homeowners in Baton Rouge reported that Kappa Sigma members had stolen their seasonal decorations.

According to an LSU Greek Life score card that makes fraternity infractions publicly available, Kappa Sigma was placed on probation from Feb. 20, 2017 through May 31, 2018. Before the probation, the chapter had been suspended since Oct. 25, 2016 following a hazing violation. LSU found additional alcohol, drug and endangerment violations in fall 2016, the score card reports.

Kappa Sigma also received a letter of reprimand between June 2015 and May 2017 following unspecified citations in April 2015.

In the same email in which he referenced Kappa Sigma, Keppler wrote that LSUs Pi Kappa Phi was also under police investigation for hazing. LSU confirmed Friday that police are still investigating Pi Kappa Phi, which the university placed on interim suspension in October last year.

Victor Tran, a Pi Kappa Phi spokesman, said Friday that the fraternity is continuing to fully cooperate with LSU and police and that they expect members to do the same. Tran said Pi Kappa Phi has delayed performing its own investigation as the fraternity waits on police to finish theirs.
Days before former prison warden Nate Cain faces trial on federal charges that he made thousands of dollars worth of improper purchases on the state's dime, one of his former underlings pleaded guilty in an Alexandria courtroom to a charge related to the case.

Court records show that Jodie Bordelon, a state corrections administrator whose state-issued credit card was used for many of the purchases flagged in investigations that led to Cain's criminal case, pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to concealing her knowledge of a felony.

Bordelon remains employed in a clerical position at Raymond Laborde Correctional Center, formerly known as Avoyelles Correctional Center, Department of Corrections spokesman Ken Pastorick confirmed Friday afternoon. It was not immediately clear how the guilty plea would affect her employment status.

Federal prosecutors late Thursday filed a bill of information in the Western District of Louisiana charging that Bordelon knew about the commission of a felony, yet did not report the criminal activity to authorities. Defendants charged in bills of information rather than by grand jury indictment have usually signed deals agreeing to plead guilty and cooperate with authorities.

The Thursday filing does not cite specific details about the aforementioned crime, but notes it occurred on or about Dec. 17, 2015, which is the date of one of the 17 alleged illegal purchases by Cain and his wife.

Tonia Bandy, ex-wife of La. prison warden Nate Cain, pleads guilty to federal fraud charges The ex-wife and co-defendant of former Louisiana prison warden Nate Cain pleaded guilty Monday to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire 

The charge, misprision of a felony, is one prosecutors often deploy against defendants who have agreed to help the government make its case. The crime carries a maximum sentence of three years in federal prison, but prosecutors will likely seek a far more lenient sentence in return for Bordelon's cooperation in Cain's trial, set to begin Monday.

Cain is charged with 17 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud during his time running the Cottonport prison. Prosecutors have amassed a long list of purchases they attribute to Cain, including furniture, guns and various personal items, as well as the unauthorized construction of a new prison ranch house.

They say Cain and his ex-wife, Tonia Bandy, made the purchases using credit cards billed to the state and assigned to other employees to avoid detection.

+3 Case against ex-warden Nate Cain, ex-wife in alleged prison ripoff to move forward The criminal case against former prison warden Nate Cain and his ex-wife will move forward after a federal judge denied their request to suppr

Bandy was initially charged alongside Cain in the case, but in July she pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She has not been sentenced in that case.

While the conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years, Bandy, like Bordelon, will likely benefit from a request for leniency from prosecutors if she testifies next week at Cain's trial, as expected. Her sentencing has been rescheduled for April 12.

Nate Cain, the son of legendary jailer Burl Cain, who resigned as warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in January 2016 amid questions over his business dealings, served as warden of what was then known as Avoyelles Correctional Center. In that role, Nate Cain promoted Bandy to business manager of the prison.

Both resigned from their corrections jobs in May 2016, amid probes of nepotism, possible fraud and other misconduct at the prison. The couple divorced the next year, and Bandy reverted to using her maiden name.

Cain's attorney, John McLindon, said he and his client are prepared for the trial on Monday. He said he was not concerned about Bordelon's 11th-hour plea deal.

I think it actually helps me," McLindon said Friday. "It shows that, one, shes a convicted felon, and, two, her goal is to stay out of jail. Ill have a lot of questions for her about her motivations to plead guilty and testify on behalf of the government.

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McLindon said he expects both Bordelon and Bandy will testify at the trial next week, though the state's list of witnesses has not been made public.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Western District of Louisiana declined to comment, citing the pending trial. Bordelon's attorney, a court-appointed lawyer, could not be reached Friday.

+2 Red flags raised after thousands spent at outlets like Best Buy, Academy Sports by Nate Cain's prison A state audit of credit card use by Louisiana correctional employees found major red flags across the prison system and zeroed in on one card 

Bordelon figured in two legislative auditor reports in 2016, both of which highlighted potential misconduct during her work as a procurement specialist at the prison, where she often reviewed and made purchases for the state.

Auditors in 2016 questioned roughly $5,200 in purchases made with Bordelon's state-billed card in a six-month period, all of which were approved by Tonia Bandy and two other employees. Among the purchases, Bordelon's card was used to purchase $3,356 on bathroom fixtures, $1,000 on four high-end Yeti coolers, as well as other routine personal items like coffee, creamer, pet food and toilet paper.

The Advocate also highlighted furniture purchases totaling nearly $10,000 that were made with Bordelon's card at a store owned by Bordelon's husband. Corrections officials conceded at the time that those purchases likely violated state ethics laws, though the Ethics Board has not filed charges.

At the time of those purchases, Bordelon reported directly to Bandy.

The second legislative audit focused on more than $30,000 of missing funds, which was supposed to benefit five clubs to help rehabilitate inmates. Auditors placed the blame on Bandy for the missing cash, as she was the only employee to regularly obtain or count the cash from concession sales alone, the report said.

Bordelon, who was Bandy's subordinate and often helped count the cash, told auditors that Bandy made her delete her boss' initials from some paperwork after the missing money came under scrutiny. Bordelon said she also was directed to replace some original sales records with a set that had been altered and to shred some original records.

Bandy was indicted in Avoyelles Parish District Court in January 2017 following that report, on charges of theft of $25,000 or more, malfeasance and injuring public records.

Former prison warden Nate Cain faces fresh indictment, this one alleging obstruction of justice A grand jury in Avoyelles Parish has charged Nate Cain and a former subordinate with obstruction of justice, adding to the former prison warde

Nate Cain also faces a separate charge in state court for obstruction of justice, which stems from a 2016 investigation by state corrections officials that found the former warder undermined a probe into a rape allegation at his Cottonport prison. The allegations involved a sexual relationship between an inmate and a corrections officer at the lockup, which is considered rape under federal law, even when both parties consent.

Avoyelles Parish District Attorney Charles Riddle said both of those cases have been on hold while the federal court proceedings play out.

The internal corrections probe never determined with certainty whether the corrections officer actually engaged in sexual acts with the inmate, but found that Cain and some of his employees interfered with the probe. A former major, Randon Harrington, who was indicted with Cain in the probe, was accused of coercing the inmate to drop his allegations, by threatening to send him to Camp J at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, a notorious solitary confinement unit that shuttered last year due to worsening conditions.

Cain, meanwhile, cut short a polygraph exam being administered to the officer accused in the rape. He also sent away a seasoned rape investigator from Angola who had been assigned to help in the probe.
A judge recently dismissed one of the three federal lawsuits by inmates with Hepatitis C who claimed prison officials denied them available life-saving treatment, ruling that lack of access to a certain drug  even one with impressive outcomes  does not rise to the level of deliberate indifference to a prisoner's medical care.

U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick found that while inmate Richard Henderson did not immediately have access upon its approval to Harvoni, an expensive, yet highly effective drug, prison officials continued to monitor and respond to his health needs.

"That plaintiff was not prescribed Harvoni, his preferred treatment, as soon as it was on the market, does not rise to a constitutional violation," Dick wrote in her Feb. 22 ruling. "During this three year period, lab work was routinely performed specific to monitoring his (Hepatitis C virus) and plaintiff received routine ultrasounds of his abdomen and consults in the Hepatology Clinic."

Henderson, who had advanced stages of the blood-borne virus, was given a less effective treatment in 2014. But he wanted access to a treatment that was proven to be almost 50 percent more effective than the drugs he was given.

The new type of treatment Henderson sought, called Direct Acting Antivirals, cost upwards of $100,000 when first approved in 2014, but the price has since dropped to closer to around $10,000. Many lawsuits around the nation have changed how prisons and Medicaid administrators provide the treatment after years of resistance to the highly expensive drug.

In 2017, two years after Henderson filed the lawsuit, prison officials ruled him a candidate for the new, more expensive treatment for Hepatitis C. He has since received multiple rounds of the treatment, but has not yet been cured, the lawsuit says.

However, Henderson alleged in the lawsuit that prison officials waited too long to provide him, and other inmates, access to the new treatment. It wasn't until October 2016 that the prison created a policy to distribute the expensive treatment to inmates, about two years after it was federally approved in 2014.

"Plaintiff also complains that (a prison nurse) prescribed Harvoni to non-inmate Medicaid patients in 2015; however, this is irrelevant to the issue before the court in this case," Dick wrote. "Non-inmate Medicaid patients are not similarly situated to inmate-patients for purposes of analyzing whether a constitutional violation has occurred.

In her decision, Dick wrote that for there to be a constitutional violation, Henderson would have had to have shown deliberate indifference on the part of prison officials to his condition. She called that an "extremely high standard to meet."

Henderson's lawsuit was similar to those filed by inmates Tony Cormier and Levell Doughty. All three are inmates diagnosed with Hepatitis C who are imprisoned at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel, which has a Liver Clinic that caters to the medical needs of those with severe liver diseases, including Hepatitis C.

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All three of their lawsuits claim the corrections department violated their 8th and 14th amendments by making medical decisions based on cost and neglecting their care.

3 companies vying to become state partner on Hepatitis C treatment for Medicaid patients, prisoners Louisiana is one step closer to implementing a new method of obtaining normally pricey Hepatitis C drugs  a move that health officials hope w

Cormier's and Doughty's cases remain open. Ken Pastorick, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, also did not comment on those specific cases, but said the department was not surprised to see Dick's ruling.

"We are very confident that each of these individuals was treated in a medically appropriate manner," Pastorick wrote in a statement.

The attorney representing all three inmates in the cases, Joseph Long, declined to comment on how this ruling might affect the two remaining cases, saying he he did not want to prejudice the remaining cases. However, he provided a statement from Henderson last week.

"This lawsuit was never about money. This was about forcing the state to buy medicine for us when they used to just let us die," Henderson wrote. "That's more important than money. We may be just prisoners, but death was not part of our sentence."

In court filings affiliated with Doughty's case, Long has alleged the corrections department had a policy that let prisoners with Hepatitis C die, because they did not begin providing the live-saving treatment until 2016, years after it was available.

The filing says prison officials have provided him with inmate autopsies that prove this allegation, but they remain under seal. He has requested the court unseal them.

Dick's recent ruling did not address the allegation that the corrections department had a policy that let inmates with Hepatitis C die.
The principals at 13 low-performing schools in Baton Rouge could get more say next year when it comes to who they hire and fire as well as more say in the length of their school days and year.

The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board debated Thursday a proposed resolution that would give those school principals more freedom in these and other areas, but came to no decision. Instead, board members plan to debate the resolution again when they holds their regular meeting on March 21.

A key sticking point is whether the board should vote on the changes before allowing schools to exercise them or stay out of the way and just receive a report of what those changes are.

These schools, part of whats known as the Innovation Network, are developing turnaround plans under a $2.2 million federal school improvement grant.

School Board debates plans for Innovation Network to fix D and F grade schools in Baton Rouge A new Innovation Network that aims to turn around the lowest-performing public schools in Baton Rouge now has an executive director and it has

Board President Mike Gaudet said he favors the board voting on any rule changes in June when the report is delivered.

I do feel like we need to exercise some oversight, he said.

Board member Dadrius Lanus initially agreed, but then changed his mind. Instead, he suggested the board take the two weeks to get all their questions answered.

The proposed resolution lays out several broad areas of freedom for principals at these 13 schools:

Expanded principal rights to select and remove staff as well as more flexibility in recruiting and selecting staff.

Freedom to modify school calendars and schedules in consultation with Central Office.

Ability to pay flexible stipends to teachers.

Some of these autonomies may be fine under more-aggressive interpretations of existing School Board policies. But in the case of two policies, one labeled "scheduling for instruction" and the other contracts and compensation, these schools would be free to vary from these rules to some extent, but it's not clear how far.

Kirk Green, a history and government teacher at Westdale Middle School and an active member of the East Baton Rouge Federation of Teachers, pressed for more specifics.

You cant just sidestep all the processes we have in (Human Resources), Green said. They are there for a reason. They are there to protect the administrators. They are there to protect the teachers.

Gretchen Lampe, UniServ director for the Louisiana Association of Educators, said giving principals too much say in personnel could spark teacher shortages.

If youre going to give principals hiring and firing power, you might as well hang it up as to whether you are going to keep any staff in this school system or not, Lampe said.

Lampe said real innovation in the Innovation Network would require teachers, parents and, in some cases students, to sign on to any big changes if they are going to work.

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If you really want innovate, you really got to get buy-in, she said.

+12 Educators eye Capitol Elementary as a 'community school' - an alternative to charter schools Every morning, Karla Johnson has a special way of starting the day at Capitol Elementary. She calls it harambee, from the Swahili for all p

Board member Mark Bellue had no problems with the broad language.

Its very well written and thought-out as well, Bellue said.

Board member Dawn Collins expressed reluctance to let administrators vary from policy without first seeing what they plan to do.

I just prefer to vote on it when I see what those changes will actually be, Collins said.

Also on Thursday, the board heard a progress report on how the 13 Innovation Network schools are doing this year.

East Baton Rouge school board focuses on academics on second day of retreat ST. FRANCISVILLE  The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board turned its attention to academics on the second day of its retreat, learning more 

Quentina Timoll, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said eight of the 13 schools showed growth in English and math combined on prep tests for LEAP testing this spring, tests that covered about a third of what students have learned so far this year.

English and math results separately were mirror opposites: All but one school, Park Elementary, improved in English, while only one school, Villa del Rey Elementary, improved in math.

Timoll said the shift to new math curriculum, Eureka Math, has proven difficult for many Innovation Network schools, and its emphasis on students mastering math concepts as opposed to just getting the right answer.

A lot of the (math) instruction in most of our schools is, how do you solve this problem, not why, Timoll said.

Park Elementarys sharp decline English results are likely the result of high staff turnover there, Timoll said. The turnover  more than half the teachers there have left each of the past three years  has made it hard for teacher training to work this year, especially with all the instructional changes.

It was a slow run just because we had to keep re-acclimating teachers to the new curriculum, she said.

Since those initial results, Timoll said, the school district has since assigned staff to help Park.
U.S. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise continues to call for a Minnesota congresswoman's removal from the influential Foreign Affairs Committee, amid controversy over Rep. Ilhan Omar's remarks that have been widely condemned as anti-Semitic.

"If you agree that anti-Semitism is unacceptable and bad policy, then why do you continue to leave a member who is anti-Semitic on the committee that deals with the foreign policy of this nation?" Scalise, a Jefferson Parish Republican, asked House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, on the chamber floor Friday. "Foreign Affairs is a plum spot  many members on both sides want to get on that committee.

Scalise, who is the No. 2 Republican in the Democrat-controlled House, has been a vocal critic of Omar in recent days as the freshman congresswoman has come under fire, from members of both parties, for her recent comments during a public forum and on social media about Israel and its supporters.

I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee, Omar tweeted Sunday, drawing swift rebukes from Democratic leaders. I am told everyday that I am anti-American if I am not pro-Israel. I find that to be problematic and I am not alone. I just happen to be willing to speak up on it and open myself to attacks.

Anti-Semitic phrases, swastikas on Mandeville synagogue condemned by local, national groups Rebecca Slifkin was working in her office at the Northshore Jewish Congregation on Wednesday morning when two young neighbors, shaken and conc

Omar has defended her remarks as questioning Israel and particularly its treatment of Palestinians.

"Being opposed to (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu and the occupation is not the same as being anti-Semitic. I am grateful to the many Jewish allies who have spoken out and said the same," she added on Twitter.

But her comments prompted the U.S. House to move swiftly to adopt a resolution condemning hatred and bigotry. Hoyer said Democrats have been clear on their position.

+5 Democrats and Republicans alike agree: 'You can't help but like' Steve Scalise When Steve Scalise served in the Louisiana House of Representatives, two of his three roommates were Democrats. At night, the four of them att

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We have now twice taken action to make clear that hate, prejudice and bigotry are not the policies of this Congress, this country and should not be the policies of any of our members rhetorically, he said. Anti-Semitism is unacceptable  the resolution made that very clear, and, yes, it did include other forms and other objects of hate and prejudice and bigotry.

Every Democrat in the chamber voted for the resolution, while 23 Republicans voted against it.

Scalise said some GOP members felt that the resolution "fell short" as it didn't directly call out Omar. He repeatedly urged that House leaders remove Omar from her foreign affairs post.

"When you go to other countries and meet with officials, if you say you're on the foreign policy committee, it is a higher level of respect and acknowledgment that implies your views represent the views of the United States Congress," Scalise said.

Scalise's continued criticism of Omar prompted another Democrat in the chamber to question his motivations. Omar is a Somalia-born Muslim and the first member of Congress to wear a hijab.

"Hard to watch Rep. Scalise demand that Rep. (Omar) be removed from House Foreign Affairs (without) wondering if its steeped in Islamophobia," U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat who is also Muslim, tweeted Wednesday. "Ilhan is more than capable of sitting on the committee & making decisions that are in the best interests of her constituents & all Americans."

Scalise has in the past faced questions about his views on race but denies that he's a racist or bigot.

We appreciate the diversity that we have," he said Friday of the GOP caucus. "We obviously strive to be more diverse.
Louisiana's delegation in the U.S. House took a 5-1 party-line vote on sweeping legislation that aims to overhaul voting rights, campaign finance and government ethics laws on Friday, with Republicans dismissing the Democrat-priority HR1 as a politician-serving federal overreach.

The For the People Act passed the House on a 234 to 193 vote, with U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, a New Orleans, as the sole "yes" vote from Louisiana. Richmond is the only Democratic member of the state's congressional Delegation.

HR1 is largely seen as a political maneuver heading into the 2020 elections, as the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate is unlikely to take it up, but it prompted harsh criticism from Louisiana Republicans. In campaigning to win control of the House, Democrats had vowed to push an ethics overhaul in the nation's Capitol.

Republican members of the Louisiana delegation, including U.S. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, of Jefferson, blasted the proposal.

Many have called it the 'For the Politicians' act," Scalise said.

HR1 calls for the federal law to create new oversight in areas that currently fall under states, including making voter registration easier, ensuring felons regain voting rights after their sentences are completed and establishing new redistricting guidelines. On the federal level, it would place new restrictions on lobbying, campaign finance and ethics disclosures, among other provisions.

Thousands of felons in Louisiana will regain voting rights when this law takes effect March 1 Some 36,000 felons who haven't been in prison for at least the last five years will have the opportunity to register to vote when a new law ta

Scalise took particular issue with a provision that would create a new federal match for House members who pledge to only take small-dollar campaign contributions.

"Most Americans are hard working. They don't want to see their taxpayer dollars going to a politician they strongly disagree with," Scalise said on the House floor Friday. "If someone wants to contribute, that's their prerogative but no one should be forced to give billions of dollars in taxpayer money by coercion."

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Democrats who support the legislation have defended it as good government legislation.

"The For the People Act will help combat corruption and bring ethics and accountability back to our political process," said U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, D-California. "For far too long, powerful interests and big money in politics have silenced the interests of the American people.

Other Republican members of the Louisiana delegation also released statements explaining their votes against the bill, including U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, of Alto, who is currently running for governor and slammed the proposal as the "Democrat Politician Protection Act."

"It allows the federal government to seize control of the states right to conduct elections, dismantles First Amendment protections for political free speech, and subsidizes liberal political campaigns with millions of tax dollars," he said. "This bill is a slap in the face to our Founders ideals, the soldiers who fought for those ideals, and the American people who still value the wisdom of our Constitution."

U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, of Port Barre, described the bill as "socialist."

"The monstrosity of a bill increases the likelihood for voter fraud, abridges free speech, expands government bureaucracies, and creates taxpayer-funded political campaigns," he said.

Voting in favor of HR1: Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans.

Voting against HR1: Reps. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, Ralph Abraham, R-Alto, Mike Johnson, R-Shreveport, Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, and Clay Higgins, R-Port Barre.
Former Louisiana Congressman John Fleming has overwhelmingly been confirmed to take on a top role in the Trump administration's Commerce Department.

The U.S. Senate voted 67-30 on Thursday to name Fleming as assistant secretary of commerce for economic development.

A Republican, Fleming represented the 4th Congressional District, primarily centered in the northwest corner of the state, for eight years. He gave up the post to unsuccessfully run for U.S. Senate in 2016.

+25 At 'Kickoff to 2020' event in Kenner, Republicans connect, share ideas in run-up to elections For two days, more than 200 Republicans from across the South have gathered in Kenner to hear from conservative officials and pundits and shar

Fleming's name had been floated as a potential GOP contender in the governor's race this fall, but given his successful new appointment and the fact that he would have to step down from the administration to mount a campaign, it appears increasingly unlikely that he will enter the race.

Fleming, 67, has been serving as a deputy secretary at the Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services overseeing technology modernization efforts.

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In his new role, he will lead the U.S. Economic Development Administration, which is tasked with promoting economic growth in poorer regions.

A physician, businessman and former Webster Parish coroner, Fleming was first elected to Congress in 2008.

Hes dedicated his life to public service, both as a military veteran and as a four-term elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives," said U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a Madisonville Republican who voted for Fleming's confirmation. "And hes just a great guy. His qualifications speak for themselves. He was overwhelmingly confirmed to this position by garnering support from Senators on both sides of the aisle."

Kennedy defeated Fleming in the 2016 Senate race.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, also backed Fleming's nomination.

"I know hes going to work hard for our country and make Louisiana proud," Cassidy said.
Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne on Friday, Feb. 22, 2019, presented the proposed a nearly $31 billion state budget to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget.
After a surprisingly quiet first term in Congress, U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins is finally having his 15 minutes of fame.

And not in a good way.

Last week, the House Oversight and Reform Committee got to question former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and came to the hearing brimming with professed contrition and armed with damning testimony and documents about the man he long protected. Republican supporters of the president contorted themselves to disparage Cohen, even as they largely ignored his admission that hed engineered the presidents hush payments to Baton Rouge-bred porn star Stormy Daniels, let alone a host of other incriminating allegations about Trumps business dealings. Much of GOP questioning was patently off-point, even ridiculous.

Even by that standard, Higgins questioning made an impression.

Stephanie Grace: Populist U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins is playing it conventionally in DC With 435 members jostling for attention and influence, it's hard for a freshman congressman to make his mark through the legislative process. 

Higgins, R-Port Barre, a former St. Landry Parish sheriffs deputy who touted his law enforcement background to the committee, clearly thought he was on to something when he zeroed in on Cohens references to boxes of documents supporting his allegations.

Earlier you said, I spent last week looking through boxes to find documents that would support your accusations. Where are those boxes, good sir? Where are those boxes? Are they in your garage?, Higgins asked. And are these not boxes that should have been turned over to investigative authorities during the many criminal investigations youve been subject to?

Cohen pointed out that these were documents that had been seized by the feds in the initial raid of his office, then returned. Yet Higgins kept going.

Why have they not been turned over to the investigating authorities looking into some of the many criminal activities that youre allegedly cooperating in? Where are these boxes? Higgins asked. Who knows? Where is this treasure of evidence?

Again, Cohen explained that the boxes that I am referring to, the boxes that were in my law office when the FBI entered and seized documents.

You know, Im starting to think that Higgins isnt exactly Columbo.

Can't see video below? Click here.

There was more. Higgins made the improbable assertion that hed arrested several thousand men, many of whom reminded him of Cohen. Blogger Lamar White, Jr. of the progressive Bayou Brief is chronicling his attempt to fact-check the claim on Twitter. As of Wednesday, hed confirmed 108.

Higgins also accused Cohen of appearing at the hearing so he could be on television. When Cohen noted that hed been on TV many times defending Trump, Higgins said that I didnt know who you were until today, really.

Theres your congressional oversight for you.

The social media and late-night comedy reviews were predictably brutal.

Chris Cillizza of CNN declared Higgins the runaway winner of the least impressive member competition. NPRs Domenico Montanaro dug up a little of Higgins history in Opelousas, a story from The Independent headlined Clay Higgins resigned from OPD in 2007 on cusp of major disciplinary measures for allegedly using unnecessary force and giving false statements.

Jackie Calmes, the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau editor, asked this on Twitter: Rep. Clay Higgins' questioning of Michael Cohen was so bizarrely bad  like directing the feds to seize Cohen's boxes of records, after Cohen said feds had them & returned them  I went to Google to learn more about this 2nd-term LA Republican. Wow, how did he get elected?

Having been granted a seat on another major committee, Higgins was back at it this week. Following a Homeland Security Committee hearing in which Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified, Higgins earned befuddled headlines for comparing the migrants arriving at the southern border monthly, many of them families seeking asylum, to the allied troops that stormed the Normandy beaches on D-Day. The numbers may match up, but the specifics obviously dont.

Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins apologizes to those hurt by gas chamber video NEW ORLEANS (AP)  A Louisiana congressman is apologizing for the "unintended pain" caused by a video of his visit to a gas chamber at a Nazi 

Now, one could argue that 3rd District voters knew what they were getting when they chose Higgins in 2016 over the far more conventional Scott Angelle. Angelle quickly joined the Trump administration, where he brought a decidedly industry-friendly approach to regulating offshore oil and gas production. But it was Higgins who cut the Trumpian figure as the blunt-spoken media celebrity (his medium being viral Crime Stoppers videos) with a past checkered enough to disqualify a more traditional pol.

That, to answer Calmes query, is how he got elected. The question now is whether embarrassing performances like this give his constituents second thoughts.
College fraternities, as the name implies, are supposed to be about fellowship  a band of brothers helping each other through the eventful years of college life.

But fraternity culture can have a darker side, with members encouraged or coerced into excessive drinking and drug use, sometimes with hazing rituals that involve physical abuse.

Thats why university administrators, as well as fraternity officials, have a special obligation to keep students safe. At LSU, though, recent revelations suggest that campus officials are really more interested in protecting the status quo, not the young men who might find themselves in harms way.

An Advocate investigation uncovered at least two specific warnings over the past three years about problems at Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, despite the universitys recent announcement that administrators had no prior credible information about hazing in the fraternity. Several weeks ago, DKE was shut down and nine members arrested over allegations related to hazing. It appears that DKE had been troubled for a long time, with LSU officials and the fraternitys internal supervisors appearing to pass the buck when it came to policing possible wrongdoing.

That kind of laxness can have grave consequences, as the scandal involving another LSU fraternity makes clear. The university received multiple warnings in 2016 about problems at Phi Delta Theta, but aside from slapping the fraternity on the wrist, not much happened. The next year, Phi Delta Theta pledge Max Gruver died after a night of forced drinking, apparently as some sort of initiation. After that, the fraternity closed, which couldnt have been much consolation to Gruvers parents.

Documents surrounding LSUs supervision of campus fraternities dont paint a pretty picture. They suggest a general assumption that fraternity insiders will take care of themselves  and a reluctance to take action when the evidence seems to the contrary.

LSU spokesman Ernie Ballard argued that the internal emails obtained by The Advocate about campus fraternity problems dont give the whole story, suggesting that university officials do a lot behind the scenes when allegations arise. It seems to us that too much is going on behind the scenes, out of public view, concerning possible abuses, some of them criminal, within LSUs fraternities.

The universitys lack of documentation regarding its policing of the fraternities appears, at least in some instances, like a cynical gimmick to avoid accountability.

Recently, for example, LSU asked the Taylor Porter law firm to investigate whether some of the universitys administrators had properly handled earlier hazing allegations at DKE. After a scant week on the case, the law firm cleared the administrators, though no public record of its findings exists. Ballard said that Taylor Porter delivered its conclusions orally to university leaders  an obvious evasion of the public records law.

Evasion seems to be LSUs defining response to problems within its fraternities. No one should be surprised if another tragedy occurs.
Enrolments in Australia's Catholic schools have fallen for the second year in a row, while the number of students attending government and independent schools grows, new figures show.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics data comes as the Coalition's election pledge to triple its annual spending on building classrooms for non-government schools shapes as the most divisive education pledge of the NSW election campaign so far.

Enrolments in Catholic schools fell for the second year in a row Credit:Reuters

After recording their first fall in more than 10 years in 2017, Catholic school enrolments across Australia again dropped by almost 1000 students last year. Independent enrolments grew, while government schools also continued an upward trend.

In the five years to 2018, Catholic schools' national enrolment share across the country dropped by almost one percentage point.
A bush fire has closed camping hot spots on the south coast ahead of the Canberra Day long weekend.

If you are heading to the coast for your long weekend, expect smoke and hazy skies in the Shoalhaven area as the fire in the Meroo National Park is controlled.

A fire burning in the Meroo National Park has closed camping grounds. Credit:NSW Rural Fire Service

The Termeil Point, Sunburnt Beach, Blackbutt Roads, Meroo Point Road and Meroo Head camp grounds are closed due to the fire south of Ulladulla.

Firefighters from National Parks and Wildlife Services and the NSW Rural Fire Service, along with water bombing helicopters, are battling the blaze, which is not threatening properties and is at advice level.
The man accused of murdering Parramatta woman Samah Baker has been "cooperating" with police and is likely to apply for bail when the case returns to court, his defence lawyer has revealed.

James Hachem, 32, has been described by police as an "acquaintance" of Ms Baker. CCTV captured the pair in an elevator together at the Vibe Hotel in North Sydney, two days before the 30-year-old vanished.

Mr Hachem was arrested at Hurstville Westfield on Friday and charged with murder, but Ms Baker's body has not been found.

On Saturday Mr Hachem was being held in custody at Surry Hills police station. He did not appear in person or via video link when the matter went briefly before Parramatta Bail Court, where it was adjourned until Tuesday.

Mr Hachem's defence lawyer, Warwick Korn, admitted difficulties establishing a video link due to a strike by Corrective Services staff had hampered the process.
A Catholic priest has been found guilty of indecently dealing with a schoolboy while he has a teacher at Brisbane's Villanova College.

Michael Ambrose Endicott, 75, was convicted of three counts of indecently dealing with a child in the 1970s and 1980s after a five-day trial in Brisbane District Court.

Former priest Michael Endicott arrives at the District Court in Brisbane. Credit:AAP Image/Dan Peled

But the jury acquitted him of five other counts of the same charge.

Endicott's trial was told he was in charge of pastoral care and religious education at Villanova College during the 1970s.
Passengers on a Emirates international flight to Brisbane last month are being warned of measles after a person on the plane was deemed infectious while flying.

Queensland Health has warned passengers on the EK 430 flight from Dubai on Monday, February 26 to be alert for signs of measles while they made efforts to contact each of them personally.

A passenger on an emirates flight was infected with measles.

Any visitors or guests who were at the Brisbane Marriott Hotel between February 26 and 27 should also check for symptoms.

This is the fourth case of a measles outbreak alert since January.
Spurred by stories of girls' shame and embarrassment, a new school program is setting out to remove the stigma that surrounds periods.

The country's first specific menstruation education resource, Period Talk, is designed to get students aged between eight and 13 informed and talking without squeamishness or discomfort.

The Period Talk program is the country's first resource of its kind.

Over four weeks, students learn from videos presented by children, group discussion and practical activities.

They cover issues including the physical cycle, changes to bodies and minds, pain management and cultural differences. Students see sanitary pads and tampons, and learn how they are used. Blood is represented by red liquid, not blue as is often seen in adverts.
The Fearless Girl statue, promoted as a symbol of female empowerment, has become the subject of a bitter copyright battle between a major law firm and a US investment company.

Australian firm Maurice Blackburn has been forced to halt promotion of a local version of the iconic New York statue following an injunction filed by the Boston-based investors who own the statue's copyright.

The personal injury law firm  whose slogan is "We Fight for Fair"  agreed to cease marketing the replica after the investment company baulked at Maurice Blackburn's goodwill defence for reproducing it.

"Charging Bull" and "Fearless Girl" face off against each other in New York. Credit:AP

The original 130-centimetre bronze sculpture was created by US-based artist Kristen Visbal. It was commissioned by State Street Global Advisors, an investment firm with $4 trillion in assets under management.
Police have arrested a Newport man after he allegedly exposed himself to two women while they were walking at Newport Lakes Reserve last month.

The 24-year-old man has been charged with two counts of sexual activity directed at another person and one count of sexual exposure.

The incident took place in broad daylight, sometime between 1.30pm and 1.50pm on Thursday, February 21.

The man allegedly began following the two female victims before he exposed himself and began masturbating.

The females challenged the man and took a photo of him before he gathered his clothes and fled.
A major split has opened up within Victoria Police between force command and rank-and-file officers ahead of the royal commission into the use of underworld barrister Nicola Gobbo as an informer.

Police officers who were directly responsible for managing Ms Gobbo have hired their own lawyers - led by a renowned former County Court judge - fearing, according to people close to the investigation, that force command could throw them under the bus in a bid to avoid responsibility for the scandal.

Former criminal barrister turned police informer Nicola Gobbo also known as 3838 or Lawyer X

The move by ordinary officers means the royal commission could hear two quite distinct stories from Victoria's police about who was responsible for recruiting and managing Gobbo as an informer, and who was to blame for the arrangement going off the rails.

The Age has also separately heard that Victoria Police has been refusing to hand over documents sought by the royal commission, despite pledges the force would cooperate fully with the inquiry.
A recommendation by Western Australia's environmental watchdog that new emissions-intensive projects should be carbon neutral has swiftly been rejected by the state government.

The WA Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday released updated guidelines on mitigating emissions from new or expanding projects, advising the state government require proposals with emissions higher than 100,000 tonnes a year be fully offset.

Mark McGowan has rejected the EPA's recommendation. Credit:AFR

WA Premier Mark McGowan said on Friday the state government wanted to ensure the gas industry remained strong and had rejected the recommendation.

"We're not endorsing it," Mr McGowan told 6PR radio.
Although in some ways the accusations seem mild  no money changed hands and no laws appear to have been broken  the political wreckage from the perception of back-room dealing by the Trudeau government has been huge. Although in some ways the accusations seem mild...the political wreckage from the perception of back-room dealing by the Trudeau government has been huge. The Prime Minister's popularity has sunk, calls for his resignation are echoing, and two powerful female ministers  one of them Wilson-Raybould  have resigned in protest. His top political adviser, who is a close friend, also stepped aside in the mess. "I was not aware of that erosion of trust, and as Prime Minister and leader of the federal ministry, I should have been," Trudeau said on Thursday. "Ultimately, I believe our government will be stronger for having wrestled with these issues." With about seven months to go before a national election, Trudeau tried to convince the country that he still believed in conducting politics in an open, transparent way.

Jody Wilson-Raybould appears at the House of Commons Justice Committee on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Credit:AP He also tried to repair the damage caused by the resignations of the two female ministers  one, Wilson-Raybould, a former Indigenous leader  and show that he remained a feminist and was still committed to righting the country's wrongs against Indigenous people. He pointed out that after his remarks, he would head to the Arctic to apologise to Inuit people for historic wrongs, and that he would be celebrating International Women's Day in Toronto. He said he looked forward to defending his government's record during the election campaign in October. Unlike leaders in other nations, Canadian prime ministers rarely make major speeches outside the House of Commons except during campaigns. The fact that Trudeau felt compelled to make such an address underscored the political perils he faces.

Loading In his remarks, Trudeau conjured the memory of his father, the former prime minister and justice minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, saying his example had instilled a deep respect for justice in him. Last week marked the 35th anniversary of Pierre Trudeau's "walk in the snow," a contemplative stroll during which he decided to resign as prime minister. On Thursday, his son walked from his office through Ottawa's snowy streets before television cameras to deliver a very different message at the press gallery. Peter Donolo, who was director of communications for a former Liberal prime minister, said Trudeau did not really clear anything up. "This isn't going to change anybody's mind," Donolo said of the Prime Minister's remarks.

At the centre of the controversy is the giant Canadian engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin, which in 2015 was charged with bribing Libyan officials during the dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi and defrauding the Libyan government. Trudeau and his top aides were accused of trying to get Wilson-Raybould to allow the company to avoid a conviction  which would bar it from government contracts for a decade  and instead negotiate a monetary penalty. The Prime Minister's first reaction was to dismiss the accusations as false and charge forward, hoping they would shrink in the headlines. Instead, they grew. He also seemed to criticise Wilson-Raybould for not raising her concerns with him about impropriety late last year, when the debate about how to handle the case was underway. Those remarks only made matters worse.

Last week, Wilson-Raybould offered provocative testimony to a House of Commons justice committee. She described months of being hounded by members of the Prime Minister's team, long after she told them her mind was made up to pursue a criminal conviction. She called their behaviour inappropriate and described "veiled threats." On Wednesday, Gerald Butts, the Prime Minister's former chief political adviser and best friend, appeared before the justice committee, and said that Wilson-Raybould was asked to get an outside opinion about using the monetary penalty because of the potential job loss if the company lost business. "When 9000 people's jobs are at stake, it is a public policy problem of the highest order," Butts said. "It was our obligation to exhaustively consider options the law allows." Prosecutors are continuing their case against the company.

On Thursday, Andrew Scheer, the leader of the Conservative opposition, said that neither Trudeau, the Liberal Prime Minister, nor Butts had provided any evidence to support concerns about lost jobs. The two men's actions, Scheer said, were "about protecting a Liberal-linked corporation." Trudeau said on Thursday that Wilson-Raybould told him during a meeting on September 17 that she had decided against a settlement. But he said she agreed to reconsider the matter. According to Trudeau, Wilson-Raybould never reported the result of that reconsideration, nor did she ever express her concerns that the case continued to be raised with her and her staff. He acknowledged that he should have personally followed up with Wilson-Raybould but rejected the idea that the subject should have been taken off the table.
New York: US President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison by a US judge for financial crimes uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Paul Manafort after being booked in July 2018. Credit:AP

The 47 month sentence imposed by US District Judge TS Ellis at a courthouse in Virginia was far less than the 19 to 24 years prosecutors had recommended.

Manafort, 69, was found guilty last August by a jury of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

The crimes do not directly relate to the 2016 election.
Fleabag, the solo show written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, opens with a disastrous job interview, the kind that is doomed from the first minute yet somehow manages to get worse. It's the opposite scenario of this New York debut for the British playwright-performer, who charmed audiences in Edinburgh and London with Fleabag, leveraging her acclaim into a series for the BBC (currently available through Amazon Prime). Waller-Bridge's reputation precedes her to the point that the off-Broadway run of Fleabag at Soho Playhouse is already sold out. She was hired before she even walked in the door; but once she settles in for this zippy, witty, cringey show, we see that the hype is completely justified.

The job interview is just a frame for the bulk of the plot of Fleabag, which follows one millennial woman as she navigates life in London, where she is the manager of a guinea pig cafe. Sad cafe that it is, there's only one guinea pig, but our narrator and her business partner, Boo, compensated with rodent-themed interior decor. That was, until Boo died in a tragic accident. This leaves our nameless protagonist (referred to in the program as "Fleabag") to muddle through as the end of their commercial lease rapidly approaches.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays the title character in Fleabag.

( Joan Marcus)

We learn all of this through Fleabag's first-person narration, which has the feeling of a happy hour dishfest with an old friend. She talks about her erratic dating life, her "corporate lady slave" big sister, and her unabashed love of hardcore porn. "I masturbate a lot these days," she nonchalantly mentions, "especially when I'm bored or angry or upset. Or happy." Her sexcapades are less ripped from the pages of Cosmo than they are peeled from the floor of a truck-stop restroom. It's like Sex and the City, but honest.

Waller-Bridge's priceless facial expressions do half the work as she flinches in disgust, or bunches her lips up to portray a date named "Tube Rodent" (because she met him on the subway and his big teeth and tiny mouth make him look like a rat). She has vividly painted her lips with blood-red lipstick so that they are visible from the back of the house, leading to a surprisingly intimate solo performance in the cavernous theater.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge makes her New York debut in Fleabag.

( Joan Marcus)

Vicky Jones's less-is-more direction further focuses an already powerful performance. Waller-Bridge sits on a cushioned bar stool in the center of a platform decorated with a square of red carpet (the extent of Holly Pigott's set design). She stands up only once, and never moves from the platform, yet we're riveted. Elliot Griggs's muted lighting accents the scene changes and location shifts. Isobel Waller-Bridge's sound design constitutes the most substantial design element, with the noise of the tube, the voice of the interviewer, and the sound of Fleabag's porn all making aural appearances. They enrich the show and give Waller-Bridge something to play against.

Undoubtedly, some viewers will recoil from the darker confessions in Fleabag, if only out of a recognition of having similar, unspoken thoughts. Like an intense cross between Lena Dunham and David Sedaris, Waller-Bridge mines the unglamorous truth of urban living and turns it into comedy gold.
Honda Leads in Fuel Efficiency in Latest U.S. EPA Trends Report

Mar 6, 2019 - Washington, D.C.

Honda sets the bar for fleet average fuel efficiency at 29.4 mpg

Fleet average CO2 emissions also lowest at 302 g/mi

Honda ranks as the most fuel-efficient automaker in America in a new report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released today. Honda has the highest fleet average fuel economy and lowest CO2 emissions of any major automaker for the 2017 model year (MY2017), the latest year for which full data is available, according to the report.

The 2019 EPA Automotive Trends Report ranked Honda first with a U.S. fleet average fuel economy of 29.4 miles per gallon (mpg), a five-year improvement of 3.1 mpg, and 4.5 mpg above the industry average for MY2017. Similarly, Honda's fleet- average CO2 emissions reached an industry low of 302 grams/mile, an improvement of 36 grams/mile from 2012 results and 55 grams/mile better than (below) the industry average for the 2017 model year.

"Honda is proud to play a leading role in the move toward a more efficient, low- emissions mobility future and it's encouraging to see the industry as a whole making significant gains, despite low fuel prices and the market trend toward trucks and SUVs," said Robert Bienenfeld, assistant vice president of Energy and Environmental Policy for America Honda Motor Co., Inc. "There's a lot of work still to be done, but with record sales and production of Honda electrified vehicles and more planned, we are committed to continue improving our fuel economy performance."

In 2018, Honda set new all-time records for sales and production of electrified vehicles in America1, spurred by the introduction of the 2019 Insight hybrid sedan at the Greensburg, Indiana plant, and the start of production of the redesigned 2019 Accord Hybrid in Marysville, Ohio. The company added production of its two-motor hybrid power unit in Russells Point, Ohio, and assembly of the hybrid battery packs for both the Insight and Accord Hybrid at its Marysville, Ohio plant.

The Honda Clarity series of vehicles, which launched in 2017 and now features battery electric, fuel cell and plug-In hybrid variants, has also contributed to the company's increased alternative fuel vehicle footprint and reduced CO2 emissions. The 50-state Clarity Plug-In Hybrid topped all other plug-in hybrid models in total U.S. sales in December, January and February.

Globally, Honda intends for two-thirds of its automobile sales to be electrified vehicles by 2030 and is making substantial investments for the production of electrified vehicles in America, including the current Insight and Accord Hybrid, along with the Acura MDX Sport Hybrid and Acura NSX hybrid supercar.

Honda's Commitment to the Environment

Based on its vision of "Blue Skies for our Children," Honda is working to advance technologies that address society's environmental and energy concerns. The company intends for electrified vehicles to comprise two-thirds of its global automobile sales by 2030. In North America, the Honda Electrification Initiative will see Honda's electrified powertrain technologies applied to an expanding portfolio of cars and light trucks in the years ahead. Honda's electrified vehicle lineup today includes the Clarity series of vehicles, featuring fuel cell, battery electric and plug-in hybrid powertrains, along with the new Accord Hybrid and Honda Insight.

Honda is working to reduce the environmental impact of its products throughout their life cycle, including reducing waste, emissions and further improving the energy efficiency of producing, distributing and selling Honda and Acura products in North America. This includes a 93 percent reduction in waste sent to landfills from Honda plants in North America.

Through its "green purchasing" and "green dealer" initiatives, the company also is working to promote more environmentally responsible business practices with its more than 650 original equipment suppliers and 1,300 retail dealer partners.

1 Using domestic and globally sourced parts.
Photo: Studio Fernanda Calfat/Getty Images

Donata Meirelles, the fashion director of the Brazilian Vogue, stepped down from her position on Wednesday following a week of backlash over her 50th birthday party, which many called racist.

In photos posted from her party, Meirelles sat in an ornate chair surrounded by four black women who wore clothing that evoked the traditional clothing that enslaved women in Brazil often wore; other white guests posed for similar photos. Critics pointed out that the party seemed to have a slave/master theme.

Vogue Brazils Style Director Donata Meirelles had a very disgusting 50th birthday party theme last night



There appears to be a Brazilian slave + master theme. Mucamas (house slaves), who were very clearly darker complexioned, were posed as props alongside guests #DoShow50 pic.twitter.com/NrEY4nJuF8  Shelby Ivey Christie (@bronze_bombSHEL) February 9, 2019

The white dresses & headwraps are not coincidental. Here are images of female Brazilian slaves smh pic.twitter.com/FnTboKu1AS  Shelby Ivey Christie (@bronze_bombSHEL) February 9, 2019

The black women were used as objects to create an exotic scene, Stephanie Ribeiro, the author of the #BlackGirlMagic column in the Brazilian Marie Claire, told The Guardian. Its reminiscent of colonialism and romanticizes those times. [Meirelles] was recreating the image where whites are superior and blacks are dehumanized.

Hey @CondeNast, Donata Meirelles, the director of Vogue Brazil, had her birthday party inspired in "Brazil Slavery Colonies" and even had black models dressed as slaves to use as photo props. Asking for a friend: does this align with your company's values? #VogueRacista pic.twitter.com/7K0DmnK7nd  Partido do Suco de Laranja (@ninaborges) February 9, 2019

A day after the party, Meirelles apologized, writing that she had never intended to offend anyone, and that the event was meant to feature traditional Bahian culture. Even so, if I caused any different impressions, I am sorry, she wrote.

But after a week of criticism, Meirelles announced her resignation on Wednesday. A statement from Vogue Brazil quickly followed. The magazine apologized for the incident, and added that they hoped to learn from it. Vogue Brasil profoundly regrets what happened and hopes that the debate that has been generated serves as a learning experience, read the statement.

Meirelles reposted the statement to her Instagram account, writing that at age 50, the hour is action. Ive heard a lot, I need to hear more.

In a statement to the Cut, Vogue Brazils parent company Conde Nast International said that they are aware of the hurt and dismay caused by images of the private birthday party of Donata Meirelles, Style Director of Vogue Brazil.

Vogue Brazil has set up a working group of scholars and activists that will help the team to more deeply understand the history of slavery and the lasting pain it has left behind, the statement continued. As a company, we have zero tolerance for racism and images evoking racism. Conde Nast International is a force for positive societal change and stands for diversity and inclusiveness.

This post has been updated.
2019 Is the New 1984

Commentary

Within just a few short years, we might be saying, Welcome to a Brave New Americaa dystopian freak show of a world, where the capricious whims of a few control the lives of the many.

Picture it as a dark existence where faceless, nameless authoritarians are free to make decisions on your behalf and against your will. You have no recourse. Theres no one to petition, no one to object, and no one to stand on your behalf.

This is the world being created, as tech giants and banks work in tandem with progressive advocacy organizations to exclude people from participating in society, simply because they hold different views.

Censorship is virulently spreading in the United States. In the name of tolerance and social justice, people are being systematically excluded from online conversation.

In recent times, however, the censorship hasnt only been limited to online discussionit has spread to commerce as well. Companies and banks are now using someones exercise of his or her free speech rights as a pretext to close accounts and prevent that person from engaging in commerce.

I recently posted a tweet in defense of conservative journalist Laura Loomer, saying: The banning of Laura Loomer from Twitter, Venmo, PayPal, Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, and Teespring should be illegal. In a free nation, no person or company should have the power to block people from speech and commerce, simply because they disagree w/ their politics.

Immediately, the post received comments from people (predictably) stating that private companies are allowed to refuse service to anyone. Despite the fact that many of the companies engaged in this behavior are public (and social-media sites, specifically, are operating spaces for public speech and discourse), this goes beyond the issue of companies being able to refuse service. Its about the United States creeping toward an authoritarian system that can prevent any person from participating in commerce, simply for wrongthink.

PayPal banned me. That was 90 percent of my income, Loomer told me via telephone. I cant monetize my website.

I learned how easy it is for these companies to shut you out of modern life, as there are some places and merchants that only allow the use of a single payment platform, such as PayPal. So, if youre banned, you cant just go to a competitorthere is no other option.

Weve now seen an evolution from monopolistic social-media companies autonomously defining and self-regulating acceptable speech, to unelected, unaccountable individuals at companies that run digital payment systems determining who is allowed to buy or sell on the basis of whether or not they agree with your politics.

Imagine if conservatives banned supporters of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) from taking rideshare services to her campaign events. Imagine if grinning, MAGA-hat wearing Trump supporters prevented fans of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) from not only sharing her bad policy ideas on social media, but making political donations via credit card or by any electronic means. Imagine The Heritage Foundation lobbying to have CNN White House correspondent Jim Acostas bank accounts closed. The outcry would be deafening.

Yet, these types of attacks have been happening against conservatives and no one really seems to care.

It was recently reported that JPMorgan Chase suspended Enrique Tarrio, the black leader of the Proud Boys, a group that has laughably been branded a white supremacist organization by liberals, along with Loomer and Martina Markotaover politics.

It happened again in April 2018, when New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli urged credit card and banking companies to stop the processing of payments for firearmsbecause of his own anti-Second Amendment beliefs.

Officials clearly have no problem circumventing legal procedures, and by reaching out to Visa, American Express, Mastercard, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase, they showed their willingness to resort to extra-constitutional tactics to punish law-abiding Americans who have committed no crime.

In another example, Visa and Mastercard blocked the David Horowitz Freedom Center (a conservative organization) from receiving donations. The ban was based on a complaint from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that actively works to have conservatives censored and de-platformed. After two days of meetings with attorneys, the bans were reversed.

Reacting to the news, one user in the Daily Wire comments section wrote: Surely these things must start falling under antitrust. When the public platform is now the internet, and all monetary transactions are done by two credit card companies worldwide; there in no way should be 15 or 20 unelected zealots on the US coast that can unilaterally dictate that entire organizations and individuals be completely moved from the public space.

A Dystopian Future

This may not seem like an urgent matter, with multiple payment options and cash still being used in roughly half of small transactions and 30 percent of all payments.

But banks and governments have been incrementally pushing the world toward a cashless monetary system. Should such a system materialize, politicians such as DiNapoli and political activistsworking hand-in-hand with financial companieswill have the ability to prevent anyone they dont like from being able to purchase food, goods, and services, or even to travel.

And this danger is closer than you may think. The digital control grid of China recently blocked 23 million people from purchasing travel tickets, simply because it deemed their behavior unacceptable.

If a cashless government becomes authoritarian, it can not only monitor and tax everything you buy, but also ban purchases, wrote Lowell Ponte on American Thinker. This authoritarian step-by-step plan makes people depend on credit cards and on renting things instead of owning them. Then it outlaws cash as something only outlaws use. The government can control what people are permitted to buy by regulating and intimidating banks and credit card companies.

Many of the comments on Loomers situation focus on social-media bans and whether or not a company can interdict free speech. Few have weighed in on the ethics and efficacy of denying someone access to our economic system because some anonymous person doesnt like what they post.

These bans on conservatives seem like a test run to record just what sort of appetite the United States has for such a system.

The Ultimate Goal

The ultimate goal for these so-called elites is to regulate peoples thoughts and actions. Control is the why. Censorship is the how.

These efforts should be rejected by everyone in the United States, especially those taking the brunt of the force right now.

Conservatives with power need to stop mumbling platitudes about the free market and capitalism while their supporters are being stomped into the ground, said John Hawkins in an op-ed. They need to defend the real human beings, warts and all, who make it possible for conservatism to exist.

Censorship is when one manner of thinking is banned and replaced by another. In this way, censorship is not simply its own form of speech, but also a type of conditioning. These policies are designed to modify human behavior through force, coercion, and duplicity.

Tech giants are behaving in an increasingly Orwellian fashion, acting as their own Ministry of Truth to erase from the public record those with whom they disagree, in a bid to reshape history and fabricate a world they desire.

Thought crime, doublespeak, and memory hole are no longer just concepts from George Orwells book Nineteen Eighty-Four; they now have real-world applications. Its as if the book were a blueprint, rather than a warning.

Adrian Norman is a writer and political commentator.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
3-Year-Old Texas Girl Dies After Being Left Unattended in Bathtub

A 3-year-old girl from Texas died several days after she was found face-down in the bathtub when her mother left her unattended.

Eve Blankenfeld was rushed to the hospital on March 1 by medics who arrived at her home in Decatur, Texas to find her mother performing CPR after finding her child unresponsive in the bathtub.

The 3-year-old, who had been running a fever according to some reports, died four days later.

Decatur police officials are calling it a tragic accident, according to local reports, and have not filed any charges.

The mother put her child in the bathtub and then walked into another room to tend to two other kids, Decatur Police Rex Hoskins told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She came back and found the child face-down in the bathtub.

Police said she had left her unattended for just a few minutes while she went to fold laundry, reported KTVT.

Running a High Fever

The girl was running a high fever and had just thrown up, so she had put the child in the bathtub, her mother told police, according to Fox news.

First responders performed CPR on the girl, who was taken to a Decatur hospital, KTVT reported. She was later transferred to Cook Childrens Medical Center in Fort Worth, where she was pronounced dead just before 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The Tarrant County medical examiners office has not ruled on her cause of death, according to reports.

A crowdfunding campaign had been set up to help with Eves medical costs.

Eve has 4 brothers and 1 big sister, wrote Natalie Tobler, who set up the GoFundMe campaign. Eve has such a big personality and heart, and in need of all your prayers. Any donations will be much appreciated and will go to help her and her family overcome this tragedy. 

A few days later the account was updated with news of her death. Eve passed away and returned to her Heavenly Father, said Tobler. We are relieved her passing was peaceful and painless. 

Tobler praised the amazing team of doctors and nurses.

Leading Cause of Child Deaths

Please continue to pray for this family as they mourn the loss of their daughter, said Tobler.

Drowning is the leading cause of death for young children, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)mostly due to falling into a pool or being left in a bathtub.

The CPSC states, Of the 3,786 drownings in 2016, more than 12 percent were children age 4 and younger, according to Injury Facts. Bathtubs, toilets, and even buckets also can pose a danger for very young children.

Most parents think water safety is first and foremost on their minds whenever they are enjoying summer activities with their young kids. But when the unthinkable happens, caregivers often say, I only looked away for a second.'

Exactly what age is appropriate to leave a child alone in a bathtub is a matter for debate among experts, but many say they should be at least school age.

Dana Walraven, manager of Community Health Outreach at Cook Childrens Medical Center in Fort Worth, said parents should never leave a child unsupervised in the bathtub.

If a doorbell rings, parents should get the child out of the bathtub to answer it, he said.

A child can drown in the time it takes to answer the phone, Walraven said in a 2018 news release, reported the Star-Telegram. We ask parents for constant supervision of their child while in the water.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission drowning prevention safety tips include:

Never leave young children alone near any water or tub or basin with fluid. Young children can drown in even small amounts of liquid.

Always keep a young child within arms reach in a bathtub. If you must leave, take the child with you.

Dont leave a baby or young child in a bathtub under the care of another child.

Never leave a bucket containing even a small amount of liquid unattended. Toddlers are top heavy and they can fall headfirst into buckets and drown.

After using a bucket, always empty and store it where young children cannot reach it.

Dont leave buckets outside where they can collect rainwater.

Consider placing locks on toilet seat covers in case a young child wanders into the bathroom.

Learn CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). It can be a lifesaver when seconds count.
8-Year-Old Pupil Not Allowed to Use Restroom, Forced to Wear Plastic Bags in Class, Claims Mother

An 8-year-old boy was not allowed to use the restroom in class, causing him to urinate in front of his classmates at a school in Los Angeles. He was then forced to wear plastic bags over his clothes.

These are the claims made by his mother during a protest on March 7 outside the Manhattan Place Elementary School, where she says her son is still being bullied over the incident.

Sonia Mongol said that when her son asked to go to the restroom one day last November, the teacher refused, reported KCL. When he later asked again, the teacher said he could use the trash can at the front of the class, Mongol told reporters, at the risk of exposing himself in front of all the other students.

Her son then urinated on himself, and his wet clothes were covered with a garbage bag which he wore for the rest of the day, she claimed.

The mother of an eight-year-old boy is demanding answers after a teacher at a South Los Angeles school allegedly refused to allow him to use the restroom. Posted by CBS Los Angeles on Thursday, 7 March 2019

Why would you make a child expose himself in front of the classroom and then put a garbage bag over him when he came to you for help? Why would you treat a child that way? she asked. Hes a kid.

The district told ABC that it is conducting an investigation.

Los Angeles Unified takes all matters concerning the safety and well-being of our students very seriously, a Los Angeles Unified School District spokesperson said, according to the news outlet. Upon learning about this allegation, law enforcement was notified immediately, and we are fully cooperating in the investigation. Los Angeles Unified is also conducting an administrative investigation. Due to confidentiality laws, we cannot offer further details at this time.

Mongol said that in another incident, her son was again told he couldnt go to the restroom when he first asked. When he was eventually allowed, she says he was locked out of his classroom.

Mongol was joined in the school protest by local activists and other supporters.

Civil rights activists joined a mother in protest who says her 8-year-old son's teacher did not allow him to use the Posted by ABC7 on Thursday, 7 March 2019

Retired teacher Latricia Mitchell told reporters that although teachers can refuse to let students leave to go to the restroom under certain circumstances, they should exercise common sense and good judgment.

After they ask you twice, you should realize something is going on, Mitchell said.

The claims caused a stir on social media, with most people suggesting the teacher should have simply allowed the boy to go to the restroom.

Im a Substitute Teacher and I NEVER refuse their request, wrote one person. Heck, I cant tell you how many times Ive almost peed my pants, because I cant leave the classroom! Nope, this will not happen. Not on my watch!

Virginia Pupils Forced to Put Their Heads in a Bucket

In January last year an irate father in Virginia said that a teacher forced school children to stick their head into a bucket filled with bodily fluids.

According to NBC 12, Shawn Martin of King William, Virginia, said that his second grader came home from Cool Spring Primary School. He said that a teacher forced male students in the class to stick their heads in a bucket of urine.

I dont understand how anybody would make a child do that, said Martin. It is unacceptable.

His son said that one of the students urinated in the bucket. The teacher then made the kids smell the urine to find the culprit.

She made every male student smell the urine in the bucket stick their head in the bucket, smell the urine and give their opinion from the smell of the urine which child urinated in the bucket, Martin added.

The school then sent home notes to parents, warned them that their children may have been exposed to bodily fluids.

Officials said at the time that the teacher, who has 26 years of experience, still has a job.

This is a personnel matter. Appropriate action has been taken to ensure that such conduct does not repeat itself. We will have no further comment, the school said in a statement at the time.
The spillway at Monticello Dam in operation at Lake Berryessa in California (Jeremybrooks via Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)

Bird Swallowed by Giant Hole in California Lake, Allegedly Lives

A duck was observed floating into a giant hole in Lake Berryessa, California, and there has been speculation about what happened to the bird.

According to KXTV, the duck reportedly survived after plunging 200 feet down the hole, which is a spillway.

Rick Fowler, a water resources manager, told the station that the duck came out the other side.

It shot out of there like a bullet, Fowler said. It flew through the turbulence and came out of the water shaking water like it didnt know what had happened.

The so-called Glory Hole only happens when the dam reaches capacity and produces a funnel-shaped outlet allowing for excess water to bypass the dam.

Melissa Vignau with the Solano Irrigation District told KXTV that there is no way the duck could have survived the ordeal.

Did the duck survive or not? One man says the bird made it out alive after getting swallowed by Lake Berryessa's "Glory Hole". Posted by ABC 7 Chicago on Friday, 8 March 2019

The velocity of water going through there would have torn it in pieces, Vignau said.

She said that telephone poles and trees go into the spillway and are usually torn into several pieces due to the velocity of the water.

Fowler disagreed with her assessment, claiming he saw the bird make it out safely.

"From what I understand that water is going down really fast and when things come out the other side I don't want to get really graphic," a Bureau of Reclamation official said. Posted by KCRA 3 on Tuesday, 5 March 2019

It flew up over the turbulence and landed on the calmer water in the creek, he said.

In an interview with The Guardian, Fowler said, Thwackit shot out of there like a bullet  It looked like a rag dolllike it was dead.

He added that the duck may not actually be a duck, but a cormorant, which are capable of diving more than 100 feet into the water.

Nobody ever thinks of anything going down that thing and being able to survive, he said. But he survived, all right. I watched it.

I havent seen a bird go there before, Vignau said. Thats a new one for me.

According to SFGate, the spillway opens similar to the drain in a bathtub, but its not located at the bottom of Lake Berryessa. Instead, its located near the top, and it only appears when the area gets significant rain.

Over the past several weeks, California has received relatively heavy rainfall.

Brionna Ruff, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Reclamation, told SFGate that she doesnt believe the duck survived.

From what I understand that water is going down really fast and when things come out the other side I dont want to get really graphic, said Ruff.

What happens when a small bird is swallowed by a gaping "glory hole" (a special drain) in California? Here is your answer Posted by The Guardian on Wednesday, 6 March 2019

The chances do not look good for the ducky, she continued.

Rain Brings 2nd California Super Bloom in 2 Years

Two years after steady rains followed by warm temperatures caused seeds dormant for decades under the desert floor to burst open and produce a spectacular display dubbed the super bloom, another winter soaking this year is expected to create possibly an even better show by Mother Nature, according to The Associated Press.

Having two super blooms in two years is highly usual. In California, super blooms happen about once in a decade in a given area, and they have been occurring less frequently with the drought.

The 2017 super bloom was the best seen in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in 20 years and drew mass crowds to Borrego Springs, a town of 3,500 that abuts the park.

Theres just an abundance in where its blooming and its coming in waves, said Betsy Knaak, executive director of the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association, which tracks the blooms.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley is seen outside of Downing Street in London, Britain, February 5, 2019. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

British Minister Apologizes for Remarks on Northern Irish Killings

BELFASTBritains minister for Northern Ireland apologized on March 7 for suggesting that killings by British security forces during the provinces 30-year sectarian conflict were not crimes.

She spoke a week before Northern Irelands public prosecutors were due to decide whether soldiers who killed 14 unarmed demonstrators on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972 are to be charged with murder or other criminal offenses.

Security forces were dogged by Catholic allegations of unlawful killings and collusion with pro-British Protestant paramilitaries during the Irish Republican Armys bloody campaign to end British rule over the province and unite it with largely Catholic Ireland.

Karen Bradley, Britains Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, told the House of Commons in London on March 6 that over 90 percent of the killings during the Troubles were at the hands of terrorists and that the under 10 percent that was at the hands of the military and police were not crimes.

Following criticism of her remarks, she said in a statement on March 7: The language was wrong and even though this was not my intention, it was deeply insensitive to many of those who lost loved ones.

I know from those families that I have met personally just how raw their pain is and I completely understand why they want to see justice properly delivered, Bradley said.

I share that aim and that is why I launched the public consultation on addressing the legacy of the troubles. My position and the position of this Government is clear. We believe fundamentally in the rule of law.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney raised the issue with Bradley at a meeting in London on March 6.

I think (Bradley) recognizes the seriousness of the statement made yesterday, and she is making a very significant effort today to try to correct that, Coveney said.

Bradley was due to travel to Belfast later on March 7 to meet with relatives of people killed by the security services.

In 2014, Ireland and Britain agreed that investigations into outstanding criminal killings and alleged police misconduct should be carried out by an independent body.

By Amanda Ferguson
A court drawing shows Mehdi Nemmouche and Nacer Bendrer during the trial of Nemmouche and Bendrer Belgium Mar. 7, 2019. (Yves Capelle/Reuters)

Brussels Court Convicts Frenchman of Murder in Jewish Museum Attack

BRUSSELSFrench citizen Mehdi Nemmouche was convicted of terrorist murder on March 7 for shooting dead four people in a Jewish museum in Brussels after coming back from Syria in 2014, the federal prosecutors spokesman said.

Sentencing after the two-month-long, Brussels jury court trial, which underlined the threat posed by European jihadists returning home after fighting in Syrias war, will be announced at a later date.

Nemmouche, 33, remained silent in the dock as former hostages of ISIS terrorist group as well as victims of the May 2014 museum attack testified against him, though he took the stand briefly on March 5 to allege he had been tricked.

Lawyers for the victims praised Belgian prosecutors for building a rigorous case against Nemmouche that stood up against accusations by the defense that he had been framed in a plot to kill two agents of Israels Mossad spy service.

Its a victory for justice, said David Ramet, a lawyer for the two daughters of an Israeli tourist couple, Myriam and Emmanuel Riva, killed in the shooting. The eldest of the two, Shiva, earlier testified in court that the tragedy would pursue them all their lives, state broadcaster RTBF reported.

Two men employed at the museum, Dominique Sabrier and Alexandre Strens, also died in the shooting attack.

During the trial, assertions by Nemmouches lawyer that video footage of the shooting was faked and that his client never pulled the trigger, outraged the victims families and survivors.

European Jewish Congress chief Moshe Kantor on March 7 condemned as a disgrace the use of reprehensible tactics and conspiracy theories of the defense lawyers.

The attack in May 2014 was the first staged by a Western European who had fought in the ranks of Islamist militant factions in Syrias civil war, prosecutors said.

A lawyer for Nemmouche said he would respect the 12-person jurys decision and not appeal against the verdict.

Another French citizen, Nacer Bendrer, was found guilty of providing the weapon used in the shooting. The two met and were radicalized in jail, according to investigators.

Prosecutors told the court that Nemmouche was arrested in the southern French city of Marseille less than a week after the shooting carrying a Kalashnikov of the kind used in the crime.

The jury also heard testimony last month from two French journalists who were held hostage by Islamic State in Syria and identified Nemmouche as one of their captors.

The journalists described him as deeply anti-Semitic, sadistic and full of hatred. Nemmouche faces separate charges in France for his role in keeping the reporters in captivity.

By Clement Rossignol
A chief of the Blackfoot tribe on horse-back and wearing traditional dress and headdress, in western Canada. (Spencer Arnold Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Century Old Blackfoot Headdress Found in Thrift Store Returned to First Nation

CALGARYA more than century-old Blackfoot headdress that was dropped in a thrift store bin has been returned to a First Nation east of Calgary.

An Alberta government spokeswoman says someone made a call to a poacher tip line last June about a headdress that was up for auction at a store in Okotoks.

A Fish and Wildlife officer determined it was made with golden eagle feathers, but the province says the donor likely didnt realize its significance.

There was a note with the headdress with the name of someone who had been an administrator in the residential school system between 1890 and 1900.

Wildlife officials consulted with experts at Calgarys Glenbow Museum, who identified the item as a Blackfoot headdress.

Century-old Blackfoot headdress found in thrift store returned to First Nation https://t.co/qO1ZqQu4ab pic.twitter.com/oGOtMCQ9Wp  CTV News (@CTVNews) March 7, 2019

The museum also connected officials with Siksika Nation member Kent Ayoungman, who handles re-appropriated traditional items.

Over the following months, he will work to restore the headdress to something close to its original condition, so that it can once more fulfil its true purpose and be used in traditional ceremonies, Alberta Justice spokeswoman Ina Lucila said in an email.

She said its not uncommon for wildlife officers to get calls about headdresses, but theyre usually not authentic.

Lucila said the Blackfoot headdress is in good condition for its age and its feathers and beadwork are largely intact.

Joanne Schmidt, acting curator of Indigenous studies at the Glenbow Museum, gets one or two calls a month from people who want to know if they have something of significance to an Indigenous communityand, if so, how to return it.

Ive had people contact me about headdresses before, pipe bagsmany different items that people sincerely actually want to return to the right community, she said.

By Lauren Krugel
Containers and trucks are seen following a snowfall at the port of Qingdao, Shandong Province, China on Feb. 14, 2019. (Reuters)

China February Exports Tumble the Most in 3 Years, Spurring Fears of Trade Recession

BEIJINGChinas exports tumbled the most in three years in February while imports fell for a third straight month, pointing to a further slowdown in the economy and stirring talk of a trade recession, despite a spate of support measures.

While seasonal factors may have been at play, the shockingly weak readings from the worlds largest trading nation added to worries about a global slowdown, a day after the European Central Bank slashed growth forecasts for the region.

Asian stock markets and U.S. futures extended losses after the data. Chinese stocks sank over 4 percent in their worst day in five months.

Global investors and Chinas major trading partners are closely watching Beijings policy reactions as economic growth cools from last years 28-year low. But the government has vowed it will not resort to massive stimulus like in the past, which helped revive demand worldwide.

February exports fell 20.7 percent from a year earlier, the largest decline since February 2016, customs data showed. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 4.8 percent drop after Januarys unexpected 9.1 percent jump.

Todays trade figures reinforce our view that Chinas trade recession has started to emerge, Raymond Yeung, Greater China chief economist at ANZ, wrote in a note.

Imports fell 5.2 percent from a year earlier, worse than analysts forecasts for a 1.4 percent fall and widening from Januarys 1.5 percent drop. Imports of major commodities fell across the board.

That left the country with a trade surplus of $4.12 billion for the month, much smaller than forecasts of $26.38 billion.

Analysts warn that data from China in the first two months of the year should be read with caution due to business disruptions caused by the long Lunar New Year holidays, which came in mid-February in 2018 but started on Feb. 4 this year.

But many China watchers had expected a weak start to the year as factory surveys showed dwindling domestic and export orders and the Sino-U.S. trade war dragged on.

Seasonal distortions around the Chinese New Year holiday has added noise to the export data in the past two months, and in our view explain most of the surprise (relative to consensus), said analysts at Goldman Sachs, whose estimate for a 20 percent export drop was the most pessimistic in the Reuters poll.

But they noted that export momentum on a three-month basis has moderated significantly since the third quarter last year and said growth is likely to remain soft in the near future.

Graphic: Trends in Chinas trade and other major economic indicators: http://tmsnrt.rs/2iO9Q6a

Trade War

The increasingly weak China data comes amid months of intense negotiations between Washington and Beijing aimed at ending their trade dispute.

On March 6, the U.S. reported its goods trade deficit with China surged to an all-time high last year, underlining one of the key sticking points.

Chinas data on March 8 showed its surplus with the United States narrowed to $14.72 billion in February from $27.3 billion in January, and it has promised to buy more U.S. goods such as agricultural products as part of the trade discussions.

U.S President Donald Trump said March 6 that trade talks were moving along well and predicted either a good deal or no deal between the worlds two largest economies.

Trump postponed a sharp U.S. tariff hike slated for early March as the talks progressed, but both Washington and Beijing have kept previous duties in place.

The Chinese regimes top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said March 8 that talks had made substantive progress, and that the two countries relations should not descend into confrontation.

But the New York Times reported that Chinese officials are leery of continued discussions and dont want to commit China to structural changes in its economy.

Worlds Growth Engine Slowing

Chinas economy was already slowing last year before trade tensions escalated, due in part to a regulatory clampdown on riskier lending that starved smaller, private companies of financing and stifled investment.

Even if a trade deal is reached, its exporters will have to contend with weakening demand globally, particularly in Europe. Chinas exports to all of its major markets fell across the board last month.

The Chinese government is targeting economic growth of 6.0 to 6.5 percent in 2019, Premier Li Keqiang said at the March 5 opening of the annual meeting of parliament, a lower target than set for 2018.

Actual growth last year slowed to 6.6 percent, and is expected to cool further to 6.2 percent this year. Many analysts expect a rocky first half before a flurry of stimulus measures start to stabilize activity around mid-year.

Chinas slowdown and the trade war are having an increasing impact on other trade-reliant countries and businesses worldwide.

Imports from Japan sank 19.3 percent in February compared with a month earlier, Chinese customs data showed.

On Thursday, automotive chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp said it plans to halt production at six plants in Japan for up to two months this year as it braces for a further slowdown in Chinese demand.

Taiwan reported its biggest export drop in over 2-1/2 years on March 8, with shipments to China down 10.4 percent. Like China, Japan and South Korea, its high-tech manufacturers are also being hurt by a global downturn in demand for electronics from memory chips to smartphones.

By Stella Qiu & Ryan Woo
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks during the opening session of the National Peoples Congress on March 5, 2019. (Greg BAKER/AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese Regime Unlikely to Truly Reduce Taxes as Promised, Experts Say

When Chinas rubber-stamp legislature convened in Beijing this week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced that the Chinese regime would reduce taxes as part of stimulus measures to boost the slowing economy.

Li said on March 5 that there would be planned cuts of almost 2 trillion yuan ($298.3 billion) in taxes and fees for companies.

But experts told The Epoch Times that based on the Chinese regimes previous behavior, it is more likely that the authorities would not reduce taxes fully and could be expected to add some new taxes.

VAT

Li said value-added taxes (VAT), a consumption tax placed on products whenever value is added at each stage of the supply chain, would be lowered.

For goods made by the manufacturing sector, the VAT will be reduced from the current 16 percent to 13 percent in 2019. For transportation and construction-related products, the VAT will be reduced from 10 percent to 9 percent.

In 2018, Beijing similarly promised to reduce 1.3 trillion yuan ($193.76 billion) in taxes by decreasing the VAT and other taxes, but actually received 9.5 percent more in taxes than in 20171.2 trillion yuan ($178.85 billion) moreto reach a total tax revenue of 13.8 trillion yuan ($2.06 trillion).

The tax in China only can be increased, not decreased, said Xia Yeliang, a U.S.-based Chinese economist and former professor of economics at Peking University, in an interview with the Chinese-language Epoch Times on March 6.

Xia said that although the VAT was reduced in 2018, new types of taxes and charges were created. For example, in the bustling southern city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, the municipal government added 53 types of miscellaneous fees, including a road occupying fee for any business that uses roads for more than 30 minutes, and a road digging and repairing fee for any construction work that involves digging.

Chinese people have to feed a huge bureaucratic system, Xia said. Feeding the [Chinese Communist] Party and Youth League.

Xia said the regime is unable to cut or control government expenditures, so the only way to make up the deficit is to increase taxes.

Chinas Ministry of Finance published its 2019 budget plan on March 6. It estimated that the total income of the Chinese government will be 19.25 trillion yuan ($2.87 trillion), with total expenditures of 23.52 trillion yuan ($3.51 trillion). The Ministry noted that there would be another 1.5 trillion yuan in government funds that could cover the deficit, meaning the total deficit would be 2.76 trillion yuan ($410 billion), which is 16 percent, or 380 billion yuan ($56.6 billion), higher than in 2018.

Local deficit will contribute 930 billion yuan ($138.6 billion) to the total deficit.

Municipal Bonds

To meet the needs, local governments will likely issue more municipal bonds, the Ministry of Finance said.

Since the end of the 1980s, Chinese local governments started to issue municipal bonds to collect money for local infrastructure construction. The local governments often forced local companies to buy the bonds with very low interestor some with no interest.

But local authorities, laden with debt, have not been able to pay them back.

China Securities Journal, a publication under the state-run media Xinhua, reported on Jan. 23 that by the end of 2018, Chinas municipal bonds had reached 18.39 trillion yuan ($2.74 trillion).

State-run Securities Daily reported on March 5 that Chinas local governments will issue 1.5 trillion to 2 trillion yuan ($224 billion to $298 billion) of municipal bonds in 2019.

The total value of municipal bonds will reach 19.89 trillion to 20.39 trillion yuan ($2.96 trilion to $3.04 trillion) by the end of 2019 if local governments fail to repay the previous ones.

Premier Li promised on March 5 that local governments will pay off half of the matured bonds by the end of the year, but company executives were not optimistic.

Every year, the central government promises to return the debts, but every year the local government says they do not have money, Zhong Lan, a business owner from the eastern coastal city of Qingdao in Shandong Province, told The Epoch Times on March 6.

[Lis promise] is only a blurred political statement, Frank Xie, a business professor at the University of South Carolina Aiken, told The Epoch Times on March 6.

According to Xie, since reducing taxes or repaying municipal bonds would make local governments gain less revenueand thus hurt officials benefitslocal officials would not want to follow central government orders. This would weaken the Party leaderships ruling power.

It risks the stability [of the Partys rule], Xie said. So the Chinese Communist regime wont really reduce taxes and charges.
Daughter of Former Uzbek President Charged in $1 Billion Bribery Scheme

The Department of Justice announced criminal charges against the daughter of former Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov on March 7, in addition to charges levied against the former general director of Uzdunrobita, an Uzbek subsidiary of the Moscow-based Mobile TeleSystems PJSC, also known as MTS.

MTS is the largest mobile telecommunications company in Russia and a publicly traded company in the United States. Thursdays charges stem from an alleged $1 billion money laundering and bribery scheme, and the largest potential bribe payment ever received by an individual defendant under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

The charges were filed by Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the case will be adjudicated by U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, a Reagan-appointee.

Berman described the announcement as the third installment in a trilogy of cases that have implicated the highest reaches of the Uzbekistan government and some of the largest telecom companies in the world.

By funneling multimillion-dollar bribe payments through the U.S. financial system, the companies and individual defendants corruptly tried to tip the global economy in their favor and line their own pockets, Berman said in a statement.

But they are now paying the price, he said, adding that the U.S. financial system is not in business to enable foreign bribery or money laundering.

Gulnara Karimova, 46, is both the daughter of former President Karimovwho died in 2016and a former high-ranking government official. She allegedly received $865 million in bribes during the decade-long scheme.

Her father served as Uzbekistans president from 1991 until his death in 2016, and was the former first secretary of the Communist Party of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in the USSR. Karimov has been described as an authoritarian dictator.

MTS, and two other multi-national telecom giantsAmsterdam-based VimpelCom, now known as VEON Ltd., and Stockholm-based Telia Company ABare accused of paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Gulnara Karimova since 2001 to obtain and retain telecom business in Uzbekistan.

According to prosecutors, Gulnara Karimova exercised her corrupt influence over Uzbek telecommunications industry regulators to allow the telecommunications companies to obtain lucrative business and operate in the Uzbek market.

Bekhzod Akhmedov, an Uzbek national currently living in Russia, was the former general director of MTS subsidiary Uzdunrobita. Akhmedov is alleged to have helped orchestrate massive bribes on behalf of MTS, Uzbek subsidiaries of VimpelCom and Telia, and another MTS subsidiary called Kolorit Dizayn Ink, LLC.

A large portion of bribery funds were transmitted through banks anchored in New York City prior to being deposited in bank accounts controlled by Karimova around the world, thus giving the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York jurisdiction.

The bribes involving Kolorit were concealed through various payments to shell companies that executives at MTS and Kolorit knew were owned by Karimova, prosecutors said.

Akhmedov is charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and two counts of violating the FCPA. He faces an additional count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, as does Karimova, based on numerous international financial transactions.

Thursdays charges also came one day after criminal charges were filed directly against MTS and Kolorit. The companies were accused of conspiring to violate the FCPA by paying more than $420 million in bribes through Akhmedov to Karimova.

MTS and Kolorit pleaded guilty and accepted a Department of Justice non-prosecution agreement in conjunction with an $850 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The guilty plea and settlement marks the third such resolution in the multi-year bribery investigation.

In Feb. 2016, VimpelCom and its Uzbek subsidiary, Unitel LLC, admitted to conspiring to pay more than $114 million in bribes to Karimova between 2005 and 2012. In Sept. 2017, Telia and its Uzbek subsidiary, Coscom LLC, admitted to conspiring to pay more than $331 million in bribes to Karimova between 2007 and 2010.

The indictment and corporate resolution announced today, together with two prior corporate resolutions involving bribes allegedly paid to Karimova, demonstrate the Departments comprehensive approach to foreign corruption: we will aggressively pursue both corrupt foreign officials and the companies and individuals who bribe them in order to gain unfair business advantages, and we will do everything we can to keep the proceeds of that corruption out of the U.S. financial system, said DOJ Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski.

Corruption of this level and reach poisons our integrity as a participant in the global marketplace, said Patrick Lechleitner of Homeland Security Investigations.

In total, the investigation has yielded $2.6 billion in global fines and repayments, including more than $1.3 billion already paid to the United States.

Federal prosecutors have also filed civil complaints to seize assets currently held in bank accounts in Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Ireland in connection with the bribery payments and funds involved in laundering them.

Both Karamova and Akhmedov remain at large, authorities said.
Democrats Scramble to Keep Collusion Conspiracy Theory Alive

Commentary

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the lionized hero on whom the Presidents detractors have pinned their hopes and dreams for nearly two years, is reportedly very close to issuing his final report. No one on the outside actually knows yet what exactly Mueller and his team of partisan lawyers will write, but those who have been predicting daily that the Mueller report would demonstrate that illegal collusion with Russia was the real reason Hillary lost the election are now falling all over themselves to lower expectations and hedge their bets.

In typical fashion, they cannot accept that the report might fall short of their dreams because the evidence did not support the conclusions they wanted to hear. Instead, their latest avenue of spin is to minimize Muellers authority and efforts and to promise that the Committee chairs in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, driven by ego and a thirst for power, will now mount their own aggressive alternative investigations digging into every aspect of the Presidents personal, business, and public life.

Instead of committing to accept Muellers conclusionsdrawn from almost two years of subpoenas, grand jury investigations, threats to witnesses family members, and many other heavy-handed tactics designed to bring the President to his kneesDemocrat Committee heads like Representatives Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff are already making excuses. Theyre asserting publicly that Muellers mandate was too narrow for him to find what they assume must be out there, and that it is now Congresss role to paralyze the country for the next two years with endless investigations designed in reality to do nothing other than win through obstruction what the Democrats lost at the polls.

Tragically for the country, the idea of simply closing out this matter with the Mueller report, and then working forward positively and cooperatively on actual policies for the good of the American people, isnt even within the realm of possibility for the Democratic Party leaders whose entire raison detre over the past two years has been anti-Trump obstructionism.

Their only purpose now is to embarrass President Trump and keep him preoccupied, thereby undermining every actual policy initiative he was elected to pursue. House Democrats have made clear that even long-standing protocol would not impede their efforts when they decided to hold the Michael Cohen sideshow hearings at the exact moment the President was overseas trying to address one of the most daunting foreign policy issues facing our nation, the threat from North Korea.

Moreover, the idea that the absence of evidence of any illegal conduct by the President is a function of limitations placed on Mueller is both nonsense and utter hypocrisy. Under Special Counsel Regulation 600.4, it was Rod Rosenstein who determined the scope of Muellers investigation. Yes, the same Rod Rosenstein who plotted with other Justice Department officials to orchestrate an aborted coup attempt against President Trump. Rosenstein wanted President Trump out, and he worked to fulfill his desire by giving Mueller a very broad mandate. The Special Counsel regulations themselves also expanded on the specific substantive mandate by expressly giving Mueller the authority to bring criminal charges against anyone he unilaterally decided was interfering with his investigation.

The public record shows that Muellers investigators have interviewed hundreds of people, including dozens within the Trump White House, on a broad array of topics. His prosecutors have charged some Americans with crimes that have no obvious connection to the original, publicly understood impetus for the investigation. Still no reigns were put on Mueller.

Additionally, when any defendant has tried to argue that Muellers mandate should be construed more narrowly, federal judges have consistently ruled that Rosenstein had the authority to give Mueller such a broad mandate. Interested readers might recall that when Paul Manaforts lawyers tried to argue that one of his indictments was invalid because it was outside the scope of Muellers inquiry, even Judge T.S. Ellis III rejected their argument, notwithstanding his skepticism about the political nature of Manaforts prosecution team and agenda.

In addition, Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein has testified extensively under oath before Congress about his oversight of the Mueller investigation, providing lawmakers with ample information about the probe and presenting no evidence whatsoever that the Department of Justice ever limited the scope of Muellers work in any way.

The record demonstrates beyond question that Mueller and his investigators have been given an extraordinarily wide berth to investigate President Trump, his 2016 campaign, and Russian election interference, with both the tools and the authority to compel testimony from any and all witnesses they were in any way interested in hearing from. In truth, between Rosensteins mandate and the Special Counsel Regulations that allowed Mueller to prosecute acts that never would have been crimes but for his investigation, Mueller has enjoyed virtually unlimited authority to take his work in any direction he unilaterally saw fitand he has done just that.

Now, even Neal Katyalan attorney who, during the Clinton administration, with the support of Janet Reno and Eric Holder, drafted the Special Counsel Regulations that apply to Muellerhas changed his tune about the investigation. After earlier assuring the public of the importance of a Special Counsel investigation, he now claims that the Special Counsel Report might just serve as a roadmap for Congress to take up the battle. The roadmap that he and the Democratic Partys leaders apparently envision is for a never-ending highway to nowhere.

The American public was sold on a very different goal for Muellers work, giving rise to some legitimate questions that Americans deserve to have answeredshould Mueller ever have been appointed, could the tens of millions of dollars his investigation has cost taxpayers have been better spent on programs that help people in need, and how much more taxpayer money will be spent to pursue this partisan agenda?

House Democratic leaders are already preparing their next line of attack for when the Mueller Report fails to reveal what they have hoped and promised. Rep. Adam Schiff, a Trump-hater to the core, has announcedbefore actually investigatingthat there is abundant evidence of the Presidents wrongdoing, no matter what Mueller reports. Rep. Nadler, meanwhile, has hired two investigators who have dedicated themselves to the impeachment of President Trump, and has issued more than 80 subpoenas designed to tie up the entire Trump administration with Committee hearings that will keep them from doing the jobs they were elected to do.

While Schiff, Nadler, and other Democratic Committee chairs have loyal anti-Trump followers who revel in their bluster, they do a great disservice to the American people by recklessly spending our money on advancing their blatantly partisan agendas under the guise of conducting investigations. They also send a horribly un-American message to students of our constitutional system and to Americans who care about fair and non-partisan investigations designed to get at the truth. The American model of an investigation is a genuine search for the truth, leaving no stone unturned. Schiff, Nadler, and their colleagues, conversely, announce their version of the truth first and then pick investigators and a course of investigation that they hope will support their pre-ordained conclusion.

There are so many pressing matters in this country demanding real policy solutions, yet these members of Congress are ignoring their legislative duties in favor of mounting attack after attack on the President. This is a gross misapplication of the legitimate investigative role and powers given to Congress under our Constitution. Many Americans across the country have had more than enough, and are yearning to see some real statesmanship and bipartisan policy work from our legislators.

Every American who cares about the Constitution and the enforcement of its brilliant system of checks and balances should demand that our members of Congress spend their time serving the interests of the American people, not wasting the publics time and resources on advancing their own narrowly partisan ends.

David Schoen is a civil rights and criminal defense lawyer based in Montgomery, Alabama and has served as trial counsel in the past for the Democratic Party.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Doctor Reveals Details of Forced Organ Harvesting in Military Concentration Camps

Veteran military doctor says he has seen over 60,000 documents with forged voluntary organ donors names

Around the same time the first report on forced organ harvesting in China was released in March 2006, a senior military doctor contacted The Epoch Times and outlined some shocking details about how the practice was being carried outand on whom.

The veteran doctor, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons but said hes with the General Logistics Department of the Shenyang Military Command, explained that the organ harvesting is orchestrated by the military and the victims are convicted felons and Falun Gong practitioners detained for their beliefs.

The military acts as the organ transplantation management system, he said. There is a huge source of living organs, and many hospitals with military background report their transplants to their supervising authorities. At the same time, they also carry out organ transplants on a large scale in private. In fact, the number of underground, unofficial organ transplants in China is several times higher than the official figures.

The doctor said he knew of at least 36 secret detention facilitieswhich he called concentration campssome of which held staggering numbers of Falun Gong practitioners.

The concentration camp in Jiutai Area, Jilin Province, is the 5th-largest camp imprisoning Falun Gong practitioners in China. This camp alone detains over 14,000 Falun Gong practitioners, he said.

Based on information I have access to, the largest concentration camp is also in Jilin Province. This concentration camp, codenamed 672-S, imprisons over 120,000 people. A large number of Falun Dafa practitioners, felons, and political prisoners from all over China are there, but I do not know its address.

We must shift some attention to many of the military facilities. Those are the true concentration camps, he added.

Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a traditional spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Hundreds of thousands of its adherents ended up in Chinas vast prison system after the communist regime launched a nationwide campaign of persecution against them in 1999. At that time, there were an estimated 70-100 million practitioners.

Forged Donor Names

The doctor said that at the point when Falun Gong practitioners were taken away from prisons, forced labour camps, detention centres, and secret camps to have their organs extracted, their real name would be replaced with a code corresponding to a forged voluntary organ donors name.

There was also a signature on the voluntary organ donation form, but of course it was signed by someone else. I have seen more than 60,000 such counterfeit forms. Basically, it says that the person voluntarily donates the organ and bears all the consequences. Many signatures were from same persons handwriting, he said.

These materials will be kept for 18 months and be destroyed afterwards. They are kept at the provincial level of military commands and can be accessed only with approval from the commissioner of the Central Military Commission.

The victim is told that he or she will go through a physical examination. The exam is followed by local anesthetic, then the organ or organs are removed from the live body.

The Falun Gong practitioners held in the military facilities could be transferred elsewhere on a large scale very efficiently, he noted.

I have witnessed a specially dispatched freight train transferring over 7,000 people in one trip from Tianjin to the Jilin area. It ran at night, guarded by the Chinese army. Everyone on the train was handcuffed to specially designed handrails on top of the ceiling like rotisserie chickens.

They Became a Commodity

The doctor said when it comes to the point that the organs are to be extracted, the victim is no longer seen as a human being, but an animal. [Doctors] who have performed one or two cases may still have some lingering fear, but after tens of thousands of live transplants and destroying the bodies, one becomes numb.

Not only are the organs sold for high prices, but the bodies are as well. He said that after 1992, when the cost of industrial raw materials rose as a result of rapid industrial development, human bodies were officially deemed a valuable raw material.

Living human beings, as well as dead bodies, have become industrial raw materials, he said.

The actual bodies are sold at high prices to many different types of state-owned factories as raw materials for different products via many different channels. Nearly all the large crematoriums in China are engaged in such underground businesses.

He said the Chinese Communist Partys Central Committee defines Falun Gong practitioners as class enemies, meaning they can be handled in any economically beneficial manner without having to report to higher authorities.

In other words, like serious offenders in China, Falun Gong practitioners are no longer regarded as human beings but as raw materials for commercial products. They have become commodities.

He added that Chinas booming transplantation industry has made it the centre of international live organ trading.

China has accounted for more than 85 percent of the total number of live organ transplants in the world since 2000. According to the data reported to the Central Military Commission, a few people have been promoted and became generals due to their achievements in this field. 

The doctor apologized for not being able to elaborate on the details. He said the entire operation is classified, and once something becomes classified information in the military, it is impossible to obtain any more information. In addition, divulging such information is extremely dangerous.

Personnel responsible for military control have the authority to arrest, detain, or execute any doctors, police, armed police, and researchers who leak information, he said.
The Mercedes-Benz logo is seen before the company's annual news conference in Stuttgart, Germany on Feb. 4, 2016. (REUTERS/Michaela Rehle)

Dusty Mercedes Stored for Six Decades Might Be Worth $1.5 Million: Reports

Mercedes-Benz bought back one of its cold cars, and it might be worth millions of dollars.

The firm reacquired a 1954 300 SL gullwing coupe with 35,408 miles on its odometer. The car was amassing mold and dust in a Jacksonville, Florida, dealership since the 1960s, Fox News reported.

It was then moved to a storage facility about 10 years ago.

BARN FIND: 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing coupe found in Florida and is heading to Amelia Island Concours: Posted by ClassicCars.com on Thursday, 21 February 2019

We believe the car has been sitting since 1956 and with 35,308 miles on the odometer, Constantin von Kageneck, who is the Mercedes-Benz Classic Centers marketing and communication specialist, told the Ponte Vedra Recorder newspaper several weeks ago. It appears the original owner enjoyed this 300 SL quite a bit between 1954 to 1956.

The report estimated that the Mercedes could be worth between $1 million to $1.4 million. There were only about 1,400 made, and this specific car was the 43rd one.

The person who sold the vehicle wanted to remain anonymous.

For the next couple of days its the Amelia Island Concours dElegance in Florida. On show is a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing (W 198) chassis 43. This was a true barn find, stored since 1964. Perfect timing for some Spring cleaning! #classiccars #ClassicCar pic.twitter.com/xlfBI3toQo  Classicana (@ClassicanaUK) March 8, 2019

There comes a point in your life when (attempting) a car like that to getting a proper restore, you have to wait in line a year or two. Then, when they get to it, its another two years. When you get to be in your late 70s or early 80sthats four years to get a car done. You just dont know if youre going to be alive that long, Bill Warner, who assisted in finding the car, told the paper.

Warner said the 300 SL Gullwing Coupe is a must-have among collectors.

There are specific cars that are must haves for collectors, Warner told the news outlet. A 427 Cobra is one. A pre-1971 Ferrari is another and a Duesenberg is another. Thats just the way it is. This car is one of those.

Mercedes 300SL Gullwing Barn Find Waits To Be Painted For Over 50 Years https://t.co/nwsoHDNstu pic.twitter.com/pn4EfEoig9  AutoRepairTech.co (@AutoRepairTechs) March 8, 2019

Mercedes-Benz has been attempting to buy the vehicle for several years, and it recently made an offer deemed acceptable to the owner, Fox reported. Its not clear what it was.

The car, according to the Fox report, was originally medium blue metallic, but it was primed and sanded during an attempt to restore it.

Kageneck said that Gullwing Coupe No. 43 will be shown at the Amelia Island Concours and will be set alongside No. 44, the Recorder reported.

For most classic car aficionados, there is an emotional connection to a specific car, Kageneck added.

It was the car their parents took them on vacation when they were young, the first car they owned in high school or the car they dreamed about when they were introduced to cars in the first place. Classic cars tell a story of the past, they inspire peoples nostalgic imagination and offer us a glimpse of what life in the past looked like.

 Vintage #Mercedes Coolness Frank Lloyd Wright the greatest American architect of all time.

Mercedes-Benz 300S Sedan & 300SL Gullwing pic.twitter.com/4tpAPZDBE9  Lienhard Racing (@LienhardRacing) February 28, 2019
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Attorney General Geoffrey Cox is seen outside of Downing Street in London, Britain, February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

EU Awaits Reworked UK Brexit Proposals, Deal Remains Elusive

BRUSSELSThe European Union told Britain to rework its Irish backstop proposal by March 8 but feared it would struggle to secure a deal that satisfied pro-Brexit lawmakers before a key vote in the UK parliament on March 13.

Just 22 days before Britain is due to leave the EU the two sides are locked in a game of brinkmanship and attempts to reach a mutually acceptable deal could go down to the wire.

EU diplomats briefed on the negotiations said the UKs top lawyer Geoffrey Cox had proposed a disputes arbitration panel that would not be obliged to refer cases to the EUs top court, the ECJ, whose jurisdiction Britain wants to leave.

We are now in a state when we are discussing proposals we have rejected months ago, an EU diplomat said. Theyve sent in a criminal lawyer who doesnt know EU law or customs rules. We are explaining from scratch why his ideas wont fly.

May tasked attorney general Cox with securing concessions from the EU on a key demand of pro-Brexit lawmakers, namely that divorce provisions to ensure no hard border on the island of Ireland would not trap the UK in the blocs trade rules.

EU negotiators object that the Cox proposal would unpick the Withdrawal Agreement reached by the EU and UK last year after months of tortuous negotiations.

Britains parliament rejected that pact, largely over concerns over the backstop. The bloc has offered addendums and extra assurances on the text to make it more palatable but refuses to change its substance.

While the EU still hopes for a breakthrough at the weekend, Brussels fears British Prime Minister Theresa May could try to negotiate directly with the other 27 EU leaders at a Brussels summit on March 21-22, just a week before Brexit day.

Weekend Breakthrough

According to EU diplomats, Coxs backstop solution involved an arbitration panel that would decide if enough good faith and best endeavors were being shown negotiating a post-Brexit trade deal.

The panel could rule positive even in the absence of a final trade agreement or alternative solutions to maintain the open border between EU member Ireland and the British-ruled province of Northern Ireland. It will be the only land border between the UK and the bloc after Brexit.

In such a scenario, the EU and the UK would fall back to a mini-backstop which would include fewer checks than envisaged in the Withdrawal Agreement, the sources said.

A second EU diplomat said that would only cover checks for animal health, food safety, and prohibited items. It would not cover production standards or where the goods originate which are essential to protecting the EU single market.

Other diplomats said Coxs proposal lacked detail and that the EU would not agree to replace the backstop with arrangements that failed to specify exactly how the Irish border would be kept open.

In the event of a breakthrough, May would be expected in Brussels on March 11 to seal the deal with Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the blocs executive.

However, many EU diplomats are skeptical an agreement can be reached in time for a March 12 vote in the House of Commons on Mays plan to leave the bloc.

Now Im sure itll go down to the wire at the summit, a third EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

The bloc expects May to ask her peer leaders for an extension to the current departure date of March 29 should both sides fail to bridge their differences, in order to prevent a no-deal Brexit that many says could cause economic turmoil.

A short extension until mid-May or the end of June is acceptable to the other 27 EU states, even if many doubt a delay will help break the impasse.

Its just postponing the cliff-edge. At least it gives us more time to prepare for no-deal disruptions, said a fourth diplomat dealing with Brexit in the EUs political hub Brussels.

By Gabriela Baczynska
7-year-old Farmaan poses for a photograph near his home, a wooden fruit vendor's cart, in New Delhi, India, on Jan. 18, 2019. (Altaf Qadri/AP Photo)

Family on the Fringes Sees Hope in 7-Year-Old

NEW DELHISomeday, the family says, the 7-year-old will save them.

Ill fight, the boys mother said when her husband insisted their son start working. She vowed he would stay in school, no matter what.

More than 20 years ago, Ruby Khan and her husband, Nisar, came to New Delhi, hoping to find work and some sort of future in the Indian capital. They were desperately poor and barely educated.

Ruby had made it only through fifth grade. Nisar never went to school at all, though he has picked up basic reading and math skills over the years. Plus, his legs have been weak and twisted for as long as he remembers, and the barrel-chested man in his early 40s needs a homemade wheelchair to get around. When his parents died, he says his siblings forced him and his wife to leave the family home, a few hours south of here.

So they came to New Delhi. What they found was a life on the fringes, living in a squatter colony in the heart of the old city. The couple and their five children survive mostly from Rubys begging, though their two oldest sons get occasional work as laborers.

Their home is mounted on cheap bicycle wheels.

City authorities regularly clear out the squatter camp and often destroy whatever they find. Because of that, some members of the Khan family sleep on a wooden fruit vendors cart the size of a large door, with the rest squeezing under a plastic tarp tied to a nearby wall.

If the authorities arrive, the family can quickly pile everything they ownclothes, blankets, birth certificates, bags of whateveronto the cart and roll it away.

We are hounded every day, Nisar says on a drizzly winter afternoon, a disheveled man in a dirty polyester jacket who still manages, somehow, to look courtly. Even dogs live better than us.

The family rarely has more than a few dollars between them. The oldest son, 17-year-old Armaan, dropped out of school to try to find work. The middle son, 13-year-old Ajmeri, dropped out when he was bullied because of a speech impediment. Neither works very often.

The oldest daughter, 16-year-old Mehendi, often spends her days helping out at a makeshift school for homeless children but earns no pay. The youngest daughter is just 3 months old.

So all hope rests on Farmaan, a 7-year-old with enormous eyes and scraggly hair. Farmaan was the son Ruby defended when her husband tried insisting he leave school to beg.

In a family where education was rarely even an afterthought, Farmaan has always loved school. Asked on a recent day what hed learned in class, he happily listed all his lessons. Then, for good measure, he recited the English alphabet forward and backward.

He hasnt done much in his short life. But simply by staying in school, hes become the focus of the familys dreams. Both parents try to help him with homework, and Nisar now agrees that Farmaan shouldnt start working, at least not yet.

Together, Farmaans parents have mapped out his future: high school graduation, a job, money.

He is their hope.

He has to make something of himself first, Ruby says. Then he can take care of us.
Whistleblowers Annie and Peter at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on April 20, 2006. It was their first public testimony about large scale organ harvesting atrocities in China. (The Epoch Times)

Forced Organ Harvesting: Blowing the Whistle on a Brutal Crime

Editors note: The Epoch Times is publishing a number of articles on torture and abuse meted out against innocent prisoners of conscience in China.

The crime of forced organ harvesting from living prisoners of conscience in China first came to light thanks to whistleblowers who knew about the illicit practice at the hands of the Chinese regime and decided to come forward despite the risks.

If not for their courage in speaking out, even more time might have passed before the world learned about the horrific abuse perpetrated by the Chinese state against innocent citizens.

Three key sources, two of them using the aliases Annie and Peter and another a military doctor in Shenyang, first approached The Epoch Times with information about organ harvesting in 2006.

Annie, whose ex-husband was a neurosurgeon at the Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital, relayed that her husband removed corneas from living Falun Dafa practitioners and that the victims bodies were thrown into incinerators after the surgery, sometimes while they were still alive.

Peter, a Chinese journalist, gave details about a detention facility in Sujiatun where organs were harvested from living Falun Dafa adherents.

The military doctor in Shenyang provided detailed accounts of massive secret military concentration camps in Shenyang and other regions where Falun Dafa prisoners of conscience were subjected to forced organ harvesting.

Speaking at a rally to raise awareness about organ harvesting in Washington, D.C., in 2006, Annie said, If I dont stand up, perhaps the other witnesses will not dare to stand up.

Since then, other sources have come forward with accounts of the horrors theyve witnessed. In 2009, a man employed by the public security system of Liaoning Province gave a detailed account of witnessing a Falun Dafa adherent being cut open while alive in order to remove her organs.

This week, as part of our series on the Chinese communist regimes torture methods and abuse against prisoners of conscience, we are putting the focus on whistleblowers of forced organ harvesting.

Featured are articles on Annies testimony, the former employee of the Chinese public security system, the Shenyang military doctor, and the story of a Toronto resident who, as a medical intern, witnessed organ harvesting from a prisoner in China. These articles and others can be found in the links below.
George Zheng, now living in Toronto, recounts how he witnessed live organ harvesting in Shenyang Province, China, in the 1990s. (Yi Ling/The Epoch Times)

Former Medical Intern Recounts Witnessing Live Organ Harvesting by Chinas Military

Editors Note: The following is a first-person account from George Zheng, a former Chinese medical student. The interview was conducted by Epoch Times reporter Yi Ling in Toronto. For Zhengs safety, this article omits specific dates and times, as well as some identifying details. The Chinese-language version of this account was first published by the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times on March 5, 2015.

Secret Military Assignment

The events Im about to describe occurred in the 1990s. At that time, I was a student about to graduate from a certain military medical school in China. I was interning at the Department of Urology, Shenyang Army General Hospital. One day, the hospital received a phone call from the Shenyang Military Region in northern China saying there was an order for some medical personnel to immediately board a vehicle and go carry out a military task.

The group of six who were chosen included two female nurses, three male military doctors, and me, an intern. The department head gave an order: From that moment on, we were to cut off all contact with the outside world, including relatives and friends.

We immediately boarded a van, the inside of which was completely covered with a light blue swath of fabric. The hospital also dispatched a military vehicle. The door was not yet closed and inside I could see a soldier holding a gun.

The military vehicle led the way. After getting on the expressway, the military vehicle put on its siren and all the cars gave way. We drove at a very high speed.

Eventually, we arrived at our destination, and after we exited the van, we found ourselves in a place surrounded by mountains. Soldiers were standing guard around a building. A military officer who came to receive us said the building was an army prison close to Dalian City in northeastern China.

A Nightmare Begins

That night, we stayed at the local military guesthouse; soldiers stood guard outside our room. In the morning, a nurse and two soldiers went to the prison to collect blood and classify the blood type. After they returned with the blood, we all boarded the van and sped off.

After we stopped, I looked through a crack in the door and could see soldiers surrounding the van, all holding submachine guns. They were facing outward with their backs toward us.

We waited in the van; no movement was allowed. Suddenly, there was a knock. I opened the door and saw four soldiers holding a man who had rope tied around his feet and neck, with his hands tied behind his back. The man was unresponsive.

The man was lifted into the van and laid on a black plastic bag that had been placed on the floor earlier. The bag completely covered the floor, and at a glance, I could tell it was specially made.

The rope the man was tied up with was very thinthe kind that will cut into the flesh if pressured. He was tied in such a way that if you stepped on the rope that went from his neck to his wrists at the back, he would be unable to move or struggle. If he did, the rope would tighten and he would be strangled.

One of the doctors told me to step on the rope and also hold the man so that he couldnt move. When I held his leg, I could feel that his body temperature was hot. I also saw that his throat was full of blood. It wasnt obvious where he was wounded, but there was most definitely a wound.

The Horror Unfolds

At this time, all the medical staff quickly put on surgical attire. The head nurse cut the mans clothes open with a scissors and then swabbed him with a disinfectant from his entire abdominal region to his chest a total of three times.

Then one of the doctors took a scalpel and made a long incision from under the sternum all the way to the umbilicus. The mans legs began to twitch. Then the doctor opened his entire abdominal cavity. Blood and intestines gushed out at once. The doctor pushed his intestines aside and quickly removed a kidney; the doctor opposite removed a kidney from his other side. They were very skilled and fast.

The doctor told me to cut the veins and arteries. When I cut, blood immediately spurted out. There was blood spurting from all over his hands and body. This blood was flowing, verifying without a doubt that this man was alive.

By this time, both kidneys that had been taken out were put in an organ transport container that the nurse was holding.

Brutal Removal of Eyeballs

Next, the doctor opposite me asked me to remove the mans eyeballs. I sat down and leaned closer. At that moment, his eyelids moved and he looked at me. I held his gaze briefly. There was sheer terror in his eyesthe kind of terror that cant be expressed with words.

My mind went blank and my whole body began to shake. I felt terrified. I was paralyzed.

I told the doctor that I couldnt do it.

All of a sudden, the doctor roughly grabbed the mans head with his left hand and, while using two fingers to hold his eyelids open, used the hemostatic forceps he already had in his right hand to gouge the eyeballs out. It was done in one motion.

At that point, I was shaking and sweating profusely from head to toe. I felt I was about to collapse.

I remembered that at the guesthouse the night before, a military officer came to talk to our director. There was one thing he said that stuck in my mind: Under 18 years old, the body is very healthy. Was he referring to this man?

After the doctor alerted the officer in the passenger seat that we were done, the rear door opened and four soldiers got in the van, wrapped the man in a big plastic bag, and dragged him to a military truck parked nearby.

Right away, our van took off, and we drove very fast back to the hospital, again with the military vehicle leading the way. All the surgical gowns, surgical caps, and rubber gloves we had worn were put together to be destroyed when we got back.

Upon arrival, the organs from the man were immediately sent to the operating room where a group of surgeons was waiting, ready to begin transplanting them into a patient on the operating table.

By this time, I could no longer do anything; my entire body felt utterly weak. The director saw my state and allowed me to rest on the side. I laid down, but I was still able to see them perform the surgery.

A Dreadful Burden

I soon left my job at the hospital and returned home. I was still extremely feeble and also developed a high fever. My mother asked what was going on, but I kept my explanation vague as I dared not divulge the matter to anyone.

But the pain was far from over. On the one hand, the entire experience was too horrible to even think about, let alone talk about. I had seen the brutal murder of a fellow human being first-hand, and my heart was extremely uneasy. I was also worried that I would be chased down and killed by the authorities. The burden of it all made me absolutely miserable.

For a long time, the scene in the van that day played over and over in my mindhow a living being just like us had his organs ripped out while he was still alive, and the frightful pain and fear in his eyes as he looked up at me. My heart couldnt bear it. I felt like I was going crazy, and constantly felt on the verge of collapse.

Many years have passed since then, but that horrible memory still cannot be erased. All those years, I didnt want to touch it and purposefully avoided it. Because whenever I mentioned it, I could not hold myself together.

When the media began exposing the forced harvesting of organs from Falun Dafa prisoners of conscience in China, I at once understood everything: All of this is true, and forced organ harvesting already long existed in the Chinese Communist Partys military system. Its only that the persecution campaign against Falun Dafa provided a much larger source of organs.

***

Epilogue: Chinas Killing for Organs

David Kilgour, an independent Canadian investigator and former cabinet minister, and David Matas, a Canadian human rights lawyer, alerted the world about the crime of forced organ harvesting in China with a report released in 2006.

In 2016, along with American investigative journalist and author Ethan Gutmann, they released an updated report showing that large numbers of non-consenting religious and political prisonersprimarily Falun Dafa adherents detained for their beliefsare being subjected to forced organ harvesting while alive.

In other words, they are being killed for their organs.

The researchers said Chinas organ transplant industry grew exponentially after 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party began its campaign of persecution against adherents of Falun Dafa, a traditional spiritual practice also known as Falun Gong.

The researchers found that while transplant abuse exists in many countries, the difference in China is that its sanctioned by the state and the state is profiting from it.

China is not the only country with organ-transplant abuse, Matas said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. Whats different about China is, its institutionalized, its state-run, its party-directed. Its not a few criminals in back alleys trying to make a fast buck.
French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin waits for the start of his trial at the Lyon courthouse, central France on Jan. 7, 2019. Pope. (Laurent Cipriani/AP Photo, File)

French Cardinal Found Guilty of Sex Abuse, Offers Resignation After Conviction

LYON, FranceFrench Cardinal Philippe Barbarin is offering his resignation to the pope after being convicted of failing to report a pedophile priest.

In a brief statement to the media in Lyon, France, Barbarin said, I have decided to go and see the Holy Father to offer him my resignation. He said he will meet Pope Francis in a few days.

Barbarin spoke of his compassion for the alleged victims and said they were in his prayers.

A Lyon court convicted Barbarin on March 7 and gave him a six-month suspended prison sentence.

A French court says Cardinal Philippe Barbarin had the obligation to report accusations against a pedophile priest because the alleged victims didnt request secrecy.

In the courts written decision, read by The Associated Press, Lyon magistrates said that Alexandre Hezez, one of the alleged victims and among those who brought the case to trial, spoke to the cardinal directly about the Rev. Bernard Preynat.

Hezez met Barbarin in November 2014 and kept informing him that there were probably other victims.

Cardinal Barbarin never showed any doubt about the information, the court writes.

The decision notes that ecclesiastical secrecy could not be invoked as Hezez made it clear he intended to make the facts public.

Henceforth, Barbarin had the obligation to report these facts. He didnt take the initiative despite Hezezs request and insistence, the court writes.

The court convicted Barbarin on Thursday and gave him a six-month suspended sentence. Preynat will be tried separately.

Phillipe Barbarin: French cardinal guilty of abuse cover-up https://t.co/u0MyVStbUg  BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 7, 2019

The Vatican Yet to Respond

The Vatican isnt immediately responding to requests for comment on the conviction of French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin for failing to report a known sexually abusive priest to civil authorities.

The Vatican spokesman didnt immediately respond after the verdict was handed down Thursday.

Barbarins lawyer has said he will appeal.

Pope Francis has previously said the French justice system should take its course, but has praised Barbarin as brave.

The Vatican did, however, invoke diplomatic immunity in refusing to respond to related cover-up allegations against Cardinal Luis Ladaria, the head of its doctrine office. Ladaria was not put on trial.

One of Frances leading cardinals was found guilty of covering up historic sexual abuse allegations https://t.co/ohxH4a5at8  CNN International (@cnni) March 7, 2019

Response by Victims

Alleged victims of a pedophile priest say the conviction of a French cardinal for failing to report the accusations to judicial authorities is a great victory for child protection and a powerful message to the church.

Francois Devaux, the president of the association La Parole Liberee (Lift the Burden of Silence), a group of victims of the Rev. Bernard Preynat said, We see that no one is above the law. We have been heard by the court. This is the end of a long path.

Devaux added: This is a victory that sends a strong signal to lots of victims and a signal to the church as well.

A lawyer for some of Preynats alleged victims, Yves Sauvayre, called the verdict historic.

This is a turning point, he said.

Cardinal to Appeal the Verdict

The lawyer for a top Catholic official who has been found guilty of failing to report to judicial authorities accusations against a pedophile priest says his client will appeal the verdict.

Barbarin was not present at the court in Lyon for the verdict Thursday.

Five other defendants were acquitted. Alleged victims claim church hierarchy covered up for the Rev. Bernard Preynat for years. But by the time the four-day trial reached court in Lyon last January, the statute of limitations had expired on some charges.

The priest has confessed to abusing Boy Scouts in the 1970s and 80s and will be tried separately.
The Ohio House of Representatives has passed an abortion bill that would ban abortions after the first fetal heartbeat is detected, according to The Associated Press. (Terry J. DuBose, M.S., RDMS via Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.)

Georgia House Panel Approves Pro-Life Heartbeat Bill

A Georgia House panel approved a bill on March 6 that would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat was detected, advancing the controversial bill after hours of debate.

The bill, House Bill 481, also known as Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, will be considered for debate on the House floor and could pass through to the Senate as early as Thursday.

The bill says Modern medical science  demonstrates that early infants in the womb are a class of living, distinct human beings that, among other individual human traits, have their own distinct blood types, organ systems, and unique fingerprints, among other traits.

Unborn children shall be worthy of recognition as natural persons under the laws of this State, the legislation reads. Under the U.S. Constitution and Georgia law, no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property except by due process of law and no person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws, the House bill stated.

Current Georgia law allows abortions up to 20 weeks; if passed, the so-called heartbeat bill would ban abortions when a fetal heartbeat was detected, which typically happens in a womens sixth week of pregnancy. Exceptions are included if not getting an abortion would pose substantial and irreversible physical harm to the prospective mother or in the case of rape or incest.

@GABaptist wholeheartedly support Rep Ed Setzler & Sen @BruceThompsonGA for their introducing the Living Infants Fairness & Equality Act(LIFE Act). This legislation prohibits abortion from the point of a child having a detectable human heartbeat at approx 6 wks gestational age. pic.twitter.com/ALWQH4G0Pz  Public Affairs (@GaPublicAffairs) February 26, 2019

I believe in the common sense of Georgians, state Rep. Ed Setzler, a Republican and the bills sponsor, told the House panel before the bill passed, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They recognize that science tells us a living, distinct whole human being with a heartbeat living in the womb is worthy of protection.

Life in the womb is sacred and worthy of full legal protections, he added, according to CNN. When there is a beating heart, thats a human being worthy of protection.

Witnesses included a woman who said her parents had been told to abort her because doctors thought she would be severely disabled and state Rep. Park Cannon, who said she got an abortion after being raped.

Cannon, a Democrat, said that abortion bans of any type are political and that shes opposed to them.

Were live in Health and Human Services Committee to oppose #HB481 and #HB546 which seek to outlaw abortion access in Georgia. Tune in! #TrustBlackWomen #ProtectRoe https://t.co/XZTNglDS7B pic.twitter.com/tqrvCe2SnX  Park Cannon (@Cannonfor58) March 6, 2019

What I can tell you about these abortion bans across the country, theyre not to protect the life of the mother nor life of the embryo, she said. Were deeply concerned about the effects of Republicans playing politics with womens lives.

At one point, state Rep. Kim Schofield, a Democrat, attacked Seltzer, asking him: How many times have you actually carried a baby?

Throughout the hearing, he spoke about his wifes pregnancies, including multiple miscarriages she suffered.

Dr. Kathy Altman, a retired OB-GYN who once worked as a medical director for the pro-abortion Planned Parenthood group in Florida, said she supported the bill.

She noted that she once supported abortion and had one herself but later came to regret it.

I wish there had been a heartbeat bill back then, Altman said. We have convinced young women that an unplanned pregnancy is the worst thing that can happen to them and their right to reproductive freedom is more important than their babys right to live.

House Health and Human Services Chairwoman Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Republican, oversaw the meeting, and convinced colleagues to amend the bill to add language stating women could abort unborn babies if doctors say the pregnancies are medically futile.

The committee approved the measure 17-14, with all Republicans voting for the bill and all Democrats voting against it.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he supports the bill, stating on his campaign website: I support a Heartbeat Bill that outlaws abortions after six weeks.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD.com
A head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) crawls on a piece of paper after having been removed from the hair of a little boy, on June 22, 2007 in Berlin, Germany. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Girls Hair Goes Up in Flames After She Washes It With Gasoline to Get Rid of Lice

A teenager was left with severe burns after she was told to wash her hair with gasoline in a bid to get rid of head lice.

The 16-year-old Turkish girl doused her hair in gasoline after a school friend told her it would kill the head lice, but she accidentally got too close to a heater and set herself on fire.

The teenageridentified only as Gozde K.was hospitalized with serious burns all over her body, according to Turkish news outlet Bolge Gundem.

Girl's hair goes up in flames after she washed it with petrol to get rid of licehttps://t.co/sUpx50kVti pic.twitter.com/krCv9T8dxs  Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) March 7, 2019

The tragedy occurred in the eastern Turkish province of Erzincan at around 10 p.m. on March 3, according to Turkish news outlet Enson Haber.

The girls father Erdal reportedly heard his daughters screams and rushed into the bathroom to extinguish his daughters burning body with a towel.

He then called the emergency services and the 16-year-old was rushed to the burn unit of the Ataturk University Yakutiye Research Hospital.

Gozde K. was later transferred for further treatment to the intensive care unit, according to reports.

Her father is also undergoing treatment at the same hospital after receiving burns to his hands while trying to extinguish the flames on his daughters body.

He told local media: She used the fuel from our gasoline heater and somehow she bent down and touched the heater, which instantly set her on fire.

I covered her with a towel and called the emergency services, she was bleeding. They have carried out surgery and we pray to God that she will survive.

The father has since set up a fundraising page and social media campaign to try to help cover the medical costs incurred by the incident.

Getting Rid of Lice

Adult lice are tan or greyish white, about the size of a sesame seed and move around.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one way lice are transmitted is through direct head-to-head contact. This can happen when hugging or leaning in close to someone whose scalp is infested.

Lice can also infest hoodies, hats, and capseven backpacks and stuffed animals. The CDC said that lice move by crawlingthey cannot hop or fly. Dogs, cats, and other pets do not play a role in the transmission of human lice, according to the organization.

Relentless head-scratching usually is the first sign that a child may be suffering from an infestation of lice.

Once a family member is identified with head lice, all household members should be checked, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises.

The AAP does not recommend major environmental cleaning, such as applying pesticides in the home, but advises washing items that may have been in contact with the hair of anyone found to have head lice, including pillowcases and hair brushes.

Placing items in 130-degree F water for 10 minutes will kill lice.

An over-the-counter medicated shampoo that contains 1 percent permethrin is a first-line treatment, advises the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Unless resistance has been seen in the community, pediatricians and parents should consider using over-the-counter medications containing 1 percent permethrin or pyrethrins as a first choice of treatment for active lice infestations, the AAP states. The best way to interrupt a chronic lice problem is with regular checks by parents and early treatment with a safe, affordable, over-the-counter pediculicide. After applying the product according to the manufacturers instructions, parents should follow with nit removal and wet combing.

Permethrin is a synthetic form of pyrethrin, which comes from chrysanthemum flowers, explains James Cuthbertson, M.D., of Berkeley Pediatrics, as cited by SafeBee. Its a neurotoxin to liceit poisons their nervous systemsbut doesnt harm humans.

Children should be taught not to share personal items such as combs, brushes, and hats, the AAP notes, adding, Regular observation by parents can also be an effective way to detect and quickly treat head lice infestations.

Home Remedies?

Some people try home treatments like putting vaseline in hair, according to the Journal of Pediatric Nursing, but no home remedy has proven fully effective.

Results indicated that only the application of petroleum jelly caused significant louse mortality but no treatment prevented lice from laying eggs, according to the Journal. Most home remedy products did little to kill eggs, despite prolonged exposure.

Nor will a long shower or bath drown lice as they can survive in water for up to eight hours.

None of the home remedy products we surveyed was an effective means of louse control, said the Journal.

Gasoline, kerosene, or home pest sprays should never be used to combat lice, experts said.

Manual louse removal is one of the best and easiest ways to deal with a lice infestation. This could involve combing out hair and picking out nits, or simply cutting hair short or shaving the head bald.
Georgia gubernatorial candidates (L-R) Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp debate in an event that also included Libertarian Ted Metz at Georgia Public Broadcasting in Midtown October 23, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (John Bazemore-Pool/Getty Images)

House Committee Seeks Documents in Probe of Voter Suppression in Georgia

The chairman and a member of an influential House committee are seeking documents pertaining to claims of voter suppression from the 2018 gubernatorial race in Georgia.

House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) and committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sent letters (pdf) to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on March 6, requesting documents relating to reports of unprecedented voter disenfranchisement.

The Committee is particularly concerned by reports that Georgians faced unprecedented challenges with registering to vote and significant barriers to casting their votes during the 2018 election, they stated.

Voter suppression is an increasingly galvanizing theme within the Democratic party. The new document requests are likely to not only continue to highlight the issue but bolster the profile of the Georgia elections losing gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams.

Abrams, who is considered a rising star among Democrats, was vying to be the first African American female governor in history. After she lost, she placed the blame on Kemp, her Republican opponent.

Kemp was the Georgia secretary of state and as such, the states chief elections officer. Abrams ended her bid for the governors mansion 10 days after polls closed on Nov. 16, but still refused to concede to him.

I acknowledge that former of Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be certified the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial election, she said. But to watch an elected official, who claims to represent the people in the state, baldly pin his hopes for election on the suppression of the peoples democratic right to vote has been truly appalling.

Abrams repeated a similar message in a March 5 New York Times interview.

The results were purely and fully attributable to voter suppression, she said.

In the same interview, Abrams said she is weighing whether to run for governor again, for a U.S. Senate seat in two years, or for president of the United States in 2020.

Cummings and Raskin said in their letters that more than 1.4 million Georgians had their voter registrations canceled during Kemps eight years as Secretary of State.

In 2018, 53,000 Georgians who tried to register, most of them minorities, had their applications placed on hold by the secretary of states Office, they said.

Federal law requires states to maintain a database of eligible voters, and for a states chief elections officer to take reasonable measures to ensure its accuracy. As secretary of state, Kemp oversaw those efforts, including the legal removal of inactive voter registrations.

Many of the removals included registrants who were either dead, ineligible felons, or had moved out of state. Others had been inactive for more than three election cycles, and could not be reached by elections officials.

The U.S. Supreme Court has authorized such voter roll maintenance activities, but voting rights activists and others continue to characterize them as suppressing votes.

The Georgia GOP issued a fact-check prior to the November election, addressing news reports that the 53,000 registered voters mentioned by Cummings and Raskinthe majority of whom were African-American and other minoritieswere wrongfully purged from voter rolls or blocked from voting.

It is absolutely irresponsible that the press would lead Georgians to the FALSE idea that anyone who has submitted a voter registration application may not be able to vote on Election Day, the statement said.

The 53,000 voters were instead shifted to pending status, or put on hold, as Cummings and Raskin explained, for lacking basic voter registration information.

Under state election law, a pending status at the secretary of states office is required under such circumstances, but doesnt mean an applicant cant vote. More identifying information, however, would need to be offered at the time a voter casts their ballot.

Pending applicants can usually resolve such issues online in Georgia, or by obtaining assistance from a local Board of Elections office. And pending voters can still vote if they arrive at a polling location with acceptable identification, such as a state-issued drivers license or ID card. They could also cast a provisional ballot and return up to three days after an election with ID.

Amid the ongoing allegations of voter suppression, voter registration actually jumped 20 percent since Kemp took office, and over 3.9 million Georgians voted in the gubernatorial election, smashing voter turnout in any previous midterm election.

Abrams has arguably based her career on the voter-suppression issue, dating back to her tenure in the Georgia State House.

While representing District 89, Abrams somehow raised $12.5 million from 2013 to 2016, through two voting rights nonprofits she founded, Third Sector Development and Voter Access Institute.

Shes refused to acknowledge where the money came from although she personally benefitted to the tune of nearly half a million dollars. In a March 2018 interview, Abrams thanked billionaire financier George Soros.

A former state Democratic candidate told the AJC on the condition of anonymity, for fear of political retaliation, that Abrams two foundations, Absolutely, 100 percent, no doubt, set the stage for her 2018 gubernatorial campaign.

Prior to 2018, Third Sector organized a statewide voter registration drive known as the New Georgia Project. Voter registration activities performed by the New Georgia Project led to a fraud investigation by the State Board of Elections.

Abramss other voting-rights nonprofit, the Voter Access Initiative, was recently renamed Fair Fight Action. Fair Fight Action is a so-called dark money organization that doesnt disclose its donors or its sources of funding.

Fair Fight Action also finances a sister website called Fair Fight Georgia, which asserts that elections in Georgia, and throughout much of our country, are not fair.

Abrams campaign declined to make her available to the AJC for an interview. A spokeswoman, Priyanka Mantha, wouldnt comment to the paper about Abrams reasons for withholding donor names.
A woman sits next to a salesperson at a Huawei shop in Bangkok, Thailand on Jan. 30. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Huawei and the Chinese Regimes Counterattacks: 5 Key Revelations

News Analysis

While the U.S.-China trade war seems to be cooling down, the United States war on Chinese telecom giant Huawei is just getting started. How Huawei and the Chinese communist regime respond to the crackdown reveals key inner workings between the regime and Huawei and what is at stake for the regime.

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested on a U.S. extradition request at the Vancouver airport in December 2018, headed back to the courts as part of her extradition proceedings on March 6.

A few days before, on March 1, Canadas Department of Justice announced it is allowing judicial proceedings in her extradition case to go ahead. The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa issued a swift response, calling it a political persecution against Huawei.

Also on the same day, a number of American journalists disclosed that Huawei has invited them to all-expenses-paid trips to China.

Buying Public Opinion

Washington Post journalist Josh Rogin posted an invitation letter from Huawei on Twitter, inviting him to join a select group of U.S. journalists to visit the companys facilities in Shenzhen and meet with various Huawei executives, tour their various product lines, and hold off-record discussions on the various challenges the company is facing in the U.S.

INBOX: #Huawei is inviting me on an all-expenses-paid junket to China? Thats gonna be a hard pass. Any American journalist who takes Huawei money should be ashamed and shamed. pic.twitter.com/F6ihsSXObk  Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) March 1, 2019

The letter also asked Rogin not to talk about the invitation with others due to the limited number of spots available for the trip.

While taking such trips are a common occurrence in the Chinese news industry, accepting free junkets for journalists is a major line not to be crossed in the West, as it could impact the objectivity of the journalist.

Declaring his rejection of the offer on Twitter, Rogin said, Any American journalist who takes Huawei money should be ashamed and shamed.

Other journalists, including Jonathan Landay from Reuters and Ana Swanson from The New York Times and others, also received the same invitation, but they said their letters were sent by the Chinese Embassy.

Launching a Legal War

In addition to launching a media war, Huawei has also launched a legal war.

On March 3, Meng filed a civil case to sue the government of Canada, the border agency, and the RCMP, saying she was detained, searched, and interrogated before being told that she was under arrest.

On March 7, Huawei launched a lawsuit against the U.S. government for prohibiting federal agencies from using the companys products.

Psychological War

Days after Canada gave the green light for Mengs extradition hearings to proceed, China accused the Canadian citizens it had detained, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, of stealing state secrets.

The detention of the two Canadians, along with the escalation of the sentence of another Canadian charged with drug smuggling to the death sentence, are widely seen as Chinas retaliation of Mengs arrest in Canada.

Most recently, China blocked canola shipments from a Winnipeg-based company.

Revelations

Beijings use of media, legal, and psychological warfare to protect Huawei show that Huawei and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are working as a team to target the United States and Canada.

A lot can be observed from the collective action of the CCP and Huawei and their inner workings as they try to launch a counterattack against the West.

Observation 1: The Close Relationship Between the CCP and Huawei

Although both Huawei and the CCP have repeatedly claimed that Huawei is a private company and there is no formal link between the two, the actions the CCP has taken have uncovered the thin veil between them. After Meng was arrested, the Partys diplomatic and propaganda apparatus began to constantly attack the Canadian government, Canadian citizens were detained, and the Chinese Embassy in the United States sent out an invitation to media in the name of Huawei.

Founded by former Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) officer Ren Zhengfei, Huawei is said to have links to the military, the Chinese public security apparatus, and former Chinese regime leader Jiang Zemin. These strong connections mean that many Party elites have a lot at stake with Huawei. Whats more, having occupied an executive position in the company for a long time, Meng must have a lot of confidential information that the Chinese regime doesnt want to get into the hands of U.S. prosecutors.

Observation 2: The Strategic Dependence of CCP and Huawei

Chinas PLA first launched a media, legal, and psychological warfare strategy in 2003, employing it as a core tactic toward Taiwan. The state strategy is now being applied to Huaweis battle against the United States and Canada.

The fact that the strategy is being used by the CCP for Huawei shows the level of importance the Party places on the company.

The company is part of many of the regimes monitoring and surveillance projects, including the Golden Shield Project, the Skynet Project, and the Xueliang Project. It is also a key asset in Beijings ambition of dominance in the emerging 5G technology.

Observation 3: The Chinese Regime Wants to Showcase Its Authority Domestically

Chinas economy is deteriorating and the regime is aware that many in the Party are not satisfied with how the U.S.-China trade issues are being handled.

The authorities, therefore, want to use their propping up of Huawei as a sign of strength domestically.

Observation 4: CCP Wants the Issue to Be Part of Trump-Xi Trade Negotiations

According to media reports, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping could meet by the end of this month to reach a trade deal. By making a lot of noise about Huawei, the CCP wants the company and the case of Meng to be part of the discussions in the trade negotiations.

Observation 5: Creating a Wedge Between Canada and the United States

Even though Meng was arrested at the request of the United States, it was Canadian citizens and industries that China targeted, trying to put psychological pressure on Canada to raise objections to the United States that Canada has been caught in the middle.

This goal is in line with the CCPs strategy of creating a wedge between Western alliances in order to divide and conquer.
A screen shows visitors being filmed by AI (artificial intelligence) security cameras with facial recognition technology at the 14th China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing on October 24, 2018. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

In Further Step to Monitor Tibet Region, Chinese Authorities Install Facial Recognition Cameras in Taxis

Having perfected facial recognition and AI-enhanced surveillance systems, the Chinese regime is now applying the technology to taxis in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.

According to a March 6 report from Tibet News, a Chinese state-run online news site, 200 new taxis were put into operation in Lhasa in Februaryequipped with real-time video surveillancebefore they were assigned to taxi drivers.

The GPS (Global Positioning System) has been upgraded from running on 2G mobile networks to 4G to optimize real-time monitoring. The Tibet News article claimed that the technology was intended to prevent drivers from violating safety regulations such as smoking and making phones calls while driving.

According to a July 2018 article on Chinese news portal Sohu describing similar facial recognition systems dedicated for taxis and buses, the technology is capable of scanning, analyzing, and storing biometric data of everyone inside the vehicle. If the system detects any suspects or suspicious behavior, it will report to the police immediately. In addition, before starting the taxi, the driver must scan his or her face in front of the surveillance cameraso the system can ensure that the person is the registered driver of the vehicle. The driving route is also being monitored at all times.

This system combines biometrics, big data analysis, and other technologies.

A recent data leak incident demonstrated the scope of personal data being collected by such facial recognition systems.

In February this year, SenseNets, one of Chinas top manufacturers of facial recognition systems, was found to be tracking more than 2.5 million Chinese citizens in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, according to a report by state-run media Xinhua. The company has a huge database of peoples ID number, residential address, date of birth, recent photos, work unit, and location data for the past 24 hours.

As in Xinjiang, the Chinese regime has heavily suppressed the local population in Tibet after it invaded the area in 1950, restricting Tibetans religious and cultural customs while engaging in tight monitoring of the region.

Previously, The Epoch Times reported in a Nov. 10, 2015 article that the Chinese authorities had deployed a new surveillance system in Tibet. It uses advanced radars and unmanned aircraft to track people, integrating electro-optical devices, radars, communications equipment, command-and-control instruments, and image analysis technology. It is capable of watching the borders round the clock and in all weather.

Reuters similarly reported that an on-the-ground surveillance network was being installed to watch the comings and goings of residents. Chinese state-run media claimed the heightened security was aimed at managing the Tibetan area without gaps, without blind spots, without blanks.
Judge Defies Mueller, Hands Manafort Lenient Sentence

A federal judged sentenced veteran political operative Paul Manafort to four years in prison on March 7, defying a request by special counsel Robert Mueller for a much harsher sentence of 19 to 24 years.

District Judge T.S. Ellis called Muellers recommended sentence excessive and imposed the surprisingly lenient 47-month sentence on Manafort, 69, during a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia. The sentence was even less than the one recommended by Manaforts lawyers and surprised legal experts.

This is a tremendous defeat for the special counsels office, former federal prosecutor David Weinstein said.

Manaforts sentence was less than half of what people who plead guilty and cooperate with the government typically get in similar cases, according to Mark Allenbaugh, a former attorney with the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Very shocking, Allenbaugh said.

Ellis also ordered Manafort to pay a fine of $50,000 and restitution of just over $24 million.

At the hearing, Manafort asked for mercy but expressed no remorse for his actions. He was convicted by a jury last August of tax fraud, bank fraud, and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

Manafort, brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair because of a condition called gout, listened during the hearing as Ellis extolled his otherwise blameless life in which he earned the admiration of a number of people and engaged in a lot of good things.

Clearly the guidelines were way out of whack on this, Ellis said.

Manafort was convicted as part of the special counsels investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Mueller did not accuse Manafortor anyone elseof colluding with Russia.

Ellis noted that Manafort is not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.

Prosecutors accused Manafort of hiding from the U.S. government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraines government. After his income from Ukraine dried up, he lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle, prosecutors said.

These are serious crimes, we understand that, said Thomas Zehnle, one of Manaforts lawyers. Tax evasion is by no means jaywalking. But its not narcotics trafficking.

Ellis, appointed to the bench by Republican former President Ronald Reagan, called the sentence sufficiently punitive, and noted that Manaforts time already served would be subtracted from the 47 months. Manafort has been jailed since June 2018.

Manaforts legal troubles are not over. He faces sentencing next Wednesday in Washington in a separate case for two conspiracy charges involving lobbying and money laundering to which he pleaded guilty last September.

Legal experts said the light sentence from Ellis could prompt U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to impose a sentence closer to the maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, and order that the sentence run after the current one is completed rather than concurrently. Jackson was appointed by Democratic former President Barack Obama.

In Shambles

Before the sentencing, Manafort expressed no remorse but talked about how the case had been difficult for him and his family. Manafort, who opted not to testify during his trial, told Ellis to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement. He described his life as professionally and financially in shambles.

The judge told Manafort, I was surprised I did not hear you express regret for engaging in wrongful conduct.

During a break shortly before the sentence was handed down, Manafort turned around and blew his wife, Kathleen, a kiss.

The case capped a stunning downfall for Manafort, a prominent figure in Republican Party circles for decades who also worked as a consultant to such international figures as former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi and former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.

During the trial, Ellis repeatedly interrupted prosecutors, telling them to stop using the word oligarch to describe people associated with Manafort because it made him seem despicable, and objected to pictures of Manaforts luxury items they planned to show jurors.

It isnt a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending, Ellis told prosecutors during the trial.

Prosecutor Greg Andres urged Ellis to impose a steep sentence. This case must stand as a beacon to others that this conduct cannot be accepted, Andres told the hearing on March 7.

Manafort is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mueller to have gone to trial. Several others including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen have pleaded guilty, while longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty.

Trump, a Republican who has called Muellers investigation a politically motivated witch hunt, has not ruled out giving Manafort a presidential pardon, saying in November, I wouldnt take it off the table.

Theres absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia, Kevin Downing, another Manafort lawyer, said outside the courthouse.

Trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani said after the sentencing, I believe Manafort has been disproportionately harassed and hopefully soon there will be an investigation of the overzealous prosecutorial intimidation so it doesnt happen again.

Manafort worked for Trumps campaign for five pivotal months in 2016 that included the Republican National Convention where Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, three of them as campaign chairman.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Judge Dismisses Stormy Daniels Hush Money Suit Against Trump

A federal judge on Mar. 7 tossed out porn actress Stormy Daniels lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, in which she was seeking to break a non-disclosure agreement that she claims was signed as hush-money over an alleged 2006 affair, which Trump has denied.

U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles said the suit was irrelevant after Cohen agreed not to penalize Daniels for herself violating a nondisclosure agreement she signed in exchange for a $130,000 payment.

Attorney Michael Cohen admitted in federal court that he arranged the payment to silence Daniels. He pleaded guilty to campaign violations.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, had wanted a court to declare the agreement illegal so she could speak publicly about her claim without fear of financial penalty.

The shell company Cohen set up to handle the deal, Essential Consultants, had once sought to fight Daniels in arbitration for violating the nondisclosure agreement by speaking in public about the alleged affair. Cohen had even threatened a $20 million lawsuit against her before vowing not to.

In seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, the president and Cohen effectively gave Daniels what she was initially seeking. They vowed not to seek penalties for breaking the deal.

Daniels had fought dismissal of the case because she wanted to record sworn testimony from the two.

Daniels attorney, Michael Avenatti, made no mention of that broader goal in declaring victory Thursday.

The court found that Ms. Daniels received everything she asked for by way of the lawsuitshe won, Avenatti said.

Avenatti had said he would seek legal fees in the case, but the judge said that was no longer an issue for him to decide.

Otero sent the case back to Los Angeles Superior Court, where it was initially filed. He said that move does not mean the litigation would continue there, but said Daniels may be entitled to legal fees.

Last year, Otero ordered Daniels to pay Trump $293,000 in attorneys fees after dismissing a defamation lawsuit she brought against him.
Luke Perrys Son, Jack, Breaks Silence on Fathers Death: He Was Always Dad

The son of Luke Perry, Jack Perry, issued a statement after his fathers death earlier this week.

He was a lot of things to a lot of people. To me, he was always Dad, Perry wrote on Instagram. He loved supported me in everything, and inspired me to be the best that I could possibly be.

The younger Perry, who is a professional wrestler, added, Ive learned so much from you, and my heart is broken thinking about everything you wont be here for. Ill miss you every day that I walk this earth.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jungle Boy  Jack Perry (@boy_myth_legend) on Mar 6, 2019 at 12:03pm PST

He concluded by saying that he would do whatever he could to carry on your legacy and make you proud. I love you Dad.

Luke Perry, 52, died on March 4 after he suffered a stroke last week. A spokesperson for Beverly Hills, 90210, star confirmed his death to news outlets that same day, saying he was surrounded by family and friends.

The family appreciates the outpouring of support and prayers that have been extended to Luke from around the world, and respectfully request privacy in this time of great mourning, the representative told the media. No further details will be released at this time.

Perrys daughter, Sophie, also responded with a post on social media.

A lot has happened in this past week for me, she wrote on the social media website. Everything is happening so fast. I made it back from Malawi just in time to be here with my family, And in the past 24 hours I have received an overwhelming amount of love and support.

Luke loved his family. He raved about his kids and how proud he was of them They were his heart."  Posted by People on Monday, 4 March 2019

Fellow 90210 stars offered their condolences.

I am in shock. Heartbroken. Devastated by the loss of my friend. I have so many memories with Luke that make me smile and that are forever imprinted on my heart and mind, Shannen Doherty, 47, told People magazine this week.

Her character was the love interest of Perrys character on the Fox teen drama, which ran from 1990 until 2000.

Luke was a smart, quiet, humble and complex man with a heart of gold and never-ending well of integrity and love. Luke reached out to me during my cancer journey and we picked right back up, albeit older and wiser, but that connection remained in tact, she said.

Luke was one of the kindest and most humble human beings Ive ever known. Im grateful for the years of friendship we had."  Posted by People on Monday, 4 March 2019

Tori Spelling, 45, another star, also issued a statement.

Im saddened for his kids whom he adored beyond words. He was so proud of Jack and Sophie, she told People. Luke was one of the kindest and most humble human beings Ive ever known. Im grateful for the years of friendship we had. He truly was family to me, a protector and a brother. Im so sorry for the loss that everyone is experiencing.

Jason Priestly, whose character was a friend of Perrys on the show, said they were good friends in real life.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by jason_priestley (@jason_priestley) on Mar 7, 2019 at 12:12am PST

Its taken me a couple of days to figure out how to write this, Priestley said on Instagram. My dear friend of 29 years, Luke Perry, was one of those truly special people who really cared Luke was not only a star, he was an incredibly bright light that was extinguished far too soon and that is why I, and so many others, are in so much pain today.

If you had the good fortune to know Luke, or to have ever crossed his path, I know you are sad today as well, Priestley continued.

The candle that burns twice as bright only burns for half as long you burned oh, so brightly Luke Goodnight Sweet Prince.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sophie Perry (@lemonperry) on Mar 5, 2019 at 11:57am PST
Man Who Poisoned Multiple Colleagues Sandwiches, Jailed for Life

BIELEFELD, GermanyA court in Germany has sentenced a 57-year-old man to life imprisonment for poisoning his colleagues sandwiches.

The man, identified under local law as Klaus O, added dangerous heavy metals to food items at the factory where he worked in the town of Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock over several years, RTL reported.

The court in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, found him guilty of attempted murder Thursday, March 7, and imposed the maximum custodial sentence.

The judge said the crimes were as serious as murder, according to German news agency DPA.

Two victims have been left with serious kidney damage and a third is now in a vegetative state after falling into a coma, RTL reported.

Klaus O refused to speak during his trial and the motive for his actions is still unclear.

However, a mental health expert for the prison service told the court that the defendant wanted to see how the poison would affect his colleagues, like a scientist performing tests on a rabbit, according to RTL.

In May 2018, a security camera captured Klaus O opening a co-workers lunchbox and putting a substance on the sandwich inside, the police said in a statement in June last year.

A small bottle of a powdery substance was found in the suspects bag after he was taken into custody, police said.

The owner of the sandwich had raised the alarm earlier, after discovering an unknown substance smeared on his lunch. He informed his companys management, which in turn notified police.

Testing by the regional criminal office of North Rhine-Westphalia indicated the substance on the bread was toxic lead acetate, and there was enough to cause severe organ damage, authorities said.

Authorities broadened the investigation after two other cases of illness at the company in recent years were discovered.

Klaus O was brought before a judge on May 17, who issued an arrest warrant for attempted murder.

Fire brigade specialists found mercury, lead, and cadmium in the suspects apartment in Bielefeld. Police said the man has long tried to produce toxic substances, including heavy metal compounds, based on substances found in his home.
Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, leaves the Federal District Court after a hearing in Washington on May 23, 2018. (Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)

Manafort Sentenced to 47 Months in Prison for Work Unrelated to Trump Campaign

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, which was unrelated to the Trump campaign.

Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed the sentence on March 7, capping the only jury trial following indictments stemming from special counsel Robert Muellers investigation.

Federal sentencing guidelines had called for a term of roughly 20 years but few observers had expected he would receive a sentence that long.

Clearly the guidelines were way out of whack on this, Ellis said.

Ellis, appointed to the bench by Republican former President Ronald Reagan, called the sentence sufficiently punitive but noted that Manaforts time already served would be subtracted from the 47-month sentence. Manafort has been jailed since June 2018.

The judge also noted during the hearing that Manafort is not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.

A jury last year convicted Manafort on eight counts, concluding that he hid from the Internal Revenue Service millions of dollars he earned from his work in Ukraine.

Manafort was prosecuted as part of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation, but this case isnt related to Donald Trumps campaign.

Before the sentencing, Manafort thanked Ellis for conducting a fair trial. He talked about how the case had been difficult for him and his family.

Manafort, who opted not to testify during his trial, told the court that to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement. He described his life as professionally and financially in shambles.

Manafort was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the U.S. government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraines former pro-Russia government. After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovychs ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle.

Manaforts lawyers argued that their client never lied intentionally and underlined that he corrected errors in testimony when they were pointed out to him.

Manafort, with noticeably grayer hair than just months ago, was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair holding a cane, wearing a green prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the words Alexandria inmate on the back.

Manafort pleaded guilty in September to several charges unrelated to collusion, specifically money laundering, failing to register as a lobbyist for Ukrainian politicians, and obstruction of justice.

Manafort still faces sentencing in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty in a separate case connected to illegal lobbying.

President Donald Trump has consistently criticized the Mueller probe as a witch hunt and a hoax. Trump instead claims that the Clinton campaign colluded with Russia, likely referring to the conclusions of the House intelligence committees investigation, which revealed, among other issues, that the Clinton campaign secretly paid for an opposition research dossier on Trump. The dossier was compiled by a former British spy using sources with ties to the Kremlin. The FBI used the dossier, without due verification, to obtain a surveillance warrant to spy on a former Trump campaign associate.

The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2018

The Associated Press, Reuters and The Epoch Times reporter Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.

Watch next:

Is Mueller actually investigating Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska?

Is Special Counsel Robert Mueller actually investigating Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska as part of its investigation into Paul Manafort?
Maryland Police Arrest Most-Wanted Suspect in 2014 Slaying

PALMER PARK, Md.Police in Maryland have apprehended a man on the FBIs 10 Most Wanted list whos accused in the 2014 strangulation of a New Jersey woman.

Prince Georges County police Chief Hank Stawinski told reporters that three of his officers approached Lamont Stephenson, who was in a truck, in response to a suspicious person call early Thursday, March 7. Stawinski said Stephenson told the officers he was homeless but also said he was a wanted man.

Stawinski said Stephenson was taken into custody on an unlawful flight to avoid prosecution warrant and added that Washington police have a warrant charging Stephenson in a slaying there Wednesday.

FBI Most Wanted murder suspect arrested in Maryland after over 4 years on the run https://t.co/OFRzUOXqwX pic.twitter.com/kMrHgcFhCo  ABC News (@ABC) March 8, 2019

The FBI said Stephenson, wanted in the strangulation of 43-year-old Olga DeJesus of Newark, New Jersey, had been on its Top 10 list since October last year.
Margaret Maurer was killed at a Mississippi highway rest stop when a wheel assembly detached from a tractor trailer and hit her on March 5, 2019. (Facebook)

Mississippi Student Killed by Flying Tires at Highway Rest Stop

A freak accident claimed the life of a Tulane University student at a highway rest stop in Mississippi when two tires came loose from a passing truck and struck her.

News outlets reported that officials with the New Orleans school have identified the student as 21-year-old Margaret Maurer, of Forest Lake, Minnesota.

Gautier police said the tractor-trailer was traveling westbound on Interstate 10 on Tuesday, March 5, when the wheels flew off the vehicle.

Maurer and two friends were walking back to their car when the tiresbolted together and weighing roughly 500 poundsentered the parking lot area from Interstate 10 eastbound near Gautier, ABC News reported.

Margaret Maurer, a 21-year-old Tulane University student, was killed by a flying truck tire after a freak tractor-trailer accident at a rest stop in Mississippi, police say: https://t.co/nfx6oymQVw pic.twitter.com/QYHd1YqeQC  Tom Cleary (@tomwcleary) March 7, 2019

The wheel assembly traveled about 850 feet before slamming into Maurer, according to the Gautier Police Department via ABC.

Its traumatizing of course for the young ladies that were there and the family, Capt. Casey Baxter of the Gautier Police Department told ABC News. Its heartbreaking for everybody. She was truly a victim.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Its just something I would never have fathomed happening, Baxter said, according to The Advocate. Its a series of unfortunate events that led to a tragedy of this young lady losing her life.

No other injuries were reported in the incident.

Random Freaky Thing

It is unclear what caused the tractor-trailers wheels to come loose.

After realizing something had come loose, the truck driver turned around to investigate, the Sun Herald reported. Police said they suspect no wrongdoing on the mans part.

Maurers mother told KSTP-TV that she doesnt blame the driver for what she called a freak accident that happened as her daughter and her friends took a restroom break during a spring-break road trip.

Its absolutely a random freaky thing, Tracy Maurer told the station. Its not right. Theres so much thats wrong about this. Its just random. I really want to be angry at somebody, but I cant be.

Extraordinarily Gifted Student

University president Mike Fitts described Maurer as an extraordinarily gifted student and a leader among her peers in a written statement.

She was planning to graduate in May to pursue a career in scientific illustrationa field that combined her skill as a scientist, her incredible artistic talent and her love of nature, he said.

Maurers professor, Thomas Sherry, praised her ambition and called her a go-getter.

He said Maurer was gifted artistically and drew illustrations for his independent book project on birds.

She was able to make the eyes sparkle. She was able to get butterfly wings to look iridescent. Just stunning talent. It was like this raw talent and energy, hungry, the professor said, according to The Advocate. It was just so much fun to see her learn and grow as a person.

Sherry said he plans to hold an exhibition to showcase the late students work.

Theyre just spectacular, theyre beautiful, Sherry told ABC News. At the very least  we have this incredible memorial to her that I hope to use in various ways to shine a light on what an outstanding student she was.

Dorothy Cheruiyot, a professor at Tulane University who worked closely with Maurer, was cited by The Advocate as saying that Maurer and five friends had planned to head out in two cars for a vacation at a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.

She was so excited, showing me pictures of the cabin. She was going to go hiking, Cheruiyot said. And I said, Make sure you have fun. Dont just work.'

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Human rights activist and top model Waris Dirie from Somalia addresses a news conference to announce the musical project "Desert Flower" in St. Gallen, Switzerland March 7, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

Model Turned Activist Waris Dirie Says World Is Ignoring the Crime of FGM

ST. GALLEN, SwitzerlandFemale genital mutilation (FGM) is still occurring because the world is turning a blind eye to a crime against children, Waris Dirie, the Somali nomad turned supermodel, told Reuters on March 7.

Dirie has used her fame as a Pirelli calendar model and a Bond girl playing opposite Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights to campaign against female circumcision.

It is the hardest job I have ever done in my life. But I have to because there is no one else who has that commitment and I will see this to the end, she said in an interview.

Dirie underwent FGM when she was 5 years old; her sister bled to death after the procedure. Aged 13, Dirie fled an arranged marriage, eventually arriving in London.

Her autobiography Desert Flower became a film and is now a musical by Gil Mehmert and Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, which will premiere in the Swiss town of St. Gallen in February 2020.

Dirie said it was shocking and surprising to find her life story was now going on stage, but still, the message about FGM had still not got through.

The world is not taking interest. she said.

The World Health Organization says more than 200 million women alive today have survived FGM, mainly in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

FGM, which inflicts severe pain on young girls and causes long-term health problems if they survive, is recognized internationally as a human rights violation that constitutes extreme discrimination against women.

Ahead of International Womens Day on March 8, Diries Desert Flower Foundation has teamed up with lingerie brand Coco de Mer to make a short film, directed by British photographer Rankin, to raise awareness against FGM.

The aim is to help collect 10 million signatures by the end of 2019, to be then presented to the U.N. Secretary-General.

It is not fair that so much abuse is going on and the world just sits back and just says: Yes, yes, we know it is a culture, Dirie said.

It was not only a womens problem, and not confined to a few countries but widely practiced by immigrants, she added.

This is really a terrible abuse against children and a crime. And I cannot repeat it enough, and I cannot say it enough and I just want the world to seriously recognize this and to do something about it because enough is enough, she said.

By Cecile Mantovani
A booth of NBC News and MSNBC is seen at the Wells Fargo Center on July 24, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Alex Wong/Getty Images

MSNBC: Big Lie Sausage Factory

Commentary

It may be that the media and their political wing in Congress are preparing for the aftermath of a disappointing Mueller report.

If they were anticipating hot, spicy evidence of Russian collusion, why would House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) promise to return to re-investigate Russian collusion at the infamous Trump Tower meeting?

Or take a recent narrative-setting session with MSNBCs Katy Tur and MSNBC analyst Michael McFaul, the former ambassador to Russia credited with designing the ObamaClinton reset. If they really thought the special counsel was about to nail President Donald Trump, why would they now be re-baiting some of the same old sorry traps?

Of course, its also possible theyre priming the public to accept the special counsels findings by re-enforcing a series of forgotten false narrativesbig lieswhich depend on constant repetition to achieve conventional wisdom statusthe subject of my last column.

In that column, I addressed The Big Lie About Russian Hacking' at the Democratic National Committee (DNC)an assertion, an attitude, a state of mind created without evidence, neither from the FBI, which never examined the DNCs servers, nor from the special counsels indictments to date. Tur and McFaul just pretend such evidence exists, and McFaul even gives a shout-out to Mueller and the intelligence community for finding it.

The MSNBC session opens with the fantastical assertion that Trump wasnt being a wise guy when, on July 27, 2016, he said during a press conference: Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

No, this was high treason in prime time, Tur and McFaul maintain, and with fairly straight faces.

What, Tur asks McFaul, were the Russians thinking when Trump said that?

McFaul replies: They were thinking that their work was helping Trump to win. WikiLeaks, their data dump, the conversation about the emails, and linking it to the 30,000 missing emails that President, then candidate, Trump did very deliberatelythat was all part of a negative messaging against Secretary Clinton, and the Russians played the instrumental role in that. Without the Russians, that wouldnt have happened. When they heard that, I think theyre thinking, Oh, our strategy has been working here.

If McFaul was seriously trying to execute cable TV analysis, we might worry about the poor mans mental faculties on reading his response. But agitprop is another matter.

Next, Tur flashes a quote on screen from the special counsels 2018 indictment of 12 Russian spies for spying. It states: [O]n or about July 27, 2016, the Conspirators attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third party provider and used by Clintons personal office. At or around the same time, they also targeted 76 email addresses at the domain for the Clinton Campaign.

But see the date, July 27, 2016. Why, thats the date of Trumps press conferenceJuly 27, 2016! Get it? Trump asked Russia for the 30,000 missing emails (which, of course, the NSA has), and, presto, Lubyanka answered their leaders call! How about that? Tur asks.

McFaul says: The evidence is just clear as day. Im glad you reminded your viewers of that. I remember when I first saw those lines in the indictment, we all assumed that, but they have the evidence there. Incredible, by the way, that we have that intelligence, just to give credit to Mueller and our intelligence community.

In fact, the evidence is anything but as clear as day. In a podcast, William Binney, a former technical director of the National Security Agency, explains why it is that the basis of this Mueller indictment of 12 Russians is based on a fabrication. As Binney puts it, When you base an indictment that way, your whole indictment is a fabrication, too.

McFaul continues: But think about what were talking about here. The candidate, Trump, is asking a foreign governmentby the way, an enemy governmentto help him win the presidential election. And they not only were doing thatand I think played a very important role with the WikiLeaks data dump generallybut then even attempted to go farther when he publicly asked them to do so.

Tur then turns to a Russia Today (RT) special on Julian Assange, which she says aired in August 2016. She mentions a couple of items from the special, which appear to be derived from WikiLeaks-published emails. [The] U.S. government  did use Libya as a conduit to get arms to jihadists in Syria. They also talked about Hillary Clintons health, she says, although we already knew the former from Benghazi hearings, and certainly, anyone with eyes could watch enough Clinton stumbles, collapses, and coughing fits to talk about her health without WikiLeaks.

Tur continues: They mirrored a lot of what Donald Trump ended up talking about in the campaign when he started to go after Hillary Clinton.

Count to 10  so the WikiLeaks emails constitutedaltogether now NEWS.

WikiLeaks has published more than 1 million documents and never had to retract a single one, which is an unequaled record for accuracy. The bad, the ugly, the corrupt, the inane, the downright disturbingall of it is the genuine article, and very much in the public interest to disseminate  oh, whats the use?

McFaul says: Exactly, exactly.  Their messaging was very consistent, echoing each other, and candidate Trump, and his Trump organization, and the presidential campaign with him were encouraging Americans to look at WikiLeaks.

Imagine that.

Finally, the end is near. Tur says: When you look at this all together. These emails get hacked. Trump calls for more emails to get hacked. RT is starting their propaganda campaign that mirrors WikiLeaks, which then mirrors what Trump is saying, and the head of the CIA is urgently calling top lawmakers, it seems like we really need to focus on that summer  and what exactly the campaign or the president knew then, and whether or not Russia was taking orders from him or vice versa.

God save the Republic.

Diana West is an award-winning journalist and the author of two books, American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nations Character and The Death of the Grown-Up: How Americas Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
New Law Hopes to Save Kittens From Being Killed After Use in Research

Countless kittens used for research on harmful parasites and then euthanized could be granted a new lease on life if new rules introduced in Congress are passed.

The bipartisan and bicameral Kittens In Traumatic Testing Ends Now Act, or KITTEN Act, aims to find more humane alternatives to the U.S. Department of Agricultures (USDAs) current practice of euthanizing kittens after they are used in agency research on toxoplasmosisa disease caused by the Toxoplasma gondii parasite.

The parasite infects between 13 and 40 percent of population in the United States and United Kingdom, according to the USDA. Although it does not cause serious symptoms of illness in most adults, it can cause blindness and mental retardation in congenitally infected children.

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) introduced the KITTEN bill on March 7. The proposed legislation does not intend to stop the research, rather just save the kittens from being put down, and has already attracted support from Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) plus a group of more than 20 bipartisan U.S. representatives.

The USDAs decision to slaughter kittens after they are used in research is an archaic practice and horrific treatment, and we need to end it, Merkley said in a public statement. The KITTEN Act will protect these innocent animals from being needlessly euthanized in government testing, and make sure that they can be adopted by loving families instead.

Today, @SenJeffMerkley and I are introducing the bipartisan, bicameral #KITTENAct to end the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) practice of killing kittens after theyre used in agency testing. https://t.co/nh1xHEy2tE  Rep. Jimmy Panetta (@RepJimmyPanetta) March 7, 2019

If passed, the bill would require the USDA to uphold basic animal welfare standards, and the kittens would be fully protected by requiring the Secretary of Agriculture to end the use of kittens and adult cats in any USDA experiment that unnecessarily harms the animal.

While I strongly support scientific research, taxpayer money and federal resources should be spent on advancing scientific research in an ethical manner, not on inflicting pain on kittens or killing them after they are used in agency testing, Panetta said. I hope this bill helps us get closer to ending this cruel practice.

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture is WAY out of line breeding cats just to feed them parasite-ridden raw meat and then kill them even though theyre perfectly healthy. Our bipartisan KITTEN Act will put an end to this abusive and unnecessary practice for good.https://t.co/NIGqEiP5Q5  Rep. Brian Mast (@RepBrianMast) March 7, 2019

Since 1970, the Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, has invested $650,000 a year into research and testing on kittens that eventually get put down by the USDA. Animal rights advocates accuse the lab of breeding up to 100 kittens annually to be fed parasite-infected raw meat when they turn two months old. Feces are collected and parasitic eggs harvested for use in other experiments. The three-month-old kittens are then euthanized and cremated. Rights groups says that the kittens could easily be treated and adopted.

The USDA disputes the claim that it was experimenting on 100 kittens each year, saying the figure is inflated.

Total numbers of kittens killed in toxoplasmosis research at Maryland lab funded by your tax dollars according to @USDA in past 5 years. Its funded to raise & kill 100 per year. 2017-30 killed / 2016 -50 killed / 2015-34 killed / 2014-44 killed / 2013-63 killed @ABC7News #7OYS  Scott Taylor ABC 7 (@ScottTaylorTV) May 18, 2018

It also maintains that the animals used in the life-saving research have to be euthanized to stop the parasite from infecting people, although this has been disputed by the Centers for Disease Control, American Veterinary Medical Association, and Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, who say that the kittens can be kept safely as pets after they have been treated with the antibiotic clindamycin.

Merkley is using wording in the Senate Appropriations Committee agricultural bill to urge the USDA to consider alternative testing methods to infecting and killing kittens. The USDA announced in 2018 it had started looking for alternatives to the kitten testing.

Kittens should be in loving homes, not government labs. My KITTEN Act will prevent the government from needlessly euthanizing kittens when they can be adopted by families instead. RT if you agree. pic.twitter.com/28u5eeKqXN  Jeff Merkley (@JeffMerkley) March 7, 2019

Taxpayer watchdog group White Coat Waste Project applauded the two senators for trying to rescue the kittens.

3,000 kittens killed and $22 million squandered for decades of cruel and unproductive USDA experiments is tragic whether you care about government waste, animal protection or both, Project Public Policy Manager Noelle Callahan said. Like a majority of Americans, our two-million-plus members want this nightmarish program ended and we applaud Senator Merkley for his outstanding leadership to end the USDAs taxpayer-funded kitten slaughter.

Animal protection advocates also welcomed the new bill, saying the USDAs research practices are out of step with 21st Century animal welfare recommendations.

Continuing to breed and kill perfectly healthy kittens for toxoplasmosis research is unethical and unnecessary, and Im grateful to Senator Merkley for introducing the KITTEN Act to stop it once and for all, said Animal Planet Guest Expert Hannah Shaw, who is also founder of animal advocacy project Kitten Lady.

Separately, the U.S. government recently revealed that it was extending an agreement with the University of CaliforniaSan Francisco to supply researchers at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with fetal tissue sourced from aborted babies for implanting into mice.

Read More US Government Extends Contract for Mice Humanized With Aborted Organ Tissue

It is the second time HHS has opted for a 90-day extension instead of a year-long agreement as the department reviews its use of fetal tissue for moral, ethical, and other concerns.

Since 2013, HHS has been paying over $2 million a year of taxpayer money for a steady supply of about 100 mice a month, 90 of which are implanted with human fetal thymus and liver tissue. The mice are used for testing HIV drugs.
Ohio 7-Month-Old Had Blood Alcohol Level 3 Times Legal Limit for Adult Driver: Police

Ohio police are investigating after a 7-month-old baby girl was rushed to the hospital with a blood alcohol level three times the legal level for an adult driver.

The girl had a 0.25 percent blood alcohol content when she was tested on Sunday, March 3, at a Cleveland hospital, according to a police report cited by news station WJW. The legal limit for driving is 0.08 percent.

The mother of the infant told the police she went to work at 9 a.m Sunday, leaving her baby in the care of an aunt.

It was reported that when the mother returned at around 5:30 p.m., WJW reported, she noticed her child was behaving strangely.

Police said the mother brought the child to Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital at around 7:30 p.m, where physicians reported the baby was limp and unresponsive.

Authorities said a drug panel was performed on the baby and tests showed the childs system had a high level of alcohol.

Neither the mother nor the aunt said they had any idea how alcohol had entered the babys system.

Police have not released anyones identity involved in the case and no charges have been filed.

Child services has been notified and the police have launched an investigation.

Drunk at Day Care

The incident recalls the case of a Maryland toddler that, according to police documents, had become intoxicated at a day care center.

The childs mother told the police that she picked her son up from the day care and took him to the hospital, where a doctor smelled alcohol on the toddlers breath.

Frederick County Detective Michael Toste spoke to the mother at the hospital on April 10, 2018, according to the report.

Testing revealed that the boy had a blood alcohol content nearly three times the legal limit for an adult to drive in the state.

After a monthslong investigation, an arrest warrant was issued for Doris Marie Ott, 50, the day care operator. Her license was suspended and eventually revoked after the toddler was found drunk but she has now been charged with neglect of a minor and reckless endangerment.

Ott had run the day care for 18 years before the incident.

According to charging documents obtained by Fox 5, the boy was at the day care when he fell out of his chair, wouldnt wake up, and was pale and limp. Ott called the boys mother, who rushed him to the hospital. She said she smelled the alcohol but thought it was hand sanitizer or baby wipes.

Ott said there was no alcohol that the toddler could have accessed at her house and that she was not drinking.

Frederick County child was drunk in daycare operator's care, investigators say https://t.co/M43Z8C0pmk pic.twitter.com/zubQnDvwlP  FOX 5 DC (@fox5dc) January 16, 2019

Ott declined to comment but her attorney Michelle Martz said in a statement to Fox: Mrs. Ott ran a successful day care facility in the Walkersville community for 18 years. She provided a safe environment in her own home, caring deeply for every child entrusted to her care. She has a whole community that stands with her.

Mrs. Ott is completely innocent and has been cooperative from the start. Charging Mrs. Ott was wrong. We look forward to attacking this in court, Martz added.

Martz added to the News-Post that Ott has no intention of running a day care again.

Baby Bottle Tainted With Alcohol

In another related case, a man in Florida was accused of child neglect after a baby he was looking after drank from a bottle that contained alcohol, authorities said.

Joshua Goldofredo Rosado, 27, was charged with two counts of child neglect, according to Gainesville Police.

#Gainesville man charged with neglect after baby drinks formula tainted with alcohol, had BAC of .234 https://t.co/EqkHPlqj7z pic.twitter.com/ebEIIZD3Id  CBS4 Gainesville (@mycbs4) April 5, 2018

Fox35 Orlando reported that the childs blood-alcohol-content was .234, which is three times higher than the legal limit for an adult. Police reportedly said that blood alcohol content can be fatal at 0.3 or higher.

According to a recently released report, Rosado said to officers that the baby was alone with a 6-year-old girl for about 3 minutes, and she must have put alcohol in the babys bottle. He said he took the baby to the hospital after he noticed a rash when the child woke up.

The report, as cited by CBS4, notes, Therefore, within the 3 minutes he [Rosado] was gone, (the 6-year-old girl) had to locate the box, remove the bottle of liquor that was inside a bag, remove the bottle from the bag, unscrew the liquor bottle, unscrew the top of the baby bottle, add the liquor to the baby bottle, add the formula to the baby bottle, mix/shake the formula, and then give the bottle to the (baby).

Rosado often leaves the 6-year-old girl alone with the baby, and she regularly feeds and changes the baby, according to the broadcaster.

Rosado denied giving the baby the alcohol himself.

Epoch Times reporters Zachary Stieber and Jane Gray contributed to this report.
Hungarys Orban Says Party Could Quit EU Conservative Bloc

BUDAPEST/WARSAWHungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said his nationalist Fidesz party may leave Europes main conservative group over a dispute about anti-EU election campaigning.

On March 5 the head of the group, the European Peoples Party (EPP), German politician Manfred Weber, demanded Fidesz take down billboards attacking European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, part of its campaign for European Parliament elections in May, in which populists and euroskeptics are well positioned to make gains.

Orbans chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, said Fidesz wanted to stay in the EPP, the most powerful conservative group in the European Parliament, and the posters would be replaced by others touting Orbans plans to increase Hungarys birth rate.

Orban told public radio he wanted to move the pro-EU EPP toward a more anti-immigration platform, and raised the prospect of Fidesz quitting the group, which will meet on March 20 to discuss the matter.

The debate may end up with [Fidesz] finding its place not within, but outside the Peoples Party, Orban said.

Weber, a member of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkels Christian Democrats, told Bild newspaper he expected Fidesz to apologize to EPP members and called for Orban to end his anti-EU campaigns.

Orban didnt apologize. He said he had talked with both Juncker and Weber and planned to visit Poland, a regional ally governed by the Law and Justice party, which isnt in the EPP.

If we need to start something new  then obviously the first place to hold talks will be in Poland, Orban said.

Weber said it was up to Orban to decide which political family he wants to be in.

Viktor Orban in the last years and months and days always was clearly committed that he wants to stay inside the European Peoples Party, Weber said.

We are a political family of values, we are a political family that has common ideas, and everybody who is based on these common ideas can stay  others can leave or must be kicked out if this is not accepted anymore.

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is running for the European Parliament, said expelling Fidesz would play into the hands of the EPPs opponents.

By Gergely Szakacs and Alan Charlish
Elly Mayday at the Daily Front Row's Fashion Media AwardsAfter Party at The Wooly on Sept. 8, 2017, in New York City. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)

Plus-Size Model Elly Mayday Dies of Ovarian Cancer at Age 30

Elly Mayday, a plus-size model and body positive activist, has died at age 30, following a long struggle with ovarian cancer.

The family of Maydaywhose given name was Ashley Lutherannounced on her social media accounts that she had died on March 1, nearly six years after she was first diagnosed with the disease.

Ashley was a country girl at heart who had a passion for life that was undeniable, her family wrote. She dreamed of making an impact on peoples lives. She achieved this through the creation of Elly Mayday, which allowed her to connect with all of you. Her constant support and love from her followers held a special place in her heart.





The Canadian-born star rose to prominence in the modeling industry as one of the first curvy models.

Mayday was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer in 2013, after suffering symptoms including lower-back and stomach pain, bloating, and constant fatigue.

Rather than take her health struggle private, she became an advocate for raising awareness for the disease.

Not enough people were talking about ovarian cancer, so I just decided to use my personality and use my freedom and willingness to talk about something thats necessary and to raise awareness, Mayday told the publication SELF.

The model has more than 94,000 Instagram followers and nearly 500,000 people following her official fan page on Facebook.

Mayday used all platforms to speak openly about her struggles and proudly documented the effects of the disease on her body on social media and in professional shoots.





At the time of her diagnosis, she had two modeling contracts offered to her, and she quit her job as a flight attendant to start working as a professional model.

She saw modeling as an opportunity to help others who are battling ovarian cancer and show them that they are still beautiful.

I figured that maybe I could help someone going through something similar while continuing on with my own dreams, she told the Regina Leader-Post in 2016. I mean, I was going through it either way, why not make it as positive as possible?

She proudly showed off the cancer surgery scars on her stomach.

This may not be an image youre used to seeing, she wrote. Most moms-to-be post photos like this, in admiration of the little bundle on its way. Im posting this for whats inside too  but in a different sense. This was my 5th operation for Ovarian Cancer.

I want to teach you all the things Ive learned, how strong, beautiful and capable the body is, she wrote. Most importantly, I want to show you how you are #stillbeautiful through the things life hands us.

After believing that she had beaten cancer, Mayday suffered a relapse in 2017, and she continued to post about her experience.

When she lost her hair to chemotherapy in August 2018, she took to media to show women that bald is beautiful.

Our beauty comes out if we accept the changes we must face and allow ourselves to just embrace our differences, she wrote. My beauty doesnt come from my hair, no, my beauty comes from within.

Im excited to have another opportunity to show women that bald is beautiful. Its something Ive learned and my experience is what I share with all of you, she continued.

In announcing her death, Maydays family encouraged her fans to share their positive thoughts and memories in the posts comments section.

This has hit me hard. Ashley who is 20 years younger than me, got ovarian cancer just 3 months before I did, one person wrote. She had the strength to go public with her story and journey and she became a role model, model and spokesperson for ovarian cancer awareness.

I followed her right from the beginning of my own ovarian cancer journey and her positivity and authenticity gave me great strength to face my own challenges.

Elly impacted my life more than she will ever know, your beautiful girl saved my life, someone else explained. After watching her on a morning program here in Australia I sought that second  third  fourth opinion instead of giving up, Im now 3yrs in remission and owe that to you Elly.

According to the American Cancer Society, ovarian cancer ranks fifth overall in cancer deaths among women. It is the deadliest type of cancer of the female reproductive system.
Police Investigate as Aussie Town Mourns Loss of Iconic Old Croc

Police are investigating the death of an iconic 80-year-old crocodile that has left an Australian town reeling and locals preparing to hold a memorial for the massive creature.

The body of the 15-foot-long saltwater crock named Bismarcka fixture of the community and a tourist attractionwas found by a local fisherman.

Ryan Moody discovered Bismarcks remains in Cardwells Meunga Creek last week, hung up on waterlogged branches and decomposing.

Moody uploaded footage of the scene on social media, saying: Well, Cardwell, say goodbye to one of your biggest tourist attractions. This croc was never a threat to humans.

*WARNING: graphic video

Meunga Creek: Police are appealing for public tip offs, as officers and rangers investigate the death of Cardwell's most well-known crocodile. There are fears the four and a half metre reptile called 'Bismarck' was shot. Credit: Ryan Moody Fishing. #7News pic.twitter.com/020wwZzhDO  7 News Townsville (@7NewsTownsville) March 5, 2019

One of Us

Its very, very sad for Cardwell, longtime resident Thea Ormonde said, according to Australian media ABC.

We saw Bismarck as part of our community, he was such a gentle soul as far as crocodiles can go, Ormonde said. He was one of us.

She recalled going on crabbing trips as a child with her father and seeing the massive reptile perched on the river bank. Ormonde said Bismark never behaved in a way that was threatening.

He was never aggressive, he would always let people know he was around, he was never stealth-like or would attack people, Ormonde said.

Foul Play

Australian media ABC reported there was evidence Bismarck had been intentionally killed.

Amazing how humans can just make situations become more dangerous through acts of pure stupidity, Moody said. I wonder if hed like it if I came round and jumped on his head for an hour with my fists. Probably not.

Police in Far North Queensland are appealing to the public for information after famous crocodile Bismarck, considered a tourist attraction in his own right, was found dead. #7Newshttps://t.co/jYBt2V3idS  7News Yahoo7 (@Y7News) March 5, 2019

Reports that Bismarck was shot to death have prompted authorities to appeal to the public for more information, with the Queensland Department of Environment and Science investigating the matter, according to the Washington Post.

Confirmation is pending on the exact cause of death, but Moody suggested Bismarck was shot in the head.

Old Bismarck has received a couple of lead injections to the back of the head from some oxygen stealing piece of [expletive], Moody said on social media.

Severe Penalties

Sgt. Stephen Gillinder of the Cardwell Police was cited by The Daily Mail as saying that if the crocodile had indeed been killed intentionally, the perpetrator could face serious consequences.

Depending on the class of the animal if they are endangered or protected, the penalties can be severe, he said.

Gillinder added the police are still working to determine the animals cause of death.

Under the Nature Conservation Act, it is a crime to deliberately interfere, harm, or kill crocodiles without authorization with a maximum penalty of $29,373 (US$20,590).

In practice, the fines are often less severe, as in the recent case of a cane farmer in a remote location in the Australian province of Queensland being fined $500 for trapping a crocodile on his property, leading to its death.

The court noted 69-year-old Errol Copley set up the trap because he had to get in the water for work and was afraid for his life.

You told [the police] you had set the line to see if there were any crocodiles in the water next to the riverbank on your property, because you had to get into the water to do some work in the water and you were concerned for your safety, said Magistrate Sandra Pearson, according to ABC.

Bismarck Was Protecting Us

Ormonde said Bismarcks presence was a boon for the community because it meant aggressive crocs kept their distance.

Bismarck was protecting us because we always knew where he was and he kept other male crocodiles at bay, she said.

Moody was cited by ABC as saying: I used to walk right next to him at the mouth of Meunga Creek while gathering bait and flicking lures. Lets just hope the big aggressive crocodile from across the channel doesnt move in.

Gillinder said crocodiles are an apex predator but this one didnt show any signs of aggression to humans.

It is such a fragile ecosystem, you get an apex predator at the top and they keep things in check but you just dont know who youre going to get next, he said.

Cardwells residents, meanwhile, are set to hold a memorial day for the giant reptile, ABC reported.

We saw Bismarck as part of our community, he was such a gentle soul as far as crocodiles can go, Ormonde said. We want to remember the gentle giant because he never caused any problems for anyone.
Police: Texas Student Who Was Stabbed Over Brownie Has Died

Officials said a Houston student who was stabbed during an argument over a brownie has died.

According to Click2Houston, police on March 8 said the student was stabbed in the eye at 4:30 p.m. on March 6 at the corner of Bellaire Boulevard and Rookin Street.

Witnesses said the 14-year-old victim was arguing with another juvenile when the stabbing occurred.

#BREAKING UPDATE: Police say the 14-year-old student who was stabbed in the eye Wednesday during an argument over a brownie has died. Posted by KPRC2 / Click2Houston on Friday, 8 March 2019

The juvenile suspect then fled the scene, police said.

Houston Independent School District police initially investigated the case, but the Houston Police Department became involved after the victims condition worsened, according to the report.

On March 8, the Houston Police Department said the boy died.

UPDATE: sadly, the 14-year-old stabbed on Wednesday (March 6) at 6436 Bellaire Boulevard has died. No other information is available at this time. The original news release on this case can be found here ===> https://t.co/KWXTOBbeB7 #hounews  Houston Police (@houstonpolice) March 8, 2019

Sadly, the 14-year-old stabbed on Wednesday (March 6) at 6436 Bellaire Boulevard has died. No other information is available at this time, police said on Twitter.

Police are investigating an occurrence that took place off-campus, after dismissal (Wednesday) near Jane Long Academy that resulted in a student being seriously injured. Counselors will be on campus (Thursday) to offer support and guidance to students, said the Houston Independent School District to Click2Houston.

The victim and suspect were not named.

Its also not clear what school the victim attended.

Other details about the case werent clear.

People with information about the case are urged to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.

Violent Crime Up in Texas in 2017

In Texas, according to the FBI, the violent crime rate rose in 2017, reported the Texas Tribune.

The agency noted that there were only 1.5 officers for every 1,000 Texas residents last year, which is down from two Texas officers for every 1,000 residents in 2016.

In September 2018, the FBI said Americans committed fewer violent and property crimes across the United States in 2017, according to statistics. The violent crime rateincluding offenses such as murder, robbery, and aggravated assaultdropped by almost 1 percent and is still about 4 percent above the 2014 rate. The murder rate dropped by 0.7 percent.

There were more than 1.2 million violent crimes reported to [the FBI] nationwide in 2017. There was a 0.7 percent decrease in murders and a 4 percent decrease in robberies from 2016 to 2017. Aggravated assaults increased 1 percent in 2017. The FBI began collecting data solely on an updated rape definition last year, and 135,755 rapes were reported to law enforcement in 2017, the agency said.

Of the estimated 17,284 murders in 2017, more than half occurred in larger citieswith populations of more than 100,000.

There are fewer than 300 such cities in the United States, and while they account for less than 30 percent of the countrys population, many of them contribute far beyond their share to national crime rates and have done so for years, even decades.

While the national murder rate inched down to 5.3 per 100,000 residents, it spiked by 15 percent in Philadelphia, to a rate of more than 20 per 100,000 residents. Columbus, Ohio, saw a massive 54 percent murder rate increase, reaching nearly 16.3 per 100,000 residents.

The murder rate in St. Louis rose by more than 10 percent and reached 66 per 100,000 residentsthe highest among larger cities.

Baltimores murder rate rose by nearly 8.5 percent, reaching some 56 per 100,000 residents.
Rain Brings 2nd California Super Bloom in 2 Years

BORREGO SPRINGS, CaliforniaIt started with the desert lilies in December. Since then a wave of wildflower blooms has been crescendoing across Southern Californias Anza-Borrego desert in a burst of color so vivid it can be seen from mountain tops thousands of feet above.

Two years after steady rains followed by warm temperatures caused seeds dormant for decades under the desert floor to burst open and produce a spectacular display dubbed the super bloom, another winter soaking this year is expected to create possibly an even better show by Mother Nature.

Having two super blooms in two years is highly usual. In California, super blooms happen about once in a decade in a given area, and they have been occurring less frequently with the drought.

The 2017 super bloom was the best seen in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in 20 years and drew mass crowds to Borrego Springs, a town of 3,500 that abuts the park.

Theres just an abundance in where its blooming and its coming in waves, said Betsy Knaak, executive director of the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association, which tracks the blooms.

On a recent day, Knaak wandered through swaths of bright yellow and acres of purple outside Borrego Springs. Families, retired couples and college students traipsed into the fields trying to capture the natural wonder in photos.

Stephen Rawding drove out from Carlsbad, north of San Diego, to take photos with his girlfriend after a friend told him it was better than the one in 2017.

Its unreal, Rawding said. Its just like they saidso beautiful.

The setting sun lit up the yellow flowers that contrasted sharply against the brown and copper mountains in the background.

There are tapestries of hot pink Bigelows Monkey Flower, purple Sand Verbena, delicate white and yellow Evening Primrose and of course the desert lilies, which bloomed extremely early, opening up in December, signaling a super bloom was possible.

People walk among wildflowers in bloom near Borrego Springs, Calif.

Bright orange poppies are also blanketing the sides of Southern California highways.

Its a painting of colors at the moment out there in many of the areas, said Jim Dice, reserve manager of Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center, University of California Natural Reserve System.

So far, six times the amount of rain has fallen in the Anza-Borrego desert this weather season compared to last year, Dice said.

If the caterpillars and freezing temperatures stay away, the already gorgeous wave of wildflowers could intensify and light up other areas well into spring.

The state park with 640,000 acres (1,000 square miles) is Californias largest, with hundreds of species of plants including blazing stars and the tall spiny Ocotillo, which are covered in buds that will open to flaming orange-red flowers.

A research associate at Dices center recently hiked up to the top of Coyote Mountain and shot a photo of the purple fields 3,000 feet (914 meters) below.

It was pretty spectacular to see that from up above, Dice said.
People walk past a 7-Eleven convenience store in Sydney's central business district in Australia, on Sept. 30, 2015. (William West/AFP/Getty Images)

Report Recommends Jail Time for Aussie Employers Found Guilty of Wage Theft

Bosses who underpay workers could face jail time under an Australian government plan to target wage fraud.

The ruling centre-right Liberal Coalition has given its in-principle support to all 22 recommendations in the migrant workers task force report released on March 7.

The inquiry, led by former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chief Allan Fels, came in response to allegations of wage underpayment at 7-Eleven and other prominent businesses.

Wage exploitation of temporary migrants offends our national values of fairness, the report said. It harms not only the employees involved but also the businesses which do the right thing.

Wage theft is costing 170,000 South Australians about $570 million a year https://t.co/QWE5ehBZHq #saparli #SouthAustralia  The Advertiser (@theTiser) March 6, 2019

The Inquiry into Wage Theft wants to hear from workers, community organisations and employers about wage theft  the systematic and deliberate underpayment of wages: https://t.co/bu5vklICep pic.twitter.com/LzB3My86P5  DMIRS WA (@DMIRS_WA) March 7, 2019

For the first time, the government has agreed to introduce criminal sanctions.

[It] is not only illegal, it harms individuals, undercuts law-abiding employers and reflects poorly on Australias international reputation, Federal Industrial Relations Minister Kelly ODwyer told the Australian Associated Press. Only the most serious and egregious cases would be subject to criminal penalties, not employers that accidentally or inadvertently do the wrong thing.

Suppressing wages has suppressed the economy. Same as #wagetheft however it is executed leads to a downward spiral in a competitive race to the bottom.  Safety First (@djt1940) March 8, 2019

However, big business will fiercely oppose the plan, with the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) warning that the new penalties will stifle investment.

Ai Group claims civil penalties for industrial law breaches are enough of a deterrent to employers committing wage theft, especially after penalties were recently increased by up to 20 times.

Implementing criminal penalties for wage underpayments would discourage investment, entrepreneurship, and employment growth, Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox said.

Willox doubts that criminal cases will deliver any financial redress to workers but instead put civil claims on hold until the court decides on the criminal matter.

The left-leaning Labor opposition party said there is no chance for the recommendations to become law before the federal election.

This short-sighted  government fails to recognise that exploitation affects both migrant and Australian workers, employment spokesman Brendan OConnor and immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann said. They have made no effort to focus on the rip-offs by dodgy employers impacting on local Australian workers, which further erodes wages and disadvantages employers that do the right thing.

The task force also recommended a national labour hire registration scheme for four high-risk industries: Horticulture, meat processing, cleaning, and security.

Willox suggested such a proposal will impose an unreasonable cost and onerous regulatory burden on labour hire businesses.

Every single employer engages in wage theft, it is better referred to as Structural Wage Theft.  NoneSoVile (@NoneSoVile) March 8, 2019

Aesthetics of wage theft pic.twitter.com/SZjPiU3BOH  Jean Genet Ramsey  (@gothliberace) March 6, 2019

The Australian Associated Press contributed to this report.
A statue of Christopher Columbus at Columbus Circle in New York City, on Oct. 9, 2017. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Republican Introduces Bill to Split New York Into 3 Regions

Republican Assemblyman David DiPietro introduced a bill last month that would divide the state of New York into three separate regionseach independent from each other with their own governor and legislatures. He told the Washington Times in a recent interview that the state has been in decline under the Democrats.

DiPietro, who was first elected in 2012 to serve the constituents of the 147th Assembly District, said he introduced the bill after Democrats took over both houses of the legislature in January. He argued that the state has been dragged into economic oblivion.

Western New York, where Im from, has the most population loss with 18- to 35-year-olds. Our kids are leaving the state in droves, the most anywhere in the country, DiPietro said. Theres no jobs. And New York City controls this.

The assemblyman said under his proposed bill (AO5498), New York would still be one state, but divided into three regions: New York City and its boroughs, the Montauk region with the downstate counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, and Westchester; and the rest of the state, dubbed New Amsterdam.

New York Republicans lost the state Senate in November after having controlled it for most of the past 50 years. DiPietro said the situation went from bad to worse when this happened.

A slew of liberal legislation has since been added: including tightening gun control laws, expanded late-term abortion access, and college financial aid eligibility for illegal immigrants. In February, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the states income tax revenues plummeted by $2.3 billion since he introduced his new budget plan.

Thats a $2.3 billion drop in revenues. Thats as serious as a heart attack. This is worse than we had anticipated, the governor said in Albany, according to the New York Post. This reduction must be addressed in this years budget.

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who appeared with Cuomo in the announcement, confirmed that the finances were not looking good.

This is the most serious revenue shock the state has faced in many years, he said.

Its not the first time such an idea has been floated. Last month another Republican Sen. Daphne Jordan (R-N.Y), introduced legislation that would study whether upstate and downstate should be split into two separate entities.

Whether its the issue of gun control, the DREAM Act, taxes and spending, parity in school or infrastructure funding, or even the choice for governor, the deepening dividecultural, economic and politicalbetween upstate and downstate has grown more pronounced every year. Many are asking whether both regions would be better off as separate entities, Jordan said in a statement.

Her Senate Bill, S.3814, noted that the upstate region and a downstate region have extremely divergent political and social views.

As these views continue to diverge, calls for these two regions to part ways, have grown louder. Many, both upstate and downstate, have questioned whether these regions would be better off separately, she continued.

Cuomo senior adviser Rich Azzopardi, meanwhile, hit back at the latest proposals.

Its the sort of divisive, unserious and sad pandering that was easy pickings for [Comedy Centrals] The Daily Show, Mr. Azzopardi, referring to a 2009 episode mocking the Long Island secession movement, said in an email to the Washington Times.

Critics of DiPietros idea said the split would make the upstate region suffer financially since New York City and its surrounding counties generate most of the states income tax revenue.

But DiPietro disagrees.

Without New York City, the rest of this state will take off like a rocket, he said. Well control our own resources, well control the unfunded mandates that come from Albany on education, welfare reform, taxation, everythings that geared toward New York City.
Sun rises near the tiny atoll of Alphonse where scientists onboard the Ocean Zephyr began exploring the depths of the Indian Ocean, Thursday March 7, 2019. The expedition is led by the Britain-based Nekton, an independent, non-profit research institute that works with the University of Oxford to increase scientific understanding of the oceans. (AP Photo/David Keyton)

Scientists Begin Exploring Indian Ocean Depths in Seychelles

ALPHONSE ATOLL, SeychellesAn unprecedented mission to explore the Indian Ocean and document changes taking place beneath the waves began its research on March 7, in the Seychelles waters.

The British-led Nekton Mission arrived off the tiny atoll of Alphonse in the early morning hours, after looming bad weather forced a change of plan and of route.

The ambitious expedition will delve into one of the last major unexplored frontiers on the planet. Understanding the Indian Oceans ecosystem is important not just for the species that live in it, but also for an estimated 2.5 billion people at home in the regionfrom East Africa to the Arabian peninsula, the Indian sub-continent and Southeast Asia.

Though the mission will use hi-tech submersibles in its work, research began on March 7 with more modest equipment: a device to measure the waters chemistry and a Neuston net used to retrieve zooplankton.

When you actually finally begin doing the science, its a bit of a relief and a lot of fun, said Louise Allcock, a professor of zoology at the University of Ireland, in Galway.

Alphonse is a tiny atoll, the tip of a submerged mountain, 232 nautical miles southwest of the Seychelles capital Victoria. Within two miles of its shores, the ocean is as deep as 5,000 meters (3 miles).

Little is known about the biodiversity of Alphonse Atoll, as it remains unexplored beyond scuba depth.

Mission member Stephanie Marie is a marine researcher from the Seychelles. She recently spent a week on Alphonse working on a study of a fish species called the Giant Trevally, or GT. She says she is excited to find out whats down there.

When you have amazing weather, you have a lot of things to see, like the sharks, the GT, the corals also, so its like a different place, a different scenery every time, she said.

Maries role is to collect zooplankton to conduct taxonomy identification.

Im really excited. Its going to be eye-opening because Ive never seen so deep, she said. Its really important. Fish feed on zooplankton, so we need to see its quality, because if the ecosystems changes it may have an impact on the fish we feed on.

The data will be used to help the Seychelles consolidate and expand its policy of protecting almost a third of its national waters by the year 2020. The sea area to be protected is larger than Germany. The initiative is a key component of the Seychelles blue economy, which attempts to balance development needs with those of the ocean environment.

The Associated Press is the only news agency working with British scientists from the Nekton research team on its deep-sea mission that aims to unlock the secrets of the Indian Ocean. AP video coverage will include exploring the depths of up to 300 meters (1,000 feet) off the coast of the Seychelles in two-person submarines which will search for underwater mountain ranges and previously undiscovered marine life, a behind-the-scenes look at life on board, interviews with researchers and aerial footage of the mission. The seven-week Seychelles expedition is expected to run until April 19.

By Jerry Harmer & David Keyton
An undated photo of Zhang Deji. In 1954, Zhang was imprisoned as a result of his status as a landlord during a period when land owners and other "counterrevolutionaries" were persecuted by the communist party after it seized power. Zhang died 20 years later while at labor camp. (Provided by Kechun Li)

Silent Cry in the Darkness: The Story of a Life Cut Short by the Chinese Communist Regime

Former actress learns the painful truth of how her landowning uncle became a prisoner of the state after the communists took control of China in 1949

Kechun Li, a former actress from China, shares below a story about her uncle who suffered and died under the communist regime after its rise to power in 1949. Li was inspired to share her uncles story because she believes the world should know the truth about the evils of communism and the crimes committed by the Chinese communist regime against millions of innocent people in China. Her writing has been edited for clarity.

During my trip to China in 2013, I discovered some shocking truths about my uncle, who passed away four decades ago during the Cultural Revolution. Sadly, I never had the chance to meet this remarkable man, and I didnt know much about him throughout my childhood.

But during the last three weeks of my trip, I met my uncles daughter, who told me more about her father. Listening to the stories of my uncles tragic life has been an overwhelming and heart-wrenching experience. I am saddened by how he suffered and died as a political prisonerit was an injustice to him and to his family. The ugly truth is that my uncle was targeted by the communist regime because he was born into a privileged family, was well-educated, and had a promising futurebefore his life was cut short.

His name was Zhang Deji. My uncle passed away in a labor camp where he was detained after he served 20 years in prison. All that was left of hima shirt and a blanketwas sent to his older sister in Chengdu City in southwestern China, instead of his ex-wife and daughter in Beijing. My aunt had a nervous breakdown when she received the package from the labor camp. Without opening the package, she held it against her chest and huddled in a dark corner at home, trembling and repeating to herself and her children: Your uncle is in it  your uncle is in it.

This was not the first time that my aunt had lost a loved one. She went through a traumatic experience when she lost her husband, who was arrested and sentenced to a labor camp in 1957. No one in the family ever saw or heard from him again. He was accused of being a counterrevolutionary and died in the camp in 1962.

I had a chance to meet my uncles daughtermy cousin, Kaiyuwhile I was visiting Beijing at a Hilton hotel. Kaiyu and I chatted for four hours in the hotels dining hall and she cried for most of the time. She was only a toddler when her father was arrested and sentenced to prison. Kaiyu remembered visiting her father in jailit was the only place where she could spend time with him. Her mother would take her there, and they were only allowed to see him for a very short time each week, 15 minutes in total.

Kaiyu showed me an old black-and-white photo of my uncle when he was still a free man. He looked healthy and handsome. He was thin and tall, had big clear eyes and full lips, a broad forehead that is considered in Chinese physiognomy a sign of intelligence, and large ears that are a sign of being blessed with good fortune. He was dressed in plain Chinese clothing. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took over China in 1949, people were not allowed to wear Western-style suits because those who did were criticized as being Western sympathizers and harassed by those who claimed they were the real revolutionaries. Before the communist takeover, Western fashion represented success, progress, and sophistication.

My uncle and my mother went to school together at the University of West China in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. The school was founded in 1910 by five Christian organizations after the Boxer Rebellion, and one of a handful of Catholic universities in China. Classes at school were taught in Englishmostly by American professors and some Chinese scholars who were educated in the United States. My uncle was charming, wealthy, and popular among the girls in school. He inherited his fortune from his share of my grandfathers estate. He was the third-eldest son of 12 boys in the family.

My uncle was only 15 years old when his father passed away in 1938. My grandfather was a lieutenant general and a warlord in Sichuan. Before he passed away at the age of 46 from a heart attack, he had divided his estate between all his sons and daughtersunusual because, traditionally, family assets were usually passed on to sons only. A portion of my uncles inheritance was agricultural land, but I dont know how much land he inherited. My grandfather and his army were recruited to join forces with the Kuomintang to fight against the Communist Partys Red Army in 1933 (during Chinas civil war), and later the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese War.

My uncle graduated from the university in 1948. In 1950, he continued his education in Beijing and majored in economics. He spoke fluent English. After graduation, he worked for the Ministry of Commerce in the early 1950s. He had a promising future.

Trouble with the authorities began when my uncle was accused of a crime he did not commit. His wife told me the story during one of our phone calls. Fortunately, I was able to talk with my aunt several times before she passed away in 2015. My husband and I returned to China for Chinese New Year in 2015 and attempted to meet my aunt but she had already passed away one week before our trip. My aunt said my uncle was accused of causing the death of one of the peasants who leased land from my uncle, and that this incident occurred when my grandfather was still alive. One summer, my grandfathers right-hand man (hired by my grandfather to manage his property and land) went to the countryside to collect a percentage of harvested crops from a peasantan old manwho was supposed to pay back a loan. My uncle, who was 13 years old at the time, was invited to come along. The old man died later of unknown causes.

In 1954, 18 years after the old man died, my uncle was accused of causing his death even though there was no evidence. There was no trial, but my uncle was convicted and accused of being an evil landlord by causing the old mans death. He was sentenced to life in prison. The accuser was the old mans grandson, who had joined the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA, Chinas military) and turned my uncle over to the marshal court. Communist China does not have true courts of law.

Shortly after the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) was founded (after the CCP won the civil war), the CCP began confiscating properties and executing people who were landlords and Kuomintang military officers. The movement was called clean up the bandits and counter-strike on landlords. The marshal court acted as enforcers and handled all the criminal cases. All high-ranking Kuomintang officersabove the rank of captainwere executed. Those below the rank of captainsuch as lieutenants, sergeants, and common soldiersended up in Chinese prisons, sentenced to forced labor camps, or placed under house arrest.

Those who escaped China were able to avoid torture, humiliation, persecution, and death. My mother once told me there were executions every night in Chengdu, where I was born. And one night, 300 hundred people were executed. Anyone who owned land, property, or a business was persecuted and their assets confiscated. Individuals and their family members could be labeled as class enemies as well. In the early 1950s, my fathers side of the family immediately lost everything because my grandfathers wealth and reputation were so prominent. My mothers side of the family also lost all their assets at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966.

My uncle had managed to survive 20 years in prison. He could not claim his innocence while he was in prison or in the labor camp, but had to confess his sins to display a good attitude and show remorse that it was a vice to inherit land and assets from his father. The Chinese law for prosecution states: Leniency is granted for those who confess. Severity is applied to those who resist. He had long denied that he was falsely convicted for causing the death of the old peasant, so his sentence was reduced to 20 years. Under Chinese law, prisoners were forced to work at labor camps after their imprisonment to reform their thoughts and behavior to conform with orders from the new leaders and to be accepted by the revolutionary society.

Kaiyu never saw her father again after he was transferred from Beijing to another prison in Sichuan in 1966. She was only 14 years old. She could not visit him at the new location because she needed a special permit to travel across the country. At that time, people had to get permission from authorities to travel within China. Kaiyu was bullied by children in school and in the neighborhood. For more than two decades, young people were encouraged to cut off relationships with family members who were considered class enemies, so it was difficult for Kaiyu to keep in contact with her father. I would have asked more questions, but when I looked at my cousins sad face, I choked up and could not bring myself to speak.

While in the labor camp, my uncle developed a lung disease. He might have survived if he had received proper medical care. The conditions are unimaginable in Chinese labor camps: an intolerable physical and psychological atmosphere, poor nutrition, and contaminated living conditions. Despite being treated inhumanely, my uncle worked hard in the labor camp. He was recognized for his work in breeding healthy rabbits. As a reward for his hard work, the labor camp was going to release my uncle. However, the disease took his life. My uncle was known as a truly good man; one of my uncles former inmates told this to my uncles older sister and her family in Chengdu. When my uncle passed away in 1975, my cousin Kaiyu had to undergo re-education in the countryside in Inner Mongolia.

My uncle never lost hope while he was still alive. He believed that he would one day be reunited with his only daughter. He wanted to be a devoted father and to pass on traditional values that had been eradicated under the communist regime to Kaiyu. However, he knew that he would not have a home to return to in Beijing if he were released from prison. It was a beautiful home, a sprawling Chinese-style mansion with 19 rooms and a courtyard, located in the most prestigious area near the Forbidden City, the home of imperial family members and high government officials during the Qing Dynasty. My uncle also understood that his wife had to file for divorce because their situation brought humiliation and pressure from societyfrom her employer, colleagues, neighbors, and the authorities.

Kaiyu found on a map the town where her father was sentenced to hard labor in Sichuan. It was located on a mountain ridge on the border between Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. My cousin doesnt know where her father was buried. My other cousins made a trip to an unmarked graveyard years later where my uncle was supposedly buried, but they couldnt identify his grave site. Kaiyu has never attempted to find her fathers grave. She said revisiting the past would have been too painful for her and she would rather move on with her life. And now she has a son to care for.

My uncles death has remained hidden and without closure. No one has fought for his rights or against his unjust persecution. I couldnt put the pieces of the puzzle together for a long time even though I had heard of this uncle whom I had never met. This is the most devastating fact that I have ever faced since I lost my parents. I went through an extremely painful grieving process. My parents had barely survived the persecution during the Cultural Revolution, but my uncle didnt make it.

My maternal grandfather died within a month from a stroke after he was beaten by the Red Guards, and his family members were also beaten. He committed no crime but only spoke against the communists, saying that people had been better off under the Kuomintang and starved under the communists. This occurred during and after the Great Leap Forward in the early 1960s when China went through a famine. My grandfather was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life. In 1979, he was given an official pardon13 years after his death.

I know that there are more relatives of mine who died either in labor camps after being tortured, or of starvation. During the Cultural Revolution, my fathers eldest sister was beaten and forced to kneel down on sharp broken glass in public, and half the hair on her head was shaved off to mark her as a counterrevolutionary. Her son, my first cousin and a college professor, was interrogated and tortured to death. My mother was a target and humiliated in front of many people because she attended the University of West China, a school founded by Christians from the West. Chinese people had been told for a long time that Americans were the number one enemies of China. All my family members who lived during my grandparents and parents generations could not escape political persecution from the 1950s through the Cultural Revolution. Who knows how many millions of people died under Communist persecution during that time?

These were crimes against humanity that no one has been held accountable for. Most Communist revolutionaries are dead now. However, their descendants have reaped most of the benefits and privileges and have become one of the wealthiest people in the world. All that was left of my uncles life was a shirt and a blanket. His death was unjust. But he had been loved and missed dearly. He is not forgotten.

My uncles death will never be justified. His life was cut short. He never gave up hope for his own freedom and to be reunited with his daughter. The 21 years of his life in prison and in labor camp took everything away from him and his family, including his human rights. His life was totally destroyed. I still wonder why my parents never told my brother and I about my uncle. Perhaps they tried to protect their innocent children from the shocking truths about the evils of communism and what it did to my uncle as a political prisoner.

My uncles soul has not rested in peace and I want to ask, Why did this injustice happen to him? My heart cries out for justice, for an official pardon for my unclebecause my aunt and cousin were unable to recover from the losses, unable to live the promising life that they deserved. My uncle was innocent and he was accused of a crime he didnt commit. His suffering and death reflected the political system and regime that purposely targeted innocent people who represented capitalism and freedomthey were despised by the Communist revolutionary society. There were people who were buried alive with emperors during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties when China was a warrior state (1555256 BC). Similarly, my uncle and the millions of political prisoners were sacrificed to worship the founder of the Peoples Republic of China, Mao Zedong. Sadly, my uncles tragic life and death is not unique. History repeats itself.

I decided to write down my uncles story because the world should know the Chinese Communist regime has committed crimes against humanity and killed millions of innocent people in China. My uncle was one of the them. I want others to learn the truth. The financial success of modern China is built on the bloodshed of millions of innocent Chinese people like my unclethis is the price of communism.

Kechun Li was born on Nov. 28, 1958, in China. She is an actress, known for appearing in Dam Street (2005), The Last Aristocrats (1989), Zhao Qian Sun Li (1982), and Duo cai de chen guang (1984). Currently, she resides in California.
Shamima Begum being interviewed by Sky News in northern Syria, on Feb. 17, 2019. (Reuters)

Strong but Unconfirmed Reports ISIS Bride Shamima Begums Son Has Died: Lawyer

The lawyer for ISIS bride Shamima Begums family said there are strong but as yet unconfirmed reports that her baby has died.

The 19-year-old Begum and her newborn son, Jarrah, had been living at a Syrian refugee camp after fleeing the crumbling vestiges of the terror groups so-called caliphate.

Begum made numerous public appeals to be allowed back into the UK but sparked controversy after showing no remorse for joining a terrorist organization and appearing to sympathize with a suicide attack on British soil. The UK government stripped her of her British citizenship, effectively blocking her re-entry.

Her familys lawyer Tasnime Akunjee wrote on Twitter: We have strong but as yet unconfirmed reports that Shamima Begums son has died. He was a British citizen.

We have strong but as yet unconfirmed reports that Shamima Begums son has died . He was a British Citizen.  Mohammed T Akunjee (@MohammedAkunjee) March 8, 2019

Reports about the death of Begums infant son have not been independently verified.

https://t.co/0nuP9vnv34 BREAKING: Shamima Begum's newborn baby may have died, says her lawyer https://t.co/FiTxvjUe7c Daily Star pic.twitter.com/TUbSSSqFvE   MyAmigo #LetsGoWTO (@myamigocouk) March 8, 2019

Struggling to Get My Supplies

Begum told Sky News last month that her son was unwell and she would not allow him to return to the UK alone.

She told Sky correspondent John Sparks, I am struggling to get my supplies in right now.

I dont have a card because they lost my card, so I have to run around to take care of my son now, when I am sick. I am not getting my stuff.

The Mirror reported last month how Begum was said to have fled the Al-Hawl camp in northern Syria to another location after a price was put on her head.

Her husband, Yago Riedijk, 27, told the BBC this month from the Kurdish-run detention center that he regretted joining ISIS and expressed his wish to bring Begum and their newborn son to the Netherlands.

Shamima Begums husband Yago Riedijk describes their marriage, arranged by the Islamic State Group. #ShamimaBegum #Isis pic.twitter.com/gllNgR1xba  Quentin Sommerville (@sommervilletv) March 3, 2019

Riedijk married the British teenager just weeks after she fled London a 15-year-old in 2015 to join the terror group.

Sky News Middle East correspondent Alex Rossi asked the jihadi if the pair had made a mistake by joining ISIS, he replied, Definitely.

London Runaway Joins ISIS

Begum ran away from her London home with two friends to travel to Syria to marry ISIS extremists in 2015 at the height of the terror groups self-proclaimed caliphate. Now she, along with many other so-called ISIS brides, have ended up in Syrian refugee camps after fleeing the crumbling caliphate as coalition forces decimate the last vestige of the terrorist enclave.

Citing security concerns, the UKs interior secretary announced in late February that her citizenship had been revoked.

The family has expressed its own shock at her lack of repentance, but proceeded with a legal challenge to the governments move to strip Begum of citizenship.

This is what they said to Shamima Begum's family in a letter sent earlier this week pic.twitter.com/7L28zvp5Md  Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) March 8, 2019

No Regrets

In earlier interviews, Begum said that while she did not agree with everything the terror group had done, she has no regrets about joining ISIS and suggested that air strikes against the terror group in Syria somehow justified the Manchester Arena terror attack.

Its a two-way thing, really, she told the BBC, adding that the suicide bomber that killed 22 civilians at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester was a kind of retaliation for bombardments of ISIS-held enclaves, adding, So I thought, ok, that is a fair justification.

"I didn't want to be IS poster girl"  London teenager Shamima Begum, who fled to join Islamic State group in Syria, says she now wants the UK's forgiveness [Tap to expand] https://t.co/9KwR4TYUqA pic.twitter.com/JWsgeHHppl  BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) February 18, 2019

Begum said that during her time with ISIS she was just a housewife and there was no evidence of her doing anything dangerous.

Security experts such as British intelligence service head Alex Younger have warned, however, that would-be returnees like Begum were potentially very dangerous. Because they were in that sort of position, people like her were likely to have acquired certain skills or connections.

Survivors and other victims of the murderous cults reign of terror, meanwhile, are furious at the prospect of ISIS women getting a sympathetic hearing in the Western press, or worsea free pass.

Ali Y. Al-Baroodi, who survived ISISs bloody occupation of Mosul, told The Jerusalem Post that that claims on the part of jihadi brides that they were just housewives, as Begum has insisted, are simply false.

It was hell on Earth and every single one of them made it so, he said, asking sarcastically if perhaps local victims of the jihadi women should apologize for disturbing their stay there.

[ISIS] demolished cities and hundreds of mass graves, [and left] thousands of orphans and widows, he added.

Its impossible to muster sympathy for her, author and academic Idrees Ahmad wrote in reference to Begum, according to the Post. She went to Syria as a colonizer, several months after ISIS beheaded journalists and aid workers.
Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, was arrested in Gordon, Wisc. on Jan. 10, 2019, for allegedly kidnapping Jayme Closs, 13, from her Barron, Wisc. home in October 2018 after murdering her parents. (Barron County Sheriff's Department)

Suspect in Closs Abduction Says Hell Plead Guilty

A Minnesota television station reported Mar. 7 that the Wisconsin man charged with kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs says in a letter from jail that he plans to plead guilty.

KARE-TV reported that suspect Jake Pattersons Feb. 28 letter was in response to a letter from a station reporter. Patterson wrote that he planned to plead guilty because he didnt want Jaymes family to worry about a trial, the station said.

Patterson, 21, is also charged with killing Jaymes parents in an Oct. 15 attack at the familys home near Barron, about 90 miles northeast of Minneapolis in western Wisconsin. Prosecutors say Patterson spotted Jayme getting off a school bus near her home and made up his mind to take her. Hes accused of holding Jayme for 88 days in a cabin about an hour north of Barron before she escaped in January.

In the letter attributed to Patterson, he wrote to reporter Lou Raguse that he had huge amounts of remorse and I cant believe I did this.

A photo of one part of the letter posted on the stations website showed the words Im Sorry Jayme! in large balloon letters, followed by For everything. I know it doesnt mean much.

The man accused of kidnapping Jayme Closs, Jake Patterson, has written KARE 11 a letter from jail saying hell plead guilty. https://t.co/UPn3DNvda7 pic.twitter.com/57qEgwemtq  KARE 11 (@kare11) March 7, 2019

Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald told The Associated Press he could not comment on the report. KARE reported that Fitzgerald told the station he was aware that Patterson had sent a letter to a KARE reporter.

Jaymes family said theyd been told about the letter by police, according to KARE.

Pattersons attorneys did not immediately respond to messages from AP.

He is being held on $5 million bail pending a March 27 arraignment, where hes expected to formally enter a plea.

Jake Patterons Obsessive Letter

Patterson has shared his obsession for Closs in a prison letter, according to a report.

In a handwritten letter obtained by Radar Online, Patterson, wrote about spending time with 13-year-old Jayme and decorated the letter with heart symbols around her name.

My brother got a puppy named Vale a couple of weeks before [heart] Jayme [heart] ran away, Patterson wrote in the letter.

The letter then continued, I love Mexican food too, but I like lots of stuff. Chocolate and berries are probably my favorite. Me and Jayme cooked a bunch of stuff. Cooking is another thing I like doing a lot.

He also wrote that he thought it was weird how he went from never committing a crime or really doing anything bad to doing the worst thing a human can do.

Pattersons Father Apologized to Closss Family and Told His Son I Love You

Patterson was ordered to stand trial after waiving his rights to a preliminary hearing. Wearing an orange jumpsuit, Patterson smiled at his family and said, I love you. His father, Patrick Patterson, responded, I love you.

Following the appearance, Patrick Patterson said that hes sorry for what happened to Jayme.

My words can mean nothing after such a tragedy has taken place, Patterson told ABC. I most definitely want Jaymes family to know, everyone to know, that our hearts are broken for their family.

Struggling to maintain his composure, Patterson added: Im very sorry for everything that has happened. These words come directly from my heart and my familys heart.

I wish for a complete healing of Jaymes mind, heart, and soul, he said.

Pattersons family has said that they had no clue Jayme was being held hostage at a cabin about an hour north from her Barron house.

Epoch Times reporter Zachary Steiber contributed to this article
Taiwan Tech Manufacturers Move Production Out of China as Potential Security Breaches Rattle US Clients

An executive from Lite-On Technology, a Taiwanese consumer electronics manufacturer, recently said that the company is moving some production to Taiwan from China, after some of its U.S. clients expressed concerns over cyberespionage risks.

Lite-On, whose customers include Dell EMC (a subsidiary of Dell), Hewlett-Packard, and IBM, is investing about NT$10 billion (US$324 million) to build a new plant in Kaohsiung, a major industrial city in southwestern Taiwan, according to a March 8 article in Japanese media Nikkei Asian Review.

Lite-On produces power components and power supply systems that are used in smartphones, notebooks, computer servers, and data centersmany of them manufactured in China.

But after U.S. clients signaled their concerns about security risks associated with manufacturing in China, the company switched gears.

While the companys original plan for the new Kaohsiung factory was to make electronic components for automobiles, it will instead be used to make power components for servers, according to Nikkei. Trial production is scheduled for June.

It is totally reasonable for U.S. companies to have such concerns because, technically, it is doable and not difficult for hackers to use the power supply system or power cords to retrieve data stored in servers, Tien Chin-wei, deputy director at the Taipei-based Cybersecurity Technology Institute, told Nikkei.

Philippe Lin, senior threat researcher at cybersecurity company Trend Micro, also told Nikkei that a compromised server could easily transmit data over power lines.

The companys power supply products are typically shipped to Taiwanese firms such as Quanta Computer, Wistron, and Inventec for final assembly into servers.

Quanta has also decided to move production out of China, citing cybersecurity, U.S. tariffs, and geopolitical risks as the three main factors that motivated the decision. In the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China, the former has repeatedly called out the Chinese regime for encouraging intellectual property theft, including by cyberattacks that target U.S. tech firms. The United States thus has imposed punitive tariffs on a long list of Chinese-made tech products being imported into the country.

According to Nikkei, a Lite-On executive told the publication that the companys U.S. customers were alarmed by reports from Bloomberg last year alleging that malicious microchips have been found in servers assembled in China, which had the potential of stealing U.S. intellectual property and military secrets.

Based on extensive interviews with government and corporate sources, the Bloomberg report concluded that the attack by Chinese spies [via the server microchips] reached almost 30 U.S. companies, including Amazon and Apple. However, Amazon and Apple have both denied the allegations since the report was published.

Many other tech manufacturers in Taiwan have announced in recent months plans to move production out of China, because of the effects of U.S. tariffs. Seven Apple suppliers based in Taiwan have said they would move manufacturing into Southeast Asia or expand production capacities at factories back on home turf.

While Apple products were exempted from the U.S. tariff list, many tech components are manufactured in China.
Trudeau Apologizes for Governments Past Mistreatment of Inuit With TB

IQALUIT, NunavutPrime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on Friday, March 8, for the way Inuit in northern Canada were treated for tuberculosis in the mid-20th century, calling it colonial and misguided.

Trudeau was in Iqaluit to deliver an apology to the Inuit on behalf of the federal government.

Today, I am here to offer an official apology for the federal governments management of tuberculosis in the Arctic from the 1940s to the 1960s, he said. Many of you know all too well how this policy played itself out.

Trudeau is acknowledging that many people with TB died after being removed from their families and communities and were taken on grueling journeys south on ships, trains, and aircraft.

The prime minister made the visit to the capital of Nunavut a day later than planned after bad weather prevented his plane from landing on Thursday.

Trudeau apologizes for governments past mistreatment of Inuit with TB https://t.co/tQ4mTFfX4I pic.twitter.com/4gRyYgtk5q  CTV Montreal (@CTVMontreal) March 8, 2019

Trudeau also announced the opening of a database that Inuit families can soon use to find loved ones who died when they were transported south for treatment.

The database is part of a wider initiative called Nanilavut, which means lets find them in Inuktitut.

The apology had been in the works for the better part of two years, since Trudeau signed an Inuit-Crown partnership agreement in 2017.

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., a representative for Inuit in Nunavut, has said it wanted to help family members locate burial sites of those who died during tuberculosis treatment from the 1940s through the 1960s. Their bodies were buried in southern Canada instead of being returned to their relatives.

The mistreatment of Inuit during the TB outbreaks was a massive human rights failure from the government of Canada in the treatment of its own citizens, said Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK).

His organization acts as the national voice of the roughly 60,000 Inuit living in four sections of northern Canada.

The government took far too long to formally acknowledge wrongdoing, Obed said.

It is a long time and I do wish the apology came sooner.

How come every station omitted the fact Trudeau just gave them $640 Million for housing improvements. And to be administered by Chiefs. I wonder how much of our money will trickle down to those needing housing once Chiefs are done! https://t.co/8O5HwcuBAv  Mariola (@Mariola93985665) March 8, 2019

Inuit who were infected with TB in the mid-20th century were taken into government care, separated from their families and transported aboard ships to sanatoriums in the south of Canada, where they were disconnected from their culture and language.

In many cases, those who died from the disease were buried without their families knowing what happened to them or where they were laid to rest.

James Eetoolook is a 72-year-old TB survivor among a family of survivors.

Over the years, he and seven of his relatives were stricken with TB, including his mother, sisters, and brother, who was first diagnosed in the mid-1940s when one of the ships carrying doctors north reached his familys trading post village.

Eetoolook was diagnosed as a 16-year-old and was sent for treatment in Edmonton, where he was in the hospital and bed-ridden for months.

The federal government took too long to diagnose the illness in the Inuit population and didnt do enough to keep track of those who were taken south for treatment.

Now, as vice president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Eetoolook worries that TB is returning to higher levels once again in an age when it simply should not be happening.

In October 2017, then federal health minister Jane Philpott announced the establishment of a task force to develop a plan to eliminate TB among the Inuit.

The government has said it wants to eliminate TB by 2030, Eetoolook said.

Are they going to do it? Probably not.

According to the most recent Public Health Agency of Canada report on the disease, the average annual rate of tuberculosis among Inuit in Canada a year ago was still more than 290 times higher than Canadian born non-Indigenous people.

The agency cited social housing and overcrowding as one of the main culprits.

More than half of all Nunavut residents live in often cramped social housing.

Many experience food insecurity, with food prices in Nunavut that are twice those in southern Canada, the March 2018 report stated.

As well, 60 percent of Nunavut residents smoke.

But the report said progress has been made in tracing all cases of infectious TB, screening of school-age children, faster diagnosis and earlier treatments.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on Friday for the way Inuit in northern Canada were treated for tuberculosis in the mid-20th century, calling it colonial and misguided. #cdnpoli https://t.co/yYLmNOroXW  580 CFRA (@CFRAOttawa) March 8, 2019

As for the apology, and the database, Eetoolook said he believes it will bring closure to many Inuit.

It will help the families that had loved ones that died, he predicted.

Some of the (burial grounds) will be hard to find.

Families now have a chance to locate their loved ones, he said.

Obed lamented how the federal government has been criticized for apologizing too much for various past wrongs but said an apology to the Inuit is necessary as part of healing and reconciliation.

From the Inuit perspective, apologizing for human rights abuses is never a bad thing, he said.

We as a country have to also accept responsibility for things that happened and know that apologies are necessary for classes of people whose human rights have been violated.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump stand before a row of crosses honoring 23 people who died in the storm outside Providence Baptist Church in Opelika, Alabama, on March 8, 2019, during a tour of tornado-damaged areas in the southern US state. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

Trump Meets Relatives of Alabama Tornado Victims, Surveys Unbelievable Devastation

President Donald Trump visited Alabama on March 8 to meet the relatives of the 23 people killed by a tornado, speak with first responders, and survey the damage.

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump toured the area by helicopter and visited the homes of some victims in Beauregard, the tiny community where all of the 23 deaths occurred after a tornado ripped straight down a street, leaving a path of destruction half a mile wide.

The presidents motorcade passed by homes torn to the ground and flattened trees. A group of school children waved at the motorcade. One couple sat in a pickup truck parked in a driveway waving a large American flag.

This is unbelievable, Trump said.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey joined the president to survey the devastation.

Trump hugged the family members of one victim, Marshall Lynn Grimes. The relatives showed the president the 59-year-olds cherished motorcycle vest and Bible.

Trump visited a disaster relief center at the Providence Baptist Church in Opelika to meet with survivors, volunteers, and first responders.

One of the volunteers, Ada Ingram, said that the presidents visit will bring the community closer together.

Id vote for him again, said Ingram, who knew 10 of the victims. I enjoyed him coming. I think its a godsend.

Ingram said Trump signed hats and bibles, including for a 12-year-old boy.

Trump said he talked with one woman who lost 10 people in the storm.

I said how did it go, and she said I lost 10, Trump said. Ive never seen anything like it.

Inside the church, round tables were piled high with donated supplies like shampoo, clothing, toiletries, backpacks, and books.

Trump told the crowd gathered in the church that the first responders were doing an A-plus job.

Were gonna take care, Trump said. We couldnt get here fast enough  I wanted to come the day it happened.

We love you all, he said. We love the state of Alabama.

After addressing the church, Trump walked outside the church to honor the victims. He walked to a row of crosses honoring the 23 people who died in the storm. Holding the first lady, he spent several moments in front of each cross. The president touched at least one delicately. Each of the crosses was decorated with hearts, stuffed animals, and flowers.

The tornadoes on March 3 were the deadliest to hit the state since 2013. In addition to the 23 people killed in and around Beauregard, dozens of people were injured and about 100 houses were destroyed by 170 mph winds, officials said.

Mobile homes were tossed over and ripped open last weekend, their contents strewn across a landscape littered with debris and uprooted trees. In some places, shreds of houses hung from the limbs of the few trees left standing.

The worst of the twisters, stirred up by a late-winter supercell thunderstorm, were ranked by forecasters at step four of the six-step Enhanced Fujita scale of tornado strength.

It was the greatest loss of life from a tornado since an EF-5 storm ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, in May 2013, killing 24 people and injuring 375 others.

Reuters contributed to this report.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet attends a session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 6, 2019. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

UN Human Rights Chief, Religious Freedom Investigator Request Access to Xinjiang

United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on March 6 that she is seeking access to China to verify continuing reports of disappearances and arbitrary detentions, particularly of Muslims in the Xinjiang region where some one million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims are in facilities human rights advocates call mass detention camps.

My Office seeks to engage on this issue with the Government for full access to carry out an independent assessment of the continuing reports pointing to wide patterns of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions, particularly in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, Bachelet said.

It was her second appeal in six months at the U.N. Human Rights Council, where Chinas delegation is expected to respond later this week.

Some reports indicate that over one million Uighurs from the Xinjiang region are being held in so-called re-education camps, where they are forced to deny their faith and pledge allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party. Other Uighurs are subject to constant online surveillance and the collection of vocal samples, iris scans, and DNA sampling.

Bachelets request is not the only one China is facing from the United Nations. U.N. investigator on religious freedom Ahmed Shaheed revealed on March 5 his request to visit Xinjiang, made in February, to look into serious concerns over its de-extremification law.

The Chinese regime claims its de-radicalization program is in place to crackdown on absurd teachings from extremists in the Xinjiang region. It has not yet responded to the U.N. investigators request.

Shaheed, a former Maldives minister, and several other U.N. rights experts also wrote to Beijing last November voicing concerns over its de-extremification law. They are concerned that Chinas regulation targets religious minorities as well as Kazakh nationals in a crackdown on the exercise of fundamental rights in Xinjiang.

There have been allegations of deaths in custody, physical and psychological abuse and torture, as well as lack of access to medical care, the letter says.

Reasons for Detention

David Anderson, Canadas Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Human Rights and Religious Freedom, outlines some of these allegations in a series of videos on religious persecution in China. Citing a Human Rights Watch report, he says some of the reasons why Uighurs could be detained include owning a tent, speaking with someone abroad, praying, or listening to religious lectures.

Furthermore, in Southwest Xinjiang where 80 percent of the population is Uighur, there are places with four to five checkpoints per kilometer, the highest concentration of checkpoints in China, Anderson says. In Han-majority regions, there are little to no checkpoints.

Testifying before of the Canadian Subcommittee on International Human Rights, founder of the Uyghur Canadian Society Mehmit Tohti said in 2018 that the Uighur identity was being indiscriminately criminalized by the Chinese regime.

China is now sealing off the entire region, cutting off communication in and out, and building hundreds of concentration camps that hold millions of Uighurs without any charges or any terms of release, said Tohti, who was born in Xinjiang Province in China and now lives in Toronto.

He called on the Canadian government to condemn the crisis in Xinjiang.

Anderson also says this is not the first time the Chinese communist party has used detention centres to persecute a religious group, as Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted in China since 1999. Since then, the disappearance of practitioners into re-education and detention centres has been widely documented, with many suffering physical and emotional abuse.

An investigative report from 2006 found that a significant source of harvested organs in China came from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. Prior to 2014, the Chinese regime claimed that organs were coming from prisoners who had been executed or from voluntary donations. The report found that the rate of organ transplants far exceeded Chinas official claim of 10,000 organ transplants per year, and that the source of these organs was likely from the systematic organ harvesting of Falun Gong adherents.

In an updated report released in 2016, the researchers estimate that as many as 60,000 to 100,000 transplants took place in China from 2000 to 2015, with the vast majority of victims being practitioners of the Falun Gong meditation practice.

In 2015, Chinese authorities claimed that organ harvesting had ended. However, the 1984 law which permits organ sourcing from executed prisoners without the consent of the donor or the family still exists. The Chinese regime has rejected any allegations of forced organ harvesting.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Sam Brownback, U.S. ambassador for religious freedom, delivered a speech at Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club on March 8. (Li Yi/The Epoch Times)

US Ambassador Calls on Beijing to Stop Its War On Faith

While visiting Hong Kong, U.S. ambassador for religious freedom Sam Brownback delivered a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Club calling on Beijing to end all forms of religious persecution in China.

Chinese government is at war with faith. It is a war they will not win, Brownback said on March 8. He told the audience that people in China are not allowed to go to church, worship their gods, buy a Bible, nor name their children with religious-style names, risking detention in internment camps or prison.

Since 1999, the United States has designated China as a country of particular concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, Sam Brownback added, referring to an annual assessment of religious freedom conducted by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. China is continually ranked as of particular concern, which is the most serious category for violators of religious freedom.

Persecuted faiths include Catholics, Muslims, Tibetans, and practitioners of the banned spiritual group Falun Gong.

Brownback especially highlighted the plight of Falun Gong adherents, who continue to be arrested, tortured, and killed for their beliefs.

The Chinese government detained and reportedly tortured Falun Gong practitioners with credible estimates putting the number of Falun Gong practitioners in prison in the thousands, Brownback said.

Citing estimates by Falun Gong, Brownback noted that in 2018 alone, at least 69 Falun Gong practitioners died in Chinese custody or due to injuries sustained while in custody.

Falun Gong was introduced to the public in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. Based on the moral principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, the traditional Chinese spiritual discipline incorporates Buddhist and Daoist teachings and includes slow, meditative exercises.

Spreading by word of mouth, the practice counted more than 100 million adherents by the spring of 1999, according to official estimates. Fearing that the popularity would threaten the Chinese Communist Partys rule, then-Party leader Jiang Zemin launched a nationwide persecution in July 1999.

Since then, hundreds of thousands are estimated to have been arrested and detained within prisons, labor camps, brainwashing centers, and other detention facilities.

In recent years, allegations have emerged that the Chinese regime oversees an organ transplant industry whereby organs are forcibly harvested from prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghur ethnic minorities, most of whom practice Islam.

Brownback highlighted this issue in his speech. Data from brave persistent researchers raise concerning questions regarding the organ transplantation system in China, with voluntary donations unable to meet the demand. This is a truly horrifying prospect.

Brownback asked the Beijing government to listen to its people. [It] must address the whereabouts of missing [Falun Gong] practitioners.

Brownback promised to push Beijing to end the abuse and mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners.

He believes that one day, Chinese people will gain the freedom of faith.

The gates of religious freedom will fly open in China and the iron curtain of religious persecution will come down, Brownback said. [The] Chinese government is currently on the wrong side of history.

Sam Brownback, 62, is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat. He was governor of Kansas from 2011 to 2018, and a U.S. senator from 1996 to 2011.

In February 2018, Brownback was named the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. In that role, he heads the Office of International Religious Freedom in the U.S. Department of State, and is the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat on international religious freedom dedicated to bring greater religious freedom to the world.

Brownback visited Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, before his trip to Hong Kong. He said he would like to visit an internment camp in Xinjiang, the northwestern region of China where authorities have detained up to a million Uyghur and other Muslim minority groups. Survivors of the camps describe torture methods and political indoctrination in an attempt to force them into giving up their faith.
Waves of People Still Leaving ISISs Last Syrian Enclave

DEIR AL-ZOR PROVINCE, SyriaThousands of people could still be left inside ISIS terrorist groups last enclave in eastern Syria, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said, as the waves of evacuations from the tiny area continued on March 7.

The SDF has said it wants to ensure all civilians have been evacuated before launching a final assault on the besieged enclave of Baghouz. It is the last shred of populated territory held by ISIS, which once controlled swathes of Iraq and Syria.

We are still hearing about the presence of thousands inside Baghouz, SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali told al-Hadath television.

We expect a fierce battle later on after the end of the civilian evacuation, given that those that will remain in Baghouz are the ones brimming with Salafi jihadi ideology and the ones for whom surrender is not an option, he said.

Even with its defeat at Baghouz looming large, ISIS is still widely assessed to represent a security threat, with a foothold in patches of remote territory and the ability to mount guerrilla attacks.

Many thousands of people, many of them the families of ISIS terrorists, have poured out of Baghouz over the last several weeks. Hundreds of ISIS terrorists have also surrendered, the SDF says.

One of those men emerging from Baghouz, Abu Mujahid, told Reuters he came to Syria in 2015 from Chinas far western region of Xinjiang, also referred to as east Turkestan, which is home to a sizeable minority Muslim population.

I came from China to here (Syria) because of unfairness. There is a lot of injustice in China and we cannot live with it, he said.

Another man, Abu Ali Shishani, said he had come from the Russian region of Chechnya.

The SDF announced it was launching a final battle for the enclave last month but has slowed its attack to allow civilians to leave.

SDF commander Adnan Afrin said on Mach 7 he hoped the evacuations would be completed today.

Far From Over

On March 6 the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that monitors the war said preparations were underway in eastern Syria to announce the end of ISIS there. But Colonel Sean Ryan, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition backing the SDF, said the international force had learned not to put any timetables on the last battle.

ISIS suffered its major military defeats in 2017 when it was driven from the Iraqi city of Mosul and its Syrian headquarters at Raqqa by local forces supported by a U.S.-led international coalition.

The head of the U.S. militarys Central Command, General Joseph Votel, said on March 7 the reduction of ISISs territorial footprint was a monumental military accomplishment, but the fight was far from over.

What we are seeing now is not the surrender of ISIS as an organization, he told a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

Rather, he said, it was the groups calculated decision to preserve the safety of their families and preservation of their capabilities by taking their chances in camps for internally displaced persons and going to ground in remote areas and waiting for the right time to resurge.

Votel, who oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, said he was under no pressure to withdraw forces from Syria by any specific date after President Donald Trump ordered the drawdown of most U.S. troops from Syria.

By Rodi Said & Tom Perry
Annie (alias), ex-wife of a brain surgeon who removed organs from thousands of Falun Dafa prisoners of conscience in China in the early 2000s, speaks at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on April 20, 2006. (The Epoch Times)

Whistleblower: Ex-husband Forcibly Removed Corneas From 2,000 Living Prisoners

'Annie' said her surgeon husband participated in removing organs from living Falun Gong prisoners of conscience

Editors note: The Epoch Times is publishing a number of articles on torture and abuse meted out against innocent prisoners of conscience in China.

In 2006, a Chinese surgeons ex-wife, Annie (alias), revealed that her ex-husband had participated in the forcible removal of corneas from about 2,000 Falun Gong prisoners of conscience at a hospital in Sujiatun in Northeast China.

Annie, whose ex-husband is a brain surgeon, claimed he always carried a mobile phone with him and at any time it rang, day or night, he would immediately go to remove organs from Falun Gong practitioners, who were still alive at the time of extraction.

A group of surgeons worked together to remove all major organs, even the skin, and the dead bodies were cremated, Annie said. Between 2001 and 2003, about 3,000-4,000 Falun Gong practitioners died as a result of forced organ harvesting at the hospital she and her husband worked at in Sujiatun, according to estimates by some of the doctors involved, she said.

After Annie escaped to the United States, she went public with her story. Following are excerpts of her testimony in separate interviews with The Epoch Times and David Kilgour, a former MP and prosecutor in Canada.

Some Were Still Breathing

My ex-husband and I worked at the Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital in Sujiatun between 1999 and 2004. My ex-husband used to be a neurosurgeon who participated in removing organs from Falun Gong practitioners.

Our hospital started to detain these Falun Gong practitioners in 2001, about 5,000 to 6,000 of them. Live organ removal was conducted secretly. At that time I did not know about it.

This hospital removed organs from a large number of living Falun Gong practitioners. Some practitioners were still breathing after their organs were removed against their will, but they were thrown into the hospitals incinerator anyway. The hospitals incinerator in the boiler room was also used as a crematory oven.

At the beginning, fearing information could leak out, different organs were removed by different doctors in different rooms. Later on, when they got money and they were no longer afraid, they started to remove the organs together.

If the victims skin was not peeled off and only internal organs were removed, the openings of the bodies would be sealed and an agent would sign the paperwork. The bodies would be sent to the crematorium near the Sujiatun area. If the skin was removed, they would be sent to the hospital boiler room.

[My husband] was asked to help out [with organ removal] in other hospitals. Every time he did this, he got lots of money and cash awardsseveral dozen times his normal salary  hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars.

The majority of the Falun Gong practitioners were transferred from Dabei Prison, Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, and other prisons in Shenyang. Others were kidnapped from parks or their homes. They were kidnapped because they refused to give up their belief in Falun Gong. The police didnt have any search warrant and their families didnt know it when they were arrested. Because the Chinese communist governments state policy authorizes killing Falun Gong practitioners without any legal consequences, the death of Falun Gong practitioners in Chinas penal system is nothing. So far, no Falun Gong practitioner has come out alive.

Our hospital was only in charge of removal  the organs were sent to other hospitals

This whole scheme and the trading of organs was organized by the government health system. The doctors responsibility was simply to do what they were told to do.

There are a lot of hospitals in China that do this. They have removed organs from many living Falun Gong practitioners in secret.

You Have No Idea of My Agony

I found out about this at the end of 2003. At the time my husband had become absent-minded and almost robotic. He had been doing it for years but had never told me about it. He often had terrible nightmares and would wake up shrieking and terrified. He would stare blankly at the TV. When our child or I touched him, he would shriek. I found him becoming abnormal.

He told me, You have no idea of my agony. These Falun Gong practitioners were alive. It would be okay if we removed organs from dead bodies, but these people were truly alive.

These things were done in secret. The involved surgeons in our hospitals were actually interns transferred from other hospitals. Because the government does not protect Falun Gong practitioners lives, their lives are regarded as nothing. The intern doctors used Falun Gong practitioners bodies for experimentation.

There were a lot of transfers in and out of our hospital. Some doctors felt very pained after they had done it. Some were transferred elsewhere. Some changed their names and moved elsewhere. Some went abroad. Some may have been killed to eliminate evidence.

Some other people know about it but do not dare to speak up, as they are afraid of being killed.

In 2004, I asked my husband quit his job and he agreed. However, quitting put him in mortal danger.  We received threats by phone at home and we were the target of an assassination incident.  My family decided to run away from everything by moving abroad.

I have divorced my husband because I cannot accept that fact that he removed organs from Falun Gong practitioners. I myself have been severely traumatized and devastated.

This is a state crime. I know this is the state that is committing the crimes. I know I alone will not be able to change this, but I know a lot of doctors will step out. I truly hope that these doctors, after hearing my heartfelt testimony, will act according to their conscience.
Why the Chinese Regime Forced a Judge to Confess to Crimes on State Television

On Feb. 22, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV aired a segment about the hotly-discussed court case involving a mining contract dispute in Shaanxi Province. The case came into the public eye after a famous media personality exposed that files related to the case had gone missing.

Chinese authorities then conducted an investigation, the results of which were aired on the state broadcaster CCTV: Wang Linqing, a former Chinese supreme court judge, had stolen the files. During the segment, CCTV also aired a taped confession in which Wang admitted to his wrongdoing.

The Shaanxi mining case dates back to 2003 and was closed in 2018 after the involved party appealed the verdict twice. The mine located in Yulin City of Shaanxi Province, has 1.9 billion metric tons worth coal reserves valued at about 380 billion yuan ($56.7 billion). Two parties both claimed that they had ownership over the mine.

On Dec. 30, 2018, Wang Linqing, the judge during the second appeal, released a video explaining that some of the most important files in the case had disappeared from his office in November 2016. He asked a fellow judge to call the police, but was told the surveillance cameras stopped working at the time and he should not ask for more information. Wang said he suspected that the cameras had been tampered with.

Wang added that the reason he made the video was: I want to protect myself from being mistreated, so I am using this video as evidence.

After posting this video, Wang disappeareduntil he reappeared in the CCTV confession video.

Wang, initially the whistleblower, claimed that he was the thief who stole the files.

On camera, he said he had two reasons for taking the case file: partly out of spite, and partly because I didnt want anyone else dealing with the case.

Wang Linqing disappeared off the map on Jan. 3. Soon after, Chinese authorities announced that he was under investigation for leaking state secrets. Strictly speaking, he was made to go missing. And like many Chinese human rights lawyers who went missing, Wang was next seen admitting his guilt on CCTV. The investigation was not judicial; rather, it went by the Chinese Communist Partys own rules.

In actuality, this investigation was a mistake from the very beginning. The investigation team was led by the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission (PLAC), a Party agency that oversees the countrys security apparatus, including police, courts, and prosecutors. That is not typical of standard legal procedures, in which investigations would go through the judicial system.

And according to the Chinese constitution, the power of the Supreme Peoples Court and Supreme Peoples Procuratorate (Chinas highest court and prosecutors office) are granted by the National Peoples Congress (NPC)the Partys rubber-stamp legislature. So the above investigation should have been authorized by the NPC.

After Wang posted his first video, the supreme court initially announced that it would investigate, raising peoples suspicions about internal bias. That may have been why the authorities later changed it to the PLAC leading the investigation. Either way, it is an inside job.

The investigation team determined that Wang had leaked state secrets. Although the investigation team did not say what secrets specifically, people have speculated that it is the instructions written in the court files by then-chief justice and president of the supreme court Zhou Qiang and other bosses.

Their existence was first made known in the initial social media post written by the media personality. They are said to contain precise instructions to a judge (not Wang but another judge who presided over the first court appeal) on how to rule in the case.

Of course, Zhou and the other Party leaders in the Supreme Court should have no say in deciding the verdict; only the presiding judge should rule on the case.

How this Wang Linqing case has unfolded is altogether too comical, causing web punsters to have a field day with the topic.

One netizen summarized it thusly: Wang Linqing steals files. Wang Linqing reports to superior that the files have been stolen. The superior does not investigate or ask. Wang Linqing reports to the public that the files have been stolen. Only then does the big boss investigate. The investigation result: the files were stolen by Wang Linqing. 

Such a loophole-ridden story is sure to garner the ridicule of netizens. The question is, why didnt authorities make the story more believable? The main issue is that the original case had already been exposed by the media. Moreover, Wang himself disclosed some details to the public. It was already impossible for the authorities to compile a rational story from the beginning.

The ultimate result of having Wang take the fall also revealed that Chinese authorities would never allow a bottom-up disclosure from within the Party system. Neither is anyone allowed to expose internal scandals to the public.

Even in corruption cases involving officials, rarely does the whistleblower escape unscathed. Instead, they are often punished themselves.

By punishing Wang, this also has the effect of squashing any expectations the outside world may have for China to achieve true judicial independence. Perhaps, this was the Partys true motive in the end.

This article has been updated to clarify the nature of the investigation and the Chinese supreme courts power.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
WASHINGTON - The White House is privately ramping up pressure on undecided Republicans to limit defections ahead of the Senate vote on President Donald Trump's emergency declaration - even as the administration has yet to tell Congress which military projects would be tapped to pay for Trump's border wall.

The vote expected next week is on a resolution to nullify Trump's Feb. 15 declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, which allows him to access $3.6 billion now designated for construction projects at military installations in numerous states and overseas. Trump wants to use that money for border barriers, after Congress refused to give him all the wall funding he demanded.

In recent days, the White House has increased its efforts to count votes and persuade fence-sitting GOP senators, according to two Senate Republicans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the administration's efforts. Undecided senators have received calls from the White House, and the message, according to one of the senators, is clear: Trump is taking names and noticing who opposes him - particularly if they are running for re-election next year.

Yet many Senate Republicans say they would like more information before they decide whether to vote to protect Trump's emergency declaration, such as legal rationales for the president's action, or whether a military project in their home state would be affected.

"I'm not aware that anybody has seen it yet," said South Dakota's Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, referring to a list of military projects. "I think there would be a lot of our members who will be concerned about voting on this before they've seen that."

The disapproval resolution already passed the House and has sufficient support to pass the Senate, which would force Trump to issue the first veto of his presidency to strike it down. But the House vote was well-below the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override Trump's veto, and the Senate vote is also likely to fall short of a veto-proof majority.

GOP senators on Thursday were discussing whether they could revise the disapproval resolution to constrain the emergency powers available to presidents. At the same time, House Democrats angry about the administration's plans to redirect money to the wall without congressional approval were threatening to write new restrictions into upcoming legislation to limit the Pentagon's ability to move money around.

Four Republican senators - Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska - have announced plans to vote for the Democrats' resolution to overturn the emergency declaration, which would give the measure enough support to pass the Senate.

Numerous other GOP senators have expressed serious reservations about supporting the declaration. Many view it as an unprecedented intrusion into their constitutional authority over federal spending, with potential to set a dangerous precedent for future Democratic presidents.

Republicans' discomfort about voting on the disapproval resolution has led to a concerted but inconclusive search in recent days for a way to amend it. As it stands, a presidential emergency declaration stays intact unless Congress passes a disapproval measure that can be vetoed.

But Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is spearheading legislation that would amend the 1976 law Trump has invoked for his national emergency, mandating that such a declaration would automatically expire after 30 days unless both chambers of Congress vote to approve it.

"I think there's a lot of support for that basic construct," said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. "From my standpoint, it's a whole lot better than a show vote of disapproval that does not get enacted into law."

Meanwhile, senators from both major parties continued to press administration officials on how the emergency declaration and reallocation of money would be done.

Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., has sought assurances from the Pentagon that projects in Arizona won't be touched, and she spoke privately with acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on the matter, although she declined to elaborate. And Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said he requested "particulars" directly from Shanahan at a breakfast Thursday morning; he said he hoped to receive them ahead of next week's vote.

A Pentagon spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Several lawmakers said they don't believe the Pentagon has developed a list of targeted military construction projects.

Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., who leads an appropriations subcommittee that deals with military construction, said after a separate meeting with Pentagon officials Thursday that the military was waiting for guidance from the Department of Homeland Security as to its needs along the border before developing a list of military construction projects that would be tapped.

"They really haven't gone that far," Boozman said after his briefing with Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist and Robert McMahon, the assistant defense secretary for sustainment.

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii - Boozman's counterpart on the military construction spending panel, who also attend the briefing - said the Pentagon has assured him that it will "not allow political side deals to be cut" to protect certain military projects.

Still, Schatz and other Democrats have insisted that they will refuse to use upcoming spending bills to request money for military construction projects that Congress already appropriated money for.

"We're just not going to allow them to raid military funds and then appropriate the same dollar amount two times," Schatz said. "That's not the way this process is supposed to work."

Senate Democrats are circulating a letter to be sent to the Pentagon in the coming days, demanding clarity on how the administration will choose which military projects to tap for Trump's border wall, what those projects are and why they are being chosen, according to a Democratic aide.

The $3.6 billion that would come from military construction accounts made available by Trump's Feb. 15 national emergency declaration is the last of several accounts the administration plans to tap to build many miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The administration would first use $1.35 billion provided by Congress for 55 new miles of fences, and then turn to $601 million from a Treasury Department asset forfeiture account and $2.5 billion from a Defense Department counter-drug account.

The $3.6 billion would come last and is the only pot of money requiring a national emergency declaration - prompting senators to question repeatedly why a national emergency was needed at all.

"They can get the money they need from the first two pots, the forfeiture fund and the anti-drug fund, so I'm not sure why they'd ever even get to the third one, which is stirring up the controversy," said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. "But we'll see how that resolves."

Defense Department officials have said that no military construction projects would be "canceled" but that some may be delayed until money to pay for them can be "back-filled" via Trump's 2020 budget request, which is due next week.

In another concern for Democrats, the counterdrug account itself does not contain the $2.5 billion that the Pentagon wants to pull out of it, so it will be necessary to transfer money into it from other accounts. Military officials told lawmakers Thursday that this will be done via "reprogramming" about $1 billion in unused money from an Army recruitment program, and another $1 billion from left in retirement accounts after not as many people took an early retirement offer as expected.

Then, the resulting money in the counterdrug account will itself be reprogrammed for use to build the wall that Trump long claimed Mexico would pay for.

Democrats anticipate that the Pentagon will inform them about "reprogramming" the money but not seek congressional permission, which would be a change from past practice. Democrats are considering responding by including language in upcoming spending and defense bills that could potentially limit the Pentagon's ability to move money around without congressional approval.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., noting that Congress has traditionally granted the Pentagon those reprogramming powers, said Thursday: "If DOD acts unilaterally to abuse this trust, Congress will act as necessary to defend its Constitutional prerogatives."

Democrats also have another tool that could pressure Republicans on the national emergency declaration: provisions in the National Emergencies Act itself that require congressional votes every six months on whether the national emergency should be terminated.

Democrats have not made a decision on whether to invoke these provisions, but they view them as an important tool that could be used against Republicans in the future, according to a senior Democratic aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
Connecticuts economy added 1,000 new jobs in January  good news  but revised employment data for 2018 and prior years showed a gain of nearly 10,000 fewer jobs than originally had been reported, state Department of Labor officials said Friday.

The December 2018 gain, which was reported as 1,100 new positions, remained unchanged, even with the revisions. But the number of total jobs did change as a result of an annual benchmark revision done by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The new figures showed what originally had been reported as an increase of 19,900 jobs in 2018, dropped to a gain of 10,000 workers, when looking at December-to-December totals. The December total was 1,696,800 jobs at Connecticut employers, down from a previously reported 1,705,500.

The new data is based on actual payroll reports; the earlier figures, reported monthly by the state and federal labor departments, are based on surveys of businesses.

In another way of looking at the data, using annual averages, Connecticuts total fell from a previously reported 15,200 added jobs to a gain of 2,300. The annual averages smooth out the ups and downs during a year.

Either way, said Andy Condon, director of research for the state Department of Labor, the rision process significantly reduced last years job growth figures.

These revisions replace monthly sample-based job estimates with more accurate, but time delayed values from our Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Condon said in a written statement.

The states unemployment rate remain unchanged at 3.8 percent even with the revision, he said. The national unemployment rate fell to the same level, 3.8 percent, in a separate report Friday, which showed weak national job creation.

Some Connecticut economists are saying the revised employment numbers are concerning.

Pete Gioia, an economic adviser with the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said initial reports showed the state was on track for its best year for jobs since 2006. But once the revisions are taken into account, Gioia said 2018 ended a lot different than we thought we would.

If you look at private sector alone, that number is even more sobering, Gioia said in a written statement. Our earlier gain of 23,100 jobs was revised down to 9,700.

In the December-to-December view, Connecticuts economy saw 0.6 percent job growth in 2018, up from 0.1 percent in 2017 and 0.2 percent the year before that, he said.

The revision dealt a setback to the states economy getting back all of the jobs it lost in the last recession. Connecticut has recovered just 84 percent of lost jobs and must gain another 19,300 to meet pre-recession levels.

We need to create a state where businesses are growing and investing, and it needs to be lawmakers top priority, Gioia said.

Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners, said the revisions suggest that the current [economic] expansion may well have peaked in 2018.

The odds of a formal recession in 2019 are now a 50-50 proposition, Klepper-Smith said. Risks to the current business cycle categorically lie to the downside, an exclamation point being provided by todays morbid job growth. This shows all the signs of a classic economic downturn.

Given its current pace, he said the states economy is not likely to see full job recovery until sometime in mid-2020.

Prior data was suggesting that Connecticut would recover all of its jobs by mid-2019, Klepper-Smith said. In a nutshell, these revisions show a much weaker economy than originally thought. Connecticuts labor markets are now facing major challenges, which include higher overall labor costs, mounting fiscal problems at the state and local level, and a waning domestic economic recovery which is now almost 10 years old.

The dramatic decrease in statewide employment as a result of the data revision is being played out against a backdrop of a U.S. economy that created fewer jobs than expected in February. The national economy added 20,000 jobs last month, its weakest performance in 18 months.

Five of the six labor market areas in the state saw job increases in January 2019, led by New Haven, which had 5,800 additional jobs compared to the same period in 2018, which translates to a 2 percent growth rate. The Hartford region was the only labor market area that saw an employment decline, with 300 fewer jobs year over year.

Jobs create income, income creates spending, spending creates tax revenue, Klepper-Smith said. Its all interconnected. And its going to make it that much harder for the state to climb out of the economic hole that its in.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
"Empire" actor Jussie Smollett has been indicted on 16 felony counts by a Cook County grand jury.



The indictment charges Smollett with 16 counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly making false reports.

Smollett's attorneys said they have no statement at this time.

ALSO Smollett case undermines the public trust

Smollett reported to police in January that he had been attacked in Chicago in an incident that ended with a noose around his neck. Police initially investigated the case as a possible hate crime.

But after police detained two men who were "persons of interest," police sources revealed that police suspected Smollett knew the men and allegedly had paid them $3,500 to stage the attack.

Smollett has denied any involvement in orchestrating the attack.

In February, Smollett was charged with felony disorderly conduct. The judge granted a $100,000 bail, and Smollett paid a $10,000 bond. He was ordered to give up his passport and will remain under supervision until his case is adjudicated.

"Like any other citizen, Mr. Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence, particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been repeatedly leaked. Given these circumstances, we intend to conduct a thorough investigation and to mount an aggressive defense," Smollett's attorneys said in February.

The subsection of the Illinois law states: "A person commits disorderly conduct when he or she knowingly ... (4) Transmits or causes to be transmitted in any manner to any peace officer, public officer or public employee a report to the effect that an offense will be committed, is being committed, or has been committed, knowing at the time of the transmission that there is no reasonable ground for believing that the offense will be committed, is being committed, or has been committed."
NORWALK  A 22-year-old Torrington man assaulted his girlfriend and tried to throw her over a third-floor balcony after she tried to leave a party early on Christmas morning, police said.

Mario Pimentel, of Maplewood Avenue, was charged with third-degree assault, third-degree strangulation and second-degree threatening.

Police were alerted to the incident around 4 a.m. Christmas morning when a 911 call was terminated prematurely. Before the hangup, though, dispatchers said they heard a woman crying on the line, and traced the call back to Roodner Court apartment building 16.

At the scene, police learned that Pimentel and the victim had been attending a party at the residence. The woman told police she had fallen asleep during the party, and tried to leave after waking up. She said Pimentel, however, was not happy with her decision.

She told police Pimentel grabbed her as she tried to leave, threw her up against the door and began to choke her with both his hands. A third party tried to separate the two, police said, but not before Pimentel punched her, shoved her to the ground and continued punching her.

As the woman rose from the ground, police said, Pimentel threatened to kill her. Police said that when she tried to leave again, Pimentel grabbed her by the hair, dragged her to balcony railing and attempted to throw her over, but was stopped by a third party. At this point, the woman managed to flee the scene and contact police.

Pimentel was not at the scene by the time police arrived. A warrant was later obtained for his arrest.

On Thursday, Pimentel was arrested as he attended a hearing for an unrelated incident at the Stamford courthouse. He was held on $200,000 bond and given a court date of March 8.
WESTPORT  A Westport man operated a drug factory out of his apartment, police said.

On Feb. 12, Westport police received information a resident had narcotics delivered to his home at 1177 Post Road East via the United States Postal Service. In conjunction with USPS, Westport investigators identified Zachary Bartolo, 23, as the apartments resident and learned Bartolo acquired several packages over the last few months, police said.

Police intercepted a package meant for Bartolo and found it contained about one ounce of cocaine. Police then applied for a warrant to search Bartolos apartment and arrest him.

When investigators arrived at Bartolos apartment on March 4, Bartolo was in his car and taken into custody. Police found mail packaging, cocaine, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia in Bartolos car. In Bartolos apartment police found Xanax, Adderall, Viagra, oxycodone, ecstasy pills, cocaine, packaging, drug paraphernalia, and sale materials, police said.

Investigators seized about 1.3 pounds of marijuana, about 4 ounces of cocaine and $1,000 in cash from Bartolo, who was transported to police headquarters and charged with criminal attempt to possess narcotics with the intent to distribute.

Bartolo was additionally charged with sale of hallucinogen/narcotic, sale of controlled substance, operation of a drug factory, and unauthorized manufacture/sale/etc. of drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Bartolo was released after posting $200,000 in bond and is scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Norwalk on March 18.

svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1
WESTPORT  Staples High School will soon be on the market for a new principal.

Principal James DAmico, who has helmed the school since 2016, announced he will be resigning at the end of the year to take a job as principal at New Fairfield High School his alma mater.
I came to know about this story thanks to Glen Carbon resident Dallas Harrell. He hired me and my wife for our first teaching jobs at Collinsville when he was assistant superintendent there.

Edwardsvilles Robert Knetzer was one of those wheeler-dealers who figured out an easy way to live like a king. After World War II, there was a huge demand for new cars since none were built from 1942-1945. Consequently, customers had to order a car from a dealer and wait about a year before delivery could be made. Knetzer started a business where he told customers he could get them either a new car or one with less than 1,000 miles on it much sooner and for less money.

Here was the scam. Customers had to pay him the full amount up front. True to his word, many of his customers picked up their car in about three months. When a backlog on delivery began to occur, some distrustful customers demanded their money back. He told them they were making a mistake, but he happily obliged. When many of his customers stuck with him and eventually received their cars, everyone was reassured. His offer was so attractive that buyers from 15 different states gave him money for a car.

Heres how it worked. Knetzer used a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul principle to convince customers he had an unending supply of autos from Detroit. Instead of customers paying a dealer $1,400 for a new car, Knetzer asked for only $1,100. He scoured the tristate area searching for cars. Sometimes he bought them new, from a dealer, paying them a hundred dollars more than their asking price. He often obtained them slightly used from someone who had just bought a new car, giving them $200 more than what they had paid. Thus, he lost money on every car he sold.

So many people gave him money, he always had a great cash flow. Knetzer bought a new house on Grand Avenue, took expensive trips, married a second wife in Chicago (bigamy), and spent money lavishly. His overall plan worked because it was a Ponzi scheme. He collected a ton of money in advance and delivered at a much slower rate. Business was booming.

Edna Wolfe and I were once members of St. Johns Methodist Church. We also sold real estate together working for Brown Realty Co. A former township assessor, Edna once told me she and her husband Roy wanted to buy a car from Knetzer, but they were just married and couldnt quite come up with enough money.

Knetzers downfall came when a St. Louis reporter started checking things out and realized that many of his customers were never going to get cars. Knetzer was hauled into court and charged with fraud. As he stood before a judge, he said: There wasnt any profit in it, your honor. Just an awful lot of money!

Bill Nunes, of Glen Carbon, has written dozens of books including The Buster Wortman Story and History of the St. Louis Cardinals, both in color, to Jans Hallmark Shop locations. Nunes taught history for 30 years at Collinsville and Edwardsville high schools.
Three investigators, including two canine units, from the Illinois State Fire Marshals Office were still on the scene Thursday at the house fire in the 4000 block of Culp Lane where three firefighters were injured and one killed Tuesday while fighting the fire. Visitation for Godfrey Fire Capt. Jacob Jake Ringering will be held Monday from 2-6 p.m. at St. Marys Catholic Church in Alton. Service will be held at 10 a.m. at the church Tuesday morning.

The Madison County Emergency Management Agencys Unified Command Post has been set up at the fire scene on Culp Lane, where a detailed investigation is underway.
MARYVILLE  Drivers who live along parts of or use Route 162 in Maryville can look forward to construction changes coming later this year after the Village of Maryville passed a resolution regarding road construction during its Wednesday board meeting.

The Illinois Department of Transportation sent a letter of understanding last month to Mayor Craig Short, describing the project.
WINCHESTER  A man stabbed Tuesday in Winchester now is facing arrest.

An arrest warrant was served Friday on Matthew Richardson, 39, accusing him of domestic battery and violation of an order of protection, Scott County States Attorney Michael Hill said.

The Scott County Sheriffs Department declined to say whether Richardson was in custody. The sheriffs department denied a Journal-Courier Freedom of Information Act request for reports on the incident, citing the ongoing investigation. The newspaper plans to appeal the decision.

Richardson was stabbed behind The Pitt Stop restaurant in downtown Winchester just before noon Tuesday. Mayor Rex McIntire and a corrections officer helped him into City Hall, where staff called 911 and helped control the bleeding.

The rear of the restaurant at 12 E. Cross St. is adjacent to City Hall.

Illinois State Police and Hills office have been investigating the incident but have released few details.

The person who stabbed Richardson had not been arrested Friday afternoon, Hill said, adding that he could not release more details because he had not received police reports.

A statement Hills office released Wednesday said the stabbing was the result of a physical altercation among three people.
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Linkedin Deny Hamdani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019

Hundreds of Muslim youth raised a variety of concerns on the new wave of religious puritanism and Islamism in early February. They found such ideas have affected many important parts of their lives, particularly regarding religious or cultural-based practices and political ideology.

The forum was called Rapimnas Pejuang Islam Nusantara (National Leaders Meeting of the Defenders of Islam of the Archipelago), with most participants culturally affiliated with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the countrys largest Islamic organization that coined the Islam Nusantara concept.

Interestingly, most participants had never met before, only engaging with each other on social media. This offline meeting allowed them to voice their aspirations and concerns on the changing social and cultural constellation.

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Linkedin Shahid Javed Burki (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019

Tensions between India and Pakistan are at their highest level in decades, and many fear the nuclear-armed neighbors are on the brink of yet another war over the disputed Kashmir region. But the latest eruption is different from its predecessors.

The two countries struggle over Kashmir began in 1947. After Pakistan supported a Muslim insurgency in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, the states Hindu ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, decided to cede the territory to India in exchange for armed assistance. Since the states population was predominantly Muslim, however, Pakistan cried foul and sent in troops, which India countered with more troops of its own.

The war resulted in a stalemate, with the United Nations helping to secure a cease-fire in 1949. As part of the deal, the state was divided between India and Pakistan  and remains so to this day.

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Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 08:53 1007 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee80f944e 1 Editorial Women,women-empowerment,women-rights,international-womens-day,#Editorial Free

Roughly half of the 192 million eligible voters in the upcoming general elections are female, which provides much potential for presidential and legislative candidates to make their campaigns sound as good as possible for women.

Commemorations of International Womens Day on March 8 in the country have highlighted many facets showing that whoever wins, empowering women at the grassroots remains a formidable task. This task, which needs the continued involvement of civil society organizations working with the local and central governments, is needed to encourage women to speak up and raise awareness and thus take action on their concerns, to embolden them in decision-making. Those organizations and governments have so long ignored them, even to the point of not acknowledging their existence.

At the State Palace on Wednesday during a gathering with President Joko Jokowi Widodo, one fisherwoman from West Sulawesi was among those pictured in a brief video on womens significant roles in their communities.

After the event, Nurlina of the Pangkep Islands reiterated that her main goal was to have as many women like her own fisherman cards, initiated by the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry. The main obstacle, she said, was that no officials believe there are fisherwomen, as women are only known to help their husbands, while many women actually engage in the fisheries at sea and on the business side. Among other public services, the cards enable fisherwomen to get insurance.

A member of a customary village council in North Lombok, Saraiyah, said the involvement of women in budget planning had helped to increase the allocation for things they considered crucial, such as health and education services, including literacy classes for adult women.

At a national seminar on child marriage held on Wednesday, Nur Rofiah of the Indonesian Womens Ulema Conference (KUPI) said the experiences of girl-mothers were likely considered not too important as women were often seen as lesser human beings. In its first conference in 2017 KUPI had issued a fatwa stating that preventing child marriage is mandatory in Islam, given its hazards to children and their offspring and also its contribution to intergenerational poverty and Indonesias high maternal mortality rate, as many have cited. However, changing the 1974 Marriage Law, which lends justification to girls becoming wives and mothers, would take considerable time.

The deliberations that led to the fatwa, Nur Rofiah said, were enabled by women ulema listening to the experiences of religious leaders who were girl-brides and girl-mothers themselves. Providing support and confidence to these women has emboldened them to address child marriage in their communities. As the newly released annual report of the National Commission on Violence Against Women shows, the voiceless also include survivors of incest. To even know of their existence and to help their recovery, it is often sympathetic local women who are trusted and who therefore can reach out to them.

Despite NGOs, state and government bodies working to end discrimination, empowering women at the grassroots level would go a long way to help the marginalized find their own voices.
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Linkedin Ahmad Suaedy (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019

A discussion took place recently on Papua in relation to the 2019 presidential election. Millennials from various professional backgrounds were among attendees, along with junior and senior activists. One session was reserved especially for perspectives of the young.

The forum, held by the Tifa Foundation, Amnesty International Indonesia and the Jayapura-based Jubi Association in Jakarta aimed to respond to the lack of discourse on Papua ahead of the presidential election, even as the first presidential debate included the theme of human rights.

Social media mapping presented by change.org, an independent petition website, at the talks on Feb.14, showed that Indonesian millennials had paid substantial attention to issues related to Papua. Even though mainstream media contains little coverage on Papua, given limited access to Papua and West Papua provinces, millennials across Indonesia made it clear through social media that peace and prosperity should exist in Papua and that violence should be reduced or eliminated.

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Linkedin Simon Thompson (Reuters) Los Angeles, United States  Fri, March 8, 2019 09:06 1007 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee80fa463 2 Entertainment captain-marvel,Brie-Larson,inclusion,film,united-states,Women,gender Free

Actress Brie Larson is using her starring role in Captain Marvel, the first female-led superhero story from Marvel Studios, to advocate for women behind the scenes as well.

Larson, 29, who won a best actress Oscar in 2016 for independent drama Room, began campaigning for stronger female representation on and off screen more than a year ago.

So when it came to promoting Captain Marvel, which begins its international rollout on Wednesday, she lobbied for more women and people of color among those interviewing her.

"This film allows me an opportunity and a platform to be able to have more flexibility to do more, and I just took that opportunity," Larson told Reuters Television.

In a speech last year, Larson noted that 64 percent of the reviews for Hollywood's 100 top grossing movies in 2017 were written by white men.

Captain Marvel is not the first female-led superhero movie. DC Comics Wonder Woman, starring Gal Gadot, broke that barrier in 2017.

But like Wonder Woman, Larson said Captain Marvel had to pay more than lip service to women. The movie's co-director and co-writer is Anna Boden.

Read also: Brie Larson shines as fearless superhero across galaxies in 'Captain Marvel'

"We're telling a female story, but it's not good enough to just be like, 'You just hired a female lead and then we did it!'," Larson said.

"You have to infuse it in every aspect. We have to make sure that we are actually bringing more seats to the table, that we're walking the walk. We're not just putting it on a poster, that we're living it," she added.

In the film, Larson stars as 1990s former fighter pilot Carol Danvers, who goes on a journey of self-discovery and becomes the powerful Captain Marvel, a superhero caught in the midst of a galactic war between two alien races.

It is also a tale of female friendship, with black actress Lashana Lynch playing Danvers' best friend and fellow pilot Maria Rambeau.

Lynch said the film marked a "really special moment to be able to represent women and people of color in such a positive light."

Larson, whose directorial debut Unicorn Store hits Netflix next month, said she felt encouraged by steps Hollywood studios were taking to be more inclusive.

"Sometimes it's just (that) it takes one person being like, 'Something seems weird,' and people are like, 'Oh my gosh, you're right!," she said.
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Linkedin Dylan Amirio (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 09:01 1007 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee80f9772 1 Art & Culture #art,#culture,#exhibition,#women,#art-book,#National-Gallery-Indonesia,#Carla-Bianpoen Free

Twenty-one female Indonesian artists are featured in both an exhibition and its corresponding book, one written and compiled by writer and art curator Carla Bianpoen.

The exhibition, held at the National Gallery of Indonesia until March 16, aims to draw focus to the strengths of female perceptions while the book, entitled Into the Future just like the exhibition, details the works of the featured female artists.

Coming from cities like Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta, the artists include Natasha Gabriella Tontey, Ayu Arista Murti, Dita Gambiro, Fika Ria Santika, Andrita Yuniza Orbandy, Cecilia Patricia Untario, Kinez Riza, Etza Meisyara, Restu Ratnaningtyas, Sanchia Hamidjadja and Syagini Ratna Wulan, to name a few.

In the name of women: Through the book, author and art curator Carla Bianpoen aims to document the wide range of female Indonesian artists who have made groundbreaking art. (The Jakarta Post/Iqbal Yuwansyah)

Through the book, Carla said she aims to document the art of women, in the name of women, celebrating the wide range of female Indonesian artists who have made groundbreaking art and achievements.

Thus, it wasnt hard for her to seek out the 21 names, coupled with her deep two-decade-long research into the Indonesian art world.

[The book] serves as an objective visual analysis that is not weighed down by personal tastes, she explained during a discussion at the gallery.

Carla is renowned as an art writer in many media, both local and international and as a curator for Indonesias entries into the prestigious Venice Biennale events of 2013 and 2015. She also received an Adhikarya Rupa visual arts award from the Tourism and Creative Industry Ministry in 2014.

Up until now there hasnt been any specific literature that documents the art of female Indonesian artists," said the 83-year-old, who also co-authored Indonesia Women Artists: The Curtain Opens in 2007, considered as the first and only book on Indonesian women artists.

Menabur Benih (Spreading the seed) by Theresia Agustina Sitompul. (The Jakarta Post/Wendra Ajistyatama)

She documents the subject through the context of outlining the biographies of the 21 featured artists so that they can serve as better thresholds to understanding the womens art.

A distinct characteristic of female artists, she added, was that women tend to create art outside of the market taste and demand.

An example of this is Carlas observation that most of the womens art tends to depict and describe ideas that are rooted in daily life.

A work by Ayu Aristra Murti entitled Embryo Harapan, she said, focuses the lens on natural disasters, but with an optimism delivered through the artists choice of bright colors, conveyed through the idea of nature as well.

Therefore their creations exhibit a more visible depiction of art that comes straight from the heart  something genuine, something true, Carla says.

Many of them are telling tales of how they survive the world and any adversity they might feel.

Ode to My Homeland by Etza Meisyara (The Jakarta Post/Wendra Ajistyatama)

The exhibition itself showcases a wide range of mediums and artistry among the 21 artists, who are all aged between 21 and 48.

With the Cemara 6 Galeri & Museum being the co-organizer and Carla the co-curator with Citra Smara Dewi, the works displayed convey a feminine viewpoint of the world around them, including the mundane aspects and struggles of domestic life, their reactions towards national disaster and how they get by in a patriarchal society.

One intriguing display comes from Dita Gambiro and her Distorted Reality installation, which featured layers of clothing and aimed to explain the meaning behind self-perception, immaculate presentation and the pressures that women tend to follow when presenting themselves in front of others.

Another metaphoric installation came from the mind of Mardita Sutantio, entitled Speculative Present. Several pendulums swing from her wall-mounted display, which suggests that time is a construct that simplifies the similarity between yesterday and today. The present symbolized here evokes fresh new worries every time a new day starts while also filling us with new opportunities and new ways to develop ourselves.

The diverse range of themes from the diverse pool of women in this exhibition, according to Carla, shows that the proven depths of female perception and thought cannot be ignored any more, especially in a rapidly evolving world.

The essence of this exhibition is the fact that as technology progresses further and further and new forms of knowledge are found every day, it is now impossible to ignore female progress, she says.

New challenges are therefore always there for those in the contemporary art world, thereby creating art of another kind. Therefore, the future. (ste)

-- Curatorial tour is to be held on March 9 at 10:30 a.m. at the National Gallery of Indonesia and followed by Art Talk at 2 p.m. On March 14, a discussion on visual art, intellectual property and creative economy is to be held at 2 p.m.
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Linkedin (Reuters) Jerusalem  Fri, March 8, 2019 07:02 1007 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee80f5b61 2 Art & Culture Albert-Einstein,exhibition,Jerusalem,manuscript,Israel,Hebrew-University Free

Israel's Hebrew University put on display on Wednesday a collection of 110 manuscript pages written by Albert Einstein, many of which it said had never been shown in public before.

They include hand-written mathematical notes, most from 1944 to 1948, and also an appendix - which the university said had been thought lost - to a paper on unified field theory that the German-born physicist presented to the Prussian Academy of Science in 1930.

Einstein, who developed the theory of relativity, a pillar of modern science, tried unsuccessfully for decades to prove another concept - that electromagnetism and gravity were different manifestations of a single fundamental field.

Hebrew University said it had received the papers as a donation to its 80,000-item Albert Einstein Archives from a foundation in Chicago after they were purchased from a private collector in North Carolina.

Read also: Einstein letter doubting God auctioned for $2.89 million

"These papers reflect the way Einstein was thinking, the way Einstein was working. Most of them, in his handwriting, are mathematical calculations with very little text," said Professor Hanoch Gutfreund, academic adviser to the archives.

"They are summaries of his notes; whenever something struck him, a new idea, he sat down immediately and scribbled it, looking for its consequences," Gutfreund told Reuters.

Einstein, who settled in the United States after renouncing his German citizenship when Adolf Hitler came to power, bequeathed his scientific and personal writings to Hebrew University.

Einstein won the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics. He died in New Jersey in 1955.
A long red dress is currently on display at the Glass Lobby of the National Museum in Central Jakarta. At a glance, it looks similar to other leather dresses, but the caption reads that it is actually a VegeaTextile product made from wine industry residues.

The Ecologicdress is among the installations featured at an exhibition titled Italy: The Beauty of Knowledge.

Opened on Tuesday, the exhibition will run until March 31 and it marks the beginning of a series of activities held by the Italian Embassy in Jakarta to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Indonesia-Italy bilateral relations.

Italian ambassador to Indonesia Vittoria Sandalli said during a press conference on Tuesday that they had planned other events involving art and culture, mentioning that the Italy: The Beauty of Knowledge exhibition was chosen to introduce a different side of Italy to Indonesians.

While Italy is well-known for its art and culture, the country also made contributions in science and technology. For instance, 50 percent of the pressurized volume of the International Space Station was built by Italian industries and scientists.

Here, at the National Museum of Indonesia, we are proud to present the contributions of Italian research and innovation to the creation of new possibilities [to] enhance social well-being and awareness, both locally and globally, said Sandalli.

Read also: Travel tech companies earn profits from portable modems

Speaking about the exhibition, curator Carla Giusti explained that Italy: The Beauty of Knowledge featured five scientific areas, namely health, environment, space, food and nutrition and cultural heritage.

Each area comprises both past achievements and current technologies, such as replicas of Galileo Galileis telescope and Cosmo Sky-Med, an Earth observation satellite space-based radar system, in a Space area.

Moreover, the exhibition also features other interesting science and technology products, including the Azzurra Robotic Hand and Thumbio.

The former is a robotic hand with sensory and control systems embedded in palm and fingers, while the latter is a bioplastic immobilization bandage made from starch and waste of mozzarella.

These installations came from four science museums in Italy: Fondazione Idis-Citta della Scienza (Naples), Museo Galileo (Florence), Museo delle Scienza (Trento) and Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci" (Milan).

We do not [highlight] a single project, researcher or brand. Instead, we want to tell a story [and] show the process, said Giusti.

She referred to the Cinturato P7 tire by Pirelli, saying that despite it being produced by Milan-based multinational company Pirelli, the tire was an achievement in technology as it was able to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

In regard to the 70th anniversary of Indonesia-Italy bilateral relations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Europe I Affairs director Dino R. Kusnadi said the Indonesian Embassy in Rome would also host several events focusing on Indonesias creative economy, such as fashion, food, handicrafts and small and medium enterprises.

"Italy: The Beauty of Knowledge" is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (wng)
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Linkedin Muthi Achadiat Kautsar (The Jakarta Post) -  Fri, March 8, 2019 17:17 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee811527b 1 Art & Culture Mulyana,Hermes,installation,art,window-display Free

An exciting part of going shopping is checking out window displays and seeing the stores latest offerings or looking for whatever is on sale. Certain stores, however, put a lot of effort into creating artistic window displays to add more value to the experience.

Famed fashion house Hermes, for instance, commissions artists to come up with window displays that attract passersby and shoppers alike. Among the most recent commission by Hermes was a window display at its store at Liat Towers, Singapore.

The commissioned person this time was no other than Indonesian artist Mulyana, who fascinated audiences at last years ARTJOG with a 9-meter-tall and 12-m-diameter diamond shaped installation. Titled Sea Remembers, the installation depicted corals and underwater world with crochet images.

Mulyana told The Jakarta Post in an email that his art installation was a spin on the Hermes 2019 theme, In Pursuit of Dreams.

In response to the theme, Mulyana continues to explore the shape of coral as the home of Mogus, the main character in his work. Mogus itself is a portmanteau of monster, gurita (octopus) and Sigarantang (Mulyanas family name).

In Mogus dream, its ideal house is the colorful coral. However, in reality, many coral are dead because of over-exploitation. The dead coral are represented by the white ones at the right side of the main display window, spread among the colorful coral, said Mulyana of the installation.

Nestled among the coral clusters are a pair of Quicker white sneakers with the Caleche Vitesse and iconic H print, a mens cap and a Toodoo pochette. A Bolide 45 piques the interest of a hand-crocheted lobster, while the Lanterne dHermes sits elegantly on the seabed. (Hermes/Edward Hendricks)

From the home for Mogus, Mulyana also develops his idea further for the installation. He dreams of himself as a musician, using each stitch as musical notes to compose a rhythm to the assembly of the coral dreamscape.

Dreams are perceived as a built-up desire that requires momentum to bring into reality, according to Mulyana. Hence Irama (rhythm) was born, conveying a rhythm that he has composed to help make dreams come true.

Because the success of a rhythm will always be remembered and sung. Just like a dream, it will always be remembered until it can be realized, Mulyana was quoted as saying in a press release from Hermes Singapore.

A first timer in creating a fashion house window display, Mulyana started working on the installation in November 2018, with completion in late February. He went to Singapore to set up the installation, assisted by a technician and knitter from Yogyakarta. Four more people from Singapore, assigned by Hermes, helped Mulyanas team set up.

Hermes [Singapore] saw my work as a solo project that was facilitated by [Singapore-based] Art Porters gallery in Art Central Hong Kong, said Mulyana about the beginning of his encounter with the brand, I hope more brands work with artists.

Read also: Thousands of flowers used to build KAWS sculpture for Dior

Furthermore, Mulyana wrote on Instagram that the installation was to kick off the activities of Mogus Corp in 2019. While he had prepared the installation from the end of 2018 to late February 2019, he was also preparing a solo exhibition in Perth, Australia, in mid-March.

The challenge in working on this commissioned project is presenting the brands collection and our work at the same level of strength, [and] it becomes interesting because the team from Hermes also thinks carefully about which items to display to suit the [window display] theme, wrote Mulyana.

Among the items Hermes chose for the installation were a pair of Quicker white sneakers with the Caleche Vitesse and iconic H print, a mens cap and a Toodoo pochette. Also nestled amid the crochet coral is a Bolide 45 handbag that sits next to a hand-crocheted lobster and a Lanterne dHermes that sits elegantly on the seabed.

The imagery of this underwater universe that Mulyana has created is completed by a range of fashion accessories and Cape Cod timepieces inspired by the houses iconic Ch'ine dAncre motif (Hermes/Edward Hendricks)

In a statement, Hermes also lists a range of fashion accessories, Cape Cod timepieces and a set of Bleu dAilleurs tableware among collections displayed in the installation.

"Irama" (Rhythm) will be on display until May 21 at Hermes Liat Towers, 541 Orchard Road.
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Linkedin Asmara Wreksono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 17:31 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee811633e 1 Entertainment dangdut,Dangdut-Cowboys,dangdut-in-america,dangdut-singer,Rhoma-Irama,music Free

American dangdut band The Dangdut Cowboys, will shake Surabaya, Medan and Jakarta on March 8 -18. The band, which consists of Pitt and CMU faculty, alumni and graduate students, will visit Indonesia as a part of a cultural exchange program sponsored by the United States Embassy in Jakarta.

Founder / vocalist, Andrew N. Weintraub, who is also a professor of music at the University of Pittsburgh and author of Dangdut Stories: A Social and Musical History of Indonesias Most Popular Music (Oxford, 2010), told The Jakarta Post via email that The Dangdut Cowboys feature a diverse set of players.

As The Dangdut Cowboys, we play dangdut mixed with rock, country, blues and reggae. Some of the members play together in other bands. For example, Matt Aelmore and Brian Riordan have a band that plays improvised music. The flute player is one of the worlds foremost baroque flute players [Stephen Schultz]. John Bagnato is a virtuoso jazz guitarist. Samuel Boateng, from Ghana, is our keyboardist, and he plays Ghanaian music. Meghan Hynson [vocals] has studied music of Bali for many years, and teaches Sundanese music.

Read also: The United States of Dangdut: A struggle to 'shake' America

The band, formed in 2007, has been performing dangdut in the US with the aim of introducing the intoxicating music and exuberant dance of dangdut to people everywhere. In their upcoming Indonesia tour, The Dangdut Cowboys will give a TV performance, collaborating with Indonesias biggest names in dangdut on March 15.

We will collaborate with Rhoma Irama and Soneta in a live broadcast on March 15 on Indosiar. The show starts at 7 p.m. or 8 p.m.. Also on the program is Via Vallen, said Weintraub.

The Dangdut Cowboys are also slated to perform at @america, Pacific Place shopping mall, on March 16 with Fitri Carlina.

Although the band has no plans to record an album at this time, Weintraub says theres always the possibility of them writing their own dangdut songs. We havent composed original dangdut songs, but may do that if people like it.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Washington  Fri, March 8, 2019 12:06 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee80fec03 2 Science & Tech Apple,Tim-Cook,Donald-Trump,Tim-Apple Free

Apple chief executive Tim Cook turned into "Tim Apple" on social media Thursday after a slip-up by US President Donald Trump sparked a viral moment on Twitter.

The Twittersphere reacted after a Wednesday White House meeting where the US president thanked "Tim Apple" for the tech giant's investments and job creations.

Cook changed his Twitter display name the following morning, using his first name followed by the Apple icon to get in on the fun.

Read also: Apple's Cook visits world's hottest startup during Beijing trip

Apple CEO Tim Cook has apparently embraced President Trump calling him "Tim Apple" https://t.co/wEPXG5Pcaf pic.twitter.com/QDA6dnRZ6u  Bloomberg (@business) March 7, 2019

Some Twitter users offered other suggestions for the president including Bill Microsoft (Gates), Elon Tesla (Musk) and even George America (Washington).

One user posted an image of Cook speaking with Trump with an apple fruit superimposed over his face, while another wrote "wondering what the heck #PresidentOrange is talking about."

It was not the first time Trump -- who is known for creating nicknames like "Crooked Hillary" -- made a mix-up of this nature.

Last year he introduced CEO Marillyn Hewson of the defense giant Lockheed as "Marillyn Lockheed."
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Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 06:47 1007 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee80f43bd 1 Business Gojek,Grab,unicorn,startup,startup-unicorn,funding,Go-Pay,Grab-Food,Singapore,Indonesia,Nadiem-Makarim Free

Go-Jek and Grab started their businesses by offering ride-hailing services in their respective home countries, taking different steps to attract consumers. Later, they expanded their services and became a duopoly in Southeast Asia.

In their race against each other to become the first "super app" in Indonesia, Go-Jek and Grab are increasingly similar in terms of their features but still noticeably different in their approach to the super-app status.

Go-Jek focuses on pushing financial technology (fintech) with its Go-Pay e-wallet, while Grab concentrates on its GrabFood delivery service.

Go-Jeks emphasis on fintech first became apparent when founder Nadiem Makarim confirmed in late 2017 that Go-Pay would become a spin-off the following year.

The plan is very clear. Go-Pay has an e-money license [from Bank Indonesia]. So our plan is to bring Go-Pay outside of the Go-Jek app, he said.

Nadiem stuck to his word as Go-Pay partnered with nearly 400,000 merchants by December last year with the value of the e-wallets transactions hitting US$6.3 billion.

Go-Pay currently holds the highest share of Indonesias e-wallet market, which is predicted would be worth $25 billion by 2023, according to a recent RedSeer report.

However, Go-Pay precariously maintains its market share by burning through millions of dollars in nationwide cashback schemes to push market penetration beyond Indonesias banked population.

Go-Jek was able to raise $920 million in its latest Series F round to fuel its penetration plans.

If you take Indonesias population, deduct those who are too old to use e-payment, then deduct those who are too young, then youd have about 120 million people who should be banked. They are our target, said Go-Jek head of merchants Ryu Suliawan.

Go-Pay has yet to reveal its current number of active e-wallet customers, but the latest Telkom-Mandiri report estimated the figure at 10 million users in 2017.

Given the target, it was unsurprising when Go-Jek co-founder Kevin Aluwi said last year that Go-Pays other purpose was to gather data on consumers spending, which could then be used to expand his companys financial services.

For this reason, Go-Jek acquired three Indonesian fintech start-ups (Midtrans, KartuKu and Mapan) in 2017 and then acquired the Philippine start-up Coins.ph this year.

Meanwhile, Grab has been crystal clear about its plan to become the countrys  and the regions  leading on-demand food delivery service by the end of this year.

Internal company estimates say the value of Southeast Asias food delivery market would quadruple from $3 billion this year to $13 billion by 2022.

GrabFood itself rapidly expanded operations last year by entering Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam after setting up in Indonesia and Thailand.

Grab Indonesia president director Ridzki Kramadibrata told reporters in Jakarta as early as December last year that the company planned to leverage its 64 percent market share of Indonesias ride-hailing industry to conquer food delivery.

This year alone, the company announced partnerships with five food and beverage chains, including Maxx Coffee, Wendys Indonesia and Baskin Robbins, which expands Grabs network to hundreds of thousands of merchants.

These franchises create either exclusive deals or menus to help Grab attract customers in exchange for consumer behavior insights in the 222 Indonesian cities where GrabFood operates.

However, Grab also burns through money in nationwide promotions, fueled by its latest $2.5 billion Series G fundraising round, to increase market penetration.

The spearhead of Grabs food ambitions is its Kitchen by GrabFood program that allows top-selling GrabFood merchants to open franchises closer to high-demand neighborhoods.

GrabFood regional head Tomaso Rodriguez said the program, which opened its flagship outlet in West Jakarta last year, reduced delivery times by up to 20 percent from an average of 29 minutes to 23.2 minutes within the neighborhood.

We will have several kitchens [around Jakarta] this year. I cannot share the number, but we will go very aggressive on Kitchen because we have seen good traction, he said.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 07:05 1007 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee80f66c2 1 Business automotive-exhibition,iims,BMW,mini-cooper,Harley-Davidson,Shopee,Link-Aja,payment,digital,marketplace Free

Auto distributors promised new models during the Indonesian International Motor Show (IIMS) next month in an effort to boost the growth of car and motorcycle sales this year.

As many as 530,000 people are expected to visit the auto show, which seeks to earn Rp 4.4 trillion (US$311 million) in sales.

The exhibition, scheduled from April 25 to May 5 at the Jakarta International Expo (JIExpo) Kemayoran in Central Jakarta, is to feature at least 14 automobile brands, including BMW, Chevrolet, Mini, Jeep and Nissan, as well as 12 motorcycle brands, including the high-end BMW Motorrad, Harley-Davidson and Husqvarna.

Show manager Rudi MF of PT Dyandra Media International told reporters in Jakarta the organizer expected even more participants as others had shown interest.

Our sales target this year is the same as last year's sales revenue. Hopefully, the figure can go up, he said.

Last years show had 526,431 visitors and recorded Rp 4.4 trillion in sales, he said.

Rudi told The Jakarta Post the high interest by auto distributors to participate in the exhibition indicated that they were optimistic about this years domestic sales of cars and motorcycles.

According to the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo), domestic sales of cars may total 1.1 million units this year, lower than the 1.15 million in 2018. However, this years projection is higher than the 1.07 million recorded in 2017 and the 1.06 million in 2016.

Meanwhile, the domestic sales of motorcycles, according to the Indonesian Motorcycle Industry Association (AISI), may be stagnant at 6.3 million units this year.

Rudi said that as part of the efforts to lure more visitors, the 2019 IIMS was joining hands with two of Indonesia's top players in the digital industry  mobile operator company Telkomsel and Singapore-based mobile-first online marketplace Shopee.

The collaboration with digital-based companies was important as automotive industry players had put more attention on the digital sphere, he said.

"Partnering with the digital companies, we can reach out to new and wider audiences who have never visited our exhibition," he said.

Telkomsel media relations manager Singue Kilatmaka said that by partnering with the IIMS, his company expected to expand its segments of customers.

He said his company aimed to bring digital experiences to visitors to the IIMS through, among other things, LinkAja, a new e-payment platform that integrates Telkomsel's T-cash e-wallet and several other banks' e-money systems.

"The IIMS will be the biggest event to be supported by LinkAja," he said, adding that visitors could use the e-wallet to pay for their food and beverages at the exhibition.

Shopee country brand manager Rezki Yanuar said his company hoped to boost sales in its automotive category by participating in the event.

"The automotive category has grown to become a favorite among online buyers, especially male buyers," he said.

Shopee is to become the IIMS' official e-commerce and exclusive online ticketing partner. Rezki said ticketing would run from March 21 to May 5 on the e-commerce platform.

On top of displaying automotive items for sale, the exhibition would also entertain visitors with a collection of boats and interactive dump trucks. (ars)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 07:13 1007 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee80f74ec 1 Business investment,jewelry,gold,Hartadinata,Euro-Monitor,fashion,lifestyle,design,silver-crafts Free

For 29-year-old Aprilia Ayu Ramadhani, or Lia, jewelry is not merely a collection of accessories, but a lifesaver. When her car broke down recently, requiring millions of rupiah for the repair, she went to a gold store to trade in her jewelry in return for the cash she badly needed.

It may not always be profitable, as the stores would sometimes buy my jewelry at relatively low prices, she told The Jakarta Post recently. However, I can go to the stores whenever I need money in an emergency.

For that reason, she has invested in jewelry since 2009, aside from keeping some of her savings in time deposits.

A [time] deposit is a safe investment product, but I cant withdraw my money any time I want, and bank offices are closed on weekends. Investing in jewelry is more flexible, said the housewife.

Lia said she would take into account the sales value of items before purchasing jewelry, adding that she avoided precious stones, which could lower the sales value.

Investing in jewelry is common among Indonesians, many of whom would buy jewelry to sell in the future instead of keeping it. Aware of this trend, the country's first publicly listed jewelry maker, PT Hartadinata Abadi, announced a plan to expand its retail segment by opening more stores, as the company gains more profit from buying than selling jewelry.

Despite their intention to eventually sell on pieces of jewelry, buyers still pay much attention to design. Lia said she would look at the design of an item before considering its value. She said she preferred simpler designs to match her age and would take inspiration from local celebrities.

Similarly, Sakinah Assegaf, 25, takes into consideration the design of jewelry items, while the sales value, which she claimed was profitable, came second.

Investing in jewelry allows me to save money in style, which is why I always assess the design first, because Id wear it daily, she said.

The director of Singapore-based jewelry maker CW Jewels, Caroline Wihono, noted a shift in the Indonesian market, where people who used to only buy gold for investment now want to turn their gold investment into something they can use to represent themselves.

That shift had prompted the fourth-generation family business, which was founded in Semarang, Central Java, to return to the Indonesian market in 2016, Caroline said.

People are not only investing in monetary terms per se, but in confidence as well, she told the Post during an exclusive showcase in South Jakarta recently.

She said the company had received more requests for colorful gemstones and daring designs in 2018 from the Indonesian market, showing that people in the country had become more conscious of styles. She attributed that shift to the rising use of social media in the country.

Now, in the time of the internet, people are more exposed to whats out there. Indonesia is a country where the people are very social media-minded, and they are easily influenced by what others wear on social media. Therefore, I think the jewelry uptrend will continue, she said.

Caroline said that, to meet growing demand, technology had become an essential part of the jewelry business.

CW Jewels, with a factory in Semarang, Central Java, creates custom-made jewelry using 3D-modelling  which is also the reason for the company to be based in Singapore, which offers more advanced technology than Indonesia, on top of access to the international market.

Caroline voiced her optimism that, with ongoing infrastructure development, her company could expand in its home country of Indonesia.

I foresee this trend escalating in 2019, even 2020, when technology further changes consumption [habits] in Indonesia, she said.

According to an estimate by market research firm Euromonitor International, Indonesia's jewelry market has grown by 13 percent year-on-year to Rp 21 trillion.

The study suggests that demand for fine jewelry made of a combination of gold, silver and other metals may increase by 7.8 percent annually until 2021. (ars)
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Sydney, Australia  Fri, March 8, 2019 16:04 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee810e86a 2 World #Australia,#women,Australia,target,misogynistic,campervan,firm Free

The government on Friday stepped up its campaign against a "misogynistic" campervan firm, branding its notorious fleet of graffiti-clad vehicles vulgar and offensive.

Officials choose International Women's Day to launch the tirade against Wicked Campers, a van hire firm whose spray-painted slogans have long-been a source of outrage on Australian roads.

"We have no tolerance for sexist, misogynistic and offensive slogans on campervans, or those displayed anywhere else for that matter, no matter how hard some try to justify their existence," Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer said in a statement.

The hire firm, popular with backpackers, has long come under fire from politicians and concerned parents, and has been banned or discouraged from festivals.

Australia's Advertising Standards Bureau has for years received complaints about slogans spray-painted on Wicked Campers vehicles.

In January, the bureau found the company breached its code of ethics with an obscene slogan inviting people to masturbate.

And in 2014 the firm was forced to apologise after an online petition drew more than 100,000 signatures protesting a coarse van slogan regarding "princesses".

In 2008 Wicked was subject to criticism over a xenophobic slogan concerning Japan's tradition of whale hunting.

The federal government said Friday it would coordinate a response with state authorities to remove a loophole that allowed the car hire firm to change its vehicle registration to a different state once a complaint had been lodged.

"These vehicles are offensive and belong in a junkyard, not on Australian roads," Transport Minister Michael McCormack said.

"By choosing to avoid these vehicles, youre also choosing to ensure parents or grandparents won't have to explain the vile meaning of these disgusting signs or images to their children or grandchildren while driving on our roads," he said.

Wicked Campers did not respond to a request for comment.
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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Badung, Bali  Fri, March 8, 2019 13:11 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee81075a5 1 National #Bali,#aviation,Ngurah-Rai-International-Airport,reopens,Nyepi Free

I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Badung, Bali, reopened on Friday at 6 a.m., after a 24-hour closure for Nyepi (Day of Silence).

"The airport has been operating normally. All facilities and human resources are 100 percent ready," Arie Ahsanurrohim, head of PT Angkasa Pura I's communications and legal division for Ngurah Rai, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The airport suspended all international and domestic flights for 24 hours on Thursday for Nyepi, starting at 6 a.m. Central Indonesia Time (WITA).

Arie said no emergency landing nor medical evacuations took place on Nyepi, which marks the beginning of a new Hindu year according to the Saka calendar.

The closure affected 468 flights, comprising 261 domestic flights and 207 international flights.

Once the airport reopened, Wings Air flight number IW 1851 from Lombok Airport in West Musa Tenggara was the first aircraft to land in Bali in 24 hours. Meanwhile, the first domestic flight taking off from the airport was Citilink flight QG 663 to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten.

Garuda Indonesia flight GA 897 from Guangzhou, China, was the first international flight to land on Friday. Meanwhile, the first international flight that took off from Bali airport was Cebu Pacific Air 5J-280 to Manila.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 18:31 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee81186e0 4 Business perry-warjiyo,rupiah-against-dollar,weakening Free

Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo has blamed external factors for the rupiahs depreciation to Rp 14,315 per United States dollar on Friday afternoon, according to Bloomberg.

It indicates a further drop from Rp 14,143 per US dollar on Wednesday.

The external factors include the improvement in manufacturing data in the US and slower economic growth in Europe, Perry said, adding that the European Central Bank had also hinted at extending the monetary stimulus, which weakened the euro.

This means the US dollar is strengthening against other world currencies, Perry said in Jakarta on Friday as reported by kontan.co.id.

He added that the price increase of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil as a result of the US sanctions against Venezuela had further pressed the rupiah because oil exporters found difficulties in accessing oil tankers and crews.

Other external factors include increasing geopolitical risks this week because of the failure of the US- North Korea summit to produce a positive result; uncertainty about the future of Brexit and other political events in the world, Perry added.

Meanwhile, the BI chief claimed that domestic economic conditions were good  consumer confidence was high, foreign capital inflow was recorded at Rp 59.9 trillion and the trade balance was also expected to be positive in February. (bbn)
Four US senators seeking the Democratic presidential nomination are rallying around first-term Representative Ilhan Omar amid a backlash over her remarks about Israel that sparked an acrimonious debate in the House this week.

Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand denounced anti-Semitism in separate statements Thursday, while also saying Omar was being unfairly targeted by those who want to muffle criticism of Israels policies.

On a 407 to 23 vote on Thursday, the House adopted a resolution denouncing anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry without mentioning Omar of Minnesota by name. She has apologized for previous comments criticized as anti-Semitic, while defending her right to question US foreign policy.

The Minneapolis-area Democrat, one of two Muslim women elected to Congress in November, reportedly took aim at the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country, referring to Israel. She voted with a unanimous Democratic caucus for the resolution on Thursday.

Rep. Ilhan Omar questioned the State Department's special representative to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, about the US roles in the Iran-Contra scandal and the massacre at El Mozote, at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the situation in Venezuela. #ElliottAbrams #ElMozote pic.twitter.com/v4MRACVMz4  PROGRESSIVES 4 (@Democratic_Rep) February 14, 2019

House leaders had responded to the uproar by crafting a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism. Following a backlash from the partys left flank and Omars defenders, Speaker Nancy Pelosi broadened the measure to denounce white supremacists and discrimination against Jews, Muslims and other groups as "hateful expressions of intolerance" contrary to American values.

A Pew Research poll in January 2018 found a partisan divide over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Democrats sympathies were evenly split between the two sides, having shifted in recent years away from Israel. Republicans sympathized with Israel over Palestinians by 73 points. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced critics at home and abroad who say his hard-line policies are isolating Israel.

An Economist/YouGov poll in September 2018 provided further evidence of a shift. Just 37 percent of Americans described Israel as an ally, compared to 47 percent in 2015. The change was driven by a drop among Democrats and Americans aged 18-29  just 25 percent of both categories described Israel as an ally.

Legitimate Criticism

Sanders, who is Jewish, said Americans mustnt "equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government in Israel."

The Vermont senator called for an "even-handed Middle East policy which brings Israelis and Palestinians together" and added: "What I fear is going on in the House now is an effort to target Congresswoman Omar as a way of stifling that debate. Thats wrong.

Harris of California said the attacks on Omar "may put her at risk" and instead called for a respectful policy debate. "You can both support Israel and be loyal to our country," she said. "I also believe there is a difference between criticism of policy or political leaders, and anti-Semitism."

Warren of Massachusetts called for "an open, respectful debate about the Middle East that focuses on policy" with room for criticizing Israel.

"Branding criticism of Israel as automatically anti-Semitic has a chilling effect on our public discourse and makes it harder to achieve a peaceful solution between Israelis and Palestinians," Warren said in a statement. "Threats of violence -- like those made against Representative Omar -- are never acceptable."

Gillibrand, of New York, decried hypocrisy of the Republican Party, arguing that some Republicans condemning Omar said little or nothing when President Trump defended white supremacists at Charlottesville.

But Gillibrand chided the Minnesotan as well, arguing that Omar and others should be able to express their views without employing anti-Semitic tropes about money or influence.

Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, whos running for president as a moderate, chimed in without defending or mentioning Omar.

She said that members of Congress can have legitimate policy debates about Israel, but there is no place in Congress or our country for anti-Semitic language  just as there is no place for anti-Muslim language and threats of violence.




Argentine dairy co-op seeks to improve export through India and Vietnam

Argentinian dairy co-op Manfrey is looking to boost exports of its products through its venture into India and Vietnam, Co-operative News reported.

Manfrey's president, Ercole Felippa, has toured both countries as part of a delegation promoting smoother international trade, and believes that the contacts made could lead to business opportunities in the short term. That would be possible if Manfrey products are offered at reasonable prices.

Felippa specifically identified "interesting opportunities" to sell powdered and long life milk in Vietnam and dulce de leche - a soft, caramel-like toffee made from milk - in India.

"With these or any other markets, we will be able to generate operations as long as we have competitive prices and can maintain the markets once they are achieved," he said. Felippa added that Mafrey, which has a strong export presence in Argentina's neighbouring countries, is seeking to get back confidence in world markets.

According to Argentine news service Diario La Voz De San Justo, Manfrey has historically exported 20% of its turnover, but that figured dropped to 10% last year.



Felippa said the reason for the drop was "the company's decision to incorporate a long-life milk production line - suddenly, our exportable surpluses were lower."

- Co-operative News
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8 2019

The Downstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Agency (BPH Migas) says a gas network program that connects gas pipelines to households has helped reduce the import of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by Rp 18.08 billion (US$1.28 million) per month in 2018.

BPH Migas tariff regulatory section head Irawan Bayu Kusuma said by connecting gas networks to more households, fewer people would rely on LPG sold in three and 12 kilogram canisters.

We managed to cut LPG imports by 2,831 tons per month, worth Rp 18.08 billion, in 2018, said Irawan in Jakarta on Tuesday. Indonesia still imports 5 million tons of LPG, 60 percent of the countrys consumption.

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Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 17:22 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee81160f0 1 World #2019-elections,2019-legislative-election,legislative-candidates,women-in-politics,women-rights,migrant-workers,#women,#migrant-workers Free

Female legislative candidates from the Jakarta II electoral district, which covers Central Jakarta, South Jakarta and overseas voters, pledged support for the protection of female migrant workers abroad as they realize politics continues to overlook gender-related issues.

Seven female candidates from the Jakarta II electoral district gathered in a public discussion on Sunday held by rights groups Migrant Care, the Indonesian Women's Coalition (KPI) and KAPAL Perempuan to hear their commitment to female rights protection as the April elections draw near.

In male-dominated politics, politicians were still reluctant to talk seriously about womens issues, especially when it did not directly benefit them, legislative candidate from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Nuraini, said at the event held to also celebrate International Women's Day.

Forty-nine female candidates from Jakarta II, along with 56 male candidates, are contesting seven House seats.

Compared to around 800,000 registered voters in Central Jakarta and 1.6 million registered voters in South Jakarta, the 2.05 million registered overseas voters could be a determining factor in winning the Jakarta II electoral district.

The Overseas Election Committee (PPLN) recorded that the largest overseas voter rolls came from countries with large populations of migrant workers, with 558,873 voters registered at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, followed by the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan with 277,065 and the Indonesian Consulate General in Hong Kong with 180,232.

Data from Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), meanwhile, shows that around 60 percent of Indonesian migrant workers are women who work in the domestic sector.

Nuraini said there were many reports of abuse and violations abroad that tended to drag on or were ignored.

That is why the implementation of a 2017 law on the protection of migrant workers must be supervised and controlled, including its implementing regulations, she said in the discussion, which was broadcast online on Facebook.

The law mandated that a set of implementing government regulations (PP) on legal, social and economic protection for migrant workers be issued two years after the enactment of the law in November 2017 to amend the 2004 law.

Yet, until now, the government has yet to set up the implementing regulations to transition from the pro-business 2004 law to the protection-first 2017 law.

The law mandates dozens of implementing regulations, but what we have so far is only Ministerial Regulation No. 18/2018 on social security, Nuraini said.

She was referring to a ministerial regulation regulating social security for migrant workers -- which is provided by the Workers Social Security Agency (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan).

The majority of female migrant workers who work as domestic workers are very vulnerable to discrimination and violence. Some even face the threat of capital punishment. Regulations derived from the 2017 law should be the answers to these problems, Migrant Care executive director Wahyu Susilo said.

In October last year, Indonesian migrant worker Tuti Tursilawati was executed in Saudi Arabia after she was found guilty of murdering her employers father. Following her arrest in 2010, she had reportedly pleaded self-defense amid frequent sexual harassment.

Legislative candidate Christina Aryani from the Golkar Party said the Houses supervisory role meant that lawmakers should push the government to finalize the implementing regulations.

They [the government] have been very secretive with the draft, so until now we have not seen it, let alone learned of it details and which institution will have the lead role in implementing it -- is it the BNP2TKI? And what will be the role of Manpower Ministry in it? she said.

Christina blamed migrant worker exploitation on profit-oriented recruitment agencies that controlled the recruitment process, placement and education.

In addition, Christina said, Indonesia should renegotiate its bilateral agreements on migrant workers with destination countries, such as its agreement with Malaysia, which had expired in 2016. (ipa)
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Linkedin Pierre Pratabuy and Alexandre Grosbois (Agence France-Presse) Lyon, France  Fri, March 8, 2019 09:09 1007 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee80fab34 2 World #France,#sexualabuse,convicted,sex-abuse,cover-up Free

The archbishop of Lyon Thursday announced he was resigning just hours after being handed a six-month suspended jail sentence for failing to report sex abuse in a case that has rocked the French Catholic Church and added to the Vatican's woes.

Philippe Barbarin, 68, is the most senior French cleric caught up in the global paedophilia scandal which Pope Francis, just two weeks ago, vowed to fight in an "all-out battle".

A court in Lyon, in southeastern France, ruled that Barbarin, a cardinal since 2003, was guilty of failing to report allegations of abuse of boy-scouts committed by a priest, Bernard Preynat, in the 1980s and 1990s.

The priest, who was charged in 2016, is expected for his part to be tried this year.

Barbarin, who was not present for the verdict, said he "duly acknowledged the court's decision", but his lawyer said it would be appealed.

He is the third senior French cleric to be found guilty of failing to report sex abuse.

"I have decided to go to see the Holy Father to hand him my resignation. He will receive me in a few days' time," Barbarin told a news conference after the verdict.

"Independently from my own fate, I wish once again to stress my compassion for the victims," he said.

Global movement

His trial came at a time when the Catholic Church has been hit by abuse scandals in countries as far afield as Australia, Brazil, Chile and the United States.

Pope Francis held a special summit on the issue at the Vatican last month during which he compared paedophilia to the "human sacrifice" of children.

Barbarin, an arch-conservative who took over as archbishop in Lyon in 2002, was dubbed "Mr 100,000 volts" by the press for the dynamism he displayed in his campaigns for persecuted Syrian Christians or against gay marriage.

But he has long been accused by victims' groups in Lyon of turning a blind eye to the historic child abuse in his diocese which left dozens of lives blighted.

"I cannot see what I am guilty of," Barbarin told the court at the start of the trial in January. "I never tried to hide, let alone cover up these horrible facts."

In its verdict the court found otherwise, saying the archbishop, "in all conscience", chose not to tell authorities of the abuse allegations "in order to preserve the institution to which he belongs".

"By wanting to avoid a scandal caused by a priest's multiple sex offences, and probably in seeking to conform to inadequate decisions taken by bishops before him, Philippe Barbarin preferred to take the risk that justice would be unable to uncover a great number of victims of sexual abuse and prevent them from voicing their pain," the verdict read.

'Strong message'

Francois Devaux, one of the priest's alleged 85 victims who now heads a victims' support group in Lyon, called the verdict a "major victory for child protection".

"It's a signal, a strong message sent to the French Church, to the world and to Pope Francis," he told reporters.

"It's obvious that this verdict will hugely encourage people to speak out," Devaux added.

But the archbishop's resignation comes "too late for the Church", he said, adding that "the decision should have been taken long ago. And the pope should have taken it."

The archbishop of Strasbourg, Luc Ravel, described Barbarin's conviction as a "thunderbolt".

"This is a thunderbolt again at a moment when the church has already been knocked out by a storm," he said.

Commentators said the case was highly significant.

"The church is no longer a fortress," said Jean-Pierre Denis, editor-in-chief of Catholic Weekly La Vie (Life), adding that it was paying a "heavy price" for failing to deal with paedophile priests.

"Something important is happening... the vice is tightening," added Christine Pedotti, director of Temoignage Chretien (Christian Witness).

The suspended nature of the jail sentence means Barbarin will not serve time behind bars.

His defence lawyer Jean-Felix Luciani said that "the reasoning of the court is not convincing. We will contest this decision by all the means possible".

He also suggested that it had been difficult for the court "to resist pressure" from public opinion which has long been debating the case.

An award-winning feature film by director Francois Ozon about the case has already hit cinemas despite complaints from the priest that it could prejudice his defence.

Five former aides who were also on trial alongside Barbarin were all found not guilty, either because the alleged crimes were too old or unproven.

Two other senior French religious figures have been convicted of failing to report child abuse in the past: the archbishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, Pierre Rican, in 2001, and the former bishop of Orleans, Andre Fort, last year.

The Lyon case broke three years ago when lawyers for nine adult plaintiffs -- former boy scouts -- took legal action against Barbarin saying he should have gone to police as early as 2010 when he spoke to the priest about the allegations.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8 2019

The Tambora Police have revealed a network for selling crystal methamphetamine controlled from the Salemba penitentiary in Central Jakarta, following the arrest of several alleged dealers.

A police crackdown on the network began with the arrest of a suspect identified as YS, 24, on Tuesday, Tambora Police chief Comr. Iver Son Manossoh said. He went on to explain that YS had told investigators he had received the drugs from another suspect, identified as NR. The latter was arrested the following day at a hotel in Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta, where police also confiscated a big brown envelope containing crystal meth.

We found out from NR that he had got the drugs from someone initialed as ADL in the Salemba penitentiary, Iver said on Wednesday, as reported by kompas.com.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 13:47 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee8107de8 4 Business upper-middle-income-country,Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati,cabinet-meeting Free

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that Indonesdia is formulating plans to become a upper-middle income country.

We just presented our development challenges [] for Indonesia to upgrade itself from a middle- to an upper-middle income country, Sri Mulyani said as quoted by Antara.

During the meeting, she elaborated on the macroeconomic and basic fiscal policies for 2020 in front of President Joko Jokowi Widodo, Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Cabinet members.

She said the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) had also presented the Government Working Plan (RKP) and the Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), which will become the foundation to formulate the 2020 state budget.

The issue discussed focused on human resources development, starting from education strategies, health, social safety nets to vocational programs for workers wanting to upgrade their skills.

But it is still in an early phase. So we talked only about the direction it should take, the minister said.

The objective was to create more capable human resources to improve productivity through innovation with the final goal to increase the competitiveness of Indonesian products in the global market, Sri Mulyani added.

She said to improve competitiveness, the government would also find a way to encourage the manufacturing sector to help create a more balanced economic structure with the hope that it would help boost exports to ease the countrys trade deficit.

Sri Mulyani added that a more detailed concept would be presented at the next Cabinet meeting before the government formulates the basic items for the 2020 state budget draft to be presented in the House of Representatives in May. (bbn)
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Linkedin A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 20:38 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee811c1b3 1 City horror,Stories,jakarta Free

Being a bustling modern city does not mean Jakarta is running out of inspiration for horror stories and urban legends, as recently shared on Twitter through the hashtag #JakartaEncounters.

On Friday afternoon, there were at least 220 tweets containing the hashtag, some joining in on the fun and sharing short stories, while others expressed how creeped out they were by them.

Twitter user @christasyd shared her own original short story using the hashtag, tweeting You just finished the ensemble rehearsal for the concert at TIM [Taman Ismail Marzuki arts and culture center]. As you walk out of the hall you bump into a charming man, hair slicked back, asking about the saxophone you're holding. After a fun chat with him you asked him his name. Ismail, he says with a smile. @christasyd tweeted.

You just finished the ensemble rehearsal for the concert at TIM. As you walk out of the hall you bumped into a charming man, hair slicked back, asking about the saxophone you're holding.



After a fun chat with him you asked him his name.



"Ismail," he smiled.#JakartaEncounters  Christa Sydney (@christasyd) March 1, 2019

Another user, @washingtondisy, pitched in, tweeting Kemayoran, 22:45. On my way to Hotel Indonesia for a staycation (after 48 hours of working of course I deserve it) I stopped a taxi, told the driver my directions and now I've arrived. The meter says the rate is only Rp.420. It's cool until I realize something.

Kemayoran, 22:45. On my way to Hotel Indonesia to hv a staycation (after 48 hours of working ofc I deserve it) I stopped a taxi, told the driver my direction n now I'm arrived. The argo says it's only RP.420,00 for my trip. It's cool until I realized something. #JakartaEncounters  disy (@washingtondisy) March 2, 2019

The twitter handler referred to the Rp 420 (0.03 US cents) taxi fare in the 1960s.

Not all users tweeted creepy horror stories, some played with the hashtag to take a comedic turn, such as @anggamawl, who tweeted An old friend whom I haven't heard from for in years asked to catch a movie for old times sake. It was fun, when the movie ended and we went outside, he whispered at me. Bro, I have a new business. You should join, Ill lend you the initial capital and you can pay me back later. #JakartaEncounters #Ponzischeme

An old friend whom i haven't heard from for years asked to catch a movie for old time sake



It was fun, when the movie ended & we went outside, he whispered me..

"Bro, gue ada bisnis baru, join ya, ntar gue modalin dulu, lu ganti belakangan aja"#JakartaEncounters#Ponzischeme  Angga M. Ibrahim (@anggamawl) March 2, 2019

For readers, the hashtag is a fun way to scroll horror stories and urban legends, and especially relatable to those living and/or working in the capital.

A 24-year-old Bekasi resident, Azka Meidiny, who commutes to Jakarta for work, said although the stories might not be entirely true, the stories shared made her feel as though she was experiencing them.

Overall, the [stories] in the hashtag are interesting because writers must write under 240 characters and make it appealing to readers. Some stories also use exciting plot twists, Azka said.

Christa Sydney, 22, started the hashtag after reading stories posted under the #ManilaEncounters and #KLEncounters hashtags on Facebook and Twitter.

She said the recurring themes under the #ManilaEncounters hashtag were based on events in the city such as the Ozone disco fire in 1998, the Pepsi Paloma suicide and Eat Bulaga hosts scandal, while Christa was a bit more familiar with #KLEncounters as she had lived in Malaysia for three years during college before returning to Jakarta as a concept artist.

While with Manila I discovered and learned about a new culture, with KL I felt the chills because I used to live in the city, Christa told The Jakarta Post.

The stories posted under the #JakartaEncounters, although referencing events and places that foreigners might not be familiar with, were in English, or a mix of English and Indonesian.

I debated whether I should write the stories in Indonesian to reach out to local readers but in the end I decided to opt for English because it's more inclusive for our SEA brothers and sisters, as I wanted this to be a cultural exchange of sorts. Christa said.

Some stories were based on real life events. Christa encourages people to contribute by using the hashtag, saying that they could use it to express their social critiques or simply as a way to express themselves.

However, Christa warned that people should not write about suicide just to get more engagement, just as Manilans tweeting on #ManilaEncounters had warned people as some started to tweet about suicide in an encouraging and inappropriate nature.
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Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Kediri, East Java  Fri, March 8 2019

We speak English: People gather in front of a language center in Pare, a district known as Kampung Inggris (English Village) in East Javas Kediri. The United Kingdom, seeking closer ties with Indonesia, recently launched a training program for English teachers in Kampung Inggris.(JP/Agnes Anya)

A simply dressed Nurcholis, who runs his own small noodle stall called Uncle Nur in Pare district in Kediri, East Java, may look like an ordinary noodle seller when he prepares the noodles for his customers.

However Nurcholis appears confident even when talking to British Ambassador to Indonesia Moazzam Malik  an arguably rare scene in Indonesia where English proficiency is lagging behind other countries in the region.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Japan News/Asia News Network) Tokyo, Japan  Fri, March 8, 2019 08:48 1007 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee80f90a4 2 Business #Japan,#Nissan,former,CEO,Carlos-Ghosn,criticism,leadership,Renault-Nissan Free

Nissan Motor Co. has been wary of renewed criticism toward it since its former Chairman Carlos Ghosn was released on bail Wednesday.

Ghosn is said to believe that his arrest was the result of a coup carried out by senior Nissan officials who were against his plan to integrate Nissan and French automaker Renault SA. Its possible he will step up criticism of the Nissan leadership.

Well be in a bind if public opinion is swayed, said a senior Nissan official who couldnt hide his wariness. The official spoke on Wednesday morning as Ghosns release on bail was imminent and apparently feared the coup theory would flare up again.

Ghosn had begun hinting at the integration of Nissan and Renault in the winter of 2017, another senior Nissan official said.

In February 2018, Renault decided to retain Ghosn as its chairman and chief executive officer through 2022. The French government, which is Renaults largest shareholder, reportedly sought Renault to advance its merger talks with Nissan as a condition for accepting the reappointment. A press release on Ghosns reappointment described as one of the priorities: Take decisive steps to make the Alliance irreversible.

Under the three-way Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Motors alliance, Renault holds a 43.4 percent stake in Nissan, while Nissan has a 15 percent stake in the French automaker and a 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi Motors Corp. Nissans global vehicle sales are about 1.5 times greater than Renaults, the reverse of their capital relationship.

Ghosn is said to have envisaged a plan to integrate the three companies by jointly establishing a holding company in an attempt to deter the dissolution of the relationship. He explained the specifics of the plan to Nissan President and CEO Hiroto Saikawa in September last year.

At Nissan, senior officials were among those that strongly opposed the integration plan. Ghosn had planned to explain the proposal to Mitsubishi Motors for the first time during his visit to Japan in November last year, but he was arrested upon arrival. As the arrest came just as he was about to start implementing the plan, he is said to view the situation as a coup by Nissan.

Saikawa has denied the coup theory since the beginning. Several senior Nissan officials have severely criticized Ghosn, with one saying, Apart from the integration, he was engaged in misconduct that is unacceptable for a corporate leader.

Nissans in-house investigations have found cases in which Ghosn made Nissan bear the costs used for his private purposes, including entering an advisory contract with his sister for which there was no evidence of her activities, and acquiring and renovating luxury residences.

With Renault having recently appointed Jean-Dominique Senard as its new chairman, the three companies have confirmed their commitment to maintaining the alliance. On the surface, there have been no evident moves on integration.

The French government, however, sent a delegation to Japan in mid-January and conveyed to the Japanese government its intention to seek the integration of Nissan and Renault. In Paris on Feb. 1, Saikawa held talks in secret with senior French government officials including Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire. Bargaining over the integration continues.

Nissan plans to dismiss Ghosn from the board of directors and appoint Senard as a new director at an extraordinary shareholders meeting in April.

Ghosn was released on bail just as the Japanese automaker was entering a key stage of launching a reborn Nissan. Its likely Ghosn will insist on his innocence while ratcheting up criticism of Saikawa and other Nissan executives. Depending on the public opinion trends at home and abroad, Nissans efforts to build a new management structure might also be swayed
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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 11:22 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee80fdf3f 1 Politics Indonesian-Military,TNI,Joko-Widodo-Maruf-Amin,Prabowo-Subianto-Sandiaga-Uno,2019-presidential-election,#2019GeneralElections,#2019PresidentialElection Free

While no longer in command or leading troops, former military top brass is still seen as very influential in the April presidential election.

The two presidential tickets running in the 2019 election are competing for support from former military generals, with each camp claiming it has stronger backing than the other.

The recent decision of former general Muchdi Purwoprandjono  who is also a former commander of the Armys Special Forces (Kopassus)  to declare his support for President Joko Jokowi Widodo has added to the long list of former military generals taking part in the incumbents coalition.

Three former Indonesian Military (TNI) chiefs  Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Minister Wiranto and former vice president Try Sutrisno  as well as Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, who was Kopassus antiterrorist unit chief, and former Navy chief of staff Marsetio are among the retired generals who have become Jokowi loyalists.

On Feb. 10, Jokowi and his running mate, Muslim cleric Maruf Amin, officially received support from around 1,000 retired military officers, many of whom are generals. The support came just days after the President agreed to provide more civilian posts to active military personnel at government institutions.

The camp of challenger Prabowo Subianto, who is also a former military elite, has claimed that it has more former generals supporting the Gerindra Party chairman. Prominent retired generals backing him include former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, former TNI chief Djoko Santoso, former Navy chief Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno. However, Yudhoyono, who currently leads the Democratic Party, has decided to leave the election campaign to care for his ailing wife.

Prabowo, a former commander of Kopassus, is also backed by several retired members of the elite unit, including Lt. Gen. (ret) Yunus Yosfiah, a former Kopassus captain during Indonesias 1975 invasion of then-East Timor, and Lt. Gen. (ret) Yayat Sudrajat, the former chief of the militarys Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS).

While Jokowis campaign team has claimed that dozens of former generals have thrown their support behind the Presidents reelection bid, Prabowos team claims it has gotten hundreds.

Gerindra deputy chairman and Prabowos stalwart Fadli Zon has proudly claimed that hundreds of retired military generals supported Prabowo.

Hundreds of good generals have joined us [to support Prabowo]. We have many [retired generals] who are experts in intelligence, Fadli said.

Observers say the race is largely influenced by the prominent positions the retired officers currently hold. Years of assignments in various military bases across the country has enabled them to build connections with individuals and local politicians in the regional and grassroots levels, which can be helpful in gathering and securing votes.

Their expertise in intelligence also makes it easier for them to gather information that may be used by the campaigns to formulate political strategies.

I can use and influence my network [to get people to vote for Jokowi], but I dont want to join his campaign team, Muchdi said.

Military expert Khairul Fahmi from the Institute of Security and Strategic Studies (ISESS) said the support from former TNI generals had led to a division in the military institution.

Its kind of a division among the former military elite but not a split. I assume that they have a certain agenda. They want to make sure that whoever wins and becomes president, the government will not harm the interests of the military institution, Khairul said.

He added that retired generals still had a connection with active personnel and therefore could pass the agenda proposed by the TNI.

So, both of the presidential candidates should be careful in responding to the military support to avoid the possibility of reviving militarism in the country, Khairul said.

During Soehartos New Order era, the military possessed dwifungsi (dual role), which enabled military officers to be involved in all aspects of civilian life.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 12:59 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee8105a56 1 National Bolaang-Mongondow,mine-field,collapse,North-Sulawesi,evacuation,SAR Free

The Manado Search and Rescue (SAR) agency has halted rescue efforts for victims who are still trapped beneath the rubble of an illegal gold mine that collapsed in Bolaang Mongondow regency, North Sulawesi.

Eighteen miners have been rescued alive as of Thursday afternoon. Twenty-three bodies have been identified, while one unidentified body and four unidentified body parts have been buried, Antara news agency reported.

The unauthorized gold mine was struck by a landslide on Feb. 26, burying at least 60 miners, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

We halted the evacuation process for the sake of our rescuers safety. Conditions at the site are getting worse, Manado SAR operational director Budi Purnama said in Bolaang Mongondow on Thursday as quoted by Antara.

He added that rescuers, in coordination with mining experts, have found rocks and soil cracks at the location, which suggests that another landslide may occur.

We could see falling rocks, Budi said, adding that continuing evacuation efforts would endanger the lives of rescue officers.

The landslide occurred at night when the mines support beams and planks collapsed on account of unstable soil conditions.

Indonesia has many unauthorized mining sites and safety regulations are routinely violated, especially in rural areas, even though the country has banned small-scale gold mining.

In 2016, 11 miners died after a landslide struck an illegal gold mine in Jambi.

Lack of regulations and the poor construction of jerry-built mines mean accidents are frequent. A lack of employment opportunities in rural areas pushes residents to increasingly rely on illegal mining activities for their livelihood. (das)




Norway seafood export volume in February continues to slide, but value up

Norway's seafood exports in February decreased for the second month in a row this year. On the other hand, February's export value increased, also for the second consecutive month.

According to figures released by the Norwegian Seafood Council, Norway exported 198,700 tonnes of seafood, down 22% or 57,000 tonnes from the same month last year. Value of seafood exports in February was NOK7.8 billion (US$888.1 million), an increase of NOK670 million or 9% compared with February last year.

"February 2019 has been the best ever February for Norwegian seafood exports. This is due, among other factors, to the increased value of salmon exports once again", seafood analyst Ingrid Kristine Pettersen said, adding that volume declines for February is attributed to the lack of catch of capelin.

During the first two months, 406,000 tonnes of seafood were exported with a value of NOK16.4 billion ($1.87 billion) compared with the same period last year.

February exports of salmon, the most important species for Norwegian seafood exports, totalled 80,000 tonnes, up 7% compared with February 2018, while value rose 11% or NOK492 million to NOK5.1 billion ($581 million).

Salmon exports in Jan.-Feb.

In the first two months, 166,000 tonnes of salmon were exported, valued at NOK10.7 billion ($1.22 billion. This is an increase of 4% in volume and an increase of 11% or NOK1.1 billion in value.

The average price for fresh whole salmon in February was NOK58.94 ($6.71) per kilogramme compared with NOK58.34 ($6.64)/kg in February 2018.

Seafood analyst Paul T. Aandahl said the largest emerging markets for salmon in February were Poland, Denmark and Lithuania, where a high proportion of salmon is processed for export to other markets, mainly within the EU.

A total of 8,800 tonnes of fresh cod, including scrap, were exported with a value of NOK356 million ($40.53 million). This is a 33% decrease in volume and a fall of NOK98 million or 22% compared with February last year.

In the two months through February, 13,500 tonnes of fresh cod, including scrap, were exported, valued at NOK583 million ($66.37 million). This is a decrease of 28% in volume and a decrease of 15% or NOK 101 million in value.

Largest importers of fresh cod

Denmark, Poland and the Netherlands were the largest recipients of fresh cod in February.

King crab exports, meanwhile, reached 189 tonnes in February, down 6%, with a value of NOK58 million ($6.6 million), up 7% or NOK4 million.

South Korea, the US and Japan were the largest export markets of king crabs in January.

Norway exported 960 tonnes prawns valued at NOK111 million ($12.63 million) in February. This is an increase of 47% in volume and an increase of 53% or NOK29 million in value against February last year.

The UK, Sweden and Finland were the largest markets for prawns in February.
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Linkedin (Bloomberg) London, United Kingdom  Fri, March 8, 2019 20:23 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee811b472 2 World Brexit,Theresa-May,parliament,European-Union Free

Theresa May appealed to members of Parliament to back her deal or risk seeing Brexit canceled, as she urged the European Union to help come up with a compromise.

Back it and the UK will leave the EU. Reject it and no one knows what will happen, she said in a speech in Grimsby, northern England. We may not leave the EU at all, she said. the only certainty would be uncertainty."

Meanwhile, asked about Prime Minister Theresa Mays effort to shift the Brexit blame onto the European Union, the EU executive in Brussels said it has offered ideas on how to break the impasse over the Irish-border backstop.

You have followed the process of negotiation and talks very closely, so you know that the EU side has offered ideas on how to give further reassurances regarding the backstop, said Alexander Winterstein, a spokesman for the European Commission, the EU executive. Intensive work is ongoing as we speak, he told reporters in Brussels on Friday.

Conservative Brexiteer Andrea Jenkyns said its looking highly unlikely May will get her deal through Parliament next week unless there is movement around the contentious Irish backstop issue.

Speaking to Bloomberg TV, Jenkyns said she still hoped the EU would offer further concessions as the deadline to Brexit day nears, but that the U.K. hasnt been playing its strongest cards.

Weve seen the way the EU operated with Greece. They said they wouldnt give any more money in a bailout and then in the final weekend, the final 24 hours, they came up with something, she said. Its whoever blinks first, and unfortunately weve blinked first every time.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 14:21 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee8109d37 1 National Papua,TPNPB,West-Papua-Liberation-Army,West-Papua,Nduga,Trans-Papua-road,TNI,Indonesian-Military Free

Three Indonesian Army (TNI AD) personnel were reportedly killed during an armed conflict with West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) freedom fighters in Nduga regency, Papua, on Thursday morning.

Papua military spokesman Col. Muhammad Aidi said more than 50 TPNPB personnel had attacked 25 soldiers who were just starting their shift to secure the trans-Papua toll road project in Mugi district. He added that the attacking group had been led by Egianus Kagoya.

The soldiers fought them until they returned to the forest. Three soldiers were killed in the conflict, he said in a statement received by The Jakarta Post.

The three soldiers are Second Sgt. Mirwaiyadin, Second Sgt. Yusdin and Second Sgt. Siswanto Bayu Aji.

Aidi said further said that Army personnel had secured five weapons from the TPNPB following the clash.

They also found the body of one freedom fighter, who is currently being identified.

He estimated at least seven members of the liberation army had been killed in the fight, but their bodies had been taken away by the group.

Last week, the Indonesian Military (TNI) deployed 600 personnel to Nduga from Makassar, South Sulawesi, following an ambush on bridge workers by rebels.

As for Thursdays incident, TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom claimed that his fighters had killed five TNI personnel and all the rebels had survived.

"We have also secured four weapons from the Indonesian army," he said.

Meanwhile, Aidi refuted Sebbys claims, saying they were misleading.

They attacked from the highlands. They wouldnt dare get close to us. In fact, we secured five of their weapons after chasing them, he said.

Sebby said the conflict occurred after eight TNI personnel interrogated a resident of Windi village in Derakma district named Amos Kogeya and later burned five traditional houses. (das)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 19:10 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee811a7c8 4 Business Jokowi,trans-sumatra,Lampung,aceh,connectivity Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo said on Friday that the 2,765 kilometer trans-Sumatra toll road project was expected to be completed in 2024 to connect Lampung on the eastern tip of Sumatra to Aceh on the northern tip of the island.

In June, we hope the trans-Sumatra will reach Palembang, [the capital city of South Sumatra]. It means that we will have constructed 350 km, Jokowi said while inaugurating the operation of the 140.9 km Bakauheni-Terbanggi Bedar toll road, which is part of the trans-Sumatra toll road project.

In December 2018, Jokowi officiated the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Banda Aceh-Sigli toll road in Aceh, which is also part of the trans-Sumatra toll road project.

The President expressed the hope that the newly inaugurated toll road in Lampung would accelerate economic growth in the province. He also believed that the new infrastructure would help boost investment needed by the province to create more jobs.

During the event at the toll gate in Tanjungsari subdistrict, South Lampung regency, President Jokowi was accompanied by First Lady Iriana, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno, Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung and Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi.

Meanwhile, Lampung Governor M. Ridho Ficardo expressed his optimism that the integration of Bakuheni Port with the trans-Sumatra toll road project would provide a boost to economic development in Lampung and other provinces in Sumatra.

Today is a historical event due to the connection of the trans-Sumatra toll road with executive pier [of Bakauheni seaport]. Hopefully, Sumatra will become a new economic growth center after Java, Rudho said as quoted by tempo.co when accompanying President Jokowi at the event.

He particularly hoped that it would boost investment in South Lampung, both in the manufacturing industry and tourism. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Beirut, Lebanon  Fri, March 8, 2019 19:07 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee8119d79 2 World #Egypt,#SexualViolence,transgender,Sexualviolence,Egypt Free

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty have warned that a young transgender woman arrested in Egypt is at risk of "sexual violence" and abuse.

Malak al-Kashef, 19, was arrested this week on charges of joining a "terrorist" group and misusing social media to commit a crime with the aim of disrupting public order, her lawyer Amr Mohamed said.

"The state security prosecution ordered Malak al-Kashef to be detained 15 days pending investigation," Mohamed said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

Amnesty said her arrest appeared to be linked to her calls for a protest following a crash at Cairo's main train station that killed least 22 people.

Kashef's lawyers have been unable to locate her, it said, expressing fear that the trans woman was at risk of "sexual violence and torture".

"Egyptian authorities have a horrific track record of persecuting people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity," said Amnesty International's Magdalena Mughrabi.

Kashef, who is still registered as male on her ID card, is being held alone in a cell, according to a security source.

"She is not in custody with either men or women," said the source without providing details on her whereabouts.

Neela Ghoshal, a senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, also said the group was "deeply concerned about the well-being" of Kashef.

The activist earned wide attention in February 2017 after speaking openly on a popular Egyptian talk show.

In online posts, she has also chronicled cases of harassment by family members and in public after having transitioned from male to female.

In conservative Egypt, homosexuality is not explicitly banned but authorities regularly crack down on suspected LGBT people under a "debauchery" law, drawing condemnation from right groups.

In January, an Egyptian court sentenced a television host to one year in prison for interviewing a gay man last year.

Egypt's top media body issued a decision "banning the appearance of homosexuals or promotion of their slogans" after the rainbow flag symbolic of the LGBT community was raised at a Cairo concert in 2017.

The previous year a court rejected a trans individual's request to change name and gender on the ID card.
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Linkedin Dyaning Pangestika (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8 2019

Walk this way: Activists from womens grassroots communities from 34 provinces across the country walk to the State Palace to meet with President Joko Jokowi Widodo on Wednesday. The meeting, titled Strengthening the Nation Together, was held to commemorate International Womens Day, which falls on March 8.(JP/Seto Wardhana)

More and more women are moving to the front lines of the nations development, taking up leadership roles in areas traditionally dominated by men such as engineering and peacekeeping.

The construction director and the head of railway engineering for the Jakarta MRT mega infrastructure project are both women, Silvia Halim and Tengku Alia Sanda.

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Linkedin Xiao Qian (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, March 9 2019

I have been closely connected with Islam for much of my life. In my hometown Taiyuan, the capital city of Shanxi province, there is a famous mosque called the Taiyuan Ancient Mosque, which dates back over 1,300 years. It is now a key cultural relic site under state protection. My family lives right next to it.

Many of my neighbors, classmates and friends were Muslims. After I joined the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing, I met many Muslim colleagues, one of them is the current Chinese Ambassador to Bahrain Mr. Anwaer, an Uighur Muslim.

There are over 20 million Muslim believers, 57,000 clerical personnel and 35,000 mosques across China. As stipulated in the Constitution, all Chinese citizens enjoy the freedom of religious belief.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, March 9 2019

Coming home: Members of the Indonesian Military carry the coffin of Second Sgt. Mirwariyadin, which arrived at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Air Base in Bali on Friday. Mirwariyadin was killed in a recent clash with an armed rebel group in Mugi, Nduga regency, Papua. His body will be flown to his hometown in West Nusa Tenggara.(Antara/Fikri Yusuf)

Three Army personnel were reportedly killed during clash with West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) fighters in Nduga regency, Papua, on Thursday morning.

Papua military spokesman Col. Muhammad Aidi said more than 50 TPNPB personnel had attacked 25 soldiers who were just starting their shift to secure the trans-Papua toll road project in Mugi district. He added that the attacking group had been led by Egianus Kagoya.

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Kuala Lumpur  Fri, March 8, 2019 15:15 1006 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee810bec2 2 SE Asia murder,Malaysia,model,Kuala-Lumpur Free

A Dutch model found dead after falling naked from a Malaysian apartment may have been involved in a struggle before she was killed, a coroner said Friday, but ruled no crime had been committed.

Ivana Smit fell from the 20th floor Kuala Lumpur condominium of an American man and landed on a sixth floor balcony in December 2017 after a night out.

The sensational death drew huge amounts of attention after lurid claims emerged that 18-year-old Smit, the American and his Kazakh wife consumed large quantities of drugs and alcohol and had group sex.

Police initially said there was no foul play but authorities agreed to an inquest after pressure from the family of Smit, who had reportedly lived in Malaysia since she was a child.

Handing down her ruling, Coroner Mahyon Talib acknowledged there may have been a struggle between Smit and the couple, businessman Alex Johnson and his wife Luna.

"Grip marks on her arm, the trauma at the back of her head, the broken bottles and (American man) Alex's DNA under Ivana's nails suggest that there might have been a possibility that there was a struggle," she said.

The couple are reported to have left the country.

The coroner also agreed with a Dutch pathologist, who had concluded Smit died before her body was found on the sixth floor balcony.

But she ruled no one was criminally involved in causing the model's death.

"We cannot know what actually happened between the three of them," the coroner said, adding that the death was being classified as "misadventure", meaning it was likely an accident.

Lawyer S. N. Nair, representing Smit's family, criticised the ruling, questioning how the coroner had accepted that Smit was likely killed in the apartment and then concluded the death was "misadventure".

"How is it that her body was eventually found at the bottom of the condominium -- surely a dead body can't walk over and take a dive? Somebody threw her body down," he told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur court.

"I am not satisfied with the verdict."
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 8, 2019 10:07 1007 dcc1aefb9780f102b77c720ee80fb4d8 1 News Sabang,aceh,Banda-Aceh,tourists,travel,tourism,foreign-tourists Free

Up to 29,827 foreign tourists reportedly visited Sabang Island throughout 2018, a significant increase from 2017 when only 2,981 people visited, according to Sabang Culture and Tourism Agency data.

"The foreign tourists were especially attracted to marine destinations that are spread across the National Tourism Strategic Areas [KSPN]," said agency head Faisal as quoted by kompas.com.

The sea route between Sabang and Banda Aceh is currently being served by two roll-on-roll-off (RoRo) ferries that together do six trips per day.

From Sabang to Banda Aceh the scheduled trips depart at 7:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Meanwhile the return trips start at 7:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Read also: Sabang prepares land for international airport

"KMP BRR [the Banda Aceh-Sabang ferry] can accommodate 450 passengers, 25 cars and 100 motorcycles. Meanwhile, the capacity of KMP Tanjung Burang [the Sabang-Banda Aceh ferry] is for 200 passengers, 15 cars and 60 motorcycles," said Faisal.

The foreign tourists are said to especially enjoy snorkeling off Rubiah Island and diving in the Iboih area of Suka Karya during their trips to Sabang. Meanwhile, other popular destinations are the white sandy beaches of Iboih and Sumur Tiga.

"The Indonesia Zero Kilometer Landmark and several Japanese caves are also often crowded with foreign tourists," added Faisal. (kes)
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Poland gains positions as a textile hub. The country advanced its first meters in the race for proximity sourcing due to its geographical position, the modernization of its industry and its low wages, below those of other countries in the European Union.

The Polish fashion exports have soared by 21% in three years. In 2018, the countrys sales to the European Union amounted to 11.39 billion euros, while in 2016, the figure was 9.4 billion.

Traditionally, the Polish fashion industry operates with its own fashion brands, which were affected by the entry of international competition after Poland became a member of the European Union in 2004.

Poland increased the import of clothing machinery to strengthen its textile industry and it has become Germanys main customer

It was at that time when the sector began a process of modernization thanks to which the country managed to carve a niche in proximity sourcing. Its advantages are price, geographic position and development of the industry.

Poland is, in fact, the main destination of German clothing machinery sales to foreign markets, according to the German industry association, VDMA. German machinery exports to Poland exceeded 30 million euros in 2015 and reached 90 million a year later. In 2017, the amount was reduced to 80 million euros.

The transformation process of the textile industry in Poland began in 2010, when 260 million zlotys (60.4 million euros) were allocated to the modernization of the production of yarns and fabrics and another 170 million (39.5 million euros) to the development of the clothing manufacture. The investments were possible thanks to the support of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), according to a report by ICEX.

Poland has a privileged position regarding logistics, since it is located in the center of Europe and next to Germany

In parallel, a reduction in wages has also taken place, especially in workshops. At present, wages are close to 2,659 zlotys (618 euros) per month.

Poland has also another advantage that goes beyond wages, explains Juan Manzanedo, CEO at Logisfashion. In terms of logistics, the country has a privileged geographical situation, because it has Germany as neighbor, the main consumer market in the European Union, points out the manager.
21 horses dead in 2 months at famous California race track

CALIFORNIA: Santa Anita has suspended racing indefinitely after officials confirmed a 21st horse has died at the California racetrack, fuelling fresh safety concerns at the fabled course over the spike in fatalities.



By AFP

Friday 8 March 2019, 09:55AM

Protesters at the famous Santa Anita race track in Arcadia, California, where 21 horses have died in the past two months. Photo: AFP

The Daily Racing Form and Bloodhorse websites reported that Santa Anita officials decided late Tuesday (Mar 5) to halt racing while safety consultant Dennis Moore examined the facility.

Four-year-old filly Lets Light the Way, trained by Ron McAnally, was euthanised after pulling up with a shattered sesamoid, a bone at the horses ankle joint.

Its the 21st horse fatality suffered in racing or training at Santa Anita, outside Los Angeles, since December 26.

Daily Racing Form cited Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of Santa Anita owners The Stronach Group, for the decision to cancel racing.

Bloodhorse cited California Thoroughbred Trainers president Jim Cassidy for news of the shutdown.

Racing had been set to resume Friday.

Cassidy said training on the main track and training track also stopped.

Hours after the latest fatality was revealed, Santa Anita announced it had retained Moore as a consultant as an precautionary measure with regard to the condition of the one-mile main track.

Moore, 69, has more than 46 years of experience working with racing surfaces worldwide. He served as Santa Anita track superintendent from 2014 until his retirement at the end of 2018.

Earlier Tuesday, another horse was involved in a scare, with nine-year-old Vyjack pulling up following a five-furlong workout.

The eight-time winner was taken from the course in a van but later returned to trainer Phil D'Amatos stable.

The California Horse Racing Board said the issue of the Santa Anita fatalities would be addressed by the board following the death of Lets Light the Way.

Santa Anita was closed for two days last week after Breeders Cup winner Battle of Midway suffered a fatal injury during a workout.

A track safety expert from the University of Kentucky was brought in to search for possible irregularities which might explain the spike in fatalities.

The course reopened after being given the all clear, only for a 20th fatality to occur with the filly Eskenforadrink breaking down during a race and later being euthanised.

Hall of Fame trainer McAnally told Daily Racing Form that the unusually wet weather that has deluged California this year may be responsible for the crisis.

To me, its the weather that is causing these breakdowns, McAnally said. This is the first one Ive had (this winter).

The rash of fatalities has led to calls from animal rights activists for the track to be closed for good. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called for trainers and veterinarians of horses involved to be investigated.

Twenty dead horses is 20 too many and the only responsible action is for the track to close immediately to stop this spiral of deaths, PETA senior vice president Kathy Guillermo said in a statement on Sunday.

The California Horse Racing Board and Santa Anita must do this now, and law enforcement must begin an immediate investigation of trainers and veterinarians to find out if injured horses were being forced to run.

Santa Anita is one of the most famous tracks in US horse racing and will stage the Breeders Cup this year from November 1-2.
Constitutional Court disbands Thai Raksa Chart party for princess nomination

BANGKOK: The Constitutional Court has unanimously ordered the dissolution of the Thai Raksa Chart party for nominating Princess Ubolratana as its prime ministerial candidate, citing customary law.

Friday 8 March 2019, 08:54AM

Executives of the Thai Raksa Chart party enter the Constitutional Court to hear the ruling on the partys fate on Thursday (Mar 7). Photo: Bangkok Post

As a result of the party dissolution, the court decided 6-3 to ban TRCs 14 executives as of Feb 8 from running in elections for 10 years.

It also unanimously banned TRCs executives from setting up parties or becoming executives of other parties for 10 years.

The EC earlier decided the party had violated the election law by committing an act which may be deemed hostile to the monarchy when it nominated Princess Ubolratana, the elder sister of His Majesty the King, as its prime ministerial candidate. The EC acted by the constitution which requires it to ask the court for the disbandment after it found the party had broken the election law.

The court said almost all constitutions stipulated the king and the royal family of the ranks of mom chao or higher must be politically neutral. Entering politics undermines that position, which could lead to the end of the institution, it said.

TRCs action could undermine the institution because the princess is the eldest child of late King Bhumibol Adulyadej and a sister of His Majesty the King. By bringing her to politics for its advantage, the party ignores a fundamental value of the rule of constitutional monarchy and puts the institution at risk. Its action is deemed hostile to the rule of constitutional monarchy, a judge said.

Although TRC has the right and freedom to do so, their action must not have an adverse effect or undermine the rule of constitutional monarchy or compromise the political neutrality of the monarchy, the court said.

The ruling, which is final and binding, was delivered at the court on Chaeng Wattana Road in Bangkok on Thursday afternoon amid 1,000-strong security in a 500m radius.

The princess, who is in Berlin for the ITB2019 travel trade show, posted on Instagram before the ruling: Today, I would go ahead and continue to work for Thailand.

TRC leader Lt Preechapol Pongpanich said after the ruling he and other party executives were deeply saddened.

No matter what status were in, well do something good for the country, he said.

The EC submitted the case to dissolve TRC to the court on Feb 13 after TRC nominated the princess on Feb 8.

Earlier, some non-executive TRC MP candidates asked the court to take into consideration their right to run in the upcoming election since a party dissolution ruling deprives them of the right to run even though they had nothing to do with the decision.

A high-ranking EC official earlier said if the party was disbanded, the candidacy of all of its 282 MP candidates would be automatically invalidated in the March 24 election. Any votes they may get on that day will be treated as bad ballots.

Thammasat University vice-rector Prinya Thaewanarumitkul said on Wednesday a TRC dissolution was unlikely to change the political landscape since people who would vote for anti-regime TRC were unlikely to turn to support a pro-regime party and many made voting decisions based on who they wanted to see as prime minister.

TRC, an offshoot of the Pheu Thai party, announced on Feb 8  the deadline for the submission of prime ministerial candidates to the EC, Princess Ubolratana as its only prime ministerial candidate.

But at around 10pm the same day, His Majesty the King issued an announcement saying the nomination was highly inappropriate and close members of the royal family are above politics by tradition and must be politically neutral.

Princess Ubolratana resigned from the royal family after she married an American. She had lived in the United States before returning to Thailand in 2001 after they divorced.

Read original story here.
Divers search for mentally unstable man who jumped off Thao Thepkasattri Bridge

Phuket: Marine police and divers have yet to find a man who jumped off of Thao Thepkasattri Bridge on Thursday (Mar 7).

marinepolicesuicide

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Friday 8 March 2019, 11:38AM

Rescue teams searched the vicinity for four hours before halting the search to resume the following morning. Photo: Nattaphong Kongkim

Rescue teams searched the vicinity for four hours before halting the search to resume the following morning. Photo: Nattaphong Kongkim

Rescue teams searched the vicinity for four hours before halting the search to resume the following morning. Photo: Nattaphong Kongkim

The man parked the motorbike on the bridge before jumping into the sea. Photo: Nattaphong Kongkim

Khok Kloi Police in Phang Nga were notified at 1:47pm yesterday that a man had parked his motorbike on the bridge and jumped off.

Police officers arrived at the Phuket-bound bridge between Phuket island and Phang Nga mainland with rescue workers and divers and found a Phuket registered blue Honda motorbike with a helmet on its seat.

Despite a four-hour search, they were unable to find the man. The search was halted at 6pm due to diminishing visibility and was scheduled to be resumed this morning.

Gen Jirasak Siamsak, Chief of Khok Kloy Police, reported that two bottles of drinking water and a sandwich were found in the basket of the motorbike and a black slipper was found nearby.

CCTV footage from the bridge shows that a man wearing a light-green shirt parked his motorbike and sat on the wall on the edge of the bridge before jumping into the sea, Gen Jirasak said.

Divers and rescue workers used boats to search the sea but did not find the man.

Police traced the motorbike to Mr Yan Jokthong who is the father of the man believed to have jumped into the sea.

Mr. Yan from Rassada, Phuket, told police that his son, Mr Winai Chokthong, 37, suffers from mental health issues.

Mr Winai left the house on the motorbike at 10am (Mar 7). His phone was out of service, Mr Yan explained. He liked to be left alone and did not interact with family much.

Mr Yan confirmed that the slipper found on the bridge did, in fact, belong to his son. He had written a letter, left at home, that the family could not understand.

One of the witnesses on the bridge, Mr Sawai Phaisuwan, told police that whilst fishing, he noticed a man in a green shirt floating on the surface of the sea. He said it did not look like the man was in trouble as he was not calling for help.

I thought the man was just swimming, Mr Sawai said. So I did not pay much attention to him and he eventually disappeared out of sight.

The search resumed this morning.
Electoral Commission branded biased failure in independent review

BANGKOK: The Open Forum for Democracy Foundation (P-Net) claims the Election Commission (EC) has not fulfilled its work requirements in its first six months in office.

corruptionpolitics

By Bangkok Post

Friday 8 March 2019, 09:10AM

Ittiporn Boonpracong, chairman of the Election Commission, rated a failure by P-Net in ensuring a free and fair vote on March 24. Photo: AFP

P-Net said the EC has failed to demonstrate a strong sense of responsibility, confirm it is not being influenced by any political party, or show it intends to ensure free and fair elections.

Moreover, it has only forwarded one of many complaints lodged with it against political parties to the Constitutional Court, P-Net said.

This was an apparent reference to the courts decision on Thursday (Mar 8) to disband Thai Raksa Chart for nominating Princess Ubolratana as its prime ministerial candidate  a political gambit that spectacularly backfired.

P-Net also accused the EC of ignoring a request to seek a court interpretation as to whether Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is a state official. The Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) has nominated Gen Prayut as its prime ministerial candidate, but state officials cannot be nominated.

The EC has said it expects the PPRP case will take a long time to resolve.

P-Net also accused the EC of failing to spend the state budget wisely.

The EC spent B12 million on overseas study trips at a time when it was needed in Thailand to prepare for advance voting, which will take place on March 17, and the election proper on March 24, P-Net said.

EC secretary-general Jarungvith Phumma rebutted the criticism Thursday, saying the B12 million was to support overseas voting and not for the trip alone.

The Department of Consular Affairs asked the commissioners to inspect overseas voting arrangements in their countries, he said.

He stressed it was not a study trip and said the EC would return before March 17.

The commissioners can convene teleconferences and use their laptops to stay in contact while they are so far away from home, Mr Jarungvith said.

Read original story here.
Police reveal new suspect in Chinese tourist tuk-tuk attack

PHUKET: A police investigation has revealed that the tuk-tuk driver accused of attacking a Chinese tourist on Feb 27 was not the one who carried out the assault.

crimepatongpoliceChineseviolence

By Waranya Prompinpiras

Friday 8 March 2019, 01:59PM

One of the women sustained a cut above her left eyebrow in the attack. Photo: Sonpol Watsang

One of the women sustained a cut above her left eyebrow in the attack. Photo: Sonpol Watsang

The four women ended up getting a taxi back to their rented villa in Cherng Talay. Photo: Sonpol Watsang

The investigation by Patong Police discovered that the assailant was, in fact, another man who became aware of the dispute in Cherng Talay.

Patong Police Chief Col Anotai Jindamanee told The Phuket News, The Chinese female tourist who was assaulted did not come to Patong Police Station to file a complaint. She returned to China later the same morning.

The incident, which occurred in the early hours of Wednesday Feb 27, involved four female Chinese tourists, one of whom was physically assaulted by a tuk-tuk driver when an argument broke out after the tourists were driven from Patong to Cherng Talay. (See story here.)

Col Anotai told The Phuket News, Following the investigation, we know that an argument broke out between the tourists and the driver of their tuk-tuk over the fare.

But that tuk-tuk driver did not assault the tourists. Another man who witnessed the dispute became angry and got involved, assaulting one of the tourists.

Col Anotai confirmed that the investigation is ongoing as police gather enough evidence to bring appropriate charges to the assailant.

I have ordered Patong Police to coordinated with Thalang Hospital in obtaining a medical certificate for the tourist who was attacked in order to establish details of her injuries, he explained.

I expect to receive the medical certificate soon.

Once I have the certificate, I will decide on the appropriate charges to bring to the assailant. Col Anotai added.

The police chief declined to provide details about the new suspect or the tuk-tuk driver.
Safety zone at Phuket Airport to be implemented

Phuket: A safety zone around Phuket International Airport where locals and tourists go to take selfies under landing planes will be implemented following a meeting held by officials on Wednesday (Mar 6) amid safety concerns.

transporttourismSafety

By The Phuket News

Friday 8 March 2019, 03:44PM

A meeting was held at Phuket International Airport to discuss safety concerns over rising beachgoers in the area. Photo: Phuket PR

An aerial view of the runway and adjacent beach by Phuket International Airport. Photo: Phuket PR

The beach by the Phuket International Airport runway has become very popular among locals and tourists. Photo: Phuket PR

Phuket Vice Governor Prakob Wongmaneerung presided over a meeting held at Phuket International Airport in which it was decided that a safety zone around the runway would be implemented in due course  an area that has come to be known as unseen Phuket.

The attraction was brought to the attention of authorities as its popularity has increased significantly of late.

At the meeting, Deputy Director of Phuket International Airport, Wichit Kaewsaithiam, referred to requirements of The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in applying strict safety rules around airports.

Mr Wichit said, Whilst we want to maintain tourism revenue in the area, it is important that we ensure the safety of the planes as well as visitors to the beach.

People will be able to take photos from the beach further away from the runway. This way people can enjoy the beach without compromising safety.

The relevant departments will work together to establish the exact safety zone soon, Mr Wichit added.

The meeting also addressed concerns about people flying drones near the airport as well as shining laser pointers at planes.

Such acts threaten the safety of planes and we call on locals, business owners and tourists not to fly drones or shine laser pointers in the sky within nine kilometres of the airport, Mr Wichit stressed.

Anyone caught doing so faces punishments under the Air Navigation Act which carries a maximum sentence of death, he warned.
Fritz hired as development director as Harmony Hill campaign begins

Kelli Fritz has been named Development Director for The Village of Harmony Hill.
RTHK: Theresa May asks EU to give ground

Prime Minister Theresa May called on the European Union on Friday to make "one more push" to get the Brexit deal over the line in time for the Britain's exit from the bloc in three weeks.

The beleaguered British leader's request for an additional concession from Brussels comes with Britain on the brink of hurtling out of the EU after 46 years with very few arrangements in place.

The British parliament is set to vote Tuesday on May's existing deal with Brussels after rejecting it by a historic margin last month.

But last-gasp negotiations between UK and EU envoys ended in acrimony on Wednesday and May still lacks the assurances she has been after from Brussels to get her deal through.

May told an audience of factory workers in the Lincolnshire port of Grimsby that Britain may never split off from the other 27 nations if Brussels failed to help her now.

The deal "needs just one more push to address the final, specific concerns of our parliament," May said in prepared remarks.

"So let's not hold back. Let's do what is necessary for MPs to back the deal on Tuesday," she said.

"Because if MPs reject the deal, nothing is certain. It would be at a moment of crisis."

The deal is stuck on the so-called "backstop" solution that London and Brussels have come up with to keep the Irish border open with Britain's Northern Ireland -- a province of past sectarian violence.

Some lawmakers in May's Conservative Party fear that the arrangement will keep Britain trapped long-term in a customs union with the EU.

May wants a written guarantee from Brussels that this will not be the case. EU officials say the backstop must stay in place until a new trade deal is signed -- no matter how long that takes.

EU ambassadors were to meet in Brussels on Friday to discuss how they might proceed ahead of next week's crucial events in London.

May has scheduled a potential series of votes that could include one on Thursday asking the EU to grant London an exit day delay.

But May said such a deferral would create "continuing uncertainty" that ruins the business climate and potentially leads to Brexit never happening.

A delay would only lead to "more months and years arguing. If we go down that road, we might never leave the EU at all," May said.

"That would be a political failure. It would let down the more than 17 million people who voted to leave the EU and do profound damage to their faith in our democracy."

Grimsby ran the world's largest fishing fleet in the 20th century but has seen its prosperity fall after Britain joined the European communities and signed up to the Common Fisheries Policy.

Some 70 percent in the surrounding area voted in favour of Britain leaving the EU in 2016.

May's decision to visit the region on Friday highlights her government's efforts to remind Conservative MPs of the backlash they might face from voters if they failed to deliver Brexit on time.

Top members of May's team have spent recent days delivering stark warnings about Britain never leaving and the complications this would create for the EU.

"This is a moment of change in our relationship between the UK and the EU and history will judge both sides very badly if we get this wrong," Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told BBC radio.

"We know what it would take to get a deal through the House of Commons, and it is for a significant change that would allow the (UK government) to say we couldn't be trapped in the customs union for ever," said Hunt.

"That's not an unreasonable ask." (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2019-03-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.


By The Federalist , March . 07, 2019





This week, the Democratic Party was unable to pass a watered-down, platitudinous resolution condemning anti-Semitism, due to fierce backlash from presidential candidates, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and the now-powerful progressive base. Rather than censuring Rep. Ilhan Omar, the intellectually frivolous, Hamas-supporting freshman representative from Minnesota, she was rewarded and inoculated from party criticism.





More consequently, the Democrats deemed Protocols of Zion-style attacks a legitimate form of debate. Thats because Omar, despite what you hear, has repeatedly attacked Jews, not only Israel supporters, and certainly not only specific Israeli policies.

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To close their Paris concert earlier this week U2 brought out Patti Smith to perform their 1987 hit, 'Mothers of the Disappeared'.

Bono and Patti Smith swap lead vocals and she adds lyrics in from her 1988 single 'People Have the Power'.

This isn't the first time Patti Smith has joined U2 on stage, in December 2015 she joined them to perform portions of 'People Have the Power' during their show in Paris and also in London earlier that year.

The Paris show was U2's last stop on their tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their iconic, multi platinum album 'The Joshua Tree'.

They start the North American leg of their tour on September 3rd in Detroit.
In the winter of 1977, The Rolling Stones were in Toronto for a set of 'secret shows.'

In late February, Keith Richards was found with large amounts of drugs in his possession and the incident made international news. There was also a possibility that he could be getting for an extended jail sentence.

However, the rest of the band had been practising in Toronto, and their cover was set to be blown.

Many months earlier, vocalist Mick Jagger and manager Peter Rudge had set up a series of secret shows at Toronto's El Mocambo Club. Their idea was to use some of the live recordings for a forthcoming concert album.
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OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland applauded Friday a bipartisan American political effort backing Canada in its fight with China over its detention of Huaweis chief financial officer.

Freelands remarks  in an email to The Canadian Press  came hours after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a Beijing news conference his country would take all necessary measures to defend Chinese companies and citizens abroad against deliberate political suppression.

The latest round in Canadas diplomatic dispute with China came as a new poll was released Friday by the University of British Columbia that cast new light on the deterioration of Sino-Canadian relations since the Meng affair.

Meng is wanted in the U.S. on fraud related charges in connection with violating sanctions on Iran  allegations China angrily dismisses as a politically motivated attack.

The U.S. Senate foreign-relations committee introduced a measure this week that commends Canada for arresting Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver to fulfil an American extradition request.

The joint Republican and Democratic effort recognizes Canada for upholding the rule of law and expresses concern over actions by China in response to the U.S. request. It calls on China to release Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who were jailed by Beijing authorities following Mengs arrest.

Canada appreciates these bipartisan efforts in the U.S. Senate to pass a resolution echoing our call for the release of Mr. Spavor and Mr. Kovrig and recognizing Canadas respect for the rule of law, Freeland said.

Freeland also noted that Canada appreciates the support of Australia, the European Union, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and NATO, who have spoken in support of these detained Canadians and the rule of law.

Freeland has been working behind the scenes with American lawmakers to court their support for the resolution, say sources familiar with her efforts, but who were not authorized to speak for attribution about them due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Last month, Freeland lobbied Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham at the Munich security conference in Germany, and she pressed the issue with Democratic lawmakers in Washington as well, sources say.

Canada has provided consular access and due process for Ms. Meng. It is only right for the Senate to join Canada in expressing concern over arbitrary detention and mistreatment of Canadian nationals by the Chinese government, said Republican Sen. Jim Risch, the chair of the committee.

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Bob Menendez, heartily concurred.

I commend Canada for its commitment to transparency and upholding the rule of law and its willingness to do the right thing in the face of significant and unjustified pressure from the Chinese, said Menendez. In contrast, Chinas actions in seizing Canadian nationals in an apparent act of political retaliation, subjecting them to what appears to be arbitrary detention and mistreatment should be deeply troubling to all members of the international community.

The Chinese ambassador to Canada has warned the Trudeau government not to court international support against it, saying that would only worsen tensions.

Freeland responded to the American support after a visibly angry Wang gave a defiant answer at a Beijing press conference about Huawei.

Recent actions against specific Chinese enterprises and individuals are not simply judicial cases, but deliberate political suppression, said Chinas foreign minister.

We also support companies and individuals using legal weapons to protect their rights and interests and not to be silent lambs, he added, raising his right hand into a fist.

During a spring 2016 press conference at the headquarters of Canadas foreign ministry in Ottawa, Wang berated a Canadian reporter  angrily pointing a finger at her  for asking him an irresponsible question that was full of prejudice about his countrys human-rights record.

Fridays friction was reflected in the results of a poll released by the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at UBC which surveyed 1,161 respondents between Feb. 4 and 19, with a margin of error of 2.9 per cent. The Qualtrics survey asked the same questions as in 2017 and 2018 and found that only 22 per cent of Canadians had a favourable image of China, down 14 points.

Respondents also expressed low satisfaction with how the government tries to protect Canadian imprisoned in China. Eighteen per cent answered positively, up six points, but the number giving the government a thumbs-down rose 11 points to 42 per cent.

Overall, Canadian opinions of China and the Chinese government are increasingly negative but expectations of the relationship have shifted only slightly, write Paul Evans and Li Xiaojun of UBC.

What appears to be changing is the sense that Canada is more alone in the world than it was in 2017, more anxious about interactions with China in high-tech sectors, and more worried about threats to domestic values and institutions at home and to Canadians abroad.


By CNN , March . 06, 2019





Washington (CNN) The Republican Party of Virginia is offering a $1,000 reward for a photograph of the state's Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring in blackface.





"Herring stated that he spoke with 'college friends' about his appearance in blackface and double checked if anyone had photo evidence of his indiscretions," the party posted on its website Tuesday. "Herring claims to not know if there is a photo, but does anyone really believe him?"

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EDMONTONAlberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel is calling for mandatory vaccinations  a policy he rejected when he was health minister four years ago.

Mandel announced Thursday that the party, if elected, would require all children to have up-to-date immunizations in order to attend any publicly funded school.

We think that the Alberta Health list of mandatory vaccinations is vitally important, and thats something we have to do to protect our children. We send our kids to school to learn, not to get sick, Mandel said.

They have to know theyre safe.

Mandel was Albertas Progressive Conservative health minister in 2015, a year after a measles outbreak hit Edmonton, Calgary, and central Alberta, when the Alberta Liberals urged the government to implement mandatory vaccinations for students.

At the time, Mandel said he encouraged parents to immunize their children, but would not mandate it.

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He said Thursday that the Alberta Party is more open and progressive than the PCs were, and having a 6-year-old grandson who is now in school has given him a new outlook about the issue.

Mandel also cited concerns around a recent measles outbreak in British Columbia and a scare just south of Edmonton last month, when Alberta Health Services announced a person with lab-confirmed measles visited Leduc while infectious.

Its something weve got to worry about, Mandel said.

I remember when I grew up, polio was something that everybody was afraid of. And then they developed a vaccine, and it changed peoples lives. What was happening in the 40s and 50s with polio was horrific. Were going to forget about that and what happened?

Under the Alberta Partys plan, parents would have to provide proof that their childs immunizations are up-to-date under Alberta Health Services routine immunization schedule.

Details about medical exemptions and the list of required immunizations would be developed in consultation with Albertas medical community and using models from other jurisdictions, the party said in a press release.

The rule would apply to students in public, Catholic, francophone, charter and private schools, as they all receive public money.

Ontario and New Brunswick parents have to provide proof of vaccinations for measles, tetanus, diphtheria, polio, mumps and rubella before enrolling their children in public school  with some exceptions  while Manitoba requires measles vaccinations.

B.C.s government is considering a mandatory vaccination reporting model.

Mandel said he believes the vast majority of Albertans would support mandatory vaccinations.

Premier Rachel Notley said Thursday she understands the very important health implications of people getting vaccinations, but did not take a stance on making the practice mandatory.

What we have done so far is weve worked with school boards to make sure that they tell families what the opportunities are for kids to get their vaccinations. And then also, in certain cases where there is a risk of a certain outbreak, that those kids who dont have vaccinations cant be in the school at that time, Notley said.

Its obviously a bit of a delicate situation because youve got really important public health issues and then youve got parental concerns, so were continuing to work with our public health officials and our school boards, and, of course, parent groups, to find the best solution.

United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney said his party believes all children should be vaccinated, with exceptions for certain medical cases.

He warned, however, that making vaccines mandatory could create new problems for students.

I think persuasion is the best way to deal with this. To exclude kids who may have parents who dont understand the value of vaccination might have an unintended consequence  those kids getting told they cant come to school because their parents arent smart enough to ensure they get a vaccine, Kenney said. So, I think we need to think about all the possible unintended consequences.

An Angus Reid poll in February found 70 per cent of Canadians believe vaccinations against common deadly diseases should be required for children entering school.

That sentiment crossed political lines, with 80 per cent of Liberal supporters, 77 per cent of NDP supporters, and 66 per cent of Conservative Party of Canada supporters agreeing with mandatory vaccinations.

A number of Canadians still question the science behind vaccines, however. According to the same poll, 29 per cent believe the science on vaccinations is not quite clear, and 26 per cent were concerned about a risk of side effects.

Facebook announced Thursday it will start removing groups from its site that spread misinformation about vaccinations. The social media giant will use information from global health organizations like the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have identified verifiable vaccine hoaxes.

With files from Andrew Jeffrey and Kieran Leavitt

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EDMONTONJason Kenney announced that if elected, his United Conservative Party would introduce legislation that would allow police to inform people of their partners abusive or violent past.

Im glad to be part of a team that is taking domestic violence seriously, said Laurie Mozeson, UCP candidate for Edmonton-McClung, who attended the announcement in Edmonton on Thursday.

Our bill requiring the disclosure of someones violent or abusive past to their partner is modelled after legislation in Great Britain called Clares Law.

Clares Law was introduced in the United Kingdom after a woman named Clare Wood was killed by her boyfriend in 2009 who, previously, had served six years for holding another woman captive at knifepoint.

This has been a useful tool for the police (in the U.K.). Before this, they were powerless. They could see a serious sex offender living with ... women who didnt know about the potential danger, and now they have the ability to intervene, Kenney said.

The proposed policy states that the person at risk, a family member, shelter, police, lawyers, psychologists, social workers, and nurses can apply for the information, with consent, but only the partner at risk would receive it. The legislation would not only be for women to access the information, but would be available for men at risk as well, Kenney said.

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A panel of domestic violence professionals would be appointed by the attorney general to determine the facts around the case and decide on disclosure.

The party added that it would commit $2 million for expanding GPS tracking technology, which would allow some people convicted of violent crimes to live in their community but stay within a boundary.

The policy supports the use of electronic monitoring of people serving sentences in the community to help protect their victims, while allowing the convicts to stay working and supporting themselves.

When asked if he would have police release the names of women who have been killed in domestic violence situations, something Edmonton police have faced criticism for not doing at times, Kenney said, As a general rule, yes.

There may be unique circumstances where discretion is required, but as a general rule, I cant imagine why not.

Kenney said there will be more in the partys platform about supporting victims of violence, including sexual assault.

According to statistics provided by the party, Alberta has the third-highest level of reported domestic violence in the country. The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics reports that between 2008 and 2013, 11,000 reported incidents came in each year in the province.

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A Toronto trauma surgeon arguing for stricter gun control is being targeted by a national firearm lobby that has flooded Ontarios physicians regulator with dozens of complaints about her.

Dr. Najma Ahmed, who was on call at St. Michaels Hospital following the Danforth mass shooting, is co-chair of an advocacy group called Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns. The group of doctors came together in February to argue that guns are a public health issue, and to push for the passage of Bill C-71, a bill to reform Canadas gun laws.

The lobby group the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights last month posted a call to action urging members to flood the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario with complaints against Ahmed, even if they have never been her patient. The post provides a step-by-step guide on how to do this, complete with a link to the complaint form.

I hate to say it, but stay in your lane, Doctor, the post reads.

Since then, the College has received about 70 complaints, spokesperson Shae Greenfield said, adding this kind of complaint is very unusual.

Throughout her career, Ahmed said she has seen gunshot wounds kill many mostly young and healthy people.

Guns are highly violent instruments that are intended to kill and maim animals and people, she told the Star, adding she has seen the damage bullets can cause to the human body. They act like small metal missiles, and they tear apart the organs and tissues and blood vessels and they do enormous harm.

Ahmed said she finds the gun groups tactics a little underhanded and disappointing.

She said she was at first taken aback by the campaign, but has been elated by the response from her colleagues. I await a final decision by the CPSO, and of course will respect the process that they have undertaken, she said.

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In a statement, Dr. Nancy Whitmore, registrar and CEO at The College, said its mandate is to focus on complaints around clinical care or professional behaviour.

The CPSOs role is not to resolve political disagreements when clinical care/outcomes or professional conduct is not in question. We recognize that physicians can play an important role by advocating for system-level change in a socially accountable manner, she said.

Like all complaints, she said, the ones stemming from the gun groups campaign are being reviewed by a committee that will determine whether they are frivolous and vexatious.

The call for doctors to stay in your lane has been used in the U.S. by members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) to call out doctors who speak out about gun control.

Rod Giltaca, CEO and executive director of the CCFR, said the language didnt come from any direct communication with the NRA, and that his group doesnt receive any funding from them. Instead, he said, funding comes from licensed gun owners who feel stricter gun laws infringe on their rights.

Giltaca has also appeared in a CCFR video reiterating his message that physicians need to back off. He told the Star he uses that language because the doctors who are experts at treating gunshot wounds have now declared themselves experts on the firearm file.

The group singled out Ahmed, he said, because shes the public face of the campaign, adding, he doesnt know why thats unreasonable.

This isnt seatbelts or smoking, this is a very complex social issue, really complex, and it has to do with the charter, it has to do with a lot of things, it has to do with the fact that people can peacefully possess things, he added.

Were not bad people, we just want these people to leave us alone.

Ahmed said doctors are not experts in legislation and lawmakers will decide whats best. Her role is to inform policy-makers, she said.

Physicians, she said, have had a long tradition of advocating for the public good, on things like sanitary water conditions, nicotine, and vaccinations.

In many instances, this harm, injury and death could have been avoided with stricter legislation governing civilian access to guns. she said.
Amid sagging revenues and a pledge to restrain property taxes, Toronto city council passed an austerity-minded budget Thursday with relatively little new spending and a $79-million hole.

Mayor John Tory convinced a majority of 25 councillors to honour his low-tax pledge, despite booming population growth and demand on services. Land transfer tax revenues, once a buoyant source of cash for new programs, are expected to continue drooping in 2019.

The budget consists of a $13.5 billion plan to cover operating expenses in 2019  things like city workers salaries and the day-to-day expenses of running the city  and a $40.7 billion 10-year capital spending plan, which covers large infrastructure investments and maintenance of city assets.

Efforts by some to boost taxes to do more to help low-income Torontonians failed amid concerns about the effect on homeowners, especially senior citizens.

Torontos 2019 budget has a fiscal pothole yet to be filled. Council is banking on Ottawa coughing up $45 million to help shelter refugees, and directed staff to find ways to cut $34 million.

Here are the nuts and bolts of this city budget.

The Big Tickets

Operating: Every year, the property taxes you pay are split between many services  the TTC, parks upkeep and libraries, for example. But no single service receives more money than Toronto police. In 2019, the average homeowner will provide $703.31  or 23 per cent of their total taxes  for this years more than $1-billion police budget of which the vast majority will be used for officer salaries that are expected to rise above inflation this year for front-line cops.

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Capital: One giant drain on the capital spending is keeping parts of the Gardiner Expressway aloft. City manager Chris Murray told councillors: The Gardiner is consuming 53 per cent of your state-of-good-repair transportation budget although it only represents 1.32 per cent of your (roadway) lane kilometres in the city. It does beg the question: If we werent looking after that, what other roads could we look after as well? 

This budget includes $132 million to rehabilitate the stretch between Jarvis and Cherry Sts., the first contract in a 10-year, $2.3-billion plan to fix the deck and move it closer to the rail corridor. Council previously voted for that hybrid plan, which frees up some valuable land but was the most expensive of options that included replacing it with an at-grade boulevard.

Whats in, whats out

In: There are not a lot of extras, budget chief Councillor Gary Crawford declared amid sagging revenues. The plan includes more than $60 million in new spending, about half of it aimed at poverty reduction programs.

New spending includes: $7 million for the Housing Now plan to get affordable rental housing built on what is now city land; $2.5 million more for the youth equity strategy; $1.15 million for future arts and culture investments; $300,000 for the Scarborough work youth employment plan; $222,400 for menstrual products and dispensers for users of homeless shelters, respite centres and 24-7 drop-ins; $208,000 to boost Sunday library hours; and up to $120,000 for a program to help seniors share their homes with students.

Out: For every bit of new spending that gets in, there is often an item that doesnt make it. Some of these are last-minute attempts from councillors, but many this year were efforts to have council fund programs and strategies that were previously approved but now not fully funded. Initiatives that were moved but not funded include: $3.4 million for the first phase of the Open Hours program to increase library hours across the city; $1.45 million for eight additional hubs for at-risk youth; and $135,500 to increase staffing for tenants help hotline.

Property taxes

Torontonians are among the lowest taxed in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area  and must remain so, say Tory and his allies. The budget boosted residential property tax bills by 2.55 per cent  in line with inflation as Tory again promised during the 2018 election. It rises to 3.58 per cent when you include a hike in the city-building fund for housing and transit projects. The owner of a Toronto home assessed at $665,605 home will pay $3,020 in property taxes  $104 more than last year, not including garbage and water fees. Tory critic Gord Perks tried, and failed, to convince colleagues to raise taxes by an extra 2 per cent to generate $60 million more to improve services.

David Rider is the Stars City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering Toronto politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider

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In a rare decision, a Toronto court has ordered a recruiter to return the fees she charged migrant workers for jobs at a GTA mushroom farm and awarded them damages for her illegal immigration services.

They recruited abroad for workers and facilitated and charged for the various steps required for temporary foreign worker certification, wrote Deputy Judge Michael Bay of the Toronto small claims court in a decision against recruiter Liwayway Lily Miranda and her company, A&L Hammer Workforce Management and Marketing.

These defendants provided immigration services that they are not legally entitled to provide or charge for, Bay wrote, in awarding $43,350 to the workers.

Sharon Mushroom Farm in East Gwillimbury, which employed the workers, was also named in the lawsuit, but the claims against it were dismissed.

Migrant worker advocates hailed the court decision as a significant victory for the eight migrant workers in the legal action  and for the migrant justice community.

Despite all odds and the constant fear of deportation, these workers organized collectively to demand an end to abuses and injustices they endured, said Chris Ramsaroop of Justicia for Migrant Workers, a grassroots advocacy group for migrant farm workers.

He called on the province to license and register recruiters and increase resources so that proactive inspections are undertaken and precarious workers are not put at risk.

Jun Saludares, acting as counsel for the workers, said his clients were pleased with the outcome of their action.

They felt they were vindicated, said Saludares. Its rare for migrant workers to stand up for their rights, let alone winning a court case. Most of them dont know about their rights and are too afraid to stand up for their rights and risk being kicked out of the country for complaining about mistreatment.

Last year, eight Filipino migrant farm workers claimed Miranda recruited them and gave them legal advice regarding immigration matters, for which they were charged a fee. Only licensed lawyers and immigration consultants can charge for legal advice, the court decision said. Miranda was neither a lawyer nor consultant.

Miranda did not respond to the Stars requests for comment.

In court, the complainants submitted copies of invoices issued to them for the labour market impact assessment required to work in Canada and visa processing fees in the range of $1,000 to $2,000.

Ryan Aporbo, who arrived in Calgary under the temporary foreign worker program in 2013 and started working at Sharon Mushroom Farm in 2016, also provided invoices from a law office in the amount of $2,000. He testified he never retained the law office and that the work for him was done at the behest of the recruiter and her company.

The defence argued in court they recruited workers abroad and facilitated the various steps necessary to procure their services as employees of Sharon Mushroom Farm, which is operated by Mirandas husband. Any legal service was provided by the law firm, not the recruiter, they contended.

But the judge said he wasnt satisfied that any of the workers retained a solicitor to process their applications.

If a solicitor was retained, I am satisfied that this was done by the defendants Lily Miranda and A&L Hammer  without the approval of the plaintiffs, Bay wrote in his Feb. 21 decision.

Although not determinative, I note that it is against government policy for anyone to charge a fee to a prospective foreign worker for work relating to  a labour market assessment generally required as part of the foreign worker admission process.

The judge was also critical of a practice that allowed the farm to offer workers a contract promising Ontario minimum wage  now $14 an hour  only to force them to agree to be paid on a piece-rate basis (at $1 per box) by the weight of mushrooms they picked, a rate that appears to be much lower than that stated in the application for migrant workers submitted to officials.

This is a very troubling state of affairs but that might merit action by the ministry (of labour) and/or other legal action but is not directly related to the relief claimed in this action and has not been taken into account in my decision, Bay wrote.

The court ordered Miranda and her manpower company to return the $14,000 fees she charged to five of the eight workers, including Aporbo, in addition to awarding $6,000 for punitive damage and $20,000 in general damages to the claimants. The two must also pay a total of $3,350 in legal costs to the claimants and the court.

Ramsaroop said he is happy the court acknowledges the cruelties of the piece-rate system, which he calls a form of wage theft that is widespread in the agricultural industry.

Proactive inspections are desperately needed to hold employers to account and ensure that farm workers are paid what they deserve, he said. The Ministry of Labour needs to undertake an industry-wide investigation into this archaic practice.

Maria Sol Pajadura of Migrante Canada, an international advocacy group for Filipino migrants, said her organization has been pushing for the licensing of recruitment agencies and the mandatory registration of employers.

We cannot stress enough that the issue of unscrupulous recruitment practice is one that must equally address the roles of Canadian employers, she said.

Last May, Miranda and mushroom farm owner Laxman Marsonia were charged by the Canada Border Services Agency with human trafficking and misrepresentation-related offences under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Marsonias son-in-law Yatin Bera was also charged with misrepresentation.
NEW DELHIThe first time Sandeep Wathar received a message on Facebook from a total stranger calling him a traitor, he was amused. When dozens more followed, he knew something was wrong.

After India and Pakistan nearly went to war last week, Wathar, a 29-year old professor of civil engineering in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, vented his frustration on social media. In a Facebook post, he used expletives to refer to Indias ruling party and said it had endangered millions of lives.

Two days later, students and members of a right-wing Hindu group gathered outside his office demanding he apologize for his anti-national comments. As a police officer looked on, the crowd ordered Wathar to kneel and beg for forgiveness. So he did. Its very obvious now that it can happen to anybody, Wathar said.

A wave of angry nationalism has swept India in recent weeks, triggered first by a Feb. 14 suicide bombing that killed 40 Indian security personnel in the disputed region of Kashmir and then by a military confrontation with Pakistan, the countrys oldest foe.

Television anchors have called for revenge and portrayed any questioning of the Indian government or armed forces as equivalent to helping Pakistan (one particularly strident channel recently pushed the hashtag #ExposePakLovers).

That message has been amplified by the countrys leadership: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is seeking reelection later this spring, has cast opposition parties as disloyal for asking about the efficacy of Indias Feb. 26 retaliatory airstrike on Pakistan. Modi leads a Hindu nationalist political party and since his election in 2014, hardline Hindu groups have become more assertive, sometimes resorting to violence.

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In recent weeks some of those publicly critical of the government or Indias military have been suspended from their jobs.

Kashmiri Muslims living elsewhere in India have faced the brunt of backlash, with students being hounded out of their universities and vendors being physically attacked. Late last month, the countrys Supreme Court ordered the government to step up protection of Kashmiris and other minority groups.

The recent climate marks a new turn for India, said Harish Khare, a leading columnist and former editor of The Tribune newspaper. He blamed the current government, saying it had stampeded the country into a volatile, edgy, anxious nationalism.

The dramatic events of recent weeks have raked up old conflicts  such as the anti-India insurgency in Kashmir and the rivalry between India and Pakistan  in a new social media age. India is the largest market in the world for both Facebook and WhatsApp and the fastest-growing market for Twitter.

Online mobs have been swift to attack even the unlikeliest of targets. Mita Santras husband was one of the paramilitary officers killed in the Feb. 14 suicide bombing in Kashmir. But after the 38-year old teacher publicly stated in the wake of her husbands death that war should be the last option, she was roundly criticized on social media (other online users later rallied to her support).

Santra, who lives in the state of West Bengal, remains defiant. This is a democracy, she said. I have the right to say what I want.

For others, the consequences of speaking their mind have been more serious. Days after the Feb. 14 attack, Madhumita Ray, a professor of sociology in the state of Odisha, appeared on a local news show where she had a heated exchange with a retired army colonel.

Ray said war with Pakistan was not the solution and evoked Mahatma Gandhis philosophy of non-violence. She also mentioned the Indian armys excesses in places like Kashmir and Indias northeast. Ray said the retired colonel shot back that she was anti-national and people like her should be slapped.

Manoranjan Mishra, the television anchor who moderated the segment, said he received angry calls and messages after the show aired, including one saying Ray should be killed. The channel decided not to upload a video of the segment to its website.

When sentiment is high, we shouldnt hurt the emotions of our viewers, said Mishra. The only other time he recalled a similar level of public anger was when deadly communal riots convulsed the state of Odisha in 2008. But back then, social media was not in the picture, he said.

A few days later, Ray says she was asked to resign from her post by administrators at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Bhubaneswar (a college official said that Ray had resigned citing personal reasons). Ray said she had expected a reaction to her comments, but was shocked to find the cost was her job.

In another sign of the times, a government minister publicly questioned the patriotism of a prominent journalist who had asked him about proving the impact of Indias Feb. 26 airstrike on an alleged terrorist camp in Pakistan. Such questions belittle our armed forces and are a matter of shame, said Piyush Goyal, the minister for coal and railways.

Wathar, the professor who was forced to kneel and apologize, is unsure of his own future. His college has instituted a committee to examine the episode and has asked him to explain his online comments. Meanwhile Sachin Bagewadi, 21, a computer science student from a right-wing Hindu group who took part in the incident, said Wathars anti-national post had received a fitting response.

I didnt think anybody would get offended by an ordinary person like me, said Wathar. I was only raising a question to the government.

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ALGIERS, Algeria - Wrapped in Algerian flags, singing and tossing flowers, a festive crowd of thousands of protesters marched through central Algiers on Friday to protest President Abdelaziz Bouteflikas hold on power.

The protesters converged after prayers in a dense stream stretching nearly a kilometre, while onlookers threw flowers and confetti from flag-draped balconies. Security forces watched from the sidelines without intervening.

The protesters are challenging Bouteflikas fitness to run for a fifth term in next months election. The Algerian leader has been in power since 1999 but has been all but absent from the public eye since a stroke in 2013. He has been hospitalized in Switzerland since last month for what the government describes as medical tests.

Its the third Friday running people have protested, and the demonstrations have continued into the week. Organizers have called for a general strike if the government doesnt cede.

More than a dozen political parties and unions have thrown their support behind the widening street protests.

At a meeting that ended late Thursday, 15 opposition parties and four unions praised the protest movement and criticized the government for its stubborn power in insisting upon the elections in April. Protesters are calling for a general strike if the government doesnt back down.
WAIMIRI-ATROARI RESERVE, Brazil - First the helicopters arrived, dropping chemical bombs. Then came armed men in green uniforms who proceeded to slaughter members of an Amazon tribe to make way for a major road.

Bare Bornaldo Waimiri, at the time a teenage member of the Waimiri-Atroari tribe deep in Brazils Amazon, said the day of that attack, many years ago, was the last he saw his family alive.

Now elderly, Bornaldo described the horrific scene last week during a historic hearing that put a spotlight on Brazils military, which denies attacking the tribe. His testimony underscored the constant tension between development and conservation in Latin Americas largest nation and comes as far-right President Jair Bolsonaro gives a prominent role to the military in his government and ends new indigenous land demarcations in the Amazon.

I lost my father, my mother, my sister and my brother, Bornaldo said in a very low voice, wearing shorts and tapping his flip-flops on the ground as two translators put his words into Portuguese.

The hearing took place in a thatched, cone-shaped hut where the Waimiri-Atroari normally hold colorful festivities and long storytelling sessions. For one day last week, it transformed into a gloomy courthouse where six elders told a judge how over many years the 1964-1985 military dictatorship tried to eradicate them with arms, bombs and chemicals.

The Associated Press and one local newspaper were the only media allowed to attend the hearing. Non-tribal members in general are usually forbidden to enter the sprawling reserve that is the size of Israel and straddles the states of Amazonas and Roraima.

Tribe members and prosecutors said it marked the first time a judge was allowed on Waimiri-Atroari lands to hear witnesses tell of several alleged attacks over the years. Leaders said their aim was to deal with the past and avoid future incursions.

To turn this page, we all have to read the book, tribal leader Mario Parwe Atroari said.

Most indigenous tribes that allege atrocities during the dictatorship are reluctant to give a full accounting of incidents in urban courthouses because they dont trust non-indigenous peoples. Some also fear being prosecuted for their own attacks against state agents and missionaries.

While tribesmen nodded during Bornaldos testimony, a half-dozen military personnel in uniform stood in silence. Retired Col. Hiram Reis e Silva, dressed in a white-collared shirt and jeans, shook his head as the witnesses spoke. Reis e Silva, who said he worked near the reserve after 1982, was at the hearing to represent the military.

My version of the story is very different, Reis e Silva told the AP. There are some exaggerations. We hope truth is re-established.

I also have several witnesses who are the pioneers of the highway and counter everything (the tribe members say), Reis e Silva added, though when asked to share contacts with any such person he declined to.

Before ruling, federal judge Raffaela Cassia de Sousa was expected to wait for forensics, which could include a determination of what chemical may have been used in the bombings witnesses described, and possibly more testimony and pieces of evidence.

There is no final date for a decision.

Federal prosecutors, who accuse the Brazilian state of genocide in their civil suit, said hundreds, if not thousands, of tribe members died between 1968 and 1977, when highway BR-174 was built. The deaths either happened by military strikes or because of diseases that came after the forceful construction of the road through the reserve, prosecutors said.

The witnesses said they dont know the dates of the alleged attacks. The Waimiri-Atroari do not measure time in months and years, and instead talk of events in relation to their phase in life.

Prosecutors said they believe that the attack Bornaldo witnessed took place after 1974, the year the aggressions intensified. The massacre he saw was one of numerous attacks during the construction of a portion of the road that connects the cities of Manaus and Boa Vista, according to prosecutors and tribesmen testifying.

All six tribe members testifying said the aggressions came from the Brazilian army while it oversaw the construction of 75 miles (120 kilometres) across the Waimiri-Atroari reserve.

At the time, military leaders said the tribe was impeding government employees from building the road. However, the military has never acknowledged a role in attacking the tribe.

Documents of that time show the military dictatorship considered the indigenous a hurdle to development and that their presence in areas of government interest could not stop construction works, said journalist Rubens Valente, who attended the hearing and is the author of a book on the relationship between Brazils authoritarian regime and indigenous tribes.

During last weeks hearing, the governments lawyers suggested in their questions that miners or local criminals were behind the attacks, assertions that tribal members rejected.

In explaining their own use of violence, Waimiri-Atroari said they were just defending their territory. According to Valentes book, which prosecutors cite, at least 26 people, including construction workers, government liaisons with indigenous groups and members of religious missions, were killed during the construction of the road.

Compared to South American countries like Chile and Argentina, Brazil has done little to uncover atrocities at the hands of the military, particularly against indigenous peoples.

The allegations of the Waimiri-Atroari pose a challenge to Brazils armed forces, who say their regime only cracked down on adversaries that pushed for a socialist revolution.

Slender and low-voiced Dawuna Elzo Atroari said he witnessed a blitzkrieg style attack against the tribe in a different incident than the one Bornaldo described.

Before this road we lived well and in peace, we were healthy, he said, his hands shaking. After the road, people died and we were threatened.

I had a gun pointed to my ear, he recounted.

Wildlife is abundant in the region, with sloths, monkeys and jaguars frequently appearing. Bayous filled with fly-attracting pink flowers can be seen from the road. Not far from it, the trees become leafier and taller.

The Waimiri-Atroari close off the road with a massive chain each day at 6 p.m. so as to protect wildlife and the tribe itself. It only reopens at 6 a.m.

The testimony of the elders, all youngsters during the construction of the road, are key in the suit demanding the state pay the tribe $13 million in damages, issue an official apology in a ceremony on Waimiri-Atroari land, build a museum to remember the atrocities and mention human rights violations against them in public school books.

In 2014, a Brazilian truth commission said more than 8,000 members of indigenous tribes could have been killed at the hands of authoritarian regimes between 1946 and 1988, the vast majority during the 1964-1985 dictatorship.

Prosecutors estimate the number of Waimiri-Atroari victims between 600 and 3,000.

As the hearing went on and tribe members repeatedly accused the Brazilian military of slaughter, news emerged that had eerie parallels with the past: Brazils federal government announced plans to build an energy line through the Waimiri-Atroari reserve, a move that politicians and military leaders have been pushing for since the construction of the BR-174.

Bolsonaro, who frequently praises the dictatorship and promises to open the Amazon to more development, deemed the energy line connecting the grid of the state of Roraima to the rest of Brazils a matter of national security. The decision would allow him to avoid consulting the Waimiri-Atroari, as the law demands. Brazil now buys energy from crisis-ridden Venezuela to supply the isolated Northern state.

If the $600 million energy project goes forward in June as Bolsonaro pledged, there will be more deforestation in the Waimiri-Atroari lands with the installation of dozens of towers. A legal battle is expected.

Regardless of what happens, Parwe, one of the tribe leaders, said he was happy future generations would learn more about the Waimiri-Atroari.

Everyone should know what happened here so it never happens again, Parwe said in a firm voice, standing next to the judge and looking at the military personnel in attendance.

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Video journalist Victor Caivano contributed to this report.
BAHAWALPUR, Pakistan - On the congested streets of Bahawalpur, a city in southern Pakistans jihadi heartland, emotions run high in favour of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a U.N.-designated terror group that recently pushed nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

Such support complicates Prime Minister Imran Khans latest crackdown on militant groups, including Jaish-e-Mohammed. In recent days, Khan has ordered the takeover of assets and property of dozens of banned militant organizations that operate in Pakistan.

Many of the groups are popular among the poor because they operate networks of charities. Some have also enjoyed the support of the military and intelligence services.

Jaish-e-Mohammad is not a terrorist group, they just want to spread Islam, said Tahir Zia, a grey-bearded shopkeeper in Bahawalpur, a city whose 18th-century founders claim to be direct descendants of Islams Prophet Mohammad.

According to Pakistans counter-terrorism agency, the government has outlawed 68 militant groups. This includes Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lahskar-e-Taiba and Harakat-ul Mujahedeen  Pakistan-based groups that seek to wrest control of Indian-administered territory in the disputed Kashmir region.

Kashmir is split between Pakistan and India and claimed by both in its entirety. The region has been the flashpoint of two wars between the South Asian neighbours as well as several lower-level face-offs.

The latest confrontation began Feb. 14, when a suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed 40 Indian soldiers. Jaish-e-Mohammad, which is based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility, even though the attacker was identified as an Indian Kashmiri militant. The bombing escalated tensions between India and Pakistan, with India launching an airstrike against suspected militant training camps inside Pakistan. Journalists, who visited the site hours after the bombing, said the area was a deserted forested hilltop.

Under pressure to rein in the militants, Pakistan took over mosques and religious schools belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad. Their students and teachers have been barred from talking to the media. Police and paramilitary rangers armed with AK-47s, now guard the groups buildings.

The groups headquarters on the northern outskirts of Bahawalpur, a city of 2 million people, are ringed by a 6-meter-high (20-foot) brick wall.

On a recent morning, several bearded men and two Pakistani police officers armed with automatic rifles turned away visitors approaching the compounds large steel gates.

Bahawalpur is located on the edge of Pakistans Cholistan desert in the southern part of Punjab province. In recent decades, the area has become a jihadi heartland encouraged by state sponsorship and financial support from abroad, particularly Saudi Arabia, and several Gulf States.

The donors have financed a vast network of religious schools that cater to the poorest residents, teaching a brand of Islam that promotes sectarianism, brands Shiite Muslims as heretics and espouses jihad, or holy war, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Khan, who adopted the role of peacemaker in the latest outbreak of hostilities between Pakistan and India, returned a captured Indian pilot, offered peace talks with his Indian counterpart, and launched a crackdown on militant groups from which previous administrations shied away.

On Tuesday, in a gesture aimed at mending relations on the subcontinent, Pakistan announced it had arrested 44 suspected members of several militant organizations, including Jaish-e-Mohammed. Among those arrested was Mufti Abdul Rauf, the brother of Masood Azhar, the founder of the organization. Azhars whereabouts are unknown.

Rauf was also among those named by India in a dossier it gave to Pakistan after Khan promised to investigate suspected links between Pakistani-based militants and the February bombing in Kashmir.

On Wednesday, more schools, hospitals and charities run by banned groups were taken over by the government. Padlocks were put on some facilities.

In a tweet Wednesday, Pakistani Interior Minister Shahryar Afridi promised his government would implement a widely cheered 2015 National Action Plan that calls for zero tolerance of militant groups. The previous government devised the 20-point plan to combat terrorism and extremism in Pakistan, only to ignore it.

Still the move by Khans government is fraught with dangers in a country where militant groups provide social services to poor residents ignored by the government. The 2016 Crisis Group report called south Punjab the poorest region of the countrys richest and most populous province.

In Bahawalpur, Jaish-e-Mohammad and its leader enjoy considerable support.

Anotehr storekeeper, Sajjad Ali, called Azhar a man of peace and dismissed accusations that he is a terrorist as Indian propaganda.

Hafiz Muzamil, a fiery young man, railed against Indias violent suppression of a 30-year insurgency in Kashmir __ Indias only Muslim dominated state __ and championed Jaish-e-Mohammad and Azhar as warriors for Islam. Crowds gathered as he spoke, most nodding vigorously.

Adnan Naseemullah, an expert in international affairs at Kings College in London, warned of a short-term backlash against the crackdown.

Pakistan, if it takes an aggressive, no-tolerance stand against Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harakat ul-Mujahidin, will suffer a violent backlash domestically, he said.

But a zero-tolerance policy from the Pakistani state will over time shift the focus back on Kashmir and the treatment of the Kashmiri people, which is in Pakistans long-term interest, he added.

International human rights groups have accused India of widespread abuses as it seeks to crush dissent in its part of Kashmir. Indias policy on Kashmir under (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi is straightforwardly and violently repressive, said Naseemullah.

For Pakistan, the deadly mix of militant groups on its soil is a decades-old problem with roots in the 1980s war in neighbouring Afghanistan, when the United States and Pakistan were allies against the former Soviet Union. Together they nurtured an army of mujahedeen, or holy warriors, to oust the former Soviet Union from Afghanistan. When the war ended with a Soviet withdrawal in 1989, young Pakistani recruits to jihad were sent to the Indian half of disputed Kashmir to fight for a united Kashmir under the Pakistani flag.

Its a history that analysts like Zahid Hussain, author of two books on militancy, say haunts Pakistan.

Various Pakistani governments have promised to take action against the many groups but have not done so, said Hussain. Not only does it pose a danger to Pakistans own national internal security, there is always the danger they will use Pakistani soil to launch an attack across the border.
LONDON - The U.K. government has decided to provide diplomatic protection to a British-Iranian woman detained in Iran for nearly three years.

The Foreign Office said Friday the move means Britain formally asserts that Iran has failed to meet its international obligations in its treatment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

It means Britain no longer regards her case as simply a consular matter and raises it to the level of a legal dispute between Britain and Iran.

The move was rejected as a violation of international law by Irans ambassador to Britain, who said his country does not regard Zaghari-Ratcliffe as British.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 on charges of plotting against the Iranian government. Her family denies the allegations.

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe welcomed the move Friday, saying it could lead to a resolution of her case within months.

It changes the status for Nazanins case, Ratcliffe told BBC radio. Now its also the British governments case and all the injustices that happen to Nazanin are effectively injustices against the British government.

He said the top priority is to have a doctor see Zaghari-Ratcliffe to provide urgent medical care.

A couple of months ago she went on hunger strike because she wasnt getting any treatment, and was promised it but it didnt happen, so she got very low again recently. Im sure this will give her a big lift, he said.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said legal proceedings against Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Iran were deficient and that she has been denied proper access to health professionals.

Its not a magic wand, its not going to solve things overnight but it does create a different legal and political context, Hunt said of Britains decision to offer diplomatic protection.

The British government has long been seeking her release without success.

Hamid Baeidinejad, Irans ambassador to Britain, said in a tweet Friday that the British governments move violates international law.

He said governments can only extend such protection to their own nationals and that Iran does not recognize dual nationality.

Ms Zaghari thus remains Iranian, he said.
OUTSIDE BAGHOUZ, Syria - The newborn son of U.K.-born teenager Shamima Begum who left her London home to join the Islamic State group in Syria died Friday in a refugee camp, an official said.

Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, confirmed that the infant died at a camp in north Syria. He didnt provide further details.

In a day of conflicting reports about the babys fate, lawyer Tasnime Akunjee tweeted that he had strong but as yet unconfirmed reports that Shamima Begums son has died. He was a British citizen. He declined to provide further details.

Then, Bali tweeted that the reports were fake and the baby is alive and healthy. But he later deleted the tweet without explanation, and shortly after confirmed the babys death.

The British government couldnt confirm the reports.

Begum was 15 when she and two friends left London to marry IS fighters in Syria in 2015, at a time when the groups online recruitment program lured many impressionable young people to its self-proclaimed caliphate.

Begum recently resurfaced in a refugee camp, and gave birth last month.

Begum, now 19, told journalists that she wanted to raise her son in Britain, but the government revoked her citizenship. Begum told reporters that she had lost two other children to malnutrition and disease.

Her Dutch jihadi husband Yago Riedijk, who is in a Kurdish-run detention centre, said last week that he wanted to return to the Netherlands with Begum and their son.

British Home Secretary Sajid Javid said last month he had revoked Begums citizenship  even while saying he wouldnt make a decision that would render a person stateless. Javid also confirmed that Begums son was a British citizen, though he said it would be incredibly difficult to facilitate the return of a child from Syria.

Begums parents are from Bangladesh but her family says she isnt a dual citizen. The family has said it plans to challenge Javids decision.
COPENHAGEN - A 46-year-old man was found guilty Friday of preparing an attack in Stockholm on behalf of the Islamic State group and sentenced to seven years in jail.

The Solna District Court in Stockholm says David Idrisson, an Uzbek national who has been living legally in Sweden since 2008, should be expelled for life from Sweden where his family lives after serving his time. He was also found guilty of financing the radical Islamic group in Syria.

The court said Friday that Idrisson had gathered some 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of chemicals, knives, gas masks and military equipment, and photos of potentials targets in Stockholm were found on his cellphone.

Two other younger men who Idrisson knows and who were also suspected in the case, were acquitted. They were released from detention earlier this week.

A total of six men were also accused of financing IS by sending up to 20,000 kronor ($2.135) each. The court found four of them  including Idrisson  guilty of that charge and gave them prison sentences ranging between four and six months. Two were acquitted.

The men  five Uzbeks and a citizen of Kyrgyzstan  communicated via closed chatrooms. All live legally in Sweden and denied wrongdoing.

There was no link to Rakhmat Akilov, the Uzbek man behind the 2017 deadly Stockholm truck attack.
BELGRADE, Serbia - A high-ranking U.S. envoy has urged Serbia and Kosovo to stop provoking each other and to resume their discussions over how to normalize relations between the two former wartime foes.

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale, who met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, also called Friday on Kosovo to lift a 100-per cent tariff on Serbian goods so that European Union-mediated talks can resume.

The call came a day after Kosovos Parliament adopted a negotiating platform for the talks that involves mutual recognition and keeping the current borders intact.

Serbia doesnt recognize Kosovos independence, but the two have been told they must improve bilateral relations to join the EU, which has mediated negotiations aimed at resolving the long-standing Balkan dispute.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after fighting a 1998-99 war that ended with NATO intervening to stop a bloody Serbian crackdown of Kosovo Albanian separatists.

Serbian officials have said the rigid platform dashes all hopes for a compromise solution.

According to a statement issued by the Serbian presidents office after the meeting, Vucic told Hale that Kosovos platform amounts to a decision by Pristina to halt dialogue with Belgrade because it leaves no room for compromise.

In a strongly-worded speech later on Friday, Vucic described Kosovos negotiating platform as an ultimatum aimed at humiliating Serbia.

I will never agree to that, Vucic told his supporters in a northwestern Serbian town. With those who dont want the talks, there are no talks and there will be no talks.

Although never made official, Vucic is thought to be seeking changes, or corrections, of Kosovos borders as part of an overall agreement  something not welcomed by many EU states.

Angered by the Kosovo platform, Vucic on Friday summoned top Serbian political and security officials to mull what to do next.

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said after the meeting that the Kosovo position represents a death blow to the talks and that Serbias reaction will be moderate and in the interest of our citizens.

That document is against any compromise and dialogue, Brnabic said. It is against common sense.

Serbia had previously said it will not take part in the EU-facilitated discussions until the 100-per cent tax is ditched, while Kosovo wants Serbia to recognize its statehood and stops preventing it joining international organizations such as International Police, or Interpol.

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Llazar Semini contributed from Tirana, Albania.
JACKSON, Miss. - The Latest on efforts to move a Confederate statue at the University of Mississippi (all times local):

8:50 p.m.

A faculty group is joining students at the University of Mississippi in asking that a Confederate monument be shifted from its current spot on campus.

Faculty Senate Chair Brice Noonan says that body voted unanimously Thursday for a resolution recommending the statues relocation to a Confederate cemetery on campus.

Two student government groups passed similar resolutions earlier this week.

Student newspaper The Daily Mississippian reports a staff group is voting on its own resolution by email.

Interim Chancellor Larry Sparks says in a Thursday statement that hes waiting on campus group recommendations on the issue before deciding if he will ask the College Board to vote on the move. The boards trustees govern Mississippis eight public universities.

Sparks says that before any move, the university would have to consult with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, which regulates government alterations of historic structures.

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12:45 p.m.

The University of Mississippis leader says hes waiting to hear from faculty and staff groups before recommending a Confederate monument be shifted from its current spot on campus.

Interim Chancellor Larry Sparks says in a Thursday statement that hes waiting on the groups to recommend the statues relocation to a Confederate cemetery on campus.

Two student government groups have passed resolutions seeking relocation.

The Ole Miss Faculty Senate is scheduled to vote Thursday night and a staff group could discuss the issue in coming days.

Sparks says the College Board, which governs Mississippis eight public universities, ultimately must vote to move the statue.

Sparks says that before any move, the university would have to consult with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, which regulates government alterations of historic structures.
NEW YORK - Charges were unsealed Friday against a former Venezuelan vice-president in New York federal court as authorities accused him of using his office to aid international drug traffickers.

Tareck El Aissami and Venezuelan businessman Samark Jose Lopez Bello were charged with violating the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act and U.S. Treasury Department sanctions.

Both El Aissami and Lopez Bello will have to think twice before leaving Venezuela, as they are wanted to face justice here in New York, said Angel Melendez, who heads New Yorks U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations.

Even before the charges announced Friday, the U.S. has accused El Aissami of playing a major role in global drug trafficking, a charge he denies. El Aissami, who is now the minister of industry and national production, is the most senior Venezuelan official ever targeted by the U.S.

Venezuelas communications minister declined to comment.

U.S. authorities suspect other high-ranking officials in Venezuela are also involved in drug trafficking.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a release that El Aissami violated sanctions by hiring U.S. companies to provide private jets.

Melendez of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the official used his position of power to engage in international drug trafficking.

As a result, El Aissami and Lopez Bello, both 44, were each already labeled a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker under the Kingpin Act. El Aissami received the designation in February 2017, just weeks after he became vice-president. He served in the position until last June.

If convicted of all five charges contained in an unsealed indictment, El Aissami and Lopez Bello would each face up to 150 years in prison.

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Associated Press Writer Joshua Goodman in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A national Hispanic centre is displaying a unique art exhibit on the chola  the working class, Mexican-American urban female often associated with gangs.

The National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque opened the Que Chola Exhibition on Friday with pieces by artists from New Mexico, Arizona, California, Texas, and Colorado.

The displays feature the evolution of the chola from the World War II-era to the contemporary figure trying to survive in poor neighbourhoods. Using paintings, photography and sculptures, the exhibit attempts to cover images of the chola as an urban warrior, a mentor, a mother and political figure.

Cholas, or homegirls, often refers to a particular Latina subculture in the U.S. characterized by a tough demeanour and distinctive style. They are identified by their clothing ranging from flannel shirts and khaki pants to their dark eye makeup and indigenous-theme tattoos.

The image of the chola gained popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s with movies like Colors and Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life).

In recent years, scholars have countered that the chola represents more than just gang activity. Latina scholars have argued that the cholas image is a commentary of poverty in urban U.S. cities and symbolized a working-class Latina seeking to battle sexism.

Some Latina academics have playfully said on social media that you cant spell scholar without the word CHOLA.

Curator Jadira Gurule said she agreed that the chola is more than a so-called dangerous female gang member linked to criminal activity. For many Latinas, Gurule said the chola also represents strength and perseverance.

Many within our communities either were, or admired and wanted to emulate, the chola growing up, Gurule said. She also represents real people with real experiences. The chola is a persona developed in response to racism and sexism. To reduce her to a gang member is shallow.

Pola Lopez, a Las Vegas, New Mexico, born artist who now lives in Los Angeles, said she was excited when she was asked to participate in the exhibit. The chola...you cant mess with her, said Lopez. She beautiful and represents us in many ways.

Her painting, Coatlicue and Chola, features a homegirl leaning against a statue of an Aztec goddess

Nanibah Chacon, a Navajo and Hispanic artist from Arizona, said she wanted to create an image of a chola if she had been represented in midcentury advertisements. Her painting, Xicana Classic, depicts a chola from the 1970s sitting on a red circle and smiling with confidence.

The exhibit, which runs until Aug. 4, is the latest attempt to create a new image around the chola and expand her meaning.

The Los Angeles-based gang intervention group Homeboy Industries, for example, sells clothing designed by former cholas and runs Homegirl Cafe  a restaurant with food prepared by former gang members gaining new skills. The hip cafe is an offshoot of social enterprises founded by Jesuit priest Greg Boyle.

And Art Laboe, a 93-year-old DJ based in Palm Springs, California, allows cholas every Sunday on his syndicated oldies show The Art Laboe Connection Show to call in and give dedications to their loved ones serving time in prison. Scholars and activists say the radio show helps humanize cholas since it allows listeners to hear cholas express emotions of love and pain.

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Associated Press Writer Russell Contreras is a member of The Associated Press race and ethnicity team. Follow Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras

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This story corrects a previous version with the quote you cant spell scholar without the word CHOLA.
MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. - A homeless man pleaded guilty Friday to a state charge in a GoFundMe scheme that prosecutors say brought in $400,000 with a made-up story about him aiding a stranded driver.

Thirty-six-year-old Johnny Bobbitt, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty Friday in New Jersey Superior Court to conspiracy to commit theft by deception.

He faces five years of probation and was entered into the states drug court program for nonviolent offenders.

He had pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries up to 10 years.

Bobbitt conspired with 28-year-old Katelyn McClure, of Bordentown, New Jersey, and her then-boyfriend 39-year-old Mark DAmico, of Florence, according to prosecutors. Authorities say they made up a story in 2017 about Bobbitt giving McClure $20 for gas when she was stranded along a Philadelphia highway.

The online campaign raised more than $400,000 from 14,000 donors, made international headlines and led to media appearances by the trio. But the feel-good-story was based on a lie, prosecutors said.

The couple claimed the cash would be donated to Bobbitt, but New Jersey authorities said the three split the money and spent lavishly, including on a BMW, designer bags, and trips to Las Vegas and elsewhere. GoFundMe has said it has refunded the donations.

Their relationship soured when Bobbitt sued the couple over what he said was their failure to turn money over to him.

New Jersey prosecutors said the suit led them to start an investigation.

McClure pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud this week. She and DAmico face state charges, as well.

DAmico has denied wrongdoing.
JUNEAU, Alaska - Juneau officials have rejected an offer by Norwegian Cruise Line to send the city manager and mayor on a free cruise.

The Juneau Assembly this week voted to turn down the invitation, and it rejected an amendment to have the city pay for the cruise, KTOO Public Media in Juneau reported .

The cruise line invited leaders from port communities along the West Coast in order to bring attention to the Norwegian Joys first U.S. voyage next month, according to the city.

The ship is travelling from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Los Angeles. It will be stopping at Alaska destinations later this year.

The cruise line declined to say what other leaders were invited on the four-day trip to California.

City Manager Rorie Watt said the trip could have provided an opportunity for him and Mayor Beth Weldon to learn how other communities are dealing with cruise tourism growth.

I think there is value that could be gained, and the value would outweigh the negatives, although Im not going to push you very hard on this, Watt said.

The cruise offer could have been an attempt to influence city officials, assembly members Rob Edwardson and Loren Jones said. City officials can find other ways to learn more about the industry, Jones said.

It would be just as easy, I think, to have an all-day seminar when its docked all day in Ketchikan or its docked all day in Juneau and invite all those people, Jones said.

Juneau rules also restrict officials from accepting gifts of $50 or more. The cruise line did offer to charge $99 for the trip to those who couldnt accept it for free, the city said.

Juneau was engaged in a lawsuit with the cruise industry over the use of cruise ship passenger fees. A federal court decision last year restricted the use of the fees. Juneau officials have not announced if they will appeal the ruling.

Assembly member Wade Bryson said the trip could have been a step forward.

To put our officials onto an inaugural trip lets them know we dont have hard feelings, Bryson said.

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Information from: KTOO-FM, http://www.ktoo.org
LAKESHORE, Miss. - Developers are proposing a new casino on the west end of Mississippis Gulf Coast, as an existing nearby casino plans an expansion.

Cure Land Co. gave notice in a Wednesday legal ad that it filed with the Mississippi Gaming Commission on March 1, seeking approval for a casino site in Clermont Harbor.

Thats an area east of the existing Silver Slipper Casino in Lakeshore.

Site approval could be on the Gaming Commission agenda in the next couple of months, executive director Allen Godfrey told the Sun Herald . Its the first step in getting permission to build a casino in Mississippi, and the Gaming Commission would later have to grant a license. Regulators in January approved a site for a casino in Long Beach. Mississippis coast currently has 12 gambling halls.

The legal ad proposes a casino with 300 hotel rooms and 1,100 slot machines and 22 table games on a 98.5-acre (40-hectare) site. The Gaming Commission requires all new casinos have 300 hotel rooms, a casino of at least 50,000 square feet (4,600 sq. meters), a fine dining restaurant and an amenity designed to offer something that will increase tourists coming to casinos from outside the state.

Silver Slipper General Manager John Ferrucci tells the Sun Herald his casino is planning a second 150-room hotel tower and convention centre and additional restaurant to accommodate expanding business. The first hotel tower opened in 2015. Ferruci told WLOX-TV the expansion is waiting on approval to turn marshy area into parking, with hopes to complete the expansion by 2021.

The casino is targeted toward the Louisiana market, and owner Full House Resorts has said business is booming right now. Thats in part because Mississippi has legalized sports betting, while Louisiana has not.

Its really firing on all cylinders right now, Full House Chief Financial Officer Lewis Fanger said during a recent call discussing earnings with investors. If you look at revenues, theyre up 20 per cent for the quarter. Earnings before interest, taxes and other expenses was up 74 per cent, the highest ever for the casino.

Cure Land Co. is one of the largest landowners in Hancock County. The company is building a boutique hotel in downtown Bay St. Louis  and also is the landlord of the Silver Slipper Casino, where the rent is based on a share of the casino revenue. A competing casino nearby could impact the amount of rent paid.

But Ferrucci said he hoped a neighbouring casino could draw more business overall to what has been a relatively isolated location.
SKOWHEGAN, Maine - The last Maine high school to use a Native American-themed mascot and nickname has retired them  a move that a rights group says sets the state up to become the first to eliminate such references in schools.

The Skowhegan-based School Administrative District 54 Board of Directors voted 14-9 Thursday night to get rid of the Indian nickname and mascot for all schools in the district, ending a yearslong debate over the Skowhegan Area High School teams.

The Penobscot Nation led efforts to get the district to drop the references, calling them racist and demeaning to Native Americans.

Proponents of the Indian nickname insisted it honours Maines tribes, and some said the matter is not yet settled.

With the vote, Maine is poised to become the first state in the nation to end the use of indigenous nicknames and mascots in schools, said Rachel Healy, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine. Other states are moving in a similar direction but havent reached the 100 per cent mark yet, she said.

Gov. Janet Mills had urged the board to discontinue use of the nickname, and the Maine Department of Education urged schools to refrain from using mascots and logos that depict Native American tribes, individuals, customs or traditions. Theres also a bill in the Maine Legislature to ban Native American mascots in schools.

Other schools already abandoned Native American-themed mascots and nicknames like Braves and Chiefs.

But Skowhegan resisted the trend.

This mascot meant a lot to a lot of people for a very long time, Iver Lofving, who teaches art at Skowhegan Area High School, told Maine Public radio.

But he predicted people will settle into the idea and work together to create an actual mascot  someone dressed up in a costume  for the sidelines, something Skowhegan hasnt had for years.

While a few schools in Maine still use the Warrior nickname, they do so without Native American imagery, Healy of the ACLU said. The Skowhegan district was the last to continue to use that imagery.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Far from competitors tackling the frozen wilderness in Alaskas Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a dozen people are holed up inside an Anchorage hotel behind banks of computers, tracking the punishing route and connecting with global fans seeking a real-time link to the off-the-grid sport.

As of Friday, 51 mushers are travelling long stretches between remote village checkpoints with no other company but the dogs pulling their sleds. But theyre not competing in a vacuum on the 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometre) trail that spans two mountain ranges and the frozen Yukon River before it heads up the wind-scrubbed Bering Sea Coast to the finish line in the Gold Rush town of Nome.

Their progress is monitored from several hotel rooms whose 24/7 occupants are the Iditarods electronic eyes and ears. Technology has increasingly made the 47-year-old race more immediate to fans and safer for competitors, said Chas St. George, acting CEO of the Iditarod Trail Committee, the races governing board.

This is a really low-tech event when you look at it from that perspective, but high-tech research has always been a huge part of the race, he said Wednesday during a tour of the Iditarods hotel command post.

This is where volunteers and race contractors monitor the dog teams through sleds equipped with GPS trackers that allow fans to follow them online in real time and organizers to ensure no one is missing. Some serve as aircraft dispatchers for a cadre of pilots who ferry supplies as well as mushers and dogs that drop out.

Others process live video streamed from checkpoints along the rugged trail, using satellite dishes. Some volunteers handle race-standing updates sent through equipment first tested last year, making it possible to activate a super-size hot spot in the most remote places with satellite connections.

Long gone are the days where some race updates came through amateur radio and faxes, said Reece Roberts, a supervisor in the internal communications room who has been a race volunteer for 14 years.

Now we use satellite phones and we have satellite modems essentially for data transfers, he said. Its very slow, but it works.

In one room, Art Aldrich worked Wednesday in relative darkness, his face illuminated by his computer screen. He monitored a live video of two Iditarod pundits at the Nikolai checkpoint, 687 miles (1,100 kilometres) from the finish line on the races third day. Veteran musher Matt Failor appeared on the feed in real time.

Ladies and gentlemen, Matt Failor  live from Nikolai, Iditarod Insider interviewer Greg Heister announced, asking how the race was going for him.

So far, so good, Failor said, grinning. Are we really live right now? He waved at the camera.

Aldrich also relays questions from live video chats to camera operators in the field. He said its not the most sophisticated system, but it gets the job done. The fans love it, he said.

The live chats, which are posted in the paid subscription platform Iditarod Insider, have attracted an online community from at least 164 countries, according to Mike Vann in the technology war-room.

Its pretty amazing when we start interacting with them to see where people are joining us from, he said.

This year, race organizers introduced Gia, a digital sled dog mascot with a squeaky voice that fans can chat with through Facebook messenger. Before the race, the cartoon dog even helped organizers recruit donations of straw used for dog beds at the checkpoints, Iditarod officials said.

Veteran musher Scott Janssen is sitting out the race, but like other fans, is following the action through the GPS-rigged sleds required of every participant. As a competitor, he sees the benefits of GPS tracking and the satellite phones that mushers can now carry for emergencies.

Such technological additions make him feel safer  to a point.

But to be honest, I would say conservatively that 90 per cent of mushers would prefer that we had nothing at all on our sleds, Janssen said, adding that the technology eliminates the remote aspect of the race. It takes some of the toughness away from it. And thats why were doing that race, is to prove we can do this on our own, completely.

___

Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen in Anchorage contributed to this report.

___

Follow Rachel DOro at https://twitter.com/rdoro .

___

This story has been corrected to show that the quote from the Iditarod interviewer was misattributed.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Officials across the Tennessee and lower Mississippi valleys prepared Friday for more rainfall that could add water to already-overflowing rivers, while Mississippi officials ordered evacuations and closed roads as water continues to rise behind a levee.

Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order Thursday making it easier for Tennessee to recover from the effects of serious flooding, beginning the process for declaring a federal disaster. Parts of the state set records for rainfall last month, with flooding in homes, businesses, roads, farms and fields, and led to landslides and highway closures.

River levels remain high in parts of Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee, with more rain expected Friday and Saturday. There are flood worries along the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, as well as their tributaries and at reservoirs operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

In Mississippi, Warren County officials voted Friday to order evacuation of the Eagle Lake community, north of Vicksburg, even as state officials were closing two highways in neighbouring Yazoo County.

The region is being affected by flooding behind the Yazoo Backwater Levee, which protects thousands of square miles of the Mississippi Delta region from even worse flooding by the Mississippi River. But when officials close a floodgate keeping out the big river, water draining from the north has nowhere to go, rising inside the levee-protected area. That gate has been closed since Feb. 15 and is unlikely to reopen until after the Mississippi River crests at Vicksburg early next week.

Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said water could cut off the only remaining road to Eagle Lake. He says people arent being forced to leave, but Elfer warns the community may become inaccessible to firefighters and emergency medical services. Elfer says about 500 people live or have vacation houses at Eagle Lake.

Heavy rain this weekend could worsen a slow-moving disaster that will already flood more than 500,000 acres (200,000 hectares) of farmland.

In Tennessee, Lees order enables easier delivery of health care, insurance and relief supplies to 83 Tennessee counties affected by flooding. It also helps the repair of state and federal highways damaged by high water.

The order is retroactive to Feb. 6 and runs through April 7. Lee was scheduled to survey damage in Hardin County and other flood-stricken areas of west Tennessee on Friday.

TVA said Friday that water releases in Tennessee River tributaries were continuing at an aggressive pace as the agency manages river levels.

The river remains above flood stage at Savannah, Perryville and near Pickwick Dam in Tennessee, and Florence in Alabama, said James Everett, manager of the TVAs River Forecast Center.

Water releases at Kentucky Dam are near record levels, Everett said.

TVA is keeping an eye on the weather Friday and Saturday, when 1-3 inches (2-7.5 centimetres) could fall in the Tennessee River valley, Everett said.

TVA is urging people to use extreme caution if they plan to use rivers and lakes for fishing or recreation, as debris and high water pose dangers for boaters.

These are extremely turbulent waters and extremely high currents, Everett said.

Meanwhile, flood warnings and advisories remain in effect for the Mississippi River throughout Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. The river is falling at Memphis and is predicted to crest at Greenville, Mississippi, on Saturday. A flood warning also is in effect for the Tombigbee River at Amory in Mississippi.

____

Amy contributed from Jackson, Miss.
ALBANY, N.Y. - The remains of a New York sailor killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 will be brought home for reburial.

Charles Stern, nephew of Charles M. Stern Jr., says Friday that his uncles remains will be buried at Beth Emeth Cemetery outside Albany sometime this summer.

The Pentagon announced this week that the remains of the 26-year-old ensign had been identified.

Stern was among the 429 crewmembers killed when the USS Oklahoma capsized after being hit by aerial torpedoes during the surprise attack on U.S. military installations in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941.

Stern, a graduate of Albany High School and Dartmouth College, joined the Navy in 1940.

His remains were among the USS Oklahoma unknowns disinterred from a Hawaii cemetery in 2015.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Latest on flooding in the Deep South (all times local):

4:20 p.m.

Officials are ordering evacuations in a western Mississippi area where water is pooling behind a levee and predicted to cause record flooding.

The Warren County Board of Supervisors voted Friday to order evacuation of the Eagle Lake community, north of Vicksburg.

Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said water inside the Yazoo Backwater Levee could cut off the only remaining road to the community. He says people arent being forced to leave, but Elfer warns Eagle Lake may become inaccessible to firefighters and emergency medical services.

Elfer says about 500 people live or have vacation houses at Eagle Lake

The Yazoo Backwater Levee protects thousands of square miles of the Mississippi Delta region from even worse flooding by the Mississippi River. But when officials close a floodgate keeping out the big river, water draining from the north has nowhere to go, rising inside the levee.

___

8 a.m.

Gov. Bill Lee has signed an executive order making it easier for Tennessee to recover from the effects of serious flooding caused by heavy rains.

The order signed Thursday begins the process for declaring a federal disaster after parts of the state set records for rainfall last month. Rain caused flooding in homes, businesses, roads, farms and fields, and led to landslides and highway closures.

Lees order enables easier delivery of health care, insurance and relief supplies to 83 Tennessee counties affected by flooding. It also helps the repair of state and federal highways damaged by high water.

The order is retroactive to Feb. 6 and runs through April 7.

Lee is scheduled to survey damage in Hardin County and other flood-stricken areas of west Tennessee on Friday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The federal government has rejected $306 million in reimbursements for Californias repair of damaged spillways on the nations tallest dam, a state agency said Friday.

California has so far requested about $639 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the Oroville Dam repairs, said Lisa Lien-Mager of the states Natural Resources Agency. FEMA has agreed to cover $333 million.

Thats less than about a third of the $1.1 billion the states Department of Water Resources said it took to repair the dam. Spillways on the Oroville Dam crumbled and fell away during heavy rains in February 2017, forcing nearly 200,000 people to evacuate amid fears the dam would collapse. Disaster was ultimately averted, but the dam needed significant repair.

The agency rejected $306 million in repairs for the dams upper gated spillway because it was damaged prior to the heavy rain, FEMA spokeswoman Brandi Richard said.

Two separate independent engineering reviews indicate that a variety of problems existed at the dam prior to the February 2017 floods. FEMAs Public Assistance can only fund work directly linked to the declared disaster, Richard said in a statement.

California plans to appeal, though it has not yet received a formal memo from FEMA outlining its decision, Lien-Mager said. The state can seek reimbursement for up to 75 per cent of the cost and may be submitting more reimbursement requests soon.

Local water agencies are already paying some of the repair costs, and anything not covered by the federal government would be kicked to them.

We firmly believe that federally-required repairs to Oroville after a federally-declared emergency should qualify for full federal assistance, Jennifer Pierre, general manager for the State Water Contractors, which advocates for 29 local water agencies.

Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen, who represents Oroville, said state water officials have long failed to do routine maintenance. The Department of Water Resources, he said, must be more vigilant in its inspections and more thorough in its maintenance of the Oroville Dam for the safety of the people of Oroville and residents living downstream.

Republican U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, meanwhile, blamed the state for spending money on other things, such as a high-speed rail project, over fixing known deficiencies at the dam.

Last month, the Trump administration threatened to revoke $3.5 billion for Californias high-speed rail project, prompting a battle with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Theres no indication FEMAs decision is related.
NEW YORK - Goldman Sachs pinned a poll to its Twitter account asking what its employees should wear to work now that the investment bank has relaxed its dress code.

The winning choice? Hoodie & sneakers at 38 per cent. But suit came in a solid second place at 28 per cent. Least popular was midtown uniform, a look so ubiquitous that it has its own Instagram account .

The tongue-in-cheek poll pointed to a question gripping workplaces in an era when business casual  whatever that means  has become so accepted that even the most buttoned-up symbol of Wall Street power has surrendered to it. The 150-year-old company sent an internal memo this week announcing the time was right to move to firmwide flexible dress code while urging its 36,000 employees to exercise good judgment in this regard.

It can be pretty scary because what is acceptable and what is appropriate to wear to work is not an easy question to answer. A suit? Thats easy, said Chris Bossola, CEO of the Need Supply Co., a clothing and lifestyle store based in Richmond, Va.

The drift toward relaxed workplaces began 1990s when companies started introducing casual Fridays, said Robert Burke, CEO of Robert Burke Associates, a retail and fashion consulting firm. It rapidly became entrenched with the rise of West Coast tech giants like Amazon and Facebook and their young moguls.

Goldman was one of the last holdouts of a more formal dress code, Burke said.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbergs famous go-to outfit  jeans and a grey T-shirt  projects the confidence of the founder of a company that upended how people interact and companies advertise. It was when he wore a blue suit to a congressional hearing last year that observers said he looked diminished as lawmakers grilled him over Facebooks privacy policies.

The episode was a vivid reminder that jeans wont do in every setting. But Wall Street firms have had to get with the program as they compete with tech giants for young workers comfortable with ditching the suit and tie in most professional settings.

Goldman Sachs first relaxed its dress code for its technology and digital division employees in 2017. Expanding the policy to the rest of its workforce, Goldman cited its one firm philosophy and the changing nature of workplaces. The change comes three years after the countrys largest bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, adopted its own firmwide flexible dress policy.

The dress code is symbolic of a deeper cultural transformation at financial firms, which are trying to project themselves as innovation hubs where individuality and autonomy is emphasized. Goldman, which says one-quarter of its employees work in engineering-related roles, has in-house incubator to allow employees to develop ideas. J.P. Morgan Chase has plans to open a financial technology campus in Californias Bay Area.

The tone has been set from the top. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, who likes to emphasize his side gig as a DJ, has been known to show up tieless at formal events, as have the chief executives of JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup.

Of course, the business casual conversation often centres around men, probably because finance remains male-dominated at the top levels. Men held nearly 80 per cent of senior level and executive positions in U.S. investment banking and securities dealing in 2015, according to research compiled by Catalyst, an organization the promotes women in the workplace.

Women have also long faced a more complicated calculation then men when it comes to workplace attire.

Jennifer Hyman, CEO of Rent the Runway, reminded Goldman Sachs of that in a tweet that gently needled the investment for its male-centric poll. That gave Goldman Sachs the chance to tout its own efforts help women out sartorially: The investment firm put a Rent the Runway drop-off box at its Manhattan headquarters just last month.

So, what constitutes acceptable professional attire these days?

This is pretty much what we wear, said Ed Silhan, a chief revenue officer for an advertising tech firm, who was wearing black jeans and boots in downtown Manhattan. Flips, or playground sneakers  Id stay away from that. You know, beat-up Nikes that you play basketball with. Just look presentable.

Four years ago, Barclays admonished its staff not to wear jeans, flip-flops or T-shirts at its London headquarters. Goldman Sachs exhorted its employees to keep its broad and diverse client base around the world in mind when deciding what to wear, as did J.P. Morgan Chase when it slackened its rules three years ago.

The midtown uniform  slacks, button-downed shirt and fleece vest  has become something of a refuge for men trying to navigate a more laid-back culture fertile for missteps.

Thats probably a lazy solution, said Bossola of The Need Supply Co. The worst-case scenario is that next Monday at Goldman Sachs, employees all wear chinos and plaid shirts. The best case is that they make an effort to craft a wardrobe that works for their industry.
Last year, when Doug Fords government announced plans to repeal modern sex-ed and revert to an older version of the curriculum, several pundits in this province channelled their inner Bart Simpson and wrote a series of columns that might as well have run together as a single snarky sentence: Dont have a cow man!

Parents who opposed the repeal were characterized as nutty and reactionary. Based on the resulting public backlash, Debra Soh wrote in The Globe and Mail in July 2018, you would think we were facing an apocalypse.

Marni Soupcoff, writing in the National Post, declared that same month, The idea that this curriculum  and only this curriculum  is the difference between LGBTQ people being viciously persecuted and being respected as human beings is ridiculous.

Of course, these charges of overreaction were themselves reactionary.

Progressives did not argue that the provincial Conservatives repeal of modern sex ed would trigger the end of days and the vicious persecution of all gay and transgender students. Instead, the prevailing theory put forward by modern sex ed champions around LGBTQ issues was this: Under the older curriculum, a document lacking information about sexual diversity and same sex marriage, crucial information will go untaught, leaving a void that might be filled with prejudice towards LGBTQ students and students with LGBTQ parents.

None of us, to my knowledge, predicted a government snitch line.

But here we are.

2019 with a dash of 1984.

Last year, the Ontario Conservatives launched fortheparents.ca, a website where parents could complain about teachers who continued to cover elements of the scrapped, modern curriculum.

Granted the so-called snitch line is no longer active, but this doesnt discount the fact that champions of modern sex ed were totally correct to make a big stink about the governments repeal of the modern curriculum. In fact, in light of recent news, we could have made an even bigger stink.

This is because, according to a CBC story this week by Nicole Brockbank based on a freedom of information request, the provincial government didnt just set up a snitch line; it flagged some parent complaints made through the snitch line about teachers covering topics such as same sex marriage, masturbation and sexting, as allegations of professional misconduct.

Whats more, these complaints were recorded, according to the CBC, in the same category as complaints about teachers using racial slurs and making sexual advances toward students.

In other words, we are living in a province where teachers who mentioned same sex marriage in the classroom may have been written up alongside bigots and alleged sexual predators.

Lets review then: Not only is the current sex-ed curriculum serving LGBT students and parents ill, but, if a teacher within a school took it upon themselves to be explicitly inclusive of those families, that teacher risked having their name recorded alongside potential criminals.

Are we in the land of vicious persecution yet?

Id say were en route, but either way, who cares? Is vicious persecution the only circumstance in which we are supposed to make a fuss about social injustice?

Are there not lesser evils worthy of our outrage? Such as say: a tip line that wouldnt be out of place in a dystopian novel, one that threatened the reputations of educators whose only transgression was teaching students the basic facts of modern life?

And all because of formal complaints such as this: According to the CBC, the following statement comes from a parent who complained that a teacher in the Durham District School Board planned to teach kids about same sex marriage, which presumably means the teacher planned to announce that same sex marriage exists and is perfectly legal. (I doubt she planned to show her class a slideshow of photos from Ellen DeGeneres wedding.)

I do not want my child learning about this vile act and Mr. Ford has made it clear that she should be fired (and go to hell) for teaching this, the complaint reads.

You have to love that go to hell appears in parenthesis, as though an eternity of roasting in the fires of damnation is an afterthought to losing ones teaching post.

But people opposed to modern sex ed dont typically have their priorities in order.

If they did, they might be more concerned about the fact that Mr. Ford wasted their money.

The great irony about this whole thing is that the provincial government, according to the CBC, doesnt even have authority over matters relating to the conduct of individual teachers.

Who does?

The Ontario College of Teachers, an entirely different body.

In trying to prove his social conservative chops, our conservative leader  he of the anti-gravy-train clan  has used public funds to produce ever more government red tape.

Its not the end of the world, but its crappy, ineffective leadership that puts good teachers and vulnerable kids in harms way.

Have a cow, man.

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OTTAWAThis is going to make us better.

Its the kind of thing a coach tells her players in the locker room after a tough loss. We can use this to grow. Losing builds character. Et cetera. Youve seen the movies.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed a similar sentiment Thursday when he took to the podium at the National Press Theatre on Parliament Hill to make his most deliberate statement yet about the SNC-Lavalin controversy.

This has been a tough few weeks, he said. I can tell you without a doubt that I have taken, and will continue to take, many lessons from these recent days and weeks.

Ultimately, he continued, I believe our government will be stronger for having wrestled with these issues.

The tumult of recent weeks has exposed controversial elements of our system of government and the way power is sometimes wielded. While Trudeau said little about the specific lessons he says he has learned, experts have no shortage of ideas for avoiding similar trouble in future.

Lets discuss a few.

Read more:

Opinion | Tanya Talaga: Its time for Trudeau to say he is sorry

Liberal MP challenges Justin Trudeau over leadership style

Justin Trudeau admits he asked Jody Wilson-Raybould to revisit her decision on SNC-Lavalin

Split the MOJAG

Like Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former cabinet minister at the centre of this affair, Trudeau floated the idea of making a fundamental change to Canadas system of parliamentary governance: hiving off the position of attorney general from the justice minister.

Under the Westminster system that Canada inherited from Britain, the justice minister assumes a second role that no other cabinet members have. Under this role  attorney general  the justice minister has judicial powers that, according to constitutional convention, must be exercised independently of partisan concerns that otherwise occupy the government of the day.

This, in fact, is the crux of the controversy that has swamped the Trudeau government. Wilson-Raybould, who was minister of justice and attorney general (MOJAG) until Trudeau shuffled her to a new role in January, has accused the prime minister and staff in his office of inappropriately pressuring her to halt a criminal prosecution against SNC-Lavalin, including for political reasons such as the Liberals electoral fortunes. It does seem somewhat self-evident that a tension would exist between the need to toe the party line as a cabinet minister while simultaneously operating independent of such considerations as attorney general.

For Amanda Alvaro, co-founder and president of the media-strategy outfit Pomp & Circumstance, the idea of finally doing what has been debated for years and separating this dual role of attorney general and justice minister was the biggest and most significant thing to come out of the prime ministers press conference.

Theres a reason this has come up many times before, says Alvaro, because how do you vigorously protect and defend the independence of the AG and still have political discussions in the context of being the justice minister?

You cant, really, concurs Emmett Macfarlane, the associate chair of graduate studies at the University of Waterloos political-science department. Which is why its a good idea to separate them.

Political scientists have been writing about this for quite some time now, well before this, he says. I dont know that would have necessarily have prevented all of this from happening because they might take the same attitude with a separate attorney general, but in the long run, what you would have by separating those roles is you would develop a culture where the attorney general isnt treated just like any other cabinet minister and that we would recognize that theres a bit of a firewall between normal policy issues that cabinet ministers around the table deal with and the rule-of-law issues that an attorney general needs that independence to deal with. The institutional change would then, hopefully, be followed by a meaningful cultural change in how that role is treated.

On Thursday, Trudeau said he will seek an external opinion on whether to split the dual role of the MOJAG.

Treat grey areas as red zones

What the SNC-Lavalin scandal has revealed is that some of the day-to-day, behind-the-scenes business that occupies the Prime Ministers Office, federal ministers and their staffers, while not technically illegal, can often venture into what Trudeaus former principal secretary Gerald Butts has termed a grey area that was perceived by Wilson-Raybould  and indeed by much of the Canadian public at large  as inappropriately crossing ethical lines.

But if this grey area is going to cause so much confusion and consternation, wonders Macfarlane, wouldnt it be best to steer clear of that whole hornets nest in the first place? Hes also not sure that Trudeau, who seems steadfast in his opinion that he was only doing the right thing to protect SNC-Lavalin jobs in Quebec, has realized the potential cost of conducting parliamentary business in this grey area.

If Mr. Butts is acknowledging that this is a grey zone or grey area, why are you playing in a grey area? offers Macfarlane. The safe thing, to me, is to treat the grey area as, in fact, a red zone that you should avoid just for ethical propriety and thats where the discussion needs to be if theres going to be a lesson out of this. The prime minister, unfortunately, at todays press conference indicated he still feels nothing is wrong. I dont think hes actually being very self-reflexive in looking for a teachable moment, in looking for what lessons should be learned from that. The discussion shouldnt be What does the law allow? and thats going to be the baseline for our behaviour; the discussion needs to be What ethical boundaries should we add on top of the formal rules or laws that exist and how should we conduct ourselves to ensure that an attorney general doesnt have conflicting perceptions about the messages shes receiving?

Communicate better

Which brings us to the next point: shouldnt communication between the Prime Ministers Office and federal ministers be clear and specific enough that theres no room left for different truths to be perceived on different sides?

There was an erosion of trust, a lack of communications to me and to my office by Raybould, Trudeau said Thursday, and that is certainly something that Im having to reflect on as a leader, and that Im looking forward to improving on as we go forward. Ive always tried to foster an environment in which people can come and share with me their concerns, large or small, whether they be cabinet ministers or caucus members. But there is always room for improvement, obviously.

So how to improve those communications? How does Trudeau establish, as Alvaro puts it, a more direct, open access between himself and his members? This is something the SNC-Lavalin affair is, at least, going to force the PMO to figure out.

How do you clear the lines of communications between his office and the ministers office? I dont know what that looks like, says Alvaro. Maybe it looks like more regular meetings, maybe it looks like having more than one person at those meetings so that nothing is misinterpreted, maybe it looks like a written summary coming out of those meetings so that everybodys on the same page. I think any of those items would have been helpful.

Ben Rayner is the Stars music critic and based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @ihateBenRayner

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The leader behind LaCroix took the unusual step of apologizing for a bad quarter. Then he blamed the flavored fizzy water maker's weak performance on "injustice" and compared the company to a disabled person.

National Beverage shares dived 16 percent Friday, one day after CEO Nick Caporella's bizarre explanation for the company's first quarterly sales decline in five years and 39 percent drop in profit. He insisted that neither "negligence nor mismanagement nor woeful acts of God" could be blamed. "Much of this was the result of injustice!" he said, apparently referencing challenges of the drink's "natural" marketing.

The market for sparkling water has exploded in recent years, as consumers shift away from sugary sodas. Sales of seltzer have ballooned 42 percent in the past five years, according to Beverage Marketing Corp, with Americans spending $2.2 billion on sparkling water last year, Nielsen data shows.

Though LaCroix has soared along with the rapid growth of carbonated waters, the brand faces increasing competition from deep-pocketed rivals. Last year, PepsiCo released its own line of sparkling water called Bubly and spent $3.2 billion to purchase SodaStream, the do-it-yourself seltzer maker. Coca-Cola made an acquisition of its own, snapping up the Mexican sparkling water company Topo Chico, which has a devoted following in Texas. Fizzy drink makers also are branching out, offering a multitude of flavors and variations that are caffeinated, alcoholic and infused with cannabis.

The Florida-based company said revenue fell about 3 percent, to $221 million, in the three-month period ended Jan. 26. Earnings plunged from $41 million to $25 million.

In October, National Beverage was hit with a lawsuit that claims LaCroix contains synthetic ingredients and that its "all-natural" claims are false and misleading to consumers. The company has denied the allegations.

Caporella's statement following the earnings report did not address the lawsuit, but he continued with a jarring metaphor.

"Managing a brand is not so different from caring for someone who becomes handicapped," he wrote. "Brands do not see or hear, so they are at the mercy of their owners or care providers who must preserve the dignity and special character that the brand exemplifies."

As Mother Jones reported last year, Caporella has a history of lacing his corporate statements with unconventional language. In the company's 2018 annual report he wrote:

"LaCroix - look at it again. La La, do you feel it, sense it? It lures you into being refreshed by just thinking of the name . . . LaCroix. That name has inspired a cult and has created an awareness that leaves each and every consumer with that special feeling of . . . the Joy of LaCroix."

Last year it was revealed that some of Caporella's boastful public statements about the company had drawn the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Financial regulators had asked National Beverage to clarify remarks the company had made in 2017 regarding "proprietary techniques" used to help speed its business growth. The agency also reminded National Beverage that its public statements must be accurate. The SEC said it had completed its review of the issue.
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

By Daniel Immerwahr

Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 516 pp. $30

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Did you know that for decades, clothing manufactured in the Northern Mariana Islands could be labeled "made in the USA" even though federal minimum-wage laws didn't apply to its makers? Historian Daniel Immerwahr's meandering but never boring book is packed with such tidbits. He begins "How to Hide an Empire" with what he calls the "logo map" of what we usually think of as the United States: that familiar shape "bounded by the Atlantic, the Pacific, Mexico, and Canada." But, of course, our national territory includes far more: Alaska and Hawaii (states only since 1959), Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and a curious collection of other bits, from tiny Pacific islands to Guantanamo in Cuba. And in the past it included still more, most notably the Philippines, an American colony for almost half a century. Although since 1776 we've proudly considered ourselves anti-colonial, we were, for some decades, one of the five largest empires on Earth.

Often the imperial territories were under military rule, and often they were laboratories for things that couldn't be done at home. Daniel Burnham, builder of the famous "White City" of plaster for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, built an entire, more permanent city in the Philippines. Baguio, in the mountains, was to be the islands' summer capital, away from the heat of Manila. Back home, of course, no architect would be hired to build a whole new capital city. Some experiments were more sinister: Puerto Rico was a prime testing ground for a wide variety of drugs, including the birth-control pill. Its earlier versions left women's cervixes deformed, leading researchers to lower the dose when the pill finally reached the mainland.

Immerwahr sometimes wanders far afield, almost like a psychoanalysis patient in free association. He tells us, for instance, about the unhappy marriage of a distant cousin of his to the German chemist who invented the first poison gas used in World War I. The same man also figured out how to extract nitrogen from the air for use in fertilizer. The only connection to the American empire is that a previous source of fertilizer nitrates was the uninhabited "guano islands" in the Pacific and Caribbean claimed by the United States in the 19th century. And do we need a whole chapter on how English became the world language? A sign of American influence, yes, but surely the British empire's spread around the globe had even more to do with it. His occasional attempts to be jocular fall flat. After quoting President William McKinley as saying he wasn't sure exactly where the Philippines were, he writes: "The geography section . . . was the easiest part of the exam. The real head-scratcher was the final essay question, worth most of the grade: (BEGIN ITAL)Having seized Spain's Empire, what should the United States do with it?"(END ITAL)

What we did with it, in fact, was to wage the Philippine War. Filipino nationalists had long believed that we supported their struggle for independence, only to find the United States turning these newly seized islands into a colony. In America's first counter-guerrilla war in Asia, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos died. To his credit, Immerwahr does not stint on describing this brutal conflict, including the way American troops routinely tortured nationalist captives with the "water cure" - pouring huge quantities down a man's throat until he talked.

This book, however, is somewhat one-dimensional. The full story of any empire must include what it does to the home country. In France, for example, the arrival of 1 million or so pieds-noirs, white settlers who fled Algeria after it became independent, became a powerful source of support for the French far right. In Spain, Africanistas - Spanish army officers who had crushed a string of rebellions in the country's North African colonies - were the core of the movement that overthrew Spain's elected government and installed one of their own, Francisco Franco, as longtime dictator. "Without Africa," Franco declared, "I can hardly explain myself."

Similarly, the Philippine War came home. Returning veterans took jobs in police departments, and, particularly in the South, the water cure came with them. In Scott Martelle's "Blood Passion," he describes how Karl E. Linderfelt, a veteran of the war as a Colorado National Guardsman, later became a ruthless commander in a guerrilla war in his home state: a bloody 1914 battle between the Guard and striking coal miners that left many miners dead. Linderfelt recruited fellow veterans to help suppress the strike, and he spoke of the miners he trained his machine gun on as "the enemy." At one point he broke the stock of his rifle over a union organizer's head, later complaining that he had "spoiled an awful good rifle."

Even more far-reaching ways in which the Philippine experience has haunted us are detailed in Alfred W. McCoy's brilliant "Policing America's Empire." We think of the intrusive surveillance state - from J. Edgar Hoover's huge files on Americans he thought subversive to the National Security Agency's vacuuming up of billions of our text messages and emails - as a home-grown problem. But its ancestry lies in the Philippines. The independence movement was suppressed not just by American military might but by a massive surveillance apparatus. Four hundred and fifty U.S. Army officers throughout the archipelago were ordered to collect information on the movement's "civilian sympathizers." Two hundred undercover agents in Manila alone gathered more detail about any people or groups that might be a threat to American colonial rule. By the 1920s, the American-controlled Manila police had some 200,000 alphabetized file cards of data, covering roughly 70 percent of the city's population.

Ralph H. Van Deman, the officer who crafted this whole system, later constructed and was the first chief of a nationwide military surveillance operation against American radicals during the Red Scare that disfigured the United States for several years after we entered World War I. Still later, after retiring as a major general, he ran a private intelligence bureau that traded vast amounts of information with his friend Hoover until Van Deman's death in 1952.

Immerwahr is right to remind us of victims like those Puerto Rican women, but the legacies of colonialism are never in colonies alone.

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Hochschild is the author of nine books, most recently "Lessons From a Dark Time and Other Essays."
Lauren Wilkinson's debut, "American Spy," is a moving family story and a first-class thriller set in the context of lethal American meddling in the politics of another nation. Marie Mitchell, whose father is a cop from Queens and whose mother hails from Martinique, joined the FBI out of college in the 1980s. A black woman amid a throng of white men, she is going nowhere until she is sent by the CIA for an undercover assignment to Burkina Faso. What happens there doesn't stay there, and a few years later Marie, now the mother of twin four-year-old boys, finds a man with a gun in her bedroom. His mistake. Her attacker dispatched, Marie and sons vamoose to Martinique, where she writes a long, explanatory letter - this novel - to her boys. Bahni Turpin delivers the general narrative in a warm confident voice and is, in dialogue, a virtuoso of accents and manner. Both novel and performance are outstanding. (Random House Audio, Unabridged, 10 3/4 hours)

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James Atlas' heartfelt memoir of his vexed friendship with Philip Roth is available exclusively in audiobook form. Atlas reads the work himself, and his voice - that of the bookman, rather than professional narrator - is saturated with feeling. The Atlas-Roth relationship began in the early 1970s when Ross sent Atlas a congratulatory letter about a biography Atlas had written of the poet Delmore Schwartz. Atlas conveys the awe and admiration he felt for Roth, "the most charismatic person I've ever known, the largest presence, the funniest, the most brilliant, the most profound." We can also hear his dismay as he describes the more unfortunate aspects of the pair's on-again-off-again friendship. A prickly and sometimes downright impossible customer, Roth was especially exasperating as Atlas worked on a biography of Saul Bellow, a work Roth had encouraged him to take on, but which severed their friendship for a time. The memoir is an affecting meditation on the life of a writer, on aging, friendship - and the disappointments that always seem to overshadow successes even for a "giant of American letters" like Philip Roth. (Audible Studios, Unabridged, 1 1/3 hours)

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The plot of Fiona Barton's third novel has a chilly surprise around every bend, confounding our expectations in the most satisfying way. It begins with the disappearance in Thailand of two 18-year-old English women, soon discovered dead in sordid circumstances. It is also a tale of parental anguish and ruthless media coverage. Rich in character and suspense, the book is delivered by four superb narrators: Katharine McEwan, Fiona Hardingham, Nicholas Guy Smith and Susan Duerden, each covering sections devoted to the perspectives of four characters. There is Alex, one of the dead girls, who had traveled with the other victim, a thoroughly bad egg only interested in drinking, drugs and hookups. There is Lesley, Alex's frantic mother; and two regulars from Barton's previous novels: Detective Inspector Bob Sparkes; and reporter Kate Waters, who happens to be the mother of the prime suspect who is also missing. This is a fine performance of a highly sophisticated crime novel. (Penguin Audio, Unabridged. 11 1/2 hours)

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Powers reviews audiobooks every month for The Washington Post.
I.M.: A Memoir

By Isaac Mizrahi

Flatiron. 384 pp. $28.99

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In the final scene of "Unzipped," a documentary that chronicles the launch of designer Isaac Mizrahi's 1994 fall collection, its subject rises at dawn and heads to a corner newsstand in Manhattan to read reviews of his show. Sporting a cap to tamp down his thick black morning hair (and mask his identity), Mizrahi scans a particularly laudatory newspaper column. Looking into the camera, clearly awed by the praise, he says, "They gave it to me." It's a vulnerable scene in a film that largely presents a stylized version of Mizrahi and his inner circle. Between the celebrity cameos and clips of the designer's favorite old films, we come away with some essentials about Mizrahi: He is self-doubting, frenetically creative, something of a depressive and drawn to powerful women.

Much has happened in the 25 years since "Unzipped": Mizrahi has seen his collections both praised and panned; designed for opera, dance and film; performed cabaret; featured his brand at Target; gotten married; and become a fixture on the shopping channel QVC. Now Mizrahi, 57, has a new memoir, "I.M." Here, in warm, witty and conversational prose, the designer shares the trials of growing up in a Syrian-Jewish community in Midwood, Brooklyn, and shows us how he forged his way out to become a widely known name in the world of fashion.

Mizrahi begins in his tight-knit childhood neighborhood, a place where reverence for traditional gender norms and ostentatious wealth, combined with what Mizrahi describes as a hypocritical dedication to the appearance of religiosity, made life difficult for him. "I stuck out like a chubby gay thumb," he says. Mizrahi describes his mother, Sarah, erudite and a devotee of high fashion. With feathers and fur trim, she transformed "cheater" knockoffs into "important" pieces. She served as a tacit foil to his father, the owner of a children's wear business, whose more provincial, sometimes callous views often frightened Mizrahi. Mizrahi's parents and two older sisters were driven by a desire to outmatch their more wealthy neighbors in everything from synagogue clothing and home furnishings to young Isaac's post-bar-mitzvah spread.

That Mizrahi dedicates the book to his mother, now in her 90s, is fitting. She looms large as a mentor and confidante. When Mizrahi, at age 6, asked for a Barbie doll, his mother acquiesced, fighting off her hesitation and tossing the toy into her cart at the local variety store. Mizrahi credits his mother with somewhat passively approving a more worldly view of humanity than the one held by his relatives and neighbors. "She was my cheerleader, filling me with her confidence if I lacked my own," he writes, even if "she felt too bound by the tradition of her upbringing to give me the consistent acknowledgment I needed."

Mizrahi negotiates his repressive, lonely childhood - punctuated with insults and mockery from rabbis and schoolmates alike - by hiding in a self-made bedazzled world. In Yeshivah of Flatbush, he disco-dances to the beat of daily prayers and defaces religious books with sketches of shoes and hairstyles in the margins. Once home, he sneaks dollars from his father's wallet and spends the money on treasures he unearths from the discount bin at the local trimmings store. Mizrahi then uses the scraps to construct his own puppets, decking them in glittery finery. He even builds them a stage in the family's garage.

"My commitment to the puppet theater was obsessional," Mizrahi recalls. "At that point I was choosing between creativity and the dark side of the gift, serious depression." It's a pattern, he says, that ultimately repeats itself throughout his life. "Unless I'm making something - unless I'm working - I'm fighting off fear and some form of sadness."

Mizrahi's life changes drastically when he's allowed to take the subway every day into Manhattan to attend the High School of Performing Arts. He begins to come to terms with his depression, his anxiety about being gay and his tortured battle with his weight. At the school, surrounded by similarly creative cohorts, a borough away from his family and steps from nightclubs such as Studio 54 and the Mudd Club, Mizrahi finds true friends, fun and a foothold for his talent. Later, he attends college at the Parsons School of Design and works at his first summer internship, with designer Perry Ellis.

From there "I.M." moves rather quickly through Mizrahi's rise in the late '80s as a maverick Soho-based designer, recounting the many retailers, stylists and fashion journalists he meets along the way. Mizrahi drops a lot of names, especially of the stars he dresses and for whom he designs clothes - his childhood idols Liza Minelli, Barbra Streisand and Audrey Hepburn, Diane Sawyer, Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton and Elizabeth Taylor, to name a few. While not as deeply resonating as the earlier parts of the book - it sometimes feels like Mizrahi is heeding an internal obligation to credit the many people who helped pave his path to success - he does share some trenchant memories of friendships he has had across his career. Mizrahi recalls at length his bond with Minelli, an early champion of his work and a frequent purchaser of pieces from his line at Bergdorf Goodman. Whether he was fitting the fidgety, ever high-kicking Minelli with his garments or accompanying her to downtown bars and clubs, Mizrahi observes that Minelli "was always surrounded by people who didn't seem to have her best interest at heart."

He also opens up about his 30-year relationship with Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour, who visited his atelier early on to express interest in his designs. Over time, Wintour's "opinion began to matter in my life as much as in my work," he writes. "She was the most important presence at my shows. ... When Anna sat, the show started." The two had frequent dinners together at her apartment and attended awards shows and charity events arm in arm. The friendship foundered about six years ago, Mizrahi says, recalling a typical moment he was agonizing backstage before the runway launch of one of his collections. Wintour hadn't yet arrived: "After about twenty minutes it was obvious she wasn't coming and we filled the seat. It was a blow. I took it as a sign that my years as a couturier were waning."

That passage, like many others in "I.M.," is heart-rending, showing us how vulnerability and self-doubt mingle with the glam and glitterati of the fashion world. Even in the face of a standing ovation, Mizrahi is circumspect: "I was never one to acknowledge joy in the present."

Fashionistas lured to Mizrahi's memoir hoping it reveals juicy background on the industry may be disappointed by its lack of dish. Yet "I.M." more than makes up for that with its honest rendering of how the underdog Mizrahi, whose self-image and livelihood are alternately crushed and affirmed, moves through the many creative phases of his life.

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Tucker is a Brooklyn-based journalist who writes primarily about health, genetics and cultural politics.
The band Nickelback has practically become rhetorical shorthand for "something everybody hates." Case in point: A polling firm determined in 2013 that Congress was less popular than some pretty reviled things, including lice, colonoscopies, root canals and the Canadian rockers known for such hits as the earworm "Photograph."

So when Nickelback was invoked Thursday on the House floor, it was, at first, mentioned in the usual way. During debate over a voting rights provision, Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., brought up the measure's low popularity, noting that four out of 77,000 people asked had favored it. And that, he concluded, is "probably about the percent of people who think Nickelback is their favorite band in this country - it's pretty low."
GODFREY  New Godfrey Village Clerk Bethany Bohn wants to make a good impression, and be very involved in the community.

Bohn, who has been deputy clerk for about three years, and has been interim village clerk since the retirement of long-time clerk Pam Whisler in December, was officially sworn in at Tuesdays Village Board meeting.

Whisler was Godfrey Township Clerk from 1985 to 1991, then became village clerk when the village was incorporated. She had been the only person to hold the position until Tuesday.

Bohn, 49, was sworn in by Mayor Mike McCormick.

Her husband, John, and youngest daughter, Piper, were with her. Two other children are away at college.

After her serving in that (interim) position, I think shes capable of doing an outstanding job, McCormick said Friday. I knew she was going to be good within the first week or two.

After working in real estate for more than a decade, Bohn came to the Township Assessors Office, then became deputy clerk in 2016.

Ive always been interested in it, she said of government. I really wanted to know how it worked. I started in real estate so going to the assessors office was an easy transition. Moving here was also an easier transition with Pam.

She said the big difference between being clerk and deputy clerk is responsibility.

A lot more responsibility, she said of her new job. Definitely a lot more responsibility.

Pam was so excited about it for so long that she genuinely got me excited about serving the community and making a difference, Bohn said. When she decided to get out she really pushed me to get certified and understand the process.

While certification is not required, she said it is always helpful to know what youre doing.

She is currently a registered municipal clerk with the state, and a certified municipal clerk with Municipal Clerks of Illinois.

She said it was a process of going to intense week-long classes to learn from experienced clerks.

While much of the public part of the job is dealing with the office, and with Village Board meetings, Bohn said there is also a lot of coordinating with other offices.

Really organizing how things are flowing, she said.

Bohn said community service is also important.

She noted that Whisler had started the e-waste and document shredding programs, which Bohn planned to continue.

That seems to be something thats really popular, she said.

She also planned to find new ways to serve.

Anything I can do, she said. Im going to be reaching out with the mayor and the RiverBend Growth Association and get involved.

She said people have been amazingly supportive.

Ive had a few people whove come in and said Wheres Pam? Bohn added. I have to tell them shes retired and they get a little sad, and I understand that because she was well-loved in the community.

Bohns appointment is for the remainder of Whislers term, and she would be up for reelection in two years.

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.
A federal court ruled this week that an Obama-era regulation designed to ensure children of color are not disproportionately punished or sent to special-education classrooms must take effect immediately.

Published in the final days of the Obama administration, the rules were supposed to have taken effect in 2018. But Education Secretary Betsy DeVos moved last summer to delay them for two years. The decision, issued Thursday, is a rebuke of her action.

Under the regulation, states will face tighter rules about how they count children in special education. Those new calculations may tip more states over a threshold that requires them to create a plan to ensure students of color are not being disproportionately targeted.

Rep. Robert "Bobby" Scott, D-Va., chairman of the House Education Committee, called the decision from U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan a "major victory" for students and parents.

"By forcing the Trump administration to implement the rule, the court's ruling will put us back on a track toward reversing systemic racial discrimination in education," he said. "The court's ruling confirms our suspicion that the Education Department's delay of the . . . rule had no basis in evidence or facts."

Education Department spokeswoman Liz Hill said, "We are reviewing the ruling and evaluating our options."

The decision stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, an advocacy group for children with disabilities.

The ruling found that the department violated the Administrative Procedures Act by failing to provide a "reasoned explanation" for its delay and failure to consider the costs of the postponement. It lifts the two-year delay.

The Obama-era rule changed how states must implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which governs special education in schools throughout the nation.

Congress, responding to concerns that students of color were overrepresented in special education, requires that school systems collect data on the demographics and treatment of special-education students. These data can help determine whether African American special-education students are more likely to be removed from mainstream classrooms, for instance, or whether Hispanic special-education students face harsher discipline.

If states identified problematic disparities, they could set aside federal special-education funds to help schools improve.

But the Obama administration became concerned that states had too much leeway to determine when a problem exists. A 2013 report from the Government Accountability Office found that states identified just 2 percent of districts nationwide as having problems with disparities. Advocates suspect the problem is far more widespread.

So in the closing days of the Obama administration, the department issued what is known as the "significant disproportionality rule," which more clearly defines how states should identify problematic school systems.

The Trump administration complained that the rule could lead to quotas, but the court said that reasoning was flawed.

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The Washington Post's Moriah Balingit contributed to this report.
EDWARDSVILLE  One of Edwardsvilles most prolific public servants, Jack Butler, has been part of countless service projects over the years, but has performed those countless acts a single way  consistently.

On Thursday, the Rotary Club of Edwardsville held its regular weekly meeting at First Christian Church Fellowship Hall in a special way, throwing a surprise celebration for Butler in recognition of his 60 years of Rotary membership.

And not just 60 years of membership  60 years of perfect attendance.

Im sure glad you showed up today, Rotarian Rich Walker, who helped organize the celebration joked while addressing Butler, and the audience, Thursday.

He called Butler a true Rotarian.

Hes a great example of how to use your gifts and talent to serve others, Walker said.

Walker ran through some points of note in Butlers life.

He was born in Alton, but grew up in Edwardsville. He learned to fly a plane at the age of 12  was deemed the youngest pilot in the country by the Associated Press. Then was fighter pilot in the Korean War. Later in life, he flew children in need of medical treatments himself, on his own dime.

On March 10, 1959, Butler officially joined Rotary. His projects within the club are many, and include extensive work raising money to built two YMCAs. He still hasnt missed a meeting.

It blows my mind, said Rotary District 6460 Gov. Brian Barstead, who attended the celebration. Im 60 years old, and you look better than I do.

Jack wouldnt be here without this club, and this club wouldnt be here without Jack, he said. Were all one family.

Barstead and Rotary District 6460 Gov. Nominee Maura Donnelly presented Butler with a 60-year perfect attendance pin. Rotary only makes them up to 60 years, Barstead noted. In another five years, a one-of-a-kind pin will have to be specially made for him.

Edwardsville Mayor Mike Patton described Butlers accomplishments as legendary.

I hope this group is not only motivated to be great Rotary members, but to take that to their business, or take that to other parts of their lives, Patton said. When you commit to consistent attendance for this many years to the same organization, it really is one for the ages.

Patton read a signed proclamation naming March 10 Jack Butler Day in Edwardsville.

It concludes by saying Butler is an individual who truly loves Rotary, the community of Edwardsville and all of mankind with all of his heart.

Butler also was surprised Thursday by a special guest. His son, Tom, appeared  announced as a special guest to the meeting.

Oh my gosh!, Butler exclaimed, seeing him walk into the crowded room, before wrapping him in a hug.

The meeting concluded with Butler addressing the hushed audience in a soft voice. He spoke little of himself, but instead spoke of the merits of Rotary International.

There are too many words in the dictionary and not enough time to describe my feelings, he said. Its a sensation that I never, ever felt possible.

Butler said that overall, the celebration was about him, but about the organization.

Rotary is a living, breathing organism, he said, adding that its driven by relationships brought through community service.

This event was put together by very important people in my life.
SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday after undocking from the International Space Station, appearing to successfully complete the first mission of the vehicle the company designed to fly humans.

There were no people on board the spacecraft, built to carry four NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. The nearly-week long journey culminated when the spacecraft disembarked from the station about 2:30 a.m. Friday, fired its engine to slow down, and barreled through the thickening atmosphere on its fiery return to Earth.

The mission comes at a precarious time for brash billionaire Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO, who has come under fire for his sometimes erratic behavior.

The reentry is one of the biggest tests of the Dragon and of SpaceX, the company founded by Musk in 2002 with the ultimate goal of flying humans to Earth's orbit and beyond. If deemed a complete success, the mission would give NASA increased confidence in one of its prime contractors and propel the space agency a step closer to restoring human spaceflight from U.S. soil.

Since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, NASA has been unable to fly its astronauts. Instead, it has paid Russia for rides to the space station at an increasing price tag that now tops $80 million.

In 2014, NASA awarded contracts worth a combined $6.8 billion to SpaceX and Boeing to build spacecrafts capable of carrying NASA's astronauts to the orbiting laboratory 250 miles above Earth. Since then, both companies have faced delays and setbacks. But now, SpaceX has taken a major leap forward and is poised to fly its first test mission with two NASA astronauts on board later this year.

Boeing is scheduled to fly its first uncrewed mission to the station by next month at the earliest, though that date is likely to slip, officials have said.

SpaceX's uncrewed mission began early Saturday, when its Falcon 9 rocket blasted off in the predawn darkness from a historic launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the crew of Apollo 11 began their journey to the lunar surface.

Once aloft, the SpaceX craft traveled to the space station, whizzing around the Earth at 17,500 mph, catching up early the next morning. Before the mission, NASA officials had said the spacecraft's ability to dock autonomously to the station would be one of the biggest tests of the vehicle.

Russia, one of NASA's key partners on the space station, initially objected, citing concerns with SpaceX's computer systems that would fly the vehicle toward the station.

But like the launch, the docking went off without a hitch, and soon the three astronauts on board the station - NASA's Anne McClain, Oleg Kononenko of Russia, and Canada's David Saint-Jacques - were able to check out the first commercial space vehicle designed for human space flight ever to dock with the station.

In a call with the astronauts on board the station Wednesday, Vice President Pence said, "It was inspiring to see the launch, and it was actually more inspiring to see the docking, and to see you all open that door and float into that spacecraft knowing that we'll very soon have American astronauts arriving at the International Space Station in the same vehicle."

The successful landing is a coup for SpaceX and a relief for Musk, who said he wouldn't be able to relax until the spacecraft had landed safely.

Musk and his companies have been under scrutiny lately. The Securities and Exchange Commission fined him $20 million last year after it said he misled investors of his electric car company, Tesla, when he tweeted that he would take the company private. More recently, the SEC claimed he violated the terms of the settlement, which require an attorney to review tweets that could affect Tesla's stock price.

A judge in that case gave Musk until Monday to say why he should not be held in contempt for violating the terms of the settlement.

Musk has also faced trouble at SpaceX. The Air Force recently announced it was reviewing the certifications it had granted SpaceX that allow to launch national security payloads. After Musk smoked marijuana during a podcast appearance, NASA announced it was conducting a safety review of SpaceX and Boeing. And Bloomberg News reported Thursday that Musk's marijuana use also prompted the Pentagon to review his security clearance.

Despite the distractions, Friday's landing appeared to be another triumph for SpaceX, and validation of years of work.

Leading up to the reentry, Musk had said he was worried about whether the spacecraft would end up in an uncontrollable spin.

The Dragon is outfitted with abort thrusters that make the spacecraft asymmetrical, which he said "could potentially cause a roll." But he said he thought it was "unlikely" since the company had run "simulations a thousand times."

Still, he added "hypersonic reentry is probably my biggest concern."
SPRINGFIELD  Suicide is a problem both lawmakers and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention think Illinois can better address.

The most recent data available show 1,474 Illinoisans died by suicide in 2017, a rate of one person every six hours. Thats more than four times the number of alcohol-related motor vehicle deaths that year, and it makes suicide the 11th leading cause of death in Illinois.

Yet the state has only one entity responsible for suicide prevention, an advisory board created in 2004 called the Illinois Suicide Prevention Alliance.

Although Steve Moore, co-chair on the board of AFSP Illinois, acknowledged the Alliances work at a news event Wednesday, according to a press release, the state devotes insufficient resources to an obsolete prevention strategy.

Theres really no one driving suicide prevention in this state, Moore said, noting that the Prevention Alliance has neither budget nor staff.

That is why Chicago Democratic Sen. Heather Steans is sponsoring legislation on behalf of AFSP that would create a new Office of Suicide Prevention within the states Department of Public Health.

The new office, staffed by a director and an undetermined number of dedicated personnel, would direct the existing Alliance to create a new state suicide prevention strategy, and then help implement it.

The Alliances current prevention strategy is based on the 2002 guidelines and recommendations of the U.S. Surgeon General. In 2012, however, the Surgeon General released new data and research, and updated its prevention strategy.

Steans bill would make the Illinois Alliance update its statewide prevention strategy based on these new findings.

Moore said this translates to making sure health care systems recognize that primary care doctors are the first line of defense against suicide, and, more generally, put greater emphasis on training and intervention. This is because, according to the legislation, over 30 percent of people are receiving mental health care at the time of their suicide, while 45

percent have seen their primary care physician within one month of their death.

Consistent with national trends, the rate of suicide in Illinois went up 38 percent from 2004 to 2017, from 8.11 deaths per 100,000 people to 11.19 deaths per 100,000.

The Prairie State, though, has one of the lowest suicide rates of any state.

One amendment has been added to Senate Bill 1425 since it was assigned to the Senate Public Health Committee. It is scheduled for a hearing before that committee on March 12.

Reach Capitol News Illinois reporter Grant Morgan at gmorgan@capitolnewsillinois.com
WASHINGTON - The prevailing reaction to Paul Manafort's 47-month prison sentence Thursday has been: Is that all!? How could a guy whose crimes merited between 19 and 24 years, according to sentencing guidelines, escape with less than four?

The irony for Manafort, though, is that it could make his decision to lie to special counsel Robert Mueller all the more painful.

To recap: Manafort reached an agreement to cooperate with Mueller ahead of a second federal trial separate from the one he was just sentenced for. But the deal fell apart after the former Trump campaign chairman lied to investigators about his contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate allegedly tied to Russian intelligence (among other topics). Manafort will be sentenced in that second trial next week, where he could face as many as 10 more years in prison.

Manafort's attorneys have argued that his sentences should be served concurrently, i.e., at the same time. In that case, the first sentence would likely be all that mattered, practically speaking, given it carried many more potential years in prison.

But while that might have made sense if Manafort had been given a two-decade sentence by the first judge, T.S. Ellis, it might now look less appealing to the second judge, Amy Berman Jackson.

Jackson, after all, is the judge who ruled that Manafort had indeed lied to investigators. In doing so, she officially voided his cooperation agreement. And while Ellis is known to be skeptical of sentencing guidelines for the kinds of white-collar crimes Manafort was convicted of - and suggested he wasn't all that impressed with Mueller's investigation - Jackson is known to be tougher. She's the judge who jailed Manafort for witness-tampering. In ruling Manafort had lied, she said that his "concessions comes in dribs and drabs, only after it's clear that the Office of Special Counsel already knew the answer" and that he was "withholding facts if he can get away with it." And she's also the judge who recently read Roger Stone the riot act for his social media posting featuring her face next to what she deemed to be crosshairs.

Judges have broad latitude when it comes to sentencing. While Jackson is supposed to sentence Manafort according to the severity of his crimes, her decision on whether the sentences should run concurrently is completely up to her. And it seems possible she might now look at his first sentence and decline to do that - or even, if she does run them concurrently, sentence him to more years than Ellis did.

And if that were the case, it would mean that Manafort's lies to Mueller would have come back to bite him in a big way. It would mean that Manafort could have been out in just a few years if he had played ball with Mueller, but that his decision not to would extend his sentence significantly.

We don't yet know Manafort's motivations for continuing to lie to investigators. There is some thought that perhaps he never really intended to cooperate because he was headed to prison for a very long time anyway. Except we're now learning that wasn't a given. And Manafort, it turns out, may have done himself a real disservice.
For the Intelligencer

EDWARDSVILLE  The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Research, Education and Outreach will host 5-12th-grade students from across Southern Illinois at the regional Science and Engineering Research Challenge on campus Saturday, March 23.

The 35th annual competition will be held from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. in the Morris University Center. The SERC will feature the finest STEM-focused student projects from a 10-county area. The general public is welcome from 1-3 p.m. to view student posters.
The British Councilis the UKs international organisation for educational opportunities andcultural relations. We create international opportunities for the people of theUK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide. British CouncilUganda is based in Kampala and offers a full range of programmes includingexaminations, project management on behalf of other donors, and its own grantfunded projects. British Council has operated in Uganda since 1952 and its aimis to build cultural and educational relations between Uganda and theUK.
The UN World FoodProgramme (WFP) is the United Nations frontline agency against world hunger. Itis the largest and longest serving humanitarian agency in Uganda. Currently WFPfocuses on three priority areas: Saving lives in Emergencies; BuildingResilience through Predictable Safety Nets; Improving Nutrition &Mother-and Child Health; and Supporting Small Holder Farmers to Access Markets.WFP has operations in various parts of the Country.
Touched by the compassion of the nurses who tended to her...
A MiG-21 fighter of the Indian Air Force crashed on Friday near Bikaner in Rajasthan. According to reports, the fighter, which had taken off from the Nal Air Force base, crashed near Shobasar.

The ministry of defence said the pilot of the MiG-21 ejected safely. The MoD said initial inputs suggested a bird hit had caused the accident; a formal investigation will follow. The district administration rushed to the spot.

Today afternoon a MiG-21 aircraft on a routine mission crashed after getting airborne from Nal near Bikaner. Pilot of the aircraft ejected safely. Initial inputs suggest a bird hit. CoI will be investigating the cause of the accident.@PMOIndia @nsitharaman @PIB_India @IAF_MCC  Defence Spokesperson (@SpokespersonMoD) March 8, 2019

The MiG-21 entered service with the Indian Air Force in 1963 and various variants of the fighter have been operated. The Indian Air Force had said a MiG-21, flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, had shot down a Pakistani F-16 before going down on February 27.

The aircraft has had poor safety record in recent years. In Indian service, the MiG-21 has been involved in nearly 500 accidents, in which close to 200 pilots have lost their lives.
Pakistan has never seriously cracked down on militant groups that attack India, a leading US daily has said, warning that the threat of nuclear war between the two nations remains as a long-term solution to the conflict is unlikely without international pressure.

The New York Times in an Op-ed titled 'This Is Where a Nuclear Exchange Is Most Likely. (It's Not North Korea.)' said the current focus on North Korea's growing arsenal obscures the fact that the most likely trigger for a nuclear exchange could be the conflict between India and Pakistan.

The paper said the relative calm after last week's confrontation between the two nations is not a solution.

"As long as India and Pakistan refuse to deal with their core dispute the future of Kashmir they face unpredictable, possibly terrifying, consequences," it said.

The current crisis started on February 14, when a suicide bomber killed at least 40 CRPF personnel in Pulwama. Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Muhammed took responsibility for the attack.

While the JeM is on America's list of terrorist organisations and is formally banned in Pakistan, the group has been protected and armed by the Pakistani intelligence service, the paper said.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.

The situation could have easily escalated, given that the two countries have fought three wars over 70 years, maintain a near-constant state of military readiness along their border and have little formal government-to-government dialogue.

The next confrontation might not end so calmly, the paper said.

The two countries have crossed into dangerous territory, with India attacking Pakistan and engaging in aerial duels. The next confrontation, or the one after that, could be far more unthinkable, it said.

Pakistan has never seriously cracked down on militant groups that attack India.

Pakistani authorities said they detained 121 members of various armed groups, including a brother of Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Muhammrd, and planned to seize assets of militants on the United Nations terrorist list.

But Pakistan has rarely followed through on such promises, the paper said.

Without international pressure, a long-term solution is unlikely, and the threat of nuclear war remains.

China is a major ally and lender to Pakistan, and if it stopped blocking moves in the United Nations Security Council to add Azhar to the United Nations terrorist list, it would signal to Pakistan that it has to curb the militant groups, the daily said.
US President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in jail for tax fraud on Thursday.

Manafort's crimes were exposed during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russia's role in the 2016 US election. This is the stiffest punishment given to an aide of the president in the probe. He is one of the six top aides who were part of Trump's presidential campaign to be charged in Mueller's Russia probe.

According to reports, Manafort asked for mercy but did not show remorse for his actions. US District Judge T.S. Ellis asked the Republican political consultant to pay a fine of USD 50,000 and restitution of just over USD 24 million.

Ellis also noted that the official guidelines for a prison sentence of 19 to 24 years was excessive, in response to calls for a harsher punishment. Prosecutors had not sought a specific sentence, but admitted that it was less than what even the defense lawyers had asked for. Ellis further said that the time served by Manafort, who has been in jail since June 2018, would be deducted from his sentence.

Manafort did not testify in court, and the testimony against him was provided by his former deputy Rick Gates.

Other aides of Trump who were charged in the Mueller probe are former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who admitted to lying to the FBI with regard to colluding with Russia, and Trump's ex-personal attorney Michael Cohen. Cohen also testified against Trump, admitting to tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and fraud.

Donald Trump has denied collusion with the Russians, calling the Mueller probe a witch-hunt, and Russia has denied any role in the 2016 presidential election.
New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) Snapping its downward trend, gold prices Friday witnessed a rise of Rs 200 to Rs 33,270 per 10 grams at the bullion market here on fresh buying from jewellers amid firm trend overseas, according to the All India Sarafa Association.

Tracking gold, silver advanced by Rs 120 to Rs 39,100 per kg due to increased offtake by industrial units.

Traders said with China's export data registering a decline thereby indicating a weaker global economic outlook, led to safe-haven buying from the jewellers.

Besides, firm trend overseas aided in upward movement of the yellow metal, they added.

Globally, spot gold traded higher at USD 1290.60 an ounce and silver held steady at USD 15.08 an ounce in New York.

In the previous six sessions, gold had lost total Rs 1,130.

In the national capital, gold of 99.9 per cent and 99.5 per cent purities gained Rs 200 each to Rs 33,270 and Rs 33,100 per 10 grams, respectively.

However, sovereign gold held steady at Rs 26,400 per 8 grams.

Silver ready rose by Rs 120 to Rs 39,100 per kg, while weekly-based delivery advanced by Rs 108 to Rs 38,310 per kg.

Silver coins held flat at Rs 80,000 for buying and Rs 81,000 for selling of 100 pieces. PTI VHP HRS
New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) The government Friday gave out the 7-croreth free cooking gas (LPG) connection as the scheme to make available cleaner fuel in every household kitchens runs ahead of schedule.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said 7 crore connections have been realised in last 34 months under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) which translates into nearly 69,000 connections per day.

PMUY was launched on May 1, 2016, with a target to give 5 crore connections to women member of poor households by March 2019. The target was later raised to 8 crore connections by 2021 and now envisages giving all households a connection.

The scheme together with a government push to replace polluting firewood in kitchens has led to LPG coverage rising to 93 per cent of the population from 55 per cent in May 2014, he said.

"On the occasion of International Women's Day, we have crossed 7-crore connection mark. The scheme is running ahead of schedule," he said on the occasion. "As many as 42 per cent of the total connections have gone to SC/ST."

The maximum 1.26 crore connections have been released in Uttar Pradesh followed by 78 lakh in West Bengal and 77.51 lakh in Bihar. As many as 63.31 lakh connections have been released in Madhya Pradesh and 55.34 lakh in Rajasthan.

Pradhan said nearly 6,800 new distributorships have been added to strengthen the rural supply chain.

As many as 23 crore refills or about 4 cylinders of 14.2-kg each have been bought by PMUY beneficiaries in a year, he said rejecting criticism of the scheme that households reverted to firewood and other mediums of cooking once the initial free LPG cylinder was exhausted.

Under the scheme, the government provides a subsidy of Rs 1,600 to state-owned fuel retailers for every free LPG gas connection that they give to poor households. This subsidy is intended to cover the security fee for the cylinder and the fitting charges.

The beneficiary has to buy her own cooking stove. To reduce the burden, the scheme allows beneficiaries to pay for the stove and the first refill in monthly instalments. However, the cost of all subsequent refills has to be borne by the beneficiary household.

In December 2018, the government extended PMUY to all poor households. The scheme originally targeted giving free LPG connections to mostly rural women members of below the poverty line (BPL) households. The list was later expanded to include all SC/ST households, forest dwellers, most backward classes, inhabitants of islands, nomadic tribes and tea estates among others.

The step will further increase penetration of LPG to 100 per cent households, he said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) hailed PMUY as decisive intervention by the government to facilitate the switch to clean household energy use, thereby addressing the problems associated with indoor household pollution.

Incidentally, functions previously organised to mark giving of 5-croreth and 6-croreth connection in August 2018 and January this year saw a Muslim lady being chosen for the purpose. On Friday, the 7-croreth connection was handed over to a Hindu lady and the connection after that to a Muslim lady.

Pradhan said, only 13 crore cooking gas connections were given in the first 50 years since the launch of LPG and almost a similar number of connections have been given out by the present government in last 55 months. PTI ANZ MKJ
(Eds: Changes headline, correction in para 5)

New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) To woo 90,000-odd auto-rickshaw drivers in Delhi ahead of the Lok Sabha election, the AAP government Friday approved a hike of Rs 1.50 per km in auto fares.

The government has also approved another recommendation of the fare revision committee on the base fare.

The meter-down charge of Rs 25 for first two kilometres has been revised to Rs 25 for 1.5 kilometres, said Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot.

"The revised rates will be implemented after the Transport Department's notification and recalibration of fare meters. I will write to the department for issuing a notification for implementation of the cabinet decision with immediate effect," Gahlot told reporters.

The existing fare is Rs 8 per km, which was recommended to be raised to Rs 9.5 per km by the fare revision committee. It will be a 18.75-per cent hike in auto fares in the national capital.

The auto fares were last revised by the then Sheila Dikshit government in 2013.

In reply to a question, the transport minister said that no approval by the Lieutenant Governor was needed since fare revision was not a "reserved" subject.

A large section of auto-rickshaw drivers vehemently backed the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, first in its maiden election in December 2013 and then in February 2015.

However, a section of the auto drivers gradually became disenchanted over various reasons, including non-revision of auto fares and no check on cab aggregators.

This was evident after the AAP fared way below its expectations during the civic polls in 2017.

The move is being viewed to woo back its vote bank. The transport minister said fares of other modes of public transport such as Gramin Sewa, eco-friendly Sewa among others, will also be revised later on.

Sources, however, claimed that the transport department cannot issue notification for fare revision without the approval of the Lt. Governor.

"This has also been pointed out by the law department of the Delhi government," one of the sources said.

They also claimed that recalibration of auto fare meters will be a "tedious" process since there are "no arrangements" in place to attend the large number of autos in the city.

Gahlot termed the hike as "marginal" comparing it with prevailing auto fares in Mumbai.

"In Mumbai, the per km fare is Rs 12.2. So, it's nominal hike in comparison," he said.

The committee has also recommended increase in waiting charges from current 50 paise per minute to 75 paise per minute, besides removing the cap of minimum wait of 15 minutes.

Rs 30 per hour (50 paise per minute) is currently chargeable when an auto is completely stationary after first 15 minutes.

As per recommendation of the committee, waiting charge of 75 paise per minute will be applicable if an auto is kept waiting by the passenger, or it's stuck in traffic, or moving at a speed of less than 6 km per hour during heavy traffic.

The existing night and luggage charges have been maintained by the committee.

As per transport department figures, there are around 90,000 autos plying on the national capital roads.

The 11-member auto fare revision committee was formed by the Delhi government in November last year. PTI VIT BUN PR VIT SMN

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Washington, Mar 8 (AFP) President Donald Trump said Friday he will not agree to a pact with China to resolve the months-long trade war unless it is a "very good deal."

The economic superpowers have been locked in a trade battle since last summer, striking out with steep tariffs on more than USD 360 billion in two-way trade, which is beginning to sap economic growth and business confidence.

"I am confident but... if this isn't a great deal, I won't make a deal," Trump told reporters as he departed the White House to visit tornado-damaged Alabama.

But he added, "We will do very well either way, with or without a deal." US and Chinese officials have said they are making progress toward a resolution of the dispute but a US diplomat in Beijing said Friday that an agreement was not imminent.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow acknowledged Trump's planned meeting at his Florida resort with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which officials said was expected to be held late this month to seal an agreement, could slip into April.

Kudlow told CNBC that talks have "advanced enormously," echoing comments from a Chinese diplomat in Beijing earlier Friday.

But "you saw them walk away from North Korea and just saying that... it could apply to trade," he said, referring to Trump's recent summit in Hanoi with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which ended early and without an agreement.

"I don't want to hang a timetable on this," Kudlow said. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer "is doing the best he can."

"There may be a meeting in Florida, Mar-a-Lago between the two leaders, maybe late this month or early next month."

He credited Trump's tough negotiating strategy and "aggressive tariffs" for bringing Beijing to the negotiating table.

"We have them over a barrel," he said. (AFP) SCY

SCY
Chandigarh, Mar 8 (PTI) Pharma major IOL Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IOLCP) Friday said it will expand its existing unit at Barnala and also set up an ancillary facility at Raikot in Punjab with a cumulative investment of Rs 347 crore.

The company's Managing Director Varinder Gupta met Chief Minister Amarinder Singh here to brief him on the projects, an official release said.

The company, which is the world's largest manufacturer of Ibuprofen as well as the second largest manufacturer of Iso-Butyl Benzene (IBB), is investing Rs 300 crore in a phased manner at its Barnala site.

This will generate additional direct employment for 800 people and indirect employment for 1,000, Gupta informed the chief minister.

IOLCP, through its ancillary unit, is investing another Rs 47 crore for establishing a new manufacturing facility at Industrial Focal Point, Raikot.

This will generate direct employment opportunity for 150 people and indirect employment for 300, said Gupta.

IOLCP is one of leading players in the pharmaceutical sector in the country with cumulative investment of Rs 700 crore. Its projected annual turnover for 2018-19 is Rs 1,700 crore. PTI CHS ABM

ABM
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o Plans to expand its customer reach across India through Blue Mount Direct



o The new initiative will help the company to add 600 distributors across the country



o Targets to achieve Rs. 600 crore turnover by 2020





New Delhi, 08th March 2019: Blue Mount Appliances, India's leading manufacturer of home and commercial water purifiers has today announced the launch of innovative sales vertical Blue Mount Direct. Through Blue Mount Direct company has planned to make 50,000 customers per month by spreading knowledge of the benefits of anti-oxidant alkaline water and giving a chance to be an entrepreneur. Blue Mount Appliances is a well-known company which introduced Blue Mount RO, Indias 1st Alkaline RO Water Purifier with LED display which revolutionised the sector.



On the occasion Mr. Vishal Gupta, Managing Director, Blue Mount Appliances said Blue Mount Direct will provide an opportunity for the customers to become an entrepreneur, self-reliant and educate others about the healthy water which only an Alkaline RO water purifier can provide. With the quality of water supply becoming increasingly questionable, it is prudent for one to invest in a sound water purification system.



Due to many products jumping on the clean water bandwagon, touting a range of technologies that guarantee pure water, one is ought to be confused between UV and RO but due to lack of information about the Alkaline RO systems they opt for regular RO water purifier which in long term effects the health of the customer. He further added.



The dealers and distributors who attended the Blue Mount Direct workshop were motivated & confident as the company is providing them with an opportunity to increase their income and the new technology will give them an upper hand in the competitive environment.



Blue Mount Direct: How it works



By enrolling under Blue Mount Direct, even the customer can become a dealer of Blue Mount Appliances and he can further add his or her customer base who can also become a dealer for the company. The company will educate the newly inducted Blue Mount representatives/dealers about the products and BLUE MOUNT CARE application for strong connectivity of customers, dealer distributors, and service franchises. So that quality sales and services can be provided to the customers. Till now only the urban population is aware of the benefits of drinking purified water but with the increasing pollution in the water bodies it becomes necessary to change the water Purifiers, Blue Mount has taken the challenge to switch healthy water purifiers who are using RO water purifiers and the household which is not having any purifiers, the company is giving a chance to adopt a pure and healthy journey, starting with healthy purifier with the latest technology.



About Blue Mount



Blue Mount is a leading water purifier brand that transformed the water purification landscape by introducing alkaline RO water purifiers with LED display for the first time in India. Water purifiers by Blue mount run on advanced water purification technology and promise 100% pure, safe and healthy water to households and industries. The company has already established its presence in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria and Nepal, Mauritius, Dubai and Saudi Arabia through brand associates. PWR

PWR
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An Optimized Desiccant Solar Still Device, NERO will extract Potable Drinking Water from Atmospheric Air using Solar Thermal Energy



Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India  Business Wire India



Indian Institute of Technology Madras is going to collaborate with Teerthaa, a sustainable technology company, to develop a device that can generate potable water from atmospheric air. Called NERO, the optimized desiccant solar still device will produce 4 to 5 litres of potable water per day.



The developed product will:

 Be cost efficient as it is intended to reach the mass market at affordable prices,

 Have negligible operating costs as its power source will be Solar Thermal Energy, and

 Have minimal maintenance cost as there are no moving parts involved in the equipment.



Teerthaa is a Sustainable Technology company that has been in the business of manufacture of atmospheric water generators and is focused on Research, Development and Commercialization of equipment that extracts atmospheric moisture for consumption.



The MoU was signed on 06th March 2019 by Prof. Ravindra Gettu, Dean (Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research), IIT Madras, and Ms. Durga Das, Chief Executive Officer of Teerthaa in the presence of Dr. M.P. Maiya, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, who will be coordinating the project and Dr S.S. Sivakumar, Mr. Jayakar Rao and Mr. Iftekhar Pathan, cofounders of Teerthaa.



Highlighting the importance of this development, Prof. Ravindra Gettu said, The collaboration is expected to have a major impact on remote areas and persons who are isolated from conventional water sources.



Speaking about this collaboration, Ms. Durga Das said, We are interested in exploring and perfecting different technologies of Atmospheric Moisture Extraction (AME) as a part of our major national mission of availability of potable water for the masses. At present, we are producing AMEs based on vapor compression refrigeration technology in several output configurations. With NERO we will bring to light and enhance the lives of millions of homes in the villages where water is scarce. Creating impact that reaches the masses is a mission very close to our hearts. We brought the 1st Indian built atmospheric water generator in India 14 years ago and hold a patent for the same. Now we will bring the first solution that will generate 4-5 litres of water without any electricity and maintenance free.



Sharing more information about this collaboration, Prof M.P. Maiya said, Atmospheric air is not only a major source of fresh water but also universally available. However, it is in the form of vapor, and the challenge is to collect it as liquid. The proposed solar still based on desiccant technology traps water molecules from the atmospheric air during the night and yields water during the day by utilizing solar energy. It would be a boon to places where even the brackish water is not available. M/s Theerthaa, formerly known as Akash Ganga, has pioneered the technology of extracting water from thin air and delivered systems to 2800 customers in the past 14 years saving six lacs litres of water every day. It is great that they are diversifying their activity by venturing to this new technology to serve society better with pure drinking water.



About Teerthaa



Teerthaa is a 14-year-old sustainable technology company engaged in the business of atmospheric water generators. Exploring and perfecting different technologies for atmospheric water extraction, Teerthaa is among the global pioneers in the field and has been focused end to end on research, development and commercialization of atmospheric water extraction equipment.



Teerthaa, formerly known as Akash Ganga holds the patent for the first Indian built atmospheric water generator and has also submitted 2 more applications for patents. Teerthaa has over 2800 installations across homes, offices, schools, colleges, Industries, Army and Railways.



Learn more: www.teerthaa.com



About IITM



Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) was established in 1959 by the Government of India as an institute of national importance. The activities of the Institute in various fields of Technology and Science are carried out in 16 academic departments and several advanced interdisciplinary Research Academic Centres. The Institute offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes leading to the B.Tech., M.Sc., M.B.A., M.Tech., M.S., and Ph.D., degrees in a variety of specialisations. IITM is a residential institute with more than 580 faculty and 9,500 students. Students from 18 countries are enrolled here. IITM fosters an active entrepreneurial culture with strong curricular support and through the IITM Incubation Cell (www.incubation.iitm.ac.in).



IITM has been ranked No.1 among Engineering Institutions in the India Rankings for three consecutive years  2016, 2017 and 2018. The Institute was also ranked as the No.2 in the category of Overall Institutions in 2017 and 2018 Rankings, released by the National Institutional Ranking Framework, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India- https://www.nirfindia.org



Learn more: www.iitm.ac.in



Join IIT Madras on Facebook: ReachIITM

Join IIT Madras on Twitter: @iitmadras



To View the Image Click on the Link Below:

Prof. Ravindra Gettu(3rd LEFT), Dean (ICSR), IIT Madras, Ms. Durga Das (4th LEFT), CEO of Teerthaa, Displaying the MoU on collaboration PWR

PWR
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Vision for Balance campaign strives to break down stigmas preventing women from wearing glasses.



DALLAS, March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- This International Women's Day the Vision Impact Institute is highlighting the critical role good vision plays in creating a more balanced world for women and girls. Today, the organization launched the Vision for Balance campaign to encourage women and girls to share how good vision has positively impacted their lives.







Around the world, women and girls face barriers to seeing well, including lack of awareness, limited access to vision care, and cultural stigmas against wearing spectacles. "Globally, women make up 55 percent of all people with vision impairment and two-thirds of the world's blind, so it's crucial that they have access to vision correction," says Kristan Gross, Global Executive Director, Vision Impact Institute. "In many places, a woman or girl who wears a pair of glasses, faces long-perpetuated stigmas, often tied to her potential for marriage. This can result in lost opportunities for an education or job that may change the trajectory of her future."



A recent study of rural Indian students ages 7 to 15, suggests that the rate of myopia is higher in girls, indicating that the need for correction is greater in girls than with their male peers. Yet another study of students in Grades 8 to 10 identified the need for education to dissolve barriers to spectacle wear, finding that 32% of students avoided spectacles so as not to be seen as "unattractive to the opposite sex"  65% of these students were girls.



"When a woman or girl wears glasses it's important that she sees herself as a confident member of society with the ability to reach her highest potential," says Gross.



The Vision for Balance Campaign runs through March 31. To participate, readers can share their story here: https://visionimpactinstitute.org/vision-for-balance/



About the Vision Impact Institute

The Vision Impact Institute's mission is to raise awareness of the importance of vision correction and protection to make good vision a global priority.



The organization is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, which receives support from the Vision for Life Fund from Essilor, the world leader in ophthalmic optics. The Vision Impact Institute hosts an interactive web platform, a unique database of research, available at visionimpactinstitute.org .







Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/832636/VisionImpactInstituteInternationalWomensDay.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/832635/VisionImpactInstituteLogo.jpg PWR

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Hyderabad, India  Business Wire India



VSoft Technologies, a global provider of information and technology solutions for financial institutions, has introduced a unique Contact Center services to its Indian customers.





VSoft currently offers the following services:



 Core Banking Platform



 Kisan Loan System



 Digital Banking Platform



 Payments System



 Contact center services



The Contact Center follows a unique model that combines three different modes of communication  Interactive Voice Response Systems (IVRS), Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI) and Agent Interface Software System. A Voice Recorder or a Logger is being used to improve customer service, increase security, compliance, etc.





The Contact Centre executives will provide information to the banks customers on almost all major aspects of banking some of them include:



 General and account related queries on products & services of the Banks



 ATM/Debit Card specific queries



 Inquiry on basic banking services and transactions



 Customer query on TDS/Tax Payment details



 Service Requests including the Status of cheques sent for clearing, Green Pin Generation for ATM Cards. Setting of Transaction Limits for ATM and other Channels etc.



 Queries on internet, Mobile Banking, SMS & Tele Banking, UPI and BHIM







Expansion Plans



VSoft Technologies is on a major expansion spree and has almost doubled its employees in the last five years. The company has moved into new office premises (DSR Inspire Building) in Madhapur and operates with over 800 employees in Hyderabad and another 500 employees operating from offices located across the globe. The new office premises also houses Data Center, which not only enables data storage and processing of its core banking customers, but also supports critical internal functions such as processing of over 9 lakh cheques per day.



Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Murthy Veeraghanta, Chairman and CEO, VSoft Technologies, said, Contact Center is one of our new and unique offerings to our customers. Our contact center executives handle over 4000 calls per day and our clients are witnessing great value through our world class services. As part our commitment to improving the quality of service to our customers, VSoft will be, shortly, introducing AI supported Chatbot in our contact center.



VSoft Technologies have achieved significant accomplishments in the recent past. It has been ranked among the Top 100 Financial Technology Companies in the world by the International Data Corporation (IDC) in 2018.



About VSoft Technologies



VSoft is a leading technology solutions and services provider for the banking industry. The companys core banking, payments and digital banking solutions reduce cost and maximize efficiency while providing seamless, real-time, high-volume and high-performance transactions across multiple channels. VSoft Technologies brings together a host of superior technology solutions, designed around open, service oriented architectures with flexible deployment models from fully owned & operated by customer under a licensing arrangement to completely outsourced & operated on VSofts platform under a hosted model. The company has a client base of 1000+ Financial Institutions across the world.



For more information call 40- 44775777 or visit www.vsoft.co.in





To View the Image Click on the Link Below:

Mr.Murthy Veeraghanta  Chairman & CEO, VSoft Technologies PWR

PWR
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Mumbai, Maharashtra, India  Business Wire India



The Government of Maharashtra in partnership with Zone Startups and other partners/sponsors have concluded the 3rd edition of Fintegrate at World Trade Center, Mumbai.



The valedictory ceremony was attended by Honorable Governor of Maharashtra Shri CH. Vidyasagar Rao; Right Honorable Mr Mark Christopher Field, Minister of State for Asia and Pacific, United Kingdom; Ms Tara Tara Scheurwater, Consul General of Canada in Mumbai; Shri S V R Srinivas, Principal Secretary, Department of Information Technology and Mr Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech officer of Singapore.



The fintech conclave spread across 3 days saw participation from 300+ fintechs, with 120 exhibiting their products. More than 60 top corporates like Visa, ICICI Lombard, Virtusa, Netcore, Royal Bank of Canada, participated in the conclave and 750-plus B2B meetings were conducted between fintechs and corporates to explore possible collaboration opportunities. 15,000 delegates from India and 15 other countries were present for the event across the financial and technological ecosystem.



Mumbai Fintech Hub, an initiative by the Government of Maharashtra, showcased the start-ups from Mumbai Fintech Accelerator at the event. The unique accelerator program is a public-private initiative with partners such as NPCI, PayU, Fino, Indusind, India First Life, CRIF coming together to support the growth journey of the fintech sector and is being conceptualized and executed by The Fintech Meetup. The 12 startups from the accelerator are Bon Fleet, One Wallet, Hue Pay, Phi Commerce, Crelytics, GoPlannr, M2P, MicroChippayments, Monitree, Riskcovry, Finlok and News4Use. Honorable Governor interacted with the startups from the accelerator at the beginning of the event.



The valedictory session started with the unveiling of India Fintech Report 2019. The report has been co-created by Medici and Zone Startups. Medici tracked the Indian fintech ecosystems growth over the last 5 years. The report reveals that over the last three years the Indian FinTech ecosystem has seen massive growth, and with 2035 active start-ups as of 2019, India has now become the 2nd largest FinTech hub, globally.



This was followed by the launch of UDAY - The Fintech Education Platform by Government of Maharashtra which is targeted to fill the demand-supply gap for Fintech talent. The initial pilot focus will be the fresh graduates in engineering/management curriculum. This platform has been created in partnership with PWC and many other academic institutes, financial institutes and fintechs.



During the session Honorable Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao facilitated 8 fintech startups with a quarterly grant of INR 10 Lakh each for fintechs in Maharashtra state  Pingal Technologies, Auto O2, Pentation Analytics, Fidypay, Mintoak, Alo Agritech, Fingpay and MakeMyEMI.



Honorable Governor, Ch. Vidyasagar Rao congratulated Mumbai Fintech Hub and Zone Startups for the success of Fintegrate Zone 2019. In his speech he mentioned, Today, I am extremely pleased that FinTech is empowering women entrepreneurs to build their maiden ventures. I have no doubt in my mind that women entrepreneurs will chart out success stories and correct the gender imbalance in employment. I am confident, all these efforts will converge in fostering next-generation innovation across the financial services ecosystem to nurture exceptional FinTech firms that enable financial empowerment and technological advancement.



Shri. S.V.R Srinivas, Principal Secretary, Directorate of Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra, said, The Government of Maharashtra has taken the lead in Fintech sector in India by creating the first Fintech policy in February 2018. In one year, immense progress has been made by Mumbai Fintech Hub in catalyzing the growth of Fintech startups. Zone startups has been one of our accelerator partners from the beginning and events like Fintegrate has deepened our partnership in this journey.



Suniti Nanda, Fintech Officer, Government of Maharashtra said, Fintegrate 2019 has been a testimonial of deep collaboration between fintechs, incubators /accelerators, financial institutes, corporates, VCs, academic institutions and Governments from across the globe. This principle of Collaborate-Build-Transform will help us unleash the Big potential for India Fintech landscape and make Mumbai a Global Fintech Hub.



The largest FinTech conclave in India concluded with the promise to Collaborate-Build-Transform the FinTech landscape of the country and bring in new dimensions during Mumbai FinTech 2020.



To View the Image Click on the Link Below:

Honorable Governor of Maharashtra Shri CH. Vidyasagar Rao with Mumbai Fintech Accelerator Startups at Fintegrate 2019 PWR

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(Eds: Disclaimer: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with PR Newswire. PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.)

MUMBAI, March 8, 2019/PRNewswire/ --

The innovative medical device by European brand Braster will provide a painless, radiation-free alternative to mammograms at half the cost, revolutionising breast cancer screening in the country



In celebration of International Women's Day, MedikaBazaar, India's leading hospital and medical supply platform, has collaborated with Jaslok and ONGC, to unveil a revolutionary diagnostic procedure for breast cancer detection called Thermography. The device will be launched at a camp organised by Jaslok hospital at oil marketing company ONGC's headquarters at Uran in Navi Mumbai. The product is being unveiled at the Women's Day awareness drive at a special low cost.



The thermography machine developed by European medical manufacturer Braster, is available exclusively on MedikaBazaar. What makes this diagnostic device remarkable is the fact that it offers a painless and radiation-free alternative to mammography, at approximately half the cost. The technology has already been used by several European countries, including Poland, Bulgaria, and Germany, but MedikaBazaar is the first to introduce it in India, on the occasion of Women's Day.



While early detection is the key to breast cancer survival, the complexities, expenses, and harmful side effects of radiation when using conventional mammography devices, have proven to be a major deterrent for patients. The thermography machine by Braster, on the other hand, is small and portable, and utilises a unique liquid-crystal breast cancer detection technology to make early detection of breast cancer easy and harmless. Since no radiation is emitted by the device, patients younger than 50 years of age can also undergo thermography screenings, without any potential risks.



A mammography procedure costs anywhere between INR 3000 and INR 5000, per scan, which is 60-80% costlier than a thermography scan using the device. In addition to that, the device also boasts of a sensitivity quotient of 90 percent, making it much more accurate than mammography, especially in case of dense breasts. This makes it ideal for the Indian market, the majority of which consists of patients with dense breast tissue. The turn-around-time is also significantly lower, with patients being able to obtain the screening results in an hour or two, while mammography results may take anywhere between 48 hours and 7 days. As a result, it is expected to play a major role in lowering the costs incurred by the patient and end consumers, which, in turn, might help save many lives.



Furthermore, operating the device is incredibly easy, and the procedure can be performed by a trained technician, paramedic staff, or a nurse, as long as an air-conditioned room, smartphone, and internet connection are available. As such, it can easily be performed in a doctor's clinic/OPD, without requiring any kind of an elaborate setup.



Vivek Tiwari, CEO, MedikaBazaar, said, "While in India, mammography is currently the only diagnostic method for breast cancer, thermography has been in use in several countries for a number of years, now. As a result, every year, countless patients in India suffering from breast cancer lose their lives, owing to delayed diagnosis, and exorbitant costs. With this revolutionary device by Braster, MedikaBazaar hopes to completely transform the medical landscape in the country, minimising loss of life from breast cancer, while also making its diagnosis cheaper, faster, and easier."



About MedikaBazaar:



Mumbai-based MedikaBazaar was founded in 2015 by Vivek Tiwari, an alumnus of IIM-Calcutta and Ketan Malkan, a serial entrepreneur. MedikaBazaar is revolutionising the way hospitals purchase their inventory and helps them save on procurement costs by upto 30%. The company connects with facilities in Tier 2, Tier 3 cities and rural areas of the country, apart from metros, to help them fulfil their healthcare needs. It has over 1,50,000 specialty medical products listed with them across a network of 1800+ supplier, manufacturers, distributors and importers, and is only growing.



Despite a young firm, the company has raised two rounds of funding, with the last one being of 5 million from HealthQuad. This has empowered them to strengthen their technology, streamline their supply chain and logistics capability to reach 50,000 hospitals and clinics by the end of next financial year. It currently owns 10 fulfilment centres and aims to grow over 100 per cent to 20+ centres across India, including tier 2 and 3 locations.



Website: https://medikabazaar.com/



Source: MedikaBazaar PWR

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Kolkata, Mar 8 (PTI) Icons of the Bengali film industry, including Aparna Sen and Soumitra Chatterjee, will take to the streets this Sunday against bar on the screening of 'Bhobisyoter Bhoot' (Future Ghosts), a political satire, at cinema halls in the city.

The film was allegedly withdrawn from single screen theatres and multi-plexes a day after its release on February 16. Director of the film, Anik Dutta, has alleged that the owners of the theatres were forced to stop the screening though it ran to packed houses in many places on the day it released.

An appeal to join the march in the city, issued by industry stalwarts such as Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Sen, Tarun Majumder, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, veteran poet Sankha Ghosh, said, "Amra Hatbo Dale Dale, Chhobi Phirchhena Kano Hall-a" (We will walk in large numbers to ask why the film is not coming to theatres).

The story of the film revolves around a group of ghosts, including a politician, who assemble at a refugee camp and try to be relevant in the contemporary times.

"It is a deplorable act, the way a film was taken off theatres within a day of its release," Dasgupta told PTI.

The multiple National Award winning director said he will participate in the rally despite poor health "as everyone should protest such undemocratic and fascist act where a film is stopped from screening but there is no word from any quarters about the reasons".

"I think everyone should join the protests," Dasgupta added.

In a statement, director Aparna Sen said, "I am appalled to learn that Anik Dutta's film has been removed from theatres after the first date of screening. I do not know who or what is responsible for this. I do not know what the film had to say, but whatever it may be there cannot and should not be any reason to stop its screening without flouting the fundamental right granted by our Constitution to every individual, freedom of speech."

Director Sandip Ray said he might not be able to attend the protest march because of other commitments but he would send a letter where "I will register my protest against the move (withdrawal)".

Young film-maker Utsav Mukherjee, one of the organisers of the protest, said, "Personalities like Aparna Sen, Soumitra Chatterjee, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Sankha Ghosh, among others have issued appeal for the rally and we hope that thousands will turn up that day."

The film has Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Moon Moon Sen, Kaushik Sen and veterans Barun Chanda and Paran Bandyopadhyay in leading roles.

The cast and crew of the film has held several protest meets across the city over the past few weeks.

At an earlier protest meet, Chatterjee, who is 84, had said, "I am stunned. How can a film, passed by the Censor board, can be withdrawn from theatres in such a manner? It is autocracy."

"...the step to withdraw Bhobisyoter Bhoot from Kolkata theatres after release looks like a revengeful step for me...There is ample reason to infer that the step to take off the film from theatres is related to some comments made by director Anik Dutta at a discussion in recent Kolkata International Film Festival," Chatterjee had said in an open letter penned to voice his protest.

Dutta, who is known for his outspokenness, had earlier hinted during an interview that he had to face lots of pressure during the making of the film and promotion.

He said the multi-plex owners and theatres could not produce any written document or instruction with regard to sudden halt in screening of the film.

The film had been released in more than 40 screens across the state. PTI SUS SOM SMN

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Mumbai, Mar 8 (PTI) Huma Qureshi and Siddharth-starrer miniseries "Leila" will debut on Netflix on June 14, the streaming giant announced on Friday.

The dystopian drama, co-directed by Deepa Mehta, Shanker Raman and Pawan Kumar, is based on Prayaag Akbar's book of the same name.

The six-episode series follows Shalini (Huma), a mother in search of her daughter Leila whom she lost one tragic summer. Shalini deals with various hardships in the course of her search, in a story of longing, faith and loss.

"'Leila' has been a fantastic Netflix project to work on. I'm thrilled to be essaying Shalini, whose unique mix of strength, grace and optimism is what gets her through all kinds of obstacles. So it really has been an honour to portray a character that has not only pushed me as an artist but I believe will resonate with a lot of young women.

"It is unlike anything I have done before and I cant wait for Netflix to take this story to the world," Huma said in a statement.

Deepa, who is also serving as the creative executive producer on the series, said apart from showing Shalini's quest to find her daughter, the show is also about finding your own identity.

"'Leila' is about awareness, about paying attention, about looking at the world around us and asking pertinent questions about our future. That's what makes it so perfect on a platform like Netflix with its global reach and ability to address a range of audiences with relevant, resonant stories," she said.

The series will also feature Rahul Khanna, Sanjay Suri and Arif Zakaria, among others.

Siddharth, who is playing Bhanu in the series, described his character as "complex" and said portraying it on screen was an "intense yet fruitful journey".

"Although the story 'Leila' is set in a dystopian age, it is about human emotions. The team on set was wonderful which made this journey even more memorable. I am very excited to see how a global audience on Netflix reacts to this story," he added. PTI RB BK

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Seoul, Mar 8 (AFP) North Korea's state media Friday acknowledged for the first time the collapse of the summit between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump last week without a deal.

The high-stakes meeting in Vietnam was supposed to build on the leaders' historic first summit in Singapore last year, but ended without any agreement on walking back North Korea's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency, however, had made no mention of the breakdown of the high-stakes summit until Friday.

"The public at home and abroad... are feeling regretful, blaming the US for the summit that ended without an agreement," an editorial published by KCNA wrote.

In the aftermath of the summit's abrupt ending, each side sought to blame the other's intransigence for the deadlock.

But immediately after the summit North Korean media said only that Pyongyang and Washington have agreed to continue "productive" discussions on denuclearisation.

The following day Rodong Sinmun, the North's state-run newspaper, carried a front-page picture that showed Kim and Trump shaking hands.

Earlier this week, North Korean television aired a 75-minute documentary on Kim's diplomacy with Trump without mentioning that the second meeting ended without a deal.

Following the stalemate in Hanoi, researchers said this week that Pyongyang was rebuilding the Sohae long-range rocket site after Kim had agreed last year to shut it as part of confidence-building measures.

Trump said he would be "very, very disappointed" if the reports proved true. (AFP)

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Alexandria (US), Mar 8 (AFP) US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison Thursday for tax crimes and bank fraud.

It was the stiffest sentence yet given to an associate of the president in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling -- but significantly lighter than many expected for the 69-year-old political consultant.

In a rebuff to Mueller's call for stiff punishment, the judge called the official guidelines for a prison sentence of 19 to 24 years "excessive." But Manafort still faces sentencing in a second case in Washington next week, where the maximum penalty is 10 years and the judge has appeared more sympathetic to prosecutors.

The charges involved Manafort's work for 10 years on behalf of Moscow-allied politicians in Ukraine, and nothing related to the 2016 election -- an issue he argued in asking the court for lenience.

Prosecutors alleged that Manafort used offshore bank accounts in Cyprus to hide more than $55 million from Ukrainian politicians from the tax authorities.

He is one of six top advisors and associates of Trump's 2016 presidential election campaign to be charged in the Mueller investigation.

During Manafort's trial, much of the damaging testimony against him was provided by his former deputy Rick Gates, who is awaiting sentencing after reaching a plea agreement with the Special Counsel's office.

Besides Manafort and Gates, four other former Trump associates face charges or have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Mueller investigation.

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials and is awaiting sentencing.

Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen is to begin serving a three-year prison sentence on May 6 for fraud, tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and lying to Congress.

George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was sentenced to two weeks in prison.

Another Trump advisor, Roger Stone, awaits trial. (AFP) CPS
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Helsinki, Mar 8 (AFP) Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila's centre-right government resigned on Friday after failing to push through a flagship social and health care reform package, just five weeks ahead of a legislative election.

There has been a hard fought struggle for the wide-reaching reform for over a decade, dividing successive governments.

Sipila called the failure to pass the reform "a major disappointment".

He has since 2015 headed a coalition made up of his Centre Party, the conservative National Coalition, and the eurosceptic Blue Reform party, a moderate faction spun off from the far-right.

The three parties were unable to agree among themselves on the package, which Sipila had made one of his top priorities in office. He had repeatedly threatened to resign if the reforms did not go through.

A former businessman who earned millions as an IT entrepreneur before becoming prime minister in 2015, Sipila considered the shake-up as key to cutting the ballooning costs of treating a rapidly ageing population.

The proportion of over 65-year-olds in the Nordic country, which has a population of 5.4 million, is expected to reach 26 percent by 2030.

Among the reforms discussed were a centralisation of services into new regional healthcare authorities -- which would take over from the current local municipalities -- and the use of more private health care providers, a subject of heated debate.

But the coalition partners were unable to agree on issues such as how much the system should be opened up to give patients freedom of choice, among others.

A recent scandal of neglect allegations that came to light in privately-run elderly care homes helped turn the political mood further against any more privatisation of the country's healthcare.

Claims that the reforms would bring three billion euros (USD 3.3 billion) of savings to the country's welfare bill have also been repeatedly called into question.

Sipila threw in the towel when it became clear the government would not be able to submit a proposal to parliament before the election set for April 14.

"My government works on a 'results or resign' principle. I am a man of principle and in politics you have to carry responsibility," Sipila told reporters, adding: "I am taking my share of responsibility."

Finland's President Sauli Niinisto said he had accepted the government's resignation and asked it to continue on a caretaker basis until a new one has been appointed.

The current cabinet will retain their jobs until a new government is formed after the election, but will only work to finish off business that is already in progress.

Politicians in Finland were split over Sipila's decision to resign so close to the election.

The head of the opposition Social Democrats, Antti Rinne, told reporters outside parliament the government had turned itself into "a political sitting duck".

Member of parliament Kalle Jokinen, from the conservative National Coalition Party -- a partner in Sipila's government -- said it would have been better to see a working government in place up until the election.

"You could call this a failure for the government," Jokinen said.

But a member of the parliamentary committee on health and social affairs, Veronica Rehn-Kivi of the liberal Swedish People's Party, called it a "victory" for the welfare state and individual citizens.

The Social Democrats have been leading opinion polls in the run-up to the election, with Sipila's Centre party trailing in third place at around 15 per cent.

A programme of austerity cuts and tighter benefits rules during his administration has been unpopular in a country where the welfare state is a cherished national asset. (AFP) SCY

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Oslo, Mar 8 (AFP) Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest thanks to petrodollars, will sell off stakes in oil and gas exploration and production companies to reduce its exposure to black gold, the government said Friday.

While the decision is based solely on financial considerations and not on the environment or climate change, a divestment -- even partial sell-off -- by an investor worth more than $1 trillion.

Whatever the reason the announcement was seen as a major blow to polluting fossil fuels and was swiftly hailed by the environmental lobby.

The government of Norway, the biggest oil and gas producer in western Europe, said the divestment was specifically targetting exploration and production companies, "rather than selling a broadly diversified energy sector."

"The objective is to reduce the vulnerability of our common wealth to a permanent oil price decline," Finance Minister Siv Jensen said, stressing the move should not be interpreted as a lack of confidence in the future of the oil sector.

As the decision only concerns companies specialised in upstream operations, it could affect 134 groups like Chesapeake of the US, Canada's Encana, China's CNOOC, France's Maurel and Britain's Tullow, among others.

Companies involved in downstream operations, such as distribution and refining, and, more importantly, integrated companies which do both down- and upstream -- such as giants ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Total -- will not be affected.

Friday's proposal therefore concerns $7.5 billion of the around $37 billion the fund held in the oil and gas sector at the end of 2018.

The government's proposal is expected to sail through parliament.

Sovereign funds are state-owned investors in various kinds of assets that aim to generate revenue for government programmes and pensions.

The Norwegian decision follows a headline-making 2017 recommendation by the Scandinavian country's central bank, which manages the fund, aimed at limiting the state coffers' exposure to a steep drop in oil prices, as in 2014.

Oil and gas represent almost half of Norway's exports and 20 percent of the state's revenues.

The state's oil revenues are placed in the sovereign wealth fund -- commonly referred to as the "oil fund" but formally known as the Government Pension Fund Global -- which Oslo then taps to balance its budget.

The finance minister insisted that Friday's decision "does not reflect any specific view on the oil price, future profitability or sustainability of the petroleum sector." Jensen noted that the oil industry "will be an important and major industry in Norway for many years to come."

For environmental organisations and climate change activists, Norway's new position is a clear victory as the world struggles to meet Paris Agreement goals.

"If this passes through parliament, it will cause a shockwave on the market, dealing the biggest blow yet to the illusion that the fossil fuel sector still has decades of business ahead of it," said Yossi Cadan of 350.org, an organisation engaged in the fight against climate change.

"The decision should be seen as a red flag for private banks and investors whose oil and gas stocks are becoming increasingly high-risk and morally untenable," he said in a statement.

Beyond the sums involved, the decision is also important because positions taken by the fund -- which controls 1.4 percent of global market capitalisation -- are closely watched by other investors.

"When one of the biggest sovereign funds in the world concludes that it can yield high returns on its investments with moderate risk by reducing its exposure to oil and gas, investors take note," Jan Erik Saugestad, head of asset management at Norwegian insurer Storebrand said.

The fund has already pulled out of the coal industry, both for environmental and financial reasons. (AFP) PMS

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Washington, Mar 8 (AFP) US President Donald Trump said Friday his relationship with North Korea's Kim Jong Un "remains good," despite the failure of a summit last week between the two leaders.

North Korea's state media had earlier acknowledged for the first time the collapse of the high-stakes Hanoi summit, which ended without any agreement on reducing Pyongyang's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

"I have a feeling that our relationship with North Korea, Kim Jong Un and myself, I think it is a very good one. I think it remains good," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The meeting was supposed to build on the leaders' historic first meeting in Singapore last year.

Trump repeated his frequent claim that he had brought the US back from the brink of war with North Korea since coming to office.

"This was a disaster. I inherited a mess. It is straightening out a lot. We are doing very well there," he said.

"I inherited a mess with North Korea and right now you have no (missile) testing. You have no nothing."

Following the stalemate in Hanoi, researchers said this week that Pyongyang had started rebuilding the Sohae long-range rocket site after Kim had agreed last year to shut it as part of confidence-building measures.

"I would be surprised in a negative way if (Kim) did anything that was not per our understanding. But we'll see what happens," Trump added.

Trump's remarks, which came as he was departing the White House to visit tornado-hit Alabama, also touched on the fractious US-China trade relationship, domestic politics and the Mueller investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia.

Asked about the months-long trade war with China, the president said he would not agree to any solution unless it was a good deal for the United States.

"I am confident but... if this isn't a great deal, I won't make a deal," Trump told reporters.

US and Chinese officials have said they are making progress toward a resolution, but a US diplomat in Beijing said earlier an agreement was not imminent.

Negotiations were extended through Sunday as officials race to reach a deal ahead of a deadline next week when US duty rates are due to rise sharply.

Trump's remarks came a day after his former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison by a federal judge for tax crimes and bank fraud in the highest profile case yet stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

"I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it has been a very tough time for him," Trump said.

The Republican president also weighed in on the row engulfing the Democrats over anti-Semitism which has led to the party's biggest crisis since reclaiming the House majority two months ago.

The party passed a resolution against bigotry following an acrimonious debate over how to reprimand Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, who sparked a firestorm over repeated criticisms of Israel and a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington that exerts influence in US politics.

"The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party and an anti-Jewish party," Trump said.

The president was due to visit victims of last weekend's tornado that devastated Lee County in eastern Alabama last weekend, killing at least 23 people and injuring dozens. (AFP) SCY

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(Eds: Updating with EU negotiator's response to May, top Conservative MP's threat to vote against deal, Dutch PM comments)

Grimsby (UK), Mar 8 (AFP) Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday urged the EU to make "one more push" to get the Brexit deal over the line in time for Britain's exit from the bloc in three weeks.

The beleaguered leader's request for an additional concession from Brussels comes with Britain on the brink of crashing out of the European Union after 46 years with very few arrangements in place.

The British parliament is set to vote Tuesday on May's existing deal with Brussels after rejecting it by a historic margin in January.

But last-gasp negotiations between UK and EU envoys ended in acrimony on Wednesday and May still lacks the assurances she has been after to get her deal approved by MPs.

May told an audience of factory workers in the North Sea fishing port of Grimsby that Britain may never split off from the other 27 nations if Brussels failed to help her now.

The deal "needs just one more push to address the final, specific concerns of our parliament," May said.

"Because if MPs reject the deal, nothing is certain. It would be at a moment of crisis."

The deal is stuck on the so-called "backstop" solution that London and Brussels devised to keep the Irish border open with the UK's Northern Ireland -- a province with a past history of sectarian violence.

Some lawmakers in May's Conservative Party fear that the arrangement will keep Britain trapped long-term in a customs union with the EU.

May wants a written guarantee from Brussels that this will not be the case. EU officials say the backstop must stay in place until a new trade deal is signed -- no matter how long that takes.

EU ambassadors met in Brussels on Friday to discuss how they might proceed ahead of next week's crucial events in London, with the March 29 deadline looming large.

"The EU stands united, we are not interested in the blame game," EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said after the talks.

"We are interested in the result... and we are still working." But Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte took a tougher line, saying May was seeking "impossible" concessions from the EU.

May has scheduled a potential series of votes that could include one on Thursday asking the EU to grant London an exit day delay.

But May said such a deferral would create "continuing uncertainty" that ruins the business climate and potentially leads to Brexit never happening.

"If we go down that road, we might never leave the EU at all," she said.

"That would be a political failure. It would let down the more than 17 million people who voted to leave the EU and do profound damage to their faith in our democracy."

Grimsby ran the world's largest fishing fleet and prospered before Britain joined the European communities and signed up to the Common Fisheries Policy in 1970s.

Some 70 per cent in the surrounding area voted in the 2016 referendum in favour of Britain leaving the EU.

May's decision to visit the region highlights her government's efforts to remind Conservative MPs of the backlash they might face from voters if they failed to deliver Brexit on time.

Top members of May's team have spent recent days delivering stark warnings about Britain never leaving and the complications this would create for the EU.

"History will judge both sides very badly if we get this wrong," Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told BBC radio.

"We know what it would take to get a deal through the House of Commons, and it is for a significant change that would allow the (UK government) to say we couldn't be trapped in the customs union for ever," he said.

"That's not an unreasonable ask."

A top member of the Conservative Party's anti-EU lobby also warned that there would be no deal done by the deadline without a substantive backstop change.

"If it is some very minor, meaningless tweak then of course we will vote against it," MP Mark Francois said. (AFP) SCY

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San Jose (Costa Rica), Mar 8 (PTI) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday called for defeating the "destructive forces of hatred, the fanatical cries of religious bigotry and the megalomaniac designs of despotic rulers" to ensure peace for promoting the welfare of humankind.

He also said that terrorism has emerged as the "biggest threat" to the world peace and India is bearing the impact of this most serious challenge.

Naidu made the remarks after receiving an honorary doctorate by the University of Peace founded by the United Nations for his contribution "to the rule of law, democracy and sustainable development in India".

He is the first Indian to receive an honorary doctorate from this varsity.

In his acceptance speech, Vice President Naidu "called for defeating the destructive forces of hatred, the fanatical cries of religious bigotry and the megalomaniac designs of despotic rulers to ensure peace for promoting the welfare of humankind", said a statement issued by his office.

"The ability to appreciate and celebrate the fascinating diversity in thoughts, languages, cultures and religious beliefs is the foundation for our ability to live together. Peace begins with our search for common bonds that unite us rather than when we look for and accentuate the differences," he said, urging the people to see others as their own kin.

He called for building a larger collective effort to present a world view drawn from all the major faiths to encourage a greater understanding of the essential tenets that promote peace through promotion of inter-faith understanding.

Stating that radicalisation on the basis of religion is gaining ground, Naidu called for combating terrorism with the collective might by breaking its nexus with illicit financial and arms flows.

"India's endeavour towards peaceful development has only too often being derailed by cross border terrorism," he said, in an apparent reference to Pakistan, which is accused of providing safe havens to terrorists who carry out attacks in neighbouring countries.

Referring to inequalities and exclusion as the major causes of conflict derailing peace, Naidu gave on account of the initiatives taken by India to promote inclusive and sustainable development.

Stating that peace is synonymous with development, Naidu said that national fervour and international cooperation shall co-exist and force shall be used only to defend and not to attack.

Earlier, Naidu along with Costa Rica Foreign Minister Lorena Aguilar offered floral tribute at Mahatma Gandhi's bust installed in the university campus. India is a founding member of the varsity. PTI ZH AKJ SCY
Senior Guj Cong leader Jawahar Chavda resigns as MLA

Ahmedabad, Mar 8 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Jawahar

Chavda Friday resigned from the Gujarat Legislative Assembly,

a development that comes just days head of the March 12

Congress Working Committee meeting in the state.

Chavda, a four-time MLA, represented Manavadar seat in

Junagadh district and is considered to be an influential OBC

leader from the Ahir community.

Confirming the development, Assembly Speaker Rajendra

Trivedi said, "Chavda has resigned as MLA from Manavadar seat.

He came to my residence and handed over his resignation

letter. I have accepted his resignation. He has not cited any

particular reason. Chavda ceases to be an MLA from today."

Chavda, who won from Manavadar in 1990, 2007, 2012 and

2017, is the third Congress MLA to have resigned from the

House in past few months.

In July last year, senior Congress MLA Kunvarji

Bavalia had resigned as legislator and was then inducted in

the BJP government as a cabinet minister.

Last month, first-time MLA from Unjha seat of Mehsana,

Asha Patel, had resigned from the House and party and joined

the ruling BJP. PTI PJT PD

BNM BNM
Modi "prepared" fresh Rafale contract, claims Rahul

(Eds: Adds details, clubs Rahul's rally and women's

convention stories)

Jeypore (Odisha), Mar 8 (PTI) Sharpening his attack on

Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal, Congress

president Rahul Gandhi Friday accused him of having prepared

the new contract for purchase of fighter jets from France,

sidlining the official negotiating team in order to benefit

Anil Ambani.

Gandhi, who addressed a Congress rally and interacted

with women on the International Women's Day here, said public

sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which produces

fighter aircraft, was ignored by Modi in Rafale deal.

The Congress chief claimed that Defence Ministry

documents published in an English daily showed "Modi prepared

a new contract ignoring the negotiating team. Modi's aim was

to hand over Rs 30,000 crore to Ambani".

The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group has persistently

rejected Congress's claim and said the central government had

nothing to do with the company bagging the offset contract

from Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of the Rafale jets.

Referring to HAL's unit in Odisha near here, Gandhi

said engines of MiG and Sukhoi fighters were made at the plant

in Sunabeda. The country's youth, mainly in Odisha, played a

role in its defence through the unit.

"But Modi, who speaks of nationalism and patriotism,

doled out Air Force's money to Anil Ambani, who has no

experience in aircraft manufacturing.

"This is the truth.... by snatching away Rafale from

HAL, Modi has deprived thousands of youth of jobs," he said.

While HAL has no pending loans, Ambani owes his

lenders a debt of Rs 45,000 crore, Gandhi said, adding the

previous UPA government had decided to award the contract for

manufacturing Rafale to the state-owned aerospace and defence

major.

Each of the 126 jets proposed to be acquired was to

cost Rs 526 crore, but the price was escalated to Rs 1,600

crore apiece to benefit Ambani, the Congress chief alleged.

The prime minister, he claimed, had even told France

that if Rafale jets were to be purchased, the (offset)

contract should go to Ambani and that HAL should not have any

role.

Accusing the prime minister of neglecting farmers, the

Congress chief said PM-KISAN scheme launched by the BJP-led

government is nothing but an attempt to make a "mockery" of

poor farmers by doling out a paltry sum of Rs 6,000 annually.

Though the Modi government refused to waive farm loans

and hike the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy, it readily

decided to write off the debts of over Rs 3.5 lakh crore of a

handful of industrialists, he claimed.

The Congress, on the other hand, waived farm loans and

raised MSP for paddy to Rs 2,500 per quintal in states where

it came to power after the recent elections.

He also promised loan waiver for farmers and a hike in

MSP for paddy to Rs 2,500 from Rs 1,600 per quintal in Odisha

within 10 days if the Congress forms its government after

the upcoming election.

The Congress president also lashed out at the Centre

for trying to amend the Land Acquisition Act so it could

easily snatch away the land of tribals and farmers, and hand

them over to industrialists. However, the Congress foiled the

"evil design" at least thrice as it believes that no tribal

land should be acquired without the consent of its owners, he

said.

Insisting that tribal land acquired for setting up

industries must be returned if no unit is established within

four years, he said land parcels in Chhattisgarh's Bastar

district were returned by the Congress dispensation on this

ground.

He said the minimum guaranteed income proposed by his

party would be a historic move.

The Congress leader accused the prime minister of

having misled people by giving "false" information on several

issues including unemployment figures, farmers problems,

Swachh Bharat scheme and women's safety.

"The number of lies that Modi has told the country is

more than the lies told by all previous prime ministers put

together," Gandhi said, blaming the Centre's policies for

alleged growing unemployment and crimes against women.

Winding up his speech at the well-attended rally in

this south Odisha town in tribal-dominated Koraput district,

the Congress president, in an apparent dig at Modi said, "We

do not want to make you hear our mann ki baat, we want to

provide a government that hears your mann ki baat."

This was Gandhi's third visit to Odisha, the state

where the Congress has been out of power for nearly two

decades, in the last two months.

Earlier in the day, reaching out to the huge

constituency of women voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls,

Gandhi promised passage of the Women's Reservation Bill, in

limbo for the last nine years since being cleared by the Rajya

Sabha, if his party is voted to power.

Interacting with women on the International Women's

Day, Gandhi exhorted them to fight for "space" in every sphere

of life as the country cannot progress without their effective

and equal participation.

"You must fight for your space and don't consider

yourself lesser than a man. Women should fight for due place -

be it the Assembly, Lok Sabha or the business field," he said

responding to a query by a woman delegate at the conclave.

"There is an urgent need to provide reservation for

women in state assemblies and Lok Sabha to ensure their

empowerment. Congress is keen to ensure this and will do it if

it voted to power," Gandhi said, calling Women's Reservation

Bill an effective instrument for their empowerment. PTI AAM

SKN SK

SK SK
(Eds: Updating with fresh quotes of PM)

Varanasi (UP), Mar 8 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday claimed that "non-cooperation" by the previous Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh was responsible for the delay in start of a beautification project in his Lok Sabha constituency.

He was addressing a gathering here after laying the foundation stone for the Kashi Vishwanath Temple's approach road and its beautification.

"In the first three years there was non-cooperation of the state government. The developmental projects here picked pace after you (people of Uttar Pradesh) made Yogi Adityanath the chief minister," he said.

"Had there been cooperation earlier, we would have launched the project instead of laying the foundation," Modi said.

Attacking previous governments, the prime minister said, "In the past 70 years no government thought of Baba (Lord Shiva) and were silent. They took care of themselves but not of this place."

Noting that it was his "pleasure" to have initiated the work at Kashi Vishwanath, he said, "I have dreamt for a long time to work for this place. When I was not in politics I came here several times and used to think that something should happen here."

"Bhole Baba ney tai kiya hoga baatein bahut karte ho yahan aao kuch karke dikhao," (Lord Shiva must have decided that you talk much, so now you should come here and do something)," he said, adding that due to the blessings the fulfillment of his dream has started.

After offering prayers at Kashi Vishwanath Temple, he said that he was blessed to be associated with the project of Kashi Vishwanath Dham.

About the beautification project, Modi said this is "mukti (freedom) for Kashi Vishwanath Dham" which was surrounded with encroachment.

He said the Kashi Vishwanath Temple has survived the vicissitudes of centuries and praised Queen Ahiyabai Holkar for her work on the shrine over two centuries ago.

He said not much thought had been given by those in power to the area around the temple.

"For the first time, we acquired nearby buildings, removed encroachments after which 40 ancient temples came to the fore. Many of them were encroached, kitchens were set up and people were living there," he said.

Modi said the entire temple complex is now in the process of rejuvenation and the results are becoming visible, with a direct link being established between the Ganga river and Kashi Vishwanath temple.

He said this project will become a model for similar projects elsewhere and give a new global identity to Kashi.

The prime minister not only complimented the officers involved with the project for performing their task with devotion, but also thanked all the people who had property around the temple and allowed its acquisition for the project.

It was difficult to take people into confidence to give their properties and ensure the project does not take political colour, he said.

"I thank people of Kashi, who gave their properties for Baba. This is the biggest 'daan' they have given for Baba," the prime minister said.

"I have seen a lot of government employees as I was CM for a long time. But I want to say with pride that the team of officers deployed here by Yogi ji is doing work with 'Bhakti' (devotion) and 'sewa bhav'," Modi said.

Stating that the Kashi Vishwanath temple was "targeted by enemies", he said they tried to destroy it but it again took "rebirth due to the faith" of people.

"When Gandhiji came here, he was pained why is this place is like this. In his address in the BHU, he expressed his thoughts," Modi said, suggesting the university should make a case study of the project so that when it is completed the world can know how it happened.

"We will also try to trace the history of the 40 temples discovered here and the government will also take care of them," the PM said, adding the project will be a model for "protection and preservation" of temples and a combination of modern technology with ancient faith.

"It will give new identity to Kashi in the world. Maybe it's in my fate. In 2014, when I came here I said 'mai aaya nahi mujhe bulaya hai' (I did not come here on my own, I was summoned). Maybe I came here for this work," he said.

Earlier, the prime minister visited the Kashi Vishwanath temple and also inspected the project site.

During his brief stay in his constituency, Modi attended the National Women Livelihood Meet 2019 at Deendayal Hastkala Sankul and distributed appreciation letters to five Women Self Help Groups, whose members shared their experiences with the prime minister.

Women SHGs aided by Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - NRLM, Uttar Pradesh handed over a cheque to the prime minister for contribution to the 'Bharat Ke Veer' Fund.

Addressing a gathering at National Women Livelihood Meet, Modi said he could carry out development projects now that "middleman and corruption have been abolished and every penny is spent on people".

"Now there are no middleman and corruption. Modi did not have to take anything for himself. If he takes, what will he do...125 crore people of the country are my family. Keep trusting me," he said.

Listing the schemes launched by his government for women, Modi said these were playing an important role in the making of a new India. PTI ABN SMI AAR
Kanpur (UP), Mar 8 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday asked state governments to take stern action if there is any attack on Kashmiris, calling those who targeted them recently in Lucknow "crazed people".

In an apparent reference to remarks by opposition leaders after the recent air strikes against the Balakot terror camp in Pakistan, Modi also lashed at those demeaning the valour displayed by the armed forces after the Jaish-e-Mohammed attack against the CRPF in Pulwama.

Addressing a public meeting here, Modi brought up the Lucknow incident in which two Kashmiri vendors were thrashed on Wednesday, allegedly targeted by members of a right-wing group over the Pulwama attack that killed 40 paramilitary personnel last month.

The prime minister called the perpetrators sirphirey log (crazed people) in near identical remarks at the meeting and on Twitter.

"It is very important to maintain an atmosphere of unity in the country," Modi said.

He congratulated the Yogi Adityanath government for acting promptly over what some crazed people did to our Kashmiri brothers in Lucknow.

"I would also like to request other state governments to take the strongest action possible wherever there is an attempt to do something like this," he said.

The prime minister was addressing the meeting after flagging off the commercial run on Lucknow Metro's North-South corridor, through video conferencing from Kanpur itself.

Modi also symbolically laid the foundation stone for the Agra Metro Rail project at the same event.

He visited Varanasi and Ghaziabad too on Friday, launching development projects and addressing public meetings.

In an apparent reference to opposition parties, the prime minister said it is sad that the bravery displayed by the armed forces was being demeaned.

"The valour shown by our armed forces after the Pulwama attack was witnessed by the entire nation, he said.

But it is very sad that continuous efforts are being made back home to demean the valour of the armed forces. Today, when the entire world has built pressure on Pakistan and it has been caught red-handed over terrorism, at this juncture statements which help Pakistan are being made," he said.

"Does this behove them (the political parties)? he asked.

Do not forget that based on your statements Pakistan is spreading lies in the world," Modi said.

"The statements being issued for vested political interests and the language used are giving strength to the enemies of the country," he said.

He said the terrorists had been left confused, and the recent terror attack in Jammu was a result of that.

Taking a dig at opposition parties, the prime minister called their proposed grand alliance grand adulteration. He said they dislike him though he is fighting a decisive war against terrorism, corruption and poverty".

Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other UP ministers attended the event.

Modi also distributed keys to houses built under the Prime Ministers Awas Yojana.

PTI NAV SMI ASH

ASH
\R Ghaziabad (UP), Mar 8 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the Opposition of "appeasing" Pakistan by seeking proof of the Balakot air strike.

"Will you (people) do anything that appeases Pakistan or makes Pakistan clap? But some of our Opposition leaders have been doing the same for the past 10 days. Identify these people, they are not worried about the country, but scared of gong behind the bars and that is why they want to capture power at the Centre," Modi said at a public meeting here.

Pointing about a tweet by a Pakistan Army spokesperson about the air strike, Modi said: "Is Pakistan stupid to do this (tweet)? The 130 crore people of India are my proof. Please stop appeasing Pakistan."

The Opposition has been demanding that the Centre come out with the details, including the number of terrorists killed, of the air strike by the Indian Air Force in Pakistan's Balakot last week.

The prime minister said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government did not seek any credit for the air strike.

"Now after the recent air strikes, you may have noticed the Indian government was quiet about it. And we did not sleep after the air strike. This 'chowkidaar' (watchman) was awake. We showed such bravery, but still kept quiet and did not seek any credit. It was Pakistan which first tweeted about it and started crying from 5 am. It was Pakstan which first spoke about India's courageous action," he told the crowd after inaugurating a slew of development projects.

Modi accused the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party among others of not being ready to trust the armed forces. "They are the same people, who raised questions and disrespected the armed forces after the (2016) surgical strike. And, gradually when all the facts emerged, they turned speechless."

The prime minister alleged that the previous government had done nothing after the 2008 Mumbai attack and if the people wanted a similar response to such incidents, they would not have elected him.

"When terrorists killed our 40 soldiers in Pulwama, should Modi also have kept quiet? If I had to behave the way previous governments did, why did the people elect me?" he asked.

Forty Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed when a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a bus in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.

"Is it acceptable to you the way they (previous government) did? Should not I work according to the will of the people? Doesn't every Indian want to teach Pakistan a lesson? Doesn't every Indian want to teach terrorists a lesson in their own language? Should not terrorism be uprooted? Shouldn't Modi continue on this mission with your blessings?" Modi added. PTI CORR/KIS

HMB
New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) The Congress and the BJP Friday sparred over Attorney General K K \RVenugopal 's claim that the Rafale documents were not stolen from the Defence Ministry with the opposition party dubbing it a "lie" and the ruling party slamming Rahul Gandhi for his attack on the government over the issue.

The heated exchange between the Congress and the BJP came after Venugopal said that the Rafale documents were not stolen from the Defence Ministry and that what he meant in his submission before the Supreme Court was that petitioners in the application used "photocopies of the original" papers, deemed secret by the government.

Reacting to the remarks, BJP chief Amit Shah launched a scathing attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi saying: "Lies and Rahul Gandhi are synonymous. In this chain, he had yesterday said that Rafale's documents have disappeared from the Defence Ministry, but today it has become clear that no documents had disappeared. Another lie of Rahul Gandhi is in front of the public."

"Sometimes he lies about the foundation stone laying of the Ordnance Factory in Amethi, sometimes he lies about loan waiver, sometimes he lies about the Congress's role in the Sikh riots, sometimes he lies about meeting the Chinese ambassador during the time of Doklam, and sometimes he lies about the price of fruit and vegetables," Shah said in a series of tweets.

He alleged that Rahul Gandhi "lies habitually" and currently has no credibility in Indian politics.

On the Rafale issue itself, Rahul Gandhi has spoken over a dozen lies, Shah claimed.

"On Rafale's price, French prime minister, meeting Manohar Parrikar... he has lied on everything. Moreover, he also lied in the temple of democracy --Parliament," the BJP chief alleged.

Reacting to Venugopal's remarks, Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the government whose Attorney General does not know the difference between theft of defence ministry files and photocopies, is claiming that the country is in safe hands.

"Art of serving hundred lies to hide one truth! Yesterday in Supreme Court -- Rafale files have been stolen. Today -- Photocopies of Rafale files have been stolen," he tweeted.

"Modi ji, What's the 'duplicity' for tomorrow? Now every impossible lie is possible," he said.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a tweet, cited Venugopal's remarks that the Rafale documents were not stolen from the Defence Ministry and that what he meant in his submission before the Supreme Court was that petitioners in the application used "photocopies of the original" papers, deemed secret by the government.

Shah, in his tweets, also said: "Insult of Iron Man Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, who symbolizes unity and integrity of the country, is nothing new for the Congress. Rahul Gandhi called India-made Sardar Patel's 'Statue of Unity' as 'Made in China'."

Shah alleged that to grab the votes of farmers, Rahul made a "false promise" of debt waiver.

Gandhi had promised that if within ten days the farmers of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are not given debt waiver, the CM would be changed, he claimed.

"So far, even loans of 10% farmers has not been waived and now he says say that debt relief is not the solution," Shah said.

Venugopal's comments in the apex court on Wednesday that Rafale fighter jet deal documents were stolen caused a political row, with Congress president Rahul Gandhi targeting the government over stealing of such sensitive papers and seeking a criminal investigation.

"I am told that the opposition has alleged what was argued (in SC) was that files had been stolen from the Defence Ministry. This is wholly incorrect. The statement that files have been stolen is wholly incorrect," he told PTI, in an apparent damage-control exercise.

Venugopal said the application filed by Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushant, seeking from the court a review of its verdict dismissing pleas for a probe into against the Rafale deal, had annexed three documents which were photocopies of the original.

Official sources said the AG's use of word stolen was probably "stronger" and could have been avoided. PTI ASK GVS
New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) On the occasion of International Women's Day, the Women and Child Development Ministry and the Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry entered into an agreement to provide skills training and employment to women.

The officials of the two ministries signed the agreement in the presence of WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi and Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Gandhi said the agreement would help women in becoming self-sufficient.

"The WCD Ministry through the Rastriya Manila Kosh (RMK) will identify the skill sets and their geographical relevance which is suitable for enhancing livelihood of women through self-employment," she said.

Pradhan said the agreement would train thousands of women and promote self-employment or wage employment.

The Skill Development Ministry will provide details of women to the WCD Ministry who have received skill development training and engaged in producing goods or services after their training, he said.

The WCD Ministry through the RMK shall assist such women to on-board into the Mahila e-haat platform, a digital platform for selling products produced by women, according to the details of the agreement.

The RMK and the National Skill Development Council will be the implementing partners on behalf of the two ministries, Gandhi said, adding that the agreement would be valid for a period of three years. PTI UZM AQS
(Eds: Updating with Punjab CM's appeal)

Chandigarh, Mar 8 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Friday evening appealed to protesting employees to resume their duties immediately in the interest of people.

He also promised to implement the decisions to be taken by the committee of ministers on employees' issues in letter and in spirit.

The appeal came after the work in various government departments suffered across the state because of an indefinite strike of employees.

Punjab government employees Friday continued their indefinite strike for the second day demanding clarity on the dearness allowance issue.

The chief minister reviewed the decisions taken by the committee, comprising Health minister Brahm Mohindra, Finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Technical Education minister Charanjit Singh Channi, and reiterated the state government's commitment to all employees with an aim to protect their interests and welfare.

According to the chief minister's media advisor Raveen Thukral, he made it clear after the review meeting that the decisions taken by the committee of ministers shall be implemented in a time-bound manner, and urged the employees to give up their strike immediately and work with diligence in the interest of the people of Punjab.

Amarinder Singh clarified that despite the financial constraints of the state government, seven per cent DA had been released to all employees with effect from February 1, 2019, as decided by the committee of ministers after a meeting with the Punjab State Ministerial Services Union.

Further, the balance of the DA and its arrears will be released in due course as and when the financial position of the state government improves further, he said, assuring all employees that their welfare was highest priority for his government.

The chief minister lamented that the state government had not been able to meet some of its financial commitments to employees due to the legacy of high debt it had inherited from the previous regime.

Further, it was decided that a committee headed by retired IAS officer D P Reddy along with secretary personnel and secretary expenditure shall look into the new pension scheme that was implemented for employees recruited after 2004, Thukral said.

The employees have been protesting against the state government's alleged failure in accepting their demands which include regularisation of contractual employees, reducing the term of probation period, restoration of old pension scheme, among others.

"No office work took place in majority of the government departments in the state," claimed Sukhchain Singh Khera, president of the Punjab Civil Secretariat Staff Association.

He said more than one lakh employees across the state had gone on strike on Thursday.

Several organisations under the banner of Punjab State Ministerial Services Union and Punjab Secretariat Union have participated in the strike.

Khera said the employees have been fearing that the state government was trying to de-link their DA from the one announced by the Centre for its employees.

"The government should not de-link it as it is an anti-employee move," he said.

The state government had already given seven per cent DA to employees and pensioners.

He also accused the state government of not implementing their eight demands which had been accepted last month.

Khera claimed that several other associations, including teachers' unions, drivers' unions, Patwari unions, have extended their support to the strike. PTI CHS VSD SNE

SNE
\R New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) Over 100 delegates have gathered in the national capital from various parts of the world for a three-day international conference on child allergies that got underway on Friday.

The event is being organised by the Division of Pediatric Emergency, Critical Care, Pulmonology and Allergic Disorders at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH).

"Over 30 faculty members and more than 100 delegates from across the globe participated in the event," the hospital said in a statement.

Union minister Harsh Vardhan released a book titled 'Allergy in a Nutshell' at the event and officially announced the start of a diploma in pediatric allergy and asthma (DPAA), a "first of its kind" diploma course in pediatric allergies, the statement said.

Vardhan highlighted about various allergic disorders in the country, and stressed on increasing training and educational activities at the national level to address the issue.

Dr D S Rana, Chairman of Board of Management, SGRH, said the pediatric department was bringing up an important and key area into focus.

The programme will cover various types of allergy manifestations including asthma, rhinitis, skin and food allergies, human-environment interactions, newer diagnostic methods like skin test and impulse oscillometry as well as allergy treatment with immunotherapy, a spokesperson of the hospital said.

Anil Sachdev, consultant pediatric intensivist and pulmonologist, spoke about opening of Pediatric Allergy Pulmonology Laboratory at the hospital.

"This laboratory has been inaugurated with the aim to efficiently manage patients with asthma and allergies and to achieve excellence in the field through innovations, training and research activities. New allergy testing and novel pulmonary function assessment tools are available in this facility," the statement said.

Diploma in pediatric allergy and asthma, a distant learning course focusing on training of medical practitioners, is being started in collaboration with International Asthma Services, the US, the hospital said. PTI KND GVS
Mumbai, Mar 8 (PTI) Former media executive Peter Mukerjea is the "silent killer" of Sheena Bora, the daughter of his wife Indrani Mukerjea from a previous relationship, the CBI told a special court Friday while opposing his bail plea in the 2012 murder case.

Peter Mukerjea, arrested in the sensational Sheena Bora murder case in 2015, had moved the bail application in November last year before special CBI Judge J C Jagdale. This is the third time he has approached the court for bail.

Opposing his bail plea, special public prosecutor Bharat Badami argued that the CBI has sufficient evidence to prove Peter Mukerjea's role in the murder conspiracy.

Badami told the court Peter Mukerjea didn't take any step to find Sheena Bora, who had gone missing, despite the fact that she was his son Rahul Mukerjea's fiancee.

"Peter was knowing everything...he was not a statue of the family. He took no step when Rahul was desperately asking about Sheena..... Peter is silent killer of Sheena," the CBI lawyer said.

Rahul Mukerjea is yet to depose before the court and if Peter Mukerjea is released on bail, he may try to win over the witness (Rahul), the lawyer added.

Badami argued there was sufficient material against Peter Mukerjea that led to framing of charges against him. Therefore, the accused cannot seek bail by merely stating the charges against him were "defective", he said.

One of the reasons forwarded by Peter Mukerjea for not being involved in Sheena's murder was that he was in London when the murder took place.

However, the CBI contested this argument.

Hafiz Saeed (LeT chief) was in Pakistan when the 26/11 Mumbai attacks took place, but that doesn't mean he wasn't involved in the attacks. So, even if Peter Mukerjea was in London (at the time of the murder) it doesn't mean he was not part of the criminal conspiracy, the CBI counsel argued.

The April 2012 murder of Sheena Bora (24), Indrani Mukerjea's daughter from an earlier relationship, came to light in August 2015 when her driver Shyamvar Rai spilled the beans after being arrested in another case.

Indrani Mukerjea, a former media executive, her former husband Sanjeev Khanna, Rai and Peter Mukerjea were arrested in the case. Rai later became an approver and was pardoned.

Indrani Mukerjea, who is in jail since her arrest in August 2015, is facing murder charge, while Peter Mukerjea has been accused by the CBI of being a part of the criminal conspiracy.

The CBI has claimed a financial dispute led to the killing of Sheena Bora. PTI AVI RSY RCJ
New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) The Supreme Court Friday told the Tamil Nadu government that defacement of public places cannot be allowed by political parties with advertisements and slogans.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the Tamil Nadu government to inform within two weeks about the steps taken regarding prevention of defacement of natural resources like hills, mountains, rocks and public places.

"We will not allow the defacement of public places and properties with advertisement and slogans of political parties," the bench, also comprising justices S A Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna, observed at the outset of the hearing.

The apex court had on January 11 issued notice to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government on a plea seeking to restrain political parties from erecting digital banners on roadside across the state.

The court was hearing a petition filed by a charitable trust 'In Defence of Environment and Animals' and had asked why the plea should not be kept open, enabling the Madras High Court to monitor the developments in the case.

The plea had sought preventing encroachments via religious symbols and political graffiti, advertisements by private parties on natural resources like mountains, hills, hillocks, avenue trees and on national and state highways.

The Madras High Court had on December 19 last year issued an interim order restraining political parties from putting up digital banners on roadside unless the state government and local bodies came out with a clear undertaking that the rules and various orders passed by the court would be strictly implemented and no violation would take place.

The court while passing the orders had said such banners distracted the road users, especially two-wheeler riders, and obstructed pedestrians.

The high court had expressed its displeasure over the unjustified reasons given by authorities in the past five years for failing to implement court orders regarding unauthorised banners. PTI RKS LLP AAR
New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) A Delhi court Friday extended till March 25 the interim protection from arrest granted to former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis scam cases filed by the CBI and the ED.

Special Judge O P Saini adjourned the matter after senior advocate Sonia Mathur, appearing for the CBI, sought time to argue on their anticipatory bail applications.

Similar request was also made by ED's Special Public Prosecutors Nitesh Rana and N K Matta which was allowed by the court.

During the hearing senior advocates Kapil Sibal and A M Sinhgvi, appearing for the father-son duo, opposed the adjournment sought by the agencies, saying a lot of time has been spent since filing of the applications.

The case relates to alleged irregularities in grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval in the Aircel-Maxis deal. PTI UK URD SA
New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Friday sought response of trustees of Ryan International Schools on a plea by parents of a child, who had drowned in a water tank of the school here in 2016, seeking compensation of Rs 10 crore for alleged gross negligence of the authorities.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao was hearing an appeal by the child's parents against a single judge's order which had disposed of the plea saying it does not consider apposite to examine the claim in these proceedings.

The court sought response of Ryan International School Chairman Augustine Francis Pinto, his wife and director Grace Pinto, their son and CEO Ryan Pinto and other officials including Principal and teachers of the Vasant Kunj school on the petition.

It also issued notice to the DDA, Directorate of Education, Delhi Jal Board and South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Six-year-old Devansh Meena had gone missing on January 30, 2016, and his body was recovered the same day from a water tank in the school.

A criminal case was registered over drowning of the boy.

The appeal, filed through advocates Ashok Aggarwal, Aditya Aggarwal and Ankit Mutreja, said the single judge in a hasty manner came to the conclusion that the petition is not a case of res ipsa loquitur and had not considered the plea to be a fit case to be adjudicated by it.

As per legal maxim, res ipsa loquitur means "the thing speaks for itself," a doctrine of law that one is presumed to be negligent if he/she/it had exclusive control of whatever caused the injury, even though there is no specific evidence of an act of negligence.

The plea alleged that the respondents, who are officials of the society which runs the school and other staff, have been grossly negligent. PTI SKV RT
Chennai, Mar 8 (PTI) DMK president M K Stalin hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the government's assertion on Rafale documents being 'stolen' from the Defence Ministry and sought to know how could he protect the country when he could not even safeguard documents.

The opposition has, therefore, joined hands against the BJP, he told reporters here.

"My question is how Modi, who cannot even protect documents, can protect the country? That is why such an alliance has been formed," he said, referring to the mega coalition against the BJP.

Stalin was responding to the government's submission in the Supreme Court that documents related to the Rafale aircraft deal have been stolen from the Defence Ministry.

On the DMDK's war of words with his party Treasurer Durai Murugan and its criticism of his party, Stalin said he did not want to waste time over such issues by responding to them.

While DMDK had claimed that two of its party functionaries had met Durai Murugan on Wednesday for some personal work, the DMK leader had, however, said that they had sought accommodation for their party in the DMK-led camp in the state ahead of LS polls. PTI SA APR APR IND

IND
Chennai, Mar 8 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami Friday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for deciding to rename Chennai Central Railway Station after AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran.

Kicking off a AIADMK-BJP-PMK alliance campaign for the upcoming general election here a few days back, Modi had said the Centre has decided to rename the century-old railway station after the late AIADMK founder fondly known as MGR.

In a letter to the prime minister, Palaniswami said the Tamil Nadu Cabinet had in September 2018 unanimously resolved to recommend to the Centre to rename the station as 'Puratchi Thalaivar Dr M G Ramachandran Railway Station' in memory of the charismatic and popular former chief minister of the state.

Palaniswami termed Modi's announcement a "great honour" and "befitting tribute to the great leader".

"On behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu, I express my heartfelt thanks to you for the announcement," he said.

The chief minister recalled that M G Ramachandran was honoured with the highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to public service in 1988. PTI VIJ

NSD

NSD
New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) On the occasion of International Women's Day, the Delhi Police reiterated its commitment for safety and security of women and said zero tolerance towards crime against women was its utmost priority.

In the aftermath of the December 16, 2012, gang-rape incident there was a paradigm shift in dealing with cases rated to crime against women, police said.

Sexual assault survivors stood up and reported their cases, leading to an unprecedented increase in registration of rape and molestation cases, they said.

For instance, 850 rape and 1,869 molestation cases were registered during the first six months of 2013 as against 327 rape and 279 molestation cases during the corresponding period in 2012, police said.

The Delhi Police has been continuing its special efforts to ensure that women's grievances are registered immediately and they are treated with respect and sympathy, an official said.

All 178 territorial police stations in all the 15 districts of Delhi have separate women help desks, run by women officers round the clock, with exclusive direct telephone help lines, police said.

Self-defence training 'Sashakti' was initiated in 2002 by the Special Police Unit for Women and Children with an objective to empower women by way of demonstration and training in techniques of martial arts and educate them about self-defence tactics, they said.

Under the 'Nirbheek' programme, officials pay regular visit to co-educational as well as only for girls schools and conduct interactive sessions with girl students, police said.

The aim of these sessions is to instill a sense of confidence among them and to sensitise them about basic precautions to be taken against sexual abuse, they added. PTI NIT AMP NSD

NSD
\R New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) A 26-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly killing a person in Haryana's Ambala district six years ago, police said Friday.

Navjot Singh Heera, a native of Ambala, was residing in Ramesh Nagar, Delhi. He was carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh, they said.

During investigation, police got a tip-off on Thursday that Heera would come to Sagarpur to meet his relative. A trap was laid and the accused was apprehended, Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), said.

During interrogation, Heera said that in 1999, his father was killed by one Gurpal Singh. To avenge his father's murder, Heera, along with his associates, kidnapped Gurpal on July 8, 2013 and killed him.

His seven associates were earlier arrested and convicted. PTI NIT GVS
Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Snow this evening will give way to lingering snow showers late. Low 27F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 90%. Snow accumulations less than one inch..

Tonight

Snow this evening will give way to lingering snow showers late. Low 27F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 90%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
Huawei claims the National Defence Authorisation Act is unconstitutional and amounts to a 'corporate death penalty'

Huawei accused the US of acting as judge, jury and executioner as it launched a legal fight back against bans on its equipment.

The Chinese telecoms group has filed a lawsuit urging a federal court to overturn parts of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), which bars American government departments from using Chinese kit.

Huawei claims the act, signed by President Trump in August, is unconstitutional and amounts to a corporate death penalty.

The firms move comes as US officials are pressuring allies around the world to shun its equipment over spying fears. Huawei rejects accusations its kit poses a risk.

Huaweis lawsuit seeks a temporary injunction against parts of the defence act and an eventual ruling to strike them down entirely.

The US Justice Department declined to comment on the legal action.
Put on your party hats, it's Isa season! After years in the doldrums could we have a proper Isa battle on our hands in 2019?

Santander and Coventry Building Society have launched two best-buy easy-access tax-free deals, and that appears to have put some wind in the sails of This is Money assistant editor Lee Boyce.

Editor Simon Lambert and host Georgie Frost  along with Lee  talk all things Isas: whether they are worth it, the options and importantly, are the new top rates a potential catalyst for more competition?

Elsewhere, we take a look at new fintech firm Dozens, offering a five per cent return spotted after a recent London Transport advertising blitz.

There is a victory for This is Money readers, as Virgin Money refunds credit card customers stung by charges after unwittingly setting minimum payments rather than paying the full balance when changing card.

Simon runs the rule over a 95% interest-only mortgage launched by Newbury Building Society.

And from Isas to Ice, Ice Baby, we talk about our latest Freedom of Information request to find out just how many motorists actually get fined for idling engines to defrost windscreens.
Greene King plc operates as a pub retailer and brewer in the United Kingdom. The company operates through three segments: Pub Company, Pub Partners, and Brewing & Brands. Its brands include Greene King Local Pubs, Hungry Horse, Flaming Grill, Farmhouse Inns, and Chef & Brewer. The company is also involved in brewing, marketing, and selling beer under the Greene King IPA, Old Speckled Hen, Abbot Ale, and Belhaven Best brands. In addition, Greene King plc engages in the employment, financing, pension trustee, and property businesses. As of April 30, 2018, it operated 2,855 managed, tenanted, leased, and franchised pubs, restaurants, and hotels. Greene King plc was founded in 1799 and is headquartered in Bury St Edmunds, the United Kingdom.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Barclays: Adler Toy Holding Sarl, Aequor Investments Limited, Alymere Investments Limited, Alynore Investments Limited Partnership, Analog Analytics, Analog Analytics Inc, Analytical Trade Holdings LLC, Analytical Trade Investments LLC, Analytical Trade UK Limited, Archstone Equity Holdings Inc, Ardencroft Investments Limited, B D & B Investments Limited, B.P.B. (Holdings) Limited, BB Client Nominees Limited, BBAIL SAS, BCAP LLC, BIFML PTC Limited, BMBF (No.24) Limited, BMI (No.9) Limited, BNC Brazil Consultoria Empresarial Ltda, BNRI ENG 2013 Limited Partnership, BNRI ENG 2014 Limited Partnership, BNRI ENG GP LLP, BNRI England 2010 Limited Partnership, BNRI England 2011 Limited Partnership, BNRI England 2012 Limited Partnership, BNRI Limehouse No.1 Sarl, BNRI PIA Scot GP Limited, BNRI Scots GP LLP, BPB Holdings SA, BVP Galvani Global S.A.U., Barafor Limited, Barclay Leasing Limited, Barclaycard Funding PLC, Barclaycard International Payments Limited, Barclays (Barley) Limited, Barclays Aldersgate Investments Limited, Barclays Alzin Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Asia Limited, Barclays Asset Management Limited, Barclays BR Investments S.a r.l., Barclays BWA Inc., Barclays Bank (Suisse) S.A., Barclays Bank Delaware, Barclays Bank Ireland PLC, Barclays Bank Ireland Public Limited Company, Barclays Bank Mexico S.A., Barclays Bank PLC, Barclays Bank UK PLC, Barclays Bayard Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Bedivere Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Bordang Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Brasil Assessoria Financeira Ltda., Barclays CCP Funding LLC, Barclays Cantal Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Capital (Cayman) Limited, Barclays Capital Asia Holdings Limited, Barclays Capital Asia Limited, Barclays Capital Canada Inc., Barclays Capital Casa de Bolsa S.A. de C.V., Barclays Capital Derivatives Funding LLC, Barclays Capital Effekten GmbH, Barclays Capital Energy Inc., Barclays Capital Equities Trading GP, Barclays Capital Finance Limited, Barclays Capital Futures (Singapore) Private Limited, Barclays Capital Holdings (Singapore) Private Limited, Barclays Capital Holdings Inc., Barclays Capital Inc., Barclays Capital Japan Securities Holdings Limited, Barclays Capital Luxembourg S.a r.l., Barclays Capital Mauritius Limited, Barclays Capital Nominees (No.2) Limited, Barclays Capital Nominees (No.3) Limited, Barclays Capital Nominees Limited, Barclays Capital Principal Investments Limited, Barclays Capital Real Estate Finance Inc., Barclays Capital Real Estate Holdings Inc., Barclays Capital Real Estate Inc., Barclays Capital Securities Client Nominee Limited, Barclays Capital Securities Limited, Barclays Capital Securities Mauritius Limited, Barclays Capital Trading Luxembourg S.a r.l., Barclays Claudas Investments Partnership, Barclays Claudas Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Commercial Mortgage Securities LLC, Barclays Converted Investments (No.2) Limited, Barclays Corporation Limited, Barclays Direct Investing Nominees Limited, Barclays Directors Limited, Barclays Dryrock Funding LLC, Barclays Electronic Commerce Holdings Inc., Barclays Equity Holdings Limited, Barclays Equity Index Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Europe Client Nominees Designated Activity Company, Barclays Europe Firm Nominees Designated Activity Company, Barclays Europe Nominees Designated Activity Company, Barclays Executive Schemes Trustees Limited, Barclays Financial LLC, Barclays Financial Planning Nominee Company Limited, Barclays Funds Investments Limited, Barclays Funds and Advisory Japan Limited, Barclays Global Service Centre Private Limited, Barclays Global Shareplans Nominee Limited, Barclays Group Holdings Limited, Barclays Group Operations Limited, Barclays Group US Inc., Barclays Index Finance Trust, Barclays Industrial Development Limited, Barclays Industrial Investments Limited, Barclays Insurance Guernsey PCC Limited, Barclays Insurance Services Company Limited, Barclays Insurance U.S. Inc., Barclays International Luxembourg Dollar Holdings S.a r.l., Barclays Investment Management Limited, Barclays Investment Solutions Limited, Barclays Investments & Loans (India) Limited, Barclays Korea GP Limited, Barclays Lamorak Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Leasing (No.9) Limited, Barclays Leto Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Long Island Limited, Barclays Luxembourg EUR Holdings S.a r.l, Barclays Luxembourg Finance S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg GBP Holdings S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg Global Funding S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Barclays Luxembourg Holdings SSC B, Barclays Marlist Limited, Barclays Mauritius Overseas Holdings Limited, Barclays Mercantile Business Finance Limited, Barclays Merchant Bank (Singapore) Ltd., Barclays Nominees (George Yard) Limited, Barclays Nominees (Guernsey) Limited, Barclays Nominees (Jersey) Limited, Barclays Nominees (Manx) Limited, Barclays Oversight Management Inc., Barclays Payment Solutions Inc., Barclays Pelleas Investments Limited Partnership, Barclays Pelleas Investments S.a r.l., Barclays Pension Funds Trustees Limited, Barclays Principal Investments Limited, Barclays Private Asset Management (Monaco) S.A.M, Barclays Private Bank, Barclays Private Clients International Limited, Barclays Receivables LLC, Barclays SAMS Limited, Barclays Securities (India) Private Limited, Barclays Securities Japan Limited, Barclays Security Trustee Limited, Barclays Services (Japan) Limited, Barclays Services Corporation, Barclays Services Jersey Limited, Barclays Services LLC, Barclays Services Limited, Barclays Shea Limited, Barclays Singapore Global Shareplans Nominee Limited, Barclays Switzerland Services SA, Barclays Tenedora De Immuebles SL., Barclays Term Funding Limited Liability Partnership, Barclays UK Investments Limited, Barclays US CCP Funding LLC, Barclays US Funding LLC, Barclays US GPF Inc., Barclays US Investments Inc., Barclays US LLC, Barclays Unquoted Investments Limited, Barclays Unquoted Property Investments Limited, Barclays Wealth Management Jersey Limited, Barclays Wealth Nominees Limited, Barclays Wealth Services Limited, Barclays Wealth Trustees (India) Private Limited, Barclayshare Nominees Limited, Barclaytrust Channel Islands Limited, Barcosec Limited, Barsec Nominees Limited, Blossom Finance General Partnership, Branchcall Computers (Pvt) Limited, Braven Investments No.1 Limited, CP Flower Guaranteeco (UK) Limited, CP Newco 1 Limited, CP Newco2 Limited, CP Newco3 Limited, CP Propco 1 Limited, CP Propco 2 Limited, CP Topco Limited, CPIA Canada Holdings, CPIA England 2008 Limited Partnership, CPIA England 2009 Limited Partnership, CPIA England No.2 Limited Partnership, CPIA Investments No.1 Limited, CPIA Investments No.2 Limited, CRE Diversified Holdings LLC, CREW Tahoe Holdings LLC, CREW Tahoe LLC, Calthorpe Investments Limited, Capton Investments Limited, Carnegie Holdings Limited, Central Platte Valley Management LLC, Chapelcrest Investments Limited, Charles Schwab Europe, Claudas Investments Limited, Claudas Investments Two Limited, Clydesdale Financial Services Limited, Cobalt Investments Limited, Compania Regional del Sur S.A., Compania Sudamerica S.A., Condor No.1 Limited Partnership, Cornwall Homes Loans Limited, Crescent Crown Land Holding SPV LLC, Crescent Legacy LLC, Crescent Plaza Residential L.P., Crescent Plaza Residential LLC, Crescent Plaza Residential LP LLC, Crescent Real Estate Member LLC, Crescent Resort Development LLC, Crescent TRS Holdings LLC, Crescent Tower Residences GP LLC, Crescent Tower Residences L.P., Curve Investments GP, DBL Texas Holdings LLC, DMW Realty Limited, Desert Mountain Development LLC, Desert Mountain Properties Limited Partnership, Develop Training Group Limited, Dorset Home Loans Limited, Durlacher Nominees Limited, EWRD Summit LLC, Eagle Financial and Leasing Services (UK) Limited, East West Resort Development V L.P. L.L.L.P., East West Resort Development VII LLC, Equity Limited Partnership, Equity Value Investments No.1 Limited, Equity Value Investments No.2 Limited, Erimon Home Loans Ireland Limited, Expobank, FIRSTPLUS Financial Group Limited, Finpart Nominees Limited, First Assurance, Foltus Investments Limited, Full House Holdings Limited, Gallen Investments Limited, Global Dynasty Natural Resource Private, Globe Nominees Limited, Gracechurch Services Corporation, Grays Station LLC, Grupo Financiero Barclays Mexico S.A. de C.V., Hawkins Funding Limited, Heraldglen Limited, Holding Stuttgarter Strae GmbH, Hurley Investments No.1 Limited, Imalivest Mineral Resources LP, Investors In Infrastructure Limited, J.V. Estates Limited, JV Assets Limited, Kirsche Investments Limited, LTDL Holdings LLC, La Torretta Beverages LLC, La Torretta Hospitality LLC, La Torretta Operations LLC, Lagalla Investments LLC, Leonis Investments LLP, Liability Partnership, Long Island Assets Limited, Long Island Holding A LLC, Long Island Holding B Limited, MK Opportunities GP Ltd, MK Opportunities LP, MVWP Investors LLC, Maloney Investments Limited, Marbury Holdings LLC, Menlo Investments Limited, Mercantile Credit Company Limited, Mercantile Leasing Company (No.132) Limited, Meridian (SPV-AMC) Corporation, Mintaka Investments No. 4 Limited, Mira Vista Development LLC, Mira Vista Golf Club L.C., Mountainside Partners LLC, Murray House Investment Management Limited, Naxos Investments Limited, Nile Bank, North Colonnade Investments Limited, Northstar Mountain Properties LLC, Northstar Trailside Townhomes LLC, Northstar Village Townhomes LLC, Northwharf Investments Limited, Northwharf Nominees Limited, OGP Leasing Limited, Oakes Millers Ltd, Ownership Trustee Limited, PIA England No.2 Limited Partnership, Palomino Limited, Pecan Aggregator LP, Pelleas Investments Limited, Pelleas Investments Two Limited, Pippin Island Investments Limited, Preferred Liquidity LLC, Preferred Liquidity Limited Partnership, Procella Investments LLC, Procella Investments No.1 LLC, Procella Investments No.2 LLC, Procella Investments No.3 LLC, Protium Finance I LLC, Protium Master Grantor Trust, Protium Master Mortgage LP, Protium REO I LP, R.C. Grieg Nominees Limited, RVH Limited, RVT CLO Investments LLP, Razzoli Investments Limited, Real Estate Participation Management Limited, Real Estate Participation Services Limited, Relative Value Holdings LLC, Relative Value Investments UK Limited, Relative Value Trading Limited, Roder Investments No. 1 Limited, Roder Investments No. 2 Limited, Ruthenium Investments Limited, SPM GP Limited, Securitized Asset Backed Receivables LLC, Servicios Barclays S.A. de C.V., Societe Civile Immobiliere 31 Avenue de la Costa, Solution Personal Finance Limited, Southern Peaks Mining LP, Standard Life Aberdeen, Surety Trust Limited, Surrey Funding Corporation, Sussex Purchasing Corporation, Sutton Funding LLC, Swan Lane Investments Limited, TPLL LLC, TPProperty LLC, Tahoe Club Company LLC, Tahoe Club Employee Company, The Logic Group Enterprises Limited, The Logic Group Holdings Limited, Third Energy Holdings Limited, US Real Estate Holdings No. 2 Limited, US Real Estate Holdings No.1 Limited, US Real Estate Holdings No.3 Limited, US Secured Investments LLC, Union Center LLC, United Counties Bank, Verain Investments LLC, Walbrook Group Ltd, Wedd Jefferson (Nominees) Limited, Wessex Investments Limited, Westferry Investments Limited, Wilmington Riverfront Receivables LLC, Woolwich Homes Limited, Woolwich Plan Managers Limited, Woolwich Qualifying Employee Share, Woolwich Surveying Services Limited, Woori BC Pegasus Securitization Specialty Co. Limited, and Zeban Nominees Limited.
Total Energy Services Inc. provides various products and services to the oil and natural gas industry primarily in Canada, the United States, and Australia. It operates through four segments: Contract Drilling Services, Rentals and Transportation Services, Compression and Process Services and Well Servicing. The Contract Drilling Services segment offers contract drilling services to oil and gas exploration and development companies. As of December 31, 2020, it operated a total fleet of 98 drilling rigs. The Rentals and Transportation Services segment provides drilling, completion and production rental equipment, and oilfield transportation services in western Canada and in the United States. This segment owned and operated a fleet of 87 heavy trucks. The Compression and Process Services segment offers gas compression services; and designs and packages skid style compressors and proprietary trailer-mounted compressors under the NOMAD brand in Canada and the United States, the European Union, Australia, and Mexico. It had 54,800 horsepower of compression in its rental fleet. The Well Servicing segment offers well services. This segment operated a total fleet of 83 well servicing rigs across Western Canada, mid-western United States, and Australia. It has a strategic alliance with Pason Systems Inc. to develop and deploy drilling automation and optimization technologies. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Kroger: 84.51 HQ Building Company LLC, 84.51 LLC, Alpha Beta Company, Ansonborough Square Investors I LLC, Ansonborough Square Retail LLC, Ardrey Kell Investments LLC, Bay Area Warehouse Stores Inc., Beech Tree Holdings LLC, Bell Markets Inc., Bleecker Ventures LLC, Bluefield Beverage Company, Box Cutter Inc., Brier Creek Arbors Drive Retail LLC, CB&S Advertising Agency Inc., Cala Co., Cala Foods Inc., Cheeses of All Nations Inc., Country Oven Inc., Crawford Stores Inc., Creedmoor Retail LLC, Dillon Companies LLC, Dillon Real Estate Co. Inc., Dillons, Distribution Trucking Company, Dotto Inc., Edgewood Plaza Holdings LLC, Embassy International Inc., FM Inc., FMJ Inc., Farmacia Doral Inc., Food 4 Less GM Inc., Food 4 Less Holdings Inc., Food 4 Less Merchandising Inc., Food 4 Less of California Inc., Food 4 Less of Southern California Inc., Fred Meyer, Fred Meyer Inc., Fred Meyer Jewelers Inc., Fred Meyer Stores Inc., Glasswing Labs LLC, Glendale/Goodwin Realty I LLC, Grubstake Investments LLC, HT Fuel DE LLC, HT Fuel NC LLC, HT Fuel SC LLC, HT Fuel VA LLC, HTGBD LLC, HTP Bluffton LLC, HTP Plaza LLC, HTP Relo LLC, HTPS LLC, HTTAH LLC, Harris Teeter, Harris Teeter LLC, Henpil Inc., Home Chef, Hood-Clayton Logistics LLC, Hughes Markets Inc., Hughes Realty Inc., I.T.A. Inc., IRP LLC, ITAC 119 LLC, ITAC 265 LLC, Inter-American Foods Inc., Inter-American Products Inc., J.V. Distributing Inc., Jondex Corp., Jubilee Carolina LLC, KCDE  2012 LLC, KCDE  2013 LLC, KCDE-2 LLC, KCDE-3 LLC, KCDE-4 LLC, KCDE-5 LLC, KGO LLC, KPF LLC, KPS LLC, KRGP LLC, KRLP Inc., KV Anderson LLC, Kee Trans Inc., Kessel FP, Kiosk Medicine Kentucky LLC, Kirkpatrick West Retail LLC, Kroger Community Development Entity LLC, Kroger Dedicated Logistics Co., Kroger Fulfillment Network LLC, Kroger G.O. LLC, Kroger LM Real Estate Holdings LLC, Kroger Limited Partnership I, Kroger Limited Partnership II, Kroger MC Holdings LLC, Kroger MTL Management LLC, Kroger Management Co., Kroger Management  Corryville LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Athens I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Champaign I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Champaign II LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Cincinnati I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Dallas I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Danville I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Logansport I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Missouri I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Oak Ridge I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Olney I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Omaha I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Portsmouth I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Starkville I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Topeka I LLC, Kroger Management  NMTC Warrenton I LLC, Kroger NMTC Fremont I LLC, Kroger OZ1 Inc., Kroger OZ1 LLC, Kroger OZ2 Inc., Kroger OZ2 LLC, Kroger OZ3 Inc., Kroger OZ3 LLC, Kroger Opportunity Fund I Inc., Kroger Prescription Plans Inc., Kroger Specialty Infusion AL LLC, Kroger Specialty Infusion CA LLC, Kroger Specialty Infusion Holdings Inc., Kroger Specialty Infusion TX LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy CA 2 LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy CA LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy FL 2 LLC, Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings 2 Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings 3 Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings I Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Holdings Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy Inc., Kroger Specialty Pharmacy LA LLC, Kroger Texas L.P., LCGP3 Home Cooking Inc., Latta Village LLC, Local Mkt LLC, Main & Vine LLC, Matthews Property 1 LLC, Mega Marts LLC, Michigan Dairy L.L.C., ModernHealth LTC, Murrays Cheese LLC, Murrays LIC LLC, Murrays Table LLC, Pace Dairy Foods Company, Paramount Logistics LLC, Pay Less Super Markets Inc., Peyton's-Southeastern Inc., Plum Labs LLC, Pontiac Foods Inc., Queen City Assurance Inc., RBF LLC, RGC Southeast Properties LLC, Ralphs Grocery Company, Relish Labs LLC, Rocket Newco Inc., Roundy's, Roundys Acquisition Corp., Roundys Illinois LLC, Roundys Inc., Roundys Supermarkets Inc., Second Story Inc., Shop-Rite LLC, Smiths Beverage of Wyoming Inc., Smiths Food & Drug Centers Inc., Southern Ice Cream Specialties Inc., Stallings Investors I LLC, Sunrise R&D Holdings LLC, Sunrise Technology LLC, TLC Corporate Services LLC, TLC Immunization Clinic LLC, TLC of Georgia LLC, The Kroger Co. of Michigan, The Little Clinic LLC, The Little Clinic Management Services LLC, The Little Clinic of Arizona LLC, The Little Clinic of Colorado LLC, The Little Clinic of IN LLC, The Little Clinic of Kansas LLC, The Little Clinic of Mississippi LLC, The Little Clinic of Ohio LLC, The Little Clinic of TX LLC, The Little Clinic of Tennessee LLC, The Little Clinic of VA LLC, Topvalco Inc., Ultimate Mart LLC, Ultra Mart Foods LLC, Vine Court Assurance Incorporated, Vitacost, Vitacost.com Inc., Woodmont Holdings LLC, and YOU Technology.
The following companies are subsidiares of Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1096271 B.C. ULC, 345 Park LLC, A.G. Medical Services P.A., AHI Investment LLC, AbVitro LLC, Abraxis BioScience Australia Pty Ltd., Abraxis BioScience Inc., Abraxis BioScience International Holding Company Inc., Abraxis BioScience LLC, Abraxis BioScience Puerto Rico LLC, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adnexus, Adnexus a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, Allard Labs Acquisition G.P., Amira Pharmaceuticals, Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apothecon LLC, B-MS Generx Unlimited Company, BMS Benelux Holdings B.V., BMS Bermuda Nominees L.L.C., BMS Data Acquisition Company LLC, BMS Forex Company, BMS Holdings Sarl, BMS Holdings Spain S.L., BMS International Insurance Designated Activity Company, BMS Investco SAS, BMS Korea Holdings L.L.C., BMS Latin American Nominees L.L.C., BMS Luxembourg Partners L.L.C., BMS Omega Bermuda Holdings Finance Ltd., BMS Pharmaceutical Korea Limited, BMS Pharmaceuticals Germany Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals International Holdings Netherlands B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Korea Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Mexico Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Netherlands Holdings B.V., BMS Real Estate LLC, BMS Spain Investments LLC, BMS Strategic Portfolio Investments Holdings Inc., Blisa Acquisition G.P., Bristol (Iran) S.A., Bristol Iran Private Company Limited, Bristol Laboratories Inc., Bristol Laboratories International S.A., Bristol Laboratories Medical Information Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers (Andes) L.L.C., Bristol-Myers (Private) Limited, Bristol-Myers Middle East S.A.L., Bristol-Myers Overseas Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (NZ) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Proprietary) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (West Indies) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb A.E., Bristol-Myers Squibb Aktiebolag, Bristol-Myers Squibb Argentina S. R. L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Australia Pty. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Axia Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb B.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Business Services Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada International Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Delta Company Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Denmark Filial of Bristol-Myers Squibb AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb EMEA Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Epsilon Holdings Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Ltda., Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Portuguesa S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb GesmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings 2002 Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Pharma Ltd. Liability Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Ilaclari Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb India Pvt. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Company Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Investco L.L.C., Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K., Bristol-Myers Squibb Kft., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg International S.C.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb MEA GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marketing Services S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Middle East & Africa FZ-LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Norway Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Nutricionales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Peru S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (HK) Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (Thailand) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Holding Company LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Ventures Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Polska Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Products SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership Puerto Rico, Bristol-Myers Squibb Romania S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.A.U., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Holding Partnership, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Service Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Services Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Spol. s r.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Theta Finance Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Trustees Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Colombia S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Guatemala S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astrazeneca EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, Bristol-Myers de Venezuela S.C.A., CHT I LLC, CHT II LLC, CHT III LLC, CHT IV LLC, CR Finance Company LLC, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celem LLC, Celem Ltd., Celgene, Celgene A.B., Celgene AS, Celgene Ab (Finland), Celgene Alpine Investment Co. II LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. III LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. LLC, Celgene ApS, Celgene B.V., Celgene BVBA, Celgene Brasil Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda., Celgene CAR LLC, Celgene CAR Ltd., Celgene Chemicals Sarl, Celgene China Holdings LLC, Celgene Co., Celgene Corporation, Celgene Distribution B.V., Celgene EngMab GmbH, Celgene Europe B.V., Celgene Europe Limited, Celgene European Investment Company LLC, Celgene Financing Company LLC, Celgene Global Holdings Sarl, Celgene GmbH [Austria], Celgene GmbH [Germany], Celgene GmbH [Switzerland], Celgene Holdings East Corporation, Celgene Holdings II Sarl, Celgene Holdings III Sarl, Celgene Ilac Pazarlama ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Celgene Inc., Celgene International Holdings Corporation, Celgene International II Sarl, Celgene International III Sarl, Celgene International Inc., Celgene International Sarl, Celgene K.K., Celgene Kft., Celgene Limited [Hong Kong], Celgene Limited [Ireland], Celgene Limited [New Zealand], Celgene Limited [Taiwan], Celgene Limited [UK], Celgene Logistics Sarl, Celgene Ltd, Celgene Luxembourg Sarl, Celgene Management Sarl, Celgene NJ Investment Co, Celgene Netherlands B.V., Celgene Netherlands Investment B.V., Celgene Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. 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Z.o.o., Celgene Sro [Czech Republic], Celgene Summit Investment Co, Celgene Switzerland Holding Sarl, Celgene Switzerland II LLC, Celgene Switzerland Investment Sarl, Celgene Switzerland LLC, Celgene Switzerland Sarl, Celgene Tri A Holdings Ltd., Celgene Tri Sarl, Celgene UK Distribution Limited, Celgene UK Holdings Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing II Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing III Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing Limited, Celgene d.o.o., Celgene sro [Slovakia], Celmed LLC, Celmed Ltd., ConvaTec Divestiture, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals AB, Crosp Ltd., Delinia Inc., Deuteria Pharmaceuticals Inc., DuPont Pharmaceuticals, E. R. Squibb & Sons Inter-American Corporation, E. R. Squibb & Sons L.L.C., E. R. 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Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc..
NORRISTOWN  A 117-year-old DeKalb Street corner building has gotten a new lease on life thanks to a developer with a fondness for Victorian architecture.

Ian Truelove, owner of Warminster-based Hazlenut Properties, LLC, said he fell in love with the good bones of the 425 DeKalb St. building as soon as he laid eyes on it in 2017 and realized it was an asset worth preserving for both Norristown and Montgomery County.

The building was built around 1902 and there arent a lot of 100-year-old buildings left in Norristown, Truelove said. Originally I think it was a shop, and the shop owner and his family lived above the shop.

Truelove was well aware of the challenges he faced in not only restoring the building, which was once home to a bagel shop, but also overcoming the areas less than stellar reputation.

The roof was leaking and there was a fire there 15 years ago. High Swartz acquired the building about 10 or 12 years ago to keep out the undesirables because there were all sorts of things going on in that building, Truelove said, referring to the venerable law firm that occupies a building on Airy Street that is connected to 425 DeKalb.

A press release indicated that the buildings apartments had been in very bad condition and the rent it brought in wasnt enough for the landlord to keep the property going when the partners at High Swartz Law Firm, came to the rescue. Their goal was always to locate the right buyer  which they did when they found Truelove, who set about reclaiming the buildings history by keeping the vintage details intact, aiming for a luxury market and targeting an upscale clientele as his tenants.

With the help of Trueloves son, Dominic Truelove, and Jared Gruber of JG Real Estate, the rise of Hazelnut House had begun.

After obtaining historic approval for the project, Truelove hired local architects Seiler & Drury for the zoning and code approvals process. Building engineers were brought on board to solve the structural issues that had developed over the years. The basement had been in total disrepair, with distinct mold issues that needed to be addressed, while the effects of a fire and roof leaks caused the central spine of the building to sag. Truelove brought his son Luke on board to help repair some of the structural issues.

In addition to saving the terra cotta roof coping tiles, the men dismantled, refurbished and reinstalled the original Victorian stair rail. Entry doors were refinished and repainted in authentic Victorian red.

Original window apertures were restored and energy-efficient full-sized sash windows were installed. It was then that the crew discovered an original short stair that had been covered up during apparent mid-century home improvements. When originally built, this stair enabled the shopkeeper and family to have direct access from the home above into the storefront and basement below.

After nearly a year of repairs and rehabbing, the spaces were ready to be unveiled and, more importantly, occupied.

Amenities now include solid oak floors; Shaker style painted wood cabinets; quartz countertops; stainless steel French door refrigerators; sprinkler fire protection system, and of course, a wealth of preserved Victorian features throughout.

Two of the apartments have already been rented and two are still available, noted Truelove, whose own story may be as significant to the buildings revival as the restoration itself.

The release explained that while on a visit from London, Truelove met his future wife Jean through mutual friends in the Philadelphia region, while falling in love with the Montgomery County countryside.

The couple decided to put down roots and ultimately raise their family here  9 boys and one girl ranging in age from 19 to 37.

The crowning glory of Hazlenut House will no doubt be when the space becomes home to a cafe on the lower level.

Areas of exposed original red brick that embellish the dining area and a reclaimed Victorian enamel stove found in the basement are features that will appeal to the right restaurateur, noted Truelove, who modestly downplayed his major role in Norristowns real estate renaissance.

A lot of the buildings on DeKalb have already been improved. Im just one of many owners who are improving the area, he said.

To view photos of the restoration and finished apartments visit highswartz.com.

For more information, contact Ian Truelove at hazelnutpropertiesllc@gmail.com or call 215.740.8072.
WASHINGTON The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, with upstate New York lawmakers contributing to the lopsided vote brought on by the controversial statements of freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn  including one in which she equated support of Israel with allegiance to a foreign country.

It passed the House late Thursday on a vote of 407-23, with only Republicans voting no.

It was the second time in as many months the House voted indirectly to condemn Omar, although neither resolution mentioned her by name.

Democrats who took control of the House in January worried that controversy over Omars remarks (which she defended as legitimate criticism of Israel) would distract from their progressive agenda and give Republicans political ammunition.

Lawmakers representing districts in and around Albany all voted for the resolution but did so for different reasons.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, voted yes but was critical of the resolution for not naming Omar directly. Along with Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-L.I., and Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., she introduced a resolution that not only named Omar but called for her removal from the prestigious House Foreign Affairs Committee.

It is time to send a clear, resounding message to the entire world that anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hate will not be tolerated, and it starts with us, here in the chamber of the House of Representatives, the three wrote in an op-ed in the Hill, a newspaper on Capitol Hill.

The vote, originally scheduled for Tuesday, got pushed back to Thursday as Democrats debated it behind closed doors. Many in the caucus pushed for inclusion of other groups into the text in order to broaden it.

The final language drew the support of Rep. Antonio Delgado, a freshman who rode in to Congress on the same wave as Omar and 65 other freshmen Democrats.

I believe it is important to condemn discrimination in all its forms, said Delgado in a statement. Thats why I supported todays resolution.

Jewish leaders hailed passage of the resolution but expressed dismay that it ended up including so many other groups.

Folding anti-Semitism into a package of other social phobias is not a means of addressing the problem; its a way of avoiding the problem, said Bnai Brith International President Charles O. Kaufman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin in a statement. Anti-Semitism merits its own resolution; the failure of the House to pass one diminishes the threat that anti-Semitism poses and has the look of an action taken for the sake of expediency.

Omar, 37, fled civil strife in Somalia in 1991 and lived for a time in a refugee camp with her family in Kenya before gaining entry to the U.S. But soon after she took the oath of office in January, her views on Israel underwent the kind of scrutiny they had not previously received.

Some Democratic leaders saw her expressions as the mark of an inexperienced lawmaker ascending the expected learning curve. But most others, including powerful Democrats who happen to be Jewish, like House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-Manhattan-Brooklyn, and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Bronx-Westchester, accused her of crossing the line between acceptable criticism of Israel and outright anti-Semitism.

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Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, took a shot at President Donald Trump and other Republicans in explaining his yes vote.

For two years, we have seen the words of elected officials at the very highest levels of our government contribute to an alarming rise in the violence of intolerance, including a frightening increase in violent expressions of White Nationalist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim attacks, Tonko said. Our bipartisan vote today delivers a clear and unequivocal message that we will give no safe quarter to any form of discrimination.

Last month Omar triggered a backlash when she suggested House members support Israel because they depend on contributions from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee  AIPAC. Its all about the Benjamins baby, she tweeted, referring to $100 bills.

She apologized, but the House passed that earlier resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

Omar ignited another firestorm last week when she questioned the loyalty of Americans who support Israel. I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country, she said at a public gathering.

She doubled down over the weekend in a Twitter war with House Appropriations Committee chair Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., who also is Jewish. Lowey scolded Omar: I am saddened that Rep. Omar continues to mischaracterize support for Israel.

Omar responded: Our democracy is built on debate, Congresswoman! I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress.
Shenzhen, China

Chinese tech giant Huawei is challenging a U.S. law that limits its sales of telecom equipment in the U.S. on security grounds as the company steps up efforts to preserve its access to global markets for next-generation communications.

Huawei Technologies Ltd.'s lawsuit, announced Thursday, asks a U.S. court to reject as unconstitutional a military-spending provision that bars the U.S. government and its contractors from using Huawei equipment.

It comes as the biggest global maker of network equipment fights a U.S. campaign to persuade allies to shun Huawei. That threatens to block access to major markets as phone carriers prepare to invest billions of dollars in next-generation cellular networks, known as 5G.

The complaint filed in Plano, Texas, the headquarters of Huawei's U.S. operations, says the law is an unconstitutional "bill of attainder," or a measure that singles out a specific entity for punishment. It says that denies the company due process and amounts to a "death penalty."

The American Embassy in Beijing said it had no comment on pending litigation.

Steven Schwinn, a professor at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, said the lawsuit is likely to be dismissed by a judge. He said the "bill of attainder" claim, or punishment without due process, would be hard to prove.

But Schwinn said the lawsuit is one of Huawei's only remaining options, short of trying to get Congress to reverse the ban.

"This strikes me as a last-ditch effort to do something," he said.

Franklin Turner, a partner at law firm McCarter & English, said there are parallels to a lawsuit filed by Kaspersky Labs in 2017 that was eventually thrown out as well. The U.S. government had barred federal agencies from using Kaspersky's anti-virus products because of concerns about its ties to the Kremlin and Russian spy operations.

Turner said Huawei will likely keep fighting, but "to keep it going, is the legal equivalent of scaling Mount Everest without a rope."

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Huawei, China's first global tech brand, is at the center of U.S.-Chinese tensions over technology competition and cyberspying. The company has spent years trying to put to rest accusations it facilitates Chinese spying or is controlled by the ruling Communist Party.

"We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort," the company's rotating chairman, Guo Ping, said at a news conference. Guo said the ban would limit competition, slowing the rollout of fifth-generation communications and raising consumer prices.

Huawei has pleaded not guilty to U.S. trade-theft charges unsealed by a federal court in Seattle in January.

The company's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested Dec. 1 in Canada on U.S. charges of lying to banks about dealings with Iran. She is fighting extradition to the United States.

Huawei denies wrongdoing.
Albany

A day after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced broad changes to the platform aimed at addressing the site's pitfalls through encryption and enhanced privacy, Roger McNamee, the tech venture capitalist and early Facebook investor, spoke at the University at Albany Thursday about his book "Zucked" which details the perils of the company and big data at large.

McNamee first began working with Zuckerberg when he was a 22-year-old tech prodigy, and McNamee recommended the hiring of Sheryl Sandberg, who now serves as Facebook's chief operating officer and second-in-command.

But McNamee, an Albany native, said he began seeing how Facebook and similar platforms like YouTube, Amazon and Google were threatening democracy and doing other harm in the world, he said.

"The business model is based on advertising. In order to get the advertising to work, they have to manipulate your attention," McNamee said, adding that the sites benefit from content and users, whether those users are posting false or hostile information or not.

"There's no economic incentive for these guys to clean up the mess," he said.

Zuckerberg, in his post, said his goal is to develop a two-part approach with Facebook. That would include a town square, where people post content publicly, and a living room, geared toward sharing content within a private group of friends, where content would be impermanent.

He also said the site would enhance the security of its data storage, and allow for cross-platform messaging across platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.

Zuckerberg's post did not lay out specific changes that will be made to the platform, and he acknowledged that a move toward encryption would make it more difficult to detect things like terrorism, child abuse or extortion.

He said the site would "improve our ability to identify and stop bad actors across our apps by detecting patterns of activity," according to the post.

But McNamee largely dismissed Zuckerberg's proposal as trying to change the narrative around the social media platform, which is facing a widespread loss of public trust, and doubts the changes would actually be implemented.

Should the site encrypt its data, McNamee said it would offer more benefit to the site than to its users, because it would "absolve (Facebook) of the responsibility for all the content on the site, including all the hostile content, because you can't do moderation on end-to-end encryption."

"This appears to be another example of Facebook trying to put a pretty face on something it wanted to do anyway. It's desperate to get rid of responsibility for policing content," he said.

Zuckerberg also suggested Facebook would not host data in countries that "have a track record of violating human rights like privacy or freedom of expression."

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That would ostensibly mean Facebook would not operate in places like China or Vietnam, which would present a significant reduction in revenue should the company follow through, McNamee said.

"If they follow through on the commitment to no longer host data in countries that have bad civil right or privacy records, that would be the first time in Facebook's history when they made a business decision that harmed their revenue over a matter of principle," McNamee said.

"Not going to China is a giant decision for them," McNamee said. "That would be a big deal, but only if they do it. We have to see, because there are lots of things they've said they would do in the past."

Last May, Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post that the company would be building a "Clear History" privacy control on the site  a feature the company has yet to launch.

McNamee also criticized the site's data collection, and pointed out how data like a mouse's movement while a user is on a site can be monitored.

If a user were to begin having erratic mouse movement caused by hand tremors associated with a disease like Parkinson's, that site could sell off that data to the user's insurance company  resulting in a skyrocketing price of insurance for that user.

McNamee laid out some of his criticism of Facebook, and how he came to write his book titled "Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe" during two discussions he gave at UAlbany as part of the New York State Writers Institute's Visiting Writers Series.

McNamee said he wrote the book in 10 weeks, beginning in March 2018. He describes himself as an "unlikely activist" who was spurred to motion by the degradation of the site he had helped found.

"Sometime in you're life, you're going to face moments when your character is going to be tested, and for me, this was one of those moment," McNamee said. "I owed my best effort to try to undo the harm."
There is a quote of indeterminate origin, sometimes attributed to Martin Luther, that reads: "God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees, and flowers, and clouds and stars." It tells the faithful they can find divinity or meaning in all things, even the most mundane. Which means the gospel is written in Starbucks' new Cloud Macchiato. Which brings to mind a seminal quote from "The Office:" "I feel God in this Chili's tonight."

Yes, there is a new Starbucks drink, and, no, it is not disgusting. It is not inspired by a unicorn or mermaid or vampire or witch. It does not have ingredients that are described by the color of their powders rather than their flavors. It does not tell you a fortune. On Tuesday, Starbucks added the espresso drink to its permanent menu in two flavors, caramel and cinnamon, available hot or iced. The drink is a new take on a macchiato - which was not invented by Starbucks. Many people associate the word with Starbucks' caramel macchiato, a tall, sugary and milky drink. But a classic macchiato is a shot of espresso "marked" with a dash of frothed milk, which is how it gets its name in Italian. It is served in a tiny glass, and it is not typically sweet.
Albany County is weighing settlement of a lawsuit filed by a former inmate who says she was forced to give birth while illegally shackled at a local hospital.

The county Legislature on Monday will consider paying $150,000 to Rensselaer County resident Dawn Mann, who was restrained while giving birth at St. Peters Hospital in 2014. The allegations were made in a complaint Mann filed about two years later in state Supreme Court.

In response to the complaint, Albany County denied knowledge, or culpability, in the woman's treatment.

It was not clear how much if any of the settlement would be covered by insurance. County Attorney Daniel Lynch did not return calls for comment.

The practice of shackling incarcerated women during child birth has been heavily criticized, yet cases of women giving birth while restrained in some fashion continue throughout the country. In 2009, New York banned the restraining of pregnant inmates during labor, delivery, and postpartum recovery. Despite the practice being outlawed, allegations have surface that it still occurs in New York.

Federal lawmakers have pushed for the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act, which would ban restraints for pregnant prisoners, among other things, but it has not passed.

Mann was regularly taken to medical appointments outside the Albany County jail shackled and/or restrained, and on Dec. 5, 2014  the day she went into labor  it was no different. She remained restrained throughout her labor and gave birth to a baby boy on or about Dec. 6, 2014, according to the complaint.

The pleas of medical staff to remove the shackles and/or restraints were acknowledged and ignored by the defendants, the complaint alleged, which specifically targets the county as well as John Doe.

Mann was at the county jail on misdemeanor charges, and hadnt consented to be restrained during child birth, the complaint reads. It described the officers actions as barbaric and alleged the practice was in violation of medical standards, the U.S. Constitution, the state Constitution and state statute.

Troy attorney Matthew Turner, who represented Mann in the suit, did not return calls for comment Friday. Turner is also a Troy City Court judge.

Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said the jail doesnt restrain pregnant inmates during childbirth, and the practice ended a few years ago. He declined to comment further.

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The complaint alleged officials knew using restraints during labor and postpartum recovery was dangerous and no rational person would consider Mann a security risk while in labor.

Because of the actions taken, Mann suffered immediate and irreparable injury, including physical, psychological and emotional injury and risk of death, court documents stated.

Despite the practice being outlawed in New York years earlier, the county argued Mann knew the hazards and risks of giving birth in jail as well as had full knowledge of the methods to be used in the performance of such activity and the danger thereof. Any injuries Mann suffered were her own fault, or because of due to her own actions, negligent acts and/or omissions of third parties, the county responded.

The county also argued the actions of officials were justified and done in good faith and without malice. Their conduct doesnt shock the conscience of the court, the response continued.

A court conference is set for April 15 if the settlement documents arent submitted, court records stated.

The Legislature is expected to approve the settlement at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, March 11.
Ivan Pierre Aguirre

Two dozen mental health professionals from around the Capital Region are calling on the state's congressional leaders to support legislation that would close federal detention camps housing immigrant children.

The group of mental health counselors and licensed social workers issued a statement Thursday condemning the practice of separating and detaining children following widespread reports of sexual abuse against unaccompanied minors in federal custody.
COHOES  A forum on the future of the closed Cohoes Community Center Thursday night drew a huge crowd as residents looked for answers about getting it open again.

The community center got to a point where experience far exceeded the income, said Mayor Shawn Morse, who sponsored the meeting to update residents.

About 175 people loaded with questions were in a standing room only audience at the Cohoes Senior Center to hear the grim news about community center's status. Morse and Assemblyman John T. McDonald, a former mayor, said the crowd was the largest they had seen turn out for a community meeting.

David Mitola, the chairman of the center's board of directors, said the center is $375,000 in debt and spending $12,000 monthly on insurance, utilities and other expenses to maintain the building. He said volunteers have worked at the center, including opening it for groups that have rented its facilities.

Mitola said the center didnt have the revenues to meet its operating expenses. He said that led to the abrupt closing on Oct. 26, 2018. Mitola said future plans envision the community center reopening as a recreational facility without the daycare and pre-kindergarten programs that it had previously run.

The Albany County District Attorney's Office had said it would investigate the situation surrounding the community center's financial issues. In mid-February, a spokeswoman said there were no updates to report.

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McDonald, D-Cohoes, has secured $500,000 in state funding to purchase the community center, but a governmental entity would have to be involved. Discussions have been held with Albany County, Capital Region BOCES, the Cohoes City School District and the city of Cohoes about roles that could be taken in reopening the facility at the north end of Remsen Street with a new mission.

School Superintendent Jennifer Spring said the district couldnt assume ownership of the community center, as it would have to invest $6 million to bring it up to state Education Department requirements. The districts architect reviewed the community center and came up with the estimated costs. Spring said the district decided it couldnt ask city taxpayers to bear that expense.

Morse used the meeting to expound on his past proposal to relocate the Cohoes Public Library to the community center to create an educational-recreational center. Morse said he had to speak to Common Council President Chris Briggs, the other council members and the library Board of Trustees about making such a move.
The family of a young woman who died from Ebola last month in the Democratic Republic of Congo dressed her body, put makeup on her face and propped her up in a car, hoping to make her look alive so they could drive her through checkpoints set up to prevent spread of the disease.

It was dangerous: Corpses are highly infectious. But they wanted to bury her in another town, next to her husband, who also had died of Ebola. Their desperate ploy failed. They were stopped at a checkpoint, according to a report from the country's Ministry of Health.

The family's flight, and apparent lack of understanding that bodily fluids spread the disease, help explain why this Ebola outbreak, in its seventh month, has become the second largest ever. No end is in sight, despite the use of promising antiviral drugs and a vaccine that were not widely available in past epidemics.

There have been 907 cases and 569 deaths attributed to the disease in the war-torn northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, near borders with Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda. The region has decent roads and a highly mobile population, experts said, so there is concern that the disease will spread to those countries.

More than 80,000 people have been vaccinated, and although hard data is lacking, experts suspect that without the vaccine, the epidemic would have grown much larger.

But efforts to stamp out the disease are failing in some areas because many people still don't understand Ebola, and also because heavy-handed measures by outside organizations, local police and the military have alienated the communities, officials from aid groups and doctors who have worked in the region said. Fearful of being confined in isolation units, people have avoided testing and treatment. They do not want outside interference in rituals around death and burial.

"Ebola responders are increasingly being seen as the enemy," Dr. Joanne Liu, president of Doctors Without Borders, said at a news conference in Geneva Thursday. "In the last month alone there were more than 30 different incidents and attacks against elements of the response. The existing atmosphere can only be described as toxic."

Some people in the region question why the vaccine is being given only to certain people  including health workers and contacts of patients  and not to everyone, she said. Many wonder why outside aid has flooded in for Ebola, but not for malaria, diarrhea or other common, debilitating diseases. Some have asked aid workers where they were when militias were carrying out massacres of civilians.

The northeastern part of the country where the epidemic has struck has been a conflict zone for decades, with more than 100 armed groups, as well as security forces posing a constant threat of violence to the population.

Distrust of outsiders is entrenched, and grew in two areas, Beni and Butembo, after the government barred residents there from voting in the long-delayed elections in December, supposedly because of concerns about the spread of Ebola. Many people thought the government had used the disease as an excuse to keep them from voting, and some of their anger turned against the outside groups that had drawn so much attention to Ebola.

Recent attacks on two treatment centers operated by Doctors Without Borders led the group to close them, and brought a scorching and highly unusual self-assessment by Liu, who included her organization among those that had fallen short. She urged medical teams to treat Ebola patients "as humans and not as a biothreat."

She blamed not the communities, but the responders, for failing to win people's trust.

"They hear constant advice to wash their hands, but nothing about the lack of soap and water," Liu said. "They see their relatives sprayed with chlorine and wrapped in plastic bags, buried without ceremony. Then they see their possessions burned."

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Liu said aid groups needed to offer help in ways the community would accept, even if it meant helping families to safely care for Ebola patients at home, or giving them information and equipment to carry out safe burials on their own.

The key to stopping past epidemics had been to isolate the sick and track everyone who might have been exposed, until there were no more new cases. But that approach is not succeeding in Congo.

"More than 40 percent of the deaths are right now happening in the community," outside of treatment centers, Liu said. "That means we have not reached them and they have not sought our care."

It also means that untold numbers of people around these patients have been exposed and may have contracted the disease.

A spokesman for the World Health Organization, Tarik Jasarevic, confirmed that 40 percent of deaths were occurring in the community.

"But, and this is key, despite these worrying figures, the response has managed to bring the outbreak under control in 10 of 19 affected health zones, where there have not been cases in three weeks or more," he said in an email. "The incidence numbers have dropped steadily since November. Clearly the response has had traction in these places, despite the challenges of community mistrust engendered by the years of conflict they have endured."

But he also acknowledged that building trust was an important part of the work to be done.

"In every newly affected town, WHO and partner social scientists and anthropologists work with local leaders to understand the context and tailor the approach to what works," he said. As an example, he cited Beni, where the community had been hostile, but health workers were able to bring the outbreak under control within weeks.
SARATOGA SPRINGS  An Army National Guard veteran who served his country for 30 years said he's now ready to serve his city.

In a combination rally and press conference at the Frederick Allen Lodge on Thursday, candidate for Commissioner of Public Safety Kendall Hicks promised to address race relations between the public and the police.

"There is a divide there that is not healthy," said Hicks, who currently serves on Commissioner Peter Martin's Citizen's Advisory Committee that is aimed at improving community and police relations. "The problem in Saratoga Springs is not any more than the problem across this country is. It's not a local problem. It's a national problem."

Hicks' supporters are among those who want to see police launch an internal investigation to the 2014 death of Daryl Mount, Jr., a biracial man who died nine months after Saratoga Springs police pursued him from Caroline Street into an alley near the Northshire Bookstore.

3 1 of 3 Wendy Liberatore / Times Union Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Provided by Kendall Hicks Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Police said they found the 21-year-old unresponsive after he fell off of some scaffolding. But his mother, Patty Jackson, said the left side of her son's face was caved in and she believes the police beat her critically injured son. She sought an internal investigation, which Police Chief Gregory Veitch admitted in a court filing was promised but never launched.

"I want to work on policies so that situation doesn't happen again," said Hicks, who is black. "It's not all about Darryl Mount, it's about anyone's child. The key is preventing it from happening again."

The Democrat is likely headed for a June primary with former Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety Eileen Finneran, who served under Chris Mathiesen at the time of the Mount incident. Though both Hicks and Finneran sought the city's Democratic Committee backing, neither one was endorsed.

"Both individuals have a lot to offer the city," Chair Courtney DeLeonardis said, but added the committee decided to leave it to the primary voters to choose.

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The Mount case is not the only controversial issue that Hicks wants to address. On Thursday, he said that he is not comfortable with more guns in school, the issue that city Republicans are focused on with the selection of Robin Dalton as their public safety candidate. She is an advocate for rearming the grounds monitors in the Saratoga Springs City School District and will face the Democratic primary winner in November.

Hicks also wants to try to relieve the homeless problem and open a permanent Code Blue shelter that would provide more services to help the homeless move forward with their lives. He is also interested in making the city more walkable/bikeable and tackling the opioid epidemic. He views his candidacy as a grassroots effort.

Hicks, who describes himself as growing up "dirt poor" in Virginia, said his family overcame all of its problems with "hard work dedication." He has been a resident of Saratoga Springs for 20 years and has raised his two sons in the city. As a battalion supply sergeant in the New York Army National Guard, he served in Afghanistan and earned the Bronze Star for leadership.

Former Mayors Ken Klotz and Joanne Yepsen attended the event to support Hicks.

"We need to elect leaders with a moral compass, not just an economic one; those who extend themselves well beyond their own interest and work on behalf of all Saratogians," Yepsen told the crowd. "We would be so lucky to have Kendall as our next Commissioner of Public Safety."
COLONIE - Daniela Weiss, a lawyer with government experience and a political legacy, is challenging Alison McLean Lane for the 14th District County Legislature seat representing south Colonie. The two Democrats both boast lengthy resumes in public service, although this is Weiss' first campaign for elected office.

Loudonville native Lane, 47, is Assemblyman Phil Steck's legislative director. She said if re-elected she wants to continue ongoing projects in office  the most notable a push to get a grocery store in Menands.

Weiss, 32, who grew up in Albany County, is special counsel at the Albany office of Barclay Damon. She said if elected she would focus on economic development to keep taxes low and attract youth.

Lane has questioned Weiss' political ties, length of residency and date of voter registration.

Weiss is the daughter of Jerry Weiss, veteran lobbyist and aide to former Gov. Mario Cuomo. The elder Weiss settled with the state in 2010 for his involvement in a pay-to-play pension scandal and is now of counsel at the same law firm where his daughter works.

Weiss, who first registered to vote in Albany County, voted absentee while studying in Syracuse then switched her registration to New York City while living there. She said that after moving home in November, she waited to register until she signed a lease and established permanent residency in February. If she wins, she would meet the residency requirement  one year when assuming office  by two months.

Lane, who now lives in Menands with her husband and twins, comes to the campaign with her own local political connections. She was the former confidential aide to Colonie Town Supervisor Paula Mahan and ran unsuccessfully for Colonie Town Clerk in 2007 and again in a contentious race in 2017.

In 2013, Lane was appointed to fill Steck's County Legislature seat when he ascended to the Assembly. She won the seat in a special election and the next general election. She is now running for her second full term on the Democrat, Independence and Working Families party lines.

Lane said her biggest push, started four months ago, is to get a grocery store along Broadway in Menands.

"The grocery store is the number one issue that my constituents talk about," Lane said. "If we were able to have this come to fruition, it would be an incredible opportunity for my district."

She also championed her work on the budget to increase human services at a local nursing home while lowering taxes and the creation of the women's caucus in the County Legislature this year.

"Of course my favorite part of the job is my interactions with constituents and that is probably the most rewarding part," she said.

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Lane's challenger, Weiss, has government experience but has never run for public office. She interned at the New York State Assembly and New York State Attorney General's Office and worked at Albany Corporation Counsel, the city's legal arm, and then a private practice in New York City.

In November, she relocated back home and decided to run for office.

"Running is always something that I wanted to do," she said. "I've seen firsthand how through public service someone can serve their community and people in need, how you can create opportunities for people whether they're economic or otherwise and improve the quality of life for residents of the community."

Weiss painted herself a moderate Democrat who is "willing to talk to everyone about an issue or a problem."

"I know in order to be an effective leader and be a strong representative, you need someone who has compassion and dedication and wants to get things done and is willing to talk to everyone and go to all the meetings and actively participate," Weiss said. "I'd be dedicated to the job."

Weiss said she would focus on economic development, keeping taxes low and attracting more youth to the area to start families and settle down. She said that when it comes to development, "in the end it's a balancing act of trying to make sure everyone is happy with the deal."

The chair of the Albany County Republican committee did not respond to inquiries about whether the party had put forth a candidate for the seat yet.
Washington

Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who sent archives of secret military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, said Thursday that she had refused to answer questions about her interactions with the anti-secrecy organization before a grand jury  and may be sent to jail as soon as Friday.

Manning had been imprisoned for about seven years before President Barack Obama commuted most of the remainder of her 35-year sentence in 2017, and she was released from a military prison in May of that year. Her defiance of the subpoena means she may be imprisoned again after a judge holds a closed hearing about her legal arguments and whether to hold her in contempt of court.

"The court may find me in contempt and order me to jail," she said in a statement, adding: "In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles. I will exhaust every legal remedy available. My legal team continues to challenge the secrecy of these proceedings, and I am prepared to face the consequences of my refusal."

Manning also confirmed that  as widely suspected  prosecutors wanted to ask her about WikiLeaks. Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have been investigating the organization for years, and inadvertently revealed last year that they had charged its leader, Julian Assange, under seal.

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"All of the substantive questions pertained to my disclosures of information to the public in 2010  answers I provided in extensive testimony, during my court-martial in 2013," Manning said.

Prosecutors had bestowed legal immunity on Manning for her testimony, she said, but she responded to each question by saying she refused to answer because it violated her constitutional rights.
ALBANY - A corporate culture where employees were reluctant to report unethical behavior likely contributed to prolonged alleged abuses of company resources by former New York Racing Association President & CEO Chris Kay, according to senior officials with the nonprofit.

The abrupt ouster of Kay, who took over at NYRA in 2013 and was forced out in January, was a topic for the state regulators on Thursday morning, when they met to discuss the organization's financial plans for 2019.

"It is kind of an overwhelming thing," said Rob Williams, chair of the state's Franchise Oversight Board. "Everywhere I go people stop me and ask me about what went on at NYRA and what are they doing."

Kay resigned after an anonymous tip led to the revelation that he allegedly used NYRA employees to do maintenance and yard work at his Saratoga Springs-area home for an "extended" period of time, according to a person familiar with the decision but not authorized to comment.

Asked by state regulators how the alleged mismanagement of company resources went on for so long, NYRA senior officials acknowledged they had a culture where "people are reluctant to report bad things."

But they stressed that they have learned their lesson from the incident, noting they're updating their code of conduct and will require annual ethics training.

"We are focused now, like a laser beam, on making sure that all our employees understand it is their obligation to come to us when they see things that are obviously not correct," a NYRA official told the board.

In the wake of the scandal, they said they've received "a couple more" tips about unethical behavior.

They added that a senior vice president and a facilities manager had also been sanctioned as a result of the situation with Kay, but declined to provide additional details.

Williams credited NYRA with acting with "mercurial speed" in investigating and addressing the concerns surrounding Kay. He said their "quick, decisive action" stood in sharp contrast to how the organization might have handled a scandal in the past.

Williams and the other state regulators sounded encouraged by NYRA's path forward, and lamented that this scandal might overshadow the positive turnaround following a takeover by the state.

The real issue is to ensure that this continues, and its not simply lip service that is provided in a meeting in response to a question at a public forum, but that they actually take it to heart and make sure its part of their corporate culture," Williams said after the meeting.

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Saratoga Race Course

NYRA reported that the $29.9 million construction of the 1863 Club facility along the first turn at the Saratoga Race Course is on budget and on schedule for a June 21 completion, which is just there weeks before the early start of this summer's meet.

Early demand for the luxury accommodations appears to be heading in the right direction, with NYRA officials telling state regulators that sales of their suites "have been well received" and tables are selling "fairly well."

The organization is forecasting a 4.5 percent decrease in wagering at the Saratoga meet, but those projections were made before the schedule was changed and another weekend of racing was added. When asked about the potential ramifications of the elongated schedule, NYRA officials stressed that the change is an "experiment."

"We don't want to jump to any conclusions," an official said.

David.Lombardo@timesunion.com - 518.454.5427 - @poozer87
Troy

The Sage Colleges Board of Trustees has unanimously approved a plan to make their flagship school co-ed as part of a larger reorganization.

The newly rebranded Russell Sage College will be rolled out in the fall of 2020.

This is an historic moment in the 100-plus-year history of our institution, said Board of Trustees Chair Patricia Timpano Sparrell in a prepared statement.

The unification and renaming of the college will celebrate our two campuses as equal partners in an institution that will prominently be branded as Russell Sage College: Albany and Troy, added President Christopher Ames.

Revealed last November, the plan to make the traditionally women-only Russell Sage College co-ed and to merge names with Sage College of Albany was viewed as a way to consolidate operations and simplify recruiting.

While students can take classes on both campuses, the two names were considered to be confusing and overly complicated for applicants.

Like many small local schools, The Sage Colleges have struggled financially and with student enrollment in recent years.

Overall, The Sage Colleges in 2018-19 enjoyed an enrollment increase of about 200 students, including transfers and first-year students. Total undergraduate enrollment is 1,350, with 1,200 graduate students, including part-timers.

The overhaul will also include the creation of a womens institute on the campus. Thats a tactic that other schools, including The College of Saint Rose, are employing to reach out to prospective female students.

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Russell Sage dates to 1916 when Troy philanthropist and suffragist Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage created the school for women. The first class graduated four years later. The school accepted men during World War II due to the war, however.

By 1949, the school opened a co-ed division in Albany. Then in 1957, the co-ed Junior College of Albany opened. That became a four-year school in 2001 operating as Sage College of Albany. The two campus school has recently been known as The Sage Colleges.

rkarlin@timesunion.com  518-454-5758  @RickKarlinTU






ALBANY  Following revelations that a company whose board of directors she served on operated a controversial coal plant in Puerto Rico, State University of New York Chancellor Kristina Johnson has resigned from her role with AES Corp.

The Chancellor routinely evaluates her role on any board and last month informed AES that she will be stepping down from the Board, SUNY spokesman Leo Rosales said Thursday.

Johnsons outside directorship on the board of the Virginia-based power generation company had drawn criticism from environmental groups since an AES power plant in Puerto Rico has been associated with pollution from coal ash, which contains mercury and other toxic materials.

The company denied those accusations but observers said Johnsons board membership was at odds with her push to move SUNYs 64 campuses toward using carbon-free and renewable power.

Johnsons board membership and her departure were first reported by the Public Accountability Initiative, a watchdog organization that documents relationships between decisions makers and people in positions of power.

She was paid $275,840 as a director of AES Corp. in 2017, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents, and owns more than $2.5 million worth of company stock. It wasnt immediately clear if she would keep the stock or not.

She also earns $560,000 as SUNY chancellor.

Johnson had gone to Puerto Rico, along with SUNY students and other officials to volunteer after Hurricane Maria destroyed much of the islands infrastructure.

Securities and Exchange Commission filings noted that Johnsons replacement on the AES board, Janet Davidson, a physicist, was appointed on Feb. 22, three days after a Times Union story about Johnson's ties to AES.

News of the change didnt emerge until Thursday, with the Public Accountability Initiative report.

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In fact, a letter on Tuesday from an alliance of environmental groups in Puerto Rico to Johnson invited her to visit Guayama, where the plant is located, to discuss the ecological concerns.

Johnson is an electrical engineer by training and helped create a company, Cube Hydropower, which invests in hydroelectric plants.

She also serves on the board of Cisco Systems Inc.

Rkarlin@timesunion.com  518-454-5758  @RickKarlinTU
Washington

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he's a "little disappointed" by reports of new activity at a North Korean missile research center and long-range rocket site and that time will tell if U.S. diplomacy with the reclusive country will be successful.

South Korea's military said it is carefully monitoring North Korean nuclear and missile facilities after the country's spy agency told lawmakers that new activity was detected at a research center where the North is believed to build long-range missiles targeting the U.S. mainland.

Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said the U.S. and South Korean militaries are sharing intelligence over the developments at the North's missile research center in Sanumdong on the outskirts of the capital, Pyongyang, and at a separate long-range rocket site. She did not elaborate.

Asked if he was disappointed, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was "a little disappointed." Then he said time will determine the future of U.S. efforts to get North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to give up his pursuit of nuclear weapons in exchange for relief from sanctions stalling economic growth.

"We'll let you know in about a year," Trump told the reporters.

Briefing reporters at the State Department later, a senior U.S. official said that despite the new activity and the failure of last month's Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi to reach a denuclearization deal, the administration still believes it can reach and implement an agreement by the end of the president's first term.

The official said that the U.S. is still trying to determine what North Korea is doing but that the administration will seek clarification from the North as well as intelligence analysts. The official said the Trump administration did not necessarily agree with nongovernmental analysts who believe the activity is a sign of North Korean anger following the summit. The official was not authorized to speak publicly to the state of negotiations with the North Koreans.

Trump said on Wednesday that his relationship with Kim remained "good" even though Trump walked away from negotiations at their high-profile meeting in Vietnam, saying the North's concessions on its nuclear program weren't enough to warrant sanctions relief.

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Trump has favored direct talks with Kim, but the next stage of negotiations is likely to be conducted at lower levels. Trump's envoy to North Korea, Steve Biegun, had lunch Wednesday at the State Department with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea. The South Koreans have proposed semiofficial three-way talks with the United States and North Korea as it works to put nuclear diplomacy back on track.

Suh Hoon, director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, told his nation's lawmakers in Seoul that North Korea was restoring facilities at a rocket launch site it had dismantled last year.

Meanwhile, 38 North, a website specializing in North Korea studies, said commercial satellite imagery indicates the rebuilding started between Feb. 16 and March 2. And the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, issued another report saying satellite imagery taken Saturday  just two days after the summit ended  showed North Korea "pursuing a rapid rebuilding" of the Sohae Satellite Launch Site.
SARATOGA SPRINGS  Skidmore College has its roots in an industrial club for young women.

In 1903, Lucy Scribner founded a school where the young women of Saratoga could learn skills that would make them self-supporting, according to Skidmore's website.

By 1908, the Young Women's Industrial Club of Saratoga Springs had 436 students, both male and female. The Regents granted the renamed Skidmore School of Arts a provisional charter in 1911. College courses were later added and Skidmore became a four-year degree-granting institution in 1922.

The Board of Trustees voted to make Skidmore coed in 1971.

Click through the slideshow of Times Union archive images of Skidmore through the years.

More for you Skidmore College president to step down next year

Scribner's home on North Broadway is now the home of Skidmore's president.

Skidmore College President Philip A. Glotzbach announced in February 2019 that he will step down at the end of the 2019-20 academic year.

Glotzbach, 68, became Skidmore's seventh president in 2003.
A San Francisco mansion with an arresting Tudor Revival facade continues to sit on the market without selling, despite a price reduction, a prime location with drop-dead views, and celebrity cache.

Hollywood actor and house collector Nicolas Cage famously owned the home on the corner of Francisco and Hyde streets for a brief spell in the 2000s.

Originally listed in 2017 for $12 million  and briefly taken off the market before returning in 2018 the six-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom home on Russian Hill's so-called Gold Coast at 898 Francisco St. is now on the market for $10.95 million.

ALSO: $6 million slashed off price of Northern California ranch, nearly the size of San Francisco

Listing agent Mark Levinson of Pacific Union says interest has grown in recent days as real estate activity picks up in March, but he admits the property, which has been largely left untouched since it was built in 1914 (except a slap-dash 1990s kitchen update), will require a special buyer who has both money and time.

"People look at it as a fixer," said Levinson. "There are only a certain amount of people who have that kind of money and that kind of bandwidth. People in this price range are so busy and don't have time for a renovation. Homes that do sell tend to be renovated and gorgeous. I think if the house were done, it would sell overnight."

Unlike updated high-end homes with open floor-plans and modern amenities, this house has smaller, compartmentalized rooms featuring original details such as beamed ceilings, leaded glass windows, wood moldings, and fireplaces with ornate mantels.

"It has a formal living room, formal dining room, a great entryway for art," said Levinson. "I think it's a great house."

While Levinson thinks $1 million in renovations, including a revamp of the kitchen, is all this house really needs, he says a more extreme makeover would boost its value exponentially.

"Any money you put into this house, you will get back," he said. "I think Francisco is a huge opportunity for someone because whatever they put in, they're going to get back. This is the Gold Coast in Russian Hill, it's the best of the best. You'll see one $20 million house after another."

Is this really a $20 million block? Homes don't turn-over here often, and the only recent sale indicates yes.

Last spring, Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs purchased a home of a similar size  six bedrooms spread across 6,000-square-feet  for $16.5 million in an all-cash deal. But unlike 898 only a few houses away, Jobs' home had been remodeled over the years, most recently in a contemporary manner by S.F.-based decorator Steven Volpe, who was described by the Wall Street Journal as the "decorator to Silicon Valley's elite."

After that, the most recent sale of a somewhat comparable home seems to be 828 Francisco. The 7,723-square-foot behemoth is larger than 898 Francisco and sold for $17.5 million in 2005; now Zillow estimates its value at $23 million while Redfin values at it between $29.5 million and $32.61 million.
THE ESB informed all of the people living in my Clonmel neighbourhood that on Friday our supply of electricity will be disconnected from 9am until 5 pm.

The prospect of eight hours without a service on which I have become dependent seemed like a challenge - a problem which had to be solved. Like most modern homes nowadays, mine operates on electricity: cooking, heating, lighting, refrigerating, cleaning, laundering, dish-washing, water-heating, computing. All respond to just clicking a switch or pressing an ON and OFF button.

So, how, I asked myself, would we get through Friday? What would we eat? What would we drink? Would the contents of the fridge survive eight hours of electricity deprivation? What about this? What about that?

Common sense finally prevailed and I realised the self-indulgence of this ridiculous questioning, and of the fabrication of a problem where there was none.

Would you cop yourself on! I told myself. Just fill a flask and make sandwiches, and forget about washing and cleaning and ironing. Friday is not doomsday. Its not the end of the world. It is not even a major inconvenience.

I belong to a generation which is now fortunate to have much of our domestic work facilitated by electric power, but I remember a time when that was not so. I recall my farming grandmother lighting a fire on the hearth and hanging a black kettle, filled with water from her well in the farmyard, and which she hung on a crane over the glowing flames. All of this before she could drink her morning cup of tea. And in the darkness of late evening, she would light an oil lamp. Rural electricity, as it is now called, had not yet come to Ireland.

I recall, too, my mothers joy when she bought her first clothes-washing machine. It was rudimentary by modern standards, but it relieved her of the back-breaking Monday laundering, standing over a tub, soaping and rubbing clothes on what must have become a museum-piece - a washboard!

She had already had the experience of bringing up a family in wartime Ireland where the everyday source of power came from heat generated from wet turf from Moneyaha Bog and a limited gas-glimmer from the Corporations gas works in Clonmel.

But all of these memories, and all my self-reprimanding, did little to displace the fact of my near total dependency on electric power for ordinary everyday living: a fact that has a parallel in every functioning modern home nowadays, and a fact reinforced by its absence for a few hours on Friday. We pay for it, or course. It consumes a not inconsiderable amount of our incomes. But the consumption is trifling when compared to what it is now costing Ireland in fines because we are not meeting our international commitments for the control of carbon emissions and which, it is now acknowledged, are changing our climate.

Irelands response to global warming has been identified as ranking the worse in a recent European report. The fines imposed on us for this lack of response are already significant, and if they continue and accumulate, they will reduce to insignificance the astronomical costs of the Childrens Hospital which are currently causing such shock-waves in political circles, and will ultimately be paid-for by the ordinary hard-working taxpayer, people who get up early every morning.

At the present time, we in Ireland produce electricity from a number of sources; fossil fuel, gas, turf, biomass, all of which emit carbon dioxide. In addition there are the green carbon-free sources - hydro, wind turbines, solar panels. Nevertheless the latter two involve carbon emissions both in their manufacture, installations and replacements, and they have a limited operating lifetime.

The importation of fossil fuel (coal) oil, gas, biomass (because we are not yet producing sufficient quantities ourselves) all involve shipping and transport, and the release of carbon. And our turf-cutting is the equivalent of killing the golden goose - because our bogs, as such, are very efficient sources for the storing and control of carbon.

All of the power from these various sources feed into the National Grid and is re-distributed to us, the consumers in our homes, and to meet the heavy demands of industry. But we are currently not producing sufficient electricity to meet these demands and so the ESB has to buy supplies from the British Grid which contains power generated from nuclear fission. Almost certainly these demands will increase with the development and expansion of industry.

All of which prompts the question: How do we reconcile the urgent necessity of reducing emissions with the absolute necessity of increasing our generation of electricity? Readers of the Irish Times Letters Page will have noticed a steady trickle of letters on the subject in recent times, many from people with substantial knowledge and expertise. The evidence-based solution, they say, is nuclear fission, which (they say) produces clean, safe, efficient and cheap energy, widely in operation in the EU, and throughout Europe, the United States and Asia.

The nuclear concept raises the issues of public opinion and public support. And the problem is that, both politically and publicly, it is far more comfortable to remain amongst the worst carbon polluters in the EU, rather than realistically discuss a subject which historically has been so emotive and so proscribed that it cannot be mentioned amongst. It would seem that buying nuclear from Britain is an Irish solution to an Irish problem.
[March 08, 2019]

Bumble Bee Foods and SAP Create Blockchain to Track Fresh Fish from Ocean to Table

AUSTIN, Texas, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and Bumble Bee Foods, North America's largest branded shelf-stable seafood company, today announced Bumble Bee Foods is using the SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain service to trace the journey of yellowfin tuna from the Indonesian ocean to the dinner table. Together, SAP and Bumble Bee continue to innovate and improve upon seafood traceability as more and more consumers demand to know their food is safe and sustainably sourced. This announcement was made at SXSW, taking place March 817 in Austin, Texas.

With SAP's blockchain technology, consumers and customers will be able to easily access the complete origin and history of Bumble Bee Foods' Natural Blue by Anova yellowfin tuna simply by using their smartphones to scan a QR code on the product package. With the snap of a code, the blockchain technology provides instant information about the fish-to-market journey, including the size of the catch, point of capture and the fishing community that caught it, as well as valuable insights to verify authenticity, freshness, safety, fair trade fishing certification and sustainability.

"With SAP, we have the ability to track fish the moment it's caught and as it travels around the world, telling the story of each tuna while positively impacting ecosystems and the lives of the people all the way down the line," Bumble Bee Foods Chief Information Officer Tony Costa said. "Bumble Bee has long been an industry leader in tracing its seafood products, and the addition of SAP's blockchain technology allows us to further elevate our efforts in complete transparency with consumers and customers, providing assurance that their fish is fresh and it's been sourced fairly according to our commitments to the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation."

Blockchain technology allows companies such as Bumble Bee Foods to store data and create a tamper-proof supply chain history, which can be shared and seen by each participant. For Bumble Bee, blockchain is the safest possible way to share data between parties because it is incorruptible and verifiable. Bumble Bee is the first food company to incorporate SAP blockchain technology into its production.

"This solution is an example of how blockchains can be used to revolutionize the future of food," said Oliver Betz, global head and senior vice president of SAP Innovative Business Solutions, part of SAP Digital Business Services. "It creates transparency and traceability across the food supply chain, from the ocean, across the cold chain, to the warehouse, store and our table. When we help enterprises like Bumble Bee to make innovation real, we support the consumer's need to know and reinforce their faith in the brands they trust."

SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain enables customers, partners and developers to conveniently use this distributed ledger technology. It allows enterprises to build new solutions, as well as extensions for existing applications across industries and lines of business.

Bumble Bee Foods' Natural Bue by Anova fair-trade certified ahi tuna steaks can be found in a 12 oz. bag at retailers nationwide including Albertsons, Hy-Vee, Price Chopper and Safeway.







To find out more about the project, watch a video and read "From Ocean to Table  Bumble Bee Uses Blockchain to Trace Your Fish."

Visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

About Bumble Bee Foods

Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, headquartered in San Diego, is North America's largest branded shelf-stable seafood company, offering a full line of canned and pouched tuna, salmon, sardine and specialty protein products marketed in the U.S. under leading brands including Bumble Bee, Anova, Brunswick, Snow's, Wild Selections and Beach Cliff, and in Canada under the Clover Leaf brand.

Bumble Bee's mission is to provide healthy and nutritious products and meal solutions that are sourced sustainably. The company actively promotes the responsible stewardship of global fisheries resources and is a founder of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF)  a global partnership of scientists, tuna processors and WWF, the global conservation organization.

For more information on Bumble Bee, visit www.BumbleBee.com. Join fans of Bumble Bee and healthy living at www.facebook.com/BumbleBeeSeafoods and follow us on Twitter at @BumbleBeeFoods, Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/BumbleBeeFoods and Instagram at @BumbleBeeFoods.

About SAP

As the cloud company powered by SAP HANA, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world's transaction revenue touches an SAP system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers' businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want  without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables more than 425,000 business and public customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people's lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

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SOURCE SAP SE
[March 08, 2019] Employee Benefits Administration Company, Clarity Benefit Solutions, Offers a Comprehensive Guide to Offering Better Benefits

NEW YORK, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Employee benefits administration company, Clarity Benefit Solutions, offers a comprehensive guide to offering better benefits. Employers who want to attract and retain employees realize they must offer the very best when it comes to benefits. The proper mix of benefits includes a winning recipe of health, mandatory, and voluntary offerings that appeal to all your employees. It is key to survey employees to determine their needs and wants. Use these guidelines to compile the best benefits for your employees. Health benefits. Most employers typically offer their employees health benefits. Employers who offer their employees a comprehensive plan will utilize a combination of a High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) with a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Savings Account (FSA). Paid time off (PTO). This may seem like a given, but there are companies out there that do not permit employees to take a vacation unless it is unpaid. It is essential that employees have the oportunity to relax and recharge. Some forward-thinking companies allow unlimited PTO and are finding that employees typically do not abuse this policy. Employers who adopt a similar mindset will undoubtedly appeal to fresh talent.



Retirement packages. Offering an ample retirement package will provide long-term employees with the peace of mind they deserve that their golden years will be stress-free when they are no longer working. And, newer employees will see how the veteran employees are being taken care of, which could increase employee retention! Continuing education opportunities. Progressive employers will offer their employees educational assistance as part of a comprehensive benefits plan. This is a win-win for employees and employers. Employees with a higher education will have the ability to contribute more to the company. Employers should consider this an invaluable benefit in the long run.

Financial counseling services. Chances are, nearly half of your employees are fretting about financial issues while they are at work. Employers should either hire a financial counselor or pay to allow employees to meet with a financial counselor of their choice. Either way, employers that demonstrate to their employees that they care about their financial wellness have a better chance to keep employees longer. Life insurance. This benefit is essential to employees. Unfortunately, events such as death occur, and employees need reassurance that any resulting financial burdens will be taken care of. This benefit is almost as important as life insurance. About Clarity Benefit Solutions: Clarity Benefit Solutions provides technology that makes the health insurance plan selection process fast, easy, and straightforward. For over two decades, we have provided clients with industry-leading technology, compliance, and exceptional customer service. Our offering is designed to save time and lower the costs of managing benefits while also promoting employee self-service and automated ACA compliance. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/employee-benefits-administration-company-clarity-benefit-solutions-offers-a-comprehensive-guide-to-offering-better-benefits-300807164.html SOURCE Clarity Benefit Solutions

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[March 08, 2019] ICON Natural Resources Fund (ICBMX) Wins 2019 Lipper Award

ICON Advisers, Inc., adviser to the ICON Funds, announced today that the ICON Natural Resources Fund (ICBMX) was recognized last night in New York as a 2019 Lipper Fund Award winner. The Lipper Fund Awards recognize funds that have demonstrated consistently strong risk-adjusted returns relative to their peers. The ICON Natural Resources Fund, Class S has won the award for the three-year and five-year periods, which ended 11/30/2018. "We're delighted to have this recognition from Lipper for our ICON Natural Resources Fund for the second year in a row," said Dr. Craig Callahan, President & Founder of ICON Advisers, Inc. "It is an honor and a testament to our disciplined investment process." The ICON Natural Resources Fund (ICBMX - Class S) seeks long-term capital appreciation using a proprietary quantitative methodology to identify securities which ICON believes are underpriced relative to their intrinsic value. The ICON Natural Resources Fund normally invests in equity securities of companies with operations throughout the world that own, explore or develop natural resources and other basic commodities or supply goods and services to such companies.







Fund Performance Data as of 12/31/2018 AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS (%) EXPENSE RATIO TICKER INCEPTION YTDa 1 YR 3 YRS 5 YRS 10 YRS SINCE

INCEPTION GROSS NET (News - Alert) ICBMX ICON Natural Resources Fund, S 5/5/97 -17.27 -17.27 6.09 0.09 8.63 4.13 1.58% 1.50% S&P 1500 Index -4.96 -4.96 9.17 8.25 13.20 7.53

About ICON Advisers, Inc.

ICON Advisers, Inc. is a boutique firm based in Greenwood Village, Colorado. Since its inception, ICON has employed a unique and disciplined investment approach to the way we manage assets. In 1986, Dr. Craig Callahan founded ICON using a modernized Benjamin Graham valuation model to systematically determine the intrinsic value of individual companies in order to make clear, objective investment decisions. Today, ICON offers a diverse lineup of mutual funds, Tactical Allocation Portfolios, and Strategy Based Investing Portfolios providing a wide spectrum of investment options. With our broad scope and commitment to uncovering value, our Funds and Portfolios can accommodate a wide range of investment needs. About the Lipper Awards

The Thomson Reuters (News - Alert) Lipper Fund Awards, granted annually, highlight funds and fund companies that have excelled in delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The Lipper Fund Awards are based on the Lipper Leader for Consistent Return rating, which is a risk-adjusted performance measure calculated over 36, 60 and 120 months. The highest 20% of funds in each category are named Lipper Leaders for Consistent Return and receive a score of 5, the next 20% receive a score of 4, the middle 20% are scored 3, the next 20% are scored 2 and the lowest 20% are scored 1. The fund with the highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return (Effective Return) value in each eligible classification wins the Lipper Fund Award. For more information, see www.lipperfundawards.com. Although Lipper makes reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data contained herein, the accuracy is not guaranteed by Lipper. Legal/Disclaimers a Not annualized. The data quoted represents past performance, which is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate and shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be higher or lower than the data quoted. Please call 1-800-828-4881 or visit www.Invest-withICON.com for performance results current to the most recent month end. Returns assume the reinvestment of dividends and capital gain distributions and reflect applicable fees and expenses. Performance without maximum sales charge does not include front-end or contingent deferred sales charges. Performance is for the Fund's Class S shares. Performance for the Fund's other share classes will vary due to differences in charges and expenses. Opinions and forecasts regarding sectors, industries, companies, countries and/or themes, and portfolio composition and holdings, are all subject to change at any time, based on market and other conditions, and should not be construed as a recommendation of any specific security, industry, or sector. ICON Advisers contractually agreed to limit the total expenses of the Fund (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage and extraordinary expenses) Class S of 1.50%. This expense limitation may be terminated at any time after January 31, 2020 upon 30 days written notice to the Fund's Board of Trustees. ICON Advisers is entitled to reimbursement from the Fund of any fees waived pursuant to this arrangement if such reimbursement does not cause the Fund to exceed existing expense limitations and the reimbursement is made within three years after the expenses were reimbursed or absorbed. Gross Expenses are all customary expenses incurred by a Fund, excluding, where applicable, waivers, reimbursements, and contractually agreed-to limits of the total expenses by the Fund's adviser. Net Expenses are all customary expenses incurred by a Fund, including, where applicable, waivers, reimbursements, and contractually agreed-to limits of the total expenses by the Fund adviser. The Net Expense Ratio may exceed the contractually limited expenses because of interest, taxes, brokerage, acquired fund fees and expenses, and extraordinary expenses not waived by the Adviser. The Lipper Leader Consistent Return measure has ranked ICON Natural Resources Fund, Class S #1 of 19 portfolios and 55 share classes of Natural Resources funds based on cumulative total returns for the 3-year period ended 11/30/2018. The Lipper Leader Consistent Return measure has ranked ICON Natural Resources Fund, Class S #1 of 17 portfolios and 48 share classes of Natural Resources funds based on cumulative total returns for the 5-year period ended 11/30/2018. Lipper Inc. ranked ICON Natural Resources Fund, Class S #12 of 91 Natural Resource funds, based on cumulative total returns for the 1-year period ending 12/31/18. Lipper Inc. ranked ICON Natural Resources Fund, Class S #7 of 81 Natural Resources funds, based on cumulative total returns for the 3-year period ending 12/31/18. Lipper Inc. ranked ICON Natural Resources Fund, Class S #5 of 73 Natural Resource funds, based on cumulative total returns for the 5-year period ending 12/31/18. Lipper Inc. ranked ICON Natural Resources Fund, Class S #2 of 55 Natural Resource funds, based on cumulative total returns for the 10-year period ending 12/31/18. The awards for the ICON Natural Resources Fund are for the Fund's Class S shares. Performance for the Fund's other share classes will vary due to differences in charges and expenses. A Lipper Certificate does not ensure positive fund performance. LIPPER and the LIPPER Corporate Marks are proprietary trademarks of Lipper, a Reuters Company. ICON Advisers, Inc. is the adviser to the ICON Funds. ICON Distributors, Inc. is the distributor of the ICON Funds. ICON Advisers, Inc. and ICON Distributors, Inc. are affiliates. Consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and share classes of each ICON Fund carefully before investing. The prospectus, summary prospectus, and the statement of additional information contain this and other information about the Funds and are available by visiting www.InvestwithICON.com or calling 1-800-828-4881. Please read the prospectus, summary prospectus, and the statement of additional information carefully before investing. ICON Distributors?, distributor. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005055/en/

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[March 08, 2019] INFODAS: SDoT Diode earns NATO and EU SECRET Approval

COLOGNE, Germany, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The SDoT Diode from INFODAS GmbH is the only diode in the world that enables critical and classified systems to securely exchange data unidirectionally between differently classified domains. Independent testing laboratories in cooperation with the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) have now confirmed the very high level of security and granted the SDoT Diode approval to GERMAN, NATO and EU SECRET. With a data throughput of up to 9.1 Gbit/s, it is currently the fastest diode solution on the market approved for SECRET. Infodas presented the SDoT Diode to an international audience at the RSA Conference in San Francisco (March 4th - 8th 2019).

Thorsten Ecke, Prof. Udo Helmbrecht, Ammar Alkassar (from left to right)



Infodas is proud of this achievement and would like to thank all involved parties for their trust and continued effort. Prof. Udo Helmbrecht, Executive Director of the European Network Information Security Agency (ENISA) and Ammar Alkassar, State Commissioner for Strategy and Chief Digital Office at the State of Saarland personally congratulated Thorsten Ecke, Managing Director of infodas, at the German Pavilion at RSA Security Conference in Sn Francisco.



Infodas is a German pioneer in cybersecurity solutions for the public sector clients since 1974 that works closely with the German Federal Office for Information Security. The SDoT (Secure Domain Transition) products solve the challenge of military, intelligence or critical infrastructure professionals that need to connect and protect IT systems; or share and protect classified data across domains from UNCLASSIFIED to SECRET. SDoT products are used in the most demanding, mission critical and sensitive operational environments around the world (e.g. navy vessels, drones, mobile data centers in the desert, weapon systems, air traffic control, security operation centers and critical infrastructure (ICS/SCADA)).

In todays data driven world, organizations and systems collect, process and share data across multiple domains of various classification or criticality levels. Large amounts of data need to be transferred in real time with the smallest latency possible. This data exchange and connectivity introduces differing levels of risk. However, isolation of critical networks prevents taking advantage of sharing or receiving data. Despite their current level of sophistication, firewalls are designed to enable two-way data exchange and fail to establish robust network separation. In comparison, data diodes ensure one-way data transmission, protecting critical networks or data sources from cyber threats. This makes data diodes ideal for sharing data with highly classified domains (e.g. satellite pictures, positioning data, telecommunication data), data replication, sensor and system state monitoring or backup (e.g. machine/sensor data for predictive maintenance). Data diodes available on the market today, still use fiber optic cables for one-way connectivity. This however introduces issues such as lower speeds, lack of data receipt acknowledgements or the need for a proxy server. In comparison, the SDoT Diode overcomes these challenges of traditional data diodes and extends available use-cases for customers. The SDoT Diode is available for non-EU and NATO countries. For more details contact:INFODAS GmbH, Rhonestr. 2, 50765 Cologne  [email protected] At RSA 2019: Dr. Alexander Schellong  [email protected] Link to the SDoT Diode Version 1.1. NATO / EU / GERMAN SECRET approval via the German Federal Officefor Information Security: https://www.bsi.bund.de/DE/Themen/Sicherheitsberatung/ZugelasseneProdukte/zugelasseneProdukte_node.html A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/eca6e8df-4d2d-42ab-8e29-009978dc7934

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[March 08, 2019] Root Insurance Names New Director of Government Relations

Root Insurance announced today Dave Luketic will join the company as the Director of Government Affairs, effective immediately. In this newly created role, Luketic will be responsible for the strategic direction and management of the company's government relationships, including political affairs and public policy with U.S. federal, state and local governments; as well as developing grassroot advocacy campaigns. Luketic comes to Root after spending two years as the campaign manager for Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. "Dave's energy, strategic vision, and deep expertise will be extremely valuable as we continue to grow our business," said Alex Timm, Root Co-Founder and CEO. "As we work to achieve our goal of expanding into all 50 states by 2020, we are excited to have Dave's nuanced experience to help us navigate and interpret an increasingly complex regulatory and business environment." Known for building strategic alliances with key constituents and policymakers, Luketic will be responsible for leading Root's government and regulatory affairs strategy. He will work in tandem with Root's leadership team to identify additional business opportunities that leverage the company's disruptive, technology-focused and consumer-oriented mission. An Ohio native, Luketic brings more than decade of regarded experience in politics to this role. Before managing the DeWine-Husted campaign in Ohio, Luketic managed significant campaign operations under former Governor John Kasich as political chief for the Super PAC that backed Kasich's 2016 presidential bid. He also served as political director for Kasich's 2014 historical gubernatorial re-election campaign and for the Ohio Republican Party in 2012 and 2013.



Before working with Governor Kasich, Luketic served as political director for the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County in Cleveland, Ohio. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Dayton. About Root:

Root Insurance is the nation's first licensed insurance carrier powered entirely by mobile and founded on the principle that car insurance rates should be based on how you drive, not who you are. Through smartphone technology and data science, Root measures driving behavior, and uses it as the primary factor in determining rates. The result is personalized car insurance for good drivers, better rates, and a seamless mobile app experience. Root is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio and is currently available to drivers in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Utah, and will be coming to more states soon. For more information, visit https://www.joinroot.com and get the rate you deserve by downloading the app. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005110/en/

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[March 08, 2019] Triple Crown Consulting Senior Leadership Team Now Over 80 Percent Female with New Appointments

Triple Crown Consulting, a technology recruitment firm filling hard-to-find senior tech roles through its vast talent network, announces the creation of five new leadership roles in the growing company. The positions have all been filled by women - Vanessa Hernandez, Director of Operations; Monica Jackson, Regional Vice President; Sarah Milliken (News - Alert), Director of Finance and Accounting; Jenn Casinader, Director of Human Resources; and Heather Walker, General Counsel. As the world celebrates International Women's Day 2019, Triple Crown recognizes the importance of advancing the role of women in the recruitment and technology industries, both in its own company and through the talent it places. The new positions were created in direct response to Triple Crown's recent and projected growth. The company has increased its client portfolio by 17 percent and plans to reach $100 million in 2019 annual revenue. It has expanded its footprint with two new offices in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Costa Mesa, California over the past two years, for a total of five offices. "Triple Crown is growing at a tremendous rate, which called for the creation of these new roles," said Triple Crown CEO Padma Sunkara. "We're thrilled to appoint five women to these positions. Each one of them is incredibly gifted in their disciplines and will play a critical role as Triple Crown continues to grow." "There's no doubt we're seeing more women in technology than ever before, and Triple Crown is committed to striking a gender balance so our company can best engage with the changing workforce with the right mix of energetic, driven and competitive talent," added Triple Crown Co-Founder Dave Smith. Meet the New Members of Triple Crown's Leadership Team Appointed as Director of Operations in January 2019, Vanessa Hernandez supports Triple Crown's leadership team and staff while ensuring the company's clients and consultants receive a superior talent partner experience. Since joining in 2007, Hernandez has not only been a pioneer in her role as Director of Sales Operations but was the first woman hired as an Account Manager at Triple Crown during its early years. Looking ahead, Hernanez is committed to taking the organization to the next level by growing its staff and pushing the team to work at peak capabilities. "I've learned that everything is a work in progress and success doesn't happen overnight. It takes time, persistence and dedication and I'm committed to creating a culture that embraces this process," said Hernandez.



Monica Jackson joined Triple Crown in 2012 as an Account Manager and quickly rose through the ranks, most recently being promoted to Regional Vice President overseeing the San Jose and Costa Mesa, California offices. Throughout the years, Jackson has developed a reputation for delivering the right talent exactly when and where the client needs it. She brings persistence and problem-solving to every engagement and has built a robust talent pipeline in a region that is highly competitive for IT recruiting. In her new role she plans to keep growing the Triple Crown business alongside the entire leadership team. Jackson stated, "I intend to maintain my hands-on approach and look forward to continuing to mentor our regional employees so that they can achieve their full potential." Sarah Milliken was promoted from Controller to Director of Finance and Accounting in January of this year. She joined Triple Crown in 2016 and has accomplished a tremendous amount in a short time, including bringing the accounting function in-house and streamlining and organizing its processes and procedures. Milliken also put into place structures around internal bonuses and budgets, created transparency around the back office and strengthened communication between the department and the rest of the company. "My goal has always been to build and maintain trust between production and operations so that we can improve accuracy and organization within the company," said Milliken.

In her two years with Triple Crown, Jenn Casinader has made a tremendous operational and cultural impact on the company. Recently promoted to Director of Human Resources, Casinader started the human resource department with the philosophy that proper training, mentorship and a supportive environment are what motivates people, especially in the competitive world of technology recruiting. Now managing an HR team, Casinader helps each employee look beyond metrics to understand which behaviors contribute to good outcomes or act as barriers to success. "I've been able to create this type of environment because Triple Crown's management empowers its leaders to do what they think is best for their departments," remarked Casinader. Heather Walker joined Triple Crown as General Counsel in February of this year. She has an extensive background in creating and managing legal departments and will be tasked with building Triple Crown's legal team as the company enters a new phase of growth. "One of the things that attracted me to Triple Crown was that its executives placed women in key leadership roles within the company," stated Walker. "I think bringing different perspectives to the table is critical to a company's success and I look forward to working with the entire team." About Triple Crown Consulting Triple Crown Consulting fuels the digital economy with senior, project-based software and hardware technology professionals. It specializes in filling software and hardware roles across all high-tech industries, from military technology development to consumer electronics, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, machine learning, aerospace, automotive and more. Giving it speed no recruiting agency can match and relationships no recruiting technology can form, Triple Crown's unique, unrelenting recruiting model results in ready access to sought-after technology innovators. Software and hardware experts nationwide turn to Triple Crown to work on challenging projects where trails are blazing and ground is breaking. Businesses and technology teams, from Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging startups, rely on Triple Crown's ability to rapidly place the developers, architects, coders, analysts and designers who engineer digital transformation and growth. Triple Crown is headquartered in Austin with offices in Phoenix, San Jose, Portsmouth and Costa Mesa. For more information, visit www.tripleco.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005319/en/

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[March 08, 2019] Washington, DC Brings the Capital of Inclusive Innovation to South by Southwest

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Washington, DC continues its commitment to showcasing the city as the "Capital of Inclusive Innovation" at South by Southwest (SXSW) with its seventh annual WeDC House from March 9-11 at Banger's, 79 Rainey Street in Austin, Texas. This year, the Washington DC Economic Partnership (WDCEP), in partnership with the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED), will re-energize their presence to celebrate the District's diverse economy across technology, innovation, social impact, and creativity, reflecting DC's vibrant communities and businesses. Over three days, WeDC House partners are presenting a notable lineup of business leaders, investors and entrepreneurs in expanded DC-centric programming. "The WeDC House is a testament to the Bowser Administration's commitment to supporting businesses that want to start, grow or expand their footprint in the Capital of Inclusive Innovation. We welcome all to join us," said Brian Kenner, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. "As one of the top cities in the country for innovation, technology and start-up expansion, the District is a pioneer in fostering the growth of world-class talent and companies; there is no better time or place to hear about DC's development across all sectors." The WeDC House will also feature the WeDC Ambassadors , carefully selected DC business and creative leaders serving as unofficial representatives of the District to further educate festival attendees firsthand on the District's inclusive economy, promote DC's startup community, and foster new partnerships among the local and national business communities.



"Over the course of seven years, the WeDC House has evolved to represent all the city has to offer in technology, innovation, and culture at the intersection of the activities taking place in and around SXSW," said Keith J. Sellars, President & CEO, WDCEP. "Through our partnered efforts to promote Washington, DC as the Capital of Inclusive Innovation, we have the pleasure of educating a global community about what makes DC so distinct, from conversations, to networking, to live music." The WeDC House will bring SXSW the best of what DC has to offer, with an increased focus on industries such as mobility, smart city technology, social entrepreneurship, the arts, culture and more. The programming will exemplify topics that represent the District's business community with all sessions having a focus on inclusion and innovation. Daytime programming has an ASL interpreter. For the full list of programming please visit www.wedchouse.com/events .

About Washington DC Economic Partnership

The Washington DC Economic Partnership (WDCEP) is a non-profit, public-private organization that drives inclusive economic growth and job creation, supports business and promotes Washington, DC as a leading global city. Our mission is to promote DC's economic and business opportunities and support business retention and attraction activities. Our partners including private companies and public-sector organizations give us access to a variety of resources including signature, award-winning publications, program, activities and site location assistance. Follow: wdcep.com | Twitter | Facebook View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/washington-dc-brings-the-capital-of-inclusive-innovation-to-south-by-southwest-300809182.html SOURCE Washington DC Economic Partnership (WDCEP)

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[March 07, 2019] Webull Releases 5.0 Version

NEW YORK, March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Webull Financial LLC, an independent, self-directed broker dealer focused on zero-commission trading and granular market data, today announced its release of Webull 5.0. The new version of the app will offer a revamped stock and market data page, market replay functions, advancers and decliners distribution charts, and many more. "There is still a lot of work to do when balancing the playing field of the trading space," said CEO of Webull Financial LLC, Anthony Denier, "but we are definitely making a big push in the right direction in terms of market data accessibility and zero-commission trading with this latest rendition of our app." Webull Financial LLC has been in the retail trading space since only May of last year, but they already boast hundreds of thousands trading accounts. The company's market data app is used globally by over 9 million users for real-time market updates as well as paper trading. "The end goal is to make fundamental traders of us all," said Director of Trading of Webull Financial LLC, Mike Constantino. "Consolidating al these resources on one platform and offering it for free allows even the greenest of traders to develop a good mindset for trading."



To learn more about Webull Financial LLC, the app, or to book an interview, contact Gabriel Cao at 917-267-5556 or email [email protected], or visit the website at www.webull.com. About Webull Financial LLC

Webull Financial LC is a broker-dealer registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). The headquarters of Webull Financial LLC is located at 44 Wall Street, New York, NY, USA. System response and account access times may vary due to a variety of factors, including trading volumes, market conditions, system performance, and other factors. Risk Disclosure: Trading of stocks and all other investment products involves substantial risk of loss and it is not suitable for every investor. The value of stocks may fluctuate and as a result, clients may lose more than their original investment. Free trading of stocks refers to $0 commissions for Webull Financial LLC self-directed individual cash or margin brokerage accounts that trade U.S. listed securities via mobile devices or Web. Relevant SEC & FINRA fees may apply. Download the Webull App in the Apple App store or Google Android Store for free. To learn more about Webull Financial LLC and its app, please visit www.webull.com For Media Inquiries:

Webull Financial LLC

Gabriel Cao

Marketing Coordinator

+1 917 725-1021

[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/webull-releases-5-0-version-300809005.html SOURCE Webull Financial LLC

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[March 08, 2019] Wells Fargo Donated $13.4 Million to Support Texas Nonprofits in 2018

Wells Fargo (News - Alert) today announced the company donated more than $13 million through 875 grants to local nonprofits, schools and community organizations in 2018 to help the communities and people of Texas. Wells Fargo's philanthropic contributions build on a long history of collaboration with local nonprofits and community leaders to make a positive impact by addressing urgent community issues such as affordable housing, education, small business growth and sustainability. When combined with the almost $4.2 million donated by Texas team members during the company's internal Community Support Campaign, nonprofits in the state received more than $17.5 million from Wells Fargo and its team members in 2018. That amounts to an average daily donation of more than $47,000 in Texas. "Across our community, many residents are working hard to make ends meet," said David Miree, Wells Fargo lead region bank president for Texas. "Here in Texas, we want to help people find a stable place to live, help small business owners expand, and help young people gain a quality education that prepares them for the workforce. We are determined to help people and communities, especially in underserved areas, succeed financially. We will continue to provide philanthropy, volunteers, expertise and other resources to revitalize and strengthen local neighborhoods." Beyond philanthropy, Wells Fargo team members in Texas volunteered more than 154,000 hours in 2018 to support 9,564 nonprofits and causes important to them, including Habitat for Humanity and Junior Achievement across the state. According to the Independent Sector, these volunteer hours are the equivalent of $3,802,951. "Part of what makes Wells Fargo unique is the generosity of our team members who help multiply our community impact," continued Miree. "Sometimes giving time is even more valuable than money, because it puts our desire to build a strong community into action and gives us a tangible way to personally make a difference." United Way Worldwide recently recognized Wells Fargo for having the No. 1 workplace giving campaign in the U.S. for the tenth consecutive year.



Making an impact in Texas Wells Fargo's philanthropic contributions addressed various community needs, including:

Affordable housing . To help increase affordable, stable housing and homeownership in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, Wells Fargo collaborated with grantees such as City Wide Community Development Corporation, Avenue, Community Development Corporation of Brownsville, Rebuilding Together, San Antonio Homeownership Opportunities Corporation and multiple Habitat for Humanity affiliates.

. To help increase affordable, stable housing and homeownership in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, Wells Fargo collaborated with grantees such as City Wide Community Development Corporation, Avenue, Community Development Corporation of Brownsville, Rebuilding Together, San Antonio Homeownership Opportunities Corporation and multiple Habitat for Humanity affiliates. Small business growth . Small businesses are critical to job creation and a vibrant community. Many diverse-owned small businesses, especially those in rural and low- to moderate-income communities, face unique challenges and often lack access to the full spectrum of resources necessary for growth and success. The company supported nonprofits serving small businesses, including BCL of Texas, PeopleFund, Liftfund Inc, Houston Area Urban League and Project Vida, to provide access to capital and training for entrepreneurs in rural and urban markets.

. Small businesses are critical to job creation and a vibrant community. Many diverse-owned small businesses, especially those in rural and low- to moderate-income communities, face unique challenges and often lack access to the full spectrum of resources necessary for growth and success. The company supported nonprofits serving small businesses, including BCL of Texas, PeopleFund, Liftfund Inc, Houston Area Urban League and Project Vida, to provide access to capital and training for entrepreneurs in rural and urban markets. Financial education . Wells Fargo supported grants for local financial education programs, including contributions to Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Junior Achievement, South Texas Literacy Coalition, Interfaith Family Services, AVANCE, Family Pathfinders of Tarrant County, Wilkinson Center and Women's Resource of Greater Houston.

. Wells Fargo supported grants for local financial education programs, including contributions to Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Junior Achievement, South Texas Literacy Coalition, Interfaith Family Services, AVANCE, Family Pathfinders of Tarrant County, Wilkinson Center and Women's Resource of Greater Houston. Workforce development. The company supported the work of nonprofits to help communities expand youth career/job readiness programs, post-secondary education opportunities and adult employment initiatives with grants to Year Up-Dallas, Project ARRIBA, Houston Community College Foundation, Career and Recovery Resources, Ladder Alliance, Cafe Momentum (News - Alert), Houston Center for Literacy and project HandUp. About Wells Fargo Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,800 locations, more than 13,000 ATMs, and the internet (wellsfargo.com). Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. With approximately 259,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune's 2018 rankings of America's largest corporations. In 2018, Wells Fargo donated more than $440 million to nearly 11,000 nonprofits in support of affordable housing, small business growth, financial education, and sustainability, among other community needs. For 10 consecutive years, Wells Fargo has held the honor of No. 1 in workplace giving by United Way Worldwide. Wells Fargo team members also make a difference by donating more than 2 million hours of volunteer time in the last year. News, insights and more information on the company's corporate responsibility are available at Wells Fargo Stories. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005059/en/

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[March 08, 2019] Wells Fargo Donated $9 Million to Support New Mexico Nonprofits in 2018

Wells Fargo (News - Alert) today announced the company donated nearly $9 million through 201 grants to local nonprofits, schools and community organizations in 2018 to help the communities and people of New Mexico. Wells Fargo's philanthropic contributions build on a long history of collaboration with local nonprofits and community leaders to make a positive impact by addressing urgent community issues such as affordable housing, education, small business growth and sustainability. When combined with the $121,442 donated by 1,400 New Mexico team members during the company's internal Community Support Campaign, nonprofits in the state received a total of $9.1 million from Wells Fargo and its team members in 2018. That amounts to an average daily donation of nearly $24,789. "Across our community, many residents are working hard to make ends meet," said David Hockmuth, Wells Fargo region bank president for New Mexico. "Here in New Mexico, we want to help people find a stable place to live, help small business owners expand, and help young people gain a quality education that prepares them for the workforce. We are determined to help people and communities, especially in underserved areas, succeed financially. We will continue to provide philanthropy, volunteers, expertise and other resources to revitalize and strengthen local neighborhoods." Beyond philanthropy, Wells Fargo team members in New Mexico volunteered 20,083 hours in 2018 to support nonprofits and causes important to them, including Habitat for Humanity, Albuquerque Public Schools and nonprofits in every corner of the state. These volunteer hours are the equivalent of $495,849, according to the Independent Sector. "Part of what makes Wells Fargo unique is the generosity of our team members who help multiply our community impact," said Hockmuth. "Sometimes giving time is even more valuable than money, because it puts our desire to build a strong community into action and gives us a tangible way to personally make a difference." United Way Worldwide recently recognized Wells Fargo for having the No. 1 workplace giving campaign in the U.S. for the tenth consecutive year.



Making an impact in New Mexico Wells Fargo concentrated its local philanthropic contributions on addressing urgent community issues such as:

Affordable housing . To help increase affordable, stable housing and homeownership in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, Wells Fargo made a $4.6 million commitment to boost homeownership in New Mexico through its NeighborhoodLIFT program, providing down payment assistance grants that helped create more than 400 new homeowners. Wells Fargo also collaborated with grantees such as Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity and Habitat for Humanity of New Mexico to provide homebuyer education, down payment assistance and other affordable housing solutions.

. To help increase affordable, stable housing and homeownership in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, Wells Fargo made a $4.6 million commitment to boost homeownership in New Mexico through its NeighborhoodLIFT program, providing down payment assistance grants that helped create more than 400 new homeowners. Wells Fargo also collaborated with grantees such as Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity and Habitat for Humanity of New Mexico to provide homebuyer education, down payment assistance and other affordable housing solutions. Small business growth . Small businesses are critical to job creation and a vibrant community. Many diverse-owned small businesses, especially those in rural and low- to moderate-income communities, face unique challenges and often lack access to the full spectrum of resources necessary for growth and success. Nonprofits serving small businesses, including WESST, Accion and ABQid, received grants to provide access to capital and training for entrepreneurs in rural and urban markets.

. Small businesses are critical to job creation and a vibrant community. Many diverse-owned small businesses, especially those in rural and low- to moderate-income communities, face unique challenges and often lack access to the full spectrum of resources necessary for growth and success. Nonprofits serving small businesses, including WESST, Accion and ABQid, received grants to provide access to capital and training for entrepreneurs in rural and urban markets. Economic equity and inclusion . Support included grants to nonprofits that directly serve diverse and historically underserved groups, including initiatives focused on the development of women and diverse talent, education and vocational training and other solutions for communities with limited access to traditional financial services.

. Support included grants to nonprofits that directly serve diverse and historically underserved groups, including initiatives focused on the development of women and diverse talent, education and vocational training and other solutions for communities with limited access to traditional financial services. Access to education . Support included grants for local K-12 schools, scholarships for post-secondary or vocational training and financial education, including grants to such nonprofits as Junior Achievement of New Mexico and the Golden Apple (News - Alert) Foundation of New Mexico, and to schools like the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University and Central New Mexico Community College.

. Support included grants for local K-12 schools, scholarships for post-secondary or vocational training and financial education, including grants to such nonprofits as Junior Achievement of New Mexico and the Golden Apple (News - Alert) Foundation of New Mexico, and to schools like the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University and Central New Mexico Community College. Minimizing the impacts of climate change. The company supported the work of nonprofits helping communities become more resilient in the face of a changing climate, including environmental education, resiliency planning, green infrastructure and bringing renewable energy to low-income communities. For example, Wells Fargo partnered with the Nature Conservancy of New Mexico to bring an urban tree-planting program to lower-income neighborhoods. About Wells Fargo Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,800 locations, more than 13,000 ATMs, and the internet (wellsfargo.com). Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. With approximately 259,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune's 2018 rankings of America's largest corporations. In 2018, Wells Fargo donated more than $440 million to nearly 11,000 nonprofits in support of affordable housing, small business growth, financial education, and sustainability, among other community needs. For 10 consecutive years, Wells Fargo has held the honor of No. 1 in workplace giving by United Way Worldwide. Wells Fargo team members also make a difference by donating more than 2 million hours of volunteer time in the last year. News, insights and more information on the company's corporate responsibility are available at Wells Fargo Stories. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005052/en/

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[March 07, 2019] MBT INVESTOR ALERT: Rosen Law Firm Announces Investigation of Securities Claims Against Mobile TeleSystems PJSC - MBT

Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces it is investigating potential securities claims on behalf of investors of Mobile TeleSystems (News - Alert) PJSC (NYSE: MBT) resulting from allegations that Mobile TeleSystems may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public. On November 20, 2018, Mobile TeleSystems disclosed that it had reserved approximately $840 million (RUB 55.8) as the potential liability for investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC (News - Alert)") and the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") into the company's former operations in Uzbekistan. On this news, shares of Mobile TeleSystems fell $0.64 per share or nearly 8% to close at $7.45 per share on November 20, 2018. Then, on March 7, 2019, the DOJ announced that Mobile TeleSystems and its wholly owned subsidiary agreed to pay $850 million in penalties to the United States to resolve charges arising out of its role in a scheme to pay $420 million in bribes in Uzbekistan. The bribes were to enable the company to enter the Uzbek market and gain valuable telecom assets. On this news, shares of Mobile TeleSystems fell $0.24 per share or over 3% to close at $7.54 per share on March 7, 2019. Rosen Law Firm is preparing a class action lawsuit to recover losses suffered by Mobile TeleSystems investors. If you purchased shares of Mobile TeleSystems, plese visit the firm's website at https://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-1531.html to join the class action. You may also contact Phillip Kim or Zachary Halper of Rosen Law Firm toll free at 866-767-3653 or via email at [email protected] or [email protected].



Follow us for updates on LinkedIn (News - Alert): https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter (News - Alert): https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook (News - Alert): https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/. Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 3 each year since 2013.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190307005928/en/

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[March 07, 2019] Jollychic Celebrating its Seventh Year Anniversary with Online Engagement Opportunities for Customers

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Beginning March 15, Jollychic, the ecommerce platform, will celebrate its 7th anniversary with special offers available online and on its mobile app. The offers will be preceeded by a 7-day warm-up sale starting on March 8. The e-tailer is making the anniversary interactive with online engagement activities and opportunities for customers to partake in. "The 7th year anniversary is very important for us. Like the 7th day in a week, it's a time that we believe is good to express our appreciation, review the past, and fully prepare to enter the next stage," Jabri Mohammed, marketing VP of Jollychic Middle East said. "We believe the anniversary celebration should not only be for us but for all the customers who have been supporting Jollychic. Jollychic is proud to provide the best for our customers, and we hope that the7th anniversary celebration can express our appreciation to our customers."



The celebration includes interaction between customers and Jollychic online. Customers are encouraged to screenshot the Jollychic mobile site with the 7th anniversary logo and share on their social media account, tagging "Jollychic_KSA" along with three of their friends. This will put them into a drawing for prizes. Moreover, if customers share the Jollychic celebration "candle-lighting" page on the Jollychic mobile app to their social media account, they will be entered into a raffle for the chance to win an SUV on March 19. "This actually reflects our principle of 'share to win' and 'support to win'. As the leading e-tailer, Jollychic works hard to be an enterprise that exemplifies the values of sharing with and supporting the community," Mohammed said. "The anniversary is a chance for Jollychic to keep working to improve ourselves and provide a convenient experience for shoppers."

For more information about the Jollychic 7th anniversary, please download the Jollychic app from Google Play or App Store or visit: www.Jollychic.com About Jollychic

Jollychic is a leading ecommerce platform providing a one-stop shopping experience to Middle East consumers. Jollychic works with both global and local brands to provide millions of products including apparel, electronics, home goods, shoes, bags, and groceries. Jollychic has an operation team of over 1,000 employees in the Middle East to provide 24/7 service. SOURCE Jollychic

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[March 07, 2019] The New Height of the Lighting Industry: China (Guzhen) International Lighting Fair (Spring) Coming Soon

ZHONGSHAN, China, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The 23rd China (Guzhen) International Lighting Fair (Spring) will be held concurrently with the Guzhen Lighting Manufacturing Expo 2019 at Guzhen Convention & Exhibition Center, Zhongshan, China on March 18-21, 2019. This fair will further enhance the exhibition content, service and exhibitor quality, expand the connection between the exhibition and stores, focus on integrating the Internet and transportation networks, and build a solid bridge for the development of enterprises. "Lighting Carnival" that Keeps Pace with the Times As a prestigious international brand exhibition in China's lighting industry, GILF has become a regular destination for the professional audience of more than 110 countries and regions around the world. This year, the fair will continue to expand the connection between the exhibition and stores. With 8 venues and an exhibition area of over 1,500,000 sqm in total, it will gather 2,000+ famous lighting enterprises, providing a convenient and cost-effective one-stop lighting business platform for suppliers, buyers, distributors and designers. GILF focuses on domestic sales, but also takes into account export sales. The fair will cover the upstream, midstream and downstream of the lighting industry chain with many products. Major exhibitors will focus on new products, attracting domestic and foreign professional buyers with preferential prices, attractive discounts, and excellent quality, creating a cost-effective procurement environent.



Creating the Strongest Voice in the Industry; Strong Purchasing and Intelligence Atmosphere

This fair focuses on smart home lighting and will set up a smart home lighting area, which fully meets the needs of the intelligent era and promotes the development of smart cities. It creates a more avant-garde and high-quality life with more high-end intelligent lighting products. A broad set of advanced intelligent lighting products are provided, where there are thousands of new products on the scene, the buyers can also visit the manufacturer's production base. The fair will gather a large number of high-quality businesses and domestic advanced manufacturing technologies to focus on individualized production and intelligent manufacturing application solutions. Many exhibitors have integrated market development needs. Among them, exhibitors in the main venue are mainly innovative and small and medium-sized enterprises. At present, the fair has attracted many well-known enterprises: Oman Lighting, Dark Energy Power, Shanghai Bright Power Semiconductor, ATTA Lighting, Vanhi IOT, Cayon Lighting, Sanxiang Lighting and Chuanglite Lighting. In terms of manufacturing and supporting zones, it has attracted famous enterprises such as PTC, Everfine, and Dongya Machinery. Purchasing Carnival and Pre-registration GILF has integrated with the B2B website (www.denggle.com), presenting 20,000+ selected quality products and 200,000 professional quality buyers, covering 6 continents and 34 provincial administrative regions, and creating all year round online fair. Online pre-registration is now available through the official website of GILF, DENGGLE.COM, or the WeChat official account of GILF. Through pre-registration, people can not only save RMB100 on the ticket and enter the lighting fair by simply providing the mobile phone number, but also can enjoy the VIP services provided by the sponsors, such as receiving e-mails about the latest information of the GILF. GILF is not only a platform for business between exhibitors and visitors, but also the vane of industry development. It is an international must-see annual event in the lighting industry. Look forward to your arrival at the fair on March 18, 2019! Website: www.denggle.com

Facebook: @guzhenlightingfair Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190307/2396509-1-a

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190307/2396509-1-b

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190307/2396509-1-c SOURCE China (Guzhen) International Lighting Fair

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[March 08, 2019] LONGi Launches New 5GW Mono Module Plant and Increases Supply Capacity

CHUZHOU, China, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- LONGi Solar, a leading global supplier of solar monocrystalline products, announced the commissioning of its 5GW high-efficiency monocrystalline module factory in Chuzhou, Anhui, China. This is another step forward in the company's enhancement of its high-efficiency monocrystalline module capacity to meet rising global demand for high-efficiency products. LONGi Chuzhou 5GW factory, with a total investment of about USD 328 million, broke ground on May 2018. Contract, construction and commissioning were completed the same year. With cutting-edge equipment, technology and fully automated production lines, the factory manufactures high-efficiency modules, including the innovative Hi-MO3 bifacial mono half-cut PERC module and other next-generation products that meet the demand for hgh-efficiency, high-reliability and high-yield products.



After equipment commissioning, capacity ramp-up, efficiency stabilization and finalization work, LONGi Chuzhou factory rolled out its first module in January 2019. Today, Phase 1 project with 2.5GW is in full swing, manufacturing modules for global customers. Phase 2 is in the commissioning stage and will start full production soon. In the past two years, mono PERC has been acclaimed and recognized in the global PV module market. High-efficiency PERC technology further enhances the power output and effectively reduces BOS cost. Add bifacial technology and it extends the advantages of monocrystalline PERC to the rear side of the module to enhance power generation capacity. At present, LONGi's monocrystalline cell and module capacities are all PERC, producing both monofacial and bifacial products.

Li Wenxue, President of LONGi Solar, said, "In 2019, our company identified a gap between fast-growing global orders and our high-efficiency cell and module capacities. LONGi Chuzhou factory will greatly narrow this gap. Besides manufacturing, the factory will also facilitate the transformation of technological and technical achievements to the mass production of new products." LONGi also announced that it will move ahead its 45GW monocrystalline silicon ingot and wafer capacity expansion plans for 2020, and adapt cell and module capacities to market demand. As a global leader in solar monocrystalline technology, LONGi will continue to invest in R&D and maintain product and technology leadership and accelerate the vision of grid parity worldwide. About LONGi: Founded in 2000 and listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2012, LONGi is the world's largest manufacturer of solar monocrystalline silicon wafers, cells and modules, with an industrial chain throughout the world. LONGi planned 28GW production capacity for monocrystalline silicon wafers and 12GW for monocrystalline modules by the end of 2018, and expects to expand monocrystalline silicon wafer capacity to 45 GW by 2020. LONGi accounted for 38% of the global monocrystalline silicon wafer capacity and held the fourth place in the global module shipment in 2018. It ranked No.1 in global monocrystalline module shipments in 2016, 2017 and 2018 for three consecutive years. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190308/2396488-1

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20181108/2292512-1-LOGO SOURCE LONGi Solar

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[March 08, 2019] Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) Meeting with Engineers at Key Industry Exhibitions Continuing the Journey to Unleash the Power of GaN Technology

As part of its continuous support to a widening customer base for DC-DC, LiDAR, wireless power applications and beyond, EPC continues its innovation journey by meeting with engineers in key industry exhibitions worldwide in March and April 2019. BEIJING, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- EPC experts are available to meet with innovative engineers interested in incorporating GaN into their designs at key industry exhibitions worldwide in March and April 2019. March 12th 2019 -- AirFuel Developers Forum -- @ Hilton Shenzhen Shekou Hotel, Shenzhen, China Currently, consumer electronics, industrial, healthcare, telecoms/5G, robotics and AR/VR markets, to name a few, are all adopting next-generation wireless power-based designs. Based on this solid market development, EPC will be presenting at the 2nd AirFuel Developers Forum on March 12th, 2019 on the topic of "The building blocks needed for rapid adoption of magnetic resonance power transfer". Join us to realize the power of Wireless Power 2.0 and learn how to design, develop, market & monetize your Resonant and RF-powered products. For details, please visit https://www.airfuel.org/build-with-airfuel/developer-program/. March 15th 2019 -- Sekorm Innovative Summit -- @ Intercontinental Hotel, Shenzhen. China Sekorm launches its first Sekorm Innovative Summit to support its expanding engineering customers by sharing from their suppliers the latest technological breakthrough, knowledge exchanges as well as tips for innovating the best, next-generation designs. EPC will be speaking on the topic of "A New Era in Power Conversion -- The Monolithic eGaN Power Stage". For details, please visit https://www.sekorm.com/news/48932003.html March 17th - 21st 2019 -- APEC 2019 -- Booth #953 -- @ Anaheim Convention Center, California, U.S.A. The EPC team will meet engineers at its exhibition booth #953 with live demonstrations showing how eGaN technology's superior performance is transforming power delivery for entire industries including computing, communications, and automotive. Such demonstrations include a high-power density 48 V-12 V non-isolated, bidirectional converter capable of delivering 3 kW, a range of 3-D real-time lidar imaging sensors used in autonomous vehicles, high-power resonant wireless charging solution capable of wirelessly powering a wide range of device including cell phones, notebook computers, monitors, wireless speakers, smartwatches, and table lamps, as well as a new GaN IC which redefines the power conversion.



There will be 11 technical presentations by EPC during APEC that can't be missed! For details, please visit https://epc-co.com/epc/EventsandNews/APEC2019.aspx?utm_source=AsiaPR&utm_medium=PR&utm_campaign=SpringConferences&utm_content=APEC2019

March 20th 2019 -- Arrow Technology Showcase -- @ Grand Hyatt Shenzhen, China Arrow and EPC are jointly developing a laser module using EPC2212 (AEC-Q101 qualified) for lidar applications. This module is taking 75V input and delivering a peak power at 400W. The target end applications of this module include ADAS lidar, 3D facial recognition, security, robotics as well as automatic vacuum cleaners. EPC's eGaN FETs are able to switch at very high frequencies making them a perfect fit for these applications. Arrow and EPC are building this Lidar Laser solution as a module, by selecting the most appropriate gate driver, laser diode and putting them together using sophisticated PCB layout technique. We make the high-resolution lidar possible, increasing lidar accuracy as well as efficiency. March 20th - 22th 2019 -- electronica China -- Shanghai New International Expo Center (Hall E5, Booth #5342), Shanghai, China Founded in 2002, electronica China is now one of the leading platforms for electronic components, systems, applications and solutions in Asia Pacific. EPC will showcase at Sekorm's booth (Hall E5) the latest technology and a broad AEC-qualified product range. Visit Sekorm's booth at Hall E5 and booth #5342 to speak with GaN experts for EPC's latest technology (http://www.electronicachina.com.cn/zh-cn/). April 17th - 19th 2019 -- Techno Frontier Exhibition and Power Supply Symposium -- @ Makuhari Messe, Japan Techno Frontier Exhibition (https://www.jma.or.jp/tf/en/) is renowned for showing the latest technologies and products in electronics for engineers' knowledge exchange with exhibiting manufacturers. To meet with our GaN engineering audience, EPC will be exhibiting at Techno Frontier Exhibition with Mitsuiwa. Demonstrations include wireless power, lidar and Class D audio applications. EPC is also privileged to be invited by the Symposium Committee to speak at the Power Supply Symposium on April 19th on the topic of "GaN Technology for Efficient Power Conversion". We look forward to meeting with you for our knowledge exchanges and discuss about your innovative designs in all or any one of the above exhibitions and conference! About EPC EPC is the leader in enhancement mode gallium nitride based power management devices and was the first to introduce enhancement-mode gallium-nitride-on-silicon (eGaN) FETs as power MOSFET replacements in applications such as DC-DC converters, wireless power transfer, envelope tracking, automotive, power inverters, remote sensing technology (Lidar), and class-D audio amplifiers with device performance many times greater than the best silicon power MOSFETs. EPC also has a growing portfolio of eGaN-based integrated circuits that provide even greater space, energy, and cost efficiency. Visit our web site: epc-co.com ; epc-co.com.cn; epc-co.com.tw. eGaN is a registered trademark of Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, Inc. Media Contact: Winnie Wong

[email protected] SOURCE Efficient Power Conversion Corporation

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[March 08, 2019] WEX to Celebrate Opening of New Global Headquarters in Portland, Maine, with Ribbon-Cutting Event

WEX (NYSE: WEX), a leading financial technology service provider, today celebrated the opening of its new waterfront headquarters at 1 Hancock Street in Portland, Maine, with a ribbon-cutting event. The new four-story building, which occupies 100,000 square feet, provides the company with more space to better accommodate its growing business and employee needs. It will operate as both accommodations for the corporate office and as an innovation hub for the global fleet, corporate payments and technology teams. To honor the official grand opening, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held today, from 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. Government officials and business leaders will be in attendance, and light refreshments and tours will be available for attendees. WEX's move to downtown Portland will bring 400 new jobs to the city. WEX's operations center will continue to be located in South Portland, with more than 1,000 jobs remaining in that city. "WEX has seen tremendous growth and we continue to embracenew opportunities," said Melissa Smith, president and CEO of WEX. "We will evaluate a variety of options to meet our office space needs in the Greater Portland area that align with our growth expectations. Part of WEX's unique culture comes from our roots in Maine, and we are looking forward to celebrating our new space with the community."



Leading the project is Jonathan S. Cohen, a Portland native and commercial real estate developer. With more than 20 years of experience, Jonathan has been involved with more than 6,000 construction projects, from design, budget and construction through to completion, occupancy and sale or retention. About WEX

Powered by the belief that complex payment systems can be made simple, WEX (NYSE: WEX) is a leading financial technology service provider across a wide spectrum of sectors, including fleet, travel and healthcare. WEX operates in more than 10 countries and in more than 20 currencies through more than 4,600 associates around the world. WEX fleet cards offer 11.5 million vehicles exceptional payment security and control; purchase volume in its travel and corporate solutions grew to $30.3 billion in 2017; and the WEX Health financial technology platform helps 343,000 employers and more than 28 million consumers better manage healthcare expenses. For more information, visit www.wexinc.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005040/en/

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[March 08, 2019] Outpost VFX launches its first international facility in Montreal

MONTREAL, March 8, 2019 /CNW Telbec/ - Outpost VFX is delighted to announce the launch of its first international studio in Montreal, Canada. Currently headquartered in Bournemouth, UK, Outpost's Montreal studio will continue to service clients in the film, high-end TV and creative sectors. "In response to the ongoing boom in highly-creative HETV and film projects, the time felt absolutely right to open another facility to continue to provide exceptional service to our clients and satisfy demand," explained Duncan McWilliam, Founder and CEO. "With its generous film tax relief system, supportive government and incredible visual effects talent base, Montreal leapt out at us as the most exciting location for our first overseas studio. After more than 12 months of careful planning it's fantastic to finally realise our goal of opening a facility in Canada." In addition, the Outpost team will be better positioned to service clients across multiple time zones and intends to use this opportunity to open avenues for talent sharing between the UK and Canada. Alongside the expansion into Canada, experienced VFX Producer Becca Scott has joined Outpost as Head of Production for North America and is heading up the new studio in Montreal. Joining Scott in Montreal is VFX Supervisor James Rustad. A seasoned creative lead with extensive experience at the highest levels of creature work, James was most recently at Double Negative. Some of his most well-known supervisory roles were on Wonder Woman and The Revenant, and he helped bring many iconic creatures to life for the Harry Potter series as an artist. "With the wealth of exciting talent in Montreal we will be able to develop our ambitions even further, trengthening the great work already being done at Outpost in the UK," said Gez Hixson, Global Head of Production. "With Becca joining us as Head of Production and James as our first VFX Supervisor, I could not be more excited to see Montreal grow from strength to strength over the coming months and years."



"With such an amazing talent pool in Montreal, it's a great fit," said Scott. "I'm looking forward to developing our Montreal team and continuing to build on Outpost's success. "I could not be more thrilled to be a part of Outpost, and to be heading up the new facility here in Montreal. Outpost has a great reputation, and a refreshingly different take on the culture and environment needed to produce excellent visual effects."

"It is with great pleasure that we welcome the arrival of Outpost VFX's visual effects studio in Montreal," said Mayor Valerie Plante. "Our city is known for its strong talent pool and its cooperative ecosystem of start-ups and established companies from different industries. The arrival of Outpost VFX will provide yet another boost for Montreal's cinema and digital creativity sectors." "We salute Outpost VFX's decision to set up its first international studio here in Quebec. The stability of the Montreal ecosystem and especially the wealth of talent in our video game and visual effects sector tipped the balance. We're delighted to have been able to help showcase the advantages of choosing Montreal for this key player in the animated film and creative visual content industry," affirmed Pierre Gabriel Cote, President and CEO of Investissement Quebec. Montreal International provided support during every step of the company's investment project. "We heartily welcome the arrival of Outpost VFX, which confirms Greater Montreal's enviable position as world leader in the VFX and animation industry. Their executives were drawn by the vitality of its ecosystem, which has the largest concentration of jobs in the country, but also by its exceptional quality of life, known to attract and retain the world's best talent," stated Hubert Bolduc, President and CEO of Montreal International. Outpost operates with a strong emphasis on improving work/life balance and finding new ways of working in the visual effects sector. It has recently introduced Life Time, its uncapped holiday policy, and pays overtime for anti-social hours worked. The team has been making meaningful steps towards bringing a different way of thinking and working to VFX, which it intends to continue in Montreal. Outpost will be operating from a 6,000 square-foot facility on the corner of Peel St and Saint-Catherine St W and is currently hiring for a number of positions across art and technology. The company's new venture in Canada follows five years of sustained growth that has seen its headquarters in Bournemouth on the UK's south coast expand in that time to a capacity of 150 employees occupying a state of the art, 10,000 square foot facility. Note to editors

Outpost creates stunning visual effects for film, high-end TV and creative projects. With studios in Bournemouth, UK, and Montreal, Canada, Outpost gives artists the trust and support to create visual experiences that they didn't think possible. By continuing to improve the environment they work in and pursuing a fairer work / life balance, Outpost believes that artists can achieve their true creative potential. SOURCE Outpost VFX

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[March 08, 2019] Navigate the Future of Banking With Newgen at Western Bankers Association's 2019 Annual Conference, Hawaii

MCLEAN, Virginia, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Newgen Software Inc., a provider of banking software solutions, today announced its participation as a platinum sponsor at the Western Bankers Association's 2019 Annual Conference. Newgen will showcase its banking solutions for commercial & consumer lending, and online account opening. "In today's fast paced and competitive environment, banks must assess the need to harness disruptive technologies to ensure enhanced business outcomes. Our solutions enable banks to create innovative and agile processes customized to their business needs," said Diwakar Nigam, Chairman and Managing Director, Newgen Software. "We are committed to providing banks with digital transformation tools, which help them outgrow competition and ensure customer delight," he added. Interact with Newgen experts at booth #25 to know about the latest technologies in banking. Attendees can gain insights on how banks can enhance their digital initiatives to enhance the experience of a modern customer base which uses multiple devices interchangeably. Bankers can learn ho our solutions facilitate multichannel on-boarding, credit origination, approvals, and monitoring in a paperless and electronically driven workflow environment.



Newgen's banking solutions are built on its robust Business Process Management (BPM) platforms, which help banks cater to account opening and all kinds of loans such as retail lending, commercial and industrial lending (C&I), commercial real estate lending (CRE), small business administration lending (SBA),small & medium business lending (SMB) and others. These future proof solutions can be deployed to accelerate customer acquisition, optimize cost and improve profitability. They are highly scalable and can be tailored to the unique needs of financial institutions. They easily integrate with legacy and third party applications and ensure compliance to regulations.

The conference will be organized at the Grand Wailea, Maui, Hawaii from March 9th to 12th, 2019. About Newgen Software Inc.: Newgen Software Inc. is a global provider in banking process automation with more than 200+ banks and financial services institutions as its clients. Newgen's banking process management framework automates critical business processes for banking institutions across commercial lending, consumer lending, customer onboarding, online account opening, trade finance, digital and mobile customer experience strategy. Newgen offers flexible on premise and cloud-based solutions to its banking customers. For more information, please visit www.newgensoft.com Connect with us: Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter

Watch our videos on YouTube Media Contact:

Asif Khan

[email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/navigate-the-future-of-banking-with-newgen-at-western-bankers-associations-2019-annual-conference-hawaii-300809141.html SOURCE Newgen Software Inc.

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[March 08, 2019] Spotify Announces Expansion of Strategic Partnership with Samsung

Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) today announced the next step in its strategic relationship with Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics by providing users with frictionless access to Spotify on Samsung mobile devices1. In addition, new Spotify consumers in the U.S. with select Samsung Galaxy mobile devices, including the just-launched Galaxy S10, may qualify for six months of free Spotify (News - Alert) Premium, redeemable in app2. Starting on March 8, Spotify also will be pre-installed on millions of new Samsung mobile devices globally. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005233/en/ Spotify has been deeply integrated with Bixby, Samsung's intelligence platform, designed to work across Samsung's ecosystem of devices, Spotify also enhances the Bixby Home screen by providing Spotify content and recommendations tailored for each listener. "We were very excited to be named Samsung's go-to music streaming service several months ago and today's news will only ensure a more seamless Spotify listening experience across devices for listeners around the world," said Sten Garmark, VP of Consumer Products, Spotify. "This partnership makes it easy for Samsung mobile users to access their favorite music and podcasts on Spotify, wherever they are and however they choose to isten."



"Our goal is to deliver the best possible mobile experience to our consumers, and Spotify is the ideal music partner to help us make that vision a reality," said Patricio Paucar, VP of Marketing, Samsung Electronics America. "Whether they're listening to the latest hit albums or checking out their favorite playlist, we're giving eligible Galaxy S10 users access to an amazing six month Spotify Premium offer." As previously announced in August 2018, Spotify became Samsung's go-to music service provider. Spotify will continue to support Samsung devices this year to enable Samsung and Spotify users to discover and enjoy music in new ways.

About Spotify Technology S.A. Spotify transformed music listening forever when we launched in 2008. Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by these creators. Everything we do is driven by our love for music. Discover, manage, and share over 40 million tracks for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features including offline mode, improved sound quality, Spotify Connect and ad-free listening. Today, we are the world's largest music streaming subscription service with a community of 207 million users, including 96 million Spotify Premium subscribers, across 79 markets. For more information, images, or to contact the press team, head over to our press page at https://newsroom.spotify.com/. 1 Galaxy S10, S10+, S10e, S10 5G, Galaxy Fold and select Galaxy A series devices; may vary by region and carrier. 2 Customers can confirm eligibility via following link: spotify.com/us/legal/samsung-new-6-months-free-trial-terms-and-conditions/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005233/en/

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[March 08, 2019] Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS Selects Agent Icon to Provide Social Media Content to All of Their Agents

RALEIGH, N.C., March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS announced today at a company event, that they are now providing a suite of tools offered by Agent Icon to all of their agents starting immediately. The tools include daily social media images, articles, training and an instant imaging system for social media. Social media has become a primary source for Realtors to promote themselves, find new buyers and sellers and provide valuable information in the communities they serve. Real estate professionals often struggle with creating content to post and share. Agent Icon will be sending them the content they need on a daily basis to ensure that they are viewed as icons in their marketplaces. "We always want to support our agents by providing them the tools they need to be successful. Social media is a great way for our agents to stay in touch with their clients and find new ones. Agent Icon's products make it easy for our agents to do that and we are thrilled to be able to offer their products to them," says Larry Flic, V, Chief Executive Officer, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach.



"Fox and Roach is known throughout the industry for the innovation and technology they provide their agents. We are excited that they have chosen to provide our social media tools to their agents," says Gregory Robbins, Chief Marketing Officer for Agent Icon. About Agent Icon:

Agent Icon, LLC provides social media content to agents and brokers which helps them become icons in their communities. We provide agents daily content to post to social media that includes images, articles and training. We have thousands of agents from around the world utilizing our tools to create and leverage their brands on social media.

Media Contacts: Gregory Robbins

Agent Icon, LLC

Chief Marketing Officer

[email protected]

919-271-9533

https://www.agenticon.com/ Beth Buxbaum

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox Roach, REALTORS

Director of Corporate Communications

[email protected]

610-889-5526 Note: REALTOR is a federally registered collective membership mark which identifies a real estate professional who is a member of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS and subscribes to its strict Code of Ethics. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/berkshire-hathaway-homeservices-fox--roach-realtors-selects-agent-icon-to-provide-social-media-content-to-all-of-their-agents-300808787.html SOURCE Agent Icon

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[March 08, 2019] Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Partnering Terms and Agreements in Pharma, Biotech and Diagnostics 2010-2018

DUBLIN, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Partnering Terms and Agreements in Pharma, Biotech and Diagnostics 2010 to 2018" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Artificial Intelligence Partnering Terms and Agreements in Pharma, Biotech and Diagnostics report provides an understanding and access to the Artificial Intelligence partnering deals and agreements entered into by the worlds leading healthcare companies. The report provides a detailed understanding and analysis of how and why companies enter Artificial Intelligence partnering deals. The majority of deals are early development stage whereby the licensee obtains a right or an option right to license the licensors Artificial Intelligence technology or product candidates. These deals tend to be multicomponent, starting with collaborative R&D, and commercialization of outcomes. This report provides details of the latest Artificial Intelligence agreements announced in the healthcare sectors, covering: Artificial Intelligence

AI

Machine learning Understanding the flexibility of a prospective partner's negotiated deals terms provides critical insight into the negotiation process in terms of what you can expect to achieve during the negotiation of terms. Whilst many smaller companies will be seeking details of the payments clauses, the devil is in the detail in terms of how payments are triggered - contract documents provide this insight where press releases and databases do not.



This report contains links to online copies of actual Artificial Intelligence deals and contract documents as submitted to the Securities Exchange Commission by companies and their partners. Contract documents provide the answers to numerous questions about a prospective partner's flexibility on a wide range of important issues, many of which will have a significant impact on each party's ability to derive value from the deal.



Contract documents provide the answers to numerous questions about a prospective partner's flexibility on a wide range of important issues, many of which will have a significant impact on each party's ability to derive value from the deal.



For example, analyzing actual company deals and agreements allows assessment of the following: What is actually granted by the agreement to the partner company?

What exclusivity is granted?

What are the precise rights granted or optioned?

What is the payment structure for the deal?

How are sales and payments audited?

What is the deal term?

How are the key terms of the agreement defined?

How are IPRs handled and owned?

Who is rsponsible for commercialization?

Who is responsible for development, supply, and manufacture?

How is confidentiality and publication managed?

How are disputes to be resolved?

Under what conditions can the deal be terminated?

What happens when there is a change of ownership?

What sublicensing and subcontracting provisions have been agreed?

Which boilerplate clauses does the company insist upon?

Which boilerplate clauses appear to differ from partner to partner or deal type to deal type?

Which jurisdiction does the company insist upon for agreement law?







Chapter 3 provides a review of the leading Artificial Intelligence deals since 2010. Deals are listed by headline value, signed by big pharma, most active Artificial Intelligence dealmaking companies. Where the deal has an agreement contract published at the SEC a link provides online access to the contract.





Chapter 4 provides a comprehensive listing of the top 25 most active companies in Artificial Intelligence dealmaking with a brief summary followed by a comprehensive listing of Artificial Intelligence deals, as well as contract documents available in the public domain. Where available, each deal title links via Weblink to an online version of the actual contract document, providing easy access to each contract document on demand.



Chapter 5 provides a comprehensive and detailed review of Artificial Intelligence partnering deals signed and announced since Jan 2010 , where a contract document is available in the public domain. The chapter is organized by company A-Z, deal type (collaborative R&D, co-promotion, licensing etc), and specific therapy focus. Each deal title links via Weblink to an online version of the deal record and where available, the contract document, providing easy access to each contract document on demand.



Chapter 7 provides a comprehensive and detailed review of Artificial Intelligence partnering deals signed and announced since Jan 2010 . The chapter is organized by specific Artificial Intelligence technology type in focus. Each deal title links via Weblink to an online version of the deal record and where available, the contract document, providing easy access to each contract document on demand.



In addition, a comprehensive appendix is provided organized by Artificial Intelligence partnering company A-Z, deal type definitions and Artificial Intelligence partnering agreements example. Each deal title links via Weblink to an online version of the deal record and where available, the contract document, providing easy access to each contract document on demand.



The report also includes numerous tables and figures that illustrate the trends and activities in Artificial Intelligence partnering and dealmaking since 2010.



In conclusion, this report provides everything a prospective dealmaker needs to know about partnering in the research, development and commercialization of Artificial Intelligence technologies and products.



Report scope



Global Artificial Intelligence Partnering Terms and Agreements in Pharma, Biotech and Diagnostics 2010 to 2018 is intended to provide the reader with an in-depth understanding and access to Artificial Intelligence trends and structure of deals entered into by leading companies worldwide.



Global Artificial Intelligence Partnering Terms and Agreements 2010 to 2018 includes: Trends in Artificial Intelligence dealmaking in the biopharma industry since 2010

Analysis of Artificial Intelligence deal structure

Access to headline, upfront, milestone and royalty data

Case studies of real-life Artificial Intelligence deals

Access to over 200 Artificial Intelligence deal records and contract documents where available

The leading antibody deals by value since 2010

Most active Artificial Intelligence dealmakers since 2010

The leading Artificial Intelligence partnering resources In Global Artificial Intelligence Partnering Terms and Agreements in Pharma, Biotech and Diagnostics 2010 to 2018, the available contracts are listed by: Company A-Z

Headline value

Stage of development at signing

Deal component type

Specific therapy and technology target

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/25wzsc/global_artificial?w=5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-artificial-intelligence-ai-partnering-terms-and-agreements-in-pharma-biotech-and-diagnostics-2010-2018-300809151.html SOURCE Research and Markets

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[March 08, 2019] GoGoGrandparent Accepted into Prestigious MassChallenge HealthTech Program

BOSTON, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In December 2018, GoGoGrandparent was accepted into the MassChallenge HealthTech program. The program is designed to introduce young companies to real-world problems in healthcare; matching startups with organizational 'Champions' within Massachusetts. GoGoGrandparent partnered with three Co-Champions, including the City of Boston, the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI) and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA). According to a 2014 report, the 60+ demographic in Boston is projected to grow from 14% to 21% by 2030 -- higher than the national average. Nationwide, the baby boomer generation is rapidly aging into the 60+ category, the largest demographic shift in U.S. history. In 2017, missed healthcare appointments cost the U.S. $150 billion. On-demand transportation services such as Lyft offer an innovative solution to fill the gap but apply only to those that own or are comfortable with smartphones. Since 201, GoGoGrandparent has offered a simple phone number which people can call to automatically prompt an on-demand ride.



GoGoGrandparent customers call 1 (855) 464-6872, pressing "1" to request a Lyft pick-up from their home, "2" for a return trip, and "0" to speak to an operator. All requests are monitored 24/7 by "Professional Grandchildren" and family members are kept in the loop as their loved ones take trips. GoGoGrandparent allows older adults to maintain independence within their communities and have implemented an array of successful municipal partnerships in the past.

"Mobility keeps loneliness at bay, improves health outcomes, and increases the quality of life. We're proud to be working with Champions who are passionate about helping older adults maintain mobility as they age and who are enthusiastic about engaging the startup community to find solutions," said GoGoGrandparent co-founder, Justin Boogaard. MeHI's mission is to engage the healthcare community and catalyze the development, adoption and effective use of health IT. MeHI also works on behalf of the state on the Massachusetts Digital Health Initiative, a public-private partnership aimed at growing innovative healthcare technology companies, an effort that has funded the MassChallenge HealthTech program. These programs aim to enhance the safety, affordability, and quality of healthcare in Massachusetts as a whole. EOEA's mission is to promote the independence, empowerment, and well-being of older adults, individuals with disabilities, and their caregivers. GoGoGrandparent's solution directly aligns with this mission and enables older adults to age in their communities. The City of Boston's Economic Development Cabinet seeks to promote shared prosperity for both residents and businesses by removing barriers to business growth, unlocking innovation in areas that create jobs, and advancing a sustainable growth-based strategy emphasizing neighborhood preservation, planning, and partnership. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gogograndparent-accepted-into-prestigious-masschallenge-healthtech-program-300809007.html SOURCE GoGoGrandparent

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[March 08, 2019] Intrommune Therapeutics Announces Grant of European Patent Covering Oral Mucosal Immunotherapy for Food Allergy

New York, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intrommune Therapeutics, a New York-based biotechnology company developing a patient-friendly treatment platform for peanut and other food allergies, is pleased to announce that the European Patent Office (EPO) has granted Patent No. 2563316 entitled, Toothpaste for Allergic Desensitization via the Oral Mucosa. The patent includes claims to the approach of combining allergenic proteins with toothpaste. These claims provide patent protection of the novel oral mucosal immunotherapy (OMIT) platform. Patents protecting OMIT have previously issued in the United States, Japan, and Australia. OMIT enables regular administration of allergy immunotherapy to desensitize a patient to food allergies (including peanut allergy) while a user brushes their teeth. Intrommune Therapeutics has exclusively licensed the world-wide rights to this intellectual property from Allovate Therapeutics to develop the OMIT platform for the treatment of food allergies. Over 15 million people in the U.S. and 17 million in Europe have food allergies. There is currently no FDA approved treatment for any food allergy. Intrommunes lead product, INT301, is being developed for the treatment of peanut allergies. INT301s unique formulation is designed to desensitize an individual with peanut allergy using a fully-functional toothpaste delivery system, protecting them in the event of accidental ingestion. Approximately 3 million people, including an estimated 1.7 million children, have peanut allergy in the U.S. If approved, INT301 has the potential to be the first allergy immunotherapy treatment that easily integrates into a persons daily routine as both first-line and long-term maintenance therapy for peanut allergy. Michael Nelson, JD, Co-Founder and CEO of Intrommune Therapeutics, stated, The grant of this key patent further validates the novelty of the OMIT platform and adds significant commercial vale. Intrommune is a unique biotechnology company, offering a patent-protected technology with a reduced risk profile compared to typical biotechnology companies.



The OMIT platform is expected to improve the delivery of allergy immunotherapy by increasing the precision of treatment delivery and promoting treatment adherence. OMIT delivers biologically active compounds to the areas of the oral mucosa that have the highest likelihood of initiating allergy desensitization. Targeted delivery of medication is expected to decrease the rate of side effects linked to swallowing food allergy proteins, including eosinophilic esophagitis, gastrointestinal discomfort and potentially life-threatening anaphylaxis that requires the use of emergency epinephrine.

About Oral Mucosal Immunotherapy

Oral mucosal immunotherapy (OMIT) uses a specially formulated toothpaste to stabilize and deliver allergenic proteins to immunologically active areas of the oral cavity with the greatest potential for allergy desensitization. Success with allergy immunotherapy hinges on consistent exposure of a patients immune system to gradually desensitize the patient to the specific allergy trigger over time. OMIT promises advantages over other approaches to allergy immunotherapy due to its targeted delivery, simplified administration, and support of reliable, long-term adherence.

About Intrommune Therapeutics

Intrommune, dedicated to improving and protecting the lives of people with food allergy, is developing the revolutionary oral mucosal immunotherapy (OMIT) treatment platform for food allergies. OMIT is a long-term, patient-friendly, disease-modifying solution for the 220 million people, including 9 million adults and 6 million children in the U.S., who suffer from life-altering food allergies. Intrommunes lead product, INT301, is expected to be a safe, effective and convenient therapy for patients who suffer from peanut allergy. There is no FDA-approved treatment for peanut allergy or any other food allergy. For more information on Intrommune Therapeutics, please follow the link to http://www.intrommune.com/investors/

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements This release may contain "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are identified by certain words or phrases such as "may," "will," "aim," "will likely result," "believe," "expect," "will continue," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "contemplate," "seek to," "future," "objective," "goal," "project," "should," "will pursue" and similar expressions or variations of such expressions. These forward-looking statements reflect the company's current expectations about its future plans and performance. These forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions and estimates which could be inaccurate and which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could vary materially from those anticipated or expressed in any forward-looking statement made by the company. The company disclaims any obligation or intent to update the forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release. This release does not contain or constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy securities in the United States or in any other jurisdiction. Michelle Mantia Outreach Manager Intrommune Therapeutics [email protected]

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[March 08, 2019] Allovate Therapeutics Announces Grant of European Patent Covering Oral Mucosal Immunotherapy Platform

New York, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Allovate Therapeutics (Allovate), a New York-based biotechnology company focused on improving treatment for allergies, is pleased to announce that the European Patent Office (EPO) has granted Patent No. 2563316 entitled, Toothpaste for Allergic Desensitization via the Oral Mucosa. The patent includes claims to the approach of combining allergenic proteins with toothpaste. These claims provide patent protection of the novel oral mucosal immunotherapy (OMIT) platform. Patents protecting OMIT have previously issued in the United States, Japan, and Australia. Allerdent is a patented OMIT system that uses a specially formulated, fully-functional toothpaste into which proteins, such as FDA-approved respiratory immunotherapy agents, can be stably incorporated. OMIT enables regular administration of allergy immunotherapy to desensitize a patient to allergies while a user brushes their teeth. By coupling a daily oral care activity with allergy immunotherapy, Allerdent can help resolve the crisis of compliance that limits the use and effectiveness of other forms of allergy immunotherapy, such as painful subcutaneous injections. Allovate retains the global rights to develop products based on the OMIT platform for the treatment of respiratory allergies. Allovate has licensed the rights to develop the OMIT platform for the treament of food allergies to Intrommune Therapeutics, which is initially focused on an FDA-approved treatment for peanut allergy. Food allergy is a potentially life-threatening condition for which there is currently no treatment available.



Dr. Erick Berglund, Co-Founder and CEO of Allovate Therapeutics, said, The grant of this key patent further validates the novelty of the OMIT platform and enables us to accelerate the development of new options for allergy sufferers. The claims of the new patent significantly enhance the commercial viability of Allovate Therapeutics.

About Oral Mucosal Immunotherapy (OMIT)

Respiratory allergies affect at least 60 million people in the United States, resulting in 11.1 million visits to the doctor in 2010. 100 million Europeans suffer from allergic rhinitis and 70 million suffer from asthma. Symptomatic treatment, at a global cost of over $25 billion yearly, keeps symptoms at bay temporarily but does not offer a long-term solution. Allergen-specific immunotherapy is the only treatment method that targets the root cause of allergies, consistently exposing the allergy sufferer's immune system to small amounts of allergen proteins to desensitize them to the allergens over time. Oral mucosal immunotherapy (OMIT) uses a proprietary, specially formulated toothpaste to incorporate and stabilize allergenic proteins that are administered while users brush their teeth. OMIT simplifies long-term daily adherence to immunotherapy for patients, while delivering key agents to broad areas of the oral cavity, including those with the highest density of the immune cells responsible for effecting immunotherapy.

About Allovate Therapeutics

Allovate Therapeutics is a New York-based biotechnology company founded in 2012 with the mission to improve allergy treatment for all patients. Allovates aim is to provide safe, effective, and convenient new options for allergy sufferers that deliver demonstrable improvements to therapeutic adherence and clinical outcomes over existing allergy treatment protocols. Allovates lead product, Allerdent, is designed to deliver proteins, such as immunotherapeutic agents, to the immune system while the user brushes their teeth. Allovates licensee, Intrommune Therapeutics, is exploring allergy immunotherapy for life-threatening food allergies. For more information, please visit www.allovate.com. Michelle Mantia Outreach Manager Allovate Therapeutics [email protected]

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[March 08, 2019] International Wire Group to Be Acquired by Affiliates of Atlas Holdings

International Wire Group Holdings, Inc. ("IWG" or the "Company") (OTC PINK:ITWG) announced today that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by affiliates of Atlas Holdings LLC ("Atlas"). Atlas owns and operates 18 manufacturing and distribution businesses, which collectively employ more than 17,000 associates at over 150 facilities worldwide. Under the terms of the agreement, Atlas will acquire all outstanding shares of IWG common stock for $10.70 per share in cash. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005272/en/ The Company's board of directors unanimously approved the transactions and recommended that stockholders vote in favor of the transaction. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval of the Company stockholders and regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close early in the second quarter of 2019 and is not subject to a financing condition. Houlihan Lokey has acted as financial advisor to IWG. Jones Day acted as legal advisor to IWG and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP acted as legal advisor to Atlas.



About International Wire Group Holdings, Inc. International Wire Group Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is a manufacturer and marketer of wire products, including bare, silver-plated, nickel-plated and tin-plated copper wire, engineered wire products and high-performance conductors, for other wire suppliers, distributors and original equipment manufacturers. Its products include a broad spectrum of copper wire configurations and gauges with a variety of electrical and conductive characteristics and are utilized by a wide variety of customers primarily in the industrial and energy, electronics and data communications, automotive/specialty vehicles, aerospace and defense, medical products and consumer and appliance industries. The Company has seventeen manufacturing facilities and one distribution facility located throughout the United States, France, Italy and Poland.

Forward-Looking Information is Subject to Risk and Uncertainty Certain statements in this release may constitute "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as the words "expect," "may," "will," "would," "could," "anticipate" or the negative of any thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy or intentions. Undue reliance should not be placed on any forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management as of the date they were made. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. ITWG-G View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005272/en/

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Wells Fargo Donated $5.4 Million to Support Arizona Nonprofits in 2018

Wells Fargo (News - Alert) today announced the company donated more than $5.4 million to 415 local nonprofits, schools and community organizations in 2018 to help the communities and people of Arizona.

Wells Fargo's philanthropic contributions build on a long history of collaboration with local nonprofits and community leaders to make a positive impact by addressing urgent community issues such as affordable housing, small business growth, access to education and supporting tribal communities.

When combined with the $2.8 million donated by the company's 16,109 Arizona team members, nonprofits in the state received a total of $8.2 million from Wells Fargo and its team members in 2018. That amounts to an average daily donation of $22,707.

"Across our community, many residents are working hard to make ends meet," said Don Pearson, Wells Fargo's lead region president based in Phoenix. "Here in Arizona, we want to help people find a stable place to live, help small business owners expand, and help young people gain a quality education that prepares them for the workforce. We are determined to help people and communities, especially in underserved areas, succeed financially. We will continue to provide philanthropy, volunteers, expertise and other resources to revitalize and strengthen local neighborhoods."

Beyond philanthropy, Wells Fargo team members in Arizona volunteered more than 115,000 hours in 2018 to support nonprofits and causes important to them. Local projects and efforts include more than 5,600 volunteer hours supporting St. Mary's Food Bank Alliance and 2,100 volunteer hours supporting Junior Achievement projects and causes across the state.

"Part of what makes Wells Fargo unique is the generosity of our team members who help multiply our community impact," said Pearson. "Sometimes giving time is even more valuable than money, because it puts our desire to build a strong community into action and gives us a tangible way to personally make a difference."

United Way Worldwide recently recognized Wells Fargo for having the No. 1 workplace giving campaign in the U.S. for the tenth consecutive year.

Making an impact in Arizona

Wells Fargo concentrated its local philanthropic contributions on addressing urgent community issues such as:







About Wells Fargo

Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,800 locations, more than 13,000 ATMs, and the internet (wellsfargo.com). Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. With approximately 259,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune's 2018 rankings of America's largest corporations. In 2018, Wells Fargo donated more than $444 million to nearly 11,000 nonprofits in support of affordable housing, small business growth, financial education, and sustainability, among other community needs. For 10 consecutive years, Wells Fargo has held the honor of No. 1 in workplace giving by United Way Worldwide. Wells Fargo team members also make a difference by donating more than 2 million hours of volunteer time in the last year. News, insights and more information on the company's corporate responsibility are available at Wells Fargo Stories.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005056/en/
[March 08, 2019] Mastercard Advances Cross-Border Capabilities with Acquisition of Transfast

Mastercard (NYSE: MA) today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Transfast, a global cross-border account-to-account money transfer network. Transfast will complement Mastercard's wide range of payment solutions by increasing worldwide connectivity in the account-to-account space, enhancing compliance capabilities and offering more robust foreign exchange tools. Transfast currently supports the Mastercard Send solution for business-to-business and person-to-person payment services. "We believe Transfast gives us the strongest platform to immediately enhance our cross-border capabilities and further deliver on our strategy," said Michael Miebach, chief product officer for Mastercard. "The addition of Transfast adds to our leading position in meeting business, government and consumer payments needs - whether B2B, P2P or other flows. Today's news cements our collaboration and sets the stage to provide our customers a unique, ready-to-go solution upon closing." Greater Transparency, Enhanced Connectivity When businesses send cross-border payments to their vendors and partners, they face higher costs, compliance requirements, and limited predictability of when the transaction will be completed. The combination of Mastercard and Transfast will offer applications that solve these challenges and provide greater transparency and certainty in such transactions. It will also support financial institutions, digital platforms and other partners as they provide people and businesses the ability to send and receive money how and when they want to virtually any end point across more than 100 markets. "There are substantial synergies with Mastercard for even further growth across our products," said Samish Kumar, CEO of Transfast. "Over the past 12 years, we have grown our capabilities to connect, track and settle transactions with almost every bank around the world via our curated and extensive network. We've worked in support of Mastercard Send and this feels like the natural next step in our relationship." Prior to this announcement, Mastercard lapsed its offer for Earthport in order to focus on the integration and expansion of Transfast. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The transaction, which is anticipated to close in the second half of 2019, is subject to customary closing conditions. About Mastercard Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. Our global payments processing network connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities - such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances - easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @MastercardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau.



About Transfast Transfast is a global cross-border payments network provider that covers over 125 countries across Asia, Europe, Africa, Americas and Australia. Our proprietary payment network, consisting of direct integrations with 300+ banks and other financial institutions enables person-to-person, business-to-person and business-to-business payments services to our partners via APIs, SFTP, web and mobile product applications. Our applications deliver compliance, risk management, currency conversion, liquidity management and multi-format messaging solutions to our clients, which include banks, financial institutions, e-commerce companies, and service marketplaces, as well as small businesses and individual consumers.

Transfast is backed by GCP Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm managing three active funds with $1.4 billion in committed capital with financial technology as one of its core focus areas, and Apis Partners, a private equity investment firm managing two active funds focused on growth stage financial services, financial technology and financial infrastructure businesses. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts may be forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the words "believe," "expect," "could," "may," "would," "will," "trend" and similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements that relate to Mastercard's future prospects, developments and business strategies, as well as Mastercard's acquisition and operation of Transfast's business. We caution you to not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as they speak only as of the date they are made. Except for the company's ongoing obligations under the U.S. federal securities laws, the company does not intend to update or otherwise revise the forward-looking information to reflect actual results of operations, changes in financial condition, changes in estimates, expectations or assumptions, changes in general economic or industry conditions or other circumstances arising and/or existing since the preparation of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of any unanticipated events. Many factors and uncertainties relating to the proposed transaction, our operations and our business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control, influence whether any forward-looking statements can or will be achieved. Any one of these factors could cause our actual results or the impact of the acquisition to differ materially from those expressed or implied in writing in any forward-looking statements made by Mastercard or on its behalf. Such factors related to the completion and impact of the acquisition include, but are not limited to, whether all necessary conditions will be met, and whether the transaction will close on agreed terms and in a timely manner. For additional information on other factors related to Mastercard's overall business that could cause Mastercard's actual results to differ materially from expected results, please see the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, and any subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005308/en/

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[March 08, 2019] Culture of Equality Is Powerful Multiplier of Workplace Innovation, New Accenture Research Finds

Disconnect between C-suite and employees on innovation.

Forecast 2028: Empowering employees to innovate could raise global GDP US$8 trillion TORONTO, March 8, 2019 /CNW/ - A workplace culture of equality is a powerful multiplier of innovation and growth, according to new research from Accenture (NYSE: ACN). Published today in the company's "Getting to Equal 2019" report, the research found that in Canada, employees' innovation mindsettheir willingness and ability to innovateis nearly six times higher in companies with a robust culture of equality, where everyone can advance and thrive, than in least-equal companies. "In order to truly thrive, organizations need to be continuously innovating to offset disruptions within their respective industries" said Claudia Thompson, Accenture's managing director for health and public service and lead for inclusion and diversity in Canada. "The impact of having a diverse workforce and culture of equality is a powerful multiplier of innovation and growth within a company." According to the research, the vast majority of executives around the world agree that continuous innovation is essential: 95 percent see innovation as vital to competitiveness and business viability. A culture of equality is a powerful driver of an innovation mindsetmore than other factors that differentiate organizations, such as industry, country or workforce demographics. Among those surveyed, people across all genders, sexual identities, ages and ethnicities show a stronger innovation mindset in more equal workplace cultures. Accenture's new research is based on a survey of more than 18,000 professionals in 27 countries, including 700 in Canada, a survey of more than 150 C-suite executives in eight countries and a model that combines employee survey results with published labor force data. It builds on Accenture's 2018 research, which identified 40 workplace factors that contribute to a culture of equality, and grouped them into three actionable categories: Bold Leadership, Comprehensive Action and Empowering Environment.



This year's research determined that an empowering environment is by far the most important of the three culture-of-equality categories in increasing an innovation mindset, which consists of six elements: purpose, autonomy, resources, inspiration, collaboration and experimentation. The more empowering the workplace environment, the higher the innovation mindset score. For instance, Canadian employees in robust cultures of equality are seven times more likely to say that nothing holds them back from innovating (39 percent in most equal cultures vs. 5 percent in least equal cultures). However, organizations must close the important gap the research revealed between C-suite executives and employees. While 76 percent of executives globally said they empower employees to innovate, only 37 percent of employees agree. For example, executives appear to overestimate financial rewards, and underestimate purpose, as motivations for employees to innovate. In a more equal culture, the strongest factors underpinning an innovation mindset include providing relevant skills training, flexible working arrangements and respect for work life balance.

Diversity is a critical building block

While diversity factors alone (e.g., a diverse leadership team and a gender-balanced workforce) significantly impact innovation mindset, a culture of equality is the essential multiplier to help companies maximize innovation. The research found that innovation mindset of employees globally is nearly eight times greater when diversity is combined with a culture of equality, compared to companies where these are least common. High economic stakes

The new research found that an innovation mindset is stronger in fast-growing economies and in countries with high labor-productivity growth. The opportunity is enormous: Accenture calculates that global gross domestic product would increase by up to US$8 trillion over 10 years if the innovation mindset in all countries were raised by 10 percent. "Accelerating equality in the workplace has never been more critical for driving innovation," said Ellyn Shook, Accenture's chief leadership & human resources officer. "If people feel a sense of belonging and are valued by their employers for their unique contributions, perspectives and circumstances, they are more likely to advance and feel empowered to innovate." Read the global report at accenture.com/gettingtoequal Methodology

As part of its "Getting to Equal 2019" research, Accenture conducted an online survey of more than 18,000 professionals in 27 countries during October 2018, as well as a phone survey with more than 150 C-level executives in eight countries in November and December 2018. About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions  underpinned by the world's largest delivery network  Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With 469,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com. SOURCE Accenture

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[March 08, 2019] NEO Rings the Bell for Gender Equality on International Women's Day 2019

NEO is proud to take part in today's global collaboration across more than 75 stock exchanges to "Ring the Bell for Gender Equality" in celebration of International Women's Day 2019. The initiative, now in its fifth consecutive year, is a partnership between the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, UN Global Compact, UN Women, the World Federation of Exchanges and Women in ETFs, to raise awareness about the business case for women's economic empowerment and the opportunities for the private sector to advance gender equality and sustainable development. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005333/en/ Representatives of "Ring the Bell for Gender Equality" partners, including Women in ETFs Canadian Chapter Co-Head, Deborah Frame, joined Jos Schmitt, President and CEO, NEO, to open NEO in celebration of International Women's Day 2019. Anne Le Guellec, Consul General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, honoured the celebration with her participation. (Photo: Business Wire)



Building on its existing commitments as part of the Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative, NEO announced two new commitments that affirm its dedication to gender-equality in Canadian capital markets. In January, NEO became the first Canadian stock exchange to sign a CEO Statement of Support for the Women's Empowerment Principles, an initiative spearheaded by the European Union in partnership with UN Women and UN Global Compact. NEO has also proposed a change to its listings manual to encourage nominating and corporate governance committees of NEO-listed companies to consider the diversity of the board composition when making recommendations for new board members or executive officers. Considerations for diversity of the board includes whether targets have been adopted for women, visible minorities, Aboriginal people and people with disabilities.

"NEO's mission is to fight for fairness and push back against entrenched views that limit competition and growth across the Canadian capital markets. It is for this reason we readily embrace programs that promote equality at every level of an organization. We firmly stand by these values with our new and continued commitments to the Women's Empowerment Principles and the Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative," said Jos Schmitt, President and CEO, NEO. "We understand that our role as a senior stock exchange is to partner with public companies and fund providers as they achieve great things, which is why we are proud to support gender-focused investment products on our exchange and encourage NEO-listed companies to embrace diversity at their board and executive levels." "The European Union has been strongly encouraging business leaders to join the Women Empowerment Principles community and use them as guidance for actions that we can all take in the workplace, marketplace and community to empower women and benefit both businesses and people," said Ambassador of the European Union to Canada Peteris Ustubs. "We are particularly pleased that the NEO Exchange was the first Canadian Stock Exchange to commit to the Women's Empowerment Principles, demonstrating that NEO recognizes the importance of not only raising awareness for gender diversity but taking action to enable it." Also celebrating with NEO today were Lindsay Patrick, Managing Director & Head, Sustainable Finance, RBC Capital Markets; Jennifer So, Associate Portfolio Manager, Senior Associate Fundamental Canadian Equities, BMO Global Asset Management; Florence Narine, Senior Vice President, Head of Product, AGF Investments; and Raj Lala, President and CEO, Evolve ETFs. These individuals participated in a panel discussion on the gender-based investment thesis that partially informs four Canadian ETFs, including the RBC Vision Women's Leadership MSCI Canada Index ETF (NEO:RLDR), which was launched on International Women's Day in 2018. This panel was moderated by Clare O'Hara, the Wealth Management Reporter at The Globe and Mail. About NEO Exchange NEO Exchange Inc. is the operator of Canada's next generation stock exchange, putting the needs of investors, businesses looking to raise capital and dealers first. Launched in March 2015, the NEO Exchange currently offers an innovative trading venue for all listed Canadian securities and a value added listings process for capital raising companies and investment products, focused on liquidity, transparency and efficiency. For more information, please visit: NEOstockexchange.com Join us on social media: twitter | linkedin | facebook View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005333/en/

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[March 08, 2019] ExxonMobil Grants to Support Women Entrepreneurs and "She Counts" Program

ExxonMobil said today that it will provide about $5 million in grants to support local and global organizations dedicated to empowering women economically. The announcement, made in association with International Women's Day and the company's Women's Economic Opportunity Initiative, underscores ExxonMobil's support for efforts to advance women economically, encourage and assist women entrepreneurs, increase financial literacy and improve women farmers' productivity. In addition to grants made by ExxonMobil affiliates to local organizations in their countries, the Exxon Mobil Corporation and ExxonMobil Foundation are providing funding to ADPP, the Center for Global Development, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, Counterpart International, the George W. Bush Institute, Kickstart, Kopernik, Solar Sister, Opportunity International, Technoserve and WEConnect International. In partnership with Women's World Banking, the ExxonMobil Foundation is also continuing to support the She Counts initiative, which encourages financial service providers in developing countries to design and offer products to encourage women business owners to save. "Research shows that when women manage their incomes, they invest in the health, education and well-being of their families," said Suzanne McCarron, chair of the ExxonMobil Foundation. "Our investments are specifically geared toward providing wome with support to increase their productivity and financial resources, and realize their fullest potential."



ExxonMobil has invested more than $120 million in its Women's Economic Opportunity Initiative since its inception in 2005, and has partnered with and supported dozens of initiatives to the benefit of tens of thousands of women in more than 90 countries. ExxonMobil's Women's Economic Opportunity Initiative focuses on data-based, proven programs that help women participate in the economic life of their communities. It funds initiatives that correspond with the findings of the ExxonMobil-commissioned Roadmap for Promoting Women's Economic Empowerment. The Initiative focuses on bolstering female entrepreneurship, improving the productivity of women farmers and providing access to appropriate technologies that catalyze new business development.

ExxonMobil is also a founding member of the Global Business Coalition for Women's Economic Empowerment which harnesses the power of the private sector in fostering systemic economic change for women. The company spends about $500 million each year with women-owned businesses in addition to the grants. About ExxonMobil ExxonMobil, the largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, uses technology and innovation to help meet the world's growing energy needs. ExxonMobil holds an industry-leading inventory of resources, is one of the largest refiners and marketers of petroleum products, and its chemical company is one of the largest in the world. For more information, visit www.exxonmobil.com or follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) www.twitter.com/exxonmobil. About the ExxonMobil Foundation The ExxonMobil Foundation is the primary philanthropic arm of Exxon Mobil Corporation in the United States. Globally, ExxonMobil and the ExxonMobil Foundation provide funding to improve basic education, promote women as catalysts for development, and combat malaria and other infectious diseases in developing countries. Additional information on ExxonMobil's community partnerships and contribution programs is available at www.exxonmobil.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005334/en/

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[March 08, 2019] Waddell & Reed Celebrates International Women's Day with CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion Pledge and Partnership with Rock The Street, Wall Street

Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. (NYSE: WDR) is pleased to announce the following actions as it advances its position as a values-based and purpose-driven organization: CEO Philip J. Sanders signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, acknowledging that the organization will act to cultivate trust, diversity, flexibility and understanding. The CEO Action pledge currently has been signed by more than 600 CEOs nationwide, representing 85 industries and more than 50 academic institutions or associations. By signing the pledge, Waddell & Reed will take specific actions to advance an open and empowering environment. According to ceoaction.com , research shows that diversity increases creativity and innovation, promotes higher quality decisions, and enhances economic growth. "Supporting an organization of diverse thoughts, perspectives, backgrounds and experiences is absolutely essential for us," said Sanders. "We know that embracing our differences and creating a culture where everyone feels their uniqueness is valued and respected will only make us stronger. I am proud to make this pledge and partner with other firms to continually make advancements in the future."

, research shows that diversity increases creativity and innovation, promotes higher quality decisions, and enhances economic growth. "Supporting an organization of diverse thoughts, perspectives, backgrounds and experiences is absolutely essential for us," said Sanders. "We know that embracing our differences and creating a culture where everyone feels their uniqueness is valued and respected will only make us stronger. I am proud to make this pledge and partner with other firms to continually make advancements in the future." Celebrating International Women's Day with a full day of events including a panel discussion featuring key leaders at the company. The panel, livestreamed to all employees across the country, focused on mentorship, leadership, opportunities and challenges faced by women in the workforce and the importance of having a Culture of Belonging. The panel participants included Joan Albeck, Chief Technology Officer ; Beth Hansen, Broker-Dealer Chief Compliance Officer ; Kim Scott, SVP, portfolio manager with subsidiary Ivy Investment Management Company; and Amy Scupham, President of subsidiary Ivy Distributors, Inc . "Through understanding and leveraging our diverse experiences, we can build a stronger culture, which leads to an enhanced outcome for our clients across all aspects of our business," said Sanders.

; ; with subsidiary Ivy Investment Management Company; and . "Through understanding and leveraging our diverse experiences, we can build a stronger culture, which leads to an enhanced outcome for our clients across all aspects of our business," said Sanders. And, becoming the first organization in the Kansas City metro area to partner with Rock The Street, Wall Street (RTSWS), a national, non-profit organization committed to attracting more young women to the field of finance. According to RTSWS, in the financial sector, women make up only 9% of mutual fund managers, 2.5% of hedge fund managers and 11.7% of senior private equity professionals. Through the partnership, Waddell & Reed will work with local high school students to deliver a curriculum that offers financial education through workshops, role modeling, mentoring and on-site office experiences. The partnership facilitates work with an innovative, national financial education program targeted to young women in grades 9 through 12. Waddell & Reed will offer field trips to its headquarters offices and help with the fall and spring curriculums focused on budgeting, learning financial basics, stocks and investing, career assessment and resume building. Waddell & Reed's partnership with Rock The Street, Wall Street is the first in the firm's headquarters metro area of Kansas City. Since its inception in 2013, RTSWS and partner organizations have educated 1,750 female high school students and those participants had an average increase of 97% in their comprehension of financial concepts and 67% state they are "very likely" or "extremely likely" to explore a major or minor in finance, economics or accounting. Waddell & Reed will partner with Rock The Street, Wall Street to encourage other financial services companies in Kansas City to join the partnership, creating more community business support to help increase diverse workforces in financial services-related industries.



A key part of this cultural advancement, according to executives, is implementing practices that align to the modern, diverse workforce and dynamic financial services industries of today where flexible and agile workplace practices are required. For example, the company recently implemented year-round weekly flexible work schedules, flexible vacation, enhanced paid parental/family caregiver leave, enhanced Short Term Disability and Paid (News - Alert) Military Leave and recently implemented a casual work attire philosophy. In addition, an initiative called Culture Connections was recently launched for employee events focused on Diversity & Inclusion, Employee Appreciation, Philanthropy, Strategy & Values and Wellness. In fact, the company just completed its first ever Employee Appreciation Week with numerous recognition events throughout the week.

"We want to ensure our efforts are very tangible and transparent, both internally and externally," said Brent Bloss, Chief Operating Officer. "These steps are actionable and illustrate our commitment to being a values-based and purpose-driven organization moving forward. We operate in a very dynamic, ever-changing environment, and we will continue to proactively implement practices, programs and approaches that deliver on that commitment." About CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion is the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace. This commitment is driven by a realization that addressing diversity and inclusion is not a competitive issue, but a societal issue. Recognizing that change starts at the executive level, more than 600 CEOs of the world's leading companies and business organizations, are leveraging their individual and collective voices to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace. CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion aims to rally the business community to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace by working collectively across organizations and sectors. It outlines a specific set of actions the undersigned companies will take to cultivate a trusting environment where all ideas are welcomed and employees feel comfortable and empowered to discuss diversity and inclusion. Visit ceoaction.com. About Rock The Street, Wall Street Rock The Street, Wall Street, founded in 2013, inspires and equips girls with skills to succeed financially throughout their lives and potentially pursue careers in finance. Girls learn about savings and investment, budgeting, the capital markets and their role in maintaining the welfare of their families and the economy, while simultaneously helping them see the real world application of the math content they learn in the classroom. Visit rockthestreetwallstreet.com. About Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. Through its subsidiaries, Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. has provided investment management and financial planning services to clients throughout the United States since 1937. Its subsidiaries include Ivy Investments, an asset manager and distributor of investment products to retail and institutional clients; and Waddell & Reed, Inc., a broker-dealer with nationally based independent financial advisors. For more information, visit ir.waddell.com. IVY INVESTMENTS? refers to the investment management and investment advisory services offered by Ivy Investment Management Company, the financial services offered by Ivy Distributors, Inc., a FINRA member broker dealer and the distributor of IVY FUNDS mutual funds and IVY VARIABLE INSURANCE PORTFOLIOS, and the financial services offered by their affiliates. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005067/en/

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[March 08, 2019] Natixis Investment Managers Affiliated Funds Earn 2019 US Lipper Fund Awards from Refinitiv

Natixis Investment Managers announced that three funds managed by Natixis-affiliated firms AlphaSimplex Group and Loomis, Sayles & Company earned 2019 US Lipper Fund Awards from Refinitiv. The funds were recognized for consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to peers during an annual ceremony held on March 7 in New York. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005403/en/ ASG Tactical U.S. Market Fund, A Class [USMAX] - Ranked best fund out of 54 eligible US funds (127 share classes) for the five-year period ending November 30, 2018, for the Alternative Long/Short Equity Funds category.

- Ranked best fund out of 54 eligible US funds (127 share classes) for the five-year period ending November 30, 2018, for the Alternative Long/Short Equity Funds category. Loomis Sayles Global Allocation Fund, Y Class [LSWWX] - Ranked best fund out of 57 eligible US funds (154 share classes) for the 10-year period ending November 30, 2018, for the Flexible Portfolio Funds category.

- Ranked best fund out of 57 eligible US funds (154 share classes) for the 10-year period ending November 30, 2018, for the Flexible Portfolio Funds category. Loomis Sayles Limited Term Government and Agency Fund, Y Class [NELYX] - Ranked best fund out of 10 eligible US funds (21 share classes) for the 10-year period ending November 30, 2018, for the Short-Intermediate US Government Funds category. "We are proud to congratulate the portfolio management teams at AlphaSimplex Group and Loomis Sayles for earning Lipper Fund Awards," said David Giunta, CEO for the US and Canada at Natixis Investment Managers. "These achievements support Natixis' belief that high-conviction active management strategies offer the opportunity to outperform over time." About Lipper Fund Awards from Refinitiv

For more than three decades and in over 20 countries worldwide, the Lipper Fund Awards from Refinitiv have honored funds and fund management firms that have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. Renowned fund data and proprietary methodology is the foundation of the Award qualification. Individual classifications of three-, five-, and ten-year periods, as well as fund families with high average scores for the three-year period, are recognized. Lipper Fund Classification Award

For funds with multiple share classes, Lipper selects the share class with the best Lipper Leader score as the basis for the award winner for demonstrating consistently strong risk-adjusted returns compared with peers. The highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return (Effective Return) value determines the fund classification winner for each period. Lipper classification awards are given for the 3-, 5-, and 10-year periods and do not include the effect of sales charges. Past performance is no guarantee of, and not necessarily indicative of, future results. From Lipper Fund Awards from Refinitiv,  Refinitiv. All rights reserved. Used under license. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. www.lipperfundawards.com



About Natixis Investment Managers

Natixis Investment Managers serves financial professionals with more insightful ways to construct portfolios. Powered by the expertise of more than 20 specialized investment managers globally, we apply Active Thinking to deliver proactive solutions that help clients pursue better outcomes in all markets. Natixis ranks among the world's largest asset management firms1 ($917.1 billion / 802.1 billion AUM2). Headquartered in Paris and Boston, Natixis Investment Managers is a subsidiary of Natixis. Listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, Natixis is a subsidiary of BPCE, the second-largest banking group in France. Natixis Investment Managers' affiliated investment management firms and distribution and service groups include Active Index Advisors;3 AEW; Alliance Entreprendre; AlphaSimplex Group; Darius Capital Partners; DNCA Investments;4 Dorval Asset Management;5 Flexstone Partners;6 Gateway (News - Alert) Investment Advisers; H2O Asset Management;5 Harris Associates; Investors Mutual Limited; Loomis, Sayles & Company; Managed Portfolio Advisors;3 McDonnell Investment Management;7 Mirova;8 MV Credit; Naxicap Partners; Ossiam; Ostrum Asset Management; Seeyond;8 Seventure Partners; Vaughan Nelson Investment Management; and Vega Investment Managers. Not all offerings available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit the company's website at im.natixis.com | LinkedIn (News - Alert): linkedin.com/company/natixis-investment-managers.

Natixis Investment Managers includes all of the investment management and distribution entities affiliated with Natixis Distribution, L.P. and Natixis Investment Managers S.A. Natixis Distribution, L.P. is a limited purpose broker-dealer and the distributor of various registered investment companies for which advisory services are provided by affiliates of Natixis Investment Managers. About AlphaSimplex Group, LLC

AlphaSimplex Group is an investment management firm that strives to help our investors succeed in evolving financial markets by researching and analyzing market behavior and risk. We combine these insights and the expertise of our research team to create adaptive strategies that are attuned to changing market dynamics and help investors meet their long-term goals. AlphaSimplex manages over $6.3 billion in institutional and mutual fund assets.2 About Loomis Sayles

Since 1926, Loomis, Sayles & Company has helped fulfill the investment needs of institutional and mutual fund clients worldwide. The firm's performance-driven investors integrate deep proprietary research and integrated risk analysis to make informed, judicious decisions. Teams of portfolio managers, strategists, research analysts and traders collaborate to assess market sectors and identify investment opportunities wherever they may lie, within traditional asset classes or among a range of alternative investments. Loomis Sayles has the resources, the foresight and the flexibility to look far and wide for value in broad and narrow markets in its commitment to deliver attractive sustainable returns for clients. This rich tradition has earned Loomis Sayles the trust and respect of clients worldwide, for whom it manages $234.4 billion in assets.2 Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Visit im.natixis.com or call 800-225-5478 for a prospectus or a summary prospectus containing this and other information. Read it carefully. All investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. Investment risk exists with equity, fixed income, and alternative investments. There is no assurance that any investment will meet its performance objectives or that losses will be avoided. Natixis Distribution, L.P. is a limited purpose broker-dealer and the distributor of various registered investment companies for which advisory services are provided by affiliates of Natixis Investment Managers. Member FINRA l SIPC 1 Cerulli Quantitative Update: Global Markets 2018 ranked Natixis Investment Managers as the 16th largest asset manager in the world based on assets under management as of December 31, 2017.

2 Net asset value as of December 31, 2018. Assets under management ("AUM"), as reported, may include notional assets, assets serviced, gross assets and other types of non-regulatory AUM. AUM does not include Vega Investment Managers, which was transferred to Natixis Wealth Management in December 2018.

3 A division of Natixis Advisors, L.P.

4 A brand of DNCA Finance.

5 A subsidiary of Ostrum Asset Management.

6 Flexstone Partners assets as of 9/30/18. Flexstone was established in 2018 by bringing together four specialized private investments firms: Caspian Private Equity, Euro-Private Equity France, Euro-Private Equity Swiss and Eagle Asia Partners.

7 Natixis Investment Managers transferred ownership of McDonnell Investment Management, LLC to Loomis, Sayles & Company, L.P. on 1/1/19.

8 Operated in the U.S. through Ostrum Asset Management U.S., LLC. 2450695.1.1 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005403/en/

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[March 08, 2019] Malaga Financial Corporation Announces 59th Consecutive Quarterly Cash Dividend

Malaga Financial Corporation (OTCPink:MLGF) announced today the declaration of a cash dividend in the amount of 25 cents per share to shareholders of record on March 25, 2019. The dividend will be paid out on or about April 1, 2019. Randy C. Bowers, President and CEO, remarked, "We are pleased to announce the 25 cent quarterly dividend which represents a 3.84% annualized yield based on our most recent closing price of $26.05. Solid earnings and our strong capital level position us to continue to reward our shareholders for their investment." Malaga Bank, a subsidiary of Malaga Financial Corporation, is a full-service community bank headquartered on the Palos Verdes Peninsula with six offices located n the South Bay area of Los Angeles. For over ten years Malaga Bank has been consistently recommended by one of the nation's leading independent bank rating and research firms, Bauer Financial Inc. Malaga Bank was awarded their premier Top 5-Star rating for the 45th consecutive quarter as of December 2018. Since 1985 Malaga has been delivering competitive banking services to residents and businesses of the South Bay, including real estate loan products custom-tailored to consumers and investors. As the largest community bank in the South Bay, Malaga is proud of its continuing tradition of relationship-based banking and legendary customer service. The Bank's web site is located at www.malagabank.com.





View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005404/en/

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[March 08, 2019] Women Tech Council Unveils 2019 Shatter List Showcasing Companies Closing the Gender Gap in Tech

SALT LAKE CITY, March 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Women Tech Council (WTC), a national organization based in Silicon Slopes, focused on increasing the number of women in technology, today released the 2019 Shatter List in honor of International Women's Business Day. The List showcases the 46 technology companies that are accelerating removing the glass ceiling for women in tech through creating and enacting impactful programs and cultures to create inclusivity. The Shatter List, now in its second year, is the first research of its kind in the technology industry. Moving beyond hiring or HR measures, the List reviews and rates the development and successful implementation of holistic, organization-wide practices to create inclusive cultures where women can contribute and succeed. "No matter the size or type of technology company, having high-performance teams where men and women can contribute and succeed drives success at every level of the organization," said Cydni Tetro, WTC president. "Highlighting and explaining these practices accelerates progress for the entire tech industry by amplifying the programs that are making real strides in creating more gender inclusive cultures and propelling their impact further to help organizations throughout the tech sector grow closer to breaking the glass ceiling." After extensive research on the measures most impactful in creating inclusive cultures and positive change, the 2019 Shatter List was compiled scoring companies on the four factors identified as most critical to successful implementation and impact. Each factor relates to demonstrable and visible commitment, programming and activities to advancing women in tech at all levels of the company from entry level to executive. Data for the Shatter List was gathered and evaluated from across 10 different secondary data sets all aligned to the following four evaluation areas: Executive engagement (active support from the CEO, executive team and all leadership)

Company programming (currently has women in leadership executive positions and proactively implements programs to support women in technology)

Community investment (active participation with the broader community to learn from and share best practices regarding culture and inclusion)

Women's or Diversity & Inclusion group (formal programs to support women internally) The final list includes 46 tech companies ranging from startups to unicorns. The 2019 Shatter List in alphabetical order is as follows:







3M Health Information Systems Intermountain Healthcare Adobe L-3 Technologies Ancestry Listen Technologies Chatbooks Lucid Software Clearlink MarketStar Control4 MX Cotopaxi Myriad Dealertrack Northrup Grumman Degreed O.C.Tanner Dell EMC Oracle Domo Overstock eBay Pluralsight ExpertVoice Qualtrics ForgeDX Recursion Pharmaceuticals Franklin Covey RizePoint Goldman Sachs SaltStack Health Catalyst Tesla HealthEquity Veracity Solutions HireVue Vivint Smart Home IM Flash WCF Insurance inContact Workday InMoment Workfront Instructure Zions Bancorporation



For more on the research or methodology behind the Shatter List, or examples of the types of programs and practices these companies have listed, see WTC's report, "The Gender Gap in Tech and How to Fix It." For more examples of impactful company programming to create more inclusive environments, see WTC's newly released Best Practices from the Diversity & Inclusion Forum. For more information about what more is being done to change the tech world for women, visit, www.womentchcoucil.org Media Contact:

[email protected] About Women Tech Council:

Women Tech Council (WTC) is a national organization focused on the economic impact of women in the technology sector through developing programs that propel the economic pipeline from high school K-12 to the C-suite. WTC offers mentoring, visibility, opportunities and networking to more than 10,000 women and men working in technology to create business environments focused on inclusivity and high performance. Through this work, WTC propels women in technology careers and the talent pipeline by ensuring a strong, diverse and entrepreneurial technology workforce. For more information on Women Tech Council, visit: www.womentechcouncil.org . View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/women-tech-council-unveils-2019-shatter-list-showcasing-companies-closing-the-gender-gap-in-tech-300809356.html SOURCE Women Tech Council

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[March 08, 2019] Empowering Diversity, Growth, and Equality in Leadership: Match Marketing Group Launches Program in Celebration of International Women's Day

In celebration of International Women's Day, Match Marketing Group proudly announces the launch of their EDGE Leadership Group initiative, an effort to foster success, growth and learning opportunities for all. The program will launch in the Boulder office, and ultimately roll out to the full Match agency, including their Chicago, Connecticut, and Toronto offices. EDGE - which stands for Empowering Diversity, Growth, and Equality in leadership - will provide an ongoing program for Match employees that develops leaders, fosters a spirit of collaboration and maximizes the power of diverse voices. Participants will engage in trainings, networking, forums, speakers, and career development resources, with the goal of cultivating a community that is both educational and empowering. Each month will focus on specific leadership style or avenue, including topics such as "Neuroplasticity & The Leadership Mindset", "Learning Leadership Styles from Outdoor Leadership", and "Women's Real Power At Work." This month, th program will kick off with a workshop with Leeds School of Business Professor Dr. Stefanie Johnson on how to address unconscious bias. In addition, EDGE will collaborate to address policies and develop opportunities to better support a diverse workplace, such as Family Leave policies for men and women.



"We see this as a logical next step in the nationwide conversation around diversity and mutual understanding in the workplace," says Christian Gani, Managing Director of the Match Boulder office. "Match believes in empowering our employees to be great leaders, and to us this is the best way to do that, while also opening up crucial channels of communication." For more information on EDGE and its mission, contact the leader of this initiative, Julie Causa, at 393.447.7363 or [email protected]

About Match Marketing Group

Match Marketing Group is North America's leading consumer engagement agency, driving conversion through creative experiences and precision analytics. Match has been delivering innovative marketing, sales and retail solutions to leading brands for more than a decade. Its client roster includes Fortune 100 companies across all major industry categories including Mars, Pepsi, Adidas, Nestle, Ford (News - Alert), and Progressive. To learn more, visit www.matchmg.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005412/en/

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[March 08, 2019] OFC 2019 Closes Strong with Focus on 800G, 400ZR, Real-World 5G and Next Steps in Network Speed and Efficiency

The global optical communications community assembled in San Diego 3-7 March 2019 for OFC (Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition). This year's event featured the market's prevailing topics in standing-room only business and technical sessions; technology and product demonstrations and announcements from the world's leading companies; plenary talks that explored open networks, communications between self-driving cars, and optical integration for higher data rates; and dynamic presentations on real-world 5G deployments and network build-outs. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005472/en/ "As our world becomes increasingly more connected, the optical communications infrastructure that supports it needs to evolve to be more robust and efficient, and at the same time, cost-effective," said Gabriella Bosco, Politecnico di Torino, Italy, and OFC 2019 General Chair. "The industry gathered at OFC to debate these business challenges and identify potential technical solutions to meet customer demands." Driving Business Solutions This year's OFC convened nearly 15,400 attendees from around the world to celebrate successes, debate new opportunities and push the boundaries of innovation. The show boasted 683 exhibitors on a floor encompassing 189,607 net square feet (500,000 gross square feet). Overall, the OFC exhibit served as a platform for important industry announcements, including developments in coherent DWDM networking, silicon photonics and 400ZR advancements. "OFC is the place to make ajor announcements because the whole industry comes together," stated Yves LeMaitre, Chief Strategy Officer, Lumentum. "Whether you're working in data centers, telecom networks or access networks, all optical technologies for communications are here."



OFC 2019 offered a unique experience for attendees, both showcasing technical research and debuting commercial solutions. For example, several live multivendor interoperability demonstrations took place on the exhibit floor: Coherent Transceiver Interoperability, Ethernet Alliance, OIF and Open ROADM (News - Alert) MSA SDN. Technologies from approximately 40 companies were featured in the demos, including: 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), 25GbE, 50GbE, 100GbE, 400GbE; Open Source (News - Alert) Open ROADM SDN Controller; pluggable CFP2-ACO and CFP2-DCO modules; and Common Electrical I/O (CEI)-112G, FlexE (Flex Ethernet) and 400ZR. "The sessions, panels and demonstrations at OFC impress me every year," said Woo Jin Ho, technology analyst, Bloomberg (News - Alert) Intelligence. "Vendors continue to push the envelope on driving higher transmission rates in smaller form factors. Key emerging trends to look out for the industry and vendors based on the conference include 600G/800G optics and systems and 400ZR for the hyperscale cloud data centers."

Leading Technical Vision Conference content, which included more than 450 peer-reviewed papers, 180 invited and tutorial presentations, 10 workshops, 6 panels and 55 short courses, focused on the latest discoveries. For example, technological breakthroughs in data center connectivity, 5G and IoT. In addition, advanced integrations of optics and electronics will open doors for reaching new data limits. "From solving the open network challenge to advances in modulation formats and the move toward faster optical interface speeds, the discussions at OFC this week explored what's happening now, what will be possible in the near-term, and where we need to head in the long-term," continued Bosco. Moving the Industry Forward Leaders in the field agree that OFC 2020, being held 8-12 March in San Diego, will serve as a springboard for the next round of innovations. "Next year at OFC, we expect to see samples of 400G ZR, with deployment coming later in the year," predicts Benny Mikkelsen, Chief Technology Officer, Acacia Technologies (News - Alert) and conference plenary speaker. "OFC is a great opportunity to get people together to have a fruitful discussion." (Watch a video interview featuring additional insights from Benny Mikkelsen.) About OFC The Optical Fiber Conference and Exhibition (OFC) is the largest global conference and exhibition for optical communications and networking professionals. For more than 40 years, OFC has drawn attendees from all corners of the globe to meet and greet, teach and learn, make connections and move business forward. OFC includes dynamic business programming, an exhibition of more than 700 companies, and high impact peer-reviewed research that, combined, showcase the trends and pulse of the entire optical networking and communications industry. OFC is managed by The Optical Society (OSA) and co-sponsored by OSA, the IEEE (News - Alert) Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc), and the IEEE Photonics Society. OFC 2019 will be held from 3-7 March 2019 at the San Diego Convention Center, California, USA. Follow @OFCConference, learn more at OFC Community LinkedIn, and watch highlights on OFC YouTube. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005472/en/

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[March 08, 2019] Morgan Stanley Asia-Pacific Fund, Inc. Announces Approval of Reorganization

Morgan Stanley Asia-Pacific Fund, Inc. (NYSE: APF) (the "Fund") is pleased to announce that its stockholders, at the Fund's Special Meeting of Stockholders held on March 8, 2019, approved the reorganization (the "Reorganization") of the Fund into the Emerging Markets Portfolio ("MSIF Emerging Markets"). MSIF Emerging Markets is a diversified series of Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund, Inc., an open-end management investment company advised by the Fund's investment adviser. In connection with the Reorganization, stockholders of the Fund will receive newly issued Class I shares of MSIF Emerging Markets with a value equal to the aggregate net asset value of their common shares of the Fund on the valuation date, which is expected to be the close of business of the New York Stock Exchange on or about April 5, 2019. The transaction is currently expected to close on or about April 8, 2019, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions. Stockholders of the Fund will continue to be able to trade their common shares of the Fund on the New York Stock Exchange until the close of business on or about April 5, 2019. Subsequently, the Fund will cease trading on the New York Stock Exchange and will be dissolved. Stockholders in Japan holding shares of the Fund through the Japan Securities Depositary Center, Incorporated will receive a cash payment equal to the aggregate net asset value of their common shares of the Fund, rather than shares of MSIF Emerging Markts, on the valuation date, which is expected to be the close of business of the New York Stock Exchange on or about April 5, 2019. The transaction is currently expected to close on or about April 8, 2019, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions. Stockholders of the Fund will continue to be able to trade their common shares of the Fund on the Tokyo Stock Exchange until April 5, 2019. In respect of the Fund, the final trade day on and the delisting date from the Tokyo Stock Exchange are scheduled for April 5, 2019 and April 6, 2019, respectively.



Morgan Stanley Investment Management, together with its investment advisory affiliates, has more than 636 investment professionals around the world and $463 billion in assets under management or supervision as of December 31, 2018. Morgan Stanley Investment Management strives to provide outstanding long-term investment performance, service and a comprehensive suite of investment management solutions to a diverse client base, which includes governments, institutions, corporations and individuals worldwide. For further information about Morgan Stanley Investment Management, please visit www.morganstanley.com/im. About Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is a leading global financial services firm providing investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in more than 41 countries, the Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For more information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of any such state. Investing involves risk and it is possible to lose money on any investment in the Fund. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190308005438/en/

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Samsungs new Galaxy S10, S10 Plus and S10e are wonderfully advanced smartphones brimming with the latest and greatest in mobile technology, from in-display fingerprint sensors to multiple cameras working in unison to deliver the best possible photos.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

However, these devices pack so much inside that setting up and personalizing your Galaxy S10 can be an intimidating process  especially if you dont know where the pertinent settings can be found. Weve compiled a list of 10 key features youll want to change on Samsungs latest handsets, alongside in-depth directions and screenshots to help you find them as quickly as possible.

Setup fingerprint sensor  and add more fingerprints



Chances are youll enroll in fingerprint unlocking when setting up your shiny new Galaxy S10 for the first time. But its always helpful to have a few more prints saved, so you can get into your phone using another hand or finger.

If you just added one finger print at setup, you can go to Biometrics and security within Settings, and tap Fingerprints. After inputting your passcode, youll be walked through the fingerprint enrollment process again. And once youre done, youll be able to rename or delete the prints you provide, so youll always know what finger theyre attached to.

MORE: How to Set Up the Galaxy S10s Ultrasonic Fingerprint Reader

Remap Bixby key

Bixby critics, rejoice  Samsung is finally allowing users to remap the Bixby key within the app itself, without forcing users to turn to shady third-party apps and dangerous rooting procedures. Starting with the new Android Pie-based OneUI interface on all the S10 models (as well as the Galaxy S9 and Note 9 before them), you can head to the Bixby Voice screen to redirect the button to the app or command of their choosing.

Simply press the Bixby key to call up Bixby Voice, then tap the three vertical dots on the screen that follows. Go to Settings, then scroll down to the Bixby key item.

As it stands, Samsung is only allowing users to remap the single- or double-press functions individually. Whichever trigger you dont customize must remain a Bixby shortcut, and sorry folks  Samsung has blacklisted Google Assistant from the list of supported apps and commands. However, you can still redirect the Bixby key to the Google app, so at least theres that.

Turn on Full Screen Gestures

Samsung isnt really advertising it much, but the S10 series brings the option of gesture controls to Samsungs flagship smartphones for the very first time. However, the phones dont ship with gestures as the default navigation scheme, which means youll have to head into your devices Settings menu to turn them on.

Once youre inside Settings, head over to the Display sub-menu, then tap Navigation Bar. Youll see multiple options that allow you to reorder the back, home and recent apps buttons or replace them entirely with three swipe-up gestures that trigger the same actions.

If you do decide to use gestures, just remember youll have to swipe up from the center and hold to launch Google Assistant.

Turn on Face Recognition

Samsung has replaced the Intelligent Scan authentication system introduced in the Galaxy S9 with something thats simply called Face Recognition. Its not much more sophisticated than Intelligent Scan, as it still relies on a 2D image rather than the depth-mapped, 3D-based Face ID authentication found in the latest iPhones. But it still gives you a swift and convenient way to unlock your Galaxy S10 without having to press anything.

To use it, head over to the Settings app, then the Biometrics and security page. Face recognition is the top option; once you tap it, youll have to input your password or PIN code before starting the enrollment process. After youve completed it, youll be able to modify some settings to tailor Face recognition to your preference.

If youre concerned about thieves spoofing your mug with photos, we recommend toggling the Faster recognition setting off, which lengthens the unlocking process by a bit but makes the feature much more secure.

Turn on Night Mode

Night mode has become an increasingly popular feature across all kinds of devices, and with AMOLED-powered devices like the Galaxy S10 its especially important, because black or dark images consume less energy than white or bright ones. And OneUI doubles down on this trend with a system-wide Night mode that changes everything from the color of all the phones stock apps to its on-screen keyboard.

To activate it, go to the Settings app, then Display and then Night mode. You can either leave your phone on Night mode all the time, or set it to a schedule, where it will change from dark to light automatically once the sun goes down in your region.

Turn off skin tone smoothing

Skin tone smoothing  or beautification filters  are one of those things you either love or hate. However, were not big fans of the overly bright and smoothed-out portraits they provide. Samsungs approach with OneUI on the Galaxy S10 turns these features on by default, but doesnt make that especially clear within the camera interface.

Turning skin tone smoothing off is actually quite easy, once you know where to look. However, youll have to do it independently for different camera modes. Whether youre taking a standard photo or capturing a Live Focus image, you can tap the magic wand icon at the top right of the Camera app to bring up the sliders that control smoothing to modify the strength of the effect.

Activate Wireless PowerShare

Wireless PowerShare, one of the headline features available in all Galaxy S10 variants, allows you to use the phones battery to charge other devices wirelessly over Qi induction. And using the feature really couldnt be any simpler: just pull down the notification bar to reveal a list of quick toggles, and tap the one labeled Wireless PowerShare to turn it on.

A message explaining how to use PowerShare will appear on the screen as long as that feature is in use. At this point, you can flip the device over and place something on its backside to start the flow of power.

When you want to turn PowerShare off, simply tap Cancel near the bottom of the screen.

Turn off Secure Wi-Fi notifications

Samsungs OneUI is the most streamlined software experience the company ever baked into its smartphones, though the new interface does come with its fair share of annoyances. One of them is the incessant Secure Wi-Fi notifications users are inundated with after connecting to certain networks, that cannot be individually dismissed.

The purpose of these notifications is to get you to turn on Samsungs Secure Wi-Fi feature, which routes your traffic through a VPN to conceal your data on suspect networks. Thats all well and good, but users only get a free 250MB of VPN access, and everything beyond that must be paid for  making those notifications extra annoying. And turning them off is almost just as frustrating a process.

To do it, head over to Connections inside your devices Settings, then Wi-Fi, then the Advanced sub menu accessible from the top of the screen. Tap on Secure Wi-Fi, and then tap the three vertical dots in the top right to manage the features settings. From this screen you can stop Secure Wi-Fi from blowing up your alerts all the time, returning some peace and order to your notifications.

Choose a screen mode

Samsungs displays may be the best in the business, but everyone has different expectations on how their smartphones screen should look. To that end, the Galaxy S10 offers two basic color profile options: a default Natural look, and an optional Vivid setting that boosts saturation similarly to the Dynamic profile the Galaxy S9 launched with.

To change the intensity of your displays colors, go to the Settings app and the Display submenu. Screen mode will appear about halfway down the page, and from this menu youre also able to get really granular about the tuning, with sliders to adjust white balance and red, green and blue elements individually.

Schedule blue light filter

Many users prefer blue light filters to lessen eye strain when interacting with their phones. So like many other devices, the Galaxy S10 offers that option as well.

Note that Samsung says the Dynamic AMOLED technology underpinning its latest handsets reduces the emittance of blue light by more than 40 percent, without significantly affecting display quality and color balancing.

You can turn the phones built-in blue light filter on indefinitely, or schedule it to automatically activate at preset times of the day, like before going to bed. To do that, simply head over to the Settings app and Display submenu, then tap on the blue light filter item. A slider allows you to adjust the strength of the filter to your choosing.

Looking for more Galaxy S10 tips and advice? Visit our Galaxy S10 hub page for even more help with getting the most out of your smartphone.



More Galaxy S10 Coverage
The Samsung Galaxy S20 offers a smooth 120Hz display, improved cameras and 5G in a fairly compact design, but the battery life could be better.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 offers a smooth 120Hz display, improved cameras and 5G in a fairly compact design, but the battery life could be better.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 is the Android flagship for people who actually like smaller phones. Thanks to its 6.2-inch display, the S20 is easy to use with one hand, and yet this compact device packs quite a punch. However, the price is not small at $999.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Specs OS: Android 10

Screen size: 6.2 inches

Screen resolution: QHD+ (563 ppi)

Refresh rate: 120Hz

Processor: Snapdragon 865

RAM: 12GB

Storage: 128GB + microSD

Battery: 4,000 mAh

Battery life: 9 hours 31 mins

Rear cameras: 12MP wide, 12MP ultra-wide, 64MP telephoto

Video: Up to 8K resolution at 24 fps

Front cameras: 10MP

Size: 5.9 x 3 x 0.31 inches

Weight: 5.7 ounces

Just like its bigger and even pricier brothers, the Galaxy S20 gives you a fluid 120Hz display, powerful new camera system with improved zoom and 5G speeds. However, the battery life isn't the best.

If you want a bigger 6.7-inch screen, check out our Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus review; it's our favorite of the three new Galaxy S20 phones. And if you want a more powerful 10x lossless zoom and monster 6.9-inch screen, check out our Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra review.

Some may prefer the OnePlus 8 Pro, which offers a bigger display than the Galaxy S20 and longer battery life for $899. But as you'll see in our full Galaxy S20 review, we really this phone because of what Samsung packed into such a sleek package.

(Image credit: Future)

The Samsung Galaxy S20 had a release date of March 6, 2020. The Galaxy S20 cost $999 when it debuted; it comes with 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage standard. You cant opt for a model with more RAM or storage but you can add up to 1TB of storage via the phones microSD card slot.

The Galaxy S20 remains available through all major carriers, including a model that supports Verizon's mmWave 5G network.

The S20 was a pretty expensive flagship, even at the time it launched, as you can see in this LG Velvet vs. Samsung Galaxy S20 face-off that illustrates how well some midrange phones compared to Samsung's then-flagship. Samsung seems to have gotten the message  the Galaxy S21 that came out this year costs $799, which is $200 less than the S20. (The S20's price has fallen since then.)

Anyone interested in snapping up one of Samsung's older flagships for the least expense possible should have a look at the best Galaxy S20 deals out there before pulling the trigger.

Samsung Galaxy S20 review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

The Samsung Galaxy S20 doesnt look radically different from the Galaxy S10, but there are some welcome refinements. The cutout for the front camera is smaller this time around, and its placed in the top center of the display instead of on the right side, so its less of a distraction. In addition, the display has less of a curve to it, which I appreciate because theres less of a chance of accidental touches when youre just shifting the phone in your hands.

I feel like its not a huge deal at this stage, but its definitely notable that the Samsung Galaxy S20 does not include a headphone jack. This is the first Galaxy S flagship phone missing this feature, so youll probably want check out our best wireless earbuds and best wireless headphones recommendations. If you want to keep it in the brand family, check out the new Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus, which promise 11 hours of battery life.

(Image credit: Future)

The Samsung Galaxy S20s color options are not exciting, but at least there's some variety. In the U.S you'll find three Galaxy S20 colors in Cosmic Gray, Cloud Blue and Cloud Pink. Im partial to the lighter Cloud Blue, just because it looks and feels new. I would have liked to see something more captivating, like the Aura Glow finish that we saw in our Samsung Galaxy Note 10 review .

Samsung Galaxy S20 review: Cameras

(Image credit: Future)

Samsung had fallen behind Apple and Google in photo quality, but the Galaxy S20 looks to beat the competition with bigger sensors, a bigger zoom and new features that make it easier to shoot and share.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 has a triple rear camera that starts with a 12-MP wide sensor thats 1.8 microns. The telephoto lens uses a 64MP sensor thats 0.8 microns and the 12MP ultra-wide camera uses a 1.4-micron sensor.

Why am I rattling off all these numbers? Well, the larger the sensor, the more light it lets in, which should result in brighter and sharper images. By comparison, the Galaxy S10s wide-angle, telephoto and ultra-wide cameras were 1.4, 1 and 1 microns, respectively. So at least two of the lenses are significantly larger.

Indoors under normal lighting conditions, the Galaxy S20 captured a more delicious looking shot of these cookies. You can make out the nooks and crannies  and fudge in the dark chocolate cookies  although Samsung had some help from its AI Scene Optimizer mode that automatically recognizes food.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 doesnt have the Galaxy S20 Ultras monster 100x Space Zoom, but it does have a more powerful zoom than the Galaxy S10. The Hybrid Optic Zoom goes up to 3x, which is supposed to be lossless zoom, and the digital zoom goes up to 30x. As you get closer to 30x the camera view gets shaky, but overall this is an improvement on the 2x zoom in the Galaxy S10.

In our first zoom test of the Chrysler building from a few blocks away, the Galaxy S20, captured a darker but crisper image than the iPhone 11 Pro Max. There's a bit more noise in the iPhone's shot.

I noticed a more dramatic difference when we set the zoom on both phones to 10x, which is digital zoom. You can make out more detail in the building and the windows in the Galaxy S20's photo. With the iPhone 11 Pro Max, you can tell that it's a zoom photo, but with the Samsung phone you're just closer to the subject.

The Samsung Galaxy S20's cameras didn't shine in all situations. With this flower close-up I'd give the edge to the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which shows more gradations of color and delivers and overall brighter image. However, the S20's photo provides more detail in the center of the flower.

I also give the edge to the iPhone 11 Pro Max over the Samsung Galaxy S20 in this portrait. My face is brighter and pops more in the S20's pic, but the iPhone does a better job rendering the lines in my shirt and the texture in my jacket, details that get lost in the S20's photo.

If you look closely, the Galaxy S20 also has trouble with the light behind my head in Live Focus mode, as it seems to dig into the sides of my head.

So how about Night mode? The Galaxy S20 did a pretty good job capturing this scene in almost complete darkness. You can make out the gold USS Enterprise in the foreground more clearly than you can in the iPhone 11 Pro Max's photo. However, the overall image is brighter from the iPhone, as it's easier to see the desk, the pedestal for the space ship and objects in the background.

My favorite Samsung Galaxy S20 camera feature is Single Take. When you press the shutter button in this mode, the phone takes a series of photos while also recording 10 seconds of video. The phone then gives you a gallery of results, including an AI Best moment, and ultra-wide shot, a Live Focus (portrait mode) pic, as well as a fast forward video thats great for social and the original video.

Single Take on the Galaxy S20 (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The Galaxy S20 is a beast on the video front, as it can record 8K video at up to 24 frames per second. Youll also be able to cast videos to Samsung 8K QLED TVs -- if you can afford one -- and take 33MP photos from 8K videos you might want to share.

I'll update this Galaxy S20 review with my impressions once we can access an 8K monitor, but I can say the footage looked very crisp on my MacBook Pro's Retina Display. I could easily make out the gradations in bark in the surrounding trees and even fine details in a man's blue hoodie 50 feet away.

The Samsung Galaxy S20s front camera uses a 10MP sensor thats 1.22 microns and a f/2.2 aperture. Thats the same resolution and size as the S10s front camera but that camera had a f/1.9 aperture.

(Image credit: Future)

A selfie I took with the front camera made my face look a little too smooth, an issue we also found with the Galaxy S20 Plus. At least the Galaxy S20 did a fine job capturing the dots in my shirt and my hair.

Samsung Galaxy S20 review: Display

(Image credit: Future)

While a fast processor helps, the refresh rate of the display can make a phone feel smoother in everyday operation, whether youre scrolling through webpages or playing games. The Samsung Galaxy S20s 6.2-inch OLED display has 120Hz refresh rate, which is double the 60Hz rate on the Galaxy S10 and higher than the 90Hz screen on the OnePlus 7T.

Another plus? The Samsung Galaxy S20 sports a new 240Hz touch sensor thats supposed to be more responsive. In our testing, the Galaxy S20's 120Hz mode did feel smoother when using Chrome and the Twitter app.

(Image credit: Future)

When using the phone during our hands-on time, the Galaxy S20 felt pretty fluid, and you can easily toggle between 60Hz and 120Hz in the display settings menu. The bad news is that selecting 120Hz dials the resolution down from quad HD to full HD.

The Galaxy S20 has one of the brightest and most colorful displays we've ever tested. The OLED display registered a very high 857 nits of average brightness, which is even brighter than the beaming 752-nit iPhone 11 Pro.

The S20's panel also hit an impressive 162.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, cimpared to just 83% for the iPhone 11 Pro. The only area where the iPhone edges out this Galaxy is with color accuracy; the S20 turned in a Delta-E score of 0.37 (where 0 is a perfect score), compared to 0.27 to the iPhone 11 Pro.

Samsung Galaxy S20 review: Performance

As the first phone with Qualcomms Snapdragon 865 processor, the Samsung Galaxy S20 should provide speed aplenty, especially since its paired with a robust 12GB of RAM. Samsung is giving you control over how you use this memory, too, as you can assign up to three apps to be stored directly in RAM. The result should be near-instant load times for resource-intensive apps and games.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 comes with 128GB of storage and there isnt a 512GB model as there is with the Galaxy S20 Plus and Galaxy S20 Ultra. Fortunately, you can add up to 1 TB of storage via the microSD card slot.

The Galaxy S20 performed very well in various benchmarks, including Geekbench 5, which measures overall performance. The S20 hit 3,147 on the multi-core portion of the test, which is the best score we've every seen on an Android phone. The iPhone 11 Pro's A13 Bionic processor scored an even higher 3,509, so Apple maintains its lead for now.

On the GFXBench graphics test (Aztec Ruins Vulkan test off-screen), the Galaxy S20 reached 1,319 frames (21 frames per second), which beats the OnePlus 7T (1,169). The iPhone 11 Pro notched a higher 2,174 frames or 33.8 fps.

To test the Galaxy S20's real-world performance, we transcoded a 4K video to 1080p after applying an effect and transition in Adobe Rush. The Galaxy S20 took 1 minute and 15 seconds, which is an improvement on the Galaxy Note 10's time of 1:34. The iPhone 11 Pro needed only 46 seconds.

Samsung Galaxy S20 review: 5G

The Samsung Galaxy S20 supports 5G networks, so you should be able to enjoy faster speeds for surfing the web and downloading content on the go. However, at launch, the S20 wasn't available on Verizons 5G network . That's because, unlike the larger S20 Plus and Ultra variants, the 6.2-inch S20 normally lacks millimeter-wave connectivity, and Verizon's 5G infrastructure is exclusively millimeter wave, for the time being.

(Image credit: Future)

Fortunately, Verizon and Samsung are finally addressing that oversight. On June 4, a special edition of the S20 will arrive on Big Red with millimeter-wave support intact, for the same $999 price. It will also run on Verizon's long-range, low-band network, when that goes live later in 2020.

In my initial Galaxy S20 speed tests over T-Mobile's network, I saw very good performance in some locations and poor performance in other spots. For example, in central New Jersey the Galaxy S20 hit downloads as high as 183 Mbps, but in New York City the phone notched as low as 5.2 Mbps with a 5G icon showing.

Samsung Galaxy S20 review: Battery life and charging

(Image credit: Future)

Given its 5G connectivity and 120Hz display, the Samsung Galaxy S20 will need a beefy battery to get you through the day. And Samsung has answered the call with a 4,000 mAh battery in this phone. The Galaxy S10 had a 3,400 mAh battery, so this is a fairly big jump.

Unfortunately, the Galaxy S20 endured an average of just 9 hours and 31 minutes while set to the 60Hz mode across two sessions of Tom's Guide's custom battery test, where devices repeatedly load web pages over T-Mobile's network until they run out of battery.

The phones with the best battery life last 11 to 12 hours. The Galaxy S20 Plus lasted a decent 10 hours and 31 minutes and the the Galaxy S20 Ultra hit an epic 12:03.

How does the regular S20 compare to similarly-priced flagships? The iPhone 11 Pro lasted 10 hours and 24 minutes on the same test, and last year's Galaxy S10 managed 10 hours and 19 minutes. The iPhone 11, which costs $300 less than the Galaxy S20, fared even better than both, at 11 hours and 16 minutes.

After the S20 completed those tests, we went back and ran two more, now with the device's refresh rate set to 120Hz. This time, the phone only averaged 8 hours and 4 minutes of runtime  nearly an hour and a half less than it managed when operating at 60Hz.

Power users or those especially concerned about their device lasting a day or more on a charge will want to have a look at the Galaxy S20 Plus or Galaxy S20 Ultra instead. But with those devices demanding a $200 and $400 premium over the standard S20, respectively, that peace of mind won't come cheap.

The Galaxy S20 comes with a 25-watt charging adapter in box that can take the device from empty to 53 percent in a half hour. It also supports 15-watt wireless charging with compatible stands.

Samsung Galaxy S20 review: Software

The Samsung Galaxy S20 comes with Samsungs new One UI 2 software, which streamlines the interface to make it easier to jump into your favorite apps, change settings and more. This rides on top of Android 10, which includes great new features like Smart Reply, a dark mode and better privacy controls.

Samsung is also trying to build better experiences into the Galaxy S20, starting with Google Duo integration. Googles answer to FaceTime, this video chat app is built right into the phone dialer and contacts apps, and you can video chat with up to 8 people. Plus, you can video chat in full HD for the first time.

I conducted a Google Duo video call with my colleague, Adam, and I appreciated that I could start the video call right from the phone app. He said I looked pretty clear coming through his Pixel 4, and his face and voice were both clear on my end after some initial buffering.

Other software features include Music Share for sharing out your Bluetooth connection to your car (so someone else can control the playlist for a while) and Spotify integration with Bixby routines, so the Samsung Galaxy S20 will recommend playlists based on your preference and even the moment of the day.

Galaxy S30/S21: Should you wait?

The Galaxy S30/Galaxy S21 is on the horizon, which should deliver faster performance and a 120Hz display that's dynamic to save battery life. The latter feature is already available on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. The next Galaxy S phone may also feature a camera under the display to deliver a true full-screen experience. But the Galaxy S21 likely won't launch until February at the earliest.

Samsung Galaxy S20 review: Verdict

Galaxy S20 (left) and Galaxy S20 Plus (right) (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

At $999, the Samsung Galaxy S20 isnt cheap, but it is the most affordable Galaxy S20 phone. Its also the most compact phone in Samsungs flagship lineup, making it the best choice for those looking for an Android device that wont bulge out of their pockets or require two hands to operate. The star of the show is the new camera, which impresses with new features like Single Take and a more powerful zoom.

The biggest reason not to get the Galaxy S20 is its battery life. It's runtime is about an hour behind the iPhone 11 Pro, and that delta increases nearly 2.5 hours with the S20's 120Hz display mode enabled.

Overall, our top pick among Samsung's new Android phones is the Galaxy S20 Plus, because it offers a larger display and longer endurance. But for that you'll have to step up to $1,199. If you prefer a smaller device, you should be very pleased with the regular Galaxy S20.
You like the sound of saving money and better control over your home's heating system? Then investing in smart heating is a great way to do this, and all it takes is the installation of a new thermostat in your house and an app on your phone to control it. There are a few brands to look at, such as Google-owned Nest Learning Thermostat, but this articles going to focus on the offerings from UK-based brand Hive.

While it began in the UK, Hive has now crossed the Atlantic and is available to US customers. You can expect a full review of the system very soon, so make sure to check back for when it's ready.

Hive is a sub-brand of British Gas owner Centrica, through which the energy provider has been working on smart home technology including cameras, sensors and smart plugs. But were here to learn about its smart thermostat and other linked technology, so lets dive in.

Why should I get a Hive thermostat?

(Image credit: Hive)

Hive claims that you can save up to 130 a year on your heating bill by using their kit, so thats a strong motivator right off the bat.

Also, if you want to add a whole bunch of extra functions to your central heating beyond just turning the dial to where you want it and having a simple repeating 24-hour schedule, then this will expand your options significantly.

How does it work?

(Image credit: Hive)

Hive Heating tells your boiler to heat up your hot water and your home in general. So far, no different to a normal thermostat. But there's a lot more to it.

(Image credit: Hive)

The thermostat comes with a Hive Receiver, which attaches to your boilers circuits and relays the thermostats instructions to it, and the boilers temperature back to the thermostat.

(Image credit: Hive)

The Hive Hub is the additional product youll need if you want to make the most of the advanced features of the heating, or combine the thermostat with any other Hive product you want to buy or already own. This is what allows you to use internet/WiFi controls rather than just relying on the dials and buttons on the thermostat itself, so make sure this is included in any bundle you buy if youre after app controls.

If you pay extra, you can add Multizone to your plan, which lets you designate up to three areas in your home with independently functioning thermostats, which can have their own scheduled times for heating. You will need a zoned heating system already installed however, so if youre interested in this feature, check the system in your home's compatible first.

How do I install it?

Hive itself recommends hiring one of its engineers to come and sort out installation for you, since the installation involves fiddling with wires from your boiler in order to attach them to the Hive receiver. You could reasonably do it yourself if you have experience with electronics though, and the companys helpfully produced a support page with a downloadable PDF guide to help you do it.

Do I need a Hive Hub?

For basic functionality, you dont. Provided you set up the thermostat in stand-alone mode when its installed, you can use it like a normal thermostat, except it looks better, and it displays slightly more information than before.

(Image credit: Hive)

If you want to use Hive Active Heating, which is where all the fancy smart features are found, then you will need a hub in order to interface between the thermostat and the Hive app.



The standard Hive Hub, which needs plugging into your broadband router with an ethernet cable, will do if all you have is heating, but the newer Hub 360 model has additional functions, such as sending you notifications if it hears alarms or breaking glass, internal memory so it can keep functions going if your WiFi drops out, and a wireless internet connection, letting you put it anywhere in the house. Consider whether you want to stop at just smart heating, or if you want to rig your house with some other smart home technology, and then choose accordingly.

A Hub also lets you control any other Hive products you might have in your house, and combine different products functions together in Hive Actions.

What are Hive actions?

(Image credit: Hive)

Using a Hive hub and other Hive products, you can change settings simultaneously with a single action using the Hive app to coordinate them. This could be just pressing one of the preset buttons, like have everything switch off when you (carrying your smart device with the app on) leave the house, and turn back on again when you return. Or you can cause one thing to trigger another, like using one of Hives motion sensors to switch heating off and on as it detects the front door moving. Theres more possibilities too if you are willing to dive into the options further too.



MORE: Smarter Home Guide: What You Need to Know (and Buy)

How do I control it?

Hive Heating can work like a normal thermostat - just go up to the dial on your wall or on its stand and turn it to the desired temperature. You can also go into the settings by pushing the relevant button and programme it from there for future operation.

Provided youve got a Hive Hub of either variety installed, and you have an internet connection on your device of choice, you can use the app from both inside and outside the house.

Its through the hub that you can also give Hive voice controls with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. For Alexa, youll need to download the specific Hive skill in order to use it, and log in with your Hive account. Similarly with Assistant, youll have to search for the Hive action before logging in and gaining access to voice commands which let you turn objects like the Hive thermostat on or off, or to certain levels.

On a slightly different note, you can use the IFTTT service to give you more specific controls, but it requires a little extra work. Once you sign up with IFTTT on its website, look for your Hive product and, since were using a thermostat here, select the Active Heating option. From there, you can set up all sorts of conditional statements in the form of if this, then that from the library of options online.

If you only want access to basic functions, but all from your wrist, there is also a pared-down app available on Apple Watch, which can switch lights and plugs on or off, and give a boost to your heating or hot water.

What smart functions does it have?

This is where you will start to have fun with your new thermostat - a phrase youd think would be ridiculous before now.

You get auto-frost protection, which when enabled, keeps your pipes at a minimum temperature of 7C to prevent cold-induced damage.

If you turn on the geolocation settings, you can even have the app control your heating just based on your proximity to your home, turning it off as you leave a small area around your house, and then on as you enter a larger radius to make sure its already pre-heated for when you get home. Alternatively, it can just send you reminders to switch the heating off yourself if you havent got the inclination or the kit to make it happen automatically.

(Image credit: Hive)

On a less technical note, you can make your Hive thermostat a more attractive piece of kit than your average dial. When you buy a Hive thermostat from Hives website, you can customise the outer frame with 12 different Dulux paint colours, which will hopefully let you get a good match for any wall you want to put it on, rather than just accepting it will stick out like a normal thermostat tends to do. Also, you can buy a stand to put it on, so you can move it around your house freely like other smart thermostats on the market.

How do I buy it?

(Image credit: Hive)

You can buy Hive heating from stockists like Currys-PC World, John Lewis and Argos in the UK, as well as directly from their website or via Amazon, which are the only options currently available in the US. To make things easy, Hive has put together two different heating bundles, to make sure you dont accidentally forget something.

The Active Heating without Hive Hub bundle gives you what you need to use the thermostat in stand-alone mode, that being the thermostat and a receiver.

The Active Heating bundle gives you a thermostat and receiver, plus a basic Hive Hub, allowing the use of the advanced features on the app. It currently also comes with a voucher for a free Amazon Echo Dot , which gives you voice control over your Hive products plus a bunch of other handy features thanks to the Alexa digital assistant.

When buying either, you have the option to buy it with installation, or to sort out the connections yourself for a discount. This is also the point where you can add a coloured frame, a stand, or additional thermostats for Multizone use, as extras before you finally click purchase.

In the case of the Active Heating bundle, you also have the option to upgrade to the Hive Hub 360, which has additional functions described above.

What are Hive Plans?

Hive Plans feature the same items as bundles, but let you pay for them month-by-month over 12 months, useful if you cant necessarily afford to pay the price all at once. The ones well mention here are the Hive Heating plan and the Warm Welcome Home plan, but there are others including other products from Hive's range, like smart lighting and camera monitoring.

Either of the two Active Heating bundles can be purchased this way, coming with an Active Heating thermostat and a Hive Receiver by default, and a Hive Hub, or the Hub 360, for additional money per month.

The Warm Welcome Home pack offers the same stuff, but then adds on two dimmable light bulbs, a smart plug, a motion detector, and a second-generation Amazon Echo Dot, which gives you all sorts of digital assistant and smart home goodies as well as the more immediate benefit of being able to use Hive voice commands (see above).

What other Hive products are there?

(Image credit: Hive)

As well as the hubs and thermostats weve been looking at, Hive also sells the Hive Camera, or the more advanced Hive View indoor and outdoor security cameras. Then theres its range of sensors, which fit on doors, windows and walls and detect motion, either for security or to trigger other Hive products to activate.

It also sells smart lights, either as normal dimmable bulbs or colour-changing ones; smart plugs which can be turned on and off remotely or with voice controls, a water leak detector, as well as a signal booster for houses with poor WiFi connection. You can look at their entire collection on their Products page.
KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - At a meeting on Thursday evening, Hickman Mills voted to close two schools. The decision was made on a 6-1 vote during an HMC-1 Board of Education special meeting called "Shaping Our Future." The Johnson and Symington elementary schools are being closed as part of a financial plan.
Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), a member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, set off a vigorous debate last week when he dared to raise the question of a federal appeals-court nominee's legal philosophy on the right to life. Though considered by some to be controversial or improper, Hawley's inquiry was measured, thoughtful, and needed.
IS KANSAS CITY VIOLENCE GOING TO GET WORSE AS SPRING ARRIVES?!?!

Kansas City Surrender Legislation

KC legislator sponsors 'hands up' bill in Missouri KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City-area representative wants to make it illegal for police to shoot suspects who are "surrendering." Missouri Rep. Brandon Ellington (D - 22nd District) filled HB 1086 this week. Ellington said a suspect who has put his hands up should be considered to be surrendering and therefore not be shot by police.

Nasty Caretaker Charges

Former Lakemary Center employee accused of sexual battery OLATHE, KS (KCTV) -- A former employee at the Lakemary Center has been charged with aggravated sexual battery of a person with a mental deficiency stemming from an incident that happened while he was employed at the facility. Casey McGregor, 49, remains in the Johnson County Detention Center on $50,000 bond.

JoCo Mobile Phone Hysteria

Olathe police attempt to ID man who tried to take pictures of girl in store OLATHE, KS (KCTV) - The Olathe police are trying to identify someone who allegedly tried to take unwanted pictures of a girl inside Ulta Beauty. The incident happened on March 2 at about 3:18 p.m. at the store in the 14600 block of West 119th St.

Golden Ghetto Gunfight Postscript

Olathe man fought with victim before shooting her, records say | The Kansas City Star A man charged with attempted murder, Landon Smith, allegedly demanded money and got in a fight with the victim before shots were fired near an Olathe shopping center last month, according to court records.

School Shooter Redux

Police had previously been to home where officer-involved shooting happened FAIRWAY, KS (KCTV) - KCTV5 News has been digging into the background of a suspect who got into a shootout with Fairway police last Friday and we have learned more about why he is not a stranger to law enforcement. On Friday, March 1, Dylan Ruffin was in a shootout with police from the front porch of his Fairway home.

KCPD Chaplain Pleads His Case

KCPD chaplain under investigation for abuse allegations tells FOX4 he hopes to clear his name KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Members of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests gathered outside the Kansas City Police Department downtown on Thursday morning to protest against a KCPD chaplain. Protesters alleged the chaplain sexually abused young girls at a church where he was a pastor.

Courthouse Murder Aftermath

Man found guilty of first-degree murder JACKSON COUNTY, MO (KCTV) - On Thursday, a jury convicted a man in connection with a fatal shooting that happened in 2017. Patrick Powell, 30, was convicted of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. He will be sentenced on May 10. The shooting happened on November 11, 2017 in the 4600 block of Tracy Ave.

Grandpa Goes Wild Behind The Wheel

Olathe man, 93, accused of hitting Sherwin-Williams employee with his car OLATHE, Kan. -- An Olathe man is accused of hitting a Sherwin-Williams employee with his car after he became upset that shipping pallets were in his way while he was trying to make a donation at a Salvation Army. Benedetto Mammina, 93, is charged with one count of aggravated battery in Johnson County.

Gun Play Crackdown After Homicide

Independence man sentenced for hiding gun used in murder JACKSON COUNTY, MO (KCTV) - On Thursday, a Jackson County jury sentenced an Independence man to prison after they found him guilty of tampering with evidence connected to a 2018 Independence homicide. Christopher W. Hollister was sentenced to two years on his conviction.

More Police Clean Up Meth Town

New Independence Street Crimes Unit already making an impact INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - In Independence, Missouri, violent crime has several neighborhoods on edge. So much so, the department is trying something new that's worked for others across the country. Detective Luis Virgil explains, "It's new to us and we're gonna make it thrive." Virgil is tasked with making a dent in criminal activity.

Have You Seen JoCo Suspect Car???

Overland Park police trying to ID vehicle involved in hit-and-run OVERLAND PARK, KS (KCTV) - The Overland Park police are asking for the public's help identifying a vehicle involved in a hit-and-run. The injury accident happened on March 5 just after 4 p.m. on northbound Quivira at W. 112th Terrace. The suspect vehicle is a small, white SUV that's similar to a Toyota Highlander.

Naming The KCMO Dead

Noella Bartly, 18, of Kansas City killed in triple shooting | The Kansas City Star Police identified 18-year-old Noella Bartley of Kansas City as the person killed in triple shooting Monday near 51st Street and Prospect Avenue.

Spy Cam Protection?!?!

Ring floodlight thwarts thieves targeting house for third time KANSAS CITY, KS (KCTV) -- Committing a crime isn't a smart move and thankfully many thieves are often less than brilliant. Here's how the suspects in a KCK break-in foiled their own criminal plans. After thieves targeted the house twice, the homeowner stepped up his security and added an extra set of eyes.

The temperatures are starting to rise as Spring approaches and Kansas City recovers from one of the coldest and deadliest Winter this town has seen in more than a decade . . .And so we ask . . .Typically, a tough Winter offers a respite from local violence at least from a statistical standpoint. However, this year rampant gunfire among teens, gangs and in tense domestic situations temporarily spiked the local murder count. Thankfully the numbers have evened out a bit despite the fact that the current level of homicide and killing disprove talk about "progress" in the local crime fight.Accordingly . . .Check this round-up of recent crime links and tell us if you think the situation will get better or worse as elections approach . . .Developing . . .
At a time where automakers are feeding their cars with supplements to give them more power and higher top speeds, there is this Swedish angel who cares about peoples safety instead of competing in the rat-race to see who builds a faster car. Volvo recently announced that it will be limiting the top speed on all of its models to 112 mph from the 2021 model year. Will this affect Volvos sales?

It sure will have polarizing opinions, but its good to see Volvo sticking to its core beliefs and principles LISTEN 04:48

This Is Just The Beginning Of The Safety Revolution

Volvo is implementing this new policy keeping the Vision 2020 in mind, wherein the automaker is aiming to reduce the number of people that die or are seriously injured in road traffic accidents to zero.

Volvo is synonymous with safety and this announcement further cements that trust. For the uninitiated, Volvo has been the brain behind many safety features used in cars today, the most notable one being the three-point seat belt that the Swedish automaker invented back in 1959. Not just this, Volvo is also exploring to work towards a technology that could limit the speeds of Volvo vehicles around schools and hospitals through a combination of speed control and geo-fencing. Volvo notes that the other two problems are intoxication and distraction. The company expects to present its plans for tackling these issues at a special safety event in Sweden on March 20th.

Customers Can Choose Polestar If They Yearn For Scandinavian Power

Although it may seem like a deal-breaker on the onset, Volvo cars have never been known to attract people with adrenaline rush.

Speedsters tend to look at other brands if they are in the market for fast cars. So, Volvo could actually end up benefiting from this announcement. It will surely appeal to rich parents who want their teenage kids to drive sedately. With that said, the policy does not apply to the Polestar, Volvos electric sub-brand.

Germans Sure Are Disciplinarians

Volvo is not the first company to implement this in its cars. The three Germans - Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz - have signed a gentlemen's agreement when they have installed speed governers in their high-performance models that limits the speed to 155 mph.

This was implemented to reduce the number of fatalities on the Autobahn. However, Germany is planning to put a restriction on the Autobahn to reduce the damages to the environment. Policymakers have drafted a proposal to put a speed limit of 80 mph. But this is just in Germany, which has been the most stringent when it comes to emission norms.

Its The Need Of The Hour

Limiting the top speed of vehicles will surely appeal to some safety advocates who have been constantly talking about rising traffic fatalities. A new report by the Governors Highway Safety Association determined that about 6,227 pedestrians were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2018  a four-percent increase over 2017 and the highest mortality rate since 1990. In fact, the rise in the sales of SUVs has resulted in a higher number of pedestrian deaths. The bulky vehicles, which have large bodies and higher carriages are disastrous for the pedestrians. The high ground clearance adds to the horror as the victims are more likely to get trapped underneath a speeding SUV instead of pushed onto the hood or bounced off to the side.

What They Had To Say

Hakan Samuelsson, President and Chief Executive, Volvo Cars, said, "Volvo is a leader in safety: we always have been and we always will be. Because of our research, we know where the problem areas are when it comes to ending serious injuries and fatalities in our cars. And while a speed limitation is not a cure-all, its worth doing if we can even save one life. We want to start a conversation about whether car makers have the right or maybe even an obligation to install technology in cars that change their drivers behavior, to tackle things like speeding, intoxication or distraction. We dont have a firm answer to this question, but believe we should take leadership in the discussion and be a pioneer."

Our Take

I believe it's a fantastic move by Volvo. The company came up with the Vision 2020 goal many years back, and to be honest, it was still far from accomplishing it.

This policy will surely bring Volvo closer to achieving that goal and creating a safer environment. Only time will tell whether or not this will have an adverse effect on the sales. But I, for one, think this will help Volvo in the long run as this policy sets it apart from the competitors, who try to make their cars as fast as possible. What are your thoughts on this? Share them with us in the comments section below.

Momentum R-Design Inscription T5 FWD $35,800 $41,900 $4

2,900 T6 AWD $40,300 $45,400 $47,400 T8 Twin Engine Plug-In Hybrid eAWD Not Available $54,400 $55,400 Destination Charge $995 $995 $995

Further reading

Read our full review on the 2019 Volvo V60.

Read our full review on the 2017 Volvo S60.
Introduction

The objective of the February 2019 meeting was twofold: (i) to take stock of the current market situation; (ii) discuss progress on initiatives aimed at addressing the global trade finance gap, namely trade finance facilitation, capacity-building, and a dialogue with institutions part of the Financial Stability Boards (FSB) on compliance issues.

In his opening remarks delivered on behalf of the Director-General, the Deputy Director-General said that trade flows had been sustained by relatively healthy economic activity in the worlds major economies, although the last two months of 2018 had been weak. In the past decade, the share of intra-developing countries trade has increased from one quarter to one third of global trade flows. This means that a bigger share of the trade finance market supported transactions in developing countries and between developing countries. Trade finance gaps remained prominent  some US$1.5 trillion annually. Gaps can be explained by low levels of financial inclusion, lack of human capacity and high perceptions of risk, including that of regulatory risk.

In the past year, the Director-General of the WTO, Roberto Azevedo, had reflected with WTO Members and heads of partner institutions on progress made since he had launched in 2016 the Trade Finance and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) initiative. The Director-Generals proposals were fourfold: support multilateral development banks trade finance facilitation programmes by way of advocacy; help increase capacity building support; maintaining an open dialogue with trade finance regulators; and continuing to track trade finance gaps. Thanks to the mobilisation of development institutions, the amount of trade supported annually had increased to some US$30 billion in 2018.

The objective of trade finance programmes of multilateral development banks was not to fill the entire gap, but rather to support trade in challenging markets and to facilitate learning-by-doing by local financial institutions. The foot print of multilateral institutions had increased thanks to the cumulated and sometimes combined efforts of the International Financial Corporation (IFC), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Import Export Bank (Afreximbank), the European Bank for Reconstruction (EBRD), and Development and Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC). Direct funding of transactions also supported directly traders, notably SMEs. This SMEs focus was very prominent in trade finance facilitation programmes. The Asian Development Bank alone had supported trade transactions of 3,500 SMEs in 2018. Progress had also been made in addressing knowledge gaps in local financial institutions. Multilateral development banks had boosted their capacity building work on trade finance, in collaboration with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the WTO.

The Director-General had worked in the past 18 months with the Chief Executive Officer of the International Financial Corporation and the Chair of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to address some of the regulatory challenges met trade finance providers, notably in developing countries. The Director-General has talked several times to Governor Carney. Both leaders agreed to their small, incremental steps strategy. It payed off. The WTO and IFC participated in workshops on the promotion of KYC utilities. The WTO invited Gerard Hartsink, Chairman of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) to present at the WTO. The WTO, the FSB and the World Customs Organization examined synergies between the Legal Entity Identifier and the WCOs Trade Identification Number. Work in this area was on-going. The WTO has been a tireless advocate of Multilateral Development Banks own repositories on customers. Joint missions in the field have been gathering experts from the FSB, IFC, WTO and multilateral development banks, to deliver knowledge on trade finance and on compliance requirements. More was expected in 2019. Finally, at the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank in October 2018, the Director-General and Philippe Le Houerou, CEO of the IFC, co-hosted a session on Financial Inclusion in Trade, aimed at discussing future inter-institutional steps that would be necessary to reduce the US$1.5 trillion global trade finance gap. Heads or senior officials of the IMF, EBRD, Islamic Development Bank, African Import Export Bank and FSB also participated in this public session. It was decided that more inter-institutional cooperation was needed to address the shortages of trade finance hindering the trade opportunities of many developing countries. DG Azevedo and Philippe Le Houerou decided to do a short booklet, sharing best practices (a collection of country cases) on regulatory compliance in trade finance. This would be a joint publication, opened to partner institutions, which would be launched at the 2019 Aid-for-Trade Global Review.

Market Situation

The meeting started with a review of the current market situation. Global banks confirmed that demand for trade finance had been sustained in 2018, in most regions of the world. Price competition had been strong, in a context of relatively abundant liquidity for them. However, the context was one of continued consolidation of the financial industry. Digitalization was at the top of the agenda of large institutions to reduce the cost of processing trade finance transactions. While in trade large buyers benefited from increased digitalization of transactions, smaller companies being part of different supply chains suffered from the existence of too many uncoordinated digital platforms. The industry tried to address the digital island problem. Global banks increasingly pursued an originate-and-distribute model, aimed at raising the velocity of their balance sheet; other players would be called on to hold trade finance assets. Such developments resulted in mixed outcomes for SMEs. In developed countries, many SMEs benefited from the drive of the trade finance industry towards supply-chain financing and the expansion of electronic commerce. However, other SMEs, including those operating downstream of industrial supply chains in developing countries, lost from the continuing trend of terminating correspondent banking relationships. Less correspondent banking meant more selectivity by banks in taking on new customers. SMEs were also the most vulnerable company segment in the face of increasing compliance requirements.

While the emergence of regional banks was a positive aspect of bank consolidation in the Middle East or Africa, liquidity remained a constraint for second and third tier banks. There were, though, a trend towards the creation of new correspondent banking relationships, notably between developing country banks, consistent with the expansion of South-South trade. The financial architecture benefited from these new links. While African banks showed greater optimism in the future, the situation within Africa was one of contrast: countries with a strong potential attracted most available financing, while other countries in Northern and Western Africa faced a deterioration of trade finance availability. Banks still faced a significant shortage of US dollars due to the absence of US banks in the continent; multilateral institutions had to offer US dollars clearing services, including to local central banks, by obtaining US dollar resources from Asian markets. In Latin America, banks had significant amounts of available liquidity, but, despite their increasing cooperation to better serve the larger clients, little of liquidity had reached SMEs. The prospects for SMEs was likely to improve with the current expansion of supply chain finance and e-commerce in Latin America. In Asia, volumes of trade finance had also increased in line with the expansion of trade, particularly in the first half of 2018, but de-risking had started to hit the region as Chinese banks were subject to tighter compliance requirements. In this context, banks were given objectives to support SMEs. In the middle-East, the consolidation of banks continued, in a context of rising demand for trade facilities. It had been another modest year in Europe, although the demand for trade finance facilities for extra-EU trade, notably with Asia, increased. All in all, the trade finance environment was one of increasing concentration, but also collaboration between banks regarding investment in technology to reduce the use of paper documents and modernize procedures of trade finance. In the presentation by the Financial Stability Board, it was confirmed that the number of correspondent banking relationship around the world had continued to fall. Still, the volumes of finance within the remaining channels kept rising, thereby confirmation in a growing concentration of (trade) finance flows.

One feature of trade finance markets has been a resurgence of country and political risk. The trade credit insurance industry, while covering higher volumes of trade, also recorded a significant increase in claims (losses). The demand for alternative products such as factoring also increased in line with the expansion of trade. Alternative players such as funds provided liquidity where this was most needed, in developing countries and for SMEs. New laws allowing for factoring have been adopted in Egypt and India. Financial technology institutions (Fintech) would also help in tailoring the risk profiles of individual clients in a more accurate and automated way. Professional associations for trade finance focused on easing compliance, improving cyber security standards, and promoting the low risk profile of the industry.

Trade finance support by multilateral development banks in the poorest countries was a mirror of trade finance gaps. Demand remains high for multilateral support, notably in view of the reduced network of international banks and a heightened perception of anti-money laundering and know-your-customer (AML-KYC) regulatory risk. The African Development Bank and Afreximbanks regretted that upstream correspondent banks in Africa had been cutting links temporarily or permanently, leaving significant US dollar shortages. Africa had suffered a reduction of at least 12% of the number of foreign banks ready to confirm letters of credit. Afreximbanks objective was to link itself to 550 African banks by 2021, and to become one of the hubs for African trade banks in their relations with the rest of the world. Local banks faced difficulties in meeting the cost of compliance and the need for training was immense. Afreximbank had introduced its repository on customer due diligence information. The AfDB had provided trade credit totalling US$1.3 billion in 2018 (US$8 billion in cumulated support since the beginning of the programme in 2013). The AfDB partnered with the ITFC to offer 500 scholarships for trade finance staff of African banks, to take on the qualifying trade finance course delivered by the International Chamber of Commerce. The Africa Trade Finance Gap study will be updated in 2019.

The ITFC shared similar concerns regarding the poorest countries of the Organization of Islamic Co-operation (OIC). The rejection rates of SMEs requests for trade finance stood around 60%. Support by the ITFC to trade finance had reached US$5.2 billion in 2018, with a cumulated amount of US$45 billion in the past 10 years. The ITFC had also launched its Sovereign Energy Fund, with a starting capital of US$500 million. The ITFC emphasized its increasing involvement in trade and trade finance training. The EBRD also attributed part of the trade finance gap in its countries of operations to the lack of correspondent banking relations. While a decade ago the EBRD could count on an active set of about 100 correspondent banks, this number had fallen to about 30. Although it provided for 100% guarantees to trade loans, the EBRD could not find counterparty banks for several countries because the transaction amounts were too small (Belarus, the Republic of Moldova, the Kyrgyz Republic). The problem had become circular: the cost of compliance for these countries was on the rise because of the small amount of transactions. As the number and value of transactions was further falling, thus the cost of compliance per transaction was further increasing. The EBRD had engaged into a comprehensive effort in training compliance officers of banks, in cooperation with the International Compliance Association.

The Asian Development Bank reported for the second year in a row a 40% increase in the demand for its trade finance facilities. The ADB had supported 4,500 trade operations in 2018 (90% of which were guarantees), involving 3,500 SMEs, and totalling US$6.3 billion. Its programmes focused on Asias less-developed countries (Viet Nam, Cambodia, Pakistan). Compliance issues were also prominent in the region. Recent attendance of the Financial Action Task Force meeting led to think that rules on trade-based money laundering could further be tightened, with the risk of adding to current compliance challenges. The representative of the ADB provided a presentation of the scorecard initiative, and subsequent workshop to be organized in March 2019. The initiative benefited from the support of the expert group, which intended to contribute data and analysis. All in all, multilateral development banks (MDBs) had increased their support to trade operations in 2018 relative to the previous year, to close to US$30 billion. The geographical foot print of multilateral organizations had also increased.

A representative of the FSB Secretariat updated the group on the FSB action plan on assessing and addressing the decline in correspondent banking, in the context of trade finance. As outlined by WTO senior management, step-by-step cooperation involved the promotion of due diligence utilities, such as the Wolfsberg questionnaire, the SWIFT repository of due diligence information, regional repositories created by multilateral development institutions, and international identifiers to be used by entities engaged into international financial and trade relations. In this context, the WTO and FSB worked at creating synergies between the Trade Identification Number of the World Customs Organization and the Legal Entity Identifier sponsored by the FSB. Regarding capacity-building, the FSB, WTO and multilateral development banks have deployed their best efforts to incorporate compliance modules in trade finance capacity-building activities, and to deliver technical assistance together, in the field. More joint technical assistance mission was foreseen in 2019, as capacity-building plans are now being shared by the organizations involved. The dissemination of best practices regarding compliance in the trade finance field was a priority. The joint IFC and WTO publication to be launched in 2019 will contribute to these efforts. Many of the potential actions discussed by participants, notably multilateral development banks, seem to fit with the potential solutions proposed by the FSB presentation. The meeting saw an overall positive engagement and some members of the expert group will be called to contribute in the coming months.
Several passengers aboard the Norwegian Escape cruise ship were injured Sunday when what cruise officials described as a "sudden, extreme gust of wind" made the ship list.

In a series of tweets, Norwegian cruise officials said the 20-deck ship suddenly tilted just before midnight Sunday under the force of an unexpected gale topping 100 knots, or about 115 mph.

"Two years ago, I was on (a cruise): 70 mph winds all throughout the night, just a bad storm. And those two minutes were worse than that whole night," Boston resident Cam Dube said Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the ship docked at Terminal 10 at Port Canaveral.

Full Article

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Dramatic cold spells, extreme winds, and natural disasters have punctuated the winter season, leaving many Americans seeking sunny beach destinations for spring break.

The Caribbean is often a top choice for sun-seekers, but this year, the U.S. has issued a travel warning for two popular island destinations. The U.S. government issued a Level 2 travel warning for both the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. A Level 2 travel warning means travelers should "exercise increased caution" when traveling.

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See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Honeymoon is the most important tour of your life and it should be planned with an experienced and professional team. We are planning Europe Honeymoon packages for last 12 years and developed expertise starting from the selection of destination, the pace of itinerary, selections of hotels and resorts and how to match dreams of both - The bride and the Groom. Today we shall focus on which European Honeymoon packages to choose for Honeymoon and why. Every couple has their own preferences and dreams about their honeymoon and Europe offers a wide range of selection



(TRAVPR.COM) MH - March 8th, 2019 - Couples most of the times prefer Europe especially in summer months when they decide to go for a honeymoon abroad. This may be due to the influence of Bollywood films or attractive photos of the Alps or European cities or they must have seen honeymoon photos and experiences of their relative couples, colleagues and friends. Now, let's know which are famous Europe Honeymoon packages and why.

Swiss, Paris, Italy - These are the most trending destinations of Europe for Summer months. Switzerland is most famous among all countries of Europe thanks for Mr. Yash Chopra. When Indian plains are hot and humid in April, May, and June, you experience romantic set up of snow-capped mountains, glaciers, scenic trains, green valleys and ultra modern and clean cities in Switzerland. This country is not only blessed by Mother nature but also been developed and maintained by its people. This is a dream country for most of the Honeymoon couples and couples club this country with Paris or Italy. Paris is a city of Romance. Eiffel tower, Champs De Elysees - a most beautiful avenue of Paris and Seine river cruise are the most romantic places in Paris. Italy with Venice, Florence, Chianti region, Amalfi coast also offers different set up of romantic set up. Romantic gondola ride in Venice or driving along the coastline of Ravello, Positano, and Amalfi will take your honeymoon experience to a different level.

Austria, Prague, and Budapest - If you are not looking for Switzerland just to avoid the maddening rush of Indians to Switzerland during summer months then plan a visit to Austria. Bavarian Alps and the Austrian Alps with Snow peaked mountains, Pristine lakes and vibrant cities like Salzburg and Vienna will give you total romantic experience. Prague and Budapest are historical cities with rich monuments like castles and cathedrals and also famous for cheaper nightlife.

Greece, Croatia, Turkey, Spain - These Mediterranean countries also offer attractive europe tour packages for family . Santorini island in Greece undoubtedly the most sought after Honeymoon island with Mykonos which offers great nightlife and clubs. Croatia with its attractive coastline and the perfect mix of beaches, islands, nightlife, and history is a great option for honeymooners who are sun worshippers. Spain also getting popularity due to Ibiza island, vibrant cities like Barcelona and Madrid and beach destinations such as Costa Brava and Costa del Sol. Turkey attracts those who are seeking for lower prices but the same feel of Europe. Cappadocia and Istanbul are famous honeymoon destinations in Turkey.

Scandinavia - Those who are looking for Europe Honeymoon packages in the summer months of June, July and August when the Mediterranean and Western Europe is hot and humid, they prefer Scandinavia. No doubt these countries are exclusive costly and exotic offering totally different landscapes and nature. Visit Norway is a must with cities like Oslo, Bergen, and Flam. You also may cross the Arctic circle to visit Tromso and reach almost to the North Pole at Kirkenes. You can also experience midnight sun during these months. Helsinki, Stockholm, and Copenhagen are beautiful cities to explore.

Thus, the above are the most famous and best honeymoon destinations in Europe. But before you select Europe Honeymoon packages, you should have a clear idea about your budget, likings, and preferences of both, weather conditions during your visits. Come and Celebrate the most important tour of your life with our experience and expertise. We assure you a great Honeymoon experience you shall cherish for life.

Read more about europe honeymoon packages https://www.lifeholidays.in/filterproduct/category/honeymoon/european-honeymoon

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Speak English

Ed, if we issue licenses in 21 languages, how in the world do they read & abide by road signs, etc. Everyone should be required to read, speak & write English!

 A reader

I dont often tell people that their opinion is dumb, but I feel like it this time. Everyone knows that they would get by better in this country if they speak and read English, but this exclusionary tactic of saying ONLY ENGLISH is ridiculously xenophobic. If someone from China comes here and can get some adjustment time by easing into life here, why is that a problem to you? They need to know the laws of the road and what the signs mean to pass the test, so stop with your dumb comments.

 Ed Note

Arm yourself

I dont think Kelly Yaede should need armed security. I think she should just own her own gun, like everyone should just own their own gun. I dont see why the elite are entitled to armed security. What are they in danger of? But all the citizens should surrender their firearms and then you can catch a release criminals and then you can disempower our horrible racist beliefs and take away our weapons?

 A reader

What the s*** are you talking about? Mayor Yaede should have security. She should also tell the public what it costs, but no other details as to not put her in danger. I dont think I want most politicians being able to shoot people at random, otherwise we would lose at least one reporter.

But no one is trying to confiscate all guns. And if you are defending racist views, Im sure youre mentally ill, so maybe your personal weapons are going to be in danger.

 Ed Note
Airbnb, the popular community driven hospitality company, is acquiring HotelTonight, a San Francisco, CA-based booking platform focused on last-minute offers from boutique and independent hotels.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

The acquisition will allow AirBnb to build an end-to-end travel platform serving every guest, adding the team and the platform of HotelTonight to offer guests an improved last-minute travel experience that provides hospitality on every trip, on any schedule, at any time.

Led by Brian Chesky, Co-Founder, CEO and Head of Community, Airbnb has built a global community of hosts and guests, connecting travelers to more than 6 million places to stay and tens of thousands of experiences around the world. Guests are using the platform for every kind of trip, including business and last-minute travel. Today, more than 400,000 companies are using Airbnb to manage their travel, and same-day bookings are now growing 2x year over year.

Led by Sam Shank, Co-founder & CEO, HotelTonight provides a mobile app for last-minute hotel bookings up to seven days out. The HotelTonight app and website will continue to operate as they do today. Once the acquisition is complete, Shank will report to Greg Greeley, Airbnbs President of Homes, and lead AirBnbs boutique hotel category.

FinSMEs

08/03/2019
editorial@tribune.com

ha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 7

Having grown up in a city that had flourishing artists at a time when legendary talents like Balraj Sahni, Gursharan Singh and SG Thakar Singh were busy creating a generation of liberals with endless possibilities, it was bound to get inflicted with creativity. Thats exactly what happened with Mohan Luthra, a London-based artist, who says that he imbibed the art gene from his hometown, Amritsar.

A student of renowned artist Phulan Rani, Luthra will be showcasing a series of art work entitled Eyes Wide Shut in India over the next two years, opening with the first exhibition in Amritsar on March 14 at the Indian Academy of Fine Arts.

After serving as a civil servant for many years in UK, Luthra sustained his childhood passion in art on a part-time basis to produce works ever since he migrated as a young adult. As an artist, my early creations were about beautiful art, something that I greatly imbibed from my mentor Phulan Rani. Her works captured the beauty of her muse. Later, I tried to break away from that obsession of simply producing beautiful artwork and move towards 3d art work, break away from form and colour.

Luthra will be showcasing seven life size sculptures and 12 paintings in the four-day exhibition. Describing the process behind creating his work, Luthra said that the sculptures were conceived and rough figures were developed during his visits to India in the wake of the Arab Spring protests in Egypt and the protests in Delhi following the brutal rape of a young woman, and the ongoing parallel debates about what not to wear in both Europe and India.

The paintings have been developed over the years in response to different events and issues. The sculptures are mostly semi-figurative and symbolic initially creating small pieces in clay and then enlarging them in fibre glass, requiring painstaking work to get the desired reflection of the concept, and the feelings behind it, he said.

Luthra will be travelling to Delhi as well with his art after Amritsar tour. He says that he chose Amritsar for his opening exhibition as he wanted to come back to his roots. I grew up in an environment when Amritsars artscape was alive with liberal leanings. Its a part of me and I wanted to come back to that, he added.
editorial@tribune.com

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 7

The poor condition of over 300 public toilets in the city and mess in the garbage collection system led to the fall in the ranking of the city from the third position to the 20th in the Swachh Survekshan-2019 .

Despite being aware that the ministry had included the star rating certification in the competition in which garbage-free status was a distinctive feature, the MC failed to get its act together.

While the performance of the MC was satisfactory in the other three components  direct observation, service level progress and citizen feedback, it failed miserably in the star rating.

The city got 500 marks out of 1,250 in the certification component.

Vinod Vashisht, convener of the City Forum of Residents Welfare Organisations, said a five-star garbage-free certification alone would have helped Chandigarh bag the fifth all-India rank. Had the city tried seriously for a five-star garbage-free city rating, it would have scored an additional 450 marks. This would have taken the city score to 4,237 (3787+450), which would have been next to Ujjain, ranked fourth with 4,244 marks, and ahead of the NDMC, which had 4,191 marks in the survey, he said. Chandigarh scored 3,787 out of 5,000.

The Chandigarh MC applied for the three-star rating, but it even failed to get it and the third-party observer gave only two-star rating, which came as a shock for the civic body. The ministry had fixed 250 marks for the ODF++ tag, which the city failed to get. A city can claim the ODF++ tag if at any point of the day not a single person is found defecting or urinating in the open and all community and public toilets are functional and well-maintained and faecal sludge/septage and sewage are safely managed and treated with no discharge and dumping of untreated sewage in drains or water bodies or in an open area. It could get only 150 marks for the ODF status.

Sources said in the absence of such facilities, the observer gave 150 marks to the MC. The MC has failed to give the contract to any firm for the past three years due to which the condition of the toilets is deteriorating by the day. Similarly, the MC failed in the garbage collection chain  from collection of waste to processing  and could get only 350 marks (two-star rating). The city also could not get full marks in the citizen feedback category and the direct observation and public grievance system.

Residentspeak

Had the city tried seriously for a five-star garbage-free city rating, it would have scored an additional 450 marks. This would have taken the city score to 4,237 (3787+450), which would have been next to Ujjain, ranked fourth with 4,244 marks, and ahead of the NDMC, which had 4,191 marks in the survey.  Vinod Vashisht, convener, forum of residents bodies
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 7

The 24-year-old youth, a former student leader, was shot thrice, that led to his death, the UT police said after the victims autopsy today. The assailants, who had shot the victim, are still at large.

Vishal Chhillar, a former student of DAV College, Sector 10, who had remained the president of INSO, a student party, was shot dead at a rented flat in Sector 49 yesterday morning. Three of his friends were also attacked with sharp weapons.

The assailants had arrived in an i20 car at the flat and attacked the victims. Four suspects have been identified as Sudeep Pahal, Ramdeep, Satnam and Rahul.

Sources said the police had taken the permanent addresses of a few suspects in the case from DAV College. Police teams carried out raids in Haryana and Punjab to nab them. The sources said Aman, who had opened the door of the flat when the miscreants arrived and escaped from there, was also under suspicion.

The call detail records of all suspects are being scrutinised by the UT police. The police, meanwhile, handed over the victims body to his kin after the postmortem.
Ajai Sahni

Ajai Sahni

Executive Director, Institute for Conflict Management

If you question the manifestly false information put out by the government and the ruling party, you are insulting the Indian armed forces; if you ask for evidence, you are anti-national and a traitor!

But what were they thinking? That no one in the world would document a thousand kilograms of explosives delivered in an aerial attack involving 12 aircraft, in the heart of one of the most troubled and surveilled territories of the world, targeting a well-documented Islamist terrorist training camp? That they could simply manage the cowed or bought-over media and their cheerleaders among security experts, drum up war hysteria and reduce Rawalpindi to a mass of trembling jelly, to ride to glorious electoral victory? Trot out a few phrases such as non-military pre-emptive strike in ill-managed press conferences and swagger around boasting about operational achievements without proof, even as the adversary displayed evidence of his success?

Even as the air strike altered Indias strategic stance dramatically, it is clear that the regimes clumsy deceptions, its falsehoods and bragging have eroded Indias credibility. Whatever be the eventual outcome of the current confrontation (indications are that we have already regressed to default setting), it is clear that New Delhi lost the battle of perceptions in the international sphere, even as Pakistans posturing won supporters, despite the near blanket condemnation of the countrys role in the Pulwama attack just weeks ago.

What is lost in all this sorry noise and incompetence is, first, the fact that the present leadership took an audacious decision to redraw long-established (and ill-conceived) lines that dictated that India would not breach Pakistani airspace, even in the face of the gravest of provocation  a principle that was followed even during Kargil; and, second, that the IAF penetrated deep into Pakistan, and not just in a quick sortie across the LoC into PoK. These actions should have sufficed to deliver the message of political will and determination, that Raisina Hill would respond at new levels to Pakistan-backed terrorist misadventures.

It is a basic principal of strategic communication that the states agencies speak with restraint and authority, after verification of facts, and give out nothing that is falsifiable, though they may withhold the entire truth. Instead, the continuing bragging of the government and the ruling party is making a laughing stock of India. The IAF has refused to confirm quasi-official claims on fatalities in the Balakot operations, or to play any part in the persistent political deception. The statements emanating from the Air Force have been circumspect, confirming only that the attack took place and that the targets given were hit.

International sources have now, on the basis of satellite imagery, confirmed that the terrorist training camp at Jaba Top in Balakot  initially confirmed as the target by Indias Foreign Secretary  has not been significantly damaged, but that three points have been hit on the hillside at distances between 150 to 200 metres from the periphery of the camp. With mounting evidence to this effect, we find a process of backpedalling and bullying intensifying. Even as the purported number of fatalities and the damage remain a core element of the BJPs poll campaign, party president Amit Shah reiterating the figure of 250 killed, the governments cheerleaders have started shifting the goalposts, arguing, the main thing was that we went deep into their territory.

If this was the main thing, why didnt the government say so at the outset?

There have also been fantastical claims regarding the impact on the Pakistani psyche and strategy: that Pakistan has been brought to its knees, and has been forced to sue for peace in fear. This is specious. It is useful to note that Pakistans mastery of deception remains unparalleled, even as does the clumsiness of Indias alternately boastful posturing. A country that has consistently thwarted US intent in Afghanistan, despite its dependency and the possibility of overwhelming penalties, and despite numberless strikes against terrorist targets on Pakistani soil, Pakistan never abandoned its malign strategy in Afghanistan.

This pattern of persistence and deception is already visible in Pakistans responses over the past week. Much has been said about PM Imran Khans statesmanlike responses after the aerial skirmishes, his emphasis on the miscalculations that could lead to war, and the offer for talks. This came only after Pakistan had scored an apparent victory. In the immediate wake of the strikes, he threatened retaliation  threats that were carried out. Crucially, moreover, there has been a significant escalation of cross-border firing, and no evidence to suggest that the peace overtures are in good faith, and not just posturing for the international community. As regards action against terror outfits operating from Pakistan, apart from a pro forma commitment to seize assets of UN-banned groups and a few preventive detentions, nothing should be expected. These commitments are balanced out with assertions that India needs to provide evidence of the involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists in Pulwama and other operations on Indian soil. The dance simply goes on.

But to return to the original issue of dishonouring our armed forces, it is people who are putting out false information, attributing exaggerated operational claims to the IAF, who bring the forces to disrepute; these are the people who are anti-national. Not the ones asking questions. This includes TV anchors strutting about in military fatigues, acting like Generals preparing campaigns; these are people who do not have the courage to tell the truth. Instead, they have done everything in their power to feed jingoistic hysteria.

You cannot construct a strong nation on a foundation of falsehoods.
rchopra@tribunemail.com

United Nations, March 8

Indian-American television personality and food expert Padma Lakshmi has been appointed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as its newest Goodwill Ambassador, supporting the agencys fight against inequality and discrimination around the world.

UNDP announced Lakshmis appointment here on Thursday, on the eve of International Womens Day.

In her new role, the Emmy-nominated television personality and award-winning author will mobilise support for the Sustainable Development Goals with a focus on fighting inequality, discrimination and empowering the disenfranchised.

Lakshmi was named the Goodwill Ambassador by UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner in a ceremony at the UNDP headquarters in the city.

As we celebrate International Womens Daylets remember that women and girls face some of the worst discrimination and hardships in the world, Lakshmi said at a press conference held at UNDP headquarters.

She said her main focus as UNDP Goodwill Ambassador would be to shine a spotlight on the fact that inequality could affect people in rich and poor countries alike.

Many nations have greatly reduced poverty, but inequality has proved more stubborn, she said.

Inequality is further compounded by gender, age, ethnicity and race. It especially affects women, minorities and others who face unimaginable discrimination in the societies in which they live.

Steiner said Lakshmi had a strong record of speaking out for those who had been left behind and of fighting discrimination.

We need more voices like hers to ensure we can meet the vision of the Sustainable Development Goalsour shared roadmap for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, he added.

Lakshmi has been a judge and host, as well as executive producer, of Bravo Televisions Emmy award-winning series Top Chef.

She is also a New York Times bestselling author, the co-founder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America, a Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an ambassador for the American Civil Liberties Union advocating for immigrants rights.

She is joining a roster of UNDP Goodwill Ambassadors, which includes globally celebrated actors, athletes, musicians and other high-profile influencers such as Spanish-born international star Antonio Banderas, Award-winning actor Michelle Yeoh and legendary musician Bob Weir. PTI
vinaymishra188@gmail.com

The Attorney General of Indias submission to the Supreme Court, later retracted, that the Government was considering action against The Hindu under the undemocratic and draconian Official Secrets Act (OSA) was unwarranted and awkward. Casting the legalese aside, the Government was seeking to shoot the messenger for publishing secret documents that questioned the Rafale deal. The AG could have sounded more credible if he had argued that the secret documents revealed by the media house were incorrect or irrelevant to the case. If these documents were not edited to tamper with the context or to further political or corporate interests, they remain valid.

Instead of arguing on the validity of the information put out in the public domain, the Government has given the impression of threatening journalists for raising uncomfortable or inconvenient questions. The Editors Guild has rightly noted that any attempt to wield the Official Secrets Act against journalists is as reprehensible as asking journalists to disclose their sources. If the aim was to stop the courts from looking at those documents merely because they were suspected to be purloined, the ploy failed. Journalists have every right to obtain documents and publish them for greater public good. A journalists public-spirited attempt to bring out the truth should go beyond handout journalism and it can never be termed a breach of national security. The court has rightly turned down the AGs plea not to look at evidence just because it was obtained through leaks. All great stories have been leaked out by some public-spirited official or the other.

Unless the Government proves that these documents have been planted on the newspaper for partisan reasons, the consequences of the documents being declared genuine are indeed far-reaching. For they seem to hint at an attempt to compromise the Defence Ministrys negotiating position due to the interference of the Prime Ministers Office as well as suppression of facts from the Supreme Court. More reprehensible is the threat to force journalists to reveal their sources. It is universally recognised that the relationship between the media and the State ought to be adversarial, with the media playing an Oppositional role. It should remain so for our democracy to remain vibrant and viable.
vinaymishra188@gmail.com

IN a major embarrassment, Chandigarh, which proudly carries the tag of City Beautiful, has got a blot on its clean image. From its third spot in the Swachh Survekshan ranking last year, the city has slid to the 20th place in the 2019 list delineating the cleanest cities of the country. Earlier, Chandigarh had slipped from the second rank in 2016 to land in the 11th position in 2017 before regaining its glory when it bagged the third place in 2018. The alternating rise and fall in its performance levels is reflective of the resolve of the citizens as well as the civic body to plug the gaps revealed by the survey.

The poor score in the field of waste management in 2018 was the main hurdle for the city to overcome and achieve its goal of scoring the top position in 2019. Putting in place an effective waste segregation mechanism at source and in every household and its adequate disposal would have prevented its downslide. The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation did attempt to take over the garbage collection job from the private door-to-door collectors, but it was thwarted by a section of the councillors. However, the promised streamlining of the wet and dry filth remains unfulfilled, costing the city its ranking. The garbage processing and compost plants in Dadu Majra village also must pass muster. Only then will the UTs clean-up act give competition to Indore, which has in an exemplary manner retained its top rank for the third consecutive year even though it is much bigger than Chandigarh.

In fact, the cause for the poor rankings of most cities of Punjab and Haryana is the same: laxity in waste management. They need to take a leaf out of Rajkot which has jumped from the 35th place to ninth. Its campaign to sensitise the residents about separating waste has paid off. Cleanliness is crucial to health. We Indians need to shed our dirty habit of littering, spitting and urinating in public. Let us keep our surroundings as hygienic as we do our homes, irrespective of any cleanliness surveys.
OurCrowd, a global investment platform and venture investor, is partnering with Social Finance Israel, an Israeli impact advisory firm, to launch an impact fund focused on venture-backed businesses solving some of the worlds greatest challenges.

The fund will invest in companies with demonstrated alignment to the UNs 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Once companies are selected into the fund, Social Finance Israel and OurCrowd will work with them to establish appropriate impact KPIs and an impact reporting framework.

Both firms will also provide guidance on partnerships and business development opportunities that companies can integrate in order to deepen and hone their impact.

The Impact Fund will provide diversified exposure to impact-driven businesses like OurCrowd portfolio companies, provided they meet a set of impact practices and criteria outlined in Social Finance Israels deal assessment tool, startups such as:

 UPnRIDE: all-terrain electric wheelchair that enables standing

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harinder@tribunemail.com

Mukesh Tandon

Voters of Sonepat parliamentary constituency, which is a part of the Deswali belt of Haryana and once considered the citadel of former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, are unlikely to go with the Congress this time too.

Having elected BJPs Ramesh Kaushik during the Modi wave in 2014, the voters seem to be satisfied as far as the performance of the BJP government at the Centre is concerned.

However, as far as the state government is concerned, the voters, mostly those belonging to the Dewali Jat community, dont seem happy with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

A local resident requesting anonymity alleged that the Khattar government has been sluggish in the execution of development schemes for Sonepat.

Works for the covering of drain number-8, shifting of the bus stand and auto market and establishing a solid waste management plant are lying unexecuted. Elections for municipal corporation (MC), Sonepat, are due for the past four years. These things would affect the poll prospects of the BJP government, he said.

Farmers are citing rising agricultural costs, delay in compensation for crop loss and rise in prices of fertilisers, seeds, pesticides and other agricultural equipment as the main reasons for their dissatisfaction with the state government.

Sunil Kumar of Jharoth village said farmers had voted for the BJP in 2014 but it has not delivered what it had promised the farmers.

Farmers are committing suicide due to heavy debt; and income has declined due to rise in prices of agricultural equipment, pesticides, urea and seeds, he added.

Rejecting the caste divide, Sunil said, the people only want that the candidate should be honest and have a clean image.

Mahender Singh said that unemployment is a bigger issue. In my view, one person in every family should have a job, he said.

Anita of Jharoth said that demonetisation had badly affected women. Demonetisation emptied the pockets of the women who had saved some money from their kitchen budget for emergency, she claimed.

Another woman, Ved Kaur, expressed the contrary view that the BJP government had worked for the betterment for women.

Phoolmati, an elderly woman of Jharoth village who receives Rs 41,000 pension every month, said the nation needs a leader like Prime Minister Modi to rule for a long time.

Supporting the BJP-led state and Union governments, Jagbeer Singh of Baiyanpur village said the BJP has not only removed corruption to a large extent but also made sincere efforts to bring transparency in government functioning. It has even worked for the betterment of the middle and lower classes by launching Ayushmaan Bharat, giving tax benefit and other welfare schemes.

Kishan Chand, an elderly of Baiyanpur village, says that no corruption case has been proved against the Modi-led government in the past four-and-a-half years and that he is working for the country and the people.

The government delayed the process to provide jobs but the youth got opportunity on the basis of their knowledge, not on the basis of political approach or money, says Balbir Singh of Baiyanpur village.
editorial@tribune.com

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, March 7

In Kangra, AICC president Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress, if voted to power, would give martyrs status to all jawans, including those from paramilitary forces, who die fighting terrorists. The Congress president started his speech paying homage to Tilak Raj, the CRPF jawan from Kangra, who sacrificed his life in Pulwama terror attack.

Rahul made the announcement keeping in mind that Kangra district has over one lakh serving and retired personnel in armed and paramilitary forces. He appreciated that the maximum martyrs in the country were from Himachal Pradesh.

Rahul said just after the Pulwama attack all the opposition parties decided to support the armed forces fighting terror. However, it was unfortunate that Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to politicise the unfortunate incident.

Rahul also attacked the NDA government for demonetization and the GST implementation. He said that if voted to power the Congress would review the GST implementation and make it simple. He said that demonetization was in fact a scam and all the black money of rich and the powerful was converted into white. It was only the common man who suffered.

Attacking the Narendra Modi government over Rafale deal, he said that the agreement to purchase 125 Rafale jets was finalized during the UPA-II government. However, after being voted to power the NDA shelved the deal. Later the jets that were to be purchased at the rate of Rs 550 crores per jet were purchased at a cost of Rs 1,600 crore per jet.

Now, The Hindu has reported that the PM office intervened and provided benefit of Rs 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani, Rahul alleged. Rahul said that if voted to power the Congress would ensure minimum income poor in the country.

The rally at Chambi in Kangra district was attended by 10,000 to 12,000 party workers. Various Congress leaders, including former minister GS Bali and Congress MLA from Kangra Pawan Kajal brought their supporters in groups to register their presence.

Deputy Leader of the Congress in Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma said that the Modi government came to power on false promises. The people of the country had come to know about the real face of the Modi government now as none of the promises made in 2014 had been fulfilled.

HPCC president Kuldeep Rathore alleged that six ministers were deputed by the BJP government in the state to thwart the Congress rally. Despite the best efforts of the state government the rally was a success, he said.

The Congress general secretary incharge for Himachal, Rajni Patil, co-incharge Gurkirat Singh Kotli and CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri were among those who addressed the rally.

Women leave before address
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 7

Governor Satya Pal Malik convened a high-level meeting at Raj Bhawan on Thursday and reviewed the law and order situation in the state in the aftermath of a grenade attack at the Jammu bus stand.

The Governor lauded Tejinder Singh, SSP, Jammu, Amrit Pal Singh, SP (North) and their colleagues for swift action in apprehending the culprit.

The Governor described it as a dastardly attack on innocent civilians. He said it was a reaction of anti-national elements in the state which were fast losing their grip.

The Governor said facing imminent defeat, anti-national elements were targeting civilians. He described the act of throwing a grenade on unsuspecting bus passengers as a cowardly attack by someone who could not challenge the security forces.

He expressed concern that innocent youth were being led to believe that sacrificing their lives will lead them to heaven, which they were gullibly believing. He said parties which were coming out in support of banned organisations were siding with separatists. This only helped militancy become stronger. He said any party or person supporting separatists was anti-national and was playing into the hands of terrorists and Pakistan.

He said the war against terrorism as not going to be stopped at any cost and this was a battle that the state would win.

He appealed to people in the state to maintain peace, harmony and brotherhood.

Earlier, condemning attack, Malik expressed shock and anguish over the cowardly attack. He conveyed his condolences to the bereaved family and also wished speedy recovery to the injured.

Announces ex gratia for attack victims
editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 7

A suspected Pakistani Jaish-e-Mohammad militant was killed in an anti-militancy operation in north Kashmirs frontier Kupwara district on Wednesday night. The operation was launched at Baderpayeen, Handwara, on Wednesday evening after an input about the militants presence in the area.

As searches were going on in a cordoned area, the hiding terrorist lobbed grenades and fired indiscriminately at the search party. The fire was retaliated leading to a gunfight, a police spokesman said.

A militant was killed in the exchange of fire and his body was retrieved from the site. The police said incriminating materials, including arms and ammunition, were recovered from the possession of the slain militant.

From the incriminating materials recovered, it is understood that the killed terrorist was a Pakistani national, code named Anwar, who was affiliated with the Jaish, the spokesman said.
rajivbhatia82@gmail.com

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 8

An off-duty Kashmiri soldier was abducted by suspected militants in central Kashmirs Budgam district late this evening. The soldier, identified as Mohammad Yasin Bhat at Qazipora Budgam, was on leave.

A police officer said three armed militants barged into the house of Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAK LI) soldier at Qazipora and abducted him around 9.30 pm. The abduction took place in an area bordering south Kashmirs Pulwama district.

We have launched a manhunt both in Pulwama and Budgam to trace the abducted soldier, the officer said.

This is the first kidnapping of an off-duty Kashmiri soldier this year.

In June last year, Rifleman Aurangzeb was abducted and later killed when he was on his way home to celebrate Eid. In 2017, Lt Umar Fayaz was abducted and later shot dead by militants in south Kashmir.
editorial@tribune.com

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 7

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has moved an application before the High Court seeking the vacation of the stay on trial and shifting the proceedings to Jammu in the 1989 Rubaiya Sayeeds kidnapping case, in which JKLF chief Mohammad Yasin Malik and 10 others, including Javaid Ahmad Mir and Showkat Bakshi, are accused.

The application was moved by the CBI through its standing counsel before the Jammu wing of the High Court. It has now been listed on March 11 in the Srinagar wing of the High Court by the Chief Justice, who has given the other side two days to file its objections.

Acting on a writ petition filed in Srinagar, the HC, had in 2009, stayed the trial against Malik and others in the Rubaiya Sayeed case before a Tada court in Jammu, where earlier the challan was produced by the investigating agency.

In the application we have prayed that the writ petition in which the stay was granted on the trial of the case be shifted to Jammu, Assistant Solicitor General, Union of India who represented the CBI before the HC told The Tribune.

He further saidthe application had been listed before the Srinagar wing of the High Court next week on Monday, March 11, with directions to the accused to file their objections within two days.

On December 8, 1989, Rubaiya, daughter of Mufti Sayeed, thenHome Ministerin the VP Singh government, was kidnapped for five days from Srinagars Lal Ded Hospital. The kidnappers had demanded the release of 13 militants in exchange for Rubaiyas release.

In 1999, three JKLF members Showkat Ahmed Bakshi, Manzoor Ahmed Sofi and Mohammad Iqbal Gandroo were granted bail after nine years in the case.
vinaymishra188@gmail.com

Filmmaker Danny Boyle quit as director of the new James Bond film because top officials did not let him kill off the British Secret Service agent. Until August, Boyle was slated to write and direct the next James Bond film, but a tweet gave out that he would no longer be associated with it owing to creative differences.

It has now emerged that the Slumdog Millionaire director wanted Daniel Craigs character to die in the arms of returning Bond girl Lea Seydoux in the 25th spy movie Shatterhand.

However, Bond boss Barbara Broccoli and Craig himself both shot down the idea. That is when Boyle quit the project, leading to a delay in the film.

A source said: Boyle thought that killing 007 would be a brilliant way to pave the way for introducing a new Bond. But when the dust settled, there was a push back from Barbara and Daniel. The feeling was that the audience should be left guessing as to the plight of their man. True Detective fame Cary Fukunaga has taken up the directing job for the film, which will see Craig reunite with Lea and co-stars Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw.

Bohemian Rhapsody Oscar winner Rami Malek is in talks to play the villain.  IANS
gspannu7@gmail.com

New Delhi, March 8

The Supreme Court has granted bail to former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, sentenced to 21 years in jail in Naroda Patiya massacre case in which 97 people were killed by a mob during the 2002 Gujarat riots, considering his medical condition as he was 100 per cent blind.

A Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Ajay Rastogi noted in its order that the state government has verified medical certificates issued to Bajrangi and has said that they were authentic.

Bajrangis counsel sought bail on medical grounds and told the apex court that Bajrangi is 100 per cent blind and is also suffering from profound hearing loss.

Taking overall view of the matter, we are inclined to direct release of the applicant, Babubhai alias Babu Bajrangi, on bail to the satisfaction of the trial court and on such terms and conditions as may be imposed by the trial court, the Bench said.

The state government had earlier told the apex court that Bajrangi is in bad shape due to various ailments and medical reports suggests that he has suffered a hundred per cent vision loss also.

Bajrangi has also challenged the Gujarat High Courts April 20 last year verdict in which his conviction in the case was upheld and the life term awarded to him by the trial court was reduced to 21 years rigorous imprisonment without remission.

The top court had earlier granted regular bail to four convicts in Naroda Patiya massacre caseUmeshbhai Surabhai Bharwad, Rajkumar, Padmendrasinh Jaswantsinh Rajput and Harshad alias Mungda Jila Govind Chhara Parmar.

The Gujarat High Court had on April 20 last year upheld the conviction of 12 out of the 29 accused who were pronounced guilty on various charges by the trial court and had acquitted 17 others, including former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani.

The rioting had taken place on February 28, 2002, in the Naroda Patiaya area of Ahmedabad where a mob had killed 97 people, most of them from a minority community.

The massacre had taken place a day after the torching of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra that left 59 people dead and triggered state-wide riots.  PTI
rchopra@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, March 8

A Delhi court on Friday extended till March 25 the interim protection from arrest granted to former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis scam cases filed by the CBI and the ED.

Special Judge OP Saini adjourned the matter after senior advocate Sonia Mathur, appearing for the CBI, sought time to argue on their anticipatory bail applications.

Similar request was also made by EDs Special Public Prosecutors Nitesh Rana and NK Matta which was allowed by the court.

During the hearing senior advocates Kapil Sibal and AM Sinhgvi, appearing for the father-son duo, opposed the adjournment sought by the agencies, saying a lot of time had been spent since filing of the applications.

The case relates to the alleged irregularities in grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval in the Aircel-Maxis deal. PTI
shalender@tribune.com

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 7

In a significant move indicating Indias re-energised military equipment partnership with Russia, the two countries today inked a deal for the lease of a nuclear-powered Akula-class attack submarine from Moscow.

Having leased its first nuclear submarine from Russia in 1988, India is already operating INS Chakrainducted in 2012  on a 10-year contract. New Delhi also has self-built INS Arihant, a nuclear-tipped missile carrying vessel, and INS Arighat.

The latest submarine from Russia is to cost around $3 billion (Rs 21,000 crore) and is expected to arrive in five years. It would be fitted with indigenous communication systems and sensors.

Watched curiously across the globe, todays deal with Russia would be the fourth major agreement over the past six months and fifth in last two years. In October last year, New Delhi ignored the US threat of sanctions and went ahead to procure S-400 Triumf air defence missile system from Russia for Rs 39,000 crore. In the same month, Delhi signed contracts to purchase four Admiral Grigorovich-class stealth frigates for around Rs 6,700 crore.

This week, India and Russia started the joint production of AK- 203 rifles in Amethi. The armed forces need some 7 lakh of these at a cost of around Rs 12,000 crore and the requirement could shoot up to 20 lakh once the central armed police forces, too, submit their orders. In 2016, Russia signed a pact for the joint manufacturing of 200 Kamov 226-T helicopters in India.
monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Lahore, March 8

Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has been barred by the government from delivering weekly Friday sermon at Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) headquarters in Lahore in Pakistan's Punjab province.

This is perhaps for the first time in years that Saeed despite being present in Lahore will not be able to deliver Friday sermon at Jamia Masjid Qadsia, the JuD headquarters here.

Saeed was never stopped from delivering Friday sermons even during the years when Masjid Qadsia's control was under the Punjab government.

"As the Punjab police have sealed the Jamia Masjid Qadsia, Saeed will not be allowed to enter the premises to give his weekly sermon on Friday," a senior official of the Punjab government told PTI.

"Saeed requested the Punjab government to allow him give sermon on Friday at Qadsia Masjid but it was turned down. This is significant with regard to the 'clout' of Saeed as for the first time he is not being allowed by the government to give sermon on Friday," he added.

Pakistan authorities on Thursday sealed the Lahore headquarters of JuD and FIF and detained over 120 suspected militants as part of an ongoing crackdown on banned groups.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. It had been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.

The US Department of the Treasury has designated its chief Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice. PTI
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Beijing, March 8

India and Pakistan should quickly turn the page following the Pulwama terror attack and convert the present tensions into opportunity for long-term improvement in their relations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.

Wang also said post-Wuhan summit between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China wanted to develop closer ties with India and forge ahead like the Yangtze and Ganges rivers despite Beijings all-weather ties with Pakistan.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama district in February 14.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.

China hopes Pakistan and India will transform the crisis into opportunity and meet each other halfway, Wang said.

He was replying to questions on the present India-Pakistan tensions following the Pulwama terror attack and how China planned to carry forward the spirit of last years Wuhan summit between Prime Minister and President Xi.

We advise both the parties to quickly turn the page and seek fundamental, long-term improvement in their relations. When confrontation gives way to dialogue and disagreements are settled, we can create a better future through cooperation, he said.

Recent events focused international attention on the India-Pakistan relations, he said, stating that China played a constructive role to resolve the tensions between the two neighbours.

China has stressed from the beginning the need to exercise restraint and prevent an escalation, find out what has happened and resolve the matter through dialogue, Wang said, adding that Beijing tried to play a mediatory role.

In the meantime, the countrys sovereignty and territorial integrity should be fully respected. China followed these principles in its mediation and played a constructive role in defusing the tension, he said.

China recently dispatched its Vice Foreign Minister Kong Kong Xuanyou to Pakistan where he held talks with Prime Minister Imran Khan, Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, besides Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua, on the India-Pakistan tensions.

His visit coincides with the US, the UK and French application in the 1267 counter terrorism committee of the UNSC to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. If listed by the committee, Azhar would face a global travel ban and asset freeze. The JeM has already been banned by the UN.

While China blocked Indias previous attempts to declare Azhar as a global terrorist, expectations are high that this time Beijing may take a different stand considering JeM has admitted its role in the Pulwama terror attack.

In the last couple of days both Pakistan and India indicated a desire to de-escalate the situation and start talks. We welcome this. Pakistan and India are neighbours and always have to live with each other, Wang said.

Both countries face important opportunities to realise stability, development and prosperity. China hopes the two countries will get along and progress together, he said.

Asked post-Wuhan summit, how China planned to develop its relations with India in the light of challenges and Beijings close ties with Pakistan, Wang said 2018 was a year of great significance for China and India relations.

The historic meeting between Xi and Modi at Wuhan has created a new model of high-level interactions between our two countries and set the direction for our future relations, he said.

The priority now is to see that the strategic understanding reached by the two leaders should go down to the people and become their common view through conscious efforts, he said.

China will work with India to comprehensively strengthen sectoral cooperation and people-to-people ties which are of vital importance in the current context so that our friendship and cooperation will forge ahead like the Yangtze and Ganges giving strong and sustained impetus to our relationship, he said.

Wang said India and China are ancient civilisations with a combined population of 2.7 billion besides being the largest developing countries and neighbours.

China and India should be each others partners in pursing our respective dreams and each others important opportunity for growing our respective economies. Collectively we must make our due contribution to Asias revitalisation and prosperity, he said. PTI
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, March 8

An illegal bungalow belonging to absconding diamond merchant Nirav Modi was demolished on Friday morning using explosives, according to state government officials.



The sprawling bungalow measuring more than 30,000 sq ft at Kihim beach in Alibaug across the sea from Mumbais Gateway of India was declared illegal since it violated Coastal Regulation Zone laws prohibiting construction near the seashore. Since manual demolition was progressing at a slow pace, it was decided to bring down the building using dynamite.



According to the District Collector, more than 110 sticks of dynamite were used in the demolition. For the past several days experts hired by the authorities supervised the placement of dynamite at strategic locations in the structure. At around 11.15 am today, the dynamite was detonated bringing down the structure. Drones deployed by the authorities videographed the demolition exercise.



Bharat Shitole, Additional Collector, Raigad district, who has so far demolished more than 40 illegal structures in different parts of Maharashtra using dynamite, told reporters that several items from the bungalow like a jacuzzi, a chandelier and a statue of the Buddha were recovered before demolition and handed over to the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The ED is investigating Nirav Modi for allegedly defrauding banks like the Punjab National Bank for several thousand crore rupees.

Officials said the swanky bungalow was used by Nirav Modi to host grand parties for his celebrity clients and government officials.
gspannu7@gmail.com

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, March 8

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asked state governments to take stern action if there is any attack on Kashmiris, calling those who targeted them recently in Lucknow "crazed people".

Speaking at a public rally at Kanpurs Railway Maidan, Modi brought up the Lucknow incident in which two Kashmiri vendors were thrashed on Wednesday, allegedly targeted by members of a right-wing group over the Pulwama attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel last month.

The Prime Minister called the Lucknow perpetrators sirphirey log (crazed people), in near identical remarks at the meeting and on Twitter.

It is very important to maintain an atmosphere of unity in the country, Modi said.

I would also like to request other state governments to take the strongest action possible wherever there is an attempt to do something like this, he said.

Launching a frontal attack on his opponents, the Prime Minister said they were saying and doing what Pakistan likes which was demoralising and insulting to the armed forces.

Modi charged his political opponents of working shamelessly day and night to downplay the valour of the armed forces.

He said due to their hatred for Modi and selfish interests, his political opponents were indulging in bayanbaazi which was providing political advantage to the countrys enemies and those patronising terrorism.

Elections will come and go but to ensure that the enemies of our country do not take advantage is the responsibility of every citizen across the political spectrum, Modi said.

Today after being caught red-handed in terrorist activities, Pakistan is under pressure from the whole world and is not in a position to show its face. At such a time some people in our own country are making statements to help Pakistan. Is this correct? Modi asked the crowds.

He said that Pakistan was using the statements of such people within the country to mislead the world.

According to Modi, the terrorists were nervous due to the decisive decisions of his government.

It was the result of such nervousness that terrorists made a monstrous attempt in Jammu yesterday.

He called upon citizens to remain alert and united so that he could wholeheartedly wage a war to uproot terrorism.

Praising Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for prompt action against those who had targeted the Kashmiris in Lucknow, Modi asked other state governments to remain equally vigilant against such misadventure.

During his public meeting in both Varanasi and Kanpur, he repeatedly asked the crowds present if they were happy and proud of the armed forces action against enemies.

Dont you feel that the country has proved its might? Are you not happy with the Army action? Arent you feeling encouraged and energised? Modi asked the crowd waiting for them to answer in the affirmative.

In Kanpur, Modi laid the foundation stone or inaugurated development projects worth Rs 23050 crore.

This included the Rs 5817 crore expansion of the Panki thermal power plant and the inauguration of the second phase of the Lucknow Metro and laying the foundation stone for the Agra Metro.

Earlier in his Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi, Modi laid the foundation stone of the Rs 600 crore Kashi Vishwanath Temple Corridor.

He also attended the National Women Livelihood Meet where he listed his governments schemes for women.

Later, Modi is visiting Ghaziabad to unveil multiple development projects to the tune of Rs 32,513 crore. With PTI
shalender@tribune.com

Lahore, March 7

Pakistan authorities on Thursday sealed the Lahore headquarters of Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and its charity wing Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) and detained over 120 suspected militants as part of an ongoing crackdown on banned groups.

Under the National Action Plan (NAP), the government has taken complete control of the banned JuD and FIF headquarters in Lahore and Muridkey, said a statement issued by the Punjab Home department Thursday.

It said the government has been taking over the control of the mosques, seminaries and other institutions of the banned organisations in the province. We have intensified action against the banned organisations, it said.

A senior Punjab government official told PTI that the authorities have sealed the Jamia Masjid Qadsia, the Lahore headquarters of the JuD and FIF.  PTI
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 8

A day after the Centre promulgated an ordinance overturning the Supreme Courts verdict favouring subject-wise reservation for SC, ST and OBC in selection of university and college teachers, a PIL on Friday challenged it before the Supreme Court, terming it arbitrary and violative of right to equality.

The President had on March 7 promulgated the Central Education Institutions (Reservation in Teachers) Ordinance 2019 which says a college would be treated as one unit for reservation as against subject or department-wise reservation ruled by the Allahabad High Court and upheld by the Supreme Court.

Clubbing seats across departments and considering College/Institution as one unit violates Article 14 (equality before the law) and Article 16 (equality of opportunity in matters of public employment) of the Constitution, submitted petitioners Prathvi Raj Chauhan and Priya Sharma.

As teachers in different departments were neither transferable nor in competition with each other, it could result in some departments having all the teachers from reserved categories and some other departments having only unreserved candidates, they contended demanding a stay on the provision of the ordinance.

The Supreme Court had last month refused to review its verdict which ruled that individual departments and not universities or colleges will be considered as the unit for implementing reservation for SC, ST and OBC in appointment of teachers.

A Bench headed by Justice UU Lalit had rejected the review petitions filed by the Centre, UGC and certain individual petitioners seeking review of its earlier verdict upholding an Allahabad High Court order on the contentious issue.

We have gone through the review petitions and do not find any error apparent on record to justify interference in review jurisdiction. These review petitions are, therefore, dismissed, the Bench had said.

The Centre and UGC had contended that process of selection of faculty members from SC/ST or OBC would get delayed due to difficulties in ensuring 15 per cent, 7.5 per cent and 27 per cent quota, respectively.

Earlier, universities adopted a system under which every fourth teacher was appointed from the OBC category, seventh from the SC category and 14th from the ST category.

The Bench made it clear that the appeals of the Centre and the UGC were dismissed as the findings in the Allahabad HC verdict were found to be correct.

In its January 21 verdict, the Supreme Court had dismissed the appeals of the Centre and UGC against the order of Allahabad High Court which had ruled that quota for SC/ST or OBC in posts of faculty will be calculated department-wise and not college or university-wise.

While deciding a petition challenging the reservation policy for faculties at Banaras Hindu University, the high court had on April 7, 2017, struck down a circular of UGC on filling of posts of teachers for SC/ST or OBC categories.

The respondent university will carry out the exercise of applying reservation to the posts under advertisement treating the department/subject as a unit for all levels of teachers rather than treating the university as a unit, the high court had said.
pardeepdhull@gmail.com

New Delhi, March 8

President Ram Nath Kovind presented the Nari Shakti Puraskar to 44 women, including an acid attack survivor and Indias first woman marine pilot on Friday.

The awards were given at a special ceremony organised at the Rastrapati Bhawan in the presence of Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi.

To acknowledge womens achievements, the Ministry of Women and Child Development confers Nari Shakti Puraskar on women and institutions in recognition of their relentless service towards the cause of women empowerment and social welfare.

The 44 awardees include DRDO scientist Ipsita Biswas, Indias first woman marine pilot Reshma Nilofer Naha, expert on subjects of agro-biodiversity Rahibai Soma Popere, acid attack survivor Pragya Prasun, woman commando trainer Seema Rao and motivational speaker Sister Shivani, among others.

The Nari Shakti Puraskar, the highest civilian honour for women, has also been awarded to a One Stop Centre (OSC), Lucknow, Qasab-Kutch Craftswomen Producer and Social Welfare and Nuritious Meal Programme Department of Tamil Nadu.

All the awardees are a face of change, reflecting the shift in the status of women in the country, from women development to women-led development. I congratulate all of them for their achievements, Gandhi said.

No field has been left untouched, where women have not left their indelible mark, making women the leading force of our development trajectory. I appreciate the contribution of each one of them and hope that they will continue working for the cause of a better society, she said.

This year, among the awardees are scientists, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, social workers, farmers, artists, masons, woman marine pilot, woman commando trainer, journalists and filmmakers and many others.

The awardees said they were honoured to have been conferred such a prestigious award and vowed to take the cause for which they were awarded forward.

Popere, a self-made expert in the subject of agro-biodiversity landrace conservation, embarked on the first train journey of her life to collect the Nari Shakti award.

The 43-year-old expert, also known as the seed mother, said she has conserved indigenous landraces of 17 different crops by combining agriculture with technology.

Prasun, who is an acid attack survivor, said she was attacked when she was 23-years-old, 12 days after marriage. After undergoing the trauma of the attack, she decided to help survivors and started an organisation to aid their medical treatment.

This award will help more acid attack survivors realise that they are not alone in their struggles and aid them, she said. PTI
gspannu7@gmail.com

New Delhi, March 8

Families of the 40 CRPF personnel, killed in a recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama district, have been paid over Rs 1 crore ex-gratia funds till now as per service rules, the force said on Friday.

Officials said the next of kin of these slain personnel will also get an additional ex-gratia amount that has been announced by various state governments, where the troops hailed from, in a case-to-case basis.

A total amount of over Rs 1.01 crore has been paid to the families of the 40 personnel who were killed in the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, an official from the force said.

He added that this amount includes Rs 35 lakh given by the Central Government as ex-gratia to the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel killed in the line of action, Rs 21.50 lakh under the risk fund, Rs 15 lakh from the Bharat Ke Veer corpus and Rs 30 lakh from the SBI paramilitary service pay insurance cover.

The families additionally are also being provided financial benefits from various government and non-government agencies even as some institutions have volunteered to take care of education of the wards of these personnel, he said.

Liberalised Pension Award (LPA) is being given to all the 40 families and this amount equals to the last basic pay plus dearness allowance drawn by the killed personnel. This amount will be paid lifelong, the official said.

He added that while in some cases, the next of kin of the killed personnel have been offered jobs by state governments, they are also eligible for compassionate appointment for jobs in the CRPF.

The force is soon going to launch a special mobile application which has been designed specifically for redressal of grievances relating to the families of killed personnel of the force. This will be launched soon, he said.

The 40 CRPF personnel were travelling in a force bus when a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the bus on February 14.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has deployed as many as 61 battalions in the state, with about 65,000 personnel, and is the lead counter-terrorist and internal security force in the Kashmir Valley.  PTI
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 8

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Election Commission Secretary to appear before it on March 12 after a PIL alleged that several categories of persons in Assam had been denied voting rights ahead of the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.

The categories in question include some whose names figure in the draft NRC but not in the voters list, petitioners Assam-based residents Gopal Seth and Susanta Sen submitted.



A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi asked the EC Secretary to appear in person as despite a notice being issued to on February 1, the poll panel remained unrepresented during the proceedings.



The PIL alleged that a category of persons, whose names were deleted from the voter list, were some whose names appeared in the draft NRC published on July 30, 2018. It claimed these people had voted in the last Lok Sabha election held in 2014.



There were people whose names were not included in the complete draft NRC, but they subsequently filed claims for inclusion of their names in it, the petitioners said, adding, they had voted in the earlier Lok Sabha elections and were waiting for inclusion of their names.



The third category of people were those who have been declared as foreigners by the foreigners tribunal as well as by the Guwahati High Court but the courts order was stayed by the Supreme Court.



The petition said it is the category of the persons whose names were appearing in the voter list from time to time.



The petition said the fourth category of people were those who had already been declared foreigners by the foreigners tribunal and such declarations were set aside by the apex court.



However, their names have been deleted from the voters list pursuant to the order of the foreigners tribunal, the petition said.



The petition said the fifth category of persons are those whose names have not been included in the draft NRC, but other members of their families, including parents, are included in the NRC and they have filed their claim for the inclusion of their names.



The above-mentioned five categories of people whose names have not been included in the voters list are going to be deprived from their constitutional as well as statutory rights to vote in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election to be held in April 2019, the petition said.
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 8

The Supreme Court on Friday referred the politically sensitive Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute at Ayodhya to mediation and appointed former top court judge Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla, spiritual Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Chennai-based advocate Shriram Panchu as mediators to find an amicable solution to the problem.

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the proceedings would be held in Faizabad.

The three mediators could start work within a week and could co-opt more members, it said, adding that the mediators had to complete the task in eight weeks.

The Bench--which also included Justice SA Bobde, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Abdul Nazeer--said media couldnt report on the proceedings of the mediation.

The mediation proceedings would be held in camera but mediators could take legal assistance, the Bench said.

It directed the Uttar Pradesh government to provide necessary facilities in Faizabad to the mediators.

Hindu and Muslim parties to the dispute had on Wednesday taken diametrically opposite stands on the courts move. Hindu parties, except Nirmohi Akhara, had opposed mediation while Muslim parties to the dispute supported it.

We want to pronounce orders soon, the CJI had said while reserving its order after hearing the parties for almost an hour.

On behalf of the Uttar Pradesh government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had opposed mediation, saying it was not advisable in the given circumstances.

Hindus believe that Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya thousands of years ago. During Mughal emperor Baburs rule, a mosque was constructed at the place in 1528 after destroying the temples existing there.

On Wednesday, the Bench had said, We are not concerned about what Mughal ruler Babur had done and what happened after. We can go into what exists in the present moment.

Senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan, representing Ram Lalla, said the temple had to be built at the Janmasthan (birth place). What can be considered is an alternative place for the mosque. We are ready to crowd-fund it, he said opposing the mediation.

The top court had said it was conscious of the gravity of the dispute and the outcome of mediation on the body politic of India. The Bench said the case was not about property alone but also about peoples sentiments and faith.

As the counsel for Hindu Mahasabha had opposed the mediation and said, It is the property of the deity and nobody has the right to mediatethe parties have been waiting for a decision since 1950, the Bench had asked him not to pre-judge the whole issue.

When the court is ordering mediation, we are not yet assuming somebody will give up something. We think primarily it is not a dispute over the 1,500 yards of land. This is about faith. Do not think that we are not conscious of it or do you think that you have more faith than us? Justice Bobde had asked.

The top court on February 26 had asked the contesting parties to explore the possibility of amicably settling the decades-old dispute through mediation, saying it might help in healing relations.
shalender@tribune.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 7

The Lokpal Search Committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai has forwarded three panels of names for chairperson, judicial members and non-judicial members to the selection committee, the Centre told the Supreme Court today. It can have maximum of eight members.

Attorney General KK Venugopal informed a Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that the shortlisted names had already been sent to the selection committee led by the Prime Minister.

Other members on the selection panel are the Lok Sabha Speaker, CJI or his nominee, Leader of Opposition and an eminent jurist (Mukul Rohatgi). The panel will now take decision on appointing Indias first-ever Lokpal and its members.

As there was no Leader of Opposition, the leader of the Congress Legislature Party in the Lok Sabha was invited to the meeting as a special invitee, but he (Mallikarjun Kharge) did not attend the meetings, Venugopal told the Bench.

The CJI asked the Attorney General to inform the top court in 10 days the likely date of meeting to select the Lokpal chairman and members.

Venugopal said he would ask the Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training, to ensure that the selection panel meeting was convened at the earliest.

On behalf of petitioner Common Cause, advocate Prashant Bhushan requested the Bench that the shortlisted names be uploaded on the government website to make the process transparent. People should be allowed to file objections, he said.

However, CJI Gogoi immediately turned it down, saying there was no provision in the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, which allowed inviting objections from the public to the names recommended for appointment.

Transparency is a subjective term. You have done good work, but there has to be a limit somewhere. You have to stop. We dont think the names are required to be put in the public domain, the CJI told Bhushan.

The Supreme Court had on January 17 asked the Lokpal search committee to prepare a panel of names by the end of February for consideration of the selection committee for appointment of Indias first ombudsman. Enacted in 2013, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act received Presidential assent on January 1, 2014, and came into force on January 16, 2014. However, the first Lokpal is yet to be appointed and many states were also dithering in appointing Lokayuktas.

Wont make list public
rchopra@tribunemail.com

Washington, March 8

Stepping up pressure on Pakistan, the US has asked Islamabad to take sustained and irreversible actions against terrorist groups operating from its territory to prevent future attacks and promote regional stability.

The State Department statement came as Pakistan, under global pressure after the Pulwama terror attack and Indias air strikes against Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on February 26, started taking actions against some of the terrorist outfits and their leaders over the past few days.

In Islamabad, the Interior Ministry on Thursday announced that a total of 121 members of the proscribed groups have so far been taken into preventive detention across Pakistan.

State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino told reporters at his biweekly news conference on Thursday, I would say that we, the United States notes these steps and we continue to urge Pakistan to take sustained, irreversible actions against terrorist groups that will prevent future attacks and promote regional stability.

We reiterate our call for Pakistan to abide by its United Nations Security Council obligations to deny terrorists safe haven and block their entry to funds, he said.

Responding to questions, Palladino refrained from giving a direct answer on the move at the United Nations Security Council to designate JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist.

However, he said that the US and its allies in the UN Security Council want to update the UN list of terrorist organisations and leaders.

Our views on Masood Azhar and Jaish-e-Mohammed are well-known. Jaish-e-Mohammed is a United Nations-designated terrorist group that has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks and is a threat to regional stability. Masood Azhar is the founder and leader of JEM, Palladino said.

Questions on the United Nations Sanctions Committee deliberations are confidential and as such it is not something that the State Department is going to be able to comment on specific matters on the issue, he said.

But we will continue to work with the sanctions committee to ensure that the list is updated and that it is accurate, Palladino said.

At the US Capitol, Indias Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla met Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives and discussed the issue of terrorism.

We must stand strong against acts of terrorism and work together to improve trade between our nations, the top Republican leader said after the meeting.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group JeM killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama district on February 14.

India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot. The next day, the Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. PTI
editorial@tribune.com

Roopinder Singh

The Internet is 30. Not much, as human history goes. Certainly not much in cosmic terms, but here we are, looking at a world transformed in just three decades. It is the Internet and its use that has dramatically changed our everyday activities. What seemed so first-world then is commonplace now, and for this we have to thank the pioneers who ushered in this dawn of a new age.

Its time to look back at what has happened, to see the achievements and also what went wrong. The Internet, as we all know, came about as an experiment designed to provide a foolproof method of communication with computers. The premise, according to a legend, is that even if nuclear bombs struck at various command and control centres, they would not be able to affect the humankinds (read USs) ability to defend itself. Naturally, the result would be a nuclear winter that would annihilate the species that had tampered too much with technology and brought about the weapons of mass destruction. Thus came about the mandate for a universal transmission protocol, TCP/IP.

However, like many things conceived in sin, especially those that involved DARPA (the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency), good came about in time. The Internet expanded from limited scientific application to eventual general civilian use. There started a revolution. It started slowly  people tried to make sense of things by communicating through their computers with others who were far away. They would exchange information on message boards, on electronic bulletin boards and be very happy about the fact that they could connect with like-minded people. These were the original nerds. All of them were scientists or something related to that.

Early days

By 1992, websites were registered for .com, .net, .edu, .org and .gov domains. Soon, CERN, the Geneva-based European Organisation for Nuclear Research where British scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web (www), announced that www was now free for all. By 1994, came the Netscape browser that would allow you to surf through much of the useful stuff. After all, you were in an ocean of information, albeit not too far from the shore, looking for the wave that would allow you to crest it by giving you the required lift.

The Netscape, and then Yahoo in 1995, sparked off the .com boom. They allowed ordinary people  naturally, only those who had access to a computer to connect to the www meaningfully. They were able to access the Internet through their telephone cables connected with a modem that produced an unmistakable warbling noise. The fast modems of that time would operate at speeds like 28 kbps (1994), or blazingly fast at 56 kbps (1994). Compare that to todays cable modems that offer speeds up to 150gbps.

By this time the personal computer (PC) had also taken hold. Douglas Engelhards 1968 mother of all demos had given a preview about the capabilities of the PC, by showcasing e-mail, word processing, video conferencing, and the use of mouse. Many attempts were made in different parts of the world to follow up on this, but eventually it was the 1999-era IBM PC, and its Apple counterparts, that dominated the show. After Bill Gates and his Microsoft came into the picture with the Windows operating system, IBM-compatible became the default PC, eclipsing Apple in numbers, even as the latter scored higher on usability and finesse. These were the building blocks of the revolution. With faster telecommunication speeds, improved websites became more and more meaningful. News and opinion were on one side of the table, with an underbelly of pornographic material and other nefarious activities on the other.

The world was changing and often a bit too fast for the regulators to do anything about it other than throwing up their hands in horror occasionally when things got too out of control. Silicon Valley, previously a sleepy area in California, became the hub of this new revolution. It spawned many imitations, but none even half as successful.

Ubiquitous presence

From wired connections to wireless, from PC to mobile, the Internet was transforming the world. The possibilities were endless. The only thing that held them back was the imagintion

and the ability to execute what they could think up. The Internet could be the answer to everything, it seemed.

The .com boom started. It led to a massive increase in the valuations of companies that seemed to have the ability to realise the dream. Even as more and more people jumped onto the Internet bandwagon, inevitably, there were some who did not even know what it was all about but wanted a piece of the action. The burgeoning valuations kept on increasing, feeding the bubble that popped by 1999. A .com bust followed. It was time to reorganise, to rethink, primarily about the financials rather than anything else, because as far as the Internet was concerned, growth was phenomenal still, numbers were stacking up. Today, it is estimated that there are 2.4 billion people who use the Internet.

The Internet, its services and the devices that link to it have had a profound impact on practically every human endeavour  finances, health, social communication, everything is different with the Internet. Social media is a creation of the Internet. Its hard to imagine now, but there was a time when social media did not exist. Similarly, mobile banking is now the norm. Many countries are dispensing with physical banking altogether, or minimising it to a remarkable degree. Thanks to the Internet, government services are being provided to people in a much better way than ever possible, because of the connectivity provided by the Internet.

Health services and consultancies are gaining tremendously from it; there is talk, and even execution of a remote surgery by doctors on patients who are not even physically present where the surgeon is. The Internet has also been disruptive; it has severely impacted some industries, such as the traditional print newspaper in some countries, and the music industry where it upturned all traditional models and modes of delivery of music. It has spawned new businesses like social media, search engine optimisation, and also generated new work patterns.

As often happens with tools, it is the people behind them and their intent that shapes what they eventually become. The dark side of the Net is a fact. The Dark Net is where we find criminal enterprises that have no place in a civilised society. All traded online for a price. Ransomware, identity theft, phishing et al are the new reality we live with. Being hacked is no longer esoteric; its something that could happen to anyone. The Net has also been used to erode confidence in many institutions, without providing adequate replacements. From Uber that cost thousands of taxi drivers their living, introducing cryptocurrency bubbles, and helping spread dubious financial proposals, to the sudden rise of fake news, all are manifestations of the malfeasance bred by the Net.

The Net today is so much a part of our lives that even if there is a momentary disruption in our connection, it disturbs us. Moreover, there is little doubt that we as a society now are addicted to what the Net gives us.

Future connections

India has one of the lowest Internet connectivity tariffs. The world is getting more connected, and the Internet of things will allow various devices to exchange information. While this may help us in many ways, it is also a significant security risk. Faster connectivity in the form of 5G is coming, and this will empower such devices. The slugfest over Chinese company Huaweis 5G ambitions and the US seeking to ostracise it, shows how it is being treated as a national asset, or a threat, depending on your perspective. An alarmingly large number of computers and other devices have woefully inadequate security, as hackers delight in showing to the world. Cybersecurity will be the biggest challenge as the Net takes us faster and further into a connected cyber future.

We have come a long way, baby, but we aint seen nothing yet.
monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Kuala Lumpur, March 8

Relatives of the 239 passengers, who disappeared with Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in 2014, on Friday called for a fresh search to find the aircraft on the fifth anniversary of its disappearance.

The Beijing-bound plane disappeared off the radar on March 8, 2014, about 40 minutes after take-off from Kuala Lumpur when someone had turned off the communication systems and changed the aircraft's route, according to an official report.

The investigation concluded that the plane crashed in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean, where 232,000 kilometres of the sea bed have since been combed unsuccessfully in search operations.

Grace Nathan, whose mother was aboard the plane, rued the lack of progress in resolving "one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history" and called for a new search for the plane, Efe news reported.

"Another search is not a waste of time or money. It's a matter of preventing this from happening again," she said.

"Every day people fly and there is a possibility that another plane could vanish. It's an experience that we know and that we don't want to happen again to other people," added the Malaysian woman, who is a member of Voice MH370, an association representing the families of the victims.

In May 2018, Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his government may resume the search if new evidence came to light.

So far, fragments or suspected fragments of the aircraft have been recovered from beaches in Reunion, Mozambique, Mauritius, South Africa and Pemba Island (Zanzibar).

Experts said that three wing parts found in Reunion, Mauritius and Pemba belonged to MH370 and another seven pieces - including parts of interior of the cockpit - were "almost certainly" from the missing plane, while another eight were "highly likely" to be from it.

The fragments were believed to have been swept across the Indian Ocean by currents.

Some of these pieces were displayed to the public for the first time on Sunday at an event in Kuala Lumpur in memory of the victims.

Malaysia, Australia and China, who carried out the first search at a cost of over $151 million, agreed to suspend it in January 2017 until the appearance of new solid evidence.

The US-based seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity, which conducted a second search, has offered to carry out another under the same no-find no-fee conditions.

IANS
harinder@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, March 7

The United Nations has rejected an appeal of JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, to remove his name from its list of banned terrorists, sources said.

The decision comes at a time when UNs 1267 Sanctions Committee has received a new request to ban Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar after the Pulwama terror attack.

The UN decision to reject the appeal of Saeed, also a co-founder of terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), came after India provided detailed evidence about his activities.

Saeed, chief of UN-designated terrorist organisation Jammat--ud-Dawa (JuD), was banned on December 10, 2008 by the UN Security Council after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

Saeed had filed an appeal through Lahore-based law firm Mirza and Mirza in 2017, while he was still under house arrest in Pakistan.  PTI
vermaajay1968@gmail.com

Washington, March 7

US President Donald Trump has issued a new executive order according to which American intelligence officials will no longer be required to publicly disclose the number of civilians killed in airstrikes against terrorist targets.

Trumps order on Wednesday lifts an Obama-era mandate for intelligence professionals to provide an unclassified summary of the number of strikes as well as assessments of combatant and non combatant deaths resulting from those strikes each year, reports CNN.

The 2016 executive order was brought in by then-President Barack Obama, who was under pressure to be more transparent on drone strikes carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Since the 9/11 Al-Qaida terror attack, drone strikes have been increasingly used against terror and military targets. The White House said the order was not an effort to decrease transparency about casualties resulting from US strikes.

The US government is fully committed to complying with its obligations under the law of armed conflict, minimising, to the greatest extent possible, civilian causalities, and acknowledging responsibility when they unfortunately occur during military operations, a National Security Council spokesperson told CNN in a statement.

Instead, the administration argued that the measure was intended to streamline the process by eliminating superfluous reporting requirements.

The order applied to the CIA, which has been carrying out drone strikes in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia.

The CIA-operated drone strikes in Pakistan have killed top terrorists like Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in 2016, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud in 2009 and Hakimullah Mehsud, TTP chief, in 2013. Khalid Mehsud, the TTP deputy chief was killed in a US drone strike in 2018 Pakistans North Waziristan.  Agencies
monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Ottawa, March 8

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday denied interfering in Canada's judicial system as he sought to defuse a month-long crisis threatening his political future, but offered no apology, asserting only that lessons had been learned.

The crisis has prompted the resignations of former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, the Treasury Board president, Jane Philpott, and Trudeau's closest political aide, Gerald Butts. It also raised questions about Trudeau's handling of the affair and polls show his Liberals could lose an election this October.

What are the allegations against Trudeau

Trudeau has been dogged by allegations that he and his officials improperly leaned on Wilson-Raybould to help construction firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc avoid a criminal trial. Wilson-Raybould told the House of Commons justice committee last week that officials imposed "consistent and sustained pressure" on her from September to December last year to ensure SNC-Lavalin pay a large fine rather than go to trial.

What is SNC-Lavalin's involvement?

Montreal-based construction and engineering firm SNC-Lavalin was charged in 2015 by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada with bribing Libyan officials to influence the awarding of contracts between 2001 and 2011.

The company had tried unsuccessfully to avoid trial, arguing instead for a negotiated settlement since it had cleaned shop by changing executives and overhauling its ethics and compliance systems in recent years. The preliminary hearings in the case are ongoing.

The company has historically had close ties to the Liberals.

In 2016, SNC-Lavalin admitted that some former executives had illegally arranged donations of more than C$80,000 to the Liberals from 2004 to 2011.

Why is SNC-Lavalin critical to Trudeau and liberals?

SNC-Lavalin has about 9,000 employees in Canada, including about 3,400 in the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec, which also includes Trudeau's parliamentary constituency. The Liberals say they need to pick up enough seats in Quebec in the October election to stand a chance of retaining a majority government.

Officials, citing conversations they said they had with the company, say they feared SNC-Lavalin would cut jobs or move its headquarters out of Quebec if found guilty. The company faces being barred from bidding on Canadian federal procurement contracts for 10 years, if found guilty.

"We will not comment on this matter," SNC-Lavalin spokesman Nicolas Ryan said on Thursday when asked if the company had warned Trudeau of possible job losses in case of a guilty verdict.

Why does crisis threaten Trudeau's political future?

Critics accuse Trudeau of double standards and breaking the promises he made to do politics differently. Trudeau, 47, came to power in November 2015 promising more accountability and a greater number of women in the Cabinet. He now finds himself accused of trying to help arrange an old-style backroom deal with a major company as his officials leaned on a high-profile woman Cabinet minister. The departure of Philpott, another well-regarded minister and a close friend of Wilson-Raybould, has dented Trudeau's credibility.

No one inside the ruling Liberals has mounted an open challenge to Trudeau, since to do so would take time and open up splits inside the party. The heads of political parties in Canada are elected by party members at formal conventions and cannot be ousted after a snap vote by parliamentarians, as is the case in the UK and Australia. Opinion polls show the controversy is costing the Liberals.

A weekly tracking poll released by Nanos Research on Tuesday put the Conservatives at 35 per cent public support, with the Liberals at 34 per cent. A January 8 poll by the same firm had the Liberals at 39 percent and the Conservatives at 33 per cent. Each poll was based on a random phone survey of 1,000 Canadians.

What happens next?

Political analysts say Trudeau is safe for now, since he has made clear he wants to stay on and there are no challengers inside the party. The federal Parliament is not sitting next week, depriving the opposition of the chance to grill Trudeau, and the week after will see the release of the federal budget.

The two main opposition parties - the right-of-center Conservatives and the left-leaning New Democrats are demanding a public inquiry into the affair. But the Liberals oppose the idea, since probes take months to complete and are likely to trigger negative headlines.

Wilson-Raybould said she did not consider officials had broken any laws, so a probe by police is unlikely. Canada's independent ethics commissioner is looking into the allegations, but past experience shows such investigations can take months to wrap up and there is no guarantee the results would be released before the vote in October. Reuters
THE opening of beaches or any activity that is currently not allowed under the Public Health
One only has to drive through the country to recognise the truth of the findings of the rece
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing indictment on charges of fraud, corruption, breach of trust and bribery.

Hes also running for re-election, and with less than six weeks until ballots are scheduled to be cast in Israel, some have raised suspicions of a political hit, not unlike the various hearings and investigations ensnaring President Trump.

From a geostrategic standpoint there is no one, including Netanyahus political opponents, in the prime ministers league when it comes to national security, economics and politics. In this, again, he in some ways resembles President Trump.

Recall Netanyahus speech to the United Nations General Assembly last September in which he conducted a show and tell drama with pictures of a secret Iranian nuclear facility, as well as hidden missiles in Beirut. The speech was a searing indictment of the Wests wishful thinking when it comes to Iran, the nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration and the intentions of radical Muslim terrorists.

As David M. Weinberg wrote in The Jerusalem Post in 2017, An overwhelming majority of Israelis ascribes the last decade of stability and triumph to Netanyahus leadership. He may not be the ultimate paragon of virtue  what politician is?

But his prudence and professionalism have best served Israels strategic needs.

Compared to the survival of Israel, the charges brought against Netanyahu are small potatoes.

Which brings me to President Trump. Those who criticize Trump supporters, including his evangelical Christian base, say the standard they applied to President Clinton and his behavior has been abandoned when it comes to Trump.

These critics say the economy was also good under Clinton (one argument Trump supporters say is in the current presidents favor), but that he received no credit from those who claimed then that personal character matters most.

All true, but what about a presidents policies? Should they matter more? President Clinton named justices to the Supreme Court and lower courts who are liberal interpreters of the Constitution and who uphold abortion rights. He also raised taxes, though he and then-Speaker Newt Gingrich did agree on welfare reform.

The question becomes: Which would you choose  questionable character or appealing policies?

Yes, conservatives and evangelicals would prefer a church-going, once-married, faithful politician (like Vice President Mike Pence), but if the choice is between socialism and capitalism, between conservative and liberal judges, between more abortions or fewer, between redefining marriage and defending its once legal  even biblical  definition, between a strong economy and a weaker one, between record low unemployment and higher numbers of the unemployed, between open borders and controlling illegal immigration, the choice isnt that difficult.

A look at history reveals some pretty bad characters whose policies were well regarded.

As Britishheritage.com notes, Winston Churchill was a strong and bullish leader. His leadership during WWII is remembered very fondly.  Many, however, deem Churchill culpable in a plethora of human rights violations, and question his views toward races different to his own.

Benjamin Franklin was no paragon of virtue, but his assistance in founding America, along with his inventions, are highly regarded by historians. The same is true for Thomas Jefferson and other founders who owned slaves.

In modern times, John F. Kennedy was a notorious adulterer, but is credited with establishing the Peace Corps and launching America to the moon. His successor, Lyndon Johnson, fought for civil rights and open housing laws, but, according to his biographer, Robert Caro, used racist language in private.

The point is not to excuse bad behavior in leadership, but to examine their policies to see if they promote the general welfare. In the cases on Netanyahu and Trump, they have.

Whether those policies overcome whatever personal flaws these men have will be up to Israels legal system and voters next month and the U.S. legal system and voters next year.

Cal Thomas, Americas most-syndicated columnist, is the author of 10 books
The following is a release by the Elections and Boundaries Commission on the recount request
Demonstrators drag the body of a fellow protester toward police, as a form of protest after police shot into the crowd in which he died, during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Haitian President Jovenel Moise near the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019. Protesters are angry about skyrocketing inflation and the government's failure to prosecute embezzlement from a multi-billion Venezuelan program that sent discounted oil to Haiti. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale has supported a statement by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch on the need to replace Chief of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) Nazar Kholodnytsky.

Hale said this at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday, March 7, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Ambassador Yovanovitch represents the president of the United States here in Ukraine, and America stands behind her statements [regarding the need to replace the SAPO chief]," he said.

When asked whether the U.S. ambassador's statement was interference in Ukraine's internal affairs, Hale said that the United States seeks what the Ukrainian people seek  the aspirations clearly defined and expressed during the Revolution of Dignity.

"Ukrainian people said then and they say now, I believe, that they want to make a choice  the choice for transparency, accountability and modern good corporate governance. It's especially important that the institutions [in Ukraine] be led by individuals who are committed to those values, especially the institutions that are designed to enforce those rules," Hale said.

Earlier, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch called for the dismissal of Chief of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Nazar Kholodnytsky.

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| By Lou Cortina

In covering Donald Trump, New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman has learned that not all of the 45th presidents tweets are created equal. In fact, Haberman says Trumps Twitter feed is not quite the window into his brain that people want to think it is and that every post shouldnt be considered breaking news.

We should cover his tweets when they are newsworthy, which is different from what happened when he first came into office, Haberman told a crowd of 200-plus on March 5 as the featured guest at the University of Maryland, Baltimores (UMB) Presidents Panel on Politics and Policy. At the outset, his tweets were covered every single time, regardless of their actual impact, because this was a new way of seeing a president do things. But I have this saying that I feel every tweet from Trump gets treated like its a four-alarm fire. But if everything is a four-alarm fire, then nothing is a four-alarm fire.

UMB President Jay A. Perman and New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman at the President's Panel on Politics and Policy

Some of these tweets are just him riffing, she added. So I think you have to assess what the actual news value is, not what you think hes trying to do with the tweet.

Haberman, who began covering Trump when he was a New York real estate developer, offered her unique insights on his presidency, discussed the state of journalism, and talked about her 23-year reporting career during the 90-minute event at the SMC Campus Center. It was the eighth such panel since UMB President Jay A. Perman, MD, launched the initiative in January 2017 to examine issues important to the University community that are likely to be affected by the Trump administration and Congress.

(See a video below.)

Perman kicked off the proceedings by praising Haberman, whos also a CNN political analyst, for winning a 2018 Pulitzer Prize along with her New York Times colleagues for their coverage of the Trump administration and alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as for receiving the Aldo Beckman Award for presidential news coverage from the White House Correspondents Association.

She is one of the countrys most respected journalists and one of the most reliable sources for expert commentary on current events and national issues, said Perman, who noted that Haberman has been called a scoop machine by The Week and a Trump whisperer by Vanity Fair. The latter moniker alludes to the relationship shes built with Trump since the 1990s while working for the New York Post, New York Daily News, Politico, and now The Times.

Quite frankly, she has access to President Trump that other journalists envy  or perhaps dread, added Perman. After his introduction, Perman sat down with Haberman and asked her questions, such as is the presidents combative nature with reporters something of a show, does he turn down the temperature during private interactions.

He does turn it down, Haberman said. And the most fundamental thing to understand about Donald Trump is that he actually hates one-on-one personal conflict. So the kinds of things he says about us on Twitter, in interviews, or when hes speaking to a crowd, he rarely will say that one-on-one. He enjoys being around reporters. He likes those types of private engagements. He likes having a captive audience.

The conversation steered into the topic of Trumps penchant to shade the truth when speaking to the news media and how Haberman deals with that as a reporter. She said reporters will always have a difficult time figuring out whats true or not with Trump, and that its exacerbated by the fact that he usually has two or more warring factions around him.

He likes having people vying for the attention of the leader. So that creates its own problem because each side is shading information in a particular way that makes it harder to know whats true, said Haberman, who added that she and her colleagues have to take a sources motives into account to a greater extent than normal. We have to do this rigorous establishing of the basic facts, and thats not typical in the reporting process. And we still do, frankly, because there still is this swirl of uncertainty.

Of course, no discussion about Trump and the news media would be complete without delving into the issue of fake news and its impact on journalism and the political climate. Haberman said New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger has twice told the president that his constant criticism of the news media is enabling dictators around the world who use it as justification for crackdowns on the press.

The president has sort of nodded and appeared to hear it and then moved on and resumed [bashing the media], Haberman said. Hes not going to change. Its not that he doesnt understand what hes doing at this point, its that he doesnt care. But the consequences are dramatic, because it creates permission structures for people who dont wish to have a free press.

Look, there are legitimate reasons why people dont trust the news media, and we have done that to ourselves at times. But I dont like the phrase fake news because I think its meaningless at this point. I think the presidents appropriation of the term has rendered it non-functional.

Asked about the seemingly growing disunity in the country by audience members following Permans questions, Haberman reminded them that the path to polarization didnt begin with Trump, saying the roots of dissension can be tracked back to the Republican Congress and Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s, the contested presidential election of 2000, and the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

We tend to treat Trump completely in isolation, as if everything he does is somehow unique and on its own, and thats just not true, Haberman said. There are actually parts of him that are somewhat reminiscent of Bill Clinton  not in terms of policies, but in terms of style. So Donald Trump is not unique, but he is extreme. Donald Trump is not necessarily the origin, but hes the accelerant.

When Haberman was hired by The Times in 2015, she asked to cover Trumps campaign for the Republican nomination. She said that she needed a beat and that other reporters werent exactly lining up for the assignment.

My plan for 2016 was that there would be a campaign, and of course Hillary Clinton was going to win based on all of the polls, Haberman said. Then I was going to take a month off after the election and be with my kids. I never got that month off.

So the Trump beat continues, and Haberman expects more of the same from the president.

Somebody once asked me, How is he different from what you thought hed be as president? Hes exactly who I thought hed be as president, she said. If you paid attention to the campaign, there should be very little that surprises you.  Theres a constant focus on the idea that theres some kind of degeneration going on, but I just dont see that. I think hes who he is and who hes always been.
| By Patricia Fanning

The setting was a building being converted from industrial use to startups in a neighborhood near the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). On its seventh floor, a dental clinic took shape, beckoning adults whose circumstances in life had led them to forgo dental care for months or, in some cases, for years or even decades.

There the action centered on 200 students of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD) who treated more than 600 people during 715 patient visits at the 2019 Baltimore Mission of Mercy. Organized by UMSOD and United Way of Central Maryland (UWCM), the event took place on Feb. 28 and March 1. The students were joined by supervising faculty members, dozens of UMSOD staff members, and volunteers from UMB and supporting organizations.

School of Dentistry fourth-year student David Anguiano, left, shown completing treatment of a patient at Mission of Mercy, says: One of reasons I pursued dentistry was to help others."

(View a photo gallery on Facebook.)

I am extremely proud of what the University of Maryland School of Dentistrys faculty, staff, and student volunteers accomplished in two days. At the Mission of Mercy, we were able to offer needed dental care to more than 600 of our fellow community residents, said Mark A. Reynolds, DDS, PhD, MA, dean and professor at UMSOD. Many of these individuals have limited resources, and our overall aim was to provide to them quality oral health care, which is an integral part of overall health and the quality of life.



Patients were required to be 18 and older and in need of obtaining extractions, restorations (fillings), and cleanings. Those with more complex needs were given referrals.

The need for oral health care is just so great, we need to have these types of activities, said Louis G. DePaola, DDS, MS, associate dean of clinical affairs and professor at UMSOD, adding that many of the patients would have no access to dental care otherwise.



About 60 percent of the 100 chairs at the Mission of Mercy were dedicated to oral surgery and the extraction of teeth because that is the greatest need, DePaola said. For those patients, extraction of diseased teeth improves the level of their oral health and removes potential sources of infection. For many, the procedure also eliminates the pain associated with dental decay.



James Gee, a retired employee of the Baltimore City school system, said one tooth in particular had been hurting. Afterward, he expressed gratitude to the students who cared for him and calmed his nerves. They made me feel like I was getting a haircut or something like that, he said, instead of the four extractions he had required.

In what has proved to be a successful method of streamlining intake during this Mission of Mercy and a previous event, those who wished for dental care were invited to arrive at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27, for pre-screening. The first 200 people were given wristbands, brought in to undergo digital imaging of their jaws, and guaranteed treatment on Thursday or Friday without having to wait in line.



Baltimore resident Ronald Diggs, who retired after a career in environmental services, saw a flier about the event at church and was determined to obtain the dental care he so desperately desired. I was the first one to get here, he said. After arriving at 6:30 a.m., Diggs went back to his home in northwest Baltimore, then returned to the clinics location, the 1100 Wicomico Building, at 1 p.m. After an hours wait, a screening confirmed what his discomfort had already told him: Seven badly decayed teeth would have to go.



The next day, a fourth-year dental student and a third-year assistant performed his extractions. Afterward, unable to speak with rolls of gauze still in his mouth, Diggs gave them a heartfelt thumbs-up.

Some of these patients are getting all their teeth extracted, observed Ramsay Koury, DMD, clinical assistant professor and the Mission of Mercy organizer at UMSOD. Others are elated when their badly deteriorated front teeth are restored by the students, he said. A lot of these patients will shed tears and hug them and tell them how grateful they are. That sense of fulfillment and accomplishment is unparalleled.

Once the students have experienced how rewarding volunteering can be, theyre committed to giving back for life, Koury said. Were combing teaching with service, and were helping underprivileged people.



Student David Anguiano, a member of the DDS Class of 2019, said: One of reasons I pursued dentistry was to help others. In the present time, this Mission of Mercy is one of the things I can do to start helping people.



The clinics largest room was lined by row upon row of temporary oral surgeries staffed by student clinicians garbed in masks, gowns, gloves, and protective eyewear. When appropriate, patients received applications of silver diamide fluoride to arrest the development of cavities in remaining teeth.

In an adjacent room, patients received restorations during both full days and, on Friday only, dental hygiene services.



Overall, patients received dental care valued at $612,340 in a total of 1,743 procedures, according to UWCM.



Most of these patients can't afford their co-pays or (don't) have insurance of any kind, Scott Gottbreht, associate vice president of homeless services, impact strategies at UWCM, said in a WBAL-TV interview that aired Feb. 28. And that's systemic throughout Baltimore. These folks have nowhere to turn for cost-affordable dentistry.



No matter the procedure, everyone who registered was given a medical screening and offered testing for HIV and the hepatitis C virus. The latter was offered by the JACQUES Initiative of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The former was conducted by physicians and nurse practitioners from Saint Agnes Healthcare who were assisted by rotating groups of Bachelor of Science in Nursing students from the University of Maryland School of Nursing.



One notable aspect of the event is that it aligns perfectly with our Medical Mission at Home strategic imperative and gives volunteers from providers and nonprofits in the area a chance to collaborate and interact with each other while serving our community, said Chris A. Chekouras, MBA, president and chief operating officer of Saint Agnes, Ascension.



In addition to Saint Agnes, Ascension, supporting partners included the Maryland State Dental Association Foundation and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.
Life as a refugee was never easy for Zahida, 35, who has been raising five children on her own ever since her husband went missing a few years into the war in Syria. In Lebanon, she said, jobs were scarce and rents were high. But coming home has brought new struggles.

The destruction was indescribable, and at first I didnt recognize my town, she said. Her two-storey home was reduced to rubble, and though relatives took them in, the windows and doors in their borrowed rooms were missing. There was no water, no electricity, she added. We felt that we were in the stone age. But little by little, we made things better.

There was no water, no electricity. We felt that we were in the stone age."

Zahida shared her familys story on Wednesday with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, who visited Syria this week to assess the massive humanitarian needs people are facing here.

This decision to come back is a difficult one, and we must respect that not all refugees and not all [internally] displaced people will make that decision quickly, Grandi said. But for those who make that decision and voluntarily come back here, we must provide them with help  at least for their basic needs and their initial reintegration in their community.

Here in Souran, a dozen miles north of Hama in western Syria, the High Commissioner spent time with several families who have voluntarily returned after being displaced, often multiple times, for months or years. He also met with a newly formed womens group, visited a primary school that reopened in October and toured a bakery that opened in January  all with support from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and its partners.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi meets Syrian returnee Zahida, 35, and her family at their home in Souran, Syria.  UNHCR/Andrew McConnell

Filippo Grandi chats with pupils at the Al-Shuhada School in Souran, Syria.  UNHCR/Andrew McConnell

Filippo Grandi tries freshly baked bread at a bakery in Souran, Syria.  UNHCR/Andrew McConnell

Filippo Grandi meets Abdelkarim and his family at their home in Souran, Syria.  UNHCR/Andrew McConnell

Before the conflict, Souran was home to some 47,000 people, many of them farmers, merchants and labourers. When armed groups overran the town in August 2016, it emptied overnight. Some residents sought refuge in Turkey or Lebanon; the rest fled to nearby Hama city or other parts of Syria.

Abdelkarim is among those who went to Hama, where, he told Grandi, frequent rent hikes forced his family to move from place to place for more than a year. Upon returning to Souran, he found his house filled with wreckage and stripped of anything of value. There were no doors, no faucets, he said. Even the nails were taken out.

With rats and insects keeping the family up at night, Abdelkarim set to work rehabilitating the house. He erected new interior walls and, with support from UNHCR, installed doors and windows that provide greater security.

Altogether, some 33,000 people have returned to Souran, mainly those who had fled to nearby areas in Syria. At least a third of the towns former residents are still living elsewhere.

"For those who voluntarily come back here, we must provide help."

In 2018, an estimated 1.4 million Syrians who were displaced inside their own country have returned home, often trading one set of staggering hardships for another. Even so, they are a minority. After eight years of violence and destruction, millions remain internally displaced, with another 5.6 million refugees still living in neighbouring countries and over 1 million Syrians dispersed to other parts of the world.

Zahida told Grandi she came home to Souran because life in exile was taking a heavy toll on her children. At age 14, her son dropped out of school to help support the family by working in a barbershop. But the money he earned was not enough to cover the school fees for his sisters, who were falling behind in their education.

Their house here stood on a prime corner lot, but today lies in ruin. A concrete staircase dangles from the wreckage like a pendulum, tethered by a few strands of rebar. When I saw it, it was one of the saddest moments in my life, she said.

Now Zahidas oldest daughter attends catch-up classes at the new community centre, and the three younger ones are enrolled at Al-Shuhada primary school, which reopened in November with UNHCR support. It is one of five schools serving the community; 15 others remain closed, mainly due to structural damage. Because so many children have missed months or years of schooling, the crowded classrooms serve students whose ages differ by two or three years.

Grandi also paid a visit to Sourans only bakery, which opened in January with support from UNHCR. Previously the town had to get its bread from a supplier nearly a dozen miles away, but the new one here created 45 jobs and lowered the price of bread by 75 per cent. The bakery has since hired a second shift and goes through 10 tonnes of flour per day, helping to feed more than 12,000 people.

"We wanted to recover our dignity. Outside of our country, its not the same.

The High Commissioner met with a local womens group that has helped some of those returning to Souran regain a sense of community and belonging. We wanted to come back to our homes, to our land, one woman told the High Commissioner. And we wanted to recover our dignity. Outside of our country, its not the same.

We are starting from scratch, she added. We hope we have enough strength to rebuild our lives, but we will need help from others.

UNHCRs policy is to help those who are displaced, both inside Syria and abroad, and to help ensure that Syrians who are voluntarily returning home and settling back into their communities receive the humanitarian support they urgently need.
A Venezuelan family walks along a highway near the border city of Cucuta, Colombia, October 2018.  UNHCR/Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, together with the Colombian authorities, is opening today a reception centre to offer support to vulnerable refugees and migrants from Venezuela in the border city of Maicao, in La Guajira region. The Integrated Assistance Centre, set up at the request of national and local authorities, has an initial capacity of 350, but has the possibility to grow to accommodate more people in the future. Vulnerable persons from Venezuela will have temporary access to shelter, food, water, basic medical care, and other services in the centre.

The reception centre, the first of its kind in Colombia, aims at temporarily addressing the urgent humanitarian and protection needs of the most vulnerable people fleeing from Venezuela, as well as supporting the response of the local authorities.

Maicao is one of the cities in La Guajira with the highest concentration per capita of refugees and migrants from Venezuela. Hundreds of people, including children, the elderly, persons with disabilities and critical medical conditions, are forced to live on the streets, due to a lack of alternative shelter options. According to a recent UNHCR assessment, a significant number of Venezuelans in Maicao are living on the streets or in informal settlements and 81 per cent of those interviewed said that they required shelter.

The planning and building of the reception centre followed extensive consultations at national and local level, including with host communities, in order to ensure that the centre provides the most effective response to their specific needs and concerns.

Over 3.4 million Venezuelans are living abroad of whom 2.7 million have left the country since 2015. Colombia is the country most affected by this outflow, with over 1.1 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants. The government has made commendable efforts to respond to these arrivals, through a generous open border policy, a series of status regularization measures and facilitating access to basic services. However, the humanitarian needs have overwhelmed the countrys reception capacity and many Venezuelans face protection risks due to a lack of documents, access to health care, food, water and education, resulting in many vulnerable individuals being forced to live on the streets and the risk of abuse and exploitation.

In order to complement the governments efforts to provide international protection and respond to the increasing humanitarian needs of the arrivals from Venezuela, UNHCR is working to strengthen shelter networks, provide legal counselling and facilitate access to food, water, education and health services to people in dire need.

Across the region, UNHCR is working for refugees and migrants from Venezuela, whose legal, protection and humanitarian needs continue to require urgent international support. The Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan for 2019, requires US$738 million to provide a response for the needs of 2.2 million Venezuelans and 500,000 people in host communities in 16 countries.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
A Venezuelan mother and child cross the Simon Bolivar Bridge to Cucuta, Colombia, January 2019.  UNHCR/Siegfried Modola

Geneva, 8 March  As a result of the situation in Venezuela, the number of asylum applications by Venezuelan citizens worldwide has increased exponentially, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, announced today. Since 2014, over 414,000 asylum claims have been lodged by Venezuelans worldwide, nearly 60 percent of them (248,000), during 2018 alone.

Two thirds of asylum applications by Venezuelans were registered in Latin America and the rest in North America and some European countries.

These figures are provided by national authorities, which are responsible for assessing asylum applications in all countries in the region, and for all issues related to refugee protection and local integration.

UNHCR works closely with national institutions to enhance asylum systems, including registration and documentation, as well as with civil society organizations to provide humanitarian assistance and promote the social, cultural and economic inclusion of refugees.

In the current context of increasing asylum applications by Venezuelan citizens in neighbouring countries, including former security forces personnel, UNHCR reiterates the need to maintain the civilian and humanitarian character of asylum.

The number of asylum applications represents only one part of the total outflow of Venezuelans, which is estimated at over 3.4 million people. In addition to asylum seekers, Latin American countries have granted some 1.3 million residence permits and other forms of regular status to Venezuelans, which allow them access to basic services, including health and education and, in most countries, the right to work.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
In a packed meeting room at the Camp-in-Charges office, Rohingya refugee Tansima* raises her hand to speak up for her community.

We need more street lights, says Tansima, 28, who is an elected deputy bloc leader at the worlds largest refugee settlement, which is home to 620,000 people, more than half of them women or girls.

It will make it easier to access latrines and shops will be able to stay open after dark, she adds.

Denied a voice or even basic rights in her native Myanmar, Tansima is among a growing number of Rohingya refugee women who take on key roles ranging from elected community representatives, to teachers and even road builders and firefighters in Bangladesh.

We are the voices of our community, speaking on their behalf."

Elected by neighbours in her bloc of the sprawling camp, the mother of three children, meets regularly with residents to hear their concerns ranging from access to aid distributions, to questions about services and playgrounds for children.

She then joins with other elected bloc leaders to present the refugees points of view to the Bangladeshi authorities that run the settlement, and the aid agencies that support them.

We are the voices of our community, speaking on their behalf to government officials, UN and humanitarian partners and making sure their voices are heard, she says.

See also: Supporting Rohingya refugees and their hosts in Bangladesh

Some 740,000 stateless Rohingya refugees fled a deadly crackdown in Myanmars northern Rakhine State that began in August 2017, and followed decades of persecution and violence.

Tansimas role as a representative for her section of the settlement  which is home to 6,200 women, children and men  is in stark contrast to her life in Myanmar, where she never had a chance to go to school, move freely, get a job or speak out.

This is a new experience for me. I am respected in my community, people listen to my advice and as a committee, we work together and coordinate, she says.

Starting her day early, she visits the bamboo and plastic roofed homes with three other bloc representatives, there are two men and two women in every bloc. As respected leaders of their community, they mediate in cases of domestic violence and family feuds, and raise awareness on key issues such as public health and emergency preparedness in the disaster-prone region.

See also: Angelina Jolie urges end to injustices that have driven nearly one million Rohingya into exile

As she grows into this role, she counts on the full support of her husband Selim. I agree with my wife working and going out to help the community, he says. She is an integral part of our family and of the community, why shouldnt she work?

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, actively supports womens involvement in governance structures in the settlements in Bangladesh and the full gamut of activities there.

Among a growing number of women filling key roles is Nur Begum, 20, who teaches first and second graders at one of the new two-storey informal learning centres funded by UNHCR and managed by the Bangladeshi non-governmental organization BRAC.

Back home I was only able to complete 10th grade due to movement restrictions, but I was very good in Burmese and math. Now I teach and help children, says Nur, who works side-by-side with women teachers from Bangladesh.

"I love to share my knowledge, and here it is another learning experience for me."

I love to share my knowledge, and here it is another learning experience for me, I am learning English from the English teacher, she says.

Working alongside her at the centre is Rohingya educator Samia, 21. Married with a one-year-old daughter, she teaches math and life skills. While conditions remain extremely challenging for refugees at the settlement, she is at least able to dream of a future for her children.

What I want for my daughter is a good education, she says.

More than 30,000 refugee women at the settlement are heads of their households. For many, such as Amira, being able to meet the basic needs of themselves and their dependents is key.

The 20-year-old works alongside half-a-dozen labourers improving a brick-paved access road, leveling the ground, landscaping and greening the roadside and moving sandbags and stones.

I am happy and motivated, she says, pausing from her work. It gives me a small source of income to support my father  who is old and cant work  and support my younger sisters.

For its part, UNHCR is standing shoulder to shoulder with the women at the settlement, supporting them to take up a range of roles that empower them, turning a bleak existence in exile into meaningful lives.

*All refugee names have been changed for protection reasons.
LGBT community joined the action to rally against manifestations of sexism.

On International Women's Day, March 8, the Women's March is being held in Kyiv, where activists speak up against domestic, sexual, and psychological violence.

Hundreds of people gathered for the rally, many of them holding various posters saying No to violence, harassment, prostitution, rape!, My body is my business, and I am a trans-feminist woman. What have you achieved?  according to an UNIAN correspondent.

One of the protesters was seen holding a rainbow flag of the LGBT community.

The Women's March page on Facebook says that the rally is set up to oppose far-right, domestic, sexual, economic and psychological violence, as well as "pressure and violence of the patriarchal structure."

Participants in the Women's March, in which male participants were also seen, said they support the adoption of the Istanbul Convention, urging, in particular, to ensure women's protection from violence, give them equal opportunities, and abolish gender stereotypes.

On cameras, participants threw in the garbage can the so-called tools of oppression of patriarchy, a frying pan and high-heeled shoes among them.

Among other things, the protesters stressed that they oppose the ban on the right to abortion and kitchen slavery.

The opponents of the March gathered nearby holding banners with slogans saying God! Motherland! Patriarchate!, Feminism destroys Ukrainian families, and Modern feminism disfigures Gods image of a woman and flags, in particular, with the symbols of the Tradition and Order Movement.

The action participants and their opponents were separated by a police cordon.

An altercation was reported between the two opposing sides, while police forces quickly de-escalated the incident.

An aggressive protester from anti-feminist camp was detained, reports say.
If the initiative is approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, it will be submitted to be signed by president.

Members of the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, March 7, unilaterally endorsed and submitted for the House consideration a Bill "To prohibit United States Government recognition of Russias annexation of Crimea" was unanimously endorsed

"It is the policy of the United States not to recognize the de jure or de facto sovereignty of the Russian Federation over Crimea, its airspace, or its territorial waters," the Bill says.

Also, "no Federal department or agency may take any action or extend any assistance that recognizes or implies recognition of the de jure or de facto sovereignty of the Russian Federation over Crimea, its airspace, or its territorial waters," according to the text of the Bill.

Read alsoMFA: Ukraine reserves the right to develop missile weapons after Russia withdraws from INF Treaty

At the same time, it is noted that the U.S. president may waive the non-recognition norms "if the President determines that it is vital to the national security interests of the United States to do so."

If the initiative is approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, it will be submitted to be signed by president.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on March 15, the UN Security Council will hold a meeting dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the start of the Russian occupation of Crimea.
The investigation that led to the arrests started after the candidate reported the bribe attempt.

Ukraines Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said two people had been arrested for trying to bribe a presidential candidate, Yuriy Tymoshenko, into dropping his run.

Yuriy Lutsenko said in a post on Facebook that the suspects proposed paying Yuriy Tymoshenko UAH 5 million ($188,000) to drop out of contention for the March 31 vote, according to The Associated Press.

The post said the investigation that led to the arrests started after the candidate reported the bribe attempt.

Read alsoCEC appeals to security service, police over National Squads militia's "use of force" statement

Critics say Tymoshenko, who has the same family name as former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, is a spoiler candidate aimed at stealing votes from the two-time prime minister who is one of the front-runners in the race.

Yuriy Tymoshenko, a former driver, was elected to the Ukrainian parliament in 2014.

Yulia Tymoshenko at a press conference this week said she considered the bribe to the man with the same family name as hers had been orchestrated at President Poroshenkos campaign team.
At the same time, the delegation considered that the unprecedentedly large number of presidential candidates and domestic observers might impede the smooth conduct of polling and raise a challenge on election day.

A delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) was in Kyiv on March 6-7 to assess the pre-electoral climate ahead of the presidential election in Ukraine, scheduled for March 31.

The delegation comprised of the parliamentarians from UK, Lithuania, Norway, Azerbaijan, and Switzerland felt that the general environment was appropriate for the holding of democratic elections. However, following discussions with various interlocutors, it considered it necessary to stress that there was still room for improvement and that the period of time left until election day should allow for some progress to be made.

The delegation felt that the Central Election Committee (CEC) acted professionally and was preparing the election well. However, it considered that the unprecedentedly large number of presidential candidates and domestic observers might impede the smooth conduct of polling and raise a challenge on election day. Indeed, the right for candidates to be represented on polling boards and for domestic observers to be present within the polling stations could lead to logistical difficulties on election day.

Read alsoUkrainian presidential candidate offered bribe to ditch election: AP

Also, the delegation regrets that freedom of speech in Ukraine is limited by the fact that the media, being mainly owned by oligarchs, instead of presenting the pre-electoral environment in a balanced manner, tend to function as public relation channels for individual candidates.

Some of the candidates campaign rhetoric seems to lack references to genuine political programmes, making it difficult for voters to make an informed choice.

The delegation welcomed the active role played by civil society during the pre-election period and recalled that civil society is one of the main players in a true democracy and should be respected as such. However, it expressed concern that a number of NGOs seem to be affiliated to parties and/or candidates. It was also alarmed to hear that known paramilitary entities have been registered as domestic observers and have allegedly threatened to use force against perceived infractions on election day.

The delegation heard allegations about the misuse of administrative resources during the election campaign, in particular about the blurring of the lines between presidential and campaign activities. The delegation heard allegations of illegal expenditure during the election campaign and underlined the need for complete transparency concerning the campaign financing of all candidates.

Read alsoFacebook prohibits foreign-funded ads for Ukraine election  media

It was also very concerned to hear allegations of intensive efforts on the part of some candidates to establish vote-buying systems.

The delegation also noted with regret the low number of women candidates.

It acknowledged the efforts made by the Ukrainian authorities to have a genuine election process and urged them to continue to operate in accordance with European standards and best practices. The legislative framework for the presidential elections is good and, if applied in good faith, should lead to democratic elections.

The PACE delegation also hopes that the authorities will have sufficient means to protect the electoral process against abuses and interferences of any kind.

A 33-member delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will arrive in Ukraine prior to the presidential election to observe the vote.
Commander of Ukraine's Joint Forces Serhiy Nayev is confident in the Ukrainian army's victory.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine are ready for all forms and methods of fighting, including offensive operations.

"The Joint Forces are ready for all forms and methods of warfare," Commander of Ukraine's Joint Forces Serhiy Nayev said on Channel 1+1 when asked whether Ukraine is ready for an offensive to retake Russian-occupied areas in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, the TV news service TSN reported.

"I wouldn't be a commander and my subordinates wouldn't be soldiers of the Joint Forces if we were not ready for all forms and methods that combat suggests in general," he said.

Read alsoNew truce in Donbas announced from March 8

Nayev says that as a military man he thinks that "we must fight" for the Ukrainian people and "we must win."

As UNIAN reported earlier, Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces Gen. Viktor Muzhenko says Russia is completing the formation of its strike force on the border with Ukraine, which together with special-operations units will form the base for the Kremlin's invasion fist.

"Russia is completing the formation of the strike groupings on borders with Ukraine, which, jointly with spec-ops units  according to the Kremlin strategists  will form the base of their invasion forces," he said on March 3.
After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced on Thursday by a U.S. judge to less than four years in prison  far shy of federal sentencing guidelines  for financial crimes uncovered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis imposed the 47-month sentence on Manafort, 69, during a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia in which the veteran Republican political consultant asked for mercy but did not express remorse for this actions, Reuters said.

Ellis also ordered Manafort to pay a fine of $50,000.

Read alsoBloomberg: New York has prepared Paul Manafort charges if Trump pardons him

Manafort was found guilty last August by a jury of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

While prosecutors had not recommended a specific sentence, they had cited federal sentencing guidelines that called for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison. But Ellis said the sentencing guidelines were excessive and would create an unwarranted disparity with other cases.

Ellis also noted during the hearing that Manafort "is not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election."

Before the sentencing, Manafort thanked Ellis for conducting a fair trial. He expressed no remorse but talked about how the case has been difficult for him and his family. Manafort, who opted not to testify during his trial, told the court that "to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement." He described his life as "professionally and financially in shambles."

Manafort was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the U.S. government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraine's former pro-Russia government. After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

Manafort faces sentencing in a separate case next Wednesday in Washington on two conspiracy charges to which he pleaded guilty last September.

While he faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson potentially could stack that on top of the sentence imposed in the Virginia case, rather than allowing the sentences to run concurrently.

Manafort is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mueller to have gone to trial. Several others including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen have pleaded guilty, while longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty.

Gates, a key witness against Manafort, has yet to be sentenced due to his ongoing cooperation with prosecutors.
"Fortunately, we do not live in the times before 1989 when the Russian/Soviet Embassy dictated who could say, or write, what in Slovakia," the op-ed author, the defense ministry's state secretary, claimed on Facebook.

The Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry summoned Alexej Fedotov, the Russian Ambassador to Slovakia, on March 7 due to an open letter published on the Facebook profile of the Russian Embassy in Slovakia.

The General director of the political section of the ministry, Marian Jakubocy, stressed during the meeting that it is unacceptable for the embassy to publicly comment on and evaluate a representative of a country, in this case the state secretary of the Defence Ministry, Spectaror.sme.sk reports citing the ministry's statement.

Earlier, the Russian Embassy in Slovakia has sent a note verbale to Slovakia's Foreign Affairs Ministry in response to the op-ed written by State Secretary of the Defence Ministry Robert Ondrejcsak (Most-Hid) concerning the fifth anniversary of the start of military conflict in Ukraine.

The piece, titled "Five Years since Crimea: The War in Europe is not taboo", was published in the Sme daily on February 26.

"Technically speaking, Russia carried out a military operation against Ukraine in February 2014, first on the Crimean peninsula. It invaded Crimea by using military force and subsequently annexed it," Ondrejcsak wrote.

When commenting on the note, Jakubocy said that these attitudes are not the official position of the Slovak government.

Read alsoBill obliging U.S. Federal agencies not to recognize Crimea annexation approved by House Foreign Affairs Committee

At the same time, from the point of view of protecting Slovakias security interests, it is very alarming that the basic principles of international law were violated by the annexation of part of the Ukrainian territory to Russia based on an illegitimate and illegal referendum in Crimea and Sevastopol, according to the statement.

Slovakia respects the principle of indivisibility of state borders and the observation of international law. In this respect, Slovakia supports the sovereignty of Ukraine and its integrity within internationally approved borders, Jakubocy confirmed.

At the end of the meeting, Jakubocy handed a note verbale from Slovakia to Fedotov, the ministry wrote in the statement.

After the embassy published its response on Facebook, Ondrejcsak wrote that Slovakia is a confident, free and democratic EU member state as well as a member state of NATO.

"I am the official representative of Slovakia, state secretary at the Defence Ministry of the Slovak Republic, not of the Russian Federation," he wrote. Therefore, he formulated his opinions in accordance with Slovakia's interests and statements in the published op-ed.

"Fortunately, we do not live in the times before 1989 when the Russian/Soviet Embassy dictated who could say, or write, what in Slovakia," Ondrejcsak claimed on Facebook.
"Don't believe the Russian hype," journalists say.

Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russias potential to seize territory in its near abroad and prevent NATO from reinforcing the victim of the aggression has become a source of alarm.

If there is ever such a land-grab operation against one of the Baltic States, it is feared, Russia could use its military might and geographic position to create a no-go zone and keep NATO reinforcements from reaching the annexed territory in time by cordoning off the theater of operations. This could be done using a combination of long-range anti-air, anti-ship, and anti-land missile systems, known in military jargon as an anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capability, Foreign Policy wrote.

After Russias attack on Ukraine in 2014, Western defense officials began to worry about their ability to operate within the reach of Russias missile systems. The possible implications of Russian A2/AD capabilities were felt most acutely in the Baltic Sea region, where NATO reinforcements to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania could be stopped by missiles from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad sandwiched between northern Poland and Lithuania.

Read alsoSweden says it built Russian fighter jet killer

In Sweden, there are fears that Russia, in a crisis or war, might grab the island of Gotlandlocated about 120 miles from Stockholm and 220 miles north of Kaliningradand deploy missile systems there to seal off access to the Baltic States. Until 2016, the island was de facto demilitarized, whereas today there is a mechanized company of some 150 Swedish soldiers protecting the island.

Foreign Policy writes that, despite these dangers, "the threat emanating from Russias long-range missiles has been overblown since the war in Ukraine, which was a rude awakening to many in the West."

"All too often, Russias claims have been accepted at face value without factoring in its interest to present itself as a great power, to boost arms exports, and to carve out political influence on the cheap. After all, exaggerating the capabilities of its A2/AD systems is enough to attain a deterrent effect if Western decision-makers believe these claims to be true."

Read alsoNATO jets able to confuse Russia's A2/AD systems  Stoltenberg

The most notable example of such fearmongering is the often-cited claim that the Russian S-400 air defense system can create no-go zones reaching 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Kaliningrad. If trueor just believed to be truethis could have major consequences. If NATO is seen as unable to protect its Baltic members from Russian aggression, this puts its fundamental collective defense commitment into question. Thus, Russia has a strategic interest in making its missile capabilities seem more threatening than they are.

Drawing on expertise at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, we have published a reportBursting the Bubblethat takes a closer look at Russias A2/AD capabilities in the Baltic Sea Region. We find that Russias long-range missile systems, though capable, fall notably short of the Kremlins maximalist claims. The technological limitations of the Russian missile systems, vulnerabilities apparent from their field operations in Syria, and the range of possible countermeasures available to NATO, suggest that Russias no-go bubbles are smaller than claimed, more penetrable, and arguably also burstable.

Claims of far-reaching Russian A2/AD capabilities are mainly based on three systems: the S-400, the Bastion anti-ship system, and the Iskander ballistic missile. But early analyses have often equated maximum range with effective range, underestimated the inherent problems of hitting moving targets at large distances, and ignored a wide range of possible countermeasures. Together, this has led to the widespread overestimation Russias missile capabilities.

The S-400 system is often said to have a 250-mile range and to be capable of intercepting a wide range of targets, from transport aircraft to fighter jets, using a set of different missiles. However, the longest-range missile in the system, the 40N6, is not yet operational and has been plagued by problems in development and testing. Currently, the S-400 system is mainly a threat to large high-value aircraft such as Airborne Warning and Control System planes at medium to high altitudes (between 10,000 and 30,000 feet), at a range of 120 to 150 miles. In contrast, the effective range against agile fighter jets and cruise missiles operating at low altitudes can be as little as 12 to 22 miles.

Read alsoRussia holds drills involving ballistic missiles in Crimea, Donbas  Klimkin

Moreover, while an S-400 battery can use several search radars to find targets, it is dependent on a single engagement radar to track targets and to guide the missiles in flight. This makes the battery vulnerable to attacks targeting the engagement radar and to attacks by swarms of cruise missiles.

The Bastion-P anti-ship missile system can constitute a threat to targets such as aircraft carriers out to a 180-mile range. But because the Earth is round, conventional ground-based radars cannot see ships more than approximately 25 miles away. Hence, airborne or forward-placed radars are needed to provide and update targeting data at extended ranges. To date, Russia has not demonstrated this capability.

The Iskander-M ballistic missile is clearly a danger to fixed ground targets within a 300-mile range. But the number of known missiles deployed in Kaliningrad is still small, just 48 in total, when compared to the number of potential targets, especially when the need to hold some of these nuclear-capable missiles back for possible nuclear use is taken into account.
DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 07th Mar, 2019) H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Chairman of the Education and Human Resources Council, has inaugurated the "HCT InncuVation Space" at the HCT-Dubai campuses, a high-tech innovation and entrepreneurial incubator in keeping with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid approved HCT becoming an economic zone with funds of AED100 million, which will be used to support the nurturing and graduation of entrepreneurs in line with the Article 6 of the Dubai 50-Year Charter, which states that universities should be transformed into innovative economic free zones to give students the ability to undertake innovative and economic activities.

During the inauguration, His Highness Sheikh Abdullah affirmed the importance of the UAE youth as a national resource, who are encouraged to build a better future for themselves. He noted this approach is dependent on education as a national priority.

H.H. Sheikh Abdullah praised HCTs strong responsiveness to the leaderships directives, which saw HCT open the first Innovative Free Zone among universities in the UAE. The launch of the Free Zone is a massive forward shift as part of the HCTs transformative journey. His Highness also praised the innovative design and approach of the Space and its comprehensive approach to the incubation of ideas and the forging of partnerships with public and private sectors, as well as local and international partnerships.

His Highness was pleased to meet HCT students who shared their experiences, ideas and exhibitions, and in doing so he praised the students projects and talents, which reflected their high level of skills and education.

During the campus visit, Sheikh Abdullah was accompanied by Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation, Dr. Ahmad bin Abdullah Humaid Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Higher Education and Advanced Skills, Dr. Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Director-General of Smart Dubai Office and HCT board of Trustees member, Abdu Rahman Al Awar, Director of the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources and Vice-President of the HCT Board of Trustees, and Dr. Abdullatif Al Shamsi, HCT President and CEO.

HCT students provided an explanation of the HCT InncuVation Space to H.H. Sheikh Abdullah, which is designed to motivate students for applied work, and innovative and entrepreneurial projects. The HCT InncuVation Space consists of the following five specific zones: Media & Design Zone; Fabrication & Maker Space Zone; Programming & Robotics Zone; Business & Entrepreneurship Zone and General Purpose Computing Zone H.H. Sheikh Abdullah met with representatives of companies at the InncuVation Space, which partner with HCT to provide HCT students with future skills that prepare them for the labor market. The entities were: Oracle; SAP; Huawei; Micro Strategy; Stallion; CERT Telematics; AI Academy; Mercedes Benz; Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center; and EON Virtual academy Sheikh Abdullah was given a presentation by Dr. Abdullatif Al Shamsi, HCT President and CEO, about the new HCT 4.0 strategy, which is aligned to the directives from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum relating to the 4th Industrial Revolution.

The HCT 4.0 strategy builds on the HCT 2.

0 strategy, which focused on the employment of students, and will now create opportunities for knowledge investment and innovation in order to support the national economy. The new strategy will have three pillars of Technical Leadership, Education opportunities for all, and graduations producing entrepreneurs. The strategy will provide specialised and innovative leaders and entrepreneurs.

In a full schedule, Sheikh Abdullah was also given a presentation about the SHOREK initiative, where students discussed their campus and academic lives, as well as about entrepreneurship opportunities, volunteering work, social media use and how to invest in 4th Industrial Revolution tools in the areas of government and student services.

On a more cultural side, students were able to showcase their artistic talents to H.H. Sheikh Abdullah, with musical and singing performances, arts, calligraphy, photography and drawing.

Another feature of the day was H.H. Sheikh Abdullahs participation in the 6th edition of the LEQA (Learning from Entrepreneurs through Questions & Answers), where he answered a series of questions from a panel of HCT students. His Highness shared with the audience lessons on loyalty to the UAE, as well as advancement through hard work to ensure the countrys growth. The capacity audience were also treated to a number of inspirational success stories from Sheikh Abdullah. Following this, Sheikh Abdullah happily participated in a group photo with the 120 male and female students of the firstgraduating cohort of the HCTs Technical Studies Programme.

The graduates are now qualified for employment in the labor market in the fields of Human Resources and IT. Sheikh Abdullah also witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between HCT and the Abdul Baset Al Janahi, CEO of Dubai SME, which will see the establishment of a business incubator in the InncuVation Space, which will facilitate students to be entrepreneurs in the future.

For his part, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation and HCT Chancellor, said: "Sheikh Abdullahs visit affirms His Highnesss keenness to know more about the developments of HCTs strategic plan, as well as keeping updated with HCT, especially following the directives of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, which will transfer the HCT campuses into economic zones."

"The visit added value for HCT because of His Highnesss continuous directives which highlight the importance of education, finding solutions and economic development so as to keep abreast with the labor market needs. These support the preparation of the national human resources to need the challenges of the future," he added.

He went on to say that with the launch of the HCT InncuVation Space, HCT will aim to enhance its partnerships with the public and private sectors so as to invest in UAE youth and facilitate them to be more creative and innovative. "Ultimately HCT colleges will adopt these students innovative ideas, as young entrepreneurs are able to drive a more sustainable economy of the UAE," he said.

The minister praised the efforts of Sheikh Abdullah and all authorities, and public and private sectors, for their contributions to helping develop the leaders of tomorrow. He also thanked His Highness for his continuous support of higher education institutions, which in turn enhances their performances and fulfilment of the national mission.
(@FahadShabbir)

YEREVAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th March, 2019) Officials from the defense ministries of Armenia and the United Kingdom on Thursday signed a cooperation program for 2019, the Armenian military's press service said in a statement shared with Sputnik.

"The program of defense cooperation between Armenia and the United Kingdom was signed on March 7 as a result of the bilateral consultations that were held in Yerevan," the statement read.

The officials from the two countries also summarized their bilateral cooperation in 2018 during their meeting. Last year, Yerevan and London held several rounds of strategic consultations, carried out tactical exercises and implemented defense and cultural exchange programs, according to the statement.

Armenian Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan received the participants of the meeting on Thursday. Their talks were dedicated to regional security and the activities of the Armenian humanitarian mission in Syria.

Head of the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Syrian Reconciliation, Lt. Gen. Sergei Solomatin, has said that on February 8, an 83-strong humanitarian mission from Armenia began working in Syria. The mission is engaged in demining activities and providing medical assistance to the residents of the city of Aleppo. Russia has been providing logistics support to the Armenian mission.
The Guatemalan consulate in Texas in a statement expressed concern over the months-long delay in the release of autopsy results of seven-year-old Jakelin Caal who died in December while in US custody

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th March, 2019) The Guatemalan consulate in Texas in a statement expressed concern over the months-long delay in the release of autopsy results of seven-year-old Jakelin Caal who died in December while in US custody.

The Guatemalan girl died on December 8, two days after she was apprehended together with her father for illegal entry into the United States along with a group of 163 undocumented immigrants, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

"Tomorrow is three months after the death of Jakelin Caal, so today we express to the forensic office of El Paso our concern about the delay in the results that will determine the cause of death in this unfortunate case," the consulate said via Twitter on Thursday.

An official at the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner has continuously told Sputnik since December after numerous inquiries that the report is not available at this time.

Lawyers representing the Caal family said Caal was in good condition when she crossed the US border and was arrested by Border Patrol agents.

CBP officials said the agency did everything in its power to provide medical care to Caal as soon as they were notified of her condition. CBP also said Caal showed no signs of health issues when they conducted an initial screening after her apprehension.

Caal became ill after being apprehended on December 6 for illegal entry into the United States. She was flown from Lordsburg to the nearest trauma center in the Texas city of El Paso, but doctors were unable to save her. Caal had brain swelling and liver failure, according to CBP. Congressman Raul Ruiz, a licensed physician, told reporters in December that Caal died of sepsis, which is a bacterial infection in the blood.
Three former officials in the Mozambique government, two shipbuilding executives and three former London investment bankers have been charged in a $2 billion fraud and money laundering scheme that resulted in payments of $200 million in bribes, according to an indictment unsealed by the Department of Justice

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th March, 2019) Three former officials in the Mozambique government, two shipbuilding executives and three former London investment bankers have been charged in a $2 billion fraud and money laundering scheme that resulted in payments of $200 million in bribes, according to an indictment unsealed by the Department of Justice.

"The indictment unsealed today alleges a brazen international criminal scheme in which corrupt Mozambique government officials, corporate executives and investment bankers stole approximately $200 million in loan proceeds that were meant to benefit the people of Mozambique," Assistant US Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said in a press release on Thursday.

The $200 million in bribe and kickback payments were related to three loans totaling more than $2 billion that were marketed and sold to US investors, the release said.

Among the charged is Mozambique's former Finance Minister Manuel Chang, 63, with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The South African authorities arrested Chang last December on the request of the United States with an intent to be extradited.

Participants in the scheme conspired to defraud investors by misrepresenting how the loan proceeds would be used, the amount and maturity dates of other loans, the debt Mozambique was obligated to pay, and the ability of Mozambique to repay the loans, the release explained.
With the aid of Kolsch beer and the Ninth into the Heart : Beethoven as a tourist pull at ITB in Berlin

Berlin Bonn and the region are advertising Beethoven's anniversary year 2020 in Bonn at the ITB tourism fair.

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The world out there has to know. It should know. Ludwig van Beethoven was a great friend of nature. He was - after all that posterity has gathered about it - also a Kolschdrinker. But above all he was a great composer. And now the city of Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg region have a big plan - to inform visitors from all over the world at the International Tourism Exchange (ITB). Ludwig van Beethoven, more precisely a Beethoven as a silver bust, shines this afternoon in Hall 7.3a in the "Berlin area" of all places. Beethoven definitely has nothing to do with the Berlin/Bonn connection, or he probably would not have composed his "Ode to Joy".

But a world-famous Bonn theme at the ITB in Berlin inspired North Rhine-Westphalia's Economics Minister Andreas Pinkwart (FDP) to even say that Beethoven might have provided impulses for the digital revolution if he were alive today. A "gift for humanity, a stroke of luck for Germany, a stroke of luck for Bonn" thats Beethoven, says Christian Lorenz, Artistic Director of the Beethoven Jubilee Society BTHVN2020. For the Federal Government, Beethoven is the flagship figure. Angela Merkel most recently invited the heads of state and government to the Elbphilharmonie at the G20 Summit 2017 in Hamburg: to listen to Beethoven's Ninth.

Beethoven as a brand

This stroke of luck is now supposed to pay off. Bonn and the region present Beethoven as a brand - for the great Beethoven anniversary in 2020. At the world's largest tourism fair ITB in Berlin, they want to attract people from all over the world to the birthplace of the composer, where Beethoven lived for 22 years. Whether representatives of the state of NRW, the city of Bonn, the Rhein-Sieg district or the Beethoven Festival - everyone has a story to tell about the world composer. For District Administrator Sebastian Schuster, it is clear: If Beethoven lived in Bonn today, he would have to pass through the Rhein-Sieg district to come out into the world. Drachenfelser Landchen, Siebengebirge, a wonderful region for Beethoven, a nature lover. According to Schuster, there is already a competition among the Kolsch pubs in the Rhein-Sieg district where Beethoven could have drunk his Kolsch. Only one thing is certain: he drank Kolsch. Whether before or after or during the composing doesnt matter, because the success proves the composer right.

The mayor of Alfter, Rolf Schumacher, of Rhein-Voreifel-Touristik, describes it similarly: "Beethoven could only compose so well because he could enjoy the region. Now visitors to Bonn should be able to cycle on an apple route through the region to celebrate Beethoven's anniversary. Bonn's Lord Mayor Ashok Sridharan says that the significance of Beethoven's anniversary year cannot be "underestimated" at all. People from all over Germany, from all over the world are expected in Bonn in 2020.

"It's about connecting people."

Nike Wagner of the Beethoven Festival promises two cycles in the anniversary year: one in March, a second in September. Michael Horn of the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn: "It's about connecting people." With the famous Ninth or with the composer's "experimental things", which Wagner tends to do in the anniversary year. Malte Boecker of the Beethoven-Haus hopes for an increase in the number of visitors: from around 100,000 annually to "130,000 visitors upwards" in 2020. Rein Wolfs of the Bundeskunsthalle wants to make Beethoven experienceable, even palpable, on manuscripts and manuscripts, but in any case "barrier-free and inclusive". "One will also be able to feel the music in the exhibition. And then: "I have the feeling that we are showing a new Beethoven, whereby we let the classical Beethoven be present too".

The hoped-for visitors are still missing. According to Udo Schafer and Ulrich W. Junger with their team from Tourismus & Congress GmbH, they have had around 100 discussions at the ITB in Berlin to date. Schafer's conclusion: "I can tell you: Beethoven is moving people." They keep counting down: This Friday there are still 649 days left until Beethoven's 250th birthday.


LIGHT Nightclub at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino has announced its newest resident, Saweetie. The high energy, female rapper and breakout artist will kick off the five date series on March 9 at LIGHT Nightclub and follow with her official album release party, with date to be announced.

LIGHT Nightclub recently welcomed Saweetie for a high energy, jaw dropping performance that wowed clubgoers and the venue alike. She is sure to bring fierce performances all summer long.

Saweetie is set to perform five dates to kick off the summer season for 2019 at the major Vegas nightlife destination. Known for her sensational hit ICY GRL off her 2018 debut EP, High Maintenance, notable collaborations with G-Eazy and Quavo, the Bay Area rapper will undoubtedly bring epic performances for party-goers at LIGHT Nightclub.

We are so excited to welcome Saweetie to our LIGHT family as our new Las Vegas resident. She has proven to be a breakthrough artist who can really capture the crowd. We immediately saw a stage presence from Saweetie and a connection with her fans that proves she is a world class entertainer and performer! We look forward to having her return as our newest addition to the program, said John Pettei, Managing Partner at LIGHT Nightclub | DAYLIGHT Beach Club.

Saweetie joins The LIGHT 2019 residency program as the latest addition, which already includes Grammy-nominated artists such as Rick Ross, Jeezy and Super Producer/DJs Duke Dumont and Morgan Page. Rounding out the 2019 roster will be an eclectic mix of some of the hottest names in the music industry, featuring the likes of London on Da Track, Ookay, Bassjackers, Soulja Boy, Too $hort, and Whookid.

The LIGHT Vegas merges cutting-edge creativity with incredible hip hop music, to produce an unforgettable nightlife experience. They offer a TRUE VIP experience to their guests.
Stone slab killed boy in Beuel last year : Bonn artist accused of negligent homicide

Beuel The Bonn public prosecutor's office has brought charges against a Beuel stonemason for negligent killing by omission. The occasion is the tragic death of a ten-year-old boy who was crushed by a marble stele while playing in March 2018.

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After the dramatic death of a ten-year-old boy who was buried under a marble stele a year ago, the Bonn public prosecutor's office has now brought charges. A 65-year-old woman will soon have to answer for the tragic accident for negligent killing by omission. The stonemason is accused of having left her man-high sculptures, granite and marble slabs unsecured in front of her studio on Siebenmorgenweg in Beuel and of not having checked their stability. In doing so, she had missed the necessary duty of care.

On the afternoon of March 16, 2018, the ten-year-old had been set-down by his father on the grounds of the Old Wallpaper Factory in Beuel, according to the prosecution. The boy had met there with his boyfriend of the same age. The two pupils had been on their way to a private children's play club; the public, freely accessible path to the facility led them past the stonemason's studio, whose property with the sculptures had only been partially secured by hedges or walls; there had been a gap in between.

1.83 metres high, 500 kilos

As his friend later reported to the police, the ten-year-old had shaken a marble column and tried to climb it, while the stone slab - 1.83 metres high and weighing 500 kilos - had fallen on the boy and buried him under it. The friend ran back to his father, who was still on the premises, and screamed for help.

According to the prosecution, however, the father could not lift the heavy marble slab on his own to free his son underneath. Employees of a nearby gym, but also of the Kinderspiel-Verein, managed to lift the stele together. The severely injured boy was still alive, but any help came too late; he died on his way to the hospital from a traumatic brain injury.

According to the prosecutor, the artist knew that children regularly passed her studio and climbed there on their way to the play club. It would therefore have been their duty to secure her heavy works of art. According to a TUV report, the deadly stele could have toppled over even in a strong wind. It was irregularly shaped - narrow at the bottom and wide at the top - and therefore had a difficult centre of gravity.

According to her defender, the stonemason repeatedly warned the play club that the children should not play or climb on her studio grounds. She had also had two helpers check the stability of her works of art at irregular intervals. The defense's motion that the tragic death should not be publicly negotiated, but rather suspended in advance, was - as a spokesman for the authorities confirmed on Wednesday - rejected by the public prosecutor's office. The trial will soon begin before the Bonn District Court.


Serving our Kids Foundation hosted an open house on Thursday, March 7. Former State Sen. Patricia Farley has been elected board president of Serving Our Kids, a Southern Nevada nonprofit that fights child hunger.

Serving Our Kids is a volunteer-driven organization dedicated to feeding at-risk and homeless children throughout Clark County. It has served more than 435,000 weekend food bags to children and currently supports 63 Clark County schools by providing weekend food bags.

There are enough big hearts in our community that no child should have an empty stomach, said Farley, who made child welfare a high priority during her time in the Legislature.

In Carson City she led bipartisan efforts to better fund education, combat drug abuse and make families a priority in Nevada. She was also served on a blue ribbon commission to improve the child welfare system.

Childhood hunger contributes to lower grades, poor self-esteem, illness and crime, Farley said. People who grow up hungry may not be prepared to live and contribute to their community or Nevada.

Farley said she looks forward to expanding Serving Our Kids reach to over 8000 kids served each week, while retaining its grassroots energy.

Dedicated people pulling together is how change happens, she said.
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The government has issued Decree 15/2019/ND-CP (Decree 15) introducing new requirements for foreign investors in the vocational education sector. The new conditions include establishment size, investment capital, training curriculum, and opening representative offices (ROs) or branches.

Decree 15 will be in effect from March 20, 2019.

Establishment size

According to the decree, an investor would need at least 1,000 square meters of land to establish a basic vocational training center. Secondary level vocational training centers in urban areas and schools in suburbs or rural areas would require at least 10,000 square meters and 20,000 square meters of land respectively.

College-level vocational training schools in urban areas and outside urban areas would require 20,000 square meters and 40,000 square meters of land respectively.

Investment capital

Investors need at least 5 billion VND (US$217,000) to set up a vocational training center. For a secondary vocational school and vocational college, the minimum investment capital has been set at 50 billion VND (US$ 2.1 million) and 100 billion VND (US$4.2 million) respectively.

Training curriculum

The curriculum needs to meet the requirements set out in Item 1, Article 34 of the Law on Vocational Training and should include all the mandatory subjects prescribed by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

In addition, it should not include any content that can pose threats to the national defense or public interest, propagates religions, distorts the countrys history, or has a detrimental effect on culture, ethics, and customs.

Representative offices

According to Decree 15, foreign vocational educational institutions can open ROs to increase cooperation with Vietnamese partners, provide counseling services, conduct seminars, and manage the implementation of partnership agreements with local partners.

ROs can neither be involved in profit-making activities nor set up branches in Vietnam.

To be a licensed RO, the foreign institution must have a legal entity status and should have operated for at least five years in the country of origin.

Branches

To set up a branch or a new campus of a foreign-invested secondary vocational school and college, the investor should have a detailed development plan explaining the need for such an establishment, the name, and scope of the entity, and details about the training fields and subjects.

Establishing another branch or an additional campus would require investors to provide the lease contract of the infrastructure and facilities for at least five years. In addition, the investment capital should be at least 25 percent of the minimum capital requirement for setting up a vocational training institution.
The five billionaires on Forbes 2019 list (source: Vnexpress)

According to Forbes statistics, 11 per cent of the billionaires who were in the 2018 rankings did not make it to the official list in 2019. Specifically, 247 billionaires left the list, including Tran Dinh Long, the chairman of HPG, although shortly before the announcement, Long's assets reached $1 billion again, according to Forbes' updated database.

According to Forbes' explanation, the method chosen by this magazine to assess an individual's assets is based on stock prices and exchange rates on February 8, 2019.

Long's main assets were calculated by Forbes based on his holdings in Hoa Phat. According to the management report 2018 of this enterprise, Long and his relatives own 32.5 per cent of Hoa Phat's capital, more than 530 million shares (equivalent to 25.15 per cent) belong to Long, according to Vnexpress.

However, when Forbes calculated his asset value, HPG's shares were at the bottom.

Closing the session on February 1 (as February 8 was the Lunar New Year holiday), HPG shares on HSX were at VND27,300 ($1.18), the lowest since November 2017 and 40 per cent lower than the VND48,000 ($2.08) when Long was recognised by Forbes as a billionaire.

The market price of Hoa Phat increased in the second half of February and early March to VND35,000 ($1.52). This figure helped Long return to Forbes' current list, with assets of $1 billion, but Hoa Phats chairman was still not listed on the 2019 billionaires list because his assets were below $1 billion on February 8.

The three familiar faces in the billionaire list are Pham Nhat Vuong (chairman of Vingroup), Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao (founder and president of Sovico Holding and a major shareholder of Vietjet and HDBank), and Tran Ba Duong (chairman of Thaco).

The two new faces this year are Nguyen Dang Quang (chairman of Masan Group) and Ho Hung Anh (chairman of Techcombank).

Vietnam's first billionaire (Pham Nhat Vuong)'s assets has more than quadrupled since he entered the ranking in 2013 with $1.5 billion, going from #499 up to #239. Since then, for seven consecutive years, the chairman of Vingroup has been on the list as the foremost Vietnamese billionaire.

According to Forbes, Vuong's assets increased by $2.3 billion a year. Last year, the billionaire listed real estate company Vinhomes to the stock exchange and Vingroup's shares kept an impressive upward trajectory.

The only woman named on the list, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, fell from #766 ($3.1 billion) last year to #1,008 ($2.3 billion) this year. During the past year, Vietjet and HDBank's shares dropped by 33 and 40 per cent, respectively.

Besides being named on the Forbes Billionaires List, Nguyen Dang Quang (chairman of Masan Group) and Ho Hung Anh (Techcombanks chairman), are also renowned for their tight-knit business friendship.

Both are Eastern European students, partners, and started a business of instant noodles and chilli sauce in Russia. The couple also returned to Vietnam after foreign successes.

Techcombanks chairman has the total assets of $1.7 billion and stands at the 1,349th position. Currently, with the capitalisation of over $4 billion and after-tax profit reaching VND8.462 trillion ($367.91 million) in 2018, Techcombank is leading in profitability among the private commercial banks in Vietnam.

The other half of the couplet, Nguyen Dang Quang, chairman of Masan Group, has the total assets of $1.3 billion and ranked 1,717th.

After 15 years of development, Masan Group has become a multi-industry private business, operating in many areas including consumer goods, finance, mining, livestock, and meat processing.

The group also implemented many M&A deals to expand its business with the acquisition of the Nui Phao project, Vinacafe Bien Hoa, Vinh Hao mineral water, Phu Yen beer (Su Tu Trang beer), and Anco animal feed processing.

Thaco chairman Tran Ba Duong made it to the Forbes list for the first time last year and now stands at the 1,349th position with total assets of $1.7 billion, down from $1.8 billion a year before, a fall of 10 levels.
Supporting industries are a major pillar of the economy and set to benefit from incoming foreign manufacturers, Photo: Le Toan

More and more supply chain and procurement managers involved in outsourcing decisions are taking a closer look at Vietnam these days. Not only did Apple supplier GoerTek announce intention to begin producing wireless earphones in Vietnam, Cheng Uei and Pegatron, which supply chargers and connectors for iPhones, are also considering expanding production overseas, including in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, big names like Samsung, LG, Microsoft, and Intel have already picked Vietnam as their production base and began relocating technology and equipment from elsewhere, such as China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Costa Rica, to the Southeast Asian country.

Competitive advantages

Two South Korean light-emitting diode (LED) manufacturers plan to open factories in Vietnam. Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. said it would invest $300 million in a new LED assembly facility, while Lumens Co., Ltd. also announced opening a LED factory. Lumens mainly manufactures LED products for TVs and smartphones.

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers are turning to Vietnam to take advantage of low labour costs. Global OEMs and EMS providers like LG, Samsung, HP, Canon, Foxconn, Jabil, and Sparton are manufacturing printed circuit boards, camera modules, printers, servers, phones, networking equipment, television sets, and other electronics equipment in the country.

As for other components, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. from Japan has four factories in Vietnam building discretes, according to Dan Panzica, chief analyst for outsourced manufacturing intelligence service at IHS Markit Technology, while Sharp makes camera modules, Sumitomo Electric manufactures connectors, Nidec makes motors and fans, and Foster Electric makes audio and speaker modules. Molex has factories in Vietnam producing connectors.

In Panzicas view, while there is a limited supply base in Vietnam, it is growing. As device manufacturing takes hold, component and module manufacturers will follow. Also, there are a number of smaller Vietnamese companies that provide factory infrastructure support, cleanroom supplies, packaging materials, and printing capabilities.

Moreover, according to Panzica, the quality of products manufactured and assembled in Vietnam is very competitive.

Deputy managing director of Reed Tradex Co., Ltd. (Thailand) Suttisak Wilanan told VIR at a recent event, This is good for Vietnam and the supporting industries themselves as the country has a growing electronics manufacturing industry and one of the lowest labour costs. Foreign electronic parts manufacturers will head to Vietnam as giant firms flock to the country.

Panzica said electronics manufacturing in Vietnam is growing at a crazy pace and companies are adding capacity. Meanwhile, Vietnams chip market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15.44 per cent from 2016-2020, according to researcher Technavio.

According to Panzica, Vietnam is a destination for low-cost manufacturing, but it will also climb the learning curve. Vietnam will be able to do more value-added activities such as developing its own tooling. In five-10 years, the country will develop the capability to become a turnkey manufacturing centre.

Besides, the on-going US-China trade war has added new energy to the debate over whether importers should shift production to Vietnam. According to Virginia B. Foote, co-chair of the Vietnam Business Forum (VBF), Vietnam has outperformed many of its peers in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), with examples in manufacturing and infrastructure, services, consumer goods, and agricultural and industrial products.

Today, there are tremendous opportunities in Vietnam for both domestic and foreign business sectors, said Foote. The ongoing US-China trade tensions have highlighted the risk of concentrating production bases in a single country and are triggering supply chain reorganisation. Companies are considering shifting some production flows, and Southeast Asia will compete to gain some of that business.

The question is how Vietnam can fully capitalise on these global opportunities in order to continue its rapid upward economic trajectory. To help Vietnam step up its policies in this area, Foote flagged some areas of concern for further improvement, including the countrys supporting industries.

Bringing next-generation FDI strategy to life

In line with global trends and the development of new investment modes, Vietnam new-generation foreign direct investment (FDI) strategy keeps high-tech and new technologies in priority. Other points of focus will include luring large-scale projects from transnational corporations named on the Forbes Global 2000 list in sectors using high-tech, new and advanced technologies, and modern services.

As shown in the latest draft of the strategy, the top areas for FDI attraction in the coming years will include high-tech, new, and advanced technologies, IT and telecommunications, advanced electronics, automobiles, agricultural machinery, and supporting industries, among others.

According to Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, in addition to supporting policies for the industry, the ministry would identify the key sectors which should be prioritised in order to bring about breakthrough development. Some sectors which have potential include electronics, automobiles, garments and textiles, leather shoes, and energy.

The minister said that he had asked the prime minister to allow the establishment of research and development centres for supporting industries.

According to experts, the countrys supporting industries are the foundation for major industries through the supply of parts, components, and technical processes. The supporting industries do not play the auxiliary, but the main role in the national industry. In the age of global economic integration, the domestic industry cannot grow without flourishing supporting industries because this is the factor that determines production costs and enhances the added value and competitiveness of final products.

Wilanan from Reed Tradex said that in recent years, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has been spreading its wings. This revolution now impacts investment trends on a global scale, and Vietnam will not be affected at this moment.

However, we only expect to see distinct changes from 2020 onwards, but it does not mean Vietnam should ignore this trend until we are too outdated and cannot keep up with the times, he said. Manufacturing and processing, power distribution, and property will remain the top foreign investment channels in the year ahead. Small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs need to upgrade and take this opportunity to create their core advantages in the future.

According to Wilanan, as one of the priority industries, it is a major concern whether the Vietnamese automobile manufacturing industry can catch the coming opportunities. The automotive industry is a high-tech industry and is a driving force for many other supporting industries, such as mechanics, electricity, electronics, plastics, rubber, glass, informatics, and automation.
The embodiment of Vietnam's automobile dream, the first VinFast Lux SA2.0

Yesterday, in Haiphong, the first VinFast Lux SA2.0 was assembled. This event proves that the VinFast factory is ready for operation, only 18 months after announcing its automotive plans.

The car is equipped with a DOHC 2.0L engine with a maximum of 228 horsepower, 350Nm torque, an 8-speed automatic gearbox, as well as numerous outstanding safety functions.

According to Le Thi Thu Thuy, vice chairwoman of Vingroup cum chairwoman of VinFast, the company confirmed that all segments of the manufacturing line are operational, ready for trial manufacturing before replication.

"We are consistently striving to create premium products, enabling the Vietnamese spirit and brands to reach the international level, as well as contributing to the development of the industry and automobile manufacturing in the country," said Thuy.

This was the first unit completely produced at VinFast's Haiphong factory

With this success, VinFast is going to be the first automobile manufacturer in Vietnam having a closed, synchronous, and complete production cycle. Thereby, VinFast not only maintains its initiative, but also significantly increases localisation rate, contributing to the development of supporting industries.

Additionally, the Haiphong facilitys painting workshop, stamping workshop, and welding workshop are also very modern and automated to guarantee absolute accuracy and international standards.

The first cars during the trial period will be delivered to numerous countries like Austria, Australia, South Korea, and others to verify their quality against the high standards of Europe.

VinFasts Fadil and Lux are expected to be handed over to customers from the second and third quarter of this year.

Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong also took the new car for a ride and swore to use the SUV in the future instead of his Lexus 570.

The first VinFast car during the test drive

After the launching of the first VinFast car in Haiphong, all shares associated with Vingroup have increased sharply this morning. Specifically, in addition to slight increases in VRE, VJC, VNM, and VHM rose by VND2,200 and VIC increased by VND4,300 to VND122,000 ($5.3).

At this price, VIC has climbed to a new peak and raised the value of Vingroup's chairman Pham Nhat Vuongs assets by VND8.020 trillion ($348.7 million) in a single day to VND227.552 trillion ($9.9 billion).

According to the financial statement of Vingroup, as of the end of 2018, the total assetsof the group increased by 35 per cent over the previous year to VND289.105 trillion ($12.57 billion), with equity rising 88 per cent to VND99.059 trillion ($4.3 billion).

Vingroups net revenue hit VND122.575 trillion ($5.33 billion) last year, increasing by 37 per cent and exceeding the plan by gaining VND13.814 trillion ($600 million) in pre-tax profit (up 52 per cent) and VND6.061 trillion ($263.5 million) in after-tax profit (up 7 per cent).
Vietcombank started off 2019 with a stake sale to two foreign investors. More big deals are expected this year.-VNA/VNS Photo

From the beginning of this year, the market has seen positive signals on rising foreign investment in the sector.

NongHuyp Financial Group is the latest foreign investor to show an appetite for Vietnamese banks after the acquisition of more than 111.1 million shares of Vietcombank by Singapores sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Limited and one of Japans largest financial services providers Mizuho Bank Ltd at a cost of some VND6.2 trillion (US$265 million) on January 9.

During last weeks meeting with chairman of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) Trinh Ngoc Khanh, Kim Gwang Soo, chairman of NongHuyp Group, proposed to support the restructuring process of the largest Vietnamese bank by assets.

Detailed proposals on the restructuring were not mentioned at the meeting but analysts said the move would pave the way for the South Koreans fourth largest financial institution with seven subsidiaries in banking, investment and insurance including NongHuypbank, to become a strategic shareholder of Agribank, which is due to have an initial public offering at the end of this year.

Besides Agribank, the market is also expected to see the completion of a deal between the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and South Koreas KEB Hana Bank in 2019.

Under the expected deal, the second biggest Vietnamese bank by market value will issue 603 million new shares in a private placement for the subsidiary of Hana Financial Group, reducing the State holding to 80.99 per cent from the current 95.28 per cent.

The foreign strategic partner of VietinBank  Mitsubishi UFJ  is also willing to support the bank in boosting its charter capital for business facilitation, according to Kanetsugu Mike, CEO of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG).

Not only major State lenders, but small-cap banks, including Nam A Bank and OCB, are also proving very appealing to foreign investors.

Nam A Banks general director Tran Ngoc Tam unveiled that the bank would sell stakes to a foreign strategic partner before debuting on the stock market as it has so far agreed on the principles of the cooperation.

Big pushes

Bui Quang Tin, CEO of Bizlight Business School, believes foreign capital in Viet Nams finance and banking sector would rise significantly this year.

Besides efforts of the Government to call for foreign inflow to the banking sector, improvement in business performance and asset quality of local banks also contributes to intensifying trust of foreign investors, Tin told Viet Nam News.

Rebaca Tan, a Moodys analyst, also forecasts Vietnamese banks would achieve further improvement in profitability in 2019, again because of wider net interest spreads and lower credit costs.

According to Moodys, Vietnamese banks achieved a higher aggregate return on assets for a second year running, registering a rise of 1.1 per cent in 2018 from 0.9 per cent in 2017. Aggregate net income for the banks also rose 35 per cent to VND70 trillion (US$3 billion) last year from the previous year, despite a moderation of credit growth.

Independent banking expert Nguyen Tri Hieu also foresees rising foreign capital inflow to the countrys finance and banking market in 2019.

Many foreign investors, especially South Korean ones, are showing big interest in Vietnamese banks and finance companies, Hieu told Viet Nam News.

He explained the market, especially consumer finance, has high growth potential, given the countrys population of more than 95 million with only 30 per cent of them having access to banking services.

According to experts, while it is hard for investors to own wholly foreign owned banks in Viet Nam, especially after Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue last August said the Government would limit or possibly stop issuing new licences for the establishment of wholly-owned foreign banks in the country, the best option for foreign investors to enter the Vietnamese market now is through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) with local banks and financial firms.

In the current context, the most common way for foreign investors to enter the Vietnamese financial market is to acquire stakes in local banks or buy financial companies instead of establishing new ones, Hieu said, adding the M&A would also help reduce many legal and procedural difficulties for foreign investors.

Therefore, instead of paying a huge amount and spending a lot of time establishing a new company, M&A with local partners has more advantages, especially when local banks are also expecting to have capital from foreign shareholders to meet the central banks Basel II standars due to the underdevelopment of the domestic capital market, Hieu explained.

However, to make the M&A market in the finance and banking sector more attractive to foreign investors, Hieu suggested the Government increase the foreign ownership limit (FOL).

The current FOL of 30 per cent isnt encouraging foreign investors as they cant be involved in banks decision-making with the holding rate, Hieu explained.

Hieu also recommended the Government learn from other countries, where investors are allowed to buy a part of a local bank or finance institution, instead of the whole institution as currently, with an aim to speed up M&A deals.

It isnt necessary to merge the entire institution at the same time. For example, a foreign investor can acquire the credit business segment of a bank and ignore the service business segment when they see the former operating well. Then, they can consider restructuring the institution gradually and finally acquiring the entire institution, Hieu said.

It is also necessary to relieve the current regulations on becoming strategic shareholders of banks and finance companies. According to the current regulations, to qualify to become strategic investors of local institutions, foreign institutions must be rated well by international rating agencies with total assets of more than US$20 billion and charter capital of at least $1 billion, Hieu said.
If infastructure and business conditions were to improve, more Japanese investors would consider relocating to Vietnam, Photo: Le Toan

Infrastructure, supply chains, and the quality of labour force remain the top concerns for Japanese businesses seeking improvements at last weeks meeting between the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam (JCCI) and the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).

Transport infrastructure and electricity transmission are yet to be developed well, while the number of local suppliers remains inadequate, leading to imports of spare parts, thus increasing production costs, said Hidekazu Oshita, general secretary of the Japan-Mekong Business Corporation (JMBC) under the JCCI.

Moreover, Japanese enterprises are still concerned about the lack of intermediate managers and high-quality workforce, as well as the changeability of policies. Also, it is time for Vietnam to develop supporting industries.

Full of potential

As the leader of one of the companies accompanying the JCCI to the MPI, Takaharu Oyama, general director of A&D Vietnam Limited, one of the companies which recently shifted investment from China to Vietnam, agreed that increased production costs driven from the import of spare parts is a big concern. To ease risks, profit is not a big issue at first. However, it gains relevance when the decision on shifting from China and Thailand to Vietnam is made.

These issues have been around for years. However, this time, the JCCI aims to prepare for a possible redirection of Japanese investment from China and Thailand, as well as for the development of new industries.

According to a recent JCCI survey of 15 powerful Japanese companies which have investments in all three nations, Vietnams main advantage over the two other countries is its cheap labour costs.

Japanese businesses also highlighted the Vietnamese governments policies for the development of supporting industries. Against Thailand, the country has advantages in domestic consumption and stable and high economic growth.

There are more Japanese enterprises mulling over shifting investment from China and Thailand to Vietnam to benefit from the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and to ease risks from US-China trade tensions, Oshita of JMBC elaborated.

Being the only country in the region to join the CPTPP, Vietnam has emerged as an attractive destination for Japanese firms in their China + 1 and Thailand + 1 strategy. The agreement opens up new opportunities for foreign direct investment (FDI) and exports thanks to tariff cuts and new regulations in the fields of e-commerce, product origin, intellectual property, and state-owned enterprises.

With the CPTPP and its high growth potential in domestic consumption thanks to a population of 100 million and strong linkages to the Southeast Asian market, the country has all the conditions to become a manufacturing base for global exports to Japanese investors, especially when considering the growing demand for exports of high-tech products, e-commerce, and fresh food, as well as high investment co-operation prospects in tourism, IT, and high-tech agriculture.

With high hopes, the Japanese government has estimated that the CPTPP with Vietnam and 10 other members would contribute to expanding Japans GDP by 1.49 per cent. In the case of 12 members, the figure would be 2.49 per cent.

Professor Koichi Ishikawa from the Institute of Asian Studies under the Asia University of Japan, said that Japans GDP would expand less through the CPTPP without the US, but 1.49 per cent is still a significant figure for the Japanese economy, considering the recent low growth rate.

Challenges remain

Thus far, to ensure the market for Japanese enterprises and to promote trans-national trade co-operation, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) about two years ago kick-started the Pilot Project for Nurturing New Industries between the ASEAN and Japan. The new industries focus on digital technology, healthcare, the Internet of Things, and services. Following this, NTT Data, TBA, Toppan Forms, and many other companies are planning to carry out new projects in Vietnam.

Recognising stiffening competition in FDI attraction amid global changes, Vu Dai Thang, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, affirmed that Vietnam will continue to improve its business climate, thus further facilitating Japanese investors and others.

However, to increase Vietnams attractiveness, which the JCCI said still ranks 4th in terms of the number of Japanese projects overseas (equal to one eight of China), addressing these issues cannot be done overnight.

Lets take infrastructure as an example. The nations investment in infrastructure has averaged at 5.7 per cent of GDP in recent years, the highest in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia after China at 6.8 per cent. Meanwhile, Indonesia and the Philippines spend less than 3 per cent and Malaysia and Thailand spend less than 2 per cent of their GDP on infrastructure.

Despite the huge investment, infrastructure has yet to meet high requirements from investors. Annually, concerns are raised by Japanese and other investors alike.

Now, the government is striving to improve the situation by requiring good infrastructure in order to attract companies to set up factories. The development has been fairly spread out, with airports and roads being built throughout the country.

The challenge is that the country needs about $480 billion through to 2020 to build power plants and highways, which requires more private sector involvement as the state budget can only meet a third of the financial requirements. One of the solutions for this is to effectively amend the Law on Investment 2014 and the Law on Enterprises 2014. This could be done in addition to the Law on Public-Private Partnership to remove all barriers that are now hindering private investment in the field.
Cimigo recently interviewed 300 men and women from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, aged between 18 and 55. Results showed that food and beverage purchases are still by far the most common online purchases, being made by shoppers every three days on average. This represents a huge cultural shift in Vietnams eating and dining habits.

In fact, taking all online food and beverage items into account, the figure rises to almost 20 purchases a month. This is remarkable, considering that food delivery companies only begun to gain traction in Vietnam around five years ago, when there was very little scope for online ordering of general food and drink items.

As Vietnam zooms ahead of the novelty stage of e-commerce, there is really nothing that cannot be purchased online and Vietnams online shoppers are taking full advantage of the choice available to them. On the back of the familiarity and security of ordering food online several times a month, consumers now have confidence and trust in the wider shopping services available to them online and via mobile devices.

Two key factors are driving this retail revolution. Firstly, as commonly reported, Vietnams economy is booming and we are in an era of young professionals having larger disposable incomes. Alongside this are the technological advances that not only give us the platforms to shop on but the means to access them, in the form of mobile devices.

However, most purchases are still low in value. Currently, almost half of the transactions have a value of under VND300,000 ($13), with less than 10 per cent of purchases being over VND2 million ($87).

Websites versus apps

Currently, Vietnams online market for general purchases is dominated by four companies  Lazada, Shopee, Tiki, and Sendo  who have each built huge online marketplaces supported by sophisticated web technology and apps.

In 2018, these four online retailers enjoyed significant uptake of their apps, but this area is still dominated by the big social media companies in the country, Facebook and Zalo. Around 80 to 90 per cent of online shoppers have these apps installed, giving them immediate access to shopping at the swipe of a finger.

Mobile apps for online retailers, unsurprisingly, dont come close to these percentages but around 40 per cent of online shoppers across all ages have installed the Lazada and Shopee apps. In the case of Shopee, over half of shoppers aged 18-35 have downloaded its mobile app.

With apps becoming such a fundamental part of our lives, we have to believe that online retailers will look to these channels as a way of increasing market share in what will become an increasingly competitive arena.

From Cimigos research, Facebook is now commonly used for fashion, which accounts for almost two-thirds of purchases made through the portal. The social media giant enjoys an omnipresent position and the ease with which independent retailers can create fan pages and online stores. As a result, it is not surprising that younger, fashion-conscious shoppers are migrating to Facebook instead of the malls.

Online platforms are finding their niches as well. Lazada relies heavily on fashion sales but nearly a quarter of their sales are from electronics, including gadgets and accessories, making them the leading marketplace in this sector.

Meanwhile Shopee is also big on fashion, and they are the strongest marketplace when it comes to cosmetics and personal care items. However, if we want to look at an online company that has truly captured a market segment then that would be Tiki, whose books and stationery market share exceeds all other marketplaces combined.

With online shopping still in its infancy in Vietnam, these channels have the opportunity to both strengthen their areas of specialisation as well as gain sizeable growth in the smaller segments. Product lines that are maybe not eye-catching now could well provide significant revenue streams as more Vietnamese consumers shop online.

Lazada under crossfire Last week was a difficult one for Lazada.vn as the platforms administrative oversight allowed the trading of dangerous toy guns. Several inspections have been conducted to clarify the origin of the goods, their distribution channels, as well as the identity of the sellers and buyers of the prohibited goods. Several days ago, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade visited the headquarters of Recess Co., Ltd., the operator of Lazada.vn to stage an inspection related to the selling of these toy guns and components that could cause serious physical injury. We have asked this company to provide documents and data. When the investigation is finished, we will report to the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee, said a representative of the department. Meanwhile, the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy, in collaboration with the General Department of Market Surveillance under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, are also considering looking into the severity of the violation. Earlier, dozens (even hundreds) of toy guns and components were displayed on e-commerce websites like Lazada.vn and Shopee.vn. These JinMing toy guns are 1:1 plastic replicas of M4A1 rifles produced in China and can shoot bullets made of plaster. The toy guns pack quite a punch as they can puncture beer cans at close range or break a plastic case  which means they are more than capable of causing bodily harm.

A question of loyalty

As online retail finds its feet, it is understandable that shopping platforms and online stores make massive investments in technology and marketing. Winning customers, and keeping them loyal, is key. However, in this period of early success for e-commerce in Vietnam it seems customers are responding more to convenience and pricing than customer service and brand loyalty.

Indeed, savvy Vietnamese consumers will put their purses and wallets ahead of brand loyalty; they understand the importance of comparing prices, and looking for bargains and promotions. With so much information available at the touch of a screen or click of a mouse, it is quick and easy to compare prices between products as well as brands. Online shopping allows for much easier browsing and comparison than the traditional brick-and-mortar shopping experience.

In Cimigos research around 30 per cent of shoppers rated their preferred channel or marketplace highly, leaving a very large chunk of business potentially lost. Online shopping platforms have an average net promoter score of only 19 in Vietnam. In the United States, the score is 45. The dynamics and technology of online shopping in Vietnam may be hugely different from traditional shopping but customer service and loyalty is not.

The fact is that no single e-commerce website has yet cracked it. With companies continuing to understand the very new market of Vietnam, diverse strengths and weaknesses are apparent, making it interesting to see whether they continue to play to their strengths or look to improve in weaker areas in order to build market share.

Feedback from online shoppers shows that customer service is the one area where e-commerce providers can make significant improvements. As with other online services, customer satisfaction is of course ultimately the key to success and should not be ignored for the sake of revenue.

The signs are that where there is a wide product selection, backed up with strong search and comparison functionality, shoppers are happy to stay with one marketplace and not hop around looking for better prices.
Neymar has played just one Champions League knockout match since joining PSG last season. (AFP/FRANCK FIFE)

The Brazil forward watched on forlornly from the stands at the Parc des Princes as PSG crashed out of the Champions League last 16 on Wednesday to Manchester United on away goals following a 3-1 defeat.

"Neymar Jr will travel to Aspetar (sports clinic) in Qatar for the next 3 days as scheduled in the initial recovery plan," the club wrote on its Twitter account.

"He will undertake a complete assessment after six weeks of his injury. He will be accompanied by a medical team from PSG."

The 27-year-old damaged the fifth metatarsal in his right foot in a French Cup win over Strasbourg on Jan 23 and was ruled out for 10 weeks.

PSG were hoping he would be healed enough to get back on the pitch in time for a potential Champions League quarter-final in April, but the French side suffered a humiliating exit as United sensationally overturned a 2-0 first-leg deficit.
Vandalism in the West and South of the city

Bonn 28 vehicles were scratched in Bonn's western and southern city on Rosenmontag. Police are investigating and asking for witnesses to come forward.

Police are searching for unknown culprits who have damaged 28 cars in Bonn's West- and Sudstadt. The perpetrators damaged vehicles parked on Poppelsdorfer Allee between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. during the night of Rosenmontag, according to police reports on Thursday. According to the police, all cars were scratched on the driver's side.
While the market is awash with different types of supplementary food, there are still genuine brands with traceable origin, Photo: Le Toan

In recent years, supplementary food are becoming more and more popular, especially among office workers.

Thao Van, a 32-year old office worker in Hanoi, is trying to lose weight after stopping breastfeeding her baby. She spends an hour to exercise every day and is looking for a type of supplementary food to burn fat. However, after a few days of browsing, she feels hopelessly lost in the world of supplementary food of varying origins, prices, and quality.

It is very difficult to choose. Along with products with clear origin from the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, and South Korea that are quite expensive, there are a lot of cheap products from China. I cannot tell which products are safe, Van told VIR.

According to statistics published by the Vietnam Association of Functional Food (VAFF), only 63 kinds of supplementary food were sold by 13 importers in 2000. Now there are 4,190 foreign and local manufacturers with 10,930 products. In addition, 90 per cent of pharmacies in Vietnam sell supplementary food.

Booming market

Healthcare holds great potential in Vietnam, with the supplementary food segment showing particular promise. According to global market research firm BMI Research, the annual growth of over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceutical products will hit 10.31 per cent in the 2015-2020 period.

Euromonitor International forecast that the Vietnamese supplementary food market still has great development potential and will grow steadily by 20 per cent per annum.

With this potential, supplementary food is becoming a promising land for both foreign and local manufacturers and distributors as well as importers.

Companies directly selling this kind of food have been growing steadily. Two foreign companies reaping massive profit in the country, Amway Vietnam Co., Ltd. and Herbalife Vietnam, have been operating in the country for more than a decade now. In 2017, Herbalife reported a revenue of $86.96 million, while Amway has two factories in the country.

With todays busy lifestyles and increased stress in work and business, people have less time to relax. That is why supplementary food is becoming increasingly popular, especially organic and natural food products, explained Nguyen Phuong Son, PR manager of Amway Vietnam.

Local pharmaceutical manufacturers are also stepping up to invest in the sector after they began acquiring massive profits from it. Hau Giang Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG), one of the leading companies in pharmaceutical cosmetics and supplementary food in Vietnam, reported an upheaval of its revenue structure and key products. Notably, in previous years, pharmaceuticals made up 80 per cent of its revenue, however, in the recent years, the proportion of supplementary food and cosmetics increased considerably.

Besides, the company narrowed down the list of registered pharmaceutical products from 234 to 220, while simultaneously increasing the list of supplementary food and cosmetic products from 45 to 67 units. The company targets to increase revenue from supplementary food and cosmetics to 12 per cent by 2020.

The sectors allure has even forced the hands of enterprises which were originally largely uninterested by pharmaceuticals. One of these enterprises is electronics retailer Digiworld JSC.

Digiworld has just revealed its business strategy for 2019, which includes an aggressive incursion into healthcare and consumer goods. The goal this year is to earn at least $58.7 million of gross revenue from these two sectors. In August 2017, the company made its debut with Kingsmen, which promises to improve the physiological energy of men above the age of 40. The product is expected to grow by 100 per cent in revenue, hitting $43.48 million within the next two years.

Several years ago, Binh An Seafood JSC (Bianfishco) emerged as one of the local companies making the largest investments in supplementary food. In 2010, it poured $10 million to develop a collagen drink plant in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho with the ambition to open a new segment.

At the time, Bianfishco set the target to acquire $4.35 million in revenue from this product in the first year, and the figure would increase to $13.04 million in the second year. According to plan, 30 per cent of the products would have been sold in the local market, while the remaining 70 per cent would have been exported.

However, the company faced financial difficulties, forcing it to close the plant in mid-2012. Thus, after a thunderous marketing campaign, collagen products were withdrawn from the market in silence. This is one of the lessons for those in developing supplementary food. Without a long-term strategy and financial preparation, they may face similar results when they prove incapable of competing with famous imported brands.

Troubles abound

Supplementary food is a mixture of medicine and common food. It is not only new to Vietnam, but to the world. However, regulations are not in place yet to fully cover such products.

In Vietnam, there are five documents by the Ministry of Health (MoH), along with one law and one government decree governing the management of supplementary food, including labelling, advertisement, announcement, production conditions, listing of ingredients, directions of use, and indicators of safety.

However, there is a great number of producers and traders who deliberately violate these regulations, producing poor-quality or even harmful drugs from banned substances that are dangerous to human health.

Last year, an inter-agency delegation launched an inspection at Minh Tam Investment and Trade Services JSC specialising in importing supplementary food and cosmetics. The inspectors found 5,000 items without clear origin and hundreds of bottles of cosmetics without invoices, many past their expiry date. The items were not only displayed at the companys headquarter, but also distributed online.

This is only one of hundreds of cases to be handled. Deputy director of the Hanoi Market Surveillance Department Trinh Quang Duc said that violators use a wide arsenal to avoid the rules. For instance, many companies have been registered and received product quality certificates from the Vietnam Food Administration (VFA), but they hired other facilities to manufacture the products.

Others were caught to have imported fake goods from China for cheap, then relabelled them to look like they were imported from the US, Japan, and Australia. These items went into circulation online, retailers, as well as convenience and grocery stores at different prices.

Meanwhile, Tran Hung, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Trades Agency of Market Surveillance, told local media that his agency is developing too fast to manage. For example, only 30-40 per cent of the products inspected conformed to quality requirements, while companies claim 100 per cent.

However, it is not easy to prove charges of falsification or counterfeiting because the agency needs appraised inspection results as well as large funds. Supervising the quality of supplementary food after purchase is the most difficult, because the supervision delegation can only rely on labels and product documents as it has no equipment for laboratory checks.

Moreover, customers often turn to pharmacists or doctors for advice, most of whom do not have much knowledge about nutrition. Many even pretend to be doctors to provide advice and sell goods.

Those who masquerade as doctors and pharmacists advising consumers to use supplementary food are very dangerous, sometimes making patients not only lose money but also harming their health, said director of the VFA Nguyen Thanh Phong.

Last year, the agency detected and issued penalties of about $1 million to violators. The fine did not cover statistics from health facilities, local departments, the MoHs Inspectorate, and other agencies.

According to new regulations, all supplementary food producers will need good manufacturing practice (GMP) certification from July 1, 2019, similar to drug production.

According to the VFA, more than 10 companies producing supplementary food have been certificated for the GMP standards, and the figure will increase to hundreds in the near future.

In addition, Phong also recommended customers not to purchase goods of unclear origins and those without the label, because This product is not medicine and cannot cure diseases.

The products which are introduced to cure, treat, or claim to be the best product are all in violation, he stressed.
Vietnamese shares slipped on Friday morning, dragged by investors' bad mood as weak economic data sparked concerns about a global slowdown.

The benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange fell 0.84 per cent to close at 985.64 points.

The southern market index dropped 0.05 per cent on Thursday.

Some 124 million shares were traded on the southern market, worth VND2.46 trillion (US$106 million).

The domestic market followed Asia-Pacific markets as weak Chinese export data and lower eurozone economic growth forecasts sparked concerns among investors about a possible global recession.

On Thursday, data from the Japanese government indicated the eastern Asia economy may enter a recession.

Worries amid weak economic and trade data put strong selling pressure on 22 of all 25 sectors, data on vietstock.vn showed.

The worst-performing sectors included banking, financial, petroleum, consumer staples, retail and seafood production.

Those sectors dropped between 0.9 per cent and 1.6 per cent, according to vietstock.vn.

Large-cap stocks were also negative. The blue-chip VN30 Index lost 0.80 per cent to finish at 914.89 points, with 23 of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation in the VN30 basket declining.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index decreased by 0.70 per cent to end at 108.12 points.

The northern market index gained 0.58 per cent in the previous two days.

Roughly 42.8 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VND376.7 billion.

The afternoon trading session starts at 1pm.
Ho Thi Hai Ngan, owner of an electronics shop in Dong Nai Province, work with her employees to prepare products to ship to customers. - Photo courtesy of the shop

More and more women are running businesses across the country.

There are around 145,000 small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) currently run by women in Vietnam.

Such SMEs businesses play a crucial role for growth, contributing 30 per cent of GDP and more than half of job creation.

And a quarter of all SMEs nationally are run by women.

But its not just at the top where women are making a difference.

The World Economic Forum says Vietnam is among the top 25 countries in the world closing the gender gap in the labour force.

Of all woman, 73 per cent are in gainful employment, just 10 per cent lower than their male counterparts.

By 2020, Vietnam wants one million enterprises and of them they are targeting more than a third owned by women.

That means in the next two years, the amount of companies with a woman at the helm will have to increase threefold.

And thats a challenge.

Last year was a big success for Vietnams economy with GDP growth surpassing 7 per cent, but for the first time the number of enterprises going under topped 100,000.

Lack of capital

My biggest obstacle is the lack of capital. I need cash to purchase merchandise and prevent risks, Ho Thi Hai Ngan, an owner of an electronics shop in Dong Nai Province, told Vietnam News.

The 34-year-old businesswoman took time to find her feet.

Her first two commercial ventures failed but it was a case of third time lucky for Ngan in 2016 when she and her husband opened the store.

She borrowed US$25,000 from VPBank with receivables pledged as security helping her explore new corporate clients.

The need for capital is common among SME owners, especially women, who sometimes face roadblocks related to the lack of collateral and have to face conscious and unconscious biases.

Men often have broader vision and better planning skills while women are risk-averse which, in many cases, make them see an opportunity slip away, Ngan said.

Women cannot go out and drink a lot with clients like men, and in Vietnam, its difficult to get clients without drinking, she said.

Asian women need time to get used to their role shifting from a housewife to a business owner.

A market study by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) showed that 70 per cent of Women operated enterprises (WOEs) in developing countries are unserved or underserved by financial institutions. The financing gap is estimated at $1.19 billion for WOEs throughout Vietnam.

To continue its rapid growth, Vietnam needs to support this sector to access credit and markets. Much more can be done to connect women SMEs to local and global value chains, said Amy Luinstra, IFC Programme Manager and Gender Advisor, East Asia Pacific.

In the knowledge based economy, female entrepreneurs must also work harder to get capital, Luinstra said, noting that only 7 per cent of private equity and venture capital is invested in women-led companies in emerging markets.

Women-owned enterprises are an important customer segment of VPBank, a representative of VPBank told Vietnam News.

From an entrepreneur perspective, Vietnamese women are active, creative and enthusiastic. They participate in economic activities and are not inferior to men, he said, citing examples that women are more willing to be housewives in the South Asia, Middle East and Africa.

VPBank in 2018 launched a loan package specifically designed for women-owned businesses and has disbursed 12,000 loans to WOEs so far. Besides, the bank has also built free access to non-financial services for women-led SMEs, enabling them to share experiences with each other and find new networking opportunities for their business.

More than 50 per cent of the banks women customers operate in distribution and service industries. "And we find that women are more sensitive than men in terms of service quality and when being satisfied, they are very attached," the banks representative said.

Need government support

Doing business in the time of integration and technological revolution is difficult and this is amplified by the inconsistent and changing legal framework, creating a big obstacle for businesses, according to Ha Thi Thu Thanh, vice president of the Ha Noi Association for Women Entrepreneurs.

In addition, the new era also requires women entrepreneurs to constantly make efforts, be proactive and creative and have strong mind to cope with challenges, Thanh said and added that they needed more support from the Government.

From a businesswomen perspective, Ngan hopes the Government and State agencies support women in explaining and clarifying policies and legal regulations related to their businesses, as well as enable them to participate more in the trade and investment promotion activities organised by the State agencies.

Her successful electronics business told her that, besides funding, the investment in business relationships and exchanges ideas will pave a way for success.

In the meeting with women entrepreneurs early this month ahead of the International Women Day (March 8), Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc reiterated the Governments support for women-led businesses. He also suggested female entrepreneurs continue learning and enhancing skills, contributing better to the countrys economic development.
[Editors Note: Marc Baudinet, author of Cambodia In The Twenty First Century: A Short Social Study, sat down with VOA Khmers Ky Mengly to share the key takeaways from his recently published work and his observations of the country, from the state of the rule of law to domestic politics, foreign policy and socio-economic progress.]

VOA: How long did you spend researching and writing this book?

Baudinet: I came here the first time in 2010. I come from Europe. Everything was very different, quite amazing compared to where I come from. And I was struck straight away by how different things are and how I couldnt quite understand how people interacted. So, I wanted to know more about that and I started doing interviews, asking people questions in a very informal ways. Whys this and whys that? And much later basically three years ago, I thought I could write something about how Cambodians are changing fast. Therefore, it would be interesting to observe Cambodian society now. Thats how I got the idea to do the book. And it took me two and a half years to write this.

VOA: Can you tell us briefly what your book is about?

Baudinet: My book is exactly about Cambodia in the 21st century. I thought the book could include some kind of photos of Cambodian society now. What is happening and what is changing, from a traditional to a more modern society. Peoples education is improving, more people are going to school, people are buying cars, mobile phones, and people are getting jobs that never really existed here before. So, there is a lot happening in this society and this is my point really. And how is that affecting the traditional society? What are the consequences on how people interact? All of these interest me and basically thats my reason why I wrote the book.

VOA: In the book you seem to lack optimism about the current Cambodian government. Why is that?

Baudinet: So, I started writing the book in 2016 and everyone was talking about the Commune Elections in 2017 and the General Elections in 2018 and I thought that many people were quite optimistic that things could change and then suddenly there were upheavals. Everything took a different path in November 2017. The rule of law is a key aspect of a successful society. If you take Singapore and Singapores rule of law is very strong, meritocracy is very strong, good governance is very strong and that society is very successful. Here, the rule of law is shaky. It is very much about having more money than whoever is against you. Therefore, there is a problem for people to trust in their own society and have the courage to invest for instance when they know possibly that the law is not on their side because theyre not rich enough for instance. Meritocracy is also very important. It is improving I think. I think that there are many problems. I think as education is improving, meritocracy is also more valued than a few years ago. So, this is very good for the future. However, there is still a long way to go. So, Im sometimes optimistic and sometimes a bit pessimistic here.

VOA: You mention in the book that the natural order in Cambodia does not sit well with democracy. What do you mean by that?

Baudinet: The idea of democracy  is that basically every individual every person has the same rights and has the same value. No matter whether theyre a cleaner, a poor farmer, theyre as important as rich land owners or rich business persons. Everyone, when people vote, everyone is the same. Equality is very much the key or lets say not the key but the grounding within which democracy can grow. Now here in the traditional society in Asia in general not only in Cambodia, the idea that everybody is equal is not part of a traditional understanding of how a society functions. People accept that there is an elite and then there are a lot of other people and those people should just do their work and not challenge authority. Therefore, here I think in terms of democracy, the idea that everyone is equal, is possibly not yet accepted, especially by of course the elites.

VOA: Towards the end of the book you draw a comparison between King Ang Duongs embrace of France and Prime Minister Hun Sens embrace of China. What is the implication of this?

Baudinet: Geopolitics is very much a power game between different players; some are big players and some are smaller players. Cambodia, in the 19th century, had a lot of problems with its two bigger neighbors: Vietnam and Thailand. For Cambodia, the king decided to call a third power to somehow help. But there was a price that possibly the king did not realize. Cambodia became a colony, lost its independence. Now of course, the situation is very different. The context is vastly different from those days. However geopolitics remains of course a power game. I was wondering whether the way Cambodia today is possibly giving too much to China or a lot to China. Is it going to affect in the longer term prospects of Cambodias independence. Not that China is going to colonize Cambodia. No, those days are over. But there are other ways to manipulate or influence smaller countries.

VOA: Do you suggest it is a characteristic of Cambodia that its rulers are always seeking foreign intervention?

Baudinet: I wouldnt go that far. I wouldnt say that Cambodia always asks for help from foreign powers but the fact of the matter is every country in the world, every country interacts, trades; people move; people travel and therefore every country must deal with other powers. This is just I guess the natural order of things as well. Western countries have done a lot of damage here and then of course the Cold War, the Vietnam War. And this is the way things go. And I suppose now for Cambodia ... what is the right balance between China on the one hand and the Western world or the USA on the other hand?

VOA: How do you think the recent crackdown on the opposition will impact Cambodian society?

Baudinet: I think today Cambodian society is at a crossroad. What happened in 2017 and 2018 probably the future will tell. It is probably a turning point. It seems society is divided. On the one hand, you have the people who would like things to change; they would like maybe a more open society. On the other hand, you have people who would rather keep the status quo. So, for Cambodia and Cambodian people, what will they choose to do? Will they agree to continue following the same path, or will they demand a change? The future will tell. But I think that in the future we will remember 2018 as well as possibly 2017 as a turning point.

Note: This interview was edited for clarity and length.
Cambodia and Japan are scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding in Tokyo in late March to improve opportunities for Cambodian workers.

The Ministry of Labor confirmed this in February after Japan amended its immigration law, opening up opportunities for Japanese companies to directly hire skilled workers from overseas to fill the shortage left by its aging population.

But labor rights activists are concerned that the changes will not address the issue of labor exploitation if there is no clear recruitment process and terms of employment.

Thats kind of positive, in principle, a positive step forward by the Japanese government, said Reiko Harima, regional coordinator for the Mekong Migrant Network. But at the moment in reality its unclear how they foresee how direct hiring will be actually implemented.

Activists are worried that recruitment agencies will exploit loopholes in the law.

All this information is very unclear, said Harima. And because the information is unclear to workers, we see that theres a huge ... space for any broker who wants to take advantage for this lack of information.

Cambodia is one of eight Asian countries, including as China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand, which are expected to benefit from the new law.

Chou Bun Eng, secretary of state at the Interior Ministry, told officials in February that the Cambodian government said a clear set of rules on how to hire employees directly and how to define the role of recruitment agencies should be created.

More than 9,000 Cambodians are working in Japan under the Technical Intern Training Program, earning about $1,500. Some 300,000 additional skilled workers are expected to become eligible for the scheme under the new rules.

But a Japanese government report released in 2016 found that 70 percent of companies employing trainees have committed human rights abuses. Some of the trainees were forced to work long hours and were paid less than the minimum wage. Others were forced to work overtime. Workplaces did not meet workplace safety requirements.

We cant quite see how under this new visa category we can solve this problem of violations of labor rights by employers, said Harima.

Activists suggested that the best solution was to limit the fees companies can charge from workers. Currently, the cost of recruitment is up to $6,000.

What concerns me the most is that recruitment agencies in Cambodia always act at will without any close monitoring from the labor ministry, said Hay Vanna, a Cambodian activist in Japan. Japanese companies tend to respect the law better even though some companies tend to operate in the grey area.

Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said that Cambodia is ready to strengthen its cooperation to create a "great opportunity" for the two countries.
The recent congressional testimony of President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, transfixed Washington at a time when the president is under increasing scrutiny. To some, Cohen's moment in the national spotlight harkened back to dramatic moments from another time, the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, which eventually forced President Richard Nixon from office. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
Sectarian tensions are rising in Northern Ireland  and not only because of Brexit and the possibility that the island of Ireland will once again be divided by a so-called "hard border."

The province is also on edge about whether former British paratroopers will face trial for the deaths of 14 unarmed protesters, who were shot 47 years ago in a massacre that became known as Bloody Sunday.

Prosecutors are expected to make their decision public next week, but the signs are that several of the ex-paratroopers, now in their 70s, are more likely to face murder charges for their roles in the shootings in 1972 than previously thought.

Justice campaigners have told the British media that they know soldiers will face prosecutions for the killings. Some of the army veterans themselves have said they expect to be charged.

Whatever the decision by the prosecutors, which comes after a seven-year police inquiry, it is bound to cause a political storm. The province's Irish nationalist mainly-Catholic minority will be furious if there are no prosecutions; while pro-British mainly-Protestant Unionists are already up in arms at the very idea that the army veterans could stand trial.

The families of the dead will be told of the decision on March 14, the day after the British parliament votes on whether to leave the European Union, and if so how. That vote, already a source of mounting sectarian anxiety in the British-run province, could determine whether border checks are reinstated on the frontier separating the six counties of Northern Ireland from the 26 counties of the Irish Republic.

On Tuesday, the head of Northern Ireland's civil service warned of risks in the event of a no-deal Brexit and the reimposition of customs and immigration checks along the border. In a letter to the province's main political parties in Northern Ireland, David Sterling noted a no-deal scenario could impose "additional challenges for the police" because of heightened community tensions.

And the head of Northern Ireland's police service, George Hamilton, has warned that if Brexit results in fixed-frontier customs and security posts on the island of Ireland, it could energize a new generation of violent Irish republicans.

Midweek, three letter bombs apparently posted from the Irish Republic and sent to transport hubs in London were intercepted, adding to concerns of the old sectarian conflicts being reignited over the issue of a hard border.

"Letter bombs posted to London this week were a stark reminder that the peace process is still fragile and the threat posed to it by Brexit cannot be ignored," The Times newspaper warned.

'Very unfortunate timing'

The Bloody Sunday massacre of civil rights protesters is one of the deepest wounds of the "Troubles," the decades-long conflict that was brought to an end with the U.S.-brokered 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement. The conflict left more than 3,700 people dead as Irish Republican Army (IRA) gunmen battled the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary, as well as Protestant paramilitaries with ties to British intelligence agencies, in their war for a united Ireland.

There are mounting concerns at the highest levels of the British government about how the prosecutors' decision will play out against the backdrop of Brexit.

"It is an ill wind," a senior British government official told VOA. "This is very unfortunate timing and we could have done without it, but it is beyond our control," he added.

Fears of the reigniting of the "Troubles" have been fanned by a recent explosion in the British province and hijackings in Northern Ireland's second largest city, Londonderry  which Catholics call Derry, and where the Bloody Sunday massacre took place.

The Bloody Sunday shootings came Jan. 30, 1972, when soldiers from the 1st Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in Londonderry's Bogside district. The demonstrators were protesting internment  the mass arrest and imprisonment without trial of suspected IRA members.

Thirteen people were killed where they stood and a 14th person later died of his wounds. Fourteen other people were injured. The shootings attracted worldwide condemnation and fury in Irish-American communities.

Bloody Sunday investigation

The police inquiry was mounted after a 12-year-long investigation into the killings conducted by Mark Saville, a British judge, which was set up after years of pressure from the victims' families and supporters in the United States, who dismissed an initial British probe as a whitewash.

Saville concluded that the British soldiers had "lost control" and he detailed a break down in the chain of command, saying the paratroopers fatally shot fleeing civilians and those who tried to aid wounded civilians. The report said the soldiers had concocted lies to defend their actions and, contrary to their claims, none of them had fired in response to attacks by petrol bombers or stone throwers or gunmen. The civilians were not posing any threat, according to the Saville report.

Eighteen ex-paratroopers have been under investigation, and four are thought likely to be charged. Under British regulations, they cannot be named, as yet. One of them, a partly paralyzed 77-year-old, told Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper that it was a "scandalous betrayal" by successive British governments for allowing the cases to proceed.

"I think it is utter rubbish. But I think we will be charged," he added.

British army veterans are also criticizing the investigation, saying it is unfair to charge people so long after the event. Former British foreign minister Boris Johnson has said any prosecutions against the veterans will be about politics, not justice.

But relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims have welcomed the possible prosecutions, saying that justice should be done.

"If these soldiers aren't prosecuted, then the families will be angry, and for good reason," according to Leo Young, one of the protesters, whose younger brother was killed.
French citizen Mehdi Nemmouche was convicted of "terrorist murder" on Thursday for shooting dead four people in a Jewish museum in Brussels after coming back from Syria in 2014, the federal prosecutor's spokesman said.

Sentencing after the two-month-long, Brussels jury court trial, which underlined the threat posed by European jihadists returning home after fighting in Syria's war, will be announced at a later date.

Nemmouche, 33, remained silent in the dock as former hostages of Islamic State militants as well as victims of the May 2014 museum attack testified against him, though he took the stand briefly on Tuesday to allege he had been "tricked."

Lawyers for the victims praised Belgian prosecutors for building a rigorous case against Nemmouche that stood up against accusations by the defense that he had been framed in a plot to kill two agents of Israel's Mossad spy service.

"It's a victory for justice," said David Ramet, a lawyer for the two daughters of an Israeli tourist couple, Myriam and Emmanuel Riva, killed in the shooting. The eldest of the two, Shiva, earlier testified in court that the "tragedy would pursue them all their lives", state broadcaster RTBF reported.

Two men employed at the museum, Dominique Sabrier and Alexandre Strens, also died in the shooting attack.

During the trial, assertions by Nemmouche's lawyer that video footage of the shooting was faked and that his client never pulled the trigger, outraged the victims' families and survivors.

European Jewish Congress chief Moshe Kantor on Thursday condemned as a disgrace "the use of reprehensible tactics and conspiracy theories of the defense lawyers."

The attack in May 2014 was the first staged by a Western European who had fought in the ranks of Islamist militant factions in Syria's civil war, prosecutors said.

A lawyer for Nemmouche said he would respect the 12-person jury's decision and not appeal against the verdict.

Another French citizen, Nacer Bendrer, was found guilty of providing the weapon used in the shooting. The two met and were radicalized in jail, according to investigators.

Prosecutors told the court that Nemmouche was arrested in the southern French city of Marseille less than a week after the shooting carrying a Kalashnikov of the kind used in the crime.

The jury also heard testimony last month from two French journalists who were held hostage by Islamic State in Syria and identified Nemmouche as one of their captors.

The journalists described him as deeply anti-Semitic, sadistic and full of hatred. Nemmouche faces separate charges in France for his role in keeping the reporters in captivity.
While in the Philippines, he is scheduled to meet President Rodrigo Duterte, the ministry said in a statement.

Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)



The visit will provide opportunities for both leaders to further strengthen bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries. It will also allow Malaysia to highlight the government's current policies and its stand particularly on issues of mutual concern, the ministry said.

It added that the visit is expected to add momentum to the peace process in southern Philippines after the government passed the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) in January, on the creation of a larger autonomous Bangsamoro region in southern Philippines.

Malaysias news agency Bernama cited Charge d'Affaires of the Malaysian Embassy in the Philippines Rizany Irwan Muhamad Mazlan as saying that the visit can pave the way for Malaysian entrepreneurs to explore new areas of investment in the neighbouring country.

The Philippines is Malaysia's fourth largest trading partner among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries with the total trade between the two hitting USD6.45 billion in 2018./.
An Auschwitz survivor and stepsister of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank met Thursday with some of the California high school students who posed in social media photos giving Nazi salutes over a swastika made of red cups used in a drinking game.

The anti-Semitic images, one with the caption master race, a reference to the Nazi belief in ethnic purity, went viral after being posted to Snapchat on Saturday, fueling concerns about a recent surge in incidents of hate speech in public schools nationwide.

Holocaust survivor and peace activist Eva Schloss, 89, visited privately for more than hour at Newport Harbor High School with about 10 of the teens involved, along with their parents, student leaders, faculty members and a local rabbi who helped organize the meeting.

Education  inadequate

Speaking to reporters afterward, Schloss said the students told me it was a joke, and she was surprised that they professed not to have fully understood the meaning and consequences of their behavior.

It shows that education is really, really very inadequate, she said, adding that the students and their parents, nevertheless, were sincerely apologetic.

I was 16 when I came out of Auschwitz, Schloss said she told the students. I was their age when I realized my whole life was shattered.

Disciplinary action

The photos were taken at a party at a home in Costa Mesa attended by students from several high schools serving a cluster of predominantly white, largely affluent Orange County communities. School officials said they have interviewed more than two dozen students and are weighing disciplinary action.

The images included students with arms raised in a Nazi salute and about a dozen students crowded around the cups arranged in the shape of a swastika, according to multiple media accounts.

Schloss, who resides in London, was in California on a U.S. speaking tour when Jewish leaders in the Newport Beach area asked her to come and meet the students there.

Anne Frank stepsister

The early life of Schloss, a native Austrian, closely parallels that of her German-born stepsister, Anne Frank. Both families moved to Amsterdam to escape anti-Jewish Nazi persecution in their homelands.

The two girls lived near each other and were friends before Germanys Dutch occupation, forcing both families into hiding.

Franks personal journal about her familys ordeal was posthumously published in 1947 as The Diary of a Young Girl. Frank died at age 15 at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in early 1945.

Like Franks family, Schloss was captured by the Nazis in 1944 in Amsterdam and was sent to Auschwitz, where her brother and father died. Schloss and her mother were liberated by the Soviet army, and her mother married Franks father, Otto, in 1953.

Rising tide of anti-Semitism

Rabbi Reuven Mintz, director of the Chabad Center for Jewish Life in Newport Beach and an organizer of the students meeting with Schloss, said the controversy should be a wake-up call to a rising tide of anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance.

The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks acts of racism, reported that the number of anti-Semitic incidents reported at public schools across the United States jumped 94 percent from 2016 to 2017, the latest year such figures are available.

Last year, a gunman fatally shot 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue during Sabbath prayers.
Officials in Beijing are expected to take money from non-defense sources this year to solidify their military control in the disputed South China Sea following a proposed slowdown in formal defense spending.

China will increase defense spending by 7.5 percent this year, according to a draft budget report submitted to a National People's Congress session Tuesday. That increase would bring spending to $177.6 billion. The budget grew 8.1 percent last year.

Consistent with past practice, the government will protect and possibly expand its already dominant military presence in the South China Sea by drawing from civilian departments and even private Chinese companies, maritime scholars believe.

China claims about 90 percent of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea ranging from Hong Kong to Borneo. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim all or parts of the same sea. Chinas use of naval ships and military aircraft in contested waters has riled the other claimants since 2010, prompting Washington to send some of its own as a deterrent.

Chinas expansion in the South China Sea is a comprehensive effort, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. It involves the military but it also involves even the private sector.

So, you might see a slight decrease in strictly military activities and maybe even installations, but the efforts to claim a large part of the South China Sea to be their own, I think that will still go on, he said.

Multi-agency defense spending

China cites historical usage records to claim sovereignty over the sea, including its wealth of fisheries and fossil fuel reserves. Scholars say the Peoples Liberation Army Navy has made the seas control a priority as the total number of ships rose from 512 in 2012 to 714 ships now.

And the navy gets help already. State-run oil driller CNOOC Group has buffered Chinas claims by drilling in waters disputed by Vietnam, and private firms based in China reclaimed land to help the government get a foothold on otherwise uninhabitable islets.

Two years ago, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Acoustics and Tongji University in Shanghai said they would build a long-term observation network covering the South China and East China seas. CNOOC and Chinas Earthquake Administration were also part of discussions about the network, which is due to share data with other countries. The project will bolster the legal basis for Chinese maritime claims, analysts said in 2017.

The PLA operates businesses which accrue income for the acquisition of military products and other sources of income can be drawn from for example the ministry of science so that they can engage in exploring under the term of science diplomacy, said Stephen Nagy, senior associate politics and international studies professor at International Christian University in Tokyo.

A lot of Chinese military infrastructure construction projects are designed to be dual use and draw funding from local and national non-defense coffers, according to a study by the China Power Project under U.S.-based think tank Center for Strategic & International Studies. Non-defense agencies should reimburse for disaster relief funded by the defense budget, the study adds.

The Chinese government could sell U.S. Treasury bonds as well if it needed more money, said Termsak Chalermpalanupap, fellow with the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

Pressure to make cuts

The Peoples Liberation Army could also delay or cut back endeavors elsewhere to maintain the pace of strengthening China's position in the South China Sea, said Denny Roy, senior fellow at the East-West Center think tank in Honolulu.

Military cutbacks might make little impact for now because the once ambitious Chinese island-building in the South China Sea is finished except for maintenance, Chalermpalanupap said.

I think the overall economy of China is slowing down, so I think they have to be more careful on what they are spending in the defense side, Chalermpalanupap said. I think no more features to build. They have what they needed.

China can lock in its current holdings, which include the entire 130-islet Paracel archipelago and seven features in the Spratly islands, partly through diplomacy with the other governments that contest its maritime sovereignty, Nagy said. One goal, he said, would be to stop any active multi-country effort to roll back Chinese control.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday called the legal clash between Chinese company Huawei and the U.S. government "deliberate political suppression," and he vowed to protect the rights of Chinese companies and citizens abroad.



"It's quite obvious to any fair and unbiased person that the recent action against a particular company and Chinese individual is not just a pure judicial case but deliberate political suppression," Wang said on the sidelines of China's annual parliament session.



"We have already and will continue to take all necessary steps and resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and citizens," he said, though he did not elaborate on what those steps would be.

Washington has banned U.S. companies from using Huawei technology, warning that doing so could result in security breaches.

In December, Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer, on U.S. charges that she violated sanctions against Iran. Her extradition hearing is to begin May 8.



Since Meng's arrest, two Canadians have been arrested in China, and a third who was already in Chinese prison for a drug crime has seen his sentence switched from 15 years to death.



On Thursday, Huawei announced it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S., arguing that legislation Congress passed last year restricting Huawei business in the United States was "unconstitutional" because it singled out the company for penalties.



The United States has also warned other countries that Huawei technology could allow Chinese intelligence agents to infiltrate their networks.



"This ban is not only unlawful but also harms both Huawei and U.S. consumers," Huawei's rotating chairman, Guo Ping, told reporters Thursday in Shenzhen.

No choice



Guo said that Huawei was left with no choice but to take legal action, noting that neither lawmakers nor the government had shown any proof to date to back up concerns the company is a security risk.



China expert Dean Cheng of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy told VOA's Xu Ning that even though Huawei is not owned by the Chinese government, it would probably cooperate with the government if asked to.



"Huawei is not a state-owned enterprise," Cheng said, but "broadly speaking, Chinese companies will respond to requests or demands from the Chinese government."

In addition, he said, "Huawei coding appears to be often very poor. Whether that's deliberate or not is unclear. But Huawei has also been very, very slow in addressing those issues. So we have a fundamental quality control issue here."

Julian Ku, a constitutional law professor and associate dean at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., told VOA's Qiao Zhan that Huawei has a minimal chance of winning, but "not an impossible chance."



He said the United States would probably file a motion to dismiss the Huawei case, arguing that Huawei's legal claims "don't have any basis so we don't need to go to trial because no evidence is required to resolve the case." Then, he said, the court would most likely schedule a hearing to consider that argument.



U.S. vigilance

On Thursday, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino declined to comment on the pending lawsuit, but said the government needs to be vigilant when making procurement decisions.



"The United States advocates for secure telecom networks and supply chains that are free from suppliers subject to foreign government control or undue influence, which would pose risks of unauthorized access and malicious cyber activity," said Palladino in response to questions posed by VOA during a briefing.



"We believe that these risks posed by vendors subject to extrajudicial or unchecked compulsion by foreign states that do not share our values need to be weighed rigorously before making procurement decisions on these technologies," he added.
At least 25 migrants from Central America died late Thursday in a road accident in Mexicos Chiapas state.

Twenty-nine more were injured in the accident, after the overloaded truck they were traveling in ran off the road and overturned, the General Prosecutor of Chiapas said in a statement, adding that the injured were taken to hospitals and the accident was under investigation.

Citing authorities, local media reported that the driver of the three-ton truck, carrying more than 50 people could have lost control because of a mechanical failure.

Thousands of migrants, mainly from Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, embark on dangerous trips through Mexico each year trying to reach the United States.

In October a caravan with as many as 7,000 people fleeing poverty and violence in their countries, traveled through Mexico to Tijuana on the border with California before disbanding.

Chiapas is the historic entry point for Central American migrants arriving in Mexico from Guatemala, according to the Associated Press.
In January, a little-known federal judge in Pennsylvania blocked new Trump administration rules that would have allowed employers to deny women free birth control benefits on religious and moral grounds.

Judge Wendy Beetlestones tool? A nationwide preliminary injunction enjoining the Trump administration from enforcing the rules not only in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the two states suing the government, but throughout the United States.

With the stroke of a pen, Beetlestone, an Obama appointee, blocked a policy albeit temporarily that opponents say could adversely affect the lives of millions of women.

This prompts the question: Should a single judge, one of several hundred appointed to the federal bench, have the power to decide a question of momentous weight for the entire country?

The question is hardly an academic one. A nationwide preliminary injunction, also called a universal injunction, is a court ruling that temporarily prevents a government policy from taking effect while legal challenges make their way through the court system.

Judicial overreach

With federal judges blocking Trump administration policies in unprecedented numbers, Republicans in Congress have denounced the practice as judicial overreach and potentially unconstitutional. Moreover, criticism voiced last year by conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that these injunctions are legally and historically dubious has sparked speculation the high court might step in to confront the issue.

Judge Beetlestones injunction in Pennsylvania v. President of the United States was the latest in a string of 30 handed down by federal judges over the past two years. This has come as Democratic-governed states, civil rights organizations and other activist groups have turned to the courts to challenge the Trump administration on health care, immigration, gender identity rights and a raft of other issues.

By historic standards, the number is staggering even with the safeguards of the appellate courts. Until the 1960s, no court had issued a single nationwide injunction. In subsequent decades before U.S. President Barack Obama took office in 2009, federal district court judges issued an average of 1.5 such injunctions per year.

But the number increased to 2.5 per year under Obama and jumped to a record 20 during President Donald Trumps first year in office. Both presidents rolled out far-reaching and often controversial policy initiatives on immigration, climate change and other issues through executive action, triggering federal lawsuits by states and other entities.

NOTE: Click on the arrows below for more information

Executive authority

Amanda Frost, a professor at the American University Washington College of Law, said the rapid growth in nationwide injunctions has been fueled by Obamas and Trumps expansive use of executive authority.

Weve seen both President Obama and President Trump issue executive orders making sweeping changes to our immigration system, for example, to various labor laws, Frost said. And these sweeping changes through unilateral executive order  rather than deliberative lawmaking by Congress  is I think part of the problem.

Not every request for a nationwide preliminary injunction has been granted, however. Last month, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., denied a gun rights organizations request for a preliminary injunction to block the administrations ban on bump stocks, a device that accelerates the firing of semi-automatic weapons. And the day before Judge Beetlestone issued her injunction, which is being appealed, another judge in California issued a limited injunction in the same case covering 13 states and the District of Columbia.

Flouting the Constitution

The Justice Department, under both Democratic and Republican presidents, has long argued that federal judges lack the authority to issue nationwide injunctions. Last year, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued guidelines for federal prosecutors involved in cases brought against the government to make strong and consistent arguments in court against the issuance of nationwide injunctions and to reaffirm the existing constitutional and practical limitations on the authority of judges.

This Justice Department has challenged the entry of nationwide injunctions on constitutional as well as equitable grounds, and we will continue to do so at every appropriate opportunity, Beth Williams, an assistant attorney general, said at a recent Heritage Foundation event on nationwide injunctions.

Outside the Justice Department, nationwide injunctions have sparked a raging policy and constitutional debate over the practice.

To some critics, the practice flouts the Constitution. Samuel Bray, a University of Notre Dame professor of law, has argued that Article III of the U.S. Constitution restricts federal judges judicial power to deciding cases for parties, not questions for everyone.

That is why for 170 years there were no national injunctions from federal courts, Bray said during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on nationwide injunctions. Because the federal courts recognized that giving remedies to non-parties would go beyond the judicial power.

Bray and other critics say that nationwide injunctions politicize the judicial system and lead to so-called forum shopping by politically motivated groups, encouraging plaintiffs to shop around for a sympathetic judge willing to issue a favorable ruling. Instead, they say, plaintiffs seeking a nationwide injunction can do so by filing a class action lawsuit.

But proponents say nationwide injunctions are sometimes the only means to ensure complete relief to a plaintiff and to prevent harm to others who may not be able to bring their own cases before courts.

You have to look at the specific examples, said Caroline Fredrickson, president of the liberal-leaning American Constitutional Society. Its really important for the judges to look at the circumstances and understand that the rulings may be necessary because the law itself is harming so many people beyond those who were specifically plaintiffs in the case.
U.S.-backed forces fighting Islamic State (IS) in Syria said they have rescued three of their fighters who had been detained by the militant group in its last stronghold in eastern Syria.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led alliance, said Tuesday they rescued the three fighters in a special operation inside the town of Baghuz in eastern Deir el-Zour province.

A VOA cameraman embedded with Kurdish fighters spoke with the three fighters hours after they were freed Tuesday.

Freed captive Ahmed Hossein said IS fighters were hiding among them to avoid being targeted by the SDF and U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.

"We were 52 people held in a car. The car was always on the move. [IS] was using us as human shields," he told VOA.

"They would take us to anywhere there was fighting and put us on the front line so that our [SDF] comrades would not hit them," Hossein added.

He said that during his captivity, there were days when he couldn't get any food or water.

WATCH: Freed Fighters Talk to VOA

Last week, SDF fighters launched a final assault to recapture Baghuz from IS. The offensive, however, has slowed in the past two days because the terror group has increasingly been using people as human shields, an SDF official said.

Another captured fighter who was liberated in SDF's night raid said the remaining IS fighters in Baghuz were desperate as the U.S.-backed forces continued their advance on the Syrian town.

"In the last 15 days, they were acting very tensely," Abdulrazaq Mohammed said. "Our comrades were attacking them from every side. So they started using us and civilians as human shields."

Previous raids to free fighters

Since the beginning of the campaign to remove IS from Baghuz in February, the SDF has carried out similar raids to free its fighters held by IS.

On Monday, SDF also freed a number of SDF fighters, while evacuating hundreds of civilians from Baghuz.

"Five SDF fighters who had been held hostage were liberated," SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said in a tweet. Kurdish military officials said a significant number of SDF fighters are still in IS's captivity in Baghuz.
Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election has ensnared dozens of people, including several advisers to

President Donald Trump and a series of Russian nationals and companies.

Rod Rosenstein, the No. 2 U.S. Justice Department official, in May 2017 appointed Mueller to look into whether Trump's campaign conspired with Russia and whether the Republican president had unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Mueller has charged 34 individuals and three companies.

Trump denies collusion and obstruction. Russia denies election interference.

Here is a look at those who have pleaded guilty or have been indicted in Mueller's inquiry.

Paul Manafort

In August 2018, a jury in Virginia found Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, guilty of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

Manafort was sentenced in March 2019 in the Virginia case to almost four years in prison.

Manafort, who prosecutors said tried to conceal from the U.S. government millions of dollars he was paid as a political consultant for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians, pleaded guilty in September 2018 to two counts of conspiracy in a separate case in Washington and agreed to cooperate with Mueller. The Washington case had focused on accusations of money laundering and failing to report foreign bank accounts, among other

charges.

He was scheduled to be sentenced in the Washington case on March 13.

A judge on Feb. 13 ruled that Manafort had breached his agreement to cooperate with Mueller by lying to prosecutors about three matters pertinent to the Russia probe, including his interactions with a business partner, Konstantin Kilimnik, who they have said has ties to Russian intelligence.

Michael Cohen

Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty in August 2018 to crimes including violating campaign laws by orchestrating "hush money" payments before the 2016 election to women who said they'd had sexual encounters with Trump. That case was handled by federal prosecutors in New York, not Mueller's office.

As part of a separate agreement with Mueller's team, Cohen pleaded guilty in November 2018 of lying to Congress about negotiations concerning a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, a project that never materialized.

Cohen in February 2019 testified at a public hearing before a House of Representatives committee. He accused Trump of approving the "hush money" payments and knowing in advance about the 2016 release by the WikiLeaks website of emails that prosecutors have said were stolen by Russia to harm Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. He said Trump implicitly directed him to lie about the Moscow real estate project.

He promised to keep cooperating with prosecutors and made multiple closed-door appearances before congressional panels.

Michael Flynn

Flynn, Trump's national security adviser for less than a month in early 2017, pleaded guilty in December 2017 of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia during Trump's presidential transition and agreed to cooperate with Mueller.

Trump fired him as national security adviser after it emerged that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI about his dealings with the then-Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. His sentencing is pending.

Roger Stone

The longtime Trump ally and presidential campaign adviser was charged in January 2019 with seven criminal counts including obstruction of an official proceeding, witness tampering and making false statements. He pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors said Stone shared with members of the Trump campaign team advance knowledge of the plan by WikiLeaks to release the stolen Democratic emails. Prosecutors also accused him of trying to interfere with a witness.

Rick Gates

The former deputy chairman of Trump's campaign, Gates pleaded guilty in February 2018 of conspiracy against the United States and lying to investigators. He agreed to cooperate with Mueller and testified as a prosecution witness against Manafort, his former business partner.

Konstantin Kilimnik

A Manafort aide in Ukraine and a political operative described by prosecutors as linked to Russian intelligence, Kilimnik was charged in June 2018 with tampering with witnesses about their past lobbying for Ukraine's former pro-Russian government.

Prosecutors said in January 2019 that Manafort shared political polling data with Kilimnik in 2016, providing an indication that Trump's campaign may have tried to coordinate with Russians.

12 Russian intelligence officers

Twelve Russian intelligence officers were indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2018, accused of hacking the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations as part of a Russian scheme to release emails damaging to Clinton during the 2016 race. They covertly monitored employee computers and planted malicious code, as well as stealing emails and other documents,

according to the indictment.

13 Russian nationals, 3 companies

Thirteen Russians and three Russian companies were indicted in Mueller's investigation in February 2018, accused of taking part in an elaborate campaign to sow discord in the United States ahead of the 2016 election and harm Clinton's candidacy in order to boost Trump. The companies included: the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based propaganda arm known for trolling on social media; Concord Management and Consulting; and Concord Catering.

George Papadopoulos

The former Trump campaign adviser was sentenced in September 2018 to 14 days in prison after pleading guilty in October 2017 of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials, including a professor who told him the Russians had "dirt" on Clinton.

Alex Van Der Zwaan

A lawyer who once worked closely with Manafort and Gates, Van Der Zwaan pleaded guilty in February 2018 of lying to Mueller's investigators about contacts with a Trump campaign official. Van Der Zwaan, the Dutch son-in-law of one of Russia's richest men, was sentenced in April 2018 to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000.

Richard Pinedo

Pinedo was not involved with the Trump campaign, but in February 2018 he pleaded guilty of identity fraud in a case related to the Mueller investigation for helping Russian conspirators launder money, purchase Facebook ads and pay for supplies.

He was sentenced in October 2018 to six months in jail and six months of home detention.
Editor's note: We want you to know what's happening, and why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

No entry, no exit for IS supporter in Syria

A U.S. federal judge won't fast-track Hoda Muthana's case, even as her lawyers asserted she is in danger at the camp where she is detained by Kurdish forces. The court proceedings could take months after her family challenged the government's assertion that Muthana  born and raised in the U.S.  will not be allowed to return to the country.

Trying to break free

Dozens of refugees detained in Libya were injured during an attempt to break out. Rioters  largely from Eritrea and Somalia  had had enough of the conditions in the detention center. )

Uphill battles

U.S. senators are expected to vote this month on Trump's declaration of a "national emergency" at the Mexico border. Democrats are trying to pick up the pieces from major policy changes made by the administration in the last two years. And the political and legal questioning over those choices continues in the courts and on Capitol Hill, where this week, committees questioned some of the key border policymakers for hours.

Death on the Brooklyn shore

A Brooklyn community is still trying to understand why a man savagely attacked immigrant workers in a seafood restaurant, and what it means for the diverse waterfront neighborhood.

Italy says 'no' to asylum-seekers

Italy blocked humanitarian protections for asylum-seekers, but some residents of southern Calabria  long a gateway for arriving migrants  say that decision is undoing all the benefits refugees brought to the community. "We saw this also as an opportunity to help these people while, at the same time, revitalizing our centers," a local woman said.

A lost boy, grown up, becomes a teacher

Meet John Deng. He grew up in Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp; now, he's a primary school teacher there.
The desert is blossoming with wildflowers in Southern California.

For the second time in two years, an event known as a superbloom is occurring.

A superbloom usually happens every 10 years or so, but heavy rains have created the ideal climate for Mother Natures spectacular display of flowers in the desert.

The appearance of desert lilies in December heralded the possibility that Mother Nature was about to stage a show, and she did not disappoint.

The pageantry can best be seen in Californias 640,000 acre Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, northeast of San Diego, where visitors can wander among the fanfare of hot pink Bigelows Monkey Flower, purple Sand Verbena, and white and yellow Evening Primrose. The desert lilies continue to thrive. Orange poppies that have sprouted along Southern California highways are also expected to bloom soon in the desert.

Theres just an abundance in where its blooming and its coming in waves, Betsy Knaak, executive director of the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural HistoryAssociation, told the Associated Press.

Mike McElhatton, the educational program director of the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association, told AccuWeather in the past, we have seen only small concentrations in select valleys. He added, This year, it already appears that a vast majority of the 50-mile park will be in bloom.
At public meetings and election rallies held since the recent confrontation between India and Pakistan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been tapping into a wave of nationalistic sentiment sweeping the country and presenting himself as a strong leader willing to take a more muscular approach to Pakistan.

I want to assure citizens that the nation is in safe hands, Modi told a cheering audience at an election rally after India carried out airstrikes on an alleged militant camp in Pakistan.

Days later at another public meeting, he said India would no longer be helpless in the face of terror. This is a new India. We will pay back terrorists with interest.

But as the country prepares to elect a new government, the question being asked is: will the surge in support for the Indian leader, who until weeks ago was seen as struggling in his bid to win a second term in office, translate into votes?

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has quickly embraced national security as a mainstream electoral plank and issues such as joblessness and farmers' distress, on which the Indian leader was vulnerable, have been put on the back burner.

Polling agency C-Voter says the Indian Prime Ministers approval ratings, which had plummeted to an all-time low in January, have jumped to over 60 percent and are now close to previous highs.

Modi being the biggest brand for his party, Modi being the biggest brand for Indian election at this point of time  if his brand value is going back to similar sort of highs as in 2014-15, it augurs well for his party, said Yashwant Deshmukh, the head of C-Voter polling agency.

He said rising support for the Indian leader cuts across all voter segments.

The positivity around that strike and the upswing for Modi is pretty much everywhere," he added. "How much that party can benefit from it remains to be seen.

A suicide attack on February 14 in Pulwama in Indian Kashmir, which killed 40 paramilitaries, came just weeks before national elections and triggered fury in India. A Pakistan-based Islamist militant group, the Jaish e Mohammad claimed responsibility for the attack.

For the first time in nearly 50 years, India carried out airstrikes in Pakistan on what it said was a training camp run by the Jaish e Mohammad at Balakot. Pakistan responded with retaliatory strikes in which one Indian jet was downed and an Indian pilot captured.

Islamabad returned the pilot two days later helping calm tensions that had raised fears of a wider conflict.

There is no doubt that the strikes played well domestically and will provide the BJP with a new sense of momentum headed into general elections, said Milan Vaishnav, senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The mood in India favored a military response to the Pulwama attack, and Modi has delivered on that.

In the days since, the prime minister, whose right-wing BJP swept the 2014 elections, has sought to cash in on his image as a strong leader. And he has hinted that he will not soften his tough approach. This was a pilot project, he told a gathering of scientists without directly alluding to the strikes.

At the height of the hostilities, Modi appealed to the opposition to refrain from politicizing the airstrikes. But angry opposition parties now accuse him of doing exactly that and using them for electoral advantage. They have demanded proof that the airstrikes killed many militants, pointing to reports that have cited satellite imagery to cast doubts over claims that a militant camp was damaged. The BJP has countered by questioning their patriotism.

The charges and counter charges are unlikely to impact perceptions of those who applauded the airstrikes.

The last time we know was 1999 when a similar war-like situation happened in Kargil, and BJP certainly benefited from that, says Rahul Verma, a political analyst and fellow at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. Nationalistic sentiment most likely helps the incumbent, and specially if the incumbent is of a rightwing party.

For the time being, opposition parties are struggling to refocus attention on issues on which the BJP is on the back foot: falling rural incomes and high rates of unemployment. It was these issues that contributed to the partys defeat in two key state elections in December.

But as the weeks pass by, such core concerns of millions across the country could again emerge center stage, especially in rural communities where national security and foreign relations barely get any traction.

Elections are expected to be announced in the coming days and begin sometime in April.

Analysts say though Modi and the BJP got a lift with the India-Pakistan confrontation, the contest remains wide open.

The BJP would like to change the narrative to national security and terrorism, but it wont be so easy. Bread-and-butter issues like employment, development, and welfare will still be topmost for most voters, said Vaishnav.
Hundreds more men, women and children trudged out of the last corner of the Islamic State's self-declared caliphate in Syria on Thursday, increasingly defiant that the terror group's defeat was imminent.

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces officials, eager to declare victory after laying siege to the northeastern Syrian village of Baghuz more than a week ago, expressed hope this latest exodus of both IS followers and those kidnapped or enslaved by the terror group would be the last.



"We hope they will be completed today," SDF Cmdr. Adnan Afrin said early Thursday.



Halfway around the world, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East warned against any hint of satisfaction or complacency at the sight of beaten and battered IS fighters.

'Unrepentant, unbroken'



"What we are seeing now is not the surrender of ISIS as an organization but a calculated decision to preserve the safety of their families and preservation of their capabilities," U.S. Central Command's Gen. Joseph Votel told lawmakers in Washington, using an acronym for the terror group.



"Observations by our men and women on the ground highlight that the ISIS population being evacuated from the remaining vestiges of the caliphate largely remain unrepentant, unbroken and radicalized," he added.

Over the past four days, more than 8,000 people have left Baghuz, a once-sprawling village of homes and farmland that, after days of intense fighting, has been reduced to a collection of wrecked homes and tents upon a pockmarked terrain.



They joined about 16,000 others who left IS-held Baghuz  described by Votel as encompassing "less than a single square mile" (1.6 square kilometers)  over the previous week and a half.

'Not a defeat'



As if to back up his point, many of the most recent evacuees still held out hope that IS would prevail.



"It's not a defeat, no, it's nothing," an Iraqi woman, who identified herself as Oum Mohammed, told cameras with the French news agency AFP on Wednesday. "The brave ones are still left. The fearful have left, thanks to God, but those who remain will win by the grace of God."



It is a sentiment that has given some SDF officials reason for concern.

"We expect a fierce battle later on after the end of the civilian evacuation," SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali told al-Hadath television Thursday. "Those that will remain in Baghuz are the ones brimming with Salafi jihadi ideology and the ones for whom surrender is not an option."

Thousands more?



Despite the optimism of some of his colleagues, Bali cautioned that could take more time.



"We are still hearing about the presence of thousands inside Baghuz," he added.



U.S. officials, while confident that the IS caliphate is witnessing its final days, have likewise warned that many more IS fighters may be lurking in the tunnels beneath the village.



"We have been surprised by just how many people have come out," a U.S. defense official told VOA on condition of anonymity, adding there may be a thousand fighters still waiting to make a last stand.



Coalition and SDF officials have described the network of tunnels and caves as complex, extending possibly for more than two kilometers, and rigged with explosives and booby traps.



Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Hundreds of Kenyan women and activists took to the streets of Nairobi and Mombasa on Friday, marching against gender-based violence and the lack of punishment for its perpetrators.

The demonstrators, many wearing white T-shirts and purple and red ribbons, called on the government to develop an action plan to prevent violence against women.

"There is a war against our bodies, there is a war against Kenyan women and together we are raising our voices to say no to this femicide and violence against women," said Renoh Amollo, a human rights activist took part in the march. "No consequences befall these perpetrators. We note that violence against women has been normalized and, therefore, escalating because of the systemic power structures that favor men."

According to local media reports, between 10 and 20 women in Kenya have been murdered in acts of gender-based violence in 2019.

Four years ago, the government set up an affirmative action fund to help vulnerable groups such as women, persons with disabilities and the elderly. Esther Passaris, a Kenyan legislator, used some of the money to fund Friday's march.

"The initiative started almost two weeks ago with social media, and then later on today we have lent them support through the affirmative action fund. Why have we done that? We have a vote that says let's protect the woman, let's empower her economically, let's speak to gender-based violence," Passaris said.

Last month, a human rights activist was reported missing and her body was found in a city mortuary. Pathologists and police reports concluded that Carol Mwatha died as a result of a backstreet abortion, but some rights groups have linked her death to her investigation of extrajudicial killings by police.

Hussein Khalid, the director of human rights organization Haki Africa, says Kenya must do a better job at preventing these kinds of attacks.

"We are here today to stand together because we know in Kenya, violence against women, femicide has been on the rise. So we are here to call for the rights of women and we are standing together with our women to say that we cannot allow femicide in this country. Any society that does not respect its women is an uncivilized society," Khalid said.

According to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report, nearly 70 percent of all women intentionally killed in Africa in 2017 were killed by intimate partners or other family members. The report indicated that little progress has been made in preventing such murders.
Burned-out autos littered empty streets this week in the town where Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador unleashed a first major push to take control of territory absorbed by organized crime during years of mounting violence.

The central town of Santa Rosa de Lima, a few miles east of Salamanca, home to one of the nation's main oil refineries, is close to a center of the nation's auto industry.

It is also a microcosm of the lawlessness permeating swathes of Mexico where cartels have for years replaced the state as benefactors, providing jobs and handouts in return for residents' loyalty.

Lopez Obrador said he was winning the battle for hearts and minds against a gang of fuel thieves in Santa Rosa.

"If you need work because of a lack of job opportunities, if you need welfare support, you can depend on us," he said. "We're the ones who offer you this," he told reporters earlier in the week.

But in the grimy settlement of some 2,800 people where authorities say the eponymous Santa Rosa de Lima gang paid residents to obstruct marines and federal police with blockades and burning vehicles and by informing on their movements, some were less certain the government had the upper hand.

"It's very hard for people to change," said Pedro Mendez, 52, who sells household goods in the town, where heavily armed police patroled and government helicopters circled overhead.

"The bad guys know how to get to them and that there are people who'll take money to do their bidding."

Others accused security forces of damaging private property and breaking car windows in the raids, while denying they were in cahoots with the gangs. Lopez Obrador said on Thursday there have been no deaths in the clashes.

Guanajuato's governor, Diego Sinhue, estimated that around 300 people helped set fire to vehicles, although he defended the town against its infamy as a crime hotbed.

The effort to capture gang leader Jose Antonio Yepez, known as "El Marro," or "The Mallet," and blamed for stealing vast quantities of fuel from the Salamanca refinery, is also a test of the government's ability to end organized crime's growing threat to legitimate businesses and ordinary citizens.

Yepez has so far evaded detention, though federal forces arrested his sister-in-law, alleged to be his finance chief, along with six others, a security official said. Authorities said they raided his sprawling house near the town, whose grounds, as seen in photos by Mexican media, include a half-Olympic-sized pool, palm trees and a tiger statue.

Fuel theft costing billions of dollars a year, along with dwindling output, has weighed heavily on state oil firm Pemex, threatening to damage the government's creditworthiness.

This week, ratings agency Moody's warned that "increasing insecurity, robbery and travel warnings hurt Mexican companies' top lines."

Santa Rosa lies in Guanajuato state, part of the country's industrial heartland that was long peaceful and is a major magnet for carmakers such as Volkswagen, General Motors and Toyota, but it suffered a doubling of murders last year, making it one of the most violent regions, official data shows.

Eduardo Solis, head of Mexico's automotive industry lobby, said on Wednesday the situation in Guanajuato was threatening business and had the look of a "crisis."

Security has sharply deteriorated in the gangland struggle to control fuel rackets, and at 2,609 last year, murders in Guanajuato were over 10 times higher than a decade earlier, official data show.

Only one boss

Lopez Obrador's determination to reassert the government as the main provider of services in anarchic regions is an early hallmark of his presidency, which began Dec. 1. He targeted fuel theft soon after taking office, turning off oil pipelines and risking a public backlash as lines began to form outside gas stations.

Days after the country's most famous gangster, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was convicted in a U.S. court, Lopez Obrador became the first president in decades to visit his home town, cutting the ribbon on a road project.

His rising popularity in opinion polls suggest Mexicans back the efforts so far.

Hundreds of police and armed forces arrived in Santa Rosa on Sunday to restore order.

By Wednesday, the president was saying Santa Rosa had begun to reject the gang's largesse, which locals said they heard included payments of 1,000 pesos ($52) or more. The burning blockades and protests vanished Wednesday.

Among evidence authorities have found in raids was a wage envelope stamped with what appeared to be a symbol of a mallet, reading: "Relatives should go out to protest when required."

Though reluctant to speak of fuel theft, several residents said they had seen El Marro and that the town was peaceful until "outsiders" began to arrive a few years ago.

"I'm afraid to go out. If I leave the house something could happen to me because I can see the government's angry," said Estela Mendoza, a 44-year-old grandmother, speaking through a hatch in the door of the modest house she shares with her family and which she said she had not left since Sunday.
The power outages that hit Venezuela Thursday continued into early Friday.

The blackout hit most of the countrys 23 states. The capital Caracas, usually spared electrical cuts, was struck at the peak of rush hour.

Large crowds of commuters had to walk for several hours to their homes because few buses were on the streets and the citys metro system was shut down.

Officials said the hydroelectric station at the Guri Dam, one of the worlds largest, had been sabotaged, but offered no evidence.

Venezuelas socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, labeled the outage an electrical war directed by the United States.

The war of electricity announced and directed by U.S. imperialism against our people will be defeated. Nothing and no one can defeat the people of Bolivar and Chavez. Patriots, unite! Maduro wrote on Twitter.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido, the self-proclaimed interim president recognized by the United States and about 50 other nations took to Twitter to blast Maduro for the outage.

How do you tell a mom who needs to cook, an ill person who depends on a machine, a worker who should be laboring that we are in a powerful country without electricity? he wrote. Venezuela is clear that the light will return with the end of usurpation.

Venezuelas electrical system, once the most efficient in Latin America, has fallen into a state of disrepair after years of poor maintenance and mismanagement.
The U.N. refugee agency and Colombian authorities are opening a reception center in the border city of Maicao, in the La Guajira region, to offer humanitarian assistance to vulnerable Venezuelans fleeing their country.

Every day an estimated 5,000 Venezuelans flee violence, persecution and socioeconomic distress in their country. Many have taken refuge in Colombia, which is hosting more than one million Venezuelan refugees and migrants.

There are no refugee camps in the country. Instead, those who arrive are hosted by local residents or live in makeshift shelters or on the street. The U.N. refugee agency says the new reception center, the first of its kind in Colombia, aims to provide the most vulnerable people with temporary shelter, food, water, basic medical care, and other services.

The UNHCR says the center initially will be able to assist 350 people, but has the capacity to expand in the future.

"Maicao is one of the cities in La Guajira with the highest concentration per capita of refugees and migrants from Venezuela," said UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic. "Hundreds of people, including children, the elderly, persons with disabilities and critical medical conditions, are forced to live on the streets, due to a lack of alternative shelter options."

Venezuelans who have no documents are among the most vulnerable, Mahecic told VOA. He says refugees and migrants who cannot prove their identities have difficulty getting the aid they need, and they face many risks from unscrupulous people ready to take advantage of them.

"They may end up basically turning to the streets, to the coping mechanisms that may involve child labor or other forms, which are the negative coping mechanisms. And, certainly, that is the possible exploitation and abuse that we are looking at," Mahecic said.

More than 3.4 million Venezuelans are living abroad; most have left their country since 2015. The United Nations is appealing for $738 million to provide life-saving assistance to 2.2 million Venezuelans and one-half million host communities in 16 countries.
The Pentagon is warning of "grave consequences" to military relations between the United States and Turkey should Ankara purchase a Russian surface-to-air missile system.

"If Turkey takes the S-400, there would be grave consequences in terms of our relationship, military relationship with them," chief Pentagon spokesman Charlie Summers told reporters Friday.

Summers said those consequences would encompass losing U.S. military sales to Turkey, including the long-awaited sale of the United States' new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet.

"If they take the S-400s then  they would not get the F-35s and the Patriots," Summers said, referring to the Patriot surface-to-air missile system, which has a primary function of defending against ballistic missiles and has been presented as an American-made alternative to the S-400.

Ankara signed an agreement with Moscow for the S-400 missile system in 2017. At the same time, Turkey has helped finance the F-35 program and planned to buy 100 of the jets from the U.S., the first of which are due to be delivered later this year.

Washington fears the sophisticated radar of the S-400 system could compromise the F-35 technology, which was developed to elude Russian-made systems. Ankara insists the S-400 offers the best value for its needs and poses no threat to NATO systems.

Earlier this week, the head of U.S. European Command told lawmakers the United States should not move forward with the F-35 sales, should Turkey purchase the S-400.

"My best military advice would be that we don't then follow through with the F-35, flying it or working with allies that are working with Russian systems, particularly air defense systems," Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti said Tuesday.

A day later, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his commitment to buy the Russian missile system and suggested expanding the purchase to Russia's more advanced S-500 system.

Ankara is slated to receive the S-400 later this year in hopes of making the system ready for use by 2020.

Dorian Jones contributed to this report from Istanbul
Pope Francis on Friday branded anti-Semitism part of a wave of "depraved hatred" sweeping some countries and urged everyone to be vigilant against it.

In comments to members of the American Jewish Committee during a visit to the Vatican, he also reiterated that it was sinful for Christians to hold anti-Semitic sentiments because they shared a heritage with Jews.

"A source of great concern to me is the spread, in many places, of a climate of wickedness and fury, in which an excessive and depraved hatred is taking root," Francis said. "I think especially of the outbreak of anti-Semitic attacks in various countries."

Francis did not name any of those countries, but government statistics released last month showed more than 500 anti-Semitic attacks occurred last year in France, which has Europe's biggest Jewish community. That was a 74 percent increase from 2017.

"I stress that for a Christian any form of anti-Semitism is a rejection of one's own origins, a complete contradiction," Francis said.

A European Union study last month showed that more than one in three European Jews have considered emigrating in the past five years because they no longer feel safe.

Episodes of anti-Semitism have coincided with the rise of populist or nationalist parties in predominantly Christian countries such as Italy, Germany, Poland and Hungary. In Britain, nine lawmakers quit the Labour party last month, citing the leadership's handling of anti-Semitism in the party as a reason for leaving.

In December, 20 cobblestones commemorating members of two Italian Jewish families who were deported to Auschwitz or killed in Rome were dug up and stolen in what the Jewish community said was an anti-Semitic attack.

On Monday, Pope Francis announced that he has decided to open fully the Vatican's secret archives on Pope Pius XII, something which Jews have been seeking for decades.

Some Jews have accused Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust during World War Two by not speaking out forcefully. The Vatican has said Pius worked quietly behind the scenes to save Jews and avoid worsening the situation for many.
First Lady Melania Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Thursday paid tribute to 10 women from around the world with this year's International Women of Courage awards. Honoree Naw K'nyaw Paw of Myanmar, also known as Burma, described her own personal experience as one of many who, she says, endured brutality at the hands her country's military forces. VOA's Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more from the State Department.
Record high ultra-fine dust levels in South Korea this week are creating urgency for political leaders to take action towards ensuring more breathable air.

Levels of particulates smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM 2.5) in diameter hit new records on Monday and Tuesday, soaring in excess of what international health officials deem acceptable.

The World Health Organization recommends keeping PM 2.5 pollutants below 25 micrograms per cubic meter. Seouls concentration of fine dust measured 111 micrograms Wednesday, with even higher levels in outlying regions.

The capital regions iconic mountain and skyscraper cityscape has been a dim and hazy silhouette for much of the week, and mobile phones across the country have been vibrating with warnings from the government that citizens should limit outdoor activities. Anti-pollution masks are a frequent sight on convenience store shelves and on commuter faces.

The pollution levels have triggered local emergency measures around the country under which coal plants and other pollution emitting facilities can be restricted. Older diesel cars can also be banned from roads, and school and work hours can be curtailed at the discretion of local officials.

A high concentration of automobiles is one factor cited in South Korea's pollution problem, something the government is trying to mitigate with a major push toward hydrogen and fuel cell vehicle development. South Korea has also pivoted away from nuclear energy in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, reverting to coal for energy needs. However, experts say as much as 70 percent of the dust blows over from China.

Shing Yong-seung, with the Research Institute of Public Health and Environment in Seoul, said fireworks displays in China contributed in part to the recent spike in pollutants over the Korean peninsula.

On February 19, we were able to confirm that chemicals used in Chinese fireworks increased up to 11 times higher than the previous concentration, Shin told reporters in a Wednesday briefing. This means that China's pollutants have also affected the country, especially Seoul, he said.

President Moon Jae-in instructed government officials Wednesday to discuss ways for South Korea and China to cooperate, including collaboration on artificial rainfall, or cloud-seeding to rinse some of the particles out of the air. Since China is more advanced in artificial rainfall technology, spokesman Kim Eui-Kyeom told reporters,the president instructed the Environment Ministry to push forward on artificial rainfall projects with China in the West Sea.

Lawmakers from South Koreas three largest parties say theyll work together to pass new measures next week aimed at combating severe fine dust. Many South Koreans complain that short term domestic steps will not sufficiently clear the air, saying only more proactive cooperation with China is likely to have any chance of being effective in the long run.
On International Women's Day, South Sudan's minister for gender, women, and social welfare called on the government to invest in education as a way to build South Sudanese society and improve women's lives.

"This is a time that we should be thinking to invest more in educating the young generation of females which will be leaders of tomorrow," said Minister Awut Deng Acuil at the Nyakuron Cultural Center in Juba on Friday.

Sumedi Kejo, acting director general at the Jubek State Ministry of Gender and Welfare, said many women have suffered sexual violence during South Sudan's civil war and perpetrators are rarely held accountable. Kejo said the government must make sure the rule of law is enforced and see to it that the perpetrators of sexual assaults are punished.

"These things are happening every day, especially during the war and even now because there is a breakdown in the rule of law. Anybody can do anything; you cannot be held accountable," Kejo told VOA's South Sudan in Focus.

She said the war forced many women and children to flee their homes. Many women and children are returning home because they are hopeful peace will endure after last year's signing of the revitalized peace deal. Fighting, however, continues in parts of the country and women are still being sexually assaulted.

Government should do more

Kejo said the government should do more to restore stability so that displaced people can return home.

"We really want to see results on the ground, we want to see that we are peaceful, we can access our villages peacefully, we can access even the forests so that we can get firewood for cooking and we can travel at night and during the day without anybody jumping out from any bush with a gun to harass people. We want peace that can be seen, not peace that is on the lips," Kejo said.

Discrimination is systemic, widespread

Juba resident Lucia Bianza said discrimination against women is systemic and widespread in South Sudan.

"Most of the time at work place, you find that the women can be employed at the same level with a man but you find that a man will be paid higher than the woman and yet you are doing the same job. Then there are issues of gender imbalance, you find that there is a tendency, those technical jobs within the workplace, they tend to think that women cannot do even if you have gone under that course," Bianza told South Sudan in Focus.

South Sudan marked International Women's Day under the theme, "Think Equal: Make 35 Percent of Women's Participation Count."

South Sudan's ruling SPLM once promised to increase the percentage of women from 25 percent to 35 percent to empower women. That was in 2013.

South Sudan's women activists have been calling for a 35 percent allocation in government positions ever since.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule has undocked from the International Space Station.

The Dragon pulled away from the station early Friday, and an Atlantic Ocean splashdown is expected Friday morning.

The Dragon brought supplies and equipment to the space station where it stayed five days as astronauts conducted tests and inspected the Dragons cabin.

The crew capsule did not have any humans aboard, just a test dummy named Ripley, a reference to the lead character in the Alien movies. Ripley was riddled with sensors to monitor how flight in the capsule would feel for humans.

The Dragon is the first American commercially built-and-operated crew spacecraft in eight years, since the end of the space shuttle program.

The U.S. relies on Russia to launch astronauts to the space station, at a cost of about $80 million per ticket.

NASA has awarded millions of dollars to SpaceX and Boeing to design and operate a capsule to launch astronauts into orbit from American soil beginning some time this year.

It is not immediately clear if that goal will be reached.

SpaceX is entrepreneur Elon Musks company. Musk is also the CEO of electric carmaker Tesla.
The Syrian government has rejected a report by an international chemical weapons watchdog that found chlorine most likely was used in an attack on the rebel-held city of Douma last year.

A Syrian Foreign Ministry statement released Thursday said the report was "full of flagrant falsification of facts'' and lacked "credibility."

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) released a report last week that said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe toxic chemicals containing chlorine had been used in the attack in April 2018. Eyewitnesses and medical workers at the time said more than 40 people were killed in the attack.

The OPCW inspectors traveled to Douma. Their report did not assign blame for the use of chemicals.

The Syrian statement said the investigation had "ignored statements from witnesses who experienced this incident and who described the claim that chemical weapons had been used in Douma as having been a play put on by armed terrorist groups."
Arab media are reporting that Algerian security forces cut transportation links between parts of the country and the capital, Algiers, on Friday, as opposition groups held large protests against ailing incumbent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika seeking a fifth term in office.

Arab news channels broadcast live video of the demonstrations, which showed Algerian security forces blocking the road to the presidential palace as protesters attempted to approach the landmark. Witnesses say rounds of tear gas were fired to hold back protesters.

Despite conflicting reports by Arab media Thursday about the whereabouts of the ailing president, it is believed Bouteflika remains in a Geneva hospital, where his health is the subject of speculation. Al-Arabiya TV reported that Algerians have been calling the hospital switchboard to inquire if the president is still there.

Algerian media showed video of lawyers protesting in front of the main courthouse in the large eastern coastal city of Constantine. Lawyers in several major cities have threatened not to participate in supervising presidential elections if Bouteflika runs again.

Algerian TV ran a statement  attributed to the president  hailing the role of women in the country on International Women's Day. The statement also alluded to the importance of security in the country, given the "bloody civil conflicts prevailing in neighboring Arab states."

Some media reports claimed that several members of Bouteflika's political party have resigned from parliament, but his supporters said the reports were not true.

Algerian commentators speculated about possible scenarios for a "peaceful transition," given Bouteflika's wavering health.

Analyst Noureddin Khattal told al-Arabiya TV that "two possible scenarios are being floated by political leaders." One scenario, he says, "is that the president steps down, handing power to the head of parliament." He said another possibility is that the president is asked to step down for health reasons, as per Article 102 of the constitution.

Algerian Army Chief of Staff General Ahmed Qaid Salah has said several times during the past week that the army "will not allow the country to fall into to a state of chaos."
U.S. President Donald Trump is claiming vindication in the sentencing of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, after a U.S. federal judge ruled Manafort should serve 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud.

"I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it's been a very, very tough time for him," said Trump as he departed the White House early Friday, en route to the state of Alabama to view damage from this week's deadly hurricane.

"But, if you notice, both his lawyer, a highly respected man, and a very highly respected judge  the judge said there was no collusion with Russia," the president said.

Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted that the Russia probe headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller is a "collusion witch-hoax" and again denied that he colluded with Russia.

On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III stated that Manafort was "not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election," pointing out that Manafort was not on trial for the main focus of the Mueller probe  whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

In the sentencing, the judge did not specifically rule out the potential of collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

Substantially less sentence

Manafort's 47-month sentence is substantially less than the 19 to 21 years prosecutors wanted, which would have likely meant the 69-year-old Manafort would spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Ellis said the federal sentencing guidelines  and harsh punishment that Mueller recommended  were excessive.

Manafort was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair and supported himself with a cane. He appeared more worn and haggard than he did just a few years ago when he was one of the most influential Republicans in Washington.

While not apologizing for his crimes, Manafort told the judge Thursday that his life "professionally and financially is in shambles."

"To say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement," he said.

Along with the nearly four years in prison, Ellis also fined Manafort $50,000.

Additional charges

Manafort was charged with hiding from the government millions of dollars he earned as a lobbyist for Ukraine's former pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych  meaning that was millions of dollars on which he paid no taxes.

Manafort also lied to banks to secure loans for his luxurious lifestyle, including large homes and designer clothes.

In addition, Manafort was convicted of separate federal charges of conspiracy and witness tampering. He is set to be sentenced next week.

The sentence for Manafort is a bit surprising because Manafort agreed to cooperate with Mueller in the Russia probe, hoping for a lighter punishment.

But another judge had ruled that Manafort lied to prosecutors in the Russia probe and violated his plea deal, saying he was no longer entitled to leniency.
It's 20 months until the next presidential election, but U.S. President Donald Trump has found a battle cry. Trump is betting his anti-socialist stance will box rival Democrats in a corner and pave the road to another victory in 2020. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara examines whether anti-socialism is an effective re-election strategy for today's America, where many are disillusioned by what they see as the failures of capitalism.
Its 20 months until the next presidential election, but U.S. President Trump has found his battle cry. He is condemning socialism and painting it as the flawed ideology of his Democratic opponents.

During his appearance at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) earlier this month, Trump accused Democrats of wanting to replace individual rights with total government domination.

Socialism is not about the environment, its not about justice, its not about virtue, Trump said. Socialism is about only one thing, its called power for the ruling class.

WATCH: As Democrats Lean Left for 2020, Trump Cries Socialism

The message was repeated by Vice President Mike Pence who also spoke at CPAC.

Under the guise of Medicare-for-all and a Green New Deal, Democrats are embracing the same, tired economic theories that have impoverished nations and have stifled the liberties of millions over the past century, Pence said. That system is socialism.

Shifting opinion on socialism

In recent decades socialist policies have been almost taboo in American politics, but 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders shifted opinion by embracing the label and championing proposals like universal health care and free higher education.

His candidacy helped redefine what socialism means for many Americans, bringing it into the political mainstream, even though it remains vilified by Republicans.

Socialism can encompass a wide range of policies, but in the United States, some prominent politicians are championing the term to refer to efforts that propose raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to address the countrys widening income gap, funding universal health care and providing more jobs that pay enough for people to support a family.

Public opinion polls indicate a majority of Americans support each of those policies, even though socialism as a political concept continues to be favored by a minority of voters.

WATCH: Trump Paves Road to Re-Election With Anti-Socialism Message

Political boogeyman

With his national emergency declaration to build the border wall  a signature campaign promise  facing steep opposition and multiple ongoing investigations of his administration, family and business empire, Trump and his Republican allies are blasting socialism as a political boogeyman and painting Democratic presidential hopefuls as far-left extremists, with Bernie Sanders as a main target.

Sanders, a political independent, calls himself a democratic socialist and is already considered a front-runner in the crowded Democratic primary field. He supports universal health care, free college education and raising the national minimum wage to at least $15 per hour, more than twice what it is now.

Republican strategist and president of North Star Opinion Research Whit Ayres believe the best strategy for Democrats is to nominate someone who can unite non-Trump voters. If Democrats nominate a candidate who can be characterized as espousing socialist ideas like Bernie Sanders, that is the best outcome for President Trump to be re-elected, Ayres said.

Hispanic votes

Ayres and other analysts point out that painting Democrats as socialists is a good strategy to appeal to Hispanic voters.

It is precisely a way to expand the Republican coalition, Ayres said. It is explicitly an effort, not just to reinforce the base, but to expand the Republican appeal.

During a speech in front of a largely Venezuelan and Cuban immigrant crowd in Miami last month, Trump voiced his support for Venezuelas National Assembly President Juan Guaido, whom the United States recognizes as the countrys interim president, while warning of the dangers of socialism, saying it delivers poverty, hatred and division.

Daniel Runde, director of the Project on Prosperity and Development at the Center of Strategic and International Studies said the presidents strategy makes political sense to appeal to voters in key states he needs to win re-election.

Especially in a place like Florida where theres a large number of Venezuelans and Cuban emigres, Runde said. They understand exactly what socialism is, and they hate it.

The Green New Deal

Republicans have denounced the Green New Deal (GND), a non-binding resolution introduced last month by first-term congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

The term was coined to be reminiscent of President Franklin Delano Roosevelts New Deal, a series of programs and projects to restore prosperity during the 1930s Great Depression.

Proponents of the framework hope it will revitalize the economy and eliminate carbon emissions within a decade. It also includes proposals such as universal health care, higher education, a living wage and paid family vacations.

Critics say it would bankrupt the economy.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the deal:

During his CPAC remarks, Trump condemned the GND as a socialist nightmare and mocked proposals to use wind power as a source of clean energy.

Darling, is the wind blowing today? Trump said. Id like to watch television, darling.

Changing view of socialism?

According to a 2018 Gallup poll, even though the majority of Republicans remain much more positive about capitalism than socialism, 57 percent of Democrats have a favorable view of socialism.

Experts say American views on socialism have evolved, particularly those of millennials who came of age during the 2008 recession. Many became disillusioned by an economy that is delivering fewer opportunities than their parents enjoyed at the same time that the wealthiest Americans got far richer.

Weve had increased interest and membership since the Trump election, said Gregory Pason, national secretary of the Socialist Party, U.S.A. Our feeling is that people are looking for an alternative to Trump policies and understand the Democratic Party is not providing a real alternative.

Some democratic-socialist politicians, such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, want to nearly double taxes on the wealthiest Americans to help pay for universal health care, free higher education and a jobs program focused on moving the economy away from fossil fuels.

Pason stressed that socialism is not about tax policy but about giving working people ownership and workers and their communities control of their lives.

Daniel Runde said that while the term socialism for previous generations was understood to be a really awful and terrible thing, for many supporters of socialism today, the term represents progressive ideas and an expansive welfare state.

You can have debates about the size of government, the size of a social safety net and the size of regulation, Runde said, But when there are people who come out and say theyre straight out socialists, there is a danger of forgetting the legacy of socialism and communism.

For President Trump, reminding voters about that legacy is likely to be a prominent part of his re-election campaign.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he would be "very disappointed" if North Korea is resuming nuclear testing after his recent meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump made the comments to reporters Friday as he prepared to travel to Alabama to view tornado damage. He said he has greatly improved U.S. relations with North Korea during his time in office.

"Look, when I came in," he said, "under the Obama administration, North Korea was a disaster. You were going to war, folks, whether you know it or not  I inherited a mess."

He continued, "Right now you have no testing, you have no nothing. Let's see what happens, but I would be very disappointed if I saw testing."

WATCH: Trump Would Be Surprised if North Korea Resumed Tests
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday called Democratic lawmakers' vote on an anti-bigotry resolution "disgraceful" because it didn't go far enough in condemning anti-Semitic comments.



For the second time in as many months, the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday condemned hateful speech of all forms, in an attempt by Democrats to end a controversy over one of their own members' remarks deemed anti-Semitic by many.



Trump told reporters at the White House the controversy showed "Democrats have become an anti-Israel party. They've become an anti-Jewish party, and that's too bad."

Thursday vote



The House approved the resolution by a vote of 402-23, with one Republican voting present. Although it did not mention by name freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, the vote was intended as a rebuke for comments she made at a Washington, D.C., event last week, saying, "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country."



Omar's suggestion that Jewish or staunchly pro-Israel members of Congress have a dual loyalty to the United States and to Israel came on the heels of remarks she tweeted earlier this year regarding the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a highly influential, pro-Israel lobby. Invoking a trope about Jews and money, Omar suggested that AIPAC members used generous contributions to influence lawmakers' policy decisions on Israel.



During her campaign last year to become one of only two Muslim-American women elected to Congress, Omar also apologized for the anti-Semitic implications of some of her tweets and remarks.



A resolution specifically condemning anti-Semitic speech in response to Omar's Tweet regarding AIPAC and the influence of money in advancing pro-Israel policies in Congress passed the House last month.



Deep divisions



Omar's comments exposed deep divisions within the Democratic caucus in terms of religion, race and age that have frustrated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's efforts to move ahead with the Democrats' political agenda. Her remarks have also highlighted a generational clash between more establishment Democratic leaders and new members such as Omar and Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Those newcomers have not hesitated to start spirited debates over everything from climate change to impeaching Donald Trump. Traditionally, freshman members of Congress are expected to keep a low profile their first months in office.



But in the age of instant news cycles generated by social media, Omar  a Somalian refugee  and others have gained an outsized importance in the political debate by speaking out.

I do not believe that she [Omar] understood the full weight of the words," Pelosi told reporters Thursday. "I feel confident that her words were not based on any anti-Semitic attitude."



Instead, Pelosi characterized Omar's remarks as part of the process for a new member. "I understand how advocates come in with their enthusiasms," she said. "But when you cross that threshold into Congress, your words weigh much more, than when you're shouting at somebody outside."

But Republican leadership said Democrats' failure to single out Omar and anti-Semitism in the resolution is a sign the party is changing.

"The progressive wing, the socialism wing of the party fought back and they won," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters Friday. "There's no punishment, not even on the second time  there's less punishment on anti-Semitism."

Critics have called for Omar's removal from a high-profile assignment to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.



Even the language in this latest resolution sparked fierce debate within the Democratic caucus, after Pelosi and other members of party leadership broadened the text to condemn all forms of hate speech, including Islamophobia and white supremacist remarks in addition to anti-Semitism.



In a passionate speech on the House floor Thursday morning, Rep. Ted Deutch, a Jewish Democrat from Florida, said "Anti-Semitism is worthy of being taken seriously on its own. It's worthy of being singularly called out."



Deutch also noted anti-Semitic tropes have been repeated by Republicans as well. Democrats have criticized Trump for running a campaign ad showing images of billionaire Democratic contributor George Soros while invoking tropes of a globalist Jewish conspiracy and tweeting an image of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton alongside what appeared to be a Jewish star and piles of money.

Trump also drew widespread criticism in August 2017 when he said there was "blame on both sides" when a female protester was killed during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.



The party infighting over the language in the resolution overshadowed Democratic leadership's attempt to showcase HR 1, the new majority's signature legislation addressing voting rights, campaign finance reform and ethics. With the vote on the resolution Thursday, Democratic leadership looks to clear members from having to answer about the controversy and end the week on a high note with passage of that legislation.
U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, who was considered a top candidate to become the next secretary of defense, said on Friday she has decided to resign and return to academia, leaving another vacant post at the top level of the Pentagon.

Wilson confirmed the news, first reported by Reuters, in a tweet, saying she had informed President Donald Trump of her plans to become president of the University of Texas at El Paso. She plans to step down on May 31.

The resignation leaves another senior Pentagon job open and follows the December departure of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who quit over policy differences with Trump and who had hand-picked Wilson for the post.

Like Mattis, Wilson was a staunch advocate of alliances like NATO and firmly supported Mattis' push to refocus the U.S. military on higher-end competition with China and Russia after more than a decade-and-a-half of counterinsurgency campaigns.

"It has been a privilege to serve alongside our Airmen over the past two years and I am proud of the progress that we have made in restoring our nation's defenses," Wilson, 58, said in her resignation letter to Trump.

Trump congratulated Wilson and, in a tweet, thanked her for her service.

A former Republican lawmaker who was close to Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, Wilson would have been the first woman to take the Pentagon's top job, if she had been nominated. By all accounts, her nomination would have had strong support in Congress.

Mattis' deputy, Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, is now performing the role in an acting capacity in what is widely seen as an audition for the position. Wilson's resignation could add to speculation that Shanahan may remain in the post of defense secretary.

Other top Pentagon positions, including the deputy defense secretary, are either being filled provisionally or are vacant. "Everyone she has talked to wants her to stay, but she thinks the time is right to take on this new challenge," a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official added Wilson was not resigning under pressure and had not been asked to step down.

Wilson informed Pence of her decision earlier in the week and Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein on Thursday, the official said.

The University of Texas Board of Regents still has to approve Wilson's selection to head its El Paso campus, but she is the sole finalist.

Space Force

It is unclear who might succeed Wilson and inherit steep challenges facing the Air Force, which include the creation of Trump's "Space Force," a new branch of military service that will carve out some responsibilities current done by the Air Force. The Air Force is also reeling from a fresh scandal involving sexual assault.

Wilson was the first Air Force Academy graduate to ever take the highest position in her service, and counted a robust resume that included a decade as a Republican lawmaker in Congress. She also served on the National Security Council staff during the George H. W. Bush administration, and as president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

After joining the Pentagon, Wilson visited Iraq and Afghanistan and came away concerned about the wear and tear on an Air Force that she thought was too small, especially as the Pentagon shifted its focus to competition with Russia and China.

Last fall, she predicted the Air Force would need to grow sharply over the next decade or so, boosting the number of operational squadrons by nearly a quarter to stay ahead of Moscow and Beijing.

She told reporters at the time that the preliminary analysis drew partly from classified intelligence about possible future threats, showing that Air Force, at its current size, would be unable to preserve the United States' edge.

Wilson estimated the Air Force would need about more 40,000 personnel as part of the plan to have a total of 386 operational squadrons, compared with 312 today. The U.S. Air Force had 401 squadrons in 1987, at the peak of the Cold War.
Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, has called for more coordinated action to deal with militants in Africa's Great Lakes region. Meanwhile, the United Nations has urged countries to address the root causes of conflicts in the region that have created over 4 million refugees and displaced millions more.

At a Great Lakes security conference Thursday in Kampala, Museveni said he wanted more active cooperation in confronting the region's militants.

"Like the problem of Eastern Congo, I'm sure, if the countries of this area acted together, that problem could be solved. It's not such a big problem. Even the problem of Somalia, if it was not for this theater in which we are engaged, we could solve that problem by having enough action," Museveni said.

Uganda has deployed more than 6,000 troops to Somalia under the African Union Mission to fight the al-Shabab terrorist group.

Meanwhile, conflict in Great Lakes countries like Burundi, the Central African Republic and South Sudan has created over 4 million refugees in recent years and displaced millions more.

Uganda has been praised for hosting an estimated 1.1 million refugees  the largest number for any country in Africa. However, Uganda's minister for relief and refugees, Hillary Onek, warned that the country would not be exploited.

"We shall continue to be hospitable, but we should not be used by other people to solve their problems. Refugees have come, we shall look after them. And when your country is peaceful, they can return. But people want to exploit the situation to become refugees but, whereas they don't really have problems in their country, so, they want to use our hospitality for wrong reasons," she said.

Speaking at the conference Thursday, United Nations Special Envoy Said Djinnit urged the Great Lakes countries to address the root cause of conflicts in the region.

Djinnit blamed conflict over land, resources, corruption and poor governance for fueling the fighting. He cited Uganda's repatriation of 57 former M23 rebels to the Democratic Republic of Congo as an example of cross-border cooperation to help end conflict.

"When there's determination, we brought together the leaders of the countries, they took the decision, they established the mechanism and, therefore, relieved this country from this burden," he said. "And remove that problem between Uganda and the DRC. Because as long as the M23 are in Uganda, there is still that impression that [they] may have some kind of support in Uganda."

The M23 fighters crossed into Uganda in 2013 after intense fighting with DRC-backed U.N. forces.
The United Nations' top envoy in South Sudan offered a mixed picture of progress Friday as that country tries to move toward peace after more than five years of civil war.

David Shearer told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council that overall levels of political-related violence are down, opposition politicians are moving around the capital freely, and for the first time in three years, displaced civilians are expressing a willingness to return home.

"That's the positive side," Shearer said. "The significant challenge now is to maintain the momentum of the peace process."

The U.N. envoy said the timetable set out in the Sept. 12, 2018, Revitalized Peace Agreement is "well behind where it should be" and fundamental issues still have to be resolved, such as providing security for returning opposition leaders, including Riek Machar, who is currently in neighboring Khartoum.

Time is running out for this phase of the peace process, which will end on May 12, when the pre-transitional government is scheduled to take over and Machar is due to return to Juba to assume his role as first vice president.

Shearer said there is "no Plan B" to fully implementing the September agreement and warned that if peace falters now, the country could return to the intense levels of violence seen in 2013 and 2016.

"We cannot allow that to happen," Shearer said. "There are some who believe that a return to violence is inevitable; we don't concur."

Among those raising concerns are the nation's Catholic bishops.

"There is no will or commitment for peace among many of our leaders. Hate speech and propaganda abound, and there is a thirst for revenge among our communities,'' the bishops said in a statement on Feb. 28.

They cautioned that many of the committees and commissions mandated by the peace agreement have not been set up or are late in getting started.

At the council meeting, South Sudan's ambassador, Akuei Bona Malwal, said that since the signing of the Revitalized Peace Agreement, the overall situation in terms of security, peace, and economy has improved noticeably.

"Peace implementation is progressing slowly but surely," Malwal said. He blamed the slow pace of implementation on inadequate funding and encouraged international donors to support the process.
U.S. lawmakers are making a renewed bipartisan effort to pressure Iran into freeing at least four Americans and a U.S. permanent resident viewed by Washington as hostages of the Islamic Republic.

A House Foreign Affairs subcommittee held a hearing Thursday in which family members of some of those perceived as hostages in Iran briefed lawmakers on the status of their loved ones. The subcommittees Democrat chairman, Congressman Ted Deutch, and top Republican, Congressman Joe Wilson, also used the hearing to announce their joint introduction of two congressional measures aimed at securing the freedom of those detained or missing in Iran.

One is a resolution that calls on Iran to unconditionally release U.S. citizens and legal U.S. permanent residents being held for political purposes.

The other is a bill that the lawmakers say would empower the U.S. president to impose sanctions on American hostage-takers. It also calls for elevating the role of U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs to the rank of ambassador.

More tools for president

In a statement, Deutch said the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, named in honor of an American who went missing in Iran 12 years ago, is meant to give the Trump administration more tools to pressure countries to return Americans to their families.

Besides Levinson, whose family believes Iran has detained him, Iranian authorities have jailed Iranian-Americans Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer Namazi, Chinese-American Xiyue Wang, and Lebanese U.S. permanent resident Nizar Zakka. Iran has said little about them beyond the alleged security offenses for which some have been charged. Relatives say the five have done nothing wrong.

Addressing the hearing, Deutch said he was concerned that the Trump administrations 2018 withdrawal from a world powers nuclear deal with Iran and the lack of U.S. contact with Iranian officials could slow efforts to bring back U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

I urge President Trump to sit down with each of these families, hear their stories, understand their suffering, and then take bold action to return their loved ones, he said.

Wilson told the hearing that the bill would impose sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities responsible for the detentions.

Iran has been taking hostages as a matter of policy and we must force Iran to change its behavior, Wilson said. We need to see an intense, concerted effort from Congress and the (Trump) administration to seek the release of our Americans who are being held in Iran.

A previous bipartisan bill introduced by Deutch to punish Iran for perceived hostage-taking and human rights abuses passed the House last year but did not get to a vote in the Senate.

Family's 'living nightmare'

In her testimony, Bob Levinsons wife, Christine, said her family continues to receive reports that he is alive but did not elaborate. Bob Levinson, whose 71st birthday would be this Sunday, disappeared March 9, 2007, while visiting Irans Kish Island as a private investigator. He had retired from a 22-year career with the FBI nine years earlier.

We are all suffering a living nightmare, Christine Levinson said. My children and I have trouble sleeping. We wonder endlessly what kind of conditions my husband is living through.

Christine Levinson and her seven children have been campaigning to try to locate him since his disappearance. Iranian officials have denied knowledge of his whereabouts.

Babak Namazi, the son and brother of detainees Baquer and Siamak Namazi, told the lawmakers that his elderly and ailing father is on a temporary medical furlough from Tehrans Evin prison but urgently needs proper medical attention outside of Iran.

Months, weeks to live

Speaking to VOA Persian on the sidelines of the hearing, Babak Namazis lawyer Jared Genser said his client fears the 82-year-old Namazi has months or weeks left to live. Baquer Namazi, a former UNICEF official, was arrested in Iran in February 2016 after traveling there to try to secure the release of Siamak, a businessman whom Iranian authorities detained in October 2015.

Also testifying at the hearing was Nizar Zakkas son Omar, who said his father had just ended a three-week hunger strike several days ago after family members pleaded with him to resume eating food.

We are tormented by fear that something terrible will happen to him, he said. The elder Zakka, an internet freedom advocate, was arrested in Iran after being invited there for a conference in September 2015.

Christine Levinson, Babak Namazi and Omar Zakka told the lawmakers that they appreciated the work of Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Robert OBrien to keep them informed of efforts to free their loved ones. But they also appealed to President Trump to personally intervene in their cases.

I would ask that he meet with us, Levinson said. He doesnt understand how difficult it has been for our family because he hasnt talked to us. There was no word on when such a meeting might happen.

This article originated in VOAs Persian Service. Kambiz Tavana contributed from Washington.
The U.S. State Department said Thursday that it had erred in notifying a Finnish journalist she was a finalist for an award recognizing courageous women, but it characterized as "speculation" a report that the prize was rescinded over her criticism of President Donald Trump.



"What I would say is that we made a mistake. This was a regrettable error," State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told a briefing when asked about a report in Foreign Policy magazine that the International Women of Courage Award for Finnish investigative journalist Jessikka Aro had been withdrawn.



"We incorrectly notified this individual that she'd been selected as a finalist. This was an error. This was a mistake," Palladino said, adding that she had not been selected as a finalist and "we regret the error."



Aro, who has faced intense harassment for her work to expose Russia's propaganda operations, had been nominated for the award by the U.S.

Embassy in Helsinki.



The awards were presented to 10 women by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday in a ceremony attended by first lady Melania Trump.

Social media posts



Foreign Policy magazine, citing U.S. officials familiar with the internal deliberations, reported that the department revoked the award after officials went through her social media posts and discovered she had often criticized the U.S. president.



It said lower-level officials were wary of presenting the prize to someone who had often been critical of Trump.



Aro, in posts on Twitter, pointed to the Foreign Policy story, saying "this happened to me" and calling it "unbelievable but true." The decision to rescind was "such a disgrace and violates freedom of speech," she added.



"I've seen that speculation," Palladino told reporters. "I'm not going to be able to go further into weighing the merits of who was selected, whether one person had more merit versus the other. That's internal. But I can say we regret the error and we've got to do better in that regard.



"To be clear," he added, "we admire this journalist's achievements as a journalist, and that was the basis of her nomination by Embassy Helsinki."
The U.S. government compiled a list and dossiers on journalists, activists and lawyers who interacted with the migrants who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border from Central America last year.

The NBC affiliate in San Diego reported that the 59 individuals on the list had been marked to be pulled out for questioning when they crossed the border. At least 21 of them were arrested, KNSD-TV reported.

The files compiled by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection included 10 journalists, seven U.S. citizens, an American attorney and 47 people from Central America.

The list was compiled shortly after a caravan of nearly 5,000 migrants from Honduras arrived at the Tijuana-San Ysidro border, the report said.

CBP officials did not dispute the report but said it was part of added security action taken after some of the migrants tried to scale the barriers and run through the checkpoints, prompting a clash with border agents. The clash ended in the closure of the border for several hours over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Such "criminal events ... involving assaults on law enforcement and a risk to public safety, are routinely monitored and investigated by authorities,'' a CBP statement said. But it did not address specifics of why journalists would be on the list.
Taxes take a big chunk out of American paychecks, but the government's cut is higher in some states than in others.



Most, but not all, of Americans pay both state and federal taxes to help each governing entity cover its expenses. States tend to spend most of their money on education and healthcare. States without income taxes usually find other sources of revenue including, for example, higher state sales tax.



There are seven states that have no income tax. The no-tax states are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Nationwide, residents of these states have some of the highest take-home paychecks  after taxes.

The southern state of Tennessee has an income tax, but it applies primarily to income from stocks and bonds and not to money earned from salaries and wages.



The median income in the United States is about $56,000. People earning a $50,000 salary take home about $39,129 each year, which comes to $3,261 per month, according personal banking site GOBankingRates, which analyzed take-home salaries in all 50 states.

it comes to the top 10 percent of earners, someone with a $200,000 salary gets $136,700 after taxes, which is about $11,000 a month.



The states with the highest average take-home income are Connecticut, New Jersey, Alaska, Massachusetts and Maryland.



Connecticut residents have the highest average income in the country  $102,616  but that's before taxes. Once taxes are paid, the average Connecticut worker takes home $6,027 month. Although people in New Jersey make a sliver less  $101,634 on average  than their Connecticut neighbors, they manage to take home a $1 more  $6,028 monthly  on average, than Connecticut workers.
The commander of U.S. forces in Africa has cast doubt on whether the Pentagon will complete plans to cut forces in Africa by 10 percent as the Department of Defense announced late last year.

In November, Pentagon officials said they would cut roughly 700 of the 7,200 U.S. troops on the African continent. The reductions, officials said, were to "optimize" special operations forces that would be needed in a potential future fight against near-peer competitors like Russia or China.

Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, who heads U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), told lawmakers Thursday he already has reduced force numbers in Africa by about 300. But commanders appear to be rethinking plans to cut an additional 400 troops from the continent.

"Whether we'll ever be directed to execute the second half [of cuts] is to be determined," Waldhauser said.

Threats growing

The troop reductions were planned even though many West African nations are fighting insurgencies by al-Qaida-linked groups.

Niger and Mali are battling al-Qaida-linked militants, and Chad is combating a militant push from the expansion of Islamic State and Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria.

Burkina Faso, host to a U.S.-led counterterrorism exercise last week, is facing "an unprecedented humanitarian emergency" due to surging terrorist attacks and intercommunal violence, the United Nations warned Tuesday.

"The threat is growing," U.S. Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Andrew Young, told VOA in an interview. "We're in a tough fight, and the fight is getting harder."

Waldhauser said he had advised the secretary of defense that AFRICOM was prepared to "push back" on the planned cuts if they are not in "our best interest."

"Especially in Western Africa ... we are concerned. So far, there has been minimal impact," Waldhauser said. "If the groups grow, we may have to revisit these decisions."

'Small niche'

The general explained that the "optimization" cuts on the African continent were focused solely on the counterterrorism strategy.

"It's a very small niche," he said.

But this "small niche" of special operations forces and their enablers is a very important one. Local partners at the counterterrorism exercise in Burkina Faso told VOA their troops rely on these forces for help with everything from logistics to intelligence-gathering against militant threats.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Marcus Hicks, head of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, has cautioned that the United States and others interested in a secure and prosperous Africa should watch the Sahel "very closely" and "continually reassess whether or not there are enough resources applied."

"I wouldn't recommend we decrease forces at this point. I think we have a good approach in this region, and we are stable with our force structure here," Hicks said in an exclusive VOA interview last week.

Waldhauser explained Thursday that the cuts to U.S. forces in Africa have fallen mostly on places where U.S. troops had been training partner forces "for quite some time," and those partner units were now working on their own.

But when asked by a congresswoman whether he feels "angst" due to withdrawing forces from areas in West Africa where there are still problems with violent extremist organizations, Waldhauser responded, "The short answer to your question is yes."
In Turkey, International Women's Day saw nationwide protests, with many focusing on the growing scourge of violence against women. According to rights groups, hundreds of women are slain yearly in Turkey.

In Istanbul's Kadikoy district, the heart of the Asian side of the city, hundreds of women gathered, holding placards condemning violence against women.

"We are here to demand the police and judiciary take these endless murders of women seriously. I have had enough of these killings," said Sibel, who wanted to give only her first name.

Police presence

Despite a heavy police presence, the Kadikoy demonstration passed without incident. But thousands of women gathered in Istanbul's main Istiklal Street area, where hundreds of riot police, backed by armored cars, used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up a procession.

In Izmir, on Turkey's western Aegean coast, police using clubs broke up a Women's Day demonstration, arresting seven. However, most commemorations and protests, held in many towns and cities across Turkey, ended without incident.

The scale and extent of the protests, in the face of strict laws controlling demonstrations, reflect a growing assertiveness regarding women's rights and violence against women. Last month saw nationwide outrage through social media and protests over the death of Sule Cet, 23.

Police initially treated Cet's death as a suicide after she fell from the 20th floor of an office building, where she worked overnight. After intense pressure from an attorney representing Cet's family, police finally treated her case as a homicide, with her boss and another man now standing trial for rape and murder.

Anger about the case was exacerbated when the defense attorney said Cet was not a virgin and that she should not have been drinking with her boss late at night. The case, which has engrossed millions, has become a focal point for women's rights groups across Turkey and the source of growing anger about an increasing number of killings. Cet's name has become a leading hashtag, while talk shows and social media have become platforms for people's outrage about the way the case has been handled.

"Cet's case raises so many issues that are wrong about the way cases of murdered women are handled," said law professor Istar Gozaydin, who is also a presenter of a women's rights television program.

"In the judicial process, we see the private lives of the victims being routinely mentioned or the character of the victim being impugned, like raising whether the victim is a virgin or not. Also, the figures of murdered women given by authorities are not very reliable. They are designated as accidents or considered as suicides, which we saw in Sule Cet's case," added Gozaydin, who is doing research on violence against women for the European Union.

This week, the Umut, a prominent nongovernmental organization, said that 477 women were slain and 232 were injured by men in 2018, and that Turkish media reported 1,760 femicide cases over the past four years.

In 2012, Turkey's AK political party made the country the first signatory of the Council of Europe's convention to protect women. The document is intended to prevent violence against women, provide victim protection and "end the impunity of perpetrators."

"On paper, the legal regulations and structures are very sufficient [in Turkey] to stop violence and murders against women," said Gozaydin. "But the way the judiciary and police enforce these procedures and laws is very, very problematic. That's why the judicial process should be monitored very closely to achieve a fair trial."

Seen as major problem

Experts suggest there is a growing awareness within Turkish society about the scale of violence against women. A survey released this month by Istanbul's Kadir Has University found that 60 percent of the participants viewed violence as "the biggest problem that women face in society."

The issue appears to be crossing the deep political divide between religious and secular Turkey. "It [violence against women] has become the target issue of so many people to give their reaction," said Gozaydin. "It is just not limited to the secular group or just women. It is much wider."
As the world marks International Womens Day on Friday, a small group of people living with albinism, especially women, continue to struggle to find their place in the working world.

Albinism, a noncontagious and genetically inherited condition, occurs worldwide, regardless of ethnicity or gender. It most commonly results in the lack of melanin pigment in the hair, skin and eyes, causing vulnerability to sun exposure, which can lead to skin cancer and severe visual impairment.

They are often subject to myths such as having sexual intercourse with someone with albinism would make you rich.

For women like Stibiri Fiona, if this fails, you are quickly branded a ghost and a curse, and are abandoned.

Someone who abuses my nature, I feel so bad and so small, she said. I feel like even shedding tears. I feel like going even to collect my mother in the grave to ask her why she produced me in such a color.

WATCH: Women With Albinism Struggle to Find Work

Earning a living

This is life for many Ugandan women living with albinism.

Nawejje Doreen Mayanja is the chief executive officer of Women and Children with Albinism, in Uganda. On the outskirts of Kampala, she provides support to women living with the genetic disorder who cant find jobs in a formal setting.

When you are qualified, it is a bit competitive to get a job. And just because most of these women were denied the chance to go to school, they are not educated, they are not empowered. You find that they are living below the poverty line, she said.

Working as a primary school teacher, Fiona was married for eight years and has four children. Her husband asked her to stop working, believing her albinism would enrich him to take care of the family.

When that failed, she was allegedly ordered out of their home by her father-in--law.

Now crowded in a one-room house with her children, Fionas search for a teaching job has not been fruitful.

When I went there to apply for vacancies, they refused, she said. They said children will fear you. Even other teachers looked at me as maybe a curse. So, as per now, I dont work.

Social exclusion

According to a 2017 United Nations report, people with albinism face discrimination and barriers that restrict their participation in society on an equal basis with others. As a result, they are more likely to experience social exclusion and poverty.

Ugandan legislator Safia Nalule, who represents people with disabilities, introduced a bill Thursday in parliament on the social, economic and cultural rights of people living with albinism.

I am bringing this bill, first of all, to ask for great awareness about raising persons with albinism. That they are not different from us. It is only a genetic disorder which actually brings about albinism, she said.

The prevalence of albinism varies across the world. According to the World Health Organization, estimates vary from 1 in 5,000 to 1 in 15,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Uganda, it is estimated at 1 in 3,000.

While the killing of people living with albinism is low in Uganda, a report by the Ugandan parliament indicates many are trafficked to Tanzania and parts of Kenya for human sacrifice.
According to the United States Department of Justice, a federal grand jury in Birmingham returned an indictment on February 27 to charge a Decatur man, Benjamin Walter, with production, distribution and receipt of child pornography.

Officials say Walter, 38, was arrested Thursday and charged by indictment with five counts of production of child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of receipt of child pornography.

The indictment accuses Walter, between November 2013 and July 2014, of using and attempting to use five minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct with the purpose of transmitting a live visual depiction of the conduct. He's also accused of distributing child pornography in December 2015 and receiving child pornography between November 2013 and December 2015.

Officials say the investigation is a part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Federal and state emergency management officials will be in the Shoals next week to do preliminary damage assessments of the flood damage.

At least 250 homes in Colbert and Lauderdale counties have flood damage. Colbert County emergency management said they've been collecting damage reports, and at least $800,000 worth of damage and reports are still coming in. That's why federal and state officials are now coming to assess everything. The president still needs to sign a disaster deceleration to get federal funds for the area.

In Sheffield, at least two feet of water got into David Christopher's, a local gift store.

"It tears you up to see that. Years and years of building a small business," said Kathy Smith, one of the owners of David Christopher's. "It was our first concern is, how are we going to salvage this? Are we going to be able to continue?"

The company ships merchandise all over the United States and employs 12 people.

"They are the best group of people you've met in your entire life," said Smith, as she talked about her employees. "They've worked hours they weren't scheduled to work."

Sheffield Utilities said they have about $79,000 in employee overtime from repairing downed poles and other damage. The Muscle Shoals Water and Waste Water Department has about $17,000 in overtime and some damage to their equipment from the flooding. Looking at how high the water got around Smith's business, the damage is adding up for everyone.

"That doesn't surprise me at all. It's been really bad," said Smith.

Smith said, at retail value, they lost about $1 million in merchandise, but they do have flood insurance.

"Because it was a flood, our regular insurance wouldn't cover the contents, but our flood insurance is covering the repairs to the building," said Smith.

While Smith and her family clean up their Sheffield location, they are opening up a temporary location in Florence at 2801 Mall Road.

If you have damage to your home or businesses in Colbert County, you can click here to fill out this online form.

If you have damage to your home or business in Lauderdale County, you can contact Lauderdale County EMA at 256-760-6363.
Decatur police have arrested a man and charged him with rape and incest.

Brian Matthew Mills, 36, was arrested Wednesday and charged with second-degree rape and incest.

According to Emme Long, police department spokesperson, the Morgan County Department of Human Resources on March 1 reported to the Decatur Police Department that a juvenile female had disclosed a sexual relationship with Mills.

Detective Birchfield was assigned to the case and was informed that Mills is a registered sex offender, Long said.

According to the Alabama Sex Offender Registry, Mills was convicted of second-degree sodomy in 2008. The victim was 13 years old.

A joint investigation was conducted by the Decatur Police Department, the Morgan County Sheriff's Office, and the Morgan County Department of Human Resources.

Mills was transported to the Morgan County Jail and held in lieu of $100,000 cash bond.

Additional charges are pending, Long said.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are arriving Friday morning on Air Force One at Lawson Army Airfield at Fort Benning, GA, on their way to inspect the Lee County, AL, tornado damage.

They will depart for Lee County on Marine One from Fort Benning.

Stay with WAAY 31 on air and WAAYTV.com online for complete coverage of the presidential visit and the aftermath of the deadly tornadoes.
Strikes in Rome and across Italy affect transport, schools and health services.

Trade unions representing workers across a range of public sectors in Italy are adhering to a nationwide strike on Friday 8 March, International Women's Day, in protest over numerous causes including male violence against women, gender discrimination, and harassment in the workplace.

In Rome the 24-strike action will affect the city's bus, metro, tram and train network, effective from 08.30 to 17.00 and from 20.00 until end of service.

On a national level, the strike involves the entire railway system, with delays and cancellations of trains expected for Trenitalia, Italo and Trenord.

Airport ground workers and ferry employees are due to strike between 14.00 an 16.00, along with Alitalia pilots, flight attendants and ground staff.

The strike will also affect Rome's municipal offices, all schools including kindergartens, public health offices and rubbish collection.

There are two scheduled sit-ins: one at 09.00 outside the ministry of Health, and one at 10.30 at the labour ministry. The Non una di meno demonstration takes place at 17.00, from Piazza Vittorio to Piazza Madonna di Loreto.

For details of Milan strike see Wanted in Milan website.
WCM Conference Schedule: Attendees have some tough choices to make between six different parallel conference tracks. Several continue to repeat the dual themes of warranty fraud detection and the Internet of Things, while many showcase the latest innovations that new technology has to offer to warranty professionals.

Though the opening and closing portions of next week's Warranty Chain Management Conference are each going to be held in one room, for all attendees to follow together, over the course of the rest of the event, guests will have to make six different choices between the parallel tracks offered in separate rooms.

Right after the back-to-back keynote speeches delivered by Robert Long from Dell EMC on the subject of warranty fraud, and by James Mostofi from AIG on the subject of the Internet of Things, the conference divides into two parallel tracks designed to delve deeper into each topic.

In the IoT track, Albert Liao from Foxconn, David Froning from SAS Institute, and Chris Smith from OnPoint Warranty Solutions take on the topic of the Internet of Things. Liao will first explain some of the challenges ahead, then Froning will look at the value of all that data, and Smith will discuss how it might be put to use.

In the warranty fraud track, Long will moderate a panel discussion that includes Bob Roberts from Thermo King, Erin Duke from Electrolux, book author and consultant Matti Kurvinen, and Ashok Kartham from warranty management software vendor Mize Inc.

Kartham said he expects that each member of the panel will talk about warranty fraud from a different perspective. The Mize approach, he said, is to prevent fraud before it's committed, by pre-authorizing claims and validate their contents before they're paid, rather than to detect a pattern of fraud afterwards.

"We're using business rules to validate claims as they're being submitted, and we're using historical information to create a repair profile," he said, which compares the claim against expectations about what parts will be used and how much time it will take to fix a given type of failure. "Then, whenever we see a claim that varies from that repair profile, we assign a higher risk score."

Claims that score above a given level are kicked out for further examination. Claims that score below that threshold are paid automatically. "We are trying to reduce fraud by going a bit upstream," he said. "Most of the time, we are stopping a number of claims from being approved."

Kartham said there's certainly a place for fraud detection after the fact. "There is a need for that," he said. "But I think the best way to deal with fraud is to do it upstream in the process, before the claim gets approved, while the repair is being performed."

He said he thinks fraud prevention before the fact is best. "Because afterwards, if you try to charge back, the dealer is not going to be happy," he said. "Plus, how can you prove there's been fraud?"

More Warranty Fraud Detection

After lunch, the warranty fraud discussion continues, with Kurvinen delivering a second presentation, entitled, "Trust and Trustworthiness: Dealing with the Honest Majority and the Dishonest Minority," and Sharon Markovsky from ISO ClaimSearch, a service of the Insurance Services Office Inc., making a presentation entitled, "Finding the Hidden Fraud in Your Auto Extended Warranty Program."

In the other room, the legal panel will dive deep into the caselaw and new regulations surrounding the extended warranty and service contract industry. Attorneys providing updates will include Stephen McDaniel of Meenan P.A. and the Service Contract Industry Council, Brian Casey of Locke Lord LLP, and Christopher Karo from AIG.

Closing out the proceedings on Wednesday will be a pair of tracks on various aspects of warranty management. In one room, Bryan Waller from Cisco Systems will talk about "Using Service Cost Data to Influence Quality Beyond Warranty." He's followed by automotive consultant Mike Roberts, who will talk about "Successful Strategies for Improving Quality and Reducing No Trouble Found." And then Heinz van Deelan, the CEO of the social media and web monitoring service Consline AG, will talk about "Customer Voice Monitoring to Support Quality Management and Goodwill Decisions."

In the other room, consultant Kevin Rigg will deliver a presentation on "The ABCs of Controlling Claim Expenses." He is to be followed by John Martinous from Tata Consulting Services, who will talk about "Improving the Warranty Supplier Recovery Process: Warranty And Supplier Recovery Opportunities For OEMs." And then it's G35 Software founder Ron Giuntini's turn to make a list of "Ten Events That Enable Sellers of B2B Extended Warranty Service Contracts to Ask Their Buyers, 'How Am I Doing?'"

Thursday Schedule

Newsletter editor Eric Arnum already has his choice made for him first thing in the morning on Thursday, having to provide his "Annual Warranty and Service Contract Industry Update" at 8am during a track filled with industry updates. Arnum will be followed by consultant Bill Pollock, who will detail the findings of a recent survey in a presentation he calls "The State of Warranty Chain Management in 2019 and Beyond."

To close out that opening track of the day, Matt Taylor, the vice president of extended warranty at Starr Companies, and Dan Hulkower, the senior vice president at After, Inc., will jointly present the findings of a research study they performed on the subject of "How to Engage Millennials with Extended Warranties and Service Contracts."

"For the last couple of years, I've been doing focus groups within Starr," Taylor said. And for many of those projects, he was being assisted by interns and other employees who were themselves Millennials. So, Taylor said, he and Hulkower got the idea to turn the spotlight on that age group, to see if their product and protection plan buying habits were all that different from their elders.

"We found that it's less than you would imagine," Hulkower said. "We wanted to understand whether we have a problem. The good news is there's plenty of opportunity."

They surveyed 500 people between the ages of 22 and 37 years old, selected through an online panel. They asked about purchases of products such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, printers, scanners, and cameras, and whether the buyer also purchased a protection plan.

"We found that Millennials do buy service contracts," Hulkower said. But there are some differences, they found, primarily in terms of the prep work they do before they make their purchases, and their reliance on the opinions of others.

"They like to research things before they buy them," Taylor said. "And that includes the warranty. They also lean towards social media, and their friends, to make recommendations. So they look on different sites, like Yelp and TripAdvisor, or Amazon and Best Buy, or anybody who's selling, and they look for reviews. And they look for what people are saying about purchasing service contracts."

Interestingly, Hulkower said the research also found a high correlation between Millennials who register their purchases, and those who buy protection plans. He said After, Inc. is about to debut a new service called QuickReg, which makes the connection even more overt, by providing manufacturers a platform that not only makes it easier to register a purchase, but also to buy a protection plan from the manufacturer.

Taylor said the research points out the need for manufacturers and retailers to keep their websites up to date, with fresh content and plenty of space for opinions, reviews, comments, etc. And that in turn means manufacturers and retailers need to quickly respond to questions, complaints, compliments, and other feedback, whether it's on their website or someone else's. So hire some Millennials to monitor your social media, and listen to your customers!

Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence

In the other room, Albert Liao from Foxconn gets a second speaking slot, delivering a presentation entitled, "Application of Machine Learning on Warranty Claim Reduction." He will be followed by Namendra Belhe, a senior business consultant in the Manufacturing Business Unit of Atos Syntel, who will talk about "Warranty in a Digital World."

The third presentation in that track features two thought leaders from Tavant Technologies: Roshan Pinto, the lead of the Aftermarket practice, and Atul Varshneya, the vice president of artificial intelligence, who will jointly share a presentation entitled, "Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the World of Making Smarter, Faster and Better Decisions."

Pinto said some of the decision-making he and Varshneya will talk about will relate back to that conference-long theme of warranty fraud detection. "The system learns over time, based on criteria that comes within the claim," he said. "The system starts scoring a claim and the probability of it being a fraudulent claim or not, and submits that score for the decision-making of the business rules engine."

Over time, the system "learns" what to look for in a claim that makes the likelihood of fraud more certain. But that's just a subset of what artificial intelligence can do, based on observing patterns, detecting anomalies, and therefore knowing what's odd, unexpected, and suspicious-looking.

Pinto said his presentation will also touch upon the other big theme of the conference: the Internet of Things. He said sensor data, diagnostic tools -- the very way that cars are being repaired and warranty work is being done is changing, because of all the new data sources available to the technicians.

"As more data starts coming in from a unit, there is a lot more to define and analyze," he said. "For example, if you look at just the diagnostic codes coming in. Today, most of the failure code determination is done by a technician. Tomorrow, if there is enough data coming in, based on just the kind of data that you have received over the last few weeks, it will be feasible to determine the root cause of failure."

So much of how things are done in the warranty industry is known only to the people who actually do it, Pinto noted. So before they retire, they have to pass on that knowledge to others, because it's not written down in some user manual. But as artificial intelligence technology becomes more prevalent, those experts will be able to pass on the tricks of the trade to the machines.

"I don't think most companies are there yet," Pinto noted. "But the automotive industry is probably the furthest ahead, in terms of the information they receive. And most of the customers we work with are definitely moving in that direction. A lot of them are receiving all this data. And what they do with that data, and how they convert it into decision-making, is going to drive a lot of what happens in the service industry going forward."

Warranty Journeys

Later on Thursday morning, there are two parallel tracks about how new software platforms are enabling the companies that implement them to offer new services. One room has three presentations about the "journeys" of manufacturers. The other has top executives from the extended warranty industry on a panel discussion about automation.

Mark Nagelvoort, president and CEO of PCMI Corp., moderates the panel discussion under the heading of "What's New in the Automation of Service Contracts." He said he has been putting together these themed panels for several years, relying on his extensive network of partners and customers to provide the expert commentary. This year, he asked top executives from four companies who are users of his PCRS administration platform to talk about how they're using technology to advance their capabilities as administrators of service contract portfolios.

"We hear a lot about how to digitalize the service contract process," Nagelvoort said, "and I'm happy to introduce four companies that are implementing it now. Here are four executives that last year embarked on projects to further digitalize the administration of service contracts and extended warranties. And they're here to share their experiences."

Panelists include Sean Hicks, the CEO of New Leaf Service Contracts LLC; Guy Koenig, the president of Gulf States Financial Services Inc.; Garen McMillian, the CEO of SideCars Inc.; and Rick Tudor, the director of operations at Cars Protection Plus.

Nagelvoort said they will each take a turn to talk about how they're using an information technology approach called Platform as a Service, or PaaS, which allows companies to customize their system using application programming interfaces. "Customers can use those APIs to build their own applications and extend PCRS in ways that we may not have thought of," he said.

Hicks and Koenig are both veterans of Warrantech. He also worked in the service departments of both Sears and Montgomery Ward. Hicks left Warrantech in 2011 to launch New Leaf with Rick Gavino, another veteran of the company, which is now part of the Amynta Group.

New Leaf markets service contracts primarily to small and medium-sized retailers under the brand name of ServicePro, using the slogan that "now is the time to turn a new leaf." The company has used the new API capabilities to automate their phone system, so that customers can do more on their own when they call in to ServicePro. It also used the APIs to automate its payment system.

At the time the panel was put together, Koenig was the president of CareGard Warranty Services Inc., which is also a PCMI client. He's since moved over to the GSFS Group, but he will talk about the automation they implemented at CareGard, and how the new technology has widened the possibilities for cross-marketing, and has opened up new distribution channels to the company such as online sales and mobile phone apps.

SideCars, meanwhile, just recently launched its new TrueClaims platform, which is powered by what he calls Your Dealer Experience (YDE). McMillian will talk about how the traditional claims adjudication process has be transformed by technology that's available now, and how dealer participation programs can be automated as well.

Tudor joined Cars Protection Plus 17 years ago as its accounting manager. After leading his team through two administration platform implementations, he has advanced to the position of director of operations. Nagelvoort said Tudor is also going to talk about how the company is adding electronic signature capabilities to the system, as well as what he's learned from the platform migrations.

Lifetime Warranties

In the other room, Trent Oelkers, the logistics manager in the Technical Warranty Services Department of Carlisle Construction Materials, and Srini Giridhar, the director of product management at Tavant Technologies, will jointly deliver a presentation entitled, "Lifetime Warranty: A Timeless Opportunity?"

Carlisle, which celebrated its centennial in 2017, started as a tire and rubber company. It's been in the roofing business for half a century, and its dealers and installers now sell extended warranties with long-term durations on its behalf. Oelkers said that kind of guarantee can be both an opportunity and a liability.

"I'm going to focus on the challenges associated with long-term warranties," Oelkers said. "From my perspective, they've become more and more of a commodity, and people don't understand the value of what we offer."

For Carlisle, it's an extended warranty on the whole roofing system, he noted -- adhesives, fasteners, membranes, and installation. So it's much more than just a material warranty. And it requires extensive training for the installers, not only on how to sell the protection plans, but how to perform the installation correctly, and how to inspect the work after it's done, so there are few, if any, claims in the decades that follow.

The goal is to save money by not having claims, even over the long term. That's a lot different from a protection plan sold for a television or a smartphone, he said. Wear and tear takes on a new meaning when it's a roof that's exposed to the elements four seasons a year.

Pricing is another challenge. The competition, Oelkers said, is selling protection plans at much lower prices, for much less coverage. It's what he calls the "Amazon Effect," where the lowest price wins, even though you get what you pay for. And that goes for protection plans as well as for the products they cover.

In contrast, he said, for Carlisle, "It's much more than just a piece of paper. The way we honor our warranties is by standing behind our contractors that install, and our partners, making sure it's going to last for the building owners that buy them."

Oelkers said the challenge is how to make the claims process as seamless as buying something online, so that if something does go wrong with an installation, the customer doesn't feel abandoned. "Is there something that we can do to make that as painless as possible, to make sure the people underneath the roof don't have to worry about the assets if something does happen, heaven forbid?

"We'll go out there and take care of it," he said. "It's up to us as the manufacturer to demonstrate how we stand behind our product."

Oelkers will be joined by Frank Kozlowski, a technical analyst for warranty at Kohler Corp., who will talk about his experience managing a warranty claims processing system upgrade project under the title of "Global Reimbursement Rules: Financial Challenge of Warranty," and by the team of Erin Duke and Kara Mack from Electrolux, whose joint presentation about their own platform upgrade saga is entitled, "Enhancing the Customer Experience Through Service Delivery: The Journey Continues."

Warranty Management and Aftermarket Programs

And then right after lunch on Thursday, there are parallel tracks on warranty management and aftermarket programs. In one room, Heather Wilkerson from Registria leads a panel discussion on the subject of "The Application of Analytics and Lessons in Optimization, Straight from Manufacturing Brands," which will include presentations by senior managers from both Icon Health & Fitness Inc. and Electrolux.

In another room, William Eliason from Oracle Corp. discusses "Warranty As a Competitive Advantage: Leveraging Warranty/Service Operational Metrics. And then he's followed by a joint presentation from Michael Kellogg, director of product support & global distribution at Excel Industries Inc., and Noor Pasha, technical architect at Tavant Technologies, entitled, "Improve Dealer Experience and Optimize Warranty Costs Using an Intelligent Aftermarket Platform."

Kellogg explained that Excel Industries is the family-owned parent company of two different lawn mower brands: Hustler Turf Equipment and BigDog Mower. Each brand was managed by a different brother in the family, and each had its own warranty claims processing system.

Two years ago, both brothers decided to switch to the same single warranty system, and Tavant won the bid. But when the new system was being put in, that meant Excel had two different data migration projects to complete.

But it was worth it, Kellogg added, because now there's just one system for both brands, which makes it easier for dealers who offer either of them. And Excel, which has now added the residential mowing market to its previous commercial mower focus, is able to keep up with the rise in warranty expenses that has accompanied a five-fold growth in revenue and a massive expansion of the customer base.

One of the biggest improvements Kellogg cited was the speed at which claims are now processed. Before, it took a month to manually review claims. After, most claims are adjudicated immediately, with only those that run afoul of the automated business rules kicked out for manual processing.

Parts return and supplier recovery has also been greatly simplified. Before, Excel would take replaced parts back from the dealer, and store them itself until there were enough to ship to the supplier for analysis. After, the dealer is told which parts need to be returned, and to ship them directly to that supplier, using prepared shipping labels.

The challenge, however, was adapting to all the different accounting systems of the dealers, Hustler, Big Dog, and their suppliers, Kellogg said. The main problem was how to match up all the different parts returns to specific claims. But the companies also had to work out what happened when Excel approved a dealer's claim but a supplier denied Excel's recovery claim.

In hindsight, he said if he had to do it all over again, he would have brought the accounting departments into the planning process much earlier. For instance, he said his chief financial officer helped solve the accounting problems encountered with supplier recovery, but only after they had been discovered. The problems were with the payments, not with the parts returns or the paperwork, which worked fine.

However, those problems have now largely been solved, he added. "We tested it with a couple of different vendors," Kellogg said. "And we haven't had any problems for the last eight months. So that's huge. The system is doing what it's supposed to do."
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James Atlass heartfelt memoir of his vexed friendship with Philip Roth is available exclusively in audiobook form. Atlas reads the work himself, and his voice  that of the bookman, rather than professional narrator  is saturated with feeling. The Atlas-Roth relationship began in the early 1970s when Roth sent Atlas a congratulatory letter about a biography Atlas had written of the poet Delmore Schwartz. Atlas conveys the awe and admiration he felt for Roth, the most charismatic person Ive ever known, the largest presence, the funniest, the most brilliant, the most profound. We can also hear his dismay as he describes the more unfortunate aspects of the pairs on-again-off-again friendship. A prickly and sometimes downright impossible customer, Roth was especially exasperating as Atlas worked on a biography of Saul Bellow, a work Roth had encouraged him to take on, but which severed their friendship for a time. The memoir is an affecting meditation on the life of a writer, on aging, friendship  and the disappointments that always seem to overshadow successes even for a giant of American letters like Philip Roth. (Audible Studios, Unabridged, 1 hours)
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The cartoon shows China vows to reduce its rural poor population by over 10 million in 2019, according to a government work report delivered at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China, on March 5, 2019. (Xinhua/Meng Lijing)

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]
Juanita (Netflix streaming) A drama about a woman who looks to start over in life by moving to a small Montana town.
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In a long sworn statement at the end of the pretrial inquiry, Manning said the decisions that I made to send documents and information to WikiLeaks were my own. She was questioned by a military judge about the statement. But she never took the stand during the trial itself, so prosecutors never had the opportunity to question her.
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But in Thursdays ruling, the 9th Circuit panel said the expedited removal process violates immigrants rights to habeas corpus and the Constitutions suspension clause, which allows the U.S. government to block detainees right to appeal to the courts only during extreme periods such as an invasion or rebellion, to guard against monarchial power.
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For her journalism, Ms. Aro was informed in January by the State Department that she was to be one of the winners of this years International Women of Courage Award, presented Thursday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and first lady Melania Trump. The award has been given since 2007 to women around the world who have demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and womens empowerment, often at great personal risk and sacrifice. Ms. Aro got a formal invitation from the State Department on Feb. 12, and a tour around the United States was envisioned.
Some of those seekers are homosexual; most of the others almost certainly have friends, relatives or neighbors who are gay or lesbian. The churchs membership includes at least 20, and as many as 100, same-sex couples, Hamilton said, and over the years the pastor said he has baptized their kids, I gave them their third-grade Bibles, and Ive confirmed them. These families, legally formed under the U.S. Constitution, will be condemned under the strict discipline embraced at the recent United Methodist general conference. A pastor who celebrates even one same-sex marriage will be subject to a years suspension without pay  a punishment more severe, Hamilton noted, than he would receive if he cheated on his wife.
Perhaps, but that does not account for one of the most questionable aspects of Mr. Acostas offices conduct in the matter  its failure to disclose the non-prosecution agreement to Mr. Epsteins victims in time for them to object. A Florida federal district judge has declared that decision not only unwise but also unlawful  a violation of the federal statute, the Crime Victims Rights Act, that Congress passed precisely to keep victims informed of such negotiations. Though the Justice Department argued in court that non-prosecution agreements, as opposed to plea bargains, were not specifically mentioned by the law, Judge Kenneth A. Marra concluded that such agreements are clearly encompassed by its intent. Federal prosecutors in the case even misled the victims by telling them an investigation was ongoing after the agreement ended it, the judge noted.
This year, we sponsored an amendment to the Virginia Constitution to fix that. Our amendment would end partisan redistricting and make it unlikely that other attempts to manipulate districts would succeed. Further, it would provide flexibility that should curtail legal challenges and make it less likely that districts will be drawn by courts.
The centers also help these men with the challenge of readjusting to a world that has changed dramatically since they were sent to prison years earlier. Consider that a man released after serving 20 years in prison may never have used a personal computer or seen a smartphone and be bewildered by smart TVs, Metro cards and parking meters that issue receipts. It is not surprising, then, that roughly 43 percent of District residents who are on parole, probation or supervised release are unemployed.
The Clean Energy Jobs Act, now before the Maryland Senate and House, would mandate that 50 percent of the states electricity come from renewable sources by 2030. It would create a plan to get to 100 percent clean power by 2040. Large majorities of lawmakers in both chambers have said they will vote for the bill, but a few representatives want to wait. Lets take action next year, they say. Or the year after that. Which begs the question: What ship captain, seeing water spilling over the gunwales and into the galley, with rain crashing overhead, tells his crew, Drop the lines! Let go of the rudder. Well steer clear of the storm later?
If you caught McSally at the televised hearing, or in subsequent news clips, you may have seen what I did  a woman of strength, self-control, resolve and determination, despite visible emotion and apparent deep pain. Shes a mavericks maverick, I thought, and one tough cookie. Though she remained composed, one could see McSally struggle as she recounted being raped by a superior officer and then, in her words, being raped again, figuratively, when she eventually reported the assault to the Air Force. The system victimized her again, she said, treating her as though she were a perpetrator rather than someone who had been violated. Such was her despair that McSally considered packing her duffel bag and leaving the military.
Scott C. Ratzan is a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy Schools Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Barry R. Bloom is a professor of public health and former dean at the Harvard School of Public Health. Lawrence O. Gostin is the ONeill professor of global health law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he directs the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. Jonathan Fielding is a distinguished professor of health policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and a distinguished professor of pediatrics at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.
The March 3 news article Energy firm aims to stop U.S. efforts to contain 15-year oil spill was misleading. Taylor Energy is not seeking to stop the government from ending an oil spill. The company wants to prevent a potential environmental disaster. Taylor Energy is responsible for leading and funding the response to this incident. To date, the company has spent $486 million to find and plug nine buried wells that had the potential to flow and capture oil escaping from sediments. The company has also funded extensive scientific research at the direction of the Coast Guard.
And, on cue, here they come. Democrats, after winning last year with vows to lower health-care costs, rebuild infrastructure and clean up corruption, are now being pulled toward costly and divisive plans for government-run health care, a Green New Deal and reparations for African Americans. Some are agitating for impeachment even before special counsel Robert S. Mueller III releases his report. And House Democrats just engaged in an ugly internal squabble over anti-Semitism.
It wasnt long ago that the question of what to call Islamic State-inspired terrorists turned Democrats into verbal gymnasts. The term radical Islamic terrorists was shunned by those who feared that it too easily vilified a religion and was too likely to alienate our Muslim allies in the fight against global terrorism. In the Barack Obama years, we were often compelled to use words such as violent extremism instead, though the very vagueness of the phrase risked muting the necessary actions needed to counter the threat from those using violence in the name of Islam. It was, from a personal perspective, an exhausting exercise.
My faith in people power has been strengthened in watching events 7,000 miles away in India. There, too, a democratically elected leader, Narendra Modi, has accumulated power in ways that were at times authoritarian. In this case, the pressure he exerted on the bureaucracy and judiciary often worked. So did his intimidation of the press, which, while once fiery and free, has essentially become a handmaiden of the ruling party. Business executives were coerced into supporting Modis party, the BJP, and loading it up with cash.
Dr. Wens view that the Department of Health and Human Services new Title X rule will censor doctors was false and irresponsible. This rule is not a gag rule. It faithfully implements Title X while protecting the vital doctor-patient relationship. Congress prohibits the use of Title X funds when abortion is a method of family planning. The rule allows health professionals receiving Title X funds to provide counseling to patients about their pregnancy options, including abortion, though only while following Congresss requirement that this counseling be nondirective. To ensure patient safety, the rule requires referral for emergency and medically necessary prenatal care. It applies to medical professionals only when they provide care in programs receiving Title X funds and ensures that professionals receiving such funds are not forced to counsel or refer for abortion, thereby allowing them to practice medicine freely and without violating their consciences. This is consistent with several federal laws protecting conscience rights for medical professionals.
Except that that wasnt the real story. The real story, as with so much of womens history, was darker, more violent and frankly frightening. Boudicca did lead the armies of the Iceni tribe in the first century A.D., but it was only later that I learned why. The Romans, at least according to the historian Tacitus, stole her kingdom, assaulted her and raped her daughters. The bladed chariot was as mythical as the manicure she brandishes on the cover of a recent coffee-table empowerment manifesto. We have no way of knowing if Boudicca was beautiful. We do know that she answered abuse and humiliation by burning London to the ground, which is a really extreme way of leaning in to your career.
I dont want to share my dogs tunnel vision. I suppose thats what started me down a path of noticing the birds in my periphery: fear of being the troglodyte in a town full of Audubon-level birding enthusiasts. What kind of person remains willfully ignorant of beauty in her own backyard? Even my 68-year-old father, a retired Philadelphia firefighter who believes Fox News when it tells him that our environmental concerns are overhyped, worries for the once-endangered ospreys that frequent his marshy property. When I visit his house just up the road, he invites me to peer through a telescope at a large nest made of bark and flotsam, and so I do. Thats human nature: If enough people are looking, youll eventually look, too. I cant be the only person whose ornithological outlook boils down to: Cant beat em? Download an iBird app and join em. Besides, those great horned owls really do have piercing eyes  and super-cute tufts around the ears  if youre willing to look up.
PoliteMelanie appears to be part of a well-coordinated network of Russian troll accounts that we monitored in the run-up to the 2018 elections. Examining a range of data points, including source material and the timing of tweets, told us that this account was most likely operated from Russias Internet Research Agency (IRA). This secretive St. Petersburg-based organization, financed by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin (known as Putins chef because he catered dinners for the Russian president), has worked for years to influence political conversations on social media around the globe. One may have assumed that the Russian trolls posts would be crass, vitriolic, vodka-fueled attacks featuring broken English and spreading fake news or simple pro-Putin propaganda. Most Americans probably believe that they could spot a Russian troll from a mile away  and that they would certainly never engage with one. These assumptions, however, do not give credit to what Prigozhins people have built.
But this was the same Trump who as a presidential candidate referred to the size of his manhood during a Republican debate. He said about protesters at his campaign events, In the good old days, this doesnt happen, because they used to treat them very, very rough. He asserted that Islam hates us and that Mexicans are rapists. Not only did he get away with those offenses, but they somehow made him stronger. And hes gone even further as president. After each episode, Trumps critics have been as scandalized as they have been ineffective, just as they were after the speech at last weekends Conservative Political Action Conference. During the campaign, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called Trump the most vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency, and see how far that got Rubio.
I think the big issue going forward is how much of the support he had in Iowa four years ago was people that truly bought into his movement and how much of it was people who fundamentally didnt want to support Hillary Clinton, said Grant Woodard, an Iowa-based Democratic lawyer who worked for Clinton in 2008 and supported her in 2016.
Trump has fumed over the White House media strategy and implemented major changes, including ending the traditional daily briefing. The president often acts as his own spokesman, commenting on news of the day during photo ops or impromptu sessions with reporters. On Friday, he reacted to news about the 47-month jail term of Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, while walking out of the White House to board Marine One as he began a trip to Alabama to tour tornado damage.
Its a bit disingenuous for Justices Alito and Kagan to state calmly, in front of several video cameras and a dais full of attorneys, that cameras in their courtroom would somehow impact the tone of their hearings, especially since concerns over grandstanding havent proven true in other appeals courts that do allow video, said Gabe Roth of Fix the Court, one of the groups that favor cameras.
It may not be surprising that Trump would feel more comfortable in the company of someone like Babis, an outsider politician and fellow businessman who is reportedly the second-richest man in the Czech Republic. He also faces many of the same criticisms and challenges that have bedeviled Trump  Babis has faced fraud allegations, investigations he says are baseless and political, conflict-of-interest complaints and questions about the role of family members.
If we could pick the commentators and moderators, I think we should have the debate on Fox, because let me tell you  even if we can persuade 3 percent of Fox viewers, 3 percent last time out, carries Michigan, Rendell said during an appearance on the cable network Thursday night, referencing one of the rust-belt states that President Trump narrowly carried en route to his 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Senior officials, including former chief of staff John F. Kelly, warned the president that having his children and family members in the government would open them up to formal oversight and scrutiny that they would not have otherwise, according to officials. Before the Democrats took the House, Trump even told Kelly that his children should just go back to New York and asked Kelly to help make that happen.
Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia, Trump wrote. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!
Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon, Trump said in a tweet. His lawyers totally contradicted him. He lied! Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!
We only wish the president had learned from this resolution, which defines anti-Semitism to include anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracy theories that he has repeatedly invoked himself. The presidents own words have fueled the fire of intolerance and targeting of Jews, and Republicans have failed to condemn the presidents remarks in the same way that Democrats were quick to rebuke Representative Omar.
The public financing provision would give candidates up to $6 for every dollar raised from small donors and also establish a pilot program to give voters $25 campaign vouchers to be donated to any candidate. It has attracted outsize scrutiny from Republicans, who are attacking it as taxpayer funding for campaigns  more specifically, Democratic campaigns. And some experts question whether public financing is necessary after an election cycle that saw small, grass-roots donors power numerous successful congressional campaigns.
Several parts of the bill appeared to be aimed at the alleged abuses of Trump and his administration  none more clearly than a requirement that presidential and vice presidential candidates disclose 10 years of past tax returns, a voluntary practice that the president has ignored. The bill was amended this week to require the disclosure of the tax returns of companies owned or controlled by those candidates.
While relations with Washington loomed large, Wang this year urged for calm from both his countrys longtime ally Pakistan and India, a traditional rival to whom China is slowly warming up. He talked up Beijings affinity for Moscow, offered encouraging remarks about Japan, another traditional rival, and praised the summit meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as moving in the right direction despite its abrupt conclusion last week without a deal.
Online mobs have been swift to attack even the most unexpected targets. Mita Santras husband was one of the paramilitary officers killed in the Feb. 14 suicide bombing in Kashmir. But after the 38-year-old teacher publicly stated in the wake of her husbands death that war should be the last option, she was roundly criticized on social media. Other users later rallied online to support her.
She said commanders would still be held responsible even if the decision on such cases were taken out of the chain of command because commanders would be disciplined for not taking corrective action. I think that victims need to be protected, first and foremost, and their cases must be taken seriously, so taking it out of the chain of command, I think, will help us do that, Duckworth said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, joins deliberation with deputies from Gansu Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 7, 2019. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday called for perseverance in the fight against poverty as there are only two years left for the country to meet its goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2020.

"There should be no retreat until a complete victory is won," said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

He made the remarks when deliberating with deputies from Gansu Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature.

Decisive progress has been achieved in the country's tough fight against poverty over the past years, marking a new chapter in the poverty reduction history of mankind, said Xi, stressing that the goal to eradicate extreme poverty must be achieved on time.

He warned that the tasks ahead remain arduous and hard as those still in poverty are the worst stricken.

Explaining the criteria of lifting people out of poverty, Xi said they should no longer need to worry about food and clothing while enjoying access to compulsory education, basic medical care and safe housing.

The practices of formalities for formalities' sake and bureaucratism hamper the effective advancement of poverty reduction, he said, stressing a firm hand in rectifying malpractices in poverty relief.

Xi asked Party committees and governments at all levels to shoulder their responsibilities in the critical battle against poverty.

He ordered efforts to redress undesirable conduct of officials in a timely manner, as well as special campaigns to target corruption and bad conduct in poverty reduction.

Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng -- members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee -- on Thursday also separately joined deliberation with NPC deputies.

Premier Li Keqiang spoke of the need to replace old growth drivers with new ones and improve people's wellbeing to advance high-quality development.

NPC Standing Committee Chairman Li Zhanshu called for efforts to adhere to green, high-quality development and link poverty alleviation with rural vitalization strategy.

Wang Yang, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, urged high-quality poverty alleviation work to make sure that nobody is left behind in the course of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

Wang Huning, a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, said he expects Shanghai to continue to lead the reform and opening-up and to elevate the coordinated development of the Yangtze River Delta to a higher level.

Zhao Leji, secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, spoke of the need for Tianjin to take advantage of the period of strategic opportunity, enhance the capacity of innovation, and focus on developing real economy.

Vice Premier Han Zheng stressed the full implementation of the national strategy of the coordinated development of the Yangtze River Delta.

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[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]
Amrun is on the Western coast of Cape York, more than 40 kilometres south of Weipa, one of Australia's most remote towns, and is the first mine opened by the Anglo-Australian mining giant since 2017. Its anticipated life puts the Weipa community on track for about a century of bauxite mining. This is because Rio or its predecessors have been mining bauxite in the Weipa region for 55 years. Bauxite flows like a waterfall into the hull of the Illawarra Fortune at the Chith export facility adjoining Rio Tinto's new Amrun bauxite mine on Thursday. Credit:Joseph Mayers The miner says Amrun increases Rio's annual bauxite export capacity by around 10 million tonnes, at a time when higher-grade bauxite is becoming scarcer around the globe. Some of Rio's competitors for bauxite include Australian miners South32 and Alumina and American Alcoa. Competitors?

Rios Weipa bauxite mining operation covers three different mines - Amrun, East Weipa and Andoom. All are reasonably close to one another and are considered one wider operation. The new mine and associated facilities will replace the East Weipa mine, which is nearing the end of its operating life. At a ceremony held on Friday to declare the mine officially open, Jacques described aluminium as one of the fastest-growing base metals in the world, adding that demand was forecast to remain robust and to grow steadily. I think everyone has a little bit of Queensland when they have their mobile phone with them. Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk Amrun will provide jobs, support businesses and contribute to growth in the region for the next 50 years, building on $2.2 billion of contracts with local, state and national businesses [during construction]," he said. About half of the bauxite from the Amrun mine will be shipped through the Torres Strait and across to Rio's Yarwun alumina refinery near Gladstone, on Queensland's east coast. The other half will be exported to customers in China, who will process the bauxite and turn it into aluminium.

The Amrun mines location about 800 kilometres away from Cairns, means the mine is very, very remote. But despite the challenges of building a vast mine on Cape York, a location that receives about 2000 millimetres of rain a year and the odd cyclone, Rio built the mine under budget and ahead of schedule. The mine had a project budget of $2.6 billion, but came in about $140 million below that figure. Amrun also dispatched its first shipment of bauxite more than six weeks ahead of schedule, when the RTM Weipa set sail in early December. Rio says the decision to have a wharf and jetty built in seven modules overseas, and assembled at the Amrun site like a giant jigsaw puzzle, reduced construction times, costs and safety risks. The wharf and jetty extend out into the crystal clear waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria by about 1 kilometre. When The Age and Sydney Morning Herald visited this week, sea birds stretched their wings and flew overhead, while in the water below a handful of sharks swum by.

Stationed beside the wharf was a ship named the Illawarra Fortune, which was being loaded with 77,090 tonnes of bauxite ore. High up in the cabin sat ship loader operator Lachlan Hogan. He was controlling a huge piece of machinery known as the "bucket wheel reclaimer". The giant machine grabbed huge quantities of bauxite, which are then sent by conveyor belt from the mine and along the wharf to the ship loader. Rio chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques, at the Amrun mine opening ceremony, said there was such a significant reserve in the area that it could potentially last for decades beyond its 40-year lease. Credit:Joseph Mayers It is Hogan's job to carefully position the ship loader so that the bauxite drops into the correct place of the hull and to load the ship steadily. When the SMH and Age joined him in the cabin, many storeys above the water's surface, 31,351 tonnes of bauxite had been loaded, which put the loading operation near the half-way mark. The ship loader loads ore at a rate of about 12,000 tonnes an hour.

Back on dry land, at Weipa, Sebastian Ah-Wang recently started a new role in Rios bauxite operations, becoming a crew leader in the light vehicle workshop. While most of his work will be done inside the workshop, sometimes he will be out at the new mine. Local staff He is in charge of light vehicle servicing and repairs, including small trucks and utilities used on site. He described servicing the light vehicles used at Amrun as "the newest challenge for me. Because at the moment we have to send them over from Amrun to get serviced, they come over on a barge, get serviced and then we send them back". The 38-year-old has worked for Rio for almost nine years, and said the work was rewarding and satisfying. "It's always different. There's always new challenges. They're always asking you to try and find new ways to do things," he said.

Ah-Wang has both Torres Strait and Yupanthgi heritage, with the latter being one of the traditional owner groups that are a signatory to Rio's Aboriginal agreements covering indigenous land mined by Rio. Loading About 25 per cent of the 1300 workers at Rio's bauxite mining operations at Cape York are indigenous, with many of them local Aboriginal people. Ah-Wang said it was pleasing to see indigenous people being employed in mining, "especially the younger people, the people coming out of school". "Sometimes it's like a rite of passage for a young kid. Mum works in the mine, dad works in the mine, and the young kid will grow up and work in the mine," he said.

This was the case for both indigenous and non-indigenous locals, he said. "I have some mates, and the whole family [work in mining]. The dad's a diesel fitter, the son's a diesel fitter, the younger brother's a diesel fitter, the daughter's a diesel fitter, and mum drives trucks," he said. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and federal Resources Minister Matthew Canavan also attended the official ceremony at the giant wharf, known as the Chith export facility. Palaszczuk said Rio's new mine was "a tremendous investment in Queensland," and the bauxite would be used to make aluminium that would eventually end up in mobile phones, aeroplanes, vehicles and many more applications. "I think everyone has a little bit of Queensland when they have their mobile phone with them," she said.
Washington: As part of an ongoing effort to convince the public that his campaign did not collude with Russia, President Donald Trump on Friday dramatically misrepresented comments made by the judge who presided over the sentencing of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison on Thursday for cheating on his taxes and bank fraud. The case was prosecuted by special counsel Robert Mueller's office but was unrelated to his core mission of investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

During Thursday's proceedings in a courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia, US District Court Judge T.S. Ellis noted the distinction, saying that Manafort was "not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election".

In a tweet and later when talking to reporters, Trump incorrectly suggested that Ellis' comments had cleared his campaign of wrongdoing.
by Richard Coulson

A brewing dispute between our web shops and our banks is upsetting the usually sedate world of finance. Disputatious words are being exchanged between Gowon Bowe, Chairman of our Association of Clearing Banks, and Gershan Major, Director of BGOA (Bahamas Gaming Houses Association). The banks (all except Bank of the Bahamas) are refusing to accept large deposits of cash from the gaming houses.

This leaves Mr. Bowe defending one sacred banking principle: the right of any bank to choose its own customers; while Mr. Major defends an opposing principle: the right of any lawful business to deposit clean funds in a bank of its choice. The dispute breaks down further: Mr. Bowe claims that these deposits may be tainted by funds from money launderers, and it costs too much for banks to exercise due diligence to exclude the bad stuff; while Mr. Major claims that the web shop customers are shown to be clean and the corporate deposits must be clean too.

To this observer, Mr. Bowes position is harder to defend, since banks by now should have low-cost systems capable of detecting money laundering. Also, he seems to throw the whole problem back to foreign banks, particularly the three Canadians who are licensed here: their policies exclude exclude web shop deposits, and to maintain correspondent banking relationships we must follow their lead.

It occurred to me that since all wagering funds accepted by web shops must be in Bahamian dollars and not foreign currencies, no correspondent banking is needed. Could web shops simply do B-dollar business with our Central Bank, or set up a specialized credit union serving the web shop industry?

However, this would be a complex solution. Much better would be a face-to-face meeting between the clearing banks and the BGOA to thrash out the details of their differences, monitored by the Central Bank together with the Canadian banks. Although owned by Canadian parents, the local branches or subsidiaries must be governed by the laws and banking rules of the Bahamas, the country which licenses them to operate. The present boycott of web-shop deposits is intolerable. Why not also exclude our casinos?

Mr. Coulson has had a long career in law, investment banking and private banking in New York, London, and Nassau, and now serves as director of several financial concerns and as a corporate financial consultant. He has recently released his autobiography, A Corkscrew Life: Adventures of a Travelling Financier.
The Kimball Ministerial Association is pleased to announce the Lenten luncheons for 2019 starting on March 13.

The lunches started in 1992 and have been held during the Lenten season ever since.

Everyone in the community is invited to participate and support the Kimball Ministerial Association and the Food Pantry. The Kimball Ministerial Association is a voluntary organization of Christian Congregations who work together to assist and care for the people of our community facing various unmet material needs.

These lunches are provided by the various churches of the ministerial association every Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for five weeks during Lent. Following the lunch, there is a short meditation presented by the hosting churchs pastor.

The lunches are all at the Presbyterian Church of Kimball, 600 W. 7th St.

The purpose of these lunches is to provide a time of faith, fellowship and food in the Kimball community during the Lenten season and to raise money for the Kimball Ministerial Association.

The free will donations received are used for community assistance (Good Samaritans project) purposes throughout the year for local and transient persons in financial need. This assistance is for urgent or emergency needs of persons who may not qualify for other assistance programs.

The KMA asks everyone to bring one nonperishable item for the Food Pantry to every luncheon attended.

The group works with other community services and the Salvation Army. The association also sponsors the Food Pantry in Kimball. The pantry provides several hundreds of dollars of service each year.

So participating in the weekly Lenten Lunches is not only a personal benefit  food, fellowship and faith inspiration  but also supports a very important service to the community.

The schedule for this year and the hosting churches, starting the week after Ash Wednesday, is as follows:

 Mar. 13 -- Presbyterian/ New Hope AG Churches.

 Mar. 20 -- Calvary and Trinity United Methodist Churches

 Mar. 27 -- St. Johns Lutheran Church.

 April 3 -- St. Josephs Catholic Church.

 April 10 -- First English Lutheran Church/St. Hildas Episcopal Churches.
Gov. Ned Lamont wants to explore tapping private investors to finance at least some of the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to install electronic tolling on its highways.

Echoing a proposal raised earlier this year by Sen. Alex Bergstein, D-Greenwich, Lamont said he believes the private sector is eager for Connecticut to rebuild its aging, overcrowded transportation infrastructure, and some investors are ready to back that up with their wallets.

We could put in place, probably, a public-private partnership so  we wouldnt have to up front all of that (toll installation) cost, Lamont said while speaking to the Connecticut Council on Philanthropy at the Hartford Hilton Thursday morning. This is the way Im envisioning it right now.

A November 2018 study from the Department of Transportation projected capital start-up costs for tolls at about $372 million. But that study relied on 2016 data. Its not clear whether cost projections would be revised if legislators vote on a tolls measure later this year.

Lamont said after Thursdays address that while the concept of a partnership is still being developed, hes confident about its potential.

Theres real interest within the private sector, he said, adding that Connecticut has many advantages that would appeal to private investors.

Lamont said his two-year budget proposal before the legislature would close deficits and provide a recurring, reliable, predictable set of revenues for the transportation program over the next three years.

And if legislators approve his proposal for electronic tolling, the state could be in position to receive up to $800 million annually from tolls starting in 2023. The Lamont administration estimates about 40 percent of that would come from out-of-state motorists, though Republican legislators argue the share from outside Connecticut would be much less.

Connecticut also has a skilled, construction workforce ready to tackle the rebuild, Lamont added, and a pressing need for highway, bridge and rail upgrades after decades of inadequate investment.

Public-private partnerships have been a source of intense debate in other states since the mid-2000s. Private groups that help finance transportation work understandably want a return on their investments in the form of a share of toll receipts.

In some instances, public assets  roads, rail lines  are leased or sold to the private sector. But Lamont proposed nothing along those lines Thursday.

Proponents argue this approach has enabled states to dramatically accelerate the rebuild of their transportation networks. Critics counter that if the numbers arent crunched properly, motorists ultimately pay the price with higher tolls.

For example, Indiana approved a 75-year lease of the Indiana Toll Road for $3.85 billion in 2006. Within eight years the project amassed $5.8 billion in debt.

Were going to be smart about how we do these things, the governor said.

Bergstein, who is vice chairwoman of the legislatures Transportation Committee, has proposed an infrastructure bank program to leverage private dollars for a wide variety of transportation infrastructure work  not just installation of tolls.

Bergstein told the CT Mirror in mid-January that she believes private-sector support for a transportation rebuild is huge, and that Connecticut could leverage huge private dollars.

How much? Possibly $7 to $9 of private-sector money for every $1 the state pledges, she said.

It is about unlocking this enormous pot of private-sector money that we are not accessing now, she said.
WESTON  Outgoing Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb is trying to discourage children from involved with nicotine.

Gottlieb, a Westport resident, spoke to Weston Middle School students Friday morning about the harm of nicotine in children and how it can affect their brain development.

Were working on a new problem  kids using e-cigarettes, Gottlieb told students. Nicotine is bad for you.

Recent increases in the use of e-cigarettes have grabbed the attention of both the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the CDC website, the number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes rose from 2.1 million in 2017 to 3.6 million in 2018  a difference of about 1.5 million youth.

Gottlieb explained to students what an e-cigarette is made of: a battery-powered device that uses an e-liquid that usually contains chemicals such as nicotine, as well as flavorings, propylene, glycol, and vegetable glycerin.

These devices come in many shapes that look like cigarettes, cigars, pipes, or even pens and USB flash drives. Common brands known are JUUL, Vuse, Blu, and NJOY.

Current companies in the e-cigarette market tend to target youth with are targeting youth with e-liquid that is packaged like things that children use most often  juice boxes, candy containers, whipped cream, and even some look like medicine bottles, Gottlieb said. The FDA however, was able to get some of these products off the market, and have bene working to get even more off the shelves and away from children.

We have even teamed up with Scholastic to get involved with getting the word out to kids, and over 700,000 teachers have been helping as well, Gottlieb said.

He also said commercials will be airing this summer to help children understand the dangers and health concerns of vaping and nicotine.

Gottliebs visit to Weston youth came the same week he announced hed be resigning as FDA chief, due to his long commute from his home in Westport to Washington.

I want to spend more time with my family, Gottlieb said. It was a very difficult decision to make. His wife, Allyson and his daughters, 9-year-old twins and a 5-year-old were also in attendance at the presentation.

However, his resignation wont be official until next month, so he said hell be using that time to educate children on the dangers of vaping.

Following the presentation, Weston students had the opportunity to ask Gottlieb questions.

Our students asked good questions about how the FDA is working to keep these products out of the hands of young people, Principal Dan Doak said.

Doak noted he was grateful Gottlieb took time out of his busy schedule to share with the students the dangers of vaping and e-cigarettes.

Weston Public Schools and other districts have taken a firm stand in recent years on the use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs on school property.

Board of Education policy #5131.6, for example, prohibits the use of alcohol, drugs and tobacco, which includes cigarettes, e-cigarettes and vapors. The possession, transmission or use of tobacco or other illegal substances are forbidden, and students that violate this policy may be suspended or expelled, and will be referred to the police, the policy reads.

Dr. Gottliebs presentation was informative, and I hope that his message will prevent students from using tobacco products, Doak said.
Back in the day, there was an atrocious song called Signs. The lyrics went:

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

Blockin out the scenery, breakin my mind

Do this, dont do that, cant you read the sign?

We have (thankfully) forgotten the Five Man Electrical Band. But we have not forgotten the song, or its message. Four decades later, the problem is worse than ever.

The Westport News recently headlined: Sign project aims to attract more visitors to Westport. Jarret Liotta reported that  backed by a $50,000 appropriation for design work  the unzippily named Downtown Plan Implementation Committee hopes to implement a wayfinding project.

The idea is that better directional and informational signage  both physical and virtue will enhance both the downtown and gateway areas of Westport. Signs will make the town more accessible and visitor-friendly.

Im not sure. Id argue that all signs point to the fact that we need fewer  not more  of them.

Everywhere a sign is not just a song lyric. Like the frog in the pot of slowly boiling water  he doesnt notice hes getting fried until its too late  we may not realize we are being strangled by signs. There are so many, and they take up so much space, we dont really see them.

And why should we? Most of them are nonsense.

The Westport News story included a photo of a green sign greeting drivers on the Post Road, at the Norwalk and Southport borders. Welcome to Westport, it says. Please slow down. We enforce our laws.

Apparently, that is not very welcoming. I think its fine. Who can be against askin, very politely, people to slow down?

But the part about enforcing our laws? Sure, if we catch you. The problem is, anyone who drives more than three yards on the Post Road knows its every man for himself (and watch out for those women in SUVs).

The odds of getting caught for speeding are infinitesimal. Ditto for unsafe lane changing, failure to signal, having too much snow on your roof, or plowing through stop signs.

Which you really should not do, because we not only have stop signs, but signs that signal there is a stop sign ahead. I dont know when this became a thing, or why, but it seems to me if you are not able to comprehend a regular stop sign, you probably should not be behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. Or outside your home at all, for that matter.

Speaking of being behind, every Westporter knows what its like to trail a school bus these days. There must be a town law mandating them to stop every 5 feet or five seconds, whichever comes first. The only thing more aggravating than trailing a Dattco bus is  well, theres nothing worse.

Yet right there on Wilton Road, and a few other completely random spots in town, signs announce, School bus stop ahead.

Of course there is a school bus stop ahead. There is always a school bus stop ahead. In the history of wasted words, this ranks right next to flight attendants telling everyone on the plane how to fasten a seat belt.

Everywhere a sign certainly includes Compo Beach. Youd think the shore with its wide, soothing expanses of sand, water, jetties and whatnot would be a sign-free zone. You would also think kids could walk two minutes to a common bus stop, and in both cases you would be wrong.

Compo has more signs than Dattco has bus stops. There are signs about beach stickers, where to park and where not to park. There are signs about dogs, Frisbees, glass bottles and picnic tables. There are several ginormous signs, listing everything you can and cannot do, one of which is even larger and more ominous than the cannons it is posted near.

What all those signs lack is a uniform look. There are traffic signs, Parks and Rec signs, and signs designed by people who dropped out of Graphic Design 1 on the first day of class.

Perhaps though, thats what the folks who want more signs downtown are getting at. There is something about common colors, fonts and shapes that makes signs palatable.

Some places do this fairly well  particularly with road signs. Think of Bridgeport, with its classy blue signs, or San Francisco (black on white). New Yorks white on green signs manage a uniform look in a city of 8 million.

In fact, there is really only one sign I miss. Years ago, on Easton Road, a sign noted helpfully that it was 9 miles to Upper Stepney. Upper Stepney! Now theres information all of us could use.

Dan Woog is a Westport writer, and his Woogs World appears each Friday. He can be reached at dwoog@optonline.net. His personal blog is danwoog06880.com.
London,UK, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Anti-tank missiles are a type of guided missiles, which are primarily designed to destroy heavily defeat armored military vehicles. The size of anti-tank guided missiles vary from shoulder-launched weapons, which can be transported by a single soldier, to larger tripod-mounted weapons, which require a squad or team to transport and fire, to vehicle and aircraft mounted missile systems. Anti-tank is defined as combat against the enemys tanks and other armoured equipment and vehicles. Its associated tasks include the closing of endangered directions, flanks, and junctions. Anti-tank is the part of combined arms combat which is directed against the tanks armour grouped for attack or already directly attacking, and the armoured equipment detached to their battle formation. For successful combat, the organization of a solid anti-armour system is required, which includes anti-tank units as a basic element.

For free sample pages on this timely report please click on: https://www.visiongain.com/report/anti-tank-guided-missiles-market-2018-2028/

The Visiongain report analyst commented The Anti-Tank Guided Missiles was initially adopted mainly in Europe. In the past few years, other countries in the Asia-Pacific region (China, South Korea, and India) and the North American region also started equipping with these technologies. The major reason being the growing military expenses in a number of countries and increasing procurement of anti-tank guided missiles. Also, the introduction of long-range anti-tank guided missiles and R&D investments on the existing weapon systems. The most widely used anti-tank missile type is man-portable. This anti-tank guided ground based missiles is expected to lead the market in the next five years. Overall, the anti-tank guided missiles market would be witnessing high rate of growth in the coming years.

Leading companies featured in the report who are developing Anti-Tank Guided Missiles include Lockheed Martin Corporation, Raytheon Company, Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd., Saab Group, MBDA, KBP Instrument Design Bureau, General Dynamics Corporation, Roketsan A.S., Denel SOC Ltd, & BAE Systems plc.

If you are interested in a more detailed overview of this report, please send an e-mail to sara.peerun@Visiongain.com or call her on +44 (0) 20 7549 9987
Sarasota FL, March 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- First National Energy Corp (OTC: FNEC) is pleased to announce that its wind turbine technology has entered the commercialization stage and is now prepared for full scale deployment throughout North America.



The wind turbine technology has 23 years of proven reliability and performance, hundreds of installations that continue to perform efficiently, and has received several industry recognition awards. Customer trials have been successfully completed since the technology was installed in North America in 2016.

After more than 2 years of North American customer trials, the Company has received interest from a number of large organizations looking to adopt First Nationals wind turbine technology. Discussions continue with the companies that participated in the trials regarding the integration of the technology into existing business models.

Further, the company is in the process of solidifying a partnership with an experienced Management & Technical Engineering Services firm to manage and execute the overall deployment of the technology throughout North America. This partnership is expected to be secured and announced within the coming days.

Ongoing additional updates from the Company are available by following First National Energy on Twitter @FNECorp

Videos from FNEC can be viewed on FNECs YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQS0HDos9FDsBIG2vkU2YZA

For further information about First National Energy Corp, please visit: www.firstnationalenergy.com

About First National Energy Corp

First National Energy is dedicated to international research and evaluation of various wind turbine designs and technologies. The Company has since found and successfully acquired the perfect autonomous renewable energy solution for multiple critical and non-critical power applications. The technology has more than 23 years of proven reliability and performance, industry recognition awards, and hundreds of installations that continue to perform efficiently to date. After many years, this technology has evolved to become a completely fine tuned and state of the art solution chosen exclusively by military, national telecom corporations, large scale mining operations, municipalities to augment public utilities in remote areas and private users. To date, this technology has successfully produced in excess of 12,000 Megawatts of electrical power. The Company has also forged strategic and commercial relationships with large scale leading power generation contractors, engineering firms, producers, and industry experts in order to support future commercialization and of this technology suite which is now positioned for major deployment in USA, Canada, Europe and India.

Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions (such as those relating to future business or financial results, new features or services, or management strategies) and other factors discussed from time to time in the Company's OTC Market or Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These statements are forward-looking and are subject to risks and uncertainties, so actual results may vary materially. You can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as "may," "should,", "will", "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "confident," "intend," "plan" and other similar expressions. Our actual results, such as the Company's ability to finance, complete and consolidate acquisition of IP, assets and operating companies, could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors not within the control of the company such as a result of various factors, including future economic, competitive, regulatory, and market conditions. The company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The company disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events.




Another lender has partnered with the M3 Tech Marketplace, adding to the growing list of Canadian lenders using the non-bank originators services.

Equitable Bank joins Merix, Lendwise, NPX, and First National as a MortgageBOSS direct lender. It means M3 brokers will be able to submit applications directly to Equitable through the platform.

"Collaborating with our partners to enhance the broker and customer experience is always a top focus," says Brian Leland, SVP Residential Lending at Equitable Bank. "We are pleased to have built on our long-standing relationship with the M3 Group by leveraging innovation and technology to further enhance service delivery to home buyers and mortgage customers."

The announcement follows the news of M3's partnership with National Bank of Canada to do business with brokers directly in a new way via NBC's SAP Credit Adjudication system.

"Utilizing technology and innovation to reimagine the broker/lender relationship remains the number one focus for M3," said Andre Boisvert, Chief Technology Officer, M3. "The direct to lender connectivity model is yet again another example of how M3 Tech's Marketplace is simplifying the home buying process for lenders, brokers and the buyers they serve."

Roll-out to brokers

MortgageBOSS Connect will begin rolling out to M3 brokers  which include those under the Multi-Prets Mortgages, Mortgage Alliance, Invis, Mortgage Intelligence, and Verico brands  during 2019.

"Our focus is always on driving useful and relevant experiences to help our brokers with what they need to do and that means continually evolving as an organization to find new innovative ways to simplify and streamline the home buying process," said Karl Sutton, Vice President, M3 Tech.
Photo taken on March 7, 2019 shows the scene of a plenary meeting of deputies from Beijing at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China. The meeting was opened to media. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

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[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]
Less than two months after taking office, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker embarked on a new and potentially bruising political campaign Thursday by seeking to win public approval of a graduated-rate income tax that he contended would raise $3.4 billion by increasing taxes for the wealthy while lowering taxes for 97 percent of Illinois residents."Instituting a fair tax as I've proposed will improve the arc of our state's finances forever and will make our state more fair for everyone," Pritzker said in unveiling proposed tax rates and income brackets for his long-discussed plan to replace the state's constitutionally mandated flat-rate income tax.Currently, all Illinois residents are taxed at 4.95 percent, regardless of income level. Pritzker's proposal is largely reliant on raising taxes significantly on residents making more than $250,000 a year, with those earning $1 million and up taxed at 7.95 percent of their total income."It's wrong that I would pay the same tax rate as someone earning $100,000 or, even worse, pay the same tax rate as someone earning $30,000, which is why 33 states and the federal government use lower rates for lower earnings and higher rates for higher earnings," said Pritzker, a billionaire heir of the Hyatt hotel fortune.The governor, who pushed a graduated-rate income tax in his campaign for office but until now offered no details, acknowledged it was only the beginning of negotiations with lawmakers.But the graduated tax concept has been widely rejected by the business community and Republican lawmakers, with both groups reiterating their opposition Thursday."Today's massive tax hike proposal will further harm the state's manufacturing sector, which has already lost more than 300,000 jobs since the turn of the century," Mark Denzler, president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association, said in a statement. "Taxing and spending are not the answer to our daunting challenges."Pritzker warned of opponents using "scare tactics," and said it's now up to those who are against his proposal to present an alternative plan for closing the state's $3.2 billion budget deficit, paying off a backlog of nearly $8.5 billion in unpaid bills and dealing with $134 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.Without a graduated income tax, Pritzker said the only options would be a 15 percent across-the-board spending cut or an increase in the flat income tax rate to at least 5.95 percent. The governor has previously said he would earmark $200 million annually from the new tax revenue toward pension debt on top of the state's legally required payments."I respect the right of opponents to disagree with this proposal. But they should do so in good faith with a specific counterproposal, not pie in the sky," he said."Now, there are those who want to scare people by claiming that this proposal will cause residents and businesses to flee Illinois. They couldn't be more wrong," Pritzker said. "They ignore the fact that people and businesses are fleeing our state now under our current regressive tax system, yet states with fair tax systems on average grow faster and create more jobs than Illinois."Pritzker proposes dropping the personal tax rate to 4.75 percent for the first $10,000 of income for single and joint filers. Income between $10,000 and $100,000 would be taxed at 4.9 percent, and the rate would remain 4.95 percent for income between $100,000 and $250,000.From there, the top rates would be 7.75 percent for income up to $500,000, 7.85 percent for income between $500,000 and $1 million, and 7.95 percent for the entire income of someone earning more than $1 million in a year.Under Pritzker's plan, a family of four with a household income of $61,000 would see $41 in income tax relief before any exemptions, deductions or credits, and a couple with an income of $250,000 would save $65, according to the governor's office. A family of four with an income of $5 million would pay an additional $150,000 in state income taxes.The governor also proposes increasing the current property tax credit by 1 percentage point, from 5 percent to 6 percent. He would create a per-child tax credit of up to $100 for individuals earning less than $80,000 and joint filers earning less than $100,000.The corporate tax rate would increase from the current 7 percent to 7.95 percent, matching the top personal rate.The governor's proposal would give Illinois the second-highest top marginal tax rate among its neighboring states. In Iowa, rates top out at 8.53 percent for income above $73,710. Wisconsin's top rate -- 7.65 percent on income above $252,150 for individuals -- is slightly lower than what Pritzker proposes for Illinois. Indiana has a flat income tax rate of 3.23 percent.Before Pritzker's plan can be implemented, three-fifths majorities in each chamber of the legislature must approve a constitutional amendment doing away with the flat tax requirement. The measure would then require voter approval, which couldn't happen until at least November 2020. The tax rates would be implemented through separate legislation.While the next general election is nearly two years away, the issue already promises to be one of the biggest ballot measure fights in Illinois history, with "dark money" groups that aren't required to disclose their donors lining up on either side. One -- Think Big Illinois -- is tied to the governor, and the other -- Ideas Illinois -- is tied to business interests.The pushback to Pritzker's plan from Republican lawmakers was immediate. "The House Republican caucus stands united in opposition to a $3.4 billion tax increase on Illinois families and businesses," House GOP leader Jim Durkin, of Western Springs, said in a statement. Before Pritzker released any details, House Republicans held a news conference at the Capitol last week to make their opposition known.Senate Republicans on Thursday joined their House colleagues in unified opposition. "Without guaranteed protections for middle class families, we are opposed to the governor's $3.4 billion tax increase," the Senate GOP said in a statement.But Democrats hold enough seats in both chambers of the legislature to approve the constitutional amendment without any GOP votes. Whether they'll be willing to do so remains in question.Democratic leaders welcomed Pritzker's proposal but stopped short of endorsing the specifics.A spokesman for Senate President John Cullerton said he "looks forward to a comprehensive, bipartisan discussion on this issue, one that is frankly long overdue.""For years people have been saying Illinois should be more like our neighboring states with more modern and fairer tax systems," Cullerton spokesman John Patterson said in an emailed statement. "He eagerly awaits negotiations."House Speaker Michael Madigan didn't comment on the specifics of Pritzker's proposal but wants to work with the governor and lawmakers on a graduated income tax, spokesman Steve Brown said."As he's said since November, he plans to be supportive of the governor's efforts," Brown said.Madigan twice backed efforts to amend the state constitution to create a 3 percent tax surcharge on income above $1 million. He never got enough votes to put the question on the ballot, but voters in 2014 endorsed the idea by a wide margin in an advisory referendum. The 7.95 percent top rate in Pritzker's plan matches what Illinoisans would currently pay on income above $1 million if Madigan's idea had been adopted.Laurence Msall, president of the nonpartisan budget watchdog Civic Federation, commended Pritzker for releasing the details of his plan. The Civic Federation does not have a position on graduated income taxes generally or Pritzker's plan specifically, Msall said."Coming forward with the specificity removes a lot of the uncertainty and speculation as to what the governor and his team intends to do," he said. "It provides a real opportunity for the state of Illinois' policymakers to engage in a meaningful debate on the future of tax policy in Illinois."Msall said one of his organization's initial concerns is that charging the 7.95 percent rate on all income for people who earn more than $1 million could lead to "very significant tax avoidance."
'Trouble on the Horizon?

Immigrant Fears

The number of kids enrolled in Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP)  two government health plans for the poor  fell by nearly 600,000 in the first 11 months of 2018, a precipitous drop that has puzzled and alarmed many health policy analysts, while several states say it reflects the good news of an improving economy.Enrollment in the two programs decreased by 599,000 children in the 48 states from which the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has data from December 2017 to November 2018, the last month for which numbers are available. At the beginning of that period, Medicaid and CHIP enrolled nearly 36 million children in those states.Missouri (8.1 percent), Idaho (6.7 percent) and Utah (6 percent) experienced the biggest percentage drops in kids enrolled.I'm sure Idaho's strong economy is playing a role, enabling families to leave public health programs, said Niki Forbing-Orr, spokeswoman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, in an email to Stateline. She also cited other factors, such as the department not being able to reach beneficiaries to alert them it was time to re-enroll. Some, she said, may have simply moved out of state.In total numbers, Texas rolls tumbled the most  by more than 134,000 kids  followed by California with almost 130,000. Texas didnt respond to questions about the decline, but California also ascribed the declining enrollment to that states strong economic growth.That kind of large drop in child enrollment is unusual in the history of Medicaid and CHIP.The percentage of uninsured children in the United States fell from 8.5 to 4.7 percent between 2010 and 2016, a period that included the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. But in 2017, the percentage climbed again in 33 states and the United States as a whole.While experts seem uncertain about the cause, they too cite the possibility of the improving economy that might enable parents to leave government health plans. They say there are other likely causes, though, including actions by the Trump administration to undermine the Affordable Care Act, changes in data systems and immigrants fears of enrolling their children in public services.Uncertainty about the status of the programs also may have played a role, analysts say. Congressional Republicans have sought cuts in Medicaid since President Donald Trump assumed office. And in 2017, Congress missed the deadline for reauthorizing CHIP funding by about four months, which prompted the state of Minnesota to start dipping in its own funds to continue the program. Other states, including Colorado and Virginia, sent letters to parents warning of the possible cessation of services.Medicaid and CHIP had been steadily gaining coverage since the late 1990s, and more than a third of the nations children rely on one or the other for health coverage. Health policy analysts and advocates for low-income children say the decrease might be a sign that more kids are going without the health care they need.All kinds of warning lights are going off in my head, said Tricia Brooks, a senior fellow at Georgetown Universitys Health Policy Institute, who has blogged about the sudden drop in enrollment.Not all analysts agree there is cause for concern. Edmund Haislmaier, a health policy expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, for example, pointed out that the decrease is relatively small in programs that together enrolled nearly 35.4 million children as of November 2018.Youre talking about less than a 1.5 percent difference, he said. I would find it hard to make even a molehill out of that.A CMS spokesman said questions about the decline in child enrollment should be directed to the states.Both Medicaid and CHIP are jointly financed by the federal government and the states to provide health care for the poor. CHIP was created in 1997 to extend health benefits to children in families whose income is above Medicaid eligibility levels but still relatively low.Many analysts agree that an improving economy might explain some of the decrease. With employment rising, more families might be able to withdraw from Medicaid and CHIP and enroll in Obamacare plans or employer-sponsored health plans.While its hard to pinpoint, the economy has improved in this state, and that would be a reasonable factor, said Matt Westerfield, communications officer for Medicaid in Mississippi, which recorded one of the largest percentage drops (5.8 percent) in kids in public health programs in 2018.Ohio said that due to a glitch, the numbers reported by CMS for Ohio are wrong. CMS said child enrollment grew by about 60,000 in 2017, when it actually declined by 50,000 that year.And it declined in the first 11 months of 2018 by about 41,000 rather than the reported 47,500.In any case, Ohio Medicaid spokesman Tom Betti said that his departments analysis and surveys of beneficiaries suggest that the declining child enrollment in the public health plans was good news.The vast majority are leaving because life is getting better for them, he said, but it doesnt mean that any one individual isnt having a struggle. He acknowledged that some children are dropped because their parents arent able to successfully re-enroll them.Missouri had the largest percentage decrease of enrolled kids in the first 11 months of 2018 at 8.1 percent, or 50,505 kids. In a letter to legislators this week, Patrick Luebbering, director of the family support division of the Missouri Department of Social Services, cited federal actions as one of the causes of the decline, including the Trump administrations cuts in services to educate and assist consumers enrolling in health insurance. He also pointed to Congress repeal of fines for people who failed to enroll in health insurance.Luebbering mentioned, too, the improving economy, as well as an antiquated data system that hampered beneficiaries in enrolling. That system is in the process of being updated.The economy has steadily improved for a decade, but only after 2016 did the percentage of kids without health insurance increase. (The rate of those without insurance for the entire population also ticked up in 2017, although not nearly as much as it did for children.)And the number of consumers  either as individuals or on behalf of families  buying plans on ACA markets fell by 900,000 between 2016 and 2018, perhaps indicating that large numbers of children leaving Medicaid and CHIP did not end up in Obamacare plans.Child advocacy groups say they are deeply concerned about the trend continuing, particularly for poorer children.For medically underinsured families, Medicaid and CHIP are load-bearing beams in terms of maintaining health, said Dennis Johnson, head of policy and advocacy for the Childrens Health Fund, a New York-based organization that advocates for better access to health care for poor children.Essentially, we have done a fairly magnificent job in this country over the last 10 years in terms of kids insured, he said. Its the reversal of that trend that has us worried. We see trouble on the horizon.Johnson disputed the argument that the drop is insignificant. Whether its 50,000 or 500,000, the consequences for those kids are real.Children with untreated conditions, such as obesity and asthma, suffer lifelong consequences, he said, including frequent school absences that can impair their education and future opportunities.Experts point to several factors that might be depressing the numbers.Many analysts point first to the uncertainty over the future of the Affordable Care Act since Trump became president.Repeated but unsuccessful efforts by Republicans in Congress to repeal the ACA caused public confusion, which probably diminished enrollment in Medicaid, CHIP and Obamacare health insurance plans, said Joan Alker, executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University. And Congress failed to meet deadlines to reauthorize funding for CHIP in 2017, which prompted several states to prepare for the programs shutdown.There has been a lot of confusion out there among families, Alker said.Critics say other actions in Washington also likely contributed to declines in child enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP. The administration last year cut funding for navigators who helped consumers with enrollment, outreach and advertising that previously supported efforts to enroll people in Medicaid, CHIP and Obamacare policies.In addition, Congress at the end of 2017 eliminated the penalty for people not enrolled in an insurance plan, a requirement under the ACA. All those actions, said Samantha Artiga, a health policy analyst for the Kaiser Family Foundation, likely resulted in declining child enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP, as well as health insurance in general.Many observers also cited the Trump administrations crackdown on immigrants living in the United States without documentation. Undocumented immigrants whose American-born children would be eligible for Medicaid or CHIP might be unwilling to enroll them for fear of bringing federal immigration agents to their doorsteps.We have heard anecdotally from pediatricians, clinics, community health centers and navigators that parents are fearful of signing their kids up, said Mike Odeh, director of health policy for Children Now, a child advocacy organization in California. Its had a chilling effect.The effect could grow if the Trump administration adopts its proposed public charge rule.Currently, the United States can deny permanent resident status to lawfully present immigrants if they use public benefits, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known as food stamps, or Supplemental Security Income, the payments to children and adults with disabilities.The Trump administration proposed late last year to also deny permanent status to green card holders who use food, housing and health benefits, including Medicaid and CHIP. The proposed rule is in the public comment phase now.Some reasons for the declining numbers might be technological and inadvertent. The Affordable Care Act provided money to state Medicaid agencies to upgrade their data systems, which some are now doing. Those upgrades, Georgetowns Brooks said, have often resulted in renewal delays for a few months to get the kinks worked out and train the staff. Its unknown, though, how many children that might be affecting.But some states also have made it harder to enroll in or renew the public health programs. They require in-person applications and multiple documents, such as consecutive months of pay stubs. Arkansas (where child enrollment fell by 0.7 percent in 2018) and Indiana (where there actually was a 0.5 percent increase in enrollment) have implemented work requirements in Medicaid, and at least 10 other states hope to follow suit, which will likely further diminish child enrollment in public health plans.Analysts point to another possible contributing cause: While some states guarantee 12 months of continued enrollment in CHIP if a familys income rises above eligibility levels  even if briefly  a number of states, including Arizona, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, do not have such protections.A small and short-term bump in income can lead to a childs losing health insurance, said Jessie Mandle, senior health policy analyst for the Salt Lake City-based advocacy organization Voices for Utah Children.Changes in Child Enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP, Dec. 2017 - Nov. 2018Enrollment of children in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) fell by nearly 600,000 in the first 11 months of 2018. The biggest percentage drops were in Idaho, Missouri and Utah. Texas had the largest number of kids dropping off the rolls.
Gov. Greg Abbott has quietly been stocking Texas courts with Republican judges freshly rejected by voters, employing one of the strongest powers of his office to stem the erosion of the GOPs decades-long dominance in the state.In the three months since the worst election night for Texas Republicans in a generation, four of Abbotts last six judicial appointments to fill key court vacancies have been former Republican judges who lost their 2018 races. One was elevated to the Texas Supreme Court just weeks after being voted out of a lower court in Houston.Texas is among a handful of states that hold partisan elections of judges from lower-level district courts all the way through the highest appeals courts. The ability to fill vacancies is one of the strongest tools of the governors office.
Former Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel is challenging his suspension in a petition filed Thursday in Broward County Circuit Court, alleging that Gov. Ron DeSantis exceeded his legal authority when he ousted him from office.Stuart Kaplan, an attorney representing Israel, said DeSantis' latest comments in his State of the State address Tuesday motivated the lawsuit.DeSantis said any senator who would vote to reinstate Israel would "thumb his nose" at the families who lost loved ones in the Parkland school shooting. The Florida Senate is responsible for upholding or reversing the governor's suspension order.Kaplan blasted the governor Thursday morning and called his statement to senators "reprehensible" and "deplorable.""It was clearly a threat to the Senate," Kaplan said. "He has tainted the ultimate decision-makers. We don't believe he can get a fair hearing."The petition alleges "DeSantis engineered a political power play that interferes with the right of the public to determine their elected officials." Israel is entitled to reinstatement, the petition states.Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said the Senate's review of Israel's case will likely be put on hold because of the lawsuit."We'll wait and see how that plays out," he said.A hearing had been tentatively scheduled for the week of April 8.Helen Aguirre Ferre, a DeSantis spokeswoman, defended the governor's comments, saying Israel's neglect of duty and incompetence was evident after the Parkland shooting last year and the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting in 2017."It is lamentable that Scott Israel refuses to be held accountable for his actions," she said.On Jan. 11, days after taking office, DeSantis suspended Israel from office and replaced him with Gregory Tony following the turmoil and outcries sparked by the killing of 17 staff and students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.At the time, DeSantis said, "the massacre might never have happened had Broward had better leadership in the sheriff's department."Later in January, Israel formally began the process of trying to get his job back by notifying the Florida Senate that he was challenging the governor's action.Even with the lawsuit pending, Israel will continue to pursue reinstatement before the Senate, Kaplan said.Galvano called DeSantis' comment about Israel on Tuesday an "awkward moment" for the governor. He said the Senate will deliver a fair hearing."We are not going to be a rubber stamp for the governor," Galvano said.
Finance Minister Scott Fielding speaks to the media about the 2019 budget in Winnipeg on Thursday, during which he announced a seven per cent provincial sales tax by July 1.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who served years in prison for leaking one of the largest troves of classified documents in U.S. history, was sent to jail Friday for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 8/3/2019 (1006 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In this Tuesday, March 5, 2019 photo, Chelsea Manning addresses the media outside federal court in Alexandria, Va. The former Army intelligence analyst was ordered to jail Friday, March 8, 2019, for refusing to testify to a Virginia grand jury investigating Wikileaks. (AP Photo/Matthew Barakat)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who served years in prison for leaking one of the largest troves of classified documents in U.S. history, was sent to jail Friday for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning to jail for civil contempt of court after a brief hearing in federal court in Alexandria in which Manning confirmed she has no intention of testifying. She told the judge she "will accept whatever you bring upon me."

Manning has said she objects to the secrecy of the grand jury process and already revealed everything she knows at her court-martial. She said prosecutors have granted her immunity for her testimony, which eliminates her ability to invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

"I will not participate in a secret process that I morally object to, particularly one that has been used to entrap and persecute activists for protected political speech," she said in a statement released after she was taken into custody.

The judge said she will remain jailed until she testifies or until the grand jury concludes its work.

Manning's lawyers had asked that she be sent to home confinement instead of the jail because of complications she faces in receiving gender-affirming medical care.

The judge said U.S. marshals can handle her medical care. Prosecutor Tracy McCormick said the jail and the marshals have assured the government that her medical needs can be met.

Amy Bertsch, spokeswoman for the Alexandria jail, confirmed Friday that Manning had been booked.

"Specific details about Ms. Manning's confinement will not be made public due to security and privacy concerns," Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne said in a statement. "We will work closely with the U.S. Marshals to ensure her proper care while she remains at our facility."

Manning acknowledged going into Friday's hearing that she might well be incarcerated at its conclusion. Outside the courthouse, about 10 protesters rallied in her support.

"Obviously, prison is a terrible place," Manning said. "I don't see the purpose to incarcerate people."

Manning served seven years of a 35-year military sentence for leaking a trove of military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy website before then-President Barack Obama commuted her sentence.

The WikiLeaks investigation has been ongoing for a long time. Last year, prosecutors in Alexandria inadvertently disclosed that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is facing unspecified, sealed criminal charges in the district.

WikiLeaks also has emerged as an important part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible Russian meddling into the 2016 presidential election, as investigators focus on whether President Donald Trump's campaign knew Russian hackers were going to provide emails to WikiLeaks stolen from Democratic organizations, including presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign.

But there is no indication that the Alexandria grand jury's investigation of WikiLeaks is related to the Mueller investigation.

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McCormick said Manning can end the incarceration on the civil charge simply by following the law and testifying.

"We hope she changes her mind now," McCormick said.

Manning's lawyer, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, said she believes jailing Manning is an act of cruelty given her medical issues, and said there are many documented issues of jails and prisons providing inadequate medical care for transgender inmates. She said Manning's one-bedroom apartment would be a sufficient manner of confinement.

Meltzer-Cohen said after the hearing that the detention order can be appealed, but did not comment on whether such an appeal would be filed.

___

This story has corrected the attribution of the quote in the 11th paragraph to Chelsea Manning, not her lawyer.
CALGARY - Canada's two largest railways are appealing Transport Minister Marc Garneau's order requiring railways to immediately use handbrakes on all trains stopped on mountain slopes following a deadly derailment in the Rocky Mountains.

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A train derailment is shown near Field, B.C., Monday, Feb. 4, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

CALGARY - Canada's two largest railways are appealing Transport Minister Marc Garneau's order requiring railways to immediately use handbrakes on all trains stopped on mountain slopes following a deadly derailment in the Rocky Mountains.

Canadian Pacific Railway's chief executive says the company is focused on safety, but the application of handbrakes introduces additional risks and will have unintended consequences.

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In a news release, Keith Creel says safer options are available, adding "we must get this right."

The Calgary-based railway says it will comply with the ministerial order throughout the appeals process, including a review by the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada.

Canadian National Railway also says it is filing a review.

"CN has complied with this order since it came into force, but is of the view that alternative solutions are available that will more adequately address the safety objectives and the realities on the ground," spokesman Alexandre Boule wrote in an email.

Three CP Rail employees were killed in early February after a Vancouver-bound train that was parked for two hours with its air brakes engaged started moving on its own and sped up to well over the limit before 99 cars and two locomotives hurtled off the tracks.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CP, TSX:CNR)
OTTAWA - The Trudeau government marked International Women's Day on Friday by touting its collection of measures designed to support  and boost the number of  female entrepreneurs.

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Small Business Minister Mary Ng poses for a portrait in Toronto on September 6, 2018. The Trudeau government marked International Women's Day on Friday by touting its collection of measures designed to support - and boost the number of - female entrepreneurs. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

OTTAWA - The Trudeau government marked International Women's Day on Friday by touting its collection of measures designed to support  and boost the number of  female entrepreneurs.

But a year after the Liberals unveiled about $2 billion worth of commitments under its women's entrepreneurship strategy, some business leaders say the effort needs work if it's going to benefit female-led companies on the rise.

On Friday, the government announced a first group of recipients under the strategy's female-entrepreneurship fund. The list includes 13 businesses that will each receive up to $100,000.

"We're helping them grow their businesses," Mary Ng, the minister responsible for small business and export promotion, said in a recent interview. "My mandate is to double the number of women entrepreneurs by 2025."

Ng said only about 16 per cent of Canada's small- and medium-sized businesses are female-owned or -led.

But business leaders like Audrey Mascarenhas, CEO of Questor Technology Inc., argue the federal strategy needs improvements to truly help women entrepreneurs and, by extension, the broader economy.

"I'm zero for 12," Mascarenhas said of her own application success rate for the female-focused programs. "So, I don't apply any more because it's just a waste of my time."

Questor is an Alberta-based company that makes incinerators for waste gases in settings such as landfills and refineries.

Mascarenhas knows the federal effort well  she served as chair of the Liberals' economic strategy table on clean technology. The table was one of six industry-government groups assembled by Ottawa to find ways to ensure Canada takes full advantage of its strengths and reaps the economic benefits.

In her case, Mascarenhas said she's been told her clean-tech company, which has gone public, is too successful to get any of the support.

She said her challenges are the same as those of high-growth tech firms in general. The sector has voiced concerns that Canada offers little support for emerging companies already beyond the fragile start-up phase.

"How are we going to create the role models for future women if we only focus on the ones that are struggling?" asked Mascarenhas. "We've got to start to be strategic  not sprinkle fairy dust on everything, not focus on the people that are struggling and give them all the money and never expect a return on that investment."

She said 98 per cent of her company's business is now outside Canada and it's increasingly difficult for her to stay in the country.

In recent years, she said, high-ranking American government officials have tried to woo her to the United States. Former U.S. ambassador Bruce Heyman and former U.S. commerce secretary Penny Pritzker have contacted her to ask what they could do to help Questor grow south of the border, she said.

Connie Stacy, president of Growing Greener Innovations, said she's also had difficulty accessing Ottawa's funds for women entrepreneurs. Her swiftly expanding Edmonton-based company makes portable power packs meant to replace generators and she said it's been attracting significant international interest.

She recently secured $30,000 in federal support for the first time to develop web material and to attend trade shows in the United States. Stacy also lauded the work of Canada's trade commissioners.

But she said the funding is a small sum when one considers the high costs of manufacturing.

Stacy has been trying to access financing through the Business Development Bank of Canada, from which Ottawa made available $1.4 billion over three years in new financing for women entrepreneurs.

But for the most part, it's been frustrating, she said.

"The other federal programs, we've been flat-out denied on every one," said Stacy, who also wants to keep her firm in Canada, but sees opening up to foreign investment and, possibly, moving as the only ways to continue growing.

"I certainly know lots of women business owners. I don't know that I've really come across any that have really been successful in accessing some of these programs."

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Asked about support for middle-stage companies, Ng said she's heard concerns that much of the funding has been directed to start-up firms.

She insists the government is acting on it. She said the Business Development Bank, for example, will fund firms that are already scaling up.

Ng said she's also listening to her special adviser, former Ryerson University president Sheldon Levy, on what's needed to support scale-ups  and added that under his guidance the tweaks and changes are already underway.

The government will also hear from a newly formed panel of experts on women's entrepreneurship.

Asked about calls for more help for firms already scaling up, panel co-chair Laura McGee said the answer can't just be about government funding. It should also involve Canadian venture-capital firms, banks and possibly asset managers, she said.

"I think that is something we're getting better at as a country, but something there's certainly lots of room for improvement on," said McGee, the founder and CEO of the data analytics firm Diversio.
ATLANTA - A former Equifax executive who sold shares for nearly $1 million a week and a half before the company announced a massive data breach pleaded guilty Thursday in Atlanta to a federal insider trading charge.

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ATLANTA - A former Equifax executive who sold shares for nearly $1 million a week and a half before the company announced a massive data breach pleaded guilty Thursday in Atlanta to a federal insider trading charge.

Jun Ying, 43, exercised all his available stock options before making the sale and realized a gain of more than $480,000 on the sale, prosecutors said. That's about $117,000 more than it would have been worth immediately after the price plummeted when the breach was disclosed.

Ying, former chief information officer of Equifax's U.S. Information Solutions, was indicted in March 2018 and had previously pleaded not guilty. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 27.

Ying made the sale after receiving information in late August 2017 that led him to realize Equifax was the victim of a breach, prosecutor Chris Huber said in court.

Equifax disclosed the breach Sept. 7, 2017. The Atlanta-based credit reporting company ultimately revealed that the personal information of more than 145 million people had been exposed.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has also accused Ying of insider trading. An SEC spokesman said Thursday that there was no update on that case.

The SEC has said that at the time of the breach, Ying was often entrusted with nonpublic company information and was a leading candidate to become the global CIO of Equifax, a job he was actually offered on Sept. 15, 2017, the same day the company announced CIO Dave Webb would retire.

At the time of Ying's indictment, the company said that it "separated him from the company" upon learning of his sale of Equifax shares and concluding he had violated its trading policies. The SEC complaint says Ying worked at Equifax until October 2017.

Unidentified hackers accessed Equifax databases without authorization from mid-May through July in 2017 and obtained customers' personal information. Federal authorities say Equifax discovered the suspicious activity on its network on July 29, 2017.

The company changed administrative credentials for many of its internal databases a couple of weeks later, in mid-August. Ying was aware of these changes, and employees who reported to him were responsible for some of them.

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On Aug. 25, Ying, along with several employees who reported to him, were asked to help respond, although they were told then that the work involved a potential Equifax customer, not Equifax itself, the indictment says.

"Sounds bad. We may be the one breached," and "I'm starting to put 2 and 2 together," Ying told a co-worker in text messages, according to the indictment.

Three days later, on Aug. 28, 2017, Ying did searches using his Equifax computer on what happened to the Experian stock price after that credit reporting company experienced a breach in 2015. Later that morning, he exercised all his available stock options and received 6,815 shares of Equifax stock, which he sold for more than $950,000. That represented a gain of more than $480,000 and saved him a loss of about $117,000, prosecutors said.

Huber, the prosecutor, told U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg in court Thursday that federal sentencing guidelines indicate a prison sentence between 15 and 21 months is appropriate. As part of a plea agreement, Huber said, the government has agreed to recommend a sentence at the lower end of that range. The judge is not bound by the plea agreement.

A former Equifax software product development manager who exercised his put options and made a profit of about $75,000 before the breach was disclosed was sentenced in October to serve eight months home confinement after pleading guilty in Atlanta to insider trading. He was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine, serve 50 hours of community service and forfeit proceeds gained from insider trading. Put options allow the holder to make a profit if the stock price drops.

Equifax Chief Financial Officer John Gamble and three other executives sold shares worth a combined $1.8 million days after Equifax discovered suspicious activity on its network  and nearly a month before Ying sold his shares  but Equifax said an independent committee determined that these other executives did not know of the breach when their trades were made.
OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland applauded Friday a bipartisan American political effort backing Canada in its fight with China over its detention of Huawei's chief financial officer.

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Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland speaks to media following a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is applauding the bipartisan American political effort to support Canada in its fight with China over its detention of Huawei's chief financial officer. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland applauded Friday a bipartisan American political effort backing Canada in its fight with China over its detention of Huawei's chief financial officer.

Freeland's remarks  in an email to The Canadian Press  came hours after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a Beijing news conference his country would take "all necessary measures" to defend Chinese companies and citizens abroad against "deliberate political suppression."

The latest round in Canada's diplomatic dispute with China came as a new poll was released Friday by the University of British Columbia that cast new light on the deterioration of Sino-Canadian relations since the Meng affair.

Meng is wanted in the U.S. on fraud related charges in connection with violating sanctions on Iran  allegations China angrily dismisses as a politically motivated attack.

The U.S. Senate foreign-relations committee introduced a measure this week that commends Canada for arresting Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver to fulfil an American extradition request.

The joint Republican and Democratic effort recognizes Canada for upholding the rule of law and expresses concern over actions by China in response to the U.S. request. It calls on China to release Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who were jailed by Beijing authorities following Meng's arrest.

"Canada appreciates these bipartisan efforts in the U.S. Senate to pass a resolution echoing our call for the release of Mr. Spavor and Mr. Kovrig and recognizing Canada's respect for the rule of law," Freeland said.

Freeland also noted that Canada appreciates the support of Australia, the European Union, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and NATO, "who have spoken in support of these detained Canadians and the rule of law."

Freeland has been working behind the scenes with American lawmakers to court their support for the resolution, say sources familiar with her efforts, but who were not authorized to speak for attribution about them due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Last month, Freeland lobbied Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham at the Munich security conference in Germany, and she pressed the issue with Democratic lawmakers in Washington as well, sources say.

"Canada has provided consular access and due process for Ms. Meng. It is only right for the Senate to join Canada in expressing concern over arbitrary detention and mistreatment of Canadian nationals by the Chinese government," said Republican Sen. Jim Risch, the chair of the committee.

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Bob Menendez, heartily concurred.

"I commend Canada for its commitment to transparency and upholding the rule of law and its willingness to do the right thing in the face of significant and unjustified pressure from the Chinese," said Menendez. "In contrast, China's actions in seizing Canadian nationals in an apparent act of political retaliation, subjecting them to what appears to be arbitrary detention and mistreatment should be deeply troubling to all members of the international community."

The Chinese ambassador to Canada has warned the Trudeau government not to court international support against it, saying that would only worsen tensions.

Freeland responded to the American support after a visibly angry Wang gave a defiant answer at a Beijing press conference about Huawei.

"Recent actions against specific Chinese enterprises and individuals are not simply judicial cases, but deliberate political suppression," said China's foreign minister.

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"We also support companies and individuals using legal weapons to protect their rights and interests and not to be silent lambs," he added, raising his right hand into a fist.

During a spring 2016 press conference at the headquarters of Canada's foreign ministry in Ottawa, Wang berated a Canadian reporter  angrily pointing a finger at her  for asking him an "irresponsible" question that was "full of prejudice" about his country's human-rights record.

Friday's friction was reflected in the results of a poll released by the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at UBC which surveyed 1,161 respondents between Feb. 4 and 19, with a margin of error of 2.9 per cent. The Qualtrics survey asked the same questions as in 2017 and 2018 and found that only 22 per cent of Canadians had a favourable image of China, down 14 points.

Respondents also expressed low satisfaction with how the government tries to protect Canadian imprisoned in China. Eighteen per cent answered positively, up six points, but the number giving the government a thumbs-down rose 11 points to 42 per cent.

"Overall, Canadian opinions of China and the Chinese government are increasingly negative but expectations of the relationship have shifted only slightly," write Paul Evans and Li Xiaojun of UBC.

"What appears to be changing is the sense that Canada is more alone in the world than it was in 2017, more anxious about interactions with China in high-tech sectors, and more worried about threats to domestic values and institutions at home and to Canadians abroad."
Carlos Ghosns bet on a new team of lawyers paid off this week, thanks to a legal ace who orchestrated his release on bail from a Tokyo jail after more than 100 days.

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Carlos Ghosns bet on a new team of lawyers paid off this week, thanks to a legal ace who orchestrated his release on bail from a Tokyo jail after more than 100 days.

Takashi Takano, part of an "all-star" defence brought on after Nissan and Renaults former chairman fired his first attorney, convinced the Tokyo District court and Ghosn himself to accept the strict terms of his bail after two failed attempts. Then, like a scene from a movie, he disguised his client as a construction worker and whisked him away to his office in Akihabara, Tokyos neon-lit electronics district.

The 62-year-old lawyer is a colourful figure in Japans legal circles, known as a contrarian with a willingness to take on tough cases, including a mass murder. Junichiro Hironaka, whos been the public face of Ghosns new legal defence team, said even he wasnt aware of the caper ahead of time, having left it all up to Takano.

"I was surprised when I heard about it," said Hironaka, whose nickname is the Razor.

If Ghosns sensational release is any indication, the saga that has Japan riveted likely will continue playing out with plenty of drama, as his team prepares its counterattack against charges of falsifying financial records and breach of trust. Its a more aggressive approach that they wager will put them in the rare company of the less than one per cent of defendants whove beaten the legal system.

Japanese prosecutors say Ghosn engaged in a pattern of financial misconduct. He denies wrongdoing and argues the charges stem from a conspiracy within Nissan to block his plan to merge with the carmaker Renault, its largest shareholder.

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Once Takano got to work, it took less than 48 hours after Ghosns third bail request was granted for him to be released, with the prosecutors appeal rejected and 1 billion yen (US$8.9 million) in bail paid. "I am grateful for Takano-san," Hironaka said. "Hes an expert on bail and has all the know-how." Takano wasnt available for comment.

Ghosn was hustled out of the grey, drab Tokyo Detention Center with the multitude of cameras trained on him hardly noticing. The former jet-setting executive was dressed in a blue uniform, cap and surgical mask. He slipped into a silver van with the guards and drove away, with watchers assuming it was one of the staff going home.

To pick up Ghosn, the bearded Takano arrived in jeans, sneakers and a flat cap, looking more like a grandfather running an errand. Social media was abuzz with his resemblance to Academy Award-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. The Suzuki van that picked up Ghosn, made to look like a maintenance vehicle with a ladder on top, is registered in Saitama  a prefecture northwest of Tokyo where Takano has roots and built his law career.

The strict bail conditions that Ghosn agreed to  such as camera monitoring and restricted mobile phone and internet access  may have been the deciding factor in his release, legal experts said. The terms are similar to another case Takano worked on, said Tokyo-based defense lawyer Seihou Chou, who used to work for Takanos office and outlined his thoughts in a blog post.

Fluent in English with degrees from Waseda University and SMU Dedman School of Law in Dallas, Takano probably also helped convince Ghosn to agree to those conditions. Hes been a vocal critic of the Japanese justice system. Above his Tokyo office plaque is the logo of a crudely drawn eagle, accompanied by the words "Best Defense."

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WASHINGTON  The Pentagon is reviewing Elon Musks federal security clearance following the billionaires marijuana toke on a California comedians podcast in September, according to a U.S. official.

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WASHINGTON  The Pentagon is reviewing Elon Musks federal security clearance following the billionaires marijuana toke on a California comedians podcast in September, according to a U.S. official.

Musk has refiled his SF-86 security form, which requires a federal employee or contractor seeking a clearance to acknowledge any illegal drug use over the previous seven years, according to the official, who asked not to be identified.

The entrepreneur has a secret-level clearance because of his role as founder and CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which is certified to launch military spy satellites.

A SpaceX official, who asked not to be identified, said the review hasnt had an impact on the company. SpaceXs day-to-day operations are run by president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell. The company has won contracts for national security space launches since Musks podcast incident, including one for three launches on Feb. 19 for US$297 million.

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But the refiling and review underscore the continuing ramifications from the CEOs decision last year to smoke marijuana on the podcast, which quickly went viral. And it highlights the legal discrepancies between federal and state policy on marijuana use: while about three dozen states have taken steps to decriminalize pot, its use remains a federal crime.

James Gleeson, a spokesman for closely-held SpaceX, declined to comment.

Musks "adjudication" review by the Defense Security Service continues with no decision yet, the U.S. official said.

Typically during an adjudication a person keeps his or her security clearance but loses access to information classified as secret, according to the official. If the drug use involves minor issues or doesnt appear to contain any serious security concerns, the unit reviewing the case could just close it and update Musks record.

Although marijuana is legal for recreational use in many states, including California, it remains illegal for federal employees or contractors with security clearances, a point reiterated most recently in 2014 in a government-wide memo issued by then-director of National Intelligence James Clapper, which remains in effect.

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WASHINGTON - Sen. Bernie Sanders is raising the stakes of the "Medicare for All" debate by expanding his proposal to include long-term care, a move that is forcing other Democratic presidential candidates to take a stand on addressing one of the biggest gaps in the U.S. health care system.

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FILE - In this April 26, 2018, file photo, Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sen. Bernie Sanders is raising the stakes of the AuMedicare-for-allAu debate by expanding his proposal to include long-term care. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

WASHINGTON - Sen. Bernie Sanders is raising the stakes of the "Medicare for All" debate by expanding his proposal to include long-term care, a move that is forcing other Democratic presidential candidates to take a stand on addressing one of the biggest gaps in the U.S. health care system.

Medicare for All is unlikely to advance in the GOP-controlled Senate, but it's a defining issue in the early days of the Democratic primary and candidates have pointed to their support of Sanders' legislation as proof of their progressive bona fides.

Some moderate Democrats have criticized the cost of such an expansive proposal and by adding the long-term care provision, Sanders could further expose that divide.

So far, 2020 candidates Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Kamala Harris of California say they'll support Sanders' more ambitious bill. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts also backed the 2017 version of Medicare for All but has not said how long-term care might affect that.

Sanders' move, confirmed by his office, follows action by Medicare for All allies in the House to incorporate a generous long-term care benefit in their newly introduced legislation. Medicare for All would replace the current mix of private and government financing for health care with a system paid for by the government and funded by higher taxes

As with the rest of Medicare for All, supporters aren't saying how they would pay for long-term care, which experts estimate could cost several hundred billion dollars a year. Several independent estimates for the broader program have ranged from about $25 trillion over 10 years to $36 trillion, although supporters say it would be considerably less.

Still, the general idea of a government long-term care program has broad backing.

FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2019, file photo, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sen. Bernie Sanders is raising the stakes of the AuMedicare-for-allAu debate by expanding his proposal to include long-term care. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

About two-thirds of U.S. adults favour a long-term care program similar to Medicare, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll last year. That includes 76 per cent of Democrats and 56 per cent of Republicans.

The attention from Sanders as well as House Medicare for All leaders Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. and Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., comes after advocates for disabled people lobbied them to step up coverage for long-term care in the push for a national health care plan.

Many Americans assume that Medicare covers long-term care, but that's not the case. Qualifying for public coverage under Medicaid, which covers low-income people, involves spending down lifetime savings.

Long-term care has "always been the stepchild," said Marc Cohen, a gerontology researcher and professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Cohen says he thinks the House plan recently introduced by Jayapal and Dingell would be "unaffordable," but says it recognizes a need. "That is really a positive thing that someone is trying to address it," he added.

Recent state-level efforts on long-term care have sent mixed signals. Maine voters last year rejected a referendum that would have provided home care to all seniors and disabled people regardless of income. But last month the Washington state House approved a plan creating a limited cash benefit to offset long-term care costs. The measure, sent to the state Senate, is financed with a payroll tax on employees.

Only an estimated 7 million to 8 million people have private long-term care insurance, which is costly and generally requires applicants to pass a health screening.

In Congress, the new House Medicare for All bill from Jayapal and Dingell offers the most generous benefit.

People of any age could qualify if illness, injury or age limit their ability to perform at least one "activity of daily living," such as bathing or dressing, or one or more "instrumental activities of daily living," such as managing money or taking prescribed medications. There would be no income or assets tests to qualify, and no copays or deductibles.

The House bill  known as H.R. 1384  emphasizes home- and community-based care in the "least restrictive setting." But it would also pay for nursing home care. The earlier version of the House bill included a few mentions of long-term care but did not specify benefits.

"We flip the model on its head," said Jayapal. "Instead of saying institutional care is the default we say ... you should be able to be taken care of at home, in your community."

In his 2017 bill, Vermont Independent Sanders left the current low-income Medicaid coverage for long-term care in place. His office says a new edition to be introduced in coming weeks will include added coverage for home- and community-based services, available to people of any age as Medicare for All benefits. Such services can include adult day care, a housekeeper, or home improvements like grab bars in the shower.

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The shift by Sanders and his House counterparts came after intensive lobbying from disability rights advocates. The groups were a central part of the coalition that defeated President Donald Trump's effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act and restrict federal financing for Medicaid.

The activists realized during that effort that even Medicare for All came up short on the needs of disabled people, said Nicole Jorwic, policy director for The Arc, which serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

"If you don't include long-term supports and services, it cannot be considered a bill that is for all people because it leaves out huge portions of the population, including people with disabilities and aging Americans," Jorwic said.

___

Online:

House Medicare-for-all bill summary - https://tinyurl.com/y26keeur
Some 1,500 Canadian Tim Hortons franchisees will receive a copy of a proposed settlement in two class-action lawsuits against their parent company Friday that could wrap up a long-standing battle between the coffee-and-doughnut chain and some of its restaurant owners.

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A Tim Hortons coffee shop in downtown Toronto, on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. Some 1,500 Tim Hortons franchisees will receive a copy of a proposed settlement in two class-action lawsuits against their parent company today. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Eduardo Lima.

Some 1,500 Canadian Tim Hortons franchisees will receive a copy of a proposed settlement in two class-action lawsuits against their parent company Friday that could wrap up a long-standing battle between the coffee-and-doughnut chain and some of its restaurant owners.

"The settlement agreement allows us to move forward with all our franchisees focused on the same thing  building the Tim Hortons brand and business in Canadian communities," Duncan Fulton, chief corporate officer for Tim Hortons and its parent company, Restaurant Brands International, wrote in a statement.

Lead plaintiff and president of an unsanctioned franchisee group, the Great White North Franchisee Association, Mark Walker and RBI subsidiary TDL Group Corp. signed the agreement filed in Ontario Superior Court on March 6 addressing allegations of advertising fund mismanagement and other complaints contained in two lawsuits filed in 2017.

The agreement includes many of the same points the two parties submitted in a non-binding term sheet to the judge about a month ago.

Under that proposal, the coffee chain's franchisee advisory board will regularly review advertising fund spending for added transparency, advisory board member terms will be shortened by a year and the company will institute electronic voting for the board. Tim Hortons will also pay $10 million over two years for local advertising efforts and $2 million to the GWNFA's law firm.

The agreement also includes new provisions that the two parties' lawyers negotiated since the term sheet was submitted, including more detail on how the advisory board will function to increase transparency.

It also will allow franchisees to negotiate some future contracts on their own, like insurance and dairy, after the current contracts expire.

The proposed settlement offers some protection from retribution to the six GWNFA members, including Walker, served with brand protection and breach of media policy notices last year. Tim Hortons will rescind those notices and has agreed to extend the franchisees' agreements by 10 years, in addition to whatever amount of time remains on their current contracts.

Franchisees will have until mid-April to accept the settlement or request to opt-out, though a judge will make an official deadline determination at a later date.

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The two side will meet again in court in late April when any dissenting voices will be heard and the judge will rule on the proposed settlement.

If approved, the settlement would close the chapter on the two Canadian class-action lawsuits, but the company continues to face court action south of the border.

Late last month, a Minnesota-based franchisee filed a suit in a U.S. court alleging the company engaged in price gouging and provided Tim-Minn Inc. with misleading statements that led it to invest millions of dollars into the venture. None of the claims have been proven in court and RBI has said it disagrees with the operator's point of view.

Tim Hortons is also facing a U.S. class-action suit from U.S. franchisees alleging RBI charges "significantly above" open market prices for necessary products and services. RBI said at the time that it "does not reflect all the facts."

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Description

GIS - 08 March, 2019: The Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, met with some employees of RT Knits Ltd, today, at La Tour Koenig in the context of the International Womens Day 2019. The aim was to take stock of the progress made by women in the textile industry as well as to sensitise them on the concepts of gender mainstreaming in the world of business.

He underlined that the country has over time made significant progress with regard to improving womens standard of living and quality of life. As we are set to celebrate the 51 years of the independence of Mauritius, he said, it is vital to valorise the significant contributions of women in both social and economic spheres.

Prime Minister Jugnauth pointed out that Government is extending its support to enterprises so as to enable them to put forward their competitive advantage as well as promote innovation, creativity and high quality. He also recalled a series of measures namely fostering import substitution and reviving export led production which have been undertaken so as to help boost the Mauritian Export Processing sector. It is nevertheless the responsibility of the enterprises to constantly innovate and launch new products in relevance to new trends and market demands, he added.

Speaking on the role of women in the sector, Mr Jugnauth reiterated his appeal for a change in mindsets and attitudes in order to attain gender equality, and consequently a fairer and more just society. He also expressed his appreciation for the brilliant pieces of work produced by the female employees of the RT Knits Ltd and encouraged them to continue to work with the same zeal and spirit.
MANITOBA announced Thursday it plans to spend more than $1 billion on strategic infrastructure projects in 2019, including on highway construction to commemorate the provinces 150th birthday.

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MANITOBA announced Thursday it plans to spend more than $1 billion on strategic infrastructure projects in 2019, including on highway construction to commemorate the provinces 150th birthday.

In its budget, the Tory government earmarked $395 million for highway projects, including the Daly Overpass in Brandon and the replacement of a Trans-Canada Highway overpass near Portage la Prairie.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Chris Lorenc, president of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association, reacts to the 2019 budget.

"We are making substantial more investments in roads this year. We are doing about $350 million on highways. Were also adding about $45 million on our Manitoba 150 fund that will be used for construction," Finance Minister Scott Fielding said.

"Investments in capital infrastructure are going up by about 38 per cent. Its going from about $146 million to about $202 million, largely based on schools that were doing and some of the renovations that will happen at some of the schools."

The province also announced funding for upgrades to the Headingley jail and improvements to the airports at St. Theresa Point, Norway House and Shamattawa First Nations.

However, the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association said the province isnt making such spending a priority.

"They havent really made any significant changes to the priority they attach to infrastructure. The highway budget is static. There isnt any indication they plan to augment that program," said president Chris Lorenc.

"They do have a one-time $45-million addition for unspecified road projects, but thats not really a program investment. Its more of a public relations move for Manitobas 150th."

In addition to what he feels is insufficient funding for infrastructure projects at the provincial level, Lorenc pointed to recent news the City of Winnipeg plans to spend less on road projects in 2019 than it had hoped. A move Mayor Brian Bowman linked to the province reneging on past financial commitments.

On Thursday, Lorenc seemed to side with the city in the dispute, saying the provinces decision hurts his members, and the labourers who work on road and highway projects.

"Theres nothing in the budget to fill the ($40-million) gap the city is facing thats apparently due to a refusal on the province to make good on a previous five-year funding agreement. The people who end up getting it in the neck are the men and women who work in the construction industry," Lorenc said.

"Theyre being asked to bear the brunt of the refusal of the Manitoba government to make good on a payment they owe the City of Winnipeg. How on earth is that responsible government?"

The Tory government will cut the PST to seven per cent on July 1. However, Lorenc said he would have preferred to see Manitobans vote on whether they want the PST decreased or have that money put toward infrastructure.

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"The story in this budget is really the PST going from eight to seven per cent. But we think thats a missed opportunity to go to Manitobans and say, Do you want to drop the PST or keep it at eight per cent and use that percentage point for infrastructure?" Lorenc said.

"We would have been happy to live with the outcome of that referendum."

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe
ROSSER  Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer kept the heat turned way up on Justin Trudeau during a visit to Manitoba Friday.

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ROSSER  Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer kept the heat turned way up on Justin Trudeau during a visit to Manitoba Friday.

"The role of prime minister is bigger than any one person, and if he truly had respect for the country, he would do the right thing and step aside," Scheer said while making an early campaign stop at a farm just northwest of Winnipeg to talk about home heating costs.

Canadians arent scheduled to go to the polls until late October, so it may have seemed a bit early to be outlining election promises.

Scheer used the backdrop of a dairy farm in Rosser to deliver a promise to give taxpayers the same break on home heating and energy costs they now get on groceries and prescription medications. Both are categorized as necessities and arent subject to GST.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Federal Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer (right) with Gordon Grenkow on Grenkow's family farm near Winnipeg.

Home heating is just as much a necessity as food or prescriptions, he said, adding the plan would cost $1.6 billion in lost taxes, which will be accounted for when the Conservatives unveil budget plans during the campaign.

Scheer is also waging a daily war on Trudeaus government, accused of political interference in a criminal case involving Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, which led to the recent resignations of two key cabinet members.

Scheer said his party has so far rejected the strategy of introducing a non-confidence motion in the House of Commons that could  with support from within the Liberal caucus or the NDP  trigger an immediate election.

"Were still trying to use the parliamentary tools at our disposal to get to the bottom of this scandal and break through the coverup Justin Trudeau is engaged in," he said.

Scheer made it clear that discussions between the Prime Ministers Office and then-attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould about using a deferred prosecution in the case arent the issue.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Tory leader Andrew Scheer speaks to the media about his plan to remove the GST from home heating and energy bills if his party is elected.

"Its not about whether deferred prosecutions are legitimate, its about the fact that Justin Trudeau used his position of authority to intervene in a court case," he said Friday.

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"Thats completely unacceptable. I can assure you, I would never interfere in a criminal court case. Thats the difference between Justin Trudeau and me."

The Opposition leader said the Conservatives will, instead, pursue other motions in an effort to hear testimony from Wilson-Raybould about her removal as attorney general and her decision to leave the federal cabinet.

"She has indicated she has important information, and Justin Trudeau has refused to lift the gag order on her," Scheer said.

Last week, Wilson-Raybould told the House of Commons justice committee she was pressured last fall by Trudeau, his senior staff, the countrys top civil servant and others to intervene to stop the criminal prosecution.

Trudeau has acknowledged "an erosion of trust" and put the controversy down to a breakdown in communications between his senior staff and the former attorney general. He has maintained his position that his government has done nothing illegal or unethical.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
Should Canadians be concerned about the growth of the far right in this country? How can schools educate students about racism? What does a feminist lens teach us about dealing with hatred? What can community, faith and other groups do to combat hate?

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Should Canadians be concerned about the growth of the far right in this country? How can schools educate students about racism? What does a feminist lens teach us about dealing with hatred? What can community, faith and other groups do to combat hate?

Those are some of the questions to be addressed at Striving for Human Dignity: Race, Gender, Class & Religion, a March 14-15 conference in Winnipeg.

The two-day event, open to the public, is being organized by the Islamic Social Services Association, with support from the Winnipeg Foundation, Social Planning Council of Winnipeg and the federal and provincial governments.

"Its about time we paid attention to the rise of the far right in Canada," conference organizer Shahina Siddiqui says.

"Their promotion of fear and hate is causing so much damage to our social harmony, turning Canadians against each other."

The Thursday keynote address will be delivered by Barbara Perry of the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society.

It will be based on her recently completed three-year national study of right-wing extremism in Canada.

"We need all parts of society to think about this," Siddiqui says of who should attend the conference.

"Police, health-care professionals, educators, religious groups and many other parts of society need to be informed and think about what they can do to respond to hate."

The conference will feature sessions about reconciliation between Indigenous people and newcomers; how to help refugees who are re-traumatized when they encounter racism or hate in Canada; how faith groups can work together to combat hatred; how schools can promote anti-racism; and the psychological effect of hate on individuals and communities.

It will include the launch of a toolkit for democratic and peaceful actions to defeat hate.

"We want to talk about what lessons we have learned, where we are at today and what we can do to move forward together in Winnipeg," Siddiqui says of the conference.

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She hopes that through sessions and conversation cafes, participants will be able to "get together to talk about what we can do, and build relationships with one another."

Of special interest to Siddiqui is how faith groups can work together.

"We need to move beyond talk," she says of sessions about interfaith conversations about hate, and Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in Canada.

"We need to find ways to be there and speak up for each other, to show it in our actions."

The cost for the conference, which will be held at the Hilton Airport Suites from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is $100. For information, or to register, visit issacanada.com or call 204-944-1560. The registration deadline is March 10.

faith@freepress.mb.ca
The weekend slaying of a high school student in a West End home invasion drew scores of apprehensive neighbours to a forum on methamphetamine abuse and rising crime rates.

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The weekend slaying of a high school student in a West End home invasion drew scores of apprehensive neighbours to a forum on methamphetamine abuse and rising crime rates.

More than 150 people turned out Thursday evening at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute for a meeting organized by the Winnipeg Police Service.

Some brought their children, others were older, but all were serious. Dozens of uniformed police officers stood talking quietly. Various community groups, with information pamphlets manned tables flanking one wall.

The forum was booked weeks in advance at the school on Alverstone Street, but its timing  in the aftermath of the Sunday night homicide  clearly raised the level of urgency among the crowd.

"Home is your safest place and it feels like that (homicide) robbed us of that sense of security, that sense of community," said Perla Javate, a retired school liaison officer who described the death of 17-year-old Jaime Adao "as a hit in the heart."

Ron Sison identified himself as an immigrant who came to Canada from the Philippines to raise a family in safety.

"We live three streets away from where that happened, and we walked here tonight. What do we do if something happens to us when we walk home?" the young father asked, pointing to his two children, a seven-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl.

"We came here to have a better life, not to die, to put it bluntly."

Jaime died Sunday shortly after calling 911 to report someone was trying to break into his familys McGee Street home at around 9 p.m.

The Tech Voc High School student, who would have graduated in June, was fatally assaulted by a male suspect while on the phone with a 911 operator, police said.

Police said it took only four minutes from the time the 911 call came in to when officers arrived at the home and one or more officer fired their guns to stop the attack.

Jaime and the 29-year-old suspect were rushed to hospital. The teen was pronounced dead; as of Thursday, the man remained in critical condition.

"The focus of the forum is to educate the community on the dangers of methamphetamine, on (how) to provide support for those who have addictions, and to also speak to the community on gang-related issues," Insp. Max Waddell said before Thursdays meeting.

WPS Chief Danny Smyth was expected to use the forum to outline a new initiative  a dedicated guns-and-gang unit  that will incorporate existing resources. However, he instead spoke about the power of community and how people who rally together can amplify their sense of security, pointing out neighbourhood watch groups.

Meanwhile, Waddell said he understands peoples apprehension, as the West End has been challenged with other incidents in the past. "Police want to reassure people where theyre living is a safe place to live," he said.

That said, there are measures police are urging residents to take on their own.

"If they can take pro-active measures, whether that be proper lightning around their home, being in constant communication with their neighbours about suspicious activity, and keeping in contact with police, theyll be okay," Waddell said.

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Police have repeatedly stressed the Sundays home invasion was a random crime.

At the same time, the citys crime rates have been tied to street gangs and addictions, fuelled by the meth crisis and the chaotic psychosis that can accompany it.

"When someone is high on methamphetamine... their ability to reason is limited. Their ability to control their actions is limited," Waddell said.

"Ive spoken to meth addicts myself, and how they best describe it is, what you or I would see is not what they see... They believe others are trying to attack them. You and I may just see a human being standing (there) but to them its a human being standing there with a knife or a firearm, some form of violence attached to it. Thats why they react the way they do."

Police have not said the suspect in Sundays homicide was high on meth, nor are they providing information about the ongoing investigation.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
The suspect in the slaying of 17-year-old Jaime Adao during a West End home invasion Sunday night may have been high on meth, Winnipeg's police chief said Friday.

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The suspect in the slaying of 17-year-old Jaime Adao during a West End home invasion Sunday night may have been high on meth, Winnipeg's police chief said Friday.

Chief Danny Smyth said the homicide investigation is ongoing, but officers believe "there may have been meth involved."

Smyth, who had just attended the Winnipeg Police Board meeting, said police won't know for sure until toxicology test results are available.

If investigators' suspicions are confirmed, the tragedy would add to a growing list of meth-fuelled violent crimes in the city, he said.

"Were not off to a good start of the year," he said, noting that meth was involved in three of four officer-involved shootings thus far in 2019, and the drug was involved in six of the last seven homicides.

"We are dealing with some real serious problems with meth."

Adao died after a 29-year-old man broke into his McGee Street home last Sunday.

Adao, who was in the house with his grandmother, called 911 to report someone was trying to break in; officers arrived four minutes later, while the teen was being assaulted with a weapon.

Police have not released any details about the weapon.

One or more officers fired their sidearms at the suspect, who was rushed to hospital in critical condition.

Adao was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

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Smyth said the suspect is still listed in critical condition and officers have not been able to talk to him; he has not yet been charged.

Adao's parents, Jim and Imelda, who came to Canada in 2005 through the provincial nominee program, own the citys two Jimels Bakery outlets.

Police board chairman Coun. Kevin Klein offered condolences to them at the beginning of the meeting.

"I cannot find the words to fully express your loss," Klein said.

"We remain committed to public safety."

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
RESPONDING to concerns raised by Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman, the Manitoba finance minister said Friday the governments new infrastructure funding commitment to the city is solid.

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RESPONDING to concerns raised by Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman, the Manitoba finance minister said Friday the governments new infrastructure funding commitment to the city is "solid."

Scott Fielding said the Pallister government has made it clear in writing to the mayor it is increasing municipal infrastructure funding.

In his budget Thursday, Fielding announced capital grants to the city for infrastructure would rise to "up to" $113.1 million in 2019-20 from $83.6 million in the current fiscal year.

Bowmans responded that the province appeared to be setting a ceiling on funding, rather than a floor.

Interviewed after a breakfast speech to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce Friday, Fielding said the province has been "pretty clear" to the city on what the municipality will receive.

"Our investments are solid," he said, adding the province would be willing to make letters it sent to the City of Winnipeg on the issue public.

A government spokesman later said Manitoba would release the correspondence if it received permission from the mayor.

The spokesman also clarified the $113.1 million in capital grants is dependent on the city remitting proper receipts. The money has been earmarked for such projects as the Waverley Street rail underpass, rapid transit development, and the accelerated regional roads program.

In his speech to the business audience, Fielding reviewed the highlights of his budget, including a percentage point cut to the provincial sales tax, and participated in a question-and-answer session with Manitoba Chambers of Commerce president Chuck Davidson.

Davidson brought up the Pallister governments sometimes prickly relationship with both the city and the federal government.

"You guys and (Manitoba federal cabinet minister) Jim Carr dont have a great relationship," he remarked to Fielding, sparking some chuckles from the crowd.

"You guys and Brian Bowman dont have a great relationship either," he noted, in asking what the province would do to repair those relationships.

Fielding said there are areas in which the province works very well with Ottawa, citing health care and housing as examples. Carr has complained the province has been slow to take advantage of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding in a variety of areas.

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Fielding said the dispute with the mayor over capital funding has been "unfortunate," but the city knew well in advance what it was receiving in 2019.

"Its kind of like looking under the Christmas tree the day before Christmas and somehow acting surprised on (Christmas Day)," he remarked.

Davidson asked Fielding about the timing of the PST cut, suggesting the province, instead, could have balanced its books, given the size of federal transfers. According to polling done by the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce, 70 per cent of its members are in favour of a PST cut, but more than half (52 per cent) said it would not affect their capital investments or hiring.

Fielding said the reason the government cut the tax was it didnt think it should have been raised six years ago by the NDP in the first place.

"Most importantly, we think that taxpayers deserve a break," he said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
The Pallister government is cutting taxes while trimming the provincial deficit, thanks to generous federal transfer payments and continued spending restraint.

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The Pallister government is cutting taxes while trimming the provincial deficit, thanks to generous federal transfer payments and continued spending restraint.

Finance Minister Scott Fielding announced in the provincial budget Thursday that the government will lower the provincial sales tax by a percentage point  to seven per cent  on July 1.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Finance Minister Scott Fielding delivers his budget Thursday in the Manitoba Legislature.

"Manitobans deserve a break," Fielding said as he delivered his first budget since becoming the minister in August.

While the Progressive Conservatives had long promised to reduce the tax before the end of their first term in office, most observers had expected them to announce the move next year.

Business leaders and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation were delighted by the early tax cut, which reversed an unpopular move by the former NDP government six years ago that led to its downfall.

Opposition politicians and unions, however, expressed concern with a budget that continued to focus on deficit-fighting at the expense of services and economic growth.

The decision to cut the PST now  a year before the government needed to do so to fulfil its 2016 election campaign promise  fuelled speculation that the Progressive Conservatives might call an election before the fall of 2020.

While Premier Brian Pallister had sparked initial election speculation by refusing to rule out an early vote, he refused to comment about the timing of an election on Thursday.

"This is a good news budget for Manitobans, and I think it's a tremendous accomplishment, frankly, for our team in government and a tremendous benefit for the people of this province," the premier said.

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / THE CANADIAN PRESS Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister speaks to media following the delivery of Manitoba's 2019 budget, at the Legislative Building, Thursday.

The government said the PST cut is expected to save a family of four an average of $500 per year. The move will cost the government $237 million in lost revenue this year (over nine months) and $325 million over a full fiscal year.

Despite the self-inflicted revenue hit, Fielding is projecting that the government will reduce the deficit to $360 million in 2019-20 from a forecast shortfall of $470 million for the current budget year, which ends March 31.

Loren Remillard, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said he was pleasantly surprised that the government will cut the PST this year instead of waiting until the last year of its mandate.

He said the move is good for consumers and for businesses, who will see their costs go down. He was also pleased that the government appears set to balance the province's books well ahead of schedule (by the end of a second term in office).

PST rollback reaction The Progressive Conservative governments blockbuster budget announcement Thursday drew mixed reaction. The rollback of the provincial sales tax to seven per cent from eight per cent, as of July 1, was feted by business advocates, while those more concerned with social welfare were less enthused. During the 2016 Manitoba election campaign, the Tories central pledge was to cut the PST by one percentage point by the end of their first term in office. click to read more The Progressive Conservative governments blockbuster budget announcement Thursday drew mixed reaction. The rollback of the provincial sales tax to seven per cent from eight per cent, as of July 1, was feted by business advocates, while those more concerned with social welfare were less enthused. During the 2016 Manitoba election campaign, the Tories central pledge was to cut the PST by one percentage point by the end of their first term in office. They managed to do so more than a year before Manitobans are scheduled to go to the polls in October 2020  which left political observers speculating about the possibility of an early election being called. (Premier Brian Pallister ignored such questions Thursday.) Todd MacKay of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said he was pleasantly surprised to see the PST cut in this budget, since the PCs could have waited until 2020 to fulfil their campaign pledge. He called it a victory for taxpayers. Todd MacKay

My crystal ball is not working at all. I did not see this one coming, and certainly Id never make a bet on when an election happens, he said. I dont think its going to go (early). I think the more accountable thing to do would be to wait for the fixed election date (October 2020). That said, keeping that cornerstone promise, it certainly clears the way for an election. Also Thursday, the government introduced its Budget Implementation and Tax Statutes Amendment Act; an unusual move since the legislation is usually tabled sometime later in the spring or fall. When the PST changes this summer, Manitoba will have the third-lowest rate in the country, behind Alberta (no tax) and Saskatchewan (six per cent), and tied with British Columbia. The province said, in 2019, it expects a single resident will save $86 in PST and a family of four $239. Big-ticket items, such as appliances, furniture and vehicles, will become more affordable  though that may not make life any easier for low-income Manitobans who werent considering such purchases to begin with, said Michael Barkman, chairman of Make Poverty History Manitoba. I think potentially it could have a marginal impact for some low-income households. But it even says in the budget that the biggest impact will be on households that have more discretionary income, he said. So many low-income people spend more than 50 per cent of their income on rent, and then food and childrens clothing and diapers  and thats all PST-exempt. So I think the impact (the PST cut) has on ending poverty, or at least poverty-reduction measures, is underwhelming. Molly McCracken

Molly McCracken, director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, was also disappointed by the PST alteration. We just heard from the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report that theres a climate emergency and we need to take substantial action, she said. And so the revenue that otherwise could have been used from the cut of the PST could have gone towards preparing for climate change and creating more green infrastructure. Jonathan Alward of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business was celebrating the tax cut Thursday. He said small businesses need it, as Ottawa implements a carbon tax April 1 and Manitoba Hydro rates rise. Were expecting that small businesses are going to be able to pay their employees more. Theyre going to be able to invest in technology to set them up to grow and succeed in the future." jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @_jessbu Close

"It definitely instills confidence in the business community that the government is sticking to its plan, and for business we can see the light at the end of the tunnel," he said.

However, organized labour was disappointed in the government's financial blueprint.

"We have warnings of an economic slowdown and (the) government, yet again, has no plan for (creating) jobs," said Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour.

"This government only sees the bottom line," he said. "There's no plan to grow the economy. It's about cuts."

Fielding's plan for delivering a sizable tax cut while reducing the deficit relies on a $300-million boost in federal transfer payments in the coming year to $4.26 billion.

The minister is also counting on the provincial economy to grow by 1.7 per cent this year and 1.5 per cent next year. While those growth rates are modest, they are still more optimistic than some recent forecasts.

The government has set aside close to $32 million in extra funding for floods and forest fires this year, and boosted another contingency fund by more than $30 million. But those funds could disappear quickly if a large Red River flood this spring causes more damage than anticipated.

Fielding gave himself a bit more manoeuverability by transferring an additional $50 million into the province's rainy day fund, which is projected to reach $265 million in the coming year  unless a disastrous flood wipes it out.

The Progressive Conservatives fourth budget in less than three years contains no new taxes and no increase to so-called "sin taxes," such as those on tobacco and liquor.

Total summary budget spending is rising to $17.48 billion compared with the government's latest forecast of $17.16 billion for the current year.

Most government departments are receiving only nominal increases or slight decreases in their budgets this coming year compared with the past 12 months.

Total health spending is rising $118 million  to $6.65 billion  compared to what is actually being spent this year. However, the government is budgeting to spend $120 million less on health than it budgeted a year earlier. Earlier this week, the government said it would under-spend its 2018-19 health budget by $240 million.

The budget provides a slight increase in operating grants to the City of Winnipeg. It earmarks up to $113 million in capital grants, compared with $84 million last year.

The government did not ballpark how much tax revenue it would receive from the sale of cannabis. Fielding said the government will have a better idea when wholesaler Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries posts its annual report in September.

On health, the province continues to lower ambulance fees, reducing them to a maximum of $250 in the coming year.

The budget calls for the hiring of 35 additional primary care paramedics and the purchase of 65 replacement ambulances.

The government has also reserved $20 million to allow it to sign upcoming agreements with the federal government on addictions treatment and mental health.

In terms of fighting crime, the budget will fund an additional 27 Mounties and two additional RCMP administrative staff.

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An extra $2.3 million will be set aside to combat drug-related crime, and an additional $325,000 will be devoted to supporting victims of crime, including those hurt by domestic violence.

The government also intends to install new body scanning equipment in correctional facilities.

In terms of tax credits, the government will boost funding for the Manitoba Film and Video Production Tax Credit to $31.5 million from $16 million.

The province is reducing red tape for the Primary Caregiver Tax Credit by allowing caregivers to claim the credit when they file their income taxes by April 30 each year.

It also plans to extend the Small Business Venture Capital Tax Credit for three years. It will also extend a book publishing tax credit for five years and extend the cultural industries printing tax credit for another year.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
The illegal killing of five moose last month may point to a problem of too few conservation officers to catch poachers, the Manitoba Wildlife Federation says.

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This article was published 7/3/2019 (1007 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The illegal killing of five moose last month may point to a problem of too few conservation officers to catch poachers, the Manitoba Wildlife Federation says.

The moose were shot Feb. 16-20 along Provincial Highway 304 between Powerview-Pine Falls and Manigotagan.

Designated by the province as "Game Hunting Area 26," the moose population crashed in the region in the early 2000s. It was declared a restoration zone in 2012, and moose hunting was banned for all licensed hunters and First Nations people.

"We're trying to rebuild the moose population, and 99.9 per cent of people are respecting the hunting ban," said Earl Simmons, regional supervisor for Manitoba Sustainable Development, based in Lac du Bonnet.

"Then you have a few people spoiling it. You're stealing from everyone. Poaching is stealing."

GHA 26 covers a large area bordered by Hwy. 304 to the west and north, by the Ontario border to the east, and the Winnipeg River to the south.

The moose were all shot from the roadway. "Moose are generally more active when it gets cold and they come out to the highways," said Simmons.

Aerial surveys determined the moose population in GHA 26 plunged to 823 in 2010 from 2,350 in 2000.

Factors for the steep drop are hunting, increased predation from wolves, and the spread of the parasite called brain worm, which is carried by white-tailed deer. Brain worm is lethal to moose but not deer, whose numbers have increased in the area.

An aerial survey in 2018 showed the hunting ban is working, with the moose population rebounding to 1,602.

At least three of the moose were cows with the potential to produce at least one calf per year, or 30 offspring over 10 years, Simmons said. When those female offspring are included, which can reproduce after two years, as many as 75 animals may have been lost.

Moose isn't the only endangered species.

The number of provincial conservation officers has fallen to fewer than 80, from 140, in the past 15 years, said Brian Kotak, Manitoba Wildlife Federation managing director. "There is just no staff to enforce hunting regulations."

As well, the province has shifted officers to the west side of the province to combat night-hunting, leaving other regions less protected, Kotak said.

The province neither confirmed nor denied the federation's numbers, but they are consistent with previously cited figures.

The moose population is endangered in other parts of Manitoba, too. There is a moratorium on moose hunting around the Duck and Porcupine mountains on the west side of the province, but more are needed, Kotak said.

The moose population has fallen to 100-150 in some game hunting areas, he said. "When you get moose densities that low, it becomes almost impossible for them to recover."

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A moose has four times the weight of a deer and is prized by hunters.

Simmons is heartened by the number of people who have provided information to help catch moose poachers. "We've got some really good information, so conservation is following up on good leads and we have some evidence," he said.

The investigation starts with "blood and a gut pile and maybe a head or two and moose hair," he said. The dead animal's DNA is recorded so investigators can match it to moose meat in a potential suspect's possession.

The penalty for poaching is up to $10,000 per animal.

Anyone who may have travelled in the Powerview-Pine Falls-Manigotagan area during those dates and saw anything suspicious is asked to contact either the wildlife branch at 204-367-6130 or the Turn in Poachers (TIP) line at 1-800-782-0076.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
Two members of the same street gang pull out guns and fatally shoot each other at a downtown Winnipeg late-night diner.

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This article was published 7/3/2019 (1007 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two members of the same street gang pull out guns and fatally shoot each other at a downtown Winnipeg late-night diner.

The double homicide, which occurred Feb. 6, is just one of numerous times city police have seen firearms being used in criminal acts  as well as officers encountering and seizing firearms during arrests and drug busts  in recent months.

Now, police are arming themselves with a new tool to fight back.

As part of Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth's monthly written report to the Winnipeg Police Board, he will announce at Friday's WPB meeting the creation of a unit "focused on the identification of gangs and firearm crime."

"The guns and gangs unit will focus on the identification, arrest and dismantling of gangs, criminal organizations or crime groups responsible for violent criminal activity, primarily focusing on illegal firearms and illicit drugs," the chief's report says.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Winnipeg Chief of Police Danny Smyth will announce the creation of a unit "focused on the identification of gangs and firearm crime" at Friday's Winnipeg Police Board meeting.

A spokeswoman for the police service said Smyth would only comment on the new strategy after he presents it to the board Friday.

The report says the new unit is an expansion of the service's ongoing gang suppression strategy, with a four-pillar approach of suppression, prevention, intervention and education.

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According to the document, because of "the increased availability of firearms and the potential for their use in criminal offences," the chief has already pushed the WPS firearms investigative analysis section into the new guns and gangs unit.

Coun. Kevin Klein (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood), chairman of the Winnipeg Police Board, said he's eager to hear more about the plan.

"We want to make sure it is responding to what we hear in the community, and is it addressing the concerns?" Klein said Thursday. "Will it address the concerns of the public and will we be able to assess the success? It's what we want to know."

Meanwhile, Klein said the board will also delve into the portion of the proposed 2019 civic and capital budgets which deals with the WPS, so members can give their input.

"We will have our take on the budget," he said. "It will be worth it for people to listen to what is happening because it is their money and their safety."

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
So much has happened in the SNC-Lavalin saga in the last week that Monday  the day Jane Philpott resigned as Treasury Board president, and from cabinet, in protest  seems like an eternity ago.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 8/3/2019 (1006 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

So much has happened in the SNC-Lavalin saga in the last week that Monday  the day Jane Philpott resigned as Treasury Board president, and from cabinet, in protest  seems like an eternity ago.

For example, on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus former principal secretary, Gerald Butts, testified before the parliamentary justice committee. Butts performed well and provided new insights, but his testimony, rather than smoothing things over for the prime minister, has flared the scandal in new ways.

Fred Chartrand / The Canadian Press FILES Gerald Butts, former top aide to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, testified about the SNC-Lavalin affair on Wednesday.

Butts, for example, claimed that Wilson-Rayboulds demotion from the justice portfolio to the position of minister of Veterans Affairs was not in retaliation for Wilson-Raybould refusing to play ball on SNC-Lavalin. To the contrary, Wilson-Raybould was moved to Veterans Affairs because she refused to take the prime ministers offer to move to the Indigenous Services portfolio.

This revelation provoked outrage from Indigenous leaders who thought it was insulting that Trudeau would ask an Indigenous minister to oversee the administration of the Indian Act. In a head-turning comment, academic Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond claimed that the offer was "akin to asking Nelson Mandela to administer apartheid."

Trudeau himself played off Butts testimony the next day, blaming the ministerial resignations on a breakdown in trust between Butts and his ministers. But this was thin gruel for viewers who tuned in hoping to see genuine contrition on Trudeaus part.

Butts appearance was followed up by further testimony from Michael Wernick, clerk of the Privy Council.

Wernick grabbed headlines during his first visit to the committee by raising the possibility that the increasingly toxic climate of Canadian politics might eventually lead to political assassinations. He kicked off his more recent testimony by melodramatically complaining about harsh comments made about him on social media, and providing copies of those comments to the committee, claiming that they constituted intimidation of a witness.

Wernick is supposed to be a non-partisan public servant. But unlike the smooth-talking Butts, Wernick was combative and scrapped with committee members, protesting at one point that he couldnt remember a specific conversation because he wasnt wearing a wire. He certainly did not help Trudeau.

But this testimony  as interesting and entertaining as it was  was really a distraction from Philpotts Monday resignation from cabinet. In stepping aside, Philpott wrote explicitly she was leaving because she had "lost confidence in how the government has dealt with this (SNC-Lavalin) matter and in how it has responded to the issues raised," and as a result, remaining in the cabinet was "untenable." This resignation was the most damaging turn of events for Trudeau since Wilson-Raybould herself resigned, and could have long-standing consequences for him and his party.

Philpott was almost certainly Trudeaus strongest minister. She performed well in the various portfolios the prime minister gave her, and gained a reputation as a competent problem-solver capable of taking on complex, challenging tasks. Further, Philpotts disarming personal style has meant she is popular in the cabinet and the Liberal caucus.

Philpott had nothing to gain and everything to lose by resigning, but resigned anyway. Its hard to think of any motive for doing so other than those she provided herself: as a principled decision to leave cabinet because she did not approve of how Trudeau was handling the SNC-Lavalin issue, particularly Wilson-Rayboulds resignation.

In response to Philpotts resignation, some Liberal MPs  notably Finance Minister Bill Morneau  noted that Philpott was a close personal friend of Wilson-Rayboulds.

The implication was that Philpott had resigned not out of principle, but instead because she was obligated to do so as a result of her friendship. This particular trial balloon went up like the Hindenberg.

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The silver lining in all this for Trudeau is that Philpotts resignation does not appear to have led to any sort of rebellion in the Liberal caucus. Only one Liberal MP, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, has announced she would not seek re-election and linked this to the governments handling of the SNC-Lavalin file.

With his remaining cabinet ministers seemingly committed to him, Trudeau is not facing any imminent threats to his leadership and can hope that the matter will blow over before the election arrives this fall.

So where does this leave the federal government? Team Trudeau has taken a hit in the polls, and the next campaign will be more competitive as a result. The prime minister has lost two strong ministers, and the relationship between his government and Indigenous leaders is at a low ebb.

Worse, the sordid aspects of the scandal have sullied the prime ministers image. It will be hard for Trudeau to run on another "sunny ways" platform in the next election. And there is still the chance that his government will, despite everything, provide a remediation agreement to SNC-Lavalin, which will lead to outrage everywhere in the country except Quebec.

The federal election is seven months away.

Royce Koop is an associate professor and head of the political studies department at the University of Manitoba.
Description

GIS  08 March, 2019: The President of the Republic of Madagascar, Mr Andry Nirina Rajoelina, accompanied by his spouse, Mrs Mialy Rajoelina, will be on a State Visit to Mauritius from 10 to 13 March 2019 . President Rajoelina will be the Chief Guest of the Government on the occasion of the National Day Celebrations.

He will lead a nine-member delegation comprising several ministers, namely the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Naina Andriantsitohaina; the Minister of Tertiary Education and Scientific Research, Mrs Felicite Rejo-Fienena; the Minister of National Defense, General Leon Jean Richard Rakotonirina; the Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr Richard Randriamandrato; the Minister of Transport, Tourism and Meteorology, Mr Joel Randriamandranto; the Minister of Communication and Culture, Mrs Lalatiana Rakotondrazafy Andriatongarivo; and the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Crafts, Mrs Rakotomalala Lantosa.

Following his arrival on 10 March 2019, the President of the Republic of Madagascar will pay a courtesy call on the Acting President of the Republic of Mauritius, Mr Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory, at the State House, Reduit.

On 11 March 2019, he will have a tete-a-tete and a working session at the Receptorium of the National Assembly, with the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth.

During the State visit, the following Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) will be signed:

 MoU in the field of Tertiary Education and Scientific Research, between the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research and the Ministry of Tertiary Education and Scientific Research of the Republic of Madagascar, with a view to promoting cooperation among the higher education institutions of both countries.

 MoU in the field of standardisation, between the Mauritius Standards Bureau and the Bureau des Normes de Madagascar to provide a framework for scientific and technical cooperation.

An Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters which will be an important tool in the fight against drug trafficking and financial crime, including money laundering will also be signed with the Government of the Republic of Madagascar.

The President will also effect visits at the Omnicane Factory Area at LEscalier; the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage Site in Port Louis; and the Le Morne Cultural Heritage Site.

On 12 March 2019, President Rajoelina along with his delegation will be at the Champ de Mars to attend the official celebrations marking the National Day.

A working session with the business community, hosted by the Economic Development Board, is also scheduled.
Canadian women in medicine have come a long way since the mid-1800s, when Dr. Jennie Kidd Trout required special permission to attend medical school. Today, we have trailblazers such as Dr. Roberta Bondar, Canadas first female astronaut and the first neurologist to fly in space, and Dr. Nadine Caron, Canadas first female Indigenous general surgeon.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 8/3/2019 (1006 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Canadian women in medicine have come a long way since the mid-1800s, when Dr. Jennie Kidd Trout required special permission to attend medical school. Today, we have trailblazers such as Dr. Roberta Bondar, Canadas first female astronaut and the first neurologist to fly in space, and Dr. Nadine Caron, Canadas first female Indigenous general surgeon.

Our medical schools now have an almost even split between men and women entering the profession; in 2017, two out of five physicians in Canada were women. By 2030, half of practising physicians in Canada will be women.

But despite achieving equality in numbers, female physicians still have yet to achieve equity. The reality is that female physicians continue to be confronted by bias and discrimination, are five times more likely than their male counterparts to face opposition to career advancements and are three times more likely to experience disrespectful or punitive actions within the workplace.

Even in the age of #MeToo, assault and sexism continue to be shared experiences across generations of female physicians.

The impediments facing women in medicine are systemic and cut across career stage, specialty and age. The challenges female physicians face in maintaining their physical and mental health in the face of these impediments can be compounded by the demands associated with balancing work and family obligations. Female physicians who responded to the 2017 Canadian Medical Association national physician health survey reported significantly higher rates of depression, lifetime suicidal ideation and burnout than male respondents.

Female respondents who were dissatisfied with their work-life balance were three times more likely to have experienced burnout than those who were not; if dissatisfied with a career in medicine, they were nine times more likely to have experienced burnout. These challenges can be amplified for female physicians who identify with a second characteristic of inequity, such as being Indigenous, belonging to a racial or religious minority, coming from a background with a low socio-economic status, identifying as LGBTTQ* or having a disability.

The presence of women in medicine has benefited patients. Women in medicine have had positive effects on medical practice and culture, quality of care and health-care organizations. For example, female physicians spend 10 per cent longer with patients, resulting in six per cent fewer visits per patient.

They also place a relative focus on preventive medicine, which allows for earlier detection and treatment of health issues. Emerging data indicate that patients treated by female physicians have lower hospital readmission and mortality rates following hospital stays and surgery. Women may be more likely to survive a heart attack if they are treated by a female physician.

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Despite these facts, women in medicine continue to face disparities, such as a dearth of women in medical leadership roles, including academic clinical centres. It is heartening to see that a growing number of guidelines, policies and programs are addressing some of the disparities faced by female physicians. With transformative changes, we hope that these disparities will become a relic of the past for todays medical learners.

However, system-wide change requires intentional and concerted efforts on a national scale to address workplace and cultural barriers, implement strategies and promote opportunities for women in medicine.

As medical leaders, we must promote a progressive vision of a respectful, collaborative and equitable culture. While we acknowledge the value of discussion, action is needed by both individual physicians and the system in a model of shared responsibility. Change is needed to policies, organizational structures, research and curriculums to achieve a comprehensive level of equity and inclusivity.

We call for a commitment to change from all stakeholders: individual physicians, physician organizations, professional associations, health authorities, academic institutions, accreditation bodies, regulatory authorities, medical journals, researchers and health research funding agencies.

It is time to close the gaps for women in medicine. It is time to speak out against the biases that adversely affect physicians and our patients. We believe it is a shared path forward with women and men working together for positive change. Equity, diversity and inclusion within the medical profession are important to the long-term sustainability of Canadas physician workforce and the delivery of high-quality care.

Gigi Osler is president of the Canadian Medical Association. Kathee Andrews is president of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 8/3/2019 (1006 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are some people who look forward to the snow each winter and enjoy participating in a variety of outdoor activities.

I am not one of those people. In fact, I am quite the opposite and every year look forward to planning my escape.

The warmth of the sun, the colour of blue water and the feeling of sand underfoot are appealing to many. With plenty of fabulous places worldwide to visit, choosing a destination often begins with deciding what type of vacation you are looking for  whether for rest and relaxation or adventure. It is also wise that the areas be considered when selecting your destination and the dates of travel.

All-inclusive packages are popular for couples and families who prefer to have all meals, snacks and beverages included in the cost. Those who prefer cooking their own meals or trying some of the local cuisine may choose, instead, to stay in either a hotel or condo. In addition to cost, consider the location of your resort/hotel and the amenities available when making your decision.

Mexico continues to be a popular place for those seeking a break from the cold. This winter, our destination of choice is Nuevo Vallarta while friends of ours are heading to Puerto Vallarta, Bucerias and Ixtapa. Other area residents choosing not to visit Mexico this year have plans to travel to Jamaica, California and Texas.

A personal friend of mine who has been a travel agent for many years confirmed that the Mayan Riviera in Mexico continues to be the most popular travel destination from Winnipeg during the winter months. Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, comes in a close second.

The hottest trend in travel currently is river cruising in Europe, with the Danube being the most popular river. Since travel restrictions have been eased for U.S. citizens one of the newest trends in ocean cruising includes ports in Cuba.

For anyone who only has a limited amount of time to travel, vacation packages to Mexico and Cuba are available for as short as three nights. However, the selection of departure dates can be limited. For those on a budget, one of the least expensive travel options is Cuba, specifically Varadero or Holguin.

As vacation packages do go on sale, it is a good idea to research prices before booking. Great deals can also be found if you are able to travel last minute.

It is also suggested that anyone planning a vacation should visit the Government of Canada website at www.travel.gc.ca in order to determine if there are any current travel advisories for that area.

Cindy Murdoch is a community correspondent for Transcona. She can be contacted at reflections8@shaw.ca

HERALD When winters are as long and as cold as this one has seemed, the thoughts of many people turn to the idea of a warm-weather vacation.

There are some people who look forward to the snow each winter and enjoy participating in a variety of outdoor activities.

I am not one of those people. In fact, I am quite the opposite and every year look forward to planning my escape.

The warmth of the sun, the colour of blue water and the feeling of sand underfoot are appealing to many. With plenty of fabulous places worldwide to visit, choosing a destination often begins with deciding what type of vacation you are looking for  whether for rest and relaxation or adventure. It is also wise that the climate of the area be considered when selecting your destination and the dates of travel.

All-inclusive packages are popular for couples and families who prefer to have all meals, snacks and beverages included in the cost. Those who prefer cooking their own meals or trying some of the local cuisine may choose, instead, to stay in either a hotel or condo.

In addition to cost, consider the location of your resort/hotel and the amenities available when making your decision. Mexico continues to be a popular place for those seeking a break from the cold. This winter, our destination of choice is Nuevo Vallarta while friends of ours are heading to Puerto Vallarta, Bucerias and Ixtapa. Other area residents choosing not to visit Mexico this year have plans to travel to Jamaica, California and Texas.

Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

A personal friend of mine who has been a travel agent for many years confirmed that the Mayan Riviera in Mexico continues to be the most popular travel destination from Winnipeg during the winter months. Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, comes in a close second.

The hottest trend in travel currently is river cruising in Europe, with the Danube being the most popular river. Since travel restrictions have been eased for U.S. citizens one of the newest trends in ocean cruising includes ports in Cuba.

For anyone who only has a limited amount of time to travel, vacation packages to Mexico and Cuba are available for as short as three nights. However, the selection of departure dates can be limited. For those on a budget, one of the least expensive travel options is Cuba, specifically Varadero or Holguin. As vacation packages do go on sale, it is a good idea to research prices before booking.

Great deals can also be found if you are able to travel last minute.

It is also suggested that anyone planning a vacation should visit the Government of Canada website at www.travel.gc.ca in order to determine if there are any current travel advisories for that area.

Cindy Murdoch is a community correspondent for Transcona. She can be contacted at reflections8@shaw.ca
Description

GIS - 08 March, 2019: The Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth effected a visit, today, at the A.G.Jeetoo Hospital of Port Louis. The objective of the visit was to meet the female medical staff of the hospital on the occasion of the International Womens Day, celebrated every 8th of March. The Minister of Health and Quality of Life, Mr Anwar Husnoo was also present for the visit.

At the very outset, Mr Jugnauth visited the post natal care unit- a ward in the hospital where women and their babies are provided with medical care immediately after the birth of the baby- where he saluted the work done by female personnel and lauded their contribution to the development of the country in the health sector by counseling the new mothers.

Prime Minister Jugnauth continued his visit to the neonatal intensive care unit, also known as an intensive care nursery that specialises in the care of ill or premature newborn infants. He seized the opportunity to pay a visit to the recently born quadruplets who are still at the neonatal care unit of the hospital and their parents. He pointed out that there is an existing scheme that caters for a financial support to these types of parents. The scheme allocates for Rs 2500 per month for a period of two years for three babies but the government, Mr Jugnauth stated, is making an exception in the case of the quadruplets and extending the allocation to the fourth baby as well.

Mr Jugnauth highlighted that the government is giving an initial donation of Rs200 000 so as to support the parents financially. He appealed to companies and enterprises to provide a financial support to the parents as well.

Speaking of the governments objective to help the future generation grow in best environment possible,he recalled the help and support that is being provided to the Siamese babies that are actually under treatment in India along with their parents by the Government.

On this International Womens Day, the Prime Minister encouraged women to take the upper hand on their future and urged them to continue their progress so as to break the taboo that women are not made for occupying high management level posts.
Description

GIS - 08 March, 2019: A travelling exhibition, The Periodic Table of Chemical Elements- Unveiled, was launched yesterday at the Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre (RGSC), Bell Village in the context of the "International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements" (IYPT 2019). Proclaimed by the United Nations, the IYPT 2019 also marks the 150th anniversary since, the Russian chemist and inventor, Mr Dmitri Mendeleev, discovered the Periodic Table System. A travelling exhibition, The Periodic Table of Chemical Elements- Unveiled, was launched yesterday at the Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre (RGSC), Bell Village in the context of the "International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements" (IYPT 2019).Proclaimed by the United Nations, the IYPT 2019 also marks the 150th anniversary since, the Russian chemist and inventor, Mr Dmitri Mendeleev, discovered the Periodic Table System.

The exhibition, an initiative of the RGSC, aims at showcasing firstly, the history of the discovery of the periodic table and the scientists who contributed to the importance of the elements in society, and secondly, a series of hands-on exhibits to engage the audience in discovery and challenge based learning. It will be touring secondary schools during the 1st and 2nd semester of academic year 2019 and 2020 and is targeting all classes, in particular, science students.

In a statement, the Chairperson of the Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre Trust Fund, Dr Jayantee Naugah stated that the RGSC will be conducting science shows, lectures and film shows in the secondary schools to arouse students interest in science subjects and encourage them to opt for science subjects at higher level. The activities also aim to bridge the gap between science, chemistry and society; raise national awareness on the importance of chemical elements, chemistry and sustainable development issues related to the use of science and technology; and engage students to engage in contextual learning of chemistry by participating in chemistry based activities at school level, she added.

IYPT 2019

The IYPT 2019 is a worldwide initiative to highlight the importance of the Periodic Table in science, technology, and sustainable development of humankind. The Periodic Table of Chemical Elements is a unique tool, enabling scientists to predict the appearance and properties of matter on the Earth and in the rest of the Universe.

In this context, the RGSC is organising a series of activities during the year to celebrate the IYPT 2019, namely, seminar/discussion forums; workshops; science week and sky observation programmes, amongst others.
UBS ETRACS Monthly Pay 2xLeveraged Wells Fargo MLP Ex-Energy ETN's stock was trading at $8.31 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, LMLP shares have decreased by 64.0% and is now trading at $2.9950.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.
WABCO Holdings Inc., together with its subsidiaries, supplies electronic, mechanical, electro-mechanical, and aerodynamic products worldwide. The company engineers, develops, manufactures, and sells braking, stability, suspension, steering, transmission automation, and air management systems primarily for commercial vehicles. The company's products include pneumatic anti-lock braking systems, electronic braking systems, electronic stability control systems, brake controls, automated manual transmission systems, and air disc brakes; and various conventional mechanical products, such as actuators, air compressors, and air control valves for medium and heavy-duty trucks, buses, and trailers. It also offers pneumatic and hydraulic braking and control systems for off-highway vehicles; conventional braking systems; electronic and conventional air suspension systems; steering technologies; and vehicle electronic stability control and roll stability support products, and advanced driver assistance systems. In addition, the company supplies electronic suspension controls and vacuum pumps to the passenger car and SUV markets, as well as provides remanufacturing services. Further, it offers replacement parts, fleet management solutions, diagnostic tools, training, and other expert services for commercial vehicle aftermarket distributors and service partners, and fleet operators. The company sells its products primarily to truck and bus original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), trailer OEMs, and car manufacturers; and manufacturers of heavy duty and off-highway vehicles in agriculture, construction, mining, and other industries. WABCO Holdings Inc. was founded in 1869 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Accenture: (Accenture Endustriyel Yazlm Cozumleri Limited Sirketi), 2nd Road, ?What If!, ?What If! China Holdings Limited, ?What If! Holdings Limited, ?What If! Limited, ACN Consulting Co Ltd, AD.Dialeto (Digital Agency acquired by Accenture), AGS Business and Technology Services Limited, AIG Shared Services Business Processing Inc, ASM Research Inc., ASM Research LLC, ATAN, Accenture (Botswana) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (China) Co. Ltd., Accenture (Shenzhen) Technology Co. Ltd., Accenture (South Africa) Pty Ltd, Accenture (UK) Limited, Accenture 2 Business Process Services S.A., Accenture 2 LLC, Accenture A/S, Accenture AB, Accenture AG, Accenture AS, Accenture Africa Pty Ltd, Accenture Agencia Interativa Ltda, Accenture Australia Holding B.V., Accenture Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture B.V., Accenture BPM Operations Support Services S.A., Accenture BPM S.C.R.L., Accenture BPS Services S.p. z o.o., Accenture Branch Holdings B.V., Accenture Bulgaria EOOD, Accenture Business Services for Utilities Inc, Accenture Business Services of British Columbia Limited Partnership, Accenture Business and Technology Services LLC, Accenture C.A., Accenture Canada Holdings Inc, Accenture Capital Designated Activity Company, Accenture Capital Inc, Accenture Central Europe B.V., Accenture Chile Asesorias y Servicios Ltda, Accenture Cloud Services GmbH, Accenture Cloud Software Solutions Limited, Accenture Cloud Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions LLC, Accenture Cloud Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd, Accenture Co. Ltd, Accenture Communications Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, Accenture Company Ltd, Accenture Consulting Pty Ltd, Accenture Consulting Services Ltd Tanzania, Accenture Consultores de Gestao S.A., Accenture Consultoria de Industria e Consumo Ltda, Accenture Consultoria de Recursos Naturais Ltda, Accenture Credit Services LLC, Accenture Customer Services Distribution SASU, Accenture Customer Services Ltd, Accenture Danismanlik Limited Sirketi, Accenture Defined Benefit Pension Plan Trustees Limited, Accenture Defined Contribution Pension Plan Trustees Limited, Accenture Delivery Poland S.p. z o.o., Accenture Dienstleistungen GmbH, Accenture Digital Holdings GmbH, Accenture East Africa Limited, Accenture Ecuador S.A., Accenture Egypt LLC, Accenture Enterprise Development (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Accenture Federal Services LLC, Accenture Finance II Limited, Accenture Finance Limited, Accenture Finance and Accounting BPO Services S.p.A., Accenture Finance and Accounting Services S.r.l., Accenture Financial Advanced Solution & Technology S.r.l., Accenture Flex LLC, Accenture GP LLC, Accenture Global Capital Designated Activity Company, Accenture Global Engagements Limited, Accenture Global Holdings Limited, Accenture Global Services Limited, Accenture Global Solutions Limited, Accenture GmbH, Accenture HR Services S.p.A., Accenture Healthcare Processing Inc, Accenture Holding Brasil Ltda, Accenture Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Accenture Holdings (Iberia) S.L., Accenture Holdings B.V., Accenture Holdings France SASU, Accenture Hungary Holdings Kft, Accenture Inc, Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions Kft, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions SA, Accenture Insurance Services B.V., Accenture Insurance Services LLC, Accenture International B.V., Accenture International LLC, Accenture International Limited, Accenture Japan Ltd, Accenture Korea B.V., Accenture LLC, Accenture LLP, Accenture Lanka (Private) Ltd, Accenture Limited, Accenture Lithuania UAB, Accenture Ltd, Accenture Ltda, Accenture Maghreb S.a.r.l., Accenture Managed Services SRL, Accenture Management GmbH, Accenture Marketing Services LLC, Accenture Marketing Services Limited, Accenture Middle East B.V., Accenture Minority I B.V., Accenture Mozambique Limitada, Accenture Mzansi Pty Ltd, Accenture NV/SA, Accenture NZ Limited, Accenture Nova Scotia Unlimited Liability Co., Accenture OOO, Accenture Operations GmbH, Accenture Operations S.p. z o.o., Accenture Operations Services Private Limited, Accenture Operations Services Sdn Bhd, Accenture Outsourcing S.r.l., Accenture Outsourcing Services S.A., Accenture Oy, Accenture Panama Inc, Accenture Participations B.V., Accenture Participations II Limited, Accenture Peru SRL, Accenture Post Trade Processing SASU, Accenture Post-Trade Processing Limited, Accenture Process (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Pte Ltd, Accenture Puerto Rico LLC, Accenture Qiyun Technology (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd, Accenture S.C., Accenture S.L., Accenture S.R.L., Accenture S.p. z o.o., Accenture S.p.A., Accenture SASU, Accenture SG Services Pte Ltd, Accenture SRL, Accenture Saudi Arabia Limited, Accenture Sdn Bhd, Accenture Service Center SRL, Accenture Services (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Services AB, Accenture Services AG, Accenture Services AS, Accenture Services GmbH, Accenture Services Morocco SA, Accenture Services Oy, Accenture Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Services S.p. z o.o., Accenture Services SRL, Accenture Services and Technology S.r.l., Accenture Services s.r.o., Accenture Single Member S.A. Organization Information Technology & Business Development, Accenture Solutions Co. Ltd, Accenture Solutions Private Limited, Accenture Solutions Pte Ltd, Accenture Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Solutions S.p. z o.o, Accenture Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture State Healthcare Services LLC, Accenture Sub II Inc, Accenture Sub III Inc, Accenture Sub LLC, Accenture Systems Integration Limited, Accenture Sarl, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Accenture Technology Solutions (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (HK) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas S.A., Accenture Technology Solutions GmbH, Accenture Technology Solutions Oy, Accenture Technology Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions S.A. de C.V., Accenture Technology Solutions S.r.l., Accenture Technology Solutions SASU, Accenture Technology Solutions SRL, Accenture Technology Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture Technology Solutions Slovakia s.r.o., Accenture Technology Ventures B.V., Accenture Technology Ventures SPRL, Accenture Tecnologia Consultoria y Outsourcing S.A., Accenture Uruguay SRL, Accenture Vietnam Co. Limited, Accenture Zambia Limited, Accenture do Brasil Ltda, Accenture plc, Accenture s.r.o., Acceria, Acquity Group, Adaptly LLC, Adaptly UK Limited, AddVal Technology, Adqptly, Advantium Inc., Advoco, Agilex Technologies Inc., Allen International, AlphaBeta Advisors, Altevie Technologies S.r.l., Altima, Altima (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Altima Asia Ltd, Altitude, Altitude LLC, Altius Consulting Limited, Altius Data Solutions Private Limited, Analytics 8 LP, Analytics 8 Pty Ltd, Analytics8, Aorui Advertising (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Apis, Apis Group Pty Ltd, Appaloosa Technology SASU, AppsPro, Arca, Arca Ingenieros y Consultoria S.L., Arca Telecom S.L., Ariba - BPO, Arismore, Artio People (Payroll) Pty Ltd, Artio People Pty Ltd, Aspiro Solutions (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Automation Partners Pty Ltd, Avanade (Guangzhou) Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd., Avanade Asia Pte Ltd, Avanade Australia Pty Ltd, Avanade Belgium SPRL, Avanade Canada Inc, Avanade Consulting Poland S.p. z o.o., Avanade Denmark A/S, Avanade Deutschland GmbH, Avanade Europe Holdings Limited, Avanade Europe Services Limited, Avanade Finland Oy, Avanade France SASU, Avanade Holdings LLC, Avanade Hong Kong Ltd, Avanade Inc, Avanade International Corporation, Avanade Ireland Limited, Avanade Italy S.r.l., Avanade Japan KK, Avanade Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avanade Middle East Limited, Avanade Netherlands B.V., Avanade Norway AS, Avanade Poland S.p. z o.o., Avanade Schweiz GmbH, Avanade South Africa Pty Ltd, Avanade Spain S.L., Avanade Sweden AB, Avanade UK Limited, Avanade do Brasil Ltda, Avanade Osterreich GmbH, Avenai, Axia Ltd., BABCN LLC, BCS Consulting, BCT Solutions, BCT Solutions Pty Ltd, BENEXT, BPO Servicos Administrativos Ltda, BRIDGE Energy Group, Beacon Consulting Group Inc., Beijing Genesis Interactive Technology Co. Ltd., Beijing Zhidao Future Consulting Co. Ltd, Benext, Berico Technologies LLC, Bionic, Bionic Solution LLC, Blue Horseshoe, Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications, Bow & Arrow, Bow & Arrow Limited, Brand Learning, Brand Learning Group Limited, Brightstep AB, Byte Prophecy, Byte Prophecy Private Limited, CAS, CRMWaypoint, CS Technology (Australia) Pty Ltd, CS Technology (UK) Limited, CS Technology Group LLC, CS Technology LLC, CadenceQuest Inc., Callisto Integration Europe B.V., Callisto Integration Europe Limited, Callisto Integration LLC, Callisto Integration Ltd, Capgemini - North American health practice, Capital Consultancy Services Inc, Certus Solutions Consulting Services Limited, Certus Solutions Ltd, ChangeTrack Research Pty Ltd., Chaotic Moon Studios, Chengdu Mensa Advertising Co. Ltd., Cimation, Cirrus Connect Australia Pty Ltd, Cirrus Connect Limited, Cirruseo, Clarity Insights, Clearhead, Clearhead Group LLC, ClientHouse GmbH, Cloud Sherpas, Cloud Sherpas (GA) LLC, Cloud Sherpas Japan G.K., Cloud Sherpas New Zealand Limited, Cloudeasier SAS, Cloudpoint Limited, Cloudsherpas Inc, Cloudworks, Cloudworks Consulting Services Inc, Cloudworks Technology LLC, Computer Research and Telecommunications LLC, Concrete Desenvolvimento de Sistemas Ltda, Concrete Solutions, Concrete Solutions Ltda, Context Information Security, Context Information Security LLC, Context Information Security Limited, CoreCompete LLC, CoreCompete Limited, CoreCompete Private Limited, Corliant Inc., Creative Drive LLC, Creative Drive US LLC, CreativeDrive, CreativeDrive Digital Content Services (Shenzhen) Co Ltd., CreativeDrive EMEA Limited, CreativeDrive Singapore Pte Ltd, CreativeDrive UK Group Limited, Cutting Edge Solutions Limited, Cygni AB, Cygni Norrsken AB, Cygni Stockholm AB, Cygni Syd AB, Cygni Vast AB, Cygni Ost AB, Cygni Ostersund AB, DAZ Systems Inc, DAZ Systems LLC, DAZSI Systems (India) Pvt. Limited, DI Futures Corporation, Data Essential SARL, Davies Consulting, DayNine Consulting, DayNine Consulting (New Zealand) Limited, DayNine Consulting LLC, Declarative Holdings LLC, Decora Marketplace LLC, Decorado Marketplace Ltda-EPP, Defense Point Security, Deja vu Security, Design Strategy and Research de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Designaffairs LLC, Digiplug S.A.S., Digital Results Group LLC, Double Digit Limitada, Double Digit Pty SA, Droga5, Droga5 LLC, Droga5 Studios LLC, Droga5 UK Limited, Duck Creek Technologies, ESR Labs, ESR Labs AG, EdenOne Solutions Limited, Edenhouse ERP Holdings Limited, Edenhouse Solutions Limited, Enaxis Consulting, Enaxis Consulting LP, End to End Analytics LLC, End-to-End Analytics, Endorphin Medici (M) Sdn Bhd, Energuia Web S.A., Energy Management Brokers Limited, EnergyQuote JHA, Enimbos, Enimbos Global Services S.L., Enkitec, Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions LLC, Enterprise System Partners, Enterprise System Partners B.V., Enterprise System Partners Bilisim Danismanlik Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Enterprise System Partners Global Corporation, Enterprise System Partners Limited, Enthusian Pty Ltd, Entropia, Entropia (M) Sdn Bhd, Entropia Holdings Pte Ltd, Entropia Intercraft Sdn Bhd, Epylon, Espedia S.r.l., Ethica Consulting Group, Ethica Consulting S.p.A., Evopro Group, Exactside Limited, Experity, Exton Consulting, Exton Consulting Spain Strategy&Management S.L., Exton Germany GmbH, Exton International SAS, Exton Italia S.r.l., Exton SAS, FGM LLC, Fairway Technologies Inc, Farah BidCo Limited, Farah MidCo Limited, Farah Topco Limited, Filmproduction ApS, First Annapolis Consulting Inc., First Annapolis Consulting LLC, Fjord, Focus Group Europe, Formicary, Fruendo S.r.l., FusionX, Future State Consulting LLC, FutureMove (Beijing) Automotive Technology Co. Ltd., FutureMove Automotive, FutureMove Automotive Co. Ltd., GRA Supply Chain Pty Ltd, Gagel Group S de R.L. de C.V., Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda, Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda., Genfour, George Group Consulting L.P., Gestalt LLC, Gevity, Gren utvikling AS, H.B. Maynard and Co. Inc., HRC Retail Advisory, Hagberg Consulting Group, Hahntel Ltda, Halo Partners LLC, Hamilton Holding Company S.A, Hangzhou Aiyunzhe Technology Co. Ltd., Happen, Happen GP Limited, Happen Limited, Hjaltelin Stahl, Hjaltelin Stahl A/S, Hjaltelin Stahl K/S, Hytracc Consulting AS, Hytracc Consulting Malaysia Sdn Bhd, IBB Consulting, ICM.S S.r.l., IMJ Corp, IMJ Corporation, INSITUM, IQSP Consulting LLC, IT One Company Limited, ITBS Servicios Bancarios de Tecnologia de la Informacion SL, Icon Integration, Icon Integration (NZ) Limited, Icon Integration Pty Ltd, Imagine Broadband (USA) Limited, Imagine Broadband USA LLC, Imaginea Inc, Imaginea Technologies LLC, Industrie IT (Hong Kong) Ltd, Industrie IT (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Industrie IT Group Pty Ltd, Industrie IT Pty Ltd, Industrie&Co, Infinity Works Consulting Limited, Infinity Works Holdings Limited, Infinity Works Management Limited, Infinity Works Midco Limited, Informatica de Euskadi S.L., Innotec International EAD, Innotec International S.p. z.o.o., Innotec Marketing GmbH, Innotec Marketing International Ireland Limited, Innotec- Marketing Spain S.L, Insitum Consultoria Argentina SRL, Insitum Consultoria S.A. de C.V., International Biometric Group LLC, International Biometric Group UK Limited, Intrepid, Intrepid Futureworks Sdn Bhd, Intrigo Systems Inc, Intrigo Systems India Pvt. Limited, Intrigo Systems LLC, Inventor Technology Ltd, InvestTech, Investtech Systems Consulting LLC, ItSafer Continuity Services S.L., JKD Consulting LLC, Javelin Group, K Comms Group Limited, KSC Studio LLC, Kaper Communications Limited, Karma Communications Debtco Limited, Karma Communications Group Limited, Karma Communications Holdings Limited, Karmarama, Karmarama Comms Limited, Karmarama Limited, Knowledge Rules Inc., Knowledgent, Knowledgent Group LLC, Kogentix, Kogentix LLC, Kogentix Limited, Kogentix Singapore Pte Ltd, Kogentix Technologies Private Limited, Kolle Rebbe, Kolle Rebbe GmbH, Kream Comms Limited, Kunstmaan, Kurt Salmon, Kurt Salmon Canada LTD, Kurt Salmon US LLC, LEXTA, LINKBYNET, LINKBYNET Indian Ocean (L.I.O) Ltd, LabAnswer, Lexta GmbH, Lexta UK Limited, Lien par le reseau Inc, Lien par le reseau infrastructures Inc, Lin Bo (Shanghai) Network Technology Co. Ltd., Link By Net SAS, Link By Net SRL, Link By Net Vietnam Company Limited, Linkbynet East Asia Ltd, Linkbynet Singapore Pte Ltd., Loud & Clear Creative Pty Ltd, Lumenup S.A., MAXIM Systems Inc., MCG US Holdings LLC, Mackevision CG Technology and Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Mackevision Japan Co. Ltd., Mackevision Korea Ltd, Mackevision Medien Design, Mackevision Medien Design GmbH, Mackevision Singapore Pte Ltd, Mackevision UK Limited, Maglan, Maglan Information Defense Technologies Research Ltd, Maihiro, Matter, Maud Corp Pty Ltd, Maxamine International, Measuretek LLC, Media Audits Ltd., Media Hive, Mediasenz Pty Ltd., Meredith Specialty LLC, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing LLC, Meridian Informed Purchasing Ltd., Mindtribe, Mistral Wind Operations  Servicos Empresariais Unipessoal Lda., MobGen, Mortgage Cadence LLC, Mortgage Cadence an Accenture Company, Most Champion Ltd, Mudano, Mudano Limited, Myrtle Consulting Group LLC, N3 (Dalian) Business Consulting Co. Ltd., N3 Brazil Consultoria em Marketing Ltda, N3 Germany GmbH, N3 LLC, N3 North America LLC, N3 Results Australia Pty Ltd, N3 Results Ireland Limited, N3 Results Japan G.K., N3 Results Limited, N3 Results Malaysia Sdn Bhd, N3 Results Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., N3 Results S.A.S., N3 Results Singapore Pte Ltd, N3 Results Unipessoal Lda, NYTEC, Nanjing Demeng Advertising Co. Ltd., Nashco Consulting, NaviSys Inc., Nell'Armonia Israel Ltd, Nell'Armonia SAS, Nell'Participation SAS, NellArmonia, Neo Metrics Analytics S.L., Neo Metrics Chile S.A., New Content, New Content Editora e Produtora Ltda, New Energy Group, News Imaging LLC, NewsPage, NewsPage (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, NewsPage Pte Ltd, Northstream, Novetta Holdings LLC, Novetta LLC, Novetta Solutions LLC, Novetta Topco LLC, OCTO Technology, OPS Rules Management Consultants, Octagon Research Solutions Inc., Octo Technology Pty Ltd, Octo Technology SA, Odgaard ApS, Olikka, Olikka Pty Ltd, Openmind, Openmind S.r..l., Openminded, Openminded SAS, Operaciones Accenture S.A. de C.V., OpusLine, Orbium, Orbium AG, Orbium Consulting Limited, Orbium Inc., Orbium Ltd, Orbium Pte Ltd, Orbium Pty Ltd, Origin Digital, PCO Innovation, PLM Systems S.r.l, PRION GmbH, PT Accenture, PT Asta Catur Indra, PT Kogentix Teknologi Indonesia, PacificLink Group, Paja Finanssipalvelut Oy, Parker Fitzgerald Inc, Parker Fitzgerald International Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Limited, Parker Fitzgerald PTY Ltd, Parker Fitzgerald Services Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Solutions Limited, Pecaso Ltd., Pegasus Production A/S, Pegasus Production K/S, Phase One Consulting Group, Pillar Technology, Pollux, Pollux Automation Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pollux Canada Inc, Pollux S.A.S., Pollux USA LLC, Pragsis Bidoop, Pragsis Bidoop UK Limited, Pramati Technologies Europe Limited, Pramati Technologies Private Limited, Presence of IT Workforce Management North America LLC, PrimeQ, PrimeQ Australia Pty Ltd, PrimeQ Ltd, PrimeQ NZ Pty Limited, Procurian Inc., Prof. Homburg GmbH, Proquire LLC, PureApps Ltd., Qi Jie Beijing Information Technologies Co. Ltd., RBCP Fund 1-A Vapor Blocker LLC, RBCP Platform Vapor Blocker I LLC, REPL Consulting LLC, REPL Consulting Limited, REPL Digital Limited, REPL Group K.K., REPL Group Pty Ltd, REPL Group Worldwide Limited, REPL Pte Ltd, REPL Software Limited, REPL Technology Limited, Radiant Services LLC, Random Walk Computing Inc., Reactive Media Pty Ltd., Real Protect, Realworld OO Systems Ltd., Redcore, Redcore (New Zealand) Limited, Redcore Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Redcore Pty Ltd, Revolutionary Security, RiskControl, Root LLC, Rothco, Rothco Limited, S3 TV Technology Ltd., SALT Solutions GmbH, SEC Servizi, SOPIA Corp., Sagacious Consultants, Salt Solutions, Sandbox Studio LLC, Sapling Bidco Limited, Sapling Midco Limited, Sapling Topco Limited, Schlumberger Business Consulting, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace (UK) Limited, Seabury Consulting, Seabury Corporate Advisors LLC, Seabury Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Search Technologies BPO Inc, Search Technologies International LLC, Search Technologies LLC, Search Technologies Limited, Securiview SAS, Sentelis, Sentor Managed Secuirty Services AB, Servicios Tecnicos de Programacion Accenture S.C., Seven Seas Business Ventures LLC, Shackleton, Shackleton Chile S.A., Shackleton S.L.U., Shanghai Baiyue Advertising Co. Ltd., Shun Zhe Technology Development Co. Ltd., SigInt Technologies LLC, Silveo, Silveo Consulting India Private Limited, Simian Pty Ltd, SinnerSchrader, SinnerSchrader AG, SinnerSchrader Content GmbH, SinnerSchrader Deutschland GmbH, Sirvart S.A., Sistemes Consulting S.L., Skylink SAS, Soltians Limited, Solutions IQ LLC, SolutionsIQ, SolutionsIQ India Consulting Services Private Limited, Somers Ventures Ireland Limited, Somers Ventures LLC, Spacelink SAS, Storm Digital, Structure Consulting Group LLC, Sutter Mills, Synership LLC, Systor AG, TXF LLC, TargetST8, Tech - Avanade Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Tecnilogica Ecosistemas S.A., Tecnilogica, The Brand Learning Partners Limited, The Callisto Integration Corporation, The Monkeys, The Monkeys Pty Ltd, The Myrtle Group, Total Logistics, Tquila, Trivadis, Trivadis Austria GmbH, Trivadis Denmark AS, Trivadis Germany GmbH, Trivadis Holding AG, Trivadis Partner AG, Trivadis Services AG, Trivadis Services SRL, Troop Studios Pty Ltd, VanBerlo, Vector Acquisition Company LLC, Vector Topco LLC, Verax Solutions, Vertical Retail Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd, Vertical Retail Consulting Ltd, Vivere Brasil Servicos e Solucoes SA, Vivere Brasil Solucoes De Credito Ltda., Wabion GmbH, WaveStrike LLC, White Cliffs Consulting LLC, Wire Stone, Wire Stone LLC, Wise Partners SAS, Wolox, Wolox Colombia S.A.S, Wolox LLC, Wolox Mexico S.R.L de C.V., Wolox S.A., Wolox SpA, Workforce Insight, Workforce Insight LLC, Yesler, Yesler LLC, Yesler Limited, Yesler Singapore Pte Ltd, Zag, Zag Australia Pty Ltd, Zag Limited, Zag USA LLC, Zebra Worldwide Australia Pty Ltd, Zebra Worldwide Group Limited, Zebra Worldwide Media Pty Ltd, Zenta, Zenta Global Philippines Inc, Zenta Mortgage Services LLC, Zenta Recoveries Inc, Zenta US Holdings Inc, Zielpuls, Zielpuls (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zielpuls GmbH, avVenta, designaffairs, designaffairs Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., designaffairs GmbH, designaffairs group China Co. Ltd., dgroup, i4C Analytics, iDefense, solid-serVision.com GmbH, and umlaut.
Solving Two Problems?

Security Threats

Accessible Voting

(TNS)  The city of Denver will allow thousands of voters to cast their ballots with a smartphone application this year.The pilot program is one of the first U.S. deployments of a phone-based voting system for public elections  but it will only be available to military members and voters living in other countries. The city has invited all of its international voters  about 4,000 people  to use the app in the May 2019 election.The idea of digital voting has been met with skepticism from some elections security experts, but Denver officials say it could make life easier for a limited set of voters.This pilot enables us to offer that convenience for our military and overseas citizens who have the most difficult time voting and participating in the democratic process here at home, said Deputy Elections Director Jocelyn Bucaro.The system could solve two problems for Denver Elections.First, it replaces older technology thats already in use. Under federal law, governments must provide a digital voting option to overseas voters. Denver has for several years offered a website that voters can use to mark ballots. It produces a PDF that is sent through a web service or over email.It generally gets sent via email, which is not the most secure method, Bucaro said. Elections technology expert Maurice Turner agreed, saying that email and other earlier technologies are very scary words to security professionals.Digital voting also could help the city meet tight deadlines. Denvers elections usually involve a second round of voting  the runoff election  about a month after Election Day. Thats not much time to count votes, print ballots and mail them abroad.West Virginia voters used the app in a similar pilot test for the 2018 elections, with about 144 voters participating The idea was met with some enthusiasm, but it still faced concerns about security. Its widely accepted that voting on paper is more secure than digital voting, since paper records are easier to audit and harder to change. Denvers main voting systems rely on paper ballots.Denvers pilot will use Voatz, the same Boston-based company as the West Virginia test. Voatz uses phones biometric features, such as face identification and fingerprints. Users have to upload a 10-second video of themselves and a picture of their photo ID to register.After theyre submitted, votes are stored with blockchain technology, according to Voatz. In other words, theyre distributed across multiple servers in a way that is supposedly unchangeable. Its the same idea behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency.But blockchain also comes with another threat: If attackers ever break the encryption on Voatzs voting files, they could reveal how people voted, according to Maurice Turner, senior technologist for the Center for Democracy & Technology. It could take years or decades, but sooner or later it will happen, he said.In America, we strongly value the secrecy of the ballot, and thats something that cannot be guaranteed with the current technology, Turner said.Voatz says it has taken steps to minimize the risk. The company keeps its blockchain ledgers on private servers rather than distributing them publicly, as cryptocurrencies do, Turner said. In other words, attackers may not have a copy of the encrypted files to hack.Amber McReynolds, Denvers former elections director, said that no technology is completely secure. But mobile voting could be worthwhile as a limited option for some voters, according to McReynolds, who helped launch the Voatz pilot in Denver.The reality is, not every voter can vote on a paper ballot without assistance, said McReynolds, now the executive director of the National Vote at Home Institute. Blind people, for example, may need help filling out a paper ballot. Given that reality, we have to continue to look for ways to provide voters that need it with options that are secure.The Voatz pilot is free to the city. Its funded by Tusk Philanthropies, with help from the National Cybersecurity Center.If the pilot is successful, were hoping other cities in Colorado that fall under home-rule might consider using it in some of their local elections, Bucaro said.Turner, the technology expert, said its worthwhile for cities to experiment with Voatz and other applications.At least for the (overseas and military) voters, their options werent particularly secure to begin with, he said. The outcomes of experiments like this will help officials respond to the inevitable demands for digital voting, he said.So far, about 80 people have signed up for the pilot.
The following companies are subsidiares of Procter & Gamble: "Procter & Gamble Services" LLC, "Procter & Gamble" LLC, Agile Pursuits, Agile Pursuits Franchising, Arbora, Arbora & Ausonia, Arborinvest, Billie, Braun (Shanghai) Co., Braun GmbH, Braun-Gillette Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, Celtic Insurance Company, Compania Procter & Gamble Mexico, Compania Quimica S.A., Corporativo Procter & Gamble, Cosmetic Products Pty. Ltd., Detergent Products B.V., Detergent Products SARL, Detergenti S.A., Eurocos Cosmetic GmbH, FPG Oleochemicals Sdn. Bhd., Fameccanica Data S.p.A., Fameccanica Industria e Comercio Do Brasil LTDA., Fameccanica Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Fater S.p.A., Fountain Square Music Publishing Co., Gillette (China) Ltd., Gillette (Shanghai) Ltd., Gillette Aesop Ltd., Gillette Australia Pty. Ltd., Gillette Canada Holdings, Gillette Commercial Operations North America, Gillette Diversified Operations Pvt. Ltd., Gillette Egypt S.A.E., Gillette Group UK Ltd, Gillette Gruppe Deutschland GmbH & Co. oHG, Gillette Holding Company LLC, Gillette Holding GmbH, Gillette India Limited, Gillette Industries Ltd., Gillette International B.V., Gillette Latin America Holding B.V., Gillette Management LLC, Gillette Nova Scotia Company, Gillette Pakistan Limited, Gillette Poland International Sp. z.o.o., Gillette Poland S.A., Gillette U.K. Limited, Gillette del Uruguay, Giorgio Beverly Hills Inc., Hyginett KFT, Industries Marocaines Modernes SA, LLC "Procter & Gamble Novomoskovsk", LLL "Procter & Gamble Distributorskaya Compania", Laboratorios Vicks, Liberty Street Music Publishing Company, Limited Liability Company 'Procter & Gamble Trading Ukraine', Limited Liability Company with foreign investments Procter & and Gamble Ukraine, MDVIP, MERCK KGAA NPV, Marcvenca Inversiones, Modern Industries Company - Dammam, Modern Products Company - Jeddah, New Chapter, New Chapter Canada Inc., Olay LLC, Oral-B Laboratories, P&G Distribution Morocco SAS, P&G Hair Care Holding, P&G Industrial Peru S.R.L., P&G Innovation Godo Kaisha, P&G Israel M.D.O. Ltd., P&G K.K., P&G Northeast Asia Pte. Ltd., P&G Prestige Godo Kaisha, P&G Prestige Service GmbH, P&G South African Trading (Pty.) Ltd., PGT Health Care (Zhejiang) Limited, PGT Healthcare LLP, PPI ZAO, PT Procter & Gamble Home Products Indonesia, PT Procter & Gamble Operations Indonesia, Phase II Holdings Corporation, Procter & Gamble (Chengdu) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Sales Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (East Africa) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Egypt) Manufacturing Company, Procter & Gamble (Enterprise Fund) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Consumer Products Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Enterprise Management Service Company Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Health & Beauty Care) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Jiangsu) Ltd. China, Procter & Gamble (L&CP) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Procter & Gamble (Manufacturing) Ireland Limited, Procter & Gamble (Shanghai) International Trade Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Acquisition GmbH, Procter & Gamble Administration GmbH, Procter & Gamble Algeria EURL, Procter & Gamble Amazon Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Amiens S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Argentina SRL, Procter & Gamble Asia Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Australia Proprietary Limited, Procter & Gamble Azerbaijan Services LLC, Procter & Gamble Bangladesh Private Ltd., Procter & Gamble Blois S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Brazil Holdings B.V., Procter & Gamble Bulgaria EOOD, Procter & Gamble Business Services Canada Company, Procter & Gamble Canada Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Chile , Procter & Gamble Chile Limitada, Procter & Gamble Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Commercial LLC, Procter & Gamble Commercial de Cuba S.A., Procter & Gamble Czech Republic s.r.o., Procter & Gamble DS Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Danmark ApS, Procter & Gamble Detergent (Beijing) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Deuttschland GmbH, Procter & Gamble Distributing (Philippines) Inc., Procter & Gamble Distributing New Zealand Limited, Procter & Gamble Distribution Company (Europe) BVBA, Procter & Gamble Distribution S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Eastern Europe, Procter & Gamble Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Procter & Gamble Egypt, Procter & Gamble Egypt Distribution, Procter & Gamble Egypt Holding, Procter & Gamble Egypt Supplies, Procter & Gamble Energy Company LLC, Procter & Gamble Espana, Procter & Gamble Europe SA, Procter & Gamble Export Operations SARL, Procter & Gamble Exportadora e Importadora Ltda., Procter & Gamble Exports, Procter & Gamble Fabricacao e Comercio Ltda., Procter & Gamble Far East, Procter & Gamble Finance (U.K.) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Holding Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Management S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Financial Investments LLP, Procter & Gamble Financial Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Financial Services S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Finland OY, Procter & Gamble France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH, Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH & Co. Operations oHG, Procter & Gamble GmbH, Procter & Gamble Grundstucks-und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, Procter & Gamble Gulf FZE, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Procter & Gamble Hellas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Holding (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Holding France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Holding GmbH, Procter & Gamble Holding S.r.l., Procter & Gamble Holdings (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Home Products Private Limited, Procter & Gamble Hong Kong Limited, Procter & Gamble Hungary Wholesale Trading Partnership (KKT), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care Limited, Procter & Gamble Inc., Procter & Gamble India Holdings, Procter & Gamble Indochina Limited Company, Procter & Gamble Industrial - 2012 C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Industrial S.C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Costa Rica, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Guatemala, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Panama, Procter & Gamble International Operations Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble International Operations SA, Procter & Gamble International Operations SA-ROHQ, Procter & Gamble International S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Investment Company (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Investment GmbH, Procter & Gamble Italia, Procter & Gamble Japan K.K., Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan Distribution LLP, Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan LLP, Procter & Gamble Korea, Procter & Gamble Korea S&D Co., Procter & Gamble Lanka Private Ltd. Sri Lanka, Procter & Gamble Leasing LLC, Procter & Gamble Levant S.A.L., Procter & Gamble Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Berlin GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Marketing Romania SRL, Procter & Gamble Marketing and Services doo, Procter & Gamble Maroc SA, Procter & Gamble Mataro, Procter & Gamble Mexico Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Mexico Inc., Procter & Gamble Middle East FZE, Procter & Gamble Nederland B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Investments B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Services B.V., Procter & Gamble Nigeria Limited, Procter & Gamble Nordic, Procter & Gamble Norge AS, Procter & Gamble Operations Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Overseas India B.V., Procter & Gamble Overseas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Pakistan (Private) Limited, Procter & Gamble Partnership LLP, Procter & Gamble Peru S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals France SAS, Procter & Gamble Philippines, Procter & Gamble Polska Sp. z o.o, Procter & Gamble Portugal - Produtos De Consumo, Procter & Gamble Product Supply (U.K.) Limited U.K., Procter & Gamble Production GmbH, Procter & Gamble Productions, Procter & Gamble Productos de Consumo, Procter & Gamble RHD, Procter & Gamble RSC Regional Service Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Retail Services BVBA, Procter & Gamble S.r.l., Procter & Gamble SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Satis ve Dagitim Ltd. Sti., Procter & Gamble Seine S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Service GmbH, Procter & Gamble Services (Switzerland) SA, Procter & Gamble Services Company N.V., Procter & Gamble Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Share Incentive Plan Trustee Ltd., Procter & Gamble South America Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Spol. s.r.o. (Ltd.), Procter & Gamble Sports and Social Club Ltd., Procter & Gamble Sverige AB, Procter & Gamble Switzerland SARL, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Limited, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Sales Company Limited, Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Limited, Procter & Gamble Technology (Beijing) Co., Procter & Gamble Trading (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Tuketim Mallari Sanayii A.S., Procter & Gamble UK, Procter & Gamble UK Group Holdings Ltd, Procter & Gamble UK Parent Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Universal Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Verwaltungs GmbH, Procter & Gamble Vietnam, Procter & Gamble d.o.o. za trgovinu, Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.C.A., Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.R.L., Procter & Gamble do Brasil S/A, Procter & Gamble do Brazil, Procter & Gamble do Nordeste S/A, Procter & Gamble-Rakona s.r.o., Progam Realty & Development Corporation, Redmond Products, Richardson-Vicks Real Estate Inc., Richardson-Vicks do Brasil Quimica e Farmaceutica Ltda, Riverfront Music Publishing Co., Rosemount LLC, SPD Development Company Limited, SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, Scannon S.A.S., Series Acquisition B.V., Shulton, Surfac S.R.L., Sycamore Productions, TAOS - FL, TAOS Retail, Tambrands Inc., Temple Trees Impex & Investment Private Limited, The Art of Shaving - FL, The Dover Wipes Company, The Gillette Company, The Gillette Company LLC, The Gillette co., The Procter & Gamble Distributing LLC, The Procter & Gamble GBS Company, The Procter & Gamble Global Finance Company, The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company, The Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, The Procter & Gamble U.S. Business Services Company, This is L., US CD LLC, Vidal Sassoon (Shanghai) Academy, Vidal Sassoon Co., WEBA Betriebsrenten-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Walker & Company Brands, and iMFLUX Inc..
The following companies are subsidiares of Becton, Dickinson and: (Bard Istanbul Healthcare Limited Company), Accuri Cytometers, Accuri Cytometers Inc., Adaptec Manufacturing Singapore, Alverix, Alverix Inc., Atto Bioscience, BD Holding S. de R.L. de C.V., BD Infection Prevention BV, BD Kiestra BV, BD Kiestra Total Lab Automation, BD Rapid Diagnostic (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., BD San Luis Potosi S.A. de C.V., BD Switzerland Sarl, BD Ventures LLC, BD West Africa Limited, BDX INO LLC, Bard (Thailand) Limited, Bard ASDI Inc., Bard Access Systems Inc., Bard Acquisition Sub Inc., Bard Australia Pty. Limited, Bard Benelux N.V., Bard Brachytherapy Inc., Bard Brasil Industria e Comercio de Produtos Para a Saude Ltda., Bard Canada Inc., Bard Chile S.p.A., Bard Colombia S.A.S., Bard Czech Republic s.r.o., Bard Devices Inc., Bard Dublin ITC Limited, Bard EMEA Finance Center Sp.z o.o., Bard European Distribution Center N.V., Bard Finance B.V. & Co. KG., Bard Financial Services Ltd., Bard Finland OY, Bard France S.A.S., Bard Global Holdings I LLC, Bard Global Holdings II LLC, Bard Global Holdings III LLC, Bard Healthcare Inc., Bard Healthcare Science (Shanghai) Limited, Bard Hellas S.A., Bard Holding SAS, Bard Holdings Limited, Bard Holdings Netherlands B.V., Bard Hong Kong Limited, Bard IP Holdings Inc., Bard India Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., Bard International Holdings B.V., Bard International Inc., Bard Korea Ltd., Bard Limited, Bard MRL Acquisition Corp., Bard Malaysia Healthcare Sdn. Bhd., Bard Medica SA, Bard Medical Devices (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Bard Medical R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Bard Medical SA (Proprietary) Limited, Bard Mexico Realty S. de R.L. de C.V., Bard Norden AB, Bard Norway AS, Bard Pacific Health Care Company Ltd., Bard Peripheral Vascular Inc., Bard Poland Sp. z.o.o., Bard Productos Plasticos e Medicos Ltda., Bard Reynosa S.A. de C.V., Bard S.r.l., Bard Sdn. Bhd., Bard Shannon Limited, Bard Singapore Private Limited, Bard Sourcing Office Singapore Pte. Ltd., Bard Sweden AB, Bard UK Newco Limited, Bard de Espana S.A., Becton Dickinson (Gibraltar) Holdings Ltd., Becton Dickinson (Gibraltar) Limited, Becton Dickinson (Gibraltar) Management Limited, Becton Dickinson (Mauritius) Limited, Becton Dickinson (Pty) Ltd., Becton Dickinson (Thailand) Limited, Becton Dickinson A.G., Becton Dickinson A/S, Becton Dickinson Argentina S.R.L., Becton Dickinson Asia Holdings Ltd., Becton Dickinson Asia Limited, Becton Dickinson Austria GmbH, Becton Dickinson Austria Holdings GmbH, Becton Dickinson B.V., Becton Dickinson B.V. Saudi Limited Company, Becton Dickinson Benelux N.V., Becton Dickinson Biosciences Systems and Reagents Inc., Becton Dickinson Canada Inc., Becton Dickinson Caribe Ltd., Becton Dickinson Croatia d.o.o., Becton Dickinson Czechia s.r.o., Becton Dickinson Dispensing Belgium BVBA, Becton Dickinson Dispensing Denmark A/S, Becton Dickinson Dispensing France SAS, Becton Dickinson Dispensing Ireland Limited, Becton Dickinson Dispensing Norway, Becton Dickinson Dispensing Spain S.L.U., Becton Dickinson Dispensing UK Ltd., Becton Dickinson Distribution Center N.V., Becton Dickinson East Africa Ltd., Becton Dickinson Euro Finance Sarl, Becton Dickinson Europe Holdings S.A.S., Becton Dickinson France S.A.S., Becton Dickinson GSA Beteilgungs GmbH, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings I Inc., Becton Dickinson Global Holdings II LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings IV LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings V LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings VI LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Holdings VII LLC, Becton Dickinson Global Services Centre Sdn. Bdn., Becton Dickinson GmbH, Becton Dickinson Guatemala S.A., Becton Dickinson Hellas S.A., Becton Dickinson Holdings Limited, Becton Dickinson Holdings Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson Hungary Kft., Becton Dickinson India Private Limited, Becton Dickinson Industrias Cirurgicas Ltda., Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy AB, Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy Holdings UK Limited, Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy Systems Inc., Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy Systems Inc. S.A. de C.V., Becton Dickinson Infusion Therapy UK, Becton Dickinson Insulin Syringe Ltd., Becton Dickinson International Holdings II Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson International Holdings III Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson International Holdings Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson Israel Ltd., Becton Dickinson Italia S.p.A., Becton Dickinson Ithalat Ihracat Limited Sirketi, Becton Dickinson Korea Holding Inc., Becton Dickinson Korea Ltd., Becton Dickinson Ltd., Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Finance S.a.r.L., Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Global Holdings Sarl, Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Holdings II S.a.r.L, Becton Dickinson Luxembourg Holdings III S.a.r.L, Becton Dickinson Malaysia Inc., Becton Dickinson Management GmbH & Co. KG, Becton Dickinson Matrex Holdings Inc., Becton Dickinson Medical (S) Pte Ltd., Becton Dickinson Medical Devices (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Medical Devices (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Medical Products Pte. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Medical Technology (Jiangsu) Co. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Netherlands Global Holdings II C.V., Becton Dickinson Netherlands Holdings B.V., Becton Dickinson Netherlands Holdings II B.V., Becton Dickinson Norway AS, Becton Dickinson O.Y., Becton Dickinson Overseas Services Ltd., Becton Dickinson Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd., Becton Dickinson Penel Limited, Becton Dickinson Philippines Inc., Becton Dickinson Polska Sp.z.o.o., Becton Dickinson Portugal Unipessoal Lda., Becton Dickinson Pty. Ltd., Becton Dickinson Research Centre Ireland Limited, Becton Dickinson Rowa Germany GmbH, Becton Dickinson Rowa Italy Srl, Becton Dickinson S.A., Becton Dickinson Sample Collection GmbH, Becton Dickinson Scot Financing L.L.P., Becton Dickinson Scot Financing L.P., Becton Dickinson Sdn. Bhd., Becton Dickinson Slovakia s.r.o., Becton Dickinson Sweden AB, Becton Dickinson Sweden Holdings AB, Becton Dickinson Switzerland Global Holdings SarL, Becton Dickinson Technology Campus India, Becton Dickinson U.K. Limited, Becton Dickinson UK Financing I Ltd., Becton Dickinson UK Financing II Ltd., Becton Dickinson Venezuela C.A., Becton Dickinson Venture LLC, Becton Dickinson Verwaltungs GmbH, Becton Dickinson Vostok LLC, Becton Dickinson Worldwide Investments Sa.r.L., Becton Dickinson Zambia Limited, Becton Dickinson and Company Ltd., Becton Dickinson de Colombia Ltda., Becton Dickinson de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Becton Dickinson del Uruguay S.A., Benex Ltd., Biometric Imaging, Bridger Biomed Inc., C. R. Bard, C. R. Bard (Portugal)-Produtos e Artigos Medicos e Farmaceuticos, C. R. Bard Do Brazil Productos Medicos Ltds., C. R. Bard GmbH, C. R. Bard Inc., C. R. Bard Netherlands Sales B.V., CME America LLC, CME Ltd., CME Medical (UK) Limited, CME UK (Holdings) Limited, CRISI Medical Systems, CRISI Medical Systems Inc., Caesarea Medical Electronics, Cardal II LLC, Care Fusion Development Private Limited, CareFusion, CareFusion (Barbados) SrL, CareFusion (Shanghai) Commercial and Trading Co. Limited, CareFusion 213 LLC, CareFusion 2200 Inc., CareFusion 2201 Inc., CareFusion 302 LLC, CareFusion 303 Inc., CareFusion Asia (HK) Limited, CareFusion BH 335 d.o.o. Cazin, CareFusion Corporation, CareFusion D.R. 203 Ltd., CareFusion France 309 S.A.S., CareFusion Germany 318 GmbH, CareFusion Iberia 308 S.L., CareFusion Israel 330 Ltd., CareFusion Italy 312 S.p.A., CareFusion Manufacturing LLC, CareFusion Mexico 215 S.A. de C.V., CareFusion Netherlands 328 B.V., CareFusion Netherlands 503 B.V., CareFusion Netherlands 504 B.V., CareFusion Netherlands Financing 283 C.V., CareFusion Resources LLC, CareFusion S.A. 319 (Proprietary) Limited, CareFusion Solutions LLC, CareFusion U.K. 244 Limited, CareFusion U.K. 305 Limited, CareFusion U.K. 306 Limited, Carmel Pharma AB, Carmel Pharma Inc, Cato Software Solutions, Cell Analysis Systems Inc, Cellular Research, Cellular Research Inc., Clearstream Technologies Group Limited, Clearstream Technologies Limited, Clontech Laboratories Inc, Corporativo BD de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Cubex, Cytopeia, DLD (Bermuda) Ltd., DVL Acquisition Sub Inc., Davol Inc., Davol International Limited, Davol Surgical Innovations S.A. de C.V., Difco Laboratories Incorporated, Distribuidora BD Mexico S.A. de C.V., Dutch American Manufacturers (D.A.M.) B.V., Dymax Corporation, Embo Medical Limited, Enturia de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Enturican Inc., FJ International Inc., FlowCardia Inc., FlowCardia LLC, FlowJo LLC, Franklin Lakes Enterprises L.L.C., GSL Solutions, Gamer Lasertechnik GmbH, GenCell Biosystems, GenCell Biosystems Ltd., GeneOhm Sciences, GeneOhm Sciences Canada Inc., Gentest Corporation, Gesco International Inc., Gesco International LLC, HandyLab Inc, HandyLab Inc., IBD Holdings LLC, Ionotophoretics Corporation, JoHome LLC, Kabushiki Kaisha Medicon (Medicon Inc.), Liberator Health and Education Services Inc., Liberator Health and Wellness Inc., Liberator Medical Holdings Inc., Liberator Medical Supply Inc., LifeBond, Limited Liability Company Bard Rus, Loma Vista Medical Inc., Loma Vista Medical LLC, Lutonix Inc., Med-Design Corporation, Med-Design Investment Holdings Inc., Med-Safe Systems Inc., MedChem Products Inc., Medafor Inc., Medegen LLC, Medinservice.com Inc., Medivance Inc., NAT Diagnostics, NAT Diagnostics Inc., NOW Medical Distribution Inc., NOW Medical Distribution LLC, Navarre Biomedical LLC, Navarre Biomedical Ltd., Neomend Inc., Nippon Becton Dickinson Company Ltd., Omega Biosystems Incorporated, P.R.C.(Isialys)Societe a responsabilitie limitee(Societe a associe unique), PT Becton Dickinson Indonesia, PharMingen, PreAnalytiX GmbH, Pristine Access Technologies Inc., ProSeed Inc., Procesos para Esterilizacion S.A. de C.V., Productos Bard de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Productos Para el Cuidado de la Salud S.A. de C.V., Puls Medical Devices AS LC, PureWick Corporation, Roberts Laboratories Inc., Rochester Medical Corporation, Rochester Medical Ltd., Saf-T-Med, Safety Syringes, Safety Syringes Inc., Sendal S.L.U., SenoRx Inc., SenoRx LLC, Shield Healthcare Centers Inc., Sirigen, Sirigen II Limited, Sirigen Inc., Sistemas Medicos ALARIS S.A. de C.V., Specialized Cooperative Corporation, Specialized Health Products Inc., Specialized Health Products International Inc., Specialized Health Products International LLC, Staged Diabetes Management LLC, Straub Medical, Straub Medical, Straub Medical (US) LLC, Straub Medical (United Kingdom) Ltd., Straub Medical France, Surgical Site Solutions Inc., TVA Medical, TVA Medical GmbH, TVA Medical Inc., Tepha, Touchstone Medical Limited, Tri-County Medical & Ostomy Supplies Inc., TriPath Imaging, TriPath Imaging Inc., Vas-Cath Incorporated, Vascular Pathways Inc., Velano Vascular, Venetec International Inc., Venetec International LLC, Y-Med Inc., and Y-Med LLC.
Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics, Inc. is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that develops IRX-2, a novel hd-IL-2 based therapy, to treat patients with cancer. IRX-2 delivers hd-IL-2 and other key cytokines to restore immune function in the tumor microenvironment, enabling the immune system to attack cancer cells. In a Phase 2a clinical trial, IRX-2 demonstrated an increase in tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, which was associated with a survival benefit in patients with head and neck cancer. The company is headquartered in New York, NY.

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Ameresco, Inc. engages in the provision of energy services, including energy efficiency, infrastructure upgrades, asset sustainability, and renewable energy solutions for businesses and organizations throughout North America and Europe. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Regions, U.S. Federal, Canada, Non-Solar Distributed Generation (DG), and All Other. The U.S. Regions, U.S. Federal, and Canada segments offers energy efficiency products and services, such as design, engineering and installation of equipment and other measures to improve the efficiency and control the operation of a facility's energy infrastructure; and renewable energy solutions and services. The Non-Solar DG sells electricity, processed renewable gas fuel, heat or cooling, produced from renewable sources of energy, other than solar, and generated by small-scale plants; and operations and maintenance services for customer owned small-scale plants. The All Other segment focuses on the provision of enterprise energy management services, consulting services, and integrated-photovoltaic. The company was founded by George Peter Sakellaris on April 25, 2000 and is headquartered in Framingham, MA.

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Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. engages in the operation of senior living communities. The firm manages independent living, assisted living and dementia-care communities and continuing care retirement centers. It operates through the following segments: Independent Living Assisted Living & Memory Care, CCRCs, Health Care Services and Management Services. The Independent Living segment is primarily designed for middle to upper income seniors who desire an upscale residential environment providing the highest quality of service. The Assisted Living & Memory Care segment offer housing and 24-hour assistance with ADLs to mid-acuity frail and elderly residents. The CCRCs segment offers a variety of living arrangements and services to accommodate all levels of physical ability and health. The Healthcare Services segment provides home health, hospice and outpatient therapy services, as well as education and wellness programs, to residents of many communities and to seniors living outside communities. The Management Services segment composes of communities operated by the company pursuant to management agreements. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Brentwood, TN.

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At a meeting in Hanoi on March 6, Hue ordered evaluation of the current operations of 40 companies providing P2P lending services, and asked the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to outline documents covering risk management of the model as well as examination, inspection and responsibility of relevant ministries and sectors.

The Government will mete out harsh punishments to those who disguise this new business model, he said, quoting the 2010 Law on Credit Institutions Article 8 as saying that Individuals and organisations other than credit institutions are prohibited from conducting banking operations, except escrow, purchase and sale of securities by securities companies.

P2P lending is a method of debt financing that enables individuals to borrow and lend money without the use of an official financial institution as an intermediary but though online platforms. It has experienced a period of fast growth since it was first introduced in the UK in 2005.

According to Deputy Director of the SBVs Monetary Policy Department Nguyen Chi Quang, if P2P lending is well managed, it will serve as a boost for inclusive finance, particularly in places where residents, household businesses, and small and medium-sized enterprises have fewer opportunities to get access to banking-finance services with low costs.

However, this kind of lending also offers a fertile land for crimes like cheating, and illegal payment intermediary, among others, said SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh, adding that P2P lending crash in China and several Southeast Asian countries is a typical example.

Among 40 P2P providers in Vietnam, some have violated banking and credit regulations, he said.

Currently, the P2P model in Vietnam should not include financial institutions and P2P firms should not be allowed to mobilse capital for lending, he suggested.

Anh and leaders from the Ministries of Science and Technology, Planning and Investment, and Information and Communications agreed that rational legal framework is needed for P2P management.
Not One-Size-Fits-All

Within Departments

Public Component

Eliminates Duplication

(TNS)  The City of Plattsburgh, N.Y., is eyeing a budgeting-and-performance cloud operator that would cost $43,000 annually.OpenGov representatives presented their software at a special meeting of the Common Council Tuesday night.Account Executive David Spolidoro said the system, which would also charge a $15,000 implementation fee, would feature all City of Plattsburgh data on a single platform that could be updated in real time.Benefits of such software are in the budgeting and planning, operational-performance and citizen-engagement sectors, he said.Using conservative percentages gathered from current customer data, OpenGov could save the city more than $49,000 in reporting and budget-processing time alone, the account executive added.Mayor Colin Read said if the software finds the efficiencies within the City of Plattsburgh that have been documented within many of the firm's some 2,000 municipalities, the benefits could be even greater."The annual return is about 10 times that annual cost," he said. "However, there have been cases in the city in the past when software has been incompletely implemented and has not generated the promised savings."The city needs to be confident in the advantages and have the resolve to take full advantage of the efficiencies if we are to proceed."OpenGov is headquartered in Silicone Valley but operates in all 50 states.Spolidoro said the firm was founded out of the 2008 financial crisis."Our founder was working with grant funding out in California. He was working with cities and towns out in California that were having a really difficult time," he said."Among a lot of reasons, one of them was outdated technology," he continued. "So, we are 100 percent on a mission to power more effective and accountable government."The OpenGov platform displays annual budget information specific to each municipality, OpenGov East Coast Regional Director Eric DiProspero said."Each of our over 2,000 customers is set up uniquely in the platform," he said. "It's done on the true-fold financial structure here, of the city."It's not a one-size-fits-all solution."That data, accessible anywhere via the cloud system, would show the city's overall budget standing, each department's budget standing, individual budget proposals and their impact to the overall budget and a one-line description of each fund.Currently, in preparation for city budget discussions, department heads gather yearly expenses and future goals to present to the council."From a department head standpoint, we're actually going to be saving them a lot of time and increase the visibility through the process," Spolidoro said."The only thing that we're actually asking your department head to fill in is what is the proposal adjustment that they want to ask for the coming year."OpenGov also helps departments to do their own fund shuffling, DiProspero added."So, stretching their budget dollars a little bit further," he said. "Just because something was $100,000 last year doesn't necessarily mean it has to be $100,000 or an increase going forward."It allows for your departments to think very critically about the budget and think more strategically overall for the city."The program also offers a "what-if" scenario option to input potential expenses and view their five- or 10-year impacts, Spolidoro said.City Chamberlain Richard Marks said the mayor likes to look at forecasts such as this."That's going to be a beneficial tool for him," he said.Marks also liked the open access, because, currently, he is the primary budget resource."The best part about this, that I can see, is that you, sitting there," he said towards Read and the city councilors who attended the session, "can go get your own information."But that information wouldn't be exclusive to the council and city employees; OpenGov also has a public-facing component."This is about telling your story to the community," Spolidoro explained. "We're not about putting a bunch of data out there, because, as you know, that's going to just cause more questions than it's going to answer."We allow you to control what data and what level of data that you release out to the community, and we allow you to do it in a narrative manner," he continued."It's about controlling the narrative and educating the community about why you're making a certain decision and, then, here's the data points about why you are making those decisions."The cloud-based operator could bring the city's time-sheet system up to date, as well.Spolidoro said each City of Plattsburgh department has its own way of monitoring employees' workdays  some using pen and paper."They are sending that paper copy to the Clerk's Office and the clerk is entering that into a data warehouse or a spreadsheet somewhere," he said.Mayor Read added that then the sheet gets printed and re-entered by the central clerk."From there, (that data) just kind of sits, and you're not getting any real information," Spolidoro said. "The idea is, that's important data. You want to see that if you're making decisions for the city."Let's get rid of the duplication of efforts. Let's capture that data at one time."But just because the time recording would be under one system doesn't mean it would be uniform."Department by department, we can build a form that these folks can fill in that will be easier for them than writing it down on a sheet of paper, or at least as easy," he said. "We'll do it specifically for those departments."It's very flexible."
Equinox Gold Corp. engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral deposits. The company's principal properties include the Aurizona project covering a total land package of approximately 223,160 hectares located in Maranhao State, Brazil; and the Castle Mountain property situated in California, the United States. It primarily explores for gold, copper, and silver deposits. The company was formerly known as Trek Mining Inc. and changed its name to Equinox Gold Corp. in December 2017. Equinox Gold Corp. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

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Reinsurance Group of America, Inc. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of traditional and non-traditional life and health reinsurance products. It operates through the following segments: U.S. and Latin America; Canada; Europe, Middle East, and Africa; Asia Pacific; and Corporate and Other. The U.S. and Latin America segment markets individual and group life and health reinsurance to domestic clients for a variety of products through yearly renewable term agreements, coinsurance, and modified coinsurance. The Canada segment offers individual life reinsurance, and to a lesser extent creditor, group life and health, critical illness and disability reinsurance, through yearly renewable term and coinsurance agreements. The Europe, Middle East, and Africa segment serves individual and group life and health products through yearly renewable term and coinsurance agreements, reinsurance of critical illness coverage that provides a benefit in the event of the diagnosis of a pre-defined critical illness and underwritten annuities. The Asia Pacific segment comprises individual and group life and health reinsurance, critical illness coverage, disability, and superannuation thr

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Genworth Financial, Inc. is a financial services company, which engages in the provision of insurance, wealth management, investment and financial solutions. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Mortgage Insurance, Australia Mortgage Insurance, U.S. Life Insurance, and Runoff. The U.S. Mortgage Insurance segment offers mortgage insurance products predominantly insuring prime-based, individually underwritten residential mortgage loans. The Australia Mortgage Insurance segment offers flow mortgage insurance and selectively provides bulk mortgage insurance that aids in the sale of mortgages to the capital markets and helps lenders manage capital and risk. The U.S. Life Insurance segment offers long-term care insurance products as well as service traditional life insurance and fixed annuity products in the United States. The Runoff segment includes the results of non-strategic products which are no longer actively sold but continue to service its existing blocks of business. Its non-strategic products primarily include variable annuity, variable life insurance, institutional, corporate-owned life insurance and other accident and health insurance products. The company was fo

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Hannover RAck SE, together with its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance products and services worldwide. It operates through Property & Casualty Reinsurance, and Life & Health Reinsurance segments. The Property & Casualty Reinsurance segment offers specialty lines comprising marine, aviation, facultative and direct business, credit, surety, and political risks reinsurance products; and treaty, catastrophe XL, and structured reinsurance, as well as insurance-linked securities. This segment also provides risk solutions for agricultural, livestock, and bloodstock businesses; aviation and space business; and marine and offshore energy business. The Life & Health Reinsurance segment offers group and individual credit life, enhanced annuities, group life and health, and Sharia-compliant Takaful reinsurance products. This segment also provides risk solutions in the areas of critical illness, disability, health, longevity, long term care, and mortality and morbidity, as well as underwriting services. In addition, it offers various financial solutions, including new-business financing; monetization of embedded value; reserve and solvency relief; and divestiture of non-core businesses. The company was formerly known as Hannover RAckversicherung AG and changed its name to Hannover RAck SE in March 2013. The company was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Hanover, Germany. Hannover RAck SE is a subsidiary of Talanx AG.

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(TNS)  Seminole County, Fla., Tax Collector Joel Greenberg said he has hired a recent college graduate as his blockchain director as the state legislature moves forward with a bill that would create a working group to study the benefits of using the technology.Blockchain is a new and emerging technology that is really going to be taking off, Greenberg said of his decision to hire Samuel Armes, 22, a recent graduate of the University of South Florida and executive director of the Florida Blockchain Business Association.Armes also will serve as the offices legislative affairs director.According to the associations website, Armes has done work for the U.S. Operations Command and the State Department on issues related to illicit finance, counter terrorism, public policy and international trade deals.Greenberg said Armes will earn $30,000 a year. He will act as a blockchain advocate and liaison between Greenbergs office and state officials as Florida joins a growing number of states  including New York, Illinois and New Jersey  that are looking into the benefits of using blockchain technologies for government transactions.He is really, really sharp, Greenberg said. He knows more than I do [about blockchain], and Im pretty well-versed into it.Armes couldnt be reached for comment.According to a bill filed in January by state Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, Florida would create a 19-member working group  appointed by the governor, cabinet members, legislators and local officials  to study and understand the complex blockchain technology and how it could be applied by state and local governments toward increasing efficiency, saving tax money and making more secure government transactions.Blockchain has the ability to improve processes, increase efficiency and promote transparency in government, in businesses and for consumers, according to the bill. It is in the public interest.and it is imperative that blockchain benefits and applications are studied so that its potential can be fully realized.The bill also states that investments in blockchain companies and projects have skyrocketed from millions of dollars in 2015 to billions of dollars in 2018, with venture capital funds and other private investors investing $1.3 billion between January and May of 2018 in blockchain and blockchain-adjacent early stage companies.Gruters didnt return calls for comment.Blockchain is an online ledger, or record, of transactions spread across a large network of computers. Because it uses the processing power of many computers, each step of the transaction is permanent and resistant to modifications or fraud. It also eliminates financial fees because transactions wouldnt have to travel across several banks or other financial institutions.Greenberg said blockchain would benefit the Seminole Tax Collectors office, as well as other local government offices, by being linked to other counties. Transactions would include drivers licenses, tax deeds and insurance information, he said.Right now, every county has their own little system, he said.With blockchain, all the counties would be in a giant system. This would allow for a better flow of communication and reduce redundancies.Greenberg added that because blockchain is a unique system using cryptography to verify and store records of digital transactions, its more secure and accurate.Blockchain is more commonly known as being used to underlie or support virtual online currencies such as Bitcoin Last April, Greenbergs office began accepting Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash as payment for new IDs, license plates and property taxes. The office has since handled about a dozen transactions in Bitcoin, Greenberg said.We like the fact that people can pay us without having to use cash or a bank, he said.The Tax Collectors Office also set up a Bitcoin ATM at the Casselberry branch on Wilshire Boulevard that allows residents to transfer cash into Bitcoin.Greenberg said the machine does about $15,000 and $20,000 a week in transactions.
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 Coding GmbH, Allen France SAS, Alpine Automation Limited, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Holdings Inc., Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, Arylux Hungary Elektromechanikus Alkatreszgyarto Kft, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix (Suzhou) Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Holdings Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel (Ireland) Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Brooks Instrument LLC, Buell Industries Inc., CAPMAX Logistica S.A. de C.V., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS (Australia) Pty Limited, CS (Finance) Europe S.a.r.l., CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, CSMTS LLC, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures (Australasia) S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Coeur, Coeur (Shanghai) Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, 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., Dorbyl U.K. (Holdings) Limited, Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO (Holding) AG, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elga Skandinavian AS, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, FEG Investments L.L.C., Fasver, Filtertek, Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech (Taicang) Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart (Japan) K.K., Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart Foster Belgium, Hobart International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., 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 (China) Investment Company Limited, ITW (Deutschland) GmbH, ITW (EU) Holdings Ltd., ITW (European) Finance Co. Ltd., ITW (European) Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW (European) Finance III Co. Ltd., ITW (Ningbo) Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Alpha Sarl, 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, 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 Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., 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 Contamination Control (Wujiang) Co. Ltd., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Delta Sarl, ITW Denmark ApS, 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 Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.A., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Finance Designated Activity Company, ITW Finance Europe S.A., ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW France Finance Alpha S.A.S., 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 II Inc., ITW Global Investments Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics (Thailand) Ltd., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Italy S.R.L. in liquidazione, 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 UK, 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 Hungary Finance Beta Kft, 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 Finance Srl, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lombard Holdings Inc., ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW M FILMS II LLC, ITW MH LLC, 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 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 Plastic (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers (Wujiang) Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Philippines Holdings LLC, 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 Spraytec, 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 Servicios Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Ideal Molding Technologies LLC, Illinois Tool Works (Chile) Limitada, Illinois Tool Works (ITW) Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Norway AS, 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 (Shanghai) Ltd., Instron (Thailand) Limited, Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Holdings Limited, Instron International Limited, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, International Leasing Company LLC, International Truss Systems Proprietary Limited, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kester Components (M) Sdn. Bhd., Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems (Canada) Inc., Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MOA Enterprises Inc, Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, Norden Olje AB, North Star Imaging Europe, 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. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Penta Dnepr LLC, Penta Sever OOO, Penta Volga OOO, Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., Ramset Fasteners (Hong Kong) Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco (Nederland) B.V., Simco Japan Inc., 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 (Hong Kong) Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Taiwan) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes BVBA, Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, 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 Sverige AB, Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek (China) Limited, Teknek (Japan) Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V.B.A., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta (Guangzhou) Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Vesta Global Limited, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wynn Oil (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, ZF TRW (Engineered Fasteners and Components), and Zip-Pak International B.V..
iShares MSCI South Korea ETF's stock was trading at $52.04 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWY stock has increased by 56.1% and is now trading at $81.26.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.
iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF's stock was trading at $32.80 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EZU stock has increased by 50.0% and is now trading at $49.20.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.
The following companies are subsidiares of Johnson & Johnson: 3Dintegrated ApS, ALZA Corporation, AMO (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AMO (Shanghai) Medical Devices Trading Co. Ltd., AMO ASIA LIMITED, AMO Australia Pty Limited, AMO Canada Company, AMO Denmark ApS, AMO Development LLC, AMO France, AMO Germany GmbH, AMO Groningen B.V., AMO International Holdings, AMO Ireland, AMO Ireland Finance Unlimited Company, AMO Italy SRL, AMO Japan K.K., AMO Manufacturing Spain S.L., AMO Manufacturing USA LLC, AMO Netherlands BV, AMO Nominee Holdings LLC, AMO Norway AS, AMO Puerto Rico Manufacturing Inc., AMO Sales and Service Inc., AMO Singapore Pte. Ltd., AMO Spain Holdings LLC, AMO Switzerland GmbH, AMO U.K. Holdings LLC, AMO US Holdings Inc., AMO USA LLC, AMO USA Sales Holdings Inc., AMO United Kingdom Ltd., AMO Uppsala AB, APSIS, AUB Holdings LLC, Abott Medical Optics, Acclarent Inc., Actelion Ltd, Actelion Manufacturing GmbH, Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Actelion Pharmaceuticals Australia Pty. Limited, Actelion Pharmaceuticals Korea Ltd., Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Actelion Pharmaceuticals Mexico S.A. De C.V., Actelion Pharmaceuticals Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Actelion Pharmaceuticals UK Limited, Actelion Pharmaceuticals US Inc., Actelion Registration Limited, Actelion Treasury Unlimited Company, Akros Medical Inc., Albany Street LLC, Alios BioPharma, Alza Land Management Inc., Animas Diabetes Care LLC, Animas LLC, Animas Technologies LLC, AorTx Inc., Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Aragon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Asia Pacific Holdings LLC, Atrionix Inc., Auris Health, Auris Health Inc., Backsvalan 2 Aktiebolag, Backsvalan 6 Handelsbolag, Beijing Dabao Cosmetics Co. Ltd., BeneVir BioPharm Inc., Berna Rhein B.V., BioMedical Enterprises Inc., Biosense Webster (Israel) Ltd., Biosense Webster Inc., C Consumer Products Denmark ApS, CNA Development GmbH, CSATS Inc., Calibra Medical LLC, Campus-Foyer Apotheke GmbH, Carlo Erba OTC S.r.l., Centocor Biologics LLC, Centocor Research & Development Inc., ChromaGenics B.V., Ci:Labo Customer Marketing Co. Ltd., Ci:z Holdings, Ci:z. Labo Co. Ltd., Cilag AG, Cilag GmbH International, Cilag Holding AG, Cilag Holding Treasury Unlimited Company, Cilag-Biotech S.L., CoTherix Inc., Codman & Shurtleff Inc., Coherex Medical Inc., ColBar LifeScience Ltd., Company Store.com Inc., Conor MedSystems, Cordis International Corporation, Cordis de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Corimmun GmbH, DR. CI:LABO COMPANY LIMITED, Darlain Trading S.A., DePuy France, DePuy Hellas SA, DePuy International Limited, DePuy Ireland Unlimited Company, DePuy Mexico S.A. de C.V., DePuy Mitek LLC, DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., DePuy Products Inc., DePuy Spine LLC, DePuy Synthes Gorgan Limited, DePuy Synthes Inc., DePuy Synthes Institute LLC, DePuy Synthes Leto SARL, DePuy Synthes Products Inc., DePuy Synthes Sales Inc., Debs-Vogue Corporation (Proprietary) Limited, Dr. Ci:Labo Co. Ltd., Dutch Holding LLC, ECL7 LLC, EES Holdings de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., EES S.A. de C.V., EIT Emerging Implant Technologies GmbH, Ethicon Biosurgery Ireland, Ethicon Endo-Surgery (Europe) GmbH, Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc., Ethicon Endo-Surgery LLC, Ethicon Holding Sarl, Ethicon Inc., Ethicon Ireland Unlimited Company, Ethicon LLC, Ethicon PR Holdings Unlimited Company, Ethicon Sarl, Ethicon US LLC, Ethicon Women's Health & Urology Sarl, Ethnor (Proprietary) Limited, Ethnor Farmaceutica S.A., Ethnor Guatemala Sociedad Anomina, Ethnor del Istmo S.A., FMS Future Medical System SA, Finsbury (Development) Limited, Finsbury (Instruments) Limited, Finsbury Medical Limited, Finsbury Orthopaedics International Limited, Finsbury Orthopaedics Limited, GH Biotech Holdings Limited, GMED Healthcare BV, Global Investment Participation B.V., Guangzhou Bioseal Biotech Co. Ltd., Hansen Medical Deutschland GmbH, Hansen Medical Inc., Hansen Medical International Inc., Hansen Medical UK Limited, Healthcare Services (Shanghai) Ltd., I.D. Acquisition Corp., Innomedic Gesellschaft fur innovative Medizintechnik und Informatik mbH, Innovalens B.V., Innovative Surgical Solutions LLC, J & J Company West Africa Limited, J&J Pension Trustees Limited, J-C Health Care Ltd., J.C. General Services BV, JJ Surgical Vision Spain S.L., JJC Acquisition Company B.V., JJHC LLC, JJSV Belgium BV, JJSV Manufacturing Malaysia SDN. BHD., JJSV Norden AB, JJSV Produtos Oticos Ltda., JNJ Global Business Services s.r.o., JNJ Holding EMEA B.V., JNJ International Investment LLC, JNJ Irish Investments ULC, JOM Pharmaceutical Services Inc., Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy (Holding) Limited, Janssen BioPharma Inc., Janssen Biologics (Ireland) Limited, Janssen Biologics B.V., Janssen Biotech Inc., Janssen Cilag C.A., Janssen Cilag Farmaceutica S.A., Janssen Cilag S.p.A., Janssen Cilag SPA, Janssen Development Finance Unlimited Company, Janssen Diagnostics LLC, Janssen Egypt LLC, Janssen Farmaceutica Portugal Lda, Janssen Global Services LLC, Janssen Group Holdings Limited, Janssen Holding GmbH, Janssen Inc., Janssen Irish Finance Company UC, Janssen Korea Ltd., Janssen Oncology Inc., Janssen Ortho LLC, Janssen Pharmaceutica (Proprietary) Limited, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Janssen Pharmaceutica S.A., Janssen Pharmaceutical, Janssen Pharmaceutical K.K., Janssen Pharmaceutical Sciences Unlimited Company, Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., Janssen Products LP, Janssen R&D Ireland, Janssen Research & Development LLC, Janssen Sciences Ireland Unlimited Company, Janssen Scientific Affairs LLC, Janssen Supply Group LLC, Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V., Janssen Vaccines Corp., Janssen de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Janssen-Cilag, Janssen-Cilag (New Zealand) Limited, Janssen-Cilag A/S, Janssen-Cilag AG, Janssen-Cilag AS, Janssen-Cilag Aktiebolag, Janssen-Cilag B.V., Janssen-Cilag Farmaceutica Lda., Janssen-Cilag Farmaceutica Ltda., Janssen-Cilag GmbH, Janssen-Cilag International NV, Janssen-Cilag Kft., Janssen-Cilag Limited, Janssen-Cilag Manufacturing LLC, Janssen-Cilag NV, Janssen-Cilag OY, Janssen-Cilag Pharma GmbH, Janssen-Cilag Pharmaceutical S.A.C.I., Janssen-Cilag Polska Sp. z o.o., Janssen-Cilag Pty Ltd, Janssen-Cilag S.A., Janssen-Cilag S.A., Janssen-Cilag S.A. de C.V., Janssen-Cilag de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Janssen-Cilag s.r.o., Janssen-Pharma S.L., Jevco Holding Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Johnson & Johnson (Angola) Limitada, Johnson & Johnson (China) Investment Ltd., Johnson & Johnson (Egypt) S.A.E., Johnson & Johnson (Hong Kong) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Ireland) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Jamaica) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Kenya) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Middle East) Inc., Johnson & Johnson (Mozambique) Limitada, Johnson & Johnson (Namibia) (Proprietary) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (New Zealand) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Philippines) Inc., Johnson & Johnson (Private) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Thailand) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson (Trinidad) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Vietnam) Co. Ltd, Johnson & Johnson - Societa' Per Azioni, Johnson & Johnson AB, Johnson & Johnson AG, Johnson & Johnson Belgium Finance Company BV, Johnson & Johnson Bulgaria EOOD, Johnson & Johnson China Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Consumer (Hong Kong) Limited, Johnson & Johnson Consumer (Thailand) Limited, Johnson & Johnson Consumer B.V., Johnson & Johnson Consumer Holdings France, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., Johnson & Johnson Consumer NV, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Saudi Arabia Limited, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Services EAME Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Del Paraguay S.A., Johnson & Johnson Dominicana S.A.S., Johnson & Johnson Enterprise Innovation Inc., Johnson & Johnson European Treasury Company, Johnson & Johnson Finance Corporation, Johnson & Johnson Finance Limited, Johnson & Johnson Financial Services GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Foundation Scotland (NON-PROFIT), Johnson & Johnson Gateway LLC, Johnson & Johnson Gesellschaft m.b.H., Johnson & Johnson GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Guatemala S.A., Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc., Johnson & Johnson Health and Wellness Solutions Inc., Johnson & Johnson Hellas Commercial and Industrial S.A., Johnson & Johnson Hellas Consumer Products Commercial Societe Anonyme, Johnson & Johnson Hemisferica S.A., Johnson & Johnson Holding GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Holdings K.K., Johnson & Johnson Inc., Johnson & Johnson Industrial Ltda., Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC Inc., Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC, Johnson & Johnson Innovation Limited, Johnson & Johnson International, Johnson & Johnson International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Johnson & Johnson International Financial Services Company, Johnson & Johnson Japan Inc., Johnson & Johnson K.K., Johnson & Johnson Kft., Johnson & Johnson Korea Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Korea Selling & Distribution LLC, Johnson & Johnson LLC, Johnson & Johnson Limitada, Johnson & Johnson Limited, Johnson & Johnson Luxembourg Finance Company Sarl, Johnson & Johnson Management Limited, Johnson & Johnson Medical (China) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medical (Proprietary) Ltd, Johnson & Johnson Medical (Shanghai) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medical (Suzhou) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medical B.V., Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices & Diagnostics Group - Latin America L.L.C., Johnson & Johnson Medical GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Medical Korea Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medical Limited, Johnson & Johnson Medical Mexico S.A. de C.V., Johnson & Johnson Medical NV, Johnson & Johnson Medical Products GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Medical Pty Ltd, Johnson & Johnson Medical S.A., Johnson & Johnson Medical S.C.S., Johnson & Johnson Medical S.p.A., Johnson & Johnson Medical SAS, Johnson & Johnson Medical Saudi Arabia Limited, Johnson & Johnson Medical Servicios Profesionales S. de R.L. de C.V., Johnson & Johnson Medical Taiwan Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medikal Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Johnson & Johnson Middle East FZ-LLC, Johnson & Johnson Morocco Societe Anonyme, Johnson & Johnson Nordic AB, Johnson & Johnson Pacific Pty Limited, Johnson & Johnson Pakistan (Private) Limited, Johnson & Johnson Panama S.A., Johnson & Johnson Personal Care (Chile) S.A., Johnson & Johnson Poland Sp. z o.o., Johnson & Johnson Private Limited, Johnson & Johnson Pte. Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Pty. Limited, Johnson & Johnson Research Pty Ltd, Johnson & Johnson Romania S.R.L., Johnson & Johnson S.A., Johnson & Johnson S.A. de C.V., Johnson & Johnson S.E. Inc., Johnson & Johnson S.E. d.o.o., Johnson & Johnson SDN. BHD., Johnson & Johnson Sante Beaute France, Johnson & Johnson Services Inc., Johnson & Johnson Servicios Corporativos S. de R.L. de C.V., Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision Inc., Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision India Private Limited, Johnson & Johnson Taiwan Ltd., Johnson & Johnson UK Treasury Company Limited, Johnson & Johnson Ukraine LLC, Johnson & Johnson Urban Renewal Associates, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care (Shanghai) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc., Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Ireland Unlimited Company, Johnson & Johnson d.o.o., Johnson & Johnson de Argentina S.A.C. e. I., Johnson & Johnson de Chile Limitada, Johnson & Johnson de Chile S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Colombia S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Costa Rica S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Johnson & Johnson de Uruguay S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Venezuela S.A., Johnson & Johnson del Ecuador S.A., Johnson & Johnson del Peru S.A., Johnson & Johnson do Brasil Industria E Comercio de Produtos Para Saude Ltda., Johnson & Johnson for Export and Import LLC, Johnson & Johnson s.r.o., Johnson and Johnson (Proprietary) Limited, Johnson and Johnson Sihhi Malzeme Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, La Concha Land Investment Corporation, Latam International Investment Company Unlimited Company, LifeScan, MDS Co. Ltd., McNEIL MMP LLC, McNeil AB, McNeil Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co., McNeil Denmark ApS, McNeil Healthcare (Ireland) Limited, McNeil Healthcare (UK) Limited, McNeil Healthcare LLC, McNeil Iberica S.L.U., McNeil LA LLC, McNeil Nutritionals LLC, McNeil Panama LLC, McNeil Products Limited, McNeil Sweden AB, Medical Device Business Services Inc., Medical Devices & Diagnostics Global Services LLC, Medical Devices International LLC, Medical Industrial do Brasil Ltda., Medos International Sarl, Medos Sarl, MegaDyne Medical Products Inc., Menlo Care De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Mentor B.V., Mentor Deutschland GmbH, Mentor Medical Systems B.V., Mentor Partnership Holding Company I LLC, Mentor Texas GP LLC, Mentor Texas L.P., Mentor Worldwide LLC, Micrus Endovascular LLC, Middlesex Assurance Company Limited, Momenta Ireland Limited, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc., NeoStrata Company Inc., NeoStrata Company Inc., NeoStrata UG (haftungsbeschrankt), Netherlands Holding Company, NeuWave Medical Inc., Neuravi Inc., Neuravi Limited, Novira Therapeutics, Novira Therapeutics LLC, NuVera Medical Inc., OBTECH Medical Sarl, OGX Beauty AU Pty Ltd, OGX Beauty Limited, OMJ Holding GmbH, OMJ Ireland Unlimited Company, OMJ Pharmaceuticals Inc., Obtech Medical Mexico S.A. de C.V., Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Inc., Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., Omrix Biopharmaceuticals NV, Ortho Biologics LLC, Ortho Biotech Holding LLC, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical LLC, Orthotaxy, Orthotaxy, PMC Holdings G.K., PT Integrated Healthcare Indonesia, PT. Johnson & Johnson Indonesia, Patriot Pharmaceuticals LLC, Peninsula Pharmaceuticals LLC, Penta Pty. Limited, Percivia LLC, Perouse Plastie, Pharmadirect Ltd., Pharmedica Laboratories (Proprietary) Limited, Princeton Laboratories Inc., Productos de Cuidado Personal y de La Salud de Bolivia S.R.L., Proleader S.A., Pulsar Vascular Inc., Regency Urban Renewal Associates, RespiVert Ltd., RoC International, Rutan Realty LLC, SYNTHES Medical Immobilien GmbH, Scios LLC, Sedona Enterprise Co. Ltd., Sedona Singapore International Pte. Ltd., Sedona Thai International Co. Ltd., Serhum S.A. de C.V., Shanghai Elsker For Mother & Baby Co. Ltd, Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Ltd., Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Sightbox LLC, Sodiac ESV, Spectrum Vision Limited Liability Company, Spectrum Vision Limited Liability Partnership, Spine Solutions GmbH, SterilMed, SterilMed Inc., Surgical Process Institute Deutschland GmbH, Synthes Costa Rica S.C.R. Limitada, Synthes GmbH, Synthes Holding AG, Synthes Holding Limited, Synthes Inc., Synthes Medical Surgical Equipment & Instruments Trading LLC, Synthes Produktions GmbH, Synthes Proprietary Limited, Synthes S.M.P. S. de R.L. de C.V., Synthes Tuttlingen GmbH, Synthes USA LLC, Synthes USA Products LLC, TARIS Biomedical, TARIS Biomedical LLC, TearScience Inc., The Anspach Effort LLC, The Vision Care Institute LLC, Tibotec LLC, Torax Medical Inc., TriStrata Incorporated, UAB "Johnson & Johnson", Vania Expansion, Verb Surgical, Verb Surgical Inc., Vision Care Finance Unlimited Company, Vogue International, Vogue International LLC, Vogue International Trading Inc., WH4110 Development Company L.L.C., XO1, XO1 Limited, Xian Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd., Zarbee's Inc., and Zarbee's Naturals.
Nuveen Georgia Quality Municipal Income Fund is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc. The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of the Georgia. The fund invests into undervalued municipal securities and other related investments the income from which is exempt from regular federal and Georgia income taxes. It seeks to invest in investment grade securities with an average maturity of around 17 years. The fund employs fundamental analysis with a focus on bottom-up stock picking approach to create its portfolio. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against Standard & Poor's (S&P) Georgia Municipal Bond Index and Standard & Poor's (S&P) National Municipal Bond Index. The fund was formerly known as Nuveen Georgia Dividend Advantage Municipal Fund 2. Nuveen Georgia Quality Municipal Income Fund was formed on October 26, 2001 and is domiciled in the United States.

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(TNS)  As Colorado becomes one of the county's leading technology hubs, the number of cybersecurity jobs is skyrocketing.According to Cyberseek, a digital tracker of supply and demand for a cybersecurity jobs, there are currently 10,207 cybersecurity job openings in Colorado, the fourth highest rate per capita in the country.Those vacancies and the industries growth track mean cybersecurity companies need a pipeline of local talent.Enter Daniel Massey, a former program manager in the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Cybersecurity Division, who the University of Colorado in 2017 hired as faculty director of the Interdisciplinary Telecommunication Program.With vast knowledge of the industry, he's provided the program with a much-needed update, the first of which was changing the name to Technology, Cybersecurity and Policy Program."To be honest, one of the reasons we're rebranding is because if you're looking to be a leader in cybersecurity, the Interdisciplinary Telecommunication Program was not the first thing that came up on your radar," Massey said, "But, as the data shows, Colorado is one of the top places in the country for cybersecurity. We have a ton of interesting companies that have their main nationwide security operations in Colorado and frankly, the higher education system, and the education system in general, is failing them and if I'm an employer looking where to expand that's worrisome."The new Technology and Cybersecurity Policy Program was specifically designed to address this problem.The key to its success, Massey said, is the intersection of the cyber and physical worlds, which teaches students not only the technical side of cybersecurity, but also the how to translate that knowledge into the real world.To reach this goal, CU in the past year also developed 10 new cybersecurity courses and has partnered with several national security agencies to solve real national security problems."It's not just big industry, its small industry, of course, there's a ton of government labs and resources that are highly sophisticated in cybersecurity, and if we do it right, we're one of the top places in the country, if not the world, for cybersecurity," Massey said. "If we do it wrong, we're going to lose that opportunity."As cybersecurity becomes a larger issue in politics following the 2016 election, the launch of the program even garnered the attention Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who on Wednesday spoke to students about the critical importance of cybersecurity in elections and urged them to pursue careers in government."I would say we have the leading cybersecurity division in state government, but the threats are always evolving, so we need our team to always be evolving in the way they think about threats," Griswold, said. "We have thousands of attacks a day on the business side, on the elections side, even on the notary side. We are constantly under attack so we are constantly looking at innovation in cyber to make sure that we're doing the best practices and leading the nation. With cyber you are only as good as you are today."The Colorado Department of State's chief technology officer, Rich Schliep, followed his boss by talking to students about the technical details and strategies used by the department to protect people's information, many of which Colorado was the first state to implement.For example, Colorado was one of the first states to employ double authentication for voter registration information, conduct cyberrisk assessments by bringing in top hackers to test its systems and monitor the dark web. The department also was early in establishing relationships with all levels of government from the Department of Homeland Security and FBI to the Colorado National Guard and county governments."I really do believe that Colorado can be a national leader in democracy," Griswold said. "The first part of that is making sure we have secure elections and we're at a time when we've seen foreign governments actively trying to influence the outcome of our election, so we need the best and brightest. It's really exciting to see the next generation lead a lot of the innovation on the cyber side."
Painted Pony Energy Ltd. engages in the exploration, development, and production of petroleum and natural gas resources in Western Canada. It focuses primarily on the development and production of natural gas and natural gas liquids from the Montney formation in northeast British Columbia. The company was formerly known as Painted Pony Petroleum Ltd. and changed its name to Painted Pony Energy Ltd. in May 2017. Painted Pony Energy Ltd. is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

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Plains GP Holdings LP owns and operates midstream energy infrastructure and provides logistics services primarily for crude oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas through its indirect investment in Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. The firm operates through the following segments: Transportation, Facilities and Supply and Logistics. The Transportation segment consists of fee-based activities associated with transporting crude oil and NGL on pipelines, gathering systems, trucks and barges. The Facilities segment consists of fee-based activities associated with providing storage, terminalling and throughput services primarily for crude oil, NGL and natural gas, as well as NGL fractionation and isomerization services and natural gas and condensate processing services. The Supply and Logistics segment consists of storage of inventory during contango market conditions and the seasonal storage of NGL, purchase of NGL from producers, refiners, processors and other marketers, extraction of NGL from gas processed at the facilities. Plains GP Holdings LP was founded in July 2013 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

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(TNS)  Florida state lawmakers unveiled a comprehensive bill on Thursday for Hurricane Michael recovery that includes money for local affordable housing development and infrastructure repair.Sponsored by Sen. George Gainer, R-Panama City, the bipartisan bill is promised to be the first in a wave of legislation to support relief in the Panhandle from the Category 4 storm. The main goal of the bill is to make sure local governments have recovery money while they wait for federal reimbursement, and to help with repairing and building more affordable housing for those most in need."Northwest Florida has not been forgotten. Period," Gainer said.Members of the Bay County Commission and Greg Brudnicki, mayor of Panama City, gathered with Gainer and several other republican and democratic state senators and representatives outside the Senate chambers in support of the legislation during a Thursday press conference."I think the main thing for me was my fear that we were going to be forgotten by the state level and possibly the federal level," Brudnicki said. "This bill exemplifies all the senators and legislators working together on both sides of the aisle and knowing we're hurting."Gainer said the legislation was the first step in supporting the recovery, adding that he expects several more hurricane relief bills would be introduced in the coming weeks.Gainer said local governments could be waiting years for reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and wants to make sure they're taken care of in the meantime."I don't want to see any of these counties and small cities stuck with a lot of debt," Gainer said.The bill would allocate $300 million from non-recurring revenues to provide public facility repair loans to eligible cities, counties and district school boards.The legislation calls for an appropriation of money to help support the affordable housing recovery efforts by local governments. The bill would also direct money to build additional rental housing to replace impacted affordable housing stock.Besides money allocation, the bill would create a task force as part of the Division of Emergency Management to review local, state and federal recovery activities and recommend any additional assistance needed to the Legislature."We'll put together a task force to decide which of these projects will be prioritized," Gainer said, referring to the many hurricane relief funding requests his office and others had already received.Robert Carroll, county commissioner, said he appreciated legislators' quick work on hurricane recovery."I'm thankful that legislators so early in the session are talking about it," Carroll said. "I'm glad it's moving forward."___(c)2019 The News Herald (Panama City, Fla.)Visit The News Herald (Panama City, Fla.) at www.newsherald.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The following companies are subsidiares of Textron: AAI Corporation, AAI Services Corporation, ALSTOM Gears, Able Aerospace, Able Aerospace Services Inc., Able Engineering & Component Services, Aeronautical Accessories LLC, Airborne Tactical Advantage Company LLC, Arctic Cat, Arctic Cat ACE Holding GmbH, Arctic Cat France SARL, Arctic Cat GmbH, Arctic Cat Inc., Arctic Cat Production LLC, Arctic Cat Production Support LLC, Arctic Cat Sales Inc., Arctic Cat Shared Services LLC, Arctic Cat UK Ltd., Arkansas Aerospace Inc., Avco Corporation, Aviation Service servis letal doo Ljubljana, Aylesbury Automation, B/K Navigational Equipment sro, Beech Aircraft Corporation, Beech Holdings, Beechcraft Defense Support Holding LLC, Beechcraft Domestic Service Company, Beechcraft Germany GmbH, Beechcraft International Holding LLC, Beechcraft International Service Company, Beechcraft New Zealand, Beechcraft Service Company UK Limited, Bell Helicopter GK, Bell Helicopter KK, Bell Textron Asia (Pte.) Ltd., Bell Textron Canada International Inc., Bell Textron Canada Limited/Limitee, Bell Textron Inc., Bell Textron Korea Inc., Bell Textron Miami Inc, Bell Textron Prague a.s., Bell Textron Rhode Island Inc., Bell Textron Services Inc, Bell Textron Supply Center BV, Bell Textron Technical Services Inc., Benzlers, Brazaco Mapri Industrias, Burkland, Cessna Aircraft Company, Cessna Citation European Service Center SAS, Cessna Dusseldorf Citation Service Center GmbH, Cessna Finance Corporation, Cessna Finance Export Corporation, Cessna Mexico S de RL de CV, Cessna Spanish Citation Service Center SLU, Cessna Zurich Citation Service Center GmbH, Citation Parts Distribution International Inc., Cushman Inc., Datacom Technologies, David Brown Group, Doncaster Citation Service Centre Limited, E-Z-GO Canada Limited, Energy Manufacturing, Flexalloy, HBC LLC, Hawker Beech de Mexico S de RL de CV, Hawker Beechcraft Argentina SA, Howe & Howe Inc., Howe and Howe Technologies, Industrial Technology Inc., InteSys Technologies, International Product Support Inc., KSB Annecy SAS, Kautex (Changchun) Plastics Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Chongqing) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Guangzhou) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Pinghu) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Shanghai) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex (Wuhan) Plastic Technology Co. Ltd., Kautex Corporation, Kautex Craiova srl, Kautex Germany Holding GmbH, Kautex Inc., Kautex Japan KK, Kautex Shanghai GmbH, Kautex Textron (UK) Limited, Kautex Textron Benelux BVBA, Kautex Textron Bohemia spol sro, Kautex Textron CVS Limited, Kautex Textron GmbH & Co. KG, Kautex Textron Iberica SL, Kautex Textron Italia Srl, Kautex Textron Management Services Company de Puebla S. de RL de CV, Kautex Textron Portugal  Produtos Plasticos Sociedade Unipessoal Lda., Kautex Textron de Mexico S de RL de CV, Kautex Textron do Brasil Ltda., Kautex of Georgia Inc., Kaywood Products Corp., Klauke, LCI Corporation International, LLC Textron RUS, Maag, McCord Corporation, Mechtronix, Medical Numerics Inc., Midland Industrial Plastics, MillenWorks, MillenWorks Themed Technologies, MotorFist LLC, OPINICUS Simulation and Training Services LLC, OmniQuip International, Opinicus, Optical Boring Co., Opto-Electronics, Opto-Electronics Inc., Overwatch Systems Ltd., PEINER Umformtechnik, Pirelli Tyres - General Rubber Goods (GRG) division, Premiair Aviation Maintenance Pty Ltd, Progressive Electronics, Ransomes, Ransomes Inc., Ransomes Investment LLC, Ransomes Jacobsen France SAS, Ransomes Jacobsen Limited, Ransomes Limited, Ransomes Pensions Trustee Company Limited, Replacement Part Solutions LLC, Response Technologies LLC, Rotor Blades Limited, Sukosim Verbindungselemente, TRU Simulation & Training Spain SL, TRU Simulation + Training Inc., TRU Simulation + Training LLC, TekGPS Engineering Srl, Textron Airland LLC, Textron Atlantic LLC, Textron Aviation Australia Pty. Ltd., Textron Aviation Canada Ltd., Textron Aviation Defense LLC, Textron Aviation Finance Corporation, Textron Aviation Inc., Textron Aviation Prague Service Center sro, Textron Aviation Rhode Island Inc., Textron Aviation Services de Mexico S de RL de CV, Textron Capital BV, Textron Communications Inc., Textron Far East Pte. Ltd., Textron Finance Holding Company, Textron Financial Corporation, Textron Financial Corporation Receivables Trust 2002-CP-2, Textron Fluid and Power Inc., Textron France Holding SAS, Textron France SAS, Textron Global Services Inc., Textron Ground Support Equipment Inc., Textron Ground Support Equipment UK Limited, Textron IPMP Inc., Textron India Private Limited, Textron Innovations Inc., Textron International Inc., Textron International Mexico S de RL de CV, Textron Limited, Textron Management Services Inc., Textron Motors GmbH, Textron Motors North America Inc., Textron Outdoor Power Equipment Inc., Textron Realty Corporation, Textron Shared Service Centre (Canada) Inc., Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc., Textron Sweden AB, Textron Systems Australia Holding Pty Ltd, Textron Systems Australia Pty Ltd, Textron Systems Canada Inc., Textron Systems Corporation, Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK (Holdings) Limited, Textron Systems Electronic Systems UK Limited, Textron Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Textron UK Pension Trustee Limited, Textron Verwaltungs-GmbH, Turbine Engine Components Textron (Newington Operations) Inc., United Industrial Corporation, Westminster Insurance Company, Williams Machine & Tool, Wuxi Textron Specialized Vehicles Co. Ltd., and Zhenjiang Bell Textron Aviation Services Limited.
Governor Andrew Cuomo is calling for the passage of the equal rights amendment on International Women's Day.

When the United State Congress passed the federal equal rights amendment in 1972, New York was one of the first states to vote for its ratification.

However, almost five decades later, the federal era still has not been ratified, and while Governor Cuomo has pushed for a state-level era, New Yorks constitution still does not guarantee equal rights on the basis of sex.

"As the Trump Administration wages a war on women, it is more important than ever before that New York fight back to protect our progress and enshrine gender equality in our state constitution," Governor Cuomo said in a statement. "It is unacceptable that more than 100 years after women won the right to vote in New York State, our Constitution still does not ban discrimination based on sex or afford women equal protections under the law. That needs to end this year. We must pass the ERA this legislative session to ensure New York continues to serve as the beacon of progress for the nation."

This proposal is included in the Governor's 2019 Women's Justice Agenda. The full 2019 Women's Justice Agenda is available here.
The dialog and design has started on the concept of covering more of Interstate 5 that runs north-south through downtown Seattle. Sixty years ago when they were starting to build that freeway, there was little thought to how many more people and cars would provide congestion to this region. Someone had the bright idea to use the space over I-5 to build the Seattle Convention Center. And, at the same time they constructed a portion of the airspace over the freeway as open space  a park. Want to guess the name? How about "Freeway Park?"Now they are looking at using more of that "airspace" over the freeway for green space, housing or commercial buildings. To developers, I'm sure it all makes great sense. Personally, I favor green space for several reasons. One is park space is limited in that area of the city and then there is the security issue.Let me take you back to 1998-99. Planning was underway for the World Trade Organization's (WTO) conference in Seattle. This ended up becoming the Battle in Seattle with a number of days of rioting in the downtown streets by thousands of protesters and hundreds of police. That was the longest week, with more personal hours of work than I've ever done since leaving the Infantry.Before the actual event, there was a site visit by members of the WTO. This delegation included their security staff. Imagine their surprise and amazement when they found out that the Convention Center that was the site for WTO meetings was built over the freeway that carried any number of semi-trucks and tanker trucks, etc., that could be transformed into rolling building killer bombs. It was not an ideal situation.Well, no one blew up the convention center and the only thing it was the end of was the then-mayor's political career. After that, he could do nothing right in the eyes of the public.Not many terrorists want to blow up parks. They would rather target buildings. Housing could be a potential target, but then since the convention center is already there  that is the primary target  right?My only reason in writing is to say that developers and urban planners are working everywhere to promote new building in cities. Wouldn't it be nice if at some point in the planning, they gave security a significant consideration? I don't expect that security will over-rule other decision-making, but then it would be a deliberate decision to do so. If that happens, then I guess we can call that progress.
SALISBURY CENTER, N.Y. -- State police have arrested a Salisbury Center woman for stealing over $50,000 from her former employer.

Debra Claus, 51, is charged with grand larceny for allegedly stealing from peter smith trucking while she worked as a secretary and book keeper.

Claus was remanded to the Herkimer County Jail in lieu of $5,000 cash bail or $10,000 bond, and is scheduled to reappear in court at a later date.

The investigation is ongoing.
WORCESTER, N.Y. -- State police in Oneonta arrested a South Carolina man for speeding on Interstate 88 in Worcester and turned up much more from a routine traffic stop.

Police say the officer noticed a gun in Devin Smith's glove box during the traffic stop on March 1.

The gun wasn't registered and had a 15 round magazine  in New York state the minimum is 10.

He's charged with criminal possession of a weapon, unlawful possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device, and unlawful possession of marijuana.
FRANKFORT, Ind (WLFI) W. Washington St. in Frankfort is closed indefinitely, as the remains of the burned-out building downtown loom overhead.

"We encourage all citizens to stay away from that building right now, said Frankfort Fire Chief John Kirby

The building looks destroyed but there are still pieces hanging.

"From the heat, the stress, said Kirby. From the collapse, the roof collapsing. It's unsafe."

Frankfort Fire Chief John Kirby said the building is a threat to the public. He said the pieces that are hanging could fall off. If someone is walking on the sidewalk by the building, a big chunk could fall off because it is not secure.

That's why 55 West Washington Street is now closed. Even though many other businesses are still in operation.

"We have just been shut down and we are due to open this Tuesday, said Owner of Delilahs Boutique and Colourz Salon Tammy Sheridan.

Sheridan business is connected to the building that caught fire. The day after the fire she had to throw half of her inventory away due to the smoke smell.

"We had to inventory everything out for the insurance, said Sheridan. And get a cost and all of that, which was quite time-consuming"

Sheridan is concerned about the impact the blocked off the street will have on her business, once she opens next week.

"The whole block is shut off now, said Sheridan. When I do re-open how is that going to affect the business because there is nowhere to park"

The City of Frankfort has released an official statement regarding the street closing. You can find that here.
CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. (WLFI)  Gloria Rightsell is not shocked about the Montgomery County Prosecutor's decision to not file charges against Indiana State Police Trooper Daniel Organ.

She said she can't get over what she calls this senseless, incomprehensible act.

"Never in my wildest dreams would I ever imagine that he'd [Glenn Rightsell] be shot and killed by the police," said widowed Gloria Rightsell.

It's been 70 days since Glenn Rightsell was shot and killed just a quarter of a mile away from his daughter's house near North Montgomery High School.

"We will never know Glenn's side because Glenn's not here to tell it," said Gloria Rightsell.

It was Glenn's daughter's Chevy Tahoe that was disabled on the side of the road.

As Gloria put it, Glenn was just doing his fatherly duty to fix the car and come home to spend time with the family.

"He said it would be an easy fix and it wouldn't take him long because we were planning to go to dinner that night," said Gloria Rightsell.

That night Glenn picked up a heater hose from a local dealership, asked Gloria for a head lamp and then went to repair the car.

That's when Gloria's son-in-law called her with this message.

"I don't want to alarm you, but there's a lot of police activity going on where Glenn is working on the car," said Gloria Rightsell.

Then Gloria learned from police he was shot and this is her response to that.

"I asked them well who shot him?" said Gloria Rightsell. "Did the police shoot him? They said yes and I was oh my god, why?"

Why is the word plaguing Gloria's thoughts.

A 22-year-old trooper with the Indiana State Police shot the man who has taken care of her five children and never complained about life.

The Rightsell's moved to Crawfordsville from Lafayette to live in a smaller, safer community.

"We always loved Montgomery County and now it's just sad that I just feel nothing but sadness," said Gloria Rightsell.

It is sadness that once was good times with her husband.

"He was just dreamy," said Gloria Rightsell. "Just everything you know. He was my knight in shining armor pulling up on a Harley instead of a horse."

Harley's were Glenn's favorite way to get around town. Gloria said she will keep some of the bikes as keepsakes.

It's the keepsakes that she will use to remember her late husband and it's this message that she wishes to say to Glenn one more time.

"Glenn you don't know how many people loved you," said Gloria Rightsell. "I've often said it's too bad that people have to die to find out. Too bad you couldn't have a birthday party and that many people show up.
Troubled Projects

Procurement Sprints

A Fi$Cal Odyssey

Licensing Delays

More Payroll Problems

High Failure Rate

(TNS)  A $100 million government computer program doubled the time it takes to license California nurses A $290 million tax software upgrade unveiled last summer made it more difficult to file taxes online, prompting a major accounting firm to file by paper instead And, a $900 million accounting system the state has been working on for 14 years is now causing delays that threaten to impact the states credit rating Those are just a few examples of what has gone wrong when California state government has tried to improve its technology. They demonstrate the depth of Gov. Gavin Newsoms challenge as he begins a new effort make the states cumbersome, outdated IT systems more responsive and effective for taxpayers.He declared technology to be a priority, opening his budget with a $36 million proposal to create an Office of Digital Innovation that he says would foster a more flexible, creative approach to government technology.If you like the status quo, youre not going to like these reforms, he said at a news conference earlier this year.Before becoming governor, Newsom wrote a book titled, Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government. He announced initiatives shortly after taking office that target some of the states most notorious tech failures, such as an attempt to overhaul DMV systems that has floundered since a first attempt in 1987. Were going to accept credit cards , Newsom said during a budget address. Its a governor in 2019 in California saying that were going to accept credit cards in 2019 at the Department of Motor Vehicles. That is in the you cant make that up file.Some of his objectives with his new office resemble guidance from a task force created six years ago by former Gov. Jerry Brown and former Treasurer John Chiang. That task force, like at least one IT task force before it, suggested its recommendations could set the state on a better path.Previous task force reports and reviews ... have addressed some of the same issues, the report read. Despite this, the task force is optimistic that with the current leadership and institutional commitment to reform, Californias current and future IT projects can and will be more successful by implementing the recommendations of this report.Audits and at least one legislative review since then show mixed results.The state maintains an IT tracker that classifies current projects as green, yellow or red depending on their failure risks. Eight of 26 major projects under development are classified as yellow or red, indicating they are at risk of failing or requiring corrective action. The task force found in 2013 that many of the delays started at the beginning of projects, with an approval process that was front-loaded with unnecessary analysis. It slowed down projects and set conditions for late operational changes.By the time this was awarded, what they had bid on didnt even resemble what would be needed later on because things had changed or whatever, said Rocio Alvarez, the Task Forces chairwoman, who is now chief information officer for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.The Department of Technology replaced the process with a new one in 2016. In January 2018, a state auditors report questioned whether the update was moving in the right direction.The new process requires even more robust planning and detailed analysis upfront ... the process will likely take longer for agencies to complete and will require more resources, the audit said.Among the major projects that could test Newsoms process is a payroll system that the state controllers office first started trying to overhaul in 1999. The $250 million project was scrapped in 2013 after a disastrous trial run exposed major flaws with software designed by a contractor.Newsom put forward an alternative process called an innovation procurement sprint that aims to get projects up and running more quickly. Controller Betty Yee recently said she is hopeful the alternative process could speed up the payroll project.Several systemic issues impede the states ability to complete the big, expensive and complex tasks involved in technology overhauls, the task force and audits found. Two key issues are a lack of accountability for contractors and project leaders and a culture that can discourage reporting of problems.If a project exceeds (its) budget, it is often viewed unfavorably by the Legislature and agencies alike, creating a disincentive to course-correct it, the task force report stated.Right now, a $918 million project to replace hundreds of old accounting systems in the state with a new one is scheduled for full implementation in July, despite a January warning from the state auditor that lingering inefficiencies could threaten federal funding and impede annual financial reporting, which affects the states credit rating.The full adoption of the Financial Information System for California, which the state calls Fi$Cal, has repeatedly been delayed since its 2005 launch. Its cost could be higher than has been reported  the Technology Departments IT tracker says the projects poor budgeting and accounting have created an inaccurate determination of the FISCal Projects continuing cost.As of the fall, 43 of 64 entities implementing the new system were also using legacy systems, duplicating work and delaying monthly reports, according to the auditor.Significantly, the State Controllers Office does not use it as a standalone program to create the states annual financial reports. Instead, Yees office runs its old system and Fi$Cal. It has added staff for the extra work A major challenge for departments getting new IT projects up and running is changing how employees do their jobs.If you bring in new technologies and layer them on top of broken technologies, people are doing things badly, (and) theyre just going to do things badly faster, said Alvarez, the task force chairwoman. None of that (employee training) was part of the process from what we could tell when we looked at it.Struggles adapting to a new computer program contributed to the Department of Consumer Affairs implementation of a new computer program called BreEZe, whose cost grew to about $100 million from a $27 million estimate The Board of Registered Nursing, which the department oversees, blamed the program when the time it took to license new nurses jumped from six weeks to up to five months in recent years.Admittedly, the department failed miserably at change management, former Consumer Affairs Director Awet Kidane told a Senate budget subcommittee in 2015.In 2017, the department shifted from plans to use BreEZe at all 37 of the boards, bureaus and other entities it oversees to tailoring specific IT solutions for each one.Struggles adapting business processes have contributed to delays implementing UCPath , a University of California system project to unify and upgrade payroll systems across its 10 campuses, five medical centers and the office of the president.It has been far more complex and complicated than we had ever envisioned, UC Chief Financial Officer Nathan Brostrom told The Bee in 2015.The projects cost has reached at least $504 million, surpassing an initial estimate of $170 million. The system awarded a contract to develop the system to Oracle in 2011 but took over the project itself in 2013 after becoming dissatisfied with the corporation.Last week, UC President Janet Napolitano approved delaying the programs implementation at UC Davis, marking at least the fifth delay for the program. A new launch date has not been determined.While Californias problems with technology have been well-publicized, they are not unusual.These problems are by no means unique to California or the public sector, the task force reported. Large-scale commercial companies frequently experience failed IT projects and even the most respected systems integrators and developers have regular project failures.The task force cited analyses suggesting up to 60 percent of large-scale projects fail. According to another analysis cited in the report, projects over $10 million have just a 2 percent chance of staying on schedule and on budget.Alvarez said Newsom was interested in the task forces findings when she brought it up to him in casual conversation shortly after it had come out.It doesnt surprise me hes interested in this, because when we spoke he seemed very aware of it, she said.She said she discussed the task forces findings with former Treasurer Chiang but never with Brown.I do think that this governor understands the importance of technology a little better, she said.
WHITE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - A White County man that deputies have been looking for since February has been arrested. Keith Whitley Hurlburt, 28, was arrested Thursday in Vero Beach, Florida on a White County warrant.

During a traffic stop on Feb. 22, deputies said Wolcott Town Marshal James Herre tried to arrest Hurlburt on a felony warrant. Police said Hurlburt became combative during the arrest and injured Herre.

Hurlburt then ran in an unknown direction. Police said Herre was treated for his injuries.
(TNS)  The NYPD reached a benchmark Wednesday with the announcement that about 20,000 officers now wear body cameras, which have recorded more than 3.5 million videos in the past two years. The completion of the latest rollout means cameras are now worn by all officers, including sergeants and lieutenants, in every precinct, transit district and public housing police area, said First Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker at a briefing with reporters.The sense is, this is working well," Tucker said, "We are evaluating always, certainly with respect to stop and frisk in particular."A recent appeals court ruling struck down an injunction that prevented the NYPD from releasing videos recorded by body cameras. Tucker said videos of police involved shootings are being evaluated on a case-by-case basis for possible release, including the friendly-fire death last month of Det. Brian Simonsen in Queens.Earlier this week, Police Commissioner James ONeill indicated a release of the Simonsen videos could happen soon after consultation with the Queens district attorney's office.During the coming months, the NYPD will provide cameras to some 4,000 officers in specialized units, such as the Critical Response Command, Highway Patrol, Emergency Services units and Strategic Response Command, said Jessica Tisch, deputy commissioner for information technology.The camera program continued despite a glitch last October when one used by an officer on Staten Island caught fire. The officer was not injured. In response, the department pulled all Vievu LE-5 model cameras from use, replacing them with an earlier version and a newer model, the Axon-Body 2. The Axon camera will become the standard-bearer as the older Vievu LE-4s are replaced this year, officials said.The cameras have helped the department to get to the bottom of police misconduct allegations, with videos able to show whether they were substantiated, Tucker said. Cameras are also proving useful in training and assessing police actions after an incident, he added.We try to review as many as we can  lots of people are looking at videos, Tucker said.After an initial experiment during former Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's tenure, efforts to provide body-worn cameras to cops got a big boost when the settlement of a federal lawsuit over police stop-and-frisk tactics allowed for their use in a pilot program to assess their effectiveness.By April 2017, the first phase of the camera program outfitted 1,300 cops in 20 precincts with the devices. The remainder of the police precincts got cameras in December 2017.Tucker said the recent court ruling on cameras has prompted the department to start reviewing its backlog of Freedom of Information Law requests for access to recordings. There are about 1,127 such requests and the department is going through them in order to see what materials can be released, officials said.While officers have a series of instructions as to when to start and stop their cameras, the devices have a default buffer designed to record 30-second soundless segments that are continuously erased. The process is repeated until a cop presses the button that activates the camera's full sound and video recording capability.The default function provides context to evaluate the moments before an officer decides to formally activate a body camera, said NYPD Chief Matthew Pontillo, who is supervising the camera project.
A strait is a naturally formed narrow waterway running between two land masses and connecting two water larger water bodies. The Lombok Strait is located between the Indonesian islands of Lombok and Bali. It connects the Indian Ocean to the Java Sea.

Dimensions of the Lombok Strait

The Lombok Strait is 60 km long. It is widest at its northern opening where it is 40 km or 25 miles across. It is narrowest between the Lombok island and the Nusa Penida Island at its southern opening where its width is only 20 km or 12 miles. The Lombok Strait has a maximum depth of 250 m or 820 feet.

Navigation in the Lombok Strait

The Lombok Strait often acts as an alternative route for vessels like bulk carriers and supertankers transporting goods, especially oil, from Arabia to China. Since the Strait of Malacca has an average depth of only 82 feet, many ships are unable to navigate through it successfully. Vessels with the maximum tonnage that can pass through the relatively shallow Malacca Strait are called Malaccamax vessels while those exceeding this tonnage are called post-Malaccamax vessels. The latter types of vessels use the deeper Lombok Strait for passage although it requires traversing a longer route.

The Lombok Strait Allows Oceanic Water Exchange

Water exchange between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean takes place through the Lombok Strait. The Indonesian Throughflow is a major ocean current flowing through this strait that allows transport of warm, fresh water from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. This water movement has an important role in shaping global climate.

Role of the Lombok Strait as a Boundary Between Two Biogeographical Realms

The Wallace Line is an imaginary line separating two major biogeographic realms of the world; the Indomalaya realm and the Australasian realm. Although not too far away, the islands of these two ecozones host fauna that is strikingly different. The Wallace Line is named after a Welsh explorer and scientist, Alfred Russel Wallace, who was the first to record this difference. The Lombok Strait forms part of this boundary that abruptly divides the two realms.

Today, biologists believe that the Lombok Strait is primarily responsible for the differences between animals of the Indomalaya and Australasian realms. During the Pleistocene ice age, the sea levels were significantly lower than what it is today. During that period, the Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Java, and Bali were all linked to each other and to mainland Asia. Thus, they shared Asian fauna. However, Lombok and the islands of the Lesser Sunda archipelago were separated from these islands and mainland Asia by the deep waters of the Lombok Strait. Thus, these islands were colonized by animals typical to Australasia like the marsupials.
New Jersey is a US state located in the northern part of the country where it covers an area of 8,723 square miles. Native American communities have lived within the present-day region of New Jersey since 13,000 BCE after the melting of the Wisconsin Glacier. Some of the Native American communities which lived in the area are the Lenape, Munsee, and Powhatan. Although human societies have lived in the region of the present-day New Jersey for a long time, its boundaries only began taking shape after the arrival of the Europeans into the area. The first European that explored New Jersey was Giovanni da Verrazano who arrived in the area in 1524. The Dutch and the Swedes were among the first to settle in the area, but it later fell into the hands of the British who added it to their colony. Currently, New Jersey shares its borders with three other states: Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New York.

The Border with Pennsylvania

The boundary that separates New Jersey and Pennsylvania is New Jersey's longest boundary and is located on its western part. The Delaware River forms a significant portion of the boundary between the two states. The Delaware River flows for about 419 miles and drains an area of approximately 14,119 square miles wide. During the pre-colonial era, Native American communities referred to the river as Lenapewihittuk. The Delaware River is particularly famous as George Washington, the first President of the United States, crossed it before the Battle of Trenton. Other rivers situated close to the boundary between the two states include the Paulinskill River and the Musconetcong River, both of which are tributaries of the Delaware River. The Musconetcong River flows for roughly 46 miles from Lake Hopatcong to the Delaware River. The residents of the region believe that the river got its name from a mythical creature believed to have roamed the area.

Some of the major cities located on the Pennsylvania side of the border include Bethlehem, Milford, and Philadelphia. The major towns located on the New Jersey side of the border include Belvidere, Frenchtown, and Lambertville. Bethlehem is one of the unique cities in the US because it is located in two counties: Northampton and Lehigh. In 2016, it was estimated that Bethlehem was home to 75,293 people most of who live in the part of the town located in Northampton County. In 2006, Bethlehem was ranked among the best areas to live by the Money Magazine. Belvidere is one of New Jersey's small towns and it covers an area of 1.5 square miles and was home to 2,602 people in 2016. Belvidere was incorporated during the mid-19th century after the residents voted in a referendum.

The Border with New York

New York and New Jersey is separated by a border that is located on the northern part of New Jersey. The boundary between the two states dates back to an agreement signed in the mid 17th century that was later acknowledged in 1719. During the 18th century, the border between New Jersey and New York was a significant issue between the two states.

From 1701 to 1765 there were several conflicts along the border that were referred to as the New York-New Jersey Line War. Although the border agreement between the two states had been acknowledged by their respective governments, the agreement was not respected by the residents. Settlers from New York moved to New Jersey's territory which caused conflict between them and the residents of New Jersey. The final fight between the residents of the two states occurred in 1765 after the residents of New Jersey tried to capture the leaders of the New York group. The fights took place on the Sabbath, and as a result, neither side used weapons. The leaders of the New York group were captured and imprisoned in the Sussex County jail. The issue was finally resolved after King George appointed commissioners to survey and establish the border.

New York and New Jersey also had a dispute over the ownership of Ellis Island. The dispute dated back to the mid-19th century and the two states had signed a compact granting New York control over all the islands in the Hudson River. The agreement also allowed New Jersey to use half the water in the river. From 1890 to 1934, the territory of the Ellis Island was expanded through land reclamation, and New Jersey claimed it had a right to the territory. The Supreme Court ruled in New Jersey's favor and granted the state control over the reclaimed territory.

Several rivers cross the boundary between New York and New Jersey with the Wallkill River being the most well-known. The river flows for roughly 88 miles and drains an area of about 785 square miles. The Wallkill River is unique for several reasons including the fact that it is one of the few rivers that drain into a creek. The river is also unique because it flows north while it is sandwiched between two major rivers that flow to the south.

The Border with Delaware

New Jersey and Delaware are separated by a border located on New Jersey's southwestern part. The Delaware River forms a significant portion of the border between Delaware and New Jersey. The boundary between the two states is located on the easternmost edge of the river instead of being at the center of the river like in most cases. The position of the boundary means that some of the lands on the New Jersey side of the river are actually under the control of Delaware. A grant of King Charles II caused the unique shape of the border. The grant extended the northern portion of Delaware's northern boundaries by a circular arc with a radius of 12 miles. Fully extending the circle would have resulted in taking land from New Jersey which was unacceptable because the King had already granted the land. Delaware and New Jersey have been involved in several Supreme Court cases over their shared boundary.

The Importance of New Jersey's Boundaries

The boundaries of New Jersey are primarily important because they reflect a vital portion of the state's colonial history. The borders are also important as they mark the limits of the jurisdiction of New Jersey's government.
Williams appears to have been nominated as the supplier of a Pirelli test car for 2021.

Earlier, we reported that F1's official supplier was seeking a test car to conduct development of the 18 inch tyres for 2021 later this year.

"One of the biggest problems at the moment is to find a suitable test car," said Pirelli's Mario Isola.

Tobias Gruner, a journalist for Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, reports that the teams are happy with Williams.

"Engineers worried about unfair advantage," he tweeted. "But with Williams apparently being far behind it would be ok.

"We don't know whether Williams is interested or has the means to supply a mule car. If they decline Pirelli has to look for a different solution," Gruner added.

Ahead of the 2019 season opener in Australia, Williams is in full crisis, with technical director Paddy Lowe put on "leave".

Auto Motor und Sport reports that Lowe will almost certainly leave the team completely.

"He is also a shareholder and board member," said Gruner.

He said it is rumoured that it was "too expensive" for Williams to simply sack Lowe.

"If you believe the rumours, the cost of the separation is less if the decision is delayed a few weeks. It is therefore hard to imagine that Lowe will come back to his job after the break."

Another rumour is that Rob Smedley, who recently left Williams and took up a role with Liberty Media, could return to the team to replace Lowe.

(GMM)
Internationally recognized praise band Planetshakers releases its "Only Way" single globally today (March 8) from Venture3Media (V3M). Available at iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play and more digital and streaming outlets everywhere, the new song was recorded at Planetshakers Conferences in the Philippines and Malaysia in January, and was produced, written, mixed and sung by Planetshakers' Joth Hunt. It also became an encouragement to this multi-talented worship leader through his battle with cancer.

"I've seen other people go through this, but never thought it would happen to me," confesses Joth, who learned of his condition just prior to the start of the Planetshakers tour of Asia this past January. "It wasn't great timing. I feel so called to go to Asia, but this was a roadblock, something that was planning to stop me from going."

A doctor told Joth that he would need surgery to remove the cancerous tumor, and that he would be bedridden for at least two weeks, which would mean he would miss the tour. After breaking the news to his wife, together the couple decided to believe for a miracle. "It was at that moment that I began to seek God, put on worship in my headphones, and declared that God is able to make a way when there seems no way," which is the very declaration the song "Only Way" makes - a song Joth wrote just before finding out he had cancer.

"These are the kinds of statements I put in songs, because I know that other people are going through challenging times like this. But now, they never rang more true to me, personally."

With the help of Planetshakers Church Sr. Pastor Russell Evans in finding a doctor to get a second opinion, Joth met with the new doctor on a Thursday and the next day he was in surgery - just six days before his plane would leave for the tour starting in Manila.

Sharing with the Planetshakers team in Manila a week-and-a-half after the surgery - the team didn't know he had gone through surgery - Joth shares, "I had to testify how good God is. The enemy didn't' want me to be here tonight. But he lost. God had the victory over it."

The lyrics in the chorus of "One Way" go on to say:

You are the way

Jesus You're the only way

Doesn't matter what they say to me

I believe in You

So I praise

Jesus I will give You praise

Doesn't matter what may come at me

I believe in You

"God had me write that song a week before I knew this was going to happen. It was the perfect tool God helped me to use to declare victory over the situation," says Joth, adding, "It's easy to sing these songs week-to-week, but when you are actually going through it, these lyrics become more...they become an anthem."

With CT and X-ray scans, as well as blood tests coming back clear, Joth testifies, "There is zero cancer in my body because God closed the book on that. The struggle of this journey is over...God has taken care of it. So thankful to God!"

Joth, along with the Planetshakers praise team, are captured on video athttps://youtu.be/YcLyvFmIlUs leading thousands of people, joyfully singing "Only Way" live in Asia this past January and following Joth's bout with cancer. Joth also shares part one of his miraculous journey leading up to the recording of "Only Way" at https://youtu.be/Acv3bUtda6A.

In addition to "Only Way," Planetshakers released its acclaimed, four-song digital EP Rain Part 1 in January. The new EP precedes the annual Planetshakers Conference in Melbourne, AU that launches with the "Rain" theme this year at Melbourne Arena April 10 and at Royal International Convention Centre in Brisbane, AU (Bowen Hills QLD) April 16. The promotional video for the conferences can be seen at https://youtu.be/veN7GFxWeHA.

Taking the new music, favorites like "The Anthem," "Endless Praise" and "Turn It Up," and songs from its acclaimed, top-selling fall 2018 Heaven On Earth album on tour, Planetshakers just wrapped-up a tour with Franklin Graham, commemorating the 60th anniversary of late Rev. Billy Graham's historic evangelistic events across Australia in 1959. Following the tour with Graham, Planetshakers will return to the US for the Smoky Mountain Winterfest in Knoxville, TN March 10.

For all the latest Planetshakers tour, music and conference news, visit Planetshakers.com,Twitter (168,000 followers), YouTube (723,000 subscribers), Instagram (499,000 followers),Spotify (587,000-plus monthly listeners) and Facebook (over 1.493 million followers).

About Planetshakers:

Since its inaugural gathering in 1997, Planetshakers has gone on to become a global movement through its annual conferences, international church campuses and numerous live recordings, including multiple Dove Award-nominated projects. The Australia-based collective, led by Senior Pastors Russell and Sam Evans, has hosted gatherings in cities around the world while also launching Planetshakers Church in 2004. With over 14,000 members in Australia, Planetshakers Church is one of the fastest growing churches in that nation's history, stretching across five campuses in Melbourne with additional locations inSingapore; Cape Town, South Africa; Geneva, Switzerland and Austin, TX.

Celebrating over 20 years of ministry, Planetshakers honors the countless ways God has used its ministry and music to raise up a generation of Christ followers with a clear vision of taking the Gospel to the nations... "empowering generations to win generations."

About Venture3Media:

Venture3Media is a global music label and song publisher with sales, marketing, promotional, radio, television and movie expertise. V3M provides distribution platforms across all digital channels, including but not limited to Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Deezer, Tencent, 7Digital, Google Music, Facebook, Pandora, Tidal, Sirius and Rhapsody. Physical distribution includes online retailers such as Amazon, national retail chains, sub-distributors and internationally through well-established licensee's and distributors. V3M is excited to build a global ecosystem that serves the vision and heart of Planetshakers to see God's kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

Tags : Planetshakers joth hunt cancer joth hunt news planetshakers new single planetshakers only way
Hundreds of thousands are set to march in protests in Algeria today, referred to as a 20 million-man march on social media, to demand the removal of President Abdelaziz Bouteflikas regime.

Smaller protests have taken place every day since February 22, particularly by university students and youth, with the largest demonstration last Friday, the traditional day of protest coinciding with weekly prayers. Protests have continued following the ruling National Liberation Fronts (FLN) announcement on Sunday night that the president will contest the upcoming April 18 elections, defying demands to step down.

The 82-year-old Bouteflika, who has been in power since 1999, is reported to be in a critical condition and receiving treatment in a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. He is for all intents a political corpse, not having spoken in public since 2013, when he suffered a severe stroke, and is seen as a token figurehead for inner circles in the regime, which rests on the military and the security services. They are seeking to decide upon an appropriate successor, and have pledged that Bouteflika will step down within a year if elected.

The working class is beginning to intervene through strikes, over which the trade unions are seeking to maintain control. The national federation of teachers unions voted at a meeting on Wednesday to call a nationwide one-day general strike for one week away, March 13, under conditions where teachers are already joining students in protests. The day before, teachers at the University of Mouloud Mammeri in Tizi Ouzou held a meeting on campus and voted to march on the campus library with students who were protesting.

The Independent Union Confederation of the Productive Forces (COSYPOF) on Tuesday submitted an official notice for a five-day strike from March 10-14, to demand that the national electoral authority disqualify Bouteflika from standing in the elections. The union covers workers in the energy sector as well as some health workers. Algerias largest trade union federation, the General Union of Algerian Labor (UGTA), is directly allied with the FLN and has declared its support for the president.

On Tuesday, the military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Gaed Salah, issued a statement on Ennahar TV threatening that the military was prepared to intervene. He stated that the army would remain the guarantor of security and stability, and declared that the militarys actions in eradicating terrorism had displeased some parties who are upset to see Algeria stable and safe. It would erect a rampart against anything that could expose Algeria to unpredictable threats.

Salah threatened that the military would not allow a return to the painful years of the 1992-2002 civil war between the military and Islamist forces, during which 200,000 people were killed.

The regime issued a new threat on Thursday, publishing a letter issued in Bouteflikas name that warned against any social unrest: Breaking this peaceful expression by any treacherous internal or foreign group may lead to sedition and chaos and resulting crises and woes.

While the slogans of the organizations involved in the protests are centered entirely on the demand for Bouteflikas removal, far broader social issues are animating workers and youth in the demonstrations. Social conditions in the country are explosive. More than two-thirds of the population is aged under 30 and the median age is 28and more than a quarter of youth are unemployed.

However, the parties and organizations currently supporting the anti-Bouteflika demonstrations are no less hostile than the Bouteflika regime itself to addressing or improving the social conditions of the workers and oppressed.

They speak for dissident factions of the regime and those in the Algerian capitalist and upper-middle classes who are dissatisfied with the monopoly of Bouteflikas inner circle, and want a redistribution of power and wealth within the ruling stratum.

Mouwatana, or Citizenship, which has been active in organizing the demonstrations through Facebook and is cited in the international media as a leader of the democratic movement, was founded as an umbrella organization in July 2018 by Ahmed Benbitour, a former prime minister under Bouteflika.

Mouwatanas national director is Sofiane Djilali, the president of Jil Jadid (New Generation), which is one of the leading parties of Mouwatana. Its program, published in 2017, is a call to open up the regime. It makes clear its hostility to the interests of workers, declaring that youth work only with a minimum of effort to earn a lot. It is difficult to get them to stick to their job. Work little and earn a lot; this is the slogan of a large portion of the youth...

Mouwatana issued a new statement calling for protests today to demand that Bouteflika and his prime minister resign.

Every faction of the capitalist class is terrified of any movement in the working class. A number of ministers in the ruling FLN have announced their resignations in recent days, calculating that Bouteflika will have to be removed in order to protect the regime.

The major imperialist powers are closely monitoring and no doubt directly intervening into the situation. The country is the third-largest gas supplier to Europe, after Norway and Russia, and supplies half of Spains gas demand. It has the largest proven gas reserves in north Africa. The Bouteflika regime plays a critical role in French security operations and the European Unions efforts to prevent African migrants from fleeing to Europe to escape conditions of life caused by the wars and neo-colonial oppression by European and American imperialism.

In recent years, China has become the largest trading partner of Algeria, prompting concern in both France and the United States. On Tuesday, US State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told journalists that were monitoring these protests that are happening in Algeria. Were going to continue to do that. And I would say that the United States supports the Algerian people and their right to peacefully assemble.

On Wednesday evening, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian stated that the stability, security and development of Algeria are completely essential for France.

The Macron government is acutely aware that a movement in the Algerian working class could rapidly spread to France itself, under conditions of immense social anger, reflected in the yellow vest protests. There are between four and five million people in France of Algerian origin, including approximately half a million Algerian-born immigrants.
A report in the British Guardian newspaper on Wednesday revealed that workers at Whole Foods have seen their hours slashed after the Amazon-owned grocery chain raised its starting wages to $15 per hour last year.

Amazons CEO Jeff Bezos announced the pay raise across all of Amazon and Amazon-owned businesses last October as a cynical public relations ploy in response to mounting public outrage following revelations of brutal exploitation at the worlds largest online retailer.

According to the Guardian, an Illinois-based Whole Foods worker told them that once the $15 minimum wage was enacted, part-time employee hours at their store were cut from an average of 30 to 21 hours a week, and full-time employees saw average hours reduced from 37.5 hours to 34.5 hours. The worker provided schedules from 1 November to the end of January 2019, showing hours for workers in their department significantly decreased as the departments percentage of the entire store labor budget stayed relatively the same. The reduction in working hours per-employee has not been made up for with new hires, forcing workers to accomplish the same tasks in less time.

The worker said that he or she had received an email explaining that the cut to hours was the direct result of guidance from our regional team, i.e., from upper levels of management. That this is a company-wide policy was confirmed by accounts from workers from across the country. This hours cut makes that raise pointless as people are losing more than they gained and we rely on working full shifts, one Maryland worker told the Guardian. Some workers have had to resort to taking paid time off in order to compensate temporarily for the loss in hours.

Things that have made [the cut to hours] more noticeable are the long lines, the need to call for cashier and bagging assistance, and customers not being able to find help in certain departments because not enough are scheduled, and we are a big store, a California worker told the paper.

The cut in hours to Whole Foods workers lines up with the experience of workers at Amazon itself, who discovered that their modest pay increase was tied to the elimination of stock bonuses and other benefits. Shannon Allen, the well-known Amazon whistleblower whose story was first broken by the World Socialist Web Site, walked the WSWS through the figures and showed how the elimination of the stock vesting and variable compensation programs meant she would lose thousands of dollars in total compensation under the new plan.

It makes me so mad, Shannon said at the time. I want to know who Bezos asked about doing this. Bezos said that he supposedly heard from his workers. Who did he ask? It wasnt me. We didnt get to vote. They didnt pass out a ballot. Nobody asked me. Now I have an option to buy my own stock. It just pisses me off.

Amazons announcement of the $15 per hour pay raise was hailed at the time by Bernie Sanders as a shot heard round the world. The Democratic Party-aligned media followed suit, writing that this was how democracy and capitalism are supposed to work, (The New York Times ) and inspiring (the Bezos-owned Washington Post ).

This has now been exposed as a sham. All of those praising Amazon knew from the start that the company would find ways get their pound of flesh back, as had been widely acknowledged by industry analysts.

Predictably, Senator Sanders, who last week announced his candidacy for the 2020 presidential elections, has said nothing about the Guardian report. Sanders had spent months last year campaigning against Amazons CEO Jeff Bezos as one of his Faces of Greed and proposed a bill in the Senate called the STOP BEZOS Act, which had no chance of passing, to tax low wage employers such as Amazon.

After Amazon announced its cosmetic pay increase, Sanders made a sudden about face, exchanging mutual praise with Jeff Bezos as though the two were longtime friends and admirers.

Sanders said nothing about the cuts to benefits and actively worked to shield Amazon from criticism as the details of the pay increase became clear. Our understanding is that the vast majority of Amazon workers are going to see wage increases, including some very significant increases as the minimum wage goes up to $15 an hour, Sanders told the Fox Business Channel last October in response to mounting criticism of Amazon.

Sanders still cites the bogus pay raise as one of his major accomplishments, and was introduced in a recent appearance in Chicago as the man who stood up to Amazon and said you will pay $15/hour.
Members and supporters of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) have won important support from workers and young people in Melbourne for the rally to demand the Australian government act to defend the freedom of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. The demonstration is this Sunday, March 10, at 1:00 p.m., outside the State Library on Swanston Street.

The event is part of an ongoing campaign to secure the liberty and security of Assange, who has spent over six years confined to the Ecuadorian embassy in London by threats he will be extradited to the US on trumped up charges. Last weekend, the SEP held a demonstration in Sydney, which was addressed by SEP leaders and other prominent defenders of Assange, including world-renowned journalist John Pilger, civil rights advocate Professor Stuart Rees and Consortium News editor-in-chief Joe Lauria (see: The political lessons of the March 3 Free Assange rally).

In Melbourne, the IYSSE made the #FreeAssange campaign central to their work on different universities during orientation weekthe beginning of the academic year when new students are introduced to their campuses.

At both the University of Melbournewhere Assange previously studiedand Victoria University, IYSSE annual general meetings unanimously passed resolutions in support of the WikiLeaks founder and the upcoming rally.

These resolutions stated: As the founder and publisher of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange has played a significant role in the political radicalisation of an entire generation of youth and students around the world. WikiLeaks has revealed US war crimes in the Middle East and imperialist machinations around the world. For telling the truth, the ruling elite are seeking to silence Assange and make an example of him to intimidate other principled journalists and would-be whistle-blowers.

They concluded: We resolve to send the largest possible delegation to the March 10 rally, mobilising students and youth both on and off campus to wage a struggle against the attacks on freedom of speech and democratic rights.

Nemanya

At the University of Melbourne and Victoria University, students spoke about why they supported Assange and the March 10 rally.

Nemanya said: I know Julian Assange was an advocate for knowledgeknowing things that the government was doing, what is behind everything, knowing secrets, basically if there were human rights violations. I think people should be aware of what the government is doing, so we can change it.

Im disappointed with whats happening because hes an Australian citizen. He has the right to find out information if he wants to, he has the right to express his opinion, its part of freedom of speech. I think there should be more done. Young people should be more involved in politics, protesting their opinion.

Talha

Talha, also at Victoria University, added: Julian Assange is letting us know what is happening in the real world. I think the Australian government is refusing to defend him because this is what he is doing.

An IYSSE member, originally from Afghanistan, said: I think that Assange is one of the people who always wants to know the truth. He wants to know how the governors govern. What he did is what all people who want to live peacefully in the world want. The documents that Julian revealed shows why the American and Australian governments are angry. This is how a criminal hides their crime.

These governments acted like a criminal against the people. We need to raise our voices now because Assange is not just a person, he is our voice. He is the words that we want to say. We all are responsible. What he did for us was to let us know the truths that were hidden from us. Now it is our responsibility to support him.

University of Melbourne student Gunjan, who had not known about Julian Assange until she met the IYSSE, has since participated in the campaign for the rally. Since I have had discussions with the IYSSE, Ive become interested in his situation because he was the founder of WikiLeaks and, because of what WikiLeaks had published, he is now in trouble, she explained.

WikiLeaks is important because it reveals the truth about what is going on in the world. Freedom is a necessity for everyone. Julian is being held against his will and is under threat from the US government. So, it is our duty to force the Australian government to free him.

Another University of Melbourne student, originally from Iran, added: I think it is a disgrace that the Australian government hasnt done anything about Assange. A citizen has every right to expose the lies and the disgrace of the government, so I endorse what he is doing.

The fact that WikiLeaks exposed a whole bunch of secret documents about the lies that governments are telling people, whether it is in the Middle East or in the West, is a sobering fact to know about it. What he has done is heroic. Any decent human being who is in favour of freedom of speech and transparency should join the rally.

At Northcote train station, one of many leafleted by campaigners this week, RMIT PhD student Nathan spoke about his support for WikiLeaks and the rally to defend Assange. His video interview was posted on the SEPs Twitter account and subsequently retweeted by WikiLeaks to its 5.4 million followers.

Students and youth supporting the campaign have turned out to different sections of the working class.

Christine Assange, Julian's mother, thanking teachers at Footscray City College for supporting her son

Earlier this week, SEP and IYSSE campaigners distributed hundreds of leaflets advertising the rally to meatworkers finishing their shifts at a plant in western Melbourne operated by transnational corporation JBS Swift. Public school teachers have also responded to the campaign, reflecting the global upsurge of teacher struggles internationally. At Footscray City College, teachers adopted a resolution backing the March 10 rally.

Rok

Multiple campaigns in working-class areas across Melbourne have won important support for the demonstration.

Building worker Rok told World Socialist Web Site reporters: It is just ridiculous. On what charge would Julian Assange be held? There are no charges. It should be obvious any charges are fabricated, that they are just revenge. You need to be able to use the internet for free information. All the dodgy things that WikiLeaks revealed about the actions of governments and corporations and their close ties to each other made sense.

We encourage all workers and young people to attend the Sunday March 10 rally in Melbourne, 1:00 p.m. outside the State Library in Swanston Street. Around the world, show your support through Twitter using the hashtag #FreeAssangeRally and by Facebook and Instagram shares and links.
Last Monday, in a much-anticipated meeting, the Atlanta School Board gave its approval to a deceptively named plan entitled Vision of Excellent Schools. Couched behind the sanguine name is a plan to close or merge non-performing schools and funnel public funds to charter schools under private management. Even before the new measure, the city has the most charter schools of any Georgia school district.

The threat to once again seize on low test scores, the inevitable result of increasing poverty and budget cuts, as pretexts to take the hatchet to the citys public school system is serious. For at least a decade, education in the state of Georgia has been systematically starved of resources. Statistics reported yesterday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities show per-student funding in the state down by a catastrophic 15 percent since 2008, while teacher pay has fallen by 8.2 percent.

The Atlanta school board split 5 to 3 on the plan, an indication of its nervousness given the widespread opposition of parents and students who are already reeling from school closings and mergers over the past decade.

The Atlanta Public Schools (APS) is one of the larger school districts in the state, serving 52,000 students with 61 traditional schools, 18 charter schools, and 4,000 teachers. It has been subjected to a long destabilization campaign, which has escalated since 2014 under the autocratic and pro-privatization agenda of school superintendent Meria Carstarphen who motivated the plan for excellence.

During her tenure, Carstarphen has ignored strident opposition from students, teachers, and parents, and aggressively closed schools and created overcrowded schools. A major advocate of charter schools, she has handed over public schools to the national charter chain KIPP [Knowledge Is Power Program] and local charter chains Kindezi Schools and Purpose Built Schools. She has even closed schools rated as successful and forced highly experienced teachers to reapply for their jobs.

Indicative of the scorched-earth policy being directed against educators, last year Carstarphen announced that Atlantas Perkerson Elementary would be reconstituted because of low test scores, meaning that staff would be forced to reapply for their jobs. She warned would-be applicants that they will have to make the case and show that they can make a difference with those students under the programming that were offering.

While the school board has repeatedly cited monetary savings in closing schools, this has come at the expense of parents and children forced to travel longer distances, endure long hours and attend overcrowded schools.

So intertwined are the charter operators with the Atlanta School Board that a non-profit named RedefinED Atlanta that is allied with charter school operators fully paid for a trip of three members of the school board in January to visit Denver, a school district that has become a haven for private charter operators. This blatant conflict of interest, to put it mildly, was ostensibly to learn Denvers best practices that could be duplicated in the APS system.

While both the Republican-dominated state legislature and then Republican Governor Nathan Deal joined Carstarphen in aggressively pushing for charter schools, the attacks on public education have been bipartisan and nationally driven.

The board chair of the Atlanta Board of Education is Jason Esteves, who also serves as the Treasurer of the state Democratic Party. His second-in-command is Democrat Eshe Collins. Both received substantial contributions for their election campaigns from out-of-state millionaire charter school supporters. By all appearances, they are part of a group of local officials who were essentially plugged-in by Teach for America and its Leadership for Educational Equality, a national network of well-funded organizations devoted to privatization. For example, former New York mayor Michael Bloombergs daughter, Emma Bloomberg, donated $2,500 to Esteves. (Under Bloombergs control, more than 100 charter schools were established in New York.)

In Georgia, charter schools mushroomed following the passage of a highly controversial constitutional amendment in 2012 that gave a state-level agency the right to override opposition from local school boards and directly approve charter schools. Millions of dollars were poured into this referendum campaign by privatization advocatesthe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; parents of Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon; and the Walton family. The language of the referendum, written by former governor [a Democrat, then a Republican] Deal was designed to deliberately confuse voters. Since that time, the state has created 45 charter school districts.

In May 2018, Deal signed into law a provision granting an estimated $17 million in additional funding for state-authorized charter schools, while state funding for traditional public schools continued to be slashed.

Teachers in the state have no right to collective bargaining on their pay, working conditions or classroom sizes. Strikes by teachers and other public workers are outlawed. Teachers are especially angry at the pressure being exerted on them from the number of inane standardized tests they have to administer from elementary schools to high schools.

In 2015, four former elementary school teachers, two principals and five administrators were convicted of trumped-up criminal charges of racketeering, a law originally directed at gangsters. These educators were made scapegoats for cheating by supposedly inflating scores of their students on standardized tests. The case highlighted the relentless promotion of standardized tests by the Obama administration and both big business parties to justify the attacks on the jobs, living standards and work conditions of public school teachers along with the further diversion of resources to for-profit charter operations.

There is a vast undercurrent of anger and dissatisfaction among Georgia teachers over their deteriorating working conditions, including increased class sizes and run-down schools. It is a matter of time before Georgia teachers will also be compelled to join their fellow teachers and students who are rebelling in numerous states and indeed internationally in defense of the democratic right to free and fully funded public education.
More than 150,000 Americans died from alcohol and drug-induced fatalities and suicide in 2017. This is more than twice as many as in 1999 and the highest number since recordkeeping began in that year. This skyrocketing rate of so-called deaths of despair was confirmed in a new analysis released this week by Trust for Americas Health (TFAH) and Well Being Trust (WBT).

TFAH and WBT analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between 2016 and 2017 and found that the national rate for deaths due to alcohol, drugs and suicide increased 6 percent over that year, from 43.9 deaths per 100,000 to 46.6 deaths per 100,000. While the rate of increase is lower than in the previous two years, it is still higher than the 4 percent average annual increase since 1999.

The new analysis provides insight into the CDCs findings last year that showed a drop in life expectancy from 78.7 years to 78.6 years, the third consecutive year-on-year decline. In the years since the 2008 financial crisis many workers and their families have confronted an unprecedented crisis of social misery, which is literally cutting life out from under them.

Certain groups of Americans have been hardest hit by the deaths of despair examined in the new analysis:

 Ages 3554: The rate of death from alcohol, drugs and suicide was 72.4 per 100,000. This was a 35 percent increase over 2007 figures.

 Males of all ages: A death rate of 68.2 deaths per 100,000 was found among men.

 Regional disparities: West Virginia, with 81 deaths per 100,000, and New Mexico, with 77, had the highest rates of deaths of despair among the 50 US states.

Death by suicide

The suicide rate in 2017 was 4 percent higher than in 2016, rising from 13.9 deaths per 100,000 to 14.5 deaths per 100,000. In 2017, 47,200 Americans died as a result of suicide. Deaths by suicide were particularly high among males (22.9 per 100,000), whites (16.6 per 100,000) and people living in rural areas (19.4 per 100,000)

Over the past decade suicide rates increased by 22 percent. Suffocation and hanging suicides have risen by 42 percent since 2008, while firearm suicides saw a 22 percent increase. These methods are often chosen by suicide victims over less violent means because they are more likely to result in death.

One of the most disturbing trends over the last decade has been the rise in deaths by children ages 117. Although suicide deaths in 2017 were still lower than for other age groups, at 2.4 per 100,000, they have risen by 16 percent since 2016. Over the last decade, 12,660 youth under the age of 17 took their own lives, according to the CDC.

Suicide rates over the past decade have also increased proportionally more among blacks (30 percent rise) and Latinos (36 percent) than among other racial and ethnic groups.

Research published by the CDC last year showed that the overall suicide rate increased by 25 percent across the US over the two decades ending in 2016. These figures paint a picture of a social crisis driving increasing numbers of people, both young and old, to take their own lives in the face of personal crises, mental health issues, substance abuse and economic despair.

In 2017, 35,800 Americans died of alcohol-induced causes. The TFAH/WBT report included deaths from alcohol induced causes, including alcohol poisoning, liver and other diseases. It did not include alcohol-related vehicle accidents, violence or accidental fatalities.

Alcohol-induced deaths rose 2 percent in 2017 over 2016, the smallest increase since 20082009. The alcohol death rate has increase by 38 percent since 2008. Alcohol-related deaths were highest among males (16.2 per 100,000), whites (12.2 per 100,000), adults ages 5574 (26.4 per 100,000) and in rural areas (13 per 100,000).

People 5574, who should be enjoying their retirement, instead are abusing alcohol in record numbers. Those 1834who should be gainfully employed, studying or embarking on new careershave seen a 69 percent rise in alcohol-related deaths over the past decade, as they suffer through unemployment and layoffs and drown in college debt.

Drug deaths

The synthetic opioids fentanyl and carfentanil are 50 to 100 times and 10,000 times more potent than morphine, respectively. Natural/semisynthetic opioids include hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine and heroin.

Two decades ago, synthetic opioids were responsible for less than 10 percent of all drug deaths in the US. In 2017, they accounted for 38 percent of all drug deaths, with an average of 547 Americans succumbing to opioid overdose deaths every week.

The synthetic opioid crisis has taken its toll on every segment of American society, but has especially hit males (with 12.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2017), blacks (8.6 deaths per 100,000), whites (9.5 deaths per 100,000), adults ages 1854 (15.2 deaths per 100,000) and those living in metropolitan areas.

A recent study showed that opioid overdose death rates among US teens and children have tripled over the past 17 years. The study, published online in JAMA Network Open, found that young children died from either accidentally ingesting narcotics or from intentional poisoning. Teens more often died from unintentional overdoses, using prescription painkillers found in their homes or drugs bought on the streets.

The Northeast region had the highest opioid mortality rate in 2017 (15.7 deaths per 100,000), followed by the Midwest (12.1 deaths per 100,000). Drug deaths in the Midwest, which includes the Rust Belt ravaged by industrial decline, saw a 122 percent increase from 2007 to 2017.

The surge in synthetic drug deaths must be laid at the feet of the multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies, who have flooded neighborhoods with these potent opioids. Drug companies have pushed prescription narcotics through bribing doctors to prescribe the addictive substances, and by secretly and deliberately increasing their addictive properties.

While politicians of both big business parties have feigned outrage at such practices, they are on the payroll of Big Pharma, receiving millions of dollars from drug company lobbyists. In 2018 alone, the pharmaceutical and health products industry spent a record $280 million on their lobbying efforts.

The war against the health and lives of American workers has been a bipartisan conspiracy conducted over decades as part of a conscious strategy to claw back the gains of the working class begun over a century ago.

For the 150,000 Americans who died from alcohol and drug-induced fatalities and suicides in 2017, millions more have been affectedfamily, friends, co-workers. But for politicians in Congress and pharmaceutical CEOs this devastating toll is seen as the cost of doing business.

The US health care crisisexemplified by these deaths of despair and falling life-expectancyis a true national emergency, in contrast to the national emergency on the Southern US border fabricated by Donald Trump and his fascistic advisers.

The epidemic of alcohol-, drug- and suicide-related deaths is a social crisis that requires a socialist response. Such social misery cannot be battled under conditions where the health and welfare of the vast majority is subjugated to the private wealth of the pharmaceutical and insurance companies and giant healthcare chains. These capitalist enterprises must be expropriated, transformed into public utilities and run on the basis of social need, not profit.

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New CDC estimates: A record 72,000 US drug overdose deaths in 2017

[17 August 2018]

Studies: US life expectancy drops as mortality rises among younger adults

[21 August 2018]

One million dead from suicide, drug overdoses since 2007: Casualties of the social counterrevolution in America

[12 December 2018]
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) announced an interim 90-day deal Thursday with transportation giant Wabtec at the companys newly-acquired locomotive plant in Erie, Pennsylvania where workers walked out last week. The union told 1,700 striking workers not to report for picket duty and to prepare to return to work Monday.

The deal effectively allows the company to unilaterally tear up the agreement in place before the merger between Wabtec and GE Transportation, the previous owner of the Erie locomotive plant.

Workers at the locomotive plant walked out February 26 after Wabtec imposed the terms of a new contract that included a two-tier wage structure, the ability of management to hire temporary workers, with no rights, for up to 25 percent of the jobs. It also reduced the number of job classifications and instituted forced overtime.

In calling off the strike, or lockout as the UE called it, the union provided only sketchy details of the 90-day agreement. No informational meetings, or vote, on the return to work or terms of the deal have been announced.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, newly announced candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has presented himself as a champion of Wabtec workers. UE Local 506 President Scott Slawson from the Wabtec plant spoke at the kickoff rally for Sanders campaign March 2 in Brooklyn, New York.

Sanders responded to the back-to-work agreement with unrestrained praise for the sellout by the UE. Their victory is not only a win for the workers at Wabtec, but for workers all around America who are sick and tired of seeing their standard of living decline as a result of corporate greed.

The announcement of the deal posted on the Local 506 website reiterated, in groveling terms, the UEs commitment to continue its policy of corporatist labor-management cooperation. It declared, Both parties are optimistic that a mutually beneficial collective bargaining agreement can be reached to position the Erie facility for future growth, stability and success.

Mutually beneficial indeed. Claims of victory aside, there is absolutely no indication that Wabtec has backed down from its draconian concessions demands. Among the provisions of the interim agreement posted on the US Local 506 website was Voluntary scheduled overtime with the Companys ability to use non-bargaining unit Wabtec employees to meet customer commitments. It also called for a 90-day hiring freeze and a no strike, no lockout clause along with binding arbitration of grievances. There was no mention of the withdrawal of company demands for a two-tier wage system or the mass hiring of temporary employees.

The main impact of the interim agreement is to demobilize workers, who were winning wide support both locally and nationally, and hand the initiative back to the company. Wabtec will use the next 90 days to step up its strikebreaking plans and prepare to renew its offensive against workers with redoubled vigor.

Sanders role was to facilitate the shutting down of the strike by the UE. He played a similar role in the 2016 strike by Verizon workers, where the Communications Workers of America coordinated the strike closely with the presidential campaign of Sanders. In the end the CWA shut down the strike, accepting the shifting of millions on health care costs onto the backs of active and retired workers.

A fightback against the corporate assault on jobs and living standards cannot succeed based on moralistic appeals to the corporate bosses by politicians like Sanders. The reality is that Sanders, the UE and all the unions defend the capitalist system and the unquestioned right of a handful of billionaires to own and control the giant corporations and grow ever richer by exploiting the labor of the working class.

To oppose the transnational giants requires mobilizing the full strength of the working class nationally and internationally in an uncompromising fight against the profit system. In the case of the Wabtec struggle what is required is an appeal to industrial workers throughout the country, including autoworkers fighting the shutdown of the nearby GM Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant, less than two hours away. Wabtec workers should link their struggle as well to that of teachers, battling school privatization and other attacks on public education across the country.

The battle at Wabtec takes place amidst a growing strike wave internationally. This past week saw the walkout by hundreds of hundreds of thousands of teachers in Argentina, mass protests in Algeria, mass demonstrations by public sector workers in Germany and the continuing struggle by maquiladora workers and teachers in Mexico.

Instead of uniting with these and other sections of workers, the unions tell workers they must unite with their own bosses against foreign competition, pitting workers against each other in a fratricidal bidding war to lower wages and conditions. Sanders completely supports this perspective and echoes Trump by blaming unfair trade and workers in Mexico and China, not the profit system, for the attacks on workers jobs and living standards.

Sanders intervention in the Wabtec strike was based on more than mere electoral calculations. It expresses the fear among sections of the ruling elite that the trade unions, long a pillar of the corporate status quo, are losing control and not able to suppress any longer the massive anger in the working class over decades of concessions.

In the US, this social anger has found initial expression in the wave of teacher strikes, most recently in Oakland, California. The walkout by Wabtec workers is the largest struggle by industrial workers since the lockout of steelworkers at Allegheny Technologies (ATI) in 2015-2016.

The role of Sanders is to cover up the treacherous role of the trade unions and trap workers and young people within the Democratic Party, a big business party that has presided over the massive growth of social inequality and fostered endless wars. At the same time, Sanders is attempting to divert the growing interest in socialism among workers behind his campaign, which proposes at most a few limited reforms while posing no threat whatsoever to the capitalist profit system.

The World Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Party advance a genuine socialist perspective. The giant monopolies like Wabtec, GE, the auto companies and telecom companies must be placed under the democratic ownership and control of the working class based on production for human need, not private profit.

Along with this, workers need to develop new, rank-and-file based organizations of struggle in the workplace, independent from the pro-corporate trade unions, linking up the struggles of workers nationally and internationally in a common fight.

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[4 March 2019]
A week after Kentucky teachers conducted a job action to protest legislation attacking pensions and public schools, teachers in the states largest school district in the Louisville area have staged two days of sickouts in defiance of the unions. On Thursday, Jefferson County Public School teachers were joined by school workers in Meade, Oldham, and Bullitt counties, resulting in the closure of hundreds of schools.

The Louisville-area teacher actions are organized by a new group calling itself JCPS Leads. The organization is independent of the Kentucky Education Association (KEA), the Jefferson County Teacher Association (JCTA) and the union-affiliated KY 120 United group that was behind the February 28 rally at the capitol in Frankfort.

Teachers have returned to the capitol one year after the wave of strikes and actions that swept across the country in 2018 and have continued to expand in the US and internationally. Kentucky teachers did not conduct an official strike last year to oppose attacks on cost-of-living increases and retirement benefits, but the same issues have now resurfaced at a higher level. Teachers carried signs demanding, Fund our schools and chanted slogans like, We wont stop.

Currently the states Republican-controlled General Assembly is attempting to push through multiple anti-public school initiatives endorsed by US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council lobbying organization. These forces aim to privatize public education through vouchers, charter schools, and the funneling of tax money into homeschooling, private and religious operations.

Jefferson County teachers in the state capitol on Thursday

The sickouts this week are most directly in response to Kentucky House Bill 205, which provides a tax break for individuals or businesses who donate money towards state scholarships, which would be paid to parents to send their children to private schools. The aim is to divert tax revenue from public schools into tax credits to subsidize private schools. In addition to draining more money from the private schools this would also hive off more students from the public schools, resulting in a further loss of per-pupil funding.

HB 205 passed the House Education Committee but may stall in the general House. If so, the tax credits contained in the bill may be reintroduced through the back door in another bill, HB 354, after the General Assemblys regular session ends March 28.

Last week, classes were canceled after teachers turned out by the hundreds to protest HB 525, an effort to restructure the Teachers Retirement Systems Board of Trustees. This would remove or weaken the unions representation on the board, along with educational professionals, and replace them with business and religious interests. HB 525 may be voted on at any time, as it is listed on the House Orders of the Day.

Another bill, Senate Bill 250, would give the power of principal selection to district superintendents rather than local school councils. This would further undermine any input from parents, teachers, and other school workers; and strengthen district administration and political establishment control, especially in larger districts like Jefferson County. That bill passed out of committee Wednesday and awaits a vote by the Senate.

School employees, administrators, and the public are overwhelmingly opposed to these attacks. Republican Governor Matt Bevin has denounced and vilified teachers in the press, stating that their actions are harming students. On Twitter Wednesday night, Bevin sniped, Tomorrow is a school day in Kentucky School children should be in school Learning

On Wednesday, the union denounced JCPS Leads sickouts in terms similar to those of the governor. JCTA local President Brent McKim told local NBC affiliate WAVE 3 News that teachers could go into the schools if they wished and implied that the independent initiative of teachers on social media was causing chaos. I think when you have a number of social media groups and then they splinter into other social media groups, its a lot of confusion among the public, among teachers and its problematic.

On Thursday, JCTA worked out a deal with the school district in hopes to shut down the sickout protests that have closed the Jefferson County schools. In a video on the unions Facebook page Thursday night, JCTA President McKim said, We have worked out a memorandum of agreement with the school district which would allow us to have almost 500 teachers in Frankfort in each of the four remaining days that the state legislature is in session, and at the same time be able to keep the public schools open for our students.

Under the scheme, JCTA site reps would take three volunteers from each school every day to send to Frankfort, and the district would replace the teachers taking a day off with substitutes.

In an effort to justify the unions strikebreaking action, McKim echoed the lies of state officials claiming continuing the sickouts would hurt low-income families and erode support in the community. He also said any days called off would have to be made up at the end of the school year and threatened that protesting teachers could lose their health care insurance. Finally, in an even more craven vein, McKim said the continuing sickouts could lead wavering state legislators to believe that teachers are crazy and convince them to vote for the reactionary legislation.

JCPS Leads organizer Tim Hill, a Louisville high school teacher, stated that the walkouts were necessary because the union was refusing to take action. Our presence is needed, in any form or fashion, he told WAVE 3 News. JCPS Leads is about creating an opportunity for JCPS teachers in Jefferson County to have a voice for our unique issues.

Hill downplayed the differences between the teachers who walked out and the union, expressing the hope that any divisions could be worked out, but adding, only time will tell.

If one thing has been demonstrated by the teacher struggles that have erupted in neighboring West Virginia and across the country over the last year it is the unbridgeable gap between the strivings of teachers to defend their living standards and fight for increased funding for their students, and the unions, which function as tools of the corporate and political establishment. Far from uniting educators across counties and states to oppose the war of teachers and public education, the national unions and their state and local affiliates have been desperately seeking to suppress the resistance of teachers to the attacks of both corporate-controlled parties.

This underscores the need for the building of rank-and-file committees, independent of the unions, which will fight to mobilize the working class against austerity and social inequality.
Situated in the Binh Duong province of Vietnam, it denotes a very significant first for Tata Coffee. This is the Companys third manufacturing plant, after Theni and Toopran in India and is the first one to be set up at an off-shore location. The Grand Opening ceremony was attended by the Party Secrectary of Binh Duong Provice, Chairman of Binh Duong People's committee, Indian Ambassador to Vietnam, Consulate General of India to Vietnam, Tata Coffee Board of Directors, MD & CEO of Tata Global Beverages, Leadership of Tata Sons, Key stake holders, representatives from VSIP and other dignitaries from Binh Duong province.

Along with the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP), Tata Coffee Vietnam Company Limited hosted the ceremony at VSIP II Binh Duong. This 5000 MTPA plant has been set up within 19 months from its Ground-Breaking Ceremony (August 16, 2017). The Factory has had an exemplary safety record completing almost a million-man hours construction and commissioning work with zero harm. The site is certified for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and is expecting BRC (British Retail Consortium) shortly.

Tata Coffee Vietnam is uniquely positioned to work closely with customers to develop exclusive blends at its pilot plant.

Sanjiv Sarin, Managing Director & CEO of Tata Coffee Ltd., said, The Tata group already has a close relationship with Vietnam in various sectors - including automobiles, steel, trading, energy and watches. While our products are already exported to over 40 countries across the globe, our Instant Coffee has so far been produced only in India. Globally Freeze Dried Coffee is a growing segment and Tata Coffee Vietnam marks our first foray beyond Indian shores as a manufacturer of premium Freeze-Dried Coffee and is a significant milestone in our journey to becoming a global coffee major. Tata Coffee Vietnam will endeavor to bring best in class manufacturing, with a focus on sustainability and safety.

Tata Coffee Vietnam will contribute positively to Vietnam through foreign exchange earnings and creating local employment

Tata Coffee is a subsidiary of Tata Global Beverages Ltd and part of the Tata Group. It is Asias largest coffee plantation company and one of the largest exporter of instant coffee in the country. The Company produces more than 10,000 MT of shade grown Arabica and Robusta coffees at its 19 estates in South India and its two Instant Coffee manufacturing facilities have a combined installed capacity of 8400 metric tonnes. The Instant coffee is exported to reputed customers in 40 countries globally. It exports green coffee to countries in Europe, Asia, Middle East and North America. Tata Coffees farms are triple certified: Utz, Rainforest Alliance and SA 8000 reinforcing its commitment to the people and the environment.
Indian supporters of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) have been campaigning amongst students and workers this week for this Sundays public meeting in Kolkata, the West Bengal state capital.

The event will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Fourth International, which was established in 1938 by Leon Trotsky, co-leader with Lenin of the 1917 Russian Revolution, to defend the perspective of international socialism against the betrayals of the Stalinist bureaucracy.

Founded in 1953, the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) continues that struggle, waging a principled fight against imperialism and all its political agencies.

The campaign for the Kolkata meeting is being conducted as military tensions between India and Pakistan intensify. Critical-thinking workers, youth and intellectuals throughout the sub-continent are deeply concerned about the danger of war between India and Pakistan, both nuclear armed powers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis BJP-led government seized on a Kashmiri separatist suicide attack on February 14, which killed 40 Indian soldiers, to launch a warmongering campaign against Pakistan, blaming Islamabad for the incident.

On February 26, India bombed targets deep inside Pakistan and the next day warplanes from both countries engaged in a dogfight. This was followed over the next days with cross-border shelling along the Line of Control, which separates parts of Kashmir ruled by the two countries.

Modis military response and his provocative rhetoric have been embraced by the opposition Congress Party and the main Stalinist formationsthe Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM and the Communist Party of India or CPI.

Workers and youth speaking with Indian supporters of the ICFI over the past three weeks have voiced concerns about the war danger and growing media hysteria against Pakistan.

ICFI supporters distributed hundreds of WSWS articles about the historical origins of the India-Pakistan conflict and the need for workers and youth to study the history of the Fourth International and its life and death battle against Stalinism.

ICFI campaigners have explained that the source of the conflict lay in the 1947 partition of then British India into a Muslim Pakistan and a Hindu-dominated India. This reactionary communalist arrangement with the departing colonial rulers was imposed with the assistance of both sections of the national bourgeoisiethe Indian National Congress and the Muslim Leagueand the endorsement of the Soviet and Indian Stalinists.

Jana

Sunjay, a railway worker, said: Modi is vigorously whipping up war tensions but he has proven incapable of doing anything good for working people during his five-year tenure. He wants to get elected prime minister again by using this warmongering campaign. The government should be making more money available for the peoples welfare, including health and education, rather than on military armaments.

Hussain, another railway worker, said: Im opposed to war and support your comments about it. I agree that war will only be stopped through the intervention of the working class and that a workers government should be established.

Jana, also a railway worker, like many of his follow workers, denounced the war hysteria: Modi made many promises before coming to power but failed to implement any of them. Many youth joined the army because of a huge unemployment problem but they are the ones who are killed in the wars. We have to oppose the war.

Anith

Anith, a student from Presidency University, denounced the Modi governments aggressive stand against Pakistan: I totally oppose this warmongering. The entire drama has been created by Modi government in order to divert everyones attention from the social issues we face. I fully agree with your socialist anti-war campaign.

Socialist internationalism is entirely appropriate in the era of global capitalism, he said and declared his solidarity with the ICFIs international campaign for the freedom of Julian Assange.

No other movement in India that claims to be leftist is taking up the defence of Assange, he said. The quarter century of war waged by the US that has killed many innocent people may turn ultimately into a world war and a nuclear war.

Anith commented on the Stalinist CPM, which ruled West Bengal state for over 34 years, and referred to the political betrayals of the Maoist Naxalite guerrilla movement, which, he said split into many groups.

CPM student movements dominated in many universities, presenting themselves as people fighters. But after the genocide of farmers in Nandigram by the CPM-led Left Front government in 2007, they were exposed as anti-people, he said. Peasant farmers were killed and seriously injured when thousands of state police opened fire during protests against the West Bengal state governments appropriation of lands for big business.

Referring to Leon Trotsky, Anith said: Ive read about his struggle against Stalinism. Trotsky has been hidden by these people [the Stalinists] but Ill read more about him on your web site.

Kanaditya

Kanaditya, a Jadavpur University student, spoke at length about the hysterical atmosphere being whipped up by the Modi government and the media. He denounced the growing war drive in the region.

I totally agree with your socialist internationalist program and anti-war campaign, he said, and asked about the ICFIs warnings that military conflict between India and Pakistan could spiral into a third world war.

ICFI supporters explained that Indias transformation into a frontline state in the US military-strategic offensive against China and the close military alliance between Islamabad and Beijing meant any military conflict between two South Asian countries could quickly develop into a war involving the US and China.

Kanaditya said no other party in India had explained this danger and he enthusiastically thanked ICFI supporters for their explanation. Im really encouraged by your discussion and am so pleased to have finally found an international party that can answer all my questions, he said.

The March 10 Kolkata meeting is a politically significant event and will reference Stalinisms betrayal of the anti-colonial movement and its endorsement of the reactionary 1947 partition of India, thereby helping create the conditions for danger of nuclear war between India and Pakistan.

The Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India (BLPI), which was affiliated to the Fourth International, was the only proletarian organisation that opposed the partition and courageously fought for a socialist and internationalist perspective.

These and other key battles waged by the Fourth International are of vital significance for the struggle for socialist internationalism today. We urge workers, students, youth, intellectuals and WSWS readers to attend the meeting and participate in this crucial discussion.

Date and Time: March 10, at 5 p.m.

Venue: Indian Association,

62 B.B. Ganguly Street, Kolkata 700012

(Near Central Metro, Gate No.4)
The announcement by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) of a statutory investigation of the British Labour Party is a major escalation of what are clearly state-orchestrated efforts to destabilise the party and remove its elected leadership.

After months of slanderous campaigning by Blairite right-wingers, Zionists, Conservatives and a scurrilous media, bogus accusations of widespread left-wing anti-Semitism could now end up in criminal proceedings against the Labour Party.

The EHRC stated yesterday, Having received a number of complaints regarding anti-Semitism in the Labour party, we believe Labour may have unlawfully discriminated against people because of their ethnicity and religious beliefs.

Our concerns are sufficient for us to consider using our statutory enforcement powers. As set out in our enforcement policy, we are now engaging with the Labour Party to give them an opportunity to respond.

This is blatant politically motivated interference. The complainants referred to are the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) and the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA). The JLM is led by Blairite opponents of party leader Jeremy Corbyn. The CAA is registered as a charity but acts as a political advocate for Zionism and the Israeli state and has organised numerous campaigns against the Labour left.

The EHRC has extraordinary legal powers, granted under the 2006 Equalities Act, as updated in 2010, which was passed by the Labour government of Tony Blair.

The Commission can institute legal proceedings, including judicial review, and make applications to court for injunctions. An investigatory process could open a full inquiry under section 20 of the 2006 Act within two weeks. This would include demands that Labour hand over documents, emails and other evidence to the state, as well as agree to the interrogation of its staff.

The only previous intervention by the EHRC into a political party was against the fascist British National Party. It ended in a ludicrous agreement that the BNP revise its racist constitution to allow black and minority membership.

The Labour Party has remained silent over the anti-democratic implications of the EHRCs investigation, saying only, We completely reject any suggestion the party has acted unlawfully and will be cooperating fully with the EHRC  Antisemitism complaints received since April 2018 relate to about 0.1 percent of our membership, but one anti-Semite in our party is one too many.

The Zionists were ecstatic. Gideon Falter, chairman of CAA, told the Jewish Chronicle, It is a sad indictment that the once great anti-racist Labour Party is now being investigated by the equality and human rights regulator it established just a decade ago.

The JLM described the EHRC investigation as a fully independent inquiry, not encumbered by corrupted internal practices.  Everything that has happened in the months since our referral supports our view that the Labour Party is now institutionally anti-Semitic.

The Jewish Chronicle noted that the EHRC can impose an action plan on the party. The political basis for determining whether Labour has been discriminatory towards Jews and any action plan will no doubt be judged by adherence to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, which links anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism and which has provided the political bedrock of the right-wing destabilisation campaign in the Labour Party. It asserts that it is anti-Semitic to deny the Jewish people the right to self-determination and to describe the State of Israel as a racist endeavour.

The decision of the EHRC to accept the complaints of the JLM and CAA as the basis for action is extraordinary, given that both are leading political participants in a bitterly contested faction struggle.

The JLM is the successor organisation to Poale Zion (Labour Zionism) and is affiliated to the World Zionist Organisation and the World Labour Zionist Movement. On Wednesday, at aggregates in London and Manchester, JLM delegates rejected a motion to disaffiliate from the Labour Party prior to an annual general meeting in early April. However, Vice Chair Mike Katz told the Evening Standard his members were staying with the absolute purpose of fighting and making it clear this has to be the last chance saloon for the Labour Party.

Even the CAAs charitable status is hotly contested, due to its overwhelming concern with attacks on the left and declared pro-Zionist political agenda. Its first public act was to organise an August 2014 rally in central London to oppose criticisms of the bloody Israeli military offensive against Gaza.

In February 2017, a letter to the Guardian was signed by 250 academics, protesting the CAA's role in intimidating students on university campuses. The CAA had called on its supporters to record, film, photograph and get witness evidence of student protests during Israel Apartheid Week to "take it up with the university, students union or even the police. Signatories denounced the CAAs outrageous interferences with free expression and attacks on academic freedom  in the interests of Israel under the thin disguise of concern about anti-Semitism.

In August 2018, it was the CAA that organised a demonstration outside Labours headquarters accusing Corbyn and the Labour Party of anti-Semitism. This was accompanied by a change.org petition, Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite and must go, featuring the slogan describing Labour as For the many not the Jew. The petition called on Labour MPs to propose a challenger to Corbyn or initiate a vote of no confidence.

A counter petition against the CAA was submitted by Jewish anti-Zionist activist Tony Greenstein, To Get the Charity Commission to Deregister the Zionist Campaign Against Anti-Semitism. It described the fact that the CAA is officially a registered charity as outrageous. Greenstein is presently suing the CAA for libel after he was described as a notorious anti-Semite.

The Charity Commissions spokeswoman said it was assessing this and other expressions of concern. She said, Charities are permitted to campaign and engage in political activity to further their charitable purposes, but must always guard its independence, and ensure it remains independent, neutral and balanced in any engagement with or activities involving political parties.

A note was added to the top of the CAA anti-Corbyn petition saying, We have received flags from our users that the facts in this petition may be contested. You should consider researching this issue before signing or sharing.

The Blairites have made clear the political aim of the move they played a central role in initiating.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan welcomed the announcement, claiming that Labour had been too slow and too lax in responding to the complaints about anti-Semitism and that the impression had been created that there is a hierarchy when it comes to racism and skin colour is more important than being Jewish.

Dame Margaret Hodge MP, who last year screamed in Corbyns face, in Parliament, that he was a f---ing racist anti-Semite, said she would now like to see Jeremy Corbyns inner circle taken out of the frame and not being allowed to play a role.

Her ally, John Mann MP, was blunter still, stating, Obviously there will be resignations from those in power as this fully unfolds.

The situation facing Corbyns supporters grows more serious by the hour. In the past three years, the rank-and-file have seen their overwhelmingly popular demand to expel the Blairites thwarted again and again by Corbyn and his inner circle and their grovelling before the right wing.

This left the Blairites free to redouble their witch-hunting efforts, designed to take back their undisputed control of the party apparatus, this time with the active collaboration of Corbyn, et al. But even this is not enough to slake their political bloodlust. The path has now been opened for criminal proceedings and a de facto state takeover of the partys disciplinary procedures that will inevitably end in mass expulsions.
Last weekend, less than three months before a general election must be held, two more cabinet ministers announced their departures from Australias Liberal-National Coalition government. That took to six the number of top-level ministers or ex-ministers who have made similar declarations in the past month that they will not contest the looming election.

The corporate media depicted the resignations as simply more rats deserting a sinking ship, pointing to media polls predicting the governments defeat. More fundamentally, however, the desertions point to an intensifying breakup of the Liberal and National parties and a deep crisis of the entire Australian political establishment.

All the ministers who decided to quit are either members of the Liberal Partys supposed moderate wing, associated with Malcolm Turnbull, who was ousted as prime minister last August, or were sidelined by the conservative faction following the installation of Scott Morrison to replace Turnbull.

The pre-election departures came in response to the ongoing offensive by the most right-wing elements to transform the Coalition into a Trump-style populist and fascistic movement, even if means the breakup of the Coalition in its current form, one of the two key linchpins of capitalist rule since World War II. Presently led by Morrison, these layers are whipping up nationalist, anti-immigrant and anti-Chinese sentiment as a means of diverting working-class discontent over declining living conditions and ever-greater social inequality.

The most revealing departure was that of Defence Minister Christopher Pyne, who has been a leading powerbroker in the moderate faction for 25 years. In addition to heading the multi-billion dollar-a-year military and arms spending portfolio, Pyne is the governments chief of business in the House of Representatives, orchestrating its legislative agenda and parliamentary tactics.

Desperate to hold the government together, at least for now, Morrison said he would keep Pyne in both posts until the election, adding to a growing list of lame duck ministers.

Pyne has remained an unabashed Turnbull supporter, despite being promoted to the senior defence ministry after throwing his factions numbers behind Morrison when Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton initially challenged Turnbulls leadership last August. Following the party leadership coup, Pyne told the Sydney Morning Herald that Turnbull was the kind of person that should have been prime minister of Australia: urbane, highly intellectual, successful, broad, visionary, clever, articulate, funny, charming, everything that a modern leader and a modern prime minister should be.

Pyne, who was previously defence industry minister, sought to turn his economically blighted home state of South Australia, formerly heavily-dependent on the auto industry, into a naval shipbuilding and war industry hub. Nevertheless, he and Turnbull also advocated trying to convince Washington to avert all-out war, if possible, against China, which takes one-third of Australian capitalisms exports.

The other resignation last weekend was that of Defence Industry Minister Steven Ciobo. Once a Turnbull supporter, he backed last Augusts leadership coup but lost his own bid to become party deputy leader and was then demoted by Morrison from the high-profile trade ministry. The conservative faction had long mistrusted Ciobo, who was regarded as Turnbulls lieutenant when Turnbull ousted Tony Abbott, the primary figure in the far-right group, as prime minister in 2015.

Morrison immediately replaced Ciobo with Senator Linda Reynolds, an ex-army reserve brigadier with close military ties, and declared she would be further promoted to the top job of defence minister if the government won the election. That would be a meteoric rise for Reynolds, who only became a junior assistant minister after Turnbull was removed.

These departures came hard on the heels of a similar announcement by former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who had quit the cabinet last August essentially in protest against Turnbulls axing, that she would be leaving parliament. Bishop, who had been deputy Liberal Party leader since 2007, stood for election as party leader after Turnbull was ousted, but received only 11 votes. It was a rebuff not just for her personally but for the moderate faction. In particular, it was a blow to her Western Australian support base, which rests on sectors of the mining industry most reliant on exports to China.

This week, Bishop sent a barbed message to Morrison and his backers, giving a media interview in which she insisted that, as prime minister, she could have won the imminent election.

The latest retirements followed those of Industrial Affairs Minister Kelly ODwyer, Human Services Minister Michael Keenan and Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion. ODwyer had earlier told a Liberal Party room meeting that crusades by ideological warriors had hijacked the party.

The factional warfare also has engulfed the rural-based National Party, particularly since Turnbull effectively forced its leader, Barnaby Joyce, to quit his post in February 2018. This week, six National parliamentarians stepped up the right-wing aggression by demanding that the government spend billions of dollars to subsidise new coal-fired power stations. This is another move to try to head off support for far-right parties, such as Senator Pauline Hansons anti-immigrant One Nation, that have depicted coal-based projects as solutions to high levels of unemployment and under-employment.

The Coalition, a pillar of corporate rule, is being torn asunder. Primarily as a result of the infighting, of the 42 ministers sworn-in when the Coalition took office in 2013 led by Tony Abbott, 26or more than 60 percenthave either left politics, been dumped from the frontbench or are planning to leave parliament in May.

The unravelling has accelerated. Nearly 40 percent of Turnbulls post-2016 election ministry has since retired, resigned or are going to quit. Former small business minister Craig Laundy, another moderate, is also believed to be preparing to announce his departure.

The growing signs of economic reversal, and corporate fears of rising working class unrest, have exacerbated the tensions wracking the Coalition. An Australian Financial Review editorial this week warned of the evident loss in popular trust in institutions, particularly in business in the wake of the banking royal commission. That inquiry, while extremely limited, highlighted the predatory practices of the financial institutions that successive governments have propped up since the 2008 global breakdown.

Chinas economic slowdown, the simmering US-China trade and technology war, the uncertainty of Brexit, declining real wages and the collapse of Australias six-year housing market bubble have led already to a per-capita recession. Statistics released this week showed that gross domestic product per person dropped 0.2 percent in the December quarter of 2018, the second consecutive quarterly fall.

Under these conditions, sections of the ruling class are once again looking to a pro-business Labor government, backed to the hilt by the trade unions, to stifle and suppress the opposition of workers and young people to the glaring inequality and deteriorating social conditions.

Invited to give a keynote speech to an Australian Financial Review business summit this week, Labor leader Bill Shorten pledged to reverse the economic stagnation and toxic distrust among workers by slightly lifting minimum wages. [W]e know employers are not the class enemy, he assured the audience.

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[4 March 2019]
A federal judge ordered whistleblower Chelsea Manning to prison on Friday for refusing to answer questions from a grand jury convened to bring charges against WikiLeaks and its publisher Julian Assange.

Chelsea Manning

Judge Claude H. Hilton of the Federal District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that Manning must stay in prison until she testifies, and ordered her to be confined in the womens wing of the federal detention center in Alexandria, Va.

Manning has stood firm and refused to incriminate WikiLeaks and Assangeor any other media organization and individualover her courageous 2010 disclosure of hundreds of thousands of documents that exposed US war crimes.

Manning's lawyer, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, told the WSWS after the decision, Chelsea's actions speak for themselves. She is a person of tremendous honor and courage, and this latest struggle is just the most recent in a long series of principled stands she has taken.

Asked if she is concerned about the conditions Chelsea will face in jail, Meltzer-Cohen said that the government has made assurances that her health needs will be taken care of, but that "we all need to be vigilant that those assurances are made good on.

The Socialist Equality Party unequivocally condemns the US governments vindictive and criminal persecution of Chelsea Manning, said Joseph Kishore, the national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in the US.

Chelsea suffered solitary confinement, abuse and torture, and over six years of imprisonment, for letting the American and world population know the truth. Yesterday, she once again stood firm on fundamental democratic principle and refused to assist the Trump administration in its vendetta to falsely incriminate WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. She is a heroic figure and she must be defended.

Working people all over the world will never forget Chelseas courageous exposure, at vast personal cost, of the crimes of American imperialism. Amid a growing global strike wave, the Socialist Equality Party will do everything in its power to mobilize the working class to defend Chelsea, and free Julian Assange and all other class war prisoners.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in the UK is participating in a solidarity vigil organised by the Julian Assange Defence Committee on Sunday, March 10 outside Ecuadors London embassy. The SEP in Australia is holding a rally on Sunday at the State Library in Melbourne to demand freedom for Assange and Manning. Protests in the United States are also being planned.

Mannings bravery underscores how much is at stake in defending Assange against the intensified operation by the Trump administration and the US Justice Department to railroad the WikiLeaks leader to jail, or onto death row, for broadcasting to the worlds people the truthwhich was only brought into the light of day by Chelsea Manningabout US militarism and foreign policy.

The jailing of Manning marks a further escalation of Washingtons drive to force Assange out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he was granted political asylum in 2012. The Trump administration is moving to publicly unveil charges against him and demand the Ecuadorian and British governments comply with a warrant to extradite him to the US on false allegations of espionage or conspiracy.

Although Manning was offered immunity in exchange for testimonya device employed to entice witnesses to assist prosecutorsshe refused to answer any of the Trump administrations questions, citing her rights under the US Constitution.

Manning, in a press release issued after the hearing, stated:

Yesterday, I appeared before a secret grand jury after being given immunity for my testimony. All of the substantive questions pertained to my disclosures of information to the public in 2010answers I provided in extensive testimony, during my court-martial in 2013. I responded to each question with the following statement: I object to the question and refuse to answer on the grounds that the question is in violation of my First, Fourth, and Sixth Amendment, and other statutory rights.

On Friday, I will return to federal court in Alexandria, Virginia for a closed contempt hearing. A judge will consider the legal grounds for my refusal to answer questions in front of a grand jury. The court may find me in contempt, and order me to jail.

In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles. I will exhaust every legal remedy available. My legal team continues to challenge the secrecy of these proceedings, and I am prepared to face the consequences of my refusal.

A more principled and heroic statement could not be expected of anyone.

Judge Claude M. Hilton has now remanded Chelsea Manning, after all she has suffered, into custody as a recalcitrant witness. She could be held in contempt and jailed for as long as 18 months, or until the end of the life of the grand jury.

Earlier this week, Hilton, who was appointed to the Federal District Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1985, rejected motions by Mannings attorneys to quash the subpoena or make the full record of her testimony public.

Horrified by what she saw of US military and diplomatic crimes following her deployment to Baghdad in 2009, Manning leaked a vast array of classified documents to WikiLeaks. These included the "Collateral Murder" video showing US helicopter gunships shooting down civilians, including children and two Reuters journalists.

During her 13-week court-martial in 2013, Manning testified that she acted on her own, anonymously, to send documents to WikiLeaks. She refused to incriminate Assange or WikiLeaks, despite the brutal treatment she was forced to endure. This included prolonged solitary confinement and other abuses that were condemned internationally as torture.

Manning was convicted by the military court under the US Espionage Act for leaking portions of 227 documents. With Barack Obama in the White House, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prisonmore time than anyone has ever received for disclosing classified US government records.

In one of his last acts, Obama commuted Mannings sentence in 2017, but refused to grant her a pardon, ensuring that her conviction remained on her record. A spokesman for Trump, who was about to take office, called the decision to release Manning disappointing and troubling.

The renewed persecution of Manning confirms that the vendetta against Assange has nothing to do with the fabricated claims that WikiLeaks colluded with the Russian government to secure Donald Trumps victory in the 2016 presidential election.

Manning was subpoenaed by the same Grand Jury in the Eastern District of Virginia that was convened in 2010 to decide whether to file charges against Assange over WikiLeaks publication of the Manning leaks.

Various sources have reported that the Grand Jury did charge Assange under the 1917 Espionage Act and sealed the indictment. A court document dated August 22, 2018, apparently mistakenly divulged in an unrelated case, specifically stated the case was sealed in order to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged.

Another judge, in the same court, this year declined a reporters group motion to unseal those charges. The federal prosecutor who tried that case, Gordon D. Kromberg, also requested the subpoena compelling Mannings testimony.

David House, who reportedly befriended Manning in 2010, testified under immunity before the grand jury last July. He said he, too, was asked about the war logs Manning shared with WikiLeaks.

The Obama administration apparently pulled back from charging Assange over Mannings disclosures because some of the material was published in partnership with leading corporate media organs, including the New York Times, the Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, El Pais and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Under Trump, the US authorities are seeking to overcome that problem by coercing Manning into saying that WikiLeaks conspired in the leaking of the documents.

The threat to Manning is part of a bipartisan offensive against freedom of speech, aimed at suppressing critical and independent journalism. She has taken an essential stand, in contrast to the corporate media outlets and pseudo-left groups that have turned cynically against Assange.

Mannings plight underscores the importance of the Socialist Equality Partys campaign to demand that the Australian government immediately intervene to secure the right of Assangean Australian citizento leave the Ecuadorian embassy and return to his home country, with guaranteed protection from any US extradition request.

Support is growing. Hundreds of people participated in a demonstration in Sydney last Sunday to demand Assanges freedom, which won the endorsement of a number of well-known intellectuals and artistic figures, including Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, journalist John Pilger, and civil rights activist Stuart Rees.

The working class must come to the defence of Manning and Assange. As the line-up in Washington against them demonstrates, essential democratic rightsincluding freedom of speechcan be defended only by the independent political mobilisation of the working class in opposition to the pro-capitalist political parties and capitalist state.

We appeal to our readers in Australia and the UK to take part in the demonstration called to free Assange and now, defend Chelsea Manning, this Sunday, March 10, at the State Library in Melbourne at 1:00 p.m. and in the vigil outside Ecuadors London embassy on the same day, starting at 3:00 p.m. in London.

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[5 March 2019]
In a revolting spectacle of hypocrisy and reaction, the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives pushed through a resolution on Thursday condemning remarks by Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar critical of Israel and the Israel lobby in the US, branding her statements as anti-Semitic.

The resolution was the product of a fractious debate within the House Democratic caucus between hard-line Zionists and so-called progressives who objected to singling out Omar, one of two female Muslim Democrats elected to the House in last years midterm elections. The other is Rashida Tlaib of Detroit.

The resolution was overwhelmingly passed in a bipartisan vote of 407 to 23, with all House Democrats, including Omar and Democratic Socialists of America members Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, voting in favor.

With this vote, the Democratic Party has capitulated to and joined with the Republicans and right-wing forces internationally in prosecuting a witch-hunt against a fabricated growth of left-wing anti-Semitism. Media commentators prosecuting the attack on Omar specifically and repeatedly associated her supposed anti-Semitism with the influx of younger Democrats running as progressives into the Democratic House caucus and the supposed anti-Semitism of the British Labour Party and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Similar libelous attacks are being carried out by the right-wing Macron government in France against the Yellow Vest protest movement and by the grand coalition government against those opposing Israeli repression of the Palestinians in Germany.

Meanwhile, the European governments are fostering the growth of neo-fascist parties and groups such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the National Front in France, and bringing neo-fascists and anti-Semites into government, from Italy to Hungary, Austria and Poland. In Israel itself, the far-right Netanyahu government has formed an electoral alliance with the fascist and anti-Arab terrorist Jewish Power party.

President Donald Trump is whipping up anti-immigrant racism and working with fascistic outfits and individuals such as Breitbart News and Stephen Bannon in an attempt to create a fascist movement in the US. He tweeted on Wednesday:

It is shameful that the Democrats wont take a stronger stand against anti-Semitism in their conference. Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and it is inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!

Trump and other Republican leaders are demanding that Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi strip Omar of her seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. This is the same president who used the White House in 2017 as a forum to praise as very fine people neo-Nazis who held a torchlight parade in Charlottesville, North Carolina and chanted, The Jews will not replace us!

Omar is a Somali-American whose family fled from their home country, which was and continues to be devastated by US military intervention and subversion, when she was a child. She has spoken out against Israels murderous repression of the Palestinians and came under attack by the Republicans and the Democratic leadership last month when she criticized the outsized influence, including financial, on Congress wielded by the Israel lobby and its most powerful organization, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

At that time, House Speaker Pelosi and five other top House Democrats immediately issued a joint statement accusing Omar, by name, of anti-Semitism and demanding an apology. Omar apologized, but this retreat only set the stage for a new and more aggressive attack.

Last week, speaking at a Washington DC book store, Omar complained of demands that she be thrown off of the Foreign Affairs Committee, saying she should not be compelled to declare allegiance to a foreign country. This was seized on by Rep. Eliot Engel, a hard-line Zionist who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who called her remarks an anti-Semitic trope echoing slanders of Jews as disloyal aliens. Engel demanded Omar apologize once again and began drawing up a condemnatory resolution.

The resulting resolution, which did not mention Omar by name but which clearly identified her as a purveyor of the anti-Semitic dual loyalty trope, linked her remarks to such crimes and atrocities as the persecution of Alfred Dreyfus in France, the lynching of Leo Frank in Georgia, the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans in World War II, and the massacre of 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh last October by a neo-Nazi gunman.

Pelosi, Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and the rest of the House Democratic leadership intended to push through this resolution on Wednesday, but ran into unexpected opposition from the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which demanded that any resolution be broadened to include condemnation of Islamophobia and all other forms of bigotry. Ocasio-Cortez made similar demands.

Responding to popular opposition to both the witch-hunting of opponents of Israeli policies and disgust with Israels savage oppression of the Palestinians, three announced Democratic presidential candidatesSenators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harriscame to Omars defense and cautioned against equating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. While the media overwhelmingly promoted the lie that Omar was an anti-Semite, several critical columns by liberal Jewish opponents of the Netanyahu regime appeared in mainstream newspapers.

Following a reportedly tense closed-door meeting on Wednesday of the House Democratic conference, at which numbers of members protested against the witch-hunting of Omar, Pelosi commissioned the drafting of a new resolution that would supposedly avoid targeting Omar and decry all forms of hate. Eager to put the controversy to rest, Pelosi rushed to complete the resolution and put it to a vote on Thursday.

In the event, the resolution that was presented and passed on Thursday was essentially the same slanderous text that had previously been drafted, clearly targeting Omar and calling her dual loyalty remark anti-Semitic, but adding boilerplate language opposing persecution of and violence against Muslims, blacks and other minorities.

The seven-page document states in its conclusion: Resolved: That the House of Representatives(1) rejects the perpetuation of anti-Semitic stereotypes in the United States and around the world, including the pernicious myth of dual loyalty and foreign allegiance, especially in the context of support for the United States-Israel alliance.

In introducing the resolution on the House floor, Democratic Majority Leader Hoyer made clear that it was aimed against the supposed invocation of anti-Jewish dual loyalty libels. Rep. Engel declared that he would vote for the resolution, but criticized it for not focusing exclusively on the issue of anti-Semitism. Ted Deutch of Florida and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey spoke along similar lines.

Not a single Democrat who spoke, including Pelosi, called out by name Trump or any other Republican ally of fascists, neo-Nazis and anti-Semites. Pelosi made a point of stressing that Israel is our friend based on shared values and our national interest, and called for a unanimous vote to approve the resolution.

This enabled the Republicans to posture as the true defenders of the Jews and denounce the Democrats for their softness on anti-Semitism and the defense of Israel. Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, summing up for the Republicans, began by thanking Engel for launching the latest attack on Omar.

During the 2018 midterm election campaign, McCarthy tweeted a genuinely anti-Semitic comment, warning that three Jewish billionairesGeorge Soros, Tom Steyer and Michael Bloombergwere planning to steal the election.

The filthy politics behind the anti-Omar operation were given full expression in a column published Thursday by New York Times columnist Bret Stephens bearing the headline Ilhan Omar Knows Exactly What She Is Doing, and the underline The Minnesota Democrat Is Bringing Corbynism to the Democratic Party.

Stephens is a right-winger, a Zionist and a former columnist with the Wall Street Journal. He concludes his piece as follows:

It says something about the progressive movement today that it has no trouble denouncing Republican racism, real and alleged, every day of the week but has so much trouble calling out a naked anti-Semite in its own ranks. This is how progressivism becomes Corbynism. Its how the left finds its own path toward legitimizing hate. Its how self-declared anti-fascists develop their own forms of fascism.

Popular opposition to this lying attempt to brand the left as anti-Semitic as well as to the anti-Palestinian policies of Israel, including among Jews, was reflected in the readers comments posted on the Times website in response to Stephens column. Of the first 15 comments listed under readers picks, all but two were supportive of Omar and hostile to Stephens.

One gets a sense of the sentiment among wide layers of the population from comments such as these:

Katzman from Atlanta wrote:

I have been devastated by the increase in anti-Semitism that has arisen as a result of Trumps intolerant rhetoric. I do not, however, believe that Omars comments contribute to this hostile environment. Read her speech at Busboys and Poets [book store] in full and you will see that she is sensitive to and in dialogue with her Jewish constituents. She may have phrased her appeal for the dignity of Palestinians awkwardly and problematically, but, as a Jewish person myself, I believe she is nonetheless correct in her assessment of the dehumanization the Palestinians suffer and of the urgent need to redress it

Jimrecht wrote: Stephens conflates anti-Semitism with opposition to ongoing human rights abuses in Israeli-occupied territories and to the neo-conservative political consensus that promotes them. I am a Jew, born and raised in the US because my grandparents fled persecution in Eastern Europe. My identification is with Palestinian refugees, not with people in positions of power who espouse views like those of Stephens.

Alexandra wrote: Spare me the drama, Mr. Stephens. Given the way the Israelis have treated the Palestinians over the last seven decades, the last thing America needs is that governments values. I frankly dont see much difference between their behavior and Saudi Arabias towards Yementhe Israelis are simply better at hiding it.

Its not anti-Semitic to call Israel out for the overwhelming evidence of its brutality. Frankly, to equate disgust at the Israeli governments behavior with anti-Semitism is a disservice If you cant distinguish between the two, youre the one with a problem.
(HedgeCo.Net) The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California entered a consent judgment against corporate deal advisor Rong Chen, who was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with insider trading.

In September 2018, the SEC charged Chen, a United States citizen residing in China, with illegally trading the securities of two companies based on confidential information regarding impending acquisitions learned in the course of advising the acquiring companies. According to the complaint, in 2013, when Chen was Vice President of Investments for Tsinghua Unigroup Limited, he learned of the impending acquisition of RDA Microelectronics Inc. The SECs complaint alleges that, shortly before the deal was made public, Chen opened a brokerage account in his wifes name and used it to make a series of purchases of RDA securities, generating more than $75,000 in illicit profits. The complaint further alleges that, in 2015, when Chen was a Managing Director at a Hong Kong-based investment banking firm that was advising 58.com Inc. on its acquisition of rival ganji.com, he again used his wifes brokerage account to buy out-of-the-money 58.com call options, which he sold after news of the acquisition became public, for illicit profits of more than $90,000.

Without admitting or denying the allegations in the SECs complaint, Chen consented to the entry of a final judgment permanently enjoining him from violating the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. Chen also agreed to pay disgorgement of $167,092, prejudgment interest of $26,356, and a $167,092 civil penalty. Following Chens agreement to disgorge his ill-gotten gains, the SEC will voluntarily dismiss its claim against Chens Wife, Yuehong Wang, whom the SEC sued as a relief defendant.
The historic decision was made on grounds of a statement issued earlier this year by the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK). STUK in February announced there are no longer any safety-related obstacles to operating the reactor.

THE FINNISH GOVERNMENT has granted an operating licence to the third reactor at Teollisuuden Voimas (TVO) Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in Eurajoki, Western Finland.

This is a historic decision. The previous time an operating licence was granted to a new nuclear power plant in Finland was in 1979, rejoiced Jarmo Tanhua, the chief executive at TVO.

Marjo Mustonen, the head of electricity production at TVO, called attention to importance of the proactive efforts and skills of experts at TVO. OL3 will in terms of its impact become the single biggest climate act in the history of Finland, she declared.

TVO on Thursday also highlighted that over a quarter (27%) of the electricity consumed in the country is already generated by nuclear power plants. The share, it added, will increase to approximately 40 per cent following the commissioning of the third reactor at Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Source: Uusi Suomi
THE FINNISH GOVERNMENT on Friday announced it will resign after scrapping its long-discussed social, health care and regional government reform.

Prime Minister Juha Sipila (Centre) stated in a news conference that he was disappointment after it became evident that the government will not be able to carry out what was one of its key projects for the electoral term of 20152019.
The European Commission launched an infringement procedure against Hungary over the taxation of foundations.

The EC sent authorities a letter of formal notice, the first step of an infringement procedure, asking them to change rules on property acquisition duty for foundations.

Hungarian legislation exempts inheritances, gifts and quid pro quo transfer of property for domestic foundations, while foundations registered in other EU or EEA states are taxed, which runs counter to the EU tenet of free movement of capital, the EC explained. If Hungary fails to act on the matter in two months, the EC may step up the infringement procedure.

The commission also launched an infringement procedure against Hungary for failing to set up a penalties system to deter market players from violating harmonised rules for cableway installations, personal protective equipment and appliances burning gaseous fuels.

Hungary was to have notified the EC of the penalty provisions by March 2018. In addition to Hungary, the EC sent letters of formal notice on the matter to Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the UK.

The EC sent a reasoned opinion  the second and penultimate step in an infringement procedure  to Hungary regarding non-compliance of national legislation on the recognition of professional qualifications.

Hungary has two months to respond on the matter or the EC could refer the country to the Court of Justice of the EU.
Police recorded 186,724 crimes last year, 13% fewer than in 2017, National Police spokesman Jozsef Gal told state news channel M1 on Thursday.

Police were able to bring culprits to justice in 70% of investigations.

A total of 78 murders were committed last year, down from 90 in 2017. No murders were left unsolved.

The number of road accidents rose by 427, while 633 people died in road accidents, eight more than in the previous year.

The majority of accidents occurred due to speeding.

Gal said 40% of crimes against property were investigated successfully, adding that there is room for improvement in this area.
The Parliament in Budapest has been ranked among the top ten tourist attractions around the globe, on a list compiled by world luggage storage network Stasher, according to a press release.

Stasher assembled a list of 99 tourist attractions from best to worst, with the Parliament building in Budapest clinching joint-ninth place, shared with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the United States.

The company says that while the Parliament scored high in all categories, its low Instagram engagement score dragged its overall performance down.

On the list, Plaza de Espana ranked as the best tourist attraction overall, closely followed by Alpine favorite the Matterhorn and French theme park Puy du Fou. The worst destination on the list was the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The ranking took a variety of factors into account, ranging from TripAdvisor reviews to safety and security. The complete list is available here.
The ancient Hungarian city of Veszprem, in the west of the country north of Lake Balaton, has been formally accepted as European Capital of Culture in 2023, Minister of Human Capacities Miklos Kasler announced Wednesday.

The other two shortlisted cities were Debrecen (in eastern Hungary) and Gyor (in the northwest). The winner was selected by a panel of independent experts of the European Commission last December.

Each year, the European Union designates two European Capitals of Culture for a period of one calendar year to highlight the diversity of cultures in Europe and celebrate the cultural features Europeans share.

Becoming a European Capital of Culture can raise a citys international profile and boost tourism, as well as generate big local investments, noted state news agency MTI.

In addition to Hungary, the U.K. was selected as the other European Capital of Culture host member state for 2023, well before the country started the process of exiting the EU. However, the five bids from the U.K. for European Capital of Culture were disqualified in November 2017, leaving Hungary as the only host state in 2023.

The city of Pecs, in southwest Hungary, was the first Hungarian European Capital of Culture in 2010. Winning the title produced a cultural quarter, as well as a big concert hall and convention center in the city, MTI recalled.



MTI Photo: Szigetvary Zsolt
Disney chairman-CEO Bob Iger told shareholders Thursday the companys acquisition of 21st Century Fox will close soon and that the enlarged company is ready to hit the ground running. He also announced an accelerated opening schedule for the Star Wars: Galaxys Edge lands coming to Disneyland and Disney World.

Iger addressed shareholders Thursday morning at the Stifel Theatre in St. Louis, Mo., in keeping with Disneys tradition of holding its annual meeting in a different city every year. St. Louis is close to the childhood home of company founder Walt Disney in Marceline, Mo., Iger noted.

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Iger told shareholders that the company is expecting to gain final regulatory approval of the 21st Century Fox transaction soon. There were reports Thursday that Mexicos telecom regulator has set a vote for Monday to give its approval of the deal, which is believed to be the last outside hurdle before Disney and Fox can wrap up the final elements of the $71.3 billion transaction.

Iger hailed the rich trove of production and programming assets come to Disney in the Fox deal as well as its wealth of proven management talent.

Iger added that Disney is poised to begin building on its enlarged production platform as soon as it receives the keys to 20th Century Fox, FX Networks, National Geographic Partners and other assets.

Our new corporate structure is designed to integrate these assets and maximize long-term value, Iger said. We spent most of (last) year on integration planning so well hit the ground running as soon as the deal closes.

Later in the meeting, Iger said that Disney planned to keep some of the 20th Century Fox-related brand names alive brand name active for some productions.

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There will be businesses within the company that still have the Fox name on them, particularly on the movie side, Iger said. We will continue to make the movies under the Fox brand and Fox Searchlight brand. FX will keep its name too.

During the session, Iger disclosed that Disney was moving up the opening date of its Star Wars: Galaxys Edge land at Disneyland and Disney World. Galaxys Edge will open its doors in Anaheim on May 31 and in Orlando on Aug. 29.

Iger gave Galaxys Edge quite a build-up, calling them by far the largest lands we have ever built before he screened a short video. The Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance attraction within Galaxys Edge is the most technologically advanced and immersive attraction we have ever imagined, Iger added. No one has ever attempted anything of this magnitude.

During the meeting, shareholders easily re-elected nine Disney board members and approved the company-endorsed proposal for its annual non-binding shareholder advisory vote on executive compensation. Two shareholder proposals were defeated. One was a bid to have Disney offer much greater disclosure of its lobbying activities and affiliations with trade organizations. That was approved by only 39% of shareholders who voted. A bid to tie Disneys executive compensation to the companys handling of cyber security and data privacy issues was supported by only 26% of shareholders.

Iger also showed off clips of Disneys upcoming live-action Lion King film and as well as a peek at Maleficent: Mistress of All Evil.

Among other topics Iger touched on:

Iger was pressed by a shareholder about revelations that ABC personalities Jimmy Kimmel and The View co-host Joy Behar in the past had appeared in blackface, albeit not on ABCs air. Iger acknowledged the company dealt with the issue as a private matter, he said. We dont condone the use of blackface under any circumstance in our world today.

Iger touted the participation in the Disney Aspire program launched last fall to provide free tuition for every hourly-wage employee at Disney, which translates to about 80,000 of its more than 200,000 employees. Iger said about 40% of those eligible had signed up for the program in its first six months. Nothing would make me happier than if we had 100 percent of our eligible cast members take advantage of this opportunity. Disney Aspire is funded at $150 million over the next five years. Iger said the company would add $25 million more each year after the initial five-year term.

Iger confirmed that the Disney Plus streaming service set to launch later this year will eventually house the entire Disney movie library. Thats a shift from the companys historic pattern of keeping its classic films out of circulation for years at a time to build up demand. When a shareholder told him during the Q&A session that she was looking forward to the service, Iger responded: Tell a friend, too.

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Chris Watts' Chilling Triple-Murder Confession: 'I Didn't Want to Do This, But I Did It'

In a calm voice, Chris Watts slowly described for investigators what happened the night of August 13, 2018, when he strangled his pregnant wife and then smothered his two daughters using the youngest ones blanket.

Colorado Bureau of Investigation officials interviewed Watts, 33, in a Wisconsin prison, questioning him on the killings of his 34-year-old wife Shanann and the couples daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.

Watts told the investigators he felt like someone else had control over him the day he killed his family, and that he wasnt able to fight back, according to a report by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, released to the press Thursday.

During his confession, Watts describes how he and Shanann had sex after she returned from a business trip to Arizona. Hours later, the pair had a fight during which he confessed his affair and told her he didnt love her, and she threatened to leave him and take their children. Subsequently, Watts jumped on Shanann, who was on her back in their bed.

RELATED: Chris Watts Mistress Breaks Silence About Affair  He Lied About Everything

Time seemed to stand still and he saw his life disappearing before his eyes, reads the report, but he couldnt let go of his wifes neck as he strangled her.

Like, the whole  everything that happened that morning, I just dont  I dont know, likelike, I try to go back in my headIm just like, I didnt want to do this, but I did it, he told investigators. Everything just kinda likeit just felt like it wasI dont even want to say it felt like I had to, it just felt like there was already something in my mind that was implanted that I was gonna do it and when I woke up that morning it was gonna happen and I had no control over it.

The newly released Feb. 18 audio confession sheds new light on the brutal murders: Watts confessed to strangling Shanann and then loading her body into the bed of his truck before driving it to a remote oil field, where he smothered both girls.

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Chris Watts in a recent photo

It was like picturing someone around you, holding your hands, holding you and keeping you from letting go, he told investigators.

After Shanann was dead, Watts claims his oldest, Bella, walked into their bedroom holding her blanket and asked what was wrong with mommy. Watts told police he believed Bella may have been woken up by the noise of the killing.

It continues: He told Bella Mommy dont feel good. Bella thought Shanann was sleeping. Bella is a smart girl and knew what was going on. Bella never touched Shanann or tried to wake her up.

RELATED: Chris Watts Killed Daughters at Oil Field After Driving There With Their Moms Dead Body: Lawyer

After killing Shanann, Watts told police he wrapped her body, facedown, in a bed sheet, and he tried to carry Shanann down the stairs and lost his grip and ended up having to pull her down the stairs.

Watts said his daughter Bella watched him drag Shanann down the stairs and began to cry and said, Whats wrong with mommy? He told Bella again that her mommy didnt feel good.

After loading his truck with his wifes body and his two children, Watts drove towards the remote oil field where police would find all three bodies. Bella asked, Is mommy okay?,' reads the report, obtained by PEOPLE. He told Bella and Celeste that mommy would be fine.

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As he drove to the oil site with Shanann, Bella, and Celeste, he was nervous, shaking, and didnt know what was going to happen, the report explains. He knew at that moment that his life was completely changed.

RELATED: Behind the Scenes of Family Murderer Chris Watts Surprising Guilty Plea

Shanann Watts

At the oil site, he removed Shananns body, and placed it on the ground before killing both girls.

Bella witnessed him kill Celeste and begged for her life before her father killed her.

An undated photo of the family

RELATED: Chris Watts 4-Year-Old Daughter Pleaded for Her Life After Watching Him Kill Sister: Lawyer

Last November, Watts pleaded guilty to all three killings. He is currently serving five life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Watts was having an affair with a co-worker at the time of the killings. Authorities have cited his desire for a fresh start with his mistress as his motive.
Theres a new cat woman in town and her names Kim Kardashian West!

On Wednesday, Kardashian West, 38, turned heads as she stepped out in Paris, France wearing a sheer, leopard print catsuit.

The figure-hugging ensemble, from the late French designer Azzedine Alaias line Maison Alaia, showed off the reality tv stars famous curves.

For the look, which featured velvet accents that covered her chest and private parts, Kardashian West wore transparent heels and styled her brunette tresses in retro curls.

Kim Kardashian

Kardashian West also shared photos of her look on Instagram writing, An a whatta???

The KKW Beauty founder also accessorized the look with a black velvet overcoat.

For her makeup, done by none other than Mario Dedivanovic, Kardashian West opted to keep things simple with a soft cat eye and a subtle pink lip.

In the first pic, the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star can be seen sitting in a chair, wearing a black beret on her head.

In another, Kardashian West was photographed sprawled out on a bed.

The daring look comes just one day after Kardashian West wore a different leopard print ensemble. For this Paris outing, Kardashian West sported another leopard print catsuit, paired with a dramatic leopard print trench coat and matching lace-up platform booties.

While the leotard and matching topper are vintage from late designer Azzedine Alaias fall 1991 read-to-wear collection, the Alaia boots can be yours for a cool $2,060.

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She completed the head-turning ensemble with matching animal print gloves, and appropriately, rounded cat-eye sunglasses.

Kardashian Wests trip to Paris comes more than two years after the star was robbed at gunpoint by five burglars while in the European city for the Spring 2017 shows.

Kardashian West first returned to Paris after the horrific incident in June 2018 with husband Kanye West and sister Kylie Jenner to support Virgil Ablohs debut collection for Louis Vuitton at the labels spring/summer 2019 menswear show.

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In October 2016, the armed thieves took approximately $10 million worth of jewelry, including a $4 million ring.

RELATED: Anna Wintour Applauds Kim Kardashian for Dressing a Little Bit More Covered Up

During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in April 2017, she explained that shes a whole new person post-robbery, one who isnt as materialistic as before.

I dont want to start crying, but  Im such a different person. I really feel like things happen in your life to teach you things, she said.
Meghan Markle sported a special accessory during her surprise appearance this week!

Prince Harry shocked thousands of students and teachers gathered for WE Day on Wednesday when he unexpectedly announced he was going to try to drag my wife on stage! to cheers from the crowd.

The royal mom-to-be, 37, joined her husband on stage, standing close as they wrapped their arms around each other. For the occasion, Meghan wore her black Rag & Bone maternity jeans with a matching, bump-hugging top. She topped the look off with a navy blazer and styled her hair in loose waves.

Eagle-eyed royal fans also noticed that the Duchess of Sussex opted to wear gold necklace she first sported as she left her New York City baby shower to head back to London. The piece, by Jennifer Meyer, reads either "Mommy" or "Mummy," the popular English nickname for kids to call their mother.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

RELATED: Meghan Markle Talks Baby at Buckingham Palace Party: Were Nearly There!

Lucy Brightman-Stokes, 12, and Sinead Hubbard, 14, were among students chosen to meet Harry and Meghan privately backstage at WE Day.

It was nerve-wracking, but really exciting. We have them a teddy bear for the baby and a card from our school and they said it was lovely, Hubbard said

Brightman-Stokes added: Harry said he was happy it was a soft teddy, not a hard one, and said, That will go in the crib. 

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

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Meghan has kept a busy schedule throughout her pregnancy, but royal fans can expect Meghan to step out of the public eye as she gets closer to her due date, which she told fans in January that she is due to give birth in late April). Shell likely begin her maternity leave around late March.

Harry will also probably take a few weeks off following his son or daughters arrival.
Just in time for Womens History Month, NASA is holding the first all-female spacewalk.

Later this month, astronauts Anne McClain and Christina Koch will venture outside the International Space Station, being assisted by Kristen Facciol of the Canadian Space Agency who will provide ground support from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, accord to CNN. The event comes 35 years after cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to participate in a spacewalk in 1984.

As currently scheduled, the March 29 spacewalk will be the first with only women, NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz told the news outlet. It is the second in a series of three planned spacewalks. Anne also will join Nick Hague for the March 22 spacewalk. And, of course, assignments and schedules could always change.

It was not orchestrated to be this way; these spacewalks were originally scheduled to take place in the fall, Schierholz continued. In addition to the two female spacewalkers, the Lead Flight Director is Mary Lawrence, and Jackie Kagey (also a woman), is the lead EVA (spacewalk) flight controller.

McClain and Koch will be replacing batteries that were installed last year, according to Gizmodo.

The dawn of a new era in human spaceflight pic.twitter.com/BHsfg1zYLN  Anne McClain (@AstroAnnimal) March 3, 2019

Facciol was filled with emotion when finding out she would be a part of the historic event from the ground.

I just found out that Ill be on console providing support for the FIRST ALL FEMALE SPACEWALK with @AstroAnnimal and @Astro_Christina, she wrote on Twitter. And I can not contain my excitement!

After the news became public, McClain posted a view of Earth from space to her Twitter page with the caption, the dawn of a new era in human spaceflight.

She has also posted many pictures from space showing her preparation for the walk.

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Earths 3rd day started with getting the blood (plasma?) pumping! First the treadmill, then weights - he even got some deadlifts in with me. It is important to exercise every day, not just for our muscles but also to protect our bones from losing density in microgravity. pic.twitter.com/gIsiKt4K8S  Anne McClain (@AstroAnnimal) March 6, 2019

RELATED: NASAs Mars Rover Is Declared Dead After 15 Years of Exploration: Rest Well, Rover

As CNN reported, McClain and Koch both became astronauts in 2013, when more than 6,100 people applied for the job. McClain is on the ISS right now, while Koch will head to space on March 14 to prepare for the mission.

NASA will broadcast the 7-hour spacewalk at 6:30 a.m. ET on March 29.
Pop is now officially a global mishmash: K-pop groups collaborate with Latin artists; American rappers add verses to Brazilian baile funk hits; the electronic producer Marshmello made an entire video honoring Shah Rukh Khan, the Indian film star known as the King of Bollywood. In that context, its not as surprising that Inna, a star in Romania who lives half the year in Barcelona, is recording an entire Spanish-language album, Yo, that will subsequently be released by Roc Nations Latin division later this year.

The latest single from Yo is Tu Manera, a cheerful number  approximately what youd get if you threw Novalimas Machete, Gwen Stefanis Hollaback Girl and something by Bomba Estereo into a big blender  that sounds ripe for TV syncs.

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Inna calls Tu Manera one of the most commercial songs on her upcoming album. Its super repetitive; its up-tempo, she says. It started with a bass that we fell in love with. We wanted to do something super simple, not so many melodies. Just the bass by itself sounds like a hit.

She wrote Tu Manera with her producer, David Ciente, and a lyricist, Maria Cristina Chiluiza. Inna is adept at three languages, including Spanish, but she jokes that none of the languages I speak correctly  not even Romanian. While working on songs for her new album, we write in gibberish, it could be any language, she says. The base of the song is la-la-las or words with no meaning. Then we find the right words later.

Tu Manera follows a string of singles  Ra, Iguana and Sin Ti. Inna was able to perform a few of the songs recently in Mexico. If I can share it with the world, thats what every artists wants, thats good, thats the best, she says. But if the world is not going to vibe with it, Im [still] super happy to be listening to it.

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Joshua Fleming never expected to live this long. Self-medicating with a cocktail of drugs in his early twenties, bouncing between jobs and playing in punk bands, he was hell-bent on burning out instead of fading away. So its not so surprising that the Vandoliers front man should be so pleased about finally playing the long game, with a new record contract in hand and his bands third LP, Forever, now on the books.

My goal was to die at 27 from, like, age 12. I just thought that was the end and it was fine, says Fleming, sipping a cup of coffee one morning in Dallas, Texas. He gives a gruff, shrugging laugh, his eyes beaming. But now Im 30 and Im like, Fuck yeah! I think 30 is great.

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The turnaround has been a lengthy process for Fleming, who sums up the journey in Sixteen Years, one of Forevers standouts (It took a hundred thousand miles for sixteen years, he sings.) This time last year, the group was between record contracts when Fleming got a call from Bloodshot Records about joining their South by Southwest showcase. That gig led to the Fort Worth cowpunks joining the Chicago labels roster and cutting the 10-song Forever in Memphis  as well as a new group tattoo to commemorate the occasion.

Going all-in has been part of the Vandoliers playbook from the beginning: Theyd only played 10 shows together when they got their first tattoos in 2015. Fleming takes off his jean jacket to show his along his left forearm, including a bluebonnet in honor of making it on the Americana album chart. The first of the batch, VFFV, was inspired by one of Flemings favorite bands, the Riverboat Gamblers, and was the basis for Forevers title: Vandoliers Forever, Forever Vandoliers.

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I didnt want [the Vandoliers] to be family, I didnt want us to be brothers because brothers fight. I want us to be a gang, I want us to feel secure, I want us to feel protected, Fleming says of the group, which numbers six strong, including violin and trumpet players. What I wanted was a gang of people who would sacrifice anything for each other, sacrifice anything for the band, just to go out and fucking do it because we thought it was special enough.

Growing up in a working-class family in a suburb of Fort Worth, Fleming started playing music when he was 12, but without having the grades to go to college he fell into a steady spiral while kicking around the local music scene. By 2014, his last band, the Phuss, had fizzled out. I think Ive tried everything twice at this point, Fleming says about his drug intake. The coke and the speed were catching up. I was maybe a buck-25 in weight.

Meeting his now-wife Lindsey was the turning point, not only helping Fleming to clean up but also to change his musical direction. I started writing her love songs. She had this beat-up acoustic, an Epiphone with a bridge that was warped, but I could get it into tune, he says. I knew she liked country music, so I just started writing really simple songs for her.

Every Ramones song could be a George Strait song because neither of them write bridges.

One of those songs, Bottom Dollar Boy  a fuck-ups anthem that encapsulates Flemings heart-on-sleeve storytelling  was released on Vandoliers first album, Ameri-Kinda, but re-recorded for Forever. Though hed grown up on punk acts like NOFX and Bad Religion, he found country songwriting to be a more natural fit. I was trying to tell these stories but I had to be so aggressive. I couldnt figure it out, he says of his previous bands. [But] your favorite punk song in the world could make a great country song. Every Ramones song could be a George Strait song because neither of them write bridges.

Not that country music was a foreign concept to Fleming. His dad, who gets his own tribute on the song Tumbleweed, had turned him onto it at a young age, and he recalls thinking Bob Wills Big Balls in Cow Town was the funniest song in the world. If anything, his footloose style falls somewhere between a Jerry Jeff Walker and a Paul Westerberg. I didnt have the ability to travel [growing up]. I always wanted to but never really had a ticket out; I was just stuck in my hometown, he says. Music had always been my idea of a ticket out of here, and the way country music describes that adventure is just so cool to me. I loved it.

Fleming splits songwriting duties on Forever with trumpet and keys player Cory Graves, with whom he cowrote Nowhere Fast, but the big-name collaboration is with Rhett Miller on Fallen Again. Everyone calls Rhett when theyre sad, Fleming says with another laugh, referring to the fact that the song deals explicitly with his own battles with depression and anxiety. While he was writing the new material, Fleming sent Miller his demos on a weekly basis. After two months, he sends back this giant essay about all my songs with notes and ideas  some things he loved, some things he thought could be better. I learned a lot about songwriting in general from that, he says.

The finished product is a fist-pumping celebration befitting someone whos just happy to be here, an upbeat and irrepressible crossover of styles thats more ska-meets-Tex-Mex than pure cowpunk (one that the band will bring back to South by Southwest stages next week in Austin). And though Fleming learned plenty of lessons from Miller, he finally feels comfortable revealing his blemishes in the music.

I dont feel the need to sugarcoat something or mask it with a metaphor. Ill just say it, for better or for worse with my writing. Im sure Id be a better writer if I could doll it up, says Fleming. Some of [my writing] I know is cliche, but I just like singing it, so Im gonna keep it.

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2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren unveils plan to 'break up big tech,' targeting giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Democratic candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday followed up on her campaign theme that, if she were president, everyone would have to play by the rules, this time targeting giant tech companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook for having too much power.

Through the policy, the Democrat from Massachusetts would "unwind tech mergers that illegally undermine competition "  citing Amazon for its takeover of Whole Foods, Facebook for its takeover of WhatsApp and Instagram, and Google's for its takeover of the mapping app Waze.

Todays big tech companies have too much powertoo much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy, Warren said in a statement. Theyve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else.

Warren continues to churn out policy, outpacing fellow 2020 contenders and pushing the field left. In late February, Warren announced a plan to guarantee every American free or affordable childcare. Before that, she announced sweeping taxes on the ultra-rich.

(MORE: Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveils sweeping proposal to make child care more affordable for millions of kids)

In a lengthy description of the tech-busting policy Friday, Warren criticized the system for allowing companies to complete mergers that snap up competitors, and by using their own marketplaces to drown out other companies.

PHOTO: Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks at a campaign rally at the Stone Cliff Winery on March 1, 2019, in Dubuque, Iowa. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The result, Warren highlighted, is stifled competition in the tech industry and increased privacy risks to users.

With fewer competitors entering the market, the big tech companies do not have to compete as aggressively in key areas like protecting our privacy, she said.

What would breaking up big tech look like?

Warrens plan would prohibit companies that make more than $25 billion a year through an online marketplace from also owning participants on the platform. It would prohibit, for example, Amazon from selling its own line of everyday items called Amazon Basics  things like bath towels and HDMI cables  on Amazons own marketplace.

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Warren would also appoint federal regulators committed to using existing tools to unwind anti-competitive mergers.

Warren's policy furthers her message to take government out of the hands of the "wealthy and the well-connected," a common phrase in Warren's stump speeches since her election to the Senate in 2012. On top of recent promises not to take PAC money or attend fundraising receptions with big donors, her newest announcement goes after Silicon Valley is yet another move that could alienate rich donors  but generate more grassroots support for Americans who want more focus on the "little guy."

"Each donor is a vote  weve seen many candidates do well with that kind of approach," said campaign finance professor Robin Kolodny of Temple University in Pennsylvania.

But her policy targeting Silicon Valley takes Warren's campaign against big corporations a step farther, as the tech region carries heavy weight in the Democratic Party's fundraising efforts. Sarah Bryner, the research director at the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan campaign finance watchdog group that tracks political donations, called Silicon Valley "a pretty consistent stop on the fundraising trail for Democrats."

"But Warren is a special candidate," Bryner said, adding that she gets more than half her donations from small donors who give under $200. "She can be successful through a grassroots approach -- that's a luxury shes cultivated through her national reputation. Sen. Bernie Sanders [I-Vt.] has done similarly."

In her statement, Warren promised users would still be able to go on Google and search like you do today or go on Amazon and find 30 different coffee machines. But, she said, small businesses would have a shot at selling on Amazon, Google Search couldnt push competitors down in favor of their own companies, and Facebook would be pressured to improve the user experience and protect our privacy.

Her proposal wont solve every problem, Warren acknowledged. She mentioned other holes that prevail in tech policy, like helping local newspapers to make money off their work online.

And we must ensure that Russia  or any other foreign power  cant use Facebook or any other form of social media to influence our elections, Warren said.

PHOTO: U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren answers questions from reporters after speaking at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, N.H., Feb. 23, 2019. (Brian Snyder/Reuters, FILE)

Notably, Warren's plan did not call out Apple, a tech company that has frequently been named the most valuable publicly traded company in the U.S. When asked, a spokesperson for Warren's campaign said Apple was indeed targeted by the policy.

The company produces over $25 billion in revenue and would have to choose between, for example, "running the App Store or offering their own apps," said Saloni Sharma, a spokesperson with the campaign.

Warren was set to speak about the policy to supporters Friday in Long Island City, which wouldve been home to one of Amazons headquarters in New York but the tech-conglomerate pulled out of the deal after critics said the city gave them unfair government incentives.

One such critic was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, backed by supporters in groups like Democratic Socialists for America.

Amazon is paying $0 in taxes on $11+ billion in profit. $0 for schools. $0 for firefighters. $0 for infrastructure. $0 for research and healthcare, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted a few days before Amazon pulled out. Why should corporations that contribute nothing to the pot be in a position to take billions from the public?

2020 Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, who, like Ocasio-Cortez, holds support from Democratic Socialists of America, has also made Amazon a target.

(MORE: Who is Bernie Sanders? Everything you need to know)

Sanders went after Amazon for its wage and benefits, which the company increased in October to $15 an hour.
Man walks into urgent care clinic thinking he has kidney stones, walks out with cancer diagnosis

Man walks into urgent care clinic thinking he has kidney stones, walks out with cancer diagnosis originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Keith Alexander had been feeling sick for a few days before he finally decided to walk into an urgent care clinic in Fort Collins, Colorado. Little did he know he would walk out of that UCHealth facility a few hours later with a colon cancer diagnosis.

He half expected it to be kidneys stones again -- he had suffered from the affliction some 15 years earlier and the discomfort was similar. Maybe it was a urinary tract infection.

To be quite honest, I wasnt really feeling pain, Alexander told ABC News, recalling the September 2018 visit. But you know when you get that feeling, where you dont feel that well?

PHOTO: Seen in this picture is the Colorado health care facility, UCHealth Urgent Care Harmony Campus, where Keith Alexander went thinking he had kidney stones, and walked out with a cancer diagnosis. (UCHealth)

Alexander, 55, was on his way to work when he texted his wife and said he was swinging by the clinic. His wife voiced her concern and insisted on coming with him.

She knows that I normally dont ask to go to a doctor. I sort of cowboy-up, if you will, explained Alexander, adding that he very rarely misses work.

After walking through the front doors of the Urgent Care Harmony Campus, they put their name on the wait list. It was a fairly busy day at that location, the waiting room filled with regulars -- people suffering from the flu, nursing broken bones, breathing through their chest pains or clutching their stomachs with abdominal issues.

(MORE: Taylor Swift says her mother Andrea's cancer has returned)

But that day, Alexander and his wife were invited back quickly and taken into another area of the clinic -- a room thats entrance is closed off with a curtain. Alexander, a father of four, had just taken a seat on the edge of the bed when Dr. Michele Clingenpeel walked in.

He presented with a few days worth of fever and discomfort in his right lower quadrant, and said he lost his appetite, Clingenpeel told ABC News.

Clingenpeel gave Alexander a once-over and ordered a CT scan and blood work, as well as a few other tests. She too, expected it to be kidney stones, based upon Alexanders explanation of his symptoms. Or maybe even atypical appendicitis.

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PHOTO: Keith Alexander, 55, and his wife are seen smiling at a hockey game on Jan. 19. The father of four had recently undergone surgery to remove a mass on his colon and will be going under the knife again to remove lesions on his liver. (Keith Alexander)

Theres a science behind medicine, but also an art -- a little nuance, explained Clingenpeel, adding one of the perks of their specific clinic is that it has both a CT scanner and an ultrasound machine on campus.

A lot of times we do these evaluations and its nothing, but we try to rule things out, she said.

Minutes ticked by as the tests were sent off to be analyzed. Alexander and his wife waited patiently in their room, regularly checked on by the nursing staff.

In another part of the clinic, Clingenpeel was picking up the phone to talk to the radiologist, calling with Alexanders results.

(MORE: 'Jeopardy!' host Alex Trebek has stage 4 pancreatic cancer)

After having not seen a soul for about 30 minutes, Alexander turned to his wife, seated on a chair beside the bed.

This seems to be taking a little long, he recalled telling her.

Right as that moment, Clingenpeel walked in and took a perch on the corner of his bed.

Keith, I kind of have some bad news. I have to admit you to the hospital, Alexander remembered her telling him.

PHOTO: Seen in this picture is the facility, UCHealth Poudre Valley in Fort Collins, Colorado, where Keith Alexander had the mass on his colon removed. (UCHealth)

I cant be admitted to the hospital. I have to go to work, he told her.

The doctor paused.

From everything I can tell and everything I can see, the diagnosis tells me you have colon cancer. And its spread, she told him.

His wifes jaw dropped.

Are you sure? Are you sure? his wife kept asking.

She had lost her own mother to cancer and her mind immediately went to the worst-case scenario.

And despite hiding her emotions, Clingenpeel was shocked as well.

(MORE: How this cancer survivor overcame to become the 1st CrossFit Level 2 trainer with cerebral palsy)

I wasnt expecting to find that. We sometimes get something thats [going to be] the last thing you think about when youre treating a patient, said Clingenpeel. But when you get that news for a patient, it kind of takes you back a little.

In fact, Clingenpeel had only ever diagnosed three other incidents of cancer at that facility -- lymphoma, thyroid and pelvic.

Alexander, for his part, tried to be strong for his wife.

I didnt think, Oh, poor me. I took it as, What do we have to do to fight this? What is the plan of action? Lets go execute it, Alexander said.

Clingenpeel spent the next several minutes explaining the mass on his colon and how it looked like it had metastasized to his liver. She suggested he check himself into a hospital that day because of a possible infection in his colon and because blood results showed he was anemic.

After answering all their questions, Clingenpeel gave both Alexander and his wife a hug -- a small gesture that Alexander never forgot, and intended to pay back one day.

Before Alexander and his wife left the clinic room, one nurse even came in and got down one knee, taking Alexanders hand.

Do you mind if I say a prayer? she asked him.

Absolutely not. All prayers are welcome, he told her with a smile.

(MORE: Woman smiles through cancer treatments by dressing as iconic characters)

After gathering their things, Alexander and his wife walked out to their car, where he immediately called his mom and stepfather to break the news.

It was heart wrenching, Alexander said, recalling his stepfather answering the phone. I could hear my mom in the background asking Whats wrong? Whats wrong?

After the call, Alexander and his wife went home, packed a bag full of clothes and other personal items, and threw in an iPad for good measure before returning to UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital to be admitted for monitoring.

For the next several days, surgeons and other medical staff sent him through an army of tests, from MRIs and CT scans to additional blood tests and more. Alexander was on a constant dose of antibiotics to get the inflammation and infection down, and hopefully, bring his blood count up.

In 2015, the most recent year statistics are available, 140,000 new cases of colon cancer were reported, while 52,000 died of the disease, according to the Center for the Disease Control. The Atlanta-based research facility said its the second deadliest cancer that affects both men and women.

PHOTO: Keith Alexander poses for a picture on Oct. 10, 2018 after having his gallbladder removed. The father of four had recently undergone surgery to remove a mass on his colon and will be going under the knife again to remove lesions on his liver. (Keith Alexander)

The medical team at UCHealth ultimately decided to operate on Alexander to remove the mass in his colon, and while he was under the knife, also took out 42 possibly infected lymph nodes, 35 of 42 which were later identified as infected.

After a few days of recovery, Alexander returned home to Wellington but started to feel pain. Severe pain, in fact.

I kept telling [my wife] I would get through this but a few days after the surgery, she had woken up to check on me at 5 in the morning and I was curled on the floor, he explained. His wife wouldnt hear any more of it. She ordered him to get in the car because they were going back to the emergency room.

As it turned out, Alexanders gall bladder had reacted negatively to everything he had been through in recent weeks, and had become so swollen it had to be removed.

Another surgery later, and Alexander was finally ready to start chemotherapy, the latter of which worked well -- it shrunk the lesions on his liver by half, allowing doctors to plan surgery to remove them on March 13. If all goes well, Alexander will technically be in remission, but will still need to be on chemo maintenance, meaning he will continue to take the cancer-fighting drug by pill form to ensure all microscopic cells are still being killed.

A year before all this started, Alexanders doctor had recommended he schedule a colonoscopy, but he put it off. His blood work at the time was, according to his doctor, outstanding, so he figured it wouldnt hurt to wait.

Its a lesson he learned too late, and wishes to impart upon others as March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month.

A colonoscopy is a short period of time out of your life. Its painless, its outpatient, its easy to go, he said.

And its very possible that something could be caught in the early enough stages that it can save lives.

Its possible he even saved the lives of those in his circle. After his diagnosis and sharing his story with loved ones, hes had an old boss, a few coworkers and two brothers-in-law get colonoscopies. From the test, his two brothers-in-law each found a cyst in the colon and a lump on a prostate, respectively.

According to the CDC, 67 percent of U.S. adults aged 50 to 75 were screened for colon cancer in 2016. That number is up from 66 percent two years prior.

Alexander is quick to applaud the staff at UCHealth, who he says contributed to his recovery via their care and kindness.

The one thing I think is very important too is the care that you actually receive. It does wonders for your wellbeing and attitude. ... Its not just what they do, but how they do their jobs, said Alexander.

(MORE: The stressful work and financial repercussions of dealing with cancer )

And as for that hug Alexander intends to pay back?

He stopped by the clinic one day last year but unfortunately Clingenpeel wasnt working that day. When she later heard he came to see her, she admitted she actually cried.

No matter.

He says hell try again. And again. And again. Until he gives her that hug.
Suspect in fatal shooting of deputy at hotel in Rockford, Illinois, barricaded in his car after high-speed chase: Officials originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

A manhunt for a suspect in the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy Thursday at a hotel in Rockford, Illinois, led to a wild high-speed police chase on an interstate -- with the fleeing fugitive reportedly pointing a gun out his window at officers, according to police and media reports.

The suspect, identified as Floyd E. Brown, 39, lost control of his vehicle during the chase and careened off Interstate 55 between Bloomington and Springfield and crashed into a ravine, said Master Sgt. Sam Thomas of the Illinois State Police. He remained barricaded in his car Thursday afternoon.

The McHenry County Sheriff's Office confirmed on Twitter that the deputy wounded in the shooting had died. Deputy Jacob Keltner was a member of the McHenry County Sheriff's Department and assigned to the U.S. Marshalls Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force, the sheriff's office said.

"We regret to inform you that shortly after 3:30 p.m. [Central time] today Deputy Jacob Keltner has passed away," the McHenry County Sheriff's Office tweeted.

We regret to inform you that shortly after 3:30p.m. today Deputy Jacob Keltner has passed away. Deputy Keltner was shot earlier this morning while attempting to serve an arrest warrant with the U.S. Marshalls Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force. pic.twitter.com/ef5mjsQeZ4  McHenry Co. Sheriff (@McHenrySheriff) March 7, 2019

At an afternoon news conference, Trooper Sean Ramsey of the Illinois State Police said Brown was barricaded in his car and police were trying to establish communication with him to convince him to surrender. He said Brown was still armed with at least one gun.

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"We want it to end peacefully," Ramsey said. "You never want to end a life."

The shooting occurred at 9:15 a.m. local time as the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force from the Great Lakes Region was attempting to arrest Brown at an Extended Stay America hotel, officials said.

PHOTO: Heavy police presence seen outside an Extended Stay hotel in Rockford Ill., where an active shooter was reported on March 7, 2019 (WLS)

Lt. Kurt Whisenand of the Rockford Police Department said that as task force members approached Brown's room on the third floor of the hotel. Ramsey added that Brown allegedly fired through the door, hitting the sheriff's deputy outside in the hallway.

Whisenand said Brown is believed to have fired a rifle at the task force members and then fled out a window, leaving a female acquaintance with a bullet wound in the hotel room.

Whisenand said no members of the task force fired their weapons, and investigators believe Brown shot the woman in the hotel room.

The woman's name was not released and she was being treated at a hospital.

"It's a dark day here and certainly his family is in our prayers," Jack Franks, the McHenry County Board Chairman, told ABC News.

Authorities initially said Brown was 45 years old, and that the deputy was a U.S. Marshal.

PHOTO: Floyd Brown is pictured in this undated photo released by Bloomington IL Police Department. (Bloomington IL Police Department)

Brown fled the hotel in a Mercury Grand Marquis.

His car was spotted headed south on Interstate 55 and police chased him into Logan County, WLS-TV reported. The chase reached speeds of 100 miles per hour and the driver was pointing a gun outside his vehicle window at police pursuing him, ABC station WLS-TV in Chicago reported.

Thomas said the car went off the road and into a ravine. It was not immediately clear if Brown was injured.

(MORE: Indiana Sheriff's Deputy, 27, Dies After Being Shot Serving Warrant)

Brown was wanted for an armed robbery and several burglaries that occurred in December in Bloomington, WLS-TV reported.

PHOTO: Floyd Brown is pictured in this undated photo released by Bloomington IL Police Department. (Bloomington IL Police Department)

Winnebago County State's Attorney Marilyn Hite Ross said at the news conference that his office has already obtained an arrest warrant for Brown on charges of attempted murder and a judge has set a $5 million bond.

(MORE: 3 law enforcement officers shot while trying to serve warrant: Sheriff)

Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara called the incident "horrific."

"My heart truly goes out to the officer," McNamara said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Sweet service dog interrupts family member's yoga routine originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com

A service dog was captured on camera as she adorably disrupted her family member's yoga session.

Quinn, an English Cream Golden Retriever, tried turning downward dog into playtime as Jenny D'Agostino, of Round Lake, Illinois, perfected her poses.

"All of a sudden she starts nudging me," D'Agostino, a mom of four, told "Good Morning America. "She was making me laugh so much I had to stop the video."

PHOTO: Quinn, a Golden Retriever was captured on film as her family member Jenny D'Agostino of Illinois, perfected her yoga poses. (Jenny D'Agostino via Storyful)

Quinn is D'Agostino's daughter's service dog. Taylor D'Agostino, 18, broke her back in 2016 after falling off a horse. Since August she's received both physical and emotional support from Quinn, her mother said.

PHOTO: Taylor D'Agostino of Illinois, poses with her service dog, Quinn in an undated photo. Taylor broke her back in 2016 and receives physical and emotional support from Quinn. (Jenny D'Agostino via Storyful)

Jenny D'Agostino, a health fitness instructor, said she originally wanted to post the video of herself doing yoga on Facebook, but that the video of Quinn has received lots of love.

Jenny D'Agostino said her daughter is loving Quinn's newfound fame.
Trump surveys Alabama tornado damage, signs Bibles amid hopes visit brings more resources originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

President Donald Trump traveled to Alabama Friday to survey areas devastated by deadly tornadoes earlier in the week.

(MORE: At least 23 killed, including 3 children, as tornadoes devastate Alabama town: 'Like a bomb went off' )

The president and first lady Melania Trump toured part of a devastated neighborhood and visited with families who had lost loved ones, visited a church that has been transformed into a disaster relief center -- and stopped to sign Bibles given them by victims.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump signs a Bible as he greets people at Providence Baptist Church in Smiths Station, Ala., as he tours areas where tornadoes killed 23 people in Lee County, Ala., Friday, March 8, 2019. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

The Trumps also took an aerial tour of the destruction and paid their respects at a memorial for the lives lost.

Holding hands, the president and first lady walked down a row of 23 white crosses, each of which represented a life lost, and paused before each one. Each cross had the name of a victim and was surrounded by stuffed animals.

The president said he saw "things you wouldnt believe" during his aerial tour and praised the work of state and local leaders, first responders, and FEMA.

His motorcade at one point passed through entire neighborhoods that have been wiped away in the tornado, according to the reporters traveling with the president.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump greets residents in Opelika, Ala., March 8, 2019. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

FEMA has been told directly by me to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes, the president said in a tweet earlier this week.

The small rural community of Beauregard was flattened when two tornadoes ripped through it, leaving behind a trail of catastrophic damage. Those killed lived in roughly a one-square-mile area of the town, according to authorities.

The word catastrophic completely describes it  There are so many places where there is absolutely nothing  no standing structure. The power of this storm was amazing, Capt. Bobby Kilgore of Opelika Police Department said.

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Beauregard residents living at the center of destruction said they hoped the presidents visit will bring more resources to the area.

I just hope he can bring some positivity to the area thats what we need  bring help We need the help. Theres people who are helpless, James Stinson, a Beauregard resident said.

Stinson and his family hunkered down to ride out Sundays deadly tornadoes. He says although his family was able to make it out alive search and rescue crews found one of his neighbors dead on his property. Those who survived are now combing through the debris, the first step in a long road to recovery.

With the presidents help, we can get there. Were trying to stay Beauregard strong, Stinson said.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump hugs a resident as he and first lady Melania Trump talk with people in Beauregard, Ala., as they travel to tour areas where tornadoes killed 23 people in Lee County, Ala., March 8, 2019. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

President Trump approved a disaster declaration for the state on Tuesday, ordering federal aid to supplement State and local recovery efforts in the affected communities.

Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster, the White House said in a press release.

The presidents visit fell on the same day as the funeral for 10-year-old Taylor Thornton, who was visiting her best friend when the storm came through. Her friend was the only survivor at the home.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump tosses paper towels into a crowd as he hands out supplies at Calvary Chapel, Oct. 3, 2017, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. (Evan Vucci/AP)

President Trump has traveled to meet with victims of several natural disasters while in office including the areas devastated by the California wildfires, Hurricane Michael, Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Harvey.

Some of his visits to destroyed areas have drawn criticism. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz denounced Trump's visit to Puerto Rico as a public relations stunt and criticized how he handed out supplies at Calvary Chapel after he tossed paper towels into the crowd.

"His terrible and abominable view of him throwing paper towels and throwing provisions at people, it's really  it does not embody the spirit of the American nation," Cruz said in an interview with MSNBC in October.
Photo credit: NurPhoto - Getty Images

From Redbook

Mentors inspire us with their accomplishments and encourage us to dream bigger than we ever thought possible. But when you look at the most famous (men)torships of all time, something seems a bit off.

Think about it. Theres Yoda and Luke Skywalker, Professor Dumbledore and Harry Potter, Genie and Aladdin, Gandalf and Frodo, Mr. Miyagi and the Karate Kid and the list goes on. Where are the women? (And why are we still having to ask that question)

Female mentorships might be marginalized in film, but we cant let that happen in real lifeespecially when it comes to the STEM fields (that's science, technology, engineering and mathematics). As the National Girls Collaborative Project points out, Women make up half of the total U.S. college-educated workforce, but only 29% of the science and engineering workforce.

The Benefits of Mentorship

Even with inspirational females in STEM making the newstake Mayim Bialik, who is both a neuroscientist and an actress, and Dr. Jedidah Isler, who was the first African-American woman to earn a PhD in astrophysics from Yale, for exampleunderrepresentation is still a serious concern. Its important that girls don't view STEM subjects as "men's fields" where they dont belong, and mentorship plays a powerful role in changing that narrative.

If girls are exposed to strong, female STEM role models, a career in these fields will seem as attractive and attainable as any other. Mentorship can also increase self confidence, boost communication skills, and enhance leadership qualities that'll benefit girls throughout their careers.

Photo credit: FatCamera - Getty Images

Advocating for Girls in STEM

As a child, theres nothing more exciting than making a volcano erupt in science class or engineering a masterpiece out of Play-Doh. But as kids get older and activities are replaced by textbooks, STEM subjects might not seem quite as thrillingbut that doesnt fully explain the disparity.

Amy Blankson, a thought leader and researcher on happiness and technology, says the troubling shift is due to classroom dynamics. Research shows that girls start doubting their STEM intelligence by age 6 and continue to lose confidence as classes become less gender-balanced and more intimidating, she says.

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Whatever the cause, its clear that parents and allies must work together to show girls that no subject is off-limits simply because of their gender.

Heres how you can help:

Share your expertise. If youre in STEM, offer to speak at elementary schools in your area, tutor children, or become a mentor. STEM starts at home. Whether you have kids, babysit, or youre spending time with nieces and nephews, incorporating more STEM activities into everyday life at home can ignite kids passion for these subjects. Check out this list of 40 fun STEM activities . Encourage kids to try new things. If girls are losing confidence in their abilities early on, encouraging them to take risks can help shift their perception of their capabilities. Trying new things and knowing its okay to fail will empower girls to pursue passions despite their initial abilities or a bad test score. Counteract stereotypes and misconceptions. Dont let offhand comments like, boys are better at math than girls slide past you unacknowledged. Girls need to know that theyre just as likely to excel at STEM subjects as boysbut it starts with catching these misconceptions before they turn into beliefs. Read books that show both genders in powerful roles. Books like, "Iggy Peck Architect" by Andrea Beaty, "Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren, and "Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist" by Jess Keating, show girls (and boys) that with enough passion and dedication, anything is possible for anyone.



STEM Resources

Know a budding STEM superstar or want to find an organization where you can become a mentor or volunteer?

These resources will help you get involved:

FabFems connects girls with female STEM mentors to increase awareness and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Know someone whod make a killer STEM mentor? Have them sign up as a FabFems role model.





SciGirls Connect encourages educators to adopt new, research-based strategies to engage girls in STEM. With 176 partner organizations located in schools, museums, community organizations and universities, SciGirls Connect hosts clubs, camps, and after-school programs for girls across 35 states.





Women@NASA offers an out-of-this world program to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and innovators through a virtual mentoring project. Offered to middle-schoolers, Women@NASA is looking to change the world through STEM.





Young Women in Bio is a nonprofit organization with 13 chapters across the U.S. and Canada. They partner with companies, universities, hospitals, and organizations to host engaging, educational, and motivational programs. They aspire to be the definitive resource for girls looking for successful careers in STEM.





uCodeGirl is a nonprofit organization with various age-appropriate enrichment programs and STEM mentorship initiatives. They make technology learning accessible, relevant, and fun for girls aged 12 to 18.

From nationwide programs to activities at home, there are plenty of ways to support (and advocate for) girls in STEM. So, lets make it a priority to show girls that gender doesnt dictate who they can become or what they can achieve.

After all, there may not be a "Harriette" Potter in the mainstream who girls can relate to, but through mentorship, young female wizards will feel just as confident and competent as their male STEM counterparts.

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You know what they say  in a D.C. minute, your husbands awareness of your presence can change.

Donald and Melania Trump welcomed Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis and his wife Monika Babisova to the White House on Thursday and boy, was it a sight to see.

The President and First Lady made a very formal show of greeting their guests  waiting outside the White House (in obscenely cold weather, mind you) as a troupe of uniform-clad men stood at attention.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania welcomed Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Mrs. Monika Babisova of the Czech Republic for their first official visit to the White House pic.twitter.com/Gq6RL8n47t  POLITICO (@politico) March 7, 2019

Once the visitors black SUV pulled away, the couples chatted for a moment before (seemingly without consultation of his wife or Babisova), Trump and Babis turned to reenter the White House. And OK, I dont typically alert my boyfriend every time Im preparing to walk through a door, but what makes this so uncomfortable isnt the act itself, but rather Melania and Monikas reaction to it. As the men begin to walk away the women stand still for a moment, unsure of how to proceed, and then they share a mutual shrug (which we interpret as an exasperated exclamation of MEN!) and follow their husbands in.

Just spotted this little moment:



Monika Babisova (the wife of Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis) and Melania Trump shrug as Trump and the prime minister walk ahead of them into the White House. pic.twitter.com/ZD7FBpXl0r  Blair Guild (@BlairGuild) March 7, 2019

RELATED: Donald Trump's Former Lawyer Admits He Lied to Melania About the President's Alleged Affair

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If we were to hazard a guess, we would think that maybe Melania and Monika were expecting a quick photo opp for the press camped across the way. Regardless, what a way to pre-game International Womens Day: literally leaving your wife out in the cold.

To be fair, though, things didnt seem much less awkward inside, either.
By Tarmo Virki TALLINN (Reuters) - Estonia's Reform party, the biggest in parliament after the March 3 election, will hold talks with the conservative Fatherland Party and the Social Democrats on a new cabinet, its leader said on Friday. Together, the three parties - which formed a coalition in 2015-2017 - would have 56 seats in the 101-seat-parliament. The Reform party's move follows the Centre party's rejection of an overture from Reform leader Kaja Kallas because of disagreements over tax reform plans. "Our board decided to propose to start coalition talks with Fatherland and Social Democrats," Kallas told reporters. "Just like I proposed to (Centre leader) Juri Ratas, this would be on an equal basis, between equal partners." The Fatherland and Social Democrat parties won 12 and 10 seats in the election respectively. Reform has championed a business-friendly outlook and a return to a flat tax that was long the hallmark of the Estonian economy. The Centre Party has been seeking to make the Baltic country's tax system more progressive along the lines of more affluent neighbors such as Finland. Since 2017, the Centre party has governed in a coalition with the Social Democrats and Fatherland. (Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Brussels (AFP) - The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Friday proposed that Britain could leave the bloc's customs union after the divorce though the offer would not include Northern Ireland which will anger London.

The last minute-bid by Barnier comes just days before British Parliament is due to vote on a withdrawal deal agreed between the two sides, in which the fate of the Irish border is seen as a key issue.

"The EU commits to give UK the option to exit the single customs territory unilaterally," Barnier said on Twitter after a meeting with the ambassadors of the remaining 27 EU states.

However, "the other elements of the backstop must be maintained to avoid a hard border," said Barnier, in reference to alignment between Northern Ireland and the EU-member republic.

Both the EU and Great Britain want to prevent a "hard border" that would bring controls between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland after the Brexit.

Without a solution in a future arrangement, the current deal agrees to keep the UK in a customs union with the EU until a better answer can be found.

But supporters of Brexit fear that Britain would then be trapped permanently in the EU, and have refused to back the deal.

The counter-offer will almost certainly be refused or ignored by the government of Prime Minister Theresa May, which depends on unionist MPs from Northern Ireland for its majority.

Putting a post-Brexit border in the Irish Sea is a strong red line that May's government has refused to concede.

Barnier's proposal "aims to counter arguments from the British who say they want to trap the UK in a customs union", a European diplomat told AFP.

But it risks "making Theresa May very angry", he added, because it goes back to an earlier version of the "backstop", limited to Northern Ireland, which May insisted the EU abandon.

The British parliament is set to vote Tuesday on May's existing deal with Brussels after rejecting it by a historic margin in January.

The last-gasp negotiations between UK and EU envoys ended in acrimony on Wednesday and May still lacks the assurances she has been after to get her deal approved by MPs.
By Nidhi Verma and Timothy Gardner NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - India wants to keep buying Iranian oil at its current level of about 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), as it negotiates with Washington about extending a waiver of U.S. sanctions past early May, two sources in India with knowledge of the matter said. India has reduced its purchases of Iranian oil, but has been in talks on extending a sanctions waiver, known as a significant reduction exception, a senior India official said in January. The talks come just as trade tensions rise between Washington and New Delhi. The United States is planning to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States. India is the biggest beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preferences, which dates from the 1970s, and ending its participation would be the strongest punitive action that Washington has taken against the country since President Donald Trump took office. Amid this, New Delhi is asking Washington to be allowed to still buy Iranian oil at current levels of around 1.25 million tonnes per month, equal to about 300,000 bpd, the sources said. The United States reimposed sanctions against Iran last November in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear and missile ambitions, after President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers. Although the United States granted Iran's biggest oil customers - China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy and Greece - waivers that have allowed them to continue limited imports, Washington is putting pressure on governments to eventually reduce purchases of Iranian oil to zero. The first round of waivers expires around May 4. Vincent Campos, a spokesman at the U.S. State Department's energy bureau, would not confirm that India was asking the United States to renew its waiver, but said talks are ongoing with the eight consumers of Iran's oil that received waivers in November with the aim of eventually cutting imports to zero. "We continue to have bilateral discussions" with each of the countries, including India, Campos said. A U.S. State Department official is this week visiting South Korea, Iran's fourth largest oil customer in Asia, to talk about sanctions, Seoul said. David Peyman, a deputy assistant secretary for counter threat finance and sanctions, met on Wednesday with Hong Jin-wook, an official specializing in African and Middle Eastern affairs at South Korea's foreign ministry. Peyman offered "to continue to closely consult on the extension of sanctions exemption and Korean companies technical issues regarding trade with Iran," a statement from Seoul's foreign ministry said. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to questions about their talks. Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), exported almost 3 million bpd of oil at its pre-sanctions peak, but that has dwindled to around 1.25 million bpd since the start of the year, shipping data from Refinitiv showed. Talks with Washington on extending the waiver slowed due to the U.S. government shutdown that extended through January, one of the Indian sources said. Talks have now resumed and India wants to get clarity before general elections scheduled in May, the source said. No immediate comment was available from India's oil or external affairs ministries. Iran was India's seventh biggest oil supplier in January, as compared with its position as third-biggest a year ago before the reimposition of sanctions. (Graphic: Iran seaborne crude oil & condensate exports - https://tmsnrt.rs/2ETwgRi) (Reporting by Nidhi Verma in NEW DELHI and Timothy Gardner in WASHINGTON; Writing by Henning Gloystein; editing by Richard Pullin and G Crosse)
Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort is to be sentenced for tax crimes and bank fraud on Thursday in a high-profile case stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Manafort, who turns 70 in April, faces potentially spending the rest of his life behind bars when he comes before Judge T.S. Ellis at 3:30 pm (2030 GMT) in an Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom.

Manafort was convicted in August of five counts of filing false income tax returns, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to report a foreign bank account. The jury deadlocked on 10 other charges.

Manafort is one of a half dozen former Trump associates and senior aides charged by Mueller, who has been investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

The charges against Manafort were not connected to his role in the Trump campaign, which he headed for two months in 2016, but were related to lucrative consulting work he did for Ukrainian politicians from 2004 to 2014.

The sentencing guidelines for Manafort's crimes call for between 19 and 24 years in prison but his defense attorneys have urged Judge Ellis to impose a "substantially" lower jail term.

In a filing with the judge, they said the Republican political powerbroker is "truly remorseful" and is in poor health after spending the past nine months in prison.

Manafort, who suffers from gout, is a first-time offender and the sentencing guidelines are "clearly disproportionate" for the crimes he committed, his attorneys said.

Mueller's team issued a scathing rebuttal, stating that Manafort had breached a plea agreement reached with the government and lied repeatedly to the FBI and the Special Counsel's office.

Manafort is accused of lying about various matters including his contacts with a suspected Russian operative, Konstantin Kilimnik, with whom he reportedly shared polling data about the 2016 election.

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"The defendant blames everyone from the Special Counsel's Office to his Ukrainian clients for his own criminal choices," prosecutors said.

Manafort was accused of hiding tens of millions of dollars from the US tax authorities which were paid as consulting fees for the work he did over the years for Russian-backed Ukrainian politicians.

- 'Own criminal actions' -

In arguing for a lighter sentence, Manafort's attorneys said he has been "devastated personally, professionally and financially."

Mueller's office countered that it was "Manafort's own criminal actions that have led to these consequences."

Trump has repeatedly denied any election collusion with Moscow and denounced the probe by Mueller, a former FBI director, as a "political witch hunt."

Trump has also dangled the possibility of pardons for some of those indicted -- including Manafort, whom he has praised as a "good man" who has been treated unfairly.

Manafort has also been charged in Washington with money laundering, witness tampering and other offenses and faces separate sentencing in that case on March 13.

It was his work for Viktor Yanukovych, who served as president of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014, when he fled to Russia amid corruption allegations, which got Manafort in trouble.

Prosecutors alleged that Manafort used offshore bank accounts in Cyprus to hide more than $55 million from Ukrainian politicians from the tax authorities.

The money was used to support a lavish lifestyle which included purchases of luxury homes and cars, antique rugs, and expensive clothes, including an $18,500 python jacket.

During Manafort's trial, much of the damaging testimony against him was provided by his former deputy Rick Gates, who is awaiting sentencing after reaching a plea agreement with the Special Counsel's office.

Besides Manafort and Gates, four other former Trump associates face charges or have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Mueller investigation.

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials and is awaiting sentencing.

Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen is to begin serving a three-year prison sentence on May 6 for fraud, tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and lying to Congress.

George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was sentenced to two weeks in prison.

Another Trump advisor, Roger Stone, awaits trial.
BERLIN (AP)  The presence of foreign diplomats at the Caracas airport earlier this week helped prevent the arrest of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, Germany's foreign minister said Thursday.

Heiko Maas said he expressly asked Germany's ambassador to Venezuela, Daniel Kriener, to join other envoys at the airport on Monday.

He told reporters in Berlin on that "there was information that he (Guaido) was meant to be arrested there, and I think the presence of various ambassadors contributed to helping prevent this arrest."

On Wednesday, the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced it was giving Kriener 48 hours to leave the country, a move seen as a response to Germany's support for Guaido.

Maas said that "the decision by the Venezuelan government, or rather the Maduro regime in Caracas, to expel Ambassador Kriener as 'persona non grata' is in no way comprehensible or acceptable for us."

He added that Germany will continue to recognize Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate interim president and support him in holding fresh elections.
Something remarkable is happening on the Democratic side of the aisle. Faced with multiple anti-Semitic statements from freshman member of Congress Ilhan Omar, the Democrats are actually struggling to unite to condemn her remarks. This disunity is made all the more remarkable by the fact that there is nothing at all subtle about what Omar has said. In the past shes tweeted that Israel has hypnotized the world. Recently, shes claimed that American support for Israel was all about the Benjamins and has now twice raised the argument that support for Israel involved allegiance to a foreign country.

Each of these statements represents a classic anti-Semitic trope, and the latter statements were made after she came under fire for her previous comments. She knew she was under scrutiny and yet doubled down.

While multiple Democrats have condemned her comments forcefully and unequivocally, shes also enjoying a curious wave of support. Just as a sampling, theres this:

I am so honored to serve with @IlhanMN, an incredible courageous woman. Every time I worry about her and the ugly attacks, I remember what she said to me two months ago: "I survived war, I can survive this." https://t.co/2wyrC0m6ry  Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) March 6, 2019

And this:

All three headlines naming Ilhan Omar in WashPo today are in defense of her. pic.twitter.com/JRU5x1QpdD  Natalie Johnson (@nataliejohnsonn) March 5, 2019

And this stunning statement from House majority whip Jim Clyburn, as reported at The Hill:

Clyburn came to Omars defense Wednesday, lamenting that many of the media reports surrounding the recent controversy have omitted mentioning that Omar, who was born in Somalia, had to flee the country to escape violence and spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before coming to the United States. Her experience, Clyburn argued, is much more empirical  and powerful  than that of people who are generations removed from the Holocaust, Japanese internment camps during World War II and the other violent episodes that have marked history. Im serious about that. There are people who tell me, Well, my parents are Holocaust survivors. My parents did this. Its more personal with her, Clyburn said. Ive talked to her, and I can tell you she is living through a lot of pain.

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What is going on? Why are we seeing so many prominent voices rally to Omars side? This is how intersectionality works. Essentially, the pattern goes like this. Under intersectionality theories, your identity grants you credibility, your experience grants you authority, and the responsibility then of your progressive friends is to act as your allies.

Omars identity  as a woman of color, as a Muslim, as a refugee  means that she speaks with great experiential authority. She comes to the public square (as Tlaib and Clyburn indicate) from a position of personal pain and direct experience with marginalization and oppression. Allyship then means that its important to elevate her voice and to protect her credibility. To treat her as the GOP (finally) treated Steve King is unthinkable. Direct rebuke (much less direct action, such as stripping her of her committee assignments) is interpreted as an attack not on her ideas but on her very identity.

And so, there is now talk of a compromise resolution, one that comports with requirements of intersectionality by not singling out the marginalized member of Congress in the most powerful nation in the history of the world, but rather condemning bigotry more broadly. According to the Washington Post, the Democrats are now set to vote on a resolution that will not mention Omar by name and will condemn other forms of hate, including that directed at Muslims.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez approves:

The way we reject the 0-sum idea that some communities win at the cost of others is by using opportunities to address issues intersectionally  to highlight that Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all bigotry serve the same ends & that we prevent division by championing one another.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 6, 2019

This is campus activism come to Congress. Did you wonder why campus incidents so often seem to elevate the most radical voices? The same dynamic applies. Activists who possess the proper identity then speak with absolute authority, and the only acceptable woke response is to ally with their demands.

On the one hand, there is an element of intersectionality that simply comports with common sense  after all, people from different identity groups do experience the world differently, and any diverse society values diverse voices. But identity isnt a substitute for credibility or authority or morality. We respect people enough to treat them as adults and weigh their ideas on their own merits.

By that standard, there is no merit to Omars noxious thoughts. Accusations of Israeli hypnotism, purchased loyalty, and dual allegiance dont represent thoughtful critiques of Israeli policy. Omars challenging childhood isnt the fault of the Israeli government, and it doesnt relieve her of the obligation to shun the vicious anti-Semitism that plagues the extreme Left.

Moreover, anti-Semitism is no small matter. Carol Roth gets this exactly right:

Antisemitism isn't some political talking point or hot potato. One-third of the ENTIRE Jewish people were wiped off the face of the Earth within the last 100 years. Stop playing politics and take it seriously.  Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) March 7, 2019

We might also add that, immediately after the Holocaust, multiple Arab nations united in a generation-long effort to use massive military force to wipe out the worlds only Jewish state. And even today, Jews in the most advanced nations of Europe face a level of anti-Semitism and violence that is utterly shameful. Americans shouldnt be so arrogant as to assume that our nation is immune to those ideological currents.

In fact, given the zealous defense of Ilhan Omar, the continued reign of the anti-Semites perched atop the Womens March, and the ongoing acceptance of Louis Farrakhan, its clear that parts of the American Left are drifting in the direction of Jeremy Corbyns Labour party.

Identity cannot be a substitute for or a supplement to reason and morality. Anti-Semitic voices are no more valuable coming from a refugee than from a redneck. If Democrats cannot recognize that fundamental fact, then intersectionality will have encroached on decency, and bigotry will have made yet another cultural advance.

More from National Review
Israeli forces demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian accused of killing two Israeli soldiers in December, local media reported on March 7.

Assem Barghouti was arrested in January for his suspected involvement in two attacks on bus stops in Israel in December, the Times of Israel reported.

In an attack on December 9 near a settlement at Ofra, seven people were injured, including a pregnant woman who lost her baby a few days later. Two soldiers were killed in an attack on December 13 near Givat Assaf.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the demolition on March 7, saying, they will continue to fight terror.

Footage here shows the demolition and its aftermath. Standing near the demolished home, Barghoutis mother says, Yes, they demolished our home, but they dont demolish our determination and strength. Credit: Quds Network via Storyful
ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday he was working to try to end international sanctions against Russia, which the ruling parties in Rome say are ineffective and hurt the Italian economy. Speaking at a foreign policy conference in Genova, Conte said the sanctions, imposed after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, must never become an end in themselves. When asked if Italy wanted them lifted, he replied: "We are working for this objective." (Reporting By Gavin Jones; Editing by Crispian Balmer)
Produced by Mark Seman & Anthony Kane

Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, who recently launched an exploratory committee to consider a Republican primary challenge in the 2020 presidential race, said that President Trump exhibits malignant narcissism and is undercutting the rule of law with actions way beyond anything Richard Nixon ever did.

Weld has special credentials to make that judgment: As a young lawyer, he served on the staff of the House Judiciary Committee that voted to impeach Nixon, spending five months researching a memo that laid out the legal grounds to remove a president.

The article that got the most votes in the Nixon impeachment, in the House Judiciary Committee, was article two, called agency abuse, Weld said in an interview for the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery. It was misuse of the FBI and the CIA by trying to direct them not to pursue the Watergate inquiry on the ground that it involved national security.

Now weve seen more than that from this President, Weld said after clicking off examples that included Trumps firing of James Comey after the FBI director refused to pledge his loyalty and telling the Justice Department that its job essentially is to  protect his political skirts.

Although he used to be an advocate for Trumps impeachment, Weld said he now accepts House Speaker Nancy Pelosis judgment that it is currently not worth pursuing given that the votes are not there in the GOP-controlled Senate to convict the president.

But, he added, if the Democrats had the votes in the Senate, this thing would go through like suet through a goose. Are you kidding me?

Weld, 73, made these comments as he begins his long-shot campaign to unseat the president, whose support among Republican voters in most polls is over 90 percent. But Weld displayed a breezy indifference to the polls. Six months is forever in politics  and dont tell me nothings going to change, he said. He insisted he is not running only to weaken Trump for the general election, hoping to elect a Democrat.

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I think the only reason to do something like this is to do it with the purpose in mind of winning, he said. He also denied that his candidacy was a placeholder for a possible candidacy by better-known Republicans such as Utah Sen. Mitt Romney or Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who have been mentioned as possible challengers. I am not a stalking horse, Weld said.

Just how Weld, who ran for vice president on the Libertarian ticket in 2016, could possibly pull off a primary upset against Trump off is far from clear. A recent Politico article gave a harsh view of his first weeks as a non-declared candidate, pointing out that he had shown little ability to raise money, earn endorsements, or get much press attention.

But Weld said he wasnt measuring himself that way. Hes gotten a good reaction so far, he said,

At town halls In New Hampshire and he said that early-voting state, next door to Massachusetts, will be central to his strategy. A strong showing there, he believes, will give him momentum in other early primary states in New England and California and as many as 20 states where independents can vote in GOP primaries.

On some policy issues, Weld is well within Republican orthodoxy, supporting the presidents tax cuts and private health care savings account as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act. He sharply differs from Trump on climate change policy. But his fundamental objection to Trump is the presidents volatile temperament and his disrespect for the rule of law.

Asked what disturbs him most about Trump, he replied: I think his meanness. I mean, he says hes a counter-puncher. Baloney. Thats vindictiveness, and its often directed at little people.  Its no secret that his stock in trade is divisiveness and trying to stir up the pot and pit groups against each other, and as long as everyones teeth are on edge, hes happy.

You know, they call it narcissism. He added. Theres a form of narcissism called malignant narcissism.  Youre not happy unless other people are losing.

William Weld. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photo: AP)

One of the things that galls me is the president is the worst possible role model for our children and grandchildren, he said. Theyre going to grow up thinking this is how the occupant of the highest office in the land acts. Thats got to be terrible for kids.

Download or subscribe on iTunes: Skullduggery from Yahoo News

Weld is most passionate about the presidents encroachments on the independence of the Justice Department. Thirty-one years ago this month, Weld made headlines when he resigned as assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division, joining five other senior officials who left in protest over then Attorney General Edwin Meeses stewardship of the department.

The complaint of Weld and his fellow protestors: The goal of nonpartisan independent law enforcement was being compromised by Meese, who was at the time under investigation for corruption allegations by a special prosecutor. The same issue was at playnamely politicization of the Justice Department, Weld said. I spent five years as a US attorney and two years as head of the criminal division at main Justice, trying to keep the politics out of law enforcement.

So that was an article of faith for me, and I let nothing interfere with that. And when I get to Washington and I see the Department being politicized, and it was. Our morning meeting around the AGs table was as much about politics as it was about law enforcement.

When Weld and his colleagues resigned, a department official told the New York Times, These are truly resignations of conscience. Shortly thereafter, Weld and Arnold Burns, who resigned as deputy attorney general, were called to explain themselves to the Senate  and the issue of loyalty was front and center. And one of the senators asked me, Mr. Weld, how could you possibly have done this thing? Ed Meese brought you to Washington, and if nothing else, I would think the demands, the strictures of loyalty would prevent you from even considering such a move.

And I said what I always say. Senator, I think that too often, particularly in this town [referring to Washington, D.C.], loyalty is simply an excuse for doing the wrong thing. Well, you could have heard a pin drop in the hearing room. And it was a cavernous room. No one in Washington wanted to hear that.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
By Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From breaking into computers to paying for a megaphone, Russian efforts to undermine the U.S. political system have been spelled out in detail by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who has described an elaborate campaign of hacking and propaganda during the 2016 presidential race. While Mueller has yet to submit to U.S. Attorney General William Barr a final report on his investigation into Russia's role in the election, the former FBI director already has provided a sweeping account in a pair of indictments that charged 25 Russian individuals and three Russian companies. Key questions still to be answered are whether Mueller will conclude that Trump's campaign conspired with Moscow and whether Trump unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Trump has denied collusion and obstruction. Russia has denied election interference. Here is an explanation of Mueller's findings about Russian activities and U.S. intelligence assessments of the ongoing threat. WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT RUSSIAN "TROLL FARMS"? On Feb. 16, 2018, Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian entities with conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire and bank fraud and identity theft. It said the Internet Research Agency, a Russian-backed propaganda arm known for trolling on social media, flooded American social media sites Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to promote Trump and spread disparaging information about his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. The indictment said the Russian efforts dated to 2014, before Trump's candidacy, and were intended to sow discord in the United States. The St. Petersburg-based so-called troll farm employed hundreds of people for its online operations and had a multimillion-dollar budget, according to the indictment. It had a management group and departments including graphics, data analysis and search-engine optimization. Employees worked day and night shifts corresponding to U.S. time zones. Its funding was provided by Evgeny Prigozhin, a businessman who U.S. officials have said has extensive ties to Russia's military and political establishment, and companies he controlled including Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering. Prigozhin has been described by Russian media as being close to President Vladimir Putin. He has been dubbed "Putin's cook" because his catering business has organized banquets for Russia's president. The Russians targeted Americans with information warfare, adopting false online personas and creating hundreds of social media accounts to push divisive messages and spread distrust of candidates and America's political system in general, the indictment said. They aimed to denigrate Clinton and support the candidacies of Trump, who won the Republican presidential nomination, and Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic nomination. HOW WERE AMERICANS UNWITTINGLY RECRUITED? In Florida, a pivotal state in U.S. presidential elections, the Russians steered unwitting Americans to pro-Trump rallies they conceived and organized. The indictment said the Russians paid "a real U.S. person to wear a costume portraying Clinton in a prison uniform at a rally" and another "to build a cage large enough to hold an actress depicting Clinton in a prison uniform." The accused Russians used false Facebook persona "Matt Skier" to contact a real American to recruit for a "March for Trump" rally, offering "money to print posters and get a megaphone," the indictment said. They created an Instagram account "Woke Blacks" to encourage African-Americans not to vote for "Killary," saying, "We'd surely be better off without voting AT ALL." Fake social media accounts were used to post messages saying American Muslims should refuse to vote for Clinton "because she wants to continue the war on Muslims in the Middle East." Alternatively, they took out Facebook ads promoting a June 2016 rally in Washington, "Support Hillary. Save American Muslims" rally. They recruited an American to hold up a sign with a quote falsely attributed to Clinton that embraced Islamic sharia law, the indictment said. Some of the accused Russians traveled around the United States to gather intelligence, the indictment said, visiting at least 10 states: California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Texas. WHAT ROLE DID RUSSIAN MILITARY OFFICERS PLAY? On July 13, 2018, Mueller charged 12 Russian military intelligence officers with hacking Democratic Party computer networks in 2016 to steal large amounts of data and then time their release to damage Clinton. The Russian hackers broke into the computer networks of the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations, covertly monitoring employee computers and planting malicious code, as well as stealing emails and other documents, according to the indictment. Using fictitious online personas such as DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, the hackers released tens of thousands of stolen emails and documents. The Guccifer 2.0 persona communicated with Americans, including an unidentified person who was in regular contact with senior members of the Trump campaign, the indictment said. Guccifer 2.0 cooperated extensively with "Organization 1" - the WikiLeaks website - to discuss the timing of the release of stolen documents to "heighten their impact" on the election. On or about July 27, 2016, the Russians tried to break into email accounts used by Clinton's personal office and her campaign, the indictment said. The same day, candidate Trump told reporters: "Russia, if you are listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," referring to emails from a private server Clinton had used when she was secretary of state. To hide their identity, the Russians laundered money and financed their operation through cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, Mueller's team said. IS THE THREAT OVER? The U.S. intelligence community's 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment report cited Russia's continuing efforts to interfere in the American political system. It stated, "Russia's social media efforts will continue to focus on aggravating social and racial tensions, undermining trust in authorities, and criticizing perceived anti-Russia politicians. Moscow may employ additional influence toolkits - such as spreading disinformation, conducting hack-and-leak operations or manipulating data - in a more targeted fashion to influence U.S. policy, actions and elections." The report said Russia and "unidentified actors" as recently as 2018 conducted cyber activity targeting U.S. election infrastructure, though there is no evidence showing "any compromise of our nation's election infrastructure that would have prevented voting, changed vote counts or disrupted the ability to tally votes." (The story fixes typo, "has" in third paragraph) (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Will Dunham)
Paul Manafort, President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, was sentenced to almost four years in prison on a series of tax and bank fraud charges.

A federal judge imposed the sentence of 47 months after a lengthy hearing on Thursday in Alexandria, Va. The sentence is well short of the 19 to 24 year sentence recommended by prosecutors, but the judge indicated that such a punishment would be excessive, according to news reports. Manafort also was fined $50,000 and ordered to pay restitution, which is expected to total in the millions.

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At a sentencing hearing, Manafort reportedly wore a green jumpsuit and was in a wheelchair, and he spoke to the court and told the judge, I know it is my conduct that brought me here.

He asked the judge, T.S. Ellis, for compassion, and said To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement. His attorneys say he is suffering from a number of health conditions.

Manafort, 69, was convicted by a federal jury in August on eight of 18 charges having to do with his political consulting business and work he did on behalf of a pro-Russia government in Ukraine. He was found guilty on five tax fraud charges, two counts of bank fraud, and one charge of hiding foreign bank accounts.

The Virginia case was the first trial of charges brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether there was coordination or collusion by the Trump campaign. Although Muellers team brought the charges against Manafort, his conviction was not related to potential collusion in the 2016 campaign.

Last fall, Manafort reached a plea agreement with Muellers team just before he was to go to trial in Washington on a series of other charges, including failing to register as a foreign agent. The sentencing in that case is scheduled for Wednesday.

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But Muellers team said that even though Manafort agreed to cooperate with their investigation, he lied to them about the nature of his contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate suspected of having ties to Russian intelligence. The federal judge in the D.C. case, Amy Berman Jackson, concluded that Manafort did give false information. That could open to door to a harsher sentence.

The charges against him in the Virginia federal trial largely had to do with his consulting practice, including his work for Viktor Yanukovych, the leader of Ukraine who was overthrown in 2014. His associate, Rick Gates, plead guilty in February to two charges of conspiracy and lying to federal investigators, and served as the governments star witness in Manaforts trial.

Outside the courthouse, Manaforts attorney, Kevin Downing, told reporters, Mr. Manafort finally got to speak for himself. He made clear he accepts responsibility for his conduct, and I think most importantly what you saw today was the same thing that we had said from day one. There is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved in any collusion with any government official from Russia.

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LISBON, Portugal (AP)  Portugal's Cabinet has gone out into the street to observe a minute of silence as part of a day of national mourning it decreed for victims of domestic violence.

The day of mourning Thursday aimed to rouse society to fight against domestic violence.

Police say 12 women have died this year in domestic violence incidents  the highest number over the same period in 10 years. Activists complain there are no official figures on domestic violence and say courts are too lenient.

On the eve of International Women's Day, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said in a tweet that domestic violence is "a collective challenge" for society as a whole.

Costa was to attend the first meeting of a new committee charged with proposing ways of reducing domestic violence.
Photo credit: J.P. Sylvestre

From Popular Mechanics

Earlier this year in January, scientists working off the coast of Chile spotted something exciting and unusual: Whales that didn't look like anything they had seen before, that have appeared only in stories. Now known as Type D whales, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will use genetic sample to determine they actually constitute a new species.

We are very excited about the genetic analyses to come. Type D killer whales could be the largest undescribed animal left on the planet and a clear indication of how little we know about life in our oceans, says Bob Pitman, a researcher from NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, in a press statement.

Using a cross dart, three tiny pieces of skin taken have been taken harmlessly from the whales. These samples will play a crucial role in the Type D whale's classification. These samples hold the key to determining whether this form of killer whale represents a distinct species, says Pitman.

Stories of Type D whales go back at least as far as 1955, when 17 whales were stranded on the coast of Paraparaumu, New Zealand. They seemed similar to killer whales (Orcinus orca), but there were noticeable differences. These differences included, according to NOAA, "rounded heads, a narrower and more pointed dorsal fin, and a tiny white eyepatch." There was no known whale that matched that description.

Scientists at the time felt these whales were genetic aberrations of the well-known orca. But flash forward to 2005, when a French scientist shows Pitman pictures of odd-looking whales in the Indian Ocean. Their bulbous heads and eye patches indicate that those whales might not have been an aberration after all, and that these whales might be more widespread than anyone knows.

As the years pass, both air travel and photographic technology improves. Travel to Australia, New Zealand, and even Antarctica increases, and the ability to document the whales does so with it. Pitman and colleagues start creating files of killer whale images from the Southern Ocean. From the tens of thousands of photos, six additional sightings of Type D whales were found.

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Trends started to emerge: These whales lived offshore but tended to avoid the coldest water, even though they lived near the Antarctic. They were living in areas known for brutal winds. Chilean fishermen began complaining of Type D whales wrecking havoc on their lines.

For Pittman, the mounting evidence required study. Aboard the research vessel Australis, an international group of whale experts began looking for the Type D whale off the coast of Chile. It wasn't easy: the brutal winds, 40 to 50 knots of off Cape Horn, were enough to wear down even the most eager whale hunter.

But when the wind momentarily cooled, the team found their opening. They found Type D whales. And they were determined not to waste their opportunity.

Amidst a group of 30 or so whales, vocalization expert Rebecca Wellard towed a hydrophone behind the boat to record Type D calls. Cameras mounted on the hydrophone captured pictures of the rare whales.

And now the DNA samples will start to unveil some truths about animals shrouded in myth for over 60 years.

Source: NOAA

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BEIJING (Reuters) - The Chinese government's top diplomat issued a stern warning on Friday against interfering in Venezuela and imposing sanctions, saying history offered a clear lesson about not "following the same old disastrous road". China has repeatedly called for outsiders not to interfere in Venezuela's internal affairs and has stuck by embattled President Nicolas Maduro. Most Western countries have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate head of state. The United States has pledged to "expand the net" of sanctions against Venezuela, including more on banks supporting Maduro's government. State Councillor Wang Yi, responding to a question on whether China still recognized Maduro or had had contacts with the opposition, said the sovereignty and independence of Latin American countries should be respected. "The internal affairs of every country should be decided by their own people. External interference and sanctions will only exacerbate the tension situation, and allow the law of the jungle to once again run amok," Wang said at his annual news conference on the sidelines of China's parliament meeting. "There's already enough of such lessons from history, and the same old disastrous road should not be followed." China continues to support the Venezuelan opposition and government to seek a political solution via peaceful dialogue, to ensure its stability and the people's safety, Wang added. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted on Friday Beijing time that Maduro's policies "bring nothing but darkness". "No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro," he wrote, referring to a major power outage in Venezuela on Thursday. China has lent more than $50 billion to Venezuela through oil-for-loan agreements over the past decade, securing energy supplies for its fast-growing economy. China has been stepping up its engagement in Latin America, to the concern of Washington, which has reacted particularly strongly to several nations there recently ditching diplomatic ties with self-ruled Taiwan in favor of China. Last month, U.S. National Security adviser John Bolton requested cooperation with El Salvador to counteract what he called the "predatory" expansion of China. El Salvador abandoned Taiwan last year. Wang said that China-Latin America relations had achieved great progress and were not aimed at any "third party". Ties between the two sides were the correct choice and in both of their long-term interests and should not be subject to "warrantless and interference and criticism". (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Philip Wen; Editing by Michael Perry and Nick Macfie)
Shamima Begums baby has reportedly died (Picture: Metropolitan Police of London via AP, File)

Syrian forces have denied reports that the baby son of Isis bride Shamima Begum has died.

The Begums family lawyer Tasnime Akunjee had tweeted on Friday: We have strong but as yet unconfirmed reports that Shamima Begums son has died. He was a British citizen.

Ms Begum, 19, gave birth to the boy in a refugee camp in the middle of February, having already lost two children.

We have strong but as yet unconfirmed reports that Shamima Begums son has died . He was a British Citizen.  Mohammed T Akunjee (@MohammedAkunjee) March 8, 2019

Shamima was 15 when she and two other schoolgirls fled the UK to join IS in February 2015.

Despite the claims, however, Syrian Democratic Forces denied the reports later on Friday and said that Ms Begums baby is alive and healthy.

Ms Begum was tracked down by The Times, who found her heavily pregnant at a refugee camp in northern Syria last month.

The teen, who has reportedly already lost two children, said she wanted to return to the UK, sparking outcry from many, and prompting the government to strip her British citizenship.

As the Begum family lawyer emphasised the reports were unconfirmed, others said people in the camp had reported that the baby was still alive.

Shamima previously spoke of her shock at the unjust decision of the UK government to remove her British citizenship.

The 19-year-old said the Home Office decision was kind of heartbreaking to read and hard to swallow.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped the British citizenship of Ms Begum  who is from Bethnal Green in east London  amid a fierce national debate over whether she should be allowed to return.

The 19-year-old gave birth to the boy in a refugee camp in Syria, having previously lost two children. (PA)

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has admitted that stripped Shamima Begum of her citizenship could be difficult (PA)

Her family, who pledged to appeal against the decision, also wrote to Mr Javid pleading with him to allow a safe passage for the boy to come to the UK.

Last month, Mr Javid confirmed the boy was a British citizen and said he had considered the childs interest when deciding to revoke Ms Begums citizenship.

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Asked whether there was any plan for Ms Begums son, Mr Javid told the Commons Home Affairs Committee it would be incredibly difficult for the Government to facilitate the return of a child from Syria.

If it is possible somehow for a British child to be brought to a place where there is a British consular presence, the closest place  it might be Turkey for example  in those circumstances I guess potentially it is possible to arrange for some sort of help with the consent of the parent, he added.

Inside Syria, whether in a camp or maybe somewhere else, there is no British consular presence.

The Foreign Office has been contacted for confirmation of the babys reported death.
PA Celebrates Female Terrorists on International Womens Day

The Fellowship | March 8, 2019 Embed from Getty Images

While much of the world was celebrating the many great women who have made contributions to society throughout history, Israels enemies were, not surprisingly, doing the very opposite. The Jerusalem Posts Ilanit Chernick reports that the Palestinian Authority instead decided to celebrate women who have committed terrorist acts against Israel:

Palestinian Authority TV has used International Womans Day as a cover to glorify and celebrate female terrorists and female terrorism

In the interview Hamad spoke about the Palestinian national struggle and the role women have played in terrorism.

We have had female Martyrs, wounded, and prisoners, she said, explaining that women were the first to take part in the battle.

That is why we also have female Martyrs, she said naming several well-known terrorists including Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, a terrorist who prepared bombs for terror attacks; Dalal Mughrabi, terrorist who led murder of 38 people in 1978, 12 of whom were children; Wafa Idris, who was the first female suicide bomber; Ayyat Al-Akhras, who was the youngest female suicide bomber who killed two people; and Darin Abu Aisheh, a female suicide bomber who wounded three people
The Taliban denied on Friday that they were discussing a ceasefire and dialogue with the Kabul government during ongoing talks with the US in Doha, contrary to statements from Washington.

"This phase is about fleshing out the details of the two issues... the withdrawal of all occupying forces from Afghanistan and not allowing" the country to be used as a base for international militancy, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

He described them as "external" aspects of the 17-year conflict.

"Other issues that have an internal aspect and are not tied to the United States... have not been held under discussion."

On Tuesday, US State Department spokesman Robert Palladino had affirmed the opposite.

"What we're focusing on are the four interconnected issues that are going to compose any future agreement," Palladino said -- listing them as "terrorism", "troop withdrawal", "intra-Afghan dialogue" and "ceasefire".

He said progress was being made.

The latest round of talks, believed to be among the longest held between Washington and the militants, began on February 25 in the Qatari capital.

Both sides have remained tight-lipped, however, and it is not clear how many days have involved direct negotiations.

The talks have already been paused at least once for two days, and the Taliban said Friday that they were again being suspended for a day, due to resume Saturday. It is not clear how much longer they will go on for.

Expectations remain high. The previous round, in January, saw the US and the Taliban walk away with a "draft framework" that focused on the issues Mujahid said were being discussed this time: a potential US troop withdrawal and a pact to prevent Afghanistan from harbouring terrorists.

The Taliban have repeatedly refused to meet with the Afghan government, whom they dismiss as "puppets".

US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who is leading the diplomatic push, had earlier hinted that headway was being made on the issue, however.

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He also met with the Taliban's top political leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar at the start of the current round in Doha, in what has been touted as the highest-level engagement between the two sides in the months-long diplomatic thrust.

General Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has also attended at least some of the talks.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced his eagerness to end America's involvement in Afghanistan, where 14,000 US troops are still deployed.

On Thursday, General Joseph Votel, head of US Central Command, said the military has received no directions yet to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has suggested he could visit Doha to help advance the negotiations "in a couple (of) weeks".

Afghanistan has been enmeshed in nearly constant conflict since the Soviet invasion in 1979, which was followed by civil war, the Taliban regime, and the post-9/11 US invasion in late 2001.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP)  Children at a kindergarten in Hanoi, some in Korean traditional "Hanbok" dress, have been practicing singing and dancing, hoping to show off their talents to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when he comes to town this week for his second summit with President Donald Trump. Elsewhere in the Vietnam-Korea Friendship Kindergarten, students have been assembling picture montages on maps of Vietnam and the Koreas. In another classroom, children were coloring in Vietnamese and North Korean flags with which they hope to greet Kim. "We really want for Mr. Kim Jong Un, the great leader of the Korean people, to visit our school," said Ngo Thi Minh Ha, the school's rector.

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump said Sunday he will extend a deadline to escalate tariffs on Chinese imports, citing "substantial progress" in weekend talks between the two countries. Trump tweeted that there had been "productive talks" on some of the difficult issues dividing the U.S. and China, adding that "I will be delaying the U.S. increase in tariffs now scheduled for March 1." Trump said that if negotiations progress, he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida resort to finalize an agreement. U.S. and Chinese negotiators met through the weekend as they seek to resolve a trade war that's rattled financial markets.

BEIJING (AP)  A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves: ___ EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a weekly look at developments in the South China Sea, the location of several territorial conflicts in the region. ___ INDONESIA ANNOUNCES PLANS TO DEVELOP ISLAND FISHERIES Indonesian reports say the country plans to develop fisheries surround the Natuna Islands it controls in a potential challenge to China's claims to resources in the South China Sea.

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HANOI, Vietnam (AP)  The nightmare scenario heading into the second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un isn't so much "fire and fury" and millions dead. Rather, some experts fear the meeting could result in an ill-considered deal that allows North Korea to get everything it wants while giving up very little, even as the mercurial leaders trumpet a blockbuster nuclear success. There's little argument that just sitting down together again in the same room this week in Hanoi is a positive sign for two men who seemed to be flirting with a second Korean War in 2017, and there is, as the White House trumpeted ahead of the summit, "a tremendous opportunity" here to address a monumental problem that's flummoxed generations of policymakers.

TOKYO (AP)  The residents of Japan's southwestern island region of Okinawa have rejected a relocation plan for a U.S. military base that was put to a referendum, increasing pressure on the national government to change its stance that the facility will be built no matter what. The results of Sunday's vote showed 72 percent opposed the plan for the Marines air base being built on a landfill in coastal Henoko. Support for the relocation plan totaled 19 percent. The referendum is not legally binding but underlines Okinawans' sentiment on the relocation plan. Henoko is to replace another base on the island in Futenma that is in a more residential area and has long been criticized as noisy and dangerous.

DANDONG, China (AP)  When a green-and-yellow train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rolled slowly over a bridge into the Chinese city of Dandong late Saturday, few locals took notice. "I didn't really know much about it," a 79-year-old retired farmer who gave only his surname, Shi, said Sunday, pausing during a walk along the river Kim crossed on his way to Vietnam to meet President Donald Trump for their second summit. Over the past few decades, North Korea has receded into irrelevance as the contrast with China has grown starker and starker. Many Chinese now regard North Korea as a curious relic of the past, and Dandong does a roaring trade in tourism centered on China's neighbor across the water.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  More civilians were killed in Afghanistan last year than in any of the previous nine years of the increasingly bloody conflict, according to a U.N. report released Sunday, which blamed the spike in deaths on increased suicide bombings by the Islamic State group and stepped up aerial attacks by U.S.-led coalition forces. In its annual report, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said 3,804 civilians were killed last year, the highest number since the international organization began tallying figures in 2009. Another 7,189 were wounded. The report comes amid efforts to find a peaceful end to the 17-year war, which have accelerated since the appointment in September of U.S.

SRINAGAR, India (AP)  Three rebels, a counterinsurgency police officer and an army soldier were killed Sunday during a gunbattle in Kashmir, officials said, as shops and businesses shut down to protest a sweeping and ongoing crackdown against activists seeking the end of Indian rule in the disputed region. The fighting triggered large anti-India protests and clashes as hundreds of residents thronged the village of Turigam in the southern Kulgam area and barraged troops with stones. An army officer and two other soldiers were injured in the fighting, which was still raging later Sunday. Government forces opened fire with shotguns and tear gas to quell the protesters, injuring at least half a dozen civilians, residents and emergency workers said.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP)  A passenger flight made an emergency landing Sunday in Bangladesh after an armed man attempted to hijack the plane, and he was later killed in an exchange of gunfire with military commandos, officials said. The suspect asked to speak to the prime minister before dying from his injuries. The flight, operated by state-run Biman Bangladesh Airlines, left the capital, Dhaka, at 4:35 p.m. heading for Dubai via Chittagong. The pilot made the emergency landing in Chittagong about 40 minutes after takeoff, after a crew member reported "suspicious behavior" by the man, said Rezaul Karim, an official with the Bangladeshi military's inter-service public affairs office.

BEIJING (AP)  Chinese hospitals are using facial recognition to identify people who sell doctors' appointments at an illegal markup, the latest application of an emerging technology that is being used in places to tighten Communist Party control over the country's 1.4 billion people. More than 30 hospitals in Beijing have installed the technology and have already identified more than 2,100 individuals who appear regularly to make appointments, then turn around and sell them to others for a profit, state media said Sunday. Chinese public hospitals require patients to line up for appointments on the day they wish to see a doctor, creating a lucrative secondary market for scalpers to sell them better numbers and save on waiting time.
Grimsby (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Britain and the EU were at loggerheads on Friday as Prime Minister Theresa May's call for "one more push" to secure a Brexit deal was answered with an offer that London immediately spurned.

With time running out, May pleaded for movement from Brussels to help get a Brexit deal over the line in time for Britain's looming exit from the European Union -- scheduled for March 29.

British MPs overwhelmingly rejected the deal when it was first put to them in January -- with many citing the controversial Irish "backstop" clause. A second parliamentary vote will take place on Tuesday.

The backstop would keep the whole UK in a customs union with the EU in order to keep the land border between the UK's Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland free-flowing.

In an offer aimed at changing the dynamic, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier proposed that the British mainland could leave the bloc's customs union after the divorce, though Northern Ireland would stay in.

However, fearing for the integrity of the United Kingdom, May has previously ruled out arrangements that would mean different rules applying in Northern Ireland than in the rest of the UK.

Barnier's new gambit was swifty rejected by Britain's Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay.

"With a very real deadline looming, now is not the time to rerun old arguments," he tweeted.

"The UK has put forward clear new proposals. We now need to agree a balanced solution that can work for both sides."

The brinkmanship comes with Britain three weeks away from crashing out of the EU after 46 years with very few arrangements in place.

Fresh negotiations between British and EU envoys ended in acrimony on Wednesday and May still lacks the assurances she has been seeking to get her deal approved by MPs on Tuesday.

- 'Moment of crisis' -

May told an audience of factory workers in the Leave-backing North Sea fishing port of Grimsby that Britain may never split off from the other 27 nations if Brussels fails to help her now.

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The deal "needs just one more push to address the final, specific concerns of our parliament," May said.

"Because if MPs reject the deal, nothing is certain. It would be at a moment of crisis."

As it has no unilateral exit clause, some lawmakers in May's Conservative Party fear that the backstop plan would keep Britain trapped long-term in a customs union with the EU.

May wants a written guarantee from Brussels that this will not be the case. EU officials say the backstop must stay in place until a new trade deal is signed between London and the bloc -- no matter how long that takes.

EU ambassadors met in Brussels on Friday to discuss how they might proceed ahead of next week's crucial events in London.

Following the meeting, Barnier said on Twitter that the EU would give the British mainland "the option to exit the single customs territory unilaterally".

However, "the other elements of the backstop must be maintained to avoid a hard border," said Barnier, in reference to alignment between Northern Ireland and the EU-member Irish Republic.

"The EU will continue working intensively over the coming days to ensure that the UK leaves the EU with an agreement."

- Demands 'impossible': Dutch PM -

Meanwhile Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said May was seeking "impossible" concessions from the EU.

May has scheduled a potential series of parliamentary votes next week that could include one on Thursday asking the EU to grant London an exit day delay.

But May said such a deferral would create "continuing uncertainty", ruin the business climate and potentially mean that Brexit never happens.

"If we go down that road, we might never leave the EU at all," she said.

"It would let down the more than 17 million people who voted to leave the EU and do profound damage to their faith in our democracy."

A top member of the Conservative Party's pro-Brexit hardcore also warned that there would be no deal done by the deadline without a substantive backstop change.

"If it is some very minor, meaningless tweak then of course we will vote against it," MP Mark Francois said.
By Elizabeth Piper GRIMSBY, England (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May urged the European Union on Friday to make "just one more push" to break the Brexit deadlock but proposals from the bloc's chief negotiator fell short of anything that would win over the British parliament. Three weeks before Britain is due to leave the EU, May has failed so far to secure the changes to her divorce deal that she believes would gain the support of lawmakers, who handed the government a defeat of record proportions in January. At the heart of the dispute is the so-called Northern Irish backstop, an insurance policy to prevent a return of border controls between the British province and EU member Ireland that Britain wants to change to ease fears in parliament. But that dispute looked far from being resolved after EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier's proposals were dismissed as a return to "old ideas" already rejected in talks. A government source summed up the feeling in London by saying it was "not impressed". With no changes to offer parliament, May looks set to lose her second attempt on Tuesday to get lawmakers' approval of her deal and smooth Britain's exit from the EU, the country's biggest shift in trade and foreign policy in more than 40 years. In a last-ditch appeal to the EU and to lawmakers at home, May said in a speech on Friday it was time to end the uncertainty over Brexit by approving the deal. Otherwise, Britain faced a "moment of crisis". The Brexit effort "needs just one more push to address the final, specific concerns of our parliament," she said in the northern English port of Grimsby, where 70 percent voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. "So let's not hold back. Let's do what is necessary for MPs (members of parliament) to back the deal on Tuesday." After she spoke, Barnier announced he was ready to give Britain the unilateral right to leave the EU customs union. But he said London would need to honor its commitment to keep the Irish border free of controls, potentially leaving Northern Ireland subject to EU rules, with a "border" in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the island of Britain. That requirement has been rejected previously by London and would be particularly unpalatable to Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which props up May's government in parliament and opposes any proposals for Northern Ireland to have different rules from the rest of the United Kingdom. Stephen Barclay, Britain's Brexit minister, said it was "not the time to rerun old arguments. The UK has put forward clear new proposals. We now need to agree a balanced solution that can work for both sides". The DUP was equally unimpressed, with Nigel Dodds, its deputy leader, calling the proposal "neither realistic nor sensible". 'SIGN OF DESPERATION' But despite the war of words, both sides say talks are continuing over the weekend, just days before May will face parliament once again after resoundingly losing the first vote in parliament on Jan. 15. In Grimsby, she again said that if lawmakers wanted to end the uncertainty that has forced many businesses to put off investment decisions, they should vote for her deal and move on. Otherwise, she said, Brexit might never happen and voters would be betrayed. Or, she added, Britain could leave without a deal to soften the shock, a nightmare scenario for many companies. Those arguments largely restated her well-worn line and have yet to convince lawmakers, especially eurosceptics who say her agreement does not offer a clean break with the EU, as well as EU supporters who want to maintain closer ties. Britons voted 52-48 percent in 2016 to leave the EU and the country remains deeply polarized over the move. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said the appeal was "more like a sign of desperation". "These are very serious times. We don't need any more delays and dithering by the government," he told Sky News. "They've got to recognize her deal isn't going to work, it doesnt get support, and will not get through parliament." It was the first time that May had turned directly to the EU, showing signs of frustration that talks to secure changes to the backstop this week had as yet produced no breakthrough. That frustration was matched on the EU side. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the British, not the EU, had to compromise, and the decision to leave the bloc had been "a problem of their own creation". One EU diplomat said May was preparing the ground for "a blame game" if she loses the vote on Tuesday. If that happens, lawmakers will be able to vote on Wednesday and Thursday on whether they want to leave the bloc without a deal, or ask for a delay to Brexit beyond March 29 - all but wresting control of Brexit from the government. In a last-minute flurry of diplomatic activity, May was due to speak to EU leaders by telephone over the weekend and a European Commission spokesman said "intensive work" was going on between London and Brussels. And foreign minister Jeremy Hunt held out some hope that a deal was "entirely possible" in time for the vote. (Additional reporting by Alistair Smout, James Davey and Joe Green in London, Conor Humprhies in Dublin and Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; Writing by Elizabeth Piper and William Schomberg; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Frances Kerry/Mark Heinrich)
GENEVA (AP)  The U.N. refugee agency says it is opening its first reception center in Colombia to support people leaving neighboring Venezuela.

UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic says the center set up along with Colombian authorities in the border city of Maicao opens Friday and can initially take in up to 350 people. He said it "has the possibility to grow" in the future.

The Geneva-based agency said Friday that hundreds of people including children, the elderly and those with medical conditions are "forced to live on the streets" because of a lack of shelter in Maicao.

UNHCR says 2.7 million Venezuelans have left their crisis-ridden country since 2015, and Colombia is the country most-affected by the outflow, with more than 1.1 million.

The agency said humanitarian needs have "overwhelmed" Colombia's reception capacity.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido urged Europe to tighten financial sanctions against the government of Nicolas Maduro after it expelled Germany's ambassador. His comments to a German magazine marked the latest flashpoint in a global showdown over Venezuela, with Western nations largely recognizing Guaido's claim to be considered the country's legitimate head of state. Russia and China, meanwhile, continue to support Socialist Maduro and urge no outside interference. Caracas declaring ambassador Daniel Kriener persona non grata "represents a threat against Germany," Guaido was quoted on Thursday as telling Der Spiegel. Kriener and other diplomats had welcomed Guaido home at Caracas airport this week. "I hope that Europe reacts sharply to this serious threat against an ambassador," Guaido said. "Above all, they should tighten financial sanctions against the regime." Germany is among the many nations backing Guaido's plan to install a transitional government ahead of national elections. He denounces Maduro as a usurper whose re-election last year resulted from a sham vote. Maduro says he is victim of a U.S.-led coup attempt and an "economic war". German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday called Venezuela's action "incomprehensible" and said Germany and its European partners would continue to back Guaido. On Thursday, he said the ambassador would return to Germany on Saturday for consultations, but that Berlin's position would not change. Guaido, however, said he had asked Kriener to stay on as ambassador in Caracas, since Maduro was not empowered to expel a diplomat as he was "occupying the post of president illegally." The international community should act to prevent Maduro using Venezuelan taxpayer funds to "kill critics of the regime and indigenous peoples, as is already happening at the border to Brazil," he said in reference to recent violence there. Juergen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for the conservative bloc in Germany's parliament, backed Guaido's call for further sanctions against Maduro and said the goal should be for Kriener to return to Caracas as soon as possible. Maas did not address the sanctions issue. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Thomas Seythal; Editing by Tassilo Hummel and John Stonestreet)
The 360 is a feature designed to show you diverse perspectives on the days top stories.

Speed read

Who & Where: Women and men in the United States

What: Men between the ages of 18 to 25 must register with the Men between the ages of 18 to 25 must register with the Selective Service System , a U.S. government agency that manages information about citizens who may be called to serve in a military draft. Women are not required to register with Selective Service.

When: The Selective Service System was founded in 1917. In 1981, the The Selective Service System was founded in 1917. In 1981, the Supreme Court ruled that the male-only draft was fully justified because women were ineligible to participate combat roles. In 2015, the Pentagon lifted all restrictions for women serving in the military, which allows them to serve in all capacities, including combat.

Why: The recent legal challenges are increasing pressure on Congress to decide if the draft should apply equally to men and women and whether the requirement to register with Selective Service should exist at all.

The case of the New Jersey plaintiff, Elizabeth Kyle-Labell, could be significant because shes asking for an order that would do one of three things: require women as well as men to register, make registration voluntary for both sexes, or abolish Selective Service registration entirely. Her attorney said the recent rulings increase the likelihood the case could reach the Supreme Court.

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Whats next: The National Commission on Military, National and Public Service, an 11-member panel created by Congress, The National Commission on Military, National and Public Service, an 11-member panel created by Congress, is currently studying the future of the military draft. There are 2 main questions : Does the United State still need Selective Service at all? If so, should women be required to register with Selective Service?

In its interim report in January, the commission gave no hints about how it will side on those issues and says its seeking input from the public. But commission chairman Joe Heck said , I dont think we will remain with the status quo. The commissions final report is due to be released March 2020.

Perspectives

A military draft should include both men and women equally.

Requiring women to register will not make the military a social laboratory any more than it has always been one.  But whatever the eventual system, women must be included equally. We cant exclude an entire class of Americans from the obligations and benefits of citizenship. Our society requires it. So does our national defense. As one of our most famous soldiers, Dwight D. Eisenhower, said about women in 1948, I am convinced that in another war they have got to be drafted just like men. I am convinced of that.  Kara Dixon Vuic, associate professor of history at Texas Christian University, Washington Post

Young people today are far less engaged in world events than during the Vietnam era, largely because the threat of being drafted into war doesnt loom nearly as large. That threat has a way of impressing the gravity of war upon registrants, which is probably a good thing. As long as draft registration is in effect, its unfair to men and insulting to women that it remain gender-specific at a time when soldiering no longer is.  Editorial, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Even if the Pentagon hadnt made that decision, having a draft for only men would still have seemed dubious, given that the great majority of military jobs now require technical or other cognitive skills. As the judge wrote, In the nearly four decades since [the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a men-only draft], womens opportunities in the military have expanded dramatically. The male-only rule is an anachronism.  Editorial, San Diego Union-Tribune

A civilized nation doesnt force women to fight wars.

A civilized nation does not force its women to fight its wars. This is a matter of moral common sense. The purpose of the U.S. military is, above all, to defend the public from external threats, so that we can live our lives in the freedom and thriving America uniquely allows. If our wives, daughters, sisters, and mothers can be conscripted to the front lines and forced to become either killers or the killed, then its unclear what were fighting for.  Editorial, Washington Examiner

This entire debate isnt really about military preparedness but is about social engineering  changing the way people perceive things so that they can be arranged according to the designs of a relatively very few.  Progressives will twist themselves into balloon poodles trying to codify gender differences, but heaven forbid we should speak of sex differences, not to mention cultural adaptations to better ensure survival of the species.  Im going to go out on a limb and simply say that a civilized nation doesnt put its women in combat where they have an unequal ability to survive.  Kathleen Parker, Washington Post

Having equal rights requires that we shoulder equal responsibilities.

With equal rights and equal opportunity come equal responsibilities. If men have to register with the Selective Service, women should, too. Likewise, both genders should be subjected to mandatory conscription should another draft ever be declared. The U.S. military has been all-volunteer since 1973.  There is no question of womens valor or competence on the battlefield, now or long ago.  If there is to be a Selective Service, it should be Universal Service. Congress  especially the barrier-breaking women of this 116th Congress  should smash through this barrier to the fullness of American citizenship.  Editorial, Pittsburgh-Post Gazette

I would urge the commissioners to recommend that both men and women be required to register with the Selective Service System, and that the system be retained in the interests of equality and national security. I also would urge the commissioners to support forms of public service that maximize universal access and limited universal expectation. I would hope that the commission would reject universally obligated service because of financial, social, legal and national security issues.  Maj. Gen. Dennis Laich, retired from U.S. Army in 2006 after more than 35 years of service, The Hill

Selective Service is outdated and unnecessary.

Its long past time for Congress to reconsider the Selective Service System. Registration is a vestige of a very different era, when young men could be conscripted to serve in the military involuntarily. The U.S. ended the draft and shifted to an all-volunteer military in 1973, after public support for conscription had dwindled amid the bloody, years-long Vietnam War.  Yes, of course, women have a civic duty just like men and should be called upon to serve if that time of need comes. But progress isnt adding women to what may be an obsolete draft registry system. Congress should fix the system first.  Editorial, Los Angeles Times

Why should anyone  male or female  have to register for the draft in 2019? The last man was drafted into military service in 1973. And yet today, male citizens and residents of the United States ages 18 through 25, including documented and undocumented immigrants, still must register for the draft  or risk fines and prison time. On paper, anyway. No one has been prosecuted for failing to register since 1986, the Congressional Research Service reported in January in a study of selective service and the draft issues for Congress.  So, if the Selective Service System is a dinosaur  and it is  lets scrap it and dedicate our resources to making voluntary service a shared expectation.  Marsha Mercer, The News & Advance

The military is no place for social experiments.

But should women be drafted into the military instead of volunteering, one of two things will have to happen: either huge percentages of women will wash out of boot camp, or officers will have to introduce two standardsone for men, and one for womenthat would severely compromise the combat-readiness of our military. This kind of gender politics, like the underlying postmodern worldview its based on, doesnt align with reality. It expects reality to align with it, something reality consistently refuses to do. The battlefield brings with it a rude introduction to reality. Its not the place to turn our military into a social experiment.  John Stonestreet and G. Shane Morris, BreakPoint

Drafting women ignores differences for combat role.



 Barbara Kay, War is about defeating an enemy through superior power, about achieving victory with minimal losses. It is a fact that men are better physically endowed for traditional ground combat than women. Of 36 women who have tried, only two have passed the U.S. Marine Corps legendary infantry-officer training course. Apart from reasons of political correctness, why would our Armed Forces actually want an infantry in which a quarter of the troops were demonstrably more vulnerable than they have to be? It is only in countries where the danger of war is remote and battle readiness is a low priority that political and military elites indulge themselves in the luxury of policies based in gender dogmas instead of realism and the national interest. Barbara Kay, National Post

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This courtroom sketch depicts former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, center in a wheelchair, during his sentencing hearing in federal court before judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria, Va., Thursday, March 7, 2019. Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, a significant break from sentencing guidelines that called for a 20-year prison term. (Dana Verkouteren via AP) This courtroom sketch depicts former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, center in a wheelchair, during his sentencing hearing in federal court before judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria, Va., Thursday, March 7, 2019. Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, a significant break from sentencing guidelines that called for a 20-year prison term. (Dana Verkouteren via AP)